Republican Mitch McConnell calls for vote on clean repeal, after senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran come out against latest effort to replace Obamacare

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has announced that the Senate will vote on a clean repeal of Obamacare without any replacement, after two Republican senators broke ranks to torpedo the current Senate healthcare bill.

Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas came out on Monday night in opposition to McConnells Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Senate version of the controversial healthcare reform bill that passed the House in May.

Republicans hold a bare 52-48 majority in the upper chamber and two members of the GOP caucus, the moderate Susan Collins of Maine and the libertarian Rand Paul of Kentucky, already opposed the bill, along with all 48 Democrats. The announcement from Moran and Lee made it impossible for Republicans to muster the 50 votes needed to bring the BCRA to the floor.

Instead, McConnell announced late on Monday night that the Senate would vote on a bill to simply repeal Obamacare without any replacement in the coming days.

The Kentucky Republican said in a statement: Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful.

He added that in the coming days the Senate would vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act with a two-year-delay. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2015, which was promptly vetoed by Barack Obama.

McConnells plan echoes a statement made by Donald Trump in a tweet on Monday night, in which the president urged a repeal of Obamacare with any replacement to come in the future.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! Trump wrote.

In January, an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that repealing Obamacare without a replacement would result in 32 million people losing insurance by 2026, including 19 million who would lose Medicaid coverage.

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It would also cause premiums to rise by as much as 50% in the year following the elimination of key planks of the healthcare law, including the repeal of Medicaid expansion and cost-sharing subsidies. Premiums would nearly double over a decade.

The CBO said this would happen in large part because the individual mandate, which requires all Americans to have health insurance, would be repealed, while some insurers are likely to pull out of the market. As a result of the changes, many of those remaining enrolled would likely be older and sicker, which the CBO expected would cause insurers to raise rates dramatically.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The announcement from Lee and Moran came as Trump was having dinner at the White House with a number of senators who support the bill. Trump talked to several conservatives on the phone over the weekend, including Lee, in an attempt to win their support.

In a tweet, Lee noted that he could not support this version of the bill. Moran used the same language on Twitter. Both voted for a clean repeal of the Affordable Care Act in 2015, albeit with the expectation that it would be vetoed by Obama and not become law.

In an op-ed for the Resurgent, a conservative online publication, Lee cited the fact that the current bill did not incorporate an amendment that he introduced with Ted Cruz to allow insurance companies to offer bare-bones insurance plans. In Lees argument, the mandate that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions resulted in a hidden tax which meant that middle-class families are being forced to pay billions in higher health insurance premiums to help those with pre-existing conditions.

In a statement, Moran took a slightly different tack. He said: There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it. This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcares rising costs. The Kansas Republican also warned that the current legislation leave[s] the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, which he said made it more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase.

The announcement came shortly after a Senate vote on the healthcare bill was delayed due to the hospitalization of John McCain. The Arizona senator had a blood clot removed from above his left eye on Friday night and was unable to fly to Washington as a result. On Saturday, McConnell said the Senate would defer consideration of the bill while McCain recovered. A number of other moderate Republican senators have yet to take positions on the bill, most notably Dean Heller of Nevada.

Although a repeal of Obamacare without providing for a immediate replacement has long been popular with conservatives, many other Republicans have been skeptical of this approach because of the potential political cost.

In contrast, McCain said in a statement that Republicans should start the process of passing a healthcare bill over. Congress must now return to regular order [and] hold hearings, said the Arizona Republican.

In a statement, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said: This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable.

He added: Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our healthcare system.

On Tuesday morning, Trump returned to the subject, writing: We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!

As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!

Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
By Joseph Ax PRINCETON, N.J. (Reuters) - By the time Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang arrived in Iran to conduct research for his doctorate in history, he had already spent years living and working in politically turbulent countries. The Chinese-born U.S. citizen previously worked as a Pashto translator for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan and spent time in Uzbekistan while a student at Harvard University. Wang, 37, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges after his arrest last summer, an Iranian official said on Sunday. He is the latest American citizen to face jail in Iran for what the U.S. State Department has denounced as fabricated charges. His sentencing shocked his colleagues at Princeton, who described him in interviews as a quiet but collegial scholar whose intellectual curiosity stood out even at the elite school in New Jersey. Wang is married and has a 4-year-old son. In addition to Pashto, English and his native Mandarin, Wang is also proficient in Russian and Turkish and was learning Persian in Iran. His wife, Hua Qu, said in a statement on Tuesday that her husband "has been unjustly imprisoned for espionage that I know he did not and never would commit." "We fervently hope that the Iranian authorities will release him soon so that he can return home to his young family," she added. University President Chris Eisgruber said in a letter to the school on Monday that Princeton had kept his arrest confidential on the recommendation of advisers inside and outside of government. Wang, a history student at Princeton since 2013, was conducting field work for his dissertation, which is focused on how Muslim regions are governed. Iran accused him of scanning 4,500 pages of digital documents. His academic adviser, history Professor Stephen Kotkin, and fellow graduate students said in interviews that scanning historical documents  the ones Wang was studying were a century old, Kotkin said  for later review is a common practice for researchers. Kotkin said Wang was pursuing a "very ambitious" dissertation plan that included on-site research in Iran, Russia and potentially Afghanistan. "He's one of these kids who lives for research and ideas," Kotkin said. Several history graduate students described Wang as a respected scholar but declined to go into detail, citing the sensitivity of the case. The history department's chairman, Keith Wailoo, emailed students on Monday asking them to refer news media inquiries to the school's communications office. One student and friend of Wang's, who requested anonymity after Wailoo's email, said Wang was "very driven" to succeed, working hard to learn Persian to read source material in its original form. An official at Iran's interests section in Washington, the country's de facto diplomatic outpost in the U.S. capital, declined to comment in detail on Wang's case, referring questions to Iran's United Nations mission, which did not respond to a request for comment. After high school in Beijing, Wang studied in China and India before moving to the United States, according to a lecture he gave years ago. He graduated from the University of Washington in 2006 and earned a master's degree at Harvard University, where he traveled to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for research. In 2008-09, Wang worked at a law firm in Hong Kong through Princeton in Asia, a program that arranges fellowships in Asia for U.S. residents. "For better or worse, he still can't tell you what exactly he has been studying in the many years that have passed," a biographical note on Princeton in Asia's website said. "What he does know is that his dream is to walk the ancient Silk Road from Xi'an to Rome one day." (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington and Ethan Lou in Calgary; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Wind turbines have become increasingly efficient, as longer wind blades have been developed: Christian Charisius/Reuters

The plummeting cost of renewable energy means even if Donald Trump pulls the US out of the Paris climate change accord, America will still meet its commitments in the agreement, a new report has said.

Analysts at investment company Morgan Stanley say prices for clean energy will soon sink to lower than more polluting sources.

With the exception of a few countries in Southeast Asia, renewable energy will be the cheapest form of power in almost every country by 2020, the report said.

We project that by 2020, renewables will be the cheapest form of new-power generation across the globe," the company wrote.

By our forecasts, in most cases favourable renewables economics rather than government policy will be the primary driver of changes to utilities carbon emissions levels.

"For example, notwithstanding President Trumps stated intention to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, we expect the US to exceed the Paris commitment of a 26-28 per cent reduction in its 2005-level carbon emissions by 2020.

The price of solar panels fell 50 per cent between 2016 and 2017, the report's authors said. They added that wind turbines, too, had become significantly more efficient, as scientists have developed longer wind blades.

Mr Trump has steered the US towards becoming one of only three nations in the world not to be part of the Paris accord, which is designed to slow the pace of global warming.

The US President argues the agreement puts American industries at risk and is too soft on major polluters including China and India.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deputy sheriffs in Virginia shot and killed a motorist carrying a shotgun after a late-night car chase following a report of a domestic assault, state police said on Tuesday.

The Culpeper County Sheriff's Office received an emergency call on Monday night reporting an assault at a residence in the area, roughly 75 miles (120 km) southwest of Washington, D.C.

The suspect, Eric Clark, 43, had fled the residence and a description of his vehicle was broadcast by authorities, according to state police, who are investigating the shooting.

About an hour later, a sheriff's deputy saw a car matching the description near the small town of Culpeper and a car chase ensued after the driver ignored a deputy's attempt to pull him over, with two more deputies joining the pursuit, state police said.

At least one deputy shot and killed Clark after stopping his car outside Culpeper, authorities said.

State police said that Clark's shotgun was recovered at the scene, though it was unclear if he had turned the shotgun on the deputies.

"The driver of the vehicle presented a deadly threat to the deputies and they responded by shooting and killing the driver," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Neither the sheriff's office nor state police said which of the deputies shot Clark or how many shots were fired.

The deputies, who were not identified, are on modified duty until the probe has been completed, the sheriff's office said.

"I'm so grateful that our deputies are safe. I'm deeply saddened by what they were forced to do and pray for comfort for everyone affected by this incident," Sheriff Scott Jenkins said in a statement.

Police shootings have become a highly charged issue in the United States, with killings of unarmed blacks leading to street protests nationwide.

Over the weekend, officers in Minneapolis shot and killed a white Australian woman who had called 911 to report a disturbance behind her house.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Washington (AFP) - Mike Pence is the loyal wingman, the ever-discreet figure who rises above the Washington fray. But as the Russia scandal encroaches ever further on Donald Trump's White House, the vice president is also walking a political tightrope.

The 58-year-old former governor of Indiana is currently the man closest to the US presidency -- either as Trump's immediate successor should his term end prematurely, or as his heir apparent in 2020 or 2024 elections, depending on how many terms Trump serves.

As the troubles of his boss grow deeper by the day, ensnared in a widening investigation into his campaign ties to Russia, experts say the 48th US vice president remains compelled to stand by his man -- at least for now.

"Pence is in a very difficult position," Joel Goldstein, an expert on the vice presidency at Saint Louis University School of Law, told AFP.

"A vice president is expected to be loyal to the president, but President Trump imposes a heavy burden on his subordinates by saying and doing things that often are hard to defend."

The two men could hardly be more different: where Trump likes to blur ideological lines, Pence is a committed Christian conservative, as stiff and disciplined as his boss is exuberant and unpredictable.

While Trump tweets about a high-stakes health care bill, it is Pence who has been shuttling between the White House and Congress in a behind-the-scenes effort to rescue the imperiled legislation.

In Trump's turbulent Washington, Pence is seen as the administration's steadying force, the "ax behind the glass you're supposed to break in case of emergency," as The Daily Beast news website put it recently.

- 'Hang on' -

Pence offered a glimpse Wednesday of what it's like on the Trump rollercoaster, as number two to arguably the most controversial US leader in modern times.

"You need to keep your arms and legs in the ride at all times," he told student leaders at American University.

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"Pull the roll bar down, because you just got to hang on."

Yet Pence has taken low-key steps that suggest he could be laying the groundwork for his political future.

In an unusual move, two close advisors to Pence have founded a political action committee, The New York Times reported.

He has also begun hosting Republican mega-donors at his Washington residence, according to the daily.

- Next president? -

As federal and congressional investigators dig deeper into allegations that Trump's camp colluded with Russia to tilt the 2016 election, a handful of Democrats are now calling openly for the president to be impeached.

However remote the prospect of impeachment by the Republican-controlled Congress, the Russia cloud stubbornly refuses to dissipate.

Should Trump eventually be forced from office, Pence would become the 10th US vice president to assume the presidency without being elected -- the first since Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal in 1974.

When Donald Trump Jr recently acknowledged that he and campaign aides met a Russian lawyer last year in hope of obtaining dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Pence distanced himself from the snowballing scandal.

"He is not focused on stories about the campaign, particularly stories about the time before he joined the ticket," said a statement from Pence's office.

But the vice president has not emerged entirely unscathed so far.

As head of Trump's transition team, he publicly backed Michael Flynn during the uproar about contacts with the Russian ambassador which cost the newly-minted national security advisor his job.

And having flatly denied any Trump campaign contacts with Russia, Pence's credibility is further rocked with each new revelation.

- 'Losing credibility' -

Pence's defense will look increasingly questionable, especially if Trump's troubles worsen. But it is survivable, said Michael Munger, director of the politics program at Duke University.

"Pence was probably not lying. He was lied to, and he took the party line and then kept his mouth shut when they cut him off at the knees," the professor said.

"He is losing credibility, I suppose, but he gets extra points for doing his job."

Yet Pence's close ties to the president -- as recently as last month he said serving with Trump has been "the greatest privilege of my life" -- may yet prove an albatross around his neck.

"None of the last seven vice presidents have been so willing to be so sycophantic in their praise and have said so many significant things that later turned out to be untrue," the expert Goldstein said.

Striking the balance between loyalty to an embattled leader and avoiding getting caught up in scandal is a fierce challenge.

Pence has "juggled" well, said Paul Beck of Ohio State University.

"But if this Russia controversy really gets the Trump administration into deep, deep trouble... then Pence is kind of trapped out there as one of the team."

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Washington (AFP) - The White House on Monday alleged that Democrats colluded with Ukraine during the 2016 election, turning the tables on its accusers amid an all-engulfing scandal over Trump's contacts with Russia.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer repeated allegations that a Democratic operative had met with Ukrainian embassy officials during the campaign.

Spicer referred to several recent reports by conservative media outlets, alleging the Democratic operative sought dirt on then Trump campaign director Paul Manafort.

The allegations first came to light in a Politico story in January.

"Obviously, there's been a lot more interest in recent days with respect to what the DNC did in coordination with the Ukrainian government to try to collude," Spicer said.

The White House spokesman alleged that the Democratic National Committee collusion took place to "achieve a goal of having someone removed, which ultimately did happen."

Manafort left his post in August 2016, as Trump's general election prospects looked dim and details of his own business dealings with pro-Kremlin leaders in Ukraine emerged.

Spicer was asked by a pro-Trump media representative whether the issue was raised when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the White House in June.

Spicer said he did not know, but claimed that "the DNC's collusion with the Ukrainian government has definitely gotten a lot more attention since that meeting."

Adrienne Watson of the DNC accused the White House of deflecting.

"The White House has been pushing this narrative to distract from the Trump campaign's willingness to work with a hostile foreign government to interfere in our election. No one is buying it."

The comments come as the White House reeled from Donald Trump Jr.'s confession that he and two other Trump senior aides knowingly met Kremlin-connected operatives to get incriminating information on rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

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That admission, after months of denials, has prompted some Republicans to openly criticize the White House and venture that Donald Jr. may have broken the law.

US intelligence agencies believe that President Vladimir Putin ordered a vast influence operation to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

Trump himself has responded by describing his son's meeting as business as usual.

"Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!" he tweeted on Monday.

Spicer seemed to contradict his boss, by saying the meeting was actually about adoption.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied allegations it had "colluded" with Democrats against the Trump campaign.

The embassy "neither coordinated with the DNC on opposition research nor taken any actions to undermine campaign efforts," the statement read.

"While some politicians who are not part of the Ukrainian government might have taken sides or made comments during last year's election, the Embassy and the government of Ukraine did not."

"We highly appreciate US administration support to Ukraine and the progress achieved in recent months in our bilateral relations."
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board published a scathing assessment of President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr.s conduct in the wake of the fallout caused by the latters meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign.

Titled The Trumps and the Truth, the editorial urges radical transparency from the White House in its approach to the congressional and Justice Department Russia probes.

Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldnt abide Hillary Clintons legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling, the paper said. Yet on the story of Russias meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump and his family are repeating the mistakes that doomed Mrs. Clinton.

Trump Jr.s changing statements concerning the meeting, and his eventual admission that he attended because he was offered incriminating information from the Russian government about his fathers opponent, earned a less-than-rosy evaluation from the Journal.

Even if the ultimate truth of this tale is merely that Don Jr. is a political dunce who took a meeting that went nowhere  the best case  the Trumps made it appear as if they have something to hide. They have created the appearance of a conspiracy that on the evidence Don Jr. lacks the wit to concoct.

Trump Jr., along with Trumps son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and then-campaign chief Paul Manafort, all attended the June 2016 meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with connections to the Kremlin. The White House had long insisted that no such meeting took place, but Trump Jr. copped to it last week just before the New York Times published a story about the emails arranging it.

In the emails, the meeting was pitched to Trump Jr. as an opportunity to collect damaging information about Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. It later emerged that in addition to the three people on team Trump and Veselnitskaya, publicist Rob Goldstone, Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akmetshin, who served in the Soviet military, and at least two other people also reportedly attended.

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Donald Trump Jr. walks offstage with his father, Donald Trump, after a presidential debate at Hofstra University on Sept. 26, 2016. (Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)

The Journal urged Trump, his family and his associates to release any pertinent information regarding meetings, communications and business dealings with Russians or anyone connected to Russia, with the rationale that the short-term political damage is preferable to death by a thousand cuts of selective leaks.

Although Trump is regularly pilloried by more liberal editorial boards, the Journals caustic attack against the Republican commander in chief is striking. The paper is under the umbrella of News Corporation, Rupert Murdochs media conglomerate, which operates the Trump-friendly Fox News.

The editorial board noted that Trump is unlikely to heed its advice.

Mr. Trump somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the Presidency, the Journal cautioned. Hes wrong. He and his family seem oblivious to the brutal realities of Washington politics. Those realities will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy toward the Russia probe. They dont have much more time to do it.

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The royal family touched down in Warsaw on Monday to begin their five-day tour of Poland and Germany.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are joined on the trip by their children: 3-year-old Prince George and 2-year-old Princess Charlotte.

The royals disembarked the plane with the Duchess of Cambridge, dressed in Alexander McQueen, carrying Princess Charlotte, in a ditsy floral dress, while Prince William held 3-year-old Prince Georges hand. [Photo: PA]

As always, all eyes were on Kate Middletons outfit choice. The royals first look, which she wore for disembarking the plane as well as in a photo op with Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife, Agata, at the presidential palace, included an ivory peplum coat paired with a midi-length skirt from Alexander McQueen.

The wool jacket, which originally sold for $1,538, is no longer available in the United States. The elegant style features a V-neckline and a cinched in waist, which the Duchess highlighted further with a matching belt.

The Duchess opted for nude suede Gianvito Rossi heels  shoes that she has worn countless times before  and kept her jewelry minimal. She paired a purple pendant necklace with matching drop earrings. As per usual, she also had her sapphire engagement ring on.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore Alexander McQueen while Charlotte wore a cute red dress. (Photo: PA)

As for the little royals, they dressed for the occasion in the national colors of Poland, with Princess Charlotte in a sleeveless red printed dress and Prince George arriving in a colorful stripy shirt and navy shorts, despite the rain in Warsaw.

Prince William stuck to a traditional suit, sticking to the color scheme as well, with a red tie.

As the plane carrying the family of four arrived in Warsaw, Prince George and Princess Charlotte were seen peeking out a plane window  to the delight of royal fans globally. (Photo: PA)

Although the royal children seemed a little shy, with George seemingly unhappy to leave the aircraft, this isnt George and Charlottes first time abroad.

The duo accompanied their parents on their Canadian royal tour last year.

The Duke and Duchess are very much looking forward to this tour and are delighted with the exciting and varied programme that has been put together for it, a spokesperson for Kensington Palace said. They have decided that their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, will travel with them and we expect the children to be seen on at least a couple of occasions over the course of the week.

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The Duke and Duchess first stop-off in Warsaw was to meet with President Andrzej Duda and first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda at the Presidential Palace. (Photo: PA)

After touching down, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge headed to the presidential palace where they were greeted by President Duda and first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda. The couple also visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum and met with World War II veterans from the Polish resistance. After that, the royal couple will travel to meet Polands young entrepreneurs.

The evening will see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the picturesque Orangery in Lazienki Park for a birthday party for the queen hosted by the British ambassador.

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Back in February, Finnish manufacturer HMD Global showed off the first Android phones designed under the Nokia name. They actually look a lot like something that peak Nokia wouldve designed itself, but all the models were distinctly mid-range.

A few months later, it looks like HMD is setting up for the launch of the first Nokia flagship in years. The Nokia 8, seen here in leaked images from the ever-reliable Evan Blass, looks perfectly set up to take on the big boys.

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The design is classic Nokia: simple front, although a front sporting the kind of thick bezels that are rapidly going out of style. The back is some kind of colored finish, likely using the same unibody aluminum design found on Nokias midrange phones. Blass says it will come in blue, steel, gold/blue and gold/copper.

Inside is where things get interesting. Likely specs are a 5.3-inch screen with QHD resolution, Qualcomms top-end 835 Snapdragon processor, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and dual 13MP Zeiss cameras. The final phones produced by Nokia (under Microsoft ownership) stressed big, fancy cameras above all else, so its logical that HMD has the same focus.

Overall, its a serious set of specs that could go a long way to attracting Nokia loyalists back to the brand. Its certainly not groundbreaking compared to big players like the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8, but for a simple, powerful device that takes great pictures in a reasonably pleasant body, it could be perfect.

Blass reports that it will launch on July 31st for around $675, based on a pre-listing from a Scandanavian website. The price should hopefully be a little lower stateside, and if it comes in around $600, I could see a new cult classic in the making.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.com
Samsung is indeed hurrying to unveil the Galaxy Note 8 at the end of August, and the new phablet should hit stores at some point in September. Samsung Mobiles chief DJ Koh confirmed as much in statements made in Taiwan recently. However, thats not necessarily great news for all Galaxy Note fans out there, as the phone will apparently be released in different waves, beginning in September but extending into October.

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The report comes from ePrice, a tech site that attended a Samsung event in Taiwan. Koh supposedly spoke about Samsungs business in the region and said that more than 2.3 million people purchased a Note version since it was released in 2011 in Taiwan alone.

The exec said the new Note will be announced by the end of August, confirming all the recent reports on the matter. He did not offer an actual date for Samsungs next Unpacked media event or a location. Reports said that Samsung is eying a New York-based event on either August 23rd or August 26th.

Koh said during the meeting that the Galaxy Note 8 will hit stores in early September. But the phone wont be launched simultaneously around the world. The first wave of markets will get it in September, while others will have to wait until October. Its likely the first wave will include key countries, like the US, Korea, China, and top European smartphone markets.

Koh did not offer any other details about the Galaxy Note 8 during the event, but its not like the handset is a big secret. Thanks to the large number of Galaxy Note 8 leaks and rumors, we know what the phone will likely look like, and what kind of hardware itll have to offer. In short, itll be a super-sized Galaxy S8 version that will sport a few additional tricks, including a dual lens camera on the back and a new S Pen stylus.

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Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said on Monday that Donald Trump Jr.s now-infamous meeting with a Russian lawyer to find dirt on Hillary Clinton merits a criminal investigation.

It is a crime to receive something of value, when you are a campaign official from a foreign person or a foreign government, Napolitano said.

Trump Jr. and White House surrogates have repeatedly claimed that the presidents eldest son didnt receive any useful information a result of the meeting. Host Sandra Smith then asked if it would be a crime if he did receive information.

Also Read: Trump Says 'Most Politicians' Would Have Taken Meeting With Russians

That would have been a felony, that would have been the completion of a crime, Napolitano said. So the question is, is this enough to commence a criminal investigation? Answer: yes.

Napolitano continued: Because it is suspicious that they met with these people, they didnt consult a lawyer, and one of these people is a former KGB/GRU Why didnt Jared Kushner tell the FBI about it when he filled out his national security application unless he was trying to hide something?

Napolitano questioned if Kushner was trying to hide that this was simply a foolish thing to do, or the beginning of steps required to obtain illegal information.

Also Read: Fox News Benches Judge Andrew Napolitano Over Unfounded Trump Wiretap Accusations

Back in March, Trump tweeted unsubstantiated claims that former President Obama had illegally wiretapped Trump Tower before last falls election. During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on March 17, Trump deflected a question about his tweet accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower by blaming a report by Napolitano.

Trump blamed Fox News because Napolitano went on Fox & Friends a few weeks prior to the incident and said that three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command to spy on Trump during last years election.

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Fox News host Shepard Smith made the following statement shortly after Trumps comments during the press conference with Merkel: Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitanos commentary. Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time, in any way, full stop.

Napolitano was briefly sidelined but stood by his report and obviously remains on Fox News.

Check out the video above.

Related stories from TheWrap:

CNN Commentator Angela Rye Refuses to Say Trump Is Her President (Video)

Trump Says 'Most Politicians' Would Have Taken Meeting With Russians

Trump Finds Time for Jesse Watters' Fox News Show Aboard Air Force One
A young Ghanaian lady who goes by the name Enyonam and uses the alias, Queen Farcadi on social media could well be described as Ghanas version of Bobrisky of Nigeria.

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Queen Farcadi

The young lady who has a light-skinned body has been trending on social media for a while now. However, it is believed that the now-fair young lady did not have such a bright skin some years back.

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Some pictures have surfaced on the internet showing some pictures of a dark-skinned Queen Farcadi.

Many people have therefore concluded that the young lady must have bleached her skin to come out with her current glowing skin tone.

Just like Bobrisky who has now become a social media sensation, Queen Farcadi is not ashamed of her current skin tone and gladly flaunts her body in many pictures which she uploads on her social media handles.

READ ALSO: Roselyn Ngissah talks about Kumawood movie industry

The only difference between Enyonam and Nigerias Bobrisky is gender.

Skin bleaching has been an issue which has come up for discussion in recent times. Some musicians, actors and actresses including Ama K. Abebrese Paulina Oduro, Nana Ama McBrown and model Hamamat Montia., have come out to condemn the act.

In a post on Twitter, she wished many people would have her "glow".

See more photos of Queen Farcadi below:

A 'Before' picture of Queen Facardi

An 'After picture'

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

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By Damali Mukhaye:

Two members of the jobless brotherhood have been arrested by police in Kampala for burning tyres and T. Shirts bearing the picture of president Museveni in protest against the age limited project.

The duo have stormed the city center along Luwum street carrying yellow t-shirts bearing the portrait of president Yoweri Museveni which they set on fire in the middle of the road.

The youths who were four in number were chanting and shouting Museveni must go, and no one should tamper with the constitution when the police swung into action and arrested two while the other two managed to escape.

The Police Officer in Charge of Luwum Street Police Post, Ituuza Nduhura says the two have been arrested for causing commotion in the city and are yet to be transferred to Central Police Station.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Variable clouds with snow showers or flurries. High 38F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 50%..

Tonight

Occasional snow showers. Low 28F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
ANGOLA  Architects are moving forward with planning for future needs of the Steuben County judicial branch, it was announced during Mondays meeting of the Steuben County Board of Commissioners.

Jack Daniels of the Fort Wayne firm MartinRiley Architects-Engineers said key personnel in the Steuben County Courthouse have been interviewed about their space needs.

Commissioners were presented information that gives preliminary space needs garnered from interviews with judges, clerks, security, the prosecutors office and more. Next is to present that data to those key individuals and move forward with planning.

That is our very next step, to put that information in front of them, Daniels said.

What MartinRiley came up with was the determination that space needs for courthouse functions is nearly double the current space.

The data presented to commissioners showed current space at 19,121 square feet. After working with court personnel, MartinRiley determined about 32,526 square feet of space was necessary to carry out the duties of the courts and its supporting offices. Thats 70 percent more than the current space.

Daniels said after presenting data to key individuals, his team will try to determine how to best come up with that space, be it an expansion to the existing courthouse, a new building or some other alternative.

The point is to try to put as many options available that are viable on the table, Daniels said.

Some needs were greater than others. For example, space for the magistrate was 6 percent greater. Space needed in Steuben Superior Court was 53 percent greater than what there is currently.

Theres always going to be some tweaking, Daniels said.

He did not give a timeframe for bringing more proposals back to the commissioners.
INDIANAPOLIS  A longtime Albion attorney has resigned from the state bar association amid an Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission case and pending charge of theft in Noble County.

The Indiana Supreme Court accepted the resignation of Diane Miller, 60, on Thursday and closed her disciplinary proceeding at the state.

Miller is facing a Level 5 felony charge of theft in Noble County for allegedly making $63,000 in unauthorized withdrawals from an estate she was entrusted to manage. That case is still pending in Noble Circuit Court.

The Supreme Court order states her resignation came with a requirement of an acknowledgement that there is presently pending an investigation into or a proceeding involving allegations of misconduct and that Respondent could not successfully defend herself if prosecuted.

Now removed from the Indiana State Bar Association, Miller is no longer allowed to practice law. She will be eligible to petition for reinstatement in five years, but the misconduct admitted in her resignation as well as any other allegations of misconduct can be considered by the state at that time.

Millers criminal case has not yet been resolved. A pretrial hearing on Friday was continued to a later date.

In that case, Miller is accused of improperly accessing funds from an estate she was managing between August 2015 and January 2016.

A woman contacted the Noble County Sheriffs Department in May 2016 to report she noticed money was being withdrawn from her parents estate account. The woman was not able to access the money herself but was able to monitor the activity of the bank account when she spotted the transactions.

She found several checks that were written and cashed by Miller, totaling approximately $63,000, according to the court documents. The value of those 15 checks ranged from $1,000 to $9,500 and were withdrawn over a period between Aug. 11, 2015, and Jan. 29, 2016.

The woman hired an attorney, who contacted Miller to ask about the withdrawals. At that time, Miller asked for a week to replenish the money and made a deposit of $61,500 in the estate account on May 31, according to court documents.

When asked why she had withdrawn the money, Miller told police she used some of it for personal medical expenses, but did not say where the rest of it had gone, according to the court documents.

Miller had worked as an attorney in Noble County for decades, handling thousands of cases spanning criminal cases, divorces, small claims and other types of civil filings.
It is more than the money raised for the American Cancer Society that inspires Carolyn HorihanHouston County Relay for Lifes 2017 keynote speakerto participate in the popular event every year.

It is a hope, said Horihan. It is a time to get survivors together. Its for people who genuinely want to be there and help people.

This year's Houston County Relay for Life will take place at the Hokah Fire Station. The walking path will be on the bike trail from the fire station to County Road 7. This is the first year that Hokah has hosted the event in its 20-plus-year history.

A dedicated participant since 1999, Horihan attended the 2010 Relay for Life on the day of her last chemo treatment. She is now in remission after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.

Relay for Lifethe national cancer walk fundraiser for the American Cancer Societywas founded in 1985.

Horihan has had a unique familial experience with cancer.

Three sisters all under the age of 40 were diagnosed with cancer, Horihan said. I have one sister who has not been diagnosed and now she is above 40. Thats her luck.

Her sister, Karen, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and passed away in 2003. Then her sister, Colleen, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She is in remission. Her mother was then diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2003. Her father was diagnosed with cancer in 2016.

The 47-year-old Hokah resident is happy that Relay for Life will take place in Hokah.

A lot of people think its just about walking and putting in your time but there are true bonding moments," she said. "You hear stories and are honored that you are out there with them because most people only know their familys story. Somebody two houses down from you may have the same thing going on.

Horihan will be walking with her team, the Crazy Mixed Bunch.

Hokahs first Relay for Life has three fundraising teamstwo more than previous years.

Were hoping for a very good turnout. Since its in Hokah, each town tends to bring their own spin on the event. We are going to have a special survivor and caregiver reception at 5 p.m. to celebrate survivors and caregivers, said Connie Kreutzer, co-organizer of this years Relay for Life.

In 2012, the year that Kreutzer was diagnosed with lung cancer was also her first time participating in Relay for Life.

I went into remission in April 2012. Ive been cancer free for five years. It was very lucky that they caught it early, she said.

Relay for Life is open to anyone and everyone. Cancer survivors, caretakers, relatives and friends of those who either survived cancer or lost their lives to the disease raise money, then walk the track throughout the night, from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.

All night long, each team will have someone on the track walking. It represents the struggles that cancer patients go through like fatigue, Kreutzer said.

Last year, Kreutzers teamthe Hokah Hillbilliesraised $6,000 for the American Cancer Society.

Although the event raises money for Houston County residents, a lot of the money and services benefit neighboring Rochester and La Crosse because of their medical facilities.

Last years Relay for Life raised $55,000 which was spent on 72 services in Houston County. Those services included 70 requests for cancer-related information and questions relating to their diagnosis via the National Cancer Information Center, six women received wigs and one woman participated in the Look Good Feel Better campaign.

This is a big thing because it helps spread the word, said Relay for Life co-organizer Kim Sheehan. It encourages people to get check-ups so they can catch it early, like Connie, and have a good outcome.

Every town in Houston County that is chosen to host Relay for Life will host the event for two years.

Hokahs August event will feature two bandsThompson Valley and Sometimes Twofood provided by Tas-tee, childrens activities, a raffle and the luminarias surrounding the walk with names of survivors and those who lost their battle on the bags.

The Hokah Chiefs 4-H Club will be setting up and removing the illuminated bags.

The event normally averages about 300 people, but since its the first time in town we dont know, Kreutzer said. Im hoping we pull some locals in that dont normally come. Only time will tell.
Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Minnesota Commissioner of Health, will visit Houston County Monday, July 31, to talk about how to keep the public in good shape.

Ehlinger will join area residents for lunch at 11:30 a.m. at Caledonia Elementary School, 511 Main St. W., before talking walkable communities at noon, then giving a presentation entitled What Does Minnesota Need to Be Healthy at 12:30 p.m.

The presentation will be followed by a game of horseshoes with the commissioner from 1 to 2:15 p.m.

Register by contacting Heather Myhre at heather.myhre@co.houston.mn.us or Mary Marchel at mary.marchel@co.houston.mn.us. Call 507-725-5810.
ONALASKA  Gundersen Health System has bought the former Globe University property in Onalaska for $3.99 million, with plans to lease it to Quartz Health Plan, according to a Gundersen news release.

Globe, a for-profit institution, ceased operations in the building at 2651 Midwest Drive in December, after the U.S. Department of Education ended its access to federal student aid dollars in the fallout from a Minnesota court ruling that it had used deceptive practices.

Gundersen Health Plan and Unity Health Plans Insurance Corp. recently affiliated with Quartz, a health plan services company headquartered in Sauk City, Wis., that also manages health insurance products for Physicians Plus Insurance Corp. and provides administrative services for self-funded health plans.

Gundersen, which has a lease agreement with Quartz at its Onalaska campus, intends to lease the Midwest Drive property to Quartz on a timeline to be determined.

Gundersens purchase of the building is aimed to support continued growth and the progression of the Quartz Health Plan," according to the health systems news release.

Quartz has 275,000 customers in southern and western Wisconsin and parts of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota through offices in Sauk City, Middleton and Onalaska.
Marine Credit Union has bought the former La Crosse Plow Factory in a project that not only will expand its headquarters but also possibly include a restaurant or tavern, according to Marine officials.

The credit union bought the building at 300 N. Second St. from Dan Wettstein, owner of Wettsteins furniture and appliance and Lighting Design by Wettsteins.

Lighting Design was the Plow buildings major occupant until recently moving to the nearby furniture and appliance showroom at 215 N. Third St.

The Wettstein family has done significant work on the La Crosse Plow Factory since they purchased it in 1994, Wettstein said. Marine Credit Union is a well-respected, community-minded, local company, and we are confident they will be an excellent fit for our La Crosse Plow Factory.

We are pleased Marine plans to maintain the current historic integrity of the building, while adding value to historic downtown La Crosse, he said.

Echoing those goals was credit union CEO Shawn Hanson, who said, Marine is very excited to be able to grow our investment in the La Crosse community. Its important to us, and to our community, to preserve our history and help develop businesses and employment in downtown La Crosse.

Marine Credit Union, now headquartered at 811 Monitor St., will begin occupying the old plow factory at as early as the first part of 2019, Hanson said.

Marines long-term plans include restoring office spaces for about 150 people on the second through fourth floors and a restaurant, tavern or other public commercial tenant on the first floor, Hanson said.

The credit union, which notched its sixth consecutive year of record growth, income and service in 2016, recently announced the purchase of five Bank Mutual branches in the Milwaukee area. It also has opened nine new offices in the past 12 months, including four in Iowa.

Other plow factory tenants, including Devanie, Belzer and Schroeder, KCI Technologies Inc., Lash Lounge, Pittman and Pittman Law Offices and the Gensler architecture and design firm, will remain in the former plow building under their current leases.

Gensler recently announced that it will move to about 10,000 square feet on the second floor of nearby Belle Square in September.

The plow factory was built in 1902 as part of the La Crosse Plow Co., once one of the largest employers in La Crosse. The company later was sold to Allis-Chalmers, a tractor manufacturer.

Other major work in the downtown area of late, besides the $68 million Belle Square office/residential/commercial complex, includes a parking ramp scheduled to open this fall at 222 Pine St., on the same block as the plow factory.
The La Crosse County Health Departments Nature Connections program will host a workshop, Institutional Design for Nature and Health, from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, July 20, in the conference room of Western Technical Colleges Lunda Center.

The workshop will discuss the nature-health connection, how built environments affect health, ways organizations can incorporate nature into their grounds, and a walking tour of WTC, showcasing examples of nature in design.

Speakers will include Karen Mumford of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, whose background includes work as an urban planner and biologist, with a focus on public health and the environment; Daria Hutchinson, UW-Eau Claires landscape designer; Judson Steinback, owner of Coulee Region Ecoscapes; Casey Meehan, Western sustainability coordinator; Jay McHenry, director of facilities for Western; and Megan Muehlenbruch, Nature Connections health educator.

Registered attendees range from sustainability coordinators, facilities and grounds managers, to wellness coordinators and city officials, representing a range of organizations from health care, schools and universities, municipal government offices and others. Attendees will gain awareness, knowledge, skills and resources to aid in enhancing the presence of nature at their organization.

Access and engagement with abundant, diverse nature has been shown to positively impact many dimensions of health. This includes positive health impacts relating to stress, depression and anxiety, attention and productivity, cardiovascular and respiratory health, among many others. Nature-rich spaces can also facilitate social connections, which can aid in mental well-being.

For more information on the workshop or to RSVP, contact Megan Muehlenbruch at 608-785-6236 or mmuehlenbruch@lacrossecounty.org. More information on the Nature Connections program is available online at www.natureconnectionslax.org.
I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Europe that was marred by a fall in Passau.

I fell flat on my face and bled extensively since I am on Warfarin. A German gentleman stopped the bleeding and called an ambulance that took me to the hospital, where the emergency room doctor checked me over, stitched two small wounds and ordered a CAT scan.

The total bill came to 110 euros or the equivalent of approximately $150.

We really need to do something about our health-care costs.
The musical group TRISIS is coming to Tomah.

The vocal harmony act will perform on the Area Community Theatre stage Thursday, July 27 at 7 p.m.

The group, described as a "vintage vocal trio," is composed of three sisters  Jessica, Jacqueline and Jasmine  who perform a variety of compositions ranging from classic to contemporary tunes.

TRISIS has performed at Lake Superiors Big Top Chautauqua and The Capitol Theater in Madison and has been featured on syndicated public radio broadcasts across the United States and Canada.

In addition to their voices, the group has added instruments to their act. David, the father of the three sisters, provides backing chords on jazz and acoustic guitar.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased through BrownPaperTickets.com (enter search term: TRISIS).

The Tomah stop is part of a statewide tour that includes Hayward (July 14), Portage (July 20), Minocqua (Aug. 3) and Ladysmith (Aug. 10). The group will also make other appearances at summer festivals.
The Viroqua Chamber Main Streets award winning Pop-Up Shop program is back for the 2017 holiday shopping season.

Do you have an idea for a business but lack the startup funds? Have you wanted to test out an idea in Viroquas downtown but were unsure of the risk involved in starting a business? The Viroqua Chamber Main Street will assist with education, we will pay rent and assist with promotion for your new business. Twinklefest, holiday shopping and the shop local and small business Saturday promotions draw people to our historic downtown. Be part of the action!

If you are interested in applying to have a Pop-Up Shop in downtown Viroqua, send an email to infodesk@viroqua-wisconsin.com or give us a call at 608-637-2575 to schedule a meeting if you have questions.

Accepting applications for facade grants

The Viroqua Chamber Main Street is accepting applications for facade grants for downtown businesses. Please contact our office for an application by sending an email to infodesk@viroqua-wisconsin.com. Preference will be given to chamber affiliates when the Economic Development Committee determines awards for 2017-18. Previous winners include: Parrish Music, Bluedog Cycles and The Driftless Angler. Facade awards are granted after the work is complete. Submissions will be accepted Aug. 1-Sept. 1. For an application and more information, contact the office to schedule a meeting.

Tourism grant available

The city of Viroquas Tourism Commission is accepting applications for the tourism grant. This grant funds events that lead to overnight stays in the area. For more information about this grant, contact our office. The awards will be determined by the Tourism Commission.

Farmers Market, July 15

The market will be open from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Come to the market for a lovely variety of produce, baked goods, plants, meat and eggs, crafts, soaps, wool, fresh flowers, body art and so much more. Please keep your dogs at home. We are enforcing a new no dog rule at the market in order to comply with Health Department regulations and property owner regulations. Service dogs welcome. Reminder that the market accepts Visa, MasterCard and SNAP. For questions about the market, email farmersmarket@viroqua-wisconsin.com or call the office.

Wednesday market, July 19

The Wednesday market has a large variety of vendors offering produce, baked goods, meat, eggs and crafts. The market is open 2-6 p.m. in the former Bluedog Cycles parking lot. Visa, MasterCard and SNAP benefits are accepted.

Pie and ice cream social, July 16

Bethel Home and Services Auxiliary is hosting this delicious event at Maplewood Terrace from 2-4 p.m. Enjoy homemade pie, ice cream, lemonade and coffee. Freewill offering. (No charge to Maplewood residents.) All the proceeds benefit projects for Bethel Home and Services.

Co.Starters SOUP, July 25

Join us for Flight Night  the business launch finale for our Co.Starters entrepreneurs! It will be held at Kickapoo Coffee from 6-8 p.m.

Over the past nine weeks in partnership with Couleecap, weve been equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships and tools needed to turn their business ideas into action through training in this bootcamp course. To celebrate the completion of the program, were giving each of our participants the chance to win some startup funds for their business. For $5, come to the launch event and hear each entrepreneur give a 5- to 10-minute pitch explaining their business and objectives. Eat soup and vote on which new business should receive the funds gathered from the door.

Quarterly Connection, July 26

The Quarterly Connection is a great time for member businesses to get together and share ideas and discuss upcoming programming. This meeting at Daves Pizza at 8 a.m. will feature a customer service workshop from Andrew Nussbaum of Travel Wisconsin. The public is welcome to attend. We will be awarding best new business of 2016 and recruiting for committees. We will also discuss Twinklefest. We look forward to seeing everyone! For more information or to RSVP, email cwalters@viroqua-wisconsin.com. There will be more information in next weeks Street Talk about Andrew Nussbaum and Travel Wisconsin.
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Police are investigating a double shooting that occurred just after 8 p.m. outside of Paramount Studios in East Hollywood.

A 15-year-old boy and a man in his mid-to-late-20s were both wounded and taken to a hospital, according to City News Service. The teenager was shot in the arm and the adult was wounded in the stomach.

The incident occurred at the corner of Van Ness and Lemon Grove avenues, near the Lemon Grove Gate entrance to the studio. LAPD Officer Mike Lopez told LAist that the incident "doesn't have anything to do with the studio."

Lopez also said that the shooting was "possibly gang-related." No information on suspects is yet available.
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28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (7) May 16 (2) May 15 (2) May 14 (4) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (3) May 08 (2) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (1) May 04 (2) May 03 (4) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (1) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (1) Mar 07 (1) Mar 04 (2) Mar 02 (2) Feb 28 (1) Feb 24 (1) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (5) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (1) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (3) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (3) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (2) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (5) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (2) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (2) Oct 07 (2) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (2) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (2) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (2) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (1) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (1) Sep 19 (1) Sep 18 (1) Sep 17 (2) Sep 16 (1) Sep 15 (2) Sep 14 (2) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 11 (2) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (1) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (1) Sep 02 (1) Sep 01 (1) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 24 (1) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (2) Aug 19 (1) Aug 18 (1) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 12 (1) Aug 09 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 05 (1) Aug 04 (1) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (5) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 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Animal rights group Anima (Macau) has appealed to organizations around the world to volunteer for the adoption of some 650 greyhounds once the Macau (Yat Yuen) Canidrome closes its doors.

The appeal, co-signed by the presidents of other greyhound activist groups, namely GREY2K USA Worldwide and Pet Levrieri, is calling on groups involved in animal protection and rehoming to step up and save hundreds of greyhounds.

The Macau greyhounds are just one step away from safety and freedom, but in order [for that] to happen, this step requires a special and concrete commitment on the part of everyone who loves animals, it reads.

Last year, international observers described the dog racing facility as the worlds deadliest greyhound racetrack, due to the abnormally high number of euthanized dogs. However, as the closure of the Canidrome became incrementally more likely, activists changed their tone from condemnation to appeal.

Association president Albano Martins said that the appeal is asking organizations around the world to accept [Macaus] dogs if they are given to us [from the Canidrome]. We have to be practical: we have no space for new animals.

We have so many animals here at Anima, he continued. The last thing I want is to take on more animals but we cannot close our [hearts to them].

His plan is to solicit international organizations to join a global greyhound adoption campaign.

Anima is seeking homes for approximately 650 greyhounds.

The local association is currently responsible for almost 400 dogs in the territory, and a further 377 outside of the MSAR, according to a report released at the end of last year.

Technically, we are capable of sending all of the dogs all over the world, said Martins, who claimed that organizations in France, Italy and the U.K. have already agreed to adopt 100, 60 and 60 dogs respectively. We believe that we can do that [arrange 650 adoptions]. However, doing that all together [on the same day] is impossible, because we dont have space [to accommodate them].

The ideal solution, Martins said, is to allow Anima to use the Canidrome facility on a short-term, temporary basis, once the races at the facility cease.

Pressuring the Canidrome to release the greyhounds into Animas care has been the groups single biggest priority in the last 12 months. According to some media reports, the managing director of the Canidrome, Angela Leong, has said on previous occasions that the dogs do not belong to the Canidrome company, rather they are owned by private buyers.

However, Martins yesterday contested this idea, claiming that the company is the single biggest greyhound owner. We have all the names of the dogs at the Canidrome and about 120 are in their name, he said.

Furthermore, by the rules of Canidrome, when the owners no longer want the dogs, they are compelled to give the dogs to the Canidrome. So the dogs will [at some stage] go back to the Canidrome.

The appeal was announced at a press conference yesterday at the Anima (Macau) headquarters, where Martins and other senior members of the group also reviewed the activities and budget of last year.

In 2016, the number of dogs rescued dropped to 190, from 202 in the previous year. On the other hand, 286 cats were rescued by the association last year, compared to 195 in 2015.

Other animals rescued in 2016 included birds (61), rabbits (32), hamsters (18) snakes (17) and turtles/tortoises (9).

In terms of the organizations balance sheet, revenue last year amounted to almost MOP8 million, up significantly from MOP5.84 million in 2015. Total expenditure last year was about MOP8.73 million, compared with MOP6.96 million in 2015, and is projected to increase marginally to MOP8.8 million for this year.

At the end of 2016, Anima had accrued some MOP2.3 million in outstanding debt, but Martins said yesterday that he is confident that, as in the past, the association will be able to clear its debt.

Separately, Anima board member Francisco Jose Leandro, publicly thanked the cooperation of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau at the press conference, saying that the government bureau had been helpful and communicative with the animal rights group.

He also said that, as per the terms of the groups new Code of Ethics, Anima will avoid political involvement including demonstrations or lobbying.

We want to keep distance from political matters, he said. However, we are [prepared] to talk with every association that has the same kind of commitment to the welfare of animals. Dialogue [with these groups] is always possible.

Martins still free after investigation

Commenting on a police investigation into the Anima (Macau) president for sharing a video on social media of animal abuse, Albano Martins said, I am still free [and] thats the only thing I know [about the case]. Martins was summoned to answer to authorities earlier this year after he shared a video of a Judiciary Police officer abusing a dog. Allegedly, sharing the video content was illegal because it violated the privacy of the officer in question. I had to do that [share the video] because it is my job, and I would do the same if given the chance to do it again. I believe that the video did not violate any laws, because the face was not [shown] clear, said Martins yesterday, on the sidelines of the press conference. The government saw [the video] and punished the police officer, he added. You see everyday in the newspaper that the police are being suspended so many, so its normal.
The former leader of the Republic of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, has died in exile in the US state of Hawaii at the age of 90.

In 1948 Mr Rhee became South Koreas first president after elections in which he gained 180 of the 196 votes of National Assembly members.

Mr Rhee spent much of his life in the US after leaving Korea in 1904. Prior to his departure he had spent seven years in jail for leading demonstrations against the Korean monarchy.

He returned briefly to Korea in 1910 when it was under Japanese control but, after clashing with the new leadership, left again to head a Korean Government in exile.

Syngman Rhee did not return until Japans defeat in the Second World War and the occupation of Korea by American and Soviet troops.

In 1948 the country was divided at the 38th parallel and the Soviet Union set up a Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north while the US helped establish the Republic of Korea in the south.

Mr Rhee emerged as the main anti-communist politician in South Korea and in 1947 he received the unofficial support of the US Government in his bid to become president.

Although first elected on a popular mandate Mr Rhees style became increasingly autocratic.

In 1954 he forced through amendments to the South Korean constitution to allow him to extend his term of office indefinitely.

However, in 1960 he was forced into a final exile after public unrest over election fraud which saw him returned to office with a massive majority.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

South Korea continued to be governed by authoritarian rulers for decades but at the same time became one of the worlds major economies.

After the return to multi-party politics in 1987, President Roh Tae-Woo launched an anti-corruption campaign.

Relations with its northern neighbor have been the Souths major concern.

The United States still keeps around 37,000 troops in South Korea to guard against a repeat of the 1950 invasion by North Korea.

But after five decades of suspicion and hostility, the ice has begun to melt  in June 2000 the leaders of North and South Korea met and shook hands in Pyongyang, North Korea.
The 12th International Congress of the Lusitanian Association (Associacao Internacional de Lusitanistas) (AIL) will be held for the first time in the East, in Macau.

According to comments made last week at a press conference by Carlos Andre, Coordinator of Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) Portuguese Language Pedagogical and Scientific Center, this years triennial Congress gathering of the scholars of Lusophone studies will be held at IPM from July 23 to 28. Andre spoke about the selection of the venue being a recognition of the work that the institution [IPM] has done in favor of the Portuguese language, noting as well the important role that the institution has in the region, especially in the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture.

According to Andre, the idea of holding such an event in Macau and at the IPM started from the President of the Institution, Lei Heong Iok, who instructed Andre to present IPMs candidacy for 2017 during the 11th Congress held in 2014 in the city of Mindelo, Cape Verde.

Questioned on the importance of such an event for Macau and for the institution, Andre said: It is the first time universities around the world come here to state very clearly that the territory has a role to play and that the history of Macau has a very special meaning in this dialogue of cultures, where the Portuguese language is clearly a striking element. He also noted that this represents for the institution an affirmation of its key-player status in the training and education regarding Portuguese studies and interpretation.

The scholar said that for the 12th edition, the Congress will include for the first time a number of Chinese scholars (16), who will, for the first time also present papers and communications.

These will be some of the roughly 142 participants registered, representing more than 80 university institutions from 15 different countries and regions.

Andre highlighted the presence of professors from some of the most prestigious universities attending, such as Kings College in London, Milan and Bologna, Rome (La Sapienza) and Napoli in Italy, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela from Spain. The USA will be represented by Arizona, Santa Barbara and Brown universities and Portugal will be represented by universities in Porto, Lisbon and Coimbra.

He also remarked that the congress had three weeks ago registered a total of 180 participants but that list of expected participants had suffered a sudden change last week due to the crisis situation that is happening in Brazil.

It is expected that during the Congress, a total of four plenary sessions and 48 short sessions on specific topics will be held. The Portuguese language will feature heavily in the presentations, along with other topics such as Brazilian and (Portuguese-speaking) African countries literature and contemporary history and feminist studies.
It took 10 years of talks for Hong Kong to pass an antitrust law. But about 18 months after it took effect, the citys Competition Commission has seen multiple senior departures as it battles to change a culture of price controls and quasi-legal cartels.

Since it started hiring in 2014, the regulator is on its third chief economist, seen its executive director for operations and its general counsel leave, and in September will welcome its third chief executive. Rank and file employees have also departed, a former staffer said.

While agency officials say staff turnover is common at a new regulator and point to actions theyve taken to enforce the new rules, the exits add to the demands facing incoming head Brent Snyder. The former U.S. Justice Department prosecutor will not only be expected to tackle antitrust issues in a city that operated for 150 years without any cross-sector competition rules, but also ensure theres stability at the commission.

Bringing together the right blend of competition law and Hong Kong legal expertise in one team was always going to be challenging, said Adam Ferguson, a competition lawyer with Eversheds LLP in Hong Kong. I expect this will continue to be one of the key challenges.

Companies in Hong Kong have long engaged in price agreements and sharing information. The agency has said such conduct hurts consumers: it found in May that gas stations in the city operated a complex and opaque discount system that made it difficult to compare prices. Such practices are so ingrained that before the antitrust law came into effect industry officials would meet with the commissions current CEO Rose Webb and openly describe their price-fixing and cartel deals. The ability to set prices was essential to their business needs, they said, according to Webb.

It will take time for the commissions education and investigation efforts to affect such business practices, said lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who also lobbies against bid-rigging in the construction sector.

The employee exits havent deterred the commission from trying to change how companies operate, Webb said in an interview in her office. She highlighted successes such as complaints from firms that rivals were now discounting, and said her international counterparts have noted the speed with which the regulator has acted. The commission sued five information technology firms in March for rigging a contract bid for a charity, its first court case.

Some successes have come without the need for litigation. In November the regulator directed the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and Hong Kong Institute of Planners to amend their codes of conduct, which restricted members from setting their own fees, while the Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association withdrew guidance it issued on cigarette pricing after meeting with commission officials.

The agency is assessing 130 complaints and actively investigating about a dozen cases in sectors including retail, construction and financial services, said Webb, without providing details.

Hong Kongs grocery market is an example of the concentrated nature of some of the citys industries. Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd., majority-owned by Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., and Li Ka-shings AS Watson Group each control about 17 percent of the market, according to Euromonitor International. Japans Seven & i Holdings Co., which operates 7-Eleven stores, is a distant third with a 6 percent share.

AS Watsons grocery chain ParknShop said the retail market in Hong Kong is very competitive and diverse and it believes the new law will help ensure a level playing field in the city. An official at Dairy Farm said supermarkets and personal care stores are highly competitive businesses, and that retailers are subject to stringent regulatory oversight and media scrutiny. (The agency hasnt said its looking at grocery stores.)

Taking on such entrenched positions will be tougher for the commission because of staff departures, said Carter Chim, a former legal counsel at the agency. It wasnt just senior managers  some departments saw nearly all their original employees leave, he said, and probes stalled when case officers exited. Chim, a barrister and law lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said he felt investigations were not pursued because of limited resources.

One of Chims suggestions: better prioritize investigations. This is really the most important thing to be done, otherwise people dont feel the purpose of being here, he said.

The commission disputed the idea that employees were leaving because of unhappiness or inefficient practices.

Having some staff turnover in the early days of an agency such as ours is not surprising, but overall the teams have been quite steady and many people have renewed their contracts, a spokesman said in an email. A number of those that have left have moved to private practice, which reflects well on the commission.

Timothy Lear, the agencys first executive director for operations who left in March 2017 after three years, said in an interview that he had planned to leave once the body was up and running. Former General Counsel Philip Monaghan, who left in June, did not respond to messages sent via LinkedIn.

Snyder, who will take over at the commission in September, was previously head of criminal enforcement at the Justice Departments antitrust division. He was in charge of several high-profile investigations, including alleged price-fixing by generic drug makers. His division charged 52 executives and 19 companies with price fixing, bid rigging, fraud, and obstruction of justice in 2016, according to a statement from Snyder in March.

He is very well regarded among the U.S. antitrust community, said Eversheds lawyer Ferguson. His appointment, together with that of the new General Counsel Steven Parker, reflects a desire to focus more on prosecutions, as both have litigation backgrounds. Benjamin Robertson, Prudence Ho, Bloomberg
A Chinese-American graduate student sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for allegedly infiltrating the country and sending confidential material abroad is innocent of all charges against him, his advising professor at Princeton University said yesterday.

Xiyue Wangs arrest, which authorities said happened nearly a year ago, only came to light a day earlier when Irans judiciary announced his sentence as well as the detention of President Hassan Rouhanis brother in an unrelated case.

Princeton said that it is very distressed by the charges leveled against Wang while he was carrying out scholarly research in the Islamic Republic. It has been working Wangs family, the U.S. government, lawyers and others to secure his release, it added.

His family and the university are distressed at his continued imprisonment and are hopeful that he will be released after his case is heard by the appellate authorities in Tehran, the university said.

An article posted on Mizan Online, a website affiliated with the judiciary, said 37-year-old Wang was born in Beijing and entered Iran as a researcher who is fluent in Persian. It said he is a dual national of the United States and China.

He has already filed an appeal to his sentence, according to the website.

Wang was arrested on Aug. 8, 2016 and is accused of passing confidential information about Iran to the U.S. State Department, Princetons Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School and the British Institute of Persian Studies, Mizan Online said.

It alleged he recorded some 4,500 pages of digital documents, paid thousands of dollars to access archives he needed and sought access to confidential areas of Tehran libraries.

Princeton University professor Stephen Kotkin, who has served as Wangs doctoral adviser, defended him in an email to The Associated Press.

Xiyue Wang is a remarkable, linguistically gifted graduate student, he wrote. He is innocent of all the charges.

The documents Wang collected were 100 years old, Kotkin said, adding that Wang has told me often of his exhilaration at the exquisiteness and depth of Persian civilization.

In its statement, Princeton said Wang was arrested while conducting research on the 1794-1925 Qajar dynasty for his doctorate in late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history.

A photo of Wang on Princetons history department shows him posing under a plaque at the entrance of Chinas official Xinhua News Agencys bureau in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A short bio on the Princeton in Asia website said Wang had been a fellow in Hong Kong in 2008-2009, had completed a bachelors degree in South Asian studies at the University of Washington and did Russian and Eurasian studies at Harvard.

For better or worse, he still cant tell you what exactly he has been studying in the many years that have passed, the site said. What he does know is that his dream is to walk the ancient Silk Road from Xian to Rome one day.

The U.S. State Department has not provided details on the case but called on Tehran to immediately release all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran. The U.S. does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Tehran and warns its citizens traveling there that they risk arrest or being barred from leaving Iran.

The Iranian regime continues to detain U.S. citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related changes, it said in a statement to the AP.

Other Americans who remain in Iranian custody include Iranian-American art gallery manager Karan Vafadari, who was detained along with his Iranian wife last year. They have yet to be convicted of a crime.

Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, are each serving 10-year sentences for cooperating with the hostile American government.

Another Iranian-American, Robin Shahini, was released on bail last year after staging a weeks- long hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for collaboration with a hostile government. He is believed to still be in Iran.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains unaccounted for.

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocates for internet freedom. He lives in Washington D.C. and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars last year after being accused of espionage-related charges.

Wangs sentence was announced the same day that authorities said they had detained President Rouhanis brother, Hossein Fereidoun, on allegations of financial misconduct.

Fereidoun is a close confidante of the moderate president, a cleric who changed his surname to Rouhani, meaning spiritual, after joining the seminary decades ago.

Fereidoun was part of the Irans negotiating team during the final phases of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. He has long been a target of hard-liners, who have accused him of misdeeds, including money laundering and misappropriation of government funds.

The semi-official Fars news agency reported that Fereidoun is being held on bail of about USD15 million.

He appeared briefly in court yesterday but had to be taken away by ambulance for an undisclosed heath concern. He is known to suffer from lung problems dating from the Iran-Iraq War during the 1980s. Adam Schreck, Dubai, AP
Two people were hacked to death and another nine injured by a man wielding a meat cleaver inside a Walmart store in Chinas southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, police in the citys Baoan district said yesterday.

A 30-year-old unemployed man was detained as a suspect in the Sunday night attack, police said in an online statement. The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

Firearms are largely unobtainable for ordinary Chinese, and such attacks are more often carried out with knives or homemade explosives. Sales of knives have faced stricter regulations following high-profile attacks, some of which have targeted children at or just outside kindergartens and elementary schools.

Perpetrators of most past attacks have been described as being mentally ill or bearing grudges against society, with social dislocation and a lack of resources for diagnosing and treating such conditions contributing to the problem, experts say.

In one of the most horrific recent attacks, eight people were killed when a 22-year-old man detonated a homemade at the front gate of a kindergarten in eastern China. Only the suspects surname, Xu, was released and no motive was provided.

Walmart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, has been operating in China for more than 20 years. It had 439 stores in 189 Chinese cities by the end of 2016. AP
US-IRAN The Trump administration slapped 18 Iranian individuals and groups with sanctions yesterday for aiding the countrys non-nuclear weapons programs, in a bid to show that President Donald Trump is staying tough on Iran despite his moves to let the nuclear deal stay in place for now. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Irans provocative and destabilizing behavior.

THAILANDs new king has tightened control over what is reputed to be the worlds richest royal fortune, estimated to be worth more than USD30 billion. A law that became effective Monday places the Crown Property Bureau under the kings direct control.

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the country until the end of the year because the rebellion there will not be completely quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation.

INDONESIA Conservative Islamic groups protested yesterday in the capital of Indonesia, denouncing President Joko Jokowi Widodos attempt to ban radical organizations. Demonstrators from an alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and held up banners calling the government tyrannical and repressive.

GREECE-TURKEY Turkey showed it is not ready to come to an agreement on reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus during recently failed peace talks, Greeces foreign minister said yesterday.

GERMANY At least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and 1992, according to a report released yesterday. Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.

SWITZERLAND Police say the bodies of what appear to be two people killed in an accident decades ago have been recovered from a glacier in southwestern Switzerland.

NIGERIA At least eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber detonated at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria. The bomber was being chased by local security workers and ran into the middle of worshippers and exploded. At least 13 people were wounded.

ARGENTINA Officials say cold weather and freezing temperatures from a polar wave have killed two people in Argentina. An absolute record of -25.4 Celsius was also registered in the Patagonian ski resort of Bariloche.
Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in Southern California has won a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot. The winning numbers drawn Tuesday morning at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the red Powerball was 10. The jackpot ticket was sold at Joes Service Center in Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The business will receive a maximum Powerball bonus of $1 million. The Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday nights scheduled drawing was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating lottery had issues processing sales. The jackpot was by far the largest lottery jackpot ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize won by three Powerball ticketholders in 2016.
JACKPOT, Nev.  Two people were taken to the hospital following a Sunday afternoon car crash on U.S. 93 near the Idaho-Nevada border.

According to the Idaho State Police, Siobhan Owen, 21, of Burley was driving northbound at 12:21 p.m. when her car collided with a pickup pulling a pop-up camp trailer, driven by Peter Wilson, 74, of Las Vegas. Wilson lost control of the vehicle and both the pickup and camp trailer rolled, coming to rest on its top.

Owens vehicle crossed into the southbound lane and went off the right shoulder, coming to a stop approximately 50 feet from the road.

Owen was taken to St. Lukes Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, along with Sharon Wilson, 79, of Las Vegas, who was a passenger in the pickup. Owen was reported to be in stable condition while Wilsons condition was unavailable.

All occupants of the pickup were wearing seat belts while Owen was not, according to ISP. Both northbound and southbound lanes of travel were blocked for approximately two hours.

Idaho State Police was assisted by Elko County Sheriffs Office, Twin Falls Police Department, and Jackpot EMS.
US officials have opposed plans by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to woo UN-backed unity governments military support, the Misrata-based powerful militia, which largely protect the weak UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and which is opposed to Abu Dhabis protege, Khalifa Haftar, London-based media The New Arab reveals.

A meeting between Haftar, who heads the east-based Libyan National Army, and leaders of the militia was cancelled after Washington opposed the meeting, which, if held, could bring leaders of the militia to back Haftar and lead to the collapse of the GNA.

The New Arab citing an unidentified source within Haftars camp indicates that the meeting set to take place early this month in the UAE was to bring together Haftar, Mohammad al-Haddad, close to the GNAs leader Faiez Serraj, who recently appointed him as chief of the central military zone, and heads of the powerful Halbus Brigade.

The meeting  which was arranged by Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed  would have touched on ways to reconcile Hafar with Misrata militias and attempted to convince the militias to accept Haftar in the position of military commander, the source is quoted as saying.

The source reportedly added that the UAE has been working to persuade the powerful militias, which mostly back the GNA, to form a coalition with Haftars self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.

The meeting could not go ahead after US diplomats got wind of it and feared that Haftar may overran Tripoli after conquering Benghazi, which he declared liberated from extremists early this month.

The diplomats did not give clear reasons for their opposition to the meeting but they spoke about the importance of political agreement instead of a military solution. One US official asked the UAE to promise that drawn out Benghazi-like scenario wouldnt happen in Tripoli, the source told the media.

Haftar recently and discretely revealed his intention to capture Tripoli, which he said was awash with extremist groups.

The Misrata-based militia is essential for the GNAs survival as it is the pillar of its military support. The GNA last year flashed out Islamic State group (IS) militants from Sirte thanks to the militia grouped under the banner of al-Bunyan al-Marsus.

The militia has been opposed to Haftar, fearing he would impose military rule over Libya after the Libyans in 2011 got rid of Col. Muammar Gaddafi who ruled the country for over four decades.
The Egyptian foreign ministry Monday announced it would impose entry visas as of July 20 on Qatari nationals wishing to visit Egypt as anti-Qatar countries tighten grip around the tiny gas-rich country.

It does not make sense to keep making exceptions for Qatar and giving it privileges in light of its current positions, said Ahmed Abu Zeid, Egypts foreign ministry spokesman.

While Qatari students in Egyptian public universities, as well Egyptian spouses and children of Egyptian nationals will not be affected by the restriction, state-run media Ahram Online noted that Qataris with diplomatic passports and special travel documents will be subject to the new measure.

The decision was announced while Kuwaiti Foreign Minister was in Cairo part of Kuwaits mediation move to end the current Gulf crisis.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have cut ties with Qatar which they accuse of interference in their internal affairs and of funding terrorism.

The quartet has imposed air, sea and land blockades against Qatar. Doha rejects the blockades as a violation of international law.

To bend down Doha, the boycotting countries issued a 13-demand list to be fulfilled before the blockades are lifted and ties normalized. Qatar spurned the list, which it deemed unrealistic.

Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry who was receiving his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah Monday indicated that Cairo will stick to the blocs sanctions against Qatar. He added that the only way to resolve the Gulf crisis was for Qatar to comply, reports say.

The insistence comes in light of what the quartet states see as Qatars stalling and procrastination, and lack of concern for the concern of the four countries, said Ahmed Abu Zeid, Egypts foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement.

Hosting other foreign ministers of the bloc early this month, Shoukry slammed Qatars refusal to comply with the conditions set forth by the quartet.

Qatars response was not serious and betrayed Qatars failure to realize the gravity of the situation, he said.
British boxer Abdul Barry Awad aka Kid Galahad praised the Qatari ruler and the entire Qatar nation, now isolated by neighbors for alleged funding of terrorism, after his victory over Mexican Jose Cayetano for the IBF Inter-Continental featherweight title over the weekend.

Awad beat his rival in the 10th round of the bout though he had not fought since February; his easy three round KO over Leonel Hernandex.

Awad, of Yemeni descent, was born in Doha before moving to Liverpool at the age of four with his grandparents, his brother told media.

The British boxer entered the ring on Saturday draped in a Qatar scarf and with his team carrying flags of the emirate and a banner of Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, London-based The New Arab reports.

In a post-fight interview, Awad expressed thanks to my Qatari people and to Sheikh Tamim.

We all support Qatar during this crisis and have always supported the country, we still have lots of family there, he said.

The 27-year old boxer met with Qatari ambassador to London who congratulated him over his victory. The diplomat also thanked him for supporting Qatar.

Qatar has been tossed out of the Gulf family after Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt have isolated the tiny-gas rich country over its alleged support for terrorism and interference in their internal affairs.

The four boycotting countries have also denied Qatari nationals access to their land, sea and airspace.

The bloc has also banned their citizens from sympathizing with Doha. Any attempt has been deemed as a criminal offence and can land one in prison.

Several athletes have sided with Qatar in the diplomatic showdown with its neighbors.

Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez, who now plays for Qatari club al-Sadd, last month called for an end to the crisis, the worst to hit the region since the establishment of the GCC in 1981, the New Arab reports.
We have an appetite for risk, Marieke Rothschild said. We ask the question, What can really yield results? What are the projects that are not being funded? Where, with a relatively small amount of funding, can you have impact?

The Center for Cancer Cell Therapy was established to directly benefit patients and spur innovation in a field that is considered one of the frontiers in cancer care.

The center will be led by Crystal Mackall, MD, professor of pediatrics and of medicine and one of the pioneers in the field of cancer cell therapy. Mackalls work has focused on CAR T cells, immune cells engineered to express receptors that lock onto and destroy malignant cells. While at the National Cancer Institute, she led several clinical trials using these modified T cells to treat children with leukemia whose condition hadnt improved with other therapies. The response rates were remarkable, with 70 to 90 percent of children improving with a single treatment. A variation on this treatment, now being tested in young patients at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford, was recommended for approval by a Food and Drug Administration panel July 12 and could be the first CAR T cell therapy to reach the market.

Potentially transformational

I think it has the potential to be highly impactful. Thats why Im committing myself to it, Mackall said. If we can optimize the functioning of these cells, they have the potential to effectively kill an established cancer and to remain functional for years after one infusion. Thats the goal  to have a product that will work on behalf of the patient. When optimized, they could remain active for months or years, preventing a recurrence of cancer. So for me, its potentially transformational.

Among the challenges of these therapies is that they work for some patients but not others, and arent effective in treating all types of cancers. Scientists at Stanford Medicine and elsewhere are looking at ways to apply the therapies more broadly and to minimize potential side effects of the treatment.

I think its the next frontier.

This is an incredibly promising approach to immunotherapy, said Beverly Mitchell, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. I think it has to overcome some problems, one of which is that there is occasional toxicity. And many solid tumors have yet to respond, so there is a lot of research that needs to be done to bring it to the broadest spectrum of patients. I have great confidence that it will become the mainstay of treatment for leukemias and lymphomas and will then extend into solid tumors, including brain cancers and sarcoma. I think its the next frontier.

She said the Rothschild gift will enable Stanford Medicine researchers to move forward with a series of clinical trials using variations of CAR T cells in different types of cancers. Until this point, these trials at Stanford have been industry-sponsored; the new gift will support the first investigator-initiated trial using a therapy that Mackall developed in her lab. Expected to begin in August, this trial may enroll up to 50 children and adults with B-cell leukemias and lymphomas, using a CAR T cell that involves a double-punch, simultaneously targeting the CD22 and CD19 antigens on cancer cells, Mackall said. Previous therapies have been directed at the CD19 antigen alone and the CD22 antigen alone, but over time, some patients lose these targets and no longer respond to the treatment, she said. In 2018, trials will expand to children and adults with brain tumors and children with solid tumors, such as neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma, she said.

David Miklos, MD, associate professor of medicine and specialist in bone marrow transplantation, will co-direct the new center, which includes many other Stanford Medicine physician-scientists who care for both adults and children with cancer. With the Rothschilds support, Stanford also will recruit new faculty in cancer immunotherapy to join the effort.

The new center is expected to complement the work of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford, which Mackall directs. The institute brings together six academic medical centers nationwide working collaboratively to advance the field.

As for the Rothschilds, they say their goal is to contribute to knowledge in the field.

We just hope to be able to affect things in a positive way  have some impact, Jeffrey Rothschild said. Thats all you ever can hope for.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair sojourned in the Togolese capital Lome, July 11-12 at the invitation of the Togolese President who is seeking the consultancy services of the former British official to attract foreign investors, Jeune Africa reports.

The two-day visit was the second visit this year by Blair who first visited the Western African country in its strive to join the Commonwealth.

During his recent stay, the Chairman of African Governance Initiative (AGI) which has transitioned into Tony Blair Institute for Global Change visited the port of Lome.

The port of Lome is known as West Africas deepest port and has recently initiated expansion works.

The chemistry between the two men was obvious. Tony Blair wishes to bring his expertise to Togo in order to attract the necessary investment for the pursuit of its economic development, an adviser to the Togolese President is quoted as saying.

Blair has been present in the continent through his institute which has been providing policy and strategy in support of a vision of globalisation designed to improve the well-being of the people, economically, politically, and socially.

The institute claims it works on effective governance with governments and leaders of fragile, developing, and emerging states to enhance their effectiveness.
Zambia, which remains a net importer of fertilizers, has called on Moroccan operators to invest in the fertilizer industry, to help curb the high cost of crop production.

The call was launched by Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya at a meeting in Lusaka Monday with a Moroccan delegation, led by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Mounia Boucetta.

According to local media, Dora Siliya told her Moroccan interlocutors that a lot of companies in Zambia import raw materials which they use to blend fertilizers.

The Minister explained that Zambia has continued to record increased crop production, and that investing in fertilizer manufacturing locally would help reduce the cost of crop production.

She said that Zambias only fertilizer manufacturing plant, the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ), which employs more than 2 thousand workers, has outdated equipment, some of which are obsolete.

Morocco, whose expertise in fertilizer manufacturing is sought by several African states, has signed landmark deals with Ethiopia and Rwanda on the construction of fertilizer plants in these east African countries.

During the visit to Lusaka, the Moroccan delegation examined with Zambian officials the progress made in implementing the 19 agreements signed during the visit Moroccos King Mohammed VI paid to Lusaka in February this year. The two sides discussed modalities and timeframes, which will ensure that the agreements achieve the objective for which they were intended.

The agreements, covering various development sectors, including science, technology, Industrial cooperation, agriculture, education and mining, fall in line with Moroccos African strategy that seeks to foster mutually beneficial south-south cooperation.

Speaking during a cooperation review meeting with public and private sector representatives involved in the agreements that she co-chaired with Zambian Foreign Affairs Acting Permanent Secretary Sylvester Mundanda, Mrs Boucetta said that Morocco and Zambia share a common vision for the consolidation of peace and stability in the continent as well as respect for the sovereignty of states.

Zambia, which remains a potential gateway to the Southern African region, shares with Morocco a common vision and willingness for the consolidation of peace, stability and respect for the sovereignty of states as well as for the promotion of democracy in our continent, said Boucetta, highlighting the importance of bringing the two countries together.

This strong, strategic and dynamic rapprochement must enable the private and public sectors of our two countries to play an important role in the development of trade, she said, renewing Moroccos readiness to develop exchanges with Zambia in all areas of common interest.

Zambia is the final stage of a tour that has already led the Moroccan delegation to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Madagascar, to ensure the timely, effective and efficient implementation of the partnership agreements signed during the royal visits to these countries.
via @learyreports

WASHINGTON - Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday hell support a simple repeal of Obamacare, if such a vote comes to pass now that the Senate bill has imploded.

I believe Obamacare is broken. I believe its bad for our country, the Florida Republican said in his daily Facebook Live talk from his office.

But its doubtful a simple repeal without a replacement could gain enough support to pass.

"If it is a bill that simply repeals, I believe that will add to more uncertainty and higher premiums, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters this morning. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on MSNBC: "I do not think that it is going to be constructive to repeal a law that at this point is so interwoven within our health care system and then hope that over the next two years we will come up with some kind of replacement. I think that would create great anxiety ..."

In December 2015, Rubio joined most other Republicans in voting for a repeal that met President Obamas veto.

Said Rubio at the time: Once again, President Obamas extreme liberal views and actions remind us of why its so important for this country to replace him with a conservative president who will actually sign a bill into law that repeals and replaces ObamaCare.

Rubio this morning again criticized newspaper editorials about the now stalled Senate bill. The idea that somehow Obamacare is working well for people is just absolutely wrong, Rubio said, ignoring those the law has helped.

Instead, Rubio said young, healthy people cannot afford the astronomical premiums or high co-payments even with subsidies. He made a case for offering more plans that insure only against catastrophic events.

They dont have an organization to protest and they certainly dont have the assistance of some of these commentators. They are the forgotten people in this debate, Rubio said.

Or what about people on employer-sponsored health insurance? Rubio asked, saying premiums for those people are rising because providers are offsetting losses in the Obamacare market.

Or what about the fact that Medicaid as it is currently structured is unsustainable in the long-term and is contributing to our debt? Rubio said. No one discusses that, either. We have an obligation to safety net, to provide health coverage to those the way that Medicaid was designed, for truly disadvantaged, but if we keep doing the way we are doing now, that program goes bankrupt along with Medicare and Social Security.

--ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times
BROWNING  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toured Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana over the weekend as part of his personal challenge to visit every state this year.

He noted the beauty of Glacier park while taking a ride on a red jammer bus on Saturday and visited the "bark ranger" Gracie, a border collie who helps herd wildlife away from people at popular areas, such as Logan Pass. He also noted the park's dwindling number of glaciers.

In Browning he met with tribal officials and noted the poverty and substance abuse on the reservation. He posted on his Facebook page about the need for better health care and for a government with checks and balances. Zuckerberg noted the tribe is building its buffalo herd and recently approved a compact that quantifies its water rights.

Associated Press
POLSON  A Polson man with a long criminal history was found guilty last week of raping a woman after breaking into her Polson home in the early morning hours of Sept. 17.

It was the second time in a month that Vaughn David James, 44, had been tried for sexual intercourse without consent in the case.

In June, James trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury after one juror was unable to vote to convict.

After dropping an aggravated burglary charge, the Lake County Attorneys Office re-filed the case that alleged a woman had awakened to find Vaughn on top of her last fall. Court documents said he used the threat of violence to keep her silent as he raped her.

Last weeks trial was held under heavy security. A seven-page order from District Judge Deborah Kim Christopher outlined restrictions on media coverage.

The order followed a request from James attorney for a change of venue due to previous media coverage and a Facebook campaign that called for a Justice for Women rally on July 12.

The webpage said, "This protest is to galvanize support for sexual assault victims and send a message to the jury of Vaughn James' sexual assault retrial that our community does not accept this behavior.

The judge ordered the county sheriffs office to escort the jurors on that day to a secure location in order to avoid the rally.

James sentencing has been set Aug. 24.

James was convicted in 1991 of robbery in Missoula County. In 1992, he was sentenced to Montana State Prison for 30 years with seven years suspended for three counts of theft, two counts of burglary and one count of robbery and conspiracy.

He was sentenced to a second 30 years with 22 years suspended in Lake County for criminal endangerment after being convicted of driving up to 100 mph on Montana Highway 35.

James was charged in 2011 with raping his friends sleeping girlfriend. A jury found him not guilty.

That case was filed just a day after a Lake County jury could not reach a verdict following a three-day trial on another rape charge against James that accused the man of entering a Pablo womans home at 4 a.m. and raping her.

James also faces a September trial for failing to register as a violent offender.
MISSOULA -- Gary Bevington, 73, of Missoula passed away on Thursday, July 6, 2017, of natural causes.

He was born on Feb. 3, 1944, in Fort Madison, Iowa, to Loyd and Jane. Growing up in Des Moines with siblings Lora and Kent, Gary exhibited two key traits that would characterize him for the rest of his life.

The first was his impressive memory. Even as a child, his family would quiz him on any number of subjects and Gary would often have the answers. Throughout his life, friends commented on Garys remarkable breadth of knowledge.

Garys second key trait was his profound love of learning languages. During high school, he managed to convince his Republican parents in Cold War-era Iowa to get him tutoring in Russian and Arabic. He would ultimately learn a total of 18 languages, with German as his favorite.

Garys interest in languages led him to undergraduate studies at Middlebury College in Vermont (class of 1966), and then a year of graduate study in Germany. His year in Germany had two major influences on his life. There he met his first wife, Patricia, and he developed an interest in the Albanian language.

The latter became the subject of his Ph.D. research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, completed in 1970. He then moved to the suburbs of Chicago to become a professor of linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University.

The 1970s were marked by the birth of Garys two children, Doug and Jill. Gary was an active and loving parent, and his children fondly remember how he would play folk songs on his guitar for them. Gary also enjoyed travel, international food, and hosting dinner parties for scholars from around the world.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Garys first marriage ended and he then married Em, a school teacher who shared his interest in languages and travel.

During a family vacation to Mexico, Gary developed an interest in the Mayan language of the native people in the Yucatan Peninsula. His language research led him to build a small cottage near the village of Coba where he would live for part of each year for much of the rest of his life. He ultimately became one of the foremost experts in Yucatec Maya and published a book titled Maya for Travelers and Students.

Gary also became interested in other Native American languages, learned Lakota (Sioux), and did supplemental teaching at the Native American Education Service College in Chicago.

In 1997, Garys wife, Em, suffered a traumatic brain injury that left it very difficult for her to develop new long-term memories, and she often forgot things within hours or even minutes. Over the next 19 years, Gary was her primary caregiver. In 1999, he retired from Northeastern University, and in the 2000s, Gary and Em moved to Missoula near Garys brother Kent, his wife Bobbie, and their daughters Gale and Robyn.

Gary very much enjoyed Missoula as a community that was welcoming and embraced diversity. He made friends in his Brookside neighborhood. He participated in the Missoula Senior Forum. He befriended Missoulas resident shepherd Enrique Marquez Banda. And he loved hiking in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area with his friend Ebrahim Mayahi.

In early 2016, his wife Em passed away. Later that year, Gary began a relationship with Ginny Therriault that would fill the final year of his life. Ginny shared his interest in Germany and Native American communities. They traveled together to California and visited Garys son Doug, his wife Shaye Wolf, and their daughter Alex. They also took a roadtrip to Ohio to see Garys daughter Jill, her husband Don Hartley, and their daughters Johari and Tullia.

In short, Gary had a full life and enjoyed it to the end.

Gary liked bringing people together from different walks of life for lively conversation and good food. In keeping with how Gary lived his life, there will not be a formal funeral service but instead will be a memorial gathering for his friends to enjoy each others company while remembering Gary. This event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 10, at 10:30 a.m. at Pineview Park in Missoula.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Fund for Wild Nature (fundwildnature.org/contribute.html) and/or the Raven Rocks environmental building (gofundme.com/yhnbcdx8) in Garys memory.
MISSOULA -- Karen Ann Reyner passed away peacefully in her home on Sunday, July 16, 2017.

Karen was born to Alpha and Ellis Reyner on Feb. 10, 1951, in Townsend. She spent many hours at her grandparents' ranch along the Jefferson River picking vegetables and playing with the cats, calves, chickens and pigs.

In 1958, Karen moved with her parents to Salinas, California. Her mother worked at the county courthouse and her father taught junior high school math.

Karen graduated from Salinas High School in 1969. In her second year at Hartnell College, she began dating Ed Coffman, a young man she had known since they were both in seventh grade. They married and moved to Missoula in 1971. Their first daughter, Wendy, was born in 1972.

Karen resumed her studies at the University of Montana, earning a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Special Education. She taught in Florence and substituted in Missoula District 1 before she and Ed purchased the Chimney Corner Restaurant in 1978. That same year, Karen and Ed welcomed a second daughter, Anji.

Karen and Ed ran the Chimney Corner together until Ed entered the real estate profession in 1983. Karen continued operating the restaurant until the lease ran out in 1991.

Shortly after closing the Chimney Corner, Karen joined Ed in real estate, a career she enjoyed immensely. Anji started working with Karen and Ed in 1998. Wendy owns a commercial cleaning company in Williston, North Dakota.

Karen quilted, created stained glass art, and cultivated a lifelong interest in reading. She also kayaked, canoed, rafted with her family, visited Canada and the Southwest numerous times, traveled to Tuscany, and stayed at her friends' beach house in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.

For 39 years, Karen took pleasure in walking the trails and roads of the Rattlesnake Valley, usually accompanied by Ed and one or more of the six English Springer Spaniels they looked after over the years.

Karen was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by Ed, Wendy, and Anji.

There will be no services at this time. Memorials may be made to the Lambros Community Foundation (3011 American Way, Missoula, MT 59808), which helps provide food, clothing and shelter to western Montanans in need.

Condolences may be left for the family at cremationburialsocietyoftherockies.com.
HELENA  Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said Tuesday he is forming a federal political action committee to allow him to travel and be a larger part of the national political conversation.

On Monday evening, the New York Times published a story saying the state's Democratic governor is taking "the first steps" toward a run for president in 2020, citing the PAC and statements made by Bullock at the National Governors Association gathering in Rhode Island last week.

I believe the time is right to lend my voice, the voice of someone that after getting elected has been able to govern in whats viewed as a red state, Bullock told the Times. Some of the things that Ive been able to do in Montana can also translate beyond just the states border.

Tuesday afternoon, Bullock said the PAC will allow him to "share Montana's story."

Montana has a story that Im asked more and more often about as far as how we treat one another with respect, we actually work together to get some things done, from health care to campaign finance transparency and other things, he told reporters. The ability to be part of that conversation, I think lending our voice is significant (and) there is no mechanism under state law to do so, so we formed that (federal) PAC both to help out some people and to help travel, (that) allows me to be part of that."

When asked if he would consider a run for president, Bullock said 2020 is a long, long way away. I have no idea what Ill be doing at that point.

Bullock is termed out from running for governor again after his current stint ends in 2020.

Bullock has gained attention as a more moderate Democrat in a state that voted for Republican President Donald Trump by 20 points. He narrowly won re-election against now-U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte last November. He came into the governorship following popular Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who had previously been named as a possible presidential candidate.

Democrats nationally have been trying to find ways to connect to voters in rural areas, where they did poorly in the last presidential election. Some pundits worry the party spends too much time on social issues that play well on the East and West coasts but not in middle America.

Montanas plain-spoken Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, a farmer from Big Sandy expected to face a tough re-election battle next year, has been held up as an example of the type of Democrat who can connect to rural areas.

I think nationally Democrats need to be showing up in places beyond just the coasts or the bright-blue areas,'' Bullock said Tuesday, sitting in his office in jeans with backpacking gear piled by the side of his chair.

"I think at times national Democrats write off a lot of the country. And even if you could win nationally doing so, thats not an effective tool for governing,'' he said. "So from that perspective Im hopeful as part of the conversation (to be) really saying every ZIP code matters. And it does, not just for winning elections but for governing afterwards.

Carroll College political science associate professor Jeremy Johnson said Democrats see a chance to take back the presidency in 2020 and he expects a crowded primary. He called Bullock an interesting possibility, but said its too early to judge how well hed perform.

Its interesting because its not clear exactly who is the ideal candidate for the Democratic Party. Bullocks strength is he got elected in a state where in presidential elections, its quite red. Its also a Western state where Democrats traditionally have more problems winning elections.

Bullock's interview with the Times took a jab at U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost his party's nomination in the presidential primary a year ago and is far more liberal than Bullock.

We can talk free college for all all we want, but theres a whole lot of people that can get a darn good job, like in Montana, out of an apprenticeship, Bullock told the Times. Free college was one of Sanders' key issues.

The governor also said he wants a bigger voice on the national stage to show the country civility in politics is still possible. Though the state has seen some of the most expensive and biting campaign attacks recently, including Bullocks run for governor last fall, the negative discourse here never rose to anything near the national level.

During the last legislative session, which wrapped up in April, several lawmakers in leadership positions congratulated the body on upholding decorum even as key infrastructure bills failed. The four months lawmakers were in town was not void of conflict, however, with Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary committee clashing regularly toward the end of the term.

By and large we have a model of civility and much more so than what we see at the national level, Bullock said.

After championing campaign finance reform in Montana, Bullock said PACs are necessary vehicles and allow for a degree of transparency in who is giving him money.

To be a part of that conversation needs some money and both the state and the federal PACs arent 501(c)4s, the dark money political efforts I fought so hard against, and it affords that opportunity for people to see who contributes.

Bullock is also forming a statewide PAC to work to elect people he says have the values and priorities of Montanans and who are willing to work with the governor to advance policy. Having lawmakers in the next legislative session, in early 2019, will be critical to continuing Medicaid expansion in Montana, another of the governor's hallmark efforts.

In 2015, state lawmakers passed a bill carried by a Republican that expanded Medicaid to cover the working poor in the state, but built in a clause that requires a vote to renew it in 2019. Both the federal House and Senate's versions of attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which provided extra federal money to expansion states, would have pulled back funding enough to end the programs here.

Though both federal bills are dead for now, they served to create a level of uncertainty about expansion funding in Montana and have some concerned the 2019 Legislature will end the program, which has covered nearly 80,000 statewide.

Im hopeful that in 2019 the Legislature will be folks that want to come together and solve problems and continue to move this state forward and make it better for the next generation, Bullock said. Thats one of the reasons Im also forming the Montanans Working Together PAC.
HAMILTON -- The Lolo Peak fire just west of Florence in the Lolo National Forest sent a plume of smoke into the air Monday that could be seen from U.S. Highway 93.

The fire was estimated at 15 acres, and a helicopter dumped buckets of water to help control its size and spread.

Despite 19 new fires on the Bitterroot National Forest in the last week, no new restrictions were in place Monday.

Greg Jacobson, an assistant fire management officer, told Ravalli County Commissioners this week that most of the new starts  mainly from lightning  are out, helped in part by the recent showers.

We have had enough moisture come through. Thats really helped us out, Jacobson said.

The majority of the wildfires were held to one-tenth of an acre. Eight firefighters are working on the White Cap fire, which is on 2.5 acres in the West Fork, and was expected to be contained Monday. Due to inaccessible terrain, the Bitterroot Forest is monitoring the 15-acre Vance Mountain fire in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho.

The terrain is too tough to put firefighters in there, Jacobson said, adding that while the Bitterroot Valley has been fairly lucky, neighboring forests are seeing more activity.

In Ravalli County and the Bitterroot Forest, the fire danger is rated high and a ban on open burning is in place.

In Missoula County, the fire danger is rated very high and it also has banned open burning. The area has had multiple grass fires, caused by lightning, which escaped initial attack last week. Some of those fires transitioned into the woods with rapid rates of speed, according to Chris Johnson with the Lolo National Forest, who added that fire danger there is approaching extreme.

Smoke in the Sapphire Mountains south of Skalkaho on Monday probably came from wildfires burning on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest 20 miles southwest of Philipsburg. The largest is the Whetstone Ridge fire at 371 acres, and was not contained.

In Victor, embers from a burn barrel with a screen on top started a multi-acreage fire between two residences on Saturday about 2 p.m. One of the homes was threatened by the flames as they burned through heavy duff and trees, but about 25 people from the Victor, Stevensville and Corvallis volunteer fire departments were able to knock down the blaze within half an hour. It took another three hours to put it out entirely.

While the burn ban covers and debris piles, slash piles, burn barrels, ditches and fields, small, recreational fires no more than 48 inches in diameter are allowed.

Still, Victor Fire Chief Scott Hackett said he hopes that people will think twice before lighting a fire, noting that winds in the Bitterroot can whip up quickly.

It is getting really dry out there and given the moisture this spring, there is a lot of fuel waiting for a spark to start a serious wildfire putting homes and people in danger, Hackett said. This goes to show that even burning in a barrel can get out of control quickly.
My disappointment with the Missoulian has been building for several months. The quality of the paper started to slip after Editor Sherry Devlin left. Succeeding editors have not corrected the issues, only making matters worse.

An article is nuanced in a way to make a positive person appear negative. Recently, Greg Gianfortes campaign news was generally front page, whereas Rob Quists campaign news was de-emphasized elsewhere.

Months of behavior, actions and statements by Gianforte revealed his clear lack of character. His support of publicly financed vouchers for private schools was a big red flag that he would not support public education. Yet you were sucker into believing that, in Congress, he would work to serve Montanans. You had to know that was untrue, yet endorsed a candidate who will persist in reflecting poorly on Montana.

How in the world is a multimillionaire going to understand how average Montanans, with annual incomes less than $35,000 a year, fair in day-to-day angst for health care, child education, etc. needs? He wont, nor will he care!

The editorial board, being educated, should have known this, and thus you let your readership down.

Jay Gore,

Missoula
In Can we save our melting planet? (July 17), George Ochenski asks politicians to either lead on climate change or get out of the way.

Promising to revive a coal industry already killed by market forces is a political pipe dream. Wind and solar are already cheaper than coal throughout much of the western United States and the price gap will continue to widen.

Wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind Americas has announced that it will train workers from coal, oil and gas industries to develop facilities in Wyoming.

Goldwind CEO David Halligan says that these workers "have skills that are transferrable to the wind industry" and that is why the company now offers free training to new employees displaced from the fossil fuel sector. This is no empty offer. Wind turbine technician is the fastest-growing occupation and will be hiring as fast as possible for many years to come.

Instead of fighting this trend, our leaders need to make sure that these emerging technologies will find the manpower they need. It will be easier to find the political will to transition to clean energy if workers threatened by technology change are confident that newer and better jobs await them.

Michael Segor,

San Luis Obispo, California
The only answer to our nation's health care woes is a single-payer system much like the ones in Europe and Canada. Two articles in the July 15 Missoulian make the obvious even more obvious.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana runs Montana's Medicaid expansion at present at a charge of about triple what it would cost if the state ran it.

Providence Health and Services, which owns St. Patrick Hospital, will be cutting costs "aggressively" and may be laying off some of the best and most compassionate people I have ever known. If you are truly ill, consider yourself blessed by God if you end of being treated at St. Pat's.

I've been watching for-profit greed exploit the sick my entire adult life. There is simply no moral justification for including money-making management in health care, as happens with Medicaid in Montana.

And there is no reason the best hospitals you will ever experience should be forced to cut back on compassion because our government in Washington prefers lavish lifestyles for its elected officials and lies to the public for caring for the sick.

There can be no compromise on this. The money-lenders must be thrown out of the medical temple.

Ed Chaberek,

Superior
Montana-based City Brew could soon add Butte to its portfolio of coffee house locations, so long as a developer on the project gets $75,000 from an economic development fund overseen by the county.

Representatives from Bridgewater LLC, a development company based out of Kalispell, will ask commissioners at their meeting Wednesday to allocate $75,000 from the Hard Rock Development Assistance Program to help offset the costs of engineering, demolition, and beautification plans for the project.

Hard rock money comes from a portion of taxes that mining companies pay in Montana. Locally, they can be used for a variety of economic development purposes, including diversifying the economy and attracting new businesses.

The proposed location for the new City Brew is at the site of the Sinclair gas station and Sunken Treasure Casino, 2902 Harrison Ave., south of the interstate and near Perkins Restaurant & Bakery.

Bridgewater plans to tear down the existing structure and casino and build a new 2,000-square-foot building, which means the company will need to remove the station's gas tanks and excavate the site to remove contaminated soils.

The project is estimated to cost $1.6 million, according to a budget submitted to the county.

James Williamson, a Bridgewater representative, said $1.6 million may seem like a hefty price tag but that a significant portion of the project's budget will go toward demolishing the existing gas station and cleaning the property of any petroleum contamination, which will cost the company around $74,400 and $17,500, respectively, according to the budget.

"It drastically increases the costs," said Williamson by phone Monday from company headquarters in Kalispell.

Williamson described the new City Brew as a "nice, new, modern-looking building," that would be an aesthetic upgrade for residents and motorists coming off the interstate.

In addition to the main 2,000-square-foot building, specs for the project include a drive-through, patio area, new parking lot, upgrades to landscaping, and modern signage.

Williamson said City Brew will lease the property from Bridgewater. The coffee house company launched in 1998 and has 24 locations in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota in addition to coffee kiosks that are spread out throughout the Midwest and eastern portion of the U.S.

Bridgewater's proposal to the county states that City Brews typically employ 24 to 27 people (including three to four full-time managers) and that employees working more than 32 hours per week qualify for health insurance. Similarly, the proposal estimates that the new City Brew could generate $17,000 in property taxes annually.

Jared Smith, a project manager for City Brew who described the coffee house chain as "an independent coffee company that has a pride for customer service" said he's been researching Butte for about six years for the company.

Smith said what makes the Sinclair an attractive location is its visibility from the interstate and the traffic volume on Harrison Avenue. He said a variety of businesses have set up shop on the west side of Harrison but that he believes City Brew can thrive on the east side.

"I think people will go where they're comfortable and the access is good," he said.

But the City Brew plan isn't a done deal yet.

Williamson explained that the plan comes with some contingencies, one of which is securing the Hard Rock money. Without the funds, Williamson said, the project would be too costly. Similarly, Bridgewater's proposal to the county states that "without the Hard Rock assistance, this redevelopment project becomes cost-prohibitive."

Terry Wadsworth, executive director for the Montana Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board, said that the owners of the property have applied for assistance from the board to aid in the cleanup of any petroleum contamination.

The owners' application has been approved by the board and they are eligible for up to $982,500 from the Petroleum Fund with a $17,500 copayment requirement. This eligibility would transfer to Bridgewater should the company purchase the property.
HELENA  Montana's Republican Sen. Steve Daines said Tuesday he would vote for a repeal of the health care law without a replacement, but later in the day even that plan appeared to be doomed.

"I would support a repeal," Daines said Tuesday morning. "We have a health care system in this country that is collapsing on the individual market and we have a health care system that is producing financial outcomes at the state government level that are not sustainable."

Daines voted for repeal before in a 2015 effort that was vetoed by former President Barack Obama.

But later Tuesday, three Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said they could not support a repeal without a replacement. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters later in the day he would still hold the repeal vote though it does not have enough support to pass. In 2015 the repeal attempt passed the Senate 52-47 but was was vetoed by former president Barack Obama.

"I didn't come to Washington to hurt people," Capito said.

Daines was one of seven Republican senators who had dinner with Republican President Donald Trump on Monday evening. The other senators include John Thune, of South Dakota; Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee; Roy Blunt, of Missouri; Richard Shelby, of Alabama; James Lankford, of Oklahoma; and John Cornyn of Texas.

"Health care was certainly part of that discussion," Daines said. "We talked about the need to get the economy growing again and tax reform. We talked about the concerns of the $20 trillion dollars of debt and the fiscal challenges we face as a nation and we also spent some time looking at how do we get Congress to act more quickly and efficiently."

After Daines and the other senators left the dinner, news broke that Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas would not support the Better Care Reconciliation Act and would not vote for a motion to bring the bill to the floor. It was Senate Republicans' most recent iteration of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Then, McConnell floated the repeal without replacement option.

On Tuesday morning, Daines said that while he supports a repeal, he wants to see Congress continue to focus on a replacement plan because of the possibility Montana ends its Medicaid expansion program in 2019, which could leave nearly 80,000 without insurance.

When the Montana Legislature passed the Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership in 2015, it included a sunset of 2019 to give lawmakers the option to assess how the law is working and vote to renew it. Aside from the state-imposed sunset, the Better Care Reconciliation Act gave states less money for expansion than under the Affordable Care Act, which would have also ended expansion.

Daines cited a story by the Associated Press than ran in papers around the state Tuesday quoting the state senator who carried the expansion bill voicing concern about its continuation.

"They promised that they would make it work," Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, told the Associated Press. "And if they don't, then the program needs to change, or there will be a great risk that it could go away."

Daines said that means Congress needs to act soon on a new health care bill.

"We don't have two years to wait to take action in terms of a replacement plan. We've got to provide a place for those who are on Medicaid expansion to land so they have health care coverage, they have options, they have choices if this Obamacare collapses. ... It's important we have a federal law that provides a place for these Montanans to land so they can still have access to affordable health care."

Daines said the "collapse" of exchanges that sell insurance will continue until there's a replacement.

"If we look at what's happening in Montana, which is similar to what we're seeing around the country with 133 percent increase in premiums, the poverty tax, that is the mandate where the IRS assesses a tax penalty on those who have not bought health care in Montana," he said.

In 2016, the three insurers that sell plans on the exchange in Montana proposed rate increases of from 20 percent to 62 percent on average. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana pitched increases from 40 to 108 percent, depending in the plan. About 85 percent of Montanans get a premium tax credit that offsets rate increases.

At the time, Blue Cross said the increase was needed because claims and health care costs have been higher than expected. The company collected $174.7 million in premiums for individual plans and paid out $220.6 million in claims in 2015 for a loss ratio of 126.3 percent, according to a rate change request summary.

This year Blue Cross proposed an average of 23.1 percent rate increase, while the Montana Health Co-Op proposed a 4 percent increase and PacificSource proposed for a 7.4 percent increase.

At the start of July during a health care forum in Helena, the CEO of one of Montana's largest hospitals said Republicans are are injecting instability into federal insurance marketplaces by suggesting lowering subsidies for people who buy coverage, calling the move a slick trick to ensure the failure of the exchanges.

All you have to do is threaten to defund the subsidies, Benefis CEO John Goodnow said. at a panel in Helena organized by the Montana Nurses Association to discuss the bill.

During a town hall conducted by phone last month, Daines told callers that in 2014 more than 30,000 Montanans were penalized by the IRS for not having health care. Daines said Montanans paid more than $7.8 million.

"Here's the shocking part of that data: 40 percent of those Montanans make incomes of less than $25,000 a year. This is a poverty tax put into place by Obamacare that needs to be replaced."

Critics of the data on fines, which was shared by several Republican senators in the past weeks, say that Medicaid expansion would have provided coverage to some of those who were fined and more updated data would show a decrease in fines.

The Montana Nurses Association criticized Daines' support of a repeal without a replacement and released the following statement Tuesday:

"Sen. Steve Daines made a conscious decision to leave Montana citizens behind. ... Proposing to repeal the law in any form without having an alternative health care plan to replace would destabilize our health care system and jeopardize lives across our state."

During the dinner with Trump, Daines said he and the six other senators had an hour-and-a-half discussion "across a wide range of topics."

The senator said he brought up the filibusterer rule in the Senate, something the president tweeted about Tuesday morning, saying: "The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!"

On Tuesday morning, Daines called the Senate rules "archaic."

"These are archaic rules from the past that are creating, are going to create barriers for the Senate to act on behalf of the American people. It is time tho blow up the filibuster. ... I was pleased to see the president tweet that out."

Daines also said Trump focused on increasing the pace at which Congress works.

"I think one of my other takeaways from dinner last night was President Trump wants to move at the speed of business, not at the speed of government. He wants to see results. ... Congress has to have the ability to walk and chew gum. We can do more than work on just one thing. We need to work on tax reform, we need to work on infrastructure, we need to work on sanctions against North Korea. There are a number of threats facing our nation, and we need to work on more than one thing."
University of Montana student Guthrie McLean has been detained in China in an apprehension his mother and a family friend are calling "a shakedown."

Chinese police arrested McLean on Sunday, July 16, but he has not been charged with a crime, said Jennifer McLean, his mother, in an email Tuesday. She is requesting diplomatic intervention.

"He is in one of the worst detention centers in China," wrote Jennifer McLean, who teaches in China. "There are no separate facilities for foreign detainees, and they can hold him indefinitely without charges.

"This is a shakedown. They brought him in and demanded money for his release."

A family friend, Tom Mitchell, Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times, said the arrest took place a few weeks after an altercation between the McLeans and a cab driver.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Tuesday the agency was aware of Guthrie McLean's detention but declined further comment.

"We are aware of media reports that a U.S. citizen was arrested in China," the spokesperson wrote. "When a U.S. citizen is detained overseas, the Department works to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."

***

In her email, Jennifer McLean said her son spent most of his childhood in China and earned an advanced diploma from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She said he transferred to Montana from a university in Dalian, China.

On May 24, Guthrie McLean left Montana on a bus to Seattle and flew into Zhengzhou on a U.S. passport, McLean said. She said Guthrie had planned to visit historical sites and a panda rescue center.

Mitchell, who has known the McLeans since 2001, provided a narrative of the events that led to Guthrie McLean's detention.

On June 10, a taxi driver returned Jennifer McLean to her residence in Zhengzhou in Henan Province, said Mitchell. He said she handed over Chinese currency of Renminbi 100 for a RMB 70 fare, but the driver refused to provide change.

He said McLean is deaf but reads lips and speaks softly.

"In the argument that followed, the driver started to rough up Jennifer," Mitchell said. "Guthrie came down from the residence, pulled the driver off Jennifer, and pushed him to the ground. Then they went back to their apartment."

On July 16, he said, the police arrived at Jennifer's apartment, took Guthrie to a station, and told him to pay the equivalent of $14,800 for the injuries the driver said he sustained.

"I'm sure it didn't take the police and taxi driver very long to realize Jennifer doesn't have much money, and their price came down to RMB 60,000 ($8,878), which Jennifer also doesn't have," Mitchell said in an email.

Guthrie McLean was detained overnight, formally arrested Monday, July 17, and transferred to a detention center, he said.

***

Jennifer McLean said she and her son both had to sign statements about the incident with the cab driver.

She said Guthrie McLean told her the authorities said he would go to jail if he didn't sign the statement because he would be interfering with an investigation, but said he could go home if he signed it.

After they gave their statements, she said she and her son were placed in a "listening room" where the authorities could record their conversation. She said they compared notes about the incident and talked about how to proceed.

"I asked to be excused to the ladies' room for a moment, and they assured me I could come back, but they lied, and they locked me out and made me leave," McLean said.

"They brought me there in a police car, and I didn't know where I was. I had to walk home, (and) I don't need to tell you I am a little wary of taking taxi rides alone at night these days, and it was nearing midnight."

Jennifer McLean said she has not been allowed to have any contact with her son since his apprehension.

"Only the U.S. Embassy or consulate representative may visit him, but they are refusing because they require a formal notification from the Chinese authorities to do so," McLean said in her email.

"They also refuse to speak with me about this situation because they require him to provide a privacy waiver first.

"So he is alone, scared, (and) has no idea what is going on."

Jennifer McLean said her son is an only child, and she is a single parent. She urged people to contact U.S. Sen. Jon Tester here and request action on her son's case.

Tester's press secretary Dave Kuntz said the senator acted on word of the detainment earlier this week as soon as he learned about the situation.

Senator Testers office was informed of this incident on Monday, and within minutes contacted the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in China," Kuntz said in an email. "Senator Tester is working closely and urgently with officials here and abroad to secure Mr. McLeans quick release and to safely resolve this matter.

***

Mitchell has requested that the U.S. Embassy in Beijing demand immediate visitation for Jennifer McLean, given its knowledge of her son's detention. He also said Guthrie McLean appears to be ensnared in a Catch-22.

According to an email he provided from the U.S. Embassy, Chinese authorities will notify the embassy or relevant U.S. Consulate when an American is arrested or detained in China. Once contacted, the embassy or consulate will work with Chinese authorities to set up a meeting with the American citizen and check on their welfare.

At the meeting, the consular officer will give the detained American the opportunity to sign a privacy waiver, which allows the officer to contact family and friends, the email said: "Without a signed Privacy Act waiver, the U.S. Embassy or Consulate cannot release any information regarding the detained individual."

Tester's office does not yet have assurance that the Chinese authorities have communicated with the U.S. Embassy. And the State Department spokesperson said the agency was not commenting due to privacy concerns.

Mitchell said he is worried the Zhengzhou police are deliberately stalling contact in an attempt to "shake down Jennifer." But he said she does not have a lot of money and her financial circumstances will make it difficult for her to pay for a lawyer.

"Today, the police lowered their 'settlement' price to RMB 50,000 ($7,400) and are pressuring her to pay up as soon as possible," he said.

***

Tuesday, Guthrie McLean should have been on his way to Sichuan to help take care of panda bears at a rescue center, Jennifer McLean said.

"He had been saving for that trip for quite a while," she said. "He was very excited about it."

Instead, Jennifer McLean said she took fresh clothing to the police station and police will take it to her son Thursday, "if they are to be believed."

She said her son's return to the United States to study at UM was a big event, and he has assimilated well despite being shy and sometimes getting tongue-tied.

UM said McLean is a senior enrolled in East Asian studies with a minor in media arts.

"He is what sociologists call a third culture kid (TCK), so part of a rising new phenomenon of a rapidly globalizing world," McLean said. "Of course he speaks English without a foreign accent, so people expected him to understand (jargon), so that led to some confusion.

"He loves Montana, especially the wildlife and mountains."

She said her son's return ticket is for Aug. 29.
MUSCATINE  Sarah Garvin was at the Starbucks drive-through last week when she saw it  a canary yellow rock with pink and aquamarine polka dots by the tip jar. It said, Muscatine Rocks!

Her first thought was, We made it.

She quickly snapped a photo and uploaded it to her Facebook group, Muscatine Rocks captioning it with FOUND ONE!

It was the first time she came across a real-life product of the online community she created.

Garvin started the group back in May as a project for her family and friends. The rules of the project are simple: Find a small rock, paint it with a positive message and leave it somewhere public where someone else can find it. Garvin painted and dispersed some rocks with her 4 year old son around the time she created the group, but she hasnt since.

It didnt matter. The group took off on its own, drawing more than 100 people as of Tuesday afternoon. Garvin said she didnt expect the group to become popular. But the simplicity of the exercise struck a chord with people.

I think theres a lot of stressful stuff going on in peoples lives and this is something that is stress-relieving, she said. People have already posted that its become addicting in a way because it is. Its just a focused creative activity where theres no boundaries. Theres no rules other than just be positive.

The first rock

Garvin said she got the idea from another rock-based online community, whose members live around St. Petersburg, Florida.

This is a community-building group meant to inspire creativity in all ages and energize people to explore the beautiful area we live in, wrote the organizers of the 20,000-plus member group.

Hundreds of similar online communities have formed all over North America, with a handful in Iowa, around Des Moines and Ames. But they all started from an idea one woman had.

Her name is Megan Murphy, and she lives in Cape Cod. She started dropping painted rocks at Cape Cod in December 2014. The following spring, she began posting photos of her rocks on social media. The idea spread from there, first in her own network and then to people she didnt know. Social media groups quickly followed, with the first groups forming in Virginia. Later, when the idea spread across the country, Murphy created a website, The Kindness Rocks Project.

And though shed never been to Muscatine, Murphys idea found its way to Muscatine by a way of the Internet.

From one to many

Part of the allure of the rocks is in the manufactured mystery they create. People who leave rocks for others to find often wonder who will encounter their offering. And, of course, those who find the rocks wonder about their origin.

Garvin said those thoughts figured into her decisions on where to leave the rocks. When she walked by Grant Elementary, for example, she decided to leave rocks there.

I just imagine some elementary kid took it and said, this is just a cool rock and its in a bedroom somewhere by their night lamp, she said.

That excitement connects strangers, and is perhaps the reason why the rock project became so popular, or "went viral. Jan Lauren Boyles, assistant professor at Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, studies the way ideas spread online.

While there is not a magical formula for creating a post that goes viral, there are a few characteristics that viral content tends to share. It's often emotionally engaging and/or practically meaningful to a wide-ranging audience, she wrote in an email.

Spreading positivity

Emotions drew Tammi Clark, who lives in Muscatine, to the rock project. She first heard about the project online. Last month, she found her way to the Muscatine group. Since then, she has amassed an impressive collection of pens, paints and rocks. Shes painted about 20 already and has left 10 of them around town.

The project gives her a small, tangible way to do good in the world, and particularly in Muscatine.

Too many people see the negativity anymore, she said. Were always out to judge the negative, but not very many are seeing the positive and we need more of that  especially in our town.

And it helps her feel good about herself in the process.

I dont know what drew me to it, she said. I think the main thing is, I have depression and so I think if I was having a bad day and I were to find this rock that that says laugh often or if I found the one that says smile or the one I just made today that says be happy it probably would make me smile and would cheer me up.
MUSCATINE  At a Muscatine County Conservation Board meeting Monday night, members said it is likely they will move forward with plans to build a public shooting range.

Conservation Board Chair Deb Elliot said the board, as well as the zoning commission, will consider residents' concerns about the proposed range and possibly amend the design plans.

The shooting range, which would be built off 170th Street and Jasper Avenue, has worried some nearby residents, who claim it would be a safety and environmental hazard.

Conservation Board Director Curt Weiss said plans for the $150,000 range have been developed over the course of about a decade, and include environmental studies and trips to similar shooting ranges for safety advice.

Proposed range would be longest in the area

Weiss said having a county-owned shooting range in Muscatine would draw shooters from surrounding communities, especially because it would allow target practice with rifles.

The proposed range would have a 25-yard range for pistols, plus a 200-yard maximum range for rifles. Weiss said this would be the longest range in the area, but most visitors would likely be interested in the shorter-distance ranges for pistol shooting.

Currently, there is a privately-owned indoor range, Shooting Stars, and a range operated by the Izaak Walton league in Muscatine, as well as other ranges in Letts, West Liberty, Milan and Blue Grass.

Linn County Park Ranger Aaron Batchelder, said the county-owned range Matsell Bridge has a 200-yard range, and it is used more often than the other distances.

Steve Rundall, with the West Liberty Gun Club, said its range has a 100-yard distance for rifles. He said long-distance shooters would probably prefer 500 or 700-yard ranges over a 200-yard range.

It would be built in a floodplain

Weiss said it took several years for the county to receive permission from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other environmental agencies to propose building a shooting range in the area west of the Cedar River.

The land was provided to the county by FEMA after the 2008 flood clean-up, and was recently approved for a shooting range.

The land is near a levee district along the Cedar River, which is set up to prevent flooding. Nearby residents, including Jesse Shields, said the levee has broken multiple times, including most recently last September.

Residents worry the land, and nearby roads, will continue to flood, making it an inappropriate place for a shooting range. Some argue if the shooting range were to flood, lead shots would be carried into the Cedar River.

Weiss said the range will be built "with the idea that it will flood."

The design includes culverts on the sides of the range so water will flow out of the area.

It is the only county-owned land deemed appropriate for the range

Weiss said the county has examined every other county-owned site to determine if it would accommodate a shooting range, but only the land off 170th Street is appropriate.

Some areas, such as the Pike Run Wildlife Area and the Richardson Wildlife Area, were purchased with wildlife habitat funding, which is supposed to be used for public hunting or other recreation, but not a shooting range, according to Weiss.

Other areas were purchased with federal funds and also are not intended for a gun range. And a shooting range, according to Weiss, would go against the wishes of the donor who gifted the county with Deep Lakes Park.

He said the land proposed for the range is the only county-owned area that fits all the needs of a shooting range.

Plans are not set in stone

While the conservation board said it will likely keep pursuing a public shooting range, Weiss said many aspects of the range are yet to be determined.

For example, the hours of operation have not been decided upon. Weiss said it is possible the range would be open sunrise to sunset. Some ranges, such as the one owned by Linn County, have different hours depending on the time of year, and close for about two months in the winter.

Weiss said supervision of the site is still being considered. Right now, plans are to have conservation staff and someone from the sheriff's office visit the site at times throughout the day.

Safety provisions also are in the works, including a 20-foot-high backstop and 10-foot-high side berms. Weiss said the conservation board is considering adding roof shelters to prohibit visitors from shooting above the berms, but it would be costly.

The conservation board is considering residents' complaints, including the range being in close proximity to several houses. While visitors would shoot in an eastward direction, Shields argued his house, which is less than a mile northeast of the site, would be in danger of stray bullets. The board said it will consider the location of his home in future plans.

Along with a possible redesign of the public shooting range, Weiss said the county is awaiting approval from the DNR.
Editor's note: This is one of a series of essays on contemporary environmental controversies.

U.S. Senate votes unanimously to approve treaty to control climate change. This sounds like a headline that would be called fake news today. Yet this is exactly what happened on March 14, 1988.

Climate change is a political lightning rod. It seems to be an issue that divides an issue about which there can be no coming together to explore alternatives and craft solutions. It doesnt need to be this way. We have an example from recent history that illustrates the wisdom and practicality of working together to deal with global scale problems. Lessons have been learned and we need to keep them front and center as new and increasingly severe climate change symptoms emerge.

The stratosphere encircling the planet contains a layer that is rich in ozone. This gaseous chemical acts as a shield absorbing ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. This protects the earth and the creatures living on it from the biologically harmful effects of this radiation, the most prevalent of which is an increase in skin cancer.

In the 1970s, it was discovered (in Noble Prize winning research) that the ozone layer was thinning as a result of human activity. Lesson No. 1: Climate change is more than global warming. Aerosol sprays and refrigerants used in air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances were identified as the culprits responsible for the ozone depletion.

In 1978, a remarkably short period of time later, the United States, Canada and Norway enacted bans on the use of chlorofluorocarbons as the propellant in aerosol sprays. The rest of the world joined the cause. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted by 197 parties. It was the first universally ratified treaty in United Nations history. Lesson no. 2: The United States can lead the world on climate remediation.

The Montreal Protocol is the treaty that was unanimously adopted by the U.S. Senate. President Ronald Reagan vigorously supported the measure domestically and abroad. Lesson no. 3: Climate change need not be a politically partisan issue.

We are now beginning to see some recovery of the ozone layer. The intent of the Montreal Protocol was to return it to 1980 levels of UV protection by 2050 and we are making progress toward that goal. Lesson no. 4: It takes a long time to fix a global system.

Phasing out ozone depleting aerosols and refrigerants is seen as a success story in climate manipulation. The U.S. Environmental Protection agency, in a 2015 report estimated that protection of the ozone layer would prevent 280 million cases of skin cancer, 1.5 million skin cancer deaths, and 45 million cataracts.

Unfortunately, this was not the final chapter of the story. The replacement chemical widely adopted as a refrigerant does not damage the ozone layer but has been discovered to be a powerful greenhouse gas. We solved one problem but in so doing exacerbated the problem of greenhouse gas that is responsible for retaining solar energy in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Lesson no. 4: Unintended consequences happen. They can be fixed.

Work on this problem continues with little fanfare but with a remarkable level of international cooperation. In October 2106, after seven years of negotiations, the Kigali (Rwanda) accords to the Montreal protocol were adopted by more than 190 nations. It is not yet clear if the Senate will need to formally ratify this treaty.

The Kigali agreement specifies a new replacement refrigerant that does not deplete the ozone layer and does not act as a greenhouse gas. Around the world, nations, private corporations and individuals are already working on the next generation of appliances and refrigerants necessary to comply with the latest protocols.

Is this the final chapter? Probably not. There will be additional problems along the way and new issues that we havent yet identified. However, this is an example of global cooperation and persistence to work toward identifiable and achievable goals. Lesson no. 5: Climate change solutions are possible.
Its been said that when an old person dies, its like a museum burning down. How true. I never thought much about that until the past few years when both of my parents, several relatives, and many elderly friends have died. They have taken a lifetime of experiences and memories with them to the grave, never sharing many of their stories.

Being somewhat of a history buff, and always interested in the experience of others, I am saddened when I hear of a death, not just because I will miss their friendship, but it truly is like a museum burning down.

If I could repeat the past few decades, I would interview many people who are now deceased. I would ask them questions about their childhood, faith, fears, hopes, dreams, disappointments, and encourage them to share memorable stories and experiences.

My 98 year old aunt is my last living relative of that generation. She continues to live an active social life and her mind is exceptionally sharp. She had a hip replacement in June and came through it with flying colors. We see her frequently and often ask questions about her long life and then sit back and listen. Over the years, weve learned about her childhood on the farm, how her mother sold her wedding ring so the farm wouldnt be repossessed during the Great Depression, her college days, early years of marriage, her 40-plus year career as a music educator, her many trips abroad, and her decades of volunteer service. The conversations are fascinating and our mental notes are often written in hard copy. I dont want this museum to burn down until Ive had a chance to savor all of the contents.

Everyone, no matter their education, career, or lifes accomplishments, has a story to tell. For the older generation, please jot these memories down or, better yet, have someone capture your mental museum on an audio recording or a DVD. You have a goldmine of information to share. For the younger folk, select older relatives or friends and encourage them to share their stories with you.

I treasure a video recording of my mother on her 90th birthday as she spent almost two hours sharing dozens of memories and stories of her life. The video was duplicated and given to her children and grandchildren. In 2007, my mother died at age 95 but that priceless video is safely stored in a fire proof cabinet.

By tapping these museums, there is an irreplaceable legacy that is passed on through the generations. Dont let these museums burn down without exploring and enjoying their contents.
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
A security officer who was fired for making Fred Matiangi queue for a security check has increased her compensation demands to Sh40.9 Million.

Daizy Cherogony was sacked by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) for allegedly mistreating and humiliating the acting Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Internal Security.

Her employment was terminated on May 11, 2017 on grounds of misconduct.

Through Matundura Advocates, Ms Cherogony, 37, wants the court to compel Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to compensate her, explaining that she is entitled to damages for wrongful dismissal and unfair termination of employment.

In her amended memorandum of claim filed at the Nyeri Labour Court, Daizy wants Sh128,916 for payment in lieu of notice monthly salary, Sh1,547,001 for wrongful termination and Sh116,720 for unpaid salary increment as per the collective bargaining agreement.

She is also seeking a house allowance increment payment of Sh60,000, Sh43,137 for leave, Sh545,380 for unpaid holidays, Sh2,965,068 for punitive, exemplary and aggravated damages for loss of career prospects and Sh35,580,816 damages for loss of employment up to retirement age of 60 years.

She initially wanted Sh2.4 million compensation.

The case will be mentioned on September 19, 2017.
Kenyan songbird Avril has hit back at Tanzanian artist AT who threw shade by claiming that she is fake and talentless.

The little-known artist was speaking to Clouds FM last week when he made the sensational claims. He said he traveled to Kenya in 2010 and recorded a song at Ogopa Studios.

He was, however, disappointed with Avrils contribution and had to look for another artist to replace her.

Read: Tanzanian Artist Blasts Kenyas Avril as Fake and Talentless

In response, Avril denied having any knowledge of AT and questioned why it has taken him so long to make the claims.

Asked whether shes going to take legal action, she told Word Is: It doesnt make sense to follow up on somebody who is a nobody.
A man who came to the rescue of an injured street child in Nairobi is the darling of Kenyan social media.

Kevin Kelly Kisuza was snapped attending to the young boy and the photos shared on social media platforms.



Speaking to NairobiNews, Kevin said he was crossing Moi Avenue while coming from the side of the August 7th memorial park when he saw the boy fall.

I rushed to the pavement and found that he had sustained a cut on his forehead after falling down and hitting a rock, recalled Kevin.

He immediately called the ambulance crew who rushed the boy to the hospital.

The crew took the boy to Kenyatta National Hospital where I can confirm that he was treated and discharged as per my follow up this morning(Monday), he said.

The 27-Year-Old noted that the boy looked hungry and dehydrated which he suspects could have led to him collapsing.

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He added that the incident was not an isolated case as he has on several occasions attended to victims.

I have on several occasions asked the driver to pull over so that I can attend to victims and I only leave the scene after I ensure they are in safe hands even if it means having to catch another bus home, he said.

He said a grisly road accident he was involved in in 2008 prompted him to take up a career as a medic.

I was in a grisly road accident back in 2008 at Migori and it was my experience then that prompted me to make this my career. We were handed by untrained passersby who could not know how well to ensure our safety. I had sustained serious injuries and broke by limb and it was after recovering that I decided to become a medic and help people.

I am working on a project that will equip boda boda operators and even common wananchi with the basics to ensure they can save lives in such cases as they wait for our services. These are usually first on the scene and it is important that they know the basics so as not to make injuries worse as they wait for professionals, said Kevin.

Kevin, who has worked for the Redcross for four years, advises that every Kenyan memorizes the societys emergency numbers, 0700395395, 0738395395 in case of an emergency.
If youre having difficulties finding unga on supermarket shelves, perhaps you should blame Canada. The subsidized flour has been elusive for many weeks, an now we think we know why.

At Sh90, many businessmen have been accused of hiking this price. Apparently, they repackage it in clear papers and sell it in villages and small towns at a very high mark up. But I have to admit, the profit margin in this shop in Canada is out of this world.

Chakula Tamu is an grocery shop in Toronto, Canada, specializing in East African foods. Its target market is mostly the Kenyans living there.

Somehow, the proprietor got a hand of the subsidized government flour (Which he/she shouldnt because the shortage is in Kenya not Canada).

To get a commodity from Nairobi to Toronto, you will have to cover thousands of miles and one or two oceans. Obviously, this will push up the price of whatever you are exporting.

But for unga to move from Sh90 to Sh1150, [conversion from 14 Canadian Dollars] well, thats what I call daylight robbery. Too bad the residents there have no option, unless they can fly in the unga themselves.

And the customers there look happy enough to pay that price, going by these pictures.

Away from the unga, does Miguna Miguna have an undeclared brother in Canada?

Photos courtesy
Two people were on Sunday allegedly shot by bodyguards attached to Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko.

The victims suffered bullet injuries in the thigh and arm after chaos erupted at Vumilia village in Nairobis Outering Road.

They are admitted to Mama Lucy Kibaki hospital.

Nairobi DCI chief Nicholas Ireri Kamwende said police are investigating the incident with an aim of taking action.

Detectives also suspect the bodyguards could be those attached to Embakasi East Jubilee MP candidate Francis Mureithi who was also at the event.

Sonko and Mureithi were on a campaign trail in the area and had stopped to distribute handouts when the fracas broke out.

The two victims were among hundreds of youth who had attended the political event.

Sonkos running mate for the Nairobi gubernatorial race Polycarp Igathe has dismissed the allegations.

Those are detractors. Let them leave us to do our work, said the deputy governor candidate.
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.
Theres a good chance that using union dues for politics will become harder within a year or two and, one thing for sure: big labor will not easily accept that kind of new reality.

Three times in the past 15 years, ballot initiative campaigns led by conservative Republicans tried unsuccessfully to truncate the power and influence of Californias labor unions, both public employee organizations and others.

Paycheck protection was the label applied to those efforts, which sought to prevent unions from using dues money raised via automatic payroll deductions for political purposes. The most recent such effort, in 2012, looked to force unions to get authorization each year from each member before their dues money could be used for candidate contributions, canvassing for votes or circulating initiative petitions.

Labor unions pushed back each time, claiming that if paycheck protection ever becomes law, the political playing field will be tilted strongly to the right, with the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision allowing almost unlimited contributions from billionaires and businesses, while unions would have one hand tied behind their backs.

The union arguments prevailed politically, but conservatives did not give up. Rather than appeal to voters, since 2012, theyve tried to convince judges.

They came very close to winning this long-running battle last year, when the case of Friedrichs vs. the California Teachers Association. (CTA), taking the name of Orange County schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs, a dues-for-politics opponent, was turned down on a 4-4 U.S. Supreme Court vote soon after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Now, the high court may be about to take up a similar case from Illinois, and with new Justice Neil Gorsuch expected to join the panels four previous conservative judges in backing paycheck protection, the idea might win.

At least in California, unions are not taking this lying down. One huge public employee union is about to hike the fees it charges members who dont want to fund its political advocacy. Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union, state governments largest union, is raising the minimum amount of dues it charges those employees by 6 percent, or about $5 per month each.

The increase comes under a state law allowing unions to charge employees who are not full members for legal and bargaining expenses run up for the sake of workers.

At the same time, the CTA  by far the states largest teachers union and a major political factor for decades  got its friends in the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown to back two state budget trailer bills requiring school districts, cities, counties and other government agencies to give unions representing their workers regular chances to meet and sign up new members.

The unions realize that unless they do something, their membership and influence will decline sharply as many conservative-leaning union members  long forced to pay for labors political advocacy whether they like it or not start opting out if paycheck protection becomes federal law. Some estimates put possible union losses between 20 percent and 40 percent of their current political revenues  unless they recruit heavily.

But school districts and other agencies will have the right to negotiate terms of those union recruiting meetings. This may delay their start indefinitely or cause them to be very brief.

Union fears were well expressed the other day by Joshua Pechthalt, president of the states second-largest teacher union, the California Federation of Teachers, who told a reporter that Anything to mitigate a loss of membership would be helpful. He added that if paycheck protection becomes law, Our world will change dramatically. (So) having time to talk about what we do, who we arewill become doubly important.

One group that could opt out en masse of all so-called agency fees, the dues charged now to employees who dont actually belong to unions that bargain for them, is part-time teachers at community colleges and California State University campuses.

For sure, California has a lot riding on the likely new Supreme Court case. But whatever happens, dont expect unions to accept it meekly. The new meet-and-greet law is likely only their first move toward retaining and possibly expanding their current powerful role.
BERKELEY -- Two University of California at Berkeley students have been charged with felony vandalism for allegedly spray-painting graffiti against police officers and white people near the university's campus recently, prosecutors said.

Berkeley police said the graffiti that allegedly was painted by Ismael Chamu and Peter Estrada, both 21, who also are charged with misdemeanor possession of tools to commit vandalism or graffiti, was found on June 28 on people's cars and fences in areas south of the university's main campus.

More specifically, Sgt. Peter Hong wrote in a probable cause declaration that the graffiti was found at a university dormitory at Durant Avenue and Dana Street, at the Clark Kerr Campus, in the 2400 block of Hillside Avenue, a fraternity house in the 2400 block of Prospect Street and the 2400 block of Durant Avenue.

Additional graffiti was found in the 2500 block of Dana Street, the 2500 block of Dwight Way, at Dana and Haste streets and at Haste and Ellsworth streets, Hong wrote.

Among the messages were "F--- White People," "F--- the police," "F--- frat Boys," "Kill Cops" and "Kill Yuppies," "Eat the Rich," "Class War" and "Black Lives Matter," Hong wrote.

The graffiti also contained many messages about Philando Castile, a black man who was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota last year, according to Hong.

A judge signed warrants for Chamu and Estrada on July 7 and Chamu was arrested at his recently acquired apartment in San Francisco on Thursday and Estrada was arrested at his apartment near the UC Berkeley campus on Friday, Hong wrote.

Chamu refused to speak to officers and invoked his right to an attorney, according to Hong.

Chamu's Facebook page included many messages that "were consistent with the graffiti messages," such as "f--- the police, rebellion, Black Lives Matter, God Bless Antifa, White Nationalism and supremacy, tech development and its negative impact on Black and Brown bodies," Hong wrote.

At Estrada's home, officers found many items belonging to Chamu, as well as many others related to anarchism and anti-fascism, according to Hong.

Hong wrote, "Estrada had numerous stickers and literature, but several were notable in their messages: Antifas with the Adidas brand symbol, Defending Our Hoods with a picture of a knife, Die Techie Scum, Attack White Supremacy, and Attack the Police which were consistent with the graffiti messages."

Estrada also declined to speak with police and asked for an attorney, according to Hong.

Berkeley police recommended that Chamu and Estrada be charged with hate crimes, but the Alameda County District Attorney's Office didn't file those charges against them.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said, "After careful and thorough review, the charges filed against the two defendants were in line with what the evidence shows us."

Chamu and Estrada were scheduled to appear in Alameda County Superior Court this morning to be assigned attorneys and possibly enter pleas.
If you want to understand white evangelicalism in the age of Trump, you need to know Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas.

Jeffress is not a household name in the United States, known mainly in Southern Baptist circles. But he has recently gained national attention as a "court evangelical" - my term for a Christian who, like the attendants and advisers who frequented the courts of monarchs, seeks influence through regular visits to the White House.

The court evangelicals are changing the religious landscape in the United States. The Trump presidency is only six months old, but it is already beginning to alter long-standing spiritual alignments. It seems as though Christians are not changing Trump, but rather that Trump could be changing Christianity.

Historians will write about this moment in terms of both continuity and change. On one hand, court evangelicals are part of a familiar story. For nearly half a century, evangelicals have sought to influence the direction of the country and its laws through politics. But Trump has forced them to embrace a pragmatism that could damage the gospel around the world, and force many Christians to rethink their religious identities and affiliations.

The court evangelicals have befriended Trump as a way to win his approval and advance their agenda of making the United States a Christian nation. If Trump believes in their agenda, he has done little to prove it. He does not attend church regularly and his references to Christianity are mostly scripted political talking points.

The court evangelicals have largely turned a blind eye to Trump's indiscretions. When he recently made disparaging remarks about MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, they were mostly silent. Only Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the world, made a public statement about the tweet. He told Fox News Channel that when Trump "hits them back on Twitter I actually appreciate that."

Over the Fourth of July weekend, court evangelicalism was on full display in Washington, during a Kennedy Center event honoring veterans. Sounding like a 17th-century Puritan delivering a jeremiad calling the new Israel back to its spiritual roots, Jeffress described Trump as a messianic figure whom God had raised up to save the United States from spiritual ruin. Jeffress said, "but in the midst of that despair came November the 8th, 2016, and that day . . . God declared that the people, not the pollsters, were going to choose the next president of the United States."

Historians can trace the court evangelical phenomenon to the early 1970s, when the popular evangelist Billy Graham remained loyal to President Richard Nixon, to quote biographer Grant Wacker, "long after most Americans smelled a rat." When Nixon resigned in shame, Graham was embarrassed. He admitted that "Nixon's magnetism clouded his judgment." In 1993, Graham "urged young evangelists to avoid his mistake."

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan appealed to evangelical concerns about big government, the threat of communism and legalized abortion. Christian political movements such as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition educated an entire generation of evangelicals to believe that Christian political engagement was tied solely to electing Republican politicians and controlling the Supreme Court.

Very few evangelicals criticized these efforts to advance a Christian agenda through politics; those who did could not compete with the economic prosperity and Cold War victories that Reagan delivered. But some who rode this wave of evangelical political power had a hard time sleeping at night.

In 1999, two architects of the Moral Majority - Michigan pastor Ed Dobson and syndicated columnist Cal Thomas - published "Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?" As they reflected on 20 years of their own political activism, Dobson and Thomas concluded that the movement to change the world through politics had failed. All that was left in the wake of a generation of political crusading was a cast of characters who had succumbed to the "aphrodisiac" of power and had sacrificed their spiritual authority in the process.

Around the time Dobson and Thomas published their book, the Christian Right was mobilizing against the many infidelities of Bill Clinton. James Dobson (no relation to Ed), a popular radio host known best for founding the Colorado Springs ministry Focus on the Family, chided Clinton for his adulterous affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and argued forcefully, in a September 1998 letter to supporters, that Clinton did not deserve evangelical support because he was a liar, immoral, lacking in character and motivated by "raw political power."

Today Dobson, the man most responsible for promoting the long-standing GOP "family values" agenda, supports Trump. At one point in his 1998 letter Dobson wrote, "Yes, the [moral] rules have changed for the President." Indeed they have.

The court evangelicals' allegiance to Trump is taking them into a new and dangerous place. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush (who famously claimed that Jesus was his favorite philosopher) had their flaws, but they were both men of character who possessed a respect for the history and integrity of the office of the president. When they were tested - Reagan in the fight against communism, and Bush during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - they responded with moral courage and leadership for the whole country.

Trump is different.

His campaign and presidency has shed light on a troubling wing of American evangelicalism willing to embrace nationalism, populism, fear of outsiders and anger. The leaders of this wing trade their evangelical witness for a mess of political pottage and a Supreme Court nomination.

Not all evangelicals are on board, of course. Most black evangelicals are horrified by Trump's failure to understand their history and his willingness to serve as a hero of the alt-right movement.

The 20 percent of white evangelicals who did not vote for Trump - many of whom are conservative politically and theologically - now seem to have a lot more in common with mainline Protestants. Some in my own circles have expressed a desire to leave their evangelical churches in search of a more authentic form of Christianity.

Other evangelicals are experiencing a crisis of faith as they look around in their white congregations on Sunday morning and realize that so many fellow Christians were willing to turn a blind eye to all that Trump represents.

If the court evangelicals were students of history, they have learned the wrong lesson from evangelical political engagement of the 1970s and 1980s. Trump's presidency - with its tweets and promises of power - requires evangelical leaders to speak truth to power, not to be seduced by it.
If you missed Robert Wilkinson's "response" ("Just Because Government Says So," July 13) to my letter of July 11, don't fret. You can get the full effect of what he wrote by simply putting on your ruby slippers and clicking your heels together three times, repeating to yourself, "There's no place like Fox News."

It might be satisfying for him to realize that, beyond avoiding the main issues of my letter -- which involved the potential cost to the nation of Mr. Trump's lack of character and basic honesty -- his response powerfully mirrors the bluster, the false equivalencies, the confusing word salads that are so favored by Mr. Trump. For me, it's just kind of depressing. It's a perfect demonstration of the blind-eyed, plug-your-ears-and-la-la-la-la, that Trump supporters have become so famous for.

Why should Mr. Wilkinson bother to engage the actual issues I presented, when he can indulge his special fascination with Maxine Waters? (We really need to talk about that one, Mr. Wilkinson. Really.)

Indeed, if Mr. Wilkinson's ability to marshal coherent lines of discussion is any indication, it is a good thing he isn't responsible for Google maps. You might start out driving up Highway 1 and end up in Bakersfield.

Yet out of curiosity, I confess to spending some time trying to look beyond the erratic and fractured reasoning, the mangled syntax, the repetitiveness, in order to discover the gist of his message. I got black lung in the process of mining his prose, but I believe I identified the heart of it. And--what a surprise--it comes complete with a full vein of irony.

My letter contended that one of the worst aspects of Trump's dishonesty is his attempt to sow doubt about the integrity of many American institutions and agencies, principal among them the intelligence community. Trump does this not because he hates the CIA and FBI per se, but because their reporting of Russia's efforts to sway the election toward Trump casts doubt on the validity of his presidency.

Mr. Wilkinson is a perfect example of someone who has gone for Trump's dissembling hook, line, and sinker. He has swallowed the whole fishing pole. He thinks the "Deep State" is pulling a fast one. Those cunning, villainous agencies are lying about this story. He wants to see proof of Russia's hacking of the 2016 election, saying that it can "easily be provided to the American people without giving away sources and methods." I'm sure Mr. Wilkinson will, in a spirit of patriotism, offer his services as a high level IT expert to make this happen.

The truth is, it is unlikely the proof can be spelled out without revealing sources and methods. And beyond that, it is unlikely, were those to be provided in detail, that many of us would understand the technical bits. But our enemies' experts certainly would. So do we trust our public servants, our agents and administrators, many of whom risk their lives for U.S. security? Or do we trust the guy who believes Obama was born in Kenya, who insists that 3 million illegal votes were cast in the last election, and who says he's going to give every citizen the best and least-expensive health care ever?

Let me be totally clear. None of this is harmless. Trump might seem funny until you realize that our society's values and traditions and institutions are at stake here, and that this kind of unhinged, know-nothing, paranoid blather from Mr. Wilkinson or Fox News or anyone else -- including Donald Trump -- is at best un-patriotic and at worst a shot to the heart of our way of life. Hardly an appropriate price to pay to protect Trump's fragile ego.

Last, but very much not least, it becomes brutally embarrassing for Mr. Wilkinson when he begins to rant about the Trump/Russia investigation as a "witch hunt," and how after a year there is no proof of collusion.

Anyone who has seen any news in the last week is aware of the blistering revelations about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in June of 2016, specifically to gather damaging information about Clinton. No point in re-hashing the damning details of the situation. But, um, Mr. Wilkinson? I would sincerely hope that very soon you will take it upon yourself to break the spell and actually wake up. See Trump as the dangerous, mendacious huckster he really is, and denounce him. Maybe we can talk when Donald Jr. gets his prison sentence.

And here I thought Michael Flynn would be the first to be sentenced. All bets are off on that one.

Paul Moser

Napa
Tuesday, July 11

1017 -- A business at Adams/Railroad reported that a suspicious customer just stole a pair of Gucci sunglasses and lenses. He was described as a white man, about 5 feet 2 inches, with light blond buzzed hair, wearing a black graphic T-shirt and thick denim shorts.

1500 -- Non-injury accident involving a parked car on Vintage Avenue.

1525 -- A rental car company said a St. Helena resident had rented a car on May 12. It was due back on June 26, but the company hasnt been able to contact the customer.

1736 -- A resident reported finding a suspicious black garbage bag in the bed of Sulphur Creek near Valley View on Sunday.

1846 -- A laptop was reported missing. It was last seen at Oak/Adams on July 7.

2137 -- Following a traffic stop near Main/Charter Oak, police arrested a 32-year-old Yountville resident on suspicion of DUI.

2156 -- A woman said she was driving when a Chevy Impala on Main Street hit her car on the left rear side and drove away. She pulled over and flashed her lights at the other car, but it kept driving. The car was last seen heading toward Deer Park. Police took a report.

Wednesday, July 12

0151 -- Medical aid for an elderly woman who fell out of bed and broke her leg on Pope Street.

0931 -- Report of a woman weaving in and out of traffic on her bike near Main/Grayson.

1249 -- Non-injury accident at Main/Adams.

1253 -- A tan and white California Carolina Dog was reported missing from Stockton Street.

2004 -- Report of a purse being stolen on Main Street.

Thursday, July 13

0827 -- Police picked up a loose beagle from Spring/Oak and notified its owner.

1114 -- Two-car accident at Main/Grayson.

1439 -- A person reported finding used drug paraphernalia in a grove of trees near Kearney Street.

1826 -- Report of a possible restraining order violation.

Friday, July 14

0842 -- A woman asked to talk to an officer about an unwanted person at her house.

0858 -- A car was vandalized on Monte Vista.

1215 -- Following a traffic stop at Pratt/Main, police arrested a 33-year-old South Lake Tahoe woman on suspicion of DUI.

1612 -- Report of possible drug activity in an RV on Main Street. Police checked the area.

1835 -- Medical aid for a woman with chest pains on Silverado Trail.

2019 -- A bicyclist reported almost being hit by a car that turned without using its blinker near Main/Hunt. Police checked the area.

2102 -- Report of a moving truck causing a traffic problem on Pope Street. It was trying to turn around to avoid crossing the bridge. It was gone when police arrived.

2213 -- A dog had been barking all night long for the past two nights.

2243 -- Someone was setting off legal fireworks on Mariposa Lane.

2342 -- Police responded to a noise complaint on Scott Street. There had been loud music, loud teenagers, the sound of a bottle breaking, and large groups of people walking in and out of a house.

Saturday, July 15

0432 -- Police responded to Grayson Avenue for a dispute involving a woman whod been asked to move out of a house.

1801 -- An officer helped load a dinner table on Vineyard Avenue.

1910 -- Report of something alive in a trash can at Meily Park.

2049 -- A child locked himself in a running car on Railroad Avenue.

Sunday, July 16

0101 -- Police were asked to check on an intoxicated woman on Main Street.

0317 -- A Silverado Trail resident said someone was walking around their property with a shotgun.

0836 -- Report of people illegally camping in tents on private property on Crane Avenue. Police cited them.

1044 -- Report of a black lab running in and out of traffic near Main/Elmhurst. It led several people on a chase up Elmhurst to Spring Mountain, to Dean York, and almost to Palmer. The pursuers flagged down a passing driver to help. The driver opened her car door and the dog quickly jumped inside, apparently happy that she wasnt being chased anymore. The driver took the dog to the police department kennel, and her owner later claimed her.

1104 -- A loose dog on Grove Court was detained by a citizen and returned to its owner.

1426 -- Medical aid on Sylvaner Avenue.

1442 -- Non-injury accident on Highway 29.

1734 -- A man and a woman were seen having a verbal dispute that turned physical on Vidovich Avenue. The man reportedly grabbed the woman and pulled her into their car. They headed north on Main Street.

2222 -- Report of two men arguing on Charter Oak Avenue. They left when someone called the police.

Monday, July 17

1041 -- A manhole cover came loose at Railroad/Adams.

1044 -- Report of an ongoing problem with dogs barking on Sylvaner. The caller said they start at 10 p.m. like clockwork, and last night they kept barking past 1 a.m. Police said to call as soon as they start barking.

1135 -- Report of a reckless driver in a maroon Toyota at Silverado/Pope.

1551 -- Report of teens going door to door asking for money near Voorhees/Mitchell. They said the money was for their school, but they didnt have any identification or proof.
Let the People Sing: Communities Reflected Through Art in the Tradition of Zora Neale Hurston, an exhibition created by Emory students as a class project, is on display in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Stipe Gallery through Sept. 1.

Emory College students created the artwork in a spring semester English 210 class on the renowned American folklorist and writer. Hurstons art, which celebrated the African American culture of the rural South, is associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Her best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is regarded as a seminal work in both African American literature and women's literature.

"Hurstons work provided the perfect blueprint for our project because of the ways that her work marries community observation and art that spans genres," explains Nicole Morris, the instructor for the class and a PhD student in the Department of English. "She also placed primacy on highlighting communities that often went under- or misrepresented in larger American culture.

"Following in Hurstons tradition, my students chose to create artwork based on their observations of communities that they felt were under-examined, misunderstood or in ways invisible on Emorys campus," Morris says.

For the project, students engaged with or observed the Emory Police Department, patrons at Kaldis Coffee, commuters on the Cliff Shuttles, the African Students Association and employees in Campus Services.

Emory Report caught up with Morris to learn more about the project and how it was created.

What goals do you hope this exhibit accomplishes for viewers?

A major focus for Hurston was to allow space for the voices of folks from all walks of life. I hope this exhibition provides visibility and complicates perceptions and representations of the communities explored in the artwork. It would be amazing if this exhibit opened ongoing dialogue between students and other communities at Emory.

What do you hope students learned from creating this exhibit?

Rather than simply reading and discussing Hurstons work, we interrogated her techniques and the relationship between her anthropological fieldwork and her art, and then participated in a mini version of this process. I hoped that this non-traditional approach would prompt new questions about Hurstons texts, and take reading-based discussions in new, exciting directions. Im a huge fan of engaged learning, as I feel that it moves students beyond the standard understandings of authors and texts.

I wanted students to more fully understand Hurstons experiences  as an observer, and as an artist  by engaging in similar processes. My students had to represent communities through art and were faced with several difficult decisions and considerations as a result. Based on their thoughtful products and insightful contributions to class conversation, I would say that my goals as an instructor were exceeded.

Were the materials easy to find and readily available?

Emory Center for Creativity & Arts was very supportive of our project. Candy Tate, assistant director, granted my students access to the arts cottage, and students could use any materials available there.

Did you learn something unexpected or new by leading this project?

I was thrilled to learn that spaces are reserved on Emorys campus specifically for student artwork. Also, I was surprised by the willingness of communities such as the Emory Police Department to embrace our project. They were incredibly open to my students, even inviting them to ride along during their shifts. Through the work my students performed, I learned a tremendous amount about the communities they observed.

What else did the project produce?

Working closely with Megan Slemons in the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, we were able to create a Map of Hurstons Places. This assignment was entirely optional so it was wonderful to see so many students contribute with thoughtfully chosen photographs and explanations connecting the location to Hurstons work and life.

Was it difficult to get the exhibition installed?

No, it was incredibly easy. Dr. Tate was the only person I had to reach out to. She expressed immediate excitement about our project, and the rest unfolded smoothly. Projects such as the one my students completed, incorporating the arts into their studies in non-traditional ways, are precisely the types of projects that the Center for Creativity & Arts is looking to support, she said.

The Stipe Gallery is located just outside the Arts Commons on the first floor of the building, accessible from the Goizueta Business School Courtyard.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-17 19:37:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PARIS, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Renault, France's second biggest carmaker, on Monday announced rising sales of its brands in the first half of this year on resilient demand in Middle East, African and Asian markets.

For the January-June period, the French auto manufacturer saw its sales up by 10.4 percent compared with the same period last year, after providing world markets with 1.88 million vehicles.

Over the period, the Asia-Pacific region absorbed 100,452 units, up by 50.5 percent. In China, Renault sold about 36,000 vehicles, thanks to strong performance of New Koleos launched in late 2016 and produced locally.

In Europe, the group registrations grew by 5.6 percent to 1,025 units, making it the second most sold brand in Europe, Renault said.

"We set a new record... Our sales volumes and market share increased for all our brands and in all regions. Our strategy of range renewal and geographical expansion continues to produce results," said Thierry Koskas, member of the Executive Committee and Group Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing.

For the second half of the year, "the group will continue to take full advantage in Europe of its renewed range and internationally of the momentum of Koleos in China, Kaptur, Xray and Vesta in Russia, QM6 and SM6 in South Korea, and the new SUV range in Latin America," the French car maker said in a press release.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 02:47:26|Editor: yan

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DUBAI, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's President al-Bashir visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday in bid to step up brotherly ties and enhance all-round cooperation, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces met with al-Bashir and discussed issues of common concern.

According to the report, the two sides reviewed "the challenges facing the region, especially extremism, terrorism and regional interventions aimed at destabilizing the region and undermining the process of building and development, as well as discussing the most effective ways to combat terrorist organizations and their sources of funding."

The Sudanese president and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince also discussed the latest developments on the regional and international arenas.

During the meeting, they discussed the distinguished "brotherly relations" between the two countries and their cooperation in various political, economic and developmental aspects and ways to develop this cooperation for a broader and more welcoming horizon.

The UAE and Sudan are both part of a Saudi-led pan-Arab military coalition which has been fighting Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 26 2015.

The coalition supports Yemen's internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 04:18:33|Editor: yan

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WARSAW, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The friendship between Britain and Poland is ever stronger, there is no doubt that it will be developed in the future, British Price William read out a letter from Queen Elizabeth II on Monday in Warsaw.

During a reception celebrating the ninety-first birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William read this letter from his grandmother. She wrote that recounting the history of British-Polish relations, she reminded that they went back a thousand years and were ever stronger.

After reading the letter, Prince William said Britain and Poland have good relations in lots of areas, including diplomatic and cultural, which offers a lot of possibilities. He also said that Polish is the second language most often heard in Britain.

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, began their official visit to Poland on Monday.

The royal couple was welcomed by Polish President Andrzej Duda and first lady in the Presidential Palace. This was followed by a stroll down Krakowskie Przedmiescie Avenue and visit to the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will furthermore go to Gdansk, northern Poland, on Tuesday, and will hold a private meeting with the Polish presidential couple in Warsaw on Wednesday, after which they will leave for Germany.

The three-day Poland visit is made at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to help to maintain and strengthen Britain's relations with Europe in the view of Brexit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 04:23:38|Editor: Yamei

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KUWAIT, July 17 (Xinhua) -- European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will visit Kuwait on Sunday as part of the intensified mediation efforts to end the Gulf standoff, the official news agency KUNA reported Monday.

"I will be visiting Kuwait, the mediator that we support and accompany and with whom we are constantly in touch. So I will visit Kuwait next Sunday," Mogherini, high representative of EU foreign affairs and security policy, told a press conference in Brussels after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Mogherini will express EU's support to the mediation efforts made by Kuwait to find solution to the crisis between Qatar and four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, the report said.

Kuwait has been playing the role of mediator since the Qatari crisis started early last month, seeking a political solution to the dispute.

The Saudi-led bloc cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed an economic blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing it of supporting terrorism while interfering in their internal affairs. Doha has denied all the charges, rejecting the 13 demands put forward by the Saudi-led alliance for resuming diplomatic ties.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian briefed his EU counterparts on the outcome of his visit to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 15 and 16.

Mogherini said she had discussed with Le Drian during her visit to Paris last week the messages he would bring to the Gulf region.

"We discussed in particular the need to avoid tensions in the Gulf," she said, noting the crisis has negative repercussions on the crisis in Libya, a top priority for the EU.

Ahead of Le Drian's visit, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had already visited the Gulf respectively in an attempt to calm down the tensions there and seek to broker an end to the crisis. But so far no signs of easing of the crisis have emerged as the rivaling sides refuse to back down.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 04:28:41|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwestern Germany launched a manhunt Monday after a teenager entered a vocational school in the town of Esslingen reportedly armed with a gun and later fled without causing any injuries, DPA reported.

The suspect, who did not fire his gun, was only briefly in the Friedrich-Ebert School and later fled on a motorcycle, Reutlingen police (Polizei Reutlingen) said on Twitter.

After receiving calls from students, the police locked down and searched the school, finding nothing suspicious.

Police described the suspect as "male, aged 17-19, 170-180 cm tall, bearded, darker skin" on Twitter.

Other nearby schools and kindergartens were also locked down, but police eventually said there was no more threat at school and all the students were able to go home.

Local and federal police have blocked some of the streets in Esslingen and deployed helicopters to help hunt the suspect. Police said on Twitter the manhunt will continue.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 05:49:26|Editor: Yamei

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LOS ANGELES, July 17 (Xinhua) -- An international research team suggests that humans are hardwired to favour leaning to the right while kissing their romantic partners, which may have wider implications for neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

According to the new academic study, just published in the journal Scientific Reports, over two-thirds of the kiss initiators and the recipient of the kiss have a bias to turn their heads to the right and men were about 15 times more likely than women to initiate kissing.

Psychologists and neuroscientists at the universities of Bath Spa and Dhaka, Bangladesh, invited 48 married couples to kiss privately in their own homes, and after kissing they were asked to go to different rooms, open an envelope and then report on various aspects of the kiss independently of each partner.

The setting for the study was significant as kissing in Bangladesh is not typically observed in public and may censored from television or films. That means similar results from the western countries could be attributed to cultural factors or having learnt how to kiss through influences on TV or film.

According to a press release on Monday, building on the previous studies from western countries, which have involved couples kissing in public places, the new study is the first to investigate an inherent bias for turning the head to one side while people kiss in a non-western context. And it is also the first study in the world to show that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction.

"Head turning is one of the earliest biases seen in development - even in the womb a preference for turning the head to the right is observable before that of favouring the right hand or foot. Whether this fundamental bias is innate and extends into adulthood is a lingering question for neuroscience and psychology," Dr Rezaul Karim, lead author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Dhaka, said in a statement.

The new research suggests that the act of kissing is determined by the brain splitting up tasks to its different hemispheres. Different hormone levels in each hemisphere and neurotransmitters might be unevenly distributed to each hemisphere as giving rise to a bias to turn right, researchers say.
New research that looked into people's kissing bias could have wider implications for neuroscience and cognitive sciences. (Credit: Dot and Lucy Photography)

LOS ANGELES, July 17 (Xinhua) -- An international research team suggests that humans are hardwired to favour leaning to the right while kissing their romantic partners, which may have wider implications for neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

According to the new academic study, just published in the journal Scientific Reports, over two-thirds of the kiss initiators and the recipient of the kiss have a bias to turn their heads to the right and men were about 15 times more likely than women to initiate kissing.

Psychologists and neuroscientists at the universities of Bath Spa and Dhaka, Bangladesh, invited 48 married couples to kiss privately in their own homes, and after kissing they were asked to go to different rooms, open an envelope and then report on various aspects of the kiss independently of each partner.

The setting for the study was significant as kissing in Bangladesh is not typically observed in public and may censored from television or films. That means similar results from the western countries could be attributed to cultural factors or having learnt how to kiss through influences on TV or film.

According to a press release on Monday, building on the previous studies from western countries, which have involved couples kissing in public places, the new study is the first to investigate an inherent bias for turning the head to one side while people kiss in a non-western context. And it is also the first study in the world to show that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction.

"Head turning is one of the earliest biases seen in development - even in the womb a preference for turning the head to the right is observable before that of favouring the right hand or foot. Whether this fundamental bias is innate and extends into adulthood is a lingering question for neuroscience and psychology," Dr Rezaul Karim, lead author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Dhaka, said in a statement.

The new research suggests that the act of kissing is determined by the brain splitting up tasks to its different hemispheres. Different hormone levels in each hemisphere and neurotransmitters might be unevenly distributed to each hemisphere as giving rise to a bias to turn right, researchers say.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 07:20:13|Editor: Liangyu

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MEXICO CITY, July 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial border wall with Mexico is being "quietly" prepared for construction in Texas, Mexico's state news agency Notimex said on Monday.

"The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office quietly started preparations to build the first stretch of the border wall in an area of southeast Texas," the agency said.

Notimex cited the weekly Texas Observer as saying the initial tract will be built along the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge located in southeast of McAllen, Texas.

The article apparently focused on the environmental impact of the wall, and an adjacent highway, with one federal official telling the weekly the construction work "will essentially destroy the refuge."

According to the weekly, preparation work is being carried out and construction could begin by January 2018.

This segment of the border division will have a concrete base supporting a fence made of steel bollards, have a height of 5.4 meters and run for some 4.8 kilometers, said the weekly, adding a similar wall was erected near Hidalgo, Texas, 10 years ago.

Portions of the U.S.-Mexico border have been fenced or walled off over the years, but Trump has called for a more substantial impenetrable barrier, similar to the one that Israel built in the West Bank.

This part of the border was chosen to start the wall because the land already belongs to the federal government, the weekly said, whereas some 95 percent of the Texas border is private property that would have to be purchased or confiscated first.
A patch of Hami melon field in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang.

In an oasis amid the Gobi desert the temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius at noon, but farmer Yan Chongxiang refuses to rest.

Working in the scorching sun, he is busy gathering Hami melons from their vines before carefully packing them in boxes. The melons, ripe and freshly picked from remote fields in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will be delivered across the country that day.

A farmer picks melons in the field.

Harvesting Hami melons is tiring work, but well-paid as the juicy fruit sells well in summer.

Hami melons, a Xinjiang speciality, are extensively planted in the region. Hami, home of the melons, plants 4,200 hectares of the melons, with the annual output reaching 378 million yuan (about 56 million U.S. dollars).

Extensive farming in scarcely populated Xinjiang requires abundant labor, and every year farmers like Yan, from all over China, are drawn to Xinjiang for work.

They call themselves Gua Ke, or migrant melon farmers.

There are more than 1,000 Gua Ke in one single township in Hami, where their camps cluster beside the melon fields in farming season.

A woman takes a rest with the load still on her shoulder. The more they carry, the more they earn.

Yan, 27, from a village in Yunnan Province, southwest China, about 1,900 km from Xinjiang, has been migrating to plant melons for six years.

"We are too poor at home. My whole family lives on farming on one mu (666 square meters) of field," he said. "My friend told me I can make good money by growing melons in Hami. So here I am. Now my family can make ends meet."

Yan travels to Xinjiang with 30 villagers, mostly couples.

After spending the lunar new year at home, the migrant farmers bid farewell to their families and set out from the village. They take a bus to the nearest city, where they board a train to Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and then transfer to a train to Xinjiang.

The journey takes more than three days, but no matter how far, the trip is worthwhile as long as they can make money, they say.

A woman puts ice into a bottle of water before getting to work in the sun.

In harvest season, they wake up in the camps at 5:00 am. Each carrying a bottle of water and a shoulder pole, they board a tractor and go deep into the fields.

Before dawn the temperature is below 15 degrees Celsius, but Yan does not feel cold and wastes no time, working before it gets too hot.

A farmer works before dawn.

The temperature climbs rapidly as the sun comes out. Sweat pours from Yan's face as he picks melons and carries a load of about 50 kg on his shoulder.

Hami is not even the hottest city in Xinjiang. In Turpan, the temperature goes so high that farmers have to work at night wearing headlamps.

A farmer carries melons with a shoulder pole. The ripe melons must be handled with care.

Yan does not rest until 10:00 pm, and can pick and pack about 700 melons in a day.

A farmer earns 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (about 2,952 to 4,428 U.S. dollars) in a season.

Melon farmers get to sleep in their tents at 11:00 pm.

"Where there is hardship there is hope, just like the oasis in the desert," Yan said. He hopes to make more money to build a new house and send his children to a better school.

"Xinjiang is a wonderful place. As you sow, so shall you reap," he said.

Yan Chongxiang takes a rest at the camp site, talking about his dream.

The arrival of the migrants is welcomed by local farmers.

"Hami melons would not be sold across the country but for these diligent workers," said Basit Yarze, a Hami farmer.

Farmers work in the field.

Basit said that when he was child Hami melons were delivered by mule carts and sold only in Hami city. Later the extensive plantation brought more money and more migrant farmers.

"Without these farmers, we can't grow and pick so many melons," Basit said.

(All photos by Hu Huhu)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 09:05:50|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks opened lower Tuesday as the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar dented the overall market mood and weighed on exporter issues in particular.

As of 9:15 a.m local time, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 76.95 points, or 0.38 percent, from Friday to 20,041.91.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, dropped 6.08 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,619.40.

Bank, transportation equipment and securities-linked stocks comprised those that declined the most in early trade.

Markets in Japan were closed on Monday for a national holiday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 09:15:54|Editor: An

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MELBOURNE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen students from a top Australian information technology (IT) university will travel to China to learn at Huawei Technologies for three weeks, it was announced on Tuesday.

The students from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University will visit Huawei's research and development facilities and manufacturing plants while working with technology experts.

They will also experience university in China at the Beijing Language and Cultural University.

The program is part of a three-year agreement announced by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews which will see students make the journey to Huawei every year.

A further 15 RMIT students will participate in workshops at Huawei's National Innovation and Training Centre in Sydney.

"This is a great opportunity for some of Victoria's brightest IT students to learn from one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, and bring Victoria closer to one of our major trading partners," Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said in a media release.

"Our relationship with China is one of our most important, and one that extends beyond just economic benefit -- today's great announcement by Huawei shows that it's also about learning and improving the opportunities for our kids."

The announcement of the partnership was made as Victorian government members embarked on an official visit to Huawei's global headquarters in Shenzhen where they will meet with senior executives and smart city experts.

The collaboration was developed by the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATNU), a body aimed at preparing Australian students for careers in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry and exposing students to "vast and emerging" opportunities in China and wider Asia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 09:25:55|Editor: An

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CANBERRA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian hotels need to keep up with the demands placed on them by Chinese tourists, Tourism Australia's boss said on Tuesday.

The remarks came after international research showed that Chinese tourists were less inclined to travel to Australia compared to a year ago.

The research, undertaken by the Expedia-owned Hotels.com website, found that Australia was third on the list of destinations Chinese tourists intend on traveling to in the next 12 months, down from being No. 1 last year.

Travelers coming from China said Australian hotels were simply under-equipped to handle Chinese tourists, with many indicating that a lack of Mandarin speaking staff was a problem, in addition to no support for payment facilities such as China Union Pay.

On Tuesday, Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan told News Corp that while Chinese tourists wanted to visit Australia, the lack of support was proving detrimental for the tourism industry.

"The challenge for Australian tourism providers is how to keep pace with this demand," O'Sullivan said.

But some hotels have recognized the challenges and are actively trying to better accommodate Chinese travelers.

Chief operating officer of Accor Hotels, Simon McGrath said his company had launched its Chinese Optimum Services Standards more than five years ago, meaning a number of locations were equipped to deal with Mandarin speakers.

"Today these standards have been adopted by over 50 of our hotels and we as a business continue to grow in this area as we learn more about what our Chinese guests are looking for in accommodation in Australia," McGrath said.

Meanwhile the boss of Mantra hotels, Bob East said that while hotels in locations geared towards international tourists should be keeping up with demands from China, there were many hotels in less-popular areas which are primarily aimed at domestic tourism.

"It's a matter of tailoring the product around your most likely target market," East told News Corp.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 10:12:10|Editor: Liangyu

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WASHINGTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Two more Republican senators announced opposition to the GOP health care bill Monday, in another blow to the Republican efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's signature legislation.

Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah issued separate statements late Monday, saying the long-sought Republican health care plan will not have their support.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 11:42:38|Editor: Liangyu

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by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been under media fire over the Russia scandal, but some say the intense scrutiny amounts to media hysteria.

In the latest chapter of this ongoing controversy earlier this month, e-mails surfaced between Trump's son and a Russian lawyer who allegedly had access to compromising information on then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Critics say this is evidence of collusion of the Trump campaign with Russia, although the lawyer denied having worked for the Russian government.

"The media has gone absolutely insane on this. They are seeing crimes that don't even exist," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua.

"It's pretty reckless and dangerous, the way that this is being covered," he said. "As much as the ... media wants this to be a crime, it's certainly not treason, and it doesn't appear to be a crime of any type, at least based on the facts as we know them," he said.

Trump's critics say it is illegal for campaign officials to receive anything of value -- such as compromising information on an opposing candidate -- from a foreign government, or from someone representing a foreign government.

But others say there is no evidence that the administration has broken any law. Among them, White House lawyer Jay Sekulow appeared on all five major Sunday news talk shows, saying nothing in the meeting was illegal.

In an op-ed in political publication The Hill, Jonathan Turley, a left-leaning professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, said there was no wrongdoing based on currently known facts.

"Does any of this constitute a clear crime or even a vague inkblot image of a crime? No, at least not on these facts," he wrote.

Some experts said the media's handling of the issue was a double standard, in which left-leaning publications hold Trump's feet to the flames but downplay alleged wrongdoings among Democrats.

"I think what's bothering the Trump campaign here is the double standard at play," O'Connell said.

Moreover, Trump's son has been fully transparent over the issue, and has released the full chain of e-mails to the public. Trump's supporters said these are not the actions of someone who is trying to hide evidence.

However, according to analysts, whether any crime was committed or not, it's what the public believes that is crucial.

The scandal could have negative consequences for the White House in the lead up to the 2018 elections, as Republican lawmakers could distance themselves from Trump over the Russia scandal.

"Nothing scares politicians more than when their political livelihood is at stake," O'Connell said.

"And I'm sure that some will try to distance themselves from Trump, but at the same time, the Democrats are going to try to tie them all to Trump, and in some cases it may work, but in other cases it probably won't," he said.

"It's one of these deals where you see people regularly trying to make comments to distance themselves, but at the same time, there's a narrative out there, and it doesn't seem to be currently registering among Trump country voters, but who knows a year from now," he said.

He added that Trump can get through all of this if he can pass tax reform legislation, as well as healthcare. "People know that they didn't elect a saint. What they want is they want him to get things done."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 12:12:50|Editor: Yamei

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SEOUL, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday raided defense firms after President Moon Jae-in ordered the elimination of defense industry corruptions.

Prosecutors and investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office stormed five subcontractors of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to confiscate computer hard discs, documents, account books and mobile phones, according to local media reports.

The KAI, the country's sole aircraft developer and manufacturer, was suspected of overstating production costs and embezzling company funds.

Prosecutors raided the headquarters and Seoul offices of the KAI last week.

The investigation into the KAI was widely expected to become a starting point of the overall probe into corruptions in the defense industry.

President Moon said at a regular meeting with his top aides Monday that the defense industry corruption was "an act benefiting the enemy" which threatened national security, vowing to eliminate the defense corruption.

Moon ordered the restoration of the government-wide anti-corruption committee meeting that was first introduced in 2004.

Separately, a meeting to discuss how to root out defense corruptions would be held later in the day, with director general-level officials from nine inspection agencies, including the Board of Audit and Inspection, in attendance.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 12:58:07|Editor: Yamei

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SEOUL, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had yet to respond to South Korea's offer to hold talks on military affairs to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul's defense ministry said Tuesday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun told a press briefing that there has been no response from the DPRK to South Korea's dialogue overtures, saying the ministry would take additional actions in accordance with the DPRK's response.

The ministry made an official proposal to the DPRK for holding the dialogue of the military authorities to stop any hostile acts near the military demarcation line (MDL).

Seoul requested the dialogue be held on Friday at Tongilgak, a building in the DPRK side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

The DPRK's state-run media had yet to announce any response to Seoul's dialogue proposal on Monday.

Asked about when Pyongyang had to respond to the dialogue overture to hold the talks this week, the spokesman said Pyongyang's response was considered when scheduling the proposed talks, indicating much time would not be needed for preparations for the dialogue.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 13:23:23|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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A forum for credit system construction of Chinese cities is held in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Weng Xinyang)

HANGZHOU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A forum on credit system building opened Tuesday in east China's Zhejiang Province.

During the first Forum for Credit System Construction of Chinese Cities, held in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, representatives from more than 300 Chinese cities jointly released a "declaration," which aims to improve people's well-being by enhancing credit building in the country.

According to the declaration, Chinese cities should create a new supervision system based on credit, achieve regional integration of their credit systems, and enhance education on the importance of good credit.

The two-day event was organized by Xinhua News Agency and the government of Hangzhou city.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 13:38:29|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Torrential rain hit Japan's northern regions of Fukushima and Niigata prefectures on Tuesday with the threat of floods and landslides leading to evacuation orders.

According to local media reports, 4,300 people residing in a town in western Fukushima were ordered to evacuate as rivers in the region were in danger of overflowing and amid concerns from local authorities about potential landslides.

East Japan Railway Co. said it had suspended some of its services in the Tohoku region due to the downpour.

In Niigata Prefecture, municipal officials ordered some 1,400 residents to evacuate to shelters due to fears of flooding in parts of the region.

The prefecture has also issued an evacuation advisory for 20,000 people spanning at-risk cities and towns in the district, located in the Chubu region which faces the Sea of Japan.

While there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities as a result of the downpour in Japan's northern regions, the death toll in rain-ravaged southwestern Japan rose to 34 on Monday, with seven more people still unaccounted for.

Reconstruction work is underway in the hardest-hit areas and around 2,700 Self-Defense Forces personnel and firefighters are still searching for those missing since the deluge began on July 5.

Both search and reconstruction efforts were hampered a day earlier, however, as evacuation orders were issued to 16,000 residents in Fukuoka Prefecture's flood-hit city of Asakura and the village of Toho.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 14:13:44|Editor: Liangyu

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MEXICO CITY, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Mexico extradited former governor of the western coastal state of Veracruz from Guatemala on Monday to try him on charges including corruption.

Javier Duarte is accused of embezzling at least 21 billion pesos (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in state funds, as well as collusion with organized crime and money laundering.

Duarte was transferred to prison amid tight security involving 11 police trucks and 10 motorcycle cops.

A member of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, Duarte was stripped of his membership after he fled the country. The extent of his plundering became apparent as hospitals and other state-run institutions collapsed throughout Veracruz due to a lack of operating funds.

Marco Antonio del Toro, Duarte's lawyer, said Monday he was confident of clearing his client of corruption charges. He also told the reporters it would be proven that the charges of graft as well as colluding with organized crime and money laundering were completely unfounded.

"I base (my statements) on the case file, and the file shows he is completely innocent," said del Toro.

Violence against journalists and crime in general also increased during Duarte's term. He was arrested by Guatemalan police on April 15 on an international warrant, after more than five months on the run.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 14:13:47|Editor: Liangyu

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MANILA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants to extend martial law in the entire Mindanao and nearby islands until the end of the year to ensure public safety and in order to quell the rebellion in the southern Philippines, his spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Tuesday.

Abella said that Duterte sent a seven-page letter to Congress Monday night requesting for an extension of martial law until Dec. 31, 2017, "or for such period of time as a congress may determine."

"The primary objective of the possible extension is to allow our forces to continue with their operation unhampered by deadlines and to focus more on the liberation of Marawi and its rehabilitation and rebuilding," Abella told a news conference at the Malacanang presidential palace.

Duterte declared martial law for 60 days on the entire Mindanao and nearby island provinces after extremists linked to Islamic State laid siege to Marawi City in May. The 60-day period will end on July 22.

Duterte has called congress for a special session on Saturday, the last day of the 60-day martial law declaration, "to deliberate and consider the possible extension of martial law in Mindanao," according to Abella.

Before writing a letter to congress, Duterte invited selected lawmakers to a dinner at the palace Monday night to brief them on the security situation in Mindanao. Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto, who was at the dinner, told local GMA News that Duterte bared his plan to extend martial law.

At the dinner, Sotto said Duterte painted a "scary" picture of terrorism in the southern Philippines and the threat that it could bring to the southern region if not contained.

Quoting Duterte, Sotto said that local terror groups are already "moving around" in Zamboanga and on the southern island of Jolo.

The ongoing Marawi conflict has so far claimed lives of 556 people, including 413 terrorists, 98 security forces and 45 civilians.

The military said more than 800 soldiers have also been wounded in the fighting to retake the rest of the city where around 60 militants are still holed out.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 14:13:49|Editor: Liangyu

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SYDNEY, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A second Australian senator, who recently gained international notoriety for breastfeeding her baby during parliament, on Tuesday resigned from her federal seat due to holding dual citizenship.

The Canadian-born environmental campaigner, 40, said she just found she was ineligible to serve in office as she also holds Canadian citizenship.

Under Australian constitutional law, a candidate holding dual citizenship is not allowed to run for parliament.

The Greens Party senator, who moved to Australia when she was 11 months old and has served in the upper house since 2011, fought back tears as she fronted local media at a press conference.

"I have been under the impression all my life that I was not a Canadian citizen," Larissa Waters said.

"I thought that when I was naturalized as a baby, that was it, I was just an Australian."

"I have lived here almost all my life and I was devastated to discover the law had changed a week after I was born and that I needed to have taken active steps to renounce what was my Canadian citizenship, which I was unaware of."

The political blunder was sparked by another Greens senator Scott Ludlam, after he resigned just days ago for the same reason.

Born in neighboring New Zealand, the 47-year old said he was also unaware of his dual citizenship and was forced to resign after serving more than a decade in the senate.

When Waters saw the events unfold, she decided to check the status of her own eligibility.

"I had confirmation by the Canadian High commission yesterday," Waters said.

"It's pretty weird that someone that's born in a country and leaves as a baby and has never been back, with two Australian parents turns out they have citizenship in that country, so I hope people will understand this is an honest mistake," Waters said.

"I can hold my head up high knowing that the moment I found out, I have taken the step of announcing that I will sadly have to resign both as the deputy leader of the Greens and as a senator for Queensland."

Her replacement in the upper house will be 52-year old Greens member Andrew Bartlett, who has also been plagued by controversy.

In 2003, Bartlett was leader of the now defunct Democratic Party and resigned over alcohol-related health problems, after he allegedly assaulted and hurled abuse at a female government senator.

With 23 other foreign-born politicians serving in Australia, it is quite feasible to think there may be more parliamentarians susceptible to the strict dual-citizenship laws.

As for Waters, "I've spent my entire life protecting the environment and working for equality for women and I'm not going to stop now," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 15:09:04|Editor: Song Lifang

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KATHMANDU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has vowed to step up its efforts towards realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"Nepal desires to swiftly complete the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals, and step up its efforts towards realizing the SDGs. This objective perfectly fits into Nepal's aspiration to become a middle income country by 2030," Min Bahadur Shrestha, vice chairman of Nepal's Planning Commission, said in New York on Tuesday at a UN forum.

Shrestha said Nepal's development endeavor has yielded some progress in socio-economic front in the past few decades, noting that achievements particularly in the education and health sectors have been impressive.

"After a gap of several years, the country's economy is expected to grow by 7 percent in the Fiscal Year 2016-17. This could mark the beginning of a key turnaround for Nepal," he said.

He informed the international community that in collaboration with key development stakeholders, Nepal has set the country-specific SDG-related targets to be achieved by 2030.

"Three high-level committees have been formed to help implement them. At the apex is the Steering Committee chaired by the prime minister himself which demonstrates the highest political commitment," he said.

While talking about Nepal's achievements in gender equality, Shrestha said the Constitution guarantees at least one-third representation of women in the Federal Parliament as well as the provincial assemblies.

Shrestha said Nepal has halved extreme poverty in the past 15 years, and is on track to confine it to less than 5 percent by 2030, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 15:09:05|Editor: Song Lifang

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SEOUL, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed Tuesday to raise the country's defense budget to 2.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 2.4 percent within his five-year presidency.

Moon made the remarks during his meeting with top military commanders, including current and former defense ministers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said in a press briefing.

About 40.3 trillion won (35.9 billion U.S. dollars) was allocated to this year's defense budget of South Korea. It could rise to as much as 50 trillion won in the next five years of Moon's presidency. Moon took office on May 10.

Moon said his government will seek dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), but he noted that it would have no meaning unless the dialogue is based on an overwhelming defense capability.

South Korea offered on Monday to the DPRK for holding talks about military affairs to stop all hostile acts near the military demarcation line (MDL) that divides the two Koreas.

Seoul requested the dialogue would be held on Friday at Tongilgak, a building in the DPRK side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

Moon added that the national defense was a matter of life and death, stressing the importance of national defense and security amid the continuing DPRK provocations.

Earlier this month, the DPRK announced its successful test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that flew about 930 km and was lofted as high as around 2,800 km.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 15:44:54|Editor: Song Lifang

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DAMASCUS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army foiled an attempt to detonate a suicide car bomb in the coastal city of Tartus in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, a Tartus-based military source told Xinhua.

Soldiers hunted down the car on the Homs-Tartus highway, forcing the suicide bomber to take a route near the town of Safsafeh, where the army hit the car, blowing it up in an empty area before it reached its destination, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The suicide bomber was killed when the car was targeted.

Tartus, which hasn't witnessed any insurgency during the country's more than six-year war, has suffered several deadly bombings, mainly in 2016 when scores were killed, including 40 in a blast targeting the city's main entrance in September.

In January this year, a bomb attack killed two security officers who were trying to prevent a car bomb from entering a crowded area in the city.

The bombers detonated their explosives after being stopped by security forces.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 15:54:58|Editor: Song Lifang

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A selection of written confessions by Japanese war criminals after WWII has been published in China, with most of the archives available to the public for the first time, the State Archives Administration said Tuesday.

After Japan's unconditional surrender to China, a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals were imprisoned in China's Fushun and Taiyuan cities from 1950 to 1956.

Included in the book are photocopied hand-written confessions by Japanese war criminals and detailed records of their interrogation and trial, which serves as irrefutable evidence of Japan's heinous crimes against China during the war, the administration said.

The written confessions detailed crimes such as the killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people. They also confessed to using bacterial and chemical weapons, conducting biological tests on live humans and setting up military brothels with sex slaves for the Japanese army.

The book includes confessions by 842 war criminals, compiled in 120 volumes. The first 50 volumes were published in August 2015.

The book, published by Zhonghua Book Company, is made of the original photocopied texts in Japanese, supplements, corrections, postscripts and the text of Chinese translations at that time, with English translations of the abstract content presented before the relevant written confession.
Protestors gather in the street of Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Jan. 3, 2008. Due to a rally planned by the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to protest presidential election results announced Sunday was cancelled by Kenyan authorities, clashes between protestors and the police happened in many places of Nairobi on Thursday. (Xinhua)

NAIROBI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has developed a national security plan to ensure that the August presidential polls are peaceful, a senior government official has said.

Acting Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government Fred Matiang'i told journalists in Nairobi Monday that the development of the plan began 12 months ago.

"The national security plan maps the entire country to include a risk assessment of the potential areas where violence could occur," Matiang'i said during a meeting to brief the private sector on government preparations to conduct peaceful elections.

Matiang'i said that all security agencies are working together to ensure that general elections occur without incidents.

The security plan will be cascaded to all the 47 counties to facilitate the electoral body to conduct peaceful and fair elections.

The ministry of interior has also noticed increased cases of intolerance in the political campaigns with 20 days to the elections.

"The security agencies are investigating cases of incitement with a view to prosecuting all culprits," Matiang'i said.

Matiang'i noted that all crimes especially those associated with the electoral process will be dealt with firmly.

"As a government, we are determined to do with whatever it takes to conduct free and fair polls," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 16:15:18|Editor: Song Lifang

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KABUL, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Afghan national police personnel seized chemical substance which has been used in making home-made bombs in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Afghan National Police (ANP) seized 1,400 kg of Ammonium Nitrate, a key component used to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which was placed in a truck carrying goods along Jalalabad-Torkham roadway," the ministry said in a statement.

One suspect was arrested in connection with the case and an investigation was underway, according to the statement.

The province bordering Pakistan has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces and Taliban militants as well as affiliates of the Islamic State (IS) group over the past couple of years.

The Afghan government has banned the use, production, storage and sale of fertilizer Ammonium Nitrate since 2010 after insurgents use it to make IEDs and landmines.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 16:35:32|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LHASA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen years ago, Penpa Drolkar was too busy baking bricks to harbor dreams of being lead dancer in a Tibetan opera troupe.

Today, Penpa Drolkar is among a group of performers to stage a spectacular show featuring ethnic singing and dancing at the renowned Tibetan Opera Art Center in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Penpa Drolkar works for the Yuanda Migrant Workers' Troupe, which consists of 49 farmers and herdsmen from areas around Lhasa. None of them has ever received professional training, and many of Penpa Drolkar's peers used to bake bricks in factories.

"Many people can't remember our troupe's name, 'Yuanda,' so they simply call us the 'brick-bakers' troupe because we used to fire bricks," said Penpa Drolkar. "Yuanda" means "ambitious" in Chinese.

The troupe was formed in 2005. At first, it was a loose collection of a few migrant workers who were passionate about performing in their spare time. Performing helped them relax and brought joy and laughter to their factory co-workers.

"The troupe staged a few shows for the military and performed for free at construction sites for the Lhasa-Xigaze Railway and the Nyingchi-Lhasa Railway builders, which were quite popular," said troupe leader Losang Jinba.

Their performances typically feature singing, dancing, skits and cross-talk, a comedy style. As the performers were migrant workers themselves, the audience felt close to and connected with them. When they started to become popular, the troupe began to perform paid shows in villages surrounding Lhasa.

"In the early days, we received coins and small notes for payment," said Liu Hua, deputy head of the troupe. "We realized that the money must be from poor residents in poverty-stricken villages, so we just returned the money."

Tibet has about 2.3 million farmers and herdsmen, accounting for 74.4 percent of its entire population. Many of them still live in poverty.

"Many villagers were just grateful," Liu said. "Now, whenever big events like Shoton Festival come, they simply request our shows."

The troupe has attracted the attention of professionals.

Jamyang Gyatso, a director with the regional song and dance ensemble, was deeply moved by the migrant workers' passion and simplicity.

"I was surprised at what they delivered, but I also felt bad for the workers," said the director. "They can seriously sing and dance, but they needed better material, a signature performance that is distinctively the 'brick-bakers.'"

Jamyang Gyatso created a show titled "Working between Heaven and Earth." The show debuted at the Tibetan Opera Art Center last week to immense success.

But it was not easy creating a big show for amateur performers, Jamyang Gyatso said.

"For professionals, I can easily explain some movements and get the idea across to the actors within a few minutes, but for migrant workers, it could take a whole day for just one movement," he said. "One should try to help them understand the stories behind each dance."

But since the show is about workers, using worker performers like Pengpa Drolkar is necessary, he said.

The show has won critical acclaim. Tenzin Tsering, former head of the the regional ethnic art research institute, said that the actors "delivered like pros."

"They were born workers with an understanding of working lives, so their performance was natural, which is precious," he said.

Penpa Drolkar and her peers will perform in more Chinese cities inland. Tibetan opera shows like "Princess Wencheng" have had great success in the market in the past, but the brick-bakers will find their own way to success, said Wei Dong, deputy head of Lhasa's cultural bureau.

"'Princess Wencheng' was created with significant historical background, but 'Working between Heaven and Earth' tells the stories of ordinary people," Wei said. "We hope that the show will come to represent Tibet."

"I hope that one day, I will also become a director," Pengpa Drolkar said. "I want to teach girls like me to dance, and tell stories with movement."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 17:00:44|Editor: ying

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SINGAPORE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) announced a chemical leak incident at a building in Kallang on Tuesday afternoon, which has injured nine people.

The SCDF said on Twitter that the incident was contained within a sealed production room, and was shut off prior to its arrival by the in-built safety system on the premises.

Nine workers were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in a conscious and stable condition, said the SCDF. Local media quoted the affected workers as saying that they suffered from skin irritation.

SCDF posted a tweet around 4 p.m. local time, saying no chemical vapour was detected in the production room, and surrounding environment was also safe with no traces of the chemical in the air.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 17:10:59|Editor: ying

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FUZHOU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- It finally happened: wild grass can now be turned into nutritious and delicious mushrooms. No, it is not witchcraft, but modern agricultural technology, bringing cash and dignity to poor farmers in China and beyond.

The technology enables edible and medicinal fungi to grow out of chopped grass or herbal plants, in a similar way that some fungi grow from trees. The herbaceous herbs are called "Juncao."

The idea was the brainchild of Lin Zhanxi, 75, a professor with Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, who came up with the technique more than 30 years ago.

The Juncao Technology Project was launched at the UN headquarters in May and has been supported by China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. The project will help developing countries prevent soil and water loss, while combating poverty and malnutrition.

FROM LAB TO FARM

Lin's journey researching Juncao started in the spring of 1983 when he visited Changting county in eastern China's Fujian Province.

He was shocked by what he saw -- excessive deforestation, water and soil losses and poor people.

Lin remembers it like it was yesterday. A biting cold wind swept through the cracked walls of a simple adobe house as a family huddled for warmth.

"Uncle Lin, I'm so hungry. Could you give me some sweet potato chips to eat?" a child asked.

Lin could not sleep that night. "Surely, there must be a way to save these poor people and their environment?" he asked himself.

An idea suddenly struck him, "What if wild grass could somehow be harnessed for food?"

Returning to university, he started researching growing edible mushrooms from grass. Traditionally, mushrooms were cultivated in sawdust, which meant cutting down many trees, damaging the environment.

After three years of arduous research not to mention lots of innovation, Lin saw the world's first Juncao mushroom sprout from a bottle filled with forked fern and other ingredients.

However, encouraging farmers to use the new mushroom-growing technology was not going to be easy.

In Youxi county in 1988, Lin broke his ribs in a traffic accident, but he left hospital only four days after surgery to convince 27 local households to pilot his new technology.

The residents, like most people, had no idea that mushrooms could be cultivated from wild grass. Many thought Lin was nothing more than a fraud and a cheat.

"I promised that I would compensate them if they lost money," Lin said. "If Youxi county, which boasted rich forest, could grow mushrooms from grass, other places would follow suit."

The Youxi trial was a success. By 1995, the number of households participating Lin's project had increased from 27 to more than 4,200.

THE MUSHROOM EFFECT

China has 400 million hectares of grassland, nearly three times the area of arable land, according to Lin

By using just three percent of grassland, the Juncao industry could generate more than 135 million tonnes of mushrooms and create tens of millions of jobs.

In China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Lin's project has helped lift 17,500 households from poverty. The annual income of the local farmers increased from 80 U.S. dollars in 1998 to 1,024 dollars in 2007.

While encouraging the growth of Juncao domestically, Lin and his team have been working hard to extend it abroad since the 1990s.

China has offered training on Juncao technology to more than 6,000 people across the world and established Juncao training and production bases in eight countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Fiji, helping them increase farmers'income, while creating social and environmental benefits.

With technical assistance from China, Juncao has helped prevent water and soil loss in Rwanda, fight poverty in South Africa and boost animal farming in Fiji.

Lin's team has cultivated more than 50 edible and medicinal fungi, like the King Trumpet Mushroom and Wood Ear Mushroom, by using different kinds of grass.

"Hopefully, the mushroom-growing technology created by Chinese researchers can play a more positive role in the global fight against poverty and ecological degradation," Lin said.

Despite his old age, Lin never stops. He plans to establish another eight Juncao production and training bases in developing countries within the next two years.

Next month, he will go to Papua New Guinea to teach more farmers how to turn wild grass into mushroom gold.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 17:46:12|Editor: ying

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CARACAS/WASHINGTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela is undergoing a political crisis resulting from a months-long standoff between the government and the opposition, while the United States has threatened to take "economic actions" against the Venezuelan government.

OPPOSITION'S SCALING-UP OF PRESSURE

Venezuela's opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) announced on Monday that it was the "zero hour" for the government of President Nicolas Maduro, as National Assembly President Julio Borges spoke of a "scaling-up of pressure."

Borges was speaking one day after the MUD held an unofficial referendum to protest Maduro's bid to rewrite the constitution through the creation of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC), which will be elected on July 30.

"In this phase there come the pressure, the escalation, the materialization of the reasons for which people voted ... yesterday. The world and the government must listen to a cry from an entire country," said Borges.

According to data from the MUD, 7.1 million people voted against the ANC on Sunday.

The referendum asked the Venezuelan people three questions: Whether they support or not Maduro's call for the ANC? Whether they support the constitution of 1999 which Maduro is seeking to change? Whether officials in public office should be replaced?

"If he (Maduro) tried to go against the referendum yesterday, he would be the one leading to more conflict and violence," claimed Borges.

However, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) dismissed the results and accused the MUD of vote tampering.

During a press conference, Jorge Rodriguez, former vice president and current mayor of Caracas, denied that the MUD had received the votes it claimed.

Rodriguez called the referendum a "gigantic fraud" which sought to "renew violence" in the country.

He said the Venezuelan opposition obtained only 2,395,390 favorable votes, but multiplied this by three, leading to their announced result of 7,186,170 votes.

Rodriguez accused the MUD of trying to perpetrate "a huge fraud against the Venezuelan people" by inflating the numbers.

"There was a gigantic scam on all the people of Venezuela," he said. "Over 5 million votes are missing to complete these false numbers ... We have proof of this."

Also on Sunday, the government held a simulation of the July 30 vote for the ANC, which the executive hopes can end the country's political crisis.

U.S. THREATENING OF STRONG ECONOMIC ACTIONS

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against the Venezuelan government, which it considers to be unruly to the United States, if Venezuela goes ahead to pursue the creation of the ANC.

According to a strongly worded statement released by the White House, Trump warned that if Maduro "imposes" the ANC on July 30, the United States will "take strong and swift economic actions."

Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect the 545 members of the ANC on July 30.

The tensions in the South American country have been high and anti-government protests organized by the opposition MUD have led to more than 90 deaths since early April.

The MUD sees the establishment of the ANC, which will rewrite the constitution, as a power grab by Maduro.

Venezuela saw both of its feuding political factions prepare polls on Sunday, with the government holding a simulation of the July 30 vote to elect the ANC and the opposition organizing an unofficial referendum of its own to gauge public support for or rejection of the ANC.

According to Borges, more than 7.2 million people took part in the vote held by the opposition.

In addition to trying to win support of the public, the opposition MUD received some kind of international support as five former Latin American leaders came to observe the referendum and expressed their backing for the efforts.

Vicente Fox from Mexico, Laura Chinchilla and Miguel Angel Rodriguez from Costa Rica, Andres Pastrana from Colombia and Jorge Quiroga from Bolivia were all on hand but Caracas' reaction to their presence was scathing.

On Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada stated that Fox would no longer be welcome in Venezuela.

Speaking to Venezolana de Television, Moncada said that Fox "was paid to come to Venezuela to promote violence and the intervention of foreign powers."

Media reports also lambasted the five leaders, for having entered the country without any constitutional role and without the permission of the Electoral National Council.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 17:51:14|Editor: ying

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LILONGWE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Prison gates in Malawi have remained closed since Saturday as warders continue to protest for a hike to their monthly pay.

The warders are taking to the streets blocking roads and chanting protest songs to force the government to pay heed to their concerns.

Apart from the salary increment, the warders are also demanding that elevation in rank in Prison department should be on a par with its sister departments namely, the police and immigration, with which they all fall under the country's Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security.

The country's Home Affairs Minister, Grace Chiumia has since condemned the protests saying the government was already looking into the warders' grievances.

She accuses the warders of taking to the streets out of lack of patience.

Chiumia is on record to have told the country's local media that "These are security officers, and security officers are not supposed to go on strike because security is compromised when they do."

"What they are protesting about is an issue of functional review which we are currently working on; we started with the Immigration officers and Police officers whom we have promoted a rank up and the prison officers were next," she said.

She had, on Sunday, visited Zomba Maximum Prison, a penitentiary in the country's Southern Region, to reason with the protesting warders and to urge them back to work.

On Monday morning, however, the warders in the capital, Lilongwe blocked the road to Maula Prison, the largest reformatory facility in the central region as they continued to sing protest songs.

"We are not going back to work until our promotions have been effected and our salaries have been raised," stated one of the demonstrating warders who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:21:25|Editor: Song Lifang

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SOFIA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A plane slid off the runway after landing at the Burgas Airport on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria on Tuesday, the airport said in a statement posted on its website.

The plane operated by the Travel Services airline was flying from Brno, Czech Republic, with 178 passengers on board, the statement said.

"All passengers are unharmed. They have disembarked and are waiting for their luggage in Terminal 2," it said.

The Burgas Airport is closed until the plane is moved to a safe distance from the runway and the incoming flights will be redirected to the Varna Airport, it added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:26:28|Editor: Song Lifang

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Su Shulin, former governor of east China's Fujian Province, has been put under investigation on suspicion of accepting bribes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced on Tuesday.

Su, also former deputy chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Fujian provincial committee, was expelled from the CPC and dismissed from public office for violating the Party's code of conduct and corruption on July 4.

The SPP also announced an investigation into four other officials for taking bribes: Yang Chongyong, a former senior legislator in northern China's Hebei Province; Wang Yincheng, former president of the People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (PICC); Zhou Chunyu, vice governor of east China's Anhui Province; and Cai Xiyou, former general manager of state-owned chemical firm Sinochem Group.

The five have been placed under "coercive measures," which may include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention or arrest.

Investigations into their cases are currently under way, according to the SPP.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:36:40|Editor: Song Lifang

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HAVANA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Raul Castro and his visiting Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos stressed Monday a willingness to expand economic and trade cooperation.

According to a Cuban government statement, Castro and Santos held talks at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana, discussing various issues.

On Monday morning, when the Colombian leader inaugurated the Cuba-Colombia Business Forum at the National Hotel of Cuba, he emphasized Colombia's interest in investing in Cuba, as well as boosting tourism cooperation.

The visiting president was accompanied by a delegation consisting of more than 20 Colombian entrepreneurs from the agriculture, construction, energy and chemical sectors.

Furthermore, preferential tariffs are expected to be applied to over 3,000 products when traded between Cuba and Colombia as part of an economic protocol.

Santos also proposed to build a partnership between Bogota and Havana to create multi-destination tourism packages, especially for travelers from China, Japan and Europe.

"I see a great possibility of complementarity with Cuba. A Chinese or a Japanese (tourist) lands in Cuba and, from Cuba to Colombia, from Colombia to Peru. Those are the types of packages that are increasingly promoted," said the Colombian president, adding that this could "generate immense benefits to the two countries."

In 2016, Colombian exports to Cuba reached 33.5 million U.S. dollars, which Santos said was still very low.

Santos also expressed his gratitude to the Cuban government and people for supporting the peace process in Colombia.

Over the past four years, Havana has hosted negotiations between delegates from the Colombian government and the left-wing guerrilla, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

These talks concluded last year with the signing of a peace accord that ended a five-decade armed conflict, which killed more than 200,000 people in the South American country.

"We the Colombians will always have Cuba in our hearts for supporting, in every way and at all times, the end of an internal conflict which bled our nation for more than 50 years," said Santos.

Cuba is also one of the countries to help facilitate the negotiations between Bogota and the National Liberation Army, the second most important guerrilla group in Colombia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:36:42|Editor: Song Lifang

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WINDHOEK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A delegation from China's tech giant Tencent as well as tech-support experts will be in Windhoek, Namibia to brief the country on its Earth exploration program, QQ Project X, on July 21.

Namibia was selected as one of two countries for the 2017 edition of the QQ Project X by Tencent. Earth Explorers selected to take part in the project will undertake exploration missions and share their experience on the Internet.

According to Namibia's Ministry of Information and Technology on Tuesday, the project will essentially involve 15 Chinese youth volunteers travelling to Namibia and filming the sky and broadcasting.

At the launch of the project held in May this year, Namibia's Ambassador to China, Elia Kaiyamo said Namibia was selected for this project based on its beautiful scenery, exceptional wildlife, cultural heritage but more importantly, for the splendid African night sky in the Namib Desert.

According to Kaiyamo, Namibia is home to the only space tracking station of China in Africa, playing a vital role in China's space programs and he added that Namibia will be available to work at all times in a win-win partnership with Tencent.

The Tencent Company was founded in 1998 and is one of the leading providers of the Internet value added services which produces social media applications such as QQ and WeChat.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:41:49|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China applauded an exhibition on the Nanjing Massacre jointly organized by groups from Nanjing, China and Hiroshima, Japan, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Referring to the exhibition that kicked off on July 15 in Hiroshima, Lu Kang said this year marks the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, in which the Japanese militarists committed serious crimes during the Second World War.

The painful history should never be forgotten, he said, and called on Japan to learn from the history to avoid war, safeguard peace and shape the future.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:41:50|Editor: ZD

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SPLIT, Croatia, July 18 (Xinhua) -- After a day and night battle around Croatia's second-largest city Split, the fire that once threatened the famous tourist destination has been put under control on Tuesday.

A fire of unknown cause started Sunday night and ravaged the area near Croatia's Adriatic coast in Dalmatia region with the help of strong wind.

The blaze burned down pine forests and underbrush in extremely dry weather. Part of the population had to leave their homes that were endangered by the fire.

Over 700 firefighters and many locals have been battling the blaze on the ground. Croatia's military also sent over 100 troops and several firefighting Canadiar planes to join the battle.

On Tuesday, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic arrived in Split, where he announced that the fire was now under control, after a working meeting with Defense Minister and Interior Minister.

Although the situation is not as critical as it was on Monday, when many homes and cars have burned, a smoke still can be seen near Split and around the Adriatic coast.

More than 80 people, mostly firefighters, have been injured in the fire. Fortunately, no causalities directly linked to the fire have been reported.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic is also expected to arrive in the afternoon hours.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:46:52|Editor: ZD

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COLOMBO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Tourism Minister John Amaratunga Tuesday said direct air links with China have boosted the country's tourism market as more Chinese tourists are now choosing Sri Lanka as a holiday destination.

Amaratunga said there are direct air links between Colombo and Chinese cities without transit and the country is expecting the tourism market from China to grow further.

Due to the rapid growth of Chinese tourist arrivals, Sri Lanka's national airline carrier SriLankan Airlines has recently enhanced its services for customers in China with the launch of a local direct-dial number for the airline's customers throughout China.

China is now one of Sri Lanka's strongest tourist markets. A total of 271,577 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2016, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics, making China the second-largest country of origin.

Chinese arrivals have continued to grow by over 4 percent during the first five months of 2017, with 117,539 arrivals, according to the statistics.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 18:51:58|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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Liu Qibao (2nd R), head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, meets with a group of government spokespersons from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in Beijing, capital of China, July 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Tuesday called for closer media exchanges and cooperation with Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Liu Qibao, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks while meeting with a group of government spokespersons from CEE countries.

Liu, also head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, pledged to boost exchanges between government spokespersons in China and CEE countries, and facilitate more progress on the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-CEE 16+1 cooperation mechanism.

The CEE government spokespersons said they will introduce their China trip to their compatriots and promote the Belt and Road Initiative, to cement friendship and cooperation between their countries and China.

The spokespersons were in Beijing for the China-CEE Countries Spokesperson Dialogue, held Monday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:02:00|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- India should not take its military's trespass into Chinese territory as a "policy tool" to achieve certain political purposes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Tuesday.

Indian border troops crossed into Chinese territory from Sikkim in June. After a month-long stalemate, India has still not withdrawn troops to its own territory.

The trespass of Indian border troops has captured the attention of the international community, Lu said at a regular news briefing.

Some foreign diplomats based in China have said the incident is "shocking" and "difficult to understand," and have sought verification from China, Lu said.

"The essence of the incident is clear. Indian troops crossed the demarcated and mutually recognized border in the Sikkim section," Lu said.

The spokesperson urged India to correctly understand the situation and take measures to withdraw troops to avoid an escalation of tension.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:12:10|Editor: Song Lifang

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MOGADISHU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) convoy hit a landmine Tuesday morning in the Middle Shabelle region in southern Somalia but no casualties have been reported so far, a government official said.

Mahaday District Governor Abdullahi Mohamed Hussein told journalists that the convoy travelling in Burane area in Mahaday hit the landmine which is suspected to have been planted on the middle of the road.

"The AMISOM convoy hit a huge landmine in Burane and there was a heavy blast. None of the soldiers died," said Hussein.

The governor said security agencies had identified two armed men who are suspected of planting the mine and are in hot pursuit of them. The militant group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Residents reported of a huge blast Tuesday. "There was a heavy blast in our village. We learnt AMISOM forces were the target," Ahmed Abdi told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Lower Jubba region which borders Kenya have seized a vehicle with explosives which they say was destined for Kenya to carry out attacks.

"We seized a vehicle loaded with explosives heading to the Kenyan side to carry out terrorist attacks," said Dhobley police commander Haybe Ahmed.

The police chief also noted the officers arrested two people who were in the car. Dhobley is at border with Kenya and has been subjected to Al-Shabaab attacks in the past.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:19:46|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Migrant workers' children reunite with their fathers during the opening ceremony of a teenager summer camp at the Youth Palace of Beijing, capital of China, July 17, 2017. A total of 670 migrant workers' children from 7 provinces of China took part in the camp. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:17:14|Editor: Song Lifang

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JUBA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has declared a three-month state of emergency in four of the country's states.

According to an order read on the state-run radio station on Tuesday, the State of Emergency covers Gorial and parts of Wau, Tonj and Aweil East states.

It remains unclear what prompted the declaration of the state of emergency, but it may be linked to the presence of opposition fighters in Wau and recent hike in inter-communal violence in Gorial that has killed more 40 people since May.

Under article 189 of the country's transitional constitution, the president has powers to declare a state of emergency after consulting parliament.

This is the second time the South Sudanese leader is declaring a state of emergency since civil war erupted in late 2013. In January 2014, Kiir declared state of emergency in the former states of Jonglei and Unity.

South Sudan has been embroiled in more than three years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people of South Sudan.

A peace pact signed in Addis Ababa in 2015 under intense international pressure was shattered again following renewed violence between rival government and opposition troops in the capital Juba in July 2016.

The conflict has since spread to other regions which enjoyed relative peace, causing mass displacement of least 3.5 million people from their homes, ethnic polarization and tribal violence that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:27:24|Editor: Song Lifang

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COLOMBO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lanka Economic Summit to be held later this month will discuss how Sri Lanka can tap opportunities out of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said in a statement on Tuesday.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

The session titled "Belt and Road Initiative - Transformative Opportunity for Sri Lanka" will talk on the potential investment opportunities for Sri Lanka from the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2017 will be held in the capital Colombo on July 25 and 26 with the sole aim of discussing ways to strengthen the island's economy.

The two-day annual summit, organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, will have over 40 top resource persons, such as sectoral experts, industry practitioners, government officials and ministers taking part.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:27:26|Editor: Song Lifang

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BUJUMBURA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Nine persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in killing an Italian surgeon at his house in the Burundian capital Bujumbura earlier this month, the country's attorney general has said.

The Italian surgeon Francesco de Simone was found dead on July 3 at his house at Kiriri residential area in the Burundian capital Bujumbura. Police said he had been stabbed.

"Nine suspects have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the assassination of the Italian national who worked at Kira Hospital. After the assassination of Francesco de Simone, a police search was operated at the victim's house in Kiriri residential area and some documents were found at his house," Burundian Attorney General Sylvestre Nyandwi said in a statement Monday.

According to Nyandwi, investigations have revealed that Diane Persson Ciza, the Italian's concubine, is among the "main suspects" in the killing of the Italian surgeon.

"Some fake documents showed that Diane Persson Ciza was the consul of Sweden in Burundi, but after talking to the foreign ministry, it was revealed that no consul of Sweden was in Burundi," Nyandwi said.

He added that investigations are still underway to elucidate circumstances on the assassination of Francesco de Simone.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:32:28|Editor: Song Lifang

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HARARE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's electoral body said Tuesday it is well prepared to hold elections set for mid 2018 and voter education is due to start soon.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Rita Makarau told a parliamentary committee that it will soon start countrywide voter education which will pave way for biometric voter registration exercise to be completed by December.

"We must complete voter registration by December 2017 for us to be able to hold elections on any date in 2018. It is the prerogative of the president to call for an election date but we stand ready to hold the elections," Makarau said.

She appealed to political parties that will contest in next year's polls as well as civil society organizations to start voter education now to give ample time for people to be educated about the requirements for voting.

Makarau said ZEC had submitted an election budget to Treasury which they were hopeful will be fully funded.

"It's a frightening figure but elections don't come cheap and we hope the money we have asked for will be released. Government has not failed us in the past and we don't believe funding will be a challenge for the 2018 elections," she said.

The ZEC chairperson said Zimbabweans with national identity documents showing that they are aliens should regularize their citizenship to ensure that they will be able to vote in next year's elections.

Zimbabweans born in Zimbabwe but with parents of foreign origin, regarded as aliens, have previously been denied the right to vote, a development that has largely been criticized by the opposition for disenfranchising many prospective voters.

Makarau said the electoral body was targeting to register 7 million voters for next year's polls, up from 6.8 million registered in the previous 2013 elections.

Meanwhile, Makarau appealed to political parties to shun violence and ensure a peaceful election.

Parties should also ensure the political environment is friendly to women and children, she said.

"As ZEC it will really be a sad day for us if at all there is going to be political violence in the run up, during and after elections. We call upon political parties to shun violence as a tool of campaigning and winning the hearts of prospective voters," she said.

Makarau said ZEC would set up mechanisms to prevent and deal with politically motivated violence during the election period.

ZEC was also working with several women rights organizations to ensure more women contested in next year's polls, Makarau said.

She also urged parliamentarians to lobby for legislation guaranteeing equal representation of women in the National Assembly, made up of 210 members.

Out of the 350 members in Zimbabwe's Parliament, only 125 are women, constituting 34 percent. This is the highest ever number of women parliamentarians that Zimbabwe has had since independence in 1980.

Zimbabwe is for the first time using the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system, which entails use of unique individual identification techniques such as fingerprints and irises to identify voters. Previously, voters just used their national identification documents to register.

Makarau said the electoral body had already paid 50 percent deposit to equipment provider, Laxton Group of China and was now awaiting delivery of 3,000 BVR kits.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been endorsed by his ruling ZANU-PF party as its presidential candidate for next year's polls, when he will be 94.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:37:31|Editor: Song Lifang

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CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) received on Tuesday the second loan installment worth 1.25 billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), official news agency MENA reported.

"The 2nd tranche would boost the CBE's cash reserve of foreign currency," MENA quoted a CBE's official as saying.

The foreign currency reserves reached 31 billion U.S. dollars in March, the highest since March 2011, when it was estimated at 36 billion dollars.

In 2016, the IMF Executive Board voted in favor of a three-year, 12-billion-dollar loan to Egypt to encourage its economic reforms.

Egypt received the first installment of 2.75 billion dollars from the IMF last November.

Egypt's economic reforms include cutting subsidies, raising taxes and floating the currency.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:37:33|Editor: Song Lifang

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SINGAPORE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on Tuesday at the ongoing Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) Spotlight 2017.

The two MoUs are signed respectively with companies from Saudi Arabia and Australia.

They are expected to deepen Singapore's collaboration with water utilities for knowledge sharing and capability building in water supply, research, development and innovation.

The MoUs will promote staff exchanges to gain insights into partner utilities' issues, share experiences, and resolve common water challenges, which, according to PUB, is in line with this year's SIWW theme on Forging Alliances Amongst Global Water Utility.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:42:38|Editor: Song Lifang

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PHNOM PENH, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A conservationist group on Tuesday supported a Cambodia's decision to stop all types of sand dredging activities in Sre Ambel River in southwestern Koh Kong province and ban all sand exports.

The Southeast Asian country banned the exports of sand for construction and sand mud from Koh Kong province on July 10 in response to environmental concerns.

"This decision reflects strong commitment and efforts from the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) in avoiding the negative impacts from sand dredging activities on the environment, fisheries, local communities as well as the protection of biodiversity, including Royal Turtles," the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement.

Sre Ambel River is an important conservation site. It is the only place in Cambodia where Royal Turtles, the Cambodia's national reptile, can be found.

WCS Cambodia Country Director Ross Sinclair said WCS expressed its strong support for the MME's recent decision to stop all types of sand dredging activities along the Sre Ambel River where WCS and Cambodia's Fisheries Administration have been working together to conserve the critically endangered Royal Turtle and Siamese Crocodile.

"This decision is welcome news for natural resource conservation in Koh Kong province because sand dredging can destroy natural habitat, deplete fish stocks for local communities, and damage ecosystem," he said.

The Royal Turtle was believed extinct in Cambodia until 2000 when a small population was re-discovered by Fisheries Administration and WCS in the Sre Ambel River. Recently, the conservation group also found a nest of critically endangered Siamese Crocodile in this river.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:58:00|Editor: Song Lifang

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COLOMBO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday that his government would take new steps within the coming months to address the global climate change.

Speaking in his office in Colombo, Wickremesinghe said the severe drought had begun to hit the world, and it would impact Sri Lanka in the coming months. Therefore, the government has to make important decisions in the coming months to face the situation.

"Prevailing drought is not a phenomenon affecting Sri Lanka only. It is also experienced in India, Bangladesh and a few other countries. It is essential to make clear that not only our country but also other regions of the world are all experiencing changes in global weather patterns," said Wickremesinghe.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 20:03:03|Editor: Song Lifang

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BERLIN, July 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. investment bank Citigroup Inc. will create a new European trading hub in Frankfurt after Britain leaves the Europe Union, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The plans will be presented to the firm's board of directors this week, Bloomberg said.

Citigroup already employs around 350 staff in Frankfurt and will add between 150 and 250 new job positions to the new hub. The jobs will be filled by transferring staff in London, hiring locally, or a combination of both.

Although London will remain Citigroup's regional headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the decision marks another instance of Frankfurt attracting new business after Britain voted to leave the EU last year.

Financial institutions based in Britain have repeatedly voiced concerns that Brexit will make them lose access to the EU's single market.

Citigroup has been mulling the shift in trading activities for several months, evaluating potential moves to Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

It remains in discussions with the European Central Bank and regulators within the EU as it considers relocating additional operations from London.

EU officials and European heads of state have emphasized that London would have to abide by the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, accept the freedom of movement and continue to pay into EU budgets in order to preserve banks' current "passporting" rights which allow them to serve clients seamlessly across the bloc.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out such a close bilateral relationship with the EU, leading senior business representatives to complain that the country was heading towards a harmful "Hard Brexit" which prioritizes lowering migration over the needs of the economy.

The British financial services lobby group TheCityUK estimates that 70,000 jobs could be lost in the industry if Britain does not remain in the single market, while London Stock Exchange chief Xavier Rolet put the figure as high as 270,000 in the event of a loss of euro-clearing activities.

So far, Frankfurt appears to have emerged as the victor amongst European cities vying for financial services business from London. The lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance reported that as many as 20 banking institutions are considering expanding or creating new corporate entities in the city.

Major global lenders including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and UBS, as well as the Japanese banks Nomura, Daiwa and Sumitomo Mitsubishi Financial Group have announced plans to open new offices in Frankfurt.

According to Bloomberg data, the German city leads the race for staff moves from London with around 2,600 confirmed relocations, ahead of Paris which will receive 1,400 staff relocations.

Frankfurt is home to three major regulatory bodies, the European Central Bank, German Central Bank and German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, giving it an advantage over continental rivals.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 20:13:12|Editor: ZD

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TOKYO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet plummeting to a record low in the latest media polls is a testament to the Japanese public's growing mistrust of the prime minister and his closest Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) allies, political experts here told Xinhua.

Numerous opinion polls have showed that support for the premier's cabinet has hit an all-time low, including one survey revealing that the public's approval rating had tumbled as much as 15.2 points to just 29.9 percent, the lowest since Abe took office in December 2012.

The meteoric drop in support, experts attested, has been triggered by a number of factors, one of which has been Abe's failure to properly account for himself in matters related to an influence-peddling scandal involving the selection of a new school to be opened by an operator who is a close friend of Abe's.

Other detrimental issues, according to the polls and political watchers here, are connected to his ministers' and LDP lawmakers' gaffes, all of which have left the future course of the Abe administration and the prime minister's leadership itself on very shaky ground.

"With each new scandal involving the prime minister or other senior politicians from the ruling camp, such as allegations that he used his influence to help his friend at Kake Educational Institute secure the opening of a new school in a special deregulated zone, Abe's grip on power loosens," Asian affairs commentator Kaoru Imori told Xinhua.

"We're seeing in some polls that almost 80 percent of the public are not satisfied with the government constantly denying that Abe's office was complicit in Kake being shown favoritism, and, more specifically, that public mistrust of the prime minister himself is growing," Imori added.

He went on to say that following repeated refusals to demands by opposition parties, including the main Democratic Party, to give sworn testimony in parliament on the matter, the prime minister's recent U-turn saying that he'll now allow himself to be grilled over the scandal, shows a "certain desperation in trying to restore the public faith in him and his administration."

Imori pointed out and disputed the fact that Abe's representatives said his about-turn had nothing to do with the tumbling support rates, and his sentiments were echoed by other sources with knowledge of the matter.

"Despite the official denial that the declining ratings altered Mr. Abe's decision, it is clear Mr. Abe had no choice. If he continues to reject the opposition's requests, even more people will suppose that he is hiding something," University of Tokyo political watcher Yu Uchiyama said.

In addition to the prime minister's volte-face, other political experts here believed that Abe's planned Cabinet reshuffle next month, which might involve half of his current members being replaced by a younger lineup, is also an attempt to rescue himself and his party from what could be a very bleak, if not terminal outlook.

While speculation is swirling as to whether Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will retain his portfolio amid a recent buzz that he wishes to relinquish his post and make a future challenge for the premiership, and if Defense Minister Tomomi Inada will be replaced, political watchers have pointed out that one think is certain, there are growing numbers of dissatisfied lawmakers within the rank and file of the LDP.

"Mr. Kishida was obedient to Mr. Abe, but some young politicians in his faction have been dissatisfied with the situation. Their voices are getting louder now," said Uchiyama.

Other analysts believed that Kishida may encourage aides within his party faction, which differs to that of Abe, to step up to Cabinet positions, so they will be able to further leverage the party from the inside and from the top in the future.

Further clouding the outlook for the Abe-led administration was the pummeling the LDP took in the recent Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election -- widely seen as a barometer of the future direction of national politics -- by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's newly-formed Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party).

The heavy defeat for the LDP, scandals aside, which also factored into the slumping support rate, was owing to the majority of citizens here opposing the autocratic fashion in which controversial legislation has been repeatedly forced through parliament and into law, the most recent example being the contentious conspiracy law, and also, more pertinently, a rejection of Abe's plans to revise Japan's pacifist constitution, experts said.

"The results were a punishment by voters who were frustrated by the recent developments in the LDP. Whether Abe can stay on and achieve his long-cherished revision to Japan's war-renouncing constitution hinges on his 'damage control'," Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation said.

Other authorities on the matter have concurred, with Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, saying, "The LDP's thrashing could make it harder for Abe to pursue his cherished goal of revising the U.S.-drafted constitution's pacifist Article 9 by 2020, a politically divisive agenda."

"His prime motive to stay in power is his desire to revise the Constitution, but once his popularity really starts to fall, that becomes very difficult to do," Nakano said.

With the ruling party's scandals also involving the LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hakubun Shimomura allegedly accepting donations from Kake Educational Institution in violation of Japan's political funds control law, a junior lawmaker resigning following claims she physically and verbally abused a secretary, and Defense Minister Tomomi Inada making remarks which violated the Self-Defense Forces law, some pundits believed Abe will be hard pushed to recover his former political prowess.

"I think it will be hard for him to rebound and his popularity will continue to decline. Up until now, he's been a Teflon premier, all the scandals just sort of wash off and everybody forgets. But this was a bloody blow," said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University.

The broad consensus among political pundits, professors and commentators here is that at a bare minimum Abe and the LDP are in trouble in the near term and will have to pull out all the stops to regain public trust.

Further down the line, however, Abe's rivals in his party will likely be motivated by the LDP's overall failings and challenge him in a leadership race in September 2018, which could, as one expert explained, put a full stop at the end of the sentence.

"Abe cannot expect lasting, comfortable support within the party, especially after such an election loss. Seems to me it's the beginning of the end of Abe's rule," said Nakano.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 20:33:28|Editor: Song Lifang

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JERUSALEM, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Israel's army said a Palestinian man was shot dead near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday after he lightly injured two soldiers in a car-ramming attack.

The incident took place at the entrance to Beit Einun, near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.

A Palestinian vehicle was speeding up toward an Israeli military station, lightly injuring two soldiers, according to a military statement.

"Forces fired shots toward the driver, and a hit was confirmed," the statement read.

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions in the region, sparked by new security measures Israel has adopted in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, one of East Jerusalem's most sensitive holy sites.

The security devices, including metal detectors at the gates and CCTVs, were installed after a shooting attack that killed two policemen on Friday. The assailants, three Palestinian Arabs with Israeli citizenship, were later killed by the police.

On Monday night, Palestinians clashed with police in East Jerusalem for a second consecutive day. An unconfirmed number of people were injured and seven arrested, according to the police and local media.

The Waqf, a Muslim authority in charge of administrating the site, denounced Israel's new measures as a violation of the long-held status quo in the flashpoint site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 20:47:08|Editor: ZD

A man gets his back and cheeks pierced with steel needles during a ritual ceremony in Tongren County of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Qinghai Province, July 17, 2017. "Gathering of the sixth month" was a festival with a history of more than 1,400 years in the region. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 20:53:37|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Although it is the first time Laura Primiceri has visited China, the British woman has quickly adapted to cashless life in Beijing.

She was aware of the prevalence of China's mobile payment before her arrival in February and downloaded WeChat and Alipay, the two most popular mobile payment services in China.

"I use them here for payment quite frequently. It's much better than what we use in England," Primiceri said.

During five months studying in Beijing, the overseas student learned that the cashless trend was now taking hold in the country with mobile payment often a daily necessity.

IRRESISTIBLE TREND

"The cashless society is what we are moving toward," said Xiao Ligang, a cab driver in Beijing, "It is irresistible."

"Almost every taxi driver I know is using WeChat Pay," Xiao said.

Unlike paying with credit cards in western countries, China's cashless payment refers to mobile payment on smartphones.

In Beijing, even senior citizens buy vegetables at the community market with their smartphones; office workers pick up colorful shared bicycles after scanning their QR codes; and street artists provide QR codes for donations.

Whether it is making an appointment to see a doctor, ordering take-away from a restaurant, or buying a ticket at home for a film that is about to begin, Beijingers can do it on their smartphones.

"Mobile payment saves a lot of time for us and help us effectively avoid counterfeit money," said Ren Tingting, a cashier at Century Mart, a chain supermarket in Beijing.

Global leading coffee shop chain Starbucks has eyed the huge number of mobile payment users in China and partnered with Chinese Internet giant Tencent to make WeChat mobile payment available in all its coffee shops in China.

MORE CASHLESS CITIES

To expand its cashless service, Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, plans to launch a cashless promotion week from Aug. 1 to 8, when China will be "1,698 days away from being a true cashless country," it claims.

Chen Liang, senior PR director of Ant Financial, said the company had signed with the governments of four other cities: Wuhan, Fuzhou, Tianjin and Guiyang, to promote city-wide cashless support solutions.

"The Cashless City Promotion means mobile payment can reach all the places where cash is needed," Chen said, adding that mobile phone users would no longer have to worry about whether they have cash on them.

By the end of 2016, Alipay's e-payment solutions had covered 357 Chinese cities, where people can use it for paying all kinds of bills ranging from car maintenance and medical bills, to bus fares, train tickets and even to buy pancakes for breakfast at the local market stall.

Going cashless has also become normal for Tibetans. Restaurants, souvenir shops and movie theaters in Tibet all provide online payment services. QR codes have become common on vendor booths selling Tibetan jewelry.

Similarly, Aug. 8 has been designated Cashless Day, an annual activity promoted by WeChat Pay, the e-payment arm of China Internet giant Tencent.

In addition to China, WeChat Pay covers more than 130,000 overseas businesses in 13 countries and regions, supporting settlements in 10 currencies, including the British pound, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen and Canadian dollar.

Catherine Hou, president of the Chinese Cuisine and Hospitality Association of Canada, said she had been working to make WeChat Pay available at the upcoming Mississauga Mid-Summer Night Music and Food Festival set for July 29 and 30.

"Mobile payment can greatly benefit Chinese tourists coming to spend their summer holiday in Canada, as well as Chinese Canadians, who are active users of Chinese e-payment," Hou said.

Tourism Toronto announced plans in May to bring WeChat Pay to Toronto.

In addition to WeChat Pay, 450 merchants in Canada are getting access to e-payment solutions offered by Alipay, Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, announced in Toronto on June 5.

Globally, Alibaba's e-payment arm, Alipay, has entered more than 200 countries and regions supporting settlements in 18 varieties of currencies with more than 40 million overseas merchants using Alipay for settlement.

"With the mobile payment services in more countries, Chinese tourists tend to carry less cash abroad than before," said Zhao Kun, a tour guide at CITIC Travel.

Zhao said convenience was the main reason for using mobile payment.

SECURITY CONCERNS

However, the seeming panacea for payment transactions has also aroused security concerns.

Digital payment enables merchants to receive detailed information about consumers, including phone number and email addresses, compared with traditional credit and debit cards, which mainly involve purchases receipts.

"I use mobile payment a lot in China, but I am quite concerned about my privacy," said Li Xinyu, a student from the Republic of Korea at Tsinghua University. "I am afraid my personal information might be leaked."

Only a small amount of money, about 1,000 to 2,000 yuan (147.74 to 295.48 U.S. dollars), is usually stored in my Alipay account, Li added.

"Maybe a credit card is safer. Alipay or WeChat is more convenient. I am more confident in the use of credit card because they barely go wrong. If the battery smartphone dies or there is no wifi, I cannot use Alipay or WeChat to pay," Primiceri said.

Although the mobile payment giants are seeking to expand their overseas service, tour guide Zhao Kun told Xinhua that some tourists, especially senior ones, have worries about the safety of paying via Alipay and WeChat when travelling abroad, despite the rising popularity of mobile payment in most North American and Southeast Asian countries.

The Chinese government is obliged to maintain a fair and square marketing environment and bring the mobile payment enterprises into full play, said Pan Helin, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 21:03:52|Editor: Song Lifang

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CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shokri asserted on Tuesday Egypt's full support for reaching comprehensive political settlement, restoring security and stability in war-torn Yemen.

Shokri discussed with the visiting U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmad, the recent developments in Yemen and the exerted efforts for solving the ongoing crisis, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmad Abu Zeid said in statement.

The Egyptian foreign minister said Egypt closely follows the accelerated conditions in Yemen, and the efforts of the U.N. envoy for adhering to political tracks and working on improving the exacerbated human status that require international cooperation to stop the Yemeni people's suffering, the statement added.

Yemen has been suffering from a civil war and a Saudi-led military intervention for around two years.

The war pits the Shiite Houthi rebel movement against a Sunni Saudi-led military coalition, after the Houthis toppled Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in late 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 for several times, but the factions failed to reach a deal to end the civil war, which has already killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, and injured over 35,000 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 21:13:56|Editor: ZD

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ACCRA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Ghana urged leaders of the African continent here late Monday to make the creation of comprehensive policies that guide access, utilization and management of land a priority.

This, it said is necessary to deal with the complex land administration issues that hinder the development on the continent.

Opening the African Lands Commission Conference and the African Regional Gender Workshop here, Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio lamented that production levels in Africa were abysmally low in spite of abundant arable lands.

"While we have the most suitable lands for agriculture, our productivity gap turns to be the highest. We see land ownership inequalities and landlessness growing in several African countries. Women as majority primary producers are constrained by customary laws," the minister said.

He continued that arable lands, forests and wetlands are being degraded at an alarming rate while there is a high rise in urban slums that undermines urban development and poverty reduction efforts.

The official however lauded the recognition given to this situation by the heads of state and governments of the continent with a firm declaration by the African Union (AU) on land issues enjoining all countries to take steps to recognize the centrality of land to sustainable economic growth, development and security of the social, economic and cultural livelihoods of their peoples.

In dealing with these issues, Bio said Ghana has since 1999 embarked on reforms on land administration.

He said the project which is in the second phase recognizes the fundamental role of Customary Land administration in the country.

"Estimated close to 80 percent of land ownership is held in Customary Tenure; any reform measure that does not take this fundamental fact into account is doomed for failure," he cautioned.

Bio therefore urged the participants to arrive at concrete steps that are needed to make land tenure in Africa an enabler of development.

The workshop, which is part of the AU Agenda on land being implemented by the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) seeks to facilitate cross-country learning and information-sharing about the results and experiences in different countries among key actors within land commissions on challenges and opportunities to secure the land rights of local communities, women, and Indigenous Peoples through statutory recognition of customary (collective) land tenure and its subsequent operationalization.

Customary land regimes are not uniform but vary from community to community. Lessons across Africa suggest that the integration of customary land regimes into formal land governance systems is equally not uniform, observed Janet Edeme, Head of Rural Division, Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission.

These functional characteristics, she added, largely explain why customary land tenure is viewed as a tenure regime that is not static, but continually evolving in response to multiple factors including, urbanization and demographic change, monetization of economies, increasing integration with the global economy, political processes and cultural change.

Beyond the core issues confronting community land governance, Edeme noted that evidence available at the LPI also points to serious capacity needs even among the land administration agencies at governmental level abound.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 21:39:21|Editor: Song Lifang

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TEHRAN, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran's parliament voted Tuesday to urgently increase funds for the country's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards in response to U.S."adventurism" in the region, local media reported.

A majority of lawmakers passed a motion to prioritise legislation "to confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region," the Mizan Online website reported.

The motion was originally introduced after the U.S. Senate passed new sanctions on Iran in June and sent them to the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill mandates the government to allocate an additional 260 million dollars to the joint armed forces for the "development of the missile programme" and the same amount to the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, the Quds Force.

The motion sends a clear message to the Americans that Iran's parliament "will resist them with all its power", speaker Ali Larijani said.
Photo taken on Sept 21, 2013 shows sand dunes of Namib Sand Sea, Namibia. Namib Sand Sea is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog. (Xinhua/Meng Chenguang)

WINDHOEK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A delegation from China's tech giant Tencent as well as tech-support experts will be in Windhoek, Namibia to brief the country on its Earth exploration program, QQ Project X, on July 21.

Namibia was selected as one of two countries for the 2017 edition of the QQ Project X by Tencent. Earth Explorers selected to take part in the project will undertake exploration missions and share their experience on the Internet.

According to Namibia's Ministry of Information and Technology on Tuesday, the project will essentially involve 15 Chinese youth volunteers travelling to Namibia and filming the sky and broadcasting.

At the launch of the project held in May this year, Namibia's Ambassador to China, Elia Kaiyamo said Namibia was selected for this project based on its beautiful scenery, exceptional wildlife, cultural heritage but more importantly, for the splendid African night sky in the Namib Desert.

According to Kaiyamo, Namibia is home to the only space tracking station of China in Africa, playing a vital role in China's space programs and he added that Namibia will be available to work at all times in a win-win partnership with Tencent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 21:59:28|Editor: Song Lifang

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BEIRUT, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday the army is preparing for a security operation along the border with Syria, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Hundreds of Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants are believed to be hiding in mountains around Arsal, a Lebanese border town that has been overwhelmed by refugees from the war in neighboring Syria.

An operation has been expected since the head of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah militant group said last week it was time to restore security in the Arsal region.

The militants seized Arsal briefly in 2014, abducting several Lebanese servicemen, before retreating back to the mountains.

The Army and Hezbollah have kept the town under restrictive guard since then.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:04:32|Editor: Song Lifang

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HARARE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Tuesday it requires 274 million U.S. dollars to conduct national elections set for mid 2018.

The electoral body has begun preparations for next year's polls with voter registration expected to start soon and end in December.

"A consolidated budget requirement has since been submitted to Treasury for funding in the sum of 274 million dollars," ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau told a parliamentary committee.

Makarau said the funding will enable ZEC to procure all election materials necessary and to pay all allowances necessary to ensure a successful voter registration exercise as well as free and fair election.

She urged political parties and civic organizations to start voter education, indicating that ZEC's constitutionally mandated voter education was due to begin soon.

Zimbabwe will use the biometric voter registration system for the first time to compile a new voters' roll ahead of the polls.

The system entails the use of unique individual identification techniques such as fingerprints and iris to identify voters. Previously, voters only used their national identification documents to register.

ZEC has said it is targeting to register 7 million voters for the 2018 polls, up from 6.8 million that were registered in the previous 2013 elections.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has since been endorsed by his ruling ZANU-PF party as its presidential candidate for next year's polls, when he will be 94.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:09:34|Editor: Song Lifang

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LONDON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A ten-pound bank note featuring a portrait of Jane Austen was unveiled by the Bank of England Tuesday on the 200th anniversary of the death of the famous British writer.

The new polymer plastic note will go into general circulation in September, the central bank said.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney unveiled the new note in a ceremony at Winchester Cathedral where Austen was buried in a tomb.

Jane Austen is only the second female, apart from Queen Elizabeth II, to be featured in a Bank of England note. The old five pound note featured social reformer Elizabeth Fry until she was replaced by war time prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.

The new 10-pound note shows Austen with plump cheeks and a calm expression in an image taken from a portrait which was commissioned after her death. Austen was just 41 years old when she died on July 18, 1871. She left a collection of novels as popular now as they were in Victorian England, with books such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility.

The five pound note was the first of Britain's plastic bank notes, with the Jane Austen ten pound note the second as part of a switch to more secure notes that are more resilient to counterfeiting.

As well as Austen's portrait, the new note features a line from her book, Pride and Prejudice, when one of the characters, Miss Bingley exclaims: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment but reading!"

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on British banknotes.

Austen fans from around the world, some in period costume, gathered at Winchester Cathedral to pay tribute to the writer on the 200th anniversary of her death, many of them laying flowers on her grave.

And in Basingstoke town center the world's first sculpture of Austen was unveiled Tuesday. The life-size statue was made in a local foundry, and sculpted by local artist Adam Roud.

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller said: "Jane Austen is one of the world's most important novelists and Basingstoke was her home."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:09:40|Editor: Song Lifang

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By Philipp Requat

BERLIN, July 18 (Xinhua) -- German Social Democrat (SPD) and Left party (Linke) politicians criticized the Turkish government on Tuesday following the arrest of German human rights activist Peter Steudtner.

"What we are experiencing in Turkey at the moment breaks all boundaries," SPD leader Martin Schulz told German news magazine Spiegel.

A Turkish court placed Steudtner, along with six other activists, under custody on Tuesday. The 45-year-old from Berlin is the tenth German citizen to have been arrested in Turkey since the failed military coup on July 15, 2016, according to German media reports.

According to Schulz, "President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on course to eliminate democracy and rule of law in Turkey. He is moving his country further and further away from Europe."

Speaking on the anniversary of the failed coup on Saturday, Erdogan vowed to aggressively pursue those who he saw as sympathizers of the attempt to overthrow his government.

The head of the SPD parliamentary faction, Thomas Opperman, said that Erdogan had inaugurated "new stage of escalation in German-Turkish relations".

Opperman added that "Merkel's strategy" to appease Erdogan had failed and said the time had come to tell the Turkish president that "things cannot go on as they are".

The Left party parliamentarian Sevim Dagdelen also joined in the SPD's sharp criticism of the Turkish government.

She warned that Germans were at risk of being taken hostage in Turkey and called on the German Foreign Office to issue a travel warning.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) were partially responsible for the fate of Steudtner and other Germans in Turkish custody, Dagdelen said.

Turkish-German relations have been severely strained since the failed military coup last year.

Ankara has rejected Berlin's criticisms that it engaged in an excessive crackdown on political opponents in response to the coup and is resentful towards its German NATO partner for allegedly granting asylum to Turkish revolutionaries.

Figures released on Friday by German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees suggest that the number of Turkish asylum seekers in Germany has risen dramatically since July 2016.

There is also a long-growing spat between Berlin and Ankara over attempts to prevent Turkish politicians from holding campaign rallies in Europe.

Hoping to win support amongst Turkish migrant communities for a controversial constitutional referendum which ultimately passed in April 2017, Erdogan and members of his AKP party ran up against heavy opposition in several European capitals.

Turkey retaliated by banning German lawmakers from visiting their country's armed forces stationed at the air-force base of Incirlik and most recently at the NATO base in Konya on July 16. In June, German lawmakers voted to transfer the troops in Incirlik to a new base in Jordan after several attempts to defuse the diplomatic crisis failed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:14:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

Palestinian women hold pictures of Israeli soldiers attacking women in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque during a protest against the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem in the West Bank City of Nablus, on July 18, 2017. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was closed on July 14 after three Palestinians and two Israelis policemen were killed in an armed attack. Israel announced on July 16 the reopening of some of the entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque gradually, after setting up electronic gates, surveillance cameras and sensitive equipment for "security reasons," which the Palestinians strongly rejected. (Xinhua/Ayman Nobani)

by Osama Radi, Emad Drimly

RAMALLAH, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The current escalation of tension between the Palestinians and Israel in Jerusalem will hamper the efforts of resuming the stalled peace process between the two sides," Palestinian analysts warned Tuesday.

The occupied eastern part of the city of Jerusalem has been under intense tension since Friday, following Israel's closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque after three Palestinians and two Israelis policemen were killed in an armed attack.

On Sunday, Israel announced the reopening of some of the entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque gradually, after setting up electronic gates, surveillance cameras and sensitive equipment for "security reasons," which the Palestinians strongly rejected.

The outside courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque have witnessed clashes around the clock for the past two days between Palestinian worshipers who refused to enter the mosque through the electronic gates and the Israeli police deployed in the area.

"Israel has no legal sovereignty over Jerusalem or on its Islamic and Christian holy sites," Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah told his cabinet during its weekly meeting that was held in Ramallah on Tuesday.

On Monday, Hamdallah held two phone calls with Jordanian Prime Minister Hani al-Mulqi and the Secretary General of Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

He called for urgent intervention in the face of Israeli actions against the religious and historical status of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Opposition factions, including Islamic Hamas Movement have also rejected Israel's recent actions in al-Aqsa Mosque, calling on the Palestinians to "escalate Jerusalem uprising, confront the Israeli occupation and break the restrictions imposed on Al-Aqsa Mosque."

"The Israeli closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque has set a dangerous precedent that the Palestinians fear will become repeatable in the future," said Hani al-Masri, a Ramallah-based political analyst and the director of the Ramallah-based Center for Research and Studies.

Al-Masri believes that the closure of al-Aqsa was considered by Israel to check the pulse and test the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international reactions.

He stressed that the change in the status quo in al-Aqsa Mosque "has already begun with the installation of cameras and electronic gates, which paves the way for the repetition of the situation in the Ibrahimi Mosque (in Hebron, south of the West Bank).

Tension in the Al-Aqsa Mosque has often been the cause of a series of escalation between the Palestinians and Israel, including the "the tunnel uprising" that erupted in 1996 to protest Israel's digging and opening of the western tunnel under the al-Aqsa, which lasted for six months.

Palestinian observers attribute the current tension to a wave of confrontations in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa mosque a few months earlier in protest against Jewish groups entering the mosque.

Rajab Abu Sariya, another political analyst said that "Israel use troubles in Jerusalem whenever it finds itself under political pressure."

"The escalation of tension in Jerusalem is a detonator that can, at any time, ignite the occupied Palestinian territories and certainly affect the entire Middle East," Abu Sariya told Xinhua.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:24:51|Editor: Song Lifang

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CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian police killed in raid Tuesday two members of a militant group loyal to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The police said the information confirmed they belonged to Hasm group, which claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks in Egypt, referring to the group as a Brotherhood's armed wing.

The pair, two college students aged 24 and 21, are among the leading members of Hasm terrorist group and they are responsible for orchestrating and carrying out a terror attack in Cairo in early May that killed three policemen, said the statement.

The police raided their hiding place on the outskirts of Cairo, killed them in a shootout and found nine guns and ammunition in their possession according to the statement.

Over the past two weeks, the police similarly killed about 20 in Giza province near Cairo and in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, referring to them as terrorists from Cairo-based Hasm group and from restive Sinai.

Egypt has been battling growing terror activities following the military removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently-blacklisted Brotherhood group.

Terror attacks had been centered in restive North Sinai before they prevailed nationwide, killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.

On July 7, a car-bomb terrorist attack on a checkpoint in North Sinai's Rafah city killed and wounded 26 soldiers, while the security forces killed at least 40 of the terrorists.

Most of the anti-government terrorist operations were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

The Egyptian military in cooperation with the police killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects as part of the country's anti-terror war declared in 2013 by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who was then the army chief, following Morsi's removal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:45:02|Editor: yan

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BRATISLAVA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Alleged differing standards in the European Union (EU) over the quality of food and other products, such as washing powders, is growing into an international scandal, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Tuesday.

"I can't accept it that citizens of the Slovak Republic are being treated this way," Fico told a press conference.

Fico was referring to reports that some products sold in western EU countries don't have the same contents as the identical products sold in eastern EU countries.

In March this year, Bulgarian Ombudsman Maya Manolova said in a statement that Bulgarian consumers suffered from the double standards of food in the EU.

Large multinational companies that produce food and drinks offered products with much lower quality in Central and Eastern European countries, according to the statement.

Fico also said he'd recently experienced the food stuffs standard inequality himself. While buying fish fingers he realized that those bought in Austria had 300 grams and were made up of 65 percent meat, whereas those in Slovakia weighed 280 grams and contained 58 percent meat. The price and the name of the product, however, were exactly the same.

The premier said that such measures violated EU rules of the single market. "We have to defend ourselves; we cannot accept this," Fico said.

"We only want people in Slovakia to have access to food of the same quality as people from the West," said Fico.

Fico said he wanted to address the double standard in food quality at the meeting of the Visegrad Four (V4) -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- due to take place in Budapest on Wednesday.

Moreover, he said he wanted to send a letter to or meet in person with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker about the matter. "This is a serious political issue," Fico said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:45:03|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian police on Tuesday killed two members of a militant group loyal to the outlawed Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The pair, two college students aged 24 and 21, were killed in a shootout with police who raided their hiding place on the outskirts of Cairo, the statement said.

Police found nine guns and ammunition in their possession, it added.

They are among the leading members of the Hasm terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood's armed wing, which is responsible for carrying out a terror attack in Cairo in early May that killed three policemen, said the statement.

The Hasm group has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks that killed several policemen in Egypt.

Over the past two weeks, Egyptian police have killed about 20 terrorists in Giza province near Cairo and in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. The terrorists were from the Cairo-based Hasm group and the restive Sinai peninsula.

Egypt has been battling growing terror activities after the military toppled former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

Terror attacks in Egypt used to be centered in North Sinai before spreading nationwide and killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.

On July 7, a car-bomb attack at a checkpoint in North Sinai's Rafah city killed and wounded 26 soldiers, while the security forces killed at least 40 of the terrorists.

The Egyptian military and police have killed hundreds of militants and arrested as many as terror suspects as part of the country's anti-terror war declared in 2013 by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who was then the army chief, following Morsi's removal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 22:55:07|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China's newly announced cabinet committee on financial stability and development plays a vital role in containing risks arising from the country's rapidly changing financial sector, a central bank official said Tuesday.

The committee will have its office based at the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the official told Xinhua while declining to be identified.

Its responsibilities include making plans for financial development and reforms, coordinating financial policies to create synergy in regulation, drafting rules to fill regulatory gaps, and holding officials accountable for inadequate regulation, the official said.

The committee is an upgrade of China's current financial regulatory framework for preventing risks and maintaining stability, according to the official.

A more powerful, effective and methodical regulatory framework is needed to contain financial risks, which have accumulated since the global financial crisis as new business types emerged and information technology developed rapidly, the official noted.

China announced that it will set up a committee under the State Council to oversee financial stability and development during a two-day National Financial Work Conference that ended Saturday.

The conference also stressed that the central bank will play a stronger role in macro prudential management and guarding against systemic risks.

"These [decisions] are aimed at coordinating all efforts like the moves in a chess game to safeguard the nation's financial stability, cope with possible financial risks both at home and abroad, and ensure smooth progress of the country's economic transition and development," the central bank official said.

The PBOC will firmly implement a prudent monetary policy and continue its macro prudential management, so that it can maintain "reasonable liquidity" to support the real economy while fulfilling the deleveraging task at the same time, according to the official.

Particularly, the central bank will attach importance to the regulation of systemically important financial institutions and prevent risk contagion across different industries and markets, the official noted.

The weekend conference highlighted three tasks in the financial field, namely making the financial sector better serve the real economy, containing financial risks and deepening financial reforms.

The conference has been held every five years since 1997 and is widely considered to set the tone for financial reforms.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:05:20|Editor: yan

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ZAGREB, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Minister of Defense Damir Krsticevic has resigned due to inefficient response to forest fires at the Adriatic coast, daily newspaper "Jutarnji list" reported on Tuesday.

Krsticevic resigned hours after Croatian President and commander-in-chief of the Army Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic criticized the army for not intervening sooner and helping firefighters in the second-largest city Split.

Kitarovic on Tuesday said that the minister's resignation was unacceptable. She acknowledged he was not directly responsible for what had happened.

"The army cannot intervene itself but must be called. In this situation, accountable are those who misjudged the situation on the field and called for help too late," she said.

The Croatian government and Ministry of Defense has not yet officially confirmed Krsticevic's resignation.

A fire of unknown cause started Sunday night and ravaged the area near Croatia's Adriatic coast in Dalmatia region due to strong winds. It was brought under control on Tuesday, according to the government.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:10:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

A man pours potato fries during the event on Naxos island, Greece, July 15, 2017. It took more than 1,500 kg of raw Naxos potatoes, 22 huge cauldrons, the hard work of 40 volunteers to break the Guinness World Record for cooking the heaviest batch of fries. The electronic scale that weighed the fried potatoes read 554 kg, which is 100 kg more than the previous world record set in 2014 in Eagles, Idaho, in the United States. The event was held during the 8th Naxos Potato Festival, one of the most popular gastronomic festivals of the Aegean Sea. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)

by Valentini Anagnostopoulou

NAXOS, Greece, July 18 (Xinhua) -- It took more than 1,500 kg of raw Naxos potatoes, 22 huge cauldrons, the hard work of 40 volunteers and the determination of a whole island, but in the end Naxos won the bet.

"We have broken the Guinness World Record. Greece is celebrating," announced Dimitris Kapounis, president of the island's agricultural cooperatives union on Saturday.

The electronic scale that weighed the fried potatoes read 554 kg, which is 100 kg more than the previous world record set in 2014 in Eagles, Idaho, in the United States.

According to organizers, setting a Guinness World Record was not an easy task. In order to make it into the world-famous book, strict rules apply. In this case, the potatoes had to be peeled and cut in a certain way, they had to be fried according to specific hygienic standards, weighed, served in a single container, and then distributed and eaten.

All these stages had to be documented by photos, videos, testimonies and formal statements. The evidence was then sent to the Guinness committee to be assessed before it puts its famous stamp on the achievement.

For Naxos, the biggest of the Cyclades group of islands in the Aegean Sea, potatoes are as precious as gold. "Naxos is where the heart of the potato beats," said chef Stelios Korres, who supervised the cooking leg of the operation.

Cultivated on the island since the early 1800s, the potato provided a cheap and nutritious alternative to the rural, poverty-stricken masses.

However, it didn't become the island's signature product until 1953, when Naxos was officially designated by the Greek state as the center for the cultivation and production of the Greek seed potatoes.

One of the oldest potato growers on the island, 77-year-old Nikoletta Kapouni, said she remembered how the modest, popular vegetable had raised one generation of Naxians after the next.

"Ever since I was born, in my father's arms, we were growing potatoes and I was gathering them. When I got married I did the same, and even now that my husband has passed away, my children grow potatoes and I still help them."

"We all grew up in the potato fields, I have been collecting potatoes since I was eight years old," her son Dimitris Kapounis said.

To this day, more than 250 families depend on potato growing and livestock breeding on Naxos, an island where 60 percent of the population make their living in the farming sector. They produce 8.5 million kg of potatoes per year, which allows them to meet consumer demands of a big part of mainland Greece.

Indeed, there is strong demand for Naxos potatoes, and their taste has established a countrywide reputation.

"There is no place where potatoes taste as good as here. They are our pride and joy," Kapouni claimed.

According to locals, what sets their potatoes apart is a combination of the area's unique micro climate and the growers' adherence to traditional farming practices.

"[Naxos potato] is under Protected Geographical Indication status. The climatic conditions allow us to cultivate it twice a year, the soil quality gives a sweet and tasty potato and we fertilize it naturally," Kapounis said.

"The big difference is that the potato fields here are near the sea: the soil is sandy and naturally seasoned with the sea's iodine ... So, [the potato] becomes more tasteful and rich," Korres added.

Locals hope that the newly-set Guinness world record will make their island a worldwide attraction for potato lovers.

"Our aim is to make Naxos potato famous all around Greece, all around Europe, all around the world," said Kapounis.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:10:27|Editor: An

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Liu Yunshan (R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka in Prague, the Czech Republic, July 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

PRAGUE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China and the Czech Republic should push forward cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan said on Tuesday.

Liu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks while meeting with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. Liu is paying an official goodwill visit to the Czech Republic.

Noting the Czech Republic was one of the earliest countries recognizing and establishing diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, Liu hailed the two countries' increasingly closer high-level communication and strengthened political mutual trust.

Under the guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman, China's relations with the Czech Republic are better than they have ever been, Liu said, adding that people from both sides have been deeply inspired.

He urged the two sides to seize the opportunities arising from the Belt and Road Initiative and "China-CEE 16+1 mechanism" to deepen mutually-beneficial cooperation and reap more achievements.

The China-CEE 16+1 mechanism is a platform created in April 2012 by China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Both countries, with a long history and abundant culture, have made impressive contributions to mankind's development and progress, Liu said, stressing that China is willing to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in fields such as culture, education, sports, tourism and Chinese medicine.

Sobotka, for his part, noted that his country's rapidly growing relations with China are guided by the two countries' leaders and driven by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sobotka promised that his government would provide firm support for closer cooperation with China in trade, transportation, tourism, medical care and people-to-people exchanges, so as to continuously inject new vitality into bilateral ties.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:25:38|Editor: yan

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SKOPJE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Rural areas in Macedonia occupy around 87 percent of country's territory but the fact that these areas are suffering devastation and depopulation is a serious concern for the country in general, an analytical report said Tuesday.

The report, which was developed by the Federation of Farmers of Macedonia (FFRM) and the Macedonian Platform against Poverty, was presented Tuesday at a press conference in Skopje.

Professor Emel Tuna, one of the authors, said rural poverty had become a serious problem for Macedonia, with less than 50 inhabitants living in 21 percent of villages, a maximum of ten in 104 villages, while internal migration reached 34 percent.

"About 87 percent of Macedonia's territory is rural, encompassing about 45 percent of the country's population," she said.

According to her, state of agriculture is an important factor affecting rural poverty, because it is the primary activity of a large portion of the rural population.

Professor Tuna also voiced concern on the fact that about 77 percent of the rural population active in agriculture belonged to the category unpaid labor, which is more visible among rural women.

"63 percent of these women are not active, do not have access to education, and if employed, take half the salary that a man would take for the same job. Moreover, rural women are deprived of the right to property, and are not aware of the traditional discrimination," Tuna said.

Biljana Petrovska, of FFRM, said that statistical data on rural poverty were never presented while there were given only recommendations.

According to the authors, the analysis is based on official data from the State Statistical Office, World Bank, European Commission, Freedom House, Transparency International, UNDP, and Center for Research and Policy Making etc.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:30:38|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ULAN BATOR, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian Parliament Speaker Miyegombyn Enkhbold met with the speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, Tadamori Oshimahere, on Tuesday to discuss a number of issues, including Japanese financial assistance and expanding trade ties.

Enkhbold said that Mongolia was pleased that Japan decided to provide Mongolia with more favorable financial assistance under the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Extended Fund Facility Program.

Enkhbold stressed the importance of closer cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries, assuring that the State Great Khural, Mongolia's parliament, will pay special attention to the implementation of a medium-term development program on Mongolia-Japan ties.

However, he noted that Mongolia and Japan should work to implement the Economic Partnership Agreement concluded between the two countries.

Over the past year, trade between Mongolia and Japan has grown significantly, and Mongolia will take necessary measures to eliminate double taxation to expand bilateral business cooperation, Enkhbold said.

Enkhbold also hoped Japan would pay more attention to a coal-chemical complex project in Mongolia.

Oshima said that Japan considered the expansion of bilateral cooperation with Mongolia a priority.

He stressed that, to further the development of trade and economic cooperation, both countries should consider eliminating double taxation, simplifying transportation procedures, and creating a fair, transparent and secure investment environment.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:30:40|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DHAKA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) has approved 526 million U.S. dollars to help sustain and increase infrastructure investments in Bangladesh, particularly in financing public-private partnership (PPP) projects as well as renewable energy interventions.

The assistance consists of a 500-million-U.S. dollar market-based loan to finance medium and large-scale PPP infrastructure projects, and a 26-million-U.S. dollar concessional loan to finance small and medium-sized renewable energy and energy efficiency facilities, primarily in the rural areas of the country, said the Manila-based lender on Tuesday.

Both loans are under the Third Public-Private Infrastructure Development Facility (PPIDF 3), it said.

"Infrastructure development is an integral part of Bangladesh's rapid economic growth, but it is undeniable that in order to sustain this growth, the country would need an increased investment in infrastructure that can be filled in by the private sector," said Peter Marro, an ADB principal financial sector specialist.

ADB says Bangladesh has recorded steady average growth of 6.3 percent between 2011 and 2015, enabling it to attain lower-middle income status in July 2015. But real gross domestic product (GDP) growth would need to reach an average annual rate of 7.4 percent during the 7th Five-Year Plan to move Bangladesh toward upper middle-income level.

Such targets will require a substantial increase in public and private investments from about 29 percent of GDP in 2015 to 34.4 percent by 2020, it said.

The gap in infrastructure financing alone is estimated at between 5 percent and 6 percent of GDP or a shortfall of 9 billion U.S. dollars to 10 billion U.S. dollars a year, said the bank.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:35:43|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The inaugural of YouthConnekt Africa Summit scheduled for Wednesday in the Rwandan Capital, Kigali, will focus on promoting job creation through entrepreneurship and skills development among young people, according to organizers.

The conference that will gather about 2,500 participants including more than 100 youth entrepreneurs' exhibitions is organized by the government of Rwanda, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Rwandan minister of youth and ICT Jean Philbert Nsengimana told reporters on Tuesday the event will primarily dwell on motivating and supporting young people in Africa to address unemployment through entrepreneurship and skills development.

"We are looking at empowering African youth to be entrepreneurs and participate in advocacy and become role models in their communities. The summit will also encourage economic development and transformation among young people," he added.

Rwanda will host the YouthConnekt Africa Summit from July 19-21 dubbed: "Realizing Africa's Youth Potential" and will bring together government officials, the youth, entrepreneurs, investors, multinationals and start-ups shaping the African technological ecosystem to interact and discuss on the methods of using technology to drive Africa economic growth.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, one of the world's leading entrepreneurs, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group is expected to be among key guest speakers the event, alongside, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, secretary general of UNCTAD Mukhisa Kituyi and UNDP assistant administrator Abdoulaye Mar Diye.

According Abdoulaye Mar Diye, this is the time for young people across Africa to take part in increasing Africa's competitiveness in the global economy through entrepreneurship and job creation.

"Creating opportunities, providing entrepreneurial development, access to financial technology, and leadership programs will shape the future of our youth in Africa," he said.

YouthConnekt Africa is a result of a highly successful initiative launched in 2012 by the government of Rwanda and UNDP.

The YouthConnekt initiative is a multi-faceted program that engages youth in national dialogue, and works with them to find or create their own employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

It's designed to realize the demographic dividend by combining elements of skills development, entrepreneurship, access to jobs and finance, awareness raising on issues related to youth development, and promotion of youth citizenship.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:40:47|Editor: yan

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GAZA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The armed wings of 10 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, warned Israel on Tuesday they would respond to its measures against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Masked militants carrying arms, representing the armed wings of these factions, issued the warning at a news conference in Gaza Tuesday afternoon.

A masked militant, representing the pro-Hamas Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Gaza, told the press that the military wings can not keep silent for the "endless daily Israeli violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque," one of top holy Muslim sites.

"We won't let the Israeli occupation under any circumstances to carry on its attacks against our Aqsa Mosque and our holy sites in Jerusalem and in all Palestine," said the militant.

He added that "defending Jerusalem is not only the responsibility of the Palestinians, but also the responsibility of all Arabs and Muslims allover the world, and they are not allowed to turn their backs to what happens."

The militant called on the Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to unite and defend Jerusalem by all their means, adding "the enemy (Israel) must know that the price of attacking Al-Aqsa will be very high."

Israel had temporarily closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after a terror attack on Friday, in which three Israeli Arab assailants were shot dead after killing two Israeli policemen in the area.

Tensions have been rising after Israel installed metal detectors and CCTVs outside the gates to the compound as part of new security measures, which Palestinians protested as violation of the status quo.

At least 50 Palestinian protesters were wounded Monday night in clashes with Israeli security forces on the compound.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:40:48|Editor: yan

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JUBA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 30 people have been killed and 23 others injured during a deadly cattle raid in a remote pastoralist area in South Sudan's eastern state of Jonglei over the weekend, a senior local government official said Tuesday.

Akech Dengdit, Jonglei State information Minister said armed youth believed to be from neighboring Boma state attacked Bor north and Atouch counties leaving at least 30 dead, including 9 attackers.

The official said thousands of people have been displaced from the area, calling on humanitarian organizations to respond to crisis.

"As of Monday, there were 28 confirmed dead, 23 injured and the number could go beyond 30 because we are still receiving more casualties. The attackers took away 9,000 cattle and burnt down several huts," Dengdit said.

The latest violence may shatter a peace deal signed in May between the warring tribes brokered by the country's first vice President Taban Deng Gai and the UN Mission in South Sudan( UNMISS) aimed at ending decades of inter-ethnic violence.

Dengdit said the government of Jonglei state has scaled up security in the region to prevent their youth from carrying out retaliatory attacks, calling on their counterparts in Boma state to do the same.

"As the government, we are trying everything to protect lives and stop the violence from spreading again and we ask our neighbors to control their youth," he added.

The Jonglei region bordering Ethiopia to the east has long been plagued by ethnic fighting over cattle grazing grounds and access to water.

The region is prone to deadly cattle rustling between the Nuer, Murle and Dinka tribes who often carry retaliatory attacks against each other killing hundreds, destroying property, mass displacement and sometimes abduction of children.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:40:50|Editor: An

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TAIPEI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- One person has been confirmed dead and 15 others injured after an explosion hit a restaurant in Feng Chia business district of Taichung, Taiwan Tuesday lunchtime, local authorities said.

The body of a woman was found in the second floor bathroom above the restaurant hours after the blaze was brought under control. The victim was identified as a 19-year-old surnamed Chen, according to local authorities.

A series of explosions were heard emanating from the restaurant shortly after noon, and fire enveloped the site and an adjacent clothing store, a noodle restaurant and a curry restaurant, according to the local fire bureau.

A total of 14 people were taken to hospital, with injuries including severe burns.

Wu, 30, the owner of the restaurant suffered burns to over 90 percent of his body and is in a critical condition. Other victims included a 35-year-old pregnant woman and six people believed to be students from a nearby university.

One person, who did not seek medical assistance at the scene, later fell ill and visited a local hospital. The number of victims may increase, local authorities said.

A total of 69 fire fighters and 23 fire vehicles brought the blaze under control.

A gas leak might have caused the blaze, according to the local fire bureau. Further investigation continues.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:51:03|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces arrested 20 female foreigners, including five Germans, in Mosul city over charges of joining the Islamic State group, local media reported Tuesday.

According to an Iraqi officer, the 20 foreigners are from different countries, including Turkey, Canada and Chechnya.

One of the Germans does not speak Arabic, but she had joined Daesh and fought with its militants after finishing her studies, it said.

They were hiding in a hotel, where they were arrested with weapons and explosive belts in their possession.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:51:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Abu Hanifah

JAKARTA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has decided to block Telegram application for security reasons as the messaging service with high privacy features has been massively used by members of radical groups for coordinated attacks.

From testimonies of terror suspects in the last few years, Indonesian authorities learned that Telegram has been used by them to communicate with each other, inseminate terrorism ideology among them and even spread the guidance to make bombs.

Indonesian Presient Joko Widodo said the move to shut down Telegram in Indonesia recommended by the national police took into effect since Saturday.

"Security for the state and people is important. That is why we execute the decision (to block Telegram)," the president said, adding that thousands of contents circulating in Telegram have been found to have potential threats to national security.

Indonesia, through the Communication and Informatics Ministry, failed to get responses from Telegram over their request for cooperation to curb terrorism-linked content in the messaging service, the president added.

Police Chief General Tito Karnavian said they have identified domestic terrorist groups which have been actively using Telegram to facilitate their operations.

He said Telegram becomes a favorite messaging service which highly accommodates their activities as it has sophisticated privacy with encryption feature and enable them to disseminate their radical and terrorism doctrines through its highly secrecy chat room feature.

The Telegram service in Indonesia can be resumed should it allow authorities to thoroughly trace down the trails of Indonesian nationals linked with terror contents in the application.

"It would be reopened should it give us the access," the Indonesian police chief said on Monday.

Telegram founder, Russian national Pavel Durov, eventually agreed to block the Telegram accounts administering chat groups with radical contents and establish more intensive contacts with Indonesian authorities for an "effective and efficient results."

Through its high secrecy encrypted messaging system which cannot be accessed by unauthorized party, Telegram enables terrorists to coordinate to each other, making it like their "control and command center."

Telegram was also found used by perpetrators of the Paris attacks in 2015 and New Year's Eve attacks in Turkey and St. Petersburg in 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:51:05|Editor: Zhou Xin

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UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Employees, diplomats and visitors were evacuated Tuesday morning from the United Nations headquarters buildings in New York City following a fire alarm, which was lifted about 20 minutes later.

No smoke or fire was seen from the outside of the buildings. People were allowed back into the buildings after the alarm was cancelled.

Fire drills have been conducted regularly at the UN headquarters, though evacuation was rare in recent years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:56:08|Editor: yan

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THE HAGUE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation within the Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM has been so difficult that executives doubt its continuity in the current competitive market, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported on Tuesday, based on a leaked internal report regarding the company's management culture.

NOS stated that, 13 years after the French airline Air France and Dutch airline KLM merged, there is great distrust between employees of both companies. "The Dutch and the French do not really understand each other, they both want to be the dominant party and do not put the interest of the group first."

According to NOS, a French and a Dutch researcher spoke to almost 50 managers within the airline for the research commissioned by the works councils of Air France and KLM.

The interviews showed that employees of Air France find that KLM puts its own interest first and does not want to look at the interests of the French. KLM employees, on their part, find that the interests of the Dutch airline are not sufficiently respected by Air France.

"The French have the idea that the Dutch only think about money and are always ready to fight for the profits, and that they are afraid of no-one. The Dutch think that the French are stuck in hierarchy, and stuck to political interest that not necessarily are the company's interests," NOS cited writings by the researchers.

It was stated that, because of the mutual distrust, the cooperation falters in many areas. One of the managers said that the distrust is enlarged because employees of both airlines "daily" leak information to the press, to influence the public opinion.

Many of the respondents feel like the merge between the airlines does not meet the expectations. "The extent to which employees are disillusioned is shocking," the researchers wrote. "People are pessimistic, frustrated and fatigued because they feel that they are not listened to," they added.

However, there are also enough employees with a positive attitude, the researchers wrote, and the wish to break away from the stereotyping that hinders Air France-KLM's success still exists.

The researchers did not provide explicit advice in their report. KLM gave a reaction regarding the report to Dutch current affairs television program EenVandaag saying that "in the coming period, we will decide together with Air France and Air France-KLM on how to draw lessons from this and how to achieve improvements where necessary."

Since May 2004, Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have become the largest European airline group. Each airline has retained its individual identity, trade name and brand.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:56:09|Editor: An

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) awards the highest Palestinian medal to Chinese President Xi Jinping after their talks in Beijing, capital of China, July 18, 2017. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China supports a political settlement of the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution, President Xi Jinping said Tuesday.

China supports Palestine in building an independent, full sovereignty state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, Xi said in his talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Xi said the UN Security Council Resolution 2334 should be effectively implemented, and all the settlement-building on the occupied territories of Palestine should be immediately stopped.

The resolution, adopted on Dec. 23, 2016, condemned Israel's settlements on occupied Palestinian territory as illegal, and urged it to halt building.

Xi said measures should be taken to prevent violence against civilians and peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible to accelerate the resolution of the Palestine issue.

China is one of the first countries to support the just cause of the Palestinian people and to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian state, Xi said, calling both countries "good friends, partners and brothers."

In 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which recognized the need to establish a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former British Mandate territory of Palestine.

The 1967 Middle East war resulted in Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. The last round of peace talks between Israel and Palestine halted in 2014, mainly due to the continuing expansion of Jewish settlements on the occupied territories of Palestine.

China will host a symposium on peace between Palestine and Israel later this year to contribute wisdom to resolving the Palestinian issue, Xi said.

He said China is willing to participate in and support all efforts that are conducive to a political settlement of the Palestinian issue.

"China proposes to launch a tripartite dialogue mechanism with Palestine and Israel to advance major projects to assist the Palestinian side," Xi said.

Xi reiterated that China will, "as always," support the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.

Xi said China appreciates Palestine's adherence to the one-China policy. He said China will work with Palestine to give political support to each other, maintain high-level exchanges and promote cooperation in various areas.

China regards both Palestine and Israel as important partners under the Belt and Road Initiative, he said.

"China will support capable and qualified companies in carrying out investment cooperation in Palestine for mutual benefits and win-win results," according to Xi.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa, along and beyond the ancient trade routes.

Xi said China will cooperate with Palestine in industrial park development, personnel training and solar power plant construction to help the country improve its self-development capacity.

Xi called on both sides to strengthen exchanges in culture, education, science and technology, among others.

Thanking China for its support for the just cause of Palestine, Abbas said Palestine will continue to support the one-China policy and China's reunification.

Palestine admires China's achievements in economic and social development and is willing to have closer high-level exchanges with China and participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, Abbas said.

Palestine spoke highly of China's constructive proposals on promoting a political solution to the Palestine issue and hopes to see China play a greater role in Middle East peace process, Abbas said.

After the talks, the two heads of state witnessed the signing of cooperation documents ranging from diplomacy, economy and personnel training to culture.

Abbas awarded the highest Palestinian medal to Xi for China's support to the just cause of Palestine and to pay homage to Xi himself.

Thanking Abbas for the medal, Xi said it represents the importance Palestine gives to bilateral ties with China and the acknowledgement of China's fair stance on the Palestine issue.

China will unswervingly push forward relations with Palestine and the Middle East peace process, Xi said.

Prior to the talks, Xi held a red-carpet welcome ceremony for Abbas at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Abbas is on a state visit to China from July 17 to 20 at the invitation of Xi.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:56:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

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SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 18 (Xinhua) -- An Indian army troop was killed Tuesday in skirmishes between troops of India and Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, officials said.

The trooper was killed in Nowgam sector of Handwara along the LoC in frontier Kupwara district, 125 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

On Sunday, a Pakistani military vehicle fell into Neelum River after being hit by Indian firing resulting in drowning of four Pakistani soldiers.

Reports said body of one Pakistani soldier was recovered while search for the remaining was going on.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 23:56:11|Editor: yan

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CAPE TOWN, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South African Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi on Tuesday made an urgent appeal to meter-taxi drivers and those operating cars by using Uber technologies, urging them to end the spate of violent attacks on each other.

"This kind of behaviour which breeds intimidation and anarchy stands condemned and should not be allowed in our public transport system and our country in general," said Maswanganyi.

This came following the recent spiralling attacks and counter attacks involving meter-taxi and Uber drivers in parts of the country.

Several people have been killed in violence related to the rivalry between meter-taxi and Uber drivers.

Last weekend, an Uber driver died of injuries he sustained in an attack on June 10 by an unidentified group of people. In the attack, the driver's car was set alight. His death fueled anger among Uber drivers.

In self-defence, Uber drivers also launched counter attacks on meter-taxi drivers. Uber has hired private security to protect drivers and customers at violent hot spots.

Maswanganyi strongly denounced the spate of violent attacks, which he said "are not in keeping with the government vision to promote a safe, reliable, effective, efficient, coordinated, integrated and environmentally friendly public transport system."

"These attacks are also against the ethos of the society we are seeking to build, a society free of hate, violence and crime," he added.

Maswanganyi said he will soon be meeting the Meter Taxi Association as well as Uber Management to deal with this debacle.

Uber drivers have called for a meeting with Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to help stop the violence.

"As government, we will also work with all the Ministers in the Security Cluster as well as other relevant government departments to have a multi-pronged approach in dealing with this debacle," said Maswanganyi.

Maswanganyi called upon members of the society with any knowledge and information of the perpetrators of this violence and criminality to report such gruesome incidences to the law enforcement agencies.

Also on Tuesday, the Labour Department welcomed a ruling by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) that Uber drivers are the employees of the company.

The ruling is in line with the Labour Relations Act which means that any person who falls in that category is an employee and therefore fully covered in terms of labour legislation, the department said.

With regard to the Uber drivers, like any employees, there are no exception and these drivers are fully protected by the South African Labour Laws, Commissioner Vuyo Mafata said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:01:19|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- "Mobike," "AlphaGo" and "emoji package" were among the most frequently used new words in Chinese media in 2016, according to a report released Tuesday.

Other popular terms included "Long March spirit," "South China Sea" and "Tiangong-2," said the report released by China's Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission.

The annual report, which was the 12th of its kind, was compiled based on information from the language database of the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research Center.

According to the report, "rule," "small goal," "change" and "Belt and Road" were the most popular terms of the year.

Linguists noted that media frequently used the word "rule" to express the citizens' increasing awareness of abiding by regulations under changing circumstances.

The popularity of "small goal" was a demonstration that the Chinese people are positive and practical. "Change" and "Belt and Road" represented citizen's common aspirations for interconnectivity and win-win cooperation, said linguists.

Widely used terms in "bullet screens" and car stickers were also included in the report. Terms such as "baby onboard" reflected changing values and sentiments of the public, the report said.

Experts noted the emergence of low-brow terms in "bullet screens" and car stickers, calling for stronger guidance and supervision.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:10:23|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DHAKA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Infrastructure projects have significant potential to increase the economic empowerment of women in Bangladesh and contribute to the government's efforts to promote gender equality, reveals an evaluation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Manila-based lender's evaluation makes clear, however, that building new roads, expanding electricity grids and improving water supply services, the mainstay of ADB's support for Bangladesh over the past decade, do not automatically lead to better livelihood opportunities for women or other gender-equitable results.

"Women must be given a seat at the table in infrastructure-building," Marvin-Taylor Dormond, director general of Independent Evaluation at ADB, said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Women need to be part of the decision-making in all phases of infrastructure projects, and giving them a voice in such crucial driver of economic growth will go a long way toward reducing Bangladesh's still high levels of gender inequality."

ADB's Independent Evaluation Department assessed ADB's support for gender and development in its Bangladeshi operations during 2005-2015. The period saw a marked increase in infrastructure projects in ADB's 9- billion-U.S. dollar portfolio for the country, of which infrastructure accounted for 5 billion U.S. dollars, it said.

Both the Bangladeshi government, in its Seventh Five-Year Plan (2012-2016), and ADB are committed to promoting gender equality, it added.

The evaluation found that this collaboration and ADB's "top-down and bottom-up" approach to strengthening gender equality by working with government ministries, local governments, and communities was effective.

The evaluation also found that significant strides have been made in reducing gender disparities in education and health in Bangladesh, where the status of women has generally improved over the last decade.

But women continue to face high levels of inequality in livelihood opportunities and access to economic assets, it said.

In rural Bangladesh, according to the ADB, women own only 8 percent of productive assets, according to the latest available estimate. Women's participation in the workforce, though improving thanks to the garment industry, labor migration and microfinance programs, remains low, at an estimated 34 percent.

The evaluation raises the concern that these factors will heighten the risk of women to the effects of vulnerability to shocks.

"Because of high levels of inequality in livelihood opportunities and economic assets, women have far less resilience than men to various shocks, such as natural disasters, climate risks, and economic downturns," said the evaluation report's main author, Hyun Son.

An important conclusion from the evaluation is that there was little focus in operations to get men to support gender equality. Gender issues are not just women's issues.

Asian Development Bank's Independent Evaluation, reporting to the Board of Directors through the Development Effectiveness Committee, contributes to development effectiveness by providing feedback on ADB's policies, strategies, operations, and special concerns in Asia and the Pacific.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:11:00|Editor: yan

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SANAA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni security officials said Tuesday that an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition has killed at least 11 civilians.

The civilians were apparently trying to escape fighting in western Yemen on Tuesday when their vehicle was struck.

The officials said the wounded include women and children in critical condition, with the death toll expected to rise.

The coalition has been waging an air war against the Houthis since March 2015, and shut down Sanaa's international airport a year ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:11:25|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Command Post, a special entity established to watch over the implementation of Ethiopia's state of emergency which came into effect last October, hailed its nine-month performance as successful.

Africa's second most populous nation has been under a state of emergency period for the last nine months, following the Ethiopian parliament's decision on March 30 to extend the initial six-month period by additional four months.

Siraj Fegessa, Ethiopia's Defense Minister and Secretariat of the Command Post, speaking at a meeting on Tuesday organized to evaluate the nine-month performance report of the Command Post, said that the implementation of the state of emergency has improved Ethiopia's peace and security situation.

Fegessa further commended the general public's contribution, together with security officials, for the success gained in the reported period.

The country declared the first six-month state of emergency in October last year due to violent demonstrations that erupted in some parts of the country, in which, according to a recent report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, 669 Ethiopians were killed in connection with the demonstrations.

Ethiopia's defense minister further affirmed that works are underway to bring those responsible to justice. He also indicated that further extension of the state of emergency period "will be decided by relevant bodies."

Ethiopia's state of emergency, during its initial days, had imposed various restrictions such as curfews, social media blocks, and a ban on diplomats traveling more than 40 km outside the capital Addis Ababa without approval.

Much of these restrictions were, however, lifted as the country's peace and security situation improved.
Iraqis walk on a street in west Mosul on July 13, 2017, a few days after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (AFP Photo)

BAGHDAD, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces arrested 20 female foreigners, including five Germans, in Mosul city over charges of joining the Islamic State group, local media reported Tuesday.

According to an Iraqi officer, the 20 foreigners are from different countries, including Turkey, Canada and Chechnya.

One of the Germans does not speak Arabic, but she had joined Daesh and fought with its militants after finishing her studies, it said.

They were hiding in a hotel, where they were arrested with weapons and explosive belts in their possession.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:26:52|Editor: yan

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KUWAIT, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has sent condolences to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi over the killing of five policemen by terrorists, the official news agency KUNA reported Tuesday.

Five Egyptian police conscripts were killed in a terror attack on Monday in North Sinai Province.

In a cable sent to Sisi, Sheikh Sabah expressed his "deepest sorrow and grief" over the death of the Egyptian policemen, the report said.

The Kuwaiti leader also expressed Kuwait's strong condemnation of this brutal terror attack, while offering all possible support to Egypt in maintaining its stability and security.

Egypt has been facing a rising wave of terrorist activities following the military's removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Hundreds of Egyptian policemen and soldiers were killed in terror attacks over the past years. Egyptian security forces have also killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested a similar number of suspects, as part of the country's anti-terror war.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:46:57|Editor: yan

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JOHANNESBURG, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South African Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown said Tuesday the country will soon reduce dependency on coal for its power generation for new energy mix which are environmentally friendly.

At the Power-Gen & DistribuTech Africa Conference in Johannesburg, Brown said the government will soon unveil a new Integrated Resource Plan which will clearly articulate what the government intends to do and how.

"We know that the plan will require us to move away from our dependency on coal to embrace a new energy mix derived from coal, gas, nuclear and renewable resources... Eskom is already busy with projects aimed at reducing air pollution from its coal-powered stations, and offsetting emissions," said Brown.

South Africa is a signatory to some international bodies like the Paris Agreement of 2016 which bound the country to reduce emission. The country is now leaning towards an inclusive continental electricity sector skewed and develop better lives for the poor and the marginalized, Brown said.

South Africa is involved in research and development on new technologies to produce cleaner power on commercial basis.

"Electricity is the cornerstone of any economy; without it, there can be no industry, little development and only stunted growth. South Africa and Eskom, which is among the world's largest power utilities, stand ready to collaborate with the rest of the continent and the world to address common continental and global challenges," she added.

Like other countries in the South, South Africa are victims of the climate change created by the countries in the North and are working hard for more equitable and sustainable solutions, Brown said.

"Networking and information-sharing exercises such as this conference present rare opportunities for the cream of the continents thought leaders to plot a collective trajectory to a lighter future. A future in which we have overcome Africa's infrastructure deficit," said the minister.

Brown encouraged African countries to be self-sustainable by diversify their roles from being power traders only.

The senior officials in the continent and abroad are meeting to improve the electricity provision and use of cleaner energy. The event will end on July 20, 1017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 00:57:02|Editor: yan

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KIEV, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A separatist leader in the Ukrainian region of Donbas announced a plan on Tuesday to create a new state with Donetsk as capital.

"The new state formation will consist of 19 regions of the former Ukraine and will be called Malorossiya, taking Donetsk as its new capital. Kiev remains a historical and cultural center," Alexander Zakharchenko said in a statement.

Malorossiya will be "a federal state with broad powers of autonomy of the regions," in which regional languages are guaranteed to be retained, he said.

Most areas of today's Ukraine used to be called Malorossiya, when it was part of the Russian Empire before 1917.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is currently visiting Georgia, said Ukraine was "hopeful for the reintegration of Donbas and Crimea, with the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over those territories."

The Kremlin has not reacted to the rebel proclamation so far, but Russia's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Boris Gryzlov, said it did not fit the Minsk process.

"I perceive this only as an invitation to a discussion. This statement has no constitutional consequences," Gryzlov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

War broke out in Donbas -- Donetsk and Lugansk -- between government troops and pro-Russian separatists following the February 2014 revolution that led to the fall of President Viktor Yanukovych. Violence has been plaguing the Donbas region since.

The two sides reached a peace agreement brokered by Russia, France and Germany in September 2014 in the Belarussian capital of Minsk, with a follow-up deal signed in February 2015.

The Minsk agreements envisage a cease-fire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections in Donbas, among other measures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 01:42:24|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Sisi met a coalition of Chinese firms Tuesday over building a light rail transit around Cairo.

China's AVIC International and China Railway Group Limited are jointly in charge of carrying our the project.

"The meeting reached an initial agreement on the project yet it would need more time and further negotiations until a final deal is reached," the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Chinese embassy in Cairo told Xinhua after the meeting.

Egyptian presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said that the meeting, attended by Egyptian Transport Minister Hesham Arafat, discussed the latest developments of the negotiations on the light rail project.

"The project is part of the plan implemented by the Transport Ministry to develop the railway network and improve its services nationwide," said the Egyptian presidential spokesman.

The aspired light rail is a fast tram expected to cover a distance of 66 km with 11 stops, connecting the new administrative capital city with distant districts of Greater Cairo including Al-Salam City, Ramadan 10 City, Obour City, Badr City and Shorouk City.

The Chinese group said it would assign Egyptian contractors with some civil and railway construction works that will provide thousands of job opportunities in the country.

Egypt and China enjoy strong bilateral relations that have been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. The two countries marked in 2016 the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

The volume of trade between Egypt and China has mounted to 11.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, ranking Egypt as the third African trade partner with China.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 01:42:26|Editor: yan

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WINDHOEK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Namibia is now recognizing disability as a developmental and human rights issue, a deputy minister said Tuesday.

The deputy minister responsible for Disability Affairs in the Vice-Presidency, Alexia Manombe-Ncube, said this when she addressed a workshop in Windhoek.

The workshop was on the proposed Centre for Disability Services that was held at the University of Namibia (Unam).

Currently, there are more than 80 students living with disabilities at the university's 12 campuses. One of the focus for the workshop was t discuss the provision of professional assistance and facilitate the academic welfare of staff and students with disabilities at the university.

According to the 2011 census, Namibia's population of people living with disabilities increased from 42,000 in 1991 to more than 100, 000 in 2011.

Manombe-Ncube said these statistics not only show an increase in numbers of persons with disabilities, but they also show that as a country, Namibia is now recognizing disability not as a health issue but as a developmental and human rights' issue.

The deputy minister also said that the centre would support those living with disabilities to reach their optimal human potential.

"It is essential that a general awareness is created among staff and students on how they can appropriately respond to the needs of fellow students and staff with disability," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 01:47:31|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Ministry of Interior said Tuesday that the Albanian government sought assistance from neighboring countries and NATO to cope with the fires that have recently engulfed the country.

"Albania is in a situation of emergency as there are more than 90 activated fires across the country," Albanian Interior Minister Dritan Demiraj told reporters Tuesday after inspecting some of the sites in northern Albania.

According to him, although all structures had been mobilized to cope with the emergency situation created by fires, the assistance from other countries as well as NATO was deemed as crucial to end the problem.

He also warned tough measures against all those citizens setting fires deliberately. According to a report from the Interior Ministry, over 70 percent of fires were started deliberately.

Meanwhile, the authorities here confirmed that local government is also assisting the structures engaged in fire extinction.
A cargo train is launched to operate on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and financed by Chinese government in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, May 30, 2017. (Xinhua Photo)

CAIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Sisi met a coalition of Chinese firms Tuesday over building a light rail transit around Cairo.

China's AVIC International and China Railway Group Limited are jointly in charge of carrying our the project.

"The meeting reached an initial agreement on the project yet it would need more time and further negotiations until a final deal is reached," the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Chinese embassy in Cairo told Xinhua after the meeting.

Egyptian presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said that the meeting, attended by Egyptian Transport Minister Hesham Arafat, discussed the latest developments of the negotiations on the light rail project.

"The project is part of the plan implemented by the Transport Ministry to develop the railway network and improve its services nationwide," said the Egyptian presidential spokesman.

The aspired light rail is a fast tram expected to cover a distance of 66 km with 11 stops, connecting the new administrative capital city with distant districts of Greater Cairo including Al-Salam City, Ramadan 10 City, Obour City, Badr City and Shorouk City.

The Chinese group said it would assign Egyptian contractors with some civil and railway construction works that will provide thousands of job opportunities in the country.

Egypt and China enjoy strong bilateral relations that have been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. The two countries marked in 2016 the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

The volume of trade between Egypt and China has mounted to 11.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, ranking Egypt as the third African trade partner with China.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 02:12:42|Editor: yan

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VILNIUS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's parliament (Seimas) should do more to encourage the country's business environment, the Lithuania Investors' Forum said in a statement on Tuesday.

After analyzing Seimas' recently concluded spring session, the Investors' Forum, a business association of the largest investors in the Lithuanian economy, suggested adopting the new labor code, amending the forestry law and reforming Lithuanian universities.

The association said investors were critical of the newly implemented additional limitations for alcohol sales in Lithuania and the law on assisted reproduction.

Rolandas Valiunas, chairman of the board, said: "However, some crucially important legal acts have been passed in this period which will have long term positive impact on the country's investment climate."

Eight out of ten foreign companies which are active in Lithuania consider labor relations regulation as one of the areas where changes were the most necessary in order to improve Lithuania's business environment, the organization said.

Research conducted by the organization showed that 56 percent of investors call for urgent education system reforms in Lithuania.

At the end of June, Seimas adopted a resolution outlining a series of university mergers. After the reform, the number of universities would shrink by more than a half from the current 14 in a bid to increase the quality of higher education.

Meanwhile, additional restrictions of alcohol sales, such as limitation of legal drinking age, sales hours and ban on advertising of alcoholic beverages were among the decisions which are seen as doubtful by the investors.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 02:12:44|Editor: yan

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JUBA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said on Tuesday that it welcomes the decision by Sudan to extend the humanitarian aid corridor deal until July 2018 which will help to ease continued supply of relief aid to thousands of displaced people in the war-torn country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mawien Makol told Xinhua in Juba that the deal which was inked in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday between the two countries will help ease the hardship in the war-torn country resulting from the more than three years of ongoing conflict.

"It has been extended for one more year until 2018. We welcome it because it is important for our country at this particular moment due to the ongoing hardship," Makol said.

The humanitarian corridor deal initially signed in 2014 following the outbreak of the December 2013 violence in South Sudan was witnessed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The three partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the agreement that aims to deliver 90,000 metric tons of aid, to the northern Upper Nile and Unity states.

"We are still improving our relations and what is not yet done we shall finish it," Makol added.

South Sudan and Sudan have been having unresolved ongoing differences over border demarcation along their common border and holding referendum for the contested oil-rich Abyei region.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Kiir and his former deputy Riek 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 Machar to flee into exile.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions that have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 02:27:51|Editor: yan

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NAIROBI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan farmers are eyeing the lucrative Chinese purple tea market in order to boost their incomes.

Njeru Industries Director Roselyne Njoki told Xinhua recently in Nairobi that purple tea sells for more than twice the cost of traditional black tea that Kenya is known for.

"I am therefore planning to increase my acreage of purple tea in order to satisfy the growing demand in China," Njoki said on the sidelines of the Tea Packers Forum.

The purple tea farmer sources Chinese buyers through attending trade shows in the Asian nation. "I always attend the tea trade shows in China in order to get additional clients so as to expand my sales," Njoki said.

Njoki noted that Chinese tea consumers are very health conscious and hence prefer purple tea which has high antioxidant content.

Njeru industries, maintains 145 acres of purple tea and sells between 2,000 kg and 3,000 kg of processed purple tea monthly to Chinese buyers. The farmer began cultivating purple tea over five years ago in order to diversify her income.

"The price of traditional tea in Kenya at the auction has been fluctuating greatly due to oversupply of the commodity and hence the need to branch to specialty tea varieties," Njoki said. She also maintains a tea estate with over 300 acres of green tea.

Kenya is one of the largest producers of black tea in the world as its production hit 473 million kg in 2016 while its purple tea production stood at 2 million kg.

Njoki added that purple tea has additional benefits because it matures in two years as opposed to the conventional tea variety that takes three years.
Alexander Zaharchenko (C), leader of so-called Donetsk National Republic, attends a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, May 9, 2015. (Xinhua/Alexander Ermochenko)

KIEV, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A separatist leader in the Ukrainian region of Donbas announced a plan on Tuesday to create a new state with Donetsk as capital.

"The new state formation will consist of 19 regions of the former Ukraine and will be called Malorossiya, taking Donetsk as its new capital. Kiev remains a historical and cultural center," head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko said in a statement.

Malorossiya will be "a federal state with broad powers of autonomy of the regions," in which regional languages are guaranteed to be retained, he said.

Most areas of today's Ukraine used to be called Malorossiya, when it was part of the Russian Empire before 1917.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is currently visiting Georgia, said Ukraine was "hopeful for the reintegration of Donbas and Crimea, with the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over those territories."

The Kremlin has not reacted to the rebel proclamation so far, but Russia's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Boris Gryzlov, said it did not fit the Minsk process.

"I perceive this only as an invitation to a discussion. This statement has no constitutional consequences," Gryzlov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

War broke out in Donbas -- Donetsk and Lugansk -- between government troops and pro-Russian separatists following the February 2014 revolution that led to the fall of President Viktor Yanukovych. Violence has been plaguing the Donbas region since.

The two sides reached a peace agreement brokered by Russia, France and Germany in September 2014 in the Belarussian capital of Minsk, with a follow-up deal signed in February 2015.

The Minsk agreements envisage a cease-fire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections in Donbas, among other measures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 04:23:59|Editor: An

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Photo taken on July 14, 2017 shows locally sourced beef from Texas at a local market in Houston, the United States. The United States has reached agreements with China on final details of a protocol to allow it to export beef to China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on June 12. In 2003, China shut its market to American beef after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as Mad Cow Disease, was detected in the United States. (Xinhua/Yi-Chin Lee)

by Robert Stanton

HOUSTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Sitting atop his horse on an overcast day, Texas cattle rancher Wayland Kelley surveyed the cows and calves that grazed on a 600-acre field his family leases in south of Houston, the United States.

Sales of cattle have been steady for Kelley and his uncles Rick Kelley and Leonard "Butch" Kelley, who began the family-owned Cow House Cattle Company in 2003 in Hitchcock, Texas.

With the market reopening of U.S. beef exports to China, cattle sales are expected to go from good to better -- not only for the Kelley family but for ranchers throughout the United States.

The United States has reached agreements with China on final details of a protocol to allow it to export beef to China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on June 12.

In 2003, China shut its market to American beef after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as Mad Cow Disease, was detected in the United States.

In Texas, beef producers say they plan to capitalize on the re-energized market of China,

"The reopening of trade will make it a lot better for the cattle industry as a whole," said Kelley, who raises cattle on leased grazing land in Galveston County. "I feel that it will give us smaller ranchers the opportunity to grow and to produce better beef."

Virtually every sector of the U.S. beef industry -- from the ranchers to the feed lot owners that fatten the cattle for sale, and the slaughterhouses that process the meat -- are praising the news from China.

Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), said that U.S. beef is of high quality and meets all standards for consumer safety and consumption.

"Restoring U.S. beef access to China has been a top priority for many years, and we are excited to have the opportunity to provide Chinese consumers with safe, tender, and delicious U.S. beef once again," he said.

The appetite for American beef has skyrocketed in Asia in recent years, with Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong emerging as three of the world's top five importers of American-produced beef.

"China is the world's fastest-growing beef import market," said Joe Schuele, vice president of communications at the U.S. Meat Export Federation. "It has grown tenfold in last five to six years, so the U.S. industry doesn't want to be on the sidelines while our competitors capitalize on this market."

Until the ban in 2003, the United States was China's largest supplier of imported beef, providing 70 percent of the total intake, according to the Independent Cattlemen's Association (ICA) of Texas. China has 1.4 billion consumers who are potential customers for beef.

The U.S. cattle inventory as of Jan. 1, 2017, was 93.5 million head, according to ICA Texas. Texas led the way with 12.3 million head, followed by Nebraska and Kansas each with 6.4 million head of cattle, according to the association. The economic impact of the Texas cattle industry was 10.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014.

"The opening of the China market is great news for Texas ranchers that produce safe, high-quality beef each and every day," said Jason Bagley, senior manager of beef resources at the Texas Beef Council. "The market is constantly developing and we look forward to having the opportunity to provide Chinese consumers with a great beef eating experience in the future."

The renewal of beef trade is only part of bilateral deal between the United States and China, but it could be translated into positive signs for further deepening cooperation between the two countries.

The reopening of U.S. beef market to China could lead to expanded overall trade between the two nations, said Professor Steven Lewis, China research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston. The trade deal also opens the market for expanded U.S. exports of chicken and natural gas, he said.

"Everybody looks at this as a good for the beef, natural gas and poultry industries, but it's really just like an appetizer," he said.

Meanwhile, some people express that they hope international cooperation in economic area would help improve relations among nations.

Rich Anderson, whose family has raised and sold cattle at the Muleshoe Ranch in Gail, western Texas, for 141 years, said that reopening U.S.-China beef exports will raise demand for Texas beef, a "win-win" for both countries.

"We've got to make friends with everybody" he said. "I feel this (trade deal) will help our relations. Nobody wants to fight. Everybody has got to be fair traders, and fair on each side."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 04:39:17|Editor: yan

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LUSAKA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Political tension could distract Zambia's plans to access an aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), international rating agency Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday.

While acknowledging that the key rating drivers for Zambia remains fiscal and external deficits and their effect on public sector debt, Fitch said the key risk stemming from the current political tension if it escalated could jeopardize an IMF aid package as well as other lender's willingness to provide the southern African nation with external financing, a statement posted on its website said.

It added that progress towards an IMF program has remained slow and may be delayed further by domestic political events, adding that expectation of an IMF program was key to Zambia's B/negative sovereign rating.

Zambia has witnessed political tension emanating from last year's disputed elections. The tension has worsened following the arrest of the country's leading opposition figure Hakainde Hichilema who was arrested in April and is facing treason charges.

On July 4, President Edgar Lungu invoked Article 31 of the country's constitution which gives security wings enhanced security measures to deal with a spate of fires and damage to other public properties witnessed in the country.

The move was approved by parliament and has since been extended for three months.

During an IMF's recent mission to Zambia last month, the two parties agreed on the remaining actions needed to reach staff-level agreement and a request to the IMF Executive Board could be made next month if the two sides could reach understandings.

Last week, the Zambian leader said the IMF could go if they were not happy with his decision to invoke Article 31 which resulted in the declaration of a state of threatened public emergency.

His comments were backed by Minister of National Development Planning Lucky Mulusa who said Zambia was not desperate for an IMF aid package.

The comments have raised suspicion on the current talks with the IMF, with critics asking the government to come clean on what was happening.

Talks with the IMF began last year as the southern African nation's economy crumbled due to falling copper prices and a large fiscal deficit.

An IMF program is expected to help support the balance of payments, provide a policy anchor for fiscal and economic reforms and unlock additional sources of external financing from multilateral and bilateral lenders.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 04:54:25|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump met with U.S. service members here on Tuesday as the Pentagon was still working on a new Afghanistan strategy.

"I've heard plenty of ideas from a lot of people, but I want to hear it from people on the ground," Trump told reporters before the luncheon with service members at the White House.

"We've been there for now close to 17 years, and I want to find out why we've been there for 17 years, how it's going, and what we should do in terms of additional ideas," Trump added.

For months, the Pentagon had been working on a new Afghanistan strategy and CNN previously cited two Trump administration officials as saying that Trump and his national security team were scheduled to meet this week to discuss U.S. strategy for Afghanistan.

A key part of the new Afghanistan strategy would be setting new U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama had planned to reduce the current number of 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to some 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when his presidency came to an end.

However, given the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration repeatedly postponed the withdrawal.

Currently, there are about 8,400 U.S. troops and another 5,000 forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the ground in Afghanistan to train and assist the Afghan forces against the Taliban, and conduct counter-terrorism missions.

The prospect of new U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan came at a time when senior U.S. officials warned of dire security situation in Afghanistan.

In a congressional hearing in June, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that United States was still "not winning" the longest U.S. war in Afghanistan.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats also warned in May that the security situation in Afghanistan would most likely deteriorate in the future even if the United States and its allies offer more military aid.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-19 06:25:30|Editor: Zhou Xin

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SANAA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 22 people were killed in battles between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels in Nehm front line, northeast of Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Tuesday, a military source said.

The battles erupted earlier Tuesday at al-Minsa mountain, which overlooks the regular road linking rebel-held Sanaa and government-held Marib province.

"The government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition warplanes, were trying to advance into sites near the capital, which was controlled by Houthis supported by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"Neither advance nor progress were made by any sides during the battles as the fighting is still ongoing," the source said.

He added that two soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the government forces, while Houthis lost nearly 20 militants in the battles.

Houthi media has not yet reported their casualties.

Battles in Nehm, about 90 km northeast of Sanaa, flared up regularly as the government forces have been trying to make advance into the capital, of which Houthis seized control in late 2014.

The war pits the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebel movement against a Sunni Saudi-led military coalition after Houthis toppled Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government more than two years ago.

The Saudi-led coalition forces backing Hadi started military intervention and sea-air-land siege in March 2015, trying to recapture territories, including Sanaa, and reinstate Hadi into power.

Hadi forces have managed to completely liberate six southern provinces out of the total 23 last year.

The war has since killed more than 10,000, mostly civilians, and displaced around 3 million as the all-out siege has caused severe shortage of imports of medicines and food.

The country has also been hit by a deadly cholera outbreak and is on the edge of famine.
Ex-journalists home raided

At about 4 pm, officers armed with a search warrant, went to the former journalists home telling her she was being investigated for allegedly perverting the course of justice.

Sources revealed that on January 5, when she met with police, the former journalist was asked to make available her cellphone and computer but the items were never handed over to police for reasons unknown. Contacted for comment, the ex-journalist said, I have no comment. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Harold Phillip, asked to comment on the raid said, I was at a meeting and need to confirm your information. Call me back in about 15 minutes. All calls to his cellular phone after, went unanswered.

On January 5, the former investigative journalist was interviewed for more than four hours into allegations levelled against former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, SC. DCP Phillip is probing an allegation that the former AG contacted Head of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) David West regarding a witness in a matter involving then Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley.

Ramlogan has strenuously denied all allegations. Newsday understands the probe is nearing completion. On January 5, the ex-journalist went to Police Administration Building in Port of Spain and was interviewed by DCP Philip and others. It was this former journalist who broke the story in another newspaper about Ramlogans alleged contact with PCA Director West.

Only last week, the same police who raided the ex-journalists house, went to the Office of the Attorney General and interviewed several people from that Ministrys communications unit regarding press releases disseminated during Ramlogans tenure.

According to well placed sources, a file will be soon be submitted to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, for his consideration on how police should proceed in the matter.
Man kills relative over loud music

Dead is Manza Samnath, 38, of Bholai Trace, Quinam Road in Penal. According to a police report, at about 9.30 pm on Sunday, Samnath was watching television in the living room of the family home when the male relative raised the volume of a radio.

Reports are that Samnath became upset and told the relative to turn the volume level down.

The relative refused and the two began arguing.

The argument escalated and the two men began fighting.

Samnath was dealt several blows to his head.

Police said the relative used his fists to cuff Samnath who fell unconscious.

The enraged relative then began throwing Samnaths clothing out of the house. Neigbours contacted Siparia police. Samnath was rushed to San Fernando General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. A 27-year-old man remains in police custody.

An autopsy is expected to be performed today at the Forensic Science Centre in St James and investigations are ongoing
$.6M heist at Scotia Bank

Yesterday, records from the bank indicated that $600,000 was deposited in the two vaults to service ATM over the weekend.

On Friday at 6 pm, the bank was secured by the branch manager and security officers.

However, on Sunday when a security guard arrived for work at the establishment, he detected the scent of burning metal inside the branch and alerted the branch manager.

When the Manager arrived, it was discovered that a hole had been cut from the roof of the building and the two vaults were also cut open.

All cash inside the vaults were missing and officers of the Cunupia Police Station, located a stones throw away from the bank, were contacted.

Officers walked from the station to the crime scene and carried out checks.

The banks surveillance footage was made available to investigators and officers of the fingerprint section dusted for prints.

The banks ATM remained closed on Sunday to facilitate the police investigation.

Yesterday, ACP (Central) Surujdeen Persad met with the Manager of the Bank and its Head of Security to discuss the way forward in improving security.

Sources revealed that the police are following certain leads and were viewing surveillance footage to assist them in making arrests. Police believe that the same persons who attempted to cut open the vault at the banks St James branch two weeks ago may be linked to this latest robbery.

A release from the bank yesterday stated the Cunupia branch was opened for business yesterday as normal and apologised for the ATMs closure on Sunday to facilitate investigations by police. The bank assured that every effort is being made to ensure the safety of its premises
Six-year sentence appealed

The sentence imposed on Kelvin Deonarine of Dumphries Road, La Romaine brought tears to his common-law wife Bhagwande Boodoo- Deonarine, their son Andrew and his (Deonarine) daughterin- law Neisha Sonny, who were all in court.

The sentence was imposed by Senior Magistrate Cheryl-Ann Antoine.

Deonarine initially pleaded not guilty to the offence committed on April 18 and was granted $150,000 bail.

Family members were unable to post the bail and Deonarine stayed in jail until yesterday, when he was brought to the courthouse.

Court prosecutor Cleyon Seedan, related to Magistrate Antoine how Kheoraj Deonarine secured his home at Dumphries Road on April 18 and on returning, discovered the items missing.

Seven days after, San Fernando CID officers arrested Deonarine who confessed to breaking and entering the house. The court heard that on being arrested, Deonarine said, Officer, I went and opened the place with keys I have for the house. I eat the cake and interfered with the camera that I self install. Magistrate Antoine asked Deonarine what he did with the gold band and gold rings, valued $4,300, and the accused said he threw them away.

The accused told the court that Kheoraj owed him money for installation of security cameras.

Attorney Subhas Panday has since filed an appeal on behalf of Deonarine, on the ground of severity of sentence.

He will today apply for bail for the accused.
City prisoners may be relocated

The refurbishment work is expected to begin later this year and in the mean time, police and prison officials are said to be going over the logistics of the relocation.

Yesterday, Prisons Commissioner William Alexander said the intention of the refurbishment initiative is to create a humane environment for both prisoners and those charged with safe-keeping and rehabilitating them. He said indoor plumbing may be a feature of the rehab work to do away with the dehumanizing slop pail system.

He said government has already given an undertaking that a considerable amount of money will be spent on the initiative rather than spend hundreds of millions in building a new prison from scratch.

Alexander said some refurbishment work has already started but the major aspect of the initiative will will take place later this year.

According to Alexander, not all work will be carried out at one time and instead will be done on a phased basis. Prisoners located in a section where refurbishment work is to take place will be relocated to Maximum Security Prison in Golden Grove. He said the prison population at the Port-of-Spain prison is around 560 - 570 and every effort is made to ensure this does not exceed 600.

The Commissioner concerns expressed by prisoners and prison officers of conditions at the city prison and urged both officers and the inmates to exercise patience as the effort gets underway.

Alexander also noted similar refurbishment exercises at the Youth Training Centre (YTC) and the Remand Yard which included installation of indoor plumbing and outfitting of double decker beds.

Prisoners are human and need to be kept in humane conditions, Alexander said.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi revealed in the Senate two weeks ago that government found it more financially prudent to refurbish the Remand Section instead of building a spanking new facility. Roughly $50 million has been earmarked for the refurbishment initiative.

Al-Rawi said Government is working with the Canadian government to facilitate improved conditions at the nations prisons.
Protest over bad road

The protestors burnt tyres and other debris effectively preventing any flow of vehicular traffic at Vance River. They blocked another point along the Southern Main Road in Vessigny, by cutting down trees and throwing the trunks across the roadway. When the police arrived, the protestors fled.

The fires were set at 3 am. By 9 am, firemen had doused the flames and cleared the road of the debris, allowing a smooth flow of traffic along the bumpy, pothole-filled road. Workers of the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC) also removed the tree trunks.

Taxi drivers have been complaining that deplorable road conditions are taking a toll on them financially as they have had to dig deep in their wallets to repair or replace damaged parts to their cars caused by the deplorable road conditions.

Councillor for Brighton/Vessigny Gerald Debesette confirmed he had been receiving numerous complaints about the roads condition mainly caused by workers of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). The road at Vance River is really almost impassable. WASA is doing some repair to leaking lines but they are not doing proper restoration after digging up the road to reach underground lines.

They are putting loose materials and no hot mix or cold mix on top of the roadway, Debesette said.

As such, when the rain falls, the material washes away causing huge potholes.
Fanny Village Govt Primary not forgotten

We are taking measures to ensure that those who were responsible for the design would be held accountable, because we cannot understand how a school could be built in a swamp. In addition to that, we have identified a number of schools that we are going to continue the construction and as soon as we have the requisite funds, the Fanny Village Government School would be among those that we would be constructing, Garcia had stated.

But following statements by former Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh who questioned the amount of money spent on the incomplete school, the Ministry gave a time line on the schools building programme and subsequent stalling of that programme.

The Ministry noted that in September 2005, the Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL) was mandated to provide project management, designs, construction services and outfitting for twenty one (21) replacement government primary schools of which Fanny Village Government Primary School was included. A contract was awarded to Ashana Civil Mechanical Contracting Limited in July 2008 in the sum of $39,454,887.79 for a package consisting of Cap-de- Ville Government Primary, Fanny Village Primary and Fanny Village ECCE. Progress was hampered by slow and inadequate supply of design related information to the contractor, the Ministry stated, adding that the original design consultant was subsequently fired and a new design contractor hired.

Another contractor was also hired and presented two options as the way forward: firstly, structural retrofitting of all existing structural members at an estimated cost of $33,400,000. Secondly, restricting all blocks to single storey buildings, limited structural retrofitting and redesign of the roofs to make them lighter.

This option was estimated to cost $27,700,000.

EFCL subsequently selected the second option and awarded a contract initially valued at $19,100,000.00 VAT Exclusive.
114,000 unchecked containers

He calculated this to be 40 percent of the more than 280,000 containers which pass through the port annually. The unchecked containers are deemed as belonging to captains of industry, the JSC was told. Each JSC member reflected yesterday on their visit last Friday to the Port aimed at seeing firsthand the security, or lack thereof, at the port.

De Freitas lamented, a gaping hole in security posed by the Ports physical layout including a mere eight-foot perimeter fence and easy access to the Caricom Wharf by boats. De Freitas deplored a lack of use of existing resources. The JSC, chaired by Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Fitzgerald Hinds, revealed a litany of security lapses at the Port that are likely to facilitate a reported $100 million a year trade in illicit guns.

Hinds said that after talks in 2005, scanners were installed in 2014 but have never been used due to the Public Services Associations (PSA) fear of risk to human health. Hinds said all other unions at the Port have signed an MOU to use these scanners, which have been ruled safe to use by two unnamed experts, a radiation expert and a nuclear physicist.

Two hand-scanners were at each of the Port and at Point Lisas, yet the citizenry is not benefitting from the security these devices were supposed to bring, Hinds said adding, We are deeply concerned. De Freitas said that if the scanners are put to use, it will take five minutes to scan a container and mean that 100 percent of containers could be scanned.

St Augustine MP Prakash Ramdhar said the scanners are non-operational despite a Government instruction to use them, saying, Its more than sabotage. Guns illegally enter TT wholesale rather than retail, he alerted.

He urged Finance Minister Colm Imbert to get his Customs and Excise Division to upgrade its monitoring at the Port.

Independent Senator Paul Richards said the Port premises allow too much free movement of persons from one area to another, over a vast spread. He said too much reliance is place on key personnel, instead of on systems and technology
Japanese authorities will expand their search for poisonous fire ants following recent discoveries of the insect at ports and elsewhere in the country.

Officials of the environment and transport ministries say they will send experts to 68 ports regularly visited by ships from China, Taiwan, Australia and other places where fire ants live. They have been conducting checks at 7 ports so far.

The experts will place traps and insecticidal bait where the ant is likely to be found.

The fire ant is native to South America. It has been discovered in Japan since May, at ports in Kobe, Nagoya and Tokyo.
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Cairo has announced that it is taking tougher decisions against Qatar due to the Emirates stubbornness to comply with the demands submitted by the Saudi-led boycotting bloc.

Spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry Ahmed Abu Zeid highlighted that continuing to give privileges to Qatar and its nationals in light of its current positions is contradictory to the ongoing diplomatic rift.

It does not make sense to keep making exceptions for Qatar, he said as he revealed that Qataris will be obliged to have a visa to enter Egypt as of July 20. Qatari nationals married to Egyptians, born to Egyptian mothers or studying in the North African country will be exempted from the new regulation.

The decision comes on the heels of a meeting in Cairo Monday between the Egyptian foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Kuwaiti counterpart Sabah al-Khalid.

According to Zeid, during the meeting, Cairo affirmed its commitment to the list of demands presented to the State of Qatar and the continuation of sanctions taken against it because it has failed to end its alleged support to terrorist groups.

He added that Egypt and its Gulf allies, namely Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, see Dohas stance on the matter as a stalling and procrastination reflecting its lack of concern over the concerns of the four states.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on his part told the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister that he appreciated Kuwaits mediation in the dispute, but that Egypt would not let anyone interfere in its affairs and would stand strong against policies that support terrorism, his spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.

Kuwait is spearheading mediation efforts between Qatar and the group of four. Some western countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the United States are also engaged in shuttle diplomacy to end the rift.

Qatar, which strongly rejects the terrorism support allegations, has refrained from taking reciprocity measures against the quartet states. Qatar is reportedly hosting hundreds of thousands of Egyptians workers.
France 24 TV channel has apologized following protests by Morocco after the channel broadcasted images of protests in Venezuela purporting they happened in Moroccos northern town of Al Hoceima.

The French news broadcaster said the images were a technical failure that was addressed in the following news hour.

Moroccos ministerial department in charge of the foreign press, The Ministry of Culture and Communication, deplored the airing of images having nothing to do with the circumstances in Al Hoceima adding that it took note of France 24 apology.

Moroccos Culture and Communication Minister Mohamed Laarej has demanded in a letter, apologies from the French media group, which includes France 24, RFI and Monte Carlo Doualiya.

That footage, which presented Venezuelan protesters as young Moroccans chased by law enforcement elements in Al Hoceima in northern Morocco sought sewing confusion and misleading the TV channels viewers, the minister said in his letter.

France 24 broadcasted images from Venezuela on July 13 depicting protesters trying to hide from security forces firing at them. The scene was shown during a program on Al Hoceima hosting lawyer Mohammed Ziane, a member of the defense team representing detained Rif protesters.
The Gaza-based Islamist movement, Hamas, has reportedly asked Algerian authorities to take in leaders who were expelled from Qatar on the backdrop of a stiffening row between Doha and its anti-Muslim brotherhood neighbors.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported the news saying that Qatar, which has been a longtime base for Hamas leaders, has forced them to leave.

The same source noted that Hamas is seeking to scatter the presence of its leadership abroad to avoid having too large presence in a single country.

Hamas hopes that Algeria will accept to host some of Hamas senior members, after Sami Abu Zuhri already established an office in Algiers.

Qatar explained the expulsion of Hamas members last June as driven by external pressures, on the backdrop of the economic and political blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain who accuse Doha of sponsoring terrorism, including Hamas, labeled by the US and other countries as a terrorist organization.

Last September, Hamas received the green light from the Algerian authorities to open an office in Algiers. The office was opened during a six-day visit to Algeria by a Hamas delegation led by Moussa Abu Marzouk.

With different ideological referential, Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since the death of Yasser Arafat and the legislative victory of Hamas in 2006 when relations between the two Palestinian rivals degenerated to in-fighting after they failed to reach a deal to share government power.

With Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, the Palestinian Authority split into two polities, one based in Gaza and the other in Ramallah, each claiming true representation of the Palestinian people.
Charlie Baker of Massachusetts is the most popular incumbent governor facing reelection in 2018. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is the least popular. Photo: John Blanding/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The most underappreciated (in Washington, anyway) aspect of the 2018 midterm elections is the fact that 36 governorships will be up for grabs. And the partisan landscape for these contests will be nearly as skewed toward Democrats as the Senate landscape is skewed toward Republicans, with the GOP defending 26 seats and Democrats just 9 (one, in Alaska, is held by an independent).

What really makes the gubernatorial races different from others, however, are term limits: Fully 13 Republican governors and 4 Democrats are either term-limited or have already announced their retirements.

So its worth a close look at the Morning Consults updated approval/disapproval ratings for the 13 Republicans and 5 Democrats who are currently likely to run for reelection.

Red governors, blue states

As it happens, the two most popular governors are Republicans serving in bright blue states: Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (71/17) and Larry Hogan of Maryland (68/16). You can expect both of them to lose significant altitude between now and next November, if only because the prevailing levels of partisan polarization and straight-ticket voting dictate it. They and the other three incumbent Republicans running in states won by Hillary Clinton last year (Vermonts Phil Scott  whose approval ratio is 62/23 New Hampshires Chris Sununu  whos at 57/23  and Bruce Rauner of Illinois, whos at 40/49) will all be dragged down by the natural trend away from the party that controls the White House, though their individual relationships with Donald Trump could matter at the margins.

Blue governor, red state

Only one non-retiring, non-term-limited Democratic governor is running in a state carried by Donald Trump last year; thats Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, whose approval ratio is a decent but hardly overwhelming 48/37. His state will be a major midterm cockpit for House races, so there will be plenty of money around, and Wolfe has some wealth of his own to spend.

Governors with underwater approval ratings

The five most unpopular governors are all term-limited or retiring: Chris Christie of New Jersey (25/69); Sam Brownback of Kansas (25/66); Dan Malloy of Connecticut (29/64); Mary Fallin of Oklahoma (35/55); and Rick Snyder of Michigan (38/52). All but Malloy are Republicans. Christie will be replaced this November. The candidates with underwater approval ratios who are at this point running for reelection are Scott Walker of Wisconsin (43/51), the aforementioned Bruce Rauner (40/49), Bill Walker of Alaska (42/48), Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island (43/47). Scott Walker has obviously been in hot water before. Bill Walker is an independent loosely connected to Democrats in a heavily Republican state. Rauners race could become the most expensive in U.S. history; the unpopular incumbent has already raised $70 million. Raimondo, who has battled with public-sector unions, could be vulnerable to a primary challenge.

Advantage: Democrats

All in all, when you include the states with no incumbent running, 2018 is a good opportunity for Democrats to pick up some governorships. Of the 14 races the Cook Political Report deems competitive (either tossups or leaning in one direction or the other) at this early stage, nine are for seats currently held by Republicans, four for seats held by Democrats (and then theres Bill Walkers Alaska). Democrats will very likely pick up New Jersey this year, and are favored to hold Virginia. With some luck and a decent midterm partisan breeze, the party so often accused of being hapless at the state level could wind up with over 20 governorships when the dust settles in November of 2018, which could help when redistricting rolls around in 2020.
Not coincidentally, Alaska has been showered with special treatment by the administration and in the Senate health-care bill. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

In both the House and the Senate, the strategy Republicans have devised to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare is simple: Win over conservatives with broad policy provisions and then pick off moderates with narrow, strategic concessions that can be touted as prizes to the folks back home.

That has made Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska a likely target of special treatment from the get-go, since her state is tiny in population (barely more than 700,000 residents), but rich in distinctive health-care problems. And sure enough, the revised version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 unveiled last week has a provision so obviously tailored for Alaska that its being called the Kodiak (or Caribou) Kickback  an allusion to the famous Cornhusker Kickback that helped pull Democratic senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska over the line in 2009 in voting for Obamacare, though it was dropped in the final 2010 version  or the Polar Payoff or the Juneau Jackpot. Heres a brief description from Voxs Jeff Stein:

Senate Republicans newest bill includes a special $182 billion fund that will give the Department of Health and Human Services broad latitude to help stabilize the Obamacare markets. This fund, which has increased as the vote on the bill draws near, is intended to reassure moderate Senate Republicans worried about its impact on the individual markets.

But to make sure it helps Alaska  and, perhaps, its moderate senator  lawmakers added a new clause to that special fund this week that will require at least 1 percent of it be spent on states where premiums run 75 percent higher than the national average. One percent may not sound like a big number, but were talking about Alaska, which only has 700,000 people. The state is still set to receive nearly $2 billion over 10 years.

Thats right: Alaskas the only state that qualifies for this set-aside.

You could add to Kodiak Kickback additional provisions less specifically targeted to Alaska, but from which the state would definitely benefit. One enhances the growth in Medicaid costs allowed for states that expanded Medicaid coverage under Obamacare later than other expansion states (that would help Louisiana and Montana as well as Alaska). Another exempts expenditures on Native Americans from the Medicaid per capita cap; Alaska has the nations highest percentage of Native Americans.

Still another nice treat for Alaska was announced (not coincidentally) by the Department of Health and Human Services last week: a waiver that lets the state reimburse itself with federal money for funds it paid to keep insurers in the Obamacare market. That would save Alaska about $300 million over the next five years.

So is all this enough to buy Lisa Murkowskis vote? Probably, though thats not completely clear. After all, the Medicaid cuts in the bill are estimated to cost the state $3 billion over ten years. The impact could be magnified under an obscure provision of the bill that might generate a lawsuit to end Alaskas Medicaid expansion almost immediately. And the cash-strapped state government (suffering acutely from low oil royalties) is not in a very good position to absorb any new fiscal shocks.

Last month, Murkowski anticipated precisely this set of circumstances, and warned she might not go along with being bought:

Lets just say that they do something thats so Alaska-specific just to, quote, get me, Murkowski said in June. Then you have a nationwide system that doesnt work. That then comes crashing down and Alaskas not able to kind of keep it together on its own.

Sounds like a pretty good prediction for the post-Trumpcare trajectory of the health-care system.

Murkowski will be under enormous partisan pressure to save her partys bacon on health care but, then again, shes not exactly a party regular. She won her second full term in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing the GOP primary to hard-core conservative Joe Miller, who then won 29 percent of the vote against her in 2016 running as a Libertarian.

Without her, odds of passage for the Senate Trumpcare bill drop to approximately zero. So for all we know, Alaskas mini gold rush of special provisions could continue.
Don Jr. Photo: Justin Lane/Bloomberg via Getty Images

An American representative for a Russian real-estate developer also joined Donald Trump Jr. at his meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked attorney to discuss damaging information on Hillary Clinton and, seriously, Russian adoptions.

The Washington Post revealed the eighth known attendee as Ike Kaveladze, a 52-year-old California businessman and U.S. citizen who was born in the former Soviet Union. Kaveladze works for the Crocus Group, the real-estate company that belongs to the Agalarovs. If that name sounds familiar, its because Aras, a billionaire developer with ties to Vladimir Putin, and his son Emin, a Russian pop star, have ties to Trump after they helped bring the 2013 Miss Universe pageant to Moscow. Emin had proposed Trump Jr. meet with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, through emails from music publicist Rob Goldstone, who acted as the intermediary. The Agalarovs attorney confirmed to the Washington Post that Kavaladze went to the June 9, 2016, sitdown as a representative for the Agalarov family and to act as a translator, though the Veselnitskaya ended up bringing her own translator. He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before, the attorney, Scott Balber, told the Los Angeles Times.

According to the Post, the eighth meeting attendee had also been of interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who allegedly reached out to the Agalarovs attorney for that information this weekend. Kaveladzes presence at the meeting should account for the last known participant, which besides Goldstone, Veselnitskaya, and her translator Anatoli Samochornov, included Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet counterintelligence officer Rinat Akhmetshin. Representatives for Team Trump were Trump Jr., Trumps son-in-law and current adviser Jared Kushner, and former campaign chair Paul Manafort.
Paul Ryan. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Apparently, House Republicans believe that the reason Trumpcare just died without a Senate vote  after becoming the least popular piece of major legislation in living memory  was that it didnt condemn nearly enough of their own voters to preventable deaths for the sake of padding the passive income of the one percent.

On Tuesday morning, Paul Ryans caucus unveiled a blueprint for the controlled demolition of the welfare state, which theyre calling the 2018 federal budget. The resolution articulates a plan for balancing the budget over 10 years  one that involves slashing $500 billion from Medicare and $1.5 trillion from Medicaid and Obamacare, according to the Associated Press. However, those cuts appear to be largely theoretical  measures that the party has made an abstract commitment to passing in future years. The actual instructions for this years budget require a mere $203 billion in cuts to entitlement programs over the coming decade, along with $130 billion-worth of reductions in non-defense discretionary spending. Such cuts would reduce food assistance for the working poor; roll back regulations on Wall Street by stripping $14 billion from enforcement; and slash benefits for the federal workforce.

The House would then use the consequent savings  plus rosy assumptions about economic growth  to finance a buildup in military spending and massive tax breaks for the rich. That last bit is the primary purpose of the resolution, as the budget lays out the reconciliation instructions that would allow the Senate to pass tax reform without Democratic votes.

In past years, our proposals had little chance of becoming a reality because we faced a Democratic White House, House Budget Committee chair Diane Black said Tuesday. But now with a Republican Congress and a Republican administration, now is the time to put forward a governing document with real solutions to address our biggest challenges.

This budget is, of course, horrifying for progressives. But it should also spook any conservative who wasnt in a coma during the health-care fight. The GOP just tried and failed to roll back some of the most vulnerable parts of the welfare state  Obamacare tax credits that quietly benefit a small fraction of the population, and a Medicaid program that helps the most politically disempowered economic class in the country. Now, House Republicans have concluded that realizing their core ambitions  a larger military, radically lower taxes, and a smaller deficit  requires them to come after the most popular parts of the safety net, ones that disproportionately benefit their own elderly base, and which our GOP president promised to protect.

In other words: This budget makes a strong case that the Republican Partys agenda is fundamentally unworkable.

As does the bitter, internecine fight its already sparked. Moderate Republicans are decrying the bills austerity, even as House conservatives demand that the party implement more of its draconian, long-term vision in the here-and-now.

While the House moderates rolled over during the Trumpcare fight, theres reason to think theyll be harder to appease this time round. For one thing, the president just taught them that he is perfectly comfortable with throwing them under the bus. For another, the moderates have basic political and procedural realities on their side: The 2011 Budget Control Act places a hard limit on annual defense and domestic discretionary spending. The House budget would exceed the statutory cap on military spending by tens of billions of dollars. Republicans cant exceed those caps through reconciliation. Which is to say, unless theyre willing to abolish the filibuster, they need Democratic votes. And no Democrat will want to cooperate on a budget this draconian.

Nor, by all indications, will 50 Senate Republicans.

Obamacare survived its death panel thanks to a whole host of forces, among them, the tirelessness of progressive advocates; the incoherence of the Republicans health-care vision; the reliance of the GOP on rural areas dependent on Medicaid; and the mysterious workings of the beneficent truck gods.

But no cause of Trumpcares demise is more ominous for Republicans, going forward, than the Senate GOPs newfound squeamishness about upward redistribution.

After months of scathing headlines about how their bill took benefits from the poor to give tax breaks for the rich, Senate Republicans cried uncle. Or, more precisely, played dumb: A motley crew of moderate and conservative GOP lawmakers demanded to know how this capital-gains tax for the rich had gotten into their patient-centered health-care bill. Tennessees Bob Corker summed up the dissenters winning argument thusly: In the initial draft bill if you looked at lower-income citizens  they were going backwards. And at the same time the 3.8 percent tax on the wealthy was being done away with. That is not an equilibrium that is appropriate.

Thats a reasonable, politically keen sentiment. And Republicans can implement approximately none of their agenda without disavowing it.
People protest far-right writer Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley on February 1, 2017. A scheduled speech by Yiannopoulos was cancelled after protesters and police engaged in violent skirmishes Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

One fairly common idea that pops up again and again during the endless national conversation about college campuses, free speech, and political correctness is the notion that certain forms of speech do such psychological harm to students that administrators have an obligation to eradicate them  or, failing that, that students have an obligation to step in and do so themselves (as has happened during recent, high-profile episodes involving Charles Murray and Milo Yiannopoulos, which turned violent).

Such claims of harm  often summed up as speech is violence  arent typically invoked in response to actual Nazis, or anything like that. Rather, they are used to argue against allowing speakers like Murray and Yiannopoulos  who, for better or worse, do fit in the conservative mainstream  or even significantly more moderate ones like Emily Yoffe, who has expressed skepticism about certain claims pertaining to the prevalence of sexual assault on campus. In one instance students successfully canceled a showing of American Sniper by arguing the films ostensible Islamophobia would make students feel unsafe and unwelcome  though the screening was later uncanceled.

Now, given the fog of culture war that has descended on this subject and the tendency of opportunistic (mostly) conservative outlets to hype these kinds of events, it isnt clear how common they actually are  people often forget the polls suggesting that college students, broadly speaking, tend to hold pro-free-speech views. But either way, it is hard to take seriously the idea that an American Sniper showing or an Emily Yoffe appearance, or even a Yiannopoulos talk, is so potentially psychologically harmful that established norms about free expression  which protect both College Republicans and Palestinian students advocating on behalf of their people  should be tossed out the window.

So its weird, in light of all this, to see the claim that free speech on campus leads to serious psychological harm being taken seriously in the New York Times, and weirder still to see it argued in a manner draped in pseudoscience. Yet thats what happened. In a Sunday Review column headlined When Is Speech Violence? Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, explains that scientifically speaking, the idea that physical violence is more harmful than emotional violence is an oversimplification. Words can have a powerful effect on your nervous system. Certain types of adversity, even those involving no physical contact, can make you sick, alter your brain  even kill neurons  and shorten your life. Chronic stress can also shrink your telomeres, she writes  little packets of genetic material that sit on the ends of your chromosomes  bringing you closer to death.

In light of all this, she writes, it makes sense to think seriously about banning certain campus speakers:

The scientific findings I described above provide empirical guidance for which kinds of controversial speech should and shouldnt be acceptable on campus and in civil society. In short, the answer depends on whether the speech is abusive or merely offensive.

Offensiveness is not bad for your body and brain. Your nervous system evolved to withstand periodic bouts of stress, such as fleeing from a tiger, taking a punch or encountering an odious idea in a university lecture.

[]

Whats bad for your nervous system, in contrast, are long stretches of simmering stress. If you spend a lot of time in a harsh environment worrying about your safety, thats the kind of stress that brings on illness and remodels your brain. Thats also true of a political climate in which groups of people endlessly hurl hateful words at one another, and of rampant bullying in school or on social media. A culture of constant, casual brutality is toxic to the body, and we suffer for it.

Thats why its reasonable, scientifically speaking, not to allow a provocateur and hatemonger like Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at your school. He is part of something noxious, a campaign of abuse. There is nothing to be gained from debating him, for debate is not what he is offering.

This is a weak and confused argument. Setting aside the fact that no one will ever be able to agree on whats abusive versus whats merely offensive, the articles Barrett links to are mostly about chronic stress  the stress elicited by, for example, spending ones childhood in an impoverished environment of serious neglect and violence. Growing up in a dangerous neighborhood with a poor single mother who has to work so much she doesnt have time to nurture you is not the same as being a college student at a campus where Yiannopoulos is coming to speak, and where you are free to ignore him or to protest his presence there. One situation involves a level of chronic stress that is inflicted on you against your will and which really could harm you in the long run; the other doesnt. Nowhere does Barrett fully explain how the presence on campus of a speaker like Yiannopoulos for a couple of hours is going to lead to students being afflicted with the sort of serious, chronic stress correlated with health difficulties. Its simply disingenuous to compare the two types of situations  in a way, its an insult both to people who do deal with chronic stress and to student activists.

Its also worth pointing out that this sort of scaremongering  Milo is coming and he is shrinking your telomeres!  could become a self-fulfilling prophecy for some students. Theres an intriguing area of behavioral science known as mind-set research, and one of its tenets is that the relationship between stress and humans response to it is partially mediated by how people expect stress to affect them. In one intriguing study, for example, a group of Australian college students were given a psychological test and then told  at random  that it revealed they were either good at dealing with stress or bad at it. Then they watched, on a MacBook, a very disturbing ten-minute video of a car wreck, after which they were asked to close their eyes and relax for three minutes. When they opened their eyes, the researchers running the study asked them to estimate the number of times the films sounds and images intruded on their consciousness during the interlude, and how distressing they found the film overall. As it turned out, the students who were told at random they were good copers were less affected by the film  they experienced, on average, about four and a half intrusions during the three-minute interlude, and rated their distress level at 5.65 on a 10-point scale. The poor copers, on the other hand, experienced about 18 intrusions and rated their distress level at almost an 8. Its an interesting finding  albeit one conducted on a fairly small sample of 33 students  and there are other studies which also suggest that the way we are primed to respond to stress can affect how we eventually do.

Now, it would be just as much of a stretch to say that a single column like Barretts could cause students to self-traumatize as it would be to say that an upcoming Yiannopoulos appearance could traumatize them. But in the aggregate, if you tell students over and over and over that certain variants of free speech  variants which are ugly, but which are aired every moment of every day on talk radio  are traumatizing them, it really could do harm. And theres no reason to go down this road, because theres no evidence that the mere presence of a conservative speaker on campus is harming students in some deep psychological or physiological way (with the exception of outlying cases involving preexisting mental-health problems). This is a silly idea that should be retired from the conversation about free speech on campus.
A hero in his own mind. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Remember those heady days after President Trumps election, when the world was Republicans oyster and it seemed like Obamacare was irrevocably doomed? After seven years of railing against socialized medicine and voting to repeal the law dozens of times, the GOP would surely be ready with a coherent and cohesive plan to destroy it as soon as they had the chance. Right?

As that old rental-car commercial went, Not exactly. What follows is a narrative of the torturous path Republicans have navigated to get where they are today: nowhere.

(1) Pre-inauguration: Repeal before breakfast, worry about the details later.

President Trump urged a lightning-quick repeal of Obamacare  long to me would be weeks, he said  and House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed amenable to the idea. (McConnell: The first step toward replacement is to repeal.) But even then, the risks of undertaking such a bold strategy were clear, as the New York Times reported:

This emerging repeal and delay strategy, which Speaker Paul D. Ryan discussed this week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, underscores a growing recognition that replacing the health care law will be technically complicated and could be politically explosive.

Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.

(2) January: Okay, fine, repeal the bill and replace it later.

While repeal-and-delay may have been the best on a menu of bad political options, insurers and others sounded the alarm: It would be a catastrophe for consumers. And when a handful of Senate Republicans started raising objections to the strategy  including conservatives like Bob Corker and Bill Cassidy  it became impossible to move forward. Lawmakers dropped talk of a quick strike and bowed to reality: No one is talking about repealing anything until there is a concrete practical alternative to offer Americans in its place, Senator Lamar Alexander said.

(3) April/May: Let the House write a far-right version, then change it.

The Houses health-care bill, briefly left for dead on account of its inhumanity, was resurrected like Frankensteins monster and given enough cosmetic tweaks to get to 217 votes.

To celebrate the half-passage of the law, the president staged a bizarre public celebration at the White House that will doubtless feature in every Democratic campaign ad for the foreseeable future, then called the bill mean in private  like the team player he is.

But Republican members of the upper house, even the folksiest conservatives, were skeptical. Like yall, Im still waiting to see if its a boy or a girl, said Senator Lindsey Graham. Any bill that has been posted less than 24 hours, going to be debated three or four hours, not scored? Needs to be viewed with suspicion.

(4) June/July: Actually, the House bill is mostly fine.

Never mind all that. The bill Mitch McConnell crafted in secret (in an unheard-of process for such major legislation) ended up looking a lot like the Houses version. The one major change he allowed, the Cruz amendment, was an effort to placate conservatives by allowing a single insurance pool for sick people  a move that drew terrible reviews from insurers and governors.

(5) Today: Back to square one.

The Senate bill  already facing pushback from both moderates and conservatives even before the Congressional Budget Office made its inevitably dire judgment on how many people would lose insurance as a result of it  officially died on Monday night when Senators Jerry Moran and Mike Lee announced their opposition on a motion to proceed.

So Senator McConnell, at the urging of President Trump, went back to plan A, which collapsed in a matter of hours.

(6) The future: ???

Mitch McConnell has a reputation for procedural wizardry, earned through his years of unprecedented and ultimately successful obstruction. But with a seemingly impossible needle to thread through his own caucus, McConnell might have hit a permanent roadblock on his dream to demolish the Affordable Care Act.

So whats next? Maybe McConnell will personally go door to door around America, ripping up poor peoples Medicaid forms. Maybe hell invite the moderate caucus of the Senate to Kentucky for a little reprogramming.

Or maybe, just maybe, hell have to face his true nightmare, the grim possibility that has haunted his dreams for months:

Working with Democrats.
Trump, moments before dousing himself in Purell. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Many reasons have been offered for why Chris Christie was abruptly fired from the Trump team, ranging from the Bridgegate scandal to the governors attempts position himself in front of the cameras on Election Night. The new book Devils Bargain by Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Joshua Green reports that President Trumps alleged germophobia may have also played a role. According to The Daily Mail, the incident occurred on Election Night, when Christie sat down next to Trump as he was trying to absorb the news of his shocking win:

Christie said: Hey Donald. The President talked to me earlier  the two had gotten to know each other after Superstorm Sandy. Christie said: If you win hes going to call my phone, and Ill pass it over to you.

Trump flashed a look of annoyance, clearly resenting the intrusion and was repulsed by the idea of having somebody elses phone next to his face.

Trump told Christie: Hey Chris, you know my f***ing phone number. Just give it to the President. I dont want your f***ing phone.

Aides said that Christies move was the ultimate mistake and one from which he wouldnt recover.

Its a bit hard to believe that the phone incident, and not putting Jared Kushners dad in jail, is what ultimately cost Christie his job in the Trump administration.

The Christie camp is already denying the story. The account in the book is complete fiction, Christie spokesman Brian Murray told the Daily Beast. Governor Christie never spoke to President Obama on election night nor did he make any arrangements for any phone call from The White House to be placed on his cell phone for the President-elect. Finally, he had no conversation on election night as was relayed in this book with the President-elect. The author should be ashamed of himself in passing off this account as true  it is fiction.

Whatever the root of their conflict, eventually Christie and Trump patched things up  at least enough that Trump was willing to invite the governor to the White House and order him to eat meatloaf.
Welcome back to Your Shopping Cart, wherein we break out the top-five products that you, devoted Strategist readers, all bought in droves. Think of this as the tl;dr of the Strategist: If your like-minded brethren are buying these items, maybe youd like to, too.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. If youve paid attention to some of our top-selling items from previous installments, youll know weve had a few mainstays that refuse to budge from the top five. One of them  the Shiseido facial razor  has been on every one of these lists since we started ranking items back in early May (another, the Japanese exfoliator, has been on all but the first, and thats only because it had only been up for a few days before we debuted our top five). This week, the facial razor reclaims its top spot after slipping to number three. In second place (and debuting on this list!) is the Soapwalla natural deodorant, which has become something of a Strat MVP due to its appearance on multiple posts, followed by the Cure exfoliator, dropping from second place. In fourth place, a set of very well-reviewed and affordable bed sheets hops on the list, and bringing up the rear is the super-popular Away carry-on that we rated favorably a little while back (and, for what its worth, continue to love six months and several trips later.)

HC Collection Bed Sheet & Pillowcase Set $20 4. The 11 Best Bedsheets on Amazon, According to Hyperenthusiastic Reviewers

From one of our most popular ever Peoples Choice entries, these sheets are what Amazon reviewers consider the best wrinkle-resistant sheets you can buy: For many years, my adult son has insisted that nothing compares to 100 percent cotton sheets with the highest possible thread count. King sheets of that caliber can cost over $1,000. After reading the reviews for these sheets, I took the gamble and purchased them for my sons visit. He claims they are the softest and most comfortable sheets hes ever experienced  with the added benefit that they launder very well, and come out of the dryer with minimal wrinkles. If you place them on the bed while still warm from the dryer, it looks as though the sheets have been ironed. I will continue to purchase these sheets, exclusively. The price is incredibly economical given the quality and afforded comfort. $20 at Amazon Buy $20 at Amazon Buy

Away Bigger Carry-on $245 5. The Best Rolling Luggage, According to Frequent Fliers

Strategist senior editor Jason Chen was skeptical of this four-wheeled suitcase  until trying it. I liked the interior of the hard-shelled suitcase, which features a full-length zip compartment on one side (for smelly clothes and shoes) and an empty free-form compartment on the other. And truly, I was a fool for ever doubting the gimmicky external USB ports. When passengers at the airport circled outlets like buzzards, I comfortably snacked on CIBO Express almonds. At our shared eight-person house in Palm Springs, I never once had to borrow or break out a charger. Of course, the suitcases battery itself occasionally needs to be removed and recharged (an included mini-screwdriver does the job), but it easily made it through ten nights of charging my phone. It made me wonder how I ever lived any other way. $245 at Away Travel Buy

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Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.


I'm so glad this is the first comment since it was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the headline <3 <3

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perfect first comment

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MTE

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yep



extend that to nbc too for being so stupid

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lmao this

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lmao yaaaaas

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I don't feel bad 

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Flop!





Megyn Kelly sets all time record for low ratings yesterday with 3.2 million viewers. Beat her old record low of 3.4 million.  MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) July 10, 2017





Edited at 2017-07-18 01:43 am (UTC) Y'all really put millions into a racist white lady who is a mediocre journalist to begin with. lol and before she launched with NBC there were articles saying how she could be the next huge star or how she wanted to be the new Oprah???Flop!

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not to mention that the "big" prime time special she had that would prove how great and money making machine she is was a huge disappointment

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How are 3 million people still watching

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Ready for her new show!

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So glad my queen is coming back! I read that her show will be competing with Megyn's show in the fall and I hope it's true because that is some grade A pettiness right there and I love it. lmao

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She has a new show? Deets, plz

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So beautiful.

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paqui chip challenge queen

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Love her. I feel like her life is waaay more interesting than she lets on too. Like her DL friendship with Prince she casually mentioned that one time? Bitch has some juicy secrets, I just know it.

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Lol, she really thought she had mass appeal. I look forward to her failure.

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It's what she deserves 

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fuck nbc for hiring her and fuck this mediocre white bitch and anyone who believed she was worth of any money let alone close to $20 mill. goes to show how easy it is to get shit when you're white and "attractive" in ameriKKKah. fuck nbc for hiring her and fuck this mediocre white bitch and anyone who believed she was worth of any money let alone close to $20 mill. goes to show how easy it is to get shit when you're white and "attractive" in ameriKKKah.

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she's just a horrible journalist. she got a primetime interview with putin and she blew it. don't know what NBC saw in her.

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breaking gender norms!

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A white mediocre singer for a white mediocre "journalist." A fitting gif.

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haaaaaaahahahaaaaaaaaaaa GOOD!

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tamron's karmic justice

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NBC should either move her to MSNBC or just buy out her contract. Her 9 a.m. show is going to be a massive failure and an embarrassment to the network. She is NOT a journalist.



I would bet she's gone by the end of the year.

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IA. I think they need to figure how to dump her at this point cos it's not going to get better.

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Eight person in the meeting has been identified and Special counsel is asking to speak to them.

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Damn. God I need something to take Orange 45 out. I know the investigation is speeding along but watching him be so damn smug kills me.

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I don't he's that smug in private. He is probably having a meltdown and not having enough ice cream.

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Also steve Bannon called Paul ryan a "limp dick motherfucker" LMAO



Edited at 2017-07-18 04:21 pm (UTC)

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the full quote is so good



"who was born in a petri dish at the heritage foundation" 

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LMAO

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lmaoo

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lmaoooooooooo



Steven Bannon is the fucking worst but that is a quality and true burn

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fuck...not Steven Nazi Bannon legitimately making me laugh *the accuracy*

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I had to look that up and OH SHIT, lol!



Takes one to know one!

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perf lol

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HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA



I hope they all destroy each other.

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As a Wisconsinite, I can confirm, this is true.

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lmfaoooo

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lmao

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jed was just hard to watch today.

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omg someone repeal and replace jed too. i can't stand her. she really knows nothing about how healthcare works, she is so fucking dumb

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who do you replace jed with permanently? you can't have paula everyday. that's worse than having jed everyday.

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a broom, a drooling dog, a half-eaten sandwich, a cardboard cutout of the rock, etc

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I honestly don't think the GOP and Dems working together on this will EVER happen. They'll continue to go back and forth for years and it's the people who will suffer. I used to naively believe that maybe they could work together eventually but...nah.

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Repukes only want healthcare for themselves and rich peers (along with huge tax breaks) and they will gladly kill however many poor they have to in order to get it.



Dems still at least want citizens to have a relatively healthy life. Until one of them changes their stance nothing will ever move forward.

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You're absolutely right.



At this point I don't ever expect the GOP's cooperation. It's going to take a Dem president and a Dem majority to pass a somewhat successful healthcare bill and then there's always the worry that a Repub president will come in next and ruin it. And then it will just go back and forth for years and years. That's the anxious part of me talking, but still!

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This healthcare drama is giving me such anxiety. My Dad cannot afford to even lose coverage for a day due to heart issues and these people want to just flat out repeal it.

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To be fair they want to repeal it with a 2 year pause so that they can wait out the 2018 midterms.

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lmao those cowards



though it would have been hilarious if Dems took back Congress and the 'replace' they came up with was Single Payer. hahaha

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I'm going through the same thing with my mom. She has a bad case of diabetes and this insurance has been lifesaving. Idk what's gonna happen if it's taken away.

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If the poor are to die, then they'd better hurry up and do it, and decrease the surplus population.

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is my joy gif laggy?

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It looks good to me and I'm on my crappy work computer.

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I wish Jed would just gtfo, I swear I can feel my blood pressure rise whenever she speaks

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and the way she nods when either whoopi or sunny talks like she is seeing their pov but when she opens her mouth again is bullshit that comes out infuriates me

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Yeah, my husband does that all the time, that's when I know he's not listening and just formulating the next thing he's going to say

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Jerry Moran was against the bill last night but is now 100% for full repeal with no replacement in place.

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I'm not on the exchange, but I pay like $400/month for private insurance...would repealing affect me too?

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I would imagine so since things like pre-existing conditions wouldn't be protected anymore.

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Yes. Things like lifetime caps will impact you regardless. It's an awful thing the GOP want to do and will hurt everyone but the super-rich.

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They want to sell everyone insurance plans that don't cover anything expensive, and have caps on how much they will spend on your treatment. This affects everyone. And the people most at risk are our parents and grandparents.

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Ike Kaveladze, the eighth man at the Trump Jr meeting, was implicated in a Russian money-laundering scheme in 2000 https://t.co/PscHNg6Ubz pic.twitter.com/i3OQ05ryni  Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 18, 2017



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Hmmm

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Interesting. Wonder what his purpose of being there was.

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Hmmm geeeee I wonder. Maybe he wanted to um HELP THE RUSSIANS LAUNDER MONEY TO TRUMP



shocking. just shocking

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According to him, he was there as a "translator" but it turns out that the lawyer brought her own translator so he was no longer needed. Clearly there is nothing to see here 

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NYC is filled with expensive apartments that were purchased by people who use the real estate to launder money. Trump also "just happens" to own a bunch of buildings with apartments that he would like to sell to people.

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I mean, they're making things easier for Mueller. That's considerate.

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fucking light rain knocking out my satellite signal

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I am more embarrassed every time the orange fart cloud opens his mouth. It's fucking ridiculous how much of a moron he truly is, regardless of having every opportunity in the world afforded to him to appear educated.

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My school will never live down the shame of having HIM be our first president.

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joy is right, there is zero productive conversation to be had with people who just fundamentally do not view healthcare as a right. (not to mention that they most likely also barely view the disabled, poor, and chronically ill as people.)



I just had the most bizarre conversation with my Medicaid provider where I basically ended up apologizing for not getting a prior authorization for a damn epi pen. sorry that breathing seemed more important than beuracracy. how shortsighted of me lol.



it's just so exhausting and this bullshit is going to be never ending. the little victories barely feel like wins when you remember that you can't teach empathy and so where are we left? a mess.

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Seeing regular old Americans (not even the rich sociopaths) choose money over human lives is upsetting. Like these people are beyond concerned with their taxes but that's literally all they care about in regards to healthcare. You're right that you can't teach empathy. These kinds of people are a lost cause tbh. I can't waste my breath on them anymore.

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Yea they are a lost cause there is no point debating them you just have to hope you can out number and out maneuver them.

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I feel like Americans have been brainwashed to view taxes as the worst thing ever and end up valuing lower taxes for themselves above anything else. Higher tax rates aren't the end of the world, especially when they benefit the country as a whole. But of course people would rather use that money to buy some dumb shit they don't need than help someone else get medical care without drowning in medical bills.

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Ecuador announced its withdrawal from the OPEC agreement this week, a move that could shake the foundation of a deal that was already starting to show some cracks.

"We need funds for the fiscal treasury and for that reason we've taken the decision to gradually increase production, Ecuadorian oil minister Carlos Perez said, according to Reuters. Ecuador is running a fiscal deficit equivalent to 7.5 percent of GDP. Low oil prices are really hurting government finances, and production restrictions only add to the pain. With oil prices having posted few gains from the deal since it was implemented at the start of the year, Ecuador decided enough was enough. It needs to produce as much as possible.

Ecuador, by any measure, is not a massive oil producer. The Andean nation produced just 527,000 bpd in June, making it the third smallest OPEC producer after Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. As a small producer, its contribution to the original OPEC deal agreed to last November was also relatively minor. Ecuador pledged to cut a rather miniscule 26,000 bpd as part of the deal, an afterthought in a 97 million barrel-per-day oil market. After all, the EIAs data on shale production bounces up or down by more than that on a weekly basis

In any case, Ecuador was not even fully complying with its cuts  it had only actually throttled back on output by about 16,000 bpd. As such, the return to full production (or near full production) probably wont even be noticeable. Ecuadors oil minister acknowledged as much. "What Ecuador does or does not do has no great impact on OPEC's total output, he said, according to Reuters.

However, it isnt Ecuadors production levels that should be concerning. It is the psychological and political impact that a withdrawal from the deal could have on the commitments from other members. Oil analysts have long argued that compliance with the cuts will weaken over time, as has historically been the case. We now have the first OPEC member that has succumbed to persistently low oil prices, deciding that the collective output reductions are not worth the trouble. How long before other members come to the same conclusion? Related: Solar And Wind Revolution Happening Much Faster Than Expected

Ecuadors latest statement will not matter for global balances but it shows the challenges for OPEC members given the cuts failed to raise prices, Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., told Bloomberg. Ecuadors move could again give rise to fears of the deal falling apart, she added.

Moreover, Ecuadors move is even more significant because it has openly declared that it was not even complying with its commitments to begin with, and it will no longer pretend that it is trying to comply. Typically, members speak to their full faith in cooperation while they quietly cheat. The public announcement from Ecuador that it cant afford to continue to cooperate will be more psychologically damaging than had it just quietly cheated.

Thats especially true because Ecuador is not the only country hurting, and its withdrawal opens up the possibility that other members also return to full production, citing their own financial difficulties. OPEC compliance was already beginning to deteriorate. In June, the groups compliance slipped from 95 percent to 78 percent, although most of that came from rising production from exempted members Libya and Nigeria.

But looking across the entirety of the OPEC landscape, there are reasons to question the commitment from the group as a whole. It is not as if every other member is fully on board. Javier Blas, Chief Energy Correspondent at Bloomberg News, summed up the situation in a series of tweets on Tuesday:

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(Click to enlarge) Related: Iraq Dethrones Saudi Arabia As Indias No.1 Oil Supplier

The cracks forming in the OPEC agreement may have prompted another recent headline, clearly intended to counter the narrative that OPEC is struggling to keep everyone on board. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia might actually be considering deeper cuts, perhaps as much as 1 million barrels per day (mb/d). That would be more than twice as much as it promised to cut as part of the deal, and would equate to more than half of the full 1.8 mb/d of OPEC/non-OPEC reductions. Oil prices jumped on the news.

However, if compliance from other countries begins to fall apart, at some point, Saudi Arabia, which has shouldered the lions share of cuts, could grow exasperated with non-compliance and return to full production. If you guys dont want to participate then lets just dump the oil price down into the $20s and see how funny that is, Torbjorn Kjus, an analyst at DNB Bank ASA, told Bloomberg, summing up the hypothetical Saudi response to weakening compliance from its peers.

By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com

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On Sunday 9th, 2017 Venezuela hit a hundred days of anti-dictatorial regime demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken over main streets and roads demanding a new presidential election, a humanitarian solution to counter food and medical supply shortages, the release of political prisoners and the reinstitution of the National Assemblys functions.

Since the protests started, more than one hundred people have been killed, 3,500 arrested and thousands injured across the country.

Falling oil revenues due to low international oil prices, as well as institutionalized government corruption, caused a further backlash, leaving the government to respond once again with brute force. Tear gas, water cannons and pepper-spray were fired into crowds by the National Guard and its paramilitary force, the colectivos, a heavily armed civilian branch supporting the Venezuelan government.



This critical economic, political and social situation does not seem to have an easy solution. In Venezuela, 96 percent of foreign currency earnings come from oil industry, and with the collapse of oil prices, income has fallen more than 50 percent. But in addition to a decline in revenues, oil production has also dropped, adding insult to injury.

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Source: OPEC/EnergyMarketPrice/Luis Colasante

On July 7th, the Venezuela oil basket was trading around $42.67 a barrel while Brent oil was trading at $46.71 a barrel.

Since 2014, Venezuela oil basket prices have dropped by over 50 percent. This crude oil is sold on the international market at a price lower than the Brent oil or WTI oil, due to the quality of crude being sold. The average spread price between Brent oil and Venezuela oil has been $9 a barrel since the beginning of 2017.

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Source: OPEC/Bloomberg/EnergyMarketPrice/Luis Colasante

On my model forecast, I calculated three scenarios for Venezuela oil basket prices for the next four years. Even in the best scenario (high) the oil basket price will not reach $100 a barrel, the price of oil when Nicolas Maduro was elected president of Venezuela in 2013. The worst scenario on my model reflects an oil price lower than the actual average cost of production of a barrel of oil ($28 per barrel).



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Source: Rystad Energy UCube/Luis Colasante

Additionally, Venezuela is suffering gasoline shortages despite having the worlds largest oil reserves. The proven oil reserve in Venezuela is recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 302 billion barrels. Related: The Only Way OPEC Can Kill U.S. Shale

Venezuelan refineries are operating significantly below operational capacity, a product of a lack of investment and maintenance, as well as a lack of technical knowledge (a lot of the highly qualified personnel from PDVSA who rebelled against Hugo Chavezs regime in 2002 were fired and now work in various other countries, such as; Colombia, Mexico, Canada and the USA). Falling output at refineries means that Venezuela needs to import gasoline, further squeezing the national budget. Refineries are currently working at less than 40 percent of average 2016 levels as state-run oil company PDVSA is importing between 100 and 150 thousand barrels per day of gasoline and between 80 and 90 thousand barrels per day of diesel.

Venezuelas daily demand for gasoline and diesel are 225 and 170 thousand barrels respectively. Several tankers are waiting off the coast of Venezuela to discharge cargoes as the PDVSA has difficulties in paying their shipping bills, resulting in a penalty of $26 000 per tanker per day. An almost surreal paradox in a country that owns twenty refineries; five in Venezuela and fifteen worldwide.

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Source: BP/OPEC/Luis Colasante

In the last ten years, Venezuela crude oil production has lost more than 500 thousand barrels per day. Since the beginning of 2017, the country has lost 92 thousand barrels per day. Between May and June 2017, Venezuelas oil crude production has decreased from 1,951 to 1,938 million barrels per day, representing 13 thousand barrels lost in one month, based on the secondary sources used by OPEC.

Venezuela crude oil exports to the United States fell to 491,340 barrels per day in June, the lowest level in fourteen years. The number of cargoes shipped by PDVSA and its joint ventures to the United States has decreased in May from 42 to 29 crude cargoes, and compared with the Venezuelan exports to the United States in June 2016, the decrease was 25 percent.

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Source: EIA/Thomson Reuters/Luis Colasante

The United States is the primary market for Venezuelas crude oil exports, with Venezuelan oil representing 9 percent of total U.S. imports. Only Canada, with 41 percent of U.S. imports, and Saudi Arabia, with 14 percent of U.S. imports, have a larger share of the U.S. market.

In June 2017, Valero Energy was the principal recipient of Venezuela crude oil and the sales to Citgo, which is the U.S subsidiary of PDVSA, declined 66 percent from May 2017 levels of 68,400 barrels per day.

Not only is the United States the main buyer of Venezuela crude oil, but companies such as Valero Energy Corp, Phillips 66, Chevron Corp and PBF Energy Inc were the major purchasers of Venezuelan oil in 2016. These four companies purchased 154.90 million barrels of Venezuelan oil in 2016. The U.S. represented more than one third of PDVSA revenues in 2016.

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Source: EIA/Bloomberg/Luis Colasante

The United States is not the only country that is seeing imports of Venezuelan crude oil dropping off. According to Reuters, Venezuelas shipments of crude and refined products to Cuba decreased by roughly 21 percent compared to 2015. Cuba imported an average of 91,000 barrels per day from Venezuela in 2015, compared to an average of around 72,350 barrels per day in the first half of 2017.

Since Hugo Chavez won the presidential election in 1998, the relationship between Venezuela and the Cuban regime has grown increasingly strong; via several bilateral agreements where crude oil and refined products were exchanged for doctors, teachers and military services.

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Source: Thomson Reuters/Luis Colasante

The decrease in crude oil and refined product from PDVSA is now affecting Cubas economy, which is extremely dependent on Venezuelan oil, with gasoline shortages and electricity blackouts now hitting the small island. Cuba is negotiating for oil cargoes from other countries, including Russia, to counter the reductions from PDVSA, something that Cuba had not done since Hugo Chavez was elected. Related: Significant Draw In Crude Inventories Jolts Oil Prices

One of the issues that PDVSA and their joint venture partners have to overcome will be the result of the new constituent assembly. Hermann Escarra, a constitutional lawyer, candidate to the constituent assembly and one of the key people participating in the new constitution, declared in front of hundreds of PDVSA workers that one aim of the new constituent will be to nationalize all oil joint ventures.

Venezuela produces 40 percent of its crude in joint ventures with foreign companies, where PDVSA has at least 51 percent of the shares. If Venezuela succeeds in nationalizing the joint ventures, Venezuelan oil production will likely decline at an even faster rate.

Until today, PDVSA has used the joint ventures for two purposes: firstly, to increase oil production and secondly, to maintain the low credit line that helped PDVSA pay its bond obligations. Now any foreign oil company will need to think twice if it wants to invest in the Venezuelan oil sector.

Day after day, PDVSAs financial situation worsens. In 2006 the PDVSAs financial debt was around $3 billon, eleven years later, its debt has reached $44 billion  with another $20 billion to be added for non-supplier and services payments.



A total default of PDVSA could potentially lead to a complete crash in oil production, a doom scenario for the country, but a potential boon for global oil prices.



By Luis Colasante for Oilprice.com

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Chart of the Week:



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 The EIA forecasts that retail gasoline prices will average $2.38 per gallon in the U.S. between April and September, the second lowest average price since 2005. However, prices will be slightly up from the 2016 average of just $2.23/gallon.



 The EIA lowered its forecasted Brent oil price for the summer from $54 down to just $50 per barrel in its latest outlook.



 The lowering of its forecast by $4 per barrel for crude translates to a decline of 10 cents per gallon of gasoline, although because of wholesale margins and taxes, the price at the pump will be 8 cents/gallon lower than it would have been in the previous forecast.



Market Movers



 ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and its partners Hess Corp (NYSE:HES) and Statoil (NYSE:STO) signed a production sharing contract with the national oil company of Suriname. The move comes as the companies are investing large sums on developing a giant oil field in neighboring Guyana.



 Eni (NYSE:E) received approval by the U.S. government for its drilling plans off the coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. Eni plans on drilling before the end of the year on an artificial island, before its leases expire.



 Total SA (NYSE:TOT) is a top pick among the oil majors by Goldman Sachs. The investment bank says the French oil giant offers the best combination of cash flow and high return on investment opportunities.



Tuesday July 18, 2017



Oil prices continued to ratchet upwards, with WTI above $46 per barrel during midday trading on Tuesday. The latest gains come on rumors that Saudi Arabia could be considering deeper cuts to its supply. Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia is mulling cuts on the order of 1 million barrels per day (mb/d), or nearly twice its required commitment under the OPEC deal. More aggressive action might be needed as the most recent data shows OPEC compliance slipping, while at the same time the first member decided to pull out of the deal this week (see below).



Ecuador pulls out of OPEC deal. Ecuador said that it could no longer adhere to the OPEC cuts because it has financial pressure and needs to export more. The government said that it would gradually raise output. Ecuador is a small producer and was already not complying fully with its promised cuts so the additional barrels that the South American nation will put onto the market wont be a game-changer. But the real concern is that overall compliance within the cartel starts to slip.

Worlds Biggest Oil Traders Zero In On Shale Hot Spots

UAE: Qatar-Saudi crisis could take months. UAEs foreign minister told Bloomberg that his country is not interested in a quick fix to the standoff between several gulf nations and Qatar. He said that the blockade could last weeks, months to come to a resolution. We want to take away Qatars huge, huge support for this extremism and terrorism that we are seeing everywhere, the minister said.



Trump admin begrudgingly recertifies Iran deal. The U.S. government recertified the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, although some within the White House were reportedly pushing against the move. President Trump called it a terrible deal during his campaign of for the presidency, raising fears that the administration would scrap the agreement. The White House recertified the deal this week, although at the same time it plans on slapping new sanctions on Iran for the latters ballistic missile program. Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA, a senior administration official said Monday, referring to the nuclear deal.



IEA: U.S. to be top natural gas producer. The U.S. will account for 40 percent of all new gas production through 2022, according to a new report from the IEA. The U.S. will account for one-fifth of total gas production. By 2022, the U.S. will also rival Qatar and Australia as the worlds largest LNG exporter. Meanwhile, the global gas market is evolving with a growing portion of gas demand coming from the industrial sector, as opposed to power generation.



EIA: Shale to grow by 113,000 bpd in August. The EIAs new Drilling Productivity Report estimates the U.S. shale industry will continue to expand output, growing by 113,000 bpd next month. That gains will be led by the Permian (+64,000 bpd), the Eagle Ford (+27,000 bpd), the Niobrara (+15,000 bpd), plus smaller contributions from elsewhere. The estimate throws cold water on the notion that the shale industry is slowing down following the dip of oil prices into the $40s per barrel.



China economy solid, refinery demand high. Chinas latest GDP figures beat expectations, with economic growth of 6.9 percent in the second quarter, which exceeded the expected 6.8 percent GDP growth rate. Meanwhile, demand for crude oil from Chinese refiners was the second highest on record in June, a sign that Chinese oil demand is not slowing down.



Long-term U.S. gasoline demand slips on more efficient trucks and SUVs. While analysts focus on electric vehicles and hybrids when gauging demand destruction for gasoline, the real low-hanging fruit comes from more efficient SUVs and light-duty trucks. New research from Rice University says the more efficient Ford F150 plays an important role. Ford has increased the fuel efficiency of the F150 to 20-21 miles per gallon (mpg), up from 16-17 mpg five years ago. The gain may not seem like much, but played an outsized impact on flat gasoline demand in the U.S. even as motorists have increased driving. Related: The Biggest Obstacles For Chinas $900 Billion Silk Road

Mexico to announce details of next deep water auction. Building on its recent success, the Mexican government will soon publish details about its next deep water auction scheduled for January. The auction is expected to hold areas in the Cordilleras Mexicanas basin, off the coast of Veracruz. The announcement will come on the heels of the recent discovery in shallow water by Premier Oil (LON: PMO), and growing interest in Mexicos offshore sector.



Oil industry struggles to attract millennials. The oil industry will be hit with a wave of retirements in the coming years and the more environmentally-conscious millennial generation is less interested in working for oil and gas companies. Oil and gas companies may need more profound changes to meet demands for meaningful work and social responsibility to attract the next generation of top engineering and leadership talent, McKinsey & Co. wrote in a September 2016 report. McKinsey said an estimated 14 percent of millennials would reject working for the oil industry because of its image, the highest rate for any sector polled.



Big Oil bets on gas, a potentially risky move. The oil majors have increasingly pivoted towards natural gas, a long-term bet that gas will prevail in a world seeking to gradually decarbonize. In 20 years, we will not be known as oil and gas companies, but as gas and oil companies, Patrick Pouyanne, CEO Total SA (NYSE: TOT), said at an industry conference last month. But Bloomberg New Energy Finance says the move could be risky, and there is a chance of peak gas demand as renewables continue to get cheaper. BNEF says natural gas market share in the electric power sector will decline from 23 percent in 2016 to just 16 percent by 2040.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com

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In a desperate bid to survive its economic meltdown, Venezuela is lobbying other OPEC members to agree to steeper oil production cuts, a move that would likely lead to higher oil prices.

Venezuelan officials have reached out to their counterparts in Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia to press them on more collective action, according to Argus Media. If there was enough interest, the next step would be an extraordinary meeting, which would weigh the option of cutting deeper.

The rumors about deeper OPEC cuts have been floating around since June, when oil prices collapsed into the low-$40s. The markets have grown deeply pessimistic about the health of the oil market, and doubt the OPEC cuts will balance the market by the end of the compliance period in March 2018.

But the behind-the-scenes effort from Venezuelan officials is notable, if only because the South American OPEC members was one of the earliest and most aggressive supporters of the original deal to reduce output. In 2016, for months the more powerful members of the cartel rebuffed Venezuelan pleas, but in the end they agreed to reductions in November after oil prices continued to wallow below $50 per barrel.

The deal pushed prices above $50 for a period of time, but after six months of restraint, the market is back in sub-$50 territory.

However, the urgency for higher prices is more acute now for Venezuela. Protests have spread nationwide in the South American nation as the economy contracts at a torrid rate. Violence is becoming more widespread, and the nation is suffering from political gridlock and economic and social disaster.

Over the weekend, the opposition organized an informal referendum, which attracted more than 7 million votes, to oppose anti-democratic moves by the government. The vote demonstrated widespread anger and opposition towards the governments upcoming effort to consolidate power in a July 30 vote to rewrite the constitution, a move that would weaken competing institutions like the National Assembly. The referendum opposing the July 30 vote was not recognized by the government, but it was a show of force for the opposition.

There is no way out of the downward economic spiral for Venezuela in the short run without significantly higher oil prices. Argus Media reports that Venezuelan officials fear that state-owned oil company PDVSA might default within five months if oil prices remain stuck below $50/bl in second half 2017. Related: U.S. Shale Output Just Reached A New Record

The Venezuelan government and PDVSA both have a large pile of debt maturing later this year, with $4.9 billion in payments due between August and December, although two-thirds of that belong to the oil company. The key deadlines to watch are October and November  the sovereign and PDVSA have to pay bondholders a combined $3.63 billion in those two months.

The problem is that cash on hand has been in freefall for the last few years, with total holdings somewhere around $10 billion.

At the same time, Venezuelas oil sector is in a state of crisis. Production has been falling for years, although the declines really started to accelerate since the market downturn that began in 2014. Production stood at 1.938 mb/d in June, down 221,000 bpd from the end of last year. The declines will continue because the state has no money left to invest in maintenance at existing fields, let alone invest in new projects.

Worse, few companies are interested in investing in such an unstable environment, leaving little hope that the private sector can turn things around.

There was even talk recently about the prospect of the state nationalizing some privately-owned assets, a move that would surely scare away the remaining companies doing business in Venezuela. A prominent ally of President Nicolas Maduro said that the upcoming rewrite of the constitution could include state ownership of the oil industry, comments interpreted as a threat at full-scale nationalization

PDVSA was forced to issue a statement earlier this month guaranteeing the legal security of foreign companies operating in the country in an effort to tamp down fear that the companys international partners would see their assets taken by the state. Indeed the company is seeking more cooperation from the private sector, not less. Without any cash to invest or maintain production, PDVSA has reportedly offered stakes in projects to companies such as Russias Rosneft in exchange for investment.

"Imagine justifying to your board of directors that you put more money into Venezuela when there was an announcement from the president's top adviser that he was going to nationalize companies," Francisco Monaldi, fellow in Latin American energy policy at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston, told Reuters in an interview. Related: Kuwait: Oil Market To Balance By March, No Deeper Cuts Needed

Monaldi made similar comments in a separate interview with Bloomberg in early July: It would be suicide, Monaldi said, referring to nationalization. It would have an enormous cost given that production has fallen so much and that about half of the countrys current output comes from these joint ventures with foreign companies.

What happens next is unclear. The government and the opposition are heading for a major clash over the July 30 vote to revise the constitution. The opposition fears a dictatorship-in-the-making. But either way the countrys economy is standing at the abyss.

To complicate matters further, the U.S. government warned about swift economic actions if Maduros government moves forward with the July 30 vote. The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, President Trump said in a statement. The White House could target PDVSA in an effort to cut into Venezuelas oil revenues, a move that could very well destabilize the country further.

Venezuelas roughly 2 mb/d of oil production hangs in the balance, which, if lost in some sort of sudden calamity, would certainly send oil prices sharply up.

By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com

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The last couple of years have been turbulent for the international oil market and all of its players. But there are signs that the waters are beginning to calm, as traders and investors wait and see how OPECs cuts work.

Benchmark prices have stabilized in the last few days, and they might even start rising as the market gets used to growing production from Libya and Nigeria and the decline in compliance rates among OPEC members taking part in the cuts.

Reuters yesterday quoted a few energy analysts as saying that further production increases in Nigeria and Libya will not make a big splash, as the market already expects them and has factored them in. Granted, this means that prices are unlikely to rise above US$50 anytime soon unless OPEC decides to deepen the cuts, which is not at all likely, but it also means that the market is moving towards stability.

U.S. output is also rising butand this is the keythe rate at which it is rising has slowed. New rig additions in the last couple weeks have been fewer than in previous weeksas Oilprices Nick Cunningham noted in a recent analysisand the Energy Information Administration reported two consecutive weekly draws in inventories of a combined 13.8 million barrels. This may be temporary, thanks to driving season, but its still good news for the more bullish market participants.

In further good news for oil bulls, Chinas refiners processed a near-record amount of crude oil last month, at 11.21 million bpd. Refinery runs will likely decline in the current quarter, but the increase, coupled with a rise in crude imports over the first half of the year, suggests that things on the demand side are not as bad as they appear. The International Energy Agency reinforced this sentiment in its latest Oil Market Report, where it revised up its oil demand forecast for 2017 by 100,000 bpd, to 98 million bpd.

Related: Russian Energy Minister: No Additional Output Cuts Are Needed

Meanwhile, big oil traders have found a way to take advantage of the glut. Bloombergs Serene Cheong reported last week that Vitol, Glencore, Trafigura, and Gunvor have taken to selling customized oil cargoes from a fleet of tankers off the coast of Singapore and Malaysia.

The vessels store all sorts of crude, from European, African, Middle Eastern, and U.S. fields, so the sellers have the opportunity to mix and blend the crude to their clients specific requirements and sell it directly from the tankers to buyers in Asia.

At the moment, there are 15 Very Large Crude Carriers, capable of carrying up to 2 million barrels of crude, in the Straits of Malacca, Cheong writes. These cargos are being divided into smaller ones, some blends mixed with others for a customized cargo, and then sent on their way to the buyers. Custom-made oil cargoes seem like the smartest choice in the context of a record-high floating storage, as per information from French energy data provider Kpler.

The world seems to be still awash in oil, and every stakeholder in the market seems to be coping, from producers to traders. And yet everyone is keeping an eye on OPEC and the upcoming meeting of the ministerial committee that was set up to monitor the cuts. The meeting will take place in Moscow next week, and even if it doesnt feature an announcement of deeper cuts, prices may not drop as sharply as they would have a few months ago, when knee-jerk selloffs were the standard reaction to the slightest suggestion that the cut wasnt working.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Late on Monday the oil world was shocked to learn that Ecuador planned on exceeding its OPEC production quota, publicly breaking from the supply cuts agreed to in November 2016 and extended in May 2017.

As Bloomberg reported, Ecuador announced it wouldnt attempt to cut production by 26,000 bpd, citing its need for greater revenue. Under the terms of the OPEC deal, Ecuador was to keep production to 522,000 bpd.

The public defection has raised the possibility of a more general split within OPEC, between those willing to continue the cuts and those who feel keeping production down is no longer worth the effort. Its possible that Ecuadors move could be followed by other OPEC members. The groups solidarity could shatter, potentially upsetting the recent lift in prices, which have increased from the mid-$40s to nearly $50.

When the OPEC production cuts were announced, speculation began market watchers regarding the rate of compliance (i.e. how much cheating there would be), and the question of who would break first. Several countries, including Iran, Nigeria and Libya were essentially exempt from cuts: each country argued it was recovering production due to sanctions/internal instability.

For months, OPEC compliance was at 100 percent, thanks largely to Saudi Arabia cutting more than was necessary. But in June that rate slipped to 92 percent, as the group pumped more and Riyadh stopped shouldering so much of the burden.

Iraq, historically OPECs biggest cheater and second-largest producer, could look for reasons to pump more. The countrys government recently won a major victory in its battle against the Islamic State, re-taking the city of Mosul in mid-July, and has plans to rebuild amidst the wreckage left by three years of war. Related: Venezuelas National Oil Company On Its Last Legs

Baghdad is also gearing up for an independence referendum in the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan, which is oil-rich; the Kurdish independent government has disputed the division of the countrys oil revenues and is using the independence referendum to put pressure on Baghdad for a more equitable split of the profits.

Iran, OPECs third-largest member, announced plans last week to boost production beyond the OPEC production cut limit in March 2018, when cuts are set to expire. While Iran was allowed to produce more under the plan, it promised to cap its production near 3.9 million bpd. The country has largely stuck to that figure but is eager to pump more, particularly after signing a deal with Total SA, its first major international contract since international sanctions were dropped in January 2016.

In its monthly market report, the IEA reported that OPEC compliance had dipped due to increased output from Libya and Nigeria, which are both exempt from cuts. Earlier this year the return of Libyan production, kept down for years due the countrys internal instability, together with US shale essentially nullified the effects of the OPEC production cuts, sending prices tumbling in February.

Libya is currently at a four-year high, with output nearing 1 million bpd.

If OPEC members start to see individual countries breaking away from the planned cuts, solidarity among the group could fracture.

Then again, Ecuador is OPECs third-smallest producer and its decision affects a miniscule amount of the groups production. The countrys oil minister has argued that there is an unwritten agreement in OPEC regarding Ecuadors flexibility, and cites the countrys economic needs and the growing deficit for its inability to meet the OPEC quota.

The news made barely a ripple in markets, which opened high Tuesday morning and saw WTI nearing $47 and Brent close to $50 on positive demand news. Concerns that Ecuadors break will set off a contagion of cheating among OPEC members had yet to register with traders, who are back in a bullish mindset after a bearish June.

Related: The Only Way OPEC Can Kill U.S. Shale

While the IEA figures pointed to lower OPEC compliance, the group also estimated that demand would surge faster than expected, expanding by 1.5 million bpd this year. The market was warmed by news that Chinese refinery demand in June, the second-strongest ever recorded, given further significance due to the continual decline in Chinese domestic output.

The mood when the Ecuador announcement was made was bullish, therefore, negating the effect of the countrys decision to break with OPEC. Its possible that fundamentals beyond the actions of a single minor OPEC member will encourage OPEC compliance and keep member states in line. However, improving demand estimates could also encourage members like Iran and Iraq to pump more, in the belief that prices will rise no matter what.

Should compliance dip in the wake of the Ecuador decision, the current bullish mood could see-saw back down, along with prices. Itll take some time to measure how OPEC registers the Ecuador decision, with the July 22 meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC states in St. Petersburg taking on fresh significance.

By Gregory Brew for Oilprice.com

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ExxonMobil has decided that it no longer wishes to continue further discussions or activity regarding the East Natuna natural gas block offshore Indonesia, after having assessed the future development prospects and costs, a senior manager at Exxons Indonesian unit told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

The East Natuna gas block is thought to be home to the world's largest reserves of untapped gas.

Exxon has decided not to proceed with plans and talks to take part in the planned development of the field, Exxon Indonesias Vice President of Public and Government Affairs Erwin Maryoto told Reuters.

Back in 1980, Exxon signed a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for East Natuna block in the South China Sea. Resource is estimated to contain around 222 trillion cubic feet of wet gas with almost 46 trillion cubic feet of recoverable hydrocarbon gas, according to Exxon.

In August 2012, a consortium comprising Exxons affiliate Esso Natuna, PT Pertamina (Persero), and PTT Thailand signed a restated principles of agreement (POA) with the Indonesian government for a new PSC to develop East Natuna. In December 2015, Indonesias government agreed to extend the POA for 30 months, to allow for more time for assessment of the global market conditions and technology for the resources.

The government has received a letter from Exxon on its decision not to proceed with involvement in the gas block, Reuters quoted Wiratmaja Puja, director general of oil and gas at the energy ministry, as telling reporters today.

Related: Significant Draw In Crude Inventories Jolts Oil Prices

The development of the block will be uneconomical for the company under current terms, Exxon said in its letter, according to the government official.

Under the current terms, developing the project would make its gas much more expensive than the spot LNG prices in Asia, according to Puja. Indonesia intends to invite Exxon to renegotiate the project terms, and might add a special incentive to a possible renewed offer to make the project economically feasible, the government official said, as quoted by Reuters.

Pertamina, on the other hand, is committed to developing the project, but it needs a partner to do so, Pertaminas upstream director Syamsu Alam told Reuters. The projects development is said to cost up to US$40 billion.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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OPEC has invited Libya to share its production plans with the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) next week, and Libya will attend the gathering, with National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla leading the delegation, NOC said on Tuesday.

The recovery of Libya and Nigerias crude oil production in the past two months has rekindled fears that rising supply from those two African producers exempt from the OPEC cuts is offsetting a large part of the reductions and is depressing crude oil prices, alongside rising U.S. shale output.

The JMMC is gathering in Russia on July 24, and has invited Nigeria and Libya to attend to discuss their current production and short-term plans, Kuwait Oil Minister Issam Almarzooq said earlier this month.

According to OPECs latest Monthly Oil Market Report, Libya and Nigeria contributed the most to the 393,000-bpd increase in the cartels total crude output in June compared to May. Libyas output jumped by 127,000 bpd to 852,000 bpd, while Nigerian crude production rose by 96,700 bpd to 1.733 million bpd.

Libya is right on track to reach its goal to raise crude output to 1 million bpd by the end of July.

Libyas production now stands at 1.032 million bpd, an oil industry official told Reuters on Monday. Output increased to above 1 million at the end of June, and has been in the range 1 million-1.05 million bpd since then.



Related: The Only Way OPEC Can Kill U.S. Shale

Referring to the OPEC/non-OPEC meeting that he would be attending, NOC chairman Sanalla said in the company statement:

We will take this opportunity to share with the committee the factors enabling and constraining Libya's production recovery.

I will consult with significant Libyan decision-makers before I leave and hope to present a unified Libyan position in St Petersburg that will show we can act together in the national interest, Sanalla noted.

Nigerias Ministry of Petroleum Resources, for its part, said last week that oil minister Emmanuel Kachikwu confirmed he had been invited to attend the meeting in Russia, but he would not be able to attend because of a scheduling conflict. But Nigeria has signaled that it is ready to support OPECs cuts and limit its crude oil output when it reaches a stable 1.8 million bpd.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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A Tokyo court has rejected a petition brought against Japans biggest oil refiner, Idemitsu Cosan, by its founding family. The family argued that a recent proposal for a share sale aims to dilute its voting strength so the refiner can merge with rival Showa Shell Sekiyu.

The courts decision has cleared a path toward merging unless the family wins an appeal that has already been submitted.

The heirs of Idemitsu Cosans founder have been at odds with the companys management over the merger for a while now, arguing that the two companies have incompatible cultures. The management, however, is pressing for the tie-up, and earlier this month proposed a share issue of 48 million new stock, seeking to raise US$1.23 billion (138.5 billion yen).

The placement would cut the founding familys stake in the company from 33.92 percent to 26.1 percent, so the argument for diluting its voting rights does seem to reflect facts: if a shareholder has less than a third in the company, they cannot veto the resolution that would mark the start of the merger with Showa Shell Sekiyu.

The Japan News notes that the proposal for the placement followed several months of attempts on the part of the companys management to persuade the founding family to sign up for the merger. To that end, the merger proposal was put on hold indefinitely. Now, these efforts have clearly failed and the management has changed tack.

Bloomberg noted in a report on the announcement of the share placement that it sent Idemitsus stock diving to the lowest in nine years, as the company tries to play to the governments tune of consolidation in the oil refining segment as demand for fuel drops because of a population decline and an irreversible shift to more energy efficient vehicles.

The Idemitsu founding family could join the share sale and maintain its 33.92-percent stake, but to do this, it would have to find a substantial sum between now and July 26: the sale will run between July 20 and 26.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Eberwein was a fierce critic of the Clinton Foundations activities in the Caribbean island [Haiti], where he served as director general of the governments economic development agency, Fonds dassistance economique et social, for three years. The Clinton Foundation, they are criminals, they are thieves, they are liars, they are a disgrace, Eberwein said at a protest outside the Clinton Foundation headquarters in Manhattan last year. Eberwein was due to appear on Tuesday before the Haitian Senate Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission where he was widely expected to testify that the Clinton Foundation misappropriated Haiti earthquake donations from international donors.

The circumstances surrounding Eberweins death are also nothing less than unpalatable. According to Miami-Dades medical examiner records supervisor, the official cause of death is gunshot to the head. Eberweins death has been registered as suicide by the government. But not long before his death, he acknowledged that his life was in danger because he was outspoken on the criminal activities of the Clinton Foundation ...



Eberwein was only 50-years-old and reportedly told acquaintances he feared for his life because of his fierce criticism of the Clinton Foundation. His close friends and business partners were taken aback by the idea he may have committed suicide. Its really shocking, said friend Gilbert Bailly. We grew up together; he was like family.



During and after his government tenure, Eberwein faced allegations of fraud and corruption on how the agency he headed administered funds. Among the issues was FAES oversight of the shoddy construction of several schools built after Haitis devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. But, according to Eberwein, it was the Clinton Foundation who was deeply in the wrong  and he intended to testify and prove it on Tuesday.

According to Eberwein, a paltry 0.6 percent of donations granted by international donors to the Clinton Foundation with the express purpose of directly assisting Haitians actually ended up in the hands of Haitian organizations. A further 9.6 percent ended up with the Haitian government. The remaining 89.8 percent  or $5.4 billion  was funneled to non-Haitian organizations. WND Eberwein was expected to testify against the Clinton Foundation in court and ends up committing suicide shortly before. Where have we heard this before?

I'd wager that you don't know who Klaus Eberwein is. You've never heard him mentioned by the mainstream media even though the hamsters are always looking for conspiracies to uncover (as long as those conspiracies fit the approved Democratic narrative). Here's how Mac Slavo describes him:Boy, that testimony would be interesting and certainly embarrassing for the Dems, who have condemned anyone with the temerity to suggest that the Clinton foundation wasn't on the side of the angels.But there's a problem.Eberwein, age 50, was found dead in Miami with a gunshot wound to the head. Slavo provides a few details:Of course, the trained hamsters and their Democrat overlords dismiss all of this as crazy right-wing conspiracy stuff, just like the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich , the guy alleged to have leaked the DNC emails, was crazy right-wing conspiracy stuff.It is odd, don't you think, that there are so many "suicides," and other unexplained and untimely deaths that somehow befall people who know things that might threaten the Clintons and/or the Dems. But that's crazy talk, right? It's just coincidental, right? It's not worth a look, right?It's understandable, though, that the main stream media is silent on all of this. After all, they're dedicating all of the "journalistic" resources, 24-7, to crazy left-wing conspiracy stuff. They would never, ever consider a string of unusual deaths of people connected to the Clintons or the Democrats. Never! It's at least as crazy as suggesting that the current POTUS colluded with the Russians to defeat a Clinton. The trained hamsters and the Dems would never promulgate that kind of crazy thinking, would they?
Reliance Industries is holding its annual general meeting (AGM) on July 21 where Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani could make an important announcement related to Reliance Jio. The Jio announcement is likely to be "customer-centric", according to a source.

Though Jio has not hinted anything in particular as yet, there are strong rumours regarding what could be in store for Jio users. Here's what can happen on July 21:



Cheapest 4G Phone: The company is expected to launch a 4G feature phone . In an earlier report, we even shared a few leaked pictures of a device that looks like a feature phone but has 'Lyf' branding on it. Considering that Reliance Jio is only operates on 4G networks, this will be the first 4G feature to be launched by the company.

Since a normal feature phone is not equipped to handle 4G spectrum, the expected feature phone might come with a basic Qualcomm chipset from its 200 series.

The phone is expected to be priced at Rs 500, despite an estimated production cost of Rs 1,500. This feat will be achievable only if the company subsidises the devices to expand the relatively stagnant 4G market.

The leaked images of the phone show feature phone will a camera module with a 2Megapixel camera on the rear and a torch as well.



Also Read: Mukesh Ambani's Jio, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali among top 10 most influential brands





Cheaper tariffs: Other than the device, Reliance Jio is expected to share new data plans with its customer base. For a populace which purchases a phone worth Rs 500, a data plan of Rs 350 or Rs 400 wouldn't make much sense, which is why Jio is also expected to launch more data plans that are much smaller and cheaper.

A recent development also suggests that the Mukesh-Ambani led company might do away with all the free offers and introduce 'minimum floor' rates.

Minimum floor price , for both data and voice calls, has been demanded by a section of incumbent telecom operators, but implementing it could mean an end to freebies in the market. The tariffs are currently under forbearance giving telcos virtually a free hand in fixing the rates and they report plans to Trai within 7 days of launch.





JioFiber: This new announcement from Reliance Jio about JioFiber is expected to shake-up the broadband industry of the nation. Earlier this year, the company announced that they will be launching JioFiber in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat and Vadodara for free under its JioFiber Preview Offer.

Last week, a picture was posted on Reddit, showing us a glimpse of what the JioFiber plans might look like. The image shows that the company will be offering 100Mbps speed with a cap of 100GB per month at Rs 0 for 3 months.

The data is free but the user will have to pay Rs 4,500 for the installation.

However, even this amount can be refunded later, according to the company. One of the biggest factor with the new service will be a free-period of three months.

Later when the offer period ends, the broadband service prices are expected to start at Rs 500 for 600 GB data and for 1000 GB data at 100Mbps speed subscribers would be required to pay Rs 2,000 a month.




Since six months 1,662 civilians killed,3,500 injured with deaths in Kabul: UNAMA report

KABUL: The people of war-torn Afghanistan continue to bear the brunt of the grinding conflict with civilian deaths at their worst since records began, the United Nations said Monday.



In the first half of the year, 1,662 civilians were killed and more than 3,500 injured with deaths in the capital Kabul accounting for nearly 20 percent of the toll, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report.



The majority of the victims were killed by anti-government forces - including the resurgent Taliban and in attacks claimed by the Islamic State, the report said, underscoring spiralling insecurity in the country nearly 16 years after the US invasion. The UN has documented civilian casualties in the war-ravaged country since 2009.



The first six months of the year have seen a significant rise in the number of civilian lives lost in highly coordinated attacks involving more than one perpetrator, with 259 killed and 892 injured - a 15 percent increase on the same period last year.



Many of those deaths happened in a single attack in Kabul in late May when a truck bomb exploded during the morning rush hour, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.



UNAMA put the civilian death toll at 92, saying it was the deadliest incident to hit the country since 2001.



The UNs special envoy to Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto said the human cost of the conflict remains far too high. The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal improvised explosive devices is particularly appalling and must immediately stop, he added in a statement.



The bloody toll of the first six months of 2017 has unsettled the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who has come under increasing pressure since the May attack in Kabul. Protests and deadly street clashes hit the Afghan capital in the wake of the May attack as people incensed by security failures called for his governments resignation.



Women and children have borne the brunt of the increase in civilian casualties, with UNAMA blaming the use of IEDs and aerial operations in populated areas for the jump.



A total of 174 women were killed and 462 injured - an overall rise in casualties of 23 percent on last year - while 436 children were killed in the same period, representing a nine percent increase.



Save the Children expressed alarm at the heavy toll - a third of all civilian deaths - on the countrys youth. Its extremely concerning to see the number of children killed and injured by conflict increasing, reflecting the growing danger faced by young Afghans, the charitys Afghanistan country director David Skinner said in a statement.



The UNAMA report said that nearly half of Afghanistans 34 provinces have seen an increase in civilian deaths in the first six months of the year, mainly due to the rise in attacks by anti-government forces across the country. The statistics in this report, horrifying though they are, can never fully convey the sheer human suffering of the people of Afghanistan, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein.



Many Afghan civilians are suffering psychological trauma, having lost family and friends, and are living in fear knowing the risks they face as they go about their daily lives.



The ground offensives by Afghan security forces are the second leading cause of civilian casualties, though UNAMA said there had been a 10 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2016. NATOs combat mission in Afghanistan ended three years ago, handing sole responsibility to the countrys security forces.



Back in May, the office of the US governments Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction described casualties among the security forces themselves as shockingly high.



In the first two months of the year, 807 troops from the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces were killed with 1,320 injured.
" " Pooh Bear does look rather presidential, doesn't he? Matt Cardy/MJ Kim/Getty Images

When you think "enemy of the people," who do you see in your mind's eye? Someone evil, no doubt  a nefarious villain bent on world destruction. A tricky, slippery traitor ready to corrupt the country at any cost. A willy, nilly, silly old bear.

OK, probably not. But the fact that Chinese censors have begun to block Winnie the Pooh on Chinese social media sites might lead you to believe that the honey-obsessed bear is less innocent than he seems. Is masquerading as a Little Black Rain Cloud an attempt at deep surveillance?

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Perhaps. But if so, that's not China's problem with Pooh. Instead, Chinese censors are more concerned that some citizens have been sharing memes that poke fun at Chinese President Xi Jinping by comparing the slightly rotund world leader with a chubby little tubby all stuffed with fluff.

From pictures of him meeting with an Eeyore counterpart (in reality, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) to a cute pic of him cheerfully enjoying a car ride, bloggers began back in 2013 creating viral images that probably weren't terribly flattering in a culture where the president has little responsibility to maintain a warm or irreverent image.

So for now, at least, censors have begun to see Pooh Bear as a way for citizens to criticize the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, president of the People's Republic of China, and chairman of the Central Military Commission  all titles that Xi Jinping holds. And that means that places like Weibo and WeChat (wildly popular social networking sites in China) will throw you an error message for referencing Little Bear Winnie (Winnie's Chinese name), or some images of the Pooh.

Oh bother, indeed.

Now That's Interesting Note that this isn't the first time protesters have been censored when it comes to the Chinese president. Censors in China also removed mentions of baozi, a Chinese food, because it was a reference to the president's nickname: Steamed Bun Xi.
For Immediate Release

Following reports of the proposed closure of the U.S. State Department office that focuses on war crimes, Physicians for Human Rights today condemned the proposal and released this statement of former U.S. ambassador-at-large Stephen Rapp, PHR board member:

The proposed closure of the Office of Global Criminal Justice represents a profound lack of understanding of the mechanisms necessary to hold war criminals accountable for their actions.

I have seen time and time again that having a high-level presidential appointee has made a difference in moving the arc toward justice for the victims of mass atrocities. Without such a position, we would not have had Caesar coming to the United States to present his photographic evidence of Syrian President Assads torture and murder of thousands of his own people. We would not have had bipartisan support for expansion of the war crimes rewards program that helped bring Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda to justice. We would not have had U.S. endorsement and funding for the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre in the African court that recently convicted him for crimes against humanity.

At a time when we need fair trials of the leaders of ISIL to expose their acts of genocide, rape, and robbery, and to prosecute the egregious targeting of hospitals and health workers by the Assad government, who will provide the leadership to overcome bureaucratic resistance and spearhead the diplomacy necessary to gain the support of other governments?

The promise of never again has proven hard to keep. If this Office of Global Criminal Justice closes, it will become even more difficult.

Stephen Rapp is a board member of Physicians for Human Rights and was the U.S. ambassador-at-large from 2009-2015, heading the Office of War Crimes Issues, which was renamed (in 2012) the Office of Global Criminal Justice, in the U.S. State Department. Before his appointment, he was chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and chief of prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.
I have not visited the High Peaks this summer, and I don't think I will anytime soon based upon what I hear and read about the crowds and people-related problems. Hiker friends and a steward I know have talked of massive crowds on all of the easier, more popular mountains as hiking's popularity continues to grow.

My general disdain for humanity has made it so that I almost view a hike as a failure if I see more than a handful of people. I hiked a bit two weekends ago with a nice guy I ran into on an unmarked trail on state land in Washington County who lamented the same issues, that those of us who want peace and quiet in the woods are finding fewer publicly accessible places where it is offered.

There are still some woodlands and trails that are open to the public where you can find solitude, you just have to plan better and get out earlier to avoid the weekend influx. Head west or east, not north this time of year, I have found.

It seems that much of the significant forest ranger activity in the Adirondacks was concentrated on the High Peaks over the past week, based on this ranger report, pasted below.

-- Don Lehman

Town of Newcomb

Essex County

Search: At 7:57 a.m. on July 10, DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received information about three overdue hikers in the Santanoni Range of the High Peaks Wilderness. Three hikers in their 30s had set out to climb three Santanoni mountains via the Express Route and Panther Brook herd paths. The subjects found themselves taking longer than expected and called home to let family members know they would not be out until 2 a.m. When the three hikers did not return home by daybreak, Forest Rangers were called in for assistance. By 8:30 a.m., three rangers headed to the area and located the subjects at 10:18 a.m. in good health approximately a half mile up the foot trail.

Town of Keene

Essex County

Rescue: On July 11 at 3:51 p.m. DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a call regarding a 55-year-old man who had fallen and sustained a lower leg injury on the Great Range Trail between Gothics and Saddleback mountains. Another group hiking the same trail splinted the leg and provided coordinates to Ray Brook Dispatch. Two Rangers were transported by New York State Police Aviation helicopter to the mans location. Upon arrival, one Ranger was lowered by hoist to the mans location. The Ranger treated the subject and prepared him for extrication by helicopter. The man was flown to a local hospital where he received further medical care.

Town of Keene

Essex County

Rescue: On July 13 at 2:06 p.m., DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a request for assistance for a 52-year-old female from Oxford, Conn., with a possible ankle fracture on Cascade Mountain. The subject was 1.7 miles in on the trail, and 12 Rangers were dispatched. NYSP Aviation was contacted but unable to fly due to bad weather. When Rangers located the subject they assessed and splinted the leg injury and the subject was able to bear weight on it for part of the walk down. When the subject felt unstable again, Rangers packaged her in a backpack litter and carried her down to the trailhead. The subject was then transported to the hospital by her husband. All Rangers were clear by 7:11 p.m.

Town of North Elba

Essex County

Search: On July 14 at 6:17 p.m., DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from Essex County 911 and patched them through to four hikers in the McKenzie Pond Wilderness. The four had decided to go on an adventure and bushwhack through the wilderness on a short hike with no gear, map, or compass. Coordinates put them on the side of Hennessy Mountain, due north of Route 86 and Old Military Road. With severe weather coming in, the subjects could not find their way back. Forest Rangers were dispatched to the location of the groups car on Route 86 and, under heavy rain, started a land search to the hikers last known location. At 8:14 p.m., Forest Rangers found the individuals in good health; and by 9:05 p.m., the subjects were back at their vehicles.

Town of Keene

Essex County

Rescue: On July 16 at 3:32 p.m., DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from Essex County 911 with the caller stating that an 18-year-old male fell while climbing Cascade Slide near the Cascade Falls day use area in Keene. The caller reported the subject was conscious and in extreme pain. Six Rangers responded and located the subject. The first Ranger on scene assessed the subject and requested Keene EMS and Keene Valley Fire Department. The young man is believed to have fallen more than 100 feet from a rock while climbing. He landed near the base of the falls. The subject was stabilized, packaged, and transported to a waiting ambulance. The man is believed to have sustained multiple fractures, as well as internal injuries. The ambulance took the subject to Elizabethtown Hospital, where he was then transported by Life Flight to the medical center in Burlington, Vermont, for further medical care.

Town of Hunter

Greene County

Search: On July 16 at approximately 5:50 p.m., DEC Central Dispatch notified Rangers about a group of eight lost hikers who intended to hike to Palenville Overlook from the South Beach parking lot. The lost family had been hiking for hours and was unable to find their way back to their vehicle. Lt. David Pachan was at the North/South Lake Ranger headquarters at the time of the call and responded to the search. Lt. Pachan was in cell phone contact with the lost hikers and secured their coordinates. Thirsty, tired, and relieved to get some help, the group was located on the red trail and escorted back to their vehicle.

Town of Colchester

County of Delaware

Search: On July 16 at 5:07 p.m., DEC Central Dispatch took a call transferred from DEC Raybrook Dispatch for a lost hiker. The male hiker stated that he was low on water and had been lost for three hours. The man became disoriented while hiking the Finger Lakes Trail on Campbell Mountain. The hiker was directed to contact 911 to secure coordinates. Forest Rangers received this information and subsequently located the hiker in good condition. The incident was assisted by members of the Downsville Fire Department.
The state Department of Health has confirmed a second case where a Saratoga County resident was infected with Powassan virus and suspects that a third county resident has contracted the disease as well.

Neither person has died, though the person whose case was confirmed remained hospitalized as of Tuesday, according to DOH. The person who is suspected to have had it was hospitalized but has been released, and test results on that person were pending. Officials have not said where the patients were from

The virus is spread through tick bites, and a Gansevoort man died after contracting it earlier this year. His death was announced last week.

The Health Department is stepping up testing and collection of ticks from Saratoga County in an effort to find out if there is a higher incidence of the virus in ticks in this region, said agency spokesman Gary Holmes.

He said the DOH will be asking for expedited tests of the ticks that have been collected during routine tick collection efforts in recent months, and also plans to expand collection sites to take in more of the insects for testing, Holmes said.

Holmes said over 200 ticks were collected from five sites already, and the DOH hopes to have test results on them by early August.

We are adding 10 more sites to bolster that sampling pool, Holmes said. We are trying to determine if this is a rare occurrence. We are trying to figure out if there is a reason why its (infections) have been here.

Holmes said Powassan infections are still rare. None of the ticks that DOH has caught for testing in Saratoga County over the past nine years have tested positive for it.

We do know from these tests that Powassan is present in Saratoga County, but it is very rare, Holmes said.

In all, there have been 26 confirmed cases in New York over 17 years, Holmes said.

The virus is transmitted by infected ticks and causes brain swelling that can be fatal.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said signs and symptoms of infection can include fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, seizures and memory loss. They usually appear a week to a month after the bite occurs.

Long-term neurological problems may occur. There is no specific treatment, but people with severe Powassan virus illnesses often need to be hospitalized to receive respiratory support, intravenous fluids or medications to reduce swelling in the brain.

The best defense is prevention of tick bites. Health officials recommend that those who venture into woods and fields take precautions such as DEET or Permethrin bug repellents.
Warren Countys efforts to explore fully privatizing airport operations should include a look at whether charter flight operations could be brought in and whether commercial air service could return to the airport.

Those ideas, along with expanding airplane maintenance operations at the Queensbury airfield, were among the ideas floated Tuesday by members of an advisory committee that was organized to give the county Board of Supervisors input on airport management decisions.

Members of the committee discussed a wide range of ideas to improve the facility, which runs a budget gap of several hundred thousand dollars per year. That has prompted some supervisors and county residents to want to privatize it. As it stands now, Rich Air runs flight operations as fixed base operator, but the county maintains and runs the rest of the facility.

Rich Air has offered to run the airport, saying it can save the county $500,000 annually.

The advisory committee has been waiting for months to review the countys request for proposals that will be advertised in light of Rich Airs proposal. The county is legally required to seek bids from others who may want to operate the public facility.

The fact that the RFP was not done nearly six months after Rich Air principal Rich Schermerhorn made the offer did not sit well with several members of the advisory committee on Tuesday, who questioned the delay. Queensbury resident Travis Whitehead, a member of the committee, said after the meeting that he believed that some county employees were dragging their feet in addressing Rich Airs proposal and putting together the RFP.

Rich Air provided a proposal six months ago and the county has yet to offer a response, he said. This is either incompetence or sabotage or a combination of the two.

Schermerhorn has twice in the past year made proposals to run the airport, but the county has not accepted, and responded in March with a proposal to take over the fixed base operator duties from Rich Air.

Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Rachel Seeber, chairwoman of the advisory committee, said one issue that is raised to her most often is a desire to see a commercial air carrier return to the airport. Commercial service ended there in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Im constantly hearing from people, Why cant we have commercial airlines here? Seeber said.

Airport Manager Ross DuBarry said regional carrier Cape Air was approached three to four years ago to see if there was interest in flying from Queensbury, but the company determined the regional airfield was too close to Albany International Airport and it wanted guarantees that could not be made. Public Works Superintendent Jeff Tennyson said the company could be approached again to see if there had been a change to the analysis in recent years.

Pilot Tom Clements said he believes there was a lot of potential at the airport that wasnt being realized. He pointed out that charter flights were available at Adirondack Regional Airport in Saranac Lake, so if people wanted to hire a plane to fly to Boston or elsewhere for the day they could.

But that service is not offered at the Warren County airport.

Its surprising you cant go out there and charter an airplane, he said.

Advisory committee member Dr. David Schwenker said there was a need for more aircraft maintenance, as other airports in the Northeast have grown maintenance operations and attracted airplane owners from around the country.

Weve seen an amount of growth at Middlebury and Saratoga (airports), at a loss to us. he said.
WHITEHALL  A Whitehall woman was arrested last week for allegedly having sex with an underage teen, police said.

Melinda R. Baxter, 22, of Wheeler Avenue, was charged with third-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, according to Whitehall Police.

She is accused of having sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl, police said. Whitehall Police were contacted on July 11, and she was arrested after an investigation by Whitehall Police Detective Frank Hunt and Patrol Officer Katie Paddock.

The charge alleges she had sexual contact with a child who was too young to legally consent. The age of consent in New York is 17.

Baxter was released pending prosecution in Whitehall Court.
A powerful line of storms knocked out power to parts of the region late Monday afternoon and into the evening hours.

At its height, National Grid reported nearly 4,500 customers without electricity in Saratoga Springs with more outages reported in Washington County and other sporadic outages in Warren and Saratoga counties.

The National Weather Service issued a thunderstorm watch through the evening and several warnings which included a flash flood warning until 11:45 p.m. Monday in southeastern Saratoga County.

For the latest on the weather, visit poststar.com/weather.
GRANVILLE  Two passengers involved in Monday nights crash in Granville are now in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Albany Medical Center Hospital, medical officials said.

Both are now considered to have life-threatening injuries.

Douglas Trepanier, 36, of Rutland, Vermont, was unconscious with head trauma after the crash on Route 22. The car in which he was riding went through a stop sign and a red flashing light and crashed into the side of another car, according to State Police.

Officers wanted to transport Trepanier by helicopter but could not because of heavy rain. He was taken to Glens Falls Hospital and then sent to Albany Med.

Likewise, 72-year-old Pearle Greene, of Salem, was sent on to Albany Med. She was initially described as having injuries that were not life-threatening, including at least one broken ankle and head and neck trauma. But her condition deteriorated.

State Police have not yet issued any tickets, but said they expect to ticket driver James Greene, 51, of Rutland.












Irans top army chief on Monday threatened attacks on US military bases in the Middle East in the event that Washington imposes sanctions on the regime.





Irans chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, said that designating the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps a terrorist organization would be a huge miscalculation, and threatened the consequences of doing so, saying it could destabilize the entire region, Iranian media reported.





Drawing an analogy between the IRGC and terrorist groups and imposing the same sanctions on the IRGC would be a big risk to the US and its bases and forces stationed in the region, Bagheri told a group of military commanders in Mashhad.









Bagheri also said the US should be wary of imposing new sanctions on the country to stop its missile program. The Islamic Republic of Irans missile power is defensive and is never negotiable at any level, he said. In June, the US Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to strengthen sanctions against Iran for its ballistic missile testing and other non-nuclear provocations. Passed by a vote of 98-2, the Countering Irans Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017 is supposed to impose new mandatory sanctions against persons and entities involved in Irans ballistic missile program and sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Washington have insisted on responding to Irans provocative ballistic missile tests for months, but reportedly waited until after the recent Iran election to vote on this legislation. The bill still has to go to the House of Representatives. If it passes there, it will go to the presidents desk.












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The Rock Island County Metropolitan Airport Authority got a sobering outlook Tuesday, as its consultant predicted the number of passengers flying out of the Quad-City International Airport would fall this year. Meanwhile, June figures continued to show a significant drop in traffic.

Meanwhile, the authority approved a budget for fiscal year 2018, which is somewhat smaller than the year before. It also passed a measure that holds the line on its share of Rock Island County's property taxes.

Declines haven't been unusual for the Quad-City airport over the past five or six years, but the number of departing passengers for June dropped 10 percent from the previous year, to 29,288. The year before, it totaled 32,329.

Much of that decline came from United, which saw a 30 percent drop. But American was down 11 percent and Delta 2 percent. Allegiant saw a 10 percent increase.

The June decline was the third consecutive month in which the airport saw double digit percentage declines in departures. The airport reported declines of 15 percent and 18 percent in April and May, respectively.

Some of the decline in monthly traffic in June could still have come from the loss of the United flight to Washington, D.C., which operated for eight days last June. However, the airport did not collect data for those days, so the extent to which that contributed in the year over year decline isn't clear.

Still, the overall trend was downward. Mike Bown, vice president of Trillon Aviation, the airport's consultant, said he expected the figure for calendar year 2017 to only hit 320,000. That, he said, would be a 10 percent decline year over year.

Bown said that load factor, a measure of how full a plane is, is a major contributor here. Airlines that had been competing on price over the past few years have stabilized their yields, and that's pushed load factors down.

"A lot of its being load factor driven, which is being affected by the fares. And based on what the airlines are telling me I dont expect that to change through Labor Day and probably thereafter," Bown told commissioners. He said it would be "a reach" for the airport to hit 340,000 for the 2018 fiscal year, which is about the passenger numbers included in the authority's budget.

There was some encouraging news. Allegiant has scheduled a twice weekly flight to Punta Gorda, Florida, from mid-December to mid-February. That should improve traffic numbers.

Last year, the flight had operated on an abbreviated schedule, but there is intense interest in some quarters for its return. Cathie Rochau, marketing director for the airport, said the flight is popular with people who have condominiums in Florida. The Punta Gorda flight takes people to the Fort Myers, Florida, area.

Also, Bown said he expects new Florida service to be added next year. He did not elaborate in front of the commission and declined to be more specific afterward.

In other business, the airport authority approved a budget for fiscal year 2018 that appropriates $25.7 million. That's down from $27.4 million in 2016. The decrease came as about $1 million less was budgeted for capital expenditures, while the rest came from savings in debt service and insurance expenses.

The commission also approved a measure that levies property taxes of a little more than $1.4 million. That is the same as it was for fiscal year 2016, said Angela Burch, the controller.

The commission did reallocate how those proceeds are accounted for. Previously, it was capped by state law at how much property taxes it could levy for overall maintenance and operation. However, by re-distributing $1 million of those funds to other purposes, such as retirement and insurance costs, the authority has given itself more room.

The authority also approved a collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 3744, which covers about 50 people. The deal calls for a pay increase of 0.75 percent in the first year, 1.25 percent in the second year and 1.75 percent in the third and fourth years. There also were some changes in benefits that will result in savings to the authority.
Adventure Community Church, 6509 Northwest Blvd., Davenport, will host a fundraiser Friday to honor veterans and raise funds for the Honor Flight of the Quad-Cities.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. A flag presentation by American Legion Post 26 will be held, and a meal will be served beginning at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $15 per person or $70 per table.

Raffle tickets and 50/50 tickets will each be available for $1 each.

The American Legion Post 26 will be the Honor Guard for the event. Derek Grant, who performs on the bagpipes when veterans return from Washington, D.C., will play Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.

Bill Hall will sound Taps for fallen soldiers. Ken and Debbie Rice have created a display to honor fallen soldiers from Iowa.

The purpose of the Honor Flight is to fly Americas veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials dedicated to them. Applications are being accepted for World War II or Korean-era veterans, or any veteran with a terminal illness.
Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Stanley W. Talbot lived to serve others, whether he was on-duty or off-duty.

Stan could never say no to anyone in need, said Dan Roach, his friend and former state police colleague. When he worked in patrol, he would often help out a stranded motorist by paying for a meal, some gasoline and even once for a new tire. Stan personified the long-standing motto of the Illinois State Police: integrity service, and pride.

Talbot, 50, of rural Cambridge, Illinois, was killed on June 23, 2001, while working a roadside checkpoint at the foot of the Centennial Bridge in Rock Island.

Motorist Jonathan Corey Posey, who was stopped at the checkpoint, fled with Talbot hanging onto the side of the car, according to Quad-City Times archives. Talbot fell from the vehicle a few blocks later. His body was run over by another officer who had pursued Posey's vehicle, according to the archives.

Posey was later convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Sixteen years after his death, family, friends, law enforcement, state and local officials and community members gathered Monday on the lawn of the Rock Island County Courthouse to dedicate and officially rename the bridge the "Master Sgt. Stanley Talbot Memorial Bridge.

Illinois State Police Director Leo Schmitz said that although he did not know Talbot, he understood the contents of his character and the type of person he was.

There is a common bond that goes through all of us, anybody that raises their right hand and puts on a badge," he said. "Your job is to take care of the people. He was willing to trade his life to save others, and he did.

A resolution to dedicate the bridge was sponsored by Sens. Neil Anderson, R-Rock Island, Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, and Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles, and Rep. Daniel Beiser, D-Alton, and passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year.

"Master Sergeant Stanley Talbot was a man who spent his life serving our community with integrity and honor," Anderson said. "This bridge serves as a visible reminder of his sacrifice, but his true legacy will live on through his children who followed their father into law enforcement.

Talbots daughter, Dyan, is a master sergeant with the state police and his son, Doug, is a police officer in Collinsville, Illinois.

Doug Talbot said the bridge dedication was a great tribute to his father.

Even after 16 years that hes been gone, people care enough to come together to remember him, to put this tremendous event together.

Roach, deputy chief of the Schaumburg (Illinois) Police Department and a retired state police captain, said Talbot had planned to retire the year he died.

He literally served until the very end, he said. I find it fitting that the Centennial Bridge, which serves many thousands of people every year, is being dedicated in honor of this humble and loyal public servant.

Doug Talbot said his father would be very surprised and humble by the memorial.

He never went to work looking for attention or awards or anything like that, he said. He did what he thought was right, day in and day out, and I think he would be very humble by this showing.

Talbot attended the Illinois State Police Academy in 1975 and first worked for state police District 5 in Joliet before being transferred to District 7 in East Moline.
The responsibility of Vera French Community Mental Health Center as a safety net provider was the focus of a strategic planning session Monday in Davenport.

A group of 26 Vera French board members and other community representatives discussed that responsibility to Scott County and the surrounding region, and the challenges that come with it, during a focus group at the Davenport Public Library.

Steve Sorensen, owner/managing director of Strategy in Progress, LLC, facilitated the session. He said Vera French seeks community input about the priorities and direction the center should take in the future.

Vera French is the communitys safety net when it comes to behavioral health, and the center is accountable to community stakeholders and citizens, said Vera French CEO Richard K. Whitaker. So, as a key part of the planning process, we are presenting the central issues and focus points we have identified so far and are asking for open and thoughtful feedback.

How your mental health goes is how your health goes, he said. We cant just provide services. Weve got to show were making a difference.

He talked about the concept of decriminalization of mental-health illness and substance abuse. For their mental illness problems, (some people) are sitting in jail, he said.

He added that Vera French consists of the center, housing and the foundation. It is critical that all three entities work together in a common strategic direction to address mental health in the community, he said. That term safety net is a big responsibility. We cant have any gaps in our continuing care.

Sorensen led the group in discussing five open-ended questions about the communitys most critical needs with respect to behavioral and mental health, what it means for Vera French to be the community safety net when it comes to behavioral health, what core mental health services Vera French must provide, ideas about how Vera French can subsidize its business model and ideas about how the organization can better use its resources to better serve the community.

There are rule followers, rule breakers and rule writers. We need to be a rule writer, said former Vera French board member Joe Slavens, president and CEO of Northwest Bank & Trust Company.

After Sorensen led a group discussion, some of the main concerns the group expressed were:

 Coordination of services

 Easy and timely access to services

 Need for collaborating partners

 Need to address provider shortages

 Clarifying Vera Frenchs external capacity  securing transitional housing and transportation for clients, for example

 Finding new ways of doing things

Those attending included Bettendorf Police Chief Phil Redington and Davenport Community Schools Superintendent Art Tate. Participants included representatives from several other organizations that assist those with mental illness, as well as a representative of Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa.

Sorensen said strategic planning began in May and will continue through September.
Davenport teen pleads in robbery case

A 17-year-old will be sentenced Aug. 25 for four armed robberies he committed in Bettendorf and Davenport earlier this year.

Davionta Isiah Duax of Davenport pleaded guilty in Scott County District Court to four counts of first-degree robbery, a Class B felony each punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

Although he is charged as an adult, Duax will not be required to serve the mandatory minimum of 17 years in prison before parole can be granted.

Scott County prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement filed Wednesday that they will not oppose the sentences running concurrently, or at the same time.

Duax will also pay restitution of $1,865.

Police say Duax, while armed with a knife, robbed Express Lane, 1909 Harrison St., Davenport, on Jan. 23 and Feb. 6; Ann's Hallmark Shop, 886 Middle Road, Bettendorf, on Feb. 2; and Little Caesars Pizza, 2900 E. 53rd St., Davenport, on Feb. 8.

He was arrested in February.

--Tara Becker

Man shot Sunday in Davenport

A 53-year-old man sustained a serious but non-life-threatening gunshot wound early Sunday, Davenport police said Monday.

Officers were dispatched at 1:36 a.m. to Genesis Medical Center-West Central Park, Davenport, for a gunshot victim who arrived at the hospital by private vehicle.

Officers located a scene in the 3000 block of West 49th Street. No other injuries or damage was reported.

No other information was available Monday.

Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to call the Davenport Police Department at 563-326-6125 or submit an anonymous tip via the mobile app CityConnect Davenport, IA or CrimeReports by Motorola.

--Times staff

Two injured in motorcycle crash

Two people were injured in a motorcycle crash Sunday, Davenport police said Monday.

Police, fire and Medic EMS responded at 9:47 p.m. to East 4th Street and River Drive.

Police say the motorcycle was traveling west on River Drive in the right lane and struck the west curb of the intersection, losing control.

The driver, a man, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. His passenger, a woman, sustained serious life-threatening injuries, according to police.

No other information was released Monday. The investigation is being conducted by the police department's traffic safety unit.

--Times staff
Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, has announced that the DeWitt Fire Department will receive $133,629 in funding from the Department of Homeland Securitys Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) Program.

The money will be used to purchase breather packs and replacement parts for breather packs. Loebsack has been a longtime supporter of the program, which allows first responders to buy firefighting equipment, implement wellness programs that focus on health and improve facilities.

Funds can be used for many needs, including new protective equipment, health and safety modifications to stations and training for emergency personnel.
MOUNT ZION  Gov. Bruce Rauner pledged Monday to change the language of a funding bill crucial to schools across Illinois as they ready to open in the fall, the latest development in an ongoing battle about how to pay for the state's public education.

Flanked by Central Illinois Republican lawmakers, Rauner said he could not support the bill the General Assembly approved in May and he vowed to use his amendatory veto power to change it. Rauner objects to what he described as a poison pill provision that would require the state to pick up the employer's portion of teacher pensions costs for the Chicago Public School District, something the state does for all other school districts.

Lawmakers have not yet sent the legislation, Senate Bill 1, to the governor, who urged House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton to do so.

When I amendatory veto that bill, it will become balanced, equitable and fair for all the school districts across the state, said Rauner, speaking at a news conference at Mount Zion Junior High School.

The $36 billion state budget enacted by lawmakers this month, which required an override of Rauners full veto, includes an additional $350 million for schools. But the legislation requires approval of a new, "evidence-based" funding formula to distribute the money.

The funding model would steer money to schools based on local property wealth and distinct student-population needs, while also ensuring that none of the state's 850 school districts is allocated less than it received this year.

Rauner was joined by Republican state Reps. Brad Halbook of Shelbyville and Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, and state Sens. Jason Barickman of Bloomington and Chapin Rose of Mahomet, who all spoke in support of the move.

The kids that I represent in my communities and in my district matter just as much as the kids in Chicago, and I want to make sure that they stand just as much of a chance to benefit from a school funding reform as the kids in Chicago," Barickman said.

Rauner is touting the amount he says various school districts would gain under his plan. He said the Mount Zion school district would receive an additional $230,000 on top of the $192,699 gain theyd receive under the bill as written. Decatur would receive an additional $1.6 million per year, over and above the $2.7 million it would gain under the legislation, according to a website created by the governor's office.

SB1 was approved 60-52 in the House and 35-22 in the Senate, both below the three-fifths majorities necessary to override any veto. Despite final approval on May 31, Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, used a procedural move to hold the bill without sending it to the governor.

Rauner criticized the move as an attempt by Democrats to hold school funding hostage to secure money for the Chicago teacher pension fund, while Democrats said at the time it was needed to create a cool-down period and prevent a hasty veto.

A spokesman for Cullerton said Monday that discussions are ongoing about when to send Rauner the bill. It was still being held as of late Monday afternoon.

Though the bill is held up in the Senate, Rauner focused most of his scorn Monday on a familiar target: Madigan.

Referring to the longtime Democratic Speaker of the House as ruthless, cold-blooded and a tyrant, Rauner blamed Madigan for the concerns of school officials across the state about whether Illinois would come through on its funding promise.

Support my amendatory veto and youll get what you deserve and youll be treated equitably, Rauner said. Dont give in to fear. Dont give in to fear and just take a little penny because itll hurt your districts for years if you give in today.

In a statement released shortly after Rauner's press conference, state Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat who has championed SB1 and the need for a school funding overhaul, said Rauner has never directly contacted him to discuss the bill.

"It is clear to me today that (Rauner) intends to use the children of Illinois as leverage for his political agenda when he could be working out a compromise to accomplish a much-needed and long-awaited reform," Manar said. "I am saddened and discouraged by his display today.

The idea of using school funding as leverage was discussed several times on Monday. Though Senate Republican leader Bill Brady floated the idea last week to use the education funding as a leverage point for other reforms previously pushed by Republicans, those in attendance Monday pushed back.

Schools have to open, thats our primary responsibility in the Illinois constitution and its just common sense, Mitchell said.

State Rep. Sue Scherer, a Decatur Democrat who was mentioned several times by Rauner as someone who should support his amendatory veto, said in a statement she was glad to see the governor participate in the discussion on school funding reform.

I cannot stress how important it is to address this issue now to ensure that our states elementary, middle and high schools open without interruption, with the resources they need, she said. All children, regardless of their zip code, deserve an equitable education, and it starts with changing the way schools are funded.

Changes to the state's school funding formula have been a topic of debate for decades in Springfield, as Illinois has the nations widest gap between low- and high-income school districts, according to the nonprofit organization The Education Trust. Illinois schools rely on local property taxes to cover more than 60 percent of their costs, it said.

This year was a breakthrough for proponents, as SB1 passed both House and Senate with Democratic support. The new formula incorporates 27 different variables that weigh a school's poverty level, property values and transportation costs, among other factors.

Rauners education adviser, Beth Purvis, has previously said the governor agreed with 90 percent of SB1, though she also said he planned to veto it.

Any protracted fight in Springfield over school funding would be devastating for local school districts, as the State Board of Education has said a funding plan must be approved by Aug. 3 for normal payments to be sent to districts by the start of the fall semester.

Decatur School District Chief Operational Officer Todd Covault told the school board earlier this month that the district could make it until mid-November without state funds. But after that, he said the district would be out of cash to pay its teachers and staff.

Mount Zion Superintendent Travis Roundcount said the district does not have a drop-dead date thanks to reserves and property taxes. But he said he hoped lawmakers could come together within the next two weeks to help fund schools.

We would hope that a new plan could get passed in the near future so we could stay open and provide services to students, he said.
The Quad-Cities Chamber has introduced a resource to help manufacturing and defense-related firms do more Quad-City business.

The Quad-Cities Chamber Manufacturing Innovation Hub has launched a Regional Capabilities Catalog in which businesses can enter comprehensive company profiles, including a list of their capabilities. The catalog is searchable by North American Industry Classification Systems code.

Mike Coughlin, executive director for the Quad-Cities Manufacturing Innovation Hub, says the catalog helps make those connections that can lead to more local business and boost economic growth right here in the Quad-Cities. Its a win-win for everyone.

Companies are encouraged to register in the database and use it to learn about opportunities to source more parts, services and other business locally. There is no cost to register, which takes about 10-15 minutes.

Visit www.catalog.quadcitieschamber.com to get started. For more information, contact the Hub at AsktheHub@QuadCitiesChamber.com. The catalog is funded, in part, by the Illinois Defense Industry Adjustment Program.
Thirty-one percent of Iowans live at or below the poverty level. Thousands of children go to bed hungry at night. Iowa also has a fairly large population of senior citizens trying to survive on a fixed income. Here are some of the things Republicans have done to make life better for us:

 No raise in the minimum wage

 Cutbacks to the food stamp program

 Silencers are legal on center-fire high-powered rifles to kill deer

 Legalizing fireworks

Conservative billionaire industrialist Charles Koch in the next two years is willing to spend $400 million to keep the Republicans in the White House and Congress. He wants more tax cuts for the wealthy and an end to all unions and worker rights. He wants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eliminated because they have fined him millions of dollars for polluting our air, water, and land.

He plans to spend an untold amount of money in Iowa to keep the governors office and Republican majority in the Legislature, guaranteeing that legislators he has bought and paid for in the past, remain in Des Moines.

When you see attack ads against the Democrats, they are mostly based on fabricated lies paid for by Koch and his allies. When I think of all the politicians that are now owned by Charles Koch and the lobbyists for companies that manufacture fireworks, Proverbs 17:23 comes to mind  The wicked take secret bribes to pervert the course of justice.

Merle Wilson

Jesup, Iowa
Loans approved by the Chadron City Council Monday will help bring in more than $1.4 million in investment yet this year.

Mike and Erika Hackett of Scottsbluff are purchasing the lots on Sixth Street across from Bruce Hill Furniture, Quality Tire and Eagle Chevrolet and plan to use a portion of the property to expand their Dominos Pizza franchise.

The couple already owns similar businesses in Scottsbluff, Gering and Torrington, Wyo., and expects to employ 16 full-time equivalencies at the Chadron location.

The job creation portion of this is really critical, said Deb Cottier, executive director of Northwest Nebraska Development Corporation.

The Hacketts plan to build on the east end of the property and hope to be open by Christmas.

Their loan application for funds from the citys Community Development Block Grant and LB840 revolving loan funds for $250,000 was approved unanimously and will help them invest $1.39 million in the purchase of real estate, construction, equipment, training, operating capital and legal and architectural costs. The council approved loans of $168,000 and $82,000 from the CDBG and LB840 funds, both at 4.25 percent interest over 10 years.

The building they plan to construct this year will house their Dominos Pizza franchise with seating for 40 and include space for an additional business. The Hacketts said they have already secured a lease for that space. A third business, expected to bring another eight to 10 jobs, has also committed to purchasing one of the other lots on the property from the Hacketts. They will continue to market the other lots on the property as well.

Mike Hackett began working for Dominos Pizza while studying to be a teacher and has stayed with the company since them. Their loan application indicates that Chadrons position as a college town and a popular tourist destination, the couple believes Chadron is the perfect spot for their business.

Given the opportunity, we feel that both Chadron Dominos and the community would thrive together, they wrote.

Their stores have seen positive sales growth in 13 of the last 15 years, and Erika Hackett said they are hitting their stride and have wanted to come to Chadron for quite awhile.

The second set of loans approved Monday was for a Main Street business. The council approved $100,000 in LB840 loans for Jim Puchner, owner of The Business Connection on a 4-1 vote. Puchner is working with a downtown revitalization grant as well and plans to have his Main Street store reopened by October.

It will have a more old-time mercantile look and feel, he said. He is adding several new lines of office supplies, art and gifts to his business and will likely also be adding staff over time to handle the work. In addition, a separate business is in operation in the basement of the building making custom star quilts. That business is currently employing three people part time, and the quilts will also be available on the main floor of The Business Connection.

Puchners loans were also broken in two, with $50,000 of the total amount to be repaid at 4.25 percent interest. The remaining $50,000 will be forgiven at the rate of $10,000 per year if Puchner keeps his Main Street business open for the next five years.

Were reopening a business, said Rob Wahlstrom in support of the loans. Wahlstrom serves on the LB840 citizen advisory committee that makes recommendations on projects such as this to the council.

Puchner anticipates that his sales tax revenue for the city should rise sharply, and Councilman Mark Werner noted that the improvements to his building will also mean a hike in property tax dollars for the city.

Councilman George Klein was the lone vote in opposition, voicing concern about forgiving half of the total dollars. He asked Puchner to consider taking only $50,000 or, as an alternative, to repay the entire $100,000, but Puchner said his business plan wont work with those figures.

Klein was afraid approving a forgivable loan would set the city up for a deluge of applications, but Wahlstrom pointed out that the committee hasnt met in 18 months due to a lack of applications. The last time was for the Holiday Inn Express loan package, a portion of which was also designed to be forgiven. In addition, the LB840 revolving loan fund can only be used as it accumulates more money, either through sales tax collections or loan repayments.

Vice Mayor Miles Bannan said the project is a worthwhile one, especially considering the business location.

Thats (the forgivable loan) our investment in having a downtown business open, Bannan said.
Temperatures soared throughout the week which landed a reading 107 degrees in Union Center on Friday, July 14.

Some in the neighborhood made the best of it by swimming or floating in the local dams. Megan Long and family, along with Alanah Spring, enjoyed fun in the sun that day. Also, Caden and Jori Smiley, Jade and Justine Keffeler, and Reggie and Jenny Rhoden enjoyed some tubing to start out the hot weekend.

Stan and Chris Anders hosted Stan's daughter Kallie and sons as they prepared for JoAnn Strong's 90th birthday party that took place on Saturday. It took place at the Central Meade County Community Center on a very hot Saturday afternoon. The newly installed air conditioning has made a huge difference in the building. So, despite the hot weather we are experiencing, one can find solace in the cool, comfortable community center.

Sandy Rhoden and Deb Schnell headed to Sioux Falls to visit their sister, Marletta Eich. She went into the hospital on June 30 and she had orders to be released on Sunday. She was diagnosed with viral encephalitis and was in very serious condition. Sandy, Debbie and family are so very much appreciative to those who have prayed for Marletta. Recovery is quite a long process, so we would welcome any and all prayers for her continued healing and recovery.

Lyle Delbridge is home after tests taken in Sioux Falls. Please keep him in your prayers for complete healing.

Children are enjoy Cedar Canyon Bible Camp at this time. Last week was the younger group starting with age 8.
The Sturgis Business Improvement District (BID)/the Sturgis Downtown Foundation have a goal to raise the funds necessary to purchase new decorations for the newly renovated Main Street for this holiday season.

Rally Point was hopping with activities from celebrities sitting on the dunk tank, 35th & Taylor concert, kids jumping toys and a Mountain Bike Race.

Mark Carstensen, Sturgis Mayor, Scott Reiman, FIB President and Geody Vanderwater, Chief of Police, along with a lot of other Sturgis residents spent time on the dunk tank raising funds for the decorations.

BID Board/Downtown Association Member, Rosemary Roth said "we have always

repaired the old decorations, and tried to piece-meal together to make due with what we had and now we have an opportunity to start from scratch and make our Main Street an inviting, beautiful place to visit,"

Mark Bruch, BID Board/Downtown Association President added "a healthy down town is vital to any community. He continued "the BID board strives to do its best to enhance and promote our newly renovated, Legendary Downtown Sturgis Main Street."

The Sturgis BID Board/Downtown Foundation had a goal of raising $5,000 and came close with generous donations from Scott Peterson Motors, Sabers Insurance, First Interstate Bank Employees, Sturgis RV Park, Knuckle Brewery and Sturgis Chiropractic. The Oasis/Fireside also donated all proceeds from the beverages sales Wednesday evening.

The 50/50 raffle took in $652 and the winners Loralee Stock, Gwyneth Simmons and Tarynn Curtis.

Winning this week's Mountain Bike Point Race was Caleb Karrels.
The Annual Megasorasses Against MS 2017 fundraiser was a success with more than 100 supporters contributing to find the cure for MS.

JD Williams said this is the 9th year they have hosted the fundraiser and over the years they have raised approximately $40,000. The annual bike ride and fundraising

celebration is Aug. 12 and 13 in Sheridan and Buffalo, Wyoming.

JD and Michelle Williams said they are involved because "we are inspired to ride

and fund raise for those people and families who are affected by MS. Some of the most inspirational people I've ever met are people who battle this disease everyday with an attitude that is phenomenal. They approach life with such a positive and giving attitude that you can't help but be happy trying to help in any small way like this. We all know people with MS, and in fact a young lady from back home was just diagnosed this summer, adding to our list of affected friends."

Williams continued "probably the most gratifying part of this work is that we've seen progress in the medications to help treat MS. With Michelle's diagnosis almost a decade ago, she's gone from giving herself daily injections, (I'm too wimpy to even help!) to 3 injections per week, and just this month she was able to start an oral medication. We hope and pray the progress continues and that someday a cure will be found. That's why we do what we do."

He continued " we appreciate all of the local businesses that contribute to

the silent auction."

Sturgis Chiropractic, Properties Unlimited, The Hideaway Diner in Whitewood, Boulder Canyon Country Club - are some of the companies that have contributed since the inception of the idea of this fundraiser.

"We're so lucky to live in a generous community," Williams said.

HillsView All Natural grass fed beef out of Ekalaka, Mont., donated a 1/2 beef that was

one of the many silent auction items supporters were able to bid on.

Xtreme Dakota bicycles provided a GT Laguna mountain bike for a raffle and it was won by Terry Hermann.

Bill Abell, Abell's Oddities provided bird houses and many unique flower planters. Andy Jones, co-owner of Saint Dakota clothing also contributed to the event.

Team members that have ridden in the MS 150 and helped organize this year's

event included JD & Michelle Williams, Bill Abell, Jana Tinnell, Jerrid &

Cami Goebel.

Williams said "it was a great night and initial reports look like about

$4,800 was raised to help us Bike to Eliminate MS."
After Maj. Gen. Tim Reisch walked to the podium, he reminded the crowd at Mount Rushmore National Memorial that 100 years ago the entire South Dakota Army National Guard was mobilized for World War I. More than 20 years later, it was mobilized again for World War II.

On Monday, the tradition continued as three men stood mobilized at the Mount Rushmore amphitheater, ready to serve their country overseas.

The South Dakota Army National Guards 216th Engineer Detachment was deployed for nine months to Romania, where they will head several firefighting teams to protect aviation assets and facilities.

"This is a part of our history and a part of our legacy that we're creating today," said Reisch, adjutant general for the South Dakota National Guard.

The detachment was federally mobilized along with three units from Hawaii, South Carolina and Idaho. This was the detachment's second deployment since 9/11, after being deployed in 2003 to Iraq.

Within the next few days, the three men will fly to Fort Bliss, Texas, to receive mission-specific training before heading to Romania in eastern Europe.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender also spoke at Monday's ceremony. Allender thanked each of the three men from the engineer detachment, saying that the kind of sacrifices they make are great compared to his own. He praised the guard members for being citizen soldiers.

Daugaard told the crowd that "we enjoy a lot of freedom and unity in America because of our men and women in uniform."

A little before 11 a.m., the detachment stood in a receiving line and hugged loved ones goodbye. Detachment commander Capt. Jared Bloomgren, who was the last to speak at the ceremony, expressed his gratitude to the people who have supported him and his detachment. That support hits close to home.

"You are the rock that drives me," Bloomgren said into the microphone, gesturing to his wife and three children. "You are my foundation."
The Wanblee wildfire had grown to more than 5,000 acres as of Tuesday, but is now at 50 percent containment thanks to the overnight efforts of more than 200 firefighters.

Pennington County Fire Administrator Jerome Harvey said some much-needed rain late Monday and successful use of burnout operations to establish fire lines and bolster existing fire breaks helped firefighters make good progress on the fire overnight.

The fire was reported at 5:37 p.m. Sunday and is located in heavily timbered, rugged terrain approximately 5 miles east of Wanblee, and north of the intersection of S.D. Highway 44 and S.D. Highway 73.

A cause has been determined. The fire remains under investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The tiny community of Georgetown and other homes in the area were threatened by the fire, but the only confirmed losses of buildings have been a garage and a cabin. No injuries have been reported.

Harvey said the Roosevelt Hotshots, a team of firefighters from Colorado, arrived today to assist with containment in steep, rocky inaccessible terrain.

A regional fire management team was to have taken over the fire Tuesday morning, but because of the progress made, management of the fire remained with local, state, tribal and federal fire incident commanders.

All the efforts of the firefighters would not be possible without the fantastic support of the local community, Harvey said in an email.
A regional fire incident team has been called in to take over management of a wildfire that had scorched more than 3,500 acres of grassland and timber near Wanblee as of Monday afternoon.

Trees were torching quickly in the wind-driven flames that kept area residents up most of the night, watching and worrying, said Phyliss Wilcox of Wanblee.

"The fire is all in the trees," Wilcox said. "I grew up in that area, and I hate to see it that way."

The cause of the Wanblee Timber Wildfire, reported at 5:37 p.m. on Sunday, is unknown and is under investigation, according to Scott Jacobson, public affairs officer with the Black Hills National Forest office in Rapid City.

No injuries have been reported, but two structures, described as a cabin and a garage, have been destroyed, he said.

About 165 firefighters from local, tribal, state and federal departments, including two single-engine air tankers, battled the fire on Monday, Jacobson said.

Temperatures were recorded near 100 degrees Monday afternoon.

The Rocky Mountain Region Type 2 team taking over firefighting efforts has also requested a helicopter tanker, he said.

Its a little more experience and expertise coming to manage it, Jacobson said of the Type 2 team.

Wanblee is located 28 miles southwest of Kadoka in south-central Jackson County on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Chelyabinsk ex-governor appeals to Supreme Court over his arrest in absentia

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Mikhail Yurevich, former governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, who stands charged with taking 26 million rubles (about $440,000 at the current exchange rate) in bribes, filed an appeal against his arrest in absentia with Russias Supreme Court, according to the statement published on the courts website on Tuesday.

The hearing date has not been scheduled yet.

On May 12, a district court in Yekaterinburg dismissed investigators motion to arrest Yurevich in absentia. The ruling was appealed by prosecutors. Later, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court overturned the lower courts decision and issued an arrest warrant for Yurevich.

Investigators claim that Yurevich received bribes regularly. Their amount was estimated at 26 million rubles.

Moreover, he allegedly instigated Oleg Grachev, who had been appointed to the position of the First Deputy Governor of the region, to spread libel about ex-chairman of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court Fyodor Vyatkin.
Former Altai vice-governor, his wife sentenced for corruption

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI)  A court in the Altai Territory has passed a sentence upon former regional vice-governor Yury Denisov and his wife for taking 2.5 million rubles ($42,300) in bribes, the Investigative Committees press service announced on Tuesday.

Denisov was given 8 years and 1 month in prison, while his wife received suspended sentence for a term of 5 years and 1 month. Additionally, they were fined over 6 million rubles ($101,400) in total.

Ex-official was convicted of extorting bribes. Tatiana Denisova was found guilty of mediation in bribery, the statement reads.

According to investigators, between November 2009 and March 2016, Denisov took bribes from heads of educational institutions under his jurisdiction. Investigators revealed four criminal episodes committed by the former official. Investigators also allege that Tatyana Denisova, acting as an intermediate, received a part of bribe amounting to 200,000 rubles (nearly $3,400 at the current exchange rate) from one of managers in March 2016. In total, Denisov received over 2.5 million rubles in bribes.

The spouses assets valued at more than 12 million rubles ($202,400) have been seized upon the investigators motion.
Russia ordered to pay Netherlands  5.4 mln in Arctic Sunrise case

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI) - The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Russia must pay the Netherlands about  5.4 million in compensation in the Arctic Sunrise ship confiscation case, according to the document released on the courts website on Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed by the Netherlands in October 2013.

In August 2015, the Court held that Russian authorities are to compensate the Dutch side in the Arctic Sunrise case.

The Court found that Russia had breached its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Convention) by boarding, investigating, inspecting, arresting, detaining, and seizing the Arctic Sunrise, a vessel flying the Dutch flag, without the prior consent of the Netherlands, and by arresting, detaining, and initiating judicial proceedings against the thirty persons on board that vessel (Arctic 30), the courts press release reads.

The Tribunal also determined that Russia had breached the Convention by failing to comply with the order prescribing provisional measures issued by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in connection with this arbitration (ITLOS Provisional Measures Order) and by failing to pay the deposits requested by the Tribunal in the proceedings.

According to the ruling, the Netherlands is entitled to damages for the loss of the Arctic Sunrise, material and nonmaterial damages of the Arctic 30 group as well as the expenses incurred by the Netherlands while issuing a bank guarantee under an order from the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Also, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that Russia must return the items confiscated from Arctic Sunrise and, due to its inability to restore the initial rights in timely manner, compensate the value to the Netherlands.

On September 18, 2013, Greenpeace activists attempted to land on the Prirazlomnaya oil rig to protest oil production in the Arctic. The next day, Russian border officials landed on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in a helicopter and towed it to Kola Bay. All 30 crew members were arrested.

After the protest on the Prirazlomnaya, a criminal case on piracy was opened. Later, the charges were changed to disorderly conduct.

In December 2013, all 30 activists were released under an amnesty marking 20 years of the Russian Constitution.




State Duma committee backs bill toughening penalties for inducement to suicide

Context Russian parliament set to toughen penalties for inducement to suicide

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI)  The State Duma Committee on Legislation and State Building has recommended that the parliaments members adopt a bill to increase up to 15 years the prison term for inducing to suicide in the first reading.

The draft law was submitted to the State Duma on Monday.

In a memorandum attached to the bill its authors, three lawmakers representing the ruling political party United Russia, point out that at present a federal law adopted in June envisages punishments in the range from 5 to up to 8 years in prison for inducing or assistance in committing suicide, even in case minors are involved.

The relevant articles of the Russian Criminal Code set sentences of up to 6 years in jail for inducing, assisting, or organizing activities aimed to induce minors to suicide via information and telecommunication networks servicing general public, what the authors of the bill believe to be incommensurable with the graveness and social danger of the crime.

Accordingly, the lawmakers propose to make the punishment for inducing minors to suicide more severe with prison terms ranging from 5 to 15 years. The authors also suggest to extend the severer punishment in the range of 8 to 15 years in prison for such crimes resulting in deaths of two and more minors, or persons perpetrators knew to be helpless, or women known to them to be pregnant, or those materially or otherwise being dependent on perpetrators.




Microsoft notifies of fulfilment of Russian antimonopoly watchdogs warnings

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI) - Microsoft Corporation has notified Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of execution of warnings issued over alleged anti-competition law violation within the established deadline, the watchdog announced in its Telegram Channel on Tuesday.

According to Anatoly Golomolzin, deputy FAS head, the service is currently analyzing the acquired information. The matter will be considered on July 25, 2017, the statement reads.

In June, FAS issued several warnings to Microsoft demanding the company to cease actions or inaction leading to restriction of competition.

Earlier, during the review of a case against Microsoft, FAS has found out additional evidence that Microsoft imposed discriminative conditions on other developers. In particular, Microsoft was said to be restricting the format and terms of notifying users of antivirus programs created by third parties, failing to establish a two-way timely communication, and introducing complicated procedures of updating antivirus programs.

In addition, the service announced that Microsoft may have violated the legislation by employing certain methods inducing users to stop using antivirus programs made by third parties and to activate software made by Microsoft (Windows Defender). The corporation is to fix the violations in a month.




Guwahati : By rejecting the party instruction, seven legislators including six MLAs of Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress (TMC) of the 60 members Tripura assembly on Monday had voted for National Democratic Alliance (NDA)s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

The seven legislators including six TMC MLAs and one Congress MLA of the Tripura assembly had cast their votes in favour of Ram Nath Kovind.

Earlier, the six TMC MLAs were sacked from the party after they had openly announced their support to the NDAs presidential candidate.

We have already announced our decision and today we voted for Kovind,'A Sudip Kumar Barman said.

Apart from the six TMC MLAs, rebel Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath also voted for the NDAs presidential candidate.

50 legislators of the ruling Left Front including Chief Minister Manik Sarkar cast their votes in the state assembly, while Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath cast his vote in West Bengal assembly and two Lok Sabha and lone Rajya Sabha MP from the state voted in the parliament in Delhi.

On the other hand, 124 legislators of the 126-member Assam assembly and three MPs of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) had cast their votes in the Assam assembly on Monday.

The voting for the presidential election was completed three hours before the time limit.

Principal Secretary of Assam assembly Mrigendra Kumar Deka said that, former Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad MLA Prafulla Kumar Mahanta voted last at around 1-40 pm.

The voting went very peacefully. Former Chief Minister and Congress MLA Tarun Gogoi and BPF MLA Kamal Sing Narzary had cast their votes in Delhi while the rest 124 MLAs cast their votes in the Assam assembly. Three AIUDF MPs Badaruddin Ajmal, Sirajuddin Ajmal and Radheshyam Biswas also voted in the assembly,'A the Principal Secretary of the Assam assembly said.

On the other hand, eight legislators in the 60-member Meghalaya assembly did not cast their votes in the presidential poll.

According to the reports, State minister and senior Congress leader Martin M Dangoo, Congress legislator kennedy Khyriem were among the eight legislators who could not cast their votes.

'Martin M Danggo is now undergoing treatment in a Chennai based hospital, while Parliamentary Secretary Justine Dkhar now in Bengaluru. While Independent legislator Julius Kitbok Dorphang, who is presently lodged in the Shillong jail on rape charge of a minor, had not sought to vote in the presidential poll,'A a top official of the Meghalaya assembly said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
The Hindu

The charge of the right brigade

The right wingas use of rumour and fake news precedes social media and the current political resurgence

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew):

Their names are What and Why

and When

And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me

I give them all a rest.

Rudyard Kiplingas six honest serving-men would have been a disillusioned lot now, hunting not for news but busy correcting fake news, lamenting how the sacred 5Ws and one H that ran through the veins of all news have been sacrificed at the altar of hate politics. Now, news is created without them. Its practitioners are not the professional journalists but a fast-growing tribe of politicians and peddlers of hate, mostly among the right-wing establishment who, with a fake Twitter handle, use altered news, pictures and videos to alter the truth.

Rosenthalas iconic Iwo Jima picture is photoshopped with a tricolour, the Bharatiya Janata Partyas spokesperson goes to TV studios celebrating a surgical strike and an actor and BJP MP relies on an interview in Pakistani media that writer Arundhati Roy never gave but wants her to be tied to an army jeep in Kashmir. Someone else attacks A.R. Rahman that gets retweeted by a Central minister and later, thankfully, deleted. Pictures of the Gujarat violence are being used for the BJPas Bengal project. The list of achievements of this regime that floods our WhatsApp is staggering. Thanks to a section of social media samaritans, the BJPas bluff gets called these days. But this is how it has always been. The right wingas tryst with rumour and fake news precedes social media and the current political resurgence. It is integral to the macho nationalism and their contested past.

Echo from the past

In their pantheon of fake news, nothing beats a pamphlet of 1946 that emanated from Bengal and soon spread through the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) and even Maharashtra. The Bang Kanya Ki Marmasparshi Appeal (A Heart-Rending Appeal from a Bengali girl) was a graphic account of a Hindu lady from Noakhali allegedly raped by Muslims in front of her father, father-in-law and children. More than 71 years, later it still makes a chilling read as the lady of the pamphlet makes a fervent appeal to the Shankaracharyas and asks them what happened to their dharma and berates her Hindu brothers for not having blood hot enough to boil on the travails of their sister.

The colonial administration of Bengal and the United Provinces could never find who the lady was or the source of the publication. What got discovered was the choreography among the Hindu Mahasabha, Gita Press and other organisations in publishing and disseminating the pamphlet with the goal of fomenting communal trouble.

The pamphlet made an innocuous appearance in the Malaviya Ank of Kalyan (the monthly journal of Gita Press) in 1946. It was a special issue of Kalyan in honour of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Kalyanas circulation of over two lakh a month and a charged atmosphere did the trick. The pamphlet became the talk of the province. By the time the provincial government could be alerted, thousands of pamphlets were discovered by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to have been published and printed at Allahabad by the secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, Prayag. The CID told the provincial administration that the pamphlet aappeals to Hindus and specially to Hindu women to counter the Muslim tyranny with the sword.a

The CID was in favour of proscribing that issue of Kalyan . F.R. Stockwell of the CID told Home Secretary Rajeshwar Dayal that aKalyan has a very wide circulation in India and the effect of the article mentioned may be extremely bad.a Averse to taking any stern action, Dayal came up with a middle-of-the road solution. Admitting that the implications of the article could be aunfortunatea , he also said it was aprofitless to take any action in respect of the October issue which is already in circulation.a The district magistrate of Gorakhpur was asked to warn the editor, Hanuman Prasad Poddar, to refrain from afuture publication of such incitory matteraa

But the fake news had assumed a life of its own, throwing the police and the CID into a tizzy. Soon, 4,000 more copies of the pamphlet were discovered printed by Kailash Press under the aegis of the Hindu Mahasabha and also by Central Press, Allahabad. Stockwell renewed the demand for proscribing Kalyan and even imposing a big fine. He had the support of Allahabad Collector T.B. Crossley but Dayal was being cautious, or maybe soft. Meanwhile, Kalyan a the journal of bhakti (devotion), gyan (knowledge) and vairagya (asceticism) a continued to spew venom, listing out incidents of Muslim excesses of rape and arson in subsequent issues. In December 1946, Poddar admitted that many of the incidents of violence mentioned in his November article did not take place. But Dayal was in a forgiving mood and did not even take a note of Poddaras admission.

Fake pamphlet news had become real now. G.C. Drewe, Home Secretary of the Bombay government, found the pamphlet published in Mahratta of Poona in December 1946. He proposed to take action against Mahratta under the Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act, 1931. But he was limited by the fact that the United Provinces government had taken no action. Dayal did not budge. But the news of the pamphlet had become real by now with many publications reporting on it.

The biggest irony was yet to take place. Raghavacharya Swami of the Ramanuj Sampraday took up the cudgels on behalf of Gita Press and others and petitioned the governor of the United Provinces saying that proscribing Kalyan was nothing but aencroachment of the liberty of expression of opiniona . Four months before Independence, the pamphlet was distributed again in Gwalior. But now it was about the freedom of the Fourth Estate. Fake news had won.

Akshaya Mukul is a researcher and the author of aGita Press and the Making of Hindu Indiaa
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" " A young eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) rides on the back of its mother in Kahuzi Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Guenter Guni/Getty Images

In parts of Central Africa, mining of rare minerals used for mobile telephones and other modern technology is pushing already endangered animals to the brink of extinction.

A new study conducted by Wildlife Conservation Society in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that mining operations have devastating impacts on wildlife, including species that live within protected areas such as the Itombwe Nature Reserve, an important forested habitat for great apes. The biodiverse area is home to populations of the endangered eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and the critically endangered Grauer's gorilla subspecies (Gorilla beringei graueri), whose numbers have fallen by 77 percent over the past two decades because of poaching  some of which is propelled by nearby mining sites.

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With fewer than 4,000 Grauer's gorilla remaining in the wild, these 400-pound (182-kilogram) cousins of the better-known mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) are being shot and killed by hungry miners. The gorillas live in large groups, can be readily tracked and make for easy prey for people working mines that are often militia-controlled and located illegally within nature reserves.

"We found that most miners who participated in the survey hunt wildlife out of necessity," said WCS researcher Charlotte Spira, lead author of the study, published in June in the journal Oryx, in a statement. "And many would stop hunting if they had a secure income, if domestic sources of meat were made available, and if hunting laws were strongly enforced."

The miners reported hunted primarily out of necessity because they didn't have other sources or protein available at the remote mining locations, which are often controlled by armed militias, not a central government. Many reported they would much rather eat beef, chicken or fish instead of chimpanzee or gorilla.

An estimated 8 to 10 million people take part in the small-scale mines that claim gold, cassiterite and columbite-tantalite (commonly called coltan) from the earth's deep recesses. Cassiterite is used to make tin, while coltan is used in mobile phones and just about all electronic devices.

Researchers suggest replacing volatile mining income with safe, sustainable alternatives for employment. Meanwhile, advocacy groups suggest tracking the supply chain, buying only from reputable mines and labeling the end products "bushmeat free"  a daunting task, considering the minerals' meandering path to the ultimate buyer.

"Six years ago, it was virtually impossible to trace minerals further upstream of the refiner, smelter or metals processor," Jennifer Peyser, a mediator with the dispute resolution organization Resolve, recently told Wired. "Now, there are systems to track material from validated conflict-free mines all the way through the supply chain."

Now That's Interesting The Wildlife Conservation Society is encouraging concerned consumers to sign a pledge against conflict minerals.
 When will SCOTUS take up a follow-up to Graham and Miller? | Main | "Under the Cloak of Brain Science: Risk Assessments, Parole, and the Powerful Guise of Objectivity" 

July 17, 2017

In latest speech, AG Sessions advocates for more gun and prescription drug prosecutions and more asset forfeiture

Attorney General Sessions gave another notable speech today, and this one was delivered to the National District Attorneys Association. Regular readers are familiar with the themes AG Sessions has been stressing of late, but these excerpts highlight what struck me as some new parts to what the AG is talking up:

We have a multi-front battle in front of us right now: an increase in violent crime, a rise in vicious gangs, an opioid epidemic, threats from terrorism, and human traffickers, combined with a culture in which family and discipline seems to be eroding further. From the early 1990s until just a few years ago, the crime rate steadily came down across the country. But violent crime is rising. The murder rate, for example, has surged nearly 11 percent nationwide in just one year  the largest increase since 1968. Per capita homicide rates are up in 27 of our 35 largest cities.... These numbers are deeply troubling  and especially since they represent a sharp reversal of decades of progress. My best judgment is that this rise is not an aberration or a blip. We must take these developments seriously and consider carefully what can be done about them. Yielding to the trend is not an option for America and certainly not to us.... We must encourage proven police techniques like community-based, proactive policing and broken windows  policies that are lawful and proven to work. Better training, better morale, professional excellence are goals of yours. My goal is to help you be effective and never to make your work more difficult. I am asking our U.S. Attorneys to be leaders in this approach. In the long run, there is nothing we can do that is more impactful.... I want to see a substantial increase in gun crime prosecutions. I believe, as we partner together and hammer criminals who carry firearms during crimes or criminals that possess firearms after being convicted of a felony, the effect will be to reduce violent crime. Next, the DEA reports that 80 percent of heroin addicts started with abuse of prescription drugs. As you know, more than 50,000 died of drug overdoses in 2015. Preliminary numbers indicate 2016 may hit 60,000. We have never seen numbers like this. This nation is prescribing and consuming far too many painkillers. This must end. Last week, we announced the indictments of over 400 defendants as part of the annual Health Care Fraud Take Down. 120 of those involved opioid-related drug fraud and nearly 50 were doctors. Some of these frauds involved massive amounts of drugs. But Im convinced this is a winnable war. We can significantly reduce this abuse, which includes the big drug companies as well. DEA is making these cases a priority. They can make visits to physician and pharmacies and do checks on those who prescribe or sell these drugs. They are reviewing and identifying physician and pharmacy outliers that can help you narrow the search for crooks. I would urge you to examine every case that involves an arrest of an individual illegally possessing prescription drugs. Make a condition of any plea bargain that the defendant tell where he or she got the drugs. Together, lets get after these bad actors.... In addition, we hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture  especially for drug traffickers. With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures. No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime. Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners.... As prosecutors, we have a difficult job, but our efforts at the federal, state, and local levels have a real impact. With every conviction we secure, we make our communities safer.

July 17, 2017 at 06:03 PM | Permalink

Comments

"Merely a citizen" says that if you use prescription drugs, be more careful at checkpoints and when being stopped by the police. Exercise your right to remain silent and request a lawyer. Don't consent to any searches or seizures. You might be like me and don't drink at all, but we can all be convicted of DUI when using prescription drugs, yes even a Mormon. If there is any prescription drug in your system, it won't matter that the police had no probable cause whatsoever. Because most judges are rubber-stamps for the police, probable cause is effectively "what the cop says it is."

Posted by: Daniel | Jul 17, 2017 7:25:49 PM

I have come to temporarily support civil forfeiture.

I urge the Department of Justice to seize Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, for the many crimes committed on their platforms, for their disloyalty to our nation's interests, collaboration with our adversaries, and political correctness.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 17, 2017 11:07:55 PM

Sessions ought to be willing to submit to a daily drug and alcohol test--to allay my suspicions about his overuse of both--all that toxic marination of his brain should have been examined prior to his confirmation, thankyouverymuch.

Posted by: FluffyRoss | Jul 18, 2017 11:58:30 AM

I urge the Department of Justice to seize Mr. David Behar and deport him from this blog.

Posted by: anon | Jul 18, 2017 1:18:37 PM

I concur with anon. Then maybe the folks who have intelligent things to say will return to this blog.

Posted by: anon2 | Jul 18, 2017 1:20:07 PM

Ironic. The stupidest people in the world say someone is stupid.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 18, 2017 3:04:30 PM

Any words from Sessions if he thinks the sharp increase in the number of presidents committing treason is a problem?

Posted by: Jr | Jul 21, 2017 11:11:38 AM

Post a comment
 "Under the Cloak of Brain Science: Risk Assessments, Parole, and the Powerful Guise of Objectivity" | Main | "How California Softened its 'Tough-on-Crime' Approach" 

July 18, 2017

Should the US fight the war on drugs by actually fighting an actual war with Mexico?

The perhpas remarkable question in the title of this post is prompted by this remarkable commentary in US News authored by Matt A. Mayer, who is the CEO of Opportunity Ohio and a former senior official at the US Department of Homeland Security. The piece is headlined "To Solve the Opioid Crisis, Go to War," and here are excerpts:

Experts estimate that as many as 500,000 Americans could die from opioids over the next 10 years. Nearly all of the heroin and fentanyl hitting our streets is coming from Mexico, across the porous southern border. Mexico is also becoming, in some parts of the country, the main supplier of methamphetamine to the U.S., with overdose death rates increasing as the supply has surged. We will spend tens of billions of dollars on addiction treatment, overdose responses, law enforcement activities, criminal justice processes and the ancillary costs associated with caring for the children of those who die from overdoses. Regardless of how much we spend, if we cannot substantially reduce or stop the flow of opioids and other death drugs across our southern border (and to a lesser extent through our mail system via China), we will continue to see tens of thousands of Americans die each year due to opioid and meth overdoses, with enormous damage to their families and communities.... To slow or stop the flow of opioids and other death drugs into our communities, we must secure the border with Mexico and methodically dismantle the distribution networks that the cartels have established in cities in all 50 states. The cartels are adaptive entities that will alter their strategy and tactics to counter each border and interior enforcement action we take to shut them down in the United States. Though the Mexican government makes some efforts to help with the cartels, corruption within the Mexican government and law enforcement is rampant. We simply can't rely upon the Mexican government for the kind of actions needed to crush the cartels. This unfortunate reality raises a very uncomfortable question: Do we need to go to war with Mexico to ultimately win the war against opioids and other death drugs? By "go to war," I mean a formal declaration of war by Congress against Mexico in which we use the full force of our military might to destroy the cartels, the poppy fields and all elements of the drug trade. Ideally, as our fight is not with the Mexican government, its military or its people, which try to weaken the cartels, we would try to partner with those entities against the cartels, much as we partnered with the South Vietnamese government and military against the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army. It sounds crazy, I know  unless you acknowledge we are already fighting a war with Mexico. Short of such an all-out military effort, has anyone offered a realistic way to defeat the drug cartels and stop the flow of death drugs? Crushing the supply of opioids and other death drugs from Mexico will allow our treatment activities to gain ground against the epidemic and one day get ahead of it. If inexpensive heroin laced with fentanyl, or carfentanil, continues to be easily accessible in our communities, the wave of the opioid epidemic will simply continue to build. We must do something to force the wave to crest and to crash. Let me put this issue in perspective. Since the first al-Qaida terrorist attack in Yemen in 1992, fewer than 5,000 Americans have died in terrorist attacks, with many of the deaths occurring on Sept. 11, 2001. In response to terrorist attacks, we waged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and spent hundreds of billions of dollars on external and internal security measures to detect and to prevent future attacks. If we did all of that in response to radical Islamic terrorism, why is it so crazy to consider using our military power to defeat the Mexican drug cartels which have inflicted far more death, mayhem and costs on America than al-Qaida and the Islamic State group combined? Unlike terrorists living in far-off places, halfway around the globe, the Mexican drug cartels are operating right next door and within our communities, pushing enormous amounts of heroin, meth and other death drugs across the southern border and into the veins of our communities. War with Mexico may sound crazy, but allowing militarized drug cartels to run drug production facilities aimed at supplying opioids and other death drugs to Americans within 1,000 miles of our southern border is even crazier, especially as the death count hits 50,000 people per year. We can continue to fight this war for decades with walls and arrests, or we can win this war in years with aircraft carriers, jets, bombs and the United States Marines. Imagine how many lives we can save of those 500,000 Americans predicted to die because of Mexican opioids and meth. War with Mexico doesn't sound so crazy anymore, does it?

July 18, 2017 at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Comments

i don't think the idea is crazy so much as a I think it is deeply misguided. What a war doesn't do is address the disrepair, hopelessness, and alienation the drives people to use drugs in the first place. To be sure, I don't think one will every get the result to zero. But if you ask me the single biggest thing we could do to reduce the demand for drugs is not to attack Mexico but to attack domestic income inequality. That seems unlikely to happen because it is easer to go shoot up a bunch of over-matched brown skinned people than it is to raise taxes and engage in wealth redistribution. It is the American way. Whatever the problem it not our own fault it is the fault of some guy over there in some foreign country.





Posted by: Daniel | Jul 18, 2017 12:03:30 PM

"much as we partnered with the South Vietnamese government and military against the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army"

This does not help me to be convinced. Citing Al Qaeda doesn't do much for me either. I'm actually somewhat curious why there haven't been more attacks than there on there. I can think of low level attacks that would cause a lot of trouble that even one or two terrorists can do rather easily. I unsure how much our military actions did much to prevent that any more than Israel is free from terrorism by using the military. Finally, writ large, granting certain military actions as acceptable (not trying to be full pacifist here), our strategy there left something to be desired too.

The first comment touches upon the heart of it & overall think a "war" mindset worsens the situation, including usage of "us" vs. "them," including regarding many of the victims here. And, there will likely always be some demand. The best we can do is cushion the blow some. War worsens things more often than not.

Posted by: Joe | Jul 18, 2017 1:53:48 PM

No. Drug use is demand not supply driven. I guess, lawyers may not entirely be the stupidest people in our country. Our entire elite is idiotic, and should be fired as an elite.

"... has anyone offered a realistic way to defeat the drug cartels and stop the flow of death drugs?"

Yes, me. Stop demand by the lash. No drug abuse in Saudi Arabia, nor in Singapore. There are no ethnic differences in mental health.

This author also does not consider the benefits of opiate overdose deaths, such as marked drops in criminality by attrition.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 18, 2017 2:05:50 PM

The War should be agasinst big Pharma who encourages doctors to prescribe pills d nauseam to patients who become addicted and then resort to heroin, fentanil, etc. when doctors refuse to renew the prescriptions.

Posted by: anon2 | Jul 18, 2017 3:10:37 PM

Anon2. What are you, a Commie?

Try to not fall. Try to not break a kneecap. Your doc will be denying you opiates, thanks to people like you. Try Extra Strength Tylenol. Report back.

The lawyer witch hunt is on for pharmaceutical companies. Their lawyers are working for the other side, and will not destroy the lives of the adversary, including DOJ scum. Start with total e-discovery on the prosecutors and on the judges.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 18, 2017 6:24:06 PM

We certainly could offer ground support to rid the cartels and head off shipments.

Its true, drugs are demand driven, but with all the dollors being wasted after the fact and lives lost, its worth a try.

No Im not saying bomb Mexico, not in the beginning anyway. ( who knows outcome )

But patrol the hell out of them, they dont have nearly the petty laws on frisking, profiling etc that we do. Then maybe Mexico will build Trumps wall, fat chance on that one.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Jul 18, 2017 8:48:37 PM

In both Afghanistan and Iraq a rabble using light infantry weapons and scrounged explosives fought the most powerful military known to history to a draw.

Posted by: Fred | Jul 18, 2017 8:54:37 PM

You know, these American "thinkers" will do literally anything, except legalize drugs. I am convinced they will do literally anything. They would nuke the entire planet Earth to stop illegal drug usage.

That'll fix them dang drug addicts!

So, yeah, let's invide Mexico. Then we could invade Canada. And we could build 800 new prisons. How about we up the time in prison for all drug offenses. Why not make it life in prison. Then we could have 40 maybe 50 percent of the population in penitentiaries.

Literally anything, except the most simple thing. Legalize drugs.

Posted by: Stephen Douglas | Jul 18, 2017 10:16:04 PM

Fred. So true. But your forgot, "after taking our $trillion." That amount will explain quite a bit of the unexplained.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 19, 2017 1:43:57 AM

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We will often engage in Emperor Norton obsession around these parts, honoring the memory of the delightfully delusional Gold Rush-era kook who declared himself Emperor of the United States and Mexico, printed his own bogus currency that was honored about town in the 1870s, and made repeated proclamations, the most famous of which is his (probably apocryphal) decree that we not refer to The City as Frisco. The Emperor continues to bubble back into our collective consciousness from time to time, mainly through the occasional effort to rename the Bay Bridge in his honor, visits to the Tenderloin bar that bears his name, and the weekly walking tours celebrating his life and guided by a spot-on impersonator. But a new online project bows again to the Emperors legacy, as Atlas Obscura points out a new interactive Google Map that details the points of interest of Emperor Nortons life.

Its called the Emperor Norton Map of the World, and  despite the limited Bay Area range of the above embed  it really does cover the world. There are details about Emperor Joshua Norton Is birthplace in England and his early adulthood in Capetown, South Africa. (If youre a fan you really should read the locations write-ups, which are quite lengthy and detailed, but are only available if you click the map to fullscreen mode.)

Nearly half of the San Francisco locations are residential hotels at which the Emperor bounced around during his pauper days, but still have quite meticulous details.

The really fascinating discoveries here are the orange stars (again, you need to go fullscreen for the experience) which show depictions of Emperor Norton in public art around San Francisco. Everybody knows about the painting at Tommys Joynt and the relics at Emperor Nortons Boozeland, but there are also Emperor Norton-themed artworks at unexpected locations like the Parc 55 Hilton and Cockscomb Restaurant, with photographic and historical detail represented.

The map is a project of the Emperor's Bridge Campaign, the nonprofit that still refuses to accept the notion of a Willie L. Brown Bridge , hopes to add Emperor Norton's name to the Bay Bridge and whose blog still regularly features new historical finds about the Emperor.

NOTE: An earlier version of this article stated that Emperor's Bridge Campaign hoped to rename the Willie L Brown, Jr. western span of the Bay Bridge for Emperor Norton. The campaign is an effort to rename the entire bridge.

Related: San Francisco's 16 Greatest Infamous Local Legends
#DetwilerFire [update] 2 miles east of Lake McClure (Mariposa County) is now 15,500 acres and 5% contained. https://t.co/zBoyaN9sl1 pic.twitter.com/w4L6uO8GpH  CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) July 18, 2017

The rapidly growing wildfire in Mariposa County dubbed the Detwiler Fire, just west of Yosemite National Park and due east of Modesto, grew overnight to 15,500 acres, and is just five percent contained according to CalFire. The fire was sparked just before 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 16, and grew to 11,000 acres by Monday, as the LA Times reported, quickly advancing on hundreds of homes in the areas of Detwiler Road, Hunters Valley Road, and Cotton Creek Road, just east of Lake McClure.

72-year-old Janet Kirkland, who lives on Hunters Valley Road, evacuated in a hurry Sunday with her two dogs, and tells the LAT, "This is the worst one weve had in 30 years. Ive had em burn right up to my driveway, but nothing like this."

As the Chronicle reports, 780 firefighters are currently battling the blaze, with more likely to arrive. According to officials, the fire is getting dangerously close to electrical lines that supply power to Yosemite and its facilities. Also, smoke from the fire has reportedly been creeping into the park.

Only one structure has been destroyed in the Detwiler Fire so far according to CalFire's report, but 300 more structures are currently threatened.

A community meeting is being held tonight at 6 p.m. in the auditorium at Mariposa County High School at 5074 Old Hwy N in order to discuss the evacuation and the progress of the fire.

The Fresno Bee reports that the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office called all units back to the main parts of the city of Mariposa just before noon Tuesday, which suggests they may be preparing for evacuations in parts of the city proper.
As you may know, San Francisco also performs a homeless census every two years, called the "point in time count" to tally unhoused residents, and now we find via ABC 7 that the Department of Public Works has been doing a monthly count, also, of discarded hypodermic needles. It probably won't surprise you that needles are becoming more common, but the degree of increase is pretty staggering. The most recent needle census data shows that DPW employees collected 10,000 needles from San Francisco streets in March of 2017, compared to just 3,000 one year earlier, in March 2016.

Even that may be underestimating the spike in needles thrown onto our streets and sidewalks. An AP report insists the number of needles has more than quadrupled (confusingly, that report was posted to ABC 7s website the same day), saying that more than 13,000 syringes were collected in March 2017.

This has even prompted a People Behaving Badly segment from KRON 4s Stanley Roberts, seen above. Its a fairly mailed-in segment by Stanley standards, with no footage busting any people shooting up or throwing syringes around. But it drives home the point that needles arent just a Skid Row phenomenon, theyre also commonly found in San Francisco parks, libraries, and shopping or theater districts.

The exponential increase in needles  which can transmit Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or HIV/AIDS  certainly justifies hysteria and People Behaving Badly segments. But the city is, in fact, putting a dent in the problem. KTVU points out that about 11,000 needles per month are collected at needle disposal boxes around the city. In other words, close to half of the discarded needles are ending up in those boxes and not landing on the streets. The problem would presumably be way worse without the needle boxes.

KTVU also got a heroin user to speak on the record, using his name, about how he handles his needles after shooting up. I break the point off right away and stick it in the dirt, Larry Heistand told KTVU. Stomp it down and put it in a can. Flush it down the toilet."

Supervisor London Breed has been calling for indoor safe injection sites for hypodermic drug users, and these new needle numbers have her advocating for these again. "A safe injection site could, you know, enhance the protection of public safety," Breed told ABC 7. "Do we know if it will solve the problem or not? No. But I don't think we should be unwilling to try."

We have long considered syringes and poop on the streets to be uniquely San Francisco problems, but this spike in discarded needles appears to be a symptom of the larger, nationwide opioid and related heroin epidemics. A Vox report last month called out a Blue Cross Blue Shield study that found a nearly 500 percent increase in opioid abuse diagnoses since 2010, compared to just a 65 percent increase in the use of more effective, non-opioid medications like methadone.

The rate of opioid use disorder diagnoses has grown by nearly eight times the rate of the most effective treatment, writes Voxs German Lopez. "That's a lot of people not getting the standard of care for what theyre diagnosed with.

Can a connection be drawn between the overprescription of Oxycontin and the number of needles discarded on the streets? This is by no means a proven correlation, but its not unreasonable to wonder either. San Francisco has had a needle issue for decades. Maybe DPW is just better at noticing and counting them now, or maybe there are contributing societal factors fueling a genuine exponential needle increase.

DPW spokesperson Rachel Gordon told ABC 7 that when you see needles, The thing that the public needs to do is contact 311. I cannot emphasize that enough."

For kicks, I did just that. The website sf311.org, which also exists as a mobile app, does allow you to submit complaints. There is not a specific category for reporting syringes, but Im going to assume it falls under Street and Sidewalk Cleaning. The site prompts you to create an account (which is a bottleneck), though you can submit items anonymously without doing so. According to sf311, incidents of Medical Waste get responses within 12 to 24 hour(s). The system may not be ideal, and that response time may not even be accurate. But its at least an indication that San Francisco recognizes the problem, and is actively looking for a fix.

Related: Jane Kim Calls For Needle Disposal Boxes In Public Parks




A large group of male teens followed a man from one Muni bus to the next, eventually surrounding their victim and robbing him.

The confrontation came to a head at around 6:50 p.m. Monday, on a Muni bus at Market and McAllister Streets, police say.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the 27-year-old male victim boarded a Muni bus, then got into a confrontation with a group of ten or so males who looked to be around 18 years of age.

Things got the the point where the victim got off that bus and boarded another bus, police say, but the gang followed the man, also hopping on the second Muni vehicle.

Once on bus, the SFPD says that the "suspects surrounded and attacked" the victim, stealing his cellphone.

The group of teens then hopped off the bus near McAllister and Market and fled. As of publication time, all remain at large, and police say no arrests have been made in the case.
Nearly a year after a San Francisco chef was found dead at the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall, his cause of death remains a mystery. But though police say they are not investigating the death as a homicide, details from an official report suggest the victim was "positioned" at the scene.

It was August 10 of 2016 when reports surfaced of a man found dead at the Powell and Market-area mall. The victim was identified as 28-year-old San Francisco resident Frank Galicia, a line chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant Sons & Daughters.

Initially investigated as a homicide, the San Francisco Police Department reclassified the incident as a "suspicious death" a week later. At the moment, it doesnt appear to be a homicide, but it doesnt appear to be a natural death either, police spokesperson Officer Giselle Talkoff said at the time.

Eleven months later, we're learning why Talkoff described the circumstances of Galicia's death that way. In a dogged follow-up report in today's San Francisco Examiner, the details of Galicia's death scene are revealed. Warning: They are not pretty.

According to a report from the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office released in February, Galicia was found in an "evacuation stairwell" of the mall, the locked door of which "had apparently been compromised."

The Ex reports that Galicia "was found by a building engineer lying on the floor with his legs leading up the stairs. He had a rope, which had been tied to a rail, around his head. The rope was in his mouth."

"His pants and underwear were pulled down and he had a number of blunt force wounds on his body," the Ex reports.

The Medical Examiner's report reads that Galicia "appeared to have been dragged for some distance (suggesting other person involved), but it is unclear how he came to be positioned with his mouth in the rope."

A toxicology report showed that Galicia had alcohol and meth in his system, but neither level was fatal. According to Ariel Mittag-Degala, who had just started dating Galicia in the weeks before his death and who had been with him the night before his body was discovered, there's "no way" Galicia took his own life or was searching for drugs when he died. Instead, as of October she said that she instead believed that he was robbed and killed in a poorly-secured stairwell, leading to an alleged cover-up by mall management.

The SFPD did not respond to an Examiner request for comment on the status of the investigation into Galicia's death, but according to the ME's office, as of today "the cause of death is unknown, and the manner of death is best categorized as undetermined.

Previously: Girlfriend Of Chef Found Dead At Westfield Center Alleges Mall Management Cover-Up
71-year-old Edward French was an avid photographer and longtime resident of the Bay Area, and he was just a half mile up the hill from his Eureka Valley home Sunday morning when he was robbed of his camera and fatally shot at the Twin Peaks lookout. SFist reported on the shooting yesterday, and learned via a commenter who is French's neighbor that the motive appeared to be a robbery.

Now we learn via ABC 7 that French was well known in the Bay Area film community as a location scout and manager, and he may even have been working Sunday morning when he was killed. French had his hand in most of the many car commercials that are shot around the Bay Area, including around Twin Peaks, and as his friend, special effects specialist Sean House tells ABC 7, he was among the best location managers around.

"He could talk to anybody," House says. "A location manager has to walk up to a house because the director likes the look of the house. Knock on the front door, and say to the residents, 'Hey can we bring 60 people and film in here?' and get them to say yes."

French's downstairs neighbor, likely the same one who commented here yesterday, 29-year-old Andrew Hutcheson, tells the Chronicle, "He was a really decent guy. Knowing him, he would have put up a struggle. I could see him denying a person trying to take his stuff."

A jogger whom emergency responders found administering CPR when they arrived at the scene Sunday tells police that he saw two assailants running off with French's camera after hearing the single gunshot. One was a black male in his early 20s with shoulder-length dreadlocks, and the other was a black female about 5 feet 3 inches tall in her late teens. They fled in a dark gray Honda Accord with rear-end damage, according to SFPD spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca.

Per the Examiner, Rueca says that there are surveillance cameras in the vicinity, however he did not reveal whether there was footage of the incident.

This was the second murder at the popular tourist destination in just over a year, following a double-homicide there on Valentine's Day in 2016.

The SFPD now says they are putting a 24-hour unit in place at Twin Peaks as a precaution.

Previously: Two Killed This Weekend In Twin Peaks, Bayview Shootings








At the reception, President Tran Dai Quang affirmed that Vietnam always respects and desires to boost comprehensive cooperation with Mexico.The President suggested both sides should strengthen implementation of frequent activities of Joint Commission on economy, commerce and investment cooperation as soon as possible to unify bilateral cooperation, perfect legal framework via negotiation, signing cooperative instrument; and encourage as well as create favorable business condition for the two countries investors.Mr. Carlos Salinas de Gortari expressed his belief for good relationship between Vietnam and Mexico affirming that Mexico would always be the best friend of Vietnam.

BY BAO MINH- Translated by Huyen Huong
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SIOUX CITY | Sioux City Police are searching for a man suspected of robbing an auto parts store on Hamilton Boulevard Monday evening.

Sioux City Police Sgt. Jay Hoogendyk said police were called to AutoZone, 2427 Hamilton Blvd., at 8:41 p.m. Monday after a man wearing a black hoodie and jeans entered the business, displayed a handgun, took an undisclosed amount of cash and escaped the premises.

Hoogendyk said witnesses saw the man flee on a bicycle to the north. Officers were continuing to search the area Monday evening.

Hoogendyk said no one was hurt during the incident.
SIOUX CITY | Sioux City Council members on Monday stressed the need for more of a plan to reduce traffic congestion in the city's growing Bridgeport area.

The request comes as the clock continues ticking down to the opening of the massive 1,100-employee Seaboard Triumph Foods plant in the city's Bridgeport West Industrial Park in late August or early September.

With truck and employee traffic already backing up on Interstate 29 on some mornings, Councilman Pete Groetken said Monday that the city can't wait for congestion to worsen.

"We need to do something," Groetken said. "You can't wait until then to make a plan."

Sioux City is already in the midst of a four-phase, multimillion-dollar project to reduce congestion in the area. The second phase, which will include work on South Patton Street from the Boulevard of Champions to Bridgeport Drive, will go to bid on July 18.

But Wednesday, representatives of some Bridgeport area businesses had expressed frustration at the current and anticipated congestion in the area and said they need to see solutions sooner rather than later.

A main concern is the busy intersection of Harbor Drive and South Patton Street, where left turns are difficult and some business owners want to see a temporary traffic signal. Businesses also requested signage to help truck traffic navigate construction detours.

Councilman Dan Moore, who had attended Wednesday's business meeting, told the council he believes the businesses have legitimate concerns.

"Its bad now, and its just going to get worse, he said.

Public Works Director Dave Carney told the council that construction plans include the eventual addition of a traffic signal at the Harbor Drive location, but adding a temporary one in the meantime that isn't timed in sync with others in the area would cause more havoc.

"Our concern is that a temporary traffic control possibly could cause a backup on the interstate," Carney said. "The worst thing I dont want to do is take that problem were having at the intersection of Harbor and Singing Hills and move it out onto the interstate."

Looking ahead to the first week the plant is online, council members suggested adding police presence in the area to help control traffic.

"You can't just observe it," Mayor Bob Scott said. "You'd better have police officers there, and you'd better have them ready to direct traffic, even if it means overtime."

Some businesses will meet at the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce Tuesday to discuss the possibility of adjusting shift start times to relieve some of the congestion.

The council may also hold a special meeting July 31 to move up approval of Phase 2 of the road project.

'First hour free' proposal

In other action Monday, the council voted to defer until Aug. 7 a vote on a proposal to make the first hour of parking in the city's parking ramps free for a six-month trial period.

The vote for deferral came at the request of city staff. There was no discussion on the item.

Civil penalty

The council also voted to assess a $1,500 civil penalty or 30-day license suspension to Sarg's Mini Mart, 2329 W. Second St., for violation of Iowa's cigarette laws.
SIOUX CITY | A man few Siouxlanders knew left a giant mark on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children on Monday as the bulk of his estate, valued at more than $2.1 million, was divided and awarded to 29 charitable organizations that work with children, 26 of them local entities.

William E. "Bill" Johnson, a World War II veteran who died at the age of 91 on April 29, 2017, often remarked how he wanted to both enter and leave this world quietly. While he may have accomplished the former, his generosity magnified the latter. Loudly.

Johnson gave 13 organizations $86,826 apiece in a ceremony at the United Center on Monday. Additionally, he awarded 16 groups $64,619 each.

"Having not had a child of his own, Bill gave a lot of consideration as to what he could do with his residual estate after his passing," said Victoria Ford, of Sergeant Bluff, a friend of Johnson's the past 11 years and his power of attorney. "After some soul searching, he concluded he would leave (it) to children's charities to be used for the care, needs and wishes of children, primarily in the Siouxland area."

Checks were cut and issued on Monday by Baird, the firm that managed Johnson's investment portfolio and helped it accumulate wealth. Linda Scheid, executive director of the Food Bank of Siouxland, Inc., clutched a check for $86,826 and commented how the funds would be earmarked for children's needs.

"We plan to use this to help our childhood nutrition efforts like the Backpack Program, our mobile pantries and the Mobile School Pantry Program," said Scheid. "We want to make sure children have enough to eat."

Scheid called this gift, the largest from a private individual she's ever experienced in 11 years working for the organization, "transformational." And the fact it came from a man with whom she, nor the local Food Bank, had any connection, left her flabbergasted.

"We don't have things like this happen," said Scheid. "I'd never heard of him and we had no connection with him at all. Oh, what a man. I am so sorry I missed him!"

That kind of reaction was repeated throughout the check-awarding event. Ford announced the gifts as leaders of the charitable organizations clapped and shook their heads in amazement.

Ford did pull back the curtain a bit to allow those present to peek, if you will, at the man who made this possible. William E. "Bill" Johnson was born in Sioux City in 1925, the son of Philip W. and Bernice (Ruling) Johnson. Bill Johnson often said he lived in a dysfunctional household and, for the most part, left home at age 7-8 and resided under bridges or slept on the porch at a buddy's home.

Johnson was graduated from East High in 1943 and served a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy during World War II before heading back and graduating from Morningside College. Much of his wartime service involved work as a Navy combat air crewman in the South Pacific. He once detailed for a friend how his plane was shot down and that he and his crew spent three days in the Pacific Ocean before they were rescued.

He remained with the U.S. Naval Reserve after the war and earned his honorable discharge in 1952.

Johnson, who married and divorced twice, spent much of his professional career in Los Angeles, having moved west from Sioux City in the early 1950s. Ford said Johnson found his calling as a contractor installing infrastructure for the City of Los Angeles, leading a firm that worked to eliminate drainage issues plaguing the rapidly growing city.

When he wasn't working, Johnson teamed up with friends to build homes, duplexes and condominiums in a city whose housing demand far outpaced supply. One of the units he built, for example, was constructed for $110,000. It sold for more than $1 million.

Eleven years ago, Johnson returned to Dakota Dunes to be closer to a family member who would help look after him. Unfortunately, that family member died before he did.

Ford is a registered nurse whose husband, Kelly Ford, a 36-year military veteran who died of pancreatic cancer 10 years ago, filled the void and helped care for Johnson. She spoke of taking him grocery shopping, enjoying a dance in his living room, and listening to him recount his experiences in war and in business.

A child of the Depression, she said Johnson never wandered far from his frugal foundation. Rather than plop down a few dollars for new slippers, he grabbed his duct tape, applied where necessary and kept wearing his time-worn pair.

As the size of his portfolio grew, Johnson didn't alter his spending habits, at least not on himself. A trip to Fareway with Ford startled him when he was asked to pay $97.84 at the checkout lane. "He'd never spent that much on food before!" Ford said with a laugh.

And while he didn't spend on himself, he didn't shy away from helping others. A longtime tenant of a Johnson residence in California, for example, was the beneficiary of his generosity. The woman, who paid rent to Johnson for 20-some years, received the home after Johnson signed it over to her two years ago. The home is valued in excess of $1 million, Ford said.

Gifts distributed on Monday more than doubled that amount. In the end, Ford said, these gifts helped a man who, as a child, came from next to nothing, shower goodness upon hundreds, if not thousands, of others in and around his old hometown.

"It takes one person to make a difference in someone's life," Ford said. "I hope I helped Bill Johnson make that kind of difference."
DECATUR, Neb. | Decatur residents who do business across the river in Onawa, Iowa, are facing a much longer trip soon.

The bridge over the Missouri River at Decatur will be closed on Aug. 14 for repairs.

A 75-mile detour will take traffic to the nearest Missouri River bridge in South Sioux City, giving Decatur residents a 150-mile round trip to Onawa, which is seven miles away. Motorists also may choose to head south and cross the river at Blair, Nebraska.

The bridge is expected to be closed for 28 days, but work could be finished quicker than that, said Pat Boyle, construction engineer with the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

Workers will make structural repairs to abutments on each end of the bridge. The pavement leading up to the bridge on each side also will be replaced. Because of the type of work, there was no option but to close the bridge, Boyle said.

"You can't take the abutment away and keep the road," he said.

The bridge had already been reduced to one lane of traffic since March 27 because crews were sandblasting and repainting it. The total cost of the repainting and repair project is $6.6 million, with Nebraska and Iowa each paying a share of the costs.

Boyle said the repairs should extend the lifetime of the bridge, which opened in 1955, by 25 years.

The bridge closure is sure to bring back memories of 2011, when the bridge was closed for more than four months after Missouri River flooding caused erosion along the east banks under the bridge and threatened to destabilize one of the bridge's piers.
WASHINGTON -- Predictably and sensibly, a three-judge panel of the nation's second-most important court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, recently dismissed, unanimously, a lawsuit brought by a Yemeni man, two of whose relatives were collateral fatalities in a 2012 U.S. drone attack that killed three terrorists. The suit asked the court to declare the attacks illegal under several U.S. statutes.

The court, however, invoked the "political question" doctrine: Some politically charged and technical matters are not "justiciable" because courts are inappropriate forums for answering them. They include the wisdom of military actions. What was sensible but not predictable was that Judge Janice Rogers Brown, in addition to writing the opinion for the court, added a blistering opinion in which she upbraided the other branches for dereliction of duties regarding unfettered presidential warmaking, particularly with precision-strike weapons.

"There is pitifully little oversight within the executive. ... [C]ongressional oversight is a joke -- and a bad one at that. ... The spread of drones cannot be stopped, but the U.S. can still influence how they are used in the global community -- including, someday, seeking recourse should our enemies turn these powerful weapons 180 degrees to target our homeland. The executive and Congress must establish a clear policy for drone strikes and precise avenues for accountability." Brown asked: If judges will not check "this outsized [executive] power, then who will?"

Unfortunately, in this, as in so many other areas, Congress is in perpetual flight from responsibility. It should begin by revisiting the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was enacted while the World Trade Center and Pentagon still smoldered.

The AUMF authorized the president to "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or persons." As Rosa Brooks, a former Pentagon official and now Georgetown law professor, crisply notes, five and three of those words especially matter.

In her simultaneously witty and disturbing book "How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything" (2016), she notes that the AUMF does not authorize force "against anyone, anywhere, anytime" but only against those who "planned, authorized, committed or aided" 9/11. And it authorizes force for a specific purpose -- to "prevent any future attacks" against this nation by such entities, "not to prevent all future bad acts committed by anyone, anywhere."

Last October, believed to be for the first time ever, a U.S. Navy vessel fired SM2 interceptor missiles to defend itself against a missile attack. The attack came from Yemen, where U.S. forces are involved -- they have made more than 80 airstrikes this year, and 150 others since 2012 -- in that country's civil war. Most, but not all, targeting Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In June, a U.S. F/A-18E shot down a Syrian government fighter aircraft that was threatening rebel forces attempting to overthrow the Syrian regime. In May, U.S. forces repeatedly attacked government forces, or the government's proxy forces, in Syria. U.S. forces are occupying Syrian territory. Hundreds of marines are manning fire bases in northern Syria. This intervention resembles a slow-motion invasion.

Now, some, most or all current U.S. military activities might be sensible. Few, however, are clearly authorized.

Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., have introduced legislation to authorize the use of force against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State for five years. It would create a process by which presidents can designate other radical Islamic groups as "associated forces" and Congress can reject such an expansion of force.

Last month, the House Appropriations Committee voted -- by voice, perhaps unanimously -- to include in a defense measure a provision repealing the 16-year-old AUMF, for the purpose of forcing the writing of one responsive to 2017 realities. Speaker Paul Ryan opposed using an appropriations bill for this purpose (although nowadays the House appropriations process is rarely used for its intended purpose -- timely passage of appropriations bills). But Rep. Tom Cole, an eight-term Oklahoma Republican on the committee, said, "I don't know any other way to get [the congressional leadership's and the administration's] attention because we've been talking about it for years."

Congress is permanently in "Annie" mode. It will deal with its war responsibilities, like its myriad other forfeited powers, tomorrow, which is always a day away.
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.
Michael "Sean" Sepety, 46, of White Plains, Maryland passed away on July 13, 2017. Sean was proud to have served in the United States Marine Corps and worked as a Security Technician for Protection 1. Sean enjoyed travel with his family, cheering on the Dallas Cowboys (especially against the Redskins), and spending time with his dogs, Luke and Leia. Sean was a caring and inspiring individual, who was beloved by all that met him.



Sean is survived by his wife, Deborah Hill-Sepety; and his parents, Michael and Patricia Sepety. The Family will receive friends on Saturday, July 22, 2017 from 9-11AM for a Memorial Gathering at Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home, 30195 Three Notch Road, Charlotte Hall, MD 20622. Interment will be private.



The family requests your help in creating a Memory Board. Those attending the Memorial Gathering, please bring a copy of your favorite photo of Sean to be included. Memorial contributions in Sean's name may be made to the Wounded Warriors Project (http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org) or Hospice of Charles County (http://hospiceofcharlescounty.org). Arrangements by Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home.
PRINCE FREDERICK, Md.

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(July 17, 2017)The Prince Frederick Barrack of the Maryland State Police (MSP) today released the following incident and arrest reports.POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA: On 7/10/2017 at 11:40 pm, Trooper First Class Kaitz stopped a vehicle for traffic violations on Rt. 4 near Robshire Manor Rd. in Huntingtown. A passenger in the vehicle,, was found in possession of over 10 grams of marijuana. He was arrested and incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center. The driver was found in possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana and was issued a civil citation and released.WARRANT SERVICE, FALSE STATEMENT TO POLICE OFFICER: On 7/11/2017 at 2:29 am, Trooper First Class Davis stopped a vehicle for traffic violations on Rt. 4 at the Thomas Johnson Bridge in Solomons. A passenger in the vehicle,, originally gave Davis a false identification and later after his true identity was established was found to have an open warrant through Prince George's County. He was arrested and incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center. The driver was issued a civil citation for possession of marijuana and was released.POSSESSION OF METHADONE: On 7/12/2017 at 7:12 pm, Trooper First Class Rucker stopped a vehicle on Rt. 4 at the Navy Rec. Center in Solomons for traffic violations., was found to be in possession of Methadone. He was arrested and incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center.WARRANT SERVICE, POSSESSION OF CDS PARAPHERNALIA: On 7/13/2017 at 9:27 am, Trooper First Class Warrick stopped a vehicle for traffic violations on Dalrymple Rd. in Sunderland., was found to be in possession of CDS Paraphernalia. Investigation revealed Wilson had multiple open warrants. She was arrested and incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center.POSSESSION OF HEROIN: On 7/13/2017 at 10:14 pm, Trooper First Class Matthews responded to the 3700 block of 8th St. in North Beach for a reported CDS complaint. The homeowner reported finding Heroin in a basement bedroom when checking on the property. Several items were noted to have been removed from the home. Investigation revealed a TV that was removed from the residence had been taken to a local pawn shop., was located and arrested for possession of heroin and theft. Morgal was incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center.CONCEALED DEADLY WEAPON: On 7/16/2017 at 12:47 am, Trooper First Class Costello located an intoxicated person walking on Rt. 4 near Wood Acres Court in Prince Frederick., advised his vehicle had broken down and he was attempting to get to Prince Frederick. While transporting Caputo to Prince Frederick, Costello observed a possible weapon in Caputo's pocket. After a pat down, a expandable metal baton was located. Caputo was arrested and incarcerated at the Calvert County Detention Center.Tracy Frazee, Jr., 31, of Harwood, arrested on 07/12/2017 @ 04:56 am by TFC S. MatthewsJose A. Sanchez Lugo, 35, of Lusby, arrested on 07/12/2017 @ 11:31 pm by TFC T. DavisPatricia A. Roberts, 54, of Crofton, arrested on 07/15/2017 @ 11:28 pm by TFC N. RuckerEmmet D. Ward, Jr., 61, of Oxon Hill, arrested on 07/16/2017 @ 03:23 pm by TPR. J. Jones
(WB) Hundreds of people from across Honduras on Saturday participated in a Pride parade that took place in one of the worlds most dangerous cities.

Kendra Stefani Jordany, a transgender woman who is running for the Central American Parliament, is among the roughly 400 people who took part in the march in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.

A bill that would allow trans Hondurans to legally change their names on legal documents are among the issues that Jordany and other parade participants highlighted. They also marched in support of LGBT Hondurans participation in the countrys general election that is scheduled to take place on Nov. 26.

Freddy Funez, a local LGBT rights advocate, told the Washington Blade the first Pride parade in Honduras second-largest city took place in 2000. He said people lined the streets on Saturday and watched the parade as it made its way through the city.

What we want is that our vote, our voices are included in these public political processes, he told the Blade.

Funez told the Blade a group of homophobes shot guns into the air during the parade. He said a group of evangelical Christians with loud speakers gathered in a park in downtown San Pedro Sula, but parade participants did not realize what they said because we were in our celebration.

Funez said nobody was injured during either incident.

We want to demand the same rights that any other Honduran has in this country, he told the Blade.

Parade participants seek more inclusive society

San Pedro Sula, which has a population of more than 700,000 people, is roughly 150 miles northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

San Pedro Sula in 2015 had 171.2 murders per 100,000 people, which made it the most dangerous city in the world that it is not in a war zone. This figure dropped to 111.03 murders per 100,000 people in 2016.

Rene Martinez, a prominent local activist who was a member of President Juan Orlando Hernandezs ruling National Party, was found strangled to death in June 2016 after leaving his home in San Pedro Sulas Chamelecon neighborhood.

Funez, who worked closely with Martinez, and other activists with whom the Blade spoke earlier this year while reporting from San Pedro Sula said police officers and gang members frequently target trans sex workers for extortion and violence and force them to sell drugs. They also said local residents who publicly criticize the gangs and the police and file formal complaints against them often receive threats that force them into hiding.

A lack of employment, education and health care and poverty have made many members of San Pedro Sulas LGBT community susceptible to violence and discrimination. Many of them have chosen to flee the country for Mexico, and ultimately the U.S.

We marched with the entire LGBTI community for a more inclusive society, Javier Carrington, a local LGBT rights advocate, told the Blade.

The parade took place less than a week after David Valle of the Center for LGBTI Development and Cooperation, a Honduran advocacy group, was brutally attacked inside his home in Tegucigalpa.

Valle was scheduled to attend a meeting of Honduran advocacy groups in San Pedro Sula on Monday the U.S. Agency for International Development has organized.

Valle was expected to attend a meeting of Honduran LGBT and intersex advocacy groups in the city of San Pedro Sula on Monday that the U.S. Agency for International Development has organized. Valle, who ran for office in 2011, has participated in Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute-sponsored meetings and conferences in Honduras, the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.

 Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.

Hundreds of people from across Honduras on Saturday participated in a Pride parade that took place in one of the worlds most dangerous cities.

Kendra Stefani Jordany, a transgender woman who is running for the Central American Parliament, is among the roughly 400 people who took part in the march in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.

A bill that would allow trans Hondurans to legally change their names on legal documents are among the issues that Jordany and other parade participants highlighted. They also marched in support of LGBT Hondurans participation in the countrys general election that is scheduled to take place on Nov. 26.

Freddy Funez, a local LGBT rights advocate, told the Washington Blade the first Pride parade in Honduras second-largest city took place in 2000. He said people lined the streets on Saturday and watched the parade as it made its way through the city.

What we want is that our vote, our voices are included in these public political processes, he told the Blade.

Funez told the Blade a group of homophobes shot guns into the air during the parade. He said a group of evangelical Christians with loud speakers gathered in a park in downtown San Pedro Sula, but parade participants did not realize what they said because we were in our celebration.

Funez said nobody was injured during either incident.

We want to demand the same rights that any other Honduran has in this country, he told the Blade.Parade participants seek more inclusive society

San Pedro Sula, which has a population of more than 700,000 people, is roughly 150 miles northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

San Pedro Sula in 2015 had 171.2 murders per 100,000 people, which made it the most dangerous city in the world that it is not in a war zone. This figure dropped to 111.03 murders per 100,000 people in 2016.

Rene Martinez, a prominent local activist who was a member of President Juan Orlando Hernandezs ruling National Party, was found strangled to death in June 2016 after leaving his home in San Pedro Sulas Chamelecon neighborhood.

Funez, who worked closely with Martinez, and other activists with whom the Blade spoke earlier this year while reporting from San Pedro Sula said police officers and gang members frequently target trans sex workers for extortion and violence and force them to sell drugs. They also said local residents who publicly criticize the gangs and the police and file formal complaints against them often receive threats that force them into hiding.

A lack of employment, education and health care and poverty have made many members of San Pedro Sulas LGBT community susceptible to violence and discrimination. Many of them have chosen to flee the country for Mexico, and ultimately the U.S.

We marched with the entire LGBTI community for a more inclusive society, Javier Carrington, a local LGBT rights advocate, told the Blade.

The parade took place less than a week after David Valle of the Center for LGBTI Development and Cooperation, a Honduran advocacy group, was brutally attacked inside his home in Tegucigalpa.

Valle was scheduled to attend a meeting of Honduran advocacy groups in San Pedro Sula on Monday the U.S. Agency for International Development has organized.

Valle was expected to attend a meeting of Honduran LGBT and intersex advocacy groups in the city of San Pedro Sula on Monday that the U.S. Agency for International Development has organized. Valle, who ran for office in 2011, has participated in Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute-sponsored meetings and conferences in Honduras, the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Expedition 52-53 prime and backup crewmembers pose for pictures July 17 during a fit check dress rehearsal. In the front row are the prime crewmembers, Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency (left), Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Randy Bresnik of NASA (right). In the back row are the backup crew, Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (left), Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos (center) and Mark Vande Hei of NASA (right). Bresnik, Ryazanskiy and Nespoli will launch July 28 on the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft for a five-month mission on the International Space Station. Credit: Andrey Shelepin/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center/NASA. Andrey Shelepin/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center/NASA

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 52 astronauts furthered investigative data for NASAs Human Research Program, collecting in-flight data and blood and urine samples over the weekend.

Today, the crew will take additional samples for the Biochem Profile, Repository and Cardio Ox investigations. An ultrasound was also used for the Cardio Ox study, which seeks to determine whether biological markers of oxidative and inflammatory stress are elevated during and after spaceflight, and whether this could result in an increased, long-term risk of the hardening of the arteries for space-faring explorers.

Also on tap is the Mag 3D cell culturing experiment. The crew will fixate the BioCells and insert them into the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The orbiting laboratory provides a way to manipulate and culture cells in 2D and 3D in space and on the ground, which can help isolate the effects of gravity in experiments and enable biological research previously deemed unfeasible in space.

The next crew to lift off to the International Space Station has arrived at its launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The experienced space travelers from Roscosmos, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are due to blast off inside the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft July 28 for a six-hour ride to the space stations Rassvet module. Cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, with astronauts Randy Bresnik and Paolo Nespoli, are scheduled to live and work in space until mid-December.

On-Orbit Status Report

Body Measures: On Saturday, a crewmember completed the Body Measures Flight Day 244 session with assistance from a trained operator. NASA is collecting in-flight anthropometric data to assess the impact of physical body shape and size changes on suit sizing. Still and video imagery is captured and a tape measure is used to measure segmental length, height, depth, and circumference data for all body segments (chest, waist, hip, arms, legs, etc.) from astronauts before, during and after their flight missions.

Magnetic 3 Dimensional (Mag 3D) Cell Culturing: With assistance from the Payload Developer, on Saturday the crew used a microscope and will use it again today to view Magnetic 3D Biocells. Today they fixated the BioCells and inserted them into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). Cell cultures in space spontaneously grow in three dimensions, which results in characteristics more representative of how cells grow and function in living organisms. But in microgravity, routine manipulation of cell cultures is challenging. This investigation uses magnetized cells and tools to make it easier to handle cells and cultures, and to improve the reproducibility of experiments. This approach also makes it possible to generate two-dimensional cultures as controls, and to determine whether biological events in these monolayer cultures result from gravity or substrate attachment.

Human Research Program (HRP): A crewmember collected Flight Day 240 blood and urine samples over the weekend and today for Biochem Profile, Repository and Cardio Ox investigations. An ultrasound was also performed today for Cardio Ox.

The Biochem Profile experiment tests blood and urine samples obtained from astronauts before, during and after spaceflight. Specific proteins and chemicals in the samples are used as biomarkers, or indicators of health. Post-flight analysis yields a database of samples and test results which scientists can use to study the effects of spaceflight on the body.

Repository is a storage bank that is used to maintain biological specimens over extended periods of time under controlled conditions. This archive of bio samples will be used as a resource for future spaceflight related research.

By collecting Cardio Ox ultrasound and ECG data, along with blood and urine samples, scientists are trying to determine whether biological markers of oxidative and inflammatory stress are elevated during and after space flight and whether this results in an increased, long-term risk of atherosclerosis in astronauts.

ISS Safety Video Survey: The crew recorded video of the interior volume of the ISS to allow ground teams to assess the current vehicle configuration and identify any safety concern. This survey is performed approximately every 6 months to identify ventilation blockage, flammability hazards, verify emergency egress paths, and confirm access to fire ports and safety equipment.

Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS) Clicking Noise: Over the weekend the crew reported a clicking noise coming from the CEVIS. In 2011, crew reported a similar clicking noise from CEVIS that was determined to be a spring on a rod within the Inertial Vibration Isolation System (IVIS) boxes that makes a clicking noise as it engages with the throw mass (used to stabilize CEVIS during exercise). Further on-orbit troubleshooting indicated that CEVIS is providing expected workload and the clicking noise is intermittent and very likely the same issue that was seen in 2011. CEVIS is GO for exercise and the crew will monitor for any changes in operations. There are no spare IVIS boxes on orbit, however there is a spare ready to be launched if needed.

Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) Electronics Unit (EU) Failure: Today the Brayton Motor of MELFI-1 in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) was powered down as part of a planned activity to power MELFI-1 from its auxiliary power feed for better power balance during the upcoming high beta angle period. When attempts were made to bring the Brayton Motor back up, the commands failed. A retry was attempted along with a power cycle of the rack with no success. The EU was determined to be failed so the crew performed an R&R with no impacts to the science samples in MELFI.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) Gas Bottle Unit (GBU) Valve Close

Pressurization of Elektron-VM Liquid Unit before Activation

ECLSS Recycle Tank Leak Check

HRF Generic Refrigerated Centrifuge Spin Conclude

HRF Generic Sample MELFI Insertion

??025? ?56 replacement in ??2? by ???-?? unit in FGB

ARED Maintenance from last inspection

HRF Generic Frozen Blood Collection Conclude Stow

Ultrasound 2 HRF Rack 1 Power On

Cardio Ox Ultrasound Preparation

Cardio Ox Ultrasound Scan  Subject

Cardio Ox Historical Documentation Photography

Cardio Ox Ultrasound Scan  Operator

Cardio Ox CDL Holter Arterial BP Measurement  Subject

Cardio Ox CDL Holter Arterial BP Hardware Doff  Subject

Transfer of brine from USOS and urine from ???-? to 66P (DC1) Rodnik Water Tank 2

HRF Generic Urine Collection Stow

TOCA Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis

USOS Window Shutter Close

Magnetic 3D Cultures MELFI Sample Retrieve

Check that Window Shutters 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 are closed

Magnetic 3D Cultures Microscope Operations

Temperature and Humidity Control (THC) Common Cabin Air Assembly (CCAA) Swap

N2 Refill of 66P (DC1) ???? Section 2

External Wireless Communication (EWC) Nadir Antenna Connection

Magnetic 3D Cultures Biocells Fixation

MPEG-2 TV Downlink Test via KU-band prior to Soyuz 736 Docking

FAGEN. Fixation of samples from [MCK] No.4 and setup in SM. Photography. ???-? Thermostat No.4 deactivation

Waste & Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Water Container (???) Remove and Replace

Magnetic 3D Cultures MELFI Sample Insertion

Photo/TV Additional Camcorder Setup

Telescience Resource Kit Laptop Setup

Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Sample Data Record

Video Survey of the ISS

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Test

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Questionnaire

On MCC GO ELEKTRON purge after deactivation

MELFI Ice Brick Insert

Completed Task List Items

51S Crew Arrival Prep [Completed GMT 196]

ARED Follow-Up Maintenance from last inspection [Completed GMT 197]

Photographs of these FGB locations [Completed GMT 197]

Housekeeping Procedure Print [Completed GMT 197]

USB Jump drive Connect to SSC11 [Completed GMT 197]

Relocating future SpaceX return hardware [Completed GMT 197]

Remove and Replace Waste Hygiene Compartment (WHC) ???-Y [Completed GMT 198]

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

BioCell Fixation support

SPS Power up

MCE VSEE Server Patch

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Tuesday, 07/18: Rodent Research Operations, Cabin Smoke Detector Cleaning, and ELF Operations

Wednesday, 07/19: Eye Imaging and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Antibody Conjugates Operations

Thursday, 07/20: 66P undock, Antibody Conjugates Operations, JEM Airlock Operations, and Russian EVA Tool Gathering

QUICK ISS Status  Environmental Control Group:

Component  Status

Elektron  Off

Vozdukh  Manual

[???] 1  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1)  On

[???] 2  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2)  Off

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab  Standby

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3  Operate

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab  Idle

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3  Operate

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA)  Standby

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA)  Standby

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab  Full up

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3  Off
On Sunday, July 16, the Holland Fair in Manitoba hosted a pair of divisions of the Lady Crocus Stakes for three-year-old pacing fillies, and it was Reys N A Rocket and Mystery Shopper that made trips to the winners circle after their respective splits.

The first division, which was carded as Race 1 on the program, was won by the Richard Rey-trained and Michel Rey-driven Reys N A Rocket. The daughter of Mattarocket was sent off as the odds-on choice from Post 3. The bay snared the winners share of the $6,580 purse by heading straight to the lead and cutting the fractions in :31.1, 1:03.1 and 1:33.1. The lass came home with a :30.2 final panel and posted an eight-length victory in 2:03.3. The homebred of Richard and Janet Rey (of St Claude, MB) topped the exactor with the Roland Rey-driven Shes A Picture, who rebounded after having suffered interference behind the starting gate. Brain Teaser, who also suffered interference behind the gate, finished well back in third for driver Garett Isman.

The second division, which went postward as Race 2, was won by the Trevor Williams-trained and Don Howlett-driven Mystery Shopper, who captured the lions share of the $6,680 purse after closing from off the pace for a 2:06.3 win. Owned by Trevor and Michael Williams of Winnipeg, MB, Mystery Shopper, a daughter of Mystery Chase, started from the outer Post 5 and raced third through the fractions, which were cut in :32.3, 1:04.1 and 1:34.3. After having raced first-up in the third quarter, Mystery Shopper closed with a :31.3 final quarter and went on to post a one-length victory. Ma Horse, who cut the fractions for driver Roland Rey, held on for second, while Dragonart, who took a pocket ride for pilot Dean Rey, finished third by two lengths.

Trainer Trevor Williams trained four winners on the card (Mystery Shopper, Apple Blossom Time, Lissie Borden, Latestngreatest).

Holland is scheduled to host live racing again this coming Sunday (July 23)at 1:30 p.m.

To view the harness racing results for Sunday at the Holland Fair, click the following link: Sunday Results  Holland Fair.
The stage is set for the $11,600 Final of Mark Austin Pacing Series at Dresden Raceway this Sunday, with the top money winners of the first two legs eligible for the final.

Step In My Groove, Action Town and Pull The Shade were the top money winners by virtue of the $5,000 they banked after winning in each of the preliminary legs.

Abitofalright is the fourth leading money earner thanks to the $3,750 he racked up with win and a second in the prelims. Bigbadcarly pocketed $2,500 while Got It Made racked up $2,500. Rounding out the top nine money earners are Alyssa Marie, My Greek Princess and You Said It who each nabbed $1,850 in purse money.

According to the rules a trainer is only allowed to send two horses behind the gate for the final which means that Bill Kirkpatrick has a decision to make as to which two horses he will enter. He is the conditioner of Step In My Groove, Abitofalright and Got it Made.

CRT Hottie and Senior Player are the also eligibles.

All trainers must enter their horses by Thursday at 10 a.m. to be eligible for Sundays final.

The series namesake Mark Austin was a prominent trainer in Ontario before his sudden death in 2014. Austin got his start at Dresden Raceway in the 1980s. He trained stars such as Fool Me Once and Sparky Mark and was credited with breaking all-star trotter A Worthy Lad for Joe Johnston.

(Dresden Raceway)
Gagan Sikand, the local Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville, visited the Standardbred Canada offices today to present a certificate of appreciation to SC President and CEO, Dan Gall.

Sikand also met with SC`s 2017 summer students, Valerie Ezewski and Vicky Phung. Valerie and Vicky are at SC as part of the Canada Summer Jobs program which provides funding to allow employers to create summer job opportunities for students. The program gives students the chance to gain work experience while supporting organizations, specifically those that provide important community service.

While on site, SC management met with Sikand to discuss the Standardbred industry in Canada. He learned more about Canadian harness racing, and the 250th Anniversary of horse racing.

Sikand has been invited to attend a racing event this summer and he says he looks forward to learning more about the industry, and how the federal government can assist in its future prosperity, across the country.
Yonkers Raceway will play host to a bevy of young ladies on Tuesday night (July 18), as the New York Sire Stakes Bruce Hamilton Trot for two-year-old fillies is set for action.

The event again honors the memory of the longtime executive secretary of the Harness Horse Breeders of New York, one of the Empire States true movers and shakers who also happened to be one of its finest people.

There will be no shortage of first-season females hitting town, as six divisions (Races 5 through 10) will take place during the dozen-race card. First post is the usual 7:10 p.m. The groupings will race for anywhere from $26,000 to $27,000, depending upon the number of starters.

The road to the winners circle in a fair amount of these divisions seemingly goes though co-owner/trainer/driver Ake Svanstedt.

Lucky Ava drew outside her six rivals in the third division. The daughter of Lucky Chucky, co-owned by Svanstedt (with Little E LLC and Van Camp Trotting), went the distance (2:01.3) in her Buffalo bow.

Svanstedt and Plunge Blue Chip (Post 5) loom a short price in the fourth event. The Muscle Mass miss, co-owned (with breeder Blue Chip Bloodstock), threw down a two-minute gauntlet in her purse debut, also in a New York Sire Stakes event at Hamburg.

Svanstedt will team with Natalie Hanover (Post 7) from the outside venue in the penultimate Hamilton event. As with her stablemates, Natalie shuffled off to Buffalo and won (2:04) at first (NYSS) asking. The Chapter Seven miss is co-owned by Svanstedt-Nasstrom Stable, Van Camp Trotting, Anders Olsson and Lars Berg.

The stables lone first-out non-winner, Fury Road, will start from Post 2 in the evenings final state-bred event. The daughter of Muscle Mass, owned by Knuttson Trotting, finished a solid second in her debut.

Not every early-season standout is sent out by Svanstedt.

Ooteeny (Mark MacDonald, Post 3) landed in the third NYSS event fresh off a 31-1 Buffalo bedazzler (2:03.4). The daughter of Credit Winner is trained by Jim Campbell for owner Runthetable Stables.

Lima Novelty (Jason Bartlett, Post 3), the lass who picked off Fury Road in western New York (2:01.3), found her way into the evenings fifth foray. The Chapter Seven lass is owned by Ken Jacobs and trained by Linda Toscano.

(Yonkers Raceway)
Trot Insider has learned that longtime London, Ont.-area horseman Norman William James Campbell passed away on Thursday, July 13 at his Thamesford residence at the age of 86.

It is with great sadness that the Campbell family announces the passing of Norm, who was always at his happiest when heading to the barn to see his beloved horses.

Born November 8, 1930 in Clinton, Ont., Norm is the loving husband of Beverley, and has been for 62 years. Dear father of Kim (Les), Greg (Nancy) and Michelle. Dear Grandpa to Jennifer, Christopher (Riye), Lesley (John), Michael, Chase and Jordyn. Dear Great Grandpa to Connor, Ella, Johnny, Maeda and Greg. Reunited with his parents Hugh and Mary, sister Margaret, brothers Gordon and Clayton.

Norm will be missed by many family members, friends and his loyal dog, Boo. Norm led a full life and was so grateful to have had careers he loved.

Norm was a long-term employee of Union Gas as a serviceman and his greatest joy was as a Standardbred horse owner, driver and trainer. Norm also bred some horses. He found luck with Derbys Gent, Leifwood Frosty, Kawartha Goddess (former Greenwood track record holder), among many others.

Norm was a very proud man  strong, determined and tough. As his friend Lonny McCorkle always said, "He's tougher than rat sh!t."

At Norm's request, there will be no funeral service. Cremation has taken place. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the friends and family of Norm Campbell.
Horseman Maynard F. Hagemeyer, 98, passed away on Sunday, July 16 at his home in Clarksville, Ohio. He passed away in the same room that he was born in on November 22, 1918.

He is survived by his wife, Stella, whom he married November 16, 1945. They celebrated more than 71 years of blissful marriage.

Hagemeyer was the son of Fred J. Hagemeyer and Bessie E. Bevan. He attended elementary school at Spring Hill (a one room schoolhouse) and graduated high school at Massie Township School in Harveysburg in 1936. He also attended the University of Cincinnati in Business Administration.

He always loved horses, and in his youth showed Percheron & Belgium horses throughout the U.S. In 1940, he travelled through the Panama Canal transporting draft horses to Chile.

Hagemeyer was drafted in the Army in 1941 and served almost five years during World War II, with two and a half years overseas. He attained the rank of Captain and commanded a company in the 23rd replacement battalion in North Africa and Italy. He served under General George Patton in North Africa and General Mark Clark in Italy.

Before being shipped overseas, he was stationed at Camp Sutton in North Carolina where he first met Stella Adcox. Hagemeyer and his friend were on a weekend leave in Charlotte, when they randomly picked a name out of the phone book. It turned out to be Stellas roommate. When Hagemeyer saw the beautiful girl in the doorway, he said, that is my gal, and she has been his gal ever since.

Hagemeyer took over the family farm in 1948. In addition to farming, he owned and operated various business ventures including an excavation business for 17 years, a feed mill in Clarksville for five years, an anhydrous ammonia and fertilizer business for 20 years, an egg business for nine years (with 6,000 laying hens), and a Standardbred racing and breeding business that he started in 1957 and continues today.

He was very active in county and state organizations. He was a member of the Clarksville Masonic Lodge since 1940, and a member of Scottish Rite and Shrine since 1946. He joined the Eastern Star in 1947 and served as Worthy Patron in 1952 and 1962. He was also a member of the Warren County School Board for 10 years.

Hagemeyer was active in politics, serving as Republican Precinct Chairman for 30 years and Vice Chairman of the County Republican Party for a few years. He was a Township Trustee of Washington Township for 32 years. After the death of his father in 1948, he completed the balance of his fathers term as Warren County Commissioner. He also had the privilege of being selected as a delegate from Ohio to the 2000 National Republican Convention in Philadelphia for George W. Bush.

He was on the Warren County Fair Board for 42 years and the Warren County Veterans Commission for 20 years. He also served as a director of the Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association and was the first president of the Harness Horse Youth Foundation.

Hagemeyer has been recognized many times over the years, including the Pacer Grass Roots award in 1989, named a Kentucky Colonel at the age of 91, Masonic Lodge 75 year award in 2016, and the Harveysburg alumni 80 year award in 2016.

Other survivors include four children, Mel (Pam), Della Aylor, Fred (Debbie) and Ted (Pam); grandchildren, Scott, Tiffany Linville, Kyle Aylor, Ashlee Johnson, Captain Steven, Cheryl Hanna, Nick and Shana; great-grandchildren, Hunter, Brandi Hanna, Riley Hanna, Lyndsay, Carlee Johnson, Jenny-Lynn Johnson, Mayree Johnson, Isaac Linville, Evan Linville, and Owen Linville.

The family will receive friends from 3-6 p.m. Friday (July 21) at Stubbs-Conner Funeral Home, Waynesville. A celebration of Maynards life will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

Condolences can be made at stubbsconner.com.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Maynard Hagemeyer.

(USTA)
Robert Bakke, 'Point-Blank' Personality Drive 'Prayer' Book to #1

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn., July 17, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- High-Octane racer, Robert Bakke, has a black belt in one hand and an American flag in the other, and is using brute-force to put wealth, winning and American exceptionalism back on the radar. "American exceptionalism is the fuel that drives every ambitious American, and it also pleases God," says Bakke, "The Bible is clear that God enjoys our accumulation of wealth, our winning ways and even says he is behind it. Get the book and read it for yourself."

Bakke, a local NASCAR racer who has become the most outspoken preacher on the planet, says Americans have been duped by man-made religions teaching poverty and divisive politicians who fueled Class Warfare. "God doesn't want you living in poverty and you're not a victim of someone else's success," says Bakke, "Wealth puts a person in a position to help people who are struggling, and winning draws attention to God-given greatness. Don't let any religious leader or politician tell you otherwise." Bakke's point-blank messages rocketed into prominence when his book, Prayer at Full Throttle, stood religion on-its-ear and became an Amazon #1 Best-Seller.

Bakke is fearless with words and can drop startling revelations, such as the original Greek definition of religion is actually "The bondage of men," and that God's chosen were actually the wealthiest men on the planet, not the poorest. "Don't blame God for the man-made religions people are running away from," says Bakke, "If people would stop being afraid to talk about God and go to direct to the source (the Bible) for themselves, they'd find out that nothing within their imagination is beyond their reach. That's the mindset that will restore American exceptionalism, and why Prayer at Full Throttle traveled the globe in record time."



Bakke's book, "Prayer at Full Throttle: How Performance-Based Prayer Makes Miracles Happen" is an Amazon #1 Best Seller. Signed paperbacks at Bakke's book, "Prayer at Full Throttle: How Performance-Based Prayer Makes Miracles Happen" is an Amazon #1 Best Seller. Signed paperbacks at www.robertbakke.com Bakke is available for interviews at robert@robertbakke.com or 612-812-6174

About Robert Bakke

Robert Bakke was running a multi-million dollar company by the age of 24. He is also a jet captain and aerobatic flight instructor, a black belt and regional champion, a NASCAR driver and Amazon #1 Best-Selling author.
Judicial Watch Statement on IRS Records Scandal

Internal Watchdog Found Records Went Missing

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement in response to a July 13 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report , which finds the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) records management practice resulted in lost records and incomplete IRS responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and congressional inquiries.

This new report is shocking but not surprising. We have long battled the IRS in court over its obstruction in responding to FOIA requests about Obama era IRS abuses. It is a scandal that the Obama IRS did not tell Judicial Watch, the courts, or Congress about the loss of government records. Our attorneys will review this report to assess whether we should seek relief and accountability from the courts. In the meantime, President Trump should finally fire IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and direct the Justice Department to reopen its criminal inquiry into the Obama IRS abuses and cover-ups.

In April, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the IRS to obtain records relating to the agency's "preservation and/or retention" of the email records of officials who have left the agency since January 2010. ( Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No.1:17-cv-00596)).

The suit was filed as part of Judicial Watch's continuing efforts to gain information about the IRS' targeting of conservative groups and citizens during the Obama administration.

Judicial Watch's litigation forced the IRS first to say that emails belonging to Lois Lerner, former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS, were supposedly missing and later declare to the court that the emails were on IRS back-up systems. Lerner was one of the top officials responsible for the IRS' targeting of President Obama's political opponents. Judicial Watch exposed various IRS' record keeping problems:

 In June 2014, the IRS claimed to have "lost" responsive emails belonging to Lerner and other IRS officials.





 In July 2014 Judge Emmett Sullivan ordered the IRS to submit to the court a written declaration under oath about what happened to Lerner's "lost" emails. The sworn declarations proved to be less than forthcoming.





 In August 2014, Department of Justice attorneys for the IRS finally admitted Judicial Watch that Lerner's emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe. The IRS' attorneys also disclosed that Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) was looking at several of these backup tapes.





 In November 2014, the IRS told the court it had failed to search any of the IRS standard computer systems for the "missing" emails of Lerner and other IRS officials.
Gerard Breedveld Waar ik een probleem mee heb is dat 'ongekozen' von der Leyen, China afgeschilderd als het land met de grootste v...
A state inspection of Rainiers sewage treatment plant left the city with eight different violations of workplace safety rules, and the city may face $780 in fines over them.

A month-long Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division inspection that began April 24 found some minor slip-ups, such as failing to have a monthly safety committee meeting, to more prominent violations, such as failing to adequately protect workers from used hypodermic needles that show up in the plants filters.

Specifically, the city failed to evaluate the health risks the needles posed, and it did not offer Hepatitis B vaccines to employees exposed to the needles.

The needles, presumably flushed down the toilet, are themselves not the cause of the citations, OSHA representative Aaron Corvin said Monday. Rather, its the citys failure to protect workers from bloodborne pathogens that is the issue, he said.

OSHA also cited the city for failing to train wastewater employees in confined space procedures at the plant. Corvin said OSHA takes confined space evaluations very seriously.

A confined space, such as a pit, well, vat, bin, pipe or tank, can be very difficult to exit in an emergency. OSHA said employers must develop a written program educating employees about safe procedures if a dangerous situation should arise in a confined space, Corvin said.

The OSHA report, released Monday, also flagged other safety issues, such as the presence of several unlabeled kerosene containers, an expired calibration gas cylinder, and a lack of regular safety committee meetings.

For their eight citations, OSHA is proposing $780 in penalties.

The sewer plant, designed to treat up to 2.5 million gallons of sewage daily, employs five workers.

Rainiers sewer treatment plant has faced multiple trials as of late. In May, former plant employee Justin Spencer claimed that water discharged from the plant into the Columbia River was not always properly treated before release.

There were also claims that the plants emergency alarm system wasnt working, according to computer technician Larry Helenius.

On top of all this, the Oregon State Police are investigating the theft of a backup computer used to store data on the plants operations.

Mayor Jerry Cole said the city has already started addressing OSHAs concerns, including regular safety committee meetings, enrolling employees in a bloodborne pathogens class, and evaluating the plants confined spaces.

Safety is paramount. We want to make sure everything is right, and if we did something wrong, we want to make it right.

Oregons Department of Environmental Quality in recent years has also issued several letters to the city of Rainier, stating that the city had violated its wastewater permit five times since 2014.

OSHAs inspection of the plant, however, specifically had to do with workplace safety issues, not with making sure the plant is treating waste adequately. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality oversees whether the plant is meeting water quality standards.
WINLOCK  When Andrew and Dawn Mullen moved to Winlock three years ago, they were surprised at the absence of breakfast burritos.

Having grown up in L.A., breakfast burritos were commonplace, said Andrew Mullen, 36. There was nowhere up here to get anything like the kinds of breakfasts that were used to. So we wanted to build one.

In November, the married couple opened the Winlock Eggspress, an all-day breakfast joint. The endeavor has been a labor of love and risk: They invested their life savings into the restaurant.

Absolutely everything we had, and then some, said Dawn Mullen, 38.

Since opening, they say, business has steadily increased. Playing in their favor is both Winlocks location off Interstate 5 as well as the towns eggs-producing heritage.

The history of Winlock is all about egg farming, she said. The settlers were really into chickens and eggs, and thats perfect for breakfast. It all seemed to kind of roll together.

The Mullens lived in California, North Carolina and Arizona while working for photo publishing company Shutterfly before deciding to get out of the heat. After 12 years with the tech company, they decided it was time for a new project and moved to Winlock with their 4- and 6-year-olds. They found a lot three minutes from downtown.

Their initial plan was a quick service breakfast burrito place for hungry people on the go. As more customers came across their bright yellow sign, the Mullens noticed an increased demand for a sit-down, family-friendly environment.

Eggspress now includes many tables and a childrens play area. Large windows open on to a street corner to bring natural light to the dining area. However, meals are still served on paper plates and red plastic trays.

Its more of a focus on food than the platter its served on, he said.

His wife adds: The way the animals are treated, the way the produce is raised, moral ethical business practicesthat definitely is important to us.

The eggs, meats, tortillas, breads and coffee served at Eggspress are all from companies in Oregon and Washington.

This dedication to the Pacific Northwest is also reflected in meal options such as Mount Saint Hashbrowns: a mountain of shaved potatoes, ham, onions, green peppers and cheese. Their website recommends snow-capping the meal with sausage gravy.

These hardy meals can be difficult in a kitchen without a full oven or fryer. The owners have been cooking everything in a convection toaster ovensix biscuits at a time.

Since they are open every day, the owners hired seven local employees, two of whom are part of the ResCare Youth Services program, which helps underprivileged youth gain work experience and training.

The couple have visions of a sit-down restaurant with waitstaff in the future. Even further down the line, they dream of expanding into a regional chain. But right now they are just focusing on their first year in business and enjoying support from the local community.

Their neighbor, Lynnette Hoffman, who works in the same building, eats breakfast or lunch at the Eggspress every day. She is so at home there that she frequently goes behind the counter and pours herself a cup of coffee.

I want to support somebody local and  you wont find better people, Hoffman said. Were a family. Theres no other way to put it.

Mullen spoke for herself and her husband when she said the effort and investment is worth it.

Im super glad I have the opportunity to do this and live out one of my dreams.
tech2 News Staff

Xiaomi has revealed the launch date for the much anticipated Android Nougat-based MIUI 9 update. According to a blog post on MIUI forums, the company will roll out its latest update on 26th July 2017. The post also points out that the company will launch Mi 5X along with the roll-out of MIUI 9.

For the uninitiated, MIUI is a heavily skinned version of Android that Xiaomi loads on all the smartphones that it ships. The company adds its own apps and custom functionality in the operating system making it difficult to update the core Android to a newer version. To provide a perspective on how long it takes for Xiaomi to roll out major Android releases with MIUI is the fact that it has been 442 days since the launch of MIUI 8.

The blog post points out at a number of features that will be a part of MIUI 8.

Redesigned Lock Screen shortcut

Added Split-Screen feature

Added 3 new themes besides the default theme.

Removed rarely used features

Xiaomi will roll-out the update in batches to ensure a smooth, bug-free and easy release of MIUI 9. This means that only a limited amount of Xiaomi devices will receive the update in the first batch. One thing to note here is that the MIUI 9 here refers to the MIUI 9 China ROM, the company has not shared details about the launch of MIUI 9 International ROM. Last but not the least, the company will share a big news on 19 July 2017.
Vodafone India has launched Gurugrams first Wi-Fi enabled bus shelter at the HUDA City Centre. The Wi-Fi bus shelter allows customers to enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi for up-to 20 minutes per day. An operator agnostic offering, this Wi-Fi service can be availed by users of any Indian telecom operator. Through this innovative offering Vodafone aims to develop seamless, technologically-backed, Wi-Fi networks that will help enhance data consumption among Smartphone users in the region.

HUDA city centre witnesses a heavy influx of people during the entire day, which makes it a suitable choice for such a setup. In the next few days Vodafone will be setting up few more Wi-Fi bus shelters on its data strong network. Vodafone WiFi Hot-spot network is also available across 115 prime locations of Delhi-NCR,which includes popular market places/malls, hospitals, colleges etc. Vodafone has introduced a bouquet of free Wi-Fi offers on its prepaid recharges as well as for its Postpaid RED customers so that consumers can draw benefits at these Wi-Fi locations. Moreover 20 mins of free Wi-Fi service (operator agnostic) is available at Dilli Haat (INA Market), Khan Market, Fortis Hospital (Gurugram) & all Vodafone Stores across Delhi NCR.

Alok Verma Business Head, Vodafone Delhi-NCR said, Vodafone is committed to contributing towards making entire Gurugram a Smart City. We are very happy to enable citizens across the city to experience world-class Internet services on the go. The Wi-Fi Initiative is a step towards Digital India and creating networked and connected societies that will help citizens get on the digital highways and stay connected for Good. With customer needs evolving from voice to data, Wi-Fi is an effective technology to provide seamless connectivity to a large group of consumers in a defined space. Mobile users will now be able to experience more fun with high-speed Wi-Fi seamlessly. The Wi-Fi service at the Bus shelter can be availed by all mobile users irrespective of their network provider. We urge everyone to use the WiFi bus shelter facility and enjoy the Vodafone 4G experience.

Technuter.com News Service
Academic activities seriously hampered in Chandpur

UNB, Chandpur :

A total of 55 government primary schools in Faridganj upazila f the district are running without any headmaster.

Consequently, academic activities in these institutions are being seriously hampered as recruitment to these vacant posts has remained stalled for different complications.

It has been going on for a long time and so, proper primary education is being hampered, alleged many primary teachers and guardians adding that Dakshin Char Rampur Government Primary School alone is operating academic activities without headmaster for the last ten years.

Senior assistant teachers of those 55 primary schools have been running these schools as acting head teachers alongside their regular duties.

And for this, proper teaching in the classes in these schools has been in doldrums and teaching activities are going on at a slow speed and relaxed mood.

The schools sans headmasters are - Rampur Bazar Government Primary School, Sholodana Government Primary School, Rustompur Government Primary School, Luxmipur Government Primary School, Shokdi Rampur Government Primary School, Shoshairchar Government Primary School, Dikdair Government Primary School, Forishair Government Primary school, Subidpur Government Primary School, Guatoba Government Primary School, Sreekalia Government Primary School, Gollak Government Primary School, Ashta Government Primary School, Bhatialpur Government Primary School, Purbo Badarpur Government Primary School, Paschim Horni Government Primary School, Dakhshin Char Rampur Government Primary School, Paschim Poa Govt Primary School, Montola Government Primary School, South Bishkatali Government Primary School, Paikpara Balika Government Primary School, Purbo Bhawalpur Government Primary School, Purbo Alonia Government Primary School, Eklaspur Government Primary School, Uttar Santosepur Government Primary School and three other government primary schools.

Besides these, there are 27 more newly nationalised government primary schools in the upazila that have long been running without headmasters.

Under the circumstances, proper as well as quality education in all these schools is being hampered for a long time, the locals and the guardians claimed.

A government primary school can't run properly without its leader that means a headmaster, Dakshin Char Rampur Government Primary School Managing Committee's president, also vice chairman of Faridganj Upazila Parishad, Md Wahidur Rahman said this while talking to this correspondent.

He demanded to the authorities concerned to appoint a headmaster to this school as soon as possible to ensure proper education.
Iran says possibility of talks with US still open

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, (right) and Iran\'s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif shake hands before their meeting on Monday.

AP, New York :

Iran's foreign minister said the government has received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration and doesn't know how to interpret them, but he held open the possibility of talks and improved relations with the United States.

In a wide-ranging session at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mohammad Javad Zarif said he hasn't communicated with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But he said "it doesn't mean that there can't be (communication), because the possibilities for engagement with regard to the nuclear deal has always been open."

He also criticized Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and rival in the Mideast, saying Arab states primarily "have been incapable" of addressing the basic needs of their people which has given rise to anger, resentment and incitement.

But Zarif said Iran and Saudi Arabia can and should work together to end the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where they support opposing sides. "We don't need to fight to exclude each other from the scene in the Middle East," he said, "because in the end neither will be able to exclude the other." He added that "extremist forces are as much a threat against us, but even more against them."

Zarif is in the United States to speak Tuesday at a high-level meeting assessing progress toward meeting U.N. goals for 2030 to combat poverty, achieve gender equality, promote economic development and good governance, and preserve the environment.

He answered questions at the council ahead of an announcement by the State Department just before the Monday midnight deadline that Iran is still complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, which it must do every three months. But it insisted Tehran would face consequences for breaching "the spirit" of the deal.

Zarif said the International Atomic Energy Agency, "which is hardly a sympathizer for Iran," has verified its compliance with the agreement.

But unfortunately, he said, the U.S. has not complied, and the six parties to the agreement will be meeting in Vienna on Friday to examine Iran's complaints about the U.S. failure to carry out its obligations.

The key issue with the United States, he said, is over sanctions against Iran that the agreement requires to be lifted and the sanctions that remain on Iran over human rights, terrorism and other issues.

Zarif said that for the United States "it's more important to maintain the sanctions that remain" on Iran "rather than remove the sanctions that have been lifted."As a result, he said, the Office of Foreign Asset Control "has been reluctant to provide straight-forward answers to those who want to do business with Iran because it was worried that a straight-forward answer would undermine the sanctions" that haven't been lifted.

Zarif said this "creates the impression in Iran that the United States hostility toward Iran will never end."

But he left open the possibility of changing that perception, saying: "I think that can be remedied."

Responding to a question about whether Iran has received any signals from the Trump administration, positive or negative, Zarif said: "We receive contradictory signals. So we don't know which one to interpret in what way."

"But it's very clear that Iran is serious about the nuclear deal and we believe that the nuclear deal can lay the foundation, not the ceiling," he stressed.

Zarif said that under the nuclear deal, Iran is committed never to produce nuclear weapons and to have the IAEA impose "the most stringent control measures." He also cited Iran's vote on July 7 in favor of the first-ever U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons, which was approved by 122 countries.

Asked about Americans in detention in Iran, including a Chinese-American graduate student at Princeton recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly "infiltrating" the country and sending confidential material abroad, Zarif stressed the independence of his country's judiciary.


Reshaping financial system

Ingrid Holmes :

International agreements on climate change have come and gone  as indeed have so many of the politicians who helped to negotiate them. Now, something that might stand the test of time looks a distinct possibility, not least because it hasn't been developed by our elected representatives. It is the often-maligned financial community - working with a collection of influential think-tanks and NGOs - that look as if they will be able to take the credit.

The European Commission has just announced the early findings of the High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. You may not have heard of it, but it has real clout. I am a proud to be a member of it and I think we have done something special. The far-reaching set of proposals in our interim report published today (July 13) don't just address the challenge of climate change, but look beyond at opportunities to deliver an inclusive and sustainable economy using finance as a tool to improve the prospects of our planet.

It is the result of an intensive and at times passionate six-month quest to establish how the financial system needs to change to make for a sustainable world - and how it can be made fit for purpose. Meeting every couple of months in the Berlaymont building - that glass and steel fortress at the very heart of European Government - we finally came to some firm conclusions. Among them:

Member states should develop detailed national capital raising plans setting out what is needed in terms of sustainable infrastructure and how private sector investment will be attracted to finance that infrastructure.

The EU budget's multi-annual financial framework should be revised to exclude support for unsustainable investments and the EU's public banks should lead the way in a complete shift away from unsustainable investment.

The existing European Investment Advisory Hub should evolve to become a bigger initiative with the creation of 'Sustainable Infrastructure Europe' - a new dedicated organisation responsible for advising municipalities and other public authorities on structuring and developing infrastructure projects and matching them with investors.

A new 'European Observatory' should be created to track current financial flows to meet climate objectives, understand where the biggest gaps lie and in doing so inform where and how to target but public policy and public finance interventions to boost investment where it is most needed.

For the most 'at-need' sector - energy efficiency in buildings - accounting rules should be revised to enable energy efficiency investments to be delivered by the private sector on behalf of European governments.

Part of the EU budget should be dedicated to allowing more private sector investors to take an active role in funding projects that meet Europe's social objectives and an EU sustainable fund label should be developed to give confidence to citizen investors to get involved in investing in a more sustainable European future.

This all sits within a broader set of recommendations looking at how changes to the governance and operations of the different members of the financial ecosystem need to change to ensure citizens interests are placed at the heart of everything they do. And how financial policy - prudential regulation and accounting rules introduced in the wake of the financial crisis but now widely held to be stymying investment into a sustainable economy - can be carefully adjusted to connect with investments that can help build a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable European economy that works for everyone.

The group behind this blueprint for the future deserves to be taken seriously as it is comprised of experts in the sustainable finance world. As practitioners and thought leaders they are drawn from very different backgrounds - including pension funds, insurers, public and private banks, stock exchanges as well NGOs, think-tanks and investor associations. All are united by a belief that radical and far-reaching reforms are need in the financial world to avert and impending social and environmental catastrophe.

It is the fact the work is being developed and driven by individuals of this calibre - with real clout in their respective fields- that gives me hope that the final recommendations - expected at the end of December 2017 - will be both ambitious and deliverable. The investors who are involved with the group control assets worth trillions of dollars. Unsurprisingly, President Juncker and two Vice-Presidents (Dombrovskis and Katainen) are paying close attention to the work and are keen to move forward to implement the group's final proposals in 2018.

In a post-Trump and post-Brexit world where so many politicians seem to have lost sight of what is in the national interest, it is more important than ever that others fill the vacuum that they have vacated. The urgent needs of our planet are not going to disappear just because people like Trump don't recognise them.

The interim report that my group has just produced is a determinedly realistic piece of work: it isn't just about shifting investment towards sustainable businesses which will meet Europe's climate change goals, but doing so in ways that will also address the very pressing social challenges that remain in the aftermath of the financial crisis, including high unemployment (especially among the young); rising income inequality; concerns about the sufficiency of retirement incomes; and lack of access to opportunity.

If we didn't address these social issues at the same time as trying to resolve our environmental challenges, we knew only too well that we would limit our chances of delivering a set of recommendations that the politicians would feel able to champion. Happily, the more we became immersed in our work, the more clear it became that concern for the environment is not incompatible with concern for the society and the economy as a whole. On the contrary, they complement each other.

Pension fund managers, in particular, have to think long term: what is the point of them investing in a company for a 20 year old client now that is involved in activities that will impact on his quality of life when he reaches retirement age?

The European Commission is open and listening and expectations are high that the recommendations made by the group - of which the interim report released on 13 July are only a trailer - will be adopted as a means of fundamentally reshaping the financial system as a tool for good.



(Ingrid Holmes is director of the global climate change think tank E3G).


Hajj flights from July 24

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon on Tuesday said the Hajj flights carrying Bangladeshi pilgrims to Saudi Arabia will start from July 24 and continue till August 26 this year.

The first hajj flight, carrying 419 pilgrims, will take off from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:55am for Saudi Arabia, said the Minister after a meeting at the ministry.

The Minister said a total of 177 flights will carry hajj pilgrims till August 26. The return flight will start from September 6 and continue till October 5. The number of return flights will be 169. "Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Airlines will carry the Bangladeshi pilgrims," said Menon.

The Minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate Hajj activities, 2017 on July 22 at the Ashkona Hajj office.

"Some 127,198 pilgrims will perform hajj from Bangladesh this year under government and private managements. Among the pilgrims, 4230 pilgrims will perform hajj under government management," he said.

Menon said from this year flights carrying hajj pilgrims will also go to Madinah.
New Sino- Indian confrontation over border dispute soon!

Hindustan Times :

India should get ready for an "all-out confrontation" along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary with China, the country's state media said on Tuesday, threatening to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries. China isn't afraid to go to "war" with India and will be ready for a long-term confrontation, the Global Times comment piece said.

The threat of new geographical points of conflict being opened up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) comes amid the People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently carrying out live-fire drills in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) close to Arunachal Pradesh, claimed by China as part of south Tibet.

The continuing hostile posturing by China's state-controlled media is a crucial aspect of Beijing's overall aggressive stand taken on the ongoing military impasse at Donglang across the Sikkim border.

"China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC,"

the nationalistic tabloid, Global Times, said in a comment piece on Tuesday. "China doesn't advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation," it added.

Affiliated to the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, People's Daily, the Global Times has been on the forefront of Chinese media's editorial attack on India. Its battle-plan is short and simple - obfuscate New Delhi's points of view on the current impasse and peddle China's deliberately one-sided view of the situation.

For one, the GT article claimed that since the 1962 war, it is only India that has provoked China along the border, conveniently not mentioning the incursions made by the PLA's border troops over the decades.

"The 3,500-kilometer border has never been short of disputes. Since the 1962 border war, the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations. China must be prepared for future conflicts and confrontation. China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)," wrote GT's Duo Mu in the newspaper.

"If India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage in a competition with India over economic and military resources deployment in the border area," the newspaper wrote.

The article mentioned China's superior military and economic infrastructure in the Sino-India border region, and how that's an advantage. "With growing national strength, China is capable of deploying resources in remote border areas. It is conducive to the economic growth of these regions, as well as to safeguarding integration of China's territory. Road and rail in the Tibetan area have been extended close to the border area with India, Nepal and Bhutan. It's a competition of military strength, as well as a competition of overall economic strength," it said. The author said in China "there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the country's sovereignty, while Indian public opinion is clamoring for war with China. However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiraling out of control." China has blamed India for the ongoing Donglang (Doklam) impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan.

Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Donglang before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India.

While the indefinite railway and highway blockade called by the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura IPFT) entered its ninth day, the state BJP on Tuesday 'blocked' the entry to residences of chief minister Manik Sarkar and several other ministers in the state capital protesting the alleged failure of the Left Front government to get the blockade lifted.

Hundreds of BJP leaders and supporters gathered in front of chief minister Sarkar's residence in the Marx-Engels Sarani in the heart of Agartala on Tuesday morning and squatted on the pavement, raising slogans against the Left Front government. BJP workers also blocked the entry to residences of seven other ministers located on the same road as that of the chief minister.

The BJP workers and supporters led by state president Biplab Deb and state BJP 'prabhari' (in-charge) Sunil Deodhar also held the Left Front government responsible for the 'anarchy' prevailing in the land-locked state since the IPFT had called an indefinite blockade of the state's lone National Highway and railway line on July 10.

The BJP state unit has fixed a 48-hour deadline beginning 5 AM of Tuesday for the Left Front government to get the IPFT blockade lifted. While hundreds of trucks carrying essential commodities including foodgrain and petroleum products to Tripura are stranded, the Northeast Frontier Railway has cancelled all trains to and fro Agartala since the blockade began. Prices of essential commodities have also shot up, reports from Agartala said. Meanwhile, a delegation of the IPFT which is currently in the national capital, is scheduled to hold a discussion with Kiren Rijiju, union minister of state for home affairs.

The IPFT has been demanding an assurance from the Centre on their demand for a separate 'Twipraland' state for the indigenous tribal communities of Tripura.


Ontario judge rejects $2b class-action lawsuit involving Rana Plaza disaster

A judge in the Canadian province of Ontario has rejected a class-action lawsuit seeking $2 billion from Joe Fresh and Loblaw over the collapse of a Bangladesh garment factory in 2013.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell said the Toronto-based counsel for three garment workers who were injured in the Rana Plaza building near Dhaka "failed to argue a viable cause of action in their claim."

Refusing to certify the proposed class action, the judge criticised the plaintiffs' claim as "bloated with conclusory statements that simply allege a cause of action as if it was a material fact" about Loblaw and other defendants' potential roles in the collapse.

The disaster killed more than 1,100 garment workers and injured more than 2,500 in Savar.

However, proposing the class action, plaintiff law firm Rochon Genova had argued that Loblaw was "vicariously liable" for the negligence of its suppliers and sub-suppliers, Pearl Global and New Wave, the National Post newspaper reported.

The plaintiff had argued that before the building collapse, Loblaw hired Pearl Global to produce garments for Joe Fresh. Pearl Global outsourced some of the work to New Wave, which manufactured garments at Rana Plaza.

"The claim of vicarious liability failed because Pearl Global and New Wave were not agents or employees of Loblaw, nor were they independent contractors of the sort that can trigger vicarious liability in the legal sense," Justice Perell wrote in his order issued this month.

"New Wave was selling goods, not services or tasks that were part of Loblaw's enterprise," he said in the decision. "Loblaw did not delegate its responsibility for the safety of the employees of New Wave because it had no such responsibility."

The "exceptional circumstances" in which an enterprise can be 'vicariously liable' for the misdeeds of independent contractors were not evident in this case, said Perell, according to the Post.

"Loblaw had no control over how Pearl Global and New Wave carried on their manufacturing business or treated their employees."

The proposed class action had also named Loblaw's parent company George Weston, wholly owned Loblaw subsidiary Joe Fresh Apparel.

The branches of Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services in US, France and Bangladesh, were also implicated in proposed legal action. The company was hired by Loblaw to perform inspections and audits of textile and garment factories.

The Canadian conglomerate Loblaw said in a statement that the company is "pleased" with the ruling.

The retailer and owner of house apparel brand Joe Fresh said it renewed its commitment to the global 2013 Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which established stricter standards for workplace safety in Bangladesh factories.

"Our three-year renewal will help extend the Accord's good work, auditing and eliminating building risks in facilities where our suppliers produce our goods and putting workers' interests first."

The company, which paid relief and compensation of some $5 million to Bangladeshi workers and various social agencies in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster, now publicly lists the names of all factories it uses to produce Joe Fresh products, according to the newspaper report.

Last year, a Bangladesh court charged 38 people with murder in the country's worst industrial disaster. Three others were also charged in assisting plaza owner Sohel Rana in his attempt to flee the country after the collapse.

The incident sparked international outrage and retailers and brand manufacturers faced heightened consumer pressure to expose the cracks in their supply chains, in particular, the sourcing of garment work to underdeveloped nations with cheap labour and poor safety standards.
BGMEA to seek govt`s intervention

Badrul Ahsan :

Apparel makers are set to seek government's intervention in removing anomalies in the Accord's plan implementation for a safe RMG industry in Bangladesh

The readymade garment industry does not want the Accord, a platform for global apparel brands based in the Netherlands, to expand the tenure of a 5-year agreement signed between global brand and retailers and trade unions aiming to build an healthier atmosphere in Bangladesh's RMG industry.

The tenure of the agreement inked on May 15, 2013 will expire in June, 2018.

According to a recent development, the Accord is now planning to extend its tenure by another three years and it expects to expand its nature and area of inspection and other activities in Bangladesh, especially promotion of freedom of the associations.

The Accord also intends to expand its areas of work to the sectors other than the RMG industry.

The country's apparel makers at a recent meeting strongly opposed such unilateral extension of the Accord's tenure.

In the meeting, leaders of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) decided to convene an emergency general meeting by this month to mobilise opinion from the member factories and seek the government's intervention in this regard.

"Almost all in the meeting have opposed the unilateral extension of the Accord," BGMEA vice president Mahmud Hasan Khan told The New Nation.

"We don't want continuation of the Accord for an indefinite period and, at the same time, want an acceptable body to take the charge of ongoing safety activities," he added.

He said the BGMEA will soon send a letter to the government for its intervention and pursue for an amicable solution.

The letter will also point to the difficulties the sector has been facing while implementing the safety requirements as prescribed by the Accord. It will also contain possible problems those might be surfaced if the 'Accord's version 2' is implemented.

Industry insiders say the new agreement puts greater emphasis on the rights of workers to organise and join a union.

It includes enhanced protections for workers of the factories closed or relocated due to the implementation of the agreement.

"We will also request the government for taking necessary measures to strengthen the remediation coordination cell so that all accept it," the BGMEA leader said.

President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, also a former president of BGMEA, said the freedom of association has been ensured by the Constitution of the country, while Bangladesh has ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention on this issue.

"This is not going to work as the implementing stakeholders -- Bangladesh government and apparel makers -- are not included in the process," he said, adding that they don't have the right to impose any unilateral decision.

Explaining the measures taken by the industry and the government, he said that all the remediation will be done within the set timeframe of 2018.
12 men of robber gang held in city

A special squad of plainclothes police nabbed 13 members of an organised robber gang from city\'s Jatrabari area and recovered firearms, bullets, handcuffs, knives and uniform of Detective Branch of Police on Tuesday.

UNB, Dhaka :

Detectives arrested 12 members of an inter-district robber gang from South Jatrabari area in the city on Monday.

Two pistols, two magazines, two handcuffs, one DB jacket, some sharp weapons and other materials used in committing robbery were recovered from their possessions.

The arrestees are Barek Mia, Gaffar Ahmed, Monir Hossain, Rasel alias Borsha, Al Amin alias Dipo, Morshed alias Minto, Sabuj Hossain Shyamal alias Alam, Riaj, Mehedi Hasan alias

Mehedi, driver Md Nazmul Hasan alias Ershad and Arman Hossain.

Briefing reporters at DMP media centre on Tuesday, Joint Commissioner (DB) Abdu Baten said based on secret information, a special DB team raided South Jatrabari area at around 2:50 pm and arrested the 12 members of an inter-district robber gang while they were preparing to commit robbery.

During preliminary interrogation, the arrestees revealed that they usually take position diving into small groups in and outside a bank. One group target a client when he or she draws money and it convey the information to another group which stay outside the bank. The third group wait inside a microbus near the bank, he said.

Finally, when the targeted client come out from the bank with the money, the robber pick him or her up inside the microbus and loot valuables at gun point.

A case was filed with Jatrabari police station.
DB quizzes Farhad Mazhar again

Staff Reporter :

A case is likely to be filed against poet, columnist and stance critic of government Farhad Mazhar under the section 211 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) on charge of providing false information, Abdul Baten, Joint Commissioner of Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

"Mazhar was interrogated again as investigators found discrepancies between his earlier statement and their findings. He would be quizzed further in this connection," the police official said while speaking in a press briefing at DMP media center on Tuesday afternoon.

Abdul Baten, however, ruled out any link to abduction. "Mazhar was not abducted and there is no abductor in this incident. So, he will face legal action for giving false information and harassing law enforcers, he said.

"We will interrogate and verify his testimonial. What truly happened that day, what we saw in his activities, and the evidence found do not match," the detective official said.

The writer was called in to Detective Branch office around 11:00am. He stayed inside until 1:00pm before leaving the office without speaking to reporters.

On July 13, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque told reporters that Mazhar's abduction was a drama to make a puzzle for the government. It was a case of self-missing to collect money for one Archana Rani, who already gave a statement in the court.

Earlier, DB personnel of police quizzed Farhad Mazhar, who went missing from capital's Shyamoli residence and was rescued in Jessore the same day, for a second time at DB office in the city's Minto Road in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday.

H e was interrogated again as investigators found discrepancies between his earlier statement and their findings, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman.

Farida Akhter, wife of Farhad, said: DB police called us in their office for an interrogation, and we went there at 11:00am accordingly. They wanted to know many things from us, and we told them what we knew.

While many accounts have surfaced over the matter, including that of an extramarital affair, Farhad Mazhar recently told a leading foreign media that "He will not be silenced".

On July 3, Farhad went missing in the morning after he got out of his house to buy some medicine. He phoned his wife Farida around 9:30am and said he had been abducted and the abductors were demanding Tk 35 lakh for his release.

Law enforcers later rescued him from a Dhaka-bound Hanif Paribahan bus at Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore the same day at 11:30pm.

He was taken to the DB office after he returned to Dhaka. After a primary interrogation, police took him to a court to record his statement on July 4. The court later allowed him to return home following his plea.

Since Mazhar's wife filed the case based on his phone call we are checking if court action can be taken in this regard.
The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
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MURPHYSBORO  The Jackson County Board plans to continue discussing the vote on a resolution that would designate the county as a "safe and welcoming county."

Board members will vote on Resolution 17-2657, "A Resolution Establishing Jackson County As A Safe And Welcoming County" at their 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday in the Jackson County Courthouse in Murphysboro.

The resolution notes that Jackson County is home for Southern Illinois, which has international students from more than 100 counties, and where "migrants, students, scholars, medical and other professionals" contribute to the county's economic prosperity in the form of paying of taxes, operating businesses and donating to charities. Related documents note that immigrant labor greatly supports agriculture in Southern Illinois.

Section 2 of the resolution reads: "The Jackson County Board encourages the Jackson County Sheriff's Office to continue to respond to requests from immigrant persons and communities to defend them against all crimes, including hate crimes, and to continue to focus its time and resources on law enforcement needs of the county."

That section, and Section 5, which indicates that Jackson County department staff and officials "shall not inquire into the immigration status" of residents or use that information in providing benefits, opportunities or other services, unless required to do so by state or federal law or court order.

County Board chairman John Rendleman said the board, unanimously, decided to keep both those sections in, using the resolution's original language.

Board member Emily Burke objected to those inclusions, noting the State's Attorney counsel on that language use.

She said she has received dozens of phone calls, messages and emails regarding the proposed resolution.

"This resolution doesnt protect our immigrants, it exploits them," Burke wrote in an email. "Our first allegiance to the citizens of Jackson County, as elected officials, is to defend the Constitution, ensure citizens' rights and safety (first) and not to seek to overthrow the government of the United States."

"In a county where a taxpayer cant host visitors on his own land without a permit, I find this despicable action to be appalling," Burke continues. " Instead of political symbolism, we should focus on lowering property taxes, empowering and protecting the members of our community, including our law enforcement, providing technical support for immigrants as part of a path to citizenship is fine, but not to the detriment of hard-working citizens."

Rendleman said board members might table the vote to give the public more opportunity to share input.

The committee was persuaded, I think, by the people who acknowledge this does not have the force of law, but is only a desire or the expression of a sentiment that, all together, we want Jackson County to be viewed as a welcoming and hospitable place, he said. I believe the message that Jackson County should be sending to people is welcome.' Weve lost population since 2000, and I agree that Jackson County is a better place by being more diverse and (having) more citizens.

I support making a statement that says welcome, Rendleman said. What else are we going to say  go away?"

To read the resolution in its entirety, go to the Jackson County government website at http://tinyurl.com/JCR17-2657.
MOUNT ZION  A funding bill crucial to schools across Illinois opening this fall will receive an amendatory veto immediately upon arrival, Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday.

The governor, flanked by several Republican lawmakers from central Illinois, announced his intent during a news conference at the Mount Zion Junior High School library, adding he could not fully support the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act, the public school funding bill also known as SB1, as it currently stands.

Instead, Rauner said he plans to use his gubernatorial ability to change the bills language, focusing his ire at a poison pill provision that would require the state to pick up the employer's portion of teacher pensions costs for the Chicago Public School District, something the state does for all other school districts.

The General Assembly passed the bill, which uses an evidence-based model to change the way Illinois pays for public education, in May. Lawmakers have not yet sent it to the governor.

Were here to demand that Speaker (Michael) Madigan and Senate President (John) Cullerton to send us the school funding bill now, Rauner said.

The budget passed earlier this month, which required an override of Rauners full veto, includes an additional $350 million for schools. But the money for school districts is dependent on lawmakers approving an altered funding formula. SB1, as well as the alternative education funding bill pushed by Republicans, SB1124, have evidence-based funding language that would ensure none of the state's 850 school districts receives less than it got this year before steering money to schools based on local property wealth and distinct student-population needs.

Rauner, along with state Reps Brad Halbrook and Bill Mitchell and state senators Jason Barickman and Chapin Rose, took turns to discuss their approval of the amendatory veto and why money should be directed to local school districts over Chicago. The governor emphasized on several occasions that his amendatory veto would allow more money to be made available for districts across the state.

When I amendatory veto that bill, it will become balanced, equitable and fair for all the school districts across the state, Rauner said.

If the amendatory veto goes through, Rauner said districts like Mt. Zion would receive an additional $230,000 on top of the $192,699 gain theyd receive under the bill as is, and Decatur would receive an additional $1.6 million per year on top of the $2.7 million it would already gain under SB1.

According to Rauners website, the numbers provided come from accounting for Chicago Public Schools tier funding, new pension pick-up in the current fiscal year, and the elimination of the Chicago Block Grant.

SB1 was approved 60-52 in the House and 35-22 in the Senate, both below the three-fifths majorities necessary to override any veto. Despite final approval on May 31, Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, used a procedural move to hold the bill without sending it to the governor.

Rauner criticized the hold as an attempt by Democrats to hold school funding hostage to secure money for the Chicago teacher pension fund, while Democrats said at the time it was in order to create a cool down period and prevent a hasty veto.

A spokesman for Cullerton said Monday that discussions are ongoing about when to send Rauner the bill. It was still being held as of late Monday afternoon.

Despite the hold being in the Senate, Rauner focused most of his scorn Monday on his favorite target, Madigan.

Referring to the long-time speaker of the Illinois house as ruthless cold blooded and even a tyrant, Rauner said Madigan was to blame for school officials across the state concerned whether the state would come through on its funding promise.

Support my amendatory veto and youll get what you deserve and youll be treated equitably, Rauner said. Dont give in to fear. Dont give in to fear and just take a little penny because itll hurt your districts for years if you give in today.

In a statement released shortly after Rauner's press conference, state Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat who has spearheaded SB1 and the need to change to how Illinois funds its schools, said Rauner has never directly contacted him to discuss problems with the bill or with ways both sides could come to a compromise.

"It is clear to me today that (Rauner) intends to use the children of Illinois as leverage for his political agenda when he could be working out a compromise to accomplish a much-needed and long-awaited reform," Manar said. "I am saddened and discouraged by his display today.

The idea of using school funding as leverage was discussed several times on Monday. Though Senate Republican leader Bill Brady floated the idea last week to use the education funding as a leverage point for other reforms previously pushed by Republicans, those in attendance Monday pushed back against that idea.

Schools have to open, thats our primary responsibility in the Illinois constitution and its just common sense, Mitchell said.

State Rep. Sue Scherer, a Decatur Democrat who was specifically mentioned several times by Rauner as someone who should support his amendatory veto, said in a statement she was glad to see the governor participate in the discussion on school funding reform.

I cannot stress how important it is to address this issue now to ensure that our states elementary, middle, and high schools open without interruption, with the resources they need, she said. All children, regardless of their zip code, deserve an equitable education, and it starts with changing the way schools are funded.

Changes to school funding has been a topic of debate for decades in Springfield, as Illinois has the nations widest gap between low- and high-income school districts, according to the non-profit organization The Education Trust. Illinois schools rely on local property taxes to cover more than 60 percent of their costs today.

This year was a breakthrough for proponents, as SB1 passed both House and Senate with Democratic support. The new formula incorporates 27 different variables that weigh a school's poverty level, property values and transportation costs just to name a few.

Rauners education adviser, Beth Purvis, has previously said the governor agreed with 90 percent of SB1, though she also said he planned to veto it.

Any protracted fight in Springfield over school funding would be devastating for local school districts, as the State Board of Education has told school districts that a funding plan must be approved by Aug. 3 for normal payments to be sent to school districts by the start of the fall semester.

Decatur School District Chief Operational Officer Todd Covault told the school board at a July meeting that they could make it until mid-November without state funds. If funds do not come in before that time, he said the district would be out of cash to pay its teachers and staff.

While they do not have a so-called drop dead date thanks to reserves and property taxes, Mt Zion Superintendent Travis Roundcount said Monday that he was hopeful lawmakers could come together within the next two weeks to help fund schools.

We would hope that a new plan could get passed in the near future so we could stay open and provide services to students, he said.
Angry business owners filled Orangeburg County Council Chambers on Monday to complain about plans to create a new countywide business license requirement.

They argued that the county budget has room for cuts and that the new cost would hurt businesses.

If you dont drop this proposal and try not to pass this bill, youre going to have a lot of companies thats not going to start businesses in your county, Kenny Beason said.

County Councilman Clyde Livingston died Monday, but council went ahead with a public hearing on the proposal because a large number of people were already planning to attend. Council will not take further action the proposed ordinance until sometime following Livingstons funeral.

Businessman Joe Rich said Monday that the business license fee will place a massive burden on taxpayers.

The cost to administer this program is well over $250,000, he said.

He said the burden should be spread throughout the county or cuts to the budget should be made.

The business license is expected to raise more than $1 million for the county budget. County officials say they would have to increase taxes by four mills to raise a similar amount through a property tax increase. State law doesnt allow the county to increase taxes that much in one year.

If we were just doing the millage, then this room would be filled with people who were saying the county shouldnt raise the millage, County Administrator Harold Young said.

Young said the revenue generated by the business license ordinance would go only for additional salaries for law enforcement and emergency services.

If we did nothing, then we would still have sheriffs deputies and EMS personnel who would say that were not going to be able to maintain and recruit new officers because of the fact that our funding is not adequate in those areas, Young said.

Several citizens were concerned because the business license fee will be based on gross income, not net income.

Jose Rivera with the S.C. Commission for Minority Affairs said, The stress that this bill would have on farmers is unbelievable.

Sheryl Jackson said this is not a pro-business message.

Young said, The only reason were doing it by gross income, which we do not want to do that, is because the state law requires us to calculate by gross income.

Young said on a gross income of $100,000, most businesses would pay $98.50 per year. Those taking in $200,000 would pay $173.50.

If you have a business located inside a city or town and do not operate in the county, you will not need a county license, he added. If you pay for a business license to another city, county or town, the gross income will be reduced by the amount the other license was paid on.

One concern raised dealt with roadside produce sellers.

If you sell produce at a roadside stand or vendor, you do not need a license, Young said. If you are a property owner and wish to sell your trees to a logger, you do not need a license.

An owner of multiple businesses could pay for just one business license if he chooses to pay the cap.

Charles Inglet believes the business license will suppress economic activity.

It may not suppress it so much at the high end, but this is going to hurt the little guy, Inglet said.

Tonya Branham, a finance professional, said she has spent 15-plus years in Orangeburg County and has reviewed the countys budget.

There is generally room to cut something, Branham said.

She told council and Young that she would be willing to meet to find where areas of the budget can be cut.

If youve got a budget thats out of balance, do what we do: Find where you can cut and if you cant cut and you cant get that four mills you need, well then youre just either going to have to live with it or spread it over everybody in this county, not just the businesses, Glenn Hutto said.

Hutto added that this is not any kind of a strategy to attract any businesses.

Young said he is certainly open to discuss the budget or what may need to be cut, but the county has already gone through the process.

When you talk about cuts, the citizens would have to be willing to do without some services because in some areas of the general fund, most of the areas of that fund are dealing with services and if you make cuts, that would impact the services in a lot of ways, Young said. If citizens would say theyre willing to do without certain services, then by all means.

He said cuts had been made to expenditures just to balance the budget.

Before we even started the process, if we only gave the departments exactly what they had the year before, then we were already in a hole because the state required us to go 2 percent above last years calculation on the retirement fund, Young said.

Rich said council is mismanaging the budget.

Young said, If you look at the trends in the county, fiscal budget as well as the countys audits that are out there, you will definitely see a trend of the county being in a better financial situation than they were.

He added that in the past four years, the state has continued to make cuts to the local government fund.

Every year, they gave us less money through the local government fund, Young said. That equates to 13 mills that we had to do without  but we did not cut a service or let go of a person.

The council has been in this position before.

Years ago, we put in the subdivision ordinance and people said, Putting in a subdivision ordinance is going to kill this town. Nobody else is going to every build another house, Young said.

He said they went back and created the zoning ordinances which also drew a large crowd believing it would kill Orangeburg County.

A lot of these decisions may not be popular, but sometimes theyre necessary and youre not going to always respect it or understand it, he said. Our goal is for us to do a better job of helping the citizens understand why and listening.

The public is not going to agree with every decision thats made but at the end of the day, County Council has done the best of what they thought they could and so have I in trying to make decisions for this community, Young added.
Listening to grave pronouncements of U.N. officials, things certainly dont sound pretty. Proposed budget cuts to the organization would make operations impossible, and planned U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement spells a death knell for Mother Earth.

But this alarmism is just a diversion away from the very real problems plaguing the United Nations. And by providing $8 billion a year to the organization, U.S. taxpayers are forced to enable the United Nations epic dysfunction and incompetence.

Some of the organizations problems are run-of-the-mill bureaucratic malaise. Like any government body, theres little incentive for the United Nations to find the most cost-efficient solution. Few were surprised in 2015, for instance, when the Government Accountability Office released a report detailing the United Nations extensive cost and schedule overruns in renovating its headquarters in New York City. Bureaucrats barely blinked an eye, despite a three-year delay and $380 million in unanticipated costs. Other shenanigans, however, fall below taxpayers already-low standards for the United Nations.

In May, for example, the Associated Press reported that World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan splurged on hotel accommodations during a trip to Guinea. After honoring the achievements of poorly paid WHO workers in combating the Ebola virus, Dr. Chan retired to the luxurious, top-tier presidential suite at the oceanside Palm Camayenne Hotel. Thousands of dollars were put on the organizations credit card, and U.S. taxpayers by extension were bilked for the luxury getaway.

But this outrageous bill was only the tip of the iceberg; WHO-wide travel expenses in 2016 tallied more than $200 million for the 7,000 staff employees. By way of comparison, this figure exceeds the combined total that the WHO spent on fighting AIDS and hepatitis ($70.5 million), malaria ($61 million), and tuberculosis ($59 million) during that year.

But the United Nations outrageous behavior doesnt stop at its exorbitant travel outlays. Press members regularly have their credentials wantonly revoked at public U.N. meetings, and are forcibly expelled. Last year, for example, journalist Drew Johnson was forcibly removed from a tobacco control meeting in India for violating the continued ban on press presence.

Its little wonder that the United Nations is camera shy, given how frequently it skirts the rule of law. A quick look at its contracting policies shows just how shady the transparent organization really is. When the United States barred agencies from contracting out work to companies dabbling in illegal activities, the United Nations simply looked the other way and continued financial relationships with these corporations.

To bureaucrats under the tutelage of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, recruiting crooked companies to build and ship homes at inflated rates makes more sense than relying on the (far cheaper) services of Congolese workers.

By continuing to patronize corrupt mega-corporations, the United Nations has enabled the ultimate end-around U.S. laws and made U.S. taxpayers dabble in dubious dealings.

While a GAO investigation would certainly be welcome, even a harshly worded indictment is unlikely to deter the motley crew at the United Nations. These experts in international governance are determined to advance their pet projects regardless of cost or ethicality. The Paris Agreement, wisely jettisoned by the United States, is just the latest expensive, harebrained initiative to come out of the United Nations.

As per usual, U.S. citizens were asked to foot the overwhelming percentage of implementation costs, while China and India were largely spared. American taxpayers were to cough up $3 billion for the so-called Green Climate Fund, which would dole out money for renewable projects in developing countries. But as debacles like the infamous Kerala solar scam in India and idle solar plants in China show, third-world governments are especially prone to haphazard energy boondoggles. Had the United States stayed in the agreement, American taxpayers would have been on the line for Solyndras and SunEdisons across the globe.

The United Nations aspires to the lofty goals of peace, harmony and cooperation. But as long as shady dealings and graft tarnish the organizations image, the United Nations credibility will remain in tatters.

As presently construed, the United Nations does not deserve the support of the United States and its overburdened taxpayers. By defunding the cabal of corrupt and ineffective officials, the United States can shield taxpayers from bougie trips to Ghana and Enron doppelgangers.
 

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Kuwait-based Gulf Bank recorded a net profit of KD22.8 million in the first six months of 2017, an increase of 10 per cent over the same period of 2016.

The bank was able to generate a net interest income of KD63.5 million and an operating profit of KD60.5 million during the first half of 2017, recording an increase of 7.5 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively.

In addition, credit costs (specific provisions and write-offs less recoveries) continued to improve quarter after quarter with a decline of 11 per cent in Q2 compared to Q1 of 2017.

As of first half 2017, total assets of the bank grew by 3 per cent compared to first half of 2016 while Loans & Advances increased by 2 per cent over the same period of last year. Total equity reported at the end of first half 2017 was KD577.5 million and general provisions stood at KD222 million for the same period, representing 38 per cent of total equity.

Omar Kutayba Alghanim, Gulf Bank chairman, said: We are pleased with our banks solid performance for the first half of 2017. This has reflected positively on the earnings per share as it grew by 10 per cent to 8 fils per share for the first half of 2017 compared to the previous year.

Alghanim continued: This year, we are proud to announce that S&P Ratings has revised its outlook of Gulf Bank to Positive from Stable. -TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia is set to build 14 out of 50 mosques in the original architectural style of Makkah to boost the Islamic identity of the surrounding Makkah environs, said a report.



The project will also identify the technical features and measurements to build mosques and provide the architectural structures with artistic poise that reflects the past, but in a modern framework, reported Arab News.



Confirming the report, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs said it had alreaady begun implementing the designs at these 14 mosques in the Makkan style.



The ministry has also signed an agreement with the Charitable Foundation for the Construction of Mosques to design and rehabilitate 50 mosques in the holy city, it added.
Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the worlds largest district cooling services provider, has saved 6.5 per cent more energy compared to the same period last year, during the first month of its summer campaign.



The campaign titled Smile at 24 degrees was introduced to reduce the energy consumption through optimal temperature setting and boost transparency levels in its billing methodology, targeting all of Empowers major customer segments.



We are extremely pleased with the successful results of our summer campaign in the first month. Energy productivity is extremely important. Committing to energy productivity will not only drive us to our long-term targets, but also make our infrastructure more resilient and reduce costs for customers. At Empower, we design campaigns that ingrain energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact. The Smile at 24 degrees campaign has not only reduced the consumption percentages, but also positively influenced our valued customers to work towards energy efficiency, said Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.



The Smile at 24 degrees campaign was launched at the beginning of the summer season and offered insights to customers on ways of rationalising the consumption of district cooling specially that consumption increases during summer period. Empower offered its customers with easy to understand tips and advice that could make a real difference in saving energy  without adversely impacting their day to day lives or business operations.



The awareness and education campaign was led by the distribution of news stories, advertisements and direct communication, using SMS and e-mail among other methods to directly reach Empowers wide customer base.



The response and participation weve received from our customers in the first month is overwhelming. Their whole-hearted support is a major factor for the success of our campaign. Taking this as an opportunity, Id like to extent my heartfelt appreciation to all our customers for their enduring support and trust in us. This is just the beginning, and the coming months will bring the real benefits and savings to the country, Bin Shafar added.



Earlier, Empower run a pre-summer educational campaign in May to get the customers prepared to face the summer comfortably yet reducing the consumption and saving on their district cooling bills. The pre-summer campaign was a significant success, which is followed by the summer campaign - Smile at 24 degrees, started from June.



The Smile at 24 degrees campaign is in line with the Government of Dubais initiatives toward sustainability of resources. Having around 70 per cent of the market share of district cooling in Dubai, Empowers initiatives contribute to the governments policy significantly. The campaign will continue until the end of the summer to engage with customers, reduce their usage, trim their costs and help achieve shared goals.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has replaced the recently-installed exterior cladding panels on its new headquarters tower amid growing scrutiny of tower facades across the globe, said a report.



The leading Emirati bank stripped the cladding even as companies across the country have started assessing the materials used on the outside of their offices, reported Arab News.



Thousands of building owners are conducting tests on their facades after a spate of blazes involving buildings covered with aluminium composite panels that are sometimes filled with highly flammable plastic material, said the report.



A massive fire in London last month, which claimed at least 80 lives, has refocused attention on the safety of towers covered with such panels, it added.



However, ADIB officials said the contractors had started to strip the exterior wall panels of the new Abu Dhabi building much before the Grenfell Tower blaze last month.



As part of the process of finalising the building, (the) new cladding is being mounted that meets the highest local and international standards and requirements, stated Sagheer Mufti, chief operations officer at ADIB.



The bank aims to complete the building located on Abu Dhabis Airport Road, by early next year, he added.



The new building will house ADIBs flagship retail branch, its digital studio and training facilities, and will also serve as the banks head office.
Dubai Police has partnered with the Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai campus (RIT-Dubai), a leading American University based in Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), towards boosting the knowledge and expertise of its police officers.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr Juma Al Matrooshi, deputy CEO of Operations and Client Affairs at DSOA, and Major General Dr Al Salal Saeed Al Falasi, director of the Department of Administrations at Dubai Police.



As per the agreement, RIT-Dubai will admit candidates employed with Dubai Police to the undergraduate, postgraduate, or executive leadership programmes available at the university at subsidised fees. Employees of Dubai Police will also be invited to attend workshops, seminars, and forums organized by RIT-Dubai.



In addition, Dubai Police will collaborate in joint research and consultancy projects that benefit the Dubai economy and the UAE at large through providing internships to RIT-Dubai students, and participate in the annual career fair organized by RIT-Dubai.



Dr Al Matrooshi said: Since its establishment in 2008, DSOA has been committed to supporting RIT-Dubai in its journey of growth. Today, we reiterate this commitment by working closely with various entities in the public and private sectors in boosting local talent with the required skillset and expertise, in line with global standards, ultimately strengthening the UAEs position on an international scale. We take this opportunity to congratulate Dubai Police on this distinct partnership that we are confident will offer long-term benefits, he added.



Major Al Falasi emphasized the keenness of Dubai Police to strengthen synergies with universities across the UAE and support their journey of academic excellence. He confirmed that these universities are on par with global institutions, both in the quality of education and training offered and in boasting high-calibre faculty and teaching staff. He said the campuses foster creativity and will boost the competitiveness of Dubais police officers and ensure they are on par with their international counterparts, as envisioned by the wise leadership of the Dubai Government and wider UAE.



He added: This agreement is part of the ESAAD program that aims to achieve the highest levels of happiness within the Dubai Police force through developing an innovative and stimulating work environment. The partnership will also contribute to the Dubai Police strategy of providing best-in-class services that exceed expectations and enhance employee happiness, ultimately increasing the satisfaction and well-being of the community.



Dr Yousef Al-Assaf, president of RIT-Dubai, said: We are delighted to join hands with Dubai Police, and welcome their employees to engage with our esteemed academicians on a range of topics. We believe this expansion of our student pool will boost diversification of knowledge and points of views, ultimately enhancing the experience gained when joining RIT-Dubai. Being a preferred education partner to one of the most esteemed police forces in the world is testament to the world-class offerings available at the university.  TradeArabia News Service
SR Technics, a world leading MRO service provider, has signed a long-term integrated component services agreement with Ukraine`s leading carrier, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA).



UIA is a privately owned carrier founded in 1992. The airline connects Ukraine with 80+ capitals and key cities of Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East, and CIS countries providing connections with its international partners flights to over 3,000 other destinations worldwide.



UIA operates over 1,000 scheduled flights per week. The base airport for UIA is Kiev Boryspil (KBP).



The new contract covers the carriers growing fleet of B737NG, providing component services, pool access, and a main base kit to ensure optimal support of the airlines operations, said a statement from the company.



When selecting a new supplier for these critical services, UIA prioritised SR Technics expertise and high-quality services. The two teams established strong professional relationships right from the start of the bidding process, it said.



Yuri Miroshnikov, UIA president, said: Ukraine International aspires to partner the most reputable and reliable suppliers in order to guarantee passengers the best flying experience and 100 per cent safety on board of our aircraft.



We received a highly competitive commercial bid and selected the SR Technics for their flexibility, a comprehensive set of technical solutions, and ability to tailor their support services to our emerging requirements, he said.



Jeremy Remacha, CEO, SR Technics, said: This new agreement reflects the high professionalism of our team. During the bidding evaluation, UIA had the chance to see the flexibility and customer commitment that characterises our work.



We are committed to strengthening this relationship going forward and look forward to adding value to the UIAs services, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
Work on the Route 2020 Dubai Metro project is progressing according to the approved schedule and it has already achieved over 12 per cent completion, said a senior official.

"The project contractor is currently installing piles at a depth of 25 to 30 m, and work had started on casting concrete pillars of the metro via a duct. This stage would be a milestone in the progress chart of the project works marking the emergence of the project components, which would be visible to road users and inhabitants of nearby areas," said Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

He was speaking during a visit to France, when he headed a delegation to study the progress of work in the manufacturing of 50 new trains for the Dubai Metro.



These trains will be supplied by the French Alstom Company as part of the Route 2020 Project, said a Wam news agency report.

The delegation also reviewed the latest developments in transit modes and smart systems in a bid to realise the 10x initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. It is aimed at sustaining the competitiveness of Dubai and rendering it a city for the future through innovative ideas and solutions that run 10 years ahead of other cosmopolitan cities.



Alstom has been given the contract to supply 50 trains, 15 of which will serve the Expo 2020 and the other 35 will upgrade the level of service of the Dubai Metro.



"The RTA has introduced some additions and modifications to the interior design of the metro carriages such as dedicating the last carriage for ladies and children and leaving part of the first carriage for Gold Class and other carriages for Silver Class. Seats will be transversal in the Gold Class, and longitudinal in the Silver Class as well as in the ladies and children's carriage," he said.



The Route 2020 extends approximately 15 km from Nakheel Harbour and Tower Station on the Red Line, comprising an 11.8-km elevated track and 3.2-km underground track. It has seven stations, including an interchange station, one station at the Expo site, three elevated stations and two underground stations. The capacity of the route is 46,000 riders per hour in both directions (23,000 riders per hour, per direction). The ridership of the route is expected to hit 125,000 per day by 2020 and the number is expected to shoot up to 275,000 per day by 2030.



Al Tayer met government officials and several international firms specialised in transportation and smart systems in the city of Lyon. He viewed the Transit-Oriented Development Project and the latest technologies of variable signage.



The RTA delegation met David Kimelfeld, acting president for the Grand Lyon Metropolis, and discussed the best practices and solutions of city mobility legislations and policies as well as the innovative projects of upcoming firms in the field of transport.



The delegation then visited Bluely Company to review their practices in smart car-sharing and smart rental of electric vehicles in the city, as well as the challenges in the operation and maintenance of vehicles. They also inspected Navya Companys autonomous bus and attended a briefing about the smart solutions and systems offered in the bus which accommodates 12 riders.



Al Tayer and the delegation also visited Paris, where they were acquainted with the innovations of Alstom and RATP in transportation, innovative services and smart cities. Such innovations include the driverless tram and the electric bus, APTIS, characterised by low integrated floors, two or three broad doors enabling smooth boarding and alighting of riders as well as the movement of wheelchairs and strollers.
Kuwait-based Equate Group, a global producer of petrochemicals, has announced the successful restart of its Ethylene Unit 2 (EU2) in Kuwait, following a brief shutdown for technical reasons during last week.



Equate Groups president and CEO Mohammad Husain, said: Operations at our EU2 have resumed normally in record time following repairs.



The EU2 has a production capacity of 850,000 metric tonnes annually (MTA) and is owned by The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), part of the Equate Group, said a statement.



The dedication and efforts of Equate Groups employees were lauded by Husain as operations were resumed within a timeframe less than the originally planned two weeks and in absolute abidance to safety standards, it said.



Both the Ethylene Glycol (EG) and Polyethylene (PE) plants in Kuwait have returned to the usual production levels as they were impacted by the temporary shutdown of EU2, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), a leader in logistics and transportation, has signed an agreement with the international Group Bollore, to establish a new logistics joint venture between the company and Bollore Logistics.



France-based Bollore Logistics is one of the largest transport and logistics companies in the world.



This new cooperation will serve the needs of customers in Saudi Arabia and the wider region. The agreement marks another step of Bahris and Bollore Logistics expansion into the fast-growing logistics and supply chain management market within the GCC, said a statement from the company.



To be headquartered in Riyadh, the joint venture will leverage Bollores global reach and logistics platform, along with Bahris local logistics expertise, wide customer base, strong maritime expertise, and its fleet of state-of-the-art multi-purpose vessels, it said.



This union will be poised to offer end-to-end logistics and supply chain solutions to both large companies based across the region and international companies doing business with the kingdom, it added.



Bahri will be the majority stakeholder with a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture, which will operate under the name Bahri Bollore Logistics, while Bollore will own the remaining 40 per cent, said a statement.



Ali Al Harbi, acting CEO of Bahri, said: We are proud to partner with a well-known and respected global player like Bollore Logistics, which brings more than three decades of expertise in the logistics industry.



Bollores global capabilities in logistics and supply chain management, coupled with our regional knowledge and depth of expertise in transportation and logistics services, will help unlock synergies and operational efficiencies powerful enough to propel the new venture toward becoming a logistics partner of choice for companies around the region, he said.



Al Harbi continued: For Bahri, the foray into supply chain and logistics is a natural extension of our business, as it continues our journey from being a leader in transportation of goods port-to-port, to the delivery of goods gate-to-gate.



We are proud that this initiative will contribute profoundly toward achieving an important objective of Saudi Arabias Vision 2030  namely, enabling a thriving economy by building and leveraging a unique global logistical hub, he added.



Philippe Lortal, CEO of Bollore Logistics Middle East  South Asia, said: It is a great honour for us to partner with Bahri. Being established in this country is crucial for us as Saudi Arabia stands as the most significant market in the Middle East with regard to imports and exports.



This collaboration will intensify our development in the Middle East, which is definitely a key region for our organisation, mainly because of its strategic location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, he said.



The strength of our partnership with Bahri will allow us to guarantee a high quality of service to our Saudi Arabian and global customers, concluded.



The logistics market in the GCC is worth SR176.3 billion ($47 billion), with Saudi Arabia, with a market size of SR71.3 billion ($19 billion), representing 43 per cent of the combined regional market, according to a report by research consultancy Solidiance.



One of the fastest growing countries in the logistics and warehousing industry globally, Saudi Arabia is positioned as the primary entry point for goods in the GCC market, and the kingdoms logistics industry has been growing at an average rate of around 6 per cent per year, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE emirate of Fujairah has reached an agreement with Niras, an international, multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, to start the construction of the first phase of its ambitious Smart Logistics City project.



The agreement was signed in the Danish capital of Copenhagen by Mohammed Saeed Al Dhanhani, the head of the Emiri Court in Fujairah, the director-general of the Fujairah Investment Corporation and representative of the Fujairah government, with Karol Marcinkowski, the chairman of Niras, in the presence of its CEO Martin Pedersen.



The project, which will come up on a 68,000-sq-m area of land at a primary location, is set to be developed in three phases over the next five years, reported state news agency Wam.



As per the partnership deal, the work on the initial phase will begin by end of 2018, it stated.



Al Dhanhani pointed out that the project reflects the global economic and investment presence of Fujairah and its comprehensive future development vision, based on the directives of the emirate's leadership.



Fujairah's investment-friendly environment and flexible economic legislations have contributed to the launch of various investment projects, including the Smart Logistics City, he added.



Pedersen pointed out that Fujairah was chosen for the project largely due to its strategic geographic location near Africa and Asia.



"The Smart Logistics City will provide a new and innovative way of conducting business in the UAE," remarked Marcinkowski.



The designing of the offices and smart storage systems will make the new business park the prime choice for businesses targeting emerging and local markets, he added.
VIVA Bahrain, a leading telecom operator in the kingdom, will start validating the identity of its customers in compliance with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authoritys regulation.



The regulation, entitled Sim-Card Enabled Telecommunications Services Registration Regulation was issued on December 27, 2015, a statement said.



In compliance with the regulation, VIVA Bahrain will start, from July 12, capturing the identity of its new customers electronically by means of verifying their fingerprint during the registration process.



New individual subscribers visiting VIVA outlets will have to carry their Bahraini CPR/GCC ID or passport to undergo the new registration process, while business customers will be approached by VIVA business sales representative to verify their fingerprint in accordance with the new regulation.



VIVA CEO Engineer Ulaiyan Al Wetaid said: We welcome the new industry guidelines. We are extending our full support to the TRA to ensure effective communication and implementation of the new registration process that will support the need for consumer and business protection.



The new registration process is in compliance with TRAs regulation, which is mandatory for all telecom operators offering SIM-card enabled telecommunications services in Bahrain, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service


The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Abu Dhabi has seized and confiscated 6,230 fake and counterfeit shoes, bags and leather goods during a series of investigative procedures, a report said.



Department inspectors were able to locate an apartment that had been transformed into a store for counterfeit goods, reported Wam, the Emirates official news agency.



Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, acting CEO of the Abu Dhabi Business Centre, said that confiscations like this were the result of a periodic inspection campaign carried out by inspectors at the DED's Commercial Protection Administration, in addition to coming as a result of consumer complaints received by the Governmental Communication Centre of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.



Al Mansouri explained that the confiscations included large quantities of shoes and bags that had been labelled as major brands, a violation of the intellectual property rights of these brands.



He explained that the department, based on the results of the campaign, has issued fines against the facilities that had seriously violated the law and regulations regarding commercial activity in the emirate. The fines were issued pursuant to the Abu Dhabi Executive Council Decision No. 47 of 2017 pertaining to the schedule of economic activity violations included in the Department's Establishment Law No. 02 of 2009.



Al Mansouri said that fines were issued for activities carried out without obtaining a license or the required permissions.



Fines were also issued against those owning, marketing, producing, or purchasing fake or counterfeit goods, materials or products from an unlicensed street vendor, a market, or from outside the country for the purpose of marketing the same inside the UAE, and the selling, displaying, or owning of consumables or non-consumables or services that do not conform with the local standards and specifications, which could thus harm public or consumer health, he concluded.
Qatar spent billions of dollars in support of specific individuals and organisations, including those linked to Al Qaeda, Dr Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has said.



Dr Gargash made the remarks during his speech, on Monday, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, said a Wam news agency report.



Speaking on the "UAE View of the GCC Crisis: What Happened and What Happens Next?" he said that the UAE was concerned about Qatar right from the early 1990s.



"The UAE identified the threat of Islamist and jihadist extremism early on, in the 1980s, when we took steps to curb it," he added, stressing the necessity to "shut down state support for extremism, jihadism and terrorism across the Arab world."



He indicated that the current crisis is not principally about Iran, though the country will try to benefit from Qatars behaviour.



"This is instead, first and foremost, about the support Qatar offered to the cause of jihadism across the Middle East, and for specific individuals and organisations, including some linked to Al Qaeda," he said.



He also said the UAE seeks a permanent solution, not a prolonging of the crisis. "But we do have an issue of trust. Over the last two decades, bilateral pressure on Qatar has not yielded results.



"Diplomacy remains our only path. We said, early on, that we would not escalate beyond what we consider sovereign measures granted to us by international law. If we succeed in changing their behaviour, it will make all our futures safer," he concluded.


Dubai has witnessed rapid growth in the energy efficiency market in 2016, having launched energy efficiency projects worth nearly Dh200 million ($54.4 million), said the emirates Regulatory & Supervisory Bureau (RSB) for electricity and water.



In its 2016 annual report, the RSB said the projects launched by its accredited energy service companies are expected to deliver annual electricity savings of 95 gigawatt hours and water savings of 210 million imperial gallons (MIGD). Almost 2,000 buildings will benefit from retrofitting of energy saving measures.



The RSB highlighted the substantial progress made by the emirates independent power producer model. Power plants licensed by the RSB will constitute 18 per cent of power generation capacity by 2021.



With cooling accounting for more than half of electricity demand, the RSBs report highlights the benefits of water-cooled technology, particularly when it makes use of recycled, rather than desalinated water. In addition, cooling systems using recycled water for cooling districts are more efficient in power consumption by 30 per cent, when compared to air-based cooling systems.



RSB is under the supervision of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy. Its responsibilities include the accreditation of energy service companies and the licensing of new companies investing in the energy sector in Dubai, said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, vice chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.



Etihad Energy Services is committed to providing energy performance contracts to customers, estimating the savings that can be achieved by developing air conditioning systems, more efficient lighting, and improving building systems. This is in line with the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform the emirate into a global hub for clean energy and green economy, and in adherence with the Demand Side Management Strategy to reduce energy and water demand by 30 per cent by 2030, he added.



We strive to achieve the Dubai Plan 2021, which aims to make Dubai a smart, integrated, and connected city that sustainably manages its resources and has a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as achieving the Carbon Abatement Strategy to reduce carbon emissions to 16 per cent by 2021, Al Tayer explained.



The establishment of ESCOs accreditation system in the RSB, and the launch of Etihad Energy Services have enhanced investment opportunities in the retrofit market in Dubai, for energy efficiency contracts, financial institutions, green equipment suppliers and technology suppliers. Work is underway to retrofit more than 30,000 existing buildings in Dubai. The total cost of this ambitious strategic project is approximately Dh30 billion ($8 billion), with returns of Dh82 billion, and a net profit of Dh52 billion, added Al Tayer.



We are proud to have played our part in increasing the reliance on renewable energy resources, in the power generation systems and support investments in energy efficiency projects. We congratulate the energy service companies we have accredited, who are proving successful in delivering substantial energy savings for their clients, said Ali bin Abdullah Al Owais, chairman of RSB for Electricity & Water in Dubai.  TradeArabia News Service
Honeywell, a global technology leader, has announced that Saudi Arabia-based Farabi Petrochemicals Company will use Honeywell UOP technologies for a new complex in Yanbu to expand its production of biodegradable detergents.



The construction of the new complex is expected to be completed in 2020, said a statement from the company.



As part of the contract, Honeywell UOP will provide catalysts and adsorbents as well as licensing, basic engineering design and other associated services for the new complex, it said.



Honeywell UOP technologies include a Unionfining hydrotreating unit, a Molex unit to produce the linear alkylbenzene (LAB) feedstock necessary for making biodegradable detergents, a Pacol unit for dehydrogenation, a DeFine unit to improve product purity, and a Detal detergent alkylation unit, it added.



John Gugel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP's Process Technology and Equipment business, said: Farabi chose Honeywell UOP technology because it is the most efficient and widely used technology in the world for making detergents.



Our technologies will help Saudi Arabia meet growing domestic and regional demand for petrochemicals and detergents, derive more value from its petroleum resources, and help it gain self-sufficiency in these chemical intermediates, he said.



When completed, the Yanbu complex will produce more than 120,000 metric tonnes per year of LAB and 246,000 metric tonnes per year of normal paraffins, in addition to de-aromatized specialty oils, asphalt, sulfonates, mining chemicals, process oils and lubes.



As a feedstock, the complex will use diesel from the Saudi Aramco refinery and kerosene from the Saudi Aramco ExxonMobil refinery in Yanbu.



According to the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), Saudi Arabia had 98.5 million tonnes per year of petrochemicals production capacity in 2016. It is the region's second-largest industry within the manufacturing sector, creating more than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs and $108 billion worth of products as recently as 2015.



The demand for normal paraffins as the feedstock for LAB continues to increase worldwide. The Molex process provides the most economical route to produce normal paraffins from kerosene and diesel, while also producing a by-product return stream of Jet A-1 quality jet fuel.



The process operates in the liquid phase and simulates a moving adsorbent bed in a fixed-bed system using a proprietary multi-port rotary valve.



Gugel continued: The Yanbu facility demonstrates that refining companies in the kingdom continue to move downstream into petrochemicals, where demand is growing and margins are stronger.



The location of this new facility also will create more employment and industrial development in Western Saudi Arabia, he said.



Farabi Petrochemicals Company is a 100 percent Saudi-owned closed joint stock company. It started its operations with its first integrated normal paraffin and LAB complex with Honeywell UOP technology in 2006, and doubled its LAB capacity through an expansion in 2012.



Farabi also operates an LAB complex in Jubail, on the East Coast of Saudi Arabia. The company's new complex in Yanbu will make Farabi one of the largest producers of normal paraffins and LAB in the world.



Honeywell UOP pioneered the manufacture of LAB in the 1960s, helping to eliminate the fouling of waterways from conventional detergents. Today, LAB from UOP processes is the most widely-used component in the production of biodegradable detergents, emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting and foaming agents, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Artificial intelligence (AI) will take over 38 per cent of US jobs within 15 years, says a recent report by PwC. While the digital revolution will force many jobs to become obsolete, not all is not lost, says futurist Charles Fadel in an interview with CM Rubin of CMRubinworld.



Fadel, the founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign acknowledges that the new and higher paying occupations will develop as a result of automation; what we must do now is reform education to ensure our kids dont get left behind. He claims parents and educators must acknowledge and reform their dated opinions so they do not interfere with preparing the younger generation for their AI futures.



The Global Search for Education discusses how workforce trends will change as a result of increased automation with global education thought leader and futurist Charles Fadel, author of "Four-Dimensional Education" and shares his views on creating an education that will ensure students are able to succeed in an age of robotics.



Robots are going to cause unemployment. The themes of automation and offshoring are in our headlines more than ever. Robotics and artificial intelligence are improving at dramatic rates. What kind of job skills can we expect to see replaced by automation?



There are four different job types: the first being routine impersonal work, such as basic accounting, call center operators, and airline help desks. These jobs are often offshored and are moving towards further automation. The second job type is non-routine impersonal work. These jobs include X-Ray interpretation and pathologists, legal discovery, and document editors. These jobs are becoming increasingly offshored even though they are harder to automate.



The third is routine personal work, such as taxi drivers and cleaning services. These jobs remain onshore but are becoming increasingly automated. The last job type is non-routine personal work. These jobs include surgeons, CEOs, and teachers. These types of jobs will most likely remain onshore for a long time, and are also harder to automate.



Lets talk about the new jobs that we can expect to see in the next decade. What does the increasing progression of Robotics/Artificial Intelligence mean for future jobs?



There is a huge jobsolescence factor that has become more relevant in recent years. This means that jobs will be rendered obsolete. An estimate of 9 per cent to 50 per cent of the labour forces of developed countries are susceptible to automation in the coming decades, but even at the 9 per cent low end of the estimates, this can cause significant social unrest  not to mention the 50 per cent nightmare possibility However, jobs are facing multiple scenarios in upcoming years. The first scenario is replacement or substitution of jobs with automation.



The second is augmentation, such as IBMs Watson used to shoulder doctors diagnostics, and the third is the creation of more jobs, which is the hardest to imagine. Since there are many jobs that exist today that did not exist a decade ago, it is quite likely this scenario will happen as well. Some of these jobs include app developer, driverless car engineer, and big data analyst.



Not only are these jobs being created due to the increase of technological development but also the pay in these jobs is high. While not as high paying, other jobs created by technological change include social media manager, drone operator, and Uber driver (and the latter two can be automated over time). The Canadian Scholarship Trust has attempted to predict various new positions for the coming decades, including robot counsellor, gamification designer, and recyclable design specialist.



Given the rapid growth in automation, its clearly essential that we prepare young people for those new jobs now. What is the role of education in keeping up with the automation advances and equipping people with the competencies they must have to make a living?



A higher level of overall expertise is needed to be able to survive in this new environment, as it became the norm during the Industrial Revolution  the Digital Revolution is placing an even greater pressure on all of us. People need to be versatile and adaptable to their morphing environments, and to be upskilled. This is similar to what was implemented for the Industrial Revolution but with the rapid growth of automation, this process needs to be implemented significantly faster.



In addition, the goals of education have to tackle three main points. The first is relevance, for motivation and a real-world applicability. The second is versatility, for robustness in the face of relentless change. The final point is the transfer for actionability across novel situations.



Transfer is critical because it is the ability to use ones learning from whenever it was acquired and use it for a completely different context. So in the same way we talk about flipping the classroom, we must talk about flipping the curriculum. Traditional education has focused on information and data, but expertise and transfer are of much greater importance. These goals apply to schools, higher education, as well as lifelong learning/workforce development.



What are the critical steps we must take to ensure we shape education to combat what you called jobsolescence?



To ensure that we shape education for the future that we desire, some changes need to be made: to college entrance requirements that presently focus on efficient sorting; to assessments that measure the narrow traditional disciplinary goals of partially antiquated knowledge; to politics/policies that shrink away from controversy  we need courageous cathedral builders! We also need to address traditional experts biases clinging to their narrow domains, parents old personal experiences biasing their views, and teachers and administrators lack of training and leadership, respectively.



We will also need to make concerted collaborative efforts among the education, business and government sectors to react to the emerging jobs. And as to forecasting new occupations, despite the uncertainty with respect to making such determinations, we must do our best to identify what appears to be likely given the trends that are clear to us now.



C M Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, The Global Search for Education and How Will We Read? She is also the author of three bestselling books, including "The Real Alice in Wonderland", is the publisher of CMRubinWorld and is a Disruptor Foundation Fellow.
Air Arabia, the Middle East and North Africas largest low-cost carrier (LCC), launched its inaugural flight to Sohar in Oman yesterday, making it the first international flight to the Sohar airport.



The Air Arabia flight will operate three times a week, on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, departing from Sharjah International Airport (SHJ) at 8 am, and arriving at Sohar International Airport (OHS) at 8:40 am local time. The return flight departs from Sohar at 9:20 am, landing in Sharjah at 10:00 am local time.



The new route complements Air Arabias existing operations in Muscat and Salalah, boosts travel and trade opportunities between the two Gulf countries, and provides hassle-free travel options to the residents of Sohar, the airline said. - TradeArabia News Service


Ryanair has won a $287,000 court judgement after an anonymous twitter user tweeted a bomb threat to the airline.



According to a report in Aerotime, the post from @GunnexGod read: "You have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready."



An investigation was launched and the terror threat was indetified as false. The offender was identified as Brian Lake from Pennsylvania, US.



The Irish airline filed extortion and defamation proceedings.



A US Court judge has ordered Lake to pay a total of $287,599 (220,000).
EasyHotel, a leading international budget hotel operator, has signed deals for new hotels in Iran and Sri Lanka, said a report.



The deals, signed with British companies 3SV Limited and MHA Hatfield Limited, will see 500 planned rooms in Iran and over 200 rooms in Sri Lanka, 100 of which should be ready by 2022, businessinsider.com reported.



"I am pleased to announce a further extension of our franchise network, enabling us to establish the brand's presence in new territories where there is growing demand from cost conscious consumers for value hotel accommodation," the report said citing Guy Parsons, CEO of easyHotel.



EasyHotel's core markets are the UK and Europe and it currently owns five hotels in the UK, with an additional 20 franchised hotels in the UK and abroad, including in Dubai and Kathmandu.



It hopes to expand into 'existing new markets', said Parsons, and has 1,936 rooms in development.


Sofitel The Palm has announced the appointment of Ramsey El Saarany as the new director of operations for the five-star property.



El Saarany, a British National, joined in August 2013 as director of rooms, at Sofitel Dubai Downtown. He was part of the pre-opening team of the 350-key property and was later promoted to the role of executive assistant manager - Rooms.



With over 14 years experience in the hotel industry, El Saarany has worked with a number of luxury hotels and resorts in Dubai. Ramsey started his career at the five-star The Landmark Hotel in London before moving to Dubai in 2004 as a management trainee and then moved onto the role of guest services manager at the only seven-star hotel in the world. His additional hospitality experience in Dubai includes a role at another leading luxury resort, as rooms division manager, where he was responsible for leading the entire rooms division team.



El Saarany holds a BSc in International Hospitality Management from the University of Surrey and also gained an Executive MBA from CASS Business School. He plans to bring his extensive knowledge of the Sofitel brand, excellent understanding of the dynamic Dubai hospitality market coupled with a passion for excellence, to his new role at Sofitel The Palm. - TradeArabia News Service
Holidaymakers looking to make the most of the summer break can head to Ras Al Khaimah for an expereince filled with fun, exploration and rejuvenation.



The Ras Al Khaimah Tourusm Development Authority has listed seven fun things to do in the emirate:



1. Ride: Horse-riding at Al Wadi Equestrian Centre

Saddling up in the early morning or late afternoon is an exciting way to discover the desert landscape of Ras Al Khaimah. The Al Wadi Equestrian Centre provides guides with an exceptional experience that takes them on an organised horse trek through 500 hectares of unspoilt nature. Be on the look out for sand gazelles, Arabian oryx and, if lucky, may even spot some desert foxes and wildcats.



Info: Open daily between 5.30am-09.30am and 4pm-8pm; 07 2067777; www.alwadiequestrian.com



2. See: Star Gazing at Al Wadi Nature Reserve

Ras Al Khaimahs crystal clear night skies comes alive in the Al Wadi Nature Reserve with constellations, stars and planets aplenty offering a truly mesmerising experience for seasoned astrologers and amateur star gazers alike. Available through Al Wadi Desert, Ras Al Khaimah, a Ritz Carlton partner hotel, the introductory star gazing sessions cover the history of ancient Greek mythologys fascination with stars and how Arabian explorers used the formations to navigate over vast spaces.



Info: Upon request and subject to the weather ; +971 7 206 7777; [email protected]



3. Sail: Al Hamra Marina & Yacht Club

There is no better way to cool off this summer than taking to water. Ras Al Khaimahs 64km of pristine coastline provide the ideal setting to explore, relax and partake in various water-based activities. Surrounded by beautiful white beaches and serene natural lagoons, Al Hamra Marina & Yacht Club offers the perfect day out with a wide range of activities regardless of experience including sailing, diving and wakeboarding.



Info: Open daily, 24 hours; +971 7 243 2274; [email protected]; http://www.alhamramarina.com/



4. Relax: Waldorf Astoria, Ras Al Khaimah Spa

Relax and rejuvenate in the tranquil environment of this award-winning, underwater themed spa. The Afternoon Tea facial, an anti-aging bespoke treatment designed exclusively for Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah, stimulates cell rejuvenation and is simply unmissable. As well as numerous other relaxing treatments, the spa has a variety of facilities including male and female steam rooms, a floatation bed and Waldorf Astoria's signature herbal sauna.



Info: Open daily, 9am-9pm, minimum age 16; +971 7 203 5722; [email protected]



5. Learn: National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah

Be immersed into the culture and heritage of the UAEs most northern Emirate at the National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah. The museum is filled with archaeological, historical and ethnographical objects, partly donated by members of the ruling Al Qasimi family and residents of Ras Al Khaimah. This former fort was originally designed as a defensive structure to fend off the British during the Arabian Gulf Campaign between 1809 and 1819, the building was re-opened to visitors as a Museum in 1987.



Info: Visiting hours: Sat - Thur 8:00am - 6:00pm, Friday 3:00pm - 6:00pm; +971 7233 9900; [email protected]; http://www.rakheritage.rak.ae/en/pages/rakmuseum.aspx



6. Move: Sunrise and Sunset yoga at Al Wadi Desert, Ras Al Khaimah, a Ritz Carlton partner hotel

For those who'd like to start or end the day energising their mind, body and soul, Sunrise or Sunset yoga sessions at Al Wadi Desert enable guests to heighten theirsenses, flexibility and inner Zen. Suitable for all levels and abilities, yogis can connect with Arabian nature amidst the breath-taking sand dunes of the Al Wadi Nature Reserve. Sunrise yoga features a sequence of yoga poses bound into a continuous movement also known as Sun Salutation Yoga, whilst Sunset yoga combines meditation and yoga poses with several relaxing techniques.



Info: Open Thursday  Tuesday, Sunrise and sunset time subject to seasonality +971 7206 7777; http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/uae/al-wadi-desert/spa/yoga-and-fitness



7. Explore: Safarak Tours

Discover the fascinating Emirate in its entirety with luxury tour company, Safarak Tours. Meaning Your Travel, Safarak provide smooth explorations for visitors seeking hidden treasures, from traditional sunset picnics on top of the UAEs highest mountain, to Ras Al Khaimahs infamous Ghost Town, Jazirat Al Hamra. Guests can select from an extensive range of tours or select which sights they wish to pursue with a customised tour.



Info: Open daily; [email protected]; or call +971 7203 6999; www.safaraktours.com. - TradeArabia News Service


Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Wyoming native Ken Keffer returns to his home state to promote his seventh book, "Hiking Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains: A Guide to the Area's Greatest Hiking Adventures." The book includes guides to short scenic day trips and multi-day backpacking excursions in Bighorn National Forest, the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area and nearby lands.
In his first major move as Casper city manager, Carter Napier announced Monday that he will be hiring a Chief Financial Officer and eliminating the assistant city manager positions.

For an organization that is this sophisticated and deals with this many services and deals with the volume of tax dollars that we do, to not have a CFO in my estimation is a huge vulnerability, Napier said.

The position will be created despite the citys hiring freeze. Napier said the estimated salary of $115,000 to $125,000 will not be entirely covered by the elimination of the assistant positions.

The difference will likely initially come out of city reserves and be approved by Council as a formal budget amendment. Napier, who began his tenure about three weeks ago, was tasked by City Council with reigning in spending and reducing the approximately $4 million in reserves being used in the budget approved last month.

But Napier said that City Council was supportive of his plan to hire a financial administrator, and he was confident that overall spending could be reduced enough to cover the cost of the new position.

Mayor Kenyne Humphrey did not respond to a request for comment.

Napier said part of his goal was to replace the expertise of his immediate predecessor V.H. McDonald, who served as administrative services director  similar to a chief financial officer  before becoming city manager. In his role as Caspers top administrator, McDonald continued overseeing the citys finances and budget.

A guy like V.H. has a lot of skill in that area and probably felt really comfortable doing that, he said. I just cant imagine having the responsibility of a CFO and that of the city manager.

Napier said he was hoping current city employees would apply for the CFO position but that he was open to an internal or external hire.

History of position

Current assistant city managers Liz Becher and Tracey Belser will retain their existing department head positions, overseeing community development and support services, respectively.

Liz and Tracey have endured tough situations in their roles as Assistant City Managers and have pulled Casper through tumultuous times, Napier said in a statement early Monday.

The assistant city manager position was originally a single position. Former City Manager V.H. McDonald decided not to fill that position for budgetary reasons, instead splitting the duties between Becher and Belser.

This decision was principally budget driven and made to improve the sharing of knowledge for the benefit of the organization, McDonald wrote in an email to department heads in January 2016 when he announced the decision.

This redistribution of responsibilities will result in eliminating one position in the City, McDonald added.

McDonald had been assistant city manager before being hired by City Council to replace John Patterson in 2015.

Becher said that both she and Belser applied for the assistant position and were interviewed before McDonald announced that he would not be filling it full-time. Instead, he asked the two department heads to share the duties.

Becher said the decision was related to financial concerns.

He changed his plan after hed interviewed both of us, Becher said. That was kind of the era in which we were all taking on multiple responsibilities.

Becher said that she and Belser approached Napier after his hiring in June and requested to step down as assistant city managers to focus solely on running their respective departments. Becher said juggling both jobs had become untenable. The assistant manager positions were responsible for working directly with City Council to prepare meeting agendas, doing legislative work on statewide issues, administering 1-cent tax projects and overseeing public records, among other responsibilities.

Carter said the restructuring was meant to allow employees to play to their strengths.

Its really about trying to place folks in their expertise areas and taking advantage of what they can do in those areas, versus trying to divide their time, he said.

Belser was out of the office Monday and unable to comment.

Napier said that he was still deciding how to distribute the assistant city manager duties. As part of the restructuring, Deputy Assistant City Manager Fleur Tremel will become assistant to the city manager, and Napier said he was considering rearranging internal positions to create a second assistant position.

That was Napiers original role with the City of Casper in the 1990s, and he said that while the position is lower than an assistant city manager it would still help provide high-level support in his office.

Becher optimistic

Becher served as Interim City Manager for about three months, following McDonalds sudden retirement in early April. She took the helm during a rocky time for the city, amid reports of discontent at the police department and calls by Council members for city management to be investigated.

Jim Wetzel out as Casper police chief Casper Police Chief Jim Wetzel is no longer serving as head of the department.

Becher terminated police chief Jim Wetzels contract and shepherded through a budget in the absence of McDonald, who had set the documents direction, and over strong opposition by several Council members.

In interviews at the time, Becher described the job as taxing and expressed relief at Napiers hiring.

Laird gives voice to frustration at Casper budget session Dallas Laird didn't know what to make of the TIF. And he didn't like it.

We are very positive, both Tracey and I, about working under Carters leadership, Becher said Monday. This is good, this is good.
In Wyoming, judges may recommend criminals under the age of 25 be sent to boot camp. The program emphasizes work and physical activity, and successful completion makes individuals eligible for early release.

But the states boot camp program is only open to young male offenders  a violation of womens civil rights, according to a class action lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Taylor Blanchard is suing on behalf of herself and other women who would be eligible for the program if it were not for their gender. Blanchard was ordered to serve her six to 10 year sentence, despite a judges recommendation that she be allowed to attend a boot camp program, which lasts for six months according to the Department of Corrections website. Prisoners are generally released immediately following graduation from the camp.

As far as we can tell, Taylors the first woman to ever get a boot camp recommendation, said John Robinson, Blanchards attorney in the lawsuit.

Officially known as the Youthful Offender Program, the law allows judges to offer young people in trouble with the law a chance to reform themselves.

We believe if we catch (offenders) young and work intensely with them, we can give them the tools they need to keep them from going down the path of career criminals, boot camp spokeswoman Wanda Kerns told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in 2013.

That may have been District Court Judge Marvin Tylers goal when he recommended boot camp for Blanchard, who had violated probation, in May. Tyler highlighted the limited opportunities for women convicted in Sublette County. He said that full imprisonment or probation with relatively limited supervision were the only options, unlike surrounding counties that offer more intensive versions of probation.

To my knowledge there are no (Adult Community Corrections) programs or halfway houses that accept women in Wyoming, Tyler said during Blanchards sentencing. But there are three for men.

John LaBuda, the Pinedale attorney who served as Blanchards public defender, told the judge that because the law authorizing the Youthful Offender Program did not have a gender-based requirement, denying her the opportunity to participate would violate the state constitution.

Tyler agreed.

I find that you qualify, he told Blanchard.

He then added: I cant tell them what to do. I just give my recommendation.

The lawsuit claims that the Wyoming Department of Corrections refused to allow Blanchard to attend the state-run boot camp in Newcastle and also declined her request to attend a boot camp that accepted women in another state.

The Deputy Attorney General advised that Ms. Blanchard would not be given such an opportunity, Robinson wrote in the lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union has joined in the complaint.

The lawsuit claims that by failing to operate a boot camp for women, the DOC has effectively barred women from participating in the Youthful Offender Program.

That, Robinson argues, is a violation of Blanchards civil rights and those of all women who may be recommended for the program in the future.

Blanchard was originally sentenced to probation on drug charges, and Tyler recommended boot camp after Blanchard failed to complete a required in-patient substance abuse program.

Filed in federal court, the lawsuit seeks an order requiring the Department of Corrections to allow women to participate in a Wyoming boot camp or one in a different state.

In addition to the possibility of early release, the Newcastle-based boot camp offers services like job training and anger management skills.

LaBuda said that when he works for young clients who havent previously been convicted of major crimes he always seeks a boot camp recommendation from the judge.

But he had never done so for a female client.

I probably had hundreds through the years who were eligible, and no ones ever asked for it, LaBuda said. It just came to me one day: Why cant we ask for a boot camp recommendation for a female?

Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Horan said prison officials were not immediately available to comment but added that the agency typically does not comment on active litigation.
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WASHINGTON  The Republican National Committee is condemning a member who shared a social media post encouraging Arizona Sen. John McCain to "just die already."

The message came Monday from Republican national committeewoman Diana Orrock of Nevada. Orrock tweeted, "Amen," in response to another Twitter user who had written, "Please Just (expletive) Die Already" above the hashtag "JohnMcCain".

McCain, 80, is recuperating from surgery to remove a blood clot.

Republican National Committee spokesman Ryan Mahoney called Orrock's tweet "extremely inappropriate." He called McCain a war hero who made countless sacrifices on behalf of all Americans.

Mahoney wished the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee a "speedy recovery."

Orrock deleted the tweet after it attracted media coverage. She did not respond to a voicemail or a text message seeking comment.

President Trump says he hopes Arizona Sen. John McCain gets better soon and calls him a "crusty voice in Washington."

Trump adds, "Plus, we need his vote."

Trump brought up McCain while calling for the repeal of the national health care law during a trade event at the White House.

McCain's absence has led Senate leaders to postpone action on the health care measure. It needs almost every Republican vote to pass.

Trump says: "We hope John McCain gets better very soon. We miss him."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has spoken to ailing Sen. John McCain and wishes him a speedy recovery.

McCain's office says the 80-year-old Arizona senator underwent surgery Friday to remove a blood clot. McCain is at home and recuperating.

McConnell says he spoke to McCain on Monday morning, and he calls the Arizona Republican a "tough guy."

McConnell says he hopes McCain will be back in the Senate soon. McCain's office says he'll remain in Arizona this week.

Over the weekend the Republican leader delayed a vote on the GOP health care bill. McCain's absence has left Republicans short of the votes necessary to move ahead on the legislation to erase much of Barack Obama's health care law.

The Senate panel that McCain leads will press ahead with its business this week as the Arizona Republican continues to recuperate from surgery to remove a blood clot.

The Armed Services Committee says Republican Senator James Inhofe will act as chairman during McCain's absence. Inhofe, who is from Oklahoma, is a longtime member of the panel and runs the subcommittee on military readiness and management support.

The committee meets Tuesday to consider the nomination of Air Force Gen. Paul Selva to serve a second term as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The committee also is scheduled to consider the nominations of four civilians for Defense Department posts. Among them is Ellen Lord, who was selected by President Donald Trump to be the Pentagon's top acquisition official.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 18 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.
Chris Bianco, the famed Phoenix pizza chef who is planning to return to Tucson with a new concept at 123 S. Stone Ave., downtown, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday with tips and tricks on how to make a great pizza.
The four candidates vying to replace outgoing Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich have already spent nearly $27,000 ahead of next months primary election.

Democrats Felicia Chew, Tom Tronsdal, Paul Durham and independent Gary Watson have three times that amount in their combined campaign war chests, campaign records show.

Durham, a lawyer, leads the pack in terms of fundraising, reporting $16,504 in contributions from individuals and an additional $22,830 from the citys public matching funds between April 1 and June 30.

Combined with $15,587 left over from the previous reporting period, the former Pima County Democratic Party treasurer ended June with more than $41,000 in the bank.

Durham spent nearly $14,000 on campaign-related activities including printing campaign signs, mailers and campaign staff salaries. Additionally, the campaign spent $1,500 on polling in late June.

Tronsdal, the owner of Canyon Fence Co., reported $5,490 in individual donations and another $16,793 from the citys public matching funds.

With $8,049 still in the bank from the previous reporting period, Tronsdal still has $22,769 on hand.

Tronsdal spent nearly $7,562 on campaign-related activities between April and the end of June, primarily on consulting fees.

Chew, a teacher, took in $4,235 in donations from individuals and another $500 from Arizona List, a political action committee focused on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights.

She had $2,955 on hand from the previous reporting period and spent $4,170 on printing campaign documents and paid staff. At the end of June, Chew had $3,020 in her campaign account.

However, Chew said she received $8,989 from city matching funds shortly after the cutoff date for the most recent campaign finance report.

Watson, a firefighter, took in $1,000 in donations from individuals as well as $1,250 in donations from political action committees.

The campaign spent $1,247 on various expenses, including a paid signature-gathering firm.

Watson had $1,1,03 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.

In Ward 6, Councilman Steve Kozachik reported a single donation  $100 from his own wallet  between April and the end of June. At the end of June, Kozachik had $61.50 left in the bank. He is unopposed in the primary.

Architect Mariano Rodriguez, a Republican who is running against Kozachik in the general election, took in $7,739 in donations from individuals. He spent $6,009 during the 90-day cycle on a campaign manager, printing supplies and campaign yard signs.

Rodriguez had $2,230 on hand at the end of June.

Green Party candidate Michael Oatman raised $113 during the same three-month period for his Ward 6 run and spent $109. The other Green Party candidate in Ward 6, Mike Cease, reported no campaign finance activity between April and June.

Ballots for the vote-by-mail primary will be sent out in the first week of August, with voters choosing the Democratic nominee in Ward 3 on Aug. 29. The general election is Nov. 7.

Ward 5 Councilman Richard Fimbres is running unopposed.
PHOENIX  Foes of taxpayer-funded school vouchers are now using paid circulators to boost the chances that voters get the last word on the legislatively approved expansion of the program.

Dawn Penich-Thacker, one of the organizers of the referendum drive, said Monday that Save Our Schools had planned to try to gather the 75,321 valid signatures needed by Aug. 8 purely with volunteers. They want to quash legislation that would make vouchers of state dollars available to parent of all students to send their children to private or parochial schools.

She insisted they were on target to do that. But Penich-Thacker told Capitol Media Services the group has found itself with some unexpected money.

Weve had volunteers saying, I cant give more hours but Id love to donate if youre going to be hiring, she said.

And its apparently a relative bargain right now to find people willing to seek out petition signers.

Last week the organizers of two separate petition drives over changes in laws governing the initiative process announced they were suspending their use of paid circulators. Campaign manager Joe Yuhas said the cost of a lawsuit to try to have one of those changes voided by a judge had pretty much drained available dollars.

Penich-Thacker said that left a lot of people who had been working on those petitions and counting on the income in a lurch. And she said they were more than willing to make themselves available  at a relative bargain.

We got a smoking deal, she said. Penich-Thacker said the extra dollars will not only ensure they get the minimum number of signatures necessary but also a cushion in case some prove invalid. She is shooting for 120,000.

She declined to say how much circulators are being paid.

Sen. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, who has been the prime proponent of expanded vouchers, said she was unaware of the new ability of foes to hire paid circulators.

She acknowledged that increases the chances the petition drive will succeed. That would mean the legislation will not take effect as scheduled Aug. 9 but instead be put on hold until the 2018 general election, when voters would decide whether to ratify what lawmakers approved earlier this year.

Arizona has had vouchers  formally known as empowerment scholarship accounts  since 2011. They were originally designed as an option for parents of children with special needs who believe their youngsters would do better in a private or parochial school.

Lawmakers have slowly expanded the program to where it now includes foster children, reservation residents and students attending schools rated D or F. About 5,500 children now use the vouchers, which are worth about $5,600 a year, though students with disabilities can get more.

The new law would make all 1.1 million students in public schools eligible, regardless of background. But in a last-minute compromise to secure necessary votes, lawmakers agreed to reduce the base award to $4,400 and include a permanent cap of about 30,000 students.

Proponents say the vouchers provide another option for parents beyond both traditional public schools and charter schools, which also are public.

But opponents contend that money shifted to these private and parochial schools, which can pick and choose which students to take, leaves less money for public schools. They cite figures showing that Arizonas per-student funding is close to the bottom of all states, with teacher pay at or near the bottom, even with a 1 percent increase approved for this year by the Legislature and the promise of another 1 percent next school year.

Lesko said some legislative decisions need to be made if the referendum drive succeeds and the issue goes to the 2018 ballot. One is to make changes to the plan.

That would effectively repeal this years legislation and would eliminate a public vote, as the revised law would be different than what voters sought to refer to the ballot.

And if opponents are unhappy with the revisions, they would have to start a new referendum drive from scratch.

All options are on the table, Lesko said, saying she would have to consult with legislative leaders and other voucher supporters before deciding what to do.

During the debate earlier this year, the fight over the expansion went beyond the question of using public funds for a private or religious education. There also was the issue of who benefits.

There is some evidence that many of the students who now get vouchers have moved from public schools in affluent neighborhoods. That has led to charges that vouchers do not help the poor but simply defray what parents have to pay to have their youngsters attend private schools where tuition can top $15,000 a year.

Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa, who crafted the modified expansion plan that lawmakers eventually adopted, did not dispute during the debate that taxpayers may be subsidizing tuition for those of means.

But he said the cost to taxpayers is no more than if the student stayed in public schools. And he said theres also a philosophical argument supporting vouchers.

There are some ... that feel that, regardless of your income you pay taxes, he said.

And getting an equivalent amount of those taxes to apply to your choice for education is not immoral.
Prosecutors wont bring charges against former House Speaker David Gowan for getting more than $12,000 in taxpayer funds for time and travel spent during his ill-fated campaign for Congress.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich said his attorneys and investigators found a lot of questionable, even I would say unethical behavior in the actions of Gowan. These included multiple trips that Gowan took around the state in 2016 while running for Congress  many far from his legislative district  while saying he was on state business, a claim that enabled him to get reimbursed by the state for his expenses.

And Brnovich said staffers found multiple uses of a state vehicle for what appear to be personal purposes.

But it did not rise to the level of criminal conduct, he said, because there is insufficient proof that Gowan had both actual criminal intent as well as knowledge of the laws that were being broken. And that, Brnovich said, ends the matter.

At the end of the day as a prosecutor your job is not to win at all costs, he said.

Its not to throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks, Brnovich continued. If theres not a reasonable likelihood of conviction, you dont move forward on a case.

But Brnovich sidestepped the question of whether he believes that Gowans conduct clearly was unethical.

I believe that the facts in this case speak for themselves, he said.

I do think that when youre a public official its very, very important to avoid any sort of appearance of impropriety, the attorney general continued. I will leave it to the people to make their own judgments.

Despite the lack of any prosecution, the investigation has had positive effects.

Even before the probe started, Gowan reimbursed the state more than $12,000, saying that it was simply an error that he got all that money.

And Brnovich pointed out that, even as investigators were reviewing evidence against Gowan, current House Speaker J.D. Mesnard enacted new travel restrictions on members, a move he said he took specifically in reaction to the problems with Gowans travel.

That new policy limits when lawmakers can charge mileage to the state for trips to the Capitol and around their legislative districts. Mesnard said the rules, coupled with public disclosure, should prevent abuse.

And Mesnard has pretty much made the use of state fleet vehicles off-limits to House members, saying that should be reserved only for the most limited of circumstances.

In a prepared statement, Gowan said the findings back his claim that mistakes were made but any errors were unintentional and that no laws were broken. But he took a shot at those who were critical of his practices, calling them a handful of opportunists looking to settle a political score or score political points.

Gowan eventually dropped out of the 2016 congressional race. But he is seeking a political comeback of sorts: He already has filed paperwork to run for the state Senate from his Southeastern Arizona legislative district.

It was Gowan, a Sierra Vista Republican, who initially sought the probe after the Arizona Capitol Times reported on his travels in early 2016.

He called them errors and nothing more, saying there was no nefarious intent, despite the cynicism that pervades some of the newspaper accounts.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson who headed the investigation, said Gowan himself precipitated some of the problems in 2015, changing policy to allow some members of House leadership of both parties to claim expenses for as many days as they wanted. That was a sharp change from before where such expenses were limited to twice a week when the Legislature was not in session.

Now the per diem pay for members of leadership was at their control  they could set up meetings each day, and get additional pay,Lawson wrote.

In this case, Gowan began to schedule a large number of official activities well beyond the boundaries of his Southeastern Arizona district, the report says. He said Gowan argued that it was justified because, as speaker of the House he was a representative of all of the state.

But Lawson said it was not that simple.

This change coincided with Gowans decision to seek a congressional seat in a district that largely did not overlap with his legislative districts boundaries, he reported. The change permitted him to spend significantly more days traveling to locations across the state on official business  trips for which he would seek reimbursement.

Still, Lawson said it was a staffer who felt that she needed to submit the reimbursement forms despite not having good communication with Gowan.

This does not meet the standard for criminal intent, the attorney wrote.

Lawson found similar problems in investigating Gowans claims for travel reimbursement, saying these, too, were submitted by a staffer.

And Lawson said Gowans calendars, provided to investigators, were unclear in which events were for political purposes and which were in his official capacity.

There is only one clear allegation of a political event where Gowan arrived in a state vehicle  a political event in SaddleBrooke on Oct. 14, 2015, the report states. To file a charge based upon this allegation, additional corroboration would be needed  and that corroboration has not been found by investigators.

Lawson did find some other incidents, like when Gowan arrived at a Flagstaff radio station to talk about policy matters. Gowan said it was the host who asked him about his political campaign, which he answered.

This does not seem like a clear-cut violation of the statute, given the mixed purpose of the event, Lawson wrote. A conviction based on these facts seems unlikely.

In making the reimbursement, Stephanie Grisham, Gowans publicist, said at the time that nearly $9,700 of what he was paid was claimed for mileage in his personal car but actually was driven in a state vehicle. That amount, she said, also included overestimating distances on trips in his own car.
If you go

Youth On Their Own Back to School Challenge

When: Ongoing through Oct. 1

Cash contributions toward the school supplies drive for homeless and unaccompanied middle school and high school students can be made online at yoto.org and click on the "Back to School Challenge" link.

In-kind donations can be dropped off at Youth On Their Own, 1660 N. Alvernon Way, and at locations citywide listed on the website.

Donations of adult-sized backpacks, highlighters, colored pencils, scientific/graphing calculators, mechanical pencils, flash drives, composition notebooks, folders and $10 or $25 gift cards to grocery stores and clothing stores are welcome.

For information, call 293-1136.

The Arizona Bilingual News Annual Kidz Expo & Back to School Event

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 29

Where: El Pueblo Center, 101 W. Irvington Road.

Cost: Free

Students ages 6-13 can receive free backpacks and school supplies while supplies last. Festivities also include music, entertainment and a bike raffle. For information, visit the website at www.azbilingual.com or call 406-4947.

Fifth Annual Tucson Police Foundation Back to School Safety & Health Fair

When: 9 a.m to 11 a.m. July 29.

Where: Center court and east hallway near Sears and west hallway near Macys in Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway.

Cost: Free.

Festivities include opportunities to visit with officers of the Tucson Police Department and specialized units such as K-9, SWAT, motorcycle, bomb squad and bicycle. Booths will provide information on internet safety, anti-bullying, school resources, home security, self-defense and more, as well as free school supplies, sunscreen courtesy of Arizona Oncology. Other services include more than 500 free bicycle helmets provided by Tucson Medical Center, free booster seats while supplies last for children ages 5-8 provided by the Governors Office of Highway Safety and free fingerprinting for children. For more information or to make a donation online, visit the Tucson Police Foundation website at www.tucsonpolicefoundation.org/ or call 207-2878.

In-kind donations of school supplies can be dropped at 3900 E. Timrod St., Unit No. 7 or call 207-2878 to arrange for a pick-up.

Third Annual Pima County Sheriffs Department Badges & Backpacks

When: 9 a.m. to noon July 29.

Where: Exhibit Hall A in the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

Cost: Free.

Festivities include free backpacks with school supplies for children while supplies last. The event will also feature opportunities to visit with personnel from the Pima County Sheriffs Department. Other participants include school resource officers, Pima County Bike Safety, Pima County Parks and Recreation, Pima County Libraries, Pima County Attorneys Office, 88-CRIME, Chicanos Por La Causa, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson, the Community Food Bank and more.

For information, visit tucsonconventioncenter.com/events/badges-and-backpacks/ or call 351-4615.
A model originally proposed out of sheer curiosity by a theoretical astrophysicist might actually help astronomers understand the formation of the most common planets in the galaxy.

Six years ago, before arriving at the University of Arizona, Ruobing Dong was a graduate student at Princeton playing with theoretical models of disks of gas and dust swirling around newborn stars.

Disks such as these are composed of material that will eventually form planets. As planets collect material in their orbit, they grow and clear a gap in the disk. While the planets are not large enough for the astronomers to see directly, the gaps hint at their existence.

As theoretical astrophysicists often do, Dong changed the characteristics of the disk in his model just to see what happened.

He made it so that it was harder for the material in the disk to fight back against the gravitational kicks from the forming planet. This type of disk, where the material moves away from the planet more easily, has a low viscosity.

The result: Planets smaller than previously thought possible, called super-Earths (planets larger than Earth, but smaller than Neptune that are typically found close to stars), formed pairs of narrow rings in the disk, and they were forming farther out in the disk than expected.

It wasnt popular, Dong said. But it was hypothetical. We werent thinking that it was a realistic assumption.

Dong finished his thesis and graduated. But between graduating from Princeton and arriving at the UA, two surprising things happened.

First, astronomers captured two high-resolution images of planet-forming disks with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. Both images contained these strange, detailed features.

Second, evidence began to mount for disks with a lower viscosity than previously thought, like those modeled by Dong.

This got him thinking: Can we put up a paper to produce synthetic observation to tell the astronomical community (the narrow gaps) might be telling you something you havent thought about?

The conventional thinking was if these narrow gaps were found, they were mere details and astronomers assumed they were caused by Jupiter-sized planets or larger.

Dong, inspired by his graduate work, created another model to test his idea: These narrow gaps could be betraying the presence of young super-Earths.

Super-Earths are the most common planets in our galaxy and are typically found close to their parent stars, according to data collected by the Kepler Space Telescope.

But Kepler spots planets by waiting for them to pass in front of the parent star, so planets that orbit close to its star will also move more quickly, making it more likely for Kepler to see it.

If his model is correct, it suggests that these super-Earths might form farther out in the disk then migrate into orbits that match what is observed by Kepler, providing a more complete narrative for the lives of the most common planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.

We have been thwarted by observations that dont follow our models, said Kaitlin Kratter, assistant professor in Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona who studies star and planet formation and evolution. But what (Ruobing) has done here is demonstrate that theres this new reason for these structures.

Dong admits that for his model to work, disk viscosity needs to be low, which is something astronomers still debate.

However, his model runs on known physics, so if the viscosity is right, his model should be, too.

Moreover, ALMA only took two high-resolution images, and they both have these features. This suggests that they might be common, but its also a small sample to represent all exoplanetary systems.

The next step is to find more, which will happen within the next year.

A Harvard team is using the ALMA telescope to collect 20 more images of planet-forming disks. Dong is awaiting their results so that he can have a better idea just how common these double-gap features are.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net, Staff Reporter

Washington: A book Islam for Journalists (and Everyone Else) serving as guide on how to report on Muslims, has been published in an attempt to help local journalists produce more nuanced coverage on Muslim communities.

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The book is written by Lawrence Pintak, a veteran journalist and scholar who was founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University and former International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Knight Fellow Stephen Franklin.

The book includes contributions from 14 academics and journalists, covering Islams basic tenets, its historic and cultural influence and its complicated relationship with politics. The book also features Reporters Notebook sections, in which journalists discuss their personal experiences reporting on Islam.

The book argues that a basic knowledge of Islam is now a necessity not just for foreign correspondents, but for anyone who wants a better understanding of news involving Islam. Many U.S. journalists remain generally uninformed about the worlds second-largest religion, and this lack of exposure negatively colors their reporting on the topic, the book adds.

The books recommends reporters to develop a relationship with the Muslim community.

One of the major difficulties that U.S. and European journalists face when reporting on Islam domestically is that some communities tend to mistrust the media due to what they perceive as general negative treatment of Muslims by the press, read the book.

To get past this, Andrea Elliott (who won a Pulitzer for her reporting on Brooklyns Islamic community) emphasises the simple value of showing up. Reporters should continue to show genuine interest through daily interactions with the community they are covering, even if they are initially rejected, she argues.

Elliott goes on to recommend finding a conduit  a trusted community figure who can help get you inside homes and mosques. However, she warns against going only to the imam of a Muslim community for perspective, a common habit among reporters. She sees it as analogous to going straight to City Hall  while you might get the official line, youll probably miss a more authentic perspective from other community residents, the book adds.

The book also seeks to cultivate sources and contacts by visiting a mosque for how local journalists can begin to develop contacts with their citys Muslim community.

Denson, a veteran reporter for The Oregonian, advises reporters to build these relationships in advance, before you ever need to need to call on them. These sources can give you the person on the street view of events, which in Densons view is more authentic than the filtered perspective of Western pundits, the book says.

When attempting to build up their list of contacts, reporters will probably face language barriers or, more seriously, the possibility that no one will want to talk to you.

The book further reads, Assuming most reporters arent fluent in whatever language predominates in the area theyre covering, one suggestion is to enlist the aid of an academic expert or another insider who can translate or help give context to what you are hearing.

(With inputs from IJNET)
Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday told the Delhi High Court that it has been investigating the case of missing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmed, for merely a month and requires more time to investigate it.

A division bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice Chander Shekhar asked the CBI to file status report on the progress of the case and posted the matter for August 8 after the agency sought more time.

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The Delhi High Court on May 16 had asked the CBI to probe the case of Najeeb Ahmed, who has been untraced since he disappeared nine months ago after an alleged altercation with ABVP members.

The court had handed over the case to the CBI with immediate effect, after the Delhi Police Crime Branch said it has no objection if the court transfers the case to another probe agency.

The court has been hearing a habeas corpus plea filed by Fatima Nafees, Najeeb Ahmeds mother, that her son be produced by police and the Delhi government before the court.

Najeeb, 27, a first year M.Sc. student, went missing from his JNU hostel on the night of October 14-15 last year, allegedly after a row with members of RSS student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The ABVP has denied any involvement in his disappearance.

The counsel of Najeebs mother had said that the nine suspected students, who assaulted and threatened Najeeb before he went missing, were given VIP treatment by the Delhi Police and their custodial interrogation was not taken till date. He said there have been delays at every level and various lapses in the probe of Delhi Police.

Earlier, the court had pulled up police for not questioning the nine students on the first day and for not taking them into custody.

The nine students have neither given their consent nor refusal for a lie detector test in the case. The court had said that it can not force them to take the polygraph test but they themselves should come forward and give consent.
Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): Distressed farmers from Tamil Nadu were back in Delhi on Monday three months after they suspended their protest due to the alleged non-fulfilment of promises made by the government.

Around 100 farmers from the agrarian crisis-hit state, who had suspended their 41-day protest following assurances from the government in April this year, turned up at Jantar Mantar to press for their demands.

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They want adequate compensation for agricultural produce, crop insurance to individual farmers and linking of rivers to address issue of water crisis.

P. Ayyakannu, President of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, who is leading the protest, said the farmers had decided to continue their protest for at least 100 days, braving the monsoon.

Both state and Central governments did not fulfil the promises they made to us. They had assured us that our mortgaged jewellery would not be sold. However, banks have started selling the jewellery. Now, they are going to sell our land as well, Ayyakannu told IANS.

We had no option but to restart our protest as the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments have breached out trust. Due to water crisis and drought in the state, farmers are under a huge financial burden. We are almost destroyed. We do not care if we die protesting here.

Ayyakannu said about 90 per cent of the water sources in Tamil Nadu had dried up leaving little water for irrigation and drinking purposes.

Three months ago, the Tamil Nadu farmers had grabbed eyeballs through their strange ways of protest such as wearing skulls, holding mock funerals, stripping outside the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) and drinking their own urine.

On April 23, they suspended their protest after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami assured them that he would take up their demands including that of loan waiver with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan had told them that their issues would be looked into.

The state government has waived off the loans of some farmers but we want complete loan waiver. Also, we want the Central government to ensure remunerative prices for agricultural produce and interlinking of rivers to solve the water problem, Ayyakannu said.

The Delhi Police had detained some farmers on Sunday after they attempted to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ayyakannu said the ongoing nation-wide farmers protest, including the Mandsaur-Delhi farmer rally, has boosted their morale to continue their fight.
Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Tuesday threatened to resign from the Rajya Sabha after she was not allowed to raise the issue of atrocities on Dalits.

I have come to this House to be the voice of the Dalits and backwards  to raise their issues. But when I am not allowed to speak then why should I stay here, she asked while speaking the media after coming out of the Rajya Sabha.

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Thats why I have decided to resign as a Rajya Sabha member today (Tuesday), Mayawati said.
Help India!

By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter

In a great honour for India and Kerala, four young Muslim research scholars from the state will address at the UN General Assembly hall in New York on July 21. Two of them, Abdul Gafoor K.T and Mansoor Pulloor, are alumni of Darul Huda Islamic University at Chemmad in Malappuram while Thiruvananthapuram native Muhammed Shareef is a research scholar from JNU and Palakkad native Ashham Saleel is a student at the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam.

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The four students won the United Nations sponsored international essay competition. Many languages, One world conducted by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, the official languages of the UN.

Gafoor, a doctoral research scholar in Arabic linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a native of Ponmala in Malappuram district, while Mansoor is pursuing research in Arabic at Calicut University.

Gafoor told media persons that their speech would be on cultural understandings and role of government and non-governmental organisations in promoting multilingualism in India.

All the four winners from Kerala submitted their entrances in Arabic and their address will also be in the same language. They will also speak at the Many languages One world Global Youth Forum to be hosted by the Northeastern University in Boston. The 60 selected winners of the contest are from 27 countries.

The research scholars will be also given an all-expense paid trip to Boston and New York City in addition to the opportunity to speak in the general assembly hall at the UN. They will present action plans related to UNs 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Help India!

By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Senior advocate of Bombay High Court Rohini Salian has given her consent to appear in the court as Special Public Prosecutor in Mohsin Shaikhs murder case.

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28-year-old Pune based IT professional Mohsin Shaikh was lynched by members of the right-wing outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena in 2014 when he was returning from the mosque after prayers.

Shaikhs family was in limbo after the previous public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam withdrew from his position without giving any apparent reason.

Nikam was accused of stepping down due to pressure from the right-wing groups and was also accused of having close ties with such groups.

Shaikhs family had been trying to pursue Nikam so that he could take charge once again but when they got no assurances from him, the family wrote to Maharashtra government requesting them to appoint Rohini Salian as the public prosecutor in the case.

In her later dated July 13, Salian has given the consent to appear as a special public prosecutor on behalf of the State in Pune Sessions Court.

The prime accused in the case and chief of Hindu Rashtra Sena Dhananjay Desai is still in the jail, while 17 out of 23 accused were released on the bail for the lack of evidence.

With Salians appointment, Shaikhs family has started to hope again that the case may be back on the track soon. Sadiq Shaikh told TwoCircles.net, We have written to Maharashtra government to appoint Salian as soon as possible. It is a good news for us.

Pune based organisation Maharashtra Action Committee is planning to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a couple of days over the same case.
Afghanistan is in a tough spot. The Taliban has seen a resurgence, and the U.S- supported Ghani government is under pressure. The Taliban has once again exposed the helplessness of the Afghan government with a suicide car bombing in Helmand Province in Eastern Afghanistan -- bordering Pakistan. The bombing killed at least 29 people. The attack took place on Thursday and targeted Kabul Bank in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. As per reports, along with the 29 casualties, more than 60 people were wounded.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

The spokesperson for the terror outfit, QariYusaf Ahmadi said that only the Afghan National Army personnel were targeted. The men had lined up to collect their monthly pay from the bank, in view of the approaching Muslim festival of Id al-Fitr, reported Al Jazeera News Channel.

Resurgent Taliban

Afghan President Ghani condemned the attacks.He called the assailants enemies of Afghanistan who had no respect for any religion as well as the holy month of Ramadan. The Taliban is steadily gaining ground and the Afghan government is beginning to look more and more helpless.

President Donald Trump has decentralized decision making and now General Mattis is in charge. He and the president will have to think of a viable strategy to turn the tide against the Taliban.

As things stand the Helmand province has been the scene of ferocious gun battles between the insurgents and the Afghan army aided by U.S. and NATO troops. Despite this, the Taliban controls 80 percent of the countryside.

American strategy

The American strategy is being reworked by General Mattis. The U.S .will in all probability have to increase troop levels in Afghanistan.

Much of the present problem can be pinned on President Obama who greatly reduced U.S. forces in Afghanistan and took them out of a combat role. This emboldened the Taliban and aided by Pakistan, they have made a comeback.

The American hope that the Taliban will come to the negotiating table has not borne fruit. On the contrary, a video has surfaced of two teachers, including an American, who are in the custody of the Taliban.

They were kidnapped from Kabul where they were teaching.

Afghanistan calls for some tough decisions and DonaldTrump will have to take them. He will also have to formulate a different policy to deal with Pakistan which is accused by the Afghan government of supporting the Taliban.
As the pressure mounts on Donald Trump and his administration due to the growing scandals surrounding them, the president has decided to do his best and deflect from the issues at hand. In his latest tweet, Trump shifted the attention onto the Democrats, while promoting a Republican candidate in the process.

Trump on Twitter

Ever since being sworn into office last January, Donald Trump has been backed into a corner over a variety of topics. Whether it's his policy proposals, executive orders, controversial rhetoric, or the growing scandal involving Russia, there never seems to be a lack of issues to plague the White House.

In the six months since he's been the Commander In Chief, the former host of "The Apprentice" has engaged in a war of words with his many political opponents, including, but not limited to the entire Democratic Party. From dealing with the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, to how to handle the future tax code, to accusing the Democrats of a witch hunt against him, Trump hasn't pulled any punches against his opposition. Knowing this, Trump has decided to use his national appeal to spotlight the special election race being held this Tuesday in George to determine who will fill the vacant congressional seat. Democrat Job Ossoff will face off against Republican Karen Handel, in what is expected to be a tough race that could be too close to call in the red state.

As seen on his Twitter feed on June 19, Trump promoted Handel's campaign, while taking multiple shots at the Democrats in the process.

The Dems want to stop tax cuts, good healthcare and Border Security.Their ObamaCare is dead with 100% increases in P's. Vote now for Karen H  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2017

Taking to his Twitter feed on Monday morning was Donald Trump, as the commander in chief did his best to push Karen Handel to victory.

"The Dems want to stop tax cuts, good healthcare and Border Security.Their ObamaCare is dead with 100% increases in P's," Trump tweeted, before adding, "Vote now for Karen H."

MAPS: What you need to watch in the Georgia special election https://t.co/fCLbYc3ChB pic.twitter.com/1w1fsVlYEc  POLITICO (@politico) June 19, 2017

Twitter reacts

Not long after Donald Trump sent out his tweet, social media critics fired back.

"The Dems want to stop tax cuts for the Waltons and Koch Bros. And Trump himself said the GOP health care plan was 'mean,'" director Adam Best replied, before taking a shot at Karen Handel. "Karen 'I Do Not Support A Livable Wage' Handel? She's not going to lead to better health care and jobs. Why she's clearly behind in polls," Best added.

Karen "I Do Not Support A Livable Wage" Handel? She's not going to lead to better health care and jobs. Why she's clearly behind in polls.  Adam Best (@adamcbest) June 19, 2017

The only reason Obamacare is failing is because the GOP is not taking the subsidies. It's their fault, not Dems. They want America to Fail  Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) June 19, 2017

"I thought you liked increases in P," Evan O'Connell tweeted out.

"Russia just announced that any U.S. led coalition planes and forces in Syria now have a target on their back. GET OFF TWITTER. GO TO WORK," Mike Rundle wrote on his Twitter account.

You commanded U.S. led forces to shoot down a jet in Syria, guaranteeing our entry into YET ANOTHER war. What happened to America First?  Mike Rundle (@flyosity) June 19, 2017

I thought you liked increases in P.  Evan O'Connell (@evanoconnell) June 19, 2017

"Ossoff is going to Win, Proving that you are destroying the GOP ! Can't wait!!" an additional tweet read. As the backlash continued, it showed that on a local, state, or national level, critics of Donald Trump show no signs of holding back their opposition.
After six months in office, Donald Trump is facing non-stop criticism as a result of a variety of issues. Despite his approval rating continuing to drop, the president decided to spend his Father's Day morning tweeting questionable information about his popularity.

Trump on Twitter

When Donald Trump kicked off his campaign for president back in June 2015, not many people knew how to take it. The consensus was that his candidacy was nothing more than a joke, with some believing it was a stunt to generate ratings on his reality show. However, as time went on, the former host of "The Apprentice" gained popularity by running on a controversial message that catered to those looking for a so-called "Washington Outsider." After winning the GOP primary and eventually the general election over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump was sworn into office last January.

During the transition period, former President Barack Obama appeared to put partisan politics aside and went above and beyond to help Trump into the White House. Despite getting along during that time, the new commander in chief has gone on to lash out at Obama on more than one occasion, most notably accusing him of wiretapping Trump Tower during the election. During a series of tweets on June 18, Trump decided to brag about his alleged success as president, while taking another shot at Obama in the process.

The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm,..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2017

Taking to his Twitter feed on Sunday morning was Donald Trump, and the president didn't hold back in his attempt to gloat.

"The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt," Trump tweeted.

...massive regulation cuts, 36 new legislative bills signed, great new S.C.Justice, and Infrastructure, Healthcare and Tax Cuts in works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2017

"Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm, massive regulation cuts, 36 new legislative bills signed, great new S.C.Justice, and Infrastructure, Healthcare and Tax Cuts in works!" Donald Trump added in a follow up tweet.

In his third and final post as of press time, Trump went on to claim that he is more popular than Barack Obama. "The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating.That's higher than O's #'s!" he wrote.

The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating.That's higher than O's #'s!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2017

Twitter reacts

In response to Donald Trump's claim that his approval rating his higher than Barack Obama, social media critics were quick to fire back with a reality check.

"Dude Rasmussen is a right wing org lol," journalist Ken Klippenstein pointed out.

You need to stop tweeting about your approval numbers, they are at RECORD LOWS. It's like bragging about still having about half your teeth.  Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) June 18, 2017

"He's an idiot!" entertainer Porkchop Parker wrote on Twitter, before adding, "Nobody believes #trumps lies or pays them much attention, this will all be a bad memory SOON!" "Happy Father's Day to the man with five kids from three wives," Rob Dobi added.

Rasmussen constantly has the highest approval rating for you. If you look at other polls your numbers are much lower https://t.co/U01aLAGEub pic.twitter.com/aI6ESllrw3  Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 18, 2017

Nobody believes #trumps lies or pays them much attention, this will all be a bad memory SOON! #investigation  PorkChop Parker (@PorkChopLA) June 18, 2017

"Even though that's way higher than the real figure (37%), 50% is still *TERRIBLE* for a recently elected president!" Jules Suzdaltsev tweeted out, while also adding, "You need to stop tweeting about your approval numbers, they are at RECORD LOWS. It's like bragging about still having about half your teeth." As the backlash continued, it was clear that even on Father's Day, the president's critics were not going to let up.
Gov. Jerry Brown is into the final 18 months of his governorship and battling climate change was a central part of his agenda. He has now succeeded in getting the lawmakers of California to grant an extension to the cap-and-trade program until 2030. This was an important component of the efforts to reduce climate-altering emissions.

Need to check global warming

According to New York Times, the measure was approved by a two-thirds majority in both the Assembly and the Senate. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, felt that it should go through with a vast majority to ensure that it does not stumble at a later stage and face legal hurdles.

It was heartening to note that eight Republicans voted for the bill which revealed their acceptance of the fact that tackling climate change was necessary. By this decision, California has shown its commitment to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

The program imposes a statewide cap on carbon dioxide emissions and permits companies to buy and sell pollution credits. Gov. Jerry Brown is hopeful that the funds generated through this measure will be able to finance the construction of a high-speed train link between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Benefits that would accrue

The decision of President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris accord on climate change was unexpected. It was, basically, an initiative of former President Barack Obama to improve the health of the environment.

It was also a part of an international effort to address global warming. Hence, the victory of Gov. Jerry Brown is a positive step that California has taken to tackle global warming and climate change. The business community has extended support to the bill, but a section of environmentalists felt that it was not tough enough on the industry.

Gov. Brown had been to China recently where he met President Xi Jinping and discussed the need to have cooperation to reduce global emissions. It is a long term requirement for the whole world because global warming is a result of the effect of greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide.

These gases are generated by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum products and the time has come to embrace alternative forms of energy like solar energy or electricity.

It can be assumed that the section of society who are reluctant to fight the evils of global warming would possibly be having vested interests. They must realize that, unless checked in time, the situation would deteriorate and the very existence of humankind would be threatened.

Climate is a component of nature that is unpredictable and, when there is global warming, it leads to unseasonal rains in some places with drought in others apart from smogs, and floods and life, in general, is thrown out of gear.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, the first openly gay mayor, is in hot water as new reports surfaced about a 1984 child welfare report. The report said that he sexually abused his teenage foster son and was reported by the Associated Press.

Murray recently announced that he will no longer seek re-election for the Seattle mayor post. This announcement came after four men claimed they were abused by the now-62-year-old politician. They said the abuse took place when they were still teens.

Details on the child welfare report

The child welfare report was made by a social worker with the Oregon Child Protective Services.

It was dated May 20, 1984, and concluded that Murray should not be certified as a foster parent in the future, Reuters reported. The foster child was around 13 to 15-years-old when the abuse took place.

The case worker, identified as Judy Butler, named the child as Jeff Simpson. Butler said that she interviewed children "of all ages and of all levels of emotional disturbance" related to being sexually abused, and she concluded that Simpson was also abused by the Seattle mayor.

DHS initially did not want to release record

The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) initially did not want to release the record. Later, they released only parts of the record, but The Seattle Times appealed. Earlier in July, DHS manager of the legal unit, Caroline Burnell, said that the release of the records was an attempt to protect other children/people in the same situation.

Sexually abused teenager speaks out

The sexually abused teenager in the records is the same person who came forward years ago. Simpson is one of four men who claimed Murray abused them. Simpson came out with the claim in 2008 while the other three men spoke about it just this year. The mayor dismissed the reports, saying that it was politically tainted.

Simpson said he was abandoned when he was a baby. He met Murray at a Portland center for troubled teens according to Oregon Live, and the mayor counseled him. He lived with Murray for more than a year and said that the abuse began when he was 13 years old. Simpson was not yet living with Murray that time as they only spent the weekend together when the first abuse took place.

It continued when Murray became Simpson's foster parent. Murray reportedly paid his foster son $10 or gave him drugs for sex. Murray left when he was 16. He is now 49 years old.

Simpson also said that he tried to look for the child welfare record regarding his case. When he heard the news that the records were out, he became thankful as something finally backed up his claims.

The second man was identified as Delvonn Heckard. He said that Murray paid him for sex numerous times in the 80s. The third man was identified as Lloyd Anderson and he said that he was also abused when he was still a teenager.
On Tuesday, the trump administration sanctioned 18 Iranian citizens and organizations that help run state programs that are non-Nuclear Weapons to remind Iran of President Donald Trump hard stance on its actions despite efforts to keep the nuclear agreement.

The recent experience of Iranian military funding comes from an Iranian company that has helped the country's state program for Turkish military equipment suppliers and the Chinese network that has allowed Tehran electronics. Sanctions freeze assets in the United States and prevent US citizens from conducting business with them.

Tough US sanctions on Iran

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the sanctions give a strong signal that the US is able and will not tolerate provocative and destabilizing Iranian behavior.

He said the administration continues to aggressively attack Iran's malicious actions, including ongoing state aid for terrorism, development of nuclear weapons, and human rights abuses among others.

The announcement came a few hours after Trump announced to Congress for that Iran had signed the nuclear deal and could continue to benefit from sanctions. The administration insists that Tehran is in breach of the spirit of the agreement.

Trump, who condemned the 2015 Pact, gave more time to consider whether to stop or leave it intact.

Instead, Trump's employees tried to emphasize their deep concern about Iran's nuclear behavior and promised that these violations would not remain unpunished.

Trump's hard stance on Iran

During the campaign, Trump told the Israeli Political Action Committee of America that his first priority is the disarmament disaster with Iran.

And often returns to the matter during the US presidential election campaign, describing, among other things, the business as catastrophic.

After shifting from the previous threat to the cancellation, officials said the administration is working with US allies to try to correct the shortcomings of the deal, including the focus on nuclear restrictions after several decades or more.

Officials also said the US would speed up Tehran with new sanctions that paralyze the development of ballistic missiles and other activities.

Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the administration believe that Iran is undoubtedly has violated the spirit of the agreement. This assessment has no legal force, and the Trump certificate, which Iran meets the technical requirements, is a clear way to eliminate sanctions.

The late announcement of the day limited the rejection by the president of the rejection of the last moment of his decision and the deep and steady separation in his administration of how to deal with the basic national security problem.
For the second time, Bob Odenkirk gets an Emmy nomination for his invaluable portrayal as Jimmy McGill in Better call saul. However, the 54-year-old star was surprised to know that his co-star Michael McKean, who plays the role of his on-screen brother Chuck McGill, didn't get a nomination.

In an interview with Deadline, the Breaking Bad actor, who is best known for his stint as the criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, talked about the acting snub the award's body did to McKean. He also gave little details about the coming Better Call Saul Season 4.

The coming transformation

When asked about his transformation as Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk has this to say, I think its some huge cracks in the ice right now.

It has been said that the death of Chuck McGill has something to do with his much-awaited transformation as the criminal lawyer from Breaking Bad. With that, the comedian teased that it has caused real deep visible cracks.Probably, the change fans have been long waiting for is coming real soon. Will fans finally see him as the expert liar in Better Call Saul Season 4?

McKeans departure

Bob Odenkirk also talked about the previous seasons epic finale. A lot of viewers believe that Chuck McGill is now dead because of the tragic ending they had witnessed.

Although his dead body has not yet been seen, the fire that glows from his window tells it all. And even though some hate the protagonist, Odenkirk admitted that Michael McKeans exit saddens him. It seriously bummed me out, he said.

In fact, he considers it to be the second-biggest blow to his joy. The first one was the transformation of Jimmy McGill as a more evil guy.

He explained that McKeans departure is quite disappointing because, for him, he is the best actor.

The snub

Michael McKean has raised the standard by acting in the show. Also, Bob Odenkirk finds it a joy to have him around the set. Although he is happy that he got nominated for the Emmys, he is surprised that his 69-year-old co-actor didnt make it on the list of nominees.

Aside from Odenkirk, Mike Ehrmantraut got a nomination for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Although some believe that it should be for McKean, the 70-year-old actors portrayal as Jonathan Banks is also invaluable. The latter, too, is considered to be one of the shows strongest performers, but fans really cant deny McKeans superb acting as McGills complicated brother.

Better Call Saul Season 4 is expected to return on Netflix in 2018.
The trailer for Disneys A Wrinkle In Time debuted last Saturday at D23. The first footage of the 1963 classic book adaptation showcases one of the most diverse castings by Disney.

Disney did the honors during the D23 last Saturday when the studio released the very first movie trailer of one of the highly anticipated movies of 2018. The movie aims to please long-time fans of the 1963 classic science fantasy novel written by American writer Madeleine L'Engle.

Movie plot

Disney's A Wrinkle in Time follows three children, Meg (played by Storm Reid), Charles, and Calvin, who go on an adventure of epic proportions in order to find their missing father and in the process rescue him.

Meg was initially visited by three mysterious women who are a witch, an alien, and a scientist.

Their father, played by Wonder Woman actor Chris Pine, is a brilliant scientist who discovered how to use the tesseract to fold time.In other words, if this fifth dimension is added to the other four dimensions, it allows an individual to travel through space without having to go the long way around. Because of his discovery, he caught the attention of some wickedly despicable forces.

Diverse casting and highly acclaimed director

Ava DuVernay, the talented visionary behind Selma and 13th, is the first African-American woman to ever direct an ambitious project that is worth over $100 million.

And by the looks of the recently released trailer, it seems DuVernays vision of bringing the classic book to life is channeled on screen, resonating with peoples expectations and hopes for the movie.

The codirector and writer of Disneys Frozen penned the script for Madeleine LEngles classic novel. The film is brought to life by one of the most diverse castings ever to appear on Disney.

Young actress Storm Reid plays the movies main character, Meg Murry. Reid is best known for her performance in 12 Years a Slave. As mentioned earlier, Chris Pine will play Megs father who was kidnapped by evil forces, while playing Megs mother is Gugu Mbatha-Raw (2013 Belle and 2016 Free State of Jones).

Joining Reid and Pine are Reese Witherspoon who will play as Mrs.

Whatsit, Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who, and Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Whichthe three mysterious women who visited Meg and told her to find and rescue her father. The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis, Moonlight actor Andre Holland and Ant-Man actor Michael Pena also join the cast.

Disneys A Wrinkle in Time directed by Ava DuVernay hits theaters March 9, 2018. Check out the films teaser trailer below.
Japan is facing a ticking time bomb, but it has nothing to do with disease, famine, war or natural disaster. The country and its government have been fretting for some time now over the steep population decline the country is facing. The problem stems from the younger generation in Japan is not having children, getting married or even having sex. Now, a recent study that was done by the country's National Institue of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) shows how bad the problem is.

Japan's sex and romance issues

According to the study by the IPSS around 42% of men and 44.2% of women between the ages of 18 and 34 in Japan admitted to being virgins.

This is a jump from the last survey taken in 2010 when only 36.2% and 38.7% of women said that they were virgins. In that same age group, almost 70% of unmarried men and 60% of unmarried women said that they were not currently in a relationship. IPSS found that this increase was particularly high for people in their late 20s.

Almost 90% of Japanese in the said that they would like to get married "sometime in the future" however, 30% of men and 26% of women said that had no interest in currently looking for a relationship. It was also found that almost 25% of men and about 14% of women age 50 had never been married.

Trying to fix Japan's low fertility rate

Japan's current fertility rate sits at 1.4, which is one of the lowest in the world.

For comparison, the United States is currently at 1.9, with the ideal fertility rate being 2.0. The problem is even affecting married couples in Japan, as the average number of children for couples married between 15 and 19 years stands at 1.94, a record-low. At this rate, the IPSS predicted that Japan's population will face a steep decline by almost 40 million people by 2065.

This will also bring other problems, as there will not be enough young people to support an older population.

Last year the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reported that the number of births dropped below one million for the first time. The death rate was also higher than the birth rate in Japan for the tenth straight year (since 2007) in 2016.

One of current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's desired goals it to increase the fertility rate to 1.8 by 2025. In order to try to accomplish this, the government has discussed a number of ideas to get citizens to have more children. These include increasing support for child care and increasing nursery schools to make it easier for families to raise kids.
Was it the convincing talk of French President Emmanuel Macron or the awkward handshake with French First Lady Brigitte Macron that just made U.S. President Donald trump consider changing his mind about the Paris climate agreement? The Telegraph reported that Trump is now open to possibly reversing his previous decision to pull the U.S. out of the deal signed in 2015.

After Trump attended the Bastille Day celebrations on Friday, the American president was asked if he is willing to review his position on climate.

Trump surprised visitors at the Elysee Palace when the real estate billionaire replied, Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords.

Climate change is a national security threat

On the same day, the U.S. Congress passed a defense policy bill that declared climate change a national security threat. The bill, which would authorize $696 billion in defense spending for the 2018 fiscal year, was approved on a vote of 344-81. Besides the declaration of climate change as a national security threat, the defense policy bill also demanded a rigorous oversight of the cyber operations of the Department of Defense, and rejected the plan of the Trump administration to shutter military bases.

The bill has a section that requires the Defense Department to deliver a report to Congress that will provide details on the impact of weather change on the armed forces.

The report should have a list of the 10 U.S. military bases most vulnerable to increased flooding, wildfires, rising oceans, and other impacts of climate change.

Surprise section on weather change

Given the known stand of Trump on weather change, the inclusion of the section in the defense policy bill is a surprise. Americans, however, may be surprised by the openness of Trump as he promised Macron and other leaders climate change will be talked about over the coming period of time. It is still a 50-50 chance because the change of policy on the Paris climate deal will be wonderful if it happens, but it will still be OK too if the change does not happen.

Macron reiterated Frances commitment to the Paris climate change agreement but said he respected that Trump had to honor his campaign promise. Nevertheless, Macron admitted that even if he expects no sudden and unexpected changes in Washingtons climate change policy, the French president hoped he was able to persuade Trump to change his view.
President says new laws needed to make foreign investment easier

China should create a steady, fair and transparent corporate environment and gear up efforts to shape an open economy, President Xi Jinping said.

Xi made the statement at the 16th meeting of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs on Monday.

The country needs to further tap into foreign investment when it is unfolding supply-side structural reforms, upgrading its economy and catching up with the global developments in science and technology, he noted.

China should accelerate its easing of entry restrictions and share ratio limitations on foreign investment in areas such as nursery and elder care, architecture, accounting, commerce and logistics, e-commerce and the traditional manufacturing and service sectors, Xi said.

Xi said it is hoped the second-largest world economy can use foreign investment negative lists nationwide as soon as possible.

The listswhich identify industries that are closed to overseas investors and make commerce more transparenthave been piloted in some of China's free trade zones.

China should stipulate new fundamental laws regarding foreign investment; review laws, regulations policies and documents regarding foreign investment; and abolish or revise those running against the country's goal of opening up, Xi said.

Speaking about China's foreign trade, Xi said the country should proactively expand imports when stabilizing its exports.

The government should look into lowering tariffs of certain consumer goods and encourage the imports of commodities that offer strong features and advantages.

China should further facilitate free and liberal trade and effectively address problems such as the high cost of imports brought by the existing systems, the complicated procedures for quarantine and customs clearance and the trouble in lodging complaints, Xi said.

Xi said the sequence of opening-up in the financial sector should be arranged reasonably.

Opening-up should be promoted in areas that are helpful with consumer rights and interests, reinforcing orderly competition in finance and preventing financial risks, he said.

The country should further advance the steady internationalization of the renminbi and keep its exchange rate basically stable, he added.

Also, China should match its supervision of the finance sector with the opening-up, and its systems' shortcomings should be addressed, Xi said.

To shape a more open environment for businesses, major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen should gear up reforms and reduce inspections and fines, Xi said.

Lists of fees charged should be drafted, and irregular, excessive, unauthorized or repetitive charges should be banned, Xi said.

Intellectual property is part of a good corporate environment, and the country should boost the quality and efficiency in censoring intellectual property, he said, indicating it would create a more timely manner to bring it to the market.

China should accelerate institution building for intellectual property of emerging areas and sectors, and punishment against intellectual property violation should be tougher to hold the violators accountable, he added.
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A combination photo shows US Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) speaking in Washington March 21, 2017 and US Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) speaking in Washington, January 8, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON  The latest GOP effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare" was fatally wounded in the Senate Monday night when two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the legislation strongly backed by President Donald Trump.

The announcements from Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Party's long-promised efforts to get rid of President Barack Obama's health care legislation reeling. Next steps, if any, were not immediately clear.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's legislation in its current form. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill last Thursday.

McConnell is now at least two votes short in the closely divided Senate and may have to go back to the drawing board or even begin to negotiate with Democrats, a prospect he's threatened but resisted so far. Or he could abandon the health care effort, which has proven more difficult than many Republicans envisioned after campaigning on the issue for years, and move on to tax legislation, a bigger Trump priority to begin with.

McConnell's bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," said Moran.

Lee said, "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."It was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of the bill last month when defeat became inevitable.

Trump had kept his distance from the Senate process, but Monday night's development was a major blow for him, too, as the president failed to rally support for what has been the GOP's trademark issue for seven years  ever since Obama and the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act. Republicans won the White House and full control of Congress in large part on the basis of their promises to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but have struggled to overcome their deep internal divisions and deliver.

The Senate bill, like an earlier version that barely passed the House, eliminated mandates and taxes under Obamacare, and unraveled an expansion of the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled. But for conservatives like Lee and Paul it didn't go far enough in delivering on Republican Party promises to undo Obama's law, while moderates like Collins viewed the bill as too extreme in yanking insurance coverage from millions.

McConnell's latest version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding billions to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs.
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HA NOI  Hoa Phat Group recorded a revenue of over VN21 trillion (US$925 million) and an after-tax profit of VN3.47 trillion in the first half of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 36 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.

Construction steel and steel pipes continue to be the main contributors to the positive results of Hoa Phat in the six-month review period.

Hoa Phat in H1 produced more than one million tonnes of construction steel, increasing 33 per cent compared to the same period last year and meeting more than half of its annual production plan.The group exported nearly 90,000 tonnes of construction steel and wire drawing steel to the US, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines.

The sales volume of steel pipe in H1 reached 273,000 tonnes, raising the firms market share to 26.57 per cent.

The group is improving production capacity in all factories nationwide to reach an expected capacity of one million tonnes of steel pipe by 2020.

In addition to the revenue from construction steel, other manufacturing industries such as furniture, refrigeration and spare parts continue to maintain the steady growth.

Especially, the agricultural sector--including animal feeds, pigs and high-tech Australian cow raising techniques--also contributed about VN1 trillion to the groups revenue in the first six months of 2017.

In terms of Hoa Phat Dung Quat iron and steel production complex, up to now, Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel JSC has completed the negotiation of equipment contract with the supply partners. Danieli Group from Italy assured that the first steel rolling line of the project will be completed and tested in June 2018, and the second steel rolling line is expected to be completed six months later.

When the complex comes into full operation, Hoa Phat expects to supply two million tonnes of high quality construction steel annually to the market.  VNS
The total premium collected by insurance companies in Viet Nam in the first half of 2017 has grown 21 per cent year-on-year to VN47.17 trillion (US$1.8 billion).  Photo vinacorp.vn

HA NOI  The total premium collected by insurance companies in Viet Nam in the first half of 2017 has grown 21 per cent year-on-year to VN47.17 trillion (US$1.8 billion).

Of the total sum, the revenue from life insurance premiums is VN27.83 trillion and non-life insurance premiums is estimated at VN19.34 trillion, said Pham Thu Huong, deputy director of the Ministry of Finances Insurance Supervisory Authority (ISA).

Besides maintaining a high and sustained growth rate, the financial status of insurance firms improved in the first half of the year, Huong said. Their total assets grew by 19.11 per cent year on year to VN264.64 trillion, of which life insurers accounted for 73.4 per cent.

During this period, insurance companies invested VN217.59 trillion into the economy, which is a rise of 17.88 per cent, compared to the corresponding period last year.

The insurers also purchased 15-year and 30-year term Government bonds worth VN15 trillion in H1.

The fast-growing insurance market, poised to thrive thanks to rising living standards, has prompted a number of foreign companies, including the UKs Aviva Plc and Canadas Sun Life Financial Inc, to step up their presence in Viet Nam through mergers and acquisition or joint ventures in the past months.

In April, Aviva Plc acquired 50 per cent stake in Ha Noi-based VietinBanks life insurance joint venture, VietinBank Aviva Life Insurance Ltd (Aviva Vietnam).

In late 2016, Sun Life took full control of the joint venture PVI Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd, by acquiring the remaining 25 per cent stake from PVI Holdings.

The insurance industry is expected to benefit from the countrys projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of more than 6 per cent annually over the next three years.

It also has great potential as the country has one of the worlds lowest life insurance penetration levels, at less than 1 per cent of the GDP.

Steve Clark, chief executive officer of Prudential Vietnam Assurance, told Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) that the penetration rate of life insurance, usually measured as the number of individuals who own life insurance, is still low in Viet Nam relative to other Southeast Asian countries.

The average insurance premiums in Viet Nam stand at $30, much lower than the global average of $595 and Southeast Asias $74.

Only 7 per cent of Viet Nams 93 million people have life insurance, and the sector contributes a modest 2 per cent to the GDP, compared to 2.6 per cent in Indonesia and 11 to 14 per cent in South Korea and Singapore.

However, there remain many challenges in the way of further growth of this sector.

ISA director Phung Ngoc Khanh said that awareness among Vietnamese people about life insurance may have increased, but most still dont believe that its worth the expense. In fact, almost all Vietnamese people are wary of it and think it unnecessary to buy insurance because they dont have a thorough understanding of its importance, he explained.

Life insurance products usually involve a long-term contract, so many customers are also concerned about their financial capacity to fulfil it in the future, Khanh said. Doubts about the commitment of foreign life insurers to permanently operate in Viet Nam also contribute to its low penetration rate.

Many potential customers continue to see insurance as an investment, rather than as a device to share financial losses caused by ill-fortune. They prefer bank savings or investing in gold or real estate, which have a higher rate of return.

The low penetration rate also comes from the fact that life insurers have only focused their operations in big cities, overlooking 70 per cent of the countrys population that lives in rural areas, Khanh said.

To increase sales and promote products, besides traditional sales methods, life insurers have also started partnering with commercial banks. Though the bancassurance market in Viet Nam has remained sluggish, contributing only 2 per cent to the total turnover of the insurance market, analysts believe that this channel holds great potential, and now some 35 commercial banks and financial institutions are collaborating with insurers.  VNS
HA NOI  Le Minh Hung, Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) submitted a request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) last week, asking for clarification regarding the use of automobiles as banking collateral and the legal rights of credit institutions and borrowers.

The SBV reported receiving multiple complaints from credit institutions and companies recently, stating that traffic police refused to accept copies of vehicle registration certificates in place of the originals which had been submitted to secure loans.

Further confusion arose when a bank-issued confirmation of the vehicles use as collateral was not accepted either by traffic police.

The situation has inconvenienced creditors, banks and other credit institutions as not holding the original documents of collateral ownership increases risks to them, which may lead to them ceasing to accept automobiles as collateral.

This would make it harder for citizens and businesses to get loans, while at the same time not allowing credit institutions to hold either the collateral or its certificate of ownership incurs significant risk.

To fix this, the SBV has requested the MPS to instruct traffic departments to accept copies of vehicle ownership certificates in place of originals, provided drivers can produce legal confirmation of collateral from credit institutions.

Hung had asked the MoJ to adjust related decrees and submit a replacement decree to the Government, permitting creditors to hold any papers related to the collateral as negotiated with the borrowers and in accordance with the 2015 Civil Code.

Bui Quang Tin, lecturer at the HCM City Banking University, commented that these efforts are being applauded by commercial banks, since there is virtually no way to return all certificates of ownership to each individual borrower. Borrowers are happy to have the confusion cleared up as well, especially those who paid for their vehicles in installments.

Banks have held original certificates of ownership for collateral for years, with borrowers receiving a confirmation to use in its place. A check up is performed every three months to monitor the collateral and the loan eligibility.  VNS
HCM CITY  Authorities of HCM City plan to build apartments with prices at under VN1 billion (US$43,898) per unit for employees located in the city.

The city will study and work with investors to reduce costs and diversify products to build affordable apartments at prices from VN300 million to VN400 million, VN700 million and under VN1 billion per unit to meet demand of the low-income people, Tran Trong Tuan, director of the HCM City Construction Department, said.

This plan was proposed after the city had successfully constructed 40,000 apartments with price at VN100 million per unit, similar to the southern province of Binh Duong that has built such apartments for workers in the province, he said.

At present, one investor will develop a social housing project of 1,000 units in District 12, while another investor is planning to invest in building social houses on land under the land fund managed by the State.

The construction department has discussed with these two investors to reduce the selling price to VN300-400 million per unit. Only projects that are developed on land under State management can offer houses at VN300 million per unit. There will be no cheap apartments if companies themselves conduct site clearance and compensation for site clearance," Tuan said.

Phan Truong Son, head of the departments Housing Development and Real Estate Market Division, said the city currently had 57 social housing projects with total area of 165ha.

The department has submitted to the city Peoples Committee a social housing development plan until 2020, including solutions to diversify property products, such as for people living along canals and rivers who are not eligible to buy commercial houses.  VNS
HA NOI  Dozens of photos featuring the landscapes and people of Laos are on display in downtown Ha Noi in order to celebrate the friendship between Laos and Viet Nam.

Titled The Beauty of Lao Country and People, the exhibition is part of a series of cultural activities themed "Vietnamese Culture & Tourism Days in Laos and Lao Culture & Tourism Days in Viet Nam 2017". The event aims to celebrate 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 40th anniversary of friendship agreement between the two countries.

Our Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism has organised various activities on this important occasion, Bouangeun Xaphouvong, Lao deputy minister of Information, Culture and Tourism told Viet Nam News, This exhibition displays the most up-to-date images on our process of building, protecting of our country as well as the joint efforts by Vietnamese and Lao people in the process, as well as the friendship and love between the two peoples.

The exhibition also expresses Lao peoples warm heart and feelings to their Vietnamese friends. We will never forget the support from Vietnamese Party, Government and people, he said. Now we are still going forward side by side in the development process together with other countries in the region and the world.

The exhibition runs at the Viet Nam Centre for Exhibition, Culture and Arts, 2 Hoa Lu Street, till Friday.

The celebration programme include exchanges of artists performing arts in the two countries. Artists from Laos have been performing folk songs and dances popular in traditonal rituals and ceremonies in various locations.

Such a show took place in Ha Noi yesterday at the Opera House, while the same show will be organised at Lam Son Theatre, central province of Thanh Hoa tomorrow and on Friday at Hai Phong Opera House.  VNS
HA NOI  A ceremony to grant 42 awards to literary works about Vietnamese war invalids, martyrs and significant contributors to the nations revolution was held on Monday in Ha Noi.

Jointly held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Vietnam Writers Association, the ceremony is among the activities organised to commemorate the 70th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (1947-2017).

Honorary awards were presented to three writers - Le Van Ba, ang Vuong Hung and Minh Chuyen. In the prose category, the organisation board awarded three first prizes, six second prizes, five third prizes and six fourth prizes. In the poem category, there was no first prize; however two second prizes, 11 third prizes and five forth prizes were rewarded.

According to Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs ao Ngoc Dung, the literary works writing contest to honour Vietnamese war martyrs, invalids and significant contributors to the nations revolutionary struggle was supported tremendously by Vietnamese writers and poets nationwide during its launch from January until June.

The contest received over 800 literary works, many of which have never been officially published in any form. The works, written from 1947 to 2017, have left a strong impression on the readers and are associated with generations of Vietnamese people. They have also condensed the great determination and revolutionary ideology of many Vietnamese youth who volunteered to fight on the battlefields for the nations independence, freedom, peace and reunification.

Millions of Vietnamese heroes courageously fought and fell in the two resistance wars against French and American colonists and the border war in the north, becoming an everlasting source of inspiration for many Vietnamese writers and poets to compose significant works. The image of these soldiers, particularly the war martyrs, invalids and brave heroes, was recaptured beautifully and made immortal through these works. The aim is to honour their noble sacrifice and pay tribute to the war heroes and martyrs who donated their youth for the nations peace, reunification, freedom and independence, the minister confirmed.

Also on this occasion, Minister Dung expressed his gratitude to families of the war martyrs, invalids and significant contributors to the nations revolution, as well as generations of Vietnamese writers who have created excellent literary works.

He also expressed his hope that the literary works submitted to the contest would continue to impress readers and contribute to educating the young generation about the national traditions of protecting and building the country.  VNS
SON LA  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday advised the northern mountainous province of Son La not be left out of modern trends while preserving its natural environment and cultural diversity.

He also asked it to focus on high-tech agriculture to boost socio-economic development.

At a working session with local leaders, he hailed the Party, the provincial administration and residents of Son La Province for their efforts in achieving high economic growth and maintaining good relations with neighbouring Lao localities.

However, he noted that it remained a poor province with a high poverty rate and low competitiveness.

While it exerts all efforts to fulfill its annual socio-economic targets, the province should also focus on ensuring security and order at the border, and pay more attention to business development, Phuc said.

The province should intensify its focus on hi-tech agriculture development, find more markets for local products, speed up building new-style rural areas and increase the cultivation of herbs with medicinal values, he said.

The PM also asked local authorities to pay more attention to residents displaced by the Son La hydropower plant.

Furthemore, Son La should develop its tourism industry in a sustainable manner, with special attention paid to preserving the cultural identities of ethnic minority groups, he said. Tourism should be made a spearhead sector in the province, he added.

Inclusive benefits

The PM highlighted the case of Van Ho District, one of the poorest districts in Son La as well as the northeastern region.

He praised local authorities success in attracting two large-scale projects worth VN2.3 trillion (US$101.2 million) invested in by TH TrueMilk. The project has several components including cultivation of herbs and oranges as well as high-quality fruit processing.

The PM said the projects would deliver inclusive benefits and sustainable development for the society and the environment.

If Van Ho District with its enormous economic challenges achieve such an admirable feat, surely other mountainous districts can do the same thing.

While the province should do its utmost to preserve its natural landscapes and diverse cultural identities, it should not stay out of the common trends of globalisation and Industrial Revolution 4.0, he said, urging economic models that can harmonise growth with sustainability.

At a trade promotion conference held on Monday morning in the province, in the presence of PM Phuc, Son La handed approvals to 26 projects with a total investment of VN8.56 trillion ($376 million), and signed memoranda of understanding with 17 investors for projects worth VN14.932 trillion ($657 million).

Son La has a natural area of 14,174sq.km, and shares a 250km-long border with the Lao provinces of Houaphanh and Luang Phrabang. Among its 1.2 million population are members of 12 ethnic minority communities.

Despite its recent growth, Son La remains a poor province with the ratio of poor households reaching 31.44 per cent in 2016.

Last year, the provinces gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth rate was 9.2 per cent, while its budget collection was over VN4 trillion ($176 million) and per capita GRDP reached VN25.4 million ($1,117)

In the first six months of this year, the provincial economy grew by 5.15 per cent.

In 2016, the province welcomed 1.85 million visitors, earning nearly VN900 billion ($39.6 million) in revenue.

In the first half of 2017, tourists to Son La numbered over a million, with most of them visiting the Moc Chau Plateau and Van Ho District.

The province has a forest coverage of 42.5 per cent and cultivates many fruits. It also has 22,000 milch cows that produced 37,000 tonnes of milk in the first six months of this year.

It has 43 enterprises and co-operatives with 86 agricultural products meeting VietGap standards.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam treasures and wishes to further enhance the comprehensive co-operation with Mexico, both bilaterally and multilaterally, President Tran ai Quang told visiting former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in Ha Noi on Monday.

He congratulated the State and people of Mexico on their socio-economic achievements, contributing to elevating Mexicos role and position in the region and the international arena.

The host noted with satisfaction the pace of the development of bilateral ties, with the most noteworthy being two-way trade reaching US$2.37 billion in 2016, representing a ten-fold increase compared with ten years ago.

The two sides have effectively implemented the political consultation mechanism between their foreign ministries and established a joint committee on economic, trade and investment co-operation, he said, adding that they have also closely co-operated and supported each other at international organisations and multilateral forums, especially the UN, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Co-operation (FEALAC).

President Quang suggested the two sides promptly put the joint committee on economic, trade and investment co-operation into place in order to define areas and methods for bilateral collaboration.

The two countries should continue finalising the legal framework through negotiations and sign more co-operation documents along with encouraging their businesses to promote trade and access the respective markets, he said.

Multilaterally, the President urged the two sides to continue their close coordination and mutual support at international and inter-regional co-operation mechanisms.

He called for Mexicos support for Viet Nams candidacy for a seat at the UN Security Council during 2020-21 and for the post of the UNESCO General Director for 2017-21 tenure.

For his part, Carlos Salinas de Gortari congratulated the Vietnamese State and people on their socio-economic achievements and shared Mexicos experience in national development.

He agreed with President Quangs proposals for ways to step up the bilateral ties, saying Viet Nam and Mexico hold a lot of potential to advance their relationship.

Viet Nams hosting of the APEC Year 2017 will create an opportunity for the two countries to tighten their relations in various realms, he said.  VNS
QUANG NAM  At the nursing centre for meritorious people in the south-central province of Quang Nam, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on Monday presented 106 saving accounts with deposits of VN2 million (US$88) each to Viet Nam Heroic Mothers and policy beneficiaries, part of activities in preparation for the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Viet Nam War Invalids and Martyrs (27/7/1947  27/7/2017).

The NA leader affirmed that the Party and State pay special attention to supporting those who contributed to the nation and the revolutionary cause.

At the same time, the whole community has helped the State in the work, she said.

Earlier the same day, the top legislator laid a wreath at the Monument to Martyrs and the Statue of Viet Nam Heroic Mothers in the province.

She also visited a number of local policy beneficiary families, and offered incense at the Martyrs Cemetery in ien Ban District.

Quang Nam suffered heavy consequences from war against the US (1954-1975) with 23 per cent of its population policy beneficiaries. The province has 14,792 Viet Nam Heroic Mothers, 911 still living. The province is also home to 65,000 war martyrs and more than 30,000 wounded and sick veterans.  VNS
High-ranking leaders of Viet Nam and Laos on Monday exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties (September 5) and 40 years of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation between the two countries (July 18).  VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung

HA NOI  High-ranking leaders of Viet Nam and Laos on Monday exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties (September 5) and 40 years of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation between the two countries (July 18).

The well-wishers were Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Tran ai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan whose flower baskets and congratulatory messages were sent to Laos Party General Secretary and President Bounhang Volachith, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and NA Chairwoman Pany Yathotou.

In their messages, the Vietnamese leaders expressed satisfaction with bilateral friendship and co-operation over the past 55 years, which, they said, have contributed to the struggle for national independence as well as national building and development in each country.

The Parties, States and people of Viet Nam and Laos have made every effort to deepen ties in an effective fashion, through diverse co-operation methods and channels of the Party, State and people, they said.

In messages sent to the Vietnamese leaders, the Lao leaders highlighted the friendship, solidarity and combat alliance between the two countries during their past revolutionary cause, creating a firm foundation for the present friendship.

On this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, also head of the national steering committee for Viet Nam-Laos friendship year, and Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Komasith, a member of Laos national steering committee for Viet Nam-Laos friendship year, exchanged congratulatory messages.

Hoang Binh Quan, head of the Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations, also cabled a message of congratulations to his Lao counterpart Sounthone Sayachac.

Joint efforts called to deepen Viet Nam-Laos ties

Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has suggested fostering all-around ties between his country and Viet Nam, towards deepening the bilateral friendship.

In an interview with Vientiane-based Vietnam News Agency, the Lao government leader stressed the need to improve bilateral relations, which he called a valuable common asset of the two nations.

He called for joint efforts to develop the relationship, especially in educating young generations on the relations.

He lauded significant strides in bilateral ties in politics, defence-security, socio-economic development and human resources development.

This year is important for Viet Nam and Laos as the two nations are celebrating the 55th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 40th anniversary of the signing of the bilateral Treaty of Amity and Co-operation, PM Sisoulith said.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, the two countries have effectively co-ordinated in the international arena, he added.

The Lao leader also expressed joy over economic links between the two countries, as well as increasing investment from his country in Viet Nam, affirming that this has boosted the position of the two nations in the international arena, promoted economic growth and improved living standards.

The two nations should continue working closely to move ties forward, expanding solidarity between the two Parties, Governments and people, he stressed.  VNS
A NANG  The relationship between Viet Nam and Laos is a good example of faithful friendship between two countries for over a century, a senior Lao official said on Monday.

Khamsene Phommaseng, the Laos Consul General in a Nang, was speaking at a function celebrating the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, and the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation between the two countries.

He noted that a Nang by itself had provided great support to Lao provinces over many years.

The central city has inked 29 Memoranda of Understanding with several Lao cities and provinces including Vientiane, Savannakhet, Champasak, Sekong, Salavan, Attapu, Bolikhamsay and Xaynhaburi in the fields of health, education, agriculture and planning for the 2018-23 period, he said.

a Nang Party Secretary Nguyen Xuan Anh affirmed that the city would also accord top priority to co-operation with Laos.

He said businesses from a Nang have invested in four Lao projects worth US$52.3 million in textiles, mining, rubber planting and construction materials.

The city exported goods worth $28 million to Laos last year, he added.

a Nang has also assisted Lao provinces in the 2013-17 period with four projects worth $2 million, he said

More than 700 Lao students are studying in the citys colleges, 200 of them on scholarships.

In 2012, a direct flight was launched to connect a Nang with Pakse and Savanakhet in Laos.

a Nang is situated at the end of East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) that links Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI  Former Cuban military officer Julio A. Garcia Oliveras, who served as the first Cuban ambassador to Viet Nam, has died at the age of 86.

Julio A. Garcia Oliveras was born in 1931 in La Habana. He was an architect and an economics doctor, who graduated in the Military Advanced Course of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. He joined the Cuban Revolution early and was promoted to commander in 1959. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1969 to 1986.

While serving as Cuban ambassador to Viet Nam from 1966 to 1969, he also served as head of the Cuban military mission in Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia. He later held leadership positions in various fields.

He published many books, mainly on history, including "Ho Chi Minh, the patriot, 60 years of revolutionary struggle.

On Sunday, the Vietnamese delegation, led by Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, paid their last respects to Julio A. Garcia Oliveras, a close friend of the Vietnamese people and a knowledgeable scholar of Viet Nam.  VNS
Population ageing is one of the biggest demographic changes facing the globe, and Viet Nam in particular.  Photo tuyengiao.vn

HA NOI  Population ageing is one of the biggest demographic changes facing the globe, and Viet Nam in particular.

Experts met for a two-day conference which began on Monday in Ha Noi. The International Workshop on Adaptation to Population Ageing was held by the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) in co-operation with the Vietnamese Government.

Attending the workshop were 200 delegates working in the fields of economics, banking and finance, insurance, health, population, labour and social welfare.

Nguyen Van Tan, deputy general director of the General Office for Population and Family Planning, said that Viet Nam has had an ageing population since 2011 and there are currently 10.1 million older people, accounting for 11 per cent of the total population.

There are currently two million people aged 80 and above.

It is estimated that by 2030, the percentage of older people in Viet Nam will reach 17 per cent, and will hit 25 per cent by 2050, he said.

If it only takes a few decades for developed economies to transform from ageing populations, in which the over-60 group takes up 10 per cent, to aged populations, in which the over-60 group takes up 20 per cent, like Australia in 73 years, America in 69 years, Canada in 65 years, then for Viet Nam it will only take 22 years.

This demographic transformation will have major impacts on economic growth, labour, savings, investments, healthcare, social welfare, immigration changes and infrastructure design, said Tan.

The population of APEC accounts for 40.5 per cent of the total global population but consists of almost 50 per cent of global senior citizen density.

Most APEC economies have been and are facing population ageing including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Russia, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, the US and Viet Nam.

Some have among the highest number and density of older people like China, Russia, the US and Japan.

Associate professor Pham Le Tuan, deputy minister of health, said that the workshop was a forum for policy-makers, professionals and researchers of APEC economies and APEC partners to co-operate in creating an overall picture of APEC population ageing, including the reality, trends, economic challenges and opportunities, investment, savings, healthcare, social welfare and labour in the context of population ageing.

The conference offered the chance for APEC members to share models and initiatives in improving the role of older people and taking care of them with the support of families and communities, he said.

Shinichi Akiyama, Deputy Assistant Minister for International Policy Planning of the International Affairs Division under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan, said that in his country, as a legal system to ensure the employment of all willing workers until the age of 65 by businesses has already been established, the next challenge is how to ensure a wide range of employment and working opportunities for the elderly beyond the age of 65.

One of the measures is the establishment of councils in regions comprising local governments and relevant agencies in order to find employment opportunities for the elderly in each region, he said.

The elderly should be engaged in temporary, short-term or light work. In principle, this means a work load of 10 days or less per month or working hours not exceeding 20 hours per week.

There is no one-size-fits-all policy. Each economy has to seek its own policy, taking into consideration their situation of demographic ageing and employment law, he said.

Close co-ordination with pension policy is needed, he said.

Policy recommendations from the workshop will be stated in the health policy dialogue, in meetings of health working group, APEC high level meetings of health ministers in HCM City next month.

The International Workshop on Adaptation to Population Ageing is divided into sections with topics including population ageing and economic growth, population ageing and social welfare, population ageing and healthcare, models and ideas in improving the role of older people and taking care of them with support from families and communities.  VNS
HUNG YEN  The Department of Health in the northern province of Hung Yen has set up an inspection team to examine the case of many boys reportedly infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) after undergoing circumcision at a local private health clinic.

Leu Van Quan, chief inspector of the department, said after working with the Sub-department of Health of Khoai Chau District and the health centre of Da Trach Commune on Monday, the inspection team has initially determined that the private clinic where many children went for circumcision is located in Yen Vinh Village in Da Trach Commune.

This health clinic is owned by a physician only known as Hien, who has been practising without a licence.

The private health clinic is not on the list of private facilities licensed by the provincial Department of Health.

Quan said the team has asked the clinics manager to working with the provincial department today afternoon.

Currently, Hien, the clinics owner, is working for Van Giang Districts Health Clinic Centre.

Bui Quang Trung, deputy director of the provincial Department of Health, said the inspection team would clarify the number of infected children and the cause of the infection.

The health clinic that flouted rules and those involved would be strictly fined, he said.

On Monday, the Ministry of Health urged the provincial Department of Health to quickly clarify the information that many boys in Khoai Chau District were reportedly infected with HPV after being treated at a local health clinic.

Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the ministrys Department of Examination and Treatment, asked the department to cooperate with the National Hospital of Dermatology to determine the cause of the incident and clarify responsibilities of organisations and individuals involved.

Reports from the National Hospital of Dermatology showed that for two months, between May 1 and July 15, as many as 110 patients, mostly children, were hospitalised with HPV, of which 37 were from Hung Yen Provinces Khoai Chau District.

The cause of the infection remains unknown.

Patients families, however, said they had taken their children to a local private clinic for circumcision.

Human papillomavirus is a major sexual transmitted disease. Patients can be infected through unsafe sex or skin-to-skin contact. Newborns can be infected by infected mothers at childbirth or through unprotected medical devices.  VNS
QUANG NINH  Around 3,500 visitors began leaving Co To Island, a popular tourist destination off Quang Ninh Province, today morning after being stranded there for two days because of storm Talas.

Shipping vessels resumed operations at 6am today after weather conditions improved, said Le Hong Thang, director of Quang Ninh Inland Waterway Port. All stranded tourists are expected to be transported to the mainland by the middle of the day, he added.

From 6am Sunday, all cruise ship operations had been halted because of the impact of the storm, which hit the central region. This left more than 5,000 tourists, including 30 foreigners, stuck on the provinces islands.

Local authorities had advised tourists to stay calm, and ordered hotels and other service providers to help accommodate the stranded tourists, as well as offer discounts.  VNS
HA NOI  Ha Nois Department of Transport has proposed a roadmap to the citys Peoples Committee to withdraw unqualified three-wheelers from the city.

The roadmap is divided into four periods, and aims to clear all sub-standard three-wheelers off city roads by the end of June 2018.

From now until the end of July, concerned authorities will review the number of three-wheelers operating in the city, identify vehicle owners, the average commute time and regular routes, as well as businesses producing, assembling and selling three-wheelers.

At the same time, authorised agencies will compensate and support war invalids, sick soldiers, and people with disabilities who have to use this type of vehicle to earn their living to find other jobs.

From August 1 to September 30, a dialogue will be held between authorised agencies and businesses that use three-wheelers for cargo transport to help enterprises replace these vehicles. Parking lots will be identified, where three-wheelers that violate rules will be seized and kept.

From October 1 to December 31, the department will study and report to the city authority on the difficulties faced in implementing the roadmap. It will also focus on finding jobs for war veterans and people with disabilities who use such three-wheelers. Authorities will also conduct inspections and seize vehicles violating the rules.

From January 2018 to June 30, 2018, motorised three-wheelers that do not have number plates but meet safety requirements can register with concerned agencies. However, these vehicles will not be allowed to carry more people or cargo than the number or the amount permitted.

Each war veteran will get permission to use one three-wheeler that has a clear production origin and meets technical standards. They will also have to medically qualify to drive it.

By the end of June 2018, all sub-standard, unregistered three-wheelers will be off the streets of the capital city.

The transport department has asked the city authority to allow it to complete regulations on the operation time and area for registered three-wheelers. It will work with the city police and Viet Nam Registration to inspect the quality and technical safety of these vehicles.

It will also work with the city police and the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to revise the list of those using such vehicles, and identify and stop those who use fake number plates and run such vehicles for profit.

The department has requested the city authority to propose to the Government and the Ministry of Transport to re-examine and complete regulations on the management of such vehicles for transporting cargo.  VNS
NEW YORK  Viet Nam has pledged efforts to promote the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in poverty reduction and sustainable development, said Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen The Phuong.

He made the statement at an international seminar jointly held on Monday in New York by Viet Nam, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Italy, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The event was oraganised on the sidelines of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) high-level segment.

Viet Nam will invest VN11 trillion (US$484 million) from the Public-Utility Telecommunication Service Fund by 2020 to ensure that internet and other telecommunication services are accessible to all schools, hospitals, communes, poor and near-poor households, highlighted Phuong, who is also head of the Vietnamese delegation to the ECOSOC high-level segment.

He shared Viet Nams challenges in the field, including capacity of local authorities, application skills of people, and data base.

Phuong added that the full involvement of the State, local people, businesses and foreign partners will speed up the countrys ICT application in poverty alleviation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation. At the event, international representatives said that ICT is a key tool to implement SDGs, contributing to generating jobs, eradicating poverty and ensuring social welfare.

Specific experiences in ICT application were shared, including simplifying administrative procedures on land for farmers, building up the poors healthcare record, promoting education and vocational training and providing online financial services for production households and vulnerable groups.

They also gave out recommendations on low-cost ICT solutions to enhance economic efficiency, governments support for direct dialogues between local people, businesses and ICT service providers as well as study on the possibility of latest ICT application in poverty reduction like artificial intelligence and 3D printing. Besides encouraging bilateral co-operation, the participants called for the UNs support for developing nations through its organisations like the UNDP and ITU.

The international seminar was initiative of Viet Nam as an ECOSOC member for 2016-18 tenure, aiming to make contributions to the discussion of the high-level segment themed Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world.  VNS
WATERLOO  Black Hawk County has been awarded federal funds through the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program.

A local board is charged to distribute the $58,832 to expand the capacity of food and shelter programs in high-need areas around the country and is responsible for determining how the funds are to be distributed among the emergency food and shelter programs run by local service agencies in the area.

The board will meet Aug. 2 to recommend which agencies will receive the funds and any additional funds available under this phase of the program.

Local agencies chosen to receive funds must be private voluntary nonprofits or units of government; be eligible to receive federal funds; have an accounting system; practice non-discrimination; have demonstrated the capability to deliver emergency food and/or shelter programs; and have a voluntary board if they are a private voluntary organization.

Qualifying public or private voluntary agencies in Black Hawk County are urged to apply for EFSP funds by contacting Sheri Alldredge, Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments, at 235-0311. The deadline for applications to be received is July 28.
REINBECK  Along with electing members to the Board of Education Sept. 12, voters in the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Community Schools will be deciding whether or not to dissolve the district.

The board Monday set the dissolution referendum on election day following a public hearing on the matter. If approved by a simple majority of voters, it would mean the end of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck district, including the loss of nearly 100 full- and part-time jobs and the likelihood that its remaining schools would be shuttered.

Last month, board members unanimously approved a resolution urging residents to vote no on the dissolution proposal when they go to the polls. But officials cant reject the plan to divide up Gladbrook-Reinbeck among five neighboring school districts.

The board has two options tonight, Superintendent David Hill said before the hearing. Board members could accept the proposal as-is and set the referendum date. Or, he added, based on input that they receive tonight, they can change the proposal before setting the referendum.

About 25 residents attended the hearing, but no one offered any comments on the dissolution proposal after multiple calls from board president Lisa Swanson for speakers on the topic. Board member Doug Rowe urged anyone with input to speak up.

This, beside the vote date, is the last day it will be discussed, he noted. The hearing closed with no public comment.

District residents, mostly from Gladbrook and the surrounding area, petitioned the board to put a dissolution plan on the ballot. The board appointed a citizens commission, as required under Iowa law, to formulate the proposal. Gladbrook-Reinbeck would be divided among five neighboring school districts under the plan submitted by the commission and approved by the board including Dike-New Hartford, Green Mountain-Garwin, Grundy Center, Hudson and North Tama County.

I appreciate all the work that the dissolution commission has done, said board member Josh Hemann. Im not personally in support of it, but I dont think theres any changes I would like to make.

Swanson noted the commission members have worked on the proposal over a two-year period. I thank them all for their commitment and, for most of them, staying on for the whole time, she said.

The petition drive to dissolve the district first emerged in May 2015, not long after the board voted 5-2 to close Gladbrooks elementary and middle school building as part of a budget-cutting effort. The move consolidated all kindergarten through 12th-grade classes in Reinbeck, 16 miles from Gladbrook.
WATERLOO  Fireworks opponents are making more noise than supporters.

Waterloo residents calling for an outright ban or a much shorter window for consumer fireworks were in the majority during a City Council public safety committee meeting Monday to discuss the future of fireworks in the community.

Councilman Steve Schmitt, who chairs the committee, said twice as many residents are emailing City Hall about restricting fireworks than those speaking in their favor.

The Iowa Legislature legalized the sale use of consumer fireworks this year, allowing them to be shot off on private property from June 1 through July 8 and again from Dec. 10 through Jan. 3.

Waterloo councilmen voted 6-1 in May to only allow fireworks use from June 30 through July 4, while some cities like Cedar Falls allowed the full state time frame and others banned them entirely.

Councilmen Tom Lind and Bruce Jacobs said they want to ban consumer fireworks in Waterloo based on complaints about noise, safety and litter, which prompted the public safety committee to call for more public input.

A healthy crowd of residents took them up on the invitation this week.

I think I also have the right to not be subjected to noise pollution for days on end, said Mary Roche, one of many speakers opposed to the current five-day holiday window.

Julie Johnson said a neighbor legally shot off fireworks for four hours one night.

Some of the fireworks were so loud when I was outside, I instinctively ducked for cover, she said. I dont think that is what we need in Waterloo.

Other residents supported fireworks.

This is America we should at least have the freedom to celebrate the Fourth of July, said Bryan Mueller. It would be a sad day if you guys take away our freedoms.

Lisa OBrink said the city should fine those who violate the stated time limits.

I just think you need to make sure people need to stay within the guidelines, she said. I actually enjoyed all the fireworks in my neighborhood.

Judd Saul, a fireworks vendor in Waterloo, said he believes the heavy use will die down when the newness wears off.

I do not think that fireworks should be restricted because of a few complaints, he said. Yes theres a loud group that is opposed to them, but there are thousands that do love them and we have the receipts to prove it.

The public safety committee is tentatively expected to hold another work session to continue the discussion Aug. 21.
WATERLOO  City Council members Monday narrowly approved selling the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center to Omaha, Neb.-based Leslie Hospitality Co.

The decision, which will leverage an estimated $20 million renovation of the downtown center and adjoining Ramada Hotel, drew praise from a large portion of the citys business community in attendance.

But some councilmen and members of the public wanted more time to investigate details of the project and Leslie Hospitalitys track record.

There are no alternatives waiting in the wings that dont require more taxpayer money, said Aaron Buzza, past director of the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau. Theres no organization waiting in the wings to take this on.

Steve Dust, president of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance and Chamber, said his organization endorsed the sale and development agreement, adding this solution is the best we could have imagined.

Councilmen Jerome Amos Jr., Ron Welper, Pat Morrissey and Tom Powers voted in favor of the development agreements which give Leslie Hospitality the 42-year-old convention center, a $1.05 million grant and 15 years of 34 percent tax rebates in return for the companys $6 million renovation.

A related agreement calls for Leslie Hospitality to buy the Ramada, invest $14 million in the renovation and rebrand it as a Hotel RL. The city will provide 20 years of 85 percent tax rebates on the hotel and refund any growth in hotel-motel tax generated by the renovation.

Supporters said the deal provides a net increase in property taxes to the city and allows taxpayers to avoid costly renovation costs the building needs to remain viable in the convention marketplace.

Councilmen Tom Lind and Steve Schmitt abstained from voting, saying more time was needed to vet the agreement. Councilman Bruce Jacobs abstained due to a potential conflict of interest related to his banking job.

While Lind said he supported the stated financial arrangement, he said the city needed more time sorting through the companys background and needed to see commitment letters from banks and the hotel chain.

Resident Todd Obadal objected to council members approving the development agreements, which had undergone last minute changes over the weekend, before the public was able to see the details.

Amos said the citys legal, planning and financial staff had already done that review.

Somewhere down the line we have to trust the staff and the job they are doing, he said.

Initial plans to change the convention centers name were an early stumbling block that was later worked out to the satisfaction of the Sullivan family. The new Waterloo Convention Center and Five Sullivan Brothers Plaza will include a memorial to the buildings namesakes.

But Schmitt still urged company president Edwin Leslie to reconsider the change.

With all due respect, Mr. Leslie, theres a lot of Waterloos in the United States; theres a lot of Waterloos in the World; theres only one five Sullivan brothers, Schmitt said. I dont think that you understand that, and I dont think a lot of people in the audience get that. That is probably one of the biggest marketing tools you could use.

Several business leaders speaking in support of the development agreement detailed horror stories of having their events at the center and adjoining 228-room hotel, both of which were in disrepair.

If you have not had the displeasure of attending an event at the convention center lately, you can accept my expert opinion that both the facility and the service are abysmal, said Christa Miehe, president of marketing at VGM, which hosts its annual Heartland conference there.

Mayor Quentin Hart said hes frequently embarrassed by the condition and service at the convention center and Ramada, often having to write Dear John letters to unhappy patrons.

The new Hotel RL must maintain a four-diamond rating to retain its full tax rebates under the development agreement.

Correspondence in recent weeks to the city questioned the financial ability of Leslie Hospitality to handle the job, noting Edwin Leslie had been involved in several bankruptcies.

Leslie noted his firm has had two of 42 hotels fail during its 20 years in business, but that internet searches show his name related to other bankruptcies where he was appointed to serve as a receiver and turned failed properties into successes. That is the companys business model.

If you had a pretty convention center and a pretty hotel, Edwin Leslie wouldnt be standing here today, he said.

Leslie Hospitality is expected to begin operating the Ramada soon, which also would put the company in charge of managing the convention center. The city will need financing letters and details prior to closing on the convention center sale.
CHELSEA  An Indianola man was killed and a Montour man was injured in a single-vehicle crash in Tama County on Monday.

State troopers identified the deceased as 47-year-old Grant L. Forrester, a passenger. Driver Rodney L. Purk, 46, was flown by helicopter to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City for treatment, according to the Iowa State Patrol. His condition wasnt immediately available.

The crash happened at about 8:35 p.m. Monday in the 2800 block of 320th Street north of Chelsea.

Purk was driving a 2011 Dodge Ram pickup and allegedly failed to negotiate a left curve, according to a preliminary accident report. The pickup ran off the road, struck a utility pole and overturned, trapping both men inside.

First responders were able to free Purk shortly after arriving, but Forrester had to be extricated from the vehicle, according to the State Patrol.
CEDAR FALLS  A proposal to reduce the mayors job and salary from full-time to part-time ran into a buzzsaw of opposition at Monday nights City Council meeting. But the idea isnt totally dead.

Council members voted 5-2 to approve a motion by council member Nick Taiber directing city staff to:

Eliminate redundancy in city code duplicating duties between the mayor and city administrator.

Review the mayors salary as part of an upcoming city pay plan study.

Delay implementation of any changes until Jan. 1, 2020, after the 2019 city elections. The post would remain full time for this years upcoming city elections and the term of office starting in January.

Mayor Jim Brown, who previously announced re-election plans, believes the job should remain full time. Taiber believes there is much duplication of duties between the position of mayor and that of city administrator, formally created during a city government reorganization in 2014.

Taiber said he did not specify when he wanted the staff to bring information back to the council but thought it could be done soon.

Maybe in a month, he said. I think whether it be a part-time or a full-time mayor, the figurehead of any city does these things, right? Its a matter of what kind of value you want to assign to the mayors office."

The mayors current salary is $89,321 a year. City Administrator Ron Gaines makes $169,000 a year. Taiber noted the mayor also receives health insurance and pension benefits.

Taiber believes a part-time job will attract more candidates. I do believe the candidate pool is limited by whether or not youre wealthy, retired or under-employed he said, and have time to take it on full time.

Several opponents, including former longtime City Council member Stan Smith, said the mayors post is a full-time job regardless of the salary.

Cutting the mayors pay and having him do the same duties at half pay? I have a better idea. Why dont you get rid of the mayor entirely? Smith said sarcastically. You dont need him. You dont think you do. So get rid of the mayor. And Ive already done the arithmetic. In just a little under nine years, youd save enough money to buy another un-needed roundabout.

Retired University of Northern Iowa speech professor and frequent council critic Jim Skaine, an announced candidate for mayor, said the council is asking the wrong question and maintained the council illegally changed the citys form of government when it created the position of city administrator.

Bill Bell, a retired longtime city firefighter, said any changes in the mayors position should be submitted to citizens for a vote.

Council members Susan deBuhr and Tom Blanford voted against Taibers motion; deBuhr called it convoluted. Blanford said some council members were displaying hubris in presuming to tell citizens what the mayors job should be.

I dont think its for us to say, Blanford said. The voters are smart. They know what they want to see in their mayor and council people. They are more than capable of evaluating and making an educated decision when they cast their vote.
WEST UNION  A West Union man died following a crash with a police SUV on Monday afternoon.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, Willys Henry Fritz, 83, pulled away from a stop sign at a grocery store parking lot and collided with a West Union police vehicle that was in emergency status. Fritz was later pronounced dead.

The police officer, 23-year-old Bryson Hennigar, was treated and released, according to the state patrol.

The accident happened at about 3 p.m. on Highway 150 near Highway 18 in West Union.

According to a preliminary accident report, the 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicle was traveling north on Highway 150, and Fritz, driving a 2003 GMC Sonoma, was leaving the Quillins Foods parking lot when the crash occurred.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 17, 2017 | 03:44 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Paducah attorney who was arrested earlier this year on theft charges is now facing more serious federal charges that could land him in prison for more than 40 years.The U.S. Attorney's Office in Paducah says 43-year-old Grant King was charged Monday in U.S. District Court with aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. The charges stem from accusations that King defrauded several of his clients in insurance settlements totaling at least $550,000 from at least March of 2007 through May of this year.Authorities say King settled clients' cases with insurance companies without their consent, and pocketed most or all of the settlement amounts. King is also charged with taking out a $97,500 personal loan and transferring the title of a boat as collateral. He then reportedly got a duplicate title on the boat and sold it without repaying the loan.King could get up to 42 years in prison, and pay a fine of $750,000 if convicted. He was arrested April 27 on theft charges in McCracken County. Since then, more than 30 people have come forward claiming to be victims of his alleged crimes.

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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 18, 2017 | By Tess

Before packing up for your summer vacation, be sure to check out these updates from the 3D printing world. From company partnerships to new initiatives, this hot July week is shaping up to be a good one for the industry.

Stratasys Direct Manufacturing to 3D print polymer parts for Airbus A350 XWB aircraft

Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, a subsidiary of 3D printing company Stratasys Ltd., has been selected by aerospace giant Airbus to 3D print parts for its A350 XWB aircraft. The parts, which will be printed from an ULTEM 9085 polymer, will consist of non-structural parts such as brackets. Stratasys Direct Manufacturing says it will be 3D printing the aircraft components using the companys FDM production printers.

The goal of 3D printing the non-structural parts will be to give Airbus more supply chain flexibility and better cost competitiveness. 3D printing will also enable the aerospace company to reduce both material consumption and waste in its aircraft manufacturing processes.

We are proud to work with Airbus to continually advance 3D printing in aerospace applications, commented Joe Allison, CEO of Stratasys Direct Manufacturing. Our expertise in building parts ready for installation on the aircraft, along with our unique process controls and quality procedures, will allow Airbus to improve competitiveness leveraging on the technical benefits of 3D printing.

Techniplas opens Additive Manufacturing Center for automotive clients in Ventura, CA

Techniplas, a plastic fabrication company that specializes in automotive products and services, has just announced the opening of its new Additive Manufacturing Center in Ventura, CA. The new center, which is being operated by the companys digital-innovation arm Techniplas Digital, will be used for the production of lighter and stronger parts for its automotive clients.

The 3D printing center already houses about a dozen 3D printers, including FDM, DMLS, and SLA machines, and Techniplas says it plans to add 20 high-speed 3D printers to its facility by the end of the year. The AM center will also place an emphasis on hybrid manufacturing, which will combine traditional tool and mold bases with modular plugin inserts that are 3D printed. This method, it says, will make it easier to carry out short production runs.

George Votis, Techniplas founder and chairman, said: Everyone from our customers to their customers will directly benefit from the capabilities in our new facility. The automotive industry is being disrupted and redefined at lightning speed, and we are putting in the capabilities which will place us well ahead of the curve to better serve our customers and to bring new engineered products to market even faster."

The new Additive Manufacturing Center will also be working with early-stage companies to develop algorithms and processes designed for enhancing its digital thread and manufacturing capacity. This effort will include a cloud-based generative design platform that can be used to automatically model metamaterial lattice structures to fit certain constraints.

PyroGenesis receives $368k through military contract, exercises $238k of warrants for 3D printing metal powder production

PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a leader in advanced plasma processes and a manufacturer of metal powders for 3D printing, recently announced the signing of two military contracts, which totalled roughly 1.6 million Canadian dollars ($1.2 million). Now, the company has said it has received an additional CA$445,950 ($367,982) under one of the contracts.

The company has also announced that CA$300,000 ($238,000) of warrants have been exercised. P. Peter Pascali, President and CEO of PyroGenesis, commented on the announcement, saying: This exercise of warrants is timely. We are currently looking beyond the ramp-up phase towards increasing production capacity ahead of our original expectations. This exercise of warrants, together with any future exercise of warrants and options, will enable us to implement plans to accelerate our original schedule to increase our production capacity of metal powders for the Additive manufacturing (3D Printing) industry.

Pascali added that the company is currently investigating the possibility of having three more of its powder production systems operational by 2018. The company recently broke into the metal 3D printing powder scene, and says the initiative is moving forward successfully.

Dubai Future Accelerators gears up for third cycle, invites companies to collaborate with government for challenges of the future

As Dubais Future Accelerators program heads into its third cycle, the business accelerator initiative is inviting companies from all over the world to help find solutions to key strategic challenges. After two successful editions, in which over 4,000 applications were submitted, the Dubai Future Accelerators program is looking for more ways to integrate 4th Industrial Revolution technologies (such as 3D printing) for innovative applications.

The third cycle will take place starting in October 2017 and will last for nine weeks. The goal is to connect industry with the government to implement new and even revolutionary solutions for a plethora of issues and challenges in our modern societies.

Over the past two programs, we have enjoyed remarkable success in terms of the enthusiasm of participating government entities, and the sheer number of MoUs signed with pioneering companies to find innovative future solutions, create opportunities for sustainable growth, and further enhance our society, commented Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Accelerators.

Sectors that will be focused on for the third cycle of the program include: transport, health, security, utilities, city planning, government, telecoms, municipal services, education, entrepreneurialism, and aviation.

As part of the latter category, Dubai Future Accelerators has partnered with Emirates, which will be participating in three challenges. The challenges include developing a self-driving and eco-friendly fleet of vehicles for ground support operations at airports, improving the airlines operational efficiency by 50 percent, and creating AI- and VR-based training solutions for cabin crews.

As we open submissions for the third edition, we look forward to building on our earlier success, added Belhoul. This year, we will see new government entities come on board to collaborate with global innovators to create advanced working models and future solutions across many verticalsIt will help transform the UAE into a hub and testbed for innovative ideas, and state-of-the-art projects that will further contribute to the economy.

Singapore-based 3D Matters and 3D Metalforge obtain ISO9001 certification

Singapore-based metal 3D printing company Metalforge and its sister company 3D Matters have both been granted ISO9001:2015 certification by DNV GL, an international third-party certification body that specializes in the maritime, oil and gas, and energy industries.

According to ASQ, the ISO9001 certification is an international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). The certification is used to showcase a companys capacity to provide products and services that meet both customer and regulatory requirements.

3D Mattersrecognized as one of South East Asias leading 3D printing companiesand 3D Metalforge are the first additive manufacturing companies in the region to obtain the sought-after international quality management system standards certification. Both companies say the announcement marks a significant step forwards for them, and marks their commitment to continual improvement, customer satisfaction, and overall sustainable business performance.

Matthew Waterhouse, CEO of 3D Metalforge and 3D Matters, stated: We understand that quality standards, as well as consistent and sustainable business practices, are top priorities for most of our world-class customers. Through our strong partnership approach, 3D Metalforge hopes that our ISO9001:2015 certification will provide added confidence to our customers and stakeholders as we collaborate to jointly navigate new opportunities and challenges in the world of metal additive manufacturing.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Jul 18, 2017 | By Benedict

Australias Griffith University is planning to build a multimillion-dollar Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute (AdAM). The facility will be used to for several 3D printing purposes, and could be built as early as 2019.

Located in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia, Griffith University is home to over 44,000 students working in a number of fields. And for those at the university studying medicine, engineering, and many other subjects, things are about to get a great deal more high-tech.

Griffith University says it is building a multimillion-dollar Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute near the Gold Coast University and Gold Coast Private hospitals. The facility will enable university staff, researchers, and students to use 3D printing for a variety of purposes, with a special focus on medical applications such as 3D printed medical devices, surgical models, and even 3D printed body parts.

The Australian university says its new AdAM facility will focus on additive manufacturing, advanced materials and nanotechnology, digitally enabled technology, and next-generation electronics. Target industries will include medicine, marine and boat building, creative arts and film, automotive, and several others.

Although the 3D printing facility is not expected to be built until 2019, with serious projects expected to begin the year after, the Queensland-based university is already working with a number of stakeholders. The university hopes to receive the backing of private companies to carry out work at the institute.

The facility is at the planning stage, said Professor Ned Pankhurst, Griffith University Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor. The primary focus is...personalized orthopedic implants where you have the design, the scanning technology...and the clinical capacity together in the one place.

The intention of the facility is basically a technology platform where we do work for and with industry, either around the direct production of products and services or helping industry advance a prototype.

Professor David Lloyd of the Griffith University Menzies Health Institute Centre for Musculoskeletal Research said that the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute would create a number of jobs, for 3D printing experts and other professionals.

And according to Pankhurst, the new additive manufacturing facilities will benefit many areas besides medicine. New 3D printing equipment could, for example, be used to produce prototypes for inventions.

A big problem for the manufacturing industry, when theyre presented with a new invention or a new idea, quite often they are presented with a proof of concept, Pankhurst said. That presents a risk for the company if they then have to take all of the financial and opportunity costs associated with shifting that proof of concept through to a prototype product.

Pankhurst said the university could share that risk by enabling inventors to have a near-complete product ready to demonstrate, rather than a proof of concept.

Griffith staff expect to have lots of new 3D printing equipment up and running before the new facility is even built.

Were building a mini version of the 3D printing component on campus, Pankhurst said. Well have that up and running probably early next year so that we can develop skills and get used to industry working with us so we can do a rapid start around the AdAM project in around 2020.

Last year, a student from Griffith University used additive manufacturing to make this amazing 3D printed guitar.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jul 18, 2017 | By Tess

A group of dedicated eighth-grade students from Portsmouth, New Hampshire has 3D printed a wheelchair for a kitten with mobility problems. The six-month-old cat, a Maine coon named Ray, was born with eyes too small to see and a spinal condition that makes it impossible for him to move his hind legs.

Ray was adopted by Carrie Barron, who came across the kitten at the Odd Cat Sanctuary in Salem, Massachusetts. In spite of the cat's condition, Barron was charmed by the kittens spunk and undeniable cuteness.

It was Barrons neighbor, Erin Bakkom, a school teacher at Portsmouth Middle School, who suggested that her students design and 3D print a wheelchair to help give Ray some extra mobility. The project was meant to be both helpful for the kitten and educational for the students.

Bakkoms eighth-grade students were put into two teams, each of which was tasked with designing and 3D printing a cat-friendly wheelchair. The students worked in cooperation with the local public library, which houses a 3D printer that is open to the community.

Michaela Pugh, a technology assistant at the Portsmouth Public Library, expressed her enthusiasm about the project to ABC news, saying: "I was obviously very excited when [Bakkom] emailed me. This is what our goal was, to have people come up with real world applications and it gave us a chance to work with students and help them with their designs so they could see the whole 3D printing design and redesign process.

Last month, right before the summer holidays kicked off, the two teams of students brought their 3D printed wheelchair prototypes to Ray so he could try them on for size. Both designs consisted of a 3D printed frame and wheels taken from a Razor scooter.

When fitted with the first 3D printed wheelchair, Ray did not take to it immediately, as he started playing with it as though it were a toy. Of course, it will likely take the kitten some time to adjust to being in a wheelchair. Barron is confident he will adapt eventually.

"We have been working with Ray and getting him more comfortable with the wheelchair, she said. We are working to modify it a bit as the initial design allowed him to pivot, but we are hoping to have the modified chair ready very soon.

More recently, Ray tested out an updated prototype of a wheelchair with four wheels instead of two. In an attempt to escape from this wheelchair prototype, Ray managed to break a piece of it off. These hurdles, said Pugh, are all part of the process.

Whether it takes Ray a couple hours or many days to get accustomed to using a 3D printed wheelchair, Barron, Bakkom, and Pugh all see the experience as a positive one. "The experience of watching the students connect and create something for Ray was very impactful for both Erin and I, commented Barron. In many shelters Ray would likely have been euthanized. He's an incredibly special guy who is very happy and loves life.

If Rays story tugged at your heart strings, you can follow the kittens journey via his Instagram.

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Paul Halpern in Medium:

When he died on September 7, 2012, theoretical physicist Claud W. Lovelace left behind a house filled with parakeets. With no family or close companions, the eccentric Rutgers professor loved to be surrounded by his colorful fine-feathered friends and listen to classical music as he contemplated the nuances of unified field theory. A loner not particularly close to his colleagues, members of the Physics and Astronomy department were astounded and delighted when he willed his entire fortune of $1.5 million to it. The funds were used to help establish endowed positions in practical fields of physics, a far cry from his own speculative work. He also willed his collection of more than 4000 classical CDs to Rutgers School of the Arts and donated his body to its Medical School.

While Lovelaces death was little noted in the media  he certainly wasnt well-known even among physicists outside of string theory  arguably one of his key findings about the high number of dimensions needed for string theorys consistency had a critical impact on the history of the field. The surprising result established him as one of the most influential theoreticians of the early 1970s. String theorists still grapple with its repercussions.

Lets step back to 1970, when string theory was in its infancy.

More here.
S. Billie Mandle at Cabinet:

Saint Christopher, the enigmatic martyr and patron saint of travelers and children who bore the increasingly heavy Christ child across a deadly river before his own decapitation, bears brown water stains across his acoustical tiles. Light falls in displaced blades through his half-shut opening, across his little ledge, glaring the green cover of a volume lying there, angling down brown half-wall panels into the shadow realm. Saint Elizabethwho vanishes from the Bible eight days after giving birth, when the men who are to circumcise her son arrive and try to name him Zechariah, whereupon she cries out, No, he is to be called John! for this is John the Baptistis transformed, as in a Greek myth, into the black constellations of perforations in her soundproof paneling, then mantled with a jointed beam of light. And Saint Thomas More, intently principled, severe and merciless, who would not bow to kings, is a single, narrow ray plunging down a wooden wall, illuminating the grain in patterns reminiscent of a seizure patients EKG.

For seven years, S. Billie Mandle traveled across the United States, photographing church confessionals, searching, she has written, for what might be left behind in these private rooms. One recognition she came todocumented in her series Reconciliation, selections from which are presented hereis that the imprint of what these spaces not only witnessed but lived through was so palpably vivid that the rooms themselves assumed the character of the churchs heroic intercessors. These chambers carried scars suggesting martyrdom and sacrificeas well as lyric plays of light and color, attesting to the possibility of grace.

more here.
Daniel Beer at Literary Review:

In March 1945, with victory over Nazi Germany only weeks away, Pravda praised the nearly one million Soviet women who had fought the Germans and their allies. They had proved themselves as pilots, snipers, submachine gunners. But they dont forget about their primary duty to nation and state  that of motherhood. In accordance with the official policy of the state, women combatants were henceforth to lay down not only their arms but also their wartime identities. While men were celebrated in the postwar years as frontoviki, frontline soldiers who had made heroic sacrifices to defeat fascism, the contribution of women to the struggle was reduced in popular memory to the traditionally familiar wartime occupations of nursing and cooking.

Drawing on diaries and her own interviews with veterans, Lyuba Vinogradova seeks to recover the experiences of Soviet women combatants from the obscurity to which they were consigned. Vinogradovas rambling but highly readable Avenging Angels follows snipers from their first days of training and their first kills to their participation in great set-piece battles on the Eastern Front and their eventual deployment in the assault on Berlin. Some became accomplished soldiers who fought in the vanguard of the Soviet army and notched up dozens of confirmed kills. Yet in Vinogradovas account, their voices are frequently submerged beneath a narrative that cannot decide whether it wants to be an exciting account of the heroic exploits of women in combat or a more reflective meditation on the personal dislocations, exhilarations and traumas of war. The female snipers themselves remain, for the most part, psychologically inaccessible. They fight, suffer the death of comrades, fall in love, participate in fierce battles, witness atrocities and (in some cases) eventually return home, often in a few short paragraphs that tend to summarise rather than illuminate.

more here.
Sept. 9 will be the 50th anniversary of the first airing of "Laugh-in," which started as a one-off TV special and was expanded into a series the following year. To commemorate the occasion, Time Life is releasing a $249.95 DVD set of the entire series.

Laugh-In, which aired 140 more episodes from 1968 to 1973, was unlike anything else on TV at the time. It blended vaudeville gags with Ernie Kovacsstyle absurdist humor, 1960s hipster lingo and fashion, and topical satire  all delivered with nonstop, rapid-fire gags. The program also gave us an early glimpse of actresses Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn, who would go on to become major Hollywood movie stars.

In a Los Angeles Times interview, Tomlin recalled that the production was as wild and fast-paced as what viewers ultimately saw. There was no audience, she said. They would be setting up the set for a joke, filming another joke and breaking down another set all at the same time.

The offbeat show became such a hit that celebrities from Peter Sellers to John Wayne to Diana Ross were eager to make cameos. But perhaps the biggest surprise was when presidential candidate Richard Nixon made a brief appearance in 1968, in which he uttered only the phrase Sock it to me.
People who call the service are upholding a tradition dating back to the infancy of telephone technology when anyone could simply pick up the telephone and ask a human operator for the time. Throughout the 20th century, telephone companies  first Ma Bell, and then various telecommunications companies that sprung up after the Bell Companies were broken up in 1984  offered services that offered callers the current time and temperature. The time was usually updated in 5- or 10-second increments, punctuated by the distinctive beep tone that put a fleeting mark on it. The numbers were simple and easy to remember. In New York City, residents dialed Meridian 1212. In Baltimore, the number was 844-1212. Out west, the service was called POPCORN, because in order to reach it you spelled the word on your phone keypad.

Callers were greeted by a friendly message, voiced by different people in different regions. Some phone services included messages from sponsors; others were more straightforward. Before the digital age, many people used the service to reset clocks after power outages or other disruptions. Verizon discontinued the service in 2011, though it held out longer than AT&T, which had pulled the plug four years earlier. It's still offered in some communities by local businesses and organizations.

As clocks appeared on more and more devices, from cable boxes to appliances to those ubiquitous phones, most would assume that demand for the USNO service would be on the wane. That's not the case, according to Matsakis. We expected it to drop off, because with cellphones you get the time right there, he said. But calls have gone up since 2009.

Today's callers to the USNO line hear the same voice they have since 1978, when actor Fred Covington recorded every possible permutation of the time over several days. Covington was a character actor, possibly best known for his portrayal of an auctioneer in the original 1977 Roots miniseries. He died in 1993, but if you dial the right number, his voice  and a service many probably assumed had long ago vanished  lives on.
9AA: Wall tops Parkston for first state football title in 28 years
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No one ever starts their day thinking that by the end of it, they may need to seek the assistance of a lawyer. In fact, thats a situation that no one wants to be in. Yet every day, people in Delaware County, PA are injured in accidents that are caused by a negligent party. Then, despite health, car, and workers compensation insurance, they are faced with many difficult decisions regarding how to pay for the much needed medical care. In some of the worst cases, the injuries they sustain prevent them from ever again working in their chosen career.

Monheit Law, a personal injury law firm, operates on the idea that no person should have to suffer financially on top of their physical injuries because someone else didnt do everything in their power to keep other individuals safe. Their legal counsel recognizes that every case is unique, just like every client is unique and there is no such thing as just another case.

Together with the client, their team works to review the accident, determine how many parties were at fault, determine which legal avenues apply to their situation, file paperwork, speak with insurance companies, consult with medical and accident specialists, determine losses, discover evidence, and pursue justice.

Evidence that can support a case may include medical records, machine or property maintenance records, and even surveillance video, all of which can be difficult to obtain without the help of an attorney. While seeking legal help may be an option that most a hesitate to consider, it may be the only way that the plaintiff is able to obtain the compensation that can pay for medical bills, cover lost wages, and even provide coverage for ongoing physical pain and emotional trauma.

To learn more about how Monheit Law pursues justice on behalf of their clients, visit their website.

Media Contact

Company Name: Monheit Law

Contact Person: Michael Monheit

Email: info@monheit.com

Phone: 215-398-7397

Address:100 S Broad St #1218a

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Completes Transfer of EPC to SMS Group

Perth, July 18, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Altech Chemicals Limited (Altech/the Company) ( ASX:ATC ) ( A3Y:FRA ) is pleased to provide an update on the transition of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for its proposed Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) plant, from the previously appointed EPC contractor to German engineering firm SMS group GmbH (SMS).



Highlights



- Transfer of all engineering data to SMS group's EPC team successfully completed



- Key engineering personnel remain available to assist SMS's team



- High quality engineering work by previous contractor and excellent co-operation



- Site visit by SMS's project team to Johor, Malaysia completed



- EPC fixed price estimate well advanced



On 16 May 2017, the Company announced the appointment of SMS as EPC contractor for the construction of its proposed Malaysian HPA plant. SMS will provide a fixed price turnkey contract and has proposed a clear and concise guarantee to Altech for plant throughput. In addition, having prior experience with the kaolin-HPA hydrogen chloride processing technique that Altech will use, SMS has proposed process and final product guarantees that will strengthen Altech's export credit project finance cover application. The additional guarantees proposed by SMS are extremely positive outcomes that significantly mitigate project risk.



By mutual agreement, the previously appointed EPC contractor has now completed the transfer of all engineering data and information to the SMS/Altech project team. A week-long formal handover was completed in Dusseldorf, Germany during which incoming discipline team leaders were extensively briefed by their respective outgoing counterparts and Altech. Importantly, key-person engineering personnel continue to be available to assist the SMS/Altech team and ensure efficient and complete information handover. The managing director of SMS's Process Technologies division, Mr Herbert Weissenbaeck heads its project development team, with various leaders appointed for each of the key disciplines.



The EPC handover cumulated with a visit by key EPC team members to the Tanjung Langsat Industrial Complex, Johor, Malaysia to inspect the site secured by Altech for the proposed HPA plant. Key local design, permitting and environmental consultants were introduced to the SMS team, and the proposed laydown areas and construction support infrastructure were inspected. SMS, having recently successfully completed the Sakura smelting project, in Sarawak, Malaysia, has an established Malaysian subsidiary that is ideally placed to supervise the construction of Altech's HPA plant.



During the transition, SMS commented on the quality of the engineering work completed before its involvement in the project, and the professional co-operation during handover. Likewise, Altech acknowledges the previous engineering contractor for the quality of its work, its professionalism, co-operation and support.



The managing director of SMS's Process Technologies, Mr Herbert Weissenbaeck said that the engineering completed so far is of a quality compliant with the standards expected from a well-established German plant builder. "We have conducted a review of most of the proposed plant and process and we are confident the process proposed by Altech will be successful at producing the targeted 99.99% quality alumina. The engineering is well progressed and generally meeting our high standards. Information and knowledge transition from the previous contractor is proceeding well. As announced on 12 July 2017, SMS participated in a US$100,000 placement of shares as a demonstration of our confidence and support of the project."



SMS will continue finalising the EPC capital cost estimate for the HPA plant, which is well advanced and expected by the end of the current quarter.



Commenting on the transfer to SMS as EPC contractor, Altech managing director Iggy Tan said, "The process of transitioning to SMS has been very smooth, with the extensive amount of engineering data successfully transferred from the previous engineering contractor. As we stated previously, SMS has been able to pick-up the detail design work where it was left, with minimal re-work required. SMS's immediate focus is to provide an indicative EPC fixed price so that Altech can proceed to finalise its export credit finance (ECA) application, which we are aiming to do by the end of the current quarter. SMS has extensive experience with German ECA cover and is amongst the top three users of this facility in Germany, so it is very familiar with the export credit approval process."



SMS group



SMS is a large privately owned German engineering company with an annual turnover of approximately 3.3 billion Euros. SMS builds turnkey solutions based on innovative plant technology, complete with buildings, infrastructure and auxiliary equipment for processing plants such as Altech's proposed HPA plant. SMS was founded in 1871 and is based in Dsseldorf, Germany with office locations worldwide. SMS has recent EPC contract experience in Malaysia, having successfully completed the Sakura smelting project, in Sarawak.



To view figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/B46K9Z28





About Altech Chemicals Ltd





Altech Chemicals Limited (ASX:ATC) (FRA:A3Y) is aiming to become one of the world's leading suppliers of 99.99% (4N) high purity alumina (Al2O3) through the construction and operation of a 4,500tpa high purity alumina (HPA) processing plant at Johor, Malaysia. Feedstock for the plant will be sourced from the Company's 100%-owned kaolin deposit at Meckering, Western Australia and shipped to Malaysia.



HPA is a high-value, high margin and highly demanded product as it is the critical ingredient required for the production of synthetic sapphire. Synthetic sapphire is used in the manufacture of substrates for LED lights, semiconductor wafers used in the electronics industry, and scratch-resistant sapphire glass used for wristwatch faces, optical windows and smartphone components. Increasingly HPA is used by lithium-ion battery manufacturers as the coating on the battery's separator, which improves performance, longevity and safety of the battery. With global HPA demand approximately 19,000t (2018), it is estimated that this demand will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% (2018-2028); by 2028 HPA market demand will be approximately 272,000t, driven by the increasing adoption of LEDs worldwide as well as the demand for HPA by lithium-ion battery manufacturers to serve the surging electric vehicle market.


Strengthens Acreage Position in Papua New Guinea

Sydney, July 18, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Oil ( ASX:HZN ) ( HZNFF:OTCMKTS ) is pleased to advise that it has increased to about 28% its interest in the total certified resources contained in Papua New Guinea's Western Foreland fields of 2.0 - 2.5 tcf gas and 60 - 70 mmbbl of condensate. The Company and partner Repsol now operate all the licences and hold 70% of the total gas resource to be aggregated to underpin the proposed 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Western LNG project, facilitating the planned multi-licence development in one of the world's premier locations for LNG developments.



- Interest in key fields involved in the proposed gas aggregation project - Elevala/Tingu and Ketu - increased to 30.15%



- 20% interest acquired in Puk Puk and Douglas fields, the only appraised fields in the Western Forelands in which Horizon Oil was not previously represented



- Interest in Ubuntu field reduced to 30% to provide portfolio balance



- Horizon Oil's upstream acreage and resource position for the Western LNG project is now complete, which will enhance the Company's capacity to advance the project



The Company advised in January 2017 that it had acquired a 50% interest in, and operatorship of, PRL 28 (Ubuntu field) adjacent to PRL 21 (see map below). Further to that transaction, the Company has:



- Acquired an additional 3.15% interest in PRL 21 (Elevala/Tingu and Ketu fields) as a result of Mitsubishi Corporation divesting its upstream assets in PNG; and



- Exchanged a 20% interest in PRL 28 for a 20% interest in PRL 40 (Puk Puk and Douglas fields) in a trade with Kumul Petroleum Holdings, PNG's national oil company. Completion of this transaction is conditional only on customary PNG Government approvals.



The cash cost is confidential but the Company's cash position will not be materially reduced as a result of the strategic acquisitions, taking into account the consideration for the acquisitions and the near term exploration and development costs arising from the expanded resource base.



Horizon Oil's previous and current licence interests after completion of the transactions are set out in the table (see the link below) and licence locations shown on the map that follows (see the link below).



CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S COMMENTS



The summary presentation (see the link below) accompanying this release shows how Horizon Oil's licence interests relate to the planned 1.5 mtpa LNG facility to be located near Daru Island on the coast. The foundation gas will come, in the main, from Elevala/Tingu and Ketu fields and so an additional 3% in this licence makes good sense.



Puk Puk and Douglas fields will be important contributors to the gas aggregation later in the project life, extending the production plateau significantly. We are pleased to be able to acquire a 20% interest in these fields in exchange for 20% of our interest in the Ubuntu licence, where we were overweight, in a trade agreement with Kumul Petroleum Holdings. As a result of this and other recent transactions, Kumul will hold interests in Stanley, Ubuntu, Puk Puk and Douglas fields and, as the national oil company, we expect they will bring considerable strategic value to the gas aggregation project.



We now consider that our PNG acreage portfolio, with the recent enhancements, is optimally balanced. Horizon Oil's 20 - 30% interests in the discovered fields will give us a meaningful interest in Western LNG - yet remain manageable from a funding perspective, taking into account the US $130 million milestone payment due on project FID and also the funds to be reimbursed by the PNG government should it elect to back-in to the project. The 80 - 100% interests in the exploration licences provide scope for Horizon Oil to farm out future exploration work, to reduce exposure to cost and exploration risk. The exploration acreage is located close to, and on trend with, existing discoveries and has considerable add-on potential to extend the life of Western LNG.



As a result of these transactions, the Company holds material working interests in all the appraised fields that will comprise the Western LNG gas aggregation project. Horizon Oil and Repsol between them operate all the licences involved and, in combination, will own about 70% of the total gas resources. This should greatly facilitate the planned multi-licence development."



To view tables, figures and the summary presentation, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/E24Z8ZNI





About Horizon Oil Ltd





Horizon Oil Limited (ASX:HZN) (OTCMKTS:HZNFF) is an ASX-listed petroleum exploration and production company, with a geographic focus on the Asia-Pacific region. The company currently produces over 4,000 barrels of oil per day net from its fields in New Zealand and China, which generated over US$80 million in net operating income after operating expense for the year ended 30 June 2015. Further development candidates remain in and around these producing fields.

Horizon Oil maintains prudent policies of oil price hedging and loss of production insurance to ensure that sufficient cash flow is generated to meet the funding requirements of its growth program.

The company holds a large undeveloped reserves and contingent resource position in Western Province, onshore Papua New Guinea. These are liquids-rich gas resources and reflect Horizon Oils strategy to focus on Asian gas for growth. Gas constitute about 2/3 of the reserves and resource base. Commercialisation pathways for the gas are emerging.

Although Horizon Oil anticipates continuing strong cash generation over the medium term from its existing producing fields, these developed reserves account for only 10% of total reserves and resource base. The focus going forward will be on new field development, funded largely from existing production cash flow.
Dr. Leo Rebello independent peoples vice presidential candidate has sent legal notice to the Election Commission of India mentioning about political parties like BJP selecting their own candidates for the presidential election and foisting them on the nation. According to him, presidential election should be held in a democratic manner and transparency must be followed and national interests should come first. Rebello also added that entire election process is sabotaged by political parties and deserving candidates are not nominated for the post. He said that everybody knows which candidate is going to win the presidential polls and holding election is a mere formality.

He said, Even though I have issued notice to Election Commission in this regard but they have turned a blind eye towards it. If I am not selected by the BJP today or if I fail to get 40 signatures because of whip, I shall challenge the whole election process soon, by reviving de novo my WP (Civil) 219 of 2007 (Review) pending/delayed in the Supreme Court of India. As an alert citizen of India, I remain dedicated to Satyamev Jayate. My best wishes for sanity in politics, administration and justice delivery.

Meanwhile close to 99% voting was recorded for electing Indias next president, the returning officer for the poll announced, saying it was perhaps the highest ever percentage. The counting of votes will take place on 20 July. The numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling coalitions nominee Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar governor, over the oppositions candidate and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

The presidential polls saw 99% polling with Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Puducherry recording cent per cent voting, according to Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra, the returning officer for the polls.
A state owned Chinese daily has urged both India and China to exercise restraint to avoid the current border standoff between the two countries.

The Global Times, in an opinionated article titled Indias provocation will trigger all-out confrontation on LAC has asked the Chinese authorities to get ready for the face-off becoming a long-term situation and at the same time also suggested to maintain a sense of rationality.

Within China, there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the countrys sovereignty, while Indian public opinion is clamouring for war with China. However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiralling out of control, the article said.

The article in the tabloid daily, which is a part of the ruling Communist Party of China media group, said: Indias concerns over Chinas development in recent years have prompted them to trigger this border dispute.

As two big developing countries, India and China both had a history of past colonization, and now both are enjoying fast economic growth. But China has risen quickly to be the worlds No. 2 economy. As time is on Chinas side, New Delhi is deeplyconcerned with Chinas rapid rise. Provocation at the border reflects Indias worry and attempt to sound out China, it said.

The article in the Chinese tabloid accused India of poisoning the atmosphere for bilateral border negotiations that are underway between the two sides.

It further said that China tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but warned that Beijing doesnt fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation.

It said that there are voices within China that call for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately, while Indian public opinion is clamouring for war with China.

The present standoff between India and China emerged after New Delhi expressed its apprehension over Beijings road construction in the Sikkim sector of the border.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

It also alleged that the Indian troops had crossed the Sikkim section of the Indo-China border.
Thirty-four Cameroonian soldiers from the elite Rapid Intervention Brigade were missing today, a day after an army vessel capsized off the countrys southeastern coast.

The ship was carrying 37 people, including crew, and was on its way to the city of Bakassi for refuelling when it sank on Sunday morning, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said in a statement.

Thirty-four personnel are missing till now, he said. Three soldiers were rescued but the boat seems to have sunk right down.

He said the circumstances of the accident were not yet clear but the waters were very choppy when it happened.

The Rapid Intervention Brigade is in the front line of Cameroons fight against Boko Haram jihadists in the north.

Though Boko Haram originated in Nigeria, the Islamic State-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Cameroons Far North region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Boko Haram after months of relative calm.

This month, two bombers blew themselves up in northeastern Cameroon killing 15 people in an attack blamed on Boko Haram.

Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region have fled their villages in fear of the violence.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on Tuesday opposed the UK governments plan to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump, saying the US President should not be accorded the honour as his policies are at odds with many around the world.

State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet, first Asian mayor of London Khan, 46, said on Monday.

If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role. If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump, Pakistan-origin Khan told CNN.

Khan has previously clashed with Trump on Twitter over his decision to bar people from travelling to the US from mainly Muslim countries and the response to the London Bridge terror attack last month.

An invitation to a State Visit to the UK was extended to Trump and US First Lady Melania by British Prime Minister Theresa May on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Washington DC in January this year.

However, there were doubts cast over the visit taking place this year after it was left out of the Queens Speech, which lays out all State Visits planned for the UKs parliamentary calendar.
The 68-year-old Venkaiah Naidu was chosen as the NDAs vice presidential candidate at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board. He filed his nomination papers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders by his side. Naidus nomination for Vice President is seen as part of the BJPs attempts to expand in south India which has been identified by party chief Amit Shah as a key region for growth before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Naidu is rewarded for his loyalty and also as surprise to Telangana.

The two-time BJP president is pitted against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was chosen by an alliance of 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, but his election is almost inevitable due to the NDAs huge numerical superiority over the opposition. Naidu served as the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting in the Modi ministry. A prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he has also served as its national president from 2002 to 2004. Earlier, he was the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

He came into spotlight for his prominent role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972. While Kakani Venkata Ratnam led the movement from Vijayawada, Naidu took active part in the agitation in Nellore, until it was called off a year later. In 1974, he became the convener of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Narayan Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Andhra Pradesh. He took to streets in protest against the emergency and was imprisoned. From 197780, he was the president of its youth wing.

Both as a student leader and political figure, Naidu gained prominence as a brilliant orator, who vigorously championed the cause of the farmers and the development of backward areas. His oratory skills and political activism propelled his political career and he was elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice from Udayagiri constituency in Nellore district in 1978 and 1983. He rose to become one of the most popular leaders of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh.

After having served in various organisational posts of the BJP at the state and national level, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. He has since been re-elected twice in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka. He served as the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000, bringing to the job his panache for quirky alliterations and similes. Unlike most politicians from southern India, Naidu made an effort to master Hindi, going on to address public rallies in northern India.

After NDAs victory in the 1999 general elections, he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural development in the government headed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was known for aggressively pushing for reforms in Rural development and for the many schemes introduced during this period such as the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthy as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2002. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full 3-year term. After the defeat of the BJP led NDA in the 2004 general elections, he resigned from his post on 18 October 2004 and was succeeded by L.K. Advani. However, he has remained in the forefront of the BJP as one of its senior vice-presidents and an important campaigner. M Venkaiah Naidu (now Union Urban Development minister) raised Special Status to Andhra Pradesh issue in Rajya Sabha (as opposition member in February 2014) and demanded special category state status to AP. The then Prime Minister agreed to it, though it was not included in the AP Reorganisation Act-2014.

Naidu is also involved with the Swarna Bharath Trust, a social service organisation founded by him in Nellore. The trust runs a school for poor, orphaned and special-needs children and imparts self-employment training programmes especially for women and youth.

In a farewell press conference soon after he filed his nomination, he expressed his gratitude to the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah as he played down reports that he was not very keen for the new responsibility. Mr Naidu had resigned from the party. He had resigned from the cabinet last night after his candidature was announced. Hope he will be prove to be a good Vice president of India. We wish him all the best.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Road safety is a concern for all irrespective of gender. Lack of etiquettes on roads will prove fatal to the lives of citizens. Road safety is a priority and concern to all of us and there is a need of regularly reinforcing this message. True costs of accidents are rarely assessed, and can only be of full value if evaluated to formulate future projections of loss probability and effective safety management. It seems as if no one is interested in striking at the root of the traffic problems: poor driver education. Road users should avoid driving recklessly. The other example of neglecting while driving or riding are using hand phone while driving, driving when you are sleepy, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and playing loud music while driving. If the authorities are interested in proper traffic management, the RTOs need to be modernized and upgraded.

Bikers often indulge in reckless driving and action must be taken against them. Roads are a mess today not because of the bad quality of work, but due to inferior planning. Lane sizes, pedestrian crossings, traffic signals or left-turns are poorly designed. All of this reckless act can be overcome by taking some steps such as use Bluetooth phone devices when receiving or making a call while driving. If the authorities are interested in proper traffic management, the RTOs need to be modernized and upgraded. Duty timings of traffic cops should also be extended to man this busy junction to check erring motorists. Many people drive at 6-7 in the evening with their high-beams on, which can disrupt the view of driver on the opposite side.

Also, lane-driving must be made mandatory. Drivers must be sensitized about the rights of the pedestrians. Roads are in dire straits today not because of the bad quality of work, but due to faulty planning. Lane sizes, pedestrian crossings, traffic signals or left-turns are poorly designed. We should fix these issues at the earliest.

Lack of knowledge about correct use of high-beam headlamps creates problem at night. People are granted license with little knowledge about honking and lighting norms. This is a bad practice as it can result in accidents.

Theres no concept of lane-driving. All they understand is that the road is their race track and they need to be the first one even if that means overtaking a guy who just gave the indicator to take a turn. At traffic signals, people taking a right-turn tend to stop in the middle of the lane, thus blocking the traffic. If we go through statistics of road accident data of 2015 reveals that around 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths take place every day on Indian roads, resulting in 57 accidents and loss of 17 lives on an average every hour. The Supreme Court has also expressed its concern at the high number of road accident fatalities  1.5 lakh  every year in India.

Stringent laws against drunk and rash driving, proper and effective enforcement of the laws and the tough and sincere judiciary in dealing with the accidents alone could ultimately have a positive effect in dealing with the ever growing accidents. Cops tend to overlook the bikers who ride without a helmet and are involved in rash driving, but they impose fine on someone, who may be in a hurry to reach hospital, for over speeding. If people drive more sensibly, our roads will be safer for all. Lets stop giving excuses, instead look for solutions on the basis of suggestions received from experts and concerned citizens. People must be taught road etiquette, which could reduce 50 per cent of disarray on streets.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 42F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Local Public Safety officers hang out with residents at the inaugural Aiken Unity Day celebration last year in Perry Park. The second Aiken Unity Day will take place Saturday.
In this photo, Talia Eisenberg, cofounder of the Henley Vaporium, uses her vaping device in New York. Soon, the Food and Drug Administration will propose rules for ecigarettes. E-cigarettes, however, have been found to be successful in aiding people in their quest to quit smoking.
Iraqi Assyrian Youth Leaders Look to Jewish History for Inspiration

Participants in the Assyrian youth trip to Israel organized by the Philos Leadership Institute hold an Assyrian flag. The terrorist attack on Friday in Jerusalem brought back memories of terror in Iraq for Diana, a member of a group of Assyrian youth leaders touring the country. "You go out and you don't know if you are going to come back safely," she recalls. "I saw people acting normally as if nothing happened, life goes on, memories came back." Her family of Chaldean Catholics left Kirkuk in Iraq in 2008 and moved to Canada, part of a wave of immigration of Christians who have left Iraq since the 1990s. She is one of 28 young Assyrians from North America spending a week and a half touring Israel. In the last decades the population of Iraqi Christians has declined from some 2 million in the 1990s to less than 500,000 today. When ISIS attacked Nineveh plains around Mosul in 2014 more than 100,000 Christians fled numerous villages and towns that they have ancient roots in. Now a movement has begun abroad to encourage Christians whose families fled Iraq to take a new interest in rebuilding communities and reconnecting young people to their identity. The idea of bringing young Assyrians to Israel was pioneered by the Philos Leadership Institute and its Passages Israel program. Juliana Taimoorazy, who was born in Iran and now runs the Iraqi Christian Relief Council says that the Philos Project program partnered with the Museum of the Bible Foundation to sponsor and bring young Christian millennials to experience Israel. She describes a "vision to cultivate the young leaders for the Assyrian nation to lead it into a positive tomorrow." The multi-layered idea is not only to encourage leadership skills among members of this Middle East diaspora community, but also to connect them to Israel and for them to learn about the conflict. Sitting at a table in a hotel in Jerusalem, five of the participants described their trip to the border of Gaza and the Galilee. They also enjoyed the night life, music, food, and for some it "felt like back home." But for these young men and women, all in their twenties, "back home" is a complex story. Fadi Besmaji grew up in Saudi Arabia but lives in Toronto and has a master's degree in engineering. Even though he is of Syriac Orthodox background, as a young man in restrictive Saudi, he recalls his mother wearing the black garb that women wear in the kingdom. Christian activities only took place when they summered in Syria, where there is an active Christian community. Mary Anton, one of the leaders who has been to Israel before, was born in Iraq. Her family moved to Basra briefly for work and came to Canada in 1995. She grew up speaking Arabic and has only recently taken up learning Assyrian, an ancient Semitic language. Another participant, Meryana Moshe, was born in Jordan but came to Canada in 1999, while 28-year-old Evon and Diana, who asked not to use their last names, left Iraq in 1997 and 2008. Although Assyrian church groups have come on pilgrimage before, the youth say it is the first initiative of its kind to bring young people from this community, including members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Catholic Chaldeans, Syriacs and Protestants. Fadi says a visit to the country on a "Christian-led trip to the Holy Land" was on his bucket list. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is constantly present on his campus back home. "It's very oppressive, before the vote on BDS, the pro-Palestinians had a big poster of a girl who was bombed and they said Israelis did it." Meryana agreed: "You can't even approach these pro-Palestinian activists. They just yell and attack you [if you question them]. That's why I wanted to come." For this group the story of the founding of Israel has a message for how they think young Iraqi Christians can come together in the future. "I think Israel is an inspiration for a future Assyria. Jews and Assyrians went through the same things, being here inspires me to build Assyria and build our people and learn about our heritage and I look at Israel and see a future Assyria," says Mary. The church has been a center of life and identify for many of these young immigrants. "Toronto is very multicultural. [When we arrived] we had a host family, so they took us for a week and we found a local Assyrian Church of the East and there was already a community there," recalls Evon. Many of them followed the news about Iraq growing up, but ISIS atrocities were overwhelming. "I used to read about Iraq until ISIS and then it got to you, it's heartbreaking and I felt I couldn't do anything," recalls Meryana. Mary says she can't wait to go back and see where her ancestors are from. But they know the challenges that Christian communities face in Nineveh. "You have Kurdish and Arab forces trying to claim it as theirs, they fund and train and arm their own militias and there is politics," says Evon. They face hurdles not only because of the competition for who will rule Nineveh and whether Christians will receive more autonomy there, but also among competing Christian groups who don't agree on the future. Taimoorazy compares Iraq to a flower in which the Christian minority is like the scent of the flower and she wants to see Assyrians return and rebuild. "Technically ISIS is defeated, but it has won because homes are destroyed. That doesn't stop us from serving the community."
Turkey's Assyrian Community and the Threat of 'Nationalization'

An Assyrian priest climbs the stairs at the Syriac Orthodox Mor Gabriel monastery, in Turkish southeastern town of Midyat. ( AFP) The ownership of around 50 churches, monasteries, and cemeteries that belonged to the Syriac Orthodox Church for more than 1,500 years was transferred to the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Dinayet), hence turned into public facilities. The Syriac properties, which total hundreds of thousands of square meters, were annexed by the directorate following the decision by the government committee assigned the liquidation of assets whose ownership deeds expired. The decision sent shock waves across members of the Syriac community who started fearing that this could be the first step towards the extinction of their heritage. Kuryakos Ergun, chairman of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation, said that an appeal filed against the confiscation, which included the fifth-century monastery, was rejected and highlighted the danger of losing this monastery, one of the world's oldest operational monasteries, and other Syriac houses of worship. "Our churches and monasteries are what root Syriacs in these lands; our existence relies on them. They are our history and what sustains our culture," he said. "While the country should be protecting this heritage, we instead see our culture is at risk." Ergun added that the fifth-century Mor Meliki monastery is also among the confiscated properties. "This monastery is set beside a spring revered by pilgrims for its healing powers and was tended by two Syriac families." Both monasteries are located in the Tur Abdin region in southwest Turkey between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and which is known to be the historic center of Syriac heritage and the heart of its monastic history. The name of the region is Syriac for "mountain of the servants of God" and the region is home to more than 80 monasteries. Robert Nicholson, the executive director of the Philos Project, which addresses the problems of Christians in the Middle East, attributed the confiscation of Syriac properties to new policies adopted by Erdogan's government to control minorities in the restive southwest. "In the case of the Syriac Christians, Erdogan is using legal pretexts to seize and redistribute lands and churches that have been owned by Christians for over a millennium," he said. Nicholson noted that Christians were generally not persecuted by Turkish authorities and did not face discriminatory practices under Erdogan, yet he argued that this seems to be changing. "But Turkish politics are changing, and it's still unclear how minority groups like the Syriacs will fare in the end." Turkish journalist Uygar G
July 18, 2017

NORTHERN ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria  Its been almost a year and a half since Abdullah Hilal has been at his house in Tel Rifaat, about 25 miles north of the city of Aleppo. Hilal and his family fled the town two days before it was seized by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in February 2016.

During the battle, the SDF  which includes Kurdish fighters  was also backed by Russian air power that carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Tel Rifaat and other areas held by the Turkey-supported rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), displacing thousands of civilians from their towns and villages.

Due to the intensive Russian aerial bombing and artillery shelling by the SDF, Hilal, a father of four, was forced to leave his house.

I did not fear for my life or physical safety. I feared for my children," he told Al-Monitor in a recent interview in Bab al-Salam refugee camp, near the Syrian-Turkish border. "I still remember the day we left Tel Rifaat. Intense fear prevented us from bringing the essential items with us. While moving my things, my children cried out for me to hurry up, while a warplane was flying over.

Hilal is not yet willing to move out of his small tent, despite the scorching sun and miserable conditions in the camp, where residents have been going through hell. But he hopes the situation will change before long.

I have the feeling that I will soon return home. We have endured a lot in Bab al-Salam camp," he said. "There is no drinking water and electricity, and there is no way to work and have a decent life. We have experienced  humiliation during displacement. Enough  We want to return home.

More than 100,000 people who have been displaced from towns and villages in northern Aleppo province are in camps in Bab al-Salam, al-Nour, al-Iman and Sajou. They are all eager to return home and hope it will be soon. Their hopes have been raised by accelerating developments on the battlefront in Aleppo, intermittent clashes between the FSA and SDF, and the exchange of shelling. The Turkish military has mobilized in the countryside and near the border to take Tel Rifaat and nearby towns from the SDF.

Ibrahim Mohammed, who is from Sheikh Hilal near Tel Rifaat, told Al-Monitor, My family and I cannot return to our village unless it's liberated from the SDF. The village is now unpopulated, similar to Tel Rifaat, Sheikh Issa, Harbal and other villages whose people cannot return. Less than 10% of the people in areas seized by the SDF managed to return to their towns, such as Kafr Naya and Deir Jamal. The rest of the people are still in the camps.

Several attempts at negotiations sponsored by the US-led coalition took place between the FSA and SDF to ensure the SDF's safe withdrawal from Tel Rifaat and nearby towns. However, the FSA said the SDF wasn't serious about withdrawing, despite the US-led coalition's recommendation. The Tel Rifaat Military Council announced that negotiations had failed and a military option was the sole solution. Since then, the situation between the FSA and SDF has escalated on battlefronts in northern Aleppo.

Meanwhile, a newly formed group of Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, Ahl al-Diyar (People of Diyar), has entered the fray.

Abdel Ghani Chawbak, the official spokesperson for the Ahl al-Diyar operations room, told Al-Monitor, We have striven to reach a peaceful solution with the SDF to prevent bloodshed and restore areas via negotiations, as well as to help 100,000 displaced [people] to return. The SDF, however, thwarted the endeavors to bring about peace. It is the right of the thousands of displaced to revolt against those who occupied their land. The right to liberate the land is internationally recognized.

He continued, Ahl al-Diyar consists of a popular resistance operations room, and is not affiliated with the FSA. It is a popular liberation movement from the camps, consisting of people hailing from SDF-occupied areas. Members of this operations room desire to restore their occupied towns and villages, which is the only remaining option.

The drums of war between the SDF and the Turkey-backed FSA have picked up tempo in northern Aleppo since early July. On July 4, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG)  which plays a large role in the SDF  called on the public in YPG-controlled areas in northern Aleppo to take to the streets to protest offensives against them. Salih Muslim, the co-chair of the Kurdish nationalist, US-backed Democratic Union Party (PYD), warned July 5 that areas in northern Aleppo and Afrin will be handed over to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad if attacked.

Also, on July 7, demonstrations flared in FSA-held areas demanding that the SDF be kicked out. This is in addition to July 9 demonstrations in Mare city also demanding that the FSA liberate the SDF-held areas.
July 13, 2017

The breakdown in relations between Qatar and Egypt isn't expected to affect investments between the countries, according to Egyptian officials and some economic experts.

Egypt decided, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to sever ties with Qatar on June 5. The financial world immediately predicted the break in ties would negatively affect economic relations between Qatar and the Gulf states involved.

But Egypt says it did not make the decision lightly and took into consideration Qatari investments in Egypt. According to data from Egypt's General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, 210 Qatari companies have more than $1.1 billion invested in Egypt, mainly in the services sector, followed by industry.

Egypt has been keen to reassure Qatari investors working in Egypt; Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr confirmed in a June 7 press statement that Qatari investments in Egypt are protected by law.

The Egyptian state respects its contracts and provides a safe environment for the investments of individuals and institutions on its territory, she said.

The countries that cut ties with Qatar did so because, they allege, Qatar finances terrorist operations and harbors extremists. Qatar denies the allegations.

After the ties were cut, many Egyptian businessmen  even some who cooperate with Qatari entrepreneurs  criticized Qatari investments and businesses in Egypt.

The law and investments ought to be respected in Egypt. But I believe that Qatari investors are not welcomed in Egypt for the time being. Let them take their investments and move away from us. We cannot cooperate with a state that funds the people who kill our children," Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris said June 5 during a phone call with Egyptian TV talk show host Lamis El Hadidi on Extra News channel.

He added, I call upon all Egyptian and Gulf businessmen not to invest in Qatar or within its territories because it is a matter of principle. We should not cooperate with a state that supports terrorism."

Following Egypt's decision to boycott Qatar, rumors abounded of a government decision to stop trading in Qatar's currency, the riyal, and suspend the activities of the Qatar National Bank (QNB), which has several branches in Egypt. But Tariq Amer, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), denied the reports in a June 5 statement to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

The QNB bank is an Egyptian bank that is subject to the CBE law and supervision, although it is owned by Qatars Ahli Bank. The deposits of all customers at QNB in Egypt are as safe as any other deposits in different banks in Egypt subject to CBE supervision, Amer said. He also denied claims about banning Qatari riyals.

Despite those denials, the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab TV channel Al-Arabiya Net published a report June 8 predicting dire consequences and claiming that Qatari investments in Egypt had already been negatively affected, but the report provided no statistics or sources. The report also said the rate of withdrawals from the QNB had increased since ties were severed.

Former Egyptian-Qatari Business Council member Mohammed Saad al-Din told Al-Monitor, A large number of Egyptian businessmen invest in Qatar and vice versa. Therefore, it is not in the best interest of governments to fight investment and use it as a political card in the political game, which could adversely affect the economic interests of both countries.

He added, The political crisis between Egypt and Qatar has an indirect effect on Qatari investors in Egypt, as they do not want to expand their investments fearing a worsening political crisis  although there have not been any real tighter measures against them. But businessmen with large [investments] do not take risks."

Qatari businesses in Egypt boomed under former President Mohammed Morsi. "However, after Morsi was deposed [in 2013], the Qatari investments were affected and the members of the Egyptian-Qatari Business Council suspended the councils activities for fear that the governments might crack down on them. Yet some Qatari businessmen preferred to keep their businesses in Egypt, which remained unaffected by the deterioration of the Egyptian-Qatari relations. There are also some Egyptian businessmen who continue to invest in Qatar," Saad al-Din said.

He doesn't expect Qatari businesses and investments in Egypt to be affected by the current situation, because the Egyptian state wants to attract investments from different countries. He is confident that the investment environment in Egypt has nothing to do with political relations and the best proof of this is ongoing Turkish investments in Egypt despite poor relations between the countries.

Investment knows no homeland as long as it is financially and economically beneficial for the concerned countries, he said.

Economist Rashad Abdo also told Al-Monitor, Qatari investments and businesses in Egypt will remain unharmed so as not to affect the Egyptian economic situation. Qatari investors will not be deported from Egypt or have their businesses shut down, as this is in direct conflict with the law, which protects investment contracts and would come to the detriment of the Egyptian government, which wishes to preserve its business relations.

He added, The political crisis between Egypt and Qatar was not reflected in the economic relations between the two countries. The Egyptian state deals with Qatari investors as per the law, as long as their investments are in the best interest of the state and not politically motivated."

Despite Egypts decision to cut relations with Qatar, the Egyptian state is keen on preserving Qatari investments within its territories, and it fears for the conditions of Egyptian workers in Qatar. Egyptian expatriates in Qatar number about 300,000, according to a June 5 press statement in Al-Youm Al-Sabeh by Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram.
July 17, 2017

The Artwork From the 1980s exhibition in Cairo casts a fond glance at the Egyptian art scene of 30 years ago, when the government was the largest patron of the arts and folk art was a main trend.

Heba el-Moez, the director of Soma Art Gallery, told Al-Monitor, "We came up with this idea to give the audience an opportunity to see artwork from more than 30 years ago and see how Egyptian art has changed.

The artists are Omar El Fayoumi, Mohamed Abla, Nazli Madkour, Adel El Siwi and Samir Fouad Ibrahim  a diverse group whose works are widely different from each other in style, materials used and size.

The artists say that the absence of the internet and social media back then made the artists more isolated and consequently more individualist. They also had to spend a lot of time researching and reading about art trends and struggled to find the means to study abroad so that they could observe different schools and trends in art.

Fayoumi, one of the important portrait artists in the 1980s, studied at the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg after graduating from the Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts mural painting department in 1981.

"Although the art of portraiture has been known since the Pharaonic era and had flourished during the Roman period, there were but a few portrait artists in the Egypt of the 1980s," he told Al-Monitor. The artist, now 60, said that 1980s art was not marked by a single theme, but by the individual styles of different painters of the time.

Madkour, one of the very few female artists in Egypt during that period, said the decade was marked by a strong interest of the public sector in the art scene. The state in the 1980s had a much greater interest in plastic arts than today," Madkour, born in 1949, told Al-Monitor.

A painting by Nazli Madkour, mixed media on canvas, 1982, is being displayed at the "Artwork From the 1980s" exhibition, Cairo, Egypt, July 11, 2017. (photo by Salwa Samir)

"There were more state-owned galleries compared with today, in which private galleries are prevalent in Egypt. In the 1980s, the state was also keen to acquire artworks more and held exhibitions abroad," she said.

Madkour has a master's degree in political economy from the American University in Cairo. In 1982, she switched to art at the same university. Madkour has held over 35 solo exhibitions, and her artwork has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Egypt and abroad.

Her work falls between abstract and figurative art. Some of her portrayals of village life and nature are also surrealist, exploring the inner world inspired by nature.

One of her paintings on display shows three women wearing white long garments with hijabs while sitting in front of the doorway of their house.

In the 1980s, I went to Siwa Oasis and Farafra in western Egypt and noticed that women rarely left their homes, she said, saying that for many women, doorways were the only gateways that opened to the world beyond their homes.

In some of her works, she used acrylic, sand, cardboard and collage on paper; in one village scene, she used acrylic and papyrus on paper.

Folk art, another style from the 1980s, can be seen in the works of Abla, a painter, sculptor, engraver and installation artist with a focus on graphics.

Abla is also known as the founder of the region's first caricature museum in Fayoum, Tunis. He is based in Cairo, but also works in Fayoum and Germany.

Ablas pieces in the exhibition are based on popular stories and traditional folk arts that were still practiced in the 1980s. Most of us went abroad and then, when we came back, we wanted to bring innovation to Egyptian art in line with what we learned, he said. Before the 1980s, art was very academic. We tried to bring it closer to the people by making it simpler.
July 18, 2017

Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh delivered a speech July 5 at the Movenpick Hotel in the Gaza Strip. It was his first since being elected to head the movement's political bureau May 6.

The two-hour gathering, which included nearly 1,000 political, media and religious figures, was closely followed by writers, analysts and journalists.

Haniyehs speech addressed key issues, including Palestinian confrontations with the Israeli forces, especially in the West Bank where Palestinians are facing racial discrimination. He also touched on the Palestinian refugees situation in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, as well as the suffering of Palestinians inside Gaza itself.

Haniyeh announced a political initiative based on common Palestinian goals, a national unity government that meets its commitments toward the Palestinian people, holding legislative and presidential elections, empowering the Palestinian Legislative Council and halting security coordination with Israel.

Mahmoud al-Ajrami, a political analyst and former undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al-Monitor, In his speech, Haniyeh conveyed messages that Hamas is in a good position and that its relations with Egypt are improving, unlike previous years. There could be a thorough review of Hamas previous policy toward the events in Egypt.

Of note, the movement opposed the Egyptian military coup against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. Later on, there were Egyptian accusations that Hamas was attempting to destabilize Egypt, but there was no proof of such claims.

Ajrami added, Internationally, Haniyeh sent an important message to Arab and European countries that Hamas is open to any country. But he did not address the possibility of armed conflict with Israel.

Haniyehs speech threw the ball into the court of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Throughout his 5,000-word written speech, Haniyeh did not mention Abbas, and the omission was widely taken as an insinuation that the movement will pursue relations with Abbas rival, dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. Notably, several comrades of Dahlan attended the speech.

Mushir al-Masri, spokesman for Hamas parliamentary bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, told Al-Monitor, Haniyehs speech expressed Hamas strategic vision for the next phase on the national level, in light of positive developments with the different factions in terms of the Palestinian resistance. He also adopted a policy of openness to world countries, while keeping the strategy of resistance and liberation. Haniyeh said that Hamas is on top of the political situation and has sufficient wisdom to manage the political battle just like the military one.

In his speech, Haniyeh distinguished between the Gulf crisis and Hamas interests with the Gulf countries. He praised Qatars role in helping Gaza and saluted Egypt. While he effusively thanked Iran, Haniyeh also acknowledged Saudi Arabia's support. However, these messages of appreciation are unlikely to make Hamas any inroads with the different countries, which do not appreciate Hamas double standards.

Relations between Hamas and Egypt have recently improved, and the change was reflected in Haniyehs speech. Also, Qatari Ambassador Mohammed al-Emadi's July 7 visit to Gaza was affirmation of the ongoing positive ties between Hamas and Qatar.

Haniyehs expression of appreciation and thanks to Iran is unprecedented among the Hamas leadership since 2012. Hamas former political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal never thanked Iran during his term in office. The change could mean that Hamas under Haniyeh will have a different take on relations with Iran.

Iran continues to support Hamas financially and militarily, and Iranian officials made sure to congratulate Hamas' leaders following the movements elections in February.

Political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim told Al-Monitor, Haniyehs speech did not meet expectations. I expected him to be bolder in discussing the current issues, especially with the Hamas leadership shifting to Gaza after being based in Qatar. His speech also lacked clarity on the understandings between Hamas, Dahlan and Egypt and Hamas disengagement from the Palestinian Authority. His speech was akin to those by the rest of the Palestinian factions leaders. He did not stress respect for human rights and public freedoms and ought to have been clearer and more transparent on the crises in the Gaza Strip.

Haniyehs speech was purely political, devoid of the religious passion and vehemence of Hamas usual speeches. The departure could be seen as in line with the movements new charter, which focuses more on the national aspect rather than the religious.

Haniyehs speech was also rich in terms and jargon from the popular resistance movement. He spoke not only of armed military resistance, as in previous Hamas speeches and statements, but also of resisting the occupation forces through other means such as the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. This could be the first sign of an evolution in the movements political discourse.

Mustafa al-Sawaf, former editor-in-chief of the Hamas-linked Palestinian daily Felesteen, wrote in a July 13 article for the Palestinian al-Resalah newspaper that Haniyehs speech, his first written one, was lengthy, redundant and dull, without Haniyehs usual emotional power to inspire and persuade listeners.

Haniyeh did not announce any decisive steps with regard to the dissolution of the administrative committee set up by Hamas in March to manage the affairs in Gaza, the reason behind the PAs sanctions on Gaza. The PA took the establishment of this committee to mean that Hamas was turning its back on reconciliation with Abbas.

A member of Fatahs Central Committee told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Fatah was disappointed that Haniyehs speech did not bring anything new to the table but rather accentuated Hamas existential crisis. We expected Hamas to announce the dissolution of the administrative committee, which it formed as an alternative to the reconciliation government. Haniyehs speech showed that Hamas is not ready for reconciliation. The speech was disappointing and an attempt to circumvent reconciliation.

Al-Monitor learned from Hamas political sources that Haniyehs speech had been reviewed by several Hamas leaders at home and abroad. He presented the general political stances of Hamas to Palestinian, regional and international audiences but deliberately avoided discussing the details of controversial issues at home and abroad, such as the rapprochement with Egypt and the movements stance on the Gulf crisis. Perhaps Hamas wishes to leave a margin for maneuvering and leeway to shift its positions.
July 18, 2017

As US President Donald Trump again, on July 17, certified that Iran has been in compliance with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers and waived nuclear-related sanctions on the country, a war of words is developing between the two sides over non-nuclear sanctions. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, contributed to the war with a July 17 statement about possible new US sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Counting the IRGC among terrorist groups and similarly sanctioning them is a big risk for America and its bases and troops in the region, Bagheri said.

The Islamic Republics missile strength is for defense and is never negotiable at any level, he further stated in regard to sanctions on Irans ballistic missile program. Iran has always stood up against arrogant powers, especially America, and day by day becomes more resistant. Therefore, the next sanctions are another opportunity for growth and self-sufficiency for domestic capacities.

In response to comments by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson supporting regime change in Iran, Bagheri urged American officials to speak more wisely and measured about powerful countries such as Iran.

The IRGCs Quds Force has already been sanctioned by the United States. Sanctioning the entire IRGC, which has economic interests in a wide variety of sectors in Iran, however, would have implications that could jeopardize the nuclear deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

While the Trump administration has said it will be reviewing the deal, Ali Akbar Salehi, former nuclear negotiator and incumbent head of Irans Atomic Energy Organization, has been busy defending the agreement to Iranians opposed to it. We have to evaluate the nuclear deal fairly, not wishfully, Salehi told Iranian media. In a rare moment of emotion for the mild-mannered graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Salehi said with apparent reference to domestic deal critics, God willing, Trump will tear apart the deal, and we will then see what will happen.

Salehi said he did not negotiate with the Americans on his own behalf but rather was sent to the talks with specific instructions. He said, for instance, that he had been given instructions that Iran would settle for 4,000 centrifuges, but in the final negotiation ended up with 6,000. This fact, according to Salehi, shows that the Iranian side negotiated with the Americans and did not simply accept every American demand.

Remarking on Trumps own comments, Salehi said, If the nuclear deal is good for America, why are America and Israel upset about it? Why does Trump say that the nuclear deal is the worst deal in Americas history? Salehi listed a number of achievements flowing from the deal, in particular the lifting of oil sanctions. He noted that with the ability to sell oil again, domestic corruption related to sanctions busting had ceased.

Salehi also pointed out that he has been vocal about some of the negative aspects of the deal, in particular his comments that the United States reneges on agreement provisions and that large European banks are still refusing to work with Iran. He added that his boss, President Hassan Rouhani, has even reproached him for publicly criticizing parts of the agreement. Salehi added that he agreed with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the text on the removal of sanctions in the deal had been written in haste.
July 18, 2017

TEHRAN, Iran  A central part of President Hassan Rouhanis campaign for re-election ahead of Irans May 19 balloting focused on addressing the demands of female voters. Emphasizing womens rights more than any other candidate, the moderate Rouhani promised Iranian women equal employment opportunities and access to better services if elected to a second term. Now, women expecting the president to fulfill his promises have launched various campaigns to demand that he appoint women as ministers in his second-term Cabinet.

Using a Persian hashtag that translates as #NoToTheModeratesMaleCabinet, womens rights activists have turned to Twitter and other social media networks to push for a more active role for women in managing the country. These efforts are nothing new; many first used the hashtag during a Cabinet reshuffle in October to push Rouhani to introduce female nominees for three ministerial posts he was seeking to change  the ministers of youth affairs and sports, of education and of culture and Islamic guidance.

In September 2009, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi health and medical education minister in his second Cabinet, making her the first woman to serve as a minister during the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad was much more conservative than Rouhani, who failed to introduce a single female nominee for his first Cabinet but did, however, break a few taboos in regard to women. For instance, he appointed Irans first female Foreign Ministry spokesman in 2013. She later went on to serve as the country's first female ambassador since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A group of female activists who demanded on May 21 that Rouhani give women a more prominent role said that although they have and will continue to support him, their support is not one-sided and not without demanding womens rights. Shahindokht Molaverdi, Rouhanis vice president for womens and family affairs, is one of the main figures in the administration who has pursued a more prominent role for women.

During the past four years, Molaverdi has come under repeated criticism by the hard-liners, who accuse her of being Westernized and supporting the adoption of Western culture in Iranian society. Regardless, Molaverdi has been one of the strongest female managers in the Islamic Republic's history, and despite facing more criticism than other women in similar positions, she has persevered and is viewed by womens rights activists as a successful manager.

On June 15, Molaverdi posted a picture on Twitter of a group of womens rights activists meeting with First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri and captioned it, Today, women are looking forward to the belief and trust in their qualifications and competencies. The day before, Jahangiri had tweeted, The need for womens active participation in different fields of management has been accepted today, and the 12th [incumbent] administration will use more of their potential.

Such attempts at persuasion are not limited to women serving in the executive branch. Female parliamentarians such as Parvaneh Mafi, a Reformist legislator from Tehran, have campaigned to strengthen the presence of women in managerial posts. In a June 25 interview with Khabar Online, Mafi said, It is true that for various reasons, such as the workload or womens lack of experience and the like, some do not agree with having women in ministries. However, we have many capable women who can serve in different managerial positions. What is important is that their presence not be limited to just the administration. This trend should be continuous and we will strive to consolidate and establish a female presence in middle management as well.

Have the efforts of womens rights activists been effective so far? Sina Ghanbarpoor, a veteran journalist and womens rights activist, tweeted July 3, Last year, with our efforts in #NoToTheModerateMaleCabinet, Mrs. [Zahra] Ahmadipour and Mrs. [Ashraf] Boroujerdi were appointed as the heads of Irans Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization and the National Library [respectively].

Following Rouhanis re-election, a group of activists posted a series of tweets introducing women they deemed qualified to serve in various managerial posts. These efforts were initially limited to a few names, but later grew into longer lists, which were then more broadly circulated on social media, containing the names of dozens of women who could serve in ministries, state organizations and other government institutions.

In a campaign documentary, Rouhani placed special emphasis on womens role in society. In one segment, he rhetorically asked, Is it possible to deprive half of a population from being active in society? Is it possible to manage a country with only half of the society?

Fahimeh Hassanmiri, a womens rights activist and a journalist covering social affairs, told Al-Monitor, Rouhani, more than his rivals, emphasized the importance of the role of women during the elections. This has raised expectations of him. It should be noted that instead of the focus being solely on introducing female ministers, a more comprehensive vision regarding womens role in different managerial positions needs to be pursued." She said the country needs a well-managed structure seeking greater women's participation and following up on it.

In broad terms, the view that women should have an active presence in society and management has become increasingly positive among the Iranian public. There are still some, however, who are not very much in favor of this trend. On July 8, Khabar Online invited readers to express their views on whether women should head one or several ministries, in the comments section of an online post. Although most respondents supported the proposition, it was far from overwhelming.
July 17, 2017

PARIS  French President Emmanuel Macron got a fair share of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus time on July 16. The two men participated in a ceremony marking 75 years since the Vel dHiv Roundup of French Jews during World War II. They then had a two-hour meeting at the Elysee Palace.

The parameters of the Netanyahu-Macron Elysee rendezvous resembled those of Macrons July 5 meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: a face-to-face meeting followed by declarations to the press. The media were there to record and publish only; no questions were allowed. The same was true with Netanyahu. Macron read his statement, Netanyahu said what he had to say. End of story.

Still, diplomatic sources describe a much longer meeting than originally scheduled, where Netanyahu spoke at length and Macron mostly listened. But from Macrons responses, and also from his silence on some of the matters, there is a lot to learn.

Up until now, Macrons stance on the resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was vague. Or, more precisely, generalized. He had reiterated several times Frances traditional positions in favor of a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, and against settlement construction. At the same time, he was careful not to engage explicitly in the Paris 1 and Paris 2 Middle East Peace conferences, initiated by Macrons predecessor Francois Hollande. Nor did he offer any new French initiative to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian talks. It seems that Macron prefers to wait and see in which direction the initiative introduced by US President Donald Trump progresses before jumping into the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire.

Yet Macrons Middle East strategy has another side to it. Paris is trying to identify areas where it could score points quickly. One example is the case with the Qatar crisis. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE July 15-16 in an effort to facilitate a resolution to the rift. A source at the Quai dOrsay French Foreign Ministry explained to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the minister felt France could play a constructive role in mediating an agreement between the sides.

Similarly, Macrons team has identified the issue of Lebanon as an area were France could offer Israel an added value. Frances relations, past and present, with the Lebanese government are strong and multifaceted. Macron even visited Beirut in January while campaigning. Speaking to the press on July 16, Macron said that he shares Israeli concerns on the arming of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. We seek Lebanon's stability with due regard to all minorities."

In his briefing to Israeli journalists later that day, Netanyahu echoed Macrons remark by saying, France has special ties with the Lebanese government, and Macron has the possibility of dialoguing with the [Saad] Hariri government on the issue of Hezbollah. Netanyahu added that he expressed in the meeting Israels deep concerns over Hezbollahs presence in Lebanon and its rearming with weapons that, in part, might be manufactured in the country.

The two-hour meeting between the two leaders included a detailed discussion about Syria and other regional threats, with Netanyahu explaining to Macron how Israel views the regional balance of power. And while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was, and is, still at the heart of the Israeli-French dialogue, Macron and Netanyahu dedicated much time to other topics.

So which direction will Macron choose on Israel? According to his associates, Macron does not intend for the moment to propose a Paris 3 Conference or any other sort of diplomatic initiative, especially not before the September UN General Assembly annual meeting, and not before Trump gets a shot at advancing talks.

Sources at the Quai dOrsay told Al-Monitor that while the US State Department never refused, when asked, to update the French Embassy in Washington on their ongoing contacts in the region, the updating was always solicited. The State Department does not update its European counterparts regularly each time that US envoy Jason Greenblatt comes back from another round of regional consultations. For the moment, this seems to suit both sides. The French have decided to wait and see what happens with Trumps initiative. They will decide about their next step after.

Since he has currently little to offer Netanyahu on that front, Macron opted for the value-added approach of hand-picking defined topics where he is likely to succeed.

Macrons announcement at the joint press conference about his economy minister visiting Israel in the near future followed that line. In fact, when Macron announced the visit, the date had already been set to mid-September. Maybe this was why Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire participated at the Vel dHiv commemoration that same morning. Macron has registered him as a value-added asset in his relationship with Netanyahu.

To crown the warm welcoming of Netanyahu in Paris, Macron also announced that he will visit Israel in the coming months, at Netanyahus invitation. Like Le Maires scheduled visit, this announcement was made with a date already in mind: at the beginning of 2018 when France and Israel will celebrate cross-cultural seasons. Undoubtedly, Macron will also visit Ramallah on that occasion, but media attention will be on the Israeli part of the presidential trip.

However, Macrons warm welcome of Netanyahu shouldnt fool Jerusalem. France has no intention of backing away from criticizing settlement construction, nor will it renounce the quest for two states  Israel and Palestine, with Jerusalem as a shared capital. The fact that Macron listened politely and diplomatically to Netanyahu does not mean that he agreed with every word said by his Israeli counterpart. Far from it.
July 18, 2017

The conflict between Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the settlers over his plan to expand the Palestinian city of Qalqilya is about to reach a boiling point. While Liberman insists that his plan is essential for purely security reasons, the settlers are waging an aggressive campaign to block it, claiming that it is actually dangerous.

Next week, the Cabinet is expected to determine the fate of the plan, which was put on hold at the order of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to vociferous opposition by HaBayit HaYehudi ministers. They, in turn, are being subjected to every imaginable pressure from the settlers. Ever since Channel 2 News first revealed the plan last June, the settlers, led by Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council and their representative in the Likud Party, have successfully applied pressure also on Likud ministers who are security Cabinet members. This only exacerbates the potential political volatility of the entire issue.

In many ways, this decisive moment is a test of Liberman's strength in dealing with what he derisively calls the "messianic" right, whose most senior representative in the government is HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett. In contrast, Liberman sees himself as representing the pragmatic, responsible right.

The conflict itself is fascinating, because it defines the division within the right-wing camp. It cuts off Liberman  who is himself a settler  from the far right, while bringing him closer to new groups of potential supporters. This will apparently have an impact on electoral movements within the right-wing camp before the next election.

The commotion surrounding the Qalqilya expansion plan also shows the strength that the settler leadership has amassed within the Cabinet, and the way that they have succeeded in transforming a security issue of the utmost importance into a political debate. It raises the question: Will the prime minister favor them over his defense minister?

The Qalqilya plan had its origins in August 2016. Having entered the Defense Ministry in May 2016, Liberman sought out creative ways to curb the wave of terrorism, which seemed to be growing. The plan that he put together, in coordination with and with the support of the most senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet officers, was called "carrots and sticks." The underlying logic was to provide benefits to those Palestinian towns that had remained calm in terms of terrorism, while striking out against those places that were the source of terrorist attacks.

The entire security establishment, including Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, believed and continue to believe that taking positive steps to benefit the quiet Palestinian population would serve as a moderating force and reduce the scope of terrorism considerably. Qalqilya has been marked as a quiet town, deserving of "carrots." According to the plan for the city, it has been decided to approve the construction of some 6,000 housing units, a new commercial center and a zoo. While the land for all this is in West Bank Area C, which is under Israeli control, the land within the city is under private Palestinian ownership.

When Liberman first presented his plan in 2016, it was approved by the Cabinet without any problems. The settlers began to speak out against it last month, when they claimed to have "discovered" that the plan actually involved the construction of more than 14,000 housing units, which would double the Palestinian city's population. They caused a stir and won the support of the ministers from HaBayit HaYehudi, as well as some Likud ministers, including Ze'ev Elkin, Gilad Erdan and Yisrael Katz. These ministers all committed themselves to blocking the plan in the Cabinet.

On July 12, Liberman paid a visit to the settlement of Maale Shomron, where he got into a highly publicized confrontation with Dagan, who is said to control the many thousands of settlers who joined the Likud. They are the source of Dagan's strength, when dealing with the Likud's ministers and Knesset members.

Liberman lashed out at Dagan, saying, "I represent the responsible right, not the messianic right. The plan involves just 6,000 housing units within a restricted area. Qalqilya is only the trigger in the struggle between the pragmatic right and the messianic right."

Dagan replied, "I really respect the minister, but I don't think that I am messianic or part of the delusional right. The Qalqilya plan is simply dangerous."

The Cabinet met again that same evening to discuss the plan once more, after several ministers complained that Liberman failed to update them on the scope of construction, when he first laid out the plan to them.

Before this second Cabinet discussion, senior IDF officers were quoted by the media as saying that the plan to expand Qalqilya has received all the necessary permits from the defense establishment. They said that the plan creates hope and provides the majority of the Palestinian population the option not to engage in terror. During the discussion itself, Liberman said, "I'm responsible. Come to me with your complaints if the plan fails to prove itself."

Nevertheless, Dagan scored a victory of sorts when, at the end of the discussion, it was decided to put the plan on hold temporarily.

Liberman has no plans to give in. He is already waging a political and media battle against the settlers. According to some political sources, during internal discussions he describes the disagreement as a struggle between the pragmatic right and the messianic right, between those who want a binational state and those who want a Jewish state.

Liberman also hints that political intervention in what is so clearly a security issue could incite the Palestinian population. As he asks sarcastically: Who do we believe? The people in the primaries (settlers voting for Likud leadership) or the security hawks (security establishment)?

While it may seem to onlookers that Liberman is committing political suicide, there are actually two layers to what Liberman is doing. First of all, he is showing himself to be a responsible minister committed to the official well-being of the state. This contrasts sharply with the aggressive and impulsive image he had before he was appointed to his current position, when he was depicted as someone who could, potentially, set the entire Middle East on fire. He has, in fact, been working harmoniously with the chief of staff, which is why it is worth paying attention to his "carrot-and-stick" plan, which he formulated together with the IDF.

The second layer shows Liberman as a politician with a keen sense of survival. He is preparing himself for what lies ahead, and in his case, this means giving up on the electoral support of the settlers and the extreme right, which, he realizes, have already cast their lot with Bennett. He understands that his electoral potential lies with the Russian immigrant community and the "sane" right, including those who are still part of the Likud. That's who he is targeting now.

In the Liberman of today, it is hard to find the slightest reminder of the Liberman who served as foreign minister in the previous government, during Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, when he claimed that Netanyahu's policy against Hamas was too lax. As defense minister, he is a moderating force in the Cabinet, cooperating with both the prime minister and the IDF. Netanyahu certainly knows how important Liberman's plan is. Next week, we will see if he actually takes the side of his defense minister and the IDF.
July 18, 2017

In June, Israel marked a half-century since the liberation, in the 1967 Six-Day War, of the Jewish peoples holiest site, the Temple Mount, or of the conquest of the Haram al-Sharif, one of Islams holiest sites, depending on ones point of view. Echoes of jubilant Israeli celebrations had barely died down when the sound of shooting reverberated on the site. On July 14, three Israeli Arabs shot and killed two Israel Border Police officers at the entrance of the Temple Mount compound.

In fact, this flashpoint has been luring various kinds of zealots since Israel captured it in June 1967. In 1969, a messianic Christian set fire to Al-Aqsa Mosque, damaging the pulpit. In the 1980s, Israeli security forces thwarted a plot by the so-called Jewish Underground to blow up al-Aqsa and the nearby Dome of the Rock. In 1982, a Jewish soldier opened fire on the Temple Mount plaza, murdering a Muslim guard and injuring Israeli soldiers, and broke into the Dome of the Rock and fired in every direction. In 1990, Israeli police killed 17 Palestinians during rioting at the compound. Israeli soldiers killed seven Palestinians, four of them on the Temple Mount, in riots that broke out following a visit to the site by Likud leader Ariel Sharon in October 2000.

As noted, in this latest flare-up on the Temple Mount, the attackers were three Israelis, residents of the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm. Their victims were two Israeli Border Guard officers from the Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to deviate from his habit of blaming terror attacks on the Palestinian Authority and demanding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas put a stop to anti-Israel incitement. Instead, he was quick to call Abbas and promise that he would not violate the fragile status quo at the sacred site and had only ordered its closure for a short time until calm could be restored.

A pledge to adhere to arrangements is seemingly reassuring news. In fact, the Israeli reaction to the latest attack, as well as to previous incidents of violence at the site, epitomizes Israels control of the Temple Mount and underscores the limited authority there of its Muslim custodian, the Waqf. Israel is the sole arbiter of when and whether to close the gates to the compound, and when and whether to re-open them. A state considered by the world as an illegal occupier of East Jerusalem is the one that decides to install metal detectors at the gates. It alone chooses which Muslims to let through and which will have to make do with viewing the Dome of the Rock on a color poster in their living room.

The status quo for Jerusalem and the other territories Israel occupies is Netanyahus favorite state of affairs. The ongoing stalemate in negotiations with the Palestinians ensures him against domestic political upheavals and allows him to wander through world capitals on red carpets, pulpits from which to warn against anti-Semitism and express solidarity with embattled Diaspora Jews.

The latest assault on the Temple Mount, like others carried out by Israeli Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinians, illustrates that as long as West Bank Palestinians are under occupation, their Israeli Arab brothers will also be dealing with the issues of dual identity and dilemmas of loyalty. Instead of embracing these Israelis, the Israeli regime is pushing them into the arms of their brothers across the Green line in the occupied territories.

The police were dispatched on July 15 to take down mourning tents erected by the families of the three attackers from Umm al-Fahm, a sanction usually reserved for residents of the territories and East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities have never prevented the families of Jewish terrorists from observing Jewish mourning rites, such as Shiva, seven days of mourning. It was only due to the intervention of Knesset member Ran Cohen of left-wing Meretz that the local council of the settlement town of Kiryat Arba was forced in 1999 to take down a memorial to Baruch Goldstein, a settler who murdered 20 Muslim worshipers in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1994.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan was not content with only demolishing the mourning canopies. He even suggested razing the homes of the three men from Umm al-Fahm, an Israeli town, just as Israel does the homes of Palestinian terrorists in the occupied territories. Coincidentally, 10 days earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal by the parents of Mohammed Abu Khdeir demanding that Israel demolish the homes of the Israeli Jews convicted of burning their son alive in July 2014. The state opposed the demolition, arguing that the extent of Jewish terrorism was relatively limited and that whereas Palestinian society extolls terrorists, Israeli society denounces them.

The head of the judicial panel, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, formerly a deputy to the chief justice, made no secret of his view of this overriding, racist distinction. What does being a Jew or being an Arab have to do with anything? he wrote. The crucial consideration in deciding whether to damage the property of an assailants family lies in the question of whether it constitutes a deterrent. Saving a life, if only of one person, justifies the demolition or sealing of the home of a Jewish terrorist, Rubinstein wrote. He nonetheless rejected the petition on the bizarre ground that the long time lapse since the murder had removed the deterrence potential of any demolition. Attorney Mohammed Jabara, representing the Abu Khdeir family, told Al-Monitor that the family was very disappointed with the ruling and was considering an appeal to international courts.

There is no knowing whether razing the houses of Abu Khdeirs killers would have deterred the next Jewish terrorist. The fact is that a military commission appointed by former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon determined in 2005 that the hatred generated by house demolitions is stronger than their deterrent effect. An internal IDF study published two years before that did not find any evidence that demolitions had a deterrent effect. In fact, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak Eytan, the former commander of the West Bank, surmised that demolishing the homes of Palestinian terrorists constitutes an incentive for revenge killings. One such example is the attack in the central Tel Aviv Sarona Market complex in June 2016 that took the lives of four Israelis. One of the terrorists, Khaled Mahamra, was 8 years old when he witnessed an IDF bulldozer razing his family's home in the West Bank village of Yatta.

Israel has been trying to manage its conflict with the Palestinians for 50 years, using house demolitions, collaborators, administrative detention (incarcerations without trial), roadblocks and shootings of unarmed civilians. The delusion of a status quo and the semblance of diplomatic negotiations serve their purpose. The latest attack is a warning that absent a fair arrangement with the Palestinians, the Temple Mount could erupt overnight, and its red-hot spewing lava will not stop at Umm al-Fahm.
July 14, 2017

International bodies, regional powers and Baghdad are not alone in objecting to Iraqi Kurdistan's independence project. Feylis, who are Shiite Kurds, are also fundamentally opposed to Kurdistans possible secession from Iraq.

Immediately after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on June 7 announced its intention to hold a referendum on independence, most of the parties and forces concerned about Iraqi developments expressed their opposition, in part out of concern that it will lead to an escalation of regional crises. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi laid out the Iraqi government's official position June 18, stating, The Kurdistan Regional referendum on secession is illegal, and the federal government will not support it, fund it or participate in it." The United States and Iraq's neighbors, including Turkey, Iran and Syria, oppose the country's territorial division.

The KRG, led by Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, announced its intention to hold a referendum, including in Kurdish areas outside the administration of the Kurdistan region. Iraqi Kurds outside KRG-controlled territory are mostly Feylis, who live along the border between Iran and Iraq, from south of Sulaimaniyah to north of Basra in Diyala, Wasit and Maysan provinces. There are also large numbers of Feylis in Baghdad and in the southern provinces, in particular the holy Shiite areas of Najaf and Karbala.

On June 27, Haidar Hisham, head of the Committee of Feyli Kurds in the Wasit Provincial Council, in eastern Iraq, announced the Feylis' opposition to the referendum and possible secession. He said, The call for a referendum in the Kurdistan region of Iraq does not include the Feyli component because the referendum is geographic. In short, any referendum will be confined to Iraqi Kurdistan, despite the KRG's assertions otherwise.

Nasruddin Sindi, head of the KRG's Kurdistan Areas Authority, which deals with Kurdish areas outside the Kurdistan region, said July 8 that there is a lack of general agreement on the referendum even at the Kurdish political center and that this will affect the rate of voter participation both within and outside Kurdistan. He also warned that the failure to address internal Kurdish disputes will negatively affect voter turnout.

Feylis have suffered from widespread marginalization and persecution as a result of Iraq's national, sectarian and political divisions over the last several decades. Fouad Ali Akbar, a Feyli member of the Baghdad provincial council, told Al-Monitor, They are Shiite Kurds, and this is what led the Saddam regime to persecute them. Neither Shiites nor Kurds have done Feylis justice. Most Feylis are moderate and culturally diverse, and this has prevented them from earning the trust of Kurds and Shiites, who, for ethnic and sectarian reasons, have not wanted them to have a stable identity with normal rights like other Iraqi citizens.

That some Feylis live in Iran has led to those in Iraq being branded non-Iraqis. The labeling resulted in deportation to Iran for 300,000 to 500,000 Feylis under the Baathist regime during the 1970s and 1980s. More than 10,000 homes and other properties belonging to Feylis were confiscated. After the 2003 US-led overthrow of the Baathists, they became the target of Sunni terrorist groups because of their Shiite identity.

There are no official statistics on the number of Feylis given the displacement and exclusion that they experienced, but the Supreme National Front for the Feyli Kurds estimates that they constitute 2.5 million (6.5%) of Iraq's population, making them a fairly large segment of the Kurdish community. The CIA's World Factbook estimates that Kurds make up 15% to 20% of Iraq's population of some 38 million.

A large proportion of the Feyli community, including prominent figures such as the world-renowned oud player Naseer Shamma, falls in the middle class. Feylis have contributed to the establishment of Kurdish nationalist and resistance movements, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, throughout the history of modern Iraq, but generally the main Kurdish political parties have been reluctant to acknowledge Feylis' Kurdish identity and welcome them to their organizations.

Feyli activist Hassan Abdali said, We, the Feyli Kurds, consider ourselves original Iraqis. We have deep historical and social roots in Iraq. We defended the country and its people in all the Iraqi liberation movements, in the Iraqi revolt against the British, and we took part in Kurdish movements and Shiite revolutions and also in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). And we faced persecution from Arab and Kurdish nationalist movements.

Following the announcement that a referendum would be held, voices demanding the expulsion to Kurdistan of Kurdish citizens from areas under Baghdad's control increased, which has naturally raised concern among Feylis.

Saad al-Matlabi, a member of the State of Law coalition on the Baghdad Provincial Council, threatened in late June to revoke the Iraqi citizenship of Kurds living outside Iraqi Kurdistan in the event of Kurdistans independence. His statement provoked demonstrations in Baghdad and Kirkuk, which the KRG wants to annex.

Ali Akbar told Al-Monitor, The majority of Feylis are voicing concerns about the potential displacement, killing, confiscation of funds and systematic looting that they might face in the event of the declaration of independence of Kurdistan as a result of the threats they receive whenever a dispute between the central government and the KRG erupts.

Such concerns have led the Kurdish parties opposed to the Sept. 25 referendum  Gorran (the Movement for Change), the Kurdistan Islamic Group and other small parties  to unite with the Feylis. On July 6, Gorran formed an operations room in solidarity with them.

Sarwa Abdel Wahid, head of Gorran's KRG parliamentary bloc, said in a joint press conference with Feyli representatives, including legislators, The referendum to be held in September in Kurdistan is a partisan referendum that does not represent the ambition of all the Kurdish people, as it has failed to go through the legitimate national institutions.

Asked about Feyli demands, Ali Akbar said, The Feylis enduring demand, before and after IS, is for their usurped rights to be restored and to be treated the same as all other Iraqi citizens. They want parliamentary and governmental representation commensurate with their size.

Individual Feylis belong to the large Kurdish and Shiite parties, but the group lacks representation as a bloc or independent party in the parliament in Baghdad, preventing its voice from being heard. Feylis also want international recognition similar to other Iraqi minorities.

Shiite National Alliance leader Ammar al-Hakim met with a delegation of Feylis on July 4 in Baghdad to encourage them to join the national reconciliation project, according to a statement issued by Hakims office.

It seems that the fate of the Feylis might be a challenge for Erbil and Baghdad if Kurdistan independence moves forward.
July 14, 2017

ERBIL, Iraq  Despite the bright picture of Iraqs autonomous Kurdistan Region seen by outsiders, it is in a crisis of free expression. While Western leaders often praise its stability, relative prosperity and democratic institutions, the region  soon to hold a referendum on independence  is not a friendly place for independent-minded media workers and local journalists. US support for Kurdish politicians and soldiers battling the Islamic State (IS) may be inadvertently facilitating a further crackdown on critical voices and a growing authoritarianism.

"First they try to bribe you," said Sherwan Sherwani, a Kurdish journalist, of Kurdish authorities dissatisfied with independent reporting. Sherwanis magazine, Bashur, had been digging up the dirty pasts of local politicians for several years, and authorities have had enough.

To buy his silence, Sherwani had been approached by the Parastin, the secret police organization of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in late 2013. "They said, 'You can have the directorship of an organization, and bring 200 friends with you,'" said Sherwan. He refused the offer, and then the threats began.

In July 2016, a friend in parliament called Sherwani to let him know that an assassination was being plotted against him. This was the only way, Sherwani said, that he was able to avoid death.

But others were not so lucky. Later that summer, Wedad Hussein Ali, a young journalist critical of the KDP, the largest of Kurdistans two ruling parties (the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, being the other), turned up dead after being kidnapped by men in unmarked cars. In December 2016, the body of Shukri Zaynadin, a cameraman working with a news network affiliated with a Kurdish opposition party, was found in mysterious circumstances.

Sherwani said he has been threatened, harassed and prevented from reporting recently, too. In February, Sherwani and a friend went to the far northwest of Iraq to report on the Turkish bombing of the Iraqi bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party, a Kurdish militant group regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey.

The Asayesh [Kurdistans intelligence agency] didnt allow us to enter the area. I had friends, though, from KurdSat and from NRT who got to the checkpoint and thought they could help me get through, Sherwani said, referring to two large Kurdish media channels.

But the Asayesh stopped them at the checkpoint because they knew I was coming, and they knew my friends wanted to help me get in to report, said Sherwani, noting the Asayeshs hostility to independent reporters covering politically sensitive events.

Safeen Dizayee, a KRG spokesperson, treated Shirwanis claims with skepticism. He told Al-Monitor, In this country, there is still no clear definition of who is a journalist and who is not. They just grab pen, paper and a camera and go. Naturally, in a country at war, access to conflict areas would be limited. Security people are cautious about access no matter what the [media] outlet is.

For Niyaz Abdulla, a journalist in Erbil, the decline of media freedom in the Kurdistan Region is something she witnessed over the years.

After 2003 and the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by American forces, Abdulla said, At the same time that we were seeing an opening, we were also seeing a huge rise in abuses. We saw Kawa Germyani and Sardasht Osman killed, referring to two Kurdish journalists believed to have been killed for their reporting on the corruption of Kurdish politicians, even calling out President Massoud Barzanis family.

But the opening, it seems, is over. As a woman, Abdulla said, she has been the target of frequent sexual threats. Recently, messages from government supporters rolled in in response to an article she wrote in December connecting KRG authorities to the murders of several local journalists. Abdulla said that she was told, If only you lived under an IS emir [commander], so that they would do to you what they did to the Yazidi girls, evoking IS militants infamous capture and rape of Iraqs Yazidi minority women.

The threats and intimidation continue for Abdulla. On May 5, just a day before the anniversary of the killing of journalist Osman, which Abdulla and other journalists were planning to commemorate, Abdullah said messages poured in from what she claims were KDP online trolls.

The KDP sent me messages using aliases on Facebook on May 5. They said, You have no principles. Your future will be like that of Sardasht Osman, referring to Osmans assassination, she recalled.

Kamal Chomani, a Kurdish civil society activist and journalist, explained some of the dynamics that lately have fueled the repressive and violent policies toward critical journalists in the Kurdistan Region.

When IS exploded onto the scene in 2014 with its sweeping takeover of large parts of Iraq, American priorities for its support in Iraq changed.

When IS came, politics got even worse, Chomani said. The Americans put [fighting] IS as the priority over everything else, and they stopped putting emphasis on development of civil society.

Chomani believes this unconditional American support for Kurdish political elites and the peshmerga forces in the name of fighting IS set the stage for Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region, to extend his presidential term, already formally extended, past its expiration in August 2015.

Despite this and Barzanis suspension of the Kurdistan parliament in the fall of 2015, Chomani said that US policymakers have continued their support for the Kurdish leader uncritically.

The main threat is that the US has given support, arms and financial backing to fight IS. But as a result, the KDP and PUK have become so strong that they can crack down on any dissent, Chomani said. He added, US generals are coming to visit Kurdistan and praising its leaders and society. It gives KDP leaders this idea that they can stay forever because they think, Economic interests are with us, and we are fighting IS together with the US.

Justin Shilad, a Middle East and North Africa research associate at the Committee to Protect Journalists, seemed to agree: On a broader regional level, I would say that unconditional US military support does generally have the effect of indirectly contributing to a crackdown on local press when there is an implicit message that US military aid is not tied to or conditional upon respect for human rights, he wrote to Al-Monitor in an email.

On top of this, Shilad added that the two-party monopoly on media in Kurdistan is creating an atmosphere of hostility to nonparty-affiliated journalists: The challenge to independent journalists in the region is chiefly due to the parties controlling the region.  Independent news outlets not affiliated with either the PUK or the KDP, thus run the risk of politically motivated charges.

As for Chomani, he has lately been the target of vilification from Kurdish authorities, this time for opposing the recently announced independence referendum for the Kurdistan Region.

In late June, he said, Colleagues and I began a No to the Referendum campaign, he told Al-Monitor, referring to the Kurdistan independence referendum. Weve just demanded that the [now suspended] parliament should be reactivated before the referendum. The KDP responded to us through its shadow media, saying we are traitors and Iranian spies. They said I work with [former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki. The KDP said those who dont support the referendum should get out of Kurdistan.
July 18, 2017

The case of the succession of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has just gotten more complicated with news that PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat will undergo risky lung surgery this month. Palestinian officials had made a number of changes, including the creation of a constitutional court in April 2016, to ensure that Erekat would be interim president if Abbas is unable to continue his presidential duties. It is expected that the constitutional court would rule in favor of the PLOs secretary-general, rather than the speaker of the parliament, to act as interim president in the 60 days leading up to new elections.

Multiple Palestinian sources and Israeli media have confirmed that the PLO's secretary-general and the head of the Palestinian negotiating team will have a lung transplant later this month.

A senior member of the Fatah Central Committee told Al-Monitor that while Erekat has been taking drugs for his lung ailment for nearly 10 years, the situation has recently deteriorated to the point that a transplant is required. His ability to work well has been affected and his lungs are now operating at 35% capacity, the Fatah official said on condition of anonymity due the personal and sensitive nature of the case.

A report published on the i24news site claimed that Erekat is likely to travel to the United States for surgery, although a senior Fatah source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that if the right donor is found he might undergo surgery in the region.

Abbas most prominent known replacements are unlikely to reach the presidential headquarters. Public opinion polls show Marwan Barghouti  currently serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prison  as the most popular Palestinian to replace Abbas. According to a poll published July 5 by the Ramallah-based Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research, if elections were held at this time, Barghouti would receive 41% of the vote and Abbas 22%.

Former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan  pushed for by the Arab quartet (Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates)  was rejected by the ruling Fatah movement during its seventh congress held in Ramallah in November 2016.

In the absence of any clear replacement candidate, most of the current attention has now shifted to the mechanism of the transition.

The Palestinian Basic Law states in Article 37 subsection 2 that the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) will assume the role of president for 60 days if the presidential office is vacant. Multiple Palestinian officials close to the president have argued that a new mechanism must be introduced since the PLC has not been in session for seven years. They also suggested that one way to overcome this problem would be to create the position of vice president.

The argument is that, currently, there is no speaker of the PLC. The last speaker after the Hamas 2007 victory in the parliamentary elections was Abdel Aziz Dweik. While he served for about a year, the PLC has been dormant ever since the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. With the PLC not in session and with the speaker having to be elected anew every session, the position of PLC speaker has been vacant.

Instead, supporters of Abbas call for reverting to the PLO, which had signed the Oslo Accord in 1993 and had approved the setting up of the Palestinian National Authority. In this case, the secretary-general of the PLO could become the interim president. To boost this argument, Abbas set up a constitutional court in April 2016 in the hope that it would agree to this argument if and when such a constitutional decision is needed. The court would only look into the issue once a decision is made as to who will be acting president and only if that decision was contested. The ailment of Erekat complicates this situation.

In addition to his position within the PLO, Erekat holds the important portfolio as the head of the Palestinian negotiating team. The PLOs negotiating department has been working for years under Erekats leadership to prepare for peace talks.

Multiple senior Palestinian officials interviewed for this article agreed that the only person who currently could step in the shoes of Erekat in terms of the negotiations is Maj. Gen. Majid Faraj, the head of the Palestinian intelligence. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, no one agreed to be quoted on the record.

The Palestinian officials contacted by Al-Monitor argued that since Faraj has been present at all meetings taking place in Palestine and Washington, he carries with him the institutional memory that is needed for successful negotiations and in order not to loose on issues that might have been agreed to in past talks.

According to sources close to Abbas, Faraj is also Abbas handpicked leader to succeed him. Faraj was born in the Palestinian refugee camp of Dheisheh near Bethlehem and spent years in Israeli prisons. He is generally well-liked by Palestinians but lacks the needed experience to become the next president.

Members of the Executive Committee are elected by the Palestine National Council or the Palestine Central Council. The different PLO factions that have a quota in the Executive Committee are allowed to replace their representatives in the PLOs Executive Committee if the seat becomes vacant, according to PLO bylaws.

For Fatah, it has been customary that their representative in the PLOs Executive Committee should come from the Fatah Central Committee. Faraj is not a member of that prestigious committee either.

To become a member of Fatahs Central Committee, one needs to be elected by the rank and file of the movement. Abbas is allowed to appoint members at large and, according to Abbas Zaki, a senior member of Fatahs Central Committee, this could happen  although it will need two-thirds support of the current members.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Zaki recalled that Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), a former Palestinian prime minister and head of the Oslo negotiating team, was appointed to the PLOs Executive Committee in 2006, even though he had failed to be elected to the Fatah Central Committee.

The legal and political succession issues could be solved if there is a Fatah-Hamas agreement that would usher in legislative and presidential elections. Abbas and his team expected Hamas to surrender to this issue after the Ramallah government stopped subsidizing the electricity costs to the Gaza Strip. But a recent Hamas-Egyptian agreement and the rapprochement between Hamas and their archrival renegade Fatah leader Dahlan have dashed the hopes many had of reconciliation and elections.

Erekats ailment has again refocused attention on the difficult Palestinian political landscape. Although he appears to be in good shape, Abbas is in his early 80s and will need to pass the baton to a younger, more energetic leader. It is still unclear whether he will maneuver things so that the head of his intelligence service, Faraj, will be in line for his position or whether it will be a free fall.
July 17, 2017

US-backed Syrian rebels are suffering heavy casualties as they attempt to retake the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Raqqa from fighters lodged in tunnels, trenches and other defensive positions, the Pentagon said today.

Despite stiff resistance from improvised explosive devices, car bombs and even drones, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have now entered the Old City of Raqqa, breaking through a seventh-century wall laden with explosives where IS has been holding out. The contingent of Arab and Kurdish soldiers number between 30,000 and 40,000.

Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said casualty numbers are absolutely rising in the ongoing battle, now in its sixth week. The Defense Department did not provide any figures behind the loss assessment.

Despite continued losses, Davis said that the Syrian effort to dislodge IS would be sustainable over the long haul. This effort is set to receive an infusion of weapons, vehicles and tactical military gear in the Senates new defense spending bill.

We knew that Raqqa was going to be very hard, Davis said. Its a stop-and-go effort by its very nature.

Nearly two dozen airstrikes launched by the US-led coalition in Syria have helped the SDF offset sniper fire and IEDs to take nearly a square mile of ground, including a high-rise complex, in a three-pronged advance over the weekend.

Anti-IS troops are advancing from three separate areas, including two pushes along the Euphrates River and in another northern drive toward the Old City. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that the US-led coalition has liberated about 35% of the city.

Davis said US troops stationed nearby havent had any recent problems with pro-regime forces thanks to the de-escalation hotline with the Russians. American troops are primarily stationed in Syria in an active advisory capacity, as the SDF pushes forward into the Old City, which is IS' primary enclave in Raqqa.

But Davis said today that US troops in the region can often find themselves in a situation where theyre going to have to be on the defensive and respond with force to IS attacks.

The uptick in airstrikes and SDF casualties comes with news over the weekend that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was previously reported dead, may still be alive. On Sunday, Lahur Talabany, a leading Kurdish intelligence official in Iraq, told Reuters he believes the leader of the self-proclaimed caliphate was still alive in Raqqa.

But Pentagon officials, who have so far refused to confirm reporting on Baghdadis status, believe he is no longer a major figure when it comes to the fight in Iraq and Syria.

Militarily speaking, Davis told reporters today, hes largely irrelevant.
July 18, 2017

WASHINGTON  The Donald Trump administration on Monday told Congress that Iran remains compliant with the nuclear deal while building the case for a thorough renegotiation of the international accord.

The certification, which Congress mandates every 90 days, was accompanied by a new raft of non-nuclear sanctions against 18 Iranian entities and individuals. Trump administration officials also told reporters that they plan to work with US allies to toughen provisions of the accord.

The nuclear agreement was the tail that wags the Iran policy dog, a senior administration official said on a White House call with reporters Monday night, characterizing the deal under President Barack Obama, as the current administration sees it. We are determined not to continue that.

This is the second time that the State Department has certified Irans compliance since Trump took office. This time, the administration showed signs of unusual agitation around the rollout of the decision, including the abrupt scrapping of a midday White House conference call with reporters that eventually got rescheduled for that evening.

Asked about the canceled briefing, officials seemed plainly unsure of whether the delay indicated that the administration had been rethinking its anticipated decision to certify compliance. Even as White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at an off-camera press briefing Monday afternoon that the State Department would announce a decision very shortly, the agency did not have any information for reporters on the certification decision until today.

The Trump administrations continued deep ambivalence about the deal suggests that it may eventually seek to find a way to break the deal without getting blamed. Senior officials stressed that President Donald Trump is determined that his administrations broader policy toward Iran not be held hostage by the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Obama, even if he is not ready to walk away from it just yet.

The secretary of state is in the process of certifying to Congress that the conditions that are laid out in [congressional legislation] have been met, a second senior administration official said on the White House call. However, the secretary of state and president intend to emphasize that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats  particularly in its region.

A third senior administration official said the Trump administration intends to work with European allies to try to build the case for serious flaws of the agreement, while also looking for ways to more strictly enforce the deal.

Among the alleged flaws in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the officials cited the fact that certain restrictions sunset after several years, allowing Iran eventually to openly pursue industrial-scale enrichment, the third official said. In addition, the official said, The JCPOA fails to address Irans non-nuclear behavior.

To address those non-nuclear activities, the Trump administration also announced today that it was designating 18 entities and individuals supporting Irans ballistic missile program, military procurement or Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as an Iran-based transnational criminal organization.

Notifications on all points were sent to Congress last night, a State Department official told Al-Monitor today. Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the agreement. Even as we continue to work to prevent Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, we will not look away while Iran threatens the United States and our allies outside the nuclear realm.

The official added, While the United States has to date upheld its commitments under the JCPOA, we will continue to closely monitor Irans destabilizing and dangerous behavior. While our review of the JCPOA is ongoing, the United States expects strict Iranian adherence to its JCPOA nuclear commitments and will look to the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue to monitor and verify all of Irans nuclear commitments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, currently in New York for meetings at the United Nations, said Iran saw the nuclear deal in part as a test of whether the United States would make good on its commitments. Iran has options, he said, if the United States or any other party breaks the deal.

As weve said in the past, we wanted that agreement to be the foundation and not the ceiling, Zarif told the National Interest July 17. If it comes to a major violation, or what in the terms of the nuclear deal is called significant nonperformance, then Iran has other options available, including withdrawing from the deal."

Of course, it is also possible that is exactly what anti-deal hawks in Washington hope  that US pressure and ramped-up sanctions will get Iran to abandon the deal first.

The official referee on JCPOA compliance  the eight-member Joint Commission overseeing implementation of the deal  is due to meet in Vienna this Friday. The meeting will be chaired by the European Unions Helga Schmid and offer an opportunity to review the implementation of the JCPOA as far as nuclear and sanctions related issues are concerned, an EU press release read. The United States is expected to be represented at the quarterly meeting by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran Chris Backemeyer.
July 18, 2017

Turkey has suffered heavy economic losses over the past few years because of its misguided foreign policy in its relations with Egypt, Libya, Syria and Iraq and other regional markets. Its economy also received serious blows from Russian sanctions that followed Turkeys shooting down a Russian jet in November 2015. Now, by taking a position supportive of Qatar in the blockade imposed by the Gulf countries and led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Turkey is risking further economic damages.

Even before alleviating the heavy losses inflicted by the Russian sanctions on its exports, tourism and foreign contracting, Turkey faces serious economic disadvantages by becoming a party to the Qatar crisis.

According to figures released on July 1 by Turkeys Exporters Assembly, the countrys overall exports actually grew by 1.8% to $12.1 billion. But the negative trends with the Gulf countries have been causing concerns.

Exports to Saudi Arabia, which were $277 million in May, declined by 36.4% to $188 million in June. Exports to the United Arab Emirates regressed by 20.5% from $316.5 million to $234.6 million in June. Also in June, exports to Bahrain decreased by 24% from $20.7 million to $15.6.

Meanwhile, exports to Qatar rose by 49% after the crisis erupted in June, rising to $53.4 million from $35.8 million. The Qatar crisis positively impacted the economy via trade relations with Iran, and exports to that country increased by 8.5% from $233 to $250 million.

Although monthly data may not be adequate to determine a firm, long-term trend, Turkeys business world is questioning whether Turkey made the right move by taking a position against Gulf countries instead of standing as a mediator.

Mithat Yenigun, the president of the Turkish Contractors Union (TMB), is among those worried. We are watching developments with wariness. Our member companies have major construction projects in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and all over the region. We were hoping that Turkey could have been a mediator in the crisis with a balanced approach to both sides, he told Al-Monitor.

He noted that there were major developments in relations with Qatar because of the personal initiatives of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Saudi Arabia leads the Gulf countries where our contractors operate. Qatar takes the second place. Until now, we have completed contracts totaling $19 billion in Qatar. Kuwait occupies the third place. We also have important projects in UAE and Bahrain. About 40% of our foreign contracting services are in Gulf countries. For the time being, the issue is more of a political nature, not economic. But developments worry us, Yenigun said.

According to a TMB report covering 2017, in the first quarter of the year, Turkish contractors signed contracts worth $2.9 billion in the Gulf countries. Until now, Turkish contractors have completed 310 projects costing $38 billion in Saudi Arabia. In Qatar, the second most popular market, 128 projects were undertaken. In the UAE, 109 projects were undertaken, and in Kuwait 34 projects were undertaken. This table indicates that unless the crisis ends soon, the cost of taking sides with Qatar could be expensive.

In a June report, Turkeys Construction Materials Manufacturers Association  which groups companies exporting heavily to the region  said, The crisis that indirectly implicates Turkey will negatively affect the exports by construction materials producers to those countries. The report predicted the crisis is not likely to be overcome in the short term and warned, Gulf countries could reduce their imports from Turkey, which is supporting Qatar. Moreover, exports to Qatar are becoming more difficult and costly because the embargoes imposed by Qatars foes.

Turkeys Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci on July 12 met in Ankara with Qatar's Economy and Trade Minister Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani. Zeybekci said the actions taken against Qatar could be intended to cause mayhem. But we prevented that  we met the daily needs of our Qatari brothers with 197 cargo planes, 16 semi-trailers and a ship, he said during the joint press conference.

The Qatari minister said Turkey had been on their side from day one and expressed gratitude to Erdogan.

The support to Qatar prompted resistance against Turkish export products in Gulf countries, and campaigns were launched in social media against Turkish products. Yusuf Cevahir, the president of the Turkish-Saudi Business Council, said boycotts have not yet affected the situation on the ground, but the political trends may well disrupt new investments. Mehmet Habbab, the president of the Turkey-UAE Business Council, predicted the UAE will follow Saudi Arabia but noted Dubai and Abu Dhabi could have divergences over the crisis.

One positive aspect of the Qatar crisis was lowering tensions between Ankara and Tehran.

Only in February did Erdogan during a tour of the Gulf harshly criticize Iran and accuse it of Shiite sectarianism and Persian nationalism. Because of the prevailing tension, Zeybekcis visit to Tehran in February and the opening of the Turkish Trade Center in Tehran were postponed.

Both countries then lined up with Qatar in the crisis, and bilateral ties between Turkey and Iran suddenly improved. On July 10, Zeybekci went to Tehran accompanied by industrialists, businessmen, contractors and exporters.

The first of the 20 Turkish Trade Centers Turkey was planning to inaugurate in major markets opened in Tehran. The estimate of the annual volume of trade between the two countries, which was earlier set at $30 billion, was upped to $50 billion. The ultimate goal was said be total freedom of trade between the two countries.

In short, the policy Ankara follows in the Qatar crisis made Turkey a party to the Gulf crisis. Political, military and economic consequences of such a stance are inevitable. Indications are that Turkey may well face an indirect embargo of Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries and other countries that support them.

Erdogans warm personal relations with the Qatari leaders, the increase in the flow of Qatari capital to Turkey and opening its doors wide open to Turkish export goods do not appear to be enough to make up for the losses with other Gulf countries.

While Turkey is still far from the $30 billion annual volume of its trade target with Tehran, to announce a new target of $50 billion is not compatible with economic realities.

Erdogan is now expected to go on a tour of the Gulf countries. But to make gains from such a tour while robustly supporting Qatar is not realistic.
How bad have 2017's pop-up thunderstorms, microbursts and hailstorms been? State Farm has some numbers.

The company, Alabama's largest home and auto insurer, says it has seen nearly double the wind and hail related homeowner claims it saw during the first six months of last year.

What's more, wind and hail related auto claims in 2017 have increased to 12 times the amount last year.

Here are the numbers, from January through June:

For homeowners claims, State Farm saw 9,700, while in 2016 over that same time, there were 5,000.

Among auto owners, the numbers were even more stark. There were 380 claims in Alabama for the first six months of 2016. This year, over that same period, State Farm has seen 4,600.

State Farm spokesman Roszell Gadson said the company hopes people will review their coverage and take steps to protect themselves and their property.

"This is pretty eye opening considering we are just halfway into the year," Gadson said.

In addition, State Farm recommends having a storm plan, keeping an emergency kit, as well as a video and photo inventory of your possessions for insurance purposes for storage in a safe place.
A Huntsville-based technical solutions company is one of only 17 finalists for the prestigious Small Business of the Year Award by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

PROJECTXYZ, an economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business founded by Kim and Larry Lewis, is a contender in the Chamber's Dream Big Small Business of the Year Awards, which had a record number of applicants this year.

"These finalists and their small businesses strengthen their communities and local economies," Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. "The Chamber is proud to honor these outstanding companies, which together represent what's possible in our free enterprise system. They are a reminder that there is nothing small about small business."

The following businesses are finalists for this year's program:

3 Daughters Brewing  St. Petersburg, Fla.

Beau and Belle Littles  Loveland, Colo.

Brandhoot  Rochester, Minn.

Charter School Business Management  New York, N.Y.

Cope Company Salt  Lancaster, Pa.

DHD Films  Dallas

Ecolink, Inc.  Tucker, Ga.

GCC Technologies  Oakland, Md.

Golden Openings, Inc.  Urbandale, Iowa

Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy  Norfolk, Ga.

Nightlight Pediatric Urgent Care  Sugarland, Texas

PROJECTXYZ, Inc.  Huntsville

Sage Restoration  Overland Park, Kansas

Tar Heel Basement Systems  Winston-Salem, N.C.

TerraCycle, Inc.  Trenton, N.J.

Valsatech Corporation  Ellicott, Md.

Xylo Technologies  Rochester, Minn.

The Chamber will announce award winners Sept. 12 during the 2017 Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C.

PROJECTXYZ is also up for the Community Excellence Award, which honors a small business that has "demonstrated an exemplary level of leadership and community engagement to positively impact the quality of life in its community."

Online voting for the Community Excellence Award will continue through July 31.
The Alabama Tourism Department in Montgomery has renewed a $9 million annual advertising contract with Birmingham's Intermark Group.

Intermark has worked with the tourism department since 2015. The contract was signed on July 14.

"We are excited to continue working with Intermark Group," Alabama Tourism Department director Lee Sentell said in a press release. "This partnership has driven the 'Sweet Home Alabama' brand in a new direction that singularizes some of the most amazing experiences Alabama has to offer."

State contracts are limited to two years before rebidding and are awarded based on agency capabilities and cost.

Tourists in Alabama spent $13.3 billion last year, according to a study done by Auburn University on behalf of the university.

Intermark has worked for clients including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Red Diamond Coffee & Tea and Mohawk Carpet.
As always, I researched my destination before heading out on one of my road trips last week. I was looking for Battelle, a once-bustling mining town nestled in a valley of the Lookout Mountains in DeKalb County. I'd seen a photo of one building that reportedly survived but most references said nothing was left of the town but bricks, metal remnants and rose bushes.

Those references were wrong. I not only discovered the skeletons of two buildings and an opening for a basement deep in the woods but also remains of a few of the 150 beehive coke ovens that were once located at the site. A local woman said evidence of an incline ore transport remain at the site but they were not visible through the undergrowth when I was there.

I also learned the site was inhabited by rattlesnakes, bears and the ghost of a mine worker who fell into a vat of molten iron. (Thankfully, I got this information after I visited the site).

Road trip warning

Before I recount the history of Battelle, I need to express the hazards of searching for the site. The area is covered in deep brush filled with insects, snakes, bobcats and bears. It can only be reached by driving five miles over a treacherous and privately owned dirt road and then hiking into the brush. Permission is required before visiting the site. I am not giving directions (so please don't ask), other than to say the journey begins at the Battelle historical marker located on DeKalb County Road 137 in Valley Head. In any case, directions would be of little value beyond that point, and a local person could provide better information. Any serious searchers should check with Landmarks of DeKalb County before going.

Ruins of Battelle

After spending 30 minutes to drive five miles of dirt road and then hiking around woods for nearly an hour, I finally came upon the ruins of two buildings, barely visible beneath drapes of vines and the leaves of the trees growing within them.

One structure had walls but no roof, and another seemed fairly intact but was too covered to get a good view. It was difficult to determine their original purpose. Between them were the remains of beehive coke ovens, which were used to heat charcoal into a cleaner-burning coal coke used to fuel the furnace.

This is all that remains of a site that once included a blast furnace with an 85-foot stack and four stoves, a boiler plant, a power house, 200 tenement houses "of two, three and four rooms," "two hotels for whites and one for Negroes," a two-story school, a church, a large store, stables, a supply house, company office and more, according to a description in a 1906 issue of Iron Age magazine.

Strangely, the furnace itself was dismantled and moved to Calcutta, India, where it operated until 15 years ago, according to DiscoverLookoutMountain.com.

The town that investors thought would rival Birmingham would soon die out.

History of Battelle

In 1902, following the discovery of limestone, ore and coal, the ingredients to make pig iron, the Lookout Mountain Iron Company was organized and began building mining facilities in a town named Battelle after the main investor J.G. Battelle.

A 1906 issue of Iron Age magazine (Vol. 74) gave this "Description of property and plant at Battelle:" It was organized under "a special charter with the State of Alabama with capital stock of $1 million to acquire and develop 15,000 acres of iron ore lands" in DeKalb County.

"The charter of the company is a very valuable one and could not now be duplicated, since the new constitution of the State of Alabama went into effect," the description said.

The site, located on the main line of Alabama Great Southern Railroad 100 miles north of Birmingham, was operated by Battelle, who also held interest in the Columbus, Ohio Iron and Steel Company.

The company's property stretched from the valley to the top of the mountain at Mentone and from Sulphur Springs, Ga., to Valley Head, Ala. It was "underlaid by a seam of fine coking coal, 36 inches in thickness and outcropping the entire length of the property along the brow of the mountain and extending eastward. It is believed that this conjunction of a workable seam of coal and a workable vein of ore within a stone's throw of each other and of the furnace plant constitutes an entirely unique proposition in the iron world."

Workers began mining the seam, nicknamed Eureka, and soon 150 coke ovens were operating at the site. Coal was "lowered down the mountain by a self-acting gravity incline, 2,300 feet long ... two incline cars are used, each having a capacity of 8 tons of coal," the Iron Age said.

Within four short years, the dream of Battelle had died. Scientists determined the mineral deposits at the site were of insufficient quality and quantity, making Battelle unable to compete with Birmingham. In 1905, operations were placed on standby.

An article in the New York Times in November 1906 described the liquidation of assets, including the "blast furnace, 1,200 acres of mineral land, 150 coke ovens and several coal and ore mines and equipment." The furnace was sold to the British government for use in World War I production and was dismantled and taken to India, local resident A.J. Brown said.

The site of Battelle was briefly used by the Belcher Lumber Company in the 1940s, according to DiscoverLookoutMountain.com.

In January 1969, a Great Southern Railroad train derailed at the site, causing an explosion of propane tanks, according to an NTSB report.

The ghost in the ghost town

A ghostly legend surrounds the death of a Lookout Mountain Iron Company workers. DiscoverLookoutMountain.com said: "A man named Drew Hester was working at the top of an 85-foot furnace when he fell from the stack into the molten iron. A legend grew over the years that, on dark nights, Drew Hester's screams could still be heard, piercing the darkness of the forest-covered ridges as the phantom spirit re-enacted the fiery death scene."

Join al.com reporter Kelly Kazek on her weekly journey through Alabama to record the region's quirky history, strange roadside attractions and tales of colorful characters. Find her on Facebook or follow her Odd Travels and Real Alabama boards on Pinterest.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday paved the way for Inland Seafood to move some of its operations from Atlanta to Ensley.

The council on Tuesday approved up to $4.3 million in loan guarantees and grants to aid Inland Seafood in renovating its existing building on Avenue D and move its marinated, value-added seafood, meats and smoked meat production operations to Ensley.

These incentives include loans through the Birmingham Business Development Loan program and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and $275,000 from the Community Development Block Grant funds.

The council is expected to consider a occupational tax abatement next week.

Inland Seafood expects to hire 50 people in the coming months and 150 in 10 years.

At least one job fair will be held in the Ensley area, officials said.

Birmingham economic development Director Lisa Cooper said the city had to compete with Atlanta to secure the project.

City Councilor Marcus Lundy said Inland Seafood is expanding in an area that is "extremely depressed.

"They are taking a building that is in much need of repair in a neighborhood that is repressed economically, and they are trying to revitalize it," he said.

Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt criticized the financial incentives, at first, after learning that Inland Seafood received a $1 million business development loan from the city previously and only hired five workers.

"We do this to create job incentives within the neighborhood," Hoyt said.

He also wants Inland Seafood to hire workers who live in Ensley.

City officials said Inland Seafood paid back that first loan and satisfied the terms of their agreement.

On Tuesday, Inland Seafood Executive Vice President Robert Novotny said the company plans to reopen the Grumpy Grouper once the expansion is complete. The store formerly operated in a space now occupied by the company. The retail store will sell seafood products to the Ensley community.

A farmer's market is also planned for the site, he said.

Novotny said Inland Seafood bought a building in Ensley 11 years ago.

"We want to be here," he said. "We are thrilled to be here. We could have done this project in Atlanta."

He said the company chose Birmingham because of the cooperation from city officials and the speed at which they could get their project going.

The expansion will also include a state-of-the-art culinary training center, which will be open to high school and college students.

Inland Seafood is one of the largest seafood distributors in the country.

Novotny said 70 percent of the company's business is supplying hotels and restaurants with seafood and meats. The remainder of its business is supplying retailers such as Publix and Costco.
Sam McLure, a Birmingham lawyer who specializes in adoptions, will run for the Republican nomination for Alabama attorney general next year, he announced on Facebook.

McLure, a foster parent, said he will make advocacy for foster children and orphans a key priority. McLure said he is a staunch abortion opponent.

"As a foster parent myself, I know that foster children in our state often get trapped in a crazy-dark cycle," McLure said on Facebook. "Alabama has over 4,500 foster children and almost 500 age-out of the system every year with no place to call home. That's a problem."

McLure said he joined six others in filing an ethics complaint with the Alabama State Bar against former Attorney General Luther Strange. The complaint concerned Strange's appointment to the U.S. Senate by former Gov. Robert Bentley because Strange's office was investigating Bentley. Strange has said there was no conflict of interest.

McLure will be making his first run for public office, said Tracy Goodwin, press secretary for his campaign. He and his wife, Mary Beth McLure, live in the Birmingham metro area and have three children.

McLure is founder of The Adoption Law Firm, which he said is dedicated to advocating for orphaned children.

Others who have announced they will run in the Republican primary include Attorney General Steve Marshall, Chess Bedsole, and former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin.
A 26-year-old man was arrested Monday night after he fired shots at another vehicle on Interstate 59 near Fairfield.

A Jefferson County sheriff's deputy was on his way home from work about 11:15 p.m. when he spotted two cars driving recklessly, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. One of the occupants of a vehicle fired shots at the other car.

The deputy activated his emergency equipment and signaled the shooter to pull over, Christian said. The driver refused and a short chase followed.

The chase exited the I-59 northbound at Ensley Avenue and continued to Pike Road where the suspect vehicle wrecked. Two men got out of the car and then fled on foot.

Lawmen set up a perimeter, and a sheriff's office K-9 tracked one the suspects to a vacant house on 26th Street in Ensley. Deputies and Birmingham police surrounded the house and ordered the suspect to come out, Christian said. The suspect surrendered.

A search of the car turned up cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and prescription narcotics. The second suspect was not found. Christian said the captured suspect is being held in the Jefferson County Jail pending formal charges.

The victim vehicle was not located and it is unknown if anyone was injured by the shots fired
Birmingham Mayor William Bell on Monday announced the creation of a task force to recommend policy changes to lessen the negative effects of gentrification on the city's neighborhoods.

The Preserving Dynamic and Diverse Neighborhoods Task Force will be made up of a diverse, interdisciplinary group that will assess the current landscape of gentrification in Birmingham, and recommend city policy changes in housing affordability, anti-displacement zoning, education and workforce training, transportation and health equity.

The yearlong process will include community stakeholder meetings tentatively set for August and September.

According to the mayor's office, the task force will conclude its work in May 2018 when a document for proposed policy changes will be submitted to the mayor.

The task force will analyze data, trends, and market demands for the local and regional housing markets; and assess the legal, financial and organizational capacity to support new policies and programs recommended, according to the mayor's office.

"My administration is committed to creating a livable city for all," Bell said in a statement. "Establishing this task force is the first step in the process to solve not only the challenges of today but to lay the foundation for an equitable Birmingham tomorrow and beyond. To do that, we will need the support of the whole city- residents, advocates, developers, financiers, nonprofits, and others must join together to implement local changes and speak with a unified voice."

Gentrification can occur over time when residents and small businesses in a traditionally lower income neighborhood are displaced by higher income individuals, families and associated businesses as the result of revitalization. This rebuilding causes property values to increase making it different for low-income families and some small businesses to afford.
Be prepared to take medicines for a long, long time. Once considered a disease of the past, TB has had a resurgence.

Mumbai, India  There was so much Debshree Lokhande was looking forward to when she began her first job in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Starting a career in architecture, exploring a bustling new city, and at 23, finally living independently.

But within the first month of her move, she developed a persistent fever followed by bouts of heavy coughing and rapid weight loss. When over the counter medicines didnt help she went to a doctor who advised getting a chest x-ray.

She was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB)  an infectious disease caused by bacteria that primarily affects the lungs. It can also affect other parts of the body, including the brain, the spine and the kidneys.

TB can spread from person to person through coughing, sneezing, even speaking  anything that can release microscopic droplets into the air. In most cases, tuberculosis is curable, but it can prove fatal without proper treatment.

The doctor prescribed Lokhande the standard first-line TB regimen  two drugs she had to take as she waited for additional recommendations based on the x-ray.

Be prepared to take medicines for a long, long time, Lokhande recalls the doctor telling her in 2011 when she first received her diagnosis.

Her condition worsened: she experienced high fevers and would vomit blood  common side-effects, the doctor told her.

Why was my TB being shunned, not spoken about like cancer or diabetes? Why is it associated to only being a poor man's disease? Was it my fault that I got DRTB? by Debshree Lokhande, TB survivor

A month after her first x-ray, Lokhande found out that what she had was not ordinary tuberculosis, but a deadlier version of it called Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDRTB).

Drug-resistant strains of TB arise when an antibiotic fails to kill all of the bacteria that it targets. The surviving bacteria become resistant to that particular drug and often to other antibiotics as well. MDRTB occurs when the patient is resistant to the two most potent TB drugs  isoniazid and rifampin.

Resurgence of TB

Often considered a disease of the past, TB has had a resurgence in some parts of the world in recent years. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are now 10.4 million new TB cases in the world.

In 2016, it reported that the epidemic was larger than previously estimated, owing to new data from India, and increased its India figures from 2.2 million in 2014 to 2.8 million in 2015. Six countries account for 60 percent of the total number of TB cases, with India leading the list, followed by Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.

The recent spread of Drug-Resistant TB (DRTB) is particularly difficult to treat using currently available medicines. For one, because it takes on different forms  Multi-Drug-Resistant TB and Extensively-Drug-Resistant TB  the infected person is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs.

Additionally, the two most effective drugs for TB, isoniazid and rifampicin, are not only largely ineffective but become toxic, so doctors are left prescribing less effective drugs which have to be taken for longer periods.

For both forms, patients have to take a large number of pills and be given painful daily injections for up to two years. But even with this process, cure rates are around 60 percent, even at the best centres, explains Dr Zarir Udwadia, a pulmonologist based in the city of Mumbai.

I had no energy to even open my eyes, Lokhande recalls. My family was trying to keep me positive while they paid thousands in search of the proper treatment.

While the standard course of TB drugs  between four to six different medicines  can cost as little as $15, in the case of MDRTB, treatment can cost almost $2,000 for one year, which is the minimum duration of treatment. Additionally, patients have to get sputum cultures regularly during the course of their treatment, which can add another $800 to the bill annually.

The Indian government does offer treatment programmes for TB. In 1997, it rolled out a TB control programme, recommended by the WHO. Known as DOTS, the strategy is aimed at providing a global, standardised short course drug treatment to all TB patients.

By 2006, this programme reached over 600 districts across India. But it wasnt foolproof. Delays in diagnosing patients and prescribing medications perpetuated the cycle of disease transmission, as did the inconsistency in ensuring patients adhered to their regimens.

Giving this one size fits all regimen to patients only amplified that drug resistance, says Udwadia, who is vocal about increasing access to medicines for TB.

READ MORE: Why is the world suffering from a penicillin shortage?

Theres a high incidence of TB and DRTB in India because of years of policy failure. The government initially ignored the drug-resistant TB patients, pretending they didnt exist, allowing the numbers to proliferate.

Until recently Indian public health officials remained reluctant to admit theres a problem, adds Nerges Mistry, the director of the India-based Foundation for Medical Research. They were always trying to deny it existed.

Indian government officials declined to comment on the matter.

The DOTS programme was reassessed and a revised version  DOTS Plus  was rolled out in 2000 taking into account DRTB. But implementing this has had its own set of challenges. The drugs needed are often very expensive and difficult to obtain.

Diagnostic errors

Over the next several months, Lokhande was on a carousel ride of different regimens.

The doctor would prescribe one set of medicines to me for six months. When reports would show that didnt work, he would prescribe another set, changing up the 10-12 tablets I had to take daily, she says.

My family and I trusted him, hoping that with each change my body would stop destroying itself.

But Lokhandes erratic treatment programme moved her further from being cured, and closer to being diagnosed with Extensively-Drug-Resistant TB or XDRTB.

She had already moved back in with her parents in Pune after her first diagnosis, and now she has an at home nurse to help her take her medication and deal with the intensified side-effects  the most significant being hearing loss.

My doctor in Pune gave up on me. He declared he cant treat me any more, she recalls. I had lost 20 kgs, one of my lungs was severely damaged, I was extremely depressed and had gone completely deaf.

Treatment for different forms of DRTB can also lead to blindness, liver and kidney toxicity, rashes and psychosis.

Keeping up with the regimen can get exhausting in itself, but it can only be effective if it is followed with utmost precision. When patients dont adhere to it, it promotes resistance.

For Lokhande, there was also the social stigma to deal with. The most recent study on TB related stigma, published in 2008 in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease found that stigma associated with TB is the highest in India, with women experiencing it most profoundly.

We had an almost upper-middle class lifestyle, but the onset of TB shocked those we knew, she says. Almost everyone made insensitive remarks, made fun of me, criticised my parents, avoided me, stopped calling, stopped visiting. We were ostracised.

Why was my TB being shunned, not spoken about like cancer or diabetes? Why is it associated to only being a poor mans disease? Was it my fault that I got DRTB? she asks.

The stigma stems primarily from a fear of infection.

Most people know TB is infectious, but their knowledge is limited when it comes to infection control, and that leads to deeper socioeconomic consequences, especially for women in India, explains Dr Parag Pevekar, a psychosocial counsellor who often sees TB patients.

TB is also often associated with factors that can themselves create stigma: HIV, poverty, drug and alcohol misuse and homelessness. Women are often blamed as the source of TB, and those affected by the illness may be divorced or considered unworthy of marriage.

With no improvement three and a half years into her treatment, Lokhandes family took her to see Dr Udwadia at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.

I was appalled, he recalls. Debshree [Lokhande] was being pushed around in a wheelchair and was extremely frail. She needed Bedaquiline, he says, referring to a new generation of antibiotics which are less toxic.

Debshree had run out of all drug options and was in a sense therapeutically destitute. This was the only new drug available at the time and she needed it.

Access to promising drug

After 40 years of dormancy in the field of tuberculosis research, two powerful, less toxic medicines were released in 2012  Bedaquiline and Delaminid.

Amongst antibiotics in general, Bedaquiline is a first in its class, explains Dr Isaac Chikwanha, an advisor for the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Access Campaign based in the Swiss city of Geneva.

In comparison to other anti-TB medications, Bedaquiline has a completely different mode of action. It blocks the mechanisms that TB bacteria use to produce energy, thereby killing the bacteria, he adds.

Udwadia says tens of thousands of Indian patients are in dire need of these medicines.

But despite the Indian government announcing in 2016 that Bedaquiline would be made available in the country, most patients are still denied access to it.

Authorities in India say Bedaquiline is technically still in a trial phase and that its use, therefore, needs to be monitored carefully. It is also expensive, they add; in some high-income countries, patients have to pay more than $30,000 for a six-month course of the drug.

There are strict regulations on access to Bedaquiline in India, explains Niklas Bergstrand, advocacy and communications manager for MSF in New Delhi.

Its important these promising drugs are made affordable in all countries where they are needed.

MSF provides rapid diagnostic testing, treatment and psychological support for TB patients in India and across the world, free of cost.

In India, the organisation has four projects that focus on reducing morbidity and mortality of TB and HIV through access to free quality medical services.

At MSF we believe it is important to scale up DRTB treatment, Bergstrand says. For these patients, access to these vital drugs is a matter of life and death.

In India, Bedaquiline is only administered at six government hospitals across the country (in New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Guwahati), and simply having a form of DRTB does not guarantee access to the drug.

Strict government regulations mean one has to be a resident of the state where the drug is being administered  which excludes the majority of Indias DRTB patients.

And access isnt necessarily easier elsewhere. According to MSF, fewer than five percent of the people in need around the world are treated with the new TB drugs.

It is downright disheartening that, with hundreds of thousands of people living with deadly Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis [across the globe], only 4,800 people last year received the two new drugs that could dramatically increase the number of lives saved, says Dr Chikwanha from MSF.

WATCH: The rise of Indias superbugs

Path to improvement

Despite the regulatory hurdles, Dr Udwadia was able to procure Bedaquiline for Lokhande.

Within six months of that treatment, Lokhande gained almost 10kgs and progressed to a milder form of TB.

She regained her hearing after ear surgery in 2015 and can now hear between 80 and 90 percent of sounds.

Hearing music completely will come with time, she says with a smile.

Six years after her first diagnosis, Lokhande finally received a negative TB report earlier this year. The emotional and physical healing, however, will still take time. She has surgery scheduled to remove part of her lung  damaged from the years of XDRTB and the wrong treatment.

It is a supra major operation. Im not sure she will survive it, but it offers her the best, and perhaps only chance of a cure, says Udwadia. In medical terms, a supra major surgery involves operating on vital organs which could endanger the life of the patient.

I see this as the last hurdle towards eliminating TB from my life. I cant wait to cross that final obstacle, and get back to working full time, Lokhande says.

Over the past six years, she has mostly been at home. She is currently working on small, independent projects.

Im left with thin arms, injection scars, skin discolouration, skin dryness and soon after the surgery, I will have a scar like those after open heart surgeries.

But TB has changed my life. It has taught me some great lessons, about what matters in life, about how lucky I am to have those who love me by my side through all of this, she says. And as I approach this final obstacle, I will proudly wear my scars as signs of my strength.

WATCH: Why you should be afraid of an antibiotic apocalypse
A century after Bolshevik revolution, Russia is seen as champion for belligerent nationalism across the globe.

Moscow, Russia  The Russians expected to be seated in a distant corner and ignored  but got a red-carpet reception instead. An unofficial delegation of 16 legislators, bankers and political pundits arrived in Washington, DC, in February to participate in an annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast hosted by the US Congress and attended by the incumbent president.

They ended up meeting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and having a private dinner with notable evangelical Christian Republicans, the pillar of President Donald Trumps political base, a Kremlin insider who was part of the delegation, said.

I did not expect such a positive reception, that there would be people I had only read about and never had a chance to meet, Andrey Kolyadin, who served as head of Kremlins regional politics department, told Al Jazeera.

Kolyadin, now one of Russias top campaign managers, was invited to the breakfast by Republican Dana Rohrabacher of California. Rohrabacher supported Russias annexation of Crimea and war with ex-Soviet, pro-Western Georgia. He even okayed the idea of Alaska rejoining Russia (the tsarist government sold the peninsula in 1867).

A generation ago, such a dinner would seem impossible.

READ MORE  Trump and Putin: An awkward first date

Political pendulum

The mummified body of communist leader Vladimir Lenin is still displayed in a granite mausoleum on Moscows Red Square. One hundred years ago this November, he led the 1917 Bolshevik revolution to create a worldwide communist utopia, eradicate capitalism and replace religion with atheist Marxism.

Red Russia inspired communist movements from China to Colombia and turned Eastern Europe into its political backyard, and a Manichean confrontation between Moscow and Washington led to Cold War and fears of mutually assured destruction.

A century after the revolution, the political pendulum has swung back.

We will have to fight for Crimea and Eastern Ukraine by Alexander Dugin, historian

Moscow sees itself as a resurgent superpower  but the Kremlins current ideology opposes almost everything the communists stood for. After Putins return to the Kremlin for a third presidency in 2012, Moscow has become a global bellwether of neo-conservative, ultranationalist, right-wing and anti-globalist political forces, and the Russian Orthodox Church eagerly fills the void left by the collapse of the Communist dogma.

Trump hailed President Vladimir Putin during his election campaign, and his administrations ties to the Kremlin threaten his presidency.

Emboldened by Trumps election, the American alt-right  a loose network of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, nativists and Islamophobes that often oppose gay rights, multiculturalism and Washingtons globalist policies  hope to enter mainstream politics.

And Putins Russia is a source of their inspiration.

READ MORE: Russias Communist Party turns to the Orthodox Church

Russia adheres to traditionalism, the so-called tolerance programs dont work here, and as an opponent to the US and the Anglo-Saxon world it does interest some rightist political forces, Moscow-based political analyst Alexei Mukhin told Al Jazeera.

These forces shower Russia with superlatives.

I really believe that Russia is the leader of the free world right now, Matthew Heimbach, head of the white supremacist Traditionalist Workers Party, said last December. Putin is supporting nationalists around the world and building an anti-globalist alliance, while promoting traditional values and self-determination.

The most powerful white power in the world  thats what Richard Spencer, another white supremacist leader who popularised the term alt-right and urged his supporters to hail Trump, calls Russia.

His ethnic Russian wife, Nina Kouprianova is a Putin loyalist who writes and blogs under the name of Nina Byzantina.

Her pseudonym offers a partial explanation for the shift in Russias policies. Russians accepted Orthodox Christianity from Byzantine Greeks, and tsarist Russia saw itself as a Third Rome, a civilisational heir of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, known as the Second Rome.

Kouprianova translated the works of controversial philosopher Alexander Dugin, who believes that Russia is the worlds sole power that prevents the coming of Antichrist and predicts the revival of the Russian Empire through a new Eurasian Union with former Soviet republics that will eventually take over all of Europe, into English.

After his 2014 calls to kill, kill, kill ethnic Ukrainians, Dugin lost his job as a sociology professor at Moscow State University and was blacklisted by the European Union and the US. He holds no official posts, but his ideas find supportes in the halls of power.

We will have to fight for Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, Dugin wrote in 2009  and the Kremlin followed suit in 2014. Putin often quotes historian Lev Gumilev, whose works inspired Dugin, and the Moscow-led free trade bloc that includes several ex-Soviet republics is named the Eurasian Economic Union.

Divide and rule

The Kremlin has forged ties with far-right political parties in the West and backs their efforts to break away from alliances such as the European Union or NATO, or seek independence from their central governments.

The more the West is disunited, the more beneficial it is to Russia by Sergei Markov, former legislator

Putins European supporters include such Eurosceptic and far-right groups as the National Democratic Party of Germany and the Alternative for Germany, Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Serbian Radical Party and Frances National Front. The latters leader, Marine Le Pen, said she admired Putin and admitted to receiving a $12m loan from a Kremlin-affiliated bank in 2014.

Pro-Kremlin pundits have a simple explanation.

The more the West is disunited, the more beneficial it is to Russia, Sergei Markov, a former Russian legislator with the State Duma, a lower house of parliament, and head of a pro-Kremlin think-tank in Moscow, told Al Jazeera.

The forging of ties with the Western far-right groups contradicts Russias domestic crackdown on similar groups. Dozens of skinheads and neo-Nazis have been sentenced to jail in Russia in recent years for hate and terrorist attacks and extremism.

They support people like me abroad, and jail us here, Dmitry Demishkin, a veteran skinhead and head of the ultra-nationalist Russkiye (Russians) group told this reporter in July 2015. In April, he was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for extremism.

READ MORE: Youth vs Putin  2:0

Double standards?

Louis Marinelli is determined to break California from the United States.

The 31-year-old leads the Yes California group that hoped to hold a referendum on the Golden States secession in 2019. But these days, Marinelli lives in Yekaterinburg, a grim, industrial megalopolis near the Ural Mountains.

He fled to his Russian wifes hometown because he says US authorities may find or create some trumped-up charges against me, or either outright detain me, or perhaps just simply destroy my reputation.

Marinelli plans to apply for Russian citizenship next year.

They by Vladimir

bear alone, will always try to chain it, to take out its teeth and claws]

Upon his arrival in Russia last September, he addressed a conference of like-minded separatists from around the world who had gathered at a luxurious hotel just outside the Kremlin walls. Their political agendas were radically different from each other.

The Northern League is a far-right separatist group from northern Italy. The Polisario Front fights for Western Saharas independence from Morocco and Mauritania. Separatists from Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia have already carved out their de-facto independent fiefdoms  unlike Edmund Silva Jr., the sovereign of Hawaii, whose video address was played at the conference.

The conference was organised by the Russian Anti-Globalist movement, a Moscow-based group that denies ties to the Kremlin. But its leader, a bespectacled seven-footer named Alexander Ionov, admitted to this reporter that the separatist summit was paid for by a $55,000 government grant  and donations from Texas and other countries.

A year earlier, Rodina (Motherland), a nationalist, anti-migrant party organised a similar forum in St Petersburg, Russias second-largest city and Putins hometown, for Eurosceptic groups, ultranationalists and separatists from Greece, Italy, Great Britain and the US.

Rodinas founder Dmitri Rogozin served as Russian envoy to NATO and is now a deputy prime minister in charge of defence and space industries. The EU and the US blacklisted Rogozin for his role in the annexation of Crimea.

Although Putin never openly supported separatism outside Russia, he quipped at the Western support to the 1991 Soviet collapse and what he calls further attempts to dismember Russia.

They wont leave the [Russian] bear alone, will always try to chain it, to take out its teeth and claws, he said in 2014.

We have heard many times from officials that its unfair that entire Siberia, with its immeasurable wealth, belongs to Russia. Why unfair? And grabbing, wrestling Texas from Mexico was fair?

Russias support of wannabe separatists abroad runs parallel to a violent rejection of any secessionism in the nation of 143 million where ethnic Russians make up four-fifths of the population. The remaining fifth consists of more than a hundred ethnic groups the tiny principality of Moscow conquered during its transcontinental expansion.

Some of these ethnicities still harbour bitter memories of the conquest and its consequences. Chechens were fierce foes of tsarist armies  and their two wars for independence after the Soviet collapse were drowned in blood.

Russias annexation of Crimea is the latest example of Moscows crackdown on separatism  at least nine people have been sentenced to up to five years in jail for online posts that call the Black Sea peninsula part of Ukraine, human rights group Agora said in early June.
Soldiers have been working to save civilians still trapped among the rubble of war in Iraqs second-largest city.

Mosul, Iraq  Western Mosul is in ruins. From the tenth floor of a badly damaged hotel in Iraqs second-largest city, destroyed buildings and roads can be seen for miles on end.

There is no building that has not been touched by fights and air attacks. The smell of decaying bodies fills the hot July air.

Weapons, bullets, bodies and objects torn from everyday life are buried under the rubble. Soldiers have been working to rescue civilians still trapped inside.

The women of Mosul are exhausted, and their babies are hungry. Barefoot and wounded, they walk for hours to reach safety.

One elderly woman with a blood-stained face falls to the ground, crying help me to the Iraqi soldiers who are still searching for people in the rubble. She says she drank her own urine to stay alive while awaiting rescue.

READ MORE: What will post-ISIL Mosul look like?

We were locked in basements, women and children, she tells Al Jazeera. We shouted, but no one could help us. No one rescued us for weeks. ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS] fighters surrounded the houses with electric wires to blow up those who tried to escape.

There are no men around in this area. Some who tried to leave the city were detained by Iraqi forces  some on suspicion of being affiliated with ISIL  while others died in the battle to retake Mosul.

Iraqi soldier Usama el-Umani now guards the area around al-Nuri mosque, where ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the creation of the groups caliphate in the summer of 2014. He pulls a mobile phone from his left pocket and says it belonged to a young ISIL member.

On the phone, he scrolls through dozens of snapshots of everyday life in ISIL-controlled Mosul: In one, a woman brandishes an RPG and a Kalashnikov rifle in front of ISILs black flag.

The defeat of the Islamic State in Mosul ends a battle, but not the war, Umani tells Al Jazeera. Our concern is that the fall of Mosul could bring the organisation back to the beginning, to random and violent attacks, especially because sectarian divisions here are far from being resolved.

Repairing the damage to infrastructure in Mosul  estimated at more than $1bn  will be crucial to facilitating the return of displaced Moslawis, and it will also help to prevent new fundamentalism being born among the youth, Asma al-Fasi tells Al Jazeera from her home in the western Mosul neighbourhood of al-Jadida.

Defeating ISIL in Mosul does not mean that we have destroyed its roots, the deep reasons that generated it, she says.

The streets around her house are full of rubble, and there is no water or electricity. She lives with her husband and their eight children; they had nine before ISIL entered the city.

They killed my son after ten days  hanged because he was the Iraqi police barber here in Mosul, Fasi says, pulling out her sons photograph from a drawer.

There is not a woman in Mosul who has not lost a beloved relative, a son, a husband, killed by those assassins, she says. Every one of us weeps  in silence, not to bother the others.

IN PICTURES: The battle for western Mosul

Sometimes, she adds, the local women meet in a house to share memories of their lost loved ones. When the war arrived in our area  whole families were used as human shields [by ISIL]. Those who tried to escape were hanged.

Outside her home are several water buckets; each day, she waits in line in front of a warehouse in western Mosul for her turn to fill them. Dozens of women stand for hours in the baking sun each day for water and food distribution from humanitarian agencies who truck it into Mosul. When they cry out in need, soldiers shout for silence.

One woman shows her husbands identity papers, saying: The army arrested him one month ago  They said he was an ISIL member, but he was a good man. Im alone with four children, and I have nothing to eat. Her smallest son hides amid the folds of her black dress.

I see only despair around us, Fasi says. I asked my children to forgive and to go on. I told my children that we will overcome this tragedy only by letting it go, but every day I find more anger in their eyes.

Abudi Adwan, 11, today lives in eastern Mosul with his family, having fled from the western Wadi Ajar neighbourhood as fighting gripped the area. They have been sharing a small house with two other families, and Abudi has tried to be a breadwinner, as his own father cannot work after sustaining injuries from ISIL fighters who beat him when he refused to work for them.

Sometimes I go to a restaurant; the owner gives me 2,000 Iraqi dinars a day, but we can not even buy dinner with 200,000 dinars, Adwan tells Al Jazeera.

Adwans family had a shop in western Mosul, but it was destroyed. When they fled, they brought with them an orphan whose family was killed by an ISIL mortar.

He is traumatised, says Adwans mother, Arwa. He wakes up in the middle of the night, shouting, but we do not know what to do. We do not know how to help him, and we cannot even think of sending him to school because we cannot afford to pay for our children either.
Each day, thousands of Nepalis fly out of Kathmandu for work. They serve in restaurants in Europe and farm plantations in East Asia, but an increasingly large percentage are employed in menial jobs in the Gulf states, where work visas are easy to come by, and labour is badly needed.

Today, about three million Nepalis, some 10 percent of the population, work abroad. Their migration lends an outsized role to the economy. According to a UN report released last month, no country in the world is more reliant on remittances than Nepal, where it makes up 32 percent of the GDP. That figure has nearly doubled since 2007 when it stood at 17 percent.

Much has been written about the risks attendant in such migrant labour, the worksite deaths, abusive bosses and exploitation, not to mention the vast debt usually incurred to procure papers and jobs.

Few people now go into the labour force without some awareness of these risks. But to speak to migrants and their families, you will far more often hear of sacrifice and opportunities. Women who were child brides now send their daughters to school; men who spent decades living away from their families return to see their college-educated children flourish.
On July 9, the new ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia kicked off in southwest Syria. The agreement was signed by Jordan, Russia and the US. It came as a result of months-long preliminary talks between the parties and was announced after presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Germany on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.

One of the most important aspects of this agreement was that it was concluded separately from the Astana talks, which Russia has been promoting as the most successful and useful track of negotiations.

The recent round of negotiations in Astana which took place just before the G-20 summit on July 4-5 did not produce any result. Russia, Turkey and Iran, the three sponsors of the Astana talks, did not sign a single agreement defining the parameters of the four de-escalation zones that were proposed in May.





This naturally raises a question about the necessity and efficiency of such a format if it has not been able to produce an agreement and lay the ground for its successful implementation since its launch in December 2016.

On July 13, just five days into the new ceasefire in southwest Syria, President Trump mentioned that another agreement is under discussion. During the news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Trump said: We are working on the second ceasefire in a very rough part of Syria  If we get that and a few more, all of a sudden we are going to have no bullets being fired in Syria.

If Putin continues to deal with Trump bilaterally on Syria, pushing forward more ceasefires, this could put Moscow at risk and would create problems with Iran.

Ignoring Iran might backfire

The July 7 agreement on the ceasefire in southwest Syria basically formalised a new de-escalation zone which was not a part of the May deal in Astana. This zone includes areas around Qunaitra, Deraa and Suwaida.

In recent months Jordan, Israel and the US repeatedly voiced their fears about the growing presence of the Iranian/pro-Iranian forces close to Jordans and Israels border with Syria. The US has also been apprehensive about their advance eastward towards the area around al-Tanf, on the Syrian-Iraqi border, where it is training Syrian rebel forces. Neither side has said if al-Tanf is part of the deal, but it is possible that it could be included in the ceasefire currently being negotiated between Russia and the US.

If the ceasefire in the southwest proves successful, Russia will have to choose whether to gradually drop the Astana track and replace it with a different one or to include Washington and Amman as full members. by

Basically, by signing a new ceasefire deal with the US and Jordan Russia sidelined Iran, effectively stripping it from having a say in Syrias south.

However, this agreement doesnt guarantee Irans compliance with it. To have this and future ceasefire agreements successfully implemented and observed, Russia has to find a way to control the Syrian regime and Iran (along with its proxies). If the former is more likely to listen to Moscow, the latter might be deaf to such requests.

With Irans multilayered presence in Syria and its huge investments in the Syrian state over the past six years, it is highly doubtful that the Kremlin could actually make Tehran comply with a ceasefire agreement which Iran is not a party to.

Iran could decide to act as a spoiler to the agreement between Russia and the US and provoke an escalation in the ceasefire zone. Moscow would be then perceived as unable to control Tehran and its carefully constructed image as a kingmaker in Syria would be destroyed.

Russia could offer Iran a bigger role in the central and eastern part of Syria, in Homs, Damascus, and Deir Az Zor in exchange for accepting US and Jordanian influence in the south. Iran wants to secure ground access from Iran via Iraq and Syria to Lebanon which makes it focus more on the central part of Syria and its borders with Iraq and Lebanon.

The Syrian government and Iranian forces have already blocked the US-backed groups operating around al-Tanf which gives them an upper hand in the east. Eventually, the most likely scenario is that Syrian and Iranian-backed forces will capture the town al-Bukamal which will give them control of the Syrian-Iraqi border crossing and of a road linking Damascus to Baghdad.

What will become of the Astana talks?

Moscows decision to reach an agreement on a new ceasefire and de-escalation zone outside the Astana format is discrediting it. This would especially be the case if the US also gets involved in de-escalation zones and ceasefire deals in northern Syria, where Turkish interests lie.

The question is, then, can the Astana format in its current form deliver any solid results on the ground, which the US would not be party to?





If the ceasefire in the southwest proves successful, Russia will have to choose whether to gradually drop the Astana track and replace it with a different one or to include Washington and Amman as full members.

Both options would be difficult for Russia to implement. On one hand, Moscow invested a lot of political capital in the Astana talks and needs to demonstrate its effectiveness to both a domestic and international audience. On the other, the incorporation of the US and Jordan as full members in the Astana talks will most certainly cause objections from Iran, which is likely to feel outweighed, and from Turkey, which is not ready to compromise on the Kurdish issue.

The next round of Astana talks is scheduled for the end of August. Russia has at least five weeks to decide what to do with the format and see whether the ceasefire deal in southwest Syria is working. However, Russias problem with Iran is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

Alexey Khlebnikov is a MENA expert at the Russian International Affairs Council. He holds an MA in global public policy and Middle Eastern studies. He was a Muskie fellow at the University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs (2012-2014) and a research fellow at Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2013.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Acting managing director of Al Jazeera English says journalists will continue their work amid demands to close channel.

London, UK  The head of Al Jazeera English, Giles Trendle, said the channel is not going anywhere despite demands by Saudi Arabia and several other Arab states to close it down.

During an event at Londons iconic Frontline Club on Monday, Trendle said editors at the outlet were encouraged by statements made by Qatars Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani that the future of Al Jazeera was not up for negotiation.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates had called for the closure of Al Jazeera as part of a list of 13 demands they expect Qatar to comply with, in exchange for the normalisation of ties, which were broken off when the diplomatic crisis started in May.

When asked whether the channel was closing down, Trendle responded with a simple No.

Since day one, our journalists all around the world have been at their desks doing their jobs and out in the field reporting, he said.

Obviously its an unusual situation, but its business as normal  were just getting on with our jobs.

Human Rights Watch has described the demand to close Al Jazeera absurd and the Committee to Protect Journalists deemed the call outrageous.

READ MORE: Rights groups condemn demand to shut Al Jazeera

Trendle was joined by Wadah Khanfar, the former director general of Al Jazeera, and the editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, David Hearst.

The Saudi-led group has also demanded the closure of Middle East Eye, an online news organisation which has been accused of receiving funding from Doha.

Hearst denied the allegations and said the demands by Saudi Arabia and its allies amounted to stifling independent and critical media, particularly Al Jazeeras Arabic channel.

They don't want their own people reading genuinely independent outlets. by David Hearst, Middle East Eye editor

Al Jazeera Arabic is doing a fantastic job, and its popular, thats what they dont like, he told a packed room at the venue in central London.

They dont want their own people reading genuinely independent outlets.

Khanfar, who led Al Jazeera from 2006 until his resignation in 2011, decried accusations that Al Jazeera was editorially beholden to groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Once you have an editorial board that decides the lines, you [as a journalist] need to follow the lines unless these lines are springing from an ideological background, he said.

About the [Muslim Brotherhood]  what a lie  [which Muslim Brotherhood members] were telling us what editorial line we should follow?

We should stop this kind of nonsense.

LIVE: @frontlineclub presents 'The Al Jazeera Case', a discussion on the recent call for the closure of Al Jazeera. https://t.co/5mtPSWWNxf  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 17, 2017

Khanfar also addressed accusations that Al Jazeera has provided a platform to groups regarded as terrorist organisations.

Interviews with members of proscribed groups were only carried out due to editorial necessity and interest, and not to promote any organisation, he said.

READ MORE: Qatar lashes out at UAE over QNA hacking

The Gulf Crisis started when fake quotes attributed to Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani were published by hackers targeting the official Qatar News Agency (QNA).

The incident led to a breakdown in relations between Saudi Arabia and its allies on one side, and Qatar on the other.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic, trade, and transport ties with Qatar early in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism, a charge Qatar strongly denies.

US intelligence officials later told the Washington Post that the cyber attack was arranged by the UAE, an allegation the country rejects.
Trump administration says Tehran complied with terms of 2015 agreement but violated spirit of the deal.

The Trump administration has for the second time declared that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal, but threatened more sanctions for breaching the spirit of the agreement.





The announcement came just hours before the midnight deadline for US President Donald Trump to inform congress whether Iran had met the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The conditions have been met, based on information available to the United States, one official said during a briefing with reporters on Monday.

In a shift from Trumps campaign promise to rip up the worst deal ever, officials said that the administration was working with US allies to try to fix the agreements flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more.

Officials also said that the United States would slap new sanctions on Tehran, penalising the Islamic Republic for developing ballistic missiles and for contributing to regional tensions.

They emphasised several long-standing US concerns about human rights abuses and Irans alleged support for terrorism in the region.

Trump and the administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the agreement, one official said.

That assessment carries no legal force, while Trumps certification that Iran is complying with the agreement clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

READ MORE: It is in Trumps interest to keep the Iran deal alive

When Trump made the first certification in April, he paired it with new sanctions for non-nuclear behaviour to show there was no softening in his stance towards Iran.

While no details of any additional sanctions have been given, officials said on Monday they expected more sanctions would eventually be laid out.

We do expect that we will be implementing new sanctions that pertain to Irans ballistic missile programme and fast boat programme, one official said.

Contradictory signals

Speaking before the administrations announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said they had received contradictory signals.





We dont know which one to interpret in what way, Zarif said.

Iran in the past has complained that US administration has failed to lift sanctions in line with the deal.

Under the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear programme  long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons  in return for billions of dollars in sanction relief.

The deal does not address global concerns about Irans non-nuclear activities but also does not prevent the US and others from punishing Iran for those activities.

Chilling effect

Mondays last-minute decision by the president exposed deep and lingering divisions within his administration about how to deal with a top national security issue.

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, told Al Jazeera that he is not surprised that such divisions exist.

I dont think [Trump] fully understands the consequences of scrapping [the deal]. I think his advisers do and they were tasked with finding a way to scrap it without causing a crisis, without isolating the United States, he said.

Six months into the Trump administration, they still have not managed with find a way.

OPINION: Trump and Iran  Scenarios of escalation

Parsi added that Trumps strategy is developing into creating as much of a chilling effect as possible in order to deprive Iran of the benefits of being in compliance with the hope that the Iranians will scrap the deal, will walk out of it and by that the Iranians will pay the price of the collapse of the deal, not the Trump administration.

Withdrawing from the deal would put further distance between Trump and foreign leaders who have said there is no appetite for renegotiation.

The state department must make a decision on Irans compliance every 90 days.
Philippine leader seeks congress approval to keep military rule in Mindanao region until end of 2017 amid ISIL threat.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked congress to extend martial law in the southern Mindanao region until the end of the year, to allow armed forces to quell the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Duterte declared military rule over Mindanao, an island of 22 million people, for 60 days on May 23 when hundreds of ISIL-linked fighters occupied parts of Marawi city.

ISILs presence led to clashes that have killed more than 500 people.

But with scores of armed fighters holding out against government forces, Duterte met politicians late Monday and asked them to extend the law when it lapses on July 22, his spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

READ MORE: Filipino Muslim rebels pin hope on new peace deal

There is a looming situation in Mindanao which needs to be totally and completely addressed, Abella said on Tuesday, adding that the primary objective of the extension was to allow our forces to continue with their operation, unhampered by deadlines.

The countrys constitution allows the president to impose martial law for up to 60 days.





Beyond two months, the president can extend the rule for a period to be determined by congress, Abella said.

With Dutertes allies dominating congress, House of Representatives speaker Pantaleon Alvarez told the AFP news agency he saw no obstacle to approving the presidents request.

Congress will convene on Saturday to discuss the extension.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who attended Mondays meeting with Duterte, said: He also explained clearly his fear that terrorism might slowly spread throughout Mindanao and eventually the country.

Duterte told the politicians that 600 buildings had yet to be cleared of bombs or armed men, Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito told AFP.

Security forces have been conducting a US-backed offensive to root out the gunmen, using air attacks and artillery fire.

Al Jazeeras Yaara Bou Melhem, reporting from Manila, said the Philippine authorities are more accustomed to jungle warfare as opposed to urban guerilla warfare.

The fact that after two months of fighting, the Philippine authorities have not been able to retake parts of Marawi city just goes to show how unprepared they were for this firefight, she said.

These fighters seem to have quiet a bit of firepower in order to keep this city for as long as they have.

Also on Monday, government and rebel representatives submitted to Duterte a new draft law, which aims to establish a more powerful Muslim autonomous region in the countrys south under a 2014 peace deal that stalled in congress under his predecessor.
At least 18 individuals and entities targeted for backing illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity.

The United States has slapped fresh economic sanctions on Iran, designating 18 individuals and entities for supporting what it said were illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity.

Heather Nauert, the state department spokeswoman, accused Iran on Tuesday of testing and developing ballistic missiles in direct defiance of a UN Security Council resolution.

The US is deeply concerned about Irans malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, security, and prosperity, including support for armed groups, the Syrian regime and Houthi rebels in Yemen, she said.

Irans parliament retaliated by voting for extra funding for the missile programme and its foreign ministry said it would impose its own sanctions against Americans.

READ MORE: Is Trump leading the US on a warpath with Iran?

The US treasury department said those sanctioned had backed Irans military or Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by developing drones and military equipment, producing and maintaining boats, and procuring electronic components.

Others have also orchestrated the theft of US and Western software programmes sold to Irans government, it said in a statement.

The US state department had also designated two other Iranian organisations involved in Irans ballistic missile programme, according to the treasury department.





Nuclear deal

The news comes just a day after the US administration declared that Iran was complying with a landmark nuclear deal signed two years ago.

That deal does not cover Tehrans ballistic missile programme.

The US government threatened additional sanctions on Tuesday, saying that although Iran was meeting its requirements on paper, it was unquestionably in default of the spirit of the accord.

Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said those listed in the sanctions were now prohibited from using the American banking system, and any assets they have in the US would be frozen.

These are fairly minor if you compare them to the sanctions lifted as part of the nuclear deal, she said.

Irans foreign ministry called the fresh sanctions a worthless act and illegal, according to the official news agency IRNA.

READ MORE: US certifies Iran nuclear deal, but vows new sanctions

Tehran will,in turn, apply new sanctions against American people and entities that have acted against the Iranian people and other Muslim peoples of the region, it reported.

Irans parliament, in addition to earmarking an additional US$260m for its ballistic missile programme, also agreed to allot a similar amount to the militarys foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, which Washington has accused of fomenting unrest across the region.

Ali Larijani, the speaker of Irans parliament, said the measures would show the Americans that Iran will resist them with all its power.

While the US complained about Irans defiance of the spirit of the nuclear accord, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would make his own complaints about US non-compliance when representatives of the five nuclear powers  China, Russia, France, Britain, the US  plus Germany meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.

Zarif accused the Trump administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.
The government of Venezuela has announced it will go ahead with a controversial election of a Constituent Assembly on July 30, despite a threat of economic sanctions by US President Donald Trump.

Elections to the National Constituent Assembly is an act of political sovereignty. Nothing and nobody can stop it. The Constituent Assembly is happening Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said in a speech at the foreign ministry.

Moncada vowed to carry out a deep review of Venezuelas relations with the US.

The Venezuelan people are free and will respond united to the insolent threat made by a xenophobic and racist empire.

READ MORE: Venezuela has reached a zero hour  Whats next?

The new assembly Maduro wants to elect on July 30 would have the power to rewrite the constitution and detour the opposition-controlled legislature.

Following an unofficial vote on Sunday, in which millions of Venezuelans cast ballots to reject Maduros proposal, Trump called Maduro a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.

Trumps administration is also planning targeted sanctions, likely against Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and the Socialist Partys second highest figure Diosdado Cabello, for alleged human rights violations, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Those sanctions could be rolled out as early as Tuesday, one of the officials told Reuters, but may be delayed as Trumps administration reviews all its options.

The sanctions would freeze the officials US assets and prohibit anyone in the US from doing business with them.

It would be the first phase of new actions the Trump administration is considering, including possible targeted sanctions against Venezuelas vital oil sector.

Venezuela is the third largest foreign oil supplier to the US, after Canada and Saudi Arabia, exporting about 780,000 barrels per day of crude.

Trump unpopular in Venezuela

While that could bankrupt the Maduro administration and worsen already grave food shortages, hitting Venezuelas energy sector could also raise US domestic gasoline prices, which would be unpopular with Americans.

Any sanctions by Trump, who is largely unpopular abroad, could also be used by Maduro to bolster his accusations that Washington is trying to sabotage leftism in Latin America, and could unite the ruling Socialist Party just as fissures were emerging.

On Monday, the opposition coalition called for a 24-hour nationwide strike and massive protests in the days to come to force Maduro to step down before the end of his term in 2019.





Maduro has repeatedly said the new assembly to rewrite the constitution is the only way to recover economically and achieve peace.

Brazil, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States have also demanded Venezuela drop plans for the assembly.

On Tuesday, a group of 100 Colombian and Chilean senators filed a lawsuit against Maduro at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accusing him of murder, persecution, torture and forced disappearance.

Venezuela has grappled with deadly political and economic crises as low crude oil prices have forced the government to cut back or eliminate its socialist programmes.

The crisis has fuelled public anger and triggered massive protests that have left at least 96 people dead since April.

The opposition has run a vigorous campaign to try to push Maduro out of office through early elections.

Venezuelas opposition also blames mismanagement by Maduro, who has stepped up the nationalisation of businesses, employed the military to control food distribution, and imposed currency controls.
A UN mission investigating allegations of rape, torture and killings of Rohingya Muslims would only aggravate troubles in Rakhine state, the security adviser of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi told diplomats.





Thaung Tuns comments on Tuesday came less than a month after Myanmar declined to grant visas to three UN-appointed experts who would probe allegations of abuse against the minority by the armed forces.

We dissociated ourselves from the decision because we found that it was less than constructive, Thaung Tun told UN officials and diplomats.

We feel that that mission can only aggravate the situation on the ground, he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi and several high-level Myanmar officials have been painfully reluctant to address the Rohingya issue, and are often criticised for their failure to stem human rights abuses.

The north of Myanmars Rakhine state has been under lockdown since October, when the military launched a security operation in response to what it claims was an attack by Rohingya armed men on border posts, in which nine police officers were killed.

More than 90,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee their homes since the crackdown began, according to UN estimates.

A UN report in February said the campaign against the Rohingya, who were stripped of their citizenship in 1982, very likely amounted to war crimes.

Following the report, the UN adopted a resolution in March to set up an independent, international mission to investigate the alleged abuses. It stopped short of calling for a Commission of Inquiry, the UNs highest-level investigation.

READ MORE: A fight to survive for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Thaung Tun did not directly address the allegations outlined in the report, but said Myanmar had a clear right to defend the country by lawful means as it tackles increasing terrorist activities.

Myanmar officials say a domestic investigation, led by Vice President Myint Swe, a former lieutenant general, is sufficient.

Last week, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, called on Myanmar to accept the mission, arguing that the international community cannot overlook what is happening in the country.

Human Rights Watch warned that Myanmars government risked getting bracketed with pariah states such as North Korea and Syria if it did not allow the UN to investigate alleged crimes.

The UN investigators must provide a verbal update in September and a full report next year on its findings.

Burned to death

This week, Myanmars Ministry of Information escorted more than a dozen journalists to parts of Rakhine state.





Villagers told reporters about alleged abuses by troops in the area.

Rohingya women said their husbands and sons were arbitrarily detained and described killings and arson by security forces.

One villager, Lalmuti, told Reuters news agency that she found her fathers remains in a small pile of ashes in a house that had been set on fire.

She said her mother was later arrested when authorities deemed her complaint about the killings to be fabricated.

On Friday, Thura San Lwin, commander of Myanmars Border Guard Police, said some villagers had made what he said were erroneous claims and were subsequently charged and jailed for lying to authorities.

The media said we torched houses and that there were rape cases  they give wrong information, Lwin said.
Israeli soldiers say driver ploughed his vehicle through a checkpoint towards them before they shot him.

A Palestinian man has been shot and killed by Israeli forces after allegedly carrying out a car-ramming attack in north Hebron.

According to the Israeli army, the Palestinian drove his car through the checkpoint at the entrance of Beit Anun village and ploughed into the soldiers on Tuesday.

In response to the immediate threat, forces fired shots towards the assailant, the Israeli military said.

According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers responded with a barrage of bullets, killing the driver.

They told local media that a large group of Israeli soldiers converged on the spot and shut down the entire road. Soldiers also prevented a Red Crescent ambulance from approaching the Palestinians car.

READ MORE: Palestinians hope UN ruling will improve life in Hebron

Two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident and were hospitalised at the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but has not stopped. At least 261 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began.

Israel says at least 176 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests.

At least 40 Israelis, two US tourists and a British student have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car-ramming incidents

A few of the attacks had been carried out by Israeli Palestinian citizens.

Israel blames the violence on incitement by Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the 50-year occupation of land sought by Palestinians for a state is the cause.

A number of local and international human rights groups have raised concerns that Israeli security forces have used excessive force when confronting Palestinians who had carried out attacks or been suspected of doing so.

The Israeli police relaxed its open-fire regulations in December 2015, permitting officers to open fire with live ammunition on those throwing stones or firebombs as an initial option, without having to use non-lethal weapons first.
Abdul Rashid Dostums private jet flying in from Turkey prevented from landing in Mazar-i-Sharif, say officials.

A private jet that Afghan officials suspected was bringing back Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum from Turkey has been turned away when it tried to land in a northern city, officials say.

Afghan officials told news agencies on Tuesday that a private jet flying to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, was ordered to fly to the capital, Kabul, for checks late on Monday following indications that Dostum, 63, was trying to return to the country.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Dostums plane diverted to Turkmenistan.

Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader and former general, flew to Turkey in May after he was accused of ordering the detention and torture of a political rival.

READ MORE: Rejected from Germany  One Afghans story

He has denied the accusations, and a spokesman said he left Afghanistan for medical treatment.

A senior official from Dostums Junbish party, denied that he had tried to enter Afghanistan, saying that a guest of Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of Balkh province, had been due to land in Mazar but had gone to Turkmenistan because of technical issues.

If General Dostum wants to come to Afghanistan, no power can stop him because he is Afghanistans vice president, said Junbish deputy head Shujauddin Shuja.

Supporters slogans

Dostum has not been formally charged with any offence.

However, hundreds of Dostums supporters, some carrying posters with slogans like Welcome back our dear leader!, were waiting in Mazar-i-Sharif, the closest big city to Dostums home region of Jawzjan, on the border with Turkmenistan, the Reuters news agency reported.

Raess Abdul Khaliq, a council member for the northern Balkh province, told DPA news agency that the plane was denied permission to land after Dostum refused to go to Kabul.





It is not clear why the government denied the jet permission to land there.

A spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support force, which maintains troops at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport under German command, said international officials had no role in turning the aircraft away.

Dostums relations with President Ashraf Ghani have been tense, and he has formed an opposition alliance with Noor.

The allegations against Dostum come from Ahmad Ishchi, who said he was held hostage for five days in a private compound, where he was allegedly beaten and raped on Dostums orders.

Dostum had evaded questioning after Afghanistans attorney general launched an investigation by hiding in his palace in central Kabul, guarded by armed men.

Nobody was arrested or charged despite reports that medical evidence backed Ishchis claims of abuse.

In 2008, Dostum went into exile in Turkey after facing similar allegations that he ordered the abduction and torture of another political rival.
Fatah calls on Palestinians to boycott holy mosque as heightened security measures are feared to be signs of a takeover.

President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party has called for a Day of Rage to protest against new security measures introduced by Israel at a Jerusalem site which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

The call follows the implementation of metal detectors and turnstiles at the entrance of al-Aqsa compound after a deadly shootout there on Friday.

In that incident, two Israeli security officers died after an alleged attack by three Palestinians  who were themselves killed by Israeli police following the violence.

Tensions have soared since Friday.

READ MORE: Grand Mufti  Arrest of al-Aqsa guards unacceptable

The Red Cross said on Tuesday that at least 50 Palestinians were wounded in overnight clashes with Israeli police remaining near the sacred site, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.

At least four paramedics were injured, and 15 others were hit by rubber bullets, the charity said.

Clashes also broke out on Tuesday evening after Israeli security forces used sound bombs and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of worshippers near Lions gate in occupied Jerusalem after evening prayers.

A number of Palestinians suffered rubber bullet injuries, including former Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, said Al Jazeera Arabics correspondent.

The Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements have also called for protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the new security measures.

The Day of Rage is set to take place on Wednesday.

For the third day now, the Islamic Waqf authority  which runs the al-Aqsa Mosque compound  is refusing to enter through the Israeli metal detectors, said Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett, reporting from Jerusalem.

[The authority] and the many growing number of worshippers outside the mosque see [the security measures] as an imposition of Israeli sovereignty in a holy place, and more generally as an Israeli encroachment in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Israelis are saying that this is an important security measure after the deadly attack which took place on Friday.

READ MORE: What triggered the violence at al-Aqsa Mosque?

Fatah is calling for Friday prayers to be conducted in public squares in Palestinian cities to denounce what they described as terrorist procedures by Israel in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians have already been performing prayers outside the compound in protest, since it was reopened on Sunday after a two-day closure.

Jerusalem Grand Mufti Mohammed Ahmed Hussein criticised the new measures as altering the status quo, which gives Muslims religious control over the site and permits Jews to visit but not pray there.





In a statement, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that Israeli forces removed worshippers at Lions Gate for allegedly blocking the street while performing prayers.

The Palestinians fear Israel is trying to retake control of the site by stealth. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Friday that he did not want to alter the status quo.

The site houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, Islams third holiest site after Mecca and Medina, but also the ruins of the Biblical Jewish Temple.

Questions about control of the site frequently lead to outbursts of fighting.

After Fridays alleged attack, Israel closed off the area, preventing Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time in decades.

Mahmoud Abbas, who was quick to condemn the shooting attacks in a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is currently in Beijing on a three-day visit to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Economy minister discusses compensation with trade officials in Geneva as legal team prepares to study the sanctions.

Qatar has announced that it is considering legal action against four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, demanding compensation for losses incurred owing to the ongoing blockade.

Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatars economy minister, met on Tuesday the heads of international trade organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the case for compensation.

Qatar has contracted a specialised legal team to study the actions taken by the blockading countries against it, according to a statement from the economy ministry in Doha.

READ MORE: France calls for lifting of sanctions on Qatar citizens

Separately, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, Qatars defence minister, said the country may even its case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, at The Hague.

Because of its financial reserves and as long as it can continue exporting liquefied natural gas, Qatar has avoided any crippling economic crisis because of the blockade.

But it has been forced to rely on planes to import food, after Saudi Arabia and the UAE blocked shipment of goods into Qatar.

Several other businesses were also disrupted, including the countrys national flag carrier Qatar Airways, whose flights to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain remain suspended.

Legal measures

The development comes a day after Qatar officials said the government was considering legal measures locally and internationally over the alleged hacking of the state news agency.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Marwan Kabalan of the Doha Institute said that over the past weeks, Qatar has been trying to use different tools to undermine the blockade.

The balance of power within the Gulf region is now tilting towards Qatar, particularly after the Washington Post revelation of UAEs role in the hacking that precipitated the crisis.

With the Gulf crisis entering its eighth week, however, there is no sign of the dispute being resolved soon.

Earlier, Mohammed Cherkaoui, professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University in Virginia, told Al Jazeera that regional and international mediation have faced several setbacks. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar on June 5.

The quartet accuse Qatar of funding terrorism, an accusation Qatar rejects as baseless.

On June 22, the Saudi-led group issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions.





Qatar rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list null and void.

Kuwait is trying to mediate in the dispute, and countries such as the US and France have urged the parties to engage in direct talks.

Qatar and several countries have called for the lifting of the sanctions before face-to-face talks can proceed.

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative British member of the European Parliament who visited Qatar on Monday, said the continuing blockade on Qatar is not helpful in resolving the crisis.

There is almost no situation in the world that isnt made worse by an economic blockade, Hannan told Al Jazeera.

Hannan said an immediate lifting of the sanctions could pave the way for talks, saying: It is very difficult to negotiate with a gun to your head.
German media reports say staged demonstration during G20 summit ended with some protesters raising pro-Qatar slogans.

A German media report says there is strong evidence an anti-Qatar demonstration in Hamburg during the recent G20 summit that got generous coverage in some sections of the pan-Arab news media, was staged.

About 140 protesters had gathered in front of the citys Christuskirche on July 8, holding signs that said Qatar supports terrorism, according to the report on the ARD-faktenfinder website.

The protest occurred against the backdrop of the diplomatic crisis between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt on the other side.

Some Arab media outlets reported extensively on the demonstration, although it was only a small protest.

Sky News Arabia reported the event live. Another Egyptian channel as well as Saudi and UAE media outlets picked up on the protest. The Egyptian newspaper Egypt Today said about 7,000 people demonstrated against Qatar, the ARD-faktenfinder report said.

But it seems the protest was staged.

Two Egyptian men

Refugees have told ARD-faktenfinder as well as the refugee portal WDRforyo that protesters were paid to demonstrate against Qatar.

Ahmad O, a Syrian refugee from Hamburg, said he was approached by two Egyptian men named Amro and Mohamed in a park. They offered him 1,000 euros.

In return he was to participate in the protest against Qatar and bring some friends. They promised an additional 100 euros for each of them.

Ahmad O says he called his friends and so a few hundred people showed up for the demonstration: Syrians, Iraqis, Egyptians and North Africans.

There were some harbour workers who came for the money, Ahmad O says in the report.

But when we were there, they only gave us money for 100 people. The other 300 people didnt get anything. So they were upset and started chanting for Qatar. The protest turned into a pro-Qatar demonstration.

Efforts by Al Jazeera to contact the Egyptian embassy in Berlin for its comments were unsuccessful.

Account confirmed

Other refugees have confirmed Ahmad Os account of the developments.

Mustafa Hassan, from a refugee facility in Hamburg, wrote to WDRforyou: People in the refugee camp have told me: Come with us. 100 euros for two hours. We go together. We just have to participate in a protest against Qatar. Theres nothing to worry about. But I declined.

In another video, the voice of a purported protest participant says people got paid to protest against Qatar.

The local police have confirmed that about 140 people attended a rally against Qatar and its support of terrorism, but they did not witness any refugees being paid for participating.

According to the police press office, 50 people left the demonstration and significantly disturbed the protest.

The young men then ran away and there is video footage of them destroying protest signs and chanting pro-Qatar slogans.
Opposition from within Trumps own party leaves long-promised efforts to replace Obamacare legislation in disarray.

The latest Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare was fatally wounded in the US Senate on Monday night when two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the legislation strongly backed by President Donald Trump.

The announcements from Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Partys long-promised efforts to get rid of former President Barack Obamas healthcare legislation reeling. Next steps, if any, were not immediately clear.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support Majority Leader Mitch McConnells legislation in its current form. They joined Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill last Thursday.

READ MORE: The Obamacare debate is not just about healthcare

In a senate divided 52-48 between Republicans and Democrats, McConnell could lose only two senators and still prevail on a procedural vote to open debate on the bill.

There are at least a half-dozen or so others who are undecided, so its quite likely that more no votes will be announced in the hours and days ahead.

McConnell is now at least two votes short in the closely divided senate and may have to go back to the drawing board or even begin to negotiate with Democrats, a prospect hes threatened but resisted so far. Or he could abandon the healthcare effort, which has proven more difficult than many Republicans envisioned after campaigning on the issue for years, and move on to tax legislation, a bigger Trump priority to begin with.





McConnells bill fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcares rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one, said Moran.

Lee said, In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesnt go far enough in lowering premiums for middle-class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations.

It was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of the bill last month when defeat became inevitable.

Trump had kept his distance from the senate process, but Monday nights development was a major blow for him, too, as the president failed to rally support for what has been the Republican Partys trademark issue for seven years  ever since Obama and the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans won the White House and full control of congress in large part on the basis of their promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, but have struggled to overcome their deep internal divisions and deliver.

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Washington, DC, said it showed the scale of the lack of consensus and unity in the Republican Party.

The two wings of the party  the moderates and the conservatives  are just so far apart on this one, with competing priorities, that they simply could not find common ground.

OPINION: Revelations from the ridiculous

The senate bill, like an earlier version that barely passed the House, eliminated mandates and taxes under Obamacare and unravelled an expansion of the Medicaid healthcare programme for the poor and disabled.

But for conservatives like Lee and Paul, it didnt go far enough in delivering on Republican Party promises to undo Obamas law, while moderates like Collins viewed the bill as too extreme in yanking insurance coverage from millions.

McConnells latest version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding billions to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs.

But his efforts did not achieve the intended result.

Republicans should start from scratch

This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable, said Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our healthcare system.

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro said Republicans had attempted now for seven years to undo Obamas signature healthcare legislation.

In that time they have managed to gain control of both chambers of congress, as well as elect Donald Trump  their president  to the White House. And despite those gains, they were unable to come up with a better alternative to replace Obamacare, she said.

The next step could be to reach out to Democrats who have acknowledged flaws in Obamacare, to reach some kind of bi-partisan consensus, said our correspondent.

Bi-partisanship is unfamiliar territory here, but this may be the door that finally opens it, said Zhou-Castro.
Internet outage was caused by a ship severing an undersea fiber optic cable connecting country to global data networks.

Internet has returned to Somalia after an outage of more than three weeks that cost the Horn of Africa nation the equivalent of $10m a day.

The country has restored its internet connection after repairing a severed undersea cable that was accidentally hit by a ship, a telecoms official said on Monday.

The internet is now back, and clients are using it, said Adnan Ali, the media director for Hormuud Telecom, the countrys top operator.

BREAKING: Internet service restored in #Mogadishu after 23-days outage: residents pic.twitter.com/Leu7Wtz0t4  Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) July 17, 2017

University studies were disrupted, and businesses had to close or improvise to remain open during the shutdown.

The lack of internet service also stranded patients who were seeking medical attention abroad as they couldn not access online paperwork.

Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman apologised to citizens on Tuesday for the outage, which hit all landline and mobile users apart from those with access to private satellite connections, and called for them to have backup plans.

We urge internet companies to have a backup so that people do not suffer another outage in the future, he told Reuters.

Somalias economy is picking up slowly after the army and an African Union peacekeeping force helped drive the al-Shabab group out of Mogadishu and other strongholds.

SEE MORE: Rebuilding Somalia

Al-Shabab wants to topple the Western-backed government and rule the country according to its strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Nur Bile, a police officer, said the number of reported attacks by al-Shabab had dropped during the outage, accusing the group of using the web to publicise its attacks and spread its ideology.

There were almost no blasts in Mogadishu during the outage. Al-Shabab launches the attacks and the media spreads the news on the internet, Bile said.

Residents said the resumption of internet access was welcome news.

I have the chance to communicate with my lost friends and relatives, said 25-year old Aden Ismail.
Fifteen dead in hit-and-run clashes with US-backed fighters in the countrys north, says monitoring group.

More than a dozen Syrian rebel fighters have been killed in hit-and-run clashes in a Kurdish-controlled area of northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey, a monitoring group has said.

The Turkish-backed fighters were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Syrian coalition of Kurdish and Arab groups, around the village of Ain Daqna.

Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Tuesday.

Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February.

READ MORE: Air attacks hit Raqqa as ISIL defends stronghold

It lies in a contested sliver of land between the alliance and Turkish-backed rebels.

In a statement released on Monday, rebels fighting under the banner of Ahl al-Diyar said they attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as occupiers.

We promise our people more flash attacks  We will make them [SDF] regret occupying this land and displacing thousands, the statement said.

New front

Turkey has backed rebels in Syrias north to take on both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) as well as the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF.

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group.

Military analyst and retired Jordanian Air Force general Mamoun Abu Nowar said the aim of the Turkish-backed fighters in this particular operation is to isolate the area around the northern city of Afrin and to expand its buffer zone to 5,000sq km.

Turkey would also like to get Idlib through the process of de-escalation zones, he told Al Jazeera, from London.





They have some green light to do some minor operations from Russia, I think, on that regard.

Al Jazeeras Mohammed Adow, reporting from Gaziantep at Turkeys border with Syria, said that the mounting tensions between the two US allies in northwest Syria threatens to open a new front in the countrys complex war.

For now, the Kurds are still counting on American support, but what they really want, they say, is the establishment of a new Syrian state in which they have a say, said our correspondent.

Syrias conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied.

Suicide bomb kills four

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb attack killed four people overnight at a Kurdish security checkpoint in northeast Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Tuesday.

The Britain-based monitor said the blast hit a checkpoint manned by the Asayesh security forces in Hasakeh province, around 20 kilometres from the town of Ras al-Ayn.

At least two of the dead were Asayesh members, the monitor said, while the identities of the other two were not yet confirmed.

Syrian state television also reported the blast on Tuesday and said four people were killed.

Kurdish-controlled areas have come under regular bomb attack, with ISIL often claiming responsibility. There was no immediate claim for Tuesdays incident.
Amnesty International director among the six jailed for helping an armed terrorist organisation.

Six people, including the director of Amnesty International in Turkey, were arrested by a court order on Tuesday for helping an armed terrorist organisation, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency news outlet.

They were among the 10 who were detained in Istanbul earlier in July during a workshop on Buyukada, an island near the city.

The group comprised eight Turkish human rights activists, one Swedish trainer and one German trainer.

The Istanbul court ordered the other four be released on the condition of judicial control.

Those arrested include Amnesty International Director Idil Eser, Gunal KurSun, Ozlem Dalkran, Veli Acu, Ali Garavi ile and Peter Steudtner.

READ MORE: Erdogan links detained rights activists to failed coup

Those released pending trial included Nalan Erkem, Seyhmus Ozbekli, Nejat Tastan and Ilknur Ustunto.

The activists had been questioned by the prosecutor since they were taken into custody on July 5.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused them of harbouring similar intentions to the perpetrators of a failed coup attempt last year.

That claim was rebuffed by Amnesty International, the rights group that has seen two of its top Turkey officials detained in a month.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey to release German national Peter Steudtner, calling his detention unjust.

We will do everything on the part of the federal government, at all levels, to obtain his release, Merkel said.

It is unfortunately another case where from our view blameless people enter the mills of justice and are thereby taken into custody.
Politician Faris Maumoon held on bribery charges in run-up to vote to unseat ally of his uncle President Abdulla Yameen.

Maldives President Abdulla Yameens nephew has been arrested amid renewed political unrest in the Indian Ocean nation after members of the presidents family turned against him, criticising authoritarian reversals under his rule.

Faris Maumoon was arrested on Tuesday in the capital Male on charges of bribery, according to court documents.

A politician who defected to the opposition, Faris has been leading an effort to unseat Yameens ally, speaker of parliament Abdulla Maseeh, who has been accused of ignoring allegations of corruption, mismanagement and rights abuses.

The charges against Faris are clearly false, said Eva Abdulla, an opposition politician.





Coming just four days before the vote to impeach the speaker, it marks the beginning of a campaign to reduce opposition votes by arresting and jailing lawmakers.

Yameen won a 2013 presidential election and has since been accused of reversing much of the countrys democratic gains and corruption.

Faris is the son of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was the Maldives president for 30 years.

The brothers, Gayoom and Yameen, fell apart after an acrimonious power struggle within the ruling party last year.

Gayoom called his sons arrest a grave injustice in a Twitter post and said: All dictatorships are doomed to fail. That is the lesson of history.

Gayoom, who himself ruled with an iron fist, has joined forces with Mohamed Nasheed, whom he repeatedly jailed but who went on to become the countrys first democratically elected president, in a campaign to undermine Yameen in the run-up to elections next year.

For his part, Nasheed, in a Twitter post, said Yameen was highlighting his desperation by going after his own nephew.

A spokesman for Yameen declined to comment immediately.

Fears over stability

The clampdown has raised fears over stability and dented the Maldives image as a tourist paradise.

Atul Keshap, the US ambassador to the Maldives, said Faris arrest impedes the normal function of parliament and democracy in Maldives. The UK and EU have expressed concern too.

Two other opposition politicians are also on trial on charges of bribery and terrorism.

A previous attempt to impeach Maseeh, the speaker, in March ended in chaos when Yameen ordered troops to eject several politicians from parliament.

OPINION: Who killed my friend Yameen Rasheed?

Then in April, the ruling party raised the number of signatures required for a no-confidence motion to 50 percent of the house, up from a third.

Yameens administration has arrested most of the opponents who might challenge him in 2018. It also denies opposition allegations that it is trying to cover up corruption, including money laundering.

Nasheed, who currently lives in exile; a vice president; a defence minister; and another political party leader have been given lengthy prison sentences after trials on terrorism charges that were criticised for lack of due process.

The Maldives has other looming problems, including significant numbers of young people who have enlisted to fight for the Islamic State of the Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group, also known as ISIS.
Stories of resistance from Indian toxic gas survivors, a First Nation clan in Canada, and a Russian democracy activist.

Toxic Legacy

Were not going to Delhi to beg. Were going there to demand the proper compensation weve been denied for 30 years.

December 3, 1984, bore witness to the worst industrial disaster of the 20th century. In the Indian city of Bhopal, toxic gas spewed from the Union Carbide pesticide plant, killing 25,000 people and leaving more than 500,000 disabled.

In 1989, the government of India settled for $470 million in compensation from Union Carbide. However, the settlement was based on figures claiming 5,295 people died and 4,902 were disabled.

Activists like Rachina Dhingra from the Bhopal Group for Information and Action and survivors of the toxic gas leak are still fighting for justice over 30 years later.

Holding their Ground

In 2009, Canada began to issue permits for a gas pipeline corridor in northern British Columbia.

Six years later, oil company workers attempt to enter Unistoten First Nations clan territory, only to be met with resistance from the indigenous group who assert that the land has always been theirs.

Speaking to Chevron representatives, Freda Huson, the spokesperson for the Unistoten camp, says, You are trying to convince us to give up our way of life so that you can reap the benefits for government and investors, while youre throwing crumbs to some of the partners.

Additionally, a growing police presence raised tensions about the possibility of a raid on the camp.

This is the story of the Unistoten clans fight for land and life.

Roman vs Kremlin

In 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed tough new anti-protest laws, whereby attending an unsanctioned protest can land you with a heavy fine or even imprisonment.

Journalist and pro-democracy activist Roman Dobrokhotov is fighting these laws and has his eyes set on Putin, the Orthodox Church, and far-right nationalists.

He says, my primary mission as a civil activist is to protect the rights and freedoms prescribed in the Russian Constitution.

Though Romans actions are daring and entertaining, his cause is deadly serious.
The European Union restricts exports of inflatable boats to stem the flow of refugees and migrants from North Africa.

EU foreign ministers are seeking a joint global strategy on refugees and migration as thousands continue to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

The ministers met in Brussels on Monday looking to build on existing cooperation with each other and the United Nations.

More than 100,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, many of them were smuggled from Libya.

The European Union is introducing export restrictions on inflatable boats and outboard motors being sold in Libya to try and stem the flow.

Italian leaders say they bear the brunt of the refugee burden and not enough is being done to help them.

EU interior ministers agreed last month to step up deportations of failed asylum-seekers and help beef up the Libyan coastguard.

The Italian government is warning of unprecedented measures if other European countries fail to share its overwhelming burden. Are the threats serious?

Presenter: Sohail Rahman

Guests:

Elizabeth, Collett  Migration Policy Institute Europe

Joel Millman  International Organisation for Migration

Mattia Toaldo  European Council on Foreign Relations
The foreign minister of Cyprus on whether the island needs further assistance from the international community.
Last week on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Republican Rep. Ted Yoho said it was understandable that the presidents eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer for information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Sarah Walters, a 44-year-old UF psychology alumna, said she wasnt at all surprised by Yohos remarks.

Walters, a Gainesville resident who has attended recent town halls hosted by Yoho, said she believes the congressmans statements chip away at democracy.

Every time we have elected officials who make behavior that is clearly wrong, they make it seem OK, I think that that weakens our democracy, Walters said.

As a guest on CNN, Yoho  who represents Clay, Bradford, Union, Alachua, Putnam and parts of Marion County in Floridas 3rd Congressional District  said he probably would have done the same thing.

On July 11, Trump Jr. tweeted a statement with photos of a conversation he had with Rob Goldstone, a publicist for Russian pop star Emin Agalarov.

In the June 2016 emails, Goldstone told Trump Jr. that he had information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

In response, Trump Jr. wrote if its what you say I love it.

According to The New York Times, on June 9, 2016, Trump Jr. eventually met with Goldstone at Trump Tower, as well as a Russian real estate mogul, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and a Russian-American lobbyist.

During the interview, Yoho said that because Veselnitskaya was a lawyer and not a Russian government official, the interaction was not inappropriate.

I dont think it was inappropriate for what he did, Yoho said in the interview. If youve got information about an opponent running against you, wouldnt you want that information to vet it, to see if its real information, and to use it accordingly?

Alejandro Levy, a member of the UF College Democrats, said hes never been a big fan of Yoho.

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I dont think he does a good job representing, particularly college students, on a lot of different issues, the 20-year-old history junior said. Its unfortunate that we have a congressperson that doesnt quite respond to all the different parts of his constituency as he should.

While some might not approve of Yoho or his approaches, Andrew Jamison, a 19-year-old UF finance sophomore, said he thinks Yoho has properly reflected the beliefs of some UF students.

Yoho has been a good representation of standing up for ones beliefs through his work in Congress, and I think that reflects the development of character through UF in a positive light, he said.

Jamison, a member of the UF College Republicans, said he agrees with Yoho that Trump Jr.s actions were appropriate.

There is no hard proof of direct ties, emphasis on direct, between the Russian lawyer and the Kremlin, Jamison said. At this point, it is fairly obvious there is no real evidence that there was any sort of collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government.

Ted Yoho
For the second time since May, a Gainesville woman was sexually assaulted near Bo Diddley Community Plaza.

On Saturday, police arrested 24-year-old Hykeem Vernon Ford-Marlin of Ocala, who faces charges of simple battery and indecent public exposure.

The woman, an employee with the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Project, was teaching an exercise class July 8 on the plaza when she went to use the plazas restroom, wrote Gainesville Police spokesperson Officer Ben Tobias in an email.

When she walked out of the restroom at about 11:53 a.m., Ford-Marlin attacked her, Tobias said.

Ford-Marlin, who had been waiting outside the bathroom door for the woman to exit, grabbed her by her arms and began kissing her breasts over her shirt, according to a GPD arrest report.

The woman then grabbed the small pocket knife she had been carrying to defend herself. Ford-Marlin responded by revealing his penis and masturbating in the womans direction before he ran away, Tobias said.

The woman met with police Saturday and identified Ford-Marlin, who was arrested at about 10 p.m. that day, in a photo lineup.

Tobias said the incident was the second case of battery against a female near Bo Diddley Plaza, located at 111 E. University Ave., in the past two months.

A female city employee was attacked by a homeless man May 10 on her way to her workplace at City Hall, located just across the street from Bo Diddley Plaza. The man pushed her down to the ground, climbed on top of her and tried to remove her bra, blouse and pants, according to Alligator archives. He only ran away after multiple employees, who heard the womans screams from inside, ran out to help her.

Unfortunately the downtown area has historically been where some homeless persons congregate (and) some of those folks have issues that manifest themselves in behavior like this, Tobias said.

The woman from the May 10 attack defended herself by fighting back and continually shouting for help, and the woman in the July 8 attack defended herself with the small pocket knife she carried on her person.

Tobias said while every individual is different, GPD recommends that folks at least have a plan to protect themselves.

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Ford-Marlin was arrested and found guilty twice of trespassing charges in May and June and was arrested in March and April after being accused of loitering, according to the Alachua County clerk of court records.

As of press time he remains in the Alachua County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
Citing student safety concerns, Student Government will pay $2 million out of its reserves to fund a railing repairs project on the Reitz Unions exterior.

Student Body President Smith Meyers said SG made the railings a financial priority because they posed a direct safety threat for students and others who walk by the Reitz.

Meyers said during the Reitzs two-and-half-year $70.7-million renovation and expansion project that ended in February 2016, power tools used on the site hit the natural frequency of some of the railings, causing them to crack and start falling off the structure.

In 2015, two 10-foot sections of the guard railing fell from the fourth level of the Reitz, Meyers said.

It was a pretty serious safety hazard for students and other people that would be walking around the union on campus, so we needed to get these repaired right away, Meyers said.

To pay for the $2 million repair work, Meyers said SGs only two options were to dip into its reserve funds  left over money the organization saves after each fiscal year  or have the Reitz Union Board of Managers take out a loan using student activities and service fees.

He said for the Reitz Board to take out a loan, it would have cost an additional $240,000 a year in interest on top of the $2 million. SG wouldve had to compensate interest charges by cutting student jobs at the Reitz Union or reducing operational hours at the Reitzs printing lab.

Overall, the whole goal behind this was to save students money, Meyers said.

Of the total cost, $1,889,997 will go toward construction costs, $19,850 will go toward engineer costs, $2,600 will pay for specialty consultants, $8,500 will fund a building permit and $79,053 will fund project contingency costs, according to a Student Senate bill signed and approved June 12 by Meyers and David Parrot, the vice president for Student Affairs.

Meyers also said he feels this infrastructure project is to be funded by SG rather than UF because the Reitz Union already assumes a big part of SG's responsibilities.

"It would make sense that Student Government is involved in any safety hazards and putting more money to enhance student safety," Meyers said. "The Reitz Union is a big part of where we allocate student service fee money."

While some students sympathize with SGs move to ensure student safety with the railings, others see the $2 million as money that couldve been spent elsewhere.

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Rachel Parker, a 20-year-old UF family, youth and community sciences junior, said when discussing the railings, she can only think of Library West.

Itd make more sense to take that $2 million and put it towards Library West  so itd be 24/7 instead of 24/5, Parker said.

I dont know why it would cost $2 million, she said of the railings.

For Jordan Zeldin, 22, he understands SGs calls for safety.

Zeldin, who graduated in May with a bachelors degree in interdisciplinary biomedical sciences, said it seems reasonable to focus on keeping the Reitz together if there were serious safety issues from the past expansion project.

Id say go for it, Zeldin said. Put $2 million in and make sure the whole Reitz Union doesnt collapse.
In recent weeks, controversy has swirled around an 11-month-old baby boy from the U.K.

To catch you up, Charlie Gard was born nearly one year ago with a rare and terminal medical condition called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, or MDDS. Although he appeared to be perfectly healthy at birth, his health began to deteriorate shortly after. According to BBC, Gard has severe brain damage and is unable to do simple things like open his eyes or move his limbs. He is unable to breathe without a ventilator and, as a result, is currently on life support at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London.

Gards doctors at GOSH believe he needs to be taken off life support and given the chance to die peacefully and with dignity. The babys parents disagree. They want him to try an experimental treatment called nucleoside bypass therapy  something a hospital in the U.S. offered to perform for them.

Gards doctors say the experimental treatment cannot reverse any brain damage and is unjustified. The hospital applied to the high court for judges to decide his future.

The high court agreed with the GOSH doctors.

High profile figures including Pope Francis and President Donald Trump have given their two cents on the controversial decision, garnering even more media attention.

The controversy came to the U.S. when our tweeter in chief offered his support to Gards parents through social media. If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.

This case is both heart-wrenching and outrageous, but does that mean it should be argued about over social media? We think not.

It is understandable why the high court would get involved, but the case shouldnt have been plastered all over Facebook and Twitter.

The life of a baby is in question, and people are arguing over his fate as if it is their responsibility or their privilege to decide what happens to him. Gard has hardly been given a chance to live, and now his death and the controversy around it will be forever immortalized by Facebook shares and retweets.

We can certainly fathom the worlds interest in the case. It is emotional and intriguing, and, no matter where they stand on the issue, people feel like sharing their opinion on the topic. The intentions are admirable and respectable, but they must come to an end.

Gards family is just that  a family. Imagine if your own family were going through this kind of traumatic experience and dealing with such emotional turmoil. Consider the impact it would make to have the entire situation broadcast in the media for the world to see. Imagine the entire world throwing in their opinions about the fate of your own child, about the fate of your own family.

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We can respect the fact that the world is curious, and this case is definitely interesting and worthy of curiosity. What we cant respect, dear reader, is the world taking it upon themselves to decide the fate of an 11-month old.

Whether it be criticism, support or general curiosity, leave Gard alone. The baby deserves his privacy and his dignity.
The British Home Office have just clarified something which many British people have known for well over a decade: that Islamists and terrorists are being funded by ordinary British Muslims to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

That means that this isn't about the usual extremist British Islamic organisations which have already been well-documented. This is about people who may well pass for ordinary or even moderate Muslims.

Many people have also known -- for a long time -- that Islamic charities are often fundraisers for Islamic terror. Indeed the report includes the information that Islamic organisations pose as charities because charity -- though only for fellow Muslims and Islamic causes -- is very big in Muslim communities. Thus, it's all very late in the day for the British Government to decide to work with the Charity Commission on these issues. However, better late than never.

As the Home Office put it, pro-terror money is coming from small, anonymous public donations. According to the British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd:

In some cases, these organisations receive hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. This is the main source of income.

Rudd also said that the report (which was commissioned in 2015 by David Cameron)

gives us the best picture we have ever had of how extremists operating in the UK sustain their activities.

However, Rudd has decided not to publish the report for reasons of national security and also because it contains a lot of personal information.

Rather predictably, the Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, chose to make a party-political point about all this; rather than a point about what can be called the enemy within. After all, the enemy within has brown skin; whereas the Tory Party is white. Thus, Abbott tells is that there's a strong suspicion that facts are being

suppressed to protect this Governments trade and diplomatic priorities, including in relation to Saudi Arabia.

(The Green Party -- which, just like a melon, is green on the outside and red on the inside -- has got in on the act. Caroline Lucas also attacked the Tories for withholding information.)

What Dianne Abbott fails to mention is that Rudd also stated that the report contains lots of personal information about British Muslims. That would mean that if that personal information were made public, then lots of British Muslims would be put under the spotlight. Now, I wonder how the anti-white anti-racist Diane Abbott would respond to that? Would she -- and other Labourites -- talk about Islamophobia and the victimisation of the Muslim community? After all, Rudd is white and most Muslims are brown.

Saudi Arabia has just been mentioned.

This is the latest British left-wing sport: tying literally all Islamic extremism and terror (including ISIS and the attacks in England) to Saudi Arabia. Now why is this the case and why is it such a recent phenomenon in left-wing circles? Again, for party-political reasons; not for a genuine antipathy towards Islamic terror or Saudi Arabia. More concretely, the Corbynite Left decided to make a big deal about the government's close relations to Saudi Arabia during Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign. (These relations are no closer today than they were during any other previous British government.) Thus, to the Left, this isn't at all about Islam or Saudi Arabia. It's actually all about the Tories.

Saudi Arabia is indeed important in the terror stakes. Very important. Nonetheless, so too is Iran. Iran has been funding terror and carrying out terror attacks since 1979. Some of those attacks occurred as far away as Argentina (two large-scale attacks), Paris, Brussels, Bahrain, Kuwait, Panama, London (against Salman Rushdie), Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Israel, Bulgaria, etc. Iran was also responsible for the attacks in Beirut in the 1980s and other Lebanese bombings which -- over all -- claimed hundreds of lives.

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn and the Stop the War Coalition (which he led until he became leader of the Labour Party) are big fans of Iran. Iran is at war with Saudi Arabia. (You work it out!) Indeed, some of the StWC's leaders are also big fans of Bashar Assad's Socialist Ba'ath Party! Then again, other StWC leaders have said positive things about the Soviet Union, Mao's China, and, believe it or not, North Korea.

Paul Austin Murphy is a writer on politics and philosophy. He's had articles published in The Conservative Online, Intellectual Conservative, Human Events, Faith Freedom, Think-Israel, Brenner Brief (Broadside News), New English Review, etc. His philosophy blog can be found here. His blog on politics can be found here.

(Image: A Byzantine-era Saracen army.)
On July 5, the Cato Institute ran The Uninspiring Medicaid Debate by Michael Tanner, whose big concern is Medicaids sustainability. Hes a numbers guy, and the numbers dont look good for Medicaid, even without ObamaCares expansion of the program. Tanner lists five salient points, the second of which is: The Medicaid expansion had nothing to do with women and children:

While pregnant women and children make sympathetic victims in Democratic campaign commercials, changes to Obamacares Medicaid expansion dont apply to them, because the expansion didnt apply to them in the first place. It dealt almost exclusively with childless adults. Eligibility for pregnant women and children was raised to 138 percent of poverty as far back as the 1970s and 80s. You could eliminate the entire expansion without necessarily hitting a single child or pregnant woman.

On July 1, the New York Times ran Going Small on Health Care, by Ross Douthat. Douthat thinks Republicans are in the same situation that the Democrats were in seven years ago when they enacted ObamaCare. He prescribes legislation that he thinks would help the GOP avoid the errors of the Dems in 2010, and proposes a per-capita cap on future Medicaid spending.

My idea of going small is cutting the number of statutes in the U.S. Code. Douthats fixes would add to the Code. But if employees of the failing New York Times who are neither insurance actuaries nor medical doctors can chime in on what Americas healthcare system should be, then I suppose I can too:

THE REPEALS: (Notice, its plural.) Either in whole or in part, ObamaCare and the McCarran-Ferguson Act both need to be struck down. Id start with repeal of McCarran, and in a separate stand-alone bill. Why? Because if Democrats wont support a repeal of the relevant parts of McCarran that have resulted in some of Americas counties having no insurers, then well know theyre dug-in and wont cooperate on anything, no matter how superior the GOPs legislation might be. At that point Republicans will know theyre on their own, and will need to consider ending the legislative filibuster.

The repeal of McCarran should also contain a ban on the States interfering in the private insurance market. Weve recently seen this out west, where the state of Oregon is mandating insurance companies to pay for abortions. In the health insurance market created by the repeal of McCarran, such interference couldnt be allowed. The McCarran repeal should also ensure that insurance companies offer a variety of plans, including catastrophic plans for those who take assiduous care of their health. With the repeal of McCarran we should see a host of new insurance companies sprouting up in the newly-created national market.

Perhaps the worst thing the ACA did was to mix the public and the private; they need to be kept separate. Which means the subsidy program must not be duplicated in a replacement. Yet, weve seen a tax credit subsidy scheme emerge out of the House bill and the Senate is doing the same. Enough with the subsidies; the subsidy program, with all its very ill enrollees, is what has caused premiums to skyrocket in the individual market (i.e. the exchanges). Also, the subsidies cover those making four times the official poverty rate; thats insane.

So heres what we do: we put the neediest subsidy enrollees into Medicaid. By putting the patients with preexisting conditions into Medicaid, wed socialize their costs, rather than heaping the costs onto the backs of those in the individual market, as ObamaCare has done. In trying to help a very small group of Americans, Democrats hurt another small group of Americans: those already in the individual market. In 2013, the year before the ACA went into effect, the individual market made up only 4 percent of the population. ObamaCares shunting of the very, very ill into the individual market, the smallest of the non-military groups, was sheer lunacy. The subsidy program needs to end.

But people dont like Medicaid; its a crumby system; many healthcare providers dont even accept Medicaid patients. And over the last 50 years, Medicaid has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions in fraud. These things need to be fixed, but in future legislation after we repeal ObamaCare. For the time being, though, the ObamaCare expansion of Medicaid could be retained, but with the promise to immediately reengineer that broken system.

There you have proposals for going big on replacing ObamaCare. We erase state lines to create a truly private national insurance market, we separate the public from the private, and we take care of preexisting conditions.

On July 8, National Review ran Why Senator Toomeys Medicaid Measure Must Be Preserved by George Will. Toomeys provision is a gradually arriving, but meaningful, cap on the rate of growth of per-beneficiary Medicaid spending. Like Tanner, Will is also a numbers guy, and he reports on the runaway spending of Medicaid, and how it affects not only the federal deficit, but the States, too. The main reason to read the Tanner and Will articles are because of their focus on numbers: i.e. costs. Fixing our healthcare system is a necessary part of getting control of the federal budget. Will reports (link and italics added):

On June 29, with the health-care debate raging, the Congressional Budget Office revised $134 billion upward, to $693 billion, its projection for the 2017 budget deficit. [] The main reason for the revisions is the CBOs expectation of interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve. These will raise the cost of servicing the national debt, which itself is becoming a major driver of its own expansion. Medicaid, however, is another important driver.

The federal deficit got down to -$438B (page 29) in fiscal 2015, lower than it had been since before Nancy Pelosi took over the budget in 2008, but now the deficit is headed upward again, and by an additional $255B. Were at the mercy of numbers now. We cant afford the open-ended, unlimited, off-budget, runaway entitlements that the Democrats have promised. We must get control of spending, and not in five or ten years, but now.

On July 12, Human Events ran GOP Rallies Behind Idiotic Bill, another witty and perceptive article by Ann Coulter:

Republicans would be better off doing nothing. They can survive the ridicule for running against Obamacare through four election cycles and then not repealing it. They cannot survive a bill that does nothing to fix the actual problems with Obamacare. [] The whole key to fixing Obamacare is not to repeal it, but to allow the rest of us to buy insurance on the free market.

But Republicans may want to repeal ObamaCare regardless of whether they have a replacement or not. Because if they dont repeal ObamaCare, later this year theyll be expected to prop it up and bail it out and spend yet more money on it and give it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. And regardless of what they do theyll be blamed, which will be on top of the usual accusations of not being ready to govern.

Jon N. Hall of Ultracon Opinion is a programmer/analyst from Kansas City.
If any doubts remained that the Fox News channel is continuing to swerve hard left away from its conservative roots, they were erased on July 16, 2017 when Ezekiel (Zeke) Emanuel, M.D. appeared on the channels signature weekly program Fox News Sunday in his new role as a paid contributor. Dr. Emanuel was a principal architect of Obamacare and he is now speaking out widely in favor of its retention as the law of the land. Hes a very influential medical policy maker and also happens to be a life long, in-your-face spin doctor for the Democrat socialist left. During the Fox News program, the ever arrogant Emanuel jumped on the Resist Trump bandwagon and suggested that President Trump is worthy of being impeached. Hired last February by Fox News primarily as a health policy analyst (he is a prominent physician and professor, after all), Emanuel is now providing opinions not only on medical subjects but on political ones, as well.

The turning point in his role  and an indication of where Fox News is heading  was his appearance on the high-profile, politically-charged Fox News Sunday. In addition to the nations cable and satellite channels, Fox News Sunday is also broadcast on over 200 Fox network-owned or -affiliate terrestrial broadcast television stations around the country.

An excerpt from the July 16th programs transcript provided by Fox News is illustrative:

CHRIS WALLACE [Fox News Sunday host]: Since youre a panelist, Im not going to call you Dr. Emanuel. Im going to call you Zeke. EZEKIEL EMANUEL, M.D. [Fox News Contributor]: Thats fine. WALLACE: How far as a committed Democrat are you prepared to go? Because  I mean, we arent going to talk in specifics. But are you willing to see the country paralyzed for the next year? Are you willing  if  and I repeat  if more information comes out to see the president impeached, how far do we need to go on this? EMANUEL: Well, we have  democracy is at stake here in America. Having our biggest enemy, Russia, come in and try to meddle and change our election that is the bedrock of democracy. That is the most important thing. I do not want to see this country paralyzed, but I do not want to see our democracy undermined by having the president of the United States colluding and his officials colluding with Russia. And, remember, there are  you know, when people go into government, they actually have to abide by the laws here. And one of the laws is you can't get anything of value, whether money or other things of value from a foreign country. WALLACE: Let me just bring  EMANUEL: Opposition research is true, it's of value. It may not be dollar value. WALLACE: Well, I was going to say, you heard what [White House attorney] Jay Sekulow had to say about that. . . EMANUEL: Democracy is a very fragile thing. We have seen in other countries, Turkey is a very good example of how someone can win an election and totally undermine democracy by taking down judicial independence, the press, and reelection.

I believe that Emanuel deserves the nickname Death Panel Doc because of his contention that no one should be allowed to live  or, perhaps more accurately, no one should expect or have the gall to want to live  after the age of 75 because it would adversely impact national health care costs, determined according to so-called global budgets, funded by the government. Almost two-thirds of the nations $3.2 trillion a year medical care costs are now paid for by the federal government.

Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D. in his office at the University of Pennsylvania

In a highly touted article titled Why I Hope to Die at 75, published in The Atlantic Monthly in October 2014, Emanuel, who is 60 or 61 but looks like he is fast closing in on 75, wrote this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive. A maximum lifespan of 75 years, he added, forces each of us to ask whether our consumption is worth our contribution. This, from a licensed medical doctor who presumably at some point may have taken the traditional, newly-minted doctors oath to First do no harm. In another irony, Emanuel is considered a leading bioethicist and is widely quoted as a reigning expert on medical ethics issues.

Emanuel goes on for over 5,100 words in the Atlantic Monthly article trying to make his case  for exactly what, one wonders after reading it. He doesnt appear to advocate mass killings of everyone who reaches the age of 75  including himself.

Im neither asking for more time than is likely nor foreshortening my life. . . Nor am I talking about waking up one morning 18 years from now and ending my life through euthanasia or suicide. . . I am talking about how long I want to live and the kind and amount of health care I will consent to after 75.

So, without exactly spelling out his prescription for old age in the New Transformed America  that as a top advisor to President Obama he helped to usher in  the renowned bioethicist appears to be recommending in his lengthy screed no medical treatment for people older than 75 other than palliative or hospice care that would help to hasten or would not impede these unfortunate geriatrics on their road to a quick death.

Rationing on Steroids

In a number of his many other writings, Ezekiel has more clearly spelled out what he is advocating. Its the R word, meaning in this case rationing of medical care and allocating limited health resources according to the criteria of age. In an article in The Lancet on January 31, 2009, when he was the head bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, Ezekiel and two co-authors wrote:

Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years. Treating 65-yearolds differently because of stereotypes or falsehoods would be ageist; treating them differently because they have already had more life-years is not.

Commenting on Ezekiels writings in 2009, Wesley J. Smith wrote:

A lot of people are frightened that someone who thinks like Emanuel is at the center of an administration [Barack Obamas] seeking to remake the entire health care system. Having read these two articles, I think there is very real cause for concern.

A question arises: what is of more concern here? That Emanuel is one of the nations leading medical philosophers and health care policy makers and was a key architect of Obamacare? Or that he is now opining for dollars on Fox News? In addition to having been an oncologist (of all things) and a prominent bioethicist, Emanuels other credentials are substantial, detailed in his 92-page curriculum vitae. Some highlights: Harvard M.D., M.Sc. in biochemistry from Oxford University before that, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, top advisor to the federal government at too many levels to mention, member of President Bill Clintons 1993 Health Care Task Force (Hillarycare), noted academician, etc., etc. Last but definitely not least, Dr. Emanuel is also the brother of Chicago Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel (and already legendary Hollywood supertar agent Ari Emanuel).

For decades, judging by the content of his C.V., Zeke Emanuel has been one of the nations leading physicians and most influential medical policy wonks. Much of the work in that arcane area has been conducted behind the scenes, behind closed doors, relatively distant from public view  and with a notable lack of transparency as in the Hillarycare days. Now, it appears that we will have the benefit of seeing Emanuel often on Fox News, where his convoluted ideas can directly reach a new audience of millions. The channel is well-known for frequently presenting its highly paid contributors, some would say ad nauseum, on all of its platforms (the Fox News channel, FoxNews.com, the Fox Business Channel, Fox News Radio, and others).

Enter Jessica Tarlov and Exit the Political Insiders

An additional rusty nail in the Fox News channel coffin, perhaps not quite as notable or obnoxious as Ezekiels ascent to on-camera prominence, is the ever expanding role of another left wing Fox News contributor, Jessica Jessie Tarlov, the most recent chapter of which was also observed on July 16. On that Sunday evening, Tarlov made another of her weekly appearances on the channel at 7:30 PM ET in a segment with RINO and never-Trumper Evan Siegfried that lasted a painfully long 15 minutes. Tarlov, easier on the eyes than Emanuel (but not on the ears), is a screechy voiced leftist well-versed in the art of talking heads/talking points banter that dominates cable TV news. Smile, wear short skirts, show a lot of shapely leg and thigh  you get the picture. In addition to being actress and celebrity Mollie Tarlovs sister, Jessica Tarlovs current claim to fame is that shes the senior director of research at Bustle.com. Bustle is a lightweight infotainment site aimed at PC Millennials who are looking for quick takes, designed for viewing on smart phones, on trendy topics like hookups, celebrities, shopping, and pink hair.

Jessica Tarlov in her pre-makeover days before Fox News, 2014 Skyping in to Newsmax

Jessica Tarlov, Fox News Contributor 2017

The irony here  and its an especially painful one for this viewer who longs for the good old days of 2011-2016 to return  is that this very time slot  Sundays at 7:30 PM ET, during the second half hour of Fox Report Weekend with Harris Faulkner  was the home for five years (2011-2016) of the Fox News Political Insiders. Comprised of independent-minded traditionally liberal Democrats Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen (curiously, Tarlovs mentor after she returned to the country from the UK circa 2012 after getting a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics with a thesis about a UK political scandal), and Republican John LeBoutillier, the weekly Political Insiders segment was appointment viewing for political junkies who were tired of the same old same old.

The Fox News Political Insiders July 10, 2016

L. to R.: John LeBoutillier, Patrick Caddell, and Doug Schoen

The Insiders, in fact, offered consistently probing expert analysis based on real polling and their uncanny ability to accurately assess the mood of the country that was ready to upend the political establishment and elect someone like Donald Trump. For at least two years prior to the 2016 election, Caddell, Schoen, and LeBoutillier were anticipating, alone among TV pundits, that someone unexpected would emerge and potentially ride a new wave to an electoral victory.

The Insiders were riding high on FNC for five years. On Saturday and Sunday, July 23 and 24, 2016, they even enjoyed a one hour prime time special program that aired at least three times over two days. At the time I thought that it might be a try-out for a regularly scheduled program of their very own.

But right after the November 2016 election, the Insiders weekly FNC segment on Sunday evenings disappeared without explanation, as did the groups weekly Monday morning podcast on FoxNews.com. The Political Insiders Twitter page is still online, but it has not been updated in over eight months. Schoen occasionally pops up in appearances on Fox News, while Caddell and LeBoutillier appear rarely on Fox News. (LeBoutillier is doing a regular political Internet audio podcast Revolution_The Podcast with Arlene Bynon, linked from his site Boots Blasts.)

As a longtime fan of the Fox News channel, Sundays  and the Fox News channel itself  just arent the same anymore.

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about national politics, media, popular culture, and health care. His new Web site is AltMedNews.net. His July 13, 2017 one-hour interview on the Hagmann Report can be watched here.
Martin Luther, in his criticism of Catholic pilgrimages, once said, There are 12 apostles, and 18 of them are buried in Spain. He probably would not be pleased that Protestants have resumed journeying on the Camino (Road) to Santiago (Saint James) de Compostela. But, the Camino to Santiago will not start a war. The Temple Mount will.

A new $5 million Anglican Centre is to be built in Spain in Santiago de Compostela, the end of the world-famous Catholic pilgrimage route the Way of St James. -- Christianity Today

Putting aside all arguments about whether Israel should be in Judea and Samaria, whether Israel should be in Jerusalem, or even whether Israel should be in the land itself, one thing is clear: Mohammed never set foot in Jerusalem. That is incontestable. Absolutely beyond debate, even from accepted Muslim history.

Mohammed died in 632 A.D. Arab forces did not besiege Jerusalem until 636 A.D. They did not enter the city until 637 A.D. No one doubts this. No one denies this.

It follows that if Arab forces did not enter Jerusalem until 637 A.D., then Jerusalem did not have a mosque before that date. The present structure for Al Aqsa -- the Furthest (Mosque) -- was built around 690 A.D., possibly using materials from an earlier destroyed church. There is a possibility that an earlier mosque had been built soon after the Arab conquest.

But all of this, whenever or if ever it occurred, took place after Mohammed died.

Therefore, whenever Mohammed made his supposed night journey  the miraj  it could not have been to a mosque in Jerusalem that did not exist. The whole Islamic claim to Al-Aqsa is a historic fraud.

One can argue whether Muslims originally faced Mecca in their prayers (as Muslim tradition demands), or whether Muslims originally faced Petra, as new scholarship shows; but even that does not affect the very real fact that Mohammed never set foot in a mosque in Jerusalem.

The present crisis over Al-Aqsa  two Israeli Druze policemen were killed last Friday by Muslim terrorists-- is based on an absolute lie. The Muslims are fighting for a mosque that is a demonstrable fraud, and that can be shown so in five minutes.

Returning to Spain for some insight: even Catholic scholars now admit that the Saint James  of Santiago de Compostela fame  is probably not buried in Spain. James seems to have been buried in Jerusalem. Luther was right after all.

Numerous scholars suggest that the cult of St James in Spain has not been around longer than the 9th century A.D. this suggests that it is unlikely that the remains belong to the apostle from the times of Jesus. There is also no record connected with his grave from a period before early medieval times. -- Ancient Origins

Yet, the Camino has taken on a life of its own as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. And lets be honest, some people just want to see Northern Spain. This is why Protestants  as well as atheists and others -- have rediscovered the Camino. It has been divorced from its Medieval Catholic claims.

Not so with Al-Aqsa: the furthest mosque, the mosque that Mohammedans claim that Mohammed visited.

To understand what is going on, one has to understand a fundamental difference between Christianity on the one hand, and Judaism and Islam on the other.

Christianity has been divorced from geography.

John 4:21 -- Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. (NKJV)

Jesus had separated the worship of God from the place of worship. No longer was it necessary for the faithful to go somewhere to get closer to God. This is especially true of Protestant denominations, but even true of the more liturgical ones. The Papacy did not collapse when it was temporarily banished to Avignon. Mass could still be celebrated. While Catholicism prefers Rome, and Eastern Orthodoxy reveres Constantinople, neither city is central to Christian theology. And if Protestants revere Memphis, it is only because Elvis is buried there -- though like the Catholics at Santiago de Compostela, there was a strong debate among some Protestants if Elvis was even in the tomb -- proving that superstition is not confined to any one denomination.

This is not so with either Judaism or Islam. Those two are land-based religions. A Jew cannot fulfill the requirements of Torah and be out of the land. The temple sacrifices can only be performed in Jerusalem.

All found a place within the confines of the ancient walled city -- for indeed, the Biblical commandment requires that all of Israel eat of the Passover offering within Jerusalem's walls; it is forbidden to partake of the Passover outside. -- Temple Institute Deut 16:16 -- Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses [ie: Jerusalem]: at the Feast of Unleavened Bre A.D.,  (NKJV) 2 Chronicles 6:6 -- Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel. (NKJV)

To surrender Jerusalem is to absolutely surrender Judaism. It is impossible to be an observant Jew apart from the land. There is nothing like this in Christianity. One can be a good Baptist or Presbyterian, or even Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Christian anywhere. A pilgrimage might be recommended, but never required.

Similarly, Islam is also land based. Presently it is deemed that Mecca is the holy place, and Muslims are commanded to make a Hajj to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes. Even if the holy place was once Petra, as some historians now claim, there was always a pilgrimage requirement in Islam. Likewise, the geography of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem is deemed sacred. Hence the violence whenever it appears that Israel is encroaching on it.

Both religions have land requirements, and to surrender the territory is to surrender the faith.

[A] prayer in Al-Aqsa Sanctuary is worth 500 times more reward than anywhere else  Ummah.com

But, history says this Muslim claim is a total lie.

This has to be stated. Why isnt our media saying something about this? They are ever quick to point out the historical insanity of certain Catholic pilgrim sites  and I would agree with the media. Though, were I a younger and healthier man, I would still consider walking the Camino to Santiago just for the scenery, detouring to spend an altogether sacrilegious amount of time in the pintxos bars of San Sebastian/Donostia. I probably would never make it to Santiago, and be a better man for it.

But Muslims do not have this option. Like Judaism, it is an all or nothing premise.

Still, it must be confronted. It has to be confronted. It can be confronted with a simple question: If the Arabs did not arrive inside Jerusalem until five years after Mohammeds death, how could Mohammed have visited a mosque that did not exist in Jerusalem during his lifetime?

It can be phrased politely, even sincerely. Ask a Muslim scholar on TV. Ask a Muslim diplomat. Of course, there will be some Muslims who will claim that such is the miracle of Islam, that it can effect such an otherwise impossible absurdity. But the message will get out. Slowly at first, but it will spread. The doubt will grow, just as Martin Luther started to doubt on his trip to Rome  and we know how that ended up.

As he dutifully kissed each of Pilate's stairs, [Luther] began to doubt the Church's teachings about relics and merits -- Religion Facts

Eventually, there will be Muslims who will ask the very same question  Is this true? -- hopefully leading to an abandonment of the atrocious Islamic creed. At the very least, it will make the contest for control of the Temple Mount as little less violent.

It wont end the contest for the Holy Land. There is an element of nationalism to that, something that will not change even if Islam is abandoned; but it may make the contest more rational, less terroristic.

I cannot believe that none of our newscasters know this. Why isnt the question broached? Why is our media so cowardly? Why dont they seek truth, instead of pandering to outright lies? The media is willfully dishonest in this.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish in high school, lo those many decades ago. He writes on the Arabs of South America at http://latinarabia.com. He also just started a website about small computers at http://minireplacement.com.
The hysterical reaction of the left to Scott Pruitt's plan to create two competing teams of scientists to study from opposite positions the left's pet myth, man-made global warming, shows just how anti-science the left has become. The left is a single, stupid collective mind that is utterly incapable of truly independent and free thought. The left is very much like the Inner Party in Orwell's classic, 1984, where party members believe things that are obviously not true and in which dissent is  quite literally  unthinkable.

All totalitarianism purports to rest upon "science," and all totalitarian science slavishly follows what the state and the party of statism desire. Institutions are inevitably infiltrated by leftists and used to rubber-stamp whatever the state wants. Ben Stein in his documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed showed how any academicians who question Darwin's increasingly silly theory of evolution by natural selection are hounded, denied tenure, and even fired for questioning authority and deviating from orthodoxy.

The drones turned out by academia who willingly put on blinders and indifferently accept as scientific dogma whatever the left wishes are not scientists, whatever credentials institutions may give them. They are simply cadres or hacks who reject scientific inquiry and embrace political correctness by blessing it as "science."

Global warming is a perfect example of how this works. Leftists parrot the line of "settled science," oblivious to the fact that "settled science" is murdered science. Science is a process, not a result, and science demands that conventional opinion be rigorously questioned. The true scientists are those who do just that, but institutions vomit these true scientists out and recoil in horror that anyone dare question the party line.

The history of science has often been the history of a Newton or Maxwell or Kelvin or Einstein or Heisenberg proposing new explanations for phenomena that turned "settled science" on its head. The consensus opinion of scientists has been wrong so often that it is a wonder that anyone who professes to be a "scientist" would ever present this sort of "majority rules" science as anything but comedy.

It is a sad commentary on life today that the will of the majority permeates almost everything we do as social creatures, including, now, the pseudo-science of institutionalized "science." As sad as that is  because it means the death of real science  it is frightening that so many political leaders have so suspended any critical thinking or independent reflection that they follow the herd mentality even in this area.

What conservatives ought to do is push hard for Scott Pruitt to produce two teams that critique seriously global warming. Conservatives also ought to push this approach for a whole raft of issues that have been presumably resolved by scientists dedicated to and beholden to institutions.

Why not have two teams of biologists and related disciplines each marshal the best arguments for and against evolution by Darwinian natural selection? Why not have the Department of Education create two opposing teams to study the relative merits of public education and homeschooling? Why not have two teams of economists, historians, and statisticians examine the success or failure of Keynesian economics?

So many things have been foisted on us without any real scientific method at all simply to conform to the party line of leftism. Homosexuality is deemed normal, though psychologists and psychiatrists several decades ago believed just the opposite. DDT was banned (and hundreds of millions of innocents in the Third World doomed) because the pop science of Rachel Carson went unchallenged  why not review that finding through competing arguments of teams of zoologists and related experts? Many other topics could be put on this list.

The real benefit of this that if it can be shown that again and again, "science" is simply the tyranny of pseudo-science, then the whole rotten structure of modern academia can be forced into contrition and reform, assuming that we even need academia any longer. All the awful and failed government policies based upon this pseudo-science could be thrown into the dustbin of history, along with the racial "science" of the Nazis and the bogus botany of the Soviet charlatan Lysenko.

At the federal level and at the state level, where Republicans dominate most states, this ought to be a high priority. The danger of going with the slothful, craven flow of pseudo-science is great, and the blessings of debunking it are profound.
On Sunday, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje, Iran's judiciary spokesman, said in a news briefing that Hassan Rouhani's younger brother, Hossein Fereydoun, has been arrested. He has been charged with getting zero-interest loans and influencing the appointment of a bank director.

Hossein has been Rouhani's right-hand man. The timing of his arrest may be coincidental, but it comes at the anniversary of Iran's nuclear deal with six world powers, known as P5+1. Rouhani's brother played a key role in the nuclear negotiations last year.

Anyone with a little knowledge of Iran's inner politics would have no doubt that the arrest was ordered by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Such drastic measures could not have come at a worse time for Rouhani, since he is busy with selecting his Cabinet posts. Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) want the lion's share of the Cabinet posts. It has been a pattern since the early days of Islamic Republic that the supreme leader has a final say in sections of key Cabinet positions such as minister of intelligence and Security (MIOS).

Such incidents are not uncommon in Iran's turbulent political history since the 1979 revolution. Keep in mind that despite the May 19 sham presidential election in Iran, Rouhani is not home free. According to Iran's constitution, the president cannot be legally inaugurated unless he has been blessed in an official ceremony by the supreme leader. Rouhani knows this full well and has been trying to play it safe until his inauguration. On different occasions, Khamenei has made it abundantly clear to the elected president that he has to pay his dues or else. It has been unprecedented even by the mullahs' standards for the sitting supreme leader to directly attack the newly elected president in his public addresses.

Khamenei did not hide his utter desire to have Rouhani's main contender, Ebrahim Raisi, win the May 19 presidential race. The IRGC stood behind the supreme leader's wishes to ensure that Raisi would win. Vote-rigging  buying, selling, using expired ID cards belonging to the deceased, voting two and sometimes three times in various polling stations  was one of the tactics Basij paramilitary force used to put Raisi on top. But they failed.

What still haunts Khamenei to date is the shadow of the 2009 uprising. Those fateful days following the disputed elections that helped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office have been a bitter memory, shaking the mullahs' establishment to the core. This and only this thought stopped Khamenei from pushing for a runoff election. He knew full well that in that case, there would be another uprising. Iranian society by all counts has zero tolerance for the mullahs' machinations, and the mullahs knew that the people could erupt with such a reckless decision on the part of the supreme leader.

On Quds Day in March  the last Friday before the end of Ramadan is marked by the mullahs' regime since the 1979 revolution, supposedly for supporting the Palestinian cause  Khamenei ordered his infamous plainclothes Basij forces to attack Rouhani and made it clear that Rouhani had to give in to Khamenei's demands. They chanted slogans in support of the supreme leader and threatened Rouhani with impeachment. They made sure that the newly re-elected president received the message loud and clear by reminding him of what happed to the mullahs' first president, Abolhassan Banisadr. He was impeached by the parliament with the blessing of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1981.

Khamenei cemented his will on June 19 by ordering the Assembly of Experts  tasked with selecting the next supreme leader  to officially confirm that the "people's vote plays no role in legitimizing elected officials." They added that it is the blessing of supreme leader that seals the deal.

According to Iran's constitution, articles 89 and 110, there are two bodies with the power to impeach the sitting president: the Supreme Court and the parliament. The supreme leader also has the power not to "bless" the president, and that means the same thing.

Rouhani is at the crossroads of his career now: choose to give in to demands made by the supreme leader and the IRGC for the lion's share of his key Cabinet posts, such as oil minister and intelligence minister, among others, or else dig in his heels. Standing up to the IRGC in hopes of pushing back will only add to the problems the regime faces. The Iranian regime, which is heavily involved in at least three wars in the region  Syria, Iraq, and Yemen  is already ill positioned to afford a major power struggle at home. Rouhani's brother is yet another pawn in the newly elected president's combat with the supreme leader.

Mohammad Amin (@EconomieIran) is a senior research fellow for the Paris-based Fondation d'Etudes pour le Moyen-Orient (FEMO) or Foundation for the Study of the Middle East. He has written several books and essays about the ruling theocracy, the transformation of Iran's political economy under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East.
Senator John McCain recently had surgery to "remove a blood clot above his left eye," according to a CNN report. CNN fortunately didn't have a chance to wade into its familiar territory of fake news because it had a practicing neurosurgeon, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, on hand to discuss Senator McCain's surgery.

Despite the cheery description, "minimally invasive craniotomy," this was brain surgery, opening the skull and removing something from the senator's brain. Nothing simple or minimal about this. Otherwise, neurosurgeons wouldn't need many years of training.

Dr. Gupta is correct in calling what was removed from the senator's brain "an abnormality." It could also be described as "a lesion" or "a mass." Although news articles called it "a blood clot," it was sent to pathology to be reviewed under a microscope to see what was actually removed.

Typically, blood that is drained or removed from a body cavity is not examined under a microscope. Such detailed analysis is used for a tissue diagnosis  meaning that there was likely something besides blood removed from the senator's brain.

Lots of possibilities. A cyst. A mass, meaning a growth or tumor. Could be benign or malignant. Could be primary to the brain or spread from somewhere else.

Senator McCain was diagnosed with cutaneous or skin melanoma in 2000. One of his skin tumors penetrated a bit deeper into the skin, meaning higher risk of spread throughout his body. But this was also 17 years ago.

His surgery and lymph node analysis found no evidence of spread. Good news at the time. But the old saying applies: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

Fast-forward to last month, when Senator McCain was questioning former FBI director James Comey at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. As the Washington Post reported at the time, McCain "referred to 'President Comey,' and at times looked confused and frustrated with Comey's answers. Viewers clearly thought it was notable; Twitter announced it was the most-tweeted moment of the hearing."

Partisan questioning or an uninformed senator trying to sound smart in front of the TV cameras? Or something more?

Senator's McCain recent surgery was just above his left eye, meaning the frontal lobe of his brain. The brain is incredibly complex, and each portion has specific purposes. What does the frontal lobe do?

The frontal lobe is responsible for higher functions of the brain  personality, thought process, problem-solving, and conscience, as well as socially acceptable responses. In other words, these are the specifically human aspects of behavior, as opposed to lower brain functions such as the "fight or flight" response.

A lesion in the frontal lobe could certainly be responsible for behavioral changes, such as McCain's "bizarre questioning of Comey," as described by the Washington Post.

Whether the senator just had a blood clot pressing on his brain or whether he had a tumor, melanoma, or otherwise remains unknown. I am an eye surgeon, not a neurosurgeon, and I am not the senator's physician. But given the speculation by reporters and journalists who know little about medicine, I wanted to provide another, hopefully more educated and useful analysis of the senator's situation.

I wish Senator McCain and his family the best under these challenging circumstances.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
My friend Mike Gonzalez wrote a great post over at the Wall Street Journal. He confirmed a lot of what I've felt about or heard from many Hispanics about "La Raza":

Since its inception in 1968, made possible in part by a grant from the Ford Foundation, La Raza has been far more dependent on boardrooms and government than grass-roots support. But with government largess drying up, the liberal political-advocacy group may find itself needing greater support from the rank and file. This won't be easy. The nation's "Hispanics" are undergoing a radical shift that most politicians are missing: A white majority is likely to persist in America. "Many children growing up today in mixed families are integrating into a still largely white mainstream society," sociologist Richard Alba noted in American Prospect last year. These children are "likely to think of themselves as part of that mainstream, rather than as minorities excluded from it." The name La Raza  "the race" in Spanish  flies in the face of this reality. It is off-putting to many "Hispanics," an artificial Census category comprising many razas. The organization's CEO, Janet Murguia, admitted as much in a video announcing the name change: "We must make sure that our name and our organization evolves along with and remains relevant to our ever changing Hispanic community." Appealing to a broader swath of this diverse group is necessary now that the "fat years" under President Obama are gone.

Yes, La Raza is nothing but a front for left-wing Democrat politics. They stand with the Democratic Party on school reform and just about everything else. Do you remember the last time La Raza challenged an Obama policy?



"La Raza de Bronce" (The Bronze Race) by Armando Maynez

My own experience is that its members were generally well educated liberals, or people a lot more concerned with hanging around with other well educated liberals rather than walking the Hispanic streets talking to people about real-world issues. Again, I debated many of them over the years and they were nothing but mouthpieces for the left, funded by large corporations hoping to avoid "racism" accusations.

Goodbye "La Raza." Hello, "Unidos US." We wish you well, but you will need to diversify from your liberal orthodoxy before you expand in the changing Hispanic world.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) (YouTube) and follow me on Twitter.
It is time for Republicans and conservatives to learn something from progressives.

"Incrementalism" is a negative word among those who remember the military creep (the ideal of liberal politicians) that was our failing in Vietnam. Failure in Vietnam resulted as politicians (amateurs in warfare) sought to control the battles. It is a negative among those who feel that it runs counter to ideology and conviction on the right. Few medical practitioners, after all, were involved in the production of Obamacare. However, before we dismiss this concept, let us understand the intent of our founding fathers.

The Constitution was conceived as a balancing act in which any of the three branches of the federal government could limit the expansion of the others. Lost in our teachings is the principle of the fourth branch in the form of the individual states through the Tenth Amendment and the respective state legislative selection of U.S. senators. This was diluted through the Seventeenth Amendment, allowing direct election of senators. The political left has used the coequal branches to collude (the real collusion through the judiciary) in expanding the role of government intrusion into our daily lives.

Our founders wanted to make it difficult to expand the power of government. Therefore, only through consensus of the governed would major changes be enacted. Our people, like most, tend toward gradual changes, not revolutionary ones. It takes a crisis (per Rahm Emanuel) to make great leaps.

In this way, the liberals or progressives have understood human nature. They seek changes aimed at government growth through incremental legislation. Occasionally, they accomplish large leaps such as the Affordable Care Act, in which the bureaucracy grows exponentially. Generally, they succeed in smaller legislative victories. But they remain united in the goal of growing the federal government.

Republicans fail to understand this principle. They fear bad press, which is committed to liberal causes, more than they fear their base. The closeness of the vote in the Senate may force some to vote for the McConnell compromise now being unveiled. Which Republican would want to be remembered for his failure to rid us of Obamacare?

The sausage being concocted is messy and devoid of complete repeal. However, any aspect of repeal is better than the present failing system. Incrementally, Republicans can correct a destructive medical funding system, or they can go to defeat in 2018, when their base will remember those who were not truthful during their campaigns. A clean repeal is preferable but unlikely.

Kentucky senator Rand Paul is firmly against the present bill, as it gives taxpayer funds to insurance companies. Maine Senator Susan Collins is firmly against the bill because it cuts increases to Medicaid funds that her state's rural-area hospitals have grown dependent upon. It is very difficult to remove an entitlement once enacted. Republicans need to understand this issue. These two politicians are different sides of the coin, but with thoughtful compromise, they might be inclined to vote for a reform bill.

Failure to compromise now will doom us to the awful specter of further erosion of our liberty and medical choices. The Democrats (including moderate W.V. senator Joe Manchin) want to fix Obamacare, which means continue the march toward socialized medicine. This is the principle on which Republicans and conservatives must not compromise. Senator Paul, not a great team player, is missing this ideal. Senator Collins is missing the opportunity for her state's medical system to innovate and solve long-term funding issues (as surely will occur when the federal debt exceeds sustainability).

Arizona senator John McCain's recent surgery has delayed any senatorial vote. Perhaps this extra time will give some courage and wisdom to those uncertain Republican senators.
Illinois's Governor Bruce Rauner may have lost the recent budget battle with the Democratic legislature, as they passed a tax and spending measure over his vetoes, but the governor, running for re-election in 2018, has set his sights on a school funding provision in the budget that gives a half-billion-dollar bailout to the Chicago Public School System.

The provision changed the formula for state aid to schools, moving to what Democrats call an "evidence based" formula, which is a poorly disguised way to enrich the CPS at the expense of rural and suburban schools. The new funding formula would give the CPS a $215-million pension bailout (still far short of what's needed to close the pension funding gap) and allow the Chicago school board to keep a $250-million block-grant from Washington.

Chicago Tribune:

Rauner indicated Monday that he plans to use his veto pen to zero out CPS' pension money so that it instead would go to classrooms in rural and suburban school districts, which aren't responsible for their own pension costs. Whether Rauner's amendatory veto would be upheld by lawmakers is an open question, but recent events at the Capitol suggest that the governor could have trouble blocking an override. Madigan would need just four Republicans to break ranks with the governor and help his 67 Democrats overturn such a veto. Unlike the tax hike vote, which was precarious even for some Democrats, making sure schools get the money they need to open their doors is a much easier vote to cast, even if opponents label it a vote in favor of bailing out Chicago. On Monday, Rauner portrayed himself as undeterred by recent events, though he lamented what he described as "spin from Speaker Madigan's operation" that the governor has turned his back on poor, minority students in Chicago. "That is so hurtful to me, so insulting to me," Rauner said. "I've spent 25 years of my life, my wife and I, helping improve the public schools in the city of Chicago, not only with our time but also our financial resources." Rauner also hurled his own insults, charging that school superintendents who support the funding formula bill had been "intimidated" by Madigan and "live in fear" of the veteran speaker. When Rauner embarked on his budget showdown with Madigan and Cullerton in spring 2015, the governor indicated "crisis creates opportunity," and he said he'd use "leverage" gained to win approval of his economic agenda. Now the governor says he's worried that Democrats are trying to employ that strategy on him. Rauner asserted Monday that Cullerton was holding off on sending him the school funding formula bill to "create crisis and then force the pension bailout for the city of Chicago and put a new permanent structure in place that hurts our local schools every year going forward." Asked if Rauner's theory was true, Cullerton spokesman John Patterson said "no," but would not say when the legislation would be sent to Rauner's desk.

Rauner was severely weakened by the veto override of his budget and tax bills. He is also in the process of a massive shake-up of his staff, replacing several longtime aides with hardened conservative activists. Republicans in the state are very nervous about his re-election chances, given his failure to reform state government, including reforms to public employee pensions. His ideas have been stymied at every turn by Madigan and the Chicago Democrats, who pretty much control the agenda in Springfield.

But 15 Republicans broke ranks to vote to override Rauner's budget and tax vetoes. Rauner's real worries are probably with not the Democrats, but members of his own party who gauge their own re-election chances as slim if they continue to support the unpopular governor.

A veto of the half-billion-dollar giveaway to Chicago schools will prove popular with downstate Republicans and suburbanites who have been trending more Democratic in recent elections. If the governor is to have any chance of winning, those voters must be inclined to give him another term to effect his bold, ambitious reforms.
The Senate bill that would have repealed and replaced Obamacare will not make it to the floor for a vote. Last night, two more senators  Jerry Moran* and Mike Lee  announced their opposition to the legislation, meaning that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be able to corral the necessary 50 Republican votes for passage.

The Hill:

In light of Monday's challenges, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate will try to separate ObamaCare repeal and replacement, closing the door on the chamber's current healthcare legislation. "In the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period," McConnell said in a statement. The move means Senate Republicans will try to repeal and replace ObamaCare separately, reverting to a plan Senate GOP leadership initially proposed earlier this year, but had to abandon due to lack of support. In announcing their opposition to the Senate draft, Moran and Lee both said the bill failed to do enough to lower premiums. "This closed-door process has yielded the [bill], which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," Moran said in a statement. He added that the Senate "must now start fresh with an open legislative process," an indication that relatively minor changes to the current bill would not be enough to win his support. It may also indicate he wants hearings on a bill, which were absent from the process on the current measure. Highlighting the challenges faced by McConnell, Lee argued the measure is not conservative enough, tugging in the opposite direction from moderates. "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations," the Utah Republican said in a statement. Lee added on Twitter that he and Moran would not support proceeding to "this version" of the Senate GOP legislation, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, leaving the door open to additional changes.

(*Senator Moran is no relation to the author.)

McConnell is caught between a rock and a hard place. The more conservative he tries to make the legislation, the more moderates he alienates. And if he tries to please the moderates, conservatives balk. His margin for error is so slim  just three GOP senators in opposition kills any effort to repeal and replace Obamacare  and with absolutely no support from any Democratic senator, it's hard to see how any version of a repeal-replace bill will ever be acceptable to almost all Republicans.

What about a vote on straight repeal? Conservatives are demanding one, and McConnell may very well accede to their wishes. Here's where he has moderates over a barrel, as all but two GOP senators voted to repeal the legislation in 2015, and one of those senators who voted "no"  Mark Kirk of Illinois  is no longer in the Senate. It's hard to see how any Republican senator could have voted for repeal in 2015 and fail to vote that way this time around.

The problem for President Trump is that it sets back consideration of other agenda items, including serious tax reform. Congress is likely to go on its summer vacation later this week, and when the legislators get back after Labor Day, they will have to immediately address the debt ceiling. That debate is likely to be even more contentious than the debate over Obamacare.

The media will hail the death of Trump's agenda, but that's ridiculously premature and wishful thinking. The GOP is not interested in emasculating its president and party leader by blowing up his agenda. When Republicans return, there will probably be another attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare (probably crafted with a lot of help from the White House) and perhaps even a deal to raise the debt limit. Bottom line: Trump and the Republicans are not going to be sitting still, and despite the attempt to kill the president's agenda, it will go forward.
There are public policy questions that are difficult. Health insurance, for example.

Then there are those that are extremely simple although highly contested by those with axes to grind.

School choice is one of the easiest.

Vouchers do one thing: they give poor kids trapped in failing government schools the same option more affluent children have available.

With a voucher, they can move to a school that will give them an education.

It may involve the family spending money out of pocket, because vouchers typically are for less than the cost of government schooling. That is why they represent millions of dollars in savings for the taxpayers.

But, contrary to what opponents seem to think, poor people are willing to make sacrifices for their children.

What vouchers do not do is "drain money from the government schools" as opponents claim.

Schools are funded on a per-pupil basis. If a rich family withdraws a child from a government school and moves him to a private school, the money follows the child. It still pays for his education. The government school benefits two ways. It is less crowded, and the competition for the child, as studies have shown, can result in the government school improving its performance.

Opponents often use the ridiculous argument that fixed costs remain for the school system. But it doesn't work that way. You can't claim that it costs more to add children and then claim that it costs more when you remove children.

Other arguments are just as shallow. One talking point circulated among opponents is that studies show that charter or private schools are no better. Ridiculous for two reasons. One is that only a couple of studies show this, while many others show the opposite.

The other reason is that it does not matter. Students don't attend averages; they attend schools. There are good private schools and bad ones, just like government schools. Students in a school where they are learning nothing cannot be any worse off, and it is highly unlikely that a parent would move the child into another failing school. But they are entitled to a choice, just like the parents of politicians and other affluent people.

More and more Democrats are acknowledging that black parents support vouchers and are falling in line. The last holdouts are the biggest donors to liberal causes, the teacher union bosses.

It is all about the money. Liberal politicians vote more money for schools, despite any evidence that it will improve educational outcomes. Schools hire more teachers and give raises. That puts more money in the union coffers, and the unions pour more money into the campaigns of liberal politicians.

Forgotten in this cozy arrangement are the kids. They drop out or are passed upward, given a diploma, and thrown into the workplace or into college. In Florida, more than half of the high school graduates are not able to read and write at college-entry level.

Why not let them get an education?
Chuck Todd and John Dickerson and Jonathan Karl, that's who. When Meet the Press (NBC), Face the Nation (CBS), and This Week (ABC) invite a member from the Senate Intelligence Committee, or the House Intelligence Committee, to insinuate that the Russians elected Donald J. Trump , whom do they turn to for slanted comment? Do they ask for information from the chairmen of either intelligence committee? Absolutely not. These leftist programs can be counted on to bring the "ranking member" of either of these committees  that is to say, a knee-jerk Democrat partisan  to maintain what Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd now calls "the drip, drip, drip of Team Trump's meeting with the Russians." To view or hear these Trump-hate-spewing programs, one might be justified in concluding that Sen. Mark Warner is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while over on the House side, Rep. Adam Schiff heads that body's intelligence committee.

How eager is Warner to create the impression of wrongdoing by "Team Trump"? On Meet the Press, July 16, he told Todd: "We have a counterintelligence investigation. Our job is to find the facts. Our job is not to find criminal behavior. That's the responsibility of Special Prosecutor Mueller."

Hey, Chuck Todd: Why didn't you interrupt to ask Warner and ask, "Since when did Special Counsel Robert Mueller become 'special prosecutor'?"

Warner went on to tell Todd, "I've learned that there's a wide breadth between what is called in the espionage business 'a useful idiot' and full-fledged collusion." And viewers of Meet the Press are learning that there is no distance at all between leftist propaganda and the disinformation spewing from these programs.

Warner also appeared, July 16, on Face the Nation and was introduced by moderator John Dickerson as joining the program from "Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts." Hey, Dickerson, why didn't you point out that Oak Bluffs is on Martha's Vineyard? Behold, leftist Mark Warner: another man of the Martha's Vineyard-summer-going people.

At This Week, where Jonathan Karl followed the Martha Raddatz practice of treating Rep. Adam Schiff as if he were House Intelligence Committee chairman, Schiff asserted, "If any kind of understanding that comes out of that meeting [between Donald Trump, Jr. and Russians], you get us the dirt, you start leaking dirt on Hillary Clinton, and we will look favorably on repealing the Magnitsky Act [sanctions], that is a very serious crime." Karl did not follow up to inquire if Schiff had information that, in fact, a "serious crime" occurred.

How can the public expect a Trump-hating media person to challenge a Trump-hating politician?

Indeed, how can the public expect the media side of the Trump-hating media-intelligence complex to investigate reports of illegal surveillance of Republicans by the Obama administration, or the leaking of classified information and the unmasking of individuals, as part of a conspiracy to subvert the 2016 presidential election? The media-intelligence complex operates in the shadows. There is zero transparency concerning anti-Trump leaking from various "sources" to The New York Times or The Washington Post.

These are sinister and cowardly people unwilling to come out in the open and declare their hostility to the constitutional system, pursuant to which the American people elected Donald J. Trump their president  for a four-year term.
(ANSA) - Rome, July 18 - The wildfires that are raging in many parts of Italy burned the same area of the country in one week as the total for the whole of 2016, according to data from the European Commission's European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). It said that blazes affected 27,167 hectares of land between July 8 and 16. Italian Environmental association Legambiente's 'Ecomafia' report, by contrast, said 27,000 hectares went up in smoke in all of 2016.

According to EFFIS, flames enveloped 52,374 hectares between the start of the year and July 15, including 34,956 in the first half of this month. President Sergio Mattarella on Tuesday called for a hard line to be taken against arsonists. He said that blazes "are often the result of criminal actions, which should be punished with strong determination and great severity". Rome prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into the massive blaze that hit the Castel Fusano pine wood in the south of Rome on Monday, sources said. The fire appears to have broken out in three different spots in the forest, police said. The arson investigation includes the case of the 22-year-old from the northern city of Busto Arsizio arrested on Monday. The man was allegedly caught red-handed trying to light a fire.


' (ANSA) - Bolzano, July 18 - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Tuesday voiced concern over a migrant spat between Vienna and Rome. "I would like to calm things down, recalling that in both countries elections are in store. These are moments not conducive to clam discussions, still less solutions," he said, adding that Italy "must face a serious problem" and is "obviously pushing for a European solution".

According to the Austrian president, the situation in Italy "is complex for various reasons". He said "it is easy to ask for the closure of the Mediterranean route, but how do you do it?". He said that the Geneva convention, for refugees, could be applied only to a "minimum part" of the migrants reaching Italy. "For this reason, even if they were to request it, only a few will get asylum rights", Van der Bellen said.


(ANSAmed) - MONTEPULCIANO, JULY 18 - Despite the ongoing war, the well-known Syrian opposition poet Rasha Omran said that ''Syria is a country where people think and create, where there is culture and, above all, women who speak and exchange ideas, defying the usual stereotypes about Arab countries''. On Monday evening Omran, who has lived in exile in Egypt since 2012, was guest of honor at the 42nd edition of the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano festival in Montepulciano.



The evening - entitled 'Defying the Silence: Poetry, Music and Translation Amid War and Exile' - included Omran's reading of poetry from her latest book.



Published in 2016, the book centers on solitude and the isolation of women. ''I began to write it when I moved to Cairo,'' she said. The flat she rented had been lived in by a woman of Greek origins in her fifties. ''Starting from details that grabbed my attention, I began to think about how this woman lived alone in Cairo,'' she said.



Born in Tartous in 1967, Omran said about Syria that ''I was not the one to decide to leave. The regime forced me to.



Initially I went to France, where I stayed for four months, and then I moved to Egypt''. The country is ''very close to Syria in many ways, not only geographically and linguistically'', she said, added that the two societies were very much alike. ''In the period in which I moved, the country was in the middle of the revolution and I was very interested in taking part in this change - especially because Egypt is a place from which changes spread to the rest of the Arab world.'' Being there, she said, ''was also a way to understand ahead of time what was about to happen at a wider level''. At the cultural level, the arrival of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ''did not change much. It is true that I - like many others - do not have relations with state cultural institutions, but this was the case even when I was living in Syria.'' Daughter of the Syrian poet Mohamed Omran, Rasha has long also contributed op-eds and essays to Middle Eastern publications in addition to writing poems. ''Art and literature play an important role in connecting culture, but perhaps,'' she said, ''explaining to the world what is happening in Syria is too big of a mission for poetry.'' (ANSAmed).


Tunis event on Italian migrants to the country in 1900s On 19/7 at CMES, to remember migration in opposite direction

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JULY 18 - An event scheduled for Wednesday in Tunis aims to show how the Mediterranean between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, when European colonialism in Africa was at a peak, was the scene of sizeable migration from Sicily, southern Italy and Sardinia to Tunisia.



Tunisia was at that time a French protectorate. PhD candidate Gabriele Montalbano will be discussing migration in that historical period at the July 19 event at the Tunis branch of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES). The event, organized by Tunis's Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines di Tunisi, is entitled ''Intercolonial Connections: The Italian Community of French Tunisia from Libyan Colonial Ambitions to First World War''. Montalbano spent a lengthy period in Tunisia to research the subject.



Almost 100,000 Italians - outnumbering French citizens there - made their way to Tunisia in the first few years of the twentieth century, most of whom were economic migrants seeking employment in the agricultural, building, fishing and mining industries. (ANSAmed).




Riots in Athens after female PhD student sentenced Damage to shops, woman says she is 'not a terrorist'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 18 - About one hundred protestors took to one of Athens' main shopping streets on Monday evening, throwing stones and destroying shop windows to protest the arrest and 13-year jail sentence for a PhD student and teacher accused of belonging to the radical anarchist group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.



On Monday an Athens court rejected a request for an appeal case to be heard. At the beginning of the year the group, which has been on the US State Department list of terrorist organizations since 2011, claimed responsibility for sending a parcel bombs to the German finance ministry in Berlin (where no damage was caused) and to the Paris headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where a minor explosion occurred and one person was injured. Irianna, the woman arrested (her surname has not been released), denies being a member of the group. Her lawyers say that she was involved in the case after her companion was suspected of being a member - though he was later cleared of the charge - while DNA testing that connected her to a gun clip is seen as dubious. (ANSAmed)
MADRID - Holidaymakers on the Spanish coast find themselves up against a barrage of bans this year as local administrations in San Sebastian and Barcelona have introduced new taxes in a bid to stem disorderly tourism. Disobedient beachgoers can risk receiving fines of between 300 and 3,000 euros for a variety of offences, including building sandcastles on the beaches of Gozon and Almunecar, in Granada, swimming in prohibited areas, for example in Estepona, Lloret de Mar, Castelldefels or Valencia, or planting a sun umbrella to reserve a place on a public beach, as is the case in Gandia, Benidorm and San Pedro del Pinatar.



Likewise, playing rackets and urinating in the sea have been banned in Pinatar del Mar (Murcia), Muro (Mallorca), Lepe (Huelva) and Arteixo (La Coruna). Tourists in Valencia have been banned from spreading their towels on the sand within six metres of the water's edge on pain of fines for "occupying public land". Loudspeaker music and live music are prohibited in Gozon and Almunecar (Granada) and also in Motril, where musical instruments and stereo radios have similarly been banned. Smoking is forbidden in En L'Escala (Girona) and Mogan (Gran Canaria).
Turkey: Amnesty director remains in jail ahead of trial Along with 5 activists, 'crushing blow for rights'

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 18 - An Istanbul court on Tuesday remanded into pre-trial custody six of the ten human rights activists that had been arrested almost two weeks ago during a seminar on internet security.



Among them is the director of the Turkish branch of Amnesty International, Idil Eser. The judges accused them of having ''committed crimes on behalf of a terrorist group without being members of it''.



Two foreign trainers, a German and a Swede, are also in jail.



The four activists released will be out on parole and will not be allowed to leave the country. Amnesty International called the decision a ''crushing blow for rights in Turkey''. (ANSAmed).




Posters of ex-dictator Franco'order' Catalonians not to vote Campaign by left-wing separatist movement ahead of referendum

(ANSAmed) - BARCELONA, JULY 17 - Catalonians awoke on Tuesday morning to ubiquitous posters showcasing the stern visage of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco ordering them not to vote in the October 1 independence referendum. The controversial campaign was launched by the left-wing association 'Repubblica des de Baix' on the 81st anniversary of Franco's coup d'etat against the Second Spanish Republic, which was drowned in the blood of the 1936-39 civil war, followed by 40 years of dictatorship. ''Do Not Vote'', the Generalissimo on the posters orders, ''On October 1, No to the Republic!''.



The campaign of Franco posters, said former regional MP of the separatist left Antonio Banos said, ''aims to shake up consciences. People like Franco did not want a Republic and this led to 40 years of dictatorship.'' ''We have a good memory. We know that it is a state that is heir to Franco's that does not want us to vote,'' reads a tweet from the Republica des de Baix account. Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia, has announced that the Catalonians will be asked in the referendum whether they want the region to become an independent republic. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called the referendum ''illegal'' according to the 1978 constitution, and said that he would use ''every means at his disposal'' to prevent it from being held. (ANSAmed)
In the libel suit, the dealer, Hicham Aboutaam, said he has never handled antiquities looted by terrorists and that sales at his Manhattan-based gallery, Phoenix Ancient Art, have plummeted. The article reported that authorities in Switzerland, France, Belgium and the United States were investigating Mr. Aboutaam and his older brother, Ali Aboutaam.
India's flag carrier is on block after Modi's cabinet approved plans to privatise this loss-making airline.

Air India is drawing up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to just over a third of its 40,000 employees.

New Delhi: Air India is drawing up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to just over a third of its 40,000 employees, a senior company official said, one of the largest such offers in India's state sector, as the carrier slashes costs ahead of a 2018 sale.

The official, who could not be named as the plans are not public, said the state-owned airline had also put fleet expansion on hold, scrapping a proposal to lease eight Boeing 787 wide-body aircraft. Air India's board approved the proposal in April but nothing further had been done.

India's flag carrier is on the block after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet last month approved plans to privatise the loss-making airline - selling part or all of the company and ending decades of state support.

Founded in the 1930s and known to generations of Indians for its Maharajah mascot, Air India has a complex fleet, too many staff relative to its peers and $8.5 billion in debt. Since 2012, New Delhi has injected $3.6 billion to keep it afloat.

An official in Modi's office said the leader, under pressure to cut spending and boost basic infrastructure like ports and roads, is in "no mood" to provide fresh monetary assistance to any loss-making public sector company.

The official said that top bureaucrats in the civil aviation ministry and at Air India had been asked to present a report on how a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) could be offered to about 15,000 of Air India's 40,000 staffers, including contractors.

"Nothing has been finalised but our aim is to make the strategic sale as simple as we can," said a second top official in New Delhi, involved in the airline's daily operations, adding that any fresh investments would be put on hold.

Previous attempts to offload the airline have failed mainly because of the scale and complexity of problems at Air India, as well as its influential unions.

If Modi can pull the privatisation off, it will buttress his credentials as a reformer brave enough to wade into some of the country's most intractable problems.

UNITED FRONT

In its heyday, Air India boasted of a talent pool that newly founded airlines dipped into.

The government will, however, need to convince seven trade unions to accept the plan to make the company attractive to potential buyers, including buyouts and other efforts to slash costs. Their initial response was not positive.

"The government will propose a VRS scheme and we will throw their proposal in the dustbin," said JB Kadian, leader of a union that represents 8,000 non-technical staff of Air India.

Kadian said a joint forum of unions representing Air India employees will launch "an agitation" in August if the government pursues its plans to privatise the national carrier.

A committee of five senior federal ministers, led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is expected to meet this month and begin ironing out the finer details of the privatisation plan.

In the meantime, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said he wants Air India to begin cutting at all levels.

Earlier this month, the airline decided to stop serving non-vegetarian meals in the economy class on domestic flights, in a bid to save up to 100 million rupees ($1.6 million) over 10 months.

The action provoked uproar on social media and was belittled by aviation experts, who argue Air India management needs a massive structural overhaul, tackling thornier issues like fleet and staff, not meals.

The airline is also working to reduce the time its planes are not flying and launching direct flights to new international destinations. In July, Air India started a direct flight to Washington. It will start flying to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Los Angeles later this year.

"Keeping planes in the hangar makes no sense when Air India is trying find new sources of income. We should optimize the use of all possible resources," Raju said.

"The idea is to present a robust company to potential buyers," the minister said.
The cess varied from Rs 2,126 to Rs 4,170 for cigarettes of different lengths. But this rate was lower than the pre-GST tax incidence.

The Council had in May fixed 28% as the top rate for cigarettes. A 5% ad valorem cess was levied on top of it and Rs 1,591 per thousand sticks as fixed cess on both filter and non-filter cigarettes of not exceeding 65 mm.

New Delhi: The GST Council in an emergency meeting on Monday hiked cess on cigarettes to ensure that overall taxes on them does not fall in the GST regime. The move will bring in Rs 5,000 crore of additional tax revenue to the Centre.

The Council had earlier not taken into account the cascading impact of taxes on cigarettes due to which total tax incidence in new GST regime had come down as compared to pre-GST era.

Anti-tobacco groups had also warned government against fall in taxes on cigarettes as it could have adverse impact on health of the people.

GST Council meeting on tax on tobacco was held through video conference showing the pressure on the government to act on the cigarettes issue. Tax on cigarettes was the only agenda for the GST Council meet.

While any reduction in tax incidence on items of mass consumption would be welcome, the same would be unacceptable in case of demerit goods like cigarettes, the ministry said.

It has now increased the fixed component of cess on cigarettes category by Rs 485 to Rs 792 per thousand sticks of cigarettes. This is over an above present GST of 28 per cent, 5 per cent ad valorem cess and a fixed cess on cigarettes. The fixed cess varies depending on length and whether cigarettes are filter or non-filter.
As Venkaiah Naidu is posied to become the next Vice-President of India, his portfolios will be left without a minister.

Prime Minister Modi first expanded his cabinet in November 2014 when he inducted 21 new faces. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to go for a Cabinet expansion as senior minister M Venkaiah Naidu's almost certain election as the next vice president will leave two important portfolios without a Cabinet minister.

Already, two key ministries -- defence and environment -- are without a full-time minister.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan are holding the additional charge of these two portfolios respectively.

Naidu, whose candidature as the NDA's vice presidential candidate was announced on Monday, currently holds charge of the ministries of Information and Broadcasting and Urban Development.

BJP sources said a reshuffle in the Union council of ministers is expected after the monsoon session of Parliament, and some new faces could also be inducted into the Cabinet.

While Manohar Parrikar's move to Goa as its chief minister in March left the defence ministry without a full- time Cabinet minister, the death of Anil Dave in May caused a vacancy in the environment ministry.

Prime Minister Modi first expanded his cabinet in November 2014 when he inducted 21 new faces, including Parrikar as defence minister.

In July last year, Modi reshuffled the cabinet and appointed Prakash Javadekar as the human resource development minister, replacing Smriti Irani, who was shifted to textiles.
DIG Roopa Moudgil transferred and posted as Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety.

Bengaluru: As a fallout of the charges of corruption and irregularities in the prison department, the two top heads of the prison department  DGP H. N. Sathyanarayana Rao and DIG D. Roopa Moudgil  have been shunted out of the department, while DIG and chief superintendent of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, Krishna Kumar, has also been transferred without any posting.

While Mr Rao has been sent on compulsory leave, Ms Moudgil has been transferred and posted as Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety. This is, perhaps, the first time in the history of Karnataka that an officer of the rank of DGP is being retired unceremoniously, as Mr Rao has not been given any posting, with just 14 days left for him to hang up his boots. Ms Moudgils transfer too is being dubbed punishment transfer, as her report on the alleged irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison had embarrassed the government.

Explaining the reason behind transferring the two officers, the government clarified that the step was taken to maintain the sanctity of the inquiry process and to safeguard it from further interference. The government also stated that the interaction of both the police officers with the media amounted to serious violation of All-India Services Conduct Rules.

On receiving a report of allegations of irregularities in the prison, the government was quick to institute an Inquiry Commission and had asked to submit a preliminary report of findings within one week and a final comprehensive report within a month, the government said.

In view of this violation, the government issued a show-cause notice to both the officers. The subsequent visit by the concerned officers to Parappana Agrahara Central Prison witnessed disturbance emerging in the jail premises. In order to maintain the sanctity of the inquiry process and safeguard it from further interference, the government has asked the DGP to proceed on leave, while DIG D. Roopa has been transferred as Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety. The Government is committed to allow the inquiry to proceed unhinged, so that evidence based on truth emerges, following which necessary and strict action will be taken to bring the guilty to book, said a press release by the Chief Ministers Secretariat.

Megharikh to replace Rao

The government, in its order on Monday, posted Additional Director General of Police N.S. Megharikh as ADGP and IGP (Prisons), replacing DGP H. N. Sathyanarayana Rao.

Mr Megharikh was heading the Anti-Corruption Bureau and was also the Police Commissioner of Benglauru. As DIG Roopa is posted as Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, the officer in that post, ADGP Dr. A.S.N. Murthy, has been posted as ADGP, Forest Cell, in the upgraded post.

Woman officer made in charge of prison

The government, which seems to be on a clean-up drive, has also transferred DIG Krishna Kumar, the Chief Superintendent of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, as DIG Roopas report had several allegations against him. He has been not given any posting. Meanwhile, the government has given additional charge of his post to Superintendent Anitha R.
The Pak army had initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts on Monday.

Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. (Photo: File)

Jammu: The Pakistan army violated ceasefire four times on Tuesday targeting civilian areas and Indian positions along the Line of Control (LOC) by firing mortar shells in four sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said.

In another ceasefire violation by Pakistan at the Nowgam sector of Kashmir, 1 soldier was killed.

Around fifty students of a government high school were trapped in the shelling in Rajouri district's Naushera sector while twelve students of a primary school were rescued by the authorities.

One jawan was reportedly injured in the heavy exchanges of fire.

"The Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 1350 hours in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district along the LoC", a defence spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, he said.

The Pak army also targeted civilian areas and Indian army posts along LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

According to the defence spokesman, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked firing from 6:45 am in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors.

As per reports one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimber Gali sector.

Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said that 45 to 50 students of a government high school in Sehar in Naushera sector were trapped due to heavy shelling.

He said the school was located at a height making the task of evacuation difficult.

However, police and authorities have evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera and they were ferried in bullet proof vehicles during intermittent shelling by Pakistan, he said.

"We have sent 3 bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling comes down, we will evacuate them too", Choudhary said.

The shelling comes just a day after the Indian director general of military operations (DGMO) conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that the Army was sincere about maintaining peace but reserved the right to retaliate against any incident of ceasefire violation.

On Monday as well, the Pakistan army had initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

In the exchange of fire, Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife Shaheena Muddasar and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas yesterday also in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri.

Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. The administration has sounded an alert and advised the residents to stay indoors and field officers have been deputed for coordination, he said.

There were over a dozen of ceasefire violation by Pak army along LoC in J&K in which seven people including four jawans were killed and 12 injured in the month of July 2017.
Naidus name was announced by BJP president Amit Shah after the meeting of the partys parliamentary board.

Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu is greeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as BJP President Amit Shah looks on, after he was announced as the BJP's Vice-Presidential candidate in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday officially announced its senior leader Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, 68, a farmers son, as the NDAs vice-presidential candidate for the August 5 election. Famous for his oratorial skills, the former BJP president and Union minister will file his nomination on Tuesday and take on the Oppositions candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhis grandson. The vice-president also officiates as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Mr Naidu is a prominent BJP face from South India and had been jailed during the Emergency. Known for his quirky one-liners and rhymes, Mr Naidu is often seen passionately defending Mr Modi, his policies and taking on the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament. He had once described Mr Modi as the gift to the nation from God and messiah of the poor. Mr Naidu had vigorously backed Mr Modi for the prime ministership before the 2014 elections. In fact, Mr Naidu had coined the term MODI  Making of Developed India, which was the official theme of the BJP and the governments outreach campaign on the occasion of its third anniversary in office.

Mr Naidus name was announced by BJP president Amit Shah after the meeting of the partys parliamentary board on Monday evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the meeting, tweeted: I know @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu for years. Have always admired his hard work & tenacity. A fitting candidate for the office of Vice-President. Mr Modi described Mr Naidu as a farmers son who brings years of experience in public life and is admired across the political spectrum.

The years of parliamentary experience @MVenkaiahNaidu Garu has will help him discharge the important role of Rajya Sabha Chairperson, Mr Modi added. Mr Naidu, sources said, had a meeting with Mr Modi at Parliament House on Monday morning, where he was apparently told about the party and RSS decision to nominate him for the vice-presidents post.

The electoral college for the vice-presidential election consists of members of both Houses of Parliament, including the nominated members, which is currently at 786, as there are two vacancies each in both Houses. The numbers seem to favour Mr Naidu, with the ruling party claiming Mr Naidu will get more than 500 votes as the BJP-led NDA already has 338 members in the Lok Sabha. Though the NDA is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, some non-NDA parties including AIADMK, BJD, TRS and YSRCP, which are already backing the NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, are also likely to vote in favour of Mr Naidu.

Though his name was officially announced by the BJP on Monday evening, Mr Naidu, who is well respected across party lines, was seen receiving congratulations from leaders of different parties in Parliament since the morning. Associated with the Jan Sangh, the BJPs former avatar, since the 1970s, Mr Naidu had closely worked with many Sangh Parivar stalwarts and party patriarch Atal Behari Vajpayee and veteran leader L.K. Advani. He was also a Cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government. Having extensively travelled across the country for organisational activities, Mr Naidu played a key role in bringing the TDP into the NDA fold and in gaining TRS backing for the NDA presidential nominee.

Born in a humble agricultural family of Andhra Pradeshs Nellore district, Mr Naidu, a former BJP president, was a two-term member of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. He was never a member of the Lok Sabha. Elected to the Rajya Sabha three times from Karnataka, Mr Naidu now represents Rajasthan in the Upper House of Parliament.

Mr Naidu currently holds the portfolios of information and broadcasting and housing and urban affairs. He was also parliamentary affairs minister earlier in the Modi government. Earlier, he served as rural development minister in the previous NDA government led by Mr Vajpayee.

The 68-year-old veteran leader served as BJP president from July 2002 to October 2004 for two terms. He quit the post after the partys 2004 defeat. He was an ABVP activist during the Emergency, and was arrested and sent to jail.

Mr Naidu also ensured high political outreach by meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi when there was a standoff between the government and the Opposition in Parliament. Several major laws were cleared by Parliament when he was parliamentary affairs minister, including the historic Real Estate Act and fast-forwarding of the GST Bill.

As I&B minister, he was always quick to present issues in perspective with effective repartee when required. As urban development minister, Mr Naidu pioneered the launch of several new urban missions, including Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Swachchh Bharat Mission and Housing for All. As rural development minister, Mr Naidu was instrumental in launching the hugely popular Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
The exercise effectively tested the brigades joint strike capability on plateaus, according to the press release.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj with senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: Pritam Bandyopadhay)

New Delhi: An unprecedented 99 per cent voting was recorded in the presidential elections on Monday with many parties openly cross-voting in favour of NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind, whose victory was a forgone conclusion given the strong arithmetic in his favour.

In around 9-10 states, there was 100 per cent polling while overall 99 per cent polling was reported, said the returning officer, Lok Sabha secretary-general Anup Mishra.

While six Trinamul Congress MLAs from Tripura voted in favour of Mr Kovind, Samajwadi Partys Shivpal Yadav said in Lucknow that a section of SP MLAs and MPs had also voted in favour of the NDA nominee after instructions from party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. A section of AAP MLAs and MPs are also said to have voted in favour of Mr Kovind despite Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal supporting the Opposition presidential candidate, Ms Meira Kumar.

Read: Vote in name of ideology, says Meira Kumar

BJPs Delhi MLA Om Prakash Sharma claimed at least 10-12 AAP MLAs had voted for Mr Kovind.

On the other side, BJPs Gujarat MLA Nalin Kotadia voted for Ms Kumar over the Patidar agitation issue.

The NCP, meanwhile, denied reports that some of its MLAs and MPs had cross-voted, and asserted that the party stood firm in its support for Ms Kumar.

The rumours that NCP MPs and MLAs are voting for the NDA presidential candidate are false. We are voting for our candidate Meira Kumar, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

The states/UTs which recorded 100 per cent voting are Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Puducherry.

The sanctioned strength of both Houses of Parliament is 776, out of which 771 MPs were eligible to cast their votes. There are two vacancies each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, while one BJP MP, Chedi Paswan, does not have voting rights.

Though 717 MPs were to cast their vote in New Delhi, only 714 cast their ballot. Missing in action were the TMCs Tapas Pal, BJDs Ram Chandra Hansdak and Ambumani Ramadoss of PMK.

Fifty-four MPs, including former defence minister Manohar Parrikar, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union minister Uma Bharti had sought permission to cast their votes in state capitals. BJP president Amit Shah, who is an MLA from Gujarat, had also sought permission to cast his vote in Delhi. All Trinamul MPs cast their votes in Kolkata.

Read: BJP confident of NDA President pick win

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first person to cast his vote. Mr Modi is understood to have reached a good four minutes before the election process was due to begin.

The counting of votes will take place at 11am on Thursday, July 20. The first ballot box to be opened will be the one from Parliament House, after which the ballot boxes received from the states will be counted on an alphabetical basis. The votes will be counted on four separate tables, and there will be eight counting rounds.

A total of 4,896 voters  4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs  were eligible to vote in the presidential polls. The MLCs of states with a Legislative Council are not part of the electoral college. While the value of an MLAs vote depends on the population of the state he or she belongs to, the value of an MPs vote remains the same, at 708.
Mayawati said she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

New Delhi: An angry Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday declared that she will quit from the Rajya Sabha after her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh was interrupted by the Chair.

"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today (Tuesday)," a visibly angered Mayawati said when Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits.

"I have not finished. You cannot do this. I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.

Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advice of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to back down saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi demanded an apology from Mayawati as challenged the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well shouting "Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (anti-dalit government will not be tolerated).

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission. Azad said the government had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session.

"Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that," Azad said. He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

"You didnt get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," he said adding the Congress was staging a walkout of the House in protest. Congress members then walked out of the House.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well shouting anti-government slogans.

On the other hand, Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice. Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no soluition. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on May 5, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.
Defence spokesman said that three militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

Srinagar: Three unidentified militants were today killed by the security forces in an encounter in Anantnag district of south Kashmir, said defence officials.

The encounter broke out at around 8 pm at Wanihama village of Anantnag, following an anti-militancy operation launched by the security forces, said a defence spokesman. He added that three militants were killed in the ensuing gunbattle. Further details are awaited.
The BJP's Parliamentary Board had on Tuesday picked Naidu as the NDA's vice presidential nominee.

The senior BJP leader resigned as Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting minister hours before he filed his nomination papers. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: Flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani, former minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for the vice presidential election.

BJP president Amit Shah, senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi as well as leaders from BJP allies and those from other regional parties, including the AIADMK and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, accompanied Naidu as he filed his papers in the parliament complex.

The Shiv Sena was also present.

Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and several top leaders of the NDA were among those who proposed and seconded Naidu's candidature in the several sets of nomination papers filed in his favour.

The BJP's Parliamentary Board had on Tuesday picked Naidu as the NDA's vice presidential nominee.

The senior BJP leader resigned as Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting minister hours before he filed his nomination papers.

The vice presidential is scheduled to be held on August 5.

Naidu will contest against the opposition's vice presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
New Delhi is keeping the diplomats of United States, Russia, Britain, France, Japan and Germany in the loop about developments on the border.

New Delhi: India on Tuesday briefed top diplomats of a few foreign missions individually in New Delhi about the current Sino-Indian military stand-off in the Doklam area of Bhutan, and foreign secretary S. Jaishankar reportedly told a parliamentary panel that Chinas stand in the Sikkim sector has been unusually aggressive and articulate.

Mr Jaishankar, while briefing the panel on external affairs, maintained that New Delhi is engaged with Beijing in defusing the tension through diplomatic channels.

Some TV channels reporting that Mr Jaishankar had advocated a deep breath, stop and engage policy as a way of resolving the matter, indicating that both countries would have to talk it out and solve the matter.

New Delhi briefed top diplomats of a few foreign countries in New Delhi after China had carried out a similar exercise of briefing foreign diplomats in Beijing about the stand-off last week.

It is learnt that foreign missions in New Delhi, worried about the stand-off, requested that they be updated. New Delhi is keeping the diplomats of United States, Russia, Britain, France, Japan and Germany in the loop about developments on the border.

There were also TV reports that Congress vice-president and Lok Sabha member Rahul Gandhi had asked about Chinese intentions and Indo-Bhutanese special relationship at the meeting of the panel of which he is also a member.

The Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing said on Tuesday that India should not use trespass into the Doklam area as a policy tool to achieve its political targets, and asked New Delhi to immediately withdraw its troops to avoid any escalation. Jaishankar told us that Chinas aggression and rhetoric on the recent standoff is unusual but it is not that complicated as it is being projected in some quarters. We will continue to engage with them through diplomatic channels, one of the MPs in the panel was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. The foreign secretary told the panel that India has clearly outlined its position on the border and Chinese have their own position, but they are misinterpreting it and so India was trying to clarify it. He said that India has been maintaining the same position since 1895 as per an Anglo-Chinese agreement.

Words like war-like situation or conflict were not used by the foreign secretary, and he stuck to the word stand-off to describe the current situation in Doklam, another member said. Both members spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the meeting.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the Doklam area of Bhutan which China claims as its territory. Since the illegal trespass by Indian border personnel, many foreign diplomats in China felt shocked about this and (wanted) to confirm whether it was true, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing when asked about the reported briefing by China there last week to foreign missions. The Chinese side maintains close communication with the foreign diplomatic missions on the issues they are interested, Mr Lu told reporters.
28-year-old Yadav was charged with corruption by the CBI.

Tejaswi arrived for a cabinet meeting on Tuesday along with state health minister and his brother Tej Pratap Yadav. (Photo: File)

Patna: In the eye of a storm after lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday attended a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Amid the continuing stand off between JD(U) and RJD over the former's demand to explain the alleged acquisition of massive wealth, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav went to the CM's chamber after the Cabinet meeting.

His minister brother Tej Pratap Yadav and state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary too were present in the CM's room.

It was not clear what transpired in the meeting, which appeared to show that the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress is intact.

Amid the mounting tension between JD(U) and RJD over the the former's demand from the deputy CM to clear his name in public with facts over the CBI allegation in the case and the later saying 'no' to Tejaswi's resignation, there was

speculation if he would attend the Cabinet meeting at all.

Tejaswi had on Saturday skipped a government function in which he had to share dais with the chief minister.

The deputy CM, however, arrived for the meeting along with Tej Pratap Yadav in the same car.

Earlier, many RJD ministers assembled at the residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and moved together for the Cabinet meeting from there in a motorcade.

The mediapersons were barred entry into the secretariat, the venue of the Cabinet meeting, following a scuffle between Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav's securitymen and mediapersons after the last Cabinet meet on Wednesday.

The press briefing by Cabinet Coordination Department Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra has also been shifted to the Public Relations Department office at some distance. It is used to be held at the secretariat itself.

Despite the show of unity, JD(U) spokesmen Neeraj Kumar, however, said the coalition dharma is bigger than showing obstinacy.

Another JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad repeated the party's demand that the accused come clean on accusations on the basis of facts.

The BJP and its NDA partners on Tuesday stepped up its demand for resignation of Tejaswi Yadav.

Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the deputy chief minister has amassed 26 properties at 26 years of age without declaring his sources of income.

"Tejaswi should tell people about his sources of income and how he acquired all these properties," Modi told reporters.

Attacking Nitish Kumar for failing to take a call on Tejashwi Yadav, Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi said, "He is indulging in 'nautanki' (drama) to hold on to the power anyhow."

Union minister of state for HRD and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha said "Nitish Kumar has lust for chair."
I have no moral right to be in House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits, she had said.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: After threatening to resign from Rajya Sabha on Tuesday morning, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati submitted her resignation to the Vice President on Tuesday evening.

The Chair had asked Mayawati to restrict her impromptu speech in Rajya Sabha (RS) on Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, provoking her to take the step.

"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this."

"I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.

Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no solution. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on May 5, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.
The assailant was arrested on Saturday, while both the girls were in hospital.

New Delhi: Two minor girls, aged 6 and 8, on Friday, "pretended to be dead" after a 22-year-old man raped and strangled them, in order to trick the accused into leaving.

A NDTV report said, the assailant was arrested on Saturday, while both the girls were in hospital.

We have arrested Pankaj Kumar, a factory worker, for allegedly raping the girls. He was produced before a Delhi court and sent to 14-day judicial custody, DCP (Rohini district) Rishi Pal said.

Dr Puneeta Mahajan, medical superintendent of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital said, "The victims were brought in a critical condition. They are now in post-operative care. A team of doctors is monitoring their condition, which is, at present, stable.

On Friday, around 7:30 pm, the incident occurred when the two girls, who are neighbours, were playing outside their homes. The accused initially gave the girls Rs 100 and asked them to get a packet of Eno from a nearby medical shop. When the girls returned, since they could not get the product, the accused asked them to accompany him to the nearest shop and promised them to buy candy, a senior police officer said.

The elder sister of one of the girls also tried to accompany the accused along with the two victims. The mother of one of the victims said, "She asked him to leave her sister alone, but he slapped her. When she started crying, he gave her Rs 5 and asked her to go home. He took the two girls to an isolated park near a canal, about 150 metres from their home. At the park, he raped them and beat them up. When they started crying, he he hit them on their faces."

He then tried to strangle the girls, the police said. He dumped them inside the pit when they stopped struggling, assuming they were dead. One of the girls told her mother she "pretended to be dead so the man would leave". Around this time the parents of the victims called the police and informed them about their daughters being missing.

Around 4:45 am on Saturday, the relatives of the girls started looking inside the park. The father of one of the girls noticed some clothes lying around and started screaming. Suddenly, one of the girls rushed towards him and told him about the other girl. Police then took the girls to a hospital, a police officer said.

Although, the police tried to record their statements right away, they were too scared to speak. The police also added that they would be provided counselling. Later, they informed the police that they had "seen the accused around a neighbourhood grocery store".

The police said, "They provided a description of the accused and on the basis of that, police questioned the owner of the grocery store. Police then questioned over 100 people, and eventually traced Kumar, who was found living near the girls homes."
He would roam barefoot around posh colonies in Delhi, break open doors or windows, and vanish with valuables, always acting alone.

New Delhi: This modern day Robin Hood had quite a taste for the good life. Irfan, 27, stole from Delhi's rich and organised health camps in his village in Bihar.

He kept quite a bit of the loot for himself too  spending lavishly on expensive cars, fashionable apparel and trips to watering holes in Mumbai and Delhi, police said.

That was until he was nabbed by a Delhi Police team from his village in Bihar's Sitamarhi district.

Police said he would roam barefoot around posh colonies in the capital, break open doors or windows, and vanish with valuables, always acting alone.

In one of the bars in Delhi, he once offered to pay Rs 10,000 to hear a song of his choice, said Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast).

He was arrested on July 6 after being caught on CCTV footage in the capital's New Friends Colony, allegedly after robbing gold and diamond jewellery from a resident, who filed a police complaint on May 24.

"He maintained a larger-than-life image in his native area. He would often fund health camps for people in his village," said Baaniya.

The official said he was quite active on social media and would spend large sums of money to impress his girlfriend.

The police also arrested one Dharmender who used to buy the valuables from Irfan. Stolen jewellery weighing 320 grams was recovered from them.

Irfan claims to have committed burglaries in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well, Baaniya said.
Union minister Vijay Goel has requested lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal to intervene and take measures to restore the beauty of Chandni Chowk.

New Delhi: Union minister Vijay Goel has requested lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal to intervene and take measures to restore the beauty of Chandni Chowk.

Mr Goel wrote to Mr Baijal regarding the degrading situation in Chandni Chowk and urged the L-G to develop the area on the lines of the Smart City project under the urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry. Mr Goel, who has resented Chandni Chowk in the Lok Sabha, in his letter to Mr Baijal, stated that the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Board had many suggestions pertaining to the areas development and restoration and these must be implemented.

He said that he met deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia last year to discuss these issues but nothing had been done to implement the suggestions for the betterment of the area. Even the Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Board failed to work in this regard.
The PIL also sought contempt action against BJP leader Ashish Shelar.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the state to explain an adventurous sport as per its definition and kept the matter after two weeks for further hearing. While hearing the petition, the court also came to know that in August 2015, the state had issued GR and gave Dahi Handi the status of an adventure sport.

The court then posed the question, Does allowing a minor to participate in Dahi Handi falls under the adventures activity?.

A division bench of Justice R.M. Sawant and Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing a PIL filed by activist Swati Patil who while objecting about the alleged use of small children during the Dahi Handi events sought safety of the participants in such activities.

The PIL also sought contempt action against BJP leader Ashish Shelar and others for flouting conditions and restrictions laid down by the HC for the Dahi Handi festival in 2015.

The court noted that political leaders like Ashish Shelar, who is head of the Dahi Handi Samiti set up by the state government in February 2015, should abstain from organising or even attending such festivals where court orders are being flouted.
The Royal couple begin with a visit to the Stutthof concentration and death camp that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.

The royal couple will fly on Tuesday to northern Poland from Warsaw, where they are staying at the Belvedere Palace. (Photo: AFP)

Warsaw: Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate will visit a World War II Nazi German concentration camp and tour the picturesque city of Gdansk in northern Poland on the second day of a goodwill trip aimed at underscoring Britain's intention to maintain friendly relations with the European Union after it leaves the bloc.

The royal couple will fly on Tuesday to northern Poland from Warsaw, where they are staying at the Belvedere Palace. They begin with a visit to the Stutthof concentration and death camp that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.

They will then travel to nearby Gdansk to see its Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

They will also visit a replica of a Shakespearean theatre and meet former president and democracy champion Lech Walesa. Tomorrow they fly to Berlin.
Even if the JIT gives obvious proof against Nawaz, the ECP must be allowed to decide.

The moral and practical cases are clear. The Prime Minister must himself quit, joint investigation team (JIT) report apart, as for months he has failed to prove legitimate his family UK flats. While his sons are the owners, his role as clan head and recipient of big gifts from them morally cripples him. Sordid details of alleged huge wealth are shamefully out in public. Distracted, he cannot govern and will damage Pakistan and its democracy.

But he may quit only if he feels the Supreme Court will fire him. The court started an inquiry based on mere though strong suspicion via its wide 184(3) optional powers. Many had criticised this unprecedented act. But it has so far docked a sitting Prime Minister and the precedent is established. Thus, such inquiries will now be seen as useful action templates against others. However, the scope of 184(3) in such cases must be defined to avoid swamping the court that must coax the government to make National Accountability Bureau (NAB) stronger to keep its own role exceptional. While that happens, it must also ensure that others accused of titanic crimes, for example, Zardari, Musharraf and Altaf, are tried soon to dispel any charges of judicial selectivity.

Even with Sharif, sticking to the law or strong precedence is important to avoid political upheavals. This means conviction only after a fair trial in a trial court, even starting trial only if the JIT report goes beyond suspicion towards physical evidence.

The law gives the right to disqualify to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) but some lawmakers have been disqualified directly by the courts, mostly where guilt could be shown easily sans trial, for example, degrees proven faked. Even if the JIT gives obvious proof against Nawaz, the ECP must be allowed to decide. If he is not disqualified, then we may hit rough weather if the PTI starts street protest spread over months without result like in 2014. Irrespective, Pakistan will remain in limbo till the next polls. Sharif can spare us all this by resigning.

Pakistan is seeing real accountability of its top leaders for the first time, invariably under democracy. In weeding out corrupt leaders electorally and now legally, a nine-year-old flawed democracy has shown its edge over 40 years of unelected rule.

Had we stuck to democracy instead of looking towards Pindi, things would have been much better politically today. Some claim that this affair stems from the security establishment wanting to pre-empt a meek Sharif from being more assertive once he gains a Senate majority and a fourth term. This idea cannot be rejected outright. But neither can it be accepted without proof, which may be impossible to get given their opaque ways. In the past, they have acted against civilians not toeing their line. Are they now so bold and proactive to act against a future uncertain threat?

It is tough to form even initial views on this issue. Such rumours, even if true, must not stop Sharifs trial. But they make it more crucial that the trial meets high standards of proof and process. The rule of law means not just that crooks are tried but also that the trials are fair.

Sharifs exit would not end civ-mil tensions, which are rooted in the simple reality that Pindis security policies run Pakistan. Political rulers soon grasp this reality and resent so many critical calls being off-limit for them. This starts a tug of war between the twin cities. We know about generals (wrongly) betraying their civilian benefactors: Ayub, Zia and Musharraf. But civilians (Bhutto and Sharif) groomed by the security establishment have (rightly) turned against it too. The same may happen with Imran, even if he now has the Army nod. The man is not money hungry like Sharif, but power hungry and hates sharing power and limelight more than Sharif. So ties between him and the security establishment may not be easy if he wins. His victory is iffy even if both father and daughter are barred. The Sharifs are a big clan and some will survive legally to run. The PML(N), representing strong Punjabi groups, will not disappear like PML(Q). But the two right-wing Punjab parties may become more even politically.

Some say Panama will end sleaze in Pakistan. Sleaze originates from the needs of vast sections of our economy. With billions of dollars of capital flows coming from China, which is only slightly less corrupt than us, the needs of much of both local and foreign capital will encourage sleaze and low rule of law (barring security). Morally speaking, sleaze must end. But the moral lens is only prescriptive, not predictive like social sciences lenses. However, the former is proactive, the latter passive. Only by using both can we tackle sleaze. The bi-lens view reveals long-term democratic struggle as the best tool against sleaze.

By arrangement with Dawn
The Finnish tech-giant recently took the wraps off a new Nokia 105 model, priced at Rs 999.

HMD Global-backed Nokia has officially taken the wraps off its next feature phone called Nokia 105. The firm has introduced two variants of the same, one with a single SIM option priced at Rs 999 and the other one, a dual-SIM variant priced at Rs 1,149. The features phones will apparently be available from Wednesday, 19th July onwards.

With more than four billion people remaining offline and unable to benefit from the social and economic development opportunities of the internet, simply getting connected by voice and text is still such an important step for many people around the world, HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela said in a statement.

The feature phone packs a new ergonomic design with a larger screen and an improved battery life. The Nokia 105 device packs a 1.8-inch QVGA colour screen display with LED torch lights. The company claims that the device offers up to 15 hours talk time and a month on standby time. The handset comes pre-loaded with games like the Snake Xenzia, Doodle Jump, Crossy Road along with FM Radio. The Nokia 105 runs on Nokia Series 30+ software and offers 4MB of RAM along with 4MB of storage as well. The device packs an 800mAh removable battery, weighs 73 grams with dimensions 112.0 x 49.5 x 14.4mm.
Leaks suggest the smartphone to come with Carl Zeiss dual camera setup and home button-mounted fingerprint sensor.

The alleged Nokia 8 also seems to have the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top.

There have been numerous leaks about the alleged Nokia 8 smartphone from the past few months. It was expected that the Nokia 8 will be the second-in-line flagship of the HMD Global-owned company with a thin-bezel display and upper mid-range specifications. However, a more believable leak has surfaced and will shatter all the myths surrounding the smartphone.

A report from VentureBeat claims to have the original images of the alleged Nokia 8 smartphone. The handset carries on the design ethos of the existing HMD Global led Nokias lineup, with curved glass edges, simple geometric shape based capacitive buttons and a home button. The rear carries a dual-lens camera setup with a LED flash and focusing sensor. The device is a metallic unibody unit with curved protection glass on top.

The alleged Nokia 8 also seems to have the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top. The rear camera module also has the Zeiss branding, confirming the benefits of the deal between HMD Global and Carl Zeiss optics.

This could be the mystic HMD Global TA-1012 device that has been doing rounds of the GeekBench benchmarking website. If both the leaks are related, then the Nokia 8 could be sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and come with 4GB of RAM along with 64GB of storage.

(source)
Last month, US officials announced new security requirements for all airlines rather than an expansion of the laptop ban.

The United States is poised to ban large electronic devices such as laptops or cameras on board flights from up to a dozen Middle East nations. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: The US Transportation Security Administration said on Monday it had lifted a ban on passengers on Saudi Arabian Airlines carrying large electronics like laptops onboard US-bound flights, the last carrier under the restrictions.

In March, US officials imposed restrictions on passengers carrying laptops and other large electronic gear in cabins on nine airlines, most of which were Middle Eastern carriers, to address the potential threat of hidden explosives.

Last month, US officials announced new security requirements for all airlines rather than an expansion of the laptop ban and have been dropping the restrictions from airlines as they boosted security.

A TSA spokesman said the US government had lifted the restrictions at Saudia Arabian Airlines main hub in Jeddah at King Abdulaziz International Airport on Monday. US government officials will visit Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport later this week to confirm compliance there as well, spokesman James Gregory said.

On Thursday, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a revised directive to airlines around the world in response to requests that it clarify aviation security measures scheduled to begin taking effect later this week.

An airline official briefed on the matter said the directive gave airlines more flexibility and additional time to obtain explosive trace detection equipment. The official was not authorized to discuss sensitive security issues with the media and requested anonymity.
Under the terms of the 2-year-old agreement, Tehran scaled back production of nuke-making material in return for massive sanctions relief.

The Trump administration faced a new congressional deadline Monday to say whether Iran has curbed its nuclear weapons program in line with the accord. (Photo: File)

Washington: Donald Trump backed away from a campaign promise to scrap a major nuclear security deal with Iran Tuesday, with officials announcing the agreement and related sanctions relief will stay in place for now.

Under the terms of the two-year-old agreement, Tehran scaled back production of nuke-making material in return for massive sanctions relief.

The Trump administration faced a new congressional deadline Monday to say whether Iran has curbed its nuclear weapons program in line with the accord.

"The conditions," according to one official who the White House would not name publicly, "have been met, based on information available to the United States."

The 2015 agreement rests on a series of technical benchmarks, and was seen in Washington as a way of avoiding military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuke.

But it has not relieved tensions between Tehran and Washington, which continue to clash particularly over conflicts in the Middle East like Syria and Yemen, where Iran-backed militias hold clout.

During his election campaign Trump denounced the Obama-era deal, promising to renegotiate it and vowing to get tough on Iran.

Trump has now twice affirmed Iran's compliance since taking office effectively keeping the deal in place. But the White House took pains to stress it was not going soft on Iran, pointing to new non-nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of the deal.

An official added: "we do expect that we will be implementing new sanctions that pertain to Iran's ballistic missile program and fast boat program."

"Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to US interests and regional stability," the official said. A steely view of Iran binds Trump's national security team, which at times appear to have little else in common.

Many in Trump's cabinet tangled with Iran-backed militias during the US occupation of Iraq. Ex-Marines like Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also keenly remember Iran-backed Hezbollah's attack on the corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983.

Top among the list of concerns today are improved Iranian missile capabilities, support for the Syrian government, human rights abuses and the detention of Americans.

Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese-American researcher at Princeton University, was recently sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison.

"The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the (agreement), which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security," one official said.

"As a result the president and the secretary of state and the entire administration judged that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the accord, the official added.

For its part, Iran's complains of non-US compliance, accusing the US administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.
Courtesy of NYC Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer's office(NEW YORK) -- The nation's first Girl Scouts troop dedicated to serving homeless girls and women is getting a huge boost.



Girl Scouts Troop 6000 in New York City will expand from about two dozen girls at one shelter to serve at least 500 in approximately 15 shelters across the city.



Girl Scouts of Greater New York will lead the expansion with an investment of more than $1 million over the next three years from the Mayors Fund to Advance NYC and the city's Department of Homeless Services.



Barbara Murphy-Warrington, CEO of Girls Scouts of Greater New York, noted in a statement that the troop benefits both its girl members and the women in shelters who become troop leaders.



We know Girl Scouting prepares girls to lead and gives them the skills and confidence they need to relentlessly pursue their goals," Murphy-Warrington said. "We also know that adult troop leaders benefit personally and professionally. We can think of no greater calling as an organization than to provide our tried and tested programs to girls and women living in homeless shelters."



New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the troop for homeless girls, which formed earlier this year, "stole the hearts of New Yorkers and garnered support from people around the country."



"We are proud to expand and support Troop 6000, allowing more young homeless children to participate in a program that is helping them cope and deal with the challenges they face every day," he said in a statement.



The initiative was started by Giselle Burgess, a homeless woman who serves as a community engagement specialist for Girl Scouts of Greater New York.



She began the troop out of a Sleep Inn in Long Island City, Queens, an operating 10-floor hotel that services 100 homeless families. Troop 6000's members range from kindergarten children to high school students, Meridith Maskara, the organization's chief operating officer, told ABC News.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A maximum of 33,000 H-2B visas are available during the 1st half of the fiscal year, and H-2B visas starting April 1 through September 30.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on March 13 this year received sufficient H-2B petitions to meet the full FY 2017 statutory cap of 66,000. (Photo: File)

Washington: The US government has announced an increase of 15,000 additional visas for temporary non-agricultural workers under the H-2B program for this fiscal year.

According to the Departments of Homeland Security, to qualify for the additional visas, petitioners must attest, under penalty of perjury, that their business is likely to suffer irreparable harm if it cannot employ H-2B non immigrant workers during fiscal year (FY) 2017.

After consulting with Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly determined there are not enough qualified and willing US workers available to perform temporary nonagricultural labor to satisfy the needs of some American businesses in FY 2017.

The development comes as US President Donald Trump has declared this week as "Made In America" week and vowed to stand up for the US workers.

"Congress gave me the discretionary authority to provide temporary relief to American businesses at risk of significant harm due to a lack of available seasonal workers," said DHS Secretary John Kelly. "As a demonstration of the Administration's commitment to supporting American businesses, DHS is providing this one-time increase to the congressionally set annual cap."

The H-2B Temporary Non agricultural Worker program was designed to serve US businesses unable to find a sufficient number of qualified US workers to perform non agricultural work of a temporary nature.

Congress set the annual H-2B cap at 66,000. A maximum of 33,000 H-2B visas are available during the first half of the fiscal year, and the remainder, including any unused H-2B visas, is available starting April 1 through September 30.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on March 13 this year received sufficient H-2B petitions to meet the full FY 2017 statutory cap of 66,000.

In May, Congress delegated its authority to the Secretary to increase the number of temporary nonagricultural work visas available to US. employers through September 30. The Secretary took the intervening time to consult with the Secretary of Labor on the issue and to properly develop this rule in accordance with Congressional requirements.

Starting this week, eligible petitioners for H-2B visas can file Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and must submit a supplemental attestation on Form ETA 9142-B-CAA with their petition. A new tip line to report general H-2B abuse and employer violations has also been established.

Meanwhile, in a strong declaration during a 'Made in America Week' event, President Donald Trump asserted that the United States needs to crack down on the predatory online sale of foreign goods that are destroying shopping centers throughout the United States.

Promising to stand up for American companies and their employees, Trump issued a warning that the US would take retaliatory action against "unfair trade practices" by other nations, reports CNN.

"We have countries that charge us 100% tax on a product. And when that product is sold by them to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing. People say, 'Oh that's free trade.' No, that's stupid trade. That's really stupid trade. It's incredible," the President said.

Further noting that US stores have been closing at record numbers because of the online sales, Trump asserted that the industry must be protected for the sake of the US national security.

"We must also fight the unfair trade practices that have gutted out industry and that includes cracking down on the predatory online sales of foreign goods. It's absolutely killing our shoppers and our shopping centers," he said.

The Trump administration on Monday kicked off a three-week Made in America campaign to promote US-made products and encourage US businesses to hire more Americans.
China protested when a US Air Force Bomber flew over South China Sea ahead of the meeting between the Trump and Xi Jinping at G-20 Summit.

Washington: The Pentagon urged countries to exercise restraint in East and South China Sea and avoid indulging in provocative behaviour.

"We would continue to urge everybody in that area, in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, to exercise restraint and not do things that are provocative and to respect each other's sovereignty in their operations," Pentagon Spokesman Navy Capt Jeff Davis told reporters during an off-camera news conference.

Capt. Davis was responding to questions on Chinese H-6 bombers flying over the Bashi Channel and the Miyako Strait several times over the past week. The Chinese Defense Ministry further told Japan that they should "get used to it".

"China's air force over the past week conducted multiple drills far out at sea, with H-6K bombers and many other types of aircraft flying through the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait, testing actual battle capabilities over the sea," Chinese Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke was quoted as saying by the state-run CGTN website.

Japan scrambled fighters in response, the Japanese media reported. "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," China Defense Department spokesman Ren Guoqiang said. "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," he had said.

However, China had protested when a US Air Force Bomber flew over the South China Sea ahead of the meeting between the US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Nearly 7.2 million Venezuelans  out of 19 million possible voters cast ballots in the symbolic poll against Maduro.

Venezuelan lawmaker and President of National Assembly, Julio Borges, center, speaks after the announcement of results of a symbolic referendum in Caracas, Venezuela. (Photo: AP)

Caracas: Venezuelas Opposition, encouraged by a massive turnout in a symbolic vote against President Nicolas Maduro, weighed a new strategy on Monday to intensify protests and stop his plan to rewrite the Constitution.

The Opposition coalition Democratic Unity Table now wants to outline its final offensive in its goal to oust Mr Maduro, after nearly four months of protests that left 96 dead.

Nearly 7.2 million Venezuelans  out of 19 million possible voters cast ballots in the symbolic poll against Mr Maduro, university guarantors said with 95 per cent of votes counted.

The result may not have been binding, but Venezuela sent a clear message to the national executive and the world, announced Central University of Venezuela president Cecilia Garcia Arocha, noting that 6,492,381 voted in the country and 693,789 abroad. Mr Garcia said final results would be released Monday.

We do not want to be Cuba, we do not want to be a country without freedom, said Julio Borges, leader of the Opposition-controlled Parliament.

"Today, Venezuela said yes to a dignified country, a democratic country, a country where people do not have to go because they have no future. The mandate the people have given us is clear."

Political scientist John Magdaleno said the referendum was a success because it was organized largely by ordinary citizens in a short period of time, and with just 2,000 polling stations, compared to 14,000 during the last elections, in 2015, that saw the opposition sweep parliament.

According to Borges, once all ballots are counted, there will be some 7.5 million votes in the latest poll, which he said would be sufficient to overturn Maduro's mandate if there was a referendum.

The central question before voters concerned Maduro's intention to hold an election on July 30 to choose 545 members of a citizens' body called the "Constituent Assembly" that would redo the constitution.

A dry run of that election was also held Sunday, to detract from the opposition vote which the government branded "illegal."

The ruling party questioned the results in advance, noting that the process is not binding and is "illegal" because it lacks the endorsement of the National Electoral Council (CNE) -- which the opposition accuses of supporting the government.

- Government 'is falling' -

Civil groups, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the United States and several governments in Latin America and Europe backed the anti-Maduro vote.

The electoral process was attended by a group of former Latin American presidents, including Mexico's Vicente Fox, who was declared "persona non grata" by the government.

The Mexican government, critical of Maduro, called for the results of the opposition consultation to lead to a "negotiated solution" to help "restore" democracy.

Ordinary Venezuelans blaming food and medicine shortages on Maduro's policies seized on the vote as a way of telling the president to leave office.

People took to Caracas' streets after the vote shouting "this government is falling" as motorists honked their horns in celebration.

During balloting, 49-year-old voter Tibisay Mendez told AFP that Maduro and his officials "only want to hold on to power. We are voting to get them out."

Many wore white and the colors of the national flag as they cast their votes. Government supporters -- and public workers worried about keeping their jobs -- stayed away. Several Latin American countries and the Catholic Church have criticized Maduro's move to redraft the constitution.
Saudi Arabia and Iran compete for influence in the Middle East, also supporting rival groups in Syria's civil war.

Earlier this year Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5. (Photo:

New York: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that he hopes Yemen's war will not spark direct confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia and that they can work together to end the conflict in the country and Syria.

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015, backing government forces fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia and Iran compete for influence in the Middle East, also supporting rival groups in Syria's civil war.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in May that any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and revolutionary Shi'ite theocracy Iran ought to take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia."

When asked at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York if he was worried about direct confrontation between Tehran and Riyadh, Zarif said: "We certainly hope not; We don't have to fight; we don't need to fight. We don't need to try to exclude each other from the scene in the Middle East."

"We certainly hope that if we don't agree with each other about the situation in Yemen or about the situation in Syria we can still work with each other in order to bring those situations to an end," said Zarif, who was in New York for a high-level UN meeting on sustainable development.

Earlier this year Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing Islamist militant groups and allying with Iran allegations Qatar denies.

"Iran is a serious partner for all these countries in fighting a common enemy because we believe at the end of the day these extremist forces are as much a threat against us, but even more a threat against them," Zarif said.

Zarif said that there was no communication between himself and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but that "doesn't mean there can't be." He said Iranian officials had regular contact with US officials regarding a 2015 deal between Tehran and key world powers to curb its nuclear programme.

He said Iran was not designing missiles to carry nuclear warheads, which is banned under the nuclear deal, and that the country's missiles were only for self defence.

"We need them to make sure that another Saddam Hussein around the corner will not come and hit us again," he said.
Granting permission to private television channels to screen Indian teleplays, the Lahore declared PEMRA's ban as null and void.

A ban on telecast of Indian teleplays, imposed by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), was lifted by the Lahore Court on Tuesday. (Representational Image)

Lahore (Pakistan): A ban on telecast of Indian teleplays, imposed by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), was lifted by the Lahore Court on Tuesday.

Granting the permission to private television channels to screen Indian teleplays, the Lahore declared PEMRA's ban as null and void given that the federal government had no objections regarding the same.

A notification was issued by PEMRA imposing a blanket ban on all Indian content on October 19, 2016 after relations between Islamabad and New Delhi deteriorated following cross border terror attacks by Pakistan based terrorists on Indian soil.

The petition, filed by Leo Communication, challenged the PEMRA notification as being beyond the powers of the regulatory body and the Constitution and sought to overturn the ban as it had not been imposed by the Government of Pakistan.

The plea claimed that the government was indulging in 'selective patriotism,' as though Indian movies were allowed to be screened all over the country, they could not be aired on television, the Dawn reported.

According to the report, PEMRA's ban on the airing of Indian films was lifted in February 2017 but permission to air tele-soaps or television dramas was not granted.

The petitioner's counsel Asma Jehangir claimed that the ban had been imposed since India had imposed similar restrictions on all Pakistani content.

The court questioned as to why PEMRA was making the airing of Indian content an issue when the federal government had no objections to it.

LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that Indian content, which are objectionable or anti-Pakistan, could be censored but there is no need for a complete ban.
The three member implementation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan is hearing the case.

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday filed objections over a report submitted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Panama Papers issue in the Supreme Court.

The 10-page document submitted by the premier accused JIT of probing Panama Papers case by violating its mandate.

JITs biased report should be rejected, Nawaz Sharif appealed the apex court. He has also sought volume 10 of the report which was kept confidential on JITs request.

Finance minister Ishaq Dar also submitted objections over Panama JIT report in SC registrars office. Earlier, the Supreme Court resumed hearing of Panama Papers case. The three member implementation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan is hearing the case.

The six-member JIT, set up by the apex court to investigate charges of money laundering against Mr Sharif, submitted its 60-day investigation report to the court on July 10. The JIT found significant disparities in Mr Sharif familys income and actual wealth. Later, the opposition parties said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was no more truthful and honest and the Supreme Court will decide the fate of the country.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the whole nation was looking towards the SC, and it was a very important day in the countrys history.

Mr Qureshi said the future of Pakistan was linked with the direction of this case, and the history has given a big responsibility to the honorable judges of Supreme Court along with the politicians. He prayed for victory, and to put the country on right path by keeping personal interests aside. He prayed for Pakistan to get rid of the clutches of corruption. He added that members of PML-N themselves were now asking Nawaz Sharif to step down.

Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed bashed the government and said it wants to delay the proceedings, and to take the country towards civil war.

Mr Ahmed said the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was continually blaming the JIT, and if it does not stop then I will request the apex court to summon Nawaz Sharif and let me argue.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sirajul Haq said the case was moving in right direction in the court. He added that the counsels of the government were fighting this case on political grounds instead of giving technical arguments according to the law.

The rulers want to portray themselves as the oppressed and are looking for political martyrdom, he remarked. Mr Haq said that the ruling family and Nawaz Sharif had become ineligible under the Articles 62, 63 who used the floor of the parliament for his business purposes.
The visiting minister held meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss issues revolving around the regional situation.

Islamabad: Qatars foreign minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrehman Al-Thani was in Pakistan on a day-long visit to discuss Saudi Arabia-Qatar tensions and regional security, officials said Tuesday.

The visiting minister held meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss issues revolving around the regional situation.

The dignitary engaged in discourse regarding the Saudi-led military alliance whose leadership was handed over to Raheel Sharif (former Pakistan army chief), said an official.

His visit comes weeks after Middle Eastern countries - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties last month with Qatar - accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Saudi Arabia had demanded from Pakistan officials to take a clear position on Qatar.
Fitted with a pacemaker, Steve Gibbs wants to raise 6000 pounds for Leicestershire-based Healing Little Hearts by riding his autorickshaw.

Steve Gibbs will return to the town on August 6 after covering nearly 4,828 kms. (Photo: Representational/File)

London: A 77-year-old British man, who wears a pacemaker, has embarked on an over 4,800 kilometre autorickshaw journey around the UK to raise money for an Indian charity that treats children with heart ailments in India and other Asian and African countries.

Steve Gibbs set off on the tour from the town of Wigston in Leicestershire on Monday. He will return to the town on August 6 after covering nearly 4,828 kms. He is raising money for the Healing Little Hearts charity.

His aim is to raise enough funds for at least one Healing Little Hearts camp, which operates on approximately 12-15 children during a one-week tour.

Sanjiv Nichani, who works as a consultant at Leicester Childrens Hospital, praised Gibbs' efforts to ride his Indian auto-rickshaw around the UK on a three-week-long journey to raise around 6,000 pounds for the Healing Little Hearts charity.

"It is incredible that Steve, who has a pacemaker fitted, would set off on this journey to raise funds for the charity," said Nichani. The charity, set up in 2007 by the Mumbai-origin doctor, was born as an urge to "give something back" to the country of his birth and fix the "hole in little hearts", among other heart conditions suffered by children whose families are not be able to afford expensive surgeries.

Healing Little Hearts has since hosted camps in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Raipur, Srinagar, Puducherry and Vellore, besides cities in Africa and Malaysia.
It also urged China to take further countermeasures along the 3,500-kilometer border and said.

Chinese media stated the standoff as a competition of military strength, as well as a competition of overall economic strength (Photo: PTI)

Beijing: As the standoff between India and China over Doklam region in continues, Chinese media has said that New Delhi has poisoned the atmosphere for negotiations and this is likely to trigger all-out confrontation along Line of Actual Control (LAC).

China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard its sovereignty and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation, a Chinese state-run daily Global Times said in an editorial.

The Chinese daily further claimed that India triggered the Sikkim standoff as it was worried about Chinas growth. One important reason that prompted India triggering the border dispute this time is its worry over China's development in recent years, it said.

New Delhi is deeply concerned with China's rapid rise and the provocation at the border reflects India's worry and attempt to sound out China, it added.

In the editorial, the daily also warned India to be ready to face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC if it stirs up conflicts in several spots.

It also urged China to take further countermeasures along the 3,500-kilometer border and said.

Responding to the Indian media reports of India deploying its troops at the border area with logistical support, Chinese daily said that China must continue strengthening border construction by deploying more troops in the Doklam area.

On Monday, state-run China Central Television reported that Chinese troops held advance military exercise near border area near Arunachal Pradesh. Anti-tank missiles, artilleries and tank were deployed during the 11-hour long drill.

Chinese media stated the standoff as a competition of military strength, as well as a competition of overall economic strength and called India's action this time is a blatant infringement on China's sovereignty.
The testimony of the great nonviolent dissident is the highest contribution to humanity in the last (sterile) 500 years of Chinese history. A priest from North China offers an elegy in memory of Liu (and his wife).

Beijing (AsiaNews) - "The day will come when Liu Xiaobo's name will light a torch and enlighten this earth." This is the conclusion of the elegy we publish today, written by a priest in northern China, in memory of the great dissident who was left to die of cancer and condemned for "subverting state power" only because he called for non-violent social, political and religious reforms in the Chinese society. Faced with the regimes reckless and violent all-powerfulness, Liu Xiaobos testimony shines as the greatest "contribution to humanity" in the last "500 years" of Chinese history.

There is nothing left,

Except the numbers

Related to your life:

55,

64,

89

08,

17

713,

61[1].

In the end, you left words of love,

I'm not afraid of death.

She already trembles for life,

So let her go

And let me die.

The wall is high

And the lark cannot fly over it,

It can only chirp.

To complete the remembrance:

On the evening of July 13th, after the celebration of Mass, I unexpectedly urged the faithful to sing the song "The Repose of the Souls". When I got back home, I heard about your death. I did not think that singing 'The Repose of souls' was for you. Although we do not sing well, we sincerely hope for you to achieve eternal rest.

On July 6, a picture of a sick Liu and his wife pictured Look, two figures who are suffering!" Someone asked without reflecting: Two blind people? What are they doing? Who are they? How are they? In China, too many people do not recognize you. But in fact, except for your name, how much do I know about you?

Certainly, great souls accompany the endless sufferings of life.

Some say that for the past 500 years China has not given any contribution to humanity.

Today, China has offered to the world a man, a person whose name can be included in the history of human civilization.

Tonight, that name enlightens the darkness of the human heart. We fear it might be only for a moment. But I believe the day will come when this name will light a torch and enlighten this earth!

[1] The "numbers" mentioned in the poem are the main dates in Liu Xiaobo's life: 1955, his birth; 64 and 89, June 4, 1989, the date of the Tiananmen massacre; 08, is 2008, the year of his arrest, but also the document that led to his arrest for "subversion", Charter '08; 17 and 713, the date of his death: 13 July 2017; 61, the years he lived.
Benedict XVI launched the account 3 December 2012. Available in nine languages, it is one the most followed in the world with the most retweets. In recent weeks, the popes thoughts about Charlie Gard and very sick children was extensively retweeted.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Franciss twitter account @Pontifex has reached 35 million.

Launched by Benedict XVI on 3 December 2012, the account is available in nine languages and is among the most followed, with the most retweets.

The pope's account has been growing steadily over the past month, especially in English, which has 11 million followers, second only to Spanish, which has 13 million.

One of those most retweeted thoughts in the past few weeks is that of 30 June  "To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all  which refers to Charlie Gard and the children who have serious illnesses.

Another one that was retweeted a lot is about migrants, posted on 8 July on the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis's visit to the island of Lampedusa, Italy.

Pope Francis is also present on Instagram at @Franciscus, which recently topped 4 million followers.
The Chinese president said that foreign firms should be able to benefit from the same treatment as Chinese companies. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xi stood as a defender of free trade and globalisation against Donald Trump's protectionism, but foreign companies operating in China complain of obstacles they face to do business in that country.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for more imports and foreign investment during speech to delegates to a committee on financial and economic affairs.

Xi called for "expanding imports while stabilising exports", the China Daily said. He also urged measures to liberalise trade and simplify import procedures while reducing tariffs on certain consumer products.

Beijing announced a US$ 42.7 billion trade surplus in June. Imports increased 17.2per cent whilst exports rose 11.3per cent on an annual basis.

The large US trade deficit with China was a major issue for Trump during last year's presidential campaign, when he claimed Beijing had "stolen" millions of jobs from Americans.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the start of the year, the Chinese president stood out as a defender of free trade and globalisation in the face of Trump's protectionist rhetoric.

However, foreign firms in China have long pointed out the obstacles to doing business in the country.

Now for Xi, "national treatment in laws and policies should be granted to foreign-funded companies after they enter the market.
Morning News Brief For July 18, 2017

Morning Minute: Healthcare Is Dead, And So Is Ed Sheeran's Twitter Account

As you start your day, it can be overwhelming to try to make sense of everything you missed while you were getting on with your life. Morning Minute is here to bring you the news you need to know to start your day, all broken down into tidbits you can consume before you finish your morning constitution. Here are this morning's headlines.

Senate Healthcare Bill Is Dead (For Now)

Two more Republican senators, Mike Lee and Jerry Moran, announced last night that they would oppose the current iteration of the Senate bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That leaves Republicans with just 48 votes, not enough to get it done. The President is mad.

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

Everyone knows that "a few" means three, Don, not four. No one really knows for sure, but political analysts seem fairly certain that a bill to simply repeal without a replacement wouldn't go anywhere either. [Washington Post]

Ed Sheeran Is Not In Love With The Shape Of Twitter

After having a very stupid cameo in the premiere of Game of Thrones that no one found funny or charming, Ed Sheeran has deleted his twitter. Account. He said earlier in July that he didn't like logging on anyway because people were too mean. No really, that's it. [People]

Apple Devices Getting New Emojis

A bunch of new emojis, ranging from the diverse and inclusive to the whimsical, are no available on Apple devices. Woo hoo? [PCMag]

Walmart Apologizes for Product Listing With Racial Slur

So, here's a fun thing that was happening on Walmart's website:

The company apologized and promptly removed the product listing, but no one's sure how it happened. Walmart said they would investigate the vendor, but Jagazi (the manufacturer named in the listing) said they would never do such a thing either. [Fortune]

Elon Musk Fears Machines Could Rule The World From The Shadows

Elon Musk spoke at a conference for governors last week, and it was not a rosy pump-up speech. Mostly, he's afraid the AI will make humans obsolete a lot faster and more completely than anyone else thinks possible. He wants regulation on AI now, before it's too late. [Geek.com]

Former USC Medical Dean Led Sex, Drug-Fueled Double Life

It got buried with all the R. Kelly sex cult stuff yesterday, but the Los Angeles Times has a fascinating expose on Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, former dean of USC's Keck Medical school. He apparently liked drugs and sex with younger women. Same. [L.A. Times]

Saudi Arabia Collectively Freaks Over Woman In A Skirt

Snapchat user Khulood is in hot water after she posted a video of herself wearing a skirt and crop top in one of Saudi Arabia's (already an incredibly conservative country) most conservative provinces. The country's religious police (because that's a thing that exists there) are looking into it, and many have called for her arrest. On the flip side, others point out that since Melania and Ivanka Trump visited the country dressed similarly without repercussions, the outrage is a bit hypocritical. [Washington Post]
Danny Morrison: We need to stand up to our own fears about our community
Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian. He can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter @RoldyPierce
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Already home to an Amazon fulfillment warehouse, Polk County will soon add a Walmart eCommerce fulfillment center.

New Walmart eCommerce fulfillment center in Davenport

600 full time jobs, 1,000 seasonal positions at 50-acre facility

Walmart distribution center careers

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The new facility will house millions of items dedicated to fulfilling online orders and will enable faster shipping directly to customers or to stores for free pickup.

Walmart calls the facility its latest addition to the next-generation fulfillment network to support its rapidly growing e-commerce business.

Gov. Rick Scott was on hand today to open the newest warehouse, which is located near the Interstate 4, Highway 27 intersection in the Davenport area.

The 50-acre campus, located near the intersection of I-4 and Highway 27 in Polk County, features two buildings spanning a total of more than 2.2 million sq. ft.



The campus employs more than 550 recently hired associates and there are plans to hire at least 1,000 more associates over the next year. These associates would join the more than 107,000 in the state currently working at Walmarts stores, clubs and distribution centers.

"I was proud to celebrate the grand opening of Walmarts new e-commerce fulfillment center which is helping to create 1,500 jobs for Florida families," Gov. Scott said. "Walmart could have chosen to open this new fulfillment center in any location, yet they know that Florida is the best place for them to grow their business and create new jobs. By cutting taxes and creating the new $85 million Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, we will create even more opportunities for Florida families."

Polk Commissioner Todd Datzler, also a member of the Polk Economic Development Counsel, stressed the county worked hard to get the facility built in Polk County, offering tax abatement incentives and expediting the approval process to get the center up and running quickly.

"It's a big deal for all of Polk County," said Polk Co. Commissioner Todd Dantzler. "The northeast part of the county is our fastest growing population wise and the crossroads of 27 and I-4 that connects Daytona to Tampa and 27 connects Miami all the way to Tallahassee

"So it's a great distribution site and we couldn't be happier that theyre here."

With more than 600 permanent, full-time jobs and more than 1,000 seasonal positions, Dantzler said the benefits to the area are plentiful.

"The jobs for one, the economic investment is another," he said. "And it just helps reconfirm the idea that Polk County is an incredible distribution hub in the state of Florida."

Scott said the center is the result of creating a business-friendly environment in the state and added that more businesses are choosing Florida as a place to create and grow new jobs.
Structural integrity and water testing remain the key concerns Tuesday in the aftermath of a large sinkhole that has swallowed homes in Land O' Lakes.

The neighborhood did receive good news Tuesday afternoon when officials confirmed that 20 wells tested showed no signs of E.coli. The county continues to work with the Florida Department of Health on all well testing.

The health department is encouraging residents to use bottled water if within 500 feet of the sinkhole until drinking water is fully tested.



During a news conference Tuesday morning, Pasco County officials described the process taking place regarding the continued testing on the water in the community and the stability of the land itself.

Kevin Guthrie, Pasco's Assistant County Administrator for Public Safety, said recovery from the sinkhole will likely take two to three months as engineers, public health officials and construction crews all align their efforts.



Guthrie said the water levels in the hole, which is no longer growing, have dropped by about five feet.

"There will be more surveying," Guthrie said of Tuesday's activity at the site of the 225-foot wide hole that is about 50 feet deep. "We will be checking easements where homeowner's property lines start and stop.

"From there, there will be checks for the structural integrity of the roadway and the easements, he said."

In addition to the structural soundness, water testing is expected to continue.

Pasco County's utility division has been conducting tests but the Florida Department of Health will now do its own testing. The department of health will be testing area wells for volatile organic compounds, including nitrates, primary metals and arsenic.

"We're not sure of the (health) effects a sinkhole can cause," said Mike Napier, the Florida Department of Health/Director of Pasco County. "We just know there is the possibility for health effects. We're trying to gather that information."

Also, Duke Energy crews are expected on site to begin bringing down overhead wires in preparation of clean up work.

As far as the hole itself, engineers are still determining the best approach, Guthrie said.

"My goal is to have (the stuff) taken out," he said, adding that the environmental aspects of repairing the hole is why tests are necessary. "We err on the side of caution when doing these extra tests.

"And recovery will take weeks if not months."
St. Petersburg Police officers arrested a suspect in a homicide discovered earlier in the day July 18.

Joshua Thompson, 27, arrested without incident



Woman found dead Tuesday morning

Victim identified as Melinda Soria, 35



According to authorities, Joshua Thompson, 27, was arrested in the 4500 block of 19th Avenue South in St. Petersburg Tuesday evening. Police took him into custody without incident.

Thompson was charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Melinda Soria, 35, who was found dead at 1100 James Ave South Tuesday just after 8 a.m. Tuesday.



Police said Soria was shot just outside of her home.

Bay News 9's Sara Belsole said officers evacuated a home on 40th Avenue South and 8th Street South during the search for the shooter. Police said the incident is domestic related.


Michael Walsh, CFO of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Dominican Hospital, a Dignity Health Hospital, spoke with Becker's ASC Review about the evolving partnership between ASCs and hospitals as well as how hospitals can drive volume to surgery centers.

Note: The following responses were slightly edited for style and clarity.

Question: How is the relationship between ASCs and hospitals changing?

Michael Walsh: With the reimbursement methodologies changing and the continued escalation of salary cost for hospital employees, the need to have a lower cost solution is imperative. Plus, the decline in the [remaining number of] independent physicians makes ASCs more of an important strategy for hospital ownership.



Q: What differentiates a successful ASC-hospital partnership from an unsuccessful one?

MW: Historically hospital ownership was viewed as a capital investor and not one that brings the volume into the center. This trend has changed now with hospitals owning medical groups. In fact, hospitals should also be credited when they recruit new independent physicians into the market. Without the relocation package that the hospital offers, there would be less volume going to the ASC.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals agreed to sell its Obagi Medical Products skin care business for $190 million to Haitong International Zhonghua Finance Acquisition Fund I.

Here's what you should know:

1. Valeant will use the proceeds of the sale to repay debt under its senior secured credit facility.

2. The transaction could close in the second half of 2017.

3. Valeant estimated Obagi would've made $85 million in 2017 full-year revenue.

4. Valeant CEO Joseph C. Papa said in a release, "The sale of Obagi marks additional progress in our efforts to streamline our operations and reduce debt. As we continue to transform Valeant, we will remain focused on the core businesses that will drive high value for our shareholders."
Burlington, Mass.-based Arcadia Healthcare Solutions, a provider of EHR data aggregation and analytics, appointed Karl Stubelis CFO.

Here are four things to know about Mr. Stubelis.

1. He has more than two decades of experience in financial and operational executive leadership positions across health IT and other industries.

2. Before joining Arcadia, Mr. Stubelis was CFO of EHR vendor athenahealth.

3. He also previously served as vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer at SapientNitro, a division of Boston-based marketing and consulting firm Sapient. Last year, SapientNitro and Razorfish merged to form SapientRazorfish.

4. Mr. Stubelis joins Arcadia about six months after the company received $30 million in capital growth investments from new investors Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and GE Ventures, and existing investors Peloton Equity, Zaffre Investments and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners.

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There have been 791 data breaches tracked in the first half of the year, a record high, according to an Identity Theft Resource Center report obtained by Becker's.

For the report, ITRC gathered and analyzed data breach information from public notices in the U.S. The report, sponsored by CyberScout, comprises five industries: financial, health/medical, government/military, education and business.

Here are six things to know.

1. The health/medical industry experienced 179 breaches in the first half of the year, accounting for 22.6 percent of all U.S. data breaches.

2. The leading cause of data breaches across all industries was hacking (63 percent), including phishing and malware. Phishing attacks (47.7 percent) were more prevalent than malware attacks (18.6 percent).

3. ITRC estimates 12.4 million people have had their information exposed in the first half of 2017, the majority (38.8 percent) of which occurred in Kansas.

4. California experienced the most data breaches (110) in the first half of 2017.

5. Sixty percent of this year's data breaches have exposed Social Security numbers.

6. The ITRC predicts the number of breaches reported in 2017 could reach 1,500, a 37 percent annual increase over 2016, which saw a record 1,093 breaches.

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The University of Chicago Medicine and Google have joined forces to research how well historical data housed in EHRs can predict future medical events.

In recent years, researchers have proposed analyzing clinical information to identify which patient risk factors are associated with adverse outcomes. The analysis would inform early intervention for a range of issues, such as unplanned hospital readmissions, a problem that costs the U.S. as much as $17 billion each year.

The UChicago Medicine Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation was founded in 2016 to research healthcare operational challenges. Today, the center is leading the university's collaboration with Google.

Michael Howell, MD, the center's director and a practicing intensivist, says his experiences in the intensive care unit sparked his interest in patient risk factors and predictive models.

"I've always felt like the patients get to us too late," he explains. "That's why I've devoted a large portion of my career to predictive modeling. I think prediction is the cornerstone of prevention. Unless you can tell something is coming, it's very hard to avoid it."

Challenges in predictive analytics

Healthcare data is notoriously difficult to model. As a patient moves through the healthcare system, they might accumulate an "electronic footprint" with hundreds of data points, according to Dr. Howell. And while this abundance of information excites researchers, it poses its own set of challenges.

"I've been doing risk-factor predictive modeling in healthcare for more than 15 years, and one of the things that's always been really frustrating to me is we can't use the majority of the electronic health record for prediction," Dr. Howell says.

Traditional epidemiological and statistical tools  like logistic regression and multivariable modeling, for example  don't work well with datasets comprising thousands of dimensions, and traditional analytic tools can't create predictive algorithms from free-text physician notes or X-ray images.

The UChicago-Google partnership is out to squash these obstacles.

Through the collaborative project, researchers will use Google's machine learning tools to incorporate physician notes, medical images and other difficult-to-standardize data into predictive models. "The main focus of the research project is to see whether we can use the whole electronic health record, rather than just the discrete data, for prediction," Dr. Howell explains.

Streamlining data analysis with AI

UChicago Medicine is the latest institution to join Google's research on predictive models in healthcare, following UC San Francisco and Stanford University in California. Google's goal is to partner with "world-class medical researchers and bioinformaticians" to explore the role machine learning might play in improving patient outcomes, according to a Google blog post.

"Machine learning is mature enough to start accurately predicting medical events," Google researcher Katherine Chou wrote May 17, commenting on how the approach to artificial intelligence can help providers unlock the full potential of EHR data. "We believe clinical breakthroughs using machine learning will come only when the medical community and deep learning experts collaborate closely."

For Dr. Howell, applying machine learning to data analysis represents a fundamental shift in the field.

"It's amazingly gratifying to see how, in the course of my career, healthcare moved from a place where a fundamental problem was data scarcity to a place where a fundamental problem is the logistical and statistical challenges of dealing with a lot of data," he says. "It's exciting to see how machine learning can deal with the kinds of data that healthcare now generates routinely."

Next steps for UChicago Medicine

Dr. Howell's goal for the research project is to publish a peer-reviewed paper investigating how machine-learning techniques compare to traditional predictive models. "There's a huge amount of hype around predictive modeling today, and I think there's some real potential benefit there," he says. "But we have to prove that with all of the rigor you would expect of any clinical research."

The first step is to connect researchers with a large-scale clinical dataset, which will serve as the base for the predictive models. To access this type of standardized, de-identified patient data, Dr. Howell and Google are collaborating with the UChicago Center for Research Informatics, which provides computational research support to the school's biological sciences division.

The center's clinical data warehouse is of particular interest to the research collaborators, according to Sam Volchenboum, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Research Informatics. He describes the warehouse as a "research compendium" of UChicago medical data, which researchers use for clinical investigations.

"One of the reasons I think Google wanted to work with us, in particular, is we've taken a very rigorous approach to our data warehouse that is not necessarily the norm," he explains. "We've been able to take our clinical data and standardize it and clean it up in a way that makes it much more easy to analyze and to perform this type of machine learning."

After developing their predictive models, the researchers  like all teams working on data-driven efforts  will also have to validate their findings, to ensure algorithms based off one sample of patients are applicable to larger populations.

Dr. Volchenboum highlights the research collaborators must be both "cautious and optimistic."

"It's attractive to think we can try to understand what factors are likely to make a patient, say, more likely to have nausea and vomiting at home after chemotherapy," he explains. "But, at the same time, you have to be careful when you make those predictions, and realize that you're training over a limited set of data."
Becker's Hospital Review reported on the following latest hospital and health system executive resignations. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

1. A little over a year into his tenure, Rock Hill, S.C.-based Piedmont Medical Center CEO Brad Talbert is leaving for a new job at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.

2. The Rocky Mount, N.C.-based Nash UNC Health Care board of commissioners asked Larry Chewning to step down from his position as president and CEO.

3. Grand Coulee, Wash.-based Coulee Medical Center CEO Jonathan Owens resigned.

4. Morris County Hospital in Council Grove, Kan., announced the resignation of CEO Jim Reagan, effective Aug. 31.

5. Steven Orlow, MD, chief medical information officer for Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Lutheran Health Network, resigned.

6. Geneseo, Ill.-based Hammond-Henry Hospital CEO Jeff Lingerfelt announced his resignation, effective July 28.

7. Jenny Barnett-Sarpalius, senior vice president and CFO of the CHI Texas Division at Houston-based CHI St. Luke's Health, left her position.

8. Clayton, Ga.-based Mountain Lakes Medical Center CEO Joe Forese, MD, is resigning, effective Aug. 1.

9. Bowman, N.D.-based Southwest Healthcare Services CEO Becky Hansen resigned.

10. Houston-based CHI St. Luke's Health CEO Michael Covert submitted his resignation, effective Aug. 31.

11. Gadsden, Ala.-based Riverview Regional Medical Center CEO David Fuller stepped down.

12. Fort Wayne-based Lutheran Hospital CMO Matthew Sutter, MD, tendered his resignation after parent Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems fired Fort Wayne-based Lutheran Health Network CMO Geoff Randolph, MD, and CEO Brian Bauer.
Dayton (Ohio) VA Medical Center CEO Glenn Costie is retiring, effective Oct. 28, according to a Dayton Business Journal report.

Here are four takeaways:

1. Mr. Costie led the VA medical center since 2011.

2. During his tenure, the center redesigned and updated its main campus and saw an 11 percent increase in veterans served.

3. Mr. Costie also stepped in to help other VA hospitals navigate troubled times. He headed the Phoenix VA Medical Center from July to October 2014 in the midst of a national scandal centered on VA backlogs and long wait times.

4. He also worked at VA medical centers in Chicago, Cleveland, Connecticut, Maryland and Missouri.
iStock/Thinkstock(HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo.) -- A Chick-fil-A employee is being hailed after performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking co-worker.



Andrew Myrant was on his break in a Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Chick-fil-A location when he noticed the co-worker signaling that he had food stuck in his throat.



As seen in a video, Myrant stands up and uses the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the piece of food.



After his co-worker could breathe again, Myrant can be seen calmly sitting back down to finish his own meal.



Myrant is pretty modest about what happened.



"I mean, it makes me feel pretty awkward because I don't feel like it, but they say 'hero' a lot, and one of my managers bought me a sandwich for the other day, so that was nice," he said.



The manager of the location, south of Denver, said Myrant is a student at a local college. Myrant told Colorado media that he learned the Heimlich maneuver in high school.



The co-worker was able to return to work after the scary experience.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
"Population health management" is a frequently used term among healthcare executives, especially as the industry shifts its focus from volume of services delivered to prevention and outcomes-based care. But population health management can encompass a broad range of interpretations and initiatives, and such efforts are implemented at varying scales at different health systems across the country.

To Barry H. Ostrowsky, president and CEO of West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health, effective population health management efforts must go beyond simply taking measures to avoid unnecessary emergency department utilization or providing broad interventions for a targeted disease, though he notes these endeavors are still important. Mr. Ostrowsky says to truly manage the health of a community, health systems must identify and address the most significant social determinants of health, as factors like employment, food security, housing and education have an outsized effect on individuals' ability to achieve and sustain positive health outcomes.

Mr. Ostrowsky became president and COO of Barnabas Health in 2010 and president and CEO in 2012. He assumed his current position in April 2016 following the merger of Barnabas Health and Robert Wood Johnson Health System. RWJBarnabas Health is the most comprehensive healthcare delivery system in New Jersey, covering approximately 5 million residents, or more than half of the state's population. It is also the state's largest employer.

Under Mr. Ostrowsky's leadership, RWJBarnabas Health has launched a series of initiatives aimed at supporting the economically disadvantaged in Newark, N.J., including nutrition and employment programs, which are pilots to be introduced in other New Jersey communities. He was also a member of the American Hospital Association's Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities, where he helped the association identify issues and design solutions that can be replicated in vulnerable communities across the nation.

Here, Mr. Ostrowsky took the time to answer Becker's five questions.

Question: What is RWJBarnabas Health doing to address social determinants of health in the communities it serves?

Barry H. Ostrowsky: Our first meaningful approach began in Newark, a city that encompasses highly skilled and professional individuals but unfortunately also has a vulnerable community that suffers from chronic unemployment, poor housing and food insecurity. We chose to focus on the issue of chronic unemployment initially because helping people find jobs and training them to maintain employment can help to address many other social determinants of health. For instance, when a family has an income, they are in a better position to have safe housing, buy healthy food and are less likely to develop behavioral health challenges.

Through one program, we provide intensive job training and job opportunities. We are also investing in local companies that are typically minority owned. These companies will provide us with goods and services while increasing the opportunity to hire additional Newarkers. We are also working with our vendors to hire people from vulnerable communities and reviewing our supply chain strategy to create additional jobs in Newark. Finally, we've invested in an entrepreneurial incubator that will support new ideas and businesses, provided those businesses remain in Newark and commit to hiring Newark residents.

Q: How are you making a difference in Newark's economically disadvantaged South Ward and all of Newark?

BO: While we have many initiatives, one of the most exciting is The Beth Greenhouse, located at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Children's Hospital of New Jersey, which provides access to fresh, nutritious affordable produce to residents of the South Ward and surrounding communities. It also provides on-the-job training, internships and employment opportunities and supports health and wellness activities. We expect to replicate this greenhouse in other vulnerable communities such as Jersey City.

Q: What types of issues did you identify through your work in the American Hospital Association's Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities? How have your findings influenced initiatives at RWJBarnabas Health?

BO: I came to that task force with a bias that urban vulnerable communities are most desperate for healthcare services and programs designed to address social determinants of health. The most eye-opening message for me was how much rural vulnerable communities are suffering as well. When I heard my colleagues from around the country talk about their lives and healthcare situations, I was surprised to learn of the depth of the struggles they face.

The task force reinforced our previous notions that social determinants of health are critical, and we learned from programs around the U.S. that have begun to address them. I hope it will continue to be a growing wave of acknowledgement that we can't just make sure we have enough CT scanners or clinics open any given number of hours, but that we need to go deep into our communities to have an impact.

Q: Can hospitals run effective population health management programs without addressing social determinants of health?

BO: Absolutely not. That's a great question, and I think it's a question that should be a guiding principle if you aim to implement any form of population health management. I look at [population health] as a custodial responsibility for the people in our communities. It's not just about the services that go on in hospitals and clinics. If that's all you focus on, you miss opportunities to be successful in population health.

To have a custodial responsibility for a community means you have to talk to people about lifestyle choices. It's pretty intrusive to tell people how to eat and how often to exercise, but it is necessary. We can sit back and say we're a great hospital with terrific clinical services, and making these things available equals population health. Just focusing on optimizing care inside the hospital can no longer be our mission.

Q: What steps must all hospitals begin to take to address the non-medical factors that influence patients' health?

BO: If you're going to address population health, you have to look at the social determinants. Then you must look and think, if you're a hospital, what tools do you have at your disposal to make a difference? For us, we're a big business. We are going to use our business to create programs to address social determinants. For example, there is turnover every year. We can set aside a certain number of jobs for people in vulnerable communities. If we're buying millions of dollars worth of widgets, we think of how we can buy from minority-owned businesses in the community. How can we offer members of the community nutrition counseling in our building, as well as churches and supermarkets? I believe the way to succeed in population health is to take this anchor we call a healthcare system and change our course of business to address social determinants and create programs around them.

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Here are seven key stories on outpatient spine trends and news.

Spine procedures in ASCs: Experts talk obstacles, hospital partnerships and reimbursement

Jeffrey Simmons, chief development officer of Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health, and Pierce Nunley, MD, director of the Spine Institute of Louisiana in Shreveport, discussed spine cases in the ASC setting during a panel moderated by Bart Walker, partner with McGuireWoods. Read about their discussion here.



Trends in spine, orthopedics and ASCs over the next 5 years

Orthopedic and spine surgeons around the country are beginning to perform outpatient procedures, including total joints and spinal fusions, and providers can perform many of these procedures in an ASC. Read the discussion here.

Hospital-ASC joint ventures for spine and orthopedics: An evolving relationship

Various forces in the industry  each with their own challenges  are pushing hospitals and spine- and orthopedics-focused ASCs together, but such relationships can be a win for all parties involved. Kevin Fleming, vice president of musculoskeletal clinical portfolio for Providence Health & Services in Renton, Wash.; Don Phalen, vice president of business development with Regent Surgical Health; Jeffrey Peo, chief development officer with Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America; and Deepak Chavda, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Texas Bone & Joint Center in North Richland Hills, shared their thoughts, here.





Keys for successful relationships between orthopedic, spine practices and their ASCs

Business aside, the keys to fostering strong, symbiotic relationships between specialty practices and their ASCs include the same basic tenets of any positive relationship. Michael J. Chmell, MD, medical director of the OrthoIllinois Surgery Center in Rockford, and Chris Bishop, president of Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health, discussed the importance of communication, coordination and team building in the development and maintenance of strong relationships between ASCs and orthopedic and spine practices. Read more here.





Orthopedics is in a prime position to align with strategic healthcare goals  Here's how

Surgical Directions President Jeff Peters explained why orthopedics is in the "best position to succeed because despite pressures, orthopedics has the best opportunities to align with healthcare industry goals." Read more here.





5 findings about lumbar spine surgery in ASCs: Does a new pedicle screw measure up?

A new study published in Clinical Spine Surgery compares midline cortical bone trajectory pedicle screws and traditional pedicle screws for spine surgery in ASCs. The patients who underwent outpatient spine surgery with the CBT pedicle screws reported significant improvement in visual analog scale back pain scores, from 7.8 to 2.5. The Oswestry Disability Index scores for the outpatient surgery group demonstrated significant improvement. The study authors concluded surgery with CBT screws in the outpatient setting is successful.





SpineCenterAtlanta & Affiliates promotes Tim Marlow to CEO

SpineCenterAtlanta & Affiliates named former COO and Director of Rehabilitation Tim Marlow the new CEO. SpineCenterAtlanta & Affiliates encompasses a surgical center, MRI, physical therapy, massage therapy and more.




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Citigroup will be the latest bank to commit to opening an EU hub in Frankfurt when it formally unveils plans that would see up to 200 jobs leave the UK due to Brexit.

Between 150 and 200 client-facing roles in sales and trading could be relocated from the UK to its Frankfurt office - which currently houses around 350 staff - as a result.

The bulked up Frankfurt office will become a broker-dealer entity, allowing the US bank to continue serving EU clients after Britain leaves the bloc.

However, the move will not impact the location of its European headquarters, which will remain in London.

Citi currently employs around 9,000 staff in the UK, 6,000 of which are based in the City.

Citi declined to comment.

The announcement - expected later this week - will be the culmination of months of planning, with the bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) boss James Cowles having told staff in an internal memo earlier this year that it was looking at moving some front office staff out of the UK.

Mr Cowles said in the memo that the bank had been preparing for Brexit since before the referendum last June, and that decisions were being made on the assumption of a hard Brexit, in which the UK loses access to the single market for financial services.

"A hard Brexit would require certain changes, including relocating certain client-facing roles to the EU from the UK, and the possible creation of a new broker-dealer entity within the EU," he said.

Citi's decision is another vote of confidence for Frankfurt, which is quickly becoming one of the main beneficiaries of the post-Brexit banking exodus.

Japanese banks Daiwa and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) earlier this summer confirmed plans for subsidiaries in Frankfurt, while Standard Chartered confirmed in May it had contacted the local regulator about setting up its own subsidiary in the German city, where it already has a presence.

Woori Bank - one of South Korea's biggest lenders - has also committed to opening its own subsidiary in Frankfurt by the autumn.

The managing director of city lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance, Hubertus Vath, has estimated that a total of 10,000 jobs will move to Frankfurt over the next five years, assuming that the European Banking Authority and euro clearing are moved to the German hub.

But Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan, warned earlier this month that EU regulators will be able to "dictate" a larger exodus of banking jobs from the UK after Brexit.

"If regulators say one day, you know, 'we're not comfortable with your risk people, your lawyers, your compliance being in the UK', they can make us move it. So we will simply be subject to what they do down the road," Mr Dimon said during a panel discussion in Paris.

JP Morgan revealed earlier this year it would be moving up to 1,000 London jobs to the bloc with plans to anchor its EU operations in three cities, including Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg.

Commenting on Citigroup's expected decision, Mr Vath said: "It is great news for the financial centre (of) Frankfurt and we look forward to welcoming our new colleagues.

"The reported decision by Citi also reaffirms our confidence that at least twelve banks and perhaps as many as twenty will decide for Frankfurt this year."

Mr Vath said he expects more companies to publicly release their relocation strategies after the Bank of England had City firms submit their Brexit contingency plans last week.

"Following last week's submissions to the Bank of England, we expect to see the next wave of announcements coming very soon," he said.
Royal Mail's UK parcels arm continued to help offset the ongoing decline in letters

Royal Mail has said it narrowed the decline in letter deliveries thanks to a boost from general election political mailings, but confirmed revenues remained under pressure.

The group said total letter revenues fell by a better-than-expected 4% in the three months to June 25 after the snap election that month.

But with the benefit of the political mailings stripped out, letter volumes still fell 6% in the group's first quarter.

Its UK parcels arm continued to help offset the ongoing decline in letters, with volumes up 5% and revenues up 3%.

This left overall underlying turnover from the letter and parcels arm 1% lower.

Its Europe-wide parcels business GLS continued to see solid growth, with underlying revenues up 6%, but with the benefit of recent acquisitions included, Royal Mail said turnover soared 18% in the quarter.

Royal Mail said the GLS performance helped drive a 1% rise in total group-wide underlying revenues.

Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail, said the group had a "good start to our financial year".

She said: "GLS continues to be a driving force for the group.

"Its ongoing, focused international expansion is increasing our geographic diversification, scale and reach."

She added: "Our performance in letters was better than we expected, despite continued business uncertainty in the UK."

The update comes after Royal Mail last week sought to avert the threat of strike action by announcing a new proposal for pension scheme changes.

The privatised group had planned to close its defined benefit pension scheme next year, which resulted in fury from Unite and the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

But on Friday, Royal Mail said that after "extensive talks" with unions, Unite is planning to hold a consultative ballot of its members on a new plan, which it insisted was a "significant improvement" on an earlier proposal.

The changes will see it offer scheme members a choice between a new defined benefit cash balance scheme and an improved defined contribution scheme.

Shares in Royal Mail lifted 3% after the update.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: " Royal Mail has emerged as the one clear winner of last month's general election, with political mailings helping to slow the inexorable decline in UK letter volumes.

"UK parcels also looks like it's turning a corner with steady volume growth, albeit at lower prices than previously."

But he said the "wrangling" over the new pension scheme plans would remain a source of " uncertainty " for Royal Mail until all unions are on-side.

While Unite has said it believes the new pension proposal is the "best available deal", the CWU union has rejected the plans, arguing it "does not meet our aspiration of a wage in retirement pension scheme".
A Belfast student has become the first graduate of a new trainee scheme offered by one of Northern Ireland's most successful technology firms.

Leah Fullerton (24) was awarded a first class honours degree in computing systems from Ulster University, after studying part-time for four years while working at Kainos.

She joined the company in 2013, which is now listed on the London Stock Exchange, as part of its 'earn as you learn' scheme.

"Kainos is a great place to work. It's a really innovative environment, with plenty of variety day to day," she said.

"I'd worried before starting, about how little I knew, but the training and support is brilliant and my colleagues have been so encouraging.

"The practical experience made the theory behind my degree so much easier to understand and, of course, the fact that I've graduated without any student loans is just amazing."

Kainos boosted sales by almost 10% to 83.5m and says it's planning to get its software in 1,600 hospitals as it expands further into the US. Kainos, headed by Co Antrim man Brendan Mooney, has now seen six consecutive years of growth of almost 50%.

Speaking about its first graduate, Mr Mooney said: "We're very proud of Leah's achievement and of the fact that we've been able to support her financially through her university education, while at the same time offering her a practical learning experience."

There are 30 students studying with the firm's 'earn as you learn' programme. Kainos says it will increase this number for the 2018 intake of post-A-level students.
The Housing Executive says it has "contingency arrangements" in place to deal with the potential collapse of a global construction giant which carries out contracts for the body worth 35m each year.

Construction and services business Carillion's shares collapsed after a profit warning last week, falling 71% amid fears the group will have to launch a debt-for-equity swap to avoid an emergency takeover or bankruptcy.

In July 2016, Carillion - now headed by interim chief executive Keith Cochrane - announced it had been awarded two contracts by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to deliver maintenance services for its housing stock, worth up to 366m over a period of up to 10 years. It has drafted in accountancy firm EY to help carry out a review of the business as it fights for its survival.

Carillion operates several major contracts with the Housing Executive across Northern Ireland.

That includes work covering around 25,000 houses across Belfast and Co Down.

The firm also deals with Belfast and the south east, in relation to heating maintenance.

A Housing Executive spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph it "will continue to closely monitor the situation" and it has been "assured by Carillion that there will be no impact on the contracts or service delivery to the Housing Executive".

"The issue for Carillion relates to other construction contracts delivered elsewhere," it said.

"Carillion is currently in contract with the Housing Executive providing a number of services: maintenance, heating, legionella risk assessments and mechanical and electrical facilities.

"The current annual charges from Carillion for all of these services is approximately 35m.

"While we will continue to closely monitor the situation, if any of our contractors have financial difficulties, contract management procedures are in place to ensure all parties work together to maintain the levels of service specified in the contracts and minimise any impact on our service to tenants.

"If a contractor providing any of the above services did become insolvent, there are contingency arrangements in place to cover the period needed to replace that contractor."

Economist John Simpson said: "The performance of a contractor with such a large responsibility for maintenance of such a large number of houses is critical to the meeting of demands for satisfactory standards," he said.

"So long as Carillion continues to trade, then the main concerns are those of the Carillion shareholders.

"If, for whatever reason, it ceased to trade, that would be a concern in ensuring continuity of service. There may be an interest in any takeover or rescue bid."

Last week Carillion suffered a dramatic collapse in its share price after announcing a profit warning which saw almost 600m wiped from its value.

Carillion's new interim chief executive Keith Cochrane said: "We are moving forward with the actions outlined last week.

"Alongside our own efforts, accountants EY will provide support across the business and bring an external perspective to our cost reduction and cash collection challenge. My priorities are to reduce the group's net debt and create a balance sheet that will support Carillion going forward.

"We need to simplify the business and demonstrate that value can again be created for shareholders by focusing the group on its core markets, including infrastructure and property services, in which it has good strengths and leading positions."

Carillion's market capitalisation has gone into freefall, dropping from 826m to around 241m in a matter of days after a warning over earnings and revealed an 845m write-off on construction contracts.

Chief executive Richard Howson stepped down with immediate effect a week ago as the group said it would need to bolster its balance sheet and was struggling to stay within its borrowing limits.

Meanwhile, Carillion was named among firms awarded contracts for the building of phase one of the HS2 rail line in England.
Richard Moore, Director of Children in Crossfire and the Dalai Lama.

Actress and activist Joanna Lumley will join the Dalai Lama of Tibet during his visit to Londonderry to mark the 20th anniversary of Children in Crossfire.

The BAFTA winning star, who appeared in a number of films and television series throughout her career, will speak at a conference on Monday, September 11.

This will follow the Dalai Lama appearing as a guest of honour at a public talk entitled Compassion in Action on Sunday, September 10.

The talk will aim to encourage people to be the change they want to see in the world.

Ms Lumley said she was "honoured" to be invited to take part in Children in Crossfires 20th Anniversary.

She added: "His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is a spiritual leader who knows and understands the power of Compassion in Action on a global scale. I am also delighted to be associated with such a wonderful organisation that is doing inspirational work to help vulnerable children across the world.

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Richard Moore, Director of Children in Crossfire, said: We are delighted that Joanna Lumley will be joining us for our 20th Anniversary celebrations.

"Joanna is a tireless campaigner and incredible ambassador, whos work defending human rights is an inspiration to us all, and we look forward to warmly welcoming her to Derry/Londonderry.

Children in Crossfire is a local charity with an international programme, dedicated to saving and changing lives by promoting early childhood care and development in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Founded in 1996, the charity's many achievements include: raising over 25 million for worthy causes in 10 countries; providing safe water to over one million people in Malawi; integrating over 500 visually impaired children into mainstream education in The Gambia; successfully supporting the treatment of over 2,000 children with cancer in Tanzania; and treating more than 10,000 children suffering with severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia.
The Ulster University team, which appeared on University Challenge, with show quiz master Jeremy Paxman

Ulster University came within touching distance of victory last night in their University Challenge debut, finishing just one question behind their Edinburgh opponents.

With an average age of 50, the team of mature students represented all four Ulster University sites in Belfast, Coleraine, Jordanstown and Magee.

Rapidly answering questions on subjects ranging from historical travel maps to Shakespearean tragedies, the Ulster team took an early lead but finished with an agonisingly close score of 160 to Edinburgh's 165.

The famously prickly BBC quiz master Jeremy Paxman was quick to congratulate the team, consisting of captain and pharmacology student Iain Jack from Peterhead in Scotland, literature student Cathal McDaid from Co Donegal, Fine Art student Catherine Ritchie from Co Armagh and student of education Matthew Milliken from Co Down.

"Well, if we'd had another five minutes you might have gone on to answer the bonuses correctly and take the lead again," said Paxman.

"But 160 I would guess is one of the highest losing scores and you'll probably come back, I would have thought, for one of the playoffs."

Amid the rapid fire pace of the opening round encounter, Ulster's Matthew Milliken briefly managed to lower Paxman's guard.

Having correctly identified the famously bald actor Yul Brynner in the picture round, Milliken drew attention to his own similar look by brushing his head.

"No-one's saying anything," Paxman quipped, causing a roar of laughter from the audience.

Speaking before appearing, Milliken said he was determined not to be intimidated by the host's confrontational style commenting: "I'm sure he's just a pussycat really."

In September last year, Queen's University also fell in the competition's first round following a sound defeat by Birmingham University.
Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 East Belfast Bonfire at Inverary playing fields that has an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 East Belfast Bonfire at Inverary playing fields that has an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 East Belfast Bonfire at Inverary playing fields that has an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway East Belfast Bonfire ath Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway has had an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the bonfire site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway East Belfast Bonfire ath Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway has had an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the bonfire site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway East Belfast Bonfire ath Ravenscroft Avenue car park/Bloomfield walkway has had an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the bonfire site and added to the bonfire.

East Belfast Bonfire at Avoniel Leisure Centre car park that has had an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the site and added to the bonfire.

Belfast Telegraph 09-07-2017 East Belfast Bonfire at Avoniel Leisure Centre car park that has had an injunction by Belfast City Council in place to stop wood from being dumped at the site and added to the bonfire.

Bonfire builder Ryan Preston poses for a photograph on the Doonbeg bonfire in Rathcoole on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Bonfire builder Ryan Preston poses for a photograph on the Doonbeg bonfire in Rathcoole on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Bonfire builder Ryan Preston poses for a photograph on the Doonbeg bonfire in Rathcoole in north Belfast on July 10, 2017 ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Former Bonfire builder Colin Tweedie (R), inspects a bonfire in the village area of Belfast on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Former Bonfire builder Colin Tweedie, poses for a photograph beside a bonfire in the village area of Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

A Union flag flutters in the breeze in front of a bonfire in the village area of Belfast. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Children play on a bonfire in the village area of Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires The Eleventh Night refers to the night before the Twelfth of July, an annual Protestant commemoration of the famous battle were Protestant King William III of Orange defeated Catholic King James II at the battle of the Boyne on July 12, 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

A bonfire towers over the housing in the Ballymacash area of Lisburn. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Posters of Sinn Fein politicians are seen placed on a bonfire in Shankill. [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Bonfire builders Dean Neeson and Graeme Stewart carry wooden pallets to a bonfire in the Ballymacash area of Lisburn on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. [Photo: Paul Faith /AFP/Getty Images]

A wooden pallet is carried to a bonfire in the Shankill area of west Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires [Photo: Paul Faith /AFP/Getty Images]

Posters of Sinn Fein politicians are seen placed on a bonfire in the Shankill area of west Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 10, 2017, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires [Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images]

Pastor Lucas Parks at his church in east Belfast close to the walkway bonfire on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

General views of the square shaped bonfire on Milner Street in South Belfast on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

General views of the square shaped bonfire on Milner Street in South Belfast on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

General views of the square shaped bonfire on Milner Street in South Belfast on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

General views of the square shaped bonfire on Milner Street in South Belfast on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

General views of the square shaped bonfire on Milner Street in South Belfast on July 10th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

LARNE, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: 'Hurka' the chief architect and builder of the Craigyhill bonfire takes a break from stacking pallets to pose with his creation whilst balancing on a ladder on July 10, 2017 in Larne, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists sit on the Sandy Row bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists sit on the Sandy Row bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists sit on the Sandy Row bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists climb The Village bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists climb The Village bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Loyalists climb The Village bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tradition holds that the bonfires commemorate the lighting of fires on the hills to help Williamite ships navigate through Belfast Lough at night when Protestant King William III and his forces landed at Carrickfergus to fight the Catholic Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Catholic King James II. The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Loyalists sit on the Sandy Row bonfire being built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Masked men continue to build a bonfire at Inverary Playing Fields in Belfast. Police in Northern Ireland have warned their resources could be stretched amid growing fears of tension around the burning of Eleventh night bonfires. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday July 10, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Workmen board up windows of property beside a bonfire at the end of the Comber Greenway off Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: A Loyalist climbs the Conway street bonfire built in preparation for the 11th night bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tradition holds that the bonfires commemorate the lighting of fires on the hills to help Williamite ships navigate through Belfast Lough at night when Protestant King William III and his forces landed at Carrickfergus to fight the Catholic Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Catholic King James II. The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) ***BESTPIX***

LISBURN, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 10: Having finished school for the summer 13 year old Tyler Reid helps guard the Lisburn bonfire on July 10, 2017 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. The bonfires, which are lit on the stroke of midnight on the 11th night, mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades in Northern Ireland. The annual Orange marches celebrate the protestant King William of Orange's victory over the catholic English King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX ***

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 11: Loyalists finish a bonfire in East Belfast in preparation for the 11th night celebrations on July 11, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tradition holds that the bonfires commemorate the lighting of fires on the hills to help Williamite ships navigate through Belfast Lough at night when Protestant King William III and his forces landed at Carrickfergus to fight the Catholic Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Catholic King James II. The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 11: Loyalists finish a bonfire in East Belfast in preparation for the 11th night celebrations on July 11, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tradition holds that the bonfires commemorate the lighting of fires on the hills to help Williamite ships navigate through Belfast Lough at night when Protestant King William III and his forces landed at Carrickfergus to fight the Catholic Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Catholic King James II. The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 11: Loyalists finish a bonfire in East Belfast in preparation for the 11th night celebrations on July 11, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tradition holds that the bonfires commemorate the lighting of fires on the hills to help Williamite ships navigate through Belfast Lough at night when Protestant King William III and his forces landed at Carrickfergus to fight the Catholic Jacobites, supporters of the exiled Catholic King James II. The bonfires also mark the beginning of the annual 12th of July Orange parades. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Loyalists finish a bonfire in East Belfast in preparation for the 11th night celebrations on July 11, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Onlookers watch as firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Firefighters douse nearby buildings as a bonfire is lit in Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017. See PA story ULSTER Twelfth. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

A quiet moment as the Sandy Row bonfire in south Belfast starts to die down. [Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye]

Firefighters near a lit bonfire on Albertbridge Road, Belfast ahead of the key date in the protestant loyal order marching season - the Twelfth of July. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday July 11, 2017.

The 'eleventh nightO bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh nightO bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

The 'eleventh night bonfire is lit at the Milner Street area of the Village in South Belfast as celebrations of William of Orange's victory commence on July 11th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

MLA Christopher Stalford has refused to say if the bonfire which damaged the homes of Belfast residents was too close to their apartment building.

Windows were cracked at the Victoria Place apartments as the towering bonfire raged on a vacant Housing Executive-owned vacant piece of land on the Eleventh Night. Firefighters stationed themselves on the top of the building, dousing it with water, to prevent the fire spreading.

South Belfast MLA Mr Stalford was asked twice if the bonfire was too close to the building.

"I accept damage was caused to the building, that is self evident," he told the BBC.

He said in the long term there was a need to "get back to what bonfires are about" and the way to do that was by engaging with communities. Belfast City Council, the former councillor said, had been "caught on the hop" over recent events and had caused itself reputational damage with the way it pulled funding for a children's party at the bonfire. He said the size of the fire was the reason for the council's decision.

"We need to work in a way that makes bonfires into - and they are throughout northern Ireland - positive community events.

"We need to deal with certain issues in four or five around the place, but you are not going to do that by the ham-fisted way Belfast City council has done."

He said he had not met any of the residents affected and was not sure if any of his DUP colleagues, but was happy to meet with them in his constituency office which was across the road from the affected block.

Asked if he could allay residents fears a bonfire that size would not be built beside their homes, he repeated that work needed done to make bonfires a positive event that come from positive culture and he was "happy" to work with those that wanted to make that goal.

"I want us to get to the position in the future Northern Ireland society where culture is no longer a contested space and people can celebrate culture and affirm their identity in a way that hurts no one and that has to be a goal for everyone in Northern Ireland politics whether they are unionist, nationalist or none."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close MLA Christopher Stalford PA Firefighters doused down the building to prevent the fire spreading to people's homes. Picture By: Arthur Allison Pacemaker Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye Firefighters doused down the building to prevent the fire spreading to people's homes. Picture By: Arthur Allison Pacemaker Firefighters doused down the building to prevent the fire spreading to people's homes. Picture By: Arthur Allison Pacemaker / Facebook

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Responding to Sinn Fein's call for the parties to work through the summer to break the political deadlock to restore the institutions, he said it was the republican party "themselves alone" which were holding up the political process.

"We have said clearly we will form a government and in parallel if people wanted issues raised we would deal with them," he said.

He said politics can not work on the basis of "giving Sinn Fein what they want".

"Sinn Fein talk about equality but by their actions they are preventing delivering of good services for all," he said.

"The actions of the DUP brought back 1.5bn for all the people, whether they voted for us or not.

"Everyone knows who the problem party are, it's Sinn Fein."

In response Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey said the party is not "standing in the way of forming a new Executive".

He said: "The question is what is the long-term cost given that the DUP have handed the Tories a blank cheque for Brexit and unrestrained austerity at Westminster.

It isnt Sinn Fein that is standing in the way of forming a new Executive. Like the majority of the other parties, we are happy to go enter a new Executive providing it is credible and sustainable and guarantees the rights of all citizens.

It is simply unacceptable that rights which are protected everywhere else on these islands arent available here because the DUP is blocking them. That needs to be resolved because recent history has clearly shown that an Executive on the DUPs terms is no good for rights and equality and its no good for public services and the public purse.
A Northern Ireland accountant has been fined 75,000 after two firms he worked for issued inadequate pension advice. The Financial Conduct Authority said David Watters failed to exercise due diligence in his role as compliance oversight officer at FGS McClure Watters and at Lanyon Astor Buller Ltd (LAB).

The FCA found Mr Watters failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the process for giving advice on enhanced transfer value (ETV) pension transfer exercises at both firms was adequate and met regulatory standards.

This led to a serious risk of unsuitable advice being given to customers about the merits of transferring their pension from a defined benefit (DB) to a defined contribution (DC) scheme.

The new DC regime allows members to tailor their benefits to suit their own requirements. Yet members of DB pension schemes need to transfer to DC arrangements to access these flexible pension benefit options.

Approximately 500 customers who received advice from the two companies transferred their pensions from a DB scheme to a DC scheme, with a combined value of approximately 12.7m.

In many cases, it may have been unnecessary for customers to leave DB schemes, thereby losing their guaranteed benefits.

The FCA said Mr Watters failed to give sufficient consideration to whether the advice process was compliant; did not take reasonable steps to gain a sufficient understanding of regulatory requirements; and did not obtain an appropriate third-party review to ensure compliance.

Mr Watters also failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that advisers were properly monitored to reduce the risk of unsuitable ETV pension transfer advice being given to customers.

Mark Steward from the FCA said: "It was Mr Watters' responsibility to take reasonable steps to put in place a compliant advice process. His failure to do this placed customers at risk of needlessly losing benefits."

LAB has agreed to contact affected customers and where loss was caused, it will pay redress.
Following the ruling there was an outburst in the court.

A man accused of drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl in Belfast must remain in custody, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified, was refused bail amid concerns he would not adhere to release conditions.

He faces eight charges related to an alleged sex attack on the schoolgirl at a location in the west of the city in May.

They include three counts of rape, two sexual assaults and a further sexual assault by penetration.

The man is also accused of possessing cocaine and administering a substance to the alleged victim with the intention of stupefying or overpowering her to enable sexual activity with her.

He denies the charges, claiming any sexual contact was consensual.

As the accused appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court via prison video-link, his barrister argued that he could be released under strict conditions.

Counsel also insisted there would be no contact with the complainant and cited the potential delay in the case.

District Judge George Conner was also told three other suspects have been questioned but not yet charged as part of the same investigation.

Mr Conner acknowledged the inquiry was likely to take time, putting back the date of any trial.

But denying the application, he said: "I'm afraid I form the view that there's just too high a risk of non-compliance with bail terms."

He ordered the accused to be remanded in custody for another four weeks.

The decision prompted an outburst from dismayed relatives of the defendant in the public gallery.
Jorja having fun in the swimming pool with her dad before she was admitted to hospital

A Northern Ireland couple are in a race against time to raise 100,000 for their seriously ill 17-month-old daughter.

Little Jorja Emerson was born with a rare chromosome disorder - 1q43q44 deletion syndrome - which causes severe epilepsy.

She is currently in intensive care in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and the prognosis is not good, but her family are not giving up.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, her dad Robbie (30) said Jorja was diagnosed with the rare illness, which causes developmental delay, when she was 10-months-old.

"Jorja was born with a small head and she had heart problems which later rectified themselves so, before the diagnosis, we didn't realise there was anything wrong with her," Robbie said.

"We could see that her development was slower than other children the same age - she wasn't rolling over or sitting up, etc, but in the last wee while she has been fantastic. She can now roll over herself, she can lift up toys and, up until a few months ago, she was just a happy, giggly, bubbly, normal baby girl."

Restaurant owner Robbie, from Bangor, and his 30-year-old wife Carly have been maintaining a vigil by their only child's hospital bedside as her health has deteriorated. "Jorja had her first seizure in November, before the diagnosis. That was followed by more attacks in February but then they stopped completely until June," he explained.

"She has been extremely unwell over the last six weeks with her epilepsy. At the end of June she began to take more and more seizures and she was in and out of hospital.

"Now that July has come she has been admitted twice into intensive care - the first was July 7 when she was there for four days, and then she got sent to the Ulster Hospital.

"On July 12, Jorja took a major seizure lasting 17 hours and that has concerned us a lot. She was eventually taken to the Royal at 3am on July 13 and she has been in intensive care ever since."

The devastated businessman said that, following two MRI scans, he and Carly were told she has "considerable decay in white brain matter".

"Essentially the prognosis is that Jorja's dying," said Robbie.

"This is being linked to her chromosome disorder but I really want a second opinion because we are not 100% sure if this is genetic decaying of her tissue - or if the damage has been caused by multiple prolonged seizures.

"No neurologist will give us a second opinion here in the UK, as the hospital neurologist feels he is correct and no one will go above him. This is why we believe we have no other option but to go to England and seek private care for Jorja."

He added: "There are so many unanswered questions. In this short space of time Jorja has rapidly went downhill and we are pleading for your help."

The Emersons have set up a JustGiving page to raise vital funds to get Jorja to London for a private neurology second opinion.

"The private hospital in England which has agreed to take her requires a 50,000 deposit up front. That will only cover us for a week, and if we need to stay longer it will cost 6,000 plus per night," he added.

"Our close friend Rory McNaughton has agreed to pay for private air transport and accommodation, for which we are very grateful. We are thankful from the bottom of our hearts for any donation that we receive to help our baby girl."

The Emersons' justgiving page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jorja-emerson
The Grenfell Tower disaster has brought all the horror flooding back good grief, have we not learned anything in the last 40 years?"

Those are the emotionally charged words of Northern Ireland woman Ruth McQuillan-Wilson - and she feels more than entitled to express them.

After all, this is someone who survived the 1973 Summerland inferno when she was only five-years-old, whose horrific scars are an everyday reminder of what happened that night in the Isle of Man holiday complex when 50 people, 11 of them children, perished.

And now Ruth, who has just finished a book on her experiences 44 years ago, has been left re-traumatised by the major loss of life at the ill-fated 24-storey building in England.

With chilling irony, one of the chapters of Ruth's new publication opens with the words of the famous funeral poem 'If I Should Go,' written by Joyce Grenfell.

Up until the recent London disaster, which has a death toll of at least 80, Summerland was the second biggest UK post-war fire tragedy (behind the 1985 Bradford stadium inferno), and, in Ruth's view, all were preventable.

Speaking exclusively to the Belfast Telegraph, the mother-of-five explained that she'd just started her first break in four years, having finishing the book, when news of the North Kensington fire started filtering through on the morning of June 14.

"My hubby Robert (51) and I had just arrived at the hotel and put the TV on and I saw what was happening at Grenfell Tower," she said.

"My heart dropped. It was almost exactly what I'd just been writing about. It was eerie. Suddenly, I was seeing the same things.

"The images were so familiar to me. It really took me back to Summerland, and to the horror of all those years ago."

The Co Down woman added: "I couldn't settle for days after that - and when a fire alarm went off on the final day of our stay, that was the end of it for me.

"I've had a fear of travelling and being away ever since what happened on the Isle of Man, and I couldn't cope any more. That alarm was the final straw."

Ruth, who lives in Dromore, said the Grenfell tragedy reduced her to tears at the time, and has led to sleepless nights since, but the overwhelming emotion is anger that it happened in the first place.

"Initially I couldn't bear to watch those images from London," she said.

"A wee five-year-old boy [Isaac Paulos, who tragically lost his life] had been separated from his mum. I know what it's like to be trapped inside a burning building; I remember not being able to see my parents and Grenfell brought all the old fear and horror to the forefront of my mind.

"I was furious too. I couldn't believe it because, nearly half a century after what happened to me and my family, I thought the days of this sort of tragedy were over for good. It was bad enough back in 1973 but, back then, people didn't have the same knowledge or the same facilities for testing.

"I'm not excusing them, but when you see how much technology has advanced, there's no reason why that should happen now.

"There simply isn't any excuse for Grenfell."

For Ruth, one of the most chilling aspects of the Grenfell disaster was hearing that residents had been told to stay put - advice her father had been given, and subsequently ignored, that fateful day.

"If Dad hadn't gone against that advice we'd all have died," she said. "Instead, he trusted his instincts and that's why I'm still here to tell the tale."

Ruth said that it all boils down to an issue of trust in the authorities that everything possible is done to prevent lethal fire in a building such as Grenfell Tower, which had been fatally compromised by cladding which accelerated the inferno.

"My late father sold tyres, and his customers trusted him to give them the right tyres to make their vehicles safe," she said.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Fire service personnel survey the damage at Grenfell Tower (Rick Findler/PA) Inside of the Grenfell Tower, as searches for people missing in the inferno are continuing frantically. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. PA LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 15: Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to members of the fire service as she visits Grenfell Tower, on June 15, 2017 in London, England. At least twelve people have been confirmed dead and dozens missing, after the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road was engulfed in flames in the early hours of June 14. The number of fatalities are expected to rise. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Getty Images Inside of the Grenfell Tower, as searches for people missing in the inferno are continuing frantically. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. PA Prime Minister Theresa May visits the scene near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building yesterday morning. Rick Findler/PA Wire PA Inside of the Grenfell Tower, as searches for people missing in the inferno are continuing frantically. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. PA LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 15: Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, with members of the fire service as she visits Grenfell Tower, on June 15, 2017 in London, England. At least twelve people have been confirmed dead and dozens missing, after the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road was engulfed in flames in the early hours of June 14. The number of fatalities are expected to rise. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Getty Images British Prime Minister Theresa May (C) visits the remains of Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in west London which was gutted by fire on June 14, 2017. Firefighters searched for bodies today in a London tower block gutted by a blaze that has already left 12 dead, as questions grew over whether a recent refurbishment contributed to the fire. / AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMENTOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images British Prime Minister Theresa May (C) meets police officers as she visits the remains of Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in west London which was gutted by fire on June 14, 2017. Firefighters searched for bodies today in a London tower block gutted by a blaze that has already left 12 dead, as questions grew over whether a recent refurbishment contributed to the fire. / AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMENTOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 15: Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to Dany Cotton, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, with members of the fire service as she visits Grenfell Tower, on June 15, 2017 in London, England. At least twelve people have been confirmed dead and dozens missing, after the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road was engulfed in flames in the early hours of June 14. The number of fatalities are expected to rise. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Getty Images British Prime Minister Theresa May (C) speaks with Dany Cotton (L), London Fire Brigade commissioner as she visits the remains of Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in west London which was gutted by fire on June 14, 2017. Firefighters searched for bodies today in a London tower block gutted by a blaze that has already left 12 dead, as questions grew over whether a recent refurbishment contributed to the fire. / AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMENTOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images British Prime Minister Theresa May (C) speaks with police as she visits the remains of Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block in west London which was gutted by fire on June 14, 2017. Firefighters searched for bodies today in a London tower block gutted by a blaze that has already left 12 dead, as questions grew over whether a recent refurbishment contributed to the fire. / AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMENTOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Smoke and flames billow from the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Firefighters and their exhausted colleages at the scene Getty Images Firefighters and their exhausted colleages at the scene AFP/Getty Images Grief-stricken people at the scene AFP/Getty Images Grief-stricken people at the scene AFP/Getty Images Residents evacuated from the blaze AFP/Getty Images Undertakers remove a body PA A man at a window in the burning tower AP LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Fire fighters drench the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 50 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Smoke continues to rise from the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 50 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Getty Images Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images Flames and smoke engulf Grenfell Tower, a residential block of flats in west London on June 14, 2017, as firefighters continue to control a fire that started in the early hours of the morning. Six people were confirmed dead in a massive fire that engulfed a London tower block before dawn on Wednesday and the number is expected to rise, police said. / AFP PHOTO / Adrian DENNISADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Pic: Rick Findler/PA Wire PA Emergency services at the scene after a fire engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Steve Paston/PA Wire PA Members of the emergency services carry oxygen tanks as a huge blaze engulfs Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block on June 14, 2017 in west London. The massive fire ripped through the 27-storey apartment block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, trapping residents inside as 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block and said "a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries", including at least two for smoke inhalation. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block on June 14, 2017 in west London. The massive fire ripped through the 27-storey apartment block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, trapping residents inside as 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block and said "a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries", including at least two for smoke inhalation. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Members of the emergency services work at the scene of a huge blaze which engulfed Grenfell Tower, a residential tower block on June 14, 2017 in west London. The massive fire ripped through the 27-storey apartment block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, trapping residents inside as 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block and said "a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries", including at least two for smoke inhalation. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Steve Paston/PA Wire PA LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: People watch as smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: A heicopter circles as smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Getty Images Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Steve Paston/PA Wire PA Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Rick Findler/PA Wire PA LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: People watch as smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) Getty Images Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Rick Findler/PA Wire PA Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP Smoke rises from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP A man photographs a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Rick Findler/PA Wire PA Smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Wednesday June 14, 2017. More than 200 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze and London Ambulance Service said 30 people had been taken to five hospitals. Steve Paston/PA Wire PA This handout image received by local resident Natalie Oxford early on June 14, 2017 shows flames and smoke coming from a 27-storey block of flats after a fire broke out in west London. The fire brigade said 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters had been called to the blaze in Grenfell Tower, which has 120 flats. / AFP PHOTO / Natalie Oxford / Natalie OXFORD / AFP/Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: A man watches as smoke continues to rise from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze, while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze, while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday June 14, 2017. More than 200 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze and London Ambulance Service said 30 people had been taken to five hospitals. See PA story FIRE Grenfell. Photo credit should read: Rick Findler/PA Wire PA LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: A fire fighter tackles the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze, while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Fire fighters take a rest near the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze, while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 14: Smoke rises from the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London in the early hours of this morning on June 14, 2017 in London, England. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident as more than 200 firefighters are still tackling the blaze while at least 30 people are receiving hospital treatment. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Getty Images Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP A person, bottom right, peers out of a window from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP A person peers out of a window from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP This handout image received by local resident Natalie Oxford early on June 14, 2017 shows flames and smoke coming from a 27-storey block of flats after a fire broke out in west London. AFP/Getty Images Firefighters wait to start their shift after a massive fire raged in a 27-floor high-rise apartment building in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP Paramedics arrive with oxygen as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower early June 14, 2017 in west London. The massive fire ripped through a 27-storey apartment block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, trapping residents inside as 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block and said "a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries", including at least two for smoke inhalation. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel Leal-OlivasDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Metropolitan Police in London say they're continuing to evacuate people from a massive apartment fire in west London. The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) AP This handout image received by local resident Natalie Oxford early on June 14, 2017 shows flames and smoke coming from a 27-storey block of flats after a fire broke out in west London. The fire brigade said 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters had been called to the blaze in Grenfell Tower, which has 120 flats. / AFP PHOTO / Natalie Oxford / Natalie OXFORD / AFP/Getty Images Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower early June 14, 2017 in west London. The massive fire ripped through a 27-storey apartment block in west London in the early hours of Wednesday, trapping residents inside as 200 firefighters battled the blaze. Police and fire services attempted to evacuate the concrete block and said "a number of people are being treated for a range of injuries", including at least two for smoke inhalation. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel Leal-OlivasDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Fire engulfing the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in west London (Natalie_Oxford/PA) / Facebook

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"And, when we went into the Summerland complex that day, he would've trusted that we were going into a safe building - that we would go in, have a good time and come back out..."

She added: "An innocent holidaymaker or tenant needs to trust the people responsible for the safety of these places; on too many occasions, that trust has turned out to be misplaced."

Her book, entitled Made in Summerland - which took her over two years to write - is published on July 31 and distributed by Lily Publications in the Isle of Man, although it can be ordered online from Amazon. The 49-year-old said she hopes it will help other victims who have been through a similar experience.

"Having survived Summerland, I felt it was important to give survivors a voice," she said.

"It's up to people like me to ensure that neither the disaster nor the victims are forgotten.

"Now, more than ever, it's important to get the message out there. If lessons had been learned from Summerland then - 40-odd years later - the same thing would not have been able to happen again at places like Grenfell.

"Having said that, I can't help feeling that some people will keep gambling with people's lives by cutting corners."

She added: "I have written in my book that it's unthinkable that there could be another fire like Summerland - and yet, even before the ink was dry on that, another tragedy has happened."

It was August 2, 1973, when Ruth, sister Lynda (aged two-and-a-half), mother Muriel (35) and father Sam (36) escaped - but not together - from the devastating blaze that engulfed the island's number one tourist attraction.

Incredibly, the catastrophe unfolded from three young boys smoking in a disused kiosk. The resultant fires spread rapidly and ended with catastrophic loss of life amid scenes one eyewitness described as "hell on earth".

A public inquiry later attributed the death toll that day to 'misadventure', with no specific individuals or groups held responsible.

Even the boys who started the fire were fined only 3 each - and ordered to pay a mere 33p compensation - for wilfully damaging a kiosk. Ruth will certainly never forget grasping in vain at her dad's coat, the panic, the indescribable pain, the screaming, the petrified look on her mother's face, the stampede, and the trapped people burning to death because fire doors had been locked.

Afterwards, there were months in hospital, the skin grafts, the looks on other people's faces when they saw her scarring from third-degree burns, hurtful taunts, suicidal thoughts, survivor's guilt and the post traumatic stress that tortured her family for decades - and the unresolved issue with her father that he took to his grave a decade ago.

"I was only five but everything remains clear in my mind," she told this newspaper.

"I remember going into a complex with amusements, slot machines, the patterned carpet such a huge place.

"Suddenly, Dad noticed smoke coming out of a ventilation shaft. He wasn't happy and started to go back down the stairs. I saw the smoke and then the whole place erupted into flames. There was widespread panic. The flames were coming towards us and there was no way out.

"We were still together at that stage and I remember reaching out my hand, trying to grab hold of my dad and almost touching his coat before he disappeared. I can still see that coat today.

"He'd lifted Lynda and clambered over railings with her, saw a door that had buckled in the heat and got through it. He then literally threw Lynda down a flight of concrete steps to a man below who caught her."

Ruth found out later that her father tried to go back for his wife and other daughter but the heat was too intense. He'd also been informed outside that there was no way they would survive a conflagration that needed 93 of the island's 106 firefighters - and all 16 fire engines - to fight it.

"My mum and I had to go back up the stairs," recalled Ruth.

"Mum then climbed down the rails from the terrace and called for me to follow. The melting skin was hanging off my legs. I was in terrible pain. But I climbed down and got onto her back and the two of us slid down onto the floor.

"Somehow, through the smoke, she spotted a broken window. She had to stand on a dead body to reach up to it and saw a fireman. She handed me out first and then the fireman pulled her out.

"Afterwards, in the hospital I said, 'Daddy, why did you lift Lynda and leave me behind?' It must have hurt him. He was so distant after that."

She added: "I was in hospital for three months. My burns wouldn't heal, the grafts wouldn't take. They gave me salt baths to try and get them to heal which wasn't nice.

"But I can live with the physical scars I've had them long enough. The mental scars are something different."
Detectives in Belfast are appealing for information after a man had part of his ear bitten off in an attack.

The incident happened in the Ross Street area of Belfast in the early hours of July 18.

The 31-year-old victim was walking along the street at around 2am when he was attacked by a group of four men.

During the assault part of his ear was bitten off and he had a tooth knocked out.

He attended hospital for treatment on his injuries.

The PSNI's Detective Sergeant Michael Hawthorne has appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact detectives at Musgrave Criminal Investigation Branch on the non-emergency number 101, quoting the reference 154 with the date 18/07/2017.

Alternatively, the public can also give information anonymously by contacting independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Crown lawyer Natalie Pinkerton said the victim was pulled to the ground and kicked by three men.

A man who joined others in kicking a friend as he lay on the ground in the centre of Belfast claims it was "horseplay that went too far", a court heard on Tuesday.

Peter Cowan, 29, took part in the attack weeks before a separate drunken incident involving threats to toss a police officer's bicycle into the River Lagan, prosecutors said.

Deferring his sentence until next year, a judge warned that she is considering sending him to jail.

Cowan, of Blythe Street in Belfast, appeared before the city's Magistrates Court to be dealt with for offences of common assault and disorderly behaviour.

He was caught on CCTV forming part of the group attack at Fountain Lane on May 2 this year.

Crown lawyer Natalie Pinkerton said the victim was pulled to the ground and kicked by three men.

Cowan was arrested shortly after leaving the scene.

The following month he was detained again after police on cycle patrol were alerted to two drunk men hassling members of the public on the tow path at Donegall Quay.

According to Ms Pinkerton Cowan called one of the officer's "a p****" and threatened to throw his bike in the river.

He then made his way out onto a jetty before finally being arrested.

Defence counsel Luke Curran argued that the assault was not as ferocious as portrayed.

The barrister told the court the incident involved friends, adding: "He (Cowan) would say it was horseplay that went too far."

But District Judge Fiona Bagnall insisted kicking someone on the ground could merit imprisonment.

She decided against passing sentence at this stage, however, because Cowan is still completing a previously imposed probation order.

"I'm inclined to defer, because it's immediate custody I'm looking at, to see whether or not the work with probation can make a difference," Mrs Bagnall explained.

Putting the case back to March 2018, she warned: "You must not darken the door of the court again in that period, otherwise you're in custody."
Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye 

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Aaron Callaghan and Sophie Jefferies on the beach at Newcastle

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Grace McGuigan 8. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Aisling Denny Siberian huskies Nanook, nando and shadow. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Lisa Marie McCambridge 9 Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Leah, Rebecca and Hannah McMurray. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern Irelands premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Eden John Robinson from Antrim. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern Irelands premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine are P5s Philip and James with Mr Thompson from Kilbroney IPS. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Alice Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Finlay Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Finlay Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Alice Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan (L-R) Sarah McGarry from Belfast and Catherine laverty from Birmingham enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Clare Miller, Sion Mills, Emma Arkinson, Killyclougher Roisin Campbell, Dungannon and Cathy O'Neill Dungannon, enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan (L-R) Sarah McGarry from Belfast and Catherine laverty from Birmingham enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Sunshine in Botanic Gardens Belfast getting some ice cream

Niamh Cooper from Belfast shows her running skills on a sunny day at Portstewart Strand Beach. PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.

Students Amy Gallagher and Claire Beattie soak up the sun at Portrstewart Strand Beach. PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

PACEMAKER BELFAST 17/07/2017 People enjoy the summer weather in Botanic Gardens in Belfast Northern Ireland. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

(L-R) Clare Miller, Sion Mills, Emma Arkinson, Killyclougher Roisin Campbell, Dungannon and Cathy O'Neill Dungannon, enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens. Photograph By Declan Roughan Presseye

There was barely space for a beach towel yesterday at Portstewart Strand, with the packed seaside spot closed to many sun seekers out to enjoy the second hottest day of the year so far.

A spokesperson from the National Trust said that a combination of high tides and the scorching weather drawing out the crowds forced them to turn many away.

But how long will it last

"The tide was coming in so fast that there was no more space for any more cars to be parked on the beach," she said.

An estimated 1,500 cars were among the lucky ones who managed to grab spaces, a boost of around 500 from Sunday's turnout.

The spokesperson added: "It was an extremely busy day, we don't get too many like it but the tide was against us this time. But it's been beautiful and very hot."

Killowen near Lisburn, had the peak temperature yesterday of 26.5C.

This was still just a shade lower than the hottest day so far this year, with Armagh reaching 26.6C on June 21.

The balmy Monday for the Co Down village was also the second hottest across the UK yesterday, just behind Heathrow at 26.9C.

A Met Office spokesperson said the heat will continue tomorrow with temperatures reaching up to 25C.

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The message from the Met Office was, however: "Enjoy it while you can."

Wednesday is predicted to see sustained showers during the day, especially in the western half of the country.

The sweltering heat will reduce down to around 19C by Thursday which should remain largely dry.

With at least one more day in the sun left, the Public Health Agency and Cancer Focus Northern Ireland have launched a new campaign to encourage young children to protect themselves from the heat.

More information on the short video and book entitled: 'Percy Piglet and the Summer' can be found at www.cancerfocusni.org
A fast-food outlet has been destroyed by a fire just two weeks after a blaze gutted the upstairs flat on the same site.

A fast-food outlet has been destroyed by a fire just two weeks after a blaze gutted the upstairs flat on the same site.

PressEye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 18th July 2017 Pictured: A fast food outlet and a first floor flat have sustained major damage in an overnight fire in Banbridge. This is the second fire at the premises in two weeks. Picture: Philip Magowan / PressEye

PressEye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 18th July 2017 Pictured: A fast food outlet and a first floor flat have sustained major damage in an overnight fire in Banbridge. This is the second fire at the premises in two weeks. Picture: Philip Magowan / PressEye

A fast food outlet and a first floor flat have sustained major damage in an overnight fire in Banbridge. This is the second fire at the premises in two weeks.

DUP MLA Carla Lockhart has condemned an early morning arson attack in Banbridge.

In a statement, the Upper Bann representative said: "I would utterly condemn this arson attack and would call on anyone who has information to come forward to the PSNI and report it.

"It's alarming to hear of a second attack in a short space of time on this premises. Substantial damage has been caused to the property and the PSNI are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the attack."

Police have appealed for information following the suspicious fire at the Banbridge fast food outlet.

Fire broke out at just after 4am on Tuesday in the Church Square shop. Police and the Fire Service attended the scene.

Sergeant Steven Weatherald would appeal to anyone who may have noticed anyone acting suspiciously in the area to contact Police at Banbridge on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 146 18/07/17. Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Officers believe a small quantity of Diazepam tablets found in the nearby Orby Close area may be linked to the burglary

A large quantity of Diazepam tablets have been stolen during a burglary at commercial premises in Belfast.

Police have issued a warning to the public not to buy medication from an illicit source.

The PSNI said the drugs were taken from premises in the Prince Regent Road area of the city in the early hours of Monday morning.

Officers believe a small quantity of Diazepam tablets found in the nearby Orby Close area may be linked to the burglary.

Detective Sergeant Michael Hawthorne urged the public to be vigilant and "to ensure that they do not put their health at risk by purchasing medication from an illicit source".

He added: "People should only take medicines in consultation with their healthcare professionals who have access to patient health records, who are qualified to assess their medical needs and can take into account the risks and benefits associated with every medicine.

"I would also ask the public if they are offered any medicines from an unregulated source to report it to the police on the non-emergency number 101. Information can also be passed to the Health Department's Medicines Regulatory Group (on) 028 9052 2094."

Anyone who saw anything suspicious between 1.15am and 2am on Monday in the Prince Regent Road area of east Belfast is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 88 of 17 July 2017.
A demonstration of women who have suffered chronic pain after receiving mesh implants is set to take place at Westminster.

Campaigners aiming to have vaginal mesh implant procedures banned are set to meet with MPs later today.

The group is made up of around 60 women from across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland that have experienced chronic pain after undergoing the procedure.

The use of mesh is used to treat issues like pelvic organ prolapses and stress incontinence, conditions that are often brought about by childbirth.

Over the past few years there have been increased reports of women experiencing extreme pain after undergoing a mesh procedure, and in 2014 Scotland put a temporary stop on the use of vaginal mesh implants.

In March of this year a report on the subject was published by Scottish Parliament, recommending that vaginal mesh implants could continue under certain conditions and that, among other things, patients should be made aware of alternative treatments.

A legal challenge by women in Northern Ireland is currently in the preliminary stage, and Belfast-based negligence solicitors Thompsons NI has appealed for anyone impacted by mesh implants to come forward.

As well as a meeting with MPS, an event will take place outside of Portcullis House in Westminster at around 1pm, July 18 and will be addressed by Labour's shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith MP.

Speaking ahead of the event Mr Smith said: "I am deeply concerned that so many women have experienced profound, life-changing complications after mesh surgery.

"Women who have undergone the surgery invariably say they were advised that this was a simple operation, with little accompanying risk. But for too many, mesh implants have been the cause of chronic and debilitating pain. This issue must be more widely known and discussed."

The Pontypridd MP was unsuccessful in having the issue debated in the House of Commons prior to the summer recess, and has said that he will attempt to bring it up again once proceedings resume in September.

Jackie Harvey, who had a mesh implant in 2005 and had it removed last year, is one of the women involved in bringing the campaign forward.

Speaking to BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, she said that after undergoing a TVT mesh procedure she eventually developed "chronic pain in my pelvic area, in my hips, my groin, my lower back and my thighs. I would never have been told of any side effect".

Between 2007/08 and 2015/16 a total of 5,575 of the mesh implants were carried out in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein is trying to exploit the UK's impending exit from the EU and alienate unionists for its own electoral advantage, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has claimed.

The Opposition leader has hit out at Gerry Adams for proposing a new Oireachtas committee that would begin planning for a united Ireland.

Mr Adams recently wrote to all party leaders in Leinster House seeking support for the proposal but was shot down by Fianna Fail.

The Sinn Fein President yesterday called on Mr Martin to "get serious" about Irish unity.

However, Mr Martin said the establishment of the committee proposed by Sinn Fein would "send all the wrong signals to unionists".

"I think if unionists see all of the parties in the Republic coming together minus them, it creates a certain impression. They would feel under threat immediately," he commented.

Fianna Fail is compiling its own proposals for how a united Ireland might operate.

It is expected to be ready for publication later this year.

Mr Martin said the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement has not yet been delivered and Sinn Fein should be focusing on this.

"My own sense is that Sinn Fein is exploiting the Brexit situation to try to create a new platform for his own electoral advantage.

"They are doing damage to the prospect of unity by consent," he accused.

Mr Martin added that the full focus of political parties should be on restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Mr Adams however said the committee proposed by Sinn Fein would provide a forum where party interests could be left at the door.

"The recent experience of the chaos in Britain, caused by the vote to leave the EU, shows that possibilities of large scale change need to be planned for in advance.

"Crucially, part of the work of the committee would be to put in place a vision for the future of the island that assures unionists of their place in a New Ireland.

"This has to be an agreed Ireland. It will not happen by accident," he said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein Brexit spokesperson John O'Dowd has issued a fresh challenge to the Dublin government.

The Upper Bann MLA was commenting as the second round of formal Brexit talks between UK Government representatives and EU officials got underway in Brussels.

He said Dublin had to make its top priority "designated special status for the North to remain in the EU".

"That is the only way to avoid a new frontier on the island of Ireland, given that the EU has already warned that border checks are inevitable in the event of Britain leaving the Customs Union," he added.
A woman whose sister was refused entry to the UK to give her a stem cell transplant has died from leukaemia.

May Brown, 24, who had a three-year-old daughter, Selina, hit the headlines last year after pleading with the Home Office to allow her sister into the UK.

According to the family, the Home Office said it was not satisfied that her sister Martha, from Nigeria, would be a genuine visitor or had the funds to cover the costs of the trip.

But that decision was overturned following a campaign and the stem cell transplant was performed at Kings College Hospital in London in January this year.

The transplant appeared to have been successful, but Mrs Brown relapsed in April.

She and her family were told by her consultants last week there was nothing more that doctors could do for her.

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Mrs Brown died with loved ones including her husband, Mike, by her side last Friday at Kings College Hospital.

Her husband said in a statement: May will forever be remembered in our hearts. She was a strong, beautiful, supportive, wonderful wife and mother. Selina and I will truly miss her.

May was incredibly grateful to the support given to her from ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust), and I echo those words on behalf of me and our daughter Selina.

May will forever remain in our hearts.

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Beverley De-Gale, co-founder of ACLT, said: In the 18 months Ive known her, I can say May was a remarkable woman who fought hard to beat this terrible illness.

Every member of the ACLT team is extremely saddened by her passing.

Our thoughts are with her husband Mike, three-year-old daughter Selina and Mays sister Martha.

As a result of the #SaveMayBrown campaign, thousands more people were added to the stem cell register in the UK and Nigeria.
Theresa May urged senior ministers to show unity around the Cabinet table as she told them to keep details of their discussions private.

Following a weekend of vicious briefings against Chancellor Philip Hammond, the Prime Minister told Cabinet that some members of the Government had failed to take their responsibilities seriously.

She told the weekly meeting at 10 Downing Street that she had tried to encourage open discussion of policy within Cabinet, but it was vital for the Government that this remained private, her official spokesman told reporters.

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The Prime Minister said: There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the Cabinet table.

Mrs May told Cabinet that the briefings and counter-briefings seen over the weekend were a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously, said the PMs spokesman.

She told the meeting that as Prime Minister she had introduced a more genuine and collective process of discussion in the development of policy in the belief that this would result in better decision-making, but that privacy was essential for this to work.

The spokesman told reporters that ministers showed widespread agreement with the PMs message.

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The attempt to instil Cabinet discipline comes after a series of newspaper headlines about Mr Hammonds comments at last weeks meeting, culminating in a story quoting an unnamed minister accusing the Chancellor of trying to f*** up Brexit.

According to newspaper reports, Mr Hammond was slapped down by the Prime Minister for saying that women could even become train drivers  a claim he denied.

A separate report said that he had told colleagues that public sector workers were overpaid compared with those in the private sector.

The Chancellor used a TV appearance on Sunday to accuse Cabinet rivals of trying to undermine his agenda for a softer business-friendly Brexit prioritising jobs and the economy.

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But The Daily Telegraph quoted one minister as saying: Whats really going on is that the Establishment, the Treasury, is trying to f*** it up. They want to frustrate Brexit.

As Brexit negotiations continued in Brussels, Mrs May used a speech at a Tory drinks party on the House of Commons terrace on Monday evening to warn against backbiting and carping and tell MPs to prepare for serious business after Parliaments summer recess.

She warned that infighting could result in Labour and Jeremy Corbyn winning power.

Without a Commons majority, Mrs May will be forced to rely on DUP votes to get Brexit legislation through the Commons and she will require iron discipline from her own party to secure its progress.

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Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that ministers had frank and full discussions at Cabinet, but said she found reports of infighting perplexing.

She rejected suggestions that Mrs May had lost her authority as a result of the botched election, telling ITVs Good Morning Britain: She is respected by the Cabinet, she is our Prime Minister, we do have 54 more seats than Labour and we are getting on with the job in hand.
Prince George and Princess Charlotte were greeted by rain when they arrived in Poland with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the start of their parent's European tour.

The royal children flew in a private chartered plane with William and Kate, before touching down at Warsaw Chopin Airport.

At the bottom of the steps waiting to greet them was Jonathan Knott, Britain's ambassador to Poland and the diplomat's Polish counterpart in Britain Arkady Rzegocki.

The trip, which will also take them to Germany, is another milestone in their royal lives as it is the first time they have been on an official tour of Europe.

William and Kate's trip, taken at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is likely to be seen as another Brexit diplomacy tour, as the UK prepares to leave the EU.
Separatists in eastern Ukraine have proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of Ukraine.

The surprise announcement in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 ceasefire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine's industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev's fold while granting them wide autonomy.

It also caught unawares some rebels who said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

The rebels originally sought to join Russia but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the whole area or publicising its military support for the rebels.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most of the areas which are part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Mr Zakharchenko said the rebels are drawing up a constitution that will be put up to a popular vote.

"We believe that the Ukrainian state as it was cannot be restored," he said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency.

"We, representatives of the regions of the former Ukraine, excluding Crimea, proclaim the creation of a new state which is a successor to Ukraine."

Although separatists in the east have sympathisers in other Ukrainian regions, they have not attempted to capture territories there, and they have no political representation.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk later denied that they were part of the deal.

Local news website Luhansk Information Centre quoted rebel representative Vladimir Degtyarenko as saying they had not been informed of the plans and have "great doubts about the expediency of such a step".

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-proclaimed authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk who call themselves the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike their counterparts in Donetsk, have tended to stay away from directly expressing intentions to join Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of directing the rebels' hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine.

"You should understand that Zakharchenko and (rebel leader Igor) Plotnitsky are not political actors," he said, dismissing them as "puppets" whose only job is to voice "the messages they receive from Russia".

Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine is committed to the peace accords and pledged to restore control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia worked out an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015 which laid out a road map for ending the conflict between government troops and separatists.

The rebels and the Ukrainian government agreed that the rebels would return the control of the territories they had captured to Kiev while Ukraine would allow a local election there and grant wide autonomy to the region.

While the deal helped to reduce the intensity of fighting, none of the political components has been implemented.

The Luhansk rebels insisted on Tuesday that they were committed to Minsk while Donetsk representatives argued that the creation of a new state does not contradict the deal.

AP
Can Theresa May and her wobbly, minority government survive the entire length of a full parliament, with its Cabinet members squabbling like schoolchildren in the playground?

On the face of it, such an achievement seems an impossibility, given the potholes and obstacles that lie in the path ahead. Chief among these is the Brexit Bill, which came under a barrage of criticism within minutes of its publication last week.

If the Government was defeated on the second reading of this measure, that would surely bring about the collapse of the May administration and probably force a general election.

And, given the upward surge of Labour, the unpredicted popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and the current state of the Tories' disarray, that is a distinct possibility. A general election is the last thing Theresa May wants.

The full panoply of the Opposition parties - with the exception, of course, of the DUP - would be ranged against the Government, plus some of her disloyal backbenchers.

The Cabinet is in an unprecedented state of disarray, with malcontent members aiming their poison darts at Chancellor Philip Hammond.

He has found himself in the no less unprecedented situation of having to tell his Cabinet critics to shut up and get on with their jobs.

A Cabinet is supposed to display collective agreement - not be a hotbed of vicious feuding.

And added to this daunting scenario is the very real fear that a group of disloyal and malcontent anti-Brexit Conservative MPs could join the Opposition parties and scupper this Government for good over the Brexit Bill.

Labour's Jim Callaghan used to say of his own premiership that he seemed to be constantly walking on a tightrope. That is precisely the perilous position in which Theresa May finds herself today.

This issue will bedevil her for as long as she remains in power.

This dire situation is not eased by clarion calls from some quarters that the Tory Party chairman, Patrick McLoughlin, should be removed from office.

The charge against him is that he was practically invisible during the disastrous general election campaign.

But it may well have been that the expensive and useless 'experts', who were brought in from outside to advise on the Tory campaign, ordered that he - along with other Cabinet ministers - should lie low.

A catastrophic mistake, but it was not one of McLoughlin's doing.

The Prime Minister would be wise to ignore these demands and to keep McLoughlin in his job.

The Conservative Party is already in a parlous enough state and certainly does not need any further disruption to add to its overload of woes.

However, I think May has the spirit and the political will to keep marching forward.

But I doubt whether she is sleeping as soundly as she was a year ago.

Nick Clegg, the former Liberal Democrat leader, was rejected by voters at the last general election.

Clegg has since stated that his "time is up" in politics - which would be a commendable comment. If only it were true.

But even a has-been political force, it seems, is capable of performing a shameless U-turn (the habit obviously dies hard).

Clegg is now calling for a fresh referendum on Brexit, which is bad enough in itself.

But he is compounding that 'felony' by saying that, in such a referendum, voters under 30 should be given the equivalent of two votes, which is outrageous.

Clegg should be reminded it was the Liberal Democrat Party he used to lead, not the Liberal Undemocrat Party. Remainers should grow up and admit they lost the referendum, learn to live with it and stop whingeing.

After all, as Winston Churchill once said: "One vote is enough to claim a majority."

No doubt, the next thing we will hear is that Clegg will be demanding a new vote in his former constituency.

After all, he was beaten by only 2,125 votes on June 8 - a mere bagatelle.

It looks as though Clegg is unaware of what was written in a national newspaper the other day, namely that Sir Vince Cable, the expected new leader of the Liberal Democrats, was happy to be re-elected to parliament on a 52% vote, yet could not accept a 52% vote for Brexit.

Two peas out of the same pod.

Does Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond spend too much time poring over his beloved spreadsheets to realise what goes on in the real world?

He could scarcely have thought of a more stupid thing to say, even if it was supposed to be a joke - especially in front of a female prime minister - that it was so easy to drive a train these days that even a woman could do it.

I was astonished, incidentally, at the gentleness with which Theresa May ticked him off. Perhaps even President Trump could pick up a few tips on chauvinism from Hammond.

Just a thought.

Tony Blair has popped up claiming that talks he's had indicate Brussels would be prepared to make sweeping changes that would enable the UK to dump Brexit and remain a member of a reformed EU.

But top Tories have said that the EU record on making promises and keeping them is abysmal and Jeremy Corbyn, to his credit, says that the will of the people who voted for Brexit has to be honoured.

So, it looks as though Blair has been stuffed.
In 1095, Pope Urban II gave a sermon at the Council of Clermont. In this sermon, he called not for spiritual atonement, but for military action against Muslim peoples who were expanding into new areas and blocking access to Christian Eastern Mediterranean holy sites.



Thus began the First Crusade, and a cycle of Christian imperialism and Muslim expansion that resulted in countless deaths, and an ideological conflict that is still carried on to this day by extremists on both sides.

Today, these old rivalries have serious consequences for minority groups in both Christian and Muslim lands, and with the weapons of war being more powerful than ever, there has never been a greater need for interfaith engagementfor the ability to see what we have in common rather than what divides us.

To find these commonalities, we only have to look to these two religions foundersJesus Christ and Muhammad. The similarities between these two legendary figuresand the things they taughtare striking. Daniel Hummel, in his book, "Jesus and Muhammad: Commonalities of Two Great Religions," explores these similarities, showing readers the intersections between these two religious founding fathers.

If the founders of Christianity and Islam would have gladly walked beside one another, can their adherents not do this as well? Lets find out by going to Hummel's text and exploring 6 important things that Jesus and Muhammad have in common.
One of Indonesias most powerful politicians Tuesday rejected a report by an anti-corruption agency that named him a suspect in one of the biggest graft scandals to hit the country.

House Speaker Setya Novanto was among many senior government officials who received kickbacks from funds allocated for a government project to issue electronic national I.D. cards, the states Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced late Monday.

Investigators said the corruption scheme had pumped out about U.S. $173 million from government funds.

I was said to have received 574 billion rupiah (U.S. $43 million), Setya, 61, told reporters at the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta. I never received it. The sum  is incredibly huge. How was it transferred, how was it received and how did it look like?

I really beg you to stop abusing me, Setya said, vowing that he would respect the legal process and not quit his parliamentary position.

At news conference on Monday, KPK Chairman Agus Raharjo named Setya as a suspect in the massive graft case, which allegedly involved a network of about 80 people, mostly legislators, and senior government officials.

He said the suspects and several companies embezzled more than one-third of the 5.9 trillion rupiah ($443 million) that was allocated for the I.D. program known as e-KTP, between 2011 and 2012.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo, through his spokesman, called on all involved parties to respect the legal process.

The case could turn into a test of Jokowis commitment to overhaul the image of Indonesia, which is still known as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, political observers said.

Setya, who is also a chairman of Golkar, one of Indonesias largest political parties allied with Widodos administration, was previously named a suspect in another corruption case two years ago when he was accused of trying to extort a 20-percent stake from the U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan.

In December 2015, Maroef Sjamsoeddin, president-director of Freeport Indonesia, testified to lawmakers and submitted an audio recording of Setya purportedly demanding company shares estimated to be worth around $4 billion, in exchange for helping the company get its operating contract extended.

Setya was cleared of the allegations but its aftermath forced him to resign as speaker in 2015. He was reappointed as speaker last year.

Indonesian House Speaker Setya Novanto answers questions during a news conference in Jakarta, July 18, 2017. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]
A Filipino soldier guards a mosque in Marawi, as government forces engage Islamic State-backed militants in other parts of the southern Philippine city, July 12, 2017.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday formally asked Congress to extend martial law in the entire southern island of Mindanao throughout the rest of the year, his spokesman said.

In a letter to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel and House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez  who lead a congress dominated by his political allies  Duterte asked them to convene a special session this week to deliberate and consider the extension of Proclamation No. 216, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

Duterte used that proclamation to place Mindanao under martial law, giving the military special police powers  such as arresting suspects without warrants  to quell what he had described as a rebellion by Abu Sayyaf and Maute gunmen, who took over Marawi City on May 23.

I have come to the conclusion that the existing rebellion in Mindanao  will not be quelled completely by 22nd July 2017, the last day of the 60-day period provided under section 18, Article 7 of the 1987 Constitution, the president said in his letter to Congress.

For this reason, and because public safety requires it, I call upon the Congress to extend until 31st of December 2017, or for such a period of time as the Congress may determine the proclamation of martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao, he said.

Duterte added he had the full backing of his defense secretary and martial law administrator, Delfin Lorenzana, along with the heads of the armed forces and the national police.

It addresses an abnormal situation

Dutertes request for the martial law extension is essentially an admission from him that the gunmen, who were backed by the Islamic State (IS) and an undetermined number of foreign fighters, would not be easily defeated as he had vowed earlier, observers said.

Deputy Minority Floor Leader Harry Roque, a former human rights lawyer, emphasized that while he backed Dutertes martial law declaration, it is never good for the country.

A declaration and a continuing declaration of martial law is an admission to the entire world community that there is rebellion or invasion in the Philippines and that the public safety requires its declaration, Roque said.

It addresses an abnormal situation, he said. Prolonged imposition is normalization of an abnormal situation.

He said the extension is never good for our international reputation.

Opposition politicians, who are in the minority in both houses of Congress, said Duterte was clearly moving towards authoritarianism with the new order. They said it was also a tacit admission that the Marawi fighting was far from over, contrary to what Duterte himself said last week that it would only last a few more days.

Thats just a whimsical misuse of power, said Sen. Antonio Trillanes, one of Dutertes staunchest critics. Then again, I have already forewarned the public of Dutertes authoritarian tendencies and this is another proof of it.

He said an extension was totally not justified, considering that the military last week said only about 60 militants were fighting it out in Marawi, a predominantly Muslim city in the south that has been abandoned by its estimated 200,000 residents.

Armored personnel carriers equipped with cannons and machineguns enter the Marawi city war zone, July 17, 2017. [Richel V. Umel/BenarNews]

About 60 militants left

The fighting in Marawi broke out after troops and police had monitored the presence of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged local IS leader, and moved to arrest him.

But they ran into unexpected and strong back up from members of the local Maute group, who were reinforced by several fighters from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The gunmen engaged the government forces in battles, burned vital government installations and took dozens of hostages.

Amid the violence, Duterte was forced to accept help from longtime allies the United States and Australia, which provided overflights from surveillance aircraft.

The military said the gunmen went house-to-house, interrogating the occupants. Those who were found not to be Muslims were executed, including a group of civilians whom the military believed were summarily killed in the early days of the fighting and whose remains were found a few days ago.

On Monday, the military said 97 government troops, 45 civilians, 405 extremists, including several foreigners, had been killed in 56 days of fighting.

Military officials said the militants had been decimated, with just about 60 from several hundred when the fighting broke out, and that the gunmen remained well-entrenched in a small section of the city.

On Tuesday, presidential spokesman Abella said that the main objective of extending martial law was to allow a military solution to carry on with the campaign in the southern city unhampered by deadlines, and to focus more on the liberation of Marawi and its rehabilitation and rebuilding.

Duterte also had his own sources of information that prompted him to come to this conclusion, Abella said without divulging names.

Congress is to hold its special session on Saturday, a day before the current martial law expires.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this story.
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The orphans of Mosul

BILD reporter in Iraq |

Von: PAUL RONZHEIMER

A little girl is lying on a hospital cot with her right hand resting on her forehead. Aminas big eyes are looking straight at Iraqi soldiers. Its an anxious look that reflects her life in a war-stricken country. She grew up in that hell of Mosul and is one of hundreds of orphans left behind by ISIS fighters.

Lesen Sie auch

Its Sunday morning and the Iraqi army begins a new offensive against the last remaining terrorists who are still holed up in the old city. US fighter jets are bombarding their positions and machine guns are firing from helicopters. Soldiers are waiting on the ground, ready for combat.

A horrific scene breaks out. Major Ahmed Hisham (39): We saw a family trapped in the combat zone. They tried to flee toward us when their house was destroyed by a rocket launcher.

Iraqi soldiers are fighting their way through Mosul's streets in bulldozers, making painstakingly slow progress. All of a sudden, they hear a child screaming. Major Hisham: It was Amina. She is the only one who survived.

Auch interessant

Aminas family was from Chechnya which is part of the Russian Federation. They joined ISIS and stayed until the bitter end in the old city. Only at the very end, they decided to escape. But it was too late!

Their family is not an isolated case. Major Hisham: Just recently, we pulled a boy from the rubble who only spoke Russian. He was a member of ISIS suicide bomber squad, ready to blow himself up.

It is hard to believe. ISIS fighters are using their own children as human shields," says doctor Ahmed Saber Sharif (28). Sharif who takes care of the orphans tells BILD: We are experiencing how ISIS sends children out on the streets, expecting that we save them. Then, snipers start shooting at us.

Other children are in a vegetative state, helpless and abandoned in bombed out houses. Doctor Sharif: For some, help arrives too late. They are dying of thirst, hunger or as a result of their injuries.

Those who were saved are being treated at the hospital. Helpers are searching for relatives. If they cant find any family members, the children are sent to orphanages.

Sharif: The biggest problem is that the children are very aggressive. They havent experienced anything else, but a life among terrorists. They witnessed how their parents became murderers. And many children watched how their parents were tortured and executed by Iraqi liberators.

Sharif: It is a cruel war on both sides. We need much more psychological care for the children. But that doesnt exist in the ruins of Mosul.

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For Immediate Release, July 17, 2017 Contact: Jonathan Evans, (510) 844-7118, jevans@biologicaldiversity.org Republicans Push Bill to Delay Reducing Ground Level Ozone Latest in String of Trump Administration Delays Cleaning Up Air Pollution WASHINGTON A Republican bill to delay, until 2025, the reduction of dangerous ground level ozone is up for a vote this week in the U.S. House of Representatives. Each year ground-level ozone pollution causes more than 1,000 premature deaths, millions of asthma attacks and billions of dollars in lost productivity. The bill, dubbed the Smoggy Skies Bill (H.R. 806), comes on the heels of the Environmental Protection Agency announcement late Friday that it will not be improving public-health protections from smog-forming nitrogen oxides. Republicans are leading an unprecedented assault on the standards that protect the air we breathe and save thousands of American lives every year, said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. This appalling bill, coupled with other clean-air rollbacks by the Trump EPA, is sentencing thousands of Americans to life-threatening asthma attacks and lung and heart problems. The bill, introduced by Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas), would allow states to delay meeting the 2015 Clean Air Act standards until 2025; it also creates loopholes and reduces sanctions in some of the smoggiest skies in the country. This follows the announcement last month by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt that he was delaying compliance with the more protective ozone standards. The proposed rollbacks come as science and public opinion increasingly support the need for improved air-quality standards. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently found that weak U.S. standards for ground-level ozone contribute directly to thousands of premature deaths. And 61 percent of Americans support strong smog protections to reduce the threat of pollution from oil refineries, automobiles and fossil fuels. Over half of the people living in the United States are at risk from the harmful effects of unhealthy air; studies have found that air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year. Disadvantaged communities in poorer or minority areas often suffer the worst from air pollution. Every American has the right to breathe clean air, but Congress and the Trump administration continue to value the profits of polluters over the health of people, said Evans. Under the Obama administration, the EPA set a more protective 2015 ground-level ozone standard of 70 parts per billion. The 2008 standard that would be continued by the Smoggy Skies Bill and EPA chief Pruitt is 75 parts per billion.
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
Cancer Clinics is a speciality facility that provides a set of curated services for cancer patients to enhance their well being through integrative care.

Cancer Clinics, a start-up venture for dedicated cancer treatment, has been launched in Hyderabad.

It offers screening, information, advice on nutrition, relaxation classes, psychologist and nursing support, among others, for cancer patients.

Cancer Clinics is a speciality facility that provides a set of curated services for cancer patients to enhance their well being through integrative care.

Cancer Clinics' follows Sonali Srungaram's first pan-India venture 'Cancer Helpline' that exposed her and her team to challenges of navigating the health system for cancer treatment. Srungaram is the Managing Director of Cancer Clinics.

Cancer Clinics, established with a planned investment of Rs 3.5 crore, was launched by CEO and co-chairperson of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, G V Prasad.

Noting that "navigation" of the healthcare systems in hospitals is often confusing, Prasad lauded the promoters for offering different services under one roof.
Opinion | 04 November 2022 | Interviews

India needs to connect OPD with the cashless insurance network to bring them into the digital economy

After having raised $1.2 million from Entrepreneur First and GrowX Ventures in 2021, how do you see the perfor...Read more
Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
Nigerian startup, techAboki, has launched an on-demand gadget repair service aimed at connecting people needing gadget repair services with trusted, reliable and professional technicians in their locality.

Launched over the weekend, techAboki is the brainchild of founder George Alonge, who observed that there was a poor maintenance culture when it came to gadgets, with people ending up with unusable electronics and forced to purchase new ones.

The fear of road-side gadget technicians is another factor that inspired techAboki. Many people find it difficult to entrust their gadgets to random technicians due to some unpleasant experiences, Alonge told Disrupt Africa.

Chief among them are confidentiality violations and low quality of service. techAboki aims to correct this by becoming a trustworthy platform and building a reliable service both for the customers and the technicians.

Test for trustworthiness

All technicians listed on the platform have undergone a test for trustworthiness by techAboki. Clients can book for a gadget fix on the website, over the phone or via a mobile app, receiving a quote for the cost of the repair. They can either pay online or opt to pay on delivery after the gadget has been fixed. techAboki also offers pickup and delivery services.

The startup is currently bootstrapping, but seeking investment.

The lack of external funding and assistance can be a personal handicap, making us work extra hours and sometimes sleepless nights, but we are optimistic that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are trying to fix a problem that exists and that makes us happy, Alonge said.

Plans to expand services

techAboki, which charges 15% of the cost of every successful repair, has already seen a number of successful fixes completed through the platform and plans to expand its range of services over time.

Currently, we are starting operations in selected cities in Nigeria, to test out our model and make adjustments where needed, before expanding nationwide and, with adequate funds, expanding to other countries in Africa, Alonge said.

Read the original article on Disrupt Africa.
According to the latest TV ad for Mugg & Bean, every day we share five billion things online. There is no indication of who this we is. If it is South Africans, then we each share an average of 100 bits of information a day. That sounds way too high.

Maybe they mean the planet who knows? What it is, is sloppy copy writing.

However, that will not divert me from acknowledging the central basic human truth at the core of the ad: that we may share humongous amounts of information with each other in cyberspace every day, but that we seldom do it face-to-face.

And that is one of the saddest sides to the tech revolution currently enveloping us: it takes away some of our humanity.

But, says Mugg & Bean, it doesnt have to be that way. Why not get together and celebrate, and generously, at a Mugg & Bean? So we see a group of friends, perhaps a bit shame-faced for sending their wishes via text or Facebook, getting together, clutching big print-outs of those messages, and surprising their friend as she sits with her lone cup of coffee in a Mugg & Bean.

Screengrabs from the ad.

The next moment, they are all deluged with cakes, muffins, drinks all the sort of good stuff you expect from a Mugg & Bean. And theres plenty of it.

That is when the punchline  Share Generous  starts to make double sense. Share yourself, be generous with yourself. And go to a Mugg & Bean, where the helpings are generous.

It is simple, but it works.

One of the things that drives working journalists to distraction is dealing with ignorant PR people who a) dont understand how the media, and specifically a newsroom, works; b) cant write; c) wouldnt know a news angle is it ran them over in the street; and d) pester you with inappropriate information or reminder calls when you are on deadline.

Youd think then that a company which puts this on its website would know what it is doing when it comes to contacting the media:

PR companies need to understand the relentless pressure the media face every day which is why Stratitude provides information to targeted journalists, whilst respecting deadlines, embargo requirements and exclusives. This has helped us build strong media relations, where we ensure that each story we pitch is new, relevant, honest and timely.

Given that, in reality, the people working for this Randburg-based company do almost exactly the opposite of what the website promises, Stratitude gets this weeks Bell Pottinger Memorial Onion for Awful Spin.

On deadline this week, I picked up the phone to a sweet voice asking after the previous editor, who departed this building last year. (Havent updated your media list or paid attention to news stories for at least eight months, have you, Stratitude?)

Surprised that he was no longer in the chair, she asked who the editor is currently (see comment above).

When I asked why she wanted to talk to the editor, she said she had a client who was involved in customer loyalty or some such rubbish. I didnt hear the rest because my head exploded

On what orbiting moon of Planet Out of Touch are you sitting when you think you can contact a busy editor directly? Apparently, they always talked to the previous editor. I dont think so  he would have slam-dunked the phone just as I did. So youre also being economical with the truth.

Why not be honest and say we bought a media list from someone, didnt bother updating it and we dont know whats going on?

Youd be surprised how often this sort of thing happens. Sweet voices (they always are) phoning you up to speak to your electronics correspondent (what  in this day and age of shrinking newsrooms?) or to ask: Did you get my press release? (Oh yes  I know instantly what youre talking about from your sexy lilt, sweetie)

This is more than annoying, though, because an irritated journalist associates you with your client  and any client stupid or careless enough to engage idiots to carry out an important marketing function cant be worth giving any space to.

On the Stratitude website, they say they provide exceptional, measurable outcomes across all communication platforms.

Measure this then: Onion for brain-dead PR.
The M&C Saatchi Group in South Africa has appointed Dallas du Toit as Creative Partner: Digital. His primary task will be to continue to grow a world-class digital capability within the SA Group by partnering with Founding Partner and Executive Creative Director (CPT) Gordon Ray as well as Neo Mashigo, Creative Partner: Group

As the former Executive Creative Director at Gloo @ Ogilvy, Dallas was integral to the digital agencys successes in Southern Africa over the last 10 years. In his career he has worked on blue chip brands like Puma, Samsung, Castle Lite, Dove, FNB & Allan Gray. He has accumulated numerous local and international awards and accolades as a digital pioneer

In addition to this key digital appointment, Ernst van der Merwe has been named the new Creative Director at digital agency Creative Spark, part of the M&C Saatchi SA Group companies. He will work across the Cape Town and Johannesburg offices. Van der Merwe was formerly at Aqua Wunderman, and has led a number a fully integrated, multi-platform campaigns for brands like Coca-cola, MTN, Mercedes-Benz and Investec.

The thing that really drives us, is creating beautifully simple solutions for an increasingly complex world. We call this Brutal Simplicity of Thought. Having Dallas and Ernst in the team will allow us to bring the very best of digital innovation and creative leadership to our clients in pursuit of this purpose, explains Gordon Ray, Founding Partner & Executive Creative Director

Ultimately, our goal is to become one of the most creative companies on the African Continent. So we are incredibly excited to have such dynamic digital leaders joining our ever growing group of companies, says Mike Abel, Founding Partner and Chief Executive.

The independent global advertising network, M&C Saatchi, was established in 1995, when Maurice and Charles Saatchi left the agency they first founded, Saatchi & Saatchi. It is the largest independent agency network in the world with 26 offices globally. The M&C Saatchi Group (South Africa) comprises six separate companies, one of which is M&C Saatch Abel, already regarded as one of the most influential agencies in South Africa.




Holmes Brothers, the Afrocentric surfer style menswear brand that originated in Durban, has successfully launched in Japanese retailer The Freak's Store. The Bros, as the brand is affectionately known in Durban, enjoyed a knock-out launch at the flagship store in downtown Tokyo, with Holmes Bros garments selling out within a week.

Holmes Bros grew out of a love for the ocean and the South African community. Founders Gary and Laurie Holmes are active Durban surfers which is where their inspiration comes from. According to the company, it aims to avoid the mainstream and mixes a classic surf approach with vibrant tones that shout Africa from the rooftops. All Holmes Brothers garments are 100% locally-made in South Africa. In addition to their apparel, they also produce a range of surfboards.

The brand's entrance into Japan began when The Freaks Store contacted the brothers and expressed interest in the offering. Laurie explains, They had researched us, the history of our brand and they knew more about us than we do. It was a real pleasure to work and hang out with such smart, refreshing, and enthusiastic people.

Gary comments on the trip, We arrived at their flagship store in downtown Tokyo at about 2pm and it was chaos from the word go. We sold more than half the stock in one afternoon. Every customer wanted their picture taken with us and wanted us to sign catalogues, stickers, and their t-shirts that they had just bought. Japan had not seen anything like Holmes Bros.

Holmes Brothers also has its own store in Marseille, France and supplies independents in France and the UK, proving that SA fashion has plenty of appeal in the international arena. For local shoppers, there are Holmes Bros stores in Cape Town (Lifestyle Centre, Kloof Street), Johannesburg (Rosebanks the Zone) and in Durban (La Lucia Mall and Water Crest Mall) and Holmes Bros gear is also stocked online and in select independent stores throughout South Africa.

The Holmes Bros are now working on a range with The Freaks Store for the summer of 2018 and their Japanese agent Kaori, is about to launch a Holmes Bros website specifically for Japan.
Southern Fried Chicken, a UK brand with some American heritage at the roots of its recipes, recently expanded into the South African market with its first store opening at 9 Long Street, Cape Town.

The British franchise says it only makes meals using "real chicken" and filtered oil, and offers a "real, juicy alternative to over-priced, oily, and dry cuts often on offer".

The chicken is said to arrive fresh (not frozen), is cut and then lathered in pressure-fried crunchiness using the secret Southern Fried Chicken recipe with imported herbs and spices.

Says Andrew Withers, chairman, South Africans might think they are spoilt-for-choice when it comes to all the options of chicken meals currently on offer, but the quality of our dishes proves that another chicken franchise in South Africa is indeed a necessity. We go back to the old-school way of ensuring that chicken is the hero of every dish on our menu. The quality and goodness of our chicks make us stand-out. We use only real, fresh chicken, prepared in a good, honest way.

The menu comprises fresh, Halaal dishes in five flavours: Lemon & Herbs, Mango & Lime, Piri Piri - Mild, Piri Piri - Hot and Piri Piri - Extra Hot. Menu items range from burgers to bucket-deals and wraps  prepared in the signature fried method or grilled.

In store, customers will also find complimentary Wi-Fi and Lavazza coffee on offer.
Customer experience management (CEM) utilises user experience, customer satisfaction and value-add and will be the next big thing' for businesses looking to exploit multiple channels of communication that link the customer.

Bernice Houston

Bernice Houston, sales and marketing manager at CRS Technologies, says, While CEM is a relatively new concept in South Africas business environment, it is beginning to gain momentum across many industries. Industries are adopting this new approach at a rapid rate which should see this becoming a universal and must-have commodity by 2020.

Part of the reason for this anticipated increase in interest is because of the opportunity that lies in CEM, if applied effectively. Decision makers see a clear opportunity to engage with their customers in order to create more meaningful experiences, whilst simultaneously meeting their customer expectations.

There are real results from the application of CEM in business. With the rise of increased customer experience management, companies will be forced to raise the bar. Customers are bound to compare experiences from one provider to another and will start demanding consistency throughout.

Trends to watch

Given that CEM is relatively new and still taking shape in South Africa, there are developments and emerging trends.

We list these as HR-focused, with the ability and desire to engage with customers at any given time of the day, regardless of location. The ultimate solution to effective customer experience management would be integration of touch points, unpacking customers lives and more automation.

From an HR perspective, it would be great to engage with your employees on a daily basis with a device that has built in artificial intelligence. Imagine being reminded to submit leave as soon as a calendar event is added after you have booked a weekend away? Even better, imagine if the artificially intelligent solution can help you spend your salary in a more efficient way by taking into account life events you would need cash for throughout the year.

In HR, employees want to help themselves. More employees are asking if they can structure their own salaries, if this can be made possible within the boundaries of the company policies. Therefore, an intelligent device can assist an employee in the moment. If they are requesting to do something that is not within company policy or within the Basic Conditions of Employment.

With this realisation, companies will begin to tap into CEM to grow and develop. Companies will have to change the how and when of customer services. They will benefit by identifying who their customers are and what their touch points are. By analysing and unpacking the as-is design elements and creatively reinvent the to-be design. CEM is about big picture thinking.

We are of the view that each industry and each business will have their own challenges but the principles of their core business are unlikely to change. The fundamentals of wanting to buy something have not changed, but how it is ordered, delivered and supported should be reinvented with the customer at the heart of it. Make buying easy, simple and effortless, concludes Houston.

The advent of CEM means HR and payroll software providers will have to focus on staking their claim within the people management industry, by meeting the demand for instant clarification, automation, reinforced wellness and much more.
Formal discussions on a potential merger between PPC and AfriSam are continuing, PPC said on Monday, 17 July.

PPC's share price gained 0.63% to R4.80 in mid-morning trade after the cautionary announcement. It is the fifth such statement this year.

PPC and AfriSam announced in February they had restarted talks to potentially merge their operations, nearly two years after previous talks were abandoned.

The companies said the merger would allow them to compete in a market dominated by multinational and regional players.

The merged entity would have complementary production assets in seven African countries.

"Accordingly, shareholders are advised to continue exercising caution when dealing in securities of the company until such time a further announcement is made," Monday's trading statement read.

Source: BDpro
Odette Geldenhuys has dedicated her career to assisting those less fortunate, fighting for the rights of those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to have their voices heard.

Odette Geldenhuys

Geldenhuys believes that, "Access to justice is more than access to a court: it is access to quality legal services in order to be adequately represented by a professional in a legal matter."

The founding director of ProBono.org and winner of multiple awards for all the legal work she has provided pro bono, Geldenhuys chats to us about the difference between CSI and pro bono services, and what motivates her on a day-to-day basis.

"As this is CSI Month, it is important to distinguish between pro bono legal services and CSI, because to conflate the two, can result in valuable legal professional hours being lost to activities which do not need legal skills to be completed," says Geldenhuys.

"Corporate Social Investment (CSI) is defined by Trialogue as 'any social development activity that is not undertaken for the purpose of generating business income'. This comprises the cash and non-cash items given to people, organisations and communities that are external to the business. Law firms are also involved in CSI activities, such as painting a creche in an informal settlement, or working in a soup kitchen. While these activities will make a difference in the life of the toddlers at the creche, or those whose only meal they get from the soup kitchen, CSI activities do not use the unique skills and expertise that only lawyers have.

"Pro bono legal services are legal services provided to a poor and/or disempowered person, persons, community, or a non-profit entity that works with poor persons and/or communities, without them having to pay for such services. Therefore, what qualifies are those services which only lawyers can perform, and the recipient must be someone who cannot afford legal fees. As there is not nearly enough free legal services available for the number of people who are poor and disempowered, other criteria are also used to define pro bono legal services; and these include that the matter must have merit, and sometimes also that the matter must be in the public interest. (A public interest matter is when the principle is of greater importance than one individual or one community; and/or when it involves an issue that will create a precedent.)

"An example from another profession may be quite illustrative," she further explains. "Heart surgeon Dr. Susan Mees has 20 free hours per year. She can either use them to knit blanket squares, or she can go do open heart surgery on a toddler whose parents are unemployed. The impact of the open heart surgery is the impact lawyers can have with deploying their expertise in pro bono matters."

Tell us a little about yourself and your motivation behind founding ProBono.Org...

I am a full-time pro bono attorney at Webber Wentzel. Prior to this, I was the founder director of ProBono.Org. I am also a documentary filmmaker.

One of the great motivations behind founding ProBono.Org was to create a space where lawyers wanting to do pro bono legal work can find the kinds of cases that they have an interest in and the expertise for. Another driver behind the establishment of ProBono.Org was to grow a pro bono culture in South Africa.

Last year you were named Attorney of the Year at the African Legal Awards, Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year by the International Bar Association, and Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the Cape Law Society. What does this recognition of your work mean to you?

While the recognition is personally rewarding, these awards are about so much more than the warm, fuzzy feeling. These awards, at local, regional and international level, is recognition of the remarkable pro bono legal work done at these different levels. That the African Legal Awards for Attorney of the Year went to an attorney who only does pro bono work, is for me a clear signal that a pro bono practice, in terms of status and standing is on par with any of the commercial or dispute resolution practices. The fact that the International Bar Association, the worlds largest membership-based organisation for lawyers, only has two annual awards: one for pro bono and the other for young lawyers, is an indication of the emphasis that the global legal community places on pro bono legal services. Receiving the Cape Law Society Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award was a particular honour for me as the Cape Law Society was the first of the South African law societies to introduce pro bono rules.

Tell us about your most difficult and/or rewarding case

The beauty of my work as a pro bono attorney is that every day is different, every matter has its challenges and rewards. A matter that stands out is the emoluments attachment order matter, which ran over a three and a half year period. It started with assisting 16 low-income people challenge the lawfulness of the emoluments attachment orders against their salaries, that resulted in a ground-breaking Constitutional Court judgment, and that concluded in Parliament amending the relevant legislation.

What do you feel are the benefits of pro bono work to you and the industry as a whole?

We occupy an interesting space among professionals. Like other professionals, we have specialised skills and expertise, which make us an elite profession. However, unlike other professionals (and we think of the heart surgeon example again), daily our services are required by poor and disempowered people. Our legal assistance may ensure that an indigent child is exempted from buying a school uniform, that a woman is not unfairly dismissed because she complained about sexual harassment, and that a community can oppose a mining operation that breaches all the environmental laws. By Webber Wentzel enabling me to do this kind of work without the clients having to pay for my services, we are ensuring that at least some people are not unfairly treated and that others can defend their constitutional rights. As a result, pro bono legal services make our society a better place for ordinary people.

Do you feel that the mandatory 24 hour per year pro bono requirement is necessary?

South African law societies and bar councils have rules directing that all attorneys and advocates have a pro bono obligation. For attorneys that obligation is 24 hours per year. However, such mandatory pro bono requirement is not found in most other jurisdictions, including the USA and Australia, where lawyers fulfill their pro bono obligations on a voluntary basis. While one may argue that the mandatory nature of pro bono work is merely a confirmation of what attorneys will in any case be doing, a number of downsides are generally recognised to this compulsory approach. For me the biggest of these concerns is that one does not want clients to be served by lawyers who have been compelled to serve them and lawyers who are not willingly undertaking their obligation. Such clients are possibly at an even greater disadvantage.

I would like us to have a pro bono culture in South Africa, in which all lawyers willingly do pro bono legal work for poor people, according to their availability and their areas of expertise. I would like pro bono to part of the DNA of all lawyers.

As a champion of your industry, what do you say to inspire new attorneys about pro bono work?

I ask them whether they want a job where every day is different. I ask them whether they want a job where every day one has made a difference - be it for one person who has had their dignity recognised, be it for a non-profit organisation that assists mentally disabled people, be it creating a space wherein public participation can take place. And if their answer is 'yes' to just one of these questions, I suggest that they may want to do some pro bono legal work in their day.
We applaud the efforts of Youth in Tourism month and the initiatives of the national Department of Tourism and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to prioritise the advancement of youth in tourism, writes Tim Smith, but South Africa needs to make sure they have the right skills to forge a career in the sector.

Wavebreak Media Ltd via 123RF

Travel and tourism make up one of the worlds largest economic sectors, driving job creation and economic growth. The latest research from World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) on South Africa shows travel and tourism generated 716,500 jobs directly in 2016 (4.6% of total employment) and this is forecast to grow by 3.6% in 2017to 742,000. By 2027, travel and tourism is forecast to support 2,459,000 jobs (13.2% of total employment), an increase of 4.2% p/a over the period.

There are opportunities for young South Africans in the travel and tourism industry, but we need to ensure they have the skills to march into the future with confidence.

Hotel and hospitality courses are good, but...

Unfortunately, there is a disconnect when it comes preparing hotel and hospitality students for the realities the career demands. The feedback I get from graduates and interns is that the courses are good, but are trying to cover too much ground without delivering enough depth of content.

Another issue is the management of the expectations of those students. Once more there is a large disconnect in terms of expectations and deliverables. Students think a degree will set them on an automatic course to management. In reality, a degree may speed up that path, but graduates still have to serve an apprenticeship, like everyone else.

A crucial aspect that needs to be addressed is that social and soft skills are not included sufficiently, and universities and colleges are receiving students without basic writing and communications skills. When education is seen as a right or as a business, the ethos changes and reasons to attend courses change. Education should be seen as a privilege that is open to everyone if they work hard.

Sell the lifestyle

Tourism and hotel management is a tough profession, but for the right people, it offers a great lifestyle and amazing opportunities.

The industry and universities need to do a better job of selling the lifestyle and help us attract better and more people. There are long hours yes, but skilled and unskilled labour is needed so we should focus on the attitude, not just the exam results. Its vital to interview as many people as possible and find out what forces drive them. Then when all suitable candidates have completed their basic training, select people for specialisation, including management.

More candidates from SA, more experience needed

I am on the advisory board for hotel management courses at two leading universities to ensure the courses fully reflect the needs of the industry and produce graduates ready for the 21st century workplace. At HVS, we have also taken on an intern, though oddly enough, we received many more applicants from abroad than from South Africa. That needs to change.

Its unfortunate that operational salaries are so low that newly employed graduates often cannot afford to remain in the industry unless they quickly advance into management.

I received this interesting feedback from one of our interns: I attended a prestigious higher learning institution in Africa specialising in International Hospitality Management and there were many lunchroom discussions and heated debates around the fact that Africa is a booming marketplace for the hotel industry - which is a phenomenon favourable for accommodation owners and guests alike, but not for hospitality professionals.

Interns and new graduates also feel that there is not enough on-the-job training provided by the hotels, and they do not feel equipped to handle challenges that arise. There needs to be a collaborative approach between the industry, universities, and students.

Hotel owners and brands can assist and support by exposing school children to the industry with work experience, showing them the fun and the opportunities, as well as taking interns from local colleges and working with local courses to teach what is actually needed.

Solving challenges faced by the continents hospitality industry

Another student working with us has launched a heartfelt plea to the industry that we continue engaging with the learning institutions that are training the next generation of hospitality professionals to develop course content that seeks to solve challenges faced by the continents hospitality industry professionals that can also be transferred to other markets. These are topics like hotel development and pre-opening modules that will equip young minds with the tools for the trade. Africa is growing at a rapid rate, let us prepare our children to take charge of the possibilities.

As a society, its important for us to understand how to deal with millennials coming into the hospitality sector and to explain to them that nothing beats hard work. No one is entitled to anything - you have to earn it.

We recently launched the THINC Africa Awards to honour the extraordinary in Africas hotel industry, including an award for Best Hotel Student of the Year, to be announced at our upcoming THINC Africa conference in August. This is our way of giving back to the industry and offers the winning student access to amazing opportunities.

The hospitality industry is crucial for the growth of this economy, it takes skilled and unskilled labour to run a hotel. We ask for hard work and loyalty and, in return, you get to work with amazing people with the opportunity to travel anywhere. The industry offers constant opportunities to learn and grow and with no glass ceilings - it is up to you how high you fly. At a basic level, you will receive free meals, uniform, showers and often accommodation and will be learning skills that can be transferred to numerous other industries - if you want to leave
The Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria, FTAN, says that less than three per cent of tourists visiting Africa annually, choose Nigeria as their tourism destinations.

Rodney Jackson via 123RF

Karim Rabo, the FTAN president, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Sunday that the figure was low compared to other African countries that usually recorded huge patronage of international tourists. He attributed the low patronage to poor attitudes usually exhibited by Nigerian tour operators and travel agencies.

He also said that Nigerian tour operators and travel agencies were more interested in packaging Nigerian tourists wishing to travel abroad rather than packaging international tourists to Nigeria. "Nigerian tour operators and travel agents promote more of outbound tourism than inbound which is not encouraging.

"We need to get it right by promoting more of domestic tourism asset/potential to the outside world than promoting outbound tourism," he said.

Rabo said that there was a dearth of data about tourism consumptions and market patterns. "Both the federal and state government have no data that show the impact of tourism receipts on Nigeria economy," he said. He said that FTAN would partner multinational organisations and the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS, to set up structures that would be collating tourists' data at all leading tourist destinations in Nigeria.

Rabo said that these would enable the government to know the impacts and contributions of the tourism sector to the Nigerian economy.

The president said that the association was the biggest investor in Nigerian tourism industry. "It has been contributing enormously to Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and employs thousands of Nigerians across the country," he said.

Rabo said that the association members include: hoteliers; travel agencies, tour operators, tourism academia, travel journalists and cultural artisans.

(NAN)
Multifractal Semiconductors has been announced the winner of the 2017 Startup Tel Aviv South Africa contest.

(left to right) Deputy Ambassador, Ayellet Black; Ambassador of Israel to South Africa, Arthur Lenk; co-founders of Multifractal Semiconductors, Nishant Singh, Piotr Osuch, and Ketan Bhana; CEO of the Innovation Hub, McClean Sibanda; and Ogone Ntwae, senior manager special projects at the Innovation Hub.

The startup won an all-expenses paid trip to Israel to participate in the Tel Aviv DLD festival, meet angel investors, and learn from leaders in the startup ecosystem in Israel.

Ambassador Arthur Lenk welcomed guests and finalists to the event which took place at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria: "This is the fourth time we found South Africa's best startup via our Start Up Tel Aviv South Africa contest.

Israel is proud to add value to the local startup ecosystem and share some of Israel's startup nation culture."

About Multifractal Semiconductors

Multifractal Semiconductors was created by Nishant Singh and Piotr Osuch in a research group at the Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute of Microelectronics at the University of Pretoria.

It is a startup that has developed complete transmission systems on a silicon chip. These systems will increase efficiency and throughput and will be an enabler of the huge amounts of data that will be transmitted in the future.

In an IoT (internet of things) smart world where everything is connected, smart cities, smart buildings, smart cars, smart everything, and the connected person amounts of data transmitted will be huge. Wireless data traffic is projected to increase seven-fold from 2016 to 2021 and 1000-fold by the year 2030.

Runners-up

The runner-up was Aerobotics and third place went to Nibit.

Says Singh: "We are so grateful to win this amazing opportunity. South Africans can benefit greatly from the Israeli ecosystem and we look forward to creating partnerships at the DLD festival in Israel and learn from other entrepreneurs from all over the world."
The DA is to lay charges of money laundering and corruption against the South African component of global software giant, SAP, and Gupta-affiliated company CAD House, following allegations that kickbacks changed hands between the two companies in exchange for a R100m Transnet contract.

SAP has denied the allegations which emerged from leaked Gupta-linked e-mails. According to media reports, SAP Africa promised to pay a 10% "commission" to CAD House, which is majority owned by the Gupta family's Sahara Systems, if it secured contracts with Transnet. SAP's shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and also trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) via American depositary receipts.

CAD House, a 3-D printing company, is owned by President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane, and businesses linked to Sahara.

DA spokesperson on public enterprises Natasha Mazzone said the consultancy with CAD House was "rather irregular considering that SAP is an international software giant which had existing contracts with Transnet. Furthermore, CAD House is a small company which specialises in selling 3-D printers and which allegedly had no previous relationships with SAP or expertise in this field.

"The DA has reason to believe that SAP SA procured the services of CAD House purely because they wanted access to its owners, Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas', connections within Transnet with a view to securing a lucrative contract."

Mazzone said it was not enough that SAP had suspended a number of its key executives in SA.

"It is simply not enough that the implicated SAP SA executives are scapegoated. These dealings must have gone higher up in SAP and all those involved should be held accountable. This is not the first time SAP has been caught with its hands in the cookie jar. The firm has previously been found guilty of bribery in numerous countries and the revelations that SAP SA had ignored a number of red flags about CAD House is even further cause for concern," Mazzone said.

Source: BDpro
Having a social media presence for your company is a fantastic idea, whether it's selling products or services to B2B or B2C markets. There's a lot more to social media marketing than posting a few pictures once or twice a week. As many companies have shown, it's easy to fail your social media presence, and your customers will never forget.

When putting a social media campaign in place, its worth looking at who is running the campaign and their experience as well. After all, the social media accounts need to not only represent your company, but its image and owners. It may be a good idea to make sure these employees have at least been on a few basic marketing courses and aren't interns.

Here are a few things to avoid in your social media accounts.

Your social media account is not personal

Theres a lot of responsibility that comes with having a social media account. In fact, its a lot harder than it looks, especially for a business. As an individual, you can air your views on religion, politics, and even your deepest thoughts if you so chose to do so. For companies, they need to be engaging enough to get consumers to click on their links, as well as carry an air of respect around them.

If your business is posting political or religious statements, then its time to reassess your company. After all, would you still buy from a store that you know supports the opposite of your opinion? Be sure to stay away from these subjects as they not only lead to heated battles on social media but can leave potential consumers with a bad taste in their mouths. This doesn't mean you shouldn't support social initiatives, such as creating a green business or helping out in a national crisis.

Keep in mind that anything that is posted from your social media account is seen by everyone. Dont post something that you will later regret.

Your language can define your brand

The use of language should also be at the forefront of how you convey your social media messages. It may seem fun and interesting to use whatever words are currently being used within the social media zeitgeist, but is it necessary?

Food brands can often get away with cheeky adverts and those that use slang, but the same cant be said for a financial institution. Having a corporate company use words like fleek makes them appear to be that old co-worker who tries too hard to bond with junior members of staff. Basically, its not a good image for your brand to have.

Dont do memes

Brands kill memes. The moment a company or business puts out their own take on a meme or popular joke, it almost immediately kills that meme. Just take a look at the mannequin challenge, which had office workers and friends frozen in the moment as they were filmed. It was interesting for the first few days, but it dropped off quickly. Not to mention how many companies were still participating in the meme long after it had died out.

Dont ignore customers and remove negativity

At some point, your company is going to make a mistake. These things happen and if theyre not handled as they happen, the customer will more than likely complain on social media. Too many businesses either tend to completely ignore complaints and negative feedback, or issue a copy and paste response. Consumers dont want to hear well get back to you with an undefined date or even a resolution. Its bad press and it doesnt wash away.

Having customers complain publicly shouldnt be seen as something bad and its not something to freak out over, either. In fact, its a chance to not only do something good publicly by attending to the problem, but gather valuable feedback on your product or solution as well. If a customer complains that they received bad service in-store, or their food was off, its a way for your to look deeper into your company and find out where faults may lie.

If a customer leaves a negative comment or review on your Facebook page, for example, then dont hide it. Be sure to publicly engage with them in order to solve the issue and have them potentially change their view of you.

Those are a few ways in which you can avoid a social media crisis. Its all about common sense and thinking of how consumers will perceive your company.




South Africa's printing industry is working hard to help develop entrepreneurs who can pay it forward by employing others, according to Steve Thobela, CEO of industry body, Printing SA.

Front row from left  right: Tukiso Lekganyane, Musawenkosi Nhlapo, Shallon Mphasane ( Printing SA), Bonginkosi Mlambo, Koketso Khodobo, Carrington Muliwa,2nd Row from left  right: Nkosana Khumalo, Sibusiso Zuke, Webster Mahlangu, Gladwin Denga, Neo Kekana, Thabiso Machika, Wesley Arendse, Thabiso Mathula

Thobela said that, at a time when unemployment was rife, empowering South Africans to seize opportunities to create their own businesses rather than stand by helplessly waiting for jobs was imperative. However, this could not be achieved sustainably without skills development. He was speaking shortly after the graduation of Printing SAs Commercial Digital Printing Programme on Sunday, 9 June 2017. This was held at Konica Minoltas offices in Ormonde.

Making dreams a reality

The programme was piloted in 2016 with a total of 16 learners in Gauteng and is already bearing fruit in the industry with an additional 24 learners having graduated thus far in the Western Cape and Gauteng. Carrington Muliwa and George Mosako, are just two of the graduates of Printing SAs Commercial Digital Printing Programme who have had success stories. Muliwa is also the 2017 bursary winner of a fully sponsored course by Printing SA.

He had wanted to run a printing business since his high school days. When he inherited an old broken printer and Pentium 3 laptop from his late uncle, he set about repairing them and then started his own business from home, formulating CVs for job seekers as well as producing other printed material. However, due to a lack of business skills, his little enterprise stalled. However, he never gave up on his dream of owning a printing business. Last year, he began saving and eventually purchased an A24 Vinyl plotter, multi-functional heat press and a sublimation printer. His goal was to rebuild his business and provide an opportunity to further assist members in his community by assisting job seekers with well-presented and well written CVs.

Thobela explained: Muliwa certainly showed his commitment and dedication and we are thrilled at having provided him with this opportunity where he will be given some much-needed skills to grow his business. The course included subjects such as an introduction to digital printing, inks, colour, media, finishing and overview of machines. We are convinced this will take his business to the next level.

I definitely feel more confident about the success of my business and will use everything I have learnt. I am so grateful for being awarded this bursary as it has given me a second chance to make my dream a reality, said Muliwa.

Creating successful entrepreneurs

2015 also saw the South African Reserve Bank win R10,000,00 as part of the 2015 International Day of Print Competition. They requested that this be used for internal training and George Mosako, one of their employees, was chosen as the most deserving candidate. Now having completed the programme, Mosako said he was ecstatic to have been granted the opportunity to not only further his skills but also to formally graduate with a qualification that will allow him to make more of a contribution to the company.

With a successful 2017 to date, Thobela said that, during the latter part of 2017, a further 16 learners are expected to be enrolled in the programme from the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. He hopes that more learners will become entrepreneurs after successful completion  and that more established businesses will sponsor willing candidates to develop their skillset.

Showing their contribution to the industry, Konica Minolta recently employed Brian Chauke, one of the graduates from the Printing SA Commercial Digital Printing programme. He will be participating in a 12-month long learnership as he passed their online assessment and progressed to their first interview process. Konica Minoltas partnership with Printing SA began in 2014, when they both created and facilitated a comprehensive training programme for 20 female business owners.

For further information on skills pool bursaries which enable unemployed learners to develop marketable skills in the industry or to apply for one, please send an application, together with a CV to Charmaine Kearns, via fax on 086 508 1350 or email.
Advertising Week, the world's largest annual gathering of marketing, media, and technology leaders, makes its long-anticipated debut in Africa on 14-19 February 2023, after the planned launch was delayed by the global pandemic.
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Air Mauritius received two accolades at the 2017 World Travel Awards - Indian Ocean, which was held at the Sun Aqua Vily Reef in the Republic of Maldives. Air Mauritius was acknowledged for its Amedee Maingard Lounge that was named Indian Ocean leading airport lounge and it was also presented with the Indian Ocean leading airline, economy class award.

Air Mauritius' manager of special projects and Amedee Maingard Lounge manager, Rajesh Beeharry received the awards on behalf of the airline.
Courtesy of MomentsinTime.comA morbid-yet-historic piece of John Lennon memorabilia -- a copy of his 1980 album Double Fantasy that he autographed for his murderer, Mark David Chapman, five hours before Chapman shot the Beatles legend to death -- is being sold via the Moments in Time autograph dealer.

Moments in Time president Gary Zimet tells ABC Radio that the asking price for the LP, which was found by a lifelong Lennon fan in a flower planter outside of the Dakota building not long after John was killed, is $1.5 million.

Double Fantasy's cover features a photo of Lennon kissing his wife and collaborator Yoko Ono, and John signed his name and "1980" on the front of Chapman's copy of the album, over Yoko's neck. Since the LP was entered into evidence in the assassin's murder trial, its cover and dust jacket also feature Chapman's forensically enhanced fingerprints.

After the trial, the album was returned to the man who found it, along with a letter of gratitude from New York City's district attorney. According to Zimet, the man sold the signed LP in 1999 for $150,000; it was sold again in 2010 for $850,000 to an anonymous collector. The album is currently being sold with the aforementioned letter from the New York D.A.

"We are very excited to bring such a historically significant piece to the market," says Moments in Time spokesman Bob Zafian. "I have never come across a piece with such provenance; police reports, fingerprint documentation, letters from the District Attorney, it goes on and on."

Chapman continues to serve a 20-years-to-life sentence for killing Lennon; he's been denied parole nine times.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.


File photo.

BEIJING (PTI): China's military on Monday said it has conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus, amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector.



The People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted the 11-hour long live-fire exercises at an altitude of 5,000 meters on the plateau in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, aimed at improving the combat capability on such locations, the military said.



The exercise was conducted by a ground combat brigade of the PLA Tibet Regional Command this month and involved scenarios such as rapid deployment, multi-unit joint strike and anti-aircraft defence, state-run China Daily quoted a PLA press release as saying.



The exercise effectively tested the brigade's joint strike capability on plateaus, according to the press release.



The brigade that conducted the drills was from the PLA's Tibet Military Command and is one of China's two plateau mountain brigades.



The PLA Tibet command guards the Line of Actual Control (LAC) of the India-China border along several sections connecting the mountainous Tibetan region.



Analysts believe that the drills are an apparent attempt by the military to reassure the Chinese public about the combat readiness of its troops.



"Showing an opponent that you are combat ready is more likely to prevent an actual battle," Wang Dehua, South Asia studies expert at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said.



Broadcasting the drill on CCTV was also likely designed to keep the public happy, he said.



"It could also reassure the Chinese people that a strong PLA force is there, capable and determined to defend Chinese territory," Wang told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.



The CCTV report did not disclose the location of the drills but said the brigade responsible for frontline combat missions has long been stationed around the middle and lower reaches of the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo in Chinese) River.



Brahmaputra flows into India from Arunachal Pradesh border.



"The PLA wanted to demonstrate it could easily overpower its Indian counterparts," Beijing-based military commentator Zhou Chenming told the Post.



The Chinese force that took part in the drill is stationed in the Lizhi region of eastern Tibet, close to the stand-off, the Post said.



India has nearly two lakh troops stationed in the areas it disputes with China, outnumbering its neighbour's forces by as much as 15 or 20 to one, it said.



Nonetheless, China has a clear advantage in terms of speed of movement, firepower, and logistics, Zhou said.



"[By staging] a small-scale drill, China wants to control the problem and lower the risk of shots being fired," he said.



Monday's drills included the quick deployment of troops and different military units working together on joint attacks.



Video posted online showed soldiers using anti-tank grenades and missiles against bunkers and howitzers for artillery coverage.



The video also showed radar units identifying enemy aircraft and soldiers using anti-aircraft artillery to destroy targets, the report said.



Separately, Tibet's mobile communication agency conducted a drill on July 10 in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, where members of the agency practiced setting up a temporary mobile network to secure communications in an emergency.



Earlier reports said the PLA units exercised in Tibet with several modern weapon systems including a new light battle tank being manufactured by China.



Qin Zhen, executive editor of Ordnance Knowledge magazine, said that the recent exercises have displayed the strong combat capability of the PLA's plateau units.



He said that in recent years the Chinese military developed a number of lightweight weapons such as a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle and a new light tank to meet requirements of mountain operations.



Xiao Ning, editor-in-chief of Weapon magazine, said the new light tank features strong firepower, advanced armour and good mobility, so it is suitable for deployment on plateaus.



China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.



China claimed that they were constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding immediate pull out of the Indian troops from the disputed Dokalam plateau.



New Delhi has expressed concern over the road building, apprehending that it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its north-eastern states.



India has conveyed to the Chinese government that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for it.



Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.



Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.




India will procure the Kamov helicopters to replace its ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak choppers.

MOSCOW (PTI): An Indo-Russian joint venture to produce the Kamov military helicopters under a US$ 1 billion deal has been registered in India and efforts are on to co- produce them, a senior official of the Russian defence major Rostec has said.



The joint venture was registered in May, said Victor Nikolayevich Kladov, the head of the Department of International Cooperation and Regional Policy, Rostec State Corp, Russia's umbrella organisation for 700 hi-tech civilian and military firms which was established in 2007.



In October last year, India and Russia finalised a broad agreement for the JV between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and two Russian defence majors.



India is procuring Kamov choppers to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.



Sixty Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India under a US$ 1 billion deal inked in 2015.



"We are very happy to know that the joint venture has finally been registered by the Indian Government in May," Kladov told reporters in Moscow ahead of the MAKS-2017 airshow that began Tuesday in the Russian town of Zhukovsky near Moscow.



The airshow will continue till July 23.



"Everything will be in the hands of the joint venture.



Now initiative all goes to this joint venture," Kladov said.



"It is registered in India because judicially it is in India. It was approved by the Russian Government in April and then after having

been approved by the Russian government, it was registered in India," the top Rostec official said.



The agreement for the Kamov choppers was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in December, 2015.



In October last year, Russian Helicopters, Rosoboronexport and India's HAL Corp had almost completed the formalities for the joint venture to localise the production of Ka-226Ts and deliver them to the Indian market.



On the supply of S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems to India, Kladov said, "We are talking already".



"There is a G to G (government to government) agreement on this subject and parties are in the midst of negotiations," he said.



Asked about the upgrading of Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter, Kladov said the Indian government is "evaluating" it.



"This question as far as I know was raised between President Vladimir Putin and esteemed Prime Minister Modi in St Petersburg last month.



The Indian Prime Minister once again reiterated that the Indian side needs time to evaluate its strategy of development and how to spend money," Kladov said.



"We are offering a package for modernising the Su-30 aircraft. It will obtain new capabilities, it will be very close to the fifth

generation aircraft in capabilities. This is a deep modernisation, everything should be changed - engine, radar etc," he said.



Kladov said it was up to India whether it wants to pick up the entire package or opt for selective modernisation.



"The Indian Air Force has to evaluate its strategy and then take a decision," he said.



On reports that the Indian Air Force has been planning to order more Mi-17V-5 helicopters for long, he said, "We are waiting for an invitation to negotiate. It's been quite a long time.



It was announced...and delayed a few times because of budget complications or whatever, but we expect this to happen later this year."



Talking about the 13th MAKS airshow, Kladov said it was a "big show".



Some 800 companies are participating from Russia and 180 companies from 37 countries worldwide.



There were 10 national pavilions, he said, adding that Indian firms like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Larsen & Toubro and many others were participating in the event.



"We will further talk on our joint venture Ka-226 helicopter production and a number of other mutual defence projects," he said of

India's participation in the airshow.



Asked if any project with India he wants to highlight, Kladov said they are "well known".



Rostec Corporation, one of the main organisers of MAKS- 2017, will present the latest Russian developments in the space industry as well as in aircraft and helicopter engineering and weapons.



"During the salon, we plan to reach several key agreements with our strategic partners. In particular, we intend to conclude an agreement with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) on the supply of new engines for Il-114-300 and to sign a memorandum with Chinese partners for the creation of a Russian engine for wide-body long-range aircraft on the basis of United Engine Corporation (UEC)," said Sergey Chemezov, Rostec's General Director.



"During the negotiations with our foreign partners, we intend to focus on after-sales service of aviation equipment and on

construction of service centres," Chemezov said.



Asked if western sanctions against Russia would hamper the airshow, Kladov said they won't affect it as, "politics is politics and

business is business."




Warships of the US Navy, Indian Navy and Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force in formation during the conclusion of the Malabar 2017 naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. A US Pacific Fleet photo via Twitter

CHENNAI (PTI): The US, Japanese and Indian navies on Monday concluded the 'Malabar Naval Exercise' aimed at achieving deeper military ties between the three nations.



The naval exercise featured 95 aircraft, 16 ships and two submarines, officials said in a statement.



Various manoeuvres were undertaken in rough seas in the Bay of Bengal, they said.



The exercise, which began on July 10, comprised both on shore and offshore activities which included cross-deck flying operations, refuelling across ships and crew handling procedures.



Under cross-deck flying operations, a helicopter from USS 'Shoup' landed on-board Indian Naval Ship 'Sahayadri' and later on Japanese Naval ship 'Sazanami', the officials said.



A helicopter from 'Sazanami' then undertook flying operations from INS Sahayadri and USS Shoup.



"The cross-deck flying operations require a high degree of interoperability and knowledge of procedures of participating in ships and helicopters", they said.



The navies of the three countries undertook the exercise in rough seas and under challenging weather conditions.



Under the crew exchange programme, an Indian Navy helicopter transferred Japanese sailors to Naval ship Vikramaditya in the Bay of Bengal. This was followed by flying operations by helicopters of US Navy ships.



Indian Navy ship Jyoti transferred oil with US 'Shoup' and Japanese naval ship 'Sazanami' under the replenishment at sea exercise on Sunday.



"During the operation, INS Jyoti passed the oil hoses to the US and Japanese Navies to exercise transfer of fuel," the officials said.



On combined crew training exercise, MiG 29K fighter aircraft from onboard aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya undertook combat missions against US Navy's F-18 fighter aircraft launched from USS Nimitz.



Aircraft from both Indian and US navies undertook composite formation flying, demonstrating another step in the interoperability aimed through this exercise, the statement added.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A long-awaited funding contribution for the Keystone Centre was announced by the Province of Manitoba on Monday.

The province will provide $375,000 for the facilitys capital plan in the 2017-18 fiscal year. While it is a bit shy of the $500,000 that was requested, the board and city officials are pleased to see the province step up.

It will certainly help us get some of the projects done that have been kind of pushed out the last couple years, Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes), who is Keystone Centre board chair.

Jillian Austin/The Brandon Sun Keystone Centre marketing manager Krista Kowaluk and Keystone board chair Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes) present to city council on the facilitys capital funding needs.

We werent quite sure if they were going to get done this year  because we were waiting on hearing (about) funding.

Maintenance and capital costs continue to mount at the Keystone Centre, which is nearly 45 years old and spans 540,000 square feet. Berry explained the No. 1 priority is repairing a portion of the Canada Room roof, which has deteriorated so bad that its almost a health and safety risk now both for people and for animals that use that area.

The estimated cost for this repair is $285,000. There is also a costly fire suppression system that also high up on the list. A major repair to the roof over the Wheat Kings office is currently underway.

Were glad now the money has come forth because now we can actually pay for that, Berry said. Instead of out of our operating (budget), take it out of our capital, which is where it should be coming from.

Brandon City Council contributed $500,000 in 2016 to the facilitys capital plan, but the province, which is the facilitys other funding partner, did not contribute.

When (the Progressive Conservatives) formed government, they had to get their feet under them with respect to a number of files, said Mayor Rick Chrest.

And then of course, the big picture in terms of fiscal realities that they were figuring out. So now they have gotten around to doing what they can for the Keystone Centre, so Im quite pleased that they are in for a significant amount towards the capital program.

During city councils 2017 budget deliberations, it was decided that the city would once again provide $500,000 for the Keystone this year, contingent on the province matching the contribution. It is expected that council will uphold its $500,000, however, by press time the item had not yet been dealt with at last nights meeting.

Berry is hopeful that this is not a one-time deal with the province, but the start of a multi-year agreement.

We were hoping for  matching funds because it just allows us to do even more, he said.

But you never bite the hand that feeds you. Were not ungrateful that were getting this because it certainly does help us. I just wish that we could get what we actually asked for because theres just so many things that are still getting left undone, that need to be done, and its all based on funding.

Municipal Relations Minister Eileen Clarke and Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler made the funding announcement via press release Monday. The capital funding is in addition to the ongoing $375,000 operating grant provided by the province.

The Keystone Centre is a significant part of the city of Brandon and the local economy, Clarke said. We are investing in this facility to ensure it will continue to serve residents, businesses and visitors to the Westman region for years to come.

Eichler noted that since 2005, the Manitoba government has provided over $9 million in capital funding directly to the Keystone Centre, with an additional $2.5 million for renovations and upgrades for hosting the 2010 Memorial Cup.

Our government recognizes the important economic and social contribution of the Keystone Centre for western Manitoba and especially for our agriculture industry, Eichler said.

Each year, the Keystone Centre becomes a hub for agriculture activity as the host venue of our provinces marquee industry events. This investment by the province will enable the facility to continue as a leading event centre in Western Canada.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
A UK lotto millionaire is facing trial accused of defilement of an under-age teenage girl from Ireland who he met through an internet chat-room.

The British man was arrested in Dublin by gardai at the weekend after he travelled to Ireland by ferry to speak to the teens mother about his relationship with her daughter.

The wealthy businessman appeared before Judge Fiona Lydon at Dublin District Court charged with four counts of engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 17 years on dates in 2016 and this year.



Bail with a range of strict conditions was set at 200,000 and he was remanded in custody to appear again in court on Friday.

The alleged offences are under Section Three of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006, which can carry jail terms of up to five years.

Objecting to bail, Garda Stephen Faulkner said it was alleged the man frequently travelled over from the UK by ferry to meet the girl for sex and gardai have recovered videos of sexual activity from the defendants phone.

He said a complaint was made by the teens mother in January that her daughter, who is in her mid-teens, and the man were in a sexual relationship.

The alleged injured party outlined that she met him through a named online chat-room in 2015, the bail hearing was told. Garda Faulkner said the girl was subscribed to the under-17s category of the website. It was alleged she engaged in conversation with the accused.

It was alleged they exchanged details and communicated through Snapchat and WhatsApp.

Garda Faulkner told the bail hearing it was alleged the man first came to Ireland to meet her last year.

It was alleged they stayed in a hotel in Dublin and had sexual intercourse. She was aged 15 at the time and had told the accused, the court heard.

Garda Faulkner alleged that this did not discourage the mans advancements and he came back by ferry every four to six weeks.

It is alleged the relationship was unearthed by the girls mother who alerted gardai and an investigation began. CCTV evidence allegedly shows the girl in his company at a number of locations including Dublin Zoo and coming and going from a named Dublin city-centre hotel, the court was told.

Gardai identified phone messenger WhatsApp as the main point of contact and almost 3,000 screen-shots pictures have been taken of their conversations, the court heard.

The court was also told that gardai allegedly recovered images and videos of sexual activity taking place and some recording during the course of sexual activity.

Last year he bought her a designer ring worth 2,500 telling the shop assistant it was an engagement ring, the court heard. It is now in possession of gardai, Judge Lydon was also told.

Gardai obtained financial accounts of the accused through mutual assistance of UK authorities, Garda Faulkner said, adding that, the accused is a man of considerable wealth.

His bank accounts showed he won a substantial amount in the UK lotto, the garda said.

Analysis of his phone was conducted allegedly showing 69 images and five videos of the accused and the girl, the court was told. One image of the girl in her school uniform was taken when she was aged 15, it was alleged.

It was alleged he was aware of the girls age before engaging in sexual activity with her, the Garda said.

The Garda believed he would evade trial if granted bail and he had a considerable amount of resources through his windfall, the court was told.

It was also feared he would interfere with witnesses, Garda Faulkner said. Since their last alleged meeting the man has been in contact with the schoolgirl and her family. It was alleged that he travelled to Ireland to confront her mother to discuss his feelings for her daughter.

The man, who was dressed in a grey suit, did not address the court.

Garda Faulkner agreed with defence counsel Seamus Clarke that directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions need to be obtained. He also agreed it is likely the case will be sent forward to the circuit court and there was a lot of technical evidence.

He said he could not dispute the defence suggestions that the trial may not be held until 2019.

The defence told the court the man did not have ties to Ireland but submitted that he could live here while on bail, however, the garda said that was not satisfactory.

Mr Clarke said it looked like the man had believed he was in a relationship with the girl.

Pleading for bail he said his client would agree not to leave the jurisdiction.

Judge Fiona Lydon set bail in the mans own bond of 100,000 which has to be lodged. She also said he needed to have two independent sureties, each in the sums of 50,000, approved by the court.

He was remanded in custody with consent to bail to appear at Cloverhill District Court on Friday.

In the event that bail is taken up he cannot have any contact directly or indirectly with the girl or her family, the judge ordered.

The other conditions of bail state he has to reside at an address in Ireland agreed by gardai, sign on twice daily at his local garda station from 9am until 12pm and 5pm until 8pm; maintain a 11pm to 8am curfew at his address and be available to gardai calling to his residence during those hours; surrender his passport and not apply for other travel documents; have a mobile phone which must be switched on 24 hours a day and he has to stay out of certain areas.
Crime journalist Paul Williams has denied orchestrating events he was reporting on concerning allegations made against garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Mr Williams also told the Charleton Tribunal that it was "absolutely false" that he was "in some way acting as a puppet for the guards" when he met with Ms D in 2014, the woman who made allegations against Sgt McCabe in 2006.

Lawyers for Sgt McCabe said that news reports by Mr Williams were intended to increase pressure on Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to meet with Ms D.

Mr Williams wrote a series of articles in early 2014 after he interviewed Ms D. Sgt McCabe was not named in the articles.

"It was deceiving the reader into believing you were a journalist reporting on events when in fact you were orchestrating events," Michael McDowell SC, for Sgt McCabe asked the witness.

"I wasn't orchestrating events. I've done it before and I'd do it again for people wanting to meet politicians. She wanted to be heard," Mr Williams said. He said that he did not know the substance of Ms D's allegations until he met her.

The tribunal is looking into whether Sgt McCabe was the target of a smear campaign.

The tribunal has already heard that in January 2005 Ms D's father, a garda at Bailieboro garda station, moved to other duties after a disciplinary tribunal on foot of actions by Sgt McCabe. Ms D first made allegations against Sgt McCabe 11 months later.

Mr Williams said that it was Ms D's decision to meet with politicians. "She knew exactly herself what she wanted to say, I had nothing to do with it. She was a very wilful and determined individual," he said.

Mr Williams said that he went to garda press officer Supt David Taylor to confirm that there had been an investigation into Sgt McCabe in 2006, and the press officer confirmed that the DPP had decided against bringing charges at the time.

He said that David Taylor "made a throwaway remark" that Sgt McCabe's case was known about in the Phoenix Park Garda HQ and in government.

Asked if he had access to a garda investigation file on the case, Mr Williams said the allegation, made by journalist Gemma O'Doherty in a letter to the tribunal, was "completely baseless and false."

"I don't know where she got her allegations. I don't know what her motivations are," he said.

"I don't know her. I never worked with her. She may have an axe to grind with Independent Newspapers. That may be her motivation."

Mr Williams told Mr McDowell he did not think the information he received from Supt Taylor confirming there was a garda investigation was confidential information.

"We ask questions like that every day of the week.

"I asked the question, was there an investigation, what did the DPP decide, who was involved, because it was pertaining to an allegation of malpractice by the original complainant," he said.

He said that he did not contact Sgt McCabe for a comment because the report was anonymised.

Mr McDowell said it would be clear who the article was about to the station party in Bailieboro, to senior officers in Garda HQ, and in government.

A letter from the DPP's office deciding against a prosecution of Sgt McCabe said that "the allegations didn't constitute a sexual assault or indeed an assault at all." Mr Williams said he would not have written the article if he had seen this letter.

"I ran a a story based on the fact this individual wanted the circumstances of her complaint investigated as part of a malpractice report," Mr Williams said.

Mr Williams said a story that the Taoiseach was expected to order an inquiry into Ms D's allegations was written after Micheal Martin's office confirmed they had passed on details from Ms D, and the Taoiseach's office confirmed they received the report.

Mr McDowell said the report was "utterly unfounded speculative journalism to create a headline".

Asked by tribunal chairman Peter Charleton about suggestions that he was "too close to Garda HQ", Mr Williams said: "Absolutely not."

"I'm glad you asked me that. I am absolutely not and have not been. I'm not dependent on them and I was not dependant on them at that time.

"I'm 30 years in the business, I don't need to depend on them, " Mr Williams said.

Mr Williams said the garda press officer was "the eyes and ears of the presiding commissioner".

He said he did not know if Supt Taylor was on a "solo run" or had authority when he confirmed that there had been an investigation of Sgt McCabe in 2006.

Conor Dignam SC, on behalf of the Garda Commissioner, said a GSOC inquiry following a complaint from Ms D concluded the 2006 investigation into Sgt McCabe was properly run.
Gardai in Cork are investigating three armed raids this morning.

A number of men in their mid 30s and armed with knives raided a filling station in Fermoy and two shops - one in Glanworth and one in Watergrasshill.

Cash was taken in all three incidents which happened between 7am and 9.30am.

No one was injured and the men made off in a black Ford Kuga.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses.
Gardai investigating the Kinahan crime gang have seized around 4m worth of cannabis and heroin in Dublin.

In the raid yesterday targeting organised crime in Dublin, officers also found drug paraphernalia, a vacuum packing machine, a cash counting machine, stun guns, a sawn off shotgun and a semi automatic pistol.
A heroic student who rescued an elderly woman from a sinking car in Donegal said he had to dive beneath the water four times.

21-year-old Andrew Johnston saved Loreta McKinly by dragging her out of the vehicle while she was unconscious.

She was driving with her husband when their car left the road near Porthall, outside Lifford, on Saturday.

Reports say the vehicle entered a river in the area at Sully Bridge.

Mr McKinly managed to escape the sinking car, but his wife was trapped inside when Andrew arrived on the scene.

"On top of the car was an elderly man, laying on top of the car, his face completely covered in blood," said Andrew.

"Never seen anything like it in my life," he added.

Andrew described the scene as he rushed towards the car to help the elderly couple. He asked Mr McKinly if anyone else was in the car. When he realised that Mrs McKinly was trapped he "had to get her out."

The occupants of the car - who are both in their sixties - were taken to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

Their injuries are not reported to be life threatening.
A company which teaches skydiving has today launched a High Court action over an order by Kilkenny County Council that the firm ceases operations.

The action has been brought by Skydive Ireland Ltd and its director Mr David Byrnes both of Kilkenny Aerodrome Holdensrath, Kilkenny.

The company instructs and allows its customer perform parachute jumps from aircraft that take off and land at the airfield.

The proceedings arise out of a decision by Kilkenny Co Council on May 22 last to issue an enforcement notice requiring the company to cease all sponsored skydiving at the airfield.

The enforcement notice was issued because the Council claims the applicants have breached the planning laws.

In a sworn statement to the court the applicants reject this claim.

They argue the Council's claim that the use of the airfield for skydiving amounts to an intensification of an existing use which requires planning permission is unsubstantiated by evidence.

The company and Mr Byrne say no intensification has taken place and that skydiving in an activity exempt from requiring planning permission.

The applicants r seek various orders including one quashing the Council's decision that skydiving must cease at the airfield.

They also seek a stay on the Council being allowed exercise any of the powers contained in the enforcement notice until the proceedings have been determined.

Counsel Jack Tchrakian Bl told the court the airfield has been a base for skydiving since 1965.

The company acquired the airfield in 2014.

In advance of that purchase the applicants sought to clarify the planning situation with the local authority.

The applicants say they made it clear in extensive dialogue with the Council that skydiving services would form an integral part of operations.

The applicants say the Council informed them in 2014 the airfield was an authorised development.

As a result the applicants said they had a legitimate expectation the Council would not take any enforcement proceedings against them over the provision of skydiving services from the airfield.

The facility would not have been bought unless that had such an assurance from the Council, the applicants claim.

The applicants claim the Council reversed its position and referred the matter to An Bord Pleanala.

The Bord ruled in early 2015 the skydiving activities did constitute development and it was not exempted development.

Mr Byrne and the company say the Council's decision is unlawful, has breached their legitimate expectation that they would be allowed operate skydiving services from the airfield.

They also claim the decision breach their constitutional rights to a lawful enjoyment of their property.

Permission to bring the action was granted on an ex-parte basis, by Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan.

The case will come back before the court in October.
The Garda Commissioner, Noirin O'Sullivan, is set to be criticised by a Public Accounts Committee report, which says she failed in her duty to report financial issues at Templemore.

The report out this afternoon will criticise Ms O'Sullivan for not informing the State's auditor about the problems when she first learned of them.
Renewed searches will get underway from 7am this morning around the crash site of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

The bodies of winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith have never been recovered.
A senior garda officer has denied ever saying that garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe watched young girls at a school.

In his evidence to the Charleton tribunal today, Detective Superintendent John O'Reilly also denied suggesting contacting crime journalist Paul Williams to the woman's father, a garda colleague.

Det Supt O'Reilly said he was friendly with the garda, Mr D, and his family for over 20 years.

He said in 2014 Mr D told him that his daughter was "not in good shape" and journalists had been calling to the family home.

In 2006 Ms D had made an allegation that she had been sexually assaulted by Sgt McCabe in 1998.

After an investigation the DPP decided that the allegation would not constitute an offence.

A Tusla file on Sgt McCabe was subsequently opened after Ms D sought counselling in 2013, to which more serious allegations from an unrelated case were incorrectly added.

The tribunal is looking into whether Sgt McCabe was the target of a smear campaign.

Supt O'Reilly said that in 2014 Mr D told him his daughter wanted to give her account of what had happened in 2006, but said she didn't want to go public. The witness said that Mr D asked him if he knew Paul Williams.

Supt O'Reilly subsequently contacted the journalist and passed his phone number on to Mr D.

Supt O'Reilly said he was not the one who suggested contacting Mr Williams, and he "would have no reason to suggest Paul Williams over any other journalist."

In his evidence yesterday Mr D said that Supt O'Reilly had first suggested contacting Mr Williams. He also denied ever telling his daughter that Sgt McCabe went to a secondary school and watched the young ones coming out.

In her evidence on Monday Ms D said her father had been told this by Supt O'Reilly. Supt O'Reilly denied ever saying this to Mr D.

"The first time I heard this was yesterday, I was absolutely flabbergasted. I never said it, I have no reason to say it," Supt O'Reilly said.

Supt O'Reilly told the tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton that in hindsight he regretted passing on Mr Williams number, adding that "friendships have deteriorated". Earlier he had said that he was friends with both the McCabe and D families.

Earlier, the chairman asked Mr Williams if the Garda press office, as an official body set up to provide information, would tell journalists things off the record and in confidence.

Mr Williams said there was official comment and unofficial comment.

"So is the GPO (press office) there to give surreptitious comment to journalists?" the judge asked.

"Sometimes they'll go off record and say, I'll give you a steer on this, it's not what you think it is," Mr Williams said. He said garda communications were "a grey world."
Fresh from their sold out Live at the Marquee gig and jam-packed Longitude set, Picture This have announced a mini tour across Ireland.

Its been an astounding year for Picture This, aka Jimmy Rainsford and Ryan Hennessy from Athy in Co Kildare.
An Istanbul court has ordered six human rights activists - including Amnesty International's Turkey director - to be formally arrested pending a trial on charges of aiding an armed terror group.

Four other activists were released from custody on Tuesday pending the outcome of a trial.

They have been barred from travelling abroad and have to report regularly to police.

The group was detained earlier this month at a hotel on Buyukada island while attending a training workshop, adding to concerns over human rights in Turkey.

It is not clear which terror organisation they are accused of helping.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made vague accusations, saying the group was involved in a meeting that had the "nature of a continuation" of last year's failed coup attempt.

Amnesty International said the arrests are "an appalling affront to justice and a new low in Turkeys post-coup crackdown".

The group said all 10 are suspected of "committing crime in the name of a terrorist organisation without being a member".

The six who were remanded in custody join Amnesty International Turkeys Chair, Taner Kilic, behind bars.

Colm OGorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said: "Turkish prosecutors have had 12 days to establish the obvious: that these ten activists are innocent. The decision to proceed shows that truth and justice have become total strangers in Turkey.

"This is not a legitimate investigation, this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey."

The group said the "bizarre accusations" include attempts to link Idil Eser with three unrelated and opposing terrorist organisations through her work for Amnesty International.

The prosecutor's request that she be remanded in pre-trial prison custody references two campaigns by Amnesty International, neither of which were authored by Amnesty Turkey, one of which was conducted before she joined the organisation, they said.

They also claimed that an accusation levelled against Ilknur Ustun of the Women's Coalition, who was released on bail, is that she requested funding from an embassy to support a project on gender equality, participation in policy making and reporting.

Mr O'Gorman said: "Today we have learnt that standing up for human rights has become a crime in Turkey. This is a moment of truth, for Turkey and for the international community. Leaders around the world must stop biting their tongues and acting as if they can continue business as usual.

"They must bring pressure to bear on Turkish authorities to drop the investigation and to immediately and unconditionally release the rights defenders."

AP
By Stephanie Nebehay

The frozen bodies of a Swiss couple who went missing 75 years ago in the Alps have been found on a shrinking glacier, Swiss media said on Tuesday.

A report from Reuters news agency said, Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, the parents of seven children, had gone to milk their cows in a meadow above Chandolin in the Valais canton on August 15, 1942.

"We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day," their youngest daughter Marceline Udry-Dumoulin told the Lausanne daily Le Matin.

"I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm," added the 79-year-old.

In an overnight statement, Valais cantonal police said that two bodies bearing identity papers had been discovered last week by a worker on Tsanfleuron glacier near a ski lift above Les Diablerets resort at an altitude of 2,615 meters.

DNA testing would be carried out to confirm the identities of the couple.

"The bodies were lying near each other. It was a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War Two," Bernhard Tschannen, director of Glacier 3000, told the paper.

"They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact."

"We think they may have fallen into a crevasse where they stayed for decades. As the glacier receded, it gave up their bodies," he told the daily Tribune de Geneve.

Marcelin Dumoulin, 40, was a shoemaker, while Francine, 37, was a teacher. They left five sons and two daughters.

"It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier," Udry-Dumoulin said.

"After a while, we children were separated and placed in families. I was lucky to stay with my aunt," she said. "We all lived in the region but became strangers."

"For the funeral, I won't wear black. I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost."

Reuters/PA
Hungary's collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War was a "mistake" and a "sin" as it failed to protect its Jewish community, prime minister Viktor Orban has said.

Mr Orban said he told visiting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was aware of the "difficult history behind us". About 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

"At an earlier time, the government of Hungary made a mistake, moreover, committed a sin, when it did not protect its citizens of Jewish heritage," Mr Orban said during a press briefing after his meeting with Mr Netanyahu in the Hungarian parliament.

"Every Hungarian government has the duty to protect all of its citizens, regardless of their heritage.

"During World War Two, Hungary did not comply with this moral and political requirement. This is a sin because at the time we decided that, instead of protecting the Jewish community, we chose collaboration with the Nazis.

"I made it clear to the prime minister that this can never happen again. In the future, the Hungarian government will protect all its citizens."

Mr Netanyahu is the first Israeli premier to visit Hungary since 1989 when Hungary was still under communist rule.

The Israeli leader said he thought about Hungary first in relation to the birth of modern Zionism, as Theodore Herzl, "our modern Moses", was born in Budapest in 1860.

Mr Netanyahu thanked his host for Hungary's repeated support for Israel, citing French President Emmanuel Macron's recent statement drawing a parallel between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.

"Macron said there is a new anti-Semitism that is expressed in anti-Zionism, that is delegitimising the one and only Jewish state," Mr Netanyahu said.

"In many ways, Hungary is at the forefront of the states that are opposed to this anti-Jewish policy and I welcome it and I express the appreciation of my government and the people, many people in Israel, for this."

Mr Orban again expressed his government's "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitism, although a recent government campaign against George Soros and the Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist's support for migration and refugees has been criticised by Jewish organisations for its anti-Semitic overtones, which Mr Orban's government denies.

The Hungarian leader also repeated his opposition to mass migration mostly by Muslims, which he has said would lead to irreversible changes in European culture and its population.

"I made it clear that Hungary has serious disputes in the European Union, as Hungary does not want a mixed population," Mr Orban said.

Hungary "does not want to change its current ethnic composition, it does not want to defer to any external, artificial influence".

"We'd like to remain as we are, even if, I have to admit, we are not perfect," he added.

On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Orban will meet the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - Hungary's partners in the so-called Visegrad Group.

AP
Montenegro has asked for international help to fight wildfires raging along the Adriatic Sea coastline that are also affecting neighbouring Croatia, reaching a key port.

Croatian TV reported that the blaze near the coastal town of Split - a central port and tourism centre - had reached houses in some parts of the city, with residents joining firefighters in efforts to contain the flames.

Authorities warned residents throughout the town to remain calm, stay indoors and keep windows closed as thick smoke spread around the area.

Soldiers joined in the battle to stop the fire and some parts of Split were left without electricity, Croatian TV said.

Prime minister Andrej Plenkovic scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday, saying Croatia could also seek international help if the crisis continues.

In Montenegro, at least 100 tourists were forced to evacuate the coastal area hardest hit by the blaze.

Fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, the fire on the Lustica peninsula in southern Montenegro has spread near to homes and camping zones.

"Our forces are not enough to put out a fire of such proportion," said Stevan Katic, head of Herceg Novi municipality.

State TV reported that the Interior Ministry had asked for international help through the European Union disaster relief system. The navy also stepped in to help evacuate the area by sea, officials said.

Emergency services said strong winds are hampering firefighters' efforts to save homes.

"The fire has spread over the road, an entire hill is burning," emergency official Maksim Mandic told Montenegrin TV. "It is impossible to put out the fire completely in such winds."

Further north in Croatia, firefighters have also been battling a number of fires along the Adriatic coast. Several hundred acres of pine forests and low shrubbery have been burnt, with the winds sending the blaze spreading in several directions.

Earlier, fires around Srinjine, near Split, forced tourists to leave the area, which was left without electricity or water, Croatian TV said.

Several houses and offices were destroyed as well as a nursery school, part of a cemetery and surrounding olive groves. A man died in a nearby village, but it was not clear whether his death was directly related to the fire, state TV said.

Firefighting planes took off Monday afternoon after previously being grounded because of strong winds and turbulence.

Around the town of Zadar, planes were also used because some areas remain mined from the 1990s war.

AP
A woman whose sister was refused entry to the UK to give her a stem cell transplant has died from leukaemia.

May Brown, 24, who had a three-year-old daughter, Selina, hit the headlines last year after pleading with the Home Office to allow her sister into the UK.

According to the family, the Home Office said it was "not satisfied" that her sister Martha, from Nigeria, would be a genuine visitor or had the funds to cover the costs of the trip.

But that decision was overturned following a campaign and the stem cell transplant was performed at King's College Hospital in London in January this year.

The transplant appeared to have been successful, but Mrs Brown relapsed in April.

She and her family were told by her consultants last week there was nothing more that doctors could do for her.

Mrs Brown died with loved ones including her husband, Mike, by her side last Friday at King's College Hospital.

Her husband said in a statement: "May will forever be remembered in our hearts. She was a strong, beautiful, supportive, wonderful wife and mother. Selina and I will truly miss her.

"May was incredibly grateful to the support given to her from ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust), and I echo those words on behalf of me and our daughter Selina.

"May will forever remain in our hearts."

Beverley De-Gale, co-founder fo ACLT, said: "In the 18 months I've known her, I can say May was a remarkable woman who fought hard to beat this terrible illness.

"Every member of the ACLT team is extremely saddened by her passing.

"Our thoughts are with her husband Mike, three-year-old daughter Selina and May's sister Martha."

As a result of the #SaveMayBrown campaign, thousands more people were added to the stem cell register in the UK and Nigeria.
Montenegro has asked Nato to send two firefighting planes to help contain raging wildfires, according to state TV.

The report said the Western military alliance is checking which member country could provide the planes.

Wildfires have engulfed the Lustica peninsula amid strong winds and dry weather. More than 100 people have evacuated the areas around the coastal tourist town of Tivat.

Smaller fires also have been reported along the Adriatic coast.

Montenegro joined Nato earlier this year, defying Russia and pro-Russian opposition at home.

In Croatia, authorities said firefighters battled through the night to contain raging wildfires that threatened the key port of Split on the Adriatic coast.

Parts of the coastal town were enveloped in thick smoke on Tuesday after flames reached suburban areas on Monday evening. Residents have joined firefighters to defend the houses and stop the fire from spreading.

Emergency services said 80 people have been lightly injured. They added that the situation had improved in the morning after firefighting planes took off and the wind slowed down.

Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters were working to extinguish a forest fire about nine miles from the French Riviera city of Nice, as unusually hot and dry weather hits much of France.

Jean-Gabriel Delacroy of the Alpes-Maritime regional administration said the fire is "under control" but not yet over after breaking out on Monday night.

Speaking on broadcaster Francetvinfo, Mr Delacroy said three firefighters were lightly injured by the blaze, which consumed about 300 acres of forest and reached the town of Castagniers, inland from Nice.

No homes have been damaged so far, he said.

Whipped up by Mediterranean winds, fires in recent days have also hit Provence and Corsica during the high summer tourist season.
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has asked Congress to extend martial law in the south of the country until the end of the year.

He said the rebellion there will not be defeated by Saturday, the end of his original 60-day martial law proclamation.
The Trump administration has again told Congress that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal, but insisted Tehran would face consequences for breaching "the spirit" of the agreement.

President Donald Trump, who attacked the 2015 pact as a candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to end it or let it stand.

Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasise their deep concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behaviour and vowed that those transgressions will not go unpunished.

In a shift from Mr Trump's previous threat to "rip up" the deal, officials said the administration was working with US allies to try to fix its flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more.

The officials also said the US would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalising it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Mr Trump, secretary of state Rex Tillerson and "the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the agreement, one official said.

That assessment carries no legal force, while Mr Trump's certification that Iran is technically complying clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

The certification is a quarterly requirement, and Mr Trump first told Congress in April that Iran was indeed complying, while announcing new sanctions for non-nuclear behaviour to show there was no softening of his stance toward the Islamic Republic.

"We receive contradictory signals," Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations before the decision was announced.

"So we don't know which one to interpret in what way."

For Mr Trump, a vocal critic of the deal, the obligation to report to Congress on Iran's conformity has created an unwelcome headache every three months.

Still undecided about whether to withdraw from the deal, he must either vouch for Tehran's compliance or try to claim Iran is breaching it - even though the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors the pact says it is not.

Under the deal struck by President Barack Obama and other world leaders, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear programme - long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons - in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

The deal does not address global concerns about Iran's non-nuclear activities, but also does not prevent the US and others from punishing Iran for those activities.

Iran remains on the US State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism for its support of anti-Israel groups.

AP
A Canberra man has been jailed for four years over the torching of a Weston cafe and his role in an international banking scam worth more than half-a-million dollars based out of Greece.

The two crimes were unconnected, but the investigation of one led to the other when ACT Policing detectives - having linked Eliadis to the Weston area using the lights of a car captured on surveillance video - tapped the man's phone and bugged his car while hunting for the people who set Brierly's Cafe alight after midnight on March 13, 2014.

For months police listened in, searching for evidence of the man's involvement in the arson. Meanwhile, an international banking scam in which Eliadis played a "critical" role was unfolding in the conversations.

Leo Nicholas Eliadis, 47, appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday to be sentenced for the both the arson and the banking fraud.
Giving consumers a wide range of choices can be beneficial at the supermarket, but less so with complex financial products. Credit:Nick Moir The precise arrangements for default super are tied up with superannuation's origins in the industrial relations system, so current rules vary across industries, and types of employment. In its draft report, the commission proposed a few new potential models for new employees who don't already have a fund, and who don't make an active choice. Its aim is to "nudge" people towards making good decisions by limiting their choice to a small subset of high-performing funds. This could include limiting members' options to a shortlist of only four to 10 funds. A Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the Financial Services Council found members could save $292 million in fees if greater competition was unleashed in default super. Credit:Rob Homer Neither the not-for-profit super funds, nor the for-profit funds owned by banks and wealth managers, seem particularly happy with these proposals.

But the for-profit retail funds, in particular, seem worried by the prospect of such a short shortlist. They are keenly talking up the virtues of greater choice. This is how Financial Services Council chief executive Sally Loane put it to a public hearing on the proposal in May, when the group also argued for a longer shortlist. "No one gives employers or unions carte blanche to choose their bank accounts, so why do so many allow them to choose their super funds?" "It's our view that too many people in some parts of the super system assume that young people can't or won't make decisions about their long-term future, that they're chronically disengaged, that they need decisions made for them by a third party who may or may not have their best interests at heart." The FSC also this month released a report commissioned from Deloitte Access Economics that found members could save $292 million in fees if greater competition was unleashed in default super.

Now, I agree there could be benefits from forcing all super funds to better compete on their costs and performance. That would partly be achieved by forcing funds to compete to get a spot on the shortlist. Members should also be to choose their own fund if they want to. But beyond that, I'm not convinced more "choice" is a silver bullet here. Why? Because super is not like other shopping decisions, as explained by Professor Nicholas Barr of the London School of Economics this month after speaking at the Annual Colloquium of Superannuation Researchers in Sydney, in comments reported by the AFR. Barr, an expert on pension schemes, told me via email why choice and competition are great in many other markets - but not in complicated areas like super. "Choice and competition work well in a wide range of areas such as smart phones, cars, restaurants, supermarkets, holidays. But they work well for a reason  those are all areas in which consumers are reasonably well-informed," he said.

"They work much less well where consumers are not well-informed, which is particularly the case for complex products." He draws the comparison with prescription-only drugs, where we all accept there are limits on consumer choice. "The choice of pension fund is more like pharmaceutical drugs than like smart phones. People make bad choices, for example not understanding the extent to which administrative charges eat into their accumulation," he says. It's a good point. Super may seem simple enough, but it's financially complex. The fact two thirds of accounts are in default funds suggests most of us probably don't take a deep interest in our super. In the jargon, we are "disengaged." We probably haven't weighed up the pros and cons of how small variations in fees can affect accumulated savings.

Yet Barr points out how important such details can be. A management fee of one per cent can wiped out 20 per cent of how much you save over a career, he says. In other words, people who don't want to make an active and informed choice should be protected, by default funds.. Those who want to choose their fund should be able to - but there are strong grounds for keeping this list short, to only include the best and prevent us being conned by marketing tricks. Thankfully, it's a point the Productivity Commission also appears to recognise. Its draft report cited research that found when you give people a shortlist with more than 10 funds on it, they're more likely to make no choice at all because of "choice overload."
Darling Harbour restaurant Baia The Italian has been ordered to pay $15,000 in compensation for the unfair dismissal of an employee who complained about being allegedly underpaid.

In deciding the dismissal was harsh, unjust and unreasonable, Fair Work Commissioner Donna McKenna said the restaurant's conduct was "of the shabbiest type" in its use of its 457 visa-related "leverage concerning potential work-related sponsorship in the course of underpaying an employee".

The Fair Work Commission heard the French national Sebastien Mezino was told the restaurant in Cockle Bay was willing to offer visa sponsorship to dedicated employees.

Mr Mezino, who was employed with Baia from November 2015 until April 2017, told the Commission he sometimes worked more than 50 hours a week but was happy to do so because he wanted to prove to the company he was "worth their investment". He said the restaurant manager told him that depending on his performance he could expect a promotion to a manager's position with an offer of visa sponsorship.
Martin Shkreli charged Retrophin for everything from his Starbucks coffee to a casino trip, according to an accountant who reviewed the start-up's finances as it prepared to go public and described them as "chaotic".

Shkreli, who ran Retrophin from 2011 to 2014, put his sister on the company payroll, charged a $US4130 ($5303) trip to the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on his corporate credit card, and gave himself a lump sum payment of $US575,000 identified as "compensation", accountant Corey Massella told federal jurors at Shkreli's criminal fraud trial in Brooklyn, New York.

The 34-year-old is best known for raising the price of Daraprim - a 62-year-old drug primarily used to treat newborns and HIV patients - from $US13.50 to $US750 a pill.

Federal prosecutors have alleged that for five years, Shkreli lied to investors in two hedge funds and biopharmaceutical company Retrophin, all of which he founded. Shkreli's angry defence of his actions on Twitter and Reddit earned him the nickname "Pharma Bro".
Waiting in the crush at Sydney Airport arrivals hall, Peter Skinner, of Beecroft, realised the screens omitted the one thing everyone wanted to know. "When can I expect to see the people I'm waiting for? Why can't the screens display when passengers off specific flights begin to clear Immigration and Customs? A simple algorithm could calculate flow rates." It's an idea that could take off.

Meanwhile, at Coolangatta airport, Stewart Copper, of Maroubra, watched as one couple decided to stand at the departure gate long before the flight was called. "Others then started to form a line behind. The flight was delayed but most people stood in line for at least half an hour before we were called. Don't start me on the instant jumping out of the seats on landing, with no-where to go."

More PNG pidgin please (C8), urges Arnold Henry, of Armidale. "My favourite is 'piano': 'big fella bokka, him got teeth, fight 'em teeth come out big sing sing'." That's jazz!

It's a sprinter of a winter. On the Uloola Falls track in the Royal National Park, Derek Hulme, of Jannali, counted seven types of wildflowers blooming, as well as wattle and bottle brush. "Is this the first sign of spring?"

More plaudits for Australia Post (C8). Bini Szacsvay, of Camperdown, says a letter her husband received in the 1980s was addressed to "Chris Cheng, teacher, somewhere in the west of NSW."
I recently received the devastating news that my father has been missing for six months. Not knowing whether he is alive or dead is heartbreaking, but I cannot even cry openly.

My mother used to tell me that if a poor person knocks on our door, don't ever refuse to give what we can. I always saw that she fed them and told them to come back again if they needed anything. She told me "what comes around, goes around". When I was young, I didn't understand what she meant.

But now that I have left my country and I am older, I do understand and, if I get a chance in my life, I will play my role to protect other people. That is what I am passionate about. That is why I want to realise my father's dream for me and become a doctor.

My aim was to go to Australia with an open heart, hoping I would go to school without the fear of death. I crave a country which will give me the opportunity to be the person I know I can become. I yearn for a family that can be formed in a society where people share love with each other. My hope has been deliberately ruined again and again. But I don't know how to be hopeful any more.

More than two years ago, most of us were recognised as genuine refugees, but we are still suspended in the middle of nowhere. There was no need to imprison us in this isolation for four long, wasted years as we have committed no crime. A day is like a decade in this gruesome place.
The votes won by ineligible candidates simply get passed down the ticket to the next person from their party. However, the person who sits at the top of a party's senate electoral ticket is generally the most charismatic of that party's candidates. There is no guarantee that a ticket headed by someone who was second on the list would necessarily gain as many votes.

In last year's Queensland senate election, the Greens ticket was headed by Larissa Waters, who had - wrongly as it now appears - been a senator since 2011. Without casting any aspersions on her likely successor, Andrew Bartlett, there is no guarantee the Greens would have pulled as many votes had he been at the head of the ticket. One presumes that is why the Greens chose her ahead of him.

So, once again, one of the fringe parties has hoodwinked the electors by offering up high profile candidates who should never have been standing for election at all. This disadvantages other parties who might well have won senate seats had the votes fallen slightly differently.

In Queensland in 2016, Larissa Waters and the Greens polled 6.92 per cent of the senate vote. That was not enough for a full senate quota, but they got the seat after the distribution of preferences. Without her profile and charisma, they could easily have polled one or two percent less, and the seat could possibly have gone to another party.

All of this denies the voters, and other parties, the opportunity for a fair and proper choice.
Google(BRIDGEWATER, N.H.) -- A 12-year-old girl was killed after being run over by a power boat piloted by her father, according to the New Hampshire State Police Marine Patrol.



Zoe Anderson was learning to water ski this morning on Newfound Lake in Bridgewater, New Hampshire, when she fell, police said in a press release. Her father, Sherwood Anderson, was steering the boat back toward where she had fallen when "his attention was momentarily distracted as his hat was blown from his head," according to police.



Sherwood Anderson put the boat into neutral but it passed over Zoe at a slow speed, causing serious injuries to her torso, police said.



Police said the family is from Highland Ranch, Colorado, and the girl's mother, Tonya Anderson, and her 14-year-old sister were also on board the boat at the time of the accident.



Her family immediately brought Zoe to shore and first responders attempted to revive her with CPR but were unsuccessful, according to police.



The incident remains under investigation, and New Hampshire State Police are asking anyone with information related to the accident to contact Sgt. Joshua Dirth at 603-293-2037.



The Bridgewater Police Department and New Hampshire State Police Marine Patrol did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The shock resignation of Greens senator Larissa Waters on Tuesday has triggered a wave of overseas-born federal MPs scrambling to declare their Australian allegiance.

The move has decimated the Greens leadership team, which has now lost both its co-deputy leaders in the space of a week and drawn more than 20 other foreign-born MPs into citizenship speculation.

As of Tuesday, British-born former prime minister Tony Abbott and Singaporean-born Liberal MP Ian Goodenough are the only two overseas-born MPs to have released their citizenship renunciation documentation publicly.
The name Jonathan Sri may not have previously been well known outside of Brisbane's Gabba Ward, but on Tuesday the first-time Greens councillor gained national attention as "rainbow scarf man".

Cr Sri stood next to his Greens colleague Larissa Waters as she announced her resignation as Senator for Queensland and Co-Deputy Leaders of the Australian Greens on Tuesday afternoon.

Cr Sri offered his support to Senator Waters with a hug before speaking to the media.

"I think we're all really proud Larissa has stood to represent us and represent Queensland," he said.
Peter Dutton has achieved what Scott Morrison could not: a super-sized Home Affairs portfolio that will take responsibility for immigration, as well as security and police agencies including ASIO, the federal police and border force.

And his promotion confirms - if any further confirmation was needed - that Dutton has eclipsed Morrison as the leading conservative in the Turnbull government.

Back in 2014-15 Tony Abbott had considered giving the then-ascendant Morrison - who had so successfully stopped the boats for the new Coalition government - a similarly expanded role.
Former AFL football operations boss Simon Lethlean. Credit:Joe Armao If people are going to have affairs, they should at least have the decency to keep those affairs out of sight and out of public knowledge. One can't help but feel mortified for the partners of Simkiss, Lethlean and Blomberg. The situation is being treated as grave by an organisation that frequently comes under fire for its poor treatment of women, particularly where some of its players are concerned. So determined is chief Gillon McLachlan to address these pressing matters that the league has involved the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, in upgrading its respect and responsibility policy. But can consensual relationships  even if they occur on the sly and outside of established marriages or partnerships  really be considered reflective of an organisation's culture of sexism?

There's no doubt the AFL has a lot of ground to make up in regards to overturning the entrenched sexism that has accompanied it since its inception, but I'm with Gay Alcorn on this: it isn't blanket sexism to have a mutually agreeable and consenting workplace affair. But it is both massively silly and a uniformly bad idea for women, particularly the young women who are almost always workplace subordinates to the men in question. As Harrison's circumstances have demonstrated, women in these situations rarely come out unscathed, even in circumstances where, as with Lethlean and Simkiss, there appears to be some kind of ramifications for their partners in flagrante. Once exposed, these women are treated as either dangerous temptresses or silly ingenues. Either way, they pose a potential threat to a man's power  and while the boys' club may be adept at closing ranks to protect one of their own, it prefers to pretend such protection is a myth. As long as workplaces that trade in big business or politics continue to be dominated by men, this will remain the case.

Even when senior male executives are moved on, it's not uncommon for it to be to much better prospects. Remember Kirsty Fraser-Kirk, the former David Jones employee who brought a claim of sexual harassment against David Jones' CEO, Mark McInnes? That wasn't an affair, but a straight-up case of illegal and predatory workplace activity, but McInnes seemed to barely bend in the howl of wind directed his way by Fraser-Kirk and the justice system. Yes, he lost his job as CEO of David Jones (and there's no question he deserved to), but he was hardly left out of pocket. He now works for Premier Investments on a multimillion-dollar annual contract that also happens to be far more lucrative than his previous one. But the biggest example of loss of prospects and pride following a workplace affair continues to be held by Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern whose relationship with the most powerful man in the world left her a scandalised, untouchable potential employee and him still President Bill Clinton. Lewinsky was barely an adult when Clinton pursued a relationship with her, but the devastating impact of the affair has remained with her today. Essentially unemployable following its exposure, she also had to deal with cruel taunts about her appearance and credibility. Why would the President of the United States be attracted to someone with those teeth, that face, that body? Liar.
Privacy feels like a dull subject these days  existing in the world of deep Facebook settings and endless unseen terms and conditions. The loss of it seems a small price to pay for having the world available at our fingertips.

We tend to value our privacy, but also hope to put very little effort into maintaining it. The increasing popularity of easy-to-use encrypted chat apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp shows that we care enough to make changes to our routine as long as we aren't inconvenienced.

We shouldn't let the government chip away at our rights, writes Elizabeth Duck-Chong. Credit:Stocksy

On Friday, Malcolm Turnbull announced the Australian government's plan to break the end-to-end encryption provided by these and other apps in cases where law enforcement requires access, reasoning that the rule of law must apply online as it does off.

Aside from the difficulty of such a task, when Turnbull says he'll ensure "the internet is not used as a dark place for bad people to hide their criminal activities," we have to ask: exactly what people is he referring to?
Australian hospitals are being forced to ration a painkiller used in millions of operations each year because a major supplier cannot keep up with demand.

The shortage of the powerful painkiller fentanyl could potentially endanger patients, experts say, and is one of a growing number of critical shortages being reported across the nation, including for first-line antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs.

The site comes complete with a hospital, nurses quarters, convent and a chapel. Credit:Louie Douvis

The problem has prompted calls for an overhaul of the way drugs are supplied to Australia, to prevent single pharmaceutical companies holding near monopolies over important products.

Fentanyl is a potent but short-acting painkiller used in most anaesthetic procedures, including heart surgery.
Medical students want public universities banned from the "money-grabbing" practice of offering Australian students full-fee-paying places for medical degrees, saying it unfairly preferences wealthy candidates.

Domestic full-fee-paying places costing upwards of $300,000 have no place in public universities, and threaten to exacerbate the national shortage of medical internships, the Australian Medical Students' Association has warned.

AMSA president Rob Thomas said said full-fee-paying places reinforced barriers for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Credit:Daniel Munoz

The practice threatened to entrench inequality among the future doctor workforce, according to AMSA's new policy unanimously passed by the peak body representing 17,000 medical students.

"It's a money grab, essentially," AMSA president Rob Thomas said.
Unions representing Australian Federal Police officers and Department of Immigration employees are seeking urgent briefings from the Turnbull government on plans to create a new Home Affairs super-agency in Canberra.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed a dramatic shake-up of Australia's security, police and intelligence agencies, set to alter Canberra's public service landscape and see right-wing minister Peter Dutton in charge of the sprawling security portfolio.

Australian Federal Police Association president Angela Smith wants a briefing on the changes. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Public servants, spies and Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force officers will watch the changes closely, with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to lead a taskforce planning the moves due in 2018.

Staff from a range of departments and agencies will be affected, including within the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC and the Office of Transport Security.
Police have launched a public appeal for help in finding a mother and her young child who have been reported missing from the far north coast of NSW.

It is not known how long Tarryn Corlet, 43, and her four-year-old daughter have been missing but they were last believed to be in the Kingscliff area near the NSW-Queensland border.

NSW Police are seeking help to find missing woman Tarryn Corlet and her daughter. Credit:RACHEL BROWNE

NSW Police said the pair may be travelling south towards Melbourne and Ms Corlet may be driving a gold Toyota Corolla with the NSW registration QMC732.

Police and the woman's family and friends have concerns for the pair's welfare.
Green groups are not the only ones targeting the Palaszczuk government over the Adani mine, with Labor coming under friendly fire.

On the first day of budget estimates hearings, Bundamba MP Jo-Ann Miller, a member of the Labor government, quizzed Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk over the Adani Carmichael mine.

Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller has questioned her leader over the Adani mine in Budget Estimates. Credit:Chris Hyde

Ms Miller asked Ms Palaszczuk why the government was supporting the mine in the Galilee Basin, when it could have an impact on existing coal mines.

"There will be further downturn with this existing mine," Ms Miller said.
A woman who was last seen driving away from a Toowoomba hospital on Monday evening has been found.

She was reported missing after leaving a hospital on Scott Street about 7.45pm, where she had been visiting someone, and was believed to be driving back to her residence in Warwick.

The woman, 76, was found two days after leaving a Toowoomba hospital.

When she had not been seen or heard from since leaving the hospital, police launched a public appeal to help find the 76-year-old woman.

However, on Wednesday she, and her car, were located safe and well.
Technology will be rolled out in Brisbane in a bid to stop almost $620 million being stolen from the city's retail businesses each year.

A joint mission between Brisbane City Council and the National Retail Association to curb shoplifting has secured federal government funding to trial new technology, crime-reporting platform Auror, which connects businesses and police.

New technology will be trialled in Brisbane as part of a crackdown on shoplifting.

National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb said the software was needed, as there had been significant losses as a result of retail crime in Brisbane.

"Theft within retail has been on the rise and that has really come down to the way that crime is changing and we are seeing a lot more organised crime, particularly in relation to retail," she said.
A crash involving a car and a motorbike has caused serious traffic headaches for southbound commuters through the Gold Coast on Tuesday evening.

The crash happened on the Pacific Motorway at Helensvale about 4pm.

An earlier crash caused a lengthy traffic jam on the Pacific Motorway southbound, as seen on this north-facing traffic camera at Helensvale. Credit:Department of Transport and Main Roads

The male motorcyclist suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital in a stable condition, but the crash closed three southbound lanes for about an hour.

As a result, just after 5pm, 30 kilometres of southbound delays greeted commuters heading from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
It gives me so much pleasure when I see someone start a business and it goes gangbusters.

Such is the case with Ashley Newland, the inventor of the Scrubba washbag, which is a portable washing machine used by people like travellers and campers.

Ashley Newland is the creator of the Scrubba stealth pack.

Newland first came to prominence on the Shark Tank show, support from which catapulted the business into the global market.

I came across him well before that, when I was writing about intellectual property. Newland is a patent attorney, and his knowledge of how to protect his IP is one reason the business has been such a success.
A 35-year-old man has been charged with murder over the shooting death of a Deer Park dressmaker last month.

The Phong Vuong, 49, was found dead inside his Erin Square home on June 26.

The Phong Vuong was found dead on June 26.

Two men, a 35-year-old Kingsbury man and a 45-year-old Coburg man, were taken into custody on Monday night and interviewed by police over Mr Vuong's death.

The Kingsbury man has since been charged with murder and remanded in custody. He is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a dressmaker, who may have been dead inside his Western-suburbs home for up to ten days before his body was found.

The Phong Vuong, 49, was found dead from gunshot wounds inside in his home at Erin Square in Deer Park on June 26.

Police have set up an information van at Erin Square in Deer Park and are appealing to the public to com forward with any information relating to the murder of Phong Vuong. Credit:Paul Jeffers

In documents tendered to the court, police allege Mr Voung was murdered on June 16.



Coburg man Lawerence Michael Duca, 45, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court for a filing hearing on Tuesday evening, charged with one count of murder.

Duca, limped into the court room dock, assisted by a walking stick.
Police have searched bushland in Perth's northern suburbs for a man wanted over the death of a Perth mother-of-three.

Homicide Detectives have been searching for Shawn Adam Newton, 42, in connection to the death of Rebecca Jane Gascoigne, 35.

He is believed to have a firearm and is also wanted for an armed robbery in Craigie.

"He is considered extremely dangerous and the public are warned not to approach him," Detective Senior Sergeant Dean Bailey said on Sunday.
Fremantle Council has launched a safety probe after a young man fell to his death from the balcony of a pub in the centre of the port city on Saturday.

Henry Cusack, 28, a finance consultant from West Perth, fell to his death after sitting on a sofa chair on the balcony on the second storey of the pub.

Police believe he lent back, before falling through a plastic cafe blind to the pavement below.

Nine News Perth reported safety officials were inspecting the railing of the balcony of the Sail and Anchor hotel on Monday.
The West Australian government is refusing to shut down the state's only juvenile detention centre following a damning report that revealed unprecedented levels of self-harm and other problems.

Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan recommended the state government consider opening several smaller facilities, adding Banksia Hill Detention Centre could be re-purposed as a female prison or drug rehabilitation centre.

A report on Banksia Hill Detention Centre has found major failings with the facility.

Acting Premier Roger Cook described the report as "very concerning" and said Labor had argued in opposition that closing Rangeview Juvenile Remand Centre in 2012 was a mistake, with the impact of that now being felt.

"We won't be shutting down Banksia Hill. It is an important part of our correctional facilities," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Washington: For seven years, Republicans have vowed to "repeal and replace" Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, widely dubbed Obamacare.

But President Donald Trump has now taken to Twitter to demand that they settle for just repealing, and worry about the rest later.

His outburst came after two more Republican senators declared on Monday night that they would oppose the Senate Republican bill.

The announcement by Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left their leaders at least two votes short of the number needed to begin debate on their bill to dismantle Mr Obama's signature domestic policy achievement. Two other Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, had already said they would not support a procedural step to begin debate.
Comply with the whole or part of an APRA rule;

Refrain from lending out money with or without security; or

Refrain from carrying out activities that result in funding or originating loans

The government has released new draft legislation proposing extended powers for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) into the non-bank sector.The new measures, which were first announced in this years Budget , have been elaborated on in a joint press release from Treasurer Scott Morrison and the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly ODwyer.The legislation proposes that APRA be allowed to issue rules relating to lending practices to non-bank lenders to combat any perceived financial stability risk.These rules may target all non-bank lenders, a specific class of non-bank lender, or individual non-bank lenders and may impose different rules to different lenders under different circumstances.Prior to making, varying or revoking a rule, APRA has been ordered to consult with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).APRA will also be able to give directions to non-bank lenders. These must be given in writing and can order the non-bank to:These new rules will be backed by appropriate enforcement mechanisms including APRA directives ordering compliance and appropriate penalties.Under these new powers, APRA will also be able to collect more data from non-bank lenders to better tailor the use of these strengthened capabilities.These new powers will allow APRA to manage the financial stability risks posed by the activities of non-bank lenders, complementing APRAs current powers over ADIs, the joint release said.APRA will use its independent judgement to determine how and when to use this tool, in consultation with the Council of Financial Regulators.The exposure draft and related explanatory material is available on the Treasury website . The public has been invited to give feedback with submissions closing on 14 August.
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A powerful Borough Park councilman announced yesterday he will not seek reelection this November, apparently so he can hand-pick his successor.

Councilman David Greenfield (DBorough Park) said he will not run for his seat later this year, but his decision came after a key July 13 deadline for Council campaigns, and locked out candidates who might have run for the seat had they known the well-funded incumbent was stepping down.

Instead, Greenfield has assembled a committee on vacancies  which includes his wife Dina along with four other appointees  that will name the councilmans substitute on the ballot by Friday.

By removing the competition, Greenfields candidate will most likely win, and some good-government groups say that undercuts the democratic process.

Hes putting in place a political ally that will continue to match his interests and philosophies without the benefit of any real primary election, said Dick Dadey, head of Citizens Union.

Greenfield, who was voted into office during a special election in March of 2010 after Councilman Simcha Felder stepped down, and subsequently reelected in November of that year and again in 2013, could have served one more term in office before term limits kicked in  and kicked him out.

Whoever his successor is could potentially be in office for two full terms until 2026 after running virtually unopposed this year, detractors say.

Its a sneaky move, said lawyer and activist also-ran John OHara.

As of Monday, Greenfields only challenger to register candidacy with the city, David Mandel, had dropped out of the race, according to Campaign Finance Board Spokesman William Fowler.

Kalman Yeger, a political ally mulling a challenge to Councilman Chaim Deutsch (DSheepshead Bay), is considered Greenfields likely pick.

Yeger could not be reached for comment by press time.

In a statement, Greenfield, who is the chairman of the powerful Committee on Land Use, said he looks forward to serving impoverished New Yorkers in his new role as chief executive officer at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which boasts more than $53 million in assets, according to guide star.org .

I was humbled to be asked by the lay-leadership to serve as its next leader, subject to government approval, and am excited about galvanizing this critically important organization to serve our citys neediest for years to come, Greenfields statement read.

Greenfield did not respond to requests for comment regarding the timing of his announcement.
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This cases outcome goes far beyond the green spaces confines.

A judges ruling on whether Brooklyn Bridge Parks keepers are violating an agreement that restricts how much private development can be built in the park could affect meadows across America, park advocates said.

This will certainly have city-wide and country-wide implications, said Geoffrey Croft, who heads watchdog group NYC Parks Advocates and runs the blog A Walk in the Park. If the judge rules in their favor, it would incentivize future development.

An ongoing case between park honchos and civic group the Brooklyn Heights Association in Manhattan Supreme Court will determine whether developers can build two residential towers planned for Pier 6. Justice Lucy Billingss ruling will hinge on her decisions on whether park heads are breaching a document that states they can only build as much housing as needed to pay for maintaining the meadow, and whether that document is legally binding in the first place.

Activists allege the park is flush with cash and doesnt need to build 15- and 28-story towers at the foot of Atlantic Avenue, but park officials say they need the money from the high-rises to pay for upkeep of the wooden piles holding the pier up over the East River, which are being devoured by wood-eating crustaceans called marine borers.

The way Billings interprets the 2006 General Project Plan will determine whether more housing can be built in the future  regardless of financial need  and set examples for other park builders, according to activists.

Billings questioned whether the document was legally binding during a standing-room-only June court appearance, pointing out the language intention to only build what is necessary walked a fine legal line. The Heights Associations attorney, Richard Ziegler, however, argued the documents context and purpose, of laying out the parks goals, made it binding.

Brooklyn Bridge Park was paid for by city and state funds, but its upkeep is financed by private development in the form of property taxes on the residential, retail, and office spaces inside of it, which go directly into park coffers.

Critics of the funding structure argue that privatizing public space is messy because politicians schmoozy relationships with profit-hungry developers subject the meadow to greed instead of public interest. In fact, state Sen. Daniel Squadron (DBoerum Hill)  who opposes housing in the park  raked in more than $65,000 from supporters of it for his 2013 Public Advocate bid after giving up his veto power over development at Pier 6 and One John Street, according to Campaign Finance Board records.

And none of Brooklyn Bridge Park is designated parkland protected by the state, making the meadow nothing more than a high-end development with a fancy front yard, according to Croft.

This is not a park, its a development corporation. The name says it all, he said, referring to the greensward officially known as Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. We dont ask the public to buy fire engines and renovate police stations, but we allow these type of ridiculous funding schemes to infiltrate our parks.

There is so much gray area in the public-private relationship, Croft said, that a ruling in favor of park honchos could give them the permission they need to build more if funds dry up in the future.

When the piers deteriorate in a couple decades, it will be very costly and it is not unfathomable to think they would say, Look we need another $100 million,  he said.

James Yolles, a rep for Brooklyn Bridge Park, said officials are not planning to build more high-rises besides those at Pier 6, answering an e-mail that questioned whether they will erect additional towers if the judge rules in their favor with No.

But honchos have reversed their decision on the subject in the past. They originally planned for 740 units in the meadow, but then decided those would not generate enough money, and added the Pier 6 towers to the parks planned housing in February 2005. Officials then increased the total housing to roughly 1,120 units, based on information from a 2005 Environmental Impact Statement on how development would affect the area.

If the two towers are allowed to rise, the park will have a total of 849 units spread out among its developments at One John Street, One Brooklyn Bridge, Pierhouse, and Pier 6.

Locals refuse to believe park officials will stop building if Pier 6 is allowed to proceed, though, saying they have learned from the past.

In terms of their promises, everything is broken, said Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund. There is nothing any of these people have ever said to demonstrate they believe parks are important.

Model year

Other cities with unused waterfront space are exploring similar models that mix development with parkland. A Boston land conservation group wants to build a massive park along the citys harbor and hired Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates  which designed Brooklyn Bridge Park  for the project. But the organization cant foot the entire bill, and is looking to partner with developers to fund it, the Boston Globe reported.

And in San Francisco, officials are planning to transform an old gravel yard into a huge mixed-use development with a waterfront park, housing, retail, and commercial space.

Francis said officials in cities across the country will look to Justice Billingss decision as a precedent for how much real estate can be crammed into public parks, arguing the outcome will have huge consequences for meadows.

Every mayor across America will do the same thing if their words and promises mean nothing, and if the real estate lobby takes over in privatizing public land, there will never be another great park in America again, she said.

Roughly 4.5 million people visited Brooklyn Bridge Park in 2016, according to greensward data. And park-goers have begun to notice too much glass where there should be grass, said the head of the community group responsible for mediating between locals and park officials.

A lot of people dont feel its public because theres so much residential real estate there, said Peter LaBonte, president of the Community Advisory Group, a panel that Squadron set up as part of his 2011 deal. They feel as though theyre in peoples yard.

Back in court

The case between park honchos and the Brooklyn Heights Association was scheduled to return to Billingss courtroom July 18, when lawyers for the civic group were expected to argue that she stop construction on the towers  which developers RAL Development Services and Olivers Realty Group filed plans to begin on July 19  until she makes her decision.

But it was postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date, and an emergency hearing was set for July 20 so the judge could decide whether developers can proceed with the ground-breaking, which includes hammering 400 steel beams into the dirt.

The litigants next arguments are expected to be their last before Billings makes her judgment, which could come weeks or even months after the final cases are made. The stakes are high, Croft said, before admitting that the past has taught him not to get his hopes up.

When judges make rulings, the next court looks upon them, he said. Its important this is struck down, but our experience is that often the public is not served by these decisions.

Brooklyn Bridge Park officials refused to comment on the case, instead offering a statement that development at Pier 6 is necessary to fund the greensward.

Reps for the Brooklyn Heights Association did not return a request for comment, and Ziegler, the civic groups attorney, declined to comment.
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The only crime he was guilty of is stealing our hearts.

A rogue raccoon that enthralled Clinton Hill residents on Tuesday morning was killed hours after he scampered down Fulton Street and then rested on top of an air conditioner, attracting a crowd that hoped to catch a glimpse of the rubbish-eating rascal.

You would have thought Beyonce was there because there was such a huge crowd of people taking photos, said Lucas Booth, who works at Benys Delice, a pastry shop on Fulton Street and Vanderbilt Avenue where the scamp camped out.

Booth noticed the animal on a bench near his bicycle around 7:30 am, he said. Construction workers on a nearby site tried to help corral the creature into a cardboard box, but he quickly escaped, according to Booth, who said the critter was aggressive, but scared.

He didnt want anyone to come near him. If people came closer, he would stand on his hind legs and hiss, he said. He seemed pretty distressed.

Officers from the 88th Precinct then arrived on the scene after being called about a raccoon chasing people up and down Fulton Street. Animal control followed, and put the mammal into a cage to end the 90 minute ordeal.

But capturing the hissing bandit was not easy, according to an officer at the scene.

It was fighting with animal control. Obviously, no one wants to be put in a cage, said officer Cat Calambas (and, no, we are not making that up).

The raccoon was taken to the Animal Care Center in East New York, where he was euthanized, according to a spokeswoman.

Booth, who is British, had never seen a raccoon  which are native to North America  before this morning, and expressed condolences for the mammal when informed about his death.

Im sure they had a reason, but its unfortunate he just couldnt be returned to the wild, Booth said. Poor raccoon.

This isnt the first time that a city critter met its demise at the hands of officials  federal agents slaughtered more than 250 geese and their babies in Prospect Park in 2010 as part of an effort to reduce a waterfowl population the government ruled dangerous to planes taking off and landing at Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.
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
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October 31, 2022

Buddy TV

In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options...
A nephilim. An abomination. The literal spawn of Satan. Supernaturals Jack has racked up a host of sobriquets over the course of his short life, and it will be up to the Winchesters to ensure Lucifers son remains a monster in name only.

Jacks (Alexander Calvert) mother is dead and his fathers on a hunting trip in an alternate dimension, leaving the nephilim as wayward as any of Supernaturals sons. His childhood went by in a blink of an eye, played out in his nursery as Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) watched Castiels (Misha Collins) prone body fall to the ground. Now a teenager, Jack doesnt know up from down or, more importantly, wrong from right.





Supernatural Spin-Off: Fan Favorite Boards Wayward Sisters>>>

He had an evil source, but hes a blank slate. Its a nature-nurture thing, Andrew Dabb, showrunner, told TV Guide Magazine for their San Diego Comic-Con 2017 special edition. If season 12 was about children coming to terms with their moms as adults, then season 13 is very much about Sam and Dean as parents.

The Winchester brothers certainly wont don the mantle of fatherhood with alacrity, but their perspective will change as time wears on.

Neither would have willingly brought a child into this life, but once they see him as a person and not a tool, bonds will form, Dabb explained. Though what do you do when he can tear down a mountain or rip a hole in the universe with the click of his fingers? Hes a walking, talking nuke. Whoever controls him controls a lot.

Over the years, Sam and Dean have learned (and relearned) that not every monster should be put down as a matter of course. They allowed the devils offspring to come into being under the presumption that they could take away his angelic grace, thus neutralizing his powers. Jack is essentially the key to opening inter-dimensional rifts, however, meaning his predilection for cosmic manipulation is the only hope the boys have for seeing their mother once more. Being in loco parentis will give rise to a delicate balance  can the Winchesters put their own desires over the fate of the world? Over Jacks own murky future as either the Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker of the Supernatural world?

Oops! Supernatural Cast Reveals Castiels Return>>>

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!

Supernatural will return to The CW on Oct. 12 at 8/7c. Looking for more news like this? Check out the BuddyTV Supernatural Facebook page!

(Image courtesy of The CW)
Campus News

Program aims to encourage more UB students to study abroad

Costa Rica "was a place to sharpen some ideas and spur ideas for new development" of new study abroad opportunities, according to Trevor Poag, director of global learning opportunities in the Office of International Education, who led the trip.

By PETER MURPHY

Even if you never step foot abroad again, it will make you a better engineer  a more complete, well-rounded and thoughtful professional. 

Eight UB faculty members traveled to Costa Rica last month as part of the universitys first-ever Study Abroad Incubator, a program for faculty and staff interested in designing and leading new study abroad initiatives.

We decided to pick a group of applicants who had a strong desire to advance global learning in their respective departments at UB, says Trevor Poag, director of global learning opportunities in the Office of International Education. This was a non-traditional workshop with hands-on experience. Our team was able to see Costa Rica firsthand and look at different ways to connect students to all it has to offer in terms of experiential learning opportunities.

Jim Jensen and John Atkinson represented the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. Other participants were Shamim Islam, clinical assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics; Lisa Vahapoglu, program coordinator, Community of Excellence for Global Health Equity; Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, clinical assistant professor, Department of Organization and Human Resources, School of Management; Mary Nell Trautner, associate professor and director of graduate studies, Department of Sociology; Sarah Robert, associate professor, Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education; and Cynthia Stuhlmiller, professor and director of global nursing initiatives, School of Nursing.

Jensen highlighted his broad perspective when submitting his application to participate in the incubator. As part of my role in the UB Academies, I encourage a broad range of students to participate in study abroad programs, not just civil and environmental engineering students, says Jensen, a professor of environmental engineering and academic director of the Sustainability Academy.

His research on water in the developing world also was a key element of his application to the incubator.

Atkinson, an assistant professor of environmental engineering, notes that he and Jensen were unaware the other was going to Costa Rica. His application stressed his research interests, which include air pollution control, environmental and water resources engineering, and more specifically, sustainability.

Costa Rica is fascinating, Atkinson says. They are highly ranked in global sustainability surveys. Almost 98 percent of their electricity is from renewable sources. Over 25 percent of their land is protected forests.

The UB group, led by Poag, was in Costa Rica June 5-9, visiting different sites around the country. Among them were a government-run health care services center; the Institute for Central American Development Studies; a public school; the Association of Costa Rican Engineers and Architects; coffee, pineapple and banana plantations; the Kekoldi indigenous community; and the Quetzal Education Research Center, as well as hydro and wind energy generation sites.

Based on my experience living there for a number of years, I was able to select a few key sites to illustrate the topics that were present in the study abroad incubator, Poag says. This was a place to sharpen some ideas and spur ideas for new development. The idea now is to try to advance some of the great ideas our team brought to the table.

Only 80 students from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences reported studying abroad when such data was last collected during the fall 2016 semester, a reflection of the overall trend of low participation rates of engineering students in study abroad programs.

Engineers study abroad at a very low rate compared to other majors, says Jensen, who also serves as director of undergraduate studies for the environmental engineering program. Engineering requires cultural sensitivity. It requires you to know about people, and how people from other cultures think. A 21st-century engineer needs to spend time abroad so they can bring a more global perspective into their decision-making.

Jensen and Atkinson have worked abroad, but neither studied engineering abroad as an undergraduate. They both acknowledge the importance of study abroad programs and their impact on students.

The cultural experience is very important, Atkinson says. The experience of observing how different people do things, of relating to people from other cultures, and of identifying similarities and differences changes the way you think and act. Even if you never step foot abroad again, it will make you a better engineer  a more complete, well-rounded and thoughtful professional.
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
Highbridge Medical Centre has recruited a qualified nurse to support the Warfarin blood monitoring service that was withdrawn at Burnham-On-Sea and Berrow Medical Centre last month.

Dr Harvey Sampson, Interim Associate Medical Director for Highbridge Medical Centre, told Burnham-On-Sea.com that the centre has welcomed over 90 new patients since Burnham and Berrow withdrew the blooding testing service at the end of June.

Dr Sampson explained: We are able to offer the anti-coagulation blood testing services previously offered by Burnham & Berrow Medical Centre for patients who register at the practice in Highbridge.

This service has been available since July 1st 2017 and we have employed an additional Nurse for 19 hours a week; specifically to support the additional patients who require this service.

Over the past few weeks we have already welcomed 90 new patients and we would like to reassure any potential new patient that we have a very experienced and professional team at Highbridge, who are ready to support any new patient and their family who would like to register at the medical centre.

The news was also confirmed in a letter written by David Slack, Managing Director of NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, to Dave Chapple, Secretary of Bridgwater Trades Union Council.

In his letter, Mr Slack writes: Dr Sampson from the Highbridge practice has explained that an additional member of staff had been recruited to provide this service.

This is a qualified nurse who will be working for 19 hours per week, mostly supporting the INR service (Warfarin monitoring). The Burnham Medical Centre have been unable to recruit either additional GP or nursing time and were not willing to operate an HCA (Health Care Assistant) model because of the GP supervisory time.

Responding to a separate question about pay levels within the NHS, Mr Slack adds: I can confirm that it is my considered opinion that many years of pay restraint and the workload pressures on many staff are an important part of the context within which the NHS is working.

Workload pressures are generated in part from increases in demand as the population ages as well as shortages of staff in some areas due to recruitment challenges and/or financial constraints.

The intensity of the working day has therefore increased significantly for many staff, leading to some retiring earlier or going part-time. It is of course these challenges that STPs are designed to address so we can find ways of improving health outcomes and the quality of services within the limited financial resources.

The matter is therefore a key part of local discussions with NHS England and system partners. It is not the CCGs responsibility to lobby Government ministers or negotiate with trade unions. We do, however, ensure that local MPs are appropriately briefed and NHS Commissioners are aware of our views.

Dave Chapple, Secretary of Bridgwater Trades Union Council, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: This is an astonishing reply from the Chief Officer of the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group  Highbridge Medical Centre has recruited someone to cover the Warfarin clinic tasks.

It begs the question, if Highbridge can recruit new staff to deal with the Warfarin issues, why couldnt the Burnham and Berrow Centre?

Any new patient who would like to register at Highbridge Medical Centre can either complete a registration form online at www.highbridgemc.co.uk, or call the practice on 01278 783220 to talk through the registration process with a member of the team.
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National passenger carrier Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani on Tuesday said that the airline has no plans to offer a VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) to its employees.

"There is no such proposal for VRS," Lohani said.

Earlier, some reports had mentioned that before the airline's divestment, its management has been asked by the government to draw up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to its employees.

"Air India and its subsidiaries have nearly 20,000 employees. Among them, Air India has only 11,500 employees. Air India management has not offered their employees voluntary buyouts," said Dhananjay Kumar, Spokesperson, Air India.

The development comes after the June 28 decision of the Union cabinet which gave its in-principle approval for divestment of AI, whose debt has mounted to Rs 50,000 crore besides huge losses.



The Union cabinet's decision on Air India came after NITI Aayog in a recent report to the Civil Aviation Ministry recommended strategic disinvestment in the loss-making Air India.

At present, the national passenger carrier has a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore.

The airline in 2015-16 had posted an operating profit of Rs 105 crore. For the last fiscal (2016-17), the company is expected to report an improved operating profit margin.

The flag carrier had got a new lease of life on April 12, 2012, when the previous central government under the UPA had approved a Rs 30,000 crore turnaround (TAP) and financial restructuring plans (FRP) package spanning up to the year 2021.
Bata India, which has been lagging behind the unorganised shoemakers in terms of women's footwear, is eying to achieve a 35 per cent revenue contribution from its women's footwear segment from the current contribution of 26 per cent.

"In the organised footwear segment globally, women's category dominates the portfolio of any company, but it's not the same for us in India. Revenue contribution from sales of women's footwear is just 26 per cent and we are trying to increase it to 35 per cent", the company's chairman, Uday Khanna said in Kolkata on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting (AGM).
Essar Ports on Tuesday said Hazira Port Terminal operator EBTL has signed an agreement with Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for expanding its jetty by 1,100 metre.

The Hazira Port Terminal is an all-weather, deep-water terminal located in the Gulf of Khambatt, Gujarat.

Essar Bulk Terminal Ltd (EBTL) has signed an agreement with GMB for expanding its captive jetty by 1,100 metres, Essar Ports said in a statement.

"The expanded berthing facility is expected to be ready by end-FY18, and will enhance the current capacity by 20 MTPA. This will not only help cater to the enhanced cargo requirements of Essar Steel, its anchor customer, but also give a boost to the company's third-party cargo business," it said.

EPL has port terminal facilities that have all registered a significant jump in cargo handling in the last three months on the back of improved performance of their anchor customers.

EBTL alone has registered a 26 per cent Q-o-Q growth in cargo in Q1 of FY17-18 by handling about 5.5 million tonnes of cargo in the quarter. In June 2017, the terminal handled a cargo of 1.86 million tonnes, which is a monthly record, the statement said.

"Our Hazira Port Terminal has delivered record output on account of highly efficient operations. The expansion of the jetty by 1,100 metres will further boost the cargo handling capability of the facility," Essar Ports Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal said.

"The Hazira Port terminal is a world-class facility; the expansion will help us cater to the cargo requirements generated by the enhanced capacity utilisation of our anchor customer, Essar Steel," Essar Bulk Terminal CEO Subhas Das said.

Since Essar Steel production is expected to increase further during FY18, the total cargo handling at the Hazira port terminal is likely to cross 25 million tonnes in the fiscal.

The Hazira Port terminal has depths of 14 metres below chart datum (CD) and is capable of accommodating capesize vessels. The port terminal is integrated with Essar's Hazira Complex which consists of a 10 million tonnes steel plant, power plants and other manufacturing facilities.

Essar Ports has handled a record 19.62 million tonnes of cargo in the quarter ending 30 June 2017, a growth of 12 per cent when compared to corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. While dry bulk & unit cargo has increased by 32 per cent, third-party cargo has grown by 60 per cent.

Essar Ports is one of the largest port of India, with a current capacity of 140 MTPA. The capacity is being expanded to 194 MTPA over the next few years. Essar Ports has five operational port terminals at Hazira, Vadinar, Paradip, Salaya and Vizag.
The Gujarat High Court on Monday disposed of Essar Steels petition against insolvency proceedings initiated by its lenders after a directive by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Activist investors are often presented as the bad guys of financial markets. They burst onto the scene, shout loudly their plans and can offer brutal verdicts on the performance of company bosses. Naturally, CEOs would prefer to prevent this public struggle, and the best way for a company to defend itself from these insurgents might be borrow some of their tricks.
Unlike most other carmakers, who are sitting on a surplus capacity, the second biggest carmaker is facing a capacity constraint. It is yet to take a call on setting up a new manufacturing facility in India.

"We are conscious of the growth of Indian market. We will continue to rework our production plans with a high focus on the domestic market. We will tweak the domestic and export strategy so that we do not lose volume or market share in India," said Rakesh Srivastava, director (sales & marketing) at Hyundai Motor India.
The deal, which is taking a final shape, could be announced in two months, said people aware of the development. Jet has 15 ATR 72-500s and three ATR 72-600s which are leased from foreign lessors.

The deal may see Jet Airways leasing out the planes in a phased manner, starting with six planes in the first phase.
Full-service carrier may sub-lease out its fleet of ATR planes to regional carrier TruJet. The deal, which is taking final shape, could be announced in two months, said people aware of the development. Jet has 15 ATR 72-500s and three ATR 72-600s, which are leased from foreign lessors.
The Ahmedabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the insolvency petition against Essar Steel to Monday (July 24), while directing the company to file its objections by Saturday.
Protests continued in Kathiramangalam village in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu today against the ONGC's oil exploration project, with people observing fast demanding the release of those arrested in connection with the violence on June 30.

About 150 residents of the village including women sat on a fast infront of the Ayyanar temple last evening.

Government officials rushed to the spot and held talks with protesters to persuade them to call off the fast.

However, the agitators refused to budge and sought the release of 10 persons arrested on June 30.

The villagers have been up in arms against crude oil exploration 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 in the state.

Also, shops remained shut for several days in the village to express solidarity with the protesting residents.
In a tragic turn to an anti- drive by BSES, one of Delhi's two electricity distribution companies (discoms), a young engineer lost his life and four other officials were seriously injured when attacked by power thieves here on Monday, said a discom spokesperson.

"First, the teams were viciously attacked up by a mob in Jhul Jhuli village (in west Delhi), causing them to retreat. As they were retreating, the teams were chased by bike-borne goons. In the ensuing melee, one of the cars met with an accident and rammed into a tree, wherein five occupants were injured," a BSES statement said.

"One of them, a young engineer, succumbed to his injuries subsequently," it said.

Underlining the fact of the first loss of life caused by the menace of power theft, BSES said that on Monday, three of its inspection teams went to check on reports of large-scale power-theft in "village Jhul Jhuli, a high prone area in Jaffarpur, West Delhi," accompanied by Delhi Police personnel.

However, "so brazen was the attack that, once again, the presence of Delhi Police personnel accompanying the BSES teams did not deter the mob", the statement added.

Last month, three discom officials and a Delhi Police officer sustained injuries and many vehicles were damaged when they were attacked by a mob in Mundka in west Delhi.

BSES said that in the last five years, around 14,000 cases of power theft, having a connected load of around 33,000 KW, have been unearthed in the Jaffarpur area, while in the last two years, around 450 cases of having a connected load of around 1,200 KW have been unearthed in the Mundka area.

In May, special electricity courts in Delhi for power thefts had handed out heavy punishment to two offenders -- one of them sentenced to jail and a Rs 4 lakh fine imposed.

Earlier this year, the BSES had announced the sentencing of three offenders to jail terms and cumulative fines of over Rs 55 lakh.

Last year, special courts in four separate judgments had sentenced Delhi residents to rigorous imprisonment for power theft and imposed heavy fines.

"BSES discoms have successfully brought down AT & C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses from more than 55 per cent in 2002 (at the time of privatization) to the current level of around 12 per cent - a reduction around 45 per cent," the statement added.
Everyone wants to achieve professional success, yet only some of us are able to rise to the top of our fields. What is it that sets those people apart? Is there some special skill set that separates top performers from the rest of the crowd?
Amit Das Gupta and Lorenz Luthis The Sino-Indian War of 1962: New Perspectives is a most topical and useful book for two reasons: For one, it revisits a topic that has been relatively neglected in recent Indian scholarship using archival and other material that have become available in the last two decades. With access to (some) Chinese and to Russian/Soviet archives, and to the archives and memoirs of actors in other states, it is now possible to widen the lens from speculation about Indian and Chinese motives, and to attempt a clearer picture of what led to the war, its international context and its aftermath.
In the 1970s, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu was a rare politician in Andhra Pradesh politics. He was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the earlier avatar of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when in southern India the Jana Sangh was perceived as primarily north India based, a Brahmin-Baniya party with no rural roots and a party that talked of Hindis superiority over other regional languages. But most of all, Jana Sangh was seen as a party that derided non-vegetarianism.
Demonstrations continued in Shimla over the rape and murder of a school girl, with students today taking out a protest march over alleged "lapses" in the investigation, a day after the state government announced a CBI probe into the incident.

The protesters, led by Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists, assembled at the Central Telegraph Office here and marched to the Ridge via the Mall Road, carrying placards demanding justice for the victim.

The SFI welcomed the decision of the state government of referring the case to CBI but expressed suspicion over role of the police.

Residents of Chamyana, on the outskirts of Shimla, also held protests over the incident.

The Congress also joined the clamour for justice for the victim. Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said there certainly was some "negligence" in the police probe.

Yesterday, an irate mob went on a rampage at Theog, around 30 kilometres from the state capital here.

The mob damaged government vehicles, laid siege to a police station and blocked the Hindustan-Tibet Highway for hours demanding a CBI probe into the case.

The minor girl, a class X student, was allegedly raped and murdered at the Kotkhai area of Shimla district on July 4. The body of the victim was recovered from the nearby Halila forest two days later.

Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Somesh Goyal had earlier claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of all the six accused, but there were still doubts in the minds of some that the case was being hushed up by the police.

The mob alleged that the real culprits were not arrested as they belonged to influential families.

The mob allegedly roughed up the Shimla Superintendent of Police (SP), damaged his vehicle and those of the Sub- Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Theog and Station House Officer (SHO), Theog, who took shelter inside the police station to escape its fury.

Taking note of the sensitive nature of the case, the chief minister, who returned to the state capital yesterday after a two-day visit to Kullu, took stock of the situation and ordered a probe by the central agency into the case.

(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 State Department has expanded its definition of "close family" to include grandparents and other relatives that constitute a bona fide US relationship for visa applicants and refugees from six mainly Muslim nations.

In response to a Hawaii federal judge's order last week, the department yesterday instructed US diplomats to consider grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and first cousins to meet the criteria for applicants from the six countries to receive a US visa.

They had been omitted by the department after the Supreme Court partially upheld the Trump administration's travel ban in June. Initially, it had included only parents, spouses, fiances, children, adult sons or daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and siblings. Yesterday's instructions change that.

"The ruling is effective immediately and we have issued instructions to our embassies and consulates to use the expanded definition when adjudicating visa cases," the department said. Under the rules, applicants from the six countries Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen have to prove a bona fide relationship with a person or entity, including a "close familial relationship" in the US to be exempt from the ban.

US District Judge Derrick Watson had ruled on Thursday that excluding grandparents and others defied common sense.

"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.
As the standoff between India and China at Doka La enters its second month, Beijing appears to be running out of patience.
China's state-run media on Tuesday rejected as "fake" a Pakistani news report that claimed over 150 Indian soldiers were killed in Sikkim in a Chinese rocket attack.

"Chinese media outlets have carried out a series of investigations, claiming that the fake news should not be taken seriously," People's Daily Online reported.

Chinese mainstream media outlets have denounced Pakistani media's "groundless" report, said the online edition of the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece.

A 24-hour Pakistani news channel yesterday claimed that at least 158 Indian soldiers have been killed as China fired rockets across the border on Indian border installations.

India last night dismissed the report as "utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous".

According to the People's Daily, the Chinese Embassy in India has denounced the authenticity of the report.

Some Pakistani media outlets claim that the fake news is based on unverified information from social media and the Internet.

The state-run Global Times also published a report today, calling the Pakistani media report "groundless and fake."



Chinese authorities have not yet responded to the report.

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.

(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.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a memorial of former president A P J Abdul Kalam at the latter's birthplace in Rameswaram on July 27, the BJP's state unit said on Monday.

The prime minister will be visiting Rameswaram on next Thursday to inaugurate the memorial of Abdul Kalam, BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan said in a statement.

The party's state unit is making all arrangements for the visit, she said.

Kalam, a career scientist turned statesman, was the 11th president from 2002 to 2007. He passed away on July 27, 2015.

(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 Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a nine-judge constitution bench the question whether right to privacy is a fundamental right on which hinges the challenge to the validity of the Aadhaar scheme.
As many as 73 roads with "operational significance" are being constructed along the Sino-India border, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

"The government has decided to undertake construction of 73 roads of operational significance along Indo-China border. Out of these 73 roads, 46 are being constructed by the Ministry of Defence and 27 by the Ministry of Home Affairs," Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, said in reply to a written question.

He said 30 roads had been completed so far.

The roads were scheduled to be completed by 2012-13.

The major reasons for the delay included limited working season combined with logistical issues due to high altitude, rugged and difficult terrain, natural calamities, delay in forest/ wildlife clearances and land acquisition, Rijiju said.

The minister said a number of steps have been taken to expedite the road projects such as setting up of a high level empowered committee, headed by the Union home secretary, to review and monitor the progress of border infrastructure projects regularly.

India and China share a 3,488 km-long border -- from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.

The two countries have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area along the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a construction party of the Chinese Army attempted to build a road in the region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to go for a Cabinet expansion as senior minister M. Venkaiah Naidu's almost certain election as the next Vice-President will leave two heavyweight portfolios without a Cabinet minister.

Already, two key ministries-- defence and environment-- are without a full-time minister.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan are holding the additional charge of these two portfolios, respectively.

Naidu, whose candidature as the NDA's vice-presidential candidate was announced on Monday, currently holds charge of the ministries of Information and Broadcasting and Urban Development.

BJP sources said a reshuffle in the Union council of ministers is expected after the monsoon session of Parliament, and some new faces could also be inducted into the Cabinet.

While Manohar Parrikar's move to Goa as its chief minister in March left the defence ministry without a full- time Cabinet minister, the death of Anil Dave in May caused a vacancy in the environment ministry.

Prime Minister Modi first expanded his cabinet in November 2014 when he inducted 21 new faces, including Parrikar as defence minister.

In July last year, Modi undertook another reshuffle in which he appointed Prakash Javadekar as the human resource development minister, replacing Smriti Irani, who was shifted to textiles.
At a time when the solar power capacity addition has grown leaps and bounds, touching 10 GW in last fiscal, domestic solar cells and modules manufacturing has taken a backseat. While the government initiated some support to protect it against the flooding of cheap Chinese counterparts, the domestic industry continues to face demand glut.
The single window tax regime intended to simplify processes under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is facing many challenges in its interpretation and implementation. More significantly, transition to GST, despite adequate time given, appears to be in the midst of birthing angst.
Farmers in Punjab are bigger beneficiaries of the enlarged rural credit flow through the Centre-subsidised institutional mechanism than their counterparts in other states that have announced debt waivers.
In its three-year tenure, the Narendra Modi council of ministers has had two Cabinet reshuffles and expansions  in November 2014 and July 2016. A third expansion and reshuffle is in the offing with less than two years to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a need being felt to reinvigorate the Union Cabinet. A has also become necessary to fill several vacancies.
Australia is expecting to welcome over three lakh Indian tourists this year, mainly due to the online visitor visa applications facility, steady Australian dollar and various promotion activities.

In 2016, over 2.6 lakh Indian travellers visited Australia, according to data given by Tourism Australia.

"We are witnessing double digit growth in tourist arrivals from India since last three financial years (July-June). This is the fourth consecutive financial year we saw a growth of 15.3 per cent by hosting 2.5 lakh Indians. If we continue at the same pace we will easily cross 3 lakh during calender year," Tourism Australia Country Manager (India and Gulf) Nishant Kashikar told PTI.

In 2015-16, 2.38 lakh Indians visited Australia.

He said, the growth in tourist traffic from India will be driven by online the visitor visa applications facility launched this month, steady Australian dollar (AUD) and various promotion activities taken up by Tourism Australia.

"Besides, the growth in Indian diaspora in Australia, the economy doing well, the positive consumer sentiment and bullish market sentiment will also support the visitor growth from India to Australia. We are also witnessing a lot of repeat visitors from India," he added.

Currently, India is ranked as the ninth source market for Australia, he added.

New Zealand, China, the US, UK and Singapore are the top five source markets of Australia.

In terms of spending, India is at eighth position with an average Rs 2.6 lakh per person (AUD 5,300).

The top five spenders in Australia are China, the US, UK, New Zealand and Japan.

"If the current trend continuous, we expect India to be among the top seven source market and top five spender by 2025," Kashikar said.

Tourism Australia is mainly targeting high valued Indians over the age of 25 years from the six metro cities and Pune and Ahmedabad, he said.

"We are mainly promoting Australia as a leisure destination ideal for family (with or without children) and honeymooners. We are also focusing on the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) segment," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today welcomed Australia's joining of the (ISA) and said it will provide a great boost to the grouping.

He conveyed this to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop when she called on him here, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Before calling on the prime minister, the visiting dignitary signed the Framework Agreement to join the ISA, a common platform for cooperation among sun-rich countries.

The initiative was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 Modi and the then President of France Francois Hollande.

During the meeting, Modi and Bishop also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest, the PMO said.

The Australian foreign minister briefed Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India in April this year, it said.

Modi warmly recalled the successful visit of Turnbull to India in April and said the bilateral relationship has deepened a lot since his own visit to Australia in 2014, the statement said.

(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 Directorate of Technical (DTE) Maharashtra has announced the provisional allotment status of CAP round III for admission to various MBA institutes in the state. Students can check it out on the official site. MH-CET (Maharashtra Common Entrance Test  Maharashtra CET) is a state level entrance exam that is conducted by the DTE-MH for admission in the post graduate degree in MBA/MMS/PGDBM/PGDM programmes. These courses are offered by the government university, managed university, departments and unaided institution in the Maharashtra state. CET Maharashtra is the common entrance test for all these courses.
The Government has a comprehensive National Policy and Action Plan in place under which a multi-pronged strategy is being implemented to deal with Left Wing Extremism. This strategy is centered around security related measures, developmental interventions and ensuring rights & entitlements of local communities etc. Security related measures include assistance to LWE affected States by providing CAPF Bns, training assistance and funds for modernization of State Police Forces, arms & equipment, sharing of intelligence etc. On the development side, apart from flagship schemes of the Central Government in infrastructure, education, health, skill development, agriculture etc several initiatives have been taken specifically for development of Left Wing Extremism Affected areas. These include focused schemes for development of roads, installation of mobile towers, skill development, improving network of banks and post offices, health and education facilities. .

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States have their own surrender policies for encouraging Left Wing Extremists to join the mainstream. The Central Government also has a comprehensive 'Surrender-cum-Rehabilitation Scheme of Left Wing Extremists in the affected States' to allow Left Wing Extremists to return to the mainstream. The rehabilitation package inter-alia, includes an immediate grant of Rs. 2.5 lakhs for higher ranked LWE cadres and Rs.1.5 lakhs for middle/ lower rank LWE cadre surrenderees to be kept in their name as fixed deposit which may be withdrawn after completion of 3 years subject to good behavior. They are also imparted training in a trade/ vocation of their liking and are paid a monthly stipend of Rs. 4000/- for three years. In addition, incentives for surrender of weapons/ ammunition are also provided under the Scheme. The Government of India provides reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the LWE affected States on rehabilitation of surrenderees in this policy under the SRE Scheme. .

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The Central Government will consider engaging in dialogue with the Left Wing Extremists only if they renounce violence and express faith in the democratic process and Constitution of India. .

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This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to question by Shri Kaushalendra Kumar in the Lok Sabha today. .

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The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has called for an indefinite strike in Darjeeling hills w.e.f. 12.06.2017 demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland, which is still continuing. Violence and damage to public property has been reported during the agitations and a number of cases have been registered by the West Bengal police. .

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The Central Government had sought a report from the Government of West Bengal in the matter on 13.06.2017. The Government of West Bengal sent a report vide letter dated 17.06.2017. Keeping in view the reports of unabated incidents of violence, the Central Government vide letter dated 4.07.2017 had again sought updated status of law & order in the Darjeeling hills areas. The Government of West Bengal, vide its letter dated 5.07.2017 has provided the abstract deployment of Central Para Military Forces (CPMFs) in Darjeeling and Kalimpong and vide letter dated 7.07.2017 provided a brief report on the events leading to the present situation in Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Areas (GTAA). .

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As per the VII Schedule to the Constitution of India, 'Public Order' and 'Police' are state subjects. The State Government concerned is primarily responsible for maintenance of law and order. The Central Government, on the request of State Government, assists the State Government in maintenance of law & order by providing Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). CAPF battalions have been provided to the Government of West Bengal for maintenance of law & order in GTAA. .

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This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to question by Kumari Sushmita Dev, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Shri M. Raja Mohan Reddy in the Lok Sabha today. .

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The predictable recapture of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS) marks a new milestone in the tumultuous events of the Middle East. It has important ramifications for Iraq, IS and the West.
Qatar, the tiny Gulf state being isolated by its neighbours, said the reported involvement of the United Arab Emirates in hacking its government news site in May is "unfortunate" and a breach of agreements among the Gulf countries.

The Washington Post, quoting unnamed US intelligence officials, reported Sunday that the UAE orchestrated the hacking and planted a false story that was used as a pretext for the crisis between Qatar and four Arab countries.

The report said senior members of the Emirati government discussed the hacking plan a day before a story appeared on the official Qatar News Agency quoting Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, allegedly praising Iran and saying Qatar has a good relationship with Israel.

The UAE has denied involvement, calling the Post report "false" and insisting that the UAE "had no role whatsoever" in the alleged hacking.

The UAE along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties and severed air, land and sea links with Qatar in early June over allegations that it supports extremist ideology - a charge Qatar denied. The crisis has dragged on for more than a month with neither side showing signs of backing down.

Qatar maintained from the beginning that the quotes attributed to its ruler were the result of a hacking. It said in a statement yesterday that the Post report "unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place."



Sheikh Saif bin Ahmad Al Thani, the head of Qatar's government communications office, said "it is especially unfortunate that this shameful act of cyber terrorism is being attributed to a fellow member of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

"This criminal act represents a clear violation and breach of law and of the bilateral and collective agreements signed between the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as collective agreements with the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the United Nations," he said.

The GCC is a six-member bloc that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Kuwait has been serving as a mediator in trying to resolve the current Gulf crisis.

Sheikh Saif said a Qatari government investigation into the hacking is ongoing and that prosecutors will "take all necessary legal measures to bring to justice the perpetrators and instigators of this crime.

(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 United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.
When Jr., his brother-in-law and his fathers campaign chairman sat down with a Russian lawyer last June expecting to receive incriminating information about Hillary Clinton, the lawyer brought along a chatty Russian-born Washington lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin.
surged 18% to Rs 55.75 on the BSE on the back of heavy volumes after the company said that it is in various stages of discussion with multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) for distribution arrangement of their products.
Five companies  Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Maruti Suzuki India, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ), ACC and Power Grid Corporation  from the Nifty50 index hit their respective all-time highs on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade on Tuesday.
Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) on Tuesday announced that it has joined hands with Thomson Reuters to launch co-branded commodity indices in India. The move follows signals from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to open up commodity .
A Delhi court on Tuesday will make a decision over providing round-the-clock security to arms dealer Abhishek Verma in the 1984 riots, who had expressed willingness to undergo a polygraph test on the condition of round the clock security till the test takes place.

Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case allegedly involving Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, on July 6 told a Delhi court that he was ready to undergo a lie-detector test if he and his family are provided security.

He was asked to file a written affidavit in this regard before the issuance of any such orders by the court.

Verma has asked for two Protective Service Officers (PSOs), and guards outside his home round the clock.

The court had directed him to file in writing the request for security protection.

On June 2, the Delhi Court pronounced its order on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea, seeking permission to conduct a lie-detector test on Tytler.

Earlier, the court had asked arms dealer Abhishek Verma, who is a witness in the case, to explain the conditions for undergoing the polygraph test.

On May 22, Tytler refused to undergo lie-detector test before the court.

Tytler and arms dealer Abhishek Verma were earlier asked by the court to appear in person or file an affidavit stating if they wanted to undergo lie-detector test or not.

Verma's counsel informed the Karkardooma Court that the former was not well and hence, sought more time to appear. The court then fixed June 2 for his personal appearance.

On May 9, the court gave two weeks time to Tytler and Verma to file their contentions and appear before the court about their consent on conduction of lie-detector test and provision of security.

Earlier in April also, Tytler refused to undergo a lie-detector test in connection with the case.

In February, the CBI had sought the court's permission for lie-detector tests on Tytler and Verma.

Tytler is accused of leading a mob in the 1984 Pul Bangash case in which three Sikhs were killed.

The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in the case but re-opened the investigation following the December 4, 2015, order in the wake of Verma's allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said that the Centre does not have any issue with United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) Vice Presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi who had sought mercy for a 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict, Yakub Memon.

"If Gopalkrishna Gandhi feels good about supporting the ones who signed the mercy petition of Yakub Memon first, we don't have any objection with that," Pradhan told ANI.

He added that Democratic Alliance (NDA), Vice-Presidential Candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu has experienced not only NDA but other parties will also support him in the Vice Presidential elections.

"Naidu will face no problem in winning," he asserted.

Memon was the lone convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case who was sent to the gallows.

Meanwhile earlier in the day, GopalKrishna Gandhi filed his nomination to be the 13th Vice President of India in the Parliament House.

Gandhi was accompanied by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other eminent leaders of various political parties.

India will go on poll on August 5 to elect its new Vice President.

NDA vice presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu also filed his nomination for the post today.

Naidu was accompanied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, veteran leader L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and other NDA leaders while filing his nomination in the Parliament House.

Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Pattnaik extended his support for Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

"I extend my support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi for Vice-Presidential elections," Pattnaik told media.

Gandhi said he has accepted the request with a sense of gratitude and responsibility.

Gopalkrishna, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi said a total of 18 opposition parties asked him to be their presidential candidate.

The term of Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is also ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, ends on August 10.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
According to newly released figures by the United Nations, the number of civilian deaths in the Afghan war has reached a record high.

During the 16-year war, the number of deaths of women and children grew especially fast, mostly due to 'homemade bombs' by Taliban which caused 40% of civilian casualties in the first six months of 2017.

Child casualties increased by 9% to 436, compared with the same period last year, and 1,141 children were wounded.

Female deaths rose by 23%, with 174 women killed and 462 injured, the report states.

US and Afghan airstrikes also contributed to the surge in civilian victims, with a 43% increase in casualties from the air, the figures showed.

The head of the UN's Afghanistan mission Tadamichi Yamamoto, said the human cost of the Afghanistan war, including death, destruction and suffering, is high.

"The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal improvised explosive devices [IEDs] is particularly appalling and must immediately stop," he said.

The worst attack on civilians occurred in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 31 May, when a truck bomb killed at least 150 people, resulting in nearly one-quarter of the 596 civilian deaths from IEDs in 2017.

Meanwhile in the countryside, bombs in fields or left in abandoned houses are giving a slow yet steady death toll, with 1,483 civilians injured and many suffering amputations.

Of the 232 civilian casualties from 48 aerial operations, 114 were caused by Afghans and 85 by Americans.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A number of former foreign policy experts have called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to not eliminate the state department office that handles refugees.

A memo, which was leaked last month, showed the administration mulling over relocating the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration.

It also said that moving management responsibilities for refugees to DHS would "enable processing efficiencies" and is consistent with President Donald Trump's focus on border security and ample vetting of those entering the country.

According to a letter signed by 58 former diplomats and National Security Advisers, such a change will surely shift the bureau's focus from humanitarian and policy concerns to solely security issues, reports Washington Post.

"We are convinced that the elimination of PRM's assistance functions would have profound and negative implications for the Secretary of State's capacity to influence policy issues of key concern to the United States. It would also be ironic, as this is one of the bureaus at State that has enjoyed strong bipartisan support over many years," the letter reads.

Those who signed include former officials who served in Republican and Democratic administrations, as well as executives from numerous religious and humanitarian organizations that work with newly arrived refugees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee set to back Opposition presidential nominee Meira Kumar as a mark of protest against the Centre's "atrocities", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said the it does not expect support from parties who pursue communal politics.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader GVL Narsimha Rao said the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) represent regressive politics today and have been perusing communal politics, vote-bank politics and they do not represent the kind of politics that the BJP is perusing that is "sabka saath, sabka vikas".

"So at another level, the opposition is more like a corrupt alliance of different desperate parties. TMC, RJD, Congress, they are all facing serious charges of corruption. So, obviously we do not expect her (Mamata) to vote for the NDA candidate because we represent positive politics, we represent secular and non-discriminatory administrative regime, positive agenda and honest government," he added.

Another BJP leader Rahul Sinha blamed Mamata of practising "politics of appeasement" and said she has no right to talk about the Centre when her own state is burning of communal violence.

"She herself is not able to control the law and order situation in the state and she is blaming the Centre. All the anti-social elements are in the TMC. Because of Mamata the hills are burning, it was because of her that in 7 months there were 14 cases of riots," he added.

Demanding Mamata's immediate resignation, Sinha further said that the TMC chief was making such "absurd" statement out of "frustration".

Training guns at the Centre for the growing unlawfulness and injustice in the country, Mamata yesterday said "We support Meira Kumar and will stand by her always. Our vote is against unlawfulness and injustice which is growing in the country. For the sake of the country we urge everyone to not support Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and stand by a common man."

Further slamming the government, Banerjee stated that the TMC will not bow down their heads and will rather fight and be happy to go to jail.

"Demonetisation and GST are the two biggest scams of the country, which is making it, lag behind. After all this, we will not bow down our heads rather fight and be happy to go to jail. If BJP thinks that Bengal is an easy place then they are wrong. We already have 18 political parties that have come together and this is a good time for coalition," Banerjee said.

Targeting the Centre for having bad relations with West Bengal, Banerjee termed it like a 'sandwich'.

"The Centre has always had bad relations with neighbouring countries like China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal and now it's with West Bengal which has become like a sandwich," Banerjee added.

The counting of the votes will take place on July 20.

There are two candidates in the fray for the coveted post - Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind and Opposition's candidate Meira Kumar.

President Pranab Mukherjee's term is expiring on July 25.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After a Paris-based historian claimed that freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose did not die in the air crash of August 18, 1945, Netaji 's grand nephew Chandra K. Bose has asked the Centre as to what is preventing them from forming a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to solve "India's biggest cover-up".

"The French report clearly indicates and there are many other evidences that clearly indicate that Subhash Chandra Bose did not die in the Air crash. So, what is preventing the present Central government to form a Special Investigating Team? We have been demanding this since January 2016," Chandra K. Bose told ANI

Appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government for declassifying Netaji's files, he said, "We must give credit to Narendra Modi government for declassifying all files starting 23 January 2016.......But the need of an hour is to form SIT who would take up the assignment from Justice Mukherjee left....the government of India has to take a holistic approach otherwise we cannot solve India's biggest cover-up, the disappearance of Netaji."

"This is a very critical report that the French authorities have revealed which again proves that that there was no air crash in Taihoku on the 18th of august 1945. Now we don't have to really go to France to find out the truth about the liberator of India. The Justice Mukherjee commission, in 2006 had clearly stated based on their research and finding that Subhas Chandra Bose did not perish in any air crush," he added.

Bose also questioned the Central government as to why are they are not accepting the findings of Justice Mukherjee commission report.

"The Congress party, the UPA government in 2006 rejected the findings of the Justice Mukherjee commission due to political reasons because they were not able accept the truth about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. But the NDA government has no such restriction. So, why the NDA government is not placing the Justice Mukherjee commission report in both houses of Parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for a thorough discussion," he said.

The Paris-based historian J B P More, who recently stumbled upon a brief French secret service report dated December 11, 1947 at the Archives of France, has come up with a finding that Bose didn't die in an air crash and was still alive in 1947.

The gist of the matter for the French secret service, according to More, is that Bose did not die in the air crash on August 18, 1945, as commonly held.

"But he escaped from Indochina alive and his whereabouts were unknown as late as December 11, 1947," reports the secret document.

Last year, both India and Japan declassified files relating to the leader whose disappearance 70 years ago still remains a mystery, with historians and family members challenging the official version citing lack of proof. Even before Independence, the Figgess Report in 1946 concluded that Netaji died in a plane crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945.

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Opposition's vice-presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday said he has accepted the request with a sense of gratitude and responsibility.

Gopalkrishna said a total of 18 opposition parties asked him to be their presidential candidate.

"The Opposition in India is a very large entity. There are opposition parties at the Centre and states who hold different perspectives. But a large number, precisely 18, have asked me to be their candidate in the Vice-Presidential election. I have accepted their invitation with a sense of gratitude and a sense of responsibility," Gopalkrishna told media.

Vice Presidential candidates M. Venkaiah Naidu, representing the ruling Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, will be today filing their nominations for the post.

Naidu signed his resignation papers yesterday.

The Opposition named Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former governor, as their vice presidential candidate, last week, while Venkaiah Naidu was named as NDA's candidate yesterday evening.

The last date for making nominations for the August 5 Vice-Presidential elections is ending today, as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.

Counting for Vice Presidential elections will take place on August 5.

The term of Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is also ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, ends on August 10.

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India on Monday categorically denied reports coming from Chinese media that the Chinese Army killed 158 Indian soldiers and fired rockets across the Sikkim border.

This came a day after China's army conducted new drills in Tibet that included targeting enemy aircraft and tanks.

"Such reports are utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous. No cognisance should be taken of them by responsible media," Ministry of External Affairs Minsiter official spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The response came after Chinese Army carried out attacks across the Sikkim border wounding several Indian soldiers, reported Dunya news citing a two minute video footage that was broadcasted by the China Central Television (CCTV).

The video footage showed the Chinese soldiers attacking an Indian posts using rocket launchers, machine guns, and mortars.

This incident came amidst India-China's month long stand-off in China, Bhutan, and India tri-junction Doklam border.

The stand-off emerged after Chinese troops were stopped by the Indian Army from construction roads in the Doklam border.

India claims Sikkim border as part of its territory, while China has said that the area falls on their side as per the 1890 treaty signed between British and China.

Consequently, China suspended the annual Kailash Manasarovar yatra and conceded that the decision to suspend the pilgrimage was due to the border scuffle.

It also alleged that the Indian troops had crossed the Sikkim sector of the Indo-China border. Beijing has accused New Delhi of violating a convention signed in 1890 between Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet.

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Former Qazigund Sarpanch Nazir Ahmad Shah was injured in firing by terrorists here in Panzath village last night.

The condition of Shah is said to be stable.

The Pakistan Army on Tuesday violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber Gali and Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The violation took place at around 6:45 am, to which the Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively.

Earlier on Monday, a jawan was injured in the ceasefire violation carried out by Pakistan in the Uri Sector.

The Indian Army had also confirmed the death of a soldier during ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in Jammu's Bhimber Gali Sector. The deceased soldier was identified as Naik Muddasar Ahmed.

In the fire exchange, Ahmed was grievously injured when mortar shells landed on his bunker. He was evacuated to the MI room where he succumbed to his injuries.

On July 12, two soldiers were killed after Pakistan violated ceasefire in Kupwara Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

On July 9, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector along the LoC.

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In the wake of the Karnataka government demanding a separate flag for the state, Shiv Sena on Tuesday condemned the decision and said, the state government should be suspended for such a demand, and Presidential rule should be imposed in the state.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI, "If a state puts forth a demand, which is against the constitution then it should be suspended, and Presidential rule should be imposed in the state."

Attacking the Siddaramaiah-led government, Raut said, "If, they have taken this decision based on the situation of Jammu and Kashmir then next, they would demand a separate nation. The CM would also want the Prime Minister's status".

Earlier today, the Karnataka Government had constituted a nine-member committee to submit a report to the state government on the possibility of designing a separate flag for the state.

Siddaramaiah on Tuesday, defended the demand for a separate flag for the state, asking if there is any provision in the Constitution that prohibits the state from having its own flag.

"Is there any provision in the Constitution which is prohibiting a state to have its own flag? Did BJP people come across any provision?" Siddaramaiah said.

"If the BJP does not want a flag, let them make a statement that they don't want a flag in Karnataka", he added.

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Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday resigned as Rajya Sabha MP.

"I was not allowed to speak on problems being faced by the Dalits, backward class, weaker sections including farmers and labourers in Uttar Pradesh. Since I was not allowed by the ruling party to raise these issues so, I have decided to give resignation from Rajya Sabha," she told media.

Mayawati earlier in the day threatened to resign from the pper House as she was not allowed to speak on Dalits and other weaker sections being targeted in Uttar Pradesh.

She raised the Saharanpur violence and criticised the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for handling the matter poorly.

"Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to power, there have been atrocities on Dalits and minorities starting from Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, then the Gau Rakshaks," the BSP chief asserted.

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Accusing Nitish Kumar of having both his feet planted in two boats conveniently, Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan has called on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

to take a decision on the fate of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav who is facing corruption charges.

Asserting that Nitish was known for his oscillating stands on matters, Paswan put the onus on the Chief Minister to end the row surrounding Tejashwi, who is the son of RJD

Supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, a longtime ally of the former.

"The condition in Bihar is pretty bad and no officer is listening to the authorities. Why did they even give an ultimatum of four days, when they didn't have to do anything at all,"

he said.

"There will be a disadvantage for Nitish ji, if he does not take a right decision at the right time," Paswan added.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi; 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.

Lalu had earlier made it clear that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges, will not resign as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stressed that Tejashwi has only two options now- tender resignation or get sacked.

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan has reiterated that US President Donald Trump will not be given an elaborate state visit when he comes to the United Kingdom next year for a state visit.

"State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet," Khan told CNN in an interview.

The delay to Trump's visit comes amid concern that there will be mass protests against the President in the British capital.

Earlier this year, over 1.8 million people signed a petition seeking to block Trump's UK trip over fears that it would "cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen."

Trump met with UK Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 summit in Hamburg and told reporters he would be visiting London.

May's offer of a state visit was made during her visit to Washington in January, just days after Trump's inauguration.

Khan, who is the first Muslim mayor of a western capital city, however, did not rule out a meeting with the US President.

"If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role. If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump," he said.

Khan and Trump's relationship is known to be a particularly rocky one, following Khan's opposition to Trump's decision to bar from the US people from a list of mainly Muslim countries.

Post the terror attack on London Bridge last month in which eight were killed, Khan's reassurance to Londoners that there was "no reason to be alarmed" by the increased police presence, a sharp response from Trump on Twitter.

"At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!'" Trump tweeted.

In a sharp rebuttal, Khan said his remarks had been taken out of context as he had been referring to the enhanced police presence.

This only drew out another response from Trump who tweeted: "Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his 'no reason to be alarmed' statement.

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N.S. Megharik on Tuesday took additional charge as Director General (Prisons) replacing H.N. Satyanarayana Rao .

Earlier, Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) D. Roopa, who wrote a report to the Director General (Prisons) Satyanarayana Rao stating about the irregularities going on in the Parappana Agrahara central prison, was transferred to the traffic department.

Roopa was transferred to the traffic department as the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety.

A recent report by DIG (Prisons) Roopa had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by Sasikala, including the Director General (Prisons), in order to avail special facilities in the Parappana Agrahara central prison.

Roopa, in a report to Director General (Prisons), had said there are speculations that Sasikala paid bribe to prison officials to get special facilities for herself.

To this regard, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured that strict action would be taken against the guilty, while taking cognizance of allegations of irregularities in the Bengaluru central prison.

Siddaramaiah said he has ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.

On the one hand, where Rao categorically denied all the charges, Roopa, on the other, maintained her stand, saying that she has no issue with an inquiry taking place into it.

On July 14, Roopa had also said she is being unnecessarily targeted and singled out for exposing irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central prison.

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iStock/Thinkstock(MINNEAPOLIS) -- The reason why police did not have their body cameras turned on when they shot and killed an Australian woman over the weekend is a "key question" for investigators, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges told "Good Morning America" Tuesday.



"You know, I fought hard to make sure that we have body cameras. Theyre a very powerful tool, they're not an infallible tool, but they're an important tool in 21st century policing and I dont know why they werent turned on," Hodges told "GMA." "I dont know what happened. That's one of the key questions that we have as the investigations move forward."



Just before 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, two Minneapolis police officers "responded to a 911 call of a possible assault," and "at one point an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman," according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), the lead investigating agency.



The victim was Justine Maia Ruszczyk, 40, the county medical examiner's office confirmed Monday night. She died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, the medical examiner said.



The officers' body cameras were not turned on at the time of the shooting and the squad camera didn't capture what happened, the BCA said, adding that "investigators are attempting to determine whether any video of the incident exists."



"When the investigation is complete, the BCA will turn its findings over to the Hennepin County Attorneys Office for review," the bureau said.



The two officers involved are on paid administrative leave, the Minneapolis Police Department said.



The Minneapolis Star Tribune said the victim was Australian bride-to-be and went by the name Justine Damond, using the last name of her fiance, Don Damond.



Ruszczyk's death is being ruled a homicide.



The shooting was "tragic and awful and disturbing," according to Hodges.



"I have the same questions everybody has," she added. "What happened?"

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Navratna Schedule 'A' Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the financial year 2017-18 with the Ministry.

The annual MoU was signed between Secretary (Defence Production) Shri Ashok Kumar Gupta on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and Chairman and Managing Director, BEL Shri MV Gowtama.

The revenue from operations has been targeted at Rs. 9000 crore. The Operating Profit to Revenue from Operations target has been set at 14 percent and PAT to Average Networth has been set at 15 percent.

Turnover from exports and increase in indigenous content are given additional focus during the year, along with other parameters like CAPEX investment and Monitoring of CAPEX projects, Reduction in Trade Receivables, and HR related parameters.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

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Around 2,000 farmers protested in Delhi on Tuesday to condemn the "anti-farmer" policies of the BJP government and killing of six farmers in Madhya Pradesh last month.

They also pressed for adequate remuneration for their produce and complete loan waiver.

The Kisan Mukti Yatra, flagged off on July 6 at Mandsaur in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh, reached Jantar Mantar around 12 p.m. on Tuesday. It was led by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and MP Raju Shetty and Swaraj Abhiyan founder Yogendra Yadav.

Shetty and Yadav reiterated their demands of loan waiver and remunerative prices saying the farmers were in huge distress.

"The government did not give Madhya Pradesh farmers a good price for their produce but instead fired bullets at them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants farmers to just produce food grains. He thinks they are animals. Farmers will have to take revenge," Shetty said.

The protesting farmers were predominantly from Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

They demanded the Modi government fulfil its electoral promise of 50 per cent profit above the production cost and implementation of recommendations by the M.S. Swaminathan Committee.

Among the protesters were about 40 children of farmers from Maharashtra who committed suicide in recent years. They made an appeal to the protesting farmers not to commit suicide to avoid negative repercussions on their family.

Social activist Medha Patkar, civil activist Prashant Bhushan, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant were among others who sought farmers' unity to force the government to bring a legislation to ensure remunerative prices.

CPI-M's Yechury said he will raise issues of loan waiver and remunerative prices in the ongoing session of parliament.

"We will talk about the loan waiver in parliament. It is a right of farmers to get adequate price. The government will have to bring a law," Yechury said.

Sawant from the Shiv Sena said his party had always been in support of farmers and that it would raise their issues in Parliament.

Leaders from the Janata Dal-United and the Biju Janata Dal also joined the protesters.

Notably, the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, an umbrella body of 62 farmers' organisations, had stayed away from the yatra calling it "politically motivated".

--IANS

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At least 25 endangered one-horned rhinos died in Nepal's largest habitat of the pachyderms during the 2016-17 fiscal.

According to the Chitwan National Park (CNP), out of the total deaths during the last fiscal, 21 died a natural death while four others died due to poaching activities and electric shock.

"We have recorded death of 25 rhinos last year where 21 had natural deaths, two died due to electric shock and two died in course of poaching," CNP's Assistant Conservation Officer Nurendra Aryal told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.

Two poaching incidents occurred during the last fiscal, thereby ending the successful two consecutive years of zero poaching of these creatures.

A one-horned rhino, shot in last August by the poachers in a forest in Nepal's Rautahat district, died in the course of medical treatment after two weeks while the second rhino was shot dead in April after its horn was hacked out.

Rhinos are regularly killed by poachers for their body parts, especially their horns which are believed to be worth thousands of dollars in the global market.

The horn is also regarded as a traditional medicine in some countries.

Government records show that most poaching occurred during the decade-long armed conflict in Nepal between 1996 and 2006, the report said.

CNP, located some 150 km from the capital city, is renowned for protection of the one-horned rhinoceros.

According to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, out of a total 645 rhinos in Nepal, over 600 are in CNP alone.

Meanwhile, CNP transferred eight rhinos to two different national parks in the last fiscal year.

The relocation is part of a decision of Nepal's Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation in 2015 to transfer 30 one-horned rhinos from CNP to two national parks within three years.

"During the 2016-2017 fiscal, we relocated five rhinos to the Far-Western Region-based Shuklaphanta National Park and three rhinos to the Bardiya National Park. The relocation process will continue during this fiscal as well," Aryal said.

The relocation of rhinos aims to prevent possible epidemic dangers and natural disasters and increase the population of healthy rhinos, the report said.

--IANS

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday accused Delhi University (DU) Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi of acting at the Centre's behest and trying not to constitute the DU governing bodies.

"As many as 12 DU colleges are fully funded by the Delhi government while 16 are partially funded. The tenure of their governing bodies ended in October 2016 but the new ones have not been constituted till now," AAP leader Ashutosh told the media here.

The AAP leader said though the DU was an autonomous institution, the Centre was trying to do what it had been doing to other autonomous institutions in the country.

"The Vice Chancellor is being pressurised by the Bharatiya Janata Party as the party leaders want to form governing bodies as per their wishes," he added.

Ashutosh said the VC should form the governing bodies as quickly as possible for the smooth functioning of various colleges.

AAP leader Sanjeev Jha said though a list of professors was sent by the Delhi government for the governing bodies, it was sent back by the VC's office after two months on the pretext that the list was not in tabular form.

Jha also alleged corruption in the university and urged the VC not to "ruin the future of students".

--IANS

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The remains from a mummified Buddhist master from India have been donated by a temple to the local government in northern China's Hebei province.

The remains are said to belong to Buddhist master Cixian Sanzang in the Khitan Empire or Liao Dynasty (916-1125 CE).

"Underneath the gold foil and incense ashes of the statue, teeth from the upper jaw, as well as the ribs and the spine were well preserved, including even the joints," Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Yongqing, a senior orthopedic doctor with the No. 1 People's Hospital of Wuan city, as saying.

The remains were donated by Dinghui temple in Huoshui town to Wuan's cultural relics protection institute.

Sanzang was from India and went to Khitan, translating many important sutras. After his death, his body was kept in soil and paint, the report said.

Wang Wei, head of the Wuan city's cultural relics protection institute, said the remains are quite precious.

"Due to the poor conditions for preservation at the institute, they will be kept in the temple at the moment," he added.

--IANS

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Religious leaders like Sadhvi Saraswati, who deliver hate speeches in Goa, should be arrested and banned from visiting Goa, Deputy Speaker and BJP MLA Michael Lobo told the state assembly on Tuesday.

"Sadhvi Saraswati had said that beef-eaters should be hanged. Why do they come to Goa and make such statements? Police should act against her, or someone else will come and say something else. Who all would we be able to stop," Lobo asked during a discussion on the motion of thanks on the Governor's address.

"There should be a precedent. An FIR should be filed against anyone who gives hate speeches. They must be summoned to the police headquarters," Lobo said.

Madhya Pradesh-based Sadhvi Saraswati, who was in Goa to attend a four-day All India Hindu Convention, had said that those who eat beef should be hanged.

Lobo said that such "rabble rousers" should be banned from Goa on the lines of Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik.

"Such type of people should be banned from entering Goa, whoever it is... We have to have full control of all these things. We should not allow this. Those who want to disturb Goa, they have no place here," he said.

More than 30 per cent of the state's 1.5 million population comprises conventionally beef-eating minority communities.

--IANS

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The Bangladeshi cabinet has approved a proposal to amend a law allowing more family members to become organ transplant donors.

A Cabinet Division official told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday that the proposal was approved in a cabinet meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The draft of the "Organ Transplantation Act (Amendment) 2017" approves of grandparents, grandchildren and first cousins as potential donors.

The existing 1999 law allows only siblings, children, parents, spouses, and blood-related aunts and uncles to donate organs.

In line with the proposal, the official said all the private hospitals will require to obtain prior approval for such procedures.

The Bangladeshi government moved to amend the 1999 law following a High Court order of 2011.

The draft law has a provision for three years of imprisonment or 1 million taka ($12,400) fine or both for violation of the law.

--IANS

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Pune police have booked a city Congress leader, Rohit D. Tilak, on charges of rape following a complaint by a woman, police said here on Tuesday.

"Yes, he has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 376 (rape) and other charges at 11.15 p.m. on Monday night. Further investigations are on in the matter," an official of Vishrambaug Police Station told IANS.

The accused is the great-grandson of the leader of the Indian freedom struggle, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, grandson of former Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Jayantrao Tilak, and son of Dipak Tilak, the Vice-Chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth.

Incidentally, his aunt Mukta Tilak is the current Bharatiya Janata Party Mayor of Pune.

According to the police, the complainant has been separated from her husband since over a decade and came in touch with the accused two years ago.

She has alleged that he lured her with the promise of marriage and repeatedly raped her, assaulted and threatened her, following which she approached the police.

Twice in the past, the Maharashtra Congress had given him a ticket to contest the assembly elections from Kasba constituency, but he proved unsuccessful against the BJP candidate.

Besides rape, the 40-year-old Tilak - who is not yet arrested - has been charged on various counts of assault, criminal intimidation and threats to the complainant-victim.

--IANS

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The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the state government and four ministers on a petition challenging their induction in the state cabinet.

The notices were issued to N. Amarnath Reddy, C. Adinarayana Reddy, R.S. Krishna Ranga Rao and Bhuma Akhila Priya, who were inducted into the cabinet in April after they defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the YSR Congress Party.

The High Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a journalist Sivaprasad Reddy, challenging their induction.

The petitioner argued that the induction of defected legislators in the ministry was unconstitutional.

While admitting the petition for hearing, the High Court issued notices to the government and the four ministers, asking them to file counter affidavits.

The High Court adjourned the hearing by four weeks.

The court is also hearing a separate PIL by the same petitioner challenging the induction of T. Srinivas Yadav in the Telangana cabinet.

Srinivas Yadav, who was elected as a legislator of the TDP, was made a minister after he switched loyalties to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

--IANS

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Rome, July 18 (IANS/AKI) Charity ships that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean are giving Islamic extremists a greater chance of slipping into Europe, Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti said on Tuesday.

"NGOs consider it their priority to save people at sea rather than guaranteeing the national security of the country that takes in the migrants," Minniti told Italian daily Il Foglio in an interview.

Previously, when all Mediterranean rescue operations were being carried out by Navy vessels, the proportion of suspected extremists among the migrants was "inevitably low", Minniti stated.

"Whoever sought to target our national security would think twice before boarding a migrant boat that would be rescued by Navy ships," Minniti said.

But private charity ships are now carrying out over one-third of Mediterranean migrant rescue operations, against 28 percent by the Italian Coastguard, 11 percent by the European Union borders agency Frontex and 9 percent by the EU's Sofia anti-smuggling operation, he said.

A total 34 percent of rescue operations in the Mediterranean were carried out by NGOs and private rescue teams in the first four months of this year.

Critics allege the charity rescue ships were fuelling illegal immigration and some claim they were in cahoots with trafficking gangs.

Islamic extremists were also stealing into Italy aboard the packed migrants boats, some rightwing politicians and observers have claimed.

More than 85,000 refugees and migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, Interior Ministry figures showed last week, while over 2,000 have perished in the Mediterranean, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

--IANS/AKI

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A gangster was arrested here after he opened fire at a rival, police said on Tuesday.

Arman was arrested on Monday night from Sangam Vihar in south Delhi. He is said to be a close associate of the Deepak Pandit gang.

"On Sunday night, Arman and his associates opened fire in Sangam Vihar to create terror among residents and his rival group in view of an ongoing dispute," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

"He confessed he tried to shoot a Manoj Kumar but failed. He is a habitual offender and was previously involved in three cases of Arms Act," the officer added.

There is an ongoing rivalry between the two gangs headed by Ravi Gangwal and Deepak Pandit in south Delhi. Both the gangsters are in judicial custody while most of their gang members are also in jail, police said.

--IANS

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to mediate in the diplomatic crisis between the Gulf countries, officials said on Tuesday.

Erdogan had already announced this trip, then not dated, after returning from the G20 summit in Germany and said he would make efforts to resolve the conflict between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt with Qatar over its alleged support to terrorist organisations, Efe news reported.

The Turkish President said at the time that the solution lay through dialogue and after July 15 he may make a special trip. Now confirmed by the presidency, his trip will take place on Sunday and Monday.

Although Turkey maintains good relations with Saudi Arabia, in this conflict Ankara clearly aligned itself with Qatar, sending not only numerous aircraft and ships with food and other products to alleviate the Saudi embargo, but also a military contingent, in a clear gesture of diplomatic support.

Since last year, Turkey had kept a small group of military instructors in the emirate to train Qatari forces, but at the end of June it sent a new contingent.

Erdogan criticised the demands, put forward by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies to restore relations with Qatar, as being contrary to international law.

In mid-June, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu travelled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to try to resolve the crisis but acknowledged that he did not make any progress.

--IANS

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The Iraqi government has closed a camp which housed over 150 families allegedly linked to the Islamic State (IS) terror group, a UN official said on Tuesday.

Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, told Efe news that the camp was closed on Monday night and the families were moved to Jeddah camp in al-Qayara.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch had expressed concerns about the situation of these families in the municipality of Bartella, some 30 km. away.

Grande added that the families received basic aid such as food, water and medical assistance while they were in the camp.

However, the OCHA warned that the aid was inadequate, noting that at least four people had lost their lives.

Last week, the HRW also denounced the existence of this complex, describing it as a "rehabilitation field" that opened on July 9.

The NGO estimated that 170 families were in the camp, most of them children and women displaced from the western neighbourhoods of Mosul.

--IANS

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A Kuwaiti lawmaker who has been leading a drive to reduce the number of foreigners in the country has called for imposing a 10-year cap on employing expatriates.

Exemptions may be allowed but only once and in very exceptional cases, Safa Al Hashem was quoted as saying by Kuwaiti daily Al Nahar on Tuesday.

"The aim is to help Kuwaitis find jobs in the light of increase in the number of foreigners in the country to the triple of the nationals."

"The government should also ban foreigners from bringing their relatives into Kuwait, except for their parents. In such cases, all medical needs and requirements should be borne by the expatriate, and not by the state," Al Hashem said.

"There is an urgent need to ensure that the e-government provides the real needs of large companies for foreigners. We cannot continue to rely on estimates that have caused a horrible demographic chaos," she said.

The lawmaker also called for increasing the fees of importing manpower from abroad by 100 per cent, except domestic helpers.

The higher fees should make people and companies re-consider the easy option of hiring foreigners. However, hiking the fees for domestic helpers would mean extra spending by Kuwaitis, she said.

Kuwait is home to 4.4 million people, including 3.1 million expatriates and to 1.3 million Kuwaitis. According to reports, at least 600,000 people from various countries are employed as domestic helpers in the country.

--IANS

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The Lok Sabha on Tuesday witnessed acrimonious scenes over several issues, including farmers' plight and incidents involving cow vigilantes, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day.

Earlier, the House was adjourned soon after it met in the morning, on the second day of the monsoon session.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wanted to raise the plight of farmers but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow the issue to be discussed during the Question Hour.

"Please raise your issues during Zero Hour," Mahajan said.

But the Congress, the Left, RJD and TMC members were on their feet. They started shouting slogans against the government and trooped near the Speaker's podium holding placards in their hands.

RJD member Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav was heard raising the issue of misuse of central agencies to target political opponents.

Amid the noisy scenes, Mahajan adjourned the House till 12 noon.

The scene was no different when the House met again, with the opposition members rushing towards the Speaker's podium to interrupt the proceeding.

Some members were holding placards that read: "Gau mata to bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai" and "Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya."

BJP members from Karnataka, who earlier held a protest near Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament House complex, were also seen holding placards.

They wanted to raise the issue of DIG (Prisons) D. Roopa, who was transferred by the Congress government in Karnataka after her expose on AIADMK leader V.S. Sasikala being provided special facilities and services inside Bengaluru prison.

Amid the noisy scenes, the government introduced three bills.

The bills introduced were the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, 2017.

After the bills were introduced, Mahajan adjourned the House for the day.

--IANS

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NIMS Medicity, a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, has tied up with the Maldives to strengthen their healthcare delivery system and set up a professional sector in the country.

The group will also set up a Maldives Space Research Organisation (MSRO) there.

The Maldives government has handed over a hospital and two islands to NIMS on a lease of 50 years, Faizal Khan, Managing Director of NIMS Medicity, told IANS.

"The government has handed over a 70-bed hospital with 377 staff to us in Northern Male, besides giving us exclusive rights of two uninhabited islands, where we plan to set up a medical centre, a genetic research centre, an aviation academy, marine engineering college and a holistic treatment centre," said Khan.

"The total cost of the project is expected to be around Rs 1,650 crore, of which the land alone is valued at Rs 650 crore. We have been given the right to use this land to obtain mortgage loan," said Khan.

He said the priority is to double the bed strength of the hospital.

"All the doctors in the hospital will be provided by us. At the moment there are about 100 Maldivian staff there which includes nursing staff and other administrative sections.

"We are right now investing Rs 60 crore to beef up facilities in the hospital and orders have already been made for a cath lab and other medical equipment," said Khan.

In the second phase of development, by the end of next year, medical sector would be set up, which includes a medical college and a nursing college, he said.

"The agreement is that a portion of the seats will be reserved for Maldivian nationals in these colleges, while the rest of the students will come from neighbouring countries, including India," said Khan.

The Noorul Islam University, the engineering college of the NIMS group, was in the news last month when the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched Cartosat and 30 co-passenger satellites. Of these, the lone Indian satellite was built by the students of the NIU from a scratch.

"The MSRO will be set up by us with the help of retired scientists from our own Indian Space Research Organisation, who already are associating with us, as we are getting ready to send more satellites."

Khan said, "With regards to the marine engineering college, there is immense scope as the Maldives lies in the international shipping route and ship repairing facilities have a huge scope there."

--IANS

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A dismissed CISF constable was arrested on charges of impersonating a senior CBI officer and threatening and duping businessmen and policemen in north Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

Police said former Central Industrial Security Force Constable Vikram adopted the alias of Vikram Singh Rathore and introduced himself as Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in the Central Bureau of Investigation.

A fake identity card with the Ministry of Home Affairs written on it was seized from him.

He was arrested when he tried to extort money from a constable posted at the Mukherjee Nagar police station. The constable suspected his credentials and complained to his superiors.

"During investigation, his real name was revealed. His service as CISF constable was terminated in 2013 after he was found involved in irregularities. He also remained in judicial custody in Jaipur," a police officer said.

Vikram was staying in north Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area in a paying guest accommodation for the last couple of years.

Posing as a CBI official, he was not only not paying for his stay but also taking Rs 10,000 from the landlord to let his business function.

He had similarly availed of freebies from restaurants, hotels and saloons.

--IANS

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A fresh batch of 2,224 pilgrims left here on Tuesday amid tight security to take part in the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, an official said.

"The yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas at 3.35 a.m. in an escorted convoy of 85 vehicles for the Kashmir Valley," he said.

So far, more than 2.15 lakh devotees have performed this year's Amarnath Yatra that started on June 29, and will end on August 7, on 'Shravan Purnima' coinciding with the Raksha Bandhan festival.

Situated at 3,888 metres above the sea-level, the cave shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure that waxes and wanes with the size of the visible moon.

Devotees believe the structure symbolizes mythical powers of Lord Shiva.

Over 35,000 security personnel drawn from the Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the state police have been deployed for the security of the pilgrims.

Eight pilgrims were killed and 16 were injured when terrorists attacked a yatra bus at Batengo in Anantnag district on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on July 10.

Another 17 pilgrims were killed and 27 were injured on July 16, when a bus carrying pilgrims plunged into a gorge by the same highway in Ramban district.

--IANS

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While there has been an intellectual uproar over the cuts ordered by the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) in Suman Ghoshs documentary "The Argumentative Indian", the CBFC chairperson speaking on the cuts argues that the mere deletion or beeping of six words is no reason to feel creatively smothered when those words indicate a clear contempt for Indian culture and democracy.

"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, Prof. Sen talks of Indian democracy and refers to Gujarat's 'criminalities'. We've asked for 'Gujarat' to be removed," said Nihalani

"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 Prof. 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," he added.

Nihalani says the removal of six words in 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. 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," he said.

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," he said.

The censor chief also points out a serious legal breach on the part of the documentary's makers.

He said: "They have been screening the film without a censor certificate in various public places of India. That's illegal. Freedom of expression is fine. What about breaking the law?"

--IANS

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Massive protests continued in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday over the gang rape and murder of a schoolgirl in Shimla district. The family of the victim suspect that the 'real culprits', who belong to high-profile families, have gotten away 'scot-free'.

Last week, the state government agreed to recommend a CBI probe into the case.

"Earlier we were told that the accused belonged to high-profile families and they were on the run," the victim's eldest sister told reporters in Kotkhai town.

Suddenly police arrested six people and four of them were labourers -- two belonging to Uttarakhand and two from Nepal, she said.

"We are demanding justice for our sister. Our protests will continue till the real culprits are apprehended," she added.

Police say 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, police said.

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 that the prime accused had developed a familiarity with the victim, named Gudia or a child, as he offered her lifts twice earlier.

The victim's father questioned the delay in handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"We were told that the case has been handed over to the CBI. But no CBI official has so far started investigation in the case," he said.

He also expressed apprehensions over the involvement of the arrested Nepalese in the case.

"The Nepalese normally disappear after committing crime. Why they preferred to stay (at the crime spot) for days together. It seems police are shielding the main accused and they have arrested others to cover-up the case," he added.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people belonging to 25 panchayats gathered at Kotkhai, 54 km from the state capital, and staged a protest, demanding justice for the victim. Similar protests were also held in the state capital, which saw a large attendance of college students.

Sensing the growing public outrage, the state government on July 14 agreed to recommend a CBI probe into the case.

"Keeping in view the sensitivity in the gang rape and murder case and to remove all doubts, if any, the government has decided to refer the matter to the CBI," an official statement quoted Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as saying.

--IANS

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Global chip maker Qualcomm that recently filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Apple now expects 'out of court' settlement with the Cupertino-based iPhone maker.

According to a Fortune report on Tuesday, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said during the Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado, that "those things tend to get resolved out of court and there's no reason why I wouldn't expect that to be the case here."

He was comparing the dispute with Apple to earlier fights Qualcomm has had with other tech companies that were settled out of court.

Mollenkopf, however, added he didn't have any specific news announcing a settlement was on the way.

"I don't have an announcement or anything so please don't ask," he told the gathering.

Earlier in July, Qualcomm asked the US authorities to ban imports of some iPhone and iPad models.

Qualcomm filed a complaint with the US Trade Commission, accusing Apple's iPhones and iPads of infringing six of its mobile patents.

Qualcomm said all iPhones and iPads that contain competing mobile communications chips should be barred from the country.

Apple responded to this, saying that the company had tried to negotiate before suing and that Qualcomm is abusing its position.

In April, Apple stopped paying royalties to contract manufacturers for phone patents owned by Qualcomm over an "unresolved issue".

Apple reportedly stopped paying royalties starting with devices sold during the March quarter.

Qualcomm is one of the world's biggest provider of mobile chips and derives revenue majorly from licensing that to hundreds of handset manufacturers and others.

The US chip manufacturer had lambasted Apple for breaching deals between the two companies and urged that the lawsuit filed in January against them by the iPhone maker should be rejected.

Qualcomm also accused Apple of harming its business and sought unspecified damages.

Apple sued Qualcomm in January for nearly one billion dollars over royalties, with the Cupertino-based tech giant alleging the wireless chipmaker that it did not give fair licensing terms for its processor .

(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.)
Incessant rains for the second consecutive day on Tuesday affected normal life in Hyderabad and some towns in Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Some low-lying areas in Hyderabad were inundated while roads were flooded, causing traffic jams.

Motorists were caught in long traffic snarls in busy commercial centres like Abids, Koti, Dilsukhnagar, Basheerbagh, Lakdi Ka Pul, Khairatabad, Punjagutta, Ameerpet and Mehdipatnam.

Vehicular traffic also came to a standstill on Miyapur-Kukatpally stretch. Trees were uprooted at couple of places, affecting the movement of vehicles.

With heavy inflows, the water level increased in Hussain Sagar, the lake which divides twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. As the water level reached 513.10 feet against Full Tank Level (FTL) of 513.41 feet, authorities opened the gates of outflow channels. People residing along the 'nalas' (drains) have been alerted.

The heaviest rains of this season also increased levels in 169 lakes and tanks in and around the city. The levels in 10 lakes have reached danger mark.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) opened emergency help desk to attend the complaints about water logging. GHMC officials said the citizens may call 100 or 21111111.

Weathermen said heavy rains continued to lash parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under the influence of a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal.

Heavy rains in Khammam district of Telangana affected coal production in state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited. Officials said water entered open cast mines in Kothagudem and Sattupalli, affecting the coal production.

Vamsadharana and Nagavali rivers in north coastal Andhra Pradesh were in spate due to huge inflows from neighbouring Odisha.

Irrigation projects in both the Telugu-speaking states were also receiving inflows from catchment areas. Rivulets, streams, lakes, tanks and other water bodies were overflowing.

Heavy rains also threw normal life out of gear in Vijayawada. Low-lying areas were inundated, causing hardships to people. The downpour led to traffic jams in several busy areas in and around the city, including the road which connects Vijayawada to Amaravati, the upcoming state capital of Andhra Pradesh.

For the second time this season, rain water entered Andhra Pradesh Secretariat at Velagapudi in Amaravati. The Secretariat building was leaking at a few points and affected offices.

Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana, however, claimed that there are no defects in the SEcretariat's construction.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that heavy rain at a few places and very heavy rain to extremely heavy rain at isolated places is "very likely to occur" in all the districts of coastal Andhra Pradesh over the next two days.

Heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in all districts of Telangana also are very likely during the period, the IMD said.

--IANS

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Sparks flew as the Rajya Sabha faced repeated disruptions on the second day of the monsoon session on Tuesday as BSP chief Mayawati stormed out, threatening to resign when she was not allowed to speak over "atrocities on Dalits" beyond three minutes.

Mayawati demanded a discussion over the issue. Deputy Chairman told her she had already made her demand for a full discussion and should let the House conduct its business.

The BSP chief launched a scathing attack against the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh as well as the Modi government.

She said the governments remained mute spectators to the violence targeting Dalits in Saharanpur in May when houses belonging to the marginalized were torched and 15 members of the community injured.

She said BSP leaders were not even allowed to visit the families of the victims.

"If I am not allowed to talk, if I cannot represent the section of the society I belong to, if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities on Dalits, then there is no point in staying in the House. I will resign," Mayawati said and walked out in anger.

She later told the media outside the House that she had "decided to resign as a Rajya Sabha member today".

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said as a disciple of B.R. Ambedkar she was following Babasaheb's example who had resigned as the Law Minister when he was not allowed to speak and table the Hindu Code Bill.

Inside the House, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukthar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati had insulted the Chair by threatening to resign. "She must apologise."

Citing rules, Naqvi said no member was allowed to speak for more than three minutes during the Zero Hour and Mayawati had already spoken beyond the allotted time.

She was making wild allegations as she had not come to terms with her election debacle in Uttar Pradesh, the Minister said.

The Congress supported the BSP supremo.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad took objection to Naqvi's remarks, saying the BJP had got a mandate to protect the poor, farmers, minorities and Dalits.

"When Mayawati tried to talk, she was told that we have got the mandate. We did not know the BJP has got the mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits. We are not with this government," an angry Azad said.

He said the Congress had moved an adjournment notice for farmers, Dalits and minorities and the government was gagging the opposition.

"If the opposition wants to raise issues related to downtrodden, it must be allowed."

The Congress leader also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had hoped for a "cooperative" monsoon session.

Azad and other Congress members too later walked out of the House.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury also supported Mayawati's demand as "the points she has made are serious".

"This government is doing nothing about atrocities against Dalits and minorities. They are in serious danger," Yechury said.

Amid noisy scenes, Deputy Chairman Kurien adjourned the House till noon. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 3 p.m. minutes after it met again at 12.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia's 13th International Aerospace Show MAKS-2017 began on Tuesday with more than 200 civil and military aircraft on display, including the Mig-35 four plus plus generation fighter and the advanced military transport chopper Mi-171 Sh-Vn.

The air show is being held at the Ramenskoye aerodrome in the town of Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, from July 18-23.

Around 35 countries, over 180 foreign companies and around 800 companies are to be part of the air show which is one of the largest in the world.

Rostec Corporation, one of the main organizers of MAKS-2017, will present the latest Russian developments in the space industry as well as in aircraft and helicopter engineering and weapons, the Corporation said.

The component companies of Rostec participating include Russian Helicopters, United Engine Corporation, Rosoboronexport, Technodinmika, VSMPO-AVISMA, Ruselectronics, Shvabe, Splav, RT-Chemcomposite, Security Technologies, Techmash. Altogether, the exposition of Rostec's enterprises will include more than 200 military, civilian and dual-use products.

Visitors of the stand of United Engine Corporation will be able to see the engine PD-14 created for the Russian airliner MC-21, engines AL-41F-1C and RD-33MK for combat aviation, helicopter engines TV7-117B and VK-2500PS, a small engine 36MT, and the digital engine control and regulation system BARK-88.

The static exposition of MAKS-2017 presents almost the whole model range of the Russian Helicopters holding: the civilian helicopters Ansat, Ka-32A11BC, Mi-8AMT and Mi-38 as well as the military helicopters Mi-171Sh-VN, Mi-17V-5, Ka-52, Mi-35M, Mi-28 NE and Mi-26T2.

"Equipment manufactured by Russian Helicopters takes an active part in the flight programme of the salon. About 10 helicopters will be involved in formation flying, while individual aerobatics of such helicopters as Mi-26T2, Mi-35NE and Ansat are also included in the programme. The latest machines Mi-38 and Mi-171A2 will take part in paired aerobatics," Rostec Corporation said in a statement.

A distinct item in the MAKS-2017 agenda will be dedicated to unmanned aerial vehicles. The design bureau VR-Technologies will showcase an experimental model of a modernized unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft RHV-30, which has concluded another stage of flight tests.

"During the salon we plan to reach several key agreements with our strategic partners. In particular, we intend to conclude an agreement with UAC on the supply of new engines for Il-114-300 and to sign a memorandum with Chinese partners for the creation of a Russian engine for wide-body long-range aircraft on the basis of UEC. During the negotiations with our foreign partners we intend to focus on after-sales service of aviation equipment and on construction of service centers," underlined General Director of the State Corporation Rostec Sergey Chemezov.

At its stand, Rosoboronexport will show over 160 military products, predominantly those designed for air forces and air defence. Visitors of Techmash stand will be able to see the samples of the latest aircraft bombs and weapons like all-altitude ODAB-500PMV and PBK-500UA unified cluster bomb.

Asked if the sanctions on Russia had an impact on the participation in the air show, Rostec's Director of International Cooperation and Regional Policy Victor N. Kladov said: "Sanctions did not impact the show... Some people won't come. This is a voluntary thing. Anyone who wants to participate will come."

He added that a number of Italian, French, German and American companies are participating.

"Politics is politics, business is business," he said.

Rostec Corporation is a Russian corporation that was established in 2007 to facilitate the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products designed for civilian and military applications.

The Corporation comprises over 700 organizations that are part of 11 holding companies operating in the military-industrial complex and three holding companies working in civilian industry, as well as 80 directly managed organizations.

Rostec's portfolio includes such well-known brands as AVTOVAZ, KAMAZ, Kalashnikov Concern, Russian Helicopters, VSMPO AVISMA, etc. Rostec companies are headquartered in 60 entities of the Russian Federation and supply products to more than 70 countries.

(Anjali Ojha is in Moscow at the invitation of the organisers of the MAKS-2017 air show. She can be reached at anjali.o@ians.in)

--IANS

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Notwithstanding its apprehensions about the footfall of Indian tourists after the implementation of GST on July 1, South African Tourism is eyeing one lakh visitors from India in 2017-18, an official said on Tuesday.

Despite a steady surge of 21.7 percent in the number of Indian leisure visitors in the African nation during the last calendar year the apprehension comes from the decline they witnessed in the numbers of Indian tourists for a few months since demonetisation in November.

"The reason why we are a bit apprehensive about the post GST scenario is because we did not think that we are going to get effected by the demonetisation. We were between 28-35 percent up month on month until October last year. But after demonetisation, we were not just down by two to three percent for a few months but we also lost our momentum of growth," Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager India of South African Tourism, told reporters during the seventh edition of its travel trade training session.

"So now we are a little bit reluctant to say that the number of Indian visitors to South Africa would not be affected by the GST. We are hopeful that it would go in our favour," she said adding that India held the eighth position in South Africa's international source market last year with more than 95,000 visitors.

Mentioning that South Africa offers more than 60,000 different and customised tourism packages to the visitors, Slabber claimed, under the new tax regime in India it would be much more beneficial for the leisure visitors to buy a package tour rather than paying separately for the stay and travel as less tax would be levied.

"If someone buys a package tour, he is going to pay five percent tax according to the new tax regime in India. However, if someone decides to break up the expenses and buy individual packages from individual operators, they would end up paying 18 percent tax under GST," she said.

Underscoring the massive opportunity of adventure tourism in their country, Slabber said Indian tourists are the biggest buyers of adventure packages there and thus helps in creation of more job opportunities among the locals compared to the tourists from other parts of the world.

"The Indians in South Africa pay for almost six activities in a day while the average tourists pay for only two. So in a way the Indian tourists help a lot more in terms of tourism related job creation in South Africa than the average tourists. They are also the biggest buyers of adventure packages," she said.

She also added that according to their records in the last few years, Indian women take up more adventure packages like bungee jumping and snorkelling, than the Indian men.

About tourists from Bengal, Slabber said Kolkata has been one of the most unique and rapidly growing source market driving tourist traffic to South Africa and said they are planning to customise Kolkata specific packages in South Africa.

"The number of tourists from Bengal has gone up from two percent to seven percent in the last few years.

"Also, this is the only market ever where we have been asked about art galleries, museums and more intellectual pursuit of holiday. That is something really unique about the market in West Bengal," she added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hundreds of young students took to the streets here on Tuesday to slam the drug war initiated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Students from the all-girls Saint Scholastica College in Manila marched to show opposition to Duterte's brutal campaign against drug dealers and users, reports Efe news.

Christine Pinto, a Catholic nun at the school, said that almost 1,000 students aged nine to 16 joined the protest, though only those who secured permission from their parents joined in.

"We encourage them to make a statement but of course we need their parents' permission. This institute has always been for social justice. For the truth, for freedom and that's what we teach to our students," she said.

Many students carried cardboard placards with messages such as "Youth Resist", "Stop the killings" and "EJK (extrajudicial killings) is not OK".

Duterte, who was elected on a tough anti-crime platform, has faced wide-ranging criticism for his war on drugs, both from his compatriots and from foreign organisations.

Philippine government data released last month states that some 3,100 people linked to drug trafficking have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016.

However, Human Rights Watch puts the figure much higher at more than 7,000, and attributes the higher number to vigilantes acting with impunity.

But Duterte remains popular among Filipinos, with the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll released on July 10 showing some 78 per cent of Filipino adults approve of his performance.

--IANS

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In their first interaction since the crisis broke out, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday night met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in his official chamber and clarified his position on the CBI case against him.

Tejashwi Yadav had a closed door meeting with Nitish Kumar for nearly 40 minutes, an official in the Chief Minister's Office here said. He is believed to have presented the Chief Minister with a detailed defence of the charges against him.

According to officials, Tejashwi Yadav's elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who is Bihar Health Minister, and Congress state president Ashok Choudhary, who is Bihar Education Minister, were present during the meeting.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the CBI registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav in a benami property case and also raided his premises earlier this month, leading to demands for his resignation. The Janata Dal-United, the major partner in the ruling Grand Alliance, has asked its Rashtriya Janata Dal partner to come clean on the allegations.

The Tuesday evening meeting between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and the Chief Minister may help to end the crisis.

Senior JD-U leader K.C. Tyagi had earlier suggested that Tejashwi Yadav should meet Nitish Kumar, who is JD-U President, and clarify his stand on the CBI raids.

--IANS

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The beach-bound tourists in Goa, especially who love to wade into the sea, have been advised to steer clear of 'Portuguese-man-of-war', the toxic, jelly-like organisms known to sting humans on contact.

The warning was issued after Drishti Lifesaving, a Goa government appointed lifeguard service, spotted a cluster of Portuguese-man-of-war, a jelly-like marine organism commonly known as bluebottle, which washed ashore along the Candolim-Sinquerim beach stretch on Tuesday.

The spotted bluebottle was less than an inch in size, Drishti Lifesaving mentioned in its advisory.

"Drishti Lifesaving advises locals as well as the tourists not to venture into the sea along the Candolim and Sinquerim stretch as the bluebottles could possibly be present in the waters or along the shoreline," the life guard service said.

"Even wading into the waters is not advisable during the monsoon months as the sea and weather conditions are not favourable for swimming," the advisory added.

This is only the second time in recent years that bluebottles have been spotted in sea waters off Goa beaches. The last time was in 2014.

The Candolim-Sinquerim stretch is a beach belt, adjoining the popular Calangute beach.

Goa is a popular beach tourism destination and its beaches attract more than four million tourists annually.

--IANS

maya/pgh/vt

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The US government on Tuesday slapped sanctions on 18 Iranian entities and individuals linked to Iran's ballistic missile programme and other non-nuclear activities.

According to a statement by the US Treasury Department, 16 Iranian entities and individuals, including ones engaged in activities in support of Iran's military or the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were designated for "engaging in support of illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity", Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the Treasury Department statement, two other Iranian organisations involved in Iran's ballistic missile programme were also targeted.

The new round of sanctions came hours after US President Donald Trump's administration declared for a second time that Iran was complying with a 2015 nuclear deal but also called Iran "one of the most dangerous threats to US interests and to regional stability".

"This administration will continue to aggressively target Iran's malign activities, including their ongoing state support of terrorism, ballistic missile programme and human rights abuses," the statement quoted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as saying.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration and confirmed he has had no contact with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson, CNN reported.

Zarif argued the US's failure to build on the foundation of trust created by the Iran nuclear deal suggested "the US hostility to Iran will not end".

--IANS

vgu/mr

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The Trump administration has certified to Congress that Iran is continuing to meet the required conditions of its international nuclear agreement but officials said President Donald Trump intends to impose new sanctions on Iran for ongoing "malign activities" in non-nuclear areas.

Trump had repeatedly condemned the nuclear deal brokered by his predecessor Barack Obama as a dangerous capitulation to Iran. The decision on Monday was the second time his administration certified Iran's compliance and aides said a frustrated Trump had told his security team that he would not keep doing so indefinitely, the New York Times reported.

"The President has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal -- a bad deal for the US," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The administration officials said that they intended to toughen enforcement of the deal, apply new sanctions on Iran for its support of terrorism and other destabilising activities like ballistic missile development. They also plan to negotiate with European partners to craft a broader strategy to increase pressure on Tehran.

"We judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the agreement as a force for international stability," the administration official said.

Iran is "unquestionably in default of the spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action", that took effect in January 2016 after years of negotiations, the official said.

The last certification of Iranian compliance, in April, was also followed by new sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies the administration said played a role in ballistic missile tests that are not covered by the nuclear agreement.

"We do expect to be implementing new sanctions related to missiles and Iran's fast boat programme," the official said, but declined to specify what the measures would be. The administration had charged Iran with using military patrol boats to impede free navigation in the Persian Gulf.

"The Secretary of State and the President intends to emphasise that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to the US and to regional security," another senior administration official said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier on Monday that Iran received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration and confirmed he has had no contact with his American counterpart, Rex Tillerson, CNN reported.

Zarif argued the US's failure to build on the foundation of trust created by the Iran nuclear deal suggested "the US hostility to Iran will not end".

--IANS

soni/dg

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For sometime now there seems to be a race in the electronic media to initiate debates by inviting leaders of political parties and others. Curiously, the same set of people, who have expressed their views frequently on a particular issue, are invited repeatedly by most of the channels. Also, the debaters are mostly based in Delhi.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today told a parliamentary panel that supranationalism and media hype on the issue has blown out of proportion the Dokalam military standoff between India and China.
Sewa Ram from Morena in Madhya Pradesh lost his standing crop to low rains in the past two years, but didnt get a single penny from the government as compensation. This made him and his fellow villagers, who suffered the same fate, join the ongoing farmers agitation, hoping to put pressure on the government to waive farm loans.
The Lok Sabha was on Tuesday adjourned soon after it met for the second time following uproar in the House over several issues, including farmers' plight and cow slaughter.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till Wednesday 11 a.m. after members raised slogans and created a ruckus over various issues.

Earlier, the House was adjourned soon after it met in morning, on the second day of the monsoon session.
BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday resigned from the Rajya Sabha, accusing the BJP of preventing her from speaking in the House on issues close to her heart like the cause of depressed sections particularly Dalits.

"I had wanted to raise issues in the morning relating to Dalits and about the atrocities committed on them in Saharanpur's Shabirpur village. But you saw the way the treasury benches, including ministers, behaved and prevented me from speaking. When I cannot convey what I want to, then I thought it is not okay.

"I decided I will resign. I have just met the Rajya Sabha Chairman (Hamid Ansari) and I have handed over my resignation from the House," she told reporters.

Mayawati has given a three-page resignation letter to Ansari which officials say may not be accepted because members quitting Parliament are expected to submit their resignation in a simple format and without conditions.

Mayawati, whose six-year term was to end in April next year, said when she was on her way to submit the resignation, leaders of the UPA requested her not to resign saying her strong voice was needed in the House.

"I am thankful to them but I have decided to stick to my decision," she said.

The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, criticised the treasury benches and ministers for not allowing Mayawati to raise issues of concern to her.

"I tried to persuade her from not resigning but I think she had already made up her mind," he said after Mayawati's resignation.

The BSP has five more members in the Rajya Sabha. Mayawati, 61, lost power in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 and her party was routed in this year's assembly elections, winning 19 seats in the 402-member House.

Earlier, Mayawati stormed out of the Rajya Sabha threatening to quit when she was not allowed to speak beyond three minutes over "atrocities on Dalits".

She demanded a discussion over the issue but Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien told her she had already made her demand for a full discussion and should let the House conduct its business.

Launching a scathing attack against the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and Modi-led central government, she said both remained "mute spectators" to the violence targeting Dalits in Saharanpur in May when their houses were torched and 15 Dalits injured.

She said BSP leaders were not even allowed to visit the affected families.

As Kurien sought to stop Mayawati, she said: "If I am not allowed to talk, if I cannot represent the section of the society I belong to, if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities on Dalits, then there is no point in staying in the House. I will resign."

The veteran politician then walked out in anger.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said she was following B.R. Ambedkar's example of having resigned as the Law Minister when he was not allowed to speak and table the Hindu Code Bill.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukthar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati had insulted the chair by threatening to resign. "She must apologise."

Congress leader Azad supported Mayawati and took objection to Naqvi's remarks.

"When Mayawati tried to talk, she was told we have got the mandate. We did not know the BJP has got the mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," an angry Azad said, amid interruptions by the treasury benches.

He said the Congress had moved an adjournment notice for farmers, Dalits and minorities and accused the government was gagging the opposition.

Azad and other Congress members too later walked out of the House.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury also said points made by Mayawati were "serious".

Amid noisy scenes, Kurien adjourned the House till noon. When the house met then, the disruption continued and the house was adjourned till 2 p.m. and later till 3.

When the house met at 3, some Congress members again came to the podium and raised slogans. The House was adjourned for the day.
Venkaiah Naidu might have got the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJPs) nomination for vice-president for being a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but his performance as Union Minister for Urban Development has been impressive, according to government data and also those who worked closely with him.
Maharashtra's Osmanabad district has achieved a milestone with over 10,000 pits being dug on a single day as part of the campaign against .

"Villagers in the district dug 10,776 mark out pits for toilets in a span of 18 hours yesterday, braving rains," Osmanabad Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer Anand Rayate told PTI.

The earlier record for the maximum number of such pits dug in a district in a day was held by Telangana, the senior IAS officer said.

"We have planned to make Osmanabad district free by October 2," Rayate said.

To popularise the concept, the district administration in March undertook a "Build a toilet, win a trip to Singapore" scheme, he said.

The Osmanabad Zilla Parishad hit upon a novel idea to achieve its target of making all 621 villages in the district free by October 2.

"We selected tehsil-level winners from the villagers who took early initiative in building toilet at home and sent them on an all-expenses-paid trip to Singapore," Rayate said.

Winners were chosen through a lottery.

The scheme is part of the 'Marathwada Hagandari Mukt Sangram' (Marathwada campaign for eradication of open defecation) launched on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year, Rayate said.
Pakistani players, Muhammad Sami and Umar Akmal are in a fix after their names were reported in the media in the ongoing spot-fixing hearings of the Pakistan Super League.

A top official of the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom gave a testimony to the three-member anti-corruption tribunal in the spot-fixing case via a video link last week after which it was reported in the media that he had also mentioned the names of Sami and Umar among players whose names are cropping up in the case.

PCB Chairman, Shaharyar Khan, who is presently in London, also took the names of Sami and Umar during a talk with a Pakistani newspaper.

But PCB legal advisor, Salman Naseer refused to comment on whether the two players were under investigation or their names were mentioned during the testimony by the NCA official via video link.

"I would advise the media and everyone else to refrain from taking names of any players without official confirmation as it causes problems and so far I don't recall anyone in the tribunal and board taking the names of these two players anywhere," he said.

When asked to confirm if it was correct the NCA official had taken the names of Sami and Umar during his testimony, Salman said no comments.

For the two Pakistan players, however, the incident has already caused problems.

The fast bowler, Sami who is in demand in most foreign T20 leagues, for example, has been asked by the organizers of the Caribbean Premier League whether there is any investigation going on against him.

Similarly, the same question has been posed to Umar who is in London undergoing treatment for a knee problem.

Both players have been posed the questions after they were given clearance by the PCB to play in the CPL.

"From what I know Sami is upset because the organizers of the Bangladesh Premier League where he is in great demand and plays every year have also raised questions," a reliable source said.

So far the PCB has made no official comment but the two players are apparently trying to convince the board to clear things up publicly.

The PSL spot-fixing hearings have gone on since April and on Monday the legal advisor of the board, Tafazzul Rizvi confirmed that the arguments and testimonies in the Sharjeel Khan case had been completed and both parties would now give written submissions by July 29th after which the tribunal would announce a verdict in a month's time.

According to Rizvi, the board was confident of getting a verdict from the tribunal against Sharjeel who is charged with meeting with bookmakers and agreeing to play two dot balls with them during the first match of the PSL.

Soon after the first match, Sharjeel and Khalid Latif were suspended and sent back home from Dubai by the PCB.

The PCB lawyer said the board had submitted strong evidence against Sharjeel and he had also admitted to most of the charges and the PCB would try to convince the tribunal to give him the most severe punishment available in the anti- corruption code.

However, lawyer for suspended Pakistan test opener, Nasir Jamshed, who is also under scrutiny in the PSL hearings, lashed out at the PCB in Lahore insisting that the evidence being shown against his client were a joke.

"Even in a banana republic you don't depend on such evidence to prosecute someone," Hasan Warriach told the media.

He said the PCB was trying to save its officials and once the tribunal make its decision then his client would have the option of appealing in a superior court.

"We know what the outcome is going to be but I challenge the PCB to share their evidence with the media. They don't even have statements by the alleged bookmakers, Yousuf and Mark," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop today called for a peaceful resolution of the standoff between Chinese and Indian troops at Dokalam in Sikkim sector, an issue which she discussed during her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior cabinet ministers.

"My understanding is this it is long-standing dispute ...It was a subject of discussion today. Australia's position is that border disputes, territorial disputes should be resolved peacefully between the claimant countries...We don't want to see any escalation of tensions which could lead to a miscalculation or misjudgement," Bishop told a group of reporters.

The visitng minister also said, "In the case of maritime disputes we said it should be subjected to arbitration under the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), if necessary. Land disputes should be resolved peacefully between the competing claimants and urge the countries to do that."



Earlier, during a meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Bishop had condemned the Amarnath terror attack and conveyed her country's resolve to fight all terrorism.

The Australian minister also held talks with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.

Bishop talked about cooperation between India and Australia in key areas of trade, energy and defence during the media interaction.

"First shipment is on its way," she said when asked about the status of supply of uranium to India.

She also noted that all the necessary parliamentary clearances to activate the bilateral civil nuclear supply agreement had been accomplished.

On India not allowing Australia to join the Malabar naval exercises, Bishop said she had not asked for an explanation from the Indian leadership.

"It's not upsetting, it is a question of priorities for each country...Australia conducts many exercises that India is not a part of. We said Australia would like to be part of Malabar exercises in the future. We are all working together to maintain relative peace and security and stability in our region," she said.

India recently completed the Malabar exercises with the US and Japan.

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Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop today condemned the Amarnath attack and conveyed her country's common resolve to fight all terrorism as she discussed ways to deepen cooperation in key areas of security with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.

In a series of tweets on the meeting, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said Swaraj welcomed Bishop for framework dialogue of foreign ministers.

He said Bishop also strongly condemned the Amarnath terror attack and conveyed to Swaraj common resolve to fight all terrorism.

During the meeting, the visiting dignitary also signed the Framework Agreement to join International Solar Alliance (ISA), a common platform for cooperation among sun-rich countries. The initiative was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of 2015 by the President of France and the Prime Minister of India.

In a statement in Canberra ahead of her visit here, Bishop had said ways to boost defence, security and trade ties will be explored during the visit.

"We will discuss our shared interests in a stable Indo- Pacific, our deepening defence and security relationship, and how we can boost trade and economic ties," she had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The opposition disrupted the Goa assembly proceedings multiple times on the first day of the monsoon session over a circular issued by the BJP-led government.

Speaker Pramod Sawant adjourned the House three times as the opposition members, led by the Congress, created ruckus and vociferously demanded a discussion on the issue.

They were protesting against a circular issued by the Manohar Parrikar government which bars the government officers from visiting the residences of legislators.

The Congress moved an adjournment motion seeking a discussion on the circular, which it claimed, was against the spirit of democracy.

The motion was disallowed by Sawant, who quoted earlier rulings to support his decision.

During the day, the Congress members and the lone NCP legislator Churchill Alemao disrupted Question Hour and other business of the day.

The House was adjourned three times, twice during Question Hour and once after the lunch, due to bedlam. The opposition members also staged a walkout in the post-lunch session.

When Question Hour was on, the opposition legislators rushed to the well of the House, forcing the second adjournment.

After the lunch break, the Speaker tried to break the deadlock by calling a special meeting of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar in his chamber.

But that failed to pacify the agitating MLAs.

The opposition camp, however, witnessed a split when former chief minister and Congress legislator Pratapsinh Rane appealed to his colleagues to let the House function.

"If you are adamant (on demand for a discussion), be so. But don't spoil the name of Goa," Rane said even as his party colleagues walked out of the House.

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Former US vice president Joe Biden is to release a memoir in November revealing how he coped with the devastating loss of his son to cancer, his publisher said.

The book will be titled "Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose" and will go on sale on November 14, Flatiron Books said in a statement.

According to The New York Times, the title is a reference to something Biden's son, Beau, told his father before he died.

"Promise me, Dad. Give me your word that no matter what happens, you're going to be all right," Beau Biden reportedly said at a family gathering in November 2014.

Beau Biden, who served for eight years as attorney general of his father's home state of Delaware, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015, at the age of 46.

Flatiron Books described the upcoming book as an "intimate memoir" that "reveals the most momentous year" in Biden's public life.

"Promise Me, Dad is a personal story from a father, grandfather, husband, and friend as he confronts the inevitability of devastating personal loss, while trying to balance his duty to his family and his country," according to the publisher.

In a statement, Biden said he hoped that sharing his story "will strike a chord with other Americans who have walked the same path I have.

"I have always been fortunate to have an incredible support system around me, and I understand how many people in this country go through far worse than I have, with far less support," Biden said.

Biden, 74, a longtime senator from Delaware, served as vice president during all eight years of Barack Obama's presidency.

The former vice president will embark on a tour of 19 US cities in November to coincide with the release of his book.

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The south west monsoon has weakened in Bihar in the past few days, but the state may witness a good rainfall from Friday.

"A system is developing and people of Bihar may expect a good rainfall from coming Friday evening or from Saturday. It will rain for 3-4 days," Patna Meteorological Centre senior scientist Anand Shankar told PTI.

The absence of rains has increased the maximum temperature to around 37 degree Celsius in major cities of the state.

State capital Patna, which had witnessed rainfall on July 14, recorded the highest maximum temperature at 37.4 degree C against yesterday's 37 degree C.

Patna was followed by Bhagalpur (37.2 degree C), Purnea (37.1 degree C) and Gaya (36.7 degree C), the Met bulletin said.

Patna registered 4.4 degrees above its normal maximum temperature while Purnea recorded 4 degrees above, Bhagalpur and Gaya recorded 3.7 and 3.4 degrees above normal.

The bulletin said light to moderate rainfall occurred at one or two places in the state, with Bhagalpur and Purnea recording 11.4 mm and 6 mm rainfall respectively today.

Weather remained mainly dry across rest of Bihar.

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A 77-year-old British man, who wears a pacemaker, has embarked on an over 4,800 kilometre autorickshaw journey around the UK to raise money for an Indian charity that treats children with heart ailments in India and other Asian and African countries.

Steve Gibbs set off on the tour from the town of Wigston in Leicestershire yesterday. He will return to the town on August 6 after covering nearly 4,828 kms. He is raising money for the Healing Little Hearts charity.

His aim is to raise enough funds for at least one Healing Little Hearts camp, which operates on approximately 12-15 children during a one-week tour.

Sanjiv Nichani, who works as a consultant at Leicester Children's Hospital, praised Gibbs' efforts to ride his Indian auto-rickshaw around the UK on a three-week-long journey to raise around 6,000 pounds for the Healing Little Hearts charity.

"It is incredible that Steve, who has a pacemaker fitted, would set off on this journey to raise funds for the charity," said Nichani.

The charity, set up in 2007 by the Mumbai-origin doctor, was born as an urge to "give something back" to the country of his birth and fix the "hole in little hearts", among other heart conditions suffered by children whose families are not be able to afford expensive surgeries.

Healing Little Hearts has since hosted camps in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Raipur, Srinagar, Puducherry and Vellore, besides cities in Africa and Malaysia.

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Amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim sector, a top former US diplomat has said that China needs to acknowledge that India is "a force to be reckoned with" and countries in the region are unsettled by Beijing's behaviour and unilateral actions.

"China, I think, needs to acknowledge the fact that there is growing strategic and security capability across Asia, and certainly India is a force to be reckoned with," former Indian-American Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI in an interview.

Biswal, who was Obama Administration's point person for South and Central Asia in its second term, said that there has been a fair degree of assertive actions and signals being sent from China across many different border points, maritime and land, across its geography.

"While I understand that sentiment within China, that I think seeks to try to assert China as a dominant player across the Asia-Pacific, I think China has to content with the fact that across its geography, throughout the Asia-Pacific region, countries are unsettled by its behaviour and by its unilateral actions," she said.

"China has more to gain through diplomacy and dialogue than it does through these kinds of actions, which create a great deal of unease and uncertainty," Biswal said responding to questions on India-China border stand-off.

Biswal said across Asia, nations are stepping forward to assert their interests and their rights.

"So now is an important time to create some greater codification of the rules and, to create more channels for dialogue and diplomacy to address some of these areas of tension and differences on how various boundary and maritime claims are resolved," she said.

She exuded confidence that the leaders of the two nations would be able to prevent further escalation of the situation.

"China is a very mature and calibrated power. It's not a rogue actor, in any sense of the word. And certainly I think that the Indian side has also acted with a great deal of resolve and a great deal of restraint," she said.

"While there are tensions afoot, I do believe that both countries have it within themselves to resolve those tensions, to defuse those tensions. It is in the interest of both countries, in their security interest and in their economic interest, to manage these tensions and to ensure that there are avenues for peaceful and amicable resolution," she added.

The US, she noted, certainly has a role to play in it by ensuring that the international rules are followed.

"Certainly, I think that the US, by standing firm on its commitment towards the rules-based international order and the importance of dialogue and dispute resolution, can signal its own strong preference for these kinds of mechanisms to de- escalate and to resolve differences," she said.

"The US has stood very firmly against the kinds of unilateral actions to settle disputed claims, which we have done very strongly with respect to maritime claims, and which we continue to stand behind with respect to land boundary claims," Biswal said.

"India has proven itself to be willing and be able to resolve issues through arbitration, through negotiation, through dialogue and diplomacy, and, we would hope and expect that China would show itself capable of doing the same," she said.

Implications, of any further escalation, are grave, she warned in response to a question.

"I think it's not useful to speculate on escalation. The implications are very grave. I think that as two very responsible military powers and nuclear powers, that both countries understand that. They understand the obligation that they have to manage tensions and to de-escalate, and we have a firm belief and expectation that they will do so," she said.

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Egyptian police have killed two leaders of the Hasam militia in a shootout after intercepting them as they relocated to a new hideout on Cairo's outskirts, the government said.

The interior ministry today said the two militants were "prominent leaders" of the Hasam group -- an extremist movement the government accuses of having links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The militia ambushed a police convoy and killed three officers in May, in an attack the group claimed at the time and which the government has since also blamed on them.

Authorities learned that some of the group's leaders were "about to move their equipment and weapons used in terrorist operations", the ministry said.

They were planning to relocate to the hideout in a newly constructed area of New Cairo, outside the city's main ring road, said the ministry.

Security forces acting on this information set up checkpoints on roads going to the area, it said in a statement.

A suspect car approached one of them before "its passengers opened fire" on police and the officers shot back, killing the two militants.

The two were identified as students aged 24 and 21 who were "among the most prominent leaders in the Hasam terrorist group," the ministry said.

In the vehicle police found seven automatic weapons, two other firearms, a large amount of ammunition, masks and radio communications equipment.

The ministry did not say when the shootout took place, only disclosing that the group had been planning to move locations today.

The militants who died were said to have been behind other attacks, including the May 2 ambush in which three policemen were killed and five wounded near the Cairo ring road.

The two militants that were killed carried out attacks on the orders of "their leaders who have fled abroad," the ministry said.

The government says Hasam is linked to the Brotherhood movement of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who was overthrown by the army in 2013.

The militia has previously claimed responsibility for deadly attacks against security forces as well as assassination attempts targeting a pro-government Muslim cleric and Egypt's deputy prosecutor general.

On Twitter, the group said yesterday it has killed 27 people from "the military occupation militias," in reference to Egypt's security forces, since its launch a year ago.

Egypt is also fighting an insurgency by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group which is based in North Sinai province in which hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed since Morsi's ouster.

Following deadly church bombings in April, which IS claimed, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency on April 10, which has been extended.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Essar Ports will be investing Rs 550 crore by March 2018 to increase its cargo handling capacity at its Hazira Port by 20 million tonne per annum, sources said today.

"We will be investing Rs 550 crore for expansion at the port wherein the 500-metre berth is being expanded to 1,100 metres," a source said.

The total capital expenditure by the company from the diversified group will go up to Rs 10,500 crore with this expansion.

Essar Bulk Terminal, the operator of the Hazira Port Terminal facility, has signed an agreement with the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for more than doubling its captive jetty to 1,100 metres, the company said in a statement.

The expansion is to be completed by the end of next March and will increase the capacity by 20 mt per annum, it said, adding this will help its anchor customer Essar Steel and also third-party cargo handling.

As Essar Steel's production is expected to increase further during FY18, total cargo handling at the port is likely to cross 25 million tonne in the year, the company said in a statement.

The company said all of its port terminal facilities have registered a jump in cargo handling in the last three months on the back of improved performance of their anchor customers.

Essar Bulk Terminal alone registered a 26 per cent growth in volumes in the June quarter over the preceding three months at 5.5 million tonne and set a record by handling 1.86 million tonne in a single month in June, it said.

The Hazira Port, located in the Gulf of Khambatt, is integrated with Essar's Hazira Complex which consists of a 10 million tonne steel plant, captive power plants and other manufacturing facilities.

The statement said Essar Ports registered a 12 per cent growth in its cargo handling to 19.62 million tonne, with dry bulk and unit cargo increasing 32 per cent and third-party cargo jumping 60 per cent.

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Former French defence minister Francois Leotard has been placed under formal investigation in a probe into an arms corruption scandal dating to the 1990s, a source close to the inquiry said.

Leotard, 75, was questioned on July 4 over suspected "complicity in abuse of social assets," the source said, confirming a report in Canard Enchaine, the satirical and political weekly.

Leotard becomes the second former minister to be placed under formal investigation, a status roughly equivalent to being indicted, after ex-premier Edouard Balladur.

The probe centres on a web of corruption behind the 1994 sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia, with suspicions that kickbacks went to fund Balladur's presidential bid in 1995.

The investigation is being carried out by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), a court specially set up to probe cases of ministerial misconduct.

Magistrates are also probing whether a 2002 Karachi bombing that killed 11 French engineers was revenge for the cancellation of bribes secretly promised to Pakistani officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Karnataka government has appointed retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar to probe into the alleged special treatment meted out to AIADMK (Amma) leader V K Sasikala and other "erroneous" practises in the central jail here.

Kumar was appointed by the government for the probe after D Roopa, shunted out as DIG (Prisons) yesterday, highlighted in a report the alleged special privileges given to Sasikala and others inside Parapana Agrahara Central Jail.

"The Home Department had issued notification (to start a probe) in this regard yesterday itself," Kumar told PTI.



He, however, refused to divulge the deadline given by the government to finish the probe and submit the report.

"I will not be providing any more details, but will come before the media if required," Kumar added.

Kumar had met Home Secretary Subhash Chandra yesterday, an official said.

Kumar is in possession of the report submitted by Roopa, who had alleged irregularities and destruction of evidence, the official also said adding that Kumar has also been given the copies of the show-cause notices issued to the officials for the alleged lapses.

The government had yesterday transferred Roopa and asked DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao to go on compulsory leave after they sparred over a report on the allegations in public.

The government also shifted Bengaluru central jail Chief Superintendent Krishna Kumar, who had also been blamed in the report by Roopa for alleged illegal activities in the prison.

Roopa's transfer had stirred a huge controversy with the Opposition slamming the decision.

The issue figured in Parliament today when BJP members from Karnataka were seen holding placards asking the Karnataka government to protect honest officers.

In a report submitted on July 12 to Rao, Roopa had said there was "a talk" that Rs two crore had exchanged hands to give preferential treatment to Sasikala and there were allegations against him also.

Rao had rubbished the charges as "absolutely false, baseless and wild."



Roopa had also said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail for Sasikala in violation of the prison rules.

Sasikala is lodged at Parappana Agrahara central prison here ever since her conviction in February in the disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a 4-year jail term.
plans to add 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities in India in the next six months as part of its "Boost Your Business" programme to help them scale up their businesses, its top executive said here today.

The social network company has tied up with Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) to train people to achieve the target.

The initiative was launched today at EDII by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

"Our 'Boost Your Business' initiative was launched in 2015, but with EDII, we plan to go to 20 states and 100 cities in the next six months in its first phase, expanding five times than what we have achieved so far," said Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia.

Mehta said apart from EDII, will also continue to take up other initiatives to connect people through to help them do business.

"The programme is designed to equip small and medium businesses with the knowledge, skill and technology to stay innovative and increase markets across globally," he said.

Mehta said the programme is part of Facebook's public partnership policy, and aimed at giving back to the community.

"They (businesses) see a measurable difference (when connected to Facebook). First, the cost of business goes down. The service is free (setting up a Facebook page is free, communicating with your customer is free, and reaching new customers is free). Money that you spend on marketing can be spent on other things, like improving your business, scaling your business, hiring more people," he said.

"Secondly, it is essentially allowing you to reach a lot more customers. Facebook allows you to reach out to expand nationally and internationally," he added.

India has 201 million active people on Facebook, with 95 per cent of them accessing it on the mobile. Globally, over 65 business million SMBs have pages on Facebook, and 57 per cent people on Facebook in India are connected to at least one small business, the company said.
The two girls, who concocted the story of their drowning last week, returned to their homes today, police said.

They had cooked up the story to flee their homes in search of "money" in any big city to help their parents, SHO at the Kahnuwan Police Station in Gurdaspur, Harjit Singh said.

The girls returned to Amritsar and from there the police brought them to their home in Gurdaspur, he said, adding "they will be counselled and no case will be registered against them."



Seventeen-year-old Sophia had earlier said that her sister Lovepreet Kaur (19) and her cousin Nisha (18) had drowned in a canal while taking a selfie, but later spilled the beans, the SHO said.

Police became suspicious after the bodies of the girls could not be found from the UBDC canal at the Gurdaspur-Sri Hargobindpur road, he said.

"They took a lift from a truck driver telling him that they had just joined the police department and were going to join work at Chandigarh," Singh said.

Later, at Delhi when they realised their mistake and ran out of money, they decided to return home, the SHO said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government is mulling making sweets made of cow-milk available as 'prasad' at temples by Navratra, state Dairy Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary said.

The minister in an interview to PTI said this will be done through the ongoing projects of his department in districts where there are prominent religious shrines and temples.

"In a bid to popularise cow-milk, the plan is to make available sweets made of it as 'prasad' at temples in Mathura, Ayodhya, Vindhyachal and at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. If all goes as per the plan, then devotees may get the 'prasad' by the onset of Navratra," he said.

He said the department is planning to bring different products made of cow-milk in the market by Navratra. "This will be a gift to the people, and efforts are being made in this direction," Chaudhary said.

Elaborating on the government's plan to encourage farmers to rear cows, the minister said, "At present cow's milk sells at Rs 22 per litre and that of a buffalo at Rs 35 a litre. The target is to bring the selling price of cow's milk to Rs 42 a litre."



This way a farmer will find it viable to rear a cow and it will "actually" be looked after, he said.

Chaudhary said in Chhattisgarh, a litre of cow's milk sells at Rs 60 while in his home district, Mathura, it was Rs 45.

Taking a jibe at BJP's rivals, the minister said, "People think that we talk of cows only to reiterate our pro-Hindu image. The fact is cow's milk boosts the immunity and helps in combating fat, cholesterol and even kidney ailments."



"The dairy industry is incurring loss as pricing of milk is different. From August onwards, the Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation will streamline the rate," he said.

The dairy plant in Kannauj will be used for manufacturing various cow milk products on a pilot project basis, the minister said.

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The Hyderabad High Court today issued notices to four Andhra Pradesh ministers, asking them why couldn't they be disqualified for defecting to the ruling TDP from the YSR Congress Party.

A division bench of the acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganthan and Justice T Rajini, hearing a writ petition filed by journalist T Shivaprasad Reddy, issued the notices to the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary as well as the ministers N Amarnath Reddy, R S Krishna Ranga Rao, Bhuma Akhila Priya and C Adi Narayana Reddy.

All of them got elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on the ticket of the YSR Congress Party, but joined the Telugu Desam Party government of N Chandrababu Naidu in April this year and subsequently became ministers.

Challenging their induction into the Cabinet, the petitioner stated this action of the Andhra government was highly arbitrary, illegal and without any application of mind or authority of law and was in violation of Article 164(1B) of the Constitution and related norms.

The petitioner requested the high court to restrain the four from discharging any function as ministers, pending disposal of his plea.

The HC adjourned the case for four weeks.

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The Bombay High Court today quashed a case registered against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and some of his party workers for holding a protest march against the 2012 Azad Maidan riot despite the police refusing permission for it.

A bench of justices R V More and S V Kotwal quashed the case owing to inordinate delay by the police in filing the chargesheet in the case registered under the Bombay Police Act, which requires filing of chargesheet within six months.

On August 21, 2012, Thackeray had led the march from Girgaum Chowpatty to Azad Maidan protesting the August 11, 2012 riots during a demonstration by several minority groups against the violence against Muslims in Assam.

The police later had registered an FIR against Raj and some of his party workers including MNS's general secretary Shirish Sawant under section 135 of the Bombay Police Act for not obeying the police orders and breaching the statutory rules.

Sawant had approached the high court in 2015 for having the case quashed. Sawant's lawyer Rajendra Shirodkar today argued that under the said section, police is bound to file chargesheet within six months of lodging the FIR but till date it has not been done.

The bench accepted the argument and quashed the entire case.

"While Raj Thackeray had not filed petition in high court the case against him also stands quashed as the court has quashed the entire case," Justice Shirodkar said.

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Normal life was affected as heavy rains continued to lash Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana for the second day today.

Madhira in Khammam district received nine cms of rainfall, followed by Hayatnagar (7 cms) in Rangareddy district, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The incessant rain led to water-logging on roads at several places here.

Several rivulets and other water bodies were in spate at different places in the state.

Hyderabad received 60.2 mm of rainfall today, according to the IMD.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said in a release that rain water on roads was drained out by its personnel at different places.

The process of demolishing old structures (which are found unsafe) is going on and notices have been issued to residents of some other old buildings to vacate them, it said.

Heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places in all districts of Telangana, the IMD said.

Saying that water logging was a common sight in the city, Leader of Opposition (Congress) in state Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the TRS government has failed in its promise to make the city free of traffic snarls.

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Leader of Congress in the BJP-led NDMC Mukesh Goel today alleged that the condition of the civic body-run Hindu Rao Hospital was "deteriorating" and asked authorities to take up the repair of the old municipal hospital.

In a statement, the senior Congress leader claimed that a nurse was injured after a portion of the ceiling in parts of the hospital had collapsed.

"In last two weeks, three such incidents have occurred, so, I appeal to the municipal commissioner that a proper survey be done of the building and damaged parts be identified and repaired," he said.

The Hindu Rao Hospital is one of the oldest and biggest hospitals in Delhi and fall under the jurisdiction of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. It is NDMC's oldest hospital where a large number of poor patients come for treatment.

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With a view to support India's green building initiative, Finance Corporation (IFC) is planning to invest over $1 billion in next five years, a senior official on Tuesday said.

IFC, a member of World Bank, has planned an investment of around $5-6 billion for the next five years in India for participating in the country's climate change programs, its Country Head (India) Jun Zhang told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

"We will be investing around 20 per cent of this amount which is over $1 billion in creating green buildings," he said.

He also said affordable and sustainable homes is a key part of IFC's strategy in India.

"We invest and advice housing finance companies, developers and have also helped leading private sector banks to issue green bonds to finance green homes," Zhang said.

The remaining amount of the $5-6 billion will invest in India's programs like renewable energy among others, he said.

has so far invested $2 billion in sustainable development projects in India since 2005, he said, adding it will continue to participate in the country's various development initiatives.

"Given the scale of the challenge we want to influence the ecosystem so we can build a more sustainable and greener

India," he added.

is focused on the private sector in emerging markers and is working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, he said.
India has witnessed over 22 per cent increase in the arrival in June as compared to the same period last year, the Toursim Ministry said.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India in June 2017 was 6.70 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.47 lakh in June, 2016 and 5.12 lakh in June, 2015, the Ministry said in a statement.

"The growth rate in FTAs in June, 2017 over June, 2016 is 22.5 per cent compared to 6.8 per cent in June, 2016 over June, 2015," it said.

Most tourists travelled to India from Bangladesh (29.23 per cent) followed by the US (19.70 per cent), the UK (6.14 per cent), Malaysia (3.82 per cent), Australia (2.56 per cent), and China (2.52 per cent).

The Delhi airport, with almost 23 per cent share of FTAs, remained the busiest airport followed by Haridaspur Land Check Post on India-Bangaldesh border (17.06 per cent), Mumbai airport (14.98 per cent), Chennai airport (9.06 per cent) and Bengaluru airport (6.72 per cent).

Based on the data received from the Bureau of Immigration (BOI), the Ministry compiles monthly estimates of FTAs, including those with e-tourist visas on the basis of their nationality and port.

A substantial rise in the number of tourists arriving on e-visas was also witnessed in June.

"During the month of June, total of 0.67 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 0.37 lakh during the month of June 2016 registering a growth of 81.7 per cent," the statement said.

In fact, even during January-June 2017, a total of 7.17 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 4.72 lakh during January-June 2016, registering a growth of 52.0 per cent, it said.

Most tourists from the US (17 per cent) used the e- Tourist Visa facilities during June, 2017 followed by UK (10.8 per cent), China (6.8 per cent), Australia (5.2 per cent) and Singapore (5.1 per cent).

Tourists with e-visas used the New Delhi Airport (42.4 per cent), Mumbai Airport (20.6 per cent), Chennai Airport (10.0 per cent), Bengaluru Airport (9.2 per cent) and Kochi Airport (3.7 per cent) to enter into India.

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India has participated in the global joint taskforce meet to discuss with countries information exchange as it looks to pursue work on the Panama Papers, the finance ministry said today.

The Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC) meeting was reconvened in Paris in the last week of June 2017 to pursue the work on the Panama Papers.

"Based on legal instruments under the OECD and Council of Europe Multilateral Convention and tax treaties, a number of countries shared information in confidential Competent Authorities sessions, on structures that facilitate, enable and promote tax avoidance/evasion. India also shared its experience in this regard," the statement said.

Demonstrating the value and strength of JITSIC, 30 project participant countries have continued to exchange, analyse and act on information about taxpayers and intermediaries connected to Mossack Fonseca.

In the past six months, more than 570 requests for information have been sent to 32 countries. India has also sent several requests for information to various jurisdictions in the Panama Paper cases since the last meeting in January 2017.

"JITSIC members have established the capability to allow for fast, effective and coordinated multilateral responses to any future data leaks and are sharing the same. JITSIC will continue to identify more arrangements as countries continue their investigations and share intelligence and new data comes to light," the statement said.

Collaboration with JITSIC has been useful for India in its fight against offshore tax evasion, it added.

The Panama papers refer to 11.5 million leaked documents published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with details of offshore entities set up by the law firm Mossack Fonseca over 40 years.

Some of the entities set up by the law firm were shell corporations used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion and evading international sanctions.

The papers also included details of entities set up by over 500 Indian nationals.

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India has achieved "remarkable" progress in the financial inclusion of women through the implementation of its biometric identification system 'Aadhar', American lawmakers have been told.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women's World Banking, said that millions of women globally lack documentation and other forms of identification to open a simple savings account, but India has recently implemented an innovative biometric ID system that has dramatically expanded access to financial services.

"It's truly remarkable what India has been able to accomplish, and the government has really just driven financial inclusion. They have instituted this biometric system. So, everybody has a thumbprint and that's been available to men and women alike," she told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

She, however, said there were a things "we would love to see changed". "We don't always know, but when we dig into the data that typically means that the husband has taken that biometric information and opened a bank account rather than the wife," she said.

During the hearing, Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera asked her about the impact of digital economy on women in India, to which Iskenderian described in detail about India's decision to demonetise high-value currency notes in November.

"You probably heard recently about the demonetisation. India took several currency notes out of the system. It was particularly difficult for women who still were operating in cash and didn't necessarily have access to the technology for variety of reasons, including cultural and social reasons they didn't own the cell phone. So we're eager to make sure that women are not left behind in this exciting move towards a cashless economy," Iskenderian said.

Tavneet Suri, an associate professor of applied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said India's digitisation programme has been impressive.

"Digitisation in India has been impressive. When they started off, I didn't think they would succeed giving most of their population a digital identity. I think there is a bunch of research now showing great gains to this," she said.

"One has been as they digitise people's identity they digitised a bunch of the social welfare programmes from the government and this has dramatically reduced corruption in the government because you can't have fake people anymore in the system," Suri told the lawmakers.

"So you see a reduction in corruption and then accompanying that we've seen some work when women earn the money off the workfare programme if it's tied to a bank account that they have, that is theirs, it increases their labour force participation and their earnings," Suri said.

"So, I think it copied just digitisation on its own, because that doesn't mean necessarily financial inclusion in the way we think about it for women and financial use but when I can tie that digitisation to now financial tools and other things then you do see this benefit for women," she added.

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The Trump administration's decision to include Indians into the Global Entry programme that expedites entry of visitors at the airports and other ports of entry further deepens the bilatertal ties to the Indo-AsiaPacific region, a top American Senator has said.

India recently joined Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Switzerland, and Argentina in CBP's Global Entry and other trusted traveler programmes.

Global Entry is a US CBP programme which allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travellers upon arrival in the US.

The action by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to finalise India's participation in the Global Entry programme will benefit Hawaii's visitor industry in time for the state's busy summer travel season, said Senator Mazie K Hirono from Hawaii.

"India's inclusion in the Global Entry programme further deepens US ties to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, and allows CBP to direct security resources to where they are needed most," said the Democratic Senator.

According to the US Commerce Department, approximately 1.2 million citizens of India visited the US in 2016 and spent USD 13 billion, making India among the top ten markets for US travel and tourism exports.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June, Hirono had led a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging the Department of Homeland Security to include India in its Global Entry programme.

The letter was co-signed by Senators John Cornyn, Amy Klobuchar, Roy Blunt,Jeff Merkley, MarcAo Rubio and Bob Case.

On landing at select airports, the programme members enter the US through automatic kiosks, instead of queueing up to clear the immigration by meeting an immigration officer.

The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, and the US-India Business Council supported Senator Hirono's effort.

"We are pleased with Senator Hirono's leadership in writing a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security in support of India's inclusion in the Global Entry Programme," said Sherry Menor-McNamara, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

"India's entry into the Global Entry programme is a meaningful opportunity to further elevate the US-India relationship," said Mukesh Aghi, former president of USIBC.

India is one of the world's fastest growing outbound travel and tourism markets, with over one million Indian tourists visiting the US since 2015 and spending over USD 10 billion to support the US travel and tourism export market, he said.

"For a growing Indian diaspora in the US -- currently over three million -- this is a welcome move to solidify people-to-people ties as well. Allowing an expedited clearance for pre-approved Indian travelers will provide a big boost to the US -India 2017 Travel and Tourism Partnership," Aghi said.

With its rapidly expanding economy, India has the potential to emerge as an important source of leisure and business travel, and entry into the Global Entry program will stimulate and support this growth as well as bolster the security cooperation between our two countries, said Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association.

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Police probing the death of a 17-year-old boy, who had allegedly decamped with Rs 22 lakh cash and valuables from his own house here in 2012, have submitted before the local court the DNA report of the body recovered from Maharashtra five years back.

As per the report submitted by the police, the DNA samples of the body recovered in Maharashtra did not match those of the parents of the boy, who was allegedly killed in 2012.

The police submitted the DNA report before Additional Sessions Judge (ADJ) Keshavmani Singhal yesterday. The findings of the report has given a new twist to the case.

The State Forensic Science Laboratory in Sagar had made the report after analysing the DNA samples of the body recovered from Maharashtra as well as the deceased boy's parents.

The court has posted the next hearing in the case on August 3, defence counsel Mahendra Maurya told reporters today.

"The lab report stated that the DNA samples did not match that of the boy's parents," Maurya said.

A police officer said that on July 1, 2012, the investigators had got information about the drowning of a person at Malegaon in Nashik district in Maharashtra.

As the deceased could not be identified, the Maharashtra police had buried it after the post-mortem. However, based on the interrogation of the accused in the case, the Indore police had got the body exhumed.

The police officer said that the post-mortem report said that the deceased had drowned, although Madhya Pradesh had concluded that the deceased had died of strangulation.

On June 25, 2012, the boy's mother had complained to Annapurna Police station in Indore that her son had decamped with Rs 21 lakh cash and jewellery worth Rs one lakh.

During the probe, the police had found that the boy had made the last call from his cell phone to his friend at Shirdi in Maharashtra on June 28, 2012.

According to the prosecution, the boy's friends had killed him and threw his body from the car and later distributed the cash and jewellery. The accused in the case are being tried.

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The National Green Tribunal has directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to inspect the rain water harvesting systems (RWHS) being installed in private and government schools here.

A bench headed by Justice R S Rathore ordered the DJB to submit a status report on the RWHS being constructed on the respective sites before August 8.

"Counsel for DJB is directed to inspect the work done by the noticees.... The status of the rain water harvesting system constructed on the respective sites, shall be furnished by the DJB before the next date of hearing," the bench, also comprising expert member Ranjan Chatterjee, said.

During the hearing, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) told the green panel that the cost estimate of the projects for three schools --Primary Girl School at Chhatarpur Mandir, Prativa Bal Vidyalaya and Primary School at Rajpur Khurd-- have been prepared and tenders will be floated at the earliest.

The bench, however, said "looking to the grave urgency of the matter because monsoon has come and purpose of rain water harvesting system will be frustrated if delayed, we direct SDMC to take up the matter on priority and inform the tribunal on next date of hearing with regard to the progress in the matter."



The matter is fixed for next hearing on August 8.

The NGT had earlier directed the Central Ground Water Authority and DJB to inspect private and government schools here after a plea alleged that they have failed to install rain water harvesting systems on their premises.

The direction came during hearing of a plea of Mahesh Chandra Saxena, who claimed to be associated with an NGO working in the field of ground water conservation.

He has claimed that government departments, educational institutions and residential societies have either not installed rain water harvesting systems or these were non- functional.

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Iran's parliament voted today to urgently work towards increasing funds for the country's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards in response to Washington's "adventurism" in the region, media reported.

An overwhelming majority of Iranian lawmakers passed a motion to prioritise legislation "to confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region," the Mizan Online website reported.

The motion was originally introduced after the US Senate passed new sanctions on Iran in June and sent them to the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill, published by the ISNA agency, mandates the government to allocate an additional USD 260 million to the joint armed forces for the "development of the missile programme" and the same amount to the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, the Quds Force.

The motion sends a clear message to the Americans that Iran's parliament "will resist them with all its power", speaker Ali Larijani said.

The Quds Force leads Iran's military role in Syria and Iraq.

Tehran offers financial, political and military support for the governments of both countries, in particular by posting advisers on the ground and organising and training volunteer Shiite fighters.

The Pentagon has also repeatedly voiced concern over a string of high-profile incidents in waters off Iran involving Iranian vessels.

It has accused the Revolutionary Guards of conducting risky manoeuvres around US warships in the Gulf, some of which resulted in the Americans firing warning shots.

US President Donald Trump's administration has spared no effort to show a tough stance on Iran, promising new non- nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of a two-year- old nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.

Yesterday the White House said the nuclear accord would stay in place for now, backing away from a campaign pledge by Trump to scrap the agreement, under which Tehran scaled back its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of some sanctions.

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to two top Karnataka prison officials taking cognisance of a complaint about alleged torture and transfer of 32 convicts serving terms in the Central Prison here.

An NHRC release here said the complaint alleged the prisoners were beaten black-and-blue and shifted overnight (on July 16) in an injured condition to various other prisons at Mysore, Ballari, Belagavi and Davanagere.

According to the complaint, lodged yesterday by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, the family members of these prisoners were not being allowed to meet them.

The complaint was filed a day after the prisoners, in a sudden move, were shifted at around 1 am to jails in Ballari and Belagavi for allegedly trying to voice their grievances.

The commission observed that the allegations of physical torture of the prisoners and their overnight transfer to other jails in an injured condition, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of their right to life and dignity.

It issued notices to Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) and Inspector General (IG), Prisons, asking them to file within four weeks a detailed report on the allegations, along with a note on the current location and health condition of the "injured and shifted" prisoners.

"It need not be restated that a prisoner is not a slave of the State and is not denude of his fundamental rights while in judicial custody," the release said.

Allegedly, the prisoners were meted out this "inhuman" treatment because of their bid to stage a dharna inside the jail premises as they were not allowed to speak to (then) DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had visited the jail, it added.

Roopa had recently flagged certain "grave irregularities" inside the Central Jail, including providing a sophisticated kitchen to one of the prisoners, (AIADMK Amma chief) V Sasikala, and VIP treatment to another prisoner, Abdul Karim Lala Telgi, the release said.

The issue of alleged preferential treatment to Sasikala, serving a four-year term in a disproportionate assets case, came to the fore after Roopa submitted a report to her superior, DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao.

Both Roopa and Rao were transferred after they sparred over the report in public.

The government has also ordered a probe by a retired official into the allegations.

The release said that according to the complaint, the 32 prisoners were allegedly shifted in a hasty manner in order to avoid any disclosure to the inquiry officer.

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The Pakistan army violated ceasefire four times today targeting civilian areas and Indian positions along the Line of Control (LOC) by firing mortar shells in four sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said.

Around fifty students of a government high school were trapped in the shelling in Rajouri district's Naushera sector while twelve students of a primary school were rescued by the authorities.

One jawan was reportedly injured in the heavy exchanges of fire.

"The Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 1350 hours in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district along the LoC", a defence spokesman said today.

The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, he said.

The Pak army also targeted civilian areas and Indian army posts along LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

According to the defence spokesman, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked firing from 0645 hours in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors.

As per reports one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimber Gali sector.

Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told PTI that 45 to 50 students of a government high school in Sehar in Naushera sector were trapped due to heavy shelling.

He said the school was located at a height making the task of evacuation difficult.

However, police and authorities have evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera and they were ferried in bullet proof vehicles during intermittent shelling by Pakistan, he said.

"We have sent 3 bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling comes down, we will evacuate them too", Choudhary said.

The shelling comes just a day after the Indian director general of military operations (DGMO) conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that the Army was sincere about maintaining peace but reserved the right to retaliate against any incident of ceasefire violation.

Yesterday also, the Pakistan army had initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Armyposts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

In the exchange of fire, Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife Shaheena Muddasar and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas yesterday also in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri.

Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. The administration has sounded an alert and advised the residents to stay indoors and field officers have been deputed for coordination, he said.

There were over a dozen of ceasefire violation by Pak army along LoC in J&K in which seven people including four jawans were killed and 12 injured in the month of July this year.

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A day after Chief Minister Amarinder Singh sought exemption of GST on 'langar', the opposition SAD today said the onus was on the state government for getting tax exemption by making representation before the GST Council.

"It is the Congress government which has to get this exemption passed in the GST Council.

"Under the new GST regime, states have a weightage of 66 per cent to influence all decisions in the GST Council vis-a- vis the Centre which has a weightage of only 33 per cent," SAD President Sukhbir Badal said a statement here.

The former deputy chief minister asked the Punjab government to fulfil its responsibility by getting the exemption done through the GST Council.

Sukhbir put the ball in the state government's court for exemption on 'langar' (community kitchen) even as his wife and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has already urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to exempt all purchases made by SGPC for 'langar sewa' under the GST.

The Akali Dal president said though the chief minister had written to the Union finance minister and sought exemption for the SGPC, it would have been better if he had directed his Finance minister Manpreet Badal to get this done in the GST Council.

"The Council allows each state to put forward its demands for grant of relief on specific items. However, relief can only be granted if the appropriate case is put up before the council, which has not happened yet in the case of granting exemption for langar' items," he claimed.

Stating that the issue of extending exemption to the SGPC was being raised consistently since the last fortnight, Badal said Manpreet should have filed a representation before the GST Council till now.

"He needs to tell Sikh devotees why he has not taken up the matter in the GST Council in which he represents Punjab?



"Is it a case of sheer incompetence on his part or is he deliberately not raising the issue because he does not want to extend this exemption?



"Manpreet Badal should make his stand clear to the Sikh devotees so that they could also come to know where he stands on this issue," he asked while taking a dig at him.

Badal said if Manpreet Badal was serious in siding with the Sikh community, he should ask the GST Council to forfeit the state share in the GST immediately as a first step.

"This can be followed up with the demand for complete exemption. Even a fifty per cent exemption from GST to the SGPC will give it substantial relief as it purchases 'desi ghee', sugar, dry milk and pulses to the tune of Rs 75 crore annually.

"Forfeiture of the state share would halve the GST of Rs 10 crore which is likely to be applicable on SGPC if it does not get any exemption," Sukhbir said.

He said the SAD MPs and MLAs would meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley soon and request for exemption to SGPC from paying GST on 'langar' purchases.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), in its representation earlier, had pointed out that the GST would cause adverse effect on buying of food items for 'langar' purposes.

The Golden Temple faces an extra financial burden of Rs 10 crore a year with the implementation of the GST.

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Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) registrations for first-year BA Hons began today as freshers and their parents flocked the Convention Centre of the university to enrol themselves for various facilities, including hostels and health cards.

"It has been ensured that all the girls, SC, ST and PwD (Persons with Disabilities) students are given hostel accommodation on the day of joining the university, besides keeping the registration process of various courses under one roof, unlike in the past," said Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar.

The registration process for first-year BA Hons students will continue till July 20. It will again resume on July 28 and go on till July 31.

For the MA, MSc and MCA courses, the registration will take place on July 21, 24, 25 and again between July 28 and August 1. For PhD students, it will take place between July 18 and July 20.

"JNU will continue to attract the best students because of the quality of education provided here," said Kumar.

The VC, officials from the administration and members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) spoke to the students and their parents.

"I could see the happiness in their eyes for getting admission in JNU," the VC said.

Various students' organisations, including JNUSU, provided assistance to the freshers with the registrations.

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The DCW today suggested that the city police should send a code to forensic science laboratory with samples it gives for testing, instead of submitting FIR details, to avoid corruption.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson, Swati Maliwal, during her visit to the FSL, Rohini was informed that the police submits complete details of FIR as well as address of the accused to the laboratory while sending a sample for testing.

"This should be avoided at all cost as it increases the scope of corruption and collusion with the accused at the level of FSL," Maliwal said.

According to a DCW statement, she will take up the matter with Delhi police.

Maiwal said the DCW shall give detailed recommendations to the Delhi Government like improving infrastructure and setting up DNA units in hospitals by FSL to check the pendeny of cases in the lab.

During her visit, the FSL Director informed that they are in the process of digitizing their functioning and a software will be created by December end.

The DCW chief observed that CCTV cameras should be installed in each room of FSL, which were presently not there and said she will take up the matter with the government.

While visiting the various divisions, Maliwal pointed out to the strong fumes emanating from the chemistry division floor which made it difficult for anyone to be present in these rooms.

The scientists, including women, complained of severe difficulty while working. Air conditioners were not working in several rooms and as a result several machines became inoperative, the statement claimed.

The DCW will take up the infrastructural issues affecting the women staff with Public Works Department and shall monitor the progress.

The Director, FSL also stated that she had prepared a proposal for creation of DNA units in each hospital by FSL.

This would ensure that DNA samples are immediately deposited for report preparation, once they are collected in the hospitals.

This would nullify the gap between collection of samples and deposition in FSL, the statement said adding that the DCW chairperson will also take up the issue with the Delhi government.

Delayed and inconclusive forensic reports significantly delays justice to victims of crime. While significant improvement has been made in FSL since the Commission first took up the matter in October 2015, several serious issues still need to be resolved and the pendency should be brought down to zero at the earliest. DCW shall be giving detailed recommendations to Delhi Government in this regard, Maliwal said.

The Commission had issued a notice to FSL in October 2015 when the pendency of cases was 7,808, including 4,837 DNA cases.

Presently, the pendency figure has been reduced to 5,050 with DNA cases being 2,230. Around 700-800 cases are being received each month, the statement said.

The FSL has recruited 120 scientific personnel on contractual basis and as a result, the monthly output of DNA division has been increased from 120-150 cases per month to 500 cases per month.

It was informed that reports of fresh cases are prepared in two months while 250 old cases are also taken up every month. The FSL is also mulling procuring an advanced machine which can test DNA samples in 90 minutes, the statement said.

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Indian-American hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal has signed an agreement to expand its business to India with opening of a luxurious hotel in New Delhi in 2019.

The Chatwal-led Dream Hotel Group signed the hotel management agreement here yesterday with Viiking Ventures chairman Sachiin Joshi to open the Dream Hotel in the Indian capital.

Set to open in West Delhi's central business district, Dream New Delhi will feature 187 guest rooms and suites and other hi-end amenities.

Chatwal said with Dream Hotel Group's "unprecedented growth and high-velocity expansion, we are well positioned to triple our existing portfolio in less than five-years."



The agreement comes on the heels of the company's major international expansion plans with nine new hotel signings across all four brands - Dream Hotels, Time Hotels, The Chatwal and Unscripted Hotels.

With 16 hotels currently open and an additional 26 properties in the pipeline, Dream Hotel Group will substantially increase its global footprint over the next four years; tripling its existing portfolio by 2022, Chatwal said.

Additional signed locations by Dream Hotel Group include Dallas, Vietnam, the Maldives and the Dominican Republic and represent USD 750 million in new hotel development, all with independent development partners.

"India is among the fastest growing economies and we are excited to take the hospitality industry in this country to new heights" with the tie-up with Chatwal, Joshi said.

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There is a shortage of over 5 lakh police personnel in the country as compared to their overall sanctioned strength, the government told Parliament today.

The Union home ministry, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, also said that there are lesser Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in position across the country, than their authorised strength.

"As on January 1, 2017, there are 3,905 IPS officers in position against an authorised strength of 4,843," Minister of State for Home Hansraj G Ahir said.

The minister said that according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), as on January 1, 2016, against the authorised strength of 22,80,691, there are 17,31,666 police personnel in position.

Ahir said about 150 officers are recruited every year in the IPS and the central government reviews the strength and composition of each state IPS cadre, ordinarily at the interval of every five years.

"Since 2014, cadre review of 11 cadres has already been notified by the central government," he said.

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An Army jawan was today killed as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, officials said.

Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on the forward positions along the LoC in Naugam sector, killing the Indian soldier, an army official said.

He said troops guarding the LoC fired in retaliation to silence the Pakistani guns and an exchange of firing between the two sides was continuing when the last reports were received.

It was not immediately known of the Pakistani side suffered any retaliatory action, the official said.

This was the third major ceasefire violation by Pakistan in north Kashmir during the past week.

On July 12, two soldiers - Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat - were killed when they were targetted by Pakistani troops while manning forward posts in Keran sector of Kupwara district.

Another jawan was injured when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Kamalkote area of Uri sector in Baramulla district yesterday.

There were several ceasefire violations by the Pakistan army during the day. Civilian areas and Indian positions along the LOC were targetted by the Pakistani army which fired mortar shells in various sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate.

India had yesterday told Pakistan that it reserves the right to retaliate appropriately against any incident of ceasefire violation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

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The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ordered that troopers injured in pre-Independence wars be given 'war injury pension' like those wounded after it, in a relief to a 94-year-old war veteran.

Seeking to end the discrimination in injury benefits to soldiers injured in pre-Independence and post-Independence wars, the Chandigarh Bench of the tribunal said they should be treated equally.

The AFT has also directed the government to identify similarly placed soldiers and release their benefits without forced litigation.

Bhiwani-based 94-year-old Sowar Amar Singh of the Armoured Corps had approached the AFT with a plea that despite having been injured during World War II, he was being paid regular 'disability pension' as is admissible in cases of normal diseases incurred during service such as hypertension and heart diseases.

He was not being given a war injury pension that is granted to soldiers disabled in operational areas.

Singh aid that it made no difference that soldiers were fighting for the British Crown during those times since WWII was a war of humanity against fascist forces.

He said the same British Indian Army was inherited post- Independence and the governments of India and Pakistan had assured the British government that they would take care of all such cases. They had also taken over the serving soldiers and pensioners of pre-Independence India.

Singh in his petition had said that though he was being paid disability pension as per the existing government rules and rates, he was being refused the payment of war injury pension.

The government resisted Singh's claim, saying when war injury pension was initially introduced, it was applicable only to post-Independence wars and disabilities in international 'peacekeeping missions'.

The concept of war injury pension for disabilities incurred in 'international wars' was introduced only in January 1996 vide a letter issued in 2001 but since the soldier was a pre-1996 retiree, the said benefit could not be granted to him.

Holding Singh entitled to the war injury pension, the AFT bench comprising Justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra has held that such discrimination could not be perpetrated by distinguishing between injuries suffered in various wars.

The bench in its last week's order reminded the government that the cut-off date of 1996 in the government letter had already been struck down by the Supreme Court. Hence, the same could not be used to deny such benefits.

The AFT held Singh entitled to war injury pension with effect from January, 1996.

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A Trinamool Youth Congress (TMYC) worker was fired at and injured after being called out of his home at Basanti in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district in a feud between two groups of TMC and two persons were detained in connection with it.

Hasim alias Ijaz Ahmed was called out of his home at around midnight last night and the bullet fired at him injured his right shoulder.

Police rushed to the spot and two TMC workers, including the son of the party's block president Mannan Gazi named Raja was detained in connection with it, Baruipur superintendent of police Arijit Sinha said.

Ahmed was rushed to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, where his condition was stated to be stable.

Today TMYC supporters in protest allegedly vandalised and looted the houses of a number of TMC workers and set fire to a kuchha house.

They also blocked the roads in the area and protested against the incident.

TMC blamed TMYC for today's violence but TMYC leaders, when contacted denied the party's role in it.

When asked Sinha said there was no report of vandalising of houses. However, there was report of a house being partially damaged but no loot.

Police picket has been posted at Basanti, he added.

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BJP workers today gheraoed the residence of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar here alleging that the government has failed to remove the indefinite road and railway blockade by Indigenous People's Front Tripura (IPFT) demanding a separate state.

The blockade to press for a separate state by carving out the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) area entered ninth day today.

It has been causing problems for the common people as prices of essential commodities have gone up.

"We have gheraoed his residence due to his and his government's failure to withdraw the national highway blockade by the IPFT. Our demonstration would continue unless the blockade is withdrawn," state BJP president Biplab Deb said.

The chief minister, who also holds home portfolio, is inactive and has not paid attention to the problems of the people, Deb alleged.

"Law and order is a state subject and it is his government's duty to give relief to the people from inconveniences," he told reporters.

The BJP leader said party leaders would meet Governor Tathagata Roy today and demand President's rule in the state as law and order has withered away in the state.

Meanwhile, opposition Congress has called a dawn-to-dusk bandh in the state tomorrow alleging the government's failure to withdraw the blockade of IPFT.

"We oppose the demand of separate state and the indefinite blockade of IPFT. We also oppose the silence of the government about the blockade, which is creating inconveniences to common people," state Congress president, Birajit Sinha told reporters.

In a statement yesterday, the state government said that Union Minister of State from Home, Kiren Rijiju informed the chief minister that he would meet a delegation of IPFT in Delhi regarding the blockade.

However, BJP central observer for Tripura, Sunil Deodhar said he had talks with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Rijiju and both of them made it clear that talks would be possible only after the blockade is withdrawn.

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President Donald Trump is asking Oman's sultan to help counter Iran's destabilising activities in the Middle East.

The White House said the president spoke by phone with Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said yesterday.

The brief readout says Trump stressed the need for "close bilateral cooperation."



The leaders also discussed "ways to resolve regional conflicts" and counter Iran's destabilising activities.

The unassuming Arab Gulf sultanate has played a key role as a mediator in the Middle East, from hosting secret talks between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic's contested nuclear program to seeking a negotiated resolution to the ongoing fighting in Yemen.

In the process, Oman has struggled to keep the peace among the much larger powers that surround it, including archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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US President Donald Trump has warned Venezuela of strong and swift economic actions if the country's ruling party goes ahead with plans to rewrite the its constitution.

"The US will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the US will take strong and swift economic actions," Trump said yesterday in a strongly worded statement.

"The US once again calls for free and fair elections and stands with the people of Venezuela in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," he said.

On Sunday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law, he said.

"Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator," Trump alleged.

Earlier his spokesman expressed concern over the situation in Venezuela.

"We've been watching what's been going on. We congratulate the Venezuelan people for the huge turnout in the referendum yesterday and the unmistakable statement that they made and that they delivered to their government," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at his daily conference.

"We condemn the violence inflicted by government thugs against innocent voters, and efforts by the government to erode democracy in Venezuela. We once again call for the constituent assembly of July 30th to be cancelled, and for free and fair elections to be scheduled," Spicer said.

In a separate statement, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert applauded "the courage and determination" of Venezuelans who exercised their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in defense of their democracy on July 16.

"Yesterday's vote was amassive repudiation of the proposed National Constituent Assembly, which would undermine Venezuela's democratic institutions. The vote by millions of Venezuelans was an unequivocal affirmation in support of free and fair elections as well as respect for the existing constitution," she said.

Condemning the loss of life in Catia, Caracas and deploring the violence, she called on the Venezuelan government to bring the attackers to justice.

"Millions of Venezuelans voices must not be ignored. The US calls on the Government of Venezuela to abandon the proposed National Constituent Assembly. We encourage governments in the hemisphere and around the world to call on President Maduro to suspend this process which only seeks to undermine democracy in Venezuela," Nauert said.

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Russian-backed rebels fighting against Kiev announced a plan to create a new "state" they said would take the place of Ukraine and have its capital in their territory.

Ukraine's pro-Western authorities immediately ridiculed the idea as a Kremlin project that they would never allow to get off the ground.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in turn called the plan the "personal initiative" of rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko and said that "Moscow learnt about it this morning from media", in comments to Russian agency RIA Novosti.

The separatists said the proposed country would be founded after a referendum and called Malorossiya, a tsarist- era name meaning "Little Russia" that once described most of the area covering modern-day Ukraine.

A constitution presented by rebel leader Zakharchenko said his self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, neighbouring rebel-held Lugansk and other regions had agreed to "declare the establishment of a new state, which is the successor of Ukraine."



The document -- released by the separatists' agency -- said rebel bastion Donetsk would become the capital, while Kiev would be reduced to the status of a "historical and cultural centre".

The proposal seems to stand no chance of gaining traction and the insurgents themselves appeared unable to agree on it.

The press service for Lugansk rebel chief Igor Plotnitsky said he had not been consulted on the project.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin quickly derided the plan on Twitter as another "show" by the insurgents' "Kremlin puppet masters".

"We and our partners will not let this happen," he vowed.

The surprise announcement of Malorossiya could, however, further dent an already stalled peace process that has failed to end more than three years of fighting that has claimed the lives of around 10,000 people.

A deal brokered by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany in the Belarusian capital Minsk in 2015 has hit a wall but is still viewed by those involved as the only way of unwinding Ukraine's war.

France's foreign ministry called on Moscow "to denounce" the rebel announcement, which it described as a "violation" of the peace deal.

"Russia has to intensify its efforts to put an end to this conflict," a statement said.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov insisted later that Moscow remains committed to the Minsk accords.

The proposal by the rebels echoed language used by the Kremlin in the early days of the conflict that promoted fears Russia was looking to annex swathes of mainland Ukraine after its seizure of the Crimea peninsula.

Moscow used the tsarist-era name "Novorossiya" (New Russia) to refer to the areas the rebels had seized, but the term was later dropped.

Ukraine and the West say Moscow has funnelled troops and arms across the border to fan the flames of the war in Europe's backyard.

Moscow has denied the allegations despite overwhelming evidence that it has been involved in the fighting and its explicit political support for the rebels.

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The United States will not resume imports of beef from Brazil until food safety issues have been addressed, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said.

Purdue met with his Brazilian counterpart, Blairo Maggi, to discuss the issue after Washington late last month halted all beef imports from the country following a rash of bad shipments discovered in US ports.

"Though Brazil pressed for a timeline for restoration of beef imports... Any timeline would have to depend upon progress being made by Brazil," Purdue told the Brazilian official, the USDA said in a statement following the meeting.

The agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) began inspecting all Brazil beef imports in March after a series of bad meat shipments were discovered, and through late June had stopped 11 percent of the beef meant for the US market, about 1.9 million pounds (862,000 kilogrammes).

The normal rejection rate is one percent, USDA said.

At the time the ban was imposed, Purdue said, "Ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply is one of our critical missions, and... My first priority is to protect American consumers."



Maggi detailed the corrective actions Brazil has taken and continues to take to address the food safety concerns, the USDA said, without providing specifics.

Brazil is the world's leading beef and poultry exporter. The US ban comes after a scandal in March when 21 meat processors in the South American country were accused by Brazilian police of adulterating bad quality meat and bribing inspectors.

That prompted some 20 countries -- including chief beef markets China and Hong Kong -- to suspend all Brazilian meat imports.

The bans caused havoc in the USD 13 billion a year industry, which employs some six million people, before being finally lifted.

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The White House has alleged that Democrats colluded with Ukraine during the 2016 election, turning the tables on its accusers amid an all-engulfing scandal over Trump's contacts with Russia.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer repeated allegations that a Democratic operative had met with Ukrainian embassy officials during the campaign.

Spicer referred to several recent reports by conservative media outlets, alleging the Democratic operative sought dirt on then Trump campaign director Paul Manafort.

The allegations first came to light in a Politico story in January.

"Obviously, there's been a lot more interest in recent days with respect to what the DNC did in coordination with the Ukrainian government to try to collude," Spicer said.

The White House spokesman alleged that the collusion took place to "achieve a goal of having someone removed, which ultimately did happen."



Manafort left his post in August 2016, as Trump's general election prospects looked dim and details of his own business dealings with pro-Kremlin leaders in Ukraine emerged.

Spicer was asked by a pro-Trump media representative whether the issue was raised when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the White House in June.

Spicer said he did not know, but claimed that "the DNC's collusion with the Ukrainian government has definitely gotten a lot more attention since that meeting."



The comments come as the White House reeled from Donald Trump Jr's confession that he and two other Trump senior aides knowingly met Kremlin-connected operatives to get dirt on rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

That admission, after months of denials, has prompted some Republicans to openly criticize the White House and venture that Donald Jr may have broken the law.

US intelligence agencies believe that President Vladimir Putin ordered a vast influence operation to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

Trump himself has responded by describing his son's meeting as business as usual.

"Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!" he tweeted yesterday.

Spicer seemed to contradict his boss, by saying the meeting was actually about adoption.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied allegations it had "colluded" with Democrats against the Trump campaign.

The embassy "neither coordinated with the DNC on opposition research nor taken any actions to undermine campaign efforts," the statement read.

"While some politicians who are not part of the Ukrainian government might have taken sides or made comments during last year's election, the Embassy and the government of Ukraine did not."



"We highly appreciate US administration support to Ukraine and the progress achieved in recent months in our bilateral relations.

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Firefighters battled to douse wildfires on the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro today, as blazes also raged in Italy, France and Portugal.

About a dozen wildfires had broken out late Sunday in the villages surrounding Split, a popular tourist destination, but firefighters managed to control the blaze on the outskirts of Croatia's second largest city.

Late yesterday the fire spread to the suburbs of Split where a shopping centre had to be evacuated and several cars were burned.

The city waste dump caught fire, while the town was covered with thick black smoke, but the blaze was put under control overnight.

"It seems that the worst is behind us ... Split has been saved," mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara told HRT state-run television.

Local media reports however said some parts of Split were without electricity or water on Tuesday as Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic arrived to take stock of the situation.

According to initial estimates some 4,500 hectares (11,120 acres) of land, mostly pine forests, bushes and olive groves, were destroyed. Houses were burned but there were no casualties.

In neighbouring Montenegro, where the forest fires forced the evacuation of more than a hundred campers on the Lustica peninsula, the situation was slightly better Tuesday.

Fires however were still active in several municipalities further inland but were all under control, an interior ministry statement said.

The cause of the fires in the two countries at the height of the summer tourist season is still not known.

In Italy, authorities said a blaze in a pine forest at a popular park outside Rome, now under control, was deliberately set and that a suspect has been arrested.

But fires continue burn in southern Italy in parts of the Calabria region and in the outskirts of Naples where one person died yesterday after falling off his roof where he went to look at how the forest fire was progressing not far from his home.

Winds, high temperatures and dry conditions prompted fires to break out the past several days in southern France and the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

More than 450 firefighters were still battling a forest fire at Castagniera, north of Nice, which has destroyed some 100 hectares but appears not to be spreading further, authorities said.

Yesterday fire swept through around 200 hectares of scrubland near Bonifacio in southern Corsica.

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By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepalis stand to lose millions of dollars held in high-value Indian bank notes that India banned last year and has yet to exchange, a Nepali central bank official said on Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November banned 500 rupee ($7.77) and 1,000 rupee bank notes as part of a drive against unaccounted wealth in India that has also hit Nepal where Indian rupees are widely used.

People holding the notes in India were given a little less than two months to exchange them at banks.

In March, officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) visited Nepal and promised to allow every Nepali citizen to exchange 4,500 Indian rupees ($70) worth of the old notes for new ones.

"That was only a verbal assurance but no formal decision from India has come to us," said Chinta Mani Shivakoti, a deputy governor of the central Nepal Rastra Bank.

"Even if this amount was exchanged, individuals holding more than 4,500 Indian rupees risk losing the excess," Shivakoti said.

Nepal depends heavily on funds from workers in India, who sent home $640 million in 2016, or about 3 percent of its gross domestic product.

The Indian central bank declined to comment. An Indian finance ministry spokesman also declined to comment, saying it was a central bank matter.

India fears that if it agrees to Nepal's demand to allow Nepalis to exchange unlimited amounts, a large number of Indians may launder their ill-gotten old notes through Nepal.

Shivakoti said Nepal's banks hold 78.5 million Indian rupees worth of the old notes, while business officials estimate that up to 10 billion in old Indian rupees ($155 million) may be held by individuals in Nepal's informal sector.

Another NRB official, Bhisma Raj Dhungana, said the delay in resolving the issue was causing concern.

"India should have allowed the exchange facility much earlier," Dhungana said.

Ordinary Nepalis say they have been hit badly by the delay.

"My savings are worth no more than waste papers. I can't do anything about it," said Saila Thakuri, who has 8,000 Indian rupees in old notes sent by his son who works in a restaurant in New Delhi.

($1 = 64.35 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)

(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 Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC's board of governors chose Saudi Arabia's candidate to be the group's new head of research in an appointment that went smoothly, two OPEC sources said on Tuesday, a sign political tension between Gulf members is not affecting decision-making.

Saudi Arabia's Ayed al-Qahtani was up against candidates from three other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - Qatar, Iraq and Libya - for the post, which is OPEC's second most senior after the secretary general.

OPEC's talks about the post come as a dispute between Qatar and two of its Gulf Arab neighbours in OPEC, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has raised the risk that political tension could hinder cooperation in OPEC, which is cutting output for the first time in eight years.

But the backdrop of tension between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) OPEC members did not affect the meeting on Tuesday. Al-Qahtani was seen as the most likely candidate given his experience, two sources said before the meeting.

"This is a GCC issue but for OPEC we carry on," another source close to OPEC said.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing Islamist militant groups and allying with their regional adversary Iran - allegations Qatar denies.

Al-Qahtani works at the Saudi Ministry of Energy and is a member of the Saudi OPEC delegation. He has also worked for state oil company Aramco, where he was in charge of its global economic and energy outlooks and scenarios.

OPEC, founded in 1960, sees itself as a technocratic organisation concerned with oil policy and has survived greater conflict between members in the past. Iran and Iraq were at war in the 1980s and Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

More recently, political tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia did not prevent last year's supply-cutting deal.

The OPEC governors, who met at the group's Vienna headquarters on Tuesday, also appointed an Iranian candidate as head of petroleum studies and an Algerian to head of energy studies, another OPEC source said.

They don't make decisions about production policy, which is set by the oil ministers.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC's board of governors has picked Saudi Arabia's candidate, Ayed al-Qahtani, to be the oil exporter group's new head of research, two OPEC sources said on Tuesday.

Three other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - Qatar, Iraq and Libya - had also fielded candidates for the position, which is OPEC's second most senior after the secretary general.

Al-Qahtani works at the Saudi Ministry of Energy and is a member of the Saudi OPEC delegation. He has also worked for state oil company Aramco, where he was in charge of its global economic and energy outlooks and scenarios.

OPEC governors are meeting at the group's Vienna headquarters on Tuesday and the talks are continuing, sources said.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler; editing by Jason Neely)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel

OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) - The U.S. dairy lobby is ratcheting up the pressure on Canada as talks to renegotiate NAFTA draw closer, demanding concessions the Canadian government looks unwilling to grant, according to people familiar with the file.

The result could be a brawl that sours efforts to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which Canada sends most of its exports to the United States. Mexico is the pact's third member.

U.S. farmers have long chafed about supply management, the term for Canada's system of tariffs and quotas to keep domestic prices high and imports low. A 2016 deal that allowed Canadian farmers to sell milk proteins, which are used to make cheese and yogurt, to domestic processors at a discount, curbing the flow of American imports, further raised their ire.

Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president for the U.S. Dairy Export Council, said the influential lobby group will pursue fresh challenges through the World Trade Organization unless Canada stops the proteins sale.

"If we can't resolve this through negotiations, I believe my members will be very clear that everything is on the table," he said in a phone interview.

A WTO panel ruled in 2002 that Canada breached its trade obligations through illegal subsidies to its dairy industry, siding with the United States. The United States and Canada reached a settlement in 2003.

Castaneda said challenges against the protein sales could eventually result in rulings that force Canada to ditch supply management.

In June, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he would prefer to address dairy irritants before NAFTA talks begin and said supply management was fine as long as though it did not harm the U.S. industry.

But on July 14 he appeared to toughen his stance, saying through a spokeswoman he felt "all options should be on the table" in the NAFTA talks and that dairy remained a concern.

Washington released its goals for negotiating NAFTA on Monday, saying it sought to eliminate non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports.

Canada, though, feels the language is more directed at Mexico, which runs a large trade surplus with the United States, said a source familiar with Canadian government thinking. Canada's trade in goods and services with the United States is roughly balanced.

Although dairy was originally excluded from the original 1994 deal, the United States may push for it to be part of the talks on a new pact.

"I don't see why it wouldn't be, when you're looking at an overall trading relationship ... there is no doubt in my mind that it would be on the table," said one person familiar with Washington's approach.

Despite the more strident U.S. line, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has little interest in compromise.

"We are fully trade compliant and trade in dairy products massively favours the United States," said a Canadian government source.

Canada's dairy sector includes C$6 billion ($4.8 billion) in annual farmer milk sales.

'A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH'

Fearing the domestic industry's lobbying muscle, Canadian politicians of all stripes mostly treat dairy as a sacred cow.

In May, dairy farmers helped ensure the defeat of a Conservative party leader candidate who advocated eliminating supply management.

"Dairy farmers are a force to be reckoned with. I think (politicians) will do well to listen to our concerns," said Manitoba dairy farmer David Wiens, an executive of the influential Dairy Farmers of Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in April he would stand up for domestic dairy farmers against what he called unfair Canadian practices.

The American side also wants Canada to start cutting tariffs to allow more imports. As part of talks on a proposed 12-nation Pacific trade treaty in 2015, Canada agreed to open up 3.25 percent annually of its dairy supply.

That treaty was still-born, and Canadian farmers dismiss talk of concessions.

(Writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

(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 Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.

For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an "appropriate" provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators.

The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years.

Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers. {ID:nL1N1K81D1]

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was "part of its internal process" although a source familiar with the Canadian government's thinking said the document was "not earth shattering."

The source said officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada would meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss logistics of the talks. No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August.

Mexico's economy ministry said in a statement it would work "to achieve a constructive negotiation process that will allow trade and investment flows to increase and consolidates cooperation and economic integration to strengthen North American competitiveness."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Mexican government official said the list of priorities was "not as bad as I was expecting" and welcomed that the United States was not pushing to impose punitive tariffs, as Trump has threatened.

Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved through trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.

"The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits and that's unfortunate," said Chad Bown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There's not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That's more of a macroeconomic issue."

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from NAFTA countries.

AUTOMAKERS SUPPORT STANCE

Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include objectives on the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation.

A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: "Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA."

The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated although he stopped short of calling on Trump to abandon the agreement if there was no agreement.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," the head of the 12.5-million-strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.

"If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $63 billion last year.

(Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Howard Goller and Jacqueline Wong)

(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 Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday outlined a tough negotiating strategy for revising the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and for the first time in a U.S. trade deal said it would seek to deter currency manipulation by trading partners.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers ahead of talks expected next month, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico, the two countries in NAFTA besides the United States.

The document asserts that no country should manipulate currency exchange to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

The 17-page summary of negotiations for NAFTA offers a glimpse into what a Trump administration trade agenda could look like. Until now, President Donald Trump's agenda has been shaped by campaign rhetoric and tweets.

While Canada and Mexico are not considered currency manipulators, the reference in the list of objectives could set a template for future trade deals such as a pending negotiation to modify a five-year-old U.S.-South Korea free trade deal.

South Korea is on a U.S. Treasury monitoring list for possible signs of currency manipulation.

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

It also plans to eliminate a range of non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico. These include subsidies and unfair pricing structures.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from within North America.

The demands that the Trump administration makes in the NAFTA talks could have far-reaching implications for U.S. trade relations across the globe, with China keen to make inroads with Mexico and Canada if the United States is seen to be retreating.

Lighthizer said the negotiations would begin no earlier than Aug. 16, 2017.

U.S. labor union leaders and Democratic lawmakers weighed in on the issue early, reminding Trump they expect him to keep 2016 election campaign promises to protect American workers in NAFTA talks. They stopped short of demanding termination of the 1994 trade pact with Canada and Mexico.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of unions representing 12.5 million workers, said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," he told a conference call with reporters. "If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Over a decade to 2010, however, the United States lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. The U.S. trade balance with Mexico also swung from a small surplus in 1994 to deficits that have exceeded $60 billion for most of the past decade.

Graphic on NAFTA's effects http://tmsnrt.rs/2oYClp2

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Howard Goller)

(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.)
HMD Global, the Finnish company manufacturing Nokia-branded smartphones, might launch the flagship on July 31. The information was leaked on social media channel Twitter by Evan Blass, a credible source in the community.
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd said on Monday it had revived a planned initial public offering, as it struggles to get regulatory approval to buy smaller rival Max Life.

Indian mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd and its joint venture partner Britain's Standard Life Plc plan to sale a combined maximum of 20 percent in HDFC Life, according to a regulatory filing.

HDFC Life agreed in August to take over smaller rival Max Life Insurance in an all-stock deal that would have created the nation's top private life insurer.

As part of the deal, Max Life was to be merged into its listed parent Max Financial Services, which in turn would have combined its life insurance business with HDFC Life.

The deal, however, did not win approval from India's insurance regulator. Both sides have previously said they remain committed to the deal and were evaluating various options.

On Monday, HDFC Life said if the parties are able to obtain approval from the regulator, the company and its main shareholders would be willing to re-evaluate a deal with Max Life in "due course".

"At the present time, no (deal) structure prior to an IPO of HDFC Life has been identified which satisfies shareholders' requirements," it said.

Standard Life also confirmed the HDFC statement.

IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, earlier on Monday reported that HDFC Life has short-listed Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Haitong Securities for managing its planned IPO, with more banks set to be added this week.

Before it agreed to the Max Life deal, HDFC Life had planned to go public via an IPO.

HDFC Life's rival SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd, a unit of top lender State Bank of India, on Monday filed for an initial public offering of shares that bankers have said could raise more than $1 billion.


The story of college-dropouts reaching to the top of the wealth ladder is not new to the modern world. But, any such story which has challenged the traditional world is not an ordinary one either.



Barely few months after a delivery man went on to become China's third-richest billionaire, China is back again with a new billionaire who is not only a high school dropout but also a former factory worker.



Zhou Qunfei is now the world's richest self-made woman with a net worth of over USD 8 billion. Chinese entrepreneur Zhou is the founder of Lens Technology and owns a USD 27 million estate in Hong Kong.



Zhou was born in a tiny village in the Hunan Province of central China. Her mother died when she was 5. Her father, a skilled craftsman, later lost a finger and most of his eyesight in an industrial accident, the New York Times reported. It further said that at home, she helped her family raised pigs and ducks for food and additional money.



At the age of 16, Zhou dropped out of high school and went to uncle's home in search of jobs. "While she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, she eventually landed a job on a factory floor in the city of Shenzhen, making watch lenses for about USD 1 a day," the NYT report said.



After working for few months, she decided to quit and set out her own venture. Later she started her own watch lenses factory with just USD 3000. Explaining as to how it was possible for Zhou to rise in so quickly, a professor of international management at MIT Huang Yasheng told the NYT, "In a country with few established players, entrepreneurs like Ms Zhou were able to quickly make their mark when they entered business in the 1990s as China's economic engine was revving up."



According to the NYT, Zhou's stake in Lens Technology is worth USD 7.2 billion that puts her fortune on par with the media tycoon John C Malone and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay.



This is the second time in few months time when a billionaire from China has hit the headline. Earlier, chairman of SF Holding Wang Wei saw his fortune grow to around USD 27 billion. With this, Wang knocked out Tencent founder Pony Ma for the third spot.



State media reported that Wang started his company in 1993 with about USD 13,000, sending packages himself along with a handful of other couriers and one delivery van. Now, SF has 15,000 vehicles and a network that covers 200 countries and regions globally.
Tourists meaning to attend the picturesque evening aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of River Ganga are often deterred by the bustling crowd that gather there. But there is a way around now with Uttar Pradesh government about to launch helicopter tours to the event, along with several religious spots in the state.

The UP government is set to launch 'Heli-Ganga-Aarti' and 'Triveni Darshan' helicopter tours under the first phase of its spiritual tourism project. "Tourists will be able to view the Ganga Aarti and Sangam from a chopper in sightseeing tours of a few (10-15) minutes," an Economic Times report quoted UP regional tourist officer Kirti.

The UP tourism department is in talks with state-owned helicopter service provider Pawan Hans and claims will launch the project within two months, the report said.

The department is seeking permission to use existing helipads near spiritual tourist places, like the one in Banaras Hindu University to cover Ganga Aarti in Varanasi. UP tourism department has also indicated towards reviving old helipads that are now out of use.

The idea behind the project came from Heli Parikrama launched in the month of July over the Govardhan Hills in Mathura. Traversing the circuit around the hill on-foot is around 25 km long and takes six hours to complete with a helicopter, but this journey can be completed within 10 minutes.

Heli Parikrama was started by UP government as a pilot project, where Pawan Hans helicopters took visitors for a ride around the hill.

The UP tourism department is planning to cater to foreign tourists visiting Varanasi and Allahabad with these two heli-tourism projects. "A lot of people from countries like Singapore and Thailand visit the ghats; we will work out to make it a seamless experience," Kirti was quoted in the report.

Based on its success, the project will be taken to other tourist places around the state too. Sarnath, a pilgrimage for followers of Buddhism, and sufi shrines around the state will be also be brought under the gamut of the project shortly.
The Lok Sabnha was adjourned till noon on the second day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament. Opposition party Congress moved an adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha over the plight of farmers across the country.

Senior Congress leaders had called a meeting yesterday to discuss their strategy for the monsoon session of the parliament.

It is expected that during the ongoing session, the Opposition party will raise a range of issues including, cow vigilantism, unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, and the India-China standoff in Dokalam.

Meanwhile, the first day of the Parliament's monsoon session was adjourned soon after the obituary references were read as respect for dead members of the parliament, and oath was administered to the new ministers.

The first day of the monsoon session also coincided with the Presidential polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who came to cast his vote for the Presidential elections said that he hoped for a contribution from all parties for a constructive discussion over the issues in both the houses.

"This monsoon session is very important in many ways as the country will elect its new President," Modi said after arriving at Parliament to cast his vote in the presidential poll.

Modi added: "GST shows the good that can be achieved when all parties come together and work for the nation. The GST spirit is about growing stronger together. I hope the same GST spirit prevails in the session."

Here are the LIVE updates:

12:28 PM: Lok Sabha adjourned till tomorrow 11 AM.

12:26 PM: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 PM

11:42 AM: Mayawati: If you do not let me speak I'am resigning. I am talking about Dalit samaj. What's the point of me being here?

11:40 AM: Uttar Pradesh's former CM Mayawati walks the talk on resignation, threatens to quit over not allowing to speak in the House.:

11:32 AM: Lok Sabha adjourned till noon amid opposition protests over several issues, including farmers' plight and cow slaughter.
The Sensex on Tuesday reversed course after staying above the 32,000 level in the last three sessions.

FMCG heavyweight ITC led the losses, falling almost 15 percent after the government after the GST Council hiked cess on cigarettes to take away the "windfall " manufacturers were reaping due to an anomaly that crept in after the GST rate fixation.

At 1500 hours, the stock of cigarettes-hotel (FMCG) major ITC was trading 12.85 percent or 41 points lower at Rs 283.90 on the BSE.

The stock of Modi Group firm Godfrey Phillips India fell 5.93 percent or 72 points at 1154 level. The stock of Hyderabad-based VST Industries was down 8.10 percent or 288 points to 3,272 level.

While the Nifty and Sensex retreated gains, still some stocks on the BSE were undeterred by losses and hit their fresh 52 week highs today. Around 80 stocks were trading near their yearly highs today.

Below are the key stocks among them.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone: The stock hit a fresh 52-week high on Tuesday at 383.95 level on the BSE. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone is a port infrastructure company.

The firm is engaged in the business of developing, operating and maintaining the Port and Port-based related infrastructure facilities, including Multi product Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Its segments include port and SEZ activities, and others.



Its other segment mainly includes aircraft operating income and services. The company also provides logistics and infrastructure that moves goods from the port to customers.

The stock has risen 75 per cent over the last one year.

ACC Ltd: The ACC stock hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday after the cement maker rose nearly 3 percent intraday on robust earnings declared by the company for the quarter ended June 2017.



The firm's net profit rose 32.6 percent year on year to Rs 326.2 crore. Prabhudas Lilladher has given a buy call on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,850.

The current market price of ACC is Rs 1781.6.

Time period given by Vaishali Parekh is one month when ACC price can reach defined target. The brokerage has given a stop loss of Rs 1,680.

The stock has grown 11.8 percent during the last one year.

ACC Limited is engaged in manufacturing of cement and ready mixed concrete. The company's segments include cement and ready mix concrete. The company manufactures cement, which includes Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Portland Slag Cement (PSC) and Ready Mixed Concrete (RMX). The company's products include portland cement and premium cements, bulk cement.

Bharti Airtel: The Bharti Airtel stock rose 13 percent on an year-on-year basis. On June 29, 2017, the stock hit a four-month high of Rs 386. The stock rose to its 52 week high on Tuesday on reports that the company may soon be involved in a potential consolidation opportunity in Nigeria, its largest Africa market. It rose 13 percent on an year on year basis.



Bharti Airtel is a global telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries across Asia and Africa. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed home broadband, DTH and enterprise services, including national and international long-distance services to carriers.

Biocon: The Biocon stock rose to its 52 week high at 416 level on the BSE.

ICICI Direct has given a 'hold' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 375 in its research report dated July 14, 2017. The pharma firm is likely to declare its Q1 earnings on July 27, 2017. The stock rose 80 percent in the last one year.

Biocon is a biopharmaceutical company. The firm focuses to reduce therapy costs of chronic diseases like autoimmune, diabetes, and cancer. Through its products and research services it is enabling access to affordable healthcare for patients, partners and healthcare systems across the globe.

Ashok Leyland: The Ashok Leyland stock rose to its 52 week high at Rs 109.50 on the BSE.

Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com recommends buying Ashok leyland with a target of Rs 112 and stop loss of Rs 106.

Ashok Leyland Limited is a holding company. The Company is engaged in Commercial vehicles and related components. Through its subsidiaries, it is engaged in manufacturing and trading in medium and heavy commercial Vehicle, light commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, automotive aggregates, vehicle financing and engineering design services.



It offers a range of 18 to 80-seater buses under categories, such as city application and electric buses.

Ashok Leyland posted a rise of 11 percent in its overall sales in June at 12330 units even when its peers reported a fall in sales for the said period. The company had sold 11,108 units in the same month of last year.

The stock rose 15 percent on an year-on-year basis.

Hindalco Industries: The Hindalco Industries stock rose to its 52-week high of 210.25 on Tuesday. It rose 52 percent on an year-on-year basis.

Hindalco Industries is engaged in the production of aluminium and aluminium products, and copper and copper products.

The company's segments include aluminium, which includes hydrate and alumina, aluminum and aluminum product, and Copper, which includes continuous cast copper rods, copper cathode, sulfuric acid, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and complexes, and gold and silver products.



ICICI Bank: The stock rose to its 52 week high at 305.60 level on the BSE.

ICICI Bank Limited is a banking company. It is engaged in providing a range of banking and financial services, including commercial banking, retail banking, project and corporate finance, working capital finance, insurance, venture capital and private equity, investment banking, broking and treasury products and services.

The bank's business segments are retail banking, wholesale banking, treasury, other banking, life insurance, general insurance and others.

ICICI Bank subsidiary company, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company has filed a DRHP with the SEBI for a public offer of up to 86,247,187 equity shares

The bank stock rose 27.26 percent on an year on year basis.

Jubilant Foodworks: The stock hit its 52-week high of 1335 on the BSE.

Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates Dominos Pizza and Dunkin Donuts chains in India has reported a 25.53 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 23.84 crore for the first quarter ended June 30.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 18.99 crore in the same period of previous fiscal. Jubilant FoodWorks Limited is a food service company. The firm operates through Food and Beverages segment.



The company and its subsidiary have rights to develop and operate Domino's Pizza brand in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. It operates in India and Sri Lanka. It has a right for developing and operating Dunkin' Donuts restaurants for India. The stock rose 13.80 percent on an year-on-year basis.

Maruti Suzuki India: The stock hit a fresh 52 week high of 7589 on Tuesday. It rose almost 70 percent on an year-on-year basis. Sharekhan has given a 'buy' call on Maruti Suzuki India with a target price of Rs 7,900. The current market price of Maruti Suzuki India is Rs 7560.45. The firm is set to announce its Q1 earnings on July 27,2017. Its stock is up 70 percent on an year on year basis.



Power Grid Corporation: The stock hit a fresh 52-week high of 7,589 on Tuesday. Power Grid Corporation of India is a transmission company engaged in the power transmission business with responsibility for planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of Inter-State Transmission System and operation of National and Regional Load Dispatch Centers.


The Indian capital markets have surged 20 per cent gained since the beginning of 2017-from 26,595.5 points to 32, 074 currently. Last week, the benchmark index Sensex breached the 32,000 mark for the first time.

In the first two weeks of July, Sensex gained around 3 per cent. Both foreign portfolio investors and domestic institutions have been buying in 2017 with net investments of around 53,852 crore and 24,745 crore respectively between January and now.

With the Sensex soaring to its all-time high levels, it is also becoming increasingly expensive as measured by price-to earnings (PE) ratio and the Indian stock market is currently trading 1.2 times its five-year historical median.

According to Umesh Mehta, head of reasrch, SAMCO Securities, "We are in the new normal and old benchmarks will not hold true as markets will continue to rise.

This type of excessive valuations will occur and long-term investors should not worry." Not only domestically, India has now become the world's most expensive market (what it means for india ).

Not only domestically, India has now become the world's most expensive market. A closer look at P/E valuations globally reveals that Indian stock market is trading at premium compared to equity markets of some leading economies including United States.

"The equity markets do have some correlations in the short-term but in the medium to long term there would hardly be any correlation as each market (globally) is different and has different underlining growth factor," adds Mehta.

As on June 30, 2017



All the same, while it is difficult to predict that a major correction will happen, traders and investors need to be cautious while investing in the Indian stock markets currently.


Hyundai, the South Korean automobile giant will launch its much awaited 2017 Verna next month. Although, Hyundai has not officially started accepted booking, a few dealers have started accepting bookings for the new car.

While the unofficial booking amount is just Rs 25,000, the dealers currently have no clue about the pricing or the different variants of the car.

The Hyundai Verna was the first 'Fluidic' model that was introduced in India. The new car will be based on the same Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design.

In styling, the new car has more similarities to Hyundai's Elantra and it will be fully loaded with technology. The Fluidic design that the Verna first introduced is still present.

Hyundai Verna will compete with the brands like Honda City and the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.

Verna 2017 is expected to have the current engine options - 1.4-litre petrol, 1.6-litre petrol, 1.4-litre U2 CRDi diesel and 1.6-litre CRDi diesel. Hyundai has also released a teaser image of the new 2017 Verna's interior.




Hyundai revealed the i30 fastback which is expected to go on sale in global markets from next year onwards along with the hatchback and station wagon variants of the i30 model.

In the engine department, the car comes with two choices of 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine producing 118bhp or a 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine making 138bhp, with a standard manual gearbox and an optional dual-clutch transmission.

The car will come with a host of safety features like autonomous emergency braking with optional pedestrian detection, driver attention alert, advanced smart cruise control, lane keeping assist system, blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert, and high beam assist. The interiors have been kept similar to that of the i30 hatchback with the floating infotainment system equipped with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The car also has an optional wireless charging facility.

It is the design language that sets the car apart from its siblings. The stubby rear of the car gives it a bonafide sedan look reminiscent of coupes from premium auto companies.

Hyundai also took covers off its new hatchback i30N recently, the first car to be designed and developed by the company's high-performance N sub-brand.

Under the hood, Hyundai i30N has a 2.0-litre turbocharged four cylinder engine capable of dishing out 271bhp of power and 353NM of torque. This bulk of power traverses through a 6-speed manual gearbox FWD transmission to the front wheels.

This much power can take the Hyundai i30N from 0 to 100 km/h within 6.4 seconds. This time come down to 6.1 seconds with the performance pack including launch control and a rev-matching function, along with five driving modes to choose from as well as electronically managed suspension. The car peaks at a high speed of 250 km/h which remains electronically controlled even while using the performance pack.

The i30N comes with a variety of design and performance upgrades not present with the standard version of the car. Alongside improvised brakes and tires to handle the extra power, the car also has wider air intakes and a rear diffuser for better aerodynamic features.

The safety features on the car remains the same as the standard model, with autonomous emergency braking, rear cross traffic alert, blind spot detection and seven-airbag system.

There has been no word on when these two cars will be up for sale in Indian markets. Reports however indicate that the Hyundai i30N hatchback might come with a price tag somewhere between Rs 7 to 9 lakh.

Also watch:




HMD Global, which holds the rights for Nokia brand, will launch a new version of Nokia 105 model priced at Rs 999 as it looks to tap the feature phone market in the country.

The dual SIM version of the device will be priced at Rs 1,149 (excluding taxes and subsidies). Both devices will hit the stores on Wednesday. Besides, the company will also launch another feature phone, Nokia 130, in India in the coming weeks.

"With more than four billion people remaining offline and unable to benefit from the social and economic development opportunities of the Internet, simply getting connected by voice and text is still such an important step for many people around the world," HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela said in a statement. He added that more than 400 million feature phones were sold globally in 2016. It is estimated that there are over 1.3 billion feature phone users across the world, mainly in markets like Asia and Africa.

"We cannot underestimate the need and benefit of being connected and we are dedicated to delivering devices that can enable many people around the world to expand their horizon," he said.

While smartphone sales in India have grown at a massive pace, feature phones continue to account for more than half of the mobile phone sales in the country.

According to research firm IDC, feature phone shipments stood at 29.7 million units compared to 27 million smartphones during the January-March 2017 quarter.

HMD has said it will include both feature and smartphones in its portfolio as it attempts to make a comeback into the global mobile phone market that is dominated by the likes of Samsung, Apple and Huawei.

Nokia 105, in its previous avatar, sold well over 200 million units. The revamped version of the Nokia 105 features a new ergonomic design, better battery life, a larger screen size and new tactile island keymat, HMD said.

Both models feature 1.8-inch colour screens and LED torch lights.

The Nokia 130 is expected to be priced under Rs 1,500 and is likely to be launched in India around September.


Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(WINDSOR, Conn.) -- The family of a 23-year-old man who was found after seven days missing at sea is trying to prevent him from inheriting millions following his wealthy grandfathers homicide.



Attorneys for the aunts of Nathan Carman filed a petition Monday that alleges he killed his grandfather out of malice and greed and asks the court to block the sizeable inheritance he now stands to gain.



The petition, which lists the three sisters of Nathans mother, Linda Carman, as petitioners, is known as a slayer action, which seeks to prohibit a person from receiving an inheritance from someone they killed. The filing points the finger at Nathan for his grandfathers killing, asking the court to declare that the murderer was Nathan Carman.



John Chakalos, an 87-year-old real estate mogul who owned a number of nursing homes across New England, was found shot to death in his Windsor, Connecticut, home in 2013. Nathan is the last known person to see his grandfather alive.



Nathan was also the last person to see his mother before she disappeared at sea last year. Nathan and Linda Carman were first reported missing Sept. 18, 2016, after they failed to return from a fishing trip off the Rhode Island coast in his boat named Chicken Pox.



Nathan was rescued a week later from a life raft more than 100 nautical miles from Marthas Vineyard. Linda has never been found. Nathan claims the boat sank after rapidly taking on water and that he never saw his mother as he entered the life raft, which was enclosed and stocked with food and water.



The lawsuit is the first time the Chakalos sisters have publicly accused their nephew in the killing. Nathan has never been charged in either his grandfathers homicide or his mothers disappearance, though police have called him the prime suspect in the former case.



In an exclusive interview with ABC News Linzie Janis, Nathan denied any involvement in his grandfathers death, saying he was like a father to me. Nathan also claimed he did nothing to intentionally sink the boat with his mother on board.



However, an investigation by an insurance company blamed Nathan for the incident, claiming he took intentional actions that caused the boat to sink.



The lawsuit asks for Nathans inheritance to be placed into a trust that would be controlled by his aunts. However, the action is about justice rather than money, according to their attorney. The surviving sisters cannot stand idle while their father's killer, and perhaps their sister's killer also, profits from his actions, said Dan Small in a statement.



Should they win the case, Small says the sisters plan to use the money to pay for expenses related to the investigations into the death of their father and disappearance of their sister, with the rest going to charity.



Attorneys for Nathan Carman did not respond to a request for comment.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox addresses a crowd from the steps of the Historic Cache County Courthouse as part of his 25k Jobs Launch Tour.

LOGAN  Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox stood on the steps of the Historic Cache County Courthouse Monday afternoon as part of the 25k Jobs Launch Tour. He spoke to the crowd about the challenges of job growth in rural Utah, about Cache Countys specific challenges and the plan moving forward.

Cox has teamed up with World Trade Center Utah in response to Governor Gary Herberts challenge to create 25,000 jobs in 25 rural Utah counties during the next four years. The stop in Logan came after Monday mornings visit to Box Elder County  the first two of 25 taking place this summer.

Cox said the economy in Utah has been doing tremendously well, to the point of receiving international attention, but said some counties are still struggling.

Not every economy is seeing the same success that the Wasatch Front is seeing, he said.

The purpose of the tour, according to Derek Miller, president and CEO of World Trade Center Utah, is to work closely with local elected officials to learn the specific needs of each area, connect businesses with those looking for jobs and to connect the entrepreneur, job creators and business owners with the resources and help that exists.

There are all kinds of resources, Miller said. Some of them are government, some of them are non-profit, others are private sector. We want to be able to connect these business owners so that that they are aware of the resources that can help them grow and be successful.

<iframe src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/tBtrLBO8zQI frameborder=0 width=560 height=315></iframe>

Cox said that in some economic categories  such as the unemployment rate or the amount of entrepreneurship taking place  Cache County is doing even better than the Wasatch Front, but said it has its own challenges.

We have a level of underemployment here that is critical, he said. While people may have a job it may not be a wage that is enough to take care of their families or make sure they can be successful like they want to.

He pointed out that each county, like Cache, has its own unique needs, which makes the communication between the state and local government crucial.

We shouldnt be telling you what to do, you should be telling us what to do, he said. We know you have some transportation issues and weve talked about that and were trying to help every way we can. Those conversations are really critical.

Cox encouraged similar conversations between businesses and local government officials.

So often we have great ideas but we dont know what everybody else is doing, he said. By exchanging that information, by coordinating together, we really can win.
The ancient Silk Road was not well-defined, but rather involved several routes through central Asia and Persia and modern Turkey by which silk fabrics traveled from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220) as far back as the Roman Republic, over 2,000 years ago. Depending on political developments over such a long distance, the silk trade periodically languished and revived, especially during the early Tang Dynasty (618-907) and again during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), when Mongols controlled most of the route from China to eastern Europe. The Tang Dynasty and again the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) developed sea routes through the Indian Ocean, at least to eastern Africa and the Red Sea, some say even farther. A later Ming emperor not only declined to finance these expensive official voyages but, bizarrely, prohibited even private distant sea-born voyages.

The risks and dangers of the land route induced the Europeans  led by the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, British, French and much later, the Germans  to seek a sea route to the Spice Islands of Southeast Asia and to East Asia. From China, they imported not only silk, but also fine porcelain (called china in English) and especially tea, which had become a favorite beverage. Lacking the high value of silk, the other commodities were much more economical as well as less risky to ship by sea.

In 2013 President Xi Jinping announced  in Astana, Kazakhstan  an initiative to create a new Silk Road, by land and by sea, linking China with Europe (and Africa). This has been labeled the Belt and Road initiative. The initiative was declared four years ago, initially as a slogan, the details of which are still being worked out although much has taken shape in the meantime. It includes some things that were started or planned well before 2013, such as enlarging the port of Gwadar in Pakistan and building an oil pipeline to Yunnan province through Myanmar.

The general concept seems to be to improve Chinese communication  viewed broadly  with Europe and Africa, including intermediate nations, especially the -stans of central Asia, by building or improving networks of transportation and optical fibers, including local infrastructure, such as ports, airports, rail lines and highways, but also the generation and transmission of electricity.

The sea route has been well-established since the Suez Canal opened in 1869, permitting ships to avoid the long trip around Africa, but local ports and channels can be improved, such as in Burma, Pakistan and Djibouti.

Modernizing land routes will be much more difficult, both in engineering terms and especially in economic terms. The distances are vast, through relatively poor and lightly populated places such as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and even Russias western Siberia. Also, Russia is notorious for charging high fees for the use of its territory, whether the increasingly ice-free northern sea route or its air space. (The Panama Canal provides a sharp contrast here: Opened by the U.S. in 1914, two years before the trans-Siberian railroad, the canal stipulated that toll charges for all users should cover only operating costs, not profits, and not even interest on the debt incurred to build the canal; the U.S. similarly made the Global Positioning System available to all users free of charge.) And for rail, there is the complication that Russia uses a wider gauge of track than the standard gauge used in China and Europe (installed in the late 19th century for strategic reasons), thus weakening the economics of trans-continental rail travel.

China has indicated a willingness to provide financing for the Belt and Road initiative on a large scale, partly through existing institutions such as the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, which together have been committed to provide 380 billion yuan ($56.1 billion) to the endeavor, and partly though new institutions such as the multilateral Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund, which is to be augmented by 100 billion yuan, or $14.8 billion. This compares with recent annual commitments of roughly $30 billion each by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Of course, the Chinese pledges are totals, not an annual figure. And it is mainly declaratory so far; they might be increased in future, but reality may also be less generous. Already there are worries in Pakistan about the large debt burden it will incur to China as a result of ongoing Belt and Road activities in that country (many started before 2013), and whether accessible economic gains will be sufficient to service it.

China also explicitly aspires to use the Belt and Road to increase international use of Chinas currency, the yuan. This will be natural insofar as loans from China are made to purchases exports and services from China, but other suppliers may be reluctant to accept payment in yuan without adequate channels for even short-term investment in yuan, and debtors may be reluctant to accept long-term debts in yuan without being confident that Chinas market will be open to their exports in the long term.

In mid-May, the Chinese government hosted a major conference on the Belt and Road initiative, involving 130 countries and political leaders from 29 of them. Xi opened the meeting with an inspiring speech outlining the mutual gain participating countries could expect from the initiative, not only in economic terms but in terms of peace (necessary for prosperity) and in terms of cross-cultural mutual understanding and mutual respect, and not incidentally casting China as a cooperative and supportive partner in globally constructive endeavors, including preservation and extension of the open world economic order China inherited and from which China itself greatly prospered.

Richard N. Cooper is the Maurits C. Boas professor of international economics at Harvard University.
H R Activist W. Musa

The network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa has strongly condemned the poor treatment of detained Anglophones and some political prisoners in Kondengui. Their stance was made known in a release signed recently in Yaounde.

The Post newspaper reports that the Press release was a reaction to an ugly incident which the prison authorities searched the cells of detainees seizing their personal gadgets and money.

The cells searched were those of Barrister Agbor Balla, Dr Fontem Neba, Harissou Aboubakar , who are all accused of plotting against the State.

Following an order from the Kondengui prison superintendent, Senguena Abada, the detainees are warned not to entertain any visitor for one month.

According to the Human Rights defenders, such decision is a gross violation of article 5 on the African Charter on human and peoples rights.

The act of prison authorities also violated article 7 of the International pact relating to people and political rights.

Some journalists detained in Yaounde were recently charged at the military tribunal, Atia Tilarius Political Desk Editor of the Sun newspaper was charged with promoting terrorism.

He was arrested in Buea on February 9, 2017 in Buea alongside Amod Fofung of The Guardian Post and Mofor Ndong Publisher of Voice of the Voiceless, based in Bamenda.

However Fofung was not brought to court. As observers await the release of the Journalists who are more than half a dozen,the Committee to Protect Journalists has been advocating for the unconditional release of all journalists arrested within the context of the Anglophone crisis. The African branch recently called on CAF president Ahmad Ahmad to suspend hosting rights of the 2019 AFCON by Cameroon if the country of Paul Biya fails to release journalists arrested.
| BY Ricki Green |

The Benevolent Society, Australias first charity, has launched its first new brand awareness campaign in almost five years, letting Australians know that when the moment comes, were here via The Dylan Agency.

The Be Loved campaign is designed to let Australians know that The Benevolent Society is always available to assist Australians live their best lives  that when the moment comes for help of any kind, The Benevolent Society provides the services most appropriate to making life better.

The Benevolent Society has just opened a number of remote and rural offices across NSW and will be providing all the disability clinical services that the NSW governments Community Service Teams previously provided. These new offices mean The Benevolent Society has a presence in many new areas and will be delivering services to clients in three areas of focus: disability, ageing and family support.

Says Jo Toohey, CEO, The Benevolent Society: We are committed to providing as many Australians as we can with support so that they can live their best lives. We advocate for social justice and change  as we have for more than 200 years  and we bring services that support people with disability and older Australians stay in their homes for as long as theyd like to. For families, we provide whatever aid they require, achieving great impact and effectuating excellent outcomes.

Our staff will be mobile, providing assistance wherever our clients want them. This is particularly helpful in remote and rural areas and well have service hubs that ensure people receive the support they need and want.

Says Louise Genge, marketing director, The Benevolent Society: The key aspect of the campaign is to let people know that were here when they need us. Some older people may need a few services in their home to help them live better  like help driving to doctors appointments, or support with personal grooming, or assistance with meals. We deliver those, and we thought it was time people across NSW knew what we did.

Says Dylan Taylor, The Dylan Agency: The Benevolent Society has an amazing story to tell. Their dedication to their clients is more than just care  they really do love the work they do and they make a real difference to the lives that they touch. Our goal was to let people know that at the point in life you need help, The Benevolent Society is there.

The campaign includes print, TV, social media, online, and the medical channel in doctors offices.

Creative: The Dylan Agency

Production: Fine Moves
| BY Ricki Green |

Youth travel company Topdeck Travel has handed the reins to its own customers for its latest brand campaign, titled Topdeck Took Me via Redsuit Advertising.

The campaign includes real traveller photos showcased across Bus Megasides, Cross Track panels at railway stations, Facebook, geo-targeted mobile and the Topdeck.travel website.

The integrated concept aims to grow brand awareness among the young traveller market and win market share from competitors, as well as tap into a whole new market segment unfamiliar with Topdeck Travel and touring.

From shopping like a local in the souks of Morocco to exploring the gladiatorial arena of Romes Colosseum, and getting lost in the white-washed lanes of Santorini, the inspirational images taken by travellers on real Topdeck trips showcase the wide array of destinations and adventures that Topdeck Travel has built its reputation on.

The campaign includes a Facebook competition, Where will Topdeck take you?, with #Topdeckers invited to post a video of their Topdeck holiday for a chance to win a free trip.

Says Ben Ittensohn, regional manager Asia Pacific at Topdeck Travel: The beauty of this idea is the genuine travel aspect. Our customers get to experience the most amazing locations in a unique way and this campaign is a great way to showcase that. Its basically word of mouth on a national scale, and its proven so effective that our marketing team in the UK has adapted the concept for use across our global markets.

Says John Anderson, founding partner and creative director at Redsuit: Emma Ziesemer and Anais Read led the agencys creative efforts on this campaign. By using actual images of peoples amazing Topdeck trips, they tapped into a very authentic sense of fun and adventure, which is what Topdeck is all about.

Weve got some great young talent at the agency. Emmas actually one half of the Brisbane-based creative team that were crowned winners of the prestigious Young Glory creative competition and this is just a small taste of what shes capable of. Watch this space.

Topdeck Travel

Regional Manager, Asia Pacific: Ben Ittensohn

Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific: Jon McGovern

Marketing & Communications Executive, Asia Pacific: Jane Savage

Digital Marketing Executive: Jen Wong

Redsuit Advertising

Partner, Creative Director: John Anderson

Copywriter: Emma Ziesemer

Junior Art Director/Copywriter: Anais Read
| BY Lynchy |

McCann Worldgroup Malaysia has become the first office outside of Japan to launch McCanns Millennials programme, to be known in the market as McCann Next.

The agency experienced dramatic growth in 2016, with key new business wins including Celcom, Petronas (below-the-line), and 11 Street, and has been building on this momentum, transforming its positioning with several senior hires and new offers such as Truth Studies on Youth and Malaysians, as well as McCann Live, a proprietary social listening tool.

McCann Next is a community platform for young millennials and innovative thinkers to come together and collaborate on creative projects. There are plans to introduce live briefs on client projects in the near future, with several brands already expressing interest in taking part.

Leading the team will be the founder of the original McCann Millennials, Shun Matsuzaka (pictured above centre), who has relocated to Kuala Lumpur from McCann Tokyo. Under his leadership, the cross-discipline innovation team there successfully created the worlds first A.I. Creative Director.

To kick-start the program, the agency has signed an MOU with Saito College, one of Malaysias top communications design colleges, giving its students access to McCann Next.

Matsuzaka will also hold the position of Digital Creative Director, whilst in Malaysia, reporting to the Chief Creative Officer, Ng Heok Seong.
"Mr Corbell made the decision, or accepted our recommendation, that the best way to achieve consistency on the assisted private demolition on [one] side and demolition of this one, at one time in a way that was both safe and most efficient for the territory, was to, in effect, meet the owners' demands on the front half of the unit-titled one for a first right of refusal," he said.
Eight months ago the US/Australia refugee deal was announced, and Minister Dutton confidently assured us that people would be moving from Manus and Nauru "in the very near future". Now we're informed that there is no possibility of the US accepting anyone until after October 2017. It is four years since the then Prime Minister Rudd announced that people who arrived by boat seeking asylum in Australia would never be permitted to settle in Australia, but rather would be held in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. Since then, at enormous cost to the Australian taxpayer, over 3000 innocent men, women and children have been detained in disgraceful conditions, subjected to abuse and neglect. At least eight of them have lost their lives through murder, suicide or medical negligence. Many of those currently held on Manus and Nauru have been there for almost the entire four years. According to Australian government statistics, around 80 per cent have been determined to be refugees and entitled to protection. But still they are being detained. The government repeatedly states that it is satisfied with everything about the status quo in offshore detention.
"It is becoming more complex, it is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. We need a better structure to meet the challenge of the times. And that is why we're adopting a model which is closer to the British Home Office than the large-scale American Homeland Security Department," he said.
The Prime Minister said Australia needed these reforms "not because the system is broken, but because our security environment is evolving quickly. It is becoming more complex...we need a better structure to meet the challenge of the times and that is why we are adopting a model which is closer to the British Home Office than the large-scale American Homeland Security Department".
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.
As we all know Common Admission Test ( CAT) is conducted for admission to post graduate program in management at the IIM's.

Common Admission Test (CAT) scores are used for preliminary screening of candidates at several other management institutes. Through CAT almost 20,000 students will be admitted to the various programs offered at the 20 IIMs. CAT 2017 will be conducted by IIM Lucknow with TCS as Testing Agency.

An estimated 2 lakh students are expected to compete for those coveted 20,000 seats. Earlier the student intake at the IIMs was approximately 10,000. However, in a meeting held on September 26, 2016, with the Directors of the IIMs, the Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had announced the decision to increase the intake capacity to 20,000. The exact seat matrix and intake capacity will only be announced after CAT 2017 exam.

Important note:

The official notification for CAT will tentatively be out on July 30, 2017.

The online application window will open on August 7, 2017.

Candidates would have almost 45 days' time to register for CAT exam.

This year too there will be a sectional time limit and students would not have the liberty to navigate between different sections.

No increase in application fee is expected this year which means the application fee will remain Rs.1700.

About CAT:

CAT (Common Admission Test) is a national level entrance examination, which is conducted for admission to management programs in Indian Institutes of Management (IIM's) and top B-Schools across the country. It tests a candidate on his quantitative ability, data interpretation skills, verbal ability and logical reasoning.

Multiple entrance exams for engineering aspirants likely for the academic year 2018
The Delhi University (DU) was asked by the Delhi Government to form a governing body in every government-funded college. According to which every college must have a governing body with 15 members, out of which five members would be nominated by the government.

The state government as on June 8, 2017, had written to DU asking it to speed up the notification for the governing body and to begin appointment of new staff in these colleges 'only after constituting a new governing body'.

However, the Delhi University has deferred forming a governing body in government-funded colleges as they did not respond to the notice of time. Therefore, now the Delhi government is now moving foward to withhold funds to these colleges.

In a tweet, Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Manish Sisodia confirmed the same.

Hv ordered Fin Dept to stop funding for Delhi gov funded 28 DU colleges, as DU not willing to form governing bodies for last 10 months.  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 31, 2017

The tweet was followed by another tweet in which Mr. Sisiodia said that he can't allow the unchecked corruption and irregularities in the name of education. The decision to withhold the funds was decided in a meeting between Sisodia and the finance department.

As per the report, around 28 colleges were funded by the government, out of which 12 of them are fully funded which includes Shaheed Raj Guru College, Maharaja Agarsen College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.

While the government provides 5 per cent grant to the 16 others. The remaining 95 per cent is given by the UGC. With non-compliance of its order, the government has threatened to withhold funds to colleges.

Over 20,000 students are studying in these 28 Delhi colleges,. Earlier, there were apprehensions that the Delhi Government will set up a separate university by taking over 12 DU colleges, fully-funded by it. And now, due to failure in forming a governing body the governmenthas decided to stop providing funds to these colleges.

Delhi University Released DU LLB, LLM Counselling Schedule: Check Now!
There is a fast increase in the number of Indian students seeking admission to Canadian institutions. The University of Toronto alone has reported a 57 per cent jump in applications for admission from students from India according to a BBC report. Overall, Canada's premier university has reported a 20 per cent jump in foreign students seeking admission.

Why are students preferring Canada for study?

According to the report, it is because of the country's liberal, migrant-friendly image serving as an important attraction that international students are now looking at Canadian universities. Ted Sargent, Vice President (International) of the University of Toronto, said in addition to offering top-tier universities, Canada is sending a "message about being open to the world" in the light to the contemporary political climate in the US and UK.

"Events in the US and the UK have reverberated around the world. It makes people go back and think again."

International students in Canada statistics

At present, there are more than 350,000 international students who study in Canada. This is almost one per cent of Canada's population. Over 8 per cent of all international students who seek studies abroad come to Canada. They generate billions of dollars into Canada's economy.

Why study in Canada?

Canada is known for its excellence in innovation and beauty, along with top-notch educational institutions making it one of the leading study abroad destinations in the world. Canadian degrees are internationally equivalent to degrees from the United States or Commonwealth countries.

Canada holds high international reputation for educational standards and boasts of a wide range of quality educational institutions for both degrees and diplomas in technical and professional disciplines.

Canada is host for over innumerous international students who attend Canadian colleges and universities. Along with an impeccable educational system, the cost of living in Canada is lower than countries like Australia, England or the United States. More importantly, Canada also offers post study work options to eligible applicants.

Study in Canada With Hawirko Roma Zenovea Graduate Scholarship
While his company is at the forefront of using artificial intelligence, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk still believes it is the greatest risk we face as a civilization.



During a meeting of the National Governors Association on Saturday, the forward-looking entrepreneur said that people should be concerned about the rise of AI and that the government needs to intervene in its development, Fortune reports.

On the artificial intelligence front, I have access to the very most cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it. AIs a rare case where we need to be proactive in regulation, instead of reactive. Because by the time we are reactive with AI regulation, its too late, Musk asserted.

Musk then expanded on these statements: AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization, in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs, or bad food were not.

According to Musk, one of the key threats of AI is that robots could become so intelligent that they could cause massive social destabilization by being capable of doing any job imaginable, resulting in unprecedented job losses for civilization.

[They] could start a war by doing fake news and spoofing email accounts and fake press releases, and just by manipulating information. The pen is mightier than the sword, Musk suggested.

Photo Gallery
As the first units of the all-new Audi RS5 Coupe have started arriving at dealers across Europe this month, the brand with the four rings has released yet more official videos with it.



This being a performance model means that the films should be entertaining to look at.

However, dont expect the usual approach, where the luxury two-door coupe is being raced on some twisty mountain roads, or on an empty track, because Audi Sport says that the car has nothing to prove.

Well, whatever the marketing approach, the new Audi RS5 Coupe does have a lot to prove, considering that it enters a segment currently dominated by the BMW M4 Coupe, and the Mercedes-AMG C63 S Coupe, both of which are not only very powerful, but quite comfortable and packed with the latest technology too.

Presented in full earlier this spring, in Geneva, the 2017 RS5 Coupe is powered by a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 that has been co-developed with Porsche. It makes 450PS (444hp) and 600Nm (443lb-ft) of torque, and allows the model to go from naught to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.9sec, and up to a top speed of 280km/h (174mph), with the dynamic package selected from the options list.

Audi is asking at least 80,900 ($92,786) for the new RS5 Coupe in Germany, while in the United Kingdom, it starts from 62,900 ($82,426).

VIDEOS
Honda will import the CR-V and HR-V into Europe from Japan in order to boost capacity at its Japanese factories.



Honda had previously planned to build the next-gen CR-V for Europe in its Ontario plant, in Canada but instead they decided to focus Ontario production on supplying the North American market, AutoNews reports.

The current Euro-spec Honda CR-V is built in Swindon, UK but the next-gen model will be produced only in Japan. The car maker will also stop exporting the HR-V to Europe from Mexico when its facelift arrives, in 2019. Production of the Euro-spec HR-V will also shift to Japan.

It makes sense to fill capacity in our own plants in Japan, Hondas head of UK operations, David Hodgetts said.

Honda has already moved the production of its European versions of the Jazz to Japan from Swindon and China as the former was decided to become the global production hub for the five-door Civic hatchback.

Japan was the biggest exporter of light vehicles to the EU by value last year, with a total of 577,703 cars, up 20 percent on the year before. This will only increase after the EU agreed with Japan on a new trade deal that scraps the 10 percent import duty on Japanese cars in return for better access to Japans food market.

PHOTO GALLERY
Hyundai has exceptionally bold ambitions to be the top selling car manufacturer in Europe by the year 2021.



While speaking to the world media at an event in Dusseldorf, Germany to reveal the i30 N and i30 Fastback, senior vice president & chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Europe discussed the companys plans.

Hyundai intends to become the top selling car company in Europe by 2021.

Our newest products are a significant driver for our ambition to launch 30 new products and derivatives across Europe by 2021, which is why we are calling it the road to 2021, Schmid said to Car Advice.

Hyundai believes that a key reason why itll be able to achieve such high sales in Europe is its adoption of online sales tactics, not dissimilar to what Tesla has been doing for a number of years.

With the latest digital platform, we sold over 100 cars in just a few weeks. We want to make things easy for people, which is why we are number one for customer satisfaction in Europe. And to that we have devised four cornerstones as a business strategy, Schmid said.

Number one is our SUV line-up. Two, is future mobility, [and] three is what we call our DNA models: the I family, while four is our high emotion models, N.

Hyundai may be firm in its European sales goal, but achieving it wont be easy. In 2016, Hyundai was the 14th highest selling car manufacturer in Europe, selling 505,396 vehicles. Among the higher selling marques across the continent include Citroen, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Peugeot, Ford and Volkswagen, easily leading the way with 1.7 million sales.

PHOTO GALLERY
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed the company wants to open several new Gigafactories in the United States.



Speaking at the National Governors Association meeting in Rhode Island, the outspoken executive said the automaker wants to build two or three more Gigafactories over the course of the next few years.

Musk was coy on specifics but the timing and location of the announcement probably wasnt a coincidence as he was surrounded by high-profile politicians who would love to bring a Gigafactory to their state. This will likely cause several states to approach the automaker with incentive packages and tax breaks.

The move could also put pressure on a handful of states, such as Michigan, that dont allow Tesla to sell vehicles within their borders.

Teslas desire to open new Gigafactories isnt surprising as the company already has hundreds of thousands of reservations for the Model 3 and the current delivery estimate for new reservations is mid-2018 or later. Any new Gigafactory would probably take a few years to construct so its unlikely the announcement will have any immediate impact on production.

Photo Gallery
Motor racing is not without its share of traditions  especially when it comes to drinking on the podium. At the end of a Formula One grand prix, the winning drivers traditionally drink champagne  non-alcoholic sparkling rosewater in some Middle Eastern countries, or milk at the Indy 500  and douse each other with it in the process.



Daniel Ricciardo took things a (literal) step further when he started his own tradition thats become known as the Shoey. But now it looks like hes putting the practice to rest.

If youve watched the odd F1 race to the end over the past years time, chances are youve seen the odd practice. When Ricciardo lands on the podium (as he has in one third of all the races hes contested with Red Bull Racing in the past four seasons), he doesnt just drink the champagne from the bottle or from his trophy  he drinks from his sweaty racing boot. Yeah, the one hes been wearing through the entire race.

Hes also managed to rope others into the practice, including rival drivers, honoraries, and sportscasters. Actors like Gerard Butler and Sir Patrick Stewart former drivers turned broadcasters like David Coulthard, Mark Webber, and Martin Brundle, and Ricciardos own boss Christian Horner have all taken part since he first kicked it off, so to speak, at the German Grand Prix this time last year.

Ricciardo didnt invent the practice out of nowhere, though. Already popular among Aussie surfers, fishers, and soldiers, it reached motorsport podiums over the last couple of years  first in Australias own Supercars series, then in MotoGP, and now in F1 (thanks to Ricciardo).

Now it seems Ricciardo is preparing to put up his feet, so to speak, and give it a rest. He was disappointed when Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas refused to partake on the podium at the Red Bull Ring in Austria earlier this month. I heard the Finns drink. I really heard that. But Valtteri did not carry his flag well last Sunday, said Ricciardo. Shame on him. Wow. Valtteri Bottas. Disappointed. Thats it. No more shoeys. Daniel did admit, though, that the prospect of the top three drivers all being hospitalized at the same time with some digestive infection or food poisoning wasnt a particularly good idea, especially with so many grands prix packed so close together.

Another nail in the proverbial coffin was driven in at the recent F1 Live event in London, where Ricciardo said some fans were getting carried away. Im just walking along, minding my business and theyre like do a shoeyI dont actually just take my shoe off while Im walking in the street and drink out of it. I feel like I dug a hole for myself with this one, Ricciardo told Reuters. On that note, I feel like its been fun. I want to say its run its course; well see what happens.

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Lasseter did not explain onstage at D23 why he was handing over the reins on the film, but he spoke in-depth afterward with the Chinese film website Mtime, where he offered the following explanation:

I always felt like I need to keep directing, and thats why I decided to do Toy Story 4 initially, but I oversee three studios and I think I counted 24 feature films Im overseeing, and it was not really practical, to be blunt. But also what made it easy was Josh Cooley was amazing; wait until you see it  he is so good. And it was time to let go of the bike and let him ride, and hes doing a great job. Its really fantastic. And I do get creative satisfaction from being the executive producer, the chief creative officer, and helping all of these great filmmakers. So thats what made the decision for me, and Im loving what I do. I have the best job in the world.

Since the news proved to be accurate, we can now reveal that the blind item we published last August was in fact referring to this situation at Pixar. Its important to point out that the reason for Lasseters departure that is claimed in the blind item is impossible to verify without further details. It is entirely possible that Lasseters explanation above is valid and accurate.

While the reasons for the director and producer upheaval remain uncertain, what can definitively be confirmed is that Lasseter stepped down as director of Toy Story 4 nearly one year ago, and the directorial shift was not announced until last week.

Toy Story 4 is scheduled to open June 21, 2019 in the United States. When the film was first announced in 2014, it was issued a 2017 release date, before being delayed until 2018, and more recently, delayed again to 2019.

(Photo via Shutterstock.com)
Photo: RCMP

A man has been charged with possession of stolen property after RCMP say they recovered thousands of dollars of heavy equipment believed to have been taken from evacuated homes near Williams Lake.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit says in a news release that its members worked with local RCMP and the BC Conservation Officer Service to investigate the alleged theft of machinery and equipment worth an estimated $65,000.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny says police received information that a man was in the zone where homes had been evacuated on Saturday and they began their investigation.

She says the stolen goods were found on a remote property in the Beaver Creek area outside Williams Lake.

Thirty-eight-year-old Shane Brady of Big Lake remains in custody.

His next court date is set for Thursday.
Photo: Twitter Premier-designate John Horagn tours wildfires in B.C. Interior.

British Columbia is on the cusp of a change in government for the first time in 16 years, all while the province scrambles to control scores of wildfires that have forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes.

The B.C. New Democrats will inherit not only the keys to power from the current Liberal government at tomorrow's swearing-in ceremony in Victoria, but also responsibility for a provincewide state of emergency.

Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, says the wildfire response on the ground is unlikely to be affected by the transfer of power.

But Telford says premier-designate John Horgan must be careful not to appear too celebratory about making the official switch, given the emergency situation across much of B.C.

Both Horgan and departing Premier Christy Clark have emphasized there is no room for partisanship when it comes to the province's wildfire response.

The NDP won 41 of the 87 seats in the legislature in the May election, but reached a deal with the B.C. Greens, who won three seats, which will allow them to form a narrow minority government.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver says he does not think the transfer of power will impact firefighting efforts.

Weaver, whose background is in environmental studies, says people need to begin taking climate change more seriously and recognize humanity's role in the increase of both the number and intensity of these types of natural disasters.
Photo: The Canadian Press Cots are set up for evacuees at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.

Officials are beginning the difficult process of notifying those who have lost homes in the out-of-control wildfires that have prompted a provincial state of emergency.

Cariboo Regional District chairman Al Richmond said Monday that teams have gained access to areas where houses and other buildings have been destroyed northwest of 100 Mile House.

"We can start to phone the residents who have had losses," he said.

Crews are also working to restore electricity, telephone service and other infrastructure in regions evacuated after the fires broke out July 6.

"Our staff is actively engaging in the south Cariboo to look at re-entry plans for our residents, should they be able to return home," Richmond said, although he cautioned return could be "a ways off."

At least 40,000 people have been forced from their homes by more than 160 wildfires in central and southern B.C., while 17,000 others are on evacuation alert.

A wind-fuelled flare-up of a fire near Williams Lake Saturday forced the evacuation of that city, but Richmond said crews had managed to keep the flames in check about five kilometres northwest of the community.

He said a sawmill is in the path of the 80-square kilometre blaze should it advance, as is the Williams Lake emergency operation centre, but there had been no calls for further evacuations.

Wind on Friday also caused a flare-up of a huge fire that started near the Ashcroft Indian Band reserve. That fire has charred more than 400-square kilometres west of Kamloops and destroyed nearly three dozen homes in Boston Flats near Ashcroft.
Photo: BC Wildfire Services Wildfire crews fighting B.C. fires

With B.C. continuing to battle wildfires, two groups of specialized wildfire fighters from Australia and Nova Scotia will be coming to B.C. to assist.

About 50 wildfire personnel form Australia, including a combination of officers and technical specialists, are scheduled to arrive in Vancouver on Wednesday.

British Columbia has had a mutually beneficial wildfire management relationship with Australia for over 10 years.

Meanwhile, a group of elite Nova Scotia firefighters will also join the front lines.

Twenty firefighters will make their way from Halifax to Kamloops and Prince George on Tuesday.

Jim Rudderham, forest protection operations manager for Nova Scotia, said the "Type 1" crew is made up of "upper-level firefighters" who volunteered for the task.

The crew will work 12-hour shifts for 14 days straight in intense conditions.

The BC Wildfire Service has responded to 657 wildfires so far this season. About half of those were caused by lightning.

For the latest information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories, go to www.bcwildfire.ca

 with files from The Canadian Press
Photo: BC Hydro Downed BC Hydro pole during wildfire.

Wildfires are causing significant damage to BC Hydro infrastructure.

The utility company says wildfires have caused damage to hundreds of power poles, 47 transmission structures, 114 cross arms, 181 wire spans and 32 transformers.

These numbers are expected to rise as crews gain access to evacuated areas around Williams Lake, Hydro said in a press release.

Emergency Management BC and BC Hydro are working with fire officials to monitor impacted areas and make repairs.

Twelve transmission structures need to be replaced in the Cache Creek-Loon Lake area.

The fires in Williams Lake have caused damage to three transmission lines, but due to fire activity and heavy smoke, crews are awaiting clearance to access the area.

To date, crews have had to repair 219 power poles and 35 transmission structures.

For more information, visit bchydro.com/outages.
Crews responded to a two vehicle collision near Harvey Avenue and Water street on Monday.

The collision occurred around 4:15 p.m., causing traffic to stall in the area.

It is not clear what caused the collision to take place or the extent of injuries to the drivers.
Photo: Colin Dacre Fire crews helped two people out of the Penticton Channel Monday

The Penticton Fire Department was called to the Channel on Monday afternoon to help a pair of floaters tangled on the Eckhardt Ave. bridge.

The incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m., according to deputy chief Chris Forster.

It was the usual instance of people tying their rafts together with rope, he said.

After the husband and wife duo became stuck on the bridge pillar, the male jumped out in the hope that it would free his wife. However, the woman remained stuck in her raft, which was taking on water.

To her credit, she could swim and was wearing a life jacket, said Forster.

Fire crews eventually freed the woman from the bridge pillar, and helped her to shore. The pair walked away down Eckhardt Ave. after reassuring a gathered crowd, we are fine, were OK.

Forster says the incident serves as another reminder to never tie rafts together on the Penticton Channel.

A 20-year-old man drowned on June 28, after getting caught on the Green Mountain Road bridge in a similar manner.
Castanet's Evening Update for Monday, July 17, with news director Jon Manchester, in for Wayne Moore.
Photo: City of Vernon Councillor Juliette Cunningham and Mayor Akbal Mund speak with (R) Luana Kaleikini, ESS coordinator.

Evacuees have been arriving in Vernon from Williams Lake and other areas affected by wildfires in the Cariboo region.

The city's Emergency Social Services (ESS) has registered 248 evacuees in two days. Over 100 arrived on Sunday.

At this time, all of the evacuees are being billeted by friends or family in the area.

However, for those who need accommodation, two group lodging sites have been established at the Vernon Curling Rink and the Civic Arena.

The ESS reception centre has been relocated to the Dogwood Gym in the Vernon Recreation Centre at 3310 37 Avenue. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Red Cross Services are onsite to register evacuees. Evacuees can also register with the Red Cross by calling 1-800-863-6582.

Coun. Juliette Cunningham, who toured the facilities for evacuees, has praised the quick response to the crisis by city staff and volunteers.

"In two hours they had set up the cots at the curling rink. In less than two hours, they had set up the Civic Arena," Cunningham told council. "I am impressed with the professionalism of City of Vernon staff and volunteers."

Donations for evacuees are being accepted by the Salvation Army House of Hope at 3303 32 Avenue. All donations, including clothing, food and cash, can be dropped off Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please specify that the donation is for fire relief when dropping off items to ensure they are directed toward evacuees. The Salvation Army cannot accept any food items not prepared in a commercial kitchen.

The City has received a large number of offers to volunteer from Vernon residents.

We have had a tremendous response from people wanting to help, said Luana Kaleikini, ESS coordinator. From the moment we put out a call asking for help, weve had people show up to begin setting up cots in group lodging or offer experienced help in providing support to people under great stress from force evacuations. Im overwhelmed at the generosity of this community.

Those interested in volunteering are asked to email [email protected] with a completed volunteer form available on the Citys website, or pick up a volunteer package at city hall.
Photo: Contributed Bull riding this Saturday at the Penticton Speedway

The Penticton Speedway is trading in the checkered flag for a set of spurs this Saturday, for the fourth annual Bull-A-Rama.

At least 20 riders from around Western Canada will be competing for thousands in purse money, atop dozens of bulls from B.C. ranches.

It is not often that people can go to a real speedway track to witness top-level bull riders competing on some of the nation's greatest bovine superstars, said Bull Riders Canada president Russell Friend. The entire production team have done an incredible job at building an annual event that the entire Okanagan Valley looks forward to each summer.

Attendance at previous editions of the event totalled in the thousands, with a new purpose built bull-riding arena constructed for this year.

Also new this year, wild horse races and a junior steer riding portion featuring extra prize money and the young prodigies of the British Columbias bull riding circuit.

Tickets at the gate are $20 for adults, $15 for youth and seniors, under 10 is free.
Photo: Penticton Peach Festival

The 70th annual Penticton Peach Festival is short on volunteers, and organizers are putting out a call for help.

Volunteer coordinator Audrey Baker said their pool of volunteers is aging somewhat, with many unable to commit to as many hours as they did in previous years.

Im looking for a little bit of everything, she said, particularly for traffic control, barricade monitoring and setup and tear down help.

Baker says they need about 25 more volunteers, at minimum, to have things running smoothly. A two to four hour shift is the minimal commitment. Those that help out get a t-shirt and windup party as a thank you.

Anyone interested apply to volunteer online, or contact Baker directly at 250.809.6468.

Peach Fest runs Aug. 9 to 13.
Photo: RCMP

Police are asking for the public's help in finding a missing elderly woman who had been evacuated due to wildfires.

Prince George RCMP say 88-year-old Maria Martha Watt has not been seen in over a week and has not spoken with loved ones in 10 days.

Officers have checked her home as well as evacuation centres in Prince George and Kamloops, and it's believed she never registered as an evacuee.

RCMP say a description of Watt and her vehicle have been provided to police at wildfire check points and detachments throughout the B.C. Interior.

Watt is described as Caucasian, five feet three inches, 145 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair.

Officials in 100 Mile House are considering allowing residents to return home, but say they must first assess the integrity of infrastructure and utilities.
Photo: Contributed A small grass fire is burning by Davison Orchards.

Vernon Fire Rescue crews have been at the scene of a small grass fire on the 3100 block of Davison Road.

Photos sent in to Castanet show the fire was near the Davison Orchards' complex.

At least three fire trucks attended at the scene.

Crews were called out about 6:15 p.m. to a fire that started in a pile of dry cuttings, one witness was told.

The fire danger rating in the Vernon area is currently extreme.
Photo: Vancouver Police Christopher Schafer seen in image

A federal offender who was wanted on a Canadian-wide warrant for being unlawfully at large has been arrested.

Christopher Schafer, 40, was arrested by Vancouver Police.

Schafter 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.

Vancouver police said Schafer was released from custody on July 10 and had been living at a Vancouver residential correction facility but did not return at 6 p.m. on July 13.
Photo: David Jurek Photograph taken of wildfire in 100 Mile House.

100 Mile House is currently being evaluated to determine when residents can return home safely.

Currently, an evacuation order is in place for the District of 100 Mile House after a wildfire.

A comprehensives assessment will take place that will ensure the integrity of all infrastructure and utilities such as water, sewer, roads, hydro, natural gas and emergency telephone services.

Priority services required to sustain the re-entry of evacuated residents will also be established, including but not limited to emergency healthcare services, food services, waste management services and security of adjacent areas which may still be on order, states a release.

There is still not a clear date when residents will be able to return to their homes.

Re-entry is dependent on fire activity in the surrounding area that remains very active.

The District and CRD appreciate residents patience as the initial stages leading to re-entry are initiated, states the release.

Residents can sign up to receive notifications by visiting this link.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service

There are 159 wildfires burning in British Columbia.

Seventeen new fires sparked up on Sunday and none of them are being reported as major incidents.

To date we have responded to 657 fires since April 1, burning an estimated 188,000 hectares and costing an estimated $90 million dollars, said Kevin Skrepnek, Chief Operator BC Wildfire Service.

The hectares are an estimate due to the difficulties the BC Wildfire crews have had mapping them.

The largest wildfires are currently taking place in Elephant Hill near Ashcroft last reported at 42,307 hectares, Tautri Lake near Cariboo last reported at 49,146 and West of Stone IR close to Alexis Creek at 40,000.

Efforts are focused on public safety, said Skrepnek.

Twenty-seven wildfires are of note across the province and 15 are currently threatening communities.

Over 206 aircraft are supporting ground crews as they battled the blazes.

There is potential going into Wednesday, for instabilities and lightning in some areas of the province.
Photo: Flickr/BC Gov't

British Columbia's New Democrats will get their first taste of power in 16 years at a swearing-in ceremony in Victoria this afternoon.

The New Democrats won 41 of the legislature's 87 seats during last May's election, two less than the governing Liberals.

But NDP Leader John Horgan managed to broker a deal with the B.C. Greens, who won three seats, paving the way for him to form the narrowest of minority governments.

Horgan will inherit not only the keys to power later today, but also responsibility for a B.C.-wide state of emergency, which has seen wildfires displace thousands of people across the province's southern and central Interior.

New Democrat MLA Carole James says her party is committed to a seamless transfer of power, which includes keeping Liberal politicians updated on the wildfire situation.

Outgoing Transport Minister Todd Stone says there is no place for politics when it comes to the crisis and he and his Liberal colleagues will do whatever they can to help the new government deal with the fires.
Photo: CTV Evacuee meeting in Kamloops Monday night.

Getting people to safety as fast-moving wildfires approached was only half the battle  the other half will be returning them home.

Al Richmond, chairman of the Cariboo Regional District, says the district has hit logistical snags as it prepares to allow the re-entry of residents of 100 Mile House and the surrounding area.

"We're beginning to look at how we can bring you folks home," he told a public meeting of evacuees gathered in Kamloops on Monday night.

"Now, I don't want you to believe that means you're coming home tomorrow or at the end of the week. There are many things that have to be done."

More than 40,000 people remain out of their homes as nearly 160 wildfires burn across the province. Residents of Cache Creek, with a population of about 1,000, will be allowed to return home today, while officials look at readying the 100 Mile House area for re-occupancy.

But Richmond said it's no easy task. For example, in 108 Mile House, 105 Mile House and 103 Mile House, the power was off for four or five days. The Canadian Red Cross has said all the spoiled food is hazardous material, he said.

"So those fridges and freezes you have in your house are probably going to go, and we're going to get information about how to dispose of those," he said.

"If you look at (108 Mile House) alone, 1,160 homes, times how many freezers, times how many fridges. Those are some of the logistics of taking you home."

Grocery stores and restaurants will also need to clean out and sanitize their shelves, refrigerators and freezers, and order more food, he added.

The district issued a statement that said a comprehensive assessment will be conducted to ensure the integrity of all infrastructure and utilities, such as water, sewer, roads, hydro, natural gas and emergency telephone services.

Priority services will also be established, including but emergency healthcare services, waste management services and security, it said.

Cache Creek residents will be allowed to go home at 3 p.m. today after being evacuated 10 days ago.

More than 1,880 square kilometres of the province have been burned by wildfires this year, exceeding the entire 2016 fire season.
Photo: Twitter Fire near 100 Mile House prior to evacuation.

An 88-year-old wildfire evacuee from 100 Mile House has been found.

Prince George RCMP have issued a news release saying Maria Martha Watt has been located and is safe.

Mounties issued a request for assistance on Monday after family and friends reported they had not talked to Watt since 100 Mile House was ordered evacuated.

Watt's home in the community was checked and police confirmed it was secure, but evacuation centres in Prince George and Kamloops said they did not believe she registered there.

Police have not said where Watt was located or why she did not contact relatives or friends.
Photo: Colin Dacre

An evacuee from the Williams Lake wildfires had their car burgled while it was parked in Penticton last week.

On July 12, police received a report that a vehicle was entered on the 3000 block of South Main St.

"An unlocked Honda Accord was entered and a suitcase containing clothing, shoes and change were taken," Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth said. "The owner of the vehicle was an evacuee from Williams Lake.

The following day proved to be a busy one for the Penticton RCMP, with multiple reported thefts from cars.

The detachment received several calls from people who left their vehicles unlocked or left their wallets in their car, leading to vehicles getting broken into and wallets, identification cards and insurance papers disappearing.

The Penticton RCMP is asking the public to lock their doors and to not leave valuables in vehicles.
Photo: Google Street View

An underwater recovery team is headed to the Fraser River to search for a man who drowned on Monday.

A 72-year-old Langley man, who was a non-swimmer, fell off a barge into the river about 9 p.m.

Police arrived at the government wharf on 88th Avenue and 252nd Street, where friends and family were searching for the male.

Search efforts were unsuccessful Monday night and have resumed today.

Search and rescue teams from both Central Fraser Valley and Ridge Meadows, as well as the New Westminster Police marine unit are searching for the man.
Alanna Kelly

Premier John Horgans NDP government was sworn in Tuesday.

The first priority will be dealing with a wildfire season that is being noted as one of the worst in memory. Horgan will also face the ongoing opioid crisis, the softwood lumber dispute and public education issues.

A recent Angus Reid Institute poll questions if the priorities of the incoming government align with those of British Columbians.

The top three issues the poll revealed are health care, housing affordability and the economy.

Other concerns included jobs, taxes, the environment and social services.
Photo: Steve Tobias

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) has slightly reduced the mandatory evacuation order around the Princeton wildfire

The change will remove 47 properties from mandatory evacuation order along the Princeton Summerland Rd, and opens the roadway to traffic. The properties are still on advisory evacuation alert.

There are no changes to other evacuation orders or alerts at this time. This includes the closure of a portion of Hwy 5A north of Princeton.

A public information meeting is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at the Riverside Community Centre at 148 Old Hedley Rd in Princeton. A second information meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Erris Volunteer Fire Hall at 2254 Princeton Summerland Rd.

Emergency Support Services (ESS) remains open at the Riverside Community Centre from 9:00 am to 4:00 p.m. daily. ESS volunteers can help people with food, shelter and animals in both Evacuation Order and Alert areas.
Watch British Columbia's New Democrats get their first taste of power in 16 years at the swearing-in ceremony in Victoria.
Photo: Flickr/BC Gov't

Residents of Cache Creek are thrilled to be heading home after being rushed out by a fast-moving wildfire, but fear an uphill battle in repairing the community's tourism economy.

Lisa Balouch, manager of the Sunset Motel, says the loss of 11 days of visitors is significant, not only to hotels but also to restaurants, gas stations and other businesses dependent on tourists.

"We had people coming from Britain, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, all across Canada, the U.S.," she said in an interview from Venables Valley, a short drive from Cache Creek.

"We're in the midst of our really busy season. When you go from having a motel full of people every night and then nothing ... So many people depended on those tourists coming through for money. Not only did they lose that money, but now they have to spend money doing cleanup."

More than 40,000 people remain out of their homes as 155 wildfires burn across the province. Cache Creek, located in the province's Interior with a population of about 1,000, was the first major community to be evacuated after the wildfires broke out July 7.

Officials said while the 520-square-kilometre Ashcroft fire continues to grow and burn out of control, the imminent threat to Cache Creek has diminished and residents can return starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday. But the village will remain on evacuation alert, meaning people must be prepared to leave again at a moment's notice.

Mayor John Ranta said the fire within Cache Creek destroyed two airport hangars and one house at the airport, as well as a few outbuildings in the south end of town. Most of the Boston Flats trailer park south of Cache Creek was also demolished by fire, he said.

"It is a huge impact on local area businesses when there's an evacuation in Cache Creek and we're hopeful that we can invite the rest of British Columbia and beyond back into the community in very short order," he said.

It had been a difficult year for Cache Creek even before the wildfires. The village was hit with massive flooding in May and the fire chief, 58-year-old Clayton Cassidy, was swept away by rushing waters.

Ranta said the community has shown remarkable resilience.

"The people in Cache Creek, I think, are prepared to step up and work shoulder to shoulder with their neighbours," he said. "They've demonstrated that time and again, and I don't think this will be any different."
Photo: CTV

The British Columbia New Democrats have been sworn in as government after 16 years on the Opposition benches.

In a ceremony led by First Nations drumming and songs, Premier John Horgan unveiled his cabinet for a government that has a one-seat edge over the Liberals after an agreement was reached with the three Green members following the election in May.

Horgan said Tuesday his cabinet is the first in British Columbia to achieve gender parity, with 10 women in cabinet and one named as minister of state.

Six members of the legislative assembly have been named as parliamentary secretaries, ranging in areas such as poverty reduction and emergency preparedness.

The NDP has also created a new Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, with former health critic Judy Darcy at the helm, as the death toll from opioid overdoses continues to climb in B.C.

NDP stalwart Carole James is now deputy premier and minister of finance while longtime New Democrat Mike Farnworth becomes solicitor general and public safety minister.

"Our government will offer families relief from high costs and fees, strengthen services like health care and education, and create good jobs and economic opportunity across B.C.," Horgan said.

Green party Leader Andrew Weaver congratulated Horgan and his cabinet, calling the minority government a "once-in-a-lifetime chance to do politics differently in British Columbia."

"We have a historic opportunity to put partisan politics aside and work together across party lines to advance good public policy that is in the best interest of British Columbians," Weaver said.
Photo: Twitter

Premier John Horgan announced his new cabinet today in Victoria.

"Our government will offer families relief from high costs and fees, strengthen services like health care and education, and create good jobs and economic opportunity across B.C.," said Horgan. "We will put people at the heart of everything we do. And we'll work hard to deliver on our commitments to British Columbians."

The new cabinet includes:

Premier - Hon. John Horgan

Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training - Hon. Melanie Mark

Minister of Agriculture - Hon. Lana Popham

Attorney General - Hon. David Eby

Minister of Children and Family Development - Hon. Katrine Conroy

Minister of State for Child Care - Hon. Katrina Chen

Minister of Citizens' Services - Hon. Jinny Sims

Minister of Education - Hon. Rob Fleming

Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources - Hon. Michelle Mungall

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy - Hon. George Heyman

Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier - Hon. Carole James

Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development - Hon. Doug Donaldson

Minister of Health - Hon. Adrian Dix

Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation - Hon. Scott Fraser

Minister of Jobs, Trade, and Technology - Hon. Bruce Ralston

Minister of State for Trade - Hon. George Chow

Minister of Labour - Hon. Harry Bains

Minister of Mental Health and Addictions - Hon. Judy Darcy

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing - Hon. Selina Robinson

Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General - Hon. Mike Farnworth

Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction - Hon. Shane Simpson

Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture - Hon. Lisa Beare

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure - Hon. Claire Trevena

Parliamentary secretaries
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Nelson Peltz, CEO and founder of Trian Partners, is photographed in 2016 at a Laguna Beach, Calif., conference. Peltz is waging a proxy battle to win a seat on the board of Procter & Gamble. ( Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News )

The global companies that make our food, snacks, beauty products and other consumer staples are ripe for more corporate takeover tussles. Expect locally based Kraft Heinz and Mondelez International to be part of the fray.

Right now, Wall Street's focus is on shareholder activist Nelson Peltz's proxy battle to win a seat on the board of Procter & Gamble, the global marketer of Tide, Charmin, Pampers, Gillette razors and other household names.

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Peltz is pushing P&G to cut costs, hike revenues and, of course, boost its stock price. Cincinnati-based P&G counters it's poised to achieve those goals and doesn't need Peltz's help.

Kraft Heinz and Mondelez, where Peltz is a board member, also are coping with similarly high investor expectations. At both companies, accelerating sales growth beyond low single digits annually is literally a multibillion-dollar concern, and one that could make Kraft Heinz and Mondelez more likely to take part in the next round of takeover activity.

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In Kraft Heinz's case, there's an expectation the maker of cheeses and ketchup will take another run at acquiring Unilever, the European-based marketer of well-known brands including Hellmann's mayonnaise, Dove soap, Lipton tea and more.

Last February, Kraft Heinz tried to buy Unilever for $143 billion and was rebuffed.

Under British corporate law, Kraft Heinz was legally prohibited from making another bid for six months. By mid-August that prohibition will have passed, allowing Kraft Heinz to saddle up another bid, even if it means going with a hostile offer.

It is assumed a reloaded Kraft Heinz buyout bid will be in the range of $200 billion, according to Pablo Zuanic, an investment analyst for New York-based Susquehanna International Group.

"We are now coming to the view that a hostile bid (for Unilever) is more than 75 percent likely," he wrote in a July 9 report.

The financial powers behind Kraft Heinz, which include the Brazilian-based 3G Capital private equity firm and investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, can't simply walk away from this deal.

A Unilever purchase would provide Kraft Heinz, which declined comment, with a large overseas presence and the ability to expand many of its domestic brands beyond North America.

Kraft Heinz would make back some of its hefty purchase price by doing what its management is well known for doing: cutting operating costs and firing a bunch of employees.

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At Kraft Heinz, about 2,500 positions have been erased, including around 700 in the Chicago area. It's also cutting $1.5 billion this year and expects to slice up to $1.7 billion by 2019, according to Morningstar.

What's next for Mondelez is tougher to determine, but I get a sense that something significant is coming.

The maker of Oreo cookies, Triscuit crackers and Cadbury chocolates is considered a perennial buyout candidate and among Kraft Heinz's top targets. Last year there was investor speculation a deal was cooking, but nothing happened.

"We think Mondelez could find itself a target of consolidation .. with Kraft Heinz a potential bidder," according to a recent Morningstar report.

Yet Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld could fool a lot of people by making another run at a chocolate company, as Mondelez did last year with a Hershey's overture.

For example, should Mondelez buy Nestle's U.S. confectionery business, it would add 3 percent to the Chicago-based company's yearly sales, Morningstar says.

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Michael Mitchell, a spokesman for Mondelez, declined to comment to me on buying or selling possibilities, adding the company is "squarely focused on managing our business for the long term."

The firm that superinvestor Peltz controls, Trian Partners, last year sold 3.9 million shares of Mondelez at about $167 million. Peltz's firm has 44 million shares and is still among its largest investors.

While satisfied with his Mondelez beachhead right now, Peltz has only begun to fight at P&G.

Yet even as that clash gets underway, another round of consumer product company buyout battles appears to be shaping up.

If so, I doubt the area's two giants will stay out of the action for very long.

roreed@chicagotribune.com

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Amazon has leased this 438,150-square-foot warehouse in the Crest Hill Industrial Park, where it plans to open a package sorting center in October. ( Costar )

In Will County, Amazon is the gift that keeps on giving, or more appropriately, the employer that keeps on growing.

Crest Hill has announced that Amazon will operate a 438,150-square-foot warehouse in the southwest suburban community of nearly 21,000 people. The announcement means that in just the past two years, Seattle-based Amazon's five planned facilities in Will County have made it the county's largest employer.

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What's more, it means the online retailer has swallowed more than 56 football fields' worth of land in the county.

"Amazon is the biggest brand in the world, and everybody wants an Amazon in their community these days," said Scott McMaster, Crest Hill's economic development manager.

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Amazon confirmed the facility Tuesday, and said it expected to open later this year.

McMaster said Amazon was expected to have the facility up and running in mid-October, after completing more than $25 million in renovations. The Crest Hill site will employ several hundred full- and part-time workers  anywhere from 400 to more than 1,000 during peak shipping periods during the holidays, he said.

Amazon, which announced its first Illinois warehouse in 2015, has said it expects to employ more than 8,000 people in Illinois by the end of next year. Five distribution centers already have opened in Illinois and four others have been announced  one each in Monee and Waukegan and two in Aurora.

Amazon's latest Illinois facility, in the Crest Hill Industrial Park, was developed by Atlanta-based Ridgeline Property Group and completed in July 2016, according to CoStar Group.

Even before the Crest Hill site was announced, nearby distribution centers in Joliet and Romeoville made Amazon Will County's largest employer, according to the Will County Center for Economic Development.

The Crest Hill site will be a sorting center  a "pit stop" for packages making their way through Amazon's supply chain, McMaster said. That means the city won't collect sales taxes on items passing through, but the site also won't see as much heavy truck traffic as a distribution center would have, he said.

The property is less than 2 miles from Interstate 55 and is about 9 miles from Interstate 80.

While building up a large network of warehouses, Amazon also has been growing its Chicago presence in other ways. Amazon recently said it has doubled the size of its downtown Chicago office, where it has room to double its employee count to 400 workers.

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In Lincoln Park, the e-commerce firm has leased retail space for an Amazon Campus store where students and neighbors can pick up packages they've ordered online. The pickup-only store will open this fall.

North of there, Amazon's first bookstore in the Midwest opened in May on Southport Avenue in Lakeview.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

rori@chicagotribune.com

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Paul Manafort, then campaign manager for Donald Trump, is interviewed at the Republican National Convention in July 2016. Manafort, who later resigned his post, is under scrutiny from a special prosecutor and members of Congress for his dealings with Russian interests. (Win McNamee/Getty )

Chicago-based Federal Savings Bank wouldn't comment Tuesday on a report that New York prosecutors have subpoenaed records related to $16 million in loans the institution made to former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, reported Monday that the Manhattan district attorney has demanded the records from the bank, whose chief executive, Steve Calk, was an economic adviser to Trump's presidential campaign. Manafort is under scrutiny from a special prosecutor and members of Congress for his dealings with Russian interests, part of the wider investigation into ties between Russia and members of Trump's campaign and administration.

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Both Calk and the Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment on the Journal's report.

Federal Savings Bank made about $6.5 million in loans in January to Manafort and his wife for a Brooklyn property, documents show. That came about a month after Federal Savings lent $9.5 million to Summerbreeze, a limited liability company connected to Manafort, according to 377 Union, a website run by two New York lawyers that is named for the address of the Manafort property in Brooklyn.

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The combined $16 million in loans to one borrower represents nearly a quarter of the small bank's loan portfolio and approaches the level at which regulators would start to think about imposing limits on lending to one customer.

Federal Savings had $273 million in assets at the end of March, mostly loans. It also had almost $72 million in equity capital.

Loans representing 22 percent of capital would get regulators' attention, one bank analyst said.

"At a larger bank, I'd be very surprised to see loans to one borrower represent about 25 percent of capital," said Terry McEvoy, a bank analyst for Stephens. "At the community bank level, it may be more common but would likely be discussed with regulators frequently."

Lending limits help protect the safety of banks by diversifying the type of loans and pool of borrowers. The limits help prevent banks from lending too much to one person or related people.

The bank's chief regulator is the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

According to its website, a bank's total outstanding loans and extensions of credit to one borrower may not exceed 15 percent of the bank's capital and surplus, plus an additional 10 percent of the bank's capital and surplus, if the amount that exceeds that 15 percent general limit "is fully secured by readily marketable collateral."

Calk, the bank's CEO, has said the loans in question were "grossly overcollaterized." The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment.

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Federal Savings Bank earned $24 million last year and earned more than $4 million in the first quarter of this year.

About 1.1 percent of its loans are seriously delinquent, compared with about 1 percent for the typical bank in Illinois.

Despite scrutiny over the Manafort loans, Calk recently was named a Midwest regional finalist in the 2017 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

In August, Calk was named one of 13 economic advisers for the Trump campaign. Manafort left the campaign later that month amid concerns over his role with a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Federal Savings was born out of Generations Bank, a Kansas thrift bought by Calk and his brother John Calk in 2011. That bank, which had about $40 million in assets, was undercapitalized, facing regulatory restrictions and posting losses for five straight years, according to a 2012 story in ABA Banking Journal, an American Bankers Association publication.

Now headquartered on Chicago's Near West Side, successor institution Federal Savings in 2012 said it was getting $18 million in tax breaks over 10 years from the state through the Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, program as well as up to $4 million in training money from the city of Chicago.

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The bank had 842 full-time workers as of the end of March. Steve Calk has said about 10 percent of the bank's employees are veterans like him.

Federal Savings has three branches or loan production offices in Illinois: at its headquarters and in Lake Forest and Naperville, according to its website.

byerak@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @beckyyerak
In this July 17, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington. Trump's positions on labor have largely benefited employers. (Alex Brandon / AP)

Whether you call it a weakening of worker protections or an easing of over-regulation, labor policy is in the midst of a shift under President Donald Trump 's administration.

A Senate committee is set to vote Wednesday on nominees to the National Labor Relations Board who would give the agency a Republican majority expected to reverse major pro-labor decisions issued during the presidency of Barack Obama .

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor is expected to scale back Obama-era plans to extend overtime eligibility to millions more workers. Several pro-worker regulations have been scrapped or delayed. And, in a sharp reversal from the prior administration, the government is backing the employer's position in a Supreme Court case on mandatory arbitration agreements that prohibit workers from filing class-action lawsuits.

To Peter Steinmeyer, an attorney in the Chicago office of Epstein Becker Green who represents management in employment cases, the developments reflect a predictable swing of the pendulum back to the pro-business right that occurs when Republicans take the White House from Democrats .

"The Trump administration isn't going to do anything out of line from what we have seen in prior Republican administrations," he said. One exception, he said, may be that Trump is at odds with many business leaders in his quest to reduce immigration.

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But Celine McNicholas, labor counsel at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the changes, plus proposed deep cuts to the Labor Department's budget, are alarming. While budget tightening and pro-business policies are to be expected with a Republican White House, the size and targets of the cuts and the number of rules being rolled back are "not business as usual," she said.

"If you consider all that, I would argue that the first six months of the Trump administration have been devastating for workers in this country  unprecedented even," said McNicholas, who served as special counsel at the NLRB during the Obama administration.

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Here are five labor policy developments that have taken place in recent months:

Overtime threshold redo

Trump's Labor Department filed a brief in federal appellate court late last month indicating it will not advocate for the overtime changes set by the Obama administration.

Those changes would have required nearly everyone paid less than $47,476 a year to be eligible for time-and-a-half pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week, a big jump from the $23,660 threshold in place since 2004 and a cornerstone of the Obama administration's efforts to lift wages.

A federal judge in Texas blocked the rule a week before it was scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, and Obama's Labor Department appealed.

The brief filed by the Trump Labor Department on June 30 states that the agency will seek public comment on a new salary threshold. That means a more modest increase could be in store.

"The betting is that it will go from $46,000 to somewhere in the mid-30s," said Brian Bulger, an attorney in the Chicago office of Cozen O'Connor who represents employers. "$33,000 is the big over-under."

National Labor Relations Board appointments

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Trump's nominees to fill two vacancies on the five-member NLRB would give the agency its first Republican majority since President George W. Bush was in office, potentially tilting the board toward more employer-friendly stances.

The NLRB, an independent agency tasked with enforcing federal labor law related to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices, came under fire during the Obama years by Republicans who thought the board's Democratic majority was pushing a pro-union agenda, and those critics have been eager to undo some of its major decisions.

Those decisions include allowing employees to form "micro unions" with smaller bargaining units, and finding that graduate students working as teaching assistants at private universities are eligible to unionize. In perhaps its most controversial move, the board expanded the circumstances under which a company can be held liable for labor conditions under one of its subcontractors or franchisees, a decision with big implications for employers like McDonald's.

"A lot of these decisions are going to be reversed and it's probably just going to be a matter of time," Steinmeyer said, though it could take a while for relevant cases to come before the board.

Trump's nominees to the NLRB, Marvin Kaplan and William Emanuel, faced concerns from Senate Democrats at a hearing last week that they will be biased in favor of employers. Emanuel is a longtime labor lawyer representing management at Littler Mendelson, one of the nation's largest employment law firms. Kaplan recently worked as counsel for a House committee that proposed legislation to make it harder for workers to unionize.

The Republican-controlled Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is scheduled to vote on the nominees Wednesday.

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Labor Department budget cuts

Trump's proposed budget includes a 20 percent cut to Labor Department funding, from $12.1 billion to $9.7 billion. Most would come out of workforce training programs that the White House said should be funded more by states, localities and employers.

Some parts of the agency would get a funding bump, notably a 22 percent increase for the Office of Labor-Management Standards, which investigates misconduct in private-sector unions.

Although Trump's budget proposal does not increase funding for apprenticeships, he signed an executive order that calls for more than doubling the amount of federal grant money available to such programs, while cutting the government's role in monitoring them.

Rule rollbacks

With the aid of Republican lawmakers, Trump has rolled back several rules and executive orders that Obama issued to protect workers.

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Among them were the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, which requires companies bidding for large federal contracts to disclose and correct past labor law and safety violations. Another rescinded rule established parameters for when states can drug-test applicants for unemployment insurance benefits.

The Labor Department is in the process of rescinding the "persuader rule," which would have required law firms to publicly disclose any work they do for employers surrounding union organization efforts.

Meantime, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has delayed three workplace safety rules issued during the last year of Obama's presidency, raising questions about whether they will be weakened or rescinded.

The rules would require certain employers to submit injury and illness data electronically to OSHA for publication on the agency's website; tighten exposure standards for silica, which is often breathed in by certain construction workers and linked to lung disease; and lower workplace exposure limits for beryllium, an industrial mineral linked to lung cancer .

About-face on mandatory arbitration

A significant workplace issue before the Supreme Court is whether employers may require workers to sign arbitration agreements that waive their rights to file class or collective actions should a dispute arise, an increasingly common practice. The NLRB has held that the agreements violate workers' rights, and Obama's solicitor general in November filed a petition supporting the NLRB in a case involving Murphy Oil, one of three cases the Supreme Court is reviewing on the issue.

In June Trump's acting solicitor general filed a brief with the court that took the opposite stance, asserting that mandatory arbitration agreements don't violate the National Labor Relations Act and are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act.

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Such an about-face is unusual, legal experts say, though how much it influences the court's analysis remains to be seen.

"While the government's opinion is normally very important, I'm sure the judges will be taking a look at the fact that this only changed because there was a change in administrations," Bulger said.

An earlier version of this story misstated the requirements of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule.
Gabriele Bonci, the esteemed Roman pizza maker, has set a target date for the opening of his upcoming West Loop pizzeria.

I will be in Chicago on August 15 for the opening of my new pizzeria, Bonci wrote in a Facebook message (in Italian, in response to my questions written in Google-translated Italian). This will be his second trip in quick succession; the pizza maker was recently here taking in the Green City Market and visiting fellow pizza maker Jonathan Goldsmith at Spacca Napoli in Ravenswood.

But Rick Tasman, president of Bonci USA, was less willing to commit to the Aug. 15 date, citing past delays in the project.

"That's (the date) we're shooting for," is all he would say when reached by telephone today. The pizzeria, to be located at 161 N. Sangamon St., will have 30 counter seats and a 12- to 20-seat outdoor cafe.

He also said there's a chance a second Bonci location might open in Chicago, possibly in Wicker Park, Lincoln Park or on Michigan Avenue if something made sense, he said. Bonci USA has also been interested in opening in other American cities, including Boston, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, work continues on the West Loop outpost. Tasman said the goal is to copy the Roman original as closely as possible so that people who visited there will have a similar experience here.

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Twitter @billdaley






Samuel Adams is releasing a limited-run 12-pack featuring the brewerys collaborations with five breweries. The beers are Three Ninety Bock, made with Roc Brewing Co.; Desert Kaleidoscope IPA, Bosque Brewing; Time Hop Porter, ChuckAlek Independent Brewers; Tea Party Saison, Woods Beer Co.; and Oats McGoats Stout, Brewery Rickoli. Sam Adams Boston Lager, the original beer that founder Jim Koch made with his father, is included. (Boston Beer Co.)

A few months before Chris Spinelli was ready to open the doors to Roc Brewing Co. in April 2011, the former financial advisor faced a conundrum: He didn't have the $10,000 he needed to buy a keg washer, a device that -- you guessed it -- cleans and sanitizes kegs. He didn't have the funds because he couldn't convince a bank to give him a loan. And, without a keg washer, he couldn't figure out a cost-effective way to contract brew for other breweries, throwing his business model out of whack.

But Spinelli was in luck. A friend pointed him to Boston Beer Co.'s Brewing the American Dream program, which Samuel Adams' brewery launched in 2008, in partnership with nonprofit lender Accion, to dole out microloans and provide mentorship to startups in the food, beverage and hospitality industry.

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Spinelli filled out the application and subsequently received a $10,000 loan, roughly $9,800 of which he spent on the keg washer.

The loan helped the Rochestor, N.Y., brewery establish a foothold in a market, he says. "Without the loan we would have figured out some way to try to make it work," Spinelli says. "But it would have been much harder."

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In addition to the loan, the Brewing the American Dream program provided Roc Brewing with an "experienceship" that enabled Spinelli to work with, and seek advice and guidance from Boston Beer's employees on everything from brewing to marketing.

Boston Beer chairman Jim Koch created the program -- which has made roughly 1,300 loans totalling $16.5 million -- to help breweries like Roc Brewing avoid the pitfalls and mistakes he made when he founded Samuel Adams in 1984. While Koch had worked as a Boston Consulting Group management consultant, he faced a number of challenges when he launched his own brewery.

"As a management consultant, I felt like I should have known the intricacies of creating a business," he says. "But I didn't. I had no clue how to design a package. I didn't know how to make sales calls. I had never set up a payroll. I didn't have a source for that type of information."

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Now he's seeking to provide fledgling entrepreneurs with a forum to garner that type of advice as part of Brewing the American Dream. Boston Beer offers free webinars, as well as a traveling speed-dating style mentorship program around the country in which entrepreneurs can sign up for 20-minute sessions where they can seek advice from local experts, as well as executives at Boston Beer on everything from sales and distribution to packaging and finance to marketing and social media. A Chicago event will take place at Binny's Lincoln Park, 1720 N. Marcey St. on Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. To sign up, go here.

"Entrepreneurs often don't have a good source where they can go for information," Koch says. That's what the Brewing the American Dream program seeks to provide.

To highlight some of the breweries the program has helped, Samuel Adams is releasing a limited-run 12-pack featuring the brewery's collaborations with five breweries, including Roc Brewing, that have taken part in the program. The breweries involved in the pack are remarkably diverse, ranging from Tea Party Saison from San Francisco-based Woods Brewing Co., a brewery that often incorporates yerba mate into its beers, to the gluten-reduced Wheat Ridge, Colorado-based Oats McGoats Stout.

The pack aims to demonstrate what Koch calls craft beer's "special mentality and community."

"The leaders in most industries wouldn't be looking to finance the competition to help get them started," he says. "That's what makes this industry different."

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Zak Stambor is a freelance writer.

This article has been updated to change the venue for the mentorship event to Binny's Lincoln Park.
Composer John Adams leading the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 2013. (Lambert Orkis )

If John Adams' good health and productivity persist as long as that of the late Elliott Carter  whose mantle he has assumed as the most widely performed and respected living American classical composer  we may expect a steady stream of music to issue from his pen for at least three more decades. And that's a hopeful omen for a cultural subspecies badly in need of avatars.

Arguably no classical composer now active in the U.S. has produced so varied or impressive a catalog of works over so long a career as the New England-born, Northern California-based Adams.

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His output is getting a thorough exploration by classical musicians and organizations worldwide this season now that he's turned 70 (Feb. 15 was the actual date).

The San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Lyons National Orchestra in France are among the major orchestras sounding anniversary fanfares, sometimes with the composer himself conducting. The global festival finale will be the world premiere of his new opera "Girls of the Golden West" by the San Francisco Opera, in November.

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Ravinia has jumped aboard the anniversary bandwagon with an Adams mini-festival of its own this month and next (see sidebar of events).

Leading off a tasting menu of Adamsiana for chamber ensemble and instrumentalists will be one of his key early orchestral works, "Harmonielehre" ("Book of Harmony," 1985), to be performed on July 25 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano, one of today's most prominent advocates of Adams' music. Adams says he hopes to drop in for one or more events if he can tear himself away from rehearsals for the new opera out on the West Coast.

I spoke to the composer by telephone in early July, just days after he finished writing "Girls of the Golden West," which is based on true stories from the mining camps and saloons of the California Gold Rush of 1850, with libretto and production by his longtime collaborator, director Peter Sellars.

Adams sounded as wryly observant as ever, as he reflected on a variety of matters cultural from the remote cabin in the Sierras that has been his creative retreat for some 40 years. The pine-shrouded shack lies only a few miles from where events depicted in his latest opera actually took place. His primary residence is the home in Berkeley he has long shared with his wife, photographer Deborah O'Grady. Their son, Samuel Adams, is one of the CSO's current composers in residence.

He was coming off the high of participating in six months of virtually nonstop anniversary activity, including conducting his opera "Doctor Atomic" at a concert performance in London in April, and the Dutch premiere of his Saxophone Concerto in Amsterdam in May, part of a multi-pronged celebration "The World According to Adams."

At the same time he wondered with bemusement why people make a "strange, fetishistic" fuss over composers when they reach big birthday anniversaries, he praised the performances his music has been receiving as "universally wonderful."

Even so, the fact that not all of those performances played to packed houses may say something about where classical music rates on the totem of today's culture, Adams observed.

"It can be a challenge to fill those enormous halls with an entire program of just my music," he said. "I was reminded that classical music is what people say it is, largely music of the past. It takes great time and effort to write music that might have a chance of entering the repertory, eventually."

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Of similar concern is what he perceives as mounting classical music illiteracy in American society.

"One thing that disturbs me is that the friends I have dinner with  people who bear the same intellectual, social and political interests as I  don't listen to my music. Very few of them even listen to Beethoven. They listen to  I don't know  James Taylor or the Gipsy Kings. I realize I travel in a small cultural arena."

Is the arena getting smaller?

"I don't know," Adams replied. "I do know that it's a much better time for composers than when I was in my 20s. There's much more support now for commissioning new work. And there are all kinds of ensembles such as ICE, and Eighth Blackbird and various groups in L.A. dedicated to keeping contemporary composers in front of the public."

Not that he has anything to complain about in that regard. Virtually every piece Adams has written has been recorded, several times over in certain cases. So ubiquitous are performances of his music, in fact, that he can live comfortably off his royalties, he admitted: "I'm very, very lucky, and a rare case."

The composer also can take pride in the fact that his music has been championed by some of today's leading conductors, including Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas, David Robertson, Gustavo Dudamel and Edo de Waart.

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"What attracts many of us to John's music is that it is masterfully written from a technical standpoint," said Nagano, the Berkeley-born music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, who will be making his Ravinia debut with next week's CSO performance of "Harmonielehre." "The orchestration feels very organic, the dimensions naturally balanced."

"Harmonielehre" is the latest in a series of big local Adams premieres at Ravinia that includes the oratorio "El Nino" (heard here in 2003) and the passion play "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" (2013).

Nagano said he regards "Harmonielehre" as watershed Adams, an expansive orchestral canvas that "ingeniously ties together musical time and harmony in a different way, in which repetition becomes a process divorced from architecture."

I asked Nagano what he believes are the key elements that give Adams' output as a whole importance and durability.

"One thing that impresses many of us musicians is that John has never stopped growing as a composer," he replied. "The same voice can be traced throughout his development, from his early music to the present. The music makes an initial impression that stays with you for a long period of time. That is one mark of a composer's genius."

Listeners unfamiliar with Adams' music would call him a minimalist, but in fact his works of recent decades reveal a complexity and depth far removed from the simple pulsating patterns and repeating rhythms of his early pieces.

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Certainly he has been unafraid to tackle timely political and ethical issues. His operatic subjects have included an American president ("Nixon in China"),the 1985 terrorist hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship ("The Death of Klinghoffer") and the creation of the atomic bomb ("Doctor Atomic"). With "Girls of the Golden West" he and Sellars present a far more realistic slice of Gold Rush life than what's depicted in the spaghetti western by Puccini whose title the new opera alludes to.

Adams remains close to all his musical offspring, he said, even pieces such as the orchestral "My Father Knew Charles Ives" and "Naive and Sentimental Music" that have yet to catch on with audiences. "I can't say I have favorites, but I have pieces that, whenever I return to them, I'm tickled. That's especially true of 'Nixon in China.'"

Another thing that tickles Adams is listener feedback. "I'm profoundly affected when someone takes the time to write a letter, or someone else comes up to me in the supermarket to say that a piece of mine really moved them," he said. "It's what it's all about for a composer. If my music has value, it's because it makes people feel something."

He is too intensely focused on the music he's writing at present to predict, or much care about, how music historians will rate him among classical composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Producing music that matters is what he's mostly concerned about, he said.

"I have some role models  Beethoven, Thomas Mann, Matisse  of whom you can say their best work came in their early, middle and late periods. That's my goal as well. I'm very proud of my early pieces and realize that, at the moment, those remain the most popular. But I hope that the work I do now  and over the next 10-15 years, if I'm fortunate enough to continue that long  will be perceived as just as good."

Adams events at Ravinia

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 July 25, "Harmonielehre." The composer's early masterpiece will receive its festival debut by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Kent Nagano. Also on the program is Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"), with Nicolai Lugansky as soloist.

 Aug. 16, "Shaker Loops." Members of Chicago's Lincoln Trio will be the core of a performance of Adams' 1978 septet,which was inspired by the repetitive dance movements of the Shakers.

 Aug. 17, Chamber Symphony and "Common Tones in Simple Time." Middle and early Adams share a program by the instrumental ensemble The Knights.

 Aug. 24, "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Hallelujah Junction." Twin sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton perform Adams' hypnotically pulsing pieces for two pianos as part of a Bennett Gordon Hall concert of duo and four-hand keyboard works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy and Adams.

 Aug. 30, "Road Movies." There's a swing component to Adams' dynamic duo, which violinist Chad Hoopes and pianist David Fung will perform along with mainstream fare by Mozart and Beethoven.

John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.

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Twitter @jvonrhein

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The event was Jimmy Buffett talks with Chris Jones and Christopher Ashley, but it could have been a listed as a quadruple bill: Jimmy Buffett, the Tribune's Chris Jones, Christopher Ashley and a house full of Parrot Heads, so much a part of the proceedings were the room full of Buffett fans Monday night at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.



Buffett, fresh off a concert at Wrigley Field this weekend, was still in town come Monday to talk about "Escape to Margaritaville," his current project, a theatrical musical based on his songs and directed by Ashley, set to stage in November at the Oriental Theatre. The conversation in the intimate Playhouse covered a grab bag of topics, from Buffett's early days playing in Chicago at the now-defunct Quiet Knight Bar, where he crossed paths with a musical influence (Bob Marley), to what song he had better not leave out of his musical, as demanded by some cheerfully boisterous booing from the crowd ("A Pirate Looks at Forty").



About that "Escape": Buffett and Ashley, who won a Tony for his direction of "Come From Away," said what they were able about the pre-Broadway tryout in the Loop. The show's protagonist, a Caribbean island bartender and troubadour with a Buffett-like sense of latitude, falls for a female tourist and things proceed from there. Along with a jukebox full of hits, there will be about four new numbers penned by Buffett.



Other topics for the evening's conversation: Buffett's Margaritaville empire (there are plans for retirement homes, with yoga, paddle board "and yes there will be medical marijuana"). Why Buffett crowds still feel welcoming in our divided times (folks at his concerts are in a "state of exuberation," he said, " and then on Monday everyone has to go back to work.") A funny anecdote of him falling off stage in Australia, only for him to wake up in a hospital watching a video of him falling off stage in Australia. The low point of his musical career when his record company tried to make him a country music star ("I got out of Nashville. I went to Key West. There was a reason."). His own retirement ("Retire from what?").



The evening ended with a Q&A session with the audience who, after the last question, mobbed the stage for a handshake or an autograph. Buffett seemed happy to comply.






One of the longest-running double acts in Chicago theater history is coming to a close: artistic directors and co-founders Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro are "retiring" from Chicago's long-lived Raven Theatre, according to an announcement, after more than 34 years at the helm.

Through a spokesman for the theater, both Menendian and Montemurro declined to comment on their departure, which is effective at the end of this theater season.

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A married couple, Menendian, 63, and Montemurro, 60, created Raven in 1983. Between 1985 and 1999, Raven occupied a storefront space in Rogers Park. But in 2000, the theater bought what had been a supermarket on Clark Street in Edgewater and turned the low-slung building into a two-theater complex with attached parking and high visibility from the street.

Such real estate savvy is a rarity among small Chicago theaters. In 2016, Raven ended the mortgage it held on the space at 6157 N. Clark St. and now owns the building outright.

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"We are deeply grateful for the work which Mike and JoAnn have done over the years for the theater," said Raven board chair Walter Pophin.

Although Menendian and Montemurro both worked in numerous roles at the theater, which long has specialized in the American canon, the usual combination was Menendian directing and Montemurro performing.

Notable Raven productions included "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "A View From the Bridge" (both in 1999), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (2005) and "Book of Days" (2006). Despite its longevity, the theater never affiliated with the union of professional actors, remaining a non-Equity theater with a loyal following.

A Raven spokesman said a national search is underway for successors.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Two of the participants in Wednesday's quinceanera protest at the Texas state Capitol. JOLT TEXAS/FACEBOOK

Fifteen young Latinas will hold their Quinceanera celebrations at the Texas Capitol tomorrow, to protest SB4, the recently passed state law considered a ban on Sanctuary cities.

The event, organized by the Latino mobilization group Jolt, calls on Texans to attend the collective celebration, which will include a procession and dancing, like any other quince, as well as speakers and actions of protest.

The young women will each recite reasons why theyre against SB 4, and will personally deliver gifts to the offices of legislators who supported the bill, in order to show them that, they too are America as much as anyone else is, said Cristina Tzintzun, founder of Jolt Texas, to LatinoUSA.

Tzintzun got the idea for the event after seeing girls taking their quinceanera pictures in front of the Texas Capitol.

Signed into law in early May, but not scheduled to take effect until September 1, SB 4 would ban sanctuary cities and allow police to inquire about the immigration status of anyone they detained, even those stopped for minor traffic violations. It would also force local officials to comply with federal immigration requests to detain those who are suspected of being in the country illegally.

Police chiefs and county sheriffs who refuse to comply with federal requests, which are not mandatory under federal law, could face up to a year in jail. Cities, counties and colleges could also face stiff fines, from $1,000 to $25,500 a day.

JOLT TEXAS/FACEBOOK

These changes, Jolt says, will sow fear and distrust into our communities and break apart our families.

What the Latino community and immigrant community is facing right now whether from threats of repealing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to laws like SB 4 in Texas makes many in our community feel fearful and afraid and we want to show that not only we are resisting tendencies like that but we are celebrating who we are, Tzintzun told LatinoUSA.

With reporting from the LA Times
The remains of The Mary Jarecki invite the curious to walk atop the planks, snap pictures and grab hold of the rows of rusted iron bolts that defiantly poke skyward. (John McCormick/Michigan Nut Photography)

MUNISING, Mich.  The Shipwreck Coast  a stretch of shallow waters at the southern end of Lake Superior that's littered with hundreds of doomed vessels  can be found in the shadow of the Au Sable Point Lighthouse.

How's that for irony?

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The history in this nook of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is grim. Sean Ley of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum estimates that of the 600 shipwrecks on Lake Superior's floor, a third are clustered on the coast here between Munising and Paradise, Mich., where the museum sits on Whitefish Point.

But on the bright side of this dark reality: The artifacts are accessible. Masts from some of the shipwrecks protrude from the water a century after sinking. The remains of other wrecked vessels rest at the shoreline like beached whales. And those that are fully sunk require only a quick trip on a glass-bottom boat to inspect.

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Couple that unusual accessibility to so many shipwrecks with the surroundings  Michigan's magnificent Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore  and it's enough excitement to make tourists forget that the water in which they're splashing is the last resting place for hundreds of poor souls (not to mention a few rich pirates).

Here's how it came to be: This stretch of the Great Lakes was a major thoroughfare for cargo ships hauling iron ore from Michigan's Marquette mines to Cleveland, Chicago and beyond. Other ships ferried passengers, pine and, less nobly, freshwater buccaneers eager to raid other ships' cargo. This part of Lake Superior, in the words of Great Lakes historian Fred Stonehouse, "can be especially snotty." Strong northwest winds batter boats. Grand Island, which sits just a few miles offshore mainland Munising, would lure captains desperate to escape storms but offered few safe harbors. Hidden rock reefs lay in ambush just below the water's surface. Visibility here can be low. And captains' blood-alcohol counts were often high. (Don't drink and steam, kids.)

Kate Faust of Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tours recounts the 1870 sinking of 150-foot wooden schooner The Bermuda, which had been docked safely in Marquette until its crew caused too much drunken trouble in town, prompting the sheriff to send them south. They docked near the Shipwreck Coast, where the honorable Captain Michael Finney dutifully went searching for another saloon while his crew remained on board to sleep it off. Their ship filled with water, snapped its mooring lines and sank, drowning three.

"When Captain Finney came back there were just two masts sticking up out of the water," Faust says.

Mother Nature caused the majority of the shipwrecks here; she also preserves the remains like macabre trophies. Lake Superior is cold most of the year, which deters microbacteria that break down natural materials like white-oak hulls. There's no salt, naturally, and none of the zebra mussels that have infiltrated other Great Lakes. Many of the wrecks remain in great shape, and the submerged vessels show no signs of going anywhere soon.

The cargo is a different story. When lumber or iron was salvageable, crews of wrecked ships  the surviving members, at least  would bring up what they could. Other cargo items have been looted over the last century by divers; not illegal back in the day, mind you, but contrary to the modern divers' credo "Take only pictures, leave only bubbles."

The most laughable account of finders-keepers is relayed during the tour that Faust leads. The toilet and anchor from steam barge Herman H. Hettler, which sank under Captain John Johnson's watch in 1926, were snatched by a local diver in the '60s, who proudly displayed them on his front lawn until he retired to Texas 30 years later. That's when Munising locals retrieved the heavy items from the lawn (plucking flowers the wife had planted in the commode) and re-sank them amid the ruins of the ship. This explains why the toilet currently sits perfectly upright, as if awaiting the return of, ahem, Captain John.

Ogling wrecks is encouraged around here, as evidenced by the dozens of varieties of shipwreck magnets you'll find in shops around town. But looting them is now illegal, thanks to the Alger Underwater Preserve, a collective that helped convince Michigan legislators to protect this area. So if you bump into, say, a century-old lantern while backstroking the cool waters, you have to leave it be.

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"Shipwrecks are historical; they're archaeological," surmises Peter Lindquist of the preserve. "There is a certain mystique about them."

The most intimate way to engage with that mystique requires neither a tour ticket nor a scuba kit. The beached wrecks of the Shipwreck Coast are reachable by just a (beautiful) half-hour hike east from the Hurricane River Campground, 12 miles west of Grand Marais. A simple sign directs visitors to trot down a set of sandy steps to the beach, where "you may see parts of old wrecks that washed ashore." You will.

Here is propeller ship The Union, grounded in 1873. Nearby are remains of schooner The General Siegel, washed ashore in 1882. And most prominent is steam barge The Mary Jarecki, wrecked in 1883. The hull of this ship is nestled into the blond, lake-lapped sand, inviting you to walk atop the planks, snap pictures and grab hold of the rows of rusted iron bolts that defiantly poke skyward, like dozens of middle fingers to the forces of nature that caused this catastrophe.

Adding to the area's ambiance is the fact that there's often nobody around. While the shipwreck museum on Whitefish Point hosts crowds eager to study maritime legends, this graveyard where you can actually walk atop artifacts is usually desolate. Ghostly, you might say.

The nasty, biting stable flies no doubt help keep crowds away. (Locals recommend hanging dryer sheets through your belt loops.) And, sure, it takes a stretch of the leg and some rudimentary map skills to find this spot. But the reward is a private visitation with haunted history.

Chris McNamara is a freelance writer.

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If you go

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum: Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, May 1 through Oct. 31. Among the highlights is the bell recovered from the infamous S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald. The bell is the centerpiece of a memorial to the 29 men who died when the vessel sunk in 1975 in Lake Superior. 18335 N. Whitefish Point Road, Paradise, Mich.; 888-492-3747, shipwreckmuseum.com.

Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tours: Two-hour narrated tours aboard boats that pass over two shipwrecks, giving passengers a look at what's below. Tours held daily through Oct. 14. Cost is $33 for adults. 1204 Commercial St., Munising, Mich.; 906-387-4477, shipwrecktours.com.

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President Donald Trump delivers a speech on July 6, 2017, in Krasinski Square, backdropped by the monument commemorating the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis, in Warsaw, Poland. (Alik Keplicz / AP)

I could pretty much agree with Donald Trump's list of enemies to Western civilization. In a speech during his recent trip to Poland, the president said our way of life was endangered by terrorism, cyberwarfare and Russian machinations in the Middle East.

But I cringed when he named as additional culprits "government bureaucracy ... paperwork and regulations." Sure, I have muttered something like that when annoyed by some agency's requirements. But Trump got it dead wrong.

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Paperwork isn't the bane, but rather the salvation, of the West.

Consider this scenario: Something seems wrong with your water bill. So you take your calculations to city hall, where a clerk explains that they use a different formula. "Show me!" you demand, and the clerk opens a volume of regulations to the appropriate page.

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In some countries, the question would land you in a dossier of troublemakers. Indeed, we know when and where that stopped being so in our cultural heritage: Rome, in 451 BC.

Before that, legal disputes were adjudicated according to unwritten customs by a small group of "patricians." But ordinary Romans were no longer willing to trust that they were getting a straight story. They wanted it put in writing. The big shots kicked and screamed, but the little people went on strike until they got their way. Roman law was inscribed on Twelve Tables set up in Rome's Forum for all to see.

That's the ultimate ancestor of our own Freedom of Information Act. Ask for a piece of paper documenting what the government has been up to, and public officials have to give it to you. If they don't, you can file some more paperwork with a court.

Bureaucracy gets a bad rap on bar stools and in books. Franz Kafka wrote a novel, "The Trial," about a man trapped in a bureaucratic labyrinth. He's arrested, but for what? When he tries to find out, he discovers that "the court records, and above all the writ of indictment, are not available to the accused."

The sociologist Max Weber considered bureaucracy indispensable but fallible. Established to serve the needs of a nation, it can turn in upon itself  prioritizing its members' interest over protecting the public's well-being.

Yet other forms of government have a greater fault: administrators who either don't realize they're supposed to serve the nation, or lack the skills to do so. Until relatively recent times, public offices were awarded on the basis of who the applicants were, not what they might know. When a noble title was a general's prerequisite, wars were won by the side that made fewer dumb mistakes.

Then Napoleon conquered much of Europe by offering military command to ordinary soldiers who showed prowess on a battlefield. His rallying cry was: "Every soldier of France carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack."

Napoleon lost his empire, in part, by putting his relatives on the thrones of countries he conquered. Even so, he linked public service to education. Schools were established to train civil servants like engineers, teachers, lawyers and administrators. Admission was by competitive examination, and bureaucracies became repositories of knowledge. Science was their hallmark.

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That link between objectivity and non-partisan civil servants took a hit in this country in 1925. A Tennessee school teacher, John Scopes, was tried and convicted of teaching evolution. State law essentially provided that when scientific knowledge conflicts with religious belief, science loses.

Echoes of that struggle can still be heard. In 1989, California's Board of Education scratched a reference to evolution as "scientific fact" from its textbook guidelines.

That crack has widened to a crevice since Trump took office. Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, aims to scratch regulations adopted to protect the public from pollution.

Remember: In Poland, Trump declared war on regulations.

He is also a climate-change skeptic. So too are Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Pruitt, who wants to set up opposing teams, a "red-team, blue-team" exercise, to debate the issue of human responsibility for global warming. The reds to challenge, the blues to defend an issue on which the scientific community has already voted "Yes."

Pruitt has given a hint of which team he wants to win. He reduced the number of scientists on the agency's advisory board, reportedly in favor of business representatives who want freedom from environmental regulations.

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Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has little enthusiasm for public schools  secularized by Napoleon and well-suited for a pluralistic society. Her passion is private and charter schools, especially those where teaching is religiously inspired.

Trump himself has bad-mouthed the institutions that long have kept rulers honest and bureaucrats nonpartisan. He referred to a member of the judiciary as a "so-called judge." He calls the press a forger of "fake news."

He seems to long for a simpler age. Perhaps one long, long before little people would dare tell a big shot:

"We're not moving until you show us the paperwork!"

rgrossman@chicagotribune.com
I love it when white people get more upset than black people do over racist comments.

It shows that they are good human beings who believe that all people should be treated justly. They can't fathom how anyone could be so insensitive, so cruel.

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Clearly, they don't know what it means to be African-American.

The evidence of systemic racism that was revealed recently within the Chicago water department genuinely appalled many white people. Like African-Americans, they were deeply offended by the series of emails from ousted district water Superintendent Paul Hansen that referred to blacks as "animals" and poked fun at the neighborhood violence that has claimed the lives of so many black children.

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It's heartbreaking and it's frightening. But for many African-Americans, it is not surprising.

To the white people who were shocked, I can only say, "Welcome to our world."

In this era of political correctness, it isn't often that we get to see such blatant racism, especially in the workplace. Sometimes, it takes a white person like Hansen to remind other whites that unbridled racism still exists.

That's not the kind of racism that weighs heavily on the minds of many African-Americans, though. What many find most troubling is the subtle racism of exclusion and other inequities that blacks deal with every day  things those in the majority don't always see.

Still, we shouldn't take those racist emails that circulated within the water department lightly. They show a depth of institutional racism that we don't often get to view up close. According to the emails quoted in Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson's quarterly report issued Monday, this is how a district superintendent apparently viewed African-Americans.

During one previous Fourth of July holiday, a period when dozens of African-Americans in Chicago are either injured or killed in shootings, Hansen sent an email to multiple high-ranking officials in the department titled, "Chicago Safari Tickets."

The email included an image of four white people in safari gear taking pictures of black people trying to break into a car, according to the report.

"If you didn't book a Chicago Safari adventure with us this 4th of July weekend this is what you missed," the report quoted the email as saying.

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"Remember all Chicago Safari packages include 3 deluxe 'Harold's Chicken' meals a day," the report quoted Hansen's email.

"We guarantee that you will see at least one kill and five crime scenes per three day tour. You'll also see lots and lots of animals in their natural habitat. Call and book your Chicago Safari today."

There are problems here on every level. Imagine being an African-American who worked in the water department during Hansen's tenure. Or what about those who worked under the "high-ranking officials" who received the emails and did nothing?

The emails by Hansen and others in the department were discovered during the course of an unrelated investigation.

Hansen, in my opinion, is a racist. He apparently didn't care who knew it. But he isn't the type African-Americans are most concerned with. Nor is he the type that always does the most harm.

Unfortunately, it takes this type of imagery for even racially conscientious whites to get up in arms. But it's the more subtle things that eat away at blacks every day  things that might seem insignificant to others.

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The lack of advancement opportunities in the workplace, not having people of color at the decision-making table and low expectations for blacks to succeed, these are the kinds of things that cause the most pain.

But more than that, such microinequities have the most damaging impact on the quality of life and the economic advancement of black folks. Too often, when African-Americans point out these inequities, they are ignored or accused of overreacting.

We can imagine what kinds of decisions were being made about black people who came into contact with Hansen and others responsible for the emails. But what were the high-ranking officials who received the emails thinking?

All we know is that their silence made them complicit. Those are the type of people who are just as dangerous  the ones who sit back and allow racism to flourish.

So if anyone wonders why African-Americans aren't distraught over emails that joked about the violence in Chicago, it's because blacks already knew that people in the city's poorest neighborhoods often are deemed dispensable.

And why aren't blacks marching in the streets because a former superintendent in the water department emailed a picture depicting a black swimming pool as a small African-American boy sitting in a bucket of water while holding a slice of watermelon?

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It's because African-Americans already knew that black kids aren't always considered to be as important as white kids.

dglanton@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @dahleeng
The Rev. Bruce Wellems, a member of the Claretian Missionaries order, had worked as a priest and community activist at Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood for decades. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

A popular Back of the Yards priest who admitted to sexual misconduct as a teenager has left his Roman Catholic religious order and asked the pope to remove him from the priesthood, according to a letter from the lawyer for the Claretian Missionaries provided as part of a legal settlement.

Bruce Wellems, a former priest at Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, who acknowledged that decades ago, when he was 15, he abused a 7-year-old boy, resigned from the Claretians in the past year, after the victim sued the order.

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The victim, Eric Johnson, now 52, said Wellems abused him multiple times when Johnson was 7 years old.

"I could have chosen to remain anonymous, but I did not, which was not easy for my family nor myself. Yet I continue to push for justice," he said. "He is a danger to the kids and the community."

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Wellems, 60, was barred from active ministry in the Chicago Archdiocese last year after an independent review board uncovered "additional facts that weren't previously available." It is unclear whether the review disclosed an additional victim.

He now serves as the executive director of the Peace and Education Coalition, a nonprofit that he helped create to organize summits and offer scholarships for at-risk youth in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Wellems could not be reached for comment. In an interview with the Tribune last year, he admitted to committing abuse as a minor.

"These allegations had nothing to do with who I was as a person," Wellems said in a Tribune article published last year. "In my adult life I've done nothing against children. There's nothing that's ever come up."

Although Johnson feels somewhat relieved that Wellems no longer wears a collar, the fact that the church won't confirm or deny whether there's another victim and that Wellems still oversees an organization involved with young people still bothers him.

"I definitely think they've taken away the power of his priesthood," Johnson said. "That was one of my main goals. ... I've done everything I can now. It's up to others to watch him."

Members of the board of the Peace and Education Coalition declined to comment without Wellems' permission.

Over the past 30 years, Wellems has become a champion for young Latinos. Several years after his ordination in 1986, the Claretians moved him to Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, where he worked with at-risk youths in the neighborhood.

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When Chicago Public Schools adopted a "one strike, you're out" policy expelling students for offenses such as weapon possession, drug use and gang affiliation  Wellems helped establish two alternative schools, which have become two campuses of the Peace and Education Coalition Accelerated High School, both Chicago public schools.

In 1995, Johnson reached out to the Chicago Archdiocese to make officials aware of the priest's history. The archdiocese referred his complaint to the Claretians, who confronted the priest. Wellems confirmed that Johnson was telling the truth, though his recollection of the details and how long the abuse lasted differs from Johnson's.

He went through clinical assessments and entered counseling before the Claretians cleared him to return. Then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin accepted the determination in July 1996 and restored Wellems' faculties to wear a collar and serve as a priest.

In 2012, the Claretians transferred Wellems to San Gabriel Mission in Los Angeles and promoted him to prefect of the apostolate for the Claretian Missionaries, a position in the Claretian hierarchy. But in 2014, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez removed him from ministry after learning about his prior sexual misconduct as a juvenile. Wellems returned to his former Chicago neighborhood to resume work as a youth advocate and activist.

Earlier this year, the California mission invited Wellems back to receive an award. Johnson's protests prompted the mission to cancel the celebration and prompted the Claretians to accelerate discussions to reach a settlement, Johnson said. As part of that settlement, Richard Leamy, an attorney for the Claretians, produced a letter proving Wellems had resigned and petitioned Pope Francis for removal. The Claretians also agreed to put $25,000 toward legal expenses.

Despite Johnson's insistence during settlement negotiations, the order still has not made the names of credibly accused priests available to the public.

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mbrachear@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @TribSeeker
In 2016, the Coast Guard received 55 distress calls along the Chicago-area lakefront. This year, the guard has fielded about 400 rescue calls. (Joe Shuman / Chicago Tribune)

Authorities are seeing a big jump in distress calls from boaters and others on Lake Michigan this year  with a fair number of them turning out to be false alarms or the work of pranksters, according to year-over-year statistics kept by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard received 55 total distress calls, real and fake, through the end of June last year along the lakeshore that includes Chicago and nearby suburbs. But this year, the agency has responded to about 400 rescue calls so far on the lake, and in roughly half of those cases, Coast Guard officials determined the calls were from boaters inadvertently performing radio checks on emergency channels, others who incorrectly thought they spotted a boat that was capsizing or otherwise in peril or still others playing a joke.

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While they know the nature of the calls, the Coast Guard couldn't pinpoint the reason for the uptick. There certainly aren't more boaters, officials said.

"Many of the calls have been made by children playing on marine band radio, either on a boat or on land," Coast Guard Cmdr. Leanne Lusk, the chief of response for Lake Michigan, told reporters Tuesday alongside fellow guardsmen in front of a rescue helicopter at the Chicago Fire Department Air/Sea Rescue Heliport on the city's East Side.

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Coast Guard rescue crews typically get "mayday," or emergency help, calls from boaters via marine radio, though some are received by phone. Those calls can include reports of sinking boats.

But authorities warned that even a vague radio distress call can be enough to launch an expensive search by boat or helicopter requiring emergency crews to scan hundreds of miles of blue waters for a threat that doesn't exist. Those responses can pull personnel and resources away from actual boating emergencies, or needlessly put first responders in danger, officials said.

Lusk cited a false June 3 distress call made by a child in Chicago that launched a boat and helicopter crew from a Coast Guard station in Waukegan. While taking off, the helicopter  which can cost as much as $16,000 an hour  hit one or more birds and had to make an emergency landing. Another helicopter was launched before authorities determined the call was a "false mayday." Sending out a Coast Guard boat costs about $4,500 per hour.

"Besides the waste of taxpayer money, imagine if something worse had happened to the crew that experienced the bird strike," Lusk said.

A false call means launching a rescue boat and helicopter for three hours, which can cost taxpayers at least $60,000 per call, authorities calculate. So far this year, fake reports and false alarms have cost taxpayers $5-$10 million, according to the Coast Guard.

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Lusk also mentioned last weekend's annual Chicago Yacht Club race to Mackinac Island, Mich., in which the Coast Guard responded to two separate race boat emergencies during the evening.

Five people were rescued in the race, but around the same time a man standing "west of Diversey Harbor . . . issued 28 hoax distress calls while we could hear loud music and people socializing in the background," Lusk said.

"The people in legitimate danger could have lost their lives because someone decided to make a hoax call," she added.

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Coast Guard officials warned parents to secure boat marine radios from children, adding that parents could be liable for prank calls made by their children. Officials said that emergency calls made in error won't be held against boaters if they contact the local Coast Guard unit by phone or by marine radio.

Making a false distress call is a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, a $250,000 fine and rescue reimbursement costs to the Coast Guard, officials said.

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MidNoirCowboy
Chicago police Officer Joseph Walsh, left, with attorney Tom Breen, leaves the courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building on July 10, 2017. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

A new judge was appointed Tuesday to preside over the case of three Chicago police officers indicted on charges of covering up the Laquan McDonald shooting.

Domenica A. Stephenson, a former Cook County prosecutor, has been on the bench for about a decade, all but about a year assigned to the Criminal Division. She had been a "floating" judge filling in for vacationing judges at the Leighton Criminal Court Building until her recent assignment to the former courtroom of Judge Raymond Myles, the longtime jurist who was fatally shot in April in a robbery outside his home.

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The appointment comes after special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes on Thursday moved to "substitute"  automatically remove  Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, who had been appointed to oversee the case last week.

Under the law, attorneys making this request must claim that the judge is prejudiced against their side.

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Each defendant in a criminal case can automatically "substitute" a judge one time.

Attorneys for the three officers  former Detective David March, ex-Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney  were not immediately available to comment on if they would object to Stephenson's appointment.

Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot the 17-year-old McDonald 16 times in October 2014, is separately being prosecuted on first-degree murder charges.

Stephenson is the third judge assigned to preside over the alleged cover-up case since the three officers' first court appearance last week. The case was initially given to Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan, who recused herself without explanation.

Brosnahan appears to have stepped aside because her husband, Kriston Kato, a onetime controversial Chicago police detective, was dispatched to the scene of McDonald's shooting that night as a representative of the Fraternal Order of Police union. Documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune show Kato told investigators with the city inspector general's office in 2016 that he spoke with both Van Dyke and Walsh.

After Brosnahan stepped aside last week, Cannon was assigned to preside over the hot-button case.

Cannon is perhaps best known for her 2015 acquittal of then-Chicago police Cmdr. Glenn Evans on charges he shoved his gun down Rickey Williams' throat and threatened to kill him. In throwing out all charges, Cannon belittled evidence of Williams' DNA on Evans' service weapon as "of fleeting relevance or significance."

In May, Cannon abruptly stepped down from handling a murder case after long refusing to do so amid allegations by lawyers with the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law that she was openly biased against the defense. That came less than a week after the judge made bizarre comments while castigating defense lawyers for what she called "a personality defect regarding me" and denying she had called one of the lawyers "Mr. Underpants" behind his back.

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At a routine hearing Tuesday, Cannon granted prosecutors' request for a new judge in the alleged cover-up case involving the three officers.

The officers and their attorneys, as well as the special prosecutor, then went before Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., the presiding jurist of the Criminal Division who announced that the case had been randomly assigned to Stephenson.

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The lawyers then went to Stephenson's second-floor courtroom for their first appearance. Stephenson continued the case until next month.

The three officers face charges of obstruction of justice, official misconduct and conspiracy for allegedly covering up Van Dyke's actions. Last week, attorneys for March, Walsh and Gaffney entered pleas of not guilty, and each defendant was released on his own recognizance.

The case against Van Dyke and the related prosecution of the three officers has attracted intense interest. The shooting was captured on police dashboard camera video that contradicted what Van Dyke and other officers had described.

The charges allege that the three officers, together with Van Dyke himself, lied to exaggerate the threat posed by the 17-year-old McDonald. The video showed Van Dyke shoot McDonald 16 times as the black teen walked away from police while holding a knife.

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March and Walsh left the department after the inspector general recommended their firing. Gaffney, still with the department when the indictment came down late last month, was suspended without pay.

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @crepeau
In this Dec. 22 photo, Jesse Parham, Martia Flint's grandmother, holds photographs of her great-grandsons Tobias K. Smith and Tyrone Smith III, all three of whom were slain Dec. 20, 2014, in Rockford. (Sunny Strader / Associated Press)

ROCKFORD, Ill.  "Love will get you killed."

Marilyn Hite Ross, chief of the criminal bureau in the Winnebago County State's Attorney's Office, called the words found on Martia Flint's cellphone "sad" and "prophetic."

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The text message was one of several shared by Hite Ross during closing arguments today in the murder trial of Calvin L. Carter III held at the Winnebago County Justice Center.

After three hours of deliberation, Carter, 24, was found guilty of 133 counts of first-degree murder and home invasion in the execution-style deaths of four people.

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Flint, 24; Tyrone Smith III, 6; and Tobias K. Smith, 4; and Demontae Rhodes, 24, were found shot to death on Dec. 20, 2014, in Flint's residence, a red-trimmed brick duplex in Rockford, Ill. After the verdict was read Carter rose from his seat smiling and was led out of the courtroom by guards and his attorney.

Outside the courtroom, Rhodes' father, Calvin Rhodes, stood surrounded by family members when he thanked the State's Attorney's Office which he said "worked tirelessly to make sure we got the verdict that we were hoping for."

He said, however, the guilty verdict does not equate to justice served.

"Justice is when your car is stolen, and it is replaced. Justice is when your money is taken, and it is replaced. There is no justice when a life is taken. We will always have four empty seats at Christmas time. We will always have four empty seats at Thanksgiving. Where is the justice when a life is taken?"

While Carter faces a life sentence, Rhodes said his family as well as the Smiths and Flints started serving a life sentence 2 1/2 years ago upon the deaths of their loved ones.

"We will do day-by-day-by-day along with this young man because we have a life sentence also." During closing arguments it was through a string of text messages sent from Flint to Carter such as, "Please leave me alone," sent on Dec. 12; and, "I'm so scared of you now. My face still hurts," sent on Dec. 13, that Hite Ross and Deputy State's Attorney James Brun painted a picture of Carter as an abusive and controlling boyfriend who became enraged when Flint broke off their relationship.

"These murders were personal," Hite Ross said holding up one at a time four Styrofoam heads each with red markings depicting where each of the victims were shot.

Public defender Nick Zimmerman argued the state's case was built on circumstantial evidence. He told the jury there were no fingerprints on the murder weapon or blood splatter on any of Carter's clothing recovered by police. Hite Ross, however, told the jury the text messages and 97 phone called made by Carter to Flint leading up to the murders were "digital finger prints."

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Flint, a dental assistant, and Rhodes, an amateur boxer and family businessman, had recently rekindled their relationship after a breakup, during which Flint had dated Carter.

Police recovered Flint's cellphone, which contained more than 1,800 text messages. It was from the text messages that Carter emerged as a prime suspect. Flint revealed in the text messages that Carter had abused her and she was concerned that he might hurt her.

Police also recovered a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol with a live round still in the chamber and an empty 13-bullet magazine. The gun was found tossed in a yard among debris at an abandoned southeast Rockford residence where Carter used to live. The weapon matched the brand and model of the 13 shell casings found in Flint's residence.

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Brun told the jury the prosecution does not have to prove motive but offered one anyway. He said Carter killed Flint over "rejection, jealousy and finality" of their relationship being over.

Hite Ross said Carter killed Rhodes and the children because he did not want to leave witnesses.

In his closing statements, Zimmerman told the jury finding Carter not guilty "will be the toughest decision you'll ever make because of the sympathy that we all feel for the children, but it will be the right decision." After the verdict Zimmerman left the Justice Center saying, "We'll file all the usual post trial motions asking for a new trial."

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He did not state on what grounds a new trial would be sought.

Hite Ross spoke of the need for the pubic to recognize and report domestic abuse.

"What we would like to convey is if anyone finds themselves in a domestic-violence type of relationship to reach out for assistance so that we do not have these types of situations occurring in the future."

Carter is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. Sept. 8.
The scene at 1800 S. Calumet, where a Chicago police officer was shot and wounded and a man killed July 21, 2016. (Brian Jackson / Chicago Tribune)

A sister of a man shot to death by Chicago police officers last year in a Prairie District park challenged officers' version of events, saying an officer who was wounded in what police described as an exchange of gunfire actually shot himself.

Arlena Love filed a wrongful death suit Monday against the city of Chicago and three police officers, saying they overreacted and used excessive force when they shot and killed her brother, Derek Love, 50, on July 21, 2016, in Battle of Fort Dearborn Park. Arlena Love is administrator of her brother's estate.

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Around 8 p.m. that evening, bicycle officers responded to a report of a person "acting erratically" at the park, 1801 S. Calumet Ave. Soon after, they found Derek Love, who was on his cellphone at the time.

The police narrative and the account given in the lawsuit differ on what happened next. The officers named in the suite could not immediately be reached for comment, and Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to comment on pending litigation.

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Police said in the day after the shooting that Love pulled a gun out of his backpack and began firing, hitting a 17-year veteran officer in the leg. The day of the shooting, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters the wounded officer was able to apply a tourniquet to his leg with the help of his partner, probably saving his life.

Days later, Johnson and dozens of others attended a vigil for the wounded police officer, which was lamented as the latest attack on law enforcement, following officers recently killed in Dallas, Baton Rouge, La., and Kansas City, Kan.

"These are difficult times we're in right now," Johnson said at the time. "It's a difficult time to be in law enforcement. We're more than a team, we're a family. It's important to show support for one another as we go through these difficult times."

The lawsuit, however, suggests Love was unarmed and his drawstring Nike bag only contained a few cans of beer and his ID. He tried to walk away from officers but didn't hit or point any weapon at them.

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The wounded officer accidentally shot himself, it says.

Documents released by the Independent Police Review Authority, the agency charged with investigating police-involved shootings, indicate the officer reported a self-inflicted wound as a result of discharging his weapon. The officer was treated and released from the hospital the next day.

Police reports released by IPRA  none of which contain any narrative of the incident  indicate officers believed Love had fired at them, and that he used a 9 mm pistol, but do not indicate whether a handgun was found at the scene.

Love was shot numerous times in the back, chest, left wrist, stomach and left leg, according to one of the reports. He died less than an hour after being taken to the hospital.

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Monday's suit states officers used "unreasonable and dangerous force without justification," resulting in Love's death.

IPRA has not yet completed its investigation into the shooting.

The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. has certified with Congress that Iran is legally in compliance on the nuclear deal, but senior Trump administration officials said both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump will couch that certification with an accusation that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the [agreement].



The officials pointed to a range of malign activities including Irans ballistic missile development, support of militant groups in the region and Syria's Assad regime, its hostility to Israel and its continued detention of foreigners including U.S. citizens.



The officials said that moving forward the administration will employ a strategy that seeks to address Irans aggressive behavior in the region.



They did not specifically outline any measures they would press for but said they expect to implement new sanctions in the near future targeting Irans ballistic missile program and other misbehavior in the region.



In addition, the officials said they would seek to strengthen their relationships with partners in the region to identify areas of ambiguity that Iran has sought to take advantage of to potentially skirt parts of the deal.



The Trump administration's announcement tonight was part of an obligation the U.S. has under the deal to certify every 90 days that Iran is complying with the agreement. The last time the administration announced its certification of Iran's compliance, Secretary Tillerson blasted the country for its behavior in the region and said the Trump administration will address the agreement's failures to contain Iran.



Earlier Monday evening, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Mohammed Javad Zarif, took questions while at the Council on Foreign Relations and defended his country's compliance with the deal.



"I think our compliance is rather straightforward because its not for guessing whether we have complied or not," Zarif said. "That is very clear, in black and white in the reports of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] which is hardly a sympathizer of Iran. Thats so you dont need to ask me whether weve complied."



Zarif continued that Iran believes that for the U.S., including under the Obama administration, it is "more important to maintain the sanctions that remain rather than remove the sanctions."



He also argued that U.S. sanctions do not work, saying, "Let me tell you something, the United States should reconsider its approach to sanctions. Sanctions have never been an asset for the United States ... When the U.S. government started to impose nuclear sanctions on Iran we only had 200 centrifuges. When they started negotiating with us in order to remove those sanctions, we had 20,000 centrifuges. So if you want to see the result of sanctions  just 19,800 centrifuges is the net result of sanctions. So sanctions do not produce outcome."



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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?
By John Niggl, Client Manager for InTouch Manufacturing Services

This is Part 1 of a two-part article about quality control inspections in China. In Part 2, we discuss steps to prevent corruption in your quality control inspection process.

Transparency Internationals latest Corruption Perception Index places most countries in the Asia Pacific region in the bottom half of their world ranking. And given the prevalence of contract manufacturing in countries like China, India, and Vietnam  all of which scored 40 or less out of a possible 100 points  these results continue to give importers cause for concern.

If youre like most importers, your supply chain probably contains tens, if not hundreds, of different suppliers, though you may have only directly contacted a few. And even if youre careful to conduct quality control inspection at various stages of production, you may still be vulnerable to corruption and its consequences.

In fact, high integrity is one of the traits importers most often seek in a quality control (QC) inspector, whether hiring their own staff or an independent inspection firm. But even despite your best efforts at due diligence, corruption can still impact your inspections. Results can vary from receiving defective or otherwise unsellable goods, to losing valued customers and distribution channels when retailers refuse to stock your products.

O in Part 2 of this article. But lets first discover how corruption typically appears and some specific problems you are likely to face when it permeates in your QC team.

What does corruption in your QC inspection process look like?

When you hear the word corruption you probably think of an overt exchange of money for some favor or special treatment. Chinas custom of exchanging red envelopes filled with money, or hongbao, is a well-known example, though similar ones exist in other East Asian countries. But like many importers, you may not realize that corruption, as seen in the QC industry today, more often takes much subtler forms, including:

Transportation  factory management or staff may offer to drive your inspector to or from the inspection site.

 factory management or staff may offer to drive your inspector to or from the inspection site. Meals  suppliers may offer to provide free lunch to your inspector, whether on-site or at a nearby restaurant.

 suppliers may offer to provide free lunch to your inspector, whether on-site or at a nearby restaurant. Gifts  suppliers may offer your inspector a gift, often cigarettes, tea, or a bottle of wine in China, for example.

 suppliers may offer your inspector a gift, often cigarettes, tea, or a bottle of wine in China, for example. Accommodation  inspectors are often based locally near the factory or inspection site. But other times they may need to travel to a remote location and find lodging for the night. Factory managers may offer to pay for or otherwise provide accommodation.

 inspectors are often based locally near the factory or inspection site. But other times they may need to travel to a remote location and find lodging for the night. Factory managers may offer to pay for or otherwise provide accommodation. Entertainment  it is very common for suppliers in East Asia to treat their customers to an evening out to dinner or a local bar or karaoke (KTV in China). They may extend a similar invitation to your inspector.

Seemingly innocent gestures like these, which you might never have expected would be a problem, could influence your inspectors judgement. And the more time an inspector spends at a particular factory dealing with the same factory workers, the more likely they are to develop a friendly relationship that can interfere with honest inspecting and reporting.

RELATED: Why Ford Chose China Over Mexico

Extortion on the part of inspectors

While most importers are likely to assume corrupt suppliers are the only integrity threat in the QC industry, extortion on the part of outside inspectors has become a growing concern in recent years. Extortion typically occurs when inspectors demand some compensation, or kickback, from suppliers in exchange for favorable reports of product quality. The goods produced at a factory may meet your requirements, but an unscrupulous inspector may threaten to submit a report to the contrary, unless your supplier gives them some kind of reward.

When extortion occurs inspectors are more likely to report quality issues that are difficult to confirm with photos or conclusive data in their report. For example, inspectors often confirm resin coating on a fabric by hand feel alonetheres usually little else they can do to test this on-site. This makes it easy for an inspector to lie about the result in their report. And importers are more likely to trust their inspectors word over their suppliers.

Similar examples can occur when comparing a golden sample against mass production to visually check for discrepancies in appearance. Its relatively easy for an inspector to claim the two dont match. Like most importers, you may rely on photos in the report to tell the difference. But characteristics like matte/glossy finish or color can be difficult to judge by photos alone.

As more importers have become alert of the risk of suppliers corrupting their inspection staff, extortion has become a more frequent practice. Nevertheless, both corruption and extortion have the potential to do irreparable damage to your brand and supply chain.

What consequences might you face when your inspectors integrity is compromised?

Perhaps the most obvious and immediate result of integrity issues during the product inspection process is that you will receive an inaccurate report. Integrity issues can affect reporting in several ways, including:

Falsely reporting product condition or quality  inspectors might plainly misrepresent their findings of the product in the report they issue you. For example, they might underreport the number of defective units found in the sample. Or they might report that your product passed a particular on-site test when it actually failed, or they didnt perform the testing.

 inspectors might plainly misrepresent their findings of the product in the report they issue you. For example, they might underreport the number of defective units found in the sample. Or they might report that your product passed a particular on-site test when it actually failed, or they didnt perform the testing. Under-inspecting  most inspections use acceptance sampling , typically following AQL standards , which dictates a specific sample size, the number of pieces from production QC staff pull randomly for inspection. Often you will have agreed with your inspector ahead of time on this sample size (e.g. 125 pieces). Your inspector may check fewer pieces than this quantity, while reporting that they checked the full sample size.

 most inspections use , typically following , which dictates a specific sample size, the number of pieces from production QC staff pull randomly for inspection. Often you will have agreed with your inspector ahead of time on this sample size (e.g. 125 pieces). Your inspector may check fewer pieces than this quantity, while reporting that they checked the full sample size. Overstating the quantity of finished goods  production and shipping delays are common worries among importers. Inspectors may falsely report that production is on schedule by overstating the number of finished goods they find at the factory.

 production and shipping delays are common worries among importers. Inspectors may falsely report that production is on schedule by overstating the number of finished goods they find at the factory. Hiding the factory information  your supplier may not want you to know the true location of their factory, the conditions at that factory or that they are using sub-suppliers.

The main concern with receiving an inaccurate inspection report is that you will likely make decisions about your goods based on false information. This can result in a number of serious consequences.

Shipping defective or substandard goods

False or inaccurate reporting often leads importers to approve an order for shipping only to find unacceptable quality issues in the finished goods they receive. Whether you find a high number of defects or products that dont conform to your specifications, these issues can have a major impact on your bottom line.

You may need to pay for costly product rework or other corrective actions that factory staff could easily have performed prior to shipping. Worse yet, you may be forced to discard unsellable goods or send goods to customers that dont meet their expectations. Ultimately, you could face extra costs in the form of waste and product returns.

RELATED: Legal and Due Diligence Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

Missing shipping deadlines

Another consequence of receiving an inaccurate report is delays. Misinformation can lead to confusion and delays as you try to determine when your shipment will be ready to leave the factory. These delays often affect your customers, as you may be unable to meet commitments youve made to deliver the goods to them by a certain date.

Violating labor laws or social compliance standards

You may already be familiar with the implications of corruption and extortion in the auditing industry. Factory managers facing an audit to check adherence to brand or retailer compliance standards might attempt to hide violations by bribing the auditor. A similar situation can occur during QC inspection. Factory staff may bribe an inspector to keep them from reporting any glaring labor violations they may have witnessed during inspection.

Your distributors may choose to cut ties with you if they discover labor violations at your suppliers facility. Negative publicity surrounding labor violations can damage you brands reputation, as shown with Ivanka Trumps brand, which made recent headlines. A safety violation could even result in an industrial disaster like the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, which resulted in about 1,130 deaths.

This is Part 1 of a two-part article about quality control inspections in China. In Part 2, we discuss steps to prevent corruption in your quality control inspection process.



About Us Founded in 2008, InTouch Manufacturing Services is an American-owned, third-party QC firm headquartered in Shenzhen, China. Specializing in product inspections, factory audits, lab testing and product sourcing, InTouch operates widely in China, India, Vietnam and throughout much of Asia. With emphasis on high integrity and personalized attention from a dedicated bilingual point of contact, InTouch primarily serves importers from North America, the EU and Australia. China Briefing is published by Asia Briefing, a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. We produce material for foreign investors throughout Asia, including ASEAN, India, Indonesia, Russia, the Silk Road, and Vietnam. For editorial matters please contact us here, and for a complimentary subscription to our products, please click here. Dezan Shira & Associates is a full service practice in China, providing business intelligence, due diligence, legal, tax, IT, HR, payroll, and advisory services throughout the China and Asian region. For assistance with China business issues or investments into China, please contact us at china@dezshira.com or visit us at www.dezshira.com

Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017

This Dezan Shira & Associates 2017 China guide provides a comprehensive background and details of all aspects of setting up and operating an American business in China, including due diligence and compliance issues, IP protection, corporate establishment options, calculating tax liabilities, as well as discussing on-going operational issues such as managing bookkeeping, accounts, banking, HR, Payroll, annual license renewals, audit, FCPA compliance and consolidation with US standards and Head Office reporting.

Payroll Processing in China: Challenges and Solutions

In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we lay out the challenges presented by Chinas payroll landscape, including its peculiar Dang An and Hu Kou systems. We then explore how companies of all sizes are leveraging IT-enabled solutions to meet their HR and payroll needs, and why outsourcing payroll is the answer for certain company structures. Finally, we consider the potential for China to emerge as Asias premier payroll processing center.

Dezan Shira & Associates
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The founder of debt-laden LeEco, Jia Yueting, didn't attend a shareholders' meeting of its listed subsidiary, Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp, held Monday in Beijing.

The 15-minute meeting was held without any interactive communications with Leshi's shareholders on site. Leshi has been suspended from trading with unresolved debts and other problems.

Leshi posted a loss of about 640 million yuan (US$92.8 million) in the first half, a reversal from a profit of 280 million a year ago, the Shenzhen-listed firm said during the weekend.

Leshi and its new investor pleaded with suppliers and investors for "more time to repay debts and a rebound in business," which needs capital and patience.

In January, cash-strapped LeEco secured a US$2.2 billion investment from a group led by property developer Sunac China Holdings.

"It's good business. We need more time and maybe some finance," Sunac Chairman Sun Hongbing said at the meeting, as quoted by media.

Sun was referring to listed Leshi's business in online video, film production and smart TV. It doesn't include LeEco's ambitious electric car business.

Jia, who is now in the US, quit as chairman of Leshi Internet to become chairman at LeEco's car unit. He's still the controlling shareholder of LeEco.

His resignation came after asset managers sought to pull investment after a Shanghai court granted China Merchant Bank Co's request to freeze US$182 million in assets due to late interest payments.
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Chinese budget airline Lucky Air on Tuesday launched a direct air route between Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, and Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei.

The flight departs from Kunming every Tuesday and Saturday at 11:15 a.m. and arrives in Bandar Seri Begawan at 3:20 p.m. local time. The return flight leaves Bandar Seri Begawan at 4:20 p.m. local time and arrives in Kunming at 8:55 p.m.

It is the first direct regular air route between Kunming and Bandar Seri Begawan, also the cultural center of Brunei.
An apartment catches fire on June 22 in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, leaving four people dead. [File Photo]

Hangzhou authorities have released more details in the case of a nanny accused of setting fire to an apartment in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China News Service reported on Monday.

At a news conference, the authorities said the nanny had used her mobile phone to learn how to set a fire. They also said the property management company failed to maintain safe facilities and to provide emergency response.

The police said Mo Huanjing, 34, confessed after her arrest, and was charged on July 1 with arson and theft in connection with the blaze that swept through an apartment in a residential building on June 22. The fire killed a mother and her three children, aged 6 to 11 years, Li Bing, deputy director of the Shangcheng district public security bureau, said at the news conference.

Mo was addicted to online gambling, Li said. She had worked as a babysitter since 2015 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and in Shanghai, but was fired three times after being accused of theft.

She had worked for the family caught in the fire since September and had stolen items she subsequently pawned for 130,000 yuan (US$19,000) to pay off gambling debts. Mo also borrowed 114,000 yuan from her employer, claiming she needed to buy a house for her parents. During the investigation, the police discovered that Mo had searched such key words as "lighter", "sofa fire" and "curtain fire" from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. on the day of the blaze, the news service reported.

Later, at 4:55 a.m., Mo used a lighter to set fire to a book on a tea table. The fire spread to the sofa, got out of control and frightened Mo, who fled, leaving the mother and three children to die.

Firefighters arrived at the scene at 5:11 a.m., but the fire engine was blocked. Firemen rescued seven people but failed to reach the blazing room. Insufficient fire hydrant pressure prevented fire suppression and delayed the rescue effort, the report said.

According to Chen, the property management company had many problems with its emergency preparedness, including staff members who didn't know how to switch on a fire hydrant pump manually.
People enjoy themselves at a crawfish banquet during a crawfish festival in Xuyi county, east China's Jiangsu Province, June 13, 2017. Over 30,000 people attend the event and eat 35 tons of crayfishes provided by 47 local shops. [Photo/Xinhua]

A popular snack in China, crawfish has spawned a new professional industry with an occupational school in Hubei Province set to train students in all aspects of the crustacean, reported thepaper.cn.

The Jianghan Art Vocational College in Qianjiang city has enrolled 86 students in crawfish-related majors. From the fall semester, students will study 2-3 year courses on catering management, marketing, and cooking and nutrition.

The city is one of the major producers of crawfish in China. Cooking and exporting the freshwater crustacean is a main income source for local farmers.

In May 2016, the college set up a crawfish school, the only one of its kind in China, as the city aimed to boost the industry by cultivating more crawfish breeders, cooks and opening more crawfish restaurants.

"Despite the rapid growth of the crawfish industry, managerial professionals are still in shortage," Xia Zhizhong, a recruitment officer at the school, said.

China is the world's largest crawfish producer. By mid-2016, the number of restaurants selling crawfish was triple the number of KFC outlets in China.
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Police detained suspected serial killer Gao Chengyong in the city of Baiyin, Gansu Province, on August 26, 2016. [Photo/thepaper.cn]

A high-profile criminal case has been heard at the Baiyin Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Gansu Province on Tuesday.

Alleged serial killer Gao Chengyong, detained in the city of Baiyin last year, is on trial for intentional killing, rape, robbery and desecrating a human corpse.

If convicted, the 53-year old Gao could face the death penalty. A verdict is expected later this week.

Gao Chengyong is accused of raping and murdering 11 people from 1988 to 2002. He was arrested in August, 2016, after a lengthy investigation in the city of Baiyin, where 9 of the 11 killings took place.

Prosecutors have alleged Gao would target young women dressed in red, then follow them home, where he would subsequently rape and kill them, normally by cutting their throats. The victims' bodies were also mutilated after their deaths, leading to the killer being dubbed 'China's Jack the Ripper' in Chinese media.
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Iran's army chief on Monday warned the U.S. against the repercussions of blacklisting the the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, mainly because of Iran's missile program, Press TV reported.

"Marking the IRGC along with terrorist groups and imposing similar sanctions on it is a big risk for the Americans, for their bases and their forces in the region," Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said.

In May, a bill introduced by the U.S. Senate, in case it is passed by the Congress and implemented by the the State Department, would label the IRGC as a terrorist group and trigger sanctions on it.

Baqeri warned the United States against "wrong calculations" regarding the Islamic Republic, including its planned sanctions and possible blacklisting of the IRGC.

"American officials are advised to talk somewhat wiser, more measured and mature to other countries, especially a country like Iran that has stood against all conspiracies with pride and strength, and no longer play with their honor," he was quoted as saying.

Baqeri also stressed that Iran's advanced missile power is "defensive and non-negotiable."

He said that despite the continuing plots and threats from the enemies since decades ago, the Islamic republic has been able to defend borders and to overcome terrorism.

Baqeri called for more deterrent progress and readiness to thwart emerging security threats by some powers and their regional allies, including Israel, against Iran.

On May 10, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran would increase its missile capability despite the enemies' propaganda against it.

The U.S. officials have said Iran's ballistic missile launches are threats to the U.S. interests in the world.

The Iranian officials unanimously called the missile tests "inalienable right" of the country to boost deterrent power.
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Pakistan military on Monday lodged protest with Indian army over firing on an army vehicle, which resulted into the killing of four soldiers.

The army spokesman said that Director General Military Operations (DGMO) notified Pakistan's demarche to his Indian counterpart to protest "deliberate targeting" of Pakistan Army's vehicle resulting into the killing of four soldiers besides injuring one soldier and a civilian passerby.

The army said on Sunday that the Indian forces fired at the vehicle along Neelum River at Athmaqam area along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region.

The Pakistani DGMO recorded protest with Indian counterpart during the weekly hotline contact that took place on Monday, the spokesman said in a statement.

"The DGMO Pakistan Army, Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza emphasized the importance of controlling tactical actions of under command troops, since these indiscretions can potentially spiral major standoffs," the statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

"While we don't want to go down the path where we start choking each other's supply lines, however, any such recurrence will invoke more strong and effective measures from Pakistan's side," the DGMO Pakistan Army said.

He said such acts have the potential to escalate which then will be extremely detrimental to peace and stability.

Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC in 2003. However, both sides routinely accuse each other of ceasefire violations.

The Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said Sunday that Indian forces have committed 580 ceasefire violations so far this year, which he described as the "highest in any year."
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The Italian cabinet deferred the discussion of a bill that would grant citizenship to foreign children born or raised in the country, local media said Monday.

Rather than being examined throughout the summer, as expected, the draft law would see its legislative proceedings delayed until autumn.

"Considering the urgent deadlines in the Senate calendar, and the difficulties that have arisen among some forces in the (government's) majority, I do not think conditions are right to pass the bill on citizenship before the summer break," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement on Sunday.

"Still, it is a just law, and my personal commitment -- and that of the government -- to approving it in autumn remains," he added.

The draft law would recognize as new citizens at least 800,000 young people already living in Italy, according to estimates by Leone Moressa Foundation based on official statistics.

More specifically, it would involve some 634,592 foreign minors born in Italy since 1998, plus 166,000 born abroad but attending Italian schools for at least five years.

These, in fact, would be the two major factors modifying the current legislation, if the reform is approved.

With the new law, the citizenship would be based on a tempered "right of the soil" principle, and on the cultural participation of the child ("right of the culture").

As such, citizenship would be granted to all children born in Italy to foreign parents (one of whom must have a long-term residence permit), and all those entering the country before 12 years old, but attending Italian schools for at least five years.

Currently, children born to foreign parents can apply for the Italian citizenship between their 18 and 19 birthdays. Yet, they must also prove they have lived here legally and continuously their whole life, which can be a difficult task considering the country's heavy red tape.

The reform project is controversial -- most center-right parties and anti-establishment Five Star Movement would not support it -- and the issue was being debated while the country is witnessing the highest inflows of migrants and refugees in decades.

Although the prime minister blamed the busy calendar for the delay, it seemed clear a major reason was the lack of solid support in the senate, which is where his center-left cabinet can count on a thin majority of seats only.

In June, Gentiloni had appealed to lawmakers to swiftly approve what he had called "a law of civilization."

The draft law has been passed by deputies in October 2015, and now needs the green light of senators to enter into force. In case the senate modifies the current text, however, the bill will have to hit the lower house floor again for a second approval.

Opponents to the reform, including anti-immigration Northern League, have submitted some 48,000 amendments to the text, according to media reports.
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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi (R) meets with visiting Kuwaiti First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah (C) in Cairo, Egypt, on July 17, 2017. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi discussed on Monday the recent developments in the Qatari crisis with visiting Kuwaiti First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, state-run MENA news agency reported. (Xinhua/MENA)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi discussed on Monday the recent developments in the Qatari crisis with visiting Kuwaiti First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, state-run MENA news agency reported.

Spokesman for Egyptian presidency told MENA that the meeting tackled Kuwait's efforts to solve a number of regional crises, including the month-long diplomatic standoff between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc which includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Last month, the four countries severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and cut off sea, land and air links to the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.

Qatar has strongly denied the charges against it, while rejecting a list of 13 demands put forward by the bloc for resuming diplomatic ties.

Among the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, Oman and Kuwait, who acts as mediator, did not join the anti-Qatar blockade.

Meanwhile, the spokesman said that Al-Sabah briefed President Sisi on the role Kuwait plays to maintain the unity of the Arabs at this very critical time as the region is facing grave challenges.

The spokesman said President Sisi told Al-Sabah that Egypt's foreign policy is based on the principle of non-interference into the domestic affairs of any country; subsequently it refuses any interference of other countries into its internal affairs.

Sisi also stressed the importance to firmly face all policies meant to support terrorism and destabilize Arab countries, the spokesman added.

Earlier in the day, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also met Monday with Al-Sabah and conferred over the Qatar with crisis, MENA said.

During the meeting, Shoukry stressed that Egypt is committed to the list of demands submitted to Qatar, adding that the measures taken against the Arab country will continue.

Shoukry added that the Arab quartet sense that Qatar goes on adopting the policy of procrastination, paying no attention to the aspirations of the region's peoples to curb terrorism.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in May that later triggered a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its neighbors, according to The Washington Post.

Citing U.S. intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the report said that U.S. officials learned last week that on May 23, senior UAE officials discussed the plan and its implementation.

The hacks of Qatari websites and posting which took place on May 24 said that Qatar's emir, among other things, had called Iran an "Islamic power" and praised Hamas, according to the report.

Since then, Qatar has insisted that its emir had never made the remarks and that the quotes were posted by hackers.

In response to the posting, however, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 and cut off sea, land and air links to the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.

According to the Post, U.S. intelligence officials said that it remained unclear whether the UAE carried out the hacking or paid others to have it done.

A statement by the Qatar government said that it believed the Post report to be true, while the UAE denied the allegations.

"The @washingtonpost story is false. UAE had no role whatsoever in the alleged hacking described in the article," the UAE embassy in Washington tweeted, citing its ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba as saying.
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The Council of the Arab League on Monday condemned Israel's decision to bar Palestinians from entering the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.

In a statement after a meeting in Cairo on the recent developments in East Jerusalem, The Council said the Israeli measures there are a blatant breach of Palestinian worship rights.

The Council added that the Israeli practices violate the international laws and the United Nations resolutions.

It also stressed the necessity to end the Israeli practices, rejecting Israel's change of the status quo in East Jerusalem.

Israel shut down the holy site and installed checkpoints and metal detectors at its entrances after three Palestinian Muslims with Israeli citizenship shot dead two Israel policemen on Friday morning.

It was for the first time in the past 50 years that Israel closed the compound, which is Islam's third holiest site.

Israel reopened the holy site on Sunday, requiring all visitors to go through security checks through metal detectors that were placed at two gates.

However, the Waqf, a Muslim religious authority that administrates the compound, rejected the new measures and refused to hold prayers at the mosque.
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Sudan's President al-Bashir visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday in bid to step up brotherly ties and enhance all-round cooperation, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces met with al-Bashir and discussed issues of common concern.

According to the report, the two sides reviewed "the challenges facing the region, especially extremism, terrorism and regional interventions aimed at destabilizing the region and undermining the process of building and development, as well as discussing the most effective ways to combat terrorist organizations and their sources of funding."

The Sudanese president and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince also discussed the latest developments on the regional and international arenas.

During the meeting, they discussed the distinguished "brotherly relations" between the two countries and their cooperation in various political, economic and developmental aspects and ways to develop this cooperation for a broader and more welcoming horizon.

The UAE and Sudan are both part of a Saudi-led pan-Arab military coalition which has been fighting Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 26 2015.

The coalition supports Yemen's internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
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A Jordan court on Monday sentenced a soldier to life over the killing of three American military trainers outside an army base last year, local media reported.

Maarik al-Tawaiha, 39, was found guilty of shooting the trainers as they waited to enter the King Faisal base at Al-Jafr in southern Jordan on November 4.

The court sentenced Tawaiha to "hard labour for life", a term that usually lasts 20 years but could stretch to a full lifetime, it said.

The prosecution in June accused him of "voluntary manslaughter" over the deaths of Matthew Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe and James Moriarty.

He was also charged with "insulting the dignity and reputation of the armed forces and violating military orders".

In its ruling, the court said the incident had happened when vehicles carrying the trainers approached the gate of the base.

Tawaiha, who was in a guard post at the gate, told the court he had opened fire on the cars carrying the American trainers because he suspected an attack on the base.

The shots killed the three Americans and wounded a Jordanian soldier.

The King Faisal air base hosts trainers of various nationalities including Americans.

Jordan, which hosts some 2,200 American military personnel, is a key American ally and a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Iran is a threat to Israel, the Middle East and potentially the world, Haaretz newspaper said on Monday.

Israel opposes the southwest Syria ceasefire agreed by Russia and the U.S. since it would enable Iran to solidify its presence there, it said.

The accord creating a de-escalation zone in Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida regions includes areas that have seen Israel retaliate over stray fire into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from clashes between Syrian regime forces and rebels.

The Iran-backed Shiite movement is a key supporter of Syria's regime and is fighting alongside government forces.

An Israeli official said that Netanyahu opposed the deal "because of the Iranian presence" in Syria.

According to Haaretz newspaper, Netanyahu expressed Israel's opposition to the ceasefire during a Sunday meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

Citing a senior Israeli official, Haaretz said Israel believed Iran aimed to expand its presence in Syria, not only in terms of military advisers but also in the form of an airbase for Iranian aircraft, a naval base and extensive military forces.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.
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German police on Monday confirmed that they were investigating a video showing dozens of people displaying the Hitler salute at a music festival in Themar in Thuringia over the weekend, local media reported.

Video footage shows festival goers appear to chant "Heil", a reference to the Nazi greeting "Sieg Heil." The festival was named as "rock against foreign domination."

The displaying of Nazi symbols and Hitler-style salute is illegal in Germany, as is the denial of the Holocaust and glorifying the Nazi era, and violators will be sentenced to six month in prison.

German news agency DPA quoted Thuringia's Interior Ministry as saying that the concert in the town of Themar led to six detentions. It lists intimidation, bodily harm and violation of weapons laws as crimes committed during the event.

A total of 46 crimes were recorded at the festival, at which around 6,000 people turned up, the police said.
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The Turkish parliament on Monday approved a bill to extend the state of emergency for another three months, the fourth such extension since last July's failed coup attempt.

The extension will take effect from Wednesday at 01:00 a.m. (2200 GMT, Tuesday), state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The motion was ratified after consent votes of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party.

Under emergency rule, the government can bypass parliament and enact new laws, in addition to limiting or suspending pre-existing rights and freedoms.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Republican People's Party criticized the extension of the state of emergency, arguing that it has polarized the country.

Turkey declared a state of emergency on July 20, 2016, days after a failed military coup, which Ankara blames on the U.S.-based exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.
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Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Liu Yunshan on Monday called on political parties of China and the Czech Republic to maintain high-level contacts and enhance exchanges on state governance and party building so as to facilitate practical cooperation between the two countries.

Liu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, started his official good-will visit to the Czech Republic on Sunday after wrapping up a four-day tour to Romania.

During a meeting with Jan Hamacek, speaker of the lower house of the Czech parliament and deputy chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), Liu highlighted the friendly cooperation between the CPC and the CSSD, urging the political parties of the two countries to keep promoting contacts in different aspects.

Closer party exchanges, Liu said, would help consolidate the political and social base for bilateral friendship, as well as promote the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and enhance cooperation within the 16+1 cooperation mechanism.

Hailing the rapid development of closer cooperation in various fields, Liu said that the strategic consensus reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Czech President Milos Zeman has pointed out the direction for the future development of bilateral ties.

"We stand ready to work with the Czech Republic to implement the important consensus reached by the two countries' leaders and advance the relations to a higher level," he said.

For his part, Hamacek welcomed Liu's visit and attendance at the 2017 China Investment Forum being held in Prague, saying President Xi's visit to the Czech Republic last year had opened a new chapter for the relations between the Czech Republic and China.

The rapid development of bilateral relationship has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples as well as the enterprises of the two countries, Hamacek said, adding that the Czech Republic would actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Hamacek said the close cooperation between the CPC and the CSSD has deepened their mutual understanding and given a boost to mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

The China-CEE 16+1 mechanism is a platform created in April 2012 by China and 16 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.
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India should not take its military's trespass into Chinese territory as a "policy tool" to achieve certain political purposes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Tuesday.

Indian border troops crossed into Chinese territory from Sikkim in June. After a month-long stalemate, India has still not withdrawn troops to its own territory.

The trespass of Indian border troops has captured the attention of the international community, Lu said at a regular news briefing.

Some foreign diplomats based in China have said the incident is "shocking" and "difficult to understand," and have sought verification from China, Lu said.

"The essence of the incident is clear. Indian troops crossed the demarcated and mutually recognized border in the Sikkim section," Lu said.

The spokesperson urged India to correctly understand the situation and take measures to withdraw troops to avoid an escalation of tension.
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China will host a symposium on peace between Palestine and Israel later this year to contribute wisdom to resolving the Palestinian issue, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

China is willing to participate in and support all efforts that are conducive to a political settlement of the Palestinian issue, Xi said in talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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China proposed to launch a tripartite dialogue mechanism with Palestine and Israel to advance major projects to assist the Palestinian side, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

China regards both Palestine and Israel as important partners under the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said in talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
It remains to be seen how Pyongyang will respond to Seoul's formal overture for dialogue. Serious talks, whether on easing animosities along their tense border or on resuming the reunions of families separated by the Korean War in early 1950s, as Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in proposed on Monday, are long overdue given the antagonism that has escalated and accumulated over the years.

The worsening state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula has brooded a mood of pessimism, so the new ROK leader's professed willingness to engage Pyongyang offers some cause for optimism, albeit slight, since none of similar past overtures for dialogue, even handshakes, produced any meaningful headway in relations.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be aware that Moon, while extending an olive branch, has never promised to adopt a carrot-only approach. On the contrary, he has openly stated Seoul will continue to apply pressure so that Pyongyang will rethink its pursuit of nuclear and missile capabilities.

Not to mention that Tokyo and Washington, Seoul's close allies, are calling for harsher sanctions. Immediately after Moon's offer to talk, Tokyo argued "this is not a time for dialogue; it's a time for pressure".

Washington has also stated the conditions for dialogue are far from being satisfied, as White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing on Monday, "any type of conditions that would have to be met are clearly far away from where we are now."

This should come as no surprise, considering the July 6 joint statement the US, Japanese and ROK leaders signed on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, which committed the three to applying "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang.

Pyongyang may be angry at what it sees as threatening saber-rattling by the United States, Japan and ROK. But it should not take that as a reason for not responding or turning down the overture from the ROK. Especially since the window of goodwill may not last forever.

In making the offer, Moon defied pressure both from opponents at home as well as from Washington and Tokyo. An unanswered overture will not only dissuade Moon personally, but also reinforce the case of Washington and Tokyo that his policy of engagement is ill-advised. In that case, Pyongyang will find its room for maneuver has substantially shrunk.

While the vicious circle of escalating tensions has allowed Pyongyang to continue with its nuclear weapons program, the risks stemming from that endeavor have simultaneously grown.

Pyongyang's best course of action now, would be to embrace Moon's offer, and get serious about his proposals, including that of cooperation on the 2018 Winter Olympics.
An employee from the Bank of China introduces financial services to a client in Zhengzhou, Henan province. [Photo by Sha Lang/For China Daily]

Chinese nationals represent more than 30 percent of candidates who sat for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam, the world's most recognizable financial credential, indicating the country's desire to increase financial talent and open up on a more global basis, according to a senior executive at the CFA Institute.

The nearly 4,000 charter holders in China are at least five years younger than the global average, reflecting their keenness to grasp the sets of knowledge and skills essential to landing and cementing a job with a relatively high threshold and financial return, said Nick Pollard, managing director of the organization's Asia-Pacific operation.

"China is a country really heavily investing in its talents. And because the credential is globally recognized, it shows China's openness of business to the rest of the world," he told China Daily.

CFA is a designation especially useful in the investment management profession. In order to obtain a certificate, the candidate needs to pass three levels of exams on a curriculum, from portfolio management to corporate finance, and an additional four years of relevant work experience.

While the majority of charter holders in China are concentrated in metropolises like Shanghai and Beijing, the landscape is quickly changing, with tier-two cities, including Hangzhou and Chengdu, seeing "exponential growth" in terms of financial talent, he said.

Pollard said the emergence of a variety of talent hubs in China was being driven by a number of factors, the most prominent being a string of supportive measures from local regulators, government and businesses to attract and retain financial specialists.

For instance, Shanghai has rolled out a number of preferential policies on home settling, medical and health insurance and people-to-people exchange programs to beef up its allure to financial professionals who have overseas study and work experience, said Wang Hua, chief of Shanghai's Lujiazui Financial City Development Bureau.

China's financial industry is maturing, with more professionals than amateurs joining the league. Financial talentdefined as those systematically trained with financial knowledgein the country's securities sector jumped from 8 percent to 15 percent between 2010 and 2016, according to a survey published by the institute in early July.

"It's because compared with banking and insurance, securities has the biggest requirement for development and educational intervention, and regulators are used to understanding the need for professional education and certification needed (to do that job)," he said.

With new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data dealing a blow to financial professionals, Pollard stressed a renewed focus on the "human touch" while nurturing talent. The Institute is also updating its curriculum to include financial technology elements to stay relevant and practical, he said.

"I don't see it as the end of personal advice, but a way of making efficiencies in analyzing data. But the communication and interpretation of that data, at least for now, is still going to be a human interaction between organizations and clients," he added.
A worker assembles a robotic arm at a factory in Foshan, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's economy may grow slightly slower in the second half of the year but will remain robust supported by improved external demand and domestic private investment, a leading economist at Morgan Stanley said on Monday.

China's GDP rose 6.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter, official data showed. The growth beat a market consensus of 6.8 percent and was well above the government's full-year target of "around 6.5 percent".

Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd, said the robust growth in the first half of the year was mainly bolstered by the export recovery and the rebound of private investment in the service and manufacturing sectors.

Xing predicted that the growth of manufacturing investment would rebound to 7.8 percent this year, up from 4.2 percent in 2016. However, growth of investment by State-owned enterprises will likely slow to 13 percent while property investment growth will drop to 5 percent.

In the long run, Morgan Stanley maintained an optimistic outlook on the Chinese economy as growth will be bolstered by new drivers such as consumption in smaller cities. It estimated that domestic consumption will rise to $9.7 trillion by 2030 from $4.4 trillion in 2016, with two-thirds of the consumption growth from third and fourth-tier cities.

In the meantime, the US investment bank believed that China is capable of avoiding a financial crisis despite the rise in the country's debt level, which stood at 278 percent of GDP last year, according to its estimates.

"We are optimistic due to the government's determination to push deleveraging and control the debt level in an orderly and gradual manner to avoid liquidity risks," Xing said.

Xing added that policymakers will maintain a hawkish outlook on financial regulation and keep monetary conditions relatively tight to slow broad credit growth.

The stronger-than-expected GDP growth in the second quarter has prompted some economists to raise their growth forecasts for China.

Zhao Yang, chief China economist at Nomura Securities, raised his forecast for the third quarter to 6.8 percent from 6.6 percent and his annual forecast to 6.8 percent from 6.7 percent.

But Zhao warned about uncertainty over external demand, given the appreciation of the renminbi in the first half of the year and rising global geopolitical risks.

Morgan Stanley's Xing held similar views, believing that major risk that could threaten China's growth is the deterioration of the external environment and rising global trade frictions.
A sharp slump in China's small-cap stocks pulled China's major stock indices lower on Monday, offsetting stronger-than-expected economic growth data.

A flood of supply from initial public offerings, the weak earnings performance of ChiNext shares and fears of further policy tightening also added to the gloomy mood.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday showed that China's gross domestic product expanded 6.9 percent year-on-year in the first half, which is well above the government's target for the year of 6.5 percent, reflecting a firming trend in the nation's economy.

Growth in June industrial output and retail sales also came in stronger than expected.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed the day, however, with a 1.43 percent drop to 3,176.46 points. The Shenzhen Component Index dropped even more, by 3.57 percent.

The ChiNext startup index tumbled as much as 5.11 percent to a two-and-a-half-year low.

Nearly 500 stocks, most of them small firms, plunged to the 10 percent trading limit, a rare occurrence this year as the authorities attach great importance to maintaining stability in the stock market.

"Market regulators have emphasized financial markets should serve the real economy, hinting at the possibility that IPOs will continue and accelerate," said Hong Hao, chief strategist at BOCOM International Holdings Co.

"More supply of stocks, mostly smaller caps, slower credit growth and a weak ChiNext earnings season have all contributed to today's plunge," said Hong.

The country's financial regulators emphasized the need to develop the direct financing market to fund businesses, showing that the pace of initial public offerings will accelerate.

There were 246 IPOs in the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses in the first half of 2017, increasing 303 percent year-on-year, according to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In contrast to larger, State-owned firms which are being buoyed most by the strong economy, an increasing number of once-high-flying startups are flounderinga trend epitomized by Leshi Internet & Information Corp, which unveiled over the weekend it swung to a loss in the first half.

China Merchant Securities said in report that "the high-valuation bubble is bursting".

Listed firms with good business performances will continue to be chased by investors ... while ChiNext will continue to find its bottom," the brokerage said, forecasting average earnings of ChiNext companies will fall to "single-digit" growth from an expected 25 percent this year.

China's blue-chip SSE50 Index, also called China's "Nifty Fifty", increased 0.32 percent to 2631.41 on Monday, which was the highest level in almost two years.

Reuters contributes to the story.
Ergonomic office furniture makers say they have not sat stillriding a booming business in China, where an increasing awareness by office workers of the need for healthy lifestyles has seen them move to alter their sedentary work schedules.

New York-based ergonomic furniture maker Humanscale Ltd said sales revenues in China has grown consecutively by about 25 percent year-on-year in recent years. Founded in 1983, Humanscale entered China in 2011.

Currently, Humanscale sells its furniture on Amazon in China. Additionally, it has showrooms in Beijing and Shanghai, where corporate customers can visit and place orders. It is also planning to open another retail store in China soon, but will not disclose specific plans.

"The United States is our largest market followed by the United Kingdom, although we think China has the potential to overtake them," said Tim Hutchings, president of Humanscale Ltd's international unit.

Hutchings said his group targeted any customers who use a computer, particularly those companies in the finance, legal and technology sectors.

"We are very optimistic about the future of our business in China," he said.

"The growth potential is amazing, because Chinese people are fascinated in keeping ahead of the curve with cutting edge innovation and design. Our seating products and monitor arm solutions are particularly popular in China."

Hutchings added that there were a huge number of computer users in China and his company designed products that enabled computer users to feel more comfortable. As a result, corporate clients were seeing improved productivity, staff retention and profitability.

Traditional desks and chairs can strain wrists and bodies if postures are maintained in the same position for a long time, but Humanscale says furniture that adapts to human bodies and encourages comfortable postures, such as sit-stand tables that could glide up and down, allow employees to dynamically alternate between positions.

"When I travel on business in China, I like to get up early and go for a run. It's amazing how many people are out in the parks in the early morning, practicing Tai Chi and moving," Hutchings said.

"Chinese people understand the importance of keeping fit and that's why it's such an exciting market for us."

In Europe and the US, many companies choose to have ergonomic furniture for their staff, such as Adidas, Apple Inc, Google Inc and HSBC. In China, online news aggregator toutiao.com, a new media platform, also chooses to use ergonomic furniture at its Beijing office.

According to research by the University of Pittsburgh last year, frequent standing breaks during work can help to control weight and reduce obesity, and decrease the chances of getting diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.

"My work has long hours and I have a sit-stand desk," said Michelle Chen, a 26-year-old lawyer based in Hong Kong.

"Most of the time, I would prefer to sit down to work, as it helps to raise my efficiency," she said.

"But it's great that I have the option to work while standing, especially after I had lunch or when I feel tired."
Editor's note:

China will establish a committee under the State Council, the country's cabinet, to further improve regulation effectiveness, as well as safeguard financial stability and development.

The decision was announced during China's top financial meeting, the National Financial Work Conference, which was held on July 14 and 15. The decision was also in the midst of three tasks, including making the financial sector better to serve the real economy, containing financial risks and deepening financial reforms.

The financial work conference has been convened every five years since 1997 after the Asian financial crisis, and provides financial policy guidance, attracting much attention at home and abroad.

A few news clips from foreign media outlets about this issue have been listed below:

"While some details of what the policy guidance will mean for the next five years are not entirely clear, in the short term it looks as though Beijing will continue to push ahead with the deleveraging campaign, which began late last year."

- China signals deleveraging resolve at financial regulation meeting

Asia Times, July 17

"Chinese President Xi Jinping said the central bank will play a stronger role in defending against risks, calling for more work on safeguarding the financial system and modernizing its regulatory framework."

-Xi backs stronger risk-reduction role for China central bank

Bloomberg, July 16

"The Chinese economy's better than expected performance over the past year has given financial officials an opportunity to rein in credit, which they previously worried could dent economic growth."

- China's Xi orders debt crackdown for state-owned groups

Financial Times, July 16

"President Xi Jinping has ordered the establishment of a super regulator, with powers to coordinate the supervision and management of financial stability, finally putting into action a plan that has been in the works for at least a decade to mend over the country's fragmented regulatory structure."

-China sets up super regulator to mend over fragmented financial regulatory structure

South China Morning Post, July 15
CANBERRA  Australian hotels need to keep up with the demands placed on them by Chinese tourists, Tourism Australia's boss said on Tuesday.

The remarks came after international research showed that Chinese tourists were less inclined to travel to Australia compared to a year ago.

The research, undertaken by the Expedia-owned Hotels.com website, found that Australia was third on the list of destinations Chinese tourists intend on traveling to in the next 12 months, down from being No 1 last year.

Travelers coming from China said Australian hotels were simply under-equipped to handle Chinese tourists, with many indicating that a lack of Mandarin speaking staff was a problem, in addition to no support for payment facilities such as China Union Pay.

On Tuesday, Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan told News Corp that while Chinese tourists wanted to visit Australia, the lack of support was proving detrimental for the tourism industry.

"The challenge for Australian tourism providers is how to keep pace with this demand," O'Sullivan said.

But some hotels have recognized the challenges and are actively trying to better accommodate Chinese travelers.

Chief operating officer of Accor Hotels, Simon McGrath said his company had launched its Chinese Optimum Services Standards more than five years ago, meaning a number of locations were equipped to deal with Mandarin speakers.

"Today these standards have been adopted by over 50 of our hotels and we as a business continue to grow in this area as we learn more about what our Chinese guests are looking for in -accommodation in Australia," McGrath said.

Meanwhile the boss of Mantra hotels, Bob East said that while hotels in locations geared towards international tourists should be keeping up with demands from China, there were many hotels in less-popular areas which are primarily aimed at domestic tourism.

"It's a matter of tailoring the product around your most likely target market," East told News Corp.
BEIJING  Senior Chinese and US officials will meet on economic and trade issues, leaving opportunities for the two sides to crack many hard nuts under the new format.

The first round of the Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED) will begin on July 19 in Washington. It is one of four major dialogue mechanisms the two sides established in April.

With the new platform in place, experts have called on both countries to employ new ways of thinking to address and resolve thorny bilateral and global issues.

New mechanism

The dialogue will come 10 days after Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Hamburg, Germany, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to healthy and stable economic ties.

China and the United States have been vigorously advancing economic and trade relations. The two sides have made important initial progress in carrying out the 100-day action plan, a key chapter of the CED.

A range of deals on financial services, energy and investment have been inked. China greenlighted US beef exports after 14 years of bans, while the United States agreed to allow chicken imports from China.

"The results so far in the 100-day program to improve trade and investment appear to have been more constructive than many critics argued," said Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"It is possible there will be further progress at the CED," he noted.

"We hope it 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," Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said.

"We are looking forward to the mutually beneficial outcomes of this dialogue," he said.

Trade deficit

The dialogue will come days after President Trump highlighted fair and reciprocal trade ties at the G20 Hamburg summit. Experts expect addressing the US trade deficit with China will be a top priority for discussion at the CED.

Bilateral trade moderated over the past two years, as the world's top two economies slowed down for cyclical and structural reasons, and a stronger dollar battered US exports, said Zhou Shijian, an economics professor at Tsinghua University.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, two-way trade contracted 6.7 percent in 2016 with Chinese exports to the United States down 5.9 percent and China's imports from the United States down 9.1 percent.

Trade volume rose 13.5 percent in the first four months of 2017, with China's exports to the United States up 11 percent and China's imports from the United States up 20 percent.

To address the US trade deficit with China, it makes a lot of sense for the US side to lift the ban on exports of high-tech products to China in areas such as clean energy, Zhou said.

Every US government since the Reagan administration had eased restrictions until President Obama took office in 2009.

In his eight years in office, Obama vowed to loosen the controls on several occasions, but never honored his commitment.

"The United States currently holds a trade deficit with China of about $300 billion. The gap could be narrowed by one third if the ban were lifted," Zhou said.

According to the US Department of Commerce, the US deficit with China stood at $347 billion, accounting for 47 percent of the US total trade deficit.

It was good news for the United States that China just allowed imports of US beef. But experts expected it would only have limited impact in balancing trade considering the small trade volume.

Whether the current US government is determined to bridge the trade gap or not, how it deals with high-tech product exports to China is probably a touchstone, Zhou said.

Bit talks resume

Experts said the upcoming dialogue will be a good chance for negotiation on a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).

BIT talks began in 2008, when China and the United States sought to increase mutual investment. But little progress had been made before they agreed in 2013 to conduct negotiations on the basis of pre-establishment national treatment with a negative list approach, which outlines sectors closed to foreign investment.

After 33 rounds of negotiations over the past five years, the BIT talks have been shelved by US President Donald Trump's administration.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai urged Washington to revive the BIT negotiations, adding that reaching a high-level bilateral investment treaty was an important outcome of previous economic and trade dialogues between the two countries.

In 2016, Chinese companies invested a record $46 billion in the United States, tripling the amount in 2015 and a tenfold increase compared to just five years ago, according to a report jointly released by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) in May.

Growth of Chinese investment in the United States moderated in 2017. Zhou explained China's foreign exchange regulation, tax reform of the Trump administration and the lack of progress in the BIT talks may have contributed to the moderation.

"The US government needs money to revive the US economy. No better time for it to advance the BIT talks with China. It should do something to create a sound atmosphere for the negotiation," Zhou said.
DHAKA  A two-day training on "how to export to China through e-commerce" began here on Monday.

The training was jointly organized by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), a leading business chamber in Bangladesh, and the International Trade Centre.

Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of China in Bangladesh Li Guangjun and DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan, among others, were present at the inaugural ceremony of the training.

About 25 participants took part in the training session.

DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan, welcoming the participants, said that small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) especially those who are involved in e-commerce will benefit from this training course.

"In order to bolster exports to China through e-commerce, an entrepreneur does not need to go to China physically," he said.

Li Guangjun said Bangladeshi SMEs can export to China through e-commerce.

He said the bilateral trade between China and Bangladesh last year was about $15 billion, out of which Bangladesh exported products worth $900 million.
MELBOURNE  Fifteen students from a top Australian information technology (IT) university will travel to China to learn at Huawei Technologies for three weeks, it was announced on Tuesday.

The students from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University will visit Huawei's research and development facilities and manufacturing plants while working with technology experts.

They will also experience university in China at the Beijing Language and Cultural University.

The program is part of a three-year agreement announced by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews which will see students make the journey to Huawei every year.

A further 15 RMIT students will participate in workshops at Huawei's National Innovation and Training Centre in Sydney.

"This is a great opportunity for some of Victoria's brightest IT students to learn from one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, and bring Victoria closer to one of our major trading partners," Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said in a media release.

"Our relationship with China is one of our most important, and one that extends beyond just economic benefit -- today's great announcement by Huawei shows that it's also about learning and improving the opportunities for our kids."

The announcement of the partnership was made as Victorian government members embarked on an official visit to Huawei's global headquarters in Shenzhen where they will meet with senior executives and smart city experts.

The collaboration was developed by the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATNU), a body aimed at preparing Australian students for careers in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry and exposing students to "vast and emerging" opportunities in China and wider Asia.
Liang Qishun (right) and Zhang Shengdi are good friends, as well as, mural painting business partners. [Photo/VCG]

Liang Qishun and Zhang Shengdi have been painting together for 10 years.

Liang and Zhang decided to quit their stable jobs at a decoration company this year, to run their own business.

Painting walls is not easy. The work needs skills as well as physical power. In order to complete their first order, they worked for three days straight, sleeping just five hours each day. The effort paid off. That first client was impressed and gave them more business.

Now, the two men have many orders.

Liang and Zhang run the business from their hometown in Tunchang, a county in South China's Hainan province. Laing said that returning to their hometown to start the business was not only to realize their art dream, but also to build their hometown.

They plan to create a series of murals based on Tunchang's features to promote their hometown.
A worker monitors container operation at Zhoushan port in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

The Chinese economy is likely to stabilize from the second half of this year and rebound from 2018, with potential growth of investment in infrastructure, while the country's stricter financial regulations are likely to draw more investment in the cooperate sector, economists said.

The upward growth trend may continue in the coming three to five years, said Li Daokui, director and economist of the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University. The center produced a report that said the economy will grow by 6.7 percent year-on-year this year and 6.9 percent in 2018.

Li believes that China is poised for a golden opportunity of economic recovery and development, after experiencing years of a decline in growth rate. He believes that steady investments have been secured domestically, with total consumption on the rise, financial market cooling off, and monetary growth rate slowing down.

Investment in infrastructure grew by 9.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, up from 8.1 percent in the same period of last year, signaling that investor confidence is picking up. The reports predict that private investment and investment in infrastructure will continue to grow from the later half of 2017 and into 2018.

Li said the investment rebound is attributable to steps the country has taken in recent years to reduce leverage levels, cut taxes and phase out excessive industrial capacity, which aimed to replace old growth drivers with new ones as well as cut taxes.

The country's continuous deleveraging efforts in both financial and non-financial sectors have produced results, cutting corporate debt and changing prices, which contributed to improvement in corporate profits and steadied the nerves of investors over China's potential debt crisis.

"All these efforts have helped enterprises gain increased profits in 2017, which has boosted corporate confidence in the real economy with stronger willingness to invest," Li said.

China's private investment grew by 7.2 percent from January to June, up by 0.4 percentage points from January to May.

In the longer term, the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to boost infrastructure construction, especially in central and western China, the Tsinghua University report said.

The current anti-globalization wave and rising protectionism in certain countries are a major concern for many observers, but it may bring some opportunities for China to expand its influence in global economic and financial governance, particularly with the Belt and Road Initiative, the report suggested.
A rendering shows what Shoudi City Terminal in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, will look like when completed. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In a few years people flying out of Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, will be able to check in before they arrive at the airport.

Shoudi City Terminal, which will have the same passenger check-in function as terminals at the airport, will be located in the city's Central Business District.

Investment in this terminal is expected to hit 1.8 billion yuan ($266.29 million) and is expected to be finished by June 2020.

The construction area is about 117,900 square meters. The completed project will include an aviation business complex containing a terminal, an office building and high-end business and leisure areas.
BEIJING - China has reassured the rest of the world about its commitment to opening up in its latest move to attract foreign investment.

China should improve its investment and market environment, accelerate opening up to the outside world and lower operating costs, President Xi Jinping said Monday.

The country should "create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment, and speed up efforts to build an open economy in a bid to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese economy," Xi said at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland was basically stable in the first half of 2017, as the government continued to open up the market and seek a fair and transparent environment.

In the six months, FDI inflow edged down 0.1 percent year on year to 441.5 billion yuan ($65 billion), but the decline narrowed from that in the first five months, as foreign investment in June rose 2.3 percent to 100 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The number of new foreign-funded companies rose 12.3 percent to 15,053 in the first half, with 2,894 new foreign companies set up last month, according to the MOC.

Foreign investment has played a significant role in China's economic development, promoting reasonable allocation of resources and driving market-oriented reform, Xi said.

The manufacturing sector attracted 128.6 billion yuan of foreign investment, up 3 percent year on year, accounting for 29.1 percent of total FDI, while FDI in the service sector reached 309.99 billion yuan, making up 70.2 percent of the total.

China should continue to make good use of foreign investment to advance supply-side structural reform, upgrade the economy, and catch up with global technology development, Xi said.

The influx of foreign investment into high-end sectors continued in the January-June period, with high-tech manufacturing seeing FDI rise 11.1 percent to 34.97 billion yuan, while foreign investment in high-tech services rose 20.4 percent to 64.72 billion yuan.

The 2017 China Business Report unveiled last week by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said that 77 percent of US companies in China remained profitable last year, up 6 percentage points from 2015, and 73.5 percent reported revenue growth, up 12 percentage points from 2015.

The report also pointed out that the surveyed firms still have concerns about transparency of China's regulatory environment, and lack of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement. They also face operational challenges including high costs and domestic competition.

Laws, rules, and policies out of tune with the overall direction and principle of opening up should be abolished or revised within a time limit, and national treatment in laws and policies should be granted to foreign-funded companies after they enter the market, the president said.

He stressed the importance of protecting IPR, calling on authorities to better laws and regulations, improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property examinations, and speed up institutional improvement for IPR protection related to emerging sectors and new business types.

Foreign firms should be able to invest more sectors in China. Last month, the government announced that it will use a "negative list" management approach for all foreign investment, open up more sectors and further relax restrictions for foreign businesses.

Starting on July 28, China will also implement a revised foreign investment catalogue, which includes the negative list as well as sectors and industries that the government wants to encourage foreign companies to invest in.

The catalogue shortens the list of sectors that are completely off-limits for foreign investment from 36 to 28.

Strong economic performance makes China an ideal destination for foreign investors. The economy expanded steadily by 6.9 percent in the first half of this year, well above the government's target for the year of 6.5 percent, official data showed Monday.
Toy manufacturer Mattel announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership between its educational toy brand Fisher-Price and the Chinese domestic clothing brand Three Gun Group.

Under the partnership, the two companies will launch their first co-developed product line of newborn and infant clothing. The product-line for Chinese infants and toddlers includes underwear, indoor clothing, outdoor clothing and accessories.

Mattel will grant the licensing of the Fisher-Price brand while Three Gun will be responsible for the manufacturing. It is Fisher-Price's first comprehensive cooperation with a Chinese garment brand.

The first batch will be put on the market in September, with distribution ranging from Three Gun's 5,000 channels all over the country, as well as the online and offline platforms of both companies. Three Gun will roll out a specific online flagship store for the sales of this product line.

Cao Chunxiang, deputy manager of Three Gun Group, said that the company used to focus on clothes for 4 to 14-year-old children. The company reached sales revenue of 250 million yuan ($37 million) in 2016.

With the deal, he said Three Gun will be able to break new ground in the infant and toddler industry.

According to Jeff Wang, vice president of Mattel greater China, the partnership is a recognition of the company's strong licensing capabilities, and also an opportunity to fulfill Mattels' promise in "advancing infant/toddler development for the Chinese market".

"In the past few years, Mattel has witnessed double-digit growth in China with the licensing business volume increasing threefold in the past three years," he said.

Mattel will increase its investment in the Chinese market in the future given the opportunities provided by the two-child policy and the ongoing consumption upgrading, he added.
A worker performs a soldering job at a factory in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, which makes equipment for the HTGR reactor plant at Shidaowan in Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China National Nuclear Corp, one of the country's largest nuclear companies, is one step closer to exporting its high-temperature gas cooled reactor projects to countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with its HTGR fuel assembly line entering mass production.

The world's first production line for HTGR fuel elements started mass production on Monday at China North Nuclear Fuel, headquartered in Baotou in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said the company.

The production of 200,000 spherical fuel elements shows that the fuel assembly line has transitioned from a pilot one into an industrial one, said Wang Shoujun, president of China National Nuclear Corporation, parent company of China North Nuclear Fuel.

"China is cementing its leading position as a manufacturer of HTGR fuel elements," said Wang.

"The HTGR reactors, best known for their inherent safety, versatility and modular construction, are a good fit for economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative with small and medium-sized power grids."

CNNC has already signed memorandums of understanding with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in HTGR project cooperation, signaling that decades of research on the reactor have paid off, he said.

With government support for overseas expansion, including beneficial terms in getting financing from key financial institutions, many power companies are encouraged to acquire power assets or export their technology and expertise overseas, said Joseph Jacobelli, a senior analyst of Asian utilities and infrastructure at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University has conducted research on HTGR fuel element technology over the past three decades, starting with a trial production line with an annual capacity of 100,000 spherical fuel elements.

Based on that technology, the production line will have an annual capacity of 300,000 spherical fuel elements, and the production line will provide fuel for the demonstration HTGR reactor plant at Shidaowan in Shandong province.

China has independent intellectual property rights for the production line, which was put into operation in 2016.

The company has vowed to continuously push forward the commercialization of the HTR reactors, striving for more nuclear power consumption in the coming decades, in order to achieve China's pledge to the international community to reduce carbon emissions and generate 20 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2030.

The government has pledged that renewable energy will play a more significant role in green growth, with the share of nonfossil energy reaching 15 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030.

Installed nuclear capacity, which more than doubled to 27.17 GW during the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), is expected to double again by 2020 to 58 GW.
Employees work on a Jaguar automobile on the production line at Tata Motors Ltd's Jaguar assembly plant in Castle Bromwich, United Kingdom. [Photo/Agencies]

British premium automaker Jaguar Land Rover has announced it will build its new compact SUV Jaguar E-PACE in China to tap into the craze for such vehicles.

The company said its plants in the United Kingdom are close to full capacity, and it expects demand for the five-seat E-PACE would be high after the mid-sized F-PACE SUV became the fastest-selling car in the company's history, with 80,000 sold so far this year.

JLR launched the E-PACE in London on Thursday, with a stunt driver making it into the Guinness Book of World Records after making a 15.3 meter jump and 270-degree barrel roll in the vehicle.

In China, the carmaker's joint venture, Chery Jaguar Land Rover, will build the cars at its factory in Changshu, Jiangsu province. Vehicles produced there will be for local customers. The car will go on sale in China next year.

The joint venture, which started production in late 2014, is currently manufacturing the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport, and Jaguar XFL in China.

John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Shanghai, said the localized model will help JLR to make faster inroads into the compact SUV segment in China, which is currently dominated by the Audi Q3, the BMW X1 and the Mercedes-Benz GLA.

SUVs have been the fastest growing sector in the Chinese market, with their sales soaring nearly 17 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Their fast growth, which LMC believes will continue for quite a while, is in stark contrast to other segments, such as sedans, multipurpose vehicles and minivans, whose sales fell, ranging from 3.2 percent to 25.3 percent, in the same period in China.

In Europe, automaker Magna Steyr will build the E-PACE in Austria, starting later this year, and it will also make the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE model from 2018.

Pan Qing, executive director of Jaguar Land Rover China, said: "The Jaguar brand has caught the imagination of Chinese consumers, as evidenced by 144 percent year-on-year growth in the first six months of 2017.

"The E-PACE suits the needs and tastes of Chinese consumers from both a design and performance perspective, and we are confident that the newest member of the Jaguar portfolio will further enhance Jaguar Land Rover's competitiveness in China."

China, where some 120,000 JLR vehicles were sold in 2016, is the company's largest single-country market, generating one-fifth of global sales.

JLR's retail sales for June were up 65.3 percent year-on-year in China to 12,004 units, with nearly 7,000 made in China by Chery Jaguar Land Rover. Its UK sales were up 3.8 percent to 9,061 units, Europe up 3.7 percent, hitting 12,939 units and North America up 3.2 percent to 9,907 units.

Andy Goss, JLR sales operations director, said: "Jaguar Land Rover saw another positive performance in June, led by strong sales in China, both from imported vehicles and our Chinese joint venture."

JLR, which manufactures vehicles under the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, said Jaguar sold 15,343 vehicles in June, up 16.4 percent from last June. The company said sales of the new Land Rover Discovery continue to grow, following its launch in North America and China.

Contact the writers at angus@mail.chinadailyuk.com
BEIJING  Aston Martin, producer of some of the world's most expensive cars, will recall 111 vehicles on the Chinese mainland due to a faulty tire-pressure monitoring system.

The affected models are imported DB11s manufactured between November 9, 2016 and May 26, 2017, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced on Monday.

The model has a faulty monitoring system which may fail to work when tire pressure levels are low and could lead to potential risks, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The recall will begin on August 1.

All faulty parts will be repaired free of charge.
Alibaba Group's cashier-free retail store Tao Cafe attracts customers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

Chinese e-commerce giant and data technology provider Alibaba Group has just unveiled a cashier-free retail store.

The online group has joined other retail chains and tech startups flocking into the market with their own solutions, making staff-less retail one of the hottest tech trends.

Tao Cafe opened for a trial run on July 8. In the footsteps of the Amazon Go store that made a big debut last year with its use of tracking cameras, it utilizes a facial and voice recognition system.

Purchases are tracked by a facial recognition camera, and the system automatically generates bills as soon as customers walk out of the specially designed gate that can identify them with biological sensing technology.

Kicking it off before Alibaba, Guangdong-based tech startup BingoBox started to spread its version of staff-less stores, after being granted 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) in its first round of financing.

Unlike Tao Cafe, Bingobox is more of a hybrid between convenience stores and vending machines, where customers can walk in and pay by scanning QR codes on their phone. This bypasses eye contact and small talk that normally take place with cashiers in traditional stores.

"By the end of August, we are expecting to open 200 more Bingobox stores," said Chen Zilin, CEO of Bingobox.

"We only cost a quarter of a traditional convenience store, and running costs are one-eighth."

Neil Wang, president of global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan China, said staff-less stores will bring the "next spring" to the retail industry.

"Staff-less stores are a combination of digital payments, radio frequency identification technology, biological recognition, big data and AI," Wang said.

"They will lower the risk of shop lifting, optimize the goods and reduce costs, from running and maintenance costs to human labor."

Chen Haibo, CEO of Shenlan Technology Co, said that rental and human labor costs were holding the traditional retail sector back.

"In 2017, staff-less stores will boom," Chen added.

Beverage giant Wahaha Group Co Ltd recently signed a nearly 10 billion yuan deal with Shenlan Technology (Shanghai) Co to build 100,000 self-service Take Go smart stores in three years.

Japanese convenience store chain Lawson Inc is currently running trials with an unmanned store in Osaka which is expected to go into commercial use soon.

Whleeys Cafe, a Silicon Valley backed startup, has taken its vision of future retail one step further with Moby Marta staff-less self-driving vending car with an AI hologram assistant.

"We will have a membership system where we can collect our users' data, so we can deploy our cars into the areas with the optimized products selection," said Per Cromwell, lead designer of Moby Mart.

Cromwell said China had the world's largest number of mobile payment users. It had gone much further than Europe and made Moby Mart possible.

"Currently it costs $200,000 to $300,000 to make one Moby Mart, and we can lower it down to $40,000 when it comes to mass production," he said.

"Also, we don't need to pay rent but something like a parking fee," he added.

As a retailer and staff-less solutions provider, Cromwell said mobility would become the next turning point. He said they were talking with some of the world's top retail chains, which were interested in upgrading from the traditional retail mode, but preferred not to to disclose names.

One potential road block, however: Cromwell said the startup was still waiting for the self-driving car to be legalized before they could achieve their vision of a future retail where the shop comes to the customers' door.
The family and friends of Nie Shubin, who was executed in 1995, at his graveside the day after his conviction for rape and murder was quashed by an appeal court. CHI TU/CHINA DAILY

In June, six months after their convictions for robbery, rape and murder were quashed on appeal, four men from Jiangxi province claimed State compensation for their wrongful conviction and imprisonment 13 years ago.

Three of the men have applied to the provincial high people's court for compensation amounting to more than 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) each, including 12 million yuan each for the psychological trauma they experienced. The fourth man has applied to the provincial people's procuratorate, but details of his claim are not known.

In April, the Supreme People's Court, the nation's top judicial body, issued guidelines to supervise procedures when courts handle claims for State compensation, saying the regulated process is a key step in the implementation of rule of law and the protection of human rights.

Tao Kaiyuan, vice-president of the top court, called on courts at all levels to improve the quality of case hearings to prevent flawed judgments, and ordered them to improve transparency in the procedures for handling applications.

According to the experts, a number of problems, such as the relatively low sums awarded and imprecise definitions of mental torment, must be resolved as quickly as possible.

Since the revision of the State Compensation Law in 2010, people subject to miscarriages of justice have been able to apply for compensation for psychological trauma.

However, many questions remain, such as how mental anguish can be quantified, and how to narrow the gap between compensation paid for wrongful imprisonment and for mental anguish.

"It's pleasing to see compensation awards rising, and that our increasing efforts to regulate criminal procedures in recent years have helped to overturn many wrongful convictions. However, the developments haven't gone far enough," said Zhang Xuefeng, a lawyer in Beijing.

Under Chinese law, the sums awarded as compensation for mental anguish are based on how much people have received for wrongful imprisonment or physical injuries sustained.

"That means raising the latter will be useful in improving the amounts paid for psychological damage," Zhang said.

Wang Wanqiong, a lawyer from Sichuan province, represented Chen Man, whose conviction was overturned last year. She was optimistic about the possibility of higher levels of compensation, but suggested that a wider range of items be added to compensation lists, such as expenses incurred during the appeal process, to balance the lower sums awarded for mental anguish.

Compensation rises

Since 2012, when China's current administration assumed power, the courts have overturned 34 miscarriages of justice.
Nian Bin.

Nian Bin spent eight years on death row after being wrongfully convicted of killing two children with poison in 2006. In August 2014, he was exonerated and freed by an appeals court, which said the evidence produced at his trial had been insufficient to guarantee a lawful conviction.

In February, the Fujian province native stepped back into the spotlight. He submitted a second application for State compensation, asking the public security authorities in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, and Pingtan county, where he lived, to pay 4.12 million yuan for improper use of handcuffs and shackles during his years in prison that left him with permanent injuries.

"The illegal use of these restraints injured my brother, and now he is unable to live a normal life," said Nian Jianlan, Nian Bin's older sister.

She said the application included the cost of Nian's medical treatment since leaving prison, "as well as the money I spent during the past decade to clear his name".

However, on May 26, a medical expert hired by the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau to examine Nian Bin submitted a report in which he claimed the injuries did not exist.

Meanwhile, evidence previously provided by Nian Bin's lawyer outlining the injuries was deemed insufficient.

Now, the family's lawyer is requesting that the provincial high court rehears the application in an attempt to identify whether Nian Bin's injuries are related to the improper use of restraints.

That seems par for the course, given that since his conviction was quashed, his application for State compensation has been far from smooth.

In 2014, he applied for compensation of more than 150 million yuan ($22 million) for the time he spent in prison and the psychological trauma he experienced as a result.

In February 2015, Nian Bin was awarded 1.19 million yuan by the provincial high people's court.

His family refused to accept the decision, and appealed to the Supreme People's Court, China's top judicial chamber.

"Such a sum wouldn't solve our difficulties. Our house in Fujian was destroyed (by relatives of the dead children), and I lost my job because I was busy with my brother's appeal," Nian Jianlan said. "Our family also had debts at the time, so we couldn't even afford daily living expenses."

In January, the top court upheld the original award, saying it was the largest sum the provincial court was able to provide in cases such as Nian Bin's.

However, the court suggested the family should instead apply to the local public security bureau for compensation. Under the State Compensation Law, applicants are allowed to change the target of their applications and new information can be included in the submission.
Roman Zamboch (right), director of the press office of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, speaks with other delegates at the China-CEEC Spokespersons Dialogue in Beijing on Monday.Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily

Dialogue strengthens ties with Central and Eastern Europe

Chinese officials vowed on Monday to disseminate timely information on major events and public policies in an effort to achieve closer connections between the public and media and the government.

The agreement came at the China-CEEC Spokespersons Dialogue, the first such event hosted by China to exchange views on news releases with representatives from 13 Central and Eastern European countries.

Twelve of China's governmental spokesmen and spokeswomen shared experiences at the one-day dialogue in Beijing, which focused on the Belt and Road Initiative and global communication.

The dialogue follows Vice-Premier Liu Yandong's visit to Hungary last month. Plans call for Budapest to host the 6th China-CEEC Leaders' Meeting this year.

Jiang Jianguo, minister of the State Council Information Office, said China now has more than 200 spokesmen and spokeswomen at ministerial and provincial level organizations. Last year, about 5,000 news conferences were held in China, showing the government's open, inclusive, confident and respectful attitude toward the media, he said.

Such representatives have to answer the public's doubts and questions and inspire public unity, as well as explain domestic conditions to the globalized world, Jiang said. They have played a vital role in global governance as punctual information disclosures and responses to overseas concerns have boosted opening-up and win-win cooperation, he said.

In May, China hosted the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, attracting more than 4,400 journalists from 830 media organizations, the minister said. China's spokesmen and spokeswomen contributed to the forum's success, as did their counterparts in each foreign delegation, he added.

Song Shuli, spokeswoman of the Health and Family Planning Commission, said the government needs to disclose information in a transparent manner, and those charged with that job have encountered similar challenges in each of the countries. "The dialogue widens our perspectives and we can learn some effective solutions to problems," she said.

Glevin Dervishi, spokesman of Albanian Foreign Ministry, said there is a huge space to exchange views on preparing news releases. "We can share with each other. This dialogue is really helpful," he added.

Dervishi said there is a chance of being misunderstood and misquoted for all spokesmen and spokeswomen. "We found a common ground that such misunderstandings can be resolved with thorough explanations," he said.

News releases have played a more important role in national governance in the era of new media, and the government should better use new channels to disclose information accurately and punctually, said Guo Weimin, vice-minister of State Council Information Office.
During her first trade mission to China in 2014, the premier of Canada's Ontario province bemoaned the absence of Tim Hortons in the country.

"Clearly, we need a Tim Hortons franchise," Kathleen Wynne was quoted as telling university students, some of whom had attended Canadian schools.

For those who are unfamiliar with the name, "Timmie's", as the company is affectionately called, is a national institution in Canada.

From a single Ontario location 53 years ago, the coffee-and-doughnut chain has grown to become an industry leader with more than 4,600 stores in 10 countries. Its most popular offering is the "Double Double", a coffee with two servings of sugar and cream.

In 2008, the chain announced its intention to enter the lucrative Chinese market. Nine years on, the company is still in the planning stages as far as China is concerned.

In 2014, US fast-food giant Burger King acquired Tim Hortons and formed Restaurants Brands International, the world's third-largest operator of quick-service restaurants, which is controlled by 3G Capital of Brazil.

At the time, it was forecast that because Burger King was already operating in China, it would be easier for Tim Hortons to open outlets too. While the company has expanded to the Philippines and the United Kingdom since then, it is keeping us guessing about its plans for China.

I asked both Tim Hortons and its parent company multiple times about their China strategy, but they did not respond.

So I turned to Wynne's office, which quickly responded, although that did not resolve the mystery.

"Unfortunately the Premier's Office has nothing to add to your story as this is a corporate decision by Tim Hortons," an aide said in an email to China Daily.

As the company dithers, other players are racing ahead, with Starbucks in pole position.

Last year, the US behemoth announced plans to double the number of stores in China to 5,000 by 2021, opening 500 stores every year.

That makes sense because China is the fastest-growing coffee market in the world, and specialty stores are cropping up in cities, small and big.

"Total sales revenue for chained specialist coffee shops in China was 18.5 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) last year, and is estimated to reach 32.9 billion in 2021," market research provider Euromonitor International said last week.

Canadian food service industry consultant Geoff Wilson said several conditions have to be met before a company enters a foreign market.

"Typically, new market entries need to be executed correctly from the start. Second chances generally don't occur," he said.

Yet, he believes that given China's population and its economic growth, the country is a highly desirable market.

"China may be in the future for Tim Hortons," Wilson added.

May be, but don't expect any latecomer advantage in a market that is getting more crowded by the day.
Inspection is a strategic and systematic intra-Party supervision arrangement that will be further developed after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, to be held later this year, top graft-buster Wang Qishan said. Wang, head of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks in an article carried Monday by People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the CPC.

Wang said the authority of inspection is assured by the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee and empowered by the Party Constitution.

"Without the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the inspection would not play such a big role and achieve such remarkable results," he said.

During the 12 rounds of inspection by central inspection authorities since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, 277 Party organizations have been inspected, 16 provincial-level regions have been re-examined and flexible inspections of four institutions under the central authorities have been carried out, he said.

The inspections also covered major state-owned enterprises, central financial institutions and major universities, among others, according to the article.

This is the first time the Party has successfully inspected all these entities within an administrative term, it said.

"All of the problems discovered during the inspections reflect the weakening of Party leadership, deficiency in Party building and inadequate work in strict Party governance," he said. Wang was speaking of leadership at all levels of the Party.

The root is in the relaxed and unhealthy intra-Party political life, he said.

In the battle to safeguard a clean political environment, great results have been achieved in strict Party governance.

Inspection authorities usually make public the list of target units and collect information through various channels before carrying out an inspection.

They also open hotlines and mailboxes to information on disciplinary violations during inspection, while feedback and rectification of targeted units are also publicized after the inspection.

The inspections have been linked to innovative approaches and other breakthroughs in Party governance.

"The problems we are facing have been accumulated over a long period and therefore require a long period of time to solve," he added.

Xinhua
China has protested to the United States over an annual US defense policy bill that includes clauses requiring reports on the possibility of naval ships from the US and Taiwan docking at each other's ports, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

"Related clauses seriously go against the one-China policy and the principles of the three joint communiques between China and the US, and interfere in China's internal affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news conference in Beijing.

"China has lodged serious representations to the US," he said.

Lu said China resolutely opposes any form of official exchanges and military links between the US and Taiwan, urging the US to fully recognize the serious harmfulness of the amendments.

"We ask the US not to pass and legislate the bill that includes such clauses, to not turn back the wheel of history, in order to avoid damaging China-US cooperation," he added.

The US House of Representatives passed on Friday the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018.

One amendment requires the US secretary of defense to report to congressional committees no later than Sept 1, 2018, on "the feasibility and advisability" of US Navy ships making ports of call in Taiwan and ships from Taiwan making ports of call in Hawaii, Guam or other locations, according to media reports.

A final version of the legislation will be drafted at an undisclosed time and would take effect only after being approved by the Senate and signed by US President Donald Trump.
Hangzhou authorities have released more details in the case of a nanny accused of setting fire to an apartment in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China News Service reported on Monday.

At a news conference, the authorities said the nanny had used her mobile phone to learn how to set a fire. They also said the property management company failed to maintain safe facilities and to provide emergency response.

The police said Mo Huanjing, 34, confessed after her arrest, and was charged on July 1 with arson and theft in connection with the blaze that swept through an apartment in a residential building on June 22. The fire killed a mother and her three children, aged 6 to 11 years, Li Bing, deputy director of the Shangcheng district public security bureau, said at the news conference.

Mo was addicted to online gambling, Li said. She had worked as a babysitter since 2015 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, and in Shanghai, but was fired three times after being accused of theft.

She had worked for the family caught in the fire since September and had stolen items she subsequently pawned for 130,000 yuan ($19,000) to pay off gambling debts. Mo also borrowed 114,000 yuan from her employer, claiming she needed to buy a house for her parents.

During the investigation, the police discovered that Mo had searched such key words as "lighter", "sofa fire" and "curtain fire" from 2 am to 4 am on the day of the blaze, the news service reported.

Later, at 4:55 am, Mo used a lighter to set fire to a book on a tea table. The fire spread to the sofa, got out of control and frightened Mo, who fled, leaving the mother and three children to die.

Firefighters arrived at the scene at 5:11 am, but the fire engine was blocked. Firemen rescued seven people but failed to reach the blazing room.

Insufficient fire hydrant pressure prevented fire suppression and delayed the rescue effort, the report said.

According to Chen, the property management company had many problems with its emergency preparedness, including staff members who didn't know how to switch on a fire hydrant pump manually.
High temperatures push residents to seek respite below ground

In addition to shopping malls and libraries, many Nanjing residents have chosen to enjoy the cool air of air-raid shelters, where they may read books, dance or play online games.

"What I like most about the air-raid shelters is that there are no mosquitoes," said Zhong Yue, a 16-year-old who accompanied her grandmother to Beijiyan Shelter, which is built into a hillside. "My grandma goes to the shelter almost every day in summer with her friends to save electricity. I think it's environmentally friendly. However, I wouldn't be here if free Wi-Fi wasn't provided."

Since Saturday, Nanjing has opened eight of its air-raid shelters to the public. Tables, chairs and free mineral water are provided, along with dehumidifiers.

Beijiyan Shelter, which literally means North Pole rock shelter in Chinese, is located near well-known attractions, such as Xuanwu Lake and Jiming Temple.

And it's not just residents. Visitors find their way into the shelter as well.

Yuan Man, a Suzhou student who will go to college this September, said that the shelter looks different from what he had imagined.

"I thought it would be dark and terrifying inside, like in the war movies," said the student, who is traveling in Nanjing. "But it's bright and clean.

"I shivered when I first entered. It's almost 40 C outside and inside it's only half that temperature."

Yuan Renshui, a community worker in Qixia district, said people don't get bored, even if they spend the whole day in the Qianxin Yinkuang Shelter.

"We bought a television this year," he said. "The shelter covers more than 200 square meters. It's divided into three rooms for reading, playing poker and dancing."

The shelter is the only one in the city that's open all year. Others are open daily from July 15 to late August.

"Many people come to the shelter around 9:30 am and don't leave until it closes at 5 pm," said Chen Ya, who is retired. "Some even bring lunch."

Other cities, such as Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Fuzhou, Fujian province, and Chengdu, Sichuan province have also opened their air-raid shelters to the public.

According to the National Meteorological Center, heat will continue to grip parts of eastern, northern and southern China. Temperatures in some parts are expected to hit 37 to 40 degrees.

Guo Jun contributed to this story.
Editor's Note: China's judicial system has improved human rights protections since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, according to a summary published on Saturday under the name "Qi Ju" in the overseas edition of People's Daily, the official newspaper of the CPC. The article was originally published in Chinese. Following is a translated summary, edited for length and clarity:

The judiciary is the last line of defense in safeguarding social fairness and justice. Since 2012, significant achievements have been made in promoting legislation based on rational analysis, strict law enforcement, judicial justice and observance of the law by all citizens.

The country has strengthened judicial protections of human rights, including efforts to allocate judicial powers and responsibilities in a more rational way and improving accountability and transparency.

The country has abolished the system of re-education through labor and established a national judicial assistance system.

Reforms have been advanced to ensure that cases are filed and properly handled. Judicial organs have implemented the principle of presumption of innocence and exclusion of unlawful evidence.

China strictly limits the death penalty and employs it with prudence.

Detainees' rights and interests are guaranteed by improved conditions of prisons and detention houses and enhanced scrutiny of supervisory activities. Commutation, parole and execution of sentences outside prison safeguards detainees' personal dignity, safety, property and the rights of defense and appeal.

Protecting lawyers

China has made or revised laws and regulations to ensure lawyers' right of practice. In 2015, regulations were issued to make clear various measures to protect lawyers' rights of practice, including the right to know, to meet their clients and read case files.

By March 2017, all 31 provincial-level lawyer associations had established lawyer rights protection centers. In April, a circular was jointly issued by various authorities to further clarify different departments' duties in safeguarding lawyers' rights to practice.

Ensuring justice

Judicial organs nationwide have implemented the principle of the presumption of innocence to prevent and correct miscarriages of justice.

In 2013, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular on improving law enforcement to prevent miscarriages, along with other documents to prevent improper verdicts and improve real-time scrutiny of law enforcement.

The Ministry of Justice strengthened forensic assessment management and further regulated such activities, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate released a circular to prevent and correct miscarriages of justice by improving procuratorial functions, including scrutinizing all activities concerning evidence, procedures and application of law, improving the system of discovery, correcting and preventing improper verdicts and holding those responsible accountable.

The Supreme People's Court stipulated that defendants should be acquitted if evidence is insufficient.

Rules of evidence

China has clarified its laws to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the rights and interests of criminal suspects.

The Criminal Procedure Law revised in 2012 makes clear that confessions extorted by torture, or witness testimony and depositions of victims obtained illegally, such as by violence or threats, should be excluded from trials.

In June, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice jointly released a regulation on the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence in criminal cases.

Defenders of criminal suspects are allowed to ask that illegal evidence be ruled out during investigations.

Xinhua
The China Association for Science and Technology recently published guidelines for improving the self-discipline of scientists and curbing academic fraud in scientific papers.

The association issued the guidelines to its affiliated organizations and schools last week. It included codes of conduct and bottom lines for scientific papers.

The bottom lines are no fabrication, no plagiarism, no impersonation and no bribery. The association also called for scientists to be conscious of national goals and to pursue innovation to advance the well-being of the people and the country, while upholding academic practices.

Since 2015, foreign science publications have frequently retracted research papers by Chinese authors.

"This has a serious negative social impact and has directly harmed Chinese scientists' international reputations," the association said in a statement.

"These retractions are the result of some Chinese scientists lacking discipline or morals," it said. "The guidelines are meant to promote the scientific spirit and strengthen moral standards."

The medical journal Tumor Biology, published by Springer Nature, retracted 107 Chinese papers in April after an investigation found the peer review process had been compromised with fabricated email addresses of reviewers.

The move affected more than 520 Chinese researchers. Some were from top schools such as Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University and China Medical University.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is currently investigating the scandal. Early results suggest that the authors had passed their articles to dubious third-party agencies for polishing or review, resulting in unethical practices.

In March 2015, BioMed Central, a major publisher of medical and science journals based in the United Kingdom, retracted 43 papers over fabricated peer reviews, 41 of which were written by Chinese scholars.

China has been the world's second-largest producer of academic papers since 2009, trailing only the United States, according to the Science Citation Index, a database that covers most of the world's leading science and technology journals.

China produced more than 300,000 works for international journals in 2016, compared with 13,000 in 1996.

Publishing papers in international journals has become an important benchmark for measuring a researcher's performance, which is linked to salary, funding and job promotions, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese scientific community is weighing reforms to make scientists' performance evaluations more robust and rational. At the same time, more regulations are seen as necessary to prevent and punish violators and unethical third-party agencies.
An increasing number of senior middle school students in Beijing are traveling abroad to take SAT and ACT tests in order to apply for US colleges, spawning a booming business activity, Beijing Youth Daily reports.

Many US colleges look at applicants' SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) and ACT (American College Test) scores as an important reference for enrollment, but the tests are largely unavailable on the Chinese mainland.

Chinese students have to travel to Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, or neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore to take the tests. Hong Kong's AsiaWorld-Expo is the most popular thus far due to its proximity to the Chinese mainland and lower costs.

The paper said most attendees take the tests at least three times to get ideal scores, each trip costing a minimum of 5,000 to 8,000 yuan ($735 to $1,176).

Eager to seize a share of the market -- which is huge, lucrative and still expanding -- travel agencies, educational institutions, including some public schools, are all organizing group tours for the tests.

"The tests resemble the Chinese college entrance exam in that only high scores can secure a good school," said a student surnamed Zhao from the prestigious Beijing No. 8 Middle School. Students at the school's international department estimated that about 10 percent of graduates went abroad to further their studies each year.

So far, the number of international schools in Beijing has topped 85, and at least 15 public schools have international departments or classes especially designed for students who plan to study abroad.

Beijing National Day School, a renowned school, runs study-abroad classes at its main campus alongside an international department, and more than 30 percent of the students go abroad after graduation. A teacher surnamed Yan at the international department said students applying for US colleges took up more than 85 percent of the total number of applicants each season.

The schools organize SAT test tours for their own students through cooperation with travel agencies, and parents prefer them to others due to security considerations. The price usually ranges from 5,200 to 5,700 yuan.

Tours offered by various other educational institutions cover hotel, air ticket, pre-test tutoring and signing up for the tests. A four-day trip to Hong Kong costs 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, while trips to Singapore, Japan and South Korea cost around 8,000 yuan.
The bride peeks out from the traditional sedan chair before the wedding ceremony in Xiaonan village, Raohe county, Shuangyashan city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, July 15, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Almost every woman begins to plan her wedding since childhood. For 26-year-old Wang Xuemei, a doctoral student in Harbin Institute of Technology, a flash of thought convinced her to hold her dream wedding in traditional way.

What sealed the deal were the alluring traditional customs in the village she witnessed when she went back home during the Spring Festival. So she decided to have a traditional wedding. Her idea was fully supported by her parents and the groom, her schoolmate. They ordered a traditional sedan chair online and bought a horse from a market nearby. The wedding cost them about 80,000 yuan ($11,830) but it was appreciated by the whole village and gave the newlywed a special memory.
BEIJING  A selection of written confessions by Japanese war criminals after WWII has been published in China, with most of the archives available to the public for the first time, the State Archives Administration said Tuesday.

After Japan's unconditional surrender to China, a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals were imprisoned in China's Fushun and Taiyuan cities from 1950 to 1956.

Included in the book are photocopied hand-written confessions by Japanese war criminals and detailed records of their interrogation and trial, which serves as irrefutable evidence of Japan's heinous crimes against China during the war, the administration said.

The written confessions detailed crimes such as the killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people. They also confessed to using bacterial and chemical weapons, conducting biological tests on live humans and setting up military brothels with sex slaves for the Japanese army.

The book includes confessions by 842 war criminals, compiled in 120 volumes. The first 50 volumes were published in August 2015.

The book, published by Zhonghua Book Company, is made of the original photocopied texts in Japanese, supplements, corrections, postscripts and the text of Chinese translations at that time, with English translations of the abstract content presented before the relevant written confession.
US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad said he will continue to help promote green energy cooperation between Iowa and Hebei province.

"I will further push forward our practical cooperation on many aspects, especially on renewable and clean energy," Branstad, Iowa's former governor, said when he went to Hebei on Sunday. Hebei is the first province he's visited since his appointment in May.

During a meeting with Hebei Party chief Zhao Kezhi and provincial Governor Xu Qin, Branstad said he will further promote the friendly relationship between the two countries and help develop more communication and cooperation.

As Iowa's former governor, he spoke highly of the great changes and achievements Hebei has gained during the past three decades.

The state of Iowa and Hebei province became sister state/provinces in 1983.

Since then, the bilateral ties have been strengthened through cooperation in the economic and trade fields, culture, education, public health and sports.

"Branstad is a good friend, and he has witnessed the ties between Hebei and Iowa grow stronger," Zhao said, adding that he looks forward to seeing more cooperative fruits that will be yielded.
China applauds Nanjing Massacre exhibition held in Hiroshima

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-07-18 20:17

BEIJING - China applauded an exhibition on the Nanjing Massacre jointly organized by groups from Nanjing, China and Hiroshima, Japan, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.



Referring to the exhibition that kicked off on July 15 in Hiroshima, Lu Kang said this year marks the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, in which the Japanese militarists committed serious crimes during the Second World War.



The painful history should never be forgotten, he said, and called on Japan to learn from the history to avoid war, safeguard peace and shape the future.
Netherlands will mark third anniversary of MH17 tragedy

AMSTERDAM - A national monument commemorating victims who died three years ago in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is set for a formal opening on Monday.

The memorial will be established in Vijfhuizen park near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, from where flight MH17 took off en route to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.
[Photo provided to China Daily]

Caibai Jewelry Store held an event to celebrate the love stories of couples from different generations. The event collects stories of people who have undergone unusual experience to be together. These include those who have gone through earthquake together and those who happen to be born on the same day in the same year. The oldest couple in the event has been together for 57 years. The event aims at promoting traditional wedding culture among the young generations. Caibai is one of Beijing's oldest local jewelry stores.
After US President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the Paris agreement on climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron replied that he was on a mission to "make our planet great again", a play on Trump's catchphrase, "Make America Great Again".

Macron has met Trump's rejection with a celebration of the signing of the historic agreement, which 153 out of 197 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have ratified.

In spite of Trump's antipathy to the consensus on climate change, which seeks to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions between 2020 and 2030, Macron has adopted a pragmatic approach by engaging him and trying to bring him back on board, after the other leaders of the G20 agreed in Hamburg that the Paris Agreement is irreversible. Macron has recently planed to organize a climate summit to mark the second anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement on Dec 12 in France.

The French president has even been rewarded with positive noises from Trump during his visit to Paris on July 13-14 and the concession that "something could be done" on the issue.

Macron's next task should be to ensure that no further countries follow the US and pull out of the Paris Agreement. For example, Canada followed the US' lead by abandoning the Kyoto Protocol.

But Macron is proving to be a stout defender of the Paris Agreement. Within weeks of his presidency, Macron has shown his pragmatism by actively engaging China, the US, Germany and other global players and extolling the benefits of coordinated action on climate change.

China and France are united in defending the Paris Agreement.

He has also invited US climate researchers to France and even focused on climate finance, which has long been an issue that needed to be addressed by rich countries.

While climate is high on Macron's agenda, the French president has also said he wants to alter the regulation on trade and investment.

Macron needs to be very cautious in shaping his vision of Europe. Right now, he is trying to tighten scrutiny of foreign investment activities in the European Union, which is signing free trade agreements with some of its partners.

For politicians, market protection and protectionism seem very similar but the former is acceptable, while the latter is one step too far. Macron must accept the reality that openness has already benefited his country, the EU and the world by promoting technology transfer, capital injection and inward investment. For the EU, its priority should be to trim bureaucracy, instead of beefing up its regulations.

The US also scrutinizes investment in the name of national security. But this mainly works as a barrier and sometimes a useful card to play.

The EU, a global leader of climate protection, free trade and an open economy, should not follow such old-fashioned practices. What's more, the essence of the Paris Agreement is global development paradigm change, and ample finance and technology transfers from the rich countries can help less-developing countries avoid development traps and environmental woes.

France has played a major role in defending international cooperation on climate change. It should approach trade with the same spirit. If so, the numerous goals in the Paris Agreement could be turned into reality faster than expected.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
China has established an institutional old-age insurance framework covering workers and residents. The employees' basic pension insurance system combines social funds and personal accounts for 380 million workers nationwide. It has also established a basic old-age insurance system that covers 500 million urban and rural residents.

Together, the two old-age insurance plans cover 880 million people. Based on the estimation that China has about 1 billion people above the age of 16, the country's old-age insurance plans' coverage rate is about 88 percent.

In 2008, the accumulated balance of the two old-age insurance funds was 992.5 billion yuan ($149.07 billion), which increased to 4.40 trillion yuan last year, indicating the strong payment capacity of old-age insurance funds. Although in some provinces and regions the growth rate of basic old-age insurance funds has been lower than the growth rate of expenditure, the reverse is true in others. Which means the accumulated balance of China's basic old-age insurance funds will continue to rise.

The basic pension insurance funds of enterprises play a dominant role in the funding of China's basic old-age insurance system. According to last year's data, even if the authorities were to stop collecting old-age insurance premium today, the existing old-age pension funds could still pay pension nationwide for more than 17 consecutive months. Hence, experts generally believe China has enough capacity when it comes to paying old-age pension.

As the balance of national basic old-age insurance fund has risen to more than 4 trillion yuan, there is no reason to fear about a shortage of pension insurance funds. But this assurance should not stop the authorities from taking measures for the sustainable and healthy development of the basic old-age insurance system.

China's aging society, increasing pressure of economic downturn and slowing growth rate of fiscal revenue mean it will face rising payment pressure on its pension insurance fund in the future. But the authorities have taken several measures to cope with this pressure.

First, they have established a national social security strategic reserve fund with a market value of 2 trillion yuan to supplement employees' basic pension insurance funds and cope with the subsequent pressure of pension payment necessitated by a rapidly aging society.

Second, they have also established an investment mechanism for employees' basic pension insurance funds, in order to preserve and increase the value of pension insurance funds.

Third, they have allocated partial State-owned capital to make up for the cost of transforming the pension insurance system.

And fourth, the central leadership has asked governments at all levels to take up the responsibility of paying full old-age pension in time.

Now, the authorities should further improve the basic pension insurance system for employees. Social pooling should be raised from the provincial to the national level so as to create a fair competition environment for enterprises and correct the imbalance among provinces and regions. Also, the authorities should gradually raise the retirement age, unify pension insurance premiums, and take necessary measures to solve the problems related to the premium payment period.

In other words, although the old-age insurance system is improving and the old-age insurance fund is being effectively operated, reforms in the sector should be deepened and active measures taken to guarantee the sustainable and healthy development of the system.

The author is director of the Social Security Research Center affiliated to the Central University of Finance and Economics.
A new tailor-made bike by Ofo Inc. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

URBAN PATROL OFFICERS IN NANCHANG, East China's Jiangxi province, have impounded a total of 26,000 short-time hire bikes illegally parked on the city's streets. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Monday:

The provincial capital's tough response to the illegally parked bikes has reignited the debate over how to manage the station-less, GPS-enabled hire bikes that have become a common sight in Chinese cities. Some argue that the authorities should adopt an open attitude toward the bikes as they are part of the sharing economy, and the Nanchang urban patrol officers risk a serious waste of resources by withholding that many bikes. Others argue the bikes are a nuisance and are just a new business model for hiring bikes rather than part of a sharing economy.

While the authorities should keep an open mind to new things, they should not turn a blind eye to their downsides either.

Hailed as a near-perfect solution to the last-mile dilemma facing urban commuters, the influx of short-time hire bikes has not only resulted in them being chaotically parked but also caused safety risks in many cities.

It will be just a matter of time before they take over the sidewalks if local governments do not intervene. Neither the bike-providers nor their enthusiastic investors have solved the parking problem. They need to cooperate with the local authorities and abide by the new regulations that have been introduced.

On their part, the authorities should implement the rules flexibly and proactively. The traffic police in Shenzhen have set a good example by temporarily banning 13,615 people who violated traffic regulations from using shared bikes. The police have already notified the bike-renting companies to deactivate the user accounts of these users for at least a week.


Chinas President Xi Jinping was right on the mark when he stated at the recent National Financial Work Conference that serving the real economy is the bound duty and purpose of the financial sector.

The national economy comprises two sectors - the real sector and the financial sector. Metaphorically speaking, the former is the body of a dog and the latter its tail.

In a healthy economy, the body wags the tail, not the other way around. In other words, the financial sector should serve the real sector as the lubricator of the real economic activities (production, distribution, consumption) by maintaining a well-functioning payment system, serving as the custodian of the assets of the people, and providing financial risk management tools.

The tragedy of many western economies that suffered financial crises in recent years was that their economic and financial policymakers forgot or misunderstood the intrinsic role of finance. They allowed the tail (eg. Wall Street) to wag the dog (the real sector) by letting what Adair Turner, former chairman of Britains Financial Services Authority, aptly called socially useless activities (rampant financial speculations) ruin the national economy. It is gratifying to note that Chinas policymakers are wise enough to see the danger of the ephemeral value-added created by the unchecked financial industrys make-work and make-belief practices.

As President Xi wisely said, guarding against systemic financial risks is the eternal theme of financial work and the government should make a stronger effort to monitor, warn against and deal with the risks in a timely manner. For no other reason than that, the economy, including the financial sector, exists for people, not vice-versa. Economic and financial choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support his or her family, and serve the common good. At a minimum, policymakers should avoid the worst-case scenario that lets financial speculators privatize their gains and socialize their losses by bailing them out with taxpayers money.

The writer is a professor of finance and international business of Seton Hall University, New Jersey, and recently served as visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing.
LONDON - The first major contracts for Britain's biggest ever rail project, worth $8.7 billion, were announced Monday by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

The high-speed HS2 rail will eventually link London with central and northern England, with the total cost currently said to be around $74 billion.

Grayling said the first major infrastructure contracts will cover the main civil engineering work on the first phase of HS2 between London and Birmingham. The work includes the construction of tunnels, bridges, embankments and viaducts.

The first phase between London and Birmingham is scheduled to open in 2026, with phase two to Manchester in the north-west and Leeds in the north-east due for completion in 2033.

Grayling said: "This is a hugely important step in the construction of Britain's new railway. HS2 will deliver vital links between some of our country's biggest cities, helping to drive economic growth and productivity in the north and midlands."

David Higgins, chairman of HS2 Ltd, said: "This is a huge day for the HS2 project and for the country. These contracts will support 16,000 jobs in Britain and will create opportunities for thousands of SMEs."

The Department for Transport (DfT) said HS2 construction will create up to 25,000 jobs and 2,000 apprenticeships. A further 3,000 people will operate HS2 network, and it is estimated that growth around new HS2 stations will create another 100,000 jobs.

A number of joint venture consortia have been awarded the first contracts. With preparatory works already underway on phase one, the DfT says main construction work will start in 2018/19.

Grayling published Monday a new government bill for the next phase of HS2, from Birmingham to Crewe in northern England. This will cut journey times to London from the north of England and Scotland in 2027, six years earlier than planned. Grayling also confirmed the final leg of HS2, or phase 2, covering the stretches to Manchester and Leeds.

HS2 has divided opinion in Britain with environmental groups and some politicians calling for it to be scrapped altogether. In a media interview Monday, Grayling rejected a weekend report by a quantity surveyor who claimed HS2 will cost almost double the current estimate, taking the final bill to over $130 billion. Campaigners have also said the rail will ruin one of the best known areas of traditional English countryside known as the Chilterns.
BERLIN - Police in southwestern Germany launched a manhunt Monday after a teenager entered a vocational school in the town of Esslingen reportedly armed with a gun and later fled without causing any injuries, DPA reported.

The suspect, who did not fire his gun, was only briefly in the Friedrich-Ebert School and later fled on a motorcycle, Reutlingen police (Polizei Reutlingen) said on Twitter.

After receiving calls from students, the police locked down and searched the school, finding nothing suspicious.

Police described the suspect as "male, aged 17-19, 170-180 cm tall, bearded, darker skin" on Twitter.

Other nearby schools and kindergartens were also locked down, but police eventually said there was no more threat at school and all the students were able to go home.

Local and federal police have blocked some of the streets in Esslingen and deployed helicopters to help hunt the suspect. Police said on Twitter the manhunt will continue.
MEXICO CITY - US President Donald Trump's controversial border wall with Mexico is being "quietly" prepared for construction in Texas, Mexico's state news agency Notimex said on Monday.

"The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office quietly started preparations to build the first stretch of the border wall in an area of southeast Texas," the agency said.

Notimex cited the weekly Texas Observer as saying the initial tract will be built along the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge located in southeast of McAllen, Texas.

The article apparently focused on the environmental impact of the wall, and an adjacent highway, with one federal official telling the weekly the construction work "will essentially destroy the refuge."

According to the weekly, preparation work is being carried out and construction could begin by January 2018.

This segment of the border division will have a concrete base supporting a fence made of steel bollards, have a height of 5.4 meters and run for some 4.8 kilometers, said the weekly, adding a similar wall was erected near Hidalgo, Texas, 10 years ago.

Portions of the US-Mexico border have been fenced or walled off over the years, but Trump has called for a more substantial impenetrable barrier, similar to the one that Israel built in the West Bank.

This part of the border was chosen to start the wall because the land already belongs to the federal government, the weekly said, whereas some 95 percent of the Texas border is private property that would have to be purchased or confiscated first.
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, his wife Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive at a military airport in Warsaw, Poland, July 17, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

WARSAW - Britain's Prince William took his young family to Warsaw on Monday to begin a four-day tour of Poland and Germany that will take in World War II memorials and meetings with locals.

The royal couple travelled with their children - Prince George, who turns four this month and his two-year-old sister, Charlotte.

After meeting the Polish president and first lady, William, second in line to the throne, and Kate, visited the Warsaw Uprising museum which commemorates the 1944 battle against Nazi occupiers in which tens of thousands died and the city was razed to the ground.

Later they met young entrepreneurs, before attending a party organised by the British embassy to celebrate Queen's 91st birthday, where William praised the strong ties between the two countries. Around 900,000 Poles live in Britain while Poland hosts British troops as part of NATO forces.

"In our warm relationships we are NATO partners and for the first time since the Second World War our soldiers station on your soil," William said during the party in Royal Lazienki park in Warsaw.

"Such diplomatic, military, cultural ties promise a lot and give opportunities for the future," William told during his speech which he started and finished in Polish, the second most spoken language in Britain.

Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and had been one of Britain's closest allies in calling for reform of the bloc before Britons voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum.

On Tuesday the royals will tour a former concentration camp in Stutthof, the first built by Nazi Germany outside its borders after the start of World War II. More than 85,000 died there.

Also on Tuesday, they will visit a museum in Gdansk. In Germany they are due to visit the Berlin Holocaust Memorial.

REUTERS
NEW YORK - Arabella and Joseph Kushner, grandchildren of US President Donald Trump, endeared themselves to Chinese-speaking communities in early April when they performed a traditional folk song "Jasmine" in Mandarin for Chinese President Xi Jinping during the two leaders' first meeting in Florida.

The two young members of the US first family are joining a growing list of American celebrities including Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Malia Obama, former President Barack Obama's daughter who take Chinese as their second language.

The followers of the world's oldest written language are not confined to key public figures. US statistics show Chinese is the third most popular language in the country, only behind English, official language, and Spanish.

Why are Americans so enthusiastic about Chinese?

Each one might have a different story but all of our interviewees agree that Chinese, against the backdrop of the breathtaking scale and development of China, is becoming an increasingly useful asset for their personal and professional growth in the future, not least gaining a better understanding of one of the richest cultures in the world.

"I WOULDN'T BE THE PERSON I AM TODAY WITHOUT LEARNING MANDARIN"

"When I chose Chinese, I just thought I don't know much about China and this will be an opportunity for me to learn something and I'm very glad that I did," Aisling McCaffrey told Xinhua recently at the New York-based China Institute, the oldest educational institution devoted solely to Chinese culture in the United States.

McCaffrey started learning Chinese when she was in her first year majoring in international business at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. After graduation, she went to the Renmin University in Beijing, China, for further studies.

"I think everyone believes that China will be the next great superpower ...even if it's not a superpower like America. It's still very significant," she said. "And learning Chinese is the best way to make sure that you can be part of that growth."

"And you know for us in North America, we need China's help for our economy to grow, you need our help for your economy to grow. So I think a lot of us are interested in facilitating that growth on both sides through communication, and Mandarin is a very important language for that."

McCaffrey has recently relocated to New York City with her boyfriend after working a few years at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China. She comes to the monthly Mandarin meet-up at the China Institute while searching the next step in her career.

"I get to practise my Chinese...I would like to take more lessons because if I don't speak Chinese, I can already feel myself losing it and I really don't want to forget it because I spent many years working on it," she said.

"To be honest, the fact that I didn't know much about China before and then I developed this love for China, I spent most of my adult life living in China, which has really influenced my life. I wouldn't be the person I am today without learning Mandarin," she said.

McCaffrey said learning Chinese was the first step to know China and its culture.

"If you want to learn a culture you should learn the language, because how are you gonna to talk to the people and know what they are doing if you can't talk to them?" McCaffrey said.

"I realize that for some people politics are very very important and I respect their views, but at the same time they don't know what Chinese people are like, they've never talked to the people and I think that they could take the opportunity to go to China and see what it's really like because it is a wonderful place," she added.
BEIJING - The American researcher sentenced to ten years in prison for spying in Iran is not a Chinese national, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Monday.

Media reported Wang Xiyue, a 37-year-old history researcher who was imprisoned by Iran for ten years after being found guilty of being "an infiltrating American agent," holds dual Chinese and American citizenship.

Lu Kang denied the claim, saying that China does not recognize dual nationality.

"As he has American citizenship, I can tell you that he is definitely not a Chinese national," Lu said.
Muslim worshippers clash with Israeli police during a protest outside Lion's Gate of Jerusalem's Old City at the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound against Israel's newly-implemented security measures, on July 17, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

JERUSALEM - Muslim worshippers held protest outside the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Monday morning, as Israel reopened the compound to Isaelis for the first time since Friday's deadly assault.

A police statement said the site was opened early in the morning "without special incident". "Hundreds of Muslims have entered the site since the morning."

Outside the compound, dozens of Muslim worshippers refused to enter the site due to new security measures, including CCTVs covering the entire compound, checkpoints and metal detectors at the entrances that Israel had implanted following the shooting attack, which killed two police officers.

A police spokesperson said that a group of about 20 Israelis entered the site after security checks. One of them said that the compound was relatively empty, with few Muslim visitors.

"It is the first time we come here without being escorted by the Waqf (the Muslim authority that administrates the site). Usually, the Waqf people are all around us, today we are here alone," the visitor said.

It was the second day of Muslim protest against what they call a violation of the status quo in the flashpoint compound. On Monday, clashes erupted between worshippers and police outside the compound.

In a shooting attack on Friday morning, three Palestinian Muslims with Israeli citizenship shot dead two Israel policemen near the gates of the compound. The gunmen, all from the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in central Israel, were subsequently shot and killed by the police.

Immediately after the incident, Israel shut down the compound, saying that security forces need to check the site for more militants or ammunition.

It was for the first time in the past 50 years that Israel closed the compound, which is Islam's third holiest site.

Israel reopened the holy site on Sunday, requiring all visitors to go through security checks through metal detectors that were placed at two gates.

The Waqf, a Muslim religious authority that administrates the compound, rejected the new measures and refused to hold prayers at the mosque.

"This is a gross violation of the status quo, a new reality that neither we nor the Arab street is willing to accept," the legal advisor of the Waqf, attorney Jamal Abu Toami, was quoted as saying by Army Radio.

Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights group, warned that the new measures, including the two-day closure of the site, have "disturbing implications for a status quo."

According to a statement issued by the group, Israeli security forces made "unilateral decisions" about access to the compound without the participation of the Waqf, establishing "a clear change to the status quo."

The introduction of metal detectors and security checks "imposes Israeli sovereignty in violation of arrangements established and respected since 1967," the organization said, urging leaders to take steps "as soon as possible to restore cooperation between Israeli security forces and the Waqf."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he had decided to reopen the site with increased security measures but promised to "maintain the status-quo."

Israel seized East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war. Israel subsequently annexed East Jerusalem, claiming it part of its "eternal and indivisible" capital, in a move never recognized internationally.

The compound site is holy to both Muslims, who revered it as the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. Jews revere the site as the place of their historic temples, the last of which was ruined by the Romans in 70 AD.

Due to the special sensitivity, the Muslim Waqf is responsible for the administration of the site. Israeli Jews are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there.

In recent months, far-right Israeli lawmakers renewed their calls to change the long-held status quo and to lift the restrictions on Jewish prays, escalating the tensions in and around the compound.
KUWAIT - European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will visit Kuwait on Sunday as part of the intensified mediation efforts to end the Gulf standoff, the official news agency KUNA reported Monday.

"I will be visiting Kuwait, the mediator that we support and accompany and with whom we are constantly in touch. So I will visit Kuwait next Sunday," Mogherini, high representative of EU foreign affairs and security policy, told a press conference in Brussels after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Mogherini will express EU's support to the mediation efforts made by Kuwait to find solution to the crisis between Qatar and four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, the report said.

Kuwait has been playing the role of mediator since the Qatari crisis started early last month, seeking a political solution to the dispute.

The Saudi-led bloc cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed an economic blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing it of supporting terrorism while interfering in their internal affairs. Doha has denied all the charges, rejecting the 13 demands put forward by the Saudi-led alliance for resuming diplomatic ties.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian briefed his EU counterparts on the outcome of his visit to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 15 and 16.

Mogherini said she had discussed with Le Drian during her visit to Paris last week the messages he would bring to the Gulf region.

"We discussed in particular the need to avoid tensions in the Gulf," she said, noting the crisis has negative repercussions on the crisis in Libya, a top priority for the EU.

Ahead of Le Drian's visit, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had already visited the Gulf respectively in an attempt to calm down the tensions there and seek to broker an end to the crisis. But so far no signs of easing of the crisis have emerged as the rivaling sides refuse to back down.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) speaks with reporters about the Senate health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, July 12, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON  A third Republican senator angrily indicated Monday he might oppose his party's health care bill in an upcoming showdown vote, a threat that could doom one of the GOP's top priorities to a humiliating, self-inflicted defeat.

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said moderate GOP senators "basically confirmed" to him that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., assured them last week that Medicaid cuts planned by the legislation would "never happen" because they are too far in the future.

"It's from my standpoint a pretty serious breach of trust, those comments," Johnson, a conservative re-elected last year, told reporters.

He added, "Last week I was strongly urging colleagues to vote" to begin debating the measure, a critical vote expected as early as next week. "I'm not doing that right now," he said.

Johnson's opposition would be fatal to the Republican drive to repeal much of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul because two other GOP senators have already said they'll vote no: Maine's Susan Collins and Kentucky's Rand Paul. Facing uniform Democratic opposition, McConnell needs 50 of the 52 Republican senators to back the measure so Vice President Mike Pence could cast the tie-breaking vote.

The comments by Johnson came after an expected showdown this week was postponed because Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was recovering from a Friday procedure to remove a blood clot above his left eye. His office said he'd recuperate in Arizona for a week, and several senators said Monday they expected McCain, 80, to return quickly.

"We hope John McCain gets better very soon," President Donald Trump said. "Because we miss him. He's a crusty voice in Washington. Plus we need his vote."Gearing up for that vote, around a half-dozen GOP senators were meeting with Trump and Pence at the White House late Monday in what the White House billed as a strategy session. All senators attending were supporting the bill, and the group included No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas and No. 3 leader John Thune of South Dakota.

Conservative support for the legislation has hinged in part on the measure's planned $772 billion in 10-year cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients. But only $35 billion of those cuts occur over the next two years; more than half don't take effect until 2024, 2025 and 2026, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Public concern about North Korea is widespread -- alongside skepticism of President Donald Trumps ability to handle the risks.



Eighty-one percent of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll see North Korea as a threat to the United States, including 66 percent who see it as a serious threat, up 12 points from 2005. Nearly three-quarters are concerned about the possibility of a full-scale war, with half of them very concerned.



As part of those worries, just 36 percent express trust in Trumps ability to handle the situation; 63 percent distrust him, with a large portion, 40 percent, trusting him not at all. Among those who distrust Trump to handle the situation, worry about a full-scale war soars to 83 percent.



Distrust in Trump on the issue is highly partisan, ranging from 87 percent among Democrats to 19 percent of Republicans in this survey, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates. Tipping the balance, its 66 percent among independents. And Democrats are most apt to fear a full-scale war -- 86 percent, vs. 68 percent of Republicans and independents alike.



Generational differences emerge: Among adults age 40 and older, 87 percent see North Korea as a threat to the United States, and 77 percent see it as a serious threat. Comparable numbers are lower by 17 and 28 points, respectively, among younger adults, who may be less in touch with the nuclear threat of years past. Younger adults also are less apt to trust Trump to deal with the situation -- just 29 percent do, vs. 41 percent of those age 40-plus.



There also are large gender gaps on the issue. Women are much less likely than men to trust Trump to handle the situation, 29 to 44 percent. Conversely, women are much more likely to see North Korea as a serious threat, 73 to 59 percent; to be concerned about the risk of full-scale war, 83 vs. 64 percent; and to be very concerned about it, 51 vs. 27 percent. (Note, women typically are more willing than men to express concern in surveys.)



Methodology



This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone July 10-13, 2017, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 35-23-35 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.



The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, New York, with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Don Damond hugs a neighbor after reading a statement about his fiance, Justine Damond who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, July 17, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

MINNEAPOLIS  Relatives and neighbors of an Australian woman fatally shot by Minneapolis police over the weekend demanded answers Monday about the mysterious shooting in which the meditation teacher was reportedly killed by an officer who fired from the passenger seat of a squad car as the woman stood outside the driver's door.

Authorities released no details about what led to the shooting of Justine Damond, whose fiance said she had called 911 to report what she believed was a sexual assault in an alley near her home.

Police said officers were responding to a call about a possible assault late Saturday when she was killed. There were no known witnesses other than the two officers in the squad car that showed up. A newspaper report said Damond was shot while standing alongside the car in her pajamas.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office on Monday night said the woman died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Her fiance, Don Damond, said the family has been given almost no additional information about what happened after police arrived.

"We've lost the dearest of people, and we're desperate for information," he said. "Piecing together Justine's last moments before the homicide would be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy."Damond's family members in Australia also released a statement Monday through Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, saying they "are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened."Authorities did not release the woman's name, but the Star Tribune identified her as Damond, from Sydney, Australia. The newspaper reported that she was engaged to be married in August and was using her fiance's last name. Her maiden name was Justine Ruszczyk.

Almost two days after her death, police offered no public explanation and referred questions to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was investigating. A Monday statement from the BCA said more information would be provided once the officers were interviewed.

The BCA said Monday that no weapons were found at the scene.

Local media identified the officer who fired as Mohamed Noor, who is a Somali-American. A city newsletter said he joined the police department in March 2015.

His attorney, Tom Plunkett, released a statement saying Noor offered his condolences to the family "and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers."The statement added: "He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves, and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing."Noor was sued earlier this year after a May 25 incident in which he and other officers took a woman to the hospital on a mental health hold. The lawsuit claims Noor and the other officers violated the woman's rights when they entered her home without her permission and Noor grabbed her wrist and upper arm. Noor relaxed his grip when the woman said she had a previous shoulder injury, the lawsuit says.
An exhibition on the Nanjing Massacre opened in Hiroshima, Japan, on July 15, Nanjing Daily reported. It's the first such exhibition in the city in 20 years. Fifty displays consisting of more than 200 photos show the various atrocities that Japanese invaders committed in China, especially in Nanjing.

A civil peace delegation from Nanjing brought many of the objects to the exhibition, drawing much attention from Japanese citizens. Many of the objects were open to the public for the first time.

Nine personal letters from Japanese soldier Nakajima Ryozo record many of the miserable details of the invasion 80 years ago.

During the war, all Japanese soldiers' belongings had to be checked by the military before they could go back home. A lot of the records had been erased. However, Nakajima Ryozo died while fighting and the letters were brought back to Japan by his comrade. A Japanese scholar named Kurabashi Masanao got a chance to print copies of the letters. In the ninth letter, Nakajima Ryozo mentions that Japanese soldiers killed Chinese people every day and about 30,000 bodies were thrown into the Yangtze River. Kurabashi Masanao expressed his view when sorting the letters: "Nakajima Ryozo is only an ordinary soldier, but he directly witnessed the death of 30,000 Chinese people. This tells us a huge number of Chinese people were killed by Japanese soldiers."

In 2014, the Japanese scholar sent copies of the letters to Anti-Japanese War Museum in Nanjing during an exhibition in Nagoya. Japanese soldiers recorded their combat gains on flags during the war. The museum has a collection of three Japanese flags with war records. A banner written by the main Japanese war criminal Hisao Tani recorded the moment when Japanese soldiers' invaded Nanjing. "The words on the flags and the banner are undeniable evidence of the Nanjing Massacre," said Wu Xianbin, curator of the museum.

An investigative report on the massacre issued by the then Nanjing Provisional Senate became a focus of the exhibition. After the anti-Japanese victory, the Chinese government conducted a large-scale investigation of Japanese crimes. The Nanjing Provisional Senate formed an investigation commission for this specific reason. The report contains many survivors' testimonies.

The exhibition will last till July 23. Kurihara Kimiko, a former Japanese senator, attended the opening of the exhibition. She stressed its importance and hoped for more Japanese visitors and more such activities in the future.
Pupils on the Mandarin Excellence Programme take part in a classroom activity at UCL Institute of Education in London, UK on July 14, 2017. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hundreds of pupils from schools throughout England put their Chinese language skills to the test last week when the Mandarin Excellence Programme hosted its first intensive learning day.

As part of the Department for Education's national language learning initiative, the day saw Year 7 pupils attempt a series of tasks designed to put them through their linguistic paces.

Held at University College London's Institute of Education, activities included a"Talking Treasure Hunt" around the university's campus, as well as classroom lessons, and singing in Mandarin.

Pupils were also given the opportunity to gain insight from sixth form and university students who shared their experiences of studying Mandarin and spending time in China.

As well as being the first ever intensive learning day for those participating in the Mandarin Excellence Programme, it was also the first time that the majority of the pupils on the national initiative had come together in one place.

The Mandarin Excellence Programme, which was launched by the government in September, ultimately aims to see 5,000 pupils on track toward fluency by 2020.

The program is being run by UCL's Institute of Education and the British Council.

Almost 400 pupils are set to complete the first year of the program this summer. On average, they study Mandarin for eight hours a week.

Katharine Carruthers, director of the local Confucius Institute, said: "This program provides a real boost and unique opportunity for more motivated pupils to be on track toward fluency in Mandarin, and intensive learning is an important part of that. All of the pupils who attended this innovative teaching day are clearly benefitting from being part of the program."

Chijioke Davies, 12, from Dartford Grammar School in Kent, said: "I joined the Mandarin Excellence Programme because I wanted to have a bigger challenge than regular Chinese lessons."

Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. The British government has said it is important for young people in the UK to speak the language if the UK is to remain globally competitive.
Students are divided into small groups to work on their own rocket launcher. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/chinadaily.com.cn]

More than 40 high school students from eight countries are in Beijing this week, trying to realize their space dreams.

The students from member countries of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, are participating in the "Future Space Homeland" creative design competition.

Since the competition started in March this year, competitors have worked on a detailed design plan for their own inventions that would be needed to set up a new home in space. Finalists were selected to present their ideas.

Warisa Jaidee, a 15-year-old girl from Thailand, won the competition with her "space debris cleanup beetle".

Warisa's beetle is a small satellite is able to communicate with and accept instruction through radio waves. When it finds garbage in space, the "beetle" releases a magnetic network to capture it.

Li Xinjun, secretary general of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, said: "Teenagers are the future of science, innovation and the world. This competition aims to stimulate the interest and enthusiasm in space science and aerospace industry of the new generation from all member countries, and create a platform for cultural exchange and idea collision."

The Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental organization and has eight member countries; China, Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey. There are also two signatory countries Indonesia and Mexico, while Egypt is expected to join soon.

A student from Turkey tries a virtual reality plane flying simulator at Beijing Bayi School. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/chinadaily.com.cn]

Members of the organization cooperate on space technology and its application projects, such as earth observation, disaster management, environmental protection, satellite communications, navigation and positioning, and space science research, space technology education and training. The competition is the first organized since the establishment of the organization for teenagers to popularize aerospace science knowledge.

The contest and exchange activities were held July 15-21 and organized by the Chinese Society of Astronautics, supported by the Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Education Alliance and sponsored by Beijing Bayi School.

Wang Yiran, Secretary General of the Society of Astronautics, pointed out that the foreign students participating in this competition are mostly from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"In the future, the China Society of Astronautics will organize more such exchange activities for international space culture and technology to make students from other countries understand China through Chinese aerospace, letting Chinese aerospace become a bridge and link for national cooperation and common development of the Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

At the end of 2016, students at the Bayi school received a letter from President Xi Jinping. In the letter, President Xi said he was very proud of the students' achievements and encouraged everyone to continue to study and love science.

Zhu Kai, vice principle of Bayi school in Beijing, said: "Over the past six months, we have actively implemented the spirit conveyed by President Xi's reply, and we hope to be able to gather more teenagers from other countries jointly to discuss science and better practice it, fostering more talents for the human future development of science and technology."
Home Credit Group, the financial giant from the Czech Republicthat employs more than 80,000 Chinese staff, will receive 2 billion yuan ($296.5 million) "immediately" from PAG Asia Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, said the group's top management.

The cooperation is aimed at ensuring Home Credit Group's China operation will eventually be listed on the stock market.

Jiri Smejc, chairman of Home Credit Group, made the announcement in Prague, where the China Investment Forum, with the theme of promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, was kicked off on Tuesday by Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. He was joined by Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

The two companies signed the cooperation agreement on Tuesday. It will allow Home Credit Group to accelerate its pace of localization by seeking Chinese shareholders after having had a presence in China for up to 10 years.

It is expected that it will take another three to five years to complete the process of gaining approval from regulatory bodies that will make PAG become the group's shareholder in China.

Smejc said his group's partnership with PAG has showcased its confidence in the stability and promising prospects of China's financial market. He added that China's regulatory bodies have made tremendous efforts to beef up the robust market in previous years.

The registered capital of the Home Credit Group's operations in China amounted to 7 billion yuan and the new input will make PAG a minority shareholder.

"The investment will be in place immediately," Smejc said before the signing ceremony on Tuesday.

He said the partnership was finalized after two years of negotiations andexplained that his group had been trying to identify "qualified" local partners and investors for some time.

"This is a very big and strategic decision for us, which has showcased our confidence and commitment to this dynamic market," he said.

Shan Weijian, chairman of PAG Group, an alternative investment management firm, said: "We are very pleased to form a partnership with one of the world's most innovative consumer finance providers."

Shan said his company will contribute its knowledge in the China market to help Home Credit Group further grow and better serve its customers, while both entities have set a goal of "eventually listing Home Credit Group's China operations on an internationally recognized stock market," after all necessary regulatory approvals.

According to their agreement, both sides have committed to help develop a healthy consumer finance sector in China, recognizing the sector's great potential.

Home Credit Group said partnering with PAG will enable it to open a dialogue with additional local partners regarding strategic cooperation and investment.

Smejc said China is his group's largest and fastest-growing market, with 7.5 billion euros of total assets and more than 13.2 million active customers as of the end of March. It has 178,00points of saleacross the country.

Thanks its success in China, Smejc said his company is also the biggest consumer finance provider in several countries in Asia,but not in India.

"But very soon, we will be the most competitive one in that country as well," said Smejc, who added that his company mainly offers small loans to individual borrowers.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
The British government has set up a 100 million pound ($130.6 million) global talent research fund in a bid to attract top Chinese scientists and innovators to the United Kingdom.

The Ernest Rutherford Fund, which takes its name from the nuclear physicist and Nobel Laureate, was established by the Department for Business, Energy& Industrial Strategy as part of the government's 1 billion pound industrial strategy laid out in April.

Jo Johnson, the UK's universities and science minister, said:"At the 2016 autumn statement, the government announced a significant increase in public research and development spending, totaling 4.7 billion pounds. In her vision for the UK as the go-to place for scientists, innovators and tech investors, Prime Minister(Theresa May) has made clear she wants us to be a country that attracts the brightest and best minds."

Johnson said the fund will be used to attract "highly skilled" early-career, and senior researchers to the UK. The government has identified "emerging research powerhouses", including India, China, Brazil, and Mexico, as key recruitment pools.

The UK publishes 16 percent of the world's most heavily cited papers, despite only having 1 percent of the world's population and 3 percent of global funding for research papers. Almost half of research articles published by British researchers have international co-authors.

The fund is being administered by Innovate UK and Research Councils UK until a new body, UK Research and Innovation, is formed in 2018.

Grace Lang, director of Research Councils UK China, said: "We see the Rutherford Fund as an excellent opportunity to further help early-career as well as senior researchers in China to establish and solidify their professional and personal connections in the UK. China's share of global science and engineering publications is increasing. We hope researchers in China will benefit from this funding opportunity to gain international experience and more researcher-to-researcher links can be formed, contributing to a well-connected international research and innovation community."

Since the research council's China office was set up in Beijing in 2007, it has cofunded 222 million pounds of programs with several Chinese funding agencies, covering a range of research areas.

Greg Clark, the UK's business secretary, announced in April the creation of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, with 1 billion pounds of support. The government announced in the spring budget that it will invest 250 million pounds during the next four years on continuing to build a pipeline of high-skilled research talent.
A 72-year-old florist, who was found by her state Supreme Court as being discriminatory when she refused to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding, has appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the nations highest court agrees to hear the case, it will mark the last stand for Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlenes Flowers, her lawyers said. The appeal was filed on Friday.

If the government can demand that we speak a certain message or be punished, that should concern us all. That puts not just Barronelles freedom at stake, but everyones, said Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Stutzman in court.

Washingtons Supreme Court ruling against Stutzman was essentially a blatantly unconstitutional statement, the legal group said, that it has the right to go after a 72-year-old grandmother for everything she owns just because what she believes does not fall in line with the states political agenda.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a similar case involving a Colorado baker who also declined to provide a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. Alliance Defending Freedom is requesting that the high court consolidate the two cases.

Currently, the Supreme Court is in recess, and the case involving the Colorado baker is not expected to be heard until the fall.
And most Russians are okay with it.

|

Image: Alexander Aksakov/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

The last-ditch efforts by Jehovahs Witnesses to appeal Russias ban against their faith have failed in the countrys Supreme Court.

With all three judges siding on Monday with Russias Ministry of Justice, the April 20 ruling to liquidate the Witnesses centers and criminalize their worship standsdespite desperate pleas from members of the faith and religious freedom advocates.

The Supreme Courts decision sadly reflects the governments continued equating of peaceful religious freedom practice to extremism, said Daniel Mark, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which called out Russias violations earlier this year. The Witnesses are not an extremist group, and should be able to practice their faith openly and freely and without government repression.

In Russia, where the Russian Orthodox Church remains the dominant religious affiliation, support is high (79%) for the governments ban designating Jehovahs Witnesses as an extremist group, according to a survey conducted by the Levada Center last month.

Almost half of Russians view Witnesses as a Christian sect, while small minorities think of it as a Protestant offshoot (5%) or a variant on ordinary Christianity (2%).

Russian Protestants, though also a minority, view Jehovahs Witnesses as having their own theology and methodology. While Witnesses stand out with their distinct materials and eager proselytism, evangelicals have enjoyed a better reputation with the Russian government in many cases, as CT has previously reported.

Still, all religious groups attempting to share their faith and gain converts must adhere to the new ...
World Rallies to Help Charlie Gard

Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, 540-538-4741



WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Two companies offer to cover Charlie's travel expenses to New York City for medical care.



It is another sign of the global support Charlie and his parents are receiving in their struggle to save Charlie's life.



Rev. Patrick Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition states;

"These two incredible offers to cover all travel expenses for Charlie Gard are just another example of the world wide support that he and his family have. Millions are hoping and praying that the British Courts will allow Charlie to travel to New York City to seek care that could greatly improve his life."

For more information contact Rev. Patrick Mahoney at 540-538-4741


ECFA Admonishes GuideStar for SPLC 'Hate Group' Label

Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit



WINCHESTER, Va., July 18, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) recently sent a letter to GuideStar reprimanding them for their recent labeling of Liberty Counsel and certain other nonprofit organizations as "hate groups" at the recommendation of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

ECFA President Dan Busby wrote: "The practice by GuideStar of labeling any 501(c)(3) organization as a hate group undermines GuideStar's credibility among nonprofit leaders as a neutral, objective source of information about the nonprofit sector."

The ECFA provides accreditation to leading Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with established standards for financial accountability, transparency, fundraising, and board governance. The Christ-centered ministries accredited by ECFA include more than 2,150 tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations, many of which, as well as their donors, have used GuideStar as a resource for obtaining objective, fact-based information about specific exempt organizations and the nonprofit sector as a whole.

Forty-one nonprofit organizations previously sent a letter to GuideStar to express strong disagreement with its policy that labeled 46 American organizations as "hate groups" based on determinations made by the SPLC. After receiving the letter, GuideStar issued a statement and temporarily removed the label from the pages of the nonprofit groups. However, the statement said that GuideStar would continue to provide the SPLC "hate group" information upon request and further declared that GuideStar is considering other ways to provide the information to the public.

"The ECFA is very clear that GuideStar has undermined its credibility by attaching the Southern Poverty Law Center 'hate' label to certain pro-family organizations and is no longer a neutral, objective source of information," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "GuideStar can now be viewed as another advocacy group since it introduced this subjective component and embraced a partnership with the SPLC. The ECFA recognizes the detriment of this harmful 'hate' rhetoric, which causes financial and reputational injury to Liberty Counsel and other nonprofit organizations," said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.


President and CEO of Americans United for Life Standing with Charlie Gard's Family as They Fight to Win Treatment Options for Their Son

Available for interview from Washington D.C.



Contact: Kristi Hamrick, Americans United for Life, 202-289-1478, press@aul.org



WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The case of Charlie Gard has gained international prominence as a baby's life hangs in the balance between parents fighting for treatment and the medical and legal establishment in Britain saying they have no right to make decisions focused on helping their son.



Attorney Catherine Glenn Foster, President and CEO of Americans United for Life, traveled to London to stand with Charlie's parents, Chris and Connie, to support their efforts and stand by their side. A veteran defender of the rights of people facing pressure to end life, she continues to talk with and support the family to aid their fight for their son.

Media note: Foster is available out of Washington D.C. to discuss the stakes in the case, observing:

"I am Charlie. We all are Charlie. He could be my child, or your child, or any one of us. The life and death struggle facing Charlie's parents could happen to anyone, which is why we are fighting for their right to determine their son's welfare."

NOTE: A petition sponsored by AUL, now has more than 530,000 names and has drawn international attention since the parents presented it to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, asking that they be permitted to use funds raised to bring their child to the United States for treatment. After recent events in court, this is a possibility. Even now, world-renowned Dr. Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at New York's Columbia University Medical Center, is in London examining Charlie's case. A final decision is expected from the British court on Tuesday, July 25.

For interviews, E-mail press@aul.org



Americans United for Life (AUL) is the legal architect of the pro-life movement. We are accumulating victories, building momentum, and advancing a culture of life in America. Our vision is a nation in which everyone is welcomed in life and protected in law. The first national pro-life organization in America, AUL has been committed to defending human life since 1971.


Webber, a Houston-based construction company, has been selected to construct a signature bridge over Texas Highway 114 that would link the DART rail line with the former Texas Stadium site in Irving.

The site, near the DART Orange Line, has been identified as one of the largest redevelopment opportunities in the North Texas region. The stadium, which was demolished in 2010, served as the home to the Dallas Cowboys until the team relocated to new digs in Arlington in 2009.
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The closer you look at the Republican bill repealing Obamacare, the more you realize it's simply another means to government-funded health care.

Instead of making the health care system more efficient, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to give taxpayer money to private companies and shift costs onto state and local taxing authorities. It still taxes and spends a lot of money, just differently.

The new version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act doesn't cut all of the taxes on the wealthy like the last one did. Instead, it spends the money on subsidizing health insurance companies so they'll keep premiums down in a couple of states. If it passes, Texans will be subsidizing Alaskans' health care.

Frankly, giving taxpayer money to private for-profit insurance companies sounds a lot like Obamacare. But McConnell apparently thinks government subsidies are just dandy when he needs to pass legislation.

The GOP proposal also spends $45 billion of federal taxpayer money on opioid addicts. There is no doubt that opioid addiction is a problem, but I don't remember any government largesse for inner cities devastated by crack cocaine and heroin in the 1980s and 1990s.

Back then, conservatives talked about personal responsibility and launched a war on drugs. The U.S. incarceration rate jumped 500 percent, and now about 20 percent of prisoners in the U.S. are nonviolent drug offenders. Most are minorities.

Now that drug abuse is hurting different communities, McConnell is talking about compassionate rehabilitation. But only if they are addicted to the right drug in the right community, apparently.

Also in the personal responsibility department, the new version of the bill still allows Americans to skip buying health insurance, perhaps the height of personal irresponsibility.

None of us plans to get pinned in our car by a dump truck. Nor do we welcome colon cancer. But these things happen. Every year that I pay for health insurance and don't need it is a good year. I don't feel cheated. I feel lucky.

What angers me is when someone who can afford insurance doesn't buy it and then experiences a horrible misfortune. Inevitably, these people are shocked by the size of their bills, and even more shocked that there are no government programs to save them from bankruptcy. Next thing you know, their kids are holding bake sales and car washes.

In the end, these people don't pay their bills, and my taxes and insurance premiums rise to pay for their care. There is nothing conservative about encouraging freeloaders.

I feel a tad more sympathy for those who buy so-called limited benefit plans, the kind included in the new bill after lobbying by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He wants to give Americans the option of buying cheaper plans, but neither he nor insurance companies are very forthcoming about the paucity of benefits these plans offer.

Obamacare prohibited these plans because too many consumers didn't understand their coverage until it was too late, and consumer watchdogs panned them as misleading rip-offs.

A typical limited benefit plan only pays for three primary care visits a year and one day in the hospital. Annual benefits are limited to $25,000 to $100,000. Advocates say this is more than enough to cover the annual medical needs of the average healthy person.

That works until you are unhealthy. A premature baby or a severe injury can easily cost over $1 million. A simple cancer case costs more than $100,000 a year to treat, while rare cancers are three or more times more expensive. Under the bill, you would be banned from switching to a full coverage plan for at least six months to keep you from gaming the system.

So what happens when sick people go bankrupt? The rest of us pay for the doctors' and hospitals' losses through higher local taxes or higher insurance premiums.

In the ultimate case of cost-shifting, though, the latest proposal still cuts the proportion of federal dollars available for Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that in Texas cares for poor children, their mothers and the indigent elderly.

Until now, the federal government splits Medicaid costs, paying at least 50 percent of the bill, with no limit on spending. The GOP plan would impose a cap, while doing nothing to limit health care costs. Demand, by the way, does not magically shrink just because politicians cut the budget.

Texas lawmakers have been limiting spending by slashing Medicaid benefits, such as therapy for special-needs kids. Texas hospitals complain that the state's reimbursements don't cover the cost of caring for Medicaid patients, and they say it's getting harder to charge other patients more to make up the losses.

Hospital districts, therefore, have to raise property taxes. Again, Congress is not saving us money. Lawmakers are just attempting to make themselves look good by shifting the burden.

None of this qualifies as conservative, or helpful. The GOP plan fails to get at the real problem, which is escalating bills from health care providers and insurance companies. Until they are ready to fight that battle, the GOP bill is no better than Obamacare.
BALMORHEA  Oil and gas men filled La Cueva de Oso at lunchtime on Monday. Nine American pickup trucks parked side-by-side out front. A side room was blocked off for a team working Apache Corp.s Alpine High, the oil field that, at least initially, divided this small town.

Thais Zuniga, 18 and a brand-new graduate of Balmorhea High, served half the tables. She and her friends talked about the oil drilling at school, she said. One still thinks Apache is going to ruin the community.

RELATED: Balmorhea state park launches intensive monitoring as Apache drills nearby

But the rest of us, were fine, she said. As long as they dont mess with our water.

Apache, a Houston oil and gas company, announced almost a year ago that it had discovered 15 billion barrels of oil and gas under 350,000 acres here in West Texas. Many worried: Visitors from near and far flock to the famous spring-fed pool at nearby Balmorhea State Park. If oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing broke into the springs and ruined the pool, what, they asked, would be come of this 500-person town, already struggling to make ends meet?

But residents now report that they, and their neighbors, have grown more accepting of Apaches arrival. The company bought a new fire truck for the local fire department. It paid for three of four tour buses to take residents to Dallas when the high school six-man football team made state. Bars, restaurants, hotels and the town grocery store all say they have enjoyed the extra business.

In a small town like Balmorhea, we need all the help we can get, said Joel Madrid, owner of La Cueva, who spent $150,000 to expand the restaurant by about 1,500 square feet in preparation for the oilfield workers. Everybodys benefiting.

Zuniga, the waitress, is ready to leave for college. She welcomes the added cash.

The oil field, she said, brings bigger trucks out front and bigger tips on the bill.

Thats why, she said, we dont mind it.
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Houston fracker BJ Services plans to go public through an initial public offering of up to $100 million.

The Tomball-based hydraulic fracturing company with a 145-year history reemerged as a standalone company at the end of last year when it was spun out of Houston's Baker Hughes, which is now a part of the General Electric family.

The freestanding BJ Services is now taking the next natural step and planning to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the "BJS" stock ticker. The company isn't yet releasing any other details on financing or timing.

Touting itself as the largest North American-focused company focused just on fracking and cementing services, BJ is hoping to capitalize on the surging shale oilfields, even though crude oil prices continue to struggle under $50 a barrel.

BJ Services said it owns 43 fracking crews and 241 cementers with roughly half of each of them currently operating. BJ hopes to have 31 fracking crews in service by December as activity levels continue to ramp up.

BJ Services was founded in 1872 as the Byron Jackson Company. Baker Hughes bought BJ Services Co., of Houston, for $5.5 billion in 2009, to expand into the fracking business, and the deal served as a financial drag for Baker Hughes ever since. Baker Hughes still kept its international and offshore pressure pumping business.

The BJ Services pressure pumping deal brought Baker Hughes, a GE company, into partnerships with Houston-based CSL Capital Management private equity firm and Goldman Sach's merchant banking fund, called West Street Energy Partners. Baker Hughes kept a 46.7 percent ownership stake in BJ Services.

BJ Services combined with CSL's Allied Oil & Gas Services business, which was acquired last year. New Allied Chief Executive Warren Zemlak, a veteran of Schlumberger, is the BJ Services CEO.

CSL and Goldman Sachs contributed $325 million in cash to the new company. Baker Hughes received $150 million of the total, while the remaining $175 million was intended to position BJ Services for growth.
Ecuador has dealt a blow to OPEC unity by announcing it will start raising oil production this month, arguing it needs the money.

OPEC has for years cheated on its own agreements, particularly when oil prices fail to recover after an output cut. But Ecuador has taken the rare step of saying publicly it will increase production, making it impossible for the group to conceal the desertion.

The Latin American country wont be able to meet its commitment to lower output by 26,000 barrels a day to 522,000 a day, as agreed with OPEC last year, Oil Minister Carlos Perez said in an interview with Teleamazonas late Monday.

Theres a need for funds for the fiscal treasury, hence weve taken the decision to gradually increase output, Perez said. What Ecuador does or doesnt do has no major impact on OPEC output.

Indeed, Ecuadors exit is largely immaterial when considering the size of the global oil market, as the amount it agreed to cut accounts for less than 25 seconds of daily consumption. Still, it does create a dangerous precedent in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, opening the door for other, perhaps bigger producers to follow suit.

Ecuadors latest statement will not matter for global balances but it shows the challenges for OPEC members given the cuts failed to raise prices, said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at London-based Energy Aspects Ltd. The announcement may again give rise to fears of the deal falling apart, she said.

Benchmark Brent crude has erased most of the gains it made after OPECs November deal, dropping 14 percent this year to trade below $49 a barrel on Tuesday.

Ecuador says it had a non-written agreement with OPEC that gave it flexibility on output because of its fiscal needs. The Vienna-based group, however, hasnt disclosed such an accord.

Ecuador isnt the only OPEC member struggling to bolster its finances, with others such as Algeria also relying heavily on petrodollar reserves built up during the 2000-2008 oil-price boom to plug fiscal deficits. Many require prices significantly higher than todays level to balance the books, according to non-partisan New York think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations.

Other small OPEC members may now argue they also need extra money, said Torbjorn Kjus, an analyst at DNB Bank ASA in Oslo.

They should understand that this might hurt the whole deal, he said, suggesting OPECs top producer Saudi Arabia could decide: If you guys dont want to participate then lets just dump the oil price down into the $20s and see how funny that is.

OPECs implementation of its deal to curtail output is slipping after a strong start earlier this year. The International Energy Agency put compliance at 78 percent in June, a six-month low, as Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador and Venezuela pumped more than agreed. Iraq produced 4.5 million barrels a day, meeting just 29 percent of its commitment.

Ecuador, OPECs third-smallest member by production after Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, is now pumping close to 545,000 barrels a day from its oil fields in the Amazon rainforest, Perez said in the interview. Thats not far off the 548,000 barrels a day it produced before the OPEC deal kicked in.

OPEC and several non-member countries agreed to curb output by almost 1.8 million barrels a day, starting in January, to reduce global inventories and boost prices. So far the group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, has achieved little, with stocks well above the five-year average, in part due to rising U.S. shale supply.
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WASHINGTON - Energy Secretary Rick Perry is bullish the United States can come to a deal on a "new North American energy strategy, " saying he discussed the prospect during his visit with officials in Mexico City last week.

At the core of the discussions is working together on increasing the United States, Canada and Mexico's energy production and exports, while working together on improving security on the countries' power grids, pipelines and "energy systems" at-large.

Pointing at the announcement last week of a historic billion-barrel crude discovery off the Mexican coast, Perry said, "Mexico is going to be a massive influence in the energy markets going forward."

"I'm excited they're our partner, and we look forward for many decades of economic prosperity for this region."

The prospect of turning North America into an energy powerhouse to rival the Middle East has been discussed wishfully by U.S. politicians for years. Since the advent of the shale boom, the United States has emerged as the world's largest oil producer. Canada is the world's fourth largest oil producer, and Mexico, which has undertaken historic reforms to its energy sector under President Enrique Pena Nieto, is eleventh, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Now with the Trump administration preparing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, some in the energy sector believe it could lead to improvements in how the three countries move energy resources between themselves and to the rest of the world.

"The U.S. is now the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, and this coupled with enhanced energy integration with Canada and Mexico will increase long-term U.S. energy and national security," Jack Gerard, president of American Petroleum Institute said.

The North American strategy is part of a larger vision within the Trump administration of expanding U.S. energy production while increasing exports abroad.

During a press conference in Washington Tuesday morning with Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency, the former Texas governor discussed the administration's hopes to grow the U.S. LNG industry and develop clean coal technology that can then be sold abroad.

Asked how the Trump administration planned to grow the domestic coal industry, considering the glut of cheap gas in the power market and the expense in developing clean coal technologies, Perry chided society for thinking the current situation would be the same a decade from now.

"All too often we want to take a snapshot in times, like we did 15 years ago with peak oil, and say this is where we are," Perry said. "Back in the 70s acid rain was a major issue on the east coast of this country, and now we never even hear about it."

The press event came as the U.S. power industry and its teams of lobbyists are eagerly awaiting a study ordered by Perry three months ago into whether federal policies supporting wind turbines and solar panels were threatening the reliability of the nation's power grid.

On Friday Bloomberg News reported that a draft of the report concluded wind and solar energy were not the primary cause behind a series of closures of so-called "baseload" generators like coal and nuclear plants, which typically run day and night to supply the bulk of the nation's power needs.

"Costly environmental regulations and subsidized renewable generation have exacerbated base-load power plant retirements," the draft says, according to Bloomberg. "However, those factors played minor roles compared to the long-standing drop in electricity demand relative to previous expectation and years of low electric prices driven by high natural gas availability."

The Energy Department did not respond to phone calls or email for comment. But a department spokesman told Bloomberg, "those statements as written are not in the current draft," which is, "constantly evolving." And now insiders are wondering how Perry might adjust the report, at a time the Trump administration has promised to increase U.S. energy production while putting domestic coal miners back to work.

But Perry declined to offer any advanced hints during the press conference, stating he had not yet seen the study.

"There's lots of people breathlessly waiting to read that, and lots of folks throwing Jell-o at the wall," he said.
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Three months ago Energy Secretary Rick Perry sent the renewable energy industry into a panic when he ordered department staff look into whether federal policies supporting wind turbines and solar panels were threatening the reliability of the nation's power grid.

Now the department is readying to release its study, and the power sector and its teams of lobbyists are eagerly waiting to see what comes of it. With Perry scheduled to speak alongside Fatih Biro, executive director of the International Energy Agency, in Washington Tuesday morning, insiders will be watching for clues as to how the study ended up.

On Friday Bloomberg News reported that a draft of the report concluded wind and solar energy were not the primary cause behind a series of closures of so-called "baseload" generators like coal and nuclear plants, which typically run day and night to supply the bulk of the nation's power needs.

"Costly environmental regulations and subsidized renewable generation have exacerbated base-load power plant retirements," the draft says, according to Bloomberg. "However, those factors played minor roles compared to the long-standing drop in electricity demand relative to previous expectation and years of low electric prices driven by high natural gas availability."

The Energy Department did not respond to phone calls or email for comment.

But a department spokesman told Bloomberg, "those statements as written are not in the current draft," which is, "constantly evolving." And now insiders are wondering how Perry might adjust the report, at a time the Trump administration has promised to increase U.S. energy production while putting domestic coal miners back to work.

RELATED: Perry unnerves gas drillers with grid study

Solar panels and wind turbines generate electricity intermittently, dependent on the weather conditions in that moment. That reality has long worried grid operators, who must have enough electricity to meet the every varying power demands of millions of homes and business or risk brownouts or a blackout.

But so far, the grid, aided by improving technology and more precise weather forecasting, has largely integrated renewable energy without harming the flow of power.

In May a group of Democratic senators including Sen Maria Cantwell, of Washington state, ranking member on Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Al Franken, of Minnesota, sent a letter to Perry calling his study, "a thinly disguised attempt to promote less economic electric generation technologies, such as coal and nuclear."

"It does not take a Ph.D. in economics to understand that it is historically low natural gas prices that are challenging the viability of other conventional generating sources in electricity markets," the senators wrote. "The vast majority of coal and nuclear plants that have or may soon be retiring are located in regions with lower renewable, but higher natural gas generation levels."
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It was the last splash for a San Antonio theme park classic.

After 25 years, the original Power Surge boat ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas shut down the rapids for the final time Sunday, July 23.

Its been here since park opening, said Sydne Purvis, communications manager for Six Flags Fiesta Texas. From time to time, we do retire attractions.

RELATED: Six Flags Fiesta Texas to add virtual reality to Scream tower ride

Indeed, the shoot the chute ride opened with the park in 1992. Purvis said Fiesta Texas has not made any announcement for something new in its place, though she did say the rides retirement is not a safety issue.

Nestled along the giant limestone quarry walls that overlook the Rockville area of the park, the Power Surge transports about a dozen riders at a time along a channel against an old-timey power plant backdrop. The boat ride ends in a steep 50-foot plunge, with a double-dip that adds a few seconds of actual airtime to that 36 mph drop.

RELATED: Over 25 years ago, Six Flags Fiesta Texas was just a quarry

Of course the real highlight is the resulting giant splash  a towering 20-foot wave of water that washes over spectators on the nearby pedestrian bridge for the perfect cool down on a hot summers day.

Its the kind of memorable soak thats even preserved in cinema.

The Power Surge and its climatic splash were featured in the 1994 Disney film Blank Check in a scene where 11-year-old main character Preston Waters (pun intended?) stands on the bridge by the boat ride and gets soaked right down to his cotton candy. The kid flick also showed the original Rattler wooden roller coaster, which was replaced in 2013 with the Iron Rattler hybrid coaster.

RELATED: Photos: Six Flags Fiesta Texas celebrates opening weekend with a packed park

Purvis said Fiesta Texas has been busy unveiling new additions to its more than 60 rides, games and attractions. Those new thrills include the three-story Thunder Rapids rocket blast water coaster and the new Drop of Doom VR experience, where for a limited time riders of the Scream drop tower ride can wear a Samsung Gear VR headset to face giant mutant spiders.

rguzman@express-news.net

Twitter: @reneguz
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Inprint announced its new season this week - and it's full of headliners, newcomers and one Houstonian.

Starting in September, the literary nonprofit will give us eight months of celebrated writers and poets: 11 writers who will visit Houston as part of the Margarett Root Brown Reading Series.

The series brings in writers - both big names and up-and-comers - to read and discuss their work, then sign copies of their books. Almost every event sells out, and no wonder: General admission is just $5.

Individual tickets go on sale just before each event, but season tickets will be sold through Inprint's website before the end of July.

Here's the lineup:

September 18: Nathan Englander and Nicole Krauss

Nathan Englander will discuss and sign "Dinner at the Center of the Earth," which publishes Sept. 5. Englander was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank."

Nicole Krauss will join him. Her new novel, "Forest Dark," publishes Sept. 12.

Nov. 6 : Jennifer Egan and Claire Messud

Jennifer Egan's "Manhattan Beach" - her first historical novel - publishes Oct. 3.

Claire Messud's novel "The Burning Girl" will publish Aug. 29.

Nov. 13: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet Thanh Nguyen's debut novel, "The Sympathizer," won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. "The Refugees," his 2016 collection of short stories, was a finalist for the National Book Award. This program is co-presented by Inprint and by Rice University's President's Lecture Series.

Jan. 29: Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of "The Namesake" and won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for her short story collection, "Interpreter of Maladies." She'll read from her published work.

Feb. 12: Paul Auster

Paul Auster is the author of more than 30 books. He'll read from his latest novel, "4 3 2 1."

March 26: Aminatta Forna and Samanta Schweblin

Aminatta Forna will read from her new novel, "Happiness," which will publish in March.

Samanta Schweblin will read selected work - including, perhaps, her first novel, "Fever Dream," which we reviewed in January.

April 23: Rigoberto Gonzalez and Kevin Prufer

Rigoberto Gonzalez will read from his work to celebration National Poetry Month. Booklist calls Gonzalez "a preeminent voice in Chicano poetics."



Kevin Prufer - an acclaimed poet who lives in Houston - will read from his work, including a new collection, "How He Loved Them," which publishes in 2018.
Food fans rejoice: Some of the restaurants that made Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook's Top 100 list last year are participating in Restaurant Weeks.

Houston Restaurant Weeks is an annual fundraiser where eateries in Harris, Galveston and Montgomery counties raise money from specialized menus. Restaurant Weeks starts August 1 and ends September 4.
The property known as "Barton Canyon Ranch" sold for $21.794 million earlier this month, setting a record for the most expensive home sale documented in Austin's multiple listing service, multiple sources confirm.

The 128-acre parcel at 903 Crystal Mountain Drive first hit the market early last year, when it was listed for $25 million. It was on and off the market numerous times before heading to closing July 12.
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Police were called to KPFT 90.1 FM's headquarters Tuesday as trouble at the radio station flared for the second time in a week.

Tuesday morning, three station employees were given letters of termination - firings they say aren't permitted by KPFT's bylaws.

More on the chaos at KPFT: Protest planned at KPFT

Houston police got a call from the station's Montrose headquarters in the early afternoon, when two opposing groups began fighting over which of them should be allowed to stay in the building.

Officers issued trespassing warnings to two of the fired employees and to a volunteer, said police spokesman John Cannon.

"We're here with at least seven police officers," said Greg Audel, one of the staffers who was fired Tuesday. "It's absolutely insane."

(Story continues below...)

The trouble at KPFT started Friday, when Obidike Kamau, the station's interim general manager, was fired after just three months on the job by Bill Crosier, the interim executive director of the California-based Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFT.

Crosier fired Kamau for failing to develop a plan to get the beleaguered station out of debt.

KPFT THROUGH THE YEARS: KPFT was bombed (for the first time) in 1970

A number of station staffers, board members and supporters were incensed and staged a protest Friday night, demanding Kamau's title be restored. Since then, they've started a petition to save Kamau's job.

At a staff meeting Tuesday morning, Audel said, both Kamau and his appointed replacement, longtime KPFT deejay Larry Winters, showed up to lead the staff.

"We had dueling general managers" until Winters left the room, he said. During that meeting, Audel and two other staffers - all Kamau supporters - received letters of termination signed by Crosier that offered no reason for their firing.

HOUSTON RADIO: Houston music fans still begging for a true rock station

Those staffers and their supporters argue that Crosier, as the head of the parent foundation, doesn't have the authority to fire local station employees.

Crosier did not return a phone calls Tuesday. But Hank Lamb, a programmer for KPFT who recently resigned from the local station board, came to Crosier's defense.

"Bill's not a racist, and he's not a mean man," Lamb said.

Kamau is "a really good guy," he said, but he didn't get the fundraising support he needed from the board members who are now protesting his dismissal.

"We've got a hot mess of a board and always have," Lamb said.

Since Friday, KPFT supporters have been speaking out on social media about Kamau's firing:

"We are all heartbroken," Audel said. "None of us are here for the money. None of us are here for anything other than we believe in community radio."
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The Brookings Institution, in a study published last week, argues that public universities should be graded on the social mobility of their graduates and the amount of research they conduct thats socially beneficial.

And by these metrics, the organization says, the University of Houston System has some of the best universities in the country. Authors list UH among Americas selective, public, research-generating universities with the highest levels of low-income student enrollment.

UH ranks fifth nationally, enrolling students with a median family income of $65,700. About 16 percent of students come from families earning in the bottom 20 percent, Brookings says. It used tax data from the Equality of Opportunity Project at Stanford to grade economic mobility. Authors also factored in the Carnegie Foundations ratings of research activity.

The University of Texas at El Paso ranked first nationwide.

Let's be clear: Its mid-summer, which means that the college rankings frenzy is in overdrive. My inbox is filled with press releases touting the 50 best colleges for LGBTQ students and best online RN to BSN degrees.

But Brookings study stood out as a fresh way to look at university impact as some studies this year show Americans questioning the concrete benefits campuses give students  or to society at large.

HoustonChronicle.com: Rice, UT join effort to recruit more lower-income students

Brookings concluded that too few universities prioritize economic mobility and public-service research.

The upper-middle class is substantially over-represented in American public universities, the authors said. The significant public subsidies spent on the education on the relatively affluent could be better spent elsewhere.

GETTING BETTER: Researcher suggests tracking if students improve while in school

Six other Texas universities were included in the top 70 public universities, which excluded historically black colleges and universities, public liberal arts colleges and military-oriented institutions. (Brookings said these schools were left off because they could say they bring broader social benefits beyond mobility or research.)

1. University of Texas at El Paso

10. University of Texas at San Antonio

14. Texas A&M University  Commerce

24. University of Texas at Arlington.

55. University of Texas at Dallas.

63. University of Texas at Austin.

No Texas campus was a "laggard" -- Brookings's term for low-mobility, low research universities.
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Butterflies are known to be symbols of change, hope and life. For the Holocaust Museum Houston, they take on a deeper meaning, representing the 1.5 million children that lost their lives in the Holocaust.

The Butterfly Project was started by the Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) in 1995, a year before the museum was opened.

The Butterfly Project was inspired by a poem, "The Butterfly," written by Pavel Friedmann in 1942 in the Terezin concentration camp located in what is now the Czech Republic.

Friedmann did not survive the Holocaust. The poem was found afterwards, along with hidden artwork by children when the camp was liberated. Some copies of this artwork can be found at HMH, with originals at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

More Information 'The Butterfly' The Butterfly Project was inspired by a poem, "The Butterfly" written by Pavel Friedmann in 1942 in the Terezin concentration camp located in what is now the Czech Republic. The poem reads: The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing against a white stone ... Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly 'way up high. It went away I'm sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye. For seven weeks I've lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly. That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live in here, in the ghetto. See More Collapse

"Educators here at the museum started this concept along with a volunteer committee. They were trying to come up with creative ways to teach the lessons of the Holocaust. They posted the curriculum online, and this was before the Internet was even a big deal, but it went viral," HMH CEO Kelly J. Zuniga said.

The Butterfly Project curriculum, including the poem by Friedmann, was a means for students to learn about the children who died in the Holocaust, and make a butterfly in their memory. The HMH asked for 1.5 million butterflies, one to represent each child.

"Filling the rooms with beauty and color, the butterflies were often suspended from the classroom ceiling. Over a period of time, seemingly at random, teachers would remove a butterfly to represent a child who had perished. Students would return to the classrooms day after day to see if "their" butterfly had survived or perished. Finding that their butterfly had disappeared, the students were shocked, saddened and frequently angry when they learned the fate of the child with whom they had come to identify," according to HMH's Butterfly Project website, http://butterflies.hmh.org.

Soon, butterflies were coming to the museum from all over the world and even one from space, drawn by astronaut Rex Walheim while aboard the final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis. The butterflies are made out of many different mediums such as paper, stained glass, wood and cloth.

"It has been used not only for children and by educational institutions, but also for diversity workshops. Butterflies are beautiful and they represent life and these souls. Honoring the children in some way and making something beautiful has a transformational element to it. People relate to that," Zuniga said.

The growing amount of butterflies were kept in massive-sized storage bins, waiting to be shared with the public. Last March, when the HMH celebrated its 20th anniversary, the butterflies were put on display in different traveling cases.

Currently the cases are on display through Aug. 31 at Houston's Jungman Library and Looscan Library, Seven Acres, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital, Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital and TIRR Memorial Hermann.

"People have reacted so favorably to it so we hope it will be a traveling exhibit for a long time. We have focused on internal Houston but I'd like to see the cases go as far out as Lake Jackson or maybe Corpus Christi. In January we are taking the cases to United Nations for two weeks. That is quite an honor," Zuniga said.

The Butterfly Project will also be represented at the newly expanded HMH, set to open in 2019.

"We will have an atrium that is three stories high. We have asked Houston artists to submit their ideas for the atrium. We hope to have a beautiful hanging sculpture of some sort that incorporates butterflies," Zuniga said.

Visitors to HMH can also buy a book about the project, Taking Flight at the museum's gift shop and online.

For more information about the Butterfly Project, to get the curriculum, and to make a butterfly of your own, visit http://butterflies.hmh.org.
July 7

An officer was dispatched to 9000 South Loop W., Houston, to meet with Bellaire P.D. officers and pick up a subject in custody with West University warrants. The female subject was taken into custody and then transferred to West University Jail facility and booked without incident.

July 8

An officer observed a vehicle in the 5900 block of Buffalo Speedway traveling southbound at a high rate of speed. The officer initiated a traffic stop and upon further investigation, it was discovered the driver had multiple warrants. The driver was subsequently arrested for the warrants.

July 9

At 10:36 a.m., an officer observed a vehicle with expired registration in the 5400 block of Buffalo Speedway. A traffic stop was conducted on the vehicle for the violation. Upon contact with the driver it was discovered the driver was operating the vehicle with a suspended license. Subsequently, the driver was taken into custody for driving while license suspended.

An officer was dispatched to the 6300 block of Westchester in regards to a package theft that occurred on 07/08/2017.

July 10

An officer was dispatched the West U PD Lobby in reference to an identity theft that had already occurred.

An officer was dispatched to the 3100 block of Nottingham in regards to identity theft.

July 11

An officer observed a vehicle at the intersection of 3700 Sunset and 5600 Auden fail to indicate a right hand turn within the required distance. A traffic stop was conducted. As contact was made with the driver, an odor of marijuana was detected coming from inside the vehicle. The driver was detained and was in fact, found to be in possession of marijuana. It was discovered the subject was eligible to participate in the Harris County Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program and was released at the scene after completing the required paper work.

An officer was dispatched to the West U Municipal Court to take a subject into custody who wanted to turn himself in for an unpaid traffic ticket. The subject was subsequently taken into custody and booked in the city of West University Place jail without further incident.

At 11:10 p.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 5400 block of Buffalo Speedway with an expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted in the 3100 block of Sunset Blvd and after further investigation; the driver was arrested for the offense of Driving While License Invalid.
Oil climbed to the highest level in almost two weeks following a report that Saudi Arabia is considering deeper export curbs.

Futures gained as much as 2 percent in New York. Consultant Petroleum Policy Intelligence said the kingdom is considering additional export curbs of as much as 1 million barrels a day following signs that OPECs cutbacks arent clearing a global glut. Supplies from OPEC members Libya and Nigeria have recovered, while Iraqs compliance has faltered and Ecuador announced it can no longer restrain output while its economy suffers.

Libya, exempt from a deal between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to shrink a glut, is boosting production as prices in New York languish below $50 a barrel on concern ample global supplies will offset OPECs curbs. While no final decision has been made, Saudi Arabia is considering a unilateral reduction of its exports to counter the rise in Libyan and Nigerian output, according to U.K.-based consultants PPI.

We think they are looking at options to speed up the rebalancing, Bill Farren-Price, founder of PPI, said by phone. PPIs report cited key players in and outside for OPEC for its assessment of Saudi Arabias thinking.

West Texas Intermediate for August delivery was at $46.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 78 cents, at 1:31 p.m. in London. Total volume traded was about 23 percent above the 100-day average. Prices dropped 52 cents to $46.02 a barrel Monday.

Brent for September settlement added 80 cents to $49.22 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract on Monday fell 1 percent to $48.42. Prices climbed 4.7 percent last week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.24 to WTI.

Libya will participate in a technical meeting with fellow OPEC members as well as Russia in St. Petersburg on July 22 to share the factors enabling and constraining Libyas production recovery, Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the National Oil Corp., said on Tuesday. Supplies from Libya have increased to 1.1 million barrels a day, according to a person familiar with the matter.

OPEC member Kuwait last week said Libya and Nigeria, another country exempt from cuts, may be asked to cap their oil output amid concern about their rebounding production.

Citigroup Inc. cut its oil-price forecasts for this year and next as Libya and Nigeria restore previously halted supplies and as U.S. production climbs. It reduced projections for both Brent and WTI crudes in the second half of this year by $7 a barrel, predicting averages of $55.50 and $52.50, respectively.

Oil-market news:
When classes begin next month for the 2017-18 school year, Katy High School students no longer will be allowed to park on residential streets adjacent to the campus during certain hours.

At its July 10 meeting, Katy City Council amended its "Traffic and Vehicles" ordinance to establish "No Parking Zones" on sections of approximately 20 streets, primarily north of the campus, between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday when school is in session.

Mayor Chuck A. Brawner said the ordinance is the result of working with officials at the Katy Independent School District because of problems reported by citizens about students blocking people's driveways and garages, alleged drug sales and on one occasion sexual activity.

While he said he wasn't so sure parking was a campaign issue in the spring mayoral election, he said that he lives close to the affected residents and has visited the neighborhood north of the campus and observed the problem on many, many days.

As the retired police chief of the Spring Branch Independent School District, Brawner said he had experienced similar situations in west Houston and was able to furnish the Katy ISD policies he had at Spring Branch to correct problems.

He said he visited with Superintendent Lance Hindt and Katy ISD Police Chief Robert Jinks to come up with a solution.

But Hill Adams, who ran against Brawner for mayor, lives on one of the streets east of the campus that is affected by the recent council action, and thinks it goes too far because it appears to apply to residents as well as students.

"If so, then people and their invitees can't park in front of their own homes from 7-4 on a school day," said Adams in an email. "It would make sense for residents on these streets to be able to apply for a windshield sticker and a guest pass that would exempt them from the ordinance. This way they could park in front of their home.

"For another, it should only apply to when students are arriving to school  in the morning when demand for parking spaces is at its highest, not all the way until 4 p.m. Applying the ordinance until 4 p.m. will disrupt the residents.

"For example, many residents hire yard services to take care of their lawns. These contractors park on the street. Also, guests and other contractors park on these streets during the day," Adams said.

As to residents being adversely affected by the no parking law, Brawner said, "It will have a little impact on the citizens who live there. I think they're well aware of that. I think most residents realize that and can work around that."

He added that between 50 and 60 households that he spoke with said that they wanted no parking signs in their neighborhood.

He said residents have been notified in writing about steps taken to alleviate the problem before the start of the school year.

"The judge and prosecutor will decide what cases they want to try and fine," Brawner added. "What the judge decides to do and handle - that's up to municipal court."

A person who is convicted of violating this ordinance will be fined not more than $200 for the misdemeanor.

Brawner added that the no parking areas will be towaway zones and police could boot cars parked in violation of the law.

Adams, who has lived near the campus about 25 years, said, "This problem has existed for a long time, the city has known about it, and a solution is long overdue."

He added that the problem has gotten worse the last couple of years.

Brawner mentioned one resident who asked a student not to park by his property because he was having some work done at his house and needed access, but the student parked there anyway, blocking the residence.

Student parking on the residential streets also led to trash not getting pickup up because the trucks couldn't access the waste containers, said the mayor.

And student safety is another factor. He said it's unsafe for students to walk across the four-lane Highway 90, especially in the morning. "One student was hit by a car and had to go to the hospital," he said. Another student was brushed by a car, but not injured, he said.

A train track parallels Highway 90 and occasionally trains stop in that neighborhood and students have been known to crawl under the couplings of the train to get across the street, Brawner said. "That's too dangerous to put those kids in that kind of situation," he added.

Maria Corrales DiPetta, Katy ISD manager, media relations and multimedia, said that students will be informed before school starts not to park in the neighborhoods. Officers of the Katy ISD have the authority to cite students who violate the city's no parking policy, she said.

Brawner added that the superintendent offered additional officers to concentrate on the residential areas near the high school to assist the city police with enforcement of the no parking law.

He said that it was a great benefit to involve the school district since students who for whatever reason did not want to or could not park on campus.

Adams said he understood there is parking capacity at the campus if the district will release it. He suggested the district parking pass fee of $50 might be a factor affecting where students park.

The 2017-18 Katy High School parking permit application shows fees of $60 for premium space, $50 for regular space and $40 for overflow space.

Student parking on campus is limited to seniors and juniors only.
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Brett Mitchell found himself inducted into cattle culture the hard way.

Mitchell, who lives in Katy, got into cattle raising in 2013, almost as if by accident. A man he knew through his work in the concrete business had cattle he needed to sell, and Mitchell had land where they could graze. Mitchell decided to go check them out.

"The longhorns fell in my lap," Mitchell said. "I fell in love with them immediately, when I saw them."

CONROE STRIKE: Man describes 'bam' that he believes was lightning

The rookie grew his herd from seven to 20. He began to experience the openness others in the business had to offering advice. But the full-on community support didn't hit until later, when disaster struck.

On the morning of July 4, a bolt of lightning struck the oak tree on Mitchell's 30-acre enclosure. Bark peeled off the trunk. Ten cattle lying beneath the tree died. In an instant, Mitchell lost half of his herd.

Courtesy: Brett Mitchell

An all-white steer named Cinco de Mayo was among those that died. So did five calves. Sentimental value aside, together they were worth at least $20,000.

Mitchell, 45, does not live full-time on the ranch, located in Jewett. His 79-year-old father and 12-year-old son help him there with the work. He learned about the incident that afternoon from a worker who went to check on the gas wells after the storm.

He hurried to the property. He did not know how to react, though he usually knew how to make decisions when problems came his way. The concrete business may have taught him to handle curve-balls, but this was different, Mitchell said.

"I didn't know what to do," he explained.

(RELATED VIDEO: Below, a single strike of lightning killed 32 cows in Missouri.)

That evening, Mitchell took to Facebook. He posted in a private group for longhorn aficionados, sharing what had happened.

Hundreds responded. A number offered to donate cattle to help him back on his feet.

Mitchell felt astounded. It was just as he had heard: the community wanted to help a fellow breeder out. It was a group that sticks together, that wants to help their neighbors, he explained.

"For them to come out like that and to reach out, it was overwhelming," he said.

Mitchell for now has accepted only one donation, at the owner's insistence. He is not sure whether he will let himself accept others.

In the meantime, he said, he will put his boots back on and get right back to work. He imagines he will mount a skull of one of the the deceased cattle on his living room wall.

"I'm not going to give up," he said. "That's the biggest thing: continue moving."
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Texas Heritage Parkway is a proposed four-lane road that would link the communities of Katy and Fulshear at Interstate 10 and FM 1093, respectively, and opens acres for development along the way.

Resolutions supporting the private/public funded project won unanimous support from the city councils in Fulshear and Katy. Fort Bend County officials who are discussing the possibility of a fall mobility bond vote have yet to announce a financial commitment to the project.

Katy City Council on June 26 approved resolutions authorizing the mayor to sign interlocal agreements with the Katy Development Authority (KDA) to build and maintain the parkway and with Fort Bend County for construction of the road within city limits.

Fulshear City Council approved an agreement with the county on May 16, said Angela Hahn, CPM, communications coordinator, Economic Development, City of Fulshear, in an email.

"We are responsible for a total of $5.6 million out of the $24 million public share of the $48 million project. The county is financing the city's share and we have up to 25 years to repay. We can repay early with no penalty," said Hahn. "The council is still working on our source of funding," she added.

"We believe the parkway is of significant import and value to the community. The city has and is going to great lengths to develop a plan of finance that will provide it with the means necessary to pay for the project while at the same time ensure a sound financial footing for the city going forward," Hahn wrote. "The model derived for the development of this road has been ever-shifting since discussions on the project began well over two years ago. The city has a fiduciary responsibility to our residents to ensure that their tax dollars are used wisely; whether its funding public safety, parks or subsidizing a developer's road project."

In an April 27 post on Facebook, Fulshear Mayor Jeff Roberts said, in part, "The Texas Heritage Parkway will improve mobility within the city limits, which is critical considering our projected growth. This road will increase land values in our area and open up a great deal of land for commercial development and therefore generate revenue for the city."

The 6.5-mile, $48.8 million parkway would begin near Pederson Road in west Katy by Cameron Machinery & Tools and the master-planned community, Young Ranch. Katy's portion runs from I-10 to just south of Kingsland Boulevard.

KDA President Skip Conner said the project has been in the works for several years.

Landowners along the route would be responsible for half of the project cost, he said. The rest of the cost would be allocated: Fort Bend County 27.2 percent, Fulshear 11.7 percent and Katy 11.2 percent.

Even with participation of private landowners and cities, Fort Bend County Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers said it still leaves the county with a significant cost.

The total project cost of $62 million was reduced after the county removed hike and bike trails from the plans, said Fulshear's mayor.

"We'll advance Fulshear funds but they'll pay them back over the life of the bond issue," said Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert at an April 11 Fort Bend County Commissioners Court mobility workshop.

"I don't consider it a county project," said Hebert, adding that it would generate a non-property tax revenue which isn't a county project but a self-funding project.

But he said the project has merit, noting it would provide another north/south corridor and provide relief to FM 1463 and FM 359.

At a June 5 special meeting, Fort Bend County commissioners talked about road projects for a possible fall bond election. According to minutes, "The Texas Heritage Parkway (THP) is a separate discussion and not included in the projects listed."

The county's last mobility election was in 2013 for $184.9 million. Of that total, 50 percent will be obligated by the end of September 2017, according to County Engineer Richard Stolleis.

"Fort Bend County is going to sell bonds and look to Fulshear and Katy to help make those payments on an annual basis," said Conner about the Texas Heritage Parkway.

Documents attached to the city council meeting agenda show Katy paying $5.555 million between 2018 and 2037.

Katy will use funds it receives from the one cent sales-tax levied by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to pay its share. Since its agreement with Metro runs out in 2025, Conner said the city plans to escrow Metro revenue so that it will have reserve funds to cover its debt responsibility.

"It's one of those good private/government work together projects," said Conner. "Everyone benefits from it or we wouldn't be doing it."

Katy is interested in the parkway project because of the possibility of a large commercial development occurring on the southwest corner of Heritage Parkway and I-10, which would provide sales-tax revenue for Katy, according to Conner.

Another plus, according to Conner, is that the city is not incurring any debt. "We're not selling bonds. The county is selling bonds. It won't affect our credit rating or our bonding capabilities," he said.

Meyers said the project was brought to the county by the developers who saw a need for a road to connect FM 1093 and I-10. The seven property owners could each build a segment of the road but if it's not built all the way down, it doesn't do a whole lot of good, said Meyers. "If we build the whole road, it had to be a coordinated effort."

A plus according to Meyers is that roundabouts will be used instead of intersections with stop signs or traffic signals for the entire route.

"Roundabouts are used in other parts of the country and pretty extensively in Europe. We have none in Fort Bend County. These will be our first," Meyers said.

He explained they allow traffic to flow without coming to a full stop. "It's supposed to be a more effective way of moving traffic."

Conner said construction could start within a year and take 18 to 24 months to complete. It, along with construction of Cane Island Parkway, another north-south route, connecting the Katy Freeway and FM 1093, and the widening of FM 1463 south of I-10 could relieve some of the traffic congestion in north Fort Bend County.

But Hahn said, "As far as timeline and next step that's really up to the county. We are just one of the participants and it isn't our project. We are excited about it though as it will tremendously accelerate the growth potential for our community."
Needville residents Helaine Sandler and Nikki Preece of Fulshear Treatment to Transition went to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional representatives and staff members as part of a 25-member delegation from the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP).

NATSAP is the North American resource for programs and professionals assisting young people with emotional and behavioral difficulties.
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The Harris County District Attorney's Office dropped the murder charge against a homeless man accused in the brutal stabbing death last year of 11-year-old Josue Flores - the second suspect freed in a case that shook the north Houston community.

First Assistant District Attorney Tom Berg announced Tuesday that DNA evidence and blood analysis were inconclusive for Andre Timothy Jackson, 29, who was arrested June 3, 2016, in the death of the Marshall Middle School student.

But Jackson, a Marine veteran, remains a suspect, Berg said.

"We have received DNA analysis which makes it impossible for us to go forward at this time with a case that we think we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Berg said. "The results of the DNA and blood analysis are at best inconclusive, and in some respects, exclude him as a suspect."

BACKGROUND: Suspect in 11-year-old Josue Flores' stabbing death breaks down in court

(Story continues below...)

Tiffany Dupree, the trial prosecutor, said she and Berg gave the news to Josue's family Tuesday on their front porch.

"Obviously, they are disappointed but they want justice for Josue Flores and they want us to be able to prove the case and have sufficient evidence to make the case," she said. "We're not saying Andre Jackson is innocent and excluded as a suspect. We're just saying at this point, if we tried this case to a jury, we don't feel we could secure a conviction."

In the Near Northside community, where Flores was killed more than a year ago, community members felt blind sided by the news.

READ ALSO: Accused killer tried to use ATM, court records show

"It rips the scab off the wound that was just beginning to heal," said Karla Cisneros, a council member who's district falls within the neighborhood.

"We're astounded," said Susan Graham, a community activist. "It feels like he sat in jail and the police and the District Attorney's office did nothing."

During an already scheduled community meeting at Carnegie Library, others also expressed heartbreak at the dropped charges. The neighborhood has created several teams that meet frequently to address safety issues. Now, they want help from city officials.

"We have never stopped since the day that Josue Flores was killed," said Stella Mireles Walters, who founded Safe Walk Home Northside, a neighborhood patrol that watches students as they walk to and from school.

"We united. We used everything that we could in order to keep this community informed. Where's all the help that we need now?"

Adam Sifuentes, a student at Northside High School who lives down the street from where Flores was killed, said residents are more fearful to walk outside in the wake of the boy's slaying. Sifuentes doesn't like his grandmother to sit out on the front lawn by herself. His family, in turn, often checks to make sure he makes it to places safely.

"Every time, I go to the store, they call me and tell me be to careful," said Sifuentes.

First Assistant Berg said the decision was made to dismiss the murder case when tests found that DNA on Josue's clothes did not match Jackson's and DNA on Jackson's clothes did not match Josue's. If they took the case to trial and Jackson was found not guilty, prosecutors would be unable to try the case again under the law against double jeopardy.

Jackson's attorney, Jerome Godinich, who attended the Tuesday press conference, said he is sure that Jackson is innocent.

"Since about November of last year, my office and myself were convinced that Mr. Jackson could not have committed this offense," Godinich said. "We were waiting for those results from the DNA, and frankly, I was not surprised."

He said staffers in his office had gone through surveillance videos and witness statements to reach their conclusions.

Godinich also said Jackson may be leaving Houston when he is released from jail, probably late Tuesday.

"His family is very eager to have him back home and they do not live here in Houston," he said.

Josue was stabbed about 4:40 p.m. on May 17, 2016 as he walked home from school after staying late to attend a Science Club celebration.

Jackson, who had been living in the Salvation Army, matched the description of the man witnesses said stabbed the boy. He was tracked down after being shown in surveillance video trying to use the ATM at a Chevron gas station about 6:30 a.m. that day, hours before the stabbing.

Jackson broke down sobbing in court shortly after his arrest when prosecutors told the judge the boy had been stabbed at least 20 times. He has remained in the Harris County jail ever since under $100,000 bond.

The stabbing struck fear in the community, with residents rallying to watch children as they walked to and from school.

Soon after the announcement, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted out a statement saying he had spoken with Flores' family and that the department was treating the case as an "ongoing murder investigation." He pledged to "devote whatever resources needed" to close the case.

"Our homicide detectives believed then and continue to believe that Mr. Jackson is the suspect in the case."

Berg said the decision not to prosecute was difficult because Jackson was the second suspect against whom charges were dismissed. He noted that District Attorney Kim Ogg ran on a campaign pledge of running an "evidence-based" office.

At the press conference, CrimeStoppers spokesman Jeff McShan urged anyone with information about the case to call their agency at (713) 222-TIPS.

"We're back at square one," he said. "We need the evidence, so whoever did this to (Josue) we'll be able to find that person and present that to the DA's office."
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One of the southeast Texas county officials behind a recent offer to provide 900 air conditioned prison beds to inmates involved in a federal lawsuit against the state prisons has a storied past.

Billy Rowles, a veteran lawman who previously served as sheriff of Jasper County and now serves in Newton County, was portrayed by Academy Award winning actor Jon Voight in the 2003 "Jasper," a made-for-TV movie about the community's response to the dragging death of James Byrd Jr.

Watch the trailer here.

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After Byrd's body was found on a road in Jasper in 1998, Rowles took the matter directly to FBI agents in Beaumont, explaining that the killing appeared to be race-based.

HISTORY OF HATE: Lynchings by state and county (1877-1950)

Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer and John King, who identified as white supremacists, were convicted of chaining Byrd to a pickup truck and dragging his body three miles along an asphalt road.

Brewer and King were given the death penalty, and Brewer was executed in 2011. Berry is serving a life sentence at the Ramsey Unit.
One couple's giant homemade pool is the hot destination this summer.

Jerry and Marina Leussink of Alberta constructed the 300,000 gallon hole in 2013 on their property in Alberta, Canada.

"It's great to have it on a hot day," Jerry Leussink told Wide Open County, an country lifestyle website based in Austin. "We've utilized it many, many, many times on weekends with family and friends that come camping. It can also be used for skating in the winter."

VANISHED: Where's the water in downtown's 40-story-high pool?

The pool is 14 feet deep and was dug using earth moving machinery. The project was inspired by the pond Leussink swam in growing up.

The pool is 90 feet by 70 feet and includes a poly liner to protect against weeds. The liner is held in place with rocks Leussink placed around the pool's border. The rocks add to the wharf aesthetic, Leussink said.

"It evolved and I had these posts and got the idea to put them around here with the rope," Leussink said.

READ MORE: Taking a look at modern swimming pool designs around the world

One Reddit user made a similar homemade pool in 2016, though at a much smaller and sophisticated scale. His pool included a plumbing system, rebar, and concrete.
A former Pearland Home Depot employee who tried to stop three shoplifters was fired because his actions could have endangered employees or the general public, a Home Depot spokesman said Monday.

According to an interview given by former employee Jim Tinney to KTRK, Tinney saw three men attempting to leave the store in June, with tool sets they had not paid for. Tinney attempted to stop them by throwing an object at their feet.

CRIME RING: Alleged thieves make off with $20,000 in merchandise from Home Depot, Target, Lowe's

Tinney did not immediately return calls to the Chronicle for information.

(Story continues below...)

Home Depot's policy prevents employees from attempting to stop shoplifters, said Stephen Holmes, director of corporate communications

"The policy and our actions are solely based on our efforts to protect our associates and other customers who might be engaging with shoplifters in the store or in our parking lots," Holmes said.

READ ALSO: Katy cookie store reverses decision to suspend employee

Holmes said that shoplifting isn't always the "petty crime" that the general public assumes it might be and that barring associates from attempting to thwart shoplifting efforts is a policy enacted to keep people from being seriously hurt.

"What we see today are people who can be extremely brazen and violent," he said. "The general public might misunderstand the seriousness of the matter because they don't understand how incredibly dangerous shoplifting has become or how quickly a situation can escalate if a shoplifter believes they're being followed."

Holmes explained that many interactions between associates and shoplifters turn violent.

READ ALSO: Safest cities in Texas includes 8 Houston suburbs

"I (recently) got an email about a shoplifter that pulled a gun on one of our associates and held it up to her head," he said. "Another gun was pulled on an employee last week in Miami. We had a member of the security team who was cut with a knife, we've had someone who was punched and (sustained) brain damage  we've had two employees in the last week who have been bitten. What happens if an associate follows a shoplifter out of the store for a license plate and the shoplifter hits them with their car? We've had customers backed over before. This policy is in place for a reason."

Holmes said that another thing that the general public might not know is that oftentimes, shoplifting cases aren't necessarily small crimes committed for personal gain.

"A lot of the shoplifting you see is tied to organized crime," he said. "Sure, sometimes it's someone who's stealing to support a drug habit, but oftentimes it's connected to a much larger, much more organized group who is orchestrating (the shoplifting) to fund criminal activity that most people don't think is so petty."

READ ALSO: Humble named 12th most dangerous city, according to FBI data

In many of these cases, Holmes explained, Home Depot and local law enforcement are not the only agencies involved in attempting to stop the theft.

"Some of these organized rings are stealing literally millions of dollars," he said. "We have ongoing investigations with everyone from the FBI, to the ATF to the DEA and Secret Servicewe have things in place to prevent shoplifters from getting away with the crime, and we do not want our employees to put themselves in danger. We've parted ways with associates for this same thing before  this isn't a unique case."

In Dec. 2016, four Home Depot employees were terminated from a Florida Home Depot after attempting to stop an alleged shoplifter.

The decision to terminate Tinny was not one Home Depot made lightly, said Holmes.

"This was not a knee-jerk reaction," he said. "This has been thoroughly reviewed by a cross-functional committee. It was a serious safety violation that has led to serious injury and even death in the past, so we have to be firm with our policy. There are policies in the company that have varying levels of seriousness and this is at the very top  we need to be consistent with (enforcement). We hate to part ways with any associate, but he knew the policy."
A Houston woman will have a decade to think about her crime following her sentence for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anita Adams, 31, of Houston plead guilty in May after she was charged with embezzlement from her employer. Adams was the company's bookkeeper.

According to Scott Carpenter, the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office Economic Crimes Division chief prosecutor, Adams plead guilty to theft on May 15, 2017. Adams was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday.

According to the District Attorney's Office, "Adams' friend, Andrea Davidson, had been employed at an engineering company as an office manager. One of her responsibilities included managing the accounts payables, including all vendor payments."

According to the financial records offered into evidence, Davidson stole more than $8 million from her employer by issuing company checks to herself and friends. Davidson disguised the checks by removing them from the company's computers and providing its accounting with altered bank statements.

"Adams testified at her sentencing hearing that beginning in 2007, Davidson began issuing company checks directly to Adams and she would deposit the checks into her bank account," the DA's office reported. "In return, Adams gave one-half of each deposit to Davidson."

Adams admitted to passing more than $258,000 in stolen money through her account. The scheme was discovered when a credit card company called the engineering firm asking if $300,000 in payments to Davidson's personal credit card were authorized.

The company then conducted an internal investigation and determined that Davidson was spearheading a massive theft.

For her part, Davidson was sentenced to 28 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Davidson's husband and another friend, Ether Thomas, currently have cases set for trial.

Adams was prosecuted in the 400th District Court before Presiding Judge Maggie Jaramillo. Theft in this case is a first-degree felony punishable by 5-99 years or life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Assistant District Attorneys Scott Carpenter prosecuted the case. Attorney Gerald Moton represented the defendant.
Samir Hussein/WireImage(LONDON) -- Prince William and Duchess Kate paid a visit to the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk, Poland, Tuesday amid heavy security.



William and Kate, both 35, met with five Holocaust survivors at Stutthof, one of the first concentration camps installed outside of Germany, and one of the last to be liberated by the Allies in 1945. More than 110,000 people from 28 countries were imprisoned at Stutthof during World War II and 65,000, including 28,000 Jewish people, died in the gas ovens and by lethal injection.



William and Kate plan to visit Gdansk's central market square following their visit to Stutthof. The royal couple will sample some of the local specialties, including pierogi and a Gdansk liqueur, and see local amber craftsmen, musicians and artists at work at the street party.



William and Kate will later attend a reception at the Gdansk Shakespeare Theater, of which William's father, Prince Charles, is a patron.



Later Tuesday, William and Kate will see the shipyards of Gdansk, the birthplace of Solidarity, which led to the downfall of Communism in Poland. The couple's visit there will include a meeting with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa.



Kate, dressed in a floral two-piece Erdem dress, caught the attention of royal observers Monday with her reply to being given a stuffed animal designed for newborns at a tech start-up event in Warsaw.



Upon receiving the gift, Kate turned to William and said while laughing, "We will just have to have more babies."



Speculation has been rampant about if and when William and Kate will add to their family. Their two children, Princess Charlotte, 2, and Prince George, who turns 4 this month, are joining them on their five-day tour of Poland and Germany.



George and Charlotte, who did not join William and Kate on Tuesday, were spotted Monday departing the plane with their parents. Charlotte, on her second royal tour, waved and extended her hand to greet the gathered dignitaries while George, on his third royal tour, appeared shyer and had to be coaxed out of the plane clutching William's hand.



The family will depart Poland for Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday.



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A prominent Black Lives Matter activist accused of punching a police horse will remain behind bars for at least two more days after being arrested on her way to court earlier this month.

Shere Dore, 41, was a passenger in a car pulled over for an expired inspection sticker in her Fort Bend County neighborhood on July 6, her attorney said Tuesday. That led to her continued confinement without bail in Harris County.

"I think they're trying to wear her down," attorney Jolanda Jones said. "I think her First Amendment rights are being criminalized."

SUBURBAN FALLOUT: Tomball High students clash over Black Lives Matter

Dore was arrested July 6 for warrants stemming from a two-year-old speeding charge. She was on her way to downtown Houston for a routine court appearance, but because she was jailed in Fort Bend, she missed her court date.

Harris County prosecutors moved to have her $2,000 bail revoked because she missed court.

Story continues below ....

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Now, although her fines in Fort Bend have been settled, Jones said, Dore continues to be held because her bail has been revoked.

"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's curious to me," she said. "She missed court because she was on her way to court."

Jones also said it was suspicious that Dore was arrested just as she was leaving her home, and as a passenger in somebody else's car.

"She didn't even get out of her neighborhood," the attorney said.

After her fines were settled in Fort Bend County, Dore was transferred to the Harris County Jail and she was put on the docket Tuesday. State District Judge Jim Wallace, who is out of town at a judicial conference, is expected to take up the matter on Thursday.

DAN PATRICK WEIGHS IN: Blames Black Lives Matter for Dallas sniper

Jones and attorney Brian Harrison have pointed out that it is unusual that any open warrants did not come up when she was arrested in November 2016.

In that case, she is accused of punching a police horse at a Donald Trump protest. Jones has steadily maintained her client is innocent.

"There's not one video of her hitting a horse," Jones said. "There's a whole bunch of video from all kinds of angles, from all kinds of people, from all kinds of police interviews and the one thing you never see is her hitting a horse or touching a horse."

brian.rogers@chron.com

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With just days left till the next scheduled execution in the Lone Star state, lawyers for convicted Bexar County killer TaiChin Preyor on Friday filed a flurry of last-minute paperwork seeking to halt the condemned man's death.

The pair of motions - in the Western District of Texas - claim one of Preyor's former attorneys on the case, Brandy Estelle, was "utterly unqualified" and may have even resorted to the popular crowdsourcing site Wikipedia for research in the case.

Preyor, who murdered a woman who sold him drugs more than a decade ago, is scheduled to meet his fate in Huntsville on July 27.

DEATH DATE: Houston's 'Tourniquet Killer' set for October execution

The 46-year-old was convicted in the 2004 slaying when he repeatedly stabbed Jami Tackett before cutting her throat. Neighbors found the dying woman after hearing her screams - and police caught Preyor after he came back to retrieve his car keys, the San Antonio Express-News previously reported.

The San Antonio man has been on death row since 2005 fighting his case. At issue now is the allegedly subpar defense counsel who represented Preyor during parts of the federal appeals process.

"It appears she relied on Wikipedia, of all things, to learn the complex ins and outs of Texas capital-punishment," Preyor's attorneys wrote of their client's former counsel, noting that Estelle's case files included a print-out of the Wikipedia page "Capital punishment in Texas" with a Post-It note labelled "Research."

In addition, court papers contend Estelle was getting help on the case from an attorney disbarred for showing a "gargantuan indifference to the interests of his clients," a federal court wrote in a published decision.

"No doubt fearing repercussions, Estelle never disclosed her disbarred co-counsel's lead role in the case to this Court," claims the convicted man's legal team, which includes Catherine Stetson, Preyor's pro bono attorney and a partner at Hogan Lovells.

TAINITED TESTIMONY: Supreme Court sends racially tainted death penalty case back to Harris County

The dozens of pages of motions and exhibits filed Friday call Jefferson and Estelle's work "shocking conduct" and "exactly the kind of extraordinary circumstance that warrants this Court's intervention."

The motions for stay of execution and relief from judgment ask the court to halt Preyor's death date and reopen his federal appeal, this time with "licensed and qualified counsel."

Last-minute stays of execution are more the exception than the rule - but they're certainly not unheard of.

In 2011, Harris County death row inmate Duane Edward Buck was granted a last-minute reprieve amid questions of racially tainted expert testimony. He's still on death row as the appeals process continues to play out.
When he admitted to filing at least 37 false income tax returns, Chester Swanson became just the latest addition to a growing list of Texas tax preparers caught up in a whirlwind of federal charges.

Swanson, who entered his guilty plea Monday in a federal court in Houston, cost the government around $240,000 in " tax harm" through the slew of false returns filed as Chester's Mobile Tax Service.

At least as far back as 2012, Swanson drove around the Bayou City to meet clients and pull together their tax returns - dozens of which were littered with false information. In some cases, he recorded false amounts of unreimbursed medical and dental expenses. In other cases, he fabricated charitable donation numbers or unreimbursed employee expenses.

The dishonest tax preparer was indicted in February on 21 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and presentation of false tax returns. He's since agreed to pay back the $244,000 as restitution.

Following Monday's plea, Swanson is set for sentencing in October and could face up to three years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.

But his case is just the latest in an ongoing trend. When feds announced his charging back in April, it came as part of a cluster of seven pre-Tax Day busts in the Houston area.

At the same time, authorities also announced a harsh 28-month prison sentence for one repeat offender, Cedric Keith Oliphant of Huntsville. The long-time tax scammer was slapped with his new prison term just months after completing a 33-month sentence for an earlier tax fraud case.

Then in June, a man in Galveston was sentenced to 50 years in prison after agents investigating possible tax offenses uncovered child porn.

But the string of tax crime isn't just limited to southeast Texas.

Also on Monday, a Corpus Christi tax preparer pleaded guilty to tax evasion after she both failed to report her own income on personal tax returns and prepared fraudulent tax returns for others.

"This action today serves to show that running a business based around defrauding the U.S. taxpayers is no way to do business," IRS Special Agent in Charge Rock Goss said in a statement. "This type of dishonesty will not go unpunished."
The pit bull mix that mauled a 7-year-old boy in Manor, Texas, in early July has been put down, police said.

According to KXAN, the Manor Police Department said it humanely euthanized the dog in the interest of public safety. Authorities said the the dog attacked another child in Travis County in 2014. The dog's owner agreed with the decision.
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Houston attorney James Moriarty was sitting in a crowded military courtroom in Jordan on Monday when he heard the guilty verdict announced against the man who last year killed his son along with two other U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers.

"I had tears in my eyes. It was a passing of an important moment," Moriarty said later in a telephone interview with the Houston Chronicle.

"I had a feeling that I had done my duty to protect his name and protect his honor," Moriarty said.

The guilty verdict and life sentence with hard labor handed down by a military court against the Jordanian soldier, M'aarek Abu Tayeh - sometimes referred to as Marik al-Tuwayha - ended a month-long trial in Amman - Jordan's capital. Moriarty's son and namesake, Staff Sgt. James "Jimmy" Moriarty, 27, was killed Nov. 4, 2016 when his convoy waited at the gate to the al-Jafar base in southern Jordan.

Also killed were Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, and Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe, 30. They were assigned to the U.S. Army's 5th Special Forces Group in Fort Campbell, Ky. and were in Jordan to train Syrian rebels as part of the U.S. led military coalition against the Islamic State.

The life sentence means Abu Tayeh won't be eligible for parole for at least 20 years. Some family members of the victims have said they believe capital punishment would have been an appropriate punishment.

"Perhaps they couldn't have prosecuted him for a more serious form of murder," Moriarty said. "But, I would have been perfectly happy to see him hung."

Abu Tayeh pleaded not guilty when the trial began last month. As he was being led from the court room following the verdict, Abu Tayeh said, "I have all the respect for the king but I was doing my job," according to the Associated Press.

Security was tight for the trial. Military vehicles with machine guns were positioned outside the courtroom and several armed guards were inside. Moriarty said he was glad the Jordanian military court took the case so seriously. A translator was on hand to make sure the family members of the victims understood what the judge was saying.

"It was pretty powerful," Moriarty said. "I knew a third of the way through that they were going to find him guilty of murder."

It was a relief to finally hear a Jordanian government official say his son, who grew up in Houston, and his fellow Green Berets were not at fault, Moriarty said.

"They announced to the world that the Americans were without blame and that (Abu Tayeh) had deliberately and intentionally murdered them," he said. "It was satisfying that the Jordanians finally accepted some responsibility."

Even with the guilty verdict and life sentence handed down, Moriarty remains frustrated that the motive behind the crime remains a mystery. Jordanian and US officials have said there is nothing to link Abu Tayeh to an anti-US terrorist organization. But Moriarty doesn't believe the account the defendant gave in court - that he believed the base was under attack after he heard gunfire coming from the American convoy.

"There is no rational excuse for why that sorry bastard murdered my son," Moriarty said. "Talk about someone who has taken no responsibility for what he did. He reminds me of some gang banger who is pissed off because he got arrested."

The military judge seemed to discount Abu Tayeh's version of events while he was questioning other Jordanian soldiers who were there. He asked them why they did not open fire if the base was under attack.

"They recognized that they were all Americans who lived on the base. They weren't a threat," Moriarty said. "I knew right there that the case was over."

Representatives from the U.S. embassy in Jordan were on hand for the trial and said the verdict confirms the three slain Green Berets "followed all established procedures when accessing the base the day of the incident."

"We are reassured to see the perpetrator brought to justice. We appreciate the access provided to us and to the families of the victims, as well as the expedience and seriousness of the court proceedings, consistent with Jordanian law.

Despite this tragedy, Jordan remains a strategic partner," the U.S. Embassy in Amman said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle.

Samy Ayoub with the Middle Eastern Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin said he's not surprised at the verdict. He said Jordan's government would rather focus on issues like the struggle against the Islamic State and the turmoil in neighboring Syria.

"They just want to deal with this as quickly as possible," Ayoub said. "They want closure to the case so they can move on."

Moriarty and other family members of the slain American soldiers have criticized Jordan's handling of the case. On Monday, soon after the verdict was announced, Moriarty sent a letter to Dina Kawar, Jordan's ambassador to the United States. The Houston Chronicle has obtained a copy of the letter. It calls Abu Tayeh's conviction, "a good first step, but it is only the first step."

In the letter, Moriarty said they have other requests - including military or civil criminal charges against the Jordanian gate guards who stood by while Abu Tayeh was killing Moriarty and the other Green Berets. They also want the security video of the shooting scene to be released to the families. In addition, the three families should receive restitution for their losses, the letter states.

"They've successfully prosecuted him. This is what they need to do now," Moriarty said. "We owe it to our children and we owe it to our country to fight for what we believe in."
When it comes to college admissions, a few major things typically determine whether you get the big envelope or the little envelope: your essay, extra-curriculars and, of course, your SAT score.

Chron.com gathered SAT data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and analyzed the SAT scores of 90 Houston-area high school from 2015, the most recent TEA data available. Through the data, Chron.com found which high schools have the worst combined SAT scores in town.
A police officer in El Paso faces charges stemming from the drowning death of his 11-month-old son.

Raymond Licon Jr, 27, allegedly engaged in a text message conversation with his estranged wife June 20 about 8:30 p.m., according to court documents obtained by KXAN. He reportedly placed his son, Azrael, in a bathtub, turned on the water and walked away.

Licon then said he argued with his estranged wife by phone calls and text messages. Cell phone records indicate the call lasted roughly 45 minutes, ending about 9:20 p.m., at which point he called 911.

PARENTS BEHAVING BADLY: Parents, grandparent arrested after meth found in 9-month-old child's system

That's when he's said to have discovered the child drowned in the tub. Water was reportedly overflowing, and flooded into the second floor from the ceiling. He told police he gave Azrael CPR. The child was later declared dead at a nearby hospital.

Licon, who's worked at the El Paso Police Department two years, is charged with criminally negligent homicide and is booked at the El Paso County Detention Center on $10,000 bond. He's been relieved of his work duties at the police department. (Story continues below.)

"Pure common sense. You don't leave a baby in the bathtub. You just don't do it," Azrael's grandfather, George Montenegro, told CBS. "I'm very angry at the police because they didn't do nothing. This happened a month ago and until today he was arrested. I mean if that would have happened to you or me, I bet you, whatever, we would be in jail the same day."
The Trump administration is quietly cutting more than $213 million of grant money for teen pregnancy prevention and research programs at institutions across the country, a number of them in Texas.

More than 80 institutions this month received a letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informing them they will lose Obama-era grants aimed at helping teens avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The White House is calling for the redirection of the money toward abstinence and personal responsibility programs.

"This will have a major impact on these program's ability to reduce pregnancy rates," said Ruth Buzi, director of social services for Baylor College of Medicine's teen health clinic, which does not receive such funding. "Teens are a very fragile population -- they need to have access to these types of services to make good decisions."

RELATED: Houston leads nation in births to girls under 15

The Texas programs being cut include Texas A&M University, which is partway through a $7.5 million grant -- $1.5 million per year  that was to run from 2015 through 2019. Kelly Wilson, director of the project, told NPR that "figuring out how we move forward in the next months is creating a little bit of a panic" among program participants.

The grant money will stop coming on June 30, 2018, two years earlier than the Obama administration had intended. One program participant told Reveal News that "it's kind of like building half a skyscraper and then say, Never mind.' " Reveal News broke the story.

More than a quarter of U.S. girls become pregnant by 20. Although the pregnancy rate has continually declined over the past 20 years, it remains one of the highest among industrialized nations, particularly among poor and minority girls. Texas has the fifth highest U.S. rate and the highest repeat rate.

RELATED: 'Abstinence-plus' education emerging in Texas schools

Other Texas programs that will lose their funding include the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Community Action Corporation of South Texas in Alice, Project Vida Health Center in El Paso, the Dallas Foundation, EngenderHealth in Austin and Healthy Futures of Texas in San Antonio.

The funded programs were exclusively involved in preventing youth pregnancies, according to program literature. It says no abortion counseling is provided.
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Texas lawmakers return to work Tuesday for a 30-day special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The only item considered must-do is the sunset legislation to keep medical regulatory agencies in business. But Abbott has included a long list of other issues, ranging from the bathroom bill to property tax reform.

Q&A: What you need to know about the Texas Legislature's special session

Check out the gallery above for a closer look at the items up for debate during this special session and their chances of passing.




Former Houston Housing Director Neal Rackleff defended the Trump administration's proposed $6 billion in cuts to federal housing programs during a Senate hearing Tuesday, saying he would use available resources wisely if confirmed to the president's subcabinet.

President Donald Trump nominated Rackleff in April as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development, charged with administering the agency's key housing programs.

Trump has proposed cutting more than $4 billion in community planning and development grants - about 60 percent of the office's program budget, including eliminating Community Development Block Grants and HOME Investment Partnerships.

Rackleff, responding to senators' questions, said he supports those reductions.

"Whatever resources are afforded to me by the administration and by Congress, I will use wisely," Rackleff said. "We have faced significant cuts at the city of Houston in some of the very same funding sources, and it has been difficult, but we will find ways to help those that we can."

If the Senate committee votes to recommend Rackleff, the full chamber then would consider his nomination.

Former Mayor Annise Parker appointed Rackleff as the city's housing director in 2012, and he served until his resignation last year.

Watch Rackleff's committee hearing here.
Less than 24 hours after Gov. Greg Abbott blasted local government restrictions like tree ordinances as a threat to the "Texas brand," city government leaders statewide are seeking a meeting with the Republican leader.

"We would like the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the role cities play in attracting jobs and investments to support the prosperity of the State of Texas," a letter signed by 18 mayors, including Houston mayor Sylvester Turner to Abbott states.

Abbott called a special session, which started Tuesday, that includes more than 20 items, with at least seven aimed at reining in local governments and their regulations. Those targets include annexation rules, tree ordinances, local government permitting regulation and limits on local government property tax collections.

On Monday, Abbott warned in a speech that local governments are infringing on property rights, increasing regulations and growing taxes, when the state is trying to do the opposite. Those are "California-like" policies, he said.

"If we don't stop this real quick, we are in real danger of losing the standard as being the state for freedom, for free enterprise," Abbott told a sold-out auditorium at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation's offices.

He specifically took on tree ordinances, which he said restrain private property rights and is a form of socialism and collectivism because it promotes the greater good over individual rights to do what one pleases with their property.

The letter from the mayors makes clear that they fear the Texas Legislature is overreaching and doing too much harm to local governments.

"Harmful proposals such as revenue and spending caps, limiting annexation authority, and other measures preempting local development ordinances directly harm our ability to plan for future growth and continue to serve as the economic engines of Texas," the letter states.

The mayors on the letter include those from Houston, Amarillo, Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Fort Worth, Frisco, Galveston, Irving, Lubbock, McKinney, Plano, San Antonio, San Marcos, and Sugar Land.

Turner has repeatedly criticized what he considers government overreach from Austin.

Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Jay Janner/MBO

AUSTIN  Members of the Texas Mexican American Legislative Caucus and the Black Caucus say they want Speaker Joe Straus to bring up legislation repealing SB4, a controversial immigration law that allows law enforcement to probe for information about a person's legal status.

Flanked by business leaders and fellow lawmakers, Dallas Democrat Rep. Rafael Anchia said he and other members of the two caucuses see Gov. Greg Abbott's special session as an opportunity to point out how the new law hurts people.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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It is known that Manchu Vishnu and his wife Viranica have cute twin daughters Ariaana, Viviana. The latest reports reveal that the couple is expecting twins again. Viranika is presently staying in New York for her second delivery at the same hospital she had ger first delivery.



Vishnu took to twitter to reveal the information. He posted a beautiful pic of their family and tweeted that "Ariaana and Viviana are going to have company soon.More details later." Even though Vishnu has not yet revealed that they are expecting twins, media is buzzing with the reports that they are expecting twins for the second time.



It's going to be a celebration time for Manchu family. Meanwhile Vishnu is presently in USA shooting for his upcoming film 'Achari America Yatra', a comedy entertainer.
Tesla Inc. shares dropped Monday after a Minnesota man claimed his vehicle suddenly accelerated after he engaged the cars driver-assistance system and crashed into a marsh.

Dave Clark, 58, told police the 2016 vehicle left the roadway after he activated Teslas Autopilot system, according to a statement released Sunday by the Kandiyohi County Sheriffs Office. The vehicle was found flipped on its top, and Clark and four adult passengers sustained minor injuries, police said.

We are working to establish the facts of the incident and have offered our full cooperation to the local authorities, Tesla said in an emailed statement. We have not yet established whether the vehicles Autopilot feature was activated, and have no reason to believe that Autopilot, which has been found by NHTSA to reduce accident rates by 40 percent, worked other than as designed.

Months after a fatal May 2016 crash in which the Autopilot system and the vehicles driver failed to brake for a semi truck that was crossing a Florida highway, Tesla began shipping each of its new vehicles with more cameras and sensors to give them 360-degree visibility. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated the incident and didnt find a defect. The regulator and Tesla have said Autopilot is a driver-assistance feature and not a self-driving system, and drivers are told when engaging it to keep their hands on the wheel.

Tesla shares fell as much as 4.4 percent and traded down 2.7 percent to $319.02 as of 12:56 p.m. in New York trading. The stock has climbed 49 percent this year, driven by anticipation of Teslas cheaper Model 3 sedan starting production. The car will start at $35,000 and come equipped with Autopilot hardware, according to the companys website.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sought to tamp down expectations Saturday, saying during a keynote to the National Governors Association that Teslas stock price is higher than we deserve.

Expectations sometimes get out of control, Musk said at the associations summer meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. I hate disappointing people so Im trying real hard to meet those expectations, but thats a pretty tall order.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the Tesla crash earlier Monday.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
It was still dark the morning Ruperto Vazquez-Carrera began his shift at Sunrise Organic Dairy in Boise, Idaho.

It was mid-February 2016. A winter heat wave had melted snow and ice overnight, flooding part of the rural Jerome County farm. A foot of standing water made it hard to tell where the feeding area ended and the deep pond that held the farms manure began.

Vazquez-Carrera got into a feed truck to deliver the cows their morning meal. About 5:30 a.m., he called his brother, who also worked at the farm, to warn him about the conditions.

By sunrise, Vazquez-Carrera, a 37-year-old husband and father of six, was dead.

Vazquez-Carrera had mistakenly driven the truck into the manure pond. He managed to get free and he tried to swim back to solid ground. But he was disoriented and swam in the wrong direction, according to the county sheriff. Divers found his body 70 yards from the truck.

It was a kind of death no one wants to happen. Yet it happened again, in Idaho, just seven months later.

A dairy worker in Shelley, south of Idaho Falls, suffocated after driving into a manure pond more than 5 feet deep and being pinned for 30 minutes under the tractor he was driving.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent inspectors to investigate each incident. The agency cited each dairy for failing to provide a safe workplace and fined each $5,000.

The ponds are common at dairies as a way to store manure to prevent it from polluting waterways. The waste can later be used as fertilizer on crops. Neither dairy had fences or barricades to keep workers from driving the wrong way and into the manure pond in the dark, OSHA found. No signs warned employees they were nearing a deep pit of manure.

Drowning in manure ponds is widely known in the dairy industry, the inspection reports noted.

Drowning and other manure accidents killed farmworkers in Idaho and at least four other states during the past three years, according to OSHA records.

And thats just a fraction of the deaths in agriculture, one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S. More than 5,000 agricultural workers in the U.S. died on the job between 2003 and 2011, a death rate seven times higher than average.

The local OSHA office began noticing a dramatic uptick in agriculture fatalities in early 2013, and it has persisted, said David Kearns, OSHA area director.

That raised a flag to us, that there was something happening out there, he said. Were dealing with vulnerable workers in very unique and continually changing situations.  Why we are seeing an uptick, I dont know.

People just called and called

There was an outcry from workers in Idaho after Vazquez-Carreras death, said Indira Trejo, global impact coordinator for the United Farm Workers of America.

Trejo works in Washington state for the union, which saw a need to help Idaho workers, many of whom are Hispanic. She made the rounds last year on Spanish-speaking radio stations in Southern Idaho.

People just called and called, she said. The biggest need we documented was people had no idea how to go about workers comp. Whenever they got in an accident, they got fired, or didnt know who to call or where to call.

Since then, she said, she has talked with about 500 farmworkers in Idaho. Heres what they tell her: Their farms dont have toilet paper. There is no first aid kit. They lose their jobs or housing if they raise a complaint.

Now you have this immigration issue on top of them, Trejo said. Thats why they dont speak up, and thats why the conditions are like this at a lot of farms.

Other farms treat their workers right. One dairy employee told the Statesman she feels safer at her small farm than she did at a mega-dairy. Even though the small dairy lacks a safety program, there are fewer cattle to dodge.

But its very rare to hear from those folks, Trejo said.

Workers hurt in Idaho

Because of special rules for small farms, underreporting and a lack of public data in Idaho, there is no way to tally agricultural casualties and debilitating injuries.

The information gap could soon get worse. Congress this spring rolled back an Obama administration rule that allowed OSHA to enforce accident record-keeping by farm and other employers for years instead of months. And the Trump administration has delayed a separate rule that would make farm and other companies accident records available to the public online.

The meager data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that men and women who pick fruit, harvest crops, milk cows and work in processing plants in Idaho are injured and killed at a higher rate than in other professions.

Javier Tellez Juarez lost both arms and a leg when his clothes got caught on machinery at a southeastern Idaho farm in the mid-1990s. His case prompted a change in Idaho law to require that farmers to carry workers compensation insurance for their laborers. They had been exempt for decades.

Maria Aguirre was one of 29 workers poisoned by pesticides on a Caldwell onion farm in 2005. She told the Associated Press that the poisoning made it painful to eat and left her co-workers, including her mother and brother, with health problems.

Farmers know that some workers are scared because theyre illegal here, so they can do anything they want, Aguirre said then.

A longtime employee of Amalgamated Sugar Co., Mario Munoz, got caught in machinery at the companys Nampa plant in 2009. Munoz, who had been studying to become a medical assistant, was the third person to die at the factory since 1985.

Farmworkers in Marsing, Shelley and Melba have died in recent years after being run over, folded in half, and electrocuted.

Many of those killed are foreign-born. Most of the workers killed on Idaho farms in the past few years were non-English speakers or spoke English as a second language.

We would characterize those employees as vulnerable workers, said Jordan Barab, who was deputy assistant secretary of OSHA in the Obama administration and now writes Confined Space, a newsletter about worker safety. Some of them are undocumented, but even the ones who are documented have come from other countries where, lets say, the government is not friendly.

These workers tend to be suspicious of government and unaware that OSHA exists or that they have rights. A complaint can put them at risk of getting fired or deported, Barab said.

This is a group OSHA has a hard time reaching, he said.

At Sunrise Organic Dairy in Jerome County, workers did not know about OSHA and were concerned about working near the manure pit the winter Vazquez-Carrera died, according to someone who knew him, who asked not to be identified because of fear of retribution.

They kind of knew it was dangerous, in the sense that it had snowed in and it was frozen, it was slippery, so people will be scared to do that, the person said. Right after (the death), a lot of people quit, because they were scared.

Its quite traumatic for everybody

OSHAs inspection report said Sunrise had not been keeping records of injuries, as required by law. Workers compensation records showed multiple injuries on the farm in 2015 and 2016, including one just days before the manure drowning, the report said.

Dairy owner Dirk Reitsma told OSHA after the accident that he and his dairy manager had noticed a need to make some changes to the area near the manure pond and had talked about hiring a contractor.

Reitsma declined to speak with the Statesman. He told the Times-News in Twin Falls last year that it was just a freak accident and just a bad deal. He said Vazquez-Carrera was a top-notch guy who worked his way up since being hired about a year earlier.

OSHA said Sunrise must add safety features such as warning signs and fences.

The manure drowning months later in Shelley was the first time a worker had been seriously injured at Diamond 3 Dairy, owner Brian Esplin told the Statesman.

The employee, Alberto Navarro-Munoz, got into a tractor around 4 a.m. one day last September. It was his first job at a dairy, and he was new to driving the tractor. A supervisor watched as he put the vehicle in gear and went forward, headlong into a manure pond. The truck flipped over and pinned him under 3 to 4 feet of manure.

His co-worker ran to get help, but the man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, according to OSHA.

Esplin said there is now a barricade and a floodlight at the manure pond on his dairy. Workers do not drive feed tractors in that area when its dark, he said.

Its quite traumatic for everybody, for sure. The guy who was a witness to it was quite upset, Esplin said. It haunted my son (the dairy manager) for quite some time. I think it still does, to some degree. For a long time, he could hardly sleep at night.

Small farms are unregulated

Sunrise Organic Dairy is large, with about 10,000 head of cattle and 60 employees. Diamond 3 Dairy is smaller, with about 1,300 cows and 15 employees. But both are large enough that OSHA had legal authority to investigate the deaths.

A unique exemption in federal worker-safety laws forbids OSHA from inspecting farms that have 10 or fewer employees at all times in the prior 12 months  even if employees die. (Family members are not considered employees.)

Those farms are supposed to keep records and to report work-related deaths and catastrophes. But its impossible to know if they do, because OSHA is not allowed to check if theyre complying or to fine them if theyre not.

The exemption kept OSHA from investigating the death of a 36-year-old worker in March at Double Arrow Inc. in Terreton, northwest of Idaho Falls. C.J. Frizzell, a Rexburg father of four with one on the way, died when he was caught in a hay grinder at the farm.

To have these small farms, which are highly hazardous workplaces, and not to allow OSHA to set foot there, is inexcusable, Barab said.

Across the border in Washington, a state occupational-safety law makes small farms subject to safety enforcement. In Idaho, there is no extra layer.

There are dairies where there are only two workers, and theyre milking 1,800 cows, Trejo said. This is why the accidents happen and nobody finds out.

New focus on safety

After the manure deaths, the Idaho Dairymens Association heard that OSHA was gearing up to put more resources into enforcement at Idaho dairies.

OSHAs Idaho office is strapped. It has eight inspectors to cover the state. The AFL-CIO says it would take 208 years for the office to inspect every worksite.

But OSHA has used local emphasis programs in Wisconsin and New York to beef up safety at dairy farms. The Idaho office drafted its own version. It would focus on random inspections and more active outreach to dairies and other agricultural businesses. Its on the back burner until OSHA has a new national director.

The Idaho Dairymens Association, the states largest dairy trade group, decided to get a head start. With a budget of $200,000 and cooperation from others in the industry, the association is rolling out a safety-training program for Idahos 490 dairies. It plans to send out trainers who will act like OSHA inspectors, pointing out everything that needs to be fixed.

Consumers demand transparency, said Bob Naerebout, executive director. They want to have the knowledge that the workers on our dairies are properly trained.

Some of Idahos agribusiness employers have already signed up to partner with OSHA and to open up their operations to greater scrutiny. Among them are Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. in Burley and AMVAC Chemical in Marsing.

Tessenderlo Kerley has 11 employees at its Magic Valley plant, where it makes a soil fumigant called metam sodium. Workers handle hazardous materials regularly.

Treating employees well is part of the companys culture, and that includes keeping them out of harms way, said Steve Sailors, regional plant operations manager.

Workers must attend meetings every two weeks, at which they cover things such as first aid, CPR and respiratory protection. They attend the annual Safety Fest conference to learn new techniques. They take ownership of their safety, Sailors said.

We dont ask our employees to put themselves at risk, he said.

AMVAC has 15 full-time employees at its Treasure Valley plant, which makes crop-retention chemicals like those in seed coatings.

You have to be part of the program, said Dennis Achey, site manager in Marsing. You cant kind of sit on the sidelines. You have to be a willing participant  or, basically, you have to go somewhere where you dont have to do that. And there are plenty of places like that.

Both companies said they are saving money on workers compensation insurance because their injury rates are much lower than the industry average.

Hospitals see the tragedies

Because so many injuries and deaths are allowed to stay under the radar in agriculture, the Statesman reached out to local doctors to ask what cases they see coming from local farms or agricultural plants, such as the Caldwell seed company where 63-year-old Francisca R. Gomez died in January 2016 after her hair was caught in machinery.

Bill Morgan, a trauma surgeon at Saint Alphonsus Health System, said he sees between three and six injuries a month serious enough to require his skills. About half of those are workers, the other half farmers themselves.

We dont see that many deaths, fortunately, but when they do happen, obviously its horrific, he said.

He particularly remembers one worker from a Twin Falls dairy. A bull slammed him against a wall, broke all his ribs on both sides, punctured both his lungs, and ruptured his spleen and liver. He survived, but it took him months to be able to get back to work, Morgan said.

Ag workers face one risk urban workers do not: They are farther away from medical care. A traumatic accident is 25 percent more likely to kill you in a rural place than an urban one, Morgan said.

Brian Johns, a Magic Valley-based medical director for occupational health at St. Lukes Health System, sees patients in a clinic. He rarely sees fatal or gruesome injuries, but he sees plenty of workers in pain  a broken finger from an annoyed cow, a strained back from birthing a calf.

Youre working outside with animals and big equipment, he said. You try to do as much prevention as you can, but sometimes injuries just happen.

Johns was one of several people who told the Statesman that injuries come with the inherently dangerous job of working on a farm.

Barab disagrees.

It is hard to say that every injury is preventable, but there are plenty of jobs that are dangerous jobs, and there is still no excuse for somebody getting injured, he said. For almost any hazard, you can imagine there is a way to eliminate or minimize it. Theres almost no hazard where you can say theres absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For the last three years, Gashugi, who has a degree in economics from University of Chicago, says he has driven 14 hours from his home in California to Sun Valley to try and talk to conference attendees.

The Allen & Company conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho, which each July attracts some of the top CEOs, moguls and venture capitalists, seemed like a perfect opportunity.

Gashugi realized if he was going to be a successful CEO one day, he had a lot to learn. So he wanted to find a way to ask the smartest and the best business people in the world for guidance.

In 2014, Dushime Gashugi 's first business  a small investment fund  tanked. "I was not listening to anyone or taking advice," the 29-year-old entrepreneur tells CNBC.

In 2015 Gashugi says it worked  he was able to hang around the public areas of the Sun Valley Resort, chatting with conference attendees, collecting valuable advice about success from billionaires. Ditto for 2016, until his visit was cut short when resort security asked him to leave.

Not one to give up, this year, Dashugi camped out on Sun Valley Road in nearby Ketchum, a route he says conference attendees often frequent. He was holding a sign that read, "Messrs. Bloomberg & Gates: Entrepreneur from CA seeks advice. Coffee's on me." It also listed Gashugi's cell phone number.

Though he had no luck getting a response, he says the advice he's already received is priceless.

Though Gashugi declines to publicly name the business titans with whom he's spoken to respect their privacy, he is willing to share the wisdom. Here are the best three tips he's gotten out of Sun Valley:

1. You 'll never be able to attract and retain talent better than you, so you have to be the person you want to hire

According to Gashugi, a billionaire fashion mogul told him that if you want to work with people who are relentless, who don't let rejection stop them, who take responsibility for themselves and their people  all the things crucial to success  then "you have to be that person first." That's how you attract those people to you.

2. Never stop learning

"Read," is the simple advice Dashugi got from a billionaire venture capitalist. Read everything about business that you can get your hands on, every day, he recalls the VC advising. Stay on top of what's happening and learn more than anyone else on the subject. That's how develop your advantage and your instincts.

3. Pick the right life partner

Another venture capital mogul advised Gashugi that one of the decisions most crucial to success has nothing to do with business. Being with the right person is essential, so marry for character, Gashugi recounts the VC saying. You'll need the support.

The VC told Gashugi you should find someone who "doesn't want to change you, who inspires and supports you and helps you keep growing," he recalls. "Otherwise everything else you build will be a house of cards."

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Don't miss: This guy 'cold camps' outside Sun Valley to ask billionaires, CEOs and VCs for adviceand it works
Chinese authorities will continue to monitor the trend of "irrational" overseas investments in the real estate, hospitality and film industries, a spokesman for the state planner said on Tuesday.

The Chinese government has cracked down on outbound investment by Chinese firms since late last year after accelerating capital outflows exacerbated depreciation of the yuan.

After rising 44 percent last year, outbound direct investment by Chinese firms fell 45 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year.

While Beijing says it supports legitimate overseas investment, regulators since late 2017 have warned against what they call irrational investments in certain sectors.
Then-candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination Donald Trump speaks during a rally held by the Tea Party at the United States Capitol to speak out against President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran in Washington, on September 9, 2015.

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was in default of the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it.

It was the second time Trump certified Iranian compliance with the agreement since he took office in January, despite criticizing it during the 2016 campaign as "the worst deal ever."

Trump administration officials, briefing reporters on Monday on the decision, said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions.

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 had faced a congressionally mandated deadline of Monday to decide.

A senior administration official said Iran was judged in compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal but that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believed Iran "remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability."

The official ticked off a list of accusations about Iranian behavior in the region, including ballistic missile development and proliferation, support for terrorism and militancy, complicity in atrocities committed in Syria and threats to Gulf waterways.

"The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security. As a result, the president, the secretary of state and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA," the official said.
Google is adding to its cloud service lineup with a new product that companies can use to manage the job application process.

Google Hire is designed to help human resources coordinators at small and mid-sized businesses schedule interviews and keep track of their candidates, Alphabet said Tuesday.

The service integrates with existing Google cloud services like Gmail but is separate from the G Suite bundle, which includes programs for documents, spreadsheets, slideshows and video-conferencing as well as Gmail. Google Hire will cost extra, and pricing will vary based on company size.

While it's narrowly focused, Google Hire could still pose a threat to companies like Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters and Workable. At the same time, its simplicity could lead to more adoption of G Suite, which competes with Microsoft's Office 365.
Meet Zhou Qunfei: former factory worker, high school dropout and now with a net worth of over $8 billion.

That makes her the richest self-made woman on the planet, as recently reported by Money using data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and previously reported by Forbes.

In March, Zhou topped Forbes' list of the richest self-made women, which featured a "record 56 self-made female billionaires" from around the world.

She leads Lens Technology, which manufactures the glass covers used for Apple and Samsung phones.

Zhou, 47, is the youngest self-made female billionaire on Forbes' list and her humble beginnings make her trajectory that much more impressive, according to Money. She grew up in a small village in central China. Her mother died when she was five and her father became partially blinded and lost a finger in an industrial accident, according to The New York Times. As a child, she began raising pigs and ducks to bring in additional food and money for the family.

At age 16, the future entrepreneur was forced to leave high school to provide for her family. She soon scored a job at a factory making watch lenses for about $1 a day.

Zhou tells the newspaper that factory conditions were harsh. "I worked from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m., and sometimes until 2 a.m," she says.

At age 22, she struck out on her own. With only $3,000 in her pocket, Zhou and a few relatives started a workshop, making watch lenses for customers.

She lived and worked in a small apartment with her siblings, their partners and two cousins, according to AFR.

Though the company was steadily growing, it wasn't until she made the career-changing decision to begin making glass screens for mobile phones that her business took off.
Airbus says it has successfully tested a new type of jet propelled aircraft that could speed the development of unmanned flight.

The European aerospace firm said the unmanned, jet-propelled craft flew by itself for around seven minutes over a test site in Overberg, South Africa.

"We are increasingly shifting our focus towards these kinds of innovative concepts, in particular for the development of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), so that we can develop products quickly and efficiently for a growing market," said Grazia Vittadini, head of engineering at Airbus Defence and Space in a release Tuesday.

The flight followed a pre-set course over the airfield and Airbus said the "Sagitta" craft used automated take-off and landing capabilities. Connection to the ground during flight is maintained via data links.
In China, investors are committing a lot of capital right now to a new twist on an old form of transportation: the bicycle.

Specifically, bike-sharing start-ups in China are enjoying surging growth with a simple concept: Users download an app on their smartphones, which allows them to locate and unlock a nearby bike. It's a cheap service, with providers charging as little as 15 cents for every 30 minutes.

When the trip is completed, riders are encouraged to park at any public bike rack or public location that does not interfere with pedestrians or traffic. It's a very different model than traditional bike-sharing programs, where users must pick up and drop off bikes at fixed, designated racks.

Investors are piling in. Mobike and Ofo  two of the biggest players in the market  recently raised a combined $1.3 billion in new funding. The companies hope to one day bring this popular business to the United States, as they try to disrupt traditional bike-sharing programs and outmaneuver American-based start-ups now launching their own such services.

It's easy to understand investor excitement about these companies, given their massive scale. Mobike and Ofo can now complete a combined 50 million rides per day. They each boast 100 million registered users, offer their services in more than 100 cities and operate a combined fleet of more than 12 million bicycles.

"Right now, we are transporting more people than taxis in China in many cities," Mobike CEO Davis Wang said recently at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference. "And in some cities, for example in Chengdu, we are transporting more people than the subway. So MoBike is becoming one of the major transportation platforms in many of the cities in which we operate."

Mobike recently raised $600 million in new funding from investors including Tencent, TPG and Sequoia. Neil Shen, the managing partner of Sequoia Capital China, told CNBC his firm is optimistic about the company in part because of the flexibility it provides customers.

"Bike sharing allows users to park their bikes anywhere they want, unlike previous city-bikes where riders had to look for designated dock stations," Shen said. "The ability to use a bike whenever and wherever without having to worry about losing or maintaining the bike offers great flexibility that cannot be imitated with public transit options."

Not to be outdone, Ofo recently announced its own mega round of $700 million in new funding, from a group of investors that included Alibaba , Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing and DST Global.
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miners are signaling their intent to support a new upgrade for the bitcoin blockchain that may solve the digital currency's long-running scaling issue. Several of the largest bitcoin miners (who create new bitcoins and support the blockchain), including AntPool, BitClub, Bixin, BTC.com and BitFury, have started showing their support for bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) 91, by adding a piece of code to each new block of bitcoins they generate. The miners were not expected to start coding their support for BIP 91 until July 21. Already, 66 percent of the last 144 blocks created signal support for it. The proposal needs 80 percent support to be "locked in" to the blockchain permanently. This will bring relief as it prevents the blockchain splitting into two separate chains, which would effectively create two different coins.

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"Barring any unexpected twists in the bitcoin scaling drama, a contentious fork will be avoided in the coming days," Garrick Hileman, economic historian at the London School of Economics, told CNBC via email. "The prospect of a contentious August fork has been hanging over bitcoin's price like a sword of Damocles, and so the 20 percent plus price pop we've seen in the last 24 hours is not surprising." Bitcoin has recovered from a roughly 8-week low of $1,863 on Sunday to around $2329 today, according to Coindesk data.

What's the problem with bitcoin?

For some time, bitcoin has faced a scaling issue, where the number of transactions that can happen on the blockchain at any one time is limited to 1 megabyte (1MB) every 10 minutes. This creates a backlog of transactions that need to be processed and slows things down. The bitcoin community has been divided on the best way of solving this. One solution is a system called Segregated Witness (SegWit) which would increase the speed of transactions, but it required 95 percent support from miners and the community to be added to the blockchain and there has been resistance. Uncertainty over bitcoin's future has caused the price to decline in recent weeks. Bitcoin fell about 12 percent on Sunday morning, due to these concerns. However, bitcoin miners are being forced to respond to the issue.

What's the solution?

Several members of the community have rallied around a solution called BIP 148. This would involve a "user-activated soft fork", where bitcoin users would force the blockchain to split by rejecting any block of bitcoins that did not signal support for SegWit. BIP 148 was due to come into force on August 1 and if the majority of developers didn't agree on the proposal, the blockchain could split. "Since a large faction of miners would continue to mine Bitcoin with non-segwit blocks in the case of the BIP148, then two Bitcoins would exist. One in which SegWit is active and one in which it is not," explained Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC via email. "This can have disastrous results for one of the chains or even both. This may be one of the main factors behind the explosive support behind BIP91."

Can bitcoin avoid a fork?

To avoid this, miners are throwing support behind BIP 91, which would introduce SegWit2X to the blockchain. BIP 91 only requires 80 percent support, rather than 95 percent, to be locked in and would introduce the Segregated Witness system. "BIP 91 has a lower threshold to get adopted which made its implementation more realistic and less risky. Adopting the BIP 91 also decreases the probability of a fork, something many people like," Bram de Haas, managing editor of The Black Swan Portfolio, told CNBC via email on Tuesday. "Bitcoin will avoid a fork for now but it is not necessarily terrible if it does not." Haas now expects bitcoin prices to rebound faster and faster. Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.

WATCH: How practical is it to live on bitcoin in 2017? We tried it for a week
Carbon pricing  a system whereby companies and governments put a price on their carbon emissions with the broad goal of tackling the effects of climate change  is not dead in the water, according to the CEO of food supplement firm Royal DSM.

"I would even say the opposite," Feike Sijbesma told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that China was set to introduce a price on carbon nationwide at the end of 2017.

"More than 5,000 companies in China will fall under the carbon pricing regime by the year end," he said.

According to the World Bank, there are two main ways of pricing carbon. This can be done using emission trading systems (ETS) which cap the level of carbon emissions and allow low-emitters to sell their additional allowances to higher emitters. Alternatively, a carbon tax can be used.

Sijbesma explained that Canada, Sweden and California had all introduced a price on carbon, while Mexico was considering one.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) shake hands ahead of their talks at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on March 21, 2017 in Beijing, China. Etienne Oliveau | Pool | Getty Images

China's investors and markets are becoming increasingly important to Israel's economy, and in particular to its booming high-tech industry. The first IPO (initial public offering) of an Israeli high-tech company on a Chinese stock exchange, Hong Kong, is expected within the year and Chinese investments in Israeli high-tech venture capital approached $1 billion in 2016, industry experts say. "The Chinese stock exchange market will become another very viable option for Israeli companies looking for public funding," if the first IPO goes off successfully, Eli Tidhar of Deloitte Israel, told CNBC. Tidhar heads what Deloitte calls its "Israel-China corridor". Israel has laid out the welcoming mat to Chinese companies and investors who may face more troublesome regulations and scrutiny elsewhere.



Hardly a day goes by without another Israel-China initiative being announced, whether it's a new Israeli tech incubator in China, new investments, joint ventures, trade conferences or delegations. In May this year, another audit firm PwC led a delegation of Israeli companies to Hong Kong to explore the possibilities of listing on the stock exchange. Deloitte's Tidhar says that a sea change is taking place among Israeli companies looking for funding. Israeli high-tech VC (venture capital) companies raised $500 million from Chinese investors in 2014 and $700 million in 2015 and the amount keeps growing, according to Tidhar.



"In the past, Israel used to look mostly at the U.S. and Europe as our source for investment, especially in high tech," he said. But now, "It becomes less and less awkward that a company that would like to raise money would pursue this investment from China."



This view is echoed Dorian Barak, who heads the Israeli arm of Kuang Chi, one of the few Chinese conglomerates that has so far actually set up a permanent local representation. Israel's venture capital landscape and its exits were until now largely a matter of Western money, Barak said. But that's about to change.

"The rise of China and China's adoption of an outward looking policy of investments and cooperation has the opportunity to have as much of an impact on the local economy as did the massive capital influx from chiefly the United States in the (1990s) and the first decade of the 21st century," Barak said in a telephone interview.



Kuang Chi last year set up a $300 million fund, particularly for smart city investments in Israel. It has so far, among other companies, invested in machine vision company eyesight Technologies.



Large chunks of Israel's infrastructure projects, including ports, railway lines and tunnels, are being carried out by Chinese companies these days. And some flagship Israeli companies have been acquired by Chinese conglomerates, such as ChemChina's acquisition of Adama and Bright Food's takeover of Tnuva. Reuters earlier this year reported that in 2016 total Chinese investments in Israel jumped to $16.5 billion.

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But in the high-tech sector, this has not yet translated to the same massive presence of Chinese conglomerates that Western companies have in Israel, whether in R&D (research and development) centers, production or representative offices. Kuang Chi's Barak said that Chinese companies are very slowly coming to the realization that there's an added value to a local presence. He's getting constant inquiries from Chinese local government and private investors.



"When you see Chinese names on the sides of buildings in Herzliya Pituah (near Tel Aviv) as you currently see American names, you'll know the Chinese investors have really arrived and the Chinese strategics have arrived en masse. There's a long way to go," said Barak.



But it's getting there, is the consensus. One company that has seen Chinese investment is intelligent search company Twiggle. It's received backing from the likes of e-commerce giant Alibaba and MizMaa - a fund specializing in Chinese investments in Israeli high-tech.



CEO and co-founder Amir Konigsberg, said that for Twiggle, as for many other Israeli companies, the ties with China are not merely about getting finance. Help with market access is of much greater importance. "Not disregarding the growth in other markets, such as the U.S. and Europe, in terms of e-commerce China and Asia are very dominant markets," he said.

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Trouble may be brewing for Amazon's cloud computing business.



Deutsche Bank told investors the market may get surprised by weaker than expected Amazon Web Services (AWS) growth in the second quarter.



Analysts are almost universally bullish on Amazon with 86 percent of Wall Street firms rating the internet company at buy or overweight, according to FactSet. The internet firm's shares are up 35 percent this year through Monday compared to the 10 percent return.



"We trim our AWS estimates and see near-term risk to investor sentiment around AMZN given slightly more cautious checks around cloud migration," analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote in a note to clients Monday. "We have not heard much in the way of investor concern around AWS revenue deceleration this quarter (unlike last quarter)."



The analyst lowered his price target for Amazon to $1,135 from $1,150, representing 12 percent upside from Monday's close. He reiterated his buy rating on the shares.



Walmsley cited conversations with AWS partners at recent industry conferences which revealed cloud computing migrations are "a little bit slower than expected." As a result, he lowered his second quarter AWS revenue growth forecast to 39 percent from 40 percent versus the Wall Street consensus of 41 percent.



"Our 'end state' view remains bullish on AWS/cloud centric computing, and we remain steadfastly upbeat on the long term retail opportunity in NA [North America] and int'l," he wrote. "We would use any pullback around AWS growth rate shortfalls to add to long term positions."



Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



The company is slated to report earnings results on July 27.
Discovery Communications and Scripps Network Interactive are in talks to combine, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing sources.

The two media companies had previously explored the possibility of a merger but called off talks in 2014. Reuters reported Viacom has also held discussions to buy Scripps.

Discovery airs its namesake channel, as well as others such as TLC and Animal Planet. The network has a roughly $15 billion market value, the WSJ said.

Scripps is home to HGTV and Food Network, among others. Its market value is $8.8 billion, according to the WSJ.

Terms of a potential deal couldn't be learned, the newspaper added.

Discovery and Scripps declined to comment.

Read the full report at The Wall Street Journal.
McConnell now says he will bring up a repeal only bill which would be set to take effect in two years. Trump is also calling for repealing and then replacing later.



That was Plan A in January and that idea was dismissed because it would just cause more market calamity without a known replacement. I can't see many Republicans going for that.



And a repeal only strategy begs a question: How are you going to replace Obamacare in two years when you failed so miserably this time?



Trump apparently also believes in the foolish notion that if Obamacare implodes on his watch Democrats will be desperate to bail him out. I don't know of any Republican Senators who believe that.



Trump has also previously threatened to kill the low-income cost sharing subsidies if a replacement bill was not passed. These subsidies are worth about $8 million a month for every 100,000 low-income participants an insurance company has on the books. I wouldn't put it past him.



The Democrats, and some Republican moderates, will now call for a bipartisan effort and we might even begin to see some meetings between those Senators. But the fact is that there is no common ground that could garner more than a handful of Republicans willing to save Obamacare. Such an effort would almost certainly now take 60 votes and would require the cooperation of the Republican leadership in both houses willing to let some of their caucus give the Democrats an enormous victory.



As the individual market continues to spiral out of control could we get some sort of short-termmaybe a year or twopatch? Perhaps. But that would even be a long shot and if that happened it would likely come as part of a must pass bill that had Senate and House Republican leadership permission to proceed. And, if that happened it would really anger both conservative Senators and Representatives, as well as the base. Any Republican Senator or House member that cooperated with Democrats to prop up Obamacare would likely get primaried at their next election. It is also hard to see how either Leader McConnell or Speaker Ryan could survive such an effort.



Or, Republicans could just let things in the individual health insurance market get worse and take that to the 2018 elections!



I have always believed that the market imperative to act is what would finally force Republicans to figure this out.



That said, there is no clear path out of this just as the individual markets continue to spiral downward partly because of the inherent issues in Obamacare's market architecture and partly because of Republican efforts to make things even worse.



The only wisdom I can give you comes from Laurel and Hardy: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."



And, from this moment forward it is a Republican mess.



This commentary originally appeared on Robert Laszewski's Health Care Reform Blog.

Robert Laszewski, the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, has 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, serving as a chief operating officer for nine of those years, before beginning his Washington, D.C. policy- and market-consulting business.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.


A judge has ordered Google to hand over employee records to federal investigators probing the alleged gender pay gap at the Internet giant.

Google must provide the Labor Department with contact data for up to 8,000 employees to investigate whether the Silicon Valley company shortchanges women doing similar work to men, according to Friday's provisional ruling by Steven Berlin, an administrative law judge in San Francisco.

Berlin also denied part of the government's request for records, agreeing with Google that the demand for contact information for more than 25,000 was too broad and could violate the privacy of employees. He also called it "insufficiently focused."

In an interview, Labor Department regional solicitor Janet Herold said she's pleased the judge ordered Google to produce most of the kinds of records that the Labor Department has been fighting to access. Her office is trying to show there's a systemic wage gap at Google.

"We want to make it clear men and women of Google that we want to hear from them," she said. "That's our focus now."

Google has denied it pays women unequally.

In a blog post published Sunday, Eileen Naughton, Google's vice president of people operations, wrote that over the past year, Google had provided more than 329,000 documents and more than 1.7 million data points, including detailed compensation information, but "reached an impasse" when the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs wanted deeper personnel data.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch just laid out a bullish case for Netflix, saying it could rise to $300 a share.

In a note to investors on Tuesday, BofAML reiterated a buy rating on Netflix and raised its price objective to $199 from $184.

Shares were trading 9.3 percent higher to $176 in Tuesday's premarket. A move to $300 would represent a 70.5 percent gain from the premarket price.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch's note was the most bullish on Netflix on Tuesday. On Monday, the streaming video company announced that 5.2 million subscribers had been added in the second quarter, 2 million more than analysts forecasted.

To hit the $300 per share mark, Netflix would need to post faster pricing growth of 7 percent per year versus its current models for 5 percent, while also rapidly increasing subscribers to 250 million internationally, the bank said.

"Pricing is a big driver as sub gains take more time to achieve offsetting valuation gains, but price changes are immediate rev. and margin lift," Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Nat Schindler said in the note.

"We note that NFLX stated it expects "mid-single digit ARPU growth for the foreseeable future" and recently increased prices in Australia. We think further price increases in international markets could represent upside to our model and support our bull case scenario."

The note follows Netflix's Q2 earnings, which hit after the bell on Monday.

Revenue came in at $2.79 billion versus $2.76 billion expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate. Netflix predicts revenue of $2.97 billion in the third quarter vs. $2.87 billion expected by Wall Street. Earnings per share in the second quarter were 15 cents, a penny short of expectations.
For all the hype in the digital currency world about so-called initial coin offerings, U.S. investors often can't officially participate.

The reason, several analysts told CNBC, is companies' fear of being held accountable by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in case buyers lose money in what can be a frenetic rush for something with unproven dollar value and sometimes prone to fraud.

"Everyone's afraid of the SEC. They can reach anyone in the world," said William Mougayar, author of "The Business Blockchain" and organizer of the Token Summit, a conference in New York this May about the digital coin business.

Not letting U.S. residents participate is a way for firms "to protect themselves because the SEC won't go after the customers, they'll go after the companies," Mougayar said.

The SEC declined to comment.

Before buying one of these new digital coins  based on the same blockchain technology as  an investor typically must check a box that says he or she is not a U.S. citizen or green card holder. The coin sale websites also usually block U.S.-based computers based on their IP address.

Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year, while the market value of all digital currencies has more than quadrupled this year, hovering around $80 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Screenshots of webpages for DAO.Casino (left) and EOS token sales

Source: DAO.Casino, EOS

An initial coin offering is a way for blockchain-based projects to raise funds, while allowing investors to own part of it through a digital network token. However, since most of the projects are still in very early stages, some worry about the rapid speed at which some projects are raising large amounts of money. About half of this year's roughly $1.2 billion in initial coin offerings was raised in the last month alone, according to a July report from financial research firm Autonomous NEXT.

Last Thursday, the Tezos blockchain project set a record for the coin sales by raising the equivalent of more than $200 million over the 13 days of its fundraiser. Switzerland-based Tezos said it did not specifically exclude investors from any country from participating.

U.S. residents holding bitcoin or ethereum could buy the Tezos tokens. But they couldn't participate in the fundraiser through its broker, Bitcoin Suisse.

"Due to the uncertainty with regard to crypto-assets and crypto-financial services from U.S. authorities, the IRS, and the FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] treaty, we are at this time unable to offer our services to U.S. clients," Bitcoin Suisse CEO Niklas Nikolajsen told CNBC in an emailed statement.

The challenge for token sale regulation comes down to uncertainty over how the definition of a security applies to the digital coins. Right now, the SEC's definition relies on the "Howey test," which came out of a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case. The ruling says a security involves the investment of money in a common enterprise, in which the investor expects profits primarily from others' efforts.

Part of the debate is whether coin buyers are merely buying the tokens like a stock, in expectation they will rise in value, or are actually holding the tokens as a way to participate in a blockchain project. If the token is considered to be more like a stock, then the sellers need to be registered with the SEC. Otherwise the sale may be illegal.

"The lack of clarity is certainly a problem, certainly for any institutional investors to get used to this space," said Ryan Schoen, senior financial services policy analyst at research firm Washington Analysis. "This is similar to the '90s when the internet came into existence."

The SEC has not been completely silent on cryptocurrencies. The regulator issued in 2014 an "investor alert" about bitcoin that said "using Bitcoin may limit your recovery in the event of fraud or theft."

The SEC is also clearly watching the token sales. Although not an official view, Valerie Szczepanik, head of the SEC's distributed ledger group, said at a bitcoin conference in May that companies creating and issuing tokens to raise funds are responsible for protecting their investors, according to a Reuters report.

"It is harder if you are a U.S. entity to do an ICO, but it's not impossible," said Jim Yang, chief strategy officer at Tendermint, which is developing some major components behind a blockchain project called Cosmos to address problems in bitcoin and ethereum. "The U.S. is very highly regulated," Yang said, noting some of the issues can be mitigated by not naming a fundraiser an ICO.

He said his firm worked closely with a lawyer in Cosmos' own fundraiser of $17 million in early April so that all U.S. residents, except those from two states, could participate. "We just want to be on the super safe side, that we follow all the possible ways a law can twist," Yang said.

Not all initial coin offerings have gone smoothly, and digital currency enthusiasts are also interested to see how well the blockchain projects are able to execute on their business proposals.

On Monday, the CoinDash initial coin offering lost $7 million to hackers. The digital currency trading platform said it will still give coins to investors who sent funds to the fraudulent account before the website was shut down.

A rush of buyers for other coin offerings this year also clogged the network of digital currency ethereum, causing volatility for the currency, which itself has run up exponentially this year.

"It's the responsibility of the participants to check if it's legal" to invest in the token sale, Johann Gevers, founder and president of the Tezos Foundation, said. He noted that young blockchain projects like Tezos typically can't afford to spend "millions and millions" for legal research into every country and, in the case of the U.S., every state.

To be sure, keeping U.S. investors out of token sales doesn't guarantee safety for a company, said Marco Santori, who leads the fintech practice at law firm Cooley. He's advised many initial coin offerings, although he said he can't speak to specific ones.

"Every other country in the world has some kind of securities law," Santori said, "so just because you're trying to avoid the U.S. securities law it doesn't mean you [avoid] the rest of the world's securities law."

Some developers are also tapping alternative fundraising methods.

"We think ICOs will go away. We think the SEC will come down on this," said Marshall Hayner, co-founder of Metal Pay, a blockchain-based app similar to Venmo.

Rather than opening the initial coin offering to the public, Hayner said his firm did a $3 million round of token sales that was limited to "accredited" investors, or those with a personal relationship with the firm. "There will be more tokens that are certainly trying to go accredited only," he said.
The House Budget Committee on Tuesday unveiled a spending proposal that would boost defense funding but dramatically reshape social welfare programs such as Medicare and food stamps.

The fiscal 2018 budget  which the committee said would result in a $9 billion surplus after a decade  reflected compromise between defense hawks and fiscal conservatives, but risked alienating moderate Republicans loathe to embark on the politically perilous process of reforming popular entitlement programs.

In fact, the budget ran into its first roadblock even before it was officially released Tuesday. The proposal assumes $204 billion in deficit reduction over a decade from the passage of the House bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. But the bill appeared to die in the Senate on Monday evening after Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas came out against it.

The collapse of the health-care bill could place even more pressure on GOP lawmakers to pass a budget  not just to keep the government running, but also because Republicans plan to use the process to push through what is arguably their top agenda item: tax reform.

"The budget resolution is no longer a theoretical outline with little chance of implementation," Budget Committee Chairwoman Diane Black said. "It is the major governing document of the 115th Congress, and it is the concrete fulfillment of our promise to the American people."

The proposal calls for $621 billion in defense spending in fiscal 2018, including money for President Donald Trump's signature border wall. That is more than the White House had requested, but it is still below the $668 billion that the conservative Republican Study Committee would like. The budget also outlines $203 billion in spending reductions to social safety net programs  an amount that GOP Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, head of the moderate Tuesday Group, has signaled is too steep.

The House proposal mirrors the White House budget in imposing new work requirements for programs like food stamps. But it goes beyond the administration's blueprint by also outlining changes to Medicare  one of the programs that Trump vowed on the campaign trail not to touch. Among the reforms detailed in the budget are limiting Medicare benefits for wealthy seniors and allowing more private insurers to compete for coverage.

Although the House budget does not address Social Security retirement, it does call for changes to the disability insurance program, such as barring recipients from also collecting unemployment benefits.

"Mandatory spending must be addressed in this budget resolution and in budget resolutions to come," the document says.

The study committee plans to propose additional cuts to mandatory spending programs later this week. The group supports a bill introduced last year by Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas that would raise the age of eligibility for Social Security. Study Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina said his group plans to support the House budget but hoped that its proposals would become a blueprint for the future.

"Are we on a sustainable path?" he asked. "The truth is that overwhelmingly, both Republicans and Democrats would answer the same way. No we are not."

The House estimated that, if implemented, its budget would boost economic growth to an average of 2.6 percent annually over the next decade  short of the Trump administration's often-criticized goal of 3 percent. Still, officials in both cases point to tax reform as the key to jump starting growth.

The budget proposal provides some broad guidance for how lawmakers should proceed, but substantial divisions remain within the GOP  even over the framework.

The budget directs tax cuts to be deficit neutral, meaning that they could be offset by higher revenue elsewhere or spending reductions. House GOP leadership has previously said tax reform should be paid for only through higher revenues. Some conservative groups, such as the House Freedom Caucus, have argued that tax cuts should not have to be offset at all because they will spur economic growth.

"This budget cannot dictate to the [tax-writing] Ways and Means Committee how tax reform should be done," the document states.

The proposal also supports shifting the tax code to a "territorial" system, in which the individuals and businesses would only have to pay taxes on income earned in America. The United States is one of the only developed nations that taxes income earned in other countries as well.

One topic the budget does not appear to address is the federal borrowing limit. Lawmakers will have to vote to raise the debt ceiling by late summer or early fall or risk an unprecedented default. Some Republicans have called for the measure to be combined with vote over the budget. However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a "clean" bill to lift the cap with no strings attached.

The House budget committee will mark up its proposal on Wednesday.
You might never of heard of Danish politician and current European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager. But you will have heard about some of her work. Vestager has taken on some of the biggest companies in the world, Amazon, McDonald's, and Apple to name a few. But it's the European Union commissioner's most recent case that has caught the world's attention. The commission's seven-year long probe into Google's abuse of the search engine market finally came to an end last month. The investigation resulted in Google being slapped with the largest EU antitrust penalty on record, $2.7 billion. The commission found that Google denied "consumers a genuine choice" when it illegally prioritised its own shopping service in its search results, while purposely relegating its rivals.

The new Google logo is displayed at the Google headquarters on September 2, 2015 in Mountain View, California. Getty Images

In taking on tech titans like Google and Facebook, Vestager has had to make some pretty huge decisions and conclusions in her career. Talking to CNBC in an episode of Life Hacks Live, Vestager shared her wisdom on how she builds such complex cases and comes to groundbreaking decisions. "You have to deal with the facts of the case. What are we dealing with here? So it's not based on gut feeling or the weather or if it's a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday, you can't do that." "You need to have the advice from experienced people coming from different kinds of educational and backgrounds in general, and then you can make a decision," said Vestager. "But you need people around you that you trust to give you advice, and you need to make sure that the facts of the case are presented."
Vehicles used for suicide car bombings, made by Islamic State militants, are seen at Federal Police headquarters after being confiscated in Mosul, Iraq.

Iraqi police displayed an anti-aircraft gun and 23 vehicles that had been turned into car bombs, all captured from Islamic State militants during the battle for the city of Mosul.

The vehicles shown to the media were mostly civilian cars, covered in thick metal armor, with small glass ports for a driver to see through, and had been equipped with bombs.

They appear similar to vehicles used in apparent suicide attacks shown in Islamic State propaganda.

Many had been painted in camouflage or blue, the color of Iraqi Federal Police vehicles, in a bid to fool surveillance aircraft into mistaking them for Iraqi forces' vehicles.

"Heroes of the Emergency Rapid Division and the Federal Police seized these cars in successful night raids," Iraqi Federal Police captain Bassam Hillo Kadhim said.

Most eye-catching among the vehicles was a tank turret, complete with its gun, mounted on the back of a large truck, which police officials said had been designed to target military aircraft and ground troops from a distance.

Iraqi forces plan to destroy the vehicles.

_ Reporting and photos by Reuters.
As US beef exports to China resume, Nebraska, the No 1 exporter of beef and beef products in the US, is optimistic that its biggest crop exportcornalso will benefit.

The state suffered a huge blow in 2014 when China banned genetically modified corn from the United States. Before that, the state was shipping millions of metric tons of corn to the country, but that dropped to between 150,000 and 200,000 tons last year.

About 95 percent to 97 percent of corn produced in Nebraska is genetically modified, but most of it consists of varieties that are now approved in China and other markets, said Kelly Brunkhorst, executive director at the Nebraska Corn Board.

"When we talk about corn, we look at corn in all forms. It may be raw product corn or it may be the value-added beef industry," Brunkhorst said.

"Nebraska's blessed with being the No 1 cattle-on-feed state, and having that strong beef industry" is a "fantastic opportunity to move corn as a value-added product into China, along with building upon what that means for corn in raw form," he said.

The first shipment of US beef to China left Omaha, Nebraska, on June 14, on a flight to customers in Shanghai. More than 6 million cattle in Nebraska feed on corn and corn byproducts. Cattle feed is composed of roughage, raw corn, corn sweetener byproduct, and ethanol byproduct, also known as distillers grains.

Corn and beef work in tandem with each other, said Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts.

"One of the benefits we have here is what we call a 'golden triangle' between the corn that we produce, our ethanol plantswhich create fuel, and in fact Nebraska supplies about 1.5 percent of the overall liquid fuel supply for the United Statesand a byproduct of that ethanol process, the distillers grains that then go into feeding our cattle," he told China Daily in an interview.

"That's a great synergistic way we leverage our corn and add value to our commodities we produce here, to help create the best products in the world," he said.
"State legal cannabis is now a $6 billion industry that employs 150,000 people and is on track to create more jobs than the manufacturing sector by 2020."

Mr. Sessions' stance is not just troubling, it is dangerous. It runs contrary to good policy and the facts.

Between 1970 and 2008, the U.S. incarceration rate rose fivefold. Relative to our population, we lock up seven times as many people as France, 11 times as many as the Netherlands and 15 times as many as Japan. Marijuana possession has accounted for a significant portion of those arrests.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, between 2001 and 2010 there were 8.2 million marijuana related arrests in the county, nearly 90 percent of them were for possession. African Americans were nearly four times as likely to be arrested for possession than whites.

Since California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana two decades ago, 28 others and the District of Columbia have followed suit. Eight states have also legalized adult use. We now have a track record of legal, regulated marijuana in more than half of the country, and clear evidence that it is a better approach than a blanket prohibition and harsh prison sentences for those who use it or participate in its commerce.

A 2014 study from the University of Texas, Dallas using FBI's crime data showed no rise in crime rates resulting from medical marijuana legalization, and even some evidence of decreasing rates of homicide and assault.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, Denver saw a 2.2 percent drop in violent crime rates in the year after the first legal recreational cannabis sales in Colorado, and overall property crime dropped by 8.9 percent in the same period while Washington, which legalized recreational use in 2012, saw violent crime rates drop by 10 percent from 2011 to 2014.

The history of the War on Drugs is also a history of the economic and social disparities in our country. Black and brown men are disproportionally incarcerated under our current drug laws, and because mass incarceration breaks up families and severely limits ex-convicts' employment and business opportunities, the War on Drugs has dramatically increased the poverty rate in minority communities.

It is a vicious cycle of prison and poverty that continues to trap millions of Americans. By one estimate, if California emptied its prisons today and sent every incarcerated person to a university it would save the state almost $7 billion a year.

It is not surprising then that prison guard unions and the private prison industry are two of the strongest opponents of marijuana legalization, along with pharmaceutical companies that see cannabis as a threat to their monopoly on prescription painkillers and other high priced treatments.

To be sure, the War on Drugs is a much bigger and more complex issue than marijuana legalization alone, but it is a good place to start. State legal cannabis is now a $6 billion industry that employs 150,000 people and is on track to create more jobs than the manufacturing sector by 2020.

It has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue; California alone is forecasting $1 billion annually. Two decades of state legal marijuana also has shaped public opinion, with record numbers of Americans now supporting legalization. A recent poll from Quinnipiac University shows 94 percent of U.S. voters support medical marijuana programs, and 60 percent favor full legalization.

In today's divided politics, few issues command such unanimous support. Medical marijuana is legal both in red and blue states. The first ever Congressional Cannabis Caucus, announced earlier this year, is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans. And in the cannabis industry social justice and business interests are often aligned, with advocates and entrepreneurs standing shoulder to shoulder against reactionary policies such as the ones proposed by Mr. Sessions.

If he has his way on marijuana, Mr. Sessions threatens to turn back the clock on two decades of painstakingly gained progress, bringing us back to the days of overflowing prisons, disenfranchised communities and a $50 billion black market for cannabis run by drug cartels. We must not allow that to happen.

Commentary by Gina Belafonte, an actress and social justice advocate, Chris Leavy, a former Wall Street executive and current co-chairman of MedMen, a cannabis management and investment firm based in Los Angeles and Lindy Snider, an entrepreneur and philanthropist based in Philadelphia.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.


Kohl's CEO Kevin Mansell told CNBC on Tuesday the retailer plans to aggressively steal traffic from struggling competitors.

"Department stores are not all equal," Mansell said on "Squawk on the Street," as he explained that its fleet of stores is its greatest strength.

The comment comes as many rival department stores shutter locations and Amazon continues to grow and divert sales from brick-and-mortar stores to online. But Kohl's isn't following suit. The department store has 500 more locations than Macy's , and it's leaning into those 1,200 stores.

"We are not a mall store, we are an off-mall store. So, 95 percent of our stores are not in traditional malls," Mansell said. "As we move to an omnichannel world  and we're there  we are looking to be one of the best-in-class omnichannel retailers."

Beginning with the back-to-school shopping season, Kohl's is hoping to pick up customers who used to shop at stores that have closed.

"Our objective is to get more than our fair share," he said. "We're pretty optimistic on that."

Kohl's hasn't been forced to close many of its own stores since most are "not stressed from a cash perspective," Mansell said.

He also touted the company's balance sheet, which has given it the flexibility to act on new initiatives and invest in technology. Over the last three years, Kohl's has invested $2 billion in technology and $1 billion in its stores.



"Most of our competitors have not been able to do that because they're cash constrained, they have a weaker balance sheet, heavy debt load, often," he said.

Still, the department store's share price has been trading in a relatively narrow range in 2017, but only after dropping around 19 percent in response to Kohl's holiday sales results the first week of January.

According to Mansell, the stock has been "beaten down because we're part of this generalized brick-and-mortar department store retailing."

Despite the investment Kohl's has made, its comparable sales have fallen for five straight quarters. Women's apparel and accessories make up around 40 percent of the total merchandise mix, but the retailer has seen sales of those categories struggle.

Like other department stores, private and proprietary labels are an important part of Kohl's business. Sonoma, Croft & Barrow and Apt 9 are each billion-dollar private-label brands, available only at Kohl's. The brands are especially important in women's apparel, a category that has been struggling.

Analysts say improving its women's business is key to turning around Kohl's overall sales trends.

Mansell said the company is seeing improvement in the category as its attempts to source apparel more quickly is paying off. Since most of its apparel is private-label, it is able to quickly respond to trends it's seeing at its stores.

"I think you are going to see improved metrics in women's, no question about that," he said.

Improving apparel sales is a big task. Government data shows apparel spending has fallen over time as spending has been diverted to other areas. Meanwhile, consumers are also flooded with more choices, competitive prices and new distribution options from fast fashion to online-only brands to department stores and more.

More than half of Kohl's merchandise is national brands, or brands sold by multiple retailers and websites or from the brand direct to consumers. Under Armour launched in stores and online in March, Kohl's biggest-ever brand launch. Mansell said the beginning weeks "exceeded expectations" without cannibalizing sales of competing Nike products, which saw a high-digit sales increase in the quarter.

"We put a stake in the ground some time ago to be a leader in active and wellness and Under Armour is certainly underpinning that effort," Mansell said. "In the first quarter alone, it accelerated to a double-digit increase. I expect that's going to continue throughout the course of the year."

But the competition from Amazon will only get more intense. New estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners put Amazon's U.S. Prime members at 85 million, and the online juggernaut has apparel squarely in its sights. Amazon has been expanding its own brands and recently announced a new Prime Wardrobe program that will ship members three or more clothing items or accessories and allow them to "try before they buy."

Kohl's says 80 percent of Americans live within 15 miles of a Kohl's store and it counts 70 million of the country as consumers, saying "almost all" shop in stores.

Mansell also has faith in its loyalty program, which it says has helped its performance.

"We have the best loyalty platform in the industry," he said. "Best in class."

While the physical locations are the cornerstone of the business with around 9 out of every 10 purchases happening in store, the fleet is a critical part of Kohl's digital offering as well.
Entrepreneurship has been good to Mark Zuckerberg. At 33 years old, the Facebook founder and CEO is worth north of $66 billion, according to Forbes.

Perhaps that's why he's on a mission help others become entrepreneurial.

During the most recent stop on his tour of all 50 U.S. states, at the Blackfeet Nation reservation in Browning, Montana, Zuckerberg used the community to illustrate how important comprehensive, smart social services are, as they help give people the support and freedom they need to thrive in business.

It's important to "set up these services well to give people the dignity and confidence to be entrepreneurial rather than making them feel helpless and dependent," says Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.

On the reservation, economic depression has resulted in an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse among the people of Blackfeet and a life expectancy 20 years less than the national average, Zuckerberg says. Corruption in the tribal courts hinders outsiders from opening businesses in the area.

"The result is a feeling of helplessness," he writes.

Social services could help change that on the reservation, and in the rest of the country, according to Zuckerberg.
With the failure of the Republicans' health-care bill, the market is wondering if the GOP can get tax reform done  but there could be a "win" still to come for politicians and Wall Street, expert Michael Farr told CNBC on Tuesday.

"There is a win-win here for portions of this tax reform deal for Republicans and Democrats agreeing both on the corporate tax and the repatriation," the president of Farr, Miller & Washington said in an interview with "Power Lunch."

"If they can get that done and we can see some progress, then I think markets stabilize and go higher. If not, then I think a tantrum is in the offing."

The Republican health-care plan collapsed on Monday night after leaders failed to get enough votes for passage. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wanted a vote on a straight repeal of Obamacare without a replacement in the "near future," but three members of the caucus have already said they would not support such a bill.

Farr said while it is too early to suggest a market reversal right now, investors should check their asset allocations.

"Because the equites are at all-time highs, then if you are above your allocation, yes, this is a very good time to come back and rebalance and make sure that you are not over-allocated to equities," he said.

"Caution is really important when the market is making new highs because when this music stops you want to make sure your clients have a seat."

WATCH: Mitch McConnell: We'll have a vote to repeal Obamacare in the near future
"As we speak, we are preparing new executive actions to save our coal industry and to save our wonderful coal miners from being put out of work," President Donald Trump declared at a March 20 rally in Louisville, Kentucky. "The miners are coming back." If true, they are coming back at the same time that solar energy and a new kind of mining  for raw ingredients used in the tech industry  are coming to coal country. Some state officials and researchers in Kentucky are betting that its future economy can be driven as much by solar panels and smartphones as strip mining.

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When Kiran Bhatraju, a native of Pikeville, Kentucky, and the CEO of renewable-energy company Arcadia Power, heard that a coal company would be converting an old strip mine into a solar farm, he expected huge backlash. But his community's reaction was the opposite. "The mayor, local politicians and people in coal country are ready and excited about new jobs in the renewables industry," Bhatraju said. "The entire community has been rallying behind the project because it will retrain and put miners back to work." Nick Comer, external affairs manager at the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, a member-owned utility service that provides electricity to more than 530,000 homes, said that while coal will always have a place in Kentucky's history and cultural standing, it's not a loyalty that supersedes economics.

A Kentucky mountaintop strip mine. George Steinmetz | Getty Images

"Ultimately, it comes down to how we can provide affordable, reliable power to our members," Comer said. "That's our mission." More from America's Top States for Business:

Appalachia joins race for multibillion-dollar petrochemicals boom

A state bidding war to build the next Tesla model

The economic death spiral otherwise known as West Virginia



At one point more than 90 percent of the electric power provided by EKPC was coal-fired. Last year that number was down to about 70 percent, and today the cooperative is in the process of installing a 33,000-panel solar field on its property. "What we're doing is recognizing customer demand," Comer said. "And not just residential customers but also businesses. When companies are considering areas to locate a plant or facility, they're looking for energy options that are cost-effective and sustainable." StateBook International, which provides a platform of local data to corporations making decisions on where to invest and expand, says that availability of sustainable power is a major factor for companies, and they pay close attention to which states produce enough capacity to reliably power their communities.

Workers install solar panels at East Kentucky Power Cooperatives 60-acre solar farm near Winchester, Kentucky. The farm will feature 32,300 panels capable of producing 8.5 megawatts of electricity. East Kentucky Power Cooperative

Berkeley Energy Group, the coal company that Bhatraju referenced, announced their plans to build the state's largest solar farm in April, claiming that it would generate jobs for displaced coal workers. That same month, the Kentucky Coal Museum  a physical, standing tribute to the state's coal heritage  had 80 solar panels installed on its roof as a cost-saving measure. The museum's owner expects to save between $8,000 and $10,000 a year. Trump was right about one thing: The coal industry is hurting. The state of Kentucky lost 24.2 percent of its coal jobs in 2016, according to a report by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, dropping the number of coal miners to its lowest total since 1898. Things seemed to be looking up when, just a week after the March rally, Trump signed an order that rolled back a series of Obama-era climate policies; that was followed by the president's June 1 announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. But even so, the claim that "the miners are coming back" is one that has raised eyebrows, not just among liberal environmentalists, but among Kentuckians who have grappled for years with the implications of a coal-powered future.

There's no denying that government regulations and emissions standards have played a role in the withering of the coal industry, which just three years ago accounted for more than 90 percent of Kentucky's electricity. But with production peaking about 30 years ago, coal was facing an uphill battle even before the Obama administration, said Dr. James Hower, a sedimentary geologist at the University of Kentucky. Hower named competition from China, the increasing affordability of natural gas due to fracking, and a decline in coal reserves as other contributors to the industry's decline. "A ton of coal you mine is a ton you'll never mine again," he said, referencing industry practices that lacked the foresight to remain sustainable. Hower also said many of Kentucky's coal plants, which were built in the 1950s and 60s, operated far beyond their scheduled lifespan of 20 years. When newer air regulations came along, it simply wasn't worth it for utilities to retrofit old, inefficient plants with the right technology. Eight out of Kentucky's 20 coal plants have been retired or converted to natural gas units since 2012.

Kentucky chases rare Chinese-mining monopoly

The coal community of Kentucky can be proud, and sometimes stubborn, but the state is adapting to the changing energy landscape at an unexpectedly high and innovative pace. Hower and his university colleagues, for example, have partnered with the Department of Energy in the research of "rare earth elements," a group of 17 metals that are vital in the production of smartphones, wind turbines, solar panels and dozens of other modern-day technologies. REEs, which include metals like scandium, yttrium and neodymium, are said to make up a $7 trillion global market, while supporting $500 billion to $600 billion in other industries. The United States imports 90 percent of its REEs from China, which holds a near monopoly over the market. This is despite the presence of 13 million metric tons of rare earth elements within the continental United States, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Hower said it's too soon to provide an estimate for REE resource potential in Kentucky, specifically. "REEs can make Kentucky a player," Hower said. "You're not going to displace the entire range of imports from China, but if you could make a dent in it, that can go a long way."

A coal mound stands at the Appalachian Electric Power coal-fired Big Sandy Power Plant in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in 2014. The plant shuttered its coal production last year and converted to natural gas. Getty Images

This isn't the first, or only, U.S. effort under way in the rare earth metals market, which can be volatile. Nevada-based Molycorp  which was the only rare earth metals producer in the United States at a time when China was threatening to withhold its supply from the rest of the world  received a lot of attention. However, it went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015, before reemerging last year as a private company called Neo Performance Materials. "Aside from the risks inherent in any mining venture, some of the problem with the former Molycorp product slate was that it was dominated by the more abundant, therefore less economically desirable, lighter rare earths. Coal actually contains a higher relative concentration of the heavy rare earths, many of which have a high strategic value," Hower said. But he added, "Whether those heavy rare earth elements can be extracted from coal and coal combustion products and whether the process can be economic is something that is still being demonstrated." Kentucky's renewable renaissance may seem like a series of one-offs, but the reality is that a number of energy-efficient initiatives are coming from the top down. Last October the state was selected by the National Governors Association to participate in the Policy Academy on Power Sector Modernization, along with Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington. The purpose of the initiative is to bring together stakeholders to discuss and work on energy issues, particularly with respect to generation and efficiency, said Rick Bender, executive adviser for Kentucky's Department of Energy Development and Independence.

It's important to look at everything on the energy efficiency side, even before looking at solar. It's our cheapest resource out there. Rick Bender executive adviser for the Department of Energy Development and Independence
Russia has threatened to take retaliatory measures against the United States after diplomatic talks collapsed over the seizure of two mansions.

U.S. and Russian officials met on Monday to reach an agreement over sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over alleged Russian hacking in the 2016 presidential campaign. However, the Russian foreign ministry said Tuesday that they didn't reach a deal with the U.S. administration and reserved the right to use "retaliatory measures."

"Russia stressed that if Washington does not address this and other concerns, including persistent efforts to hinder the operation of Russia's diplomatic missions, Russia has the right to take retaliatory measures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.S. ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic mansions and the expulsion of 35 individuals last December as a result of suspicion of meddling in U.S. elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Minsk on Monday, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, described the U.S. attitude as a "robbery in broad daylight."

"How is it possible to take away property formalized by a ratified inter-governmental document? And what kind of principle is it to say 'What's mine is mine, and we'll divide what's yours' while discussing its return? Decent and well brought up people don't behave this way," Lavrov told journalists.

President Donald Trump has said he doesn't want to remove sanctions against Russia, but has told the press that during his first face-to-face encounter with President Putin they discussed easing sanctions.
Sistema and its owner had for years assiduously steered clear of politics in Russia, hoping to avoid the kind of legal issues that often dog high-profile businesses here. But as it has grown into the country's largest privately owned conglomerate, it has found itself mired in a multi-billion-dollar legal battle.

The dispute between Sistema and Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, dates back to a 2014 nationalization, pitting two of the country's most important companies against each other. The latest twist in their back-and-forth came on Monday, as Sistema warned banks about problems it is having repaying $66 million worth of loans.

The conflict between the two companies is another worrying sign for the investment climate in Russia. As the overall economy stagnates amid sanctions and low oil prices, the environment has raised the specter of the country's elite fighting over a smaller pie, with businesses using courts and law enforcement that are widely seen as vulnerable to corruption to gain an advantage.

More from New York Times:

Health care overhaul collapses as two Republican senators defect

A new GOP battle begins as Republicans look to pass a budget

The right and left react to health care, Russia and more

Sistema and its principal owner, Vladimir P. Yevtushenkov, have stayed away from politics  in one case, the company smoothly navigated the ouster of a former mayor, even though many of its assets are in the city of Moscow, staying aloof from the political struggle. It now employs about 150,000 people, and it says its revenues are equivalent to about 1 percent of Russia's gross domestic product.

The conglomerate, which has assets ranging from farms to a cellphone operator, had hoped that by staying out of the political spotlight it could avoid legal entanglements. Executives seen as disloyal to the Kremlin have long been seen as targets, facing harassment and legal action. The onetime owner of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, for example, was arrested after financing opposition politicians. While Mr. Yevtushenkov was placed under house arrest during Bashneft's nationalization in 2014, because he had never dabbled in opposition politics, it was widely seen as a consequence of this business dispute.

"This conflict is causing a lot of harm to the investment attractiveness of Russia," Aleksander Y. Abramov, a professor at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, said in a telephone interview. "This case can create a precedent when any activity in the past can be contested, and property rights put in question, for any company."

The dispute traces its origins to Sistema's loss of its Bashneft oil subsidiary in the 2014 nationalization. Sistema had accumulated shares in Bashneft from regional elites, who had in turn acquired it years before from a regional government.

At the time of the nationalization, officials asserted that Russia's federal government had erred in the original transfer of Bashneft to the regional government in 1993, and voided all subsequent transactions. The state property agency then sold a controlling stake in Bashneft to Rosneft.
"It was nonsense. There was was virtually nothing in there that was true," Pierotti testified at Shkreli's securities fraud trial.

The letter also accused Pierotti of being a lazy employee who did a bad job managing investments.

"Your pathetic excuse of a husband needs to get a real job that does not depend on fraud to succeed... I hope to see you and your four children homeless and will do whatever I can to assure this," Shkreli wrote.

"Your husband had stolen $1.6 million from me and I will get it back. I will go to any length necessary to get it back," Shkreli wrote to the wife of his former employee Timothy Pierotti in a January 2013 letter that was read to jurors Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York, federal court.

A former Shkreli employee testified Tuesday that Shkreli told a series of lies and ultimately threatened the man's family in a desperate bid to get the man to sell him stock in a drug company Shkreli had founded.

Martin Shkreli huffed and puffed and made a big bad promise to do what he could to render a woman and her four kids "homeless"  but when push came to shove the "pharma bro's" company had to cut a big check to her husband.

Shkreli is charged with looting the drug company, Retrophin , of stock and cash to pay investors in his hedge funds, whom he also allegedly defrauded.

Pierotti had worked as a portfolio manager for one of Shkreli's hedge funds, MSMB Consumer, from 2011 through 2012.

In late 2012, Pierotti said, he was one of more than a half-dozen friends and associates of Shkreli who were offered the chance to buy 400,000 shares in a shell company. That company, Desert Gateway, was used as a vehicle for a reverse merger with Retrophin, the drug company that Shkreli founded, so that Retrophin's shares could become publicly traded.

Prosecutors claim that Shkreli and his lawyer and co-defendant, Evan Greebel, tried to secretly control, and in some cases did control the 2.4 million Desert Gateway shares that were sold to Shkreli's friends and associates as part of the two men's alleged securities fraud conspiracy.

Pierotti told jurors that he agreed to pay $400 for the shares in Desert Gateway from Troy Fearnow, a relative of that company's owner, Michael Fearnow. But Pierotti said that he only ended up receiving 350,000 shares in Desert Gateway, and was told that Shkreli was "holding back" the other 50,000 shares.

Pierotti testified that he never was an employee of Desert Gateway, or of Retrophin.

Shkreli at one point asked Pierotti to sell some of the shares that he had bought to Darren Blanton, a Texas-based investor, according to Pierotti, who declined the request.

Blanton has testified two weeks ago that he had to pester Shkreli for almost three years to get his $1.3 million investment in Shkreli's hedge fund redeemed.

Blanton said he only got $200,000 in cash, and the rest came in the form of stock in Retrophin.

During his testimony, Pierotti suggested, without going into detail, that his relationship with Shkreli turned sour in December 2012.

He said that when Shkreli emailed him and asked to meet with him in New Jersey, where Pierotti lived, Pierotti declined and told Shkreli he could communicate through a mutual friend.

Shkreli didn't take the brush off well.

In a subsequent email, Shkreli wrote Pierotti and said he would like to buy the Retrophin stock he held "for what you paid for it."

And in a later phone call, there was "a lot of screaming and yelling from Martin" demanding that Pierotti sell him the stock, Pierotti testified.

Then came the letter to Pierotti's wife, in which Shkreli, in addition to making scathing comments about Pierotti, offered to pay $40,000 for the Retrophin shares.

Pierotti said that Shkreli claimed that Pierotti had agreed to work for Retrophin as part of the offer to buy the Desert Gateway shares. He also claimed that Pierotti committed "classic" fraud by taking the shares and not doing the work, according to an email.
A stock trader at one of "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli's hedge funds testified Tuesday he did not see Shkreli "buying and selling stock" or doing other things hedge fund operators normally do.

"I didn't see him doing a whole lot," said the trader, Timothy Pierotti, at Shkreli's securities fraud trial in Brooklyn, New York, federal court.

"Normally at a hedge fund, you would see people managing their position, managing their risk, talking to brokers, buying and selling stock," said Pierotti, who had sat directly across from Shkreli's desk while working for him.

Alixandra Smith, a prosecutor, then asked, "And you did not see the defendant do any of these things?"

"No," replied Pierotti, 46, whose tenure working for Shkreli spanned from late summer of 2011 into late 2012.

Pierotti's testimony bolsters claims by prosecutors that Shkreli's funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, were operating with relatively little money with which to trade, despite Shkreli's boasts to investors of having up to $100 million under management. Pierotti said Shkreli talked about having $80 million or $100 million under management.

Pierotti is expected to testify later Tuesday about allegedly being threatened by Shkreli in 2013 after Pierotti refused to return 350,000 shares he had bought for just $400 in a shell company that did a reverse merger with a drug company, Retrophin , that Shkreli had founded.

Shkreli, 34, has pleaded not guilty to charges of looting Retrophin of stock and cash to repay investors he also is accused of defrauding at his hedge funds.

Pierotti was one of a group of more than a half-dozen friends and associates of Shkreli who received a total of about 2 million shares in a shell company that conducted a reverse merger with Retrophin in 2012 to help it become publicly traded.

Prosecutors alleged that Shkreli secretly controlled those shares, or expected to control those shares, but did not disclose such control as required to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When President Donald Trump pushed "Made in America" week starting on Monday, Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD might not have been top of mind.

But the Warren Buffett-backed company has its sights set on expanding in the U.S. market with its Lancaster, California, production facility set for completion next month, Stella Li, president of BYD Motors, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.

The facility, which employs around 700 people, will be able to annually produce 1,500 electric heavy-duty vehicles, such as municipal buses.

Li said BYD was also expanding into new product lines, such as electric refuse trucks and forklifts.

All in, BYD has already given better-known rival Tesla a run for its money: Tesla sold around 76,000 vehicles in 2016, while BYD clocked in more than 100,000 units in sales.

Li said that BYD's U.S. customer base wasn't just confined to green-focused California  the city of Denver is among its biggest customers.

"Our customer [base] is expanding into multiple [arenas] from public transit bus to the private one," she said, noting her company had orders from Facebook, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco.
Republicans' new push to repeal Obamacare without implementing an immediate replacement has already appeared to stall as three GOP senators said they would not vote for it to move forward, for now.

After the collapse Monday night of the latest GOP plan to replace Obamacare, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he aimed to pass a bill to repeal the law and then pass a replacement during a "stable two-year transition period." The GOP-controlled Congress voted to do so in 2015 knowing that then-President Barack Obama would veto the bill.

Within hours of when he started that push, members of his caucus said they could not back the repeal-first goal. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said they would not support a repeal bill without a replacement.

Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, and passing a plan under budget reconciliation rules requires 50 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is away from the Senate recovering from surgery, so losing two votes or more will stall a Republican plan, for now.

Still, McConnell insisted Tuesday that he wants to vote on a repeal-only bill in the "near future" amid what he described as a "very challenging experience."

"As of today we just simply do not have 50 senators who can agree on what ought to replace the existing law," McConnell told reporters after a Senate GOP lunch. "What we do have is a vote that many of us made two years ago at a time when the president of the United States would not sign the legislation that would repeal Obamacare and with a two-year delay give us an opportunity to build something better on a bipartisan basis. That's what I sense most of our members would like to vote on now and we'll be doing that in the near future."

The GOP's effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, a Republican campaign promise for most of the last decade, has stalled multiple times this year amid party divisions. The GOP chose to address the health-care overhaul before it took on tax reform, another key campaign plank, and every setback is seen as delaying the party's broader agenda.

President Donald Trump initially urged lawmakers to pass a repeal plan and then figure out a replacement later. After the plan stalled Tuesday, he told reporters that "we'll just let Obamacare fail."

"We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it," Trump said, deflecting blame to Democrats despite Republicans' failure to reach a consensus within the party.

Collins said Tuesday that she would oppose even a procedural motion to start debate on the proposal. Capito added that she would only support the motion to proceed if she is "confident there is a replacement plan that addresses [her] concerns."

Capito: MORE: I will only vote to proceed to repeal legislation if I am confident there is a replacement plan that addresses my concerns.

Collins told reporters Tuesday that she fears the effects of repealing Obamacare without a replacement.

"I voted against this approach in 2015, and I do not think that it is going to be constructive to repeal a law that at this point that is so interwoven within our health-care system and then hope that over the next two years we will come up with some kind of replacement."

Murkowski told NBC News that she is "not there" on a motion to proceed.

"I said in January that we should not repeal without a replacement and just an indefinite hold on this just creates more chaos and confusion," she told NBC.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate committee that oversees health care issues, said Tuesday that he will push to hold hearings on the best ways to stabilize the individual insurance market "however the vote comes out" on the health-care bill.

The Senate's Obamacare replacement plan that collapsed Monday night faced skepticism from both GOP conservatives who wanted a full repeal and moderates who largely feared its potential effects on coverage and costs. Four Republicans  Collins, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas  opposed the motion to proceed on that plan before McConnell shifted to pushing repeal without an immediate replacement.

While repeal-first appealed more to GOP conservatives such as Lee, moderates such as Collins, Capito and Murkowski have expressed concerns about it.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also expressed doubts Tuesday about a repeal without a replacement but did not say whether he would support the bill.

"If it is a bill that simply repeals, I believe it will add to more uncertainty," he told reporters.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer again urged Republicans to work with Democrats on passing a plan to stabilize insurance markets and lower costs. He contended that passing a repeal without a replacement "would be a disaster" and cause the health-care system to "implode."
President Donald Trump took a shot at Congress on Tuesday morning after the latest Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act collapsed amid party divisions.

"We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans," Trump tweeted. "Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!"

Trump: We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!

On Monday, two more Republican senators said they would oppose the GOP's health-care overhaul  enough to doom its passage barring changes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then called for a vote to repeal Obamacare without an immediate replacement.

In 2015, Congress passed the bill that McConnell wants to vote on now, but President Barack Obama vetoed it. It builds in a two-year transition period, and the GOP would likely look to pass a replacement in that time.

"I believe we must continue to push forward now," McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of Obamacare will not be successful. That doesn't mean we should give up."

The GOP, which controls 52 Senate seats, could only afford to lose two votes within its party amid united Democratic opposition to the plan.

Trump has lobbied for Congress to pass an Obamacare replacement that he can sign. But he has at times contradicted himself on what he wants and seemed disengaged from the policy specifics.

In a separate tweet Tuesday, Trump added, "as I have always said, let Obamacare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan."

Trump: As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!

Trump struck a different tune on what he wanted only hours earlier. In a Monday night tweet, he called on lawmakers to "REPEAL failing Obamacare now" then work on a new replacement plan.

Trump: Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he wanted to repeal Obamacare as soon as he took office.

Trump has previously floated letting Obamacare sputter to hurt Democrats, but said in the past that he decided against it.
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President Donald Trump's remarks conceding defeat on repealing and replacing Obamacare demonstrated why his first big effort failed in the first place. To begin with, the president remains only loosely attached to his own team. He referred to his Republican allies in Congress as "they," while casting himself passively as "sitting in the Oval Office ... pen in hand, waiting to sign something." "For seven years, I've been hearing 'repeal and replace' from Congress, and I've been hearing it loud and strong," Trump told reporters at a photo op. "And then when we finally get a chance to repeal and replace, they don't take advantage of it. So, that's disappointing." Second, Trump continued to display no understanding of health-care issues themselves. He again touted an alternative to Obamacare "with much lower premiums, much lower costs, much better protections." If such a plan existed, congressional Republicans would have figured it out over the last seven years and passed it this year. Trump's summary assessment  "something will happen, and it will be very good"  showed that he doesn't have one either.

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Third, his thinly staffed administration lacks an effective team to develop, push through Congress and implement a new system. As Trump dined at the White House to plot strategy with Senate leaders, he and his aides had no idea that GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas at that moment were sinking their plans. "I was very surprised when the two folks came out last night, because we thought they were in fairly good shape," the president said. A well-functioning White House staff would not have allowed him to be surprised. By stunning the world with his election victory over Hillary Clinton last November, Trump earned the right to claim a firmer grasp of the electoral landscape than his critics. But by any conventional standard, his comments on Tuesday about the path forward sounded disconnected from political reality. Trump faulted Democrats for obstructionism. "We have to get more Republicans elected" to succeed on the issue, he said calling it "impressive by any standard" that he had won over 48 of 52 Republicans. But since passage is the only legislative standard, 48 votes falls far short of impressive. Republican leaders had arranged a 2017 health-care process that did not require or anticipate Democratic support.

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"I think we're going to do very well, actually" in midterm elections, he added, predicting that reinforcements will come soon. But historical patterns, especially for a president with approval ratings as weak as Trump's, suggest a 2018 contest so tilted against him that Democrats might even recapture the House. "We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats will come to us," he concluded at another point, signaling a strategy that opposes bipartisanship. "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it." That may prove his most unrealistic assessment of all. Trump and his party already "own" what happens in Washington by virtue of controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue  as President Barack Obama and Democrats learned to their chagrin in 2010. Over the weekend, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that just 36 percent of Americans now approve of Trump's performance as president. "Not bad at this time," he responded via Twitter. In fact, 36 percent is historically bad for a new president in the modern era. And unless Trump and his team begin delivering results soon, there's every reason to expect it will get worse.

WATCH: Trump goes into August recess without legislation, says Kristol
The U.K. has fallen out of favor as an emigration destination for China's wealthy, according to a new report which pips Canada in front.

The U.S. remains the preferred destination for Chinese millionaires considering a move overseas, but for the first time Britain has fallen behind Canada, the 2017 study by China's Hurun Research and Visa Consulting Group has found.

The report gave no reason for the U.K.'s demise, but a weaker sterling appears to have done little to entice China's wealthy to relocate to the Britain while it transitions through Brexit negotiations and continues to tighten the tax landscape for overseas investors.

Concerns over the falling value of the Chinese yuan are, however, a driving factor in Chinese millionaires' decision to relocate, the report suggests.

More than four-fifths (84 percent) of recent or would-be wealthy Chinese immigrants now say the devaluation of the yuan is their key motivation for relocating away from China  up 50 percent from last year and well ahead of concerns over pollution and healthcare.

The Chinese yuan has seen a gradual devaluation over recent years, prompting accusations of currency manipulation from President Donald Trump.
British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the EU Council headquarters ahead of a European Council meeting on June 22, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has told ministers to show "strength and unity", and to keep details of their discussions private, after reports over the weekend suggested divides over Brexit.

One of those reports involved an unnamed minister allegedly accusing U.K. finance minister Philip Hammond of trying to "f--- up" the country's departure from the European Union.

"There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the cabinet table," Mrs May said on Tuesday, according to a government spokesperson.

May's government suffered a weakened majority in last month's election, and tensions have been heightened further over whether the country should remain in the EU single market or face a "hard Brexit" outside of it.
The best days for American retailers are ahead, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday at a summit hosted by the National Retail Federation.

"I promise you that," Pence told the crowd.

More than 200 retail representatives from across the country, including small-business retailers, national executives and state officials, attended the Retail Advocates Summit in Washington, D.C.

This year's convention focused on the importance of tax reform for retailers and their employees.

"As retail goes, so goes America," Pence said. "This president is going to work with this Congress, this year, and pass the largest tax cuts since the days of Ronald Reagan." The current tax code creates "huge barriers" to creating more retail jobs, he added.



"The internal revenue code is [currently] two times as long as the Bible, with no good news," he joked.

The GOP has promised to simplify the tax code, making the language "fairer" and "simpler."

On Tuesday, Pence took the opportunity to speak about Trump's latest efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. He opened the event by detailing Republicans' latest push in health care  probably not the conversation many retailers were expecting to have.

Lately, Republicans have been facing heated pressure from big businesses, including retailers, to move on from health-care legislation to passing some sort of tax reform.

Many executives have stressed the importance of securing a major reduction in the corporate tax rate, which currently stands at 35 percent. On Tuesday, Pence suggested to the retailers a cut to 15 percent.

Though both White House and Republican leaders have proposed steep cuts, analysts say divisions within the GOP and the stalemate on health care have diminished the prospect of aggressive action.

Retail executives in particular remain concerned about one of House Speaker Paul Ryan's proposals: a border adjustment tax, also referred to as BAT.

But Pence didn't mention BAT  a definite elephant in the room  during his Tuesday speech.

The consumer-facing industry has been leading the fight against the proposed measure, which would tax imports into the United States.

In May, for example, a group of retail CEOs met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to express frustration regarding the import tax, with many arguing this plan would cause companies to hike prices and pass the burden on to consumers. Present at the May meeting were executives from Coca-Cola , Dollar General and J.C. Penney .

The estate tax, however, did come under fire. "[U]nder President Trump we will repeal the death tax once and for all," Pence said, to a heavy round of applause. This is important to retailers because some closely held businesses are subject to the estate tax.

"Less regulation, lower taxes, better infrastructure," he said. The president wants retailers to be able to compete on a "level playing field" with companies all across the world, he said.

[We] "will put retailers back on the path to jobs and growth and back to competitiveness."

CNBC's Ylan Mui contributed to this report.

Read more details on Pence's Tuesday speech.
The Trump administration is taking aim at affirmative action programs it believes "discriminate against white applicants," reports The New York Times. But as one economist points out, the primary problem with college admissions isn't affirmative action at all. It's preferences given to the children of alumni, or what's known as the legacy program.

The legacy advantage is even more sizable than you might imagine. As the Chronicle of Higher Education reported back in 2011, based on research from Harvard, "legacy applicants got a 23.3-percentage-point increase in their probability of admission. If the applicants' connection was a parent who attended the college as an undergraduate, a 'primary legacy,' the increase was 45.1-percentage points."

Overall, according to the Chronicle, "if a non-legacy applicant faced a 15 percent chance of admission, an identical applicant who was a primary legacy would have a 60 percent chance of getting in."

As it is, upper-middle-class American children get every advantage, from high-quality school districts to safe, clean streets on which to play, says Richard V. Reeves, author of the new book "Dream Hoarders" and a senior fellow in Economic Studies and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institute.

They don't also need the boost given by legacy admissions to ensure that they get coveted seats at the country's most elite colleges.

"To operate a hereditary principle in college admissions," he tells CNBC Make It, is unfair. Especially for a country that fancies itself to be a meritocracy. To put it bluntly, he says, all the different ways upper-middle-class parents elbow competitors out of the way to get their kids into the best colleges amounts to "cheating."

"I think it's time we stopped, and maybe that means you need to stop," he says.

Reeves went to Oxford, but, he says, that "didn't help my son get into Oxford, and he didn't get in, and it would have been seen as preposterously unfair if it had. So we might have a hereditary monarchy, but, by the way, [the members of that monarchy] don't get to go to Oxford and Cambridge anymore either because they don't get good enough grades."

That kind of preference for legacy admissions in the U.K. "disappeared in the twentieth century," he says.

It is, however, still very much alive in the U.S. And that matters a great deal, because access to elite universities is one of the primary ways the upper-middle class and upper class pass on their advantages. Reeves writes in "Dream Hoarders" that, in America, "the children and grandchildren of wealthy people end up wealthy themselves, but largely by getting a better education than through direct inheritance: because of B.A.s rather than bequests."
Republican Senate leadership defended its intention to repeal Obamacare, after support for the proposal quickly eroded.

Late Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his party would aim to pass a repeal-only bill after the collapse of the latest GOP plan to replace Obamacare.

But that suggestion quickly lost support, as three Republican senators said Tuesday that they would not vote on that bill.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McConnell emphasized that his proposal is the same as the vote held to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2015. The Kentucky Republican said there will be a vote on repealing Obamacare in the "very near future," but that the GOP "simply" doesn't have the 50 senators it needs to replace the law right now.

"What we do have is a vote that many of us made two years ago at a time when the president of the United States would not sign the legislation that would repeal Obamacare and with a two-year delay gives us an opportunity to build something better on a bipartisan basis," McConnell said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said that he's in favor of a motion to proceed. He called on his colleagues to vote the same way they did in 2015 and that if senators cannot vote the same way, Paul said they need to explain that to voters.
Brides who bought a dress from defunct retailer Alfred Angelo are out of luck. Alfred Angelo closed all of its 62 stores July 13 and filed for bankruptcy protection the next day. At the time, the bridal retailer promised to fulfill orders already purchased. Now it has reneged on that promise. According to a statement from the Chapter 7 trustee on AlfredAngelo.com, the company has been able to deliver many of the pre-ordered dresses and accessories, but "the logistical and financial strain" prevent it from continuing to do so. "Thus, to the extent any order has not been fully delivered to a customer, it shall have to remain unfilled," the company said. The company advised customers who wanted a refund to submit proof of their claim for the bankruptcy proceedings. (In line behind the retailer's major creditors, those brides may not see any money from that.) Some brides affected by the shutdown are facing less stress than others though, because they have wedding insurance, also referred to as special events insurance. This under-the-radar coverage is relatively inexpensive and especially helpful for situations like these when a vendor goes bankrupt.

A woman tries on a wedding gown at Alfred Angelo Bridal. AP Photo | Mel Evans

Twenty-four percent of total insurance claims involved vendors that were hired for the wedding and didn't deliver as promised, according to 2016 data from insurance company Travelers. Vendor issues were also the costliest wedding insurance claim, according to a different Travelers survey that collected data from 2011 through 2015. Attire made up approximately 7 percent of total claims from the past 10 years, the company said. Those claims include dresses and tuxes paid for but never received, as well as clothes that are damaged, said Todd Shasha, managing director of personal insurance product management at Travelers.

In the case of a retailer closing, like Alfred Angelo did, an insured bride who doesn't get her dress would receive reimbursement for her purchase, up to the limits of the policy. Basic insurance coverage can cost anywhere between $155 and $550, depending on the amount of coverage you want, said Kristen Maxwell Cooper, executive editor of The Knot, a wedding media platform. General liability insurance, which covers up to $1,000,000 for accidents, runs about $185, she said. That's inexpensive peace of mind, she said. In 2016, the average bride spent $1,564 on a wedding dress, according to data from The Knot. (A damaged dress may also be cheap on the scale of potential wedding problems.)

Yes to the dress

Brides affected by the shutdown aren't without recourse to find a new dress, quickly. Several stores are capitalizing off their competitor's downfall, offering brides discounts. For example, David's Bridal is offering former Alfred Angelo customers 30 percent off wedding dresses and 20 percent off bridesmaids' dresses, while bridesmaid rental service Vow To Be Chic is giving 10 percent off. Brideside, one of the largest retailers to carry Alfred Angelo, has been working directly with other designers to arrange discounts and rush options  free of charge  for any brides and bridesmaids affected by Alfred Angelo's closing, said Cooper. (Customers also have the option of receiving a refund or credit.) Brides may also be able to find a secondhand dress using social media. "Check out the hashtag #AlfredAngelo," Cooper said. "The to-be-wed and married community is extremely sympathetic and helpful with other to-be-weds who need help, and there's a chance that someone can lend you their dress or other items you may need." July 14, 2017 Any women in the SoCal area that need a wedding dress ASAP bc of #alfredangelo closing, I will lend you mine! pic.twitter.com/LyCwfMD3Jn  Macie Hanrahan (@maciecakes13)  Macie Hanrahan (@maciecakes13) There's also a Facebook group with more than 1,950 members, specifically focused on the current situation, working to find other brides and bridesmaids around the country to share gowns, Cooper said.

How to buy wedding insurance
President Donald Trump sits in a fire truck while participating in a Made in America event, with companies from 50 states featuring their products, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday, July 17, 2017.

If it hasn't already, Wall Street may now want to right-size its expectations about what this all-Republican government is likely to achieve: not very much.

There are multiple reasons for that.

Start at the top. Republican President Donald Trump is historically unpopular. He, his family and his aides face deep legal and political jeopardy from Russia investigations by congressional committees and Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller. Their protestations of having no contact with Russian operatives have been proven false.

Trump has displayed neither consistent political philosophy, command of the policies he nominally supports, nor skill at reconciling competing claims in the legislative process. He has failed to put forward nominees for two-thirds of the top jobs in his own administration, including posts like director of the Census and undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance.

But this isn't all about the president. The Republican Congress has its own problems.

To begin with, the modern-day GOP as a whole disdains government, from the things it does to the people who do them. That complicates running the government in the same way that disdaining medicine would make it hard for someone to be a good doctor.

It is doubly difficult when lawmakers' principal goal is an act of negation  that is, taking away government benefits that voters have become accustomed to receiving. When GOP Sen. Ted Cruz sought to block Obamacare before implementation in 2013, he warned it would be "almost impossible" to stop subsidies for health insurance once they started flowing. He was right.

A third, related problem is the yawning gap between reality and the apocalyptic rhetoric GOP lawmakers deployed against President Barack Obama. They claimed that his "job-killing" stimulus, health care and regulatory policies would wreck the economy. In fact, Obama left Trump an economy that is now approaching full employment.

That gap is all the more difficult to bridge because of the evolution of the Republican Party's base. Leading Republican politicians remain ideologically aligned with their most affluent constituents in support of lower taxes and smaller government. But they depend disproportionately at election time on working-class voters who rely on government benefits and complain that the 21st-century American deck is stacked in favor of the rich.

That will pose an obstacle for tax reform just as it has for health care. The Trump administration has claimed its goal is a middle-class tax cut. But recent GOP tax proposals  from House Speaker Paul Ryan as well as candidate Trump  have delivered their biggest benefits for the wealthy. The White House and congressional leaders haven't unveiled the one they'll seek to pass next.

Politically, cutting taxes is an easier act of negation than cutting health benefits. If Republicans sidetrack their recent professions of concern about budget deficits, Congress may indeed be able to put a bill on Trump's desk for a signature.

If they don't, however, cutting taxes for some Americans will require raising taxes for others. Republicans have displayed no propensity for doing that. A case in point is intense opposition to the "border adjustment tax" that Ryan has hoped would finance deep cuts in the corporate tax rate.

The bottom line: six months into full Republican control of Congress, Trump has signed no major legislation. Major Obama initiatives  including protections for immigrant "dreamers," the Iran nuclear deal, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulation law, higher tax rates and the Affordable Care Act  remain in place.

Could all those policies change between now and 2018 midterm elections? Yes.

Would anyone be wise to make a large financial bet on them changing? Definitely not.
Both sides of an 1896-S Barber quarter dollar that was graded AU-58+ by PCGS and carried a green CAC sticker. The coin sold for a strong $14,100 at Stacks Bowers offering of Part II of the Blue Moon Collection on June 22.

Stacks Bowers Galleries offered several major collections as official auctioneer of the June Whitman Coin and Collectibles Expo in Baltimore. Part II of the Blue Moon Collection, featuring a broad range of collector-friendly coins that had been off the market for a generation, joined the collection of Robert Warner Wolfe and a group of Hard Times tokens from the collection of company co-founder Q. David Bowers. The June 22 to 25 Whitman Expo is the smallest of the three Whitman shows held at the Baltimore Convention Center, as many collectors and dealers wait for the big American Numismatic Association Worlds Fair of Money (this year in Denver) to make big purchases.

Here's one of three coins that we are highlighting from the Stacks Bowers Galleries offering:

The Lot:

1896-S Barber quarter dollar, PCGS AU-58+, CAC

The Price:

$14,100

The Story:

The Blue Moon Collection was assembled by a Stacks client years ago and then put away for decades. At the June Baltimore Expo, Part II offered a strong group of Barber quarter dollars including an 1896-S example graded About Uncirculated 58+ by PCGS and bearing a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker. With both a plus grade and a CAC sticker, it is about the best AU example one can find and this one has just a bit of rub on the high points that keeps it from a Mint State grade.

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It is one of three well-known key-date San Francisco Mint coins in the series  alongside the 1901-S and 1913-S Barber quarter dollars  and since most of the 188,039 1896-S Barber quarters entered circulation, few survive in Mint State today. This example sold for $14,100, a price exceeding what a typical AU-58 example might bring, even bettering low-end Mint State examples that have traded recently in the marketplace.
July 18, 2017

 A small, empty cloth bag is expected this week to rocket past space capsules and a wristwatch worn on the moon to become the most valuable space artifact to ever sell at auction.



Sotheby's on Thursday (July 20) will offer the moon dust- stained "lunar sample return" bag as part of its first auction dedicated to the relics of the United States space program. The sale, which will take place at Sotheby's New York City gallery and on eBay, coincides with the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, on which the bag was used.



"This [Apollo 11 lunar sample return decontamination bag] is indeed the rarest and most important space exploration artifact to ever be offered," reads Sotheby's description for lot 102 in the July 20 "Space Exploration" auction catalog. "A true first of firsts; an item used to protect the first lunar sample, collected by the first man on the moon, during the first lunar landing."



Sotheby's expects the 12 by 8.5 inch (30 by 22 centimeter) bag to sell for upwards of $4 million. The zippered pouch, which was used to protect the bagged contingency sample that Neil Armstrong collected soon after stepping onto the moon, was mistakenly sold in 2015 by the U.S. Marshals Service and then briefly confiscated by NASA until a court ruled that it was to be returned to its present consignor.







Detail shot of the Apollo 11 lunar sample return bag showing areas that have been darkened with traces of moon dust. (Sotheby's)

If the sale tops $2,882,500, it will be the most ever paid for a space history artifact, at least according to public auction records.



"All other major space exploration artifacts that have sold have been Russian or from later U.S. missions," Sotheby's states in its catalog.



Sizing up the market for space



Sotheby's set the currently standing record for the highest price paid for a space artifact with its $2.9 million sale of a Soviet-era Vostok space capsule in 2011. The 7.3-foot (2.3 meter) spherical 3KA-2 spacecraft orbited the Earth on an uncrewed test flight just prior to the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly into space.



Prior to that, the top performing relic of the space race was another Russian capsule, also sold by Sotheby's. In 1993, the Perot Foundation, founded by Texas businessman and one- time Presidential candidate Ross Perot, placed the top bid on the Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft at $1,652,500 and then loaned it to the Smithsonian for display at the National Air and Space Museum, where it remains today.







In 2011, Sotheby's auctioned the Soviet Vostok 3KA-2 capsule for $2,882,500, more than any other space artifact to date. (Sotheby's)

Third place, price-wise at least, goes to the only piece from a NASA mission to reach into the seven figures to date. A Bulova chronograph, flown by Apollo 15 commander David Scott and worn on the surface of the moon after his NASA- issued Omega Speedmaster broke, sold for $1.625 million during a 2015 sale organized by RR Auction of Boston.



Last (but not least) among the million-dollar space sales is another Soviet capsule, a twice-launched Vozvraschaemyi Apparat crew and cargo vehicle. It was sold in 2014 by the Lempertz auction house in Berlin, Germany for 1.26 million euros (about $1.4 million U.S.).



Other Apollo-era space artifacts have attracted bids in the mid- to high-hundreds of thousands, including a $610,064 hand controller used by Scott on Apollo 15, which was sold by RR in 2014, and a $358,000 set of moon dust-stained patches cut from astronaut Jim Irwin's spacesuit that was auctioned by Christie's in 1999.



Sotheby's other space treasures



While the Apollo 11 lunar sample bag is the only item that Sotheby's estimates will sell for seven figures and have a chance at breaking the record, the 173 lot auction includes other standout space artifacts.







A crew-signed Apollo 11 patch flown on the moon landing mission is estimated to sell for $40,000 to $60,000. (Sotheby's)

An early prototype moon rock return bag designed to hold both the first contingency lunar sample and a "geology film cassette" was not used, but which represents "some of the first planning" to secure lunar samples, is expected to sell for $25,000 to $35,000.



An Apollo 11 patch flown on the moon landing mission and signed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins may sell for upward of $60,000. The patch is silkscreened on the same glass-fiber (Beta cloth) material that was used as the outer layer of the astronauts' spacesuits.



Sotheby's expects that a roughly 4-foot (1.2-meter) square silver gelatin print of the moon crater Aristarchus taken by the Lunar Orbiter V probe will elicit the second highest bid in the sale. The print, which is one of two known copies, is estimated to sell for $100,000 to $125,000.



The auction also features the original flown flight plan from the Apollo 13 mission, which famously did not proceed as planned. The 352-page document includes three full-color caricatures of crewmates Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, as well notations made by all three. The flight plan is expected to sell for as much as $40,000.







The original flown Apollo 13 flight plan was presented by the crew to the lead flight planner for the 1970 mission. (Sotheby's)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the least expensive lots (as estimated) are each expected to receive bids of at least $1,000. These artifacts include a smaller size print of Aristarchus; an Apollo 11 training checklist sheet signed by Aldrin; an Apollo 12 crew-signed envelope postmarked for their launch; and a black and white photograph signed by Alan Shepard and John Glenn, the first U.S. astronauts to fly into space and Earth orbit, respectively.



For more details or to bid, see Sotheby's website or eBay.
Iain Duncan Smith is a former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, founded the Centre for Social Justice, and is MP for Chingford and Woodford Green.

Too often, people find themselves in homes which are no longer near to work, trapped in areas riven with high levels of crime and drugs. Over two-thirds of social tenants have incomes in the bottom 40 per cent. And in some areas, only five per cent of tenants move each year. Almost half of the social housing stock falls into the category of the 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Although welfare reforms have meant some three million more people are in work, there still remain some pockets of unemployment, centred often on difficult estates.

Jeremy Corbyn, and his enforcer John McDonnell, are demanding the re-nationalising of social housing and the ending of private property rights. This kind of government knows best view may at first seem alluring to some, but those of us who remember the sink estates, vast rent arrears and often sub-standard housing when councils ran social housing know that it is far from a panacea.

As in so much of our political debate, we too often fail to look at other countries to see what works and what doesnt. In France, employer-employee groups provide part of the funding for social housing to support local employees. In Holland, the rent for the cheaper rental homes is kept through non-profit private housing foundations or associations. These financially independent groups act as social entrepreneurs, working to prevent segregation. They also successfully highlight an important problem in the provision and service by public bodies. As Conservatives, we cannot fail to recognise that the present system  where too many of the Housing Associations have grown in size to the point where they now resemble old council estates  doesnt serve the tenants at all well. That is why we should use this opportunity to re-think the way we build new communities.

In the UK, since the war, we have  wittingly or unwittingly  used the built environment to lock in our place in society. A glance at any city will show that children tend to grow up in houses near to children whose families status is very similar. We have low-income estates, middle-class estates and even some areas where housing is only inhabited by the very wealthy. We need to look at how we can create more balanced communities through a mix of tenure and sensitive allocation policies, whilst protecting against the danger of stigmatisation.

It is also time for us to reconsider the way we treat private landlords who buy houses to rent. A large number of them are talking about no longer buying to let, and they blame it on George Osbornes decision to impose a stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent, to restrict mortgage interest relief to the basic rate of income tax, and to tax a landlords turnover rather than profits. This, they believe, has led to private landlords scaling back their operations or even leaving the sector altogether. We should all be concerned about this, because private landlords are a significant provider of the additional housing we need. We wont be able to provide all the housing in the medium term through aggressive building programmes alone. We will need other sources of accommodation, as well.

Thats why we should be encouraging them with devices such as VAT relief on conversions or even capital allowances, not punishing them. Its no wonder buy-to-let purchases have fallen dramatically. Despite what has been said and written, theyre not enormous property magnates, for the most part, but often people using the market to help provide retirement income in later life or assets to pass on to their children.

I can of course understand the issue of foreign owners buying up property and leaving it empty, both pushing up prices and taking property off the market, however. Figures show that some 15 per cent of newly built homes in Greater London are snapped up by foreign buyers, rising to over 70 per cent in the city centre. Yet surely, if that is the concern, we would be better off levying a tax on empty homes. As I understand it, in New York apartments can incur a significant tax if they are left empty. We are now in danger of missing the point, for what is certain is that even if we do achieve our housebuilding target, there will still be a continuing growth in demand and a significant part of this will have to be available through private landlords. It is time to review Osbornes tax changes on buy-to-let landlords.

When the subject of social housing is raised, most Conservative politicians nostalgically recall Thatchers council house sales, and the way they empowered many of those who otherwise found themselves trapped without assets. However, successful as that was, its effectiveness is clearly waning now. Perhaps for inspiration we should recall that council house sales was not the original housing policy. A different one was proposed by Peter Walker and others. Their plan was even bigger; to move council housing from the council to the tenants, automatically granting them an asset. It never saw the light of day, but the bold principle underlying it was that the Conservative Party was on the side of those who John Howard of Australia used to call the battlers  people who try, but never seem to get a break.

So as we commit to greater house building, we need to see how we can get back to that principle. Sajid Javid has spoken of his frustration that his house-building plan wasnt included in the Conservative manifesto and whilst we have yet to see whether his plan for an enormous ramping up in house building is accepted we need to settle just what we plan to provide for whom. It would be an enormous mistake to decide that the vast majority of this new housing should be social housing. We need a significant expansion in housing that people can afford to buy as well as social housing. One of the biggest issues we faced at the election was the way so many young people have become disenchanted about their prospects to be able to own a house or a flat they can call home; this aspiration needs to be met.

The Governments plan to build 300,000 more homes a year must have at its heart the overarching principle that we are not just the party of home ownership but also the party of aspiration. We need to reach out to those who aspire to do better for themselves and their families but find themselves trapped, unable to raise the money to buy their own home. We should plan to give social housing tenants who are doing all the right things a significant shared equity; I believe that it would help address the issue of asset poverty. At present, two-thirds of households without assets are poor and more people are asset poor than are income poor. The best determinant of a familys long-term economic potential is the ownership of assets. This is why we should now be bold and look again at how we can give tenants an asset share of the home they live in. For owning a home ensures we look after it and take pride in it as well, which in turn supports all the important aspects of family life and helps improve their quality of life.

Whilst the nature of social housing has changed greatly since 1979, with Housing Associations controlling the majority of social housing, when it comes to housing policy, we still need to think about positioning ourselves on the side of the battlers. As this Conservative Government prepares to unveil its plans for housing, we should use this opportunity not just to tackle the lack of housing but also to show all those battlers we will ensure they get the break they deserve.
Apart from possible arithmetical error by exhausted officials, it is a phase when deliberate fraud has occurred in the past. Tensions can erupt in violence.

The scrutiny of each electorate involves thousands of transfers of preferences from losing candidates to stronger ones until one of the last few candidates garners a majority of the remaining live votes.

THE prolonged vote counting in Papua New Guineas election provides a slight hiatus to consider political incumbency  the benefits of holding office and its potential disadvantages.

To date most controversy has centred on gaps in the electoral rolls denying people the vote, as noted by the Commonwealth Observer team echoing its 2012 report.

Limited funding from successive PNG governments has for years prevented proper updating  voters deleted when their names had been sent to Election Commission headquarters.

Some candidates perceive rigging by government, others unfairly have blamed Australian technical assistance for the state of the rolls, which is denied.

Australias Minister for International Development and the Pacific is aware of reported irregularities in the election rolls but adds its not really appropriate for Australia to provide running commentary on the conduct of elections, and Its really important that we develop productive relations with whoever the PNG people elect as their leaders.

Predicting the next government is hazardous when in recent PNG elections roughly 60% of sitting members were defeated. On average there are 33 candidates in each of the 111 seats. Most are nominally independent, though some have party links, and local contests are rarely about policies or political parties.

Parties do become important under the section 63 of the constitutional integrity law because the party which has the most formally endorsed members of parliament elected is entitled to the first vote to create a government by nominating its candidate for prime minister.

When the house first meets, after the Speaker is elected, the largest party must test its strength in a vote for the prime ministership. In 2012 Peter ONeills Peoples National Congress (PNC) had 27 party-endorsed MPs.

Unless the strongest party has 56 MPs, then  hypothetically  a majority grouping of other parties could vote against the largest partys nominee, and then put up its alternate candidate.

As soon as electorates are declared party leaders work to attract a parliamentary majority, and the wealthiest have a real advantage because just after elections most new MPs are broke.

Pangu Pati leader Sam Basil has pleaded with new MPs not to be bought off, saying their voters wanted them to remove the present government. Parties will use helicopters to pick up new MPs and gather them into separate hotels or camps.

Sitting members would seem to have massive advantages during elections, including staffers and good salaries. Their best known advantage has come from controlling constituency slush funds now through the District Services Improvement Program (DSIP).

DSIP grants grew rapidly after 2002 with Sir Michael Somare as PM and then again from 2011 after ONeill deposed him.

During the windfall years of the mining boom until 2014 this simple technique helped PMs build parliamentary support and to avoid potential votes of no confidence. But out in the electorate these funds can be a mixed blessing for sitting MPs, especially if  as now  services are collapsing in many districts.

MPs electorate authorities all now effectively control over K10 million a year for their electorate districts. A recent report says only five have formally acquitted their 2016 funds.

In the past some MPs retained funds until the final campaign, and then recklessly dish out cash. Money politics is a term borrowed from Indonesian studies but is now not new and is reported again in PNG, especially in seeking to buy minor preferences.

There are many spectacular cases where money hasnt worked, as when the former Speaker, the late Jeffrey Nape, lost his Highlands seat in 2012. Too much money can harm a candidate. Unmatchable generosity can stimulate resentment, backfire badly on the donor and lead to accusations of corruption which are rife at election times.

In 2007, another Chimbu MP distributed sums of K10,000 to many clans in much of his electorate, but he lost his seat. So wealthy men can and do lose. In recent elections candidates with business fortunes have tried to win by spending big and hosting non-stop partying at campaign houses, but the stagnant economy this year has apparently quietened the festival.

What is new in the 2017 election is the rise of social media  especially Facebook  with over half a million members.

Lately the ONeill government has joined the fray with what its critics call fake news, but despite the sillier swipes and tweets, the social media arena has been held for years by well-informed critiques of the government performance. These analyses point to poor fiscal management and focus on allegations of corruption.

PNGs revenue crisis is now internationally obvious, long after rural people knew about services failing across the country  schools without books, seats or teachers, hospitals without drugs, roads and bridges collapsing in tropical downpours or earth tremors, and many state employees unpaid.

So sitting MPs are easy targets, blamed for poor services by their many rivals. However the systemic problem is that legislators must now try to be fund managers and service providers. In todays political culture PNGs MPs are expected to play patronage with state revenues, but for every group which they benefit they will antagonise several others.

PNGs social media coverage goes well beyond the scandalous stories seen on some sites, and has spread among the best educated younger people across the country.

It remains to be seen whether they have utilised their shared critique of the ONeill government to build a coherent political force which might deny parliamentary dominance to the ONeills coalition. In early counting ONeill has won his seat and his PNC appears strong. It will again meet with allies in the coastal town, Alotau.

Several small Opposition parties have teamed up and been more strategic this year than in previous elections. This informal coalition includes THE Party of current Opposition Leader Don Pomb Polye, Pangu Pati, and National Party.

Recently they were joined by the relatively large and wealthy National Alliance  Somares party  which is led by ONeills sacked Treasurer, Patrick Pruaitch, who is said to be Somares nephew by marriage.

So far most of these parties have polled better than commentators expected, boosted by Somares symbolic presence, and the intellectual leadership of former PM Sir Mekere Morauta (who is also polling well). This group will need to cohere when they meet in the Highlands town, Goroka.

If the PNC emerges as the largest party when Parliament convenes, it remains to be seen whether the Opposition group can first persuade a majority of the new House to vote against ONeill and, if so, then next to vote for an agreed candidate of their own. If that happens, observers of PNG politics will see that incumbency can be a surprising disadvantage.
Ten years too long

Stop the Intervention!

On the 10th anniversary of the Northern Territory Intervention, Arrernte women led a march through Mbantua (Alice Springs) protesting the interference of the state at the expense of Aboriginal peoples human rights, health and wellbeing. The march came as the final action after a three-day summit, Stand Up 2017, attended by activists from around the country to talk about the harm the Intervention has done to Aboriginal people and the road ahead.

Ten years ago, Liberal Prime Minister John Howard declared there was a national emergency in the Northern Territory and was unapologetic for his interventionist approach, which included compulsory income management, compulsory health checks for children, alcohol restrictions on Aboriginal land, linking welfare payments to childrens attendance at school, compulsory acquisition of townships, the scrapping of the permit system and a raft of other restrictive measures.

Howard and his Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough claimed they were responding to the Little Children are Sacred report, which examined sexual abuse in remote NT communities.

They ignored almost every recommendation of the report and suspended the Racial Discrimination Act to introduce the Intervention.

Despite numerous reports showing the Intervention had achieved almost none of its stated aims and was doing harm  both from within government and independent sources  five years later, in 2012, the Labor Gillard government extended the Intervention for another 10 years under the Stronger Futures for the NT legislation.

Arrernte woman Alison Furber  who spoke first in language, then in English  said a decade of failed policy that harmed her people was more than enough.

We want to make our own decisions.

Our way, controlled by us.

And in the Northern Territory we need bilingual schools so our kids arent punished for speaking their own languages.

Arrernte woman Natasha Craigie-Braun said the Intervention had caused enormous harm.

How dare they paint our Aboriginal men as abusers, she said. Why was there military everywhere?

We all have to come together.

Sister and brother Kirra and Dylan Voller both addressed the rally. Dylan is one of the Aboriginal boys who was violently abused by guards in Don Dale Youth Detention. He was released recently.

His sister Kirra has become one of the strongest voices against overincarceration of young Aboriginal people.

Kirra read out the statement from Stand Up 2017, which called for:

a repeal of the Intervention laws, including Stronger Futures;

a return to community governance;

more opportunities for people on homelands;

proper investment in housing to address overcrowding;

bilingual education;

no more fines for parents whose children dont attend school;

closure of youth detention centres in favour of community based programs;

jobs programs and a closure of the federal governments Community Development Program (CDP, a work for the dole scheme);

scrapping of income management;

an urgent return of the children taken away from family and community under the Intervention; and

Treaty.

Yolngu Elder Reverend Dr Djiniyini Gondarra said there needed to be proper dialogue between Australian governments and First Nations people.

No more kissing the governments shoes, he said.

The Koori Mail
Venezuelan Film Festival

In solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution

The first ever Venezuelan film festival in Australia was held in Perth over the July 14-16 weekend. The festival in solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution was organised by the Bolivarian Embassy in Canberra ACT and Cine Vivo, the independent festival that for six years has brought together films from several Latin American countries to Perth moviegoers.

The Venezuelan festival was sponsored by a number of business and community groups among them Friends of Venezuela and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union of Australia.

The opening night on Friday July 14 attracted over 80 people who enjoyed the moving film La Distancia Mas Larga (The Longest Distance) a study of the challenges for peace and forgiveness against a violent event in Caracas. On July 15 a similar number of people gathered to watch the acclaimed film El Amparo based on the true story of a tragic 1988 event on the Venezuela-Colombia border in which a group of 14 fishermen were massacred by the Venezuelan army who assumed they were Colombian guerrillas. The survivors of the tragedy are still waiting for justice.

The festival closed on July 16 with the outstanding film The Liberator about the life of Simon Bolivar. He fought over 100 battles against the Spanish Empire in South America and travelled an epic 70,000 miles on horseback. Simon Bolivar is the most important leader in South Americas struggle for independence. An inspiration of many struggles for a second independence such as in Colombia and Venezuela.

The Venezuelan Film Festival was an opportunity to reflect on peace in the difficult moment which sees a violent right-wing opposition backed by US imperialism trying to derail the Bolivarian Revolution and to perpetrate a coup against the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro.

The government has called for elections of a National Constituent Assembly on July 30 which will be charged with amending the Constitution. It aims at bringing peace and unity of the Venezuelan people. We wish all the success for the wellbeing of the people and a socialist future in the homeland of revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised more than $5 million in the first six months of 2017, and a sliver of that total came from donors in central New York.

Cuomo raised $107,640 from central New York residents, businesses and other entities, according to his latest campaign finance report. He now has more than $25 million in the bank for his 2018 re-election bid.

The largest central New York donor was Friends of Del Lago, a political action committee formed by del Lago Resort & Casino in Seneca County. The casino's PAC made two donations to Cuomo's campaign totaling $35,000  nearly one-third of the amount the governor raised in the region.

Barclay Damon, a Syracuse-based law firm, contributed $10,000 to Cuomo's campaign. Friends of Joanie Mahoney, the campaign committee for the Republican Onondaga County executive, gave $5,000.

The in-kind contributions reported by Cuomo included nearly $36,000 from Michael Falcone, a Syracuse-area developer and a longtime financial backer of the governor's campaigns.

Falcone hosted a fundraiser for Cuomo in Skaneateles earlier this month. He paid $18,371.24 to cater the event and $17,588.10 to cover the governor's air travel to central New York.

Reports published by multiple media outlets indicated that the fundraiser cost up to $10,000 a person to attend, although the financial reports appear to show that most people paid $1,000 for the private gathering with Cuomo.

Other notable donors include Bartolotta Furniture, an Auburn-based company, which contributed $3,000 to Cuomo's campaign. R&M Associates, an Auburn-based real estate firm, donated $1,000.

Stephen Congel, CEO of Pyramid Management Group which operates Destiny USA in Syracuse, contributed $1,000. Louis Santaro, a real estate investor from Syracuse, gave $5,000.

Central New York employers also donated thousands to Cuomo's campaign. Welch Allyn in Skaneateles Falls donated $2,500. O'Brien and Gere Property Development and Hueber-Breuer Construction each chipped in $2,000. Darco Manufacturing and Independent Health Care Services, both of Syracuse, each contributed $1,000.

Cuomo is expected to seek a third term in 2018. A Republican opponent hasn't emerged in the race, but there are a handful of interested candidates.

The possible contenders are Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and Harry Wilson, a former hedge fund manager who narrowly lost to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli in the 2010 election.

Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, Cuomo's opponent in 2010, is also considering a run. And Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who was the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 2014, has been floated as a potential candidate.
US pull-out from Paris deal: What it means

By withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, President Donald Trump abdicated not only leadership but membership of the community of nations cooperating to tackle climate change, the most serious crisis facing humanity.

China and India should easily exceed their Paris agreement targets

Trumps announcement was shocking, even though it was not unexpected.

It was shocking for showing the extreme lengths to which the President would go to deny scientific opinion on climate change and defy the position of almost all other countries, on an issue that may well determine the fate of the Earth and human civilisation.

The decision was against the advice of most members of his inner-most circle of advisors, many corporate leaders, and the other G7 leaders who spent an entire frustrating day in Sicily trying to explain to him the critical importance of the Paris deal.

Just as disturbing as the withdrawal was Trumps speech justifying it. He never acknowledged the seriousness or even the existence of the climate change crisis, which poses the gravest threat to human survival. He lamented that Paris would hinder US jobs, mentioning coal in particular while ignoring the jobs in renewable energy that would increase manifold if the US adopted an energy policy to counter global warming.

His main grouse was that the Paris agreement was unfair to the US vis-a-vis all other countries, as if it had been designed specifically to cheat the US. And he grumbled that the US would have to pay billions of dollars to developing countries through the Green Climate Fund.

The speech was riddled with many misconceptions and factual errors, which many scientists, politicians and NGOs are now busy refuting.

Condemnation came fast and furious from within the US and around the world. Trump indicated the US is open to re-negotiating the Paris agreement. But European leaders quickly responded there is no such possibility. The UNFCCC secretariat correctly pointed out that a single country cannot decide on a re-negotiation. Indeed, it would require a consensus of its 195 members to make amendments to the Paris Agreement or even agree to a re-negotiation.

That will not happen, as the agreement is a delicately balanced outcome which took many years of long and complicated negotiations to achieve. To re-negotiate it would in effect kill it.

The best response to the Trump decision is for others to resolve to do even more to combat climate change. In the US itself, many states and cities have announced they will form an alliance and continue with their climate actions.

An increasing number of countries including China, India, Germany, France, Italy and Canada as well as the European Union leadership have announced they will honour their Paris commitments despite the US pull-out. There are no signs, so far at least, that any other country intends to follow the US out of Paris.

Indeed, the Trump decision to leave Paris will be a milestone marking a huge loss of international prestige, influence and power for the US. In a world so divided by ideology, inequality and economic competition, the Paris agreement was one rare area of global consensus and cooperation, on climate change.

For the US to pull out of that hard-won consensus is a shocking abdication not only of leadership but of its membership of the community of nations in its joint effort to face up to perhaps its gravest challenge of survival.

The lack of appreciation of this great crisis facing humanity and the narrow-mindedness of his concerns were embarrassingly evident when Trump made his withdrawal speech. He was more interested to revive the sunset coal sector than in the promise of the fast developing renewable energy industries.

He was convinced reducing emissions would cost millions of jobs, ignoring the record of many countries like Germany that have de-coupled emissions growth from economic growth. He was miserly towards poor countries which are receiving only a fraction of what they were promised and what they need for climate mitigation and adaptation, while celebrating hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new deals for his armaments industry.

He complained that the US is asked to do more than others in the Paris agreement when in fact the US has the highest emissions per capita of any major country and its pledged rates of emissions reduction are significantly lower than Europes.

Just as alarming as withdrawing from Paris is Trumps comprehensive dismantling of Obamas climate change policies and measures. This will make the US unable to meet the target it chose under the Paris agreement: a cut in emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2025 compared to the 2005 level. The gap between the US target (which is already unambitious compared to what the science requires and compared to the European Union) and the expected higher emissions levels influenced by Trumps policies, will worsen the global shortfall in emission reduction.

What will now happen in the UN climate convention, home to the Paris agreement? The negotiations to establish the guidelines for countries to implement the agreement will continue in the years ahead.

A complication is that the US has to wait three years from November 2016 (when the agreement came into effect) before withdrawing from Paris and then wait another year for this to come into effect.

By also still being a member, the US could play a non-cooperative or disruptive role during the negotiations on many topics. We can anticipate that the US will challenge principles or actions that have already been accepted or that are to be transformed into actions, such as common but differentiated responsibilities; equal and balanced treatment for mitigation and adaptation; providing adequate financial resources for developing countries; transparency of actions and of finance; and technology transfer.

Since Trump has already made clear the US wants to leave Paris, and no longer subscribes to its emissions pledges (nationally determined contributions) nor will it meet its US$3 billion pledge on the Green Climate Fund, it would be strange to enable the country to still behave in the negotiations with the same status as other members that remain committed to their pledges. How to deal with this issue is important so that the UNFCCC negotiations are not disrupted in the four years ahead.

Finally, the Trump portrayal of developing countries like India and China as profiting from the US membership of the Paris Agreement is truly unfair.

China is the number one emitter of carbon dioxide in absolute terms, with the US second and India third. But this is only because the two developing countries have huge populations of over a billion each.

In per capita terms, carbon dioxide emissions in 2015 were 16.1 tonnes for the US, 7.7 tonnes for China and 1.9 tonnes for India, according to one authoritative estimate. It would be unfair to ask China and India to have the same mitigation target as the US, especially since the US has had the benefit of using or over-using more than their fair share of cheap fossil-fuel energy for over a century more than the other two countries.

A recent New York Times editorial (May 22) compared the recent performance of India and China with the recent actions of the US under President Trump. It states: Until recently, China and India have been cast as obstacles ... in the battle against climate change. That reputation looks very much out of date now that both countries have greatly accelerated their investments in cost-effective renewable energy sources  and reduced their reliance on fossil fuels. Its America  Donald Trumps America  that now looks like the laggard.

It cites recent research that China and India should easily exceed their Paris agreement targets, with Chinas emissions appearing to have peaked more than 10 years sooner (than pledged) and India expected to obtain 40% of its electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2022, eight years ahead of schedule. It criticises the Trump administration for destroying Obamas initiatives based on his Paris pledge to reduce Americas greenhouse gases.

China and India are finding that doing right by the planet need not carry a big economic cost and can actually be beneficial, said the editorial. By investing heavily in solar and wind, they and other countries like Germany have helped drive down the cost of those technologies where in many places renewable energy can generate electricity more cheaply than dirtier sources like coal.

China has reduced coal use for three years in a row and recently scrapped plans to build more than 100 coal power plants. Indian officials have estimated that country might no longer need to build new coal plants beyond those already under construction. ... There are of course formidable challenges. ... Still, Beijing and New Delhi  not embarrassingly enough, Washington  are showing the way forward.

By withdrawing from the Paris agreement and through his reversal of Obamas climate change policies, President Trump has taken the US and the world many big steps backwards in the global fight against global warming. It will take some time for the rest of the world to figure out how to carry on the race without or despite the US. Hopefully the absence of the US will only be for a few years.

South Centre  an intergovernmental policy research and analysis institution of developing countries.
Speaking up for Cuba policy

On June 16, President Trump, in a blustering speech to a right-wing audience in Miami, Florida, announced a partial roll-back of the opening to Cuba that had been announced by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December of 2014. But in several parts of the country, legislative bodies at the state and municipal levels are speaking out forcefully, not only against the new Trump policy, but for a complete change of US policy toward Cuba.

If this grows into a national movement, it could be the most effective challenge to US anti-Cuba policy seen in years.

The rollback announced by Trump restores some restrictions on US citizens rights to visit Cuba, and on US companies trade with Cuban enterprises connected to the Cuban military and security services. That he did not go farther, for example, by breaking off diplomatic relations or putting Cuba back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, is a testament to the unpopularity in the United States of the 55-year-long US trade blockade and travel restrictions against the island nation. Seventy-three percent of the US population, including most people who vote Republican and a majority of Cuban-Americans, have told public opinion surveys that they want the trade blockade to go.

Among those who want a complete lifting of the blockade are millions of ordinary citizens, and also some powerful corporate economic interests and the politicians, Republican as well as Democrat, who answer to them. In the case of the corporations, the motive is not ideological but commercial and practical: they want to sell their products to Cuba. But even in the case of sales that are allowed, current law is cash only, i.e. they cant sell agricultural products to Cuba on credit the way they can to every other country.

Restrictions on tourist travel to Cuba also hurt ordinary Cuban citizens, for example, people who have opened small businesses like mom and pop restaurants that are frequented by US tourists. The Cuban people are hurt by our governments anti-Cuba policy, and US business is also, while US citizens are angry that their right to travel to Cuba and see that country for themselves is violated.

Even though both US businesses and the general population of the United States favour a radical change in US policy toward Cuba, the Obama initiative was limited by the fact that it was all accomplished by White House executive orders. The blockade and travel restrictions are enshrined in laws passed by Congress, which can only be modified or eliminated by new acts of Congress. These laws include the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Torricelli Act (or Cuban Democracy Act), and the Helms-Burton Act (or Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act).

In the past, there had been strong efforts in both Houses of Congress to abolish the blockade and travel restrictions, but these did not accumulate sufficient support to achieve passage. Yet support in Congress was building until the election of November 2016 brought the ultra-right Trump administration to power, and all bets were off.

The anti-Cuba stance of Trump and his cronies should not cause those of us who want to see a complete change in Cuba policy to give up, however. Even though people like Senator Marco Robio continue to push for a complete return to a Cold War policy, the feelings in the nation are still strongly for normalisation of US-Cuba relations, and the pressure is still building to achieve that end.

The fact that the outrage generated by Trump and the Republican Partys misadventures in domestic policy, currently on the matter of health care, is likely to be reflected in the results of the midterm Congressional elections in November 2018 is also a positive factor.

So the push to end the blockade and the travel restrictions can, should, and will go on.

One field of action is in city and state legislatures. Starting last year, a number of municipal legislative bodies have passed, often unanimously or with overwhelming majorities, resolutions calling for full normalisation of US economic relations with Cuba. More such resolutions are in the pipeline.

As well as such official legislative bodies, a large number of civic, scientific, and other non-government organisations have expressed themselves repeatedly and strongly for normalisation.

One of the best things that could happen now, beneficial to the Cuban people and the US economy, is for this promising pattern of municipal and state policy resolutions to become an avalanche, a tsunami of resolutions in deliberative bodies of every kind that would sweep the nation. Even though such bodies dont make foreign policy, they do exert pressure on the government and on Congress, and if they reach a sufficient volume, can also not be ignored by the corporate-controlled media.

This would be a fitting and effective response to Trumps anti-Cuba policy, and would give us the best chance we have seen in a long time to sweep away the offensive blockade and travel restrictions. It would be a fine way for those of us who understand the valuable role Cuba has played in world affairs to show our appreciation as well as materially impact our own governments policy.

How to proceed? In a valuable article in NACLA* Reports earlier this year, Peter Miller and Rita Barouche provide a model or template of a resolution that could be tailored to use in the readers home communities.

This model should be adapted to the specific interests and needs of each different town, city, county or state, of course.

One mistake, characteristic of the US left, which we must not make is to assume that only left-wing or progressive sectors of the body politic will be interested in this sort of effort, or that the arguments we make must be only ideological. US business interests are on the opposite side of most of us on other matters, but their pecuniary motive for playing a constructive role in the Cuba situation should be understood as, objectively, a key part of the effort that is needed to end the injustice of the US economic blockade of Cuba once and for all.

There should, therefore, be outreach to business as well as to labour, churches, and communities as one builds a local effort to get Cuba resolutions passed.

This is not a matter for ideological purism, it is a matter for practical and effective action on this vital matter for the people of Cuba and of the United States.

* NACLA  North American Congress on Latin America

Peoples World
Culture & Life

Defending freedom? What else?

Malcolm Turnbull, speaking in France after the G20 summit in Germany, made much of the fact that in 1916, Australians came from  as he put it  the other end of the world to fight in France in defence of freedom.

To defend itself, North Korea has had to develop missiles capable of hitting targets in the US, in the expectation that this would give the Americans pause.

The problem with that cosy notion, of course, is that they did no such thing. The Australians had just been ignominiously withdrawn from Gallipoli where they had played the lead role in the failed Anglo-French attempt to sever the Turkish empire from its German and Austro-Hungarian allies. The Australian soldiers, of course, had been told that they were fighting the Turk in the interests of Western civilisation and to oppose aggression (by Turkey in the Middle East and by Germany in Europe).

The result: thousands dead, several capital ships sunk, and absolutely nothing to show for it. The British ruling class had hoped  by forcing the Dardanelles  to exert its control over the valuable iron and coal resources of Russias Donbas region. But the Gallipoli campaign was a costly failure, that ended with Turkey still in firm control of both the peninsula and the opening to the Black Sea.

The Australian and New Zealand soldiers withdrawn from Gallipoli were reorganised in Egypt and Palestine and then sent to France, to fight in the maelstrom that was the Western Front. However, they were not there to fight for freedom, any more than they had been on Gallipoli. Like the other soldiers of WW1, despite what their leaders claimed, they were there to fight for markets and colonies. In other words, to fight for Anglo-French capital in a trade war with German capital.

Concepts of fighting for freedom and defending little countries from the beastly Hun were simply propaganda ploys designed to explain away a war of unprecedented scope, expense and casualties to a public that grew increasingly restive as this seemingly interminable war dragged on.

Imperialism of 1914-18 is little different to that of today. Governments using their military might to fight wars at the behest of the boardrooms of big business interests, while cloaking their predatory activities with specious claims to be fighting terrorism or the old standby, defending freedom.

President Macron of France heartily seconded Turnbulls mendacious talk of fighting for freedom, despite Frances sorry record of aggression from the end of WW2 until today. In that time, France has fought savage wars of colonial aggression in Algeria, Indo-China, West Africa and Afghanistan, to name but four.

Australia used the outbreak of WW1 to seize German New Guinea and hold it, as the colony of Papua, for the next half century. Australian imperialism has tried to lord it over the island states of the Pacific and Indian oceans for decades, notably sending police to Bougainville and stealing Timor Lestes off-shore gas.

Prior to WW2, Australia was a faithful lapdog of the dominant imperial power of the time, Britain. After WW2, however, imperialist dominance switched to America and so did Australias allegiance, although our governments  and our military  continued to support the colonial wars fought by British imperialism in Kenya, Borneo and Malaya, by Dutch imperialism in Indonesia and by French imperialism in Indo-China. However, Australia faithfully  even enthusiastically  joined our American ally in the 1950s in the latters attempt to roll back Communism in Asia by fomenting a war on the Korean Peninsula.

In the 1970s, following the expulsion of the French from Indo-China by the Vietnamese, the USA took over the pursuit of the war there, as usual justifying the war as necessary for the rolling back of Communism. Once again Australian imperialism was an enthusiastic supporter of its powerful American counterpart. And once again, the propagandists of imperialism claimed that the war was being fought in defence of freedom, grotesquely, the freedom of the Vietnamese themselves.

Today, US imperialism is trying to foment a war with Russia and China, despite the misgivings of some American capitalists (those who trade with China or have oil interests in Russia). And just as in the past, these war preparations are being justified as essential to defend freedom.

Also once again, the Korean Peninsula is being made the locale for a major war. The USA has carried out provocations against tiny North Korea ever since the end of the Korean War. To defend itself, North Korea has had to develop missiles capable of hitting targets in the US, in the expectation that this would give the Americans pause. However, US imperialism does not like to be thwarted, especially by small countries. It is not good for US imperialisms self-image.

So it has countered with an intense propaganda campaign to convince the people of the world that, far from defending itself if attacked, North Korea is preparing for nuclear aggression against neighbouring Japan and also the USA. That is such an insane idea that the only way imperialism can get any traction for it is to claim that North Koreas leadership is quite literally mad.

Combining political, racial and cultural prejudice against the small Socialist state, this dangerous message has been hammered continuously in all the bourgeois media, a blanket coverage that includes both of Australias national broadcasters.

Australias imperialist government has run true to form and wholeheartedly joined in this belligerent chorus. It is not in the interests of the Australian people to have another war in or around Korea, especially one involving nuclear weapons! That is in nobodys interests.

A responsible Australian government would use its special relationship with the USA to seek to counsel its powerful ally to respect the desire of the worlds people for a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the latest Korean dispute.

But that, of course, would be a government more interested in the needs of the people than the greed of big corporations. Unfortunately, we do not have that type of responsible government and neither does the USA at present.
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It seems like her actions would instantly get used against her by even the most mild of office adversaries. "That's a great suggestion for the company picnic venue, Loretta. Now maybe we hear from someone who DIDN'T GODDAMN BUTCHER SEVEN PEOPLE LAST WEEKEND? But before that, this is a reminder that it's everyone's responsibility to keep the break room clean, even if they SLAUGHTERED SEVEN LOCAL GRANDPARENTS IN FRONT OF THEIR FAMILIES."

Universal Pictures "How was I supposed to know it was your grandma?" "I literally yelled at you, 'LORETTA, PLEASE, DON'T! THAT'S MY GRANDMA!'"

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And what about all the almost-kills or partial kills? Would anyone really feel comfortable saying good morning to someone whose legs they cut off, or who barely escaped their Purge Night machine gun rampage? And shit, we're only talking about murder part -- what happens to all the sex offenders the day after? "Look, Graham, we know that by Purge law, the things you did yesterday were legal. But I'm afraid the children aren't OK learning math from a man who kept them in cages while he put on lipstick and- well anyway, Graham, you're fired."

Actually, are you even allowed to fire people for things they did during the Purge? If not, is there a legal organization to fight wrongful Purge-related terminations? Is it assumed that every boss would be dead after the first Purge and the question would never get raised?
Internet of things News

Alphabet Targets Connected Vertical Markets, New Partnerships With Google Glass Enterprise

Lindsey O'Donnell

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Google parent Alphabet is bringing its flagship wearable back with a new look, a new target audience, and a new focus around channel partnerships.

The new device, Google Glass Enterprise, will have a tighter focus on vertical markets including the connected manufacturing and health-care spaces, said Jay Kothari, Google Glass project leader, in a statement.

"Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services and health care find it useful to consult a wearable device for information and other resources while their hands are busy," he said. "Thats why weve spent the last two years working closely with a network of more than 30 expert partners to build customized software and business solutions for Glass for people in these fields."

[Related: Tenable Exec: Our 'Battle Cry' Is Enabling Channel Opportunities In IoT Security, Helping Secure Both IT And OT]

Google Glass Enterprise has an array of differences from the company's first wearable, which was pulled off the market in 2015 after failing to be a hit with the consumer market.

The first version of Google Glass struggled with adoption in the consumer market due in part to its high $1,500 price tag and to its invisible camera function, which proved to be a Google public relations nightmare.

But Alphabet's new wearable is markedly different in its target audience  enterprise vertical markets, most notably the manufacturing space. Alphabet also has made improvements to the design and hardware of the wearable so that it is now lightweight and comfortable for long-term wear. Google Glass Enterprise has modular electronics that can be attached to any frame  including safety googles for manufacturing floor employees.

In addition, Google Glass Enterprise has a better camera, with 8 megapixels instead of 5 megapixels, a faster processor, and extended battery life.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also is working to build up its partner base for the device, targeting those who can build custom end-to-end solutions for vertical markets, including Augmedix, Aira and Hodei Technology.

Hodei Technology, for example, is using Google Glass Enterprise as part of an end-to-end solution to help health-care providers reach patients in remote areas of Canada.

Indianapolis-based Hodei Technology has equipped Google Glass Enterprise with its HCview Gemini solution to improve patient access in the remote northern communities of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Its Gemini collaboration tool is a HIPAA-compliant, first-person point-of-view technology with real-time audio and visual features.

Hodei Technology's solution enables health-care providers to check in on patients hundreds of miles away using Google Glass Enterprise. For instance, if a nurse is wearing the device, a doctor could use it to talk to, observe and check in on patients from the other end.

"Canada is a very large space with a dispersed population  this solution allows an expert in a hospital to oversee care 800 miles away," Guy Mascaro, president and CEO of Hodei Technology, told CRN. With our HCview GEMINI technology featuring Glass, a nurse or PA can be the eyes, ears and hands of a doctor or specialist hundreds of miles away and the doctor can see the patient as if he or she was in the room looking at them directly. This is true virtual telepresence that the healthcare industry has not yet experienced."

Mascaro said that Google Glass Enterprise's camera quality and processing speed have helped make the wearable an acceptable option for health-care providers that want to use it to interact with patients.

"[Alphabet] is working with partners who have solutions to help them deploy technology in these markets  now with strong strategic partners, I think we'll see wearables leapfrog in health care," he said. "We have a wonderful relationship with Alphabet]  they are an equal part in helping us achieve our vision in health care."

Google Glass Enterprise already is in the hands of several customers, including GE, agricultural company AGCO and Trinity Health, according to Kothari.
Security News

CRN Exclusive: ESET Boosts Channel Resources After Seeing Strong Growth With Partners

Sarah Kuranda

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ESET is enhancing its partner program as it sees strong growth around its channel, the company said Tuesday.

The updates include the launch of the endpoint security company's first Partner Advisory Council, which will include around 10 partners. The partners chosen will represent the various business models that ESET works with in North America and different experience levels.

ESET also recently added more marketing materials and MDF, the latter of which will focus on helping partners hold events and other activities. ESET also has revamped its sales and technical certifications, with training online and in-person. Finally, ESET added a Cybersecurity Awareness Training program, which partners can offer to customers at no cost to educate employees on security best practices.

[Related: Q&A: WatchGuard CEO On Two-Year Anniversary, SMB Security Opportunity, And UTM Competition]

Cameron Tousley, partner community manager for ESET North America, said the updates come as ESET sees continued momentum around its channel business in the region. The company has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of active partners year over year, growing to around 4,500 active partners total, Tousley said.

ESET has focused on building out its channel strategy for the past 10 years, according to Tousley. That has mirrored an evolution of ESET from an antivirus company to a full endpoint security and security software company, Tousley said. ESET recognizes that it needs partners to help grow in those markets, he said.

"We are a channel-focused company and we dedicate a lot of resources to our partners. We want to see them grow. When they grow, we grow," Tousley said.

Ted Clouser, executive vice president of Little Rock, Ark.-based managed security services provider PC Assistance, said the company has seen "steady" growth with ESET since signing on as a partner early last year. PC Assistance has made a "seamless" transition for most of its customer base and has been impressed by the technology.

Clouser said he is glad to see ESET continue to make investments in its channel partners. The investments in marketing tools and advertising are particularly important, he said, as they help PC Assistance leverage ESET's knowledge base and research with its own clients.

"We have seen some more marketing tools in the past year that are helpful to our business," Clouser said. "It makes us far more able to do our job the way we want to because we have the resources we need.  It really allows us to go to market in a way that helps us tremendously."

That partner push is especially important in a competitive market for endpoint security, where there are "a lot of options and a lot of great products," Clouser said.
U.S. Rep. John Katko raked in more than $369,000 during the second quarter of 2017, according to his latest campaign finance report filed to the Federal Election Commission.

Katko, R-Camillus, raised $369,451.87 from April 1 through June 30. He received $130,990.94 from individual donors and $231,125 from political action committees and other groups.

His campaign spent $91,858.28 in the second quarter. At the end of June, he had $745,060.94 cash on hand.

The largest donor to Katko's campaign in the second quarter was a political action committee formed by former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton's PAC contributed $10,000  the maximum allowed for primary and general elections  to support the GOP congressman's re-election bid.

The individual contributors to Katko included Pyramid Management Group CEO Stephen Congel and Daniel Loeb, CEO of New York City-based hedge Third Point, who each gave $5,400. Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, also donated $5,400.

Hill-Rom Holdings PAC contributed $1,000 to Katko. Hill-Rom now owns Welch Allyn, a medical device manufacturer based in Skaneateles Falls.

A significant portion of Katko's campaign funds came from fellow Republicans. House Speaker Paul Ryan's PAC, Prosperity Action, donated $5,000. Eye of the Tiger PAC, which was created by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, also gave $5,000.

Other $5,000 donations were given by PACs formed by U.S. Reps. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican.

Stivers is the current chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm. Walden is the former chair of the committee.

E-PAC, a leadership PAC founded by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, an upstate New York Republican, donated $1,000 to Katko's campaign.

Two organizations Katko has aligned himself with made $5,000 contributions to his campaign: No Labels Problem Solvers PAC and Tuesday Group PAC.

Katko is a member of the No Labels Problem Solvers, which is a group consisting of Democrats and Republicans. The Tuesday Group is comprised of independent members of the GOP conference.

The 24th Congressional District race is expected to be a top target for Democrats in 2018. Katko intends to seek a third term representing the Syracuse area in Congress.

So far, one Democrat  Anne Messenger, a Manlius businesswoman  is vying for the party's nomination to challenge Katko. Messenger entered the race last week, which means she won't need to file a fundraising report until October.
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This summer, catch a movie under the stars.

Several area communities are making the most of the summer weather with outdoor movie nights. Movie-goers are advised to bring blankets, chairs and snacks. The films are generally scheduled to begin at dusk.

The Mill River Park Collaborative in Stamford is hosting Sci-Fi Movies in the Park on select Friday nights, as well as an Animation Celebration Movie Series on select Saturday nights in July and August. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Moana" are among the movies scheduled to be screened.

Some local beaches are also featuring outdoor movies. In Norwalk, the city's family movie series is held on Saturday nights through August 19 at Shady Beach/Calf Pasture Beach.

For a taste of nostalgia, head to the Southington Drive-In. While the outdoor movie theater is a bit of a drive, it's one of only three of its kind left in Connecticut.

According to the theater's website, films scheduled on Saturday nights through September 2 including "Dirty Dancing," "The Goonies," and "The Trolls." The cost is $15 per carload for non-residents.

Films are screened at the Pleasant Valley Drive-In in Barkhamsted Thursday through Sunday nights. The Mansfield Drive-In in Mansfield Center is the state's other remaining drive-in movie theater.

Click through the slideshow above for a look a more outdoor movies scheduled across the area.
BRIDGEPORT - A local bail bondsman is facing up to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to trafficking guns from Georgia to the city.

Police said Mark Buddy Williams, 29, was purchasing guns at gun shows in Georgia and bringing the guns back to the city for resale. They said many of his deals were arranged by his wife, Vanessa, at the Panera Bread restaurant in Milford where she worked.

Supervisory Assistant States Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. said Williams was arrested following a joint investigation between the U.S. Department of Alco0hol Tobacco and Firearms and city police.

During a hearing Tuesday, Williams, of Woodside Avenue, pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to firearms trafficking and illegally transferring firearms.

Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin told Williams he would consider imposing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison but give Williams lawyer, Michael Skiber, an opportunity to argue for a term of three years when Williams is sentenced Sept. 15.

A plea made under the Alford Doctrine means Williams did not admit his guilt but conceded he could be found guilty if he went to trial. The judge then found him guilty of the charges.

Neither Williams, who is free on bond, nor Skiber would comment as they left the Main Street courthouse.

Just how many guns Williams sold and where they ended up is still under investigation police said. However, they said Vanessa Williams told an undercover officer that her husband had many customers in Bridgeport.

After introducing themselves as prospective gun buyers to Vanessa Williams at Panera, police said they subsequently made two undercover purchases of guns from Mark Williams.

Police said one of the weapons they purchased from Williams was a TEC-9 assault rifle. During one of the meeting police said Williams mentioned he was doing business with the Bloods gang.
AUBURN  An Auburn man with an extensive criminal history was sentenced to prison Tuesday for selling heroin in Cayuga County.

Karl Diggs, 44, of 191 Genesee St. Apt. 30, was arrested in November 2015 and charged with four felonies  two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. He was charged a year later with two additional drug-related felonies.

In May 2017, Diggs pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance. That marked his 50th criminal conviction  of those convictions, four were felonies and 46 were misdemeanors.

"(Diggs) has a very long, violent criminal history," Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said Tuesday in court. "It's a book in and of itself."

"This is the longest (criminal history) I've ever seen," Diggs' defense attorney Rome Canzano added. "It's been this merry-go-round of jail and liberty, jail and liberty."

During his plea in May, Diggs admitted to selling heroin on several occasions. However, he said it was all to support his own addiction, something his attorney believed.

"He looks very different than he did (when he was arrested)," Canzano said Tuesday. "He's had the opportunity to get clean ... in the year and a half he's been in jail."

But Budelmann disagreed, citing several recorded phone calls that Diggs allegedly made in Cayuga County Jail. All of the phone calls seemed to support the district attorney's claims that Diggs was a violent criminal who was trying to track down the confidential informant who turned him in.

"He continues to pretend he's an addict," Budelmann said. "Diggs is dangerous and does not deserve community supervision."

In response, Diggs told Judge Mark Fandrich he was a "former user" and apologized for his actions.

"I did wrong in my past," Diggs said. "I did what I did because I was a drug addict, and I apologize for what I did."

In the end, Fandrich sentenced Diggs to four years in prison followed by three years of post-release supervision and $130 in restitution. The judge also denied Diggs' request for a shock camp order, but said he would not oppose any drug treatment programs available to him through the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Also in court:

 An Auburn man was sentenced to probation Tuesday for selling cocaine out of his home.

William Lichtblau, of 15 Church St., pleaded guilty in May to one count of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class B felony. At the time, the 51-year-old admitted to selling roughly $200 worth of cocaine in July 2016.

However, at Lichtblau's sentencing Tuesday, Budelmann said he was "perturbed" with some of the comments the defendant made to the probation department, in which he appeared to minimize his responsibility in the matter.

"Our information was that he was an active, busy dealer," Budelmann said. "I am disappointed we are giving the defendant a reformatory sentence."

For that, Lichtblau apologized.

"I joked about different things, but I realize this is not where I want to be," he said.

Judge Fandrich upheld his promise and sentenced Lichtblau to a term of shock probation. Lichtblau  who has been incarcerated since May  will be given credit for time served in jail and spend the next five years on probation. He will also have to pay $180 in restitution.

 An Auburn woman has admitted to selling heroin at a townhouse in the city.

Cynthia Jedra, of 35 Quill Ave. Apt. X317, pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a class B felony.

The 50-year-old was indicted in April and charged with five felonies, including criminal possession of marijuana. At the time, Budelmann said she possessed more than 30 pounds of marijuana and fentanyl at her residence at Oak Creek Townhomes last year.

Jedra's son, Alexander Temple, pleaded guilty to the same crime last week. Mother and son were offered the opportunity to participate in felony drug treatment court, which both accepted.

In addition, Budelmann said that Jedra could face federal charges as well. That's because she allegedly had fentanyl shipped from China directly to her home.

Jedra could face up to nine years in prison and two years post-release supervision. However, Fandrich agreed to sentence her to shock probation  time served plus five years probation. As a condition of her probation, Jedra will have to successfully complete felony drug court in Auburn.

Jedra has been released from Cayuga County Jail in lieu of $2,500 cash. Her sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 19.
Since early 2017, one of the issues revolving around legalized marijuana was generated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

An adamant opponent of legal marijuana, Sessions said in February that legalizing marijuana ends up creating violent crime. He said had this information from experts. To this point, he has not furnished that data, but it has raised the question:

Does legalized marijuana lead to higher crime?

So far, studies show that is not the case. A recent study in California actually showed just the opposite.

Related: Women Cannabis Entrepreneurs Gather In L.A. for Empowerment Summit

No Dispensary, Higher Crime

The study by researchers from the University of Southern California and published in the Journal of Urban Economics, compared crime data in Los Angeles neighborhoods where dispensaries were closed by the city with areas where dispensaries remained open. The researchers wrote, Contrary to popular wisdom, we find an immediate increase in crime around dispensaries ordered to close relative to those allowed to remain open."

They found that many of the crimes committed were the sort that the presence of bystanders would have stopped, such as property crimes and auto theft. They found a similar pattern in areas where restaurants were forced to close because of health violations.

Related: Oakland Strives to Rejuvenate Economically by Becoming California's Cannabis Capital

Sacramento Study

A similar study published in the Journal of Study in Alcohol and Drugs found that the presence of medical marijuana dispensaries had no discernable effect on the crime rate.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, examined the association of marijuana dispensaries and crime in 95 Sacramento census tracts. They found that violent crime and property crime varied depending on the number of commercially zoned areas, one-person households and the local unemployment rate but medical marijuana dispensaries were not a factor.

The report states that dispensaries may actually help reduce crime because many use video surveillance or hire doormen, two factors that contribute to fewer crimes in the nearby area.

Related: Getting Healthy, Not High: Using Cannabis to Fight Cancer

Denver crime increase.

Its possible Sessions was referring to the crime increase in Denver. The number of crimes has risen 44 percent since adult-use marijuana became legal in 2012. However, local law enforcement does not believe marijuana is the issue. Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson told the Denver Post that crime is up, but added,I dont know if you can relate it to marijuana.

Denver has tracked marijuana-related crime since 2012, and found that such crimes constitute less than 1 percent of all crimes in the city, the Post reported. The city report found 183 crimes related to the legalized medical and adult-use marijuana industries in 2015.

Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.

Related:

Somebody Needs to Tell Jeff Sessions That Legalized Marijuana Does Not Cause More Crime

Women Cannabis Entrepreneurs Gather In L.A. for Empowerment Summit

Oakland Strives to Rejuvenate Economically by Becoming California's Cannabis Capital



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Ecommerce, to put it simply, is the present and the future. According to eMarketer, online sales are expected to exceed $4 trillion by 2020!

Related: 6 Common Mistakes People Make When Starting a Business

But, retail will also always be a story of David and Goliath. In the past, stores battled bricks-and-mortar giants named Walmart and Kmart. Now, their names are Amazon and eBay. The harsh reality for smaller ecommerce outlets is that even the slightest hiccup can turn customers away and, in turn, hurt their revenue.

To ensure your own customer base is continually growing and improving your bottom line, here are four common blunders you can and should avoid in the early stages of your ecommerce business.

1. Creating content for the wrong audience

Content marketing and ecommerce go hand-in-hand. The primary goal is to put the right messaging in front of the most susceptible eyes. If used correctly, your branded content can be your most valuable asset. On the flip side, it can be one of the biggest disconnects with your target audience.

For this reason, it's vital that you spend the time to properly plan out each message you send and realize the effect it will have. This involves playing to the prevalent concerns and issues within your industry. Luckily, there are all kinds of tools out there to help you with this.

Related: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your First Business

For instance, Digimind is a web-monitoring software that allows you to track certain keywords across social media networks and major news outlets. By engaging in in-depth research, you can glean all sorts of insights for content inspiration.

Even more important than finding the hot button topics is your need to create content that adheres to different levels of interest. For example, someone casually browsing to find solutions to his problems is not typically looking for aggressive sales-oriented content; he (or she) is looking to be educated. Therefore, you need to examine the entire buyer's journey of your ecommerce business and know how to gear content accordingly.

2. Misjudging demand

Inventory issues can bring your ship down faster than anything else. Because ecommerce is a relatively new method for conducting retail operations, businesses everywhere face a number of growing pains and miscalculations. The smallest error can spell disaster for your logistics and eat into your profits.

The good news is that ecommerce and big data are evolving parallel to each other. Predictive analytics is no longer a futuristic fantasy. It is now a valuable tool to help businesses get a good sense of their customer demand and save money when it comes to inventory management.

Solutions like Forecastly use big data analysis and demand-forecasting to help Amazon sellers eliminate arbitrary guesswork to help prevent stocking issues across the board. Small businesses and traders also usually face huge limitations when it comes to estimating stock, taking advantage of market inefficiencies and mastering their supply chain.

Forecastly can help: Its algorithm uses hard data to determine the ideal amount of stock and makes sure there are no surprises in the replenishment process. Thus, anyone can compete with the biggies while riding on Amazon's back!

To survive in the turbulent world of ecommerce, be sure that each and every important decision you make is backed up and validated with proper data.

3. Not investing in web security

Cyberattacks are becoming more commonplace. That's the unfortunate state of the world we currently live in. When you run an ecommerce website, customers expect their information to be kept safe. Because important financial data is being shared, you cannot take any risks whatsoever. If your platform isn't secured, all your efforts at marketing and sales tactics will not bring substantial results.

If you are new to ecommerce, or have not taken serious precautions to ensure your platform is safe for everyone, don't waste any more time in getting to know the basics of website security.

Start by learning about PCI Security Standards. These were put in place to instill safety guidelines for how merchants process, store and transmit payment information. Because the landscape is constantly changing, be sure to keep up to date with any changes or new requirements.

Next, get your SSL certificate. This ensures that all information sent to your site, such as usernames, passwords, credit card information and more, is encrypted and secured. Not only is this mandatory in terms of PCI Standards, but it gives your customers a sense of assurance that their information is protected.

Failing to prioritize web security is one of the biggest blunders you can make when you're running an ecommerce store. The risks can be fatal to your operation.

4. Underestimating the value of customer service

One of the most common myths associated with ecommerce is that customer service is irrelevant. In the early days, this was true to an extent. However, in 2017, it is a key factor that sets online businesses apart.

For an ecommerce business, there are many ways in which you can excel at customer service. As all business owners know, shoppers are incredibly impatient. Nowadays, instead of waiting and getting angry, they will simply move on to the next company that can better meet their needs. For this reason, customer interactions need to be quick, easy and meaningful. No one likes calling a hotline, only to wait to be connected to a support agent while having to listen to elevator music.

Implementing a live-chat feature on your platform will be a win for everyone. Customers can get connected with a service rep within seconds. Your staff can assist multiple people at once.

The choice for customers is simple. They can either get in their car, navigate traffic and fight their way through crowds to find what they need. Or, they can simply log on to their computer or mobile device and purchase what they need in matter of clicks. The latter trend does not appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Related: Starting a Business in 2016? Avoid These 5 'Beginner' Mistakes.

Incorporating online buying options into your business model is a huge and necessary step. Do your best to avoid these blunders during the infancy of your business as they will come back to haunt you further down the road.

Related:

These 4 Planning-Stage Blunders Can Kill Your Ecommerce Bottom Line

What You Heard One Time Worked for Somebody Is Not a Real Business Strategy

Successful Business Transitions Start With Early Planning



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


State police have appointed a new troop commander in central New York.

Major Philip T. Rougeux, 57, of Oneida, will be the 29th Troop Commander of Troop D.

According to a press release Tuesday, Rougeux began working with state police in March 1986 and has served most of his career in central New York.

In 1992, Rougeux was promoted to sergeant, a rank he held for 12 years. Then, in 2003, he was appointed to lieutenant and was assigned as assistant zone commander at SP North Syracuse.

Ten years later, Rougeux was promoted to captain and assigned to Troop E in Canandaigua, where he remained until 2014. At that time, he was transferred to the Professional Standards Bureau covering troops D and C.

Rougeux's appointment to Troop D Commander was effective July 13. He replaced Major Francis S. Coots who retired in February.
An Ontario County man is facing charges for allegedly having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl at his home over the past two weeks.

Steven C. Feliciano, 55, of Manchester, has been charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a class D felony. He was processed at the New York State Police barracks in Canandaigua and arraigned in Town of Manchester Court.

Feliciano was remanded to the Ontario County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

The state police is continuing its investigation into whether Feliciano committed similar acts with other girls. Any witnesses or other potential victims are asked to contact the state police at (585) 398-4100.
Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean
The following editorial appeared in The Orange County Register on Wednesday, July 12:

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.

Latest version of Trumpcare still terrible

The following is an editorial from Bloomberg View.

Congressional Republicans have just produced their latest version of Trumpcare. On the plus side, this one gives up on earlier proposals to repeal three taxes that the Affordable Care Act imposes on the wealthy, making it a bit less fiscally reckless. On the minus side, its still a terrible plan.

Its designed to drastically weaken Americas health security  and its therefore a woeful alternative to Obamacare. Exactly how much worse wont be known until next week, when the Congressional Budget Office issues its evaluation. Whats clear right now is that moderate Republicans in the Senate should reject it.

The new bill incorporates Sen. Ted Cruzs idea to let insurers sell cheap policies that fail to cover preventive care and other basic health needs as long as they also sell ACA-approved plans on the exchanges. This probably would, as intended, lower premiums for healthy people who buy the cheap policies. But where would these people turn when they get sick and discover their insurance covers little to none of their expenses?

Meanwhile, as the ACA-approved plans attract the less healthy, their premiums would rise to unaffordable levels. Trumpcare 4.0 offers an extra $70 billion to help insurers shoulder these peoples costs, for a total of $182 billion over 10 years. But that amount of money is unlikely to be nearly enough to help the system work.

As if all this werent bad enough, the new Trumpcare bill maintains the old ones plan to gut Medicaid by 35 percent over two decades. The $45 billion thats been thrown in to cover opioid-addiction treatment over the next 10 years would not undo the damage.

This legislation, like the earlier versions of Trumpcare, is designed not to improve the U.S. health-care system but to solve a political problem for Republicans in Washington. This betrays a shameful sense of priorities. The responsible thing is to make sure the measure doesnt pass.

A federal court reaffirms the right to film police

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday, July 12:

Another federal appeals court has ruled that people have a First Amendment right to videotape police in public and that it is illegal for officers to interfere with those doing so. The ruling, by the 3rd U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Philadelphia, is a welcome development and police departments should make sure their officers understand it.

This is the sixth time a federal appeals court has upheld the publics right to photograph and film officers in public. Even without the ruling, it would be virtually impossible, given the proliferation of smartphones, for officers to halt the videotaping of major incidents unfolding in crowded public settings. In those situations, there are too many people recording from too many angles for police to shut down all recording.

The ruling is more likely to afford protection to the lone bystander who pulls out a phone and starts filming. At the center of the 3rd Circuit ruling, for example, were the cases of a college student cited for filming police as they broke up a party outside of a Philadelphia house and an activist who recorded officers arresting a fracking demonstrator.

Police want their version of what transpires to be law, and they sometimes discourage filming so they can control the narrative. As the 3rd Circuit ruled, however, smartphone video cuts both ways. It has sometimes discredited officers conduct and other times helped to clear them of wrongdoing.

The ruling isnt foolproof; people cannot interfere with officers as they do their jobs, for example, or trespass on a crime scene. Also, officers still could file bogus charges against someone whose only offense was filming. But the greater understanding there is of this First Amendment right, the more police will accept it.

The FCCs single digit for robocallers

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, July 14:

If youve ever had your dinner interrupted by an annoying robocall sales pitch  and who hasnt?  this will make you smile: The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $120 million fine for a Miami man accused of duping customers in an alleged vacation telemarketing scam in 2016. Victims were told that the trip packages or time-shares came from well-known travel companies, authorities say. They didnt.

That epic fine, the largest proposed in FCC history, is for more than 96 million illegal phone calls made in just three months.

That fine sounds about right to us. We hope other scammers get the message. Ditto for companies that ring cellphones without the owners consent. On Thursday, the FCC fined a New Mexico-based robocalling company $2.88 million for robocalls to cellphones without prior consent.

This  is the latest step weve taken to stop the scourge of illegal robocalls, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. But it wont be the last.

The FCC is moving to create new rules to crack down on robocalls that torment U.S. consumers. Telemarketers pummeled Americans with about 2.4 billion robocalls a month in 2016. Thats a lot of naps, conversations, novels, meals and episodes of Flip or Flop interrupted.

To be clear, many telemarketers play within the rules. Even some robocalls are legal. Also, consumers have long been able to sign up for the National Do Not Call Registry to stop unwanted telemarketing calls.

But that only fends off telemarketers who abide by the law. Scammers dont. These phone spammers may claim to be from the Internal Revenue Service or other trusted institutions. Their rackets can be lucrative: The IRS says telemarketers demanding phony back taxes have reaped more than $54 million from thousands of Americans.

Why are these illegal calls hard to trace and stop? Because many are spoofed, meaning the caller ID is fake. It obscures the callers true identity. Tracking the source, often overseas, is difficult: Phone calls dont carry an electronic code similar to those of emails.

Moreover, telecom companies cant simply block all calls that register no caller ID; some of those are legitimate, possibly from law enforcement or from domestic violence agencies.

The FCC says a telecom industry task force made significant progress this year to combat fraudulent calls and stop them before they ring through to customers phones.

Meanwhile, many anti-phone-spam internet sites and apps can help defend your phone. (Weve had good luck for years with the free services at NoMoRobo.com.) The FCC also recommends that you not answer calls from unknown numbers. Let them go to voicemail. If you do mistakenly answer a robocall, dont engage. Hang up. You wont hurt anyones feelings.

Opioids under attack: Government now is on the offensive

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday, July 14:

Two announcements from the federal government represent progress in the fight against opioids. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration said it will require drug manufacturers to better educate physicians about the painkillers. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced a $35 million settlement with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a company charged with looking the other way when it had reason to believe some of its opioids were landing on the black market.

If the tide of the epidemic has not been turned, the battle at least is joined. In addition to the contributions of federal agencies, the states and local governments are becoming increasingly aggressive against drug dealers, manufacturers and the insurance companies that limit treatment for substance abuse. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has been calling on insurers to make sure they adequately cover addiction treatment, make it easy for people to access that treatment and better cover alternatives, such as physical therapy, that can reduce the need for painkillers.

Ohio and other states have sued drug companies, alleging they fueled the epidemic by underplaying or misrepresenting the drugs danger. Theres more to come. Shapiro last month said he is part of a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general that is using investigative tools, including subpoenas for documents and testimony, to determine the appropriate course of action.

Pharmaceutical companies should regard the Justice Departments settlement with Mallinckrodt as a shot across the bow. The agreement, described as the first with a manufacturer tied to the opioid crisis, carried more than a stiff financial cost. It requires the company to begin tracking its drugs as they move through the supply chain into the hands of consumers. That obligation, if required of other manufacturers and suppliers as well, should help to dampen what seems to be a free flow of drugs.

Physicians represent another potential choke point. If people arent prescribed opioids, they cant become addicted and move on to related drugs, such as heroin. Last year, Pennsylvania restricted the prescription of opioids in emergency departments and to juveniles and ramped up physician training. The FDAs expanded education mandate is another welcome step.

The FDA already requires drugmakers to provide training to physicians about extended-release opioids. Now, theyll have to offer the training about fast-acting opioids, too, and provide information about pain management and non-drug therapies (some of the same ones that Shapiro wants insurance companies to cover). Physicians dont have to accept the training, but they should. One wonders why physicians dont learn enough about the dangers of opioids in medical school. Addiction is not a moral failing. The failing would be if government and other parties did not marshal all available resources against the scourge. Increasingly, we are seeing what Shapiro has called a multidisciplinary approach.
The morning after the EU referendum last summer, I was in a buoyant mood as I set off for work.

I welcomed the decision by the British people to embrace genuine independence for our country. But the moment I arrived at the West London school where I worked as a computer science teacher, my cheerfulness was punctured.

At once I was taken aside by the headteacher, who knew where my sympathies lay, and warned not to mention Brexit in front of the staff or students. 'You can't talk about it. They are very upset and angry about the result. Besides, many of our kids are from Europe,' he told me in reproving tones.

Though I had to obey him, I found his injunction appalling on two levels. First, there was the unjust implication that the vote for Brexit was a triumph for bigotry, something I found personally offensive as a supporter of immigration.

Teaching aids told students Left-wing meant 'the NHS', 'helping people' and the idea that 'everyone should be equal'. Right-wing meant 'Hitler', 'less help for people' and inequality

Heresy

Second, there was the impulse towards censorship of views that did not fit the progressive orthodoxy. No one would be chastised in the school for expressing distress about the outcome. Only Brexiteers were to be silenced.

That reality illustrates just how the education system has become increasingly gripped by a culture of Orwellian groupthink, where only fashionable, Left-wing opinions are deemed acceptable. Any wish to deviate from this outlook  such as by backing Brexit or the Conservatives  is treated as a kind of heresy, an offensive challenge to the ruling creed.

I experienced this thinking at first hand during the 2015 General Election, when a colleague asked me how I planned to vote.

'Conservative,' I replied.

A deathly hush immediately descended on the staff room. The atmosphere became hostile. It was as if I had advocated the reintroduction of child labour or bear-baiting.

Last year, I witnessed a teacher (file pic) telling a pupil that the lead in the opinion polls for Leave was 'scary', while the executive headteacher of the West London schools where I used to work sent an email to staff soon after the Brexit vote, with a link to a petition for a second vote

'How any teacher could vote Tory is beyond me,' said my colleague sanctimoniously to general approval. The pressure towards Left-wing conformity is chilling. Schools are meant to be places of learning and intellectual exploration, but there is now a real danger that they are turning into arenas of political indoctrination.

In place of open discussion, there is aggressive propaganda. Instead of balance in teaching methods and subject matter, there is crude partisanship.

A classic example of this pattern was a teaching aid for pupils at a Kent school, asking them the difference between the Left and the Right.

Like something issued by the Politburo at the height of the Soviet Empire, this document told students that Left-wing meant 'the NHS', 'helping people' and the theory that 'everyone should be equal'.

Right-wing meant 'Hitler', 'less help for people' and a rejection of equality  a patent nonsense given that Britain's only two female Prime Ministers have been Tories.

But this kind of bias is now just part of the fabric of modern British schooling.

Last year, I witnessed a teacher telling a pupil that the lead in the opinion polls for Leave was 'scary', while the executive headteacher of the West London schools where I used to work sent an email to staff soon after the Brexit vote, with a link to a petition calling for a second EU referendum.

Not all teachers subscribe to this conventional Left-wing thinking, however  as I learnt last year when I wrote an article on a Conservative website. In it I argued that 'pretty much throughout their entire educational career, young people are being trained into a Lefty way of thinking'.

I added that: 'We should be encouraging our students to engage in important political issues. We certainly shouldn't be censoring one side of the argument.'

In response, I received a large number of messages from other teachers who expressed their relief that someone had spoken out against the stifling climate of Left-wing dominance. Disturbingly, however, many felt that they could not be open about their political beliefs in the present, quasi-McCarthyite, culture, where Conservatism is regarded as a form of treachery against the progressive Establishment.

In one particularly outrageous move during the General Election, a letter from headteachers to parents at no fewer than 3,000 schools (file pic) in 14 different local authority areas wailed about 'the dreadful state of school finances'

So they are forced to remain silent, while the brainwashing continues on an epic scale. It is no wonder that young people overwhelmingly support the Left, given the barrage of one-sided political education to which they are subjected.

I recall, during the London mayoral elections last year, travelling with pupils on an official school trip to a set of hustings entitled the 'Citizens' Accountability Assembly' in the East of the capital.

On the way up on the bus, one teacher began handing out leaflets for the Liberal Democrats  a move that, to his surprise, I stopped by telling him it was inappropriate. But the Assembly turned out to be even more anti-Conservative.

Bullying

Essentially, it was little more than a gigantic rally for the Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, particularly because the organisers, a movement called Citizens UK, promulgated a raft of Left-wing policies that included more social housing, a living wage for Londoners, and an amnesty for undocumented migrants.

Why should school pupils be made to endure this Leftist love-in masquerading as a candidates' debate?

The same misrepresentation can be seen in the Left-wing bullying about so-called 'Tory cuts' in education. Over recent months, senior figures in British schooling have abandoned all pretence of impartiality in their relentless campaign against the Government.

In one particularly outrageous move during the General Election, a letter from headteachers to parents at no fewer than 3,000 schools in 14 different local authority areas wailed about 'the dreadful state of school finances'.

The propaganda has continued since the Election. At one school at Gospel Oak in North London a fortnight ago, the headteacher held a rally to protest against the Tories.

Grabbing the microphone in front of 150 demonstrators, including parents and pupils, John Hayes declared: 'Protest and campaigning actually work. We know education was a decisive factor in reducing Tory votes... The speculation is that another election is on its way. Let's make sure the biggest winners are our kids'.

Among the banners at this rally was one which trumpeted: 'Education for all. Shame on you, Theresa May.'

Malignant

John Hayes is typical of the modern breed of headteachers who see themselves as the vanguard of anti-Toryism.

Tellingly, during the General Election, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was given a rapturous reception when he addressed the conference of the National Association of Headteachers, the event resembling more a congress of the hard-Left group Momentum than a gathering of responsible education leaders.

Other teaching unions have been just as malignant. In the run-up to the General Election, the militant National Union of Teachers put out a video about 'Tory cuts' which was viewed on Facebook by 4 million people. 'We want to put pressure on every candidate to pledge to oppose school cuts... We can reach parents with this and we can make a difference,' said NUT General Secretary Kevin Courtney.

The NUT, like the other unions and the rest of the education establishment, certainly made a difference. The tragedy is it is such an undemocratic one, further cementing the stranglehold of Left-wing thought on British education.

Left-wing campaigners love to blather about tolerance, but in truth, when it comes to schooling, they are deeply intolerant of any viewpoints other than their own.
Ever had to call in sick with a headache or food poisoning because you felt too awkward - or embarrassed - to say you had terrible period pain?

One Mumbai-based company is now offering women an automatic paid day off on the first day of their period if they have severe cramps - or other menstrual pain - making being in the office unmanageable.

Culture Machine Media released a YouTube video featuring some of its 75 female employees to mark the policy launch, and created a petition on Change.org calling for First Day Of Period (FOP) Leave Policy to be implemented across India.

The firm behind the new policy argues that women should not be made to feel embarrassed about needing time off due to severe period pain

The company argues that women should not have to 'keep periods hidden', writing alongside the video: 'It's time we address that women menstruate and it is okay to take a day off to get through the discomfort.'

The first day was chosen, the firm explained, because it was when most women reported experiencing bad pain.

When the video - which has now been viewed more than 135,000 times - was shot, Culture Machine employees had no idea about the plan.

It shows female staff talking about how they feel on the first day of their periods and asking them if they have ever had to make up excuses to take time off to cope.

The responses varied, with some saying they experienced severe pain and others reporting mood swings. All said that they would like the option of taking the day off.

Some had previously felt too awkward to explain to a male boss why they couldn't make it into the office.

On discovering the policy would be implemented, one employee said: 'I think it's damn cool in the sense that it is saying: Hey! [Bad period pain] is a good enough reason for you not to come to work.'

When their launch video - which has now been viewed more than 135,000 times - was shot, Culture Machine employees had no idea about the plan

The video shows female staff talking about how they feel on the first day of their periods and asking them if they have ever had to make up excuses to take time off to cope

On discovering the policy would be implemented, one employee said: 'I think it's damn cool in the sense that it is saying: Hey! [Bad period pain] is a good enough reason for you not to come to work.'

While the company's petition, launched in conjunction with female employees, has received 25,000 signatures within one week and interest is growing.

The petition, which Culture Machine has committed to delivering to India's Ministry of Woman and Child Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development, states: 'It's no secret that period cramps are the worst, but over the years women have had to show up at work and mask their pain with silly excuses.

'Recognizing this pain and the taboo around it, Culture Machine Media Pvt. Ltd. has initiated a leave policy, called First Day of Period (FOP) Leave, as a part of which women can take a leave on the first day of their period, which is when the pain is usually the worst.

'We, the women at Culture Machine's Blush, have the privilege, if we may call it that, to apply for a leave on the day when the discomfort is unmanageable, no questions asked. Now, we want the rest of the women in India to have the same right.'

While the company's petition, launched in conjunction with female employees, has received 25,000 signatures within one week and interest is growing

'We, the women at Culture Machine's Blush, have the privilege, if we may call it that, to apply for a leave on the day when the discomfort is unmanageable, no questions asked. Now, we want the rest of the women in India to have the same right'

The company is not the first to launch 'menstrual leave' as a policy. Nike adopted it back in 2007 and being allowed time off for period pain is a federal legal requirement in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

And the Italian parliament is currently debating a bill which would mean companies would have to offer up to three days paid menstrual leave. If it passes, Italy will be the first European country to champion the policy.

But Italy already has one of the lowest rates of female workers in Europe - only 61 percent, well below the European average of 72 percent - and some believe the law would actively discourage companies from hiring female staff.

When the debate was announced in March this year Daniela Piazzalunga, an economist, told the Washington Post: 'Women are already taking days off because of menstrual pains, but the new law would allow them to do so without using sick leaves or other permits.

'The demand for female employees among companies might decrease, or women could be further penalized both in terms of salary and career advancement.'

And Miriam Goi, a feminist writer at Vice Italy, also said it could 'end up reinforcing stereotypes about women being more emotional during their periods.'

The issue has been debated in the UK, but currently women are only entitled to menstrual leave in a few companies, such as Bristol-based Coexist, which launched the scheme last year.
PHOENIX  Prosecutors won't bring charges against former House Speaker David Gowan for getting more than $12,000 in taxpayer funds for time and travel spent during his ill-fated campaign for Congress.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich said his attorneys and investigators found a lot of questionable, even I would say unethical behavior in the actions of Gowan. These included multiple trips that Gowan took around the state in 2016 while running for Congress  many far from his legislative district  while saying he was on state business, a claim that enabled him to get reimbursed by the state for his expenses.

And Brnovich said staffers found multiple uses of a state vehicle for what appear to be personal purposes.

But it did not rise to the level of criminal conduct, he said, because there is insufficient proof that Gowan had both actual criminal intent as well as knowledge of the laws that were being broken. And that, Brnovich said, ends the matter.

At the end of the day as a prosecutor your job is not to win at all costs, he said.

It's not to throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks, Brnovich continued. If there's not a reasonable likelihood of conviction, you don't move forward on a case.

But Brnovich sidestepped the question of whether he believes that Gowan's conduct clearly was unethical.

I believe that the facts in this case speak for themselves, he said.

I do think that when you're a public official it's very, very important to avoid any sort of appearance of impropriety, the attorney general continued. I will leave it to the people to make their own judgments.

Despite the lack of any prosecution, the investigation has had positive effects.

Even before the probe started, Gowan reimbursed the state more than $12,000, saying that it was simply an error that he got all that money.

And Brnovich pointed out that, even as investigators were reviewing evidence against Gowan, current House Speaker J.D. Mesnard enacted new travel restrictions on members a year, a move he said he took specifically in reaction to the problems with Gowan's travel.

That new policy limits when lawmakers can charge mileage to the state for trips to the Capitol and around their legislative districts. Mesnard said the rules, coupled with public disclosure, should prevent abuse.

And Mesnard has pretty much made the use of state fleet vehicles off limits to House members, saying that should be reserved only for the most limited of circumstances.

In a prepared statement, Gowan said the findings back his claim that mistakes were made but any errors were unintentional and that no laws were broken. But he took a shot at those who were critical of his practices, calling them a handful of opportunists looking to settle a political score or score political points.

Gowan eventually dropped out of the 2016 congressional race. But he is seeking a political comeback of sorts: He already has filed paperwork to run for the state Senate from his southeast Arizona legislative district.

It was Gowan, a Sierra Vista Republican, who initially sought the probe after the Arizona Capitol Times reported on his travels in early 2016.

He called them errors and nothing more, saying there was no nefarious intent, despite the cynicism that pervades some of the newspaper accounts.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson who headed the investigation, said Gowan himself precipitated some of the problems in 2015, changing policy to allow some members of House leadership of both parties to claim expenses for as many days as they wanted. That was a sharp change from before where such expenses were limited to twice a week when the legislature was not in session.

Now the per diem pay for members of leadership was at their control  they could set up meetings each day, and get additional pay, Lawson wrote.

In this case, Gowan began to schedule a large number of 'official' activities well beyond the boundaries of his southeastern-Arizona district, the report says. He said Gowan argued that it was justified because, as speaker of the House he was a representative of all of the state.

But Lawson said it was not that simple.

This change coincided with Gowan's decision to seek a congressional seat in a district that largely did not overlap with his legislative district's boundaries, he reported. The change permitted him to spend significantly more days traveling to locations across the state on official business  trips for which he would seek reimbursement.

And Lawson even prepared a map showing many of the trips were in the congressional district he sought to represent  and how few were in other areas of the state.

Still, Lawson said it was a staffer who felt that she needed to submit the reimbursement forms despite not having good communication with Gowan.

This does not meet the standard for criminal intent, the attorney wrote.

Lawson found similar problems in investigating Gowan's claims for travel reimbursement, saying these, too, were submitted by a staffer.

And Lawson said Gowan's calendars, provided to investigators, were unclear in which events were for political purposes and which were in his official capacity.

There is only one clear allegation of a political event where Gowan arrived in a state vehicle  a political event in SaddleBrooke on Oct. 14, 2015, the report states. To file a charge based upon this allegation, additional corroboration would be needed  and that corroboration has not be found by investigators.

Lawson did find some other incidents, like when Gowan arrived at a Flagstaff radio station to talk about policy matters. Gowan said it was the host who asked him about his political campaign, which he answered.

This does not seem like a clear cut violation of the statute, given the mixed purpose of the event, Lawson wrote. A conviction based on these facts seems unlikely.

In making the reimbursement, Stephanie Grisham, Gowan's publicist, said at the time that nearly $9,700 of what he paid was for mileage in his personal car which actually was driven in a state vehicle. That amount, she said, also included overestimating distances on trips in his own car.

There also was $727 for use of state vehicles for personal business and $1,655 for days he had claimed he was working but was not. Grisham, now press aide to Melania Trump, said the problem was due to errors made by staffers in assuming Gowan had been driving his personal vehicle when he instead had a fleet vehicle.

The restrictions Mesnard instituted are designed to keep that from happening, at least in part by clamping down on the use of state cars and making reimbursement requests more transparent.

A fleet vehicle is not to be used as a substitute for one's private vehicle or other means of transportation for commuting, or solely for the convenience of the traveler, the policy states. They also cannot be used because of the distance between a lawmaker's home and the Capitol.

The policy also requires Mesnard's permission before taking out a fleet vehicle and pretty much says that won't be granted to lawmakers traveling alone without another legislator or staffer.
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In 2016, the heartbreaking photos of Nancy and Charlie McLean cradling their dying five-day-old baby boy, Edison, touched thousands of people around the world.

The devastated parents, from Sydney, had found out that their son was diagnosed with an extremely rare metabolic condition called non-ketotic hyperglycinaemia on the third day of his life and he passed away four days later.

And on Thursday, 18 months on, the couple welcomed newborn son, Henley, into the world.

Photos of the emotional home birth were captured by the same photographer, James Day, who they had asked to join them at the hospital to capture each moment.

What the couple and James did not know however, was how soon little Henley would arrive.

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In 2016, the heartbreaking photos of Nancy and Charlie McLean cradling their dying five-day-old baby boy Edison touched thousands of people around the world

And on Thursday, 18 months on, the couple welcomed newborn son Henley into the world

Photos of the emotional home birth were captured by the same photographer, James Day , who they had asked to join them at the hospital to capture each moment (but Henley arrived sooner than anybody expected)

James was asked to make his way over to the couple's home at 5.51pm and advised to take his time because it was going to be a 'long, boring night'... but by 7.28pm, Henley had arrived.

'As I opened the door I was reminded of the last time I was there. It was to deliver a book of photos of Edison. A few minutes after I got there Nancy's water broke. Charlie was downstairs packing the car so we could make our way to the hospital. We didn't make it that far,' James wrote on his Facebook page.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Nancy, a doula, said that while the home birth was unexpected, it was perfect.

'We were being looked after by the Royal Women's Hospital in Randwick, the same hospital that looked after us with Eddy, and the plan was to birth there. But Henley just came too quickly - he just wasn't interested in doing it at the hospital which was fine,' Nancy said.

'I work with pregnant women and attend lots of births and help women with their pregnancy and prenatal planning so I am pretty comfortable. I think if it was your first time or weren't as comfortable maybe it would be different but for me it was just absolutely divine.'

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Nancy, a doula, said that while the home birth was unexpected, it was perfect

'It was magic, just absolutely magical,' Nancy said

Pictured is baby Henley with a photo of Edison

Nancy started having mild contractions and was excited to head off to the hospital when she realised that wasn't going to happen.

'We had the suitcase prepared with all of the stuff and then James arrived and I started having a couple of really strong contractions where I had to moan a little bit through them. Charlie said the car was packed so I stood up and my water broke... I laughed,' she said.

'I went to the bathroom and had a feel and I felt Henley's head coming through so I told them that we weren't going anywhere, the baby was here.'

The time between Nancy's first cramps to birth was just 4.5 hours.

''I got everyone into the bathroom and then I held his head in place through one contraction - I had the urge to push but didn't. I gave him some time. And then next time I had the urge to push I squatted on the bathroom floor and he was here,' she said.

'It was just really, really peaceful. I think I expected that same adrenaline/love/awe thing I had the first time I saw Eddy but it was just peace,' Nancy said

'I had him in my arms finally and he was grimacing and crying and he cried immediately... it was just perfect and it felt like everything was as it was supposed to be,' she said

'Charlie knew I felt passionately about birthing undisturbed so he supported me by creating a calm safe space and let me be in control and work intuitively with my own body to birth Henley. I supported Henley as he came through and lifted him straight up but I knew Charlie's hands were right below, ready to support us if we needed anything at all. The trust between us, and in the power of women to birth their own babies, was fundamental.

'It worked out perfectly. My doula, midwife, Charlie and I discussed what needed to be done should I birth very quickly and I felt very prepared.'

Paramedics arrived afterwards to check on Nancy and baby Henley as the couple enjoyed time with their baby boy.

'It was magic, just absolutely magical,' Nancy said.

And of the first time seeing him?

'Peaceful. It was just really, really peaceful. I think I expected that same adrenaline/love/awe thing I had the first time I saw Eddy but it was just peace,' Nancy said.

'I had him in my arms finally and he was grimacing and crying and he cried immediately. Someone got me a pillow and put it up against the bath and I just sat back and held him in my arms and it was just the most... love. It was just perfect and it felt like everything was as it was supposed to be.'

'There's quite a lot of triggers there for us with feeding so the fact that this guy is such a champ at feeding is just amazing  our hearts just soar,' Nancy said

'We have a beautiful framed photo in the NICU above the bed that Eddy was in of us and Eddy and one of his nurses so we took Henley to see that and that was quite emotional,' Nancy said

Nancy said she and Charlie have simply been 'floating' since.

And while every moment with Henley has been perfection, there have been some difficult moments.

'We've been really lucky, everything has been perfect. He was four kilos and was a big boy and my milk came in on day two which was normal and he feeds like a champ. With Eddy, he couldn't feed because it was a metabolic condition - breast milk was poison to him,' Nancy said.

'There's quite a lot of triggers there for us with feeding so the fact that this guy is such a champ at feeding is just amazing  our hearts just soar.

'Day three was Sunday and we had to take him up to the Royal for normal day three checks and that was really confronting. We took Eddy into the hospital on day three to get some breastfeeding help and have his hearing tests and we took Henley out to get these tests as well. With Eddy we didn't leave.

'We also had to go into NICU and have bloods taken with Henley to do final tests to rule out NKH and that was really hard. We had to see consultants and do the tests and it was quite confronting. We have a beautiful framed photo in the NICU above the bed that Eddy was in of us and Eddy and one of his nurses so we took Henley to see that and that was quite emotional.'

'But we got to leave with our baby.'

Nancy said she is blown away by how far their story has travelled and hopes to continue to spread their message

'It's been absolutely phenomenal. We felt very strongly about allowing Edison's story to become public to try and give a voice to all the people who didn't feel like they could speak about their losses,' Nancy said

Nancy said she is blown away by how far their story has travelled and hopes to continue to spread their message.

'It's been absolutely phenomenal. We felt very strongly about allowing Edison's story to become public to try and give a voice to all the people who didn't feel like they could speak about their losses,' Nancy said.

'Last time we just had thousands of people from all over the world, all these places you'd never imagine your story reaching, telling us how it changed their relationships or their relationships with death or it enabled them to tell a story that they hadn't felt they were able to tell.

'So it's not just support for us individually and personally, it's the support that just being open has given to so many people for themselves. Even if you haven't been through loss, the story that we want to share is that once a moment is gone, it's gone.

'Hug your child that tiny bit closer or your loved ones. Spend that bit of extra time with your grandparents because you just don't know how much time you've got left.

On Wednesday the 23rd of March, James was called to join Nancy and Charlie, then newlyweds, and capture the final moments of their newborn's Edison's life after he was born with a rare metabolic condition

In January, 2016, James had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Charlie and Nancy, who was seven weeks away from giving birth

'At the moment I just spend my time staring at this little guy. This is the only time in his life he is just going to let me stare at him and kiss him all over and look at him and watch him breathe and he's not going to let me do that in a couple of years.

'I am just on cloud nine, we are both just floating.'

In March, Nancy and Charlie lost their first baby Edison when he was just seven days old - their final goodbyes captured by James, who had photographed their wedding just months earlier.

'The baby in her belly was already oh so very loved. The baby was included and remembered at every turn during the day. It was beautiful to witness,' James wrote at the time.

On Wednesday the 23rd of March, 2016, James received a phone call he never expected.

'The words that people were saying were just too powerful not to be recorded in some way,' he said

Mr Day then spent the day capturing each precious moment The McLeans spent with their newborn son Edison - each photo and piece of footage highlighting the immense love they and their family had for the beautiful little boy

'I received a call to say that Nancy and Charlie's baby boy, Edison, wasn't doing so well and they asked if I could make the drive up to Royal Randwick Women's Hospital as they were going to have to say goodbye,' he said.

'I got up there as quickly as I could and documented some of the family coming to visit. I started simply taking still images, but quickly realised that I'd need to quickly work out how to film (video) the moments that were unfolding in front of me.

'The words that people were saying were just too powerful not to be recorded in some way.'

James then spent the day capturing each precious moment the McLeans spent with their newborn son Edison - each photo and piece of footage highlighting the immense love they and their family had for the beautiful little boy.

'He resumed breathing for himself and gave us two more beautiful days where we were blessed enough to take him for a picnic at the beach and even bring him back home again for 24hrs of cuddle time in our own bed,' the couple said

'Our angel left our world at 10:25pm on Day 7; three hours short of being a week old,' the couple wrote

'We spent those days laughing as much as possible. We made a promise to each other and to Edison to celebrate his life, not to waste any second,' they said

Edison was diagnosed with the rare condition on the third day of his life.

The tiny newborn's ventilator, which had been breathing for him, was turned off on the Wednesday and the couple said goodbye.

'But our little fighter had other ideas. He resumed breathing for himself and gave us two more beautiful days where we were blessed enough to take him for a picnic at the beach and even bring him back home again for 24hrs of cuddle time in our own bed,' the couple said in a tribute to their son.

'Our angel left our world at 10:25pm on Day 7 [Good Friday]; three hours short of being a week old.'

The couple said that while it's 'hard to find the positives in losing your child, Edison has taught us a beautiful lesson we need to share'.

'We only had seven days with our baby boy, but we take immense comfort out of the truth that in those seven days he knew only love. We spent those days laughing as much as possible.
Any fan of Tess Holliday knows that there is no way that she would let a day like National Nude Day go by without mention.

The never-shy 32-year-old model celebrated the day with a seriously risque image showing herself modelling totally nude, and posing in a particularly provocative fashion.

The photo shows her lying on her side with her left arm over her head and her left knee raised up towards it. Several cut-away lines keep the image from violating any of Instagram nudity policies.

Showing off: Tess Holliday celebrated National Nude Day on Friday by sharing this risque image on Instagram

Proud of her curves: Tess has never been one to shy away from showing a little - or a lot - of skin

'They hate you cuz they ain't you,' Tess wrote in the image's caption, preempting the inevitable hate that would be spewed by her critics in the comments.

She also added hashtags for 'eff your beauty standards' and National Nude Day in the caption.

Tess Holliday is certainly never one to shy away from striking a pose. She proudly showed off her 'bikini body' just last week while vacationing in Palm Springs.

The mom kicked off the workweek last Monday by sharing a sultry video of herself modeling a flirty black two-piece swimsuit by Monif C. Plus Sizes while enjoying a romantic getaway with her husband, Australian artist and businessman Nick Holliday.

When posting the footage, the size 22 model reminded her 1.4 million Instagram followers that 'every body is a bikini body' and hit back at her critics by noting that she is 'still fat'.

Bikini body! Tess took to Instagram last Monday to share a sultry video of herself showing off her flirty two-piece swimsuit

Got it? Flaunt it! The 32-year-old proudly flashed her stomach while modeling the stylish suit

The clip begins with Tess pointing the camera at her face as she slowly moves her head back and forth to show off her dangling earrings, which feature two fuzzy pink balls.

The model's long auburn hair is pulled up into bun, and she is wearing a ruffled, off-the-shoulder swim top featuring a crisscross design.

Tess slowly moves the camera down her body to show off her stomach and the crisscross design featured on the hips of her bikini bottom.

'Bikini body ready for summer,' she captioned the footage, using the hashtags: '#effyourbeautystandards #stillfat #everybodyisabikinibody.'

Loving the loo: Tess wore the swimsuit on her last day vacationing in Palm Springs

Tess is clearly a fan of the stylish swimsuit, and earlier that week she shared a poolside photos of herself wearing it to mark her last day staying at The Rossi Hotel in Palm Springs.

'Enjoying my last day of baecation,' she captioned the image, which appears to have been taken on the same day that she filmed her most recent bikini video.

Tess posted plenty of photos during her vacation, including snaps of her modeling a few of her chic vacation outfits.

The mother-of-two also posted a picture of herself posing in front of the scenic view at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, holding nachos and a Stella Artois beer.

The picture was presumably taken by Nick, and Tess couldn't resist poking fun at one of her fellow tourists.

Looking good: During the trip, Tess shared plenty of photos of herself modeling her stylish outfits

Romantic getaway: Tess was celebrating her two-year wedding anniversary with her husband Nick Holliday

Congrats! Tess surprised her 1.4 million Instagram followers on her birthday eariler this month by revealing she has been secretly married for two years

'When you go to a romantic mountain top look out with your nachos & beer & make the man standing beside you in an anti feminist tshirt reaaaaaal uncomfortable #effyourbeautystandards,' she wrote.

Tess celebrated her 32nd birthday on July 5 by surprising her 1.4 million Instagram followers with the news that she and Nick have been secretly married for two years.

She explained she and Nick were celebrating their two-year anniversary after getting hitched privately.

Tess even shared a black and white photo of the nuptials, which shows her and Nick holding hands in front of the officiant under the watchful eye of their loved ones.

Romantic: Tess even shared a black and white photo of the nuptials, which shows her and Nick holding hands in front of the officiant under the watchful eye of their loved ones

Pair: Together, Tess and Nick are raising their one-year-old son Bowie (pictured in his father's arms) and her 10-year-old son Rylee, her child from a previous relationship

'Eff Your Beauty Standards': The body positivity advocate took to Instagram Stories last month to post a racy black and white photo of herself wearing nothing but fishnets and denim shorts

The model seems to be wearing a white dress with short sleeves and a below-the-knee cut, which reveals some of her many tattoos on her arms and legs, her gorgeous hair falling freely on her shoulders.

As for Nick, he appears to have picked a light-colored shirt and pants paired with dark dress shoes and his trademark beard.

Together, Tess and Nick are raising their one-year-old son Bowie and her 10-year-old son Rylee, her child from a previous relationship. The pair met in 2012 after Nick reached out to Tess on Tumblr to tell her he loved her body positive stance.

Their marital status a secret until Tess decided to reveal the news just in time for their two-year anniversary. The milestone came just as she turned 32, as the pair tied the knot on her birthday, July 5.

'Happy Birthday to me, annnnd also... Happy Anniversary to my Husbear @nickhollidayco,' Tess wrote in the surprise announcement. 'Yes, we got hitched two years ago today... sneaky I know.'
After her unborn baby was killed by a drugged driver on Christmas Day in 2009 and her youngest son, Nixon, was diagnosed with a rare cancerous tumour before he was even born, Brodie Donegan thought her life was set to be scarred by tragedy.

But the 36-year-old mother-of-three has finally had some good news - insofar as little Nixon has recently been given the all clear from his cancer.

This means Ms Donegan - who lives in the Central Coast - has been able to remove the bandages which encased little Nixon's head for the first time since he was born.

'He's amazing - such a little fighter,' the proud mother told Daily Mail Australia. 'He's a strong-willed toddler - his favourite word at the moment is mine!'.

Brodie Donegan's son, Nixon (pictured), was diagnosed with a rare cancer before he was even born - this meant that he had to wear bandages around his scalp

The little boy has recently been given the all clear from his cancer, which means he is able to go bandage-free for the first time since birth (pictured)

Ms Donegan (pictured with her family) has had a life stricken with tragedy - her unborn baby was killed by a drugged driver on Christmas Day in 2009

Ms Donegan spoke to FEMAIL about little Nixon; 'He's amazing - such a little fighter. He's a strong-willed toddler - his favourite word at the moment is mine!'

Nixon's life has so far been one that has been dogged by chemo, hospitals, struggle and surgery.

He was delivered early so that doctors could take action on an unknown growth, which was five centimetres long and three centimetres high.

Within two weeks, his parents, Nick and Brodie Donegan, were then told he had a rhabdoid tumour (which is typically associated with kidneys) in his scalp.

By the time he was just 18 months old, the now two-year-old Nixon had endured six rounds of surgery, ten rounds of chemotherapy and skin growing technology on what was essentially an open wound on his head.

Though the parents did not know it, after all of his treatment, the little boy was estimated to have just a 10 to 15 per cent chance of survival.

Nixon's life has so far been one that has been dogged by chemo, hospitals, struggle and surgery - by the time he was just 18 months old, the now two-year-old Nixon had endured six rounds of surgery and ten rounds of chemo (pictured as a baby)

Thankfully, the unlucky family have received this good news at just the right time - and Ms Donegan said she feels over the moon for her son and family (all pictured)

'I'm so happy and proud of Nixon,' (pictured with his siblings), she said

While the two-year-old will continue to have to have scans, they have been reduced to once every three to four months (pictured with Ms Donegan)

'I try not to think about our luck as if I do I start feeling as though I'm in movie plots,' Ms Donegan told FEMAIL last Christmas.

'Surely that's enough, surely there can't be any more grief.'

Thankfully, the unlucky family have received this good news at just the right time - and Ms Donegan said she feels over the moon for her son and family:

'I'm so happy and proud of Nixon,' she said.

'I always feel before a scan that I can't breathe, but it was like having a weight lifted after we got the results.

'Now, we don't have another scan until October and if they remain clear, we'll be able to stretch them out to one every six months. I'm not sure the scans will ever get any easier, though.'

Little Nixon is dealing well with being bandage-free for the first time, too - he still sometimes wears his beanies to protect his head from the sun

'He loves finally getting into sandpits and being on the beach and able to get messy and dirty like any other little toddler,' Ms Donegan explained (pictured: little Nixon)

Little Nixon is dealing well with being bandage-free for the first time, too.

Even though his skin is still thin and he has to wear a hat outside in the sun to protect his head, Ms Donegan said he loves it.

'Nixon loves having no bandages on and is slowly getting used to showers,' she explained.

'He loves finally getting into sandpits and being on the beach and able to get messy and dirty like any other little toddler.

She added that when he's shy he usually wants his hat back on:

'He's still conditioned to wearing his beanie and likes to wear it,' she said.

'Plus, we do need to protect the graft skin from the sun for a while longer.'

The toddler had skin growing technology on his head to help him heal (pictured with his bandages)

Nixon will soon start daycare - something which his mother has mixed feelings about (pictured on the beach)

'It's a mixture of being terrified and wanting to protect him, but also have some kind of normal life,' she explained (pictured without bandages)

Looking forward, the family hope this is the start of a new period for them as a whole - but they will still have to attend scans for a while yet:

'It's scans every three to four months till next February and then hopefully they will stretch it out to six months, and after three years each year,' Ms Donegan explained.

'He's catching up on vaccines and starting daycare soon, which I'm pretty nervous about.

'It's a mixture of being terrified and wanting to protect him, but also have some kind of normal life. But it's great that now he's like any other normal kid.'
After flying all over the world to try and beat a deadly brain tumour, five-year-old Alexia Eljourdi took her finals breaths surrounded by her family.

The brave little girl, who was diagnosed with the aggressive cancer three years ago, died at Adelaides Womens and Childrens Hospital on Sunday.

It is a devastating end to a story that captured the nation's heart thanks to Alexia's sweet smile and her family's determination to keep her fight alive.

Alexia's aunt, Nell Keeping, announced the news and paid tribute to her niece on Sunday.

Alexia Eljourdi, the five-year-old girl who has been battling an aggressive brain cancer for three years, sadly passed away on Sunday

Alexia was surrounded by family at Adelaides Womens and Childrens Hospital (pictured) before she died

Alexia's aunt, Nell Keeping, announced the news and paid tribute to her niece on Sunday

'It is with a heavy and shattered heart that I announce to our loyal journey followers that earlier tonight, Alexia grew her well-deserved fairy princess wings and flew to heaven,' she wrote.

'Alexia has battled DIPG with a constant cheeky smile - and with her fists ready for every obstacle, but it is now time for our sweet and lively angel to rest.'

Alexia, from Paralowie, South Australia, was first diagnosed with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG) when she was two years old.

Hayley Keeping had noticed her daughter's eye was turning in toward her nose and took her to three different hospitals.

'They all said it was a squint and not to worry about it,' Hayley told Daily Mail Australia in September.

'They ordered MRIs but it was taking too long, so we payed privately for our own.'

The MRI discovered a tumour on Alexia's brain stem.

'Doctors said her days were numbered from the moment she was diagnosed,' Hayley said.

Alexia, from Paralowie, South Australia, (pictured in May) was first diagnosed with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG) when she was two years old

Hayley Keeping (pictured with her husband, Alexia, and son Anton) had noticed her daughter's eye was turning in toward her nose and took her to three different hospitals

Most children who are diagnosed with DIPG die within months of their diagnosis, but Alexia beat the odds and lived for three years.

When Australian doctors told Hayley there was nothing more they could for Alexia, the mum knew there was more she could do.

'They gave us palliative care options. It's not an option that any parent in their right mind would consider,' she said.

Hayley raised more than $100,000 to send Alexia to Germany, where she received an experimental treatment called hyperthermia.

Alexia's body tissues were to high temperatures, in an attempt to damage and kill cancer cells, for two hours a day.

The family moved to the hospital in the small city of Nidda, where they lived in a secluded area without shops or cars.

Doctors told Hayley that it was just a squint and she had nothing to worry about, but a private MRI she ordered found the aggressive tumor on Alexia's brain stem

Haley raised more than $100,000 as she took Alexia from Germany to Mexico (pictured) for experimental treatment when Australian doctors said there wasn't any more they could do

When further MRI results showed the tumour was growing, Hayley hoped to take her daughter to England.

But Alexia's symptoms were getting worst, as she lost her speech and ability to walk or sit up without help in March.

Doctors in London said Alexia was too far progressed to help, so the family then sought treatment in Mexico.

It involved a doctor injecting 11 different medications into Alexia's tumour through a catheter that connected to an artery leading to the base of her brain.

Alexia (pictured last year and right with her three-year-old brother Anton) lost the ability to talk and walk in March

Alexia underwent three treatments as well as chemotherapy, and through it all Hayley continued to post pictures that showed her smile had yet to waver.

'Her fighting is over, and she is now somewhere that she can run and jump an dskip and play just as she deserves,' Nell wrote on Sunday's post.

'She has passed on to a happier, pain-free place after copious kisses, cuddles, and stories of love from her family.'

'She was and is so eternally loved, and she was assured of this love to her very last breath.'

Nell also thanked the community and followers of Alexia's journey, crediting them with helping to keep her niece fighting 'for as long as she did'.

The family is now hoping to raise money for Alexia's funeral through her GoFundMe campaign.

'Rest peacefully our sweet and sassy girl,' Nell wrote at the end of her post.

'You have earned your time to rest and be free from the restraints of DIPG. We love you more than you know.'
A mother from Queensland has shared the heartbreaking moment she was told she'd contracted listeria and passed it to her unborn baby.

Jeanya Rush, 20, from Brisbane, was six months pregnant with her second child - a baby boy - when she started to experience 'excruciating headaches and high fevers'.

The young mum told Daily Mail Australia that she later discovered she had contracted listeria - from either a pre-cut fruit salad, cream cheese or an ice-cream she had eaten - and had passed the food-born illness on to her baby boy, who she and her partner Levi had named Zephaniah.

Jeanya Rush, 20, has shared the heartbreaking moment she was told she'd contracted listeria and passed it to her unborn baby. Her son Zephaniah later died at three days old

Doctors told her the infection had left her son 'severely disabled' and she and Levi faced the agonising decision whether to let him go.

'I had tested positive for Listeria. It had infected my uterus and also reached Zephaniah's brain,' Ms Rush wrote in a heartrending Facebook post.

'He [the doctor] told us that Zephaniah could not live without the machines that aid him and if he were to survive he would be severely disabled for the rest of his life.

'He would show no emotion or understanding he would be basically be in a comatose state. And worst of all, it was our choice whether or not to let him go. Levi and I were broken. Nothing could ever describe the pain we felt in that moment.'

Ms Rush said it was the hardest decision they had ever had to make.

'He [the doctor] told us that Zephaniah could not live without the machines that aid him and if he were to survive he would be severely disabled for the rest of his life,' Ms Rush said

'It took a long time to decide. As Zephaniah stayed on life support, we were by his side and it made everything that much harder,' she wrote.

'But we both knew what we had to do and eventually Levi and I came to a decision and it was the hardest one we have ever had to make. We chose to let Zephaniah go and relieve him of his pain and suffering.'

Ms Rush had initially been told the headache and fever she was experiencing required painkillers, rest and an increase in her iron intake.

But after returning home from hospital a second time, she started to have 'horrible pains' in her stomach - which she feared were contractions.

Soon after she started vomiting.

'We chose to let Zephaniah go and relieve him of his pain and suffering,' Ms Rush said of the agonising decision she and her partner had to make

'A doctor came to check on me and she became instantly concerned as my vomit was jet black,' Ms Rush explained.

A check-up revealed she was one centimetre dilated and she was rushed to another hospital where she was told she needed a caesarean.

'It was all happening so fast. I was panicking,' she wrote, explaining that the operation 'felt long and made me so anxious to see if our boy was ok.'

Ms Rush said after her baby was born he was rushed off to an incubator where he could be monitored by specialists and aided with breathing tubes.

'I cried for what felt like hours,' she wrote.

Ms Rush had initially been told the headache and fever she was experiencing required painkillers, rest and an increase in her iron intake - but she actually had contracted listeria

'I woke up in my room with Levi by my side. I was an emotional wreck trying to hold it together. I could barely move I was in so much pain but once I gathered enough strength I had Levi put me in a wheel chair and take me down to see our boy.

'It was lovely to see all the midwives taking such good care of him. He had a bath and had been given a little knitted blanket and hat. He looked so tiny and precious, I knew in that moment I had never loved someone as much as I loved our son.'

Tragically, the next day a doctor face them 'the most shattering news' they had ever heard.

Ms Rush had tested positive for listeria - leading their baby to be severely disabled - and the young couple made the devastating decision to let him go.

'When he turned cold in my arms it felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest,' the devastated mum said

'The midwives and doctors arranged everything. We had our loved ones come in to say good bye to our boy, Zephaniah was blessed by the Elders of Levi's church, and it was one very long emotional day preparing to send our boy off,' Ms Rush wrote.

'When the time came, Levi and I were taken to a private room with Zephaniah, accompanied by 2 lovely midwives.

'They took out his breathing tubes and we held Zephaniah for approximately an hour until his final breath.

'When he turned cold in my arms it felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest.

'This experience has genuinely changed Levi and I. We miss Zephaniah every single day as he was so loved and touched the hearts of so many people,' Ms Rush said (pictured is Levi by his son's grave)

'We held him for a little while longer before the midwives took him away. We returned to our room and sat in silence. I will never forget the pure pain of that moment.'

She said she knows her story is confronting and 'some may wonder why I've chosen to share this with the world'.

'I am truly proud of how strong I am as a woman and as a Mother,' she explained.

'This experience has genuinely changed Levi and I. We miss Zephaniah every single day as he was so loved and touched the hearts of so many people. It's not just our story, it's his. In loving memory of Zephaniah Emmett Greig.'
Couples often spend hours pondering over their guest list to make sure only their nearest and dearest are there for their nuptials.

But on a rare occasion, a young Victorian couple - who met in Warragul - decided to find some of their wedding guests on classifieds website Gumtree.

Sarah Marantelli and her husband Jez Menzel, both 34 years old, noticed just two months out from tying the knot in May 2014 they had some seats available.

And instead of letting the extra seats go to waste, the pair decided to fill up their guest list by seeking 'wedding crashers' who are 'outgoing, fun and have to be drinkers'.

Bride Sarah Marantelli smiling at the camera with four out of five of her guests from Gumtree

Sarah Marantelli and her husband Jez Menzel tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in May 2014

'We had two seats available so we decided to put it out there to the Gumtree community,' Ms Marantelli told Daily Mail Australia.

'It was my husband's idea so he posted the ad on a Wednesday night. And after the media got a hold of it, we were inundated with more than 600 responses.

'There were a lot of positive feedback. People who weren't interested in coming to the wedding still took the time out to email us to say it was a nice idea.

'I had a pretty cruisy boss at the time so I tried to respond to every single comment.'

The pair ended up inviting five guests because they couldn't toss up between the applicants

The pair ended up inviting five guests because they couldn't toss up between the applicants

And the overwhelming applications included captivating stories, ranging from hilarious to out of the ordinary.

'We had a lot of people offering swaps - like "we'd come to your wedding if you come to ours?",' Ms Marantelli recalled.

'Someone had their birthday on the same day as our wedding day so they offered us all their birthday presents.

'We had a few offers from people who wanted to strip down to their birthday suit.

'From memory, one man told us he was arrested for attempting to burn down a petrol station.

'We didn't know if he was joking because we thought he might've been a bit of a character. But in the end, we though he might be risky to have.'

The pair noticed just two months out from tying the knot they had some seats available

What caught the attention for the couple were the two young men (pictured) from Geelong

After scouring through scores of applications, the pair ended up inviting five guests instead of two because they couldn't toss up between the applicants.

'We ended up paying extra for their seats because we couldn't decide,' Ms Marantelli said as she laughed.

'We had a lot of applications. People were saying "choose me" or "I'm entertaining", "I'm funny" or "I'm a blast" - they were all generic responses.

'What caught our attention were the two guys from Geelong. They said they were broke uni students so they were only coming for the free booze and conga line.'

So how did the 'wedding crashers' go on the couple's big day? Ms Marantelli said: 'They all had a really good time.'

Instead of letting the seats go to waste, the pair decided to to look for their guests on Gumtree

Ms Marantelli lives in Melbourne with her husband and their two young daughters

'We split them up among the guests and put them on different tables,' she said.

'They were awesome, they introduced themselves to family, made small talk with everyone, they were dancing and taking advantage of the alcohol.

'Paul from Canada said in his application he would sing Eye of the Tiger - he followed through with his promise. He got up on stage and did numbers with the band.

'We're still in contact with four out of five of them.'

And it isn't the first time the couple have turned to Gumtree for guests.

The couple said inviting the guests from Gumtree was 'one of the best things' at their wedding

Ms Marantelli said she has used the classifieds website to find strangers to fill up their wine tours and camping trips

Ms Marantelli said she has used the classifieds website to find strangers to fill up their wine tours and camping trips.

And for those who are considering using Gumtree to find wedding guests, Ms Marantelli - who now lives in Melbourne with her husband and their two daughters, aged two and three-month-old - said 'go for it'.

'Inviting [wedding crashers] was one of the best things we did for our wedding - no regrets,' she said.

'I would recommend it because the worst thing that can happen is that they don't show up, or come and don't mingle.

'The best thing could be a lifelong friend, or a possible romance between a crasher and another guest.'
On the night Astrid Myers met her future partner Chris Henley, she found out they were born on the same day and joked they should have a baby on their birthdays.

Last week that joke turned into a reality when Astrid gave birth to Winter Elle Henley on July 10, sharing her birthday with her parents.

It's an incredible coincidence that seems to have been written in the stars ever since Astrid, 22, and Chris, 23, first found out they were expecting.

Astrid Myers, 22, and Chris Henley, 23, have given birth to their daughter Winter Elle Henley on July 10 - which just happens to be both of their birthdays as well

'When I first found out I was pregnant we did some calculations and thought it might be close to our birthday,' Astrid told Daily Mail Australia.

The South Australia couple, who live in Sefton Park, only realised just how close when doctors initially told the couple that July 10 was the due date.

But after Astrid's first ultrasound the date was moved to the 17, and Astrid went along happily with her pregnancy.

'We knew that there was still a small chance of her coming on the 10th, but as long as she was healthy we didn't mind,' she said.

'We thought having her a week after our birthday could also be pretty cool, or any time close.'

It was when Astrid was 36 weeks pregnant that the timeline began to change after she was diagnosed with oligohydramnios, meaning she had very low amniotic fluids.

Astrid was admitted to hospital but after a few days of monitoring the doctors founds that her little girl was still happy and healthy.

Doctors initially told Astrid and Chris that their daughter's due date was July 10, but after the first ultrasound it was moved to July 17

'It was obvious that she wasn't bothered by the low fluid levels,' Astrid said. 'All the nurses kept commenting on how happy she seemed in my belly!'

When another ultrasound found that Astrid's fluid levels had gone up, she hoped doctors would let her go to full term.

She was shocked when a doctor said he wanted to induce her 'just to be on the safe side', and Astrid - who wanted to have a natural birth - was extremely upset.

'I burst into tears walking out of the doctors office,' she said. 'I had done too much Googling and read about inductions leading to emergency C-sections.'

'I just wanted to have the most natural birth possible.'

'Now I know that if they hadn't moved the due date she would have been induced a week earlier so it was all meant to be!'

Astrid's induction was scheduled for July 5, but after she told her midwife about her concerns it was re-booked for the 9th.

Astrid's induction was scheduled for July 5, but after she told her midwife about her concerns it was re-booked for the 9th. She is pictured here the day before she gave birth

Chris also helped ease Astrid's concerns, taking the day off work to be with her.

'He didn't seem nervous or worried at all, which really helped me feel better about it,' Astrid said.

As the day got closer, the couple did their last-minute baby shopping and spent the night before the induction at a nice hotel.

Winter was born on July 10 at 7.11pm weighing 3.2kg and Astrid said she has been a happy baby who rarely cries.

And Astrid is absolutely loving motherhood.

'I was never one of those girls who got overly excited about babies or imagined myself having kids young,' she said.

'But I am so in love with her, she is absolutely perfect.'

Now Astrid is looking forward to a lifetime of shared birthdays.

'I'm sure all the ones to come will be a lot more focused on her than us, but I love throwing parties and being a host,' she said.

'I'm looking forward to having a reason to throw a massive party every year, bring on the joint 18th and 40th!'
Everyone has moles but barely anyone pays attention to their body freckles.

However, one expert is encouraging everyone to check their skin markings this summer to ensure they aren't life-threatening.

Indeed, Dr Stefanie Williams, MD. Dermatologist at Eudelo, has shared a very simple guide to self-examining your entire body to detect moles that could well becancerous.

Dr Stefanie Williams, MD. Dermatologist, has shared a simple test to figuring which marks could be cancerous that she says everyone should do at home this summer

Step 1: When coming out of the shower, stand in front of a large mirror and carry out an upper body examination. Start with checking your face, neck, chest and tummy all the way down to your hips.

Step 2: Examine your arms and elbows, including underarms and both sides of your hands.

Step 3: Check your lower body, examining the front and back of your legs and feet. Don't forget to look between your toes.

Step 4: Ask a friend or family member to check your back, scalp, ears and other areas you can't easily see yourself.

Now use this alphabet check to make sure your moles are harmless. This lists a few of the signs and symptoms that might indicate a melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Shopping at more than one supermarket, buying big brands on special and knowing when to stock up could save you more than $2,000 a year on your grocery bill.

These are just a few of the tips and tricks offered up by mySavvyShopper.com.au, a new website comparing all the special offers at Coles, IGA, and Woolworths.

The site conducted a survey and found that a family could save up to $2,080 per year if they learned how to use specials to their advantage.

One of their 'must do's' is buying products on special offer that don't expire quickly, like frozen food, detergents, and toothpaste.

MySavvyShopper.com.au , a new website comparing all the special offers at Coles, IGA, and Woolworths, has offered tips and tricks to help save shoppers $2,000 a year in grocery bills

And it is especially important to only purchase products on special that you had already planned to buy.

The survey found that 60 per cent of Australians buy at least one item they didn't plan to purchase during their last shopping trip.

In fact, the average shopper actually buys five products they didn't intend to buy - costing them more than $23 a week on their shopping trip and over $1,000 a year.

People can help curb these habits by skipping trips down food aisles that don't have products they need and not being a 'top-up shopper, who visits their store two to three times a week.

Another key tip is being flexible when it comes to what brands you buy and what stores you go to.

The survey found that 60 per cent of Australians buy at least one item they didn't plan to purchase during their last shopping trip

David Myles, the site's managing director, told the Sunshine Coast Daily that most big brands are often on special and you may never need to buy them 'at full price again'.

'We automatically reach for the brand we know and automatically go to the same supermarket each week, but this is costing us money,' he said.

'The specials are there for us to exploit, so half of the work is understanding how to take advantage of them, while the other half is about changing our habits.'

If the brand you desire is not on special one week, Myles said it is likely they are on offer at a competitor's store or will be back on special at your store the next week.

'Split shopping', as it's called, is especially beneficial when shoppers do a big monthly trip for their priciest items - such as detergent and pet food.

People can help curb these habits by skipping trips down food aisles that don't have products they need and not being a 'top-up shopper, who visits their store two to three times a week

These items are often on half-price specials, but not necessarily at your regular store.

Myles also recommends staying away from buying larger sizes of confectionery items like soda or biscuits - and it has nothing to do with your waistline.

Shoppers and their families are just as likely to consume these larger bags as quickly as smaller packs, and they'll still be on the shopping list the next week.

Thus you've spent more money, without saving any food.

Myles also suggests that shoppers find the special fridge or freezer section where many supermarkets now store their special offers, as well as at the end of aisles.
Prince George stepped off the plane yesterday wearing an outfit that bore a striking similarity to one his father wore as a youngster.

But a closer look at photographs of his younger sister reveals how she too was dressed like an older relative.

For Princess Charlotte's red buckle shoes look exactly like a pair her uncle Prince Harry wore as a toddler for a photo shoot at Highgrove House, in Gloucestershire, more than 30 years ago.

Keeping it in the family: Princess Charlotte was spotted wearing red Mary Janes that looked strikingly similar to a pair worn by Prince Harry in a photo with Prince Charles in 1986, right

The two-year-old looked adorable in a floral dress as she disembarked the plane in Warsaw in the arms of her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, wowing the waiting well-wishers and press with her tiny royal wave.

The Mary Jane style shoes looked very similar to another pair she owns by Dona Carmen, although they are believed to be from a different brand.

She wore the soft shoes, which feature a single soft strap, with a pair of frilled white socks.

When Prince Harry was just a toddler himself, his parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana, dressed him in a very similar pair of shoes for a family photo shoot at Highgrove.

Like father like son! Prince George, pictured, left, arriving in Warsaw yesterday, may well have reminded royal fans of his father Prince William (pictured right) arriving at Aberdeen Airport in 1984 with his father Charles for a summer holiday in Scotland

She's a natural! Charming Prince Charlotte needed no encouragement to shake hands in the line-up, but her brother wasn't so sure

Harry, then a few months shy of his second birthday, wore the shoes with a blue and white striped polo shirt and blue and white short that matched his older brother William's outfit.

Yesterday Prince George drew comparisons to his father when he disembarked the plane in his trademark navy shorts, teamed with a checked shirt.

The look was not a far cry from an outfit his father wore as he disembarked a private plane at Aberdeen Airport for a family summer holiday in 1984 when the Duke of Cambridge was the same age as George now.

Despite their similar outfits, Prince William appeared much more confident as a toddler.

One is not amused! Understandably Prince George seemed a little underwhelmed by the formality of the occasion and was seen fidgeting and swinging his legs as his father received an official welcome

The royal wave! While George may be feeling a little shy, his younger sister is already a natural on official engagements

In photos from 1984, he can be seen disembarking the place with ease, almost dragging his father down with him.

George, meanwhile, was a little shyer yesterday and was determined to keep a firm hold of his dad's hand, with William leaning down to offer a few words of encouragement as they were greeted by Jonathan Knott, Britain's ambassador to Poland, his wife Angela, and the diplomat's Polish counterpart in Britain Arkady Rzegocki.

George fidgeted, swinging his right leg backwards and forwards before wrapping it around his left as William smiled and shook hands, while Princess Charlotte was feeling anything but camera shy as she smiled in her mother's arms and waved to onlookers.
Prince George may not have been aware of the impact his outfit would have as he touched down in Warsaw during the Royal tour of Germany and Poland yesterday.

The dashing young royal, who kept close to his father as he made his way down the plane's stairs at Warsaw Chopin Airport, wore a two-tone red-and-blue checked shirt with his trademark navy shorts.

And within 24 hours of images of the three-year-old and his immaculately coiffed regal parents circulating the globe, the Tizza shirt he wore sold out on the website of its main retailer, Spanish department store giant El Corte Ingles.

Within 24 hours of Prince George disembarking in Poland in a Tizza shirt, the checked red-and-blue item sold out on the website of its main retailer, Spanish department store El Corte Ingles

The 'Prince George effect' - where parents desperate to dress their sons like a royal have rushed to purchase his clothes - has taken hold before, with a 9 T-shirt he wore in his third birthday photoshoot selling out within an hour of it being located

The shirt, which is made from 100 per cent cotton, was listed as 'not available' on the retailer's site by Tuesday afternoon.

Speculation about which brands the young prince would wear was rife on social media on Monday, with some guessing the shirt could be a Barbour number.

But once media outlets began reporting it as a Tizza item, the Spanish brand may have quickly realised they would have to order more into stock.

The 'Prince George effect' - where parents desperate to dress their sons like a royal have rushed to purchase his clothes - has taken hold before, with a 9 T-shirt he wore in his third birthday photo shoot selling out within an hour.

One is not amused! Understandably Prince George seemed a little underwhelmed by the formality of the occasion and was seen fidgeting and swinging his legs as his father received an official welcome

She's a natural! Charming Prince Charlotte needed no encouragement to shake hands in the line-up, but her brother wasn't so sure

In July last year it was impossible to even see different sizes in the Sunuva T-shirt Prince George wore for his birthday just one hour after the official images were released.

Similarly, in July 2015, when George arrived at his sister Princess Charlotte's christening in an adorable white outfit with red embroidering, it sold out within the day.

In fact, the sartorial star has brought designers into the limelight and single-handedly transformed their business.

The 'Prince George effect' - where parents desperate to dress their sons like a royal have rushed to purchase his clothes - has taken hold before, with a 9 T-shirt he wore in his third birthday photo shoot selling out within an hour

In July last year it was impossible to even see different sizes in the Sunuva T-shirt Prince George wore for his third birthday photoshoot just one hour after the official images were released

Rachel Riley, who made the Christening outfit, was one of the Duchess of Cambridge's favourite childrenswear designers, and has now become a national treasure (Prince George pictured in Rachel Riley at Princess Charlotte's christening in 2015)

Rachel Riley, who made the Christening outfit, was one of the Duchess of Cambridge's favourite childrenswear designers, and has now become a national treasure.

Prince George even managed to ensure Crocs became briefly popular again last year.

He was snapped sporting a pair of 26.99 Kid's Crocbands at the Festival of Polo at the Beaufort Polo Club, Gloucestershire, which then - again - sold out within hours.

And judging by today's reaction, the young royal's Midas touch shows no signs of stopping.
Thirty-five Alzheimer's drugs will hit the market in the next five years, a new report reveals.

Pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop an effective treatment for the neurodegenerative disease, which could help millions of people - and prove to be a jackpot for the manufacturer.

Now, a pipeline analysis has confirmed that a plethora of drugs are coming to the end of their trials - and look set to be approved.

Now, a

'The Alzheimer's disease pipeline, marred by decades of failures and underinvestment, is due for big victories,' said George Vradenburg, UsAgainstAlzheimer's Co-Founder and Chairman.

There are currently 23 drugs in Phase II and III trials targeting amyloid protein buildup in the brain, while 28 drugs are targeting neurotransmitter activity, according to a US report

'Thanks to growing investment from industry leaders, we remain cautiously optimistic that the current crop of late-stage Alzheimer's innovations will bring much-needed solutions to families in the near future.'

There are currently 23 drugs in Phase II and III trials targeting amyloid protein buildup in the brain, while 28 drugs are targeting neurotransmitter activity.

A novel treatment for Alzheimer's hasn't received FDA approval since 2003, nor regulatory approval in Europe since 2002.

However, the new analysis confirms significant momentum by industry to forge ahead with Alzheimer's disease innovation.

According to the analysis, there has been a significant 18 percent increase in Phase II drugs in development since 2016 alone.

There has also been an increase in the number of Phase III drug trial - up 7 percent in the last few month.

'There is no silver bullet when it comes to treating Alzheimer's,' said Dr. David Morgan, a founding member of RA2 and a distinguished professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida.

'The more we learn about the underlying Alzheimer's pathology, the closer we get to a cure for a disease that is an enormous burden on patients, caregivers and global health systems.'

A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Alzheimer's deaths have increased by 55 percent since 1999.

Experts warn that as the population ages, that figure is set to sky-rocket.

Currently, more than 5.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's, a disease which also affects their caregivers. All are desperate for a treatment or cure.

According to the analysis, six drugs will conclude Phase III trials in 2017.

'Alzheimer's is commonly misdiagnosed, and the United States suffers from a shortage of geriatricians - issues that will only grow as the Baby Boomer generation ages,' Vradenburg said.

'Private- and public-sector leaders will need to work closely with insurers in the coming years to ensure patients have access to these drugs when they are available.'
Britain is lagging behind the rest of Europe in survival rates for nine out of ten cancers, a new report has found

Thousands of British cancer patients are dying each year because NHS treatment is trailing behind the rest of Europe, a major report has found.

Survival rates in the UK are lagging below the European average for nine out of ten of the most common cancer types, including bowel, lung, breast, ovarian and prostate.

And looking at survival rates for all forms of cancer combined, Britain comes 20th out of 27 European nations, behind the likes of Slovenia, Estonia and Malta.

Experts last night described the findings as 'shocking and completely unacceptable' and said cancer patients in the UK were being diagnosed too late.

Patients are also missing out on life-saving cancer drugs thanks to rationing by health officials, they warned.

The report, compiled by the Swedish Institute for Health Economics and commissioned by the UK drug industry, found that women are bearing the brunt.

For ovarian cancer, a disease which hits 7,000 British women each year, the UK has the worst survival rates in Europe, with only 34 per cent surviving for five years, compared to an average of 41 per cent.

For breast cancer, which strikes 55,000 each year, the UK comes 16th out of 27, with an 82 per cent five-year survival rate, compared to an average of 84 per cent and well behind Finland, which has the highest rate at 88.3 per cent.

The UK also has the second worst survival rates for lung cancer and pancreatic cancer.

If Britain had the cancer death rates of France, more than 100,000 women's deaths could be prevented over the next decade, the researchers calculated. If we achieved the survival rates of Germany, 35,000 more people of both sexes would be alive five years after diagnosis.

The researchers also found the UK spends 20 per cent less per person on cancer than other European economies.

Of the ten cancer types examined, British patients survived longer than average in only one  melanoma skin cancer.

Katherine Taylor, chief executive of Ovarian Cancer Action, said last night: 'These statistics are shocking and completely unacceptable.

'Women in the UK are not receiving the same care as their European counterparts and we strongly urge the government to increase funding and reverse this trend.'

Lynda Thomas, of Macmillan Cancer Support, added: 'No matter where you live, you should be given the best possible chance to survive cancer.

'Unfortunately, we know that patients in the UK aren't getting diagnosed early enough.'

Late diagnosis and rationing of key drugs identified as being behind the figures, which were described by experts as 'shocking'

Dr Richard Torbett, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which commissioned the report, said: 'This should be a wake-up call for the UK to refocus the way we tackle cancer.'

Officials last night said the research  with the main survival comparisons dating back to 2007  was out of date.

NHS England said: 'With big falls in smoking, many more people getting cancer check-ups and new cancer treatments, cancer survival is now at a record high in England.

'The ABPI is hardly a disinterested commentator and it should have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge what the independent cancer taskforce set out  namely that the biggest opportunities for further improvements in UK cancer survival currently come mainly from earlier diagnosis, and modern radiotherapy and surgery, as against just higher spending on cancer drugs.'

The Department of Health added: 'This report does not accurately reflect our current performance  survival rates are at a record high.'
More than a third of UK breast caner cases are diagnosed in the over-70s, but the chance of being offered surgery decreases rapidly with age, a study has found

Elderly women with breast cancer are being denied basic treatment such as surgery and chemotherapy, a major audit has found.

More than 55,000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK - and the risk of developing the disease increases with age, with more than a third of cases hitting women over the age of 70.

Treatment for virtually all patients should start with an operation to remove the tumour - yet women in their 70s, 80s and 90s are being denied the procedure.

Experts warned that doctors are concerned elderly women might not cope with the treatment - but they are not being properly assessed to make sure that is the case.

Older women are also missing out on chemotherapy for the same reason, they said.

The National Audit of Breast Cancer in Older Patients, published for the first time today by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Association of Breast Surgery, found the chance of receiving breast cancer surgery fall rapidly with age.

The audit, which surveyed 142 NHS breast cancer units in England and Wales, found 90 per cent of breast cancer patients aged 50 to 69 receive surgery.

But that rate falls to 85 per cent between the age of 70 and 74, 75 per cent for 75 to 79-year-olds, below 60 per cent between the age of 80 and 84, and below 40 per cent for over 85s.

Women in their 90s have just a 15 per cent chance of receiving surgery, the auditors found.

The authors wrote: 'There is evidence that older patients are experiencing inequalities in access to cancer services and treatments, which may be having a negative impact on their survival.

Medical auditors say there is evidence that NHS guidelines, which state that women with early invasive breast cancer should be offered surgery irrespective of age, are not being followed

'There are differences in tumour characteristics associated with age that may impact on survival in older women but this does not account for all of the observed disparities.'

NHS guidelines say women with early invasive breast cancer, irrespective of age, should be offered surgery, radiotherapy and appropriate therapy, unless other illnesses intervene.

But the auditors said: 'There is evidence that these recommendations are not being followed.'

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at the Breast Cancer Now charity, said: 'We've been extremely concerned for some time that older breast cancer patients may not be receiving the best treatment for them, with assumptions wrongly being made about their suitability for therapy because of their age.

'This crucial audit represents a major step towards putting this unjust inequality right.

'Significant variation in care levels persists, and the report's discovery that older women are less involved in decision-making on their care is incredibly worrying.

'It's imperative that breast cancer units across the country now tackle this issue, exploring how specialists in delivering older patient care could be involved to enable all patients to participate in their own treatment planning.'
The NHS will look overseas to recruit around 2,000 more GPs in order to meet its staff targets, the head of NHS England has said.

Simon Stevens said four times the 500 extra doctors that had been planned are needed from countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the EU.

The Government has set a target of recruiting 5,000 more GPs by 2020, but has been widely expected to miss this goal.

Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, has said the current target of recruiting 500 doctors from overseas is not enough, and Britain should be targeting 2,000 medics instead

In an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Mr Stevens said efforts were being stepped up to encourage GPs to come to the UK.

He said: 'Although there are some good signs of progress on increases in the GP training scheme, nevertheless there are real pressures around retirements.

'And so the conclusion we've come to is that in order to increase the likelihood of being able to have 5,000 more doctors in general practice, we are going to need... a significantly expanded industrial scale international recruitment programme.

'We intend to launch that in the autumn.

'Rather than the current 500 or so GPs that are being targeted for international recruitment ... it probably needs to be four times more than that, from international sources - [from the] rest of the EU and possibly New Zealand and Australia.'

Dr Richard Vautrey, acting chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, said: 'Overseas doctors have for decades provided a valuable contribution to the NHS, especially in general practice where they have a strong track record of providing first-class patient care.

'However, this announcement is yet another clear admission of failure from the Government, which is effectively conceding it cannot meet its own target of recruiting 5,000 extra GPs without an emergency draft of doctors from abroad.

Mr Stevens said staff should be drawn from EU countries, and from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand to meet staffing levels (file image)

'General practice is currently under unsustainable pressure from rising patient demand, falling resources and widespread staff shortages.

'We need a long-term solution that addresses these workload pressures which lead to low morale amongst existing GPs and create a climate which is putting off medical graduates from choosing general practice as a career.

'Applying a sticking plaster by recruiting doctors from abroad can only offer a limited short-term fix, especially when there is uncertainty over freedom of movement following the UK's exit from the EU.'

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: 'Workload in general practice is escalating. It has risen 16% over the last seven years, yet investment in our service has declined and we are desperately short of GPs and nurses.

'It is imperative that we do everything possible to address this, including recruiting more GPs, retaining existing ones, and making it easier for trained GPs to return to practice after a career break.'

She said the college welcomed any GP from the EU or further afield 'as long as they meet the rigorous standards set by the College and General Medical Council to ensure safe clinical practice'.

She added: 'We also need the position of EU GPs already working in UK general practice to be safeguarded beyond doubt as part of Brexit negotiations, and we are calling for GPs to be added to the Migration Advisory Committee's shortage occupation list, to make it easier for family doctors from overseas who want to live here and work in UK general practice to do so.'

She said the promised extra 2.4bn extra a year for general practice and 5,000 more full-time equivalent GPs by 2020 must be delivered as a matter of urgency.
Placemats may help children eat their greens, new research suggests.

Children who are exposed to restaurant placemats advertising healthy food alongside fun images and games are significantly more likely to order such meals, a study found.

Some 18 percent of children shown such mats choose healthier meals compared to just seven percent exposed to a normal dining setting, the research adds.

Consuming healthier meals reduces a child's saturated fat intake, the study found.

Lead author Stephanie Anzman-Frasca from the University of Buffalo, said: 'Many families eat food from restaurants on a regular basis. Making healthy options appealing and easy to choose offers the potential to increase children's acceptance of them in restaurants.'

Children exposed to placemats advertising healthy food are more likely to order such meals

WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? EAT OFF A RED PLATE Eating less may be as simple as changing the colour of your plates, research revealed back in April. Red plates are thought to trigger a danger signal that reduces the amount we eat, a study found. While white plates make food taste sweeter, allowing you to enjoy your dessert just as much but with less sugar, the research adds. Dr Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology, University of Oxford, said: 'Snack foods - unhealthy stuff on a red plate - you end up eating a little bit less because it's that red colour on a plate where it seems to trigger some sort of danger or avoidance signal. 'What you serve food on turns out to have more of an impact on our taste and flavour perception then I think any of us realise,' Business Insider reported. Advertisement

How the study was carried out

Researchers from the University of Buffalo analyzed 58 children aged between four and eight years old.

The children and their parents visited a restaurant chain in the Buffalo area.

They were then given a voucher to revisit the restaurant within two weeks.

On their second visit, half of the children were given placemats advertising healthier food options.

These meals were shown alongside fun names and images, as well as activities, such as word searches.

Key findings

Results revealed that exposing children to such placemats makes them significantly more likely to order healthier meals.

Some 18 percent of the children shown the mats ordered a healthy dish compared to just seven percent in the control group.

Those who had the healthier food consumed less saturated fat across their total meal.

There was no difference between the groups in the number of children ordering desserts or healthier drinks.

The findings were presented at the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior conference in Montreal.

Only 7 percent order healthier options when not shown fun placemats with games and images

What the researchers say

Ms Anzman-Frasca said: 'Many families eat food from restaurants on a regular basis, with research suggesting that children tend to consume less healthy foods in these settings compared to home.

'These results suggest that restaurants can help promote healthier eating among children by featuring healthier items more prominently on materials that are viewed prior to ordering.

'Making healthy options appealing and easy to choose offers the potential to increase children's acceptance of them in restaurants.

'At the same time, there is room for future efforts to build on the current results, aiming to normalize healthy options in restaurants further and nudge even more children toward healthier choices.'
New Hampshire health officials are warning the public about potential exposure to measles at one of its most popular beaches.

An out-of-state resident who later found out he or she has measles visited Hampton Beach on July 9 and spent time there and at several nearby outdoor locations, according to New Hampshire state officials.

People who have been vaccinated are being told not to be concerned, but anyone at the beach on or near that day should be wary and monitor for symptoms, which can appear between one and three weeks after exposure to the disease.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever, rash, cough, runny nose and red eyes. The disease can cause severe health complications including pneumonia, encephalitis and death.

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An out-of-state resident who later found out he or she has measles visited Hampton Beach (pictured) on July 9 and spent time there and at several nearby outdoor locations, according to New Hampshire state officials

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever, rash, cough, runny nose and red eyes. The disease can cause severe health complications including pneumonia, encephalitis and death (stock image)

It is air-borne, and can survive up to two hours on surfaces or in the air. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Because it is air-borne and the infected person spent most of his or her time outside, Dr Benjamin Chan, a state epidemiologist, told WMUR-TV it is unlikely the viral infection spread.

WHAT IS MEASLES? Measles is a contagious respiratory infection. It is spread by droplets in the air from coughing or sneezing. Sufferers get an outbreak of itchy red blotches all over their body around two weeks after exposure. They also get a cough, sore throat, and a fever. Patients can take vitamin A and over-the-counter medications to treat the virus until it goes away. The best form of treatment is a preventative vaccine. Years after infection, measles sufferers can develop an always-fatal neurological disorder called SSPE. It targets the central nervous system. Advertisement

State health officials have said the best protection against measles is vaccination.

Beachgoers who spoke to WMUR also expressed how important they consider vaccination.

'If you don't get your kids vaccinated, they can get basically the diseases that have been gone for hundreds of years or the past hundreds of years,' Justin West, from Nashua, told WMUR.

New Hampshire is well protected against the disease due to the high number of people vaccinated in the state.

Officials have not confirmed the age, name or gender of the patient.

As of Tuesday, there have been no other cases of measles reported, but officials have urged anyone who shows symptoms between now and July 30 to call ahead before going straight to the doctor, to prevent further spreading.

According to the CDC, measles was almost completely wiped out of the United States in the 1960s after widespread vaccination brought rates down to an all-time low.

However, New Hampshire's neighboring state of Maine experienced its first measles outbreak in 20 years earlier this summer.

Epidemiologists claim the rising trend in anti-vaxxer movements is triggering a potential resurgence.

More than 30 children contracted the virus in Minnesota in late April, primarily in the state's large Somali-American community, where many parents avoid the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine because of unfounded fears that it causes autism.

The association was first suggested by a British researcher, Andrew Wakefield, in a 1998 paper for medical journal The Lancet.

However, it was subsequently found to have been falsified and the paper was withdrawn in 2010.

Dr Wakefield was barred from practicing medicine. Numerous major studies since have found no evidence of a link.

Minnesota's outbreak was just the latest example of a tight-knit community in which the highly contagious disease has gained a foothold in the U.S. in recent years.
Addy Sooter, who lives in Rogers, Arkansas, was diagnosed with a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) brain tumor in November 2016

A three-year-old girl battling an incurable brain tumor left for Mexico Tuesday morning to receive experimental treatment in a last ditch effort to make her cancer free.

Addy Sooter, who lives in Rogers, Arkansas, was diagnosed with a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) brain tumor in November 2016 after her parents noticed she was having some difficulty walking.

After the devastating news, she underwent 33 radiation treatments over the course of six weeks, which initially seemed to shrink the tumor.

But last week, Addy's doctors did another MRI and found that the tumor has started to grow again at an alarming rate.

DIPG is a type of highly aggressive and hard to treat tumor found at the bottom of the brain at the stem. Doctors don't know what causes them, but they grow around and put pressure on the area of the brain called the pons, which controls functions such as breathing, blood pressure and heart rate, according to the Dana-Farber Cancer Center.

The cancer is typically diagnosed in children between the ages of five and nine, and Addy, diagnosed at just two years old, is one of the youngest cases doctors have seen.

Some of the first symptoms of the tumor are problems with eye movement, facial weakness, difficulty walking, strange limb movements and problems with balance.

Most people who receive this type of cancer only live for nine months following the first diagnosis, and some don't even make it long enough to receive radiation treatment.

Now Addy and her family are headed to Monterrey, Mexico so she can receive experimental treatment that will hopefully put her on the path to being declared cancer free

ADDY'S FIRST DIAGNOSIS OF DIPG AND SIX WEEKS OF RADIATION TO TRY TO KILL THE AGGRESSIVE TUMOR

Addy's parents, Matt and Chandra, took her to the doctor just after Halloween 2016 when they noticed she was having some trouble walking.

WHAT IS DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA (DIPG)? A Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare an inoperable type of brain tumor. It mostly affects children, with most diagnoses occurring between four and 11 years of age. More than 90 percent of its victims will die within 18 months of diagnosis. Each year, there are around 100-150 new diagnoses in the United States. The cause of the tumor remains unknown. Symptoms include lack of facial control, double vision, headaches, vomiting, weakness, seizures and balance problems. One of the early indicators of the cancer is a child falling, tripping or losing balance. Advertisement

'At first one of her legs was kind of strangely swinging, so they thought it might be an orthopedic issue,' Addy's grandmother, Ann Sooter, told Daily Mail Online.

'This was maybe five days before Halloween, so then when the day came around she could hardly walk without holding someone's hands or bracing herself against the wall. By the time they took her into the doctors she couldn't walk at all and couldn't really use her hands.'

Addy's pediatrician immediately sent the family to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock to receive further treatment.

'Once doctors found out it was DIPG, they basically said "enjoy your time, she is going to die,"' Ann explained.

Doctors gave her family two options for treatment, one, which would involve aggressive radiation therapy to try and kill or at least shrink the tumor. The other option was to do nothing, and enjoy the time they had left with her.

The Sooter's went on with the radiation, and Addy received 33 bouts over the course of six weeks. The only week days she was not experiencing radiation were holidays, which she spent with family.

An independent and strong-willed little girl, Addy just couldn't understand why she couldn't move on her own or do the things she wanted to do.

'By Thanksgiving she was just starting the radiation, and she was so frustrated that she couldn't move around she wouldn't even let us carry her. Instead she was just dragging herself around the floor on her elbows,' she said.

After all radiation treatments, the family got some good news: that that radiation had considerably shrunk the tumor, and it looked like most of the cancerous cells were dead.

However, doctors told them it would likely just be a matter of time before it came back.

'Her doctors told us that the tumor would come back aggressively, and that once that happened there would be nothing we could do about it,' Ann explained.

An independent and strong-willed little girl, Ann said Addy (who is pictured with her dad Matt) just couldn't understand why she couldn't move on her own or do the things she wanted to do. Her doctors first took her to the doctor when she was having difficulty walking

MAKING THE MOST OF THE TIME SHE HAS LEFT: THE FAMILY'S TRIPS TO COLORADO AND DISNEY WORLD AND HELP FROM THE MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION

The Sooter family had about six months before that happened, and chose to make the most out of that time with their little girl.

The Chi Omega sorority from the University of Arkansas helped them do that, by fundraising through the Make A Wish foundation so they could send Addy to Disney World.

'They had a reveal party for her that was Frozen themed, and she loved that. She loves Ana and Elsa and is always dancing around singing their songs,' Ann said.

'The Make a Wish group also raised money and paid for the family to go to Disney World. She went in February and basically got to have Ana and Elsa to herself for a few hours and she loved it.

The Chi Omega sorority from the University of Arkansas helped them do that, by fundraising through the Make A Wish foundation so they could send Addy to Disney World. She is pictured at the reveal party with her mom, second from the left, and three women from Make A Wish and Chi Omega

Addy and her family went to Disney in February, and she got to spend hours with her favorite princesses, Ana and Elsa

'At first she was a bit nervous to touch Elsa, I think because she thought she would get frozen, but eventually she warmed up.'

The family also took Addy to Colorado for a ski vacation so she could see snow and play on the mountains, which is something she'd never really done before. The family lives in an area that doesn't get much snow fall annually.

But then, in the last few weeks, her family noticed she was starting to have trouble walking again, and took her to the doctor for another MRI.

'Luckily, she's so young she doesn't really understand what's going on, and has to be sedated for all of the scans and all of the treatment, so she's not too scared of the doctor,' her grandmother explained.

ADDY'S SYMPTOMS RETURN: A FINAL MRI CONFIRMS THE CANCER IS BACK AND THE FAMILY'S TRIP TO MEXICO TO SEARCH FOR A CURE FOR THEIR DAUGHTER

Addy was accepted to receive experimental treatment at the 0-19 Clinic in Monterrey Mexico, which is where they headed on Tuesday morning. She is pictured in the airport

After realizing that she was, once again, having trouble walking, the Sooter's took Addy in for another MRI.

'The results weren't good. We found out that the original part of the tumor had died, which would have been promising, but now there are new parts of the tumor aggressively growing around the original,' Ann explained.

A week before the bad news, Addy was accepted to receive experimental treatment at the 0-19 Clinic in Monterrey, Mexico, which is where they headed on Tuesday morning.

There, she will receive intra-arterial delivery method of chemotherapy, which will hopefully be able to get as close to the tumor as possible in order to kill it.

Her family found out about the clinic through DIPG groups they are a part of on Facebook, according to her father, Matt.

'Some others in the group were already there receiving treatment, others were asking about it,' Matt told Daily Mail Online. 'I was given a couple of names to contact. Through them we started talking about getting her down here and sending MRI results and her medical info.'

The treatment will deliver drugs to the tumor site through a catheter that will go through a major artery in her groin, Ann explained. After that, a second one will go through her back to deliver the drugs via a different pathway.

This will happen about every three weeks for many months, though the family is not sure exactly how long it will last.

'Regular chemotherapy doesn't work because there is a blood barrier around the brain, which keeps the drug from reaching the tumor and killing it,' Addy's grandmother explained.

About halfway through the chemo treatments, Addy will also start receiving immunotherapy to attempt and teach her cells to attack the tumor

Though the family remains optimistic, the treatment is incredibly expensive, and coupled with the cost of travel and prolonged stays in Mexico, could put them hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt. Addy pictured with her parents, Matt and Chandra, and her five-year-old brother Jackson

About halfway through the chemo treatments, Addy will also start receiving immunotherapy to attempt and teach her cells to attack the tumor.

'The clinic in Mexico has been doing this type of therapy on different types of tumors for maybe 20 years, and for about five years on DIPG,' Ann said. 'The results look promising, so we can only hope and pray for the best.'

Though the family remains optimistic, the treatment is expensive. Coupled with the cost of travel and prolonged stays in Mexico, they say it could put them hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt.

'Hopefully after the second treatment she will be able to come and go, but it could be a month before they are able to return for the first time,' Ann said.

The family is now raising money on GoFundMe to help pay for the medical and living expenses while they try to get treatment for their little girl. Their church, the Rogers Grace Baptist Church, has also started fundraising for people who want their donations to be tax deductible.

Matt said the family is looking to raise $250,000 'plus some expense money.'
The mother and father of a Hawaii girl who police say starved to death are pleading not guilty to murder.

Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth says Kevin Lehano, 49, and Tiffany Stone, 33, entered the pleas Monday.

Arraignment is postponed to Tuesday for Henrietta Stone, 59, the 9-year-old girl's grandmother who had legal custody.

Tiffany Stone, left, 33, and Kevin Lehano, right, 49, have denied murdering their nine-year-old daughter who was starved of food and water for more than a year at their home on Hawaii

According to an indictment, the three are accused of denying the girl food, water and medical treatment for about a year before she died in June 2016.

Police say a 911 call reported that the girl was unresponsive. Officers and firefighters responding to the Hilo home found the severely malnourished and unconscious girl lying on the floor. She was taken to a hospital, where she died.

The trio have been charged with second degree murder following a grand jury indictment.

Police and fire department personnel were called to the house in Hilo on June 28, 2016 to reports of an 'unresponsive child'.

According to police, the trio are being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

The Hawaiian Tribune Herald said the girl is only being identified by her initials S.A.L.S.

Henrietta Stone, the girl's grandmother, 59, has also been charged with second degree murder in connection with the girl's death

Roth said: 'This is a rare case. We sealed the indictment until the warrant could be served and they were arrested, which happened this afternoon.'

According to the indictment, the girl's grandmother Henrietta Stone was her legal guardian.

It is alleged that the youngster was denied adequate food, water and medical care for a period between October 23, 2015 and her death in June 2016.

Deputy prosecutor Rick Damerville said: 'This is a real emotional roller coaster for anybody, including me. They are, each of them, accused of murder in the second degree in various ways.

'One is knowingly causing the death of another. The other method is voluntarily omitting to perform a duty imposed by law, which is a duty to support, to wit, failure to provide food and water, and duty to obtain reasonable and necessary medical services  and to do a duty when you a person are at the scene of a crime, including the perpetrator of that crime, when you know someone is suffering from serious harm  to obtain or try to obtain medical services or service from the police.'
In a major expose of the well-oiled terror network in India, J&K Police have busted a recruitment module of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

One of those arrested, Abdul Rashid Bhat, received a Pakistan visa on the alleged recommendation of a separatist organisation, highly placed sources in J&K Police have told Mail Today.

The other two persons arrested by the Baramulla police have been identified as Ansarullah Tantaray and Mehrajuddin Kak.

J&K Police have busted a recruitment module of the Hizbul Mujahideen (pictured)

Bhat visited Pakistan in May and obtained training at Khalid bin Waleed camp run by Hizbul in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Bhat told interrogators that he got the visa from the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi on the recommendation of Hurriyat Geelani faction, sources told Mail Today.

Taking a legal route, Bhat reached Attari via Wagah route where a cadre of Hizbul Mujahideen guided him to the camp.

Revealing more details about the terror training camp, he said there were only 10-12 recruits trained by a fellow Kashmiri referred to as Major Atif (his pseudo name).

The members were not allowed to share personal details. The recruits were trained in handling AK-47 and grenades, he added.

He told the police that they were trained in camps labelled as schools and hospitals.

Bhat came back to the Valley to actively lure and recruit young boys into terrorism.

IG Muneer Khan said, 'This is at least the fifth instance in a year and a half where the terrorists are using official documents such as passports and visas instead of crossing over from the Line of Control.'

The arrested trio - Abdul Rashid Bhat, Ansarullah Tantaray and Mehrajuddin Kak

Pakistan 'conspiracy'?

J&K Police will be submitting its report on separatist organisations who aid and support anti-national elements.

A senior officer said, 'It is up to the Centre to decide whether they will take it up with Pakistan, but it signals of active support of separatists and possible role of Pakistan High Commission.'

Security expert Maj Gen (retired) P K Sehgal told Mail Today, 'Pakistan is trying every trick in the book of conspiracy to hoodwink Indian security forces.

'They stand exposed but it's pertinent to ask why there is no action against the so-called Pakistan agents.'

He added, 'These separatists have known links with designated terrorist Syed Salahuddin, and now there is more evidence. It is still bewildering as to why the agencies have not arrested any of the separatist leaders. This case should be handed over to the NIA.'

While Bhat's case is shocking, this is not the first instance of legal route being used for terror training.

On February 4, two terrorists Azhar Khan of Kupwara and Sajad Lone from Bomai Sopore were neutralised in joint operations by security forces in Amargarh Sopore.

Investigation by the J&K Police led them to unraveling of a legal route via Wagah to cross the border which was being used by militants to get terror training.

Modus operandi

Both the slain terrorists had gone to Pakistan via Wagah border in 2015-2016 to get terror training.

Sources said they were active for around a year before they got eliminated in an encounter with forces.

Irshad Khwaja, a Hizbul commander from Seelu Sopore, who was arrested in a murder case in March, confirmed the modus operandi.

The sources said that the module was being spearheaded by Hizbul Mujahideen commander Parvez Wani alias Mubashir, a resident of Gagloora Handwara in north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

The module had plans to send many boys to Pakistan on valid visa to get them trained in militant camps of PoK.

SSP Baramulla Imtiyaz Hussain said: 'The masterminds of terror groups are looking at new ways to lure boys to swell their cadres.

'It's been our constant endeavour to stop this recruitment. We have been able to save 10 boys from joining militancy and nip new modes of recruitment in the bud.'

Arms, ammunition and rupees one lakh in cash were recovered from the arrested persons on Sunday.

The module has not only been luring young boys to militancy, but providing all logistic support to other militants of the outfit as well.

This is a big success as recently the Baramulla Police saved around 10 boys from their clutches and handed them over to their parents.

Meanwhile, J&K Police are working with agencies to keep track on the Wagah route.

'We can't profile everyone or stop people from crossing the legal route till we have hard evidence. But we are working on mechanism to keep a check on such elements,' an officer said.
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Quick thinking and a bit of luck helped avert a major tragedy for the Rajasthan Police on Wednesday.

The loss of life was averted when a police team and another rescue party were surrounded by a thousand-strong mob of protesters in Nagaur district.

Monika Sain, an IPS officer posted as assistant superintendent of police (Ajmer), found herself in the middle of the nightmarish scenario.

Monika Sain, an IPS officer posted as assistant superintendent of police (Ajmer), who was in the middle of the nightmarish scenario

A thousand-strong mob of protesters in Nagaur district following the death of accused 'gangster' Anandpal Singh

There were violent protests in Nagaur following the death of accused 'gangster' Anandpal Singh in a police encounter on June 24.

Singh, who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh, enjoyed a hero's status among his Rajput community and the protesters were demanding a CBI probe into the 'encounter'.

'Initially, we received information that thousands of people were going to Sanvrad Railway station in Nagaur.

'Their objective was to uproot rail tracks and vandalise government property,' Sain told India Today.

'According to our information, there were officers on the spot to tackle the situation.

'However, we received another emergency message that seven or eight of police constables were being held hostage and the mob was threatening to burn them alive.'

Singh enjoyed a hero's status within his Rajput community

The 29-year-old ASP accompanied the police team, led by Nagaur SP Paris Deshmukh, towards the spot.

'Some local leaders of the community also followed us in a separate vehicle.

'We thought they could help in pacifying the mob.' Sain said. The officer had little idea of what was to come ahead.

'When we were about to reach the railway station, we saw a large crowd retreating and moving towards us.

'They must have been in thousands. Suddenly, we were surrounded by them. Stones started coming from behind.

'We tried to move away from there but could not as our vehicle got stuck in the crowd,' Sain said.

At this point, she said, SP Deshmukh got down from the police vehicle to request the community leaders to ask the crowds not to take law in their own hands.

ASP Monika Sain was surrounded by a homicidal mob in Nagaur. The mob had allegedly attacked Sanvrad railway station.

'But even he was attacked and sustained injuries. The windows of our vehicle were smashed from all sides. There were five of us inside the car, including our gunmen and driver.

'First, Mahaveer, the SP's gunman and then Mansharam, the driver, were pulled out of the car and attacked,' Sain, a 2014 batch officer, said.

The officer describes how she saw one man taking out a canister of kerosene and began pouring it over the policemen.

The mob also snatched away their weapons.

'It was a horrible moment. In front of my eyes, kerosene was being poured on my colleagues. Our vehicle was being pushed from all sides. Fearing that the crowd could turn the car over , we jumped out of the vehicle.

'The frenzy was growing by the minute and in a flash, I saw our official vehicle set ablaze,' she said.

According to police, the weapons looted by the mob included an AK-47 and two pistols. The mob then turned towards Sain who was wearing a helmet.

'They pulled me towards them. They took off the helmet and realised that I was a woman. This brief moment of surprise gave us some time to open up the dialogue,' Sain recalled.

While Sain tried to broker peace, some people came forward to protect her.

'I was somehow apprehensive for my safety but, protected by a ring of villagers, I managed to take shelter inside a house.'

Sain had sustained several injuries in the scuffle but did not lose time in wiring messages to her seniors and surrounding stations for help.

'The residents of the house said that they will take me to safety. I was asked to wear traditional Rajput clothing so as to not reveal my identity.'

The IPS officer wore the conventional attire atop her clothes which helped her escape to safety.

'Thankfully, my injuries are not grievous in nature,' said Sain, adding that she was hit on her neck and shoulder and there was still pain in her limbs. However, she is happy as the situation could have been much worse.

While a manhunt has been launched to identify and trace the attackers in the crowd, Sain said the leaders who guided the crowds should be held responsible.

'It was a murderous crowd.

'The way they poured kerosene on our officers, the kind of speeches that were being made by those leaders, they were well aware of the consequences. All of them were part of unlawful assembly. These people have to be booked under law.'
It speaks for the narcissism enveloping the country when a news item in a national TV website declares 'To boost defence ties with India, US House clears over $600 billion (Rs 38.5 lakh crore) Bill'.

The reference is to the passage of the humongous US defence budget by the lower House of Representatives. It needs to be passed by the upper house, the Senate, before going to the President to be signed into law.

Mere amendment

One would imagine from the headline that the entire purpose of the legislation is to promote India-US relations. But the actual fact is that the India part is just in the form of an amendment moved by Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, tacked on to the Bill, with no financial implications at all.

India has been designated as a major defence partner of the US - but will the $600 billion in defence ties come to fruition?

All it calls for is that the US State and Defence departments develop a strategy for advancing defence cooperation between India and the US within 180 days of the Bill becoming law.

Two other amendments by Dana Rohrabacher and Tom Poe call for the US secretary of defense to certify, prior to making reimbursements to Pakistan, which could be of the order of $400 million (Rs 2,57,000 lakh) per annum, that Islamabad is taking demonstrable steps to take on the Haqqani network and ensure security of supply convoys going to Afghanistan.

These amendments gather one-day headlines and are thereafter ignored. What the final shape of the US defence budget Bill will be can only be determined after the Senate passes its version and the two are reconciled. These amendments may simply fall off the map.

Even if they get through, which it is likely they will, they mean little. For India, a legislative roadmap, minus any financial or legal commitment means little.

The amendment to the bill still needs to be passed by the upper house and the Senate, before going to the President to be signed into law

For Pakistan, there is a good case to argue that the amendments actually enable US aid, not block it. No legislative directive can alter the realpolitik with which a US Administration has to deal with Pakistan.

And neither, despite its fulminations about Pakistani 'betrayal' can it alter Islamabad's strategic calculus.

Past instances

We have been there before. In 1985, in a similar move to stop Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons, the Pressler Amendment was passed. It demanded an annual certification from the US President that Pakistan 'does not have nuclear weapons.'

Despite evidence to the contrary, the US President routinely gave the certification because US was locked into a proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Only after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1990 did the US President refuse his certification. By that time it was way too late.

Modi recently visited Washington and is said to have had 'promising' talks with Donald Trump

Looked at carefully, the Pressler Amendment was actually an amendment to enable the US to give Pakistan aid, not to block it. If the US Congress really feels strongly about Pakistani betrayal and so on, they can simply pass an amendment to block aid to Pakistan. All this business about certification is eyewash.

Actually, to go by the law, Pakistan remains a Major Non-NATO Ally, a legal category involving some 17 countries which gives them a range of benefits. They can establish cooperative projects with the US Defense Department for R&D, get priority delivery of US surplus equipment, get finance, loans of equipment and materials to lease certain equipment and so on.

Future hope

Israel is an MNNA, but it is specially privileged through a US-Israel Partnership Act that allows the United States to share and exchange research technology, intelligence, information, equipment and personnel.

Israel's status is unique and it is designated as a 'major strategic partner.'

Since 2016, India has been designated as a 'major defence partner' of the US.

So while in statements, the US has said that it will treat India 'at a level at par with that of the United States' closest allies and partners,' the only legislative commitment we have is through Ami Bera's amendment in this year's Defense Department bill which calls on the Pentagon and State Department to develop an India strategy.

No doubt, we will get there some day, but not right now.

The 'major defence partner' designation was mentioned in the 2016 budget and formally conferred by the Obama Administration a month before it left office.

The new Trump Administration has yet to reveal its hand on South Asia. For the past several months the US national security adviser H R McMaster is reviewing the US South Asia policy which includes issues relating to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The review has been delayed, but you can be sure, its focus will not be India, but Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As for India, relations are on an even track and it is unlikely that there will be any dramatic change in any new US policy towards the region
The Indian Army has roped in the Navy's special forces unit, Marcos, for its intensive search-and-destroy drive against terrorists in trouble-torn Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said the highlands in Jhelum have a certain type of plantation, which can be used by the terrorists to hide their equipment and themselves.

'The Marcos have the capability to dive under water and carry out extensive searches in these areas and they have proven to be efficient in this task,' an Army source said.

The Indian Army has roped in the Navy's special forces unit, Marcos, for its intensive search-and-destroy drive against terrorists in trouble-torn Jammu and Kashmir

The Navy has deployed a team of 30 Marcos, short for 'marine commandos', under a lieutenant commander permanently in the Wular lake area to prevent any terrorist activity there.

'During a recent search-and-destroy operation in the Jhelum river, the Army had also used the services of the Marcos to flush out any terrorists who could be using that location for hiding from the forces,' a Navy source confirmed to Mail Today.

MARCOS is the special forces unit of the Indian Navy created for conducting special operations

The Army has been sweeping even far-flung areas in the backwoods to take out terrorists who are under pressure from security forces because of relentless operations against them.

The team of Marcos is working under the 5 Sector, Rashtriya Rifles of the Army deployed in the Valley.

The marine commandos were inducted in the Valley in 1995 to prevent the 250 sq km Wular lake surrounded by mountains from being used freely by terrorists to reach Srinagar, which was saving them about a 100-km travel through the mountains.

The Marcos are trained in every kind of weapon and instruments: from knives and crossbows to sniper rifles, handguns, assault rifles, submachine guns and bare hands.

Kashmiri boatmen extract sand from the Jhelum river, north of Srinagar

Being divers, they can reach hostile shores swimming underwater. The commandos are widely feared among terrorists.

The Army's persistent operations have forced jihadis to flee the cities and take shelter in remote regions.

The 42 Rashtriya Rifles killed three Jaish-e-Mohammed members last week including a Pakistani operative, who were hiding in a high- altitude cave in Satoora area of Tral.

The Army is focusing on stopping infiltration and eliminating jihadis to make it difficult to sustain terrorism in the state, sources said.

This year has been quite successful for the Army in terms of operations as security forces have been able to kill more than 105 terrorists so far and are hoping to hunt down more in the coming months.

MARCOS are widely feared among the terrorists, who call them 'Dadiwala fauj', meaning the 'Bearded Army' because of their bearded disguise in civil areas

After the Amarnath Yatra concludes this month, the Army may retain additional troops sent there to put pressure on Pakistan-backed terrorists and carry out further intensive operations in both the hinterlands and at the Line of Control.

Smart deployment of troops at the LoC in Baramulla sector and other places also helped the forces check infiltration while creating a fear among terrorist groups trying to push in more of their operatives into India.

Because of this all-out approach against terrorists, the Army has been able to eliminate big names such as Sabzar Bhatt, Bashir Lashkari and Junaid Mattoo in the last few months and is eyeing leaders of major terror groups like Zakir Musa, Abu Dujana and Abu Ismail.

RSS to conduct its annual meeting in Jammu

by Siddhartha Rai

Looking to send a strong message in the Valley, the RSS is holding one of its annual meetings in Jammu.

The three-day affair started on Tuesday and the significance of it can be gauged from the presence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat along with his karyavaahs and sarkaryawahh Bhaiyaji Joshi.

While RSS workers denied any major decision could come out of the meeting as it was one of the 'routine' post Sangh Shiksha Varg meets that are usually held in July every year, the venue is simply telling!

President Amit Shah (right) with Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Hindu nationalist RSS

'No resolution is passed in these meetings that happen every year after the completion of the Sangh Shiksha Varg or the yearly training session,' said an RSS functionary.

He added that the affair was behind closed doors and not open to prying eyes of the media. 'No one is allowed inside,' he added. The meet is attended by the prant pracharaks (state-level pracharaks) and kshetra pracharaks (regional level pracharaks).

Sources added that these functionaries would be presenting the report card of the training exercise from across India.

The RSS is holding one of its annual meetings in Jammu (file pic)

Another significant thing on the agenda is to review the growth and expansion of the sangh across India and to strategise on further expansion of the organisation.

Ved Mandir, where the meeting is underway has been put under a cloud of tight security. RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar is supposed to be point person for this meeting.

Kumar is the de facto head of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), which the RSS calls a forum of nationalist minded Muslims and of which Kumaris only the guiding light.
Air India is being drained of a staggering Rs 6,000 crore every year due to its huge debt burden, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The minister said the airline is facing financial pressure and earning less profit due to the high debt - estimated at Rs 48,800 crore asof March 31 this year - as an offshoot of past accumulated losses.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) had on June 28 cleared the proposal to go ahead with the disinvestment of the airline which has plunged into losses after it was merged with Indian Airlines in 2007 by the UPA government.

Air India had an estimated at Rs 48,800 crore as of March 31 this year

Air India's market share has shrunk to 12.9 per cent from 35 per cent a decade ago.

Sinha said to implement the decision of the CCEA, appointment of transaction adviser, legal adviser and asset valuer shall be taken up as per terms and conditions and scope of work of advisers in accordance with the model request for proposals suggested by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management.

Noting that liquidity constraints continue to impact the airline's smooth functioning, he said the company has been making constant efforts for substituting its high cost working capital loans with long-term low cost debt.

Air India chief Ashwani Lohani has assured employees their interests would be safeguarded

Air India has been in consultation with various banks so that the interest costs can come down substantially in the coming years to improve its profits, the minister added.

Air India made a net loss Rs 3,643 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2017.

Meanwhile, a section of Air India employees on Tuesday staged protest against the government's decision to privatise the national carrier, saying they were always ready for a turnaround of the airline.

However, Air India chief Ashwani Lohani assured employees their interests would be safeguarded as he sought to allay concerns over possible layoff following the government's decision to sell its stake in the national carrier.

'I would like to reassure all my employees that during the process of disinvestment, the government and the airline management would like to safeguard your genuine and valid interests and ensure that suitable measures to this effect are put in place,' Lohani, said in a letter to the staff.
If you intend to pay for parking with a new 1 coin at a ticket machine you could be facing a game of Russian roulette, the AA has warned.

After the motoring organisation issued a freedom of information request to local councils, it found that more than one in five haven't converted their machines to accept to the coin.

With drivers set to hit the road this weekend for the start of the summer holiday getaway, the AA warned they could run the risk of a steep fine if they're unable to park for parking.

Correct change: Motorists attempting to pay for parking using a new 1 coin are running a gauntlet according to new AA research with 22% of councils admitting they still haven't upgraded their machines to accept the new legal tender

Of the 340 councils who responded to the AA's request, 74 running coin-operated ticket machines admitted that not all of them had been switched over to accept the 12-sided 1 by the beginning of July - that represents 22 per cent of all councils.

Even by next month, in the middle of the holiday period, 46 councils - or 14 per cent - will still make it difficult for visitors to pay to park in many places.

Travellers planning a holiday in Devon, Wales, Scotland, Oxfordshire and other areas of rural beauty are at the greatest risk, according to the AA's new investigation.

As an alternative, some local authorities are suggesting that visitors set up payment with the council's mobile phone cashless payment systems.

However, these have proved over-complicated, frustrating and not all that reliable in the past, which could land drivers with a penalty charge notice if they unwittingly fail to cover the cost of their stay.

The AA also said that many councils installing new machines to accept the coin have incorporated the system that requires the driver to enter their vehicle registration number to verify they have bought the ticket legitimately.

The AA said drivers shouldn't have to pay for parking if ticket machines won't accept the new 1 coin

It described these machines as 'the bane' of elderly people, those in a hurry, drivers with a new or rented car who haven't yet memorised their plate digits or someone who has left their reading glasses in their vehicle.

That said, it doesn't take much to take a photo of your registration number when you park or simply return to the vehicle to memorise the numbers and letters.

AA president Edmund King said drivers shouldn't be held accountable if they're trying to pay for parking with a new 1 coin and the ticket machine doesn't accept it.

Until the switch-over process is complete, drivers should be able to park for free, the AA's spokesman added.

The 12-sided 1 coin has been in circulation since 28 March 2017 - that means 22% of councils have failed to upgrade their machines in a three month period

He said: 'If councils are having difficulties because their contractors are under pressure, or because replacement machines, parts, or software have yet to be delivered, the driver shouldn't be blamed.

'If the machines are unfit for purpose because they can't take the legal tender for a parking charge at 1.60 or 3.60, that's the councils' problem.

'Either make the car parks free to use until the machines are converted or provide some kind of online means to pay the charge within a reasonable time  without having to waste time and often pay extra to sign up to cashless parking system that a holidaymaker may never use again.'

King also added that difficulties paying for parking could have an impact on the level of tourism in rural or city holiday destinations.

He added: 'Drivers are forced to go through unnecessary, costly and time-consuming appeals  councils and parking operators hoping that the drivers won't bother and they get the fine revenue. In effect some operators are just coining it in.'

Churchill claims drivers overpay by 2.68 a week on parking because they don't carry the correct change

Separate research conducted by Churchill Car Insurance recently revealed that UK drivers waste 2.2billion every year because they don't have to the correct change to pay for parking.

The insurer said 62 per cent of motorists admit to overpaying for parking because they don't have the right coins in their pocket, mainly due to a greater reliance on using cards and mobile payments.

The survey of 2,004 drivers found that the average amount overpaid is 2.68 per week, working out at 139.36 every year per person.

It means that 'over spenders' are buying more than an hour's extra time every week that they do not need.

On average, parking costs 1.33 per hour on average across the UK, although an hour in London will set drivers back on average 1.81 compared to Scotland where it is just 98p an hour, the study claimed.

Steve Barrett, head of Car Insurance at Churchill said: 'Spending an extra 2.68 a week may not sound like a huge amount but it soon mounts up, with drivers throwing nearly 140 away every year. That's enough for a family day out or to make a decent dent on household bills.

'In an age of contactless payment machines it is a shame that drivers are still being short changed because they simply do not have the correct change.

'Car parking companies and local councils should further embrace contactless technology and parking apps to make paying for parking as easy as possible.'
Royal Mail was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 this morning after it said growth in its parcel division and UK political mailings in the run up to Junes snap election boosted revenues by more than expected.

The privatised group, which floated on the stock market in October 2013, posted a 1 per cent rise in group revenue in the three months to the end of June, as strong growth at its European parcel division helped offset falling revenues in the UK.

Shares in the company rose 3 per cent, or 11.8p, to 410p following the trading update.

In decline: Letters volumes kept falling, despite election boost, while parcels continued to rise

Revenues from letters in the UK continued their inexorable decline, falling 4 per cent, which would have been even worse (a 6 per cent drop) had it not been for a spike in letters sent to households by political parties in the run up to the General Election. Letter volumes fell 6 per cent.

In comparison, the UK parcel division continued to grow, with volumes up 5 per cent, helped by the growing popularity of online shopping. Parcel revenues rose 3 per cent in the period, helping offset the decline in letters. But this still resulted in a 1 per cent decline in overall UK revenues.

The biggest boost came from Royal Mails European parcel delivery service General Logistics Systems.

GLS underlying revenues rose 6 per cent, but with the benefit of recent acquisitions included, Royal Mail said turnover soared 18 per cent in the quarter.

Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene said the group had a good start to the financial year but warned over continued business uncertainty in the UK, despite the boost from the general election.

GLS continues to be a driving force for the Group. Its ongoing, focussed international expansion is increasing our geographic diversification, scale and reach, she said.

We remain on track to deliver our cost avoidance and net cash investment targets for the full year.

The update comes after Royal Mail last week sought to avert the threat of strike action by announcing a new proposal for pension scheme changes.

The group had planned to close its defined benefit pension scheme next year, which resulted in fury from Unite and the Communication Workers Union.

But on Friday, Royal Mail said that after 'extensive talks' with unions, Unite is planning to hold a consultative ballot of its members on a new plan, which it insisted was a significant improvement on an earlier proposal.

The changes will see it offer scheme members a choice between a new defined benefit cash balance scheme and an improved defined contribution scheme.

Royal Mail shares: Despite today's rise, they are still a third off its 2014 peak

Neil Wilson, senior analyst at ETX Capital said that despite the share price rise, the stock remained a third off its 2014 peak and a fifth below where it was a year ago - a sign of how much Brexit uncertainty is weighing on the domestic market.

He added: The company is at the mercy of the shifting trends in letters and parcels: people are sending fewer letters to each other but online shopping means far more parcels are being sent  the Amazon effect, which is proving so destructive for high street retailers, is at least supporting Royal Mail.

Economic uncertainty continues to weigh on letter volumes and could also hit parcels if consumers start to rein in their spending. With relatively high fixed costs Royal Mails parcel business may not be best placed to weather a pullback in volumes.

Wilson added: Weighing on Royal Mail is the continued battle over pensions. A new offer is still being looked at by unions and the threat of a nationwide strike looms. Costs could climb to as much as 1.3billion a year from the current level of 400million.'
Three men have been stabbed at a bar after another man who was evicted from the premises allegedly returned with a knife and went on the attack.

Two men reportedly got into an argument at Rocksia Hotel, in Sydney's south, early on Sunday before one was evicted - only to return and allegedly stab the two men and a third who tried to wrestle his weapon away.

Police say the alleged offender was then chased down by witnesses, who caught up to the 37-year-old attacker and allegedly bashed him, before detaining him in a park.

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Three men have been stabbed at a bar after another man who was evicted from the premises allegedly returned with a knife and went on the attack

Police say the alleged offender was then chased down by witnesses, who caught up to the 37-year-old attacker and allegedly bashed him, before detaining him in a park (pictured)

After returning to the pub the man reportedly told security he had left a jacket and other belongings inside. When the bouncer went to find it, he reportedly snuck in.

Police allege the man pulled a knife and began attacking two men with a 30cm long kitchen knife, Nine News reports.

A 47-year-old man was allegedly stabbed four times in the chest and stomach, while a 39-year-old man was stabbed twice in the chest.

A third man, who was not involved in the earlier argument, was stabbed in the hand when he reportedly attempted to pull the knife away from the alleged attacker.

The attacker than reportedly fled the bar on foot before being pursed by witnesses from inside the bar who caught up to him and held him until police arrived.

All three injured men were then rushed to the nearby St George Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. One has been released while the other two are in a stable condition.

After returning to the Rocksia Hotel (pictured) the man reportedly told security he had left a jacket and other belongings inside. When the bouncer went to find it, he reportedly snuck in.

It followed a fatal stabbing in Whalan, in the city's west, in which a 50-year-old man died as he reportedly tried up a fight between a teenage boy and his mother (pictured)

The attacker was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital suffering from minor facial injuries.

It followed a fatal stabbing in Whalan, in the city's west, in which a 50-year-old man died as he reportedly tried up a fight between a teenage boy and his mother.

A 19-year-old man was arrested by police, who arrived about 5.30pm, and has since been charged with murder.

He is appearing before Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura says he never coined the motto that's featured on a new biographical plaque that has gone up this month next to his official portrait at the state Capitol.

Ventura told Minnesota Public Radio that he never said the motto listed on his plaque: 'Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat'.

Ventura said his one-time professional wrestler colleague Kenny Patera said the phrase, though it was later attached to him over the years.

'That has to go,' said Ventura, who is a former professional wrestler. 'To put that quote in at a building like the Capitol, I think, is utterly ridiculous.'

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura says he never coined the motto that's featured on this biographical plaque that has gone up this month next to his official portrait

Ventura (pictured in 2015) served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003

Known as Jesse 'The Body' Ventura his career as a professional wrestler spanned 11 years

Ventura said that fellow professional wrestler Ken Patera (right) actually coined the saying

The Minnesota Historical Society said they'll reach out to the former governor about possible changes.

The labels are easily updated, unlike the old ones which were on brass, said Brian Szott, historical society curator of art.

Ventura is seen during his term as governor

Tim Pawlenty said his biography seems to have a political bias and leaves out his key accomplishments, including leading education and energy reforms.

'It's disappointing, reads like a political commentary in parts, and is not up to the Historical Society's usual quality standards,' Pawlenty wrote in an email.

Former governors Arne Carlson and Al Quie said they have some minor issues, but don't plan to ask for changes.

'Governors, as anybody as a whole, like only the flattering things said,' Carlson said.

The living former governors said they weren't consulted about the biographies, nor did they see them in advance.

This is the first time each portrait has a biographical note. Only deceased governors received write-ups previously.

Including biographies of living ex-governors is meant to give Capitol visitors more information about the former heads of state, Szott said.

'They are continually leading long lives past their governorship and we want to include them, and we thought the public would be interested in their biographies, especially with such colorful governors as we have had in the recent past,' he said.
Speaker Bercow, who hates parliamentary sketchwriters who mention MPs looks, yesterday mocked a senior Tory backbencher for his (fading) facial resemblance to Prince Andrew.

The Squeaker referred to Altrincham & Sale Wests Graham Brady as Prince Andrew over there. It was a gratuitous if jovial dig. Mr Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, chose to take it well. Hes a decent sort.

Back in 1997, when Mr Brady first arrived in the Commons, a few of us sketchers did indeed remark that he was a ringer for the Duke of York. The joke soon faded, first because it lost its novelty, second because the Duke ran to fat whereas Mr Brady did not.

Why did Mr Bercow yesterday exhume that ancient joke? Hard to say. But the little fella has been behaving in an increasingly erratic manner since his re-election as Speaker. His verbosity has reached new levels (his response to one recent point of order filled almost an entire column of Hansard).

'Why did Mr Bercow yesterday exhume that ancient joke? Hard to say'

Last week he not only took hours off to high-tail it down to Wimbledon but also referred to the Monmouth Tory, David TC Davies, as Top Cat. His speech to the King of Spain was grotesquely unctuous. Yesterday he sneerily said MPs should get the Commons days timings into their little grey cells. Bercow currently thinks he is untouchable  and he is probably right. Hubris invariably precedes correction.

Yesterdays Prince Andrew moment came as he was ticking off Cheltenhams Alex Chalk (Con) for heckling a claim by Labours education spokesman Angela Rayner (big strong lass) that the Tories new schools budgets showed they were reneging on their election manifesto.

This was a wonderful example of the old adage that shifty politicians accuse opponents of their old faults. Labour has just dropped its vote-winning promise to scrap university fees! Mr Chalk happened to be sitting next to HRH Mr Brady and that is why Bercow gave Mr Brady a mention.

Mrs Rayners accusation about the Tories reneging on their manifesto earned a proper spanking from Education Secretary Justine Greening. She flew into a riff about how Labour had lied to students  one of the most dishonest pieces of electioneering I have ever seen.

'Bercow yesterday mocked Graham Brady (left) for his (fading) facial resemblance to Prince Andrew (right)'

Young people deserved better than the Corbynite snake oil propaganda about college fees which had now been proved to be a lie, she said. Miss Greening was making a statement about allocating more money to schools. Where was it coming from? The Education Department budget, apparently. Miss Greening said she was unlocking funding and was challenging my Department to make some efficiencies.

Ben Bradshaw (Lab, Exeter) said she was raiding her capital budget. Miss Greening said she still wanted to keep school buildings shipshape. Tory backbenchers were happy with Miss Greening. Opposition MPs were grumpy. They often get that way when they see a grievance disappear.

If a few billion can be found from Education Department inefficiencies, what about the unbelievable fortune (100billion?) likely to be blown on the HS2 railway? After a few HS2 criticisms from MPs last Thursday, and a valiant campaign by former Tory deputy speaker Lord Framlingham, the Transport Department yesterday tried to stop any uncertainty over the project by announcing a fat tranche of HS2 contracts.

Yet Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was not going to make a statement. Backbenchers on both sides  among them Ed Miliband and Angela Smith for Labour, Cheryl Gillan and Michael Fabricant for the Conservatives  put up a barrage of complaints. It was made plain to Mr Grayling that he should haul his bones down to the Commons.

He eventually agreed to do so just before 10pm.

Civil servants, if not Mr Grayling himself, were trying to pull a fast one. HS2 is high-speed after all, I guess. They want to create a sense that it is too late to stop that rich-peoples railway line. If so, can billions of pounds worth of efficiencies not be found?
A North Carolina man was given his second life in prison sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to the 2014 shooting death of his elderly neighbor.

Justin Nojan Sullivan, 21, of Morganton, was sentenced to life Monday, just weeks after receiving a life sentence for plotting a massacre on behalf of the Islamic State.

Sullivan was convicted and sentenced in Burke County Superior Court for the murder of his neighbor John Bailey Clark in December of 2014.

According to the Hickory Record, Sullivan's sentence holds no possibility for parole.

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Justin Sullivan in court Monday. He confessed to killing his neighbor John Clark and received his second life sentence, weeks after receiving life in prison for a US terror plot

John Clark (pictured) was 74-years-old when he was killed by his neighbor Justin Sullivan, 21

The US Attorney's office says Sullivan used his father's gun (pictured) to kill his neighbor

Multiple media outlets report 21-year-old Justin Nojan Sullivan admitted Monday in a Burke County courtroom that he shot and killed 74-year-old John Bailey Clark in December 2014 as he slept in his bedroom.

Sullivan was tied to his neighbor's slaying after federal authorities launched a terror investigation, which was prompted by a 911 call in April 2015. His father told police that the young man was destroying religious items in their home in Morganton.

Weeks of communications with an undercover informant followed. He was arrested at the family's home on June 19, 2015, after he allegedly communicated with an Islamic State figure that same month via social media about making a video of a terrorist attack.

Sullivan was accused of planning to use an assault rifle and silencer to carry out an attack at a concert, bar or club, which he believed would kill as many as 1,000 people.

Investigators said Sullivan told them he planned to carry out the attack when his parents would be out of town. Sullivan also allegedly offered an undercover FBI employee money to kill his parents to prevent them from interfering.

Sullivan in court Monday. He plead guilty to murdering his neighbor and received his second life sentence

Photo of Sullivan after his arrest at his home in 2015 for his terror plot

Sullivan admitted to killing his neighbor Monday. Crime scene photos show the neighbor's bed where he was killed according to the US Attorney's office

US Attorney's Office says Sullivan used the gun and hid it in a crawl space in his home (left) and during the murder he concealed his identity using a black ski mask (pictured right)

Forensic tests on his father's .22-caliber rifle later determined that the same gun had been used to shoot Clark in the head.

Authorities accused Sullivan of taking the man's money to finance the act of terror.

A Burke County grand jury indicted Sullivan on a murder charge in the death of Clark, who lived a few doors down from him, said District Attorney David Learner.

Sullivan's lawyer, Victoria Jayne, said Burke County prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

She couldn't be reached for additional comment on Monday, but she told The Charlotte Observer that he pleaded guilty because "Justin just wants to get this over with," before he is assigned a federal prison to serve his ISIS sentence.

"He's sort of anxious at this point of getting into the federal Bureau of Prisons. He's very nervous about that," Jayne told the newspaper. "He is socially awkward and he is socially immature."
Samuel Johnson has told how his younger sister Connie is in a hospice and 'actively dying' in a heartbreaking Facebook post.

Mr Johnson on Monday night said Connie, who has terminal breast cancer, has put away her phone and turned-off social media as she tries to get her head around the 'most difficult thing she's ever had to face'.

'Con's needed a lot of quiet time lately to try and comprehend the total headf***ery that "actively dying" brings,' the post on the Love Your Sister page read.

Samuel Johnson (right) posted on the Love Your Sister Facebook page on Monday night that his sister Connie (left) was in a hospice

In the Facebook post, Mr Johnson said Connie had 'needed a lot of quiet time lately to try and comprehend the total headf***ery that "actively dying" brings'

Connie's view from the hospice which accompanied the Facebook post on the Love Your Sister page

The post was accompanied by a photo Connie, 40, had captured of the view from the hospice, where she had phoned her brother and said she was spending her time time colouring-in.

'No phones, no social media - all too overwhelming right now. She just rang from the Hospice... and admitted that this is the most difficult thing she's ever had to face,' the post said.

'But in true Connie style she's been colouring-in to keep the nasty thoughts at bay!

'She said to tell you that there's life in the old dog yet.'

Connie decided to end all treatment for her terminal breast cancer earlier this year

Mr Johnson said his sister (pictured together) had 'rung from the Hospice... and admitted that this is the most difficult thing she's ever had to face'

Mr Johnson, who dedicated his Gold Logie win in April to Connie, said his sister was 'as comfortable as can be and is being cared for superbly'.

Thousands of people commented to the Facebook post to let Mr Johnson know the family were in their thoughts.

'Love and admiration to a truly inspirational family. May you all know peace and love,' one wrote.

Earlier this year, Connie, a Canberra mother-of-two, decided to end all treatment for her terminal breast cancer.

At the time, Connie said after a double mastectomy and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, the side effects had become harsher and harder to ignore.

She suffered bone cancer at age 11, a tumour in her womb at 22 and was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago.

'So that's 10 to 11 years of cancer treatment in a 40-year lifespan and I guess my organs are just saying, "No more. No more",' Connie had told The Canberra Times.

Mr Johnson said his sister (pictured together) was as 'comfortable as can be and is being cared for superbly'
Pauline Hanson has hailed the decision of two major breakfast cereal makers to withdraw from halal certification as a sign that companies are responding to public pressure.

Kellogg's and Sanitarium have declared there is no need to pay fees to an Islamic business or charity to declare their products contain no pork or alcohol products, making them fit for Muslims to eat.

Nestle no longer has halal certification applied to its chocolate bars, including Kit Kat, unlike its rival Cadbury.

The One Nation leader said those corporate decisions were a win for 'all those fighting to free Australians from having to pay extra into the halal certification scam' which funds Muslim schools, mosques and religious activities.

'One Nation has kept this issue alive and tried to educate people about unnecessary halal certification so it's great to see progress being made,' Senator Hanson told Daily Mail Australia.

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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson successfully moved a Senate motion to have the federal cabinet examine halal labelling laws

Pauline Hanson says companies are being forced to respond to public pressure over halal

Senator Hanson claimed the victory after Daily Mail Australia revealed the decisions of Kellogg's, Sanitarium and Nestle on Monday.

It also come only three weeks after she successfully moved a motion in the Senate for federal cabinet ministers to investigate better labeling for halal-certified foods.

'It looks like One Nation's successful Senate motion has had a flow-on effect and companies are being forced to respond to public pressure,' she said.

A Senate committee in late 2015 recommended that senior ministers investigate ways of improving transparency in the halal certification industry.

Senator Hanson's motion covered the bipartisan inquiry's first recommendation for halal-certified food to have clearer labeling.

The inquiry had six other recommendations, including better labeling for animals slaughtered as part of a religious ritual.

Sanitarium, the maker of Weet-Bix, is no longer paying halal certification fees for exports

Kellogg's in 2016 chose not to renew its halal certification arrangements in Australia

Nestle still pays halal fees for Milo, Magi noodles, Nescafe coffee, condensed milk and chilli sauces.

Halal certification fees charged to food manufacturers fund Islamic schools, mosques and religious activities.

Sanitarium, the Seventh Day Adventist company behind Weet-Bix, said it saw no need to to pay third-party halal certifiers for its products sold in Australia.

'As far as Sanitarium's position on halal certification we do not use meat-based ingredients or alcohol,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

Nestle is no longer paying halal certification fees for chocolate bars, including Kit Kat

Who has stopped paying? Kellogg's confirmed that it stopped paying halal certification fees last year as a commercial decision. Sanitarium has stopped paying halal fees for its exported cereals and soy milk, but clarified it never put halal logos on its products sold in Australia. Nestle ceased paying halal certification fees in March 2016 for its chocolate bars but still has them for Maggi two-minute noodles, Nescafe coffee and condensed milk. Advertisement

'This means our products are suitable for people choosing halal or kosher foods.'

It added that its plant-based breakfast cereals and So Good soy milk were already fit for Muslim and Jewish consumption.

'We do not use and have never needed to use the halal or kosher certification symbols for our local Australian or New Zealand markets as it is unnecessary to do so,' the spokesman said, adding it had previously paid halal certification fees to export their products to 35 nations.

Kellogg's, which sells popular plant-based cereals like Corn Flakes and Special K, denied it last year changed its halal policies over public pressure.

'They're inherently halal, so we chose not to renew our certification in 2016 as part of a regular review of all certifications for our foods,' a spokesman said.

'This was a commercial decision, not the result of any public pressure or backlash.'

Halal Certification Authority president Mohamed Elmouelhy said halal opened the door to lucrative export markets in Muslim-majority nations like Indonesia and Malaysia

However Halal Certification Authority president Mohamed Elmouelhy said a public campaign against halal certification may have made companies think twice.

'Yes, of course. There was a campaign,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Elmouelhy has declined the reveal the details of his clients or where his halal fees went.

'I am not going to say what I spend my money on. This is a private company and I'm a private person, and I have every right to spend the money whichever way I want to,' he said.

But he argued companies that had halal certification arrangements would have an easier time exporting to Muslim-majority nations like Indonesia and Malaysia.

'That brings in a lot of money to the company,' he said. 'Not just Cadbury, every single company.'

Halal Choices campaigner Kirralie Smith said many products were already suitable for Muslims and didn't need to have halal certification fees levied to 'state the obvious'

Halal Choices campaigner Kirralie Smith said halal fees were unnecessary for plant-based products anyway.

'Muslims will buy their products anyway,' she said.

'They're already halal. What we're concerned about is companies paying fees to state the obvious.'

Ms Smith, a farmer from northern New South Wales, ran as a Senate candidate with the Australian Liberty Alliance at last year's federal election and is now a member of Senator Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives.

She said there was still a long way to go to achieve more transparency with halal certification regulations, with major food producers Vegemite and Bega cheese continuing to pay halal certification fees.

'I'm hoping that other politicians will continue to put pressure on the government,' she said.

Nestle said an Australian company halal certified its foods, apart from chocolate bars.

'The fee we pay in Australia, stays in Australia. The certifier is owned by a group of community organisations who invest in programs to support their local communities,' a spokeswoman said.

She said any small change to ingredients affected the halal certification process.

Nestle no longer pays for chocolate bars to be halal certified but third-party groups still levy a fee on Nescafe coffee, Maggi noodles, Movenpick ice cream and condensed milk
Tensions threaten to reach boiling point at a Queensland primary school as parents push to ban Muslim students wearing the hijab.

Benowa State School P&C President, Brooke Patterson, called for the ban after she claimed she was asked to design uniforms for young girls which provided 'sexual modesty coverings.'

'We need to debate this now, otherwise in three months there will be a Muslim uniform in state schools in Queensland,' she told the Liberal National Party state conference.

Tensions threaten to reach boiling point at a Queensland primary school as parents push to ban Muslim students wearing the hijab. Benowa State School P&C President, Brooke Patterson (pictured), said: 'We need to debate this now'

The Benowa State School P&C President warned there will soon be a separate uniform for Muslim students

The school principal, Michael Josey, called for Ms Patterson to stand down and said uniform policy had to be in line with anti-discrimination laws

The school principal, Michael Josey, called for Ms Patterson to stand down and said uniform policy had to be in line with anti-discrimination laws, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

'You will need to step aside with this matter and declare a conflict of interest, as your own personal political views cannot represent or influence the views of the P&C at this school,' Mr Josey wrote.

But Ms Patterson is standing firm, claiming allowing young girls to wear religious clothing effectively creates a separate uniform for Muslim students.

'Why would you be trying to do that in a secular state? We are not deciding at Benowa State School uniforms according to a Muslim culture,' she said.

'The people who are most vulnerable to this are the poor darling girls between the ages of five and nine. Their religion doesn't say anything about prepubescent girls wearing a sexual modesty garment.'

Ms Patterson said allowing young girls to wear religious clothing would effectively create a separate uniform for Muslim students (stock image)

LNP member Brooke Patterson is pictured debating the resolution at the Liberal National Party state convention

An emergency resolution at the LNP conference calling for a general ban on clothing which obscures the face was defeated.

But a second emergency resolution calling for a ban on headscarves for children under the age of 10 was passed.

Another delegate, Wendy Ko, argued against the resolution and said the LNP should be in favour of freedom of religion.

'We shouldn't even be having this discussion, I don't think anyone has the right to tell an Islamic family how to raise their daughter,' Ms Ko said.

'We are not deciding at Benowa State School uniforms according to a Muslim culture,' Ms Patterson said

'The people who are most vulnerable to this are the poor darling girls between the ages of five and nine,' Ms Patterson said (stock image)

Ultimately the resolution was passed.

Queensland Labor frontbencher Leanne Enoch said she was disappointed by the result.

'I think it's absolutely appalling, we live in a multicultural society,' Ms Enoch said.

'They're talking about what children should wear in schools; that is the dark ages.'
Three women have been caught red-handed by authorities for trying to smuggle drugs and tobacco into prison by stuffing the contraband inside their bras.

Police have also arrested a male visitor for carrying four balloons of tobacco stuffed inside his socks at the Goulburn Correctional Centre in New South Wales (NSW).

All four have been charged.

Three women were caught red-handed by police for trying to smuggle drugs into prisons

Correction Services New South Wales spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that this was not the first time drugs were being smuggled into prisons by women using their bras.

The women and man were caught during raids performed by the security operations group using K9 dogs at Cessnock, Silverwater Women's and Goulburn correctional centres in NSW over the weekend.

The raids were targeting inmates, cells, common areas and visitors and seizing drugs, mobile phones and tobacco.

New South Wales Minister for Corrections David Elliott said contraband is a constant challenge in the correctional system and that it is a risk to the safety and security of staff and inmates.

'I'm absolutely appalled that this weekend's searches resulted in four visitors facing charges of attempting to smuggle contraband into a correctional centre  essentially placing the lives of our staff at risk,' Mr Elliott said.

The bust was carried out over the weekend which resulted in four people being charged

'I want to remind visitors to centres that we will not tolerate this illegal activity and you will be caught and penalised.

'Intelligence officers at each centre monitor 24/7 for suspicious behaviour and this, combined with the detection skills of our SOG officers and K9 team, means that if you break the law you will be caught,' he said.

The weekend raids also discovered other contraband, including four mobile phones and three SIM cards, 1.5g of methamphetamine, seven buprenorphine strips, 268.35g of tobacco, and 36 Xanax tablets.
$5 billion of student loans has not been properly accounted for in paperwork by the collectors (file image)

As much as $5 billion of student loan debt in the US may be wiped because collectors have not kept clean enough records to reclaim the money.

According to a The New York Times investigation, a portion of loans owned by The National Collegiate Trust has not been properly documented.

The Trust encompasses 15 different trusts across the country which together own $12 billion of student debt. Of that amount, $5 billion has not been properly accounted for in paperwork, the report claims.

The loans were originally granted to students by banks. Once granted, the banks bundled them together and sold the debt on. This changing of hands means that in some cases, it's not clear from records who exactly owns the individual loan.

If the trust tries to demand the money from former students but the paperwork is not up to scratch, the entire amount could be thrown out by a judge.

The issue is playing out in small, individual lawsuits across the country.

The average amount borrowed by students in the US is $30,000. The $5billion accounts for around 166,600 separate loans.

The $12 billion of debt owned by the National Collegiate Trust is just a small fraction of the estimated $1.2 trillion of student debt in the country.

One New York City woman had her $31,000 debt wiped out by a judge last year because the collector could not prove exactly how much she owed and that they were the rightful owners of the debt.

The $5 billion - though just a fraction of the US national student debt - is the amount of approximately 160,000 separate loans

'It was such a relief,' Samantha Watson said.

The trust had sued her for falling behind on payments. While she was responsible for some, the collectors also claimed she owed them money for fees from schools she did not even attend.

Eventually, the judge decided the trust's records were not clear enough to enforce payment.

Similar decisions have been made in New Jersey, Texas and Ohio.


Sadiq Khan has warned Donald Trump that there will be 'no red carpet' should he visit the United Kingdom.

The Mayor of London renewed his war of words with the U.S. President ahead of a proposed state visit to the capital.

Theresa May had officially invited Trump to the UK in January but the trip was left out of the Queen's Speech last month, ending hopes it would happen this year.

Despite an invite from the UK government, both sides have failed to arrange a date amid reports that Mr Trump has been put off by the threat of large-scale protests.

Sadiq Khan has warned Donald Trump that there will be 'no red carpet for him' should he visit the United Kingdom

Among the President's main opponents in the UK has been Mr Khan, who opposed Trump's travel ban which targeted people from mainly Muslim countries.

Speaking to CNN about the mooted state visit, Mr Khan said he was 'ready to play my role' when it came to challenging people's opinions.

He added: 'State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet.

'If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump.'

Theresa May had officially invited Trump to the UK in January but the trip was left out of the Queen's Speech last month, ending hopes it would happen this year

Mr Trump said to have told the Prime Minister in a phone call earlier this month that he does not want to go ahead with the trip until the British public supports him coming

The pair have a colourful history, most notably in the aftermath of the London Bridge terror attack when Mr Trump criticised the Mayor of London in a Tweet.

The President attacked Mr Khan after he had told Londoners there was 'no reason to be alarmed' by the increased police presence in the capital.

Mr Trump also said of Mr Khan: 'I think they were very rude statements and frankly tell him I will remember those statements.'

He is said to have told the Prime Minister in a phone call earlier this month that he does not want to go ahead with the trip until the British public supports him coming.

The call is said to have surprised Mrs May. The visit was originally scheduled as part of a trip to Europe next month, but was delayed until the autumn.
A young girl has suffered serious facial injuries after being bitten by the family's dog at a home near Brisbane.

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross dog attacked the young girl, believed to be aged between two and five-years-old, early Tuesday morning.

Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokes woman told Daily Mail Australia the girl was attacked by a dog at a private residence before 8am at Redbank Plains, near Bottlebrush Crescent, south-west of Brisbane.

A young girl has been rushed to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital (pictured) after being attacked by a dog Tuesday morning

A Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross dog (the same breed as dog pictured) attacked the young girl, leaving her in a serious condition in hospital

The pre-school aged girl has suffered a number of serious facial injuries from the dog bite

'She received various facial injuries ... serious facial lacerations,' QAS spokes woman said.

Ipswich City Council Health, Security and Regulatory Services spokeswoman Cr Sheila Ireland told the Hit Network the dog was taken from the house.

'Ipswich City Council has seized a staffy cross breed dog following an attack on a young girl at Redbank Plains earlier (Tuesday) morning,' she said.

'(It's) believed to have involved a dog owned by the victims family. The incident is under investigation.'

The young girl was taken to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital Tuesday morning with critical care paramedics in a stable condition.




Asserting her authority: Theresa May

Theresa May will today warn warring Cabinet ministers that they risk letting Jeremy Corbyn into No 10 unless they stop their toxic briefings against each other.

The Prime Minister will try to assert her authority by saying that a string of damaging leaks and vicious briefings are undermining public confidence in the Government.

And she will say a Tory civil war could result in another election that might allow Labour to seize power.

Last night, Mrs May pointedly thanked backbench MPs for their loyalty in the wake of the general election, when senior Cabinet figures have been manoeuvring for her job.

And at a summer drinks reception in Parliament, she told Tory MPs she wanted no backbiting, no carping.

She added: The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn  and nobody wants him. Go away, have a proper summer break and come back ready for serious business.

Mrs Mays intervention follows days of toxic briefings about last weeks Cabinet meeting. A series of leaks have apparently been designed to damage Chancellor Philip Hammond. He believes pro-Brexit ministers are targeting him because of his bid to prioritise the economy over immigration during the negotiations.

One unnamed Cabinet minister claimed the Chancellor was trying to f*** up Brexit. Others criticised him privately for saying that public sector workers are overpaid.

Smears have also been spread about Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. And yesterday a former aide to Environment Secretary Michael Gove attacked Brexit Secretary David Davis, describing him as thick as mince, and claiming he was gearing up for a betrayal on Brexit.

A government source said: The PM has been pretty unimpressed by what we have seen in the last few days. With a narrow majority the need to work as a team is more important than ever.

Briefings about what happened at Cabinet are extremely unhelpful. We need to get on with the job and turn our fire on the opposition and the damage that Jeremy Corbyn would do to our country if he ever got his hands on the levers of power.

Theresa May will today warn warring Cabinet ministers that they risk letting Jeremy Corbyn into No 10

The Prime Ministers official spokesman added: Cabinet must be able to hold discussions of Government policy in private and the Prime Minister will be reminding her colleagues of that.

Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said the very distressing briefings were a sign of Mrs Mays post-election weakness  and suggested she lacked the authority to sack those responsible. But senior Tory MPs are urging her to stamp her authority on the Cabinet by sacking ministers who refuse to knuckle under.

One said: She is in a much stronger position than people think. The party is very, very clear  we want her to continue.

Dominic Cummings, former director of the Vote Leave campaign, yesterday attacked Mr Davis, saying he was preparing to cave in over Brexit.

Mr Cummings, a former aide to Mr Gove, suggested the Brexit Secretary was being used by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood to sign up to a lengthy transition period that could leave the UK in the EU in all but name for years.

And he claimed provisions buried in the Repeal Bill would allow this to happen.

Mr Cummings said Mr Davis was manufactured exactly to specification as the perfect stooge for Heywood: thick as mince, lazy as a toad and vain as Narcissus.

He said his latest comments were not prompted by any falling out between Mr Gove and Mr Davis.
Amber Harrison doesn't regret speaking out about her bitter battle with Seven West Media, despite a court finding she acted 'unreasonably' in her case against the network.

The ex-lover of Seven boss Tim Worner has been at the centre of a long-running dispute with the broadcaster after she publicly revealed details of the affair in December.

While Ms Harrison admits she made some mistakes, she says she was driven to breach a confidentiality agreement about the relationship after fighting to resolve the matter for more than two years.

Down but not out: Amber Harrison (pictured this week) lost her court costs battle on Monday afternoon - but was defiant in an ABC Radio interview the next day

Seven West Media will be hoping the end of the court battle brings an end to the long-running conflict. CEO Tim Worner was married at the time of the affair with Ms Harrison

'When I was exhausted emotionally and financially and left ruined in December of 2016, I made a decision that the court system does not serve an individual,' she told ABC Radio on Monday.

'It serves a company who knows its way around it and I took the path that I took.

'And no, I did not regret that.'

Ms Harrison has been ordered to pay all Seven West Media's legal costs after a judge on Monday found she made allegations she could not substantiate and acted unreasonably in her battle with the company.

The single mother of one insists she won't pay the bill - which could total hundreds of thousands of dollars - because it would send her bankrupt.

While Ms Harrison says it will be difficult figuring out how to financially support her son, she remains unapologetic.

'I think (Seven) won in court by bankrupting me, but the court of public opinion is very different and I've had overwhelming support,' she said.

Ms Harrison hit out at the 'boy's club' that she believes dominates Australian business, claiming her battle with Seven West Media was a 'wake up call for them'

Ms Harrison hopes the drawn out fight with Seven was a warning shot to the 'boy's club' that runs Australian business

She also fired a warning to the 'boys' club' that she believes dominates Australian business.

'I think my case is a wake-up call for them and I hope it changes things, changes the culture,' she said.

The media company had sought a permanent gag order to stop Ms Harrison from leaking company details and argued her social media posts had breached her employment contract.

Justice John Sackar on Monday found she had decided to contest the company's claim and run a cross-claim, mounted on allegations she wasn't able to back up.
The police officer who shot dead an Australian woman outside of her Minnesota home was already under investigation for 'violently' forcing a woman to hospital, court documents allege.

Mohamed Noor reached over and shot Justine Damond, 40, multiple times from the passenger seat of his squad car while she spoke to his colleague on the drivers side in a back alley behind her upscale Minneapolis home.

Both officer's bodycams were off and the squad car camera not recording, but an audio exchange between dispatch and the officers involved captures the chilling moments directly after she was killed at around 11.30pm on Saturday.

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Rookie police officer Mohamed Noor (pictured during 2015 induction to force), who shot dead Australian woman Justine Damond, 40, was already under investigation

Ms Damond was wearing pyjamas when she was shot multiple times from the passenger seat of Noor's squad car while she spoke to his colleague on the drivers side in a back alley

One officer can be heard saying he sees a 'female screaming behind a building' and 'one down' from the same location before saying they are performing CPR after 'shots fired'.

Noor, who joined the Minneapolis Police in March 2015, has reportedly had three complaints made against him in two years - including a lawsuit.

Two are from 2017 and one from 2016 is closed and according to Lou Raguse of Kare 11 is marked 'not to be made public'.

The lawsuit stems from a police call on May 25, 2017, when Noor and two other officers took a woman to hospital and she claimed that they carried out false imprisonment, assault and battery.

According to the ongoing lawsuit, the woman claimed that Noor 'grabbed her right wrist and upper arm' when moving her, leaving her 'immobilised'.

The woman, a retired social worker from Minneapolis, alleged that she had called 911 to 'report an unknown young male who was sitting on her retaining wall behind her house smoking marijuana.'

Officers followed up on her complaint but returned to her home at 8pm to carry out a welfare check after 'one or more relatives' allegedly complained to police that she had 'some sort of mental health problem'.

The woman alleged that she told the officers to leave but they forced a way into her home through a screen door and told her she was going to hospital for a 'mental health crisis.'

'Defendant Officer Noor grabbed Plaintiff's phone from her hand and then grabbed her right wrist and upper arm, thereby immobilizing her,' the complaint alleged.

She was eventually released from hospital one and a half hours later after a physician ordered that she was discharged, according to the court documents.

Noor, who joined the Minneapolis Police in March 2015, has reportedly had three complaints made against him in two years - including a lawsuit

An audio exchange between dispatch and the officers involved captures the chilling moments directly after Australian-born woman Justine Damond (pictured)

Ms Damond was shot dead by police after she called 911 to report a sexual assault happening in the alley behind her home

Noor issued a statement through attorney Tom Plunkett on Monday afternoon.

'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers,' the statement read.

'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling. He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future. At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.'
Platforms should be free of unhealthy or illegal information, authorities say

China has increased its efforts to regulate livestreaming platforms in a move to prevent the internet environment from being polluted by unhealthy or illegal information, the nation's anti-pornography office said on Monday.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications, a joint team including China's Cyberspace Administration and the Ministry of Culture, called for strengthening the fight against violators on platforms providing live broadcasts.

From January to June, 73 livestreaming platforms and 91,443 live studios with illegal content were closed, while 1,879 live hosts were permanently blacklisted, according to the cyberspace administration.

The office also cooperated with public security authorities to crack cases in which livestreaming providers or live anchors were suspected of spreading pornographic information.

In a recent case, police in Zhejiang province broke up a gang led by two suspects surnamed Fang and Qi, who set up a platform in February and operated it overseas using female hosts.

By May, more than 1.08 million people had become members and paid more than 7.28 million yuan ($1.1 million) to watch livestreamed programs. There were more than 1,000 hosts.

So far, police have detained 22 suspects, the office said, adding that three people are still on the run.

Wang Sixin, a law professor at Communication University of China, applauded the action and the office's increasing efforts to regulate livestreaming platforms, "as they are enforcing our laws and rules".

In December, the cyberspace administration issued a regulation on how to manage live platforms. It said anyone using the platforms to harm national security, damage social stability or spread pornography must be banned.

"The rules to regulate the platforms are sufficient. What we need to do is implement them effectively," Wang said. "Fighting problematic livestreaming platforms doesn't mean restricting the industry's development. It's not a conflict."

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/18/2017 page4)
A sailor cleared of raping a fellow seaman with a rubber chicken in a 'Last Night at Sea' ceremony has again escaped punishment over the at-sea prank.

Rohan Martin Angre is the only person to be convicted over a 2011 incident on HMAS Newcastle, which saw one sailor assaulted in a brutal bastardisation ritual.

During the high-profile incident, a sailor was attacked by four men who hog-tied him, covered him in Deep Heat and Vegemite, before allegedly assaulting him with the rubber chicken.

And now, Able Seaman Marine Technician Angre has avoided penalty from a General Court Martial despite pleading guilty to pouring soy and fish sauce over a shipmate, which left him with burns to his eyes, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Rohan Martin Angre (pictured) was cleared of raping a fellow seaman with a rubber chicken in a 2011 'Last Night at Sea' ceremony and has now escaped punishment over another prank

Able Seaman Marine Technician Angre avoided penalty from a General Court Martial despite pleading guilty to pouring soy and fish sauce on a shipmate, leaving him with burns to his eyes

Angre's shipmates Michael Daniel Thompson, Mitchell Mark Summers and Jonathan Walter were all controversially acquitted or had charges dropped over the incident.

The dropping of charges came after a technical fault which saw plea deals agreed to by a number of the sailors.

A 'substantial miscarriage of justice' occurred when the sailors agreed to a deal on the condition he would be sentenced by a Defence Force magistrate instead of a court martial.

Under ADF law, being sentenced under Court Martial is an unavoidable element.

During the high-profile 'Last Night at Sea' incident, a sailor was attacked by four men on HMAS newcastle (pictured) who hog-tied him, covered him in Deep Heat and Vegemite, and allegedly assaulted him with the rubber chicken

Angre, who had agreed to a similar deal, also appealed against a number of charges, The West Australian reports.

Earlier this year, a new trial was ordered for charges of engaging in indecent act and forcible confinement, but Angre's appeal against assault charges were dismissed.

He claimed he had been 'railroaded' into taking the deal and his 'a manifestation of a genuine consciousness of guilt'.

Angre and his co-accused were all acquitted of the most serious charge, centred on allegations of sexual intercourse without consent.
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The Conservatives have released an awkward photo of the Cabinet sat together smiling as they attempt to quash rumours of in-fighting and mutinous ministers.

In a bid to put on a united front, Downing Street issued the picture of key Tories posing with each other.

Warring ministers Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond are seen fighting for leg room at the front of the photo, while a grinning Michael Gove is pictured on the sidelines.

The Prime Minister herself, in pride of place at the centre of the group despite her weakened position after the election, is flanked by loyal ministers.

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Amid the infighting, Mrs May's Cabinet gathered for its traditional annual photo in the Pillared Room of Downing Street. They are (back row left to right) Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, Chief Whip Gavin Williamson, Attorney General Jeremy Wright, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Patrick McLoughlin, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Elizabeth Truss, Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom, Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis, (middle row left to right) Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Karen Bradley, Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Works and Pensions Secretary David Gauke, Business Secretary Greg Clark, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans of Bowes, Scottish Secretary David Mundell, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, International Development Secretary Priti Patel, (front row left to right) International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, Justice Secretary David Lidington, Defence Secretary Sir Michel Fallon, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, First Secretary of State Damian Green, Mrs May, Chancellor Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Education Secretary Justine Greening, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

To the left of Mrs May is Damian Green. The pair have been friends since they were students at Oxford in the 1970s. In the wake of her humiliation at the polls, she annointed the calm and competent minister as her effective deputy.

Behind them are David Gauke and Greg Clark, who have reputations as government's safest pairs of hands.

But to the right of Mrs May is Philip Hammond, the Chancellor she would almost certainly have sacked had she secured the massive majority she craved on June 8.

Mr Hammond has been rejuvenated by his unexpected salvation, and has taken the opportunity to set himself up as the defender of traditional Tory values in the Cabinet.

In his eyes that means fending off demands for an end to austerity and a cash injection for public services - widely seen as an issue that played strongly for Labour.

It also entails pushing for a 'softer' and slower Brexit that puts the interests of business first. However, his position has thrown him into conflict with colleagues on two fronts.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (bottom right) and Education Secretary Justine Greening (third from right) have been leading a broad charge to secure money for their respective departments.

But the Brexit split is far more vicious.

Boris Johnson appeared be be feeling the heat as he went out for his morning run before the Cabinet meeting today

To Mr Hammond's right in the photograph is Leave champion Boris Johnson. Allies of the Foreign Secretary, along with friends of Environment Secretary Michael Gove (to the right of second row down) and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom (tucked away second from right on the top row) have been blamed for much of the vicious briefing - although they flatly deny any involvement. By contrast David Davis (front row, second right) and Mr Hammond have formed a tentative alliance over the months.

Cabinet sources say it is too simplistic to see the recent tensions simply through the prism of Brexit. Even those who agree with Mr Hammond on the need for a softer Brexit criticise the way he has so far refused to respond to the apparent shift in voters' opinion on austerity.

At a personal level, his manner is also regarded in some quarters as supercillious, while others criticise his lack of sensitivity to what will cause the government political damage.

Underlying the policy tensions is ambition, fueled by the knowledge that Mrs May is almost certainly too damaged to survive until the next general election.

Mr Johnson and Mr Gove both ran for the leadership last time around - with the latter memorably obliterating the former's hopes by betraying him at the last moment. They are thought to have buried the hatchet to some extent, but the scars linger.

Karen Bradley, Priti Patel and Brandon Lewis walked out into the sunshine after Mrs May rebuked the team for leaks

Mrs Leadsom clearly still believes she could be next in line for the crown, after she stepped aside in favour of Mrs May last July. And Mr Davis's allies are pressing his case as a steady-as-she-goes candidate should the PM become too weak to continue.

But Mrs May's best hopes of clinging on do not lie anywhere in the Cabinet group.

Instead, she is being propped up primarily by the backing of Tory backbenchers, who are absolutely livid about ministers so obviously jockeying for position and briefing against each other.

They fear their own seats could be at risk if the spats escalates out of control and trigger another snap general election.

The spectre of a hard-left Labour leader like Jeremy Corbyn walking into Downing Street is too awful to contemplate for most of the rank and file. They are demanding that she enforces discipline on their behalf.

And that could end up being the reason why Mrs May survives a lot longer than many people thought in the frantic post-election period.

Home Secretary Mrs Rudd (pictured arriving for Cabinet today) pointedly said this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs. Mr Johnson was looking much less sweaty as he left the Cabinet session

It comes as Mrs May was urged to fire mutinous Cabinet ministers if they keep fighting like 'ferrets in a sack'.

The PM told a gathering of her top team this morning that some of them were acting 'irresponsibly', after a wave of damaging leaks threatened to throw the government into chaos.

Mrs May has been powerless to prevent the infighting in the wake of the disastrous election that robbed the Tories of their overall majority.

But the plotting and open spats have so infuriated Tory backbenchers that they are lining up behind the PM and urging her to enforce discipline.

Mrs May was cheered to the rafters at a reception for MPs last night when she warned that the public rowing was merely increasing the chances of Jeremy Corbyn taking control of Downing Street.

Liam Fox and Michael Gove (pictured left) and Andrea Leadsom and Sajid Javid are at the gathering in Downing Street today

An unnamed Cabinet minister was quoted today branding the leakers 'donkeys' and 'indulgent safe seat kids' who were creating the mood for a tough reshuffle. Allies of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been widely blamed for much of the briefing, although they deny any involvement.

According to her official spokesman, the PM told the Cabinet today that she had championed more 'genuine and collective discussion' in the top level meetings.

Mrs May warned it was 'vital that discussions in Cabinet must remain private', addding that 'briefings and counter briefings have been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously'.

She there was a need to show 'strength and unity' and that 'starts around the Cabinet table'.

The intervention at the start of the Cabinet meeting was said to have been met with 'widespread' agreement.

Home Secretary Mrs Rudd pointedly said earlier this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs, insisting people should be 'honoured' to serve in government.

'I know that they should be getting on, as I know most of them do want to, and delivering what they have been asked to do,' she told Sky News.

Mrs May has been forced to seek the advice of David Cameron as she struggles to heal the rifts between senior Conservatives and deliver Brexit.

The Chancellor, pictured in the Commons today, issued an extraordinary public rebuke to colleagues at the weekend after coming under heavy fire in a slew of stories

The PM held a private meeting with her predecessor at Downing Street, with speculation that he could add his weight to calls for calm.

The problems escalated dramatically over the weekend as Chancellor Philip Hammond issued an extraordinary public rebuke to colleagues.

Mr Hammond accused Brexiteers of trying to damage him with a slew of negative briefing because he was focusing the government's policy on ensuring the economy was not harmed by Brexit.

The Prime Minister has been struggling to maintain discipline in the government after the disastrous election saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority.

But her hand has been strengthened somewhat by support from backbenchers, who are furious at the appearance of senior figures taking lumps out of each other publicly.

The powerful Conservative 1922 Committee has told the Prime Minister they would back any discipline she saw fit  including firing ministers who have routinely gone off message or publicly contradicted each other since the election.

Speaking to the Tories' end-of-term drinks reception last night, Mrs May said: 'No backbiting, no carping.

'The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn and no one wants him. Go away and have a proper break and come back ready for serious business.'

Mrs May has been forced to seek the advice of David Cameron in a bid to heal the rifts between senior Conservatives and deliver Brexit (file picture)

Mr Cameron waded into the row yesterday by suggesting errant ministers should be strapped to a raft crossing a 'very, very dangerous river'.

But the former prime minister also warned Mrs May that the Conservative Party must offer inspiration to young voters or face defeat.

In his first intervention since Mrs May threw away his majority at a disastrous snap general election, Mr Cameron warned the party could 'slip backwards'.

The former PM said the Tories must constantly question whether they are in touch with the country and recalled his five-year effort after 2005 to drag the party into the 21st Century.

Mr Cameron, who quit No 10 a year ago in the aftermath of referendum defeat and left parliament shortly after, said Tory defeats in London were 'depressing'.

Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 committee, told the BBC's World at One that Cabinet ministers had to realise they were 'good, but you're not that good'.

Aides to Environment Secretary Michael Gove (pictured on a visit to a smoked salmon factory in London last week) have also flatly denied that he is involved in the briefing

'So there are many talented people on our Conservative benches who could be secretaries of state and nobody is irreplaceable,' he said.

'But the truth of it is the 1922 had a meeting with the Prime Minister last week and made it perfectly clear to her  we unanimously made it clear to her  that if she had to remove secretaries of state then she would have our support.

'The party is united behind the Prime Minister and those who have leadership ambitions should really try to understand that.

He added: 'I am very angry. If you are a Conservative right now you should be getting on with the business of running your department and governing in the national interest.'

Sir Robert Atkins, who served in the Thatcher Major governments and is now chairman of the Conservatives in North-West England, said that some 'childish and disloyal' Cabinet ministers 'whose ambitions far exceed their abilities' were behaving like 'ferrets in a sack' as they jockey to succeed Mrs May as leader.

The senior activist, who was an MP for 18 years and an MEP for 15, did not name the ministers who he blames for a rash of leaks from Cabinet.

But he said: 'The Conservative membership in my region - and, I think, elsewhere - is, of course, very unhappy with the result of the general election and the manner in which the campaign was conducted.

'They want the party hierarchy to listen and to change, sooner rather than later.

'What they do not want and do not like is for certain senior people who should know better to be on constant 'manoeuvres' around the party, jockeying for leadership positions and generally being childish and disloyal.

'The Conservative Party in government has an excellent historic reputation for command and control, leavened by competence,' he concluded.

'So let's see more of that and less of the backbiting and off-the-record briefing. There is a Prime Minister in place and much work to be done. Get on with it.'
We are bombarded daily by forecasts that use the latest computer modelling.

But three in four of us are still more likely to rely on old wives tales to predict the weather.

We retain a belief  often misguided  that cows lie down when its about to rain or that a red sky at night means it will be fine tomorrow, according to a survey for the Met Office.

Many people believe that a red sky at night means the weather will be fine the next day

It found 58 per cent of UK adults believe weather proverbs are accurate to some degree  and two-thirds of these say they can be more reliable than official forecasts.

However, nearly half of those who have relied on old wives tales to predict the weather admit they have been caught out.

Not all those who believe the proverbs make use of them. While 83 per cent accept red sky at night, shepherds delight as true, only 70 per cent rely on it as a guide to the next days weather.

Others think that cows lie down on the ground when it is due to rain

Another popular belief is that an open pine cone is a sign of inbound good weather

The Met Office looked at several of the best-known pieces of folklore to see which are scientifically accurate and which are myths.

While around a quarter of us believe that if it is wet on St Swithins Day  July 15  there will be rain on each of the next 40 days, there is no evidence to back this up.

Met Office forecaster Charlie Powell said: Some of these weather sayings are backed up by science, others are nothing more than old wives tales.

But either way, none of the methods are as accurate as official forecasts from the Met Office.

Thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow could bring up to 2in of rain and flash flooding.

Warnings have been issued for England and Wales by the Met Office and Environment Agency.

After sun and temperatures up to 32C (89F) today, storms are due to arrive from 5pm south of a line from Pembrokeshire to Suffolk.

Tomorrow will see thunder and heavy rain across most of England and Wales.

From Thursday, it will be cooler with sunshine and showers.
Cosmo DiNardo has reportedly confessed to another two murders - on top of the four he already admitted to - in custody

The schizophrenic drug dealer who killed four young men on his family's rural Pennsylvania farm this week claimed to have murdered two other people.

Cosmo DiNardo has already confessed to luring Dean Finocchiaro, Tom Meo, Jimi Tar Patrick and Mark Sturgis on his family's property in Solebury Township.

All of the men went missing within days of each other two weeks ago. Their bodies were found in a grave on DiNardo's family property after an extensive search last week.

According to The New York Times, the 20-year-old has confessed to two more slayings since he was taken in to custody but police have not yet verified the claims.

He claims to have carried out the murders five years ago in Philadelphia, when he was just 15.

They have not released the names of his apparent fifth and sixth victims but sources said they were looking in to whether his claims match any open cases.

DiNardo was arrested after cell phone signals from one of the missing men's phones led them to his property.

Authorities have since revealed that he had been trying to sell one of the four men's cars online after he vanished.

He lured them to his home under the pretense of selling marijuana to them.

After killing them, he tried to dispose of their remains in a metal tank that is used for roasting pigs for meat. He claims he had the help of his cousin, 20-year-old Sean Kratz.

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People close to the murderer told the Times that when he was around 15, the age when he claimed to have committed the other two murders, DiNardo 'went crazy'.

One told how he randomly punched two people at a mall for looking at his girlfriend.

'Hes been talking about killing people since he was 14,' said one person who did not want to be named.

DiNardo has already confessed to killing Dean Finocchiaro (left) and Tom Meo (right)

He has also admitted killing Jimi Patrick (left) and Mark Sturgis (right)

Others told how he harassed girls in high school, repeatedly texting them to invite them to his house for pool parties which no one ever attended.

They feared he would retaliate if they did not go and ended up blocking his number, they said.

DiNardo attended just one semester at Arcadia College in 2015. He continued to hang around campus after dropping out and campus police have records of incidents in which he 'unnerved' staff and students.

In Facebook messages, he bombarded women with requests for sex. In one, he told a woman: 'I wanna make babies asap.'

Friends said while he had always behaved differently to others, his behavior became more violent after an accident in a four wheeler in the woods on his family's farm last year.

They said he was alone and suffered several broken bones and a severe head injury as a result of the crash.

The four men's bodies were found on DiNardo's family's property in Solebury Township in Pennsylvania this week

Authorities spent days searching the DiNardo family's sprawling Pennsylvania farm last week. Three of the bodies were discovered in a 12-foot grave and another was found buried in a separate site

DiNardo was arrested on July 10 on four-month-old gun charge. He was charged with the murders days later. His cousin, 20-year-old Sean Kratz, is accused in three of the murders

'That incident drove him over the edge. He was a more violent individual,' one person, asking to remain anonymous, said.

No one from the DiNardo family has commented publicly since his arrest.

On July 5, Jimi Patrick arranged to buy marijuana and a gun from DiNardo for $8,000. He was last seen at 6pm that evening.

Friends said DiNardo (above in a Snapchat photograph) had become more violent since a four-wheeler accident last year

When DiNardo arrived for the deal, the 19-year-old had just $800 on him. He shot him immediately and buried the teenager's body on his parents' property.

On July 7, Finocchiaro, 19, made a separate deal to buy marijuana from him. DiNardo and Kratz conspired to rob the teenager as they were making the deal.

It is not clear where DiNardo met either Patrick or Finocchiaro on the night he killed them.

They shot him and put his body in the pig roaster first. Later that night, he met with Meo and Sturgis at a church to carry out another deal.

At some point, the trio returned to his family's property. He opened fire, shooting them both. After firing several shots at each, DiNardo ran out of ammunition and resorted to running over Meo with a backhoe to ensure he was dead.

He then tossed their bodies in the pig roaster.

He is facing an abundance of charges including four for murder. Kratz faces three and is not accused of being involved in Patrick's killing.
South Korea has proposed holding rare military talks with the North amid heightened tensions following Pyongyangs recent long-range missile test.

If North Korea were to agree, they would be the first high-level talks since 2015.

They have been proposed in an effort to halt hostile activities near their border and after a series of missile tests by the North.

The offer to the North is the first formal overture by the government of President Moon Jae-in

The offer is the first formal overture by the government of President Moon Jae-in, who came to power in May pledging to engage the North in dialogue, as well as to apply pressure on Pyongyang to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has not yet responded to his proposal.

Pyongyang has repeatedly said it refuses to engage in all talks with the South unless Seoul turns over 12 waitresses who defected to the South last year.

The North claims the waitresses and the restaurant manager were abducted.

The North has conducted two nuclear tests since the beginning of last year and missile-related activities continue at an unprecedented pace

It conducted the first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month, claiming to have mastered the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on the missile. South Korea and the United States dispute the claim.
Hospital staff are facing financial ruin after losing a court battle with a controversial private parking firm over fines.

Nurses, doctors and carers at University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff have racked up penalty charges of nearly 13million from car parks operator Indigo.

They claim there simply are not enough spaces at the hospital, which is one of the biggest in the UK. They have received tickets when their shifts run over the parking limit while others say they have had to simply abandon their cars or risk being late for work.

Nurses, doctors and carers at University Hospital of Wales have racked up penalty charges of nearly 13million

One member of staff was ticketed even though a sign on their car read Cardiac emergency  nurse on call, while a carer quit his job after racking up 28 parking tickets in four months.

Some staff have been refusing to pay the fines, arguing they are unfair. But on Friday, a judge ruled in the parking firms favour in three lead cases, making workers liable to pay 128 for each ticket they have received.

The result is also binding on 72 other cases, leaving them with a bill of 39,000 plus 26,000 in legal costs.

Staff claim that there are simply not enough parking spaces at University Hospital Wales

Campaigners who support the hospital staff say some have been left broken by the judgment in favour of the car parking firm.

Sue Prior, of Taff Ely Parking Action Group, said: We have had people going in and handing their notice in. Its horrendous. Some of them are broken.

Theyre scared stiff, petrified, they feel sick. This affects everyone from cleaners to doctors. The judge made all the 128 tickets enforceable.

She described the ruling as devastating for doctors and nurses across the country and added: They have permitted a private parking company to do this. There is no common sense anywhere.

We need to assess what we are going to do because it costs money to appeal. It was like David and Goliath  and David lost.

Campaigner Sue Prior said the ruling was 'devastating' for doctors and nurses

The group fear Indigo will now pursue other fines, of which more than 100,000 have been issued since April last year. Some staff have hundreds each. It means that if Indigo enforces the 128-a-ticket fine, the amount would total 12.8million.

One nurse, who wished to remain anonymous, said: I am a single parent. I had to move back to live with my parents due to financial difficulties. How are we supposed to do our jobs properly if we are constantly worrying about these extortionate car parking fees?

I have no idea how I will pay and am distressed beyond belief.

Around 8,500 staff have been issued with parking permits, which allow them to park in designated areas for 1.05 a day, but employees claim a lack of spaces means they have been forced to park in unauthorised areas or do not have enough time to find spaces and pay the visitors daily 8.80 parking charge.

A community nurse who works out of the hospital said: The parking is diabolical  unless you arrive early in the morning its a nightmare trying to find a space  and it is even worse in term time when medical students add to the problem.

FRENCH CAR FIRM RUNS 500 UK CAR PARKS The French-owned parking firm at the centre of the row is one of the worlds biggest and runs more than two million car parks in 750 cities in 16 countries. The UK branch  Indigo Park Services  operates 500 car parks at hospitals, shopping centres, airports, universities and train stations . It had a turnover of 24million last year  including 2.8million from just one hospital car park  but recorded a profit of just 265,800. Parent company Indigo filed profits of 7.9million in France. Advertisement

The top floor of a multi-storey car park at the sprawling hospital site is reserved for staff but the nurse, who asked not to be identified, said hospital visitors regularly parked there because spaces were in such short supply. The hospital in Cardiff is used by 15,000 people a day plus staff but has only 1,842 parking spaces on site.

The hospital is used by 15,000 people a day - not including staff - but only

The ruling by District Judge Clare Coates came on Friday after a three-day hearing at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre. The case involved three workers, Stephen Dadswell, Emily Booth and Sophie Round, who Indigo say have each racked up more than 100 parking tickets.

But the three NHS workers are part of a larger group of staff with unpaid tickets  and the hearing was seen as a test case for others who have failed to pay.

The staff were represented by parking campaigner Barry Beavis, a chip shop owner from Billericay, Essex. He said: Some people have got hundreds and hundreds of tickets  we are talking about life-changing amounts of money. It is not an exaggeration to say peoples homes, their livelihoods, everything they have worked for is at risk simply because they parked in the wrong car park.

More than 100,000 unpaid tickets have been racked up at the hospital (file picture)

A spokesman for Indigo said it acted against a small group of persistent offenders with the full support of the health board.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said it was disappointing a small number of staff refused to co-operate with parking rules. In 2015, it urged staff to pay any parking fines, saying they had been correctly issued.
A desperate search is underway for a mother and her four-year-old daughter after the pair vanished from the New South Wales Far North Coast.

Tarryn Leigh Corlet, 43, and her young daughter were last seen in the Kingscliff area, just south of Tweed Heads.

Friends and family members have told police they hold grave concerns for their safety.

Tarryn Leigh Corlet, 43, and her young daughter were last seen in the Kingscliff area, just south of Tweed Heads. A desperate search for the pair is now underway

They could be travelling in a gold Toyota Corolla sedan and have possibly headed south to Melbourne, according to police.

'Local police have made inquiries to locate the mother and child without success,' a police spokesperson said.

Tarryn is described as Caucasian in appearance, 150cm to 155cm tall, with a thin build and short brown hair.

Police are urging anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers.
This is the stomach-wrenching moment a breaching humpback whale landed too close for comfort near a boat full of tourists.

Mark Collins, 49, was out with family off the coast of Western Australia's Exmouth when they spotted some giants of the deep circling a tourist dinghy.

Footage shows the moment a huge humpback launched clear out of the water and landed within metres from one of the boats.

The huge humpback launched clear out of the water and landed within metres from one of the boats

'It was quite a spectacle, but it could have been a disaster,' he told WAToday.

He said he had spotted whales in the wild before, but never seen one land as close to a boat.

'We thought 'Geez, that was a bit close',' he said.

Last week, an Australian fisherman made waves with his expletive-laden commentary for a close encounter with a whale off WA's Karratha coast.

Dominic Tyson couldn't contain his excitement when he caught the giant humpback whale on camera breaching out of the water .

'Oh, motherf****r!', Mr Tyson was heard exclaiming as the whale leaped out of the water. 'Do it again, c***!'

Mark Collins, 49, said he had spotted whales in the wild before, but never seen one land as close to a boat
Donald Trump threatened Venezuela with strong and swift sanctions if its leader pushes on with an unpopular bid to change his country's constitution amid mounting condemnation.

The warning came as Venezuela's opposition coalition called a nationwide strike for Thursday to kick off a 'final offensive' aimed at forcing President Nicolas Maduro from office through early elections.

Maduro, Trump said in a statement, was 'a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator'.

'The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,' he said, branding his government a 'regime'.

President Donald Trump prepares to swing a Marucci bat, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with Vice President Mike Pence, seen right, during a Made in America, product showcase featuring items created in each of the US 50 states, on Monday

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (center) speaks with his ministers during meeting in Caracas on July 17, 2017. US President Donald Trump threatened Venezuela with swift 'economic actions' on Monday if its leader, Nicolas Maduro, pushes on with an unpopular bid to change his country's constitution in the teeth of mounting condemnation

A member of the National Guard is caught up in a blast during protests in Caracas on July 10, 2017

Trump did not specify what measures could be taken.

But the warning dramatically raised the stakes and scope of the long political and economic crisis that has been battering Venezuela.

Nearly 100 people have died since April, when street protests against Maduro turned violent.

Trump's stance explicitly sided with Venezuela's opposition, which accuses Maduro of trying to accumulate dictatorial powers to hang on to the reins.

It risked fueling Maduro's frequent allegations that he was the victim of a plot by a colluding right-wing opposition and the 'imperialist' United States.

Donald Trump's damning statement on Maduro in full Yesterday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom and rule of law. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator. The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions. Advertisement

There was no immediate reaction from the Venezuelan president.

Separately, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was in Cuba - a close ally of Venezuela - on Monday for meetings with President Raul Castro.

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said the Venezuelan crisis was discussed, but she denied reports that Santos traveled to convince Castro to act as a mediator.

Venezuela's opposition coalition has called a nationwide, 24-hour strike for Thursday to add pressure to Maduro following an unofficial weekend vote it held that rejected the leader's plan.

That plan, which Maduro has shown no sign of deviating from, entails a citizens' body - called a 'Constituent Assembly' - being elected on July 30 to redo the constitution.

Maduro says that path is the only way to secure peace and economic recovery in Venezuela. His government has dismissed the opposition vote against it as illegal.

But Trump said that, 'if the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions.'

Venezuela, with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, is almost entirely reliant on its crude exports.

The United States imports around 270 million barrels of oil a year from Venezuela, according to the US government's Energy Information Administration - a volume in decline by about a third compared to a decade ago.

President of Cuba Raul Castro (right) and President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos (second right) greet Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin (left) after the review of the troops formed for the official reception ceremony at the Revolution Palace in La Havana, Cuba on Monday

Cuba's President Raul Castro, center, and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, right, review troops during a welcoming ceremony at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba on Monday

Venezuela's opposition is intent on a 'final offensive' ultimately aimed at toppling Maduro through early elections.

On Sunday, more than a third of Venezuela's 19 million voters took part in the opposition ballot, giving an overwhelming rejection to the election of a Constituent Assembly and backing a presidential election before Maduro's term ends in 2019.

The poll was lauded by the European Union, the United Nations, the US, Brazil and other countries.

However, Maduro, backed by a loyal military, has up to now shrugged off the opposition tactics and the international criticism leveled at him.

Despite growing public anger at food and medicine shortages under a spiraling economic crisis that has swelled the opposition movement, authorities in Caracas portray the efforts against them as illegitimate and fomented by the US.

Protesters clash with police in Carabobo, Venezuela, as demonstrators voice their disapproval of the government

One leader in the opposition coalition, Freddy Guevara, said the strike this week was a 'mechanism for pressure and to prepare for the definitive escalation to take place next week.'

A total of 7.6 million Venezuelans turned out for Sunday's vote, at home and abroad, the opposition said.

That figure - though disputed by the government - was more than a third of Venezuela's total 19 million voters, undermining legitimacy for Maduro's future Constituent Assembly.

Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement 'the high turnout in the plebiscite... was an unmistakable sign the Venezuelan people want democracy quickly restored.'

Political analyst John Magdaleno told AFP that 'there is evidence of a persistent and durable demand for political change.'

According to the opposition, the final turnout figure was enough to overturn Maduro's mandate should there be a recall referendum, because it exceeded the 7.5 million votes that put the president in power in 2013.

To lend weight to the vote, a group of former Latin American presidents, including Mexico's Vicente Fox, who was declared 'persona non grata' by the government, took part as observers.
Thousands of students may have voted twice to try to put Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street.

The Electoral Commission yesterday said it was investigating 'troubling' evidence of illegality on polling day.

The watchdog warned a change in the law might be needed to catch offenders.

By having term-time and home addresses, students can register to vote in more than one place.

Tory MPs believe thousands may have taken advantage of this opportunity  lured by Labour's promise to scrap tuition fees and cancel their debts.

After the election a number boasted on social media of multiple voting.

Tory MPs believe thousands may have taken advantage of this opportunity  lured by Labour's promise to scrap tuition fees and cancel their debts. Pictured is party leader Jeremy Corbyn

The commission said that it had received more than 1,000 emails from the public as well as 38 complaints from MPs.

The watchdog said it lacked evidence of 'widespread abuse' but acknowledged that no checks were made to spot multiple voting.

Conservative MP Peter Bone said: 'The Electoral Commission and the police need to look at this very seriously.

'I fear this happened more than people think, not by chance, but by design. I fear that it was organised.

'There were a number of students on social media boasting that they had voted in more than one place.

'Did it affect the outcome of the election? I think it might have done. There were lots of seats where 40 or 50 votes made all the difference.'

The commission highlighted unusual surges in voter registration in a number of university towns and cities, including Canterbury where Labour won the seat for the first time.

Former Tory MP Karl McCartney, who lost his Lincoln seat to Labour last month, said: 'We have screenshots of students on Facebook saying that they voted twice.

'Potentially, this was a factor in my defeat. Of the 3,200 who registered to vote in the last 24 hours, 500 were already registered.

Conservative MP Peter Bone, pictured, said: 'The Electoral Commission and the police need to look at this very seriously. I fear this happened more than people think, not by chance, but by design. I fear that it was organised'

'Turnout in two high student areas, which is traditionally low, was up 15 per cent, which is phenomenal.'

South Derbyshire Tory MP Heather Wheeler said some students claimed they had voted four times.

The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK.

It is illegal to vote twice  the fine can be 5,000  but it is not illegal to register in more than one constituency.

The commission said it was working with police on how to investigate the allegations, adding: 'Tools to prevent double voting at general elections should be explored quickly.'

It admitted it relied on complaints from the public to identify electoral fraud. There is no automatic way of checking the names of postal voters against those voting in person because the information is held locally.

It means that those with more than one residence  including students, second home owners and MPs, among others  could potentially vote twice.

The 2017 election result has been attributed to a record turnout of young people under the age of 34.

Labour targeted students in its manifesto, making its flagship policy a pledge to scrap university tuition fees.

There were reports that some students submitted postal votes in their home towns and voted in person at their university seats.

The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. It is illegal to vote twice  the fine can be 5,000  but it is not illegal to register in more than one constituency (stock photo)

Latest figures show there were 2.28 million students at university in 2015-6. In a number of areas with high student populations voter registration increased by more than 10 per cent.

These include Canterbury, Cambridge, Brighton Pavilion, Leeds North West and Leeds Central.

The report found a record 46.8million registered to vote on June 8  500,000 more than in 2015.

Of these, nearly two million aged 18-34 applied to vote after Mrs May announced the snap poll.

The Electoral Commission said 'urgent' steps were needed to reduce the scale of duplicate registrations

It warned that in some areas, the number of applications from people already on the electoral register was up by up to 70 per cent.

'Although people may lawfully be registered to vote in more than one place in certain circumstances, it is troubling that some voters appear to have admitted voting more than once at the general election, which is an offence,' it said.

'Urgent action is needed to reduce both the scale and the administrative impact of duplicate registration applications ahead of future polls.

'Information is held locally, which means that duplicate applications are not automatically detected if a voter applies online and by post.

A spokesman added last night: 'Any allegations of electoral fraud should be reported to the police immediately on the non-emergency 101 number.'
Eight minors were cited for possession of alcohol after deputies used a K-9 to track them near Filley.

At around 2 a.m. on Sunday, deputies from the Gage County Sheriffs Office were dispatched to 28646 S. 108th Road, approximately four miles southwest of Filley, for a report of individuals throwing bottles at a passing vehicle.

When deputies arrived, a press release stated they observed a large party in the back of the house with approximately 50 people. When the deputies were spotted, many of the individuals took off running.

The Sheriffs Office K-9 was deployed to track the individuals. Several people were found and eight citations for minor in possession of alcohol were issued. One female was transported to Beatrice Community Hospital by Beatrice Rescue for possible alcohol poisoning.

The Nebraska State Patrol also assisted in searching for the individuals.
A Melbourne couple claimed they discovered up to $26,000 mysteriously appearing in their bank accounts following fears of a tax scam.

People are claiming large sums of money have been deposited into their bank accounts following a report of data breaches and an attempted tax fraud scam.

One listener named Gay contacted her account agency and was told fraudsters potentially obtained their bank details and potentially used them to lodge tax returns on their behalf, she told John and Ross on 3AW Radio.

A 3AW listener claimed she was told fraudsters had obtained her tax return details and lodged her tax into her bank account (Stock Image)

The listener claimed her tax agent had warned the Australian Tax Office of the reported compromise to their system

'I jumped on to pay a bill  and looked down at the figure and it was quite substantially larger than it should be,' Gay told the hosts.

Gay said her account had $16,290 more than it should have, with her husband also finding an extra $10,000, all coming from the Australian Tax Office.

'My initial thought was they had just made a mistake with the bank accounts and put it into mine instead of somebody else's [account],' she said.

'Well because it was both of us and we do our tax through a tax agent, I rang the agent and said is there any reason why this would be happening?'

Gay claimed the agent tried to ring people last Friday because there system had been compromised.

'The lady said  their system had been compromised and someone was lodging tax returns on our behalf, and she was frantically trying to contact the tax office to alert them to the behaviour, so they could contact our bank and get that money back,' she told John and Ross.

She said their was up to $16,290 in her account with her partner having an extra $10,000 deposited from the Australian Tax Office in a potential tax scam from fraudsters (Stock Image)

While the money is currently not accessible by the fraudsters, Gay said she had thought about if she was going to get a call from the scam artists to take the money.

'I was wondering what is going to happen now? Am I going to get a phone call from somebody or an email. I would think they would try and retrieve it somehow,' she said.

Gay said the Australian Tax Office had been contacted by her agency and John and Ross said other people had claimed the same thing had happened to them.

When asked what would she do with the money if she was allowed to keep it, in good humour Gay said would have to spend it on her mortgage.
A 'predator' who met a young girl online before allegedly sexually assaulting her up to a dozen times and soliciting child prostitution will face court on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old man allegedly repeatedly assaulted the 14-year-old girl at an oval in Hornsby, on Sydney's Upper North Shore, between February 2015 and January 2016.

Police allege that after meeting the young girl on the chat website MeetMe, he met the girl at the local oval and was repeatedly involved in sexual acts with her.

After a search began on Monday, the man handed himself into the Chatswood Police Station at around 1.40pm that afternoon where he was arrested and later charged.

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A 'predator' (pictured), 37, who met a young girl online before allegedly sexually assaulting her up to a dozen times will face court on Tuesday

The man allegedly repeatedly assaulted the 14-year-old girl at an oval in Hornsby (pictured), on Sydney's Upper North Shore, between February 2015 and January 2016

The NSW State Crime Command's Child Abuse Squad have been searching for the man for months who they say 'may be named or use the name Alex.'

He was charged with 12 counts of sexual intercourse with a person aged 14 to 16 and nine counts of engaging in acts of child prostitution.

He will front Hornsby Local Court on Tuesday.

Detective Acting Superintendent Peter Yeomans said on Monday the circumstances of such incidents were 'extremely traumatic'.

'A person who grooms young children online is what you'd describe as a predator,' he told reporters in Sydney.

Police have urged parents to speak with their children about online safety.

He was charged with 12 counts of sexual intercourse with a person aged 14 to 16 and nine counts of engaging in acts of child prostitution and will front Hornsby Local Court on Tuesday

'Any app, online game or social media platform that allows the user to be in contact with someone they've only met online potentially puts them at risk,' Det Acting Supt Yeomans said.

The victim is now 'in good care' and seeing a specialist from NSW Health.

Anyone with concerns about suspected child abuse or exploitation should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Australia's security and counter-terrorism forces will be managed under a new 'super ministry' in the biggest shake up to national security in more than 40 years.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the change on Tuesday - which will see Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force all come together.

The move, which was first touted in 2016, will resemble the UK's Home Office and Homeland Security in the US, with the prime minister calling it the most significant reform to intelligence and domestic security since the 1970s.

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A new super ministry will be created to manage national security, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) has announced

The new portfolio will bring together the AFP (pictured), ASIO and the Australian Border Force together into one agency

Mr Turnbull said he hoped the change would allow them to improve communication, coordination and engagement on counter-terrorism.

'When it comes to our nation's security, we must stay ahead of the threats against us,' he said.

'The establishment of an office of national intelligence [will] ensure more effective coordination of Australia's intelligence effort.

'We need these reforms not because the system is broken, but because our security environment is evolving quickly. It is becoming more complex.'

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will head up the new super-portfolio, which is expected to be in operation by the end of the year.

The plan was first floated last year but met opposition from key figures who feared losing power under the new portfolio, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Dutton (pictured) will preside over a portfolio similar to the Home Office in the UK and Homeland Security in the US

HOW DOES AUSTRALIA'S NEW 'SUPER MINISTRY' WORK? - Brings together Australia's border and domestic security agencies. - These include domestic spy agency ASIO, Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC and the Office of Transport Security. - The Home Affairs minister will have two ministers reporting to him on security and immigration. - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will be given the top job. - The attorney-general will retain his role in relation to issuing warrants and ministerial authorisations. - The new ministry will be similar to the United Kingdom's Home Office arrangements, as opposed to the Homeland Security model in the United States. Advertisement

Australia's intelligence agencies have also had concerns about information sharing, despite the success of the similar setups in the US and the UK.

Mr Turnbull said while taking elements from both allies, the British model was his government's main influence.

'We need a better structure to meet the challenge of the times. That is why we're adopting a model which is closer to the British Home Office than the large-scale American Homeland Security Department,' the prime minister said.

'I want to stress we're taking the best elements of our intelligence and National Security Community, and making them better.'

Under the overhaul, soldiers from the Australian Defence Force will also be trained to specifically deal with terror on the nation's shores.

The announcement marks the first time the Defence Force's contribution to domestic counter-terrorism has been reviewed in 12 years

Special forces officers stood behind Mr Turnbull as he made the announcement, and were seen holding assault rifles, dressed in full camo gear and some were seen wearing gas masks

The Prime Minister inspected the Defence Force's weaponry, which included infra-red sensors, chain saws, assault rifles and a high-tech inflatable boat

Making that announcement on Monday, Mr Turnbull said the ADF soldiers would help train state and territory police to deal with possible terror attacks.

'State and Territory Police Forces remain the best first response to terrorist incidents, immediately after an attack starts,' a statement from the prime minister's office read.

'But defence can offer more support to states and territories to enhance their capabilities and increase their understanding of defence's unique capabilities to ensure a comprehensive response to potential terrorist attacks.'
World champion surfer Kelly Slater has told how he felt like he was 'giving birth out of my right foot' after suffering a horror injury.

Slater was freesurfing at a World Surfing League event in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa on Monday when he broke his foot after being smashed by his own board.

The U.S. surfer took to his social media accounts to share a X-ray image of his right foot, which was broken in two places, and describe the immense pain he was in.

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US surfer Kelly Slater uploaded a x-ray image of his broken right foot to his social media accounts after suffering the injury at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa

Slater was carried out of the water after his foot was smashed by his own board while he was freesurfing

Slater had advanced directly to round three of the J-Bay Open after winning his first heat

A large ice-pack was placed on Slater's right foot after he was carried out of the water

'You ever folded your entire foot backwards? If you try it sometime, this is what it might look like,' the 11-time world champion wrote alongside the image.

Slater explained he had pulled into a barrel when things went awry.

'The whitewash bounced the board back into my foot as I hit the closeout, taking all the pressure into the metatarsals,' the 45-year-old said.

'Kinda like smashing my foot with a big hammer as hard as I can. Sorta feels like I'm giving birth out of my foot right now.'

Slater said while suffering the injury 'sucks', 'a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things'

Slater was later taken to hospital and said 'I'm guessing surgery and six-week holiday is in order'

Slater was helped out of the water by two others, looking visibly pained, and had a large ice-pack placed on the broken foot before being taken to hospital.

'I'm guessing surgery and six-week holiday is in order. Not looking forward to 30 hour flight home before surgery though,' he said.

'It sucks but so many people deal with such horrible things around this world everyday that a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things.'

Slater, who was chasing his 12th world surfing title this year, said he would make the best of his time off from the sport.

He is currently ranked 18th on the 2017 leaderboard and had advanced directly to round three of the J-Bay Open after winning his first round heat.
Raymond Licon Jr, 27, was charged in the drowning of his 11-month-old son, Azrael, after he allegedly left the child in the bathtub while he argued with his estranged wife

A Texas cop was charged in the death of his son after the child drowned while he was allegedly arguing with his estranged wife.

Raymond Licon Jr, 27, had both of his children with him in his apartment on June 20 when he got into an argument with his wife through text messages around 8.34pm, according to KXAN.

The off-duty officer allegedly put his 11-month-old son Azrael in the bathtub and started the water before he stepped away.

Licon and his wife continued their argument on the phone and through text.

His cell phone records showed that he spoke with another person before he finally called 911 at 9.19pm after discovering the baby boy, according to the station.

Licon called first responders 45 minutes after the argument with his estranged wife began.

Investigators said Licon gave Azrael CPR but the baby later died at University Medical Center.

The bathtub was reportedly overflowing, causing the upstairs apartment to flood as water started dripping from the ceiling.

Licon had both of his children with him in his apartment on June 20 when he got into an argument with his wife through text messages. The off-duty officer allegedly put his son Azrael (right) in the bathtub and started the water before he stepped away

The bathtub was reportedly overflowing, causing the upstairs apartment to flood as water started dripping from the ceiling. Licon reportedly told a neighbor and responding officers that he forgot his son (pictured) in the bathtub and blamed himself for the child's tragic death

Azrael's grandfather, George Montenegro, told CBS that his daughter and Licon are in the middle of a divorce.

'Pure common sense. You don't leave a baby in the bathtub. You just don't do it,' Montenegro said.

According to KXAN, Licon told a neighbor and responding officers that he forgot his son in the bathtub and blamed himself for the child's tragic death.

The two-year veteran of the El Paso Police Department was then arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide.

He was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $10,000 bond. Licon posted bond last Monday.

Since the incident, the department has relieved Licon of his duties.
A pair of evicted tenants threatened the homeowners they lived with just a week before the arson fire that killed the property owners' two young children, investigators say.

Police say arson was behind the fire that killed six-year-old Xavier and eight-year-old Rose in Mount Vernon, Washington early Saturday morning, and are holding the two former tenants for investigation.

Kimberly Marie Hughes, 32, and Jaramy L. Chism, 24, are each being held in lieu of $2million bail on suspicion of first degree arson and two counts of first degree murder in the home fire.

'I will sue you or burn your house down, Hughes told the homeowners on July 8, seven days before the fire, investigators said in court filings on Monday.

Dead: Police say arson was behind the fire that killed eight-year-old Rose (left) and six-year-old Xavier (right) in Mount Vernon, Washington early Saturday morning

Suspects: Kimberly Marie Hughes, 32, and Jaramy L. Chism, 24, are each being held in lieu of $2million bail on suspicion of first degree arson and two counts of first degree murder

Crime Scene: The fire began around 2am when the family of four and a tenant were asleep

Parents Bryan Bachofer and Jessica Starr, who tried to help her children escape but fell out of a second-story window while removing the screen, have been hospitalized with serious injuries from the fire.

Investigators' suspicions of Hughes and Chism were revealed on Monday, when the pair appeared in court.

Both deny the allegations against them, the Skagit County Public Defender's Office said.

Hughes was previously convicted of second-degree arson in 2014, police said.

In that incident, investigators said in court documents: 'She stated she set her ex-boyfriend's clothes on fire in a laundry basket. She stated she was mad at him for cheating on her. '

Held: Kimberly Hughes and Jaramy Chism are seen in a court appearance on Monday

Hughes and Chism lived as renters in the house for an unclear amount of time before the fire

Hughes made reference to a dispute over her lease in several Facebook posts like this one

'I later learned from the [police] report that there were people in the home when she set this fire,' the investigator wrote.

After living as renters with Bachofer and Starr for an unclear amount of time, a dispute arose about the terms of a lease renewal, Hughes' social media posts indicate.

The dispute grew to include disagreements over payments to Chism from Bachofer, who employed the tenant for work on the rural property, the posts indicate.

Bachofer had the man and woman evicted and they moved out on July 11, police said.

Four days later, around 2am on Saturday, another renter in the house, Jacob Motz, awoke to the sounds of crackling fire and the smell of smoke, police said.

Dad And Daughter: Bryan Bachofer and daughter Rose are seen in these Facebook photos

Fire crews responded and found the house engulfed in flames when they arrived.

Starr told a neighbor that she'd taken the children to a second story window to try to escape, but fell out of the window while pushing the window screen out.

'She was head-to-toe, [covered] in black soot,' Bob Eaton told KTVL.

'She was cut up really quite badly and burned. She was really in tough shape.'

Bachofer and Motz also escaped from the house.

Cops searching for Hughes and Chism found the pair asleep in a tent in the backyard of a home about 10 miles away from the fire at 6.30am on Saturday.

The pair told police that they had been sleeping there since midnight and denied starting the fire.

Bachofer and Starr are recovering from 'burns and severe lung damage', family friend Tamara Carlson wrote on a GoFundMe appeal for the couple.

'They've lost everything and will be facing unimaginable grief, medical recovery, medical bills and the rebuilding of their lives.'
A senior federal government staffer's abusive telephone messages to his elderly parents-in-law were so vitriolic they both had to be treated for anxiety and insomnia.

Brendan Blomeley, chief-of-staff to Liberal Senator David Bushby, government whip in the Senate, was found guilty in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court of using a carriage device to harass.

The court heard Blomeley, from Sandy Bay in Hobart, left his mother and father-in-law Julia and Ted Edwards a barrage of expletive-laden telephone voice messages in late 2015.

Medical evidence seen by Daily Mail Australia shows both parents-in-law were so disturbed by the abuse they had to seek medical treatment.

Brendan Blomeley has been found guilty of harassing his parents-in-law via telephone

Brendan Blomeley's estranged wife Emily Edwards and her father Ted Edwards leave court

Brendan Blomeley with his estranged wife Emily Edwards, whose parents he abused

Brendan Blomeley is chief-of-staff to Liberal David Bushby, government whip in the Senate

The 42-year-old had addressed Mr and Mrs Edwards, who are the parents of his estranged wife Emily Edwards, as 'f***ing mongrel', 'f***wit' and 'f***nut'.

Mr Edwards, 79, and Mrs Edwards, 73, are separated. They were 77 and 71 at the time of the offensive telephone calls.

The calls began at a time Blomeley, whose wife had left him with their young son and daughter in September 2015, had not seen his children for 25 days.

Blomeley believed his parents-in-law were assisting their daughter in keeping him from seeing his children. He called Mr Edwards a 'f***ing a***hole' and a 'coward' in one message.

'You know what, Ted?' Blomeley said in another. 'You'll be f***ed. Emily will be f***ed. Julia will be. Julia is the one that's the most f***ed.

'I mean, she's the most f***ed up of all of you - even more so than you, Ted, which is quite something.

'Anyway, old man, all the best old fella. All the best, f***nut. F***nut Ted. F***nut Ted.'

A statement of facts referred to Blomeley contacting Mr Edwards 96 times between November 20, 2015 and January 1, 2016. He contacted Mrs Edwards 65 times over the same period.

Political staffer Brendan Blomeley (right) leaves court with his lawyer Neal Funnell on Monday

Brendan Blomeley (left) leaves Downing Centre Local Court with lawyer Neal Funnell

Senior federal government staffer Brendan Blomeley is from Sandy Bay, a suburb of Hobart

The court heard Blomeley had contacted Mrs Edwards eight times in 26 hours, with five texts and three voicemail messages. He had contacted Mr Edwards 17 times in 33 hours.

Blomeley told Mrs Edwards: 'You're a f***ing disgrace Julia Edwards. You are a f***ing disgrace. You make me sick. You make me absolutely sick.'

'You people think you're so f***ing smart. You really are just a pack of f***ing mongrels. Julia Edwards, you are a f***ing mongrel.'

'I'm going to call you a f***wit. You're a f***wit, just like Ted. You're a f***wit of the highest order.'

Magistrate Megan Greenwood said the messages sent to Mr Edwards were even worse as they were 'repeated over and over'. Some came after 10pm.

Blomeley told his father-in-law: 'You're a f***ing a***hole', 'you're a f***wit', 'you're pathetic', 'you're just a f***ing mongrel' and 'you're a pathetic waste of space.'

Ted Edwards (far left) leaves court with his daughter Emily Edwards (second from left)

Brendan Blomeley will be sentenced for using a carriage device to harass on Thursday

Senator David Bushby (right), government whip in the Senate, is Brendan Blomeley's boss

Dr Christopher Bennett certified Mr Edwards suffered from a 'number of significant health issues' which had been worsened by the abuse to the point he needed medication.

'His overall health has been impacted by the reported threatening, intimidating, recurrent contacts that he (has) been exposed to involving his former son-in-law,' Dr Bennett wrote.

'Mr Edwards is currently suffering some significant anxiety due to these stressors, to the extent that he has been unable to sleep normally and suffered anxiety during the day as well.'

Dr Peter Parras confirmed Mrs Edwards had consulted him in November 2015.

'She required medication for anxiety and insomnia as she stated that she was subject to harassment and intimidation from her daughter's ex-husband,' Dr Parras reported.

'She was very obviously frightened and distressed by the situation with her daughter's ex-husband.'

Barrister Neal Funnell said on Monday his client had only been concerned about his children's whereabouts and well-being when he contacted his in-laws.

He said Blomeley had also contacted police at Rose Bay, Cronullla, Sutherland and Gosford about getting access to his kids.

Brendan Blomeley's estranged with Emily Edwards leaves Downing Centre Local Court

Political staffer Brendan Blomeley pleaded not guilty to using a carriage device to harass

'It's just difficult to imagine who wouldn't lose their cool in that situation,' Mr Funnell said. 'Mr Blomeley was possibly losing his mind.'

Mr Funnell described Blomeley's words as regrettable 'colourful langauge' and 'name-calling'. Ms Greenwood saw it more seriously.

'I think someone might regard this to be vitriolic abuse,' she said.

Both Mr and Mrs Edwards had asked Blomeley to cease contacting them, Ms Greenwood noted, 'and you didn't leave them alone'.

Mrs Greenwood found the offences proven and will sentence Blomeley on Thursday.

A spokesman for Senator Bushby, who is on leave, said he was aware of Monday's court proceedings.

'Although a decision was made by that court on Monday, 17 July, matters pertaining to these proceedings are not yet concluded,' the spokesman said.

'Pending their conclusion, it would be inappropriate for Senator Bushby to comment further.'
A Muslim journalist from the Qatar government-owned Al Jazeera network says Australians are more likely to die from falling out of bed than a terrorist attack.

Mehdi Hasan, a Shia, told the ABC terrorists killed fewer people than traffic accidents or domestic violence.

'The statistics show you're more likely to be killed falling out of bed in the morning in Australia than be killed by a terrorist later in the day,' he told the Q&A program.

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Al Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan says Australians are more likely to die falling out of bed

Turnbull Government minister Matt Canavan said bunk beds weren't out to form an Islamist caliphate

The Al Jazeera journalist said furniture posed a bigger threat than terror (London terror attack in March pictured)

'Terrorism is a threat but compared to the other threats we face, from crime, murder, it isn't the threat that some politicians make it out to be.

'You're more likely in the United States to be killed by your furniture falling on top of you than a terrorist.'

Turnbull government minister Matt Canavan, who is also a Nationals senator for Queensland, slammed Hasan, an English-born journalist now based in the U.S., for downplaying the threat of Islamist terrorism.

'I haven't met a bunk bed that wants to establish a caliphate and destroy Western, liberal values,' he said on Monday night.

'There's a fundamental difference between a random, tragic act, falling out of a bunk bed or having a fridge fall on you or something and the considered, ideological, strategic attempt to spread terror throughout the society.'

Mehdi Hasan is the second international Q&A guest since May to downplay the risk of terror (ISIS fighter from 2016 pictured)

Hasan, whose employer Al Jazeera is owned by a Sharia law government in the Middle East, is the latest international guest on the taxpayer-funded Q&A program to downplay the threat of terrorism.

In May, American cosmologist Lawrence Krauss conflated the risk of terrorism with a household accident.

'You're more likely to be killed by a refrigerator in the United States falling on you,' he said.

Not to be outdone, fellow guest panellist Mona Chalabi, the data editor with the left-leaning Guardian website, said the media lost interest in a New York maniac who drove a car into Times Square pedestrians, killing an 18-year-old woman, because his name wasn't Mohammad.

'The threat of Islamic fundamentalism, if you want to view it in terms of number of dead bodies, which, as awful as it sounds, is the way to kind of make sense of some threat, actually, really, isn't that present,' she said.

American cosmologist Lawrence Krauss in May told Q&A falling fridges were a bigger danger than terrorism
Australia's east coast has been warned to brace for thunderstorms, torrential rain, and plummeting temperatures.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms were predicted for Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon while a severe weather warning was issued for South Australia.

South Australia's capital was told to expect gusts of up to 100km/h on Tuesday.

Meanwhile in Brisbane, residents woke to thick fog on Tuesday morning.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms were predicted for Melbourne (pictured) on Tuesday

Incredible photos showed a heavy blanket of fog covering the Brisbane skyline on Tuesday

The fog blanketed much of Brisbane, bringing ferries and citycats to a halt due to the low visibility.

A series of slow-moving cold fronts were expected to bring thunderstorms and gale force winds to multiple states and territories including much of NSW and Victoria.

'This is the strongest winter system we've seen so far this season,' Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe told Nine News.

This map shows temperatures dropping to below freezing in parts of Australia's east coast

FORECAST: WEATHER RIGHT ACROSS AUSTRALIA SYDNEY Tuesday : Min 10, sunny Wednesday : Min 9, mostly sunny BRISBANE: Tuesday : Min 13, late shower Wednesday : Min 13, sunny ADELAIDE Tuesday : Min 8, showers Wednesday : Min 7, mostly sunny DARWIN Tuesday : Min 20, sunny Wednesday : Min 20, mostly sunny MELBOURNE Tuesday : Min 79, possible shower Wednesday : Min 8, showers CANBERRA Tuesday : Min 1, possible shower Wednesday : Min 0, frost then sunny PERTH Tuesday : Min 8, late shower Wednesday : Min 11, showers increasing HOBART Tuesday : Min 5, possible shower Wednesday : Min 5, showers Advertisement

A severe weather warning was issued for Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Murray Bridge, but showers and gusty winds were also likely to spread across much of NSW, Victoria, the ACT and Tasmania this week.

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said a large pool of cold air would wrap around the alps bringing freezing temperatures and 'some of the best snow so far this season' 20-40cm of snow.

The majority of the snow will fall on Tuesday, Mr Domensino said.

This map shows the predicted rainfall for Australia - with Western Australia and Tasmania forecast to be worst hit

Thredbo, Perisher (pictured) and Cooma all felt their coldest morning since the beginning of winter on Sunday

More snow is expected to fall at popular ski resorts including Perisher (pictured) this week

A surfer jumps into the waves that have been created by a storm front on Adelaide metropolitan beaches, South Australia

A severe weather warning has been issued for Adelaide (pictured), Mount Gambier and Murray Bridge

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for Adelaide for this week

Showers and gusty winds were also likely to spread across much of NSW, Victoria, the ACT and Tasmania on Monday through until Wednesday

Thredbo, Perisher (pictured) and Cooma all felt their coldest morning since the beginning of winter on Sunday

Thredbo, Perisher and Cooma all felt their coldest morning since the beginning of winter on Sunday.

The mercury fell to -12 degrees shortly after sunrise at Perisher Valley and -10.4 at Thredbo.

'The most startling was Cooma, which had it's coldest July night in six years, dropping to -9.7 degrees,' Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said.

The cool weather will likely hang around, with Perisher expecting snowy and windy conditions with below freezing temperatures for the remainder of the week.

Snow is also likely to fall in the central and north ranges of New South Wales.

Weatherzone said much of New South Wales, Victoria and even Queensland would feel colder than they were due to the harsh wind chill blowing across the South East.

Weatherzone said much of New South Wales, Victoria and even Queensland would feel colder than they were due to the harsh wind chill blowing across the South East
The owner of a pit bull that mauled two children, one as she was strapped in a car seat, has been charged in the attack.

Luis Oma Colon-Colon, 42, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania was charged with attacks causing severe injury, reckless endangering and other counts.

Police say a two-year-old girl, Ruby Warfel, and her five-year-old brother, Charlie, were attacked by a black and white 66-pound dog while their pregnant mother, Margaret Warfel, tried in vain to pull the animal off.

Luis Oma Colon-Colon, 42, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania was charged with attacks causing severe injury after his pit bull attacked a two-year-old girl, Ruby Warfel (left) and her five-year-old brother, Charlie (right)

Their pregnant mother, Margaret Warfel, (pictured) tried in vain to pull the animal off during the ruthless attack. 'While watching an animal trying to kill my son as I screamed, "my babies! my babies!"'Mrs Warfel recalled

The incident unfolded on June 19. Colon-Colon left his pit bull, called Eclipse, in his backyard while he ran errands, Lancaster Online reports. Upon seeing the children nearby, the dog ran underneath a fence and pounced on them.

The ruthless dog first attacked Ruby, who was still strapped in her car seat, before pouncing on Charlie who was standing behind his mother outside the car.

Mrs Warfel struggled to rescue her children because it was raining and the dog didn't have a collar she could grip on.

'I was on top of the dog, trying to pry its mouth open with my hands,' she wrote on her Gofundme page.

'I received several puncture wounds in the fingers, arm and neck as well as scrapes to my knees and forearms, but my injuries pale in comparison to what my children sustained.

'The three of us were screaming and at some point some people came to try to help.

At this point, others had tried to intervene. One aspect of the incident etched in her memory was a woman hovering family with a knife, who said she couldn't harm the dog.

The children (pictured) suffered puncture wounds to their faces and had to go through hours of surgery at Penn State Children's Hospital

'While watching an animal trying to kill my son as I screamed, "my babies! my babies!"' Mrs Warfel recalled.

'At some point my son was finally free. He was able to talk and said to me through his tears, "Mummy, that was a really bad dog"'.

While attempting to dial 911, she recalls, her hands were so bloody that she had a hard time holding on to her phone.

The children suffered puncture wounds to their faces and had to endure hours of surgery at Penn State Children's Hospital.

The dog was euthanized after it was observed for signs of rabies. Police say the dog has a history and bit Colon-Colon's 4-year-old grandson multiple times in July 2013.

The owner also did not have any documents showing his dog was licensed and vaccinated.

He posted a $5,000 bail after his arraignment. A phone number to call him for comment could not be found.
Homestead National Monument of America has come full circle.

Located on the site where Daniel Freeman, one of the very first homesteaders, staked his claim in 1862, Homestead will soon be the new and permanent home of a tractor belonging to Ken Deardorff, the last homesteader.

On Monday afternoon, the Homestead National Monument showed off Deardorffs tractor, a 1945 Allis-Chalmers Model C that he bought when he moved to his homestead in the Alaskan wilderness in 1974.

The tractor will be sent to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for refurbishment before it goes on display, but the team that brought it 3,500 miles back to the Homestead via helicopter, barge, ship and truck had a story to tell.

In 1974, Deardorff was a 29-year-old Vietnam veteran from California. The Homestead Act was still two years away from being repealedthough the Alaskan repeal was 10 years away, due to its late addition to the United States. Dearsdorff staked a claim and settled on 80 acres about 200 miles from Anchorage and nearly 50 miles from the nearest town.

He traveled by dog sled to get to his homestead and slept in a tent in sub-zero conditions until he was able to finish building his log cabin. There were no roads, electricity or modern amenities at all when he arrived, and the property remains the same way.

Using his tractor, Deardorff cleared a forest to grow his cropsmostly hays and grasses, as those were the only things that would grow in the climate. The tractor was his most important tool.

When he left the Alaskan homestead ten years after starting it, the tractor was left sitting outside for the next 30 years. Officials from Homestead Monument learned about the tractor and were determined to bring it to Beatrice.

Last year, the Friends of Homestead started an online fundraising campaign to bring the tractor to Nebraska. Asking $44,000 at the time, they were falling short until Dr. C.T. Frerichs of Beatrice happened to read about it in the Omaha World Herald.

Frerichs had recently lost his wife and was looking for a way to honor her memory, said Diane Vicars, president of the Friends of Homestead National Monument.

When Frerichs and his wife, Julia, were engaged, the couple came to Nebraska to visit his parents in September of 1950. During that visit, a photo of Julia was taken as she sat on a tractor.

She liked the experience, Frerichs said. He still has that photo of Julia perched on the tractor. A late 1940s-era Allis-Chalmers Model C. Just like the one Deardorff used on his homestead.

Frerichs was inspired and made a significant financial contribution to bring the tractor to Nebraska.

After cutting off the protective plastic that surrounded it from its trip to Homestead, Frerichs got a little choked up.

I think she would just sit here and cry, he said. She'd probably shed a tear, but she would be surprised and extremely thankful.

Rob Ruskamp, chief of maintenance at Homestead, went on the Alaskan trek to retrieve the tractor. They did a little bit of recon work, he said, in looking for the tractor based on information Deardorff had given them before finding it in a clearing. It was rough, but still very much recognizable.

They called in a helicopter to lift the tractor to Big Lake, Alaska, where a crate was custom built for it. It was put on a barge to Anchorage, then onto a ship to Seattle before being trucked to Beatrice.

The team also found a plow and other pieces of equipment located in a river sandbed, he said.

"We just stumbled upon these pieces of equipment and huge trees were growing up through them, he said. The helicopter was coming that morning to get the tractor, so we only had a couple of hours, so we just went crazy digging them up.

The tractor will be heading to UNL for restoration in the next week or so, Homestead National Monument superintendent Mark Engler said, but they dont want it looking like new. It's an American treasure, he said.

Theyre aiming for what it would have looked like when Deardorff was using it. Theyll fix up the tires and repair the rotting wood on the hand-made seat, but thats about it. No new paint or anything too fancy. Authenticity is what theyre going for.

I would like to add that the Allis-Chalmers seat on which my future wife sat in September of 1950 was much nicer and cleaner than that, Frerichs joked. And I'm afraid if it had been that one, she might have said 'no'.
Lyndi Fisher, 36, was found dead on Friday night in the Lancaster, California

A mother of three who worked as an appliance repair technician has been found dead in the home of a client, who is now charged with her murder.

Lyndi Fisher, 36, was found dead on Friday night in the Lancaster, California home of 30-year-old William Hughes, where she had been dispatched on her final service call of the day.

Hughes has been charged with murder and is being held pending $2million bail.

'Lyndi Fisher was an amazing mother of three beautiful children, a loving wife to her husband Cass, an outstanding appliance repair technician and meant so much to countless family and friends,' Fisher's employer Christy Savoie-Knop wrote in an online tribute.

According to Knop, Fisher arrived at Hughes' home on her last service call of the day at around 6.10 on Friday, reported KTLA.

Suspect: 30-year-old William Hughes is seen being taken into custody on Sunday

Fisher's employer Arrow Appliance called her 'an outstanding appliance repair technician'

Fisher had been to the home once a week prior on another service call, her employer said, and police said that Hughes lived alone in the house.

Knop's sister tried calling Fisher at around 7pm but got no response, and assumed the repairwoman was getting dinner, Knop said.

Then around 11pm, a medical emergency call prompted police to respond to the home, police said.

First responders found Fisher unresponsive on the floor of the home.

A medical examiner ruled that the woman died of blunt force trauma.

Fisher (right) was a married mother of three. She was killed on her last service call of the day

Fisher had been to the home once a week prior on another service call, her employer said, and police said that Hughes lived alone in the house

Fisher had been to the home (pictured) once a week prior on another service call, her employer said, and police said that Hughes lived alone in the house

Hughes told cops that he had stepped out of the house and returned to find Fisher unconscious, police said.

But evidence at the scene tied Hughes to her death, police said, also citing the man's conflicting statements.

Hughes is 6-foot-2 and 300 pounds, according to booking records.

'Lyndi was always a happy person and brought smiles to everyone she came in contact with,' her employer Arrow Appliances wrote on GoFundMe page to raise money for her family.

'Please help us in supporting Lyndi's family in their time of grief and continue to keep them in your thoughts as prayers.'
Domino's Pizza, KFC and Gloria Jean's Coffee outlets are among the food chains that have been issued penalty notices for unsafe food practices.

Thousands of retail businesses across Sydney and NSW have been 'named and shamed' online on the food register published on the Department of Primary Industries website.

Domino's Pizza in Mosman, on the Lower North Shore, was hit with a penalty notice for allegedly failing to maintain fixtures, fittings and equipment to the required standard of cleanliness.

Domino's Pizza in Mosman was handed a penalty notice by the New South Wales Food Authority (Stock Image)

KFC South Tamworth was handed a penalty notice for allegedly failing to take all necessary steps when processing to prevent the likelihood of food being contaminated (Stock Image)

Strathfield's Gloria Jean's was issued a penalty notice for allegedly failing to store potentially hazardous food under temperature control.

Meanwhile KFC South Tamworth in Hillvue was hit with a penalty notice for allegedly failing to take all necessary steps to prevent the likelihood of food being contaminated during process.

The penalty notices carry a potential fine of $880.

The list follows the Food Authority fining Shu Yu Yun, trading as Sydney producer Bill's Chicken of Moorebank, $34,000 after he pleaded guilty to offences ranging from failures in hygiene, maintenance and Food Safety Program monitoring.

The NSW Food Authority has also listed traders in seafood stores, bakeries and other restaurants that have been issued a penalty notice in the last 30 days.

Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said more than 7,000 food retail business have appeared on the register since it was established in 2008.

Gloria Jean's in Strathfield was handed a penalty notice (stock Image)

Since the 'name and shame' lists introduction, at its peak in 2009/10 up to 3.4 per cent of food businesses were placed on the register.

'I am pleased to say the vast majority of food businesses in NSW do the right thing  however those which don't face the significant sanction of featuring on the well-read register,' Mr Blair said.

'This puts the power in the hands of the consumer and gives them confidence and certainty when choosing where to dine.

'Just as consumers are becoming increasingly interested in the provenance of their food, they are also demanding to know that this food is being safely prepared and served.'

The 'name and shame' website has had more than 11 million views since 2008.
A Sydney man who has admitted sexually abusing his stepdaughter over many years has now been found guilty of drugging the girl and her mother to enable him to further molest her.

The 45-year-old, who told the jury he and his stepdaughter acted 'like a married couple', pleaded guilty to 99 charges at the start of his NSW District Court trial.

Most of them related to him having sexual intercourse with the girl when she was aged 12 to 15.

A man representing himself in court has been found guilty of drugging and indecently assaulting his step daughter (stock image)

The man admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with his teenage stepdaughter (stock image) when she was between 12 and 15-years-old

He steadfastly denied other charges but on Tuesday the jury found him guilty of four of five counts of administering an intoxicating substance to the mother in order to commit a crime.

He was also found guilty of all 22 drugging counts relating to his stepdaughter and two counts of indecently assaulting her younger sister when she was about 11.

The man, who represented himself throughout the trial, told the jury he was in a consensual relationship with the older stepdaughter, and they 'acted like a married couple'.

He was arrested and charged in 2014 after the girl told her mother about various sex offences.

The mother later found SD memory cards in the lining of his jacket containing about 78 videos and 778 images which showed him sexually and indecently assaulting her daughter.

Judge Paul Conlon on Tuesday adjourned the case for a sentence hearing on September 8.
Ominous footage has surfaced appearing to show an enormous fin protruding from the water just metres from a surfer competing at South Africa's J-Bay Open.

It comes two years after Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning punched a huge great white shark that became tangled in his leg rope at the same notorious break.

Following the attack, the World Surf League (WSL) made changes to their shark prevention plans, deploying extra jetskis fitted with sonar tracking and lights along with revolutionary shark mitigation systems in the water..

But during Filipe Toledo and Kanoa Igarashis heat, eagle-eyed spectators spotted a suspected maneater in the water next to the Brazilian in a red wetsuit.

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An enormous fin has been spotted just metres from a surfer competing at the J-Bay Open

The commentators also appeared to miss the mysterious fin in the water, continuing to make reference to Toledo's surfing style and chances in the competition.

On social media, surfing fans had little doubt about what animal the fin belonged to.

'Dip your finger in the water and put it in your mouth. If it's salty, there's sharks,' wrote Jeff Beverly.

'That is a shark for sure... and it's bigger than the one that fanning encountered,' added another.

'No doubt about it. That was a good sized fin. No juvenile there,' commented Daniel Powers.

It comes two years after Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning punched a huge great white shark that became tangled in his leg rope at the same notorious break

Following the attack, the World Surf League (WSL) made a number of changes to their shark prevention plans. Fanning (pictured) won the event last year and is on track to contesting the title this year too

Others questioned why there were no camera drones flying over the surfers as a precautionary measure to spot sharks at the 'sharky' break.

'It was a shark with a black eye,' joked another user, making reference to Fanning who famously said he 'punched' a shark after being pulled to safety in 2015.

Three-time world surfing champion Fanning returned to Jeffreys Bay in 2016 and won the event, and is on track to contesting the title this year too.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted WSL for comment.
A father and his young son who were killed after a shocking car accident have been farewelled in a touching service.

Christopher Tobin was laid to rest on Tuesday clutching one-year-old Jack in the same casket adorned with handwritten tributes from family and friends.

Mr Tobin, 51, was driving in Mt Eden, Auckland, on New Zealand's North Island last week with Jack and two-year-old daughter Elle when tragedy struck, stuff.co.nz reported.

Christopher Tobin and his one-year-old son Jack Kronfeld-Tobin were laid to rest in a single casket adorned with touching handwritten tributes on Tuesday, a week after a fatal car crash

Jack's (pictured) life support was switched-off just days after he suffered critical injuries in a car accident which also claimed the life of his father

His car and a double-decker bus collided head-on, killing Mr Tobin with Jack and Elle rushed to hospital with critical injuries.

Just days later, family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off Jack's life support.

Elle survived, was later released from hospital and attended the funeral for her father and brother in a small wheelchair, The New Zealand Herald reported.

Mr Tobin, known also as 'Tuffa', was an 'outrageous, creative, frustrating, wonderful partner, father, son, brother, uncle and friend', a funeral notice said, while Jack had a 'cheeky spirit who enlivened up any room he crawled into'.

Tributes written across the wooden casket included 'smiles, hugs, kisses, music, love, peace, happiness - life goes by so fast, so fortunate to have crossed paths'.

Another read: 'May the angels guide you, give you peace and eternal happiness'.

Christoper Tobin (pictured) has been remembered as a devoted family man who loved his wife and children

Mr Tobin's car collided with a double-decker bus at Mt Eden, Auckland, on New Zealand's North Island on July 11

On a Givealittle fundraising page created to help support Mr Tobin's family, he was also remembered for his devotion to his wife and their young children, including another daughter, Vivian, six.

'Chris was so full of life, he had one of the biggest grins and a heart full of so much love to all those around him,' the Givealittle page said.

About 200 mourners, many draped in yellow - Mr Tobin's favourite colour, paid their respects to the father and his son.
Justine Damond grew up in the northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well-known Dymocks bookstore in the local shopping mall.

A bright and bubbly young woman, she completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before going on to study at the University of Sydney.

In 2002, she graduated with a bachelor degree in veterinary science, but her passion for life and neuroscience saw her eventually pursue a career in healing.

Training to become a therapist, she went on to start up her 'meditate, evolve, create' business, through which she ran workshops, clinics and provided online advice.

But her life changed upon meeting American businessman Don Damond, with the pair entering a relationship that resulted in her moving to be with him in the US.

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Justine Damond (pictured) grew up in the affluent northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well known Dymocks bookstore in a local shopping mall

But her life changed upon meeting American businessman Don Damond (centre), with the pair entering a relationship that resulted in them becoming engaged and her moving to be the US

Arriving in Mr Damond's hometown of Minneapolis, Minesotta, in 2015 she moved in with the vice president of Little Six Casino's and his son Zach.

While her maiden name was Ruszczyk, upon becoming engaged to Mr Damond she quickly adopted his name, using it professionally on her therapy website.

On her website she describes seeing many of her family members suffer with cancer as being an influence on her taking up a career in 'healing and transforming' lives.

She regularly appeared at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Centre teaching meditation and yoga classes, with many of her sessions posted to the the LSHC YouTube page.

But a friend of Ms Damond revealed that in addition to her professional help, she also selflessly went above and beyond for her friends.

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help, Fox 9 reports.

'That's just the kind of person Justine was,' Mrs Peterson said.

Speaking out about his daughter's death in Sydney on Tuesday, John Ruszczyk called for 'light' to be shone on the mystery of why Ms Damond was gunned down.

John Ruszczyk (pictured), the heartbroken father of Justine Damond, has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of U.S. police

Tragic: Justine Damond was shot and killed in an alleyway outside her Minneapolis home

She completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before studying at the University of Sydney to become a vet. But she later focused on a career in meditation

While her maiden name was Ruszczyk, upon becoming engaged to Mr Damond (pictured) she quickly adopted his name, using it professionally on her therapy website

A timeline shows the events that led up to the fatal shooting at around 11.30pm on Saturday

Friends left flowers at a makeshift memorial near the alley where Ms Damond was shot and killed

Supporters used chalk to share colourful messages of love near the alleyway where Ms Damond was killed on Saturday night

The messages were accompanied by the names of others who had been shot my police

'We thought yesterday was our worst nightmare but we awoke to the ugly truth and it hurt even more,' a shattered John Ruszczyk said, flanked by his wife.

'Justine, our daughter, was so special to us and so many others. We went down to Freshy (Freshwater) beach this morning and saw the blackness turn to light.

'Justine was a beacon to all of us, we only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death.'

In the hours after she was gunned down by policeman Mohammed Noor, hundreds of mourners gathered outside the Damond home to hold a vigil.

'This woman was a beautiful light, she was a healer, she was loved, she should be alive - she should still be here,' one neighbour said.

The large group gathered held hands in a drive way, with colourful chalk drawings on the pavement listing the names of people they claimed were killed by police.

Hours earlier Ms Damond's angry soon-to-be stepson spoke to a local activist group, slamming police over the death of his 'best friend'.

Just hours after the shooting Zach Damond (pictured), her heartbroken soon-to-be stepson, spoke with close friends of the woman and slammed police over her death

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond (left) struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help

Don Damond, Ms Damond's fiance, was comforted by a friend after addressing the media

'Basically my mum's dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don't know,' Zach Damond said.

'I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. I'm so done with all this violence. It's so much bulls**t. America sucks.

'She was a very passionate woman, she thought something bad was happening - and next thing you know they take my best friend's life.'

Fronting cameras close to 48 hours after his fiancee's shooting on Saturday night, Mr Damond said the family were 'desperate for information' about her death.

The bride-to-be was shot dead by police after calling 911 to report a rape in an alley at the back of her home.

Ms Damond's friends told US media she had often spoken out against gun violence and told them 'how much better' things were in Australia

Autopsy results revealed Ms Damond died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen in what the report labelled a 'homicide'.

Mohamed Noor aimed at her from the passenger seat of his squad car as she spoke to his colleague on the driver's side in a back alley.

The policeman issued a statement through his lawyer extending his condolences to Ms Damond's family.

'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers,' the statement read.

'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling.

'He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future.

'At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.'

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who has the final say on whether or not to lay charges, said it was a real possibility.

'I do understand this, they were driving down an alley, the victim approached the car,' he told the Star Tribune.

'That's not necessarily a time you must [be taping], but frankly I think it's a time you should.'
Detective Jared Mullis has been charged with killing Fresno County Sheriff's Sergeant Rod Lucas (pictured)

Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a sheriff's detective in Central California accused of killing his colleague in what authorities had initially called a tragic and accidental shooting, officials said.

Fresno County Sheriff's Sergeant Rod Lucas died in October while talking with a detective about how to carry their backup weapons.

A gun fired, striking 46-year-old Lucas in the chest, causing him to drop to the ground.

Detective Jared Mullis was charged Friday with felony involuntary manslaughter, the Fresno County District Attorney's Office said.

In court papers, prosecutors say Mullis killed Lucas without malice, but the killing was unlawful because he failed to use 'due caution and circumspection.'

The charge includes a weapons enhancement because Mullis used his firearm, which means he may face a longer sentence if convicted.

Mullis' defense attorney Roger Wilson said Monday that his client could spend up to 14 years in state prison. Wilson said that was excessive because Mullis admired Lucas and the shooting was accidental.

'Clearly it was not a criminal act,' he said, adding concern for the potential long prison sentence. 'It says not only do we want to punish you, we want to punish you a lot.'

Fresno County Assistant District Attorney Blake Gunderson declined to comment on the case.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims had said at the time of the shooting that it appeared to be a tragic accident. The two were in an office having a conversation with two other colleagues, and there was no dispute, she had said.

Mullis has been a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff for 10 years, and Lucas was with the sheriff's office for 20 years.

Sheriff's spokesman Tony Botti declined to comment Monday. He said in a statement that the shooting has taken an emotional toll on the entire sheriff's office, including the families of both Lucas and Mullis.

Mullis is currently on paid leave from the department, the office said. He's scheduled for his first court appearance in the case on Aug. 3.
Trump's Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch was forced to listen to harsh criticism of the president's controversial travel ban from a 15-year-old schoolgirl on Monday.

Gorsuch was at a naturalization ceremony in San Francisco when Olivia Tafs, a student from Alaska, read aloud an essay she'd written on the ban.

The award winning piece of writing compared Trump's treatment of Muslims to the internment of the Japanese in 1942 when more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were ordered to leave the West Coast in the wake of Pearl Harbor and go to internment camps.

Gorsuch voted in favor of the temporary ban, which citizens from six Muslim majority countries from entering the US, earlier this year.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch shook the hand of 15-year-old Olivia Tafs after she read aloud an essay condemning Donald Trump's travel ban on Monday

Gorsuch was a last minute fill in at the conference in San Francisco. His duties for the day included welcoming new citizens. Pictured right is Roy Takano and the Mayor at a town hall meeting at the infamous Manzanar Relocation Center on the West Coast

After listening to the teenager's remarks, he rose to his feet to shake her hand.

Gorsuch was a last minute fill in for Anthony Kennedy. His job for the day was to welcome new citizens.

Olivia's criticism of the administration was not isolated.

Jeffrey Seller, the producer of the Broadway hit Hamilton, also shared his thoughts on Trump's stance on immigration.

He was taking part in a panel discussion and was asked why his cast mates felt the need to single out Vice President Mike Pence when he attended the show earlier this year.

Gorsuch shakes the hand of Minh Nhat Duong during the naturalization ceremony on Monday

Gorsuch voted in favor of Trump's travel ban against six Muslim majority nations earlier this year. The ban sparked protests across the country first in January and again last month when a revised version was reinstated

Two-thirds of those held in the internment camps were native-born citizens of the US. The Colorado government claims that even those of 1/16 Japanese origin were also forced into such camps. Pictured: Choir practice with director Louie Frizzell

Sites for the interment centers included Tule Lake, California; Minidoka, Idaho; Manzanar, California; Topaz, Utah; Jerome, Arkansas; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Poston, Arizona; Granada, Colorado; and Rohwer, Arkansas. Pictured, Sumiko Shigematsu, foreman of of a group of power sewing machine girls, watches on in the center

Seller said some of his cast were scared of the president's anti-Mexican rhetoric.

Gorsuch didn't let either comment impede his duties for the day.

In his comments to a group of new citizens, he said that while tolerance can be difficult , it was vital for democracy.

He also discussed the intricacies of the Supreme Court and told how its members listen to each other and welcome different ideas when reaching decisions.

Asked what he would like people to know about the judiciary, Gorsuch pointed out that the vast majority of legal disputes are resolved at the district court level and the U.S. Supreme Court often rules unanimously.
A search is underway for the remains of a newborn who police fear was murdered and buried on a rural property northwest of Sydney up to a decade ago.

The homicide squad received a tip off that a child was born in either late 2007 or early 2008 and was killed 'shortly' after.

The baby was then buried on a property at South Maroota, the informant claimed.

Detectives believe the mother was in her late teens when she gave birth.

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Detectives are searching (pictured Tuesday) for the remains of a newborn baby born 2007-08

The horrific allegations triggered a search of dense bushland off Cliftonville Road early on Tuesday.

Police have formed a strike force, named Enact, to lead the investigation and expect the probe to be 'protracted'.

Detective Chief Inspector Angelo Memmolo believes the community can assist.

'An investigation into the death of a baby will always be delicate and challenging for police and this incident is of great concern to us,' he said.

Police (pictured) believe a newborn baby was murdered shortly after being born ten years ago

Detectives are searching dense bushland at remote area in South Maroota (pictured Tuesday) where they believe the newborn's remains were buried

'We are hoping someone in the community may have information relating to the circumstances surrounding the baby's death.'

Det Chief Insp Memmolo hoped the search would spark someone's memory.

Officers will return to comb the property further on Wednesday.

It sits off a quiet road in an area between several national parks.

The search began at a property Cliftonville Road, about 64km from Sydney, (area pictured)

Detectives (pictured) want anyone who knows anything about the suspected newborn murder to come forward

A locked gate prevents entry to a shared private road which winds further into bushland.

Only a small, derelict property and a shed can be seen from the public road.

The owners of the property are not believed to have any involvement with the incident, police say.

Strikeforce Enact has worked closely with both the Department of Family and Community Services and NSW Health on the investigation.

The search is expected to be lengthy because much of the area is dense bushland (pictured)




A series of ram raids involving a supermarket, a school and a jewellery store that occurred overnight were linked and believed to have been committed by the same two men.

The first incident happened at 3.40am in Waverley Park, 20 minutes from Melbourne's CBD where $1,000 cash was stolen from a supermarket.

Victorian police say about 50 minutes later a primary school at Wheelers Hill was targeted after a car was driven into a gymnasium, but nothing was stolen.

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A jewellery story in Wheelers Hill shopping centre was targeted in the overnight ram raids

All three ram raids were believed to have been linked and committed by the same two men

The Wheelers Hill shopping centre was one of the three targets during the overnight raids

'At 4.45am a car was driven through at the shopping centre at Wheelers Hill and used to crash through a jewellery store where more than $2,000 in jewellery was stolen,' police said.

The Leader reports that thieves used a dark-coloured SUV during the heist.

At this stage, investigators believed that all three incidents were linked and involved the same two men.

The first man is described as Caucasian about 190cm tall, with short brown hair and wearing dark pants and a T-shirt.

While the second man is described as 180cm tall, of thin build and wearing dark clothing.

Meanwhile, Mulgrave Ward councillor Robert Davies told Daily Mail Australia that traders at the Wheelers Hill shopping were angry that nothing was being done to prevent crimes being committed in the area.

The outside of the shopping centre after it was discovered to have been broken into overnight

Police CCTV footage shows the robbers in action during the overnight ram raids

'When will this Victorian crime wave be brought under control?

'Local traders are very angry at the continued robberies that are happening every few weeks.

'Nowhere in Victoria is safe, not even the Premier's electorate of Mulgrave,' he said.

Maree Davenport (pictured, right) says resident are fed-up with the constant crimes in the area

Resident Maree Davenport who has been living in the area for the past 30 years said many were fed-up with the constant robberies taking place in the area.

'As a long standing resident, I and my neighbour and business owner have had a gutful of crime being committed in our area,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'We are sick of our homes being broken into, our friends in local business being attacked and our children don't feel safe on their way to and from school and in their own homes.

'Now they are scared to go to the shops,' she said.

Earlier in the month, two masked burglars had carried out three robberies within a span of 30 minutes in Dandenong, Rowville and Wheelers Hill in Melbourne.
The program will feature a tour of the boundary of the Downtown National Register Historic District that was designated one year ago. The tour will provide an opportunity to see the many contributing buildings that are part of this area, along with information about their architecture and history. Several of the buildings are already in the process of renovation, with more expected to be upgraded as a part of the Downtown Beatrice Facade Program, which was made possible through a Community Development Block Grant received by the city of Beatrice. The tour will end at the Carnegie Building at 218 N. Fifth St.
A pensioner was escorted from a flight by armed police after she refused to put her bagpipes in the hold.

Jennifer Hutcheon, 67, was returning home from Belgium after playing a lament at the grave of her First World War veteran grandfather James High-Spence 100 years on from his death.

The award-winning piper was then marched out of Charleroi Airport by police and soldiers after a row with Ryanair staff at the boarding gate.

Ms Hutcheon, of Perth, Scotland, said the spat began when she refused to let Ryanair staff check her bagpipes and the attendant 'went overboard'.

Jennifer Hutcheon, 67, was thrown off a flight by armed police after refusing to check her bagpipes at an airport in Belgium. She had been visiting the country to play a lament at her First World War veteran grandfather's grave, pictured

The award-winning piper, pictured, said her 'emotional trip' to Belgium to pay tribute to her relative was 'ruined' by her experience with Ryanair

She told the Daily Record: 'The next thing is that two police officers and two soldiers with big guns are telling me to leave the queue and they marched me across the airport to some offices.

'I was then led out to an exit and told to go on my way.'

Ms Hutcheon claimed the trouble began because staff decided there were 'too many suitcases for the cabin' and started choosing bags to put in the hold.

She said she was concerned the 'priceless' pipes would be damaged and refused to part with them.

Ms Hutcheon spent the night with a friend and shelled out 472 on a new ticket to return home the next day  also with Ryanair  taking the pipes on board as hand luggage.

The firm said it had followed its baggage police and claimed Ms Hutcheon 'became disruptive' (file picture)

She told the record the incident followed an emotional moment at her grandfather's grave, where she played a piece to mark the exact moment he was killed by a German shell aged 25 on July 7, 1917.

Ms Hutcheon said: 'It was a lovely, but hugely emotional, trip for us that has now been completely ruined by this man's actions. I don't want anyone else to be treated like that ever again.'

A spokesman for Ryanair said: 'This customer was one of the last to board the aircraft and in line with our cabin baggage policy was asked to place her bag in the hold as the overhead lockers were full, but refused and became disruptive.

'Local police were called and removed the individual from the terminal. The safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time.

'This now a matter for local police.'
A Labor senator who fled Iran as a boy has declared he spent $25,000 of his own money to ensure he was not a dual citizen of Australia and the Middle Eastern nation.

Sam Dastyari told his Twitter followers he thoroughly checked his citizenship status before being sworn in as a senator in August 2013.

'I engaged two teams of lawyers spent 25k [sic] on legal fees (paid for myself),' he said.

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Labor Senator Sam Dastyari tweeted how he ensured he had no citizenship ties with Iran

The former Labor general secretary in NSW spent $25,000 of his own money making the check

Sam Dastyari said the whole process of renouncing his dual Iranian citizenship was difficult

Larissa Waters has quit as a Greens senator after revealing she was a dual Canadian citizen

The Iranian-born Labor powerbroker, who arrived in Australia 29 years ago when he was four, has made the declaration only hours after Larissa Waters quit the Senate for being a dual Canadian citizen.

Senator Dastyari said he had to spend $25,000 in 2013 engaging lawyers in Australia and Iran when he was Labor's New South Wales general secretary to ensure he complied with Section 44 of the Constitution.

The 33-year-old son of Iranian student activists said the whole process to fill a casual Senate vacancy was 'difficult, expensive, lengthy and precarious for my family in Iran'.

'Nonetheless the rules are the rules and I have met them,' he said.

Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz became an Australian citizen in 1974 when he was a teenager

Muslim comedian Nazeem Hussain joked that Sam Dastyari was still a dual Muslim citizen

Muslim comedian Nazeem Hussain, who appeared on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, joked that being born in a Muslim country made Senator Dastyari a dual citizen.

'Yes but as a Muslim, aren't you also a citizen of Muslim?' he tweeted.

Only hours earlier Senator Derryn Hinch, who only renounced his dual New Zealand citizenship last year, alleged that Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz was a dual German citizen when he filled a casual Senate vacancy in 1994.

'It turns out Abetz only renounced his German citizenship in 2010. He was a senator long before that,' he told Melbourne radio 3AW announcer Neil Mitchell on Tuesday.

'So why isn't he in the gun? He was illegally elected in the first place.'

New Zealand-born Senator Derryn Hinch claims Eric Abetz was a dual citizen until 2010

But Senator Abetz had told parliament in October 2010 he had actually renounced his German citizenship in December 1974 when he became an Australian citizen.

The conservative Liberal senator became an Abbott government minister three years later but lost his ministerial position in 2015 when Malcolm Turnbull took over as prime minister.

Mr Turnbull's predecessor Tony Abbott, who was born in London, last week tweeted that he renounced his dual British citizenship in 1993, a year before he was elected in a by-election as the federal member for Warringah in Sydney's north.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott renounced his dual British citizenship at the age of 35

Tony Abbott tweeted proof that he wasn't a dual British-Australian citizen only last week
An outspoken Muslim sheikh has posted a video of himself buying and eating non-halal certified chocolate bars  after companies quietly stopped paying the fees.

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, from Adelaide, took to Facebook on Tuesday to claim it made no difference to food if it was halal certified or not.

'It tastes better when there's no halal stamp. Because I can still eat it without offending anyone or forcing people to pay for my halal logo. This is the Australian way of life and I'm proud of it,' he said.

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Imam Mohammad Tawhidi from Adelaide slammed said chocolate did not need Halal certification

Imam Tawhidi, who has come under fire from hardline Muslims for condemning extremism and Sharia Law, said he would eat the non-halal certified chocolates on camera to prove his point.

'No halal certification here, none of that nonsense here,' he said while picking up a Cherry Ripe chocolate bar.

'Alright let's go buy them and I'll eat them in front of you.

'Cherry Ripe, no halal certification on it but I can still eat it delicious.'

Halal certification fees charged to food manufacturers fund Islamic schools, mosques and religious activities.

He shared a video of himself purchasing and eating chocolate with no Halal certification

During the clip, he said his sweet treat 'tasted better' without the Halal stamp

After spruiking the benefits of uncertified chocolate, he told his followers to: 'enjoy your chocolate and live a happy life'

Imam Tawhidi said Australians and Australian companies should not have to pander to Islamic customs.

'I don't need to force people to abide by my Islamic terminologies and my way of life,' he said.

'Because you're not annoying anyone and you're not bothering anyone either.

'So what's all this conversation about, why do we have to annoy people.

'Enjoy your chocolate and live a happy life.'

Pictured: A chocolate bar with a Halal certification image printed on the label

Pictured: A chocolate bar with no Halal certification symbol printed on the label

Imam Tawhidi said Australians and Australian companies should not have to pander to Islamic customs.

Facebook removed the video from Imam Tawhidi's account moments after it was posted.

The Imam shared Facebook's notification of removal with his 44,000 followers claiming 'Facebook supports halal certification'.

Imam Tawhidi posted the video a day after Daily Mail Australia revealed a number of Australian companies were no longer paying to declare their products halal certified.

Nestle, Kellogg's and Sanitarium no longer wanted to pay an Islamic business to declare their products halal.

The video was deleted by Facebook moments after he posted it, Mr Tawhidi claimed

The man was seen smiling during the clip as he purchased his uncertified chocolate bars

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson (pictured) has been pushing for an overhaul of the certification system

Halal certification is applied to products that contain no pork or alcohol products.

Halal certification has been a controversial subject in Australia, with One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson pushing for a complete overhaul of the system.

Ms Hanson successfully moved a motion in the Senate for the federal cabinet to examine existing halal certification labels.

She wanted the government to explore third-party halal certification and where the money went once it was paid.
Travis L. Tingler, 32, was arrested in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Sunday evening for allegedly standing in the street with no clothes on and threatening people

A naked man was left singed after a taser hit his cigarette lighter during a struggle with police.

Travis L. Tingler, 32, was arrested in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Sunday evening for allegedly standing in the street with no clothes on and threatening people.

Cops found him on the 1100 block of South 25th Street near Hamilton Street, where he was reportedly threatening to kill the occupants of a house with a knife.

But when questioned by police, Tingler told police he had done nothing wrong, USA Today reported.

Police later found a pocket knife and the man's pants on the porch of a nearby home where a woman he was dating was living.

There, a girl told police that Tingler had started drinking three hours earlier and had been making strange comments.

He then smashed a glass on the street and removed his clothes, she said.

'I told him he couldnt be out in the middle of the street with no clothes on,' an officer at the Manitowoc Police Department wrote in a report, according to the website. 'I asked him about his condition. I noticed he had a dazed appearance, blank stare and he sweated profusely.'

When officers tried to escort him into a police car, he resisted, and was tasered. During the struggle, Tingler is thought to have picked up a lighter.

Cops found him on the 1100 block of South 25th Street near Hamilton Street (pictured), where he was reportedly threatening to kill the occupants of a house with a knife

When the stun gun hit the lighter it caused it to exploded, but Tingler continued to struggle with police, punching one officer in the face.

Police used a stun gun again to subdue him, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head.

He was taken to hospital where he tested positive for marijuana and was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.177.
This is the shocking moment screaming clubbers hurled glasses, chairs and tables at each other after an argument between drinkers erupted into a mass brawl.

The display of violence broke out outside Luxx Bar in the Arcadian Centre, Hurst Street, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

In the video, men can be seen hurling pieces of furniture towards each other while women scream in the background.

Bar fight: Screaming clubbers hurled glasses, chairs and tables at each other after an argument between drinkers erupted into a brawl

The bar describes itself online as popular among students due to their 'irresistible drinks deals', drawing in party-lovers from across the Midlands.

It is now known why the fight started out but a security guard wearing a 'Luxx' jacket was on the scene and is visible in the video watching on.

The clip begins with a chair being thrown through the air towards a man in the bottom left hand corner, wearing a black t-shirt.

In the background, a man in a red shirt appears to be tackled by another punter as the man in the foreground throws a chair back in apparent retaliation.

A glass with liquid spraying all over punters is chucked towards the gentleman standing in front of camera person.

Milliseconds later, a third man - this time coming from the right and in a white shirt - propels another chair.

Things appear to escalate now as ten seconds into the clip the black t-shirt wearing punter picks up a large table, complete with a heavy metal base, and starts charging into the crowd.

The white t-shirt wearer now backs away quickly before the piece of furniture is launched into the group of onlookers.

It is not know why the fight started and what it took to end it though police say they were aware of the incident but no officers had been sent to the scene.

In a statement to the Birmingham Mail, a spokesman said: 'Officers on foot patrol came across a group of people where a 19-year-old woman had been assaulted around 1am.

'An 18-year-old woman was arrested and released while enquiries continue.

'There is reference to disorder in the Luxx bar two hours prior to this, but we have no logs on this.'

Luxx Bar has been contacted for comment.
The heartbroken father of Justine Damond has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of police.

John Ruszczyk fought back tears as he described the 'nightmare' his family has faced since their daughter was gunned down in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday.

Ms Damond, whose maiden name was Ruszczyk, was shot dead by Mohammed Noor at around 11.30pm after calling 911 to report a possible rape in a nearby alley.

But mystery continues to surround just why the police officer shot dead the Sydney-born therapist as she stood in her pyjamas - and why their body cameras weren't on.

And now Ms Damond's shattered Australian family has urged the U.S. police to reveal all details about her death, with her father saying they'd been 'hurt' by the mystery.

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John Ruszczyk (pictured), the heartbroken father of Justine Damond, has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of U.S. police

Ms Damond (pictured) grew up in the affluent northern beaches of Sydney, before moving to Minneapolis, Minesotta, to live with her fiance and the love of her life Don Damond

Friends left flowers at a makeshift memorial near the alley where Ms Damond was shot and killed

'We thought yesterday was our worst nightmare but we awoke to the ugly truth and it hurt even more,' a shattered John Ruszczyk said, flanked by his wife.

'Justine, our daughter, was so special to us and so many others. We went down to Freshy (Freshwater) beach this morning and saw the blackness turn to light.

'Justine was a beacon to all of us, we only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death.'

Ms Damond grew up in the northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well-known Dymocks bookstore in the local shopping mall.

A bright and bubbly young woman, she completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before going on to study at the University of Sydney.

Mr Ruszczyk's comments came just hours after autopsy results revealed his daughter had died as a result of a homicide.

Supporters used chalk to share colourful messages of love near the alleyway where Ms Damond was killed on Saturday night

The messages were accompanied by the names of others who had been shot my police

Don Damond, Ms Damond's fiance, was comforted by a friend after addressing the media

Mr Damond (pictured) fought back tears as he claimed that police have failed to provide any explanation about why they gunned down his fiancee at around 11.30pm on Saturday night

Don's voice broke, and the grieving fiance appeared on the edge of tears, as he described the little he did know about what took place the night Justine died

Noor aimed at the Australian from the passenger seat of his squad car, while she and the officer in the driver's seat spoke in the back alley near her home.

Both officer's bodycams were off and the squad car camera not recording when Damond was killed just a month before she was due to get married.

The only concrete statement the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) has made confirmed 'at one point an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman'.

Also telling of his anger at the mystery surrounding his fiancee's death, Don Damond said the details surrounding her last moments would provide 'small comfort'.

'Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine,' he added, as he was comforted by his son Zach during the press conference.

Don's voice broke, and the grieving fiance appeared on the edge of tears, as he described the little he did know about what took place the night Justine died.

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond (left) struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help

Neighbours say they saw officers desperately trying to resuscitate the woman after she was shot

'It was Justine that called 911 on Saturday evening reporting what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby.

'Sadly, my family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived.

'We have lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information.'

Don described Justine as 'kind and so darn funny'.

'She touched so many people. She was a teacher to so many, in living a life of openness, kindness and love,' he said. 'She made us all laugh with her great wit and her humor.'

'Our lives are forever changed as a result of knowing her.'

Mohammed Noor issued a statement through his lawyer extending his condolences to Ms Damond's family.

'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers,' the statement read.

'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling.

'He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future.

'At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.'
The latest issue of ISIS' sick propaganda magazine has heaped praised on the deadly Brighton siege that saw an innocent father shot dead.

Yacqub Khayre, 29, killed receptionist Kai Hao in an apartment block in Melbourne and held a woman hostage before opening fire on police.

The bloody attack, which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull branded 'an act of terrorism', was claimed by the Islamic State.

The latest issue of ISIS' propaganda magazine has praised the deadly Brighton siege in June where Yacqub Khayre (above) killed a receptionist in an apartment block in Melbourne

Now, the 11th issue of Rumiyah magazine has celebrated the June 5 incident as an attack on the citizens of 'Crusader Australia.'

'On the 10th of Ramadan, a soldier of the Khilafa carried out an operation in the city of Melbourne,' it said.

'He took a woman hostage and then killed one of the citizens of Crusader Australia.

'After luring the police to his location, he opened fire on them, wounding three of them before attaining shahadah (martyrdom).'

The 11th issue of Rumiyah magazine has celebrated the June 5 incident as an attack on the citizens of 'Crusader Australia'

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack within 24 hours via its Amaq news agency, describing Khayre as 'a soldier of ISIS'.

During the hours-long siege, Khayre called Channel Seven, claiming he was carrying it out in allegiance to ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Three policemen were wounded by shotgun fire during the siege.

Khayre was armed with two shotguns when he gunned down Mr Hao and injured three Special Operations Group officers.

Police officers are pictured at the scene of the siege in Brighton, Melbourne, on June 6

The Somali-born gunman died in a hail of police bullets at Buckingham Serviced Apartments

The Somali-born gunman died in a hail of police bullets at Buckingham Serviced Apartments.

ISIS has previously given detailed tactical advice to its followers in the West.

In the May issue of Rumiyah magazine, it recommended attackers use an 'enclosed area,' to round up the 'kuffar' (disbelievers).

The magazine directed to 'massacre them while using the building as a natural defence against any responding force.'

The instructions bore a chilling resemblance to the chain of events that unfolded at the hands of Khayre.
A Swedish midwife is sharing a photo of period blood on her pants to show the harsh reality of the nonstop demands of her job.

Petra Vinberg Linder, of Stockholm, uploaded a photo of her scrubs with blood stains on the crotch to show her friends that the pressures of her difficult job, which kept her from changing her sanitary products for several hours during her period.

She captioned the photo: 'Night shift midwife = had three childbirths. You don't have time to pee or change sanitary products. Thanks and goodnight.'

Petra Vinberg Linder, of Stockholm, uploaded a photo of her scrubs with blood stains on the crotch to show her friends that the pressures of her difficult job

At Vinberg Linder's hospital, a midwife has an average of two childbirths to help with any any given time.

'It's a very difficult field of work,' Vinberg Linder told The Local. 'I love my job, I chose it and I want to work in this field, but I wonder after a night like this how many years I'll manage.

'I'm 40, I'll work to 65 if I'm fit, but can you manage that? There are so many people in this country who want to work with childbirth, but don't because of the working conditions.'

At the time she posted the photo, Vinberg Linder had only been a midwife for a week - before that she was an assistant nurse at the hospital for several years, a job she said was 'always high pressure'.

At Vinberg Linder's hospital, a midwife has an average of two childbirths to help with any any given time. At the time she posted the photo, Vinberg Linder had only been a midwife for a week - before that she was an assistant nurse at the hospital for several years

'But it has escalated,' she said. 'It's just getting worse and there has to have a change. We need another clinic in Stockholm, and there's a problem in the countryside too, where they closed the maternity ward in Solleftea.'

Vinberg Linder said that many people continue to work i the medical field because they truly love their jobs.

'They love their jobs, they love working with these women. There are people who have tried to spark a change, but nothing happens and they give up,' she said.

Vinberg Linder's colleague Hannah Dahlback said in her own social media post that maternity wards were filled in Stockholm, Uppsala, Vasteras, Nykoping and Eskilstuna on Friday night.

Protesters in northern Swedish town Solleftea previously occupied their own maternity ward when it closed. The closure led many women to travel more than 60 miles to give birth.
This is the moment two thugs riding a motorbike wrestled a man off his moped in a brazen attempted robbery on a busy main street.

The footage, from Penge High Street, London, begins with one of the would-be robbers, wearing a balaclava and a silver helmet, fighting with the moped rider.

The thug is thrown to the ground but manages to get back on his feet before jumping onto the man's scooter.

The footage, from Penge High Street, London, begins with one of the would-be robbers, wearing a balaclava and a silver helmet, fighting with the moped rider(left)

But the thug is pulled off the scooter by passers-by and he jumps back onto his accomplice's motorbike and speeds off.

The incident, which has been reported to police, was posted on Facebook by Joel Willingham.

He told MailOnline: 'I was waiting to grab some lunch whilst on my break at work.

'I heard someone shouting "help, help" and as I turned around one of the guys had got hold of the old man.

The thug is thrown to the ground but manages to get back on his feet before jumping onto the man's scooter. A passer-by, centre, then pulls him off

The thug then jumps back onto his accomplice's motorbike and speeds off. The incident, which has been reported to police, was posted on Facebook by Joel Willingham

'At first you'd think it's just a road rage, but once people got involved the youth got into his bike and was about to drive away until he shouted "that's my bike".'

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told MailOnline: 'Police were called at approximately 18:45hrs on Monday, 17 July to reports of an attempted robbery of a scooter in Penge High Street, SE20.

'The male victim was riding his scooter when he was pushed off his moped by two people riding a motorbike.

'An altercation between the victim and one of the suspects ensued before the suspect attempted to steal the scooter.

Pictured: One of the would-be robbers before he fled on his accomplice's motorbike

'Members of the public intervened and the two suspects rode off from the scene. They did not manage to steal the scooter.

'The victim was not seriously injured during the incident.'

Anyone with information is asked to call Bromley Police via 101 or tweet information to @MetCC. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Boris Johnson was feeling the heat today as he went for a jog amid a Tory backlash over Cabinet infighting.

The Foreign Secretary was photographed sweating profusely as he struggled round Westminster this morning.

At one point Mr Johnson, wearing Bermuda shorts and a grey T-shirt covered in French quotes thought to be from the Tintin books, stopped and rested his hands on his knees as he gasped for air.

Allies of Mr Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove have been widely blamed for leadership plotting and a wave of briefing against Chancellor Philip Hammond, although they flatly deny any involvement.

Boris Johnson appeared be be feeling the heat as he went out for his morning run before the Cabinet meeting today

Theresa May, pictured at Wimbledon on Sunday, was cheered by Tory MPs at a reception last night after she warned Cabinet infighting was only helping Jeremy Corbyn

The Prime Minister tried to lay down the law at a gathering of her top team this morning, after a wave of damaging leaks threatened to throw the government into chaos.

Mrs May has been powerless to prevent the infighting in the wake of the disastrous election that robbed the Tories of their overall majority.

But the plotting and open spats have so infuriated Tory backbenchers that they are lining up behind the PM and urging her to enforce discipline.

Mrs May was cheered to the rafters at a reception for MPs last night when she warned that the public rowing was merely increasing the chances of Jeremy Corbyn taking control of Downing Street.

An unnamed Cabinet minister was quoted today branding the leakers 'donkeys' and 'indulgent safe seat kids' who were creating the mood for a tough reshuffle. Allies of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been widely blamed for much of the briefing, although they deny any involvement.

CAPTAIN HADDOCK'S COLOURFUL CURSES Captain Haddock is Tintin's beer-swigging seafaring best friend. And much like the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, he is well-known for his colourful language. But in the 1940s censorship was very strict, and so Tintin creator Herge drew up an impressive array of wacky catchphrases for Captain Haddock to use instead. Here are some of the unusual expressions popularised by the rowdy sailor - and now by Mr Johnson. Millie sabords: A thousand portholes! Marins d'eau douce: Freshwater pirate! Ectoplasme: Ectoplasms! Noix de coco: Coconut! Sapajou: Monkey! Bashi-Bazouk: A non-uniformed officer in Turkey, literally meaning brutal ruffian Advertisement

Home Secretary Amber Rudd pointedly said this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs, insisting people should be 'honoured' to serve in government.

'I know that they should be getting on, as I know most of them do want to, and delivering what they have been asked to do,' she told Sky News.

One Cabinet minister told the Times their colleagues had 'too much testosterone' and predicted that sacking culprits 'would mean a very short tenure in some cases'.

Mrs May has been forced to seek the advice of David Cameron as she struggles to heal the rifts between senior Conservatives and deliver Brexit.

The PM held a private meeting with her predecessor at Downing Street, with speculation that he could add his weight to calls for calm.

The problems escalated dramatically over the weekend as Chancellor Philip Hammond issued an extraordinary public rebuke to colleagues.

Mr Hammond accused Brexiteers of trying to damage him with a slew of negative briefing because he was focusing the government's policy on ensuring the economy was not harmed by Brexit.

According to her official spokesman, the PM told the Cabinet today that she had championed more 'genuine and collective discussion' in the top level meetings.

Mrs May warned it was 'vital that discussions in Cabinet must remain private', addding that 'briefings and counter briefings have been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously'.

She there was a need to show 'strength and unity' and that 'starts around the Cabinet table'.

Allies of Environment Secretary Michael Gove (pictured at a Salmon factory in London last week) have been blamed for much of the briefing, but he denies any involvement

Home Secretary Mrs Rudd pointedly said this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs

The Prime Minister has been struggling to maintain discipline in the government after the disastrous election saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority.

But her hand has been strengthened somewhat by support from backbenchers, who are furious at the appearance of senior figures taking lumps out of each other publicly.

The powerful Conservative 1922 Committee has told the Prime Minister they would back any discipline she saw fit  including firing ministers who have routinely gone off message or publicly contradicted each other since the election.

Speaking to the Tories' end-of-term drinks reception last night, Mrs May said: 'No backbiting, no carping.

'The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn and no one wants him. Go away and have a proper break and come back ready for serious business.'




A man suspected of intentionally ramming a car with his SUV in southern Gage County was arrested on a warrant.

The incident dates back to July 3, when Gage County Sheriffs deputies were dispatched to an assault in Blue Springs. A 34-year-old female reported to deputies that her brother, 28-year-old Dennis Burr, had been chasing her around Wymore and Blue Springs, threatening to assault and kill her.

At around 3:30 p.m., Burr allegedly began pounding on the window of the victims vehicle while she was parked at a house in Blue Springs. Two others were in the vehicle, including a 3-year-old.

According to a press release, the victim said she drove away because she feared for her safety and the safety of her passengers. When she came to a stop at the stop sign at Walnut and Highway 77, she said Dennis Burr intentionally rammed the rear of her vehicle, a Ford Focus, with his GMC Yukon and tried to push her vehicle out into traffic on Highway 77.

He then fled the scene and did not report the incident.

An investigator and deputies interviewed the victim and witnesses as they were being treated by ambulance crews from the Beatrice Fire Department and the Wymore Volunteer Fire Department. The victim was transported to Beatrice Community Hospital Emergency Department where she was treated by nurses and doctors and later released.

Investigators requested a warrant for the arrest of Dennis Burr and one was issued by the courts. On Friday, July 14, 2017 a trooper with the Nebraska State Patrol stopped Dennis Burr in the GMC Yukon near Blue Springs and arrested him on the Gage County warrant.

He was arrested for second-degree assault, terroristic threats, attempt of a class 3 or 3A felony, child abuse, and criminal mischief.
Actress Jodie Whittaker's nephew had Down's syndrome and died aged just three in 2014

New Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker suffered the heartache of her nephew with Down's syndrome dying aged just three, it has been revealed.

Harry Whittaker was an actor himself as a baby in Emmerdale, sharing the role of Leo Dingle  who also had the condition in the ITV soap - with another boy.

But the death of Harry, who played the son of Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry), in July 2014 left the cast devastated.

Charnock tweeted a picture of Harry in a Spider-Man outfit at the time, saying: 'Our superhero. We were lucky to know you and hear you laugh. You lit up our lives, dearest, loveliest Harry.'

Whittaker, who was revealed as the new Doctor on Sunday, is an ambassador for learning disabilities charity Mencap.

The actress previously said: 'As proud aunty to Harry it has been fantastic to be able to help raise awareness for people with learning disabilities.

'All we want is for Harry to grow up in a safe and unprejudiced society where people with Down's syndrome or any learning disability are given the support and care they need.'

Meanwhile, 35-year-old Broadchurch star Whittaker revealed yesterday that a school careers adviser once said her dream of being an actress was a 'stupid idea'.

Whittaker was told to have a 'back-up plan' after saying at Shelley College near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire aged 15 that she wanted to go into acting.

Emmerdale's Mark Charnock, who plays Marlon Dingle, tweeted a picture of his on-screen son Harry Whittaker, who played Leo Dingle, in a Spider-Man outfit, after the boy's death in 2014

Viewers saw this tribute after the credits on Emmerdale following his death three years ago

But her mother Yvonne and father Adrian told her to 'go do it' and she left school at 16 before doing a Btec in performing arts and then attending London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Whittaker told The Sun: 'I always wanted to be an actress, and from the age of five I was using it as an excuse not to do my homework. A career adviser when I was 15 told me acting was a stupid idea.

'She said, 'You need a back-up plan', and thank God my mum and dad were completely adamant that that's the wrong way to go.

'They said, 'Get a back-up plan if it all goes pear-shaped at 30. Just go do it'.'

Down-to-earth Whittaker, who grew up in the village of Skelmanthorpe with her older brother Kris, is expected to use her own Yorkshire accent when she appears in Doctor Who from Christmas.

Most of her friends are still from when she grew up in Yorkshire, although she met her husband Christian Contreras, who is from Yuma, Arizona, at drama school.

Whittaker was told to have a 'back-up plan' after saying at Shelley College (pictured) in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, aged 15 that she wanted to go into acting

Whittaker she met her husband Christian Contreras, from Yuma in Arizona, at drama school

Contreras, who has appeared in BBC1 show The Syndicate and the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty, married Whittaker in 2008 and they have a two-year-old daughter.

Whittaker's old school has hit the headlines three times in the past seven years  with the most recent being a row over gender neutral toilets just last month.

Furious parents slammed the school's plans with the proposals being labelled 'wrong' after it announced proposals to make all of its toilets unisex.

The plan involves removing boys' and girls' separate loos and replacing them with an area with closed-cubicles that can be used by all.

Whittaker was pictured laughing in London yesterday with her two-year-old daughter

Whittaker (left) will takes over from Peter Capaldi (right) as the Time Lord's 13th reincarnation

In May 2016, sex pest teacher Andrew Green was banned from teaching for life after a tribunal heard he put his arm around a terrified sixth former and asked her: 'Why don't you think about things you would do with your favourite maths teacher?'

The hearing was told he made a smutty comments to the girl before inviting her for 'a one-to-one lesson', making her feel 'scared and beyond uncomfortable'.

And in September 2010 staff became so fed up with girls flouting its 'discreet' make-up policy it put in place the solution of removing the mirrors.

The tough measure was introduced, along with a total ban on make-up, to stop pupils aged 14 to 16 from crowding in to the toilets to attend to their faces.

The school's zero-tolerance policy on make-up also saw teachers being given make-up removal kits to ensure all pupils obey the rules.

Whittaker starred in all three series of the ITV drama Broadchurch as Beth Latimer, along with Charlotte Beaumont as her daughter Chloe and Andrew Buchan as her husband Mark

Doctors (l-r) William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith

The BBC revealed on Sunday that Whittaker will become the first female Doctor when she takes over from Peter Capaldi as the 13th reincarnation of the Time Lord.

Glasgow-born actor Capaldi, 59, who first stepped into the Tardis in 2013, will be seen for the last time by viewers in this year's Christmas special.

His departure coincides with that of the show's longtime lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, who announced he was quitting in 2016.

Whittaker, who starred in Broadchurch as Beth Latimer, will team up with the drama's creator Chris Chibnall as he takes over from Moffat as executive producer.
A neighbour was left with a meat cleaver embedded in his skull after the weapon was thrown out of a window during a fight between a couple living next door.

The point of the blade landed directly on the head of Chea Sokkot as he was repairing his boat on the shore in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.

Horrifying pictures show the 29-year-old lying on a stretcher with the cleaver still in his head as he prepared for surgery in hospital.

Chea Sokkot was left with a meat cleaver embedded in his skull after the weapon was thrown out of a window during a fight between a couple living next door

The point of the blade landed directly on the head of Chea Sokkot as he was repairing his boat on the shore in Kampong Cham, Cambodia

The gruesome incident unfolded after a row between his cousin and next door neighbour, Touch Channa (pictured), and her husband Sim Thea, 30. She was later arrested as police probed the horrific incident

The gruesome incident unfolded after a row between his cousin and next door neighbour, Touch Channa, and her husband Sim Thea, 30.

They started arguing when Thea slashed Channa's clothes with the meat cleaver, it has been reported.

She successfully disarmed him and thought she had removed the danger by throwing the knife through a window towards the river behind their home.

But the blade landed directly on Sokkot while he working outside.

Touch, the wife, was arrested over the incident on July 13, while officers investigated the incident.

Lt. Col. Ek Pranon, the Kampong Siem district police chief, said: 'Touch Channa was arrested for causing the accident.

Horrifying pictures show the 29-year-old lying on a stretcher with the cleaver still in his head as he prepared for surgery in hospital

'She said she was arguing with her husband in a case of domestic violence. Her husband cut her clothes and she pulled the knife from him and threw the knife into the river behind the house.

'Unfortunately this landed in the head of the victim. He was on the shore of the Mekong river renovating a boat.'

Dr. Yun Sinath, director of the provincial hospital, said the injuries were 'severe' and Chea's condition was serious but 'stable'.

He said: 'If the knife had been removed straight away the bleeding could cause a fatal accident.

'Mr Chea will be transferred to the hospital in Phnom Phen in an ambulance.'
Linda Wenzel, a 16-year-old who fled Germany to join ISIS has been captured in Mosul, Iraq

A school girl found with a female ISIS suicide squad in Mosul became 'lonely and withdrawn' after her parents' marriage broke down, it was claimed today.

Linda Wenzel, 16, ran away from home in Germany a year ago after her parents separated and her mother Katharina began a new relationship with a caretaker at a local school.

The teenager, described as 'a brilliant student', fled the country using her mother's passport and flew from Berlin to Turkey before making her way to Syria.

Police believe she fell in love with a Muslim man she met online who persuaded her to flee to the terror group's so-called caliphate.

Pictures have emerged showing the moment she was captured in the ruins of war-torn Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

She was found in a tunnel with 20 members of the terror group's fearsome all-female police force, some of whom were wearing suicide vests.

At first, troops thought she may have been a kidnapped Yazidi slave due to her lack of Arabic.

Today her neighbours in the village of Pulsnitz, near Dreseden, south-east Germany, told of their shock and anger that the promising youngster left home to join the extremist group.

Linda fled a year ago after flying from Berlin to Turkey before making her way to Syria. Pictured: Linda being captured as Mosul was recaptured from ISIS

By the time her mother noticed she was missing, Linda (pictured before leaving Germany) had already flown to Turkey and vanished

One former neighbour in the town of Gruenestrasse, where she lived with her parents before they split up last year, said: 'What a b***h for putting her parents through this.

'What sort of a person gives themselves over to a group killing her own people in Germany? I hope a jail cell awaits her when she returns, not yellow ribbons.'

School friends have described the quiet teenager as becoming increasingly withdrawn.

Another neighbour Angela Ehrenberg, 65, said: 'She was a very quiet, sensitive child. But there was an aura of loneliness about her that I could not understand.'

In 2015 she was confirmed into the local church. Female priest Maria Gruener said: 'She was a very placid girl who did not want to take part in confirmation instruction.'

But unbeknownst to her, Linda was falsely adopting the faith of the Christian church while secretly giving her heart to Islam.

As she attended the church, her parents' marriage broke down and she moved with her mother to Pulsnitz.

Linda (pictured, after she was captured) was among 20 ISIS followers seized after Mosul fell following a ten month battle which left 25,000 Jihadists dead

Linda (pixilated, before fleeing to Syria) was unhappy at home and turned to Islam and soon began engaging with ISIS followers in the Middle East on Internet chat rooms

There, Katharina moved in with Thomas Weiss. Unhappy and insecure, Linda suddenly found herself with a new stepfather - and an older stepsister called Dana.

In May last year the troubled teenager made contact on the internet with an Islamist preacher in Hamburg who sent her a copy of the Koran.

'It seemed to offer her answers in a confused life,' said Christina, 16, a fellow pupil at the town's Ernst-Rierscher-Comprehensive school.

Linda (pictured before fleeing to Syria) used the counterfeit bank authorisation and her mother's forged identification papers to buy a plane ticket to Istanbul

'Last summer, shortly before we broke up, she began leaving home with a small bag in which she had an Islamic headscarf and long flowing robes which she donned to cover up all her skin. There were some arguments with staff.'

She stole her mother's credit card and secretly bought an airline ticket to Istanbul. Until six months before she fled she had never even travelled by train alone, it has been reported.

But on Friday July 1 last year she told her mother and father she was going to spend the weekend with a friend called Caroline and would be back in Sunday.

She never came home - and was never at her friend's.

Instead she travelled to Frankfurt and caught a plane to Istanbul before being smuggled into Syria.

Eventually, she ended up in Mosul where she changed her name to Umm Mariam, and was taken as a 'jihadist bride'.

Behind her she left baffled friends and parents as well as teachers who said she was in course for impressive A level results.

Speaking from the schoolgirl's hometown last July, her mother said she was devastated.

Iraqi security forces recently ended three years of ISIS rule in the Iraqi city of Mosul (pictured) and the terror group is under growing pressure in Raqqa

Footage reportedly showing ISIS fighters crawling out of their tunnels to surrender to Iraqi counter-terror units after Mosul was reclaimed from jihadists

Around 900,000 people fled the fighting in Mosul, with more than a third sheltered in camps outside Iraq's second largest city

She said: 'When she did not come back and then I found out she had never even been there, I called the police. In her room they found a print of a plane ticket to Istanbul under the mattress.

'I was shocked, my daughter has never stolen or lied about anything before.

'I am devastated by the fact that she was apparently completely brainwashed and persuaded to leave the country by someone and that she managed to hide it from me.'

A search of her room by police unearthed a copy of her airline ticket bought on her mother's credit card and assorted Islamic literature.

She was found in Mosul where pockets of the city remain insecure after ten months of heavy fighting.

Around 900,000 people fled the conflict, with more than a third sheltered in camps and the rest living with family and friends in other neighbourhoods.
A father on trial for murdering his eight-week-old daughter claimed her head injuries were caused by her older brother who hit the baby with a hairbrush, a Sydney court has heard.

The man, who can't be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the premature newborn at a Regents Park home, in Sydney's west, nearly three years ago.

'Your son just gave your daughter a black eye because he hit her in the face with a brush,' the man allegedly told his partner on August 11, 2014.

The baby died 12 hours later.

A father on trial for murdering his eight-week-old daughter claimed her head injuries were caused by her older brother who hit the baby with a hairbrush (stock image)

In her opening address at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen said the baby, who weighed just 2.75 kilograms, died from a blunt force craniospinal injury.

She had bruises around the eye, the cheek and the forehead, had brain injuries and a skull fracture, she said.

All of her ribs at the front and back of her chest had also been injured - some more recently than others.

Paramedics were called to the house just before 5am on August 12 after the baby stopped breathing.

'She had no pulse, she was grey and she was limp,' paramedic Kirsti Danvers told the court.

Intensive care paramedics Rory Shanahan and Claire Goodall both said the baby had multiple bruises over her face.

Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen said the baby, who weighed just 2.75 kilograms, died from a blunt force craniospinal injury (Ms Cunneen pictured)

'We just looked at each other and went 'what's with the marks?',' Mr Shanahan said.

The baby's older sister, now nine-years-old, is expected to give evidence the man 'always' hurt the newborn.

She told police the accused 'always threw (the baby) on the bed and hurt her,' Ms Cunneen said.

'He's always hurting her, like everywhere, like on her stomach.

'He throws (the baby) on the bed like when she's crying... he's always shaking (the baby) up and down.'

The man, who can't be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the premature newborn (Supreme Court Sydney pictured)

The girl also told police the man would press hard on the baby's stomach and back, Ms Cunneen said.

In his first police interview the accused said he left the newborn alone with her brother for a minute and returned to find the baby bruised and bleeding from the nose, and the boy jumping around holding a hairbrush, Ms Cunneen said.

She said this explanation was insufficient and it was the accused who 'did acts to (the baby) to bring about her death'.

Defence lawyer Hugh White told the court the man 'wishes to express his innocence in the strongest possible terms'.

He said the man told police 'he accidentally dropped (the baby) on the floor which he now believes caused the fatal blow to her head'.

The trial continues.
A cameraman has claimed he was stopped from giving food to a homeless person by Costa Coffee staff who told him they would be 'prosecuted' if they sold him a sandwich.

Adrian Pinsent, from Walton-upon-Thames, was at Waterloo Station late last night when he stopped into the coffee chain to buy a sandwich and a drink for a homeless man he had met outside.

The 40-year-old took the man into the shop to pick out what he wanted but says staff stopped him from buying food because it was against station 'policy'.

Adrian Pinsent was at Costa's Waterloo Station branch late last night when he stopped in to buy a sandwich and a drink for a homeless man. He claims that when staff discovered he was buying the food for a homeless man he was told he could not purchase it

Mr Pinsent said that even when he told staff the food was for himself he was refused service.

In a video, filmed by Mr Pinsent, the barista can be heard saying: 'I'm really sorry sir. I'm really really sorry.

'We cannot. If we do that we will get prosecuted. It is not from [Costa policy], it is from the security at the station and the police.'

After branding the situation 'ridiculous', Mr Pinsent asked another member of staff to sell him the sandwich and was again refused.

Mr Pinsent claimed that the argument went on for 'about five minutes' and the staff never spoke directly to the homeless man in that time.

Eventually he slammed the money down on the counter and handed the food to the man.

He told MailOnline: 'I had to get the last train so when I put the money down I gave him the food.

'[The staff] didn't speak to him, but he did ask me 'what about your change' as I left, and I said forget about it as I had to get last train.

'He then went to the counter, but I don't know what was said. He seemed concerned for me, and not about getting my change, I want to emphasise that.

'Until that point none of the staff spoke to him.'

The barista told Mr Pinsent that it was against 'policy' to serve people buying food and drink for the homeless

After branding the policy 'ridiculous', Mr Pinsent asked another member of staff to sell him the sandwich and was again refused

Mr Pinsent was repeatedly told that could not be sold the food because Costa would be 'prosecuted'.

'I knew it was utter rubbish as a journalist myself', added Mr Pinsent.

'What I am curious about is who told the barista this was the case as he really seemed to believe it to be true.'

A spokesman for Network Rail said there was no train station policy stating customers could not buy goods for the homeless.

He said: 'We do not have a policy against passengers buying food in our stations and giving the food to anyone who is homeless.

'We will be asking our retailers to remind their staff of this, so we can avoid any incidents such as this in the future.'

A spokeswoman for Costa added: 'We do not have a policy that restricts customers purchasing food for anyone who is homeless.

Mr Pinsent (above), from Walton-upon-Thames, said: 'I knew it was utter rubbish as a journalist myself'

'We believe the store was given misinformation, which has now been corrected.'

Lambeth, the London borough in which Waterloo sits, has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the capital, with some 23,000 people on the waiting list for social housing.

In May Lambeth police were criticised for 'demonising' anti-begging signs that were placed outside the station run by Network Rail.

The signs encouraged people not to give money to 'beggars'.

After hundreds of people branded the signs 'weird' and 'offensive', Lambeth police released a statement claiming they were put up 'following concerns raised by the local community'.

British Transport Police said 'of course' they would not prosecute anyone for buying food for a homeless person.

MailOnline has contacted Lambeth police for comment.
Police have arrested a 34-year-old Spaniard accused of raping a British teenage holidaymaker in a Costa del Sol nightclub.

The 19-year-old British tourist had told a doorman at the trendy Sala Gold nightclub in Malaga on July 11 that she had been sexually assaulted in the toilets.

She then identified the 34-year-old Spaniard as the alleged rapist and police took him into custody.

The 19-year-old British tourist had told a doorman at the trendy Sala Gold nightclub (pictured) in Malaga on July 11 that she had been sexually assaulted in the toilets

The woman had told police that she and the man had been kissing after meeting at the club when her alleged attacker forced himself on her despite her pleas for him to stop.

Her attempts to identify him inside the club proved unsuccessful, but she then identified a man who was hauled outside so she could see him properly in the light.

Police sources said she identified the man who was eventually held '100 per cent' after he was identified as a suspect following analysis of CCTV cameras and interviews with witnesses.

The alleged victim, who flew back to the UK before the man was arrested and appeared in court last Friday, is now being asked to return to Spain to ratify her police statement so the Spanish authorities can consider prosecuting him.

Local reports said he was reported to police two years ago by his ex-partner for allegedly indecently assaulting her after she refused to have sex with him in public.

The alleged victim, who flew back to the UK from Malaga (pictured) before the man was arrested and appeared in court last Friday, is now being asked to return to Spain to ratify her police statement so the Spanish authorities can consider prosecuting him

It is not known if the complaint ended in court action.

The sex attack police are now probing is said to have happened in the early hours of July 11.

Later that same day an alleged Spanish sex attacker living in nearby Fuengirola was arrested on suspicion of targeting four women including a British 19-year-old expat in the Costa holiday resort.

The victims told police a man armed with a screwdriver put the weapon to their throats and threatened to kill them in an attempt to scare them into submission before driving off in a white van.

The first incident happened on May 31 and the British woman was targeted on July 6.

The 34-year-old suspect has been remanded in custody pending an ongoing court probe after appearing before an investigating magistrate in a closed court hearing.
Demario Evans, pictured, was arrested after he handed himself in and is now facing a total of ten charges

A father ran off and left behind his two young girls aged four and one following a high speed car chase.

Demario Evans, 28, from Atlanta, Georgia, failed to come to a halt at a stop sign last week and sped away from Fairburn Police Department who gave chase.

The suspect handed himself into police on Monday night where he was charged with ten counts following the incident.

He is currently being held in custody on a $62,000 bail bond.

Police told WSBTV.com they did not have any outstanding warrants for Evans.

He was forced to run from his black Dodge Avenger after he burst a tire during the chase. He ran off, and officers discovered the two young girls in his car.

Detective Charles Israel told WSBTV Evans may have mistakenly thought he had outstanding arrest warrants.

According to the footage from one of officer's body cams, the four-year-old girl told police: 'I want my daddy; he's going to jail.'

The officer replied: 'Come with me, Im going to take care of you OK? Do you want some water?'

Police spoke with the four-year-old girl, pictured, after her father's car came to a halt

The youngster was afraid her father was going to be sent to prison following the car chase

Evans is currently facing ten charges according to court records seen by MailOnline

A woman in the passenger seat of the car was not charged with any offence.

Police bought the four-year-old girl food and called her mother to pic her up.

He is facing ten charges, including speeding: speeding; fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer; reckless driving; suspended/revoked license; failure to obey stop sign; failure to maintain insurance; two counts of second degree cruelty to children; failure to maintain line and child or youth restraint not used properly.

Evans was booked earlier this morning and is being held in custody. He is being held pending payment of a bond of $62,000.
Tories have slammed 'shameful' Labour politicians for blocking a parliamentary debate into the 'appalling abuse' by Corbynistas in the election campaign.

Politicians were due to discuss the vile harassment doled out to them and their staff after MPs told how they had swastikas carved into their posters and received racist and anti-Semitic slurs.

But MPs were not given the chance to discuss the shocking abuse after Labour spent three hours debating parliamentary procedure instead.

Tory former business minister Anna Soubry said Labour politicians should be ashamed of themselves for 'filibustering' and running the clock down.

And Tory MP Andrew Percy, who was spat at, called 'Tory scum' and had anti-Semitic abuse hurled at him, said Labour are acting in an 'appalling way by pretending there isn't a problem'.

While Conservative James Cleverly said Jeremy Corbyn and his close ally John McDonnell are allowing the abuse to 'grow and fester' by refusing to talk about it.

Anna Soubry last night attacked Labour MPs for blocking the chance to debate the abuse politicians and their staff suffered during the recent election campaign

Much of the abuse has come from far-left supporters of Mr Corbyn, and the Labour leader has been widely criticised for failing to tackle it.

Speaking in the Commons last night, Ms Soubry said: 'Because of Labour's filibustering tonight, this Chamber will not debate the appalling abuse which many women on this side of the House endured during the General Election from the hard left.

'There are many members on this side of the House, who stood up for the women on that side of the House when they were abused by their hard left leadership.'

She later added on Twitter: 'Shame on you #LabourWomen we stood by you when the hard left abused you tonight you stopped a debate on abuse of all candidates.'

Anna Soubry later took to Twitter to voice her anger at Labour MPs. A string of MPs have come forward to tell of the racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic abuse hurled at them

Theresa May has ordered an inquiry into the abuse after dozens of MPs and former candidates spoke out about the vile messages and threats they received.

Mr Percy, Tory MP for Brigg and Goole, told the Mail Online: They are acting in an appalling way on this issue by pretending there isnt a problem and they have got no responsibility for what is happening.

POLITICIANS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THE ABUSE THEY GET Tory MP Sheryll Murray had swastikas scrawled over her election posters Diane Abbott (Lab): Has received a stream of sexist and racist abuse. She told hos she has been repeatedly called a 'n****r,' a 'black b***h and received rape and death threats. Andrew Percy (Tory): Told how he has bean spat at, called 'Tory scum' and had anti-Semitic abuse hurled at him by a Corbynista. Paula Sherriff (Labour): Has received abuse every single day since becoming an MP in 2015. She has received death threats, and had a picture mocked up of her as a used sanitary towel posted. Sheryll Murray (Tory): had her election posters daubed with swastikas, messages including 'burn the witch' sent to her, and had someone urinate on her office door. Ameet Jogia, an Indian-origin Tory who stood against Labour's Barry Gardiner in Brent North, reported finding a voting booth vandalised with graffiti, stating: 'Vote Labour Barry, not Jogia. Keep p**** out of politics'. Sarah Wollaston (Tory): A masked intruder broke into her office and daubed 'you dogs' onto the walls. Rehman Chishti (Tory): Said a Labour activist and shouted 'F**k off back to country X' as he stood up to give his victory speech on election night. Advertisement

I think Anna was absolutely spot on.

There is a complete denial on the Labour side that this is a problem that is specifically one for them to challenge because their leaders are stirring this up with the language they use.

Speaking at a rally with the Prime Minister's severed head, accusing people of murder, saying the election result wasnt legitimate  these are the sort of things that third world dictators in countries transitioning to democracy who lose an election say

They are undermining the very basic principles of a democracy.

He said Labour is trying to draw a comparison between the Tories hold Mr Corbyn to account for his views on terrorism and the IRA, and the sort of abuse hurled at Tory MPs.

He said: Holding people to account for their record is fine, but turning up and spitting at people in the street, attacking and vandalising their property and assaulting them with racist abuse  which is what has happened to me  is something completely different.

Mr Percy said a lot of MPs are angry they were robbed of the chance to debate how Corbynistas inspired by the hateful brand of politics have abuse politicians.

Mr Cleverly said: 'Using violence, or the threat of violence, to distort the democratic process is a deeply concerning trend which should have no place in a modern democracy.

'Yet the Labour leadership moved heaven and earth to make sure we didn't debate it yesterday.

Corbyn's team used procedural devices that Jacob Rees-Mogg described as "obscure, even by my standards" to prevent this abuse being discussed.

'I don't believe that the use of obscure procedures and a coordinated barrage of points of order was an accident, I have no doubt that it was a deliberate attempt to avoid Corbyn, McDonnell and others being embarrassed by their role in this.

There are vile people across the political spectrum. I recognise and denounce the actions of people who are violent or abusive from my side of the political spectrum. Sadly it seems the same cannot be said of the current Labour leadership.

He added: 'Corbyn, McDonnell et al are not creating this abuse but their unwillingness to discuss it, let alone deal with it, is allowing it to grow and fester.'

A number of MPs have told of the vile abuse they have received in the campaign.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who is of Pakistani descent, yesterday revealed he was the victim of racist abuse.

Fellow Tory MP Sheryll Murray had her election posters daubed with swastikas, messages including 'burn the witch' sent to her, and had someone urinate on her office door.

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has described how she has been repeatedly called a 'n****r,' a 'black b***h and received rape and death threats.

Jeremy Corbyn has faced criticism from MPs inside and outside his party for failing to rein in his supporters and tackle abuse. Theresa May has ordered an inquiry into the abuse received by MPs and their staff after hearing 'horrifying' stories of the abuse they suffered

Speaking last week, Mr Percy said the Labour leader was stroking intolerance and abuse by addressing rallies with gruesome pictures of Theresa May's head impaled on a spike were on display.

And he took a swipe at the Labour leader's close ally John Mr McDonnell for inflaming tensions by saying the victims of Grenfell Tower were 'murdered' by political decisions.

He said: 'I have had death threats for a number of years, I've had panic buttons a restraining order against somebody.

'What is different about what is happening at this election, in which I was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse, my staff were spat at, my property was attacked, is that it has been politically motivated.

'And the elephant in the room here is that it has been motivated by the language of some of our political leaders.

'And when they accuse people of one political side of murder, when they dehumanise them in the way that is happening at the moment, there is something more sinister to this.'

Mr Percy, who represents Brigg and Goole, told how a Corbynista shouted 'Corbyn Corbyn Corbyn' at him before telling the Tory MP that he is 'Israeli Zionist scum'.
Hunkered down in sniper positions on the top floor of an abandoned building in the Syrian city of Raqqa, two Americans and a British volunteer face off ISIS snipers on Syria's front line.

Briton Macer Gifford and US citizens Taylor Hudson and Kevin Howard are among several foreign volunteers in the decisive battle involved in the battle for Raqqa, long considered the terror group's capital.

The trio, including two who were battle-hardened by experience in the French Foreign Legion and the war in Iraq, have made the war against ISIS in Syria their own.

The men joined US-allied Syrian militias for different reasons - some motivated by testimonies of survivors of the unimaginable brutality that ISIS flaunted in areas under its control.

Briton Macer Gifford (pictured) and US citizens Taylor Hudson and Kevin Howard are among several foreign volunteers in the decisive battle involved in the battle for Raqqa, Syria

Kevin Howard (pictured), a 28-year old former US military contractor from California, fights with an Assyrian militia

Others joined what they see as a noble quest for justice and a final battle with the 'heart of darkness,' in a belief that violence can only be met with violence.

Taylor Hudson, a 33-year old from Pasadena, compares the fight for Raqqa to the 1945 Battle of Berlin in World War II that was critical to ending the rule of Adolf Hitler.

'This is the Berlin of our times,' said Hudson, who doubles as a platoon medic and a sniper in the battle against the militants. For him, ISIS extremists 'represent everything that is wrong with humanity.'

Syria's war, now in its seventh year, has attracted foreign fighters to all sides of the complicated conflict.

Islamic extremists from Europe, Asia and North Africa have boosted the ranks of the ISIS, as well as rival radical al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Shiite Iranian and Lebanese militias have sided with the Syrian government, deepening the sectarian nature of the conflict that has killed over 400,000 people and displaced over 11 million, half of Syria's pre-war population.

On the anti-ISIS side, most Western foreign volunteers have been drawn to the US-allied Kurdish militia known as The People's Protection Units, or by their Kurdish initials as the YPG.

Taylor Hudson (pictured), 33, from Pasadena, has been fighting ISIS in Syria for past 13 months

Macer Gifford, a 30-year former City broker in London, came to Syria three years ago to volunteer first with the Kurdish militia

Howard, a 28-year old former US military contractor from California, fought in Iraq in 2006

The US military has developed a close relationship with the YPG and its extension, the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the war against IS.

Some Western volunteers have died in battle - earlier in July the YPG announced that 28-year-old Robert Grodt, of Santa Cruz, California, and 29-year-old Nicholas Alan Warden, of Buffalo, died in the battle for Raqqa.

Since launching the push on Raqqa on June 6, the US-backed forces have conquered a third of the city.

Hudson, who has been fighting in Syria for the past 13 months, said he was moved to tears by stories in the media of Iraqi Yazidi women who were enslaved by ISIS militants and looked for a way to help.

A pharmacy student who learned combat medicine in the field, he said he had treated some 600 wounded ahead of the march onto Raqqa.

The presence of Western anti-ISIS volunteers in Syria has created something of a conundrum for their governments, which have often questioned them on terrorism charges.

'I am not a terrorist,' said Macer Gifford, a 30-year former City broker in London, who came to Syria three years ago to volunteer first with the Kurdish militia. Now he is fighting with an Assyrian militia, also part of the U.S-backed forces battling ISIS militants.

The presence of Western anti-ISIS volunteers in Syria has created something of a conundrum for their governments, which have often questioned them on terrorism charges

A skilled sniper, Howard (left) prides himself in having killed 12 ISIS militants so far while Gifford (right) has been questioned by both his British government and by the US government

Hudson, who has been fighting in Syria for the past 13 months, said he was moved to tears by stories in the media of Iraqi Yazidi women who were enslaved by ISIS. Pictured: Aftermath of an airstrike in Raqqa

'I am here defending the people of Syria against terrorists,' he added.

Gifford has been questioned by both his British government and by the US government. At home, he has written and lectured about the complex situation in Syria, offering a first-hand experience of IS' evolving tactics.

He believes the militants can only be defeated by sheer force.

'ISIS is actually an exceptional opponent,' Gifford said. 'We can't negotiate them away, we can't wish them away. The only way we can defeat them is with force of arms.'

For Kevin Howard, a 28-year old former US military contractor from California who fought in Iraq in 2006, the war against the ISIS is more personal.

A skilled sniper who prides himself in having killed 12 ISIS militants so far, Howard said he is doing it for the victims of the Bataclan theatre in France, where the sister of one of his best friends survived.

The November 13, 2015 attacks claimed by IS killed 130 people at Paris cafes, the national stadium and the Bataclan, where 90 died.

'This is a continuation of that fight, I think if you leave something unfinished, it will remain unfinished for a lifetime,' he said, showing off his 1972 sniper rifle.

Islamic extremists from Europe, Asia and North Africa have boosted the ranks of the ISIS, as well as rival radical al-Qaeda-linked groups

On his forehead and neck, he has tattooed the 'Rien N'empeche' - or 'Nothing Prevents'- words from the song of the French Foreign Legion in which he served, and 'life is pain.'

'For me this is a chance to absolutely go to the heart of darkness and grab it and get rid of it,' he added.

From his sniper position on Raqqa's front line, he peeked again through the rifle hole. For Howard, the orders to march deeper into the IS-held city can't come soon enough.
Police have launched a murder investigation after the body of a missing 13-year-old girl was discovered by hikers at a nature reserve.

Janessa Shannon, 13, from Riverview, Florida, was reported missing by her father on July 3, two days after she was last seen.

Nine days later a hiker at the Triple Creek Nature Preserve discovered the badly decomposed remains on July 12.

Janessa Shannon, 13, from Riverview, Florida went missing from her father's house around July 1, almost two weeks before her badly decomposed remains were recovered

A hiker discovered Janessa Shannon's decomposed body on a hiking trail near her home

Colonel Donna Lusczynski of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, who is leading the investigation told Fox 13: 'We need to be deliberate and methodical in our investigation. What's important to us is identifying this killer and putting him behind bars.'

Police have interviewed Janessa's father Nahshon Shannon and have searched his home following the discovering of the youngster's body.

Commenting on her daughter's death, Michelle Mosley told Fox 13: 'She was very loving, caring and had a heart of gold. Justice is the only thing we want right now. And, it's not gonna make anything better, it's not gonna bring her back, it's definitely not going to help me sleep at night.

'She didn't have a history of running away. She never ran away before and that's how it was treated.'

She urged anyone with information about the killer to contact the HCSO.
LINCOLN, Neb.  A nearly $646,000 federal grant will pay for research into how law enforcement works with rural schools across Nebraska on safety and emergency preparedness.

The research will be led by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, working with the Nebraska Department of Education.

Researchers will use Education Department data, crime statistics, census data and survey results from law enforcement and personnel from more than 150 Nebraska schools to examine strategies being used and develop ways to increase engagement and safety.

Mario Scalora is director of the Public Policy Center, and he says rural schools face many of the same safety issues as their urban and suburban counterparts but with fewer resources.
A couple living on the High Speed 2 train route have told of their misery at having to move out of the home they planned to retire to.

Sue and Peter Douglas live on the newly-built Shimmer estate in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, where at least 16 homes will be bulldozed to make way for the railway line.

They are unsure whether their home is one of those earmarked for demolition, but know their neighbour's home will be knocked down and believe the whole estate will become unlivable once construction work begins.

Sue and Peter Douglas believe the home they planned to retire to will be flattened to make way for the High Speed 2 route to Leeds

They live on a new-build estate in Mexborough which is on the route announced yesterday

Mr Douglas, 63, who bought his four bed property for 160,000 in 2012, said at first the property was a dream place to retire.

However, when the HS2 announcement was decided yesterday, he admitted that the estate's fate was finally sealed.

He said: 'If next door is getting knocked down I presume all of the houses on the estate will have to knocked down at some point.

'If you look at the plans for the line, they are going to have to build huge viaducts 20ft up in the air - that will mean ours will have to go too.

'We are just so angry at the way we have been treated - we feel betrayed. This was supposed to be our retirement home, but now it's just a nightmare.'

Some residents on the Shimmer estate, which was first established in 2012, only found out about the HS2 plans - originally put forward last year - just weeks after moving into the development of two and three-storey town houses.

Wayne Butcher lives in one the homes due to be demolished. He is angry at the prospect of having to move his children Holly, five, and Harry, six, to other schools

Nigel and Amanda Hogue say the price being offered by the government for homes is too low

Wayne Butcher, 48, lives in one of the sixteen homes set to be knocked down.

The father of two, who says his children are both settled in local schools, said it the announcement is 'devastating'.

'It's just heart breaking really and it makes me very angry to be honest. HS2 are the only people we can sell our home to - but they won't speak to us.

'We wouldn't get a house like this anywhere else - it's perfect for our young family, it's big and has four bedrooms - we wouldn't get anything like this somewhere else.'

Mr Butcher bought his four-bed property three years ago for 160,000,.

He said: 'I think it's disgusting, and I could get very, very angry about it. This is people's lives they are messing with.'

An artist's impression of what the new route north of London will look like

The potential HS2 train design is pictured. In February, Parliament granted powers to build Phase 1 of the line

Transport secretary Chris Grayling was pressured into issuing a statement on HS2 in the Commons after furious MPs criticised his failure to turn up earlier in the day.

Addressing the house at 10.15pm, Mr Grayling described his late appearance as a 'cock up and not a conspiracy' as he responded to concerns about residents of the Shimmer estate.

He said a report by property specialists Carter Jonas has concluded that the existing compensation scheme  which offers homeowners the 'unblighted' value of their home plus ten per cent - would not be enough to allow the residents of the Shimmer estate to buy a similar house locally.

He said the the government will work with local residents and politicians to ensure Shimmer homeowners can secure a comparable local home.

Dismissing warnings that HS2 could cost more than 100billion, double official estimates, as 'wild rumours', he said:

'I know that for those living along the route, today's announcement will not be welcome news.

But he said 'sadly this is inevitable' with an infrastructure project of this size'.
A mother accused of trying to kill her infant daughter collapsed and repeatedly cried out 'why me' after calmly accompanying her child to hospital, a Queensland jury has heard.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered 'catastrophic' brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010.

Sarah died in March 2012 from unknown causes that are not part of the allegations against Watterson.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson (pictured) has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered 'catastrophic' brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010

The paramedic who was called to the scene alleges, she collapsed on the floor within minutes and cried out: 'Why me? Why me? Why me?'

Former paramedic Derek Davis told the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday he attended a triple-zero call in late October 2010 and found the child 'mottled blue', with evidence of blood coming from her nostrils.

But when he picked Sarah up, the court heard the infant's heart was beating and her body felt warm.

Mr Davis said Watterson appeared 'very, very calm' as they travelled to Redcliffe Hospital.

But when they arrived at the facility, Mr Davis said she collapsed on the floor within minutes and cried out: 'Why me? Why me? Why me?'

His evidence followed a testy exchange regarding a separate hospital admission between pediatrician Leisha Callaghan and defence barrister Don MacKenzie.

The physician challenged Mr MacKenzie's suggestions she'd been rude or dismissive of Watterson and denied saying words akin to: 'We can't keep a healthy baby here just on your say-so'.

Mark Watterson, ex husband of Ashleigh Watterson, left the Supreme Court in Brisbane, on Monday. His former wife pleaded not guilty to deliberately obstructing their daughter's breathing resulting in her death in March 2012, aged 21 months

'I would never have said that to a patient,' Dr Callaghan said.

A recording of a triple-zero phone call made in November 2010 in which Watterson was guided through CPR before paramedics arrived at the Rothwell property was also played to the jury.

The court has previously heard Watterson allegedly confessed to police in August 2013, a month after she was charged with attempted murder.

'She wasn't having any apnoea events, that was me,' Watterson said.

'I feel that the devil attacked and made me do things.

'I was possessed.'

Watterson's defence team will argue those confessions were false and brought on at the time by an undiagnosed mental disorder.
Chaos continued at Gatwick today with children as young as five forced to sleep on floors and fights breaking out in departures after a slew of cancellations.

Thousands claim they have been 'abandoned' after the main runway was damaged yesterday afternoon when an Air Canada service was forced into an emergency landing after its tyre burst.

Many flights were cancelled or diverted to other airports and although Gatwick says it is clearing the backlog today flights are still being delayed or postponed.

Photographs from social media show the stranded sleeping on chairs or on the floor with Thomson, Thomas Cook, British Airways, Ryanair, Vueling and easyJet all being blasted for their treatment of customers.

Sheila Carroll said 'fighting broke out' around her family last night and posted an image of a child lying on the floor with the caption: 'This is my granddaughter's bed'.

Paul Dreelan tweeted Thomas Cook and said: 'Not flying anywhere. Stuck in Gatwick airport. We feel like bums on a street corner. Dirty, smelly, and no hope'.

MailOnline understands there were no rooms left in any of Gatwick's hotels with those stranded having to travel more than 20 miles to stay in central London or in south coast towns including Lewes and Brighton.

Sheila Carroll tweeted this picture of her family in Gatwick last night and said: 'This is my granddaughter's bed' after scores of flights were cancelled

Passengers were left furious after they were forced to sleep in the Gatwick terminals after the runway was damaged during an emergency landing

Francesca, a mother-of-two, said they spent the night in the North terminal's departure lounge but said it 'felt very unsafe' and overcrowding meant people had to sleep on stairs.

Terrifying footage shot inside a packed airliner showed the dramatic moment a jet was forced into an emergency landing after its tyre burst during take-off at Gatwick Airport yesterday

Air Canada Rouge flight AC1925 was forced to return to London after declaring a mid-air emergency during the incident yesterday at around 3.30pm.

The Toronto-bound Boeing 767 had to circle in the sky to burn off and dump fuel before landing back at the airport to the relief of passengers.

It has caused major travel chaos with the majority of flights at Gatwick halted as a result.

It has caused major travel chaos with all flights at Gatwick halted because the runway had to be closed

Many flights were cancelled or diverted to other airports and although Gatwick says it is clearing the backlog today flights are still being delayed or postponed.

And shortly before 5pm that too was also closed after debris from the burst wheel swept across the airfield.

Several incoming flights were diverted away with pilots on one jet declaring an emergency fearing that they were about to run out of fuel while waiting for clearance to land.

Tristan Godfray was diverted to Bournemouth with his pregnant wife.

He tweeted: 'Absolute madness with that situation @Gatwick_Airport yesterday. BA flight from Dubrovnik, had to land in Bournemouth.

'I get these things happen, but we were made to stay in the @British_Airways plane for 5 hours in Bournemouth with barely any food or drink available on the @British_Airways plane, my wife is pregnant and she got one tiny glass of water in 8 hours. say. Stay close.

Pictures from yesterday showed a cloud of dust rising as the plane touched back down before fire engines drove out to meet it.

A passenger on board tweeted: 'The plane blew a tyre on take-off and we've had to land back at Gatwick. Awaiting being towed to the gate.'

There were delays to nearly all arrivals as planes were held in the sky until the flight could return to the ground.

Justin Fretwell, who was in the plane behind tweeted: 'Stuck on runway. Aircraft in front ran over debris and burst a tyre. Airplane is at the end of runway engines off.'

This is the moment an airliner with a burst tyre touched back down at Gatwick Airport today

Fire engines drove out to meet the Boeing 767 after it landed back at the airport this afternoon

In the dramatic footage, which was posted on Twitter, the jet can be seen shaking violently as it lands at Gatwick Airport with a burst tyre

Officials are pictured inspecting the burst tyre on the jet at Gatwick Airport

The jet is seen with its burst tyre after landing back on the runway at Gatwick Airport

A spokesman for the airport said today: 'We're planning to operate a near normal flight schedule today, following yesterday's disruption.

'However, there may be a small number of cancellations to flights.

'We apologise for any inconvenience to your journey and advise you to check with your airline for the latest flight information'.

The Air Canada Rouge plane was tracked as it burnt off fuel over the south coast before the emergency landing.

An airline spokesman said: 'Air Canada Rouge flight 1925 Gatwick-Toronto, a Boeing 767 with 282 passengers on board, landed safely back at Gatwick.

'As per standard operation procedures and as a precautionary measure the crew requested emergency services presence after a tyre blew upon take-off'.
A British pensioner has been sentenced to 14 years behind bars for killing his partner with his walking stick in Spain.

Charlie Bevill-Warcup, 78, from Rotherham, was found guilty of killing Rosemary Broadwell at his Costa Blanca home and dumping her body.

He reported her missing and continued to fake her disappearance six months after battering her to death in September 2014.

Her decomposing remains were found in a shallow grave in nearby Algorfa in March 2015 following Bevill-Warcup's arrest after confessing to the crime.

Charlie Bevill-Warcup (left), 78, was found guilty of killing Rosemary Broadwell (right) at his Costa Blanca home and dumping her body

He protested his innocence in front of a jury at a court in Elche during a trial earlier this month.

State prosecutors, and another for the victims family, demanded he be convicted of murder and sentenced to up to 20 years in jail.

He was found guilty of the lesser charge of homicide under Spanish law.

The sentence was delivered in writing rather than in open court as is normal in Spain by the trial judge.

Rosemary, 76, from Hull, is understood to have been attacked in the kitchen of the home she shared with her killer in the Ciudad Quesada area of Rosales near Alicante.

Bevill-Warcup reported Rosemary (pictured) missing and continued to fake her disappearance six months after battering her to death in September 2014

Bevill-Warcup confessed to the crime after his arrest and showed detectives where he had buried her.

Jurors heard he pretended to search for her the day after killing her before putting her body in the boot of his Seat Cordoba car and driving it to the spot where he buried her.

He reported her missing three days later, telling officers she had vanished after he dropped her off at a cashpoint and sparking the police investigation which eventually led to his arrest.

He is believed to have told a court where he was first questioned in a private hearing after his arrest that he was drunk when he attacked Rosemary.

Bevill-Warcup was found guilty of the lesser charge of homicide under Spanish law (file photo of Alicante, Costa Blanca)

Rosemarys daughter Cheryl Webster was in Spain appealing for information on her mums whereabouts when she received the news her body had been found.

Jurors decided Bevill-Warcups fate on a 7-2 majority verdict and dismissed claims his behaviour was influenced by alcohol or a mental disorder.

It is not yet clear if his lawyer will appeal.
This is the moment a pair of thugs were caught on camera terrorising residents while riding around an estate on a stolen moped armed with a huge machete.

The two men caused chaos on the estate in Harold Hill, Romford, east London, brandishing an 18 inch machete and knives at residents as they rode around on a stolen moped without a number plate.

The thugs, wearing motorbike helmets, jeans and trainers, are also believed to have damaged two cars on Monday afternoon.

At one point the pillion passenger jumped off the bike and ran towards locals armed with the massive blade but victims and the suspects had fled the scene by the time police arrived.

The two thugs caused chaos on the estate in Harold Hill, Romford, east London, brandishing an 18 inch machete and knives at residents as they rode around on a stolen moped without a number plate

The teenagers, wearing motorbike helmets, jeans and trainers, are also believed to have damaged two cars on Monday afternoon

An eyewitness, who refused to be named, snapped pictures of the thugs who clashed just before community members met police for a meeting on gang culture.

He said: 'I looked out my window and I saw a young man at a bus stop, he saw these two guys on a moped with a machete and he ran towards them without hesitation whatsoever and pulled out a kitchen knife from his pocket.

'He was at the bus stop with loads of school children. It was obvious there was a conflict between them, it went on for about five to ten minutes and they didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that it was broad daylight.

'The guys on the moped were driving in circles around him on the moped, the people standing around looked really shocked.

'It was on the pavement outside a row of shops, they were driving around the guy on the pavement and the grass.

'The moped looks stolen, you can tell because the registration plates are gone.'

This is the moment a pair of thugs were caught on camera terrorising residents while riding around an estate on a stolen moped armed with a huge machete

At one point the pillion passenger jumped off the bike and ran towards locals armed with the massive blade but victims and the suspects had fled the scene by the time police arrived

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: 'Police were called by members of the public at 4.10pm today, Monday, 17 July to reports of suspects possibly in possession of a knife and or machete at Hilldene Avenue, Harold Hill.

'On attending the location there was no trace of either suspects or any victims, however two vehicles had been damaged.

'The suspects were reported to have made off on mopeds.

'Officers from East Area Command Unit investigate. No arrests. Enquiries are ongoing.'
Frustrated theatre owners have slated the work ethic of today's young employees in a scathing online job advert.

The advert, which has since been removed, for an Office Administrator at the Tea House Theatre in south London said the employers have 'not been impressed so far.'

The post has prompted a furious backlash online with some calling it 'obnoxious' and 'patronising'.

Frustrated owners of the Tea House Theatre (pictured) have slated the work ethic of today's young employees in a scathing online job advert

In the advert, theatre directors Harry Iggulden and Freddie Rushton said: 'Dear Millenials... it saddens me to be putting this advert up for the third time in as many months.

'Are you just not taught anything about existing in the real world, where every penny counts?

'Did no one teach you that the end of your studies is the beginning of your education?'

The post goes on to explain that the theatre raises money via funding from Arts Council England as well as from its own business.

The advert (pictured), which has since been removed, for an Office Administrator said the employers have 'not been impressed so far'

The employers say they 'need a grafter, who can commit' and who will be 'the absolute dogs in office skills.'

Prospective applicants must have 'the ability to run a paper filing system as well as a computerised one, the ability to complete and keep track of a huge to-do list, to make our office work, create and develop business management systems that help the business to grow.'

The salary for the full-time role is between 15,000-20,000 per year.

A spokesman for Arts Council England, which hosted the advert, said: 'We're aware of a job that was posted on ArtsJobs that breached our terms'

A spokesman for Arts Council England, which hosted the advert, said: 'We're aware of a job that was posted on ArtsJobs that breached our terms (in this case targeting a specific age group).

'Artsjobs is made up of user generated content and this job advert has now been removed.'

However, there has been a resoundingly negative reaction to the advert online.

Twitter user Shon Faye asked: 'Have the Tea House Theatre not considered that this f****** obnoxious advert puts anyone with relevant skills off ever wanting to work there?'

Twitter user Shon Faye asked: 'Have the Tea House Theatre not considered that this f****** obnoxious advert puts anyone with relevant skills off ever wanting to work there?'

Hannah Simpson said: 'Wow, so this is...quite something. Who hurt you, Tea House Theatre?'

Another commenter wrote: 'Dear Tea House Theatre, it's never good to advertise that you're entitled, patronising & abusive Love Millennials.'

MailOnline has contacted the owners of the Tea House Theatre for comment.
A 29-year-old woman has spoken out after she was accosted by a stranger while working at a fundraiser in Queensland over the weekend.

Kimberly Ferguson told her social media followers that a drunk man had come up behind her during the event on the Sunshine coast and put his hand up her dress and between her legs.

She said the incident had ruined her night and the nights of her friends - but it had started what she believed was an important conversation, which she said highlighted the prevalence of brushed off sexual assaults.

Kimberly Ferguson (right, pictured with her boyfriend) says a man put his hand up her dress and between her legs on Saturday night as she worked at a charity event

'This man, this self-righteous a*******, triggered a chain of events and essentially put a stop to the awesome night we were having,' she wrote in a Facebook post.

'It upset my friends, my workmates and my partner. A night cut short, I drove four of my girlfriends home and we started a discussion... each and everyone of us, this year, even as recently as this month, have had individuals feel it their right to touch us.

'And in some cases in a lot more violent or aggressive ways that what I experienced.

'Four women in their 20's, all in the past 30 days sexually objectified. This is not ok. This is actually f***ed up.'

The Queensland woman said what had happened to her, and what had happened to her friends, showed her that she needed to speak up.

After leaving the Palmwoods venue on the Sunshine Coast, Ms Ferguson discovered all four of the women she drove home had experienced similar things in the past month

'In the past when similar things have happened, I'll be out, I'll have had a few drinks, I'll have thought "I'm overreacting... people experience way worse things than this, just suck it up",' she wrote.

'Here's the thing ... it is never an over reaction to protect yourself, to stand up for yourself, to defend yourself from someone else's objectification of your being.

'Never. Ever.

'Someone grabbing you, pinching your bum, referring to you in a derogatory way, a sexualised manner, a off handed sexist 'joke', a shove, a throw, a grab of your boob, a slap on the bum, a sexually loaded stare, a snide remark, a wolf whistle these are not ok. Ever. For anyone.'

The 29-year-old says she is often the recipient of wolf whistles or cruel taunts when she chooses to go running in public, and that there needs to be more widespread condemnation of these actions.

'As a community we need to say "no this is not okay",' she wrote.

'This is where more serious abuse, violence, exploitation stems from. This is where they 'got away with it' this is where 'no harm was done.'

'By allowing, we are encouraging. By not saying anything we are empowering.

'It has been time to stand up for as long as I can remember but this time, this was one grab too many for my 29 years, I'm standing up. This is not ok.'

She said she wanted others to speak out about assaults that they would usually brush off. 'As a community we need to say "no this is not okay",' she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post

Since sharing her story, Ms Ferguson says she has been inundated with messages from men and women sharing similar experiences.

'It's a weird thing, I keep thinking, in the big scheme of things, this isn't really that big of a deal, BUT that is what we have become accustomed to,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Because the reality is, a man putting his hand up your skirt from behind and touching you IS a big deal and it shouldn't be acceptable.'

A spokeswoman for Queensland police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia a 31-year-old Palmwoods man was arrested on Saturday night for sexual assault.

He appeared in court on Sunday.
Two childhood sweethearts who were torn apart in their teens have finally tied the knot - 70 years later.

Ed Sellers, 88, fell for Katie Smith, 89, aged 14 when she moved into the house next door to his in the early 1940s in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

He asked her out with a handwritten note and they courted for three years but the relationship ended when Katie's strict religious parents banned them from going on dates.

Meant to be: Ed Sellers, 88, fell for Katie Smith, 89, aged 14 when she moved into the house next door to his in the early 1940s

She moved to another town and they met new partners, both getting married in 1946 and living happy lives.

But despite having no contact for seven decades, they never forgot each other.

After their spouses passed away, the long-lost lovers reconnected and over the course of 18 months, slowly rekindled their romance.

On Sunday, retired truck driver Ed and former seamstress Katie - both of whom are great grandparents - tied the knot.

Young love: Ed Sellers as a young man (left) and Katie Smith as a young woman (right). Ed asked her out with a handwritten note and they courted for three years but the relationship ended when Katie's strict religious parents banned them from going on dates

Ed was married to wife Dot for 67 years (left) and had two sons, while Katie was married to husband Cecil, a war vet, for 54 (right) and had three children. They say they were both 'in love' - but in 2000, Cecil died of cancer and four years ago, Dot passed away from Alzheimer's

The elderly lovebirds said their vows while sitting in rocking chairs because they wouldn't be able to stand long enough, surrounded by family and friends.

Katie's granddaughter Stefanie Helsel, 35, said: 'The only reason their relationship ended all those years ago was because her parents were extremely strict.

'Ed wanted to take her to the movies but it absolutely wasn't allowed.

'They ended it because it couldn't progress. When they came back together it was natural. There was never any awkwardness.

'My grandmother said there was never a moment where it felt like there was ever any gap in time.

'She said it really feels as though everything has fallen into place.

New love: Katie shows off her diamond ring on their engagement day. When Ed proposed, Katie initially said no, anxious not to dishonour her late husband - 'the love of her life'. But Ed eventually won her over after they both agreed they were not trying to replace their previous partners - but had found a new love

To us: Retired truck driver Ed and former seamstress Katie on their wedding day. The couple married on Sunday at Community Pentecostal Center in Stanley - the church Katie founded with her former husband

'It is wonderful that they have found each other again.'

Ed was married to wife Dot for 67 years and had two sons, while Katie was married to husband Cecil, a war vet, for 54 and had three children.

They say they were both 'in love' - but tragically in 2000, Cecil died of cancer and four years ago, Dot passed away from Alzheimer's.

It wasn't until 2015 that grief-stricken Ed decided to track Katie down.

He learned from her brother that she lived an hour away from their childhood home, in Stanley - so drove there.

When he arrived he found a phone book and called Katie's number in a bid to reconnect with her for the first time in seven decades - but she didn't answer that day.

The hopeless romantic persisted and eventually Katie's son picked up.

Mum-of-three Stefanie, a nurse, said: 'He answered and said, "Do you know anyone called Ed Sellers?"

'My grandmother said, "The only Ed Sellers I know is from a long time ago and I haven't heard from him in 70 years so I don't know if it is him."

'Ed said, "Tell her it's me."

'She agreed to talk to him and they talked for a while. He talked her into being with him and she agreed they would meet up. It started out as a real great friendship.'

For a year and a half, Ed would drive to see Katie twice a week - but would never stay over.

Then, six months ago, Ed asked Katie if she'd marry him.

Long-lost lovers: Katie's granddaughter Stephanie Helsel said: 'My grandmother said there was never a moment where it felt like there was ever any gap in time'. Pictured: The couple during their wedding ceremony

During the ceremony, the pair sat beside one another, rocking gently in wooden chairs while surrounded by 50 friends and relatives

She initially said no, anxious not to dishonour her late husband - 'the love of her life', Stefanie said.

But Ed eventually won her over after they both agreed they were not trying to replace their previous partners - but had found a new love.

When she finally agreed, he got down on one knee and popped the question with a diamond ring.

Stefanie said: 'She had to help him back up. He got stuck down there. He is 88 after all.'

The couple married on Sunday at Community Pentecostal Center in Stanley - the church Katie founded with her former husband.

They sat beside one another, rocking gently in wooden chairs while surrounded by 50 friends and relatives.

Stefanie added: 'I have known Ed's name forever. I have heard her talking about him when we spoke about our first loves. It is amazing to finally get to know him.

'The wedding day was wonderful. It is so cute. They are very much looking forward to being together.'
Now some face 'losing their homes' but Indigo spokesman defends enforcement

A 21-year-old healthcare worker has been ordered to pay 12,800 in unpaid parking fines from the NHS hospital where she works after staff lost their battle with a private car parking company.

Sophie Round said she was 'gutted' by the ruling - which will see hardworking nurses, doctors and support workers forced to 12.8million to Indigo.

Speaking after the judgement, the 21-year-old from Newport in Wales said: 'I am gutted. It's not really the outcome that we wanted and what we earn doesn't really cover the fines.' The average wage for an NHS healthcare assistant is 17,329.

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Sophie Round (centre) said she was 'gutted' by the ruling - which will see hardworking nurses, doctors and support workers forced to pay a total of 12.8million to privately-owned company Indigo

The ruling by District Judge Clare Coates made yesterday came after a three day trial at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre.

The case involved three workers Stephen Dadswell, Emily Booth and Sophie Round - who parking contractor Indigo say have each racked up more than 100 parking tickets.

But the three NHS workers are part of a larger group of workers with unpaid tickets - and the hearing was seen as a test case for other staff who have also failed to pay.

Judge Coates' ruling means each unpaid ticket can be collected for 128 - amounting to a total of 39,000. She also ordered the group will have to pay 29,000 costs.

Campaigner Sue Prior criticised the health board, saying: 'This ruling is devastating for doctors and nurses across the country.

'They have permitted a private parking company to do this. There is no common sense anywhere.

'At the moment we just need to sit back and assess what we are going to do because it costs money to appeal. It was like David and Goliath - and David lost.'

Last night, doctors and nurses said they felt 'sick' and 'deflated' as they revealed the risked losing their homes due to the ruling.

It is understood that one nurse at the hospital is now facing a bill of 150,000.

While many of the NHS staff admit to being in the wrong, many doctors and nurses have criticised the parking 'chaos' at the site and the lack of spaces.

Following the verdict, employees vented their frustration and anger in a private Facebook group set up to support their legal plight.

One NHS staff member said: 'We are probably going to have to sell our family home. I have decided to leave the NHS.

'I cannot continue working for someone who doesn't support their employees.

'What a horrible and dark world we live in.'

Another added: 'I'm absolutely devastated by this action. The stress this has caused to my husband and I - and the impact it will now have on the next few years for my young family while we struggle to pay off these ludicrously high fines - has no end.

Staff at University Hospital of Wales face having to sell their homes after losing a legal fight (file picture)

They wrote: 'This unfair action against a huge amount of staff has caused me to call into question why I even became a nurse, as the people who employ me have clearly walked away and don't care.

'No wonder there is a retention crisis.'

Another said: 'I find that I resent the health board I work for and that is very sad.

'They need every employee to give everything we have to our jobs and we do.

'The pity is that they don't care enough to protect us from over-zealous ticketing or even prevent us being unfairly ticketed in the first place.

And a final NHS staff member said: 'I have woken up feeling sick, deflated, totally c**p and worried to death about how I'm going to pay these guys.'

The UHW has a contract with private firm Indigo which is responsible for all car parking at the site until 2018.

Previously, any staff member, visitor or patient who was given a parking fine, also known as a parking charge notice (PCN), would not have to pay it as it was not legally enforceable.

This car was given a parking fine outside the University Hospital of Wales despite a sign stating 'cardiac emergency nurse on-call'

But that all changed on April 1, 2016, when new arrangements were made between Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Indigo.

Now anyone who has not paid their PCNs will go through the legal process and could face fines and a possible court appearance.

But NHS employees who work at the Heath site say they often have no choice but to park illegally because otherwise they'd be late for work.

Derek Donovan, who has campaigned on behalf of the NHS staff members affected, was in court for the ruling and said: 'One of the nurses in court broke down and another was crying.

Campaigner Sue Prior said the ruling is 'devastating' for doctors and nurses

'The pressures these dedicated nurses have been under is disgusting.. We could have virtually shut departments at the hospital if we'd asked all the nurses to attend.'

The doctors and nurses affected have reportedly been landed with fines of 39,000 and court costs of 29,000.

Tin Donnelly, director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, said a solution needed to found.

She said: 'The crux of the issue here is that the University Hospital of Wales does not have enough spaces to fulfil the need of approximately 6,500 staff that are estimated to require a car parking space at some point in the day.'

Robert O'Brien, 35, quit his hospital job earlier this year when he was hit with almost 800 in fines from contractor Indigo, he now works as a salesman.

He said: 'I quit my job with the NHS because of the stress of being hit with parking fines.

'I loved the job but just couldn't take it any more.

'I don't think it's too much to ask when you are working nights to be able to park at your place of work.'

Staff nurse Felicity Richards added: 'I have to allow 45 minutes to an hour extra to park my car every morning to find somewhere to park.

'By the time I get into work there are usually no parking spaces and I have to park off site and quite often I have to park a 20 to 25 minute walk away.'

A dermatology consultant, who did not want to be named, said: 'We're routinely forced to use public car parks because there just aren't enough staff spaces available.

'Hospitals run like clockwork and if we choose to wait around for a staff space to become available then we'll be late for work and that's just not acceptable.

'The contempt for staff bringing their cars into work clear. It's disgusting for hard-working staff to have to shell out when the infrastructure just isn't up to scratch.'

'The hospital have also taken parking permits away from people who live close to free up room.

'We get annoyed about the lack of spaces, especially when we're in a rush. But I think the women who've been fined should have just paid the 10 fine and moved on.'

The hospital has 6,000 staff but the car park has only 1,800 spaces, so many have to park in spots reserved for visitors

Karen Jones, 63, from Cardiff, who was visiting at the hospital, said she believed staff shouldn't have to pay to park up.

She said: 'They shouldn't have to pay because they've got an important job to do.

'There's enough car parks around here for the public so I honestly don't think staff should pay. It's an awful lot of money these lot will have to cover now.'

The hospital has 10 car parks, which are split in half between the public and for staff.

It is now feared other members of staff could face further civil action over other outstanding unpaid parking tickets.

Have you been fined by this company? Email katie.french@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement

A spokesman for parking firm Indigo, , which had a 24million turnover last year, said: 'In April last year, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Indigo agreed a new set of measures to improve car parking on the University Hospital of Wales site.

'As a gesture of goodwill towards car park users, parking charge notices issued up to the end of March 2016 were cancelled.

'In addition, the cost of a Parking Charge Notice was reduced to 10, if paid within 14 days.

'Despite this, a number of people refused to pay for parking at the site. They also ignored the resulting PCNs and declined to use the formal appeals process.'

The spokesman said the court action was taken against 'persistent offenders' who flout parking rules.

He said: 'As the company responsible for managing parking and ensuring the free flow of traffic at Cardiff UHW, we have an obligation to ensure enforcement of parking restrictions,' the spokeswoman said.

'For this reason, and with the full support of the health board, we took the strongest possible action against this small group of persistent offenders.

'The court's ruling has justified our decision to take this action and we hope this sends a clear message to users of the car parks at Cardiff UHW that they follow the terms and conditions for parking.'

More than 100,000 unpaid tickets have been racked up at the hospital (file picture)

A spokesman for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: 'The vast majority of over 98 per cent of staff comply with the parking regulations.

'It is disappointing that a few people have chosen to refuse to co-operate with the contractors Indigo Parking Services UK and have chosen to pursue this through the courts.

'All staff and others visiting University Hospital Wales are encouraged to comply with the parking regulations in order for us to keep the site, safe, free- flowing and allow access to emergency vehicles and vital health services.

'We are aware there are significant financial costs and the financial hardship the staff have placed themselves in.

'We encourage all staff to engage with Indigo Car Parking Service UK at the earliest opportunity to avoid mounting legal and court costs.

'A high proportion our staff are involved in front line clinical duties.

'We have arrangements in place for vital services that require easy access quickly such as on call surgeons and midwives and those whose skills are required urgently for patient care.

'The vast majority of posts are covered by shift patterns and rotas that do not require the level of urgency claimed.'
A man who was found 'days from death' after becoming trapped in an underground chamber has spoken of his gruelling ordeal which has seen him lose a toe to frostbite.

James Thompson, 51, spent a month in the man-made brick structure without food and clean water after he crawled inside the shelter while homeless.

Mr Thompson, who was also suffering with mental health problems at the time, then injured his ankle and could not escape from the bunker, which is several feet deep, in Plymbridge Woods, Devon.

He was only saved when Izaak Eglington-Watts, 19, walked past and shouted into the hole - expecting to get an echo back only to hear Mr Thompson's cries for help.

James Thompson, 51, left, spent a month inside an underground brick shelter in woods in Devon after crawling inside while homeless and looking for somewhere to stay

He injured his ankle while in the shelter and could not climb out of the hole, which was several feet deep. He went without food and only had access to an underground stream for water

Mr Thompson was saved when passing teenager Izaak Eglington-Watts, pictured, shouted into the hole expecting to hear an echo, only to hear Mr Thompson shouting for help

Mr Thompson said he became very ill during his ordeal and believes he would have died if he had spent just one more day in the 'hole'.

The former BT worker said: 'It wasn't meant to happen. To go looking for shelter and have my phone run out of battery - that's all the bad luck I had. Everything went against me.'

For the first few days he drank from an underground stream but the water was foul.

He said: 'It made me sick, made me ill, and that was it. I didn't eat or drink anything. I was so dehydrated.

'It's a small hole, when you go in it opens up and there's a tunnel. I don't remember much after that.'

He developed frostbite and gangrene in his feet and added: 'I was so very lucky that guy came at the right time.

'I weighed less than nine stone when they found me.

'If I had stayed there for another day septicaemia would have kicked in and that would have been it. I'd have been dead.

Mr Thompson is now recovering in a care home but will lose a toe to frostbite due to the conditions he endured

The 51-year-old, pictured before he went missing in March, said he feels 'lucky' to have another chance and credits God with saving him

'I was just going in and out of consciousness. I was in so much pain.

'I don't know why God saved me. I don't even know how I got into the hospital ward. I remember the police being there and the ambulance.'

Mr Thompson has been told he will lose the little toe on his left foot, but otherwise is recovering well in a care home.

He has since criticsed the council for not giving him the help he needed when he became homeless.

He added: 'I'm a lot better than I was. I'm just lucky that I got another chance.'

Mr Eglington-Watts said: 'I was absolutely terrified. I did not expect a response back, but I am so happy he was found.'

He had been walking in the woods with friend Emily Thompson and had been 'trying to make her jump' by shouting into the hole.

Mr Eglington-Watts, pictured, was walking with friend Emily Thompson in the woods and said he only started shouting to 'make her jump'

He added: 'Then I climbed up into another section which lead into another hole and shouted hello again, which is when I got a reply back. It obviously scared me as it was pitch black down there, and all I had was my phone flash, but I couldn't really see anything.

'We walked back up to get away from the area, but she still didn't believe me that I'd heard somebody, so I said I would go back and record it to prove it to her.'

Mr Eglington-Watts then enlisted the help of two passing runners as he believed the man was stuck or hurt.

They then spoke to some nearby construction workers who called the police.
Gov. Pete Ricketts on Monday unveiled a new initiative designed to help reduce the number of Nebraskans relying on food assistance while improving their lives with enhanced employment opportunities.

Twenty-seven families in Grand Island have participated in a pilot project and 14 have improved their employment income and benefits with a better job, Health and Human Services Director Courtney Phillips said.

"We want people to be able to live better lives," Ricketts said during a news conference. "We want to help connect Nebraskans with better jobs."

Answering questions on other topics, the governor avoided taking a direct position on the pending Senate Republican health care bill, but argued that "we know we have to do something (because) Obamacare is collapsing."

"Congress needs to act to stabilize the insurance marketplace," Ricketts said. "We are analyzing the bill."

Phillips and State Labor Commissioner John Albin joined Ricketts at the news conference to outline their collaborative effort to help participants in the state's supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), better known as the food stamp program, transition into new or better jobs.

The plan calls for expansion of the employment assistance initiative into Hastings, Columbus and Norfolk next with long-range projections to go statewide.

"We will assist families to help find jobs to improve their income," Phillips said.

Better jobs often translate into more family time together, she said.

"A lot already are employed, but underemployed," Albin said.

"Sometimes, they do not have the training (or) the confidence" that leads to better jobs, he said.

The 14 recipients in Grand Island who changed jobs -- several were waitresses, fast-food workers or part-time employees -- experienced an average increased annual salary of $6,900.

As a result of the higher salaries, eight people received fewer SNAP benefits and six people transitioned off the assistance program.
Australian families who lost loved ones in the MH17 disaster have said being at the opening of a memorial near Amsterdam has brought them 'the final piece of closure'.

Jack and Wilma van Duyn were at the ceremony to commemorate Wilma's sister Yvonne Ryder and her husband Arjen Ryder who both died on the fatal flight.

Yvonne Ryder and her husband Arjen, from Albany in Western Australia, were among 298 people killed when the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by a Buk missile over Ukraine three years ago.

Wilma van Duyn (centre) with husband Jack and cousin Mirjam at the new MH17 memorial in the Netherlands

A couple looks at a tree with the name of a victim of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine in 2014

The names of MH17 plane crash victims are seen on a National Monument for the victims

People lay down flowers at the National MH17 monument

The van Duyns on Monday attended the opening of a memorial near Amsterdam featuring 298 trees planted for each victim.

Of those killed, 38 were Australian citizens or residents.

Wilma van Duyn said before the ceremony it was good to come and see how the Dutch, who lost 196 people on MH17, paid tribute to those lost.

'It's good for me because it's the final piece of closure because this was where she last was, Holland.

'We are a very Christian family so we have that strong belief and comfort that they are in a better place.'

The van Duyns brought banksia, kangaroo paw and other favourite flowers of the Ryders to lay by their memorial trees.

Debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shown smouldering in a field in the Ukraine

Relatives attend the unveiling of the National Monument for the MH17 victims near Amsterdam

The international passenger flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine

During the ceremony more than 50 relatives read out the names and ages of those lost, many in tears with their voices breaking with emotion.

MH17 Disaster Foundation chairman Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his two children on the flight, told the gathering their loved ones went on a journey in July 2014 'and this memorial forest symbolically unites them again'.

He said the foundation would not give up or be silenced 'until those who are responsible have been brought to justice.

The Dutch king and queen were to lay flowers at the site along with 17 local schoolchildren to open the memorial.

The monument is in the shape of a ribbon and was inspired by the black memorial ribbon used to symbolise mourning after the plane was hit and broke apart over Ukraine's dispute Donetsk region on July 17, 2014.

Relatives of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine in 2014 attend an event to commemorate the disaster
Bali prison escapee Shaun Davidson has taunted police yet again, asking for a 'round of applause' after four weeks on the run.

The 33-year-old escaped the notorious Kerobokan prison through an underground tunnel on June 19.

Celebrating a month without capture, he wrote on Facebook: '4 weeks now ... I wonder how close Interpol is now.'

Earlier, he asked his fans for a pat on the back, writing: '4 weeks tomorrow ppl can i get a round of applause [sic].'

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Bali prison escapee Shaun Davidson has taunted police yet again, asking for a 'round of applause' after four weeks on the run

Celebrating a month without capture, he wrote on Facebook: '4 weeks now ... I wonder how close interpol is now'

But in a post last week, Davidson insisted he was not taunting police.

'I'm not, as the media says taunting police and I'm definitely not a public threat as Interpol would have u believe [sic],' he wrote on July 12.

'I'm just having some fun and a laugh I'm living my life just trying to make the best out of a bad situation it's always better to laugh than anything else.'

He added: 'Also I'd like to thank the police and interpol for taking an interest in me and putting in your time and hard work thanks guys well done.'

Despite his brazen posts, it seems his supporters are worried he might be running out of money.

Beanna Winner, from Davidson's hometown of Perth, created GoFundMe page 'fund a fugitive' on Saturday night aiming to raise $50,000.

In a post last week, Davidson insisted he wasn't taunting police but days ago, he asked his fans for a round of applause for evading capture

Beanna Winner, from Davidson's hometown of Perth, created GoFundMe page 'fund a fugitive' on Saturday night aiming to raise $50,000

Davidson (pictured) escaped from Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison on June 19

'If you have loved Shaun's 'catch me if you can' antics as much as we have so far and just like us you want to keep this hilarious saga going then donate,' she wrote.

'Dig deep for Australia's most lovable fugitive Shaun Davidson as he dug deep as well lol.

'Don't crush the glory be a part of the story donate hell appreciate.'

Only three people had donated $60 by Sunday morning, but the page has since been taken down.

Davidson has revelled in his notoriety, but in a post to his Facebook profile, going by the alias Matthew Rageone Ridler, dismissed claims he was taunting police

Only three people had donated $60 between them by Sunday morning, leaving a long way to go to reach the ambitious goal

It seemed not everyone was happy to leave a paper trail of their donation, with one would-be giver asking how they could contribute without a credit card.

'Love the guy but not sure on the legality of funding a fugitive. I'll follow with my wallet closed sorry,' another wrote.

Davidson escaped Bali's Kerobokan prison through a tiny tunnel burrowed underneath the jail walls

'I'm just having some fun and a laugh I'm living my life just trying to make the best out of a bad situation, it's always better to laugh than anything else,' he said

Davidson made up this Pokemon card of himself as a joke and set it as his Facebook profile picture

The fundraising effort came after Davidson posted another photo of his travels, but may have given away a bit more than he intended as 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

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.

'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.

Facebook posts from the page of Matthew Rageone Ridler, claiming that he is in Dubai

A previous Facebook post from Matthew Rageone Ridler claiming to be in Amsterdam, Netherlands prior to being in Dubai after escaping Kerobokan jail

The Perth-born prisoner escaped the notorious Kerobokan jail in Bali along with three others on June 19 through a tiny tunnel burrowed underneath the 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.
Hundreds of tonnes of wood and debris suddenly rage past stunned tourists as fast-moving water tears through a forest in Arizona, where devastating flash floods have left nine dead - including a 13-year-old boy.

The shocking video shows the flood racing through Tonto National Forest, blanketing the wilderness in a thick mud, wrecking everything in its path.

The footage comes after authorities worked to track down swimmers on Sunday who had been missing since waters overpowered crowds at Cold Springs swimming hole, which is ten miles north east of Payson at around 3.30pm on Saturday.

A young boy is still missing after the incident. The victims are aged between two and 60.

Nine people died after flash floods swept away crowds at Cold Springs swimming hole Payson, Arizona, on Saturday afternoon

This grainy image taken from video of the floods shows a father clinging to a tree with his baby in his hand. They are thought to have survived

The swimming hole is part of the east Verde river and becomes popular in the summer. It flooded as the result of a sudden thunderstorm eight miles upstream from the swimming hole.

There were around 100 people swimming there on Saturday when a flash flood brought water rushing down the river.

More terrifying footage, taken by survivors, showed one man clinging to a tree with his baby in his arms as water rushed by.

The man's wife clung on to branches nearby.

Four people were rescued and were taken to hospital with hypothermia.

Authorities continued to search for the two missing people on Sunday afternoon

Members of the Tonto Rim Search and Rescue team carried on the search for survivors

Five bodies were recovered from the river on Sunday, a day after the floods. Four others were found on Saturday and two people remain missing. Authorities continued searching the river on Sunday

The swimming hole is on the East Verde River around 10 miles north east of Payson and around 100 miles from Phoenix

The floods occurred when a thunder storm struck part of Ellison Creek, eight miles north of the hole, sending water rushing downstream. Above, the scene under the First Crossing Bridge afterwards

Gila County Sheriff's Office deputy Larry Hassinger stands watch at the site on Sunday

One of the victims bodies was found beneath this bridge on Sunday afternoon

On Sunday, police said it was difficult to know how many more people were missing since they do not know exactly how many were swimming in the hole when the floods occurred.

'There's no way of knowing how many people were actually there,' Medical District Fire chief Ron Sattelmaier told ABC 15.

He said it was unlikely any more people would be found alive.

'It's pretty much recovery (now). We don't believe there's anybody left out there.'

Authorities said on Sunday that they did not expect to find anyone else alive

It is not clear whether any homes were ruined as a result of the floods. The swimming hole is near Water Wheel Camping Ground, a remote site approximately 10 miles north east of Payson.

It is around 100 miles from Phoenix.
Residents of a whole street have banded together to set up a CCTV system amid fears of break-ins, gang crime and home invasions.

Fed up with skyrocketing crime in Melbourne's western suburbs, homeowners have rigged up cameras that anyone in the group can watch at any time.

They say it makes them feel safe and works out cheaper than if they installed individual security cameras.

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Residents in Melbourne's crime-ridden west have rigged their whole street with CCTV in fear of robberies (pictured) and home invasions

The residents (pictured) pay a fee to access the whole network of cameras and can watch the feeds at any time of day or night

Home invasions have plagued Melbourne in recent months, and residents of the new estate in Melton are particularly concerned, A Current Affair reported.

'The crime that's happening in the home invasions, they're violent. There's an increase in the violence involved in that and that's really concerning,' said one local.

'If your house doesn't have protection you're a hot target, you're a sitting duck,' said another.

Homeowners on the quiet street pay $400 for membership which allows them access to all of the cameras on the network, 24 hours a day.

Residents are concerned as crime is spiraling out of control in whole swathes of the city, with violent robberies (pictured) worrying homeowners

They say that the CCTV system means they can leave their homes without worrying about violent criminals (pictured) breaking into their homes

They also pay a $150 annual fee, but say that it works out cheaper than buying individual surveillance systems and is well worth the money.

'It's so nice to be able to go away or go to work and know that our kids are safe at home,' said one happy member of the neighbourhood group.

Other residents joined the network after being told that their preferred solutions were illegal.

One father was told by council that he could not put up barbed wire to protect his home.

Members of the neighbourhood group can view the security camera feeds on an app (pictured)

Jeremy Stewart from Swann Security sells the latest in camera technology, and says that half his customers buy CCTV cameras after becoming victims of crime.

Police have warned that many criminals are undeterred by CCTV, and urge homeowners to call Triple Zero (000) if they see suspicious activity.

Crime levels in Melbourne's western suburbs have been rising at an alarming rate as violent gangs run amok.

In some suburbs the situation is so dire that residents don't go out after dark and are afraid to leave their children at home.
A pair of twin boys' lives are in danger after a rare condition has caused their heads to swell to twice their usual size.

Moreover, the Chinese toddlers' mother has deserted the two-year-olds because she couldn't cope with the stress their illness brought to her.

Speaking to MailOnline, the twins' father, Jiang Laicai, said he was determined to overcome hardship and get his sons treated.

The babies suffer from hydrocephalus - a build-up of fluid inside their skulls which can be deadly.

The twin boys are carried by their father and grandmother at home in Yulin city, China

Jiang Laicai (pictured) said he would not give up treating his babies who have hydrocephalus

The babies' mother has deserted them because she couldn't cope with the stress of life

Jiang Jingzhi and Jiang Zhihui were born in June, 2015, in Yulin, southern China's Guangxi Province.

The twins were born prematurely at 33 weeks and were diagnosed with various diseases at birth, including purulent meningitis and neonatal sepsis, according to their father.

Shortly after their birth, both of the babies suffered from hydrocephalus and their heads kept growing.

In order to treat the disease, Jingzhi and Zhihui's parents spent around 70,000 yuan (8,000) in the space of two weeks.

They had to take the boys home in September, 2015, because they could no longer afford the medical bills.

In a small rented flat in Yulin, Jiang Laicai and his wife looked after the babies by themselves, but the twins' health quickly deteriorated.

Mr Jiang, his babies, his parents and his sister live together in a small rented room in Yulin

Mr Jiang, a former construction worker, is doing menial jobs so he could support his family

Mr Jiang said he had tried to take them to other hospitals in Yulin, but the doctors said they couldn't treat the boys and even told Mr Jiang to give up hope.

As the boys' heads kept ballooning, their mother couldn't cope with the stress of life anymore.

She left the twins as well as Mr Jiang and moved back to live with her mother.

Mr Jiang said: 'I don't want to blame her.

'But I would not give up. I would find ways to treat my baby boys.'

The father, who was a construction worker, is now doing any menial jobs he can find to support his family.

After his wife left, he asked his parents and sister to move in with him so that they could take turns to look after his ill children.

Volunteers have helped the father set up a fund-raising page online and many people donated

Mr Jiang said he would bring his sons to Shanghai to be treated thanks to the donations

Mr Jiang said he had contacted a hospital in Shanghai, the Shanghai Children's Hospital, which agreed to treat the twins through operations.

However, the treatment would cost 700,000 yuan (80,000), which Mr Jiang couldn't afford.

Jiang Jingzhi and Jiang Zhihui's story was noticed by a group of local volunteers, who helped their family set up a fund-raising page online on June 19.

So far, the family have received 366,345 yuan (41,664), about half of the cost needed.

Mr Jiang said with the help of the donations, he would take Jiangzhi and Zhihui to Shanghai on July 20 to start their treatment.

The man said he was confident that he could find a way to carry on with the operations 'no matter how hard it is'.
A convicted robber accused of beating his stepson to death for losing a trainer claims the boy died when he fell off his shoulders, a court heard today.

Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, said he was carrying Alex Malcolm when he tripped over in a south London park and the five-year-old landed on a concrete path head first in November last year.

Iheanacho told Woolwich Crown Court today the child was unconscious when he tried to pick him and began slapping him in an attempt to revive him.

The prosecution allege Iheanacho killed his ex-girlfriends son in a fit of rage after noticing the boy had lost his trainer in Mountsfield Park, Hither Green, south-east London.

Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, said he was carrying Alex Malcolm when he tripped over in a south London park and the five-year-old landed on a concrete path head first in November last year

Iheanacho denies murder and says the little boy died in a south London park in a tragic accident - prosecutors claim he beat the boy to death because he lost a trainer

Iheanacho then allegedly attacked the boys mother, Liliya Breha, in a bid to stop her calling an ambulance to her home.

Jurors have heard Iheanacho has six previous convictions involving violence against five different partners.

Alex's mother Liliya Breha (pictured last week) said she started 'screaming non-stop' when Iheanacho, 38, returned home with her unconscious son - and claims her ex-boyfriend then strangled her

He also struck a jeweller with a hammer and a wooden chair during a robbery in 2001.

But giving evidence he denied losing his temper with the boy.

The pair cut through the park at around 6.30pm to catch a bus on the way home, and had to climb over one of the gates to get out.

Iheanacho said: I noticed that he only had one trainer. I asked him can you remember were he left the trainer or where it came off.

I said you know we have to go back in the park and look for it.

Sally ONeil, defending, asked: 'Did you do or say anything to make him frightened? asked Sally ONeil, defending.

No not at all.

Were you angry at having to go back into the park to look for it, she said.

Not at all.

Did you raise your voice and shout at Alex?

Not not at all.

Iheanacho said he went with Alex back into the park to look for the trainer, where the he said the tragic accident occurred.

I thought the trainer was on the grass or on the path, he said.

I put Alex down, sat him on the bench and searched the grass area looking for the trainer.

It was dark. My phone light was very dim, and the trainer was black.

I came back, picked him up, put him on my shoulder and walked back to the gate.

Im on the right hand side of the bench, I was walking along, scanning the path to see if I could find the trainer.

I tripped, maybe on the grass, and I landed half of the dirt and half on the path

Alex landed in front of me, landing on the tarmac.

I saw him fall. He landed on the side of his head and his legs went up.

Did you land on top of him? said Mrs ONeil.

Iheanacho replied: No. I heard a yelp. I lifted him up, I lifted him by his armpits.

A post-mortem showed Alex was covered in bruises. The cause of death given as bleeding on the brain. Ms Breha, who had been seeing Iheanacho for about six months, said she was told to 'shut her f****** mouth' when she challenged the defendant about her son's injuries

The alleged attack took place in Mountsfield Park in Hither Green (pictured), south-east London on November 20 last year

I was trying to stand him up, his legs were folding back down.

I was calling his name, he isnt responding. I wiped off the gravel marks.

I had my left hand behind his head, his eyes were closed.

I was screaming his name, Alex, Alex, Alex, I wasnt getting any response from him.

I slapped him on his cheek.

Lilya Breha tearfully told a court that her son Alex Malcolm (together left) was brought home to her covered in bruises and unconscious

There was nothing from him, he wasnt moving, it was just surreal, I was trying to revive him, trying to wake him up.

I called Lilya to let her know what just happened.

I said I had just fallen over, he hit his head, words to that effect.

I think I said he fainted and fell on his knees.

She said bring my son home, bring my son home.

Did you realise how seriously injured he was? asked Mrs ONeil. Iheanacho: No.

He said he ran to a cab stand where he got in a taxi back to Miss Brehas home.

When they arrived they took him upstairs and tried to wake him by putting him in a warm bath according to Iheanacho.

Iheanacho said she became hysterical, prompting him to restrain her.

He wasnt in the bath for long, I was splashing water on his face, his legs moved slightly, and his eyes flickered, but nothing after that.

Alex was taken to King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill, but died two days later

His leg was cold, she was blowing on it.

'He wants nothing more than a daddy': Note found in Iheanachos diary read out to jury Iheanacho was known to Alex as 'Daddy Mills'. After Alex died, Ms Breha said she found a note in Iheanachos diary, written in August last year, which read: 'If I think about all my mistakes, shame takes over and I find myself overwhelmed in anger. 'My anger help me to push forward but fears helps me to fly high. Up up and away. 'Do I really love Alex, five years old small cute lil boy. 'Who want nothing more, than daddy mills to love him protect him but most of all keep him from harm - even though I had to beat him just now for sicking up in the cab - why why why I say - so the answer is yes yes yes I love him and like with all my heart but may not enough- I am real, faithful making money - so why aint I happy?' Advertisement

At that time Lilya was on her phone and kept going for her phone, she was researching something on the internet, like hypothermia.

I remember her screaming and shaking his shoulders and trying to wake him up.

I told her to stop.

She was still screaming, hysterical, so I ushered her away.

She landed on the floor in Alex bedroom and started going crazy.

I had my hand on her around the neck area.

She is on the floor at that stage. I held her saying just calm down. I slapped her once to calm her down.

I took my cigarettes out, went out to light a cigarette in the bathroom, and then I heard a scream.

I came back into the bedroom, Alex on his bed, Im literally seeing him go blue.

Paramedics arrived at Miss Brehas house after 8pm and rushed him to Lewisham Hospital.

Shortly after he was transferred to Kings College Hospital, where he died two days later having never regained consciousness.

Iheanacho, of Hounslow, west London, denies murdering Alex Malcolm.

The trial continues.
Desmond Fitzgerald (pictured) smashed up his terraced house in Kings Cross with a hammer

An aristocrat who wrecked his own 1m London home to spite his ex-wife after a bitter divorce battle now faces prison.

Desmond Fitzgerald smashed up his terraced house in Kings Cross with a hammer - destroying radiators, ornaments and pictures.

Fitzgerald then flooded the property he had shared with his ex-wife, lawyer Catherine Akester, by blocking a sink, reported the Evening Standard.

The 63-year-old, whose grandfather was Major General Sir Allan Adair, caused some 21,000 worth of destruction.

Police arrested Fitzgerald after he left behind fingerprints proving he was responsible for the damage in October last year.

He denied committing criminal damage, claiming he had been framed, but was convicted by a jury last month.

He had stormed out of a county court on October 3, when a judge ordered him to give up the keys to the home.

Ms Akester said Fitzgerald had been obstructing the sale of the home since their marriage of more than 15 years broke down.

He went back to the house in Medburn Street, and set about vandalising it, even ripping up a picture of his wife and her siblings.

At a bail hearing today, Blackfriars Crown Court heard that the aristocrat had been 'sofa-surfing' since January and has contacted the homeless charity Crisis about his situation.

Fitzgerald had stormed out of a county court on October 3, when a judge ordered him to give up the keys to the home (pictured)

He went back to the house in Medburn Street (pictured), and set about vandalising it, even ripping up a picture of his wife and her siblings

Fitzgerald, who represented himself at trial, was found to have signs of 'emotional instability and risk-taking' by a probation assessment.

In a hearing in August, he tried to have a law firm partner committed to prison over a land dispute in Ireland.

A judge dismissed his claims as a 'nonsense' and he was landed with costs of almost 100,000.
King of Instagram Dan Bilzerian who once slept with 17 girls in a week has revealed he is in his first monogamous relationship.

The millionaire poker player and US socialite, 37, is dating model Sofia Bevarly, who is 16 years his junior and someone he describes as 'super hot and smart'.

They met at a pool party where Bilzerian had already had sex with three women before sleeping with her, the social media pinup revealed to Square Mile magazine.

The couple took a picture of themselves on the Virgin Islands and posted it on Instagram

Dan Bilzerian and Sofia Bevarly head out 'on a date' as he describes it in a private jet

Dan Bilzerian sprays Sofia Bevarly with water on a boat in Turtle Cove in the Virgin Islands

The millionaire poker player and US socialite, 37, is dating model Sofia Bevarly (pictured), who is 16 years his junior and someone he describes as 'super hot and smart'

During the interview with Square Mile magazine - the most extensive interview Bilzerian has ever given to a print publication - he said he would legalize drugs if he became President of the USA

Talking to Square Mile, he said he had slept with thousands of girls, but now admitted: 'Yeah. Got a girlfriend. First time. Well, I had a girlfriend before, but I was still f***ing other girls.

'Wasn't exactly your storybook love at first sight.

'I think I f***ed like three girls before her that day.

'We just started hanging out She's just a little different, you know?

'She's smart, she's cool, and she liked a lot of the s**t I like. So here we are.'

Bilzerian has gathered 22.6million followers on Instagram, who are hooked on his pictures of bikini-clad women, his guns and cars as well as snaps of him with various celebrities.

Dan Bilzerian has gained a following of 22.6million people on Instagram for his shots with bikini-clad women, weapons and luxury cars

His latest post on social media, as of Tuesday morning, is of him with Floyd Mayweather Jr who is preparing for his superfight with Irish UFC champion Conor McGregor which had the caption 'Money never sleeps'.

Although he has men across the world clambering for his lifestyle, promiscuity - it transpires - can be too much of a good thing.

'A girl has to be super-hot now for me to be even semi-interested,' he said, adding he had started rejecting women he would have ardently pursued as a teenager.

'You just get pickier and pickier. I think that's true of everything. Money, toys, girls - all the hedonistic stuff. You just raise the bar,' Bilzerian said.

'Climbing the mountain is always more fun than sitting at the top. It's just you have to find different mountains to climb.'

Sofia Bevarly sporting a stars and stripes bikini with in an Instagram post in which she announced the pride she has for her country

Baverly, who is now dating Dan Bilzerian, fast asleep with a cat on a flight to Minnesota

For his girlfriend's birthday, Bilzerian appeared to take Sofia Bevarly to a cannabis farm

'Money never sleeps': Bilzerian's latest post on social media on Tuesday morning is of him with Floyd Mayweather Jr who is preparing for his superfight with Irish UFC champion Conor McGregor

Private jets, boats and the world's most expensive gadgets also feature on his timeline, to which he said: 'I've bought every toy I ever wanted. I'm just in a little bit of a shift where a lot of the stuff I placed a lot of emphasis on I pounded into the ground so hard that it's just like, "OK. Time to do something else".'

During the interview - the most extensive interview Bilzerian has ever given to a print publication - he said he would legalize drugs if he became President of the USA.

'I always said, if Trump got elected and he didn't f*** up, I actually have a chance of becoming President.

'I don't think it's good, but the fact it's a chance is pretty crazy, considering."

"I think you should legalize prostitution and drugs.

'There's so much f***ing money being wasted, and so many people being thrown in f***ing cages.

'The reason why drugs are such a f***ing problem is because it's illegal, and so you've got people killing each other  how many legal businesses going on do you have people f***ing mowing each other down in the street, and chopping off heads?

'If you made it legal you can regulate it, you can tax it - you're not throwing everybody in jail.'

In March Blizerian posted on his social media accounts that he had started to training for the challenge after he revealed he had not been on a bicycle for 18 years

A bikini- clad Sofia Bevarly is pictured with a dog (left) and in her most most recent post kneeling on a sofa. Her Instagram page does no feature any pictures of Dan Bilzerian

Sofia Bevarly wearing a hat and a pair of sunglasses laying back in a pool in the Bahamas

Bilzerian has a huge social media following, where he has become known for posting images of scantily clad women, wild parties, and his extension gun collection.

His outlandish lifestyle has led to legions of fans and critics following his every move, which is all funded by his vast inherited wealth.

At the end of 2014 he found himself on the end of a lawsuit after model Vanessa Castano claimed he kicked her in the face in a nightclub.

Footage from the scene appears to show Bilzerian dancing on a stage in a club in South Beach, Miami, with the crowd below him, before he lashes out with his foot.

However, in March 2015, police said they were no longer investigating the model's claims.

He was also facing a lawsuit for $85,000 in lost earnings after he threw pornstar Janice Griffith, 19, off the roof of his home and into the pool below.

However she landed short, breaking her foot. She had tried to claim money for shoots she could not attend following the accident.

Bilzerian fought back, claiming the model grabbed at his t-shirt at the last second, nearly dragging him off the roof with her. The charges were eventually dropped.

Bilzerian is reportedly worth $100 million, making the bulk of his cash as a high-stakes gambler after developing his skills as a student at the University of South Florida.

He has won multiple tournaments, his most successful being the 2009 World Series of Poker.

He is also co-founder of online poker room, Victory Poker.

The burglars made a beeline for Bilzerian's gun room (above) but couldn't get in the steel-reinforced door

Dan Bilzerian, the 'Instagram King' poker player, with his Shelby Cobra and Lamborghini

Dan Bilzerian received backlash online after posting this picture on Tuesday of himself next to Sofia Bevarly in a bikini who is sitting on a 100-year-old Galapagos giant tortoise at Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island

Before gambling, he trained with the Navy before eventually getting kicked out of SEAL training two days before graduating for offending an officer.

He was ultimately given an honorable discharge.

He lives extravagantly with homes in Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles.

It appears Sofia has been in Bilzerian's life for at least five months.

At the beginning of March, he received backlash online for a picture of himself next to a woman in a bikini who is sitting on a 100-year-old Galapagos giant tortoise at Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island.

That woman, as it turns out, is Sofia Bevarly.

The species of tortoise is protected and listed as 'vulnerable' by the World Wildlife Fund, and the private island is involved in wildlife conservation efforts.

One offended Instagram user said: 'Probably not cool for your friend to sit on its back'.

Others got more vulgar on Twitter, with one user saying: 'and the best way to show one's appreciation for the animal is to stick a s***k on it, stay classy'.

Jamison Ernest runs a hedge fund and owns Yellow Fever Clothing, and addressed Branson, saying: 'I'm very disappointed to see your beautiful protected creatures as zoo rides', according to Page Six.

Bilzerian responded saying: 'Get off your soapbox, the people working there said it's fine to sit on them'.

Read the full world exclusive interview with Dan Bilzerian at Square Mile.
A daredevil filmed himself climbing onto the roof of Anfield and posted the video on YouTube.

Cassonline, who calls himself an 'urban explorer', shot an eight-minute sequence of him climbing onto the roof of Liverpool FC's famous Kop end.

He accessed the site by climbing up scaffolding put in place for the stadium's redevelopment before enjoying a panorama of the pitch.

Cassonline, who calls himself an 'urban explorer', shot an eight-minute sequence of climbing onto the roof of Liverpool FC's famous Kop end

At the start of the video, posted on Twitter, he said: 'A lot of people have been asking for a stadium video, so this is it.'

The YouTuber then filmed himself dangling his feet over the edge of the roof against the dark Liverpool sky.

Cassonline, whose real name is not known, has previously filmed himself scaling The Shard and London Bridge.

His Anfield video, which was posted on Monday, has been viewed more than 13,000 times.

At the start of the video, posted on Twitter , he said: 'A lot of people have been asking for a stadium video, so this is it'
A Queensland man used a chainsaw and a trident to scare off two men who entered his home and demanded cash.

Heatley resident Johnny Smith was playing video games in his living room last Tuesday night when there was a knock on his front door.

Mr Smith opened the door, thinking it was another friend, to find a young man on the other side who then let himself into the home, pretending to look for someone else.

Queensland man Johnny Smith used a chainsaw and a trident to scare off two men who entered his home and demanded cash

Suddenly, the back door was opened by another man, unknown to the householder.

'I had a tyre iron against the wall and the first guy reached down grabbed it and started yelling and then the guy who came through the back door slammed me up against the wall, demanding money,' Mr Smith told the Townsville Bulletin.

He tried to tell them his wallet in was in his car, but they weren't buying it, so instead he pretended to cave in to their request for cash, and was allowed to head off to the spare room to retrieve money.

Mr Smith had a Viking-style trident behind the bedroom door and grabbed it before lunging toward one of the men and threatening to strike him with it.

The Heatley resident was playing video games in his living room last Tuesday night when there was a knock on his front door

Mr Smith had a viking-style trident behind the bedroom door and grabbed it before lunging toward one of the men and threatening to strike him with it

'He screamed like a girl,' he said. 'If he hadn't moved he wouldn't have been walking real well.'

The two men were soon heard trying to break into a neighbour of Mr Smith's car so he got his chainsaw and chased the two men away.

'That's the quickest I've ever seen people squeeze through a gap in a fence and run off,' Mr Smith said.

Under Queensland Law, residents have the right to defend their own property however only 'reasonable force' may be used.

He said next time he hopes culprits think twice before attempting to break into other people's homes.


Thanks to a generous financial commitment from Ann Hatherly and Andre Gifkins, the partner and son of the late Michael Gifkins, and from Text Publishing, the winner will receive a contract for world rights from Text, and an advance to the value of NZ$10,000.



Ann Hatherly says she sees this award as a fitting way to continue Michael Gifkins contribution to writers and to New Zealand literature.



After Michael died, we received many emails from writers offering sincere gratitude for the help he had given them. But they also expressed concern about the hole his absence would now leave. It was Lloyd Jones who first suggested that Text Publishing was the best fit for the prize because of the huge respect Michael Gifkins had for Michael Heyward and his team.



Michael Heyward says: Michael Gifkins was kind, wise and generous. A gifted writer himself, he was a fine agent, and completely committed to the cause of New Zealand literature. He loved his writers. He challenged them, spurred them on, and caught them when they fell. He had a wicked sense of humour, and we spent hours laughing on the phone together. Life is duller without him around. It is an honour for Text to support the Michael Gifkins Prize for an Unpublished Novel.



The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) will administer the award. Jenny Nagle, the Chief Executive Officer says: The Michael Gifkins Prize is a generous award for New Zealand writers, coming at a time when literary arts funding is stretched. This prize will honour the memory and the lifelong commitment Michael Gifkins had to New Zealand literature and the encouragement he gave to so many writers will live on in this legacy. The New Zealand Society of Authors (Pen NZ Inc) is proud to administer this new annual gift, and we are grateful to Ann, Andre and Text Publishing for their support. Every year this opportunity will be life-changing for one of our writers.



Michael Gifkins (1945-2014)



Born in Wellington, Michael Gifkins was educated at the University of Auckland, where he also later taught English. As an agent he represented a number of leading writers, including Lloyd Jones and Greg McGee. He was also a literary critic, a publishing consultant, an anthologist and a highly esteemed editor, whose sympathetic hand and brilliant eye influenced many prominent New Zealand authors. He was also a fine writer and his stories were widely published. He was the author of three published short story collections: After the Revolution , Summer Is the Cote dAzur and The Amphibians . He was the Writer in Residence at the University of Auckland in 1983 and was the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow in Menton, France, in 1985. Michael Gifkins was a member of New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) from 1982 to 2014.



Open for applications from 28 July until 20 November 2017
Police are hunting for a man and woman in connection with the murder of a San Francisco man who was taking photographs of the dawn sun at a local beauty spot.

Edward French, 71, suffered a single gunshot wound at approximately 7.50am on Sunday, July 16.

The pair, reported to be a black male, aged between 20 and 25 around 5'11 and 170lbs with shoulder length dreads. His female accomplice is said to be aged between 17 and 18, 5'3 tall and 120lbs.

Edward French was murdered while out photographing a sunrise only a mile from his home in San Francisco, California on Sunday morning. The killers stole his camera and his car

Edward French was shot dead at the Twin Peaks lookout in San Francisco on Sunday morning

Friends believe French, who was a location scouter for the advertising industry, was working.

Police believe French was shot for his camera and the duo are accused of stealing his Honda Accord car.

San Francisco Police Department said the victim was approached by the suspects on foot at the Twin Peaks lookout area.

Witnesses said a single gunshot was fired and the pair escaped in Mr French's car.

A jogger ran towards French and attempted CPR until a marked SFPD unit arrived. He was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The SFPD are appealing for anyone who was filming or photographing around Twin Peaks on Sunday morning to pass on their footage.

According to KTVU.com, French was only a mile from his home on the morning he was murdered.

Susannah Greason Robbins, former directorof the San Francisco Film Commission siad: 'Just looking at how beautiful the sun was on the hills, he would really appreciate that beauty.

'He's just really, really such a warm, loving person. Everyone will really miss him.'

Anyone with information on the crime is asked to contact the SFPD Homicide Unit on its Tip Line 415-575-4444 or Text A Tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
A goat bent on destruction has shattered the glass to an office in America, fleeing the scene moments later, CCTV footage has revealed.

Security camera footage from the office of Argonics Inc. in Louisville, Colorado shows a medium-sized black and white goat smashing into the front doors of the building, shattering the glass.

In the you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it video, the goat approaches the front facade and begins ramming into right side of the entrance.

After about three big knocks with its horns, the glass falls and the goat, almost surprised, scampers away.

Moments later, it returns to take out the other glass door, causing shards to fly and considerably more damage to the office building.

The video was posted by Argonics Inc on Monday, after employees of the polyurethane manufacturing business arrived at work and were shocked to see what looked like a break-in.

Greg Cappaert, an employee with Argonics, told the local Louisville publication Daily Camera, that his manager had assumed the business had been robbed.

He said: 'So he called police right away, and they are taking pictures and everything, and then he goes and checks the video.'

Destroy! The medium-sized black and white goat is caught on security footage, pictured, smashing into the front doors of Argonics Inc., a business in Louisville, Colorado. It tries a few times before shattering the glass

There it goes! After three big bangs with its horns, the goat manages to smash down the glass door of Argonics Inc., pictured, a business in Louisville, Colorado. Luckily, CCTV footage meant it didn't get away that easily

After the glass falls, the goat seems almost surprised at its success at knocking it down. It quickly scampers away, pictured, perhaps shocked at the sound of the glass breaking in the office of Argonics Inc., a business in Louisville, Colorado.

The video shows the goat appear with other goats, although they presumably did not cause any damage to the building.

Mr Cappaert also said: 'Everybody had a good chuckle over it.'

The goat returns to the office, pictured, attempting to smash the far doors with its horns. Having no success, the animal returns to the other main door, seemingly determined to destroying the entire glass facade

According to Argonics Inc, the goat banged on the doors for about 20minutes before fleeing the scene. The second glass door, pictured, was probably the most dramatic moment of vandalism

The scene of the crime. Employees of Argonics Inc, pictured, assumed that their office had been subject to a break-in, after seeing the glass doors smashed to bits on Monday morning

The incident with the goat occurred on Sunday, July 16th. It is assumed to be still on the loose.
A California police captain and his ex-girlfriend were found dead in an apparent murder suicide after a six-hour standoff with a SWAT team, police said.

Investigators believe Los Alamitos police captain Rick Moore, 49, shot and killed Amanda Jensen, a 37-year-old Westminster City Clerk, before he turned the gun on himself in Seal Beach, California, on Sunday night.

Police received a 911 call at 7.20pm that was cut off, and a SWAT team surrounded the apartment complex before their bodies were found recovered at around 2am.

Scroll down for video

Los Alamitos police captain Rick Moore (left) and Amanda Jensen, a 37-year-old Westminster City Clerk (right) were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Seal Beach, California

Police received a 911 call at 7.20pm that was cut off, and a SWAT team surrounded the apartment complex (above) before their bodies were found inside at around 2.30am

Investigators believe Moore shot Jensen before he turned the gun on himself. They were in a 'dating relationship' but had broken up, police said (pictured, investigators at the scene)

A woman dialed 911 from an apartment complex on the 100 block of 7th Street around 7.20pm on Sunday, but the call was disconnected, police said.

A witness also reported hearing a woman yelling, 'No, don't do this!', according to the OC Register.

When responding officers arrived at the scene, witnesses said they heard gunshots emanating from a third-floor apartment.

Police from at least six neighboring departments assisted, and a Special Weapons and Tactics team was called in to surround the apartment while numerous attempts were made to reach the two people inside.

Neighbors were told to lock their doors while authorities enlisted a K-9 along with a police robot to break into the apartment during the barricade situation.

When SWAT officers finally entered around 2am on Monday, Moore and Jensen were found dead inside with gunshot wounds, Seal Beach police Sgt. Michael Henderson told the OC Register.

Police from at least six neighboring departments assisted, and a Special Weapons and Tactics team was called in to surround the apartment. They found the bodies after a six-hour standoff

Video by KTLA

Investigators believe Moore shot Jensen and killed himself after they got into an argument.

'I feel safe saying they were in a dating relationship. But they had broken up,' Henderson said.

Neighbors said Jensen would visit Moore after he moved into the apartment about four months ago.

Greg Meier, a maintenance worker who lives in the complex, told the OC Register: 'Its been a volatile relationship.'

Jensen, who was a troop leader for the Girl Scouts, was appointed the Westminster City Clerk in 2015 after working in the office for nearly a decade.

Moore has been a member of the Los Alamitos Police Department since 2008.
Andrea Jean Yantone, 55, (pictured) and two others were arrested on multiple drug charges after they left a six-year-old boy alone at a rest stop on Interstate 95 in Florida

Three Ohio residents were arrested on multiple drug charges after they left a six-year-old boy alone at a rest stop on Interstate 95 in Florida.

James Robert Morey, 62, Charlene Pitts, 56, and Andrea Jean Yantone, 55, from Columbus, Ohio, were arrested when they returned to the rest stop near St Augustine on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Courtney Price called police at 10.40am Saturday after the young boy, who wasn't wearing any shoes, approached her car crying.

He told her he had been reading a magazine when he looked up and his grandparents were gone, WJXT reported.

Price called police and waited with the child for an hour before a deputy arrived.

The boy gave the deputy a phone number for his grandparents, but they did not answer several messages,WJAX reported.

The deputy was then notified that the grandparents had been in a car accident and were returning to the rest stop.

About 20 minutes after the deputy arrived, a white minivan pulled into the rest stop, according to the arrest report.

James Robert Morey, 62, (left) and Charlene Pitts, 56, (right) and Yantone were arrested on charges including contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of drugs and drug equipment. They remained jailed in Florida on Tuesday

The deputy talked with the people inside the minivan about the boy being left alone at the rest stop.

The arrest report says the deputy noticed signs of impairment, but did not smell alcohol.

Yantone, who had been driving, was moving and speaking slowly, sweating 'extremely bad' and had dilated eyes, the deputy said.

Though Yantone refused to allow a search of her car, an open-air search by a K-9 unit found a 'positive alert' to drugs, according to The Florida Times-Union.

Deputies then found two syringes loaded with a brown liquid, pill bottles and a substance identified as 'tar' heroin.

The three were arrested on charges including contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of drugs and drug equipment.

The three remained in the St Johns County jail Tuesday. Records don't list attorneys for them. The boy is in state custody.

A woman called police Saturday when a young boy approached her car crying. He wasn't wearing any shoes and he told her he had been reading a magazine and when he looked up his grandparents were gone. Yantone is pictured
A college student sprayed a heavily pregnant woman and her partner with acid hours after they 'argued with a group of Somali men', a court has heard.

The woman was left with burns to her 'baby bump' while her partner was hit in the face by the corrosive spray.

Both were hospitalised after the assault with a corrosive substance in Mile End, east London, in the early hours of Tuesday, July 4.

Mustafa Ahmed, 19, of Stepney, east London, appeared at Thames Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with one count of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of attempted wounding with intent to do GBH.

The incident took place on Burdett Road (pictured) in Mile End, east London, on July 4

Before the attack the victims had been involved in an argument with a 'group of Somali men', Thames Magistrates Court heard.

Several hours after the row the couple were walking along Burdett Road near Mile End Road when they were approached by a man and sprayed with acid.

It is unknown whether her unborn child was affected by the substance but the court heard it was likely to have caused 'some impact'.

Prosecutor Kavitha Tharson said: 'A substance was thrown in the complainant's face that burned him instantly.

'The girlfriend also had liquid thrown over her that caused her harm. The acid has gone on her tummy, I have no information as to the impact on the pregnancy. I can only assume some impact has been made.'

Ahmed, who currently lives with his parents and is studying at college, spoke only to confirm his name, age and address.

His defence counsel Larry Matthews told the court that his client 'emphatically denies' any involvement in the offences.

He said: 'There's no doubt that the attack was a horrible one and I am conscious of the fact that offences of this nature are a matter of public concern at the moment.

'It is an extremely serious allegation and if convicted there would be an extremely lengthy sentence.

'But he emphatically denies any involvement in this particular incident. He did so when interviewed by police yesterday.

'This is a question of reliability of identification.'

Ahmed was remanded in custody.
The family and friends of a Grafton woman who disappeared in 1977 believe backpacker killer Ivan Milat was behind her presumed death.

Narelle Cox went missing after leaving Grafton to visit with a friend in Noosa. She had last been seen around Brunswick Heads, where Milat was believed to have recently been working, the Daily Examiner reported.

The 21-year-old, who used to hitchhike, never returned from her trip, and her family has never been given closure for their loss.

Narelle Cox (pictured with her niece) went missing in 1977 during a trip from Grafton to Noosa, where she is believed to have hitchhiked

Her sister Karen believes serial killer Ivan Milat (pictured) may be behind the 21-year-old's disappearance

During a lengthy search for Narelle, her family approached police multiple times, but claim they received little, if any, help.

In a bid of desperation, Karen, her sister, and Beryl, her mother, drove from Grafton to Brisbane looking for information about 21-year-old's whereabouts.

'We called in to every nook and cranny along the way,' Karen told the Daily Examiner.

'We had photos and were asking people whether they had seen her. When we got to Brisbane we went to a police station, I can't remember which one, but they never knew anything about it.

'They had never heard of Narelle. They had never been notified.'

Narelle had often gone hitchhiking before, and a man later told the family he had picked the woman up in his truck and taken her to Brunswick Heads

Milat had been working in that area at the time, strengthening Karen Cox's belief the murderer was involved

During their trip, the pair spoke to a truck driver, who claimed to have picked the young woman up from the South Grafton crossroads and took her to Brunswick Heads - where Ivan Milat had reportedly been working on roadworks.

Karen and Beryl reported their findings to the police, but the driver was never properly investigated because he wanted to remain anonymous, Karen said.

Years later, as Milat's gruesome murders became front page news, Karen saw a glimmer of hope.

The desperate woman contacted police and shared her theory with officers, but Karen said she was once again brushed off.

'They listened to what I had to say and took down my details but I didn't expect to hear back from them,' she said.

'But 10 minutes later they called me back. They did a check on the dates and didn't think it was him as he was signed into work at a particular place and time and they left it at that.'

Pictured: Narelle Cox in Year 12 at high school, before she took off to see a friend in Noosa

Sue Cantle, who was best friends with Narelle, claimed there was still a chance Milat could be responsible, as the murderer had previously had people sign in to work on behalf of him.

'He had also been in Grafton jail and released from there, so he was familiar with the area,' she said.

'If the truck driver dropped Narelle in the Brunswick Heads area like he said he did, that put her right in the hotspot of where people were going missing.'

Two years later, two teenage girls from the Sutherland Shire in the south of Sydney also went missing - and it is suspected the girls could have also been victims of the serial killer.

Milat was convicted of the murders of seven backpackers, whose bodies were all discovered in the Belanglo State Forest near Bowral

THE BACKPACKER MURDERS Between January 1990 and April 1992 seven young backpackers went missing while hitchiking on the outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales. Their bodies were all discovered in the Belanglo State Forest, near Bowral, south of Sydney and found to be victims of serial killer, Ivan Milat. The victims were: Australians Deborah Everist and James Gibson, both 19, who were last seen in December, 1989, and who were both stabbed multiple times.

German Simone Schmidl, 20, who disappeared in January 1991 and died from multiple stab wounds, including a knife through her spinal cord.

German former soldier, Gabor Neugebauer, 21, who was gagged and shot six times and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Anja Habschied, who was decapitated and her spinal cord severed after the diappeared in January 1992.

Last seen in April, 1992, Britons Caroline Clarke, 21, who was shot ten times as if she was target practice and Joanne Walters, 22, who was stabbed. Ivan Milat received seven life sentences for the murders and will die in Australia's Supermax prison. Advertisement

An 2016 inquest into the disappearance the girls found similarities between that case and the disappearance of 14 girls in the Hunter region of NSW in the late 1970's and the 1980's with some of them believed to have been murdered by Milat.

Milat is the main suspect in the disappearances because he had been working in the area at the time.

Between January 1990 and April 1992, seven young backpackers went missing while hitchhiking on the outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales.

Their bodies were all discovered in the Belanglo State Forest, near Bowral, south of Sydney and found to be victims of serial killer, Ivan Milat.

Milat's confirmed victims were Australian, German and British, and aged between 19 and 22.

The murderer was convicted in 1996 and given seven lifetime sentences, to be served consecutively, for the murders. He will die behind bars at Australia's Supermax prison.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Narelle Cox's disappearance. With no confirmed death date, or death at all, her family were never able to properly farewell their friend, sister and daughter.

A group will gather in Grafton to finally say goodbye to the woman, whose disappearance has so far remained a mystery.
Emily Lofing (pictured), a 27-year-old Nebraska teacher accused of meeting with a 16-year-old student to have sex, was sentenced to 90 days jail on Monday

A married young teacher who had sex with a 16-year-old student has been jailed for 90 days.

Emily Lofing, 27, was sentenced Monday after first being charged with a misdemeanor of debauching a minor in February. The charge was later changed to contributing to the delinquency of a child due to the boy being over the age of consent.

With good behavior, she could be released from prison in 53 days.

The 27-year-old former English teacher at Nebraska City Middle School pleaded no contest to the charge, WOWT reports.

Lofing was not given a lengthier sentence due to Nebraska state law allowing any 16 year-old to consent to sex.

Otoe County Court Judge John Steinheider mentioned the consent law when handing down his sentence.

'This alleged indiscretion, Ill say, took place on the victim's 16th birthday,' Judge Steinheider said.

'You were less than 24 hours from a felony here.'

Lofing's lawyer pleaded with the judge to show leniency for his client.

Lofing (left and right), 27, was sentenced Monday after first being charged with a misdemeanor of debauching a minor in February. The charge was later changed to contributing to the delinquency of a child due to the boy being over the age of consent

Lofing, who got married in June 2014, pleaded no contest to the charges. She is pictured with her husband

'For lack of a better terms, in her life, poof - she had a mental breakdown. She makes an incredibly horrible decision,' the lawyer said, according to WOWT.

The misconduct was uncovered earlier this year after the mother of the 16-year-old boy sent an email to authorities outlining how she feared the teacher - who got married in June 2014 - was sleeping with her son, who studied at Weeping Water district school.

Lofing had taught in the district before she moved to Nebraska City in 2016.

Court records from February 27 stated: 'On or between the 7th day of July, 2016, and the 15th day of July, 2016, (Lofing) debauched or depraved the morals of (the student) a boy under the age of seventeen years by arranging or aiding or assisting in arranging any meeting between the boy for the purpose of sexual penetration'.

Lofing was placed on administrative leave after the allegations surfaced, and shortly after she resigned and voluntarily surrendered her Nebraska teaching certificate.

Lofing is pictured during her court appearance on Monday. When asked if she wanted to address the court, she declined
A generous boss has treated all 42 of his staff to an all-expenses paid luxury holiday in Marbella to mark the 20th anniversary of the company.

Managing director Ian Lucas, 48, took his entire workforce to the sunny Spanish resort to celebrate for three days.

The team enjoyed a boat tour of the Costa del Sol city and an evening of fine dining to mark the anniversary, before enjoying a weekend in the sun courtesy of their boss.

Lucky employees at British travel and party firm Red7 this month enjoyed luxury accommodation, Michelin-starred cuisine and VIP nightclub experiences as part of the lavish trip.

Ian Lucas, second left, may be the most generous boss in the UK after taking his entire 42 staff on an all-expenses paid trip to Marbella to mark his firm's 20th anniversary

Mr Lucas runs travel and party firm Red7, based in Brighton, and treated his workers, pictured, to three days at a luxury resort

The boss said his staff, pictured, deserved to be rewarded for their hard work over the past two decades

Mr Lucas, from Brighton, East Sussex, said his team were 'the beating heart' of the firm based in Brighton and deserved to be rewarded for their hard work over the last 20 years.

He added: 'Some of them have been with the company since it started, so it's only right that these people are at the centre of our celebrations.

'What sets Red7 apart from its competitors is a promise to create once-in-a-lifetime premium experiences - I wanted to bring that element of our ethos to life for my staff during this trip.

'A cash bonus or a gift is a nice reward in the moment, but I can't think of a better way to express my thanks than by treating my employees to a lavish, money can't buy trip and creating lasting memories.'

The boss, centre, also said he wanted to give his workers, pictured, a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience'

Mr Lucas previously took staff to Benidorm on his firm's 10th anniversary and is making plans for another holiday in a decade following the Marbella holiday, pictured

Red7 describes itself online as a firm of 'group activity and travel experts', specialising in organising stag and hen parties, as well as birthday trips and 'girlie or lads weekends away'.

The company has arranged more than 300,000 stag and hen parties since Mr Lucas founded the firm in 1997.

Mr Lucas also treated his employees to a trip a decade ago to mark the 10th anniversary of Red7, flying them to Benidorm, and is already making plans for what he can do when the company celebrates its 30th birthday in 2027.

He said: 'We are increasingly seeing a trend towards more far-flung trips.

'Perhaps for the 30th anniversary of Red7, we'll find ourselves in Las Vegas, having a flutter on red seven.'
The partner of a Minneapolis cop who shot dead bride-to-be Justine Damond was 'stunned' when the officer opened fire through a squad car door, sources say.

Officer Matthew Harrity, who was in the driving seat, was speaking to Damond after she called 911 to report a sexual assault occurring near her home, when his partner reached across him and fatally shot her in the abdomen.

A police source told KARE11 that Harrity was 'left stunned' by officer Mohamed Noor's actions.

The revelation makes the motive for shooting all the more mysterious as it appears that Harrity did not view Damond as posing a threat.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, BCA, investigating the incident, is remaining tight lipped about what happened late that Saturday night until they finish interviewing Noor and Harrity as part of their probe.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges is demanding to know why neither officer had their bodycam turned on at the time, which she called a 'key question' for investigators.

Noor, 31, has since offered his 'condolences' but demanded everyone respect his privacy after opening fire on the 40-year-old yoga instructor.

Mohammed Noor (left) shot Justine Damond, 40, (right) who was wearing pajamas, from the passenger seat of his squad car while she spoke to his colleague on the drivers side in a back alley

A timeline shows the events that led up to the fatal shooting of Justine Damond at around 11.30pm on Saturday

Pride: This picture dates from 2015 and shows Officer Noor (right) being inducted into the Somali American Police Association

The Minneapolis cop who shot dead bride-to-be Justine Damond through a squad car door (pictured is a computer generated reenactment of the incident) 'offers condolences'

Autopsy results reveal Damond, who was wearing her pyjamas when she was shot by policeman Noor, died as a result of a homicide.

The chilling moments directly after she was killed were captured on an audio exchange between dispatch and the officers involved, on the website Minnesota PoliceClips.

The call begins just before 11.28pm on Saturday night, when an officer can be heard saying there is a 'female screaming behind the building'.

The officer says they are performing CPR after 'shots fired and one down' and call for other units, including medical, to come to 'Code 3, Washburn and 53rd St'.

STATEMENT FROM POLICE OFFICER MOHAMED NOOR 'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers. 'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling. He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing. 'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future. At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.' Advertisement

'No suspects at large,' the cop told the dispatcher after around a minute.

While the autopsy has determined the cause of death, the manner of the shooting remains unclear.

Mayor Hodges is now asking why the officers' cameras - which could have provided clear evidence to the events that unfolded that night - were off.

'You know, I fought hard to make sure that we have body cameras, she told GMA. 'They're a very powerful tool, they're not an infallible tool, but they're an important tool in 21st century policing and I don't know why they weren't turned on.

'I don't know what happened. That's one of the key questions that we have as the investigations move forward.'

Police in Minneapolis are required to wear bodycams at all time, but they are not continually active and are manually switched on when an officer anticipates they will be needed. It is not know why the squad car camera cannot be used in this case.

The decision to equip all police with bodycams came after the black motorist Philando Castile was shot by an officer in 2016 in controversial circumstances.

The BCA is currently trying to establish if any video of the shooting exists and Noor has already hired an attorney, according to local Minneapolis news.

The Mayor, who previously posted on Facebook she 'wanted to take a moment to recognize Officer Mohamed Noor, the newest Somali officer in the Minneapolis Police Department', demanded fast answers as the investigation began on Monday.

The BCA are handling the investigation as part of an agreement made in 2014 so the Minneapolis police don't investigate themselves in sensitive 'critical incident' cases, aimed at bolstering trust in the police.

Mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges (pictured) said a 'key question' for investigators was why the cops' body cameras were off

JUSTINE DAMON'S SHOOTING: WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE ARE WAITING FOR What we know Justine Damon, 40, an Australian living with her American fiance in Minneapolis, called the police to report a sexual assault in the alley near her home. Officers Mohamed Noor and Matthew Harrity arrived at the property on Washburn and 53rd St, Minneapolis, Minnesota, before 11.30pm on Saturday. Justine Damon, 40, an Australian living with her American fiance in Minneapolis called the police to report a sexual assault in the alley near her home (pictured is her home and the alley that runs alongside it) Officers Mohamed Noor and Matthew Harrity arrived at the property on Washburn and 53rd St, Minneapolis, Minnesota, (pictured) before 11.30pm Neither of the officers switched on their body cameras. Harrity, the squad car driver, was speaking to Damon who was stood outside the car window when Noor leaned across him and opened fire. Noor shot multiple times, hitting Damon once in the abdomen. She died at 11.51pm from the gunshot wound, the autopsy revealed. Harrity was reportedly 'stunned' by his partner's actions. Both cops have been placed on administrative leave. The investigation is being conducted by a state agency, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, rather than internally by Minneapolis police. There were no weapons recovered from the scene of the shooting. What we don't know It is still unclear why Noor shot the unarmed woman. While some had theorized he may have perceived the meditation instructor as a threat to his partner, Harrity's surprised reaction, according to sources, makes that less likely. The BCA are handling the investigation as part of an agreement made in 2014 so the Minneapolis police don't investigate themselves in sensitive 'critical incident' cases, aimed at bolstering trust in the police. Harrity was interviewing Damond, when Noor reportedly reached across him and shot her (cops at the scene after the shooting) One of the officers called dispatch for emergency medical crews but Damond died at just before midnight (crime scene teams at the site of the shooting) Therefore, Minneapolis police and the city do not have information on the current investigation, according to the Mayor who called the lack of information 'frustrating.' The BCA say they are examining the evidence and are working with the officers' attorneys to schedule interviews. Only once the interviews are complete, will they release more information on how and why the shooting occurred. Once their investigation is complete, they will present their findings to a county attorney. It is also unclear why the officers never turned on their bodycams. Procedure dictates the cameras are supposed to be turned on prior to use of force, during 'any contact involving criminal activity', and 'during their shift at all times when they could reasonably anticipate that they may become involved in a situation for which activation is appropriate in accordance with this policy.' This will likely be a question posed by the BCA investigators. Advertisement

However, that means the city and Minneapolis police do not have details on the investigation.

The BCA say they are examining the evidence and are working with the officers' attorneys to schedule interviews. Only once the interviews are complete, will they release more information on how and why the shooting occurred.

'I have the same questions you do, and I seek the same answers you seek,' said Mayor Hodges.

'This process is difficult, but I want to be sure we get this right.'

Police Chief Janee Harteau told CNN she has called for the investigation 'to be expedited to provide transparency and to answer as many questions as quickly as we can.'

On Monday, Justine's fiance Don Damond said the family were 'desperate for information' about her shooting - which he referred to as a homicide.

Her heartbroken parents spoke for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, describing their shock at their daughter's death and calling on 'the light of justice to shine down'.

'We thought yesterday was our worst nightmare but we awoke to the ugly truth and it hurt even more,' an exhausted John Ruszczyk said, flanked by his wife.

'Justine, our daughter, was so special to us and so many others. We went down to Freshy (Freshwater) beach this morning and saw the blackness turn to light.

'Justine was a beacon to all of us, we only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death.'

Don Damond, fiance of an Australian woman shot dead by police after she called 911 to report a sexual assault happening in the alley behind her home, fought back tears as he claimed that the cops have failed to provide any explanation

Don Damond, Ms Damond's fiance, was comforted by a friend after addressing the media

John Ruszczyk (pictured), the heartbroken father of Justine Damond, has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of U.S. police

The 40-year-old was gunned down by Noor, 31, the first Somali-American officer in his precinct.

In a statement released by his attorney, the officer said he takes the family's loss 'seriously and 'keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers'.

'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling. He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing,' the statement read.

'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future.

'At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.'

Mr Damond, who addressed the assembled media from his backyard in Minneapolis, said 'piecing together Justine's last moments before the homicide will be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy.'

'Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine,' he added, as he was comforted by his son Zach during the press conference.

Don's voice broke, and the grieving fiance appeared on the edge of tears, as he described the little he did know about what took place the night Justine died.

Family and friends have been devastated by the loss of Justine Damond (pictured)

'It was Justine that called 911 on Saturday evening reporting what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby.

'Sadly, my family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived.

'We have lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information.'

Damond grew up in the northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well-known Dymocks bookstore in the local shopping mall.

A bright and bubbly young woman, she completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before going on to study at the University of Sydney.

In 2002, she graduated with a bachelor degree in veterinary science, but her passion for life and neuroscience saw her eventually pursue a career in healing.

Training to become a therapist, she went on to start up her 'meditate, evolve, create' business, through which she ran workshops, clinics and provided online advice.

But her life changed upon meeting American businessman Don Damond, with the pair entering a relationship that resulted in her moving to be with him in the US.

Don described Justine as 'kind and so darn funny'.

'She touched so many people. She was a teacher to so many, in living a life of openness, kindness and love,' he said. 'She made us all laugh with her great wit and her humor.'

'Our lives are forever changed as a result of knowing her. It's difficult to fathom how to go forward without her in my life.'

Justine Damond (pictured with her husband to be) was shot dead in her pyjamas by police in the United States, after calling 911 to report a disturbance in an alley near her home at South Minneapolis, Minnesota

Don's voice broke, and the grieving fiance appeared on the edge of tears, as he described the little he did know about what took place the night Justine died

Don, who promised to provide further statements as more information came to light, also thanked friends, family and strangers for 'the amazing outpouring of love and support that we received' after the loss of Justine.

'The death of Justine is a loss to everyone who knew her.'

On her therapy website , Justine described seeing many of her family members suffer with cancer as being an influence on her taking up a career in 'healing and transforming' lives.

She regularly appeared at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Centre teaching meditation and yoga classes, with many of her sessions posted to the the LSHC YouTube page.

But a friend of Ms Damond revealed that in addition to her professional help, she also selflessly went above and beyond for her friends.

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help, Fox 9 reports.

'That's just the kind of person Justine was,' Mrs Peterson said.

The shooting occurred near the intersection of 51st Street and Washburn Avenue South, in the city's Fulton neighborhood.

Community leader: Officer Noor (center) met with Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges (not pictured) in 2016 where she praised him for joining the police force

Meeting and greeting: Mayor Hodges posted this picture of Officer Noor in his uniform to her Facebook page in 2016 along with a tribute to him

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) - the state agency investigating the shooting - has so far kept tight-lipped on how the circumstances that led to the death of the yoga and meditation teacher.

They have admitted that no weapons were recovered from the scene and according to the Star Tribune witnesses to the shooting have described Damond approaching the police cruiser in the alley behind her house.

She was holding her cell phone and talking to an officer on the driver's side before she was shot.

The only concrete statement the BCA has made so far is to confirm that 'at one point an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman'.

Meanwhile the cop who shot her, was already under investigation for 'violently' forcing a woman to hospital, court documents allege.

Noor, who joined the Minneapolis Police in March 2015, has reportedly had three complaints made against him in two years - including a lawsuit.

Two are from 2017 and one from 2016 is closed and according to Lou Raguse of Kare 11 is marked 'not to be made public'.

Supporters used chalk to share colourful messages of love near the alleyway where Ms Damond was killed on Saturday night

The messages were accompanied by the names of others who had been shot my police

The lawsuit stems from a police call on May 25, 2017, when Noor and two other officers took a woman to hospital and she claimed that they carried out false imprisonment, assault and battery.

According to the ongoing lawsuit, the woman claimed that Noor 'grabbed her right wrist and upper arm' when moving her, leaving her 'immobilized'.

The woman, a retired social worker from Minneapolis, alleged that she had called 911 to 'report an unknown young male who was sitting on her retaining wall behind her house smoking marijuana.'

Officers followed up on her complaint but returned to her home at 8pm to carry out a welfare check after 'one or more relatives' allegedly complained to police that she had 'some sort of mental health problem'.

WHY DID POLICE HAVE THEIR BODY CAMERAS TURNED OFF? - The use of body cameras, or portable video recorders (PVR), was initiated in Minneapolis during 2016. - Police introduced the technology in an effort to reduce complaints about the behavior of officers and also to ensure vital video evidence was captured. - In Minneapolis, where Ms Ruszczyk died, the cameras must be manually switched on by police. They are automatic in other parts of the US. - According to Minneapolis government's policy, the body cameras must be turned on when they anticipate they may be involved in a certain situation. - Situations where they must be switched on include: Traffic stops, arrests, physical confrontations, crimes in progress and suspicious person stops. - It was last week revealed that the usage of body cameras among officers in Minneapolis was low as 4% in some areas when responding to 911 calls. Source: Minneapolis Government Advertisement

The woman alleged that she told the officers to leave but they forced a way into her home through a screen door and told her she was going to hospital for a 'mental health crisis.'

'Defendant Officer Noor grabbed Plaintiff's phone from her hand and then grabbed her right wrist and upper arm, thereby immobilizing her,' the complaint alleged.

She was eventually released from hospital one and a half hours later after a physician ordered that she was discharged, according to the court documents.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told the Star Tribune on Monday the police officers' body cameras should have been operating when they responded to Ms Damond's call.

'I do understand this, they were driving down an alley, the victim approached the car. That's not necessarily a time you must [be taping], but frankly I think it's a time you should,' he said.

The county attorney said he would decide whether or not to charge Noor with the shooting.

Noor, 31, has in the past been personally praised by Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges.

He also holds a degree in administration and economics.

Minneapolis Chief of Police Janee Harteau issued a statement on Monday calling the death tragic.

'I have many of the same questions and it is why we immediately asked for an external and independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting death,' said Harteau.

Many of Justine's family, friends and loved ones were emotional at the press conference

'I also want to assure you that I understand why so many people have so many questions at this point. I've asked for the investigation to be expedited to provide transparency and to answer as many questions as quickly as we can.'

On Monday morning the heartbroken stepson of Damond appeared outside his home and had harsh words for Officer Noor.

'Why? Why did you do it?,' said Zach Damond.

'He has no idea the impact that he had on thousands of people. No idea.'

'I hope that he wakes up every single day and thinks about it, and then I hope that he thinks about how he can be a better person because that's what she did every single day. And if you don't do that, then you're not even living, either, man.'

Both Noor and his partner, the driver of the squad car, have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

On Saturday night, Damond had called 911 to attend a noise and possible assault in the alley, and was reportedly speaking to the two officers through the driver's side window when the officer in the front passenger seat shot her through the driver's side door.

Justine Damond's death has sparked fury, both in the the US and in Australia where it is front page news

Neighbours told The Star Tribune they came out of their home to investigate the flashing lights and saw police trying to revive Ms Damond, who was lying on the ground.

Ms Damond had a well-known stance against guns, and there was no way she would have been armed on Saturday night, her friend Hannah, 21, told the paper.

She also explained Damond (nee Ruszczyk), who had already taken her fiance's last name, often spoke about the benefits of Australia's tight gun control.

Despite her misgivings, Damond had elected to give up her life in Sydney for one in Minneapolis, where she lived with her fiance Don, who she described as the 'amazing, handsome hilarious, rockstar love of my life'.

Damond was due to marry fiance Don Damond, a former musician, in August, and become a step-mother to his 22-year-old son Zach.

At the time of the shooting Mr Damond, the vice president of Little Six Casino, was away on business.

Her soon-to-be stepson Zach was reportedly also not at the home on Saturday night, returning on Sunday to discover the crime scene.

And just hours after the shooting he spoke to a local activist group, slamming police over the death of Ms Damond - who he called his 'best friend'.

'Basically my mum's dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don't know,' Zach Damond said.

'I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. I'm so done with all this violence. It's so much bulls**t. America sucks.

'She was a very passionate woman, she thought something bad was happening - and next thing you know they take my best friend's life.'

Damond's Australian-based family released a statement through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday afternoon.

'This is a very difficult time for our family. We are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened,' the statement read.

'We will not make any further comment or statement and ask that you respect our privacy.'

Damond attended Manly High School and the University of Sydney.

Her friend Matt Omo, an Australian, told the ABC he hoped something positive could come from the tragedy.

'I only hope this evolves into something that can make a positive impact for the world,' he said.

Family friend Julia Reed addressed media on Monday, and said the woman would be 'undoubtedly' very missed.

Ms Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, was originally from Sydney but had been living in the US for three years and was engaged to marry American businessman Don Damond (right), 50, in August

'She was treasured and loved - we will miss her dreadfully,' she said.

Ms Reed, who had known Damond for 32 years, said she would miss: '[Justine's] energy, intelligence, and the joy she brought to my life'.

Friend Marcus Ritchie mourned 'one of the world's most caring and sensitive souls', and called her 'a true inspiration to us all' in a Facebook post.

'There is no way to justify this incident as Justine Ruszczyk was such a beautiful person,' he wrote.

'There will be a lot to answer for!'

Originally trained as a vet at the University of Sydney, she was 'supporting individuals and organizations to discover the power and potential within their own brains and hearts.'

Ms Damond regularly held sessions at the Lake Harriet Spritual Centre, with many of her talks recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

She grew up on Sydney's northern beaches, with her father John the owner of a Dymocks bookstore at Warringah Mall and a prominent member of the community.

Hundreds gathered outside the Damond home in the hours after her death to hold a vigil for the woman, with her neighbours remembering a 'beautiful light'.

'This woman was a beautiful light, she was a healer, she was loved, she should be alive - she should still be here,' one friend said.

Pictures showed a large group of people holding hands in a drive way, with colourful chalk drawings on the pavement - including a heart with 'Justine' written inside, and a red and a yellow rose laid on either side.

Heartbroken: Zach Damond spoke to reporters outside his home on Monday morning and said he hopes the police officer who shot Justine Damond dead on Saturday night suffers

Just hours after the shooting Zach Damond (pictured), her heartbroken soon-to-be stepson, spoke with close friends of the woman and slammed police over her death

Her stepson Zach shared images from the event in his Instagram story, writing: 'people really showed love, thank you'.

One image showed a sign which read: 'Why did you shoot and kill our neighbour and friend?'.

The placard was surrounded by flowers, candles and a letter.

Nearby, a tea towel with an image of Australia was hung on a brick wall.

In a statement, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said an investigation was in its early stages, but that police did not have their body cameras on during the incident.

Less than a week earlier it was revealed that officers across the city were using body cameras at what appeared to be a low amounts, despite their high-profile roll out.

Under Minneapolis Police Department policy, officers 'should manually activate their PVR (portable video recorder) to Record Mode when reasonably safe and practical' in situations including 'suspicious person stops' and 'crimes in progress'.

Mayor Hodges said she was disturbed by the shooting and called on BCA to release information about Damond's death as quickly as possible.

'As mayor of our city, a wife, and a grandmother, I am heartsick and deeply disturbed by what occurred last night,' Mayor Hodges said, the Star Tribune reports.

'There are still many questions about what took place, and while the investigation is still in its early stages, I am asking the BCA to release as much information, as quickly as they are able to.

'My thoughts are now with everyone affected by this tragic incident, especially the deceased woman and her family.'
The daughters of a woman killed in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing have released a heartfelt tribute to their mother.

Mother-of-three Jane Tweddle, 51, was one of 22 victims of terrorist Salman Abedi, who blew himself up in the lobby of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22.

School receptionist Ms Tweddle, from Blackpool, was at the venue with a friend to pick up her friend's daughter when she was caught in the blast.

Her daughters - Harriet, Lily and Isabelle Taylor - said their mother always tried to keep them smiling with practical jokes and took them on walks in the country with their dog Marley.

Harriet, Lily and Isabelle Taylor have paid tribute to their mother (centre right) Jane Tweddle after she was killed in the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena

In a tribute released today, they said: 'There are no words for how we feel - our mum was every part of us.

'She is our strength, our laughter, our inner warrior, our kindness and our compassion. Forever we will hold on to those traits for it is our mum who instilled them in us.

'If you knew our mum well enough, you'd know she didn't have the greatest luck in the world, and we think back to that night and if only she had one second of luck on her side we wouldn't be writing this.

'But then we thought maybe our mum was the only person who was strong enough to have all this bad luck and to keep on going, keep on smiling, to keep on helping other people, going out of her way to make sure everyone around her was smiling.'

The daughters said Ms Tweddle was always smiling and did everything to make them happy

The statement continued: 'Our mum never gave up on smiling and being happy.

'Our house was full of laughter and love - mum was always going out of her way to make sure us girls were happy, even if she had a bad day she'd still put all her effort in to crack a smile out of us.

'She was our mum, our best friend, our everything. She taught us everything we know, raised us and she was the light of our life, and it'll never be as bright without her.

'She will always be with us, the three of us together are our mum and we will do our best in life to make her so proud.'

The tribute ended: 'Like our mum used to sing (a lot) 'every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure'. Our mum is and always will be our treasure.'

A total of 22 people were killed and around 250 injured in the suicide bombing in May

They also thanked police family liaison officers Dermot Murray and Mike Brook, who have been looking after the family, and CitySuites Manchester, who accommodated some of the victim's families in the city, and her mother's employers, South Shore Academy in Blackpool.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a home-made device in a lobby of a Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, slaughtering 22 people.

Police have said they believe he may have had help and are expecting to question his brother, who is being held in Libya.
BISMARCK, N.D.  A prosecutor has asked to dismiss the felony charge against a protester accused of threatening a pipeline security guard with a knife.

Morton County Assistant State's Attorney Gabrielle Goter asked Judge Joel Medd to drop the case against Brennon Nastacio, 37, of Colorado.

"The victim has made ongoing and various statements, which raise significant doubt as to whether the state could meet its burden of proof with regard to the charge of terrorizing," she wrote in a motion filed Friday.

The charge arises from an incident on Oct. 27, when protesters were cleared from a northern "front line" camp. Authorities say Michael Fasig and Israel Hernandez, also protesters, crashed their cars into a security worker's vehicle in order to get him off the road. Nastacio allegedly walked toward the man with a knife.

Security guard Kyle Thompson, who was wearing a bandanna over his face and carrying an assault rifle, was reportedly driving down Highway 1806 to take photos of burning Dakota Access Pipeline equipment.

Since that time, Thompson has said he understands now why the protesters acted as they did and thinks it was "propaganda and everything that really heightened my sense of how dangerous things could be."

"The water protectors that day, they had a mission to protect their own people," Thompson told Myron Dewey, of Digital Smoke Signals, in a Facebook interview on July 12. "It was just a miscommunication on both sides, I believe, that made us do what we did."

Nastacio's attorney, Bruce Nestor, said he believed his client was never terrorizing, but rather acting "in the defense of others."

"Its been our position from the beginning that Thompson had no ID on him, no ID on this truck. He was an individual armed with an assault rifle with his face covered, driving erratically," Nestor said. "The people that intervened did so out of a desire to protect other people."

Nestor said the dismissal came just days before he was scheduled to depose Thompson and former Bureau of Criminal Investigations agent Scott Betz, who investigated the case. The attorney hoped the deposition would provide insight on the workings of Tigerswan and other private security firms, such as Leighton Services, for whom Thompson worked.

Nestor added that he believed the dismissal countered some of the law enforcement narrative of violent protesters threatening workers trying to do their jobs.

It was a false narrative at the time. The fact that the charges have been dismissed reinforces that," he said.

Nastacio, who works in construction, still faces felony charges of civil disorder and lighting fires on Oct. 27.

The charges against Fasig and Hernandez remain. The men have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial on Oct. 5.

Goter did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Holocaust survivors who met Kate and William returned to the Nazi death camp they were liberated from for the first time today and described the horror of seeing innocent people murdered 'one by one' in front of them.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walked through the so-called death gates to the Stutthof concentration camp with Zigi Shipper and Manfred Goldberg, both 87, who were imprisoned there aged 14.

The lifelong friends have returned to the Nazi extermination camp for the first time since 1945 and were among 110,000 prisoners from 28 countries held there.

More than 65,000 would be murdered and more than a third of those victims were Jewish - but Mr Shipper and Mr Goldberg would survive and arrived in Britain in just their clothes without speaking any English, MailOnline can reveal.

Mr Goldberg said today: 'Jewish lives just did not count. We had to assemble in a square. They had erected an enormous gallows with eight nooses hanging down, then one by one we had to watch these innocent men being hanged.'

The Duchess of Cambridge with Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg and the Duke of Cambridge with survivor Zigi Shipper at the former Nazi concentration camp at Stutthof in Poland

The royals walked through the so-called death gates with the men, both 87, who were imprisoned there aged 14 and were lucky to leave alive in 1945

The men returned to the Nazi extermination camp for the first time since 1945 and were among 110,000 prisoners - they told Kate and William about life there

Lifelong friends Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper (left to right in Germany in liberation in 1945) came to Britain in one set of clean clothes each and not speaking English

The friends were liberated in May 1945 by British tanks surrounding the barge on which they were about to be loaded - it was to be towed out to sea and then blown up with Jews packed into it.

Zigi Shipper (pictured today) said that William and Kate were 'very moved' by what they saw at the camp

In 1946 they both arrived on a ship to Hull and their only possessions were the clothes they were stood up in.

Zigi Shipper said today that William and Kate were 'very moved' by what they saw at the camp - and the royals admitted they were 'very honoured' to meet the brave men.

He said: 'You could see their faces. They were in pain', especially after they were shown the mountain of shoes belonging to the 65,000 people who died at hands of the Nazis.

Mr Shipper said he 'most probably' wouldn't have returned to Stutthof if it wasn't for the royal visit but said he realised how 'important' it was to come back now he has returned.

He has returned to Auschwitz-Birkenau several times, where he was also held.

He said: 'I asked myself many times why don't I want to go to Stutthof. I don't know. But when I came I realised how important it was.'

Zigi said that when he was a prisoner in the camp he was doing 'nothing, no work at all'.

He added: 'We were just trying to keep warm, huddled together.

'Then after a while the inside people would go out so the outside people could get warm.'

Manfred, pictured aged 15 in 1946, and Zigi, right in England in 1948 aged 17, lost many relatives in the death camps they escaped

Zigi Shipper and Manfred Goldberg, 87, were sent to the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk in Poland by the Nazis when they were just 14 - they shared food and cared for one another and others in the battle to survive

Holocaust Survivor Zigi Shipper addresses the England football squad in 2012 - he has spoken across the world about his life

He said about the royal visit: 'When a royal goes and it's put on the television or in the paper, people say 'why don't we go?'

'And that's what we want.

'People should know that it wasn't just Auschwitch-Birkenau, it wasn't just Bergen-Belsen, look at all the other camps.'

He said he thought William and Kate were 'very moved'.

28,000 Jews were among the 65,000 murdered at Stutthof.

Both Mr Shipper and Mr Goldberg became friends there after the majority of their families were murdered.

Today they have spoken of the brutality of the Nazis they saw first-hand and described their hell to Kate and William.

Describing the comradeship between prisoners Mr Shipper said: 'I said to my friends I can't walk, they said they'll help me, that was him and other people like that. Had it not been for them, I would not have been here today. I wouldn't have survived.

Mr Goldberg added: 'If one of us got a bit more food than the other, we were able to share. None of us knew any morning whether we would still be alive that evening, quite literally life was a lottery.'

Zigi Shipper (right, centre in the black shirt) with his wife Jeanette (pictured in the striped jacket) with their children, grandchildren and great grandson

Manfred Goldberg with his wife Sharey in Tel Aviv - he started talking about his life in recent years

Mr Goldberg pictured with his younger brother, who was murdered by the Nazis. Manfred was reunited with his parents in Britain

The teenagers were taken in by Britain in 1945 travelling from Hamburg to Hull by ship - and neither could speak English.

Holocaust survivors Zigi Shipper's return to the former Nazi death-camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland

Mr Shipper's mother was living in London and they had not seen each other since he was five. The 15-year-old found out he had a stepfather because he was waiting for him on the dock.

He said: 'The first thing I remember him asking was "Where is your luggage?" I burst out laughing and replied in Yiddish "What I'm wearing is what I have with me!

'We boarded a train and left for London arriving in the West End of London to my mother's apartment. I was a little apprehensive and didn't know what to expect. When we met it was very traumatic - both of us cried hugged each other'.

Tragically he would later discover that his beloved grandmother died on the last day of the Second World War before she could become a free woman. His father also died in the war.

Describing his new life in Britain he said: 'For the first six months all I did was go to the cinema, eat, drink, and sleep'.

Mr Shipper said he learned English and trained to be a tailor but 'hated' his job and struggled to make friends.

But his life changed one Saturday night after being invited to a youth club in Belsize Park and discovered many other Holocaust survivors attended.

Having lost most of his family in concentration camps he said they became his 'brothers and sisters'.

A few months later he met his wife Jeanette and they had daughter Michelle in 1956 and Lorraine in 1961.

The couple ran a deli and then joined his father-in-law's stationery business, which he worked in until his retirement.

He now has grandchildren and a great grandson.

Mr Shipper, was returning to Auschwitz for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp and took his grandson Elliott Stern, 16 (pictured together)

Mr Shipper and his friend Manfred have educated thousands of children about the Holocaust - Mr Shipper shown here meeting Gordon Brown when he was PM

He said recently: 'Both my daughters are happily married and I have four grandsons and two granddaughters. You cannot imagine how I felt when my oldest grandson was Barmitzvah'd, when in his speech he said he would like to share his Barmitzvah with me as I was never able to have one of my own. I was able to share this with my 9 closest friends, also survivors like me who I have been together with for the last fifty or so years. Having no brothers or sisters, they are my brothers and sisters'.

His friend Manfred Goldberg was nine and living in Germany when war broke out in 1939.

He, his mother and a younger brother spent the conflict largely imprisoned in various labour and concentration camps.

But after being freed he arrived in in England in 1946 with his mother - but his younger brother was taken away by the Nazis and never found.

He also spoke no English aged 15 but by the age 24 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science and then spent his career in the electronics industry.

He married and had four children but for most of his life felt unable to speak about the horrors he saw in the war.

But Holocaust deniers and a rise in anti-Semitism made him upset and now regularly addresses schools across Britain.
A couple that disappeared in the Alps 75 years ago has been found preserved in a receding glacier, ending decades of uncertainty for their seven children, Swiss media reported on Tuesday.

The bodies were found lying near each other in the Diablerets massif in southern Switzerland, along with backpacks, a bottle, a book and a watch.

The head of the Glacier 3000 ski resort, Bernard Tschannen, said that the bodies were found last Thursday.

The bodies of a couple that disappeared 75 years ago were found lying in the Diablerets massif in southern Switzerland, on Thursday, along with backpacks, a bottle, a book and a watch

Francine Dumoulin, 37, (left) and her husband Marcelin, 40, before their death

'It was a man and a woman wearing clothes from the last (world) war', Tschannen told the Le Matin daily. 'The ice preserved them perfectly and their belongings were intact'.

Marcelin Dumoulin, a 40-year-old shoemaker at the time, and his wife Francine, a schoolteacher aged 37, had left their village of Chandolin to milk their cows in a meadow above Chandolin in the Valais canton on August 15, 1942.

The couple never returned from their trip, and Tschannen said that the couple had likely fallen into a crevasse.

A DNA search has been planned to definitively establish their identities, but Marceline Udry-Dumoulin said she believed the remains were of her parents, Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin.

'We spent our whole lives searching for them, without stopping. We never thought we'd be able to give them the funeral they deserved,' Dumoulin, who was four when her parents went missing, told Le Matin.

Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin left home in the village of Chandolin (bottom left) 1942 to milk their cows in a nearby pasture, but never returned

The bodies were found close to the Glacier 3000 ski resort (pictured) last Thursday, according to Bernard Tschannen, the head of the resort

'I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm,' added the 79-year-old.

Searches were carried out for more than two months but ultimately the seven orphans - five boys and two girls - were placed in foster homes.

'It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier,' Udry-Dumoulin said.

'After a while, we children were separated and placed in families. I was lucky to stay with my aunt,' she said. 'We all lived in the region but became strangers.'

'For the funeral, I won't wear black. I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost.'
A retired chief of the Australian Defence Force has claimed Australia will soon be invaded, warning of the increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Admiral Chris Barrie has said the conflict happening now is similar to the conditions that led to World War 1.

'Australia is plunging headlong into catastrophe and we are utterly unprepared,' he said in an analysis published by ABC News.

A retired chief of the Australian Defence Force has claimed Australia will soon be invaded, warning of the increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region (stock image)

Admiral Chris Barrie (pictured) has said the conflict happening now is similar to the conditions that led to World War 1

A Japanese diplomat this week called for action to stop North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns (pictured) missile program

The parallels with First World War - Britain the dominant power, Germany the rising and aggressive challenger - are obvious. So too today with the United States and China (US President Donald Trump pictured)

'The time-bomb is ticking and it will explode in our lifetimes.'

The parallels with First World War - Britain the dominant power, Germany the rising and aggressive challenger - are obvious.

So too today with the United States and China.

The second idea is that the European powers 'sleepwalked' into WWI, a terrible conflict that was in no-one's interests, that no-one really wanted and that grievously weakened both sides (apart from the US, a late entrant).

It's a term that's gained considerable currency, particularly through Cambridge historian Christopher Clark's book The Sleepwalkers.

Barrie kicked the idea along recently, saying that one small event - the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo - led to war.

Australia will soon be invaded, former Australian Defence Force chief claims (stock image)

A satellite image shows what CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says appears to be anti-aircraft guns and what are likely to be close-in weapons systems (CIWS) on the artificial island Subi Reef in the South China Sea

'Why? Because the world was antsy, arms races were on, people were highly nationalistic,' Barrie said.

'All of those conditions exist now.'

At the least all this suggests our leaders should be well read in the hope that they don't repeat the mistakes of the past.
Amber Harrison blames the 'boys' club' for being left with a hefty legal bill after her bitter battle with Channel Seven.

Ms Harrison has said she doesn't regret speaking out, despite a court finding she acted 'unreasonably' in her case against Seven West Media.

The ex-lover of Seven boss Tim Worner has been at the centre of a long-running dispute with the broadcaster after she publicly revealed details of the affair in December.

Ms Harrison was ordered to pay all Seven West Media's legal costs after a judge on Monday found she made allegations she could not substantiate.

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Amber Harrison blames the 'boys' club' for being left with a hefty legal bill after her bitter battle with Channel Seven

The single mother of one insists she won't pay the bill - which could total hundreds of thousands of dollars - because it would send her bankrupt.

In an interview with the ABC, she said she'd like her case to be a lesson to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

'My case is a lesson in how many ways can you screw a girl,' she said.

'I think the boys' club has shown that they are still, for now, in control.'

While Ms Harrison admits she made some mistakes, she says she was driven to breach a confidentiality agreement about the relationship after fighting to resolve the matter for more than two years.

Ms Harrison was ordered to pay all Seven West Media's legal costs after a judge on Monday found she made allegations she could not substantiate

'When I was exhausted emotionally and financially and left ruined in December of 2016, I made a decision that the court system does not serve an individual,' she said.

'It serves a company who knows its way around it and I took the path that I took.

'And no, I did not regret that.'

While Ms Harrison says it will be difficult figuring out how to financially support her son, she remains unapologetic.

'I think (Seven) won in court by bankrupting me, but the court of public opinion is very different and I've had overwhelming support,' she said.

Ms Harrison, the ex-lover of Seven boss Tim Worner (above), has been at the centre of a long-running dispute with the broadcaster after she publicly revealed details of the affair

She also fired a warning to the 'boys' club' that she believes dominates Australian business.

'I think my case is a wake-up call for them and I hope it changes things, changes the culture,' she said.

The media company had sought a permanent gag order to stop Ms Harrison from leaking company details and argued her social media posts had breached her employment contract.

Justice John Sackar on Monday found she had decided to contest the company's claim and run a cross-claim, mounted on allegations she wasn't able to back up.
Footage of the astounding rescue of a man found on the wrong side of a second-floor railing at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday night has been shared online.

A man, identified as 46-year-old Australian Gregory Lee Butler by airport staff, is seen gripping on to the railing as he stands on the small ledge separating the second floor from the first.

He is joined by another man, Austrian Erol Buyuk, who appears to be trying to coax him back over the glass fencing.

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Australian man Gregory Butler(left) is seen on the second floor ledge of Bali Airport, where he appears to be arguing with another man, Austrian Erol Buyuk

Gregory Lee Butler (pictured) was pulled off an Air Asia flight after 'banging on the cockpit door', reports say

The pair argue, and after Mr Butler swings his arm to warn the Austrian man off, he appears to be grabbed by staff, who drag him back to safety.

In the background, a large crowd is seen cheering on the airport staff.

The drama reportedly began when Mr Butler boarded an Air Asia flight from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur.

Airline staff called security to detain him, and during an interrogation, no drugs or narcotics were found in his bags.

Mr Butler then allegedly then climbed over the second-floor railing.

After swinging his arm at Mr Buyuk, Mr Butler is dragged to safety by airport staff

His flight was cancelled and he was administered with sedatives before being sent to Sanglah hospital, News Corp reported.

'I didn't want to jump, I was standing on the edge. Would you jump?' Butler said to media regarding the 25-metre gap between himself and the floor.

'I wanted to bring attention to certain situation regarding Government officials, that's why I thought I could do it,' he said.

For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis line on 13 11 14.
Failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has seen her poll numbers decline since her stunning defeat  and they are even worse than President Trump's.

Her approval rating stands at just 39 per cent in the latest Bloomberg National poll  two points below Trump's rating.

Clinton's numbers have been on a mostly steady decline since she gave up her position as globe-trotting secretary of state and began positioning herself for a run for office.

It took another hit after it was revealed she had a private email server  but also declined after she lost the White House to Trump, even as she exceeded his popular vote total by about 2 million votes.

Failed 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's favorability is even worse than President Trump's in a new poll

Trump's slightly superior, though similarly bad rating, comes as the president fends off a Russia probe, courts blocking his immigration order, the inability to repeal Obamacare, and a series of press reports about potential conflicts of interest affecting the president and close family members.

Clinton has been relatively quiet since her defeat, emerging to take walks with her husband, attend plays in New York  and deliver a few scorching comments about Trump, fired FBI director James Comey, and Russia's influence on the campaign.

'There's growing discontent with Hillary Clinton even as she has largely stayed out of the spotlight,' said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll. 'It's not a pox on the Democratic house because numbers for other Democrats are good.'

In one sharp-edged comment, Clinton brought up 'obstruction of justice' in a speech to graduates of Wellesley College as she compared Trump to Richard Nixon.

Clinton's popularity has been on the decline since she stepped down as secretary of state  and continued to slide following her loss to President Trump

IN THE WILDERNESS: Hillary Clinton seen on Thursday November 10, 2016 in Chappaqua

Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the media after keynoting a Women's Empowerment Event at the United Nations on March 10, 2015 in New York City. Clinton answered questions about recent allegations of an improperly used email account during her tenure as Secretary of State

Clinton's poll numbers took a hit when it was revealed she kept a private email server

President Trump's slightly superior, though similarly bad rating, comes as the president fends off a Russia probe, courts blocking his immigration order, the inability to repeal Obamacare, and a series of press reports about potential conflicts of interest affecting the president and close family members.

Clinton's favorability hit a lowpoint in the poll in September 2015 as she battled Sen. Bernie Sanders for the nomination

'We were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice,' Clinton said  as members of the crowd at the liberal campus erupted into cheers.

Then she brought up Nixon's 'firing the the person running the investigation into him at the Department of Justice'  a line that brought laughs and more cheers.

In interviews with Bloomberg for the poll, respondents indicated they were not blaming Clinton for having run the campaign that helped deliver Trump's victory.

She did not feel authentic or genuine to me, said California insurance agent Chris Leininger. She was hard to like. He added: 'But I dont blame her for Trump. There were a lot of factors that fed into Trump becoming a president and she was just one of them.'

Clinton's problem appears to be personal. Former President Barack Obama's approval rating has risen to 61 per cent, and former vice president Joe Biden  who begged off a 2016 run  is at 60 per cent. Both men are at a high point since the poll started tracking them in 2009.

Back in May, Clinton blamed fired FBI director James Comey  who oversaw the investigation of her emails  and Russia, while declaring herself part of the 'resistance' against Trump.

If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,' Clinton told CNN at a Women for Women International event in New York City.

'I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comeys letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off  and the evidence for that intervening event is, I think, compelling [and] persuasive, Clinton said.
A New York nanny who is accused of fatally stabbing two young children had complained to a police officer about her job just days after the killings.

NYPD sergeant Yoel Hidalgo testified in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday that Yoselyn Ortega had made voluntary statements to him while he was guarding her at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center back in October 2012.

The 55-year-old nanny, who had a breathing tube in her throat, allegedly complained to the officer about her working conditions with the family two days after the children were stabbed to death.

Yoselyn Ortega, 55, (pictured in court in January) is accused of stabbing two young children to death while she was working as a nanny in New York's Upper West Side in October 2012

Ortega is accused of killing six-year-old Lucia (left) and two-year-old Leo (right) while their mother was out shopping with the middle child. She also tried to slit her throat with a knife

She had been working for Kevin and Marina Krim in the Upper West Side apartment where she cared for their three young children.

Ortega is accused of killing six-year-old Lucia and two-year-old Leo while their mother was out with the middle child. After she allegedly stabbed the children, Ortega also tried to slit her own throat with a kitchen knife.

She was found lying on the floor next to the bathtub where the children's bodies were found.

While she was in hospital recovering, Sgt Hidalgo said the nanny grunted, mouthed words and pointed to letters on an alphabet chart to speak to the officer, the New York Post reports.

He said he was 'reading her lips' to get the voluntary statements from her.

'I had to do everything and take care of the kids,' she said in Spanish, according to the officer.

'I worked as a babysitter only, and she wanted me to do everything. She wanted 5 hours of cleaning.'

An NYPD officer testified in court on Monday that Ortega had complained to him about her job just days after the killings. She is pictured above with six-year-old Lucia (right)

Ortega had been working for Kevin and Marina Krim (pictured with their slain daughter Lucia) in the Upper West Side apartment where she cared for their three young children

Ortega's lawyer, Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, argued in court on Monday that the nanny's statements to the officer should be thrown out because she was hospitalized when she made them.

She argued that given Ortega's condition, there was no way she could have conveyed anything.

The lawyer asked Sgt Hidalgo if there was anything in Ortega's mouth during the interview.

'I don't believe there was anything her mouth,' he said in court.

The lawyer showed the court an image of Ortega with tubes coming from her mouth wearing a neck brace.

Hidalgo responded: 'I don't remember her having that piece her mouth.'

The officer told the court he did not force the statements out of Ortega but rather she had indicated she had something to say.

The nanny had claimed Marina Krim (above with Lucia and Leo) was making her take care of the children and clean their apartment

Ortega's lawyer argued in court on Monday that the nanny's statements to the officer should be thrown out because she was hospitalized when she made them

The court hearing is to determine which statements are admissible at Ortega's upcoming murder trial.

Ortega rejected a plea deal last year that could have seen her jailed for 30 years.

Her boss Marina Krim had just picked up her middle child Nessie for a swimming lesson when she arrived back to the Upper West Side apartment on October 25, 2012.

She found her two other children dead in the bathtub and Ortega lying nearby.

Lucia had defensive wounds where she had tried to protect herself as she was stabbed in the stomach and neck. Leo was stabbed twice in the neck.

Police said at the time that both children 'bled out'.

The Dominican immigrant was declared fit to stand trial after undergoing psychiatric tests and denies two counts of murder.
A Melbourne man who was testing out new security cameras at his home got a shock when he reviewed the footage to find a woman stealing food from his garage fridge.

Cameron Sach was sleeping only metres away with his wife in their Narre Warren South home while a cunning thief helped herself to the contents of their refrigerator.

'Imagine my disgust when I have recorded some woman coming into our garage and helping herself to our food in the fridge and chest freezer at 2.30am last night,' he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

A Melbourne man who was testing out new security cameras at his home got a shock when he reviewed the footage to find a woman stealing food from his garage fridge

Cameron Sach was sleeping only metres away with his wife in their Narre Warren South home while a cunning thief helped herself to the contents of his refrigerator

The man said he could move past the amount of food that was taken if people needed something to eat, but the woman left the door open and he had 'lost potentially over $2.5k of frozen goods'.

Mr Sach said he had reached out to the police and provided them with the footage.

He later posted an update to the status citing the food was safe.

'Being such a cold day, and with all the meat sort of made a thermal barrier, so no waste. So no claim thankfully.'

The man said he appreciated the concern from everyone who had reached out.

The man said he could move past the amount of food taken if people so desperately need groceries but was shocked she left the door open potentially damaging thousands of dollars of his food

He hopes the brazen culprit gets the help that she needs.

'I not condoning this action and making my children feel unsafe in our own home, but this person does need assistance if they feel the need to resort to this.'

Mr Sach uploaded the video to a local community page hoping someone will be able to identify her.
A 15-year-old girl died with numerous blood clots in her chest after doctors sent her away twice.

Now the family of Yunique Morris, 15, are accusing the hospital of negligence.

Morris was an active student and cheerleader at Weston Ranch High School in Stockton, California, but several weeks ago began complaining about chest pain.

She went to her doctor at San Joaquin General Hospital, where she was given antibiotics and pain medication for chest wall pain.

Yunique Morris, 15, (left) died with numerous blood clots in her chest after doctors sent her away twice. She was a cheerleader at Weston Ranch High School in Stockton, California

Several weeks ago, she began complaining about chest pain, so she saw her doctor at San Joaquin General Hospital where she was given antibiotics and pain medication for chest wall pain. Her doctors said she would be fine, but her condition got worse

Her doctors said she would be fine, but in the following days, her condition got worse.

'Her health just started going downhill,' Yunique's grandmother Wanda Ely told Fox 40.

'It got to the point where she couldnt even go up and down a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.'

So she went back to San Joaquin General, where she was sent away again.

Her mother even asked for an X-ray, but the family says doctors told them Yunique was experiencing inflammation and that was all.

However, on July 6, Yunique sent her mother a text message saying she needed to go to the hospital because she had passed out after throwing up.

Her older brother Monte took her to the emergency room at San Joaquin General Hospital, where doctors found several blood clots in her chest.

The 15-year-old girl died hours later.

On July 6, she was throwing up and passed out, so her brother rushed her to the emergency room at the hospital, where doctors found numerous blood clots in her chest. She died hours later

Her family won't know exactly what killed Yunique until next week, when an autopsy at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland is completed.

They are currently raising money on GoFundMe for her funeral, which will be held on July 28.

The page describes Yunique as 'a bright shining star on earth gone much too soon'.

'Yunique Morris masqueraded as a typical teenager. She was a Great daughter, a Great Sister, a Great friend. An Honor Roll Student, Athlete and Cheerleader!' the page says.

'She was Love personified. She passed away suddenly.

'It is with unfathomable grief that we prepare to do what no family should ever have to do. We are asking for donations to assist the family in covering these unexpected expenses, in the face of absolute grief.

'She is missed and there is a void in our hearts. Thank you in advance for your donations and prayers in this difficult time, they are greatly appreciated.'

A GoFundMe was started to raise money for the family to pay for funeral expenses. Her funeral will be on July 28. Yunique's grandmother Wanda Ely is pictured
One of the three senior officials forced to resign from Chicago's notorious Water Department amid an email scandal sent colleagues racist, homophobic, and otherwise offensive comments and images to his colleagues.

Commissioner Barrett Murphy, Managing Deputy William Bresnahan and District Superintendent Paul Hansen all lost their jobs prior to the unsavory emails being published after an investigation by City Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

Ferguson's investigation began more than eight months ago. Murphy, Bresnahan and Hansen resigned in May.

The Chicago Tribune reports high-ranking officials in the department were sent emails advertising 'Chicago Safari' tours in areas of the city struggling with gun violence.

The emails, according to the Tribune: 'cited the number of shootings during a July Fourth weekend and guaranteed tourists would observe "at least one kill and five crime scenes" and also see "lots of animals in their natural habitat".'

Also including in the emails were many startlingly offensive images, including 'a scarecrow dressed in a KKK robe in a watermelon field and a picture of a nude woman used to celebrate "heterosexual male pride day",' ABC7 reports.

The network reports Hansen - the son of former Chicago alderman Bernie Hansen - forwarded the KKK email to Murphy in July 2014 under the subject line, 'Watermelon Protection'.

Racist, homophobic and otherwise offensive emails have emerged in the wake of three senior officials with Chicago's notorious Water Department being forced to resign. Commissioner Barrett Murphy (left) and Managing Deputy William Bresnahan (right) quit prior to the emails getting out

Text in the email, which Hansen received from someone else, read: 'God is great, beer is good ... and people are crazy. I'm guessing this would be considered politically incorrect.'

Hansen, according to ABC7, added his own note to Murphy: 'I don't understand.'

The members of the department (pictured) in question were found to have shared or been sent racist, sexist, and other offensive emails

The superintendent, who was earning $122,280 in his role, shared another racist email with Commissioner Murphy after a power company asked city employees to stop works near a power line.

'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,' Hansen wrote to Murphy, according to ABC7.

The ex-alderman's son shared another racist email in April 2014, this time with Managing Deputy Bresnahan, in response to a 16-year-old boy receiving an award for an essay about physical disability, racism, royalty, sexuality, and religion.

Hansen allegedly wrote to Bresnahan the boy won because his essay contained the line: '"My God", cried the Queen. "That one-legged n****r is a queer".'

The Water Department is known for alleging having issues based on race, including a cuurent suit in which right employees claim they have been denied promotions and treated poorly at work as a result of their race. Pictured is the department's Eugene Sawyer facility

Ex-Commissioner Murphy's firing was surprising to some due to the ex-Commissioner's close ties to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel is pictured speaking in January this year

The investigation found Hansen also received an email just week before losing his job on April 19 that showed a woman exposing her breasts, beer taps, and steak and other meats cooking on a barbecue.

The text of the email read: 'To all 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***ing democrats!'

Other emails contained offensive references to President Barack Obama, women, and pictures of a 'an African-American deputy commissioner... that depicted him with a gorilla face', the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Ferguson also found in his investigation Hansen used his official email to negotiate the sale of at least four firearms, according to the Tribune.

The gun emails resulted in the investigation being launched, which led to the discovery of the racist and otherwise offensive materials.

The Sun-Times added the department has long been known for and had a history of: 'corruption and an ugly, hate-filled culture'.

Eight employees with the department have filed a suit against it claiming they have been denied promotions and treated poorly at work as a result of their race.

Murphy's firing was surprising to some due to the ex-Commissioner's close ties to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Hansen was promoted to superintendent just six months after he received a DUI. A police report from the 2010 incident, according to the Sun-Times, stated the alderman's son 'increased his speed to more than 75 mph in a 55 mph zone' when an officer tried to pull him over, while also 'repeatedly crossing the center line'.
Krispy Kreme is returning to Billings, building a new store on Central Avenue Rimrock Mall property where the World West theater once stood, according to a city permit filed by the mall's owner.

Construction of the $327,652 building is underway at 2520 Central Ave. by Starwood Retail Properties, which owns Rimrock.

The stand-alone doughnut shop helps fill a long-stated goal of Rimrock of attracting an eatery to frontage property surrounding the mall.

"We are very pleased at the planned construction of a new tenant. We razed the old movie theater last December to make way for new tenants, and we're on schedule with our overall redevelopment plan for Rimrock," said mall spokesman Daron Olson in a written statement.

He did not immediately identify the franchise owner or when the shop will open.

For Krispy Kreme, it's a return to the Billings market under new ownership following the dramatic rise and crash of the company.

Krispy Kreme opened its original Billings franchise in 2004 at 2850 King Ave. W. More than 100 people stood in line awaiting the first doughnuts served.

The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based firm launched in 1937 and exploded in the 1990s when people flocked to stores to watch workers bake and glaze the doughnuts in assembly lines.

The company underwent massive growth in the early 2000s after it became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Pressure from shareholders led to overbuilding, saturation of markets in larger cities and the eventual shuttering of hundreds of locations, including stores in Billings and Missoula.

Last year, a German investment firm, JAB Beech, completed a $1.35 billion takeover of Krispy Kreme, returning the company to private ownership.

Krispy Kreme also operates stores in Missoula and Kalispell.

Starwood commissioned the demolition of the former theater building last December. It had been vacant for nearly 20 years since the Wynnsong Theater opened a few hundred feet away.

A second building, the former CJs restaurant space, was also torn down, and mall officials have stated they are searching for a new tenant there.
An Iowa couple announced this morning the death of their 18-day-old baby daughter, who has succumbed to a herpes infection likly contracted through a kiss.

For Shane and Nicole Sifrit, this month was supposed to be brimming with joy, marked by the birth of baby Mariana - their first child together - followed by their wedding celebration just days later.

But on July 7, two hours after the new parents exchanged their vows, their six-day-old infant was rushed to the hospital, having contracted a life-threatening herpes infection through a kiss.

On Monday, Nicole Sifrit, 33, said her baby's doctors at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines were running out of options to save her life, and just after 8.40am on Tuesday, Mariana lost her fight against the virus and passed away in her father's arms.

'She is now no longer suffering and is with the Lord,' Nicole wrote in a Facebook post. 'In her 18 days of life she made a huge impact on the world and we hope with Mariana's Story we save numerous newborns life. R.I.P. sweet angel'

Tragic change: Baby Mariana was born to Nicole Sifrit (left) and her husband on July 1. Six days later, she contracted a potentially deadly infection, which claimed hr life on Tuesday

Kissing illness: Doctors diagnosed Mariana with meningitis HSV-1, which is caused by the herpes virus. Both her parents (mom Nicle pictured on her wedding day) tested negative for the virus, suggesting that she had contracted it from someone who had visited the family

The couple told the station WQAD that Mariana had become infected with meningitis HSV-1, which is caused by the herpes virus, also responsible for cold sores.

HERPES MENINGITIS Meningitis may be caused by bacteria, fungi, or other types of germs. But many are caused by viruses. Most are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), the virus that also causes cold sores. This virus can be spread by sexual contact or from an infected mother to her baby during childbirth. HSV1 infection can also be sexually transmitted to the genital area. These viruses remain in the body throughout a person's life, even when they're not causing signs of infection. Symptoms may include fever, light sensitivity, headache, and a stiff neck. If you have other symptoms, such as confusion, seizures, sleepiness, or a focal neurologic deficit  a nerve function problem that affects a specific area  these may suggest that your brain is also affected. Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine Advertisement

According to the Johns Hopkins Health Library, herpes meningitis can be caused by bacteria, and it can be transmitted by sexual contact or passed from an infected mother to the baby during childbirth.

In Mariana's case, however, both of her parents tested negative for the virus, raising the possibility that their daughter had caught the life-threatening illness from someone carrying herpes, but not necessarily showing symptoms, who had visited the family in the days after her birth and kissed her.

Nicole's friend from high school Rachel O'Toole tells DailyMail.com that the 33-year-old woman also has another daughter and two sons from previous relationships.

With her older children, Sifrit did not let anyone outside their immediate family to interact with them while they were newborns, but after Mariana's birth Nicole and Shane allowed visitors at the hospital.

'They are not pointing fingers,' O'Toole noted. 'Its not gonna change anything.'

Mariana came into the world on July 1 as a healthy baby after a complication-free pregnancy and a quick delivery, according to O'Toole. On July 7, Nicole and Shane got married.

But their wedding festivities had to be cut short after the newlyweds noticed that Mariana grew pale, stopped eating and was slow to wake up.

The Sifrits left their reception and took the baby to Blank Children's Hospital to have her checked out. There, doctors made the devastating diagnosis of meningitis HSV-1.

Little mermaid: Baby Mariana appears as a picture of good health in a knitted mermaid outfit during her newborn photo session shortly after her birth

Best day turns a nightmare: Nicole and Shane Sifrit got married on July 7 (pictured left). Two hours after the wedding, Mariana was rushed to the hospital

It immediately went downhill from there. Within two hours she had quit breathing and all of her organs just started to fail, Shane Sifrit earlier told WHO-TV.

In the first 48 hours, the newborn had undergone a half-dozen blood transfusions, but her kidneys failed, requiring that she be put on dialysis, and her liver stopped functioning properly as well, which resulted in internal bleeding.

On July 10, Mariana was airlifted to the University of Iowa hospital, where teams of specialists went to work trying to keep the baby alive and stop the deadly infection.

Nicole Sifrit had been posting regular updates on Mariana's health crisis on her Facebook page, along with devastating photos showing the tiny girl hooked up to a life support machine, with a tangle of tubes, IV lines and needles sprouting from every part of her body.

Parents' worst nightmare: In the first 48 hours, the newborn had undergone a half-dozen blood transfusions, but her kidneys failed

Nicole Sifrit has been posting regular updates on Mariana's health crisis on her Facebook page, along with devastating photos showing the tiny girl hooked up to a life support machine

On Sunday, Nicole wrote on her Facebook page that she and Shane were told that if Mariana's liver does not repair itself, she will not be able to survive.

Then on Monday Marianas already precarious condition apparently took a turn for the worse, prompting her mother to write: 'My heart is crushed, my baby is declining fast! She has no brain activity and her lungs and heart are failing along with her kidneys and liver. They are running out of options for her.'

Living on a prayer: Baby Mariana' mom wrote on Monday that she has no brain activity and her lungs and heart are failing along with her kidneys and liver

She followed up two hours later with another post, calling on a higher power for a miracle: I am still holding onto Faith and Hope! I have to even though they are running out of options that is my only option I have.

Had Mariana pulled through, the family were told by her doctors that she would have had long-term health complications with her brain, kidneys and liver because of the damage inflicted upon her vital organs by the infection.

Nicole's friend Rachel tells DailyMail.com that the family, including their older girl, are heartbroken.

Her daughter was super excited to have a sister, so shes very sad it did not work out, OToole said, adding that her friend is a good mom who always puts her kids first.

Her life is her kids, she said.

In the midst of the devastating ordeal, Nicole and Shane Sifrit are raising awareness about their daughter's condition and warning other parents to keep infants isolated and not to feel embarrassed about turning would-be visitors away.

'Don't let just anyone come visit them,' Nicole said earlier. 'Make sure they are constantly washing their hands. Don't let people kiss your baby and make sure they ask before they pick up your baby.'

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the Sifrit family with Mariana's medical and funeral expenses, including a $12,000 fee for the helicopter flight between the two hospitals. As of Tuesday evening, just over $5,800 has been raised.

'They just want to give their little girl a burial and have closure,' Rachel O'Toole said of the bereaved parents.
The Cincinnati Zoo is celebrating another newborn, an eastern black rhino named Kendi, months after welcoming its now-famous young hippo, Fiona.

Caretakers haven't yet determined the gender of the rhino born Monday. They didn't want to interrupt the calf's bonding with its mother, Seiya, who had a 15-month pregnancy.

The zoo shared video of Kendi being born after a half-hour of labor and beginning to walk.

After 15-month pregnancy Cincinnati Zoo's black rhino Seyia gave birth to a healthy calf named Kendi

Surveillance cameras inside the rhino barn recorded the birth and mother & baby's first moments

The calf is only the fifth black rhino born in the last two years in North America

Kendi means 'the loved one' in Swahili. The name was chosen after a staff vote.

The zoo says visitors likely will be able to see the calf and its mother in their outdoor habitat in a couple of weeks, depending on the weather and the animals' health.

Dad, Faru, will still be out on display daily. Black rhinos are solitary animals, so there are no plans to unite the three as a family.

Kendi is the fifth eastern black rhino born in North America in the last two years.

Every rhino calf born is incredibly important for the overall population, which includes fewer than 60 in North America.

A black rhino adult can weigh anywhere between 1,700 and 3,080 pounds, and newborns calves weigh between 73  121 pounds

The public will be able to see Kendi and Seyia in their outdoor habitat in a couple of weeks, weather and health depending

Calves will stay with their mothers for 3-4 years which means that the average female can only have one calf every 5 years,' said Christina Gorsuch, curator of mammals at the Cincinnati Zoo.

'This calf is only the fifth eastern black rhino born in the last two years in North America. Only one surviving calf was born in 2014/2015.'

In 2015, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan, the body that manages populations in Zoos, determined that parents Faru and Seyia were a good genetic match and recommended that they breed.

Calves will stay with their mothers for 3-4 years which means that the average female can only have one calf every 5 years

Faru came to Cincinnati from Atlanta in the summer of 2015 and was introduced to Seyia.

Eastern black rhinos, native to Eastern and Central Africa, have two large horns made of keratin that they use for defense, intimidation, and feeding.

An adult can weigh anywhere between 1,700 and 3,000 pounds, while newborns weigh between 73  121 pounds.

The species is Critically Endangered due to poaching and habitat loss.

Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos remain in the world, and approximately 60 are managed by zoo's in North American Zoos.
A schizophrenic pot dealer who confessed to killing four men on his family's Pennsylvania farm also claimed to have killed two people in Philadelphia years ago.

City detectives are looking through their files to check on the claims made by 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo but they have not had a chance to question him.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross called the information 'sketchy' on Tuesday.

'We have to talk to him directly in order to have a starting point,' Ross said. 'Dealing with it third-hand is virtually impossible.'

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, confessed to killing four men on his family's Pennsylvania farm last week but has also claimed to have killed two people in Philadelphia years ago

He was charged last week in neighboring Bucks County with four counts of first-degree murder in the case of four missing men whose remains were found on his parents' farm.

But DiNardo told authorities he also killed a man and a woman in Philadelphia years ago but did not know the names of those victims.

Philadelphia police said Bucks County authorities are still investigating DiNardo's statements. The Bucks County district attorney declined to comment beyond court papers released last week, which don't mention the Philadelphia claims.

DiNardo told authorities that he lured the four men to his family's 90-acre farm under the guise of marijuana transactions before killing them there, according to the court papers. One man was last seen July 5, while the other three vanished two days later.

Jimi Patrick, 19, (left) was the first to go missing and was last seen at 6pm on July 5. Dean Finocchiaro, 19, (right) vanished on July 7. All four victims were killed during drug deals

Tom Meo (left) and Mark Sturgis (right) were the other two young men to go missing. They both worked for Sturgis' father's construction business and are friends

The bodies of three of the men were placed in an oil tank that was converted into a cooker that DiNardo called the 'pig roaster,' according to court papers.

He doused them with gasoline and lit them on fire before burying them more than 12 feet deep, investigators said.

Authorities found the body of the fourth man, 19-year-old Loyola University of Maryland student Jimi Taro Patrick, in a separate grave on a remote part of the farm after DiNardo told police where he buried him.

In exchange for that information, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

DiNardo's 20-year-old cousin Sean Kratz is also charged in three of the killings.

He was charged last week in neighboring Bucks County with four counts of first-degree murder in the case of four missing men whose remains were found on his parents' farm (above)

Four young men went missing from towns in Pennsylvania in early July. Police tracked one man's cell phone signal to the DiNardo property and one man's father said one of their cars had also been found there

Both he and DiNardo are being held in jail without bail.

DiNardo's lawyers say he is remorseful and he told reporters last week that he was sorry.

Kratz doesn't have an attorney, according to online court records. His mother declined to comment on the accusations last week.

The other victims are 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, 22-year-old Mark Sturgis and 21-year-old Tom Meo.

Sturgis' family has hired a law firm to investigate whether other people besides DiNardo and Kratz are civilly responsible for the deaths, according to a statement from the firm.
Americans have more of an appetite for impeaching President Trump now, than they did six months into President Nixon's second term, as Watergate was starting to choke his presidency, a new poll found.

Currently, according to a Monmouth University poll, 41 percent of the public think Trump should be impeached, while another 53 percent disagree.

Monmouth University asked the same question as Gallup pollsters did in July of 1973, when just 24 percent of the public supported impeaching Nixon.

A larger percentage of Americans want to impeach President Trump (left) now, just six months into his presidency, than they did President Nixon (right) six months into his second term, as Watergate was starting to drown his presidency

President Trump's numbers show a stark partisan divide with 70 percent of Democrats, though just 12 percent of Republicans, among those supporting impeachment

Additionally, 62 percent of Americans were opposed to impeaching Nixon, 44 years ago.

Despite Americans being more eager to see Trump go, he and Nixon had about the same job approval ratings.

The new Monmouth University poll found that 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump's performance, while 52 percent disapprove.

This number hasn't moved much in the two months since Monmouth's last survey, with Trump receiving 39 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval in May, within the surveys' margin of error.

As for Nixon, in July 1973 he received the approval of 39 percent of Americans and was disapproved of by 49 percent.

'Even though Trump's approval rating is similar to Nixon's, more Americans support impeachment today than in 1973,' said Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a statement about the new poll's release. 'That's partly due to the current epidemic of hyper-partisanship that was simply not prevalent forty years ago.'

President Nixon's approval numbers are very similar to those President Trump has now. After the July 1973 Gallup poll was taken, Nixon stayed in office for another 13 months before resigning on August 9, 1974, which enabled him to escape impeachment and removal

That's illustrated by the huge difference in percentage of Democrats who support impeachment now, than the relatively smaller percentage who supported impeachment 44 years ago.

Just one-in-three Democrats supported impeaching Nixon in July 1973.

Now 70 percent of Democrats support impeaching President Trump.

Support for impeachment is slightly stronger among independents and Republicans now, the the contrast isn't as stark.

For example, among independents, 22 percent supported impeaching Nixon, while 32 percent support the impeachment and removal of President Trump.

Among Republicans, 7 percent were for impeaching Nixon, while 12 percent today support impeaching Trump.

Additionally, a larger percentage of Democrats in 1973 supported the Republican president that they do today.

Nixon received the support of 24 percent of Democrats, which isn't great.

However, Trump received support from just 7 percent of Democrats, which is much worse.

Independents supported Nixon and Trump by the same percentage, 41 percent.

While Republicans give Trump higher marks today than they did to Nixon.

Sixty-seven percent of Republicans approved of Nixon, while 79 percent approve of Trump now.

President Nixon held on to the presidency for another 13 months after the Gallup survey was taken, resigning from office  and thus escaping impeachment  on August 9, 1974.

Last Wednesday, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump, claiming he had obstructed justice in the federal investigation into Russia's meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

The White House responded with an eye roll.

'I think that is utterly and completely ridiculous and a political game at its worst,' Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at an off-camera briefing later in the day.

The Monmouth University poll queried 800 U.S. adults by telephone between July 13 and July 16, 2017 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percent.
Outspoken One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has set Twitter alight with a controversial jibe at former Greens senator Larissa Waters.

Mr Roberts, who was born in India, posted a tweet after Ms Waters was forced to resign after 'discovering' that she had not renounced her Canadian citizenship - making her ineligible to serve.

He wrote: 'I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a 7-Eleven. I'm not even a chucker' with the hashtags 'auspol' and 'NotIndian.'

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Malcolm Roberts (pictured) has caused controversy again, this time with a tweet about being born in India

His tweet (pictured) comes after the shock resignations of Green's senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlum for dual citizenship

The Australian Greens have lost their second senator in less than a week with Larissa Waters announcing her resignation. At times she fought back tears as she spoke to media on Tuesday

Senator Roberts' jibe caused some confusion online, with some social media users wondering whether 'chucker' referred to Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

The One Nation senator is no stranger to controversy, making headlines for his views on climate change and international banking.

Senator Waters, the Green's co-deputy leader, who is from Queensland but was born in Canada, made the shock announcement in Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon.

'It's with great sadness I have discovered I am a dual citizen and I will be forced to stand down,' she said.

The Greens co-deputy leader is seen arriving with her partner Jeremy Gates and their daughter Alia Joy to make the shock announcement

'I left Canada as a baby and I had no idea I was a Canadian citizen... it was an honest mistake and I am deeply apologetic,' she said

Fighting back tears, she apologised to her party and vowed to 'hold her head up high' amid the 'embarrassing revelation'.

'I left Canada as a baby and I had no idea I was a Canadian citizen... it was an honest mistake and I am deeply apologetic,' she said.

She has never returned to Canada but she remains a citizen, ruling her ineligible to stand for election under section 44 of the constitution.

Senator Waters said her parents told her she had until the age of 21 to actively seek Canadian citizenship.

Senator Waters said her parents told her she had until the age of 21 to actively seek Canadian citizenship

'It's with great sadness I have discovered I am a dual citizen and I will be forced to stand down,' she said, with Greens Councillor Jonathan Sri by her side

'At 21, I chose not to seek dual citizenship, and I have never even visited Canada since leaving at 11 months old,' she said in a statement.

'However, after Scott [Ludlam's] shock discovery, I immediately sought legal advice, and was devastated to learn that because of 70-year-old Canadian laws I had been a dual citizen from birth, and that Canadian law changed a week after I was born and required me to have actively renounce Canadian citizenship.'

Senator Waters said she had not renounced her citizenship because she was unaware she was a dual citizen.

'This is something that I should have sought advice on when I first nominated for the Senate in 2007, and I take full responsibility for this grave mistake and oversight,' she said.

The party's co-deputy leader, who is from Queensland but was born in Canada, made the shock announcement on Tuesday afternoon

Fighting back tears, she apologised to her party and vowed to 'hold her head up high' amid the 'embarrassing revelation'. Pictured, she kisses her daughter in the Senate Chamber at Parliament House

'I am deeply sorry for the impact that it will have.'

The announcement follows the resignation of fellow Greens senator Scott Ludlam last week when it was discovered he held dual citizenship with New Zealand.

Senator Ludlam labelled it a 'ridiculous oversight'.

'I apologise unreservedly for this mistake,' he said in a statement last week.

Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam announced his resignation over his dual citizenship with New Zealand last week

'I apologise unreservedly for this mistake,' Scott Ludlam (pictured) said in a statement last week

'This was my error, something I should have checked when I first nominated for preselection in 2006.'

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.
Thieves have stolen two huge blocks of cheddar worth 500 moments after its makers were awarded the top prize at an agricultural show.

Rich Clothier, from Bruton, Somerset, suspects his champion cheeses have been stolen to sell abroad where they could fetch thousands.

The vintage cheeses, made by Wyke Farms, were crowned Champion and Reserve Champion at the Yeovil Show on Saturday afternoon.

Thieves have stolen two huge blocks of cheddar worth 500 moments after its makers were awarded the top prize at an agricultural show. Pictured, managing director Rich Clothier

But that evening after the judges had gone home, the two huge 21kg blocks, worth 500 each, disappeared from the cheese tent - together with their certificates.

The Clothier family at Wyke Farms, who have made cheese for three generations, said it was a case of history repeating itself.

More than 200 years ago in 1789 one of their ancestors had a wheel of cheese worth seven shillings stolen off his cart in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

The family firm is now offering a 500 reward - but suspect their cheeses are already heading either to the US or France.

Managing director Rich Clothier, 47, said losing his prized specimens was the equivalent of 'Linford Christie having his gold medals stolen'.

Rich Clothier, from Bruton, Somerset, suspects his champion cheeses have been stolen to sell abroad where they could fetch thousands

He believes it was a planned heist and two men would have been needed with each cheese weighing the same as a big bag of cement or old-fashioned TV.

Nothing else was stolen during the raid which it is believed took place after 10pm once people had left the show.

Mr Clothier said: 'There are lots of conspiracy theories about the cheeses.

'These blocks weigh the same as a big bag of cement. Each one is the size of a traditional bulky TV set.

The vintage cheeses, made by Wyke Farms, were crowned Champion and Reserve Champion at the Yeovil Show on Saturday afternoon

'The blocks are not the sort of thing you can put in a handbag or hide up your jumper.

'These cheeses have been stolen to order. They are popular cheeses in the export market, the biggest market being the US and France.

'With the documentation they potentially have with them it gives them the providence and is much more valuable to the right buyer.'

He said the crime had been reported to police and they are now investigating.

He added: 'The police are looking at the cameras at the show to see if we can see anything. It feels like a two-person job planned in advance.

Nothing else was stolen during the raid which it is believed took place after 10pm once people had left the show

'One of the theories that people have been saying is maybe they were stolen for an export buyer, or it could be foul-play.

'Normally, the cheeses sell for 500 each but as a collector's item with the certificates it could be thousands.

'We were all really disappointed, the team had put a lot of hard work into making these cheeses and the awards are not something you win everyday.

'Winning Champion and Reserve Champion is a once in a lifetime thing and it's like Linford Christie having his gold medals stolen.

Rich said his vintage cheddar took two years to mature and was made to a recipe handed down by his Grandmother Ivy

'No one knows at the moment how the cheeses managed to vanish overnight without anyone noticing.

'The cheese was placed right in the middle, being pride of place.'

Rich said his vintage cheddar took two years to mature and was made to a recipe handed down by his Grandmother Ivy.

He added: 'A 20kg block of it is extremely tempting.'

Wyke Farms, based at Bruton, Somerset, specialise in cheddar and produce around 15,000 tons a year.
Four Albanian migrants tried to fly from France to Britain in a light aircraft, in what is believed to be a first, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The four, including two women and a child, were arrested along with the British pilot and two suspected British people smugglers as the plane prepared to take off from an airfield in Marck, near the northern port of Calais.

Calais is a springboard for migrants attempting to cross the Channel to Britain, normally by stowing away on trucks that board ferries.

Prosecutors said they had no record of a previous attempt to reach Britain in a private aircraft.

Four Albanian migrants including two women and a child, were arrested as the plane prepared to take off near the northern port of Calais. Prosecutors said they had no record of a previous attempt to reach Britain in a private aircraft. Pictured above, a file photo of Migrants attempting to board trucks lining up to enter the Channel Tunnel in Calais

'It is the first time that the Boulogne prosecutor's office has been called in to investigate an attempt to smuggle migrants by air,' the prosecutors' office in Boulogne, near Calais, said.

The plane was still on the ground and the pilot was at the controls although the migrants had not boarded when the arrests took place.

The pilot and the people smugglers remain in custody and could face charges of 'helping undocumented foreigners as part of an organised group'.

'We do not yet have a full profile of the pilot. Investigators are waiting for British authorities to send information,' the prosecutor's office added.

A spokesman said the Albanian mother and her child had 'disappeared' after they were sent to hospital for checks.

The other Albanian woman and a man are being held in a migrant holding centre.

Just last week, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe outlined a plan to address the high number of migrants arriving in the country, but conceded he has no 'magic wand' to resolve a situation that is larger than France and won't go away any time soon.

The plan calls for speeding up asylum claims, creating more housing for asylum-seekers and other measures to make life easier for people hoping to remain in France.

Just last week, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (pictured) outlined a plan to address the high number of migrants arriving in the country, but conceded he has no 'magic wand' to resolve a situation that is larger than France and won't go away any time soon

A new law in the making would help enforce expulsions of those deemed to be in the country illegally.

France has taken in far fewer migrants than Italy and Germany. The government nonetheless has been at times overwhelmed by the number of new arrivals and felt threatened by the anti-immigration rhetoric of politicians on the far right.

In a measure of the problem, Paris has cleared out a single neighborhood 34 times in two years and placed 2,771 migrants in housing on Monday.

Hundreds of others have returned to the port city of Calais since a huge makeshift camp on the French approach to the English Channel was cleared in October.

Philippe said housing for asylum-seekers would be increased by 10 per cent over two years, creating places for 7,500 more people.

But France also would become 'more efficient' in expelling those who are unauthorized to be in the country, he said.

Of 91,000 migrants detained for being in France illegally last year, 31,000 were ordered out and fewer than 25,000 left, the prime minister said.

France plans to work diplomatically to help stabilize nations like Libya, from where many migrants set off to reach Europe, and will work more closely with Italy, he said, without elaborating.
This is the street on a Yorkshire housing estate which will be split in two by the High Speed 2 train line.

Homes to the left of the red line superimposed over Comely Bank Drive on the Shimmer estate in Mexborough will be demolished to make way for the new railway line between London and Leeds.

Homes to the right of the line are understood to be remaining, although their owners say they have been left in limbo over their futures.

A family who live in one of the properties earmarked for demolition told today how they were told of the plans just a week after they moved in.

Homes on the left of this line through the Shimmer estate in Mexborough are to be demolished to make way for the High Speed. Homes on the right may stay in place

Ben Stone's family were informed of the HS2 plans a week after they moved in to their home

The Shimmer Estate borders where the HS2 Route will run through Mexborough

Ben Stone, moved into the house with mother Tracey, 50, and twin sister Charlotte, 23, on July 1 last year and were informed of the impact of the planned HS2 route a week later. Yesterday, the route was confirmed, condemning their new home.

He said: 'A week after we arrived we received the letter through the door. At first we thought that it might have been a joke or a wind-up.

'We didn't even think we should unpack at that point. No-one knew what was going on, there was no communication, we just kept receiving the letters.'

The warehouse worker added: 'We will definitely have to leave the estate in the next two years. We are already looking at different properties to move out to.

'I really like this estate and it is perfect for my family and our dog with the river running behind our house and I can't believe we will have to move.

'My mum has been upset about the situation and ever since we have moved in we have just had to see this as a temporary house rather than our home.'

Meanwhile, neighbours Sue and Peter Douglas unsure whether their home is one of those earmarked for demolition.

Mr Douglas, 63, who bought his four bed property for 160,000 in 2012, said at first the property was a dream place to retire.

Sue and Peter Douglas believe the home they planned to retire to will be flattened to make way for the High Speed 2 route to Leeds

They live on a new-build estate in Mexborough which is on the route announced yesterday

However, when the HS2 announcement was decided yesterday, he admitted that the estate's fate was finally sealed.

He said: 'If next door is getting knocked down I presume all of the houses on the estate will have to knocked down at some point.

'If you look at the plans for the line, they are going to have to build huge viaducts 20ft up in the air - that will mean ours will have to go too.

'We are just so angry at the way we have been treated - we feel betrayed. This was supposed to be our retirement home, but now it's just a nightmare.'

Some residents on the Shimmer estate, which was first established in 2012, only found out about the HS2 plans - originally put forward last year - just weeks after moving into the development of two and three-storey town houses.

Wayne Butcher lives in one the homes due to be demolished. He is angry at the prospect of having to move his children Holly, five, and Harry, six, to other schools

Nigel and Amanda Hogue say the price being offered by the government for homes is too low

Wayne Butcher, 48, lives in one of the sixteen homes set to be knocked down.

The father of two, who says his children are both settled in local schools, said it the announcement is 'devastating'.

'It's just heart breaking really and it makes me very angry to be honest. HS2 are the only people we can sell our home to - but they won't speak to us.

'We wouldn't get a house like this anywhere else - it's perfect for our young family, it's big and has four bedrooms - we wouldn't get anything like this somewhere else.'

Mr Butcher bought his four-bed property three years ago for 160,000.

He said: 'I think it's disgusting, and I could get very, very angry about it. This is people's lives they are messing with.'

An artist's impression of what the new route north of London will look like

Transport secretary Chris Grayling was pressured into issuing a statement on HS2 in the Commons after furious MPs criticised his failure to turn up earlier in the day.

He said a report by property specialists Carter Jonas has concluded that the existing compensation scheme  which offers homeowners the 'unblighted' value of their home plus ten per cent - would not be enough to allow the residents of the Shimmer estate to buy a similar house locally.

He said the the government will work with local residents and politicians to ensure Shimmer homeowners can secure a comparable local home.

Mr Grayling added: 'I know that for those living along the route, today's announcement will not be welcome news'.

But he said 'sadly this is inevitable' with an infrastructure project of this size'.

Homeowner told HS2 would run just feet from the end of garden a week before he was due to sell

A homeowner has told how the HS2 route sunk a deal to sell his home after it was announced it would pass feet from the end of his garden.

Dave Slack lives in Bramley, near Rotherham, where the new High Speed route from London to Leeds will pass by.

The proximity of the planned railway line was announced last year and confirmed yesterday.

Dave Slack was a week from selling his home when the HS2 route was announced last year

Homeowners are desperately trying to sell properties near the route of the new railway line

The 48-year-old said: 'I saw it on the news last year before anywhere else and I honestly couldn't believe it.'We were just a week away from exchanging our house and I had another property lined up to move in to.

'When the news came through, I was told by the buyers that they couldn't complete as they couldn't get a mortgage on it. This was on the Friday, I was due to move out the following Monday.

'I just couldn't believe it at all. It left us stunned.'

Mr Slack said there is little chance that he will be able to sell the house now the plans have been agreed.

He said: 'We have had three or four people round since and the house is still on the market but I have to break it to them every time about what will be built just feet from their potential garden.

'We have been stuck since they were announced and there is no hope of selling the house.'

Kieran Edwards says he will miss out on compensation because his house is one metre too far away from the route of the line in Bramley, near Rotherham

The potential HS2 train design is pictured. In February, Parliament granted powers to build Phase 1 of the line

His neighbour Kieran Edwards, 33, said that due to his house being just one metre from the safeguarding zone, he is set to lose out on thousands of pounds of compensation.

Mr Edwards, a gardener, said: 'It has been about a year since we heard the news. Now the plans have been announced everyone is worrying again.

'Due to my house being 61 metres away from the HS2 line, I will miss out on a huge amount of legal costs for the sake of the width of my wall.

'It has really angered me, not only is it going to have a huge impact for everyone on this estate, I am also losing out financially because of it.

'I have worked it out and believe the difference between my side of the street and the other could be over 20k.'
21-year-old Deontae Leqwan Young, pictured, is accused of shooting dead his father 40-year-old Daniel Lee Young

A feud between a father and son ended in homicide on the highway as their vacationing family returned home to Birmingham, Alabama.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the family left their Orlando vacation early because of the fighting between the father, 40-year-old Daniel Lee Young, and son, 21-year-old Deontae Leqwan Young.

Dad, Daniel, was riding in the front passenger seat of a rented Ford Expedition as his wife was driving through Peach County late on Tuesday night.

There were eight other people in the SUV including Deontae and three children, all younger than five.

His father had been drinking 'pretty heavily' that day, said Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese.

The killing allegedly happened at the side of Interstate 75 as they family traveled from Florida to Alabama

GBI Agent J.T. Ricketson said that shortly before midnight along Interstate 75, the father told his wife to pull over into the emergency lane and he came around to hit his son.

Deontae fired two shots at his father's chest and he fell into the highway.

The agent told The Macon Telegraph that it's 'amazing' he wasn't hit by a passing vehicle, the agent said.

Deontaes girlfriend then called the authorities.

By the time police arrived, Daniel was still lying in the right lane of the highway with his wife kneeling beside him.

An officer performed CPR until paramedics arrived but they were unable to save him.

Daniel was pronounced dead at the scene early Wednesday.

Deontae was taken into custody and charged with murder. A prosecutor will decide whether it was self-defense.
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A Congressional vote this week could send thousands of America's wild horses to slaughter horses  including a beloved, golden-haired stallion who was named in honor of President Trump.

Congress is currently considering whether to overturn a 50-year-law that makes it illegal for the government to sell America's wild mustangs to horse meat facilities.

If the proposal is approved, up to 40,000 wild horses living on federal lands could be sold for $25 dollars a head as soon as October.

That includes 'Trump,' a Palomino stallion and leader of the so-called Presidential Herd, a group of horses in eastern Nevada that descends from American warhorses.

After the presidential election, wild horse advocates nicknamed the herd boss 'Trump' due to his high energy, billowing gold mane, and machismo.

Why the long face: A stallion named after President Trump (left) could be the casualty of new plans by the president's Department of the Interior to round up wild horses on federal land for slaughter

Inspired: The mustang, part of the 'Presidential Herd' in Antelope Valley, Nevada, boats a flowing blonde mane, permanent tan, relentless energy and love for female companions

Having a mare: A stallion named after President Trump (left) could be a high-profile casualty of a slaughter policy which Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, is asking Congress to change the law to allow

Flowing mane: The stallion has made his presence clear with his flowing mane, tan color and energy

Keep him great: Campaigners say that Trump, the Presidential Herd, and other wild horses should remain protected from being rounded up for slaughter, which they say is cruel. The Department of the Interior says 70,000 wild horses are squeezed onto land which can sustain only 20,000

Simply magnificent: Jeanne Bencich Nations has shared her photographs of the herd with DailyMail.com in an attempt to persuade Congress not to vote in favor of horse slaughter being allowed

Wild horse advocates are now pleading for Trump to step in and save the stallion and the country's other free-roaming horses.

The horse also shares the president's perpetual tan and love for ladies.

President Trump is on his third marriage and was linked to numerous models during his single years, while Trump the stallion is currently paired up with at least 15 mares.

'The magnificent Palomino stallion who leads the presidential herd is the perfect horse to be named after the president of this great country,' said Suzanne Roy, campaign director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

'This proud mustang represents our hope that President Trump will stand with Americans, who overwhelmingly support protection of America's wild horses as irreplaceable national treasures and oppose horse slaughter.'

Stunning pictures taken by photographer and local resident Jeanne Bencich Nations show the stallion leading his herd through the pastures of Antelope Valley, a grassy basin surrounded by mountains in eastern Nevada, as the animals graze and drink from mountain gorges.

'America can't be great if our national symbols of greatness are destroyed and brutally slaughtered. To lose any of these beautiful herds would be tragic,' said Nations, who often documents the travels of the Presidential Herd.

'We would be losing part of our history.'

The Presidential Herd's heritage dates back to an army cavalry base in the area, where wild horses were bred with larger stocks for battle between the mid-1800s and World War I, according to wild horses groups.

The nickname the 'presidential herd' dates back decades in local lore to the grandfather of a local rancher.

'These Nevada wild horses trace their bloodlines back more than a century to the horses that helped settle the West and defend our country as America's war horses,' said Roy.

'The regal herd is distinguished by beautiful colors  many Palominos, Grullas and Greys.

'The horses of the Presidential Herd tend to be larger than some of their mustang counterparts, due to their cavalry heritage and the mixing in of thoroughbred and Morgan stock with wild bloodlines,' she added.

With the mares: The stallion named after President Trump takes a drink in the water with other members of the herd

Symbols of American greatness: The Presidential Herd has had its nickname locally for decades in recognition of its mixed bloodline of wild horses and cavalry mounts.

Documented: Local photographer Jeanne Bencich Nations has created a record of the Antelope Valley, Nevada, herds. The Department of Interior says there are far too many horses for the land and that a round-up for slaughter is needed

Too crowded? There are an estimated 70,000 wild horses in the United States on land that the Bureau of Land Management says can only hold 20,000. Campaigners say slaughter for food will not work and that female horses should be injected with contraceptives instead

Campaign: Jeanne Bencich Nations, a photographer who has documented the Presidential Herd, is sharing her images of the mustangs in the hope of persuading Congress not to back a law change which would allow them to be sold for horse meat

Issue in focus: 'America can't be great if our national symbols of greatness are destroyed and brutally slaughtered. To lose any of these beautiful herds would be tragic,' says photographer Jeanne Bencich Nations.

A House committee is expected to consider an amendment to be introduced on Tuesday that would overturn the long-time ban that prevents the government from selling wild horses for meat.

If it is approved by a full congressional vote, the sales could begin as early as October 1.

The change was first proposed in the 2018 budget request submitted to Congress by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees wild horses on public lands.

Currently there are no horse slaughter horses in America, so the animals would have to be sold to foreign countries such as Mexico.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke previously pushed for the reestablishment of horse slaughter facilities in Montana while serving in the state senate.

Horse concern: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke believes the round-up and sale for horse meat of the mustangs is needed because of over-population

'When a horse is too old to breed, too old to ride, or too expensive to feed, a horse is disposed of,' said Zinke in 2009.

There are an estimated 70,000 wild horses in the United States on land that the Bureau of Land Management says can only hold 20,000.

Opponents of the slaughter sale ban say it is fueling horse overpopulation. Large-scale ranchers oppose the ban because they say the prevalence of free-range horses interferes with livestock grazing in the area.

There are also concerns about the expenses; the federal government devotes millions on upkeep, and last year spent nearly $50 million rounding up and caring for wild mustangs in government holding areas.

Horse advocates argue that overpopulation claims are exaggerated and based on faulty statistics about how many horses the land can handle. They also insist birth control is a more humane and financially sound method of managing the wild horses, and say it can be done by injecting the female horses with contraceptives every three years.

Horse slaughter is a sensitive subject for many Americans. Seventy-five percent of Americans said they support a continued ban on wild horse slaughter, according to a survey last week conducted by Public Policy Polling and commissioned by the American Wild Horse Campaign.

Wild horse advocates are concerned that the current environment in Congress makes it more likely the ban will be overturned.

Last week, the same House committee approved a similar proposal that would allow horse slaughter horses to operate in the U.S., which had effectively been illegal for over a decade.
President Xi Jinping welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi received the highest Palestinian medal from Abbas. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY

President voices support for a sovereign state based on borders dating to 1967

China will continue supporting the Palestinian people's pursuit of restoring their legitimate national rights, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday as he received the highest Palestinian medal from visiting President Mahmoud Abbas.

China firmly supports the establishment of the State of Palestine, enjoying full sovereignty on the basis of 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, Xi said while holding talks with Abbas at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Abbas is making a state visit to China through Thursday. It is his fourth state visit to China. Witnessed by the two presidents, China and Palestine signed four documents to enhance cooperation in diplomacy, economy, technology, human resources, culture and education.

It's important for all parties concerned to abide by the relevant UN resolutions, the principle of "land for peace" and the Arabic Peace Initiative, so as to achieve the comprehensive, just and durable settlement of the Palestinian issue through dialogue and negotiation, Xi said. China will continue to play its positive role to help resolve the Palestinian issue, he said.

The president called for earnest implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 calling for an immediate stop of all settlement activities in the occupied territories. China hopes that immediate measures will be taken to prevent violence against civilians, he said.

Xi said it is imperative to restart negotiations as soon as possible, speed up the political settlement of the Palestinian issue and achieve joint and durable security fundamentally. He also called for further international efforts to strengthen the synergy for peace.

China will hold a Palestinian-Israeli peace symposium this year to contribute ideas and solutions to the Palestinian issue, Xi said.

While promoting peace talks, it's also important to emphasize the issue of development, Xi said.

The friendship between China and Palestine has a long history, Xi said, adding that China is one of the first countries to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine.

"There is a Chinese saying: Ancient friendship is like true gold, the color of which will never fade despite being smelted hundreds of times," Xi told Abbas.

In the past half-century, the Chinese and Palestinian people have understood, trusted and supported each other, and they are truly good friends, partners and bothers, Xi said.

Calling Abbas "an old friend and good friend of the Chinese people", Xi spoke highly of his efforts toward Chinese-Palestinian cooperation.

Mentioning that he had sincere and friendly talks with Abbas during the Palestinian president's last visit to China in May 2013, Xi said the two sides reached important consensus at that time.

The high-level exchanges between China and Palestine have been strengthened in the past four years, Xi said, adding that both sides have enhanced political mutual trust and steadily developed cooperation in all areas.

After their talks, Abbas awarded Xi the top medal of Palestine to express gratitude for China's support of Palestine's pursuit of justice and to emphasize how highly the Chinese president is trusted and revered. Xi hosted a grand welcoming ceremony for Abbas before their talks.

Palestine congratulated China's great progresses in economic and social development, Abbas said, while calling for enhanced exchanges with China in all areas.

The Palestinian president expressed willingness to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative's construction and to expand cooperation with China in areas such as the economy, science, infrastructure, industrial parks and tourism.

Palestinian leaders speak highly of China's constructive proposals to press for a political resolution of the Palestinian issue, he said, adding that China is expected to play a bigger role in the Middle East peace process.
MISSOULA  Missoula-based Washington Companies intends to add a Canadian diamond mine to its collection of industrial businesses.

Being able to add mining into our Canadian presence was very important to us, Washington President Lawrence Simkins said Monday shortly after the company offered $1.2 billion for Dominion Diamond Corp. Especially since we received the building contract for ships for the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard in 2012  thats decades worth of work  we expect to be in Canada for a very long time.

Simkins said Washington Co.s experience mining copper and molybdenum at Montana Resources in Butte provided understanding of mining and its cycles. But he added that if the deal is approved, Dominions management would remain essentially Canadian. Its headquarters are located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with offices in Calgary, Alberta.

Washington offered $14.25 per share in cash, a 44 percent premium on Dominions unaffected share price of $9.92 when acquisition talks began in March. The deal covers Dominions 100 percent owned Ekati Mine and its 40-percent stake in the Diavik Mine (co-owned by Rio Tinto). Investment Canada regulators will inspect the deal, because it involves a foreign corporation taking ownership of a Canadian firm. Dominions shareholders also must approve the purchase.

The Ekati Mine produced 5.2 million carats of rough diamonds in fiscal 2017. Dominion also received 2.7 million carats of rough diamonds from its share of the Diavik Mine in calendar year 2016, according to company reports. Both mines produce gem-quality diamonds. Together, they deliver the third-largest supply of diamonds by value in the world.

Mike McGivern, vice president of human resources for Montana Resources, said Monday that Rolin P. Erickson, MRs president, toured the Dominion Diamond Corp. operation a month or so ago and provided some technical insights to the Washington Companies team regarding the potential purchase.

He looked at things like mine plans, production numbers and long-range planning in addition to touring the mine, McGivern said. Rolin has a strong mining background.

Coincidentally, McGivern said, a safety video that is shown to all new employees at Montana Resources was made at one of the Dominion mines, the Ekati mine. They use the same size haul trucks we do and this is a good safety video showing the visibility limitations from the haul truck cabs.

McGivern added that while he expects the two mining companies to be run separately  Washington Companies tend to run very independently  the operations obviously would help each other wherever possible, should the purchase be completed.

Simkins said an appealing aspect of the deal was Dominions creation of the CanadaMark certification confirming its diamonds are responsibly mined, tracked through production and unaltered by gem improvement methods like heat-treating and cavity-filling. The distinction separates Dominion diamonds from those mined in areas prone to conflict and employee abuse.

We like the long-term future for diamonds, Simkins said. The fact that this is in Canada, in North America, is really compelling for us. CanadaMark indicates a free-world diamond, and Canadian diamonds are appealing in the worldwide market.
Charlie Gard's mother has today thanked the US doctor who came to his bedside and revealed he will have more tests in the hope he can be saved.

Dr Michio Hirano flew to London from New York on Monday and went straight to examine the 11-month-old at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) - who still insist the baby should have his life support stopped.

The Harvard-educated neuroscientist  Charlies last hope  was joined by a doctor from the Popes hospital in Rome, which is also offering to treat the boy.

Today they met with Charlie's British doctors, a UK expert on Charlie's mitochondrial disease and his mother Connie Yates in a meeting chaired by an independent expert - but Charlie's father Chris Gard did not attend.

The five-hour meeting ended at 1pm so Dr Hirano could fly back to New York and a week today Mr Justice Francis will rule if Charlie can follow him for experimental treatment in the US.

Connie Yates said today: 'Chris and I are so grateful to Dr Hirano and the other clinicians for coming to see Charlie.

'Our gorgeous baby boy is still stable. We are at his bedside and feel satisfied he is not suffering or in any pain. As Charlie's loving parents we are doing the right thing for our son in exploring all treatment options.

Charlie Gard's mother Connie Yates has today thanked the US doctor who came to his bedside and revealed he will have more tests in the hope he can be saved

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, flew in overnight and saw the little boy today with a medic from the Pope's hospital in Rome

Charlie has undergone a number of scans including an MRI of his body and EEG, which measures brain activity.

Connie said: '. As stated in court, we asked our experts what they required, and Dr Hirano requested that Charlie have a new MRI and also a 30 minute EEG. Gosh preferred a longer EEG which the judge ordered. Our son has now undergone the scans. We have facilitated the experts in every possible way. Charlie will be having some more tests shortly'.

US Harvard-educated doctor who may be Charlie's last hope DR Michio Hirano  Charlie's last hope  is one of the world's top researchers in mitochondrial diseases and has spent 30 years working in neurology. The Harvard-educated doctor is an expert on the nucleoside treatment he says could help the little boy. Friends said he is known for winning the trust of patients through his caring nature and professionalism. The 56-year-old, whose father was an acclaimed neuroscientist, is a senior clinician at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York. Dr Kei Doi, who went to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York with Dr Hirano, said he 'really will do what he feels is best for the patient'. He said: 'He's a very caring individual and really goes out of his way to help people. He's very well-respected. 'I trust him wholeheartedly with any medical questions.' Twice-married Dr Hirano has treated others with conditions similar to Charlie's. His second wife, with whom he has two young daughters, is also a neurologist at Columbia. Dr Doi said Dr Hirano went to Cuba in the 1990s and met Fidel Castro after finding a vitamin absence that caused 26,000 Cubans to go partially blind. Outside work, Dr Hirano is 'shy' and likes listening to classical music, he added. Dr Hirano graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College. He trained in neurology at Columbia University Medical Centre. His father Asao, 90, used to be a professor of pathology and neuroscience at Albert Einstein and was head of neuropathology at a hospital in The Bronx. In 1965 Asao Hirano became the first person to observe proteins in neurons that were named 'Hirano bodies'. Dr Hirano's mother Keiko, 84, taught Japanese at a high school. One person who knows Dr Hirano well said: 'Little Charlie is in very good hands. I couldn't think of a finer person of physician for neurological issues. 'He truly is an exceptionally compassionate, noble human being.' Advertisement

Dr Michio Hirano flew to London from New York and went straight to examine the 11-month-old at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

The Harvard-educated neuroscientist  Charlies last hope  was joined by a doctor from the Popes hospital in Rome, which is also offering to treat the boy.

They spent five hours at the hospital with him and studied his latest brain scan, taken on Sunday.

Charlies parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard, of Bedfont, south-west London, were present for the electroencephalogram (EEG), which monitors brain activity.

The results have not been made public but could be crucial in determining his fate. Last night a source close to the family said they remain optimistic.

Today the two doctors returned for a make-or-break meeting with GOSH medics.

Miss Yates, 31, was at the discussion about whether her son can be saved, after convincing the High Court judge in the case that she should be there.

Charlies London doctors say previous brain scans and other tests show he is irreversibly brain damaged and beyond hope.

But Dr Hirano, who specialises in Charlies rare form of mitochondrial depletion syndrome, says his experimental therapy has a 56 per cent chance of meaningful improvement.

A transcript of the meeting will be handed to Mr Justice Francis, who will decide next Tuesday  ten days before Charlies first birthday  whether he should be allowed to have the therapy or should have his life support withdrawn so he dies with dignity.

It emerged yesterday that the judge held an emergency directions hearing over the weekend, believed to be from his home.

Although the case is being held in open court, the media was given no information about the weekend hearing or why it could not wait until the working week. The judge was on leave yesterday and unavailable for comment.

Yesterday, Miss Yates spent all day at GOSH, but Mr Gard was seen arriving shortly before Dr Hirano and a fellow expert from the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome came to examine Charlie. After the five-hour consultation both doctors left by a side exit.

Father-of-two Dr Hirano, 56, whose father was also an acclaimed neuroscientist, is a senior clinician at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York.

A spokesman for GOSH said the two men were welcomed by the hospitals medical director before being shown to Charlies bedside.

She said each physician was given an honorary contract granting them the same status as local clinicians, and allowing them to examine the patient and to have full access to records and facilities. They will have access to all clinical systems including diagnostic images, she added.

An EEG Charlie had on March 30 was described as very severe by Dr Hirano at the High Court in April. But he said he would try the experimental drugs as the alternative is that he will pass away.

Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates were at his bedside as usual today to answer any of Dr Hirano's question

A pensive Chris Gard, Charlie's father, checks his phone outside Great Ormond Street yesterday
The Republican-led U.S. Senate's chance for a quick vote on repealing the Obamacare law crashed and burned quickly on Tuesday, as three Republicans came out to oppose it.

The GOP holds 52 votes in the Senate, plus Vice President Mike Pence as a tiebreaker, meaning it can afford just two defections.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday morning that senators would vote within days on a plan to kill Obamacare that would give lawmakers a two year sunset period to figure out a replacement.

'In the coming days,' McConnell said on the Senate floor, 'the Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable, two-year transition period as we work toward patient-centered health care.'

'A majority of the Senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation in 2015. President Obama vetoed it then. President Trump will sign it now.'

Enter Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. the latter two voted in support of the December 2015 plan but now say they oppose it.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's repeal-and-replace-Obamacare bill has gone down in flames, but now he wants to pass a repeal-first bill giving lawmakers a two-year deadline to find a workable substitute

President Trump embraced a 'simultaneous' repeal-and-replace strategy early on, but more recently called for Obamacare to be smashed even if there was no immediate replacement plan on the table

Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia (left) and Susan Collins of Maine (right) quickly said they would vote against a repeal-first package, which Capito supported less than two years ago

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Maine, another senator who favored the December 2015 bill, followed with a flip-flopping 'no' pledge hours later

That roll call vote passed by a 52-47 margin, with Collins and Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who lost re-election in 2016, being the GOP's only 'no' votes.

Collins said Tuesday that she will vote against the same bill this time around.

'We can't just hope that we will pass a replacement within the next two years,' she said in a statement. 'Repealing without a replacement would create great uncertainty for individuals who rely on the [Affordable Care Act] and cause further turmoil in the insurance markets.'

Capito, who voted 'yes' in 2015, said Tuesday that she's changed her mind.

'My position on this issue is driven by its impact on West Virginians. With that in mind, I cannot vote to repeal ObamaCare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians,' she said in a statement.

Murkowski, the other apparent flip-flopper, said in a statement that 'I cannot vote to proceed to repeal the ACA without reform that allows people the choice they want, the affordability they need and the quality of care they deserve.'

On Monday night Trump urged Republicans to repeal Obamacare and start afresh with a new healthcare plan

That approach mirrored what the president proposed on June 30, the same day a Republican senator wrote him to propose a plan like what McConnell floated Tuesday morning

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said Tuesday that the Obamacare system 'is collapsing,' and 'more and more people don't even have any choices left, or even one choice'

Trump had long favored a simultaneous repeal-and-replace approach.

He told CBS News just days after the November election that 'it will be essentially, simultaneously.'

'It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week. But probably the same day, could be the same hour.'

Legislative reality has set in since then, driving conservative and moderate Republicans apart on the devilish details.

On Tuesday he told reporters at the White House that 'I've been saying for a very long time, "Let Obamacare fail and then everybody is going to have to come together and fix it, and come up with a new plan, and a plan that is really good for the people with much lower premiums, much lower costs, much better protection".'

President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, left, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, told reporters on Tuesday that he's 'no going to own' Obamacare as it fails, but would use the law's demise to encourage Democrats to work with Republicans on a new national health care strategy

'I think we're probably in that position where we'll let Obamacare fail,' Trump added. 'We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it.'

'We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they are going to say, "How do we fix it? how do we fix it?" or "How do we come up with a new plan?"'

By summertime, the president already seemed resigned to the possibility that Republicans' best laid plans to repeal and replace Obamacare in a single breath might go awry.

'If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!' he tweeted on June 30.

That seemed to be a reaction to a letter Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse sent him the same day.

Sasse predicted that senators would fall short of agreeing on an Obamacare replacement, and asked Trump to embrace the reintroduction of a December 2015 bill that was nearly identical to what McConnell proposed Tuesday morning.

And he asked for a July 10 battle plan requiring the Senate to 'immediately vote again on H.R. 3762, the December 2015 ObamaCare repeal legislation that the Congress passed but President Obama vetoed.'

'We should include a year-long implementation delay to give comfort to Americans currently on ObamaCare that a replacement plan will be enacted before expiration,' he added, asking for a shorter phase-in period than McConnell's.

H.R. 3762 was sponsored by then-Rep. Tom Price, who is now Secretary of Health and Human Services.

A Senate leadership aide told DailyMail.com that the bill McConnell is preparing will otherwise be 'functionally identical' to the December 2015 effort.

'With only one exception,' Sasse wrote in June, 'every member of this Senate majority  moderate and conservative  has explicitly endorsed and/or already voted to repeal ObamaCare, most recently on December 3, 2015.'

'And our newest colleagues, Senators Kennedy and Strange, who were not here at the time of that vote, have also campaigned on promises to repeal this disastrous law. We must keep our word.'

On Tuesday during a House leadership press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan urged the Senate to act one way or another.

Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse first told Trump on June 30 that he should back a plan like McConnell's

The Obamacare system, Ryan said, 'is collapsing,' and would result in a single-payer, 'government-run' system if a more market-centered approach doesn't replace it.

'More and more people don't even have any choices left, or even one choice,' he said.

'Forty-one per cent of the counties in America have no competition in health insurance. They have one health insurer left. Premiums have doubled. Options are disappearing. Many counties in America now have no health insurers left.

'So that is just the stark reality of the moment, and so we're hopeful that the Senate can take the pause that they need to take and move forward on this issue so we can get something done.'
The first picture of a newborn baby girl left abandoned at a bus stop with her umbilical cord still attached has been released as police continue to search for her mother.

The near-lifeless baby was discovered by Daniel Braxton, 35, as he drove past - and spotted her naked on the ground with her umbilical cord still attached.

Mr Braxton performed CPR on her and dialled 999 after finding her and paramedics rushed her hospital.

The baby girl has spent a week in hospital - and police have released a picture of her dressed in pink and white babygrow.

The first picture of a newborn baby girl left abandoned at a bus stop with her umbilical cord still attached has been released as police continue to search for her mother

Police have appealed for the mother to come forward by saying: 'Your baby needs a name'

Police appealed for the mother to come forward by saying: 'Your baby needs a name.'

The baby was found at the bus stop outside the Magpie and Stump pub in Towyn, North Wales at 7.15am last Tuesday.

Midwife Louise said: 'We'd like mum to know that her daughter's doing really well and is making good progress at Glan Clwyd Hospital.'

Daniel Braxton (centre), 35, was driving with his partner Toni Pickford (right) and 18-year-old daughter Talitha Beales (left), who screamed that she thought she had seen a dead baby

North Wales Police officers appealed for the mother of the girl found in Towyn to come forward

The baby was found by father-of-two Mr Braxton who said: 'We blocked the road off and rang the emergency services

'I had a dressing gown in the car and ran to grab that, wrapped the baby up, gave her some good hard rubs on the chest and the head.

'To be honest, I think the fatherly instinct and the adrenaline kicked in because my daughter was hysterical and my partner was hysterical.

'So it was just a case of as soon as I saw her lying there, her naked little body just left on cold concrete, I knew something had to be done.'

The baby was discovered at about 7.15am near the Magpie and Stump pub, according to police

North Wales Police released a picture of the child in a bid to trace the mum.

Helen Douglas for North Wales Police said: 'At about 07:15 hours a new born baby girl was found in a bus shelter by the Magpie and Stump public house in Towyn, Conwy.

'We want mum to know that she is currently being cared for and treated in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

'We are concerned about the health of the mother of the baby girl and are appealing for her to come forward by contacting me.

'Likewise if you are a concerned friend, relative or neighbour of the mother you can also contact me on the same number.'

Police forensic teams had sealed off the area around the bus stop and a helicopter was seen flying over the area this morning

Police forensic teams had sealed off the area around the bus stop and a helicopter was seen flying over the area this morning.

The baby was taken to the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd hospital by paramedics and her condition is unknown.

A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said: 'We were called at approximately 7.20am this morning by our colleagues at North Wales Police to Towyn Road, Towyn.

'We sent a crew in an emergency ambulance and a paramedic in a rapid response vehicle.'
The wife of a Princeton graduate student sentenced to 10 years behind bars in Iran called on authorities there to release him Tuesday, saying the Chinese-American man has been 'unjustly imprisoned.'

Xiyue Wang was arrested nearly a year ago but his confinement only became known Sunday when Iran's judiciary announced his sentence, accusing him of 'infiltrating' the country and sending confidential material abroad.

The 37-year-old, described by Iranian authorities as holding Chinese and American citizenship, was in Iran doing research for his doctorate in late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history when he was detained.

Wang, pictured with his wife Hua Qua and their son, was studying Eurasian history in Iran when he was arrested by authorities who claim he was spying while Princeton say it was research

In her first comments on his case, Wang's wife Hua Qu described her husband as 'one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and most loving men I have ever known.' She said the couple has a four-year-old son.

'Our son has missed his father for more than a year of his young life, as my husband has been unjustly imprisoned for espionage that I know he did not and never would commit,' she said in a statement distributed by Princeton.

'We fervently hope that the Iranian authorities will release him soon so that he can return home to his young family,' she added.

Princeton has been working quietly with Wang's family, the U.S. government, lawyers and others to secure his release, and hopes he will be released on appeal.

Xiyue Wang of Princeton University has spent almost a year in custody in Tehran having been accused of spying by the Iranian regime having copied thousands of documents

In an email distributed to staff and obtained by The Associated Press, university President Chris Eisgruber said Princeton has been working on a daily basis to try to free Wang and support his family.

The university and his family chose not to publicize Wang's arrest because U.S. government officials and other advisers warned that doing so might harm Wang's interests, Eisgruber said.

Wang was arrested on August 8, 2016 on suspicion of passing on confidential information from Iran to the US State Department

Wang was arrested on August 8, 2016 and is accused of passing confidential information about Iran to the U.S. State Department, Princeton's Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School and the British Institute of Persian Studies, according to Mizan Online, a website linked to Iran's judiciary.

It alleged he scanned some 4,500 pages of digital documents, paid thousands of dollars to access archives he needed and sought access to confidential areas of Tehran libraries.

The U.S. State Department has not provided details on the case but called on Tehran to immediately release 'all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran.'

Wang's advising professor, Stephen Kotkin, said his student planned to continue his research in Russia after Iran, a country he had not visited before.

His work in Iran involved scanning large numbers of documents that he intended to use while preparing his dissertation after he had left the country - something that Kotkin described as 'normal, standard scholarly practice.'

In addition to Mandarin and English, Wang knows some Persian, Turkish and Pashto, and had worked as a Pashto translator in Afghanistan, Kotkin said.

Wang studied in China as a child and into his first year of college, then dropped out for a chance to study in India before eventually securing a spot at the University of Washington in 2003, he said in a speech given to an education agency.

He later studied Russian and Eurasia studies at Harvard University, then took a job at accounting firm Orrick in Hong Kong in 2008.

He quit that position after only a year to join the International Committee of Red Cross as a translator for humanitarian work in Afghanistan, a country that had long captivated his interest, according to an article that appeared in China Newsweek in 2010 and was reposted on the official website of ICRC.

There, he helped collect bodies or body parts of those killed in clashes and offered aid to those injured and captured, including Taliban militants.

Fluent in the written Pashto language, Wang amused the locals with his not-so-smooth, Beijing-accented spoken Pashto, but still managed to chat with them, according to the media report.

He told Chinese media that he cherished the opportunity to work in the conflict-stricken region. 'How many people will have the chance to talk and laugh with the Taliban?' Wang said.

He began his doctoral work at Princeton in 2013.

In recent years, he has contributed to the Chinese online news outlet The Paper as well as podcasts, including one on nationalism among China's Muslim minority Uighurs, who have demanded greater autonomy, if not independence, from the ruling ethnic majority of Chinese Han.
Police are appealing for help in a bid to locate missing Victorian teenager Chelsea Bracken.

The 13-year-old was last seen at her home address in Kingsford Street in Moe about 11am on Sunday.

Chelsea is believed to be in the Latrobe Valley area.

Police are appealing for help in a bid to locate missing Victorian teenager Chelsea Bracken

Police are concerned for Chelsea's welfare due to her age.

Investigators have released an image in the hope someone recognises her and can provide information regarding her whereabouts.

Anyone who sees Chelsea is urged to call Moe police station on 5228 1100.
A former church worship director has been arrested on suspicion of having inappropriate video chats with underage girls.

Chad Robison, 36, who worked at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church in Lecanto, Florida, between 2011 and 2017, is accused of engaging in virtual sex with the girls through Omegle and Skype.

Robison, who is from Hernando, allegedly used screen capture software to video the chats - with one of the girls reported to be aged just 14.

Chad Robison, 36, who worked at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church in Lecanto, Florida between 2011 and 2017, is accused of engaging in inappropriate acts with the girls during video chats

Since May, police have sorted through a total of 3,000 videos and 350,000 pictures dating back several years through to a couple of months ago.

Hundreds of items featured young girls performing virtual sex acts with Robison, police said.

Three of the videos had been taken using a hidden camera to record girls in the bathroom of his former home, ABC Action News reported. However it is not known if they were underage.

Capt. Brian Spiddle, with the Sheriffs Offices Major Crimes Unit said: 'We believe there could be multiple victims. Some may be local here in Citrus County, and others across the states and abroad.

Staff at the Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church (pictured) denied any prior knowledge of the alleged activity

'Its going to be a very difficult and long process to find those who have been victimized by this man.'

Sheriff Prendergast added: 'I commend the detectives that have been working on this case.

'Weve just scratched the surface and already we know there are several victims out there.

'Im so proud of this unit and what theyve done to bring charges against this very sick man.'

The former church employee has been charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition, three counts of video voyeurism and one count of promoting the sexual performance of a child.

Authorities were alerted after coworkers accessed his computer to play a prank on the church leader and discovered pornographic material.

But staff at the Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church denied any prior knowledge of the alleged activity, writing in a statement: 'On Thursday, May 11, we received allegations about material found on the personal computer of our music director, Chad Robison.

'Prior to May 11 we had no knowledge or suspicion of improper conduct by Mr. Robison.

'We investigated these allegations and dismissed Mr. Robison from employment at Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church on Monday, May 15 and banned him from our campus.

'Simultaneously, we informed the Citrus County Sheriff's Office of what we had discovered. It should be noted that Mr. Robison was an employee of our church and not of our school.

'Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church remains committed to full cooperation with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office in this matter.'
Cassie Sainsbury has launched an urgent bid for legal funding from Australian taxpayers ahead of her trial for alleged drug trafficking in Colombia.

The 22-year-old was arrested after officials at the El-Dorado Airport found 5.8 kilograms of cocaine in 18 headphone cases the Adelaide woman was allegedly trying to bring back to Australia.

If she is found guilty of drug-trafficking, she faces up to 30 years behind bars, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

Cassie Sainsbury (pictured) has launched an urgent bid for legal funding from Australian taxpayers ahead of her trial for alleged drug trafficking in Colombia

Cassie was caught with 5.8kgs of cocaine hidden in headphone cases by airport officials at El Dorado Airport in Colombia

This makes her eligible for assistance from the Australian Government, who can provide up to $290 an hour for eight hours a day in solicitor costs.

For senior counsel and junior counsel, the Government pays up to $3,600 and $2,640 per day respectively.

But her uncle Neil, who previously revealed he believes his niece is guilty, says she should not get a cent - and said drug-runners 'get what they deserve'.

'I don't understand why [Australia would be] funding a drug runner overseas  no way,' he told The Advertiser.

'I'm a taxpayer. I would hate to think my dollar is going over there.'

In May, he told Sunday night he claimed Cassie had 'complete knowledge' of what she was doing.

'I just don't honestly believe that she was naive at all,' he told the program.

'I think she... perhaps she may have had knowledge of what she was doing - complete knowledge... I believe she was aware of what she was doing.'

Her uncle Neil (pictured) said she should not receive Government funding for her trial, and that no drug-runner should

While a plea deal may have initially left Cassie with less than ten years to serve in the Colombian jail, sources told the paper the prosecution had revoked the offer, believing it had a 'strong' case.

Her Bogota-based lawyer, Orlando Herran, said the funds were urgently needed so he could provide a 'good defence'.

'Cassie's situation is very bad from financial, economic, social [perspective] and [from] relatives. [It is] very complicated,' he said.

'My defence line is to obtain the best result for Cassie but they need help from [the] Australian government for a citizen in legal problems.'

This is just the latest hump in the road for the 22-year-old, whose arrest has brought to the public eye cracks in her relationships with 23-year-old fiance Scott Broadbridge, family members, and also revealed her past job as a sex worker.

Cassie Sainsbury reportedly worked as a sex worker at a Sydney brothel in 2016.

It was earlier reported that Cassie previously worked as a sex worker and used the name 'Claudia'

The revelations came to light when a woman purporting to be a former sex worker at 220 Gentleman's Club in western Sydney claimed the accused smuggler was also employed there in 2016.

'Cassandra is not the naive sweet little blonde girl that everybody thinks she is,' the former colleague told Nine News.

Sainsbury reportedly advertised her services under the name 'Claudia' and promoted herself as '19 years old... classy, fun and ready to please.'

Claudia's online profile included a photo of a woman wearing suggestive black and red lingerie with her hands placed on her waist.

Tensions between Cassie and Scott were running high after Mr Broadbridge flew to Bogota to visit Ms Sainsbury at El Buen Pastor women's prison earlier this year.

An episode of Sunday Night showed cracks were beginning to show in Cassie's relationship with fiance Scott Broadbridge (pictured)

Cassie was heard on the phone telling Scott their relationship would not last through her ordeal

The pair were able to see each other and shared a brief but emotional phone conversation, which was aired during a Sunday Night exclusive with 23-year-old Mr Broadbridge.

Ms Sainsbury told her fiance 'we're not going to last' as he replied: 'You are pushing me away from you.'

When asked why she believed the pair's relationship would not last, Cassie said: 'Can't you already tell?'

'Everything is telling me I should just walk away,' he told the Sunday Night reporter.

But despite their struggles, Mr Broadbridge says he will remain dedicated to his fiancee whether she is found innocent or guilty.

Khala Sainsbury, the older sister of Cassie, took to a discussion page on Facebook to talk about Cassandra's dire situation early last month.

When asked if Ms Sainsbury and Mr Broadbridge were still together, she simply replied: 'Yes they are.'
'Barfgate' MP Eleni Petinos is threatening Labor's Walt Secord with legal action over a milk carton meme mocking her on Facebook.

Ms Petinos demanded Mr Secord apologise for posting the image, which is a fake milk carton missing persons notice picturing and naming her.

The spat comes just days after Ms Petinos was unmasked as the mystery MP responsible for vomiting in a government car after State of Origin II.

Member for Miranda Eleni Petinos (pictured) is not amused by a milk carton meme poking fun at her

The meme (pictured) references 'Barfgate' in which Ms Petinos vomited in a government car

Member for Miranda Petinos penned a letter to Mr Secord accusing him of defamation, the Daily Telegraph reported.

'I note you have engaged in defamatory publications against me and I request that you provide an unreserved apology and withdraw the defamatory material,' she wrote.

She has refused to comment on the 'Barfgate' scandal and Mr Secord has accused her of being 'in hiding.'

In a press release earlier this month he wrote: 'She [Petinos] is totally distracted and is unable to attend to public functions as she is now in hiding.'

Ms Petinos (pictured, right) was revealed as the person who left a huge amount of vomit in a car taking her home from State of Origin II after she was feeling 'unwell.'

Mr Secord has since accused Ms Petinos (pictured, right) of being 'in hiding' and shared the mocking meme on social media

Labor MP Walt Secord (pictured) shared the milk carton image on his Facebook page

The cartoon milk carton references Ms Petinos' disappearance from the public eye after 'Barfgate'.

'Where in the world is Eleni? Patients and families want to speak to you about Sutherland hospital. Electors in Miranda are concerned about her whereabouts as she was last seen at the State of Origin with Deputy Premier,' says the carton text.

Mr Secord posted it with the caption: 'Shire Labor ... this making the rounds. Where is Eleni Petinos? Miranda MP still in hiding after barf-gate.'

The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet confirmed Ms Petinos privately agreed to pay for the vomit-covered vehicle to be cleaned.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro had lent the car to Ms Petinos to get home because she 'was unwell.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Petinos and Mr Secord for comment.
A 15-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man were shot and wounded in a suspected gangland attack outside Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.

The victims were both standing on the corner of Lemon Grove and Van Ness avenue when the suspect walked up and opened fire.

The 15-year-old boy was hit in the arm, while the older man suffered a more serious wound to the stomach.

A 15-year-old boy and a man, 25, were both shot outside Paramount Pictures last night

The LAPD believe the double shooting may be gangland connected although they do not have a description of the gunman who walked up to his two victims and shot them last night

The shooting happened just yards away from the Paramount Pictures main gate, file photo

Los Angeles Police officer Mike Lopez told the LA Times the older of the two victims was in a serious condition.

The shootings happened near the rear of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

According to the LA Times, there were still people working in the film studio when the shooting happened shortly after 8pm local time last night.

Police do not have at this stage a description of the gunman.
This is the moment a daughter met her father for the first time in 43 years after she spent a year tracking him down.

Jyll Justamond, 40, worked with limited information from her mother: her father's first name was Al, he was Italian and he worked at a bar called Neary's in the 1970s.

In April, she made a post in a Facebook group for Palisades Park, where the now-defunct bar was located.

This is the moment a daughter met her father for the first time in 43 years after she spent a year tracking him down

That led her to the former owner, who told her he knew exactly who she was looking for.

'I said, 'I know this is crazy, but do you happen to know a guy named Al that worked or you in 1976, 1977?'' Justamond told ABC News.

'He said, 'Oh, you mean Al Annunziata.''

Annunziata said shortly after that he received a message asking, 'Are you Al?'

'She said, 'You might know my biological mother. Her name is Linda,'' Annunziata told WCBS-TV. 'And now I'm really scared, my heart is pounding.'

Annunziata, a 63-year-old from Cliffside Park, said when Justamond's mother got pregnant four decades ago she told him someone else was the father.

Jyll Justamond, 40, tracked her father Al down after a search that took her decades

He said he believed her, but the idea that the child might have been his had lingered.

'Of all the years this has been going on, it's been out there as a burning question,' he said. 'It was never resolved.'

After a paternity test proved that he was her father, Justamond traveled to New Jersey from Littleton, Colorado, to meet him on June 11.

'This just the beginning,' he said. 'I'll never let her out of my life, ever.'
GREAT FALLS  An eastern Montana woman has been sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to repay $246,000 for stealing from two nonprofits that received federal funding.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen sentenced Toni Louise Plummer-Alvernaz of Glasgow on Friday. She earlier pleaded guilty to stealing from the Montana Native Women's Coalition and the Women's Resource Center while serving as executive director for both. The coalition was designed to improve response to victims of domestic and sexual violence. The center offered educational programs on health, parenting, career development and violence prevention.

Prosecutors say Plummer-Alvernaz inflated her work hours, used organization credit cards for personal vacations, filed false travel reimbursement claims and took cash advances and bonuses.

Co-defendant Brady Lynn Funk of Billings, who pleaded guilty to the same charge, was sentenced to two years of probation and was ordered to repay $30,000.
A Coronation Street actor has criticised Qatar Airlines after it tried to charge him 1,900 to fly with his life-saving medication.

Gareth Berliner says he was stunned when the airline demanded he pay for extra carry-on allowance to bring his Crohn's disease medicine with him to Australia.

The 45-year-old requires daily doses of nutritional fluid pumped into his chest to combat the inflammatory bowel condition.

Gareth, who was first diagnosed with Crohn's aged 13 and played Macca in the ITV soap from 2014 to 2016, vented his fury at the Middle Eastern airline on Twitter.

Gareth Berliner says he was stunned when the airline demanded he pay for extra carry-on allowance to bring his Crohn's disease medicine with him to Australia

Gareth has criticised Qatar Airlines after it tried to charge him 1,900 to fly with his life-saving medication

Gareth, who was first diagnosed with Crohn's aged 13 and played Macca in the ITV soap from 2014 to 2016 (shown), vented his fury at the Middle Eastern airline on Twitter

He wrote: 'If you have lifesaving medical equipment that you use and need to travel with dont expect any extra support or help from @qatarairways.

'Ridiculous and the ask people to send private medical info to an email address in Doha. No direct contact to deal with #poor'

Qatar Airlines did reply to Gareth, but only offered the actor and comedian an additional 10kg - equivalent to a seven days of medication.

Gareth added: 'I need an extra 45 kilo of weight for medical. Youve offered 10. Appreciated but will only allow me to live for a week. #eh?

'A wheelchair grants its user access to life. My fluid  same.'

After several tweets from fans urging Qatar to forgo the fees, the airline finally agreed to waive the 42 per kilo charges.

Gareth told his followers: 'Good news @qatarairways called yesterday and say there will be no problem with taking my fluids. People power works. Thanks for your support.'
A seven-year-old boy died at the UK's biggest private children's hospital after equipment monitoring him was turned off for almost three hours.

James Dwerryhouse suffered a catastrophic brain injury at the Portland Hospital in London when the equipment used to monitor him was shut down without a doctor's permission.

The youngster, who had Down's Syndrome, was an in-patient at the hospital for a routine bowel operation to treat a condition which left him needing to wear a nappy.

An inquest into James' death heard he died in a hospice close to his home in Ipswich when his life support was withdrawn the following day.

James Dwerryhouse died last August after he suffered a brain injury at the Portland Hospital in London

James suffered from sleep apnoea - interruptions to breathing while sleeping that can be life threatening - and was found unresponsive by night staff at around 4am on August 26 last year.

James, a pupil at Thomas Wolsey School and a member of the Ipswich Rainbow Cubs, also had a number of other conditions including mild hearing loss, poor eyesight, epilepsy and sleep apnoea.

His father John said after coming round from surgery on the morning of August 25, his son had been energetic and was sitting in his bed playing with his Play Mobil figures.

Around 4.20am father-of-five Mr Dwerryhouse received a call telling him James wasn't well and he and James' mother needed to attend the hospital immediately.

When they arrived, their little boy's eyes were half closed, he was covered in a rash and his dilated pupils indicated he was brain dead.

Mr Dwerryhouse told the inquest: 'The consultant gave me a look to say 'The hospital messed up.''

'If James was fighting with them and taking his monitors off I wouldn't have had a problem with that, because James was very much a 'take one off, take them all off' kid.

'I have no recollection of a conversation saying 'Could the monitors be taken off until he settles?'

'I can't remember but I'm not saying there wasn't a conversation about monitors but I wouldn't have asked them to be taken off.'

The youngster, who had Down's Syndrome, was an in-patient at the hospital for a routine bowel operation

Westminster Coroner's Court heard his parents had asked that James not be given a CPAC monitor - which involves a full face mask - and instead asked that a blood saturation monitor be used.

The monitor, a peg put on the finger or toe, was used for James at home although the alarm very rarely went off.

Dr Sanjeev Sharma, one of the two doctors who treated James, said monitors would rarely be removed on the decision of nurses.

He claimed he had agreed with James' parents that the use of a CPAP machine was unnecessary.

Dr Konstantinos Dimitriades, the resident medical officer on duty that night, said that even if a child was fractious they would still have to wear their monitors.

He told the court James had been bright and happy before falling asleep and had wanted to shake his hand, and also asked him to shake his parents' hands.

Dr Dimitriades was the first doctor to arrive at James' bedside when he went into cardiac arrest and noticed there was no data from any monitors for the previous three hours.

'His parents asked me if he had his monitors and I said I didn't know,' he said.

When he was asked if he would have permitted the monitors to be taken off, he replied: 'No, the central stand of intensive care is monitoring.

'You can settle down a child, you can always get it done. You can put the monitor on a toe covered by a sock, you can use diversion - as soon as the child's attention is diverted somewhere else the monitor goes back on.'

The two nurses tasked with caring for James told the inquest they were given a 30 minute break before midnight if they were on a 12 hour night shift and a 90 minute or two hour break in the early hours of the morning.

James' nurse Mr Cachero went on his break shortly after 2am while Mr Dwerryhouse was lying in the bed with James on his chest trying to get him to settle.

He said James had been pulling off his monitors and lines, and thought it was okay for him to have them off while his father was with him and the boy was awake.

The nurse claimed that he and Mr Dwerryhouse had agreed that the monitors didn't have to be on while he was with him.

Mr Cachero said that he told the nurse that was covering for him, Anuradhapura Bhupathiraju, that James needed his monitors back on once he was settled.

When he returned shortly before 4am, Mr Dwerryhouse had left and James was asleep but had still not had his monitors reconnected.

He said he first thought there was an issue with the blood saturation monitor when he connected it because it was reading zero, and fitted a new one, before he realised James wasn't reacting.

The crash team was recorded on CCTV running to James' bedside at 4:18am, by which time he was unconscious.

He said Ms Bhupathiraju told him Mr Dwerryhouse had only left a matter of minutes before he returned from his break, when he had left just before 3am.

Ms Bhupathiraju, a nurse of 33 years experience, was told she did not have to answer any questions that she felt might incriminate her.

She said that James was sleeping and comfortable, and that she was aware of his sleep apnoea.

Ms Bhupathiraju said that James' parents hadn't wanted his monitors on, but admitted when pressed that her clinical knowledge of his best interests was more important than the wishes of the parents.

She also admitted that 99.9 per cent of patients on an intensive care unit would be rigged up to various monitors at all times.

A police investigation was launched when James' doctors at home in Ipswich raised their concerns with the Metropolitan Police.

At an inquest into the seven-year-olds death at Westminster Coroners Court, Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said she had 'concerns' about The Portland Hospital

DS Adrian De-Villiers told the court that the hospital's errors didn't meet the threshold for corporate manslaughter, but added: 'That doesn't mean there weren't individual failings on the day.'

Portland's chief nursing officer Elaine Stewart, who led the internal investigation, said that staff were not permitted two to three hour breaks while on shift, as both Mr Cachero and Ms Bhupathiraju had claimed.

Instead the maximum they could take was one hour and 15 minutes.

Mrs Dwerryhouse challenged Ms Stewart over the fact she hadn't been allowed to stay with James when she had stayed on every other overnight hospital visit.

She and her husband were instead told they could pay 300 for a room elsewhere in the hospital or or they could get a hotel.

'This was a child that was not just physically ill, he had special needs, he was signing - we offered the hospital his 'passport to communication' but it wasn't taken up,' she said.

'You couldn't talk to him. You couldn't sign to him.'

Ms Stewart said the Portland had now reviewed its policy on special needs children and that she had been unaware of their situation at the time James' operation was booked.

Adjourning proceedings to consider her conclusion, Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said she had 'concerns' about the hospital and specifically about Ms Bhupathiraju.

She said: 'I have concerns about Nurse Bhupathiraju and her competency to practice and I'm going to make a referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

'I would be concerned if she had any further clinical duties at the Portland Hospital.

'I have to consider whether I should make a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service for gross negligence manslaughter.

'I don't think it reaches the threshold for that. I think it was general incompetence and I think the NMC is the correct route.'

A spokesman from The Portland Hospital for Women & Children said: "Our heartfelt sympathies are with James' family; we are deeply saddened by what happened. "We have investigated this fully, and have taken action to reinforce training and awareness of the policies in our Intensive Care Units. We have also referred this case to the Nursing and Midwifery Council for its regulatory investigations."

The inquest continues.
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Janice Dickinson lovingly plants a kiss on husband Dr Robert 'Rocky' Gerner's lips as they frolic on a luxury yacht while on honeymoon in the Mediterranean.

The couple who sailed along the French Riviera before arriving in Monaco on Monday, were happy to pose up for DailyMail.com while their yacht, fittingly named Joy, was moored in Monaco City.

And playful former supermodel Janice, 62, was in fine form dressed in a skimpy pale gray bikini and sun hat as she played up to the camera.

In our exclusive photos Janice struts along the sun-kissed dock in a pair of high-heels, tossing a glass of wine in the air and at one point spraying a water hose in delight. In another shot she grips a glass of beer stood on the 53ft yacht and poses with her husband of seven months Rocky, dressed casually in shorts and a navy blue polo shirt.

Janice Dickinson and Dr Robert 'Rocky' Gerner looked thrilled to be on their honeymoon seven months after they married in December

The couple celebrated marriage aboard their yacht, aptly named Joy, as they posed for photos while docked at Monaco City on Monday

The former supermodel playfully posed for DailyMail.com, spraying a water hose in delight. Her figure looked impeccable in n a skimpy pale gray bikini and strappy nude heels

The former America's Next Top Model judge looked enviably relaxed as she enjoyed sailing aboard the picturesque 53ft yacht with her new husband

Ina addition to their marriage, the lovebirds celebrated their health while at the Paloma Beach Restaurant on the French Riviera

Shielded from the sunlight and paparazzi in over-sized sunglasses, Dickinson modeled the menu at Paloma Beach Restaurant on the French Riviera

Dickinson played it casual in flip flops and frayed denim shorts while posing on an ornate merry-go-round while on her honeymoon

The former model saluted the French flag while on her trip through France

Model behavior: Dickinson worked the camera showing off her toned stomach while her husband and her moored at Monaco City

Dickinson carefully gets off the boat before posing for a photoshoot during her three-week-long honeymoon

Three times married Janice was happy to ham it up and flaunt her fit physique as she enjoyed her trip, telling DailyMail.com that she's 'never felt better', adding that her and Rocky have had the 'best time'.

The couple is sailing to St Tropez Wednesday for three days before having a week off the boat at Aix-en-Provence to end their three week honeymoon.

Janice said: 'It's been the trip of a lifetime, we've had the most amazing time and seen some beautiful places, but most importantly I've got to spend some quality time with my husband. We've been blown away by the beauty of this whole region.'

The former America's Next Top Model judge and 70-year-old Rocky jetted off to Europe last week.

They arrived in Barcelona, Spain where they soaked up the sights before driving up to the south of France to hop on their yacht. They sailed to Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez before heading to Monaco on a trip of a lifetime.

Janice, who married Rocky in December last year, said their honeymoon was delayed while she recovered from breast cancer and her husband recovered from a collapsed lung after a fall from the roof of their home.

Gerner and Dickinson arrived in Barcelona, Spain on Monday. The newlyweds then set sail to Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez before heading to Monaco

The couple sported casual yachting looks, with Gerner in a blue collared shirt and his bride in a pale grey bikini

Dickinson was married three times before she met Gerner. She told DailyMail.com she's enjoying some 'quality, alone time' with her new husband

The couple wed in December after Dickinson beat breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2012. The honeymoon was further delayed after suffered a collapsed lung after plunging 15ft from the roof of their house in Tarzana, California

Dickinson strutted down the carpet with other visitors at the Cannes Film Festival during her honeymoon

Dickinson showed off a patterned romper in France. The couple drove from Barcelona to the south of France before their yacht trip, then are off to Aix-en-Provence

Dickinson looked stunning as she stepped onto the yacht named Joy as the couple celebrated their honeymoon

Using the dock as a runway, Dickinson paraded around in a two piece bathing suit while sipping a beer

The former supermodel told DailyMail.com the newlyweds have been 'blown away' by the Mediterranean's beauty

Dickinson danced on the streets of Barcelona at the beginning of her honeymoon. The couple journeyed to the south of France before their romantic yacht trip

'Last year was tough for us' Dickinson mused about the couple's hardships last year when she beat breast cancer and he suffered a collapsed lung. But time in Spain then France has clearly ended any blues

But sharing a series of holiday snaps with DailyMail.com the happy couple clearly made up for lost time.

In an exclusive interview along the way Janice told DailyMail.com that the vacation has been 'wonderful'.

'We're having the time of our lives, it's been wonderful, we arrived in Barcelona on Monday and have been taking in the sights, it's a beautiful city.

'We're driving down to the south of France where we're taking a yacht and stopping at Cannes, Frejus and St Tropez and on to Monaco.'

Janice said she's enjoying some 'quality, alone time' with new husband Rocky.

She said: 'Last year was tough for us, I beat breast cancer and Rocky suffered a collapsed lung after falling off the roof so we only just managed to make it down the aisle, but we did and we had the most amazing wedding day.

'I was so delighted, ecstatic, over the moon, to marry Rocky.

At the start of the couple's three-week-long honeymoon, Dickinson told DailyMail.com: 'I was so delighted, ecstatic, over the moon, to marry Rocky'

Dickinson met Gerner through a blind date that was set up by his son. He proposed to her in 2012 and they married in 2016

Dickinson and Gerner finally married in an intimate ceremony at the Beverly Hills home of Janice's friend, Suzan Hughes

Dickinson and Gerner are sailing to St Tropez Wednesday for three days before having a week off the boat at Aix-en-Provence to end their three week honeymoon

Dickinson's famous brown locks shimmered in the son as she took time to pose during her three-week trip

Makeup-free Dickinson looked radiant on the yacht her husband and her sailed off the south of France

'He's the brightest, funniest and most exciting man I've ever met in my life' Dickinson gushed about her husband to DailyMail.com during their honeymoon

'But with it being right before Christmas and all the hospital appointments and work commitments we had, we decided to put the honeymoon on hold until this year.

'It's our chance to finally spend some quality, alone time together and my chance to thank Rocky for being a wonderful husband and a huge support.

'He's the brightest, funniest and most exciting man I've ever met in my life.'

Psychiatrist Rocky proposed to Janice in 2012 after meeting the former supermodel and reality star on a blind date his son had set up earlier that year, but they put their plans on hold when she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in March, 2016.

Thankfully, after undergoing two lumpectomies and completing a course of radiation therapy, Janice was declared cancer-free late last year.

But then the couple suffered further heartache in October when Rocky suffered a collapsed lung and several broken ribs after plunging 15ft from the roof of their house in Tarzana, California while doing repairs.

Despite this they continued on planning a wedding and finally married in an intimate ceremony at the Beverly Hills home of Janice's friend, Suzan Hughes on December 10.
California rapper 40 Glocc has been arrested as part of a prostitution bust in Minnesota.

The rapper and gang member, 42, was busted in February this year after he drove a woman to an unknown location after she had been contacted by an undercover police officer using the website, Backpage.com.

After cops arrested the woman, they 'noticed a Bluetooth headset around her neck with a live call on the phone', according to TMZ.

California rapper 40 Glocc (pictured) has been arrested as part of a prostitution bust in Minnesota

Police also saw the car that dropped the woman off take off while they were arresting her, and were later able to track it down. When they did, according to TMZ, officers found 40 Glocc with cuts to his hands he suffered while trying to 'smash multiple cell phones in his possession to avoid detection'.

Two other people in addition to the rapper and the woman he dropped off were arrested.

40 Glocc was released on bail and has a hearing set for October this year.

The rapper's arrest comes after he was lucky to survive being shot multiple times while attending the funeral of a friend who was shot deal, XXL reports.
A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged in connection to a four-vehicle pileup in the Queens section of New York City that left two people dead and seven others injured.

Authorities say 33-year-old Andrew Shakespeare, of Roselle, was returning from a wedding, where he had been drinking, when he sideswiped a car and lost control of his SUV on Grand Central Parkway at 6.30am Sunday.

The SUV crossed three lanes near 188th Street and hit another SUV, causing both vehicles to hit a guardrail, cross the parkway and roll over. Shakespeare's vehicle then hit another SUV.

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Lives lost: Akeam Grant, 6 (left), and Layon Campbell, 34 (right), were killed Sunday morning in a multi-car crash in Queens while returning home from a wedding

Two men were killed and seven other people were injured in an early morning car crash in Queens, New York on Sunday

A car going westbound on the Grand Central Parkway crashed through a center guardrail into eastbound traffic around 6.30am. It hit three other cars including an SUV that landed on its roof and a minivan that landed on its side

Killed were two of Shakespeare's five passengers, 16-year-old Akeam Grant and 34-year-old Layon Campbell, both of Brooklyn.

Shakespeare faces charges including manslaughter, assault and reckless driving. It couldn't be determined if he has a lawyer.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown on Monday announced the charges against Shakespeare in a press release.

A wedding celebration ended in a horrific tragedy when one of the guests  the defendant  allegedly got behind the wheel of his vehicle, drove recklessly and at a high rate of speed on one of Queens Countys major highways before losing control and crashing into several vehicles and through a guardrail, the statement read.

Shakespeare was awaiting arraignment Monday on a criminal complaint charging him with two counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of assault, reckless endangerment and reckless driving. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Campbell (left and right) had to be extracted from Shakespeare's car. He later died at a Queens hospital

A makeshift memorial is seen paying tribute to Campbell, who was known to his friends as 'Nuffy'

Brown said that, according to the charges, Shakespeare was driving a black 2014 BMW X5 at a high rate of speed in the right westbound lane of the Grand Central Parkway near 188th Street sometime after 6am on Sunday when he veered into the entrance lane to pass a white Nissan, before sideswiping that vehicle and losing control of his car.

It is alleged that Shakespeare then crashed into a 2016 Nissan Rogue and that both Shakespeares BMW and the Rogue then struck and went through the guardrail separating the parkways westbound and eastbound lanes of traffic and landed in the parkways eastbound lanes.

The Nissan flipped over, landing on its roof, and Shakespeares BMW rolled over and came to rest on its tires on the parkways eastbound shoulder.

At the time the Nissan Rogue and the BMW smashed through the guardrail, a silver Mercedes Benz SUV traveling eastbound had to veer to the side, which resulted in that vehicle also overturning and coming to a rest on its side.

One man in his 20s was ejected from his car and died on the scene and eight other people involved were taken to Jamaica Hospital and North Shore Medical Center

According to the complaint, at the time of the collision there were five passengers in Shakespeares BMW. One of the survivors told police they were all returning from a wedding that had started at 7pm on Saturday, and that Shakespeare drank alcohol earlier that evening.

Shakespeare allegedly told a responding police officer that after the reception, they went to a friends house, where he had one beer at 1.30am before getting behind the wheel and heading to Brooklyn.

According to the complaint, cops at the scene observed that Shakespeare had bloodshot, watery eyes and there was the smell of alcohol coming from his car. Numerous alcoholic beverage containers were found scattered around the BMW.

Grant was ejected from the BMW onto the roadway and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Campbell had to be extracted from the car and was transported to a local hospital, where he passed away from his injuries. A third passenger, also a 16-year-old boy, was hospitalized with a fractured pelvis and right arm.

A 60-year-old male passenger sitting in the front seat of the Nissan Rogue was hospitalized for multiple fractures of his right leg and a 63-year-old male passenger sitting in the backseat suffered a fractured rib and injuries to his neck and back.

According to the complaint, police investigating the collision observed the parkways center median and guardrail to have a 30-foot section missing.

Investigators estimate that Shakespeares vehicle was traveling at a minimum speed of 76mph in a 50mph speed zone before the crash.

Afterwards, the 33-year-old driver allegedly refused to submit to a portable Breathalyzer test and a blood test, and a court-authorized warrant had to be signed to require hospital staff to take his sample.
Luke Howes (pictured) died after being hit by a train while trying to evade police officers

A student addicted to crystal meth was killed after being struck by a high-speed train while fleeing police who had been called to the family's 1.6million home by his mother.

Luke Howes, the son of a pharmaceutical boss, was found dead on a train line near the house in Ascot, Berkshire.

The 21-year-old leapt from his bedroom window to escape four officers after his mother Lydia called police due to concerns over his erratic behaviour.

An inquest heard that his parents took his out of university months earlier after he confessed to a drug addiction, having progressed from taking cannabis to ecstasy, and finally crystal meth.

Following a drug overdose at the family home, Luke was admitted to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, who eventually discharged him three days later despite the pleas of his parents.

While back at home that same day, Luke continued to display erratic behaviour, leading to a 999 call from his concerned mother, which resulted in a brief chase as the student tried to evade officers.

Today, his parents told the inquest into Luke's death that they wanted answers from Frimley Park Hospital as to why its doctors deemed it safe to send Luke home.

Coroner Peter Bedford told the jury that the 10-day inquest in Reading, Berkshite would focus on two separate issues.

'The first is when Luke was admitted to Frimley Park hospital on November 8, 2015.

'He was living with his parents and his mother was concerned that he had overdosed on crystal meth.

'She called 999 and an ambulance was sent but Luke was very resistant. Police were called to help and he was admitted to hospital.

'We will hear how he was assessed and of the conversations with Luke's mum when she expressed that he should not be discharged - but he was.

'The second issue is on November 11, 2015 when Luke was discharged, his sister Sophia collected him and took him home

Luke Howes was killed after jumping in front of a high-speed train at the back of his home in Ascot, Berkshire (pictured), after his mother called police due to concerns over his drug taking

'His behaviour was such that his mother had to seek help from the police. Four police officers attended the front of the house and Luke absconded out the back bedroom window, then the incident at Ascot railway station.'

The jury heard Luke started smoking cannabis aged 16 while a student at Charters School in Ascot, and his mental health deteriorated when he turned to harder drugs.

Lydia Howes told the coroner that he was awarded a place at Bournemouth University to study technology but he continued to take drugs while studying.

She said: 'We went to see him and bring him home so he could move into his bedroom.

'He told me he was addicted to crystal meth in September 2013 after we picked him up from university. He was never able to return to university.'

Luke was diagnosed with paranoia in September 2013 and then drug dependency in December 2013.

After overdosing in March 2014, he was diagnosed with mental disorder, behavioural disorder and psychotic disorder due to drug use.

Luke Howes, the son of a pharmaceutical boss, was found dead on a train line near the house in Ascot, Berkshire

Coroner Peter Bedford told the inquest that after being discharged from Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey, he was allowed to return home.

Mrs Howes said she was forced to call the police on November 11, 2015 because she could not control her son.

Mrs Howes told the jury that Luke should not have been discharged from hospital that day but should have been detained.

He had been admitted three days earlier after overdosing on drugs, believed to be crystal meth, and Mrs Howes called an ambulance.

Mr Bedford said: 'He was resistant when the ambulance came and police were called to help and he was admitted to Frimley Park Hospital.

'Mrs Howes expressed that he should be detained but they discharged him two days later.'

Mrs Howes said: 'I instructed the paramedics that he needed to be watched by security 24/7 because he would abscond from hospital.

'I don't know if anyone here knows what it is like to take a psychotic person to hospital but it is very difficult.'

Luke did abscond from hospital the following day but Surrey Police found him and returned him to hospital.

The day before his death, Mrs Howes said she had a meeting with two psychiatric nurses and told them her son needed urgent inpatient psychiatric treatment.

The inquest continues.
A 23-year-old man is accused of killing both his grandfather and mother by three aunts who have filed a lawsuit to block him from inheriting a portion of the family's $44million fortune.

Nathan Carman was a suspect in his grandfather John Chakalos' death after the wealthy 87-year-old real estate developer was shot and killed in his Vermont home in 2013, but a prosecutor rejected a warrant for his arrest pending more information.

Three years later, Nathan went on a fishing trip with his mother Linda Carman, 54, who disappeared when the boat sank off the coast of Rhode Island.

Linda's three sisters have now filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire's Cheshire County, asking a judge to block Nathan from collecting money from his grandfather's estate, which was divided among his four daughters.

Nathan Carman is accused of killing both his grandfather and mother by three aunts who have filed a lawsuit to block him from inheriting a portion of the family's $44million fortune

Nathan was a suspect in his grandfather John Chakalos' death after the wealthy 87-year-old real estate developer (right) was shot and killed in his Vermont home in 2013

Three years later, Carman (right) went on a fishing trip with his mother Linda Carman (left), who disappeared when the boat sank off the coast of Rhode Island

While he was the last known person to see both Chakalos and his mother before their deaths, Nathan has denied any wrongdoing, saying he loved both relatives.

A cellphone number for him rang unanswered on Monday, and messages left for his attorneys weren't immediately returned.

No criminal charges have been brought against Nathan, and his aunts Valerie Santilli, Elaine Chakalos, and Charlene Gallagher have filed a 'slayer action' in New Hampshire, asking a court to find him responsible for killing Chakalos.

The sisters' attorney, Dan Small, said the details and evidence in Chakalos' death and in Linda's disappearance 'all point to Nathan as the prime suspect.'

'Yet he now stands to inherit millions of dollars from their estates,' Small said in a statement.

Small said if the sisters win the lawsuit, 'they pledge to use those funds exclusively to pay for expenses incurred relating to the investigation into the death of their father and disappearance of their sister, and any remaining funds will go to charity.'

A billboard offered a $250,000 reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest in Chakalos' death. He and his wife were well known for their Christmas lights display

Chakalos, a Second World War veteran, was shot dead at his home in Windsor, Vermont in 2013, just weeks after Carman's grandmother died of cancer.

The lawsuit says that a police investigation found Nathan had bought a semi-automatic rifle from a gun store in New Hampshire that matched the same caliber weapon used in his grandfather's killing.

The document says he concealed the information from investigators and now says the weapon is missing.

In July 2014, Windsor police submitted an arrest warrant for Nathan on a murder charge, but a prosecutor rejected it the next day and returned it with a 'request for further information.'

Nathan told the Hartford Courant: 'He loved me very dearly,' he added. 'I was like a son to him; he was like a father to me.'

Carman is seen with his grandmother shortly before she died. Three years after his grandfather died, his mother was presumed dead after their fishing boat went under

In September 2016, Linda was on a fishing trip with her son, when the boat sank, according to Nathan.

He was rescued at sea a week later, and t he search for Linda was called off after the Coast Guard said there was no chance of her still being alive.

In a recording of the phone call Nathan made to the Coast Guard after he was rescued by a freighter, he said he heard a 'funny noise' in the engine compartment of his boat and then saw water pouring in before he lost sight of his mother.

While Nathan said he patched some holes on the 31-foot-long boat with marine putty before the trip, he insisted the boat was seaworthy.

But insurance companies claimed in court that 'incomplete, improper, and faulty repairs' were made the day before the boat sank.

Nathan told ABC's '20/20' that he's misunderstood and an easy target for police because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum. A few of its hallmarks are awkward social and communication skills.

Nathan, right, disembarks at the US Coast Guard station in Boston in 2016
A New Mexico man is facing criminal charges after police say he threatened to pull a gun on a taco shop employee for giving him the wrong order.

Lex Norman Deines was arrested on July 8 following a heated exchange with a worker at Rigoberto's Taco Shop near one of the nation's premiere weapons labs, the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Jemuel Montoya says an employee said Deines promised to retrieve a gun out of his car over the allegedly bungled tacos. Witnesses said they heard the threat.

Taco terror: Lex Norman Deines (left and right), 48, was arrested in New Mexico on disorderly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges after an angry confrontation at a taco restaurant

Police say Deines threatened to pull a gun on a cashier at Rigoberto's Taco Shop for giving him the wrong order

The 48-year-old Deines, who is married and has two children, was booked at the Los Alamos County Detention Center and is facing disorderly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges.

According to Deines' Facebook page, he started working at Los Alamos National Lab in December 2015.

The facility is a US Department of Energy national laboratory initially launched during World War II for the design of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project that produced the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

On the evening of July 8, police say Deines went to the taco eatery with his family for dinner but grew upset with the cashier for refusing to change his order, reported the Los Alamos Monitor.

Family man: Social media posts suggest that Deines is married and the couple have two children

According to Deines' Facebook page, he started working at Los Alamos National Lab in 2015

According to other patrons, Deines seemed enraged and was overheard using profanity and issuing the gun-related threat, which prompted someone to call police.

An officer who responded to the scene observed that the 48-year-old man smelled of liquor and was behaving in an aggressive manner with staff.

An incident report states that when Deines noticed the officer, he said out loud, 'Oh, it's come to this.'
Hand-held flame-throwers are being sold as a self-defense tool against sexual attackers in China.

The devices, which look like large cigarette lighters, are on sale for between $10 and $30 from several online shops.

Makers boast they can produce a flame from several inches to one and a half feet long at temperatures up to 1,800C - enough to 'disfigure' an attacker.

Mini flame throwers designed to protect women against sex attackers have gone up for sale for between $10 and $30 in China

Adverts claim the devices are perfectly legal, though Chinese police say otherwise, according to The Telegraph.

They are explicitly marketed as a self-defense tool for women to use against predatory men, with one advert showing a woman being pushed up against a bathroom door.

Another advert on Chinese marketplace Taobao shows a woman chasing a man away while brandishing one of the devices.

Sexual violence is believed to be a common crime in China, though how common is largely unknown, since many go unreported.

Luo Tsun-yin, a social psychologist at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan, believes that nine out of ten crimes are never brought to the attention of the police.

Domestic violence was only made illegal in 2015, though the legislation failed to cover sex crimes. Marital rape is still legal.

Makers say they are capable of producing a flame up to a foot and a half long at temperatures of 1,800C - which is enough to 'disfigure' an attacker

A 2013 UN report found that almost a quarter of Chinese men admitted raping a woman at least once in their life. 87 per cent said sexual entitlement was their motivation, and 57 per cent said they did it because they were bored.

Meanwhile a separate study by the China Family Planning Association in 2016 found that 30 per cent of students at Chinese universities had experiences some form of sexual violence.

The issue of sexual violence has been high on the political agenda in China following a high-profile case of attempted rape last year, in which a man was caught on CCTV dragging a woman down a hotel corridor by her hair.

Shockingly, a member of hotel staff approaches the man but instead of intervening, merely asks the pair to be quiet. Several passersby also do nothing.

Eventually someone steps forward to grab the woman's arm and the attacker flees.

The case went viral after the victim, identified only as Wanwan, posted the footage on social media site Weibo after police told her investigators would be unable to meet with her for a week after the crime.
Mohamed Noor was in breach of his own police department's strict bodycam rules when he opened fire and killed bride-to-be Justine Damond.

He now faces severe punishment, even if exonerated over the shooting, and could lose his job for not following the guidelines.

The 31-year-old officer knew he was compelled to switch on his body camera and record his interactions when answering a 911 call to reports of a sexual assault.

Department policy says it should be switched on for 'any search', and crucially, 'prior to any use of force'.

But when he and his partner Matthew Harrity pulled their squad car up to an alley where Justine had reported hearing somebody being raped, neither turned the cameras on.

She was shot dead shortly after making the 911 call. Justine was gunned down by Noor from inside the squad car and the shooting has been described as a 'homicide' by the victim's fiance Don.

Mohammed Noor (left) shot Justine Damond, 40, (right) who was wearing pajamas, from the passenger seat of his squad car while she spoke to his colleague on the drivers side in a back alley. His bodycam was switched off in breach of department rules

Clear rules: These are the department policies which apply to all its officers on the use of bodycams. Officers Noor and Harrity were in breach of them by not activating their cameras for a 'search', 'before any citizen interaction' and 'prior to any use of force'.

Equipment: The exact model of body cam - or Body Worn Camera in Minneapolis PD's official policies - is unknown but this example worn by a Cleveland PD officer is typical

Police critics claim footage of the shooting would have helped with the investigation as to why the officer decided to open fire from the passenger seat and shoot the 40-year-old Australian.

But now investigators will have to rely solely on the evidence of the two officers and any independent witness.

No information has been given as to why officer Noor opened fire and why he did not turn his camera on, but DailyMail.com can disclose that he will not be able to claim his equipment was out of battery power.

If that was the case, he would have been required to remove himself from his shift so his bodycam could be re-charged.

The Minneapolis Police Department Body Camera Program, which applies to all 840 sworn officers, states that even in lesser serious calls bodycams must be switched on.

The rule book says officers are 'required to activate a BWC [body worn camera] at traffic stops, when dealing with suspicious persons and at vehicle stops.

'Further, they must be activated during any search of vehicles, persons or buildings and during use of force.'

The decision to equip all police with bodycams in Minneapolis came after the black motorist Philando Castile was shot dead in Falcon Heights, a suburb of its twin city St Paul, by an officer in 2016 in controversial circumstances.

CONDOLENCES BUT NO ANSWERS FROM COP WHO BROKE BODYCAM RULES Mohamed Noor's attorney issued a statement on his behalf Tuesday. 'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers. He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling. He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.' The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future. At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.' Advertisement

The rules state that body cams must be operated when 'contact involves criminal activity, physical or verbal confrontations or is otherwise adversarial of Advising of Miranda rights.'

The fact that the officers were called to an emergency call involving a possible sexual assault means the bodycams shold have been on.

Officers have to ensure equipment is functioning properly at the start of each shift and 'remove themselves from service if there is a loss of battery power during a shift so that the BWC can be recharged.'

Members of the public should be informed they are being recorded 'when feasible' and if asked conformation should be given that the camera is in operation.

It is unclear whether the officers operated their cameras at any stage during the incident, particularly after the shooting.

But the Minneapolis Police Department orders: 'Once activated, the BWC must be left in record mode until the end of the event or such time as the role of the officer is such that it is unlikely any event will occur that is required to be recorded; e.g., the officer's role is merely to protect an accident scene or monitor a traffic post.

'The officer must record the reason for deactivating a BWC by narration and include the reason in any police report or by added remarks in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system if no report is written.

'Critical Incidents Involving deadly force by or against a police officer or that result in great bodily harm or death officers involved in critical incidents will NOT be allowed to view BWC video unless and only if approved by the assigned investigating agency.'

Pride: This picture dates from 2015 and shows Officer Noor being inducted into the Somali American Police Association

The Minneapolis cop who shot dead bride-to-be Justine Damond through a squad car door (pictured is a computer generation reenactment of the incident) 'offers condolences'

John Ruszczyk (pictured), the heartbroken father of Justine Damond, has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of U.S. police

Don Damond,fiance of an Australian woman shot dead by police after she called 911 to report a sexual assault happening in the alley behind her home, fought back tears as he claimed that the cops have failed to provide any explanation

Police officers are warned not to alter or destroy footage or audio, but an exception allows authorized personnel to duplicate recordings for legitimate reasons, such as for evidence in a case or to redact or blur images as required by the Data Practices Act.

Officers guilty of violating the body cam policy 'will be subject to discipline, up to and including termination.'

Bethany Bradley of the local women's support group who has been supporting Donald and his son said: 'It is not acceptable that the police did not have body cams working and there has been no dash cam given over. No audio and no 9/11 transcript or recording. It is so wrong.

'We cannot accept this lack of information. We need a federal inquiry into her death. The whole matter is absurd.

'How can Justine be killed like this when she was the one who called the police and then to be shot by them?

'A few years ago I had to call the police when there was a man in my yard and I would be scared to do that now in fear that I might get shot like Justine just for dialing 9/11.

'We need more information from the police about the body cams and what happened on Saturday night.'
WASHINGTON  State Rep. Craig Hall of Utah has four redheaded school-age children, lives in the state with the highest rate of melanoma in the country, and buys sunscreen "in the Costco size." He is an unabashed proponent of sun protection.

But when Hall, a Republican, introduced legislation this year to allow kids to bring sunscreen to school  which starts Aug. 21 in his district  he said his fellow state lawmakers were a little less enthusiastic. "My colleagues' first reaction to this bill was mostly, 'Seriously? We need a bill for this?'"

Like ibuprofen or hay fever medication, sunscreen is considered an over-the-counter drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and therefore by almost all schools. That means kids can't bring it to school without a doctor's note, and even then must see the school nurse in order to use it.

The result: Teachers leading a sunny field trip are free to cover themselves in a thick protective layer of sunscreen. But in most states, children can't follow suit. In Indianapolis, for instance, kids go back to school July 31  the height of summer  but they must have a doctor's note to bring sunscreen to school, and visit the school nurse to put it on.

That is beginning to change. In the past four months, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Washington have enacted laws declaring students may use sunscreen in school and at after-school activities, no doctor's note required. Those states join California, New York, Oregon and Texas, which already have lifted the ban on sunscreen in school. The laws in Arizona, New York and Washington also stipulate that kids may bring and use sunscreen at summer camps.

The legislation is designed to allow school districts to implement "sun safety" policies that encourage kids to use sunscreen and wear hats and long sleeves in the sun  though in a nod to school dress codes, the legislation allows schools to ban clothes and hats deemed inappropriate.

Sunscreen legislation is also in the works in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. A sunscreen bill that cleared the Senate in Mississippi died in a House committee, and a bill introduced in Georgia has stalled.

"Parents, I think, are the best decision-makers on" their children's sunscreen use, said Republican state Sen. Terry Burton, a co-sponsor of the Mississippi bill. It would have required the state Education Department to write a sun safety policy for districts to follow. "The school should not interfere with that decision that a parent makes to protect their child."

Legislators say they are motivated by angry parents whose children suffered serious sunburns at school events where sunscreen was banned. "If you just Google 'kid sunburned at school,'" Hall said, "some of the stories are horrifying."

In Rhode Island, Democratic state Rep. David Bennett said the state's 2016 law requiring daily school recess makes it more important that kids be allowed to put on sunscreen by themselves. "The kids are impatient. They've got 20 minutes. They're not going to stand in line for 20 minutes" while a teacher applies sunscreen, said Bennett, whose bill passed the lower house and is now in the Senate. "By the time she gets done with the last kid, the 20 minutes is going to be over."

But Bennett ran into opposition from the Rhode Island association of school nurses, which opposes the bill. Unlike other state sunscreen laws, Rhode Island's legislation has no language to address liability for school employees who may apply sunscreen and for school districts. The school nurses group also believes sunscreen should be kept out of classrooms because of potential allergies among students.

Diane Kowal, president of the Rhode Island Certified School Nurse Teachers Association, said two children in her Coventry school district carry EpiPens because of sunscreen allergies. Parents could be sending their kids to school with sunscreen and a doctor's note, which would allow her to dispense the sunscreen, she said  but they don't.

While she receives doctor's notes from parents to administer ibuprofen and even cough drops, she has not received any to permit sunscreen use, even at annual school field days when she alerts parents to be sure kids are protected from the sun. "They all show up with the hats and water bottles," but no sunscreen, Kowal said.

"We're not against sunscreen," Kowal said. "There just needs to be language to protect everyone, from the person putting it on to the kids sharing it."

Bruce Brod, political advocacy chair for the Pennsylvania Academy of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, said a serious allergy risk is unlikely. "A kid might be allergic to hair gel. The question is where do you draw the reasonable line?"

Beyond media coverage of kids with lobster-red sunburns, the legislation has been driven by an advocacy campaign from a coalition of medical groups including the American Academy of Dermatology Association and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery Association, whose members decided in March to push for sunscreen legislation. The dermatologic surgery group wrote model legislation and earmarked $30,000 in grants for state dermatology organizations to lobby for the bill. The dermatology association also provided advocacy grants to state groups.

The quick results  four state laws in three months  are because "it's an issue that doesn't seem to be politically divisive at all," said Terry Cronin, a Melbourne, Florida, dermatologist and head of the advocacy working group for the dermatologic surgery society. "Everybody sees that kids need to be protected from skin cancer and they should be protected with sunscreen."

The medical groups say they are hopeful that Illinois and Ohio will take up sunscreen legislation next.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Some sunscreen laws specify that schoolchildren may put on their own sunscreen and that school personnel may volunteer to help them. Utah's law, for instance, includes a provision that if a child can't apply her own sunscreen, a teacher or school employee may do so, but only with the written consent of the parents. The school and its personnel are not liable for either a reaction to the sunscreen or for not reapplying it.

"The real difficulty is a lot of the teachers and nurses are uncomfortable having to apply this on children because they don't want to be seen as handling the child," Cronin said. Sunscreen bills which exempt sunscreen from being administered by school personnel  as medications such as ibuprofen must be  mean that teachers can show students how to put on their own sunscreen.

Sunscreen legislation is appealing because it doesn't require the state to spend money: simply tell parents they can send sunscreen to school with their children. But as parents may already know, just because kids can wear sunscreen doesn't mean they will. Nor will school districts necessarily get the message.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

California was the leader in sunscreen legislation: The state enacted a law in 2002 allowing sunscreen to be used in schools without a doctor's note and requiring schools to let students wear hats and protective clothing when outdoors. "Billy's Bill for Sun Safety" was named for Billy Graham, who died of melanoma at the age of 22; a foundation started by his mother after his death lobbied for the legislation.

While many California school districts updated their sunscreen policies as a result of Billy's Bill, surveys have discovered that "many schools had not changed their practices even though the district had changed its policy," said Jeff Ashley, a Burbank, California, dermatologist and president of Sun Safety For Kids, a nonprofit that advocates for improved school policies and helped write the California School Boards Association sun safety policy.

"From passing the bill to actual student behavior  there are a lot of steps in between," said Julia Berteletti of Klein Buendel, a Colorado health communications firm that is working with Ashley to study California school districts' compliance with the state sun safety policy.

"We're also finding, anecdotally, that even if a district passes a policy, that doesn't always translate into the principal knowing the policy."

Why might schools be slow to adopt the new approach? "This is speculative, but I think schools object a little bit to having to be baby sitters. They feel a bit overwhelmed just trying to meet all the educational goals," Ashley said, "even though everyone agrees that sun safety is prudent."

Even if school personnel begin promoting sunscreen use with their students, gauging whether kids are more protected would be tough because there is little information on how often kids use sunscreen now, Berteletti says.

Regardless of difficulties in implementation, the new state laws "send a clear message that this is something we take seriously," said Brod, the Pennsylvania dermatologist. "We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that sunlight is cancer-causing. It sends that message to the parents, to the teachers. It really is something very important."
A school support worker has been suspended after pupils shared a Snapchat video of her snorting a substance from a teenager's finger.

Teresa Ward, 37, can be seen in the ten second clip, captioned 'Miss gettin onit', leaning over a 19-year-old on a sofa before taking the powder up her nose.

The single mother-of-two has since resigned as behaviour manager at North Cestrian school in Altrincham, Manchester, claiming she has 'lost everything' after a 'stupid two minutes'.

Teresa Ward, 37, can be seen in the ten second clip, captioned 'Miss gettin onit', leaning over a 19-year-old on a sofa before taking the powder up her nose.

An image taken from the video is captioned: 'When ya get a teacher from north ses back to the gaff hahaha'.

An outraged parent claims youngsters can be seen in the clip wearing their school uniform, and said the video has gone viral through the school.

She told The Sun: 'This is every parent's worst nightmare. It is a scandal and has brought shame upon the school.'

Ms Ward, who lives in Chorlton in Manchester, denied she took any drugs.

She said she no longer works at the school and said none of her family had seen the video.

Ms Ward told The Sun: 'I'm going to lose absolutely everything for a stupid two minutes of my life.

'It wasn't even drugs, I had a drugs test. I don't even know what it was, these weren't kids, they were 19.'

Ms Ward has resigned as behaviour manager at North Cestrian school in Altrincham, Manchester (pictured)

The mixed grammar school for pupils aged 11-16 confirmed Ms Ward was no longer a member of staff.

Lee Bergin, headmaster at North Cestrian School, said: 'This is a very serious matter and I would like to reassure parents and pupils at the school that it is being treated as such.

'As soon as the school became aware of the video, which appears to show one of our support staff Teresa Ward sniffing an unspecified substance, she was suspended pending a full investigation. Ms Ward subsequently tendered her resignation and is no longer an employee at the school.

'A full internal investigation into the presence of Ms Ward at the party has concluded that no North Cestrian students were present.

'Details of the matter have been referred to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the local area designated officer for Trafford who are in charge of overseeing the matter moving forwards.

'The school does not tolerate drug taking in any guise, so I would like to thank pupils and parents for bringing the matter to our attention so we were able to take swift action.'
Chipotle has been forced to temporarily close a restaurant in near Washington DC after customers reported getting ill after eating there.

At least 13 people reported to the website 'I Was Poisoned', with two of that group saying they had to be hospitalized after eating at the store in Sterling, Virginia.

'After eating Chipotle on Saturday around 12:20pm... I began having multiple extreme diarrhea Sunday night at 10pm and even sh***ed myself,' one person wrote on the website.

'Tried to sleep but woke up at 1am and began vomiting in my bed and on the floor... after taking shower and cleaning mess I went back to bed and woke up at 3:30am with more diarrhea and nausea and had chills and was sweating.

Chipotle has been forced to temporarily close a restaurant in near Washington DC after customers reported getting ill after eating there

At least 13 people reported to the website ' I Was Poisoned ', with two of that group saying they had to be hospitalized. Pictured is a Chipotle meal

'I went back to bed and woke up at 4:30 and began vomiting more I finally went to bed and when I woke up I went to doctors they said I was their 13th patient to come in from food poisoning from Chipotle Sterling.'

Another person wrote on the website: 'Friday 7/14: Daughter and friends went to Chipotle.

'Saturday 7/15: stomach pains and nausea started in morning... violently sick, puking, diarrhea, severe pain, overnight into Sunday.

'Friends ill as well with one friend also in ER. Sunday 7/16: Hospital visit for dehydration, nausea, pain. Monday 7/17: severe pain, trauma pain.

'This is the worst that I have ever seen.'

'My husband and I shared a burrito bowl last night for dinner around 6:30 PM,' another person wrote on Sunday afternoon.

People reported getting sick after eating food from the Chipotle store in Sterling, Virginia (pictured)

This chart from Bloomberg shows how Chipotle's stock fell on Tuesday after news of the incident spread

'At around midnight my husband woke up vomiting violently. Less than an hour later I began vomiting as well.

WHAT IS A NOROVIRUS? Norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the US. Infected employees are frequently the source of the outbreaks, often by touching foods such as raw fruits and vegetables with their bare hands before serving them. Symptoms include nausea, stomach pain and diarrhea. (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Advertisement

'We have since continued vomiting in addition to having diarrhea, stomach pains, dizziness upon standing, and low grade fevers.

'Chipotle was the only thing we both ate yesterday. '

The company said it shut down its location in Sterling, Virginia, on Monday after becoming aware of a 'small number' of reported illnesses.

The chain added it is working with health authorities to understand the cause, but the reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus that does not come from its food supply, meaning it is safe to eat at other restaurants.

A norovirus was also to blame for a spate of illnesses at one of the company's stores in Boston that saw 136 people get sick.

Sterling's store is scheduled to reopen on Thursday - after a 'complete sanitization'.

Chipotle's stock price took a hit on Tuesday as news of the incident spread, falling more than 6.6 per cent from 395.25 to 369.12 at 12:25pm, according to Bloomberg Markets.

The company said it shut down a location in Sterling, Virginia, on Monday after becoming aware of a 'small number' of reported illnesses. Pictured is a Chipotle meal

The company has been working to bounce back from food scares that included an E. coli outbreak in the fall of 2015 and a norovirus case in Boston later that year.

Chipotle's stock price took a hit on Tuesday as news of the incident spread, falling more than 6.6 per cent from 395.25 to 369.12 at 12:25pm, according to Bloomberg Markets

Among the changes the company has announced are tweaks to cooking methods and training for employees to prevent such cases.

In addition to reassuring customers of the safety measures it has taken, Chipotle had been giving away coupons for free burritos and stepping up marketing to win back customers.

For the first three months of this year, sales were up 18 per cent at established locations. That followed a 20 per cent decline for all of 2016.

Norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Infected employees are frequently the source of the outbreaks, the CDC says, often by touching foods such as raw fruits and vegetables with their bare hands before serving them.

Symptoms include nausea, stomach pain and diarrhea.
Donald Trump Jr. may get a chance to take the oath and testify in public about his meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer and an anti-sanctions lobbyist, now that special counsel Robert Mueller has raised no objection to a Senate appearance.

Mueller, who is heading a Justice Department probe of the Trump campaign's Russia contacts, has given the okay for the president's eldest son to testify in public, Sen. Dianne Feinstein told reporters Tuesday.

Word of his approval came on a day when the identify of an eighth participant in a Trump Tower meeting that included Trump Jr. was revealed to be Ike Kaveladze, a vice president in a real estate firm owned by Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov.

Kaveladze's work features prominently in a 2000 government report on money laundering.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on June 21, 2017. He has given the okay for Donald Trump Jr. to testify before the panel

The General Accounting Office report states that his firm set up more than 2,000 Delaware corporations for Russians without even knowing who owned the companies. Kaveladze called the report, which was detailed in the New York Times at the time, as a 'witch hunt' in an article identifying him as the person behind the transactions.

Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chair who also participated in the meeting, would be free to testify.

Trump Jr.'s lawyer has said he welcomes the chance to tell the complete story.

'Don Jr. and his counsel were fully prepared and absolutely prepared to publish or make a statement that was a fulsome statement about the nature of the meeting, what led to the meeting, what the conversation was in the meeting,' his lawyer Alan Futerfas said.

Trump Jr.'s initial statement said the meeting was about adoption issues. He later acknowledged it was about getting potential dirt on Hillary Clinton, and only later was it revealed that the meeting included a Kremlin-linked lawyer, a lobbyist who served in the Soviet military, and a real estate executive accused of laundering Russian money through U.S. banks.

Feinstein's statement made no mention of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has been revealed to have left more than 100 foreign contacts off his disclosure form when he joined the White House. Numerous Democrats have called for Kushner's security clearance to be revoked. Among those left off were Russians participating in the meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who is overseeing a separate Senate Intelligence Committee probe, has also expressed an interest in getting to the bottom of what happened at the Trump Tower meeting.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and the committee's ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, prior to the start of FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray's confirmation hearing before the committee. Feinstein told reporters that special counsel Robert Mueller told her Donald Trump Jr. could testify before the panel

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., leaves the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Paul Manafort, campaign manager for Presumptive 2016 Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, speaks during a Bloomberg Politics interview on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., on Monday, July 18, 2016. The Senate Judiciary panel wants him to testify

Judiciary Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley has indicated he would be willing to subpoena Manafort and Trump Jr. if necessary. It was not immediately clear whether they would appear.

Mueller is investigating allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered to help Trump win the presidency and possible collusion between Moscow and the Republican's campaign. Russia denies meddling in the campaign, and Trump says there was no collusion.

If Trump Jr. were to appear before the judiciary committee, he would be the highest member of the president's inner circle of relatives and White House aides to testify in Congress about the Russia allegations. Several congressional panels have investigations open.

Ike Kaveladze has been identified as the eighth person known to have attended a meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

The allegations have dominated Trump's first six months in office. Trump Jr., who runs the Trump Organization family business, released emails last week in which he eagerly agreed in June 2016 to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic election rival Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father's campaign.

The meeting in Trump Tower in New York appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump's campaign and Russia, investigators in congress have said.

Grassley has said he would coordinate with Mueller to ensure that any witnesses the panel brings would not conflict with Mueller's criminal investigation.

WELL-ATTENDED: Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended the Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, a lobbyist who served in the Soviet Army, and a real estate official once accused of 'money laundering'

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya speaks ABC's 'Good Morning America' about meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in footage aired Wednesday

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)

Feinstein, asked whether Mueller had given the go ahead for Trump Jr. and Manafort to testify publicly, said, 'yes.'

Feinstein said the committee planned for the testimony to be part of a broader hearing scheduled for Wednesday but has now been postponed. She could not confirm whether the hearing would take place next week.

A man who works for a Moscow-based developer with ties to Trump was identified on Tuesday as the eighth person to attend the Trump Tower meeting.

Lawyer Scott Balber confirmed Ike Kaveladze's name to Reuters after CNN reported that his client had been identified by special counsel Mueller's prosecutors and was cooperating in their investigation.

Balber represented Trump himself in the New York businessman's 2013 lawsuit against comedian television host Bill Maher, demanding the $5 million Maher offered to give to charity if Trump could prove his father is not an orangutan.

Kaveladze's LinkedIn profile identifies him as vice president of Crocus Group, a company run by Moscow-based developers Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, an Azerbaijani-Russian pop star. The two have ties to the Trump family and helped set up last year's meeting between Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Kaveladze was asked to go to the meeting with the understanding that he would be a translator for Veselnitskaya, only to find she had brought her own translator with her, Balber told CNN.

Balber said he also represents the Agalarovs. Balber said Mueller's investigators have not interviewed his client or made contact about the Agalarovs.

In addition to Trump Jr., lawyer Veselnitskaya, her translator, and Kaveladze, the meeting was attended by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Manafort, publicist Rob Goldstone and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.

Anatoli Samochornov was identified as Veselnitskaya's translator in multiple media reports.

In Moscow, Russia said it reserved the right to retaliate against the United States after a meeting in Washington ended without an agreement to return Russian diplomatic property the U.S. had seized.

Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in December over what he said was their involvement in hacking the U.S. election campaign. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu and David Alexander, Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
Brandy K. Jones, 36, pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in Utah on Tuesday

A Utah mother pleaded guilty to child abuse charges after her 12-year-old son was found severely malnourished in a feces-strewn bathroom where authorities believe he was locked inside for about a year.

Brandy K. Jones, 36, pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in a St. George courtroom on Tuesday, KSL-TV reported. She's scheduled to be sentenced August 28.

Each charge carries a potential sentence of one to 15 years in prison.

The 12-year-old boy weighed just 30 pounds when he was found in January with one blanket and a few empty cans of beans in the filthy bathroom equipped with a camera in the small southeastern Utah city of Toquerville.

The child, who has a twin sister, had spent the last two Christmases in the bathroom, listening to family members open presents, prosecutors have said.

At the time of her arrest, Lt. David Crouse with Washington County Sheriff's Office told KUTV that the child had likely been kept in the dark inside of the small space.

Jones pleaded guilty to the charges after her 12-year-old son, who has a twin sister, was found severely malnourished in a feces-strewn bathroom inside her home where authorities believe he was locked inside for about a year. She is pictured above holding the twins after birth

The abuse was discovered after the boy's father, Russell Orin Jaynes (above with Jones after the twins' birth), brought him to a hospital. The 40-year-old man is also facing a felony child abuse charge after prosecutors said he failed to help the child sooner

'It would be my definition of a torture room.' Crouse told the television station.

'All the light switches were tapped into the off position. A baby monitor was setup so voices could come in but not out.

'So they could give instructions to the child that was in the room.

'There was fecal matter and urine on the floor, there was open cans of food, like can of beans with a spoon in it; there was also a video camera that was capable of wifi monitoring,'

Defense attorney Edward Flint has said she had a 'total mental breakdown' that left her overwhelmed and unable to care for the boy, who has special needs.

Authorities say the boy was locked inside of a bathroom inside the home (above). Authorities have since placed the boy and two other children found living in the home into foster care

The abuse was discovered after the boy's father, Russell Orin Jaynes, brought him to a hospital.

The 40-year-old man is also facing a felony child abuse charge after prosecutors said he failed to help the child sooner and delayed getting the boy medical care for hours after letting him out of the bathroom.

The father has not yet entered a plea.

The boy and two other children in the home were taken into foster care after the mother was arrested.

The child has been recovering from his malnourishment, though he lost some mobility in his limbs from being confined in the small space for such a long time and has trouble running and walking, authorities said.
A drunk man found himself skewered on an iron park fence in Midtown Manhattan after he attempted to climb it in a failed bid to shorten his commute home.

EMT workers with the FDNY were called to Peter Detmold Park on East 49th Street, just blocks away from the United Nations complex, at around 3am Tuesday after getting a call about a man hanging from a fence.

Responding paramedics found the 34-year-old victim with a 2-inch wrought iron fence spike protruding from his left leg.

Skewered: A 34-year-old Manhattan man had his left leg impaled on this iron fence surrounding Peter Detmold Park on East 49th Street

After being rescued by paramedic, the failed fence jumper was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition

The hapless fence-jumper was then lifted up and taken to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for his injures. He was listed in stable condition on Tuesday.

The Upper East Side resident told police, according to DNAInfo.com, that he scaled the fence so he could take a shortcut through the park, which had been locked for the night, on his way home after a night of drinking.

An NYPD spokesperson said the man exited cab at the FDR drive service road and East 49th Street at 2.50am and tried to cut through the park.

Seeing that the gate was shuttered, he climbed the barrier and tried to jump over it, but one of the sharp spikes pierced his leg, leaving him stranded.

According to the NYPD, the ill-fated man likely will not face any charges in connection to this incident, having already paid a high price for his misdeed, reported the New York Post.
President Donald Trump sought to downplay the GOP's health care reform failure on Tuesday in impromptu remarks to the press in which he claimed his administration has 'had a lot of victories' his first six months in office.

'Weve won and are winning the war, as you know, at the border. We are very much decimating ISIS,' the president said.

Trump said he was 'disappointed' that Republicans didn't have a repeal and replace bill that could pass both chambers ready to go after seven years of bellyaching, then turned to issues he thought his administration had done well on since he became president on January 20.

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President Donald Trump sought to downplay the GOP's health care reform failure on Tuesday in impromptu remarks to the press in which he claimed his administration has 'had a lot of victories' his first six months in office

The comments came during a White House luncheon with veterans of the Afghanistan war that Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Advisor HR McMaster also attended.

Trump's meeting with the vets was supposed to be closed off to press. The White House decided to let reporters in to hear from the president at the last moment.

In short remarks, Trump said he'd be talking to the soldiers about their experiences in Afghanistan.

'These are people on the ground, know it probably better than everybody. You know it pretty well, right?' he said. 'Because weve been there - its our longest war. Weve been there, for many years. Weve been there for now close to 17 years.'

Trump said he wants to know why the US has been mired in the conflict for so long and how to resolve it.

'I've heard plenty of ideas from a lot of people, but I want to hear it from people on the ground,' he explained.

The president's remarks on his record six months in to office came in response to a reporter's question about healthcare and whether he was 'disappointed' in the Senate's stumbles.

He said that he was then changed the subject to his administration's successes in other areas such as the rate of illegal border crossings, which were down 76 percent at the last count since he took office.

Trump also brought up the fight against ISIS. Iraqi soldiers backed by US forces recaptured Mosul earlier this month.

'Weve had a lot of victories, but we havent had a victory on health care,' he said. 'We are disappointed.'

DISAPPOINTED: Trump said he was 'disappointed' that Republicans didn't have a repeal and replace bill that could pass both chambers ready to go after seven years of bellyaching, then turned to issues he thought his administration had done well on

The president lamented on the fiasco that led Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to announce yesterday that his caucus would pursue repeal singularly alongside a two-year sunset.

McConnell said senators would come together and pass a replacement for the national health law after that.

'Im sitting in the Oval Office, right next door, pen in hand, waiting to sign something and Ill be waiting,' Trump said Tuesday during his veterans luncheon. 'And eventually, were going to get something done, and its gonna be very good.'

The administration had hoped to have health care finished by now so it could move on to tax and infrastructure packages Trump had also promised.

Their game plan, which has more than once been amended, was until yesterday to pass tax reform by the end of the year and move on to infrastructure after that.

Based on the relatively slow pace of health care reform, considering Trump said he'd get it done his first day in office, both legislative aims were becoming a long shot.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday amid the Senate's floundering that the lower chamber's tax-writing committee would stick to plan.

'Tomorrow the Ways and Means Committee will hold another tax reform meeting. This one focuses on the need to simplify the tax code for families,' he said. 'We want to simplify the tax code and bring down rates to get people real relief and real peace of mind.'

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday amid the Senate's floundering that the lower chamber's tax-writing committee would stick to plan

To that end, Ryan said the House would be working on a balanced budget.

Congress must past a series of appropriations bills by Sept. 30 to keep the trains running on time.

'Were going to win on taxes, were going to win on infrastructure and lots of other things that were doing,' Trump said at his meeting afterward, affirming the administration's plans to move full steam ahead on other legislative priorities, too.

Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn't say when the administration expects Congress to pass a tax package, or health care reform for that matter, in an off-camera briefing later on Tuesday.

'It's still a big priority for the administration. And that certainly has not changed,' she said after DailyMail.com asked about the timeline for tax relief. 'We want to get the biggest tax reform as possible, tax reform plan in place.'

Asked by another reporter if the president owed his supporters an apology for the health care debacle, she recoiled.

'For what? Having the stock market at an all-time high, creating jobs, putting ISIS on the run, getting rid of countless regulations that have made the business climate better?' she said. 'Should he apologize for that? Absolutely not.'

Previewing the administration's expected victory lap when Trump truly hits his half-year in office on Thursday, Huckabee Sanders said, 'We should be very proud of the progress that we've made in the first six months and the continued progress that we're going to make over the next seven and a half years.'
The parents of a young woman who lost her life on a film set have been awarded an eight-figure sum by a jury in Georgia.

Sarah Jones was part of the camera crew working on the set of the Allman Brothers biopic 'Midnight Rider' back in February 2014, when in the middle of a shoot on a railroad bridge a train suddenly came barreling down the tracks.

The cast and crew ran for safety but Sarah, 27, did not make it in time.

Her parents Richard and Elizabeth filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Chatham County soon after, and on Monday the jury in the case awarded the family $11.2 million.

That amount was then broken down, with the jury determining that defendant CSX Transportation bore 35 per cent of the responsibility for Jones' death.

CSX, who operated the train that killed Sarah, was therefore ordered to cover that percentage of the judgment, which came out to $3.9 million.

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Tragic loss: The family of Sarah Jones (above) was awarded $11.2 million in their wrongful death lawsuit

Heartbroken: Richard and Elizabeth Jones (above in 2015) filed their suit in Chatham County, Georgia after their daughter was killed in 2014 by a train on the set of 'Midnight Rider'

'Elizabeth and I have spent the last three-plus years wanting to understand how our daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Jones, tragically lost her life. That search has now come to a close,' said Sarah's parents in a statement on Tuesday.

They went on to state: 'We felt that this trial was necessary in order to learn what happened that tragic day of February 20, 2014. It is only with the discovery of what could have been done differently that we might avoid another similar tragic loss of life.'

Richard and Elizabeth then closed their remarks by saying: 'We miss you Sarah.'

CSX was the only defendant on trial in the case, with the rest opting to settle out of court.

They are now planning to appeal the jury's decision, said company spokesperson Rob Doolittle.

'CSX is deeply sympathetic to the terrible loss suffered by the family of Ms. Sarah Jones, but respectfully disagrees with the conclusions reached by the jury today,' said Doolittle.

CSX attorneys blamed the crash entirely on the filmmakers, with officials noting that they had twice denied requests sent by members of the film crew asking to use the railroad bridge as a shooting location.

JONES FAMILY STATEMENT 'Elizabeth and I have spent the last three-plus years wanting to understand how our daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Jones, tragically lost her life. That search has now come to a close. Sarahs life was a bright beacon of hope that was snuffed out too soon. 'Elizabeth and I want to thank our attorney, Jeff Harris, his partners and exceptional staff, who worked so hard for Sarah. We also would like to thank our Columbia attorney, Jake Moore, for his guidance. 'We felt that this trial was necessary in order to learn what happened that tragic day of Feb. 20, 2014. It is only with the discovery of what could have been done differently that we might avoid another similar tragic loss of life. 'We have learned much from this trial. No doubt that the decisions made by those in charge of Film Allman, LLC were foolish, criminal and, in our view, selfish. That said, this trial disclosed a number of exceptionally poor judgments and ignored opportunities by CSX Transportation to prevent this tragedy. Frankly, I believe that the evidence in this trial indicated that CSX has systemic issues that need corrected. 'We miss you Sarah.' Advertisement

Three members of the crew that day also testified that they were never told that they did not have permission to shoot on the bridge, and were unaware they were trespassing at the time.

CSX lawyers also said the train did not break sooner out of fear it's freight would topple over onto the other crew members standing by the bridge and cause further injury or death.

One year after the tragic incident, video was released showing the terrifying moment the film crew rushed to save their lives.

The group could be seen seen dashing to Oscar-winning actor Williams Hurt off the tracks of the bridge, along with their equipment, while a train rushed towards them at breakneck speed.

The other actor in the scene, Wyatt Russell, could also be seen trying to scramble out of the train's path.

Hurt and Russell made it to safety, but several crew members suffered injuries.

The video also showed the crew desperately trying to get a bed off the track, which Hurt was laying on during the scene as they filmed a dream sequence while Russell played the guitar.

Russell, the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, could be seen clearly in the video as he flees with a guitar still on his back.

Footage taken just before the tragic incident unfolded was later edited and cut into a scene. It would have been used in the film if production hadn't been stopped.

Terror: The jury determined that the company that controls the train, CSX Transportation, bore 35 per cent of the responsibility and must pay $3.9million (train above approaching set)

On the move: CSX was the sole defendant on trial, with the rest settling out of court prior to the jury's decision on Monday (moments before crash)

Director Randall Miller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing in 2015 and was ordered to serve two years in a county jail and eight years probation while also paying a $20,000 fine.

He was released last year however after just 12 months.

Executive producer Jay Sedrish also pleaded guilty to the same charges and received 10 years probation.

In addition, Hillary Schwartz, an assistant director on the film, was also convicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing and also received 10 years probation.

Charges against Miller's wife and business partner, Jody Savin, were dropped as part of his plea.

Prosecutors said all three defendants knew that CSX Transportation, which owned the trestle spanning the Altamaha River, had denied them permission in writing to film on its tracks.

Scene: The company said they plan to appeal the decision, stating that they 'respectfully disagree with the conclusions reached by the jury today' (William Hurt in the scene filmed at the time)

Booked: Director Randall Miller (above with wife Jody Savin) pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing in 2015 and served a year in jail

'It was a horrible tragedy that will haunt me forever,' Miller said in a statement provided by a publicist.

'Although I relied on my team, it is ultimately my responsibility and was my decision to shoot the scripted scene that caused this tragedy.'

The incident occurred on the very first day of filming on the picture.

Jones was first struck by a fuel tank and then fell on the tracks, being run over by the train seconds later.

Miller recalled the moment he was forced to call her parents and deliver the heartbreaking news that their daughter was dead.

Filming was immediately suspended, and many in the industry began a push for better safety regulations in the aftermath of the tragedy.

A group called Slates for Sarah also began putting the words RIP Sarah Jones on film slates in her memory on programs including Girls, Scandal, Parks and Recreation, The Leftovers, Parenthood, Glee, The Mindy Project, Revenge and The Vampire Diaries, a show on which Jones had previously worked as an assistant.
A man serving life without parole for killing his stepdaughter and having sex with her corpse is now contesting the terms of his divorce from the victim's mother.

Gregory Graf, 55, who appeared in court through a video feed from his Pennsylvania prison cell, refused to sign documents that would give him 25 per cent of his shared assets with Danelle Bittner.

Graf shot his 33-year-old stepdaughter Jessica Padgett in the back of the head before he filmed himself sexually abusing her corpse just weeks after Bittner first asked for a divorce in 2014.

Gregory Graf, 55, (left) refused to sign documents allowing the assets he shared with his wife Danelle Bittner (right) to be divided, even when they would benefit him

Graf is serving life without parole for killing Bittner's daughter Jessica Padgett (above), and having sex with her corpse just weeks after his wife first asked for a divorce

Graf has been uncooperative with the divorce proceedings, even in circumstances that would benefit him. He did not give a reason as to why.

The 55-year-old refused to sign documents allowing the assets he shared with his wife to be divided, saying he never agreed to receiving 25 per cent.

Under the conditions of the agreement, Graf would get $130,000 from two mutual funds in addition to 25 per cent of the sale of his home in Edgewater, Florida, The Allentown Morning Call reported.

He would also receive 100 per cent of the money made from auctioning off his guns, hunting equipment and mounted animal heads.

Graf's attorney, Jack McMahon, said the convicted murderer was happy with the agreement when it was reached in February.

Graf, however, claims McMahon didn't give him the proper information.

In light of the murderer's comments, McMahon said he may reconsider representing Graf in a wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress lawsuit filed by Jessica Padgett's husband.

Graf killed Padgett, who once described him as her second father, just weeks after Bittner filed for divorce.

Padgett (center), a married mother-of-three, once described Graf as her second father

Padgett was reported missing the same day she told coworkers she was heading to her stepfather's house to use his fax machine. Her body was found on the property

Padgett was reported missing on November 21, 2014, the same day she told coworkers at Duck Duck Goose Child Care that she was heading to her stepfather's house to use his fax machine.

Five days later her body was found hidden under a pile of leaves behind a shed on the seven-acre property on Covered Bridge Road, where Graf lived with Bittner.

While searching the couple's property, police found a pair of tan sandals that Bittner said her husband 'always wore', according to The Morning Call.

The straps of the sandals were found in a basement garbage can stained with what a chemical test revealed was blood, police said.

Authorities also seized 13 bags of marijuana and confiscated $42,000 in cash and envelopes containing marijuana seeds from a safe found in Graf's basement.

A jury watched videos Graf made of himself sexually abusing Padgett's corpse, and spectators in the court could hear the audio, which included profane comments about her body.

The jury deliberated for less than 10 minutes before they found him guilty of first-degree murder, for which he was sentenced life in prison without parole.
As secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was also anti the Magnitsky Act, the policy that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya lobbied against during her meeting with Donald Trump Jr and other campaign aides at Trump Tower.

And as a presidential candidate, Clinton tried to make sure her early position on these sanctions weren't connected with a speech her husband gave in Moscow in 2010, according to Fox News, which earned ex-President Bill Clinton $500,000.

'With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRC's opposition to the Magnitsky bill [to] a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow,' wrote Jesse Lehrich, part of the Clinton campaign's rapid response communication team, in an email dated May 21, 2015, just a month after Clinton announced her candidacy.

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Hillary Clinton (left) was also anti the sanctions against Russia found in the Magnitsky Act, a similar position to that of Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya (right)

Many Americans considered 36-year-old tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky a whistleblower, who had outed the Russian government for tax fraud. He ended up in the government's custody and died in 2009.

On the heels of this, lawmakers got to work on the Magnitsky Act in 2010, and asked the State Department to deny visas to the Russian officials who were implicated in the matter.

Hillary Clinton's State Department denied the request.

Several weeks later, however, Bill Clinton made a speech before Renaissance Capital, which according to Fox News, would have had its executives banned from the country under the law.

While Hillary Clinton's position on the Magnitsky act was in lock step with the Obama administration's Russian 'reset' policy at the time, the White House is pointing fingers at Bill Clinton's speech to muddy the waters surrounding its own Russia-related problems.

Last Wednesday, during an off-camera briefing at the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to argue that the Clintons had more devious ties to Russia than President Trump.

'If you want to talk about having relationships with Russia, I'd look no further than the Clintons,' Huckabee Sanders said.

'Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give a speech at a Russian bank, personally thanked by President Putin,' she added.

Any sort of charm offensive that Putin put on with the secretary of state's husband in subsequent years.

By 2011, Hillary Clinton's State Department reversed course and started refusing visas to some of the Russians involved in the scheme that was uncovered by Magnitsky.

By 2012, the Magnitsky Act passed with bipartisan support.

Once that happened, Russia retaliated by ending the adoption of Russian children by American families.

It also banned 18 U.S. officials from entering the country, Fox News said.

Putin is known to hate the law.
Two men accused of robbing a Wisconsin fast-food restaurant are facing murder charges after a bystander suffered a fatal heart attack during the incident.

The charges against the alleged robbers, Xavier Fleming, 25, and Nicholas Ivy, 32, were included in court documents filed in Dane County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, on Monday.

Documents claim the two men continued with the heist after 56-year-old contractor Christ Kneubuehl collapsed as a result of a 'medical emergency' after being forced to help them open the safe inside a Madison Culver's store in the early hours of June 27, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Kneubuehl was in the restaurant with his crew at the time. Members of his crew told police Kneubuehl agreed to help the men break into the safe to ensure everyone's safety, but he then suffered a heart attack.

Xavier Fleming (left), 25, and Nicholas Ivy (right), 32, the two men accused of robbing a Wisconsin fast-food restaurant, are facing murder charges after a bystander suffered a fatal heart attack during the incident

Court documents state one of the men tried to abort the robbery after Kneubuehl collapsed because he did not want to 'catch a homicide'.

56-year-old contractor Christ Kneubuehl (pictured) collapsed as a result of a 'medical emergency' after being forced to help them open the safe inside a Madison Culver's store in the early hours of June 27

'Bro, we gotta go... Bro he (is) unconscious... Stop being greedy, you dont need the change,' one of the alleged robbers said, according to the Journal.

However, the second alleged thief - who was standing at the safe at the time - ignoring the plea, saying: 'Dude is gonna have to wait... Im getting this money.'

The court papers did not state what role was played by Fleming and what was played by Ivy. However, Ivy admitted Fleming said they should leave after Kneubuehl started having a medical issue, according to the Journal.

The robbers allegedly made off with nearly $4,300.

The charges were announced after Dane County Medical Examiner's Office said the 56-year-old's killer heart attack was caused by stress.

Court documents do not list attorneys for Fleming or Ivy.

Two investigators are seen outside a Culver's store where Kneubuehl died while being held at gunpoint during an armed robbery

56-year-old Kneubuehl died after suffered a 'medical emergency' in the store on Tuesday morning. Police are seen outside the Culver's on June 27

Bail was set at $1,000,000 for both men Monday

Both men were also charged for three other armed robberies, one on April 25, another on May 16, and a final one on June 8.

Ivy was released from jail last year after being behind bars since 2004 for a number of armed robberies.

Ivy was arrested on June 30 after his DNA was found at the scene, and Fleming was then taken into custody on July 6.

They are both scheduled for a hearing next week on July 25.
A sapling tree dedicated in the memory Mason Moore is a keen representation of the slain sheriff's deputy.The purple robe locust will grow to about 40-feet tall."Mason's known for being a big, strong, tough guy," Broadwater County Sheriff Wynn Meehan said while gazing at the sapling, which stands in front of his office in Townsend.Sturdy and large, but also having a sweet side, the tree will boast pink fragrant flowers. They'll be a similar hue to the nail polish Moore once sported after practicing painting his toes to be prepared for when his daughter got older.In a multitude of ways, the department is keeping Moore's memory alive. Nearly two months ago, the deputy died from multiple gunshot wounds just miles from his Three Forks home. A suspect in his death sits in jail on a $4 million bond. Another was killed in a shootout with law enforcement near Missoula.At the same time, the office and community continue to mourn."We're trying to put things back together just to operate," said Meehan, who was one of the first on the scene. He also was the one tasked with informing the family of the death."I think it's come a long ways," Meehan said, standing in the slight bit of shade from Moore's tree.Meehan wishes he was handed a packet upon taking office on how to deal with the murder of a deputy."It'd be nice to have a general idea where to start," he said, adding the support from other sheriff's who have lost officers has been a godsend."Most of the guys, I don't know if they know what to do yet."After speaking with his staff about 42-year-old Moore's death, Meehan said "If you can't handle it, let me know."One of his dispatchers quit that day. The department now is back to full staff.Meehan has been trying to harmonize processing his grief, leading his office and helping Moore's family adjust to life without the father of three."It's been a difficult balancing act," Meehan said. "I'm doing what seems right."This week, a crew from the sheriff's office went to the Moore's home to spend four hours mowing the lawn and tending to the yard. The family returned from a trip a couple days ago and Meehan didn't want them to come home to an overgrown yard."We're trying. You have your office and your own family. It does get difficult at times," Meehan said.On the Moore's anniversary, deputies bought the slain deputy's wife, Jodi, flowers and chocolates. That date also was the day before Moore's funeral in Montana on May 23."You don't want her having an anniversary without that," Meehan said.He and four others from his office escorted Moore home to his native South Carolina, his final resting place. They flew on the plane with him. Once there, the City of Manning covered their hotels for six nights. They visited the plantation where he grew up. They couldn't have paid for a meal if they tried. The support was amazing, he said.They attended a second funeral in a small church. Meehan was able to see Moore's metal vault. Alongside Moore's picture on the vault is three patches, including his Broadwater County one.That badge number, 43-8, has been retired.Moore's locker also is retired. It now contains stacks of letters and cards."I spent three hours one day reading cards," Meehan said, as he opens the locker."I haven't gotten to the thank-you cards yet," he added, tearing up.The locker's bottom is filled with posters from school children.The hallway leading to the locker room is turning into a shrine to Moore. A medal of honor the office received last week hangs next to a wood flag dedication brought to the funeral by Butte police. A Montana Silversmiths belt buckle with Moore's end of watch date and other personal notes that was donated recently will soon be added.As evidenced by the outpouring of support, Meehan is by no means alone. The early morning Moore died, Meehan was joined at the scene by officers from a multitude of agencies.On May 16, the sheriff responded to the scene of the slaying. He then asked two chaplains to assist him with going to talk with Moore's wife.He rang the doorbell. When Jodi Moore answered, Meehan started with "I need to talk to you."She slammed the door. Jodi Moore knew something was wrong, he said.Meehan broke the news. Then went back to the scene down the road to tend to his deputy. By the time he returned, three other sheriffs were there for support.In the weeks following Moore's death, agencies from across the state sent officers, jailers and dispatchers to help fill in schedules."People have been great and that's the great thing," Meehan said.Once news of the death broke in the press and social media, Meehan received so many calls and messages he couldn't keep his phone charged. A thank-you message on Facebook he posted had 113,000 views. It wasn't solely local responses."It's crazy to think of how big the United States is and how small it really is," he said.Meanwhile, the man facing 25 criminal charges related to Moore's slaying is awaiting trial."I still have to deal with the guy who executed my officer," Meehan said."Even though he and his son smoked my officer intentionally."Prosecutors say Llyod Barrus and his son, Marshall, were on a "suicide mission" the morning on the shooting. Lloyd pleaded not guilty to all the charges, including accountability to deliberate homicide. His son was shot and killed by officers following a 100-mile chase after Moore died."That's what they were out for. It could have been anyone in a uniform," Meehan said.The sheriff said he's gone over Moore's last call in his head. The deputy reacted properly."There's nothing that Mason did that was wrong. He was always about getting home to his wife and kids," he said."He did everything by the book just like Mason always did."
A UK lotto millionaire has been accused of travelling to Ireland and having sex with an underage girl he met through an internet chat-room.

The businessman was arrested in Dublin at the weekend after he travelled to the Irish capital by ferry to speak to the teens mother.

A court heard the Lotto winner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, first had sex with the teenager when she was 15 in a Dublin hotel.

The businessman became a Lotto millionaire after the relationship with the teenager began

Garda Stephen Faulkner said the man frequently travelled to meet the girl for sex, and gardai have recovered videos of sexual activity from the defendants phone.

The wealthy businessman appeared before Judge Fiona Lydon at Dublin District Court charged with four counts of engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 17 years on dates in 2016 and this year.

Bail with a range of strict conditions was set at 200,000 and he was remanded in custody to appear again in court on Friday.

The alleged offences are under Section Three of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006, which can carry jail terms of up to five years.

The garda officer said a complaint was made by the teens mother in January that her daughter, who is in her mid-teens, and the man were in a sexual relationship.

The alleged injured party outlined that she met him through a named online chat-room in 2015, the bail hearing was told.

Garda Faulkner said the girl was subscribed to the under-17s category of the website. It was alleged she engaged in conversation with the accused.

It was alleged they exchanged details and communicated through Snapchat and WhatsApp.

Last year the man bought the teenager a designer ring worth 2,500 telling the shop assistant it was an engagement ring, the court heard

Garda Faulkner told the bail hearing it was alleged the man first came to Ireland to meet her last year.

It was alleged they stayed in a hotel in Dublin and had sexual intercourse. She was aged 15 at the time and had told the accused, the court heard.

Garda Faulkner alleged that this did not discourage the mans advancements and he came back by ferry every four to six weeks.

It is alleged the relationship was unearthed by the girls mother who alerted gardai and an investigation began. CCTV evidence allegedly shows the girl in his company at a number of locations including Dublin Zoo and coming and going from a named Dublin city-centre hotel, the court was told.

Gardai identified phone messenger WhatsApp as the main point of contact and almost 3,000 screen-shots pictures have been taken of their conversations, the court heard.

The court was also told that gardai allegedly recovered images and videos of sexual activity taking place and some recording during the course of sexual activity.

Last year he bought her a designer ring worth 2,500 telling the shop assistant it was an engagement ring, the court heard. It is now in possession of gardai, Judge Lydon was also told.

Gardai obtained financial accounts of the accused through mutual assistance of UK authorities, Garda Faulkner said, adding that, the accused is a man of considerable wealth.

His bank accounts showed he won a substantial amount in the UK lotto, the garda said.

Analysis of his phone was conducted allegedly showing 69 images and five videos of the accused and the girl, the court was told. One image of the girl in her school uniform was taken when she was aged 15, it was alleged.

It was alleged he was aware of the girls age before engaging in sexual activity with her, the Garda said.

The Garda believed he would evade trial if granted bail and he had a considerable amount of resources through his windfall, the court was told.

It was also feared he would interfere with witnesses, Garda Faulkner said. Since their last alleged meeting the man has been in contact with the schoolgirl and her family. It was alleged that he travelled to Ireland to confront her mother to discuss his feelings for her daughter.

The man, who was dressed in a grey suit, did not address the court.

Garda Faulkner agreed with defence counsel Seamus Clarke that directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions need to be obtained. He also agreed it is likely the case will be sent forward to the circuit court and there was a lot of technical evidence.

He said he could not dispute the defence suggestions that the trial may not be held until 2019.

The defence told the court the man did not have ties to Ireland but submitted that he could live here while on bail, however, the garda said that was not satisfactory.

Mr Clarke said it looked like the man had believed he was in a relationship with the girl.

Pleading for bail he said his client would agree not to leave the jurisdiction.

Judge Fiona Lydon set bail in the mans own bond of 100,000 which has to be lodged. She also said he needed to have two independent sureties, each in the sums of 50,000, approved by the court.

He was remanded in custody with consent to bail to appear at Cloverhill District Court on Friday.

In the event that bail is taken up he cannot have any contact directly or indirectly with the girl or her family, the judge ordered.

The other conditions of bail state he has to reside at an address in Ireland agreed by gardai, sign on twice daily at his local garda station from 9am until 12pm and 5pm until 8pm; maintain a 11pm to 8am curfew at his address and be available to gardai calling to his residence during those hours; surrender his passport and not apply for other travel documents; have a mobile phone which must be switched on 24 hours a day and he has to stay out of certain areas.
Two lobstermen in Maine earned a name for themselves as harbor heroes after a video was posted to social media showing the pair rescuing a baby seal tangled in a rope of plastic fishing nets.

Jeremy Willey and Jeffrey Door spotted the marine mammal offshore over the weekend roughly 10-12 miles beneath Matinicus Rock and 25 miles from Owls Head, according to WCSH-TV.

The men hauled the pup aboard the boat shortly after, where they began cutting apart the nets with a knife.

Willey and Door can be heard during the process saying, 'He's breathing a little' while unraveling the rope and relieving the seal's head, adding, 'There you go little fella,' followed by, 'Should we feed him?'

Lobstermen rescued a baby seal trapped in fishing nets miles beneath Matinicus Rock over the weekend.

Lobstermen Jeremy Willey and Jeffrey Door recorded the heartwarming footage on video.

After a short period of time, one of the men patted the seal momentarily before releasing it back into the water.

The video post, which has received over 1 million views and 11,000 likes on Facebook as of Tuesday, attracted viewers who expressed their gratitude to the patient lobstermen in the comments section.

One user wrote, 'Thank you for your kindness makes one realize just what plastic is doing to sea life.' While another said, 'Thank you Jeremy and Jeff! The world needs more people like you.'

Door and Willey said in a statement to WMTV they were shocked by the widespread attention the footage received over the internet, as they were simply doing their job.
A Florida man has been sentenced to prison time after admitting that he was planning to have sex with a 10-year-old girl in exchange for $100.

Byron McCormick, 46, of Pompano Beach, was arrested in last March as part of an FBI sting operation targeting suspected sexual predators.

Prosecutors said McCormick thought he was exchanging text messages with a father who was acting as a pimp for his 10-year-old daughter.

Predator: Byron McCormick, 46, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity

In reality, McCormick was communicating with undercover officers with FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force.

He was apprehended on March 21 when he arrived a restaurant in Davie to pay the bogus father $100 before heading with the daughter to a hotel for sex, according to court documents cited by the Sun-Sentinel.

The arrest was the culmination of a two-month investigation that was launched in January after McCormick responded to an online ad offering sex with children.

McCormick exchanged more than 700 texts with undercover agents posing as the the father-and-daughter duo.

He also sent several photos of his genitals to what he thought was a 10-year-old girl.

As part of the plea deal, the 46-year-old pleaded guilty to a single count of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.

On Monday, a federal judge sentenced McCormick to 10 years in prison and ordered him to register as a sex offender upon his release.
A Pennsylvania man, who was attacked by a raccoon as he worked on his car outside his home, killed the animal with a hammer after it bit him on the head.

Dan Waldenville, 55, was underneath his Jeep on Monday afternoon when the seemingly rabid raccoon ran up and bit him on the forehead, according to the Tribune Review.

He said he was repairing the exhaust system of his Jeep when a woman suddenly started honking her horn.

Dan Waldenville, 55, of Arnold, Pennsylvania, said he was attacked by a raccoon as he worked on his car outside his home on Monday

Moments later, patrolman John Carilli arrived to shoot the animal, only to see the hammer-wielding Waldenville (left and right) in a standoff with it. The officer said the raccoon stood on its back legs and charged Waldenville who whacked it about three times in the head

'When I looked out to see what she was honking at, a raccoon knocked my hat off and bit me on the head right above my eye,' he told the Tribune.

He said the raccoon walked over to a chain link fence near his neighbor's yard but appeared too weak to climb it.

Moments later, patrolman John Carilli arrived to shoot the animal, only to see the hammer-wielding Waldenville in a standoff with it.

The officer said the creature stood up on two legs to charge Waldenville, who whacked it about three times until it fell dead.

Waldenville said he felt compelled to kill the raccoon when he saw it heading for his neighbor's yard, where small children live.

The raccoon was taken to a lab in Greensburg for tests to determine if it was rabid.

The raccoon (file image) was taken to a lab in Greensburg for tests to determine if it was rabid. Waldenville is undergoing treatment for rabies, while the animal's remains are being tested

'I had eight shots last night and I still have three more,' Waldenville said of his anti-rabies injections.

Authorities said the raccoon may have come from a wooded area along the nearby Allegheny River.

Waldenville is undergoing treatment for rabies, while the animal's remains are being tested.

He has already had eight shots of the anti-rabies injections and he still has three more to go.

If the raccoon's remains test positive for rabies, it would be at least the fourth case of rabies in the region so far this year, according to the Tribune.

A rabid raccoon was killed by a dog in O'Hara in May and a month later, another dog fought off a rabid raccoon in Brighton Heights.

Earlier this month, a raccoon was confirmed with rabies in Marshall Township.
A Connecticut teenager who fatally stabbed a man outside a fast-food restaurant during a dispute over spilled coffee has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Stamford Advocate reports 17-year-old Marquest Hall was sentenced Tuesday by a judge who called the March 2015 killing of 52-year-old Antonio Muralles 'brutal, senseless and totally unnecessary.'

Hall pleaded guilty in March to first-degree manslaughter. He's eligible for parole in 12 years.

Marquest Hall, 17, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of Antonio Muralles, 52, in 2015

Prosecutors say Muralles, a Guatemalan immigrant, had just left a Stamford McDonald's with a coffee when he inadvertently bumped into Hall and his friend, James McLamb, then 22, and spilled some coffee on them.

Prosecutors said that Hall then spit in Muralles' face and asked if he wanted to die. McLamb then supposedly punched Muralles, while Hall stabbed him twice.

The two men continued to attack Muralles when he fell to the ground.

Hall was 15 at the time of the incident, but was charged as an adult. He faced a first-degree murder charge prior to taking the manslaughter deal.

Muralles (left) accidentally spilled coffee on Hall and James McLamb, 24 (in March 2015), outside a McDonald's in Stamford, Connecticut. Hall then stabbed Muralles twice, while his co-defendant McLamb punched him. McLamb will be sentenced in August

The judge said that prosecutors offered Hall a plea deal because of his age and learning disabilities, according to News 12.

Hall did not speak during the sentencing proceedings, which were held in open court. But his lawyer said he's remorseful.

McLamb, 24, who is Hall's co-defendant in the case, will be sentenced in August. At the time of McLamb's arrest, he was in custody in New Haven on an unrelated weapons charge with a $2million bond, according to the Stamford Police Department.
Dijanelle Fowler, 25 (pictured), turned herself into Dekalb County, Georgia police Monday night and was charged with murder, child cruelty and concealing a death

A 25-year-old woman has been arrested in the death of her one-year-old daughter, who police say died after being left in a hot car for six hours while her mother got her hair done.

Police say Dijanelle Fowler, 25, arrived for her hair appointment in Tucker, Georgia at 10.04am on June 15, and left her one-year-old daughter Skylar in the car with the air conditioning on.

But soon after she entered the salon, the car died and baby Skylar was left to bake in the hot vehicle for six hours without her mother going to check in on her once.

Surveillance video shows Fowler returning to her car at 4pm, at which point she didn't call police, but got a man at the salon's help in restarting her car.

Police believe that at this point, Fowler's daughter was dead, and that she may have hidden the body from the man with clothes she had in the car.

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Police say Fowler's one-year-old baby daughter Skylar died after her mother left her in a hot car for six hours while she got her hair done (mother and daughter above)

Police believe Fowler meant to leave the air conditioning on for the girl, but the car died and she never went to check on her during the six-hour appointment (mother and daughter above)

After returning to the car, Fowler didn't call police but had a man in the salon jump start her car

'Between 4 and 4:54 (p.m.) she texted the childs godfather that she was going to go to an urgent care for headaches,' a detective wrote. '(Fowler) also Googled about signs of seizures.'

Police believe Fowler then drove to Emory University Hospital, where she called 911 from a parking garage around 4.54pm, reporting an unconscious woman.

Officers reported to the scene and found Fowler 'unconscious' and baby Skylar dead in the car.

At the time, Captain Jerry A. Lewis of the homicide squad said they believed Fowler had suffered a seizure, and that her daughter had died after, while trapped in the car.

Fowler drove to Emory University Hospital and called police at 4.54pm. It appears that she tried to fake a seizure when police arrived on the scene

But a medical examiner later determined that the girl had been dead for much longer.

Police initially believed that the girl died after her mom suffered a seizure in the hot car. But investigators soon found flaws in Fowler's (pictured) story

Police were finally able to come up with the correct timeline by reviewing surveillance footage and Fowler's Google searches.

In early July, investigators had enough to arrest Fowler, but she had fled town.

They say she traveled to South Carolina, New Jersey and Florida before turning herself into authorities on Monday.

She has been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree cruelty to children and concealing death. She is being held without bond at the Dekalb County Jail.

Because investigators believe that Fowler did not mean to kill her daughter, she's only being charged with second-degree murder, and not first-degree murder.

According to baby Skylar's obituary, she was from Charleston, South Carolina and is survived by her parents, Louis R. Williams II and Fowler.
Doris Payne, 86, was caught by security stuffing items from the pharmacy department into her purse at a Walmart in Chamblee, Georgia on Monday. She is pictured above in her most recent mugshot

An infamous jewel bandit dubbed the 'granny gem thief' has been arrested yet again after she was caught stealing from Walmart.

Doris Payne, 86, was caught by security stuffing items from the pharmacy department into her purse at a Walmart in Chamblee, Georgia on Monday.

Police said she then proceeded to take items from the electronics department and grocery section and put them in her shopping cart before she started hiding some of those items in a Walmart shopping bag.

She is accused of shoplifting a total of $86.22 worth of items from the store.

Payne allegedly kept trying to conceal more items in the shopping bag as she was at the register.

Police said she paid for what was left in her cart, but failed to pay for the items she had already placed in her purse and shopping bag.

She was arrested at the store and charged with multiple counts of theft by shoplifting.

Payne was found wearing an electronic ankle monitor after she was placed on house arrest from a previous shoplifting incident in December.

The 86-year-old - whose criminal career dates back 63 years - pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing a $2,000 diamond necklace after she was busted putting it in her back pocket and leaving a Von Maur department store near Atlanta.

The 86-year-old (pictured above in 2013) has a lengthy criminal history that dates back at least 63 years. She has traveled the world swiping millions of dollars worth of jewels

Payne was arrested in 1965 in Cleveland, Ohio (left) towards the beginning of her criminal career. She was arrested in December in Atlanta (right) for stealing a $2,000 necklace

She was arrested against in Atlanta for trying to shoplift $700 Christian Dior earrings. During that incident, police in North Carolina also had a warrant for her arrest after she allegedly tried to swipe a $32,000 engagement ring.

The senior citizen has traveled the world swiping millions of dollars worth of jewels by making staff 'forget' she was carrying them.

Authorities say Payne has lifted pricey baubles from countless jewelry stores around the world and she once bragged about a $500,000 heist in Monte Carlo in the 1970s in which she stole a 10-carat diamond ring.

She had fled to France and was detained in Nice before being extradited back to Monte Carlo. She was held there for nine months before being released because authorities were unable to recover the stolen gem.

Authorities have said she has used at least 22 aliases over the years and most likely got away with more often than she was caught. She has also been linked to nine different dates of birth and five Social Security numbers.

The elderly woman has also done several stints in prison over the years, including a nearly five year stint in Colorado.

The Jewelers' Security Alliance, an industry trade group, sent out bulletins as early as the 1970s warning about her.

In an interview with the Associated Press last year, Payne said: 'I don't dictate what happens when I walk in the store. The people in charge dictate what happens with me when I walk in the store.

Payne faced court in December (above) charged with stealing the $2,000 necklace. She was placed under house arrest and had to wear an ankle monitor

Payne (pictured in a 1956 mugshot and in a Las Vegas courtroom in 2005) has also done several stints in prison over the years

'I don't tell a person in the store I want to see something that costs $10,000. They make those decisions based on how I present myself and how I look.'

Payne opened up about her lengthy criminal history, which dates back to 1952, in a 2013 Netflix documentary The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne.

In the documentary, she revealed how she first learned her trademark distraction trick as a teenager when a store clerk eagerly ditched her when a white customer came in.

She walked to the door, a small gold watch still clasped around her wrist. Although she gave it back that time, she realized how easy it would have been to walk away with the prize.

From there, she worked her way up from bargain jewelry to some of the most expensive stores across the globe, hitting targets as far afield as Britain, France, Italy, Monaco and even Japan.

Aged just 23, she walked out of a Pittsburgh jewelry store with a diamond valued at $22,000.

She developed a winning strategy - dressing nicely, carrying a designer handbag and arming herself with a detailed story - that she used to charm jewelry store employees.

Faced with a well-to-do woman with money to spend, store employees would relax their rules and bring out multiple high-value pieces at once, and Payne would quickly slip the expensive baubles on and off until the employee lost track and she could easily leave with one in hand.

'I don't have any regrets about stealing jewelry. I regret getting caught,' she said in her documentary.
The body of a woman was found in the trunk of her own car after her husband had driven it 1,150miles from Texas to Ohio to meet another woman.

Tamara Harris, 33, and Dequalan Harris, 35, from Cedar Hill, Texas, had been in the process of getting a divorce when Tamara was reported missing Friday.

Cedar Hill Police were notified by relatives who hadn't heard from Tamara or her young child in several days.

To try and find Tamara, officers used the OnStar system in her 2015 Chevy Traverse. They were able to locate her car in Mansfield, Ohio, about 1,150miles away from Cedar Hill.

Mansfield Police found the SUV parked on the street and Dequalan inside one of the homes with another woman on Saturday morning.

The body of Tamara Harris, 33, (left) was found in the trunk of her own car after her husband Dequalan Harris, 35, (right) had driven it 1,150miles from Cedar Hill, Texas to Mansfield, Ohio to meet another woman

Officials said he had gone to Mansfield on Friday 'for love' or 'an internet connection', according to WFAA.

Demika Rucker, Dequalan's girlfriend, who lived on the street where Tamara's car was found, said he arrived around 3.30pm Friday after the approximately 17-hour trip.

Dequalan told police he hadn't seen Tamara since Thursday when he picked up her child from her home.

Mansfield Police arrested Dequalan after he tried to run away. Before towing Tamara's car, officers found her body in the trunk.

Dequalan is being held on charges including resisting arrest, obstructing official business and abuse of a corpse, which is a fifth-degree felony.

He plead not-guilty at his video arraignment at Richland County Jail in Ohio Monday.

Mansfield Municipal Magistrate Phil Naumoff ordered bond be set at $1million. Naumoff also ordered a personal recognizance bond and electronic monitoring.

Cedar Hill Police were notified by relatives who hadn't heard from Tamara (pictured) or her young child in several days. To try and find Tamara, officers used the OnStar system in her 2015 Chevy Traverse, which showed her car was in Ohio

The child who was found with Dequalan is in custody of Children's Services in Ohio while other family members are being tracked down with the help of Texas Child Protective Services.

An autopsy on Tamara's body will determine her cause of death.

The Mansfield Police Department is investigating Tamara's death with the help of Cedar Hill Police.

They are investigating any previous incidents of violence involving Dequalan and the victim.

Officials said there had been a previous non-violent call involving Dequalan.

Charges from Cedar Hill Police are pending against Dequalan.
A Millennial Disney star and social media 'influencer' has been accused of terrorizing his West Hollywood neighbors.

Jake Paul, 20, who portrays Dirk on the Disney Channel's Bizaardvark, is a YouTube star famed for his 'crazy' pranks which have included throwing a Harley Davidson in his backyard pool and setting furniture on fire.

He and his 'squad' also love to throw rowdy parties, while he often publicizes his address which allows hoards of his young fans - he calls 'Paulers' to show up outside his home.

While his 8.5 million young followers may be impressed with his antics, his neighbors are not.

Families in the LA neighborhood have accused Paul of turning their lives into a 'living hell'.

Jake Paul, a Millennial Disney star and social media 'influencer', has been accused of terrorizing his West Hollywood neighbors

The 20-year-old clambered up on top of a KTLA van while he was being interviewed on Tuesday

'It used to be a really nice, quiet street and now [it's] just this, like, war zone,' Maytal Dahan told KTLA. 'We're families here and we're more than happy to have them live here if they're respectful of their neighbors, but they're not.'

Neighbors are even considering banding together to file a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Paul and the homeowner. They say not only is Paul annoying but dangerous.

His fire stunt, when he set ablaze furniture in his pool, saw flames reach the height of the home.

Meanwhile, Paul seems amused by the misery he is imposing on those around him.

'The neighbors hate me,' he told KTLA, laughing.

Neighbors are even considering banding together to file a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Paul and the homeowner after this fire stunt, when he set ablaze furniture in his pool, saw flames reach the height of the home

Neighbors of Paul (pictured is his West Hollywood home) have accused him of turning their lives into a 'living hell'

Maytal Dahan said their once 'nice, quiet street' had been turned into a 'war zone'

When the reporter told him that locals fear he has turned the neighborhood into a 'circus' with his non-stop parties and dangerous stunts, the millennial replied: 'But, I mean, people like going to circuses.'

Paul was then seen running and skipping through the streets before climbing on top of the KTLA van - ignoring the pleas of staffers to stop.

Eventually, Paul, who appears to be challenged in the attention span department, returned to the interview, where he was able to compose himself for a second to say: 'It's terrible, it's a bad situation and I feel bad for them, but there's nothing we can do.

'Jake Paulers are the strongest army out there.

'Dab,' he added, pulling the 2016 cliched dance move, before pointing at the reporter's shoes, and screeching, 'What are those?' before running away with his friends.

Earlier this year, Paul landed himself in trouble after he hid in the bathroom of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after attending a Social Media Event at the White House (pictured, left, on July 8 at a charity basketball game). He is also the brother of internet star Logan Paul (seen together, right)

He has since taken to taunting his neighbors on Twitter, posting footage of his KTLA interview with a laughing emoji, and the caption, 'I'm dead'

He also released 'rap' song, 'It's Everyday Bro,' which became the tenth most disliked video in YouTube history

He has since taken to taunting his neighbors on Twitter, posting footage of his KTLA interview with a laughing emoji, and the caption, 'I'm dead.'

In Paul's YouTube bio, he described himself as living 'a crazy life' 'making comedy vids, acting, doing action sports, & going on crazy adventures' with his squad 'Team 10'.

He also released a laughably bad 'rap' song, It's Everyday Bro,' which became the tenth most disliked video in YouTube history.

Earlier this year, Paul landed himself in trouble after he filmed himself hiding in the bathroom of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building after attending a Social Media Event at the White House. Although he claimed he spent several hours there before leaving in the early morning, sources confirm the video was fake and actually just filmed during the event.

After he posted footage of the stunt on his blog, he was visited by the Secret Service at home.

In June, Paul was accused of emotionally abusing his ex-girlfriend Alissa Violet who also claimed he used his agency Team 10 to take advantage of women. He has denied the claims.

His older brother, 22-year-old Logan Paul, is also a YouTube star. Logan caused his own commotion in Manhattan on July 15 when his fans shut down an entire street.

They had rushed to the area after he set up a pop-up shop for the day. He took to Twitter afterwards to thank the NYPD for 'keeping my fans safe'.
Jared Kushner's position at the White House is secure, at least for now, a White House official indicated on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she's not 'aware of any changes that we've made' to his security clearance or his status as a senior advisor to the president since the latest demand from Democrats that he be put in the penalty box.

'The president has confidence in Jared, and I'm not aware of any changes,' Huckabee Sanders stated during an off-camera briefing with White House correspondents.

ALL CLEAR: President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner leaves his Washington DC home to go to his office at the White House on Monday. Lawmakers are challenging his security clearance in light of his failure to initially disclose Russia contacts

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday she's not 'aware of any changes that we've made' to his security clearance or his status as a senior advisor to the president since the latest demand from Democrats that he be put in the penalty box

The final word on Jared Kushner's security clearance will reside with his father in law President Donald Trump . The FBI can suggest in its report on his background that Kushner have his clearance stripped away, but ultimately that decision rests with the White House

The final word on Jared Kushner's security clearance will reside with his father in law President Donald Trump. The FBI can suggest in its report on his background that Kushner have his clearance stripped away, but ultimately that decision rests with the White House.

Democrats have lined up to call for its revocation following Kushner's failure to disclose his Russia contacts.

He sat in on a meeting the president's son set up last up last summer at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and did not list it on his initial security form.

Kushner did not list a Trump Tower meeting with Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, either, or the head of Vnesheconombank, a Russian financial institution that's on the US sanctions list.

Federal employees who fail to disclose information to the FBI or other investigators about debts, past drug use, prior employment or foreign contacts routinely lose their security clearances, which provide coveted access to information.

But if a dispute arises, experts agree the president has the authority to intervene.

'If the president wants someone to have a clearance and access to classified information, there's no one to tell him no,' security expert Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists told Politico.

Lawmakers have been questioning Kushner's security clearance for weeks, but the those calls have been amplified following revelations that Kushner had to amend a disclosure form three times to add over 100 foreign contacts.

The most significant undisclosed meeting to come to light is a June meeting that included Donald Trump Jr., former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and Kremlin-linked lawer Natalia Veselnetskaya where dirt on Hillary Clinton was dangled in advance.

Also revealed to have been there was Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, who once served in a Soviet counterintelligence unit and reportedly has ties to Russian intelligence, though he denies it.

Complaints about Kushner's security clearance spiked after it was revealed he did not initially disclose a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., looks over her remarks before a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 14, 2017, where she and House Democrats renewed calls for a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia's election meddling and ties to the Trump administration

Last week, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi called for Kushner's clearance to get revoked 'immediately.'

It's absolutely ridiculous that he should have that clearance,' she said. 'It's not justified in any way. The president could revoke it in a moment, and he should.'

'Well have clients who, you know, have $2,000 worth of debt that they did not disclose  they pay it off during the investigation and they still dont get approved for security clearance,' attorney Joanna Friedman is quoted as saying in the Politico story.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is probing Trump campaign Russia contacts, said Kushner's omissions 'paint a portrait of consistent dissembling and deceit.'

He told CNN Kushner's clearance should get reviewed, and be revoked ''if he was not perfectly candid.'

THIS COULD BE AWKWARD: Kushner, whose security clearance is under fire, is married to Ivanka Trump. Both work in the White House

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya speaks ABC's 'Good Morning America' about meeting with Donald Trump Jr. in footage aired Wednesday

Kushner's attorney has said he updated his security clearance form after it had inadvertently been sent without contacts being listed, and that it was being updated.

'Mr. Kushner has tried to be fully transparent and responsive in the background investigations process. We have heard no expression of concern from the FBI, and I think we would know if there were such concerns at this time,' Jamie Gorelick said Tuesday, according to CNN.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida  who ran the Democratic National Committee when its servers got hacked  penned an amendment that would bar a clearance for anyone 'under a criminal investigation by a Federal law enforcement agency for aiding a foreign government.;

Republicans blasted it as a stunt and voted it down.
A Billings attorney faces court sanctions for warning witnesses to withhold evidence in a political practice lawsuit.

Attorney Emily Jones cautioned witnesses not to share evidence related to her husbands political consulting firm, 47 North Communications, on the grounds the evidence included information that was confidential, proprietary or involved trade secrets.

Jones husband, Jake Eaton, is a witness in a Commissioner of Political Practices case against Montana Growth Network, a group accused of failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in Montanas 2010 elections.

At issue are warning letters Jones sent to witnesses Ed Walker, Jason Priest, Art Wittich, Thomas Hauptman and Jeff Essmann. Those witnesses were either Montana Growth Network financiers, collaborators or candidates who MGN supported.

Jones had filed paperwork in Lewis and Clark District Court attempting to prevent lawyers for the political practices commission from obtaining documents from Eatons co-witnesses. In court, the attorney argued, as she did with witnesses, that the information was confidential, proprietary and contained trade secrets.

Jones argument wasnt unheard of, but she provided no proof of ever putting sharing restrictions on the evidence before the lawsuit. In other words, Jones dont-share order didnt come up until the political practices commissioner began subpoenaing for documents. District Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Jones was interfering with the political practices commissioners efforts to gather evidence.

Also, directly contacting other witnesses is prohibited, Seeley ruled.

The logical consequence of any attorney acting behind the scenes to interfere with discovery responses is of great concern, Seeley wrote in a July 12 court order.

Seeley ruled that Jones violated state rules of professional conduct by obstructing another partys access to evidence. In obstructing, Jones usurped the courts authority to control evidence discovery.

Seeley ordered Jones to pay all reasonable costs and legal fees incurred by COPP as it fought through the attorneys attempts to block access to evidence. The attorneys for the Commissioner of Political Practices are Gene Jarussi and John Heenan, of Billings. Their costs haven't been determined.

The judge also sent her ruling to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which could choose whether or not to pursue an ethical complaint against Jones.

Eaton issued a statement Monday saying the ruling against his wife was partisan.

The 100 percent partisan political nature of this order is troubling, Eaton said in an email. You have a Democrat judge ruling in favor of the Democrat lawyers who are representing the Democrat Commissioner of Political Practices against a Republican. This ruling ignored the facts, the law and the evidence in order to advance the liberal cause  thats disturbing.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel meets quarterly and typically takes six months to decide whether to bring a formal complaint against someone. Penalties range from warnings to disbarment. Investigations are private unless ODC decides to create a formal complaint.
Police have confiscated bottles and cans of booze after thousands of youngsters turned up at a Scottish beach party which was organised on Facebook.

A post on the social media site, calling for people to bring alcohol and gather on Troon beach in Ayrshire for a party, went viral.

Hundreds of teenagers were pictured in bikinis and beachwear at local train stations as they made their way to the beach.

Police Scotland confirmed that more than 6,000 youths some already under the influence arrived at Troon throughout the day, with officers out in force to cope with the massive scale of the gathering.

Police have confiscated bottles and cans of booze after hundreds of youngsters turned up at a Scottish beach party which was organised on Facebook

Hundreds of teenagers were seen in bikinis and beachwear at local train stations

Mounted police were called in to keep order as bags were searched and underage drinkers were removed

Police Scotland confirmed that more than 6,000 youths some already under the influence arrived at Troon throughout the day, with officers out in force to cope with the massive scale of the gathering

The force said that 10 arrests were made with significant quantities of alcohol confiscated

Police detain a teenager on the beach, with one officer holding her handbags

Mounted police were called in to keep order as bags were searched and underage drinkers were removed.

The force said that 10 arrests were made with significant quantities of alcohol confiscated on what was a scorching day across Scotland, where the temperature rocketed to a high of 27C (80.6F).

Images and videos on social media showed revellers flooding the beach, with reports of bottles being thrown at police horses and several young people taken away in ambulances, while gates at the train station were closed around 5pm to regulate the flow of visitors eventually leaving the town.

The Troon meet-up has become something of an annual event, with the town earning the nickname Scotlands Magaluf after gatherings in recent years saw teens charged with assault and drink and drug-taking leading to the beach being closed one afternoon in July 2015.

Following that incident, one local councillor said: Troon has become like Newquay and Magaluf and we dont really know how it happened.

But in the last few years, the crowds have been estimated at around 1,500, well below yesterdays invasion.

Ayrshire Police tweeted an image of some of the alcohol confiscated - more than a dozen black bags full of bottles, saying: Officers have seized large amounts of alcohol in Troon today.

'If it is suspected that youre providing alcohol to U18 yr olds then your alcohol will be confiscated & you may be liable to prosecution.

Ayrshire Police tweeted an image of some of the alcohol confiscated - more than a dozen black bags full of bottles

The force said that 10 arrests were made with significant quantities of alcohol confiscated on what was a scorching day across Scotland, where the temperature rocketed to a high of 27C (80.6F)

On Twitter, Melissa Fanning said: Police horses getting glass bottles thrown at them down Troon beach has to be the most vile thing.

And Troon businesswoman Donna Read said on Facebook: Today a social media campaign has brought hundreds of youths to Troon. The campaign has gone viral. When I spoke to police at 9.30am this morning I was advised they were not prepared for this.

'As the morning has gone on police have been drafted into Troon.As I type this I am hearing sirens. I think after today a police and community strategy needs to be in place.

'Police Scotland need to work with all the train stations and transport police to try and avoid huge crowds like this again.

No-one wants to stop young people having a good time but organised events like this on a mass scale need to be controlled. Ive seen on Glasgow social media sites many families saying they are now avoiding Troon and Ayr and this is not good for our town.

On Twitter, Melissa Fanning said: Police horses getting glass bottles thrown at them down Troon beach has to be the most vile thing

Troon businesswoman Donna Read said on Facebook: Today a social media campaign has brought hundreds of youths to Troon. The campaign has gone viral'

Hundreds of youngsters arrive in South Ayrshire to attend the party which was created on Facebook

Thousands of teenagers descended on Troon for a beach party which was organised on Facebook

Lauraine Sinclair added yesterday afternoon: Im currently at train station with my daughter. I have to say the police and station staff are doing an amazing job. Searching people and making sure everyone is safe. Trains are wee bit delayed but would rather everyone is safe.

Chief Superintendent Paul Main, Divisional Commander for Ayrshire, said: Today more than 6,000 people arrived at Troon beach, some of whom were already under the influence of alcohol.

Approximately 25 police officers were deployed to the area including local officers, officers from the Road Policing Unit, Mounted Branch and Support Unit. Officers seized significant quantities of alcohol and more than 10 arrests have been made.

Whilst the majority of people came to Troon to enjoy the sunshine and the beach, a number engaged in anti-social behaviour, resulting in officers intervening in incidents of disorder. This has had an impact on local residents and the many visitors to the town who came to enjoy the good weather today.

We work with partners including South Ayrshire Council, British Transport Police and Scot Rail to keep the beaches in South Ayrshire safe and popular places to visit, however my officers will robustly deal with incidents of violence and anti-social behaviour.

The Troon meet-up has become something of an annual event, with the town earning the nickname Scotlands Magaluf after gatherings in recent years saw teens charged with assault and drink and drug-taking leading to the beach being closed one afternoon in July 2015
A bobcat that attacked a German shepherd and bit a man in Arizona has tested positive for rabies.

The man was bitten on the hand by the bobcat in the residential Anthem Country Club area just outside Phoenix on Sunday.

He had tried to stop the bobcat from attacking the large dog when he was bitten.

Authorities said the bobcat was caught and underwent a necropsy.

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The bobcat that attacked a German shepherd and bit a man in Arizona on Sunday has tested positive for rabies

Tissue samples were sent to the Arizona Department of Health Services and authorities revealed on Monday that the bobcat had tested positive for rabies.

A spokesman from the Daisy Mountain Fire District said the man was helping the dog's owner fend off the agitated bobcat.

'Bobcats are pretty common to see and they are just as scared of humans as we are of them,' said Brent Fenton of the Daisy Mountain Fire District.

'But it is uncharacteristic to see one attack.'

Footage of the ordeal shows the pest terrorizing the dog and its owner.

He and the German shepherd had been running away from the critter before the pooch turned around and began defending them both.

The fire department received a call around 7.45am saying that the pest had been terrorizing a man and his dog. A bystander came up and was bitten as he tried to separate the animals

Footage of the ordeal shows the bystander trying to throw the bobcat, but it latched on and bit down on his arm

The dog had pinned the bobcat down, keeping it at bay before the bystander came up and attempted to assist matters by throwing the animal.

But when he tried to throw the bobcat, it latched onto his arm biting him.

Fenton said: 'The dog did a good job defending himself and his owner but it was when the bystander grabbed the bobcat and tried to throw it that it turned and latched on his arm.'

After finally getting rid of the pest, Fenton added that the bobcat ran to a storm drain where deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department kept him while waiting on the Arizona Game and Fish department.

But before they could arrive, the bobcat got aggressive and charged at the deputies, forcing them to put it down.

Game and Fish still took the animal in hopes of running tests to see what was wrong with it.

And while the dog and its owner were fine, the bystander did require medical attention.

We offered to take him to the hospital but he denied saying he would take himself, Fenton said.

'With an animal bite, it is really important to get it cleaned properly and get tested.'
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Theresa Mays hopes of reuniting her Cabinet took a blow last night as the Home Secretary suggested the PM still did not have the backing of all ministers.

In a lukewarm show of support, Amber Rudd would say only that most ministers were behind Mrs May  although she absolutely expected her to still be in post next year.

But last night Mrs May was urged by her own MPs to sack feuding ministers if they refused to heed her call for party unity. Senior Tory Sir Robert Atkins hit out at childish and disloyal Cabinet ministers and accused them of fighting like ferrets in a sack.

Charles Walker, vice-chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbenchers, added that Tory MPs were very unhappy about the toxic briefings and leadership manoeuvrings by members of the Cabinet.

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Amid the infighting, Mrs May's Cabinet gathered for its traditional annual photo in the Pillared Room of Downing Street. They are (back row left to right) Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, Chief Whip Gavin Williamson, Attorney General Jeremy Wright, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Patrick McLoughlin, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Elizabeth Truss, Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom, Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis, (middle row left to right) Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Karen Bradley, Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Works and Pensions Secretary David Gauke, Business Secretary Greg Clark, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans of Bowes, Scottish Secretary David Mundell, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, International Development Secretary Priti Patel, (front row left to right) International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, Justice Secretary David Lidington, Defence Secretary Sir Michel Fallon, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, First Secretary of State Damian Green, Mrs May, Chancellor Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Education Secretary Justine Greening, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

The Prime Minister read the riot act to senior ministers yesterday after days of damaging briefings to the media against each other, telling them it was vital that discussions in Cabinet remain private and warning them that the leaks were a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously.

She added: There is a need to show strength and unity as a country, and that starts around the Cabinet table.

Mr Walker said the PM should now sack any Cabinet minister who steps out of line, and that backbenchers had made it clear if she had to remove secretaries of state then she would have our support.

He added: There are many talented people on Conservative benches who could be secretaries of state, and nobody is irreplaceable.

Despite the growing anger, one Cabinet minister appeared to confirm she is plotting to succeed Mrs May. Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom, who stood against Mrs May in the leadership contest last year, corrected Labour MP Darren Jones after he said the Government contained a group of middle-aged men protecting their egos in a bid to take over from a lame-duck prime minister. Mrs Leadsom interrupted him to demand whether he just called me a middle-aged man?

Boris Johnson appeared be be feeling the heat as he went out for his morning run before the Cabinet meeting today

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon also stepped up calls for an end to the Cabinet feud, which has seen Chancellor Philip Hammond blame Brexiteer ministers for briefing against him. Speaking at a Westminster drinks party, Sir Michael called on ministers to show loyalty, discipline and cohesion and focus their fire on Labour.

He also reinforced a warning from Mrs May that ousting her could hand the keys of No 10 to Jeremy Corbyn.

He said: Jeremy Corbyn cannot be allowed to undermine the work of the British people to rebuild our economy. We cannot risk giving a man who waves the red flag the keys to a red box.

However, former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said the appeals for loyalty would not work, as the PMs authority was shattered and the Cabinet was divided on Brexit. They are jockeying for Theresa Mays position, he said. There is no serious body of thought which says that Theresa May is going to lead the Conservatives into the next general election, so, that means theres a vacancy.

It is going to get worse. There is an irreconcilable division within the Cabinet.

In a show of unity yesterday, Cabinet ministers enjoyed a joke at the expense of Boris Johnson as they gathered for a family photo in Downing Street. Days of tension were broken when the photographer told the Foreign Secretary he was showing a bit too much ankle.

Karen Bradley, Priti Patel and Brandon Lewis walked out into the sunshine after Mrs May rebuked the team for leaks

Home Secretary Mrs Rudd (pictured arriving for Cabinet today) pointedly said this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs. Mr Johnson was looking much less sweaty as he left the Cabinet session

It comes as Mrs May was urged to fire mutinous Cabinet ministers if they keep fighting like 'ferrets in a sack'.

The PM told a gathering of her top team this morning that some of them were acting 'irresponsibly', after a wave of damaging leaks threatened to throw the government into chaos.

Mrs May has been powerless to prevent the infighting in the wake of the disastrous election that robbed the Tories of their overall majority.

But the plotting and open spats have so infuriated Tory backbenchers that they are lining up behind the PM and urging her to enforce discipline.

Mrs May was cheered to the rafters at a reception for MPs last night when she warned that the public rowing was merely increasing the chances of Jeremy Corbyn taking control of Downing Street.

Liam Fox and Michael Gove (pictured left) and Andrea Leadsom and Sajid Javid are at the gathering in Downing Street today

An unnamed Cabinet minister was quoted today branding the leakers 'donkeys' and 'indulgent safe seat kids' who were creating the mood for a tough reshuffle. Allies of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been widely blamed for much of the briefing, although they deny any involvement.

According to her official spokesman, the PM told the Cabinet today that she had championed more 'genuine and collective discussion' in the top level meetings.

Mrs May warned it was 'vital that discussions in Cabinet must remain private', addding that 'briefings and counter briefings have been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously'.

She there was a need to show 'strength and unity' and that 'starts around the Cabinet table'.

The intervention at the start of the Cabinet meeting was said to have been met with 'widespread' agreement.

Home Secretary Mrs Rudd pointedly said earlier this morning that 'most' of her colleagues were focused on their jobs, insisting people should be 'honoured' to serve in government.

'I know that they should be getting on, as I know most of them do want to, and delivering what they have been asked to do,' she told Sky News.

Mrs May has been forced to seek the advice of David Cameron as she struggles to heal the rifts between senior Conservatives and deliver Brexit.

The Chancellor, pictured in the Commons today, issued an extraordinary public rebuke to colleagues at the weekend after coming under heavy fire in a slew of stories

The PM held a private meeting with her predecessor at Downing Street, with speculation that he could add his weight to calls for calm.

The problems escalated dramatically over the weekend as Chancellor Philip Hammond issued an extraordinary public rebuke to colleagues.

Mr Hammond accused Brexiteers of trying to damage him with a slew of negative briefing because he was focusing the government's policy on ensuring the economy was not harmed by Brexit.

The Prime Minister has been struggling to maintain discipline in the government after the disastrous election saw the Tories stripped of their overall majority.

But her hand has been strengthened somewhat by support from backbenchers, who are furious at the appearance of senior figures taking lumps out of each other publicly.

The powerful Conservative 1922 Committee has told the Prime Minister they would back any discipline she saw fit  including firing ministers who have routinely gone off message or publicly contradicted each other since the election.

Speaking to the Tories' end-of-term drinks reception last night, Mrs May said: 'No backbiting, no carping.

'The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn and no one wants him. Go away and have a proper break and come back ready for serious business.'

Mrs May has been forced to seek the advice of David Cameron in a bid to heal the rifts between senior Conservatives and deliver Brexit (file picture)

Mr Cameron waded into the row yesterday by suggesting errant ministers should be strapped to a raft crossing a 'very, very dangerous river'.

But the former prime minister also warned Mrs May that the Conservative Party must offer inspiration to young voters or face defeat.

In his first intervention since Mrs May threw away his majority at a disastrous snap general election, Mr Cameron warned the party could 'slip backwards'.

The former PM said the Tories must constantly question whether they are in touch with the country and recalled his five-year effort after 2005 to drag the party into the 21st Century.

Mr Cameron, who quit No 10 a year ago in the aftermath of referendum defeat and left parliament shortly after, said Tory defeats in London were 'depressing'.

Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 committee, told the BBC's World at One that Cabinet ministers had to realise they were 'good, but you're not that good'.

Aides to Environment Secretary Michael Gove (pictured on a visit to a smoked salmon factory in London last week) have also flatly denied that he is involved in the briefing

'So there are many talented people on our Conservative benches who could be secretaries of state and nobody is irreplaceable,' he said.

'But the truth of it is the 1922 had a meeting with the Prime Minister last week and made it perfectly clear to her  we unanimously made it clear to her  that if she had to remove secretaries of state then she would have our support.

'The party is united behind the Prime Minister and those who have leadership ambitions should really try to understand that.

He added: 'I am very angry. If you are a Conservative right now you should be getting on with the business of running your department and governing in the national interest.'

Sir Robert Atkins, who served in the Thatcher Major governments and is now chairman of the Conservatives in North-West England, said that some 'childish and disloyal' Cabinet ministers 'whose ambitions far exceed their abilities' were behaving like 'ferrets in a sack' as they jockey to succeed Mrs May as leader.

The senior activist, who was an MP for 18 years and an MEP for 15, did not name the ministers who he blames for a rash of leaks from Cabinet.

But he said: 'The Conservative membership in my region - and, I think, elsewhere - is, of course, very unhappy with the result of the general election and the manner in which the campaign was conducted.

'They want the party hierarchy to listen and to change, sooner rather than later.

'What they do not want and do not like is for certain senior people who should know better to be on constant 'manoeuvres' around the party, jockeying for leadership positions and generally being childish and disloyal.

'The Conservative Party in government has an excellent historic reputation for command and control, leavened by competence,' he concluded.

'So let's see more of that and less of the backbiting and off-the-record briefing. There is a Prime Minister in place and much work to be done. Get on with it.'
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second, previously undisclosed meeting at the G20 summit earlier this month in Germany, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The two leaders held a two-hour meeting on July 7 in which Trump later said Putin denied allegations that he directed efforts to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The undisclosed chat took place during a G20 dinner for world leaders. Trump left his seat to sit next to Putin, the Washington Post reported. Putin had a translator with him, while Trump was alone.

Trump blasted the coverage on Tuesday night in a tweet saying: 'Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is "sick." All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!'

He added: 'The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!'

The White House, in a statement, claimed it was only a 'brief conversation'.

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Dinner table: The G20 leaders were not seated next to their spouses for the dinner on July 7. Putin was beside Melania Trump. After dinner Trump and Putin spoke for an hour

Secret meeting: Trump's White House acknowledged Tuesday that he had an hour more of talks with Putin at the G20 but never disclosed them. The Kremlin did not tell about them either

The one we knew about: This was the start of the more than two hours of talks which were in pubic at the G20 on Friday July 7

Dining companion: Trump was positioned beside Juliana Awada, the wife of the Argentinian president, for the meal

However the New York Times and the Washington Post both said the meeting went on for an hour.

The White House is already defending another meeting with the Russians that Donald Trump Jr. attended last year

The nature of the meeting - with no U.S. officials present to take notes - means that knowing what happened depends entirely on the president's recollection of events.

The undisclosed meeting could explain discrepancies between the Russian and U.S. versions of what they spoke about at the G20.

Trump tweeted on July 9: 'Sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with President Putin. Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian & Syrian problems are solved!'

Putin said subsequently that he had pressed for the return of Russian-owned diplomatic compounds that were seized by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election interference.

'Pretty much everyone at the dinner thought this was really weird, that here is the president of the United States, who clearly wants to display that he has a better relationship personally with President Putin than any of us, or simply doesn't care,' Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, told the New York Times.

According to the White House Trump approached Putin and Melania at the end of the meal.

Pretty much everyone at the dinner thought this was really weird that here is the president of the United States, who clearly wants to display that he has a better relationship personally with President Putin than any of us Think-tank president Ian Bremmer who first revealed the meeting after speaking to others present

Trump had been seated between Akie Abe, wife of the Japanese prime minister, and Juliana Awada, wife of Argentinian president Mauricio Macri.

The White House said that each leader was only allowed one interpreter, and the U.S. translator spoke Japanese, not Russian, so the conversation with Putin used the Russian one.

In a statement, the White House said: 'The insinuation that the White House has tried to 'hide' a second meeting is false, malicious and absurd.'

It was unclear who had made such an insinuation but the White House had never disclosed the meeting in any form until Tuesday.

In fact it was Bremmer who revealed its existence in a newsletter to group clients of the Eurasia Group.

He also stood by his assertion that the White House had 'no intention' of disclosing the meeting using Twitter and also saying: 'Readout from Trump Admin on what was/wasn't discussed in official meeting w Putin useless when there was 1 hour convo off books that eve.'

Trump blasted the coverage on Tuesday night in a tweet, saying it was 'sick'

He then attacked the broader media in the Twitter tirade

The lack of information about the meeting at the time may partly be explained by the fact that press were stopped from watching the dinner before the food was served.

The dinner took place in a large room and a National Security Council spokesman told CNN that the hour-long talks between Trump and Putin did not take place in a private office.

However that does not explain why nothing was ever disclosed after the meeting.

First meeting: This was the scene of the very first encounter between Trump and Putin, just before the 'family photo' of G20 leaders was taken

News breaker: Russia expert Ian Bremmer revealed the post-dinner meeting and also said that the White House did not mean for it to become public

The revelation of the scale of Trump's meetings with the Russian leader at the meeting is certain to inflame the firestorm over links to the Kremlin.

The White House is already deep in crisis over another secret meeting - that between Donald Trump Jr and a delegation of Russians during the campaign.

The drip-drip of revelations about the meeting have fed a sense that the White House is unable to move on from the Russian issue, which Tuesday's further revelations will only serve to fuel further.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that an eighth person, Russian finance expert, Ike Kaveladze, was present for the meeting last year.

Donald Jr. attended after being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Also there was a British PR executive, a Russian lawyer and a spy. Both he and the president have defended the meeting.

At the G20, the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents had always been the most-anticipated part of the event.

Trump in fact met Putin first unexpectedly behind the scenes, just before the 'family photo' of world leaders.

Putin was speaking to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker when Trump approached him and the two exchanged handshakes.

They then met after the Friday afternoon group photo for more than two hours, with Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister present, as well as a translator from each country.

What was agreed at the meeting became the subject of much contention afterwards.

There was a deal on a ceasefire in part of Syria which appeared to have been pre-arranged.

But on Sunday July 7, Trump tweeted to say: 'Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.. ... and safe.'

The idea was roundly mocked and compared by Republican Russia hawk Marco Rubio to 'partnering with Assad on a "Chemical Weapons Unit", and appeared to be disavowed shortly afterwards.

Trump also said that 'questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI has to ask the DNC 13 times for their SERVER and were rejected'.

Putin himself offered an account of events shortly after the meeting.

The Russian leader said his Trump asked 'many questions' on election interference.

But he would not reveal details of his exchange with Trump, saying the conversation was confidential.

'He asked questions, I replied. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with the answers,' Putin said.

Putin also praised his US counterpart as a strong negotiator who quickly grasps various issues.

'As for relations on personal level, I believe we have established them,' Putin said.

'Trump's TV persona differs sharply from the real man. He is a very straightforward person, grasps precisely what his interlocutor says, quickly analyses and responds to questions or new elements of the discussion.'

The Russian leader said his talks with Trump offered a model for rebuilding Russia-US ties, which have plummeted to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other disputes.

'I think that if we develop our relations in the same way, there is every reason to believe that we would be able to at least partially restore the level of interaction that we need,' Putin said.
A harrowing video has revealed Australian woman Justine Damond contemplated suicide after watching her mother's spiral into alcoholism.

The 40-year-old, originally from Sydney, was shot dead by US policeman Mohamed Noor on Saturday after she called 911 to report a disturbance behind her Minneapolis home.

In a speech filmed at Lake Harriet Spiritual Community centre eight days before she was killed, she spoke of a dark emotional struggle which led to a life of spirituality.

'I was living a life where I was watching my mother really start to go down,' she said in the hour-long lecture.

'She was an alcoholic, she was severely depressed and she eventually developed cancer.

A harrowing video has revealed Australian woman Justine Damond contemplated suicide after watching her mother's spiral into alcoholism

The 40-year-old, originally from Sydney, was shot dead by US policeman Mohamed Noor on Saturday after she called 911 to report a disturbance behind her Minneapolis home

'I saw that my mum was really at the mercy of her mind and her emotions and she couldn't get out. She was really being ruled by her addictions.'

Her mother would later die of cancer when Ms Damond was 22 years old.

Ms Damond said she was 'terrified' she was headed down the same path of addiction.

Though she never turned to alcohol, she revealed she developed her own dependencies as she tried to 'figure out how to cope with this future'.

'It was one of the darkest points in my life... I'd really spent several periods considering whether I wanted to stay on the planet or not,' she said.

Justine Damond (pictured) grew up in the affluent northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well known Dymocks bookstore in a local shopping mall

Ms Damond said she was 'terrified' she was headed down the same path as her mother

'So I was really, really unhappy and really quite sick.'

She spoke of 'out of body experience' on New Year's Day 2006, an epiphany which she said led to a lifetime commitment of using her spiritual beliefs to help 'teach people about themselves.'

'I was the one that kept showing up and I was the one that kept blaming everything outside of me for all the stuff that I believed was happening to me as a victim,' she said.

'But, if I was the one common denominator, then perhaps I would have the power to change something internally or begin to take power back within myself.'

But her life changed upon meeting American businessman Don Damond (centre), with the pair entering a relationship that resulted in them becoming engaged and her moving to be the US

Tragic: Justine Damond was shot and killed in an alleyway outside her Minneapolis home

Ms Damond grew up in the northern beaches of Sydney, with her father and mother running a well-known Dymocks bookstore in the local shopping mall.

A bright and bubbly young woman, she completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before going on to study at the University of Sydney.

In 2002, she graduated with a bachelor degree in veterinary science, but her passion for life and neuroscience saw her eventually pursue a career in healing.

Training to become a therapist, she went on to start up her 'meditate, evolve, create' business, through which she ran workshops, clinics and provided online advice.

But her life changed upon meeting American businessman Don Damond, with the pair entering a relationship that resulted in her moving to be with him in the US.

Arriving in Mr Damond's hometown of Minneapolis, Minesotta, in 2015 she moved in with the vice president of Little Six Casino's and his son Zach.

John Ruszczyk (pictured), the heartbroken father of Justine Damond, has called for the 'light of justice to shine down' on the mysterious death of his daughter at the hands of U.S. police

She completed high school at Northern Beaches Secondary College in Manly, before studying at the University of Sydney to become a vet. But she later focused on a career in meditation

While her maiden name was Ruszczyk, upon becoming engaged to Mr Damond (pictured) she quickly adopted his name, using it professionally on her therapy website

While her maiden name was Ruszczyk, upon becoming engaged to Mr Damond she quickly adopted his name, using it professionally on her therapy website.

On her website she describes seeing many of her family members suffer with cancer as being an influence on her taking up a career in 'healing and transforming' lives.

She regularly appeared at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Centre teaching meditation and yoga classes, with many of her sessions posted to the the LSHC YouTube page.

But a friend of Ms Damond revealed that in addition to her professional help, she also selflessly went above and beyond for her friends.

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help, Fox 9 reports.

'That's just the kind of person Justine was,' Mrs Peterson said.

Speaking out about his daughter's death in Sydney on Tuesday, John Ruszczyk called for 'light' to be shone on the mystery of why Ms Damond was gunned down.

A timeline shows the events that led up to the fatal shooting at around 11.30pm on Saturday

Friends left flowers at a makeshift memorial near the alley where Ms Damond was shot and killed

Supporters used chalk to share colourful messages of love near the alleyway where Ms Damond was killed on Saturday night

The messages were accompanied by the names of others who had been shot my police

'We thought yesterday was our worst nightmare but we awoke to the ugly truth and it hurt even more,' a shattered John Ruszczyk said, flanked by his wife.

'Justine, our daughter, was so special to us and so many others. We went down to Freshy (Freshwater) beach this morning and saw the blackness turn to light.

'Justine was a beacon to all of us, we only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death.'

In the hours after she was gunned down, hundreds of mourners gathered outside the Damond home to hold a vigil.

'This woman was a beautiful light, she was a healer, she was loved, she should be alive - she should still be here,' one neighbour said.

The large group gathered held hands in a drive way, with colourful chalk drawings on the pavement listing the names of people they claimed were killed by police.

Hours earlier Ms Damond's angry soon-to-be stepson spoke to a local activist group, slamming police over the death of his 'best friend'.

Just hours after the shooting Zach Damond (pictured), her heartbroken soon-to-be stepson, spoke with close friends of the woman and slammed police over her death

Jay Peterson said that when a close friend of Ms Damond (left) struggled to fall pregnant, she donated some of her own eggs to help

'Basically my mum's dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don't know,' Zach Damond said.

'I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. I'm so done with all this violence. It's so much bulls**t. America sucks.

'She was a very passionate woman, she thought something bad was happening - and next thing you know they take my best friend's life.'

Fronting cameras close to 48 hours after his fiancee's shooting on Saturday night, Mr Damond said the family were 'desperate for information' about her death.

The bride-to-be was shot dead by police after calling 911 to report a rape in an alley at the back of her home.

Ms Damond's friends told US media she had often spoken out against gun violence and told them 'how much better' things were in Australia

Don Damond, Ms Damond's fiance, was comforted by a friend after addressing the media

Autopsy results revealed Ms Damond died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen in what the report labelled a 'homicide'.

Mohamed Noor aimed at her from the passenger seat of his squad car as she spoke to his colleague on the driver's side in a back alley.

The policeman issued a statement through his lawyer extending his condolences to Ms Damond's family.

'Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers,' the statement read.

'He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling.

'He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

'The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more, and will in the future.

'At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.'

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who has the final say on whether or not to lay charges, said it was a real possibility.

'I do understand this, they were driving down an alley, the victim approached the car,' he told the Star Tribune.

'That's not necessarily a time you must [be taping], but frankly I think it's a time you should.'
Ministers will make Brussels wait until the '11th hour' of Brexit talks before agreeing to hand over a gigantic divorce bill, it emerged last night.

As the second round of talks entered a second day yesterday, British officials made clear they would refuse to settle the bill until a trade deal was offered.

They believe the demand for a settlement of 85 billion by EU leaders has placed talks in a 'straitjacket' and are perplexed that Brussels has repeatedly refused to explain the legal basis for it.

British ministers are prepared to keep the EU waiting until the '11th hour' over any divorce bill form the bloc until a wide-ranging trade agreement has been put in place (file image)

The Government last week conceded it was prepared to hand over an unspecified amount to Brussels to cover gaps in its budget after Brexit.

But ministers insist the figure will be significantly below the demands issued by the EU amid concerns that Eurosceptics would refuse to back the move.

The prospect of clashes over the payment emerged yesterday.

While negotiators made 'progress' on the contentious citizens' rights issue, British officials are increasingly concerned that the financial talks could cause negotiations to break down.

Brussels has insisted that the UK must provide an initial framework in the autumn as to how much money it is willing to pay before talks about a trade deal can begin.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has repeatedly threatened that the complex negotiations will not proceed unless he determines there is 'sufficient progress' on the size of the UK bill.

But Downing Street is prepared to infuriate EU leaders by offering only a vague agreement in October and refusing to produce a concrete figure.

British negotiators have insisted the size of the payment can be determined only when it becomes clear whether the EU is willing to offer a wide-ranging trade deal.

Insiders have dismissed the EU's 85 billion demand as 'preposterous' while Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson recently said the bloc could 'go whistle'.

Talks on the so-called 'substantive' issues such as the bill and the Northern Irish border began on Monday amid claims from Brussels that British officials have been underprepared for talks.

Michel Barnier (pictured with Brexit Secretary David Davis) has repeatedly threatened that negotiations will not proceed until there is 'sufficient progress' on the size of the UK bill

But the suggestion has infuriated British officials who believe that the EU's elaborate bureaucratic structure, corralling the opinions of 27 countries, is one of the biggest threats to talks.

Despite talks being described as broadly positive yesterday, the UK is also concerned that Brussels has failed to spell out exactly how much it thinks the EU is owed.

Instead, insiders have expressed 'frustration' at the EU strategy which simply involves setting out broad 'headline' areas for payments without any justification.

During talks yesterday, 98 British officials were forced to ask their 45 EU counterparts to explain how is legitimised lining up the demands against the UK.

UK officials are planning to ask for the Brexit negotiating timetable to be ripped up so that officials can enjoy the summer Bank Holiday, it also emerged yesterday.

Brexit secretary David Davis was accused of shirking talks on Monday when he left negotiations to return to London after only three hours in Brussels.

But after a barrage of criticism in the opening stages of negotiations, Mr Davis was once again in the firing line after calling for crucial talks to be rescheduled.

UK officials are understood to want talks to be cancelled due to the national break, despite officials hailing the talks as a defining moment in British history,

Negotiators from both sides were due to meet on August 28 when officials across the UK enjoy a public holiday.

Brussels insiders yesterday said that the UK demand would needlessly destabilise talks and said that the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier had already set out a clear timetable.

British officials are understood to have proposed separate two-day negotiating blocks, instead of the four-day period initially set out.
A plane was delayed in China this week after a couple brought their four-year-old son on board without buying a ticket for him, reports said.

The couple mistakenly thought they did not need to buy a ticket for their child because he was not tall enough.

The flight time for the journey between Beijing and Shanghai is around an hour and half, but passengers ended up facing a five-hour delay due to the incident.

The family were taken away by staff at the Beijing Capital International Airport after being told to get off the plane. They had brought a four-year-old boy on board without a ticket for him

According to Huanqiu.com, an affiliation to People's Daily Online, the incident took place on a Juneyao Airline flight at Beijing Capital International Airport on July 16.

The family, with two adults and three children, were trying to travel from Beijing to Shanghai on flight HO1252 with the Chinese airline.

As the flight was waiting to take off, the flight crew started counting the number of passengers. They noticed there was an extra passenger on board.

Apparently, a four-year-old child, who was travelling with his parents, managed to get on the plane without a ticket.

The captain of the plane immediately requested all passengers to get off the plane for a thorough security check.

The family planned to get on a Juneyao Airline (file photo) flight in China on July 16

Ms Fu, who claimed to be an eyewitness, told MailOnline that the two adults wanted to purchase the ticket for the boy on the plane, but they were told to get off the aircraft.

Ms Fu said the flight was delayed for nearly five hours.

'The boarding time was announced 30 minutes later than the scheduled time.

'Then the crew spent one and a half hour telling us to get off the plane and sending us to the boarding gate, and another hour confirming the number of passengers on the plane.'

The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 6:55am, eventually took off at 11:59am.

The adults thought children under 1.2 metres tall can travel by air for free (file photo)

The family of five were disqualified from boarding the flight and were questioned by the airport police.

According to China's Civil Aviation of Administration, the family had never travelled by air before.

They told the police that they had mistakenly thought all children under 1.2 metres (3.93 ft) could travel for free.

In China, children no taller than 1.2 metres can take buses and enter most parks without a ticket.

The parents were given a verbal warning before being released by the police.

According to Ms Fu, each passenger on the plane was given 200 yuan (22.74) by the airline as compensation.
A group of Chinese villagers have travelled to the Netherlands to demand a Dutch collector return a Buddha statue that contains the remains of a 1,000-year-old monk.

The villagers claimed that the statue was of Zhanggong Zushi, a respected Buddhist Master, and it was stolen from their local temple in south-east China in 1995.

The Dutch collector, named Oscar van Overeem, said he was willing to return the statue and the remains, but he had failed to reach an agreement with the Chinese on the terms of the return, according to media reports.

The golden Buddha statue has been the centre of an international dispute for two years

A CT scan in 2015 revealed the statue (left) contained the remains of a mummified monk (right)

Scientists in the Netherlands were shocked by the result of the scan which showed the remains

The trial of the lawsuit started on July 14 in Amsterdam.

HOW ARE MONKS MUMMIFIED IN CHINA? According to Master Du at China's Dinghui Temple, ancient Chinese monks preserve their master's body using natural means. Master Du said usually a Buddhist master could feel it when he is about to pass away. He would then tell his disciples if he would like his body to be cremated or preserved. After the master passes away, the disciples would put his remains inside a large ceramic jar filled with natural anti-corrosive substances. After three years, the disciples would remove the body from the jar. If the master had reached a certain spiritual level, his body would not rot. The disciples would then cover the body with a special paste made with stick rice to produce a so-called 'meat body Buddha'. Advertisement

The Chinese villagers said the statue and remains of Zhanggong Zushi had been the pride and joy of the village of Yangchun until it was stolen 22 years ago, according to NL Times, quoting a report from Dutch website Volkskrant.

Mr van Overeem, however, told the court that he was willing to return the relic, but the Chinese did not agreed to his request of receiving 'reasonable compensation', said the same report.

He also said that there could be a mistake in identifying the statue and the statue might not be the one that was stolen from Yangchun.

The art collector added that he had exchanged the statue and the mummified remains for a number of other statues' with an unidentified businessman because the case had cost him 'a lot of negative energy, money and business'.

Liu Yang, who successfully led a Chinese legal team in recovering relics looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, is representing the villagers in fighting for the Buddha.

Mr Liu is apparently confident to win the case.

He told The telegraph ahead of the trial: 'The statue belongs to the villagers, and I think the Dutch owner should act in a graceful way to take himself out of a predicament.'

A woman looks at a Buddha statue at the Natural History Museum in Budapest in March, 2015

Controversy arose after a Chinese villager saw the statue being displayed in Budapest on TV

The Buddha at the centre of the lawsuit is around 1,000-years-old and measures 1.2 metres tall (3.93 feet).

A CT scan in February, 2015, revealed that the golden statue concealed the remains of a mummified monk.

Controversy about the Buddha arose in 2015 after a villager of Yangchun saw it on TV as the statue was being displayed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.

In 2015, Mr van Overeem said he bought the statue for 40,000 guilders (around 16,000) in 1996 from another collector, who had acquired it from a Chinese artist friend in late 1994 or early 1995, according to a report on DutchNews.

Pictured right is a Buddha once displayed at the temple in Yangchun village. Locals believe it was the same statue (left) previously owned by the Dutch collector Oscar van Overeem

The mummified body inside the golden statue is said to be that of Zhanggong Zushi, a local monk who helped treat disease and spread Buddhist belief.

When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified and placed inside the statue during China's Song Dynasty (960-1279).

Villagers in Yangchun believe the statue was stolen in 1995.

The only thing that was left behind was the hat and clothes which are still in the temple.
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You may think you can tell when a friend has airbrushed their photos but a study involving more than 700 people suggests you shouldn't be so confident.

Researchers found four in ten people couldn't tell a fake picture from a real one, and even those that did notice something wrong could only spot what it was 45 per cent of the time.

This simple test will reveal if you have an eye for spotting fraudulent pictures - or if your friends could be pulling the wool over your eyes.

Scroll down for video

People can only detect a fake image from a real one 60 per cent of the time, according to this study. Which of the above images do you think is fake and why? See the fact box at the bottom of the article for the answers

HOW TO TEST YOURSELF There are five sets of images in this article. In each pair, one image is real and the other has been modified in some way. Note down which of the versions of the image is the real one and which has been modified. With the modified image, note down where the photo has been changed. Answers are in the fact box at the bottom of the article. On average people could accurately identify which image was modified on three out of five. They could identify why the image was modified two out of five times. Advertisement

'Our study found that although people performed better than chance at detecting and locating image manipulations, they are far from perfect', said Sophie Nightingale, PhD Student and lead author from the University of Warwick.

'This has serious implications because of the high-level of images, and possibly fake images, that people are exposed to on a daily basis through social networking sites, the internet and the media', she said.

The researchers set up an online test that used a bank of 40 images created from 10 original images sourced from Google Images.

Six of the original images were subjected to five different types of manipulation, including physically implausible and physically plausible manipulations, to create 30 manipulated images.

The 707 participants in the online test were shown 10 random images that included each of the five manipulation types and five original images.

Participants never saw a manipulation or original form of the same image twice.

Around 60 per cent of images were correctly identified as being manipulated when participants were asked 'Do you think this photo has been digitally altered?', which was just over the chance performance of 50 per cent.

Is the image on the left or the right fake and why? Scroll down to the fact box at the bottom of the article to find out if you were correct. The study has serious implications for people who are exposed to modified images on social media sites

Even then those that did notice something wrong could only spot what it was 45 per cent of the time. One of these images has been changed but which one is it and where? See how observent you are by scrolling to the bottom of the article for the answer

Of the people that answered 'yes' to this question only a mean 45 per cent of manipulations could be correctly located in the image when a grid overlay was placed on the image and participants were prompted to select the regions where a manipulation was present.

'We found that people were better at detecting physically implausible manipulations but not any better at locating these manipulations, compared to physically plausible manipulations', said Dr Derrick Watson, study co-author from the University of Warwick.

'So even though people are able to detect something is wrong they can't reliably identify what exactly is wrong with the image.

'Images have a powerful influence on our memories so if people can't differentiate between real and fake details in photos, manipulations could frequently alter what we believe and remember', he said.

Only six out of ten images were correctly identified as being manipulated when participants were asked 'Do you think this photo has been digitally altered?', which was just over the chance performance of 50 per cent. One of these images has been changed slightly but can you spot which one? Scroll down to the fact box at the bottom to find out

What is odd about one of these photos and why? Scroll to the bottom of the article for the answers. Last year a study found up to 80 per cent of students in the US couldn't tell the difference between sponsored content and a real news story

In a second experiment using an image set created by the researchers 659 people completed an online task that tested their ability to locate manipulations regardless of whether or not they said there was one present.

The results revealed ability to detect something wrong was similar - an average 65 percent of the time - to the first experiment.

But manipulations were accurately located in the image 39 percent more of the time than expected by chance.

This suggests people are better at the more direct task of locating manipulations than the more general one of detecting if a photo has been manipulated or not.

Dr Kimberley Wade, study co-author from the University of Warwick, said the study had worrying legal implications.

'People's poor ability to identify manipulated photos raises problems in the context of legal proceedings where photos may be used as evidence', she said.

'Jurors and members of the court assume these images to be real, though a manipulated image could go undetected with devastating consequences', she said.

'We need to work to find better ways to protect people from the negative effects of photo manipulation, and we're now exploring a number of ways that might help people to better detect fakes.'

Last year a study found up to 80 per cent of students in the US couldn't tell the difference between sponsored content and a real news story.

Fake news refers to news from dubious sources, advertising content, or stories that are just totally made up - but which still go viral on Facebook and Twitter.
Dogs have been man's best friend for up to 40,000 years, a major genetic study has found.

A DNA analysis of the world's oldest known dog remains has revealed that dogs were domesticated in a single event by humans living in Eurasia.

The findings disprove previous research finding that dogs were domesticated twice by separate groups living in east and western Eurasia.

Instead, all modern dogs are thought to have descended from animals that were domesticated by people living in Eurasia from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Dogs have been man's best friend for up to 40,000 years, a major genetic study has revealed

HOW DID DOGS BECOME DOMESTICATED? A genetic analysis of the world's oldest known dog remains has revealed that dogs were domesticated in a single event by humans living in Eurasia. Dr Krishna Veeramah, an assistant professor in evolution at Stony Brook University, told MailOnline: 'The process of dog domestication would have been a very complex process, involving a number of generations where signature dog traits evolved gradually. 'The current hypothesis is that the domestication of dogs likely arose passively, with a population of wolves somewhere in the world living on the outskirts of hunter-gatherer camps feeding off refuse created by the humans. 'Those wolves that were tamer and less aggressive would have been more successful at this, and while the humans did not initially gain any kind of benefit from this process, over time they would have developed some kind of symbiotic [mutually beneficial] relationship with these animals, eventually evolving into the dogs we see today.' Advertisement

Scientists agree that dogs stem from wolves.

But over the past few years, exactly where and how many times dogs were domesticated has been a matter for debate.

Dr Krishna Veeramah, an assistant professor in evolution at Stony Brook University, told MailOnline: 'We've found clear evidence that dogs were domesticated 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

'New research last year provocatively suggested that dogs could have been domesticated twice but our conclusion was there is no evidence for dual domestication.

'We would argue that finding evidence for only one domestication event is a big deal, because it is very important to helping us understand how domestication works.'

His research found that dogs evolved to be a separate species from wild wolves sometime between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Dr Veeramah said that because dog domestication has only occurred once over the course of human history, it suggests that the process is complex and dependent on a very specific set of conditions.

'The process of dog domestication would have been a very complex process, involving a number of generations where signature dog traits evolved gradually,' he said.

'The current hypothesis is that the domestication of dogs likely arose passively, with a population of wolves somewhere in the world living on the outskirts of hunter-gatherer camps feeding off refuse created by the humans.

'Those wolves that were tamer and less aggressive would have been more successful at this, and while the humans did not initially gain any kind of benefit from this process, over time they would have developed some kind of symbiotic [mutually beneficial] relationship with these animals, eventually evolving into the dogs we see today.'

For the study, researchers extracted DNA from the skeletal remains of Neolithic dogs from archaeological sites in Germany and Ireland.

One of the animals, which lived around 7,000 years ago, is the oldest recorded known dog specimen in the world, while the other two lived around 4,500 years ago.

However it is likely that older specimens exist, but distinguishing between 'large dogs and small wolves' can be troublesome, according to Dr Veeramah.

A map showing the similarity between the DNA of dog remains from the Neolithic period to DNA taken from the dogs of today. Purple indicates a high level of genetic similarity, while red shows a low level of similarity. This map shows ancient dogs are most related to European dogs

Scientists compared DNA taken from these animals to DNA taken from modern breeds of dog.

He found that there was a very high degree of genetic continuity between dogs from the Neolithic period and modern breeds.

This means that the DNA of modern dogs is very similar to that of domesticated canines that lived thousands of years ago.

Dr Veeramah said: 'We found that ancient dogs look a lot like modern European dogs.

'Dogs that farmers had in Europe 7,000 years ago are very similar, genetically speaking, to modern dog breeds.'

This finding strengthens the idea that the first domesticated dogs lived somewhere in Eurasia, Dr Veermah said.

But it is still not possible to pinpoint the exact location where domestication first occurred, he added.

'We know when dogs were domesticated but the question remains where they can come from,' he said.

In order to answer this question, researchers must find and analyse specimens that lived around the time that dog domestication occurred, he added.
BROWNING  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toured Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana over the weekend as part of his personal challenge to visit every state this year.

He noted the beauty of Glacier park while taking a ride on a red jammer bus on Saturday and visited the "bark ranger" Gracie, a border collie who helps herd wildlife away from people at poplar areas, such as Logan Pass. He also noted the park's dwindling numbers of glaciers.

In Browning he met with tribal officials and noted the poverty and substance abuse on the reservation. He posted on his Facebook page about the need for better health care and for a government with checks and balances  a type of government voters recently rejected. Zuckerberg noted the tribe is building its buffalo herd and recently approved a compact that quantifies its water rights.
With just months to go until Apple is expected to unveils its latest iPhone, new claims have emerged warning the firm has yet to start mass production of any of the three expected models.

Economic Daily News is reporting that all three new iPhones, overhauled iPhone 8 and the 7s iterative updates to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are yet to start mass production.

The report says that the new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch phones are expected to ramp up in August, a month behind the normal new iPhone production timelines.

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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

It also claims the OLED 5.8-inch iPhone, which is expected to have a bezel-less screen, may not be available until November.

Economic Daily News says that Foxconn has secured the vast majority of orders for the upcoming OLED phone, which will feature almost no bezel enabling Apple to pack in a 5.8-inch screen into the same physical size as the current 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

'While there were previous reports indicating that volume production for new iPhone devices has commenced, yield rates at the two main ODMs, Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron, have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production', the report claims.

It is believed Pegatron will assemble most of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7s devices and a small number of the iPhone 8s, while a third manufacturer, Wistron, will mainly focus on making the 5.5-inch 7s model.

In another warning last week, 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.

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.

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

'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 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.
US Navy officers are currently testing the world's first drone-killing laser capable of blasting targets with 30kW of power.

The $40 million (30 million) super laser moves at the speed of light and is 'more precise than a bullet', according to naval officers.

Live-tests of the new super laser have now begun in the Persian Gulf, and officials have predicted that it will be used in combat by 2020.

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While laser weapons have been a staple in science fiction films for decades, the US military is inching closer to making these a reality. US Navy officers are currently testing the world's first drone-killing laser capable of blasting targets with 30kW of power (pictured)

WORLD'S FIRST ACTIVE LASER WEAPON The LaWS, which stands for Laser Weapons System, is currently being tested on board the USS Ponce amphibious transport ship. The $40 million (30 million) super laser moves at the speed of light and is 'more precise than a bullet', according to naval officers. During a test, a weapon can automatically zero in on a target. As soon as the laser makes contact with a drone, the vehicle heats to a temperature of more than 1,000F (537C) and explodes. Live-tests of the new super laser have now begun in the Persian Gulf, and officials have predicted that it will be used in combat by 2020. Advertisement

The LaWS, which stands for Laser Weapons System, is currently being tested on board the USS Ponce amphibious transport ship.

'It is more precise than a bullet,' Chris Wells, captain of the USS Ponce, told CNN.

'It's not a niche weapon system like some other weapons that we have throughout the military where it's only good against air contacts, or it's only good against surface targets, or it's only good against, you know, ground-based targets - in this case this is a very versatile weapon, it can be used against a variety of targets.'

LaWS can move at the speed of light, which is 50,000 times the speed of an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile.

'It is throwing massive amounts of photons at an incoming object,' said Lieutenant Cale Hughes, laser weapons system officer.

Officers on board the USS Ponce are currently live-testing the weapon, using an aerial drone as a target.

These kinds of weaponized UAVs are increasingly being used by Iran, North Korea, China and Russia, the officers said.

During a test, a weapon can automatically zero in on a target.

'We don't have to lead a target,' Lt. Hughes said.

'We're doing that engagement at the speed of light so it really is a point and shoot - we see it, we focus on it, and we can negate that target.'

As soon as the laser makes contact with a drone, the vehicle heats to a temperature of more than 1,000F (537C) and explodes.

'It operates in an invisible part of the electromagnetic spectrum so you don't see the beam, it doesn't make any sound, it's completely silent and it's incredibly effective at what it does,' said Lt. Hughes.

Unlike conventional canons that need shells, laser canons are limited only by the amount of electricity that can be generated

The weapon is also extremely precise, which could minimise deaths in wartime, according to the Navy. The $40 million (30 million) super laser moves at the speed of light and is 'more precise than a bullet', according to naval officers

The weapon is also extremely precise, which could minimise deaths in wartime, according to the Navy.

Captain Wells said: 'It reduces collateral damage. I no longer have to worry about rounds that may go beyond the target and potentially hurt or damage things that I don't want to hurt or damage.'

The $40 million weapon uses its own small generator to blast targets with 30kW of power and costs 'about a dollar a shot', according to the officers.

They added that the laser will be used to destroy aircraft and small boats, and could be deployed as soon as 2020.

'It's designed with the intent of being able to counter airborne and surface-based threats,' said Hughes.

'And it's been able to prove itself over the last three years as being incredibly effective at that.'
Space experts have issued a series of warnings about unusually high solar activity, which could affect satellites and disrupt power supplies.

The American Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC) monitors the surface of the sun and observed a huge eruption late last week.

This sent a stream of radiation hurtling towards the Earth, which is likely to continue bombarding the planet in the coming days.

As well as causing potential disruption, the activity has also fuelled the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, which have been visible further south than is usual.

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Space experts have issued a series of warnings about unusually high solar activity, which could affect satellites and disrupt power supplies, caused by a coronal mass ejection (pictured in a stock image)

HOW IT COULD IMPACT EARTH Solar flares can damage satellites and have an enormous financial cost. Astronauts are not in immediate danger because of the relatively low orbit of this manned mission. They do have to be concerned about cumulative exposure during space walks. The charged particles can also threaten airlines by disturbing the Earth's magnetic field. Very large flares can even create currents within electricity grids and knock out energy supplies. Advertisement

The first warning, issued by SWPC on Sunday, spoke of 'an interplanetary shock, likely associated with the arrival of a 'coronal mass ejection' that was first observed on Friday, at around 6:15 am BST (1:15 am EST).

The initial warning was of a 'minor solar storm' headed for the planet, but this was upgraded to a moderate threat.

That warning was repeated yesterday evening and experts believe these conditions could continue into Wednesday.

Possible effects include power grid fluctuations, orientation problems for spacecraft and interference with radio transmissions.

One of the more pleasant affects, however, has been an increase in the beautiful displays of The Northern Lights.

These are caused when charged particles from the enter the earth's atmosphere.

The reason why this often happens near the two poles is because that's where the earth's magnetic field is the weakest.

The particles from the sun then transfer energy to oxygen and nitrogen on Earth, and to get rid of some of the energy, they cast off photons which cause the colour display.

Among those lucky enough to spot the natural light display were night owls in Michigan.

The initial SWPC warning was of a 'minor solar storm' headed for the planet, but this was upgraded to a moderate threat. That warning was repeated yesterday evening (pictured) and experts believe these conditions could continue into Wednesday.

SWPC released this footage of solar activity into Monday night and through the early hours of this morning

They were treated to a display Sunday night, when the Northern Lights reached south into the United States.

The displays also continued into Monday night and through the early hours of this morning.

If these conditions continue, similar displays could be visible again tonight.

Dr Tamitha Skov, a Los Angeles-based space weather expert believes there is a 25 per cent chance of major activity today and 20 per cent chance of minor activity tomorrow.

This animation shows SWPC's predictions for Northern Light activity over Monday night into Tuesday. If these conditions continue, similar displays could be visible again tonight

Dr Tamitha Skov, a Los Angeles-based space weather expert believes there is a 25 per cent chance of major activity today and 20 per cent chance of minor activity tomorrow

Observers at northern latitudes above 60 degrees, including parts of Russia, Canada, Alaska, Norway and the Shetland Islands, are most likely to see aurora activity.

Skygazers at middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees, including most of the United States, Europe and Asia, have a significantly lower chance of spotting the lights.

Many in the UK were hoping they might be able to catch a rare glimpse on home soil over the weekend, but it proved to be a disappointment.

Writing on Aurora Watch UK, Dr Nathan Case said: 'We had such high hopes.

The geomagnetic storm caused the Northern Lights to be visible as far south as Michigan (pictured), New York and Washington State late Sunday night into early Monday morning

Another photographer captured a picture of the aurora appearing in shades of purple and yellow in the sky near Walla Walla, Washington, on Monday morning (pictured)

WHAT ARE AURORAS? There are two types of auroras - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south.' The lights are created when charged particles from the sun enter Earth's atmosphere. Usually the particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, but some enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light, in many colours although pale green and pink are common. Advertisement

'Predictions were good, the best we'd seen for a while, and the early stats were promising but the aurora fizzled out before we had a chance to see it.

'With so few hours of darkness, catching a sighting of the aurora was always going to be a little harder than during those long, cold winter nights.

'Here in Lancaster, civil twilight ended at 10:23 pm and began again at 4:12 am.

'For those of you further north, darkness was even shorter.'

Others were more lucky, with photographers in the US capturing the ongoing atmospheric activity.

They have since taken to social media to share some of the images they captured.

User Kim Hines said: 'Aurora N. of Winnipeg approx 12:10 am July 18.

The displays also continued into Monday night and through the early hours of this morning. Twitter user Kim Hines spotted the aurora at around 12:10 am today north of Winnipeg

Leon Kauffman added: 'It wasn't as wild as sometimes, but the early morning aurora made for a starry, colorful backdrop for the silhouetted trees.'

Meteorologist Mark Tarello shared an image captured by Brennan Jospeh Jontz. He said: 'WOW! Northern Lights seen early this morning near Grantsburg, Wisconsin'

'Faint to the naked eye. Pretty high up though.'

Leon Kauffman added: 'It wasn't as wild as sometimes, but the early morning aurora made for a starry, colorful backdrop for the silhouetted trees.'

Meteorologist Mark Tarello shared an image captured by Brennan Jospeh Jontz.

He said: 'WOW! Northern Lights seen early this morning near Grantsburg, Wisconsin'
The trillion ton iceberg that split from the floating Larson C Ice Shelf last week is now drifting into the Antarctic Ocean, new images reveal.

Deimos-1 satellite images show clear water between the iceberg, dubbed A-68, and the Larsen C ice shelf.

There are also signs that the northeastern end of the iceberg - one of the largest ever recorded - is breaking up with a large new crack appearing.

The gap is now increasing between the iceberg and the shelf it came from, sparking concerns it could pose a hazard to maritime traffic.

If the glaciers held in check by the iceberg spill into the Antarctic Ocean, it could lift the global water mark by about 10 centimetres (4 inches).

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The image suggests that a massive segment of 'fast ice' (boxed out in the middle of the image), which is just a few metres thick, that was attached to the iceberg has broken free. A68 is also now breaking up into several smaller icebergs in the north and east

IMPACT OF THE ICEBERG Icebergs calve from Antarctica all the time, but because this one is particularly large its path across the ocean needs to be monitored as it could pose a hazard to maritime traffic. The massive ice cube will float in water and by itself will not add to sea levels when it melts. But the real danger is from inland glaciers. Ice shelves float on the sea, extending from the coast, and are fed by slow-flowing glaciers from the land. They act as giant brakes, preventing glaciers from flowing directly into the ocean. If the glaciers held in check by Larsen C now split into the Antarctic Ocean, it could lift the global water mark by about 10 centimetres (four inches), researchers have said. Advertisement

The image also suggest a massive segment of 'fast ice', which is just a few metres thick, that was attached to the iceberg has broken free.

Fast ice is the name given to ice that covers seawater but is attached to land.

Research suggests the iceberg should now drift up the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula away from the Weddell Sea and towards the Atlantic, writes BBC.

'It will most likely follow a northeasterly course, heading roughly for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,' said Thomas Rackow from the Alfred Wegener Institute.

'It will be very interesting to see whether the iceberg will move as expected, as a kind of 'reality-check' for the current models and our physical understanding', he said.

It's difficult to get pictures of the Antarctic at this time of year as it has long winters and lots of cloud cover.

Spacecrafts who have captured images of the vast iceberg have done so using infrared sensors.

The iceberg has an area of 2,239 sq miles (5,800 sq km), making roughly the size of Delaware or four times the size of London.

It is predicted to be one of the 10 largest icebergs ever recorded.

A thermal image from Nasa's Aqua satellite shows that water, which is shown by the strong white lines, is coming between the iceberg and the shelf. It also suggests a large section of fast ice has detached from the berg

All modelled iceberg trajectories for the full 12-year simulation. One can see four different highways, which are taken by many icebergs on their way north

The iceberg made up 10 per cent of the Larsen C's area which could change the way the whole shelf behaves and previous carvings have led to the discovery of new species.

In a statement on 12 July, Swansea University said: 'The calving occurred sometime between Monday, July 10 and Wednesday, July 12, when a 5,800-square kilometre (2,200-square mile) section of Larsen C (ice shelf) finally broke away.'

Throughout the Antarctic winter, research teams, led by the University of Swansea and including researchers from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), monitored the progress of a 170 km long ice rift in the ice shelf using the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.

The iceberg, which is expected to be dubbed 'A68', is predicted to be one of the 10 largest icebergs ever recorded. A graphic shows how the iceberg compares in size

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership's weather satellite also picked up the development of the crack before it calved last week

According to BAS remote sensing analyst Andrew Fleming, the satellite images have been critical for research planning.

He says: 'This story has just got even more interesting.

'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, and our biologists will be keen to understand how new habitats formed by the loss of the ice are colonised.'

Scientists have been tracking the stability of this ice shelf for several years. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of the new iceberg on July 12, 2017

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite took this image that shows the extent of the crack

Icebergs calve from Antarctica all the time, but because this one is particularly large its path across the ocean needs to be monitored as it could pose a hazard to maritime traffic.

The massive ice cube will float in water and by itself will not add to sea levels when it melts.

But the real danger is from inland glaciers.

Ice shelves float on the sea, extending from the coast, and are fed by slow-flowing glaciers from the land.

They act as giant brakes, preventing glaciers from flowing directly into the ocean.

The growth of the crack, given our current understanding, is not directly linked to climate change.

For months, a rift in the ice sheet had been expanding, until the iceberg broke off last week. Pictured is the rift in the ice sheet in November 2016

If the glaciers held in check by Larsen C (pictured before it calved) now split into the Antarctic Ocean, it could lift the global water mark by about 10 centimetres (four inches), researchers have said
Robotic speedboats and drones have taken up life-guarding duty in a lake in China.

Self-driving vehicles that can detect 'moving targets' have started patrolling Tian'e Lake in Hefei, eastern China - an area where 15 people drowned in 2016.

New images reveal how the autonomous boats are equipped with cameras, GPS and infrared and acoustic sensors, according to Chinese police officers.

Robotic speedboats (pictured) and drones have taken up life-guarding duty in a lake in China. The self-driving vehicles able to detect 'moving targets'

ROBOTIC LIFEGUARDS Self-driving vehicles able to detect 'moving targets' have started patrolling Tian'e Lake in Hefei, eastern China - an area where 15 people drowned in 2016. The autonomous boats are equipped with cameras, GPS and infrared and acoustic sensors, according to Chinese police officers. The three-metre-long (nine feet) boats are able to alert swimmers when they stray into these dangerous zones, he said. And the boats can also send an alert with the location of rogue swimmers to lake officials. The boats can even pull people to safety if they choose to grab hold of it while in a danger zone, according to Chinese police. Advertisement

The lake itself has been fitted with 20 optical and infrared sensors to help divide it into 'safe' and 'dangerous' zones, according to Zhang Bao, deputy general manager of Anhui CAS-Huacheng Intelligent Technology, which built the new boats.

'A radio transmitter built on an island in the lake helps the boat divide the water into different sectors,' he told China Daily.

The three-metre-long (nine feet) boats are able to alert swimmers when they stray into these dangerous zones, he said.

And the boats can also send an alert with the location of rogue swimmers to lake officials.

The boats can even pull people to safety if they choose to grab hold of it while in a danger zone, according to Chinese police.

'If someone struggles in the lake, the patrol boat can use sonar and other underwater detectors to track the location of the swimmer and call for help,' Wang Xu, a branch director of Hefei police, told Hefei Evening News.

The autonomous boats (pictured) are equipped with cameras, GPS and infrared and acoustic sensors, according to Chinese police officers

The boats operate alongside three drones (pictured), which are used to send life preserver rings, food and medical supplies to people in distress

Tian'e Lake was first opened to the public for swimming in 2004.

'At least 66 people have drowned,' Xu told China Daily.

'15 of those died in 2016.'

'Most of the victims were swimmers. Others committed suicide.'

The boats operate alongside three drones, which are used to send life preserver rings, food and medical supplies to people in distress.

Boats can even pull people to safety if they choose to grab hold of it while in a danger zone, according to Chinese police

The autonomous vehicles have started patrolling Tian'e Lake in Hefei, eastern China - an area where 15 people drowned in 2016

The autonomous vehicles are working at the 172-acre (90 hectare) lake alongside 33 human lifeguards, according to local media reports.

But in the future, the human lifeguards are likely to be replaced by machines, according to Xu.

'In the future, most of the lifeguards will be replaced by the robot,' Zhang Bao told China Daily.

'The boat, powered by a battery, can be used to patrol rivers, reservoirs, lakes and seas - not only for security purposes but also for environmental surveillance and data collection.'
The UK's energy sector was hacked on the day of the General Election by Russia-linked criminals.

A leaked government memo says the energy industry is 'likely to have been compromised' by state-sponsored hackers in the wake of the attack launched on June 8.

The report warns that it had spotted connections 'from multiple UK IP addresses to infrastructure associated with advanced state-sponsored hostile threat actors.'

The document does not name Russia, but experts say they believe the Kremlin was responsible for the incident.

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The UK's energy sector is 'likely to have been compromised' by state-sponsored hackers, according to a leaked report. A document produced by the National Cyber Security Centre warns that a number organisations have been put at risk by cyber attacks (stock image)

CYBER ATTACKS ON THE ENERGY SECTOR The UK's energy sector is 'likely to have been compromised' by state-sponsored hackers, according to a leaked report. A document produced by the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, warns that a number organisations have been put at risk by cyber attacks. Technology website Motherboard raised the alarm after it received a copy of the report from an anonymous source inside the industry. Its authors, from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), are responsible for ensuring the cyber security of the public and private sector in the UK. The attacks are said to have targeted Industrial Control System engineering and services firms, they warn. These companies are responsible for the computerised control of power stations and other energy infrastructure. Advertisement

Technology site Motherboard raised the alarm after it received a copy of the report from an anonymous source inside the industry.

A source later told the Telegraph that Russia-linked hackers may have been involved.

The memo's authors, from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) which is part of GCHQ, are responsible for ensuring the cyber security of the public and private sector in the UK.

The attacks are said to have targeted Industrial Control System engineering and services firms, they warn.

These companies are responsible for the computerised control of power stations and other energy infrastructure.

It is likely that a number of the affected firms have remote access to critical systems at these facilities, the report claims.

Hackers are also targeting other sectors, focusing on engineering, industrial control, and water companies.

The recent wave of attacks began around June 8, and the motivation behind them is not yet clear.

But previous state-sponsored hacks have been used for espionage purposes, as well as a prelude to traditional warfare, the document states.

In sections of the report, quoted on Motherboard, its authors said: 'The NCSC is aware of connections from multiple UK IP addresses to infrastructure associated with advanced state-sponsored hostile threat actors, who are known to target the energy and manufacturing sectors.

'NCSC believes that due to the use of wide-spread targeting by the attacker, a number of Industrial Control System engineering and services organisations are likely to have been compromised.'

The NCSC has neither confirmed nor denied the voracity of the memo, which Motherboard says has been verified by a number of anynmous industry sources.

In a statement sent out to the media, it added: 'We are aware of reports of malicious cyber-activity targeting the energy sector around the globe.

'We are liaising with our counterparts to better understand the threat and continue to manage any risks to the UK.'

Hackers linked to the Kremlin are also thought to have attacked Ireland's power grid in recent days.

Technology website Motherboard raised the alarm after it received a copy of the report from an anonymous source inside the industry. It is likely that a number of the affected firms have remote access to critical systems at energy facilities, the report claims (stock image)

This sparked fears that electricity supplies in the UK could be cut by cyber terrorists

Security analysts say that a group backed by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin targeted the Republic of Ireland's energy sector and tried to infiltrate control systems.

Senior engineers at the country's Electricity Supply Board were hit with a 'phishing' email last month that tried to trick staff into downloading malicious software, according to The Times.

While no evidence of disruption has been uncovered, analysts fear that the hackers could have stolen sensitive information including top-secret passwords that could later be used to access systems.

Nuclear plants and other energy providers in the US were also put on high alert in recent weeks.

Nuclear plants and other energy providers in the US were also put on high alert in recent weeks. Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which runs a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kansas, (pictured) was one of the hackers' targets (stock image)

Homeland Security revealed hackers had attempted to break into their computer system.

Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which runs a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kansas, was one of the hackers' targets.

A joint report by Homeland Security and the FBI issued on July 7 carried an urgent amber warning, the second-highest rating for such a threat.

The department said that there is no threat to public safety.

The agency said hackers appear to have tried to breach the business and administrative networks of the facilities.

All three attacks appear to be linked, suggesting a widespread campaign.
Fetuses can distinguish between someone speaking to them in English and Japanese one month before they are born, researchers have found.

Fetuses can hear things in the womb, including speech - although it's muffled.

But they can still perceive the rhythm of a language, and the study suggests that fetuses discriminate between different types of language based on rhythmic patterns.

Fetuses can hear things in the womb, including speech - although it's muffled. But they can still perceive the rhythm of a language, and a new study suggests that fetuses discriminate between different types of language based on rhythmic patterns

HOW THEY DID IT Fetuses can hear things in the womb, including speech - although it's muffled. A study by researchers at the University of Kansas used a magnetocardiogram to measure the magnetic field produced by electrical activity in the heart. They analyzed 24 eight-month pregnant women a magnetocardiogram. The researchers had a bilingual speaker make two different recordings - one each in English and Japanese - to be played back successively to the fetus. English and Japanese were chosen because they are argued to be rhythmically distinctive - English speech has a dynamic rhythmic structure resembling Morse code signals, while Japanese has a more regular-paced structure. The researchers found that the fetuses heart rates changed when they heard the unfamiliar language (Japanese) after having heard English speech. Their heart rates didn't change when they were presented with a second passage of English instead of Japanese. Advertisement

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center, has implications for fetal research in other fields, says the lead author.

'Research suggests that human language development may start really early - a few days after birth,' said Dr Utako Minai, associate professor of linguistics and the team leader on the study.

'Babies a few days old have been shown to be sensitive to the rhythmic differences between languages.

'Previous studies have demonstrated this by measuring changes in babies' behavior; for example, by measuring whether babies change the rate of sucking on a pacifier when the speech changes from one language to a different language with different rhythmic properties.

'This early discrimination led us to wonder when children's sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language emerges, including whether it may in fact emerge before birth.

'Fetuses can hear things, including speech, in the womb.

'It's muffled, like the adults talking in a "Peanuts" cartoon, but the rhythm of the language should be preserved and available for the fetus to hear, even though the speech is muffled.'

While there have already been studies that suggest fetuses can discriminate between different types of languages, based on rhythmic patterns, Dr Minai said that none of these studies used a more accurate device called a magnetocardiogram (MCG).

A magnetocardiogram measures the magnetic field produced by electrical activity in the heart.

'The previous study used ultrasound to see whether fetuses recognized changes in language by measuring changes in fetal heart rate,' Dr Minai explained.

'The speech sounds that were presented to the fetus in the two different languages were spoken by two different people in that study.

'They found that the fetuses were sensitive to the change in speech sounds, but it was not clear if the fetuses were sensitive to the differences in language or the differences in speaker, so we wanted to control for that factor by having the speech sounds in the two languages spoken by the same person.'

Dr Kathleen Gustafson, a research associate professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center's Hoglund Brain Imaging Center (right), with a mother-to-be in the fetal biomagnetometer, which detects heartbeats, breathing and body movements

So to conduct the study, the researchers analyzed 24 eight-month pregnant women using a magnetocardiogram.

'We have one of two dedicated fetal biomagnetometers in the United States,' said Dr Kathleen Gustafson, a professor in the Department of Neurology and a co-author of the study.

'It fits over the maternal abdomen and detects tiny magnetic fields that surround electrical currents from the maternal and fetal bodies.'

The machine detects heartbeats, breathing and other body movements.

According to Dr Gustafson, the biomagnetometer is more sensitive than ultrasound to the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate.

A magnetocardiogram measures the magnetic field produced by electrical activity in the heart. There are only two dedicated fetal biomagnetometers in the United States. Pictured is Dr Audrius Brazdeikis using a SQUID magnetometer at the Texas Center for Superconductivity

'Obviously, the heart doesn't hear, so if the baby responds to the language change by altering heart rate, the response would be directed by the brain,' said Dr Gustafson, and this is what the study found.

Dr Gustafson says that the fetal brain is developing rapidly and forming networks, and that the womb is a noisy place.

The fetus can hear maternal gut sounds as well as her heartbeat and voice, and outside sounds.

'Without exposure to sound, the auditory cortex wouldn't get enough stimulation to develop properly,' said Dr Gustafson.

'This study gives evidence that some of that development is linked to language.'

The researchers had a bilingual speaker make two different recordings - one each in English and Japanese - to be played back successively to the fetus.

'Without exposure to sound, the auditory cortex wouldn't get enough stimulation to develop properly,' said Dr Kathleen Gustafson, a study co-author. 'This study gives evidence that some of that development is linked to language.' Pictured is a nine week old fetus in its amniotic sac

English and Japanese were chosen because they are argued to be rhythmically distinctive - English speech has a dynamic rhythmic structure resembling Morse code signals, while Japanese has a more regular-paced structure.

The researchers found that the fetuses heart rates changed when they heard the unfamiliar language (Japanese) after having heard English speech.

Their heart rates didn't change when they were presented with a second passage of English instead of Japanese.

A 3D ultrasound of a fetus. Fetuses can hear things in the womb, including speech - although it's muffled

'The results came out nicely, with strong statistical support,' Dr Minai said.

'These results suggest that language development may indeed start in utero.

'Fetuses are tuning their ears to the language they are going to acquire even before they are born, based on the speech signals available to them in utero.

'Pre-natal sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language may provide children with one of the very first building blocks in acquiring language.

'We think it is an extremely exciting finding for basic science research on language.

'We can also see the potential for this finding to apply to other fields.'
One woman quite literally took a walk down memory lane as she recreated her study abroad photos 30 years on using an iPhone instead of a point-and-shoot.

Lisa Werner, 57, a professional photographer from Santa Barbara, California, recently returned to Europe to take photographs in the same spots she visited decades before.

Incredibly, she looks barely different in her 'then and now' series with a similar hairstyle and fashion sense but the scenery has evolved with the addition of modern buildings and more mature shrubbery.

Spot the difference: Lisa Werner, 57, from Santa Barbara, California, recently returned to Europe to take photographs in the same spots she visited decades before. In the above shot she stands on a bridge in Strasbourg, France

Straight-laced: Werner said when she returned to this spot in Strasbourg she was wearing a mini skirt so she couldn't mimic the same pose

One set of photos shows her posing on a bridge in Strasbourg, France.

In the 1987 snap the riverway is lined with a fine smattering of trees.

But in the 2017 photo the samplings have flourished into more substantial specimens. Flower planters have also been added to the bridge railings.

In another photo set taken in Mainz, Germany, a 60s-style building appears bare in the first photo but in the second, it is coated with a thick carpet of ivy.

Photographic memory: Werner said it was scary how easily she remembered exactly where to find this sculpture thirty years on in Mainz, Germany

Attention to detail: For this bridge shot in Heidelberg, Germany, Werner had to recruit a group of German students to accurately re-create the scene

In a bid to recreate the exact scene in another shot, Werner even went about recruiting a group of strangers to mimic the poses in her original image.

Werner, who took a language course in Europe from 1986 to 1987 said she had great fun revisiting her former stomping ground.

She told the Huffington Post: 'I felt like I was on a fun Easter egg hunt across Europe.

'I had no trouble finding the exact spots.'

But the story doesn't end there.

Werner plans to visit all of the spots again in another 30 years time when she's 87.

To see more photos from 'Then and Now - Same location thirty years later', watch Werner's video here

Aging process: When she revisited this spot in Strasbourg Werner couldn't help but notice how much the tree had grown

Sitting tall: Thirty years later in Cologne, Germany, Werner said the scenery hadn't changed a bit but her posture could do with a bit of work

Long and winding road: Werner strikes the same pose on a trail in Heidelberg, Germany, called Schlangenweg or 'snakes way', which leads up to Philosophenweg, the 'philosophers way'
Footage of a rare Andean bear getting up close and personal with a camera in the wilds of Peru has emerged.

A team of scientists from San Diego Zoo Global recently installed the video equipment in a bid to capture the ultra-shy bruins in action.

This week they hit jackpot, as a fluffy cub strolled right in front of the camera and ambled up to the lens to give it a quick snuffle.

It appears to be inquisitive about the recording device and spends several seconds sniffing around the area.

San Diego Zoo Global has been using camera traps in the forests of Peru as part of an effort to determine how the bears' appearance changes with age.

It's believed that their fur changes colour over the years. Andean bears are also called spectacle bears for the white fur encircling their eyes.

It's suspected the bear seen in the recent footage is fairly young as it lacks clearly defined markings. However, some individuals can lack colouration altogether even in their later years.

Footage of a rare Andean bear getting up close and personal with a camera in Peru has emerged

A team of scientists from San Diego Zoo Global recently installed the video equipment in a bid to capture the ultra-shy bruins in action

The Andean bear, made famous by the classic children's character Paddington Bear, is the only bear to inhabit South America.

They can be found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), conservation experts from the zoo are also making constant observations from a captivity standpoint.

Population estimates for the species were last made a decade ago, placing wild numbers at just 20,000.

The Andean bear, made famous by the classic children's character Paddington Bear, is the only bear to inhabit South America

Scientists are convinced that their numbers have continued to decrease but are unsure of exactly how many remain in the wild.

The main threat Andean bears face in the wild is habitat loss - 30 per cent of forests that contain sufficient food for the bears have disappeared in the past 20 years.

Hundreds are also illegally killed by farmers and business owners ever year, largely to prevent them from raiding crops and livestock.
MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan recently admitted he underestimated contestant Ben Ungermann because of his good looks.

And viewers have seen the handsome home cook prove him wrong in Sunday night's episode, winning his first ever mystery box challenge.

The 32-year-old won the judges over with his fennel ice-cream on wild rice shortbread, with pear and goat's cheese salad tossed, and a bitter whisky caramel.

Viewers have seen the handsome home cook Ben Ungermann wins his first mystery box challenge on MasterChef

During his cook, Ben appeared confident and even said he really happy with his progress.

'I've tried to use the ingredients in creative ways, but with the amazing cooks around me at the moment, you know, I'd really love that advantage today.'

The father of three, impressed judges Matt, Gary and George with the creative offering and was awarded with the advantage.

'I've never won a mystery box before and to finally have that under my belt, it's... it's a great feeling,' the model after his win.

Winning dish! The 32-year-old won the judges over with his fennel ice-cream on wild rice shortbread, with pear and goat's cheese salad tossed, and a bitter whisky caramel

the father-of-two and model said after his win 'I've never won a mystery box before and to finally have that under my belt, it's... it's a great feeling'

With the advantage, Ben was given the power to choose whatever ingredient for the pressure test challenge to determine the bottom three cooks.

Inspired by his Dutch heritage, he picked liquorice, an ingredient he said his Oma (Dutch for grandmother) gave him as a treat when he was a child.

At the end of the 60 minute challenge a dish with pears, celery, mascarpone, sambuca ice-cream, cardamom crumb, and a Dutch salted liquorice sauce.

Mystery box winner Ben was conscious of his un-set sambuca ice-cream, which did not go unnoticed with judge Matt hinting at a potential spot in the bottom three.

Inspired by his Dutch heritage, he picked liquorice, an ingredient he said his Oma (Dutch for grandmother) gave him as a treat when he was a child

At the end of the 60 minute challenge a dish with pears, celery, mascarpone, sambuca ice-cream, cardamom crumb, and a Dutch salted liquorice sauce

However, the beautiful plating and flavour combination a managed to keep him safe from the bottom three.

Gary Mehigan, 50, recently told The Courier-Mail: 'At first I thought, "He's here for the eye candy" because hes such a good-looking bloke. He proved me wrong.'

The restaurateur said: 'Hes got the guns and we (judges Matt Preston and George Calombaris) have been insanely jealous all season.'

However, he insisted they quickly acknowledged he was a great bloke and an excellent cook as he impressed them throughout the series.

MasterChef's finals week continues on Channel Ten from 7.30pm.
For the past eight years, Lewis and Clark County has worked to keep tobacco smoke and e-cigarette vapors out of indoor public places. The countys health board implemented the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act by including e-cigarette aerosol and vapors in the definition of smoking, and required that smoking be kept a reasonable distance from entrances and vents so it doesnt infiltrate buildings open to the public.

A county health department spokeswoman in Helena told The Gazette there have been only two complaints since Jan. 1. We go on complaint status, we dont go around looking for violations, she said. We work hard with the establishment to help them comply.

Under the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act, which the Legislature approved in 2005 after public opinion polls showed overwhelming Montana support for smoke-free workplaces and public buildings, county health departments are responsible for enforcement and county health boards develop rules.

This is important in Yellowstone County now because our health board, the RiverStone Health Board, has proposed a rule that would add e-cigarette emissions to the definition of smoking. The proposed Yellowstone County rule also would require that outdoor smoking be at least 30 feet from entrances and vents of buildings open to the public to prevent smoke or vapor from getting into the indoor air.

The Gazette supports the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act as a public health measure that reduces the risk of tobacco-related illnesses, especially among nonsmokers. The unhealthy effects of smoking have been documented for decades.

Research conclusively showing whether e-cigarettes and vaping cause serious health problems hasnt been done yet. But it is known that the liquids used with e-cigarettes contain nicotine. When heated, other chemicals in the vaping liquids form compounds known to be toxic.

The 2016 U.S. Surgeon Generals report on e-cigarettes said:

E-cigarettes and other products containing nicotine pose a danger for youth, pregnant women and fetuses. Youth use of nicotine, including in e-cigarettes, is unsafe.

Secondhand exposure to e-cigarettes is not harmless; it contains nicotine and other harmful constituents. The nicotine contained in aerosol can cause addiction and have neurotoxic effects on the adolescent brain.

At a public hearing last month, several opponents of the health board rule defended e-cigarettes as healthy and credited vaping with allowing them to stop smoking regular cigarettes. Vape shop owners testified that they started their Billings businesses to help others quit smoking cigarettes.

Despite any such good intentions, the vaping industry is using the same tactics as Big Tobacco used for generations  and still uses  to entice youth to try their products.

This years Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the state health department found that 46 percent of Montana students in grades 8, 10 and 12 had tried vaping, and that 22 percent had used electronic vapor products within 30 days of answering the survey. By contrast, the proportion of Montana students who said they had ever smoked was 33 percent and only 12 percent said they had smoked in the month before the survey. As Montana youth have stopped smoking, they have started vaping.

Lewis and Clark County isnt alone in working to keep e-cigarette vapors out of indoor air. Carbon, Powell, Sanders and Granite counties have the same rule on e-cigarettes indoors. Seven states, including North Dakota, California and Hawaii prohibit e-cigarette use in their clean indoor air laws. Several hundred U.S. counties and cities have ordinances against vaping where smoking is prohibited.

With the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, its high time for Yellowstone County to apply the indoor smoking ban to e-cigarettes, too.

Regarding the 30-foot rule proposed, research shows that smoke can be detected 30 feet from a smoker. However, that doesnt necessarily mean that smoke (or vapor) is getting inside the nearby building. The Lewis and Clark County rule of reasonable distance would serve Yellowstone County well, too. For example, if smoke drifts inside from a particular smoking patio and theres a complaint filed, RiverStone would work with the business to figure out a no-smoking area that resolved the problem. If employees and customers are smoking at the door of a business, it may be necessary to designate a smoking area farther from the door. The objective is to keep indoor air smoke- and vapor-free for workers and the public.

We encourage the RiverStone Board of Health to adopt the proposed rule to include e-cigarettes in the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act and recommend that the proposal on limiting outdoor smoking be changed from 30 feet to reasonable distance.

The board is expected to have the clean air proposal on its July 27 agenda. The meeting starts at 7 a.m. at RiverStone Health, at First Avenue North and South 27th Street. If approved, the rule change would take effect later this year. RiverStone would need to reach out to businesses to educate them on the rule. Communication and education will be important to maximize clean air and minimize complaints.
He was recently on holiday in Europe, with fiancee Anna Heinrich.

And Tim Robards took to Instagram to reveal a surprising fun fact about himself, on the flight back to home Sydney on Sunday.

The 34-year-old shared a short clip of him watching 1999 movie The Matrix during the flight home.

'This brought back memories!!' Tim Robards took to Instagram to reveal a surprising fun fact about himself, on the flight back to home Sydney on Sunday.

He captioned the video: 'This brought back memories!!'

'I was actually Keanu's stand in and body double on some scenes in 2 and 3,' the fitness guru wrote.

Tim and Anna's return home comes ahead of his stint on the hit competition, reality show Ninja Warrior Australia.

Future actor? 'I was actually Keanu Reeves' (R) stand in and body double on some scenes in 2 and 3,' the fitness guru told fans about The Matrix movie

The chiropractor, who is known for the incredible and muscular physique, is set to face the gruelling obstacle course in a coming episode.

Promo images and clips of the former Bachelor hunk show him shirtless and leaping across the quintuple steps.

Tim has also been showing off his intense workouts, including pull ups and crunches on his social media.

Getting fit: The chiropractor, who is known for the incredible and muscular physique, is set to face the grueling obstacle course in a coming episode

Challenge accepted! Promo images and clips of the former Bachelor hunk show him shirtless and leaping across the quintuple steps

He has been taking in the summer sun in Europe with fiancee Anna Heinrich, and shared one of their most enviable snaps with their followers.

He and the criminal lawyer shared a snap of themselves in their swimming gear and sunbathing on a yacht in Santorini, Greece on Friday.

The couple were travelling Europe to escape Sydney's winter chill and attend a friend's wedding in France.
MasterChef fan favourites Karlie, Sarah and Diana were pushed to their limits on Monday's pressure test challenge.

But it was Sarah Tiong who failed to impress the judges with her take on one of the most difficult dishes to be recreated on the show.

The home cooks had to recreate Pearl On The Ocean Floor, a detailed, multi-sensory dish by Chef Shaun Quade from the award-winning Lume restaurant in Melbourne.

'It was hell:' MasterChef's Sarah was eliminated on Monday's episode after failing to impress the judges with her version of the 150-step Pearl On The Ocean Floor dish

With 150 detailed steps to create the dish and three-and-a-half hours to complete it, the contestants were already stressed by just looking at the beautiful dish.

Chef Shaun explained the dish's elements, including a poached mussel with kaffir lime, grilled cuttlefish dressed in a charred cucumber oil, with fresh sea bream.

The dish also had luxurious elements with a Pacific oyster, wild scampi caviar and a pearl-like shell with pine nut and miso ice cream

Intricate: With 150 detailed steps to create the dish and three-and-a-half hours to complete it, the contestants were already stressed by just looking at the beautiful dish

Battle of the dishes: MasterChef fan favourites Karlie, Sarah and Diana were pushed to their limits on Monday's pressure test challenge

'This dish is a piece of art. It looks like the shoreline. It's incredibly intricate,' Sarah commented.

She also impressed with her hand-drawn diagram of the dish to guide her.

But Sarah let her perfectionism get in the way after removing her sphere from the silicon mold and not being happy with its lack of smoothness.

Using the Dremel tool to get a leveled finished, she accidentally cracked the sphere -forcing her to repeat the step again and costing her precious time.

Challenge: Chef Shaun Quade explained the dish's elements, including a poached mussel with kaffir lime, grilled cuttlefish dressed in a charred cucumber oil, and fresh sea bream

Perfectionism: Sarah was not happy with her pearl's lack of smoothness and accidentally cracked the sphere - forcing her to repeat the step again and costing her precious time

The most noticeable element missing was the muscle foam, but after deciding to leave it to the end she failed to add in the final plating.

'It was hell. But it was awesome. I definitely was pushed outside my limits,' she told the judges afterwards.

She did admit that there were things she was not happy with, pointing out the lack of foam on the plate.

'It was hell. But it was awesome': The most noticeable element missing from Sarah's dish was the muscle foam, but after deciding to leave it until the end, she failed to add in the plating

Pushed to the limit: 'I'm sorry, chef,' Sarah said, 'But it just... it didn't work, and there was no way I'd put that on a plate'

'I'm sorry, chef,' Sarah said, 'But it just... it didn't work, and there was no way I'd put that on a plate.'

The missing element proved to be her downfall and resulted in her elimination.

Since leaving the show, Sarah, whose specialty throughout the competition has been pork, has joined forces with Pork Australia.
She plays a troubled Southern belle living a Mississippi plantation in the 1950s in the West End revival of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

But after ditching the stage make-up and costumes, Sienna Miller was back to her stylish off-duty best as she left London's Apollo Theatre on Monday night.

The 35-year-old actress exuded effortless cool as she rocked a blue silky pyjama-style shirt with simple black skinny jeans by FRAME.

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Looking good: Once she ditched the stage make-up and costumes, Sienna Miller was back to her stylish off-duty best as she left London's Apollo Theatre on Monday night

The blonde beauty wore her golden tresses in a flattering middle-parting, with tumbling waves framing her striking features.

The Alfie star showcased her natural beauty with just a subtle sweep of mascara, as she let her skin breathe after an evening of heavy stage make-up.

She showed off her slim legs in the skintight jeans which featured artfully frayed hems.

Injecting a typically chic off-beat twist to her look, Sienna rocked a pair of much-coveted black leather chain-trim mules.

Adding a final dose of luxury to the look, the American Sniper carried her belongings in a black leather tote with a white trim.

Chic: The 35-year-old actress exuded effortless cool as she rocked a blue silky pyjama-style shirt with simple black skinny jeans by FRAME

Mane attraction: The blonde beauty wore her golden tresses in a flattering middle-parting, with tumbling waves framing her striking features

Woman of the moment: She beamed as she enthusiastically signed photos for fans lining the theatre exit

Sienna plays the part of Maggie in the play, which follows the themes of family values and lies.

It is set in a plantation home in the heart of the Mississippi Delta during the 1950s, and follows ex-sportsman Brick (Jack O'Connell) who has become an alcoholic following the death of his best friend Skipper.

Physically estranged from his beautiful wife Maggie, he spends most of his time locked in his room depressed, while Maggie's wishes to have children become accentuated by impending fears of family inheritance.

Striking: The Alfie star showcased her natural beauty with just a subtle sweep of mascara, as she let her skin breathe after an evening of heavy stage make-up

Legs for days: She showed off her slim legs in the skintight jeans which featured artfully frayed hems

Killer footwear: Injecting a typically chic off-beat twist to her look, Sienna rocked a pair of much-coveted black leather chain-trim mules

As questions are raised over the relationship between Brick and Skipper, family tensions boil over as Big Daddy sees his estate being divided from under him, calling out their 'mendacity'.

Sienna, mother to daughter Marlowe, four, with ex Tom Sturridge, has said she'd like to take time off and live in the country once production on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof finishes.

And in an interview with The Daily Telegraph in June, she said she lives each day as it comes and tries not to worry about future work or whether roles may became more sparse as she grows older.

Taking centre-stage: Sienna plays the part of Maggie in the play, which follows the themes of family values and lies

Evocative: It is set in a plantation home in the heart of the Mississippi Delta during the 1950s, and follows ex-sportsman Brick (Jack O'Connell) who has become an alcoholic following the death of his best friend Skipper

'I dont think about it, Im quite good at being exactly in the moment where I am,' she said.

'I think the worlds changing, I have actress friends in their 50s who are really hitting their stride now  Robin Wright is in House of Cards and and is now having a spin-off.

'And the theatre is ageless.'

Bag it up: Adding a final dose of luxury to the look, the American Sniper carried her belongings in a black leather tote with a white trim

Gripping: Physically estranged from his beautiful wife Maggie, he spends most of his time locked in his room depressed, while Maggie's wishes to have children become accentuated by impending fears of family inheritance
She's no stranger to strutting her stuff on the catwalk.

But on Tuesday Rachael Finch took a turn down a very different type of runaway, arriving on horseback in Sydney's CBD.

The 29-year-old donned equestrian gear to promote the beginning of the Emirates Melbourne Cup's tour at a lavish red carpet reception.

What an entrance! Rachael Finch arrives in Sydney's Martin Place on HORSEBACK to kick start Melbourne Cup tour

The former Miss Universe Australia looked every bit the stylish jockey as she made her way into Martin Place, one of the busiest locations in Sydney.

The mother of two flaunted her slender figure in a striking red riding jacket, which she paired with a high-necked blouse and black ribbon.

Racing ambassador Rachael paired the look with white jodhpurs and knee-high black riding boots.

TV star: After expertly getting down from her horse, Rachael joined Sunrise to film a TV segment

Fun job: Sunrise colleagues Edwina, Natalie and Kochie braved the cool temperatures for the outside shoot

She's a natural: Sunrise newsreader Natalie Barr struck an expert pose alongside one racing horse

Hands on reporting: Meanwhile sports reporter Mark Beretta took things a step further, bravely mounting one horse for a ride

Showcasing her natural beauty with minimal makeup and her hair back in a sleek ponytail, Rachael finished her look off with a black riding helmet.

The Myer Ambassador trotted her way over to the media call, later posing for photos with the Melbourne Cup.

Afterwards Rachael could be seen expertly getting down from atop the horse and heading over to the event's red carpet.

TV appearance: While in Martin Place Rachael was joined by Channel Seven's Sunrise panel, who shot a segment for their breakfast show alongside the model

Serious work: Edwina Bartholomew held the Melbourne Cup carefully while posing for photos with her Sunrise co-hosts

Strike a pose: Mark and Rachael stopped their filming of the Sunrise segment to have photos taken

While in Martin Place Rachael was joined by Channel Seven's Sunrise panel, who shot a segment for their breakfast show alongside the model.

Sunrise newsreader Natalie Barr struck an expert pose alongside racing horse Prince Of Penzanc.

Meanwhile her co-host Edwina Bartholomew couldn't hide her excitement as she held the Melbourne Cup.

Lady in red: Rachael took a turn down a very different type of runaway, arriving on horseback in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday

She's a natural! Rachael could be seen expertly getting down from atop the horse and heading over to the event's red carpet

Race ready: Racing ambassador Rachael paired the look with white jodhpurs and knee-high black riding boots

Picture of concentration: Rachael made her way down carefully from atop the horse

Meanwhile sports reporter Mark Beretta took things a step further, bravely mounting one horse for a ride.

Unlike his co-hosts David 'Kochie' Koch appeared to take a step back from the action, focusing on the interview instead.

Rachael was also joined by other models in similar racing attire as well as Emirates flight attendants.

High profile reception: The 29-year-old donned equestrian gear to promote the beginning of the Emirates Melbourne Cup's tour

Ahead of the pack: Showcasing her natural beauty with minimal makeup and her hair back in a sleek ponytail, Rachael finished her look off with a black riding helmet

Pucker up: Rachael could be seen affectionately planting a kiss on her horse

Making their entrance: Rachael and an Emirates trainer led the horse up the red carpet

Affectionately planting a kiss on her horse, Rachael and an Emirates trainer led the horse up the red carpet.

Rachael is no stranger to the world of horse racing, previously promoting the spectator sport through her role as Myer ambassador.

The busy mother of two has also previously covered racing for Channel Seven while reporting for the network.

She's a natural! The mother of two flaunted her slender figure in a striking red riding jacket, which she paired with a high-necked blouse and black ribbon

Expert ambassador: Rachael is no stranger to the world of horse racing, previously promoting the spectator sport through her role as Myer ambassador
It's the action-packed reality show that subjects both male and female contestants to the same grueling obstacle course.

And according to commentator Rebecca Maddern, Ninja Warrior's one-size-fits-all approach to gender has become an essential part of the show's appeal.

Speaking to Nine Honey, the fair-haired presenter explained that, 'while there are 'certain obstacles that suit the female competitors better than the men and then visa versa,' she wouldn't have it any other way.

'It doesn't matter if you're a male or a female': According to commentator Rebecca Maddern, Ninja Warrior's one-size-fits-all approach to gender has become an essential part of the show's appeal

'I suppose in a way it balances out but it would be very hard to change the Ninja Warrior course to better suit a women  I wouldn't know what to do and I don't think the female competitors want that,' she said.

'I think it's up to each individual athlete. It doesn't matter if you're a male or a female, if you're a rock climber you approach the course with quite an analytical mind because that's what you do when you're rock climbing.'

Meanwhile, new data has suggested that Ninja Warrior's ratings success can be attributed to the high interest among men.

Equal challenge: 'I wouldn't know what to do and I don't think the female competitors want that', said Rebecca

Girl power! Rebecca also noted that a woman may take out the crown of ultimate Ninja Warrior this season

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mediaweek editor James Manning explained: '[Men] think 'I could do that' or 'I could beat him' or 'I could get that far,' they naturally compare how they might have gone on the course.'

The publication reported that figures released by Fusion Strategy reveal that the top 20 shows in 2017 have an 'overall audience bias' of 62 per cent female to 38 per cent male.

Fusion Strategy chief executive Steve Allen told the publication that Australian Ninja Warrior could represent a 'wake-up call' to networks to cultivate more male content in their programming.

It's a knockout! In just one week, Channel Nine's smash hit program Ninja Warrior has proven itself a ratings juggernaut, having smashed Ten's MasterChef in the war for eyeballs

Testosterone friendly: Australian Ninja Warrior is just as big a hit with men as it is with women

'The commercial network programmers and program creators are conscious that too many shows don't have enough male content or viewers,' he said.

'There is no way to can get a show to rate more than one million viewers if you are only attracting one half of the population.'

Rumours have been flying that Nine executives will renew the show for an extended second season, with contestant reportedly flying overseas to compete in a global Ninja Warrior tournament.
He's dating Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus after splitting from his wife of 10 years Jennifer Garner.

But Ben Affleck was spotted out with another woman near his home in Pacific Palasades on Saturday afternoon.

And it wasn't his new blonde girlfriend.

Who's that girl: Ben Affleck, who is dating SNL's Lindsay Shookus, was spotted out with a mystery woman near his home in the LA neighborhood of Pacific Palasades on Saturday

The petite brunette, who looked a lot like his manager was dressed in a white sleeveless blouse and white skinny pants with black polka dots that she teamed with white wedge sandals.

Ben, 44, who was puffing on a cigarette, wore black jeans and a T-shirt with a logo from the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The star frequently visits the Congo on humanitarian trips and on Sunday evening he was honored for his work at the Starkey Hearing Foundation's 17th So The World May Hear Awards Gala at the St. Paul River Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

So bad for him: The 44-year-old Batman star, who was puffing on a cigarette, wore black jeans and a T-shirt with a logo from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Looking before he crosses: The actor waited by the side of the road after parking his car

The Batman star received the Humanitarian Of The Year award.

And he later posted two Instagrams from the podium with a touching caption.

'More than anything, in my work with @EasternCongo Initiative, Ive learned that small acts matter. They can transform lives and communities.

Red carpet couple: Ben's manager, Whitney Williams, was his plus one at the Starkey Hearing Foundation Awards Gala, at the Saint Paul River Center in Minnesota on Sunday

On the podium: The Batman star was honored with the Humanitarian Of The Year award for his work in the Congo

Dear to his heart: Ben posted this snap on Instagram with a caption saying, 'It is an honor to receive the 2017 Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala Humanitarian Award, and an honor of a lifetime to have you as a partner to support the Congolese'

'Theres no better example of this than the remarkable work the Starkey Hearing Foundation does for communities all around the world.

'It is an honor to receive the 2017 Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala Humanitarian Award, and an honor of a lifetime to have you as a partner to support the Congolese.

'This award is for all of them. @StarkeyCares #StarkeyGala.'
Rebel Wilson isn't afraid to sacrifice her body for the sake of comedy.

The 37-year-old star was spotted performing a seriously slapstick stunt while shooting her new film Isn't It Romantic in NYC on Monday.

The Aussie actress went all in for the scene, hunkering down as a Halal food cart zoomed forward, eventually slamming the starlet to the ground.

Appetite for danger! Rebel Wilson isn't afraid of getting hurt for the sake of comedy. On Monday she was seen getting slammed with a food cart on set of Isn't It Romantic in New York

The 37-year-old actress was clad in a grey cardigan, a black tank and pants which she paired with a haphazard bun upon her head for the scene.

She put on a fierce face for the stunt, gritting her teeth and standing wide as a fully stocked kebab-cart charged forward at a startling speed.

Though she braces herself for the impact, Rebel was bowled over by the food cart, later seen writhing in pain on the concrete.

She fell for it! The 37-year-old actress was clad in a grey cardigan and a haphazard bun upon her head for the stunt scene

Fast food! The Sydney native put on a fierce face for the stunt, gritting her teeth and standing wide as a fully stocked kebab-cart charged forward at a startling speed

Taking the hit: Though she braces herself for the impact, Rebel was bowled over by the food cart, later seen writhing in pain on the concrete

It looked like there was at least one perk to getting attacked by a rogue food cart, as Rebel - real name Melanie Elizabeth Bownds - was spotting nibbling on a falafel while she reeled from the hit.

The cast and crew did several takes of the stunt, making sure that they got the perfect footage for the romantic comedy.

The comedienne got some tips from part of the crew who modeled the best way for the actress to hit the pavement without hurting herself.

Stunt snack: There was at least one perk to getting attacked by a rogue food cart, as Rebel was spotting nibbling on a falafel as she reeled from the hit

Helping hand! Rebel got some tips from part of the crew who modeled the best way for the Pitch Perfect actress to hit the pavement without hurting herself

Talents from Oz: The Pitch Perfect actress is starring in Isn't It Romantic besides fellow talent from Down Under Liam Hemsworth

The Pitch Perfect actress is starring in Isn't It Romantic besides fellow talent from Down Under Liam Hemsworth.

The film flips the romantic-comedy genre on its head, with Rebel playing a young woman who 'mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy.'

Isn't It Romantic, which is being directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, is set for a 2019 release.
They've been enjoying a loved-up vacation in Byron Bay.

And Pia Miller, 33, and Tyson Mullane, 29, took a break from canoodling on the beach on Sunday, heading the beach town's main streets for a spot of shopping.

But the Home And Away star and her socialite boyfriend didn't leave the beach vibes too far behind, with Tyson wearing a towel as the pair perused shops.

Those aren't trousers! Pia Miller's boyfriend Tyson Mullane wears a towel as the loved-up couple go shopping during Byron Bay holiday

Pia looked every bit the former model for the casual shopping trip, showcasing her slim legs in a pair of denim shorts.

She paired the look with a loose white shirt and studded denim jacket, also wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat.

The actress wore her brunette locks out in natural waves, covering her eyes with round sunglasses.

Laidback:Pia's beau Tyson was dressed much more casually, going barefoot and wearing a towel instead of trousers

Stylish: Pia looked every bit the former model for the casual shopping trip, showcasing her slim legs in a pair of denim shorts

Shopping: Pia appeared unconcerned by her boyfriend's attire, ducking into boutique Hope & May to peruse the shelves

Meanwhile her beau Tyson was dressed much more casually, going barefoot and wearing a towel instead of trousers.

However Pia appeared unconcerned by her boyfriend's attire, ducking into boutique Hope & May to peruse the shelves.

The dark-haired beauty later left the store with a shopping bag in hand, removing her jacket as she looked at her phone.

Loved up: Pia and Tyson are believed to have first began dating in late 2015 before publicly announcing their romance on Valentine's Day 2016

Successful day? The dark-haired beauty later left the store with a shopping bag in hand

Split up: The actress was previously married to former AFL player Brad Miller for eight years, the couple separating in 2015

Pia and Tyson are believed to have first began dating in late 2015 before publicly announcing their romance on Valentine's Day 2016.

The actress was previously married to former AFL player Brad Miller for eight years, the couple separating in 2015.

Pia is a mother to two boys, 10-year-old Lennox with former husband Brad and 14-year-old Isaiah from a previous relationship.

Hot mama! Pia paired the look with a loose white shirt and studded denim jacket, also wearing a wide-brimmed felt hat
Kyle Sandilands has made no secret of his disdain for rival radio station 2Day FM.

And the KIIS FM shock jock has taken yet another swipe at the embattled Em Rusciano and Harley Breen breakfast show, telling listeners that their new TV advertisement campaign is 'horrible'.

Speaking to his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson on Tuesday, Kyle revealed that he and his girlfriend Imogen Anthony were left in a fit of giggles after watching Em and Harley's TV ad the previous evening.

'It's a s**t show, don't even bother': Kyle Sandilands has taken yet another swipe at the embattled Em Rusciano and Harley Breen breakfast show, telling listeners that their new TV advertisement campaign is 'horrible'

'What they're doing there is they're trying to put their best things on the TV and I watched the ad and then I turned slightly and Imogen turned at the same time and we pi***d ourselves laughing!'

'It was horrible- it's a terrible ad and it's supposed to be their best gear!' he said.

'It's a s**t show, don't even bother,' he scoffed after Jackie O attempted to defend Em and Harley's attempt at winning TV audiences.

'We pi***d ourselves laughing!' Speaking to his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson on Tuesday, Kyle revealed that he and his girlfriend Imogen Anthony were left in a fit of giggles after watching Em and Harley's TV ad the previous evening

Em and Harley were named as the breakfast replacement in January after Rove McManus and Sam Frost were axed due to bad ratings.

Since then the show has declined in ratings, leaving Kyle And Jackie O to continue their reign as the king and queen of radio.

According to the most recent radio ratings, Kyle and Jackie boasted a 10 per cent audience share, with an increase of 0.3 per cent of listeners.

Top spot: According to the most recent radio ratings, Kyle and Jackie boasted a 10 per cent audience share, with an increase of 0.3 per cent of listeners

In contrast, Em and Harley's numbers continue to be lower than their debut figure of 4 per cent in January, despite launching their extensive advertising campaign last month.

Speaking to Mumbrella in June, Hit Network's head of content Gemma Fordham blamed bad ratings for Em's breakfast show in May due to her taking time off for a miscarriage.

She also predicted the show's numbers would improve once they started marketing the show.

Competitive timeslot: Em and Harley were named as the breakfast replacement in January after Rove McManus and Sam Frost were axed due to bad ratings

However in April Kyle and Jackie, who hosted a breakfast show on 2Day FM from 2005 to 2013, told News Corp the show would struggle.

'They've made another big mistake there,' Kyle said.

'So it's only days until the 'for sale' sign gets hung up on that building  I can feel it.'
Filming resumed Monday on The Walking Dead after production was halted last week following the death of stuntman John Bernecker.

John, 33, died after falling from a 25-foot balcony onto concrete, missing a safety cushion by just a few inches.

The series, which is filming its eighth season in Senoia, Georgia, decided to put production on hold immediately following the incident.

Back to work! Filming resumed Monday on The Walking Dead after production was halted last week following the death of stuntman John Bernecker

Mourning the loss: The series, which is filming in Senoia, Georgia, decided to put production on hold immediately following the incident

Coweta County coroner Richard Hawk said the stuntman fell head and neck-first onto the concrete floor.

He was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. on July 12. from his injuries.

A Coweta County Sheriff's Office report revealed assistant director Matthew Goodwin said Bernecker intended to fall onto a pad.

Goodwin said Bernecker appeared to try to stop the fall by grabbing a railing but fell onto the ground a few inches from the pad.

Fatal fall: John, 33, died after falling from a 25-foot balcony onto concrete, missing a safety cushion by just a few inches

Doing his job: John was rehearsing a fight scene with actor Austin Amelio, who plays Negan henchman Dwight (pictured)

John was rehearsing a fight scene with actor Austin Amelio, who plays Negan henchman Dwight.

Amelio told authorities Bernecker said he'd never done a fall from that high and seemed 'a little nervous.'

Tragic: The 33-year-old was airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday right after the incident and his ventilator was turned off a day later

The script called for Bernecker to fall more than 20 feet to the ground, where there was a safety cushion in place according to TMZ.

The 33-year-old was airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday right after the incident.

His ventilator was turned off a day later surrounded by his friends, family and girlfriend Jennifer Cocker.

Sources claimed John suffered swelling to the brain, while the coroner confirmed that he died of blunt force trauma after losing his footing.

The swelling in his brain had appeared to go down after the horrific accident but then flared back up again, sources told TMZ.

He was said to be 'brain dead and on life support.'

Several series starsincluding Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morganposted tributes to Bernecker online.

Tributes: Several series starsincluding Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morganposted tributes to Bernecker online

A statement from AMC on Wednesday 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. We are keeping John and his family in our thoughts and prayers.'

Showrunner Scott Gimple later released a statement on John's death, saying:

'John Bernecker's family has decided that he will be removed from life support, following organ donation,' AMC said late Friday. 'We are deeply saddened by this loss and our hearts and prayers are with John's family, friends and colleagues during this extremely difficult time.'

The Walking Dead's eighth season is set to premiere on AMC in October

'John's 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 John's family and friends,' he continued in the tribute.

Bernecker's previous stunt credits include a role in 22 Jump Street, Game Night, Black Panther, 24: Legacy, Claws, and K.C. Undercover.

He's also done stunt work for Logan, The Fate Of The Furious, and Fantastic Four.
I am curious about when Steve Daines plans to honor his campaign promises of being a leader and standing up for Montana values. Daines has been toeing the party line and beating the drums for taking health care away from millions of American citizens (including tens of thousands of Montanans), which would, in essence, throw the most vulnerable among us to the wolves. The last time I checked, this is not anything anywhere near what would be considered "Montana values." In the Montana I live in, we take care of our neighbors, especially those who need help the most, and not just when it's convenient to do so. It would seem that a remedial lesson in Montana values is in order.
Rob Lowe is constantly on the hunt for adventure.

And the 53-year-old actor recently enjoyed a 'once in a lifetime' experience as he paddle boarded among sharks in Santa Barbara with son Matthew Edward.

The Lowe Files star was thrilled to encounter not one but two 'amazing Great white sharks,' chatting about his ocean thrill with TMZ.

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Great adventure! Rob Lowe (seen above in 2015 ) had a thrilling encounter with two Great white sharks this week while paddle boarding in Santa Barbara with his son

Nice to meet you! The California native revealed though he's 'been in the ocean [his] whole life' he had never crossed paths with a Great white while chatting with TMZ after his swim

The California native revealed though he's 'been in the ocean [his] whole life' he had never crossed paths with a Great white until now.

'You just can't believe your eyes. They're so powerful,' he said in awe, adding 'You definitely don't want to fall in.'

He described his ocean encounter as 'absolutely once in lifetime' experience, explaining 'I'm in the water all the time, fishing, surfing.

'Never seen one, I've certainly never been right on top of them in this kind of board.'

'Once in a lifetime': The 53-year-old hunk described his ocean encounter as 'absolutely once in lifetime' experience, explaining 'I'm in the water all the time, fishing, surfing' by had 'never seen' a shark so close. Above he's seen after a surf back in 2008

Finned figures: Describing the ocean beasts, the West Wing actor said 'One was big and one was a little smaller'

Describing the ocean beasts, the West Wing actor said 'One was big and one was a little smaller' but that both of the beings were 'bigger than [his] board.'

Rob shared another video taken by son Matthew, 23, on Instagram which showed one of the majestic animals weaving through the clear waters.

He captioned the video 'Found him!! A young Great White Shark.'

Rob and kids have proved they're definitely a brave bunch, debuting their supernatural reality show The Lowe Files next month.

Nerves of steel! Rob and kids have proved they're definitely a brave bunch, debuting their supernatural reality show The Lowe Files next month.

Just keep swimming! Rob shared video taken by son Matthew on Instagram which showed one of the majestic animals weaving through the clear waters

While filming their A&E series in the Ozarks, the Parks And Rec actor said an unknown entity - called a 'wood ape' by the locals - attacked his camp.

That is when Lowe dropped to the ground to hide from whatever was encroaching on their territory.

However, Lowe is saving the outcome of the freaky experience for the finale of his nine episode series.

The Lowe Files starts on August 2 on A&E.
She tied the knot last August, to long-term partner Stuart King.

And on Tea With Jules recently, Shark Tank's Naomi Simson gushed about her husband and newlywed life.

The 53-year-old Red Balloon founder told Jules Sebastian: 'I'm deeply besotted and in love'.

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'I'm deeply besotted and in love': Shark Tank's Naomi Simson gushes about newlywed life and husband Stuart King

'I'm deeply besotted and in love and that's gorgeous, so sharing wonderful experiences with my beautiful Stuart is gorgeous.'

Her sweet words came after she was asked what brings her the 'most joy' in her life.

Naomi added: 'We only met about five years ago and so our children came together as teenagers, and they are very different...But they have a respect for reach other.'

Smitten: Her sweet words came after she was asked what brings her the 'most joy' in her life

Family: Naomi added: 'We only met about five years ago and so our children came together as teenagers, and they are very different...But they have a respect for reach other'

'Watching them blossom and choose their own journey is very interesting,' she said.

The union is her second marriage following her split from husband of 20 years, Peter Simson, in 2011.

The businesswoman's new husband is a former Victorian police officer who now works as managing director for brand protection company Risk To Business.

Naomi recently opened up about Shark Tank, and spoke fondly of her fellow entrepreneurs and co-stars.

Chatting away: Naomi is pictured with Jules Sebastian

In good company: Naomi recently opened up about Shark Tank, and spoke fondly of her fellow entrepreneurs and co-stars

'We fight among ourselves but you can't pick on us,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

'The sharks are like siblings. We love each other, we respect each other and clearly we respect the work each other has done,' Naomi told the publication.

'But like siblings, we fight over our toys. We fight among ourselves but you can't pick on us,' she continued.

The reality series, aired on Network Ten, sees the 'Sharks', worth more than $1 billion collectively, use their skills to take inventions presented to them, and turn them into unique products and services.

The sharks, including Naomi, Dr. Glen Richards, Janine Allis, Andrew Banks and Steve Baxter, are not shy of debating over what they feel will generate the most revenue, and what will not.
Her public relations business was targeted by vandals on Friday.

And Roxy Jacenko, 37, has wasted no time safeguarding her Sweaty Betty offices, inspecting new security provisions on Tuesday.

The beefing up of provisions comes amid an eventful few days for the queen of spin, who became engaged for the second time to her husband Oliver Curtis on Friday night.

Eggs-cellent security! A gym-toned Roxy Jacenko inspects beefed-up surveillance provisions at Sweaty Betty HQ after vandalism attack

Clad in her signature activewear, Roxy cut a svelte figure as she made her way back from the gym to her Sweaty Betty offices.

The mother of two flashed her abs in a white singlet which she paired with an aqua crop top and leggings.

The businesswoman did not wear the diamond ring gifted to her by Oliver during her proposal on Friday.

Working hard: Clad in her signature activewear, Roxy cut a svelte figure as she made her way back from the gym to her Sweaty Betty offices

Gym-honed: The mother of two flashed her abs in a white singlet which she paired with an aqua crop top and leggings

No ring: The businesswoman did not wear the diamond ring gifted to her by Oliver during her proposal

However Roxy has previously said she did not like to wear her rings to the gym as she is fearful weights would damage the jewels.

Arriving outside her now pristine offices, Roxy stopped to inspect several workers who appeared to be installing security cameras.

The social media maven could be seen taking photos of the men's handiwork, which seemed to include some kind of upgrade to the security system.

Checking up: Arriving outside her now pristine offices, Roxy stopped to inspect several workers who appeared to be upgrading her security cameras

New systems: The social media maven could be seen taking photos of the men's handiwork, which seemed to include some kind of upgrade to the security system

Getting to work: The workmen's visit comes after Roxy's workplace was targeted by vandals on Friday

Horrible discovery: On Friday morning Roxy arrived at her office, located in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Double Bay, to discover it had been pelted by rotten eggs injected with ink

On Friday morning Roxy arrived at her office, located in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Double Bay, to discover it had been pelted by rotten eggs injected with ink.

The vandalism was the third time the PR queen had been targeted in mere months, with a 'brown foul-smelling sludge' smeared on the walls of her office in April, the Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.

A mixture of blood and bone was also thrown into Roxy's backyard a fortnight ago.

Unlucky: The vandalism was the third time the PR queen had been targeted in mere months

Vile attack: Earlier a 'brown foul-smelling sludge' had been smeared on the walls of her office in April

Second attack: A mixture of blood and bone was also thrown into Roxy's backyard a fortnight ago

'This is the third attack in a number of months with the one before this being last Tuesday evening on my property and police are investigating,' Roxy told Daily Mail Australia in a statement on Friday.

Meanwhile later that day Roxy's husband Oliver proposed to her for the second time, amid rumours the pair had undergone a period of estrangement.

In June Oliver was released from Cooma Correctional Centre in southern NSW after serving a 12 month jail sentence for insider trading.

The couple - who share children Pixie, five, and Hunter, three, together - are believed to have reunited during a family getaway to Bali earlier this month.



Good news! On Friday Roxy's husband Oliver proposed to her for the second time, amid rumours the pair had undergone a period of estrangement
She's just confirmed her new role on the hit soap, Home And Away.

And on Monday, former Bachelorette star Sam Frost was spotted heading to the hairdresser in Sydney's Paddington.

The 28-year-old blonde cut a relaxed figure, stepping out in jeans and a sheer T-shirt that revealed her dark bra.

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Freshening up for Summer Bay? Sam Frost cuts a casual figure in a sheer T-shirt as she heads to the hairdressers after revealing she's joining Home And Away

Casual: Sam wore high-waisted jeans and matched the look with a denim cap and thongs

Sam wore high-waisted jeans and matched the look with a denim cap and thongs.

She wore a silver necklace and had a brown handbag slung over her shoulder.

Sam had her long locks tied back off her face, in a low messy bun, and wore light makeup.

Low-key: Sam had her long locks tied back off her face, in a low messy bun, and wore light makeup

Happy: Sam appeared in high spirits as she walked to her appointment

Sam appeared in high spirits as she walked to her appointment.

She has a reason to smile, telling The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that she's set to be a regular on Home And Away.

Although she has credits as a reality TV personality and breakfast radio host, this will be Sam's first proper acting role.

Despite her lack of experience, the former finance manager revealed she got the job after a series of auditions.

New gig: She has a reason to smile, telling The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that she's set to be a regular on Home and Away

Lucky break: Despite her lack of experience, the former finance manager revealed she got the job after a series of auditions

'When they finally said "You got the job!" I screamed. I was so excited,' she confessed.

It's a lucky break for the media personality, after her 2DayFM radio program Rove & Sam was cancelled at the end of June.

'I grew up watching Home and Away and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be on set and part of the cast,' she said.

Moving on: Her 2DayFM radio program Rove & Sam was cancelled at the end of June

Meanwhile, things appear to be looking up in Sam's love life too with her confirming she is dating Dave Bashford.

She split from Sasha Mielczarek in December.

The couple had dated for 18 months after falling in love on The Bachelorette in 2015.

Sam will begin filming for Home And Away within the month but will not appear on our screens until next year.

New man: Meanwhile, things appear to be looking up in Sam's love life too with her confirming she is dating Dave Bashford (pictured)
She's recently chopped off her hair to reveal a short bob.

And Bella Hadid, 20, continued to rock the look with a thick headband pushing back her cropped brunette tresses on a night out in New York City Monday.

The model opted for a FRAME polka-dot dress with plunging neckline and thigh-high slits for her dinner get-together with mom Yolanda Hadid and siblings Gigi and Anwar.

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New do! Bella Hadid, 20, continued to show off her short hair with a thick headband pushing back her cropped brunette tresses on a night out in New York City in a FRAME dress

Yolanda later posted a photo of the gorgeous group to Instagram, captioning the image: 'My everything in one place.'

She added the hashtag '#happymommy'.

Bella showed off her model form in the patterned frock with a black belt cinching her waist.

She paired the feminine outfit with clunky black Doc Marten boots and wore tiny round sunglasses despite the darkness of night.

Family dinner: Yolanda Hadid later posted a photo of the gorgeous group to Instagram, capturing the image: 'my everything in one place'

Living the NYC life: The Los Angeles-born beauty completed the look with large hoop earrings and the Row Empire Suite shades, smiling as she left her apartment

She wore a simple necklace around her neck and opted for a small black clutch that she wore around her shoulder.

The naturally beautiful star appeared to wear makeup that highlighted her features, including a rich lipstick on her lips.

The Los Angeles-born beauty completed the look with large hoop earrings and smiled as she left her apartment.

All legs: Bella flashed her legs as she led the way with sister Gigi following in a silky patterned suit

Model sisters: Gigi, 22, added slip-on black shoes and carried a small white purse

Earlier in the day, she was spotted for the first time with her cropped look.

The 20-year-old modeling wunderkind had shown off a bit of her enviably trim midriff in a white crop top she'd worn without a bra on underneath.

Her high-waisted white trousers were torn at one knee and played up her pencil thin legs, and she'd slid on a nude and white pair of platform shoes, accessorizing with a pair of round Oliver Peoples sunglasses.

Short and sweet: Bella Hadid showed off in New York on Monday

New look: Bella has trimed her long bob into a shorter style. She is pictured right in Venice last month

She'd popped on a gleaming pair of hoop earrings, having slung a small black purse over her right shoulder, and she was also seen at one point in white boots.

Bella had showcased that shorter hairdo in a couple of Instagram posts she'd uploaded on Sunday, one of them a mirror selfie taken in a creperie on Mykonos.

'888 my number,' the younger sister of Gigi Hadid had captioned that Greek holiday photo, in which she'd worn a tiny white crop top over a pair of tiny denim skirt.

Hinting: The 20-year-old modeling wunderkind had shown off a bit of her enviably trim midriff in a white crop top she'd worn without a bra on underneath

On the go: Her high-waisted white trousers were torn at one knee and accentuated her slim legs; she wore nude and white platform shoes, accessorizing with Oliver Peoples shades

She was in a pair of torn jeans, a white top and a hat in the next Instagram photo, which saw her sitting on an airplane with pale green cream smeared onto her face.

Bella wrote: 'coming home mama' in the caption, indicating her return stateside from a European excursion that's also included the Pride In London Parade 2017 on July 8.

She'd still got the slightly longer bob during that parade, posing for Instagram with her pal Kendall Jenner and tagging photographer Mike Rosenthal and hairstylist Jen Atkin, the latter of whom's styled several of the Kardashian-Jenner clan.

Smiling ear to ear: She'd popped on a gleaming pair of hoop earrings, having slung a small black purse over her right shoulder, and she was also seen at one point in white boots

Holding forth: Covering this year's August issue of InStyle , Bella theorized that 'working this much is going to give me a better platform to do bigger things in the world'

Covering this year's August issue of InStyle, Bella theorized that 'working this much is going to give me a better platform to do bigger things in the world.'

She continued: 'Im not saying I dont love my job, but people think modeling is just a bulls*** thing to become more famous,' the daughter of Yolanda Hadid allowed.

'I was 100 percent independent by the time I was 18, and I paid for my own apartment. That wasnt because of my parents. I worked my ass off for two years.'

Though her mother used to be a Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills, 'Im not really into the whole gossip thing or the drama, but there are some parts that are funny.'

Bella went on to say: 'The women [on the show] are all supercute. Im not sure I could be on reality TV. Its nothing against them - love them, bless their hearts,' qualifying: 'But I think Im going to stick with modeling for now.'

She also dished about her friend Kendall, recalling: 'I met her for the first time seven years ago over Twitter. That was before we started modeling; I was probably 14 or 15.'

'That was before we started modeling': She also dished about her friend Kendall Jenner, recalling: 'I met her for the first time seven years ago over Twitter

'888 my number': Bella had showcased that shorter hairdo in a couple of Instagram posts she'd uploaded on Sunday, one of them a mirror selfie taken in a creperie on Mykonos

'coming home mama': She was in a pair of torn jeans, a white top and a hat in the next Instagram photo, which saw her sitting on an airplane with pale green cream on her face

As Bella's recounted the development of the friendship, 'We met up and had sushi, and now were best friends. Shes a pretty significant human I met online.'

She did address a rougher comments aimed at her online, saying: 'Imagine that somebody is telling you that youre a piece of sh*** every day on social media. You kind of feel like, Well, am I a piece of s***? You dont really know.'

She's floated a potential acting career as well, saying: 'People think that I dont smile and Im super cold. With acting you can show more of who you are. I would have to get a hold of my ADD, but otherwise I think it would be fun.'

Close-up: Bella also showed off her new hairdo to her Instagram Story's following that day
They are the Hollywood couple who have bucked the trend by staying married for 21 years.

And Hugh Jackman, 48, and wife Deborra-Lee Furness proved how close a family unit they are as they walked arm-in-arm with their children Ava, 12, and Oscar, 17 as they prepared to leave LAX on Sunday.

Hugh looked every bit the doting dad as he walked with Ava through the terminal.

Bonding: Hugh Jackman, 48, and wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 61, proved how close a family unit they are as they walked arm in arm with their children Ava, 12, and Oscar, 17 as they prepared to leave LAX on Sunday

Looking dapper in a sky blue collared shirt and a pair of dark blue chinos, Hugh matched his ensemble with a black belt and a pair of casual black shoes.

Hugh could not stop grinning as he escorted his daughter to the plane with Ava wearing a slogan T-shirt underneath a black and white jacket.

She also wore a pair of distressed denim shorts, a pair of white Adidas sneakers and a set of chunky white headphones around her neck.

Proud: Hugh looked every bit the doting dad as he walked with Ava through the terminal in a a sky blue collared shirt and a pair of dark blue chinos.

Deborra-Lee meanwhile looked over the moon to be walking arm-in-arm with son Oscar.

Smiling widely, Deborra-Lee wore a flowing black top, a pair of matching three-quarter length black leggings and a pair of toe-less black slip on shoes.

She accessorised with a black leather handbag slung over her shoulder and some low hanging 'bling' around her neck.

Mother and son: Deborra-Lee meanwhile looked over the moon to be walking arm-in arm with son Oscar

Oscar looked cool, calm and collected in a stylish grey fedora, black polo shirt, black shorts and a pair of leather sandals.

Wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, Oscar also accessorised with what looked to be an iPod that he clutched in this left hand.

Hugh who has been married to Deborra-Lee for 21 years recently revealed on the UK talk show Lorraine that the secret to the marriage was the fact the pair 'shared everything' and that they never spend more than two weeks apart.

Smiling widely, Deborra-Lee wore a flowing black top, a pair of matching three-quarter length black leggings and a pair of toe-less black slip on shoes

'We always said wed never spend more than two weeks apart. Sometimes life and work does get crazy,' he said.

'But we met on my first job when she was already a big star, I was a nobody. So we have shared everything, all the ups and downs, and always will.'

Hugh and Deborra also recently revealed to People that meditation was another secret to a successful marriage.

'We meditate together,' she said. 'And sometimes we have friends over to do it, too. It's a lovely Sunday-morning thing. Everyone comes over, and then we have breakfast.'
Little girls often dream of rainbows, castles, and fantastical creatures.

And North West proved she is truly magical on Monday evening as she was captured dozing off in a unicorn nightcap.

The adorable moment was captured by her doting mother Kim Kardashian on Snapchat after what appeared to be a successful bedtime story.

Princess dreams: North West proved she is truly magical on Monday evening as she was captured dozing off in a unicorn nightcap

In the photo, four-year-old North holds onto a cute blankie while wearing a pink night shirt.

Meanwhile, the night before Kim and her husband of three years Kanye West were all smiles as they left a recent showing of War For The Planet Of The Apes at a Sherman Oaks, California theater.

The 36-year-old beauty wore her usual flesh-baring fashion, going braless in a white cropped top that exposed a hint of underboob and a pair of taupe-colored skintight leggings.

She paired the outfit with a pair of strappy heels for the not-so-casual trip to the cinema.

Flashing Lights: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West caught a screening of War For The Planet Of The Apes over the weekend in Sherman Oaks, California

During a speech at the Fashion Front Row awards in 2015, Kanye revealed he doesn't smile because it doesn't look 'cool.'

'The paparazzi always come up to me, Why you not smiling? and I think, not smiling makes me smile,' he explained.

'When you see paintings in an old castle, people are not smiling cause it just wouldnt look as cool.'

Curves ahead: Her skintight taupe-colored pants showed off her famous physique as she got into their Maybach

Kim has gone on her own crusade against the joyful expression, saying that smiling causes wrinkles.

In a 2014 Instagram post, the reality star wrote, 'I do smile... even laugh on occasion. Not too often though because it causes wrinkles.'

Kim and Kanye's children North, four, and Saint, one, did not join them for the movie night, as the film would likely be too scary for the youngsters.
Naomi Watts is said to be moving on from Liev Schreiber with co-star Billy Crudup.

Naomi, 48, and Billy, 49, who star as husband and wife on the Netflix series Gypsy are 'now dating' in real life, a source confirmed to PEOPLE.

The pair were spotted holding hands in New York City over the weekend and an eyewitness told Page Six, they 'looked happy and were laughing a lot, then left again holding hands.'

New couple? Naomi, 48, and Billy, 49, who star as husband and wife on the Netflix series Gypsy are 'now dating' in real life, a source told PEOPLE.

Bonded on set?The two have reportedly been getting close as they filmed the newly-released Netflix series, which centers on a married psychologist (Naomi) who becomes obsessed with one of her client's ex-girlfriends (pictured in November)

The two have reportedly been getting close as they filmed the newly-released Netflix series, which centers on a married psychologist (Naomi) who becomes obsessed with one of her client's ex-girlfriends.

A witness told the magazine that he was at a cafe when the couple walked in 'holding hands'.

'We didn't know they were a couple. Pretty cool seeing two big stars so into each other,' the source said.

Neither camp has officially confirmed the report.

Co-stars! Naomi and Billy star as husband and wife on the Netflix psychosexual drama Gypsy

Love triangle? Naomi Watts pictured here between ex Liev Schrieber and rumored new beau Billy back in 2009 when Naomi and Liev were still a couple

This comes nearly two months after her ex Liev Schreiber was seen holding hands with Morgan Brown, who famously is in an on-off relationship with Gerard Butler.

It's been about ten months since Liev and his girlfriend of 11 years Naomi announced their split, in a bit of news that was overshadowed rather by the much more publicly explosive breakup of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie the same month.

Naomi and Liev have a nine-year-old son called Alexander and an eight-year-old son called Samuel, and the two adults have remained amicable co-parents.

Parents of two! It's been about nine months since Liev and his girlfriend of 11 years Naomi Watts - who've got sons Samuel, eight, and Alexander, nine - announced their split

Covering this year's June issue of Vogue Australia, Naomi explained of her current circumstances: 'I mean, Im single, Im co-parenting. Im doing okay.'

The actress has told the magazine that 'There are good days and bad days and Liev and I are on great terms and were trying to do our absolute best for the sake of the children and we hope to keep moving forward in that way.'

On Father's Day, Naomi posted a sweet black and white photo of Liev and their two children, captioning: 'Happy Father's Day to this great dad...' and adding a sunglasses-wearing emoji sticking its tongue out and upwards.

Last December, Liev had been asked about the breakup on CBS This Morning and pointed out that he and Naomi are 'parents together, so we'll be together for the rest of our lives, no matter what, and we're very close.'

Affectionate! On Father's Day Sunday last, Naomi posted a sweet black and white photo of Liev and their two children, captioning: 'Happy Father's Day to this great dad...'

Co-parenting: The two remain close for the sake of their sons (pictured in February 2016)

As co-host Gayle King replied: 'Yeah, I'm glad to hear that,' Liev had continued: 'Hopefully, that never changes, and I don't think it will.'

Liev's been starring on the hit Showtime crime drama Ray Donovan as the title character since 2013, and the fifth season will begin airing this August 6.

Meanwhile, Crudup has his own share of famous relationships.

The Big Fish star was in a relationship with Mary-Louise Parker from 1996-2003.

The actor left her when she was seven months pregnant with their son William Atticus Parker, who was born in 2014.

Crudup reportedly left the actress for Claire Danes, whom he dated for four years.
It was a scene that called for a Monday afternoon weaver.

And it seems John Travolta found one after his hairpiece held up under the strain of him falling out of a car as he filmed an action sequence in Puerto Rico.

It looked like nary a hair from his wonderful wig was left out of place as he took his tumble while recording scenes for Speed Kills, which is also known as Cigarette, on Monday.

Wig wow: John Travolta's sensational syrup stayed in place as he fell out of a car on set in Puerto Rico on Monday

What a pro: John looked focussed as he got ready to film the thrilling sequence

In what was surely a moment of victory for the film's hard-working hair and makeup department, the 63-year-old's sensational syrup was able to survive several takes of the sequence completely intact.

John was looking trendy in a white shirt, cream-coloured trousers and leather shoes.

The Grease favourite made it look easy as he waited around between takes, and was even spotted sharing some of his thoughts with the crew before he partook in another take.

The prominent Scientologist would have been forgiven for thinking his work had been done for the day after the taxing scene, which may have been the moment his real-life character was murdered, was finally in the bag.

Ready: John was like a coiled cobra as he waited for the cameras to start rolling

Get set: The production staff member ducked out of the way as the director got ready to start

Go: And nary a hair was out of place as John too his theatrical tumble

Post-shoot briefing: He chatted with the crew to find out how the scene had gone

But he was soon wearing yet another outfit and prancing around on a jetty as he prepared to grind out some more scenes.

However all work and no play makes for a dull boy, and there was still time for some tomfoolery as an impressed John was spotted staring at a topless extra as he flexed his muscles

The Battlefield Earth legend is playing a real-life speedboat racing champion in the forthcoming film.

He seems to have developed a taste for such endeavours, having played both OJ Simpson defence attorney Robert Shapiro and gangster John Gotti in recent years.

Psyching himself up: John paced up and down as he got attempted to film the perfect take

Method actor: The prominent Scientologist made suggestions about how he should fall

Here we go again: And soon John was back behind the wheel for another stab at it

Hurray: A set worker seemed to cheer as John nailed what may have been his death scene

His daring multimillionaire character Don Aronow is leading a double life that ends up landing him him in trouble with the law.

As if that was not enough, his antics also see him targetted by angry drug lords.

In real life he created the Cigarette speedboat and sold his work to the likes of the Shah of Iran, Malcolm Forbes and pop stars.

He was even doing business with both the US government and drug cartels at the same time, which may have played a part in his mysterious murder in 1987 while he sat in his car in Miami.

No rest for the wicked: The jolly star had soon donned another outfit for yet more filming

Monday afternoon weaver: The star's wonderful wig look lush and full of life throughout

Brolly dolly: An obliging lackey was on hand to provide the star with shade from the sun

The film is being directed by John Luessenhop, the man behind such gems as 2010's Matt Dillon-led Takers, which scored 28 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, and flop Lockdown, which was released in 2000.

Production company Hannibal is behind the movie, which is being shot in both San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Miami Beach

Shooting kicked off on May 30, and is being shot from a script by Friday Night Lights David Aaron Cohen and Luessenhop.

It is being produced by Hannibals Richard Rionda Del Castro, Oscar Generale and Luillo Ruiz of the Pimienta Film Company.

Careful: The Battlefield Earth legend looked in danger of backing into his assistant at one point

Look who's gawking: There was still time for some tomfoolery as impressed John stared at a topless extra as he flexed his muscles
He played Drew Kirk on Neighbours from 1998 to 2002, until his character was killed off in a tragic horse riding accident.

And since leaving the soap, Dan Paris has enjoyed his career as a travelling the country as a photographer in Western Australia.

Speaking to News.com.au the 44-year-old said the first thing he bought after leaving the Ramsey Street was a nice camera to fuel his passion for photography.

Soap star: Former Neighbours actor Dan Paris on his successful career as a photographer

'It started off as landscape and now I work a lot with marketing companies in Perth,' he said, adding that he also does photo shoots for Tourism WA.

'Most of my work is actually doing video now and thats pretty much what Ive been doing professionally since Neighbours. Life is great at the moment.'

During his time on the show, his character married Libby Kennedy, played by Kym Valentine, and together had a son Ben Kirk.

On screen romance: The 44-year-old said the first thing he bought after leaving the Ramsey Street was a nice camera to fuel his passion for photography (pictured with Libby Kennedy played by Kym Valentine)

Dan revealed he never had plans to be an actor, but said he was at the right place at the right time after doing one audition, despite having no experience.

He admitted that he did find it challenging remembering his lines, but said he enjoyed his job.

The former actor said it was his love of the wilderness and wide open spaces that spurred him to leave the show in 2002.

Time to move on: 'I said, "You know what? I think I need the door shut... I needed to do other things in life and at the time that felt really right'

He also revealed that despite the despair of fans, he wanted his character to be killed off.

'I said, "You know what? I think I need the door shut... I needed to do other things in life and at the time that felt really right,' he told the publication.

Dan now lives on a 10 acre property in Esperance, Western Australia with his partner and his two young sons.
She's a glamorous mother-of-four and model-turned-TV presenter.

And on Tuesday, Rebecca Judd took to Instagram to announce her tenth shoot for jewellery designer, Paul Bram Diamonds.

The 34-year-old wife of AFL star Chris Judd, epitomised elegance in the new shoot, stunning in a floor length metallic pink gown by Alex Perry.

Glamorous: Rebecca Judd, 34, announced her tenth shoot for Paul Bram Diamonds to Instagram on Tuesday

Rebecca flashed glistening diamond earrings, two rings and a delicate bracelet in a behind-the-scenes photo.

She styled her caramel tresses into perfectly manicured waves and wore them swept to the side.

Hiding playfully behind a loose lock, Bec flaunted a full face of make-up featuring subtle tones of pink to match her gown.

Bling: She flashed glistening diamond earrings, two rings and a delicate bracelet in a behind-the-scenes photo

'Shooting my tenth Paul Bram Diamonds campaign today. The most beautiful diamonds in the world,' she wrote in the caption.

The WAG showcased her petite frame in the glistening number, with her slender arms clearly in view as she clasped her hands together.

In another photo, Bec posed with Lucy Mills and Sam Thomas, captioning the snap, 'Dream team'.

Pals: In one photo, Bec posed with Lucy Mills and Sam Thomas, calling them her 'Dream team'

Her enviable figure was on show in the sparkling frock, its light colour a perfect choice to complement the jewels.

She also revealed she had collaborated with the jeweller to design her own range of six diamond rings.

'Introducing the RJ Collection for Paul Bram Diamonds, a French micro pave, halo range I designed.'

'Each ring features an Argyle Pink Diamond inside the band,' she wrote proudly next to a photo of her wearing all six of the rings on one hand.
She recently followed in her sister's footsteps and branched out from modelling to an acting career, with a role in King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword.

And Poppy Delevingne, 31, showed that there is no sibling rivalry between she and her sister as she turned out to support Cara at the Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets premiere in West Hollywood, California on Monday.

Flashing her cleavage by cheekily going braless in a skintight glittering black jumpsuit, the socialite looked amazing as she posed for photos.

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Moral support: Poppy Delevingne, 31, turned out to support Cara at the Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets premiere in West Hollywood, California on Monday

The bombshell accentuated her tiny waist with the addition of a belt, and power shoulders on the jumpsuit further enhanced her shape.

The jumpsuit clung to her long, slender pins, and she added some height to her statuesque 5' 10 frame with a pair of black court heels.

She carried her belongings in a stylish Chanel box bag, and a ring sparkled prettily on her finger, while some chunky gold Jennifer Fisher earrings grazed her jawline.

No sibling rivalry here! Posing with her sister Cara, who has a starring role in the sci fi action film, Poppy displayed how proud she was of her by grinning from ear to ear

Poppy sported bronze smokey eye make up, and styled her bleach blonde tresses into a sleek low ponytail.

Posing with her sister Cara, who has a starring role in the sci fi action film, Poppy displayed how proud she was of her by grinning from ear to ear.

Cara also flashed some skin in a daring see-through metallic dress, which clung to her slender frame.

Saucy: Flashing her cleavage by cheekily going braless in a skintight glittering black jumpsuit, the socialite looked amazing as she posed for photos

Revealing: Cara also flashed some skin in a daring see-through metallic dress, which clung to her slender frame

Her dress featured a high neck and an unusual neckline, which revealed her toned shoulders and a hint of bust.

Having rocked a peroxide blonde cropped hairstyle in recent days, Cara appeared to opt for a caramel coloured hairpiece, which was pin curled flat to her face.

She accentuated her signature dark brows with dramatic make up, and smouldered as she posed for photos.

Model behaviour: The jumpsuit clung to her long, slender pins, and she added some height to her statuesque 5' 10 frame with a pair of black court heels
She rarely steps a foot wrong when it comes to her sartorial choices.

And Natalie Portman ensured all eyes were on her as she stepped out in an elegant monochrome dress to attend the Miss Dior perfume party held in Shanghai on Monday.

The actress, 36, commanded attention on her arrival as she put on a stunning display in her ensemble, before taking to the stage to speak at the style event.

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Stunning: Natalie Portman, 36, ensured all eyes were on her as she put on a dazzling display at the Miss Dior perfume party held in Shanghai on Monday

Natalie looked simply incredible in her classy choice of gown that featured a low-cut neckline and subtly stole a glimpse at her cleavage and her bare decolletage.

Emphasising her slender frame, her dress nipped in at the waist and featured a lace white panel underneath the bust, before billowing out into a full pleated skirt that sat just above the ankles.

The No Strings Attached star added some height to her attire with a pair of barely-there black heels and decided to style her brunette locks into a chic up-do.

Elegant: Natalie commanded attention on her arrival to the bash, stepping out in a classy monochrome dress and barely-there black heels

Beauty: The No Strings Attached star swept her brunette tresses back from her face and styled her locks into a slick knot that sat high on her head

Sweeping her tresses back from her face, Natalie styled her bonce into a slick knot that sat high on her head.

She finished off her getup with a sophisticated make-up look that highlighted her flawless complexion and came complete with a nude pink lip.

Natalie made sure to pose for photographers on her arrival to the party overseas, before later taking to the stage with a microphone and speaking animatedly in front of other guests.

She has long been affiliated with designer Christian Dior and has enjoyed a five year relationship with the fashion house, fronting many of its beauty campaigns and becoming the face for its Miss Dior perfume.

Gorgeous: Proving why she has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Dior, Natalie stunned on the beauty front as she sported a sophisticated make-up look

Taking centre stage: Natalie took to the microphone at the bash and spoke animatedly in front of other guests

Speaking about her work with Dior, Natalie told British Vogue last year that she feels 'very lucky' to be associated with the brand.

She said: 'I've been working with Dior for so long and they have been so incredibly supportive of me and my career.

'I have also been lucky enough to travel to some pretty incredibly places with them, giving me time in foreign countries I may not otherwise get to experience.'

'I feel very lucky to have them in my life,' she insisted.

Strike a pose: She made sure to stop for photographers on her arrival to the style event

Engrossed: Natalie was seen conversing with another party-goer and seemed to be intrigued by what they had been holding in a bowl
They're the high-profile couple who have just returned from a lavish family getaway in Queensland's Pullman Port Douglas.

But it was back to reality for Chris and Rebecca Judd on Friday, as they touched down at Melbourne airport with their four children.

The parents looked to have had their work cut out for them as they made their way through the terminal, struggling with suitcases and excited youngsters.

Touch down: Rebecca and Chris Judd struggled with baggage and children at Melbourne Airport on Friday after 'worst flight ever' from Queensland holiday

Bec, 34, could be seen hauling two giant suitcases as her two eldest Oscar, five, and Billie, three, ran through the airport.

Former Carlton captain Chris, 33, was also towing two bags and was offered a helping hand by his daughter, Billie, who had a turn at rolling a suitcase.

Despite the chaos, the mother-of-four appeared relaxed and refreshed, sporting a chic casual outfit.

In a black embellished jumper, navy blue leather pants and white kicks, the WAG looked effortlessly cool.

At one point, she was spotted nursing one of her ten-month-old twins.

Running amok: Chris towed two bags and was offered a helping hand by his daughter, Billie, who had a turn at rolling a suitcase

Chris also was seen carrying one of the twins as he paced through the terminal.

The father wore a black knitted jumper over a red checkered shirt and grey jeans, wearing a pair of leather sandals on his feet.

Rebecca has since revealed the disastrous return flight from the family's holiday in an interview on the KIIS FM 3pm Pickup radio show.

Cheeky kids: Bec, 34, could be seen hauling two giant suitcases as her two eldest Oscar, five, and Billie, three, ran through the airport

Chatting to her co-host Yumi Stynes, the WAG gave a colourful description of the flight, detailing how it had ended in them being 'covered in poo and spew.'

'The poor gentleman behind us vomited everywhere and it kind of went on my seat and down the aisle,' she complained.

Flight from hell! The WAG gave a colourful description of the family's flight home, detailing how it had ended in them being 'covered in poo and spew'

'So one of my twins Tom smells the vomit and then he decides that he's going to vomit everywhere as well so it's on my legs and it's on my husband and it's on my mum,' she went on.

'And then my other son Darcy decides that he's got diarrhea,' she added, before explaining that Chris had accidentally suffered a spray of air freshener to his eye while attempting to change Darcy's nappy in the bathroom.
After losing his tooth on a 'big night' in Bali earlier this month, Brendan Fevola quickly made his way to the dentist on his return to Australia on Friday to fix his pearly whites.

And on Monday the former AFL player took to Instagram to share a video of his new look - and to thank the 'bloody champions' responsible for the repairs.

In the footage, the 36-year-old can be seen lying on a chair while a dentist inserts a replacement tooth into his mouth.

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'I'm back, baby!' On Monday Brendan Fevola took to Instagram to share a video of his tooth getting fixed after losing it during a 'big night' in Bali earlier this month

'How's that feel?' the dentist asks.

Brendan responded by facing the camera and pointing his fingers in the air before exclaiming: 'I'm back, baby!

'I'm back, toothless no more thanks to the Val and the crew at BC Dental Beaumaris for getting my tooth fixed so quick bloody champions @bcdental #timetosmile #model' he captioned the post.

The Hit FM radio star also took to his Instagram Story on Friday to share a live video of himself getting dental work.

He looked proud as punch as he sat in the patient's chair while his dentist got to work.

'Toothless no more': The 36-year-old also thanked the dentists for repairing his smile

Say cheese: Brendan Fevola made a stop at the dentist on Friday after a wild night in Bali recently left him without a tooth

'At the dentist getting this puppy fixed,' he said in a clip shared to Instagram.

Another clip showed the dentist making an orthodontic impression for the former AFL star, before filling in his missing tooth.

Brendan's trip to the dentist comes after he took to Instagram earlier this month to share the aftermath of a wild night out.

Proud as punch: The 36-year-old Hit FM radio star looked proud as punch as he sat in the patient's chair while his dentist got to work

'At the dentist getting this puppy fixed,' he said in a clip shared to Instagram

'Ok so we had a few froffies last night and I've woken up with out my tooth,' he captioned a bed selfie.

'Yes big night in Bali with @alexfevolamakeup anyone no a good dentist here lol... need a new tooth ASAP #toothfairy.'

He captioned another image: 'Bali life.'

The aftermath: Brendan's trip to the dentist comes after he took to Instagram last week, to share the aftermath of a wild night out

Laughing it off: The former AFL star seemed to see the funny side of things, taking to Instagram to ask fans for dental recommendations and playfully adding the hashtag 'tooth fairy'

The father-of-three holidayed on the Indonesian island with his on-and-off partner Alex and their three daughters Leni, Lulu, and Mia.

The missing tooth came days after the media personality stripped off for a nudie run through a forest alongside radio co-host Bryon Cooke.

Footage from the dash was posted on FOX FM's Fifi, Dave Fev and Bryon Instagram page.
She has been proudly flaunting her pregnancy figure, ever since announcing her exciting news that she is pregnant with her second child.

And Monday proved to be no exception for Danielle Bux, as she ensured all eyes were on her while taking a shopping trip in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

The model, 38, was seen flaunting her burgeoning baby bump during her low-key outing across the pond, as she stepped out in a stylish loose-fitted summer dress that slipped over her pregnancy curves.

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Baby mumma: Danielle Bux, 38, was seen flaunting her burgeoning baby bump as she headed out shopping in Beverly Hills on Monday

Danielle's casual design no doubt made for a cool outfit choice in the searing heat of the Californian city, with the brunette beauty previously admitting the temperatures across the pond have been providing her with some difficulty while expecting.

It featured skimpy spaghetti straps and low-rise sides that flashed a look at her tattoo that is etched across her side.

Skimming over her now huge baby bump, Danielle's frock sat just below the knee and she teamed it with a pair of complementing black sliders on her feet.

Danielle - who is already mum to daughter Ella from a previous relationship - chose to sweep her long locks back into a single braid and hid behind a pair of chic tortoise-shell shades while clutching on to her shopping bags.

Stunning: The model looked just gorgeous in her casual ensemble that perfectly highlighted her pregnancy curves

She appeared to forgo her usual glamour for the outing and ditched her make-up in favour of a more natural look.

Danielle's appearance in Beverly Hills comes after she recently enjoyed a reunion with her ex-husband Gary Lineker.

He had joined her overseas and the duo were spotted catching up with one another - having remained firm friends following their split in January 2016.

They had initially tied the knot in 2009 during a ceremony in Ravello, Italy.

Danielle has since gone on to find love with boyfriend Nate Greenwald and had announced the news that they are expecting a child together back in March.

'Hot in the city': Danielle's loose-fitted frock no doubt made for a cool outfit choice, as she had previously spoke of finding the searing temperatures across the pond difficult to endure while pregnant via an Instagram post of her keeping herself and bump cool in bed

Exciting: She is currently expecting her second child - her first with boyfriend Nate Greenwald, Danielle is already mum to daughter Ella from a previous relationship

Her former flame Gary had been one of the first to congratulate Danielle on her pregnancy news, telling his ex that he was 'thrilled' for her.

Speaking of Danielle and Gary's amicable split, a source had previously told The Sun: 'For many people this would be unthinkable - even for people who have stayed on reasonably good terms after a split.

'To be able to stay together in the same house after a divorce, when one partner is now having a baby with someone else, is almost unheard of. But they've got an exceptional friendship - it's extraordinary.'

All over: Danielle was previously married to Gary Lineker, but the duo announced their split in January 2016 - they have remained firm friends, however, and enjoyed a reunion in LA recently

Danielle had met Ivy League educated Nate, 41, seven months ago after moving in next door to him when she relocated to Los Angeles after the breakdown of her marriage to Gary.

And it seems their relationship is going from strength to strength, as not only are they expecting, but Danielle recently sparked speculation she and Nate are now engaged.

She was seen out wearing a sparkling diamond ring on her finger, but is yet to respond to the rumours.

A friend of Danielle's had previously told MailOnline: 'Danielle and Nate are very happy and planning a future together.

'Gary and Nate got on very well when they met and Gary couldn't be more pleased for them both.'
They've finished filming for the new series of Our Girl.

And Michelle Keegan and Luke Pasqualino's bond is reportedly closer than ever after spending weeks together in South Africa shooting scenes for the BBC One war drama.

The pair have been posing for sweet snaps together as they celebrated finishing work on series three, expected to return to our screens later this year.

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Posing together in their army fatigues, Luke shared a picture of them posing in the desert.

He captioned the snap: 'That's a WRAP in Cape Town!! Very excited for you guys to see what we've done with season 3...watch this space :) @bbcone @michkeegan #ElvisHarte #GeorgieLane.'

According to set insiders, the pair's close friendship made filming a breeze and their on-screen chemistry is still 'dynamite'.

A source told Now magazine: 'Their friendship off set just cements their ability to work so well together on screen.

Best of friends: Michelle Keegan and Luke Pasqualino's bond is reportedly closer than ever after spending weeks together in South Africa shooting scenes for the BBC One war drama

'Luke rented a motorbike and he and Michelle have had some fun on rest days taking in the landscape.'

While Michelle is missing her husband Mark Wright back in the UK, she is said to be fully focused on her role as army medic Georgie Lane.

'Michelle is incredibly focused and wants success; she doesn't want distractions on set. She obviously misses Mark but she knows that she has to give the part 100 percent,' the insider continued.

Meanwhile, it was recently reported by The Mirror that Michelle's firm Rosia Promotions Limited has raked in 1.2 million after leaving Coronation Street.

In the zone: While Michelle is missing her husband Mark Wright back in the UK, she is said to be fully focused on her role as army medic Georgie Lane

An insider told the publication: 'Michelle works incredibly hard and the rewards have come in for her.'

The source added: 'It was a massive decision for her to leave Britains most popular show but she knew that she could make far more cash away from the Street  and she has been proven right.

'Now she is free to plug what she wants  and she is getting some good acting work, too.'

The actress was initially forced to turn down deals because of the nature of the contract she signed which didn't allow her to advertise while working for Corrie.

Michelle, however, has now reaped the financial rewards, hot on the heels of the decision to take her career in a different direction from her breakout role.

A source told Now magazine: 'Michelle is incredibly focused and wants success; she doesn't want distractions on set'

The beauty, who hails from Stockport, is said to be paid up to 250,000-a-year only to be the face of Lipsy clothing range.

She also makes 150,000 for Garnier's Ambre Solaire self-tanning promotions.

In comparison, Michelle made a mere 60,000-a-year in her post as the troubled beauty on the cobbles.

The star slipped into the role in 2008 but she made the decision to quit for good in 2014.

Despite her move away from Corrie, she has landed a number of envy-inducing roles including her Our Girl part.

She has also starred in three-part ITV drama Tina and Bobby as well as six-part series Ordinary Lies.
They are among the most sought-after models in the industry.

And Romee Strijd and Taylor Hill, both 21 proved just why they have walked for some of the biggest fashion houses, as they were joined by Lais Ribeiro, 26, and Josephine Skriver on a late night shoot in New York's SoHo.

The Victoria's Secret models turned up the heat as they posed al fresco in an array of lingerie-inspired ensembles.

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Straight from heaven: Romee Strijd and Taylor Hill, both 21 proved just why they have walked for some of the biggest fashion houses

Romee Strijd showed off her model prowess in a semi-sheer white skirt and loose knee-high Louboutin boots.

Adding a racy touch she coordinated it with a lacy bra, matched with a sheer crop top.

She was joined by Taylor Hill, who showed off her stunning features with her hair piled into a simple bun, accentuating her bright blue peepers.

Dressed in a stunning corset, loose jeans and multi strap heels, she certainly stood out.

L-R: Supermodels Josephine Skriver, and Romee Strijd, Taylor Hill and Lais Ribeiro

Joining in on the fun was statuesque Tookes, who added a splash of colour in white jeans, showcasing her washboard abs in a faux fur jacket and bralet.

And Josephine Skriver completed the stunning foursome, opting for a pair of button-up flares, offering a glimpse of her bra the sheer top.

Meanwhile, Dutch Strijd has had a busy few weeks, as she has been fronting Michael Kors' preppy SS/17 campaign.

The Victoria's Secret Angel - who got her 'wings' in 2015 - has been with the San Francisco lingerie brand for three years.

Al Fresco shoot: Romee and Taylor were joined by Lais, 26, and Josephine Skriver on a late night shoot in New York's SoHo

Model behaviour: The Victoria's Secret models turned up the heat as they posed al fresco in an array of lingerie-inspired ensembles

Opening up about keeping up their gym-honed bodies in shape, IMG Model duo and BFFs Lais Ribeiro and Romee recently revealed they keep each other motivated to stay fit.

'Sometimes, when I don't feel like working out, she'll push me to go, and the same can be said the other way around!' she confided.

Their meal dates had also come up, as Romee told the magazine: 'It also helps to plan a fun breakfast or lunch after a workout as something to look forward to.'

Turning heads: Romee Strijd showed off her model prowess in a semi-sheer white skirt and loose knee-high Louboutin boots

Natural beauty: She was joined by Taylor Hill, who showed off her stunning features with her hair piled into a simple bun, accentuating her bright blue peepers

Meanwhile Colorado-raised Taylor has had a busy time of late, as she travelled to London for the launch of her own denim collection Taylor Hill x Joe's Jeans back in March.

She recently opened up about how much she enjoyed the designing process, admitting: 'I really loved it. I thought it was something different.

'As a model, you dont really get to see this part, and I thought it was really cool to be a part of the process, and have an input, and make it my own.'

Sizzling: Lais added a splash of colour in white jeans, while Josephine completed the stunning foursome, opting for a pair of button-up flares, offering a glimpse of her bra the top

Storming the runway: The models proved why they're so successful as they showed off their skills on the catwalk

Sexy and sassy: The stars turned heads in their daring ensembles on the ruway

Amazing from all angles: The models looked sensational as they teetered backstage

Chest a glimpse! Romee Strijd showed off her sensational figure in a black bralet

Ab fab: The stunner showed off her impeccably toned tum in the scanty ensemble

Strutting her stuff: Romee put her best foot forward in knee high suede boots

Legs eleven! The models showed off their svelte pins in an array of sexy ensembles
The lineup for the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Festival was announced on Tuesday.

Miley Cyrus, Kesha, Pink, Lorde, The Weeknd and Coldplay will take the stage for the event in September.

The festival will take place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.

Powerful trio: Miley Cyrus, Kesha and Pink are some of the performers named for the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas in September

Also at the event will be Kings of Leon, DJ Khaled, Chris Stapleton, Big Sean, Thirty Seconds to Mars, David Guetta, Thomas Rhett, and Macy's iHeartRadio Rising Star winner, James Maslow.

One Direction alums Harry Styles and Niall Horan will also be gracing the stage for solo sets.

iHeartMedia's Chief Programming Officer, Tom Poleman, explained fans were very influential in selecting the star-studded lineup.

A-list acts: Lorde and The Weeknd are set to headline the two-day festival

A stage full of stars: Coldplay will also headline the high-profile event

'Because our lineup is based on feedback from iHeartRadio users, it's one of the most diverse you'll ever see.

'As our listeners interact with our app, favoriting songs and saving stations, we learn what their ideal festival would be, then we bring that to life,' he said in a statement to E! News.

On Saturday, September 23, the festival will also feature a daytime event, called Daytime Village presented by Capital One.

Two-fifths of One Direction: Harry Styles and Niall Horan will also perform

Night and day: The event will also feature a show during the day, called Daytime Village, featuring Migos and other acts

Even more stars: Halsey (pictured), Little Mix, Bleachers, Kelsea Ballerini, and more will participate in Daytime Village

Migos, Halsey, Flume, Little Mix, French Montana, Bleachers, Kelsea Ballerini, Judah & The Lion, Bebe Rexha, Noah Cyrus, Hey Violet, Cheat Codes, All Time Low, Khalid, and Julia Michaels make up the all-star lineup for Daytime Village.

Ryan Seacrest will host the two-day festival, and The CW will livestream both festival nights on its website and app, in addition to airing a two-night TV special on Oct. 4-5.

Her big return: The singer's appearance at the upcoming festival marks her first major performance since releasing her first song in four years, Praying

Tickets go on sale for the public on July 28 at 10 a.m. PST, but Capital One cardholders get to buy their passes beginning on July 25, 2017, at 10 a.m. PST.

This is a comeback for Kesha. Earlier this month, the 30-year-old released two singles, her first songs in about four years.

The first, Praying, is a soaring ballad presumably directed at scandalized producer Dr. Luke, 43.

The other, Woman, is a fun, female empowerment anthem reminiscent of the artist's signature persona.

'I'm a motherf--cking woman': Earlier this month, the 30-year-old also released a music video for a second single, Woman

Legal turmoil: The artist had been locked in a three-year legal battle with producer Dr. Luke, 43, who she alleged had drugged and sexually assaulted her

Back in 2014, the performer filed a lawsuit against the Sony songsmith, alleging that he drugged and sexually assaulted her.

In April of 2016, New York judge Shirley Kornreich, who is married to a partner at the law firm that represents Sony/RCA, dismissed Kesha's charges.

And this past March, she also refused the songwriter's amended claim.

Kesha won't be the only famous female to perform during the two-day festival on September 22 and 23.
She's the former Miss Universe Australia turned reality starlet.

And Tegan Martin has led a bevvy who Sydney's gliteratti attending at the launch of the Studios At The Star in Sydney on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old looked glamorous in a short pastel pink, off-shoulder-dress, cinched at her waist with a belt.

Effortlessly chic! Tegan Martin has led a bevvy who Sydney's whose who attending at the launch of the Studios At The Star in Sydney on Tuesday

She accented the look with a gold clutch, which she matched with a pair of gladiator-style heels.

Her makeup was kept elegant and minimal with a dewy glow, soft brows and a nude lip.

Wearing her luscious blonde locks out, Tegan radiated poise and grace as she posed along the media wall.

Glammed up! The 24-year-old looked glamorous in a short pastel pink, off-shoulder-dress, cinched at her waist with a belt

Stunner: Miss Universe Australia 2015, Monika Radulovic stunned in an electric blue frock

Hot on her heels was fellow Miss Universe Australia 2015, Monika Radulovic who stunned in an electric blue frock.

Her unique and very short dress had fringe detailing on the body and sleeves.

The brunette beauty teamed the look with a pair of classic black, court heels.

Chic: Her unique and very short dress had fringe detailing on the body and sleeves. The brunette beauty teamed the look with a pair of classic black, court heels

Elegant: Miss World Australia 2013 Erin Holland, who turned heads in a sheer number, which featured a black slip underneath

Also at the event was another pageant queen, Miss World Australia 2013 Erin Holland, who turned heads in a sheer number.

The 28-year-old's dress featured a black slip underneath, which clung to her slender frame and matching her frock with a pair of strappy black heels.

Erin, who also stars in Channel Seven's The Secret Daughter, accessorised with a pair of hoop earrings under her brunette tousles.

Beauty queen: Erin, who also stars in Channel Seven's The Secret Daughter, accessorised with a pair of hoop earrings under her brunette tousles

Daring: The Bachelor's Olena Khamula turned heads in a black, figure hugging off-the-shoulder frock, with daring cut out detailing across the bottom of the dressand the sleeves

The Bachelor's Olena Khamula turned heads in a black, figure hugging off-the-shoulder frock, which featured daring cut out detailing across the bottom of the dress, as well as the sleeves.

She accessorised with black and gold chandelier earrings and a bright yellow clutch.

Continuing with the bold look, Olena went for bold and bushy brows with pink flushed cheeks and a vibrant red lip.

Demure: Former Home And Away actress Charlotte Best went for a demure approach with her evening ensemble, hiding what looked to be a slim fitting, black frock underneath a long navy coat

Dapper: Home And Away alum Nic Westaway cut a dapper figure in a maroon blazer, black T-shirt and grey pants

Former Home And Away actress Charlotte Best went for a demure approach with her evening ensemble, hiding what looked to be a slim fitting, black frock underneath a long navy coat.

She accessorised with a shoulder bag and added a pop of colour with a bright red lip.

Her co-Summer Bay alum Nic Westaway cut a dapper figure in a maroon blazer, black T-shirt and grey pants.

While The Loop host Scott Tweedie looked handsome in velvet navy blazer, black pants and boot ensemble.
Temperatures have reached near record highs this month, with three days reaching more than 100 degrees. It's a dangerous situation for people who are homeless or living in cramped conditions.

That's why Sister Kathleen Atkinson of Ministry on the Margins opened her doors for extended hours this past weekend.

"In Bismarck, we have a response for the cold, so I asked (the Missouri Valley Coalition for Homeless People) what is our response to extreme heat? And I kind of found there wasnt one, and so we just talked about it and said weve got to get people inside," Atkinson said.

In some cities across the nation, such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, there are "code blues" and "code reds" for extreme hot or cold days to ensure homeless people can find shelter. No policies such as this exist in North Dakota, according to Jeannie Messall, director of the MVCHP.

Atkinson opened from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Monday for people looking to beat the heat. On average, about 75 people took advantage of the cool space per day, including a couple of families whose small apartments were hot.

Jigsaw puzzles, juice, snacks and cool air were available for all people Monday afternoon at Ministry on the Margins. Cody Grinnell sat outside in the 93-degree heat wiping the sweat away from his forehead and drinking a bottle of water he got from inside.

Grinnell said he's been staying at the Ruth Meiers' Men's Emergency Shelter, located around the corner from Ministry on the Margins, since March. The men's shelter doesn't open until 9 p.m., he said, so in the meantime he has to find a place to stay cool. On Monday, he came to grab some water and then go find someplace shady.

On Friday, Grinnell said he heard Atkinson announce shes going to have Ministry on the Margins open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and that there would be ice cream, games and was told to "come have fun."

Theyre very sweet people," Grinnell said of Atkinson and the volunteers.

Ministry on the Margins will return to normal hours on Tuesday, as there appears to be a break in heat, with a high of 84 degrees.

"Its been a really positive thing," said Atkinson, adding she's had volunteers fill all the spots needed to keep the building open over the weekend.

HVAC repair shops scramble

Air conditioner repair services in Bismarck have been flooded with phone calls from customers with broken AC units during the recent stretch of hot weather.

Berdene Ivesdal, office manager for Dakota Four Seasons Heating and Cooling, said the company's three service techs respond to 20 to 25 calls a day, with bookings three to four weeks out.

Mark Thompson, owner of H.A. Thompson and Sons, said his 14 HVAC service technicians have received 80 to 100 calls each day in the past three weeks.

"There's really been a steady amount of work," said Thompson, adding the load has been manageable and wait times for service don't extend past a day or so.

Thompson said extreme temperatures stress heating and cooling systems, especially when temperatures soar for multiples days at a time.

Since the start of the month, Bismarck has had six sweltering days with highs ranging from 98 to 103 degrees, according to data from the National Weather Service in Bismarck.

HVAC service providers recommend people do regular maintenance work on their AC units, including changing the filters and making sure the outdoor unit is washed out.
He is currently starring on the third series of ITV2 dating show Love Island and seems completely besotted with the series very own girl next door Camilla Thurlow.

But only six months ago, Jamie Jewitt had been dating a Victoria's Secret model who has previously starred alongside Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito in 2009 release Solitary Man.

It's been revealed his ex-girlfriend is Australian model Sarah Stephens, 27, who he had enjoyed a relationship with for eighteen months.

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Former flame: Love Island star Jamie Jewitt's ex-girlfriend has been revealed to be Victoria Secret's model Sarah Stephens who has graced the cover of Italian Vogue

Brunette beauty Sarah has carved herself a career in the modelling industry and became the face of swimwear brand Seafolly in 2011.

She and Jamie had met in New York on the fashion circuit and embarked on a romance, with the pair splitting just six months before he made a late arrival to the Love Island villa.

Despite their romance coming to an end, Sarah's Instagram is still strewn with pictures of herself and Jamie from back when they were dating.

In one image, the duo are seen cuddling up together with Jamie clad in a tweed blazer and his catwalk star ex in a revealing polka dot jumpsuit. She had gushed alongside the snap: 'Weakness for an Englishman donning a tie and tweed.'

Past romance: The duo had dated for eighteen months before splitting six months ago

Love lost: Sarah's Instagram page is still littered with pictures of herself and former Taking New York star Jamie from back when they were dating

Sarah had originally been born in the UK, but moved over to Australia in her younger years and has since been involved with several fashion campaigns.

At just 18-years-old, Sarah had taken to the runway for lingerie brand Victoria's Secret for their famous runway show.

She had chosen to take a break from modelling after her Victoria's Secret debut to hone her acting skills instead - recalling her decision as a 'big risk' but one she relishes taking.

Not only has she starred in Hollywood movie Solitary man alongside A-list actors Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito, but she also starred in 2015 horror movie titled The Witch.

Sarah has gone on to grace the cover of Italian Vogue and is often seen sharing steamy portfolio shots of herself in just lingerie or scanty swimwear.

Connected: Sarah and Jamie had met on the modelling circuit in the Big Apple

History: In the pictures of the pair, Jamie appears to be smitten with the brunette beauty who also starred in Hollywood movie Solitary Man alongside Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito

Speaking to Australia's Daily Telegraph, she claimed she is 'so used' to stripping off in front of the camera nowadays.

She said: 'I'd be lying if I said I was always comfortable with my body... but I'm older now, I feel like a veteran and I'm finally at that place where I am comfortable with my body and I don't feel the pressure as much.'

Jamie, meanwhile, had addressed their relationship during a Love Island episode, as he discussed his romantic history with new flame Camilla.

He revealed: 'I lived in New York for 10 years and was single for most of it. I split up with my ex about 6 months ago, we were together a year and a half. Ive just took some time to go out, do my bit and learn a bit about myself before settling down.'

The reality star has appeared to win over viewers, after managing to sweep Camilla off her feet, following a string of unlucky romances on the show.

Modelling credentials: Sarah is the face of SeaFolly swimwear and has said she is 'so used' to stripping off in front of the camera, often sharing her scantily-clad portfolio shots with her Instagram followers

Moving on: Jamie now seems besotted with his Love Island co-star Camilla Thurlow, after bonding over their love of reading and intellectual conversation

Helping the blonde beauty to move past her heartbreak over fellow islander Jonny Mitchell, Jamie bonded with Camilla over their love of reading and many a intellectual conversation and was later seen wooing her on her birthday with a breakfast of personalised avocado toast.

There was no doubt that the pair's romance had been heating up, but Jamie and Camilla shocked viewers by confirming they'd had sex on the show.

Usually reserved when it comes to getting intimate, Camilla revealed to Montana Brown that the dark-haired hunk had 'put it in', before later gushing that Jamie had a 'perfect penis'.

She said: 'He's so perfect it's disturbing. I can confirm hes perfect, and he also has a perfect penis.'

Heating up: The duo surprised viewers by confirming they'd had sex on the show, with Camilla gushing to her pal Montana Brown that the Calvin Klein model has a 'perfect penis'

Steamy scenes: Usually reserved about getting intimate, Camilla confessed that Jamie had 'put it in' while commenting: 'He's so perfect it's disturbing'

Ever the gentleman, Jamie, meanwhile, had kept quiet about their dalliance under the duvet and insisted that he wasn't going to say anything to the boys without checking in on Camilla first.

While he is certainly coming across as the perfect gentleman onscreen, Jamie has found himself the subject of claims he is a 'love rat'.

His friend and Big Brother star Georgina Leigh Cantwell had told The Sun: 'He cheats on all his girlfriends. He's a love rat and will admit it himself. He loves women and can't himself.'

However, Georgina was forced to backtrack on her comments, after Jamie's mum took to social media to slam the starlet.

Awkward: Despite coming across as a gentleman onscreen, Jamie has been subject to claims he is a 'love rat' from his former co-star and pal Georgina Leigh Cantwell

Jamie's mother Jenny penned: 'Two weeks ago I would have classed Georgina Leigh Cantwell as just a friend of Jamie's, but since he has appeared in Love Island, her name has appeared in several articles stating that she and Jamie dated.

'As his mother, I can confirm they NEVER dated and have just been friends. Having received a phone call from Georgina prior to her first 'story' being printed, she was worried stating that The Sun were going to twist her words from her interview.

'After reading her interview, I find it hard to believe how The Sun could have misinterpreted her words that much, unless she left her interview from misinterpretation.

'I am disappointed by her actions': Jamie's mother Jenny had slammed Georgina's claims and hit out at the Big Brother star on social media, accusing her of lying about Jamie

'It's surprising what people will do for publicity': She shared a lengthy post about Georgina, insisting she had never dated her son Jamie and accused her of riding on Jamie's Love Island success

'I am disappointed in her actions and I am sure when Jamie returns from the show he will feel the same, this all coming from a so-called friend.

'It is a shame when stories are printed that the facts are not correct in the first place... It's surprising what people will do for a bit of publicity.'

Her comments prompted Georgina to change her tune and speaking to OK! magazine in a later interview about Jamie, she claimed: 'No, I would not say he is a serial cheater. Hes done it once that I know of to an ex girlfriend [on Taking New York], a long, immature time ago.'

Backtracking: Jenny's comments prompted Georgina to change her tune and in a later interview about Jamie, she instead commented: 'No I would say not say he is a serial cheater'

She also took to Instagram to 'clarify' she fully supports Jamie on the dating series and considers him a 'dear friend'.

Georgina posted a screenshot of a message that read: 'Jamie is a very dear friend and certainly no love rat. He's one of the most lovely guys and certainly a loyal friend.

'Can't wait to see him on Love Island behind him all the way!'
As a model turned actress she's used to being perfectly preened.

But Suki Waterhouse looked less than ready as she stepped out in New York with a towel wrapped around her head on Tuesday.

The British Love, Rosie actress, 25, covered her trademark glossy golden locks as she headed out to run errands.

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In a rush? Suki Waterhouse looked less than ready as she stepped out in New York with a towel wrapped around her head on Tuesday

Dressed in a pretty white and pink zip-up frock, she looked summer-ready as she carried a green backpack.

Perhaps also going make-up free, she covered her face with a pair of quirky round shades as she headed towards her car.

And with a glimpse of her wet hair poking out beneath her towel, her odd ensemble was complete.

Casual: The British Love, Rosie actress, 25, covered her trademark glossy golden locks as she headed out to run errands

The clothes horse is hot off her Salvatore Ferragamo shoot in Florence where she channelled Audrey Hepburn in a Breakfast at Tiffany's style dress.

The London native, who previously dated Bradley Cooper, shot to fame when she became the face of Burberry.

She graced the cover of British Vogue for their April 2015 issue alongside Cara Delevigne and Georgia May Jagger.

She is also cultivating a career as an actress, appearing in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Love, Rosie and Insurgent.

More recently the British star has been filming on the set of new thriller Assassination Nation.

Suki has been romantically linked with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story actor Diego since January, after the pair were spotted looking close during a trip to Mexico in January.

The young starlet was reportedly dating Game of Thrones actor Richard Madden, however her recent appearances with Diego suggested she's already moved on.
She finally called it quits with her Made In Chelsea boyfriend, Alex Mytton.

But that didn't stop Lottie from hanging out with his co-stars, as she embarked on a shopping trip with Frankie Gaff in Chelsea, London on Tuesday.

The half-sister of supermodel Kate Moss, 19, made full use of Britain's warmer spell in a stylish cropped jumpsuit as she and Frankie shopped till they dropped.

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Making the most of their day! Lottie Moss, 19, (right) looked in high spirits as she embarked on a shopping trip with pal Frankie Gaff in Chelsea, London on Tuesday

Lottie and Frankie stopped traffic and were met with a wave of on-lookers as they made a sartorially savvy appearance.

The rising model looked every inch the blonde bombshell as her locks caught the gentle breeze.

She dressed her slim figure in the trendy black and white lined jumpsuit, which flashed a peek of her legs.

Lottie teamed the number with a casual white top underneath and kept it comfortable in a pair of white trainers.

Fashionista: The half-sister of supermodel Kate Moss made full use of Britain's warmer spell in a stylish cropped jumpsuit as she shopped till she dropped

Single girl: She recently split from her beau Alex Mytton, but that didn't stop Lottie hanging out with his Made In Chelsea co-stars

Mane attraction: The rising model looked every inch the blonde bombshell as her locks caught the gentle breeze

Despite the casual element to her day, the British star donned an immaculate coat of make-up and shielded herself from the rays with a pair of circular shades.

She harboured all of her essentials in a chic quilted, cross-the-body bag - surely making room for her large shopping bag which was draped off one shoulder.

Proving to be a multi-tasker, she quenched her thirst with a tasty looking smoothie.

Joining her was equally stunning pal Frankie, who donned short red dress which complemented her bronzed glow.

She too opted for comfort in pair of Converse trainers and draped a black handbag on one shoulder and shopping bag in the other.

Style star: She dressed her slim figure in the trendy black and white lined jumpsuit, which flashed a peek of her legs

Lottie teamed the number with a casual white top underneath and kept it comfortable in a pair of white trainers

Stunner: Despite the casual element to her day, the British star donned an immaculate coat of make-up and shielded herself from the rays with a pair of circular shades

Lottie had been spotted partying with the Made In Chelsea cast overseas, but news of her split with Alex has since come to light.

Confirming their break up, a source had told The Sun that the duo's relationship is now over, in light of them having to battle with a 'rocky few months' and 'cheating claims'.

They said: 'Alex has been away all summer filming for Made in Chelsea in Ibiza.

'They havent spent as much time together as they would have liked to but things have been rocky for a few months now.

Their relationship had been tumultuous throughout their nine-month romance.

'Alex is very fond of Lottie and they may find a way to work through their differences but for now theyve definitely called it quits.'

Busy lady: She harboured all of her essentials in a chic quilted, cross-the-body bag - surely making room for her large shopping bag which was draped off one shoulder

Yummy! Proving to be a multi-tasker, she quenched her thirst with a tasty looking smoothie

Red hot: Joining her was equally stunning pal Frankie, who donned short red dress which complemented her bronzed glow

Reality star pal: She too opted for comfort in pair of Converse trainers and draped a black handbag on one shoulder and shopping bag in the other

This follows on from a now-deleted Tweet from Lottie, where she accused MIC star of flirting with other women.

'When he puts a story up with another girl,' she cryptically stated along with a gif of a confused looking women shrugging.

This comes after Alex recently opened up to MailOnline about his relationship with the model.

Despite their closeness, Alex revealed that his girlfriend has no plans to star alongside him on Made In Chelsea, as he explained: 'She has her own stuff going on'.

Back in March, Lottie and Alex had sparked speculation they had split, after becoming embroiled in a drunken row during a night out together.

Over! Lottie had been spotted partying with the Made In Chelsea cast overseas, but news of her split with Alex has since come to light

Lottie and Alex's relationship had been tumultuous throughout their nine-month romance

Video content had shown Lottie wiping away tears on the dancefloor, before things escalated and she was seen telling Alex to leave the bash, while insisting she was 'done' with him.

Later on, a representative for Alex insisted that the couple were 'very much together,' in spite of the volatile argument.

Alex then posted a rather grovelling Valentine's message to the blonde from New York, writing: 'She hates me right now for being a complete p**s head last night but it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without some form of hatred/argument would it!'
They've both forged extremely successful acting careers at home and abroad.

And now Rebel Wilson and Hugh Sheridan have rejoiced in their shared love of theatre, attending a musical together in New York on Tuesday.

Hugh, 32, took took Instagram to share a selfie of the pair in Times Square, where they were joined by fellow Australian performer, Caroline O'Connor.

Aussie reunion: Rebel Wilson enjoys a night out with Hugh Sheridan while in NYC shooting for her new comedy film

The trio were all smiles in the snap, which Hugh captioned 'Great night with these two beauties.

A night with friends was likely a well-needed change of pace for Rebel, who was spotted getting very active while filming on Monday.

She's no stranger to physical scenes, but she let her stunt double take over when things got gnarly on the set of her new comedy.

The 37-year-old star was spotted performing a seriously slapstick stunt while shooting Isn't It Romantic in NYC on Monday.

Stand in: Rebel Wilson isn't a stranger to physical scenes, but she let her stunt double take over when things got gnarly on the set of her new comedy

The look-alike stood in for scenes in which a Halal food cart knocked the actress to the ground.

Donning a somewhat unconvincing blonde wig, the double and Rebel got on famously.

The pair were seen socialising and showing one another something on the double's phone between takes.

Twins! The 37-year-old star was spotted performing a seriously slapstick stunt while shooting Isn't It Romantic in NYC on Monday

Ready for action: The Fat Pizza actress was clad in a grey cardigan, a black tank and pants which she paired with a haphazard bun upon her head for the scene

Brave: She put on a fierce face for the stunt, gritting her teeth and standing wide as a fully stocked kebab-cart charged forward at a startling speed

Rebel fierce face for her portion of stunt, gritting her teeth and standing wide as a fully stocked kebab-cart charged forward at a startling speed.

Isn't It Romantic, which is being directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, is set for a 2019 release.
Ed Westwick couldn't keep his hands off girlfriend Jessica Serfaty on Monday.

The Gossip Girl vet looked thrilled with the 26-year-old model - who used to date One Direction's Niall Horan - as they went splashing around on the shore of Rio de Janeiro during a summer getaway.

While the actor opted for long board shorts, his America's Next Top Model lady love had on a skimpy bikini.

Babes in Brazil: Ed Westwick couldn't keep his hands off girlfriend Jessica Serfaty on Monday

We see what he likes in her: His date showed off her lean legs as she ran on the shore

Smoochfest: The Gossip Girl vet looked thrilled with the model as they went splashing around on the shore of Rio de Janeiro during a summer getaway

The TV star and the catwalker were seen kissing, holding hands, grabbing each other and wrapping their arms around each other's waist.

At one point when they walked up to the shore, he gave her a long smooch.

Both looked to be in terrific shape as they showed off their swimsuit bodies.

Two cute: While the actor opted for long board shorts, his lady love - who was on America's Next Top Model, had on a skimpy bikini

So much affection: The TV star and the catwalker were seen kissing, holding hands, grabbing each other and wrapping their arms around each other's waist

Catch me if you can: The cover girl looked back at her beau as he chased her

Jessica wore a pale pink bandeau top with no straps and also a pair of mauve bikini bottoms.

The blonde, who has been acting in films (her next is Ryde with David Wachs) added a peach colored visor that went with her color scheme.

Ed wore red board shorts that made him look like he would fit in nicely with Zac Efron and The Rock in the Baywatch movie.

NSFW: Here Ed planted a passionate kiss on the Elle model who used to date Niall Horan

Pretty woman: Jessica wore a pale pink bandeau top with no straps and also a pair of mauve bikini bottoms. The blonde added a peach colored visor that went with her color scheme

Covering up: She added a yellow wrap with a blue plaid design

Later when they were higher up on the beach, there was even more PDA to be had.

He picked her up and carried her as she straddled the strapping Billionaire Ransom actor.

The cover girl giggled all the way.

Bye Bye beach: The two walked up the shore together as they passes other revelers

Carry on: They were also seen walking past old wood posts as they got a look at the ocean

At this point he had on a white tank top and white shorts. Yellow-tinted aviators with a gold rim looked very Hollywood.

She added a yellow wrap with a blue plaid print that was so thin it flopped around every time the wind hit.

Then Ed went in for a kiss when she was laying on the sand, making for a very frisky afternoon.

He's strong: Later when they were higher up on the beach, there was even more PDA to be had. He picked her up and carried her as she straddled the strapping Billionaire Ransom actor

Later they gathered up their belongings - which consisted of bags and a black purse - and made their way onto the street.

She slipped into cute light pink sandals with tassels while he went for standard $7 flip flops.

She was on cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model, she came in fifth place.

In April 2016 her ex-husband Ididia Serfaty, 31, told DailyMail.com that she had 'abandoned' her young son Roman, aged eight, to pursue her dreams of fame and fortune in Hollywood.

Coming for you: Then Ed went in for a kiss with his lady love as she relaxed on a blanket

Gotcha: He planted one on her lips as she looked relaxed

In an exclusive interview he said she only sees the youngster in the summer holidays. Her ex-husband has looked after Roman for over five years as a single dad at their home in Arkansas.

Jessica, responding to a request for comment on her ex's claims, told Daily Mail Online that she remains a very involved parent to Roman and that she speaks to her son ever other day.

'Before our divorce Roman had been raised for most of his life in California with me while I was doing modeling, acting and everything and Ididia was a stay-at-home dad for two years in California,' she said.

Nick kicks: She slipped into cute light pink sandals with tassels while he went for standard $7 flip flops

The model added: 'Then we decided to get a divorce and as part of that Ididia wanted the divorce to take place in Arkansas - where we were from - so we could be around family. So I put my work and career - and I had a lot of things going on at the time - I put it all on hold and went to Arkansas.

'Now in the divorce I got given a judge who was very small-minded and he said for us to have dual custody - which we both wanted - it was impossible because Ididia didn't want to leave Arkansas and I had everything we had worked for for so long back in California. So the judge said I could either stay in Arkansas and co-parent or do what I'm doing now and see him in summer and Christmas - because he has to go to just one school - he can't go back and forth.'

The ex added: 'She doesn't see Roman as regularly as you'd like to hear. We're in Arkansas and she's in LA. In fact it's in our divorce decree that she can fly him out to California once a month as long as he's not missing school. But what she takes is just six weeks in the summer. So she sees Roman six weeks out of every year and some Christmases. Last Christmas she didn't see him. But she's young. She's probably not thinking about us.'
Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup have been spotted together for the first time since rumors emerged of a secret romance.

The 48-year-old actress enjoyed a low-key stroll around New York with the actor, 49, who plays her on screen husband in the Netflix show Gypsy.

The two got close while filming the newly-released series, which centers on a married psychologist (Naomi) who becomes obsessed with one of her client's ex-girlfriends.

New couple: Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup have been spotted together for first time since it emerged they are dating

The pair are 'now dating' in real life, a source confirmed to PEOPLE.

The pair were spotted holding hands in New York City over the weekend and an eyewitness told Page Six, they 'looked happy and were laughing a lot, then left again holding hands.'

'We didn't know they were a couple. Pretty cool seeing two big stars so into each other,' the source said.

Neither camp has officially confirmed the report.

On and off screen: The 48-year-old actress enjoyed a low-key stroll around New York with the actor, 49, who plays her on screen husband in the Netflix show Gypsy

Behind the scenes: The two got close while filming the newly-released series

Life imitating art: The pair are 'now dating' in real life, a source confirmed to PEOPLE

This comes nearly two months after her ex Liev Schreiber was seen holding hands with Morgan Brown, who famously is in an on-off relationship with Gerard Butler.

It's been about ten months since Liev and his girlfriend of 11 years Naomi announced their split, in a bit of news that was overshadowed rather by the much more publicly explosive breakup of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie the same month.

Naomi and Liev have a nine-year-old son called Alexander and an eight-year-old son called Samuel, and the two adults have remained amicable co-parents.

Closer: The pair were spotted holding hands in New York City over the weekend and an eyewitness told Page Six , they 'looked happy and were laughing a lot, then left again holding hands.'

Spotted: 'We didn't know they were a couple. Pretty cool seeing two big stars so into each other,' the source said

Schtum: Neither camp has officially confirmed the report

Covering this year's June issue of Vogue Australia, Naomi explained of her current circumstances: 'I mean, Im single, Im co-parenting. Im doing okay.'

The actress has told the magazine that 'There are good days and bad days and Liev and I are on great terms and were trying to do our absolute best for the sake of the children and we hope to keep moving forward in that way.'

On Father's Day, Naomi posted a sweet black and white photo of Liev and their two children, captioning: 'Happy Father's Day to this great dad...' and adding a sunglasses-wearing emoji sticking its tongue out and upwards.

Crossed the line: Gypsy centers on a married psychologist (Naomi) who becomes obsessed with one of her client's ex-girlfriends

Itching: The show begins with Naomi's character Jean becoming restless with married suburban life

Last December, Liev had been asked about the breakup on CBS This Morning and pointed out that he and Naomi are 'parents together, so we'll be together for the rest of our lives, no matter what, and we're very close.'

As co-host Gayle King replied: 'Yeah, I'm glad to hear that,' Liev had continued: 'Hopefully, that never changes, and I don't think it will.'

Liev's been starring on the hit Showtime crime drama Ray Donovan as the title character since 2013, and the fifth season will begin airing this August 6.

Flashback: Naomi pictured here between ex Liev Schrieber and rumored new beau Billy back in 2009 when Naomi and Liev were still a couple

Meanwhile, Crudup has his own share of famous relationships.

The Big Fish star was in a relationship with Mary-Louise Parker from 1996-2003.

The actor left her when she was seven months pregnant with their son William Atticus Parker, who was born in 2014.

Crudup reportedly left the actress for his Princess Mononoke co-star Claire Danes, whom he dated for four years.
Allison Williams looked radiant on Tuesday.

The actress wore a blue-and-white dress by Rosetta Getty as she stopped by The View in New York City.

During her appearance she said she would not show her 'boobs' to Girls co-star Lena Dunham until they have their TV reunion at age 60.

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Stunning studio style: Allison Williams flaunted her slender stems in a mini dress she wore for an appearance on The View on Tuesday

During her segment on The View, Allison was asked about Girls co-star Lena Dunham's desire to do a reunion of their popular program once every 10 years.

She recalled the 31-year-old asking her: 'Will I ever see your boobs?'

The Connecticut native admitted she replied by saying: 'If we do a Girls reunion at 60, I'll show you my boobs.'

'[Lena]'s seen my boobs a lot. She means on camera,' she clarified to the panel.

Blonde babe: The 29-year-old also carried a Paravel bag and sported a pair of black stilettos that helped accentuate her lean legs

'That's old news for her. We shot Girls for six years. She's sick of them. But, the world will then be able to see them,' she continued.

After the episode aired, Jack Antonoff's girlfriend took to Twitter to react to Allison's promise.

'Holding her to it so hard,' she wrote.

There's a promise! The Connecticut native told the View: 'If we do a Girls reunion at 60, I'll show you my boobs.'

Daytime diva: Allison chatted with The View on Tuesday about her popular series, Girls

Perky promise: She revealed that she told the 31-year-old that she would show her boobs on camera at 60 years old during a reunion for the HBO program

The 29-year-old left her talk show appearance in the same number she wore while filming.

The bell-sleeved garment had a blue-and-white plaid pattern, creating a crisp, summery look.

The dress' hem barely skimmed the Girls star's mid-thigh, putting her long, lean legs on full display.

Can't back out now... Lena took to Twitter to react to the promise

Nostalgia factor: The television star was asked about co-star Lena Dunham's hopes for having a reunion once every ten years

She completed the look with plain, black heels and a cylindrical grey-and-black purse by Paravel.

The blonde wore her locks down in a straight, long bob that framed her beautiful face.

Her features were accentuated, thanks to some black eyeliner and a swipe of pink color on her lips.

She also chatted about her movie Get Out.

Stunning: The blonde wore her locks down in a straight, long bob that framed her beautiful face

Beauty: Her features were accentuated, thanks to some black eyeliner and a swipe of pink color on her lips

Getting serious! She also chatted about her movie Get Out

Talking about a scene where she's pulled over by a cop, and stands up for her black boyfriend - played by Daniel Kaluuya - she explained: 'A lot of people watching that scene were like, "Yes! You'd be there for your boyfriend. And I'm like no! This is very dangerous, don't do that.

'You have to assume that talking back to a cop if you're a solo white girl is probably fine. But in another situation...not so fine. If that were to go awry, she wouldn't be the one to pay those consequences.'

The HBO alum sported hands full of rings as she left the studio.

Beauty in blue: The actress was wearing a different outfit when she arrived, consisting of a striped midi dress and pink pumps

But when she arrived for the taping, Brian Williams' daughter was rocking an entirely different ensemble.

The celeb looked feminine and fabulous in a sleeveless, blue-and-white striped midi dress.

The frock featured a tie in the back just above a cutout that provided a peek at her slender frame.

She finished the outfit with a pair of pale pink pumps.

Doing her part: On The View, the celeb also discussed her partnership with the Horizons National charity

Giving back: She visited the organization on Monday in Newark, New Jersey

During her appearance, the star also discussed her involvement with Horizons National, which is a charity that provides summer enrichment learning programs for low-income children.

On Tuesday, the actress partnered with the organization to kick off her 10 Days of Giving program.

For the initiative, Allison will be sharing and endorsing donated products from major companies twice a day on her social media, and all the profits from items purchased through her profiles will be donated to Horizons National.

She stopped by the charity's office on Monday in Newark, New Jersey to meet with the children benefiting from the organization.

The celeb donned a sleeveless, blue maxi dress and a pair of sandals, keeping up her style theme for the week.
They have been close friends for five years.

And now Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid are working together for the fall/winter 2017-2018 Fendi campaign.

On Tuesday images of the California catwalk queens shot by fashion king Karl Lagerfeld were shared where they were both in long red dresses and red thigh high boots.

Red alert: Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid are working together for the new Fendi campaign. Here they are seen in a new image shared on Tuesday

Kendall has on a semi sheer dress with a boxy cut on her chest, zig zags on her hips and striped on her knees.

The Vogue model has her brunette locks parted in the middle and worn in a flirty bob.

Long red earring add even more allure to the daughter of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner.

Just for kicks: In another image, the 21-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star is flashing her kinky boots as she kicks her leg up

Hadid looks sensational in her dress which is more conservative with roses on the front.

In another image, the 21-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star is flashing her kinky boots as she kicks her leg up.

She has on a blue shiny dress with a high slit and diamond prints. A beige belt looks unusual as do white earrings.

Standing out: And in yet another image Gigi is in head to toe red. She has on a sheer long-sleeved blouse over a tank top and a leather skirt with a zipper down the front. Red earrings and the same red kinky boots finish the look

And in yet another image Gigi is in head to toe red.

She has on a sheer long-sleeved blouse over a tank top and a leather skirt with a zipper down the front. Red earrings and the same red kinky boots finish the look.

Behind her is a pretty multicolored Fendi purse.

Black magic: These images appeared the day after Kendall slayed at the Valerian And The City premiere

A 10: The former cheerleader managed to look like both a 1950s style icon as well as a sexy tart handpicked by millennials as she wore a black off-the-shoulder mini dress and stiletto heels

The ladies have not worked together since the H&M x Balmain collaboration.

These images appeared the day after Kendall slayed at the Valerian And The City premiere.

The former cheerleader managed to look like both a 1950s style icon as well as a sexy tart handpicked by millennials as she wore a black off-the-shoulder mini dress and stiletto heels.

The sister of makeup moguls Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner was at the Hollywood event to support her pal, British model Cara Delevingne.

Meanwhile, bestie Gigi just had a career high when she posed on the August cover of US Vogue with her beau Zayn Malik.
When it was reported that she is expecting her first child many wondered who the father is.

But it seems as if Mindy Kaling would rather keep that under wraps.

The 38-year-old actress is keeping mum on who the father of her child is according to a Tuesday report from People.

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Keeping mum: Mindy Kaling is 'not telling anyone, not even close friends, who the father is' according to a Tuesday report from People, as she is pictured in LA last month

A source told the weekly: 'She is not telling anyone, not even close friends, who the father is.'

As the insider adds that Mindy is not dating anyone at the moment, it remains a mystery but regardless the star seems to be delighted by the news.

The source added: 'She just started telling her friends she is pregnant.'

Bun in the oven? It looks as if the 38-year-old actress will be a mom soon. According to a Monday report from E! News, she is pregnant with her first child; seen Saturday

The news comes just after a Monday report from E! News that the Mindy Project star is pregnant with her first child.

The talented actress was last seen wearing a fitted black-and-white dress at the A Wrinkle In Time premiere on Saturday in Anaheim, California with Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey.

Kaling had a ring on her wedding finger, but it is not known if it is an engagement ring.

On stage: The Mindy Kaling Project actress (L) was last seen wearing a fitted dress at the A Wrinkle In Time premiere on Saturday in Anaheim, California with Reese Witherspoon (R)

A source told the site it was 'an unexpected surprise' for her to be with child.

It was noted her pregnancy will not affect her work schedule.

Not only is the father not named, but it's not clear who the beauty is dating at the moment.

With O: Witherspoon and Kaling flank Oprah Winfrey at the event. Their movie will be released in US theaters on March 9, 2018

Kaling dated her Office co-star BJ Novak from 2005 to 2007 and then Benjamin Nugent from 2008 to 2012.

In April she agreed to go on a date with Senator Cory Booker after a flirty Twitter exchange, but it is not known if they got romantic.

'I just think shes a really wonderful person, thats it,' he said at the time.

Another angle: Here Mindy was seen in profile in her snug dress

Several years ago she said she did see children in her future.

'I think I've decided that unlike everything else in my life, I'm going to be fast and loose about kids,' she told Yahoo! Style.

'I'm going to not actively plan, but if it happens, it would happen.'

The Mindy Project's sixth and final season will air on Hulu later this year.

Her exes: Kaling dated her Office co-star BJ Novak from 2005 to 2007 (here they are seen reunited in February) and then Benjamin Nugent from 2008 to 2012 (seen in 2008)

Could he be the daddy? In April she agreed to go on a date with Senator Cory Booker after a flirty Twitter exchange, but it is not known if they got romantic; seen in late April in Hollywood

It looks as if Mindy is already nesting.

Last week she revealed she had bought a home in the exclusive Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The comedy writer calls a 1920 two-story mansion home and has shown it off to the current issue of Architectural Digest.

Kaling spent 10 months having the property renovated and redecorated. She moved in six weeks ago.

'I was specific about Hancock Park,' she explained to AD. 'I fell in love with three houses, but I kept losing to these Chinese billionaires who were paying in all cash. I wish I were an Indian billionaire.

Ravishing in red: The talented actress at a Mindy Project event in Hollywood last month

'Finally, I found a house that wasn't listeda pocket listingand I came in over asking.'

The property built in the 1920s features several bedrooms, a dining table that seats 12, an original fireplace, lawns and a large pool and spa.

'Ive lived in L.A. for 15 years and Ive never had a second floor. Now I do and its a little frightening,' Kaling joked. 'Ill watch a murder documentary on Netflix, and then Im too afraid to go upstairs. There have been two nights that Ive slept on the couch downstairs.'
She claimed over the weekend that her aspirational Instagram photos make her followers want to 'work harder' and be 'better' people.

And Natasha Oakley gave her 1.9 million fans another reason to smile on Wednesday, when she shared a sizzling photo from her trip to Miami.

The 26-year-old 'influencer', who recently debuted as a Bonds model, posed in a red bikini while at the exclusive Soho Beach House.

Red hot! Natasha Oakley gave her 1.9million fans another reason to smile on Wednesday, when she shared a sizzling photo from her trip to Miami's Soho Beach House

Natasha looked happy and confident while flaunting her toned and tanned curves in the skimpy two-piece from her own Monday Swimwear range.

The model, who hails from Sydney but lives in the US, launched the label with her longtime friend and business partner Devin Brugman.

She wrote in the caption: 'You can't see but my feet are buried in the sand because it was singing (sic) them to the point of it being dangerous.'

'Positive energy': The 26-year-old model claimed over the weekend that her aspirational Instagram photos make her followers want to 'work harder' and be 'better' people

Natasha told The Sunday Telegraph recently that social media has a lot of 'positive energy', despite some concerns it promotes unrealistic beauty standards.

'It is almost as if with social media, people can actually be themselves more than they would anywhere else,' she explained.

Natasha said the medium can actually be positive and aspirational for young people.

'People can actually be themselves': Natasha told The Sunday Telegraph that social media has a lot of 'positive energy', despite some concerns it promotes unrealistic beauty standards

She added: 'Seeing that world makes you want to work harder and makes you want to be a better person and I think young girls are realising that.'

Natasha said she is aware 'young women' are watching and likes that her Instagram feed can help them dream to be travellers and entrepreneurs themselves.

Back in December, Natasha admitted to airbrushing her Insta-famous holiday photos, but defended herself by saying everyone else is doing it.

'I think that everyone is doing that (retouching) because of what they see in the media,' the Bikini A Day founder told The Daily Telegraph at the time.
Many people in a lot of industries claim to have changed the world with their work. Few actually have.

Seventy-two years ago Sunday, a group of scientists working for the United States government during World War II changed the world and how we think about warfare. They worked on a device that, just before dawn on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico, set off a nuclear chain reaction lasting a fraction of a second and altering the course of human history.

My grandfather, Edgar Tatum, was part of that effort.

As part of the boilermakers' union, he was sent from neighboring Kentucky to work on one of the two nuclear bombs that ended the war in the Pacific, traveling to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, along with 75,000 others who uprooted their lives to contribute -- without knowing what the ultimate objective of the project was -- to the US war effort. The city in eastern Tennessee was the headquarters for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret military venture aimed at developing the world's most devastating weapons.

The job needed experts in all crafts, and Granddaddy, as we called him, was a boilermakers' union steward for the effort to build the Hiroshima bomb, called "Little Boy," a small and simple uranium device.

Its counterpart, a complex, more powerful plutonium device and a precursor to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki called "Fat Man," was being developed and tested simultaneously in Los Alamos, about 1,400 miles away.

That early bomb, nicknamed "Gadget," was hidden among sand dunes in the vast New Mexico desert at the Trinity Site in what is now White Sands Missile Range. When tested on that July morning in New Mexico, it became the world's first nuclear bomb detonation.

"It was actually 5:29 and some seconds," Jim Eckles, a historian who started working in the White Sands Missile Range public affairs office in 1977, told CNN.

The plutonium device required a precise detonation of lens-shaped conventional explosives surrounding the plutonium core that would compress the plutonium into a critical mass and set off a chain reaction.

"Every neutron splits an atom, two neutrons come out they each split atoms, they split four more and it's a chain reaction, and it cascades and it all happens in a billionth of a second. Boom, you've got a nuclear explosion," Eckles said.

All that remains at ground zero of the explosion is a piece of metal protruding from the base of the tower that cradled the bomb over Trinity Site.

Because scientists were confident the simpler uranium device built at Oak Ridge would work, it was decided a detonation test was not necessary according to Eckles.

Grandaddy and his brothers went to enlist in the US Navy the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a bout of scarlet fever as a child had left him with a heart murmur and prevented him from being able pass the military physical, so instead he went back to what he had been doing -- working as a boilermaker. In just a short period of time he was sent to Oak Ridge, my father, Mike Tatum, told me.

I grew up hearing stories about World War II from my father who would talk about Granddaddy's stories from working at Oak Ridge and his uncles who fought in Europe under General George Patton and in the Pacific -- including one uncle who was on the same battleship as Johnny Carson.

"Like all families, sons and fathers went all over the world in all branches of the military," my father recalled. "It was an all-out effort."

Oak Ridge remains a national laboratory in addition to a national historical park, and visitors can tour the industrial complex where they produced plutonium and developed uranium enrichment technology, among other things, according to the National Parks Services. Oak Ridge is nestled inside a valley, a short distance from the Clinch River between the rolling, tree-lined ridges of Tennessee.

The landscape around Trinity, however, is straight out of a Cormac McCarthy novel -- desolate, windswept and slightly radioactive. Project leader Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists assembled the core of the bomb in the master bedroom of a ramshackle house a couple of miles from ground zero.

Ranchers abandoned the land around the test site in 1942, when the US government took over the area for use as a training range for bomber crews.

The McDonald Ranch House, built in 1913, is still intact and is currently used as a museum during the site's twice a year open house.

The surrounding area remains an active military base. But on two days each year, visitors can tour the area, including the monument at ground zero and the ranch house.

Despite the powerful nuclear blast 72 years ago, background radiation on the site today is about the same as flying on a cross-country commercial flight, Eckles said.

"Where else can you walk on a nuclear test bed and an atomic bomb crater site?" Eckles said.

And where else can you walk on the site that marked the beginning of the end of the second World War and the start of a forever changed geopolitical landscape?
They've forged a successful career, flaunting their enviable figures in skimpy bikinis at global destinations.

And Tuesday was just another day for Devin Brugman, 27, and Natasha Oakley, 26, as they hit the sand at Miami Beach.

The social media stars showed off their ample cleavage and trim pins, while joined with a mystery brunette.

Ample curves: Devin Brugman, 27, flaunted her extreme cleavage in a white striped bikini, for a photo shoot in Miami on Tuesday

Devin looked every inch the beach babe as she waded in and out of the water.

A white striped bikini top flaunted her extreme cleavage and very toned mid-section.

Coordinating high-cut briefs also drew the eye to Devin's long and lean legs.

Fit and fab: The bikini top's triangle design drew the eye to the brunette's ample cleavage and toned mid-section

Svelte: A pair of high-cut coordinating briefs, elongated Devin's toned legs

She's a natural: Accessorising with a pair of designer sunglasses, the American beauty slicked her wet tresses back off her face

Accessorising with a pair of designer sunglasses, the American beauty slicked her wet tresses back off her face.

Devin's striking facial features looked to be enhanced with a minimal makeup palette.

Turning around for the camera, the influencer also revealed her toned back and derriere.

No faults here: Turning around for the camera, the influencer also revealed her toned back and derriere

Sizzling hot: Natasha Oakley, 26, flaunted her fit figure in a vibrant red two-piece

Great at every angle: Making her way across the sand, the avid traveller flaunted her lean legs in a pair of high-cut briefs from her own label, Monday Swim

Best pal and business partner Natasha looked sizzling hot in a vibrant red triangle bikini top that drew attention to her cleavage.

A pair of coordinating high-cut briefs drew the eye to her taut torso and lean legs.

Accessorising with designer sunglasses and a delicate gold necklace, the blonde beauty swept her locks into a sleek style at the nape of the neck.

That's cheeky! Upon turning for the camera, Natasha highlighted her very pert derriere

Enjoying every minute: The influencer worked her angles for the camera, using a straw tote bag as a prop

Picture-perfect: Natasha was a picture of content, beaming for a number of stunning photos

The swimwear designer's beauty look consisted of a flawless complexion, a touch of bronzer and a nude lip.

Upon turning for the camera, the influencer highlighted her very pert derriere.

It's certainly been a busy time of late for Natasha, having recently been named as the new face of iconic underwear brand, Bonds Australia.

Red hot: The blonde beauty flaunted her enviably taut torso and lean legs in the skimpy two-piece

Stellar run: It's certainly been a busy time of late for Natasha, having recently been named the new face of iconic underwear brand, Bonds Australia

Just last weekend, the personality made the announcement on her Instagram account, by sharing a picture of herself in a salon chair wearing one of the company's matching white underwear sets.

Natasha looked relaxed in the shot, reclining back into a chair in nothing but her underwear while two male stylists got to work on her hair and makeup.

She captioned the photo: 'So excited to be the new face of Australia's most iconic underwear brand'.

Effortless style: Earlier in the day, the best pals covered up their frames in beachwear, as they were joined by a mystery brunette
She has a killer figure, and is clearly working on a tan to match.

Emily Ratajkowski turned heads as she stripped down to a tiny string bikini on the beach in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old model relaxed in the sunshine with pals, as she showcased her stunning physique.

Looking good: Emily Ratajkowski turned heads as she stripped down to a tiny string bikini on the beach in Los Angeles on Tuesday

The London-born, Encinitas-raised stunner revealed her peachy posterior in the high cut briefs, which had been hidden in Daisy Dukes.

She was careful to shield her famous features underneath a straw boater with black ribbon.

Her eyes were protected by round-framed sunglasses.

Tan lines: The 26-year-old model relaxed in the sunshine with pals, as she showcased her stunning physique

Even though she was having a casual beach day, the Blurred Lines music video model was sure to accessorise, wearing giant hoops, a gold necklace and a body chain.

She had her cellphone to hand, perhaps to stay in touch with long-term beau Jeff Magid.

September will mark the globetrotting couple's third anniversary of dating.

Cheeky beach day: The London-born, Encinitas-raised stunner revealed her peachy posterior in the high cut briefs, which had been hidden in Daisy Dukes

Shaded: She was careful to shield her famous features underneath a straw boater with black ribbon

On trend: Her eyes were protected by round-framed sunglasses

Bling: Even though she was having a casual beach day, the Blurred Lines music video model was sure to accessorise, wearing giant hoops and a gold necklace

Sunbathing: She has a killer figure, and is clearly working on a tan to match

Toned up: She rested on her knees as she turned to her pals

On show: She flashed a generous amount of underboob in her skimpy bikini

Based on his Instagram page, Magid appears to be a professional boyfriend, inseparable from Ratajkowski, but it's unclear precisely what the Brown University alum does for a living.

Much ado was made when the amply-charmed starlet lamented to Australian Harper's Bazaar about how she loses work because her 'boobs are too big' and she's dismissed as 'too sexy.'

But Emily - who boasts 20.7M followers - took to Twitter recently to clarify that she meant 'the fashion industry' not the Hollywood film industry.

Shorts off: The beauty stripped off her Daisy Dukes

Full moon: She made sure she exposed her derriere to the elements

Chillax: Emily soaked up the sunshine while her pal rummaged in a bag

Good times: She looked happy as she chatted to her pal, while they sat on the sand

Girls day out: The model was working on her golden tan, while her pal had a snack

Halter: Emily made sure her bikini top was properly fixed

Stylish: She was striking in a bright red kimono as she left the beach carrying their belongings

Ratajkowski has even branched out into design, and her 38-piece collaboration with French brand The Kooples (costing between $375-$495) launches online/in stores in September.

The Inseparable video vixen recently wrapped director George Ratliff's Tuscany-set 2018 thriller Welcome Home with her onscreen boyfriend, Emmy winner Aaron Paul.

'I am way more interested in working with unexpected and cool directors on interesting projects than being in this big studio movie where you're in a bikini,' the UCLA drop-out explained to Harper's.

'I turn down a lot of movies, but I have to fight for the ones that I really want.'

Emily will next play a Jewish, Long Islander called Jessica Weintraub in Robert D. Siegel's eighties-set romance Cruise, which is due out later this year.

Career? Based on his Instagram page, her boyfriend Jeff Magid appears to be a professional boyfriend, but it's unclear precisely what the Brown University alum does for a living
She's the proud mother of two young sons, Rocket Zot and Racer.

And Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) posted an update to her Instagram stories on Monday that possibly hinted she might be expecting a third child.

The 30-year-old shared a quick snap of a series of workout DVDs designed specifically for pregnant women by fitness entrepreneur Tracy Anderson.

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Baby on the way? Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) posted an update to her Instagram stories on Monday that possibly hinted she might be expecting a third child

'Hands down the best pregnancy workout!' the Cronulla-born model raved in the upload's caption.

The graphic featured was a shot of Tracy Anderson's The Pregnancy Project series, comprised of nine DVDs for each month of pregnancy.

The exercise routines were filmed by the instructor in real-time as she went through her own pregnancy.

'Hands down the best pregnancy workout!' the Cronulla-born model raved in the upload's caption

Lara married her Hollywood actor husband Sam Worthington in 2014 in a secret ceremony in Cronulla.

The couple welcomed their first child, Rocket Zot, in March 2015 and affectionately named him after Lara's late father, who passed away in 2008 from cancer.

Their second son, Racer, was born in October 2016, with his name revealed months later when Lara appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine in May this year.

Firstborn: The couple welcomed Rocket Zot in March 2015 and affectionately named him after Lara's late father, who passed away in 2008 from cancer

The last decade has seen Lara transform from a tabloid fixture to a successful businesswoman and mother.

The skincare entrepreneur recently told InStyle magazine life is 'much more rich and meaningful' as she reaches 30.

'I've never felt happier. I'm so incredibly excited about entering this new decade of my life,' she told the publication.
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Former EastEnders star Paul Nicholls is in hospital with serious injuries today after plunging from a waterfall in Thailand and smashing his leg as he fell into a rock pool - where he remained trapped without food for three days.

The actor, 38, had been exploring the Khun Si Falls on the island of Koh Samui when the accident occurred, leaving him in need of complete knee reconstruction.

He was trapped in the rock pool for an agonising 72 hours and has since confessed: 'I'm lucky to be alive.'

Mr Nicholls, who shot to fame as Joe Wicks on the BBC soap, had been exploring the jungle when he plummeted from the top of the waterfall - where he is thought to have been taking a selfie - leaving him unable to move.

Footage has emerged of Mr Nicholls crying out in pain before emergency services stretcher him to safety - although it took two hours to arrive at International Koh Samui Hospital, due to his remote location.

Lucky escape: A video of the rescue shows Paul crying out in pain before emergency services stretcher him to safety (above)

Actor Paul Nicholls (pictured) spent three days trapped at the bottom of a waterfall in Thailand after falling while 'taking a selfie'

Emergency crews found the actor on Monday after a three-day search of the wilderness.

He was only discovered after a local villager alerted raised the alarm having seen the actor's abandoned motorbike.

When he was found, he was semi-conscious and suffering from hypothermia as well as a tropical infection picked up from his untreated wounds. He had also broken his leg.

But his ordeal continued when he was forced to transfer to a different clinic almost immediately, after doctors on the island attempted to charge 13,000 a night to treat him.

Trapped: Paul had been exploring the island's jungle when he plummeted from the top of the waterfall and trapped his leg, leaving him unable to move

Agonising wait: He was not discovered until 72 hours later (above), when a local villager alerted police and called a search party, after finding the actor's abandoned motorbike

In the wild: It took two hours for him and the emergency services to arrive at International Koh Samui Hospital, due to his remote location

A source further confirmed that the surgery will cost 90,000 in Koh Samui - with the British Embassy currently planning to fly him to the mainland to decide whether he needs surgery immediately, or can be flown back to the UK.

Speaking of the near-death experience to The Sun from hospital, Paul explained that he had not been lost, but his phone had stopped working after it plunged into the water - making him unable to tell anyone of his whereabouts.

He admitted: 'I am lucky to be alive. It took such a long time to find me. It's an understatement to say it wasn't a great situation.'

Detailing more of his injuries, which left him in unbearable pain, he explained: 'I've got a broken leg and I'm missing a kneecap. It needs complete reconstruction.'

He is now in hospital receiving a plethora of injuries, including a heavily broken leg, which has left him needing complete knee reconstruction

Rescue: Speaking of the near-death experience from hospital, Mr Nicholls later admitted: 'I am lucky to be alive'

The area where the incident took place, at the Khun Si falls in Thailand, has now been cornered off (above)

Remote: Rescuers found the former EastEnders star at a secluded spot halfway down a waterfall on the Thai holiday island

Pictures show the moment rescuers found Mr Nicholls and helped him onto a stretcher ahead of his transfer to hospital

The actor had jetted to Thailand last week, to enjoy some respite between various filming commitments.

Bolton-born Nicholls rose to fame on BBC's EastEnders back in 1996, as schizophrenic character Joe Wicks.

In more recent years he has starred in the likes of Law and Order: UK and Holby City, as well as Secret Diary Of A Call Girl with Billie Piper and Channel 4's Ackley Bridge, which aired last month.

Last year, he turned his attention to the stage when he starred in a production of Shawshank Redemption at Theatre Royal Windsor.

However his personal life has not been short of struggle - having publicly battled a drink and drugs addiction as well as depression, following his EastEnders fame.

Blood could be seen on the rocks at the spot where Mr Nicholls fell. He was named at the time as Paul Greenhalgh after being found last Wednesday

Rescuers had to left Mr Nicholls on a stretcher up a steep hill away from the waterfall ahead of his transfer to hospital

Long way down: The Khun Si waterfall on Koh Samui that Paul fell down 'while taking a selfie'

Serious: Paul rose to fame as schizophrenic character Joe Wicks on EastEnders (above), and had jetted to the island to enjoy a holiday in-between filming commitments

Recovered: However his personal life has not been short of struggle - having publicly battled a drink and drugs addiction as well as depression, following his EastEnders fame

After recovering, he said of his battles in 2008: 'People said I had too much too soon when I was playing Joe Wicks, and maybe they were right. I didn't want to be a heart-throb, and I could not handle the attention.'

He then revealed on Loose Women last year that he had been left unable to speak for a few months, after discovering a benign tumour on his throat.

He explained: 'It's nerve-racking to be back on stage. I didn't speak for a couple of months. It was a tumour rather than a nodule, in my vocal cords.'

The incident comes one month after tourist Geoffrey Maui, 28, tragically died after falling from the same location.

Thai authorities at the time claimed there had been two further tourist deaths and three injuries at the waterfall before Geoffrey's death - although they claimed all were down to the individuals insulting the spirits of the area.
Bryson DeChambeau carded a final-round 65 for an 18-under par total of 266 to win the John Deere Classic

Bryson DeChambeau drained a 14-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole on Sunday as his storming back nine lifted him to a first US PGA Tour title at the John Deere Classic.

The 23-year-old had six birdies coming in as he rallied for the victory over a faltering Patrick Rodgers, punching his ticket to next week's British Open in the process.

"I don't even know what it means right now," said DeChambeau, who carded a final-round 65 for an 18-under par total of 266 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois.

After starting the round four adrift, he finished one stroke in front of Rodgers, who started the day with a two-stroke lead but fell behind DeChambeau with a bogey at the par-five 17th and couldn't come up with a birdie at the last to force a playoff.

Rodgers signed for a 70 that put him in 267, alone in second and one shot in front of Wesley Bryan and Rick Lamb.

Bryan closed strong with a 64 and Lamp carded a 66.

DeChambeau was in the practice area, trying to stay warm for a possible playoff when Rodgers' challenge ended.

"I've just been working so hard my whole life to try and do this," the emotional player told a television interviewer.

"To finally have it happen at the John Deere -- where I started pretty much a couple of years ago -- is just incredible," added DeChambeau, who played the tournament on a sponsor's exemption in 2015.

DeChambeau had endured a series of disappointing finishes this season, including a missed cut on six-over at the US Open last month.

He played the front nine in level par after one birdie and one bogey, then put together three bursts of back-to-back birdies -- at 10-11, 13-14 and 17-18.

Rodgers was one-over through the first nine holes, but reasserted himself with birdies at 10, 12 and 13. A bogey at 14 was quickly followed by a birdie at 15 and the rough at the par-five 17th off the tee. He eventually found himself chipping from the green to get over a bunker and missed an eight-footer to save par.

DeChambeau said he felt the victory was something of a vindication of his unorthodox decision to play with irons and wedges of similar shaft length, which he believes is a scientifically sound approach.

"I think that's the true meaning behind what I try and do," he said. "I show everybody there's plenty of ways to do it and I like doing it my way and I feel comfortable doing it my way. Whatever way you want to do it out there, you can do it."
An Indian family travels along a flooded road on a motorbike in the district of Kamrup in Assam

The death toll from severe monsoon flooding across India has risen to at least 76, officials said Monday, with eight people killed in the past day.

Heavy rain in Gujarat has claimed 11 lives since Saturday as the monsoon intensified across the western state.

"Seven of these died in the last 24 hours and at least four others are still missing," Pankaj Kumar, a Gujarat government official, told AFP.

Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India's northeast have been the hardest-hit states, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In hilly Assam 60 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since the wet season arrived in April.

"One person died in the last 24 hours. Thousands have been rescued and are now in 118 relief camps set up by the government across 21 affected districts," said Rajib Prakash Barua, a senior official with Assam's Disaster Management Authority.

Rains had eased in some parts of the state but five major rivers were still at danger levels, he added.

Rescue teams have also delivered grass and other feed to animals stranded in flooded sections of Assam's Kaziranga National Park, home to India's famed one-horned rhinos and other native species.

Power supplies and rail and road services have been disrupted in the five worst-hit states.

Thousands in Odisha have been badly hit by flash floods, which stranded many without basic essentials.

Emergency response teams rescued at least 300 people since Sunday, including 16 pregnant women, from one of the worst-hit regions.

"Closely monitoring flood situation; every effort being made to reach the affected with food, medicines and supplies. Air sorties in full swing," Odisha's chief minister Naveen Patnaik posted on Twitter on Monday.

Parts of Arunachal Pradesh have endured some of their worst floods and landslides for years amid more than a week of incessant rain.

At least five people were killed by a landslide last week in a remote village along the border with China.

The government has called in the army to help with relief and rescue operations in some parts of the worst-hit states.
The under-equipped Malian army is struggling to contain jihadists and armed criminal groups in the north and centre despite being backed by French troops and UN peacekeepers

The bodies of eight missing Malian soldiers have been found following a presumed jihadist attack on July 9, official sources told AFP Monday.

The soldiers were ambushed in Mali's northeast and two escaped with their lives, but until now there had been no trace of the missing.

"Eight soldiers missing after clashes with terrorists near Menaka have been found Monday killed by bullets," a senior army official told AFP.

A local official in the area said eight bodies were found in Inkadogotane, 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the town of Menaka, and added that they were captured alive before being executed.

The Malian army said meanwhile a staff sergeant had been killed by "bandits" in the Tessit area close to the border with Niger on Sunday.

The under-equipped Malian army is struggling to contain jihadists and armed criminal groups in the north and centre despite being backed by French troops and UN peacekeepers.
Pakistani Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai, pictured on July 10, 2017, visited Nigeria, where she met with the government and asked for serious reforms in the country's education system

Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Monday called for a "state of emergency for education" in Nigeria, as she visited the country and met some of the Chibok schoolgirls whose cause she championed.

The 20-year-old global education campaigner made the suggestion at a meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Nigeria has some 10.5 million children out of school -- the most in the world -- and 60 percent of them are girls, according to the UN children's fund, Unicef.

Many of them are in the country's northeast, where the Boko Haram insurgency has devastated education in the last nine years, damaging or destroying classrooms and schools.

Yousafzai, who was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in her native Pakistan in 2012 for insisting girls should go to school, told reporters: "I highlighted a few issues.

"The first was to ask the government to declare a state of emergency for education because the education of the Nigerian girls and boys is really important.

"The federal government, state government and local government should all be united for this. Secondly, the spending should be made public and thirdly, the Child Rights Act should be implemented in all states."

Yousafzai said there was a "positive response" to the suggestion from Osinbajo, who has been standing in for President Muhammadu Buhari since he left on open-ended medical leave in early May.

The most high-profile symbols of the attack on girls' education are the more than 200 students who were abducted by Boko Haram Islamists from their school in the remote town of Chibok in April 2014.

Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2014, joined politicians, celebrities and campaigners from around the world to support the online #BringBackOurGirls movement to demand their release.

On a previous visit to Nigeria in July 2014, she urged the then-president Goodluck Jonathan to meet the girls' parents.

On the first anniversary, she called the missing girls "my brave sisters" and wrote in an open letter that she could not wait to meet and hug them. "You are my heroes," she said.

A total of 106 of the kidnapped girls have been released, rescued or escaped after more than three years in captivity, while 113 are still being held.

Yousafzai said she was "very happy" to see some of the girls, who are staying at a government-run facility in Abuja.

"I'm really excited to see them going back to their homes and to their families and continuing their education," she added.

"But I hope the other girls who are still under abduction of Boko Haram are released."
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who says President Donald Trump will "get a much better deal for all Americans" in NAFTA talks

The United States on Monday said it would work to shrink trade deficits with Canada and Mexico in talks to renegotiate the landmark 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The Trump administration has focused on boosting domestic manufacturing while cutting trade deficits -- which it sees as damaging to the economy -- a move that casts doubt on the free trade efforts of prior administrations.

The US Trade Representative said that when NAFTA talks begin next month, Washington also will seek to lower trade barriers for produce and industrial goods -- while eliminating subsides US officials say are unfair in trade with the two neighboring nations.

"President Trump continues to fulfill his promise to renegotiate NAFTA to get a much better deal for all Americans," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

"Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises."

USTR released the NAFTA negotiating objectives as required prior to the start of the talks, which will be held under a pressing political timeline due to next year's US and Mexican elections.

President Donald Trump retreated from his threat to exit NAFTA, but has described the agreement as a "disaster" that has drained the US of wealth and jobs.

- A recipe for success? -

Economists agree the trade pact -- which accounts for about $1 trillion in annual trade between the three nations -- can be updated.

But they have warned against attempting to reduce bilateral deficits, which would face practical hurdles and slim chances of success.

Jeffrey Schott of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said the US negotiating objectives were a plausible start to the process, but unlikely to achieve that stated goal.

"If one is trying to conclude these talks very quickly, you're not going to be able to cover everything that's in this long list of objectives," he told AFP.

However, the talks will not significantly reduce bilateral trade deficits since in most cases the negotiators will be powerless to affect the private buying decisions of companies and consumers, he said.

"These objectives could lead to a successful negotiation but one that will be difficult and where not all the objectives can be achieved," Schott said.

A former Commerce Department official, Schott co-chairs a US government advisory committee on trade and the environment that presented arguments to the USTR.

The Trump administration in recent weeks has been deluged with thousands of public comments on how the 23-year-old trade pact should be improved and modernized.

Since NAFTA came into force in 1994, the US trade gap in goods with Mexico had soared from a $1.3 billion surplus to a $64 billion deficit, USTR said.

In Canada, the US faced difficulties in accessing markets for dairy, wine and grain, which the USTR said the current version of NAFTA was "unequipped" to address.

But while the bilateral deficit has increased, trade among the three countries has soared and the deal forms the backbone of cross-border manufacturing arrangements, including for autos.

The USTR objectives also call for strengthening labor and environmental commitments that are currently only part of NAFTA side agreements.

And Washington will seek to add a chapter on the digital economy and call for the elimination of state enterprises' unfair trade practices, as well as "burdensome" restrictions on intellectual property.
Qualcomm Inc. CEO Steve Mollenkopf delivers keynote address at CES 2017 at The Venetian Las Vegas

Qualcomm chief executive Steve Mollenkopf said on Monday the chipmaker's legal war with Apple is about defending his company's business model, but predicted an eventual out-of-court settlement.

"At its core it's really about the price... what to pay for technology," Mollenkopf told a forum at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado.

"We have contracts and people want to pay less."

But Mollenkopf said the disputes are likely to be resolved outside court and that the two tech giants will "move on to greener pastures."

"This is not a new battle for Qualcomm," he said.

"We've had similar battles... those things tend to get resolved out of court and I would expect the same here."

Mollenkopf's comments came weeks after the mobile chipmaking giant filed legal actions against Apple, alleging patent infringement and requesting a ban on the import to the US market of some iPhones.

Apple earlier this year filed alleging Qualcomm abused its market dominance to demand unfair royalties.

Mollenkopf said his company works on "core technologies" that are likely to be implemented years later, suggesting that is why it faces numerous legal disputes.

"This is a very unique business model, it's worth fighting for," he said.

Mollenkopf did not comment on the series of antitrust actions the firm faces in the US and elsewhere, saying only that if there are numerous legal actions "we're not the ones starting it."
Richard S. Hilde, Moorhead, Minn., passed away peacefully July 15, 2017, at Eventide On Eighth, Moorhead. He was under the care of Red River Valley Hospice due to End Stage Renal Disease. He was 87. Memorial services will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, July 21, at Wright Funeral Home, Moorhead, with a visitation one hour prior to the service. Burial of ashes will take place at a later date.

A memorial gathering will be held Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. with a prayer service beginning at 7 p.m. at Wright Funeral Home.

Richard was born Oct. 13, 1929, on a farm outside of Ulen, Minn., to Silas and Kathrine Hilde. He attended country school and they lived and worked on various farms in the Ulen area. He joined the U.S. Army in 1947 and served in the Korean War. This was the beginning of a long successful career in law enforcement. Richard was promoted several times in the Army and served in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). He was honorably discharged in 1954, however he was recalled and sent to Germany for additional service until 1957. Upon his return from Germany, he worked as a police officer for the Fargo Police Department. He patrolled the Fargo area on a fast Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and once went airborne through an underpass chasing a suspect. Richard loved motorcycles throughout his life. Fast ones mainly.

In 1960, Richard was recruited by the State of North Dakota to become a founding member of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. There were only two agents for the entire state at that time. Richard was based in Bismarck until 1965, when he was transferred to Valley City. He covered the entire eastern half of the state, investigating thousands of cases over the years. Under the G.I. Bill, he learned to fly small planes in Valley City and used his flying skills to assist in investigative work throughout his career with the Bureau. The Bureau grew and Richard moved along with it. In 1973, he attended and graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. Shortly after, in 1974, he was promoted to Chief Agent, was transferred back to Bismarck, promoted again to Director, and served in that role until his retirement in 1990. In addition to his Director duties, he taught many classes at the North Dakota Police Academy. In the late 1970s, he was trained in Criminal Hypnosis and provided hypnosis services to crime victims to help them unlock details that otherwise would have stayed forgotten. Richard was an excellent investigator and found law enforcement interesting. He was known to say hed work until its no fun anymore.

Richard loved music, airplanes, fast cars, fast motorcycles, fast boats, and probably all in that order. From his time in the Army until after he retired, he played in weekend country bands. From the Moonlighters in Valley City, to his Bismarck band, Dakota Country, which was a very popular wedding dance band that was booked nearly every weekend in the 1980s, making music was his passion. He was even approached at a dance by someone he arrested years earlier. The man told him it was the only time he was in trouble and it had been a turning point in his life. Richard found that to be very satisfying. Playing in a band gave him a chance to see the better side of people. He could leave his gun and badge at home. Flying was another passion for Richard. He owned a few private planes over the years, and gave rides or flying lessons to anyone who wanted to go up. He had lifetime pilot friends that all gathered each Saturday morning at the Bismarck Airport Cafe to have breakfast and talk flying.

Following his retirement, Richard moved back to the Ulen, Minn., area. He married Mary Speer in 2001 and they enjoyed many winters in Weslaco, Texas, and summers in Minnesota. Richard also had a fast Honda Goldwing motorcycle and they took many motorcycle rides both alone and with riding groups. They also enjoyed boating and camping at the lake with family and friends. In Texas, they enjoyed the warm winter weather, trips to South Padre Island and Mexico, and social activities with friends in the park community. They settled in Dilworth, Minn., once Richards health prevented them from traveling back and forth from Minnesota to Texas.

Richard is survived by his loving and devoted wife Mary; his children, Jeff Hilde (Leana), Trivoli, Ill., Sylvia Brown, Bismarck, Patricia Sorensen, Bismarck, and Lori Jorgenson (Jay), Rockford, Minn. He is also survived by his sister, Darlene Rolle (Richard), Detroit Lakes, Minn.; nine grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two sisters; and one granddaughter.

He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Rest in Peace Agent 950. Case closed.

Video tribute and online guest book at www.wrightfuneral.com.
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, says going private has allowed him to take a longer-term focus to grow the company

His first company became the world's largest maker of personal computers. Now Michael Dell says he is building a broader technology firm with similar ambitions.

Dell Technologies is the result of the private buyout of the original Dell computer firm, bolstered by the massive $67 billion deal for computer storage firm EMC and other software and services acquisitions.

Interviewed at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference Monday in Aspen, Colorado, Dell said the private model allows his firm to take a longer-term focus to grow the company.

"Right at the moment we went private, we started gaining (market) share," Dell said.

"We shifted our focus for more three-year, five-year, 10-year (plans), we invested heavily in R&D and innovations .. we stopped thinking about the short term as much."

Dell described the new firm -- which some refer to as Dell 2.0 -- as "the essential infrastructure company" for information technology which can offer an array of business services and products.

The new Dell includes EMC, which was the world's largest computer storage firm, as well as cloud computing unit VMware and a stake in the software group Pivotal.

While Dell declined to name his main competitors, he said that "none of them have the unique set of capabilities or the breadth that we have now."

He noted that Dell Technologies can be a key player in a variety of sectors because of its strengths across the board -- in data, software and hardware.

Asked about artificial intelligence competitors, Dell said, "When you have no data to put in AI, it doesn't do anything. Then you need the computing devices."

The new Dell won regulatory approval last year for the record buyout of EMC, accelerating its move into the cloud and mobile computing market.

In 1984, Michael Dell founded the personal computing maker, which struggled amid a shift into smartphones and tablets.

He won the backing in 2013 of private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners to buy out other shareholders to take the company private.
President Donald Trump's health care reform, the subject of frequent protests, is one of the pending issues forcing the US Senate to delay its summer break

Two more US Republican senators announced their opposition Monday to their party's efforts to revamp Obamacare, derailing the controversial legislation in its current form and potentially dealing a monumental setback to President Donald Trump.

Republican leaders are desperate for a major legislative victory this year -- and keen to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to dismantle the 2010 health care reforms of his predecessor Barack Obama, formally called the Affordable Care Act.

But they had no votes to spare.

Republicans control 52 of the chamber's 100 seats. Democrats are united against the controversial legislation, while Republicans Susan Collins and Rand Paul declared their opposition last week.

So when Senate conservatives Mike Lee and Jerry Moran announced late Monday they could not support the bill, the news sent shockwaves across Washington.

"We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy," Moran -- who faced considerable opposition at home in Kansas to the measure -- said in a statement, adding that the new bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address health care's rising costs."

For Lee, "in addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

Their defections mean that the bill has no chance of even getting a vote on the Senate floor unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decides to make significant changes to woo skeptics back into the fold.

"Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" Trump tweeted after Lee and Moran made their opposition known.

In a statement McConnell acknowledged "regretfully" that his effort had failed. But he wasn't giving up.

"So, in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up ... a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period," he said, without setting a date.

"Inaction is not an option," added a White House spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We look forward to Congress continuing to work toward a bill the president can sign to end the Obamacare nightmare."

- 'Unworkable' -

Over the weekend, McConnell delayed a vote to proceed on the bill, after Senator John McCain, 80, underwent surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye and said he would recuperate at home in Arizona for at least a week.

But McCain's absence is now a moot point.

US Senator John McCain, shown here in Kabul in early July, is recovering from surgery, but the defection of two more Republican senators means his vote on health care is moot

Several Republicans had already expressed concern that the new bill could slash funding for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and the disabled.

The new bill would gradually roll back the program, a move that some Republicans warn could lead to millions losing coverage.

The latest defections also show that conservatives are frustrated that the new bill does not repeal the Obamacare taxes.

Democratic reaction was swift.

This failure is proof "that the core of this bill is unworkable," said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.

Republicans should instead "start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

- 'Wheels off the bus' -

Republican leaders are eager to notch a major victory for Trump in Congress as he nears the six-month mark of his presidency.

Congress could also address tax reform and infrastructure - but the Senate must first deal with a logjam of urgent business, including whether to raise the federal borrowing limit.

Some fear that repealing Obamacare could adversely impact millions of Americans on Medicaid, or make health costs soar for people with pre-existing health conditions.

There is little institutional support for the bill, and even less for an amendment introduced by Senator Ted Cruz that would allow insurers to offer bare-bones plans that do not comply with Obamacare's coverage requirements.

The chief executives of America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association called it "simply unworkable in any form."

A Post poll released Sunday showed Americans preferred Obamacare to the Republican plan by 50 percent to 24 percent.

Despite the Republican setback, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said his Republican colleagues will not easily give up.

"There's a couple wheels off the bus right now," Murphy told MSNBC after the announcement from Lee and Moran.

But "they are not going to give up on it," he added.
Burnt livestock and litter left behind after an attack by Boko Haram on the mainly Shuwa Arab village of Mairi in northeast Borno state, epicentre of its bloody eight-year insurgency

A group of community elders in northeast Nigeria where Boko Haram has waged a bloody eight-year insurgency are urging the Islamists to enter peace talks, a move some see as motivated by ethnic self-interest.

The Borno Elders Forum of retired military and civilian officials, all ethnic Kanuri, said it was "time they (Boko Haram) put down their arms" and they should "repent and rejoin the larger society".

"If our leaders had the leeway to negotiate with the Boko Haram for the release of some of their captives, they should employ the same tactics to negotiate for the end of the insurgency," they said in a newspaper advertisement last Friday.

"The Government of Nigeria had earlier negotiated with the Niger Delta militants and succeeded. Let the Government do the same with Boko Haram."

President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general, has given no sign of wanting to negotiate a settlement since he came to power in 2015.

His government has, however, held back-channel talks that secured the release of more than 100 of the 219 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014.

But the call for negotiations by the elders of Borno state, where the Kanuri is the main ethnic group, has led to speculation that it is driven less by a desire for peace than by ethnic issues.

- 'Flying a kite' -

Boko Haram's ranks have been dominated by ethnic Kanuris. In its early days, the Islamist militant group was known to have members from the families of the region's political and religious elite.

Abdullahi Bawa Wase, a security analyst who tracks the conflict, said the elders were "flying a kite" to gauge reaction.

The peace talks proposal "could be a Boko Haram idea being sold by the Borno elders on their behalf", he said.

A senior member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), the militia assisting the military with security, said the proposal was "in bad faith".

"The elders know how to get in touch with their sons, nephews and brothers who are high-profile Boko Haram leaders," he said on condition of anonymity.

"If they really mean what they say, they should convince their Boko Haram relations to renounce membership of the group and surrender."

- Ethnic rivalry -

Kanuri dominance in Boko Haram sparked claims in the earlier stages of the violence that the uprising was a push for a homeland.

Few maintain that view since its leader Abubakar Shekau declared a caliphate in August 2014 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group the following March.

Ethnic rivalry has, however, been seen as having contributed to the religiously inspired violence, adding another layer of complexity to the conflict.

"People despise Boko Haram for the death and destruction they cause," said Abubakar Gamandi, the head of the Borno state fishermen's union.

"But in terms of ethnic sentiments, some give tacit support to them when the victims are non-Kanuri.

"Many Kanuris feel Boko Haram are weakening their ethnic adversaries against whom they have been struggling for social, economic and political supremacy in Borno."

The Kanuri mainly hold political power, while the ethnic Hausa control agriculture, fishing and trade, and the Fulani and Shuwa tribes dominate cattle herding.

Tensions pre-date Boko Haram. The Nigerian military has previously accused the Borno elders of hampering the counter-insurgency.

Gamandi suggested the scale of attacks has had a tribal dimension.

"They (Boko Haram) wrought more destruction and deaths on non-Kanuri towns and settlements populated by Hausa and Shuwa Arab than on Kanuris," he said.

- 'Sworn enemies' -

The call for talks, at a time when the Nigerian military is out to destroy Boko Haram, is considered by some in the northeast as an attempt at Kanuri self-preservation.

The fear of losing a whole generation of Kanuri men, giving the upper hand to the Hausa, Fulani and Shuwa, could explain the recent surrender of Boko Haram fighters to the military.

"The elite have been encouraging them to surrender to the military through local community chiefs with promise they would ensure they are given soft landing and reintegrated into society," said Gamandi.

Another potential complication for a lasting, long-term peace is local attitudes to the insurgents after so much bloodshed and hardship.

Abba Aji-Kalli, the Borno state coordinator of the CJTF, said his so-called vigilantes and the Islamists were "sworn enemies" and would remain so, whatever happens.

"We will never see eyeball to eyeball with Boko Haram. Nothing can change that," he said.

An amnesty for repentant former insurgents "will never work" he added. "We know that because we very well know who they are. They lived among us, we grew up with most of them."
Duterte met with lawmakers late Monday, asking them to hold a special session on Saturday to discuss his request for an extension of military rule in the region

President Rodrigo Duterte plans to extend martial law in the southern Philippines to defeat Islamist militants who have seized a major city, his spokesman said Tuesday, as a critic warned the country could be edging towards a dictatorship.

Duterte had imposed military rule for 60 days in the Mindanao region, home to 20 million people, after gunmen waving black Islamic State flags occupied Marawi city on May 23, triggering clashes that have killed more than 500 people.

While scores of militants continue to hold out against government forces nearly two months later, critics expressed surprise by his request for a martial law extension until December 31.

"I have come to the conclusion that the existing rebellion in Mindanao which has prompted me to issue (the martial law proclamation), will not be quelled completely by 22nd July 2017," Duterte said in a letter to congressional leaders.

Congress is to convene Saturday to discuss the request of Duterte, who met with congressional leaders late Monday, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters.

The president also asked Congress to suspend a constitutional safeguard against warrantless arrests.

Clashes in southern Philippines

"This is not only a step back, but several steps back for our democracy," said opposition lawmaker and prominent martial law critic Edcel Lagman, who called Duterte's request illegal.

"That would indicate the possibility of extending the coverage of martial law outside Mindanao," Lagman told AFP.

Lagman also warned of a potential repeat of the military abuses and political repression during the martial law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose 20-year rule ended with a bloodless popular revolt in 1986.

The country's constitution allows the president to impose martial law for up to 60 days, as well as allowing authorities to detain suspects for up to three days without charges to suppress invasion or rebellion.

Beyond two months, the president can extend it "for a period to be determined by the Congress".

- 'Extraordinary measure' -

Duterte had sought the recommendations of the military and the police on extending martial rule but his spokesman would not say if these had called for five months of martial rule.

Duterte's allies dominate Congress, and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Tuesday he saw no obstacle to approving it.

In May, Duterte said he had made the move to stamp out an attempt by militants, including foreign fighters, to establish an IS caliphate on Philippine territory.

"He also explained clearly his fear that terrorism might slowly spread throughout Mindanao and eventually the country," Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who attended the meeting with Duterte on Monday, told AFP.

However, opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan told AFP martial rule was an "extraordinary and temporary measure" and that any extension could not be more than 60 days.

Duterte should consider limiting martial law to the Muslim regions of Mindanao, he added.

Both Pangilinan and former president Fidel Ramos, a Duterte supporter who has become critical of the administration, warned that extended martial rule may scare off investments.

"Martial law was necessary in the beginning but any extension should now be considered very carefully," Ramos told reporters.

Security forces have been conducting a US-backed offensive to root out the gunmen, using air strikes and artillery fire, and early this week the military said about 60-80 gunmen remained over a one square-kilometre (247-acre) area of downtown Marawi.

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Manila Sung Kim said Tuesday his government would give its Philippine military ally two Cessna surveillance aircraft to be used in Marawi.

"We are deeply concerned about the security situation in Marawi," Kim told ABS-CBN television.
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Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is in Budapest Tuesday for talks with Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, who hopes the visit will silence critics accusing him of leading an anti-Semitic crusade against US billionaire George Soros.

It brings together two rightwingers enamoured of US President Donald Trump and with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal global order bankrolled -- as they see it -- by the likes of Hungarian-born philanthropist Soros.

Orban accuses the financier of funding mass immigration to Europe, while Netanyahu denounces his support for Israeli and Palestinian activists critical of Israel's government and occupation.

The hardline policies of the pair -- described as "spiritual brothers" by Hungarian media -- have sparked tensions with Brussels and other European Union states.

Netanyahu, fresh from a contentious visit to Paris, will on Wednesday also meet premiers of the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic plus Hungary -- whose nationalistic stances have increasingly placed them at odds with the rest of the EU.

"All these states are very pro-Israel," Israeli analyst Raphael Vago told AFP.

"They vote in our favour at the European Union and the United Nations."

On Wednesday evening Netanyahu will attend Budapest's Great Synagogue with Jewish community leaders, before departing the following day.

The high-profile trip to Hungary, the first by an Israeli prime minister since the end of communism in 1989, comes with tempers flaring over Orban's campaign vilifying Soros.

-'Europe's darkest hours' -

Posters have attacked the Jewish emigre for his alleged support of mass immigration.

Soros, who hid from the Nazis in Budapest as a boy, said the nationwide billboards used "anti-Semitic imagery" and were "reminiscent of Europe's darkest hours".

Orban however insisted they were not about the 86-year-old's Jewishness but the "national security risk" posed by his supposed wish to "settle a million migrants" in the EU.

The posters -- some daubed with "Stinking Jew" graffiti -- have further strained relations with Hungary's over 100,000-strong Jewish community, one of Europe's largest.

They have accused Orban, in power since 2010, of encouraging anti-Semitism with nationalist rhetoric that analysts say is aimed at staving off a rise in for the far-right, a charge the 54-year-old denies.

The premier's recent praise of wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy as a "an exceptional statesman" for rebuilding Hungary after World War I has done little to ease the tensions.

Some in Israel called for Netanyahu to cancel his Hungary trip because of the posters, with Israel's ambassador to Budapest saying it "sows hatred and fear" on July 8.

But the foreign ministry was quick to issue a statement backing Budapest's anti-Soros campaign.

While Israel "deplores" anti-Semitism, Soros "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself," it said.

"Connecting Soros to the migration issue is the (Hungarian) government's aim, but it is a problem for Orban if the campaign is seen as anti-Semitic," political analyst Csaba Toth told AFP.

"So the Netanyahu visit helps him as it bolsters his claims that the Soros campaign is not."

Ahead of Netanyahu's arrival, the Hungarian and Israeli branches of Amnesty International voiced concern over the "shrinking space of human rights groups".

"We continue to witness the poisoning of the public arena in both countries due to the smearing rhetoric of these leaders and their groundless accusations of human rights groups," they said Monday.
Singapore's leaders say the city-state is not ready for same-sex marriage

Singapore has voided the marriage of a couple after the husband underwent a sex change, making their partnership a same-sex union that contravened the city-state's laws, a report said Tuesday.

The couple married as man and woman in 2015 but the husband underwent a sex change operation and updated his national identity card to read "female", the Straits Times newspaper reported.

But when the unidentified couple tried to buy a government-built apartment, they had to inform the authorities. Married couples receive state grants for first-time purchases of government apartments.

The marriage was voided several months later, making them ineligible to buy the apartment they wanted, the paper said.

Singapore's Registry of Marriages said it would not give details on individual cases but cited the country's laws which state marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

"At the point of marriage, a couple must be man and woman, and must want to be and want to remain as man and woman in the marriage," it said in a statement.

Despite calls for change, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said the country is not yet ready for same-sex marriage since society is still conservative.

Singapore maintains legislation dating back to British colonial rule making sex between men a criminal act although it does not actively enforce the law.

Jean Chong, who co-founded Sayoni, a Singapore-based lesbian advocacy group, told AFP that "policies need to catch up with the realities of society".

"Families come in all shapes and sizes and of course while people get married as man and woman, there are those who transition along the way, so does this mean their marriage is no longer valid?"

Taiwan's top court ruled in favour of gay marriage in May, paving the way for the island to become the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex unions.
Egypt said it would end visas on arrival for Qatari citizens as a dispute between four Arab states and the Gulf emirate continues over allegations that Doha supports terrorism

Egypt said it would end visas on arrival for Qatari citizens as a dispute between four Arab states and the Gulf emirate continues over allegations that Doha supports terrorism.

The measure, which goes into effect on Thursday, will not include spouses of Egyptians or university students who will be granted tourist visas on arrival, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

The decision was announced on Monday as Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah, who is trying to mediate an end to the dispute.

Shoukry insisted that Qatar has to meet the demands of the Arab bloc to end an embargo, a foreign ministry statement said.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have demanded that Qatar stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood movement and close broadcaster Al-Jazeera which they accuse of inciting unrest in their countries.

The Gulf crisis is the worst to hit the region since the establishment of the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981.
Kurdish forces from the People's Protection Units (YPG) are spearheading the fight for the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa as part of a US-backed alliance

A suicide car bomb attack killed four people overnight at a Kurdish security checkpoint in northeast Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Tuesday.

The attack comes as Kurdish forces from the People's Protection Units (YPG) spearhead the fight for the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa as part of a US-backed alliance.

The Britain-based monitor said the blast hit a checkpoint manned by the Asayesh security forces in Hasakeh province, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the town of Ras al-Ain.

At least two of the dead were Asayesh members, the monitor said, while the identities of the other two were not yet confirmed.

Syrian state television also reported the blast on Tuesday and said four people were killed.

Kurdish-controlled areas have come under regular bomb attack, with IS often claiming responsibility. There was no immediate claim for Tuesday's incident.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by Kurdish forces, is battling IS for control of the jihadist group's Syrian stronghold Raqa.

The militia now controls around 35 percent of the city, according to the Observatory.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Iranian women walk past the former US embassy in Tehran

Iran's parliament voted Tuesday to urgently work towards increasing funds for the country's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards in response to Washington's "adventurism" in the region, media reported.

An overwhelming majority of Iranian lawmakers passed a motion to prioritise legislation "to confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region," the Mizan Online website reported.

The motion was originally introduced after the US Senate passed new sanctions on Iran in June and sent them to the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill, published by the ISNA news agency, mandates the government to allocate an additional $260 million to the joint armed forces for the "development of the missile programme" and the same amount to the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, the Quds Force.

The motion sends a clear message to the Americans that Iran's parliament "will resist them with all its power", speaker Ali Larijani said.

The Quds Force leads Iran's military role in Syria and Iraq.

Tehran offers financial, political and military support for the governments of both countries, in particular by posting advisers on the ground and organising and training volunteer Shiite fighters.

The Pentagon has also repeatedly voiced concern over a string of high-profile incidents in waters off Iran involving Iranian vessels.

It has accused the Revolutionary Guards of conducting risky manoeuvres around US warships in the Gulf, some of which resulted in the Americans firing warning shots.

US President Donald Trump's administration has spared no effort to show a tough stance on Iran, promising new non-nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of a two-year-old nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.

On Monday the White House said the nuclear accord would stay in place for now, backing away from a campaign pledge by Trump to scrap the agreement, under which Tehran scaled back its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of some sanctions.
Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear long black abaya robes and cover their hair in public

Saudi police said Tuesday they were questioning a woman who appeared in an online video in a miniskirt and crop top walking through a historic site in the ultraconservative kingdom.

A series of videos, initially posted over the weekend to the Snapchat account of "Model Khulood", show a young woman in a high-waisted miniskirt walking through a fort in Ushaiqer, outside the capital Riyadh, playing with sand in the dunes and turning towards the camera for a close-up, her long hair uncovered.

The videos have since been uploaded to YouTube and tweeted by different users.

Saudi media, including the main dailies Sabq and Okaz, on Tuesday quoted a spokesman for police in Riyadh as saying the woman was being questioned and had confessed to visiting the site with her male guardian.

Saudi Arabia's guardianship system mandates accompaniment by or written permission from a male relative -- usually a father, husband or brother -- for women to study, work or travel.

The woman denied that she had uploaded the clips and that the Snapchat account was hers, the spokesman said.

The case has now been referred to the public prosecutor's office, which will decide whether to prosecute the woman.

The local government of Riyadh had issued a memo saying authorities were searching for the woman who had been "walking around... in indecent clothing".

The snaps have sparked heated debate, with social media users in the region and beyond weighing in on questions of gender and rights in the kingdom, where women are required to wear long black abaya robes and cover their hair in public.

Many have come to the defence of the young woman, pointing out the privileges afforded to Western women by Saudi authorities. US First Lady Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump, daughter of the president, did not cover their hair when they visited Saudi Arabia in May.

"If it were Trump's daughter, we would have braced ourselves for the flood of compliments and love poems," read one tweet.

"Problem solved," tweeted Shahd bint Fahd alongside a picture of the model with Ivanka Trump's face superimposed over the original.

Others expressed outrage and derided those speaking out in support of the model.

"These are the demands of the liberal ignorant community: a naked woman, a co-ed movie theatre, and music and dance. That's progress to them! Not health care and not education," read one tweet.
Montana has seen a 100 percent increase in felony drug arrests since 2009. The number of criminal cases filed in District Courts statewide has exploded, with half of the growth the result of felony drug possession.

Those findings presented to the Montana Commission on Sentencing helped inform court officials, lawmakers and other Montanans about reforms needed to reduce the crowding in state prisons and local jails by curbing the number of people who keep using drugs (and committing new crimes) while on probation or parole.

This years changes in state law and the Department of Corrections budget aim at reform, but may do little to lessen the addiction epidemic driving much of the crime in our state and keeping offenders in the system longer than they would be without their chemical dependencies.

If we could remove individuals addicted to alcohol and drugs and those with mental illnesses, we would see a huge reduction, DOC interim director Loraine Wodnik said. Were hopeful that in the long run, probation and parole changes will decrease the caseload.

Wodnik sounded optimistic in a recent telephone interview with The Billings Gazette. She pointed to a new recovery program in Boulder for female offenders that treats the traumatic disorders deeply involved in their repeated criminal behaviors.

The 2017 Legislature authorized DOC to end the boot camp program for young male adult offenders, a program that was underutilized and not completely based on evidence that it worked. Wodnik said the department plans to use the facility for treating up to 60 drug addicts from the nearby Montana State Prison.

At the start of a new biennium, the challenge for DOC is great while the resources available are less than two years ago.

The biennial budget included $3 million to provide support services, such as help with transitional living, to people on probation and parole. But DOC soon may be required to cut nearly $3 million out of its biennial budget if state revenues continue to fall short of projections made this spring.

In the biennium just ended, DOC was required by the state budget to avoid spending 2 percent of its personnel budget. This biennium, it must achieve a 6 percent vacancy savings. That means, the DOC is allowed to hire only 94 percent of the staff its budget authorized.

The Billings probation and parole office recently had about 30 officers to supervise 2,180 offenders in our community. While the number of offenders on supervision has ballooned, the number of probation and parole officers actually decreased, and will shrink further in the next two years for vacancy savings.

The Justice Center of the Council of State Governments studied Montanas justice system for the interim commission and concluded that the states prison population will keep growing  unless effective reforms are made. The Justice Center estimated that the state will have to spend an additional $51 million by 2023 to deal with a larger number of inmates and parolees.

Wodnik is hopeful that this years repeal of a state law that limited competition in chemical dependency treatment may prompt additional providers to start serving Montana communities. Unfortunately, the main payer for people on probation and parole is Medicaid, and that program is expected to undergo rate cuts in Montana. Its doubtful that new services will start if payment is being cut.

Medicaid expansion that started in January 2016 was a godsend for Montanans on probation and parole and most rely on it as they work low-wage jobs to start rebuilding their lives.

The first thing Republican and Democratic leaders must do for Montana is to work with the states mental health and addiction treatment providers to ensure that services will still be available for low-income Montanans, including those who are in the criminal justice system.

Montanas congressional delegation needs to stand up for their constituents who need Medicaid. If enacted, the current U.S. House and Senate bills would decimate this program in Montana. That would hurt all of us: the folks who couldnt get treatment and the taxpayers who will have to build more prison cells and live with more drug-related crime.

 Billings (Mont.) Gazette
Malaysia's former leader Mahathir Mohamad has excoriated Prime Minister Najib Razak over a massive financial scandal, saying that Malaysia is "controlled by thieves"

Malaysia's former leader Mahathir Mohamad urged the prime minister on Tuesday to attend a town hall meeting focusing on a massive financial scandal, heaping fresh pressure on the scandal-hit premier.

The saga surrounding the 1MDB state investment fund has rocked Prime Minister Najib Razak's government, with claims the premier took part in the alleged looting of huge sums from the fund.

Mahathir, 92, has come out of retirement from politics, formed his own party and joined forces with his old foe Anwar Ibrahim in an opposition alliance that aims to unseat Najib at elections due by 2018.

He has excoriated Najib over 1MDB, saying that Malaysia is "controlled by thieves". Najib and 1MDB deny wrongdoing.

The former prime minister, who led Malaysia for over two decades and was himself responsible for subduing opposition parties, said that he planned to hold a town hall meeting focusing on the 1MDB saga on August 13 near Kuala Lumpur, and urged Najib to attend.

"The session will explain to the masses about the 1MDB scandal," he told a press conference.

"This will be a good platform to tell the truth -- Najib should attend and explain the allegations."

There was no immediate response from Najib's spokesman about Mahathir's challenge to attend the meeting.

Malaysia must hold a general election by mid-2018 but Najib has signalled he may call it earlier.

His party, the United Malays National Organisation, dominates the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957.

Najib's grip on power is said to be strong as he is backed by most of UMNO's powerful division chiefs.

Mahathir's party has joined the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope. The coalition last week announced a new leadership line-up, with Anwar as overall leader, Mahathir as chairman, and Anwar's wife as president.

Anwar was heir apparent to the UMNO leadership until the late 1990s when he was ousted in a battle for power with Mahathir.

The opposition coalition has not revealed their prime ministerial candidate. Asked Tuesday whether he would accept Anwar as premier if the opposition won, Mahathir said: "If that is what the people want, why not?"
Turkey has backed rebels in Syria's north to take on both the Islamic State group as well as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF

More than a dozen Syrian rebels have died in hit-and-run clashes with a US-backed alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country's north, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Turkish-backed rebels were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces around the village of Ain Daqna.

"Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February.

It lies on a sliver of land contested by the SDF and Turkish-backed rebels.

A local official from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which make up the bulk of the SDF, said his forces had retrieved some of the rebels' bodies.

"We will hand over these nine bodies to the Kurdish Red Crescent in Afrin (west) for their families to retrieve them," Brusk Hasakeh said in a statement distributed to journalists.

Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the banner of "Ahl al-Diyar" said in a statement Monday they had attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as "occupiers."

"We promise our people more flash attacks... We will make them regret occupying this land and displacing thousands," it read.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers.

Turkey has backed rebels in Syria's north to take on both the Islamic State group and the YPG.

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

That places it at odds with Washington over the United States' support for the SDF, which is fighting to oust IS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqa.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied.
An activist wears a T-shirt denouncing Myanmar's controversial online defamation law as fears grow over media freedom

Three Myanmar journalists who are facing jail for their reporting accused the army on Tuesday of trying to silence the media, as fears grow for free speech.

Irrawaddy reporter Lawi Weng said the military was trying to "threaten" journalists into silence as the trio were remanded in custody for another week at an impromptu hearing.

"I am now in handcuffs because I am a journalist. Is this democracy?" he told reporters outside the courthouse in the northeastern town of Hsipaw, holding up his chained wrists.

"We were detained as an attempt to compromise our beliefs and scare us. But we are not afraid."

Aye Naing, a senior reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, added: "This is a shame for Myanmar, which is shouting to the world that we are on the path to democracy."

Also appearing in court Tuesday was Pyae Phone Aung from the Democratic Voice of Burma.

They were among seven men arrested three weeks ago as they left a drugs-burning ceremony organised by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, one of several rebel groups fighting the state.

Five of them have been charged under section one of the draconian Unlawful Associations Act, which carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

The legislation was often used against journalists and activists by the military, which ran the country for half a century and remains a powerful force under the new elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The democracy icon has faced a growing chorus of international criticism for not doing more to protect journalists, who are facing increasing prosecutions under her leadership.

Earlier this month Suu Kyi reportedly told a press conference that the case was a matter for the judiciary.

It comes amid a groundswell of activism among local journalists aimed at quashing a controversial online defamation law which has been used to curb criticism of the government and army.

Prosecutions under the legislation have surged since Suu Kyi's party came to power last year, with social media satirists, activists and journalists increasingly targeted.
Syrians from among 300 refugees who returned home from Lebanon's restive border town of Arsal on July 12, 2017 as part of a deal negotiated by Syrian rebels and Hezbollah

Lebanese security forces will launch an operation against militants near informal refugee camps in the country's east after coming under attack there, Lebanon's prime minister said on Tuesday.

Saad Hariri's announcement came as the country's president warned against rising anti-refugee rhetoric after Lebanese troops were attacked around Arsal, a town near the Syrian border.

"The Lebanese army will carry out a planned-out operation in Jurud Arsal and the government gives it freedom (to do so)," Hariri said in comments quoted by the official National News Agency.

Jurud Arsal refers to the mountainous border region around Arsal, and is home to thousands of refugees from neighbouring Syria living in informal camps.

Lebanese troops carrying out arrest raids in two of those camps in late June were met with a string of suicide attacks and grenades.

A girl was killed and seven soldiers wounded in the attacks, and the army subsequently arrested dozens of people.

Days later, the army said four of the detainees had died of pre-existing medical conditions, but rights groups urged an independent investigation after allegations that the men had been tortured to death.

Lebanese security forces have come under attack in Arsal before, and in 2014 jihadists kidnapped 30 soldiers and policemen after clashes in the area.

Four of the hostages were killed and a fifth died of his wounds, while 16 were eventually released in December 2015.

Another nine hostages are still being held.

The latest incident in Arsal has created renewed tensions in a country of just four million people hosting more than one million Syrian refugees.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned Tuesday that anti-refugee rhetoric was dangerous for both sides.

"If we are working for the return of the refugees, it is because Lebanon is no longer able to carry the burden," Aoun said at a meeting with local officials, and in a post on his official Twitter account.

"But the spread of hatred and incitement are rejected, and their consequences are severe for both peoples," he added.

He urged Lebanese to make a distinction between Syrians who have "done wrong" and those who had not.

Lebanese leaders across the political spectrum have increased their calls for Syrian refugees to be repatriated, citing security concerns and unsustainable strains on local infrastructure.

But parties differ on how that should happen.

Hassan Nasrallah, head of the powerful Shiite Hezbollah movement that is fighting alongside Syria's government, has urged Lebanon to coordinate refugee returns with Damascus.

Others want to see the UN organise the process, although UN officials have said it is too soon to begin returning Syrians home.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011.

Fighting continues in large parts of the country despite international peace talks and tentative ceasefire proposals.
Pakistani rescue workers search for victims after a three-storey building collapsed in Karachi

Five people died when an apartment building collapsed in southern Pakistan early Tuesday as most of its residents were sleeping, officials said.

Rescuers struggled to pull survivors from the rubble of the three-storey building in the southern city of Karachi.

"Five bodies were recovered from the rubble," the city's deputy commissioner, Fareed Uddin, told AFP.

Another local official said a woman and a 13-year-old boy were among the dead.

Rescuers pulled at least nine injured people from the debris.

Karachi -- a booming megacity of some 20 million people -- has expanded rapidly over the last decade. The number of poorly constructed buildings, thrown up to meet the needs of the rapidly growly population, has grown quickly.

The mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar visited the scene of the accident on Tuesday afternoon and hit out at the local building department for failing to enforce construction codes.

At least 44 people were killed when a factory collapsed in the eastern city of Lahore in 2015, an accident also blamed on poor building standards.
Indian troops and police move the body of a soldier reportedly killed along the Line of Control in Kashmir on July 17, 2017

Two suspected rebels and an Indian soldier were killed Tuesday in disputed Kashmir along the de facto border with Pakistan, where the two sides traded fire for a second day.

Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said Indian soldiers exchanged fire with unknown combatants as they tried to cross the Line of Control (LoC) into Indian-administered Kashmir.

"Two bodies and three weapons were recovered from the site of the firing," Kalia told AFP.

In a separate incident an Indian soldier shot and killed his senior officer at a frontier post in Uri following a dispute between the two, Kalia said.

An investigation by the army and police is under way.

Pakistani officials meanwhile said that at least two civilians were killed and 11 others wounded in cross-border firing by Indian soldiers.

"A man and woman were martyred and seven others were wounded in firing by Indian troops in Sumahni sector," local government official Chaudhry Guftar told AFP.

Pakistan government official Raja Arshad said four people were also wounded when another volley of shots were fired across the border into Nakyal sector.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over it.

India and Pakistan regularly exchange fire at the border despite a ceasefire agreement signed in 2003, and accuse each other of killing soldiers and civilians.

An Indian soldier and an eight-year-old girl died Monday in an exchange of fire at the border, just a day after Pakistan accused its regional rival of killing four of its troops.
Former Olympic sprinter Frankie Fredericks of Namibia has been provisionally suspended from his role as member of the IAAF's ruling council amid a probe by the integrity unit

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Tuesday it was cooperating with French authorities investigating graft allegations against former world champion sprinter Frankie Fredericks.

Namibia's Fredericks, an IOC member since 2012, stepped down in March as head of the committee evaluating bids to host the 2024 Olympics after corruption allegations were reported in the French media.

Since then the chief IOC ethics official Paquerette Girard Zapelli "has been monitoring the situation closely and cooperating with the French judiciary authorities", the IOC said in a statement.

French investigators are looking into the possibility that bribes were paid over the awarding of the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio and the 2020 Tokyo Games.

In March, French daily Le Monde said Fredericks received $299,300 (262,000 euros) from Papa Massata Diack, son of ex-IAAF president Lamine Diack, on October 2, 2009, the day Rio de Janeiro was awarded the right to host the 2016 Olympics.

Fredericks insists that the payments were received for promotional services provided between 2007 and 2011 under a contract signed on March 11, 2007 and had nothing to do with the Olympics.

On Monday the IAAF provisionally suspended Fredericks from its ruling council as it launches a probe into graft allegations against him. The former 200m world champion is appealing the suspension.

Papa Massata and Lamine Diack also face charges in France over millions of dollars paid to cover up doping failures by Russian athletes.
President Donald Trump suffers a major setback with the failure of a Republican effort to repeal and replace Barack Obama's signature health care reform law

President Donald Trump blamed Democrats and a few holdouts in his own party Tuesday for the collapse of the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare -- one of Trump's key campaign pledges.

A Republican drive in the Senate to come up with a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act fell apart Monday when two more Republican senators came out against their party's legislation.

That made for a total of four holdouts -- the party has 52 seats in the 100-member legislature -- and effectively doomed the legislation.

The collapse is a stinging blow to Trump and Republicans who have vowed for seven years that they would quickly dump former president Barack Obama's signature health care reform as soon as they could.

"We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!" Trump said in a tweet Tuesday morning.

"As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!," he added.

Actually, Trump has consistently advocated repealing and replacing Obamacare at the same time, rather than doing it in stages, and has said it could be done quickly.
Benjamin Netanyahu is the first Israeli premier to visit Hungary since the fall of communism

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised Budapest for "standing up for" the Jewish state, at talks with Hungarian premier Viktor Orban who is under fire at home for allegedly stoking anti-Semitism.

"I want to thank you for standing up for Israel in international forums, you have done this again and again," Netanyahu said at a press conference with Orban in Budapest.

He added that Hungary, as the birthplace of modern political Zionism founder Theodor Herzl, was "at the forefront" of countries fighting anti-Zionism.

Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Budapest since the fall of communism in 1989.

The landmark trip brings together two right-wingers enamoured of US President Donald Trump and with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal global order bankrolled, as they see it, by the likes of US billionaire George Soros.

"The (Israeli) prime minister is a great patriot and success belongs to those who are patriots, who don't push national identity and interests aside," Orban said Tuesday.

"Israel's history teaches that we will lose the things we don't fight for."

The hardline policies of the pair -- described as "spiritual brothers" by Hungarian media -- have sparked tensions with Brussels.

But in eastern and central Europe, the muscle-flexing has found fertile ground.

Netanyahu will on Wednesday meet premiers of the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic plus Hungary -- whose nationalistic stances have also increasingly placed them at odds with the rest of the EU.

"All these states are very pro-Israel," Israeli analyst Raphael Vago told AFP.

"They vote in our favour at the European Union and the United Nations."

Netanyahu will attend Budapest's Great Synagogue with Jewish community leaders, before departing Thursday.

- Anti-Soros graffiti -

Posters criticising Hungarian billionaire emigre George Soros have cropped up across Budapest

The trip comes at a sensitive time for Orban who faces a backlash over his virulent crusade against Soros, a Hungarian-born Jewish emigre.

Some posters daubed with graffiti have attacked the financier for his alleged support of mass immigration.

Many in Hungary's 100,000-strong Jewish population -- one Europe's largest -- have accused Orban, in power since 2010, of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism or even encouraging it to stave off growing support for the far-right.

Orban however has insisted the billboards were not about Soros's Jewishness but the "national security risk" posed by his supposed wish to "settle a million migrants" in the EU.

"I've discussed the concerns that I have heard from the Jewish community here and (Orban) reassured me in unequivocal terms," said Netanyahu.

Orban meanwhile said his government has a "zero-tolerance policy in place towards anti-Semitism" to "guarantee the complete safety" of Hungary's Jews.

"The Hungarian government committed an error, even a crime, when it decided not to defend its Jewish compatriots during World War II and instead collaborate with the Nazis," the populist strongman said.

He was referencing the Hungarian wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy who oversaw the sending of over a half million Jews to Nazi death camps.

Orban last month landed in hot water after praising Horthy as an "exceptional statesman" for rebuilding Hungary after World War I.

Critics have long suspected Orban of trying to rehabilitate Horthy by tacitly encouraging new memorials of him and other interwar figures.

Analysts say Orban banks on Netanyahu's visit to help him fend off charges of anti-Semitism.

"Connecting Soros to the migration issue is the (Hungarian) government's aim, but it is a problem for Orban if the campaign is seen as anti-Semitic," political analyst Csaba Toth told AFP.

"So the Netanyahu visit helps him as it bolsters his claims that the Soros campaign is not."
A German-made Israeli Navy Dolphin 2 class submarine arrives at Haifa's military port on January 12, 2016. The submarines are the most sophisticated in Israel's fleet

Germany has delayed signing a deal with Israel advancing the sale of three submarines, an Israeli official said Tuesday as a corruption probe into the affair gained momentum.

Germany and Israel were set to sign a memorandum of understanding over the sale in Berlin next week, Israeli media reported.

A source in Israel's National Security Council said on condition of anonymity Tuesday that "Germany has put off the MOU signing for the time being," without providing further details.

That followed the arrest of several people in recent days on suspicion of offences including bribery and money laundering around the deal to buy the Dolphin submarines from German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp.

One of the main suspects is reportedly close to becoming a state witness.

Those detained include former navy commander Eliezer Marom, former deputy head of Israel's National Security Council Avriel Bar Yosef and the local representative for ThyssenKrupp, Miki Ganor.

David Shimron, a relative of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family lawyer who also represents ThyssenKrupp in Israel, was taken for questioning but later released.

On Monday, Israeli media reported that Ganor, who along with Bar Yosef is still in custody, was close to becoming a state witness.

Daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot, which first reported that the MOU signing had been delayed, said Germany had added a clause allowing it to back out of the deal if it was found to have been reached through corruption.

Israeli officials said Germany had not backed out of the deal but was waiting to see the outcome of the investigation, Yediot Aharonot reported.

German officials had no immediate comment.

In February, Israel's justice ministry said it had launched an investigation into the affair, stressing that Netanyahu himself was not a suspect in the case.

Netanyahu is being investigated separately, reportedly over allegations he and his wife accepted improper gifts from Israeli businessman and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

The Israeli premier is also being investigated over suspicions he sought a secret deal with Amnon Moses, publisher of Israel's top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

Netanyahu has rejected allegations of misconduct, saying he is the target of a campaign by political opponents.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has asked a judge to keep the pipeline running while further review of the environmental risks is conducted through late December.

The corps said in court documents filed Monday that there is a "serious possibility" that it will approve the permit to cross under Lake Oahe without changes and stopping operation of the pipeline could "impose extremely disruptive consequences."

In an opinion issued on June 14, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg decided the corps failed to adequately consider the environmental consequences of a spill at the Lake Oahe crossing and ordered the agency to redo parts of its environmental analysis.

Boasberg asked the parties in the lawsuit over the pipeline to make arguments about whether the pipeline should continue to run while the review takes place.

The corps said Monday it's unlikely to change its mind because the pipeline is buried 100 feet below the ground and unlikely to spill. Oil currently flowing through the pipeline would have to be moved by other modes of transport, such as by rail car, which also has environmental risks.

In Boasberg's June 14 opinion, he said the corps did many things properly when it came to evaluating the environmental impact of the proposed pipeline, but it did not fully consider the environmental justice consequences.

The corps said Monday it will complete its review of the issues Boasberg brought forth by late December. Additionally, the corps plans to seek input from several American Indian tribes, Dakota Access and other entities, such as federal agencies.

Dakota Access echoed arguments made by the corps. In court documents, the company said shutting down the pipeline would have "severe disruptive consequences," including on oil producers, other pipelines and refineries that connect to Dakota Access Pipeline.

In addition, states and local governments also could lose $10 million in tax revenue for each month the pipeline isn't running, according to the company's filings.

The company reported it is already carrying nearly half of North Dakota's oil and halting pipeline operations would cause "significant economic harm" to the company and other oil producers and refineries.

"The unwarranted delay between August 2016 and February 2017 in allowing the pipeline to go forward imposed serious costs and other hardships on Dakota Access and others who now benefit from a safer and more economical way to meet our nation's energy demand," Dakota Access submitted in its filings. "A shutdown while the corps provides additional explanation for its determinations, under a statute that calls only for a process and not a particular substantive outcome, would add insult to injury."

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes allowing the pipeline to continue to run without further environmental analysis.

"The corps is already saying that the results of the additional study are a foregone conclusion -- a new approval for the pipeline," Jan Hasselman, an attorney for Earthjustice who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in an email Tuesday."They are planning to simply paper over the existing decision. That's not right, and that's not how the law works. The only way to ensure the integrity of this new process is to shut down the pipeline, bring in independent experts and perform the full environmental impact statement that had been started under the previous administration."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (left) shakes hands after presenting a medallion to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July 18, 2017

China will host a symposium between Israel and the Palestinians later this year, an official said Tuesday, as president Xi Jinping vowed to "ceaselessly" contribute towards peace in the region.

Despite depending on the volatile Middle East for oil supplies, Beijing has long taken a backseat in its disputes.

But China has stepped up its diplomatic engagement in the region in the past year, including offering to host talks on the Syrian conflict.

In a meeting with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, Xi reaffirmed China's support of a two-state solution, with an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state, bounded by the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

During closed door talks, Xi said China will set up a trilateral dialogue mechanism and later this year host a peace symposium to help resolve the dispute, vice minister of foreign affairs Zhang Ming told reporters.

Xi called the Palestinian people "true good friends, partners, and brothers" of China, stating his country would "unswervingly promote China-Palestine bilateral relations and ceaselessly move the Middle East peace process forward".

Abbas, on his fourth state visit to the country, said he "hoped to see China play a greater role in the Middle East peace process."

He presented Xi with a golden medal of honour.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Xi on a visit to Beijing in March, with the Chinese leader calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians "as soon as possible."

Netanyahu said Israel was willing to see China play a bigger role in Middle East affairs, according to state media.

Trade between China and Israel has flourished since diplomatic ties were established in 1992.

China's total investment in Israel exceeds six billion dollars, and Israeli-designed technologies are used across the world's second largest economy.

The two countries began free trade negotiations last year.
Washington targets Iran's ballistic missile program -- on display at this Tehran rally -- with a new set of sanctions

The US and Iran traded tit-for-tat sanctions on Tuesday over the Islamic republic's ballistic missile program, just hours after Washington admitted Tehran was complying with a landmark nuclear deal signed two years ago.

After the US announced its new sanctions, Iran hit back, calling them "worthless" and "illegal" and announcing its own sanctions "against American people and entities that have acted against the Iranian people and other Muslim peoples of the region."

"The Americans... want to weaken the capabilities and strength of the Islamic regime," said General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Revolutionary Guard Corps' aerospace wing and missile program.

"We propose reciprocal actions with a high cost."

Iran's parliament also voted to authorize extra funding for the missile program and the Revolutionary Guard's foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, which Washington accuses of fomenting unrest across the region.

The heightened tensions came after President Donald Trump was forced to back off from a key campaign promise to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran, which eased sanctions in return for limiting its ability to produce material for atomic weapons.

Trump had described it as "the worst deal ever" and accused Iran of continuing to back terrorism in the Middle East. But on Monday, the White House admitted that the Islamic republic was sticking to the nukes agreement.

It noted, however, that while Iran might be meeting its requirements on paper, it was "unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the accord.

In announcing the new sanctions against 18 individuals and entities in Iran, the State Department said it "remains deeply concerned about Iran's malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, security, and prosperity."

It cited Iran's support for Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the Islamic movement Hamas, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Huthi rebels in Yemen fighting a US-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon has also repeatedly voiced concern over a string of high-profile incidents in waters off Iran involving Iranian vessels.

It has accused the Revolutionary Guard of conducting risky maneuvers around US warships in the Gulf, some of which resulted in the Americans firing warning shots.

"These sanctions target procurement of advanced military hardware, such as fast attack boats and unmanned aerial vehicles, and send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran's provocative and destabilizing behavior," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Washington is also concerned about the fate of Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese-American researcher at Princeton University who was recently sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison.

- Iran pushback -

While the US complained about Iran's defiance of the spirit of the nuclear accord, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would make his own complaints about US non-compliance when representatives of the five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.

Zarif accused the Trump administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal, in an effort to "poison the international atmosphere."

"I think the international community has read this very loud and clear and continues to deal with Iran without much attention to this theater which is being played," the top Iranian diplomat added.

Zarif said he had no communication with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in stark contrast to his predecessor John Kerry, with whom Zarif negotiated the groundbreaking nuclear deal.

"It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open," said Zarif in New York, where he was attending a UN development forum.

He said he was willing to discuss Wang's case "on humanitarian grounds," but stressed that Iran's courts were independent of the government.

Trump and his top security officials have always taken a tough line on Iran: his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, fought Iranian-backed militias during the US occupation of Iraq while serving as a Marine general, and memories are still fresh of Hezbollah's attack on the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
Rather than humans actively taming wild wolves, domestication would have started with the animals approaching hunter-gatherer camps in search of food

From the tiny chihuahua to the massive Saint Bernard, domestic dogs today trace their roots to a single group of wolves that crossed the path of humans as long as 40,000 years ago, researchers said Tuesday.

Their findings are bound to reignite the scientific disagreement over when, and where, "man's best friend" first split from its wolf ancestor.

One school of thought maintains this happened in Europe around 15,000 years ago, another said it happened in central Asia or China about 2,500 years later.

Last year, a study in the journal Science said domestication happened from two separate wolf populations, one in Europe and the other in Asia.

The authors of the latest report said their DNA analysis shows that ancient dogs first split from wolves around 40,000 years ago, likely triggered by the presence of humans. The team cannot say where in the world this happened.

The process of dog domestication was probably a "passive" process, they added.

Rather than humans actively taming wild wolves, it would have started with the animals approaching hunter-gatherer camps in search of food.

"Those wolves that were tamer and less aggressive would have been more successful at this" and more likely to befriend humans, explained the researchers.

These were not dogs as we know them today -- they rather resembled "village dogs" which roamed freely, did not live in specific people's homes and scrounged for food.

- Fossils shed light -

By 20,000 years ago, said the team, the first dogs split geographically between Eastern and Western canines.

The first gave rise to East Asian dogs, and the other to dogs in Europe, central and south Asia, and Africa.

"By... 7,000 years ago, they (dogs) were pretty much everywhere, including North America," study co-author Krishna Veeramah of Stony Brook University in New York, told AFP.

The European dog of that period is the one that went on to father most modern dog breeds found today, the researchers concluded.

The tiny chihuahua traces its roots to a single group of wolves that crossed the path of humans as long as 40,000 years ago, researchers say

The team relied on the fossilised DNA of two dogs dug up in Germany -- 7,000 and 4,700 years old -- which they compared to modern hounds.

The fossils came from the Neolithic period, the closing chapter of the Stone Age, when prehistoric humans first tried their hand at farming and building permanent villages.

Last month, another DNA study said the first cats were also tamed during this time.

The first wildcat to travel abroad, and the forefather of domestic cats today, was Felis silvestris lybica -- a small, striped Middle Eastern sub-species that went on to colonise the entire world, that study found.

The mother (or father) of all cats is thought to have travelled to Europe by ship from the region of Anatolia around modern-day Turkey 6,000 years ago.
The Pompidou Centre houses the world's second biggest collection of modern art

The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which houses the world's second biggest collection of modern art, said Tuesday that it was close to signing a deal for a franchise gallery in Shanghai.

It will show around 20 exhibitions over five years in a wing of the new West Bund Art Museum, which is being built in the cultural district of China's commercial capital by British architect David Chipperfield.

The Paris gallery, which also has plans to open branches in South Korea and Belgium, has been in talks for more than a decade with the Chinese authorities.

Last year it staged its first show in China called "Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou 1906-77" featuring work by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and other big names at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.

The gallery said it had signed a protocol with the publicly-owned West Bund Group for a renewable five-year deal to stage exhibitions in the new museum from 2019.

The company has been turning part of the formerly industrial Xuhui district of the city into a 11-kilometre (seven mile) "cultural corridor" along the Huangpu River.

The Pompidou hailed the deal as "the most important long-term cultural exchange project" between France and China and said it would give "an important place to contemporary Chinese art" in the new gallery.

It said its new franchise would be called the Centre Pompidou Shanghai (West Bund).

The West Bund Museum is due to be completed at the end of 2018. It will be a major boost to the area's attractions which already include the private Long Museum West Bund, the Yuz Museum and the Shanghai Centre of Photography.

The Pompidou Centre -- which also houses a library and cinemas -- was an architectural sensation when it first opened in Paris in 1977.

Its collection of more than 120,000 artworks is regarded as the second most important in the world after the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
At least 18 people have now lost their lives in Gujarat since the monsoon intensified across the western state

The death toll from severe monsoon flooding across India rose to at least 83 with seven more fatalities confirmed in western Gujarat state in the last twenty-four hours, officials said on Tuesday.

Gujarat and northeastern Assam state have been hardest hit by the deluge.

A.J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, confirmed seven deaths in the state since Monday.

"Two persons drowned, four died after they were struck by lightning (in separate incidents) and the body of one of the four persons who were swept away in a river three days back was recovered," Shah said.

At least 18 people have now lost their lives in Gujarat since the monsoon intensified across the western state.

In hilly Assam 60 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since the wet season arrived in April.

At least five people were killed by a landslide last week in a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh state along the border with China.

Pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected by torrential rains and flash floods.

The government has called in the army to help with relief and rescue operations in some parts of the worst-hit states.
Turkish cleric and opponent to the Erdogan regime Fethullah Gulen sits at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, on July 18, 2016

US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt a year ago, told French TV Tuesday that he did not believe he would be extradited to Turkey.

Turkey marked the first anniversary of the attempted putsch on Saturday with mass rallies and bellicose speeches by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who told hundreds of thousands of supporters in Istanbul that he was thinking of bringing back the death penalty for coup plotters.

On the eve of the anniversary Gulen, who lives at a compound in rural Pennsylvania, denied any involvement in what he called a "despicable" episode.

On Tuesday Gulen told France 24 he did not take the threat of extradition to Turkey seriously.

"Because whatever the personal opinion (of US President Donald Trump), I don't think he would risk damaging the United States' reputation around the world by giving in to the unreasonable demands of the Turkish president," Gulen said in remarks delivered in Turkish and translated into French.

"So I'm not worried about this possibility."

The Turkish authorities have arrested at least 50,000 people and sacked more than 100,000 in the wake of the attempted coup.

Gulen repeated his call for an international investigation of the plot, with members drawn from NATO, the International Criminal Court and the European Parliament.

"If they find even the slightest connection with me I will buy my own ticket to leave this country," Gulen said.
The human trafficking crisis emerged after Thai officials uncovered dozens of shallow graves in hidden camps dotting the steep hills along the Thai and Malaysian border area

A Thai general is among more than 100 defendants facing a verdict Wednesday in a sprawling 2015 human trafficking case which saw thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants abandoned at sea and in jungle death camps.

Thailand's junta launched a crackdown in May that year on a multi-million-dollar network running migrants through southern Thailand and onto Malaysia.

It unspooled a crisis across Southeast Asia as gangmasters abandoned their hungry and desperate human cargo in jungle camps and at sea in overcrowded boats which were then "ping ponged" between Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian waters.

Rights groups long accused officials of ignoring -- or even orchestrating -- the trade in humans through Thailand's southern provinces.

The belated crackdown revealed a lattice of military, political and local mafia players soaking up cash from impoverished migrants.

Bangkok Criminal Court is due to begin reading verdicts for 103 defendants on Wednesday morning in what is expected to be a lengthy hearing.

They are accused of offences spanning human trafficking, ransom and murder -- a charge that can carry the death penalty.

Army Lieutenant-General Manas Kongpan, a powerful figure in the security apparatus covering the south, is the highest-ranking official on trial.

He denies the charges.

The crisis emerged after Thai officials uncovered dozens of shallow graves in hidden camps dotting the steep hills along the Thai and Malaysian border area.

They revealed the horrors endured by migrants, who were starved and held in bamboo pens by traffickers who demanded ransom for their release.

The verdict is being closely-watched inside and outside Thailand.

The government is desperate to dispel the kingdom's notorious reputation for human trafficking and close one of the darkest chapters in the country's recent history.

But critics say the trial has already been marred by witness intimidation, secret evidence hearings and restrictions on media reporting.

Amy Smith, from Fortify Rights, described the trial as "important and unprecedented" but added "Thailand has a long way to go to ensure justice for thousands who were exploited, tortured and killed."

There are concerns the police case was concluded prematurely.

The senior policeman who initially headed the probe, Major General Paween Pongsirin, fled Thailand under threats to his life.

Days before he left he told AFP the case had been pulled before it could fan out further into the complicity of officials.

Stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled neighbouring Myanmar in their tens of thousands since sectarian violence flared in 2012.

They were joined by Bangladeshi economic migrants on a rickety boats southwards across the Andaman Sea, seeking work and sanctuary in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Thousands are believed to have died at sea, in a migrant flow that garnered few headlines until the trafficking crackdown in 2015.

The sea route south has been quiet since the crackdown.
The unelectrified single-line track to Ivory Coast traces its origins back to the late 19th century, when France was looking for ways to link the colonised Sahel to its trading posts on the Atlantic

Work to rehabilitate a 1,260-kilometre (782-mile) railway that is a vital link between the Sahel and Atlantic coast will begin on September 15, the governments of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast said Tuesday.

The two governments, along with the track's operating company Sitarail, signed an agreement setting the date at a meeting in the Burkinabe capital.

Under a deal reached with Sitarail's parent company, the French group Bollore, 400 million euros ($462 million) will be committed to modernising the route, Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said.

The first phase, costing 130 million euros, will last four years, Barry said, without giving a completion date for the overall project.

"The work will start on September 15, there will also be orders for new material, new locomotives," said Eric Melet, chief executive for development at Bollore Transport and Logistics.

"It will go ahead very quickly."

The unelectrified single-line track traces its origins back to the late 19th century, when France was looking for ways to link the colonised Sahel to its trading posts on the Atlantic.

After many interruptions, the line began operation in 1954. After an economic crisis in the 1990s, management of the railways was handed to Sitarail.

The line plays a key role for landlocked Burkina Faso in transporting cotton and manganese exports to the coast, and in importing oil, cement and fertiliser.

But it suffers from poor track and ageing rolling stock, limiting train speed.

Rehabilitation of the line had been announced in September 2015 but work did not advance.

In September 2016, all traffic was stopped for two weeks after a bridge on the Ivorian side collapsed as a goods train was passing over, although without causing casualties.

"Economic growth between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast is dynamic and there are lots of goods which have to be transported by rail," Melet said.

By rehabilitating the northern branch of the line to the mining town of Kaya, 100 kilometres north of Ouagadougou, "a million tonnes of minerals could be transported over the next four years," he said.

Bollore has a 67 percent stake in Sitarail, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast each have 15 percent, and the remaining three percent is owned by the workforce.
Daniel Hilferty harbors more than a few worries as head of the lone insurer on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchange in Philadelphia.

The Independence Health Group CEO frets about whether his plans can attract enough healthy people to balance the claims the insurer pays for the sick. Hilferty also is concerned about whether government cost-sharing reduction payments that help defray expenses for many exchange customers will return.

Independence provides Blue Cross coverage through the exchange to about 140,000 people in southeastern Pennsylvania. Despite concerns, Independence is one of many insurers around the country that have made tentative plans to return next year to the exchanges, the only marketplace where people can get income-based tax credits to buy coverage.

This photo provided by Independence Blue Cross shows Independence Health Group CEO Dan Hilferty. Hilferty talked to The Associated Press about his worries as head of the lone insurer on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchange in Philadelphia, which provides Blue Cross coverage to about 140,000 people. (Jeff Fusco/Independence Blue Cross via AP)

Insurers still have several more weeks to finalize their plans. They could still back out, depending in part on how the Congressional debate over the Obama-era health care law unfolds.

Hilferty spoke recently with The Associated Press. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Does the fact that you are the only insurer left on the exchange affect your decision to return?

A: We are very serious about serving the community as a whole, and that includes the individual marketplace even though it's a small percentage of our overall business. The fact that we are the last plan standing would play a significant role in our ultimate decision.

Q: Insurers have been hit with significant losses in this market. Why are so many making preliminary plans to come back next year?

A: There are a number of plans ... that have long-term, deep roots in the community that they serve. They would welcome a program, whether it be an improved ACA or a replacement, that is sustainable. They're hedging their bets to make sure that everyone is aware that if the program is feasible, it would be attractive.

Q: You offer a catastrophic health plan for people under age 30 that comes with a $7,150 annual deductible for single coverage. Why would somebody buy insurance that doesn't cover much until the patient first spends more than $7,000?

A: We just want to make sure for that whatever the small percentage of folks that have a potential catastrophic illness or multiple disease states that we had a product in place that they would have at least that security. But certainly I cannot argue your point, and we've heard it from a number of people, when you've got a deductible at that level, it's not frankly a very attractive plan.

Q: What kind of security would this type of coverage provide?

A: There are a number of very costly significant disease states that if you look at it over time, you more than eclipse the deductible and still have the benefit of pharmacy coverage, other procedures and services. Just think of somebody, for example, who has hemophilia and the high cost of injectables. That's the type of person that might fall into that category.

Q: Are the exchanges sustainable in their present state beyond 2018?

A: I would say that the exchanges, absent the (cost-sharing reduction payments), absent either a mandate or an attractive tax incentive program ... are not sustainable.

Q: What's your recipe for attracting younger customers to the exchanges?

A: Well, if there's a requirement around consistent coverage, we think that will keep them in. In terms of attracting them, it's very important that, A , we are able to reach a price point that's attractive, B, that we convince them that there is an opportunity to manage and maintain better health. That's something that we continue to work on aggressively regardless of what government ultimately decides to do.
NEW YORK (AP) - House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley hesitated when asked about his party's core message to voters.

"That message is being worked on," the New York congressman said in an interview this past week. "We're doing everything we can to simplify it, but at the same time provide the meat behind it as well. So that's coming together now."

The admission from the No. 4 House Democrat - that his party lacks a clear, core message even amid Republican disarray - highlights the Democrats' dilemma eight months after President Donald Trump and the GOP dominated last fall's elections, in part, because Democrats lacked a consistent message.

FILE - In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans are fending off questions about Russia and the Trump campaign, and dealing with an unpopular health care plan. But Democrats have yet to unify behind a clear, core message that will help them take advantage of their opponents' struggles. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The soul-searching comes as Democrats look to flip at least 24 GOP-held seats necessary for a House majority and cut into Republican advantages in U.S. statehouses in the 2018 midterm elections. Yet with a Russia scandal engulfing the White House, a historically unpopular health-care plan wrenching Capitol Hill and no major GOP legislative achievement, Democrats are still struggling to tell voters what their party stands for.

Some want to rally behind calls to impeach the Republican president as new evidence indicates possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government. Democratic leaders are reluctant to pursue that approach as it only energizes the GOP base. Others want Democrats to focus on the GOP's plans to strip health insurance from millions of Americans. And still others say those arguments can be fashioned into a simplified brand.

"The Democratic Party needs to up its game," national Party Chairman Tom Perez said in a speech this week. "What I hear most from people is, 'Tom, we not only need to organize, but we need to articulate clearly what we stand for.'"

For now, at least, Democrats are waging a tug-of-war largely between the Russia investigation and the GOP's attempts to gut the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Several liberal groups that had been laser-focused on health care have intensified calls for impeachment in recent weeks, including MoveOn.org, Indivisible and Ultraviolet.

"We need to be talking about impeachment constantly," said Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the recently formed Democratic Coalition Against Trump. He warned on Twitter, "If you're an elected Dem & you're not talking impeachment or 25th amendment then find a new party."

Yet one of the left's favorites, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is focusing almost exclusively on health care.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said in an interview that "there should not be a rush to judgment" after emails released by Donald Trump's son this week revealed that Trump's top advisers held a meeting with a lawyer they were told represented the Russian government.

Sanders sidestepped questions about impeachment, warning instead that "many, many thousands of Americans" will die every year if the GOP health care plan becomes law. Sanders has hosted swing state rallies focused on health care in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio in recent weeks and was in Iowa on Saturday.

Democratic operative Zac Petkanas, who led Hillary Clinton's campaign war room, agrees that this week's developments in the Russia investigation shouldn't change the party's focus heading into 2018.

"Candidates need to be saying the word 'health care' five times for every time they say the word 'Russia,'" Petkanas said. He added, "I think it's a fundamental mistake to make this election a referendum on impeachment."

It's not that easy for some elected officials, like Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., who says concerns about Russia have caught up to health care as a priority among his constituents. He described the Russian developments as "a threat to our foundation of democracy" that demands attention.

"Congress has to be able to walk and chew gum. We have to be able to do both," Kennedy said.

Democrats are naturally playing defense given generations of victories that expanded the role of government, from the social safety net of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to Lyndon Johnson's landmark civil rights legislation to Obama's health care law.

But many Democrats outside Washington insist they must go beyond opposing Trump and his policies if they expect to make major gains in 2018 and beyond.

"Democrats would make a mistake if we thought pounding Trump and not having an authentic message of our own is a winning strategy," said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. "The message of Democrats has to be about issues that matter to people at their kitchen table."

In South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Democrats don't have to retreat from their opposition to Trump, including talking about Russia, but they must tie it all together with a consistent theme that goes beyond day-to-day news cycles.

"It's very simple," he said. "We exist to help people go about their lives, to protect their rights and freedoms and opportunities."

Jason Crow, a Democrat running for Congress in a Colorado swing district, said voters regularly ask him about the Russia story, which "goes to the core of our institutions and our faith in government." But he's anchoring his pitch on issues that "are real and immediate to people's lives: going to college, paying the bills, financing a house, whether they can go and get the health care they need right now in an affordable and accessible way."

Meanwhile, Crowley said voters may have to wait a few more months before they hear national Democrats' new message.

"We're all working on that," Crowley said. "We're hoping to have this up and running and out by this fall."

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.

FILE - In this July 11, 2017, file photo, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. rides an escalator on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans are fending off questions about Russia and the Trump campaign, and dealing with an unpopular health care plan. But Democrats have yet to unify behind a clear, core message that will help them take advantage of their opponents' struggles. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2017 file photo, Tom Perez, speaks in Atlanta. As Democrats look to reverse Republicans' monopoly control in Washington and the GOP advantage in state capitals, the party is still looking for a crisp, simple message for voters. "We know that we can be an America that works for everyone, because we believe that our diversity is our greatest strength. ... And we believe that when we put hope on the ballot we do well, and when we allow others to put fear in the eyes of people we don't do so hot," said Perez.(AP Photo/Branden Camp, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017, file photo, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper speaks in Columbus, Ohio. Republicans are fending off questions about Russia and the Trump campaign, and dealing with an unpopular health care plan. But Democrats have yet to unify behind a clear, core message that will help them take advantage of their opponents' struggles. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins, File)
Gov. Doug Burgum issued a challenge Tuesday to the North Dakota oil industry: Eliminate spills while doubling production to 2 million barrels a day.

Burgum, who spoke to an oil industry conference in Bismarck, advocated for more use of technology to prevent and detect spills, mentioning major North Dakota oil spills that were first detected by farmers and ranchers.

Burgum and Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford spoke to about 450 people who are attending The Bakken Conference & Expo, organized by North American Shale Magazine. The two took office when thousands camped in North Dakota in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

I dont think that was a one-off; I think thats something were going to see more and more of, Burgum said.

The governor held a closed meeting in May with the oil and gas industry aimed at improving pipeline safety.

Our mantra is innovation not regulation, said Burgum, who is chairman of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry.

Burgum urged the industry to use technology to protect the environment and strive for a perfect record. Sanford, who is chairman of the Northern Plains Unmanned Systems Authority, said there are opportunities for the energy industry to do more with drones to monitor pipelines.

We should have zero tolerance ourselves and try to truly eliminate spills, Burgum said.

Burgum signed a bill approved by North Dakota legislators last session that will reduce the number of spills reported in the state. After the new law takes effect on Aug. 1, companies wont have to report oil or saltwater spills that are less than 10 barrels a day that remain on a well site. A requirement to clean up all spills does not change.

Burgum challenged those in attendance to work for an average oil production of 2 million barrels per day, or about double the current rate of 1.04 million barrels per day.

I dont think thats at all impossible, Burgum said. I think that is something this industry should be thinking about.

The states top oil regulator, Lynn Helms, has said it is possible but not likely that North Dakota will produce 2 million barrels of oil per day. Helms, who was not at Tuesdays conference, estimates that production could hit 1.8 million barrels per day. The states record oil production was more than 1.2 million barrels per day set in December 2014.

Burgum also urged oil operators to develop partnerships with the states coal industry to capture carbon and develop enhanced oil recovery projects.

In addition, he encouraged attendees to consider value-added opportunities, such as plastics plants and fertilizer plants, in North Dakota.

We really want to be adding more value to the natural resources that were producing here before we ship them out of state, Burgum said.
BRUSSELS (AP) - Authorities have arrested at least 66 people in a European food scam which sold horse meat unfit for human consumption.

European Union police coordinating organization Europol announced Sunday that eight nations cooperated in the operation. In Spain, 65 people face a series of charges relating to public health, money laundering and animal abuse.

The operation took several months and the chief suspect, a Dutch businessman, was arrested in Belgium in April.

Spain's Civil Guard said that the criminal ring acquired horses in Spain and Portugal that were "in poor shape, old, or had been designated 'not apt for consumption.'" After falsifying paperwork and substituting microchips used to identify the horses, the animals were slaughtered and the meat shipped to Belgium.

The Civil Guard said that the profits from the illegal meat could reach 20 million euros ($23 million) a year.

The case was linked to a 2013 scandal when Irish authorities detected beef burgers containing horse meat.

Authorities in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Britain and Spain cooperated in the operation.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's attorney insisted Sunday there was nothing illegal in the meeting Trump's eldest son had with a Russian lawyer during last year's presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Jr.'s willingness to meet with the lawyer in the expectation of receiving incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has raised new questions about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The information had been described as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

The president's attorney, Jay Sekulow, defended Trump and his son in a series of appearances Sunday on five television networks.

In this photo taken July 11, 2017, Donald Trump Jr. is interviewed by host Sean Hannity on his Fox News Channel television program, in New York. 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. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

"Nothing in that meeting that would have taken place, even if it was about the topic of an opposition research paper from a Russian lawyer, is illegal or a violation of the law," Sekulow said on "Fox News Sunday," a point he repeated several times. He said the president did not attend the meeting and was not aware of it.

The attorney's focus on the law appears aimed at moving beyond the shifting accounts of the meeting given by Trump Jr. At first, the June 2016 meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was compelled to release emails that revealed he had told an associate that he would "love" Russia's help in obtaining incriminating information about the Democratic nominee.

The number of people known to be at the meeting also changed over time. As recently as Friday, Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer, confirmed his participation to The Associated Press.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that he wants everyone who attended the meeting to appear before his committee, one of several in Congress investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and potential coordination with the Trump campaign.

In addition to Trump Jr. others in the Trump Tower meeting included Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, both of whom played major roles in the campaign.

"I want to hear from everyone in that meeting and get their version of the story, as well as I think we may find out there may have been other meetings as well. We don't know that yet," Warner, D-Va., said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Sekulow said he was not aware of any other meetings involving Russians. "I represent the president of the United States, but Donald Trump Jr. said not in the context of formal meetings. He said he may have met with Russian people, as a lot of people meet with Russian people, so that's not unusual," Sekulow said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Trump himself came to the defense of his son, who he said "is being scorned by the Fake News Media." The president ended a series of Sunday morning tweets by writing: "With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!"
CUMMING, Ga. (AP) - A man suspected of shooting and wounding a Georgia sheriff's deputy killed himself after an armed standoff with officers, authorities said Sunday.

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said in a statement released Sunday night on its Facebook page that "the situation has been resolved," and that the suspect had taken his own life. The statement said no additional deputies or other people had been injured.

Area news media reported the deputy was shot in a subdivision in the northern part of the county, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

The deputy suffered leg wounds and was taken to a local hospital where he was being treated for "non-life threatening injuries," the sheriff's office said in a news release.

The deputy was investigating a report of a domestic disturbance when he was shot, the sheriff's office statement said.

"Upon arrival, deputies were attempting to get the subject to come outside to speak with them when they came under significant gunfire from the residence. Deputies returned the gunfire," the statement said.

The shooting triggered an hours-long standoff.

The sheriff's office said its negotiators and SWAT team members converged on the scene, along with officers from neighboring counties, and the house was surrounded.

Officials encouraged area residents to stay in their homes until the incident was resolved.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was also called in to assist.
BRUSSELS (AP) - Talks to extricate Britain from the European Union began in earnest Monday with both sides still seemingly far apart on citizens' rights after Brexit officially takes place in less than two years.

After an initial meeting last month where the structure of the talks was determined, Britain's Brexit minister, David Davis, met up with the EU's chief Brexit negotiator in Brussels ahead of four-days of discussions.

Progress on citizens' rights is one of the three main issues that have to be resolved before the two sides can start talking about a wide-ranging free trade deal, the others being the bill Britain has to pay to meet existing commitments and the border issue in Ireland.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, welcomes British Secretary of State David Davis for a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The British proposal offers EU nationals who have lived in Britain for at least five years - as of an unspecified cutoff date - the right to live, work and access benefits.

The estimated 3 million EU nationals in Britain would all have to apply individually for permission to stay, and it's unclear what the plan would mean for those who have been in the U.K. for a shorter time or what rights family members will have.

European officials have said the British proposal to give EU citizens "settled status" does not go far enough. The European Parliament warned last week it could veto the final deal if Britain doesn't give EU citizens more rights if they choose to stay in Britain after Brexit, which is due to take place in March 2019.

The issue is the first to be tackled at four days of talks that started Monday. Whatever emerges will likely be replicated for the 1 million or so British citizens who currently live in EU countries.

"It is incredibly important we now make good progress," Britain's Brexit minister David Davis said after launching the talks with chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Civil servants will do the bulk of the negotiating. After opening the talks with Barnier Monday, Davis returned to London and is due back in Brussels Thursday for a press conference with the EU negotiator.

At a separate meeting of foreign ministers, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted that a recent offer by Prime Minister Theresa May for EU citizens in Britain is "a very fair, serious offer."

"I hope very much that people can look at that offer in the spirit it deserves," he told reporters. "It's a great offer."

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, and British Secretary of State David Davis address the media prior to a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, looks at British Secretary of State David Davis speak to the media prior to a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right, walks with British Secretary of State David Davis for a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group said Monday a peace accord it's trying to implement with the government is "the best antidote" for violent extremism exemplified by a bloody siege of southern Marawi city by Islamic State group-aligned militants.

Government and rebel representatives submitted a new draft law to President Rodrigo Duterte which aims to establish a more powerful Muslim autonomous region in the country's south under a 2014 peace deal that stalled in Congress under his predecessor.

"This is the best antidote to the violent extremism that has wrought havoc" in many Muslim areas, Moro Islamic Liberation Front Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar said during the presentation of the proposed autonomy bill to Duterte at the presidential palace in Manila.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, holds the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) together with, from left, Secretary Jesus Dureza, government Peace Panel chief negotiator, Al-Hajj Murad, chair of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice-chair, and Mohagher Iqbal, MILF Peace Panel chair, during a ceremony at Malacanang Palace Monday, July 17, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. The draft of BBL will be submitted for approval by the Philippine Congress and for ratification through a plebiscite. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Once established, the autonomous government, to be called Bangsamoro, "would be at the forefront of keeping public order and safety, dispensing justice within the bounds of law and addressing the basic requisites of a good life," Jaafar said.

Duterte pledged to back the bill in Congress as long as it adheres to the Philippine Constitution and promotes the plight of minority Muslims.

"I am for this," Duterte said to applause from officials and the insurgents, who came in business suits. "Within the context of the Republic of the Philippines there shall be a Bangsamoro country."

The rebels, who dropped their secessionist bid in exchange for broader autonomy, signed a pact with the government to establish a region with more powers and funding for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation and end a decades-long rebellion.

The conflict has left about 150,000 people dead and stunted development in the resource-rich but poverty-wracked region.

The peace pact would have been a major legacy of Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, but the legislation stalled in Congress in 2015 after some rebels from the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front became entangled in fighting that killed 44 police commandos during an anti-terrorism raid in southern Mamasapano town.

The commandos managed to kill top Malaysian terror suspect Zulkifli bin Hir, who had long been wanted by the United States, but the large number of police deaths sparked public outrage and prompted lawmakers to stall passage of the autonomy bill.

Rebel leader Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said amid growing frustration among Muslims over the bill's failed passage, extremist groups in the south emerged.

"These misguided people have filled the vacuum created by our failure to enact the basic law and fed into the frustration of our people," Murad said at the ceremony, which was attended by leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives.

"Today, we watch with utter disgust at the destruction that violent extremism has inflicted in the city of Marawi," Murad said.

Irene Santiago, a government official dealing with the rebels, said public and congressional support for the Muslim autonomy bill is crucial. "The dangers are staring at us in the face," she said.

Officials say more than 550 people, including 411 militants, have been killed in nearly two months of fighting in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south.

On Sunday, troops cleared 50 more buildings and houses after clashes that left eight militants and two soldiers dead, military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano told reporters.

Troops are bracing for a "final push to really break their line and finally clear the whole area of Marawi," Ano said, adding that "the battleground is now down to less than a square kilometer area."

Duterte is expected to announce this week whether he will extend a 60-day declaration of martial law in the southern region to deal with the Marawi insurrection, the most serious security crisis he has faced since assuming power in June last year.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, Al-Hajj Murad, left, chair of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice-chair, and other leaders flash v-signs for peace during a ceremony for the submission of the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) at Malacanang Palace Monday, July 17, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. The draft of BBL will be submitted for approval by the Philippine Congress and for ratification through a plebiscite. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Mohagher Iqbal, left, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's peace panel, and his counterpart from the Government Irene Santiago, hold documents following the signing of the joint communications plan for the implementation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) Monday, July 17, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. The two panels will submit later Monday to President Rodrigo Duterte the draft of the BBL which still needs approval by the Philippine Congress and for ratification through a plebescite.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

The hands of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders as well as that of Government Peace Panel chief negotiator hold the draft copy of the Bangsamoro Basic Law during a ceremony at Malacanang Palace Monday, July 17, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. The draft of BBL will be submitted for approval by the Philippine Congress and for ratification through a plebiscite. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte flash a v-sign for peace during a ceremony for the submission of the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) at Malacanang Palace Monday, July 17, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. The draft of BBL will be submitted for approval by the Philippine Congress and for ratification through a plebiscite. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia police say a flash mob of about 500 teens threw bottles at officers and jumped on cars after a rec center closed for the evening.

Authorities say the disturbance began Sunday night outside the Lonnie Young Recreation Center in the city's Germantown section. Police say the teens gathered with an unauthorized disc jockey outside the center and had to be dispersed.

No officers or youths were hurt. Police say they opted not to make any arrests so tensions wouldn't escalate.

At one point, police asked some area businesses to close after some of the youths ran into the businesses.

Most of those in the crowd appeared to be 12 to 17 years old.
SENOIA, Ga. (AP) - An assistant director told authorities a stuntman fatally injured during production of "The Walking Dead" fell head- and neck-first onto concrete about 22 feet (7 meters) below.

Coweta County coroner Richard Hawk has said 33-year-old John Bernecker was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. July 12. Hawk said Bernecker died from injuries suffered in the fall on the hit show's set in Senoia, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

A Coweta County Sheriff's Office report says assistant director Matthew Goodwin said Bernecker intended to fall onto a pad. Goodwin said Bernecker appeared to try to stop the fall by grabbing a railing but fell onto the ground a few inches from the pad.

Actor Austin Amelio told authorities Bernecker said he'd never done a fall from that high and seemed "a little nervous."
DELPHI, Ind. (AP) - The Latest on the investigation into the killings of two northern Indiana girls (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

A northern Indiana sheriff says a newly-released sketch of a man considered the main suspect in the February killings of two girls was drawn by an FBI sketch artist based on information from someone who saw the suspect.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2017, file photo, Indiana State Police Peru post public information officer Tony Slocum speaks at a news conference providing latest details of the investigation into the killings Feb. 13 of Liberty German, left, and Abigail Williams in Delphi, Ind. Indiana State Police released a composite sketch Monday, July 17, 2017, of the man they say is the suspect in the killings. (J. Kyle Keener/The Pharos-Tribune via AP, File)

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby (tohb LEHZ'-ehn-BEE') says the witness saw the man walking around the time 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams were slain near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.

The teens vanished Feb. 13 while hiking and were found dead the next day.

Leazenby says he can't discuss where the witness saw the suspect. The FBI artist completed the sketch after recently meeting with the witness.

Authorities are asking the public for tips on who the man in the sketch might be.

__

11:30 a.m.

State police have released an artist's composite sketch of a man considered the main suspect in the killings of two northern Indiana girls.

The sketch released Monday depicts a white man with a prominent nose and a goatee who's wearing a cap and what appears to be a hooded sweater. Police said the suspect has reddish-brown hair, stands between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10 (1.7 and 1.8 meters) and weighs between 180 and 220 pounds (82 and 100 kilograms).

Investigators are asking the public to study the man's facial features and contact them with any information on him.

Fourteen-year-old Liberty German vanished with 13-year-old Abigail Williams on Feb. 13 while hiking a trail near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day in nearby woods.

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10 a.m.

State police say they will release a composite sketch of a man considered the main suspect in the killings of two northern Indiana girls.

Sgt. Kim Riley says the sketch that will be released Monday was created by an artist from information collected by all the agencies, including the FBI, involved in the double-murder investigation.

Fourteen-year-old Liberty German vanished with 13-year-old Abigail Williams on Feb. 13 while hiking a trail near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day in nearby woods.

Investigators released two grainy images in late February of a man they consider the main suspect in the killings. They also released audio of a male saying "down the hill."

That evidence came from German's cellphone.

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9:08 a.m.

State police say they will release new evidence on the main suspect in the killing of two northern Indiana girls in February.

Sgt. Kim Riley says a news release will be issued Monday morning providing "very important" information that "will give people a clearer image of who we are looking for" in the unsolved double-murder case.

Fourteen-year-old Liberty German vanished with 13-year-old Abigail Williams on Feb. 13 while hiking a trail near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day in nearby woods.

Investigators released two grainy images in late February of a man they consider the main suspect in the killings. They also released audio of a male saying "down the hill."

That evidence came from German's cellphone.
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - Talk about pushing their buttons!

Citizens of Vicksburg, Mississippi, complained so much about city workers watching TV and using personal cellphones during business hours that the city has banned the devices at work.

WAPT-TV reported Friday that Vicksburg city leaders say the ban was voted on last week following citizen complaints.

Vicksburg south ward Alderman Alex Monsour says the city's mayor and Board of Aldermen voted to ban the electronics' use after getting complaints that included workers texting and watching TV for reasons not related to work.

Monsour says city employees will be written up on first offense and that further offenses will be more severe.

Vicksburg's police and fire departments are the only exceptions that did not have to turn their TVs in to City Hall.

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Information from: WAPT-TV, http://www.wapt.com
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal of its nationwide ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses religious denomination.

The court's appeals chamber has upheld the April approval of the Russian Justice Ministry's call to halt Jehovah's Witnesses activities and to declare it an extremist organization.

The rejection of the religious group's appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.

Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman David Semonian said in a statement that "it's very concerning that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, powerful elements within Russia continue to frame our organization as extremist."

Viktor Zhenkov, a Russian attorney for the group, said Monday's ruling would be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, according to the Interfax news agency.
A Dickinson man died during the Hettinger County demolition derby in Mott on Saturday, July 15, officials confirmed on Monday.

Richard Jordan, 47, of Dickinson, passed away Saturday while competing in the demolition derby in Mott. However, no cause of death has been determined at this time.

Hettinger County Sheriff Sarah Warner, who is also the county coroner, said Jordans body was sent to the forensic medical center in Bismarck for an autopsy.

While Jordan did take a couple of hits during the race, Warner said the hits were not anything major. Officials are awaiting an autopsy report to come back from the state lab to know the cause of death.

We dont have a clue what took place, Warner said.

Jordan often raced at Southwest Speedway in Dickinson, where he will be missed by many, the group posted on their Facebook page.

We send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Tracy and his children, Hailey and Bree. Please pray for them during this difficult time, the group said in a Facebook post. Though we know that there is no comfort that could be enough during this hard time, we want the Jordan family to know that Richard was greatly respected and loved by so many, and though he will be missed on and off the track, he will never be forgotten.

-- Forum News Service
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - A dilapidated, three-story building in a poorer neighborhood of Pakistan's port city of Karachi collapsed before dawn on Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring 14, a rescue and senior police official said.

Several hours into the day, rescuers were still working and pulling more bodies from under the rubble, according to Rizwan Edhi, a top official for Pakistan's largest private ambulance service, Edhi.

"Rescuers are using heavy machinery with utmost care as we can still hear voices of people trapped in the rubble," he said.

Pakistani volunteers try to rescue a trapped resident in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A dilapidated, three-story building in a poorer neighborhood of Pakistan's sprawling port city of Karachi collapsed as the residents slept. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Earlier, senior police official Aran Kobra said the dead included a man and his son, who were sleeping when the building collapsed. He said up to two people were still believed to be trapped under the rubble.

TV footage showed a teenage boy crying for help as residents struggled with their hands to remove a concrete pillar that had fallen on his leg. Later, the boy was rescued with the help of construction machinery.

Shortly after the 3 a.m. collapse, when only two were reported killed, Karachi's Deputy Commissioner Farid Uddin warned the death toll could climb further as rescue workers painstakingly sifted through the rubble.

Uddin said the cause of the collapse wasn't immediately known though reports indicated the building was old and poorly constructed, which could have contributed to the collapse.

Safety codes are often ignored in Pakistan and in some of the poorer areas construction is haphazard and bribes are paid to inspectors to approve substandard construction.

Pakistani volunteers carry an injured person rescued from a collapsed apartment in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A dilapidated, three-story building in a poorer neighborhood of Pakistan's sprawling port city of Karachi collapsed as the residents slept. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Japan says it is committing $1 billion by 2018 to help meet U.N. goals for 2030, promoting education and health care for children and young people as well as gender equality and reducing risk from natural disasters.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida made the announcement Monday at a high-level meeting assessing progress toward meeting the 17 goals adopted by world leaders that also aim to combat poverty, promote good government and preserve the environment.

He said Japan's vision for the U.N. goals "is to create a diverse and inclusive society in which no one is left behind."

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched a progress report on implementing the goals saying "the rate of progress in many areas is far slower than needed to meet the targets by 2030."
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the country until the end of the year because the rebellion there will not be completely quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation, his spokesman said Tuesday.

Duterte declared martial law on May 23 following a bloody siege of the southern city of Marawi by Islamic State group-aligned militants, the most serious security crisis he has faced since assuming power in June last year.

In a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives read by his spokesman Ernesto Abella, Duterte said that after consulting security officials, he has concluded that the rebellion in the south will not be quelled completely by July 22.

FILE - In this July 4, 2017 file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, and Vice President Leni Robredo, left, applaud at the conclusion of the 70th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Air Force at Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province, north of Manila, Philippines. President Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the country until the end of the year, saying the rebellion there will not be quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, FIle)

He asked Congress to extend martial law until Dec. 31.

Under the constitution, in case of invasion or rebellion, when public safety requires it, the president can declare martial law for no more than 60 days. He can ask Congress to extend such a proclamation to a period of time to be determined by the lawmakers.

More than 550 people, including 413 militants, have been killed in nearly two months of fighting in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south.

U.S. Ambassador Sung Y. Kim said the United States will be sending two surveillance aircraft to help Philippine forces battling the militants in Marawi. The two Cessna 208 aircraft fitted with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment "will be turned over to the Philippines in a couple of weeks," he told ABS-CBN News Channel.

"We're deeply concerned about the security situation in Marawi," Kim said. The U.S. has been providing munition, intelligence and surveillance equipment and special operations troops to advise the Philippine military in the south. It will also assist in rebuilding Marawi, he added.

Duterte met with lawmakers late Monday. He called for a special session of Congress, which is on break, on Saturday to tackle the proposed extension of martial law.

Congress opens its new regular session on July 24, when Duterte delivers his State of the Nation address.

Opposition lawmakers said they will oppose the extension and question its basis.

"It is totally not justified" and "just a whimsical misuse of power," said Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, adding that the military says the number of militants was down to 60.

"I have already forewarned the public of Duterte's authoritarian tendencies and this is further proof of it," he added.

Rep. Tom Villarin of the left-wing political party Akbayan said it was "a whimsical proposal that has no substantive grounds other than the president's wishes."
MILAN (AP) - The Latest on Europe's migration crisis (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

Clashes have broken out for the second time in eight days at a crowded migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

A demonstrator carries wire representing border razor wire fences, as he marches with others during a protest in support of migrant people seeking to enter Europe, in Madrid, Saturday, July 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Authorities said 35 migrants were arrested Tuesday for public disturbance offences, after police used tear gas against stone throwing protesters at the Moria camp.

The demonstrators also set fires inside the camp and just outside the perimeter, according to police.

More than 14,000 migrants remain stranded on Lesbos and other Greek islands near Turkey. They are banned from traveling to the Greek mainland following an agreement between the European Union and Turkey last year to limit migration to Europe.

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9 a.m.

The United Nations' refugee agency is appealing for $421.2 million to help improve protection of refugees in sub-Saharan and North Africa and back efforts in Europe to cope with asylum seekers.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday the plan, which incorporates previous appeals, is needed "to help provide meaningful alternatives to refugees and others undertaking dangerous journeys to Europe."

It says 2,171 refugees and migrants were reported dead or missing as they tried to cross the central Mediterranean in this year's first half, while many others are believed to have died trying to get to Libya.

UNHCR wants to strengthen protection and reception of migrants in sub-Saharan Africa and raise awareness of the risks of traveling to Libya. It wants to help train coast guard services in North Africa.

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8:50 a.m.

As Italians confront the pressure of new migrant arrivals with two distinct reactions - putting out the welcome mat, or erecting barricades - the country's leaders are seeking to puncture what they see as Europe's posture of offering moral support instead of concrete action.

The latest proposal has been dubbed the "nuclear option." It calls for emergency visas for migrants rescued at sea.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano has denied reports that the numbers could reach 200,000. But other Italian officials have acknowledged the plan is under consideration, if only to gain negotiating leverage. And the threat of the visas, which would allow free movement in the Schengen area, is enough to cause concern among Italy's neighbors. Austria's foreign minister on Monday vowed to protect the border if adopted.
PARIS (AP) - Hundreds of firefighters are working to extinguish a forest fire about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the French Riviera city of Nice, as unusually hot and dry weather has hit much of France.

Jean-Gabriel Delacroy of the Alpes-Maritime regional administration said Tuesday that the fire near Nice is "under control" but not yet over after breaking out Monday night.

Speaking on broadcaster Francetvinfo, Delacroy said three firefighters were lightly injured in the blaze, which consumed 120 hectares (about 300 acres) of forest and reached the town of Castagniers, inland from Nice. No homes have been hurt so far, he said.

Whipped up by Mediterranean winds, fires in recent days have also hit Provence and Corsica during the high summer tourist season.
MOSCOW (AP) - Separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of the country. But Russia, their chief backer, sought to play down the announcement, saying it was merely part of public discussion.

The surprise announcement in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 cease-fire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine's industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev's fold while granting them wide autonomy. Some rebels said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. The rebels originally sought to join Russia but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the area or publicizing its military support for the rebels.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks at a press conference during his meeting with Georgian President Georgy Margvelashvili in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Poroshenko is on an official visit to Georgia. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most of the areas which are currently part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Zakharchenko said they are drawing up a constitution that would be put up to a popular vote.

"We believe that the Ukrainian state as it was cannot be restored," Zakharchenko said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency. "We, representatives of the regions of the former Ukraine, excluding Crimea, proclaim the creation of a new state which is a successor to Ukraine."

Although separatists in the east have some sympathizers in other Ukrainian regions, they have not attempted to capture territories there, nor do they have any political representation there.

France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia worked out an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015 which laid out a roadmap for ending the conflict between government troops and separatists. Under the deal, the rebels would return control of the territories they had captured to Kiev while Kiev would allow a local election there and grant wide autonomy to the region.

While the deal helped to reduce the intensity of fighting, none of the political components has been implemented.

Breaking several hours of silence that passed after the separatists' announcement Tuesday, Boris Gryzlov, Russia's envoy mediating the peace talks in Minsk, dismissed the idea as public discussion.

"This initiative does not fit with the Minsk process," Gryzlov told Russian news agencies. "I see it merely as an invitation for discussion. This announcement does not have entail any legal consequences."

Asked about the rebels' announcement Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Tuesday evening the Kremlin had no comment.

While the separatists are believed to be guided by the Kremlin, they have made statements in the past that clearly caught Moscow off guard.

Yevgen Marchuk, Ukraine's envoy at the talks, said on the 112 television channel that the announcement, made one day before the next round of talks in Minsk, "could block the negotiations entirely."

In Luhansk, rebel leaders denied that they were part of the deal. Local news website Luhansk Information Center quoted rebel representative Vladimir Degtyarenko as saying they had not been informed of the plans and have "great doubts about the expediency of such a step."

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-proclaimed authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk who call themselves the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike their counterparts in Donetsk, have tended to stay away from directly expressing intentions to join Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday accused Russia of directing the rebels' hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine in pieces.

"You should understand that Zakharchenko and (rebel leader) Plotnitsky are not political actors," he said, dismissing them as "puppets" whose only job is to voice "the messages they receive from Russia."

Poroshenko said Ukraine is committed to the peace accords and pledged to restore control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Kiev-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko speculated that the Kremlin had instigated the announcement, perhaps trying to scare the West with a possibility of Ukraine's breakup.

"The Kremlin is no longer trying to push this malignant tumor back into the body of Ukraine," Fesenko said, adding that it is too early to predict the fallout of Tuesday's announcement because Zakharchenko is known for making outlandish claims.

The Associated Press has documented how Moscow has been propping up the separatists in Ukraine with funds, weapons and recruits. The Kremlin has firmly denied sending Russian troops to fight alongside the separatists despite the overwhelming evidence.

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Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus contributed.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Conservative Islamic groups protested Tuesday in the capital of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, denouncing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's attempt to ban radical organizations.

Demonstrators from an alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and held up banners calling the government tyrannical and repressive.

The crowd, which swelled to an estimated 2,000 people, was divided into separate rows for men and women and was mostly peaceful, said Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono.

Indonesian Muslims gather during a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Muslim hardliners staged the rally denouncing a decree signed by President Joko Widodo earlier this month that could give the the government almost unfettered power to ban radical groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

A decree signed by Jokowi last week that amends a law regulating mass organizations will give the government almost unfettered power to ban groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. Parliament has one year to reject or approve it.

It is likely that Hizbut Tahrir, a group that campaigns for Indonesia to adopt Shariah law, is among the targets of the decree, with the government announcing in May that it planned to ban the organization.

"Jokowi's anti-Islam decree is proof this is a dictatorial regime," a rally coordinator, Kholilulloh Al-Habsyi, told the crowd from a truck.

Rights groups have criticized the decree as a draconian and anti-democratic measure and say governments could easily abuse its power.

Jokowi's measure followed months of sectarian tensions in Jakarta that shook the government and undermined the country's reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.

Hizbut Tahrir, along with groups such as the violent Islamic Defenders Front, was behind a series of massive protests in Jakarta, the capital, against the city's minority Christian governor, an ally of Jokowi who was accused of blaspheming Islam. He subsequently lost a bid for re-election to a Muslim candidate and was imprisoned for two years for blasphemy despite prosecutors downgrading the charge to a lesser offense.

Hizbut, a global organization that is already banned or circumscribed in some countries, is estimated to have tens of thousands of members in Indonesia.

Indonesian Muslims shout "Allahuakbar!' (God is great) during a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Muslim hardliners staged the rally denouncing a decree signed by President Joko Widodo earlier this month that could give the the government almost unfettered power to ban radical groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Indonesian Muslims hold flags with Arabic writings that read: "There's no god but Allah and Muhammad are his prophet" during a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Muslim hardliners staged the rally denouncing a decree signed by President Joko Widodo earlier this month that could give the the government almost unfettered power to ban radical groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's president has warned against decentralization for ethnic minorities during a visit to a region where many Hungarians are demanding more privileges.

President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that "decentralization is desirable" if it creates a more efficient local administration. However, he cautioned against creating regions based the ethnic origin of residents.

Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban has supported Romania's 1.2 million Hungarians in seeking more control over their affairs. Most reside in two counties in northwest Transylvania, where they form a large majority.

The area is considered a potential trouble spot and their demands have periodically fueled tensions with Romanians. Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1918.

Iohannis said Romania's local administration should be reformed to lead to "job creation and economic growth."
LONDON (AP) - Britain's advertising watchdog says commercials depicting hapless husbands and housework-burdened moms may be bad for the nation's health.

The Advertising Standards Authority said Tuesday it would impose tighter regulation on what it called harmful gender stereotyping.

The regulator said a "tougher line" is needed on ads that feature stereotypical gender roles, including those which mock people for not conforming. Such ads restrict "the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults," it said.

The watchdog, which has previously banned ads for suggesting it was desirable for young women to be unhealthily thin, said it won't ban all stereotypes, such as women cleaning or men doing home improvement jobs.

But ads that depict a woman having sole responsibility for cleaning up the family's mess, or showing "a man trying and failing to undertake simple parental or household tasks," could be banned.

So could commercials suggesting a specific activity is inappropriate for boys because it is stereotypically associated with girls, or vice versa.

The report cited several ads viewers had complained about, including one for baby formula Aptamil in which a girl was shown growing up to be a ballerina and boys to be engineers and rock climbers.

The standards authority does not have the power to impose fines, but British broadcasters are bound by the terms of their licenses to comply with its rulings.

Ella Smillie, lead author of a report for the watchdog, said gender stereotypes in advertising "can limit how people see themselves, how others see them, and limit the life decisions they take."

Last month a group of firms including household-products giant Unilever launched the Unstereotype Alliance, a United Nations-backed campaign to banish gender stereotypes in advertising.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potential flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American officers at the height of the Cold War.

It's also where the rival Koreas have held rare high-profile talks, and top American officials have visited to demonstrate American commitment to defending South Korea.

A look at Panmunjom, a day after South Korea's new liberal president offered talks with North Korea at the village in what would be the Koreas' first face-to-face meeting since late 2015.

FILE - In this July 27, 2013, file photo, North Korean soldiers watch the south side with cameras as Gen. James D. Thurman, the commander of United Nations Command, South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and U.S. Forces Korea, and Korean War veterans and officials visit after attending a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement at the truce villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

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FARMING VILLAGE TO ARMISTICE SITE

Panmunjom, once an obscure farming village, is where an armistice was signed to pause the 1950-53 Korean War, with North Korea and China on one side and the American-led U.N. Command on the other.

No civilians live there, and a cluster of blue huts form a Joint Security Area overseen by North Korea and the U.N. Command.

It's located in the 248-kilometer (154-mile) -long Demilitarized Zone that forms the de facto Korean border. The DMZ is guarded on both sides by hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops, razor-wire fences and tank traps. More than a million mines are believed to be buried inside it.

At Panmunjom, South Korean troops wearing aviator sunglasses stand in taekwondo poses with their legs apart, arms bent and fists clenched. North Korean soldiers use binoculars to monitor the South. The soldiers are often only several yards (several meters) from each other.

These days, it's also a popular tourist spot drawing visitors on both sides. Tourists from the South are often told by their guides to be extremely careful about what gestures they make so as not to antagonize the nearby North Korean soldiers.

The 1953 armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically in a state of war. About 28,500 U.S. troops are deployed in South Korea.

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DEADLY CLASHES

In August 1976, two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers. The U.S. officers had been sent out to trim a 40-foot (12-meter) tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint. The attack prompted Washington to fly nuclear-capable B-52 bombers toward the DMZ to intimidate North Korea.

In 1984, North Korean and U.N. Command soldiers traded gunfire after a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the truce village. The incident left three North Korean soldiers and one South Korean soldier dead.

In 1996, North Korea sent hundreds of armed troops into Panmunjom after declaring the armistice a "useless piece of paper." South Korea boosted its surveillance to its highest level in 15 years, and the North Korean troops later withdrew.

The rival Koreas have had similar violent confrontations along other parts of the DMZ in the past. No deadly clashes have occurred in recent years, but a 2015 land mine blast that maimed two South Korean soldiers pushed the Koreas to the brink of an armed conflict. South Korea blames North Korea for the explosion.

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PRESIDENTIAL VISITS

U.S. presidents and other top officials have often traveled to Panmunjom and other areas of the DMZ at times of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula. They have peered through binoculars across the border and vowed to boost the U.S. military alliance with South Korea.

In 1993, then President Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom when the North Korean nuclear crisis first flared. In 2002, President George W. Bush visited the DMZ a few weeks after he labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Panmunjom in July 2010, four months after the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea killed 46 sailors. North Korea has denied responsibility.

In 2012, ahead of a planned North Korean long-range rocket launch, President Barack Obama visited a frontline U.S. military camp just south of the DMZ and told American troops they are protectors of "freedom's frontier." Obama's trip came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Panmunjom.

In March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson began a visit to South Korea by touring Panmunjom. Hours later, in Seoul, he declared that all options, including pre-emptive military action, were on the table regarding North Korea.

In April, Vice President Mike Pence visited Panmunjom and later warned North Korea not to test America's resolve and military power.

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SITE FOR RARE TALKS

Military officials from North Korea and the U.N. Command used to meet irregularly at Panmunjom to oversee the armistice. In recent years, it has been used for talks between the two Koreas.

South Korean President Moon has proposed that an initial round of talks on easing cross-border tensions be held Friday in a North Korean building in the northern part of the village, followed by a second round on Aug. 1 in a South Korean facility in the southern portion to discuss reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

The most recent high-profile meeting in Panmunjom was in August 2015, when negotiators for the rivals met for nearly 40 hours and reached a deal that allowed them to pull back from a military standoff triggered by the land mine explosion. Animosities flared again after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January 2016.

Panmunjom has also been used to arrange civilian exchanges and humanitarian programs, such as temporarily family reunions.

FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2015, file photo photo provided by South Korean Unification Ministry, South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, left, and National Security Director Kim Kwan-jin, second from left, meet with Kim Yang Gon, right, a senior North Korean official responsible for South Korean affairs, and Hwang Pyong So, North Korea' top political officer for the Korean People's Army, at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (South Korea Unification Ministry via AP, File)

In this Aug. 18, 1976 photo, North Korean soldiers attack United Nations Command personnel wearing helmets at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (Yonhap via AP)

FILE - In this April 24, 2013, file photo, North Korean soldiers stand on steps overlooking the border village of Panmunjom, North Korea, which has separates the two Koreas since the Korean War. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE - In this July 27, 2014, file photo, North Korean army soldiers watch the south side while South Korean, left, and U.S. Army soldiers stand guard at the truce villages of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - In this April 17, 2017, file photo, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence looks at the North side from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), near the truce village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

FILE-In this Feb. 20, 2002 file photo, U.S. President George W. Bush looks out at North Korea at Observation Point Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the tense military border between the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. It's also where the rival Koreas have held rare high-profile talks, and top American officials have visited to demonstrate American commitment to defending South Korea. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this July 11, 1993, file photo, U.S. President Bill Clinton takes the lens caps off a pair of binoculars at Camp Casey, July 11, 1993, from the Ouellette guard post in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the tense military border between the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. It's also where the rival Koreas have held rare high-profile talks, and top American officials have visited to demonstrate American commitment to defending South Korea. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson, File)

FILE - In this May 21, 2008, file photo, Korean War veterans from the United States stand as a U.S. soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, South Korea. Straddling the world's most heavily fortified border, the Korean truce village of Panmunjom is a potentially dangerous flashpoint where North Korean soldiers hacked to death two American soldiers at the height of the Cold War. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The mayor of Athens says more than 60 stores have been damaged in the city's busiest shopping area following a violent protest organized by anarchist groups.

George Kaminis visited Athens' central Ermou Street early Tuesday, and said the violent protesters were trying to bring the city's commercial activity "to its knees."

Late Monday, dozens of youths carrying hammers and metal bars smashed storefronts before being dispersed by police who used tear gas. Thirteen people were detained for questioning and later released, and one other was arrested on unrelated charges.

The protest was sparked after an Athens court rejected a motion to suspend a sentence for a 29-year-old teacher who was convicted of being a member of militant anarchist group. More protests are planned later Tuesday.
BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference.

Tuesday's EU comment follows the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal against the ban.

The rejection of the religious group's appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.

The EU said: "Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference." It added that Russia was bound by its constitution as well as its international commitments to provide such guarantees.
BOSTON (AP) - Boston has launched a new public service campaign to fight Islamophobia by offering the public ways to address aggression toward others because of their appearance or beliefs.

The campaign launched Monday involves 50 posters that provide a step-by-step guide to handling when someone is being harassed. They will be posted on bus stop benches and other public places around the city.

Titled "What to do if you are witnessing Islamophobic harassment," the posters encourage people to engage with the person who is being targeted and to draw attention away from the harasser. The technique is called "non-complementary behavior," and is intended to disempower an aggressive person by countering their expectations.

"These posters are one tool we have to send the message that all are welcome in Boston," Mayor Marty Walsh said. "Education is key to fighting intolerance, and these posters share a simple strategy for engaging with those around you."

The city's Islamic community lauded the campaign.

"We encourage all of our fellow Bostonians to apply the approach in these posters to anyone targeted - whether Muslim, Latino or otherwise," said Suzan El-Rayess, civic engagement director at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.

San Francisco has a similar campaign. Thea Colman, whose sister had worked with San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit to have posters installed throughout that system, approached Walsh's office.

The posters, designed by French artist Maeril, will stay up for six months.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Facebook's plans for New Mexico now call for a half-billion-dollar investment and a data center that will span an area equal to 17 football fields.

Gov. Susana Martinez's office announced early Tuesday that the social media giant will be doubling its investment in the state with the planned expansion of its data center currently under construction near Los Lunas, a rural area just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest metropolitan area.

The governor praised the announcement, saying Facebook is among the state's key partners as it works to diversify its economy.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2013, file photo, Chuck Goolsbee, site director for Facebook's Prineville data centers, shows the computer servers that store users' photos and other data, at the Facebook site in Prineville, Ore. Facebook is making good on plans to expand its high-tech data center already under construction in central New Mexico. Gov. Susana Martinez's office announced early Tuesday, July 18, that the company will build a second building at the site near Los Lunas, just south of Albuquerque. (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin, via AP, File)

"New Mexico's powerful incentives are bringing more opportunities to our state - once again ahead of schedule with more jobs and investment than initially anticipated," the governor said in a statement.

The news comes as New Mexico looks to turn the corner after a crippling budget crisis that stemmed from a downturn in the oil and natural gas sectors and an overall weak economy. The state also has struggled with high unemployment numbers, only recently ending its stretch at the top of the nation's jobless rankings.

Had it not been for the oil and gas downturn, Martinez has said New Mexico's over-the-year job growth in 2016 would have been the strongest it's been in a decade.

State officials and business owners have been scrambling in recent months to take advantage of the windfall expected to come from the data center during construction and once it's online in 2018. They're pushing for more high-tech industries in hopes of guarding against the volatility of the energy industry.

Facebook broke ground on the first building in October. It's expected to go live in late 2018.

The second building will likely keep construction crews busy through 2020.

Tom Furlong, Facebook's president of infrastructure, thanked the Martinez administration and the village of Los Lunas for their support and said the company continues to find a strong pool of talent to build the data center.

More than 280,000 hours of work on the project have already been logged, more than 3 million cubic yards of dirt have been moved and more than 30,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured, according to the company.

In August 2015, the two-term Republican governor led an economic development team to California to meet with company executives to promote New Mexico. Facebook selected the state over Utah for the data center after a mini bidding war.

Los Lunas agreed to give up property taxes for 30 years in exchange for annual payments starting at $50,000 and topping out at under $500,000. State utility regulators also cleared the way for Facebook and Public Service Co. of New Mexico to create a renewable energy tariff, which allows the company to secure solar- and wind-generated electricity to power the data center.

Facebook says the Los Lunas facility will be one of the most advanced, energy-efficient centers in the world. It will have an evaporative cooling system capable of protecting the servers inside from New Mexico's frequent dust storms.

State economic development officials have estimated that New Mexico could gain about $65 million in gross-receipts tax revenue over the next decade from construction and infrastructure costs related to the project.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Duchess of Cambridge has joked to Prince William about having more children as she received teddy bears as gifts for Prince George and Princess Charlotte in Poland.

The British royal couple are in Poland with their children on a goodwill visit intended to seal friendly ties before Britain leaves the European Union.

On Monday they met with Polish and British businesspeople, including Julia Sielicka-Jastrzebska, co-founder of the Whisbear company that makes whispering bears that help babies go to sleep. The royals were offered such bears.

In this July 17, 2017 picture publicly provided by The Heart in Warsaw, Kate the Duchess of Cambridge holds a bear, a gift from Zuzanna Sielicka-Kalczynska, left, as Marta Krupiska, second left, co-founder of The Heart Warsaw, and Prince William look on. (Whisbear The Heart Warsaw via AP)

As she was handed the gifts, the duchess turned to her husband and said: "We'll just have to have more babies," assuming a half-serious, half-joking air. They all laughed.

Sielicka-Jastrzebska said Tuesday she was greatly impressed by the royal couple's "openness" and keen interest.
LAND O'LAKES, Fla. (AP) - Even though a Florida sinkhole hasn't grown in several days, officials said that the debris-strewn site is still considered dangerous and that residents of five homes remained evacuated Tuesday due to the dangers.

"The sinkhole is not growing anymore ... but still dangerous conditions exist out here," said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County's assistant administrator for public safety. "It's basically moving like into a construction and demolition site."

The sinkhole opened up Friday and grew to 225 feet (68 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) deep, taking with it two homes, septic tanks and a boat. No one was injured.

FILE-In this Friday, July 14, 2017 aerial file photo, debris is strewn about after a sinkhole damaged two homes in Land O' Lakes, Fla. Heavy equipment will be brought in Wednesday, July 19, 2017 to the neighborhood in Pasco County, north of Tampa, to clean up debris left over from the damage caused by the sinkhole. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP, File)

Guthrie said there was no toxic release into the air so the main environmental concern is the long-term effects, if any, of debris to the water supply in the neighborhood north of Tampa.

"It's going to be my goal to have all of that stuff taken out of the hole," Guthrie said at a news conference. "However, I know there have been some other practices across the state, and across the country, when you just fill it in and go from there."

Health and environmental officials will be conducting testing of to make sure water from wells is safe to drink since many residents in the neighborhood get their water from wells. Local officials were recommending homeowners living within 500 feet of the sinkhole to drink bottled water as a precaution.

Results from 20 initial well tests came back negative for E. Coli on Tuesday, health officials said.

"Where we get concerned is wells that are shallow and the casing isn't far enough to end up protecting the well," said Greg Crumpton, a local health official. "We're not sure of the effects the sinkhole can cause. We just know there is a possibility of a health effect and that's what we're out here to try gathering information."

Cleanup efforts, originally set for midweek, have been pushed back a day or two as county officials still need to contact homeowners' insurance companies. County cleanup crews can't do any work on much of the site without the homeowners and insurance companies' permission since they are private property, Guthrie said.

The water level in the sinkhole has dropped five feet since Friday, officials said.

Fencing was erected around the five evacuated homes and power has been shut off to the houses.

"As far as people moving back in, we're still at a point where they can't move back in," Guthrie said. "I'm still looking at several days before that can even happen."

Meanwhile, a small sinkhole opened up this week in the retirement community, The Villages. WFTV in Orlando reports that hole opened up between two homes. No damage to the homes has been reported, but a resident of one of the homes has decided to temporarily move out until engineers can evaluate the structure.

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Information from: WFTV-TV, http://www.wftv.com/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - Opponents of President Donald Trump's ban on refugees and visitors from six mostly Muslim countries are urging the Supreme Court to leave in place a federal judge's order that would relax restrictions on entry into the United States.

The lead challengers say in a high court filing Tuesday that the administration's argument in favor of a broader travel ban that excludes grandparents and grandchildren is "nonsense." Up to 24,000 refugees could be affected by the Supreme Court's decision.

The administration is appealing a ruling from U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson that requires the government to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States. Watson also vastly expanded the family relations that refugees and visitors can use to get into the country.

Last month, the justices allowed the administration to partially reinstate a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on refugees from anywhere in the world.

But the court's ruling exempted a large swath of refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or an entity in the U.S. The justices did not define those relationships but said they could include a close relative, a job offer or admission to a college or university.

The Trump administration then defined the relationships as people who had a parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the U.S. It also said that refugee resettlement agencies didn't count because their relationships are with the government, not the refugees.

But Hawaii and other travel plan opponents went back to court to seek a broader list of relations and groups that might be used to allow people to get into the country.

Watson issued his order last week, including grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. He also included charitable and religious groups that are working to resettle refugees in the U.S.

In its appeal Friday night, the Justice Department said Watson's interpretation of the Supreme Court's ruling on what family relationships qualify "empties the court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members. Treating all of these relationships as 'close familial relationship(s)' reads the term 'close' out of the Court's decision."

Hawaii's high court filing said Watson "faithfully applied" the Supreme Court's ruling, and allows the government to enforce the ban against countless residents of the six countries and roughly 175,000 refugees who do not have the required relationship with a relative or organization in the U.S.

More than 40 former U.S. officials, including former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and John Kerry, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Directors Michael Hayden and Leon Panetta, filed a separate legal brief in support of Hawaii.

The justices already have scheduled arguments about the travel ban for October. They could rule anytime on the rules for enforcing the ban.
ATLANTA (AP) - An appeals court says the federal government improperly ordered the deportation of a former Nicaraguan rebel fighter who had been in the U.S. for more than three decades.

Roger Ricardo Alfaro, who fought as a U.S.-trained Contra rebel to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, fled to the U.S. in 1981. A year later, he got his status changed from tourist to lawful permanent resident.

He was deported in January 2015 after immigration authorities said he lied about never having been in prison when he applied for that status change, saying he'd been imprisoned by fellow rebels.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that Alfaro did not lie because he hadn't actually been in prison. His lawyer says Alfaro now hopes to return to Florida.
BEIRUT (AP) - The family of a Lebanese man who has been held in Iran for nearly two years said Tuesday his condition is deteriorating three weeks after he went on a hunger strike.

Nizar Zakka, 50, was rushed to a hospital on Sunday, where he refused an IV, his brother Ziad told The Associated Press. He said his brother is prepared to die if he is not released, and refused to sign documents in Farsi, a language he doesn't understand.

Zakka, who has permanent U.S. residency, went missing on Sept. 18, 2015, during his fifth trip to Iran. Two weeks later, Iranian state TV reported that he was in custody and suspected of "deep links" with U.S. intelligence services.

Ziad Zakka, brother of Nizar Zakka who is imprisoned in Iran, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The family of a U.S. permanent resident who has been held in Iran for nearly two years says he is in a desperate condition three weeks after starting a hunger strike adding that it is either that he be released or will die in custody. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

It showed what it described as an incriminating photo of Zakka and three other men in army-style uniforms, two with flags and two with rifles on their shoulders. But the photo was actually from a homecoming event at Zakka's prep school, the Riverside Military Academy in Georgia, according to the school's president and his brother.

Last September, Zakka was sentenced to 10 years in prison and handed a $4.2 million fine after being convicted of espionage by a security court.

Zakka's family denies the allegations. His brother said he had been invited to attend a conference at which President Hassan Rouhani spoke of sustainable development and providing more economic opportunities for women. He showed the AP a letter of invitation for his brother from Iranian Vice President Shahindokht Molaverdi.

"He is completely losing hope in life, and this is the most difficult period a human being might reach," Zakka said in an interview in Beirut, adding that he had urged his brother to end the hunger strike when he spoke to him by phone early Tuesday.

The family has urged Lebanese President Michel Aoun to raise Zakka's case when he visits Iran in August. Aoun is a close ally of Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese group.

"We hope that President Aoun will reach a happy ending in this matter," said Majed Dimashkiyeh, a lawyer for the family who has sent an official letter to Aoun asking him to intervene with Iranian authorities.

Zakka, who used to live in Washington, leads the Arab ICT Organization, or IJMA3, an industry consortium from 13 countries that advocates for information technology in the region.

The Associated Press reported in May last year that IJMA3 had received at least $730,000 in contracts and grants since 2009 from both the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID.

Ziad Zakka said their mother passed away last July. He said she had sent a letter to Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Rouhani through the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, telling them that "my dream is to see Nizar."

Majed Dimshkiyeh, lawyer of Nizar Zakka who is imprisoned in Iran, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The family of a U.S. permanent resident who has been held in Iran for nearly two years says he is in a desperate condition three weeks after starting a hunger strike adding that it is either that he be released or will die in custody. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Ziad Zakka, brother of Nizar Zakka who is imprisoned in Iran, speaks with his brother's lawyer Majed Dimshkiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The family of a U.S. permanent resident who has been held in Iran for nearly two years says he is in a desperate condition three weeks after starting a hunger strike adding that it is either that he be released or will die in custody. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Revelations that a Russian developer's representative was the eighth attendee at a Trump Tower campaign meeting arranged by President Donald Trump's eldest son prompted a new round of castigation on Tuesday from Democrats. It also brought word that the special counsel investigating possible Trump campaign ties to Russia wants more information about the sit-down.

Officials from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller reached out over the weekend to a lawyer for Ike Kaveladze, who also goes by the name Irakly Kaveladze, attorney Scott Balber told The Associated Press. Kaveladze works for a Russian developer who once partnered with Trump to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow,

Balber's comments are the first public indication that Mueller is probing the June 2016 gathering in Trump's namesake New York City skyscraper.

FILE - In this July 11, 2017 file photo, Donald Trump Jr., left, speaks in New York. A lawyer for a Russian developer says a company representative was the eighth person at a Trump Tower meeting brokered by Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In emails, Trump Jr. enthusiastically agreed to the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and others after he was promised dirt on his father's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. He has since denied such material ever materialized.

Kaveladze works for Emin and Aras Agalarov and was there to represent them, according to Balber, who is serving as legal counsel for both Kavaladze and the Agalarovs. The father and son, who worked with Trump on the pageant in 2013, were named in the emails that promised damaging information on Clinton.

Balber cast Kaveladze as a minor player in the meeting, saying he had "no idea what the subject of the meeting was until an hour before" and doesn't remember saying anything other than his name during the discussion. Balber said Kaveladze believed he was attending the meeting to translate for Veselnitskaya, but the attorney brought her own interpreter.

Veselnitskaya said the meeting focused on U.S.-Russian adoption policies and a sanctions law. She has denied working for the Russian government.

Democratic lawmakers skeptical of that account repeated their concerns on Tuesday.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his panel wanted to talk to the meeting's attendees.

"I doubt if this individual who had a history of setting up thousands of fake accounts in Delaware was really there to talk about Russian adoptions," Warner said.

Warner appeared to be referring to a 2000 New York Times story that identified Kaveladze as running a company cited in a Government Accountability Office report for laundering $1.4 billion in wealthy foreigners' funds via U.S. banks using thousands of Delaware corporations.

Former Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, who ordered the GAO report, called Kaveladze the "poster child" of using hidden ownership of American shell corporations to launder money.

Balber disputed that characterization, noting that no criminal charges were filed in the case.

The meeting was also attended by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, music publicist Rob Goldstone and Rinat Akhmetshin, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer. Trump Jr. scheduled the gathering after Goldstone, a British publicist for Emin Agalarov, said the elder Agalarov had met with a Russian prosecutor who offered to provide the campaign with damaging information about Clinton.

Balber denied such a meeting ever took place and said he didn't know why Goldstone made the assertion. He said Goldstone stopped working for Emin Agalarov in January for reasons unrelated to last year's meeting.

In an online profile, Kaveladze lists himself as a vice president of Russia-based Crocus Group, Aras Agalarov's firm, and says in a separate LinkedIn profile that he handled tax preparation for the company.

He holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of New Haven in Connecticut, according to those profiles. His most recent U.S. address appears to be in Huntington Beach, California, although several websites he maintains say he is based in Moscow. He didn't respond to multiple attempts to reach him through his online sites.

Kaveladze was named a vice president of the Crocus Group in 2004. He lists among his achievements the development of Russia's Far Eastern Federal University, a cluster of more than 70 college buildings near Vladivostok that Agalarov built, according to websites that contain profiles of him. In 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the facility and, a year later, gave Agalarov a national "Order of Honor."

The Times reported in 2000 that Kaveladze was born in the Soviet Republic of Georgia in 1960 and graduated from the Moscow Finance Academy - a degree that Ike Kaveladze also reports on his LinkedIn and internet pages. The newspaper reported he operated a firm called International Business Creations, which the GAO report said opened the bank accounts based on the Delaware shell companies.

Also Tuesday, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said Mueller had approved Manafort and others to testify before the panel, though it was unclear if Manafort would agree to talk.

A person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigations, said Manafort hasn't committed to appearing next week and hasn't decided which committees he'll meet with.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jeff Horwitz in Washington, Desmond Butler in Baltimore, and Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report.
A lot has happened since my last blog post more than seven months ago. In the fall I made several trips - in October to Wyoming for the annual meeting of ...

3 years ago
JERUSALEM (AP) - A dispute over metal detectors is escalating into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a Jerusalem shrine that has triggered major Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in the past.

Israel says installing the devices at the gates to the walled compound after Palestinians launched an attack there last week is a routine security measure. Palestinians claim Israel is trying to expand control over the Muslim-run site that is also revered by Jews.

Muslim worshippers have stepped up protests following an appeal from clerics to pray in the streets rather than submit to the new procedures. The confrontation could come to a head Friday, the highlight of the Muslim religious week, when tens of thousands typically converge on the holy site for prayers.

Palestinians pray outside the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A dispute over metal detectors has escalated into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a contested Jerusalem shrine that has been at the center of violent confrontations in the past.. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

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WHAT CAUSED THE LATEST TENSIONS?

Three members of Israel's Arab Muslim minority fired from the sacred compound at a police post near one of the gates on Friday, killing two Israeli officers before being shot dead. Israel's police chief said they had hidden weapons in the compound beforehand and ordered it closed for two days of searches. The closure marked only the third time the shrine had been closed since Israel captured Jerusalem's Old City and its holy sites, along with other territories, in 1967.

On Sunday, Israel began gradually reopening the site. By Tuesday, five of the eight gates used by Muslims had been fitted with metal detectors, and three of those five gates were open, Muslim officials said. A ninth gate, used by non-Muslim visitors, previously had been fitted with metal detectors and was also open Tuesday.

WHY IS THE SHRINE IMPORTANT?

The Jerusalem landmark is the centerpiece of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, looming large in rival national and religious narratives.

Jews revere it as the Temple Mount, or home of biblical Temples destroyed two millennia ago. It is the holiest site of their religion. For now, Jews worship at the Western Wall, a retaining wall of the compound.

Muslims believe the hilltop compound marks the spot from which Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Known to them as the Noble Sanctuary, it is the third holiest site of Islam and houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques.

WHO CONTROLS IT?

After capturing east Jerusalem, including its Old City, and the West Bank in 1967, Israel sought to avoid a confrontation with the Muslim world. It allowed Muslims to keep administering the Jerusalem compound. Jews could visit, but not pray there.

Jordan, east Jerusalem's pre-1967 ruler, remained custodian of the shrine. Employees of the Muslim administration, or Waqf, stayed on Jordan's payroll.

For decades, the status quo held, in part because leading rabbis, citing religious purity laws, banned Jews from entering. In recent years, religious opinion has shifted, and growing numbers of Jews are visiting the compound, with Israeli police and Waqf guards enforcing the no-prayer rule.

This shift has stoked Muslim fears of a purported Israeli plan to expand Jewish control there. Israel has denied this, most recently after the weekend attack when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the "status quo will be preserved."

WHO IS THE GATEKEEPER?

The two sides disagree.

Jordan and the Waqf have said that after 1967, the Waqf remained in charge of who can enter the compound. They said this rule was in place until 2000, when a provocative visit to the site by then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that only ebbed in 2005.

Israel says it has always been in charge of security at the compound, including the gates.

In recent years, Israeli security forces have typically been posted outside the gates, conducting spot checks of some of those entering or holding the ID cards of suspected troublemakers until the end of prayers. At times of heightened tensions, police enforce Israeli access restrictions, such as an entry ban for men below a certain age.

Waqf guards are posted inside the gates and have the right to turn any visitors away.

THE ISRAELI VIEW

Israel says the metal detectors are a routine security measure.

"Two Israeli police officers were just murdered on the Temple Mount by terrorists who smuggled in guns," government spokesman David Keyes said Tuesday. "Magnetometers are vital for security. That's why they are at the Western Wall and at holy sites around the world."

Police would not say what was found in the search of the compound. On Sunday, Israel's Army Radio quoted the Jerusalem police chief as saying officers found dozens of knives as well as slingshots, stun grenades and binoculars, but no guns or live ammunition.

Israel previously accused Waqf officials of allowing Palestinian protesters to hoard stones, sticks and firecrackers for use in confrontations with police.

THE PALESTINIAN VIEW

Muslim clerics and Palestinian politicians contend Israel is changing the status quo under the guise of security,

Ikrema Sabri, a top Muslim official, said installing the detectors "is an attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty over the mosque" compound.

Rami Hamdallah, the prime minister of the Palestinian autonomy government in the West Bank, expressed his "absolute rejection of Israel's security pretexts in changing the status quo." He also warned of a "deterioration of the security situation" if the measures continue.

The local Muslim leadership and the Jordanian-run Waqf have urged the faithful to pray in "streets and alleys" rather than pass through the metal detectors.

Since Sunday, there have been sporadic clashes between small groups of Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli security forces in and near the Old City. Meanwhile, worshippers have lined up in the streets, dozens at a time, to perform prayers in the streets.

MUSLIM ARAB WORLD

The Arab League, an umbrella group of Arab countries, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have issued separate statements calling on Israel to lift the security measures.

Jordan's King Abdullah II spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Saturday, before the reopening of the shrine, to condemn the attack but also call for de-escalation. The two countries have discreet security ties, but frequently clash over Israel's policies at the Jerusalem site.

Jordan's ruling Hashemite dynasty, with ancestry said to go back to Prophet Muhammad, derives much of its legitimacy from custodianship over the shrine.

Underscoring the importance of that role, a headline Tuesday in the state-run Jordan Times daily read: "Arab League praises king's efforts to protect Jerusalem."

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Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Sunday, July 16, 2017 file photo, Israeli border police officers stand guard near metal detectors at the entrance to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. A dispute over metal detectors has escalated into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a contested Jerusalem shrine that has been at the center of violent confrontations in the past.. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)

A Palestinian man walks past a metal detector at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A dispute over metal detectors has escalated into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a contested Jerusalem shrine that has been at the center of violent confrontations in the past.. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian woman walks past a metal detector at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A dispute over metal detectors has escalated into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a contested Jerusalem shrine that has been at the center of violent confrontations in the past.. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
DETROIT (AP) - The lawyer for a Detroit-area doctor at the center of a female genital mutilation investigation says the case is stretching to Chicago and Los Angeles.

In a court filing Tuesday, Shannon Smith says federal authorities have sent target letters to people in those cities and in Minnesota. She made the disclosure to show the complexity of the case and explain why Dr. Jumana Nagarwala should be released from jail to prepare for trial.

She didn't explain the involvement of those people.

A bond hearing is planned for Wednesday.

Nagarwala is charged with cutting at least six girls at a clinic in suburban Detroit, including two girls from Minnesota. The doctor denies any crimes and says she performed a religious custom that is sacred to her Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra.
BERLIN (AP) - A German court has sentenced a 25-year-old Syrian citizen to three years in prison for membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

A higher regional court in Stuttgart sentenced the man, whose name was not released, on Tuesday for membership in the Nusra Front in Syria in 2013 and 2014 and for using machine guns in battles at different checkpoints of the extremist group.

The man's defense had claimed that as part of the Nusra Front he was fighting the IS extremist group, "which is being fought against by the entire free world," but the court said fighting in a terrorist group cannot be justified because it is battling another terrorist group.

The court's statement said the man arrived in Germany in 2015, but didn't provide any further details.
WASHINGTON (AP) - An international robotics competition in Washington attracted teams of teenagers from more than 150 nations. The team that drew the most attention at the FIRST Global Challenge, which ended Tuesday, was a squad of girls from Afghanistan who were twice rejected for U.S. visas before President Donald Trump intervened. But there were even more stories than there were teams. Here are a few:

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GIRL POWER:

Lida Azizi, center, picks up a teammate with Team Afghanistan in the air as they celebrate after competing in the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. The challenge is an international robotics event with teams from over 100 countries. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Sixty percent of the teams participating in the competition were founded, led or organized by women. Of the 830 teens participating, 209 were girls. And there were six all-girl teams, including not only the Afghan squad but also teams from the United States, Ghana, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Vanuatu's nickname: the "SMART Sistas."

Samira Bader, 16, on the Jordanian team, says "it's very difficult for us because everyone thinks" building robots is "only for boys." She said her team wants to prove that "girls can do it."

The three-girl U.S. team included sisters Colleen and Katie Johnson of Everett, Washington, and Sanjna Ravichandar of Plainsboro, New Jersey. Colleen Johnson, 16, said her team looks forward "to a day when an all-girls team is going to be no more special than an all-boys team or a co-ed team, just when that's completely normal and accepted."

The team competing from Brunei was also all female, though a male member previously worked on the project.

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AN UNUSUAL ALLIANCE:

The United States and Russia were on the same side Tuesday. During the fourth round of the competition, the U.S. team was paired with teams from Russia and Sudan to work as an alliance.

The robots all the teams in the competition created were designed with the same kit of parts and do the same task: pick up and distinguish between blue and orange balls. To score points, teams deposited the blue balls, which represented water, and the orange balls, which represented contaminants, into different locations. Each three-nation alliance competed head to head in 2  minute games.

Both U.S. and Russian teams complimented their counterparts after their game Tuesday. Russian team member Aleksandr Iliasov said of the U.S. team: "They cooperate well." And U.S. team member Colleen Johnson called the Russian team's robot "very innovative," saying they had smartly used extra wheels and gears and zip ties to keep balls inside their robot.

Despite their good collaboration, U.S.-Russia-Sudan fell short, losing 40 to 20 to Zimbabwe, Moldova and Trinidad and Tobago.

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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS:

The team from Iran got some help building their robot from American students. It turns out that the competition's kit of robot parts including wheels, brackets, sprockets, gears, pulleys and belts was not approved for shipment to Iran due to sanctions involving technology exports to the country. So the competition recruited a robotics team at George C. Marshall high school in Falls Church, Virginia, to help. Iran's team designed the robot, and about five Marshall students built it in the United States.

The team explained on its competition webpage that "our friends in Washington made our ideas as a robot."

Because of the time difference between the countries, the three-member team and its mentor were sometimes up at midnight or 3 a.m. in Iran to talk to their collaborators.

Amin Dadkhah, 15, called working with the American students "a good and exciting experience for both of us." Kirianna Baker, one of the U.S. students who built the robot, agreed. "Having a team across the world with a fresh set of eyes is very valuable," she said.

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TEAM HOPE:

A group of three refugees from Syria competed as team "Refugee," also known as team "Hope." All three fled Syria to Lebanon three years ago because of violence in their country.

Mohamad Nabih Alkhateeb, Amar Kabour and Maher Alisawui named their robot "Robogee," a combination of the words "robot" and "refugee."

Alkhateeb, 17, and Kabour, 16, say they want to be robotics engineers, and Alisawui wants to be a computer engineer. Kabour said it's important to the team to win, to "tell the world" refugees are "here and they can do it."

Alkhateeb also said living as a refugee has been difficult, but he hopes to someday return home.

"I will go back after I have finished my education so I can rebuild Syria again," he said.

Some 11 million people - half the Syrian population - have been forced from their homes.

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RESULTS:

Teams left with gold, silver and bronze medals in a variety of categories.

The Europe team won a gold award for getting the most cumulative points over the course of the competition. Poland got silver and Armenia bronze. Finland won a gold award for winning the best win-loss record. Silver went to Singapore and bronze to India.

There were also awards for engineering design, innovation and international unity, among others. The Afghanistan team won a silver medal for "courageous achievement." The award recognized teams that exhibited a "can-do" attitude even under difficult circumstances or when things didn't go as planned. The gold medal in that category went to the South Sudan team and bronze to the Oman team, whose students are deaf.

The 2018 competition will be held in Mexico City.

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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

Students from across the world, from Peru, to Russia, to Slovenia, and from across the African continent, meet during the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. The challenge is an international robotics event with teams from over 100 countries. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Poriya Mizbani, 16, left, and Amin Dadkhah Tehrani, 15, with Team Iran, begin to pack up their station after competing in the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. The challenge is an international robotics event with teams from over 100 countries. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Amar Naser Kabour, center, and Mohammad Mahir Ghssan Alisawaui, right, who are both Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, are helped with their robot by their mentor, Osama Shadeh, who is also a Syrian refugee, during the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. Their team is known both as Team Refugee and as Team Hope. The challenge is an international robotics event with teams from over 100 countries. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Rodaba Noori, left, Somayeh Faruqi, Kawsar Rashan, and Lida Azizi, with Team Afghanistan, encourage their robot during their final round of competition, at the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. The challenge is an international robotics event with teams from over 100 countries. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
CINCINNATI (AP) - The Latest on prosecutor's decision not to try police officer a third time (all times local):

4 p.m.

An attorney for the family of an unarmed black man killed by a police officer says they have been ready to push for a federal civil rights investigation in the case.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters leaves after speaking during a news conference to announce his decision to not pursue a third trial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing for murder, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Al Gerhardstein says Sam DuBose's family had a letter drafted and materials ready to send to federal authorities on former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing. That was before Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (DEE'-turz) announced Tuesday that he wouldn't seek a third murder trial for Tensing after two hung juries.

Deters says the case has been referred to the U.S. attorney for southern Ohio, who says he will review it.

The veteran civil rights attorney says they are urging that federal authorities "take seriously this opportunity to hold the officer accountable when the state system couldn't." He says that's "the very reason" federal criminal civil rights laws exist.

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2:40 p.m.

The attorney for a white former police officer is expressing relief that a prosecutor has decided not to try his client for a third time in the 2015 fatal shooting of an unarmed black motorist.

However, Cincinnati attorney Stewart Mathews says the referral of Ray Tensing's case to federal authorities means there's "not total relief." Mathews says he had been wondering the past two years whether the case would go the Justice Department so it wasn't a total surprise.

He says he doesn't think the case rises to the level of civil rights charges, but he says it's not his call.

He says Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (DEE'-turs) made the right decision against another trial, agreeing that a jury conviction wasn't going to happen.

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2:15 p.m.

A federal prosecutor says his office is reviewing the case of a white former police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man during a 2015 traffic stop in Cincinnati.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman says in a statement that federal authorities will review evidence from the state court trials of Ray Tensing to assess whether there are possible federal civil rights offenses that might warrant prosecution.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (DEE'-turs) says Glassman's office contacted his office after the Tensing case's second hung jury. He says his prosecutors have turned over case information to the federal authorities.

Federal authorities recently announced they had ended an investigation without charges in a 2014 police shooting of a black man in Beavercreek, Ohio, Wal-Mart store.

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2 p.m.

Family members of an unarmed black man killed during a traffic stop are angry about a prosecutor's decision to drop the case against a white former University of Cincinnati police officer.

Sam DuBose's relatives have been calling for a third murder trial of 27-year-old Ray Tensing. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (DEE'-turs) told them privately of his decision Tuesday just before announcing he wouldn't pursue another trial.

DuBose's sister Terina Allen says he was "no threat" to Tensing or anyone else. She says she plans to continue to hound Tensing "the rest of his life."

Tensing testified he feared for his life when DuBose tried to drive away.

Referring to Deters' announcement that the case has been referred to federal authorities, Allen says "they should have done both."

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1:15 p.m.

An Ohio prosecutor won't try for a third time to convict a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black motorist during a traffic stop.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (DEE'-turs) said Tuesday he is dropping the case against 27-year-old Ray Tensing because he believes the case cannot succeed.

Two previous juries couldn't reach a unanimous agreement on murder and voluntary manslaughter charges against the former University of Cincinnati officer.

Tensing shot 43-year-old Sam DuBose in the head after pulling him over for a missing front license plate on July 19, 2015. Tensing testified he feared he was going to be killed when DuBose tried to drive away.

The shooting is among those across the nation that have raised attention to how police deal with blacks.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is having lunch with service members to come up with new ideas for fighting the war in Afghanistan.

Trump tells reporters before the lunch on Tuesday that he wants "to find out why we've been there for 17 years, how it's going and what we should do in terms of additional ideas."

He adds that: "We have plenty of ideas from a lot of people, but I want to hear it from people on the ground."

President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, left, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, speaks while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Trump administration has been searching for an improved approach to achieving the goal it inherited from the Obama administration: getting the Afghan government to a point where it can defend itself.

He's largely ceded decision-making to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who is expected to send nearly 4,000 more troops to the country this summer.

President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, left, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, speaks while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump speaks while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
NEW YORK (AP) - It was a far cry from "The buck stops here."

President Donald Trump, dealt a stinging defeat with the failure of the Republican health care bill in the Senate, flipped the script from Harry Truman's famous declaration of presidential responsibility and declared Tuesday, "I am not going to own it."

He had tweeted earlier, "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans."

President Donald Trump speaks while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

This is the same president who thundered night after night on the campaign trail that it would be "so easy" to repeal and replace the Obama health care law on Day One of his administration.

Try and tweet as he might, Trump can't now avoid a share of the blame for the stall-out of that repeal effort.

It's a president's burden to shoulder the nation's problems whether they are inherited or created in real time. Barack Obama took office with the American economy facing its worst crisis since the Great Depression. John F. Kennedy accepted responsibility for the failure of the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, ordered on his own watch.

"That's the nature of being elected president: You own the policies, the economy and the government," said presidential historian Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University. "You own the positives and negatives of the job whether you think it's your fault or not. You live in the White House: You can't disassociate yourself from what happens if you don't like it."

Trump took office armed with Republican control of both houses of Congress and an ambitious agenda that would begin with the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. Six months later, the collapse of the GOP plan was a sharp rebuke for the president, who was unable to cajole or threaten Republicans to stay in line and who exerted little of his diminished political capital to see through a promise that had been at the core of his party since Obamacare became law seven years ago.

The president's disjointed support for the health care plan did little to persuade Republicans to support it, and the fact that his approval ratings had dropped below 40 percent didn't help either.

Trump never held a news conference or delivered a major speech to sell the bill to the public. He never leveraged his popularity among rank-and-file Republican voters by barnstorming the districts of wavering GOP senators. And he never spearheaded a coherent communications strategy - beyond random tweets - to push for the plan.

"The best way to motivate members is talk to their constituents and at no point did he try to talk to Americans about health care reform in any sort of serious way," said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign. "His attention seems to drift with whatever is on cable news on any given moment as opposed to what is on the Senate floor any given week."

Sounding almost like a bystander during his brief Oval Office remarks Tuesday, Trump six times expressed "disappointment" that the Republican effort had failed. And he insisted the fault rested with Democrats and suggested Obamacare should be left to fail on its own.

"I'm not going to own it," Trump insisted. "I can tell you that Republicans are not going to own it."

Democrats blasted Trump's blame game, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying his refusal to accept responsibility demonstrated "such a lack of leadership."

"That is such a small and petty response," Schumer said. "Because the president, he's in charge. And to hurt millions of people because he's angry he didn't get his way is not being a leader."

Despite Trump's efforts to shift blame across the aisle, the White House made little effort to court Democrats.

Instead of initially pursuing an infrastructure plan - which would have likely received support from unions and blue-collar workers, making it hard for Democrats to oppose - Trump opted to tackle the far more polarizing issue of health care first. He outsourced most of the work to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

It became a strictly Republican effort which, due to the party's slight advantages in the House and Senate, had little margin for error. And it was conservatives from Trump's own wing of the Republican party who thwarted him.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus defied him and ignored his Twitter threats. The two senators who withdrew their support Monday night, effectively killing the bill, didn't even give the White House a heads-up before announcing their decisions. And even though Trump allies have threatened to aid primary challengers to a pair of on-the-fence senators - Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada - the Republicans did not cave, potentially setting a worrisome precedent for the White House as it tries to move ahead with the rest of its stalled agenda.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser, believes that both Congress and the White House share blame after seemingly forgetting that "opposition parties pass press releases that get vetoed, while governing parties pass bills in which every paragraph gets scrutinized."

"I hope the president learns that do something really, really big, you need to be disciplined and focused and sort out your communications program," said Gingrich. "So far, they are clearly not capable of doing that."

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Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Jill Colvin and Catherine Lucey contributed from Washington.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Jonathan Lemire has covered the White House and politics for The Associated Press since 2013.

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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
French president Emmanuel Macron has denounced his countrys collaboration in the Holocaust, attacking those who still downplay the French role in sending tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths.

Mr Macron said it was indeed France that organised this, adding not a single German was directly involved, but French police collaborating with the Nazis.

Mr Macron, commemorating 75 years since a mass round-up of Jews, dismissed arguments by French far-right leaders that the collaborationist Vichy regime did not represent the French state, saying that is convenient, but it is false.

President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Michel Euler/AP)

At a ceremony attended by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Macron also pledged to fight continued anti-Semitism.

He called for a thorough investigation into the recent killing of a Parisian woman believed to be linked to anti-Jewish sentiment.

The emotional ceremony at the Vel dHiv stadium outside Paris included speeches by French Jewish leaders.

It was at this site during Nazi Germanys occupation of France in the Second World War that French police rounded up some 13,000 people on July 16-17 1942, before they were sent to camps. Fewer than 100 survived.

Pro-Palestinian activists in Paris. (Michel Euler/AP)

Pro-Palestinian and other activists protested against Mr Netanyahus appearance, criticising Jewish settlement policy and the blockade of Gaza.

Mr Macron called it a natural gesture to invite Netanyahu.

But the president, who was due to hold separate talks with Mr Netanyahu, told the Journal Du Dimanche newspaper he is not trying to confuse the subject of the commemoration and Franco-Israeli relations.
A man who feels entombed by a terminal illness has taken his fight for choice at the end of life to the High Court.

Noel Conway, a 67-year-old grandfather and retired lecturer, is challenging the current law on assisted dying.

Mr Conway, from Shrewsbury, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in November 2014 and is not expected to live beyond 12 months.

Supporters of Noel Conway outside the Royal Courts of Justice

He is reliant for 20 hours each day on a non-invasive ventilation device and was not well enough to be at the hearing in London on Monday, although he hopes to attend by video link on Wednesday.

When he has less than six months to live and retains the mental capacity to make the decision, he wishes to be able to enlist assistance from the medical profession to bring about a peaceful and dignified death.

The law as it stands means that anyone who helped him would be committing a criminal offence.

He wants a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961 is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to respect for private and family life, and Article 14, which protects from discrimination.

Dignity in Dying chief executive Sarah Wootton, front right, with Christie Arntsen, front left, who has incurable breast cancer

Richard Gordon QC, told Lord Justice Sales, Mrs Justice Whipple and Mr Justice Garnham that Mr Conway had expressed graphically the effect of his illness upon him, referring to the feeling of entombment.

He said others in Mr Conways position might consider making arrangements to fly to Switzerland to go to Dignitas to die far from home  and expose anyone who helped with the arrangements to a risk of prosecution.

But he did not see that as an option. Nor did he consider that he could take the step of either himself removing the ventilation device or asking another to do so.

Great show of support at the Court today for @noel_conway Proud to say #ImWithNoel dying people should not suffer #assisteddying pic.twitter.com/UHSgEERCRZ  Francesca Hall (@fran_hall1) July 17, 2017

The choices facing the claimant are therefore stark and unpalatable: seek to bring about his own death now whilst he is physically able to do so but before he is ready to do so; or await death with no control over when and how it comes.

Mr Conway, who is supported by Dignity In Dying, has already been to the Court of Appeal to win the right for what he calls his fight for choice at the end of life to proceed.

The case is opposed by the Secretary of State for Justice, with Humanists UK, Care Not Killing and Not Dead Yet UK also making submissions.

A ruling is not expected until the autumn.
Huddersfield have rewarded three more promotion winners with new contracts.

After handing German pair Chris Lowe and Elias Kachunga fresh terms last week, captain Tommy Smith, midfielder Jonathan Hogg and winger Rajiv van La Parra have all signed new deals.

The trio have penned three-year contracts until the summer of 2020, with the Terriers holding the option of a further 12 months.

Tommy Smith is one of three Huddersfield players to get a new three-year deal

Smith, Hogg and van La Parra played a crucial role in Huddersfields surprise promotion to the Premier League and boss David Wagner says they will also have a big impact at the top level.

In addition to the news of extensions for Chris Lowe and Elias Kachunga last week, the new contracts for Tommy, Hoggy and Rajiv are very important pieces of business for this club, he told the Huddersfield official website.

All three players were so important to the team last season - key to the success we enjoyed - and will continue to be big players for us this season.
Many might not even recognize the name Russell Kirk, and those who do often do not know the true impact of his contributions. Kirk quickly rose to prominence in American political discourse during the 1950s, but fell from the public eye following Barry Goldwaters defeat in the 1964 presidential election, whom Kirk had firmly supported. But at this years Acton University, Bradley Birzer, a professor of history at Hillsdale College, and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies, outlined three major defenses for Kirks lasting relevancy in his lecture titled, Why Russell Kirk Matters.

First, Birzer described Kirk as deeply non- ideological; he was a man who viewed conservatism not simply as a political wing or a reaction against communism, but as something much higher, even transcendent. Kirks negation of ideology manifests in the canons of conservatism he developed. Birzer pointed out that they are called canons because Kirk did not construct a complete system that would be consistent across all times. Rather, Kirk laid out a set of general principles that must be applied prudentially to any circumstance. True conservatism, according to Kirk, required the belief that there is something greater than man, an affection for the variety of life, and a recognition of the orders in society, to name a few. Birzer held that Kirks conservatism was one about the humane tradition which might be important for us, especially in 2017, as were rethinking conservatism.

Second, Birzer argued that Kirk matters for his individualistic anti-individual outlook on the person. On the surface, this seems undoubtedly contradictory, but makes perfect sense upon closer inspection. Kirk repeatedly described his belief in the uniqueness of each person and a deeply rooted fear of conformity but simultaneously argued that being unique for the sake of individuality does not fulfill ones purpose in life. Birzer pointed out that this tension is troubling for us in 2017 because heres Kirk arguing in favor of tradition, in favor of piety, but very much against conformity. In a time where conservatism is being reexamined, Kirk shows that tradition and individualism certainly do not have to be in conflict with one another.

Finally, and most important for Birzer, was Kirks lifestyle of charitable giving. Birzer relayed countless testimonies of the simply astonishing, selfless acts that Kirk and his wife, Annette, carried out which may seem preposterous and bizarre to the average person. Russell Kirk saw himself as an agent for helping others fulfill their purpose in life, which is an aspect that in 2017, in our cynical minds, we have a hard time understanding. But his heart for giving is an attribute all people can learn from, and Birzer claimed, is the one aspect of Kirks life which will surely be his legacy.

For those interested in discovering more about Russell Kirk and his contributions to American political thought, Birzer recommended Kirks Prospects for Conservatives, and Birzers Russell Kirk: American Conservative.

For an additional learning opportunity, come and attend the Acton Lecture Series upcoming event featuring Seth Bartee on the Hard Work of Leisure: Russell Kirks Wisdom on Leisure, Work, and How Christians Can Best Impact Society. Find out more at acton.org/events.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Leicester defender Robert Huth will miss the start of the Premier League season after undergoing ankle surgery which will rule him out for two months.

The 32-year-old has gone under the knife to repair some minor damage he sustained in pre-season training and faces up to eight weeks on the sidelines, the Foxes announced on their official website.

Robert Huth (Mike Egerton/PA)

He will not join the rest of his team-mates on their tour to Hong Kong, where they take part in the Premier League Asia Trophy, instead staying at home to begin his rehab.

Boss Craig Shakespeare told the clubs official website: Robert reported back for pre-season and got into some discomfort with his ankle. Hes had an operation and thankfully it was successful.

Its unfortunate for Robert but we thought it might be worse. Were expecting him to be out for around six to eight weeks.
Medics from Great Ormond Street Hospital are meeting two international experts and Charlie Gards mother to discuss the 11-month-olds condition.

The meeting has been set up after Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, spent around four-and-a-half hours inside the hospital on Monday.

He was given full access to Charlies medical records and hospital and clinical facilities, including diagnostic images.

Connie Yates

Dr Hirano was also given an opportunity to examine Charlie.

The identity of a second international expert is subject to media reporting restrictions.

The meeting on Tuesday is being attended by the team currently caring for Charlie, including a consultant paediatric intensivist, a consultant paediatric neurologist, a consultant in paediatric metabolic medicine, and a consultant neuroradiologist.

Charlies mother, Connie Yates, is also attending, alongside an independent chairman.

(Family handout/PA)

A structure agreed by all parties is in place for the meeting, with key questions agreed by all parties.

All doctors and researchers in the meeting are bound by patient confidentiality.

Great Ormond Street said it would be for the court to decide next steps regarding Charlie.

Charlies parents are fighting for the right to take the 11-month-old to the US for a therapy trial for his rare genetic condition, overseen by Dr Hirano.

Charlie's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Great Ormond Street Hospital specialists say that treatment will not work, and the little boys life support should be turned off.

His parents, from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

Mr Justice Francis has considered the couples latest 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 this weeks meetings.
A woman whose sister was refused entry to the UK to give her a stem cell transplant has died from leukaemia.

May Brown, 24, who had a three-year-old daughter, Selina, hit the headlines last year after pleading with the Home Office to allow her sister into the UK.

According to the family, the Home Office said it was not satisfied that her sister Martha, from Nigeria, would be a genuine visitor or had the funds to cover the costs of the trip.

But that decision was overturned following a campaign and the stem cell transplant was performed at Kings College Hospital in London in January this year.

The transplant appeared to have been successful, but Mrs Brown relapsed in April.

She and her family were told by her consultants last week there was nothing more that doctors could do for her.

The Home Office had reportedly opposed the application (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Mrs Brown died with loved ones including her husband, Mike, by her side last Friday at Kings College Hospital.

Her husband said in a statement: May will forever be remembered in our hearts. She was a strong, beautiful, supportive, wonderful wife and mother. Selina and I will truly miss her.

May was incredibly grateful to the support given to her from ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust), and I echo those words on behalf of me and our daughter Selina.

May will forever remain in our hearts.

We're incredibly sorry to learn that May Brown has passed away: our thoughts are with her loved ones. #Match4Mayhttps://t.co/7fn6esySyM pic.twitter.com/qSbTEps9RP  Anthony Nolan (@AnthonyNolan) July 18, 2017

Beverley De-Gale, co-founder of ACLT, said: In the 18 months Ive known her, I can say May was a remarkable woman who fought hard to beat this terrible illness.

Every member of the ACLT team is extremely saddened by her passing.

Our thoughts are with her husband Mike, three-year-old daughter Selina and Mays sister Martha.

As a result of the #SaveMayBrown campaign, thousands more people were added to the stem cell register in the UK and Nigeria.
Jose Mourinho loves everything Romelu Lukaku is bringing to Manchester United.

The US tour kicked off last week with the 24-year-old completing his big-money move from Everton as United swept in under the nose of former club Chelsea.

Lukaku swapped Stamford Bridge for Goodison Park in 2014 after Mourinho sanctioned the sale of the highly-talented, if raw, Belgium international.

Three years on the pair are reunited at United and the Portuguese loves the way Lukaku has kicked on, with the strikers overall performance in the 2-1 friendly win at Real Salt Lake meaning more to his manager than his first goal for the club.

"At Manchester United, we play to win & thats the mentality when I get on the pitch."@RomeluLukaku9 gets it.  https://t.co/fIamjUNnXR pic.twitter.com/kNCtO9GJsc  Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 18, 2017

I think its just nice for him, but not important for me, Mourinho said.

When he came for the water before he scored the goal, I told him I love everything you do on the pitch, dont be worried about scoring or not scoring because it is not important.

He holds the ball the so well, he plays one touch, two touch so well. He moves, he gets behind people, he attacks crosses, he works when the team loses the ball, he presses well.

"I like everything he does. For me, its easy to feel it because he was my player four years ago or something like that and his evolution was great.

Hes now a top striker and the goal is just a detail. Not important.

"We needed someone like @RomeluLukaku9. He's going to be very important for us."



Read more from @AnderHerrera: https://t.co/yJiv45UMVw pic.twitter.com/ox7LpTVj3l  Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 18, 2017

Lukaku and fellow new boy Victor Lindelof both got another 45 minutes at Rio Tinto Stadium, where Henrikh Mkhitaryan cancelled out Luis Silvas opener for RSL on a night that saw Antonio Valencia sent off after Juan Mata sustained an ankle injury.

The Spaniard, who is likely to be out for a week, had only just come on as Mourinho named entirely different line-up for the second half, just as he did in Saturdays 5-2 win at the Los Angeles Galaxy.

That approach will be tweaked slightly when the International Champions Cup that kicks off against Manchester City in Houston on Thursday, the first time the Manchester derby will have been played on foreign soil after last summers friendly in Beijing was called off.

Houston's NRG Stadium will host the first Manchester derby played outside the UK (Tony Marshall/Empics)

Glamour ties against Real Madrid and Barcelona quickly follow, but Mourinho is more interested in his sides development than winning those matches.

I will try to go for 60 (minutes), 30 (minutes), the United boss said of his planned rotation. "Some players they can play 60 minutes against City and then they will play 30 against Real and vice-versa.

I will try the same. I will try to give minutes to everybody because its an important thing.

"With the tactical work we do in training behind closed doors, when we go to matches of course we to try to do things that we train, but it is very important for everybody to compete. We are going to try to do that.
The mother of terminally-ill infant Charlie Gard has met two international experts at Great Ormond Street Hospital to discuss the 11-month-olds condition.

The meeting, which lasted more than five hours, was also attended by medics from the London hospital.

It came a day after Charlie was examined by Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at Columbia University in New York, who flew to the UK to see him.

Connie Yates met with two international doctors regarding her son Charlie

The little boys parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates want a judge to rule that their 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 the US.

A spokesman for the couple said the family would not be commenting on the meeting as this is a judicial matter and they do not wish to say anything that could potentially harm Charlies case.

Dr Hirano, who has claimed an experimental drug could potentially save Charlie, attended Tuesdays meeting with a second international expert who is subject to media reporting restrictions.

They were joined at the meeting by the Great Ormond Street team currently caring for Charlie, his mother and an independent chairman, a hospital spokesman said.

On Monday Dr Hirano was given full access to Charlies medical records and hospital and clinical facilities, including diagnostic images, for four and a half hours.

Great Ormond Street said it would be for the court to decide the next steps regarding Charlie.

Specialists from the hospital say that treatment will not work, and the little boys life support should be turned off.

His parents, from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

Mr Justice Francis has considered the couples latest claims at preliminary hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He is due to hold further hearings later this month following this weeks meetings.
Michael Matthews won stage 16 of the Tour de France to Romans-sur-Isere as Chris Froome fought off fierce crosswinds to protect the yellow jersey.

Australian Matthews won his second stage of this years Tour in a sprint finish ahead of Norways Edvald Boasson Hagen and German John Degenkolb.

The peloton battled strong winds over lengthy stretches of the 165 kilometres stage from Le Puy-en-Velay, but three-time Tour winner Froome stayed on the right side as the peloton split into pieces over the final 20km.

Michael Matthews

Froomes Team Sky did much of the work to cause those splits, with Irishman Dan Martin caught on the wrong side as he surrendered 51 seconds and dropped to seventh overall, now two minutes and three seconds back.

That saw Burys Simon Yates move up to sixth in the best young riders white jersey, one second ahead of Martin.

Good day for @SimonYatess as he moves above Martin into 6th and gains time in the White Jersey classification too. #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/iO6hO0cx9B  Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 18, 2017

Froome leads the Tour, the closest in history at this stage in the race, by 18 seconds from Italian national champion Fabio Aru, with Frenchman Romain Bardet a further five seconds back.

Colombian Rigoberto Uran is fourth, only 29 seconds down.
Police are appealing for information to help find two missing 12-year-old girls.

Jasmine Thornber, from Blackburn, and Michaela Wotherspoon, from Darwen, left their homes on Sunday afternoon to meet each other but did not return as expected.

Sergeant Kevin Jones, of Lancashire Police, said: Jasmine and Michaela are vulnerable given their young ages and so we are doing everything we can to find them.

Jasmine Thornber is one of two 12-year-old schoolgirls who went missing on Sunday afternoon (Child Rescue Alert/PA)

It may be that they have stayed at a friends house who might not know that they are missing. The parents of these girls are extremely anxious to be reunited with their daughters.

If you have seen them or know where they are, please contact the police immediately.

The pair are believed to be in the Galligreaves area of Blackburn.

Michaela Wotherspoon

Jasmine is described as white, 5ft 3ins, of slim build with long dark hair.

She was last seen wearing a black crop top, black leggings, a black jacket and white trainers.

Michaela is described as white, 5ft 8ins, of slim build with long dark brown hair.

When last seen she was wearing a royal blue Adidas top and light blue leggings with white trainers.

Anyone with information should call 101, quoting log number 1717 of July 16.
A baby found abandoned at a bus shelter may be well enough to be discharged from hospital soon, police said as they made a fresh appeal to find her mother.

The baby girl was discovered in the bus shelter near the Magpie and Stump pub in Towyn, North Wales, at 7.15am on Tuesday.

Police released photos of the infant, who is being cared for at Glan Clwyd Hospital, a week on from her discovery as they appealed for the mother to come forward and give her daughter a name.

Police continue search for mother of baby left at bus shelter

In a video released by the force, Helen Douglas, of North Wales Police, made a direct appeal to the mother.

Renewed appeal to the mother of a baby girl found in #Towyn at 7.15am on 11th July.https://t.co/5xLtKBeU7l  North Wales Police (@NWPolice) July 14, 2017

She said: We think that you placed your daughter somewhere where she would be found and that is why it is important that you know your daughter is making good progress and actually may be well enough to be discharged soon.

Your daughter needs a name and we want you to tell us what you want for her even if you dont feel able to look after her yourself.

She said police were still really concerned about the welfare of the mother and wanted to make sure she could be provided with any medical treatment and support needed.

Anyone with information should North Wales Police by calling 101, quoting reference number V103529.
By Andrew MacAskill and Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - Britain must negotiate a staggered departure from the European Union in the next few months or risk seeing thousands of finance jobs move overseas, the policy chief of London's financial district told Reuters.

The City of London, home to global foreign exchange, bonds and fund management operations and to more banks than any other financial centre, faces upheaval as firms decide whether to shift jobs to continental Europe to keep serving customers there after Britain leaves the EU in 2019.

Catherine McGuinness, in practice the political leader of the historic financial district's municipal body, says Britain and the EU must agree the outlines of any transition before the end of the year or it will be too late.

Britain and the EU began a first round of Brexit negotiations on Monday.

McGuinness, a financial lawyer and finance industry veteran who is in regular contact with the government over policy issues, said some firms in the sector have started relocating parts of their businesses overseas amid frustration at the lack of clarity about what any Brexit deal may look like.

"People need to know now," McGuinness said in an interview, adding firms may move up to 15,000 finance jobs without any deal. "Decisions are already being made."

"We need a clear pledge from both sides of a transition period so that there is clarity for business," she said. "We need this as soon as possible, ideally by the end of the year."

For Britain, a lot is at stake.

Financial services account for over a tenth of British economic output, and the industry contributed a record 71.4 billion pounds ($93.3 billion) in corporate and employee taxes to the government last year.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday the government wanted what he called an implementation phase, but the details of any deal would be subject to negotiations.

Finance minister Philip Hammond called on Sunday for a transition of a "couple of years" and said senior government ministers were becoming more convinced of the need for such a deal.

But McGuinness said there was confusion about what industries would be covered, how long it would last and any discussions on such a deal might come late in the divorce process.

Executives are pessimistic about Britain getting a deal this year - if at all - because they say it must first agree exit terms, notably the rights of expatriate citizens and any money it owes the EU.

McGuinness also urged Britain to take a more conciliatory approach after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Brussels could "go whistle" if they expected Britain to pay a divorce bill for leaving the bloc.

"We need to remember that we are the ones walking out the room," she said.

($1 = 0.7656 pounds) (editing by John Stonestreet)
By Seng Li Peng

SINGAPORE, July 17 (Reuters) - Asia is being hit with a naphtha supply glut that could push the market down further, after spot prices in South Korea already flipped from premiums to discounts in late June for the first time since March.

Discounts in South Korea, Asia's top naphtha importer, widened four times - to $4 a tonne less than benchmark Japan quotes on July 13 - versus a discount of around $1 on June 28.

Naphtha's front-month outright price for second-half August physical cargoes on July 14 was $3 a tonne lower than for the following month, the deepest contango value since mid-October 2016. The contango weakened to $2 on Monday. <NAF-TYO-DIF>

In a contango market, prompt deliveries are cheaper than those further out, indicating ample supply.

"The reason for the naphtha weakness is mainly coming from weakness in gasoline and more regional production ... exports from the Middle East have increased compared with last year," said Premasish Das of consulting firm IHS.

Naphtha is a key feedstock for petrochemicals and a gasoline blending component. Asian gasoline demand has mostly been firm, but uncertain U.S. demand for the motor fuel has meant that Europe has been directing more of its naphtha volumes to Asia.

Japan and South Korea are also running their refineries at more than 90 percent of capacities on average, while Chinese refineries' June throughput was the second highest on record.

Though Asia will remain structurally short of naphtha, the high run rates mean it will have more of the feedstock from local refiners than usual.

Middle East's naphtha supplies to Asia are expected to reach nearly 3.0 million tonnes this month and 2.9 million tonnes in August, data from Thomson Reuters Oil Research showed, higher than the 2.8 million-tonne monthly average for January to June.

Additionally, naphtha volumes arriving in Asia next month from the West, including Europe and the Mediterranean, are running at 1.3 million tonnes for the third straight month. That is 18 percent above the monthly average for 2016.

Based on typical Asia demand for naphtha, this means the region will be hit by at least 200,000 tonnes of surplus supply next month, industry sources said.

At the same time, demand in Taiwan will take a dive as Asia's top individual naphtha importer Formosa Petrochemical Corp will shut the largest of three crackers down for maintenance from mid-August.

"Prices have not reached bottom ... Until end-September, we will be struggling hard," said a Singapore-based naphtha trader who expects as much as 400,000 tonnes of surplus supply.

This will likely keep naphtha margins in the red until winter, said IHS's Das.

Winter demand for naphtha typically picks up as rival petrochemical feedstock LPG is used for heating homes.

(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Vyas Mohan and Tom Hogue)
Many educated people  though perhaps not enough  know that it was medieval monks who preserved classical culture. Between their daily offices, the monks huddled in their cells by candlelight to copy the great cultural artifacts of Western civilization. But why did they preserve works that had been produced by, and often reflected, the pagan ethos of ancient Rome?

In an essay for the August issue of First Things, professor Remi Brague answers questions such as: What is culture? How does Christianity sustain, preserve, or facilitate culture? And why did the monks preserve the Roman equivalent of the trashy novel?

Brague, professor emeritus at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, writes:

Virgil could be read as a prophet of sorts because of the long-held misinterpretation of his Fourth Eclogue, and Seneca was believed to have had a correspondence with St. Paul. But why did the monks keep the classical historians, or the bawdy Catullus, or the lewd Ovid, let alone Lucretius, the Epicurean atheist?

The question had been raised in a lecture delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on The Roots of European Culture. Brague, who spoke at the Acton Institutes Reclaiming the West conference in London, said the reason has to do with the Christians unique conception of culture  one which he contrasts to ancient Hellenic, Jewish, Roman, or Muslim cultures.

While modern scholars show their gratitude (however begrudgingly) for the monks having saved Western classics, the monastics were motivated by a different value: their high conception of the value of work:

They never imagined their task to be cultural. Pope Benedict reminds us of what is well known, but not always understood in its depth: Monks worked and prayed. Their work was grounded in a positive view of labor. This stemmed from a vision of the world as created by a good God, hence as basically good and a fitting arena for human endeavor.

The monks twin tasks of prayer and work, ora et labora, kept Western culture alive. But can Western culture preserve itself without the cult, the worship and prayer that motivated them? Brague asks:

Are we still able to praise? Are we still conscious of possessing something to be thankful for? Do we still have access to somebody to whom we can express our thanks? What becomes of culture without the praiseworthy? Can the worthy (the domain of so-called values) still be worthwhile without a metaphysical ground?

Both his questions, and his answers, reward careful reading. You can read the full article here.

(Photo credit: A mosaic of the poet Virgil holding the Aeneid, flanked by the muses of history and tragedy, preserved in Bardo Museum in Tunis. Public domain.)
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to take "strong and swift economic actions" if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro goes ahead with plans to create a controversial super-legislature known as a Constituent Assembly in a July 30 vote.

"Yesterday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom and rule of law. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator," Trump said in a statement.

"The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions," Trump said.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech)
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

DATA

The statistics office is to release employment and wages data for June at 1200 GMT.

FUELS

Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has pulled back from the plan to launch a new fuel fee that might have resulted in fuel higher prices, state-run news agency PAP quoted PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski as saying.

BOGDANKA

Polish coal miner Bogdanka plans to spend up to 1.3 billion zlotys ($356.81 million) on increasing its mine's resources to 446 million tonnes from 227 million, which will prolong the mine's life to 50 years, Parkiet daily quoted Bogdanka's CEO as saying.

LOTOS

Polish refiner Lotos, which refines mostly Russian oil, is testing the U.S. market in light of potential future oil supplies, Puls Biznesu daily quoted Lotos CEO as saying.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 3.6434 zlotys) (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)
By Andrea Shalal and Tuvan Gumrukcu

BERLIN/ANKARA, July 18 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday blasted Turkey's detention of six human rights activists including a German, and pledged to work for his release.

One of those remanded in custody on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organisation was Amnesty International's Turkey director, Idil Eser. Amnesty said truth and justice had become "total strangers".

Eser, the German Peter Steudtner and eight other activists were detained this month while attending a workshop on digital security near Istanbul.

A Turkish prosecutor asked a court on Monday to extend their detention pending trial on suspicion of links to the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for last year's attempted coup. The court ordered four of the 10 released, the newspaper Hurriyet said.

In unscheduled remarks at a ceremony for athletes, Merkel said the case was another example of innocent people being "caught up in the wheels of the justice system".

She said Steudtner's arrest was absolutely unjustified.

"We declare our solidarity with him and all the others arrested ... the German government will do all it can, on all levels, to secure his release."

The comments were likely to further strain ties between Berlin and Ankara. These are already beset by a host of issues including Ankara's arrest of Deniz Yucel, a Turkish-German dual national who is a correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, on charges of spreading propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting violence..

"POLITICAL WITCH-HUNT"

Amnesty International's secretary general, Salil Shetty, said the decision to keep six of the activists in detention "shows that truth and justice have become total strangers in Turkey".

"This is not a legitimate investigation," he said, "this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey."

In June, authorities detained Amnesty's local board chairman, Taner Kilic, along with 22 other lawyers, also for suspected links to Gulen, who has condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement.

Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the civil service, military and private sector and roughly 50,000 people have been detained since the coup.

Rights groups and some Western allies say Turkey is using the crackdown to quash all dissent. Opposition media outlets have been closed and around 160 journalists detained. Turkey is now the world's biggest jailer of journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The government - which on Monday extended the state of emergency brought in after the failed putsch for another three months - says such measures are necessary because of the gravity of the security threat.

Steudtner's friends, family members and colleagues urged Turkey to release him immediately, saying in a statement that he and his Swedish colleague, Ali Gharavi, had been on an assignment for a development organisation. (Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Andrea Shalal in Berlin and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, July 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Denied an education by the Islamist insurgency of militant group Boko Haram, tens of thousands of children across the Lake Chad region are instead tuning into lessons broadcast over the radio, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The radio syllabus is providing lessons on literacy and numeracy, and staying safe amid the violence, to about 200,000 displaced and out-of-school children in the Far North region of Cameroon and Niger's southern Diffa region, according to UNICEF.

"The level of boredom among children in camps for the displaced is tremendous," said UNICEF spokesman Patrick Rose.

"With this radio education programme, children will receive lessons in a structured way, that keeps them in a rhythm ... so that when they go back to school they won't be so far behind," Rose told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Dakar.

Boko Haram, whose name loosely means 'Western education is sinful', has killed more than 600 teachers and forced over 1,200 schools to close during its eight-year insurgency in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, according to the U.N. agency.

Three years ago, the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by the jihadist group in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria sparked global outrage a celebrity-backed campaign #bringbackourgirls.

The project - backed by the European Union and governments of Cameroon and Niger - is engaging community leaders to share available radios and bring children together for the lessons.

About 150 lessons are being broadcast in both French and the local languages of Kanouri, Fulfulde and Hausa, UNICEF said.

"In the very near future, we hope that children who learn by radio will also receive a certification and pass the school year," said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF's regional director.

Beyond radio broadcasts, school teachers across the region have been trained by UNICEF to identify and respond to security threats to protect children from Boko Haram, and to provide traumatised children with psychological support.

Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and some 2.7 million people have been uprooted from their homes since 2009 as a result of the group's attempt to create an Islamic state.

The militants have been driven out of most of the territory they held in early 2015, yet continue to carry out bombings and raids in northeast Nigeria, as well as in Cameroon and Niger. (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
NAIROBI, July 18 (Reuters) - Lecturers at Kenya's public universities have called off a strike over the implementation of a pay rise agreement, after the government offered to pay more cash immediately, their union said on Tuesday.

The lecturers, members of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU), ended a 54-day strike over pay in February and signed an agreement with the government in March for a 17.5 percent pay increase and a 3.9 percent increase in housing allowances.

But they started another strike this month in complaint at the pace of the implementation of the deal.

UASU said the government had undertaken to release 5.255 billion shillings ($50.60 million) this month to pay its members, leading to the decision to end the strike.

"We are not leaving this industrial action with all that we wanted, which was immediate full implementation," the union said in a statement.

It said it had considered the interest of the 500,000 students in the state universities in calling off the strike.

Collette Suda, the principal secretary at the Ministry of Education, confirmed the deal to end the strike. "They have been paid," she told Reuters.

The protest, almost a month after government nurses went on strike, had added another headache for the government ahead of a national election on Aug. 8. ($1 = 103.8500 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Alison Williams)
LJUBLJANA, July 18 (Reuters) - Slovenia plans to take the European Commission to court over a decision to exempt Croatia from a ruling preventing the use of the name Teran for wines produced outside Western Slovenia, the country's national news agency STA reported on Tuesday.

STA quoted Slovenian Agriculture Minister Dejan Zidan, who informed EU agricultural ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday of plans to take legal action by the end of August.

The exception was granted to neighbouring Croatia in spite of protests from Slovenia which claims Teran -- which is an EU-protected product -- can be used only for red wine that is produced in Western Slovenia.

Slovenia and Croatia both declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and are the only two of seven former Yugoslav states to have joined the European Union so far -- Slovenia in 2004 and Croatia in 2013.

The two countries also have an open dispute regarding the sea and land border between them as Croatia continues to reject the border ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration which was revealed last month. (Reporting By Marja Novak,; Editing by Neville Dalton)
By Nelson Bocanegra

BOGOTA, July 18 (Reuters) - Colombia, which narrowly avoided getting its credit rating cut last year, is again at risk of a downgrade as it struggles to meet fiscal targets and investors tire of overly optimistic forecasts by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.

Most economists have already concluded that lower economic growth and weak oil prices will make it nearly impossible to meet the deficit target set just last month. Higher debt issuance, costs associated with a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels and next year's presidential election may exacerbate the situation.

"We believe there is a clear disconnect between reality and the current debt path depicted by the government," said Mario Castro, Latin America strategist for Nomura in New York. He suggested the government was using overly optimistic economic assumptions and aiming to slash public investment in an unrealistic way, given infrastructure needs.

In a bid to calm investor concerns, Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas will trim 5 trillion pesos ($1.65 billion) from next year's budget. He is due to meet bondholders in New York on Tuesday to discuss the nation's finances.

The government avoided a downgrade by credit rating agencies last year after struggling to fill a financing gap as income slumped along with the price of oil, a key industry. Tax reform helped ward off a cut from BBB investment grade by agencies, even though many investors thought it did not go far enough and that another may be needed.

"It's very likely that before the end of this year we will get a ratings cut," said Juan David Ballen, chief economist at brokerage Casa de Bolsa. "The big question is whether they will lower us to investment grade still, or to speculative grade."

In June Cardenas instituted a financing plan based on a fiscal deficit of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product this year and 3.1 percent for 2018. He put the price of oil at $51 a barrel in 2017 and $60 in 2018. Brent crude was at $48.95 on Tuesday, up 1.1 percent.

Cardenas targeted growth at 2.3 percent this year and 3.5 percent next, well above the market's forecast of 1.8 percent this year and 2.5 percent for 2018.

Cardenas also called for a 7.8 percent increase in domestic public debt borrowing for 2017, implying a big uptick, deepening market discomfort.

"People didn't look favorably at the government numbers and some investors have given orders to take profits and go to other markets with better prospects like Mexico," said a fixed income investment banker who declined to be identified.

Foreign investors reduced their Colombian bond holdings by 1.23 trillion pesos ($406 million) in June, the first decrease since October and the biggest ever monthly outflow by this type of investor, according the finance ministry.

Foreign investors own $20.7 billion in Colombian domestic public debt, or one-quarter of the total.

The yield on benchmark Colombian Treasury bonds maturing in July 2024 rose to 6.27 percent on Tuesday from 5.87 percent the day before the financing plan was made public on June 14.

Fitch is worried about the bond issuance, warning that Colombia's gross debt burden is close to 50 percent of GDP, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the average for countries with a similar credit rating.

"If they don't do the necessary adjustment, then the debt's going to continue to rise and that could risk the rating," Richard Francis, director of sovereign ratings for Fitch, told Reuters.

Moody's said weaker growth will also have implications for meeting medium-term fiscal goals.

The government's fiscal wiggle room becomes even tighter, taking into account additional costs generated by the implementation of a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

That will cost about $3 billion annually over the next 15 years, Cardenas estimated in a recent interview.

Add the extra social spending that typically happens during election years, and the outlook becomes less rosy. (Additional reporting by Helen Murphy in Bogota and Dion Rabouin in New York; Writing by Helen Murphy; Editing by Christian Plumb and Jeffrey Benkoe)
FRANKFURT, July 18 (Reuters) - Daimler said its management board had approved measures to cut diesel pollution including an investment of 220 million euros ($255 million) to update over three million Mercedes-Benz diesel engine cars in Europe.

The measures come after German lawmakers last week summoned Mercedes-Benz executives to question them about emissions. At the time the carmaker agreed with the Transport Ministry to undergo another round of emissions tests. "The company is investing about 220 million euros. The service actions involve no costs for the customers," Daimler said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the updates would commence in the coming weeks. Daimler further said it would roll out its new four-cylinder OM 654 diesel engine, first launched in the new E-Class in 2016, across its entire model portfolio.

After Volkswagen confessed to deliberate emissions cheating in 2015, the entire auto industry has come under scrutiny for producing nitrogen oxide emissions in diesel cars, which are blamed for causing respiratory disease.

In May, 23 prosecutors and around 230 staff, including police and state criminal authorities, searched Daimler sites in Germany following allegations of false advertising and the possible manipulation of exhaust gas treatment systems in diesel cars.

Daimler has said its vehicles are road legal but also warned investors in its quarterly report that steps by U.S. authorities to investigate "functionalities", including some which it said were common in diesel vehicles, could lead to significant penalties and vehicle recalls. ($1 = 0.8641 euros) (Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editng by Victoria Bryan)
BERLIN, July 18 (Reuters) - The number of girls living in Germany who have had their genitals mutilated increased sharply in 2016 due to migrants arriving from countries where this is practised, a spokeswoman for a women's rights organisation said Tuesday.

More than 58,000 women living in Germany have had their genitals mutilated, Terre des Femmes said. Spokeswoman Charlotte Weil said that marked an increase of 10,000 compared with 2015.

The group said at least 13,000 additional girls were at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), which is banned in Germany.

Weil said that was an increase of 4,000 compared with 2015.

"It's due to an increased influx from various countries in which FGM is practised, especially Somalia, Eritrea and Iraq," Weil said.

In 2016, some 280,000 migrants arrived in Germany, many fleeing war and conflict in the Middle East and Africa. Some 890,000 had arrived the previous year.

Weil added that it was important to educate people in Germany more about the issue and to hold talks with communities that practice FGM to help protect girls at risk.

FGM is tolerated in some countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Alison Williams)
The Canadian government should fast-track its consideration of the refugee claims of seven people, including the Sri Lankan family, who sheltered US National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden before he left Hong Kong in 2013, the Human Rights Watch reported yesterday.

The Hong Kong government has sent the adult asylum seekers detention notices, indicating that they could soon be deported to countries where they would face a credible risk of persecution and abuse. Their very young children face possible persecution if returned, or separation from their parents if the adults are detained and deported.

The compassionate act of letting Edward Snowden into their homes should never have landed these families in peril, said Dinah PoKempner, general counsel at Human Rights Watch. Hong Kong has failed to protect these families, who fear being returned to abusers who await them in the countries they fled, where they say they were persecuted and tortured.

Prior to boarding the flight that ultimately stranded him in Russia, Snowden hid among others who sought asylum in Hong Kong, and was introduced to these families by their mutual lawyer, Robert Tibbo. The families hosted Snowden for short periods. They have said they willingly helped the young man who, like themselves, was seeking safety as a refugee. A US demand for his arrest in Hong Kong was not recognized and disclosed until after he had lawfully left the territory.

Hong Kong for years has accepted exceptionally few refugees, fewer than one percent of claims. Because of the considerable risk they could be returned, the asylum seekers who helped Snowden have also sought protection from Canada, where they have been privately sponsored for refugee resettlement. The Canadian government is considering their cases, but has indicated through the consulate in Hong Kong that they are not expedited. The average waiting time for determinations on such applications is more than four years,  far too long should Hong Kong seek their prompt deportation to their home countries.

Each of the adults who sheltered Snowden  a single man, a couple with two children, presently aged 5 and 1, and a single mother with a 5-year-old child  allege that they experienced torture and ill-treatment in their home countries of Sri Lanka and the Philippines before fleeing to Hong Kong. The three children were born out of wedlock in Hong Kong and are stateless. Hong Kong does not recognize the family status of these parents and children, and if the parents are detained, there is a risk the children will be separated from them and placed in foster care, causing them further insecurity and trauma.

Although the asylum seekers and their lawyer kept their role secret, the director Oliver Stone depicted this episode in his movie Snowden, and reporters uncovered their identities and began seeking them out for interviews. At that point, they and their lawyer acknowledged their role and granted media interviews.

The publicity brought their plight to global attention, but appears to have led the Hong Kong government to move rapidly to detain and deport them after years of delay in hearing their asylum claims. There is no evidence that these families present any risk of flight, and they should not be separated from their children, Human Rights Watch said.

Once their connection with Snowden became known, the asylum seekers say, Hong Kong authorities repeatedly questioned them, to find out what they knew about Snowden, and denied them benefits for their basic living needs when they referred such questions to their lawyer.

Their situation became even more precarious when it was discovered that, in November and December 2016, Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department officers had been searching for several of them in Hong Kong, questioning other asylum seekers and showing them their photographs. The Hong Kong government did little to protect the asylum seekers in response and has not responded to expressions of concern for their safety by human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch.

The families are now preparing appeals to their rejection of asylum by the Hong Kong Immigration Department, which is currently trying to remove their lawyer from the cases.

Canada should move quickly on these cases and safeguard these people from the prospect of detention and deportation, PoKempner said. No one should have to risk return to torture or persecution because they opened their door to another who feared the same. Canada has a unique opportunity to provide these people and their children both safety and a future.
July 17, 2017

When the arrest of Hossein Fereydoun, President Hassan Rouhanis brother, was announced July 16 at a live recording for a video channel associated with conservative Fars News, the audience erupted in applause. Conservatives have long sought his arrest, and so it was natural they would be elated by this news. While questions remain about the charges, the arrest sends a political message to the president, who is preparing to announce his new Cabinet as his second term begins.

On July 16, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the spokesman for the judiciary, said that bail was set for Fereydoun and since he did not put up the bail he was taken to prison. He added that Fereydoun will be released as soon as he puts up bail. According to an Iranian news website that published Mohseni-Ejeis comments, the accusations against Rouhani are financial matters but not related to any specific bank, as has been previously speculated.

Conservative websites, some of which are affiliated with the countrys security agencies, have thrown various accusations of economic corruption at Fereydoun. Last year, Fereydoun missed a number of important meetings and was rumored to have been sidelined. During Irans presidential election in May, conservative candidate Ebrahim Raisi alluded to Fereydoun, saying that some of the closest people to the president have cases with the judiciary but that Rouhani was preventing the judiciary from pursuing the case.

Conservatives have accused Fereydoun of being involved with the exorbitant salaries scandal of June 2016, in which leaked documents revealed to the public that government employees were receiving astronomical salaries. Fereydoun has also been accused of intervening in the affairs of state-run banks. The administration has denied all of the accusations.

Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the former Tehran mayor who has had his own corruption cases that some believed were politically motivated, told BBC Persian from Tehran that given Mohseni-Ejeis language, it is likely that the case is still in the research stage, despite a bail being set. In the same interview, Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji said this case reflected a power struggle within the Islamic Republic.

Conservative Jahan News reported that the arrest of Fereydoun is the most difficult test for Rouhanis presidency. The article stated that the president can either apply the law equally to everyone, as he promised to do in his campaign, or he can take revenge against the judiciary. Jahan also reported that Fereydoun was involved in hiring the heads of state-run banks and foundations and suggested that these positions were not given without expectations of kickbacks. According to the article, a businessman had signed over property to Fereydouns family members.

The official IRNA news agency reported on July 17 that Fereydoun had been transferred to a private hospital in northern Tehran for a health problem after appearing in court.

Later on July 17, it was reported that Fereydoun had been released on bail of 500 billion rials ($15.3 million).

In other news, on July 16, Mohseni-Ejei announced that an American citizen, Xiyue Wang, was sentenced to 10 years in Iran for spying for America. Wang is a graduate student from Princeton University who was studying the Qajar dynasty. According to Mohseni-Ejei, Wang was part of an infiltration project by the United States. After the nuclear deal, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States would try to infiltrate Iranian institutions to spy and to influence important decision-making centers in the country.
 The Washington Post Notes Growing Hamas-Fatah Tensions | Main | Israel Dismantles Security Measures, But Palestinian Leaders Continue to Encourage Riots 

July 18, 2017

Former Peace Negotiator Acknowledges Mistakes



A former American Arab-Israeli peace negotiator, Aaron David Miller, acknowledged that the U.S. overlooked? negative Palestinian behavior in its attempts to fashion a two-state solution. Miller, a former U.S. State Department employee and long-time author and commentator on the Middle East, made his remarks at a July 11, 2017 book launch at the Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).

The event, attended by the press, policymakers and CAMERA, featured Miller, as well as FDD analyst Grant Rumley and Haaretz contributor Amir Tabon, both of whom were promoting their recent book The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas.

Politicos Susan Glasser moderated a discussion between the three panelists, much of which revolved around the future of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and has been led for twelve years by Abbas.

Miller, who participated in Arab-Israeli negotiations from the 1980s through the early 2000s, reflected on what American negotiators missed, noting:

We overlookedin terms of the state-building capacitywe overlooked so many bad forms of behavior in the maybe well-intentioned pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peacecorruption, authoritarian behavior, incitementlargely because the Israelis, however annoyed and disturbed they were by these trends, were also prepared to subordinate them to the overall goal and objective, and you see the consequences now. Same issues are there.?

One of the things that we foolishly never understood about Arafat [Yasser Arafat, Abbas predecessor],? Miller said, was that he never gave up the gun from the beginning?

Miller pointed out that these Palestinian institutional issues are endemic and stated, the last thing the Middle East needs nowand Palestinians deserve a functional state for many reasonsis a broken, failed one.?

The panelists discussion on Palestinian politicsa topic they all agreed was widely ignored by the mediaalso focused on who might succeed Abbas, an octogenarian who hasnt stood for elections in more than a decade. Miller suggested Mohammad Dahlan, a former Fatah operative currently being embraced by the rival movement Hamas, as a possibility. Rumley stated that its currently a competing race? between Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned murderer and terrorist, and Jibril Rajoub who hails from the security apparatuses.?

Rumley also highlighted the chaos and confusion that might happen in the event of a succession:

What happened when Arafat passed was power went to the speaker of the PAs parliament for 60 days while elections were prepared. Thats what Palestinian basic law says is supposed to happen. The problem with that now is that Hamas won the 2006 elections, so the speaker of parliament is a member of Hamas. Its unlikely in any scenario that the Fatah-dominated PA is going to give power, even temporarily, to a member of Hamas.?

Now, if not yesterday, might be a good time for the media to start devoting more attention to internal Palestinian affairs.



Posted by SD at July 18, 2017 10:47 AM

Too bad Miller woke up so late in the game. He and others still do not get it. A Two State Solution is an Impossibility. Shall I repeat this? The ONLY SOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT IS RESETTLEMENT OF ARABS WHO NOW CALL THEMSELVES SinCE 1964, IS TO THE SURROUNDING ARAB NATIONS FROM WHENCE THEIR FATHERS/GRANDFATHERS CAME DURING THE 1930s.

Posted by: Steve Allen at July 20, 2017 06:32 PM

There is not a double standard, when it comes to the Israeli - Arab conflict; there is a triple standard. The first standard is what the West expects of itself. The second, higher standard, is what the West demands of Israel (and nobody else). The third standard, lower than the first, is what the West deems acceptable for the "Palestinians."

Posted by: Gary Katz at July 25, 2017 08:48 AM

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eylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) wishes to clarify its position regarding the news article published in the Daily Mirror on June 20 (Tuesday) under the headline The dwindling tobacco industry - Tobacco no more. The article which is supported by facts taken from an interview with Mr. Pubudu Sumanasekera, CEO of ADIC, has alluded to CTC in the second paragraph and then gone on to level allegations against the tobacco industry. As the only legal manufacturer of cigarettes in the country and with the initial reference made to the Company in the article, its highly probable that the said allegations may mislead the public to believe that he was referring to CTC throughout his interview as reproduced in the article.

We would like to firstly highlight that as per 2016 statistics, the Sri Lankan tobacco market, which amounts to approximately 7 billion sticks, consists of the legal cigarette industry (53%), the beedi industry (46%) and the illicit tobacco trade (1%). CTC is the only legal cigarette manufacturer while there are over 600 manufacturers representing the beedi industry. Although the legal cigarette industry is highly regulated and taxed, beedi enjoys a relatively more favorable operating environment being under regulated and under taxed. The beedi industry contributes merely LKR 2 billion to government revenue annually.

Ceylon Tobacco Company has operated in Sri Lanka for over 100 years. During this time it has been recognized as one of Sri Lankas most economically impactful corporate organizations, contributing over LKR 87 billion to the national economy through excise, and infusing over LKR 11 billion to the local economy in 2016 alone. We create over 45,000 jobs and support over 300,000 livelihoods across our value chain. The beedi industry is quite a labor-intensive cottage industry that generates around 20,000 employment opportunities. We therefore specifically deny the following statement made by Sumanasekera which read, In comparison with other industries tobacco is not an industry which generates employment, as it is a machine based industry where the use of human resource is minimal.

Sumanasekera has also gone on to suggest that when tobacco cultivation is minimized in the country, tobacco farmers will no longer be exploited by the tobacco industry to act in the forefront despite government regulations against the industry. CTC sources its entire tobacco leaf requirement from local farmers, thereby creating employment opportunities to over 20,000 farmers and supporting the livelihoods over around 80,000 farmer families across the island. Through its interventions and support, CTC ensures that tobacco cultivation is burden free to the state and that tobacco farmers are guaranteed the purchase of their full crop at a pre-agreed, competitive price at the start of the growing season. In addition to this, CTC also provides many other facilities to the farmers such as, all the required agricultural inputs for the crop on a credit basis annually and free agricultural extension services.

And on the ground, CTC offers technical support, maintains a Grower Pension Scheme (which is managed by farmer associations where farmers are eligible to withdraw savings after 55 years) and aids farmers through a phased out loan recovery system in the event of a natural disaster. While there are many parties advocating the curtailing of tobacco cultivation in the country, tobacco farmers are yet to find and alternative crop that offers them the significant and sustainable socio-economic benefits of tobacco. Its therefore no surprise that tobacco farmers want to grow tobacco; a fact that they have continuously conveyed to the Government when suggestions are made to curtail cultivation.

"Through its interventions and support, CTC ensures that tobacco cultivation is burden free to the state and that tobacco farmers are guaranteed the purchase of their full crop at a pre-agreed, competitive price at the start of the growing season"

Furthermore, Sumanasekera has gone on to say that tobacco cultivation uses very high amounts of insecticides and pesticides, which cause many health hazards, including chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka. He has also stated that the Government has already decided to stop growing tobacco due to heavy erosion of soil caused by tobacco cultivation and that this will protect the children of tobacco farming families from the risk of lung disease.

Cigarette tobacco farmers use less than 0.1% of the countrys total arable land (2,500 Ha) for cultivation and have continuously reduced their land dependency through year on year yield improvements achieved under the guidance and support of CTC. In addition to the tobacco grown for the manufacture of CTC products, in 2016, around 2,700 Ha of land was used for the cultivation of tobacco for other products such as beedi and chewing betel. Cultivation of cigarette tobacco is carried out under close supervision of the Department of Agriculture.

Unlike other agricultural or cash crops, cigarette tobacco farmers use minimal amounts of chemical fertilizers adopting internationally recognized methods such as integrated pest management systems to reduce dependence on chemical pesticides. CTC was the pioneer in introducing soil conservation techniques such as Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) as early as the 1990s. This technique has been used in the tobacco industry both locally and internationally. Our farmers are also encouraged to use compost produced from tobacco dust as organic fertilizer.

Through CTCs interventions, they (Farmers) also place a high level of focus on biodiversity and environmental protection through Sustainable Tobacco Production (STP). The notable use of paddy husk as fuel in curing barns, which eliminates the use of firewood, must be mentioned here. We would like to point out that every effort has been made to minimize the environmental footprint of tobacco cultivation and that we see no correlation between chronic kidney disease in Sri Lanka and tobacco cultivation. We also fail to see the link between soil erosion and the risk of lung diseases in children of tobacco growing families in the countries.

Another statement made by Sumanasekera refers to the tobacco industry targeting the young generation as new users. As a responsible tobacco company, CTC adheres to strict internal marketing principles and ensures no steps have been taken to market our products to anyone below the age of 21, thereby preventing underage smoking. In fact, we continue to support our retailers and traders by providing awareness through youth smoking prevention initiatives as well as continuous training on age verification procedures.

Its interesting to note that a recent global survey conducted from 2012 to 2015 by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), covering 61 countries, has revealed that Sri Lanka has the lowest prevalence of teen smoking (1.7 percent) in the world. While for years, tobacco control groups have continuously accused the industry of promoting smoking among the youth, we believe that this research and the statistics speak for themselves.

We would also like to stress that ours is a legal business selling a legal product. Whilst we acknowledge that smoking tobacco poses a health risk, we believe that smoking is an informed choice made by adult consumers, who have the right to do so. CTC is the largest tax contributor to the state and plays a catalytic role in Sri Lankas economic development while operating responsibly in the island. Despite these credentials, there have been many instances where tobacco control groups have levelled unfounded, baseless accusations against the company and the industry. Unfortunately, in many of these instances there have been no credible sources nor the presence of verifiable figures.

We are also troubled by the fact that the same tobacco control groups choose to ignore under-regulated tobacco products such as beedi and continue to attack the only legal player, despite beedi accounting for 46% of the total tobacco market in Sri Lanka. Moreover, most parties involved in tobacco control seem oblivious to the threat of the burgeoning illegal cigarette trade.

In the first quarter of 2017 alone we saw the detection of 35 million sticks of smuggled cigarettes compared to the 4 million detected during the whole of 2016. With only one in ten sticks being detected, an estimated 320 million smuggled sticks are estimated to have penetrated the market resulting in a LKR 13 billion loss to government revenue.

CTC reiterates that as a responsible corporate citizen, CTC has always complied with all existing laws and regulations in the country and will continue to do so.
Court directs that the academic harassed by Colombo Uni authorities be paid Rs.17 million

In a landmark decision for the first time in Sri Lankas university history, a senior lecturer who was victimized by university authorities, is to be paid back wages amounting to some Rs.17 million after he was made jobless for more than 12 years from 2005.

Senior lecturer Dr. Dammika Perera was reinstated with back wages after a 12-year battle for justice. The directives were issued by the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the University Services Appeal Board (USAB).

University Council Chairman who is also Colombo Universitys Vice Chancellor Senior Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake promptly instructed that the order of the USAB headed by the former Attorney General, Palitha Fernando be promptly carried out. The USAB ruled that former Councils decision in 2005 to treat Dr. Perera as having vacated his post was both unfair and illegal and was a gross injustice perpetrated on the senior lecturer.

In 2004 Dr. Perera, a senior lecturer attached to the Institute of Human Resource Advancement of Colombo University went to the Keio University in Tokyo on a Postgraduate research scholarship granted by the Japan Foundation. For this purpose, in 2001, Prof. Savithri Goonasekara, the then Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University had approved one years sabbatical leave. The senior lecturer was engaged in Japan in a postgraduate research study on the theme of Impact of Automation on Industrial Relations in sea ports, which was a comparative study among the sea ports of Felixstow in Britain, Port of Tokyo in Japan and the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

In 2005, the University Council presided over by the then Vice Chancellor (VC) considered him as having vacated his post though he went on the fellowship on approved leave. In an erroneous decision, the then University Council had ruled that Dr. Perera had vacated the post. The senior lecturer made an appeal to the then USAB but it was dismissed.



Having failed with the appeal, in 2006 Dr. Perera filed a case before the Appeal Court against the dismissal of his appeal by the USAB. After four years of hearing, in 2010 the Court quashed the USAB decision and further insisted the USAB to reopen the case on merits that emerged in the process of the court hearings. The court of appeal judges observed that the senior lecturer had not left Sri Lanka without informing the University authorities and noted that the then vice chancellor had a personal animosity against him and therefore the decision taken by the then council headed by the Vice Chancellor was the outcome of a personal vendetta.

However in 2010 the then Vice Chancellor of Colombo University, Kshanika Hiriburegama made an appeal to the Supreme Court against the Appeal Court decision. After another five years of legal battle in 2015, the SC dismissed the appeal of the university and affirmed the order of the Appeal Court. In its decision the Supreme Court observed that the university officials had deliberately designed and manipulated a conspiracy against the lecturer and ordered the USAB to finalize the case within three months. In addition the SC also ordered the university to pay Rs.50,000 to the lecturer.



On the direction of the SC, the new USAB led by Palitha Fernando PC ruled that the decision by the Colombo University Council that Mr. Perera had vacated his post was both unreasonable and illegal. In his decision Mr. Fernando recommended to the present University Council to grant Dr. Perera, who was deprived of his service as an academic but left to battle against the injustice caused to him in the hands of university authorities the deserving relief, considering the illegal and unreasonable decision taken by the University Council in 2005.

Acting on this decision and former rulings of the Supreme Court and the Appeal Court, the present Council of the University of Colombo headed by the Vice Chancellor and Senior Professor Lakshman Dissannayake decided to reinstate Dr. Perera with all his dues and arrears of wages over the period of twelve years and four months.

Dr. Pereras battle for justice is unprecedented in the universitys history.
Meethotamulla Shifted to Muthurajawela - What after July 20 ?

The Supreme Court suspended the dumping of garbage at Muthurajawela following an interim order issued on July 5. The interim order is valid till July 20. This order was issued following a fundamental rights petition filed by a group of concerned villagers on June 14. Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), CMC Commissioner, Urban Development Authority (UDA), Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Wattala Pradeshiya Sabha, Commissioner General of Department of Agrarian Development, Director General of Department of Wildlife Conservation, Director General of Irrigation Department, Assistant Divisional Secretary, Geological Survey and Mines Bureau and the Attorney General were cited as respondents.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Priyasath Dep and Justice Upali Abeyratne issued the interim order on the Colombo Municipality which was supported by Dr. Sunil Cooray together with Keith De Mel.

Attempts made by a team of journalists from the Daily Mirror to enter the garbage dumping site were foiled at three guarded entryways. However the villagers had already warned us in advance that the unofficial guards present wouldnt let us in. Somehow, we were led to the nearby office, just to be ignored by an official from CMC. This official spoke in a strict manner and said that they were advised not to allow anyone in without CMCs permission. We somehow managed to take a few snaps secretively. While we were observing the garbage dumping site, more than 10 lorries arrived with garbage. The villagers were concerned about the pressing they do with garbage.

"The school has been affected so much by the prevailing rotten smell that it is reported that some students had fainted. But nobody had been brave enough to comment on the injustice caused to them"

The garbage is pressed, but no mound is made and the dirt is then invisible to the unsuspecting eye. Even though the CMC had asserted that they are dumping only decaying materials to the yard at Muthurajawela, the villagers maintained that theres no such separation of garbage when its released into the garbage dump at Kerawalapitiya. Garbage was dumped in places like Delathura, Kerawalapitiya and Pamunugama before the ban was enforced. Now Kerawalapitiya is the only site that permits the dumping of garbage.

Negombo Road, Wattala, Mahabage, Nagoda and Kandana areas were polluted with the odor of garbage. A school adjacent to one of these garbage dumps is Nagoda Maha Vidyalaya. The school has been affected so much by the prevailing rotten smell that it is reported that some students had fainted. But nobody had been brave enough to comment on the injustice caused to them.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, had issued a statement critisizing garbage dumping in to Muthurajawela, citing that dangerous clinical waste was mixed with other garbage. Fr. Ananda Vithana from the Bopitiya Church also filed a petition.

A reliable source told the Daily Mirror that certain environmental service units of reputed companies are collecting garbage from around Colombo and are carrying on the dumping of garbage to Muthurajawela from midnight till morning. The villagers were unaware of the secret disposal of garbage taking place at midnight.

Our team spoke to villagers of Kudagaspitiya. This village is plagued by flies after garbage dumping started in Kerawalapitiya.

We cant stand others dumping garbage in our village

- Dilini Kanchana, a shop owner from Kudagaspitiya

We are facing grave dangers with a polluted environment around us. Swarms of flies are invading our shop, hence protecting food from flies is such a burden. The drivers and construction workers here used to have food from our shop, but now theres a sudden drop in our clientele after the rains that triggered the fly menace.

No food can be kept outside because it attracts flies within seconds. Little ones are frequently getting sick. Even if we are able to shoo away flies, little ones cant and they are always falling sick. The unbearable odor drifts in with the wind and this problem has gathered momentum after the heavy rains. We experienced floods this year and the flood waters took a long time to recede.

This is because the drains were affected by the filling of garbage at Muthurajawela. We cant stand others dumping garbage in our village.

All of Colombos garbage is here

- H. Malkanthi

We have been living in a hell for the past two weeks. The garbage dump stinks and flies are intolerable. My three grandchildren are always suffering from fever, indigestion and vomiting. Doctors are advising us to keep them away from flies, but how in the world can

we do that? An year ago, an attempt was made to dump garbage from the Wattala Municipal Council here. The villagers objected fiercely with support coming from local politician Jagath Jayathunga. Now they are dumping all of Colombos garbage here.

After the change of government the dumping started

- D.N.P Gayashan



Nearly 40 or 50 lorries arrive to dump garbage here. This happens from around 8 in the morning till 5.30 pm. The Municipal Councils lorries and tippers are seen transporting garbage, dripping smelly juices in the process. They say they are filling the land with soil. As a result when there are floods, the water doesnt drain fast as in the past. Dengue and Filaria are spreading unlike before. There have been attempts to dump garbage here in the past, but those attempts were successfully blocked. Garbage dumping commenced after the change of government.

Releasing harmful chemicals into Muthurajawela kills fish and is a public nuisance.

- Jagath Gunawardena - Environmental lawyer

The EIA report should have been compiled before initiating any waste management project in over one hectare of land, whether the filling happens in wetlands or in a forestland. In Muthurajawela, both rules were broken by not doing an EIA. The Basic Environmental Impact Assessment report should contain the permission of environment officers for the project to be approved. Otherwise legal action can be taken under the 24 B section of National Environment Act.

he clarified.

Its a punishable offense to pollute the water. The release of polluted water in to a wetland spreads it all over and pollutes the wetland. Dead fish is proof that the wetland is already polluted. This is classified as an offense and is mentioned in section 23 H, in National Environment Act. Under the section 27 in Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act, releasing harmful chemicals in to any habitat is a punishable offense, if the lives of aquatic species are threatened. Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department should take action for the impact made on fish.

Releasing harmful chemicals in to Muthurajawela in a way brings death to fish and has become a public nuisance. The Municipality in the area is the first institution responsible for not taking action regarding this issue because it has the power to throw its weight behind the health of the people in their domain. The others responsible are the PHI and thirdly the police. The municipality is bound to take action against the public nuisance in their area that comes under Urban Council Ordinance or some other relevant ordinance.

The Municipal Ordinance specifies that the garbage collected in the municipality should be disposed of in a way, that doesnt disturb the public. Therefore, the Wattala Municipality, which has allowed other municipalities dump garbage on its domain is at fault. he noted.

The Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources should take action against this. The provincial councils, Wattala Municipality and CMC are responsible. There is a law and order crisis due to the poor attitude of the officials. These institutions have contravened public trust and the responsibilities of public institutions. The public wont respect the law, when it doesnt apply in the same way for everyone in the country. he explained as he highlighted the reasons for the development of this unfortunate situation in the country.

There is a potential threat in the future

- P. Nimal Chandraratne - Director General, National Aquaculture Development Authority in Sri Lanka (NAQDA)

We arent the ones who dump garbage there. There is a potential threat to the resources of fish in said area in the future, if garbage dumping continues long term, like in Meethotamulla. And there are some issues regarding the quality of water. We have sent a group there and compiled a report and informed about the situation to the Mayor.



When inquired about the dead fish found from Muthurjawela in the rainy season the DG explained,  There is a heavy organic load in the rainy season and it is natural. With the increase of Nitrogen, Pottassium and Phosperous in the water, an algae forms using all the available oxygen in the water, resulting in the deaths of fish. The garbage problem in Muthurajawela will be sorted out soon. As a professional related to this matter, my opinion is that the ornamental fish breeding centres are harbouring fear because the water is being spoiled there, as a result of the garbage problem.

The DG rejected commenting of the effect on Negombo Lagoon and fisheries there.

Preview of IUCN - Occasional Papers of IUCN Sri Lanka, No. 4, January 2003,

- Lucy Emerton and L. D. C. B. Kekulandala



Muthurajawela is the largest saline peat bog in Sri Lanka. Together with the Negombo estuary it forms an integrated coastal wetland ecosystem spanning 6,232 ha. The estimated economic value of the wetland is around Rs 726.5 million per year and the benefits mainly come in the form of flood attenuation and wastewater treatment. The marsh supports livelihood activities such as fishing and to a lesser extent agriculture. The location of Muthurajawela in a rapidly developing and highly populated urban area makes it an extremely valuable, yet vulnerable ecosystem.

According to the findings of Lucy Emerton and L. D. C. B. Kekulandala,

The Ecological features in Muthurajawela: The marsh plant community is unstable and represents one of the final stages of succession towards dry land formation. High-levels of human disturbance have led to significant change in the composition of dominant plant species over the last ten years, which in turn had an effect on the faunal composition. The vertebrate fauna includes 40 species of fish (4 endemic and nationally threatened), 14 species of amphibians, 31 species of reptiles, 102 species of birds (including one endemic and 19 winter migrants), and 22 species of mammals.

Out of the 209 species of vertebrate fauna documented, 17 (9%) are endemic, while 26 (12%) are nationally threatened. The endemic fish species include Puntius singala, Esomus thermoicos,Channa orientalis, Clarias brachysoma and Aplocheilus dayi. Among the amphibians, Bufo atukoralei, Lankanectes corrugate, Rana gracilis and Polypedates cruciger are endemic to Sri Lanka.

I cannot take garbage home

- The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Commissioner V.K.A Anura

We are issuing separated and decaying garbage in to the compost yard in Muthurajawela. Recyclable cardboard and paper sent to Valaichenai, polythene bags to Dompe and mixed garbage collected from roadside to Kerawalapitiya briefly highlights the present system being operated. Dumping garbage at Kerawalapitiya isnt banned. he specified.

According to the Commissioner, 120 lorries are transporting garbage to the Kerawalapitiya garbage yard daily. He said that garbage dumping at Muthurajawela was started long ago by the Land Reclamation Corporation.

Responding to a query whether the EIA report had been compiled, he said the Land Reclamation Corporation is dumping garbage there. The Commissioner replied angrily to the question by saying, Where does the CMC dump garbage after the ban limited the sites available?  in the form of a question and asked, Can I take the garbage home?.

Garbage is being used as a filling material which is not 100% eco friendly

- Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLLR & DC)- Chairman - Asela Iddawela



 We are managing 90% of the municipal solid waste from CMC. And the rest from Wattala and Kaduwela municipalities were used to start the project on June 1 this year. We recieved 400 tons of vegetable garbage per day.

Replying to the question how they managed the waste after the courts order limited access only to Kerawalapitiya, he said that some part of the portion is sent to a sanitary land filling in Dompe. The garbage is being used as a filling material for the land to be developed, which is not 100% environment friendly alternative, he added.

Explaining whether they have an EIA report, he said, We dont have any EIA report, but weve got approval from the Central Environment Authority (CEA).

Commenting on the tender notice issued by SLLR & DC to off shore sand mining and pumping for reclamation and stock piling at Kerawalapitiya and Muthurajawela, under the procurement No/ S/ 183/ 17 he opined that they have received permission from CEA to develop the area. They are going to build a 60 hectare shelter for compost making in Kerawalapititya.

Dissolved garbage enters the canal and affects the whole eco- system



Chaminda Muthukuda - An information officer at the Muthurajawela Visitor Centre

The garbage dumping sites at Muthurajawela are naturally marshes. Dissolved garbage drips into the canal and affects the whole eco- system. Its alleged that Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (DCSL) is releasing unrefined waste water in to Dandugam Oya.

The company is allegedly taking cover behind the flood season to continue with their nefarious activities. Schools of fish died due to poisoning. People collected the fish and sold them during the first three days, being unaware of these development. Thus, people have been selling and consuming fish unsuitable for human consumption.

This has been allegedly happening regularly, as the above company had been releasing unrefined waste water during a period of four years. Its easy for them to spare themselves of blame. They wont accept their fault. Those who play tricks use political influence to dump garbage at Muthurajawela. he lamented.

People assume that piling garbage remotely wont affect the sanctuary. Yet this area consist of marshes and everything is interconnected. Therefore, existing toxins and toxins that are produced from the garbage seep in to the marsh, creating complicated long term issues. he said.

The public has been invading the sanctuary, filling and building houses. They wont speak up immediately against the illegal activities here, as they also have filled the marsh and built houses in the area. The filling of land is somewhat under control now, but the biggest problem is the garbage. Sometimes politicians forcibly occupy the land. Some time ago, a brother of former minister Kingsley Perera tried to build a hotel, but with the media spring into action, the situation came under control, he explained as he spoke of a problem now having deep roots.

The Ja - Ela municipality used to dump garbage in the sanctuary. The marsh was filled with garbage and the houses were built on those. The rotten garbage, dripping in the form of juice, dripped into the lagoon and contaminated with Muthurajawela marsh. The water drainage system in Muthurajawela was affected by the highway because they filled every other canal except the major canals. Highways have to be built on piles not disturbing the waterways, like they have done here.

Water transportation in and out of marshlands is crucial. Garbage disposal has been happening here for a long time. Even the Ja Ela municipality was dumping garbage here. The affect of garbage doesnt stop harming the environment or people. he said filling us with the background to the story.
s Indo-China border stand-off in Sikkim sector is dragged on for another week its worth recalling perhaps the only connection Sri Lanka ever had with Sikkim, once an autonomous Buddhist land. It is this small beautiful land that gave birth to Pempa Tendupi Serky Cherin who was ordained in then Ceylon as Ven. Sikkim Mahinda or Ven. S. Mahinda and became a towering figure in the freedom struggle of his adopted land.

When Ven. S. Mahinda Thera was living in Ceylon, Sikkim was ruled by a family friend. King Tashi Namgyal was so close to Ven. Mahindas family that a brother of this famous monk was appointed the Prime Minister to the king.

The half- brother of Ven. Mahinda, Kazi Dawa Samdup was also a much sought after diplomat and interpreter from the Sikkim government. His services were sought during the government interactions with the British Royals or the latters interactions with the then Dalai Lama in Tibet. Samdup who later became a lecturer at Calcutta University was known for his groundbreaking translations of Tibetan Buddhist books into English thus making them available to the western audience.



Despite these strong political connections, the flourishing Buddhism in the land saw another brother of Ven. Mahinda becoming a monk. It was this elder brother, Sikkim Punnaji who accompanied young Pempa Tendupi Serky Cherin to Ceylon for further studies in Buddhism. While Ven. Punnaji passed away a few years after his arrival in Ceylon, young Serky Cherin who was ordained as Sikkim Mahinda played a pioneering role in the independence movement here.

By the time the Ven. Mahinda passed away in Sri Lanka in 1951 he had already seen the fruits of his mammoth efforts  Ceylon gaining independence from the British Raj. However the fate of his motherland, Sikkim, looked quite uncertain. Living next to ever powerful Communist China the vulnerable monarch of Sikkim was counting on Indian assistance for full sovereignty for his land from the British and insisted on preserving the monarchy system. Making things easy for the palace, in the run up to Indias independence the ever benevolent Jawaharlal Nehru got a resolution passed in the Indian Constituent Assembly declaring Sikkim and its neighbour, Bhutan as independent states outside the Indian union.

However two parties the Sikkim State Congress (SSC) which worked closely with the India National Congress and Rajya Praja Sammelan, both comprised of Nepalese immigrants, worked against the monarchs plan. They demanded Sikkims accession to India. The palace on the other hand mobilized the pro-monarch citizens, mostly comprising people from the aboriginal Lepcha tribe and Bhutia, a community with Tibetan ancestry, to form another political entity  Sikkim National Party.

By the time the son of King Tashi Namgyal was crowned in 1965 the India backed SSC was gaining momentum. Under King Tashis son Thondup Namgyal Sikkim flourished. During his reign, the per capita income and the literacy rate of the country became twice as high as Indias, Nepals and Bhutans.



Despite this achievement he could not hold on to power. The Indian army took control of Sikkim capital Gangtok and the royal palace in 1975. Indian troops poured into Sikkim and the referendum that followed abolished the monarchy and made Sikkim a state of India. Thus Sikkim became the 22nd State of India.

Today with Bhutan too being a sovereign state Sikkim is precariously placed in the India-China-Bhutan tri junction border with 220 kilometres of its state land bordering China.

Right now a war with a more prosperous and militarily strong China looks suicidal for India which is also already challenged by Pakistan in Kashmir. As a nation that owes a big debt of gratitude to Ven. S. Mahinda, we Sri Lankans only hope that peace prevails in Sikkim in the days and years to come.
The Leader of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) MP Douglas Devananda, in an interview with the Daily Mirror , speaks about the current status of politics in the north and the country as a whole. Excerpts:

In the wake of political crisis in the Northern Provincial Council, what will be the future of politics there?

The Tamil people of this beautiful country always visualised Mother Lanka as a mother with two eyes, namely Tamil and Sinhala languages and with four limbs namely Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. But we were marginalised and humiliated to such an extent since independence by the successive Sri Lankan governments due to their communal and majoritarian politics, we had to wage a struggle to win over our legitimate rights, dignity and self-respect.

Various organisations joined in this struggle and it finally culminated in the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord (of 1987) ushering in 13th Amendment to the Constitution, establishing Provincial Council system, devolving power to the provinces.

"The ITAK was founded on the platform of Tamil nationalism. They always considered themselves to be the sole representative of Tamil nationalism and branded all those who opposed them as traitors."

There are different views about the Provincial Council system. How do you see it?

Unfortunately the Tamil people of the north-east do not fully enjoy the benefits of this devolution, whereas the rest of the country is fully enjoying it.

After the Provincial Councils came into operation, the LTTE reneged on it resuming their armed struggle leaving the long suffering Tamil people in the lurch and misery. The Tamil politicians, who assumed power at the Provincial Council elections since 1988, were so incompetent and rudderless. They soon squandered the goodwill of the Tamil people and lost their trust.

The administrations of the North and East Provincial Councils can only be summed up as lame ducks. No concrete development works have been carried out up to now. All development works initiated by the Central Government have been deliberately stalled such as 65 thousand housing scheme for the homeless and IDPs, Vavuniya Economic Centre, several desalination projects, Iranaimadhu Drinking Water Scheme for Jaffna peninsula and so on. The dengue epidemic is on the upswing and garbage is piling up all over the province but the provincial administration is nowhere to be seen.

They are incapable of doing anything except lining up their members pockets.



What do you think of the TNA leadership?

The TNA leaderships idea seems to be to keep the Tamil people in medieval condition without any modern development and in ignorance, so that they can be their political leaders forever.

They are like the proverbial dog in the manger. This is because the ruling TNA is not competent and not willing to co-operate with the Central Government in implementing the devolution package granted to it in full under 13th Amendment.

Over a thousand Tamil youth paid with their lives to get this Provincial Council system into our statutes. Among these youth nearly half were killed in fratricidal fights. But LTTE first having accepted the peace pact, shortly thereafter renounced it and reverted to their old destructive armed warfare resulting in their debacle and demise causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and utter destruction to their properties.

Northern Provincial Councillors should not forget and betray the supreme sacrifices made by the Tamil people and their political organisations. They should respect the trust reposed on them by the Tamil electors and should not abuse it. Otherwise they would find themselves in the dustbin of history. When the next election comes the people will teach these politicians a fitting lesson for their betrayal and misconduct. In democracy, the people are the final arbiters of their own destiny. Lets not forget this cardinal truth.



Northern polity has now been polarised into three camps-namely Tamil nationalists, ultra-Tamil nationalists and pragmatists. Here the nationalist camp consist of ITAK and their associates, the ultra-nationalists consist of All Ceylon Tamil Congress and its cronies, the pragmatists and realists consist of EPDP and its allies.

"Unfortunately the Tamil people of the north-east do not fully enjoy the benefits of this devolution, whereas the rest of the country is fully enjoying it. "

The ITAK was founded on the platform of Tamil nationalism. They always considered themselves to be the sole representative of Tamil nationalism and branded all those who opposed them as traitors.

They even boasted on their political platforms that Tamil traitors would not have natural death and wished that their political opponents would be liquidated thereby encouraging Tamil youth on the path of terrorism and finally to their annihilation.

Now, they are being outmaneuvered and outwitted in their own game by the ACTC and its cronies. ITAK instead of enlightening, educating and empowering the Tamil people is leading them again to their doom and hell.

ITAK is choreographing a political tragedy for the long suffering Tami people by their unending political antics and comedy.

Of course, its high time for an alternative political leadership to come to the fore to save the Tamil people from this impending and self-inflicted disaster. That leadership should work on a mission mode with an enlightened vision and indefatigable passion.

Otherwise, nobody can redeem the Tamils from their present abyss into which they have been pushed by the self-seeking, incompetent and farcical ITAK politicians.

When the next elections are called they can decide their own destiny by exercising their democratic voting rights to elect a decent, dignified and competent political leadership to lead them to prosperity and security. The recent MPCS elections in the North are an eye opener because the people have thrown out corrupt members and have elected new members with impeccable characters.

Nallur MPCS election is a good illustration for this trend and new phenomenon. Finally people seem to recognise the good people from the bad and the corrupt. Its a good development indeed.



What is EPDPs assessment of the political situation in the whole country?

The unity government was elected on the promise of good governance. On this score some progress has been made but still a long way to go. The people can now freely protest and express their grievances on the streets without fear and intimidation. But the country is staring at a looming debt trap because of the folly of our politicians. Reserves are dwindling, exports are declining and debt servicing has become unbearable. Only tourism and construction sectors seem to be doing fairly well.

This government came to power on the promise of eradicating corruption but it still remains endemic. This curse of corruption has to be exorcised and banished from the face of our motherland forever if our country is to become prosperous.

The Unity Government stakeholders should put aside their petty whims and quarrels and stop trying to score brownie points over each other but instead should put their minds together and act in unison to take the country forward towards the prosperity which it rightfully deserves.

The government should embark on a plan of action to double our national income thereby taking our country into the upper middle income country in a decade.

SAARC should be converted into South Asian Economic Union. ASEAN could also be roped in. A new Bay of Bengal or Bay Economic Union consisting of SAARC and ASEAN could be worked out. All avenues for increasing our trade with our neighbourhood should be explored. In this globalized world protectionism does not offer protection to any country. Trade and export are the sure paths to prosperity and riches. Throughout human history only trading nations had been rich and powerful.



The EPDP was unable to secure enough seats in the North at the last election. What are your plans to revitalize the party?

Our partys performance at the last election was not to our expectation. We were very disappointed indeed. We appointed a high level committee to find out the reasons for this under performance. They have come out with their reasons and remedies for them. One of the major reasons was our partys tremendous work in serving the people was not adequately highlighted during the election by our candidates and speakers. We were not articulate enough in conveying our achievements to the electorates.

Our grassroots level organisations have been reorganised and invigorated. Grama, Divisional, District, Provincial and National level committees have all been thoroughly reorganized and reprogrammed. All the shortcomings of the last election have been remedied and now we are fighting fit to face any electoral challenges that may come in the future.

"Federal Constitution was first mooted by ...S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike long before the independence as a viable political model for Sri Lanka. Ironically, it was spurned and rejected by the Jaffna Tamil political elites..."

How hopeful are you of a political solution through the current constitution making process?

The Unity Government is in the process of drafting a new Constitution. I, myself, am a member of the steering committee of this process. It is hoped, nationally and internationally, that it would provide a political solution to the Tamil national question once and for all.

This process has big hurdles to cross before becoming operational. Whether it would see the light of the day, nobody knows. But our Prime Minister is doing his upmost to get the new Constitution passed and into operation as soon as possible. If a political solution is achieved through a new constitution it is to be welcomed by all.

We, on our part, sincerely and earnestly hope and expect for this process to succeed. In this constitution making process the TNA also should play their role very constructively and should not allow any room for misunderstanding between the two major communities. Its a tight rope walking indeed and I hope and wish that TNA leadership should not mess it up.

Talking in ultra-Tamil nationalistic rhetoric and raking up Tamil nationalistic sentiments have become the easiest ways of staying relevant in northern Tamil politics

Tamils in North and East do not enjoy power devolved under 13 A

People in other provinces enjoy it

All development works initiated by the central government have been deliberately stalled

65 thousand housing scheme for the homeless and I.D.P.s, Vavuniya Economic Centre, several desalination projects, Iranaimadhu Drinking Water Scheme for Jaffna peninsula are among them

Dengue cases rising, garbage piling up everywhere, but Provincial Administration not to be seen

TNA leaderships idea seems to be to keep Tamil people in medieval condition

EPDPs performance at the last election was not to its expectation

In constitution making, TNA also should play a constructive role very constructively allowing no room for misunderstanding between the two major communities

Tamil polity divided into three groups- nationalist camp, ultra nationalist camp and pragmatic camp



How satisfied are you about the progress achieved on the ground in the north under the new government?

Under this new Government the democratic rights of the people seem to have been restored to a reasonable level. People seem to protest openly and freely on the streets without fear and intimidation. But no dent had been made on the youth unemployment front leading youth into drugs, crime and other vices.

The release of lands from the security forces have continued as before in the previous government but still more needs to be done on this problem. On the release of political prisoners and finding a solution to the missing persons issue the movement forward have been stalled. Government should redouble their efforts on these problems and break the impasse.

If the Northern Provincial Council had done its work to the fullest the problems faced by the northerners, such as youth unemployment, land retrieval, garbage disposal and dengue eradication, would have been solved to a great extent. They seem to be incompetent, uninterested and unwilling. Their only interest seems to be enriching themselves.

I sincerely feel if the Unity Government sets its mind on these matters very seriously and earnestly all impediments will be overcome. They should try their best for the sake of the peace achieved at great cost.



Recently, the EPRLF leader Suresh Premachandran spoke of a new leadership for Tamils. He hinted that Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran should take over it. What is your view?

Talking in ultra-Tamil nationalistic rhetoric and whipping up Tamil nationalistic sentiments have become the easiest ways of staying relevant in northern Tamil politics.

It has been perfected into a fine-art among the Tamil polity by ITAK and their cohorts. The same phenomenon obtains in the south as well. As the adage says Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrels.

Here I would like to say that to be a Sri Lankan we need not lose our Tamil identity, similarly to be a Tamil we need not lose Sri Lankan identity. That is we want to be Sri Lankan and Tamils at the same time. Its not a tall order.



A new political leadership for the Tamils is needed at this juncture, indeed. It should shun communal politics and wean away the people from it. It should unite the people behind a political program which should be reasonable, realistic and actionable for a just and honorable political solution to the long suffering Tamil people.

"I take this opportunity to call upon the Diaspora to close ranks and unite and not to betray the supreme sacrifices made by our people. "

The demand for a Federal solution has been there for more than half a century. Yet, it has become unrealistic so far. Do you think it is feasible to achieve a Federal solution in Sri Lanka?

A Federal Constitution for Sri Lanka was first mooted by the late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike long before the independence as a viable political model for Sri Lanka. Ironically, it was spurned and rejected by the Jaffna Tamil political elites at that time. The country is now paying the price for this folly of rejecting S.W.R.Ds farsighted and enlightened proposal.

Much water has passed under the Kelani Bridge since then. There is not much point in juggling with the terminology at the moment. We should stop splitting hairs over these terms. The science of semantics is not going to lead us anywhere. Substance is more relevant than the wrapping.

We can begin with the 13th Amendment which is already in our statutes. The citizens, both in the north and the south are enjoying the fruits of it. Of course, it has its limitations and shortcomings. Lets first implement the 13th Amendment fully in letter and spirit.

In the light of the experience gained in working it out and with the trust and harmony among the communities strengthened it can be further improved upon for the betterment of our motherland.

Now lets start with what we have. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The proposals which are put forward to find a political solution should be realistic and attainable. I am very confident that a political solution acceptable to the whole country is feasible indeed.



What is your opinion on the role of Tamil Diaspora at the moment?

Tamil Diaspora has been at the forefront of the struggle to win over the legitimate rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka from the beginning. Whether their role has been constructive or destructive has become an unending, animated and emotional debate. Whatever it is, we hope and wish that their future role should be constructive.

Now the civil war is behind us and the door is wide open for a positive role to be played by the Diaspora. They should use their energy and resources to lift the Tamil people out of their present misery and make them rise up from the ashes like the mythological Phoenix. It is high time we prove to the world that we Tamils are a resilient people indeed.

I take this opportunity to call upon the Diaspora to close ranks and unite and not to betray the supreme sacrifices made by our people. They should use all their might at their disposal to peace building and nation building and put our motherland at the forefront of the comity of nations. I sincerely hope the Diaspora rises up to the occasion.
In the backdrop of a crisis at the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), its Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, during an interview with the Daily Mirror, spoke about the current status of politics and the way forward. The crisis emerged after a team of members belonging to his own party placed a no confidence motion against him. Later, it was withdrawn following consultations with everyone concerned. Here are excerpts of an email interview done with him:

" There was no instigation. It was a continuous bombardment from various Tamil interest groups and Tamil leaders. I withstood it for six months almost. Finally I said if all agree I would consider coming. I expected them not to unite. But they did! Thats how yours truly is here."

In the wake of the recent crisis at the Northern Provincial Council involving you, how do you look at the future of TNA politics?

Future of Tamil Politics is safe. There is awareness of the fact that united we stand divided we fall.



Former TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said Tamil people were in need of a new leadership. He even said people wanted you to be the leader. What is your response?

Greater awareness of our real political problems and a united effort to solve them with understanding is whats needed. Our leadership should become aware of its shortcomings and there should be concerted effort on all our part to move forward and achieve what we promised our people. This depends on each of us.



How do you look at the present TNA leadership in Parliament in advocating the political rights of Tamil people?

Not as robust as it could be. Our ground level problems havent been adequately explained to the non Tamil Members. Its useless our Members of Parliament talking in Tamil to the large percentage of non Tamil Members. They hardly listen to the translations. Many dont understand English as well. And we Tamils hardly speak Sinhalese. There is a severe gap between the North and the South in appreciating each others problems. The TNA must do something about it. Its understanding (Which is needed) among the major communities that could solve our national problems.



You were nominated as the Chief Minister candidate by the present TNA leadership. How do you feel about it?

Im still in the TNA! So what about it?



What instigated you to take to politics?

There was no instigation. It was a continuous bombardment from various Tamil interest groups and Tamil leaders. I withstood it for six months almost. Finally I said if all agree I would consider coming. I expected them not to unite. But they did! Thats how yours truly is here.



What is the model of power devolution you propose for the north and the east?

We must understand the difference between Decentralisation and Devolution on the one hand and Federalism and Sharing of power on the other. Decentralisation is where all power is vested in the centre, but for easy administration powers are delegated to the periphery. Devolution differs from federalism in that the devolved powers of the sub national authority may be temporary and are reversible, ultimately residing with the central government. Thus, the state remains de jure unitary. Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any statute.

In federal systems, by contrast, sub-unit government is guaranteed in the constitution, so the powers of the sub-units cant be withdrawn unilaterally by the central government (i.e. without the consent of the sub-units being granted through the process of constitutional amendment). The sub-units therefore have a lower degree of protection under devolution than under federalism. Federalism and Power sharing are what we want.

" A separate State in todays context wont solve the problems of the Tamils. They will be forced to become appendages of other power units. We would fall from the frying pan to the fire."

Historically the British brought in separate units of sovereign power centres together. When the territorial representation system was introduced in early twentieth century, power fell into the hands of the majority community. They made sure such vesting of power in them gave all the benefits to the majority community and deprived the minorities of their powers and privileges. They knew the Tamils were the majority community in the North and East, but went on to deprive them of their rights. Sinhala only was one such move.

We have now got to give what was taken away from the Tamils back to them. Its their right to look after themselves. Their individuality needs to be recognized. We could do so within the territorial integrity of the island. Its done inter alia in other countries like Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. A federal power sharing method is what I advocate. Both, our NPC as well as the TPC have also advocated same.



If the north and the east are to be merged again, what is the mechanism you propose to ensure the rights of Sinhalese living there?

The Sinhalese will have the same rights the Tamils and Muslims will have in the other Provinces.



What do you propose for Muslims?

Muslims must have a unit for themselves within the Eastern Province. Let me tell you its in the interest of all communities, indeed the whole of Sri Lanka, to have a Federal State consisting of nine provinces with adjustments made to help minority interests in certain areas. Let all powers we Tamil speaking expect for ourselves in the North East, be given to Uva, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and all other Provinces. In fact each of those Provinces expect so.

"The Sinhalese will have the same rights the Tamils and Muslims will have in the other Provinces."

What is your position on a separate state as a solution to the problem?

A separate State in todays context wont solve the problems of the Tamils. They will be forced to become appendages of other power units. We would fall from the frying pan to the fire. But if Sri Lanka continues to suppress the Tamil speaking people, then a time will come when the Tamil speaking people would say why not jump from the frying pan into the fire. So its not my position which is relevant. What matters is the position of powers that be within the majority community.

" Not as robust as it could be. Our ground level problems havent been adequately explained to the non Tamil Members. Its useless our Members of Parliament talking in Tamil to the large percentage of non Tamil Members. They hardly listen to the translations. Many dont understand English as well."

In Sri Lanka, most Tamils live outside the north and the east. In the event of these two provinces being recognized as the traditional homeland of Tamils, what will happen to those living outside?

There is nothing to recognize the North and East as traditional homelands of the Tamils. They are the traditional homelands of the Tamils and it has been already recognized in successive Agreements entered into between the State and the Tamils. The Indo Lanka Accord of 1987 too recognized it.

You have some misconceptions. Dont forget we already live in a federal type of atmosphere. The Thirteenth Amendment created that ambience. When a Federal Unit for a merged North and East comes into being, we are only giving greater powers to the North and East to look after themselves with less Central Government interference and intrusion. We would continue to be an integrated one, single and whole country. But the Central Government would lose the hegemony that it has on the periphery under Federalism. So those Tamils living outside North and East could opt to return to their traditional areas if they have interests there or continue to live where they are presently living.



What is your position in the present government and with regard to President Maithripala Sirisena in terms of deliverance of your demands?

My relationship with him is good. He is humane. Thats for sure. But he too suffers from a wrong perception of the Tamil problem. Then he has his political constraints. In terms of deliverance of our demands, there is therefore delay and hesitancy. I am glad Mr. Austin Fernando has now come in as Secretary. He is a seasoned public official. He was a Samasamajist in the old days. He might add greater dynamism to the President.
 Wall Street Journal Wrong on the Wall | Main | Former Peace Negotiator Acknowledges Mistakes 

July 18, 2017

The Washington Post Notes Growing Hamas-Fatah Tensions



A July 13, 2017 Washington Post report (Abbas increases Gazans pain in feud with Hamas?) highlighted growing tensions between Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). The front-page article is a welcome departure from the papers history of underreporting Palestinian affairs, a problem that CAMERA has documented and brought to the attention of Post staff.

Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth and reporter Hazem Balousha noted that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is pursuing a high-risk campaign in the Gaza Strip? by reducing salaries for Gaza-based PA-employees, withholding permissions for medical patients to leave and cutting payments for the electricity provided to Gaza by Israel.

The Post pointed out that Abbas strategy is filled with risks, including Hamas attacking Israel in an attempt to draw Israel into the internecine Palestinian conflict. Citing an interview that Abbas, who also leads the Fatah movement that dominates the PA, gave to Asharq Al-Aswat newspaper, the paper noted that the Palestinian leader was prepared to go even further, threatening to impose sanctions against Hamas and free funds for its leaders.? Such tactics, Booth and Balousha say, are unprecedented in the decade-long split between the rulers of Gaza and the West Bank.?

The report noted that the lack of power has resulted in rolling blackouts, factories shutting down and pressure on Gazas dysfunctional sewage system.?

Its a precipitous time to put pressure on Hamas. The Post correctly highlighted that Egypt has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the progenitor of Hamas,? and other long-time supporters and enablers, such as Qatar and Turkey, have been facing pressure as late.

Increased tensions between Hamas and Fatah, as well as problems confronting the former, have led to weird bedfellows. The dispatch detailed Hamas recent embrace of a former Fatah operative named Mohammad Dahlan, who was exiled by Abbas in 2011. Before the PA Presidentcurrently in the twelfth year of a single elected four-year termexpelled him as a possible rival, Dahlan was his enforcer tasked with running the authoritys security services in the Gaza Stripa role that naturally brought him in conflict with Hamas. Now, under the auspices of Hamas, hes looking to reenter Gaza and the Palestinian political fray.

In several recent Op-Eds (see here, here and here, for examples), CAMERA has highlighted how The Post frequently neglects internal Palestinian affairs, including Abbas autocratic tendencies and possible rivals, as well as the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip. The net effect of only covering Palestinians through an Israel-fixated lens, as CAMERA told Post staff in an June 2017 meeting, is to deprive them of independent agencyand to deprive readers of the full story.

This report is a welcome, if belated, change.

Posted by SD at July 18, 2017 10:14 AM

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The Oregon Community Foundation has announced that Kirsten Kilchenstein has been named vice president of donor relations. Kilchenstein has been with the Foundation since 2011 and is currently a senior donor relations officer. Prior to her time at OCF, Kilchenstein was the education director at Caldera, an arts-and-environment based nonprofit working with underserved youth. Her responsibilities there included the development, management and strategic planning of school-based education programs. As vice president of donor relations, Kilchenstein will oversee a statewide donor relations staff who work with OCF donors to achieve maximum impact for their giving.

Current Vice President of Donor Relations, Laura Winter will become vice president of the Family Giving Center at OCF - a newly-formed service focused on intergenerational giving.
An accident of birth may have left one 19th-century Army cadet wishing his parents had been elsewhere when he came into the world.



In March 1821 sixteen-year-old John Thompson tendered an application to enter East India Company service as a junior Army officer. The Company did not insist that its troops had all been born and bred in the British Isles, and therefore the fact that his place of birth was Antwerp and he had been educated at Brussels were no bars to his setting out on a military career, his father William being a merchant.

Thomas Rowlandson, Place de Mier at Antwerp

To tease out what made his application very probably unique requires a passing knowledge of Belgian history. Independent since 1830, before this date Belgium had been ruled at various times by the Dutch, the Austrians and the Spanish. Between 1795 and 1814, however, the country came under the sway of revolutionary France. This meant that French rather than Dutch became the language of the administration. Also all official papers issued in this period were dated according to the Republican calendar devised and implemented in 1792 and imposed on those territories which came to be occupied by French armies. The calendar re-named the twelve months to reflect prevailing meteorological conditions and instituted a (later abandoned) system of three ten-day weeks, factoring in an extra day every four years.

French Revolutionary calendar birth certificate for John Thompson IOR/L/MIL/9/143 f.401

The Thompson family knew that John had been born on 30 April 1804, but unfortunately the document proving this showed his date of birth as the tenth day of Floreal, Year Twelve. The Companys recruitment procedure required the provision of proof of age, and accordingly the document above was duly sent in to East India House. Young Thompsons sponsors had the foresight to include an English translation of the original French document, authenticated by Robert Annesley, the British Consul; it can be seen that the Antwerp authorities had compromised by adding the familiar date in brackets, as if assuming that the new calendar would not last forever.

IOR/L/MIL/9/143 f.400

This curious faint echo of the French Revolution is found in IOR/L/MIL/9/143 ff.400-401, and the digitised image can be seen on the Findmypast website in the British India Office births & baptisms dataset. The story ends happily, in that the powers-that-be in London processed the application and passed Thompson fit to serve in the Bombay Army.

However, there was trouble ahead for John Thompson as we shall reveal in our next post!



Hedley Sutton

Asian & African Studies Reference Services



Further reading:

Matthew Shaw, Time and the French Revolution: the Revolutionary calendar, 1789 - year XIV (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2011), shelfmark YC.2012.a.3742
Living near Pantops, I frequently shop at Giant. A week or so ago when I was there, several of the people in the produce department were busily installing new shelving and display units along one wall of the produce area for various vegetables, herbs and ready-to-cook greens. I was particularly taken with the display of peppers  not only red, green and orange bell peppers, but also a variety of small hot and spicy red and green peppers. They reminded me of the time I lived in New Mexico from 2005 to 2013.

Those thoughts of New Mexico and its history of settlement, agriculture and food styles awakened a desire for tacos, chilies and a spicy stew with corn. I also reflected on an area I loved in northern New Mexico  Bandelier National Monument near Santa Fe. Yes, I sort of got homesick for the desert, its native peoples and Southwestern foods.

Bandelier National Monument is a big canyon, dating back more than 10,000 years. The early people who migrated in and out of the area were following game animals. Although at first they did not build permanent structures, they eventually build homes of wood and mud, largely underground. Later, these were replaced with above-ground stone dwellings.

The people who settled in Frijoles (now Bandelier) were known as the Ancestral Pueblo people and eventually became identified as the Navajo. These early inhabitants of the canyon (Bandelier) depended on agriculture. Corn, originally cultivated from native grasses in Mexico, was introduced into Bandelier and the American Southwest about 4,000 years ago. Early corn was planted, but not cultivated. Originally, nomadic people scattered the seeds, returning later, if possible, to collect any harvest.

By 1200 A.D., the Ancestral Pueblo people began to practice agriculture in the canyon. Small fields, some in the canyon and many on the surrounding mesas, were planted with corn, beans and squash. These people used numerous techniques to take advantage of available moisture. They planted seeds deep into the ground, where moisture is stored by the soil. They also grouped plants to provide shade and support to each other, and they mulched plants with water-retaining pumice and rocks. Since summer rainfall is often localized, the Pueblo people scattered their fields across the landscape in the hopes that some would receive the necessary rainfall.

If I squint my eyes a little, I can just about see some of the remains of the pueblos in Bandelier. Some were one or two stories high and contained about 400 rooms for about 100 people. These dwellings were built around a central plaza, called a kiva. It served as a meeting place for religious and community activities.

What was life like in this ancient Pueblo village? Women ground corn between two heavy stones called mano and metate. The ground corn was the basis of bread and various stews. Often, the air was filled with the scent of ground corn, as it baked into delicious flatbread.

In another part of the village, loud thumps reverberated in the air as a stone ax hits a heavy wooden beam. Men were busy constructing new homes. Children laughed and shouted while dogs barked. They were herding wild turkeys.

Hunting, weaving and heavy construction were tasks performed by the men. Women cooked, made pottery and performed necessary maintenance on living quarters, including regularly plastering the outer walls. And, they cared for the children. Both men and women were involved in farming.

Today, Bandelier National Monument is part of the National Park Service. There are more than 9,000 archeological sites in the quarter-million acres of the Monument. Adolph Bandelier, after whom the park is named, was only one of many people who became fascinated with the stories of the inhabitants of Frijoles Canyon. Archeologists and other scientists have studied the Ancestral Pueblo culture in order to reconstruct the story of these early people. Bandelier was designated a national monument on Feb. 11, 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson.

What is the one food I think of that is associated with the Southwest, particularly New Mexico? First and foremost: Chiles.

Where did they come from?

By the time Europeans arrived in the New World, peppers (chiles) had migrated from South America into Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. All five of the forms of chiles we know today had been developed. This fruit grows on plants of the capsicum family and is kin to the tomato and potato. There were three species of chiles in ancient America; all had some degree of hotness.

When Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, he found the natives using a pungent spice he though was pepper. Years later, when the Spaniards arrived in Mexico, they found a plant with spicy, red elongated fruit, which the natives called nahuatl, meaning red. The Spanish changed the name to chile.

As chiles migrated northward with the Spanish colonists, they were introduced into the Pueblos, along with other foods brought by the Spanish. Because of the climate of the Southwest and the farming techniques used by the native peoples, chiles became part of the cuisine of the region. They began to be cultivated along with corn, beans and squash.

Except for the early Spanish colonies in the Southwest, chiles were nowhere to be found north of Mexico until after colonization by Europeans. North America did not use these pungent chiles until early in the 17th century.

Today, the most commonly used chiles in the Southwest include the New Mexico green, which is harvested in its unripened state. The New Mexico red, which is often harvested and then dried, is commonly used as decoration to be hung on porches. The jalapeno is always harvested green, and the chipotle is a jalapeno that has been smoked and then dried. The serrano, cayenne, and chile pequin are some of the other chiles found throughout the Southwest.

Chiles have been part of the Southwestern cuisine for hundreds of years. They are used regularly in many traditional and contemporary dishes. In the Southwest, chiles are truly the spice of life.

One of my favorite dishes using the hot jalapeno pepper and Mexican seasonings is a casserole that utilizes leftover chicken. Pair it with a green salad for a taste of the Southwest.

MEXICAN CHICKEN CASSEROLE

 1 can (14 ounces) stewed tomatoes, Mexican style

  teaspoon chili powder

 1 teaspoon Mexican seasonings

  teaspoon oregano

 2 cups cooked chicken, cut-up

  cup chopped green pepper

  cup chopped red pepper

 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

 3 green onions, chopped

 1 can (12 ounces) whole kernel corn

 1 can (2.2 ounces) sliced black olives

 1 cups milk

 2 tablespoons butter of margarine

  cup cornmeal

 1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Combine the tomatoes, chili powder, Mexican seasonings and oregano in a saucepan. Bring to a slow boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Combine the chicken, peppers, onion, corn and olives in a bowl. Add the simmered tomato mixture and pour into a 3-quart casserole dish. (May be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before proceeding.)

Heat the milk with the butter, then slowly add the cornmeal, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Cook over medium-low heat until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in the cheese and eggs. Pour over the chicken mixture, spreading it with a spatula to completely cover. Bake in a preheated 375 F. oven for 40 minutes or until the cornbread topping is done. Serves 4.
CULPEPER  A traffic stop turned deadly for a 43-year-old Culpeper man on Monday night, according to the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office.

Authorities were told during a 911 domestic violence call that the suspect, Eric Wesley Clark, had left the residence. With a description of his Toyota minivan, a CCSO deputy located Clark driving near the town of Culpeper.

According to the Virginia State Police, the deputy activated his emergency lights and sirens, but Clark reportedly refused to stop.

Two additional CCSO deputies also responded to assist with the pursuit, which ended several minutes later near the intersection of Sperryville Pike and Griffinsburg Road at about 11 p.m. Clarks minivan jumped over an embankment and landed on a small hill, where it eventually stopped.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that Clark was shot and killed after an encounter between Clark and the CCSO deputies. She provided no details about what led to the shooting, but she did say authorities recovered Clarks shotgun.

The driver of the vehicle presented a deadly threat to the deputies and they responded by shooting and killing the driver, Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins said. Im so grateful that our deputies are safe. Im deeply saddened by what they were forced to do and pray for comfort for everyone affected by this incident.

Jenkins added that the deputies involved in Mondays deadly shooting are now on modified duty until the investigation is complete. Their names are not being released at this time.

State police are in charge of handling Mondays deputy-involved shooting, which remains under investigation.

Since 2013, Culpeper County deputies were involved in at least two other fatal shootings.

On April 11, 2013, 59-year-old Harold Lee Daniels died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Culpeper County Deputy Patrick Cooper was cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident, which occurred after Daniels pointed a gun at law enforcement officials at his home in Rapidan. The sheriffs office responded to his residence after Daniels was clocked driving in excess of 100 miles per hour on U.S. 15, according to authorities.

The other deputy-involved fatal shooting happened June 8, 2016, during a domestic situation off of Sperryville Pike.

Willis Walker Jr., 49, shot and killed a neighbor, 74-year-old James Stewart. Walker then violently assaulted his estranged wife, according to state police.

Walker reportedly refused to comply with repeated commands to put down his weapon. He then started walking toward deputies with a shotgun. Culpeper County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Chad A. Abate then fired one shot at the man, killing him.
The body of a man found near the Woolen Mills neighborhood on July 4 has been identified on social media as Marvin Joel Rivera Guevara.

On a GoFundMe page, people who identified themselves as Guevaras family are asking for $10,000 to help cover funeral expenses and bury him in his native El Salvador. On the page, his brother-in-law Jaime Argueta said the donations will be given to Guevaras parents, who also live in Charlottesville.

Albemarle County police are aware of the donation campaign but have said they will neither confirm nor deny the mans identity. Police said they are waiting for DNA test results to make an official identification.

Police are investigating the mans death as a homicide after his bloodied body was found near Moores Creek in the 2100 block of East Market Street on July 4. Police have declined to answer questions on the possible weapons used, the manner of death or the condition of the body, saying that releasing such details could interfere with the investigation.

This is the second homicide in Albemarle County this year. The first, a murder-suicide involving two brothers on the 3500 block of Creels Mill Road, occurred in the early hours of June 25.

On their GoFundMe page, the victims family said Guevara came to the United States with his brothers in 2013 to realize his goals and give a better quality of life to his wife, who still lives in El Salvador. His family said he was murdered on the night of July 3 without mercy, leaving his wife alone.

The investigation is ongoing. Police ask that anyone with information about this incident call Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000.
Washington

Republican and Democratic lawmakers had a clear message this week for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos: Were watching you very closely as you deal with the Every Student Succeeds Act.

At a House education committee hearing, which DeVos didnt attend, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle Tuesday expressed concern about the consistency of feedback from the U.S. Department of Education to states about ESSA plans .

GOP legislators also quizzed state and local education officials about how they were taking advantage of new policy breathing room under the federal education law. Meanwhile, Democrats stressed the importance of federal oversight and how states had to ensure protections for underserved students.

Funding was also a very sore spot for Democratic lawmakers and those education officials who testified. Both criticized proposed budget cuts of about $2 billion in President Donald Trumps spending blueprint and in a House education funding bill that would end teacher-training and class-size reduction programs.

Democrats also extracted a pledge from committee chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., to ask DeVos or one of her representatives to discuss ESSA before the committee. (No one from DeVos department testified Tuesday.)

Foxx referred indirectly to the Education Departments handling of ESSA when she said she and the committee will be watching to ensure that Washington keeps its distance on states plans for the law. And she stressed that the new federal education law was only a part of what state and local school leaders had to deal with.

We have this big program and suddenly everybody thinks its the answer, Foxx said, in a reference to ESSA. We have to trust people at the local level.

However, whether Foxx thinks DeVos is inappropriately intruding into states plans is unclear. When asked after the hearing whether she was concerned about how DeVos was handling states plans for the law, Foxx responded, We havent talked to too many states about it, so I just havent had contact with them.

DeVos and her top official for K-12, acting Assistant Secretary Jason Botel, have spurred controversy and in some cases surprise for how theyve responded to state ESSA plans. For example, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee and one of ESSAs authors, criticized Botel last week for stepping outside the limits the law places on Washington . States have also expressed anxiety about the Education Departments approach.

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., raised the DeVos teams approach to ESSA by saying hes heard from Kentucky education leaders that the Education Departments messages on ESSA have been confusing. And Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said, There is a lot of confusion out there, and we need people from the department ... to answer questions about, where are we going?

Gail Pletnick, the superintendent of the Dysart Unified district in Arizona, told Guthrie, Its important to have that consistent feedback because then, in turn, we can move on with the implementation of ESSA.

The committees top Democrat, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said the departments responses to states has been appropriate in certain instances and fits under the law, although he said mixed messages from the department and lack of clear legal guardrails were hurting states. He lamented that Congress earlier this year tossed out Obama-era accountability rules for ESSA.

ESSA is not and never has been a free-for-all, Scott said. Many state plans leave much to be desired.

Under questioning from Republicans, Pletnick and Carey Wright, the Mississippi state chief, emphasized how their states approaches to education and accountability were evolving under ESSA. Wright, for example, detailed how Mississippi is building career and technical education into its plans for the law.

Both Pletnick and Wright backed up comments from Scott by saying that proposals to cut Title II aid would greatly harm their efforts under ESSA. Wright told lawmakers that eliminating Title II funding would devastate our efforts to improve teacher preparation and quality, particularly in high-need school districts that struggle to attract and retain qualified teachers.

Problems with states ESSA plans, as well as with the departments ESSA feedback, also came up at the hearing.

Phillip Lovell, a vice president at the Alliance for Excellent Education, which advocates for disadvantaged students, said that many states either are ignoring or violating ESSA in several areas of their state plans. He cited consequences for schools that dont test at least 95 percent of all students, and how different groups of students are identified as needing additional support.

Students shouldnt have to fail on everything in order to qualify for additional support, Lovell said.

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Seriously, @HomeVisiting , keep up the good work spreading the message that #HomeVisitingWorks . pic.twitter.com/j4CXwzjelu  Jye Breckenridge (@jyebreck) July 13, 2017

Advocates for home-visiting programs, staring down a Sept. 30 deadline when federal funding for their program expires, are trying to make sure Congress doesnt forget about them.

The Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program, or MIECHV, supports paying for trained counselors or medical professionals to visit the homes of at-risk families. The counselors establish a long-term relationship with parents. They teach parenting skills, conduct developmental screening for children, provide social support and connect families with other community resources that may be needed.

Home visiting has support that crosses partisan lines. The American Enterprise Institute has written that children in home-visiting programs have better outcomes than those who receive interventions later in life . The Urban Institute and James Bell Associates, a research services and evaluation firm, have recently launched a National Home Visiting Resource Center that is a clearinghouse of programs offered in all the states.

Rallying for More Funding for MIECHV

Home visiting first received $1.5 billion as a part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and when that funding expired in 2015, the program received an additional $800 million over two years as a rider to the Medicare doctor-payment bill.

That spending, however, is coming to an end. Advocates are asking Congress for five years of annual funding, starting at $400 million and ending at $800 million.

The advocacy effort launched on July 12 with a Day of Action. Supporters took to Twitter and other social media to extol the benefits of home visiting. On July 18, the Council for a Strong America and Parents as Teachers, which created one of several research-supported home visiting models, are teaming up for a briefing on Capitol Hill.

Among the powerful supporters of home visiting is Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee. Liz Cox, the executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Iowa, said that home visiting helps families in both rural and urban parts of the state. Long-term funding will allow programs to commit to more families, she said.

If we really want to see prevention being prioritized, Cox said, weve got to fund it like we mean it.
Washington

The president of the National Council on Teacher Quality presented what she sarcastically called a radical solution for both improving the pipeline of new teachers and filling specific teacher shortages: Fix student teaching.

Theres a misalignment between whats needed [in districts] and whats provided out of higher ed, said Kate Walsh, speaking July 17 at an annual gathering of state teachers of the year . This is nothing newits been going on for decades. And the solution is not going to come from higher ed. Instead it will come from districts being more choosey about who they let come in to student teach, she argued.

NCTQ, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, has been lambasting the state of teacher preparation for years now. The group has reviewed and rated thousands of teacher education programs across the country and found that the majority dont adequately prepare educators.

But those reviews have also faced plenty of pushback, with critics calling the NCTQ methodology flawed (the group relied mainly on syllabuses and other documents to rate programs) and its conclusions inaccurate.

Yet many in teacher preparation generally agree that student-teaching needs attention, as my colleague Stephen Sawchuk reported a few years back, even if they dont necessarily agree with the NCTQs prescriptions.

Everyones Given Up

Walsh described student teaching, which is generally the culminating experience in a traditional teacher-preparation program, as something everyones given up on. Student-teaching assignments are often made with little regard for chemistry between the mentor and mentee or what the district really needs.



Instead, districts should see student-teachers as a potential hiring pooland should treat them as such. They should screen the student-teachers to see what they know and make sure theyre a good fit for a particular mentor. Youre not assessing whether they can teach, because they havent had that experience, said Walsh. But theyve just spent two years in a program learning how to teach. They dont come to you as a blank slate.

Incoming student-teachers should be expected to have basic knowledge about things like classroom management and literacy instruction, Walsh said.

A Test in the Works

NCTQ is developing an assessment to help districts determine what potential student teachers know, and whether they have the attitude and disposition to be a successful teacher. It will be piloted with preservice teachers at Western Governors University this fall.

Western Governors has gotten high marks from NCTQ before--the universitys secondary math program was ranked No. 1 among teacher-prep programs nationally. The university is also one of the few to use a competency-based program , in which students demonstrate mastery of particular knowledge and skills to graduate rather than taking a fixed course sequence.

Your student teaching pipeline should be your best source of teachers, Walsh said. If youre not getting really good candidates who you want to hire, its because youre not taking really good candidates into your system.

The tool could ideally also help districts find student teachers who actually want to stay in the district, rather than find a different job or move to another part of the country.

If Im in Chicago public schools, why am I going to donate my time and experience to someone who doesnt want to teach here? said Walsh. Youre investing in your school district.

That comment irked some audience members, especially those who had transitioned from K-12 teaching into teacher education. Mentoring student-teachers, regardless of whether they stay in your district, is for the good of the profession, Jennifer Rankin, the 2010 Maryland state teacher of the year, now an education professor at Frostburg State University, said in an interview after the presentation.

Pamela Roggeman, a dean for the college of education at the University of Phoenix and former high school teacher, said her university already does assess student teachers dispositions.

Limiting Placements

According to Walsh, districts should also commit to only placing student-teachers with the best mentor teachersand they should pay those mentors a decent stipend. Her group is also piloting a program with charter schools in the Bay Area that would pay them about $2,500.

Plus, districts should limit the number of, say, elementary education teachers they accept. Too often, they take on more student teachers than they will have vacancies. That would eventually put market pressure on preservice teachers to consider being trained in high-needs areas.

Districts can tell the universities, if you want to place more, you need to start persuading those little 18-year-olds to get a dual certification, and teach [English-language learners] or special education, Walsh said.

As an aside, she noted that her fixes wouldnt help with the nations science, technology, engineering, and math teacher shortage. The only way well fix the nations STEM shortage is to pay them more, because they can make more money elsewhere, she said.

Some in the room scoffed at the notion that universities would tell students theyd have to give up their dream of being an elementary teacher because there were no student-teaching placements nearby.

Dont get me wrong, teacher prep can improve, said Roggeman. Looking for chemistry and fit in those student teacher-mentor relationships is a good idea. But, she said, telling students what they can and cant study is a no-go.

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Bad Employment Reference Leads to Lawsuit

If you fire an employee, it's normally for a good reason. And when a prospective or future employer calls asking regarding a reference for a fired employee, you might feel obligated to be honest. Generally speaking, former employers can't be sued for a negative employment reference so long as they are honest about an employee's employment history and record.

But what happens if you've signed a settlement agreement requiring a fired employee to receive a "neutral employment reference" in the future? And does saying that fired employee was "defiant" count as being neutral? The city of Conway, South Carolina and its fire department may soon find out.

A Defiant Tone

In 2012, Larry Carter was fired by the Conway Fire Department in response to an allegedly anonymous letter sent to the city council accusing him of racism and malfeasance. After some administrative and legal wrangling -- during which Carter's main rival for a promotion within CFD at the time, Le Hendrick, admitted to editing the letter -- the city and department settled with Carter, agreeing to pay him $28,000 and provide a "neutral employment reference."

In 2015, Carter was vying for another promotion, again unsuccessfully, this time in nearby Surfside. According a new lawsuit from Carter, Hendrick violated the agreement by telling Surfside Beach Fire Department Chief Tony Fox that Carter had been "defiant" during his employment in Conway. As reported by the Sun News:

Hendrick admitted in a deposition that Fox had asked if his department had ever had any problems with Carter in the past and that Hendrick told him "there was a history there."

Hendrick sent an email to Fox attaching the conduct policy used, in part, to terminate Carter on Feb. 11, 2015.

Two days later, Hendrick said Fox asked if Carter had ever been defiant in Conway and Hendrick said he had. Later that day, Carter was rejected on the promotion, according to court documents.

Defying a Settlement Agreement

For its part, Conway contends the settlement agreement "did not promise a neutral promotion reference" and an "employment reference does not also cover other inquiries regarding a former employee." Additionally, Fox argues that Hendrick's comments had no effect on his decision not to promote Carter.

With the case heading for trial, it's an important reminder to employers to be careful when discussing a former employee's history with his or her future employers. And that the normal rules concerning bad job references may not apply when there's a settlement agreement in place.

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U.S. Provides 15K Temporary Visas for Seasonal Workers

President Donald Trump has been adamant in his "America First" rhetoric, saying recently, "Clearly it's time for a new policy, one defined by two simple rules: We will buy American. And we will hire American." But sometimes the interests of American companies and American workers aren't so closely aligned.

"As a demonstration of the administration's commitment to supporting American businesses," said Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, the government will provide 15,000 additional visas for foreign seasonal workers. The move is designed to aid "U.S. businesses in danger of suffering irreparable harm due to a lack of available temporary nonagricultural workers," but not be welcomed by groups advocating for more employment for U.S. workers.

Working the Numbers

Congress originally set the cap for temporary H-2B visas at 66,000 per year, divided between the winter and summer seasons. But, citing concern about the visa program's impact on American workers, Congress also chose not to renew a provision that did not count previous H-2B visa holders against the quota, meaning that only half of the normal amount of visas were available.

So in May, lawmakers cleared the way for Kelly to approve up to an additional 70,000 H-2B visas, as well as the discretion to issue as many of them as he thought appropriate. While some employers are lamenting the grant of 15,000 more visas is too little, too late, others fear the negative impact on American workers and the increased victimization of temporary foreign employees.

How to H-2B

Before being granted an H-2B visa, businesses must first demonstrate that they tried to fill temporary or seasonal vacancies with domestic workers by placing advertisements. Second, they must attest that if they are not allowed to hire foreign workers, their businesses will suffer "permanent and severe financial loss."

Even with these requirements, some fear that the new visas interrupt a trend in raising wages to attract American workers to seasonal and temporary jobs. And Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, told Reuters, "Expanding the H-2B program without reforming it to improve protections and increase wages for migrant workers will essentially allow unscrupulous employers to carve out an even larger rights-free zone in the low-wage labor market."

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Select private firms will be engaged to build military platforms like fighter jets, submarines and battle tanks in collaboration with foreign defence majors. (Photo: AFP/Representational)

New Delhi: Fifty-eight contracts involving Rs 1.21 lakh crore were signed by the government with foreign defence firms in the last three fiscals for procuring aircraft, helicopters and weapons systems for the armed forces, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Replying to questions on defence procurement, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre also listed agreements India had sealed with foreign governments during the period including with Russia to bolster its defence preparedness.

He said India is procuring aircraft, helicopters, rockets and ammunition from abroad as part of the 58 contracts worth Rs 1.21 lakh crore from 2014-15 to 2016-17. Referring to the strategic partnership model, Bhamre said transparency and fair competition will be ensured through a rigorous process in its implementation.

Under the 'strategic partnership' model finalised in May, select private firms will be engaged to build military platforms like fighter jets, submarines and battle tanks in collaboration with foreign defence majors.

"It is expected that the implementation of the policy will enhance competition, increase efficiencies, facilitate faster and more significant absorption of technology, create a tiered industrial ecosystem, ensure development of a wider skill base," Bhamre said.

He said the policy is aimed at reducing dependence on imports of defence equipments and ensure greater self-reliance to meet national security objectives.

To a separate question on whether defence research and development organisation has successfully tested an indigenous smart anti-airfield weapon from an Indian Air Force aircraft, the minister said the information cannot be divulged, citing national security interest.

Replying to another query, Bhamre said a total of 26 cadets were declared medically unfit and withdrawn from the National Defence Academy (NDA) since 2014.
Mumbai: Known for being one of the versatile actors of Bollywood, Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently expressed his anger about the differential treatment and racial discrimination on the basis of colour.

Bringing out the ill of the Hindi film industry to the forefront, the 43-year-old took to his Twitter handle and expressed himself through a recent abstruse tweet.

He tweeted, "Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that. (sic)"

Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) July 17, 2017

This tweet is a response to Nawazuddin's upcoming film 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' casting director Sanjay Chouhan, who made a bizarre racist statement while revealing the process of casting the starcast of this film.

Talking about Nawazuddin's selection, the casting director had said, "Nawaz was on the project even before its inception. Later Chitrangada Singh who was roped in opposite Nawaz left the project abruptly. So we had to again hunt for the leading lady."

"Keeping Nawaz in mind, all other characters were taken on board. We can't cast fair and handsome people with Nawaz. It would look so weird. You have to take people with distinct features and personalities when pairing them with him."

Siddiqui's response to this statement proves that he is beyond everything and is not an insecure actor.

Kudos to you!

He is known for giving impeccable performances in films like 'Gangs Of Wasseypur', 'Kahaani', 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', among others.

In the early years of his career, the 'Raees' star was a TV reject and was no more than a junior artiste on a film set.

On the work front, the 'Haraamkhor' star recently made a special appearance in Anurag Basu's 'Jagga Jasoos' and is all set to shake his legs in his upcoming movie 'Munna Michael', alongside Tiger Shroff.

'Munna Michael' is all set to hit the theatres on July 21.
New Delhi: Two minor girls, aged 6 and 8, on Friday, "pretended to be dead" after a 22-year-old man raped and strangled them, in order to trick the accused into leaving.

A NDTV report said, the assailant was arrested on Saturday, while both the girls were in hospital.

We have arrested Pankaj Kumar, a factory worker, for allegedly raping the girls. He was produced before a Delhi court and sent to 14-day judicial custody, DCP (Rohini district) Rishi Pal said.

Dr Puneeta Mahajan, medical superintendent of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital said, "The victims were brought in a critical condition. They are now in post-operative care. A team of doctors is monitoring their condition, which is, at present, stable.

On Friday, around 7:30 pm, the incident occurred when the two girls, who are neighbours, were playing outside their homes. The accused initially gave the girls Rs 100 and asked them to get a packet of Eno from a nearby medical shop. When the girls returned, since they could not get the product, the accused asked them to accompany him to the nearest shop and promised them to buy candy, a senior police officer said.

The elder sister of one of the girls also tried to accompany the accused along with the two victims. The mother of one of the victims said, "She asked him to leave her sister alone, but he slapped her. When she started crying, he gave her Rs 5 and asked her to go home. He took the two girls to an isolated park near a canal, about 150 metres from their home. At the park, he raped them and beat them up. When they started crying, he he hit them on their faces."

He then tried to strangle the girls, the police said. He dumped them inside the pit when they stopped struggling, assuming they were dead. One of the girls told her mother she "pretended to be dead so the man would leave". Around this time the parents of the victims called the police and informed them about their daughters being missing.

Around 4:45 am on Saturday, the relatives of the girls started looking inside the park. The father of one of the girls noticed some clothes lying around and started screaming. Suddenly, one of the girls rushed towards him and told him about the other girl. Police then took the girls to a hospital, a police officer said.

Although, the police tried to record their statements right away, they were too scared to speak. The police also added that they would be provided counselling. Later, they informed the police that they had "seen the accused around a neighbourhood grocery store".

The police said, "They provided a description of the accused and on the basis of that, police questioned the owner of the grocery store. Police then questioned over 100 people, and eventually traced Kumar, who was found living near the girls homes."
River Rafting Waiver May Preclude Widow's Lawsuit

Whitewater river rafting can be dangerous -- that's part of the allure for most rafters and a risk that most guides will repeat early and often to their guests. In addition, many, if not all rafting companies will have rafters sign liability waivers, acknowledging these dangers and agreeing to indemnify the companies in the case of injury or death.

One waiver in particular may stand in the way of a Colorado widow's negligence lawsuit after her husband was ejected from a raft in Hell's Half Mile rapids on the Green River, and died of accidental drowning and asphyxia.

Whitewater Waiver

According to the Aspen Daily News, the waiver attorney Paul Sizemore signed with Blazing Adventures rafting company acknowledges that "[r]afts/kayaks could turn over or I could be 'washed' overboard ... Exposure to the natural elements can be uncomfortable and/or harmful ... Prolonged exposure to cold water can result in hypothermia and in extreme cases death and accidental drowning are also possibilities." A person signing the waiver agrees to "accept and assume all of the risks existing in the activity," and "release, indemnify and discharge Blazing ... to the fullest extent permitted by law, on behalf of myself, my children, my heirs, assigns, personal representatives and estate."

The extent permitted by Colorado law may be tested after Sizemore's widow, Jennifer Lenze, who is also an attorney, sued the company for negligence. While some states, like Oregon, are more hostile to blanket liability waivers, Colorado generally enforces unambiguous waivers that are entered into fairly and involve non-essential services. While waivers will generally protect a company and its employees from lawsuits based on negligence, they don't cover willful or wanton conduct.

Rivers and Risks

After Sizemore was washed overboard, he "was unable to reach for or grab the T-grip of a paddle extended to him, nor a throw bag tossed to him," according to Blazing's attorney. The Aspen Daily News reported on the efforts of Dallas Blaney, the trip's safety kayaker, to save Sizemore:

Blaney reached him twice, but the victim was unable to hold onto the kayak initially. Blaney was able to bring him to Lewis' raft, where he was lifted in by others on the boat. Sizemore said he could not breathe and became unresponsive. CPR and other life-saving measures were employed, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A subsequent Colorado Parks and Wildlife investigation concluded Blazing conducted the trip and responded to the tragedy within industry standards, and a coroner's report ruled that Sizemore's death may have been related to coronary artery disease. Lenze is accusing Blazing of negligence in Sizemore's death, and Blazing has filed a motion to dismiss the suit. A judge will now decide if the case will move forward.

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D Roopa, a DIG of prisons, in Karnataka had alleged VK Sasikala was getting special treatment in jail. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday transferred two top jail officials who were locked in a bitter public spat over allegations of "special" treatment to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (Amma) leader VK Sasikala and other "erroneous" practises in the central prison in Bengaluru.

DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao and DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had brought him under a cloud of bribery allegations, were shifted with immediate effect.

The state government in a notification on Monday said that NS Megharikh, Additional Director General of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau, has been transferred with immediate effect and posted as Additional DGP, Prisons, in place of Rao.

It also said that Roopa has been posted as Deputy Inspector General of Police and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in Bengaluru.

However, the notification does not specify the post Rao has been been transferred to and who will replace Roopa.

In a report submitted on July 12 to Rao, who was DGP (Prisons) then, Roopa as Deputy Inspector of General (Prisons) had said there was "a talk" that Rs two crore had exchanged hands to give preferential treatment for Sasikala and there were allegations against him also.

She had also said that a special kitchen was functioning in the jail for Sasikala in violation of prison rules.

Sasikala is lodged at Parappana Agrahara central prison in Bengaluru ever since her conviction in February in the disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a four-year jail term.

Rao had rubbished the charge against him by Roopa, terming it "absolutely false, baseless and wild", and said he would take legal recourse against his junior.

Responding to this, she had said "let there be a fair fact finding inquiry to find out the truth".

As the clash between the top officers played out in public, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ordered a high-level probe by a retired IAS officer into the alleged irregularities at the central prison and warned of "strict action" if anyone was found involved in wrong doing.

As her report triggered a major controversy, the red-faced Congress government also issued notice to Roopa asking her to explain her conduct, with Siddaramaiah saying it was "absolutely against the rule book".

Roopa had also highlighted in her report the "special treatment" being provided to fake stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi.
Bengaluru: Being a topper and finding his name in the scroll of honour from a top institute was not even close to what this youngster from a remote village in Maharashtra had ever dreamt of.

Securing the M. Visvesvaraya Scholarship from International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB) with a CPGA of 3.91 in M. Tech (IT), Mahendra Bhagavan Garodi is now looking forward to what he had always aspired for.

The right amount of exposure at the right time is what helped me get into a profession which matches my talent, says Mr Garodi.

Born to farmer parents, the youngster who hails from Walsawangi village from Jalna district attributes the change in the course of his life to his parents. They decided to send me to Aurangabad for higher secondary and degree education amid financial challenges, and it was indeed life-changing. It is only then that I started realising the scope of the world outside of what I had seen till then, he said.

Mahendra had worked for two years after completing his undergraduation from the Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad before joining IIITB.

As a man who has seen himself in totally contrasting situations, Mr Garodi remembers the major hurdles he faced. The shift from Marathi medium to English was as challenging as it was to leave back the village to stay at a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru, he said.

About his life at IIITB, he said that there was something to learn from all interactions he had at the campus. With a strong and productive crowd as seniors, juniors and batch mates and down-to-earth dedicated faculty members, everything that was taught was helpful, he said. The diversity among students informed me about different cultures, exposing me to a totally expanded view of the outer world.

The 25-year old engineer also finds time to visit his village school once in a while to take career-guidance and personality-development sessions for youngsters and to share his experiences and the new world he is exposed to. We have to realise that an individual can never be perfect in everything he/she pursues. Avoid comparisons, focus on one goal and keep working patiently for results which would come to us gradually, he says. Mr Garodi, who is already placed in an IT firm, will handle embedded system modelling for the company from the city.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav in his chamber for a meeting on Tuesday. (Photo: File | PTI)

Patna: In the eye of a storm after lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday attended a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Amid the continuing stand off between JD(U) and RJD over the former's demand to explain the alleged acquisition of massive wealth, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav went to the CM's chamber after the Cabinet meeting.

His minister brother Tej Pratap Yadav and state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary too were present in the CM's room.

It was not clear what transpired in the meeting, which appeared to show that the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress is intact.

Amid the mounting tension between JD(U) and RJD over the the former's demand from the deputy CM to clear his name in public with facts over the CBI allegation in the case and the later saying 'no' to Tejaswi's resignation, there was

speculation if he would attend the Cabinet meeting at all.

Tejaswi had on Saturday skipped a government function in which he had to share dais with the chief minister.

The deputy CM, however, arrived for the meeting along with Tej Pratap Yadav in the same car.

Earlier, many RJD ministers assembled at the residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and moved together for the Cabinet meeting from there in a motorcade.

The mediapersons were barred entry into the secretariat, the venue of the Cabinet meeting, following a scuffle between Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav's securitymen and mediapersons after the last Cabinet meet on Wednesday.

The press briefing by Cabinet Coordination Department Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra has also been shifted to the Public Relations Department office at some distance. It is used to be held at the secretariat itself.

Despite the show of unity, JD(U) spokesmen Neeraj Kumar, however, said the coalition dharma is bigger than showing obstinacy.

Another JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad repeated the party's demand that the accused come clean on accusations on the basis of facts.

The BJP and its NDA partners on Tuesday stepped up its demand for resignation of Tejaswi Yadav.

Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the deputy chief minister has amassed 26 properties at 26 years of age without declaring his sources of income.

"Tejaswi should tell people about his sources of income and how he acquired all these properties," Modi told reporters.

Attacking Nitish Kumar for failing to take a call on Tejashwi Yadav, Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi said, "He is indulging in 'nautanki' (drama) to hold on to the power anyhow."

Union minister of state for HRD and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha said "Nitish Kumar has lust for chair."
Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. (Photo: File)

Jammu: The Pakistan army violated ceasefire four times on Tuesday targeting civilian areas and Indian positions along the Line of Control (LOC) by firing mortar shells in four sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said.

In another ceasefire violation by Pakistan at the Nowgam sector of Kashmir, 1 soldier was killed.

Around fifty students of a government high school were trapped in the shelling in Rajouri district's Naushera sector while twelve students of a primary school were rescued by the authorities.

One jawan was reportedly injured in the heavy exchanges of fire.

"The Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 1350 hours in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district along the LoC", a defence spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, he said.

The Pak army also targeted civilian areas and Indian army posts along LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

According to the defence spokesman, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked firing from 6:45 am in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors.

As per reports one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimber Gali sector.

Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said that 45 to 50 students of a government high school in Sehar in Naushera sector were trapped due to heavy shelling.

He said the school was located at a height making the task of evacuation difficult.

However, police and authorities have evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera and they were ferried in bullet proof vehicles during intermittent shelling by Pakistan, he said.

"We have sent 3 bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling comes down, we will evacuate them too", Choudhary said.

The shelling comes just a day after the Indian director general of military operations (DGMO) conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that the Army was sincere about maintaining peace but reserved the right to retaliate against any incident of ceasefire violation.

On Monday as well, the Pakistan army had initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

In the exchange of fire, Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife Shaheena Muddasar and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas yesterday also in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri.

Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. The administration has sounded an alert and advised the residents to stay indoors and field officers have been deputed for coordination, he said.

There were over a dozen of ceasefire violation by Pak army along LoC in J&K in which seven people including four jawans were killed and 12 injured in the month of July 2017.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu government has filed an appeal before Madras high court, challenging an order of a single judge, which quashed its order, earmarking 85 per cent of the seats available in the state quota to students of Tamil Nadu State Board and the remaining 15 per cent to students of CBSE and other boards for admission to MBBS/BDS courses for academic year 2017-18.

In its appeal, the state government contended that the single judge ought to have considered that even though Neet was common for all students of various boards, the question paper has been prepared by CBSE and all questions in Neet has been taken from CBSE syllabus and only around 50 per cent of questions has been covered in the syllabus of TN state board and therefore, there was an advantage to CBSE students. In order to harmonize the disparity between the students of the different board, the government has no other alternative, but to take a policy in the said matter, it added.

The government said students who studied stat-e board and those who did CBSE board were not equals. Hence, unequals cannot be treated as equals as per Article 14 of the Constitution. To ensure equal opportunity to students of varying boards, normalization has been followed till now under the TN Admission in Professional Educational Institution Act.

The single judge ought to have considered that the state has been empowered to lay down policy to protect its students for admission under the state government seats for MBBS/BDS courses by way of issuing executive orders, since there was a different methodology followed in the teaching understanding, evaluation etc in between the state board and the CBSE board, the government of TN was having the bounden duty to protect the welfare of the students who studied in the state board and therefore, decided to take a policy decision to protect the said students. Accordingly, the government issued an executive order, it added.
Chennai: Voting to elect the country's 14th President was wrapped up in just two hours at the lone polling station in Tamil Nadu, where 232 legislators from Tamil Nadu, Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan and an MLA from Kerala exercised their franchise.

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the first to cast his ballot after which his ministerial colleagues Dindigul C Srinivasan and KA Sengottaiyan exercised their franchise. Except DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who represents Tiruvarur constituency in the Assembly, remaining 232 members voted in the presidential polls.

While Mr Karunanidhi is indisposed and did not vote following advice from his doctors not to step out, R K Nagar constituency is lying vacant due to the death of J Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

The polling, which began at 10 am, ended at 11.56 am with Mettur MLA S Semmalai, who owes allegiance to former chief minister O Panneerselvam, being the last one to cast his ballot. After the polling ended, Tamil Nadu's Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni said the ballot box, which can accommodate upto 1000 ballot sheets, was sealed at 5 PM and taken to Delhi by a 9.10 PM flight.

President of India is elected through the Electoral College consisting of MPs belonging to both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of all state assemblies in the country. The value of the vote of an MLA in Tamil Nadu is 176 and the value of MP's vote is 708.

K Boopathy, assistant returning officer (Secretary in charge of TN Assembly), took the ballot box to New Delhi along with Joint Secretary Subramanian. The votes polled on Monday would be counted in the national capital on Thursday.

While CM said he couldn't divulge whom he voted for since it was a "secret ballot", his rival O. Panneerselvam expressed the hope that the BJP nominee Kovind will emerge victorious in the elections. Kovind's rival is former LS Speaker Meira Kumar, who is being supported by DMK and Congress.

On his part, Opposition leader M.K. Stalin accused the BJP of enacting a drama by pushing for a "consensus candidate" without divulging the identity of the nominee. "All 88 MLAs except Thalaivar (Karunanidhi) voted in the elections," he said.

Besides them, Pon Radhakrishnan, representing Kanyakumari LS constituency and Parikkal Abdullah from Kerala voted here taking the total number of voters here to 234.

With all eligible members of the 30 member assembly casting their vote, the Presidential polls in the union territory came to a close by 12.30 pm on Monday. Twenty two legislators including all 15 members of Congress, 2 legislators of DMK, 4 members of AIADMK (Amma) and a legislator of main opposition All India NR Congress(AINRC) exercised their franchise within half an hour of the commencement of polls.
Chennai: Bringing down the facade that the family of AIADMK (Amma) general secretary V.K. Sasikala has no conflict with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, party organ Namadhu MGR controlled by the family has started blacking out reports of the Chief Minister and other ministers.

Deputy general secret ary of AIADMK (Amma) T.T.V. Dhinakaran had declared that he would chalk out his own course of strategy after August 5. But, daggers seem to be out immediately after the Presidential elections. Dhinakaran also met seven MLAs supporting him and held discussions with his supporters Nanjil Sampath and Thalavai Sundaram on the day of Presidential elections.

So far the family has been trying to maintain that Palaniswami had not moved away from the family control and even deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran supporters had praised the Chief Minister in the Assembly as a loyal soldier of Sasikala.

Namadhu MGR was giving equal importance to the Chief Minister and other ministers, besides giving good coverage to Dhinakaran, in what appeared to be an attempt to show that the powers had been divided equally between the two. Palaniswami for the government and Dhinakaran for the party was the repeated assertion of the latter's supporters.

On the day of Presidential elections, news about the Chief Minister's visit to Kodungaiyur on Sunday to console the victims of fire tragedy, had been totally blacked out. Besides, the party organ is no more giving reports of the speeches and actions of AIADMK ministers.

The party organ also claimed that AIADMK MLAs decided to vote for the BJP's Presidential candidate following directions from Sasikala. However, it was the Chief Minister who announced AIADMK support to the BJP nominee, before the family made any announcement.

Mum is ePS word

Palaniswami nominated by Sasikala for Chief Minister's post began drifting away from the family slowly. When his cabinet colleagues announced that they would distance themselves from Sasikala's family, the Chief Minister remained silent. Some of Dhinakaran's supporters had asked Palaniswami to come out openly if he is opposed to Sasikala or not, but the queries did not elicit any reply from the Chief Minister. When the organ started attacking the BJP and Union government, finance minister D. Jayakumar distanced the party from the paper, saying that it is no more the party organ. However, the Chief Minister had greeted Namadhu MGR'on its 30th inauguration day and described it as the official organ of AIADMK.
Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu is offered sweets by his wife Usha and other family members, after he was announced as the NDA Vice-Presidential candidate in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Hyderabad: Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu all-but-certain elevation as Vice-President has been widely hailed, but the two both Telugu states will miss a friend, guide and philosopher.

As Vice-President, Mr Naidu will be bound by certain regulations and cannot directly and publicly do anything to benefit the Telugu states. Mr Naidu has energetically propounded the cause of the two new states that were created in 2014 and guided them through their baby steps.

Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu with AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Three years ago, he summoned all the 30-odd Union Cabinet ministers to his chambers including seniors like Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr Sushma Swaraj and asked them to implement various promises given to the Telugu states under the AP Reorganisation Act.

With his daughter Deepa Venkat (managing trustee of Swarna Bharat Trust) and CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao

Whenever he got any request from either AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu or Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he used to take up the issues and resolve them by going to several ministers and inviting officials from other ministries. Even when he was not in power, Mr Venkaiah Naidu took keen interest in AP.

When Ms Sushma Swaraj did not mention special status to residuary Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha during the debate on bifurcation, it was Mr Venkaiah Naidu who took up the cause and succeeded in getting a promise from then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha.

With then AP Chief Minister NTR

There is also the fact that he faced much criticism for not being able to implement the promise which he himself had asked for, after the NDA came to power. The benefits of special status were then packaged as a Special Assistance Measures for AP. He did this despite not being directly involved in AP politics. The last time he was elected from the state was to the Assembly in 1983.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu is known for his whirlwind tours across the nation. Always indefatigable, he used to cover three to four states in a day and has been a frequent flyer for about three decades. Even in the last couple of months, it was not a surprise to see Mr Venkaiah Naidu turning up in three different cities in a day.

Along the way, he has escaped unhurt in an attack by Naxalites who blasted his helicopter in erstwhile Bihar. In over a dozen occasions, the aircraft and helicopters in which was travelling developed technical snags mid-air and were forced to make emergency landing.

Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu with Bandaru Dattatreya

Some politicians still joke that they get scared while travelling with him. As Vice-President, he will share the Indian Air Force special Boeing aircraft dubbed Rajdooth, which is otherwise reserved only for the President and the Prime Minister for their domestic tours.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu has been directly or indirectly responsible for the state of BJP affairs in both the states. He was instrumental in forging the alliance with the Telugu Desam in 2014 elections though the TD had backed out of the alliance twice previously.

Anti-Congressism is in Mr Venkaiah Naidus DNA from the beginning. This led him to back the Telugu Desam when it was formed in 1982. He was the virtual commander-in-chief of the legislators camp run by ousted chief minister N.T. Rama Rao during the campaign to restore democracy in AP.

When he was elected for the first time as MLA in 1978, he along with Mr S. Jaipal Reddy used to be very critical of the the functioning of Congress Chief Ministers Marri Chenna Reddy, T. Anjaiah and Bhavanam Venkatram.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu who used to favour trousers and shirts changed his attire to adda pancha, the typical dress in Rayalaseema, Nellore and Prakasam districts after 1985. As Vice President, it is expected that there will be a change not only in his satire in his attire as well.
New Delhi: The BJP on Monday officially announced its senior leader Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, 68, a farmers son, as the NDAs vice-presidential candidate for the August 5 election. Famous for his oratory skills, the former BJP president and Union minister will file his nomination on Tuesday and take on the Oppositions candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The vice-president also officiates as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. On his candidature, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, A fitting candidate for the office of Vice-President.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Mr Naidu is a prominent BJP face from South India and had been jailed during the Emergency.

Known for his quirky one-liners and rhymes, Mr Naidu is often seen passionately defending Mr Modi, his policies and taking on the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament. He had once described Mr Modi as the gift to the nation from God and messiah of the poor.

Mr Naidu had vigorously backed Mr Modi for the prime ministership before the 2014 elections.

In fact, Mr Naidu had coined the term MODI  Making of Developed India, which was the official theme of the BJP and the governments outreach campaign on the occasion of its third anniversary in office.

RSS hand in nomination

Mr Naidus name was announced by BJP president Amit Shah after the meeting of the partys parliamentary board on Monday evening.

Mr Naidu, sources said, had a meeting with Mr Modi at Parliament House on Monday morning, where he was apparently told about the party and RSS decision to nominate him for the vice-presidents post.

The electoral college for the vice-presidential election consists of members of both Houses of Parliament, including the nominated members, which is currently at 786, as there are two vacancies each in both Houses. The numbers seem to favour Mr Naidu, with the ruling party claiming Mr Naidu will get more than 500 votes as the BJP-led NDA already has 338 members in the Lok Sabha. Though the NDA is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, some non-NDA parties including AIADMK, BJD, TRS and YSRCP, which are already backing the NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, are also likely to vote in favour of Mr Naidu.

Though his name was officially announced by the BJP on Monday evening, Mr Naidu, who is well respected across party lines, was seen receiving congratulations from leaders of different parties in Parliament since the morning.

Associated with the Jan Sangh, the BJPs former avatar, since the 1970s, Mr Naidu had closely worked with many Sangh Parivar stalwarts and party patriarch Atal Behari Vajpayee and veteran leader L.K. Advani. He was also a Cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government. Having extensively travelled across the country for organisational activities, Mr Naidu played a key role in bringing the TDP into the NDA fold and in gaining TRS backing for the NDA presidential nominee.

Mr Naidu currently holds the portfolios of information and broadcasting and housing and urban affairs. He was also parliamentary affairs minister earlier in the Modi government.

Venkaiah Naidu is only the 2nd Telugu politician who will make it as the V-P

The first was V.V. Giri, Vice-President from 1967-69. He went on to become President from 1969 to 1974. The poll was necessitated by the death of Zakir Hussain, who was born in Hyderabad.

Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy from Anantapur was President from 1977 to 1982; he was never Vice-President.

Two Governors who served at the Hyderabad Raj Bhavan became Vice-Presidents: Shankar Dayal Sharma and Krishna Kant.

What they said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet

A farmers son, M. Venkaiah Naidu Garu brings years of experience in public life and is admired across the political spectrum. I know him for years. Have always admired his hardwork & tenacity. A fitting candidate for the office of Vice-President.

Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSRC Chief

Being a Telugu, we will extend our support to Venkaiah Naidu. Our partys stand has been that election to constitutional posts like president, vice-president and Lok Sabha speaker should be unopposed. So, we will fully support him.

Amit Shah, BJP President

He has been with the BJP since he was very young. He hails from a farmers family and held important organisational posts in the party.

Yogi Adityanath, UP Chief Minister

His contribution has made him popular both in northern India and all over the country... his love for Hindi is known to all. The decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP parliamentary board is a matter of pride for all sections of the society.
According to a report by Norton by Symantec, 96 per cent of Indians have potentially put personal information. (Photo: File)

Millions of Indians who use free public Wi-Fi are putting their personal information at a risk of being stolen without realising, revealed a survey conducted by cybersecurity firm Symantec. According to a report from Norton by Symantec, 96 per cent of Indians have potentially put personal information, which includes email ID and contact numbers, at risk while using public Internet.

India loves free Wi-Fi to an extent where they are ready to give away personal information to get access to free Wi-Fi networks, said Symantecs Country Manager of Consumer Business Unit, Ritesh Chopra.

Personal data is being given away while logging into social media websites (68 per cent), email accounts (66 per cent), accessing bank or financial information (24 per cent) and more. The figures reflect inputs from a thousand Indians, surveyed online in late May, who use Wi-Fi.

About 74 per cent of Indians believe that their personal information is safe while using public Wi-Fi, whereas only half act unsafely while online, according to the report. There is a deep divide between what people think is safe when it comes to using public Wi-Fi versus the reality, Mr. Chopra added.

Mr. Chopra said: The biggest threat in India is identity thefta large population with lack of awareness to protect itself from online threats. People dont see it happening immediately, its over a period of time one would notice it.

To protect oneself while using public Wi-Fi, the firm has suggested taking three precautionary measures:

Use Security Software: One of the best ways to protect your information online is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from a trusted vendor. VPNs provide a secure tunnel that encrypts data being sent and received between your device and the server.

One of the best ways to protect your information online is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from a trusted vendor. VPNs provide a secure tunnel that encrypts data being sent and received between your device and the server. Look for HTTPS: Many companies use secure website protocols  HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)  to provide online security. You can tell if a website is secure by checking for the https tag in its URL and has a small lock symbol next to it. However, even though the website itself might be safe, your personal information could be vulnerable if your network connection isnt secure.

Many companies use secure website protocols  HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)  to provide online security. You can tell if a website is secure by checking for the https tag in its URL and has a small lock symbol next to it. However, even though the website itself might be safe, your personal information could be vulnerable if your network connection isnt secure. Sharing Less is Best: Think twice before entering any type of personal information  from passwords, to financial details and photos  over public Wi-Fi networks. Even if youre not actively sharing the information, your device may be doing so for you. Many devices are programmed to automatically seek connections to other devices on the same network, which could cause your files to be vulnerable. Be sure to disable sharing on your devices to ensure whats yours stays yours.

Additionally, the firm has also announced a Norton Wi-Fi Privacy app  a VPN service that helps users build upon another protection footprint. The app is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices and can be purchased for Rs 2,999 for one device, at Rs 3,999 for five devices and Rs 4,999 for 10 devices.

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Hung Liu shows a body of work adopting American imagery and bold, colorful underpaintings in each work. Runs through 8/4.

Chinese artist Hung Liu underwent re-education in China, during Maos Cultural Revolution. She toiled in the fields 364 days a year for four years, before graduating from the prestigious Central Academy of Art, with cohorts the likes of Ai Wei Wei. Liu immigrated to the U.S. and has since become one of the most collectible contemporary artists of this country. Her works are in the permanent collections of every major museum from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum.

Liu is widely known for transforming the pain and struggle of Chinese workers into quasi-imperial objects of beauty. She makes a landmark step forward in her career with this American Dream Series. For the first time, Liu turns her attention toward the purely American struggle of forced migration. Finding inspiration in Dorothea Langes iconic photography, Liu transforms Langes imagery into full color, monumental beauty. Liu says we can adopt each others children, so why not adopt each others ancestors, as well. This body of work is pivotal not only because Hung adopts American imagery, but also because she allows her Social Realist Muralist training to show through in the bold, colorful underpainting in each work.
Can Religious Communities Limit Who Lives in a Neighborhood?

We've all heard horror stories about homeowners' associations, imposing fines or even eviction notices on residents for grass that's too brown, playhouses that are too pink, families that are too big, and yard decorations that are too time-travely. And while all those stories seem ridiculous, the standard legal response is often, "Well, that's what you get with an HOA -- gotta abide by the agreement."

But what if a community is saying you can't buy or inherent a home because you practice the wrong religion or you're not religious enough? Surely that has to be illegal, right?

Quite a View

The Bay View Association was founded in 1875 in Michigan's Lower Peninsula region, under the state's Summer Resort and Assembly Associations Act, which allows for "the formation of corporations for the purchase and improvement of grounds to be occupied for summer homes, for camp-meetings, for meetings of assemblies or associations and societies organized ... for the promotion of the cause of religion and morality." Bay View is associated with the United Methodist Church, and, despite recent efforts by association members, still requires homeowners to be of "Christian persuasion," demonstrated by a pastor or church leader attesting to a person's membership or attendance at a church.

While Mike Spencer, Bay View's executive director, told the Petoskey News-Review that "Bay View is a private, voluntary membership, organization," a new lawsuit is contending that its organization under the Summer Resort Act gives the association some governmental authority and it must therefore adhere to federal and state anti-discrimination laws. The Bay View Chautauqua Inclusiveness Group, comprised of past, current, and potential future Bay View homeowners, is suing the Bay View Association in federal court, claiming its religious restriction violate the First Amendment, Federal Fair Housing Act and Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

Law of the Land

The First Amendment, which applies to governmental entities, forbids the "establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Additionally, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, sex, national origin, or religion, and applies to federal, state, and local agencies, as well as corporations, partnerships, and associations.

Finally, while Michigan's Elliot Larsen Act prohibits any "condition, restriction, or prohibition ... that directly or indirectly limits the use or occupancy of real property on the basis of religion," it does include an exception for "real property held by a religious institution or organization." According to the News-Review, home in Bay View can be individually owned, but the land on which the dwellings sit belongs to the association.

"We have also identified cases where individuals have negotiated to purchase a cottage, then they have been told they are not the 'right' religion and cannot complete the sale," said Sarah Prescott, the Bay View Chautauqua Inclusiveness Group's attorney, in a news release. "These rules prevent children and grandchildren of current owners from inheriting cottages because they do not meet the religious test, sometimes interrupting a family tradition of four as much as six generations."

It will now be up to a federal judge or jury to decide if the rules violated the law.

Related Resources:
A ban on telecast of Indian teleplays, imposed by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), was lifted by the Lahore Court on Tuesday. (Photo: AP | Representational)

Lahore (Pakistan): A ban on telecast of Indian teleplays, imposed by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), was lifted by the Lahore Court on Tuesday.

Granting the permission to private television channels to screen Indian teleplays, the Lahore declared PEMRA's ban as null and void given that the federal government had no objections regarding the same.

A notification was issued by PEMRA imposing a blanket ban on all Indian content on October 19, 2016 after relations between Islamabad and New Delhi deteriorated following cross border terror attacks by Pakistan based terrorists on Indian soil.

The petition, filed by Leo Communication, challenged the PEMRA notification as being beyond the powers of the regulatory body and the Constitution and sought to overturn the ban as it had not been imposed by the Government of Pakistan.

The plea claimed that the government was indulging in 'selective patriotism,' as though Indian movies were allowed to be screened all over the country, they could not be aired on television, the Dawn reported.

According to the report, PEMRA's ban on the airing of Indian films was lifted in February 2017 but permission to air tele-soaps or television dramas was not granted.

The petitioner's counsel Asma Jehangir claimed that the ban had been imposed since India had imposed similar restrictions on all Pakistani content.

The court questioned as to why PEMRA was making the airing of Indian content an issue when the federal government had no objections to it.

LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that Indian content, which are objectionable or anti-Pakistan, could be censored but there is no need for a complete ban.
Congress leader Rohit Tilak, a scion of the family of revolutionary freedom fighter, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, has been booked by the Pune police on charges of rape.



Rohit Tilak is the great great grandson of Tilak, the nationalist, reformist and freedom fighter, who gave the clarion call of ''Swaraj is my birthright"  and was often referred to as Father of Indian unrest.



According to the complaint filed at the Vishramwadi police station, the woman had known Tilak since 2015 and the latter had raped her on the pretext of marriage on several occasions.



The victim, a lawyer by profession, had also attempted suicide twice in the past.



Tilak has been charged under the Indian Penal Code with rape, unnatural offences, voluntarily causing hurt, insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation.



A lady officer has been assigned to investigate the case, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Basavraj Teli.



Rohit Tilak belongs to an illustrious family. He belongs to the family tree of the grandson of Tilak late Jayantrao Tilak, the Congress MP. Rohit Tilak's father is Dr Deepak Tilak, the Vice Chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth.



Mukta Tilak, the wife Tilaks great-grandson Shailesh, is currently the Mayor of Pune. In 2009, Rohit Tilak had unsuccessfully contested the elections from Punes Kasba Peth constituency.



I am under threat: victim



I am under constant fear and threat, the 41-year-old victim told reporters in Pune. "I am under severe pressure, there is a threat to my life. I have not been keeping well," she said outside the Vishrambaug police station, with her face covered in a veil. "I am under constant threat from the family," she said, adding that this was the last time that she was giving any statement to the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought the support of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.



The prime minister spoke to Palaniswami, who leads the Amma faction of the ruling AIADMK, over the phone and thanked him for supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, an official release issued here late last night said.



"Palaniswami extended his greetings to Naidu," it added.



The 68-year-old Naidu was yesterday chosen the NDA's vice presidential candidate at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board.



His nomination is seen as part of the BJP's attempts to expand in south India, which has been identified by party chief Amit Shah as a key region for growth before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



The two-time BJP president is pitted against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was chosen by an alliance of 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, but his election is almost inevitable due to the NDA's huge numerical superiority over the opposition.
Retreating from its record high level, the benchmark BSE Sensex shed 300 points to touch 31,775.54 in opening trade today amid a weak lead from other Asian markets.



The wider NSE Nifty too backtracked from its all-time peak and dipped below the 9,800-level.



Brokers said apart from profit-booking at record levels by participants, a weak trend at other Asian markets amid concerns about Donald Trump's economic agenda as he struggles to pass key healthcare legislation, hurt the trading sentiment here.



The BSE 30-share barometer after dipping to a low of 31,626.44 points at the outset, recovered partially to quote 299.24 points, or 0.93 per cent down at 31,775.54.



Stocks led by FMCG, consumer durables, oil&gas and realty were major losers that dragged both the key indices down from their record highs.



Stocks of ITC suffered the most by falling 11.90 per cent to Rs 287 after the GST Council yesterday hiked cess on cigarettes.



The index gained 54.03 points to close at an all-time high of 32,074.78 in yesterday's trade.

On similar lines, the NSE Nifty fell by 123.90 points, or 1.24 per cent to trade at 9,792.05. It had closed at a record high of 9,915.95 points in yesterday's session.



However, gains in Bharti Airtel, TCS, Cipla, HUL, Infosys and Sun Pharma cushioned the fall.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net of Rs 328.61 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.



Most Asian markets were lower in their opening trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.19 per cent, Japan's Nikkei shed 0.68 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.62 per cent in their early deals.




A large reshuffle of the Union Cabinet is slated for the first week of September even as portfolios held by Venkaiah Naidu were reallocated following his resignation as Union minister on his nomination as NDA's vice-presidential candidate on Tuesday.



Textile Minister Smriti Irani got the additional charge of information and broadcasting Ministry, which was held by Naidu.



The other portfolio of urban development, which was with Naidu, was given to Narendra Singh Tomar, who has been handling rural Development and panchayati raj.



Earlier, shortly before Naidu filed his nomination papers, President Pranab Mukherjee accepted his resignation with immediate effect, said a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.



The proposed reshuffle in the first week of September is expected to be a larger exercise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to carry out a revamp, rewarding those ministers who have performed well and, perhaps, showing the door to others.



Since he became PM, Modi has carried out only two Cabinet reshuffles and expansions  in November 2014 and July 2016.



Modi will begin consultation with BJP chief Amit Shah and other party leaders after the current monsoon session of Parliament concludes on August 11.



Top BJP officials confirmed that "performance criteria" would be the bench mark.



Modi wishes to "re-energise" the Union Council of Ministers with a lot of younger faces and meet the development targets set before the Lok Sabha polls of 2019.



A number of ministers of state who have handled important portfolios as an independent charge could be promoted to the Cabinet rank.



Most importantly, the exercise should see appointment of a full-fledged Cabinet minister for defence.



Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has held the additional charge of defence since Manohar Parrikar moved to Goa as chief minister.



The government has come under flak from the opposition for the absence of full-fledged defence minister when India has been facing the military stand-off with China in Bhutan.



When Union minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away on May 18, the portfolio of environment, forests and climate change held by him was handed to science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan.



With less than two years to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a third expansion and reshuffle could also see senior BJP leaders who are in the states being asked to shift to the Centre.

Modi has been keen to get experienced BJP chief ministers to handle portfolios at the centre but they have been reluctant to shift out of their states.



The reshuffle is expected to take account the BJP's focus in the Assembly polls due in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka later this year and next.



Elections are also due in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan in December 2018.

The last Cabinet reshuffle in July 2016 saw 19 new ministers being inducted into the government.



Among the changes that the PM undertook, Prakash Javadekar became HRD minister, Smriti Irani was given textiles ministry and Sadananda Gowda move from the law ministry to the statistics ministry. Noted journalist M J Akbar became a minister of state for external affairs.

Currently, the Union Council of Ministers has 73 members, including the PM.



Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the total number of ministers, including the PM, in the Union Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15 per cent of the number of members of the House of the People. Therefore, the maximum numbers of ministers that Modi can have in his government is 82.




An army major was shot dead by his subordinate following an altercation over the use of cellphone in Uri sector of north Kashmir's Baramulla district on Tuesday.



A police official said the army personnel shot dead Major Shikhar Thapa with his service rifle at Butcher Post in the Uri sector after the latter reprimanded the former for using mobile phone while on duty in a sensitive area.



Major Thapa belonged to 71 Armoured Regiment but was attached to 8 Rashtriya Rifles, the armys elite counter-insurgency unit deployed in Uri, where 19 soldiers were killed in a fidayeen (suicide) attack by militants in last year September.



Major Thapa confiscated the cell phone of the jawan, whose identity was not known immediately, which led to an argument. The solider shot the officer with his AK-47 rifle at around 12 am, sources said.



The police have lodged an FIR and started a probe into the incident.



Experts attribute multiple reasons for fratricidal killing and for the continuing suicides among members of the armed forces deployed in conflict zones. These include low morale among soldiers leading to stress, poor service conditions, inadequacy of leave to go home and communication gap with superiors.



The Army has devised several methods to reduce stress levels including rationalising grant of leave, improving senior-sub-ordinate relationships, psycho-analysis of soldiers and reducing duty periods in inhospitable conditions.
China needs to prepare for the standoff with India near the Sikkim sector becoming a long- term situation, an article in a state-run Chinese daily said today, warning that more such conflicts can trigger "an all out confrontation" along the entire Line of Actual Control.



The Op-ed article in the Global Times claimed that the Indian action to stop Chinese troops from building a road near the Doklam plateau was a "blatant infringement on China's sovereignty".



The road is near the trijunction with Bhutan.



India has expressed concern over the road construction, fearing it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its northeastern states. It has conveyed to China that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.



The Chinese action has led to a month-long military standoff.



The article said that if India "stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC (Line of Actual Control)."



Of the 3,488-km-long border India shares with China from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.



The article in the tabloid daily, which is a part of the ruling Communist Party of China media group, said: "As the confrontation goes on, China needs to get ready for the face- off becoming a long-term situation and at the same time, needs to maintain a sense of rationality."



"China doesn't advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation," it said.



It said that there are voices within China that call for the Indian troops to be "expelled immediately", while Indian public opinion "is clamouring for war with China".



"However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiralling out of control," it said.




Unidentified militants shot at and injured a former panchayat member in Qazigund areas south Kashmirs Kulgam district on Tuesday.



A police official said militants opened fire on Nazir Ahmad Shah, a former panch associated with opposition National Conference in his native Panzath village of Qazigund. He sustained a bullet injury in his leg.



He was shifted to District Hospital Anantnag for treatment where his condition is stated to be stable. The five-year term of Panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir ended in 2016 and since then the government has failed to hold the fresh polls due to unrest in the Valley.



From 2011 to 2016, more than a dozen panchayat members were killed by the militants. The militants used to threaten the grass roots level representatives of dire consequences if they failed to do so
How to Evict or Oust a Squatter on Your Property

Stories of squatters gaining title to the properties they trespass upon are the urban legends that keep landowners awake at night. Under adverse possession laws, it is actually possible, albeit rather difficult, for a squatter to gain legal title.

Landowners need to be aware of their rights when dealing with squatters, as many jurisdictions do provide squatters with some legal protections. For instance, if a squatter is actually a holdover tenant, or sub-tenant, meaning a renter who has stayed beyond the terms of their rental agreement, the formal eviction process will likely be required to remove the squatter.

Beware Taking Action Yourself

While a landowner may just want to get the squatter off their property as quickly as possible, doing so without the assistance of the court, law enforcement, or at least an attorney, could result in a civil suit for wrongful eviction, and even criminal charges.

Generally, a landowner cannot use self-help to oust a holdover tenant or squatter. This includes such actions as changing the locks, shutting off the power, gas, or water, or hiring others to intimidate or scare the squatters off the property. Doing so can expose the landowner to a whole host of legal liability, both civil and criminal.

Use the Legal Process

The first step for a landowner to evict squatters will vary based on the particular facts of the situation. An informal demand to vacate the property can sometimes work. Also, sometimes law enforcement officers can oust squatters by arresting them for trespassing. Which order and when to use any method to oust a squatter should be discussed with an experienced, local real estate attorney.

However, when squatters are more sophisticated (or criminal), they may be able to provide some documentation (often fraudulent) that will prevent officers from arresting them for trespassing, or otherwise removing them from the property. In these scenarios, a landowner is going to need to use the court system to evict the squatters.

Court Ordered Eviction

Eviction cases are often referred to as unlawful detainer actions. Most courts have expedited procedures that can move these matters along rather quickly, in comparison to normal civil cases. Unfortunately, some tenants are skilled at gaming the system.

The eviction procedures are often tenant friendly, meaning that landowners can lose their cases for minor technical errors. Fortunately, even after a loss, a landowner can file a new case with the technical errors corrected. However, to avoid these technical errors, a landowner seeking to evict a tenant or squatter should seek out the help of a qualified, local landlord tenant attorney.

Related Resources:
The Lok Sabha was adjorned without transacting any business on Tuesday due to opposition parties' noisy protests over woes of farmers and lynching of people in the name of protection of cows.



The MPs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from Karnataka too displayed placards and drew the attention on the need to protect honest officers in the State.



They were apparently referring to transfer of Indian Police Service officer Roopa D Moudgil by the State Government after she exposed that the imprisoned All India Anna Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Amma leader V Sasikala was being provided special facilities and services in a jail in Bengaluru. Shobha Karandlaje and other BJP MPs from Karnataka also staged a protest in the premises of Parliament against transfer of Roopa by the Congress Government in the State.



The Lok Sabha witnessed uproar as several MPs of the opposition parties like Congress, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) trooped into the well of the House. They raised slogans slamming the BJP-led Government for failing to help the farmers and to stop the lynching of people by the cow vigillantes.



The noisy protests started shortly after the House assembled for the day and Speaker moved to start the proceedings of the Question Hour.



The opposition MPs, who came to the well, held up placards that read Gau mata toh bahana hai, Karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (clamour for protection of cow just a tactic for diverting people's attention from farmers' demand for loan waiver), and Who allowed Vijay Mallya (business tycoon accused of loan default) to leave the country? Speaker Sumitra Mahajan repeatedly asked the MPs to go back to their seats. Her efforts to continue the proceedings of the Question Hour however failed as the ruckus went on. She then adjourned the House till 12 noon.



When the House reassembled, the uproar continued as the opposition MPs returned to the well and started raising slogans against the Government. Speaker then adjourned the House for the day.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced his party's support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition's candidate for the vice-presidential election.



The regional party had supported NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, polling for which was held yesterday. However, Patnaik preferred to go with opposition parties this time.



"The Biju Janata Dal will support Sri Gopalkrishna Gandhi," the BJD president told reporters here.



BJD parliamentary party spokesman Kalikesh Singhdeo said, "Patnaik has proved that the BJD has been maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP."



Patnaik had in 2012 said Gandhi was an "old and valued friend. We were friends even when I was not in politics".


Reaching out to parties across the political divide, NDA vice presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu today said he no longer belonged to the BJP and would strengthen democratic institutions if elected.



Naidu, who was flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party veteran L K Advani when he filed his nomination in the parliament complex, said the candidature was an "honour" for him and he would uphold the dignity of the office if elected.



In a "farewell" press conference soon after he filed his nomination, he expressed his gratitude to the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah as he played down reports that he was not very keen for the new responsibility.



"The office of the vice president has been held by the illustrious people like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, M Hidayatullah, R Venkataraman, Shanker Dayal Sharma and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat...



"I am fully aware of the august responsibilities associated with the office. I would like to assure the people of the country that, on being elected, I will uphold the traditions and standards set by the worthy predecessors. I will uphold the dignity of the office of the vice president," he told reporters.



India's beauty and strength lie in its parliamentary democratic system, Naidu said, adding that it would be his endeavour to strengthen this further.



The former union minister recalled his humble beginnings and likened the BJP to his mother. Having lost his mother at a very young age, he grew up with party workers and had reached where he had due to the party's support, Naidu said.



But he now no longer belongs to the BJP, he said. "I am above any party now."



Sources close to him later said Naidu had resigned from the party. He had resigned from the cabinet last night after his candidature was announced.



He said he would continue as a member of the Rajya Sabha and cast his vote in the vice presidential poll next month.



Naidu's win is all but certain due to the NDA's numerical superiority over opposition parties, which have fielded Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their nominee.



Members of allies like TDP, Shiv Sena and LJP besides those of AIADMK and TRS, two parties outside the NDA fold but supporting Naidu's candidature, were among the leaders who accompanied Naidu as he filed his nomination.



Top leaders, including Modi, union ministers and allies like Ram Vilas Paswan, were among the proposers and seconders of his nomination.
Apollo Hospitals group executive chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy on Tuesday said he is ready to face any probe over the treatment of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.



Jayalalithaa died on December 5 having been admitted to the hospital on September 22 due to fever and dehydration. The mystery shrouding her death has prompted calls for an inquiry into the treatment and hospitalisation procedures.



We are ready (for the probe), Reddy said. We have all the data and there was no interference in the treatment given to her (Jaya).



Stating that the doctors had given extra care for Jayalalithaa, Reddy said: She was improving. Unfortunately, she had a major heart attack and never responded.



Several leaders, including AIADMK rebel leader O Panneerselvam, have been demanding an inquiry over the medical procedures and the manner of her death.


For this 58-year old Padmarajan in Tamil Nadu contesting elections is the part of his persona.



Padmarajan has taken part in the polls across the country since 1988 that includes President and vice President elections. There are been no major elections in the country in which he has not taken part.



After his latest venture to file his nomination papers for vice president elections against NDA nominee Venkaiah Naidu and UPA candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, he broke the own record by contesting for 181 times.



Some of his star candidates against whom he contested earlier include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, P V Narasimha Rao, Atal Behari Vajpayee. DMK chief M Karunanidhi and late J Jayalalithaa.



Padmarajan's last outing was when he filed nomination papers for Presidential polls against NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and UPA nominee Meira Kumar.



However, his paper was rejected as the documents did not have the support of MLAs and MPs.



Though Padmarajan is yet to succeed at the hustings after having contested so many elections for the past three decades, he still expresses confidence that he would succeed one day.



So far, Padmarajan had filed nomination papers five times to Presidential and Vice Presidential elections respectively.



Nicknamed as 'Election King', Padmarajan told Deccan Herald that contesting election was his passion whether he succeed it or not. "I file nomination throughout my life, and definetly some day I will succeed", he added.



He said that he has lost more than Rs 20 lakh in deposits. An owner of the puncher shop at Mettur in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, he earns few thousand rupees in a month. "I separately save money for elections", he said.



His name already finds mention in the Limca Book of record since 2013 of having unsuccessfully contested 145 in various polls across the country.



The record stated that Padmarajan was the most unsuccessful candidate in the country having contested against political bigwigs including presidential candidates, prime ministers, chief ministers and others since 1988.



The highest number of votes he ever secured was 6,273 from his home (assembly) constituency of Mettur in 2011, the record said.
Many have stopped using one of this cheapest means of communication in the internet era but Opposition Vice Presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi has chosen the 50 paisa post card to reach out to his voters.



The idea has come from Gandhi himself when he met Opposition leaders during filing of nomination papers in Parliament on Tuesday.



The leaders found it interesting and suddenly one of them instructed his aide to buy the post cards from the post office in Parliament House. Soon, 1,000 cards were brought.



Sources said the cards will be posted with Gandhi's appeal soon.



Another letter from Gandhi detailing why he is contesting and appeal to all the 785 MPs, including those from the ruling NDA, is also being prepared.



Gandhi will also record a video message for MPs.



The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, during his interaction with reporters after filing his nomination, said his fight is not about arithmetic.



"Arithmetics is about numbers. Philosophy is about principles. I choose to fight on principles," Gandhi, who prayed at Mahatma Gandhi's statue after filing his nomination, said when asked about numbers not in his favour.



Gandhi will return to capital on August 4, a day before the polling for the post of Vice President in which he is pitted against NDA nominee Venkaiah Naidu. Gandhi was also "very happy" that BJD also extended support to his candidature.



The news of BJD support also came when Gandhi was with other leaders. He also spome to BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, with whom he has a personal relationship for long.



BJD had not supported opposition candidate for Presidential polls Meira Kumar and Gandhi's supporters were not counting on Patnaik till now.
Benchmark Sensex today slipped from life highs to end sharply lower at 31,710.99 by falling 364 points following a steep plunge in ITC Ltd stocks after the GST Council yesterday hiked tax on cigarettes.



Besides, the broader Nifty also cracked below the 9,900 mark.



Sentiment was hurt after the GST Council raised the tax on cigarettes to take away an estimated Rs 5,000 crore annual "windfall" manufacturers could have reaped from lower GST rates.



The market was also pulled down by negative European and mixed Asian peers as setbacks for a health care overhaul in the US raised doubts over prospects for a range of reforms backed by President Donald Trump.



Shares of ITC Ltd emerged worst performer among the Sensex and Nifty components by crashing 12.63 per cent to Rs 284.60 on the BSE.



Other cigarette stocks, Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries, also tanked by up to 7.83 per cent.
In a major relief to truckers ferrying goods from Siliguri to Sikkim, West Bengal police have started providing security to Sikkim registered trucks along NH-10, the sole road connecting the hill state with the rest of the country.



All Sikkim Truck Drivers Association (ASTDA) president Mingma Sherpa today said that West Bengal police started giving escorts from yesterday and till this noon, around 130 goods laden trucks reached Sikkim from Siliguri.



Sikkim-bound vehicles have been ransacked and looted during protests in and around Siliguri from end June after the state government expressed support for the Gorkhaland movement in Darjeeling hills.



The trucks laden with food items and vegetables were meant for all four districts of Sikkim.



Normal movement of escorted trucks is expected to resume now along NH-10, Sherpa said.



The national highway, considered lifeline of the landlocked hill state, connects it to Siliguri and any blockade or interruption on it leads to severe scarcity of goods and stalls passengers' movement.



The Sikkim government has also moved the Supreme Court on July 13 seeking a direction to the Centre and West Bengal government that NH-10, be protected and uninterrupted vehicular movement be ensured in the wake of ongoing agitation for separate Gorkhaland state. However, the apex court is yet to give its verdict.


In May, the NLD Central Executive Committees secretary, Win Htein was accused of tarnishing the image and reputation of the Tatmadaw during his meeting with the reporters.

According to Myanmar Times, on May 3, a Facebook account named NLD Central News that went online in April 29, posted on its page that President U Htin Kyaw would resign after State Counselor and Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi returns from her visit to Europe.

On May 4, Win Htein told reporters that some individuals or organizations were targeting the party by spreading fake news concerning the actions of certain party officials and those in authority.

The Military statement, quoting Win Htein answering a reporter during the May 4 briefing said, It is difficult to tell who the suspects are because we are hearing a lot of things on the matter. Was it the USDP [Union Solidarity and Development Party]? Was it done by some Tatmadaw organizations? Did some IT experts who dont like us do it? It is hard to say.

However, Win Htein responded to the Tatmadaws accusation with humor saying that he felt like being pelted with a flower.

They themselves said it. It wasnt even in my words. I just answered the question when asked who I thought it was that was distributing fake news. I answered that it could be this or that person. I did not accuse anyone directly. Their response has no effect on me, it feels like they are throwing flowers at me, he told the reporters at the Sibin guest house in Nay Pyi Taw after the CEC meeting on May 6, according to the Myanmar Times.

At a workshop funded by USAID  to help integrate the former political prisoners back into the society  held on July 9 in Yangon, Phyo Min Thein, Yangon Chief Minister, warned participants that the country is still moving toward becoming a full-fledged democracy.

There are no civil-military relations in the democratic era. The military should be under civil administrative rule and the commander-in-chief position is the same as a director-general in accordance with protocol. But we are now dealing with the [commander-in-chief] as head of state. This is not democracy, Phyo Min Thein said.

Tatmadaws response

On May 11 and 12, the Tatmadaws press team released statements that said Phyo Min Theins comment had hurt relations between the government and the Military.

Myanmar Times reported: U Phyo Min Theins reckless and confrontational comment on the Tatmadaw and its commander-in-chief is damaging the governments goal of national reconciliation and the process of building a long-term relationship between the government and Tatmadaw, and the people and Tatmadaw. Therefore, the Yangon chief minister is deemed a person creating obstacles, quoting the statement.

Apart from that, the statement said that Phyo Min Thein is not suitable for constructive and long-term relations and the Tatmadaw wants the government to take action against him, adding that his no civil-military relations in a democracyclearly showed his observation weakness, regarding the important role of the Tatmadaw in nation-building, and harboring confrontational nature.

To drive home its message, the statement stressed: U Phyo Min Theins comments on the commander-in-chief who is on an overseas trip, is an attempt to offend the armed forces and its chief and damages the Tatmadaw chief and the Tatmadaws images.

The statement also cited the government announcement of June 3, 2016, which ranked the commander-in-chief eighth in order of precedence (protocol) from 38 people on the list of state protocol. Accordingly, state and regional ministers are ranked at 36.

Backing and reprimanding of NLD leadership

According to July 12 video report of DVB, Nyan Win who is on the partys central executive committee (CEC), defended Phyo Min Thein , saying there is no reason to take action against him if the Tatmadaw accepts the truth.

He made his point by saying: It is true that the commander-in-chief is the head of governmental organization and directors-general are heads of their civilian organizations as well, so they are on the same level.

But added: The fact that the commander-in-chief is more powerful due the political configuration (the military-drawn 2008 constitution) has nothing to do with it and according to the said (theoretical) thinking, they are the same level.

He further stressed: According to the (2008) constitution, commander-in-chief is a lot more higher. But our party has been continuously saying that this is absolutely wrong from the beginning. So we cannot give in (or change) our stand, just because it is included in the constitution. Things that are included in the constitution are not all correct and have lots of mistakes; in all 168 points (clauses) have to be corrected.

However, on July 13, the NLD leadership warned Phyo Min Thein for his statement and then on July 14, the following day, issued an internal memo which said: The partys CEC has warned U Phyo Min Thein for what he said at a workshop held in collaboration with USAID . . . CSOs and Media in Yangon on July 9, according to the report of The Irrawaddy, which claimed to have seen the memo, on July 16.

In addition, on July 16, Ministry of Defense Office issued a statement that Phyo Min Theins letter of apology addressed to the commander-in-chief on July 13 has been received. But nothing was mentioned on whether the issue has been resolved from the Militarys point of view.

Earlier on July 13, government spokesperson Zaw Htay said that the Yangon Chief Ministers remarks on the army chiefs position do not reflect the governments stance and had caused misunderstandings between the government and the military.

According to The Irrawaddy, Zaw Htay said: Those comments caused misunderstandings between the government and the military. As the chief minister is responsible [for what he said], we have instructed him to do what he needs to do.

When pressed for further detail, the spokesperson said: We can only share that so far.

Perspective and outlook

The row between the Tatmadaw and Phyo Min Thein is an existing latent conflict caused by the hybrid civilian-military political system which has been there from the beginning and is programmed to come out in the open every now and then, from time to time.

While the Suu Kyi-led NLD is hoping that in due course the Military could be wooed or would change its mind and become democratic, the Military in turn is driving to convince the NLD to accept the quasi-civilian unitary system rule as a model where it could maintain its political edge for as long as it is needed.

The military knows what it wants and what to do, but the NLD doesnt seem to have any strategy on how to achieve its goal of fully-fledged democracy except to appease the military so that it is not upset and resort to total control of the polity through emergency rule or coup detat.

The recent protest on Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein by the Military for casting aspersion on its commander-in-chief is actually just part of the problematic relationship which stems from civilian-military hybrid government system that has plagued the country from the outset.

But if one looks at the situation deeper the two episodes are linked to the bigger picture of constitutional amendment.

It is clear that in a democratic form of governance the military has to take orders from the elected government.

The Aung San Suu Kyi headed NLD regime comes into being through the popularly elected votes, with the slogan of time to change, albeit for only 75% of seats, as the 25% is reserved for the appointed Militarys MPs according to the military-drafted constitution.

Under such circumstances, the NLD government functions as a coalition partner of the Tatmadaw although there is no existence of clear and transparent coalition contract like it supposed to be in developed democratic countries. But, of course, no one knows for sure if there are unwritten verbal understanding between the Military and Suu Kyi, as she has met General Than Shwe, prior to the take over of the government from its predecessor regime, who is considered to be still influential on the Military establishment and was the one that installed the present commander-in-chief Min Aung Hliang.

But regardless of such speculation the reality in actual political arena is that the two coalition partners are locked in an unspoken confrontation to further their ambitions. While the NLD is tasked with having to deliver the aspirations of the electorate which is the installation of fully-fledged civilian government, the Military is determined to protect and nurture it political edge for the benefit of its organization, if not just for its group survival made up of the military top brass.

To this end, the military has been making use of a variety of coordinated approaches and tactical moves to maintain its political supremacy . Such as:

Making use of the NLDs legitimacy to open up sanctions, including the normalization of military relationship with the West and beyond;

Maintaining its veto power on constitutional amendment and political edge through the military-drafted constitution  as it is vested with power to run the most important ministries of home, defense and border affairs, including 25% appointed MP seats in all levels of the parliaments;

Employing Unlawful Association Act Article 17(1) and Telecommunication Law Section 66(d) to quell resistance in ethnic states and general control for all activities countrywide that it considers to be against its interest;

Keeping the war flames on by excluding some of the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), conducting offensives in ethnic areas and rejecting all-inclusiveness participation in the peace process;

Giving lip service to federalism while openly vowing to protect the military-drafted constitution, which in no way could be argued as being a federal constitution, to its utmost, including blocking the amendment of the constitution that would weaken its control in general; and

Through its refined push and pull maneuver has managed to push the NLD to endorse its stance or tacit approval against all-inclusiveness and its hard-line policy that has led to the international accusation of human rights violations in Arakan, Kachin and Shan States, among others.

The NLD on the other hand seems to be now resigned to treading lightly more than ever, where the constitutional amendment is concerned after some attempted failures within the parliament, due to the 75% approval ceiling needed by the parliamentarians to make amendment proposal even to sail through the first motion in the parliament.

Older members mostly tend to favor to go slow and refrain from challenging the military on constitutional amendment. But younger members are frustrated and want to accelerate the change that the NLD has promised in its election campaign manifesto. Thus, a certain latent conflict could be said to exist within the rank and file of the party. In general, the NLD has been echoing the Militarys position to restore peace first and constitutional amendment later.

Recently, Win Htein talked and argued that the NLD is still on the ball and that gradual changing of constitution is the way to go, by using the Burmese words da saint saint evolutionary change, which could be translated intoseeping in slowly, whatever he meant to say by that.

Given such an atmosphere, the Military and the NLD latent conflict will linger on and rows such as Phyo Min Thein, Win Htein and Military would definitely pop up now and then again. But for now the constitutional amendment is being pushed back to be a back-burner, at the expense of the electorate that have weighed in their lot, believing that Suu Kyi and her NLD would be able to deliver on their election campaign manifesto of time to change.
The Karnataka government has formed a nine-member committee to submit a report on designing a separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defending the move saying there is no constitutional provision against it.



If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of the Constitution. The committee, headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, was set up last month after a representation from noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa, and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada.



Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag for 'Kannada Naadu' and accord it legal standing. The panel comprises secretaries to the departments of Personnel and Administrative Services, Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, as also president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat, chairman of Kannada Development Authority, and vice-chancellor of Kannada University, Hampi, as its members.



The Director of Department of Kannada and Culture will be the member secretary to the committee. The un-official but widely regarded red and yellow 'Kannada flag' that is hoisted in every nook and corner of the state on November one every year to commemorate state formation day and used in the form of a scarf by Kannada activists was designed by Veera Senani Ma.Ramamurthy in the 1960s.



The Siddaramaiah government's move to form a committee is being considered as a departure from the stand taken by the earlier BJP government. The D V Sadananda Gowda led BJP government in 2012 had informed the Karnataka High Court that it has not accepted the suggestions to declare the bi-colour Kannada flag as the state's official flag, as having a separate flag would be "against the unity and integrity of the country."



Asked about the panel by reporters today, Siddaramaiah sought to know if there was any provision in the Constitution which prohibits the state from having its own flag "Is there any provision in the Constitution? Have you come across any provision in the Constitution? Did BJP people come across the provision? Then why they are raising?



On taking the step ahead of the state assembly polls, he said, "Election will be in the month of April-May not now, not tomorrow, not next month." Hitting out at the BJP, Siddaramaih said, "Did BJP people say they do not want flag for Karnataka state? Let them make a statement that 'we do not want flag for Karnataka state'. The BJP people always level such false allegation."
The Congress high command is "unhappy" over the Karnataka Government's decision to constitute a separate committee for designing a state flag and has asked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to come up with a clarification to end the controversy.



With the opposition parties targeting the Congress for what they charged flaring up separatists mindset among the public, the party top brass wanted to put an end the controversy.



"The Congress does not have a policy for a state having a separate flag. I have asked the government to clarify the issue," K C Venugopal, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka told DH. He also said that the country has only one flag and that is the national flag.



Congress senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chaudhury also said one country should have one flag. "I don't know what is the reason for Karnataka to have a separate flag, she commented.



Sanjay Raut, the Shiv Sena spokesperson, demanded the dismissal of the state government. "The Congress ruled government in Karnataka is triggering separatism in the state" he said demanding the imposition of presidential rule immediately.



The Karnataka government has formed a nine-member committee to submit a report on designing a separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended his government's move on the grounds that constitution does not bar states from having its own flag.



State Congress sources said that the party was trying to build a narrative on Kannada pride to counter BJP's Hindutva agenda ahead of next year's assembly elections.



The committee, headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, was set up last month after a representation from noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa, and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada.



Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag for 'Kannada Naadu' and accord it legal standing.




The process for admission for the year 2017-18 by the universities/institutions is ongoing. Keeping in view the para 3, sub-para (1) of Part-II of the said Regulations, it has been decided that the UGC (Open and Distance learning) Regulations, 2017 will be operationalised from the year 2018-19, the higher education regulator said, issuing a fresh notification late on Monday evening.



The UGC notified the ODL Regulations, 2017 in an official gazette on June 23. Every Higher Educational Institution offering a programme in ODL mode in pursuance of an approval granted to it for the purpose by the then Distance Education Council or by the Commission or by any other regulatory authority or intending to offer a programme in ODL mode from the academic session immediately after the notification of these regulations shall, for grant of recognition, make an application to the Commission, para 3, sub-para (1) of Part-II of the UGC Regulations stipulate.





The University Grants Commission (UGC) has deferred implementation of its regulations for open and distance learning (ODL) programmes from this year.Issuing a fresh notification, the higher education regulator has said the UGC (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017 will become effective from 2018-19 session.The course correction comes after it was noted that immediate implementation of the regulations from the date of its notification in June this year would technically render invalid all the ODL programmes being offered by various higher educational institutions in case they do not seek fresh recognition from the UGC.Stalling of new admissions to the approved ODL programmes in the academic session of 2017-18 was another immediate consequence of the implementation of the regulations.Many of the Universities and other higher educational institutions, which had just got UGC's approval to their ODL programmes in the month of May-June, found themselves in a catch-22 situation as the ODL Regulations of the regulator mandatorily required them to make a fresh application for obtaining approval to their ODL courses.
Two unidentified militants were killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Tuesday as army foiled one more infiltration bid.



Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said that an infiltration bid was foiled in Gurez sector in which two militant were killed. Three weapons have also been recovered. Operation is in progress," he said.



Sources said on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday troops guarding the LoC noticed the movement of a heavily armed group of militants trying to infiltrate into Indian territory under the cover of darkness in Gurez sector.



As the troops challenged the infiltrators, they opened fire and tried to hide in nearby forests. The army tightened to cordon around the area and in the morning a massive search operation was launched and contact was established with the hiding militants," they said and added that two militants have been killed in the encounter so far.



Sources said the operation is still underway as additional reinforcement from other army units have been rushed to the area and vast forest area has been cordoned off.



A senior army officer said the deployment of additional troops on the LoC along the traditional infiltration routes in north Kashmirs Baramulla and Kupwara districts this year seems to have paid dividends as a number of ultras have been killed at the entry point itself. "Over 25 infiltration attempts have been foiled in the recent months and 50 ultras have been killed along the LoC," he said.



"With additional troops, the army has placed ambush parties at new locations and places which militants and their guides don't know till they are trapped. It has helped in bringing down infiltration levels," the officer said and added that Pakistan is now trying to push the militants through the Gurez area which is jointly guarded by the army and the Border Security Force (BSF).



More than 110 militants have been killed by the security forces in the hinterland and along the LoC this year, which is highest in the last 10 years.
M Venkaiah Naidu had to give up active politics before he filed his nomination as NDA's vice president nominee on Tuesday morning. But the veteran BJP leader's one wish will remain unfulfilled -- he wanted to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi return to power in 2019 before calling it a day.



For emotional Naidu, the destiny won and former party president from Andhra Pradesh had to "withdraw" from the BJP to contest for the constitutional post.



"I had told my colleagues that I want to see Prime Minister Modi come back again in 2019 and then I will call it off and join social service. But destiny decided otherwise. Finally after discussion, I have agreed. I have withdrawn myself from party, do not belong to BJP now," Naidu said at his farewell press conference after filling the nomination for vice president election. He had resigned from the union cabinet last night after BJP chief Amit Shah announced his candidature for the VP election.



The former union minister vowed to uphold traditions and standards set up by the predecessors and maintain dignity that a constitutional post desires. "Office of Vice President is a different profile, has its functional norms. I hope I will be able to do justice," Naidu stressed. Playing down reports that he was reluctant to get out of the government, Naidu thanked Modi and Shah for bestowing honour by declaring him the NDA candidate to fight the poll against opposition's Gopal Krishna Gandhi. With numbers on the NDA side in the two Houses of parliament, Naidu is set to become the second BJP leader after Bhairon Singh Sekhawat to become VP. The election will be held on August 5 to find the replacement for Hamid Ansari whose tenure ends on August 10.



Naidu said India's beauty and strength lay in its parliamentary democratic system and that he would strive to strengthen it further. The vice president is also chairman of Rajya Sabha. The son of a farmer from Nellore district of AP recalled his humble beggining and equated the BJP with his mother whom he lost at an early age. He owed his journey from Nellore to Delhi to the party but clarified that "I am above any party now". He stated that he will remain as a Rajya Sabha MP.
In the first two months of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, 803 incidents of rape and 729 of murder were reported, the state Assembly was informed today.



"Between March 15 and May 9, 729 murders, 803 rapes, 799 loots, 2,682 kidnappings and 60 dacoities took place," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said during the Question Hour.



The issue was raised by Samajwadi Party member Shailendra Yadav Lalai who sought crime data in the specified period and action taken to curb it.



The minister said that action has been taken in 67.16 per cent of murder cases as also in 71.12 per cent cases of rape and 52.23 per cent of kidnapping.



He said action has also been taken in 67.05 per cent cases of dacoity and 81.88 per cent loot cases.



"Besides, in these registered cases, NSA (the National Security Act) was invoked against three accused, 126 were booked under the Gangsters Act and 131 under the Goonda Act," the minister said.



SP member Parasnath Yadav sought to know the comparative data from the corresponding period in previous years but it was not available with the minister.



"Our government is committed to check crime and whosoever flouts law will be dealt with strictly. In the earlier regime, case was not registered. Our government is even registering FIR in minor crimes," the minister said, explaining the reason behind the crime data.



Dissatisfied with the reply, Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury (SP) said the government has failed on law and order front and staged a walkout with party colleagues.



Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu wanted to ask some question but could not be heard amidst the din.



"The voice of the opposition cannot be suppressed with brute majority," Lallu said as he also walked out with the party members.
The Supreme Court today said the Centre's roadmap to improve condition of destitute widows has not addressed issues like national policy on empowerment of women, nourishment, sanitation and hygiene at shelter homes.



After going through the roadmap given by the Centre, a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also observed that the important aspect of re-marriage of widows aged between 16 and 20 years was missing and the government should encourage it.



The apex court said it was "not doubting" the Centre's plan to improve the condition of destitute widows across the country, but "it has to be done in a proper manner".



"A national policy for empowerment of women had come in 2001. Over 15 years have gone by, but no empowerment of women is there," the bench observed after Solicitor General (SG) Ranjit Kumar read out the contents of government's roadmap.



"There are two-three things which we want to say. You need to update the national policy for empowerment of women. You have not addressed the issue of nourishment. Most of these women are malnourished.



"It is a huge problem. You address this issue or else we are not going to reach anywhere," it said.



The apex court reserved its order on the pleas seeking directions to the Centre and the state government to provide shelter and other necessary facilities to widows in Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh who have been abandoned by their family members and other parts of the country.



The bench said it was contemplating constituting a committee which would go through various reports filed before it in the matter and would give suggestions on the steps which were required to be taken to improve the situation.



It asked the parties to give names so that a committee could be formed after which the SG suggested three names -- Anuradha Kapoor of the NGO 'Swayam', Suneeta Dhar of the NGO 'Jagori' and Meera Khanna of 'Guild of Service'.



The bench, however, asked the parties to give five names, but the SG said he would give it within two days.



During the hearing, the solicitor general read out in detail the steps, including creation of interactive database of destitute widows, mechanism for providing them legal aid, funds for infrastructural development of shelter homes, skill development of such women so that they can be self-employed, which the government was planning to take.



The government said that besides these, they also have a roadmap for imparting training to staffs employed at shelter homes, vocational training of destitute widows, appointment of counsellors and steps to ensure access to health facilities for them.



However, the bench observed, "Another important aspect which is missing is that there is nothing about re-marriage of widows aged between 16 to 20 years. You should encourage them to re-marry. There is nothing about it in the report.



"One thing is to say that everything is very good. The other thing is what is actually happening on the ground. We have a report of the member secretary of the legal services authority which says it is a hopeless situation. It says nothing is there in these (shelter) homes," the bench said.



When the SG said that this report was of 2014 and the situation has improved, the bench said, "Yes, but the government report of 2014 said that there is everything.



"We are not saying whatever you are saying is useless," it said and asked about the budgetary allocation for carrying out the works as suggested by the Centre.



On the issue of providing nutrition to destitute widows, the bench observed, "Every person requires some basic nourishment whether he or she is a child or an adult. There are newspaper reports about it. Maharashtra is in such a bad shape. The country is in a bad shape as far as malnutrition is concerned".



The apex court had earlier asked the Centre to convene a meeting to consider the suggestions mooted by the National Commission for Women (NCW) and formulate directions to improve the condition of destitute widows.



The court had taken note of the pathetic situation faced by the widows after a petition was filed in 2007 portraying their condition in the welfare homes at Vrindavan.



It had earlier referred to various reports filed by the National Legal Services Authority, the District Legal Services Authority and the NCW on the condition of shelter homes for widows in Vrindavan.



One of the reports had said that there was lack of proper toilets and bathrooms in the shelter homes, besides poor water and electricity facilities.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration today said it was lifting a ban on carry-on electronics such as laptops for passengers on Saudi Arabian Airlines flights headed to the U.S..

This is the last carrier under the restrictions to have been permitted to now ignore those new restrictions. Somehow this is apparently all making America Great Again and So Safe.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and other big air travel biz groups criticized the Trump administration's new security requirement.

In a July 14 letter to U.S. officials, IATA said it was a "fundamental shift away from the risk-based approach," adding that it would be "extremely difficult" to "meet the deadlines because of the lack of availability of screening equipment technology and resources."

From Reuters today:
Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is in the eye of the storm ever since CBI named him as an accused in the FIR lodged in the land-for-hotels scam, has been charged with owning 26 prime properties in Bihar as well as Delhi. The fresh round of allegations, backed by substantial evidence, was made by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi here on Tuesday.



Out of these 26 properties, 13 were owned by Tejashwi when he was a minor, while he became the owners of the rest 13 properties after he turned an adult, said Modi.



Modi quoted the CBI FIR, a copy of which is with the Deccan Herald, which has booked Tejashwi under Section 120 (B) and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and named him as an accused along with Lalu, Rabri Devi and others in the land-for-hotels case.



The CBI, which has entrusted the case to its DSP Sanjay Dubey for further investigation, has said in the FIR that the shares of the company (Delight Marketing) having a net worth of Rs 32.5 crores was transferred by the family members of Prem Chand Gupta (RJD Rajya Sabha member) to the family members of Lalu Prasad for a nominal amount of 64 lakhs.



When the shares were transferred to Tejashwi in 2014, he was 24 years old, and not a minor as claimed by the Deputy CM. One should understand that there is a difference between a police FIR and a CBI FIR, said Modi adding that the central investigating agency does its homework before lodging a FIR.



It is worth mentioning here that the CBI raided Lalu-Rabri residence on July 7 to investigate a land deal in which an industrialist Harsh Kochar was given two railway hotels  one in Ranchi and the other in Puri (Odisha) when Lalu was Railway Minister. In return, a land in Patna of around two acres was transferred in February 2005 to Delight Marketing Private Limited whose director was RJD MP Prem Chand Gupta, Lalus key aide and also a Union Minister in UPA-I. Lalus two sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav and daughter Chanda Yadav were made directors of the company. Later, the company Delight Marketing Private Ltd was renamed as Lara Projects Private Limited (La-Ra named after Lalu and Rabri).
Amid the continuing military face-off between India and China in Bhutan, New Delhi on Tuesday discussed ways to deepen defence and security ties with Australia.



External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met in New Delhi and discussed defence and security issues as well as ways to deepen regional engagement. Bishop, who is on a two-day visit to New Delhi, also met Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



Prime Minister and Australian Foreign Minister discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest, according to an official press-release.



Sources told the DH that the issue of India-China military face-off in western Bhutan had come up during Bishop's discussions with Swaraj and Jaitley. Both Defence Minister and External Affairs Minister conveyed to Australian Foreign Minister that India was using diplomatic channels with China to end the face-off.



Bishop, according to the sources, told Swaraj and Jaitley that Australia had since long been nudging China to stop pursuing aggressive foreign policy and adhere to international rules .



We must work towards a future where relationships between states are predictable  the rules-based order is an asset, Bishop later said delivering a lecture on Indo-Pacific at an event held by Observer Research Foundation. She said that Indo-Pacific democracies like India, Australia, Indonesia and others should work together for regional stability.



China should be persuaded to use its strategic weight to respect sovereignty of states, and uphold rule based order, she said, in response to a questio from the audience. She also noted that India's strategic rise was seen as peaceful and contributed to regional stability.



Bishop briefed Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India in April.



New Delhi played host to Australian Foreign Minister just a day after Indian Navy concluded a week-long exercise with the United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force in Bay of Bengal  a war-drill aimed at sending out a message to China, which has of late been increasingly flexing its maritime muscles in Indian Ocean region.



India and Australia need collective leadership in the Indian Ocean Region to ensure a strong rules-based order, said Bishop.



Australia too was keen to send its warships for the Malabar Exercise in Bay of Bengal. New Delhi, however, insisted that Australian Navy should first hold more bilateral war-drills with Indian Navy before joining multilateral exercises. An India-Australia bilateral naval drill had taken place in Bay of Bengal in 2015. Modi and Turnbull in April decided that another bilateral drill would take place off western coast of Australia in the first half of 2018.



India in 2007 joined US, Australia, Japan and Singapore for the Malabar naval exercise in Bay of Bengal. The drill had purportedly rattled Beijing, which had earlier that year issued strong demarches to New Delhi, Washington, Canberra and Tokyo accusing the five nations of ganging up against China.



Like New Delhi, Canberra too has been asking China to accept the ruling of the international arbitration tribunal based in The Hague that the communist country had no legal basis to its historic claims in the South China Sea. India and Australia have been underscoring importance of respecting the maritime legal order based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).



Bishop on Tuesday lauded New Delhi's acceptance of the verdict awarded by the international tribunal set up under the UNCLOS to resolve India-Bangladesh maritime boundary dispute. She also referred to Australia's legal proceedings with Timor Leste to resolve maritime dispute under the UNCLOS.



Citing the instances of India and Australia, she said that all nations should try to resolve all maritime disputes, including the row over South China Sea, through mechanism stiputated in the UNCLOS.
Tension further escalated along the Line of Control (LoC) as a soldier was killed in fresh ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Nowgam sector of north Kashmirs Kupwara district on Tuesday.



A source said the soldier from the 17 Infantry Brigade was killed when a Pakistani sniper fired at him at Sangam post. Heavy firing and shelling were going on in the area as Indian troops were retaliating with heavy weapons on Pakistani posts, the source said.



This was the second incident of a soldiers death in cross-border firing in as many days. On Monday, a trooper and a 9-year-old girl were killed in Pakistani shelling at forward posts and civilian areas in Rajouri district.



Last week, two army men were killed after they were hit by sniper fire from the Pakistani side near Furkian Gali in Keran sector of Kupwara district. Earlier in the day, the Pakistani army resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing along the LoC in Poonch district and Rajouris Nowshera sector. An army personnel was injured in shelling from across the border in Mendhar area of Poonch.



An official said that Lance Naik Navjot Singh of 581 Artillery regiment was hit by splinters in his eye at Sabra Gali in Mendhar sector.



Reports said more than 60 students had got trapped inside two schools in Nowshera after Pakistani troops violated ceasefire. The children were asked to stay back after one of the mortar shells hit a school van, the authorities said.



They were later rescued and moved to bulletproof bunkers by the security forces. Another source said that Pakistani troops started heavy mortar shelling and firing, targeting several forward defence locations and civilian areas in Manjakote, Balakote and Mendhar sectors along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts. Indian troops gave a befitting response to Pakistans ceasefire violations at all the places.



The cross-LoC bus service between Poonch-Rawlakote route remained suspended in view of heavy Pakistan shelling, leaving 55 people from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir stranded in Rajouri and Poonch districts.






Two militants were killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of north Kashmirs Bandipora district on Tuesday as the army foiled another infiltration bid. Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said three weapons were also recovered.



A source said on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, troops guarding the LoC noticed the movement of a heavily armed group of militants trying to infiltrate into Indian territory.



As the troops challenged the infiltrators, they opened fire and tried to hide in nearby forests. The army tightened to cordon off the area, and in the morning, a massive search operation was launched and contact established with the hiding militants, the source said.



The operation was still underway as additional reinforcement from other army units were rushed to the area and the vast forest area was cordoned off.



A senior army officer said the deployment of additional troops on the LoC along the traditional infiltration routes in north Kashmirs Baramulla and Kupwara districts this year seemed to have paid dividends, as a number of militants were killed at the entry points itself.



Over 25 infiltration attempts have been foiled in the recent months and 50 ultras have been killed along the LoC, the officer said.



With additional troops, the army has placed ambush parties at new locations and places, which militants and their guides would not be aware of till trapped. It has helped in bringing down the infiltration levels, the officer said.




Congress leader Rohit Tilak, a descendent of freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was booked on rape charge on Tuesday.



Rohit, the great grandson of the leader referred to as the father of Indian unrest, has been accused of raping a woman several times on the pretext of marriage.



The woman, a lawyer, had known Rohit since 2015. She tried ending her life twice before. Rohit has been charged under the IPC with rape, unnatural offences, voluntarily causing hurt, insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation.



A lady officer has been assigned to investigate the case, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Basavraj Teli.



Hailing from an illustrious family, Rohit belongs to the family tree of late Congress MP Jayantrao Tilak, the grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. His father Dr Deepak Tilak is the vice chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. Mukta Tilak, wife of Tilaks great grandson Shailesh, is the Mayor of Pune.



In 2009, Rohit had unsuccessfully contested the elections from Punes Kasba Peth constituency.



Meanwhile, the 41-year-old woman told reporters that she was under constant threat. I am under severe pressure. I have not been keeping well, she said. Face covered in a veil, she said it would be her last statement to the press.








Members of the Opposition parties on Monday sought to corner the Uttar Pradesh government on the deteriorating law and order situation and disrupted the proceedings of the House.



Members of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress said that the government had failed to ensure safety of people in the state and that the crime graph had shot up under the BJP regime.



SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary said that incidents of murders, rapes and robberies had increased manifold since the BJP government took charge of the state.



Congress member Ajai Kumar staged a dharna in the Well of the House to register his protest. The government claimed that the crime incidents had declined but the Opposition members continued their protest. Later, the Congress and SP members staged a walkout in the House.



The Opposition members also raised the recent fire incident at the trauma centre in KG Medical University in which five patients were killed.




Amid strained relations between the two ruling alliance partners, the JD(U) and the RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a closed-door meeting with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav here on Tuesday evening.



Though what exactly transpired in the meet, which lasted 45 minutes, was not known, sources in the ruling camp said Nitish conveyed to Lalus youngest son that no tainted minister has ever continued in his Cabinet. Tejashwi, who has been named as an accused in the FIR lodged by the CBI in the land-for-hotels scam, is in the eye of the storm ever since the central investigating sleuths raided Lalu-Rabri residence on July 7. The Tuesday meeting between Nitish and Tejashwi assumes significance as this was for the first time in the last 10 days that ice was broken.



The media, including print and electronic, was on Tuesday debarred from entering the Secretariat where Nitish had convened a Cabinet meeting from 6 pm onwards. Before leaving to attend the meet, all the Cabinet ministers from the RJD, including Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Alok Mehta, met Lalu Prasad at Rabri Devis residence and then went to the Secretariat along with Tejashwi and Tej Pratap.


Briefing the members of a parliamentary panel on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar is learnt to have ruled out the possibility of India being pushed into armed action with China at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan. He, according to sources, however, acknowledged that China had been unusually aggressive in its rhetoric against India ever since the face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army started on June 18.



Jaishankar was briefing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, a member of the committe, also attended the briefing and, according to sources, asked the foreign secretary if China was trying to intimidate Bhutan as it shared a special and unique relation with India.



The foreign secretary is learnt to have told the parliamentary panel that officials of the Ministry of External Affairs in individual discussions conveyed to the diplomats of the foreign missions based in New Delhi that India would continue to use its diplomatic channels with China to resolve the face-off in Bhutan. He reiterated that New Delhi wanted Beijing to drop its plan to construct the road at Doklam Plateau near India-China-Bhutan tri-junction boundary point and restore the pre-June 16 status quo.



The diplomats of the Chinese government purportedly briefed the foreign missions in Beijing that Chinas patience was not indefinite and India must withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau immediately as it an integral part of the communist country. An article on Chinas state-run Global Times warned India of an all-out confrontation if it did not withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau.



India has once again stressed using diplomatic channels to end its military face-off with China in western Bhutan, even as the communist country continued to raise its pitch.
The GOP's 7-year promise to "repeal and replace Obamacare" ends in a flaming pile of fail.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (NY) tonight urged Republican colleagues to start over with a bipartisan effort.

"This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable," said Schumer. "Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

Here is my statement explaining why I will vote no on the BCRA motion to proceed: https://t.co/lDpIGDS456

My colleague @SenMikeLee and I will not support the MTP to this version of BCRA. #HealthcareBill

My colleague @JerryMoran and I will not support the MTP to this version of BCRA #HealthcareBill

Here is my statement explaining why I will vote no on the BCRA motion to proceed: https://t.co/lDpIGDS456

From the New York Times:

Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas declared Monday night they would oppose the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, for now killing a seven-year-old promise to overturn President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement.

The announcement by the senators, both Republicans, leaves their leaders two votes short of the necessary tally to begin debate on their bill to dismantle the health law. Two other Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, had already said they would not support a procedural step to begin debate.

"There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it," Mr. Moran said in a statement. "This closed-door process unfortunately has yielded the" Senate repeal bill, which he asserted, "failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address health care's rising costs."

In his own statement, Mr. Lee said of the bill, "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

By jumping together, Mr. Moran and Mr. Lee ensured no one would be the definitive "no" vote.
NDAs vice presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday spoke his heart out about his journey from Nellore to Delhi and his unfulfilled dream. Naidu said he had to give up active politics before a wish remained unfulfilled  Prime Minister Narendra Modis return to power in 2019.



The former party president from Andhra Pradesh had to withdraw from the BJP to contest for the constitutional post. I had told my colleagues that I want to see Prime Minister Modi come back again in 2019 and then I will call it off and join social service. But destiny decided otherwise. Finally, after the discussion, I have agreed. I have withdrawn myself from the party. I do not belong to the BJP now, Naidu said at his farewell press conference after filing the nomination.



He resigned from the Cabinet on Monday night after BJP chief Amit Shah announced his candidature. The former minister vowed to uphold traditions and standards set by his predecessors and to maintain the dignity that a constitutional post desires. The office of the vice president is a different profile, has its functional norms. I hope I will be able to do justice, Naidu said.



Playing down reports that he was reluctant to move out of the government, Naidu thanked Modi and Shah for bestowing the honour. With numbers on the NDA side in both Houses of Parliament, Naidu is set to become the second BJP leader after Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to become the vice president. The election will be held on August 5. Naidu said Indias beauty and strength lay in its parliamentary democratic system and that he would strive to strengthen it further.
NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu and joint Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday filed their nomination papers for the vice presidential election. The two serious contenders, 68-year-old Naidu and 72-year-old Gandhi, submitted their papers on the last day to file the nominations, after nearly three dozen vice president hopefuls have done so.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, senior leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj among others accompanied Naidu as he submitted his nomination papers to Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shumsher Sheriff, the returning officer for the election.



Earlier, leaders of the NDA held a meeting at the library building in the Parliament House Complex and then walked to Sheriffs office in the main building. Naidu quit as the Union minister for urban development, and information and broadcasting after Shah announced his candidature for the vice president election. He also quit from the BJP.



On being elected, I will uphold traditions, standards set by the worthy predecessors and maintain dignity of office, Naidu told reporters. Gandhi also submitted his nomination papers in the presence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her deputy Rahul Gandhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav among others.



I do not belong to any party. I am not here to oppose any person or party... I am here with all humility to place before electors, the aspirations of citizens, Gandhi told the media. All members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including the nominated members, are eligible to vote in the vice presidential election.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday sprung to the defence of BSP supremo Mayawati after she resigned from the Rajya Sabha.



SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said the leaders of the Opposition were not being allowed to speak and were harassed if they opposed the NDA regime.



An undeclared emergency prevails in the country and in Uttar Pradesh, Chaudhary said. He said not allowing the Opposition members to speak in Parliament amounted to the murder of democracy.
A major reshuffle of the Union Cabinet is slated for the first week of September even as the portfolios held by Venkaiah Naidu were reallocated following his resignation as Union minister after he was nominated the NDAs vice presidential candidate on Monday. Textiles Minister Smriti Irani got the additional charge of information and broadcasting ministry, which was held by Naidu



The other portfolio of urban development, which was with Naidu, was given to Narendra Singh Tomar, who has been handling rural development and panchayat raj.



The proposed reshuffle in the first week of September is expected to be a larger exercise as Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to carry out a revamp, rewarding those ministers who have performed well and, perhaps, show the door to others.



Since he became the prime minister, Modi has carried out only two Cabinet reshuffles and expansions  in November 2014 and July 2016.



Modi will begin consultation with BJP chief Amit Shah and other party leaders after the current monsoon session of Parliament concludes on August 11.



Senior BJP leaders confirmed that performance criteria will be the benchmark. Modi wishes to re-energise the Union Council of Ministers with a lot of younger faces and meet the development targets set before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



A number of ministers of state who have handled important portfolios as an independent charge could be promoted to the Cabinet rank.



Most importantly, the exercise would see the appointment of a full-fledged Cabinet minister for defence.



Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has held the additional charge of defence since Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister of Goa.



The government has come under flak from the Opposition for the absence of a full-fledged defence minister when India has been facing a military standoff with China in Bhutan. When Union minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away on May 18, the portfolio of environment, forests and climate change held by him was handed to Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.



With less than two years to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a third expansion and reshuffle could also see senior BJP leaders who are in the states being asked to shift to the Centre.



Modi has been keen on getting experienced BJP chief ministers to handle portfolios at the Centre, but they have been reluctant to shift out of their states.



The reshuffle is expected to take into account the BJPs focus on the Assembly polls that are due in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka later this year and next.




The peak-hour flight handling capacity of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here just got a hyper-boost. The Airport has completed work on two new Rapid Exit Taxiways (RETs), allowing 44 flights to either take off or land every hour, up from 34 air traffic movements.



Easing peak congestion drastically at Indias third busiest airport, the new RETs (named A6 and A7) will be formally operationalised on August 17, BIALs President, Airport Operations, Hari Marar told DH.



KIA will then be equipped to handle about 700 flight take offs and landings a day, a major upgrade from the current 520.



The RETs will allow aircraft to vacate the runway at higher speeds, permitting another flight to land or take off in a shorter interval of time. Work on the RETs was completed on July 6, according to airport sources. The new facility was approved for testing and trials on Tuesday.



The airport already has three RETs. It is learnt that two more taxiways are to be built in the near future.



KIAs flight handling capacity is severely stretched during the peak hours between 6 am and 8.30 am and from 7 pm to 10 pm. To facilitate speedy construction of the RETs and runway upgrade, flight operations at the airport had been suspended from February 17 to April 30, between 10.30 am and 5 pm.



While the runway upgrade was completed by April 30, work on the RETs progressed for another 2.5 months.



The enhanced air traffic movements are expected to increase KIA's overall passenger handling capacity to 26.5 million a year from the current 20 million. The second runway beingbuilt, is likely to be operational by September 2019. The existing and new RETs are equipped with LED airfield lightings. Airport sources said this is part of an overall strategy to boost KIA's eco-friendliness.



Both the new taxiways allow passage of large aircraft, including the Airbus 380. The RETs have been designed to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Code F standards with minimum width of 25m and paved shoulders of 17.5m.


The Congress high command wants to know in what context Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has constituted a committee to examine whether the state can have a flag. With rival parties targeting the Congress and accusing it of encouraging separatism, the party top brass is keen to put an end to the controversy.



The Congress does not have a policy for a state having a separate flag. I have asked the government to clarify, K C Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, told DH.



Echoing the BJPs line, he said, The country has only one flag and that is the national flag. The party is embarrassed by how the opposition has used the move to turn the tables on it. The flag controversy provided ammunition to the BJP, just when we were going after them on issues such as lynching by cow vigilantes, said a senior Congress leader. The state unit of the Congress has said it is trying to build a Kannada-pride narrative to counter the BJPs Hindutva agenda, but national leaders have advised Siddaramaiah to end the controversy immediately.



Assembly elections are due in Karnataka next year. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the Karnataka governments move was against the nation's integrity, and sought imposition of Presidents rule in the state. The Congress-ruled government is triggering separatism in the state, he said, speaking to reporters here.



No provision for or against

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs said the tricolour was the only flag for India, but Karnataka had traditionally used a peoples flag for state occasions.



We are one nation, one flag. Legally there is no provision either for providing or prohibiting a separate flag for any state, a home ministry spokesperson said.



Home ministry officials explained Karnataka already had a flag representing only the people and not the government.



The flag is not used during Republic Day and Independence Day but on occasions like state foundation day, an official said.



How it began

The controversy was triggered after Karnataka formed a nine-member committee to design a state flag and examine whether it could be given legal sanctity.




The Supreme Court on Tuesday placed before a nine-member bench the question of whether the right to privacy is guaranteed under the Constitution. We want to decide if it is a right or fundamental right or not, a five-member bench headed by chief justice J S Khehar said, after Attorney General K K Venugopal argued the nations founding fathers had consciously decided not to include the right in the Constitution.



The top law officer cited an eight-judge (full quorum at that time) bench decision in the M P Sharma vs Satish Chand case of 1954, and a six-judge bench decision in the Kharag Singh vs State of UP case of 1962 to claim the courts had decisively ruled there was no fundamental right to privacy.



The bench, also comprising J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer, decided to place the matter before a larger bench to examine the crucial question about the right to privacy, raised by a group of Aadhaar challengers.



During the course of the hearing, it seems that it has become essential for us to determine whether there is any fundamental right to privacy under the Indian Constitution, the bench said.



Judicial history

Notably, since an eight-judge bench had already held in 1954 that the right to privacy was not a fundamental right, it became necessary for a larger bench of nine judges to examine the correctness of the law laid down in the previous judgement.



The petitioners, led by former Karnataka High Court judge K S Puttaswamy, have contended the government's move to issue Aadhaar to every citizen violated the right to privacy as it forced people to part with intimate body details.



They said the right to privacy was part of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and interspersed in Article 19 of the Constitution.



We are of the view that the issue deserves to be placed before a nine-judge bench, Khehar said.



The bench also said other issues with regard to Aadhaar would only be considered after the nine-member bench delivered its verdict.



Privacy defenders

Senior advocates Gopal Subramanian, Shyam Divan, Anand Grover and Arvind P Datar, appearing for a batch of petitioners, contended the apex court in subsequent judgements had recognised the right to privacy.



The nine judges are Khehar, Chelameswar, Bobde, R K Agrawal, R F Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Nazeer.


R Anitha, who was given charge of Central Prisons at Parappana Agrahara for less than 24 hours, has been receiving a Rs 3 lakh bribe per month from AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran for providing special facilities to his aunt V K Sasikala who is lodged in the penitentiary, prisoners have alleged.



Many inmates raised slogans against Anitha as she took up office on Tuesday. Her interim appointment angered prisoners who have been protesting against the irregularities committed by Chief Superintendent Krishna Kumar who has since been transferred. They argued how could Anitha replace Krishna Kumar as she was his deputy and was involved in all the irregularities in the jail. Some of them alleged that Anitha, too, received regular favours from Sasikalas aides to provide her VIP facilities.



They said she received a Rs 3 lakh bribe every month from Dhinakaran for taking care of Sasikala. A few inmates feared that Anitha would destroy all the evidence that former DIGP (Prisons) D Roopa had mentioned in her report about special treatment being given to Sasikala, Abdul Karim Telgi and other high-profile prisoners.



Taking note of the prisoners protest, the government appointed H S Revanna DIGP (Prisons) in the evening and gave him additional charge of the chief superintendent of the Bengaluru prison.



Prisoners, however, remain divided on the transfer of top officials of the Prisons Department. Besides Roopa and Krishna Kumar, DGP (Prisons) H N Sathyanarayana Rao, was also transferred on Monday. Just last week, Roopa had submitted a report, accusing Rao of taking a Rs 2 crore bribe for providing special facilities to Sasikala. Some prisoners have supported Roopa while others backed Rao.



On Tuesday, a number of prisoners staged protests and refused to eat breakfast. They wanted the government to order a detailed enquiry into Roopas allegations. They also demanded stern action against Krishna Kumar for the irregularities and for harassing the inmates. They said he divided them for his personal gains.



The protest lasted till afternoon with inmates refusing to obey the instructions. The jail staff, however, convinced them to call off the protest by promising that the newly appointed ADGP N S Megharikh would set things right.



The authorities deployed additional staff and cleaned up the prison as retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar is set to visit the facility to investigate allegations of irregularities.



Before Vinay Kumars visit, the prison authorities sought to strictly follow the jail manual by controlling the flow of visitors and denying permission to carry food items into the penitentiary. Visitors were given just 10-30 minutes to meet the prisoners. They were not allowed to hand over food items such as fruits and snacks to the prisoners, leaving many disappointed. Anitha and the staff combed a few barracks, searching for marijuana.




Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday announced that the third World Kannada Conference in Davangere will be held in the first or second week of December.



Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of writers, thinkers and academicians here, Siddaramaiah said the meet will be a low-key affair in the wake of drought. He said the government had no plans to go for early polls and December would be convenient to hold the conference. The chief minister said the government would implement the cultural policy within a week.



Participating in the deliberations, Kannada Development Authority chairman S G Siddaramaiah said writers should help the government take up drought-relief works.



While poet H S Venkatesh Murthy suggested that the government organise a cultural festival and an exhibition during the conference, writer and researcher M Chidananda Murthy said the government should also invite Kannadigas in Nepal and Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia to the conference.



Writer Chandrashekar Patil questioned the urgency of holding the conference, when the state was staring at its fourth consecutive drought. The second conference was held after a gap of almost 26 years in 2011 after the first conference in 1985. Can we not wait for some more time?



Why invite Bollywood stars?



The meeting saw a section of participants objecting to inviting Bollywood actors like Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone to the meet since they made no effort to learn Kannada despite being born in Karnataka.




After focussing on adventure and leisure tourism, the government is planning to promote religious trips to boost tourism in the state. Soon, the tourism department will launch 21 special package tours under Puneetha Yatra to cater to religious tourists.



Puneetha Yatra will cover religious institutions and deity-based and destinations. For instance, we offer Bengaluru Detour. This exclusively does not have religious places on the itinerary, but it does not ignore them also. Puneetha Yatra will combine everything, Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge told DH. The department wants to showcase as many destinations as possible. In a week or so, Puneetha Yatra will be launched, he said, dismissing suggestions that the religious circuit is planned with an eye on the vote bank.



The Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) already offers nine religious circuits. We are adding 12 more like Basavanna circuit, Jain circuit, Buddhist circuit and religion-based special temple tours. Some will cover the whole of north Karnataka, some south Karnataka. Some will include religious places in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala, said a KSTDC official.



The official said these circuits will be different from the ones already promoted by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. Under our plan, people will travel by bus and halt at night at various KSTDC or private hotels. These tours will be offered at special concessional rates and VIP passes will be made available for tourists to the shrines. The ticket rates are yet to be finalised, the official said.
United States citizens' grandparents from six Muslim-majority countries will once again be eligible to receive U.S. visas, according to a State Department memo Reuters got a hold of that reflects the latest court smackdown of President Donald Trump's utterly stupid and racist Muslim travel ban.

You can read the official cable here.

From Reuters:

The memo, or cable, from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts overseas on Friday after a U.S. district judge in Hawaii issued a ruling late on Thursday limiting the scope of the administration's temporary ban on refugees and travelers from the six countries.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu found the government cannot bar grandparents and other relatives of United States citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from getting visas under the ban.

Watson declined to put his ruling on hold pending appeal, meaning it went into effect immediately. The administration has asked the Supreme Court and the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the decision.

The July 14 cable updated the definition of "close family" that are exempt from the temporary travel ban laid down in Trump's March 6 executive order.

The cable reversed the State Department's previous, narrow definition of close family and stated that "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins" are eligible for visas.

Consulates and embassies do not need to reopen any visa applications refused under the prior, narrower definition of close family members, the cable said.
The forest department has recommended the abolition of the posts of two field directors, saying their work can be done from Bengaluru.



Going against chief minister Siddaramaiahs order that forest officials should be on the field and not in Bengaluru, the department wants the field directors of Project Tiger and Project Elephant to go, and their work distributed between two officials sitting in Bengaluru.Project Tiger is now run from the Nagarhole and Bandipur forests. The department also wants to shift the office of field director, Project Elephant, from Mysuru to Bengaluru.



P Annur Reddy, principal chief conservator of forests, told DH the proposals had been placed before the government for approval. Once the duties are shifted to Bengaluru, the two officials will coordinate the working and administration of all forests of Karnataka, he said. The work will be divided equally between the chief conservator of forests and conservator of forests, who at present manage their divisions.



According to officials, this decision was taken because the department is too top-heavy. Karnataka has 45 additional principal chief conservators of forests. The idea is to abolish the posts as and when the current officials retire. The first step, they said, was to jettison officials of this rank helming Project Tiger and Project Elephant.



The post of field directors was created 44 years across India, when Project Tiger was launched. The post of field director, Project Elephant, was created in 1992, when the project was launched. Conservationists say the decision of abolishing the posts should be communicated to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Delhi, but the state forest department says that is not necessary.



Reddy said the work of field directors was technically being divided and not scrapped. Praveen Bhargav, trustee of NGO Wildlife First, said the recommendation was prompted by officials preferring to be in Bengaluru rather than Mysuru. The NGO has written to Forest minister Ramanath Rai urging him to drop the proposal.



Noted tiger scientist Ullas Karanth said the department had too many additional principal conservators. The higher the posting, the more the officials want to sit in Bengaluru, he said.



Home to 402 tigers



The move comes despite Karnataka being home to the largest number of elephants and tigers in India.



The state boasts about 8,000 elephants and 402 tigers. The Nagarhole and Bandipur tiger reserves house the largest population of these protected species.




The Goa government has rejected the Karnataka governments offer of out-of-court settlement of the inter-state Mahadayi river water dispute and accused it of playing dirty tricks on the issue.



There will be no compromise or out-of-court settlement on Mahadayi case with Karnataka. It is the official stand of my department and Govt of Goa (sic), Goa Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said in a statement dated July 13.



Palyekar has charged the Karnataka government with playing dirty tricks from behind. Karnataka, on one hand, is asking for out-of-court settlement and writing to our chief minister and on other hand they are playing dirty tricks from behind. Karnatakas witness has been well exposed in Tribunal at New Delhi (sic), he stated.



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had recently written a letter to Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, seeking his consent to organise a meeting for resolving the Mahadayi water dispute amicably through talks. Siddaramaiah had also informed Parrikar that his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis has given his consent in this regard. Sources in the Chief Ministers Office, however, said the Goa government has not officially communicated its stand on the issue.






Rao and Megharikh exchanged bouquets and batons in private in a meeting that lasted 20 minutes. At 4 pm, Rao in plainclothes, was seen rushing out of the Prisons Department and getting into his car when the media tried to seek his reaction on being asked to proceed on leave two weeks before his retirement.



Later, Megharikh told reporters that he was not new to the department as he was a member of a committee that looked into prison reforms in 2013. I have assumed charge today. Since I was associated with some prison reforms earlier, I am quite familiar with the department. However, I have to assess the ground realities. I will discuss with the staff and officers. Whatever the government expects, we will expedite. We will not disappoint them, Megharikh said.



Asked about the controversy over DIG D Roopas report on irregularities in the prison and the fracas with Rao, Megharikh said: Let me study what was going on, especially what has been reported in the past few days, and accordingly we will take stock of the situation based on ground realities and will see how much is true, untrue and the need for reforms.



Speaking about Vinay Kumars inquiry initiated by the government on prison irregularities, Megharikh said the government had ordered the probe and we will extend our fullest cooperation.



Asked about the special treatment extended to high-profile convicts like V K Sasikala and kingpin of the fake stamp paper scam Abdul Karim Telgi, Megharikh said, We have to initially look into the ground realities and deal with them as separate cases. We need to also go by court directions.



Speaking about protests in the jail, Megharikh said he is yet to talk to his officers and find out what has happened. It could be due to some emotional outbursts which are normal in a prison and we will hear their woes, he said.

ADGP N S Megharikh on Tuesday afternoon took charge as the chief of the Prisons Department from DGP H N Sathyanarayana Rao.
Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), a premier government medical college, has been running a postgraduate degree course without recognition for the past 10 years.



The three-year M.ch Urology course has been running without renewal of recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI).



The course was due for renewal in 2007 after its inception in 2002. According to the Medical Council of India, the course has to be renewed every five years after inspection by the council.



The department of Urology in BMCRI was closed in 2007 and the faculty were transferred to the newly formed Institute of Nephro-Urology (INU), an autonomous institute, started in the same year.



BMC, however, continued to admit students for M.ch Urology course and asked its students to work in the institute of nephro-urology as the college had no faculty.



Dr S Sacchidanand, acting director of Bangalore Medical college and Research Institute confirmed that the college has been running without a licence for the past 10 years. He said, We are having discussions with the government whether to continue the course or not.



He added that they have hired faculty on contract basis in BMCRI. Students will not have a problem as they are affiliated to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Health Sciences (RGUHS).



Although the course has been running without recognition, RGUHS, which oversees the course, has been granting affiliation to BMCRI for M.ch Urology every year, while Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) which attests the certificate of recognition for specialists to practise has been attesting the certificates of those students who have graduated.



I am not aware that the course is continuing without recognition. We will look into it, said Dr K S Ravindranath, vice chancellor of RGUHS.



Dr H Veerabhadrappa, president of KMC said that although they attest the certificates, the periodical check is conducted by MCI.



When DH contacted MCI for a response on the issue, the council vice president Dr C V Bhirmanandam refused to comment. There was also no response to a mail sent to MCI additional secretary Dr Reena Nayyar.




The Karnataka BJP has decided to hold its two-day state executive committee meeting in Bengaluru from August 5.



The meeting will be a precursor to BJP national president Amit Shahs three-day visit to the state from August 12. Shah had earlier planned to visit the state from August 3 but it has now been rescheduled.



Shah is likely start the preparation for chalking out an election strategy for the party during his visit.



Meanwhile, the state BJP will organise agitations across the state on Wednesday in protest against the transfer and harassment of honest officers.








Kannada flag  rectangular in shape, with a strip of yellow (top half) and red in equal measure  has so far remained only an idea. The flag was first conceived by Kannada activist Ma Ramamurthy, who used it as a flag for Kannada Paksha, a party founded by him in 1965. In 1998, the Kannada Development Authority had recommended to the government to give the flag an official status. However, the Law department turned down the proposal citing legal hurdles, the sources said.



In 2012, the then BJP government had issued a circular making it compulsory for government offices, schools and colleges to hoist the Kannada flag on November 1.



However, a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka questioned the governments move to hoist any flag other than the national flag. The circular was subsequently withdrawn.





Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday defended the state governments decision to constitute a panel to look into the demand to accord official status to the Kannada flag, saying that there is nothing wrong in having a separate state flag.Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said, We have a Nadageethe (state song), what is wrong in having an official state flag? There has been a demand from various quarters that official status be accorded to the Kannada flag.The panel will look into all aspects. The government will take a call on its next step of action only after the panel submits its report, Siddaramaiah added.He said the Constitution of India does not restrict states from having their own official flags.To a query, he sought to know whether there is any specific provision in the Constitution that prohibits the state from having its own flag. Has the BJP come across such a provision? he asked.He dared the BJP leaders to make a public statement that the party is not in favour of a flag for Karnataka.On the BJPs charge that the flag issue is being raised with an eye on the Assembly polls, Siddaramaiah said, Elections are still a long way to go.... It will be held in April-May next year and not tomorrow. The BJP is indulging in a disinformation campaign, he remarked.Siddaramaiah said that having a state flag will not come in the way of national integrity and unity. The national flag comes first. State flag is not an alternative to the national flag, he added.The state government recently set up a nine-member committee of officials to look into the demand for according official status to the Kannada flag.The committee is headed by Kannada and Culture department principal secretary. Heads of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Finance and Law departments and PWD are the members of the panel, which will hold consultation with experts and Kannada writers in this regard.The committee has been directed to submit its report, recommending steps to be taken for granting official status to the Kannada flag, sources in the Kannada and Culture department said.The committee is likely to recommend to the government to enact a legislation to accord the official status to the flag, the sources added.
The Supreme Court came to rescue of 84-year-old horticulturalist Manmohan Attavar by rejecting the plea of a woman for the right of residence at his house in Jayanagar in Bengaluru. The woman claimed to have married him.



The top court did not agree to the contention of the woman made under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, by holding that she had never lived with him in the particular house. Attavar had denied any relationship with her.



A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul held that the domestic relationship as defined under Section 2 (f) of the DV Act referred to two persons who have lived together in a shared household. Notably, the social legislation created an entitlement in favour of the woman of the right of residence under the shared household irrespective of her having any legal interests in the same.



It is not the case that the woman has been thrown out by Attavar in an alleged relationship which goes back 20 years. They fell apart admittedly more than seven years ago, the bench said.



Neelam Manmohan Attavar (62), who worked with Indian Council for Agriculture Research, claimed to have entered into a relationship with Attavar after their introduction in 1987.



She claimed Attavar, even during subsistence of his marriage, applied kumkum on her forehead in 1998. The woman further contended she had accompanied him during the felicitation ceremony after he was conferred the Padma Shri Award in the same year. Subsequently, she claimed to have visited the Bengaluru house of Attavar, when his wife was alive.



After the death of Attavar's wife in 2010, the woman sought right of residence, saying she had been left high and dry. During the period, she claimed to have enjoyed her stay with Attavar at different places hired by him. However, their relationship turned sour, forcing her to resort to legal remedy.



Allowing an appeal filed by Attavar through advocates Balaji Srinivasan and Anil Shetty, the apex court held the Karnataka High Court's order of September 19, last, passed ex-parte, cannot be sustained in law.



The court concurred with the submission of senior advocate B H Maralapalle, representing Attavar, by saying, He is a Christian and thus there could be no question of visiting any temple and marrying the respondent by applying kumkum, and that too when the wife of the appellant was alive.



The apex court, however, directed the Karnataka High Court to designate a sessions judge in Bengaluru to hear expeditiously the woman's appeal against the magisterial court's order.




Burglars struck at the house of an IAS officer in Dollars Colony, north Bengaluru, and fled with 270 gms of gold and Rs 12,000 in cash.



The break-in at the house of Subodh Yadav, Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, may have happened on Sunday or Monday night, the police suspect. The incident came to light when Yadav returned to his house around 10 pm on Monday. He found the door and safes brokem open, and gold and cash missing. The stolen gold is valued at over Rs 7 lakh.



Yadav had gone to Chennai for renewal of his passport and locked the house. The jurisdictional Sanjaynagar police have registered a case of break-in. It could be the handiwork of one or two professional burglars, a senior police officer told DH.




The chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Women, Nagalakshmi Bai, has registered a suomotu case with the commission against unknown persons for releasing censored scenes from the Kannada movie Dandupalya-2. The scenes show actor Sanjjanaa in the nude.



The leaked video went viral on social media and was also broadcast on local TV channels. Nagalakshmi said, I, along with officials from the censor board, was part of the team which viewed the film. We asked that these vulgar scenes be deleted. Now, these clips are being circulated on social media. The person who has done this has to be booked. She hinted that it had to be someone associated with the movie who leaked the clip and she said that it seemed to be a publicity stunt.



I have also sent the case to the cyber police. The police should conduct an enquiry and find the person behind this, she said.
The eighth person present at that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Donald Trump Jr. hoped to get a hold of damaging, hacked info on his dad's Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton?

We now know that mystery eighth person at the Don Jr. meeting was Ike Kaveladze.

On Tuesday, attorney Scott Balber confirmed the identity of his client to various news organizations after a CNN report revealed that Mr. Kaveladze had been identified by special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors, and was cooperating in the investigation into Trump's dirty links to Russia.

Snip from the New York Times:

Scott S. Balber, an attorney for Aras Agalarov, the businessman, said he sent an associate named Ike Kaveladze to the meeting, which took place in the midst of last year's presidential campaign. Mr. Balber said that Mr. Kaveladze attended the meeting "just to make sure it happened and to serve as an interpreter if necessary." Besides the younger Mr. Trump and Mr. Kaveladze, the meeting was attended by a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and other officials from the Trump campaign. Mr. Balber said Ms. Veselnitskaya, who had worked with Mr. Agalarov on real estate deals in Russia, had asked the Mr. Agalarov to introduce her to Donald Trump Jr. as a favor.

FILE PHOTO  Donald Trump Jr. arrives at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 18, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths, on Monday, arrested three foreign nationals for selling cocaine. The suspects are Anthony Egwoba (24), of Nigeria, Owen Penhaligan (37) from the UK and Israel Manuel (28), from Mozambique. Egwoba was a resident of Naganahalli, while Penhaligan and Manuel were residents of Whitefield and KR Puram, respectively.



On a tip-off, the police arrested them near Sadanandanagar, NGEF Layout in Baiyappanahalli.

The police said the suspects violated visa norms. They also bought SIM cards based on fake documents to carry out various illegal activities. The police recovered seven mobile phones, electronic gadgets and vehicles, all valued at Rs 7.5 lakh, from them.



Biker killed in accident

A 23-year-old man was killed in a collision between a two-wheeler and a truck near the ring road in Nandini Layout on Monday. Sachin, the deceased, is a resident of Yeshwantpur. The accident occurred when Sachin was returning home at around 8.45 pm. The truck driver was reckless and mowed down the bike.



The driver fled, leaving the truck behind. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, but Sachin was declared dead on arrival, the police said.



Demonetised notes seized

The city police on Monday arrested two people and seized demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations worth Rs 80 lakh. The suspects are Nanjunda (41), a resident of Kempaiah Layout, and Shameel Ahmad (39) from Mysuru. Other suspects fled when the police came to the spot.



On a tip-off, the police detained the duo when they were waiting for a customer, with the notes, in a four-wheeler. They did not have any document pertaining to the notes, said the police.



According to the police, the duo worked as middlemen. They collected money from various businessmen in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad for exchanging them with new notes. They wanted to get the demonetised notes exchanged through foreign nationals.






The High Court on Tuesday slapped Rs 25,000 fine on a bar owner for seeking cancellation of permission given to a school.



Justice Vineeth Kothari heard the writ petition filed by N M Thirthegowda, owner of Sridevi Bar and Restaurant at Devarachikkanahalli in Begur and imposed the fine.



The justice termed the petition as awkward and strange. He also expressed disappointment over the petition.



The deputy excise commissioner of Bengaluru Urban District had slapped a notice on Thirthegowda stating that the bar was located in violation of norm 5 of Karnataka State Excise Permission (General Conditions). The deputy excise commissioner had given 60 days time to relocate the bar.



The advocate for the petitioner G K Bhat told the court the petitioner was told that the bar was located within a radius of 100 metres of the school zone. In reality, BEO, Bengaluru South Zone-3 had given permission to Seethamma Manjappa Trust to run a primary school. The school was housed in a building on a CA site illegally allotted by Bangalore Development Authority.



He said that functioning of a school would create problems to students and local residents. He sought immediate cancellation of the permission given to the school as it had been housed in an illegally alloted site besides seeking a stay on the notice by deputy excise commissioner.
Biomedical engineers from Bengaluru have developed a new and inexpensive medical device to screen hearing defects of the babies so that doctors can take necessary corrective measures at the earliest.



Every year, close to 100,000 children with varying degrees of hearing defects are born in India. If detected early, a majority of them can recover from these defects. But most hospitals don't do the test, because the existing diagnostic technology is prohibitively expensive.



This is where a young team of researchers chipped in. With support from the Department of Biotechnology, Stanford University and Union Health Ministry, they developed and perfected a hearing screening device with high sensitivity and specificity for mass screening of newborns.



Sohum is a low-cost and unique device, which uses its unique algorithm to analyse brain signals that trigger auditory responses, the gold standard in auditory testing to check for hearing response in a new born.



Testing with our device would cost the parents anywhere between Rs 600 and 1,200. In contrast, a few private hospitals offer the tests at a price of Rs 4,000 for every test. They also need to create a sound-proof room for the test whereas our tests can be conducted in field conditions, Nitin Sisodia, Stanford India Biodesign fellow and founder of Sohum Innovation Lab, Bengaluru, who developed the instrument, told DH.



While imported devices cost anywhere between Rs 12 and 18 lakh, the indigenous instrument costs one-third of that price. With the scale-up, the price is expected to come down further.

Sohum Lab has produced 12 devices that are being used by a few hospitals in and around Bengaluru including Narayana Hrudayalaya, Vani Vilas Hospital and All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru. The company has a leasing model for a group of hospitals to lease these machines rather than buying them and an order is expected from the Tripura government.



We want many such machines that can offer diagnosis at an affordable price. Once detected early, most hearing defects can be corrected in a majority of these children, Y S Chowdary, the Minister of State for Science and Technology said after launching the instrument.



Globally, 800,000 hearing impaired babies are born every year, of whom nearly 100,000 are in India. Most of them are preventable damage that needs early screening.



Pre-term babies and sick babies in NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) need the test at the time of their discharge. If the hearing impairment is discovered at the 4+ age of a child, it is too late to reverse the damage, said Rakesh Lodha, paediatrician at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, who mentored the project.




The Commercial Street police on Monday arrested a dismissed constable of the Bahrain police on the charge of stealing a set of six gold bangles from a jewellery shop on June 25.



The police gave the name of the arrested as Pilakal Nazir (55), a native of Kerala and resident of New Gurappanapalya here. He is a habitual offender and has cases against him in 11 police stations. The police said Nazir used to work as a police constable in Bahrain.



Posing as a businessman, Nazir went to Malabar Gold and Diamond shop on Commercial Street and escaped with a pack of six gold bangles, concealing it in his blazer. The Commercial Street police, who obtained the CCTV footage, identified Nazir. They set up a special team led by Inspector M Ramesh to track him down. The police finally nabbed Nazir on Monday.



The police have recovered four gold bangles worth Rs 3 lakh from him, along with a motorcycle and a scooter which he had stolen from a showroom in BTM layout.



Nazir was earlier arrested by the Madiwala police on charges of stealing a car from a showroom in Tamil Nadu after taking the car out for a test drive. He had come out on bail recently from Bengaluru Central Prisons at Parappana Agrahara, the police said.






The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is all set cancel its order of 100 AC buses after one Volvo bus failed to meet its expectations during the trial. In the 2016-17 state budget, the government had agreed to support BMTC in buying 1,000 buses, 100 of them AC buses.



BMTC managing director Anjum Parvez said the corporation had called a tender for 100 AC buses and Volvo India, which won the bid, got the purchase order with a condition that 10 buses should be provided first.



According to the conditions, the order for the remaining buses (90) was to be given depending on the performance of the 10 buses. Volvo had provided one 330 hp bus. During the trial run, it was found that the kmpl rate (mileage) of the new bus was lower compared to the Volvo buses acquired earlier, he said.



Parvez said the findings from the trial run were placed before the BMTC board of directors. The board has taken a decision to cancel the order. We have sent it to the state government for the final decision, he said.



Volvo buses are a key source of revenue on some routes, especially to Electronics City and Bannerghatta Road besides IT parks in eastern and northern parts of the city. More importantly, the BMTC has entered into agreement with IT companies to provide these buses for hire.



When asked about the possibility of calling another tender, a BMTC official said it was left to the board and the government to decide on such a move.






Srinivas Gowda, general manager, Pecos, feels that there will be no respite at least for a month. The government is acting slow, people have been saying that it might take 15 to 20 days, but I am uncertain about it. There is no point in wasting time and waiting for the government, that is why we have already taken a new place in BTM Layout and started functioning.



To keep their business running and minimise losses, Pecos plans to set up two other outlets, one in Indiranagar and another either near Manyata Tech Park or in JP Nagar. A few pubs on Church Street and Brigade Road have shut shop because they are unable to even afford the electricity bill or pay their employees.



Blue Frog, another popular hangout on Church Street has seen a decrease of almost 75% in the number of people coming in. Amit, general manager, Blue Frog, says, The last two weeks have been terrible. There has been such a huge fall in numbers that we are able to fill up only on weekends, that too if we have a good band performing.



Meanwhile, the Law department is waiting for a written word from the top court on the ban. Recently, the Supreme Court, in a case challenged by the Haryana and Punjab governments, said state governments had the powers to denotify highways within city limits. We are waiting for a written word from the Supreme Court after which we can take an appropriate decision, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said.







City tipplers favourite hangouts on MG Road, Church Street and Brigade Road which shut down following Supreme Court orders, wear a deserted look even on weekends. The court had ordered closure of all liquor shops falling within 500 metres of the national highways.These pubs and bars, which used to stay open till midnight on weekdays and up to 1 am on weekends, are now shutting as early as 8 pm. As many as 736 waterholes have been affected by the order in the city. Of these 53 opted for transfer and 683 were closed.Though owners and staff of these waterholes are affected, there are no worries for tipplers. While Toit on 100 Ft Road, Indiranagar, is filled to the brim with waiting time exceeding one hour, Barebones, the balcony bar a few metres from Toit, has been affected by the ban and has seen a drastic fall in clientele.Every pub or bar which has been barred from selling alcohol, is looking for answers. Easy Tiger on Church Street says its management has been in discussions with the excise department and something concrete should come up by this month end.
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With her nonprofit Books for a Change, 15-year-old Torrey Pines High School sophomore Beatriz De Oliveira is sharing the love of reading with young children in Brazil. In less than a year, Bea has donated hundreds of books that reach more than 2,500 children in Brazilian daycare centers, called creches.

It has been really incredible, Bea said. I want to spread the passion of reading. Once you start reading, you cant really stop. It helps as an entertaining pastime and a foundation of reading makes learning easier. I want to help those kids look toward their future and everything they can do.

Beatriz De Oliveira in Brazil with the children.

Bea was born in Brazil and lived there until she was 3 years old. She often returns to Brazil to visit relatives and on a trip a few years ago, she accompanied her grandmother to a local public daycare.

In Brazil, the government funds public daycares for children whose working parents are unable to care for them during the day. Bea came to donate some toys as her grandmother taught English lessons and she was surprised by what she found: There were no books.

There was not a single book in the daycare, I was shocked, said Bea, an avid reader who was always surrounded by books growing up. In a building of 200 kids there was zero books.

Bea learned that there was no funding to provide books for the creches. As a result, she found many children lack the foundation of reading and concepts learned from books and go into the educational system unprepared and fall behind and repeat grade levels. A Regional Project for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean study found that the rate for repetition in elementary school grade levels in Brazil is 24.5 percent, with most children coming from areas of poverty.

A problem as simple as a lack of books in a daycare can lead a very bright child to lose hold of a promising future, continuing through the path of poverty and violence that prevails in the favelas and poor suburbs in Brazil, Bea said. I love reading and its always been a part of me. I wanted to do something to help my home away from home.

At just 14 years old, Bea started Books for a Change, with the idea to donate book shelves filled with 40 to 50 books each to the daycares. She designed her own logo, website and business cards and collected donations. In an effort to make her donations count, she did her research on the best books for each age group.

As she travels to Brazil once a year, she was able to see the impact of her work on a trip last August. She wont soon forget the sight of a 4-year-old child so enthralled by a book that they didnt want to put it down.

Some of them have never even seen a book before in their entire lives, Bea said. Its amazing. When they see the books brought in, its the cutest thing. It means a lot to me to think that Im giving them a chance, because reading is definitely something that they need. Im giving a chance to someone who otherwise wouldnt have had that opportunity.

Since beginning her nonprofit, Bea has formed a partnership with the Secretary of Education of Sertaozinho. The program is flourishing, with 400 books and 10 bookshelves donated to the city on June 22.

This summer, Bea plans to make videos in Portuguese that will help teach children how to read with basics and activities  she hopes that they will become an online resource that will reach even more people.

Beatriz reads to students in Brazil.

Bea is also working to share the love of reading closer to her San Diego home. She has donated books to orphanages in Mexico and, on July 20, she donated 50 books to the Rady Childrens Hospital operating room. She hopes to replenish the library of books every few months.

Bea would love to see her organization grow and hopes to start club chapters at local schools.

I would love to get the whole community involved, Beatriz said. It would be cool to see what an impact an entire community could make.

To learn more about Books for a Change, visit booksforachange.org.
Canyon Crest Academy students have come together to form a new nonprofit called STEAM in Panama. The organizations focus is on sponsoring a robotics team for middle school students at the Metropolitan School of Panama. Currently, Panama does not have a regional robotics representation in the FIRST Lego League and the group aims to create a program that will teach students to apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts and ignite imagination and critical thinking skills.

The nonprofit was formed by a group of incoming Canyon Crest seniors, across multiple disciplines of Conservatory program, from humanities to art. The student leadership team includes Sarah Cheney, Daniel Bruce, Susan Wahl, Yang Qing and Ivy Li. The group receives guidance from mentor teachers Timothy Stiven, Zachary Brown of the humanities Conservatory, and Tony Mauro from robotics.

Susan said the group would like to see the replication of the unique CCA culture on other campuses, stressing the importance of the integration of art and STEM into schools and how it can benefit students and their communities.

Our goal is to create an interconnected community between schools in Panama and San Diego and help students from both schools experience cooperation, leadership, and cross cultural experiences, said Susan, an art Conservatory student who is interested in pursuing a science major in college. STEAM in Panama would create more opportunities for Panamanian students to take initiative in STEM and arts- related projects.

The students hope to not only bring robotics to Panama but help them bring them to San Diego to compete in a robotics competition

The nonprofit is looking for sponsors to help, with a goal of $5,000-$8,000 to provide 20 robotics kits for the Panamanian students. To learn more, contact Sarah Cheney at sarahcheney18@gmail.com or visit Steam for Panamas website at bit.ly/2tIVfkH
News / National

by Staff Reporter

Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko has expressed reservations on "planned" economic turnaround under the "Command" banner, saying such programmes do not work.He said this in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with our Harare Bureau last week. Government has over the 2016/17 summer cropping season implemented a Specialised Maize Production and Import Substitution Programme, better known as Command Agriculture, under a public-private partnership with Sakunda Holdings.While that programme targets commercial production, the State, again in public-private partnership, also provided maize free inputs to households across Zimbabwe under the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme. Projections by both Government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation point to a maize harvest of at least 2,1 million tonnes against national annual requirements of 1,8 million tonnes.The success of the State's intervention has seen Government extending Command Agriculture not only to the next summer cropping season, but also applying the concept to other sectors like fisheries and livestock.This has seen President Mugabe publicly describing Command Agriculture as "beautiful".However, last week VP Mphoko - who was at the time the Acting President - told our Harare Bureau he was not too enamoured by the concept.First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe initiated the idea of Command Agriculture, and Cabinet - in which VP Mphoko sits - adopted it, with President Mugabe assigning VP Emmerson Mnangagwa to spearhead implementation.Asked if Command Agriculture had Cabinet's full backing following weeks of rabid attacks by Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, VP Mphoko said: "I don't know how you want to put it. The (Command Agriculture) programme, I don't want to put some of these words you are talking because I have never agreed with them. I have trained in the Soviet Union and I know what a planned economy is, but I am saying and we must be very careful not to distort our programmes. Because if you give a headline on a particular subject or a title to a book stick to the title, don't distort it."VP Mphoko added that investors did not care about policy discord in Government as they were only driven by self- interest."In Zimbabwe there is everything here; you tell them not to invest but they want milk, they want fish they want gold, they want platinum they want all the minerals that we have here. Whether it's agriculture or what the ministers say, those people are governed by their interests."VP Mphoko spoke strongly against factionalism in Zanu-PF."Factionalism will not help anybody, instead it will destroy you. You see what happens is that you cannot anoint yourself; you can't do that. You have to be anointed not by someone. Go to the Bible and look at how King Solomon was appointed. David was very sick, he was very frail and one of his sons, Adonijah, slaughtered over 50 beasts and anointed himself, assisted by Joab, who was a general in the army."Joab and Adonijah were working together. In the meanwhile the reality happened, and David installed Solomon and those who had anointed themselves failed completely."Those are lessons you must learn. You must learn what also happened to others during the Mzilikazi era. People decided to install Nkulumane before they had established that Mzilikazi was dead and as a result of that, it failed."
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Campaigners who claim the approval of HS2 will be a disaster for Long Eaton and Sandiacre say they will not give up their fight against the controversial project.

They fear for the future of both towns after it was announced on Monday that the new HS2 route will be carried over Long Eaton by a high-level viaduct.

The new railway line will provide faster journeys for people in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to major cities including Birmingham and London. It was also announced on Monday that a new station serving the line will be built in Toton.

But the announcement was met with severe concern from the Stop HS2 Erewash group, which believes the viaduct will cause numerous problems for Long Eaton.

Ben Timberley, from the group, said: This viaduct will do lots of damage for Long Eaton. It (HS2) will destroy the town.

People will lose their homes and businesses  some well known to people in the area - will have to move out of Long Eaton all because of HS2.

This viaduct is going to chop the town in half. I don't think people realise the full impact it is going to have  it will be monstrous.

"It is being pushed through because it will make a small group of people a large amount of money.

The campaign group is not going to stop. We will continue to show people how against these plans we are and how it will destroy Long Eaton.

What we are going to do is to try an increase the education about the nature of HS2 and what it is going to do. Its very important we do this and bring people on board.

Decisions have now been made so weve got to build a popular resistance against this. If an entire community rises up against this, thats the only way we are going to stop it. 

HS2 Ltd, the company responsible for delivering the scheme, said further consultation events will take place in local areas for people to share their views on the expected scheme design and impacts.

Meanwhile, council chiefs in Erewash have said they will work to make sure that HS2 is an advantage for the area.

A statement from Erewash Borough Council said: The council understands that this is an important major infrastructure project and is working to take advantage of economic regeneration opportunities arising from HS2 and also to achieve the best outcome for both residents and businesses affected by the decision.

It is extremely important that communities affected receive the necessary support and the council will work with HS2 Ltd and partners to ensure, where possible, that the appropriate help is made available.

The council will continue to work with the Department of Transport, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail, Highways England, the local transport authorities and other partners throughout the high speed rail project.
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A Derbyshire woman said she feared for her life when she was attacked by cows while out walking her dog.

Jacqui Beale, 48, suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung, and was left needing stitches to her face after she was set upon by the cattle.

The dog groomer from Wirksworth suffered the horrendous attack in May but has now decided to speak out and warn others.

"The dog was on a lead, but they weren't going for the dog, they came for me and knocked me over," she said.

"I was bashed about by about eight cows. I remember being tossed from one to another and thinking I wasn't going to survive. All I could hear was snorting and breathing, it was terrifying."

Ms Beale managed to get herself to safety, but has now warned others who may be unprepared for attacks.

(Image: PA)

She said: "If I had had a child with me or had been an old person who couldn't get out of the field, it would have been even worse. You wouldn't expect it, but cows move really fast.

"This has left me really scared. I respect animals and have always kept my dog on a lead, but that wasn't enough. I live in the countryside surrounded by lovely fields, but I'm too scared to go near them now.

"There are lots of popular walks near me, but if you do them you risk being mauled."

Another victim of a similar attack, grandfather-of-five Mike Pace, is still in the process of having his leg reconstructed after he was attacked by cows in August last year.

The 55-year-old said he thought he was going to die when he was trampled while walking along a public footpath with his wife, Gill, during a camping holiday in Abersoch in Gwynedd, Wales.

"There were around 30 cows behind us and Gill then noticed they had calves," said the father-of-four, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

"As we started to walk the other way, this black bullock that had been staring and looking menacing charged me and threw me up in the air and then the other cattle just started trampling me.

(Image: PA)

"The black bullock started lifting its back legs off the ground and trampling me.

"While on the floor I had a conversation with myself thinking I was going to die. I told myself I'd had a good life."

Mrs Pace escaped unharmed, but her husband, who works as a manager at BMW, spent more than a month in hospital and still needs crutches to walk.

He and Ms Beale are both taking legal action and Sally Gray, a personal injury specialist at Slater and Gordon, is representing a number of people who have been injured by cattle.

She said: "Cows grazing in a field seem like the image of tranquillity, hence why people assume there's no threat.

"Indeed, they are very docile animals, often unbothered by people walking in their fields. However, when they have calves it's a different story.

"Around this time of year we get lots of cases relating to injuries caused by cows - some very nasty and potentially fatal.

"Recent data shows that cows are the most dangerous large animals in the UK and, when it comes to public liability and the risk owed to the public, farmers have been advised not to put calves and their mothers in fields that are open to the public together.

"Owners of animals that have the potential to cause serious injury need to make sure they're kept in suitable areas."
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Erewash MP Maggie Throup says she has been reassured by the Secretary of State for Transport that residents affected by HS2 plans will not be left out of pocket as a result of the major project.

The Government confirmed yesterday that the railway line will be carried over Long Eaton by a high-level viaduct and that a new station serving HS2 would be built in nearby Toton.

The station is intended to serve both the Derby and Nottingham areas and will see new rapid services linking the region to Yorkshire, Birmingham and London.

Following the confirmation of the route, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling made a statement to MPs in the House of Commons. In response Mrs Throup asked him whether he agreed that nobody should be worse off as a result of the plans.

She said: Although I welcome the clarity that the announcement brings to residents of Long Eaton, Sandiacre and Stanton Gate in my constituency, and the extension of the rural zone to the south of Long Eaton, some of my constituents who have lived in their homes for 40 years or more are being offered only two thirds of the value of their homes and cannot afford to buy another home.

"As HS2 will be of great benefit to the whole nation, does my Right Hon Friend agree that nobody should be worse off as a result of it?.

Mr Grayling replied: I do agree, and I am very grateful to my Hon Friend and to the people of Long Eaton; as she knows, we have had a long discussion about whether we should have a high-level embankment or a low-level one, and I hope the solution we have reached is one that her community will support.

"I am clear that I do not want people to lose out as a result of this, and I extend to the House the request that Members should come to tell me if there are any places where there is a danger of that happening.

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Afterwards, Mrs Throup said she she was pleased with Mr Grayling's response. She added: "I understand that HS2 splits opinion in our area, with some residents wanting the project to be dropped completely. However we have to accept that HS2 is going ahead, and it is my job as the Member of Parliament to fight for the best possible deal from HS2 Ltd for local residents who are affected by the line of route in Long Eaton, Sandiacre and Stanton Gate.

"I am pleased therefore, that the Transport Secretary has given his personal assurance on public record that he does not want people to lose out as a result of this vital national infrastructure project."

Rebecca Bestwick, of Sawley, owns a house in East Street, Long Eaton, which is just 60m away from the line.

The 37-year-old told the Nottingham Post: "I don't particularly oppose it, but I do think that the residents - home owners - should be compensated.

"They can't tell me that the property value is going to be unblighted there. I invested my money in that house for my son's future and everything I've worked for is going to depreciate now."

(Image: Department for Transport/PA Wire)

Residents were consulted about the proposals last year and a number of concerns were raised, including the potential noise and visual impacts of the HS2 network on the community, while others expressed concerns about the negative impact the proposals could have on property prices.

Following yesterday's announcement, Long Eaton and Sawley Labour Party said the decision would blight the town and nearby Sandiacre, as well as cause increased traffic congestion, dust and destroy the environment.

However, councillor Jon Collins, vice chair of East Midlands Councils and chair of the East Midlands HS2 Strategic Board, says HS2 will mean more and better jobs for local people, less overcrowded trains and much quicker journey times to key destinations.

Councillor Simon Spencer, Derbyshire County Councils cabinet member for Highways Transport and Infrastructure added: Governments plans and intentions are now clear which should help us have a more open dialogue with HS2.

We believe the best deal for Derbyshire residents will be achieved by working with the Government to maximise the economic benefits and minimise the adverse impacts of the scheme.

Derbyshire has much to gain from HS2. It will bring more jobs to the county  including during the construction phase with opportunities for local businesses to join the supply chain, and jobs created at the new maintenance depot to be built at Staveley.

It also brings massive potential for Derbyshires tourism industry with passengers able to travel between London Euston and Chesterfield in just over an hour.

But while we welcome the economic benefits of HS2 we realise it wont be good news for everyone and well continue to push for the best deal for Derbyshire residents, businesses and others along the route to reduce any harmful effects as much as possible.

The proposed Toton station design includes four high speed platforms, and four platforms for conventional services allowing connections to Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. There will also be two fast lines through the middle of the station for non-stopping services.

It is expected the new station will bring faster journey times from Derby to other cities.

Previously HS2 Ltd, the company responsible for delivering the scheme, estimated Derby to Leeds would be 50 minutes on average via HS2, down from 77 minutes using the fastest existing routes. Derby to York would be 57 minutes, down from 86 minutes. Derby to Newcastle would be 126 minutes, down from 150 minutes. Derby to Heathrow would be 86 minutes, down from 151 minutes.

HS2 also previously said it expected a 20-minute saving for Derby to central London.

Phase 1 of HS2 is due to open in December 2026 and will see trains travel between London and Birmingham, before running on from Birmingham on the existing West Coast Main Line.

Phase 2 has two separate parts. Phase 2a from the West Midlands to Crewe will launch in 2027. And phase 2b - from Crewe to Manchester, and also from the West Midlands to Leeds, South Yorkshire and the East Midlands - will open in 2033. This last bit is the section coming through parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
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Police hunting three armed burglars have released crystal clear CCTV footage.

A home in Mayfield Road, in Hanging Bridge, near Ashbourne, was broken into by men armed with a crowbar and a knife in broad daylight, according to police.

Officers believe the incident happened at around 2pm on June 28.

A Derbyshire police spokesman said: "We have released CCTV footage of three men burgling a house near Ashbourne.

"The break-in happened at around 2pm on Wednesday, June 28 at a house in Mayfield Road, Hanging Bridge.

"CCTV footage from inside the house shows one burglar is holding a crowbar while another is armed with a knife.

"The men took jewellery before a burglar alarm sounded and they fled the house.

"We have released the CCTV footage in a bid to identify the men. The footage also includes the men speaking and people may be able to identify them by their voices."

Witnesses or anyone with information is urged to contact DC Tim Brown on 101, quoting reference number 17000273250.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A Harare magistrate has dismissed an application for discharge by a South African woman arrested for allegedly ingesting cocaine packs.Isaura Masinga had applied for acquittal arguing cops sifted through her stool on various occasions and failed to find anything justifying continuous prosecution.Harare magistrate Josephine Sande ruled that Masinga ought to explain why she had lied that she was pregnant when she initially appeared in court.She conceded with the State that Masinga must explain why she refused to take solid food when she was in police custody. Masinga only started taking solid food when she was transferred to remand prison.Prosecutor Peter Kachirika had argued that Isaura defeated the course of justice by avoiding solid food while in police custody. Masinga's lawyer Nickiel Mushangwe said his client could not eat the food offered at remand prison because it was unfit for human consumption.He urged the court to put Masinga to her defence to explain how she had disposed of body packs which had been detected in her body earlier on.She went through a series scans as the State sought to establish if she carried cocaine in her stomach but the results were inconclusiveMasinga entered Zimbabwe on May 5 and was confined to police custody and charged with possession of cocaine.The State failed to establish if Masinga possessed the cocaine and changed the charges to defeating the course of justice on allegations that she had destroyed that evidence to evade justice. The defence case opens on July 24.
News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC youths, still smarting from last week's bloody skirmishes with the authorities, have warned their Zanu-PF counterparts against perpetrating violence by promising they will respond aggressively to harassment and bloodletting which has been blamed on the former liberation movement supporters by peace-building and rights monitoring groups.This comes as there is resurgence of violence and fresh harassment of people suspected to be loyal to the opposition by terror gangs claiming to be Zanu-PF youths.MDC national youth assembly chairperson Happymore Chidziva yesterday declared that opposition youths will defend their parents against attacks."I have always said that no one has exclusive rights on violence, we have said again Zanu-PF has no monopoly over violence so we can't remain victims of violence, we are ready for whatever it takes by all means necessary we shall defend the people," Chidziva told the Daily News."Actually, I am collecting all names and profiles of notorious Zanu-PF thugs and murderers so that when we become government, the law will be allowed to take its course".Chidziva said youths were angry as they felt let down by Zanu-PF, which he accused of failing to deliver the 2,2 million fresh jobs it promised during the run-up to the 2013 elections.According to successive monthly reports by rights groups such as Heal Zimbabwe Trust and the Zimbabwe Peace Project on political violations, Zanu-PF has continuously dominated the perpetrators list, often with no action being taken against them by authorities.Reports of ruling party terror groups have emanated from Kwekwe where the notorious "Al Shabaab" group is reportedly on the prowl, harassing residents and traders.The group, named after the Somali-based terrorist affiliate of Al-Qaeda fighting to turn the country into a fundamentalist Islamic State, has been blamed for much of the intra and inter-party political violence in the Midlands Province.At the same time, vendors and residents in Harare's Mbare suburb are reportedly being terrorised by members of the Chipangano terror group.The group is allegedly led by Zanu-PF youth chairperson for ward 4, Kuda Mavhura, and provincial chairperson for youths, Edson Takataka.Takataka has, however, denied the allegations saying "I do not know what is happening exactly and I am yet to receive reports to that effect".An international think-tank, the United States Centre for Preventive Action (CPA) warned last month that Zimbabwe risks plunging into violence even before the crunch 2018 polls.
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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!)
News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has justified its eviction of 200 villagers from Lazy Nine Farm in Banga Village, Shurugwi South saying the area is a military protected area."The area is an officially gazetted cantonment area as stipulated under the Government Gazette Notice No. 802/1978," lieutenant colonel Alphios Makotore, the director Army public relations, said in a statement yesterday."In addition to the above, the ZNA has put up notices to remind the illegally resettled villagers that they must vacate the area."Whoever resettled those villagers did so without consulting the relevant military authorities who could have shown the boundaries of the gazetted area."In that regard, the eviction order stands because those villagers were illegally resettled."Furthermore, it is in the interest of the villagers' safety that they vacate the area as stipulated by the notices put up by the ZNA authorities."
Nokia 8 images have been outed by leakster Evan Blass in a new Venture Beat report. The smartphone can be seen in a Blue colour variant sporting dual Carl Zeiss lenses and Nokia branding at the front, back. Heres everything we know so far about the desig

Is this the Nokia 8? If a report by leakster Evan Blass has to be believed, the image above is that of the Nokia 8 flagship smartphone by HMD Global. The smartphone can be seen from the front and the back in the image that has been shared by Blass on Venture Beat. Here, the Nokia 8 flagship smartphone can be seen in a Blue colour variant, with an edge-to-edge display and rounded corners. The leak confirms a previous rumour that the new Nokia flagship will sport Carl Zeiss optics. If the report is authentic, this will be the first true Nokia flagship device and will be the fourth smartphone from HMD, joining the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 in the line-up.

At the back of the Nokia 8

The fresh leaked image of the Nokia 8 shows a vertical dual rear camera setup with Carl Zeiss branding on the camera enclosure, which seems to be sitting flush with the body of the smartphone. However, the camera enclosure can be seen surrounded by a metal ring, so it could have a slight bump. One can also see a dual LED flash setup at the back of the Nokia 8. Previous reports indicate that the camera pair on the Nokia 8 will come with a 13MP resolution. Also spotted at the back is a model number TA-1012 and an Designed by HMD Global inscription.

On the front of the Nokia 8

The front of the device shows an edge-to-edge display with a slight curve. Prominent top and bottom bezels are also visible on the alleged Nokia 8. The capacitive touch buttons can be spotted below the display, alongside a fingerprint scanner. A report had claimed earlier that the new Nokia 8 will sport an Iris scanner, but the images from that particular leak do not match the ones shared by Blass. Needless to say, the Nokia 8 will have 4G connectivity and a 4G symbol can also be seen on the screen. The Nokia 8 is expected to have a 5.3-inch Quad-HD display, although the new leak does not confirm any specifications of the smartphone. A front-facing camera can be seen on the top left corner of the Nokia 8, but we don't have a megapixel count to share with you at the moment.

A 3.5mm headphone jack is seen on the top of the device, while the volume rocker and power button rest at the right side of the Nokia 8. No antenna lines can be spotted on the front or the back of the smartphone.

Is this the first real leak?

Rumours about the upcoming flagship smartphone from HMD Global have been doing the rounds for a while now. In fact, a promotional teaser video of the Nokia 8 smartphone with dual rear cameras was spotted earlier on Vimeo. The clip was taken down later, but Blass managed to tweet it out independently.

A Nokia flagship smartphone had also received FCC certification back in June, but the model number in the certificate indicated a device with TA-1004 model name, different from the one spotted on this new Nokia 8 leak. It was here that the world was made to believe that the new Nokia flagship will come bearing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform, but the model number of this alleged Nokia 8 is different from the one mentioned in the FCC certification. However, a Geekbench listing did confirm a Nokia TA-1012 model with a SD 835 platform, Android 7.1.1 Nougat and a 3,000 mAh battery. Apart from this, the Nokia 8 is expected to launch with two RAM options - 4GB and 8GB.

When will the Nokia 8 launch?

As per a Scandinavian retailer, the Nokia 8 will launch on July 31. The retailer had listed the phone as model number TA-1004, priced at $675 (Rs 43,422 directly converted).

So, this is all we know about the rumoured Nokia 8 smartphone as of now. We will now have to wait till the end of July to get more clarity on the final product.
Nokia 8, HMD Global's flagship smartphone is tipped to launch on July 31. The handset will be powered by Snapdragon 835 SoC and is said to be priced around Rs 45,000.

HMD Global's much-rumoured Android flagship smartphone will be called Nokia 8 and not Nokia 9. According to an unnamed Scandinavian retailer, the Finnish company will launch its flagship smartphone powered by Snapdragon 835 on July 31.

HMD Global is expected to introduce at least four new smartphones before the end of this year. While most rumours in the past have suggested that company's flagship will be Nokia 9, this new report from Win Future claims the handset will be called Nokia 8. The smartphone is also said to be priced at 589 (approximately Rs 43,500), which hints at a premium pricing.

The Nokia 8 is said to launch with model number TA-1004 and feature 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. A Nokia smartphone with model number TA-1004 received FCC certification last month and also appeared on Antutu and GeekBench benchmarking platforms. The handset is expected to arrive in 4GB and 8GB RAM options. Other details include a 5.3-inch Quad HD display, Snapdragon 835 chipset under the hood and a dual 13MP rear camera setup. The new leak claims Nokia 8 will be launched in blue, steel, gold/blue and gold/copper colour variants.

A leak from last week suggested that Nokia is working on a mid-range Nokia 8 smartphone powered by Snapdragon 660 chipset while flagship Nokia 9 will feature Snapdragon 835 chipset. Another leak showcased real-life images of purported Nokia 9 revealing the dual rear camera setup and Snapdragon 835 chipset. It remains to be seen whether HMD Global opts for Nokia 8 or Nokia 9 branding for its flagship device.

HMD Global recently confirmed that its mid-range Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 Android smartphones will only be available from mid-August in India. The company said the delay is because of the huge demand for its entry-level Nokia 3 smartphone. Amazon India has commenced registration for Nokia 6 and the first sale will be held on August 23.
Xiaomi has signed a pact with Samsung Display for the supply of OLED panels starting December. The OLED display panels could be first seen on the company's next flagship Mi 7 smartphone.

Xiaomi is the newest smartphone maker to sign a pact with Samsung's display division for the supply of AMOLED display panels. According to the deal, Samsung will supply a 6.01-inch OLED panel to Xiaomi with the first shipment starting from December. According to the Korean publication The Investor, Samsung will supply 1 million units in the first month followed by another 2.2 million units in the following month.

Samsung Display is the largest manufacturer of OLED display panels used for smart devices. The South Korean electronics giant has also signed a similar deal with Apple to supply OLED displays for next generation iPhone. Nikkei reported a few months back that the Cupertino-based iPhone maker has ordered 70 million OLED display panels.

The report also notes that Xiaomi had originally planned to use a 5.49-inch flexible OLED panel from LG Display, but the deal fell apart due to delay in operations of LG's new plant. It adds that LG Display's new plant called E5 won't be operational until August and delay is likely due to panel upgradation at the assembly line. Google has also reportedly invested over $800 million in order to procure OLED display panels from LG for its next Pixel range.

With the first OLED panels from Samsung not shipping until December, they could well be used on the companys next flagship smartphone, Mi 7 or the Mi Note 3. There is not much information on Xiaomis next flagship especially considering the fact that its current flagship Mi 6 is not available outside its home market. By switching to Samsung's OLED display panel, Xiaomi will attract a lot of new users who are looking for a better display at a lower price point.
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Global SuperTanker Services claims the Forest Service is seeking to keep the plane grounded and won't say why.



By KEITH RIDLER

Associated Press

Hiroshi Ando/Global Supertanker Services via AP [enlarge] Global Supertanker Services says its Boeing 747 can drop nearly 20,000 gallons of retardant on wildfires. The firm has filed a protest with the Forest Service contesting a contract limiting firefighting aircraft to 5,000 gallons.

BOISE, Idaho  A giant aircraft that can fly high above oceans on intercontinental flights instead jets in low and slow over a flaming forest, trailing a long plume that settles on the ground and creates a wildfire-stopping barrier.





. . .
News / National

by Staff reporter

Businessman and socialite Wicknell Chivayo's marriage to Harare-based Sonja Madzikanda has not been welcomed by some members of his family, it can be revealed.If his sister, Moe's words are anything to go by, there is bad blood between them and the new sister-in-law whose marriage has created the rift in the family.And Moe was not present at her brother's marriage ceremony this past weekend.In several Facebook comments, Moe - who is based in the United States of America - lashed out at Chivayo's decision to marry Madzikanda, saying she now "resented" him."Considering none of his six sisters are attending this circus (the sisters whose names she can't memorise because they are too many) . . . I suggest some of you can go and represent coz pressure yacho ma1 and misquoting people . . . This story is becoming boring, don't you think?"That's why less people are showing interest. Hopefully now that they are gonna get married, we can stop hearing daily that they had eaten sadza with what meat," Moe said in one of the posts.In another post she wrote: " Hesi mhani KingYaya and QueenWicknell happily ever after till money do them part when the king finds out Queen is a comic book millionaire and owes more than he owns. Good night send us pictures of the $50k that they said he was going to pay, I want to see it."Moe went on to destroy Chivayo's bank cards, which she kept with her in America running her brother's errandsIt also turns out that Madzikanda has also been bad-mouthing Chivayo's sisters and mother, with Moe blaming Chivayo for telling his new wife about his family."Wicknell should just have left me beefing with his girl. He should have never insulted the whole family on social media over a girl apa he was lying futi."That's what made me resent him coz if he can lie like that about his family pane vanhu I wonder what he says behind closed doors, so spare me the lectures I'm never saying sorry to anyone. Not to him or his girlfriend, wife or concubine or whatever she is. Case closed," she wrote.Word on the street is that Chivayo paid about $17 000 to the Madzikanda family.In his response, Chivayo said his sister was foolish to think he will ditch his wife because the sister said his wife was scruffy."Listen if she (Moe) doesn't appreciate me, and doesn't respect my choice then it's not my fault, she's my sister, she is my baby, that's my last born, but if she's stupid enough to go on social media and display my business and fight the girl that I'm intimate with, that I sleep in the same bed with, that makes me scream all night then she's stupid because she can't win that battle," Chivayo said in a live video on social media recently."Because the girl will just come in my bed and say I don't like your sister and I will say for real my sister is foolish. If she says I want you to delete her number, I will delete it, or if I hear you talking to her I will dump you,' we are men, we are fools and she's a bully in bed, when you lie in bed you're told this and that and you will say sorry over and over again, we are men, we are weak."And if she (sister) thinks she can control me over someone I sleep with, she is a fool, she's stupid, these are matters of the heart, I will take my girl any day. She will realise it later in life that she misses me."She's stupid, she misses me very quickly, if I go to America right now, and if I don't get to see her she will cry for a month, or my brother came to America and didn't see me, she will cry. She's being childish."For her to get known it's because of me because she says she's Wicknell's sister.I asked her why she would want to fight with my girlfriend do you want me to marry her?' Don't forget the bedroom power, that whole blood is thicker than water is nothing."
Computing graduate said the international trips he took while studying with De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have given him the confidence to take his skills to work in Africa.

Mwenya Musanshi grew up in Zambia but decided to study at DMU because of the flexibility of the course and the opportunities for overseas experiences.

And yesterday he was one of hundreds of students from the Faculty of Technology who graduated in three spectacular ceremonies which took place at The Venue @DMU.

The 22-year-old was joined by his parents James and Martha, who had flown in from Zambia for the occasion.

He said: I have loved studying at DMU and this graduation ceremony was so good; they seem to get better every year.

During my time at university I have been on two #DMUglobal trips, one to Furtwangen in Germany and the other to Italy.

Both of these trips gave me the chance to see experts from the computing industry and gain real-world experience. It was also the first time I had travelled in Europe.

Mwenya said his third year had been his favourite because DMU had paired him with the right supervisor.

He said: They paid attention to the lecturer I had connected with and paired me with them, so it was very helpful during such a busy year.

I want to go back to Zambia and use the skills I have learned here.

RELATED NEWS

* Watch our graduations on the screen - live stream link here

* Computing student helped hundreds of children learn coding

* DMU Journalism Class of 2017 pick up awards before their degrees

Also graduating was Anjum Rafik Sacranie, who had completed a BSc in Computing.

The 27-year-old said she had been feeling nervous about the day for weeks.

She said: I was really worried; I just kept thinking about how it would feel walking across that stage. But it was a fantastic moment.

Anjum, who was joined by her family including mum Tahera and dad Rafik, said she was now in a position to look for her dream job as a web designer.

She said: DMU has this local feel, a really nice atmosphere. And there is a great amount of flexibility in how I can approach studying on the course.

For example, having the library open 24-hours a day every day makes things very easy for me.

After the ceremony finished, hundreds of newly-named graduates celebrated with family and friends in the warm weather, enjoying food and drink around DMUs Graduation Village, right next The Venue.

One of those was Matt Turnbull, an Information and Communication Technology graduate.

The 23-year-old said: One of the most useful things was the year-long placement I did at Pepsi, in Reading.

I learned a lot of industry standard stuff and they really let me get hands-on. It gives you a perspective you just cant get theoretically and it makes you as an employment prospect that much more attractive.
The liver is a particularly squishy, slippery organ, prone to shifting both deadly tumours and life-preserving blood vessels by inches between the time they're discovered on a CT scan and when the patient is lying on an operating room table. Surgeons can swab the exposed liver lightly on the surface with a special stylus, capturing the shape of the organ during surgery, and a computer can match that image with the CT scan on a screen. This GPS-like ability is far better than guessing where the tumour and vessels are by feeling for them, but even this road map can be off by centimeters. Vanderbilt University's Michael Miga, Harvie Branscomb Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and his team published the potential solution - surgery-tested software that better marries the CT scan's image with the tracked tool's. It's an advance that stands to help more than a half-million liver cancer patients worldwide each year. Their paper, "Deformation Correction for Image Guided Liver Surgery: An Intraoperative Fidelity Assessment," appears this month in the journal Surgery. Used in a blinded, randomised 20-patient bystander study over the past two years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, surgeons said the new technology improved the registration in more than 70 percent of cases. "Deformation happens," says Miga, who developed the Pathfinder stylus system for abdominal surgeries. It sold to Analogic Corporation in 2014 and is in use at top cancer centers. "The way the liver is configured in the body at the time of diagnostic imaging and the way it's presented for surgery are very different," he says. "If you're trying to get to a tumour the size of a dime and avoid a blood vessel, you need to avoid errors. The problem is, by the time a surgeon can access the organ for surgery, the CT-derived GPS map could be off by centimeters. That's dangerous, especially if resecting close to a major vessel." The trick to fixing that error without investing in additional expensive equipment is software that makes a computer model out of the original image of the liver and simulates the forces being applied during surgery -- such as packed gauze lifting the liver upward. The computer adjusts the CT-derived GPS map to better match the exposed organ shape in the OR. In the study, surgeons were shown six or seven CT images, depending on time, for each of 20 liver tumour patients in the operating room, for a total of 125 images. The CT map would either be aligned to the original Pathfinder or Miga's new enhanced CT map that corrected for deformations. The surgeon was not told which display was being presented and would assess the alignment by touching the stylus on the patient's liver and looking at the display. The surgeon would then provide a score on a scale of +3 to -3 relative to the previous display presented. The display order was randomised and could go from enhanced to original, original back to enhanced, or held constant. The surgeon was able to detect the variations correctly in 73 percent of the 125 different evaluations. This new deformation correction technology is available to be integrated into image-guided surgery systems.








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Authorities captured a local Community Corrections escapee Tuesday, about two days after he failed to return from a weekend pass.

Kevin Ray Edwards, 30, was taken into custody in an abandoned home on Arlington Avenue in Dothan, Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza said. Edwards had been considered an escapee since Sunday evening. Valenza said Edwards was non-compliant when approached by Sheriff's deputies, but was taken into custody after a brief altercation.

Houston County Community Corrections Director Tony Weber said Edwards had previously been a cooperative Community Corrections inmate.

Edwards was doing very well in this program, said Weber. With him doing so well in this program, never thought he would try to this. By Edwards escaping, he not only eliminated his chances of being on our work release program, but he also made it almost impossible to get on a work release program on the state level."

Edwards had been ordered to serve out his sentence in the Houston County Community Corrections Work Release program. He was scheduled to be released in October 2018. His original sentence was 15 years in state prison.

According to Weber, Edwards previous charges were not considered to be violent crimes. His previous charges include unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and second-degree assault.

Edwards was taken to the Houston County Jail Monday for processing.

Monday for processing.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Police are on the hunt for four robbers who bolted into Banket Farmers Centre recently and left their colleague dead in a botched robbery.The incident resulted in the armed and masked robbers mistakenly killing their fifth colleague in a dark warehouse they had invaded before bolting out after they had attacked two guards with knives and machetes.However, the robbers left in a huff after realising they had aimed their weapons at their colleague who died instantly.Police are now calling on members of the public missing a male relative averaging 30 to 35 years to go and identify the slain robber at Banket hospital mortuary.The suspected robber was wearing a mask, ladies pulling socks and gloves to avoid leaving trail marks.Members of the public can also contact Detective Inspector Matova of CID Chinhoyi or the nearest police station.
Personnel matters dominated much of the Dothan City School Board meeting Monday, with the board approving a contract for interim superintendent Todd Weeks and hearing proposals for improved recruiting of employees.

The board voted to approve a contract for Weeks, who will serve as interim superintendent until the board picks a replacement for former superintendent Chuck Ledbetter.

Weeks will receive a salary based on $155,000 per year  the same rate he was paid the last time he served as interim superintendent after Tim Wilders departure. After a new superintendent is chosen, his pay will revert to the salary he earns as the assistant superintendent/director of personnel services. Weeks will also receive a travel allowance of $600 per month.

The board is currently accepting applications for the superintendents job. The application deadline is in September. Board attorney Kevin Weeks said hes received three applications thus far.

Weeks pay as interim superintendent was the matter of some debate in previous meetings, as some board members felt Weeks should not receive the same rate of pay that Ledbetter received, $175,000.

On Monday, Weeks also proposed using federal funds to pay signing bonuses to teachers in hard-to-fill specialties. Weeks said rules concerning Title III federal funds had recently loosened, which may allow the system to use some of that money to sweeten the deal for math, science and special education teachers. Weeks said some nearby systems are paying bonuses of up to $7,500 for math and science teachers and $10,000 for speech language pathologists.

Weeks also proposed easing system rules that require bus drivers to have a high school diploma or GED. Weeks said the system has lost several good candidates because of this requirement and that bus drivers are hard to find. Weeks noted that some private school graduates were unable to get jobs as bus drivers because their schools had shut down and they had no transcripts or other documentation.

During Mondays meeting, board chairman Harry Wayne Parrish explained member Brenda Guilfords early departure from a previous meeting, saying Guilford had to leave to meet with state officials regarding pre-K grants. Parrish said a number of unkind comments had been made on social media concerning her departure, and wished to correct the record.
Carri Day is excited for the upcoming school year, thanks to new teaching strategies and gear she picked up from the Wiregrass Math, Science and Technology Leadership Academy.

I cant wait for it, Day, a Dauphin Junior High teacher, said. We are getting so many activities and applications that will make learning fun.

The annual education leadership workshop, hosted at Troy University, provides teachers with ideas for adding relevance to their lessons and kits and materials for hands-on projects. The workshop also connects teachers with free resources they can use in their classrooms.

Rodney Davis, associate professor of education, said the program instructs teachers on how to connect classroom lessons with real-life occupations. Davis said adding this relevance to lessons will elicit greater interest and engagement from students.

Davis said workforce development has become a big issue in Alabama education recently, with leaders pushing for schools to produce students capable of being part of a skilled labor force.

Industries wont come to an area unless there are people there capable of doing the jobs they require, he said.

About 50 teachers participated in the program, which includes a week of workshops this week, a refresher later in the year and participation in the Wiregrass Works event early next year.

Davis said a portion of the funding for the program purchases participating teachers memberships in the Civil Air Patrol. Those memberships provide each teacher with more than a dozen kits they can use in the classroom.

Theyre connecting us with resources that we didnt even know were out there, Sonya McLaughlin, a math and science teacher at Goshen High School, said.

Davis said the program receives more than $100,000 in grant funding per year from No Child Left Behind Act funds. Those funds are set to run out this year, but Davis hopes NCLBs successor, the Every Child Succeeds Act, will supply funding to maintain the program.
While people often dream of retirement and enjoying their golden years, many elderly residents are victimized by financial exploitation crimes.

The crimes can involve the illegal or improper use of a senior citizens funds, property or assets, as well as fraud or identity theft perpetrated against older adults. However, some officials believe the number of times financial crimes against the elderly occur is hard to establish because it is a crime that tends to go unreported.

District Attorney Pat Jones is in the process of establishing a task force to deal with crimes against the elderly in Houston and Henry counties.

According to District Attorneys Office Investigator Jon Stanley, it is estimated that as many as 75,000 elder abuse/financial exploitation cases occur in the state of Alabama each year, but many go unreported. Out of the cases that do get reported, 80 percent of those cases involve the elderly being abused by a family member.

This problem is likely to get worse, not better, Stanley said. In January 2014, new abuse laws went into effect strengthening the penalties for all types of elder abuse in Alabama. But, the laws are no good if the abuse in not reported.

According to Stanley, many cases are not reported because the offender is a family member.

Stanley said the primary types of elder abuse are physical, emotional, sexual, financial and neglect.

The Elder Abuse Task Force will be made up of a representative from the district attorneys office, the sheriff's offices of Houston and Henry counties, each police department throughout both counties and from the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

At this moment we are reaching out to all agencies asking for their support with this task force, Jones said. To make this task force work we need everyone working together to protect our elderly residents and working together to raise awareness. We need everyone to understand how important it is to file a report when it comes to elder abuse. Report the crime and let the authorities take it from there.

Jones is hoping to have the task force up and running by January 2018.

"Once the task force is established, one of the main functions of the task force will be to make sure everyone is on the same page, sit down as a group and see what way will be the best way to handle each situation," Jones said.

Stanley is in the process of visiting several local nursing homes, organizations, and assisted living facilities to educate staff members on topics that should be addressed frequently with their elderly residents.

Educating and bringing awareness to this problem is a must, Stanley said. This is a crime many people believe they will never fall victim to. However, everyone has a case of being a victim. That is why it is so important to educate everyone on the dangers.

For more information on how to report an elder abuse claim, call 334-677-4800 or contact your local authorities.
ASHFORD  Wonderful. Caring. Respected. Loved.

These were some of the words used Monday to describe former Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, who was being memorialized with the renaming of a stretch of U.S. 84 in her hometown of Pansey.

She was such an extraordinary person, and an extraordinary woman State Senator Harri Anne Smith told the crowd gathered inside the Ashford train depot. She was such a trailblazer for women.

When Smith was first elected to office as mayor of Slocomb, she said she called Baxley and asked if she might administer the oath of office, not actually expecting that shed drive down to Geneva County. But she did.

Ill always treasure that  it was just such an honor to have her do that, Smith said. She just was phenomenal  shell go down in history and Ill be so proud to tell everybody I know I knew Lucy Baxley and she was my friend.

Alabama Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Harris said signs marking the four mile stretch of highway renamed for Baxley will be installed on Tuesday.

Throughout (the last 105 years) it has been important to us to remember people through honorary naming like this one, Harris said. Mile marker 220-224 will forever be a memorial for this woman.

Baxley left an impression on many who grew up with her in the Pansey community, and also those she encountered throughout the state. Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer is one of them.

She was a caring public servant and served our state well, Boozer said. She was a wonderful lady.

Boozer recalled a time in 1996 when the choir from Stanford University was in Montgomery while on the way to Atlanta to perform at the Olympics. He was giving them a tour of the Alabama State Capitol and when they walked by Baxleys office, she waved them inside, spoke to each member of the choir, then invited them all to come to her house for dinner that night. Boozer said when he asked her a few days later why she invited the entire choir over, she said she had a son in college and she would have wanted somebody to do the same for him.

The resolution that led to the designation of Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley Memorial Highway was passed by the Alabama Legislature in February.

It was easily passed on the House floor and Im sure on the Senate floor, Rep. Paul Lee said. Very well respected was Lucy Baxley.

Baxley died in October at the age of 78. She was elected state treasurer in 1994 and again in 1998, then served as lieutenant governor from 2003-07. She later served as president of the Alabama Public Service Commission beginning in 2008.
Home Two wheelers TVS To Invest Rs 500 Crore On Operations And New Launches oi-Rajkamal

Chennai-based two-wheeler manufacturer TVS has confirmed that the company will invest Rs 500 crore towards launching new products and improving its operations in India.

As per reports by Moneycontrol, the south Indian two-wheeler manufacturer will launch a high-end motorcycle, a scooter, and a new engine this year. The company has also increased its capital expenditure this year, compared to last year, to strengthen its product lineup.

TVS is increasing production capacity as well in its three plants. TVS has already managed to outsell Hero MotoCorp in the scooter segment in India during the first quarter, making the Chennai-based company the second largest scooter brand in the country, after Honda.

TVS has tied up with BMW Motorrad to build the G310R, which will be sold in India soon. Also, the company is gearing up to launch the Apache RR 310S in India, which is based on the TVS Akula concept showcased during the 2016 Auto Expo.

DriveSpark Thinks!

TVS has an advantage over other domestic brands regarding technology since the company has been in the motorsport world longer. Also, using some tech and know-how from brands such as BMW Motorrad and Sherco, TVS has all the ingredients to make a performance-oriented street bike or even a hard-core adventure/ off-roader; however, implementation is the key.
Louth Deputy, Declan Breathnach has met with Minister Finian McGrath, to outline to him the serious situation of lack of funding for respite care for families in Louth. He has shared the details with us

Deputy Breathnach said,

I co-ordinated a meeting through my office for the Minister to meet with all of the Louth Oireachtas members as this is such an urgent issue, it should be cross-party.

I had debated this in the Dail last week along with my Louth Oireachtas colleague, Fergus ODowd, TD.

I have said time and time again, this situation cannot be allowed to continue.

I am dismayed that there is no funding available in the short term to fund a facility that has been identified to provide care for 30 people.

It would cost 800,000 to provide the care for 30 people per annum.

There is a service provider ready to provide the care and a premises has been identified.

We need confirmation from the HSE that funding will be provided so that they could have it operational within 3 to 4 months.

This service could provide respite to young adults in Louth/Meath/north midlands and north Dublin as the premises identified as I said is just off the M1 at Drogheda.

I received a response last week regarding funding as follows 

The HSE has advised that additional funding would be required for the development of respite services in Louth but that no such funding is available in the 2017 budget allocation.

This is not acceptable, these families are literally at breaking point.

The Minister advised us at the meeting that he was meeting with the HSE and St. John of Gods on Monday 17th July, so hopefully he will see the urgent need for these families and allocate monies to provide the service.
Sydney-based startups EFTsure and Assignar have secured a combined $5 million in Series A capital, this month, from Our Innovation Fund (OIF), a new VC firm building a $50m portfolio of early-stage tech businesses.

Founded in late 2016 by investors Geoff Levy, David Shein and Jerry Stesel, OIF is  Levy told Dynamic Business  a sector and industry agnostic fund with a relatively flexible mandate.

The team has been investing together in early stage businesses for decades and we decided to formalise that into a fund last year, he said. Our sweet spot is an early stage business with innovative, high-growth or disruptive technologies or business models with demonstrated market demand and a defensible competitive edge. We are focused on partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs who are building world-class innovative and scalable early stage technology businesses.

Commenting on OIFs $3m investment in construction-tech startup Assignar and the firms $2m investment payment protection platform EFTsure, Levy said, Both businesses are fantastic opportunities run by very capable, genuine, honest and humble teams and ones we feel we have significant value to add.

Other startups in OIFs portfolio include Instaclustr, Enboarder, Recomazing, Stream Lending and Advanced Navigation.

Construction is ripe for disruption, says Assignar CEO

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Sean McCreanor (CEO) and Marko Tomic (CTO) in 2014, Assignar is a cloud-based SaaS platform that assists construction contractors to improve efficiency and safety by providing them with end-to-end, real-time management of their workforce, assets and compliance. Since launching in November 2015, it has signed up more than 80 clients across Australia and the United States, including UGL, Lendlease, Sydney Trains and Liebherr.

McCreanor attributes Assignars early success to its great technology stack, the actionable insights offered by its initial clients (theyve helped us shape the platform into what it is today) and his first-hand knowledge of the problems faced by contractors  in fact, the technology was initially developed to address inefficiencies in his own construction business.

Due to the growth of cloud and mobile technology as options in the field, the construction sector is ripe for disruption, McCreanor told Dynamic Business. On top of that, the generation entering construction are digitally savvy and expect to use tech. As such, theres a huge opportunity to shift away from the inefficient methods the sector has relied on  like paper, excel spreadsheets and whiteboards  and embrace technology that deliver real time data and insights around whats happening on a job site.

According to McCreanor, when he and Tomic were seeking investment for Assignar, they wanted to attract strategic partners who were not only experienced in B2B and SaaS, with a great track record, but who could add value beyond capital.

OIF was a no-brainer for us, he said. The value-add we received, within 48 hours of our very first meeting, was incredible. Specifically, they facilitated appointments for us with executives from some of the biggest construction companies in Australia. The strategic insights provided by OIF provides allow us to look to the future and roadmap exactly how we can get there.

In terms of the $3m in funding, it will be used to build out our engineering, marketing and customer success teams here in Sydney. We will also use some of the capital to explore the US market further. We already know there is a strong market and growth opportunity, as the same problem exists over there! So our goal is to work really hard in the coming months on a go-to-market strategy so we can launch officially in the US in early 2018.

OIF is a value-add partner, says EFTsures CEO

Founded in 2014 by finance and bank tech professionals Ian Mirels, Mike Kontorovich and Mark Chazan, EFTsure has developed a software platform that validates the integrity of business payment data.

According to Mirels, the CEO, EFTsure mitigates the rapidly growing risk of payment error and fraud, the latter of which costs Australian businesses $700m per year, by utilising a cloud-based, crowd-sourced supplier database that matches payee names to bank account numbers in real-time, at the point of payment. He added, Our solution augments or replaces manual verification processes that rely in trust, ensuring clients pay who they intend to pay.

Since launching in August 2016, EFTsure has signed up and partnered with including ASX200 companies, local government and SMBs across a range of industries.

Mirels said it was an obvious choice to partner with OIF, which is represented on EFTsures board. He told Dynamic Business, They have added significant value to EFTsure in addition to investing in the business. They have helped us with the strategic direction of EFTsure, with introductions to customers and partners as well as with general business support.

When people talk about finding a smart money or a value-add partner, theyre looking for an investor wholl roll up their sleeves and add material value  and weve definitely found that with OIF. We see them as a key part of the EFTsure team going forward.

Mirels said the $2 million in funding will be used to scale EFTsures marketing and sales operations, to ramp up partner relationships, and to enhance its offering while addressing the New Payments Platform (NPP), which will be available in October.

The NPP is a major industry initiative to develop new national infrastructure for fast, flexible, data rich payments in Australia, he said.

EFTsures current payment protection offering sits on top of the existing payments network and when New Payments Platform becomes available in the coming months, we will be looking at how our offering can add value through platform integration.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Chief Justice Luke Malaba has called for collective effort in ensuring a sound judiciary system through the upholding of best practices among all legal practitioners.The judiciary system cannot afford to compromise on standards if the country is to achieve efficient delivery of justice.This was the clarion call from Chief Justice Luke Malaba as he officiated at the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) Winter School held recently in Victoria Falls."The country should strive to achieve jurisprudence based on diligence, hard work and honesty," said Chief Justice Malaba.The chief justice expressed concern about the standards of representation in the country and challenged legal practitioners to perform to the high standards and come to court with well-researched and novel cases which can lead to landmark judgments.LSZ vice president Mr Thandaza Moyo described the winter school as a success.The LSZ winter school which was held under the theme: 'Staying Ahead Of The Pack: Remaining Relevant In The Face Of The Multi-Faceted Competition,' gave a platform to the legal practitioners to share notes on how to create a vibrant legal system.
News / National

by Staff reporter

MARRIED cheats were, last Friday, involved in a fatal accident in Witbank in Durban, South Africa during one of their trips out of the country.Chamunorwa Hombe and Shelter Mugauri, 32, whose affair had become an open secret in the community died after the haulage truck they were travelling in plunged down a steep slope into a gorge.There are two funeral gatherings in the same street (Chisungo Street) with one grouping for Chamunorwa and a stone throw away another for Shelter.Shelter, who was commonly known as Mai Kimberly in the neighbourhood, is said to have told her husband that Chamunorwa was her cousin yet they were in love.Mai Kimberley is said to have left home with their household property to stay at her parent's house which was closer to her boyfriend's place while Chamunorwa sent his wife packing so that he could have more time with Mai Kimberly  a mother of three.Mai Kimberley's husband Marufu Nhachi, 34, said he was surprised that Mai Kimberley had died while accompanying her boyfriend to South Africa."I was surprised to receive calls from friends and some sympathisers that Mai Kimberley had died in the company of her boyfriend."Chamunorwa used to come to our place of residence and I never suspected anything as their parents' houses are in the same street."People started telling me that the two were having an affair and Mai Kimberley once left home vanakirwa nechikomba," said Marufu.Marufu said his in-laws were still to officially tell him of his wife's death."I am still waiting for them to tell me that Mai Kimberley is no more. I went to her parents' place and questioned Mai Kimberley's aunt and mother who were egg-faced."Imagine a married woman running away from home only to die in the company of a boyfriend. Our eldest child is 12 years old while the youngest is five years old; the other one is in Grade 6," said Marufu.Added Marufu; "Mai Kimberley sold some of our household property and when I got some commission for selling a car I sent the money to her as I continued with my daily business but only to be surprised to get to know that she had left while I was away."She left just one blanket and my clothes as she rushed to be with her boyfriend."He said when he tried talking to Mai Kimberley on why she had left home, he got a response that he had been cursed not to prosper."Mai Kimberley told me that I was cursed and would die poor. It is unfortunate that she died first. That is curse now. Back to sender."Chamunorwa and my wife would travel to Congo and South Africa. Mai Kim would always accompany Chamu on his trips," said Marufu.Mai Kimberley's family could neither confirm nor deny the illicit love affair."I can't confirm their love affair because she didn't tell us about their relationship."What I only know is that he helped us transporting our goods from South Africa and we used to call him uncle."There were three people in the truck so we can't say anga ane chikomba. All three people who were in the truck died and we have no exact information."Also Shelly was no longer staying with Marufu and we don't want to see him again here."He is just causing confusion and we are mourning the death of our daughter."You can write what you want and we are not at liberty to talk to you."We have nothing to say to you and what I have told you is enough," said Shelter's close relative.Chamunorwa's relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two were in love."They were madly in love and Chamu was in a habit of chasing his wife away to have quality time na Mai Kimberly."They would tell people that they are related when in fact they were cheating on their spouses," said the close relative.The lorry is said to have been side swiped by a Isuzu twin cab and the driver lost control resulting in the lorry overturning killing all three occupants on the spot.
Opinion / Columnist

Some people will say it is a jack pot to be born of the rich, powerful and famous. Some would say count your blessings to have won the lottery to be of the loins and womb of the rich but other people would think otherwise. The reports in electronic media reveal that Robert Junior and Chatunga are routinely involved in neighbourhood antisocial behaviour, drunken disorderly and being a public naissance. In the past week the presidential kids had their tenancy contract to their expensive rented apartment abruptly terminated without notice following a drunken brawl on the premises of the apartments.The behaviour of these two lads is a manifestation of the handicaps of being born in the margins of greatness and the subsequent social destructiveness of character as a consequence of influence and unlimited access to money. It is said that being a man is a matter of age, being a gentleman is the matter of choice but the ability to make good or bad choices is a matter of upbringing and childhood experiences. These lads grew up in a social environment preoccupied with them becoming highly marketable commodities, pursuing activities chiefly if they looked good, being looked at with high esteem, where they received attention from others or when they got treated as young heroes born of a hero. They appear to have had little time for the exploration of who they are as individuals or for nurturing their unique interests and talents.They were always obstructed by the exposure to good living and an extravagant lifestyle of their parents which has become the boys' benchmark of interpreting social and behavioural norms including their relationship with money. Children are mirror images of their parents in appreciating and navigating social values and rules of natural ethics. The first family's parenting and exhibition of role modelling was and has always been that of control over others, spendthrift, superiority over others and a lack of compassion towards those unfortunate in life toiling in the poverty trap.Robert Junior and brother Chatunga exemplify the need for them to live a life style that meets the standard of living that portrays parental life style expectations and to maintain the mantle of superiority is to the two brothers a special imperative to carry on the expectations of high esteem. This is reinforced by the collusion of their parents who are all too willing to fund these boys' prodigal lifestyle. The parents also actively bail the rather truant lads out if they run into self-inflicted problems using money that should be shared amongst all the youths in Zimbabwe. The parents of these boys are busy ZANU PF ambassadors who may have been viewed by the boys as disproportionately valuing their own personal successes, paying too much of their time to preserving one centre power' far more than they valued them as their children. The boys then grow up showing elevated symptoms of detachment from their parents who were always absent away on business and therefore the boys respond poorly to parental advice and guidance.Money, security guards and hired maids unfortunately became the main source of parenting adopted by their parents with a resultant effect of a lack of positive attachments. The moneyed boys are disturbingly preoccupied with gaining high power in their peer group by grandstanding via money, sex, and substance and alcohol misuse. Prolific addicts and users of drugs and alcohol have a potential to suffer from a mental health and behavioural disorder due to use of illicit substances and alcohol. Robert Junior and Chatunga are chasing the social dominance of the "cool" factor that is related to good looks, expensive clothes, latest car makes, living in a good apartment and showing off their wealth. If the presidential born boys can drop a cool two thousand dollars every Friday night outing they are most likely to achieve the ultimate dominant male stamp by being desired by many girls, hold all night stag parties, and indulge in illicit and casual intimate relationships.While the Mugabe boys are having a good time in the sun shine city of Johannesburg, the city that never sleeps their father, President Mugabe addresses the obedient poverty stricken ZANU PF thoughtless youth and believers lying to them that there is life for them in ZANUPF but only as far as supporting him to return power and for him to continue to fund the extravagancy of his own children. Mugabe's Robert Junior and Chatunga is a special breed of youths. They are not required to attend the boring youth interface rallies. It's for the povo' youths desperate to be given housing stands and farms that do not exist. Children born of other parents some of them small school children are frog marched to attend Mugabe's rallies and his two lads are conspicuously absent from such gathering. Why is that? During these rallies the main theme is about Mugabe and nothing about tangible and sustainable outcomes for youth development. ZANU PF youths are required as running dogs, violent youth militia, farms invaders, slogan chanters and party big wigs entertainers. The manipulative Mugabe will deliberately omit talking about youth education and tuition fees, youth health and wellbeing, youth training and employment, youth entrepreneurship and micro business financing, and youth policy and legislation during youth interface rallies. The money for youth development is diverted to fund the luxury lifestyle of his children and those of his cabal. All their children receive education overseas with lucrative education benefits, allowances and numerous grants. That is good leadership, isn't it?It is high time for young people of Zimbabwe to demand the best for their country by thinking of themselves and think about their future at this early stage. They need to think beyond the present and be able to visualize a country where the next generation can do better than the last with a strong social and economic foundation and higher standards of living for its citizens. ZANU PF is not the appropriate mentor to lead the youth into the next generation.
Opinion / Columnist

Douglas Mwonzora says MDC-T is prepared to go it alone if the much talked about grand coalition of the opposition parties does not materialise."When we talk about unity, we want genuine unity," he said."There are some who were backbiting just to spoil the unity of the people of Zimbabwe.(MDC-T leader) Morgan Tsvangirai wants unity of all people in Zimbabwe and he has a place for every person, but there are those who don't want and Tsvangirai is saying 'if you don't want, I can go it alone'.MDC-T decided (no doubt with the covert encouragement of Zanu PF double agents) to focus on building a grand coalition and ignore the implementing of the reforms. The party can claim all it wants that this is what the people wanted; it is a lie. What the people really wanted is for the MDC to make good on its promise to bring about democratic change and restore their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections.MDC have had many opportunities to deliver changes with the best chance coming during the GNU when the party was tasked to implement the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 Global Political Agreement signed with Zanu PF and SADC as the guarantor. MDC leaders sold-out. Mugabe bribed them to forget the reforms with the trappings of office plus a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai.MDC leaders know that with no reforms in place, Zanu PF will rig next year's elections just as easily as they rigged the July 2013 elections; coalition or no coalition.Tsvangirai and his MDC-T have failed to get even one reform implement and now they cannot even form the grand coalition. They are losing political credibility with each passing day.A discredited opposition will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for Zanu PF to sell the election as a credible electoral contest. Mugabe just managed to get away with rigging the July 2013 elections. AU did not give his victory a ringing endorsement as the official report noted the failure to produce a verifiable voters' roll as is required by law, for example. Contrary to the other SADC countries, Botswana refused to endorse Mugabe's victory demanding that there should be an audit of the electoral process.To stay in power, Mugabe and Zanu PF have no choice but to once again rig the vote. With the country's economy in total meltdown and the regime seemingly helpless to rein in the rampant corruption, etc.; there is no hope any meaningful economy recovery as long as Zanu PF remains in power. The regime knows that it will never win a free and fair election, so it has to rig the vote.With no reforms in place, the regime is free to use its vote rigging juggernaut; it is well-fuelled with the billions of dollars looted from Marange and raring to go. The contrast between Mugabe and his main political challengers, Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru, could not be more striking.Mugabe has cheated and bamboozles Tsvangirai and Mujuru with easy on numerous occasions in past contests and what is glaringly obvious is that his advisories have learned nothing. They are still the blundering idiots of yesterday with no clue what they are doing. They have no clue where Mugabe gets his super human ability to stay in power all these 37 years.Mugabe is like Biblical Samson, Samson got his power from his hair and Mugabe gets his from rigging the vote, tampering with the constitution, corrupting key players, etc. Cut Samson's hair and he is as feeble and powerless as any other mortal. Stop Mugabe rigging the vote, etc. and he will lose the elections to the proverbial monkey.So, if Tsvangirai and Mujuru, were not as deaf, dumb, blind and stupid as they have been in the past then they would focus all their time, energy and spend every penny on implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Mugabe rigging the vote. But fools are fools because they never learn and so they busy chasing the mythical five-legged hare in the form of the grand coalition, voter mobilisation, etc.; unaware Mugabe is busy rigging the vote.Last week, I received a WhatApp text, announcing the leaked 2018 presidential results for Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (Zanu PF activists have already declared the area a no-go area to the opposition) Richard Morgan Tsvangirai MDC 1 192 Robert Gabriel Mugabe Zanu PF 38 234 Joice Teurai Ropa Mujuru NPP 786 Spoilt votes 31 Voter turnout 120% (not unheard of in Mugabe's Zimbabwe)The joke is the results of the elections are already known long before the first ballot vote is cast and late presidential entries like Dr Nkosana Moyo will have to be added as a p/s. p/s Nkosana Donald Moyo APA 6In June 2013, a month before the July 2013 elections, SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai and his MDC friend not to contest the coming elections because the elections were rigged already."If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," SADC leaders warned, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who attended the SADC summit.What my social media buddies are saying is Zanu PF's vote rigging machinery is running so smoothly this time the "elections are done" a year ahead of schedule!Mugabe has cheated and bamboozled Tsvangirai and Mujuru many, many times in the past and he is set to do so again next year. The tyrant fooled SADC and AU leaders in 2013 and got away with it but even he must be worried they will not be so easily fooled again."You can fool some people sometimes,But you can't fool all the people all the time.So now we see the light (What you gonna do?)"Warned Reggie legend, Bob Marley.Mugabe must know that with Tsvangirai losing political credibility by the hour the more the world will know the coming elections are sham! Yes, he sees "the light", Bob Marley, but he is totally helpless to do anything about it. He has rigged elections all his political life, he cannot stop now. He is as helpless as a falling man, he knows it is dangerous but can do nothing to stop.After the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of the 2008 elections, SADC and AU refused to accept Mugabe's electoral victory. The tyrant was forced to accept the humiliation of sharing power with Tsvangirai under SADC supervision. If SADC and AU refuse to accept his rigged election next year as democratic wish of the people, Mugabe knows it will not be another GNU but something a lot worse.
Members of Colorados largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association, plan to protest U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos when she visits Denver on Wednesday, reportedly to address the American Legislative Exchange Council at its annual meeting.

The group of conservative state legislators advocates for limited government, free markets, and federalism.

Although shes not on the conference agenda, Chalkbeat Colorado, a nonprofit news organization that covers education issues statewide, said pro-voucher, pro-school choice DeVos will be among the presenters.

The union says she will speak on the first day of the conference, which runs Wednesday through Friday at the Hyatt Regency.

The Denver Resists DeVos protest will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday on the west steps of the Capitol by parents, teachers, students, liberal activists, political candidates for Novembers election, and others.

Kevin Vick, president of the Pikes Peak regions only collective bargaining teachers union, the Colorado Springs Education Association representing School District 11, said he did not know of any members attending the event.

After a short rally, protesters will march to the Hyatt Regency and conclude at 11:30 a.m.

It will be DeVos first visit to Colorado since her heated congressional confirmation.

DeVos has ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, reports Chalkbeat. She is the founder of the American Federation for Children, which provides financial support to the exchange council and has representation on the groups education and workforce development task force.
A change to how a widely used English-proficiency test is scored has led to thousands of students being retained in English-language-learner classes and created budgeting and staffing challenges for some school districts.

The change has rattled educators in states with an established English-learner student body, such as Nevada; those with fast-growing populations, such as Tennessee; and even states, such as Maine, that have a relatively small percentage of students who dont yet communicate fluently in English.

Those three states and more than 30 others belong to the WIDA, or the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium, and use a test it designed to assess students English proficiency.

The scoring adjustment to the test known as ACCESS 2.0 raises the bar for English-language proficiency and took effect in the 2016-17 school year. With the change, English-learners must demonstrate more sophisticated language skills in four domainslistening, speaking, reading, and writingto achieve the same proficiency-level scores.

Student scores in many states dipped under the more demanding standards this past spring, extending the time that many will need to remain in support services, such as English-as-a-second-language classes.

In Nevada, state administrators estimate that only 2 percent, or 1,500, of the states 75,000-plus English-learners will move out of all language-development courses this year. In past years, between 12 percent and 14 percent of students moved out.

We anticipated that there would be a drop, said Karl Wilson, Nevadas program supervisor for ELLs. We were surprised that the drop was so significant.

Figuring out whether students need that support and when they no longer require it is crucial to the success of English-learners. When moving students out of language-support servicescommonly called reclassificationoccurs too early, English-learners can find themselves struggling.

If the process happens too late, students may be restricted from taking higher-level courses that would prepare them for college.

The scoring changerolled out in the spring to reflect the new language demands in the more-rigorous academic standards adopted by states in recent yearsis the first for WIDA in more than a decade.

Whats being asked of students, not just English-learners, is categorically different than it was in the past, said H. Gary Cook, the director of research for the WIDA consortium, a group of education agencies that share English-language-proficiency standards and assessment for ELLs that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. If the education system doesnt change accordingly, I dont foresee progress.

ELL Performance Is Critical

The consternation over the test scores comes as schools brace for another monumental change.

This coming school year, the performance of English-language learners will have a much greater impact on how schools are judged under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

It is another signal that the significance of English-learnerswho now make up nearly 10 percent of K-12 enrollmentis on the rise as this population grows and the changes in federal law mandate a more precise measurement of how those students are performing in school.

States are paying a tremendous amount of attention to this issue and really working hard to figure out how to get this  right, said Scott Norton, the director of strategic initiatives in standards, accountability, and assessment for the Council of Chief State School Officers.

For WIDA-member states, getting it right includes setting the cutoff scores that students earn to transition out of English-learner services. States have the discretion to set the cut scores that students earn to transition out of English-learner services.

Tennessee plans to temporarily adjust its English-learner exit criteria to avoid unnecessarily retaining students in ESL classes.

Almost all of our states English-learners would be retained in ESL programming because they didnt meet our states exit criteria, said Sara Gast, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee education agency.

To set its permanent criteria, the state plans to study the relationship between student scores on the ACCESS 2.0 exams and state tests in other subjects. Maine is among the states that have already lowered their exit criteria in response to the ACCESS cutoff-score changes.

The shock that states are experiencing is similar to the adjustments made when adopting the common-core-aligned assessments known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and Smarter Balanced.

Moving from one test to another and raising standards  is not really a new thing, Norton said. It takes a while for everybody to adjust, both on the instructional side and on the student-expectation side. And it usually causes some concern out in the districts until people adjust.

Count Ignacio Ruiz among the concerned.

Ruiz, the assistant superintendent for ELLs in the Clark County, Nev., schools, expects the change to be significant for his districts 61,000 English-learners.

After the 2015-16 school year, roughly 16 percent tested high enough to exit English-support services.

That percentage dropped to less than 8 percent in the latest round of testing. That means about 5,400 fewer students tested out of support services.

A More Accurate Test?

Similar scenarios have played out in districts around the country.

From Baltimore to Boise, Idaho, fewer students have transitioned out of English-support classes. With fewer students moving out of English-language-development classes, educators face the prospect of educating hundreds, if not thousands, more ELLs than district leaders budgeted and planned for.

Thats most likely a result of more states, including WIDA-member districts, leaning almost exclusively on English-language-proficiency exams to determine when students no longer need extra English support.

While this test is more rigorous, we think in the long run its a more accurate test, said Stacey Roth, Boises administrator of student programs. We want to ensure that our kids truly have reached proficiency.

But sometimes thats not even enough to determine when students are ready to move on. Research from the federal Regional Education Laboratory at WestEd has found that middle- and high-school-age English-learners who are deemed proficient still often struggle to grasp academic concepts.

In acknowledgment of that research and other data, ESSA requires states to monitor former English-learners for four years, two years longer than what was previously required.

Its not just about the proficiency piece, but that we have the right information to get students to proficiency, Ruiz said. We want to make sure that when we say a student is exiting, that will translate to them being able to have success in those high-stakes tests.

While Ruiz supports the tougher standards, hes worried about students, including long-term ELLsthose not considered proficient after years in U.S. schoolswho may become frustrated at the prospect of another year in support services.

In Boise, educators saw fewer elementary students reclassified as proficient, even those who are clearly bilingual, because their writing skills, like those of almost all children in that age group, are still developing.

Educators and advocates remain worried about other potential pitfalls of relying on a single assessment.

A report written for CCSSO concludes that states should use at least two measures, including observations of how students use language in classroom settings, to determine whether a student no longer needs English-language instruction.

Prior to ESSA, most states had a mishmash of ELL exit procedures, with districts often deciding when the students no longer needed support. With the new laws aims to make policies consistent, fewer states may rely on teacher input or evaluationmaking tests such as ACCESS 2.0 the only way out of English-support classes.

States really need to pay attention to these students. Many are trying, said Cook, the WIDA research director. Ultimately, we rely on our member states to support the decisionmaking with the data.
Opinion / Columnist

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther said so. Malcom X once said,"Education is the passport of future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."In Zimbabwe, parents strive by all means to send their children to school as way of investment into the future of their children. Education makes your mindset and capacity of knowledge to increase. Knowledge is power. If you ask children in Africa where do you want to go and do your higher learning education when you finish your High School. Definitely the answer will be overseas and the topping nations its USA and Great Britain. These are their dream destinations.The British Embassy has a facility /arm under the banner of British council which provides information about scholarships/studying in Universities and Colleges in UK. They have many centers around Zimbabwe. The USA Embassy is not left out in helping the less privileged students. They have a program called USAP. The United States Student Achievers Program (USAP) is a higher education program for low-income young people. The program began in Zimbabwe in 1999 and now has centers in 13 countries/ more around the world: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latvia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mongolia, Nigeria, Serbia, South Africa, Uganda, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.Students showing potential to achieve in theory and practice and therefore becoming future leaders have become regular beneficiaries of USA Embassy scholarship and the economic disadvantaged are selected for the program. They study at colleges and universities in the United States and go on to graduate studies or work. Since starting in 1999 USAP had the aim of providing access to higher education for determined, bright, low-income youth, thus producing highly skilled and liberally-educated leaders for tomorrow's Zimbabwe.They USA Embassy has opened centers around Zimbabwe to discern information on how to study and information in USA. One of the centers is located at the NUST Technopark in central Bulawayo on Jason Moyo. These space is a state of the art center which provides educational advisory services for students interested in American universities and colleges, cultural programs, alumni programs, and information about the United States. It also host U.S. college fairs, innovative online courses, as well as public discussion seminars which enhances U.S.- Zimbabwe bilateral relations, they offer free internet and WiFi services almost in line with past global MDG goal number 8 on international partnerships and access to internet services. They have a welcoming Staff, with sound public relations skills and ready to assist. The USA Embassy have a program called YALI, which is there to assist young Africans from 25 -35 years to boost them with leadership training, networking and cross pollination of ideas in USA. The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. The innovative programs is benefiting thousands of young Africans and these will lead to a positive impact in leadership transformation and development. This initiative is a first of its kind from Zimbabwe and other African countries.ENOS DENHERE IS A WRITER WITH FOCUS ON NATION BUILDING.HE IS LOOKING FORWARD FOR OPPORTUNITIES-SUPPORTED TRAINEE PROGRAMS IN NATION BUILDING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN USA, GREAT BRITAIN AND EUROPE. EMAIL enosdenhere@gmail.com www.enosden.wordpress.com https://www.facebook.com/letstalkafricaforgood/ APP +263 773894975
Opinion / Letters

With all the respect due to Minister and all the Power that be, may I take this opportunity to humbly submit my views on Minister's statement made in recent days on Foreigners. Firstly may I ask the minister, who are the Foreigners that he was implying to? In which part of the world is minister living?It is a shame to learn that the minister failed to realise the rhetorics of his words and not just that but he failed to realize that he was defying the South African national constitution.Minister, the South African constitution not only acknowledges the role African countries played to end the apartheid era in this country but recommends that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. I wonder if the minister is aware of that.Representing the people of Mthwakazi, better known as Matabeleland, in the present day Zimbabwe, may I take this chance to revisit the historical facts and research findings with you Minister.Yes, according to the colonial borders, Mthwakazi people are foreigners in South Africa but I wonder if you are aware of the following Mr Minister. Are you aware that;1) Mthwakazi people are the descendants of King Shaka Zulu who fled the Zulu Kingdom with one the most trusted chief of Shaka, Mzilikazi Khumalo?2) Mzilikazi was the first person to settle here in Gauteng somewhere around Selby in the late 1820s?3) We surrendered our homes and clothes to uMkhonto weSizwe cadres like Chris Hani, President Jacob Zuma and company, fed them from our own granaries?4) The world renowned South African Icon, Dr Nelson Mandela, landed for the first time in Ethiopia using the Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) passport?5) Mthwakazi people first entered South Africa in volumes in the mid 1980s fleeing mass killings by the government of Robert Mugabe after the discovery of the arms belonging to uMkhonto weSizwe that had been hidden by ZAPU and6) The city that Mr minister boasts and brag about, was built out of millions of Mthwakazi herds of cattle that were confiscated by the British South African Company of Cecil John Rhodes?It is therefore for these reasons that we describe the sentiments by Minister as xenophobic, rhetoric, un-African and uncalled for, as we identify ourselves people as deserving to seek refugee in South Africa in our times of need.History has blamed black Africans to adopting and accepting any doctrine given us by the Western Colonizers. For Minister to call other fellow Africans foreigners is just below the belt.Further more Johannesburg that the Minister complains about, was built by our fathers' labour. Should I remind you how Cecil John Rhodes and company used to conscript our fathers to come and work in the mines of South Africa?Yes we realize the economic and social strain that comes with the influx of our people into South Africa that also contributes to a serious increase in crime rates.We condemn highly all criminal activities that our people find themselves in and we plead with the South African justice system which we believe is independent, to punish all our people that are found wanting, accordingly but again may we take this chance to remind Hon Minister that not only foreign nationals possess illegal firearms locals do as well.The minister cited only the shooting of police officers as if it is the only unwanted act that happens in South Africa, and which we argue that it is not an act of ONLY foreign nationals. There are always reports of families being wiped out using those unlicensed fire arms across the country and I wonder if such cases are committed by foreign nationals too.To end with, we are glad as MLF that at least there is someone who feels the strain that comes with the influx of foreign nationals in South Africa and sounds ready to tackle it head on.We request the South African government, through the concerned Police Ministry, to engage us the so called foreign nationals, over our reasons for leaving our countries and possibly come up with the lasting solution together.
A growing body of research on the use of ancestral protein resurrection has been published in recent years to address a variety of issues on protein evolution and protein engineering. In a study published in Nature Communications, an International team of scientists has demonstrated the high potential of this evolutionary approach to endow new activities into ancient enzymes.

Specifically, the study suggests a mechanism for the emergence of primordial enzymes and shows that resurrected ancestral enzymes make much better scaffolds for engineering of novel enzyme functions.

Enzyme activity is determined by the structure of a particular region of the protein called the active site. The generation of completely new active sites capable of enzyme catalysis is, arguably, one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in molecular biology.

Rational and modern design approaches to this problem have been developed, using complex computational methods but without conclusive results. Indeed, protein engineering studies often suggest that the emergence of completely new enzyme active sites is highly improbable.

Many years ago, Roy Jensen (currently at the University of Kansas Medical Center) proposed that primordial enzymes were capable of catalyzing a diversity of reactions. Based on this work, a team of scientists from the University of Granada (Spain), the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the Instituto de Quimica Fisica Rocasolano (Madrid, Spain), the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) and with data collected at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, located in Grenoble (France), explored and tested these notions using resurrected Precambrian -lactamases as scaffolds for the engineering of completely new active sites. Precambrian -lactamases are proteins approximately 3 billion years old. If we simplify, the scientists did for these proteins what the scientists in Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs: bring ancient forms back to life, so that they can be studied to better understand how complexity in species comes about.

How is it possible to resurrect ancestral protein? Proteins are made from various combinations of amino acid building blocks, with a nearly endless variety of complexity and function. Researchers have compiled large databases full of the proteins sequences. By comparing today's sequences to each other within an evolutionary framework, scientists can reasonably infer the sequence of an ancestral protein from which the modern versions descended using models of sequence evolution.

 The properties of these ancestral proteins (Precambrian -lactamases) confer high structural stability and promiscuous enzymatic activity, meaning that they are capable of reacting with a variety of substances. These properties support the biotechnological potential of Precambrian protein resurrection because both high stability and enhanced promiscuity are desirable features in protein scaffolds for laboratory directed evolution and molecular design. explains Valeria A. Risso, first author of the paper, from the University of Granada.

Using these resurrected Precambrian proteins, the team demonstrated that a new active site can be generated through a single hydrophobic-to-ionizable amino acid replacement that generates a partially buried group with perturbed physico-chemical properties. We have found that a minimalist design to introduce a de novo activity (catalysis of the Kemp elimination, a common benchmark in de novo enzyme design) fails when performed on modern -lactamases but is highly successful when using the scaffolds of hyperstable/promiscuous Precambrian -lactamases.  underlines Eric A. Gaucher, from the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology.

For their experiment, the team used three structural biology beamlines at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in Grenoble (France): ID29, ID23-1, and the fully automated  hands-off  beamline MASSIF-1, as well as the Xaloc beamline at Alba, the Spanish synchrotron. "Three-dimensional structural information derived from the data obtained at the ESRF was essential for the interpretation of the work, as it led to a high-resolution structure of the new active site and provided conclusive evidence of the role of protein re-organisation in the emergence of the new function" explains Jose A. Gavira, corresponding author, from the University of Granada.

Picture of ID23-1, one of the ESRF beamlines where the experiments were carried out. @ESRF/P.Jayet

This study confirms the potential of ancestral reconstruction as a tool for protein engineering. We provide experimental and computational evidence that laboratory-resurrected ancestral enzyme will make much better scaffolds for new function engineering due to its high stability and dynamics features.  says Jose M. Sanchez-Ruiz.

The innovative combination of bioinformatics, computational biology, structural biology and biophysics allowed researchers to delve deep into evolutionary time, and change the course of an enzyme's evolutionary potential. "Learning more about primordial life, and how it can be re-manipulated, will open up a lot of new avenues for science, and shed light on the puzzle of how complex biological systems evolve at the most fundamental molecular level" underlines Lynn Kamerlin, corresponding author, from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University.

Reference

Risso, V. A. et al. De novo active sites for resurrected Precambrian enzymes. Nature Communications. 8, 16113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16113 (2017).

Additional information

This work was supported by Feder Funds, Grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and benefited from financial support from the European Research Council and NASA.
In early June this year, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The global deal on climate that was negotiated in 2015 marked the first time when major developing countries such as India and China committed themselves to climate mitigation policies as well. The agreement also binds all signatories to transparency and reporting their provisions vis-a-vis their commitments. Except for the United States, the only two countries that did not commit to the deal are Syria and Nicaragua.

Despite President Trumps pre-election rhetoric, his move to finally withdraw his country from the deal came as a surprise and disappointment to the European Union and other global players. Brussels immediate response was somewhere between resolution and recriminations. The French, German, and Italian leaders joined their forces and issued a joint statement emphasizing that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, which is also the prevalent view within the United Nations climate body overseeing the agreement. Some German voices described the American move a major setback but despite of this the EU intensified its cooperation with China and India to keep things moving.

However, there are also stricter voices, such as that of Martin Schultz, the candidate for German chancellor and Angela Merkels primary opponent, saying that the US withdrawal from the Paris deal must be met with a refusal by the EU to reignite transatlantic trade negotiations. Mr. Schultz thinks that the US would be left with a competitive distortion and could not be granted more market access in such a case. Some major German left-wing media outlets also called for Berlin to start playing hardball in light of the betrayal of trust and urged the EU to leverage diplomatic threat potential including the ability to withdraw its ambassador, strengthen the opposition in the US politically and economically, [and] support insubordinate states like California.

However, the mainstream opinion of analysts and observers is that the EU should not let its disappointment at the US stance to Paris deal overshadow the broader transatlantic relations and create greater distance between the two partners. In contrast, Europe should be more forward-looking and take initiative to engage the new American administration on climate and broader issues where both the US and the EU share common interests. It is important for both partners to avoid the cycle of cynicism, mistrust, and fatalism to instead work on promising policies and pursuits. At the end of the day, the election of Donald Trump might be a great historic opportunity for Europe to shift the balance in the transatlantic relationship and start leading the way on global issues.

Beyond Fatalism: Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation After the Paris Announcement  Analysis by David Livingston and Erik Brattberg  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

(The Analysis can be downloaded here)


Macroman is the latest brand to become the voice of the liberated youth who dont want to be judged for everything they do or dont do. With its new TVC starring Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor, Macroman advocates its new philosophy - Live Open.







The premium innerwear brand from the house of Rupa & Co is second only to Jockey in India. Speaking about the choice of the brand ambassador and the new philosophy, Paritosh Srivastava, COO, Publicis Ambience, said, We wanted to change the complete trajectory of the brand. Publicis Ambience conceptualised the campaign for Macroman and Macrowoman. Unlike the other celebrity brand ambassadors for innerwear brands, Ranbir brings with him a certain credibility and style which no one else brings, said Srivastava. We wanted to give a purpose and voice to the brand and especially in these times when everyone has become very judgemental, intolerant and has a point of view on what others do or dont do. We wanted to come up with a philosophy which is a rallying cry for the youth - Live Open, he said.







Rupa Macroman:





In the past, TVCs for Macroman have played on the macho aspect of the brand. Last year, the brand ambassador for Macroman was actor Hrithik Roshan. He was seen saving a girl from a gang of goons, dodging balls and sweating it out at the gym.Rupa & Co consistently signs on Bollywood actors as brand ambassadors. In April, Euro Fashion Inners, a premium innerwear brand, released a TVC featuring brand ambassador, Sidharth Malhotra. Ranveer Kapoor is the current face of Frontline. This strategy of signing on big names has worked for Rupa & Co, says Vikash Agarwal, President & Brand Director, Macroman & Macrowoman, explaining these associations.Rupa Frontline:





Even though the campaign is for both Macroman and Macrowoman, the brand has not signed a female celebrity brand ambassador for the Macrowoman brand.









Speaking about the lack of a female brand ambassador, Agarwal said, The mens segment is still the larger segment for us. Srivastava said that when Macrowoman reaches a critical mass, the brand will consider having an ambassador then. Agarwal added that it is easier to build the brand in the mens segment rather than the womens segment.The total market size of the innerwear category currently stands at Rs. 20,000 crore and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13 per cent over the next five to six years to surpass the Rs. 50,000 crore mark by 2023.Agarwal shared that the contribution of online sales is negligible in this category and hopes that in the next three to four years, 10 per cent of the sales should come from the digital medium.

Read more news about (ad news, latest advertising news India, internet advertising, ad agencies updates, media advertising India)
As far as your tax situation goes, it sounds like the tax year 2017 would be a "dual-status" year for you. Start here for more information: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/dual-status-aliens As far as state tax is concerned, if you will be living in the Tri-State area (around NYC, I'm assuming), then potentially you file state taxes for both the state in which you work and the state in which you reside. The rules vary by state, but it's sort of like having to file taxes in more than one country - some income is exempted, others credited for taxes paid or due elsewhere.If you're going to be on an L1 visa, you may want to talk to your employer about tax assistance as a part of your expat package - at least for the first year or two. You'll be glad you did.Cheers,Bev
Been living in US for over 20 years and US citizen now, have let my British passport expire. Are there any limitations on time before renewing it?

Thank you
Prints by Reginald Gammon that explore aspects of African American life and history. Runs through 9/30.

Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), originally from Philadelphia, moved to New York City in 1951. He taught in the New York public schools and for 21 years at Western Michigan University. When he retired to New Mexico in 1992 he became active in the arts scene here. Gammon's paintings and prints often explore aspects of African American life and history. He was a member of the black artists' collective, Spiral, with Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Emma Amos, among others. He was an avid jazz fan and saw many concerts in New York. Gammon made his own bold interpretations of such artists such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Lester Young performing. The expressiveness of his lines and color suggest the sounds and cadences of the performances represented on these silent sheets of paper. The juxtaposition of his sensuous nudes with the jazz portraits in this exhibition reflect the multisensory element of jazz syncopation. Gammon once said, "The human physiognomy is as great a landscape as you can find or as great a still life as you can find." These prints were created at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery in Albuquerque located just blocks from the Outpost. Gammon was a founding member of New Grounds in 1996. While in New York the artist had worked as a commercial artist, painter and printmaker. Known mainly as a painter, Gammon revived his interest in making prints when he moved to Albuquerque. In 2007-8 New Grounds Gallery and the Albuquerque Museum and the African American Performing Arts Center held exhibitions to honor Gammon and his legacy. In 1997 Gammon showed in the original Inpost Artspace Gallery at the old Outpost on Morningside Dr. Dr. Kymberly Pinder, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico has the curated this show on the 20th Anniversary of Gammon's last Inpost Artspace show. FREE!
"Erdogan had pragmatically agreed to shake hands with Israel, but his ideological hostility to the Jewish state and his ideological love affair with Hamas have not disappeared; so the Turkish-Israeli 'peace' would not be easy to sustain".

Hamas' presence in Turkey continues despite the departure of Saleh al-Arouri, who headed Hamas in Turkey before leaving the country following Israeli demands during the reconciliation negotiations.



His successors are recruiting Palestinian students to study in Muslim countries in general and Turkey in particular. The students are then sent for military training in Lebanon or Syria, and from there, return to the West Bank to carry out attacks against Israel.

For example, two months ago, the IDF and Shin Bet detained, a Palestinian who had been living in Turkish Cyprus for several years. In August 2015, Qazmar was recruited in Jordan by Hamas, given military training and explosives expertise. During a meeting with Hamas operatives in Istanbul last January, he was instructed to recruit terrorists in the West Bank using encrypted memory cards.



Another highly publicized case concerns Muhammad Murtaja, who has head of a humanitarian aid organization of the Turkish government in Gaza. According to the Shin Bet following his arrest, Murtaja was accused of transferring millions of dollars to Hamas operatives that was donated by Ankara.

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was just fired from Turkey's leading newspaper after 29 years, for writing what was taking place in Turkey for Gatestone. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.





Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Gatestone Institute..17 July '17Less than a year ago, Turkey and Israel agreed to end their six-year-long diplomatic stand-off and officially "normalized" their relations. They appointed ambassadors Kemal Okem to Israel and Eitan Na'eh to Turkey, two prominent career diplomats, who, since then, have been struggling actually to normalize formally normalized ties. As some observers, including your humble correspondent, cautioned in 2016:Only half a year into the "normalized charter" Erdogan in May pledged that his government would work with the Palestinian people to guard against the "Judiazation of Jerusalem." This may be vintage Erdogan. The Turkish president's promise was not too different from a call for a struggle to guard against the "Catholicization of the Vatican."It is elementary history that Jerusalem's pre-Islamic period of 3300-1000 BCE appeared in the book of Genesis -- the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- when Erdogan's ancestors were probably hunters in the steppes of Central Asia. The years 1000-732 BCE marked the period of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Simply put, Jerusalem's Judaic history dates back to thousands of years before the birth of Islam.Nevertheless, according to Erdogan, there is a necessity "to protect-against the Judaization of Jerusalem." Erdogan, in his May speech, also repeated an earlier call for Muslims from around the world to "visit al-Aqsa" mosque, located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. "As a Muslim community, we need to visit al-Aqsa Mosque often," he said. "Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us."In 2016, a total of 26,000 Turks visited al-Aqsa Mosque (out of a population of 80 million). Erdogan also said he wants "hundreds of thousands of Muslims" at the Muslim holy site in his campaign to "flood Jerusalem [with Muslims] and drive out the occupiers".During the reconciliation with Israel, Ankara pledged to end its support for Hamas; Turkey even expelled Saleh al-Arouri, the most senior Hamas official then residing in the country. But ultimately, there were reports that Erdogan was not really willing to live up to his end of the bargain. The journalist Yoav Zitun wrote inZitun details some intriguing cases:Turkish money flowing into the hands of men who are committed to the annihilation of Israel is part of ideology, not humanitarian aid.Trying to brand itself as the international savior of the Islamist cause, Turkey has, since 2004, invested millions of dollars into 63 different projects designed to "defend and strengthen the Muslim heritage and character of Jerusalem." The money is often channeled through a government agency, the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA).In these efforts to "defend and strengthen Jerusalem's Muslim heritage and character" Turkey also partnered with Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and with Sheikh Akram Sabri, a former mufti of Jerusalem. Both men oppose to Israel's right to exist.As an American friend delicately asked: "Isn't Turkey supposed to be investing millions to help rebuild Gaza?"Not, it seems, when Islamist ideology is involved.
Hi Guys, could someone please suggest on choosing the right NOC.



Over the period of time (9+ years) I've been into Data analytics, Data warehousing and Business Intelligence (BI) and my designation used to be Software Engineer, Sr. Software Engineer, Technical architect and BI Data architect (Current).



In this case what NOC should go for, 2173 (Software Engineer) or 2172 (Database analyst, this included data warehouse as one of the occupation).



Note: I have all RNR letters from my previous employers with designation mentioned above and duties and responsibilities (detailed) are all in data warehousing and business intelligence.



Here is my situation looks like,



2 Years - Software Engineer | RNR related to 2173

5 Years - Sr. Software Engineer | RNR relented to 2172

1 Year - Technical Architect | RNR relented to 2172

1 Year - BI Data Architect | RNR relented to 2172



(All my employers are very well known global tech companies)



Thanks in advance.


A soft Brexit would be a disaster for the UK as the country would remain subject to rules on freedom of movement but have no power or influence over who comes and goes from the European Union, it is claimed.According to two new reports from think tank Migration Watch UK, the so called soft option where the UK remains within the single market would mean that net immigration would stay at well over 100,000 a year for at least a decade.According to the report, this would be a disastrous halfway house as leaving the EU but remaining in the Customs Union would give the Government control of immigration from the EU but would rule out free trade agreements with third countries.By contrast, a Brexit along the lines which the Prime Minister has outlined, involving a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement but no single market or Customs Union membership, would allow the UK to repatriate border controls and then negotiate a future trading relationship with the EU, the organisation claimed.It says this would be best as there would be a transitional period, with a clearly defined end point, which it believes would be perfectly reasonable and should be acceptable to EU partners who should have no interest in the dislocation of trade with one of their largest markets.The analysis suggests that if the UK were to remain subject to free movement rules following Brexit, net migration from the EU is likely to continue at around 125,000 a year for at least the next decade.The effect of uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the risk of further devaluation of sterling and the possibility of a period of slower UK economic growth are likely to be offset by the continuation of strong incentives for immigration from the EU, namely a much higher minimum wage in the UK relative to the countries of Eastern Europe and continuing high youth unemployment in southern Europe, the report explains.It points out that with non-EU net migration unlikely to fall below its current level of 175,000 unless further restrictions are introduced, and subtracting net British emigration of 50,000 a year, that would mean overall net migration continuing at the current level of around a quarter of a million a yearThis is close to the Office for National Statistics' high migration scenario of 265,000 a year which foresees the UKs population rising by nearly six million by 2027 and by over 10 million over the next 20 years. Migration Watch claims this would mean having to build the equivalent of a city the size of Birmingham every two years.The prospect of having to build the equivalent of a city the size of Birmingham every two years is simply appalling in a country that already feels overcrowded, said Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of Migration Watch UK.These negotiations come at a critical point at which the whole scale and nature of our society risks slipping out of control. The Government must hold their nerve and get EU immigration sharply down, he added.Brexit Secretary David Davis said he believes that good progress can be made as the first full scale round of negotiations got underway in Brussels with immigration and citizen rights a top priority.For us it is incredibly important that we now make good progress, that we negotiate through this and identify the differences so that we can deal with them, and identify the similarities so we can reinforce them, he added.
AMMAN, Jordan  A military court is expected to rule today in the murder trial of a Jordanian soldier accused of killing three U.S. military trainers in a shooting spree at a Jordanian air base.

The high-profile case had caused some friction between allies Jordan and the United States. Jordan initially suggested the U.S. troops triggered the shooting by disobeying gate procedures, a claim that was disputed by the U.S. and later withdrawn.

The defendant, 1st Sgt. Marik al-Tuwayha, pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces life in prison. In Jordan, that can mean a 20-year term, with good behavior.

Earlier this year, a Jordanian soldier convicted of killing seven Israeli schoolgirls in a 1997 shooting rampage was released after 20 years.

The U.S. soldiers, including 27-year-old Staff Sgt. James Moriarty of Kerrville, were killed Nov. 4 when their convoy came under fire at the entrance of an air base in southern Jordan.

The other victims were 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Matthew Lewellen of Kirksville, Missouri, and 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Kevin McEnroe of Tucson, Arizona.

Relatives of the slain U.S. Army Green Berets attended parts of the monthlong trial in Jordans capital of Amman.

Some of the family members criticized the legal proceedings and potential punishment as inadequate.

Weve felt discouraged and disappointed with every way Jordan has handled this case since the moment the bullets were first fired, Moriartys sister, 31-year-old Melissa, said in a statement.

What is on the table is a measly 20-year life sentence, for taking three lives. Its all rather depressing and painfully disappointing, she said. This isnt going to provide some kind of closure, as some may think.

Her father, Jim, and McEnroes father, Brian, previously said they had more faith in Jordans legal system after attending the trial but that questions remain.

Relatives of the soldiers asked why the judge decided not to show security camera footage of the shooting in court and chose not to put a surviving U.S. soldier on the stand, despite his willingness to testify.

The defendant and some of the gate guards testified that they heard what might have been a pistol shot coming from the direction of the U.S. convoy. The defendant said he opened fire because he feared the base was coming under attack. Some gate guards said they held their fire because they couldnt determine the source of the sound.

The defendant has said he initially opened fire from inside a guard house where he was at the time, believing he was complying with rules of engagement. He has said he had no intention of killing anyone and felt no resentment toward Americans.

The bereaved families previously said that according to the surveillance footage, shown to them by U.S. law enforcement, the shooting lasted six minutes. They said the video showed the defendant reloading and shooting at Americans who were waving their hands and yelling: Were Americans! Were friendly.

A relative of al-Tuwayha said the defendant, like other members of his clan, are loyal to God, king and country.

People from our tribe, especially Marik, know nothing but the military, King Abdullah and God, said Sayel Abu Tayeh. That is all they have. Killing three souls is not a game to us.

The judge said after a hearing last week that he will rule in the case today.
On the Fourth of July, it was 30 years since a French court convicted Nazi Klaus Barbie of crimes against humanity committed in France during World War II.

On July 4, 1987, after an eight-week trial, Barbie, the former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, was found guilty of more than 300 counts of crimes against humanity. Like the Nuremberg trials, which were held before military tribunals shortly after World War II, the Barbie trial was a lesson of history, and an exceptional act by the French of remembrance  and justice.

As Americans, we share with the French a rich history of valuing liberty, justice and democracy. The Statue of Liberty  Americas beacon to the world  was a gift from the French people commemorating the alliance of France and the United States during the American Revolution. But the Statue of Liberty was more than that. Named Liberty Enlightening the World and similar to the Great Seal of the French Republic, the statue was intended to be an international symbol of liberty, justice and democracy  and an inspiration to France and the rest of the world. Dedicated in 1886, its French creator sought to honor the work of President Abraham Lincoln and to honor the success of liberty in the United States.

Following World War II, France joined the United States and the other Allies in convening the international military tribunal at the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals. A French judge and prosecutor participated in the proceedings. Forty years later, the French conducted their first war crimes prosecution before a domestic tribunal on French soil.

The Barbie trial was the first in a French court on a charge of crimes against humanity.

Sitting among the witnesses and victims of Barbies brutality in the Lyon courtroom, I witnessed the trial. As a federal prosecutor in New York City who had prosecuted criminal cases and assisted with an extradition of war criminals, I was keenly interested in observing one of the first major war crimes trials since the Nuremberg trials and, perhaps, I thought, one of the last of the World War II war crimes trials.

The crimes for which Barbie was tried and convicted included the deportation, persecution and torture of 730 Jews and members of the French Resistance during the German occupation of Lyon. He was charged specifically with the deportation of Jews in a Gestapo raid in February 1943; the train transportation of 650 Jews and members of the Resistance to concentration camps in Germany and Poland; the arrest, torture and execution of the French Resistance leader, Jean Moulin; and the notorious seizure and deportation of the children of an orphanage in Izieu, a village 40 miles east of Lyon.

The crimes occurred between 1942 and 1944 when Barbie was head of the Gestapo in the Lyon Region. After the war, he became a fugitive, living under an assumed name in Bolivia for more than 30 years. As the Cold War heated up, Barbie was able to escape detection and extradition by serving as an informant, reporting on Soviet activities in Germany and France for American intelligence agents.

In 1983, in a report of its investigation of the Barbie affair, the Department of Justice acknowledged its role in shielding and concealing Barbie, and in delaying justice. The U.S. government formally apologized to France for contributing to the delay in extradition. The French courts had tried Barbie twice in absentia. Barbie was expelled from Bolivia to France for the long-awaited trial to face justice in person.

For me, the story of the children of Izieu was the heart of the trial. It came to symbolize the brutality of the Nazis and contributed to Barbies reputation as a torturer and murderer, earning him the sobriquet of the Butcher of Lyon. The remote hilltop village of Izieu overlooked the Rhone River between Lyon and Chambery in central France. The orphanage  which I visited  was modest and seemed so very peaceful and surely distant from anything that could be of interest or concern to the Nazis.

The Izieu home had been founded as a refuge for Jewish children whose parents were killed or in concentration camps. Izieu was thought to be sufficiently remote to be a safe place for Jewish children. The home was founded by Sabine Zlatin, a Polish woman who emigrated to France and was trained by the Red Cross when the war broke out. Wanting to help Jewish women and children, Zlatin began work at the Oeuvre de secours aux enfants, or OSE, a French Jewish humanitarian organization that saved and aided hundreds of mainly Jewish refugee children from France and other Western European countries.

The home, part of the OSEs network of hiding places, housed 44 children aged 4 to 17 from France, Belgium, Austria, Algeria, Germany and Poland. Several had arrived there from other safe houses. On the early morning of April 6, 1944, as the children were eating their breakfast, Barbie and his men arrived at the home.

Under Barbies direction, the Nazi soldiers rounded up the children and the seven adults who were in the house, including Madame Zlatins husband, Miron Zlatin, who ran the home with his wife, and transported them to concentration camps. During the raid, a medical student who took care of the children managed to escape from an upstairs window. But his sister, who was the homes doctor, and his parents and nephew, who all resided at the home, were deported. One child, the only one who was not Jewish, was freed.

Lea Feldblum, a caretaker, survived her deportation to Auschwitz. All the children and the remainder of the adults who were present that day perished at Auschwitz, except for two of the oldest children and Miron Zlatin, who were killed by a firing squad in Estonia.

Later that day, Barbie sent a telex to the German Office for Jewish Affairs reporting that the childrens home at Izieu was shut down and the occupants transported to camps.

Sitting among the witnesses, I observed Barbie walk out of the trial on the third day, returning to the courtroom only for the reading of the verdict.

But the Izieu raid formed the basis of the most riveting part of the trial, revealing Barbies personal involvement in the barbaric act. I observed and became witness to the remarkable courage of the witnesses who testified.

Madame Zlatin, who had been away from the home scouting for a safer location for the children when the raid occurred, testified against Barbie at the trial. She testified to the efforts to disguise the home and to secure identity and ration cards for the children.

Lea Feldblum had survived to testify to the childrens arrival at Auschwitz and their fate: that as the children were pushed to the left  to the gas chambers  she was pushed to the rightand survived. It was Izieu, more than any of the other crimes against humanity that put Barbie in the category of major war criminals.

Barbie returned to the courtroom only for the verdict of guilty rendered by nine citizens of Lyon and his sentencing by three judges from the Lyon criminal court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison four years later in 1991.

We need not agree on all things to believe in the ideals of our shared historical paths and memories. Trials serve the ideals of liberty, justice and democracy. Imperfect as they may be, after World War II, they served to articulate our beliefs in justice at historic moments.

Just as the Nuremberg trials immediately following World War II served to establish a body of international legal rules and precedents for future development of concepts of international law, so, too, did the Barbie trial serve to educate and elevate the French response in service of human conscience.

As Americans, we share with the French the ideals of liberty, justice and democracy that produced the Nuremberg trials. Those trials, in turn, led the French to the path-marking Barbie trial, which occurred just two years before the celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

May the iconic gift of the Statue of Liberty and these history making trials enlighten the world.

We shall never forget the many victims of the atrocities of World War II  or the children of Izieu. Or the trials that underscored our commitment to these historic principles and delivered justice to the victims. Memory is related to justice.

Justice Jan P. Patterson is a senior justice on the Texas Court of Appeals and a Justice in Residence at Baylor Law School.
Minority groups have asked a federal judge to scrap Texas voter identification law and place the state under the jurists supervision for at least a decade, according to court filings this week.

Not only are the groups taking on the state over the law they say discriminates against blacks and Latinos, but they also want U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi to kick their former ally, the U.S. Justice Department, out of the case.

The United States shameful and disgraceful dismissal of their intent claim for political purposes should disqualify them from participating further in this proceeding; the ideals of equality inculcated in the United States Constitution are not subject to such shabby treatment as demonstrated by this administration, Rolando Rios, a lawyer representing the Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and Commissioners, wrote in a court brief.

The Trump administrations Justice Department last week filed a brief saying Texas has scrubbed its voter ID law of any potential discrimination and wants the judge to not take any further action. In its own court filings, the state said it fixed constitutional problems with changes made in May to the voter ID law during this years regular legislative session.

The Justice Departments stance continues a reversal from the agency over what critics call one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the nation. Under former President Barack Obama, the Justice Department joined plaintiffs that include Rios client, minority congressmen, the NAACP, League of United Latin American Citizens and others in suing Texas over Senate Bill 14, a measure passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011.

Voter ID Laws by State | InsideGov Note: Texas has diluted its "strict" voter id law after the ruling that it violated federal law. Voters lacking required identification will be allowed to cast ballots by signing an affidavit.

But that position changed with President Donald Trump in charge. He established a commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 elections. Trump has tweeted about his frustration over the fact that all states are not fully cooperating with requests for details about every voter in the U.S., and even Texas has said it will only turn over information that is already public.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed an open records request with the state on what records it has provided to Trumps Election Integrity Commission. The ACLUs request seeks all communications between the Texas secretary of state and the commission, including records relating to the views and recommendations Texas submitted at the commissions request, the ACLU said in a news release.

Theres no indication of when Gonzales Ramos, who has twice ruled that the original voter ID law was intentionally meant to suppress minority voters and intentionally discriminated, might rule on the plaintiffs requests in the voter ID case.

Under the original Texas law, voters had to present one of seven acceptable forms of ID to cast a ballot  concealed handgun licenses were OK, but not college student IDs, for example. The new version, known as SB 5, allows people without one of those IDs to cast a ballot if they sign an affidavit and bring paperwork showing name and address, such as a bank statement or utility bill.

Texas' acceptable forms of ID To see the acceptable forms of ID in a separate window, click here

Democrats and minority rights group contend the weakened version remains too restrictive and could have a chilling effect on voters because it makes lying on the affidavit a felony.

Opponents ultimately want the courts to put Texas elections back under federal supervision, and that would require the state to seek permission to change voting laws.

We want the judge to oversee the state for the next 10 years, at least, Rios said in an interview Tuesday.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Jose Fidencio Cazares, 37, the man shot dead by police outside his house Monday morning, kept to himself, his neighbors said.

Armed with a handgun, Cazares was killed during a brief standoff that began after he reportedly threatened to kill a 15-year-old girl, then fired shots when officers arrived, San Antonio Police Department officials said.

Ive never seen him in the neighborhood, said Maria Rico, who lives a few doors down.

When my kids are out and playing, Ive seen people out, she said  but not Cazares.

Occasionally children were seen in his yard in the 1800 block of Plaza Del Sol Street on the West Side, but Rico and other neighbors said they didnt know the family.

A family member said in a brief interview by phone that Cazares was a peaceful person but had a drug problem that sometimes had consequences.

We didnt expect this. Were all shocked, said the relative, who declined to give her name.

Police received a call around 7 a.m. that warned Cazares was threatening to shoot the girl at the house. Two officers found the door to the home ajar, and entered, Police Chief William McManus said.

Cazares was inside with the 15-year-old girl, a boy, 12, another girl, 10, and the children's mother, police said. Cazares' relationship to the children was unclear, police said.

Shots rang out inside the house and the officers retreated outside, taking cover around the corner of the home, officials said. Cazares came out of the house at about the same time as a third officer arrived, authorities said. The officers attempted to negotiate with Cazares, McManus said.

The dilemma for the officers at that point was that you can't let him out, but you can't let him back in the house either, McManus said.

At some point during the negotiations, Cazares lifted his firearm in the officers direction and the third officer to arrive fired at him twice, killing him, McManus said.

They were still talking with him, trying to get him to drop the gun, and the third officer wound up shooting him, McManus said.

Cazares was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else at the home was injured.

My husband texted me about it and I was like, Oh my God, whats happened? said Rico. Luckily, she said, her husband and children already had plans to leave the house that morning and werent nearby at the time of the shooting.

Police said Cazares was arrested last month on a charge of domestic violence. Online Bexar County records show a 2013 family violence charge against Cazares was dismissed for insufficient evidence.

Cazaress gray house, with a white fence, looks like any other on the block. Rico said the family kept two dogs, a boxer and a white dog.

Its a tragic accident, its sad, said Rosalina Garcia, whose 95-year-old mother lives on the block. When I heard about it I came right away to see my mother, but she didnt know him.

sfoster-frau@express-news.net

cdowns@mysa.com
AUSTIN  Nine years ago, fresh off a term as a Smith County commissioner in northeast Texas, JoAnn Fleming drove to Dallas for a boot camp with other like-minded conservatives.

It wasnt on the radar of the public or most of the Texas political establishment. But many now consider it a key event in the birth of the tea party movement.

The goal was to examine how government works  and how they could force changes to make officials more accountable.

Also on the agenda: How to get their point across, voter to voter.

Konni Burton was there, as were a lot of other people whose names would become familiar to a lot of Texans in the years to come, Fleming said, referring to the Republican who went on to become a state senator from Colleyville. I had thought that once I was through with elected office, Id take two years off to become a normal person again. Obviously, I didnt.

Within weeks, she said, the tea party movement in Texas was born.

It was a seed that quickly blossomed on the national stage with calls from grassroots activists to cut federal spending, taxes and the size of government, and reduce the federal deficit. The movement burgeoned just as Democrat Barack Obama was moving into the White House.

Back in Texas, the tea party emerged as a decentralized movement that slowly expanded its focus to state government in Austin, even as a few Texas elected officials including then-Gov. Rick Perry joined their ranks to help bash federal overreach and the wasteful bureaucracy in D.C.

Now, with Republicans firmly in charge both in both capitals, Texas tea party activists are shifting their focus to the next phase in their evolution: as a political movement that is an established insider power player at the Capitol, despite its historic outsider bravado.

Tea party caucuses have grown ranks in both the state House and Senate  the Freedom and Liberty Caucuses, they are called  and Burton is now a senator in the chamber where staunch GOP conservatives are in charge, starting with the presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The next step for the tea party will be played out front and center in the special legislative session that began Tuesday. Gov. Greg Abbott, who formally announced his re-election bid Friday, has set a 20-issue agenda  much of it tailor-made for tea party regulars that will pit the strongly conservative Senate against the more moderate House over controversial issues such as the bathroom bill, property-tax reforms, school-choice for special-needs children, and how to better finance public schools.

We are moving from solely a tea party effort to a coalition approach, because we have common ground with a lot of other organizations on other issues, said Fleming, who is executive director of Grassroots America  We The People, a tea party group. People in the tea party movement have been asking for some time how we can get help to effect change, and the answer is that it takes time to build trust and build coalitions. Thats where we are now.

In recent months, even during the regular legislative session that ended in May, tea party groups from around Texas partnered with local pro-business groups, toll-road opponents, medical organizations, mainstream Republican groups and immigration-reform organizations, to push for the passage or defeat of legislation, both in Austin and in Washington. With the special session about to start, the coalition supporting passage of many  if not all of Gov. Greg Abbotts agenda has grown to more than 60 groups.

At a June 26 summit meeting in Dallas, 121 leaders representing 59 organizations met to discuss the special session  including members of the State Republican Executive Committee, GOP county chairs and conservative organizations  and plan their lobbying strategy.

That promises to put additional pressure on the Texas House, where Speaker Joe Straus has publicly compared some of the items to horse manure and suggested that a number may not get approval in the House. Ten of the 20 bills were approved by the Senate during the regular legislative session, and Patrick predicted on Thursday that the rest will easily pass his chamber  likely very soon after the 30-day special session begins.

This is no longer solely a tea party effort, said Del Carothers, a Georgetown rancher who has been active with several Texas tea party groups since 2011.

We have grown way past where we started out. Once you get a civics lesson how on our government actually operates, you know it has to change to be responsive to the people. And you know that if you really care about citizen-driven government and freedom, which is what the Founding Fathers intended, you have to be involved and make that happen, he said.

If you sit around on your ass, government will run your life and theyll waste your money.

Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist who has studied the rise of the tea party as a political force, said the increasing clout of the activists should come as no surprise in Red State Texas.

The tea party movement had been building for some time, and it took off in Texas when Gov. Perry gave his Tax Day speech in 2009 and went from being a pragmatic centrist to straddling the tea party line, he said. The next natural progression is for these groups to start exerting their influence in who is elected and to expand their clout by building coalitions with other groups. Thats whats happening now.

In Texas, where many legislative seats are filled by the candidate who wins the Republican primary, tea party candidates often win. Perhaps their biggest surprise was the 2013 election of Ted Cruz over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for a U.S. Senate seat.

Despite predictions that the tea party influence could get much of Abbotts more controversial agenda items, including the bathroom and property-tax reform bills, through the Legislature when they failed during the regular session, House leaders privately say they think that is unlikely. Thats because most of the controversial bills will simply not have enough support from Republicans and Democrats to pass in as strident a form as the Senate wants, said one House committee chairman.

The agenda for the special session is part of an election campaign, said longtime Austin political consultant Bill Miller. Its set up perfectly so that if not everything the tea party wants is passed, the governor can say, well, I tried. Reelect me and well get it done next year. Dan Patrick can say the Senate passed everything, and Joe Straus can say it was the will of the House, and the Senate and the House are much different chambers.

Everybody can win.

mike.ward@chron.com
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AUSTIN  Facing pushback from the House leadership on key parts of his special session agenda, Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that hell be publishing a list on a daily basis of lawmakers who are backing and opposing his priorities.

No one gets to hide, Abbott said at a forum hosted by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, taking an aggressive position as some lawmakers are trying to figure out how to handle the hot potatoes hes handing them in the session, which begins today.

Its an unusual move by a governor, and some Republican lawmakers were taken aback as they look toward being confronted with issues including the so-called bathroom bill.

Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, said, Sounds like he wants to be the detention officer in the movie, Breakfast Club. The immaturity of his office continues to embarrass himself and our party. His attacks on fellow Republicans needs to stop if he sincerely wants to accomplish anything.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Zerwas, R-Richmond, said: Im somewhat bothered that its coming from the governors office. There are plenty of organizations that do that, as we know.

I find it a little problematic that  he is going to try to use his influence and public presence out there in order to corner people into taking a position when they perhaps havent had a chance to really consider the pros and cons of a bill and what the ultimate consequences of it might be.

Even Democrats, who are mostly not shy about publicly opposing the Republican governors issues, looked askance. Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, asked whether the governor would be compiling the equivalent of former President Richard Nixons enemies list.

If hes going to take cues from Donald Trump, maybe he should also look at Donald Trumps results, Wu said. Announcing whos for you and whos against you instead of working with them is probably not a smart way to do things.

Among the thorny issues promoted by Abbott during the special session is a bill that would prevent transgender people from using restrooms in public buildings  or at least schools  that align with their gender identity.

Like the rest of Abbotts agenda, its backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate. Patrick championed a number of the issues in the regular session and, when his pet items died, forced the special session by stalling a must-pass measure to keep state agencies open.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, is out front opposing the bathroom measure, which businesses warned afresh Monday could have devastating consequences for the states economy because its viewed as discriminatory.

The bathroom bills proponents say its necessary for the privacy and safety of women and children. They also say they arent aiming at transgender people but at sexual predators who would take advantage of inclusive practices.

Backers are pushing for the bill to come to the House floor for a vote because that can put pressure on Republican lawmakers to support items theyd rather avoid. A vote against the bathroom bill could become an issue in a Republicans primary election. But a vote by the whole House can be avoided if a bill dies before reaching the floor.

What we have to do is to continue the process of ensuring that we have a majority of members of both the House and Senate in support of these pieces of legislation, Abbott said at the foundation forum. Im going to be establishing a list. You all, or other organizations, may be establishing a list. We all need to establish lists that we publish on a daily basis and call people out  who is for this, who is against this, who has not taken a position. No one gets to hide.

Were going to make sure that you all know, that voters know, that Texans know, here in the coming weeks who stands for which conservative positions that will advance the state of Texas and who is against those positions, Abbott said.

The ambitious special session agenda had the Texas Capitol, which is typically dormant this time of year, buzzing with activity as lawmakers began returning to work.

Nearly 2,000 teachers, many waving signs, spent the afternoon rallying outside the Capitol in mid-90-degree heat calling for the Legislature to kill Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks plan for school vouchers and Abbotts proposal to stop union dues collections  both on the special session agenda.

Instead, they said, lawmakers should focus on improving public schools and shoring up pay and retirement benefits for teachers.

Thank God for (House Speaker) Joe Straus, read one sign. Use your teacher voice, read another. One woman held a cutout of a large red apple with two worms crawling down Abbotts and Patricks faces.

As the teachers chanted vote them out and cheered in agreement that some lawmakers are waging a war on teachers, a plane circled overhead pulling a banner that read, kids before unions #setedfree, a clear counterpoint to the union-sponsored rally below.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac

Houston Chronicle Staff Writer Andrea Zelinski contributed to this report.
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The latest proposal for an apartment complex next to the Mission Concepcion World Heritage site would exceed height limits even more than previous designs.

After developers altered the roof, four of the complexs buildings would exceed by up to 11 feet the height limits of the Mission Protection Overlay, a buffer zone the city created in 2014 to control growth around San Antonios missions, according to the agenda of the citys Historic and Design Review Commission. The developer, 210 Development Group, says none of the buildings would be visible to someone standing in front of the mission.

The HDRC will vote on the new design Wednesday. City staff hasnt yet issued a recommendation on the latest design, according to the commissions agenda.

Some South Side residents support the 228-unit apartment complex in the hope that it will revitalize the vacant 11-acre property, formerly the site of St. Johns Seminary, but others oppose it because theyre worried about new development encroaching on the missions.

Brady Alexander, one of the leaders of the Alliance for San Antonio Missions community group, said he opposes anything that violates the height restrictions even if none of its buildings would be visible. The project would set a bad precedent, he said, and he has concerns about noise and light pollution.

At many missions, you go there and you feel like youre going back in time. You can feel how it was 100 years ago, without the noises, the lights, Alexander said.

Holly Thoman, a spokeswoman for 210 Development, said the company adopted the new roof design in response to feedback from the citys Office of Historic Preservation.

It has been more than a year since the apartment complex, which has yet to be named, began the citys historic approval process. HDRC approved it last year after the company lowered the complex from four to three stories to meet the height restriction.

The company later realized it had to expand the buildings foundations for the sites drainage to work properly, according to HDRC documents. This summer, 210 Development submitted new plans that would exceed the height limit by 3 feet to 7 feet, but withdrew the proposal before HDRC was scheduled to consider it in June.

Under the latest design, four of the complexs nine buildings would violate the height restriction by 1, 6, 9 or 11 feet, the HDRC documents show. They would be up to three stories tall.

The complexs roofs were originally sloped, but 210 Development made them flat in the June design to minimize how much it exceeded the height restriction, according to a letter that the projects architect, B&A Architects, sent to HDRC. After conferring with city officials, the company decided to go back to sloped roofs, the letter says.

210 Development performed a test this month showing that none of its apartment complex would be visible to someone standing in front of the mission, according to a news release the company sent out last week. It hired a company to fly drones at the heights of the proposed buildings, and none were visible, the release says.

The Concepcion apartment complex came out of a deal between 210 Development and the Archdiocese of San Antonio, which owns a 12.5-acre property next to the mission that was the site of St. Johns Seminary from 1920 to 1970. The archdiocese solicited bids from investors to redevelop the seminary, which has become a magnet for vandalism and squatters since its last tenant, a drug rehab center, left in 2011.

rwebner@express-news.net

@rwebner
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Infuriated by the refusal of the owner of a San Antonio African American newspaper to print a political ad in 1931, Valmo C. Bellinger vowed to open a rival weekly and put him out of business.

Inquirer publisher G.W. Bouldin declined the ad for Incumbent Mayor C. M. Chambers because he supported the mayors opponent.

Starting the fledgling newspaper with $5,000 borrowed from his father, Bellinger put out the first issue of the San Antonio Register on April 10, 1931.

The Inquirer would fold three years later and in time, the Register would become one of the most successful African American newspapers in the Southwest, says the Handbook of Texas.

Decades later, Bellinger recalled what prompted him to establish the Register following the rancorous meeting with Bouldin.I took the money over for a full page ad and he wouldnt take it, Bellinger told the San Antonio Express-News in 1979.

And I told him, You have just bought yourself a competitor starting next week.

Until then, Valmo Bellinger had worked in real estate with his father, Charles Bellinger, a wealthy political boss on the East Side. Charles Bellinger owned pool halls, gambling houses, a private savings and loan, a real estate firm and the Bellinger Auto Livery. During Prohibition, he also had a bootlegging operation.

Thanks to the older Bellingers ability to provide thousands of votes to the Democratic Party machine, historians say, the East Side received improved municipal services.

Bellinger kept a close grip on votes by paying for poll taxes used by voters and retaining the receipts in shoe boxes kept in his real estate office. On election day, the receipts were picked up by voters who went on to cast their votes. Leftover receipts were used to vote anyway  by someone else.

Bouldin and Charles Bellinger had something in common: both had served at Leavenworth penitentiary; Bouldin for violating the Espionage Act and Bellinger for income tax evasion.

Through efforts by his son and some city officials, Bellinger was later pardoned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Valmo Bellinger, who studied law for one semester at the University of Pennsylvania law school prior to enrolling at Harvard, knew nothing about the newspaper business when he started with the Register.

The only thing hed ever done with newspapers was read them, Josephine Bellinger, Valmo Bellingers wife, said in a 1982 interview for the oral history program at the Institute of Texan Cultures.

Her husband didnt have any idea about how to sell a newspaper or how to run one, Josephine Bellinger said. Fortunately, he was lucky enough to surround himself with friends and talented people.

The first editor and general manager was Jasper T. Duncan. Ulysses J. Andrews, the third editor, stayed the longest: forty-three of the Registers forty-eight years in business under the Bellingers.

Published each Friday, single copies cost 5 cents. It also was delivered to residents in Bexar County for 20 cents a month. A years subscription cost $2.

By November of 1931, a front page editorial informed readers that We present weekly to approximately 18,000 Colored people in San Antonio and Bexar County alone.

The Register is your mouthpiece, your champion, your source of open communication, and has paid very dearly in cash and energy to build up the largest circulation of any weekly newspaper in Southwest Texas published by our group.

Its circulation has increased by more than 1,000 since August 1st and in spite of (the) Depression, etc., it continues to grow in numbers.

By then, the newspaper employed 12 regular staff and 45 agents and newsboys.

A broadsheet of eight pages, page one usually included a column, ''The Echo signed by Bellinger using only his initials, V. C. B.; an editorial and a mix of local and national news.

Inside pages reported on sports, events and school news in other Texas communities, including Victoria, Lockhart, Refugio, Del Rio, Brownwood, Port Lavaca, Seguin, Pearsall, Kerrville, New Braunfels, Corpus Christi and Beeville.

On the Social News page, appeared Josephine Bellingers Jos Jottings social column.

People also could read who had obtained marriage licenses, or been divorced or had a baby.

Two out-of-town editions also were published by the Register: Austin and Corpus Christi.

Ads from top retailers, including Wolff and Marx and Frost Bros., ran on the pages of the Register. Joskes, where blacks could shop but not eat at its restaurants until 1960, ran a miniscule ad.

For about 10 years, the Register sponsored a cooking school and bazaar. In 1934, the three-day event included workshops on the value of eating raw fruits and vegetables and a lecture on the business of feeding, housing and clothing the family. There was even a special session for domestic employees.

The Register was one of a number of newspapers that served African Americans in Texas.

While their news coverage was sporadic and editorials often avoided direct challenges to the white community during the era of Jim Crow segregation, the black press served as a critic of the most extreme practices, said Patrick Cox, author of the 2005 book The First Texas News Barons.

Lynching and attacks on members of the black community that went unreported in the establishment press received significant attention in the pages of these small urban newspapers.

After Charles Bellinger died in 1937, Valmo Bellinger sold all his fathers business interests and focused on his newspaper.

Just as influential in local politics as his father, Valmo Bellinger told Paul Thompson, a columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, that he didnt direct East Side voters.

I dont tell people how to vote, I suggest. Nobody can be a political boss anymore  those days are over, Bellinger said.

Still, the Registers support in 1965 of the Rev. Samuel James Jr., pastor of the Second Baptist Church, made him the first African American elected to the San Antonio City Council.

In 1972, the newspapers support made G.J. Sutton the first African American from Bexar County elected to the Texas House of Representatives.

The City Council honored Bellinger with the Benefactor de la Comunidad award in 1984 for the many years of service to others and for his role as an example to others.

The Registers last edition under the Bellingers was Dec. 8, 1978. Labor problems plus Bellinger suffering a heart attack that kept him in the hospital for nearly two months forced Josephine Bellinger to sell it in 1979.

The newspaper was purchased by Edwin Glossen, then a reporter for the San Antonio Light.

Also in 1979, the Bellingers donated an archive of the Register to the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Josephine Bellinger died in 1993. Valmo Bellinger was 94 when he died the following year.

Under Glossen, the Register ran for another 25 years, until 2004, when it closed.

COMING WEDNESDAY: The historic West End.
WOOSTER, Ohio  Predator concerns are rising for sheep producers all over the state. Along with coyotes, producers from across Ohio are experiencing black vulture attacks.

Black vultures are southern birds, said Tommy Butler, a certified wildlife biologist with USDA Wildlife Services who spoke July 15 during the Ohio Sheep Day in Wooster.

However, in the last 10 to 15 years, the birds have been moving north, he explained. Producers from Summit, Wayne, Ashland and Lorain counties noted they have spotted the vultures near their flocks.

Unlike turkey vultures that feast on the carcasses of dead animals, black vultures are very aggressive  attacking live animals, especially during birth. Butler explained the Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects vultures, but there are things producers can do to protect their flocks.

Take action

Black vultures like mature forests where they can roost and look over open fields, explained Butler. Once producers start seeing vultures on their property, they need to take action. Dont let them get comfortable, said Butler.

While it is illegal to shoot the birds without a permit, its not illegal to harass them. Make loud noises, shoot pyrotechnics or guns near them to try and scare them off.

If thats not working, Butler suggests applying for a permit, which will allow producers to shoot up to five birds in a year.

Black vultures are social birds, Butler said. Once you have your permit, he suggests shooting one from inside a group of birds, so the other birds witness it. Then continue to make noises and harass the remaining birds until they leave.

You can then use the dead vulture as effigy to hang near where the birds continue to roost. Butler also suggests cutting down any dead trees in the pasture where the vultures like to roost.

Tips

Butler also offers other basic tips for protecting livestock from predators.

Have good fencing, he said. The small wire squares in the fencing used by the OARDC are good for keeping predators like coyotes out. Its also important to keep the fencing flush with the ground. If something is digging its way under, you can see right away where it is getting in, he said.

Keep pastures clean by clipping vegetation along fence lines. Tall grass along fence rows provide good cover for wild animals. Its also important to keep brush piles and old abandoned equipment out of fields. These also provide cover to predators.

Spend time with your livestock, said Butler. The more time you spend out in your fields or near your animals, the less likely predators will linger.

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Contrasting USDA reports show Arkansas wheat production surging as U.S. wheat falls overall

U.S. rice production forecast falls, mainly due to spring flooding in Arkansas and Missouri

U.S. cotton production expected to fall slightly; Arkansas cotton up

Arkansas wheat production is experiencing a slight uptick from its long-term low, according to a July 12 crop production report from the U.S Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The forecast for states 2017 winter wheat production jumped to 7.17 million bushels  18 percent higher than the June forecast and 15 percent above last years actual production. The report also forecast a yield of 55 bushels per acre, with about 130,000 acres for harvest.

The states wheat surge comes as forecast production for the United States dropped by about 23 percent from 2016, according to both the NASS report and the USDAs World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report.

The report projected U.S. wheat production at 1.76 billion bushels for the 2017-2018 production cycle, a decrease of about 550 million bushels from the previous year. The report also lowered exports by 25 million bushels to 975 million, and feed and residual usage was reduced by 20 million to 150 million bushels for residual usage, based on a lower production outlook for durum and other spring wheat.

Globally, wheat supplies were largely unchanged, as lower production in the United States, Australia, China and the European Union were offset by increased production in Turkey and China, the latter having experienced record production during the 2016-2017 production cycle, according to the report.

Scott Stiles, economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that grain traders would likely view the WASDE report with some skepticism, because it may not reflect what was being reported on the ground.

U.S. corn and soybean condition ratings are on the decline, Stiles said. (Wednesdays) report held the U.S corn and soybean yields steady month-to-month at 170.7 and 48 bushels per acre respectively. Those are trend yields that USDA has been using since May, in its' first release of the 2017/18 supply/demand tables.

Given the deteriorating crop conditions in the northern Plains area of the United States  primarily the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska  most would agree today that yields this year will come in below trend, particularly for corn. Soybeans have more time, but this is a critical yield-determining month for corn, he said.

Stiles said that the next WASDE report, scheduled for publication Aug. 10, will incorporate survey-based production forecasts from NASS, which he expects to provide a more accurate picture of crop yields.

The WASDE report also provided global perspective on two other commodities important to Arkansas  rice and cotton.

The USDA lowered its estimation of U.S. rice supplies by about 9.5 million hundredweight to approximately 261.6 million hundredweight, or about 13 million tons. Production also decreased, in both long-grain and medium-grain rice, and the report largely attributes the decrease to the spring flooding in Northeast Arkansas and the bootheel area of Missouri, which reduced total rice acreage by about 123,000 acres.

Lower rice production was expected in Wednesdays report, Stiles said. This was based on the fact that the USDA would be adopting the June 30 acreage data. On the surface, a lower production estimate should be supportive to prices. However, rice futures have lost about 17 cents per bushel in the wake of the report.

The report estimated that global rice supplies increased by about 1.9 million tons overall, balancing the reduced production in the United States with increases in India and Thailand.

Across the United States, projected cotton production dropped by 200,000 bales over the last month to approximately 19 million, according to the report. Globally, estimated cotton production increased by about 636,000 bales to more than 115.3 million bales, mainly due to increased production in India. Global consumption of cotton is forecast to increase by 500,000 bales to more than 117 million bales during the 2017-2018 cycle.

In a June 30 report, NASS projected Arkansas cotton acreage to have increased from 380,000 acres in 2016 to 440,000 acres in 2017.
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United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. DENNIS MICHAEL ELDER, Defendant - Appellee. No. 17-11448 Decided: July 17, 2017

Before MARTIN, JORDAN, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

The government appeals Dennis Elder's 90-day sentence for a firearm possession offense as procedurally unreasonable. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm.

I

In 2013, Mr. Elder was arrested for his involvement in a drug-trafficking operation. After his arrest, Mr. Elder immediately accepted responsibility for his actions and began cooperating with the government. He was charged in 2016 and pled guilty to one count of possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime in violation of 21 U.S.C.  924(c)(1), which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 60 months' imprisonment. See U.S.S.G.  2K2.4; PSI at  44.

Because of Mr. Elder's cooperation, the government moved for a substantial assistance departure under both U.S.S.G.  5K1.1 and 18 U.S.C.  3553(e). The government recommended a fifty percent reductionto 30 months' imprisonmentin Mr. Elder's sentence.

At sentencing, the district court followed a three-step process.

First, the district court consulted the presentence investigation report, which indicated that Mr. Elder had no criminal history, but faced a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the firearm offense. The district court then calculated an initial sentence of 60 months' imprisonment.

Second, the district court held a sidebar conference to hear testimony from the government on its substantial assistance motion. Following a task force agent's testimony about Mr. Elder's assistance, the district court granted the government's motion and set his post-departure guidelines range at 30 months' imprisonment.

Third, after announcing the post-departure range and returning to open court, the district court heard from Mr. Elder and his counsel, considered the sentencing factors found in  3553(a), and imposed a sentence of 90 days' imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In pertinent part, the district court referenced Mr. Elder's history and relevant characteristics, the seriousness of the offense, the need to promote respect for the law, the need for deterrence, and the need to avoid sentencing disparities. See  3553(a)(1), (a)(2)(A)-(B), (a)(6).

The government objected to Mr. Elder's sentence as both procedurally and substantively unreasonable. The district court overruled the government's objections, and this appeal followed.

II

We review the procedural reasonableness of a sentence, see United States v. Gibson, 708 F.3d 1256, 1275 (11th Cir. 2013), and the extent of a substantial assistance departure, see United States v. McVay, 447 F.3d 1348, 1353 (11th Cir. 2006), for abuse of discretion.

III

When the government files a substantial assistance motion under  5K1.1 and  3553(e), our precedent sets out various principles. In deciding whether to grant a  5K1.1 motion to depart below an advisory guidelines range, a district court is only permitted to consider factors related to a defendant's assistance. See United States v. Crisp, 454 F.3d 1285, 1289 (11th Cir. 2006) (explaining that, although the list of factors in  5K1.1 is not exhaustive, a sentence reduction [under  5K1.1] may be based only on factors related to the defendant's substantial assistance). Similarly, the extent of a departure below a statutory minimum under  3553(e) should be based solely on a defendant's assistance to law enforcement. United States v. Mangaroo, 504 F.3d 1350, 1355 (11th Cir. 2007) (emphasis in original).

When the government moves for a downward departure, however, it has no control over whether and to what extent the district court will depart from the [advisory] [g]uidelines. United States v. Livesay, 525 F.3d 1081, 1091 (11th Cir. 2008). And, after [a district court] has decided the length of departure warranted by the substantial assistance motion, [it] is then obliged to take into account the advisory [g]uidelines range and the sentencing factors set forth in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) in fashioning a reasonable sentence. McVay, 447 F.3d at 1356.

The government's primary argument is that the district court committed procedural error under McVay and Mangaroo by considering non-assistance factors before granting its motion and calculating Mr. Elder's post-departure range. We disagree and conclude that those cases are distinguishable.

In McVay, 447 F.3d at 1355, the district court erred as a matter of law by considering non-assistance factorslike the defendant's exemplary record and relationship with this daughterin deciding whether to grant the government's substantial assistance motion. Moreover, the record in that case contain[ed] no indication that the sentencing judge considered any of the  5K1.1(a) factors or the government's assessment of the defendant's assistance. Id. at 1356 (emphasis in original).

Similarly, in Mangaroo, 504 F.3d at 1355, the district court made vague references to cooperation but did not consider any assistance factors in its decision to impose a sentence below the statutory minimum under  3553(e). Instead, the district court referenced the defendants' criminal history, participation in the charged offenses, ages, and acceptance of responsibility. See id. The district court also erred in Mangaroo by giving each of the defendants a sentence of probation, in violation of the firearm statute at issue, which expressly required a term of imprisonment. See id. at 1354.

Here, even though the district court did not expressly discuss the  5K1.1(a) factors, the record as a whole shows that the district court only considered the government's pre-sentencing motion and the task force agent's testimony at the hearing (which referenced Mr. Elder's assistance and nothing more) before granting the government's substantial assistance motion. On this record, there is no indication that the district court relied on any inappropriate statutory or non-statutory factors before deciding to depart below the statutory minimum and calculating Mr. Elder's post-departure range at 30 months.

We can also infer that the district court agreed with the government's assessment of Mr. Elder's assistance because, although not required to do so, see Livesay, 525 F.3d at 1091, the district court followed the government's recommendation and set the post-departure range at 30 months. Indeed, before the district court turned to the non-assistance factors in  3553(a) in order to calculate Mr. Elder's final sentence, see McVay, 447 F.3d at 1356, the government expressly request[ed] a sentence at the bottom of the range calculated by the [c]ourt in light of granting the [ 5K1.1] and [] 3553(e) motion. D.E. 180 at 15.

IV

Because the district court followed the guidance given in McVay, 447 F.3d at 1356that is, to consider the  3553(a) factors after deciding whether and to what extent to depart based on Mr. Elder's assistance to the governmentwe conclude that the district court did not commit procedural error constituting an abuse of discretion.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. We will not discuss the specifics of the sidebar discussion because portions of the sentencing transcript have been sealed. The district court agreed with the government's assessment of Mr. Elder's assistance because it set the post-departure range at 30 months, just as the government had recommended.

. The government does not contend that Mr. Elder's sentence is substantively unreasonable on appeal and has therefore abandoned that argument. See United States v. Levy, 379 F.3d 1241, 1243 (11th Cir. 2004) (noting that issues not briefed on appeal are deemed abandoned).

. This case is also different than Mangaroo because Mr. Elder was given a 90-day term of imprisonment rather than probation for his firearm offense. And, as noted earlier, the government has abandoned any argument that the district court's assessment of the  3553(a) factors led to a substantively unreasonable sentence.

. We have not squarely addressed whether a district court is permitted to use the  3553(a) factors in order to impose a sentence below a previously-adjusted range based on a defendant's substantial assistance. Compare United States v. Jackson, 577 F.3d 1032, 1036 (9th Cir. 2009) (explaining that a court may increase a sentence on the basis of the  3553(a) factors, but may not reduce the sentence further after granting a  3553(e) departure), with United States v. Allen, 450 F.3d 565, 570 n.5 (4th Cir. 2006) (highlighting that [i]f the resulting departure range [under  3553(e)] still does not serve the factors set forth in  3553(a), [a] court may then elect to impose a non-guideline [variance] sentence). Given that the government argues that a district court is only permitted to increase a sentence using  3553(a) factors after granting a substantial assistance motion for the first time in its reply brief, we exercise our discretion not to address that issue here. See generally United States v. Nealy, 232 F.3d 825, 830 (11th Cir. 2000) (stating that [p]arties must submit all issues on appeal in their initial briefs).

PER CURIAM:
Petrochemicals Industries Company (PIC), a subsidiary of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, is planning to invest more than $8 billion in several overseas petrochemical projects over the next five years, according to Kuwaiti media reports. The projects include both setting up of new plants and expansion of existing ones jointly owned by PIC.

PIC would invest in a 1400 tonnes per year paraxylene (PX) plant in Bahrain, which would be jointly owned by PIC and the government-owned National Oil and Gas Authority of Bahrain, the reports said quoting PIC CEO Mohammed Al-Farhoud.

PlCs investment plans include construction of a 550,000 tonnes per year propylene and polypropylene plant in Canada. This will be built as a joint venture with a local Canadian company. PIC is also considering setting up of a 400,000 tonnes per year polypropylene plant in South Korea.

Petrochemicals Industries Company (PIC), a subsidiary of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, is planning to invest more than $8 billion in several overseas petrochemical projects over the next five years, according to Kuwaiti media reports. The projects include both setting up of new plants and expansion of existing ones jointly owned by PIC.#

Investment is also being made by the PIC in a 750,000 tonnes per year ethylene glycol plant in the US. For this plant, a contract was signed with Jacobs Engineering Group in October last year. The project is scheduled to be completed in October 2019.

In addition to these, PIC is actively considering investment opportunities in other countries, Al-Farhoud said. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have agreed to seal a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2017. The decision was taken during Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena's visit to Bangladesh recently. In order to boost the bilateral cooperation, a memorandum of understanding on economic partnership and 14 other agreements were signed between the two countries.

Taking into account the advantages and opportunities in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the leaders recognised the potential for collaborative partnership between the private sectors of the two countries, particularly in high-end apparel and textiles, said the joint statement.

Durng the visit, an agreement was signed between Chittagong BGMEA Institute of Fashion and Technology (CBIFT) and Sri Lanka Institute of Textile and Apparel (SLITA) to strengthen academic ties between both the countries.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have agreed to seal a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2017. The decision was taken during Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena's visit to Bangladesh recently. In order to boost the bilateral cooperation, a memorandum of understanding on economic partnership and 14 other agreements were signed between the two countries.#

Both the countries will invest in Special Economic Zones, industrial parks and hi-tech parks among others. Association between the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and the Board of Investment (BoI) (Sri Lanka) would boost investment. The leaders have also asked the concerned authorities of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for immediate finalisation of the agreements on customs cooperation, avoidance of double taxation and promotion and protection of investment between the two countries.

As per the joint statement, partnerships have also been made to improve the human resources. The association will also focus on the development of various sectors including trade and investment, agriculture, information and communication technology, higher education, finance and overall people-to-people connectivity. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The main demand of the textile traders is not to put any tax on fabrics, which cannot be accepted for certain reasons, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply to a Starred Question in Rajya Sabha today. The government has taken necessary steps to facilitate taxpayers to take Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration, the minister said.

Explaining the reasons for no tax on fabrics being unacceptable, Jaitley said nil GST on fabrics will break the input tax credit chain and then the garments/madeups manufacturers will not be able to get the credit of tax on previous stages. Secondly, nil GST on fabrics will result in zero rating of imported fabrics, while domestic fabrics will continue to bear the burden of input taxes.

Generally, the GST rates are equal or lower than the pre-GST tax incidence. And therefore, the price of fabrics is not likely to go up, Jaitley explained further.

The main demand of the textile traders is not to put any tax on fabrics, which cannot be accepted for certain reasons, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply to a Starred Question in Rajya Sabha today. The government has taken necessary steps to facilitate taxpayers to take Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration, the minister said.#

On the claim that textiles sector was never taxed in independent India, Jaitley said that the entire textiles sector was subjected to central excise duty during 2003-04.

He said GST Sewa Kendras have been set up in various centres to handhold the taxpayers and to provide all necessary guidance regarding GST compliance.

The finance minister said that the GST rate structure for the textiles sector was discussed in detail in the GST Council Meeting held on June 3, 2017, wherein the Council recommended the detailed rate structure for the textile sector. He added that the GST rate structure for the textiles sector enables ease of classification and determination of rate, and the organised traders and unorganized sellers in the sector have not been affected by the GST. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The global cotton mill use is forecast to rise for the second consecutive season to 117 million bales in 2017-18, three per cent higher than 2016-17, according to the latest US department of agriculture (USDA) cotton projections for 2017-18. The projected 117 million bales will be the highest mill use since 2009-10 consumption of 119.5 million bales.

With 2014-15 as the base year, 2017-18 world cotton consumption is projected 5 per cent higher. While Chinas mill use is expected nearly 12 per cent above 2014-15, cotton mill use in India and Pakistan remains relatively flat. In contrast, cotton mill use continues to rise in Bangladesh, and 2017-18 use is projected to be 19 per cent above 2014-15. Even more remarkable has been the growth in Vietnam, where 2017-18 mill use is expected to be 44 per cent above 2014-15, the Economic Research Service of the USDA said in its July report on Cotton and Wool Outlook.

Chinathe leading spinner of raw cottonhas expanded its mill use since 2014-15, and is forecast to account for nearly one-third of the 2017-18 global total.

The global cotton mill use is forecast to rise for the second consecutive season to 117 million bales in 2017-18, three per cent higher than 2016-17, according to the latest US department of agriculture (USDA) cotton projections for 2017-18. The projected 117 million bales will be the highest mill use since 2009-10 consumption of 119.5 million bales.#

For 2017-18, mill use in China is projected at 38.0 million bales, 500,000 bales above 2016-17 and the highest since a similar amount was recorded for 2011-12. Access to domestic reserve supplies are expected to limit yarn imports and push cotton mill use higher in China for the third consecutive season.

Indias consumption is forecast at nearly 24.8 million bales in 2017-18, 3 per cent above 2016-17s estimate, while mill use in Pakistan is projected at 10.6 million bales, also 3 per cent higher. In addition, 2017-18 cotton mill use is expected to rise in Bangladesh (+6 per cent), Turkey (+6 per cent), and Vietnam (+9 per cent).

For 2016-17, world cotton mill use is estimated at 113.8 million bales, 200,000 bales above the June estimate and more than 2 per cent higher than 2015-16. The July gain was largely attributable to the higher consumption estimate for India. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Hyosung Group, leading textile manufacturer, is collaborating with French textile mill Sofileta to strengthen its presence in European market. Hyosung Creora marked the 25th anniversary of its product, Creora, with a marketing campaign for Europe with Sofileta. Hyosung Creora had presented fabrics developed with Sofileta at the Interfiliere Paris 2017.Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon in an inauguration ceremony in January emphasised building business competences to the highest level and promised a full support for efforts to deliver the worlds best quality and services.

Hyosung Group, leading textile manufacturer, is collaborating with French textile mill Sofileta to strengthen its presence in European market. Hyosung Creora marked the 25th anniversary of its product, Creora, with a marketing campaign for Europe with Sofileta. Hyosung Creora had presented fabrics developed with Sofileta at the Interfiliere Paris 2017.#

Interfiliere Paris 2017, organised in Paris during July 8-10, 2017, is the largest lingerie and swimwear exhibition. The fabrics captivated summertime European customers as they were made of creora Fresh, which is Hyosungs excellent odour neutralising spandex.Sofileta is a global textile company based in Lyon, France, specialising in textiles and dyeing. Hyosung is strategically cooperating with Sofileta to attract French and other European customers.Hyosung has collaborated with Sofileta since Creora was developed, and we will continue to maintain our partnership to keep pace with rapid changes in the apparel industry. Hyosungs global marketing director Ria Stern said.With chairman Cho Hyun-joon fully supporting the global market, Hyosung has participated in textile exhibitions around the world to expand its geographic market area. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. JACK DAVID GETZ, Petitioner-Appellee, v. JACK PALMER and ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, Respondents-Appellants. No. 14-15816 Decided: July 17, 2017

Before: WALLACE and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges, and ERICKSON,* District Judge.

ORDER

The memorandum disposition, filed on May 26, 2017, is amended as follows: On page 3, line 18, replace the entire sentence beginning with The use of the Kazalyn instruction with: The use of the Kazalyn instruction at Getz's trial did not do so, because at that time in Nevada, first-degree murder had only one, inclusive mens rea element, as it is described in the Kazalyn instruction.

With the foregoing amendment, Getz's petition for panel rehearing, filed June 9, 2017, is DENIED. Judge Smith votes to deny the petition for rehearing en banc, and Judge Wallace and Judge Erickson so recommend. The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc, and no judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Fed. R. App. P. 35. The petition for rehearing en banc, filed the same date, is DENIED. No further petitions shall be entertained.

MEMORANDUM*

The State of Nevada appeals from the district court's grant of Jack Getz's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking reversal in light of our court's decision in Moore v. Helling, 763 F.3d 1011 (9th Cir. 2014). We review de novo, McMurtrey v. Ryan, 539 F.3d 1112, 1118 (9th Cir. 2008), and we reverse and remand.

On February 14, 2000, a jury found Getz guilty of first degree murder after receiving the state Kazalyn instruction regarding premeditation. See Kazalyn v. State, 108 Nev. 67, 75-76 (1992) (premeditation instruction in first degree murder cases sufficiently distinguishes between premeditation and malice aforethought). Two weeks after his jury conviction, the Nevada Supreme Court decided in Byford v. State, 116 Nev. 215, 235-36 (2000), that the Kazalyn instruction should no longer be given because premeditation and deliberation should be considered separate elements required to convict for first degree murder. Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court decided in Bunkley v. Florida, 538 U.S. 835, 841 (2003), that where a potentially exonerating change in state law occurs before a defendant's conviction is final, due process requires the state to apply the change to the defendant's conviction.

Relying on Bunkley, we decided in Babb v. Lozowsky, 719 F.3d 1019, 1030-33 (9th Cir. 2013), that it was a violation of clearly established United States Supreme Court law not to apply the new Byford instruction in cases where a defendant's conviction was not final when Byford issued. Getz's conviction was affirmed by the Nevada Supreme Court on March 13, 2002, and became final on June 11, 2002. The district court therefore determined that Getz was entitled to habeas relief under Babb.

One month later, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in White v. Woodall, 134 S.Ct. 1697 (2014). In Woodall, the Supreme Court held that relief under 28 U.S.C.  2254(d) is prohibited where there can be fairminded disagreement on the question of whether changes in state law apply to cases pending on direct review when the law is changed. Id. at 1702. Our court then determined in Moore v. Helling that Woodall effectively overruled Babb. Moore, 763 F.3d at 1021-22. Because Moore's conviction was final before Bunkley was issued, we determined that the Nevada Supreme Court did not unreasonably apply clearly established Supreme Court law when it declined to apply the Byford instruction in his case. Id. Therefore, we likewise hold that the Nevada Supreme Court did not unreasonably apply clearly established Supreme Court law when it declined to apply Byford in Getz's case, who is in the same procedural posture as defendant Moore: his conviction was final on June 11, 2002, prior to Bunkley.

Getz has thus failed to show that the trial court's use of the Kazalyn instruction violated his due process rights. The use of the Kazalyn instruction at Getz's trial did not do so, because at that time in Nevada, first-degree murder had only one, inclusive mens rea element, as it is described in the Kazalyn instruction.

REVERSED and REMANDED for consideration in accord with Moore v. Helling, 763 F.3d 1011 (9th Cir. 2014).
Regulatory News:

United Company RUSAL Plc (Paris:RUSAL) (Paris:RUAL):

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute or form part of any advertisement, offer, solicitation or an invitation to make offers to acquire, purchase or subscribe for securities or an invitation to enter into an agreement to do any such things, nor is it calculated to invite any offer to acquire, purchase or subscribe for any securities.

This announcement is not an offer for sale of any securities in the United States of America. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Any securities described in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, and there is no intention to conduct a public offering of any securities in the United States of America.

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute or form part of any advertisement, offer, solicitation or an invitation to make offers, sell, exchange or transfer of, or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe for or purchase, or advertisement of, any securities in Hong Kong, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, France or elsewhere, nor shall it (or any part of it) form the basis of any investment decision, contract or commitment whatsoever, and is provided for information only. The distribution of this announcement may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions, and persons into whose possession this announcement or other information referred to herein come should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the laws of any such jurisdiction.

Documents in respect of the Russian Depositary Receipts (described in the announcement) have been duly registered by the authorized Russian governmental body and publicly disclosed in the Russian Federation in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. At the same time, no securities issued or to be issued by UC RUSAL Plc, including securities underlying the Russian Depositary Receipts, have been or will be registered in the Russian Federation or admitted to public placement and/or public circulation in the Russian Federation. Such securities are not intended for "placement" or "circulation" in the Russian Federation except as permitted by Russian law.

This announcement contains no information or material which may result in it being deemed (i) to be a prospectus within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Companies (Winding up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Chapter 32 of the Laws of Hong Kong), or an advertisement in relation to a prospectus or proposed prospectus or extract from or abridged version of a prospectus within the meaning of section 38B of that Ordinance or an advertisement, invitation or document containing an advertisement or invitation to, or directing at, the public falling within the meaning of section 103 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Chapter 571 of the Laws of Hong Kong) or (ii) in Hong Kong to have effected an offer to the public without compliance with the laws of Hong Kong or being able to invoke any exemption available under the laws of Hong Kong. This announcement does not constitute or form part of and should not be construed as a prospectus, notice, circular, brochure or advertisement offering to sell or issue or solicitation or invitation of offers to acquire, purchase or subscribe for any securities in Hong Kong or intended to invite such offers or inducing or intended to induce subscription for or purchase of any securities in Hong Kong nor should it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or commitment or investment decision whatsoever.

This announcement is directed only at persons who (i) are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) ("high net worth companies, unincorporated associations etc") of the Order or (iv) to whom this announcement may otherwise be directed without contravention of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). This announcement must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons.

In member states of the European Economic Area, this announcement is directed only at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(1)(e) of Directive 2003/71/EC (the "Prospectus Directive") ("Qualified Investors"). This announcement is an advertisement for the purposes of applicable measures implementing the Prospectus Directive.

UNITED COMPANY RUSAL PLC

(Incorporated under the laws of Jersey with limited liability)

(Stock Code: 486)

INSIDE INFORMATION

RUSSIAN DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS PROGRAM

This announcement is made by United Company RUSAL Plc (the "Company") pursuant to Rule 13.09 of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Listing Rules") and the Inside Information Provisions under Part XIVA of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Chapter 571 of the Laws of Hong Kong).

Reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated 31 August 2010, 1 December 2010, 8 December 2010 and 17 December 2010 in relation to the Company's RDR Program (the "Announcements") by Sberbank of Russia ("Sberbank"), the issuer. Capitalized terms in this announcement have the same meanings as those given in the Announcements unless otherwise specified.

The Company announces that on 17 July 2017, the Company and Sberbank have agreed to cancel the agreement on the issuance of the RDRs entered into on 1 December 2010. According to the RDR issuance documents, within 30 days after 17 July 2017, i.e. from 17 August 2017, the RDR Program will be closed and no operations with RDRs will be possible after that date, save for the operations arising out of the closure of the RDR Program. In addition, with effect from 10 August 2017, no new RDRs can be issued or redeemed by Sberbank. After the closure of the RDR Program, and not later than 31 August 2017, the holders of RDRs will receive to their account the respective volume of shares of the Company (at the ratio of 1 RDR 10 shares), eligible for trading on MICEX. The closure of the RDR Program will be fully subsidized by the Company and will not require any expenses to be borne by the RDR holders.

The decision to close the RDR Program shall allow the concentration of the Company's public equity instrument trading liquidity into its ordinary shares traded in Hong Kong and Moscow.

Further details of the terms of the closure of the RDR Program may be found on the page of Sberbank at the address: http://www.sberbank.com/ru/investor-relations/disclosure/rdr.

Shareholders and investors are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. Shareholders and investors are further advised to consider and rely only on information relating to the RDR Program which is released by the Company from time to time in accordance with the requirements of applicable laws, regulations and the Listing Rules.

By Order of the Board of Directors of

United Company RUSAL Plc

Aby Wong Po Ying

Company Secretary

18 July 2017

As at the date of this announcement, the executive Directors are Mr. Oleg Deripaska, Mr. Vladislav Soloviev and Mr. Siegfried Wolf, the non-executive Directors are Mr. Maxim Sokov, Mr. Dmitry Afanasiev, Mr. Ivan Glasenberg, Mr. Maksim Goldman, Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova, Mr. Daniel Lesin Wolfe, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya, Ms. Ekaterina Nikitina and Mr. Marco Musetti, and the independent non-executive Directors are Mr. Matthias Warnig (Chairman), Mr. Philip Lader, Dr. Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Mr. Mark Garber, Mr. Dmitry Vasiliev and Mr. Bernard Zonneveld.

All announcements and press releases published by the Company are available on its website under the links http://www.rusal.ru/en/investors/hkse/,http://rusal.ru/investors/info/moex/ and http://www.rusal.ru/en/press-center/press-releases.aspx, respectively.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717005870/en/

Contacts:

United Company RUSAL Plc


TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Toshiba Corp. (TOSYY.PK, TOSBF.PK) said it has filed an update to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Nagoya Stock Exchange on the court hearing on July 14 at the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco , on the motion for preliminary injunctive or PI relief made by SanDisk LLC), a subsidiary of Western Digital Corp.(WDC).



At the July 14 hearing, the Judge proposed a solution and did not order a PI. Instead, the Judge proposed Toshiba give two weeks' notice to SanDisk before Toshiba closes the sale of its memory business for the period until the arbitration panel can be formed. Arbitration was initiated by SanDisk in May 2017.



Pursuant to the ICC or International Chamber of Commerce Rules that govern the arbitration, the tribunal should be formed within the next few months.



As both sides agreed to the approach if it can be properly worded, the Judge requested the parties to negotiate language that would implement the Judge's proposal and present that to the Court by July 28.



Toshiba said it agreed not to close the Deal before the July 28 hearing. Given that regulatory approval for the Deal will likely take several months after signing, Toshiba's current target is to close the Deal by the end of March 2018. As a result, there is no chance of closing the Deal within the next two weeks.



In the meantime, Toshiba can and will continue to negotiate and sign an agreement with bidders for the Deal.



Toshiba noted that it looks forward to the next hearing currently scheduled for July 28.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL, GOOG) high-speed internet business chief executive officer, Gregory McCray, is stepping down. The company is looking for a replacement. McCray was hired in February as chief executive officer of Access, the Alphabet unit that houses Google Fiber. He joined the tech giant after Craig Barratt, the former Access boss, exited in October when a big, expensive expansion plan he created was cut back. 'We are committed to the success of Google Fiber. The team is bringing gigabit connections to more and more happy customers,' Alphabet CEO Larry Page said in a statement. 'Fiber has a great team and I'm confident we will find an amazing person to lead this important business.' 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.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a unit of PG&E Corp. (PCG) on Tuesday issued a statement on the California legislature approving a comprehensive bill package that extends the Cap-and-Trade program through 2030. Geisha Williams, CEO and President of PG&E, said,. 'PG&E applauds the leadership of the Governor and state legislature on addressing climate change. Approval of the joint Cap-and-Trade proposal puts achievement of the state's historic climate goals within striking distance. We believe this represents the right balance of taking a sustainable cost-effective approach to achieving greenhouse gas emissions reductions while providing strong consumer protections.' Williams added that California has left no question that it is embracing its leadership role and moving full speed ahead to decarbonize the state's economy and ensure that a clean energy future is accessible and affordable for everyone. 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.
News Highlights

WISeKey's Vertical Platform (Identity, IoT, Blockchain and AI) and innovative cybersecurity micro-chips solution for IOT will provide smart cities with a scalable, easily manageable object identity management and security solution when connecting to Microsoft Azure

Global public sector initiative and WISeKey enable cities to harness a new era of innovation through a people center of gravity approach

WISeKey provides an end-to-end scalable security framework to be integrated into IoT platforms

Based on PKI Technology, WISeKey will protect the device and its data at rest or in transit

Building upon its 17-years of expertise in providing cybersecurity and microprocessors, WISeKey delivers cryptographic root keys and solutions to use and manage digital certificates and associated secure assets that protect otherwise vulnerable IoT devices in the field

WISeKey International Holding Ltd (SIX: WIHN) ("WISeKey"), a leading Swiss-based cybersecurity/IoT company,today announced its new citizen digital identity platform under the Microsoft CityNext, a global initiative empowering cities, businesses and citizens to re-imagine their futures and cultivate vibrant communities.

Through the Microsoft CityNext initiative, Microsoft and WISeKey will help leaders to do "new with less," by combining the power of technology with innovative ideas to securely connect governments, businesses and citizens with city services that increase efficiencies, reduce costs, foster a more sustainable environment and cultivate communities where people thrive.

WISeKey's identity management and innovative cybersecurity solution for IOT will provide smart cities with a scalable, easily manageable object identity management and security solution when connecting to Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft-based platforms. The Managed WISeKey Root of Trust (RoT) serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by operating systems (OS) and applications to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the Cryptographic RoT embedded on a device, provided by WISeKey as a hardware Secure Element or a software Certificate, the IoT product manufacturers can protect the devices and secure the interactions among and between objects and people.

"Government employees and City infrastructure from traffic lights and smart parking solutions, to power grids and smart utility meters, are vulnerable to cyberattacks," said Carlos Moreira, WISeKey's CEO. "We view Microsoft's CityNext initiative as an innovative force that will help to transform government infrastructure and we are pleased to have already collaborated with Microsoft on government and city cybersecurity projects in various countries around the globe."

WISeKey and Microsoft have been working since they announce the partnership a year ago, to introduce our alliance to existing and potential customers, and we have secured projects in Rwanda, Mauritius, New York, Argentina and India. For more information visit: http://www.wisekey.com/investor/press-release/WISeKey-Joins-Forces-with-Microsoft-CityNext-to-Bring-Innovation-and-Security-to-IoT-across-the-Globe

Cities have long been the center of industrial, economic and entrepreneurial activity fueling the rest of the world's success. Today, as more of the world's population urbanizes, they face mounting pressures and challenges to maintain that standard and quality of life for citizens. It is expected that by 2030, six out of every ten people will live in a city. Leveraging a broad portfolio of familiar and security-enhanced consumer-to-business software, partner solutions, devices and services and Microsoft's history of successful education and social programs, Microsoft CityNext is a collective effort that helps cities anticipate and plan for these changes and challenges, enabling them to meet citizens' needs, thrive economically and embrace modernity.

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems with a patented process. WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

To receive WISeKey's latest news, subscribe to our Newsletter or visit the WISeKey Investors Corner.

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006118/en/

Contacts:

Press and investors:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd

Company:

Carlos Moreira, +41 22 594 3000

Chairman CEO

info@wisekey.com

or

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)

The Equity Group Inc.

Lena Cati, +1 212-836-9611

lcati@equityny.com
Strong full year performance with profits up over 20%

Clinigen Group plc (AIM: CLIN, 'Clinigen' or the 'Group'), the global pharmaceutical and services company, today provides a trading update for the 12 months ended 30 June 2017.

Highlights

Gross profit* expected to be up 22% driven by a combination of organic growth across all operations, a full year's contribution from Link Healthcare and currency benefits

Strong growth across Clinical Trial Services (CTS), Unlicensed Medicines, and Commercial Medicines

Outstanding performance in Africa and Asia Pacific

Dexrazoxane portfolio revitalisation significantly enhanced by positive CHMP** opinion on Cardioxane and Totect US approval

New simplified operating and reporting structure comprising CTS, Unlicensed Medicines and Commercial Medicines

Shaun Chilton, Group Chief Executive Officer of Clinigen Group said:

"This has been another excellent year with all three operations, CTS, Unlicensed Medicines and Commercial Medicines performing strongly.

"We have made significant progress in our strategy to build scale and capability in high growth geographies in Africa and Asia Pacific. Now that Link's earn-out period has been completed, we will be able to further integrate and develop our complementary portfolio of businesses worldwide.

"Our priorities in the current financial year remain unchanged. We will drive organic growth across all parts of the Group and search for selective acquisitions to complement our existing offering and capabilities."

Group performance

Overall the Group has traded in line with the Board's expectations and all operations are well positioned to drive good growth in the current financial year.

Following the completion of the Link earn-out and subsequent closer integration of Link into the Group, the performance of the business will be reported as three operations; CTS, Unlicensed Medicines, and Commercial Medicines. This structure reflects how Clinigen operates in practice and will allow the Group to better capitalise on our market leading positions and expanded geographical footprint.

Gross profit, viewed as the best measure of top line growth, is expected to increase by around 22% compared to last year, driven by organic growth across all operations, a full year's contribution from Link Healthcare ('Link') and currency benefits following the depreciation of Sterling.

Revenues increased around 7% excluding the effect of the change in mix in Managed Access towards programmes where the product is provided by the pharmaceutical client free of charge, and the termination of a large Global Access low margin commercial contract, which was inherited with the Idis acquisition. This revenue growth is lower than the growth in gross profit primarily due to the change in mix in CTS towards higher margin products and activity. Reported revenue decreased around 11%.

CTS

CTS, representing around 19% of Group gross profits, delivered another year of excellent growth. It continues to add complementary services to the core business to respond to the increased demand from clients requiring more global and complex solutions.

Unlicensed Medicines

Unlicensed Medicines, encompassing the Managed Access, Global Access and the unlicensed business within the Link division, represents around 42% of Group gross profit. This part of the business delivered strong growth with the highlight being outstanding growth in the Africa and Asia Pacific region.

Commercial Medicines

Commercial Medicines, encompassing the Specialty Pharma division and the commercial business of the Link division, representing around 39% of Group gross profits, delivered another excellent year of progress.

Foscavir was an important driver of growth and Ethyol stepped up in the second half benefiting from the strategic partnership with Cumberland in the US. The Group's dexrazoxane portfolio comprising Cardioxane, Savene and Totect, performed as expected, with Totect achieving FDA approval in the final quarter in the US.

As announced in May 2017, a key development was the positive CHMP** opinion to modify the current product information for Cardioxane. It is expected that the European Commission will accept the CHMP opinion and will issue its approval shortly. As a result of the approval, physicians will be able to consider use of Cardioxane in paediatric patients where high dose anthracycline therapy is planned. The approval is expected to step up usage of Cardioxane in the medium term and further demonstrates Clinigen's ability to revitalise acquired products.

Excellent progress was made in the Africa and Asia Pacific region, building sales from Link's existing commercial portfolio and from the strategy of converting unlicensed medicines to licensed medicines.

Group overheads are expected to increase in line with budget as the Group continues to strengthen the infrastructure and management team to support its long term growth ambitions. The implementation of the Group's ERP system, which will make the business more efficient and scalable, is progressing to plan.

Cash flow performance was significantly stronger in the second half of the year. As a result, net debt has decreased to around 35 million as at 30 June 2017 from 70.9 million as at 31 December 2016. It is estimated that the deferred cash consideration on the Link acquisition, payable in October 2017, will be in the region of 40m.

The Group expects to publish its final results for the year ended 30 June 2017 on Thursday 28 September 2017.

*Gross profit growth rate includes Clinigen's share of the South Africa Joint Venture and exclude the impact of the release of the fair valuation of inventory acquired with Idis and Link Healthcare. Under IFRS, the Joint Venture is excluded from revenue, gross profit and profit before tax and the Group's share of the Joint Venture's profit after tax is included in the Profit and Loss Account as 'other income'. The release of the fair value element of inventories is included in the non-underlying costs of the Group.

**The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) committee responsible for human medicines.

Ends

Conference call

Shaun Chilton, CEO and Martin Abell, CFO will host an analyst call at 8.30am on Tuesday, 18 July 2017. Call details available upon request from clinigen@instinctif.com.

An audio replay file will be made available shortly afterwards on the Group's website: www.clinigengroup.com.

About Clinigen Group

Clinigen Group plc (AIM: CLIN) is a global pharmaceutical and services company with a unique combination of businesses focused on providing access to medicines. Its mission is to deliver the right medicine to the right patient at the right time through three areas of global medicine supply; clinical trial, unlicensed and licenced medicines.

Clinical Trial Services

Clinigen is the global market leader in the specialist supply and management of quality-assured comparator medicines and services to clinical trials and Investigator Initiated Trials.

Unlicensed Medicines

Clinigen is the global leader in ethically sourcing and supplying unlicensed medicines to hospital pharmacists and physicians for patients with a high unmet medical need. The Group manages early access programmes to innovative new medicines and provides on demand access globally to medicines which remain unlicensed at the point of care.

Commercial Medicines

The Group acquires global rights to niche hospital only and critical care products, revitalising these assets around the world and returning them back to sustained growth. The Group also provides access to licensed and branded generic medicines in the Africa and Asia Pacific region.

For more information on Clinigen, please visit www.clinigengroup.com

Cautionary statement

This announcement contains certain projections and other forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, businesses and prospects of Clinigen Group plc. These statements are based on current expectations and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. There are a number of factors which could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any of the assumptions underlying these forward-looking statements could prove inaccurate or incorrect and therefore any results contemplated in the forward-looking statements may not actually be achieved. Recipients are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements contained herein. Except as required by law, Clinigen undertakes no obligation to update or revise (publicly or otherwise) any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or other circumstances.

The information contained in this statement has not been audited and may be subject to further review.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006014/en/

Contacts:

Clinigen Group plc

Tel: +44 (0) 1283 495010

Shaun Chilton, Group Chief Executive Officer

Martin Abell, Group Chief Financial Officer

Matt Parrish, Head of Investor Relations

or

Numis Securities Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7260 1000

Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield (Nominated Adviser)

James Black Tom Ballard (Corporate Broking)

or

RBC Capital Markets Joint Broker

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7653 4000

Marcus Jackson Elliot Thomas Jack Wood

or

Instinctif Partners Media Relations

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7457 2020

Melanie Toyne-Sewell Alex Shaw Deborah Bell

Email: clinigen@instinctif.com
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM: HZM)(TSX: HZM) ('Horizonte' or 'the Company') the nickel development company focussed in Brazil, is pleased to provide an update on the progress that the sustainability team have made as part of the licensing process for its 100% owned Araguaia Nickel Project ('Araguaia' or 'the Project'), which is being developed as the next major nickel project in Brazil.

Highlights

-- The Araguaia environmental licensing strategy was presented to State Environmental Minister on 4 July 2017 -- A new flora inventory has been completed and a fauna field campaign is underway with 15 biology specialists on site, including four from the Para State -- Water and power line routes frozen with licence applications under preparation -- Close to finalisation of environmental control plans for the RKEF process plant and mine site infrastructure

Horizonte CEO, Jeremy Martin said, "Horizonte is committed to working with Federal, State and Local partners to ensure a robust large-scale nickel operation will be successfully implemented in the Para State. By conducting new fauna and flora campaigns, we have been able to further characterize the biology of this cerrado (bush) region. Our licensing strategy was presented to the State Environmental Minister, which was received positively and we now have a clearly defined way forwards to bring all construction-ready permits into alignment within the Araguaia Feasibility Study schedule. I look forward to providing an update on the further progressions towards the Installation Licence in due course."

About the Project and Sustainability Activities

The Araguaia Nickel Project, which is 100% owned by Horizonte, is located on the eastern margin of the State of Para, north-eastern Brazil, to the north of the town of Conceicao do Araguaia (population of 46,206), south of the main Carajas Mining District. The Project has good regional infrastructure including a network of Federal highways and roads, with access to low tariff hydro-electric power.

The Company is focussed on delivering a 14,500 tonnes per annum nickel operation and anticipates a life of mine of 28 years. With this in mind the objective of the sustainability programme is to lay the foundations for a robust, long-term nickel mine.

The Brazilian mine permitting process with environmental agencies has three key stages:

1. The preliminary licence ('LP'), which confirms government approval for the viability of the project; 2. The installation licence ('LI'), which permits the start of construction; 3. Finally the licence to operate (LO) awarded after construction is complete.

The Preliminary Licence ('LP') for Araguaia was approved in May 2016 with consideration of the terms set out in the Company's Social & Environmental Impact Assessment, and conditions outlined by the State Environmental Agency. Once the LI is awarded in parallel with the mining concession, construction may start.

Recent Activities

The Company has hired new specialists in environmental and social disciplines. Additionally, the team has been bolstered with regional experts from the Para State, including flora and fauna specialists hired through the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Belem, a research institution linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The institution also plays an important educational role in the country through the dissemination of knowledge and research of regional flora and fauna.

An environmental team of 15 fauna specialists including 4 from Para State are on site in July for a major work programme to complement fauna collections previously undertaken in the region. The fauna team are enriching the characterisations of terrestrial and aquatic groups (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, ants, pollinating insects, insect vectors, phytoplankton, zooplankton and benthic invertebrates). An additional fauna campaign will commence in November 2017 to capture further data in the wet season.

Work on the socio-economic and physical environmental chapters is also well advanced with 90% completion to date of these programmes required to submit the LI request to the State Environmental Agency (SEMAS).

For further information visit www.horizonteminerals.com.

About Horizonte Minerals:

Horizonte Minerals plc is an AIM and TSX-listed nickel development company focussed in Brazil, which wholly owns the advanced Araguaia nickel laterite project located to the south of the Carajas mineral district of northern Brazil. The Company is developing Araguaia as the next major nickel mine in Brazil, with targeted production by 2019.

The Project has good infrastructure in place including rail, road, water and power.

Horizonte has a strong shareholder structure including Teck Resources Limited 17.9%, Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Limited 14.1%, Richard Griffiths 14.5%, JP Morgan 8.4%, Hargreave Hale 6.4% and Glencore 6.4%.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the potential of the Company's current or future property mineral projects; the success of exploration and mining activities; cost and timing of future exploration, production and development; the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the ability of the Company to achieve its goals in respect of growing its mineral resources; and the realization of mineral resource and reserve estimates. 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 statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved".

Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to risks related to: exploration and mining risks, competition from competitors with greater capital; the Company's lack of experience with respect to development-stage mining operations; fluctuations in metal prices; uninsured risks; environmental and other regulatory requirements; exploration, mining and other licences; the Company's future payment obligations; potential disputes with respect to the Company's title to, and the area of, its mining concessions; the Company's dependence on its ability to obtain sufficient financing in the future; the Company's dependence on its relationships with third parties; the Company's joint ventures; the potential of currency fluctuations and political or economic instability in countries in which the Company operates; currency exchange fluctuations; the Company's ability to manage its growth effectively; the trading market for the ordinary shares of the Company; uncertainty with respect to the Company's plans to continue to develop its operations and new projects; the Company's dependence on key personnel; possible conflicts of interest of directors and officers of the Company, and various risks associated with the legal and regulatory framework within which the Company operates.

Although management of the Company 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 statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Contacts:

Horizonte Minerals plc

Jeremy Martin

+44 (0) 20 7763 7157



Horizonte Minerals plc

David Hall

+44 (0) 20 7763 7157

www.horizonteminerals.com



finnCap Ltd (Corporate Broking)

Emily Morris

+44 (0) 20 7220 0500



finnCap Ltd (Corporate Finance)

Christopher Raggett

+44 (0) 20 7220 0500



finnCap Ltd (Corporate Finance)

James Thompson

+44 (0) 20 7220 0500



Shard Capital (Joint Broker)

Damon Heath

+44 (0) 20 7186 9952



Shard Capital (Joint Broker)

Erik Woolgar

+44 (0) 20 7186 9952



St Brides Partners Ltd (PR)

Lottie Brocklehurst

+44 (0) 20 7236 1177



St Brides Partners Ltd (PR)

Megan Dennison

+44 (0) 20 7236 1177




Regulatory News:

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN OR AUSTRALIA

In the context of its combination with Eurosic announced on June 21, 2017, Gecina (Paris:GFC) announces today the launch of its share capital increase with preferential subscription rights for existing shareholders, in a gross amount of approximately 1 billion euros.

Following the success of the triple-tranche bond issuance for an aggregate principal amount of 1.5 billion euros on June 30, 2017, the net proceeds of this share capital increase will be used to finance a portion of the Eurosic acquisition price due to be paid in cash and will enable Gecina to cancel the remaining balance (i.e., 1.0 billion euros) of the 2.5 billion euros bridge facility set up on June 20, 2017. A portion of the bridge facility (1.5 billion euros) had already been cancelled on June 30, 2017 following the bond issuance.

Following the combination with Eurosic, Gecina will become Europe's fourth largest real estate group with a total portfolio of 19.5 billion euros. The acquisition of a controlling stake in Eurosic should occur by the end of August1 in accordance with the timetable initially announced.

Key terms of the rights issue

The rights issue will be carried out through the allocation of preferential subscription rights to existing shareholders, resulting in the issuance of 9,062,091 new shares at a subscription price of 110.50 euros per share, representing a gross amount of 1,001,361,055.50 euros.

Existing shareholders of record as of the close of trading on July 18, 2017 will be entitled to receive preferential subscription rights. The preferential subscription rights which will be detached from the underlying existing shares on July 19, 2017. Existing shares will therefore trade ex-rights from July 19, 2017.

Each existing share will entitle its holder to receive 1 preferential subscription right. 7 rights entitle holders to subscribe for 1 new share at a subscription price of 110.50 euros.

Holders may also subscribe for new shares in excess of the number of shares that their Preferential Subscription Rights entitle them to purchase (a titre reductible).. To the extent new shares are available for distribution as a result of unexercised rights, each holder will be allocated additional new shares in proportion to the number of preferential subscription rights each holder has exercised and up to the number of additional new shares for which each holder has subscribed.Based on the closing price of Gecina shares on the regulated market of Euronext Paris on July 14, 2017, i.e., 139.65 euros:

the theoretical value of 1 right is 3.64 euros which value may fluctuate during the rights trading period, in particular depending on the evolution in the price of Gecina shares);

the theoretical value of the ex-right share is 136.01 euros;

the subscription price for the new shares of 110.50 euros per share (representing a nominal value of 7.50 euros and issue premium of 103.00 euros) reflects a discount of 18.75% to the theoretical value of the ex-right share price and 20.87% to the closing price on July 14, 2017.

The rights issue will be open to the public in France only. The rights issue (other than the new shares that are subject to the subscription commitment of Credit Agricole Assurances-Predica described below) is being underwritten pursuant to an underwriting agreement signed on July 17, 2017 with a syndicate of banks including Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank acting as Joint Global Coordinators, Joint Bookrunners and Lead Managers, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, Natixis, JP Morgan and Societe Generale acting as Joint Bookrunners and CM-CIC Market Solutions, ING and RBC Capital Markets acting as Co-Lead Managers. The underwriting obligation of the Managers does not constitute a firm underwriting within the meaning of article L. 225-145 of the French Commercial Code.

The exchange ratio for the securities exchange offer portion of the mandatory tender offer for the remaining Eurosic shares that Gecina is expected to initiate in the context of the Eurosic acquisition will be adjusted to take into account this rights issue.

Subscription commitments of Gecina's main shareholders

As announced on June 21, 2017, concurrently with the announcement of Gecina's friendly combination with Eurosic, Ivanhoe Cambridge, which owns, indirectly through several intermediary entities, 22.88%2 of Gecina's share capital, has confirmed to Gecina its intention to participate in the rights issue with preferential subscription rights on a cash-neutral basis by selling a significant portion of its preferential subscription rights and using exclusively the proceeds from the sale of such preferential subscription rights to finance the subscription price of the new shares to be issued upon exercise of the balance of its preferential subscription rights. Credit Agricole Assurances Predica, which owns 13.16% of Gecina's share capital, has irrevocably committed to participate in the rights issue for a minimum amount of 132,000,000 euros (which amount may be reduced if the number of New Shares available is not sufficient to satisfy its subscriptions in full). Gecina is not aware of the intentions of its other shareholders.

Lock-up agreements

Gecina has agreed to a lock-up period starting on the date of signing of the underwriting agreement and ending 90 calendar days following the settlement and delivery date of the rights issue, subject to certain exceptions.

Ivanhoe Cambridge and Credit Agricole Assurances Predica have each agreed to a lock-up period starting on the date of the visa on the French language prospectus in respect of the rights issue and ending 90 calendar days following the settlement and delivery of the rights issue, subject to certain customary exceptions, including in particular to allow for the provision of security in the context of financing agreements.

Timetable of the rights issue

The rights will be listed and traded on Euronext Paris under the ISIN code FR0013270014 from July 19, 2017 until July 31, 2017 inclusive. It will not be possible to buy or sell the rights after the close of trading on July 31, 2017. The subscription period for the new shares will run from July 21, 2017 to August 2, 2017 inclusive. Any rights not exercised before the end of the subscription period, i.e., the close of business (Paris time) on August 2, 2017, shall automatically become null and void.

Settlement and delivery of the new shares and beginning of trading on Euronext Paris (Segment A) are expected to take place on August 11, 2017. The new shares, which will carry dividend rights and will entitle their holders to any dividend declared by Gecina from the date of issuance, will be, as from their issuance date, fully fungible with Gecina's existing shares and will be traded under the same ISIN code FR0010040865.

Information available to the public

The French language prospectus including (i) the registration document (document de reference) of Gecina registered with the French Market Authority (Autorite des marches financiers (AMF)) on February 24, 2017 under number D.17-0110, (ii) the update of the registration document registered with the AMF on July 17, 2017 under number D.17-0110-A01, and (iii) a securities note (note d'operation) (including the summary of the prospectus) which was filed with the AMF and received visa number 17-359 dated July 17, 2017 is available free of charge from Gecina (14-16 rue des Capucines, 75002 Paris) as well as from the websites of the AMF (www.amf-france.org) and the company (www.gecina.fr).

Gecina draws the public's attention to the risk factors beginning on page 20 of the international offering memorandum relating to the rights issue, beginning on page 23 of the registration document and beginning on page 73 of Gecina's half-year report for 2017 incorporated by reference in the update to the registration document The realization of all or part of these risks is likely to adversely affect the activities, reputation, financial results, financial situation or outlooks of Gecina group.

Gecina, a leading real estate group

Gecina owns, manages and develops property holdings worth 13.3 billion euros at end-June 2017, with nearly 96% located in the Paris Region. The Group is building its business around France's leading office portfolio and a diversification division with residential assets and student residences. Gecina has put sustainable innovation at the heart of its strategy to create value, anticipate its customers' expectations and invest while respecting the environment, thanks to the dedication and expertise of its staff.

Gecina is a French real estate investment trust (SIIC) listed on Euronext Paris, and is part of the SBF 120, Euronext 100, FTSE4Good, DJSI Europe and World, Stoxx Global ESG Leaders and Vigeo indices. In line with its community commitments, Gecina has created a company foundation, which is focused on protecting the environment and supporting all forms of disability.

www.gecina.fr

Disclaimers

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or purchase, or the solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase, securities of Gecina.

No communication or information relating to the contemplated rights issue may be distributed to the public in any jurisdiction (other than France) in which registration or approval is required. No action has been (or will be) undertaken in any jurisdiction outside of France where such steps would be required. The subscription for or purchase of securities of Gecina may be subject to legal or statutory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Gecina assumes no responsibility for any violation of such restrictions by any person. The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law.

This press release does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and Council dated 4 November 2003, as amended, in particular by Directive 2010/73/UE in the case where such directive was implemented into law in the member States of the European Economic Area (the "Prospectus Directive").

The rights issue is open to the public in France only.

With respect to each member State of the European Economic Area other than France (the "Member State") having implemented the Prospectus Directive into law, no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of securities requiring a publication of a prospectus in any such Member State. As a result, the securities of Gecina may only be offered in the Member States (a) to qualified investors, as defined by the Prospectus Directive; or (b) in any other circumstances, not requiring Gecina to publish a prospectus as provided under Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive.

For the purposes of this paragraph, "securities offered to the public" in a given Member State means any communication, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information about the terms and conditions of the offer and the securities so as to enable an investor to make a decision to buy or subscribe for the securities, as the same may be varied in that Member State.

The above selling restrictions are in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Member States.

The distribution of this press release is directed only at (i) persons outside the United Kingdom, subject to applicable laws, or (ii) persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments who fall within the definition of "investment professionals" in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 as amended (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth bodies corporate, unincorporated associations and partnerships and trustees of high value trusts as described in Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The rights issue is only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such rights will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on, this press release or any information contained herein.

This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation to sell or purchase, or a solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities of Gecina in the United States of America. Securities may not be offered, subscribed or sold in the United States of America absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements thereof. The securities of Gecina have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and Gecina does not intend to make a public offer of its securities in the United States of America.

The diffusion of this press release in certain countries may be prohibited under applicable law.

This press release may not be published, transmitted or distributed, directly or indirectly, and does not constitute an offer of securities, in the United-States (including in the territories and dependencies and in any State of the United States), in Canada, in Australia, or in Japan.

Each of Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Natixis, JP Morgan, Societe Generale, CM-CIC Market Solutions, ING and RBC Capital Markets is acting exclusively for Gecina in connection with the offering and no other person in relation to the offering and will not regard any person other than Gecina (whether or not a recipient of this press release) as its client in relation to the offering and will not be responsible to anyone other than Gecina for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for giving advice in relation to the offering or any transaction, arrangement or other matter referred to in this press release.

1 Subject to the relevant conditions precedent having been satisfied, in particular approval from the French competition authority and the receipt of an unqualified opinion from an independent expert

2 Excluding shares held directly by Ivanhoe Cambridge and shares held by the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the ultimate controlling shareholder of Ivanhoe Cambridge

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006340/en/

Contacts:

GECINA

Financial communications

Samuel Henry-Diesbach, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 40 52 22

samuelhenry-diesbach@gecina.fr

Virginie Sterling, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 40 62 48

virginiesterling@gecina.fr

or

Press relations

Brigitte Cachon, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 40 62 45

brigittecachon@gecina.fr

Theresa Vu, Tel: +33 (0)1 44 82 46 13

theresa.vu@consultants.publicis.fr
Largest IPv6-native Internet backbone will provide area with high speed IP transit, low latency and fewer router hops

Hurricane Electric, the world's largest IPV6-native Internet backbone, continues to expand its global network with the opening of its latest Point of Presence (PoP) in Central Europe at the SRCE Zagreb Data Center. Located at Josipa Marohnica 5 (Trnje), 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, this is Hurricane Electric's first Point of Presence in the Republic of Croatia.

SRCE, otherwise known as the University of Zagreb University Computing Centre, has a long history focusing on the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). A part of the oldest University in Croatia, SCRE acts as the computing center for the school and associated research and educational institutions throughout the country. Additionally, SRCE works to ensure continuous connection among Croatian academic e-infrastructure with the related European and global e-infrastructure and gives practical, consulting and educational support to the members of the academic and research community in using ICT.

With this new PoP, individuals utilizing SRCE Zagreb will have direct access to Hurricane Electric's robust IPv4 and IPv6 network as well as increased network capacity through 100GE (100 Gigabit Ethernet), 10GE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and GigE (1 Gigabit Ethernet) ports. They also now have the opportunity to exchange IP traffic, or "peer," with Hurricane Electric's global network, which is Jumbo Frame (9000 byte MTU) compatible. Additionally, those taking advantage of Hurricane Electric's offerings will also experience increased capacity, more reliability and reduced latency in the delivery of next generation IP services.

"Based on the impressive growth of the telecommunications industry in Central Europe, Hurricane Electric is delighted to open our first Point of Presence in Croatia," said Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric. "The services that we offer will be able to satisfy the intensive bandwidth needs that are inherent in research institutions. With the launch of our 40th European PoP, we look forward to further expanding throughout this important region and beyond in the second half of 2017."

About Hurricane Electric

Fremont, California-based Hurricane Electric operates its own global IPv4 and IPv6 network and is considered the largest IPv6 backbone in the world as measured by number of networks connected. Within its global network, Hurricane Electric is connected to more than 160 major exchange points and exchanges traffic directly with more than 6,000 different networks. Employing a resilient fibre-optic topology, Hurricane Electric has no less than four redundant paths crossing North America, three separate paths between the U.S. and Europe, and rings in Europe and Asia.

In addition to its vast global network, Hurricane Electric owns and operates two data centers in Fremont, California, including Fremont 2, its newest 208,000 square foot facility. Hurricane Electric offers IPv4 and IPv6 transit solutions over the same connection at speeds including 10 Gbps and 100 GbpsEthernet.

For more information on Hurricane Electric, please visit http://he.net.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005481/en/

Contacts:

For Hurricane Electric

Milldam Public Relations

Adam Waitkunas, 978-828-8304

adam.waitkunas@milldampr.com
Conrad Electronic has successfully begun operating its own online marketplace solution for the first time using the B2B marketplace platform by Mirakl, a leading global provider of marketplace solutions

Mirakl, the leading global marketplace solution provider, and Conrad Electronic, a family company based in Hirschau (located in Germany's Upper Palatinate administrative region), announced today that Conrad has rolled out Mirakl's marketplace solution in pursuit of the goal of strategically further developing its B2B activities. The company is addressing technically oriented partners that can tap new customers and markets through the Conrad Marketplace. To date, Conrad has made more than 850,000 products available in its own online platform conrad.biz. By introducing its new marketplace solution, the electronics provider aims to increase this number to 10 million by the end of 2018, thereby allowing marketplace users to benefit from a broad and varied product portfolio.

Prior to selecting Mirakl, Conrad carried out a detailed evaluation of various solutions.

"The main factor behind our final decision was Mirakl's long-standing success in constructing all kinds of different marketplaces, including ones for many French retailers," said Ales Drabek, Chief Disruption Digital Officer (CDDO) at Conrad. "Mirakl has supported us with all business-relevant topics in the marketplace environment, such as selecting a suitable payment provider that enables customers to purchase on account."

Implementing the platform took around nine months only, from planning through to roll-out. Conrad applied the agile scrum method to do so, meaning that each individual task was fixed and implemented following a successful test phase.

In May 2017, the company gave the go-ahead for the beta version of the new solution. As a first step, the marketplace was rolled out on the German website conrad.biz. Conrad wants to gradually integrate other countries where the company is represented as well this year, there are plans for a roll-out in Austria. Within the first few weeks following the launch, Conrad was able to gain a large number of new sellers.

Mirakl offers B2C and B2B marketplace solutions. The B2B version used by Conrad covers all relevant B2B requirements. This solution can also be used to implement specific regional requirements, such as purchasing on account, which is standard for the German market.

Now that Conrad has implemented this innovative solution, the company and its customers enjoy far-reaching advantages for instance, customers benefit from a one-stop-shopping experience, the option to compare offers, and a high level of usability and safety. Login with a single account enables customers to order all kinds of different products. The marketplace will allow Conrad to greatly expand its product range.

"The successfully implemented Conrad project is an important milestone for Mirakl, making more of a name for the company in Germany," said Rabie el Hassani, Director of Sales Central and Eastern Europe at Mirakl in Munich. "We feel that winning a renowned customer such as Conrad sends a strong signal out to the market confirming our value."

"This was a strong collaboration overall, and we enjoyed good communication with Mirakl employees," said Drabek.

You can access the Conrad Marketplace here Take a look for yourself, and explore the new, diverse range of products.

About Conrad Electronic

Conrad Electronic is a German family business that was founded in 1923. With over 4,000 employees, Conrad operates with 17 local-based subsidiaries across Europe. The omnichannel company distributes products to customers in 150 countries worldwide. Conrad's Marketplace Conrad.biz offers a diverse and comprehensive B2B portfolio of over 850,000 articles from leading manufacturers and Conrad owned brands, from the smallest electronic components and development kits through to ranges of test and measurement, automation, cable and tools, the latest consumer electronic devices to computers and communications technologies.

Conrad is a strong and innovative partner for business and private customers alike. Complementing its product offering is a comprehensive range of services delivered through online and local retail facilities, e-procurement solutions and its own local sales force. Conrad is recognised and trusted for its quality services by many leading enterprises across multiple industry sectors. Since the end of 2013, Conrad has possessed new Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) handling facilities and an EPA (Electrostatic Protected Area). The company's whole ESD management system is certified by TUV Nord based on DIN EN 61340-5-1.

About Mirakl

Mirakl gives retailers and brands the ability to quickly launch a new source of revenue with their own online marketplace. The marketplace model allows companies to increase customer value by providing more products, at better prices, with first class quality; creating more opportunities to build loyalty. The Mirakl Marketplace Platform automates the hard things: seller onboarding, service quality control, and order distribution; on an API-based solution that's modular and easy to integrate. Over 130 customers operating marketplaces in 40 countries trust Mirakl's proven expertise and technology including Best Buy Canada, Carrefour, Auchan, Darty, Galeries Lafayette, and VidaXL. Founded in 2012, Mirakl helps companies provide a better customer experience as part of their omni-channel strategy. For more information: www.mirakl.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005288/en/

Contacts:

Ketner Group PR Marketing (for Mirakl)

Adrienne Newcomb or Greg Earl, +1-512-794-8876

miraklpr@ketnergroup.com
DUBLIN, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "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, 2014 - 2025" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global wind turbine operations & maintenance market is expected to reach USD 20.3 billion by 2025

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.

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

- 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.

- 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

- 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

- Latin America and Middle East & Africa 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



Key Topics Covered:



1. Methodology and Scope



2. Executive Summary



3. Wind Turbine Operations & Maintenance Market Variables, Trends & Scope



4. Wind Turbine Operations & Maintenance Market: Application Estimates & Trend Analysis



5. Wind Turbine Operations & Maintenance Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis



6. Competitive Landscape



7. Company Profiles



Enercon GmbH

Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica

GE Wind Turbine

Nordex SE

Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technologies Co. Ltd.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S

Siemens Wind Power GmbH

Suzlon Group

Guodian United Power Technology Company Ltd.

Upwind Solutions, Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4v277x/wind_turbine

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2017 / Mezzi Holdings Inc. ("Mezzi", or the "Company") (TSX-V: MZI, FRA: 0MZ) announces its intention to complete a non-brokered private placement to raise up to $525,000 through the distribution of 7,000,000 common units of the Company at a price of $0.075 per unit. Each unit will comprise one post-consolidated common share and one share purchase warrant; each warrant entitling the holder to acquire one additional post-consolidated share at 10 cents for a period of two years. Please refer to the Company's news release of July 17, 2017 in which the Company announced it would be undertaking a ten-for-one consolidation of its outstanding common shares.

The net proceeds of the private placement will be used by the Company for working capital purposes and for additional business opportunities, which may include investments in the e-commerce, cannabis or blockchain/cryptocurrency industries. Closing of the private placement is subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Finder's fees may be paid in connection with the offering.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Keir Reynolds

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: 778-998-9242

Email: keir@mezzi.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.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially. There is no assurance the Company will be successful in completing its proposed private placement, or entering into any new business opportunities. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

SOURCE: Mezzi Holdings Inc.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/17/17 -- Great Lakes Graphite Inc. ("GLK" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GLK) (OTC PINK: GLKIF) (FRANKFURT: 8GL) announces today a new non-brokered private-placement offering for a total of 40,000,000 units at a price of $CDN 0.05 per share, for gross proceeds of CDN $2,000,000.

Each Unit in the Offering consists of one common share of the Company and one common share-purchase warrant (the "Warrants"); each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at a price of $CDN 0.10 for a period of twenty-four (24) months after the closing of the Offering, which is contingent upon approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Company may pay a finder's fee on the Offering. The net proceeds of the private placement will be used for general working capital. All securities issued in the private placement will be subject to a statutory four month hold period. Closing of the private placement is subject to negotiation and execution of definitive documentation and receipt of all regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Changes to Board of Directors Accompanies Transition

The Board of Directors further announces the resignations of Chairman Richard Lane and Director Greg Murphy, effective August 10, 2017. "The Board is appreciative of the efforts of Greg and Richard on behalf of the Company and wish them both the best in building their respective businesses," said Paul Gorman, the Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Graphite.

About Great Lakes Graphite: Great Lakes Graphite is a Clean Technology Minerals Processing Company supplying customers with innovative, high quality value-added carbon products.

There is no significant graphite production in North America now. As pricing and demand continue to rise, Great Lakes Graphite is one of the first new domestic suppliers to a growing regional customer base. We continually work to deliver products of the best quality with outstanding customer service.

The Company is party to an agreement for long-term supply of high quality natural graphite concentrate from Brazil (see news release dated 03/23/15). Great Lakes Graphite is presently working with an established US-based processor for toll micronization services. The Company has partnered with Ashland Advanced Materials for commercial-scale purification operations at Ashland's 110,000 square foot purification facility located in Niagara, New York.

Through our partner relationships, Great Lakes Graphite began selling micronized synthetic graphite beginning in 2016 and now supplies micronized and high purity micronized natural flake graphite products to a growing customer base.

Further information regarding Great Lakes can be found on the Company's website at: www.GreatLakesGraphite.com.

Great Lakes Graphite trades with symbol GLK on the TSX Venture Exchange and currently has 125,656,830 shares outstanding.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information: Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward looking information" which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking information. When used in this press release, such forward looking information may use such words as "may', "will', "expect', "believe', "plan' and other similar terminology. Forward looking information is provided for the purpose of presenting information about management's current expectations relating to the future events and the operating performance of the Company, and readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to fulfill the orders and future orders, regulatory requirements, general economic, market or business conditions and future developments in the sectors of the economy in which the business of Great Lakes operates. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Please see the Company's financial statements, MD&A and other documents available on www.sedar.com, for a more detailed description of the risk factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward looking information, whether a result of new information, future results or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts:

Paul Ferguson

Chief Marketing Officer

Email: PFerguson@GreatLakesGraphite.com

1-800-754-4510 x106



Paul Gorman

Chief Executive Officer

Email: PGorman@GreatLakesGraphite.com

1-800-754-4510 x109




Kinetics Drive Solutions (Kinetics), has been selected as a subcontractor to Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) to enter into the Production and Deployment Phase of the U.S. Marine Corps' Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) Survivability Upgrade (SU) program. SAIC was awarded an initial Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) option to provide the Marine Corps with additional AAV SU vehicles, which will be the first combat vehicle equipped with Kinetics' state-of-the-art infinitely variable transmission.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171018005162/en/

InfiniDrive HMX3000 Transmission with MD500 Marine Drive PTO (Photo: Business Wire)

Through this collaboration with SAIC, Kinetics' specially designed MD500 marine drive power-take-off and the InfiniDrive HMX3000 transmissions will provide the Marine Corps with a mobility solution that greatly improves both land and water mobility of the better-protected AAV SU vehicle. The infinitely variable nature of the transmission allows the track speed to be optimized independent of engine speed a superior feature for transition from water to land. When in water, the transmission is disconnected enabling the MD500 to provide the AAV SU with the maximum power at the water jets for fast ship-to-shore operation.

At the heart of the HMX3000 is Kinetics' proprietary integrated pump motors (IPM) and transmission control system which provides a highly efficient and power-dense transmission. Kinetics' intelligent transmission controls is also matched to the engine's operating curve to yield optimal efficiency across the entire speed range of the vehicle. The electronic control and by-wire operation of the transmission further offers the Marine Corps a choice to easily upgrade the AAV SU for remote controlled or autonomous operations a unique feature for forward looking capabilities.

"We are extremely pleased that SAIC chose to continue to work with us on this solution for the Marine Corps. We are proud of this collaboration and the trust in our HMX3000 product the latest in our HMX range of transmissions for the defence market. It boosts our confidence in Kinetics to work with and support vehicle integrators and OEMs worldwide to deliver reliable and cost-effective solutions to their customers," said Kinetics CEO Jason Lim.

About Kinetics

Kinetics Drive Solutions Inc., is a multi-disciplinary engineering company providing intelligent drive systems and control solutions for mobile applications. Kinetics' engineering team has produced custom drive solutions for world-class equipment manufacturers, defense contractors and component manufacturers. Kinetics is part of the land systems business of integrated engineering group ST Engineering. For more information please visit www.KineticsDrive.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171018005162/en/

Contacts:

Kinetics Drive Solutions

Media Contact:

Kyle Jackson, +1 604 607 8877

Manager, Sales and Marketing

KyleJ@KineticsDrive.com
ISTANBUL, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global carrier has inaugurated its direct flights to Phuket, one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the world, as beginning from today.

Flying to more countries and also international destinations than any other airline in the world, Turkish Airlines has started to operate four weekly flights to Phuket as from 17 th July .

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161202/445171LOGO )

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/536709/Turkish_Airlines_Phuket.jpg )

The inaugural flight from Istanbul landed at 8.55am in the Phuket International Airport (HKT) and was welcomed by the customary water cannon salutes in a formal ceremony.

Deputy Chairman and CEO of Turkish Airlines Mr. Bilal Eksi, commented at the launch ceremony; "Turkish Airlines is excited to be bringing more value and connectivity to its passengers through its ever expanding network. As an award-winning airline that invites people to explore the beauties of our world, it was a natural choice for us to decide on Phuket as our next destination."

Introductory round trip fares are available from Istanbul to Phuket, starting from 569 American Dollars (including taxes and fees).

Phuket flighttimes as scheduled from July 17th, 2017;

Flight No. Days Departure Arrival TK 172 Monday, Thursday, IST 14:30 HKT 04:00+1 Saturday, Sunday TK 173 Monday, Tuesday, HKT 05:30 IST 12:00 Friday, Sunday

All times in LMT.

Turkish Cargo has also launched its scheduled freighter flights to the island, the most prominent tourism destination of Thailand.

* Turkish Airlines reserves the right to make changes in this regard.

Turkish Airlines, Inc.

Media Relations

About Turkish Airlines:

Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline today with a fleet of 333(passenger and cargo)aircraft flying to 300destinations worldwide with 251international and 49 domestic. According to the 2017 Skytrax survey, Turkish Airlines, already having a six consecutive years of "Best Airline in Europe" award between 2011-2016, now chosen as the "Best Airline in Southern Europe" for the ninth consecutive times. Having won the "Best Economy Class Onboard Catering" award in 2010, Turkish Airlines also awarded as the World's "Best Business Class Onboard Catering" in 2013, 2014 and 2016, and 2017. Winning the "World's Best Business Class Lounge" award in 2015 and 2017, the global carrier also picked up the World's "Best Business Class Lounge Dining" award for the third consecutive years according to this year's survey results. For more information about Turkish Airlines: http://www.turkishairlines.com

Turk Hava Yollari A.O.

Basin Musavirligi

Genel Yonetim Binasi

34149 Yesilkoy-Istanbul

Tel: 0(212)463-63-63 - 11153/11173

Fax: 0 (212)465-20-78

basinortak@thy.com

press@thy.com


DUBLIN, August 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Craft Beer Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global craft beer market to grow at a CAGR of 11.04% during the period 2017-2021.

Global Craft Beer 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. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of the key vendors and consumption of craft beer in various countries in hectoliters.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is Increasing exports of craft beer. In the past few years, the American craft beers were not likely to find a place in the beer markets of Europe and Asia. Current scenario, the American craft beers are one of the major reasons behind the increase in demand for craft beers in Asia and Europe. Craft beers are also able to compete successfully with other alcoholic products in the European countries. The demand for exotic, rare, and innovative flavors of craft beers has increased.

According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is Increasing number of microbreweries in the world. Europe and North America have witnessed a significant growth in the number of microbreweries. The number of microbreweries grew to nearly 73% during the last five years in Europe. A microbrewery is a brewery that makes only limited quantities of beer, specialty beers, and craft beers. The US, the UK, and Germany have the highest number of microbreweries in the world.

Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is Distribution challenges. Retail stores like supermarkets and big chains of discount and convenience stores have become important modes of distribution for craft beer manufacturers. In India and some countries, the craft beer products are not allowed to be marketed by retailing channels like supermarkets, convenience stores, and hypermarkets due to the presence of alcoholic content in them. This has significantly reduced the growth rate of craft beer market in the country. So, vendors are finding innovative methods to increase the product visibility.

Key vendors

D. G. Yuengling & Son (DGYS)

& Son (DGYS) Duvel Moortgat (DM)

(DM) New Belgium Brewing Company (NBBC)

Sierra Nevada Brewing (SNB)

THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY (TBCC)

Other prominent vendors

AF Brew

Asahi Group Holdings (AGH)

BELL'S BREWERY

BrewDog

BUXTON BREWERY

Carlsberg

Celt Experience Brewery

Chimay Brewery

Deschutes Brewery (DB)

Lagunitas Brewing Company (LBC)

Omer Vander Ghinste Brewery

STONE BREWING

The Gambrinus Company (TGC)

Thornbridge Brewery

Van Pur

Key Topics Covered:







Part 01: Executive Summary



Part 02: Scope Of The Report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Introduction



Part 05: Market Landscape



Part 06: Market Segmentation By Product Type



Part 07: Market Segmentation By Distribution Channel



Part 08: Geographic Segmentation



Part 09: Key Leading Countries



Part 10: Decision Framework



Part 11: Drivers And Challenges



Part 12: Market Trends



Part 13: Vendor Landscape



Part 14: Key Vendor Analysis



Part 15: Appendix





For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9ghtk5/global_craft_beer





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Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



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NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- NetworkNewsWire ("NNW"), a multifaceted financial news and publishing company that delivers a new generation of social communication solutions for business, today announces the online availability of its interview with Patriot One Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE: PAT) (OTCQB: PTOTF), a technology company focused on providing security and fighting terrorism with its award-winning PATSCAN CMR concealed weapons detection system.

The interview can be heard at https://www.networknewswire.com/solutions/corporate-communications/interviews/patriot-one-technologies-interview/

Kicking off the interview, NNW's Stuart Smith introduces Martin Cronin, CEO and director of Patriot One Technologies, who describes the innovation of the Company's concealed weapon detection technology.

"What we are providing is a truly disruptive technology where our system can be deployed covertly behind walls, behind ceiling panels, wall panels, and just scan people without them needing to stop, without them being inconvenienced in any way and, critically, without them necessarily knowing that the scan has happened," says Cronin.

Patriot One's unique technology works by combining a low-power radar with machine learning algorithms to make a real-time determination of whether a person is carrying a concealed weapon, such as a gun or a knife or a bomb.

The system is fundamentally different from weapon detection technology currently in use, such as airport screening systems, handheld metal detector wands and metal detector arches. One area of differentiation is visibility. While traditional types of equipment are visible to the people being scanned, Patriot One's PATSCAN CMR system can covertly monitor passers-by.

After working for 21 years for the British government in a variety of roles, including counterterrorism in the Middle East and South Asia, Cronin is leveraging his international knowledge of high-risk environments to help create Patriot One's technology.

Though the Company isn't yet shipping a commercial product, it is gearing up to address increasing demands for its products from around the world. Patriot One has set a modest target for the number of units it planned on placing in clients' hands by the end of 2017.

"As it turns out we've had such demand that even before we can start installing those units, pretty much all of our volume that we anticipated for this year is already committed and we have new distributors coming online on a weekly basis," says Cronin. "New clients come to us on a daily basis."

To meet the surging demand from locations as diverse as New Zealand, South Africa, Britain, the Caribbean, and Latin America, Patriot One is seeking regional distributors and other partners with field service engineering capabilities.

"Our strategy at the moment is based upon identifying partners who have that bench strength and that field presence to allow us to address this market which is really just coming toward us at full speed at the moment," Cronin said.

Patriot One Technologies is the proud winner of the 2017 Security Industry Association's New Product Showcase in the Anti-terrorism/Force Protection category, which was a huge validation from a very distinguished panel, says Cronin. Taking a technology from a lab environment and producing it commercially involves a lot of uncertainty.

"Going from a situation where we could take the lab equipment out into the field, scanning 46 weapons types and delivering an accuracy rate of about 94% true positive detection -- which is just so far ahead of a metal detector -- it's in another world," he adds.

Patriot One is now in the process of acquiring certifications in the U.S. and Canada, a significant milestone that will enable the Company to start shipping its units to meet demand.

About Patriot One Technologies, Inc.

Patriot One Technologies is a technology company based in the city of Burlington in Ontario, Canada. The company is commercially developing covert technology to detect concealed weapons using novel radar technologies and custom software. Patriot One owns the rights to develop, license, manufacture and market worldwide a unique concealed weapon detection technology for use in the fight against terrorism and active shooters.

Developed through a NATO-funded project at McMaster University, Patriot One's disruptive NForce CMR1000 (PATSCAN) technology is the first cost-effective solution available for active shooter prevention, the need for which is evidenced by an increasing number of active shooter events in the United States and worldwide.

The company is guided by a team of experts in the areas of high-frequency electromagnetics, counter-terrorism, conflict resolution, government/corporate interface, sensor development, proactive security and business development. The company has partnered with, among other affiliates, Ridge Global, which was founded by recently appointed advisory board member Tom Ridge, the first head of the Department of Homeland Security, first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, and 43rd governor of Pennsylvania.

For more information visit https://patriot1tech.com

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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.

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VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 18, 2017) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. ("Almaden" or "the Company") (TSX: AMM) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased to announce new assay results from Almaden's ongoing exploration and development program at the Company's Tuligtic project, Mexico. Results reported today are from drill holes TU-17-494, 495, 496 and 497 drilled on sections 10+500 and 10+775 East. Holes TU-17-494, 495 and 496 intersected significant mineralisation and veining inside or immediately outside of the 2017 PFS pit north of the Main Ixtaca Zone. Hole TU-17-497 expanded the Main Ixtaca Zone to depth. Highlights from these drillholes include the following intercepts:

Hole TU-17-494 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 330, Dip -74 18.25 meters @ 0.69 g/t Au and 262.7 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 8.50 meters @ 1.05 g/t Au and 511.4 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 26.00 meters @ 0.19 g/t Au and 346.1 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 8.40 meters @ 0.35 g/t Au and 1035.0 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 4.90 meters @ 0.23 g/t Au and 1704.2 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-495 SECTION 10+500 EAST Az. 150, Dip -70 21.00 meters @ 1.57 g/t Au and 49.0 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 1.85 meters @ 10.49 g/t Au and 481.5 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 11.00 meters @ 1.85 g/t Au and 106.5 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 2.20 meters @ 8.13 g/t Au and 498.7 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 26.10 meters @ 0.80 g/t Au and 9.4 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 7.05 meters @ 1.73 g/t Au and 12.6 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-496 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 330, Dip -85 23.50 meters @ 0.26 g/t Au and 65.8 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-497 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 150, Dip -55 19.25 meters @ 1.05 g/t Au and 73.5 g/t Ag Main Ixtaca Zone Including 4.80 meters @ 3.43 g/t Au and 232.1 g/t Ag Main Ixtaca Zone

www.moosemmc.com.

KP is an international consulting firm and recognized leader in providing engineering and environmental services. KP's expertise has been applied to hundreds of surface and underground mining projects in all stages of development and a broad range of environmental settings. KP provides industry leading services in water and waste management, tailings disposal, heap leach pads, rock mechanics and environmental services, and has been recognized for innovative services that meet high standards of reliability, security and cost effectiveness.

Other Ixtaca Project Developments

Almaden confirms that it recently made the US$2.0 million option payment to the vendor of the Rock Creek Mill. A further payment of US$3.75 million is due in June, 2018, at which point the Company will have completed all of the payments required for purchase of the mill.

Almaden has engaged Dynamic Engineering Services ("Dynamic"), which specializes in the dismantlement and transportation of large industrial sites, as project lead for the transport of the Rock Creek mill from Nome, Alaska to Mexico. Dynamic currently has a team at the Rock Creek site preparing for next year's move. Preparations involve establishing a camp for personnel, arranging for delivery of initial containers to site this summer, engaging with the Nome port authorities, preparing the mill for dismantlement, and confirming the availability and working order of equipment required for disassembling the plant. As part of this process, Almaden recently purchased a used mobile crane which is currently at the site, for US$50,000.

The Company has completed the preparation of its Environmental Impact Assessment (MIA) for the Ixtaca project, and has provided the document to third party consultants for review. Based on guidance from this third party, Almaden anticipates submitting these permits in the third quarter.

In its technical report on the Ixtaca project, which was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and filed on SEDAR on May 17, 2017, Almaden's technical consultants identified the potential for the dominant host rock at the Ixtaca project -- limestone -- to be a valuable by-product of the gold and silver production.

A large portion of the Ixtaca waste rock is non-mineralized limestone. Geo-chemical and geo-mechanical tests indicate that most of the limestone waste rock is likely suitable for use as an aggregate. The high calcium content also makes it potentially suitable for agriculture. Given Ixtaca's location near a significant industrial park and along major highways linking Mexico City to Puebla City, the technical consultants have recommended that the >60 million tonne per year Mexican aggregate market should be investigated.

In addition, chemical analysis of the limestone flotation tailings shows high calcium content with low impurities. The technical consultants have also recommended an investigation to determine if the Ixtaca flotation tailings are a potential feedstock for a cement production process.

Almaden intends to engage a third party specialist in aggregate products to explore the potential by-product contribution of this aggregate material. The potential to find a market for these by-products could have significant benefits for the project, both through their contribution to the revenue stream and through the decreased downstream handling of the un-mineralised waste rock.

About the Ixtaca Drilling Program and the Ixtaca Zone

The Ixtaca Zone is a blind discovery made by the Company in 2010 on claims staked by the Company. The deposit is an epithermal gold-silver deposit, mostly hosted by veins in carbonate units and crosscutting dykes ("basement rocks") with a minor component of disseminated mineralisation hosted in overlying volcanic rocks.

The Ixtaca deposit is located in a developed part of Mexico in Puebla State, the location of significant manufacturing investments including Volkswagen and Audi plants. The deposit is accessed by paved road and is roughly 30 kilometres from an industrial park with rail service where significant manufacturers such as Kimberly Clarke have facilities. Any potential mining operation at Ixtaca would be located in an area previously logged or cleared with negligible to no current land usage.

The Company has access to the entire project area and works closely with local officials and residents. The Company has employed roughly 70 people in its exploration program who live local to the Ixtaca deposit. For example, local employees have made up virtually all the drilling staff and have been trained on the job to operate the drill rigs being used at the project. The Company has implemented a comprehensive science based and objective community relations and education program for employees and all local stakeholders to transparently explain the exploration and development program underway as well as the potential impacts and benefits of any possible future mining operation at Ixtaca. The Company regards the local inhabitants to be major stakeholders in the Ixtaca deposit's future along with the Company's shareholders. Every effort is being made to create an open and clear dialogue with our stakeholders to ensure that any possible development scenarios that could evolve from the feasibility study work are properly understood and communicated throughout the course of the Company's exploration and development program. To better explain the impacts of a mining operation at Ixtaca the Company has conducted numerous tours for local residents to third party operated mines in Mexico so that interested individuals can form their own opinions of mining based on first-hand experience. The Company invites all interested parties to visit www.almadenminerals.com to find out more about our community development, education and outreach programs.

Technical Details of the Ixtaca Drilling Program

The Main Ixtaca and Ixtaca North Zones of veining are interpreted to have a north-easterly trend. Holes to date suggest that the Main Ixtaca and Ixtaca North Zones are sub vertical with local variations. This interpretation suggests that true widths range from approximately 35% of intersected widths for a -70 degree hole to 94% of intersected widths for a -20 degree hole. The drilling completed to date has traced mineralisation over 1,000 meters along this northeast trend. The Chemalaco (Northeast Extension) Zone strikes roughly north-south (340 azimuth) and dips at 55 degrees to the west. This interpretation suggests that true widths range from approximately 82% of intersected widths for a -70 degree hole to 99% of intersected widths for a -40 degree hole. The orientations of the new vein zones intersected in the holes reported today are not well understood and true widths cannot be calculated at this time.

Mr. Norm Dircks, P.Geo., a qualified person ("QP") under the meaning of NI 43-101, is the QP and project manager of Almaden's Ixtaca program and reviewed the technical information in this news release. The analyses reported were carried out at ALS Chemex Laboratories of North Vancouver using industry standard analytical techniques. For gold, samples are first analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy ("AAS"). Samples that return values greater than 10 g/t gold using this technique are then re-analysed by fire assay but with a gravimetric finish. Silver is first analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma - Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ("ICP-AES"). Samples that return values greater than 100 g/t silver by ICP-AES are then re analysed by HF-HNO 3 -HCLO 4 digestion with HCL leach and ICP-AES finish. Of these samples those that return silver values greater than 1,500 g/t are further analysed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Intervals that returned assays below detection were assigned zero values.

Blanks, field duplicates and certified standards were inserted into the sample stream as part of Almaden's quality assurance and control program which complies with National Instrument 43-101 requirements.

Cautionary Note concerning estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources

This news release uses terms that comply with reporting standards in Canada and certain estimates are made in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes Canadian standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and mineral resource information contained herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by United States companies.

This news release uses the terms "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" and "inferred mineral resources" to comply with reporting standards in Canada. We advise United States investors that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the SEC does not recognize them. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in such categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves under SEC definitions. These terms have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Therefore, United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of the "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" exist. In accordance with Canadian rules, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" cannot form the basis of pre-feasibility or other economic studies. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of the "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category.

About Almaden

Almaden Minerals Ltd. owns 100% of the Tuligtic project in Puebla State, Mexico, subject to a 2.0% NSR royalty held by Almadex Minerals Limited. Tuligtic covers the Ixtaca Gold-Silver Deposit, which was discovered by Almaden in 2010.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Morgan Poliquin"

Morgan J. Poliquin, Ph.D., P.Eng.

President, CEO and Director

Almaden Minerals Ltd.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) nor the NYSE MKT have reviewed or accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release which has been prepared by management. Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, certain information presented constitutes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, those with respect to potential expansion of mineralization, potential size of mineralized zone, and size and timing of exploration and development programs, estimated project capital and other project costs and the timing of submission and receipt and availability of regulatory approvals involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Almaden to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to international operations and joint ventures, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, uncertainty in the estimation of mineral resources, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, environmental risks and hazards, increased infrastructure and/or operating costs, labour and employment matters, and government regulation and permitting requirements as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Almaden's Annual Information form and Almaden's latest Form 20-F on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. Although Almaden has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Almaden disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required pursuant to applicable securities laws. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

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Contact Information:



Almaden Minerals Ltd.

Tel. 604.689.7644

Email: info@almadenminerals.com

http://www.almadenminerals.com/


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump's top legislative priority to repeal and replace Obamacare with a Republican health care plan was dealt a potentially fatal blow as two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the Bill.



The fate of the Trump Government's prestige legislation had turned uncertain last month with two Republican Senators - Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul - expressing their opposition to the draft of the Bill.



And Monday night GOP Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas said they could not support the current bill.



At least 51 votes are needed for passage of the Bill in the 100-member Upper House.



The GOP has 52 members in the Senate, but since four of them made it clear they will not vote for the Bill, it is impossible for it to pass in its current form.



Trump quickly called on GOP lawmakers to simply repeal Obamacare so that they can start work on a new Healthcare Plan 'from a clean slate'.



Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted that it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the Obamacare will not be successful.



He said the Senate will vote to take up the House bill to repeal Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered health care system.



Sen. John McCain, who is recovering from surgery, warned fellow Republicans not to repeat the original mistakes that led to Obamacare's failure. He called on the Congress to hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of Governors to produce a new bill.



In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families, according to Sen. Mike Lee.



Senator Jerry Moran called to start with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for preexisting conditions, increased access and lower overall costs for Kansans.



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Affirms Strategic and Financial Rationale of Transaction and Clear Long-Term Value Creation Opportunity for Shareholders

Ensco plc (NYSE:ESV) today announced that independent proxy advisory firm Egan-Jones Rating Company ("Egan-Jones") has joined Glass Lewis ("Glass Lewis") in recommending that Ensco shareholders vote "FOR" the pending all-stock acquisition of Atwood Oceanics, Inc. at the company's upcoming general meeting of shareholders on 5 October 2017. The Egan-Jones recommendation affirms the strategic and financial rationale of the transaction and clear long-term value creation opportunity for Ensco shareholders.

In making its recommendation, Egan-Jones noted

"Egan-Jones views the proposed transaction to be a desirable approach in maximizing shareholder value. After careful consideration, we believe that approval of the merger is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders and its advantages and opportunities outweigh the risks associated to the transaction."

"the merger would enhance Ensco's asset base through the addition of high-specification drillships, semisubmersibles and jackups, creating a combined fleet that would be among the most technologically advanced in the industry and meet the deep- and shallow-water drilling requirements of clients around the world."

"the merger would lead to future business opportunities with a geographically diversified client base and operating area, with operations spanning six continents in every major deep- and shallow-water basin around the world, positioning the combined company to capitalize on increased client demand for offshore drilling rigs in the future."

"the merger would result in a well-capitalized pro forma company with a strong liquidity position."

Ensco President and CEO Carl Trowell commented, "We are pleased that Egan-Jones has joined Glass Lewis in endorsing the long-term strategic and financial advantages that Ensco's acquisition of Atwood would create. By adding Atwood's high-specification assets, we will enhance our position as a Tier 1 offshore driller while maintaining financial flexibility and a strong pro forma liquidity position. Importantly, Egan-Jones and Glass Lewis have both recognized the significant upside the acquisition creates for Ensco shareholders, with substantial cost synergies and double-digit accretion expected. We are confident that this transaction will further the company's ability to meet customer demand and strengthen our position in the sector. We look forward to completing the acquisition at Ensco's general meeting of shareholders."

Ensco's Board of Directors unanimously recommends that Ensco shareholders vote "FOR" the proposal to combine with Atwood in an all-stock transaction at the upcoming general meeting of shareholders, which is necessary to complete the acquisition.

Ensco's general meeting of shareholders is scheduled to take place on 5 October 2017 at 3:00 p.m. (London time) at the Offices of Slaughter and May, One Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8YY, England. All shareholders of record of Ensco's common stock as of the close of business on 23 August 2017 will be entitled to vote their shares either in person or by proxy at the shareholder meeting.

Atwood's 2017 special meeting of shareholders is scheduled for 5 October 2017.

As previously announced on 30 May 2017, Ensco and Atwood have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Ensco will acquire Atwood in an all-stock transaction that was unanimously approved by each company's board of directors. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Atwood shareholders will receive 1.60 shares of Ensco for each share of Atwood common stock for a total value of $10.72 per Atwood share based on Ensco's closing share price of $6.70 on 26 May 2017. Upon close of the transaction, Ensco and Atwood shareholders will own approximately 69% and 31%, respectively, of the outstanding shares of Ensco plc. There are no financing conditions for this transaction. On 29 June 2017, Ensco and Atwood announced early termination of the waiting period under the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The company anticipates closing the transaction in the first week of October 2017.

Shareholders who have questions about the merger and/or the process to submit proxies or voting instructions may contact Ensco's proxy solicitors, D.F. King at +1 (888) 626-0988 or MacKenzie Partners at +1 (800) 322-2885, or Atwood's proxy solicitor, Innisfree M&A Incorporated at +1 (888) 750-5834. Banks and Brokers may call collect at +1 (212) 269-5550 or +1 (212) 929-5500 for Ensco or +1 (212) 750-5833 for Atwood. Copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and/or proxy card may be obtained from the respective proxy solicitors.

Shareholders of both companies are encouraged to read the proxy materials in their entirety as they provide, among other information, a discussion of the reasons behind the recommendation of each company's board of directors that shareholders vote "FOR" the approvals necessary to complete the pending merger.

*Permission to use quotations neither sought nor obtained

About Ensco

Ensco plc (NYSE:ESV) brings energy to the world as a global provider of offshore drilling services to the petroleum industry. For more than 30 years, the company has focused on operating safely and going beyond customer expectations. Ensco is ranked first in total customer satisfaction in the latest independent survey by EnergyPoint Research the seventh consecutive year that Ensco has earned this distinction. Operating one of the newest ultra-deepwater rig fleets and a leading premium jackup fleet, Ensco has a major presence in the most strategic offshore basins across six continents. Ensco plc is an English limited company (England No. 7023598) with its corporate headquarters located at 6 Chesterfield Gardens, London W1J 5BQ. To learn more, visit our website at www.enscoplc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included in this release regarding the proposed transaction, benefits, expected synergies and other expense savings and operational and administrative efficiencies, opportunities, timing, expense and effects of the transaction, financial performance, accretion to discounted cash flows, revenue growth, future dividend levels, credit ratings or other attributes of Ensco following the completion of the transaction and other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements (including within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended). Forward-looking statements include words or phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "could," "may," "might," "should," "will" and words and phrases of similar import. These statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, actions by regulatory authorities, rating agencies or other third parties, actions by the respective companies' security holders, costs and difficulties related to integration of Atwood, delays, costs and difficulties related to the transaction, market conditions, and Ensco's financial results and performance following the completion of the transaction, satisfaction of closing conditions, ability to repay debt and timing thereof, availability and terms of any financing and other factors detailed in the risk factors section and elsewhere in Ensco's and Atwood's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and September 30, 2016, respectively, and their respective other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize (or the other consequences of such a development worsen), or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those forecasted or expected. All information in this release is as of the date of the release. Except as required by law, Ensco disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly or revise such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Important Additional Information Regarding the Atwood Merger

In connection with the pending merger with Atwood, Ensco has filed a registration statement on Form S-4, including a definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus of Ensco and Atwood, with the SEC. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF ENSCO AND ATWOOD ARE ADVISED TO CAREFULLY READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRANSACTION, THE PARTIES TO THE TRANSACTION AND THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSACTION. A definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus has been sent to security holders of Ensco and Atwood in connection with the Ensco and Atwood shareholder meetings. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents filed by Ensco and Atwood with the SEC from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Security holders and other interested parties are also able to obtain, without charge, a copy of the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents by directing a request by mail or telephone to either Investor Relations, Ensco plc, 5847 San Felipe, Suite 3300, Houston, Texas 77057, telephone 713-430-4607, or Investor Relations, Atwood Oceanics, Inc., 15011 Katy Freeway, Suite 800, Houston, Texas 77094, telephone 281-749-7840. Copies of the documents filed by Ensco with the SEC are available free of charge on Ensco's website at www.enscoplc.com under the tab "Investors." Copies of the documents filed by Atwood with the SEC are available free of charge on Atwood's website at www.atwd.com under the tab "Investor Relations." Security holders may also read and copy any reports, statements and other information filed with the SEC at the SEC public reference room at 100 F Street N.E., Room 1580, Washington D.C. 20549. Please call the SEC at (800) 732-0330 or visit the SEC's website for further information on its public reference room.

Participants in the Solicitation

Ensco and Atwood and their respective directors, executive officers and certain other members of management may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from their respective security holders with respect to the transaction. Information about these persons is set forth in Ensco's proxy statement relating to its 2017 General Meeting of Shareholders and Atwood's proxy statement relating to its 2017 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, as filed with the SEC on 31 March 2017 and 9 January 2017, respectively, and subsequent statements of changes in beneficial ownership on file with the SEC. Security holders and investors may obtain additional information regarding the interests of such persons, which may be different than those of the respective companies' security holders generally, by reading the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents regarding the transaction, which have been filed with the SEC.

No Offer or Solicitation

This release is not intended to and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy or an invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities or the solicitation of any vote in any jurisdiction pursuant to the pending transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. Subject to certain exceptions to be approved by the relevant regulators or certain facts to be ascertained, the public offer will not be made directly or indirectly, in or into any jurisdiction where to do so would constitute a violation of the laws of such jurisdiction, or by use of the mails or by any means or instrumentality (including without limitation, facsimile transmission, telephone and the internet) of interstate or foreign commerce, or any facility of a national securities exchange, of any such jurisdiction.

Service of Process

Ensco is incorporated under the laws of England and Wales. In addition, some of its officers and directors reside outside the United States, and some or all of its assets are or may be located in jurisdictions outside the United States. Therefore, investors may have difficulty effecting service of process within the United States upon those persons or recovering against Ensco or its officers or directors on judgments of United States courts, including judgments based upon the civil liability provisions of the United States federal securities laws. It may not be possible to sue Ensco or its officers or directors in a non-U.S. court for violations of the U.S. securities laws.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170929005384/en/

Contacts:

Ensco

Investor Media Contacts:

Nick Georgas, 713-430-4607

Director - Investor Relations and Communications

or

Tim Richardson, 713-430-4490

Manager Investor Relations
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2017 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on small-cap and micro-cap public companies, today announced it has initiated coverage on PURE Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: PURE) with a 12-month price target of $2.45

The report is available here: PURE Initiation Report.

PURE is focused on developing and commercializing its proprietary silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC)-based antimicrobial products primarily in the food safety arena. SDC is non-toxic and offers superior efficacy in reducing pathogens when compared with other incumbent products. Persistent foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls in recent times has resulted in stricter compliance norms, thereby providing huge tailwind for PURE. The new Food Safety Modernization Act, USDA's Salmonella Action Plan and increasing DoJ activity are likely to benefit PURE as companies seek superior food safety solutions to adhere to new standards. PURE's addressable opportunity is large (~$2.5 billion market) and the company is targeting to achieve ~10% market share over the long term (~$250 million revenues). We see PURE as a speculative play on the expanding food safety market, with superior product technology and an experienced management team. The company has made considerable progress over the last few years, with revenues growing ~72% YOY in 9M17. Going forward in FY18, we expect PURE to increase revenues approximately 403% YOY to $9.7 million aided by new customer acquisitions, commercialization of PURE Control, and entry into new markets (poultry and produce processing).

Increased regulatory scrutiny to benefit PURE

With rules finalized under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2016, the FDA is stepping up compliance and enforcement efforts through increased inspections of manufacturers and processors, especially in the areas of preventive controls and environmental monitoring programs. In addition, the USDA, under its Salmonella Action Plan, has finalized new federal standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry. To enforce compliance, the USDA is increasing the frequency and rigor of testing, and will be posting individual companies' food safety performance online. USDA currently estimates ~63% of plants to be out of compliance.

Moreover, the number of foodborne outbreaks and product recalls continue to persist, which negatively impacts the affected brand's value. All these challenges are pushing companies to seek superior food safety solutions, thereby providing tailwind to PURE's products.

Disruptive SDC technology with high entry barriers

PURE is commercializing patented SDC-based antimicrobial products (FDA/USDA approved PURE Control and EPA registered PURE Hard Surface). SDC test data demonstrate proven superior efficacy over a broad spectrum of pathogens, including E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter and Norovirus, when compared with other products currently in use in the food industry. PURE Hard Surface shows 90% improvement in pathogen reduction on surfaces vs. incumbent products. PURE enjoys extensive competitive barriers in the form of 12 US patents and the unique EPA, FDA and USDA approvals.

Large market size

Management is focused on commercializing SDC primarily for the food-safety-solutions industry which represents a $2.5 billion opportunity (combined for its 2 products). The company is targeting to achieve a market share of ~10% (or $250 million) driven by launch of PURE Control and accelerating sales of PURE Hard Surface Disinfectant. PURE Control has already received a first sales order in the US produce processing aids market ($300 million size), while revenue from the $350 million plus US poultry processing aids market is anticipated soon (F1Q/2Q18). Further, the company is targeting to begin commercialization of PURE Control for $400 million US beef and pork processing aids market by the end of calendar 2018. The sales pipeline for PURE Hard Surface remains robust with three additional national chains and more than 50 food processors evaluating the product for use.

Initiate coverage with 12-month price target of $2.45

We see PURE as a high risk and high reward play on the expanding food safety industry which has seen increased regulatory scrutiny over the last year amid foodborne related illness outbreaks. The target of $2.45 assumes successful commercialization of PURE Control and more traction for the existing products amid stricter compliance standards. Any delay in the launch of PURE Control could adversely impact our target price. Investors need to note the inherent risks involved.

Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.

About PURE Bioscience, Inc.

PURE Bioscience, Inc. is focused on developing and commercializing its proprietary antimicrobial products primarily in the food safety arena. PURE technology platform is based on patented silver dihydrogen citrate, or SDC. SDC is a broad-spectrum, non-toxic antimicrobial agent, which offers 24-hour residual protection and formulates well with other compounds. As a platform technology, SDC is distinguished from existing products in the marketplace because of its superior efficacy, reduced toxicity and the inability of bacteria to form a resistance to it. PURE is headquartered in El Cajon, California (San Diego metropolitan area). Additional information on PURE is available at www.purebio.com.

About SeeThruEquity

Since its founding in 2011, SeeThruEquity has been committed to its core mission: providing impactful, high quality research on underfollowed smallcap and microcap equities. SeeThruEquity has pioneered an innovative business model for equity research that is not paid for and is unbiased. SeeThruEquity is the host of acclaimed investor conferences that are the ultimate event for publicly traded companies with market capitalizations less than $1 billion.

SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research reports and estimates to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), the leading estimates platform on Wall Street, as well as Capital IQ and FactSet. SeeThruEquity maintains one of the industry's most extensive databases of opt-in institutional and high net worth investors. The firm is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.



For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

Ajay Tandon

SeeThruEquity

info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity
18 July 2017

AfriAg Global PLC

("AfriAg Global" or the "Company")

Medical Cannabis Sector Update

AfriAg Global PLC, the London listed global food and logistics group, announces that AfriAg (Pty) Ltd ("AfriAg"), the Company's 40% owned agri-logistics specialist, and their joint venture partner in their southern African medical cannabis initiative, LGC Capital (TSXV: QBA), have signed sole and exclusive agreements to acquire a 60% interest in South Africa's House of Hemp.



The House of Hemp in South Africa has a long term lease on the only certified indoor growing facility for the possession and cultivation of the Cannabis Sativa Plant for research purposes which includes growing, extraction and packaging, at the Dube TradePort AgriZone, which is located within the highly secure precinct of the Durban International Airport.



The Greenhouse "Block D" site is currently the only approved hemp/cannabis indoor growing site in South Africa. The site consists of approx. 37,633m (405,000 square feet) of fully equipped, temperature regulated and humidity controlled greenhouse under glass plus associated support infrastructure comprising refrigerated pack houses, laboratories and offices covering 1,760m2 (19,000 square feet).



In 2010 House of Hemp became the first private company in South Africa to be awarded an exclusive permit from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health to legally cultivate and process hemp and cannabis products and has licences in place to import cannabis seed and products.



Since its establishment, the House of Hemp has been targeting research on all cannabis-related markets (textiles/fibres, oil/nutrition and medicinal) and has been appointed to coordinate commercial research on medical cannabis and is currently in the process of securing a second R&D license to grow and commercialize medicinal cannabis and medicinal cannabis products with varying Tetrahydrocannabinol ("THC") and CBD content, and to operate legally in South Africa.

Related Party Transaction

David Lenigas serves as the Chairman of AfriAg, AfriAg Global and LGC. Pursuant to the NEX Exchange Growth Market Rules for Issuers, the transaction with AfriAg constitutes a related party transaction.

The Transaction

LGC and AfriAg have jointly signed a binding agreement with the House of Hemp in South Africa, for the sole and exclusive right to acquire a 60% beneficial interest in the House of Hemp and upon signing this agreement have committed to make an initial payment of CDN $19,595 within the next two days. LGC and AfriAg have also committed to pay an additional amount of CDN $37,000 by July 28th to House of Hemp for next month's (August 2017) general overheads, salaries and growing facility lease payments. LGC and AfriAg will continue paying CDN $37,000 monthly for a period of six months to keep House of Hemp fully funded while completing the transfer of interest documentation and to allow for sufficient time to complete investigative studies on the most cost efficient ways of commencing scalable production. As part of the transaction, LGC and AfriAg have also committed to secure the necessary CDN $4.9 million estimated to commence large scale trial production within the Dube TradePort Block D greenhouses as soon as development plans are finalised.

About Dube TradePort



Dube TradePort Corporation, a business entity of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, is charged with the responsibility to develop the province's biggest infrastructural project. Considered one of South Africa's top 10 investment opportunities, this designated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is geared to promote foreign and local investment.



The precinct is strategically located 30km north of the important coastal city of Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, on South Africa's eastern seaboard. This over 3,000 hectare development is home to the state-of-the-art King Shaka International Airport and is ideally positioned 30 minutes from Africa's busiest cargo port, Durban Harbour, and 90 minutes from Richards Bay Harbour. Dube TradePort takes advantage of its prime location as the only facility in Africa combining an international airport, dedicated cargo terminal, warehousing, offices, retail, hotels and agriculture.



About Dube AgriZone



Dube AgriZone is Africa's first integrated perishables supply chain and the most technologically advanced future farming platform on the continent.



This high-tech agricultural development, which forms part of the Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone (SEZ), is host to the largest climate-controlled glass-covered growing area in Africa. It aims to stimulate the growth of KwaZulu-Natal's perishables sector and affords the opportunity to achieve improved agricultural yields, consistent quality, year-round production and the superior management of disease and pests.



The facility's primary focus is on the production of short shelf-life vegetables and other horticultural products which require immediate post-harvest airlifting and supply to both domestic and export markets.



The present phase one development comprises an extensive 16 hectares of greenhouses, dedicated post-harvest packhouses, a central packing and distribution centre, a nursery and a sophisticated plant tissue culture laboratory, Dube AgriLab.



The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

-ENDS-
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Kazakhstan and Austria have signed a memorandum on cooperation to introduce the green economy concept as part of the International forum Green Bridge Partnership Program held at EXPO 2017.

The bilateral agreement also provides for the establishment of an International Center for the development of greentechnologies and thedevelopment of investment projects under the auspices of the UN.

In his opening speech, the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kanat Bozumbayev emphasized the importance of introducingprinciplesofresource conservation in the light of Kazakhstan's obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030 compared to 1990. He also emphasized the importance ofthe Green Bridge Partnership Program for achieving the goals, including those related to green technology transfer.

"At a national level, Kazakhstan has already begun to implement a large-scale program to modernize the country's economy. The necessary legal framework has been put in place to ensure a smooth transition to a green economy," added Mr. Bozumbayev.

During the international forum, which lasted two days, the participants discussed a number of issues including the development of low carbon technologies, adhering to the Paris Agreement and attracting green investments.

About the Green Bridge Partnership Program

The Program was initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan at the meeting of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly and approved at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

The Program is aimed at promoting cooperation between countries, the business community and the general public to support the transition to a green economy.

About Astana EXPO 2017

The International Specialized Exhibition Astana EXPO-2017 is dedicated to Future Energy. It is an educational and recreational event that will take place between June 10 and September 10 in Astana. The exhibition will last 93 days and will be one of the most spectacular cultural venues of 2017.

As part of Astana EXPO 2017, global policy documents will be drafted to promote an energy-efficient lifestyle and wide use of renewable energy sources.

Follow us on social media:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-D1aUUN1oQGyUUbZv1zXg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Expo2017AstanaInternational/timeline

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Expo2017_Int

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expo2017astana_intl/

Weibo: http://weibo.com/p/1006065901042853/home?from=page_100606&mod=TAB&is_hot=1

National company "Astana EXPO-2017"

For more information, please contact:

Emin Bayramov

Expo2017@m-p.ru

Natalia Kostikova,

expo2017@m-p.ru,

+7(903)209-35-00


MONACO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Costamare Inc. (NYSE: CMRE), announced today that it will release its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 after the market closes in New York on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Following the earnings release, Costamare's management team will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results on Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Conference Call Details:

On Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. ET, Costamare's management team will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results.

Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: 1-844-887-9405 (from the US), 0808-238-9064 (from the UK) or +1-412-317-9258 (from outside the US). Please quote "Costamare". A replay of the conference call will be available until August 26, 2017. The United States replay number is +1-877-344-7529; the standard international replay number is +1-412-317-0088; and the access code required for the replay is: 10110721.

Live Webcast:

There will also be a simultaneous live webcast over the Internet, through the Costamare Inc. website (www.costamare.com) under the "Investors" section. Participants to the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast.

About Costamare Inc.

Costamare Inc. is one of the world's leading owners and providers of containerships for charter. The Company has 43 years of history in the international shipping industry and a fleet of 72 containerships, with a total capacity of approximately 473,000 TEU, including two newbuild containerships on order. Eighteen of the Company's containerships, including the two newbuilds, have been acquired pursuant to the Framework Deed with York Capital Management by vessel-owning joint venture entities in which we hold a minority equity interest. The Company's common stock, Series B Preferred Stock, Series C Preferred Stock and Series D Preferred Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols "CMRE", "CMRE PR B", "CMRE PR C" and "CMRE PR D", respectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements". In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "believe", "intend", "anticipate", "estimate", "project", "forecast", "plan", "potential", "may", "should", "could" and "expect" and similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that actual results may differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect future results, see the discussion in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 001-34934) under the caption "Risk Factors".
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Viscount Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: VML)(OTCQB: VLMGF) ("Viscount" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gilles Arseneau to complete a NI43-101 Report of its historical and current data from drilling and sampling at its Silver Cliff Project in Colorado. Dr. Arseneau holds a Ph.D Geology, from Colorado School of Mines, an M.Sc from the University of Western Ontario, 1984, and a B.Sc Univ. of New Brunswick.

Dr. Arseneau's technical expertise includes evaluating gold and base metal deposits in North, Central, and South America, as well as China and Europe. He has more than 25 years' experience consulting to mining companies and engineering firms. Since 2010 he has been independent, working as an associate to SRK Canada, fulfilling the role of Principal Geologist mainly responsible for due diligence reviews of mining projects, preparing resource estimates, including scoping and pre-feasibility studies for many types of metal deposits. Prior to SRK, Dr. Arseneau was the Manager of Geology at Wardrop Engineering from 2006 to 2010, supervising 18 staff in 4 offices in Canada, the UK, and China.

Extremely helpful to Viscount will be his insight gained while at the TSX Venture Exchange from 2002 to 2006, serving as Manager of Geology. Dr. Arseneau was the principal technical advisor for all major mining transactions, including reviewing NI43-101 technical reports, reviewing reverse takeovers, and listing applications. From 1997 to 2002, just after he left Echo Bay Mines, Dr. Arseneau established and then managed the Vancouver office for "RPA" (Roscoe Postle Associates Inc). Dr. Arseneau directed ore reserve audits, resource estimations, valuation of exploration properties and business development for gold and base metal projects in the Americas.

Over the years, some of Dr. Arseneau's clients have included: Teck Mining, Hecla Mining, Nevsun, Silver Standard and Northair Mines.

Chairman Kaare Foy stated, "We are pleased to welcome Dr. Arseneau to the team. His technical expertise will be a tremendous asset reviewing not only our field work and drilling data, but also the newly acquired historical data. This data includes extensive maps of the district showing claims, locations of historic resource estimates, drill holes, township, and infrastructure data. This is all proving to be valuable as we move the project forward."

About Viscount Mining (TSX VENTURE: VML) (OTCQB: VLMGF)

Viscount Mining is a project generator and an exploration company with a portfolio of silver and gold properties in the Western United States, including Silver Cliff in Colorado and Cherry Creek in Nevada.

The Silver Cliff property in Colorado lies within the historic Hardscrabble Silver District in the Wet Mountain Valley, Custer County, south-central Colorado. It is located 44 miles WSW of Pueblo, Colorado, and has year-around access by paved road. The property consists of 2,029 acres where high grade silver, gold and base metal production came from numerous mines during the period 1878 to the early 1900's. Subsequently, there was little activity until the late 1960s to early 1990s when the property underwent substantial periods of exploration and evaluation. Drilling in the 1980s by Tenneco resulted in a historical pre-feasibility study which formed the company's decision to put the property into production. Plans were halted due to the restructuring of Tenneco after it was sold. Other companies exploring here besides Tenneco Minerals have included: Freeport, Hecla, Homestake, Moly Corp, Coca Mines and Tenneco Minerals. In January 2017, Viscount Mining reported additional high grade silver intersections from the drill program completed in December 2016.

The Cherry Creek Property is focused on exploration in the immediate vicinity of an area commonly known as the Cherry Creek Mining District, located approximately 30 miles north of the town of Ely, in White Pine County, Nevada. Cherry Creek consists of over 400 unpatented and patented claims as well as mill rights, and is comprised of more than 9,000 acres. Cherry Creek includes more than 20 past producing mines including Blue Bird, Chance Mine, Filmore, Last Chance, Exchequer/ New Century Mine, Ticup and Motherlode mines.

For additional information regarding the above noted property and other corporate information, please visit the Company's website at www.viscountmining.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jim MacKenzie, President, CEO and Director

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Viscount Mining Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Viscount Mining Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Viscount Mining Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

Contacts:

Viscount Investor Relations

Phone: 1 844 863 3622

Email: info@viscountmining.com




DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 18, 2017 / North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: USMJ) ("USMJ") today announced optimism for the entire medical marijuana sector. The message from Washington D.C. since the Trump Administration took office has been mixed, at best, and, in general, not overly supportive when it comes to federal support of state marijuana legalization. Last week, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment on Thursday with a bi-partisan vote to allow veterans to receive recommendations for medical marijuana (See Forbes Cannabis Industry Recap).

Cannabis Legalization Advocacy

USMJ is a veteran-founded cannabis industry company and, in addition to developing a variety of cannabis industry enterprises, USMJ is a regular advocate for marijuana legalization. The Company recently hosted a Fourth of July Holiday Season Social Media Campaign to Rally Support for Marijuana Legalization, encouraging supporters to repost an image of a painting of President George Washington in his hemp field with the label Making America 420 Friendly Again.

USMJ Business Momentum

USMJ business development continues to build momentum. The Company anticipates a major announcement coming soon in conjunction with a contract to co-brand its AmeriCanna Cafe CBD Infused Water. The contract is anticipated to result in a substantial boost to sales in the second half of 2017. The contract is also anticipated to result in a substantial increase to Puration, Inc. (OTC PINK: PURA) ("PURA") sales. PURA provides all cannabis extracts for USMJ beverages and nutritional supplements. USMJ currently reports over $500,000 in annual revenue and PURA has recently signed a letter of intent to acquire an operation expected to produce $1 million in annual revenue.

Learn More About USMJ: growusmj.com

Learn More About PURA: purationinc.com

Disclaimer/Safe Harbor:

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

North American Cannabis Holdings Contact:

Steven Rash

Phone: +1-972-528-0162

Email: Info@growusmj.com

SOURCE: North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Philip Renaud (3rd Floor, Foxglove House, 166 Piccadilly, London, England, W1J 9EF), the Chairman and a director of Kane Biotech Inc. (162-196 Innovation Drive, Winnipeg Manitoba R3T 2N2 - TSX VENTURE:KNE) (the "Corporation"), announces that he has acquired 12,500,000 units ("Units") of the Corporation in connection with the Corporation's previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"). At the closing of the Offering which took place on July 17, 2017, the Company issued 33,404,997 Units at a price of $0.12 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $4,008,599.64. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Corporation (a "Share") and one Share purchase warrant.

The Units acquired by Mr. Renaud pursuant to the Offering were acquired for a total subscription price of $1,500,000 and the 12,500,000 Shares comprised in said Units represent approximately 15.82% of the issued and outstanding Shares of the Corporation following the closing of the Offering.

Prior to the Offering, Mr. Renaud and an entity over which Mr. Renaud exercises control owned 11,646,854 Shares, representing approximately 25.54% of the then issued and outstanding Shares of the Corporation. After completion of the Offering, Mr. Renaud and the entity over which Mr. Renaud exercises control now own 24,146,854 Shares, representing approximately 30.56% of the current issued and outstanding Shares of the Corporation. Mr. Renaud is also the holder of 343,000 options to purchase Shares (the "Options") and 13,300,000 warrants to purchase Shares (the "Warrants"). If all of the Options and Warrants were exercised, Mr. Renaud and the entity over which he exercises control would own 37,789,854 Shares, representing approximately 40.78% of the issued and outstanding Shares of the Corporation following such exercises.

The Shares acquired by Mr. Renaud pursuant to the Offering were acquired for investment purposes. Mr. Renaud and the entity over which he exercises control have no current intention to acquire ownership of, or control over, additional securities of the Corporation.

An early warning report in respect of the above-noted transaction will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. A copy of the early warning report may be obtained from the Corporation by contacting:

Mark Ahrens-Townsend

President & CEO

Kane Biotech Inc.

204-477-7592 phone

204-474-7552 fax

ir@kanebiotech.com

www.kanebiotech.com

Contacts:

Kane Biotech Inc.

Mark Ahrens-Townsend

President & CEO

204-477-7592

204-474-7552 (FAX)

ir@kanebiotech.com

www.kanebiotech.com




Everyone knows that the Ocoee River is one of the most popular whitewater rafting adventures in America. But the little-known secret is that the southeast Tennessee destination is also an epicenter for many other forms of world-class recreation.

We caught up with Ryan Cooke, prominent river guide and manager of the Ocoee Inn & Marina, to learn more about what the Ocoee River and Parksville Lake have to offer.

The Ocoee has everything to offer, says Cooke, from a relaxing family adventures to adrenaline-soaked mountain biking, backwoods hiking and hardcore rafting that will satisfy thrill seekers.

Situated less within a four hour drive for about 8 million people, the Ocoee is near five major metropolitan areasAtlanta, Ga.; Charlotte, N.C; Huntsville, Ala.; and Knoxville and Chattanooga Tenn. Just turn east off of I-75 at Cleveland Tennessee, and 20 minutes later youre in one of the most beautiful and remote areas of the Cherokee National Forest.

Looking at what the Ocoee region has to offer, its easy to see why the Ocoee is one big factor in the value of the Tennessee River system being worth about a million dollars per shoreline mile. The rafting industry alone is worth millions.

But if rafting isnt your thingor if you just want to add other notes to your Ocoee vacaythen Cooke recommends the following family friendly activities:

Easy Pontoon Boat Floats

With 1,930 acres of water surface, Parksville Lake (the reservoir formed behind Ocoee Dam No. 1) provides endless options for outdoor fun. Cooke says there are two islands to explore on the lake and plenty of areas to anchor the boat to swim and relax the day away. There are three public boat ramps to launch from. If you dont have your own boat, the Ocoee Inn rents pontoons for as little as $135 for four hours and pets are welcome.

Hiking Benton Falls

The 3.2 mile smooth, sandy trail leads to a 65-foot waterfall, which is a sight to behold, especially after a heavy rainfall. Families can sit at the bottom of the waterfall and relax to the sound of the roaring water while kids and pets explore. The falls are also accessible from the from a path made of easy-to-navigate stone steps. For safety, Cooke recommends parents keep a close eye on children near the top of the falls. Dogs are welcome on the trail but must remain on leash.

Paddle Boarding/Kayaking

Cooke says human power is one of the best ways to take in the regions beauty. When gliding along Parksville Lakes 47 miles of shoreline its not uncommon to see eagles, bear, fox, turkey and deer. If youre really lucky you may even see at the waters edge one of the rare mountain lions that still roam the Cherokee National Forest. There are many areas to park and put in your paddle board or kayak. If you cant bring your own equipment, the Ocoee Inn rents paddle boards and kayaks for as little as $15 per hour.

Fishing

According to Cooke, Parksville Lake is one of the States best fisheries and a great place to spend the weekend fishing. With several campgrounds for RVs and three public boat ramps there is no excuse not to put your line in and try your luck. Large fish abound in the lake and anglers have pulled out three Tennessee State Record fishAlabama bass (7 lbs.), yellow perch (2 lbs., 2 oz.), and coosa bass (1 lb., 15 oz.). You could be the next to reel in a record breaker.

Camping at the Caney Creek Community

If youre really adventurous you can set out to explore this local favorite destination. Built in the early 1900s to house workers who constructed the flume that the Tennessee Valley Authority uses to divert water and create electricity, the Caney Creek Community was abandoned after the work was completed, but several foundations and old building still exist today. Cooke says that this is a great place to campjust ask the Ocoee Inn team for directions.

Plan your Ocoee trip at the Tennessee Visitors Bureau or call the Ocoee Inn & Marina at (423) 338-5591.




MCLEAN, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/14/17 -- Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) announced today that it priced its new 1.875% three-year USD Reference Notes security due on Nov. 17, 2020. The issue, CUSIP number 3137EAEK1, was priced at 99.904 to yield 1.908%, 8.5 basis points more than the yield on three-year U.S. Treasury Notes. The issue will settle on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017.

The new three-year Reference Notes security will be offered via a syndicate of dealers headed by Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Nomura Securities International, Inc.

This announcement is not an offer to sell any Freddie Mac securities. Offers for any given security are made only through applicable offering circulars and related supplements, which incorporate Freddie Mac's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 16, 2017; all other reports Freddie Mac filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) since December 31, 2016, excluding any information "furnished" to the SEC on Form 8-K; and all documents that Freddie Mac files with the SEC pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c) or 14 of the Exchange Act, excluding any information "furnished" to the SEC on Form 8-K.

Freddie Mac's press releases sometimes contain forward-looking statements. A description of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in these and other forward-looking statements can be found in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, and its reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, filed with the SEC and available on the Investor Relations page of the company's Web site at www.FreddieMac.com/investors and the SEC's website.

Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we've made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders and taxpayers. Learn more at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog FreddieMac.com/blog.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lisa Gagnon

703-903-3385

Lisa_Gagnon@freddiemac.com



INVESTOR CONTACT:

Sean Forde

571-382-4090




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/21/17 -- Westhaven Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE: WHN) is pleased to announce that a ground geophysical survey has been initiated at its Skoonka Creek gold property, located within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), approximately 15 km north of Lytton, British Columbia.

-- The newly acquired 2,783 ha Skoonka Creek gold property hosts epithermal-vein exploration targets within prospective stratigraphy in the northern SBGB, a 110 km northwest-trending belt of mafic to felsic volcanic rocks of the Cretaceous Spences Bridge Group. -- The discovery of coarse placer gold at the confluence of the Nicoamen and Thompson Rivers in 1857 sparked a gold rush that a year later drew an estimated 20,000 prospectors. This initiated the Fraser River gold rush. In 2005, Strongbow Exploration drilled 20.2 g/t gold over 12.8 metres confirming the presence of high grade epithermal gold mineralization at the Skoonka Creek property and the Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB). -- Subsequent to 2007, limited drilling and other exploration program results indicate that mineralization encountered to date represents the upper portions of a shallowly eroded low sulphidation epithermal system, with good potential to discover more consistent and higher gold grades at greater depths.

Westhaven has engaged Scott Geophysics Limited of Vancouver, B.C. to survey approximately 25 line kilometres of ground magnetics. The purpose of this program is to increase the resolution of the survey to 50-m line spacing to better define structural trend(s) within the newly identified JJ-West geochemical anomaly target area.

Shaun Pollard, Director & CFO of Westhaven stated, "It's management's belief that the newly identified JJ-West target is possibly the westward continuation of the high-grade JJ Vein Zone. If this proves true, the approximate strike length between the JJ Vein Zone and the JJ-West target is well over 1,500 metres. We are eagerly awaiting the results of the ground geophysics program with the view of initiating a drill program shortly thereafter."

Soil, rock sampling and prospecting have uncovered anomalous pathfinder geochemistry that suggests the possible continuation of the JJ vein zone to the southwest in a down-dropped fault block that has preserved the upper portions of a system anomalous in mercury, antimony and arsenic. These high-level pathfinders are coincident and on-trend with an airborne magnetic low of similar strike as the JJ vein zone to the northeast. Quartz float and outcrop found during recent prospecting and soil sampling at JJ-West further enhances the strength of this target.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

WESTHAVEN VENTURES INC.

Gareth Thomas, Director

About Westhaven Ventures Inc.

Westhaven Ventures Inc. is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of prospective resource properties. Westhaven is focused on advancing its Shovelnose, Prospect Valley and Skoonka gold projects in British Columbia. Westhaven trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol WHN.

Qualified Person Statement

Peter Fischl, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 has read and takes responsibility for this release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Westhaven Ventures Inc.

604-681-5558

www.westhavenventures.com




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 14, 2017 / The Klein Law Firm reminds shareholders that a class action complaint has been filed on behalf of shareholders of Navient Corporation (NASDAQ: NAVI) who purchased shares between February 25, 2016 and October 4, 2017 . The action, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleges that the Company violated federal securities laws.

In particular, the complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that (1) Navient engaged in deceptive practices to facilitate the origination of subprime loans; (2) Navient committed unfair and deceptive acts by steering student borrowers into payment plans that postponed bills, allowing interest to accumulate, rather than helping them enroll in income-driven repayment plans; and (3) as a result, Navient's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Shareholders have until December 15, 2017 to petition the court for lead plaintiff status. Your ability to share in any recovery does not require that you serve as lead plaintiff. You may choose to be an absent class member.

If you suffered a loss during the Class Period and wish to obtain additional information, please contact Joseph Klein, Esq. by telephone at 212-616-4899 or visit http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-sb/navient-corporation?wire=2.

Joseph Klein, Esq. represents investors and participates in securities litigations involving financial fraud throughout the nation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Joseph Klein, Esq.

Empire State Building

350 Fifth Avenue

59th Floor

New York, NY 10118

Telephone: (212) 616-4899

Fax: (347) 558-9665

www.kleinstocklaw.com

SOURCE: The Klein Law Firm
Regulatory News:

Median Technologies (Paris:ALMDT), the Imaging Phenomics Company, announces that on July 13th 2017, it was awarded the Futur40 Prize by Forbes France, in association with PME finance - Europe Entrepreneurs, the French Finance Association Paris Europlace and the Federation of Individual Investors and the Finance Clubs (F2iC Federation des Investisseurs Individuels et des Clubs d'investissement).

The Futur40 ranking is based on data provided by Morningstar and highlights the 40 Paris-listed companies that have distinguished themselves based on their financial performance and the originality of their model.

The criteria for obtaining the Futur40 award are as follows:

Cumulative sales growth of more than 15% over the last three years,

5 million of minimum turnover, and

The company listed in Paris with a minimum stock footprint (free float, trading volume) to have certified public data.

About Median Technologies: Median Technologies provides innovative imaging solutions and services to advance healthcare for everyone. We leverage the power of Imaging Phenomics to provide insights into novel therapies and treatment strategies. Our unique solutions, LMS for lesion management and iBiopsy for imaging phenotyping, together with our global team of experts, are advancing the development of new drugs and diagnostic tools to monitor disease and assess response to therapy. Median Technologies supports biopharmaceutical sponsors and healthcare professionals around the world to quickly and precisely bring new treatments to patients in need, with an eye on reducing overall care costs. This is how we are helping to create a healthier world.

Founded in 2002, based in Sophia-Antipolis, France, with a US subsidiary in Boston, Median has received the label "Innovative company" by the BPI and is listed on Euronext Growth market (ISIN: FR0011049824, ticker: ALMDT). The company is eligible for the PEA-PME SME equity savings plan setup and has received the label Pass French Tech Promotion 2016-2017. Median Technologies has been awarded the 2017 Tech 40 Label and has joined the EnterNext Tech 40 Index. Median is a member of the Bpifrance Excellence Network. More information: www.mediantechnologies.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005939/en/

Contacts:

Median Technologies

Fredrik Brag, +33 4 92 90 65 82

CEO

fredrik.brag@mediantechnologies.com

or

Press - ALIZE RP

Caroline Carmagnol Wendy Rigal, 33 1 44 54 36 66

median@alizerp.com

or

Investors - ACTIFIN

Ghislaine Gasparetto, +33 1 56 88 11 11

ggasparetto@actifin.fr
Regulatory News:

Axway (Paris:AXW)(Euronext: AXW.PA) will publish its first half accounts July 26, 2017 after the market close. A conference for the analysts will be held Thursday July 27, 2017 at 2:30 PM (new meeting time) at the Cloud Business Center (10 bis rue du 4 Septembre 75002 Paris France) and with a simultaneous webcast.

Note: Axway is currently in the process of finalizing the 2017 first half accounts and the auditors limited review procedures to be performed are not complete. All figures and information provided below are provisional and still could change.

After completing a preliminary consolidation of its first half 2017 accounts, Axway is announcing today preliminary revenue information and an anticipated range for its Profit from Operating Activities. Although the company continues to see positive progress in its Cloud business activities during the first half of 2017, during the second quarter of 2017 Axway experienced a drop in license revenue similar to that reported in the first quarter. These results are, from Axway group perspective, due to:

delays in the finalization of license signatures, in addition to a lower forecast by comparison with the second quarter of 2016,

the continued strategic priority to transition Axway's Business model to integrate Cloud activity generated by the recent acquisitions has mobilized Axway resources during the last 6 months.

We expect that first half revenues will finalize as presented below:

1st Half Year (m) 2017 2016

Reported 2016 Restated 1 Total Growth Organic

Growth 1 Licenses 25.0 37.5 37.9 -33.3% -34.0% Cloud 17.2 15.0 14.8% Maintenance 73.5 70.2 70.8 4.6% 3.7% Services 27.1 37.0 28.2 -26.7% -3.9% Axway 142.8 144.7 151.9 -1.3% -6.0%

(1) at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation

Due to the License and total revenue drop for the first half of 2017, Axway expects to have a lower Profit from Operating Activities rate which it forecasts will be between 3% and 5% of its total revenue for the first half of 2017.

The company is reviewing its full year perspective; however, the cumulative deficit of license revenue since the beginning of the year may be difficult to compensate. As a reminder, the signing of new Cloud contracts generates a lower impact in the current financial period as compared to license sales.

These facts, coupled with the recent acquisition, will put pressure on Axway's ability to achieve full year Profit from Operating Activities rate (as a percentage of revenue) at the level of 2016.

An overview of first half earnings and outlook for the year will be provided at the July 26, 2017 financial results.

Disclaimer

This document is a free translation into English of the original French press release. It is not a binding document. In the event of a conflict in interpretation, reference should be made to the French version, which is the authentic text.

About Axway

Axway (Euronext: AXW.PA) is a catalyst for transformation. With Axway AMPLIFY, our cloud-enabled data integration and engagement platform, leading brands better anticipate, adapt and scale to meet ever changing customer expectations. Our unified, API-first approach connects data from anywhere, fuels millions of apps and delivers real-time analytics to build customer experience networks. From idea to execution, we help make the future possible for more than 11,000 organizations in 100 countries. To learn more about Axway, visit www.investors.axway.com/en.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006021/en/

Contacts:

Axway

Investor Relations:

Patrick Gouffran, +33 (0)1 40 67 29 26

pgouffran@axway.com

or

Press Relations:

Sylvie Podetti, +33 (0)1 47 17 22 40

spodetti@axway.com
Integration of Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network (CDRN) to Help Protect Konnektive Merchants' E-commerce Transactions



LONDON, 2017-07-18 17:49 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verifi, Inc., a leading provider of payment and risk management solutions for card-not-present (CNP) merchants, announced that Konnektive CRM has completed an API integration of its award-winning Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network (CDRN) solution, enabling merchants to resolve cardholder disputes before they become chargebacks. Previously, Konnektive merchants were only able to combat chargebacks through third parties. CDRN will deliver greater efficiency to the chargeback prevention process, enabling merchants to deal directly with CDRN disputes within the Konnektive CRM interface.



"We chose to work with Verifi based on their reputation as an industry leader," said Matthew Martorano, CEO of Konnektive CRM. "The ability for our clients to receive and respond to disputes in near real-time will deliver greater efficiencies for our sales and campaign management operations and help protect our clients' stream of commerce."



Konnektive is a complete CRM/OMS (customer relationship management and order management system) platform that converges the best in technology and user interface for product and campaign management for trial/continuity, straight sale, and multi-pay. Further services include a landing page builder, shopping cart technology, online sales tracking system, sales scripting and order entry software that can be integrated to telephony platforms, an easy-to-use customer service interface, billing system that completely integrates with any accounting system, and a complete fulfillment management system. All these services and features are combined into one unique product that is completely web-accessible and secure.



Konnektive's adoption of CDRN is reflective of a worldwide demand for a comprehensive platform that directly connects merchants and issuing banks to resolve consumer complaints, delivering the highest quality service and true protection for merchants and issuers alike around the globe.



"We are thrilled to have Konnektive CRM be the first CRM partner to integrate our CDRN API and take on a key role in reducing chargebacks and fraud for their extensive clientele," said Matthew Katz, CEO of Verifi. "Fraud and chargebacks continue to be a major issue for merchants and will continue to grow as shoppers migrate more of their shopping to online and mobile commerce. This partnership illustrates our continued commitment to enable merchants and issuing banks to efficiently resolve true cardholder-initiated disputes at their origin, stopping them from becoming chargebacks and incurring all of the added costs and pain that goes along with them."



Verifi's CDRN prevents hundreds of thousands of chargeback cases every month, providing real protection from costly fees, fines or penalties, and cardholder dissatisfaction which affect merchants and issuers alike. With year-over-year growth since its launch in 2007, Verifi's unique and patented CDRN "closed loop" process directly integrates with top issuers, providing unmatched service, quality, and accuracy for merchants in collaboration with issuers to resolve disputed payments, and dramatically minimise fraud and non-fraud related chargebacks and cardholder dissatisfaction. CDRN covers approximately 50% of the US market and has resolved 90% of fraud and non-fraud related disputes before they turn into costly chargebacks for merchants and issuers alike.



In response to the Company's rapid expansion and demand for services, Verifi has extended their award-winning chargeback solutions to the UK, Australia, New Zealand, with plans for further expansion to other markets including France and Germany later this year.



About Verifi Verifi is an award-winning provider of end-to-end payment protection and management solutions, founded in 2005 to help merchants effectively manage the payments challenges they face every day. Verifi's Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network supports over 15,000 accounts globally, preventing each month hundreds of thousands of fraud and non-fraud chargebacks. Verifi's full suite of services helps merchants combat fraud, prevent and resolve costly chargebacks, as well as facilitate sharing of transaction details. Our best-in-breed solutions and white glove support are trusted by a wide range of industries, from emerging companies to large enterprises. With our EMEA headquarters in London, England, we process more than 16 billion transactions annually and currently serve more than 25,000 accounts globally for all our products and services. For more information, visit: uk.verifi.com.



Contact: Kevin Mercuri kevin@propheta.com 212-901-6914

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Strong growth in EMEA and Asia-Pacific

New organization in North America

Regulatory News:

EOS imaging (Paris:EOSI) (Euronext, FR0011191766 EOSI Eligible PEA SME), the pioneer of orthopaedic medical imaging, 2D/3D, today announced its (non-audited) consolidated revenue for the first semester ended June 30, 2017.

Marie Meynadier, Chief Executive Officer of EOS imaging, commented: "We continue to experience positive commercial dynamics in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. This was a key driver of our performance during the first half of 2017, in line with our global market expansion strategy. We also benefitted from the strong growth of EOS system service contracts, which contributes to the recurring revenue component of our business. In North America, we have appointed Mike Lobinsky to the newly created position of President North America. In this role, he will lead our global North American operations, providing a stronger leadership presence with a focus on accelerating commercial activities, particularly in the U.S., which is one of the most important markets for the Company. Based on the strength of our business in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific, along with our recent initiatives to invigorate the activity in North America, we are confident that we will see an acceleration in global adoption of the EOS solutions."

Revenue for the First Half 2017

 millions H1 2017 H1 2016 % change Equipment sales 13.15 11.45 +15% As a of total revenues 80% 81% Sales of maintenance 2.83 2.22 +28% As a of total revenues 17% 16% Sales of consumables and services 0.49 0.46 +4% As a of total revenues 3% 3% Total revenues 16.46 14.14 +16% Unaudited data

In the first half of 2017, the Company generated a revenue of 16.5 million, up 16% compared to the first half of 2016. The Company sold 34 EOS systems during the first half of the year, compared to 28 systems in the same period last year. Sales of maintenance contracts increased by 28% to 2.84 million, reflecting the continued growth of the installed base of EOS systems under contract.

The increase in revenues over the first half of 2017 was driven by strong sales in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, partially offset by lower sales in North America, related to an operational reorganization.

 millions H1 2017 H1 2016 % change EMEA 7.39 5.36 +38% North America 5.74 7.66 -25% Asia-Pacific 3.34 1.12 +197% Total revenues 16.46 14.14 +16% Unaudited data

Revenue grew by 38% in EMEA, primarily driven by results from the United Kingdom and France, where the Company recently installed its 50th EOS system, demonstrating its ability to achieve a significant adoption in its target market.

Revenues tripled in Asia-Pacific, reflecting rapid adoption of the EOS system, particularly in the Chinese and Australian markets.

In North America, revenues declined by 25%, as the Company continued to expand its installed base, predominantly in its existing network of client hospitals.

Revenue for the Second Quarter 2017

 millions 2017 2016 Q1 Q2 Q1 Q2 Equipment sales 5.47 7.67 4.09 7.36 As a of total revenues 77% 82% 76% 83% Sales of maintenance contracts 1.40 1.43 0.99 1.23 As a of total revenues 19% 15% 19% 14% Sales of consumables and services 0.26 0.23 0.24 0.22 As a of total revenues 4% 3% 5% 3% Total revenues 7.13 9.34 5.33 8.82 Unaudited data

In the second quarter of 2017, EOS imaging achieved revenue of 9.34 million, up 6% compared to the second quarter of 2016. The Company sold 20 EOS systems in the quarter and continued to increase in the installed base of EOS systems under maintenance contracts.

About EOS imaging

EOS imaging designs, develops, and markets EOS, an innovative medical imaging service dedicated to osteo-articular pathologies and orthopaedics, as well as the associated solutions. The Company is authorized to market in 51 countries, including the United States (FDA), Japan, and the European Union (EC). The Group posted revenues of 30.8 million and employs 132 people at December 2016, including an R&D team of 43 engineers. The group is based in Paris and has five subsidiaries: in Besancon (France), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Montreal (Canada), Frankfurt (Germany) and Singapore.

EOS imaging has been selected to integrate the EnterNext PEA SME 150 index, composed of 150 French, listed companies on the Euronext markets in Paris.

EOS imaging is listed on Compartment C of Euronext Paris

ISIN: FR0011191766 Ticker: EOSI

Next press release: 2017 Half-Year Results, September 8, 2017 (after market close)

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006067/en/

Contacts:

EOS imaging

Pierre Schwich

CFO

Ph: +33 (0)1 55 25 61 24

investors@eos-imaging.com

or

NewCap

Financial communication and investor relations

Pierre Laurent, Ph: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 96

eosimaging@newcap.eu

or

The Ruth Group (US)

Press relations

Joanna Zimmerman, Ph: 646-536-7006

jzimmerman@theruthgroup.com
DUBLIN, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Electronic Cash Register Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global electronic cash register market to grow at a CAGR of 8.48% during the period 2017-2021.

This report, Global Electronic Cash Register 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.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is growing use of NFC-enabled mobile devices. The ECR market growth is affected by negative trends in the market such as the increasing use of smart devices, including smartwatches, smart wristbands, and smartphones, that have NFC capabilities.

According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is low cost of ECRs. ECRs offer several benefits to businesses such as tracking customers' transactions, maintaining databases of goods, and speeding checkout times. ECRs are easy to use and help in accurately tracking transactions. Some ECRs are available for a low cost and yet have improvised functions such as checking product prices, recording sales, calculating bills and change, and printing customer receipts.

Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is growing number of online transactions. E-commerce is spread across more than 100 economies worldwide. This is mainly because of the increased trade opportunities in various regions. Online shopping has gained high popularity, leading to the increased number of online transactions. Many users find online transactions convenient and safe as banks provide high security for online transactions. With banks providing high levels of security, the majority of the B2B transactions are done using Internet banking. Large enterprises in the manufacturing, production, service and maintenance, and government sectors use Internet banking instead of ECRs. Therefore, vendors in the market cannot target many enterprises that are in the B2B sector.

Key vendors:



Toshiba

Sharp

CASIO

Dell

Olivetti



Other prominent vendors:



Citaq

Forbes Technosys

Fujitsu

Guangzhou Zonerich Business Machine

Hewlett-Packard

NCR

Posiflex Technology

Shinheung Precision

Wincor Nixdorf



Key Topics Covered:



Part 01: Executive summary



Part 02: Scope of the report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Introduction



Part 05: Market landscape



Part 06: Market segmentation by type



Part 07: Market segmentation by end-user



Part 08: Market segmentation by geography



Part 09: Decision framework



Part 10: Drivers and challenges



Part 11: Market trends



Part 12: Vendor landscape



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/j49zgt/global_electronic

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recentglobal wind anemometers market 2017-2021report. This market research report also lists 14 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170905005385/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global wind anemometers market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Competitive vendor landscape

According to the research analysis, the global wind anemometer market is a highly competitive market with major vendors such as Ammonit Measurement, FT Technologies, Siemens, Lufft, and Grill Instruments competing based on price, quality, and market presence. In developing countries, regional vendors are dominating the market. This increases the level of competition among these vendors. The competitive market scenario in the global wind anemometers market differs between onshore and offshore installations.

Vendors are increasingly focusing on R&D to reduce cost and improve the durability of wind turbine components. This, in turn, will reduce the maintenance and operational costs. For instance, FT Technologies FT70LT wind sensors remain completely ice-free and have a data gathering ability of over 99.9998%.

"The market comprises in-house manufacturers and independent suppliers. Manufacturers are increasingly focused on providing innovative low-cost products that have high efficiency and are of light weight. For instance, Anemoment and Syncroness have jointly developed a lightweight, miniature, highly accurate, and directional anemometer. TriSonica Mini is a 3D ultrasonic anemometer that is ideal for small spaces and mobile applications," says Thanikachalam Chandrasekaran, lead research analyst for the power sector from Technavio.

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

Technaviomarket research analysts identify the following key vendors:

Ammonit Measurement

Ammonit Measurement is engaged in offering high-quality measurement equipment in solar and wind industries. It has a wide range of products in its product portfolio, including accurate meteorological sensors, data loggers, LiDAR devices, power supply and reliable communication systems, and verified SoDAR. It has a web platform named as AmmonitOR for monitor measurement campaigns on 24x7 basis.

FT Technologies

FT Technologies is engaged in the design and manufacture of high-performance acoustic resonance wind sensors. The company has its own patented Acu-Res technology, which is being incorporated in all its sensors. FT Technologies' sensors make sure that the company delivers reliable wind speed and direction with 99.9% data availability under harsh climate conditions. The company sensors offer wind speed up to the reading range of 75 m/s.

Gill Instruments

Gill Instruments is engaged in the supply of ultrasonic anemometers for measuring wind speed and direction. It is engaged in delivering ruggedly build sensors capable of operating under all environmental conditions. The company is engaged in the global wind anemometers market through its product brands such as WindSonic, WindObserver, and WindMaster.

Lufft

Lufft is engaged in the development and production of professional sensors as well as systems for environment and climate measurement. Environmental bodies and meteorological bodies use intelligent meteorological sensors for measuring climate and environment measurement. The company is engaged in the global wind anemometers market through its product range of wind sensors and anemometers.

Siemens

Siemens is a multinational conglomerate having core activities in the fields of energy, industry, healthcare, and infrastructure. The company is one of the largest producers of energy-efficient and resource-saving technologies as it supplies systems for power generation, transmission, and medical diagnosis. The company is engaged in the global wind anemometers market through its renewable energy services segment under wind power.

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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/06/17 -- Fasken Martineau is pleased to announce that Brent Clark today joins its Vancouver office as Partner in the Banking & Finance group.

Brent acts primarily for banks, credit unions, pension funds and other borrowers and lenders in secured and unsecured financing transactions. He has recently been named by Best Lawyers in Canada for his expertise in asset-based lending and banking and finance law.

"We are pleased to welcome Brent to the legal team in Vancouver. He is an established practitioner in his field and well-known in the region for his solution-based approach to working with both clients and colleagues," said William Westeringh, Q.C., Regional Managing Partner for the Vancouver office.

"We look forward to having Brent play a key role in further strengthening and expanding the Firm's highly regarded lending practice in the Vancouver marketplace," added Jon J. Holmstrom, Leader of the Banking & Finance group.

Fasken Martineau's Banking & Finance group has been quick to respond to the constantly changing financing environment. Acting for both lenders and borrowers in transactions ranging from simple credit agreements to complex multi-facility, multicurrency financings with multiple syndicates, clients benefit from the firm's exceptional bench strength.

About Fasken Martineau

Fasken Martineau is a leading international business law and litigation firm. With more than 700 lawyers, the firm has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, London and Johannesburg. For additional information, please visit the firm's website at fasken.com.

Contacts:

Stephanie Berthiaume

+1 514 397 5212

sberthiaume@fasken.com



Genevieve Chalifour

+1 514 871 5987

gchalifour@fasken.com




The Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2018legislation that Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said spurs energy research, supercomputing, nuclear waste consolidation, maintains our nuclear weapons stockpile, and improves water infrastructure.

He said the bill includes up to $78 million to continue construction of Chickamauga Lock.

This legislation approved today by the Appropriations subcommittee contains record levels of funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to improve our nations water infrastructure, the Office of Science, which conducts basic science and energy research, and ARPA-E, which supports transformational, high-impact energy technologies, Senator Alexander said.

He said, Senator Feinstein and I have worked together on this bill in a bipartisan way and I congratulate her on her leadership. I look forward to the bill being considered by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

We continue to work together to keep big projects like the Uranium Processing Facility on time and on budget, and make sure that we are effectively using limited taxpayer dollars,

We also continue to be very concerned about the cost of the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, and we agree with the recommendation in the budget request to terminate the program. We are working to find a path forward to move plutonium out of South Carolina sooner and at a lower cost to taxpayers.

The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee approved the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2018 by a voice vote. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will consider the legislation Thursday.

The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2018 includes the following priorities:

The bill restores $1 billion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was cut from President Trumps budget, bringing the Corps budget up to $6.2 billion a record funding level.

The bill makes full use of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund revenues for water infrastructure projects, including up to $78 million to continue construction of Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga.

The legislation provides $1.67 million for dredging at Memphis Harbor McKellar Lake.

The U.S Department of Energys Office of Science, which supports basic science and energy research and is the nations largest supporter of research in the physical sciences, is funded at $5.55 billion, also a record funding level in a regular appropriations bill.

The bill includes a total of $13.7 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, including $1.7 billion to continue the four ongoing life extension programs, which fix or replace components in weapons systems to make sure they're safe and reliable.

The Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex is funded at $663 million, which will continue to keep this project on time and on budget, with a completion year of 2025 at a cost no greater than $6.5 billion.

The legislation sends a strong signal about our support for developing new technologies that will support the next generation of nuclear power plants. The bill includes $92 million for Advanced Reactors, which is $28 million more than the presidents budget request.

The bill also provides $40 million for research and development to support existing nuclear reactors and $24 million for the Center for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The bill advances efforts to clean up hazardous materials at Cold War-era sites. The bill provides $6.6 billion to support cleanup efforts, which is $126 million above the presidents budget request. Included in this amount is $518 million for cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The legislation includes a pilot program to allow consolidated nuclear waste storage, supported by Senator Alexander and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the subcommittees ranking member, over the past three years. It also provides funding for the Department of Energy to support storing nuclear waste at private facilities.

The bill provides $1.49 billion for Advanced Scientific Computing and Research, including $734.2 million within the National Nuclear Security Administration and $763 million within the Office of Science. This amount includes $381 million from the Office of Science and the NNSA to deliver at least one Exascale machine in 2021 to reassert U.S. leadership in this critical area. It also includes $150 million for the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, an increase of $40 million above last year.

The bill continues to support advanced manufacturing, and includes $20 million for the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility to support the development of additive manufacturing processes, low-cost carbon fiber, and other advanced manufacturing technologies. It also includes $14 million for the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency  Energy (ARPA-E) is funded at $330 million. ARPA-E was created by the 2007 America COMPETES Act to invest in high-impact energy technologies, and the Presidents budget request recommended termination of the program.

The bill eliminates funding for the U.S. contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France. This saves $50 million.

The bill also continues to fund regional commissions, which the administration proposed to eliminate, including $142 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission and $25 million for the Delta Regional Authority.

Senator Alexanders full prepared remarks from todays markup below:

Senator Feinstein and I have worked together under very challenging fiscal constraints this year the same way we always have  in a fair and accommodating manner  with the goal of drafting a bipartisan bill for the subcommittees consideration that prioritizes spending and reduces waste.

I would also like to thank the staff who have been working together to put this bill together over the past 2 weeks.

Doug Clapp, Chris Hanson and Samantha Nelson with Senator Feinstein.

Tyler Owens, Adam DeMella, Meyer Seligman, Jen Armstrong, Molly Marsh, and Rachel Littleton of my staff.

We expect the bill will be approved by the full Appropriations Committee Thursday, which means it could be one of the first appropriations bills considered by the full Senate this year.

To develop the legislation, we held 4 budget hearings in June and received funding recommendations from 82 Senators.

The fiscal year 2018 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill before us today provides a total of $38.4 billion, which is $629 million more than last year, and $4.1 billion more than the budget request.

The funding included in this bill supports several federal agencies that do important work, including:

the U.S. Department of Energy

the Army Corps of Engineers

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

the National Nuclear Security Administration,

the Appalachian Regional Commission, and;

the Bureau of Reclamation

Reaching an agreement was not easy. For fiscal year 2018, under the Budget Control Act spending caps, Congress has less money to appropriate than last year. Congress may agree to increase the spending caps, and if it does, we will do as we did in 2016  we will add the increased amounts to those items the subcommittee feels are the most important priorities.

This subcommittee received an allocation for defense spending that is nearly $1.044 billion above last year, and an allocation for non-defense spending that is $414 million below last year.

We also started with an unrealistic budget proposal from the president.

The Department of Energys budget request for fiscal year 2018 was only $28 billion dollars, a decrease of about $2.9 billion  or 10% below  what Congress provided last year.

The presidents budget request recommended reducing funding for the Office of Science by a little over $919 million, proposed to significantly decrease federally funded research and development programs, and terminate ARPA-E.

The budget request also failed to prioritize federal spending on water infrastructure. Based on the number of appropriations requests we receive each year, the Corps of Engineers is the federal governments most popular agency.

Instead of building on what Congress provided last year, the presidents budget request proposed only $5.002 billion for the Corps, which is a more than $1 billion cut, or 17% less, than what was provided last year.

Despite this  the bill Senator Feinstein and I have negotiated funds many of the priorities that we can all agree on.

The bill:

Sets new record levels of funding in a regular appropriations bill for the Office of Science of $5.55 billion and the Corps of Engineers at $6.172 billion

funds ARPA-E at a record level of $330 million

provides the amount authorized by Congress to dredge and maintain our harbors for the 4th consecutive year and makes full use of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund  in other words we use all of the money we collect in taxes each year from the ships that use of the waterways to improve the waterways.

takes steps to help resolve the nuclear waste stalemate

funds cleanup of hazardous materials at Cold War sites, and;

modernizes our nuclear weapons stockpile

However, since governing is about setting priorities, we had to make hard decisions to reduce or eliminate programs to make sure that the highest priorities in the bill received adequate funding.

We eliminated funding for the U.S. contribution to ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France. This saved $50 million.

We also agreed with the Administrations recommendation to eliminate the Title 17 Loan Guarantee program. We used the savings from eliminating this lower priority program to fund higher priority science and energy research and development work in the bill.

We also continued our intensive oversight to make sure that the programs that received funding were using these taxpayer dollars efficiently and effectively.

We continue to work together to keep big projects like the Uranium Processing Facility on time and on budget, and make sure that we are effectively using limited taxpayer dollars.

We also continue to be very concerned about the cost of the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, and we agree with the recommendation in the budget request to terminate the program. We are working with Senator Graham and the Senate Armed Services Committee to find a path forward to move plutonium out of South Carolina sooner and at a lower cost to taxpayers.

In my opinion, we should spend more, not less, on our nation's water infrastructure  and this bill reflects that priority.

This bill restores the proposed cuts to the Corps of Engineers budget, and meets the funding targets set by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for the 4th year in a row. This means Mobile Harbor in Alabama, Savannah Harbor in Georgia, Long Beach Harbor in California and many others across the country will be adequately funded.

Of particular importance to Tennessee, we rejected the president's budget request to only spend $26 million from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund this fiscal year, which would have left about 84% of the funds that are collected from the taxpayers who use the waterways each year for the purpose of improving locks and dams and putting that money in a bank account and leaving it unspent.

This bill being considered today ensures that there will be enough funding for the Corps to continue building a new Chickamauga Lock in fiscal year 2018, for the 4th consecutive year, which continues to be the 4th highest priority of essential American waterways to be rebuilt.

The funding level in this bill also funds the three higher priority locks - Olmsted Lock, the Lower Monongahela Lock, and Kentucky Lock - to ensure that construction on these projects can continue.

The United States continues to produce more than 20 percent of the wealth each year for just about 4 percent of the people in the world.

The Department of Energys research programs and 17 national laboratories have made the United States a world leader in science and technology, which is why we must continue to prioritize spending on these efforts so the United States remains competitive at a time when other countries are investing heavily in research.

Like last year, the bill Senator Feinstein and I have agreed on, provides new record funding levels in a regular appropriations bill for Department of Energy research programs including $5.55 billion for the Office of Science and $330 million for ARPA-E.

We need to remember that research funding for Department of Energy laboratories has produced technologies for unconventional natural gas development, supercomputing, 3D printing, nuclear imaging devices used for medical diagnosis, MRI scanners, optical digital recording technology used to make DVDs, batteries and energy storage systems for cars and trucks and the electric grid, and precision detectors and pharmaceuticals.

Im also pleased to also be able to say that this bill makes it clear supercomputing is a national priority  which is something Secretary Perry and I both feel strongly about.

The bill provides $381 million within the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration to deliver at least one Exascale machine in 2021 to reassert U.S. leadership in this critical area.

Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of our countrys electricity, and 60 percent of its carbon-free electricity.

If were going to have the abundance of clean, cheap, reliable energy we need to power our 21st-century economy, we need to unleash nuclear power by removing the obstacles standing in its way.

Our legislation sends a strong signal for developing new technologies that will support the next generation of nuclear power plants, while also doing the research to support extending the lives of existing reactors when it is safe to do so.

We included $92 million for Advanced Reactors, which is $28 million more than the presidents budget request. We also provided $40 million for research to support existing light water reactors, which is a $20 million more than the presidents request.

We also funded the Center for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, also called CASL, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. CASL is important for supporting our existing fleet of reactors as well as advanced reactors we may build in the future.

The bill also takes important steps toward solving our countrys stalemate over what to do with nuclear waste, and this is another bipartisan issue that Senator Feinstein and I agree on.

Our legislation includes a pilot program for consolidated nuclear waste storage, which Senator Feinstein and I have included in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for the past four years.

The bill also provides funding for the U.S. Department of Energy to support storing nuclear waste at private facilities.

The new sites we are seeking to establish would not take the place of Yucca Mountain  we have more than enough used fuel to fill Yucca Mountain to its legal capacity  but rather would complement it.

Were also supporting research in this bill that will help continue the work that is necessary to safely extend nuclear power operating licenses from 60 to 80 years.

This legislation provides a total of $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which will ensure that the modernization of our nations nuclear weapons stockpile continues.

The bill also supports vital weapons facilities related to our national security. The bill provides $663 million for the Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee, which keeps the project on track to be completed by 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion.

This legislation also advances our efforts to clean up hazardous materials at Cold War sites. A total of $6.6 billion is provided to support cleanup efforts, which is $126 million above the presidents budget request.

I am very pleased with this bill because were able to work together under difficult conditions to fund our nations energy and water priorities, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the bill in the coming weeks.

With that, Id like to recognize Senator Feinstein for her remarks.
This document contains inside information for the purpose of Regulation (EU) 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse

Regulatory News:

Eurofins Scientific SE (Paris:ERF) (EUFI.PA, unrated), a global leader in bioanalytical testing, announces that it has successfully raised EUR 650m in its latest senior unsecured Euro bond public issuance. The bonds have a 7-year maturity (due 25 July 2024) and will bear an annual rate of 2.125%, the lowest coupon achieved by Eurofins since its debut senior Euro bond issuance in November 2013. The issue was more than 4x times over-subscribed.

Eurofins intends to use the proceeds of the issuance for general corporate purposes, including refinancing some of its existing debt instruments, as well as to fund any further growth opportunity in-line with the Group's strategy and objectives. The new bond further improves Eurofins' liquidity position by lengthening its debt maturity profile.

Comment from Dr. Gilles Martin, Eurofins CEO: I am pleased with the result of our latest public bond issuance. In light of good market conditions and on the back of a strong M&A activity thus far in 2017 as summarized in our press release of yesterday, we have decided to lengthen our funding and optimize its cost. In addition to refinancing a more expensive instrument (our EUR 300m Euro bond bearing a 3.125% coupon that matures in November 2018), this bond strengthens our ability to respond swiftly to compelling opportunities."

BofA Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas acted as global coordinators and Credit Agricole CIB, Natixis and UniCredit Bank acted as joint bookrunners for the transaction.

The bonds will be listed from their issue date (25 July 2017) on the regulated market of the Luxembourg stock exchange (ISIN XS1651444140). The bonds are not registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act) unless registered under the Securities Act or pursuant to an exemption from such registration.

For more information please visit http://www.eurofins.com

Notes for the editor:

Eurofins a global leader in bio-analysis

Eurofins Scientific SE through its subsidiaries (hereinafter sometimes "Eurofins" or "the Group") believes it is the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing and that it is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for agroscience, genomics, discovery pharmacology and for supporting clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the key emerging players in specialty clinical diagnostic testing in Europe and the USA. With over 30,000 staff in 375 laboratories across 41 countries, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 130,000 analytical methods for evaluating the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin and purity of biological substances and products, as well as for innovative clinical diagnostic. The Group objective is to provide its customers with high-quality services, accurate results on time and expert advice by its highly qualified staff.

Eurofins is committed to pursuing its dynamic growth strategy by expanding both its technology portfolio and its geographic reach. Through R&D and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical chemistry to offer its clients unique analytical solutions and the most comprehensive range of testing methods.

As one of the most innovative and quality oriented international players in its industry, Eurofins is ideally positioned to support its clients' increasingly stringent quality and safety standards and the expanding demands of regulatory authorities around the world.

The shares of Eurofins Scientific SE are listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN FR0000038259, Reuters EUFI.PA, Bloomberg ERF FP).

Important disclaimer:

This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements and estimates contained herein represent the judgement of Eurofins Scientific SE's management as of the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees for future performance, and the forward-looking events discussed in this release may not occur. Eurofins Scientific SE disclaims any intent or obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements and estimates. All statements and estimates are made based on the information available to the Company's management as of the date of publication, but no guarantee can be made as to their validity.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006168/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Eurofins Scientific SE

Hugues Vaussy, Phone: +32 2 766 1620

Finance Director

E-mail: ir@eurofins.com
HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Vantage Drilling International ("Vantage" or the "Company") today announced that it would host a conference call at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on August 2, 2017 to discuss operating results for the second quarter of 2017 and recent developments. Vantage will release earnings before the market opens on August 2, 2017. Vantage's earnings release will be posted to the Vantage website at www.vantagedrilling.com.

To access the conference call, U.S. callers may dial toll free 888-461-2031 and international callers may dial 719-325-2297. The pass code will be 7289573. Please call ten minutes ahead of time to ensure proper connection. A replay of the conference call will be available for two weeks following the call and can be accessed by dialing 888-203-1112 for U.S. callers and 719-457-0820 for international callers. The access code for the replay is 7289573.

About the Company

Vantage, a Cayman Islands exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor, with a fleet of three ultra-deepwater drillships, four premium jackup drilling rigs, and one standard jackup drilling rig. Vantage's primary business is to contract drilling units, related equipment and work crews primarily on a dayrate basis to drill oil and natural gas wells globally for major, national and large independent oil and natural gas companies. Vantage also provides construction supervision services for, and will operate and manage, drilling units owned by others.
BENTONVILLE (dpa-AFX) - Retail giant Walmart has issued an apology after a third-party vendor on its website used a racial slur to describe a product. The seller used N-word to describe the color of a hair net used for weaves. Walmart removed the listing from its website and called it a 'clear violation of our policy.' The company said it is investigating the seller to determine how this violation happened. Walmart has been striving really hard in the online market to keep up with online giant Amazon. Walmart now sells about 50 million products on its site including those from third-party sellers. Earlier, Wal-Mart had to pull out a coffee mug that said 'Got Retard?' after the product was blasted on Twitter by angry parents of children with disabilities. 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.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN OR AUSTRALIA

Regulatory News:

Gecina (Paris:GFC) has launched the sale of 2,193,081 PSRs (ISIN code FR0013270014) to be detached from its treasury shares by way of an accelerated bookbuilding offering to institutional investors (the "Placing"). This represents the entirety of PSRs to be detached from Gecina's treasury shares in the context of the capital increase launched by Gecina on July 18. The Placing of the PSRs will begin immediately. The final terms and the result of the Placing will be determined at the end of the bookbuilding.

The offered PSRs give right to the subscription of 313,297 new Gecina shares, i.e. approximately 3.5% of the share capital increase.

The Placing will be executed in coordination with the concomitant placing of a maximum number of 12,650,000 PSRs by Ivanhoe Cambridge via the Trade Confirmation System (TCS) of Euronext. As previously announced, Ivanhoe Cambridge is selling a significant portion of its PSRs to participate in the capital increase on a "cash-neutral basis."

The total PSRs offered, including the PSRs offered by Ivanhoe Cambridge, give right to the subscription of a maximum number of 2,120,439 new Gecina shares, i.e. approximately 23% of the share capital increase.

As a reminder, Gecina and Ivanhoe Cambridge have each agreed to a lock-up period starting on the date of the AMF visa on the French-language prospectus in respect of the rights issue and ending 90 calendar days following the settlement and delivery of the rights issue, subject to certain exceptions.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell PSRs and the Placing of PSRs by Gecina does not constitute an offer to the public.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or purchase, or the solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase, PSRs.

No communication or information relating to the contemplated Placing of PSRs or the rights issue may be distributed to the public in any jurisdiction in which registration or approval is required. No action has been (or will be) undertaken in any jurisdiction where such steps would be required. The subscription for or purchase of securities of Gecina or the purchase of PSRs may be subject to legal or statutory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Gecina assumes no responsibility for any violation of such restrictions by any person. The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law.

This press release does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and Council dated 4 November 2003, as amended, in particular by Directive 2010/73/UE in the case where such directive was implemented into law in the member States of the European Economic Area (the "Prospectus Directive

The Placing of PSRs does not constitute an offer to the public in any jurisdiction.

With respect to each member State of the European Economic Area (the "Member State") having implemented the Prospectus Directive into law, no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of securities requiring a publication of a prospectus in any such Member State. As a result, the PSRs may only be offered in the Member States (a) to qualified investors, as defined by the Prospectus Directive; or (b) in any other circumstances, not requiring Gecina to publish a prospectus as provided under Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive.

For the purposes of this paragraph, "securities offered to the public" in a given Member State means any communication, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information about the terms and conditions of the offer and the securities so as to enable an investor to make a decision to buy or subscribe for the securities, as the same may be varied in that Member State.

The above selling restrictions are in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Member States.

The distribution of this press release is directed only at (i) persons outside the United Kingdom, subject to applicable laws, or (ii) persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments who fall within the definition of "investment professionals" in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 as amended (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth bodies corporate, unincorporated associations and partnerships and trustees of high value trusts as described in Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The Placing of PSRs is only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such rights will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on, this press release or any information contained herein.

This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation to sell or purchase, or a solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities of Gecina or the PSRs in the United States of America. Securities may not be offered, subscribed or sold in the United States of America absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements thereof. The securities of Gecina and the PSRs have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and Gecina does not intend to make a public offer of its securities or the PSRs in the United States of America.

The diffusion of this press release in certain countries may be prohibited under applicable law.

This press release may not be published, transmitted or distributed, directly or indirectly, and does not constitute an offer of securities, in the United-States (including in the territories and dependencies and in any State of the United States), in Canada, in Australia, or in Japan.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006198/en/

Contacts:

Gecina
EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- Meeting in Alberta for events concurrent to the Council of the Federation, Labour Leaders from across Canada urge provincial and territorial Premiers to lobby the federal government for a national Pharmacare plan to ensure all Canadians have access to life-saving medications, and to bring down the costs of the current increasingly out-of-control system.

"Canada's multi-payer drug system is expensive, inefficient, and does not ensure that people get the life-saving prescriptions they need," said President of the Ontario Federation of Labour Chris Buckley. "Canadians fund this patchwork system, spending millions of dollars. At the same time, they face some of the highest prices in the world for prescription medications instead of using that money to cover other healthcare needs."

Canada's public per capita prescription drug spending in 2014 was second highest amongst OECD countries, at $772 USD per person, far above the OECD average.

The high costs of the current system are also felt by individuals and families. Evidence shows Canadians who rely on prescription drugs simply don't have the money to cover costs, and instead are splitting pills, skipping dosages to stretch prescriptions, sharing medicines, or going deep into debt to make ends meet. Even more concerning, almost one in ten Canadians are going without life-saving prescribed medicines because they can't afford them, which can cause serious health complications.

"No one should need to skip their medications or otherwise ignore doctor's orders because of costs. This only leads to additional pressure on the healthcare system that will actually cost everyone more in the long run," said Buckley.

By adopting a single-payer program, Canadians would benefit from bulk purchasing power, giving them the power to obtain competitively priced prescription drugs. Through aggressive pharmaceutical company competition for Canadian business, a single-payer universal prescription drug program could save Canadians approximately $7.3 billion a year based on an additional $1 billion in public sector spending.

"In public opinion surveys, over 90% of both citizens and employers believe a Universal Prescription Drug Plan is important to Canadian healthcare coverage. Pharmacare is the type of smart policy Canadians are looking for from our political leaders," said Buckley. "Canadians know bulk buying is the smarter option."

Canada is the only country with universal health care that does not have a universal program for prescription coverage, despite the stated goal of universal coverage in the 2004-2014 Health Accord.

During events concurrent to the Council of the Federation, Presidents of provincial and territorial labour federations will urge premiers from provinces and territories across Canada to re-commit to a single-payer, universal prescription drug plan to save lives while saving Canadians money.

Together, Canada's provincial and territorial labour federations give voice to over three million workers, represented by the Alberta Federation of Labour, British Columbia Federation of Labour, Canadian Labour Congress, Manitoba Federation of Labour, New Brunswick Federation of Labour, Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, Northern Territories Federation of Labour, Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, Ontario Federation of Labour, Prince Edward Island Federation of Labour, Federation des travailleurs et travailleises du Quebec, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour and Yukon Federation of Labour.

The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts:

Meagan Perry

Director of Communications

416-894-3456

mperry@ofl.ca




HYDERABAD, India and BOSTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Thefeed mycotoxin detoxifiers market was estimated at a value of USD 2,037.47 million in 2016. It is projected to reach USD 2,341.8 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 3.5% during the forecast period (2017-2022). Mycotoxin detoxifiers, when used in animal feed, prevent the contamination of feed by mycotoxins, which are a group of natural chemicals (toxic secondary metabolite) produced by certain molds. There are a number of mycotoxins which can contaminate animal feed and adversely affect animals. These adverse effects could range from problems related to reproduction and organ damage (liver/kidney) to greater susceptibility to infectious diseases in animals. Mycotoxins are the primary agents which cause acute health or production problems in a dairy herd or poultry, and are likely to be a critical factor for a number of chronic problems, including a higher incidence of diseases, insufficient reproductive performance, or suboptimal milk production. To protect these animals from these adverse effects, mycotoxin detoxifiers are comprehensively used in animal fodder. They are unique for each mycotoxin and are required to be supplemented in animal feed to counter the harmful effects of mycotoxins.

The cause and effect relationship has been identified only for a few diseases and speculation about the role of mycotoxins in the etiology of various illnesses has been based on circumstantial evidence in other cases. The growth in China, India, Brazil, and other markets is due to increased meat consumption and improving economic conditions of people. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to register the highest CAGR of 3.77%, in terms of volume in this market, followed by Europe (3.13%).

By type, the globalmycotoxin detoxifiers market is segmented into binders and bio-transformers. Binders are further segmented into bentonite, clays, and others. Similarly, bio-transformers are also further segmented into enzymes, yeasts and others. By animal type, this market is segmented into ruminant, poultry, swine, aquaculture, pets, horses, and others. Lastly, by geography, this market has been segmented into major regions, such as North America (U.S., Mexico, Canada, and others), Europe (Spain, U.K., Germany, France, Russia, Italy, and others), Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Thailand, Australia, and others), South America (Brazil, Argentina, and others), the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and others), and Africa (South Africa, Egypt, and others).

Browse this report: Feed Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market - Global Trends, Dynamics and Forecasts (2017 - 2022)

Objectives of the Study

Market analysis for the global feed mycotoxin detoxifiers market, with region-specific assessments and competition analysis on global and regional scales.

on global and regional scales. Key manufacturers of feed mycotoxin detoxifiers, and their major products in each of the application varieties (binders and bio-transformers) and across the animal types (ruminants, swine, poultry, aquaculture, and others)

in each of the application varieties (binders and bio-transformers) and across the animal types (ruminants, swine, poultry, aquaculture, and others) Market definition, along with the identification of key drivers and restraints for the mycotoxin detoxifiers market.

and for the mycotoxin detoxifiers market. Identification of factors instrumental in changing the economic impact of the market, rising prospective opportunities, and identification of the key trends that can influence this market across each livestock type.

of the market, rising and that can influence this market across each livestock type. Extensively researched competitive landscape section with the dynamics of the companies operating, along with their market share.

section with the dynamics of the companies operating, along with their market share. Identification and analysis of the macro and micro factors which affect the growth patterns in the global feed mycotoxin detoxifiers market on both global and regional levels.

which affect the growth patterns in the global feed mycotoxin detoxifiers market on both global and regional levels. A comprehensive list of all the major manufacturers, along with the analysis of their current strategic interests in the market for their sustenance and growth and vital financial information.

and vital financial information. Wide-ranging knowledge and insights about the major players in this industry and the key strategies adopted by them to sustain and grow in the study market.

and the adopted by them to sustain and grow in the study market. Insightson the major countries/regions in which this industry is booming and to also identify the areas that are still untapped.

Spanning over 150 pages"Global Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market (2017 - 2022)" report covers Industry Overview of the Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market, Analysis of the Market Divers, Restraints and Opportunities, Major Companies that are Actively Vying for the Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market Share, Global Consumption and Revenue by Regions, Animal and Types, Supply Chain Analysis of Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market, Key Development and Trend Analysis of Mycotoxin Detoxifiers Market.

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Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 18, 2017) - Grizzly Discoveries Inc. (TSXV: GZD) (OTC Pink: GZDIF) (FSE: G6H) ("Grizzly" or the "Company") has issued the second payment of shares to AGORA Internet Relations Corp. ("AGORA") pursuant to a "shares for services" advertising agreement with AGORA (the "Agreement") announced on February 23, 2017. The TSX Venture Exchange has accepted the Agreement.

The Company issued 180,800 common shares to AGORA for a deemed value of $9,040 based on the Agreement, and a fair market value of $7,232 (including $832 in HST) based on the closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on June 1, 2017.

The Agreement requires additional share payments to AGORA in common shares of the Company with aggregate value of $24,000 plus HST, calculated with reference to a floor price of $0.05 per common share, in equal quarterly installments with the next payment due subsequent to September 1, 2017. The common shares have been issued to AGORA in reliance upon available prospectus exemptions and are subject to restrictions on trading until November 18, 2017 in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

On July 13, 2017, the Agreement was amended by the parties thereto to extend the term of the Agreement by two months to end on May 1, 2018. No additional consideration is payable to AGORA in relation to this term extension.

About AGORACOM

AGORACOM is the pioneer of online investor relations, online conferences and online branding services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 250 companies served. More than just lip service, AGORACOM is the home of more than 808K investors that visited 5.6 million times and read 52.4 million pages of information every year (Average 2008 - 2015).

AGORACOM traffic ranks within the top 0.5% of all websites around the world. These traffic results are independently tracked and verified by Google analytics. AGORACOM traffic can be attributed to its strategy of maintaining the cleanest, moderated small-cap discussion as a result of implementing the first ever Investor Controlled Stock Discussion Forums (http://blog.agoracom.com/2007/10/11/agoracom-investor-controlled-stock-discussion-forums-smash-status-quo/).

AGORACOM Founder, George Tsiolis, publishes the leading blog on small to mid-cap investor relations. His 50 Small-Cap CEO Lessons (http://blog.agoracom.com/category/small-cap-ceo-lessons/) are a must read for CEO's looking to increase their education and knowledge about online investor relations.

ABOUT GRIZZLY DISCOVERIES INC.

Grizzly is a diversified Canadian mineral exploration company with its primary listing on the TSX Venture Exchange with 55.5 million shares issued, exploring for world class gold and base metal deposits in British Columbia as well as holding mineral claim interests prospective for potash and diamondiferous kimberlites in Alberta.

On behalf of the Board,

GRIZZLY DISCOVERIES INC.

Brian Testo

CEO, President

Tel: (780) 693-2242

For further information, please visit our website at www.grizzlydiscoveries.com or contact:

Nancy Massicotte, Investor Relations

IR PRO COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Tel: 604-507-3377

Toll Free: 1-866-503-3377

Email: ir@grizzlydiscoveries.com

www.irprocommunications.com

or

Ian Lambert

COO, Grizzly Discoveries Inc.

Tel: 416-840-9843

Email: ilambert@grizzlydiscoveries.com

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.



Caution concerning forward-looking information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information and statements address future activities, events, plans, developments and projections. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information and statements are frequently identified by words such as "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and similar terminology, and reflect assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management of Grizzly in light of its experience, current conditions, expectations of future developments and other factors which it believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking information and statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause Grizzly's actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information and statements and accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed thereon.

Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary include but are not limited to the availability of financing; fluctuations in commodity prices; changes to and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including environmental laws and obtaining requisite permits; political, economic and other risks; as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in our annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis and in other filings made by us with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. Grizzly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements except as may be required by law.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - CSX Corp (CSX) released a profit for its second quarter that increased from last year. The company said its bottom line totaled $510 million, or $0.55 per share. This was higher than $445 million, or $0.47 per share, in last year's second quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.59 per share, according figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company said revenue for the quarter rose 8.5% to $2.93 billion. This was up from $2.70 billion last year. CSX Corp earnings at a glance: -Earnings (Q2): $510 Mln. vs. $445 Mln. last year. -Earnings Growth (Y-o-Y): 14.6% -EPS (Q2): $0.55 vs. $0.47 last year. -EPS Growth (Y-o-Y): 17.0% -Analysts Estimate: $0.59 -Revenue (Q2): $2.93 Bln vs. $2.70 Bln last year. -Revenue Change (Y-o-Y): 8.5% 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.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 18, 2017) - Klondex Mines Ltd. (TSX: KDX)(NYSE MKT: KLDX) ("Klondex" or the "Company") is pleased to report its preliminary operating results for the second quarter of 2017 for its Nevada and Canadian operations.

Second Quarter 2017 Operating Highlights:

Produced and sold a record quarterly total of 66,629 and 69,522 gold equivalent ounces, respectively, up 94% and 107%, respectively, from the first quarter.

Mined a total 53,248 gold equivalent ounces (1) , in line with Company expectations.

, in line with Company expectations. Processed all of the ore that was stockpiled at the Midas mill at the end of the first quarter.

YTD production of 101,019 gold equivalent ounces from Midas, Fire Creek and True North. The Company will begin processing Hollister ore through the Midas mill in the second half of the year.

Produced 6,911 gold equivalent ounces at True North, up 82% from the first quarter.

The Company remains on track to meet its annual production guidance of 210,000 to 225,000 gold equivalent ounces, up 36% from 2016.

The Company will report its financial results for the first quarter of 2017 after market close on Wednesday, August 9, 2017.

(1) Mined ounces are calculated using tons hauled to surface multiplied by the assays from production sampling.

Mr. Paul Huet, President and CEO commented, "As expected, the operating results for the second quarter were the best in the Company's history. We processed all of the ore that was stockpiled at the Midas mill at the end of the first quarter plus we continued to execute our mine plans, mining an additional 53,248 gold equivalent ounces in the second quarter." Mr. Huet continued, "We continue to make solid progress ramping up True North and Hollister, both of which are expected to make significant contributions to our production in the second half of the year. We are well positioned to meet our annual Company-wide production guidance of 210,000 to 225,000 gold equivalent ounces."

Second Quarter and year to date 2017 Operating Results

Three months ended Six months ended June June 30, 2017 30, 2017 --------------------- ---------------------- Nevada Canada Nevada Canada Consolidated Total Total Total Total Total Total ------------------------------- ------ ------ ------- ------- ------ ------- Ore tons mined 89,524 44,896 134,420 168,745 73,582 242,327 Gold equivalent grade mined (opt)(1) 0.52 0.14 0.40 0.60 0.14 0.46 Gold equivalent ounces mined(1) 46,934 6,333 53,248 100,533 10,249 110,768 Ore tons milled 92,232 69,675 161,907 153,198 98,612 251,810 Gold equivalent grade milled (opt)(1) 0.71 0.11 0.45 0.64 0.12 0.44 Gold equivalent ounces produced(1) 59,735 6,911 66,629 90,319 10,711 101,019 Gold equivalent ounces sold(1) 62,708 6,832 69,522 91,950 11,246 103,184 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEO Ratio(1) 72.5 70.8 72.8 71.3 70.8 71.4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Gold equivalent ounces ("GEO") and grades are computed as the applicable gold ounces/grade plus the silver ounces/grade divided by a GEO ratio. GEO ratios are computed by dividing the average realized gold price per ounce by the average realized silver price per ounce received by the Company in the respective period. Preliminary GEO ratios are listed above:

Three months ended June 30, 2017 ------------------------------------ Fire Nevada Nevada Creek Midas Hollister Total -------------------------------------- --------- ------ --------- ------ Ore tons mined 33,929 40,433 15,162 89,524 Gold equivalent grade mined (opt)(1) 0.78 0.33 0.47 0.52 Gold equivalent ounces mined(1) 26,331 13,534 7,069 46,934 Ore tons milled 49,060 43,172 - 92,232 Gold equivalent grade milled (opt)(1) 1.01 0.36 - 0.71 Average gold recovery rate (%) 92.3% 92.4% -% 92.3% Average silver recovery rate (%) 85.5% 83.3% -% 83.5% Gold equivalent ounces produced(1) 45,773 13,962 - 59,735 Gold equivalent ounces sold(1) 47,370 15,338 - 62,708 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEO Ratio(1) 72.5 72.5 72.5 72.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Gold equivalent ounces ("GEO") and grades are computed as the applicable gold ounces/grade plus the silver ounces/grade divided by a GEO ratio. GEO ratios are computed by dividing the average realized gold price per ounce by the average realized silver price per ounce received by the Company in the respective period. Preliminary GEO ratios are listed above: Six months ended June 30, 2017 ------------------------------------- Nevada Nevada Fire Creek Midas Hollister Total ------------------------------------------------ ------ --------- ------ 168,74 Ore tons mined 65,659 80,586 22,500 5 Gold equivalent grade mined (opt)(1) 0.97 0.34 0.40 0.60 100,53 Gold equivalent ounces mined(1) 63,919 27,510 9,120 3 153,19 Ore tons milled 70,719 82,479 - 8 Gold equivalent grade milled (opt)(1) 0.99 0.34 - 0.64 Average gold recovery rate (%) 92.6% 92.2% -% 92.5% Average silver recovery rate (%) 84.8% 83.7% -% 83.8% Gold equivalent ounces produced(1) 64,966 25,366 - 90,319 Gold equivalent ounces sold(1) 63,906 28,061 - 91,950 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEO Ratio(1) 72.0 71.1 71.3 71.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Gold equivalent ounces ("GEO") and grades are computed as the applicable gold ounces/grade plus the silver ounces/grade divided by a GEO ratio. GEO ratios are computed by dividing the average realized gold price per ounce by the average realized silver price per ounce received by the Company in the respective period. Preliminary GEO ratios are listed above:

Three months ended June 30, 2017 Six months ended June 30, 2017 -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- Canada True North Mine True North Tailings Canada Total True North Mine True North Tailings Canada Total ------------------------------------- --------------- ------------------- ------------ --------------- ------------------- ------------ Ore tons mined 44,896 - 44,896 73,582 - 73,582 Gold equivalent grade mined (opt)(1) 0.14 - 0.14 0.14 - 0.14 Gold equivalent ounces mined(1) 6,333 - 6,333 10,249 - 10,249 Ore tons milled 44,484 25,191 69,675 73,421 25,191 98,612 Gold equivalent grade milled (opt)(1) 0.14 0.05 0.11 0.14 0.05 0.12 Average gold recovery rate (%) 93.0% 89.0% 92.0% 94.0% 89.0% 94.0% Gold equivalent ounces produced(1) 5,798 1,113 6,911 9,598 1,113 10,711 Gold equivalent ounces sold(1) 5,732 1,100 6,832 10,146 1,100 11,246 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GEO Ratio(1) 70.8 70.8 70.8 70.8 70.8 70.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Gold equivalent ounces ("GEO") and grades are computed as the applicable gold ounces/grade plus the silver ounces/grade divided by a GEO ratio. GEO ratios are computed by dividing the average realized gold price per ounce by the average realized silver price per ounce received by the Company in the respective period. Preliminary GEO ratios are listed above:

Fire Creek - Nevada:

At Fire Creek, the Company milled 49,060 ore tons in the second quarter at an average milled head grade of 1.01 gold equivalent ounces per ton, producing 45,733 gold equivalent ounces. YTD, Fire Creek has produced 64,966 gold equivalent ounces, approximately 66% of its annual production guidance. In the second half of the year, Fire Creek will increase waste development activities. This will result in producing fewer ore tons at similar grades. We continue to expect to meet our annual production guidance of 97,000 to 100,000 gold equivalent ounces.

Midas - Nevada:

At Midas, the Company milled 43,172 ore tons in the second quarter at an average milled head grade of 0.36 gold equivalent ounces per ton, producing 13,962 gold equivalent ounces. YTD, Midas has produced 25,366 gold equivalent ounces, approximately 59% of its annual production guidance. Midas will increase its development activities in the second half of the year, thus producing fewer ore tons at similar grades. We continue to expect to meet our annual production guidance of 42,000 to 45,000 gold equivalent ounces.

Hollister - Nevada:

At Hollister, the Company mined 15,162 ore tons in the second quarter at an average mined head grade of 0.47 gold equivalent ounces per ton for a total of 7,069 gold equivalent ounces, which were stockpiled at the end of the second quarter. Stockpiled ore is expected to be processed at the Midas mill in the second half of the year after metallurgical test work is completed. Mining rates are expected to increase significantly in the second half of the year as we complete development activities and increase cut and fill and long hole mining rates. We continue to expect to meet our annual production guidance of 30,000 to 35,000 gold equivalent ounces.

True North - Canada:

At True North in Canada, the Company milled 44,484 ore tons in the second quarter from the True North Mine at an average milled head grade of 0.14 gold ounces per ton, producing a total of 5,798 gold ounces. The Company also milled 25,191 tons from the True North Tailings at an average milled head grade of 0.05 gold ounces per ton producing an additional 1,113 gold ounces. Additional ore tons are expected to come from the Cohiba mine as development work commenced in the second quarter. We expect to meet our annual production guidance of 41,000 to 45,000 gold ounces from multiple ore sources.

Webcast and Conference Call

Klondex will report its financial results for the second quarter of 2017 after market close on Wednesday, August 9, 2017. A conference call and webcast will be held the following morning on Thursday, August 10, 2017 at 10:30am ET/7:30am PT. The conference call telephone numbers are listed below.

Canada & USA Toll Free Dial In: +1 800-319-4610

Toronto: +1 416-915-3239

International: +1 604-638-5340

Callers should dial in 5 to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and ask to join the Klondex call. The webcast will be available on the Company's website or by clicking http://services.choruscall.ca/links/klondex20170810.html

About Klondex Mines Ltd. (www.klondexmines.com)

Klondex is a well-capitalized, junior-tier gold and silver mining company focused on exploration, development, and production in a safe, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective manner. The Company has 100% interests in three producing mineral properties: the Fire Creek Mine and the Midas Mine and ore milling facility, both of which are located in the state of Nevada, USA, and the True North Gold Mine and mill in Manitoba, Canada. The Company also has 100% interests in two recently acquired projects, the Hollister mine and the Aurora mine and ore milling facility, also located in Nevada, USA.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information

This news release contains certain information that may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking information"), including but not limited to the production guidance, exploration, development and production potential at Fire Creek, Midas, Hollister and True North, future exploration, development and production plans of Klondex and timing relating to the Company's expected releases of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates. This forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties that are based on current expectations, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such information. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the global economy; the price of gold; operational, funding and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; the degree to which mineral reserve estimates are reflective of actual mineral reserves; the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with underground operations; and the ability of Klondex to fund its substantial capital requirements and operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and United States available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov, respectively. Readers are urged to read these materials. Klondex assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by law.

For More Information

John Seaberg

Senior Vice President, Strategic Relations

O: 775-284-5757

M: 303-668-7991

jseaberg@klondexmines.com


BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/18/17 -- In accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTR"), SolGold Plc ("SolGold" or the "Company") was informed by Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc ("Cornerstone") on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the purchase of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Cornerstone now holds 154,406,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 10.19% of the Company's issued share capital.

Cornerstone will acquire an additional 15,750,000 ordinary shares in the Company following the ordinary course of filing documentation clearance required by the TSX Venture Exchange. As a result, Cornerstone will hold 170,156,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 11.23% of the Company's issued share capital.

SolGold was also informed by Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the disposal of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha has ceased to be a significant holder of the Company.

By the order of the Board

Karl Schlobohm, Company Secretary

Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc

NOTES TO EDITORS

SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, AIM-listed (SOLG) copper gold exploration and future development company with assets in Ecuador, Solomon Islands and Australia. SolGold's primary objective is to discover and define world-class copper-gold deposits. The Board and Management Team have substantial vested interests in the success of the Company as shareholders as well as strong track records in the areas of exploration, mine appraisal and development, investment, finance and law. SolGold's experience is augmented by state of the art geophysical and modelling techniques and the guidance of porphyry copper and gold expert Dr Steve Garwin.

SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. The Company announced USD54m in capital raisings in September 2016 involving Maxit Capital LP, Newcrest International Ltd and DGR Global Ltd, and a USD41.2m raising in June of 2017 largely from Newcrest International with USD1.2m raised from Ecuadorean investors. All of these raisings were undertaken at substantial premiums to previous raisings, and SolGold has circa USD70 million in available cash to continue the exploration and development of its flagship Cascabel Project.

Mr Craig Jones joined the SolGold Board on 3 March 2017, nominated to the Board of SolGold by Newcrest Mining, now a 14.54% shareholder in SolGold. Mr Jones is a Mechanical Engineer and is currently the Executive General Manager Wafi-Golpu (Newcrest-Harmony MMJV). He has held various senior management and executive roles within the Newcrest Group, including General Manager Projects, General Manager Cadia Valley Operations, Executive General Manager Projects and Asset Management, Executive General Manager Australian and Indonesian Operations, Executive General Manager Australian Operations and Projects, and Executive General Manager Cadia and Morobe Mining Joint Venture. Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr Jones worked for Rio Tinto.

Cascabel, SolGold's 85% owned "World Class" flagship copper-gold porphyry project, is located in northern Ecuador on the under-explored northern section of the richly endowed Andean Copper Belt. SolGold owns 85% of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA") and approximately 11% of TSX-V-listed Cornerstone Capital Resources ("Cornerstone"), which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuadorian registered company which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.

The investments by Newcrest for 14.54% of SolGold, and the investments into SolGold by Guyana Goldfields, Maxit Capital and its clients, endorses Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of the growing Alpala, and the prospectivity of Cascabel and its multiple targets. The gold endowment, location, infrastructure, logistics are important competitive advantages offered by the project.

To date SolGold has completed geological mapping, soil sampling, rock saw channel sampling, geochemical and spectral alteration mapping over 25km2, along with an additional 9km2 of Induced Polarisation and 14km2 Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets.

SolGold has completed over 39,000m of drilling and expended over USD45.6M on the program, which includes corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone. This has been accomplished with a workforce of up to 176 Ecuadorean workers and geoscientists, and 6 expatriate Australian geoscientists. The results of 26 holes drilled (including re-drilled holes) and assayed to date have produced some of the greatest drill hole intercepts in porphyry copper-gold exploration history, as indicated by Hole 12 (CSD-16-012) returning 1560m grading 0.59% copper and 0.54 g/t gold including, 1044m grading 0.74% copper and 0.54 g/t gold. The average grade of all metres drilled to date on the project currently stands at 0.32% copper and 0.27 g/t gold. Intensive diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with 10 drill rigs expected to be operational by early 2018, targeting over 90,000m of drilling per annum.

Cascabel is characterised by fifteen (15) identified targets, "World Class" drilling intersections over 1km in length at potentially economic grades, and high copper and gold grades in richer sections, as well as logistic advantages in location, elevation, water supply, proximity to roads, port and power services; and a progressive legislative approach to resource development in Ecuador.

To date, SolGold has drill tested 4 of the 15 targets, being Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central, Hematite Hill, and Alpala Southeast. Currently drill testing of Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central and Alpala Southeast targets is underway, with drill testing of the Aguinaga target to commence in August 2017.

The Alpala deposit is open in multiple directions and the mineralised corridor marked for drill testing of the greater Alpala cluster occurs over a 2.2km strike length from Trivinio in the northwest to Cristal in the southeast. The mineralised corridor is known to be prospective over approximately 700m width.

High priority targets within the Alpala cluster, at Moran approximately 700m to the north, and at Aguinaga approximately 2.3km north east, are closely modelled by 3D MVI magnetic signatures that currently encompass over 15Bt of magnetic rock. Based on a strong spatial and genetic relationship between copper sulphides and magnetite, this body of magnetic rock is considered to be highly prospective for significant copper and gold mineralisation, and requires drill testing.

SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of the Alpala deposit including Hematite Hill, Alpala South East, Cristal, Alpala Northwest and Trivinio before completing a resource statement and drill testing of the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Aguinaga, Tandayama-America, Alpala West, Carmen, Alpala East, Moran, Parambas, and Chinambicito.

The Company is currently planning further metallurgical testing and completion of an independent Pre-Feasibility Study at Cascabel. SolGold is investigating both high tonnage open cut and underground block caving operations, as well as a high grade / low tonnage initial underground development towards the economic development of the copper gold deposit/s at Cascabel.

Drill hole intercepts have been updated to reflect current commodity prices, using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample. Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.63, determined using an updated copper price of USD3.00/pound and an updated gold price of USD1300/ounce. True widths of down hole intersections are estimated to be approximately 25-50%.

Following a comprehensive review of the geology and prospectivity of Ecuador, SolGold and its subsidiaries have also applied for additional exploration licences in Ecuador over a number of promising porphyry copper gold targets throughout the Country. SolGold is negotiating external funding options which will provide the Company with the ability to have some of these projects fully funded by a third party while focussing on Cascabel.

In Queensland, Australia the Company is evaluating the future exploration plans for the Mt Perry, Rannes and Normanby projects, with drill testing of the Normanby project planned for the coming quarter. Joint venture agreements are being investigated for a joint venture partner to commit funds and carry out exploration to earn an interest in the tenements.

SolGold retains interests in its original theatre of operations, Solomon Islands in the South West Pacific, where the 100% owned, but as yet undrilled, Kuma prospect on the island of Guadalcanal exhibits surface lithocap characteristics which are traditionally indicative of a large metal rich copper gold intrusive porphyry system. SolGold intends in the future to apply intellectual property and experience developed in Ecuador to target additional "World Class" copper gold porphyries at Kuma and other targets in Ecuador and Argentina.

SolGold is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Company listed on London's AIM Market in 2006, under the AIM code 'SOLG' and currently has a total of 1,515,555,686 ordinary shares issued, together with 31,795,884 options exercisable at 28p and 9,795,884 options exercisable at 14p.

Contacts:

Mr Nicholas Mather

SolGold Plc (Executive Director)

nmather@solgold.com.au

Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0665

+61 (0) 417 880 448



Mr Karl Schlobohm

SolGold Plc (Company Secretary)

kschlobohm@solgold.com.au

Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0661



Mr Ewan Leggat / Richard Morrison

SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (NOMAD and Broker)

Ewan.leggat@spangel.co.uk / richard.morrison@spangel.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470




The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is encouraging the public to view the total eclipse at Corps of Engineers lakes when the sun sweeps over Kentucky and Tennessee from approximately noon to 3 p.m. Central Time Aug. 21.



Free viewing areas in the path of totality have been designated at Lake Barkley in Kentucky, and Cheatham Lake, Old Hickory Lake, J. Percy Priest Lake, Cordell Hull Lake, and Center Hill Lake in Tennessee.



Lake Barkley: Tailwater Right Bank Day Use Area - Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 35 seconds

8439 U.S. Highway 62 West, Kuttawa, KY 42055



Cheatham Lake: Right Bank Day Use Area  Duration of Totality: 1 minute 51 seconds

1798 Cheatham Dam Road, Ashland City, TN 37015



Old Hickory Lake:

Laguardo Recreation Area  Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 35 seconds

7609 Highway 109 North, Lebanon, TN 37087



Rockland Recreation Area - Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 31 seconds

5 Power Plant Road, Hendersonville, TN 37075



J. Percy Priest Lake: Stones River Greenway  Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 15 seconds

3778 Bell Road, Hermitage, TN 37076



Cordell Hull Lake:

Defeated Creek Day Use Area  Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 35 seconds

140 Marina Lane, Carthage, TN 37030



Donaldson Park (also near Dale Hollow Lake)  Duration of Totality: 1 minute 1 seconds

1110 Jackson Street, Celina, TN 38551



Center Hill Lake: Center Hill Dam  Duration of Totality: 2 minutes 35 seconds

270 Lancaster Road, Lancaster, TN 38569



Visitors are also encouraged to stay at Corps of Engineers campgrounds in the path of totality to view the total eclipse, and are welcome to join the public at designated viewing areas. The public is reminded that detailed information about the eclipse, safety information, camping opportunities, reservations, and viewing locations is available at www.lrn.usace.army.mil/eclipse.
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Australia will on Wednesday see June results for the Westpac leading economic index, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In May, the index eased 0.02 percent on month. Japan will release final June numbers for machine tool orders; in the previous reading, orders had surged 31.1 percent on year. Malaysia will provide June data for consumer prices; in May, consumer prices were down 0.2 percent on month and up 3.9 percent on year. 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.
LIVERPOOL, England, July 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The world's biggest international business festival hosted in Liverpool has facilitated 250 million worth of business deals, according to new research.

The economic windfall has been provided thanks to the biennial International Business Festival, staged in 2014 and 2016, which has attracted 31,000 visitors from 98 countries, with large delegations from China, the US and India.

In 2016 the festival welcomed over 25,000 delegates from around the world, putting on a schedule of inspiring events.

The festival is aimed at small and medium-sized companies, particularly those eyeing overseas trade, with 30 per cent of previous delegates reporting that they were actively exporting or exploring the opportunity of exporting to new international markets.

A total of 103 international delegations made up of 639 unique delegates visited the 2016 festival, with nearly a quarter (23%) of these coming from China.

Figures were revealed in an independent analysis published with a year to go before Liverpool hosts the 2018 International Business Festival.

Next year's event is already in full swing and organisers predict that the total value of deals over the three festivals will reach 1bn, boosted by the trade and investment from the 2018 event.

The upbeat forecast came as they unveiled details of the 2018 festival, which will be held over nine days in June next year at the international conference centre.

Organisers are promising a stellar line-up of inspirational speakers, including heads of government, royalty and business leaders to be announced in the coming months. Lead sponsor HSBC, have already committed to supporting the 2018 Festival.

Each day will focus on a different high-growth business sector, including global economics, future transport, creative industries, manufacturing and life sciences.

A new innovation hub will showcase the latest business trends; a "festival incubator" will offer expert advice to expanding firms and there will be a wide range of cutting-edge conferences. Taking to the "blueskies stage" will be world-renowned industry experts, influencers and innovators.

Max Steinberg, chair of the 2018 International Business Festival, said: "The Chinese business community is a critical audience for the 2018 International Business Festival. The Chinese and UK business communities have a long history of collaboration and cross-border development. Our festival will provide a strong opportunity for start-ups, SMEs and larger corporations to develop import/export partnerships and generate new business. In 2016, 23 percent of companies participating were headquartered in China; many saw great value in their attendance."



Amanda Murphy, Head of Commercial Banking for HSBC UK, said: "SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy and for many there is an appetite to grow their business through

exporting. For those worrying about having a lack of exporting experience the International Business Festival brings SMEs together with experts to explore opportunities. We're looking forward to joining the UK's most exciting young businesses eager to discover the international markets available to them."

Lise Bertelsen, Executive Director at China-Britain Business Council, said: "Involvement in the 2014 and 2016 Festivals was very useful to the China-Britain Business Council, enabling us to connect to companies new to the China market, as well as giving us visibility with a wide range of stakeholders. Both festivals offered opportunities to present CBBC and the China market, as well as allowing us to reach a broad network of UK businesses. Given the continued growth and development of the festivals, CBBC looks forward to being part of the 2018 International Business Festival."

Businesses have testified to the export gains achieved by attending the festival.

Brian Wilkins of Abbey Group said: "We secured a 20m boost through the Festival and significantly advanced our global profile"

Michelle Billington of Foot in the door films said: "We estimate deals agreed at the festival will bring investment of between 2 to 30m over the next 3 - 5 years."

The festival will be held between 12-18 June. For further information please visit www.internationalbusinessfestival.com

Notes to Editors

About International Business Festival

The International Business Festival is the world's biggest business event. Hosted every two years in its home city of Liverpool, the festival captures the dynamism and diversity of the global marketplace. The goal is to give businesses the space, support and expertise they need to make connections, do deals and realise their potential. The International Business Festival is co-funded by the City of Liverpool and the UK government through the Liverpool City Region combined authority single investment fund.

internationalbusinessfestival.com | @thebusinessfest

Independent research analysis conducted by SG Lingard.

For more information about the 2018 International Business Festival please visit http://internationalbusinessfestival.com/
Poq, a London, UK-based app commerce company, secured 3.5m in its latest funding round.

The round, which brings total amount raised by Poq so far to 7m, was led by Beringea with participation from Meyer Bergman and Barclays.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its customer base among large and international retailers, and to extend its service so that in-house developers will be able to customize their apps themselves.

Led by Oyvind Henriksen, CEO and co-founder, Poq provides a Software-as-a-Service platform (SaaS) for iOS and Android that enables retailers to build shopping apps for their customers. The companys service operates on its own platform, ensuring that apps are refreshed in real-time with the latest updates. Retailers using it can access in-app data that provides insights into their customers shopping habits, giving them a deeper understanding of how customers use their service.

The company has gained traction with large retailers such as House of Fraser, Missguided, Holland & Barrett, and Made.com.

FinSMEs

18/07/2017
New Delhi: Almost Rs 10 crore daily net loss and Rs 16.5 crore in daily debt servicing. This is what Air Indias balance sheet looked like as of March this year, according to data presented by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in Rajya Sabha today. The airline has about Rs 6,000 crore debt servicing obligation on its books which is 50 percent more than previously thought. And despite historic low fuel prices in FY17 helping it significantly improve its margins, Air Indias balance sheet continues to be splashed in red. It has reported a three-fold jump in operational profit for FY17, largely on the back of benign fuel prices, with other costs remaining nearly the same.

In the last few weeks, a lot of chatter and public discourse around Air India has been about its potential disinvestment and who are the interested private players likely to board the Maharaja. The biggest hurdle for any potential buyer of Air India continues to be its debt pile  in fact, it is the inability of the government to lighten Air Indias debt burden which is pushing it to consider divestment in the first place. So what does Air India have to pay each year to service this debt? As per Sinhas reply, this figure is about Rs 6,000 crore. This means Air India has to pay about Rs 500 crore each month in interest or about Rs 16.5 crore each day of the year as interest outgo. The total debt on the airlines books as of March this year is Rs 48,876.81 crore. No wonder then that IndiGo, which has already expressed interest in bidding for the overseas operations of the airline, has clearly said it does not plan to take on the airlines debt.

When three Rajya Sabha MPs wanted to know the reasons for Air India facing financial pressure and earning less profit despite having more resources compared to private airlines, MoS Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in the reply today Air India is facing financial pressure and earning less profit due to high debt burden as an offshoot of past accumulated losses. The debt servicing is at around Rs 6,000 crore per annum.

That debt is killing Air India is evident also from an analysis done by ICICI Securities' Anshuman Deb, who said in a note to clients some days back that the operational cost structure of Air India (ex-debt servicing and depreciation) has already seen a turnaround. He based his observations on lower fuel costs in the fiscal year ending March 2017. From 43 percent of the total cost in FY15, fuel expenses fell to just 23 percent of the total cost structure of Air India in FY17. Or to put this in perspective, from nearly half the cost structure comprising fuel expenses, Air Indias fuel costs were around just a fourth of the total cost structure in FY17. This single factor has helped the airline generate an EBITDAR of anywhere between 15-20 percent in FY17 versus a measly 2 percent in FY15. But since the debt pile refuses has not been reduced at all during this period, the interest portion continues to bog down Air India.

Global aviation consultancy CAPA had said recently that the government will have take close to Rs 58,000 crore (non-aircraft debt, equity invested till date) haircut to make AI divestment viable and feasible for Investors. It also said that once the balance sheet has been cleaned up, CAPA expects significant interest in AI.

In another reply, Jayant Sinha said the airline posted a provisional operating profit of Rs 300 crore in FY17, three times the number it claimed in the previous fiscal. Air India has seen a substantial increase in revenue for the first time in four years last fiscal at Rs 22,146 crore versus Rs 20,524.56 crore in FY16 or about eight percent higher. Net loss was the lowest in four years at Rs 3,643 crore, 42 percent down from the figure in 2013-14 at Rs 6,279.6 crore. The total accumulated losses of Air India as per the audited accounts on 31st March 2016 were Rs 41,380.45 crore.

Late last month, the Union Cabinet gave an in-principle nod to strategic disinvestment of governments stake in Air India but It is long road to privatisation of the national carrier, where government is the sole owner and has yet not taken a call on how much equity to offer to a potential strategic investor. The entire disinvestment process could take anywhere up to 18 months.

The Cabinet decided to form a Group of Ministers (GoM) to decide, among other things, the quantum of equity to be offered, ways to deal with Air Indias unsustainable debt and housing some of the airlines assets into a shell company. This group will also decide whether to demerge three of the airlines profitable subsidiaries and do a strategic sale of these. Also, a very crucial piece of the Air India jigsaw will fall in place when this group decides if foreign investors and/or foreign airlines can also bid for the national carrier. The group is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and also comprise the minister of civil aviation besides others. It is slated to hold its first meeting this evening.

So will the government bite the bullet and completely exit the Maharaja? This is one possibility and perhaps the only sensible thing to do. The three options on the table are a 100 percent sell-off, a 74 percent stake sale or a 51 percent stake sale. This means in any scenario, the government will cease to be a majority owner of the airline.

An official close to developments had told Firstpost earlier that it is possible to break up the airline into two distinct parts. One is the airline itself with aircraft and related assets. The second part comprises Air Indias subsidiaries and the real estate. This official had said that the sensible way to get maximum value in this disinvestment process would be to sell off just the airline to a prospective buyer. The government could then simultaneously dispose off the subsidiaries and real estate for a total consideration of close to Rs 20,000-21,000 crore. This official had said that the sale of standalone Air India can happen only when any prospective buyer agrees to bear about Rs 20,000 crore of aircraft loans and another Rs 6,000-7,000 crore of working capital loans.
New Delhi: The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that no more grace period will be granted for depositing the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, saying the very object of demonetisation and elimination of black money will be defeated if a fresh window is given.

Firstpost's Dinesh Unnikrishnan had explained the reasons why the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would not give another chance to people to deposit their old and invalidated Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in banks

The Centre was responding to the 4 July directive by a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar asking it to consider granting a window to those who have not been able to exchange the scrapped notes for genuine reasons.

The apex court had said that people should not lose their own money for no fault of theirs.

"The very object of demonetisation and elimination of black money will be defeated if a window is opened for a further period as the persons in possession of the specified bank notes (scrapped notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500) would have had sufficient time and opportunity to carefully plan the reasons and excuses for not depositing the SBNs within the permitted period that is before December 30, 2016," the Ministry of Finance said in its affidavit.

The government said it has taken a "conscious decision" that no necessity or any justifiable reason exists either in law or on facts to invoke its power under The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017 to extend the period for exchanging the scrapped currency.

The affidavit said that none of the petitioners have given any valid ground as to why they could not deposit the scrapped notes through his or her authorised third person.

Justifying its decision not to give any further window, the affidavit said, "The period thus available for every one to exchange and or deposit the specified bank notes was spread over 51 days (except for closed holidays) unlike the earlier demonetisation drive carried out in the year 1978, when it was restricted to six days only."

It said that "the period November 9, 2016 to December 30, 2016 was fairly a very long period during which any one can either himself or through his authorised agent/third person could have deposited/exchanged the specified bank notes subject to following the prescribed norms."

"In other words, what was permitted was exchange and or deposit of specified bank notes during a block period a period up to and including December 30, 2016 either in person or through authorised third person," it said.

The Centre said that the Ministry of Home Affairs had in July reported that as per intelligence agencies, there were reports of large scale misuse of the window for exchange of the old currency notes.

"Seizure of cash during the month of November and December 2016 was to the tune of Rs 147.9 crore and Rs 306.897 crore and seizure of gold for the month of November and December 2016 was 69.1 kg and 234.267 kg respectively," it said.

The affidavit further said that large quantities of new notes were also seized indicating exchange of old currency cash with new currency circumventing the rules.

"The CBI has informed that they have registered 63 cases relating to irregularities committed during post- demonetisation period involving 57 regular cases and 6 preliminary enquiries from November 25, 2016 to April 30, 2017. The cases allegedly involve total amount of Rs 395.19 crore," it said.

The apex court is hearing a batch of petitions, including one filed by Sudha Mishra seeking a direction to authorities to allow her to deposit demonetised notes as she could not do so during the period specified by the Centre and the RBI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on 8 November last year announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would no longer be a legal tender from the next day.

The government had assured the people that demonetised currency notes could be exchanged at banks, post offices and RBI branches till 30 December, 2016. If people were unable to deposit them by that day, they could do so till 31 March, 2017 at RBI branches after complying with certain formalities.

Earlier, the apex court on 6 March had issued notices to the Centre and RBI on the petitions alleging tweaking of rules on exchanging demonetised currency notes.

The Prime Ministers address to the nation on the evening of 8 November last year on demonetisation and subsequent notifications of the federal bank that the devalued currency notes can be exchanged at RBI offices even up to 31 March, 2017 were valid assurances which stood breached by the ordinance, the counsel for petitioner Sudha Mishra had said.

One of the pleas has also referred to the Specified Bank Notes Cessation of Liabilities Ordinance and said the government had breached the assurance.

However, the Ordinance, issued on 30 December last, had specified that only those who were abroad or armed forces personnel posted in remote areas or others who could give valid reasons for not being able to deposit the cancelled notes at banks, could deposit the demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes till March 31.

The deadline for the general public to deposit the scrapped currency in bank or post office accounts expired on 30 December, 2016.
New Delhi: The Centre has asked states to chalk out relevant plans to achieve the goal of doubling farmers' income by 2022, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

The average monthly income per agricultural household from various sources is estimated to be Rs 6,426, according to the survey done by the National Sample Survey Office in 2013.

Replying to queries raised on farmers' income, Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said a roadmap has been outlined by the NITI Aayog for farm sector reforms and doubling farmers' income by 2022.

The roadmap presents quantitative framework and identifies seven areas for growth. They include increasing crop yields, livestock production, efficient use of agri-inputs, improving crop intensity, crop diversification, improved price realisation to farmers and shifting cultivators to non-farm jobs, he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Rupala said this "policy paper was shared with the states for devising a relevant strategy so as to realise the goal of doubling farmers' income by 2022".

Apart from this, the ministry has also constituted an inter-ministerial committee for recommending a suitable strategy, he added.

Meanwhile, the Centre is realigning its interventions to move from "production-centric" to "farmers' income centric" platform, he said in a separate reply.

"Agrarian distress as manifest from a large number of farmers living below the poverty line and unfortunate incidents of suicides can be addressed by enabling farmers to increase their income," Rupala asserted.

The schemes to promote soil health card, neem-coated urea, crop insurance, e-market and interest subvention are aimed at increasing farmers income, he added.

On being asked about the growing number of farmer suicides in the country, Rupala said that an all-India study has been conducted during 2016-17 to ascertain reasons.

The study was carried out in 13 major states by Agriculture Research Unit of Bengaluru-based ISEC and reference year was 2015-16, he said without sharing its findings.

To a query on slow farm sector reforms, the minister said: "Agriculture is a state subject and the state governments are primarily responsible for the growth and development of the agriculture sector in their respective states."

The role of the central government is to supplement the efforts of the states through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support, he added.

On linking financial grant given to states under a scheme RKVY for agri-reforms, the minister said that it was not pursued further due to implementation issues.

However, the states are being encouraged to take up reforms advocated through other measures i.e. pe-requisite for integration to e-NAM eligibility under the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure.

He also said that the new model marketing act, 2017 would accelerate the pace and quantity of reforms. "Series of dialogues are being held at various levels to hasten the process of achieving comprehensive market reforms."

On efforts made to improve employment opportunities and reduce dependency on the agri sector, the minister said that the Centre is "working out specific interventions" for promoting ancillary activities like bee-keeping and also finalising the farm sector programmes under the 'Skill India' programme.
The Gujarat High Court was approached by Essar Steel to stay the bankruptcy proceedings initiated against it by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at the behest of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI had used its new-fangled powers to name top defaulters to the banking and financial system with a view to finding solution for the vexed problem of non-performing assets (NPA), euphemism for bad debts. The RBI identified 12 of them with the common thread running among them being outstanding of more than Rs 5000 crore. Essar Steel had the dubious honor of finding a place in the bankers roll-call of blaggards.

Having been caught with its pants down, Essar had the gall to approach the Gujarat High Court with a pretended sense of hurt----Why me? It has become customary in this country to ask why me when caught with pants down or hands in the till, if you like. Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher infamy had the cheek to ask the same question even as he fled the country to shake of creditors snapping at his heels and to take shelter in his luxurious ranch in London. More recently, NDTV asked the same question---Why we, when there are greater crooks in the country. Touche!

It is not for the defaulter to ask why me or me alone. It is not for him to say that you first catch the crooks in their pecking order before catching me. A person feeling the heat of the law cannot throw it off the track by saying he is, if anything, a lesser crook. Instead, what he must say is he is innocent which he would prove man-like in the court proceedings.

It is neither possible for the government nor for the investigative agencies nor for the informants to first compile a comprehensive list of all crooks in the country and arraign them before the courts of law in the pecking order in the descending order of loot or default. True, investigative agencies and governments can play favorites by being selective---by turning the full force of law on those it perceives to belong to the rival political camp while being soft on those defaulters who have been in the ruling dispensations favored list.

The solution to such brazen acts of selectivity is two-fold----robust defence in the court proceedings and tipping off the investigative agencies about the misdeeds of greater crooks. If the investigative agencies turn a blind eye to such tip-offs, then courts doors can be knocked at.

The Gujarat High Court with due respect didnt do the cause of NPA resolution any good by speaking with a forked tongue----your prayer for stay of the bankruptcy proceedings cannot be entertained but NCLT will first examine whether yours was a fit case for proceeding with bankruptcy. This is a dangerous precedent.

In the wake of this verdict, defaulters will have found another time-gaining or dilly-dallying tool or tactic. NCLT or other bankruptcy forums would not be able to make much headway because they would be stymied by roadblocks or headwinds----both unnatural and man-made. In other words, the Gujarat High Court has unwittingly thrown a spanner in the RBIs works. When the company law says that a creditor to whom more than the specified sum is due can file for compulsory winding up of the defaulting company, so be it. And when the newly crafted bankruptcy code 2015 says if 75 percent of creditors who have bid their time long enough feel the company cannot pay up and choose to press for its winding up through bankruptcy proceedings, so be it.

Because these are objective procedures, the ones based on impartial and non-discriminate touchstones. While courts and quasi-judicial forums can be counted upon to be impartial, they should not be burdened with the task of applying subjective norms in the first place before deciding to go ahead or not with what are admittedly pressing and festering issues.

All the affected parties, the government, the RBI and banks must file an appeal before the apex court praying for quashing the limited portion of the Gujarat High Court order that has the potential to slowdown NPA reforms.
The Gujarat High Court order dismissing Essar Steels plea against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for listing it among the 12 companies to be treated under the bankruptcy law has given hopes for quicker resolutions of the bad loan problem in the banking sector. This isnt the only reason. Just recently a study by industry body Assocham had even said that equipped with the bankruptcy code, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to put non-performing assets (NPAs) worth about Rs 8 lakh crore for resolution by March 2019.

Such a quick resolution of Indias bad loan problem is, at best, wishful thinking unless certain pre-requisites are met.

First, there isnt the required infrastructure in place as of now to initiate a large number of bad loan cases, involving huge amounts, where no significant repayment has been made for years. This is something senior bankers like State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bahattacharya has highlighted as recently as last week (read a Business Standard copy here). This involves creation of an information system that tells bankers and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) the details of the defaulted borrowers. Without this, the much-hyped bankruptcy code may not be of big help to the banking system, Bhattacharya had said.

The SBI chairman clearly has a point here. In fact, this is an issue this author has highlighted in an earlier column. The question then raised was whether NCLT, the main agency that will make the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) scheme work, has adequate infrastructure to deal with a large number of insolvency cases? Right now there are about 25,000 pending cases with NCLT and according to Alvarez & Marsal (read a Mint report here), it may take at least seven years to resolve these pending cases. That doesnt sound like an early resolution.

There are 4,000 pending cases in the Company Law Board (CLB) that will likely move to NCLT, besides 700 pending cases at Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), 5,200 winding-up and amalgamation cases in high courts and 15,000 cases in Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) related to corporates -- all of which are expected to be transferred to NCLT. But with just 11 benches and 62 judicial and technical members, the report explains, NCLT will not be able to handle the mountain of pending cases. Unless the infrastructure is in place, the expected benefits out of the bankruptcy code will remain on paper only.

Second, there is a reason why banks havent already rushed to the tribunals till the time the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has pushed them. In many cases, particularly with respect to engineering and manufacturing companies, money is stuck for years in stalled projects, where the reasons for stress are often sector-specific and linked to poor economic activity. Unless these sector specific issues are solved, it is very difficult to improve the performance of these companies and enable them make repayments to banks, said a former executive director with a Mumbai-based bank.

For instance, bad loans in the agriculture sector wont come down unless farmers' income profile improves. For this, we need better warehousing facilities to store crops and abolish middlemen. The steel sector will need policy hand-holding to prevent foreigners from dumping cheap products; small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) need simpler solutions to access equity funding and export policies. Unless sector-specific problems are not addressed, NPAs wont disappear.

Third, pushing a company to NCLT for bankruptcy proceedings itself doesnt guarantee recovery of money for banks. Once banks approach NCLT for resolution, a maximum of 270 days are given to the company to work out a turn-around mechanism and repayment of loans. If no resolution is reached, liquidation process begins. There are only two options before banks at this stageeither to sell off the company in whole to a potential buyer or sell it in parts to different parties much like a scrap sale. The machinery, land, plant all can be sold separately. Now the question is, what if there are no buyers to buyout the company? If part-sale happens, banks will receive a pittance only. In cases where bad loans plus the accumulated interest works out to be much more than the saleable assets of the firm, banks may not get much at the end of the process.

Fourth, the IBC will actually increase the capital requirement of banks. Banks will have to make a tad higher provision on loans that are referred to NCLT. Also, as pointed out earlier, typically a firm is pushed for liquidation following severe financial stress and erosion in its net worth. Hence, in many of the insolvency cases, banks may have to take substantial losses.

In the case of public sector banks that are major bad loan victims of Indias banking sector, the onus of recapitalisation falls upon the majority stakeholder in these banks, which is the government. Can the government fork out significant amounts of money to compensate the losses of state-run banks? It is doubtful.

An estimate released on Tuesday by India Ratings and Research said that Indian banks need to provide a bare minimum of Rs 18,000 crore additionally towards the 12 accounts identified by the RBI for reference to the NCLT under the IBC. The additional provisioning, the agency estimates, will eat into banks profits by around 25 percent in FY18. Out of the total Rs 18,000 crore required for provisioning, the iron and steel sector contributes around Rs 10,500 crore and the infrastructure sector Rs 4,100 crore, the agency said. In a banking system dominated by state-run banks (70 percent by assets), all this means is that the Narendra Modi government will have to face a substantial capital burden. Sooner or later, the government will have to privatise these banks.

The current stock of bad loans was accumulated over years for reasons ranging from genuine industry difficulties, corporate-political nexus and reckless lending by banks among others. Any experienced banker will tell you that an early resolution to the Indian banks bad loan problem isnt likely. It will take many more years of hard work and extraordinary political will to clean up the ailing banking industry.
Governor Bill Haslam and Commissioner Bonnie Hommrich on Tuesday announced that after more than 16 years of system-wide reform and "a massive turnaround," the Tennessee Department of Childrens Services (DCS) is now free of federal court oversight.

U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw has approved the agreement between the state and Childrens Rights, the New York-based advocacy group that in 2000 filed litigation known as the Brian A.

State officials said, "Tennessee now has a thoroughly reformed foster care system. The reform comes after years of collaboration with Childrens Rights and the Technical Assistance Committee, a panel of nationally recognized child welfare experts that served as the federal court monitor for the Brian A. consent decree."

This is monumental for Tennessees children and the state. After years of intervention, the federal government is saying that Tennessee is providing service to children in a way that models what it should look like for the rest of the country, Governor Haslam said.

This stage in our journey represents the hard work, commitment and innovation it has taken to get here. So on behalf of our children, families, staff and partners, I can say that were just thrilled and thankful, Commissioner Hommrich said. But the work goes on. We will always have tough problems before us. At DCS, we promise to bring our full energy and attention to whatever lies ahead, and we will use the same focus and dedication that has brought us to this point today.

The reform follows intense work with a wide range of institutions, including Tennessees private provider network, the states leading universities, the University of Chicagos Chapin Hall Center for Children, the states juvenile courts and the Tennessee General Assembly, it was stated.

DCS achieved its court-required performance during 2015, and the Brian A. agreement stipulated that Tennessee maintain that performance throughout 2016.

Highlights of the departments reform include:





Among the nearly 140 foster-care benchmarks DCS achieved are measures of time to reunification, time to adoption, re-entry into the foster-care system, length of time in placement, parent-and-child visits and case-manager caseloads.





DCS emphasizes family-style placement for youth in foster care, in place of institutional settings such as orphanages.





DCS has become a national leader in timeliness to adoption and in implementing a child-and-family teaming model that encourages birth parents, case managers, care providers and foster families to work together on behalf of a child.





DCS has developed a process that has put the department on a path to a more professional workforce, with bachelors and masters degree programs for case managers and supervisors.





DCS has built a robust, modern case-management computer system, TFACTS, that handles everything from case notes, management tools to billing days. It replaced a patchwork of computer systems that did not always work together reliably.





Although not a Brian A. requirement, DCS has achieved re-accreditation by the Council on Accreditation. Tennessee is one of the few states in the nation accomplish this.





Tennessee is the first state in the U.S. to offer independent living services to 100 percent of the youth who age out of foster care. This program is an outgrowth of pioneering work with private provider Youth Villages.

Today there are approximately 7,300 children in Tennessee foster care. The department is also responsible for the approximately 1,100 youth who comprise the states juvenile-justice population. These youth were not part of the Brian A. suit.


The telecom subscriber base in India crossed 1.2 billion mark in May, with 6.23 million net subscriber additions in the mobile services segment.

Reliance industries-owned Reliance Jio continued to lead the growth momentum with net addition of 4.8 million new customers accounting for about 75 percent of overall net subscriber addition in the mobile services segment.

Jio was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 2.09 million new customers, state-run BSNL (1.35 million), Vodafone (1.13 million) and Idea Cellular (0.19 million).

Aircel and Reliance Communications added 0.17 million net subscribers each.

Loss of subscriber by Tata Teleservices (2.1 million), Telenor (1.32 million), Sistema Shyam (0.25 million) and MTNL (2,136) mitigated growth in the mobile services segment.

Here's a look at how the country's telecom landscape changed over the last one year:

In the past one year to May 2017, telecom subscribers in the country grew by 146.95 million or 14 percent. This is much higher than the growth witnessed in the recent years. From May 2015 to May 2016, the subscriber growth was 5.59 percent (from 1002.05 million to 1058.03 million) and during a year before that the growth was a lowly 6.8 percent (from 938.34 million to 1002.05 million). With the 14 percent growth over the year to May 2017, the tele-density in the country increased from 83.14 in May 2016 to 93.61 in May 2017. That means out of 100, as many as 93 individuals have telecom connectivity as of May 2017.

Of the total 1204.98 million telecom subscribers as of May 2017, the urban sector accounts for 697.06 million (58 percent) and rural 507.92 million. In the past one year, the urban sector subscribers increased by 92.08 million or 15 percent and the rural by 54.87 million or 12.11 percent. In comparison, in the two years until May 2016 urban subscribers witnessed a growth of 4.3 percent each. The rural sector, meanwhile, had witnessed better growth at 7.4 percent for year to May 2016 and 10.4 percent for year to May 2015. Tele-density in the urban sector as of May 2017 stands at 172.28 and that of the rural sector at 57.55. In other words, most individuals possess more than one phone in the urban area and in the rural, nearly half the population doesn't have a phone yet. This divergence also brings out a major irony that punches holes in the government's go-digital drive.

After the launch of Reliance Jio in September 2016, the wireless subscriber base in the country has widened by a robust 151.94 million to 1180.82 million as of May 2017. Out of the total wireless subscribers, 676.65 million are in the urban areas and 504.18 million in the rural areas.

Bharti Airtel tops the wireless subscriber base with 278.6 million as on May 2017, followed by Vodafone (211 million) and Idea Cellular (196.2 million) as May 2017 end. Reliance Jio was at fourth position with 117.3 million subscribers. Its subscribers base expanded by 6 times from 16 million in September 2016 to 117.3 million in May 2017. During the same period wireless subscribers of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular rose 7 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent.

Broadband subscriber base in the country reached 291.61 million at the end of May 2017. Out of 291.61 million, 273.38 million were wireless while 18.23 million were fixed/wireline subscribers.

After two months of its launch in September 2016, the Reliance Jio became the leader in broadband category with 52.23 million subscribers. Until then Bharti Airtel was the top operator in the broadband category. Jio's broadband subscriber base has hit 117.34 million as of May 2017. Bharti Airtel was a distant second with 53.3 million, followed by Vodafone (40.43 million), Idea Cellular (24.63 million) and BSNL (21.59 million).

(Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)

With PTI inputs
Mumbai: With a view to support India's green building initiative, International Finance Corporation (IFC) is planning to invest over US $one billion in next five years, a senior official on Tuesday said.

IFC, a member of World Bank, has planned an investment of around US $5-6 billion for the next five years in India for participating in the country's climate change programs, its Country Head (India) Jun Zhang told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

"We will be investing around 20 percent of this amount which is over US $1 billion in creating green buildings," he said.

He also said affordable and sustainable homes is a key part of IFC's strategy in India.

"We invest and advice housing finance companies, developers and have also helped leading private sector banks to issue green bonds to finance green homes," Zhang said.

The remaining amount of the US $5-6 billion IFC will invest in India's programs like renewable energy among others, he said.

IFC has so far invested US $2 billion in sustainable development projects in India since 2005.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed Essar Steels plea against the RBI directive to the banks to start insolvency proceedings against it, refusing to grant any relief to the steel major.

A bench of Justice S G Shah pronounced its verdict on the Essar Steel plea and refusing to accede to it, said its petition stands disposed of.

The steel company's debt has increased to over Rs 42,000 crore.

Essar Steel had moved the high court challenging the RBI's 13 June circular asking the banks to initiate action against the company and eleven other accounts (companies) with over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans each under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Essar's contention was that this directive was improper in its case, as the company was in an advanced stage of loan restructuring.

The company had argued that it should not be treated at par with other eleven accounts, as while these accounts are now closed, Essar Steel is still doing well with an annual turnover of Rs 20,000 crore.

The RBI had last month 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 total NPAs of banks.

Essar Steel's counsel Mihir Thakore had argued that the SBI and other lender banks under the Joint Lenders Forum may not have decided to approach the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for insolvency proceedings had the RBI not issued such a circular.

He had said the company was challenging RBI's directive, not SBI's decision, as the state bank was mandated by the central bank to file a case with NCLT against the firm by issuing that circular.

RBI counsel Darius Khambata argued that the steel conglomerate has suppressed facts and misled the court in order to get a favourable decision.

RBI counsel argued that though Essar Steel at one point "even agreed to go to NCLT," the company did not mention it in the petition, as had it been mentioned, the case would have been disposed of immediately.

"The company was aware of the SBIs 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," he had said during the arguments.

The apex bank had told the court that Essar Steel was not singled out as all big defaulters -- having over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans -- are being taken through the same route with an aim to resolve the bad loan problem plaguing the Indian banking system.

The counsel for the RBI, also told the court that the non-performing assets (NPA) of the company rose from Rs 31,671 crore till 31 March, 2016 to Rs 32,864 crore till 31 March, 2017 this year.

He also contended that Essar Steel was still very far from completing the restructuring.
New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi will soon pass order on global auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for its alleged negligence and lapses in a nearly decade-old corporate fraud case involving Satyam Computer Services, regulatory officials said.

Sebi is investigating the role of the auditing firm which worked for Satyam between 2000 and 2008 and has been under the scanner for allegedly concealing the scam that came to light in January 2009 when the company's founder B Ramalinga Raju himself admitted to fudging the books.

"The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) would soon pass an order against PwC in Satyam case," a regulatory official said on condition of anonymity as the final order is still being framed.

Sebi, which has been probing PwC for a long time and was asked by the Supreme Court in January to expedite the matter, held a series of hearings with the auditing major and its officials during May-June this year.

The officials said the government has also received certain complaints regarding PwC and it has asked Sebi to look into the matter.

When asked about submissions made by the group, a PwC spokesperson said: "The matter is at procedural stage of the proceedings and thus no substantive submissions have been made, which shall be done as and when the occasion arises."

The Supreme Court, in January, had directed Sebi to complete in six months its enquiry proceedings against PwC.

Soon after the scam came to light, Sebi had issued show-cause notices to PwC and its associates in February 2009. Further notices were issued to PwC in 2012 under Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practises (FUTP)

Pursuant to Sebi's show cause notice, PwC had moved the Bombay High Court, saying that Sebi being a stock market regulator has no jurisdiction to issue show-cause notice to auditors' firm. Only a body such as Institute of Chartered Accountants of India can do this, it contended.

On the other hand, Sebi had said that auditors have "direct, fiduciary" relationship with shareholders and they had incurred losses due to decisions based on Satyam's balance sheet. Later, the Bombay High Court ruled that Sebi had the powers to issue show cause notice to PwC.

Following issuance of show cause notices way back in 2009, PwC had submitted applications to the regulator seeking cross-examination of certain persons associated with the case.

In December 2010, Sebi allowed cross-examination of some of the persons, but refused the same for a few others.

Later, PwC had approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on the issue of cross-examination, following which the Tribunal last month asked the regulator to allow

cross-examination of some more persons.

After nearly 7 years of investigation, Sebi in 2015 asked 10 entities linked to the main accused B Ramalinga Raju  including his mother, brother and son  to disgorge over Rs

1,800 crore worth of illegal gains made by them.

Besides, they were asked to pay close to Rs 1,500 crore as interest on the disgorgement amount, as the penalty was levied with effect from January 7, 2009 -- the day Raju admitted to a massive long-running fraud at the company.

Prior to that, Sebi in July 2014 had barred Raju and other individuals from the securities market for 14 years.

After hearing appeal against these orders, the SAT in May this year directed Sebi to pass a fresh order with respect to the quantum of punishment given to Raju and four others.

While agreeing with Sebi's finding that the individuals violated regulations, the tribunal also said the decision to uniformly restrain all the appellants from accessing the securities market for 14 years "without assigning any reasons is unjustified".
News of a drug racket functioning within the Telugu film industry was broken when alleged kingpin Calvin Mascarenhas gave a confession as well as a list of celebrities who were part of it. A Special Investigation Team set up for the case is currently on the lookout for Mumaith Khan, who has been named as one of the celebrities involved in this investigation.

The police could not locate her at her residences in Hyderabad and Mumbai, but they later learnt that she is a participant in the Telugu edition of the reality show Bigg Boss, and are now contemplating serving her a notice while she is on set.

The Bigg Boss Telugu house is located in Lonavla, Maharashtra, and Mumaith will be housed her until she is evicted from the show. On Friday, 14 July, Mumaith posted a video on social media where she can be seen saying that she does not do drugs and that she has not received summons from the SIT.

The process of recording statements of the celebrities involved in this investigation was to begin on Wednesday, 12 July. Puri Jagannadh, one of Telugu cinemas most famous directors, was asked to appear before SIT officials on 19 July; he is rumoured to have played a major role.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, a senior police official mentioned that they are still trying to locate Mumaith, whose questioning is scheduled for 21 July. Charmee Kaur, another actress, will be called for questioning on 20 July. Others who have also been summoned by the SIT office in Nampally are actors Subba Raju, Ravi Teja, Navdeep, Tarun, Nandu and Tanish, as well as cinematographer Syam K Naidu and art director Chinna. This list has been prepared by the Enforcement Directorate.

Bigg Boss Telugu is being hosted by Junior NTR. The show has 14 contestants and will go on for the next 10 weeks.
Sacramento: The three California men who thwarted a terror attack on a French train in 2015 will make the rare move of playing themselves in a Clint Eastwood-directed film about their heroics, a studio announced on 18 July.

Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and civilian Anthony Sadler, all childhood friends from California, will star in The 15:17 to Paris, a film based on the book they co-wrote about taking down a terrorist, Warner Bros said in a statement.

The film, which began production this week, follows the lives of the three friends from childhood to the evening when they helped subdue the man who opened fire inside a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris.

The Sacramento-area men were vacationing in Europe when they tackled Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man who authorities said has ties to radical Islam. El-Khazzani had boarded the Paris-bound train with a Kalashnikov rifle, pistol and box cutter.

The film will be the latest of several about real-life heroes that Clint Eastwood has taken on, including 2014's American Sniper, and 2016's Sully. But the leads in those films were played by Oscar-nominee Bradley Cooper and Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, respectively, not their actual subjects.

It's common to give cameo roles to the subjects of films that don't require more than a line or two, but this case is nearly unprecedented in recent Hollywood history. There are no reports of the men having any acting experience, though Skarlatos appeared on Dancing With the Stars soon after the Paris incident.

Nearly all who have played themselves on screen were actors to begin with, such as Kumail Nanjiani in the current release The Big Sick or John Malkovich in 1999's Being John Malkovich.

The studio's statement did not elaborate on what prompted Eastwood and Warner Bros to cast the men.
Christopher Nolan has been working on his masterpiece historical film Dunkirk right after wrapping up the confusing  and to some, lacklustre  Interstellar in 2014.

Nolan is among the rare directors who has the star power to draw audiences to the theatres, regardless of the actors associated with the film. Dunkirk stars Harry Styles, Fionn Whitehead, Jack Lowden and Tom Hardy  but Nolan is a bigger crowd-puller than them all.

Nolan's war film follows 'Operation Dynamo'  the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Britain, Belgium, Canada and France, who were surrounded by the German army on the beaches of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo took place between 26 May and 4 June 1940, during the early stages of the World War II.

There seems to be a consensus among critics that Dunkirk is possibly the best film of 2017 so far. Here's what they had to say:

The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy writes that "Dunkirk is an impressionist masterpiece" and that "Nolan has gotten everything just right" in the movie. McCarthy takes particular note of the contributions of cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Jeffrey Kurland. "All of Nolan's films are intensely visual, but it's fair to say that Dunkirk is especially so, given the sparseness, and strict functionality, of the dialogue," he argues. "This is not a war film of inspirational speeches, digressions about loved ones back home or hopes for the future. No, it's all about the here and now and matters at hand, under conditions that demand both endless waiting and split-second responses."

Empire critic Nick De Semlyen called Dunkirk a "spare, propulsive, ever-intensifying combat thriller", adding, "Nolan's history lesson is both a rousing celebration of solidarity and the tensest beach-set film since Jaws."

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw referred to Dunkirk as Nolan's best film to date. "This is a powerful, superbly crafted film with a story to tell; avoiding war porn in favour of something desolate and apocalyptic, a beachscape of shame, littered with soldiers zombified with defeat, a grimly male world with hardly any women on screen."

The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips, however, noted that the movie's trifurcated narrative structure isn't ideal. "How do these three story strands intertwine, by land, by sea and by air? It hurts to say it, but not easily. This is why I consider Dunkirk a worthwhile frustration, buoyed by some genuine mastery. As powerful and exciting as Dunkirk is, at its best, I found the time games self-conscious and vexing, and in the context of a fictionalised true story of thousands of lives lost, and hundreds of thousands saved, the structural gimmick feels, well, gimmicky."

Indiewire's David Ehrlich praised Nolan's style of dramatic storytelling. "Few movies have so palpably conveyed the sheer isolation of fear, and the extent to which history is often made by people who are just trying to survive it  few movies have so vividly illustrated that one man can only do as much for his country as a country can do for one of its men. But Nolan, by stressing that grim truth to its breaking point, returns from the fray with a commanding testament to a simple idea: We may die alone, but we live together."

Meanwhile, Variety notes in its review, "On one hand, [Nolan] has delivered all the spectacle of a big-screen tentpole, ratcheting up both the tension and heroism through his intricate and occasionally overwhelming sound design, which blends a nearly omnipresent ticking stopwatch with Hans Zimmer's bombastic score  not so much music as atmospheric noise, so bassy you can feel it rattling your vertebrae. But at the same time, he's found a way to harness that technique in service of a kind of heightened reality, one that feels more immersive and immediate than whatever concerns we check at the door when entering the cinema. This is what audiences want from a Nolan movie, of course, as a master of the fantastic leaves his mark on historical events for the first time."

USA Today notes the lack of racial and gender representation in the film (although that may have more to do with women and people of colour perhaps not being involved in huge numbers in an evacuation that took place in Europe in 1940). The critic writes, "...the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of colour may rub some the wrong way. Still, Nolan's feat is undeniable: He's made an immersive war movie that celebrates the good of mankind while also making it clear that no victory is without sacrifice."
New Delhi: The makers of award-winning 2016 film Mantostaan have come up with another project, titled Gandhi's Memorabilia, that will tell various unknown aspects of Mahatma Gandhis life along with "in-depth analysis" of his work. The poster of the film was launched here on 17 July.

"The main aim behind this film is to showcase various sides of Mahatma Gandhi. We want to tell all his ideologies not only nonviolence  which most filmmakers talk about. We will tell his thoughts behind whatever he did. It's an in-depth analysis of his life," Dr Bhanu Pratap Singh, who will direct the film, told IANS.

"I have received various honours, including Limca Book of Records and Guinness World Records, for my collections on Gandhi. I have done PhD in Gandhian thoughts. I am not a follower, I do analysis of his work. This film will be made with an unbiased approach. It's an unbiased film," he added.

The poster of the film, without giving any details about the film, just showcases a sketch of Mahatma Gandhi.

The director said he has gone through Gandhi's autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth for the film, which will go on floors in upcoming weeks and will be shot across various locations in India.

The Indian-American co-production will showcase how Victoria (played by Daria Kosheleva) comes to India from London, meets Singh, and learns ideology of Gandhi.

"Daria belongs to Russia and lives in the US. When we did our collaboration with a producer there, then I met Daria. The film will show how a foreigner gets attracted towards an Indian (Gandhi) and his ideologies," Singh said.

"Daria doesn't know anything about India  not even Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. So, that's why we chose her as she is totally dumb about India. She will be able to act better this way. We will showcase Gandhi through photographs in the film," he added.

The trailer of Gandhi's Memorabilia will be released on 2 October on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, while the film will be released in India and the US on 30 January, 2018.

While Gandhi's Memorabilia is a low-budget project and is being eyed for a release in "300-400 screens in India", Singh said that he is planning a big budget film on Gandhi, which will be released in 2019 on his 150th birth anniversary.

"Through Gandhi's Memorabilia we want to gain audiences' confidence and prove that we have knowledge about Mahatma Gandhi. After this one, we will make the film Gandhi and his Thoughts - it will be a high budget film and will be shot in India as well as South Africa," Singh said.
New Delhi: The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of AIIMS has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to "save" the doctors and students of the premier medical institute from the "menace" of monkey and stray dogs on the campus.

The doctors and students were facing problems due to the animals on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus, stated a letter written to the prime minister by the office-bearers of the RDA.

Even the patients were being troubled by the monkeys, which often snatched food from them, added the letter signedby RDA president Dr Vijay Gurjar and general secretary Dr Harjeet Singh.

The letter further said there was a "continuous threat" of being bitten by the monkeys and stray dogs, as a result of which academics as well as the "psychological status" of the doctors and students were being affected.

"The AIIMS administration and we are feeling helpless and that is why we have written to you as a last hope," it added.
Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has accepted the demand for a CBI inquiry into the shootout-death of gangster Anandpal Singh leading to the Rajput community calling off its proposed 22 July agitation.

Anandpal Singh was killed in a gunfight with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police on 24 June which led to massive protests in the state in which one person was killed and 33 others, including 30 policemen, injured.

"We will recommend that a CBI inquiry be conducted into the encounter of Anandpal Singh," state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Rajput community leaders, meanwhile, have called off their demonstration which was to be held here on July 22 during the visit of BJP's national President Amit Shah from 21 to 23 July.

"Majority of our demands, including that of a CBI inquiry, have been accepted by the government so we have decided to not to have demonstration on 22 July," Giriraj Singh Lotwara, President of the Rajput Sabha and senior Rajput community leader, told IANS.

Earlier on 12 July, a demonstration held in Sanwarda village, the village Anandpal belonged to, in Nagaur district, had turned violent in which 33 persons were injured and one person was killed.

Calling it a political conspiracy, the family of Anandpal has alleged that he was "killed" despite being ready to surrender.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in a series of tweets questioned the delay in suggesting a CBI probe.

"State government has now been compelled to accept the demand of CBI probe of Anandpal incident under public pressure. Why did they delay the decision for so long? Was the BJP government waiting for disruption of peace in the state," Gehlot tweeted.

"If the BJP government had accepted the demand earlier then innocent people would not have died. The CM must tell the public, who is responsible for these deaths?"

"The government's adamant attitude over the entire incident is condemnable," he said.
Rauner Staffer Fired On 1st Day After Homophobic, Other Offensive Tweets Surface

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 17, 2017 9:49PM

That was fast. The man hired to be Gov. Bruce Rauner's new so-called "body man"or close personal aidewas fired the very same day he was brought on after racially inflammatory and homophobic tweets were spotted on his Twitter account.

The ex-aide, Ben Tracy, apparently deleted the tweets in question and quickly locked his page; but several screenshots were preserved and tweeted by the Radical Candor account, which has been caustically jabbing at the Rauner administration's recent tumult. Politico acquired and published screenshots, also. (They were posted here.)

Tracy used gay slurs multiple times, tweeting "bet you liked that, f*g," and "no, he's a f**got," among other homophobic tweets. There were also racially insensitive tweets, like "To the Indian people in the library: SHUT THE F--- UP!" and "There is a black dude and white girl on a date in this movie...white girls mom came along...haha not racist just funny."

Tracy also mocked the body-slamming of a reporter by now-Congressman Greg Gianforte of the Montana State House at one point in the timeline.

Warning: a tweet below contains unedited profanity

Tracy was terminated on Monday, mere hours after he started his role.

"These tweets are unacceptable," Laurel Patrick, Director of Communications for Rauner, told Chicagoist via email. "The individual in question is no longer an employee of our Administration."

The governor's office has been in a state of upheaval more or less since Rauner's budget veto was overridden. At least 20 staffers have either been fired or resigned from Rauner's office since last week, according to the Sun-Times.

But this one... How did no one catch this in the vetting?

[H/T Capitol Fax]
It's high time Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a full-time defence minister. As his government enters the last two years of its term, there is massive work in both defence and finance ministries, requiring the undivided attention of a full-time minister each. Currently, finance minister Arun Jaitley doubles up as defence minister.

The time is ripe right now. NDA's vice-presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu has just vacated two ministries, adding to the list of ministries being looked after by part-time ministers. General elections are 20 months away, so a rejigged council of ministers will have enough time to deliver on critical reforms in all spheres, especially economic and defence.

On the economic front, the Modi government has far more battles left to fight. Beyond the introduction of two of its most critical reforms  roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and bankruptcy code and a series of incremental reforms such as taking ahead the Aadhar-linked Direct benefit Transfer (DBT) programme and subsidy rationalisation  the Modi government needs to resolve bad debts in the banking sector, push ahead the privatisation agenda of ailing PSUs and banks and see through reforms in land and labour.

In the finance ministry, Arun Jaitley has done a fairly good job in taking the lead to generate consensus for making the GST happen. His initiative to make the bankruptcy code a reality too has been a crucial fillip to the economy. However, there hasn't been much luck in addressing the banking sector problems so far. Economic growth remains anaemic.

Jaitley, as finance minister, has all along been struggling to impart the kind of confidence in private investors to resume the investment cycle. Bad loans remain a major challenge and the accompanying capital burden has the potential to disrupt the government's budget calculations in a big way. This year and next are crucial for the economy which warrants his undivided attention in the finance ministry.

Similarly, new challenges are emerging for the defence ministry, with China upping its ante on the Sikkim border and Pakistan continuing to escalate tensions. Defence of the country has always been a full-time job, more so now with the situation on western and eastern borders as volatile as it is. One can't be too sure if relying on a part-time defence minister would suffice.

The Modi government has managed to bring the reform momentum back to the economy in its initial three years of rule after a decade long policy paralysis and corruption. The victory on GST roll out has offered hopes of more reforms happening in the remaining two years. The signals given by the cabinet to privatise Air India suggest this positive outlook of the government.

The remaining two years is the time to give a final push to the rest of the reform agenda. Privatisation of state-run banks and other ailing PSUs, bad loan resolution, creating the right framework for small entrepreneurs and pursuing fresh private investments should remain the top of the agenda. At the same time, the government will have to ready the security establishment to face the emerging challenges from across the borders.

A minister over-burdened with part-finance, part-defence may have worked so far but may not be ideal to face the challenges ahead. Modi needs full time ministers for both these critical ministries.
Editor's note: The flood situation in Assam has worsened, with at least 99 people dying and 22.5 lakh being affected in 21 districts. The Indian Army has been called out for rescue operations in the state. This article on Assam's lack of infrastructural and administrative response to flooding is part of a series and originally appeared on 18 July, 2017. It is being republished in view of the current situation.

***

This is the second of a three-part series on recurring Assam floods. This part examines the existential crisis of the vulnerable Majuli island.

Majuli, the seat of culture in Assam, a fortress of neo-Vaishnavite tradition and also the state's largest inhabited riverine island, is in a constant struggle for survival. Also the youngest district of the state, and a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, Majuli is at the risk of being swallowed whole by the mighty Bramhaputra anytime.

The fury of the floods that Majuli encountered in 2017 can be gauged from the fact that nearly 50,000 people were severely affected in 49 villages, and 1,760 hectares of crop were damaged. That several man-made factors contributed to this situation only makes the story all the more frightening.

Ranganadi hydroelectric project

The sudden release of water from the Ranganadi Hydroelectric project at Yazali in Arunachal Pradesh left a trail of destruction, particularly in the districts of Lakhimpur and Majuli in Assam. Given the surge of water from its tributary  the Ranganadi river  the already swollen Brahmaputra hit Majuli mercilessly.

The breach at Dhonarighat embankment at Selek towards Lakhimpur shocked everyone, more so because it was considered to be a safe zone. This happened because of the force of water.

"The Ranganadi project will help Arunachal Pradesh alone. Lower Majuli was affected because of the water's fiery pace. This is a repeat of what happened in 2008. But the top brass of NEEPCO (North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited) was never taken to task. The power company should have been compelled to follow protocol before releasing such huge amounts of water. But no one is concerned about the people of Assam," said Majuli Island Protection and Development Council (MIPADC) secretary Bharat Saikia.

The unexpected circumstances in which the district administration found itself captured by Majuli deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha. "The water level increased suddenly due to man-made reasons. This particular flood could have been better managed if we had more time to respond. But we were caught unawares," said Jha.

Subansiri dam: A tragedy in the making

Led by a multitude of organisations, there is already a vociferous protest against the execution of the controversial 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Power Project on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Many experts have already questioned whether the project being constructed by the state-run National Hydroelectric Power Corporation is safe.

"The central government has already sanctioned 96 dams in Arunachal Pradesh. But no one has the time to think about people downstream, because dams are a source of money. But there are too many risks involve. The soil here is soft. The area also falls under a high seismic zone and the fear of earthquakes is always real. A cloudburst can hit the dam and cause havoc. There is also the possibility of foreign aggression, especially with the China border being so close," Saikia said.

"Subansiri is a far bigger tributary of the Brahmaputra than the Ranganadi. There will be nine dams in total on the Subansiri. If the gates here are opened, the water will hit Majuli at the centre of the island, near Jengraimukh, causing a 30-metre hydro jump. It will pass over the entire island, and Majuli will cease to exist within minutes. We already saw what 1,600 cubic centimetres (CCs) of water could do when released from the Ranganadi dam instead of the maximum permitted 1,200 CC," he said.

If such a scenario does occur, the north bank of the island, where the water wall would hit, has little protection. Had there been a bank protection project, the impact, at least this time, could have been less than what the Ranganadi caused.

"A Rs 338 crore flood control scheme is lying idle with the Central Water Commission for years. We have approached various authorities, including the prime minister, for help, but nothing has come of it. We are including the world heritage site angle to make our appeal stronger. Both Majuli and Lakhimpur are in grave danger because of these dams," the MIPADC secretary said.

"The Subansiri was originally conceptualised as a flood control project but it became a power project after the then chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh intervened. This resulted in scaling down of costs as well as flood control measures, which may have saved Arunachal Pradesh's funds but became a problem for Assam. Ultimately, both the height and depth of the dam were decreased, which many experts had opposed," Saikia said. Did the district status help Majuli?

After it was upgraded to a district in September, there was hope that the flood situation would be tackled better. Majuli is also Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's constituency. However, the situation has shown hardly any improvement. "The condition is more or less same as before. There is an increasing feeling that people's expectations have not been fulfilled. The administration should have been more proactive, but a lack of planning is obvious. Some decisions were taken hastily, perhaps because it became a district. After Sonowal visited Majuli on 12 July, the relief was dispatched sooner. However, the situation was not upgraded in terms of manpower with the National Disaster Management Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Management Force (SDRF) units," said Raju Gam, a senior field coordinator with the Amar Majuli NGO.

"Three major embankments were damaged and erosion is continuing unabated in east and central Majuli," he said.

Bikash Saikia, secretary of Avakash Majuli, an NGO that assists the district administration in carrying out relief work and setting up of medical camps and distributing food and water, felt that relief is relatively better organised than before. He agreed with Gam that NDRF and SDRF teams were deployed in small numbers and were late in arriving.

"Areas like Begenati, Bhogpur and Kamalabari-Banpur Road were hit. It affected many panchayats like Chilakala, Sri Luit, Karatipar, Malabindha, Bebejia, Charigharia, Selek-Nalduar among others," Saikia said. "After the chief minister's visit, however, three medical vans are visiting the affected areas. The public health department is putting up tubewells and arranging for temporary toilets. This promptness was not seen before," the Avakash Majuli secretary said.

There may have also been a manpower shortage, considering the district administration sought volunteers through WhatsApp messages.

Jha, however, denied this was the case. "We have sufficient manpower. There is no shortage. We are only trying to involve more community members through WhatsApp. There was only one flood-related death here, that too because of an accident," said Jha.

The geological aspect

"Majuli is situated at the confluence of Subansiri and Brahmaputra rivers. After the great Assam earthquake of 1950, the island has been rapidly eroding, as the Brahmaputra changes its course and undercuts the soil from the island. The reason for this is the age-old tendency of a river to shift on both sides and excessive sediment discharge. Geomorphologically, the island forms one part of the alluvial flood plain of the Brahmaputra," said Ananda Hazarika, head of the Department of Geography at Majuli College.

"Heavy sediment load of about 800 metres in the Brahmaputra results in the formation of innumerable longitudinal channel bars, and some of them have formed a mid-channel island, the biggest among which is Majuli. It originally measured 1,246 (1,256) square kilometres, but this is reducing due to rapid erosion of river banks," he said.

"Large-scale erosion occurs when floods breach the protection dykes, embankments or roads and cause major damage by rapidly destroying large areas of land. This type of erosion can be seen at Kaniajan in Majuli, where approximately three square kilometres of land was eroded between 1989 and 1993; at Jengrai Lakhimi Pathar and Borbil in 2004 and 2008; and at several points of the Haldibari-Besamora dyke," Hazarika said.

Apart from flood-induced erosion, there is another type, which continues throughout the year

"This erosion is caused by an almost vertical riverbank continuously collapsing into the river at low flows. This process is continuing from upper to lower Majuli. Erosion in places like Salmora, Dakhinpat, Sumoimari and several areas of lower Majuli have become a major concern," the professor said.

A better equipped south bank

In 1996-97, the MIPADC through the state government presented a scheme to the Planning Commission for the protection of Majuli.

"The then Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta wrote the foreword in the proposal which was sent to Planning Commission head Madhu Dandavate and the plan panel approved the project. Subsequently, Rs 200 crore was sanctioned for the Brahmaputra Board for a scheme prepared on this model. Under this scheme, impermeable spurs were put up from the eastern side of Majuli up to Kamalabari on the southern bank, while work on the remaining portion is in progress. However, the north bank is not yet covered," the MIPADC secretary said.

Living on the edge

Majuli is one of the youngest districts of India, but it is continuously battling for survival. It also cannot take its eyes away from a highly perilous future. Saikia was probably prophetic when he said in algebraic terms that the "Brahmaputra river is full of x, y and z", but it remains to be seen if the upcoming Subansiri dam will turn out to spell doomsday for Majuli.

Part three of this series examines if dredging is the answer to Assam's prayers. Read Part I here
It started early Monday morning in twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu district.

By the end of the day, skirmishes along the Line of Control (LoC) had spread right up to Uri in north Kashmir, bringing back memories of early nineties for thousands of residents living on the edge along the tense border.

The firing started at 7:30 am and continued till 3:30 pm on Monday in Rajouri district. Before an eerie silence could return to a cluster of villages on the LoC, the lives of at least 5,000 people had been affected, many of them packing their bags.

Shah Begum, a resident of Panjgrain village in Rajouri district, who works as a cook in a Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan-funded school, was sleeping inside her home when a mortar shell fired from the Pakistani side hit the outer boundary, making a wide hole in the mud wall. Begum was hit by splinters, leaving her in critical conduction.

Two people were injured from our village and referred to hospital, Aleem Din, a resident of Panjgrain village said.

The district administration in Rajouri closed all schools as a precaution, and evacuated residents in the line of fire.

It is a war-like situation, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, deputy commissioner of Rajouri, told Firstpost. It been like this intermittently since 10 May. The situation is going from bad to worse."

Since then, 3,361 people have been relocated to six government buildings which turned in to refugee camps. Choudhary and his team have settled 839 families of Nowshera sector in these camps.

On Monday, when Firstpost spoke to him, the sound of shells landing in the hilly areas along the LoC could be heard in the background.

We used to give people food. Then we started giving them raw material and firewood. Until now, we have procured Rs six lakh worth of firewood and Rs 20 lakh worth of rations and 120 fans, he says.

The district administration recently started constructing hundred underground dwellings, when the bunkers promised by the Centre failed to spring up. These bunkers will accommodate eight to ten people and cost the state government Rs 2.40 lakh each. These bunkers will accommodate at least 1,000 people during shelling.

The Union government had promised to build over 20,000 concrete bunkers along the LoC and international border in Jammu and Kashmir for the safety of residents, but the plan is yet to take off.

Witnesses told Firstpost that the armies exchanged bullets and shells in many districts along the LoC. A defense spokesperson said Pakistan resorted to unprovoked targeting of the Indian positions on the LoC in Bhimber Gali sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The indiscriminate firing using small arms, automatic guns and mortar that began from 7.30 am is still on, colonel Manish Mehta said.

However Pakistani newspapers, quoting Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Sunday that it was the Indian forces who resorted to unprovoked firing and targeted a Pakistan Army vehicle across the LoC.

They said a vehicle at Athmaqam area across the LoC was fired upon, and plunged into Neelam River.

On Monday a 9-year-old girl, Saida, was killed when she was hit by a Pakistani shell in Balakote area of Poonch district. Mudassir Ahmed, an army soldier from Tral area of Pulwama district, was also killed in Tarkundi.

After heavy cross-border shelling, India and Pakistan Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) spoke over the hotline early Monday.

The Indian army said it reserved the right to retaliate appropriately violation of ceasefire but is sincere in its effort to maintain peace, provided there was reciprocity.

But what has surprised many is that the Indian Army is taking the battle to the Pakistani troops. Rajouri and Poonch have witnessed an escalation of ceasefire violations since the beginning of the year.

Interestingly, there have been attempts by militants to infiltrate from south of the Pir Panjal range, and there have been more than 60 ceasefire violations till April. The army has been taking preemptive action to prevent infiltration, which has led to an increase in the number of ceasefire violations in this area.

It is an unusual shift: Most infiltration bids used to happen from either Kupwara or Baramulla districts, which together share a good part of the treacherous 740-kilometre-long LoC that has witnessed major tensions following the beheading of two soldiers allegedly by Pakistan army's Border Action Team (BAT) on 1 May.

The LoC, senior army officials in Kashmir say, is likely to witness major escalation.

Snow has already melted and infiltration attempts have seen an uptick. This will obviously get worse in coming months, the officer said.
New Delhi: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Tuesday told the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs that China has been unusually aggressive but India is trying to solve the military stand-off at Doklam diplomatically and peacefully.

Giving an overview on the current situation on the border with China in the Sikkim sector, Jaishankar gave a briefing to MPs similar to the one given to leaders of political parties on two occasions last week.

He is believed to have told the committee, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, that China probably did not expect India to be aggressive in its defence. For China now to step backward will not be an easy decision, the committee was understood to have been told.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was among the members who attended the meeting and raised some pointed questions.
Washington: Amid the ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector, a former US diplomat has said that China needs to acknowledge that India is "a force to be reckoned with" and countries in the region are unsettled by Beijing's behaviour.

"China, I think, needs to acknowledge the fact that there is growing strategic and security capability across Asia, and certainly India is a force to be reckoned with," former Indian-American Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI in an interview.

Biswal, who was Obama Administration's point person for South and Central Asia in its second tern, said that there has been a fair degree of assertive actions and signals being sent from China across many different border points, maritime and land, across its geography.

"While I understand that sentiment within China, that I think seeks to try to assert China as a dominant player across the Asia-Pacific, I think China has to content with the fact that across its geography, throughout the Asia-Pacific region, countries are unsettled by its behavior and by its unilateral actions," she said.

"China has more to gain through diplomacy and dialogue than it does through these kinds of actions, which create a great deal of unease and uncertainty," Biswal said, responding to questions on India-China border standoff.

Biswal said cross Asia, nations are stepping forward to assert their interests and their rights.

"So now is an important time to create some greater codification of the rules and, to create more channels for dialogue and diplomacy to address some of these areas of tension and differences on how various boundary and maritime claims are resolved," she said.

She exuded confidence that the leaders of the two countries would be able to prevent further escalation of the situation.

"China is a very mature and calibrated power. It's not a rogue actor, in any sense of the word. And certainly I think that the Indian side has also acted with a great deal of resolve and a great deal of restraint," she said.

"While there are tensions afoot, I do believe that both countries have it within themselves to resolve those tensions, to diffuse those tensions. It is in the interest of both countries, in their security interest and in their economic interest, to manage these tensions and to ensure that there are avenues for peaceful and amicable resolution," she added.

The US, she noted certainly has a role to play in it by ensuring that the international rules are followed.

"Certainly, I think that the US, by standing firm on its commitment towards the rules-based international order and the importance of dialogue and dispute resolution, can signal its own strong preference for these kinds of mechanisms to de-escalate and to resolve differences," she said.

"I think the US has stood very firmly against the kinds of unilateral actions to settle disputed claims, which we have done very strongly with respect to maritime claims, and which we continue to stand behind with respect to land boundary claims," Biswal said.

"India has proven itself to be willing and be able to resolve issues through arbitration, through negotiation, through dialogue and diplomacy, and, we would hope and expect that China would show itself capable of doing the same," she said.

Implications, of any further escalation, are grave, she warned in response to a question.

"I think it's not useful to speculate on escalation. The implications are very grave. I think that as two very responsible military powers and nuclear powers, that both countries understand that. They understand the obligation that they have to manage tensions and to de-escalate, and we have a firm belief and expectation that they will do so," she said.
As Indian and Chinese armies' face off on Bhutanese ground continues, the tension seems to have spilt over to media organisations in the respective countries as well. The Indian media has made sure that the phrase 'Sikkim standoff' has entered the public consciousness even as no one is sure how the situation will be resolved.

The Chinese media for its part has stepped up the rhetoric. At the front line is the state-run daily, Global Times, which on Tuesday published an article which warned that "Indias provocation will trigger all-out confrontation on Line of Actual control (LAC)".

While the author advises restraint for both sides, the tilt of the piece is clear enough with sentences like "Within China, there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the country's sovereignty, while Indian public opinion is clamouring for war with China". The idea thus is that while China is merely protecting its sovereignty, India is aching for war.

The article further warned India that "China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation". The piece says that "according to Indian media, Indian troops are stationed at the border area and have set up logistical support".

It further added that "China must continue strengthening border construction and speed up troop deployment and construction in the Doka La (Doklam in China) area. These are legitimate actions of a sovereign country".

Global Times is affiliated to the Communist Party of China mouthpiece, Peoples Daily, according to Hindustan Times. Its battle-plan is to blur New Delhis points of view on the current conflict and push Chinas deliberately one-sided view of the situation.

The article in the Chinese daily also makes note of the fact that "the 3,500-kilometre border has never been short of disputes". And while it insists that "the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations", it fails to make any mention of the fact that the Chinese Army too has made numerous incursions on the border.

This article is hardly the first time the newspaper has taken a hostile position against India. It had earlier warned that Beijing may support "pro-independence appeals in Sikkim" if New Delhi does not stop pursuing "regional hegemony" through the border face-off.

"In the past, China was wary of India playing the Dalai Lama card, but this card is already overplayed and will exert no additional effect on the Tibet question. But if Beijing adjusts its stance on India-sensitive issues, it could be a powerful card to deal with New Delhi," the newspaper wrote in an article stating that China can rethink its stance on Sikkim, Bhutan.

Another article in the paper re-evaluates the present border dispute and quotes Chinese experts saying that with the current geopolitical strategies undergoing a sea of change (India's improved and good relations with major world powers), New Delhi is overvaluing its international status. The piece goes on to hint that New Delhi should not take things for granted. "...after economic reforms, India has enjoyed a period of rapid economic growth. However, it should be known that economic development needs a peaceful and stable environment," it said.

Other than Global Times, People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China too has published editorials which can be dubbed as a clear warning to India against "encroaching on Chinese territory". It claimed that Indias attempt to encroach revealed the lack of desire to negotiate a settlement of the boundary issue and warns that the patience of the Chinese government, the Chinese people and the Chinese border guards will not be unlimited.

Another article published in XinhuaNet, considered an official view, said that "despite its strategic discomfort, it is important for India to get over its 'China anxiety' and carefully assess the initiative, recognise its potential benefits and seize the opportunities".

China remains an anomaly in the modern world as it pairs a robust economy with a sub-par record on human rights (including the freedom of expression). Its media is especially throttled as censorship is part and parcel of daily life. As such, whatever the few media outlets  which are kept on a tight leash by the government  publish form a huge part of a Chinese person's outlook of the world. The constant diatribe against India might not affect India too much but they will make sure that the national mood in China remains anti-India and New Delhi's explanations for its actions in Doka La never quite become the dominant narrative.
New Delhi: The Delhi University (DU) on Monday released its fifth and final cut-off list as per schedule, and Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College for Women set its highest cut-off at 97.5 percent in the BA (Hons) Psychology course.

The second highest cut-off is 97.25 percent for BA (Hons) Economics in the Hindu College, followed by 97 percent for BA (Hons) Journalism in LSR.

The admissions for the final list will begin on Tuesday and conclude on 19 July.

Most of the courses have been closed for the general category students in several DU colleges, according to the data released by the university.

Admissions for BCom (Hons) in Shri Ram College of Commerce and BA (Hons) English in Hindu College have been closed for all the categories.

The DU had announced its first cut-off on 23 June and the highest was 99.66 percent for BSc (Hons) Electronics in the SGTB Khalsa College.

"After the approval of admission by the respective colleges, the applicant has to make an online payment on the university's website before the deadline," said a release.

Further cut-offs might be announced, depending on the availability of seats, it added.
A day after the Agra Forensic Science Laboratory said that the white powder found in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly was not an explosive, the Yogi Adityanath government said that it had not sent a sample to the laboratory at all, ANI has reported.

The Times of India quoted the state's principal secretary (home) as saying, "Reports in sections of media (have said) that in tests conducted at FSL Agra, the substance detected in UP Assembly hall is not PETN. This is to clarify that no sample (was) sent to FSL Agra of the substance as they don't have machines/wherewithal to conduct tests."

On Monday, officials at the Agra forensic laboratory had said that the white powder found at the scene was not an explosive.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier demanded a National Investigative Agency (NIA) investigation into a security breach in the state Assembly.

The Uttar Pradesh administration was rattled on 12 July after a packet of white powder was found near the seat of the Leader of Opposition, which the Lucknow forensic laboratory later claimed was a highly explosive material called Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). The Opposition picked up the matter to corner the Adityanath government on the law and order situation in the state, even as security was tightened at the state legislature complex.

However, according to CNN-News18, the Agra forensic laboratory, which was asked to reconfirm the reports by the Lucknow laboratory, has said that no traces of explosives were found in the given sample. The Agra forensic lab happens to be the only facility in state with expertise in examining explosives. The reports have been sent to NIA officials and the samples have also been sent to a forensic facility in Hyderabad for confirmation, according to The Times of India.

The news comes three days after another similar packet was discovered in the Assembly premise and rumours did rounds that it too was an explosive. However, the police on Saturday had dismissed the rumour.

Inspector General of Police, ATS, Aseem Arun had denied claims in some sections of the media that another explosive had been discovered, while the police identified the powder as magnesium sulphate, which is used as a drying agent in the plastic packaging industry.

Meanwhile, an official told IANS that some packets of paan masala and 'khaini' were found in the House, and had probably been kept by lawmakers for their consumption. Though this was not a security concern, it left the political fraternity red-faced as consumption of 'paan masala' is banned in public by the Yogi Adityanath government.

An FIR was lodged at the Hazratganj police station regarding the discovery of the explosive and the Anti Terror Squad is probing the matter.

The powder, now identified as magnesium sulphate, is also used in cosmetics or medicines, including those used for arthritis. "It is possible that an MLA suffering from such a problem brought it to the Assembly ," The Times of India report quoted a police source as saying.
New Delhi: Around 2,000 farmers protested in Delhi on Tuesday to condemn the "anti-farmer" policies of the BJP government and killing of six farmers in Madhya Pradesh last month.

They also pressed for adequate remuneration for their produce and complete loan waiver.

The Kisan Mukti Yatra, flagged off on 6 July at Mandsaur in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh, reached Jantar Mantar around 12 pm on Tuesday. It was led by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and MP Raju Shetty and Swaraj Abhiyan founder Yogendra Yadav.

Shetty and Yadav reiterated their demands of loan waiver and remunerative prices saying the farmers were in huge distress.

"The government did not give Madhya Pradesh farmers a good price for their produce but instead fired bullets at them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants farmers to just produce food grains. He thinks they are animals. Farmers will have to take revenge," Shetty said.

The protesting farmers were predominantly from Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

They demanded the Modi government fulfil its electoral promise of 50 percent profit above the production cost and implementation of recommendations by the MS Swaminathan Committee.

Among the protesters were about 40 children of farmers from Maharashtra who committed suicide in recent years. They made an appeal to the protesting farmers not to commit suicide to avoid negative repercussions on their family.

Social activist Medha Patkar, civil activist Prashant Bhushan, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant were among others who sought farmers' unity to force the government to bring a legislation to ensure remunerative prices.

CPI-M's Yechury said he will raise issues of loan waiver and remunerative prices in the ongoing session of Parliament.

"We will talk about the loan waiver in Parliament. It is a right of farmers to get adequate price. The government will have to bring a law," Yechury said.

Sawant from the Shiv Sena said his party had always been in support of farmers and that it would raise their issues in Parliament.

Leaders from the Janata Dal-United and the Biju Janata Dal also joined the protesters.

Notably, the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, an umbrella body of 62 farmers' organisations, had stayed away from the yatra calling it "politically motivated".
New Delhi: Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday justified his efforts to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from the gallows, saying the practice of capital punishment was medieval and wrong. Facing criticism from the ruling side for backing Memon's mercy plea, he said he did so by drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who were against death penalty and wanted it abolished.

Gandhi filed his nomination papers on Tuesday in the presence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Also present were other Opposition leaders, including JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, NC's Farooq Abdullah and DMK's Kanimozhi.

"In our country, we are living in times of division. A whole force which is dividing our country is in action mode and that spells danger," Gandhi said after filing his papers.

He said he was representing the common citizen of the country and not any political party and would try and help bridge the gulf between the public and politics.

"People's faith in politics itself has diminished and has collapsed. I would like to see a revival of that faith," he said.

Responding to the Shiv Sena's attack on him for petitioning the president to save Memon, Gandhi said, "Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication. What Shiv Sena has said, it had to. I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle."

He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.

"As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfil my principles. I believe in that. I have drawn inspiration on death penalty from two persons - Mahatma Gandhi who was opposed to it and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who said it is only proper we abolish it".

The former West Bengal governor, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, has been picked by 18 Opposition parties to be their nominee for the post of vice president. The vice presidential election is scheduled to be held on 5 August.

Gandhi will contest against the NDA's candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.
Dont Fret Is Bringing Back His 'Conceptual Watering Hole' Pop-Up, At Publican Quality Meats

By Stephen Gossett in Food on Jul 18, 2017 8:00PM

The phrase "conceptual watering hole" would normally strike fear in our hearts and send us scurrying to the nearest Old Style-signed corner dive. But in this case, don't fret. This one's actually all about those corner dives, plus it spotlights one of Chicago's great pop visual artistsone known for a healthy sense of irony.

That's, well, Dont Fret, whose handiwork can be seen all over town, whether wheat-pasted on the side of buildings, spicing up Pitchfork Music Festival, or adding local flavor to a Chicago-set Netflix series.

Dont Fret, along with Dark Times partner Kate Brankin, is teaming up with Publican Quality Meats (825 West Fulton Market) for the return of the Light Times pop-up collaboration, on July 21 (5:30 to 11 p.m.). It'll be a backyard drinking installation that's "based in the deep culture of Chicago corner bars."

Expect to see:



Kielbasa and Adobo sausages ($10; comes with a bag of chips)

Shots of Malort ($2)

Beer on draft from Pipeworks Brewing Co. & Old Style

Two-packs of Kielbasa and Adobo sausages for sale at our butcher counter (comes with a kickass Dont Fret label)

Art and swag by Dont Fret

We say "expect to see" all those things because Dont Fret has exhibited a bit of a prankster streak in the past when it comes to these "conceptual watering hole" announcements. But this all sounds like it fits the mission; and it's probably safe to say you can expect some good food, good art and a celebration of Chicago's historic bar culture.

Tickets are available here. They cost $10, which also gets you a "hefty pour" of Old Style.

Dont Fret is also throwing a one-night-only group exhibition at an apartment show in Wicker Park, on July 29. Follow him Instagram for the day-of location reveal.
As the indefinite shutdown called by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) entered the 34th day on Tuesday, incidents of violence continued to be reported from the Darjeeling hills.

GJM on Monday claimed that one of their activists was killed and few others were injured in police firing during a clash between the Trinamool Congress cadres (TMC) and GJM supporters in Darjeeling. This was followed by more clashes of activists with the police and fresh accounts of violence in the region.

GJM leader Binay Tamang identified the deceased as Ashish Tamang, a resident of Darjeeling district's Magargunj. "Ashish was shot in the chest by the police during a clash between GJM and TMC supporters in the area," Tamang said.

He said that the clash between activists of the two parties started late on Monday afternoon after the locals demanded that the seven Trinamool Congress members of Mirik municipality resign. Supporters of GJM and other hill parties reportedly set fire to a traffic police outpost and a flat belonging to the electricity supply board in Bijanbari.

The clash became more violent after police rushed to the spot and charged tear gas shells to disperse the mob. The large crowd attacked the police and resorted to stone pelting, IANS reported. "Police started tear gas shelling from around 8 pm near a market in Mirik. They also opened fire at our activists. That is when Ashish got shot", Tamang said.

Hundreds of locals also staged a sit-in outside the district magistrate's office in Darjeeling demanding a separate state and restoration of internet services in the hills. The suspension of internet services, which was imposed on 18 June, have been extended till 25 July by the local administration.

"The pro-Gorkhaland rallies are being held in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and various other places in the hills. We condemn these authoritarian steps (like blocking the internet) by the Bengal government," said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri, IANS reported. Giri also condemned the "extremely rude behaviour" of TMC legislator Paresh Pal, who lashed out at GJM MLAs during the presidential polls in the state assembly.

An all-party meeting is scheduled to be held in Kalimpong on Tuesday to decide on the next course of action. The meeting will be attended by all the parties of the hills, PTI reported.

Army troops continued to maintain a strict vigil on Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sonada. Paramilitary and police personnel also patrolled the streets in the hills. Eleven companies of the CRPF have already been stationed in these districts.

On 16 July, as per court orders, two companies of the CRPF reached the hills on Sunday, while two more were to arrive on Monday. The Calcutta High Court on 14 July had asked the Centre to provide four additional companies of CRPF within 48 hours in Darjeeling to maintain law and order.

Except pharmacies, all shops, restaurants, hotels, schools and colleges in the region continue to remain closed.

With food supply severely hit due to the ongoing strike, GJM activists and NGOs of the hills were seen distributing food items among people.

GJM supremo Bimal Gurung warned on 15 July that the agitation would turn 'terrible' in the coming days.

"The agitation which has been going on for over a month now will turn terrible and it will be a decisive battle for our independence," Gurung said. "If I need to shed my blood, I am ready to do that, but the fight will go on till Gorkhaland is achieved," he said.

"We will continue our protest till we get Gorkhaland. We are not afraid of the West Bengal government and its police. Every youth in the hills is ready to give their blood for the sake of Gorkhaland," Prakash Gurung, GJM Yuva Morcha president, said.
An army officer of Rashtriya Rifles was shot dead by a jawan on Tuesday following an altercation between the two in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports.

#FLASH J&K: Army officer of Rashtriya Rifles shot dead by a jawan in Uri sector; more details awaited  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

News18 reported that the officer was shot dead after he reprimanded the jawan for using a cellphone on duty.

JUST IN -- Army major shot dead for reprimanding jawan; Major reprimanded jawan for using cellphone on duty pic.twitter.com/zygah1yZ64  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 18, 2017

The officer, Major Shikhar Thapa, belonged to the 71 Armoured Regiment but was attached to 8 Rashtriya Rifles - the armys elite counter-insurgency unit deployed in Uri close to the line of control, Hindustan Times reported.

A court of inquiry has been ordered, News18 reported.

The army is expected to issue a statement later on Tuesday.

In 2014, an army jawan killed five of his colleagues and later killed himself at an army camp in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The jawans belonged to the 13 Rashtriya Rifles and were posted at the Mansabal camp.

With inputs from agencies
Jammu: Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing on Tuesday on the Line of Control (LoC) in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said.

The Pakistani Army initiated the unprovoked firing in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sectors along the LoC, Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said.

The firing started at 6.45 am, using small arms, automatics and mortars. The Indian Army was retaliating "strongly and effectively", Mehta added.

The district administration in Rajouri has shut down 16 schools close to the LoC indefinitely. It has also ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

This was after a soldier and a child were killed on Monday in Pakistani shelling on the LoC in Rajouri.

In Uri sector too, a soldier and two civilians were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan on Monday.
Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent notice to Srinagar's Jamia Masjid and an education trust run by separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to find out whether or not funds collected at the mosque are used to fuel the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.

The state witnessed over seven-month-long unrest after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Muzafar Wani, in July last year.

The notice to Moulvi Ashraf, secretary, Anjuman-e-Auqaf, which runs the affairs of the Srinagar Jamia Masjid, has come after a mob lynched Jammu and Kashmir Police DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandit outside the grand mosque in June this year.

The notices to the functionaries of the Srinagar Jamia Masjid has been issued also because the Nowhatta area, where the mosque is located has seen unprecedented protests during the last years' summer agitation in the Valley.

Even though protests have now died down in South Kashmir, which remained the epicenter of pro-freedom demonstration, protests continue and remain intense after Friday prayers in downtown areas of Srinagar including Nowhatta.

The NIA has also issued notice seeking appearance, at its office, of Mohammad Ibrahim Shah, secretary, Anjuman-e-Nusrat-ul-Islam, an education trust, which is headed by Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. The trust runs Islamic educational institutes in the areas of Rajouri Kadal, Safa Kadal and Bota Kadal in Kashmir. Both the Anjumani Auqaf and Nusrat ul Islam have been asked to Furnish their accounts of the last five years.

The investigation agency also questioned two retired bureaucrats and relatives of Farooq  Moulvi Shafat and Moulvi Manzoor  in the case. Shafat retired as chief conservator of forests and Manzoor as the chief engineer from the state government and have been associated with the Awami Action Committee (AAC), the political organisation headed by Farooq. Both Shafat and Manzoor were in New Delhi for over a week and were questioned by the NIA in the case.

The notices to the Anjuman-e-Auqaf and Farooq's education trust has attracted a sharp reaction from the separatist leader, who called it a "politcal harrasment".

Syed Rehman Shams, secretary of AAC, said, "The genuine political activities of the leaders are being suppressed. While as Anjuman-e-Auqaf is a religious institution, the educational trust is running schools and ensuring welfare of people. This is a tactics to suppress the people."

The NIA is also looking at the role of close associates of Geelani in fanning the unrest, and has recently summoned National Front chairman, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, in the case. Khan, who was recently in Delhi in connection with the investigation that is being carried out, has termed the investigations witch-hunt".

Earlier, the state police arrested some local youth for burning schools during the unrest while many others were slapped with the Public Safety Act (PSA) to keep them in judicial custody.

NIA writes to Kashmiri dailies

Besides looking into the role of Hurriyat Conference leaders, the NIA has also written letters to some newspapers asking them to furnish details about stone-pelters whom they had mentioned in their stories. A letter dated 30 June, issued by Superintendent of Police (SP), NIA, Vishal Garg, was received by the owners of a leading Kashmir daily, where the investigation agency sought details about stone pelters.

"It is learnt that your newspaper has published some articles/news items mentioning the names and addresses of those involved in cases of stone pelting, burning of schools and damage to government property in the past one year starting from 1 July, 2016. It is requested to direct the concerned to provide the above mentioned documents/photographs/articles for investigation in the instant case," read the letter issued by the NIA.

A newspaper editor confirmed that the letter has been received and the matter was also discussed by the Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG).

The NIA is also investigating the role of former militants as well as the political leaders associated with Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman, Hurriyat Conference (Geelani), in funding the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday blamed drug peddlers and anti-social elements for the violence during the farmers' stir in Mandsaur district, where five farmers were killed in police firing last month.

Speaking in the Assembly, panchayat and rural development minister Bhargava said those involved in peddling opium and its derivatives orchestrated the unrest.

"The peddlers of opium and its derivatives orchestrated the violent unrest in Mandsaur district," he said.

Bhargava was replying to an adjournment motion brought in by Congress member Govind Singh and his colleagues on the plight of farmers on the second day of the monsoon session.

He said the people engaged in opium-related trade and some anti-social elements were responsible for the violent farmers' stir following a crackdown on their illegal business.

To buttress his point, the minister said if the Madhya Pradesh farmers were indeed unhappy, why their stir didn't spread to eastern, central and southern parts of the state.

"Why did the violent incidents during the stir remain confined to Mandsaur (in western MP)?" he asked.

Mandsaur, about 320 km from the state capital, was once considered to be the opium hub of the nation.

Bhargava said 109 policemen were injured during the unrest in the western MP.

"No farmer can throw milk or vegetables on roads," he said, blaming drug peddlers and anti-social elements for such acts during the agitation.

Looking at the opposition benches, he said the politics should not be played over bodies.

"There are many issues to do politics over," the minister said.

Five farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur on 6 June. Later, one more farmer died allegedly due to police excesses.

A judicial commission, headed by retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice JK Jain, is probing the Mandsaur police firing episode.
Jammu: Panun Kashmir, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri pandits advocating carving out of a separate homeland for the community in the valley, on Monday urged the RSS to consider abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir during its three-day long conference in Jammu.

"Since the most important meeting of the RSS takes place in Jammu at a very important time, we take an opportunity to make an appeal to the leadership of the RSS to consider the issue of abrogation of Article 370 from the Indian Constitution," president Panun Kashmir Ashwani Chrungoo told reporters in Jammu.

He claimed the Article 370 of the Constitution infringes the fundamental rights of the Indian citizens "in context of Jammu and Kashmir state in many ways".

"It is this Article that has provided a constitutional mechanism to perpetuate the concept of secession in J&K and which justifies a psychological drift from the national mainstream giving rise to absurd theories of sub-nationalism in Kashmir," Chrungoo said.

Article 370 grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Chairman, Political Affairs Committee, ML Raina said the Kashmiri Pandits continue to live as refugees in their own country for the last 28 years.

"Their pain and agony are unparalleled in the post-freedom era of our country," he said, adding that "it would be great if the historic meeting of the RSS gives a clarion call for their resettlement in the valley as per their geo-political aspirations as enunciated in the Margdarshan Resolution of 1991".
New Delhi: Over 1,000 NGOs have been barred from receiving foreign aid after they were found "mis-utilising" such funds, Union minister Kiren Rijiju informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

He said more than 2,000 non-government organisations have been asked to validate their existing bank accounts designated for receiving funds from abroad.

All the voluntary organisations need to be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) to be eligible to receive financial aid from abroad.

According to the act, all banks shall report any transaction in respect of receipt of utilisation of any foreign contribution by a person to the Central government within 48 hours.

"Over 1,000 NGOs found to be mis-utilising foreign funds and violating various provisions of FCRA, 2010 and rules made there under, have been barred from operating their foreign contribution accounts," the Minister of State for Home Affairs said in a written reply.

The home ministry has already asked the NGOs receiving foreign funds to file annual returns, showing expenses and receipts of any such grant.
Jammu: The Pakistan Army violated ceasefire four times on Tuesday targeting civilian areas and Indian positions along the Line of Control (LoC) by firing mortar shells in four sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate, officials said.

Around fifty students of a government high school were trapped in the shelling in Rajouri district's Naushera sector while twelve students of a primary school were rescued by the authorities.

One jawan was reportedly injured in the heavy exchanges of fire.

"The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 1350 hours in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district along the LoC", a defence spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, he said.

The Pakistan army also targeted civilian areas and Indian army posts along LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

According to the defence spokesman, the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked firing from 0645 hours in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors.

As per reports one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimber Gali sector.

Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told PTI that 45 to 50 students of a government high school in Sehar in Naushera sector were trapped due to heavy shelling.

He said the school was located at a height making the task of evacuation difficult.

However, police and authorities have evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera and they were ferried in bullet proof vehicles during intermittent shelling by Pakistan, he said.

"We have sent three bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling comes down, we will evacuate them too", Choudhary said.

The shelling comes just a day after the Indian director general of military operations (DGMO) conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that the army was sincere about maintaining peace but reserved the right to retaliate against any incident of ceasefire violation.

On Monday, the Pakistan army had initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

In the exchange of fire, Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife Shaheena Muddasar and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas yesterday also in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri.

Schools in the border area of Manajote and Balakote belts and also Poonch have been closed. The administration has sounded an alert and advised the residents to stay indoors and field officers have been deputed for coordination, he said.

There were over a dozen of ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir in which seven people including four jawans were killed and 12 injured in the month of July this year.
After resorting to indiscriminate heavy shelling and firing on the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistani army on Tuesday resorted to shelling in Rajouri district's Naushera sector.

Defence ministry sources said Pakistani army used small arms, automatics and mortars to target Indian positions in Bhawani Jhanger area of Naushera sector in Rajouri district. A car was also hit by a mortar in the cross-fire.

J&K: A car hit by mortar in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Balakot. pic.twitter.com/GQHQ3cU9Ey  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Though civil administration had closed 16 schools indefinitely in areas close to the LoC in Rajouri district, mobile bullet proof bunker vehicles were rushed to rescue children trapped in a building in schools in Naushera sector. According to ANI, children were stuck inside two government schools. Security forces later rescued children from both the schools.

#UPDATE: Children stuck inside two government schools due to ceasefire violation by Pakistan in J&K's Nowshera rescued. pic.twitter.com/gdWHyAbuRZ  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Heavy firing exchanges between Indian and Pakistan army continued in Naushera sector when last reports came in, defence sources said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing on the LoC in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said.

The Pakistani army initiated the unprovoked firing in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sectors along the LoC, defence ministry spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said.

The firing started at 6.45 am, using small arms, automatics and mortars, to which the Indian Army retaliated "strongly and effectively".

The district administration in Rajouri has shut down 16 schools close to the LoC indefinitely. It has also ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

The move came after a soldier and a child were killed on Monday in Pakistani shelling on the LoC in Rajouri.

In Uri sector too, a soldier and two civilians were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan on Monday.

With inputs from IANS
Lucknow: An all-party meeting would be held to discuss security of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in the wake of explosive material being recovered from the premises, Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit said on Tuesday.

He, however, did not specify any date.

"I will hold a meeting with leaders of all parties on the issue," Dixit said as Opposition members raised the issue no sooner than when the House met for the day.

Congress legislature party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu tried to raise the issue of Assembly security and that of dysfunctional CCTV cameras, but he was not allowed to do so by the Speaker as the Question Hour was in session.

Following this, Congress members came into the Well, saying the security breach was a serious issue.

The speaker, however, said he would not listen to them if they spoke from the Well and admonished them for creating a ruckus.

Samajwadi Party MLA and Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury joined in and said it was a serious matter and not a ruckus.

BSP leader Lalji Verma added the members were trying to raise the issue and requested the Speaker to convene a meeting with leaders of all parties.

Powerful explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) was recovered from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on 12 July following which Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recommended a probe.
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If you're a fan of China's martial arts, then you shouldn't miss the upcoming Brotherhood of Blades movie.

Poster of Brotherhood of Blades 2

The action-packed sequel of 2014's Brotherhood of Blades () stars Chang Chen and actress Yang Mi, and is set for release in China on July 19.

Technically, it's actually a prequel that places the heroes back into the conflict-ridden Ming Dynasty.

The story follows Shen Lian, an imperial guard, as he searches for the truth behind a conspiracy that framed him and his colleagues.

Before an official release, screenings have taken places in dozens of Chinese cities, including Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Dalian over the past weekend.

The movie also had a screening in June during the Shanghai Movie Festival.

Reviews on Weibo.com have been mostly positive, and some movie goers have praised Chang Chen, calling him the most appealing character.
The Sikkim standoff is turning into a grim battle of nerves. While the trajectory is on expected lines, the escalation timeline is not. China seems to be either fast running out of patience, or wants to convey that impression to India. Either way, the message out of Beijing is that New Delhi's options are limited. It must either accept Chinese supremacy and fall in line, or pay a heavy price.

There is a subtext to the message, and it reflects the larger Chinese annoyance with the Narendra Modi government. Beijing feels that the Modi government is growing bigger than its boots and its assertiveness is not underwritten by soaring economic growth or military supremacy as China's is.

The impasse at the tri-junction might be an immediate spark but to China, it is an opportune issue at an opportune time to puncture holes in Modi's 'tough guy' image and freeze once and for all the power differential so that New Delhi may be adequately chastised against future 'misadventures'. Such an eventuality will send a larger message to the world that crossing swords against Xi Jinping's China will draw severe consequences. The underlying declaration is that if an aspiring major power like India can be subdued, smaller nations in the South Asian Indian Ocean region should just shut their trap.

Curiously, India's firm refusal to withdraw the troops coupled with its reticence and focus on finding a diplomatic solution seems to have hardened Chinese resolve. There are two ways of looking at this.

One, China was well aware of the consequences of its action in trying to build a road and altering the status quo at the contested Doka La tri-junction, and has mapped its and India's responses down to the last detail. In this scenario, chances of a military conflict are comparatively less because it assumes a degree of premeditation. Viewed from this spectrum, China's muscle flexing is more sound than bite and is part of a psychological warfare designed to intimidate India.

Two, China miscalculated New Delhi's resolve to secure the tri-junction area that leads to India's greatest strategic vulnerability in Siliguri Corridor. Viewed from this spectrum, Chinese policymakers may have underestimated India's growing assertiveness and confidence in facing up to China. The series of actions Beijing has been taking since would then assume a greater degree of lethality, because it wouldn't like to have been surprised.

As MIT professor M Taylor Fravel writes in The Indian Express, "China clearly did not appreciate the sensitivity that India attaches to any Chinese presence on the Jampheri Ridge south of the plateau and the implications for the security of the Siliguri Corridor that connects eastern India with the rest of the country. A decade ago, for example, Indian soldiers training the Royal Bhutanese Army in Bhutan challenged a Chinese foot patrol that was discovered along the ridge."

Amid all the chatter around Doka La, it is easy to overlook the fact that it remains one of the very few locations along the LAC where Indian troops enjoy a strategic dominance. As Praveen Swami writes in The Indian Express, "In the event of war, Indias Brigade-sized military presence inside Bhutan, stationed at Ha, allows it to attack the Chumbi valley from two sides, potentially cutting off Chinese troops stationed facing Sikkim."

To recall, the last military conflict between the two nations was in 1967, when India inflicted heavy damages on China just five years after the 1962 war. The PLA suffered between 300-400 casualties while less than a hundred Indian soldiers attained martyrdom. That incident, as a report in India Today notes, happened near Nathu La in the same Sikkim sector and was marked by Chinese indignation at Indian presence in Sikkim.

It is easy to contextualise Chinese action, aimed at achieving the twin objectives of addressing its own strategic vulnerability by widening Chumbi Valley while targeting India's weakest spot.

Chinese actions at the Sino-Indian border is guided by three clear principles. One, it wants to sustain its power differential with India. Two, it wants to be recognized as the more dominant force. Three (arising out of the first two) it believes that altering the status quo is its exclusive right, and lesser powers must be accommodating. There are many reasons behind China's doctrinal approach to border disputes, not the least among those is its penchant for reinterpreting history to define its present.

It is easy to see why it feels outraged at India's resolve, and is going out of its way to preserve the first two principles. As previously noted, the buttons of escalation are being rapidly pressed. Latest media reports indicate that China conducted a 'live fire-drill' on the Tibet plateau near the Arunchal Pradesh border and the 11-hour exercise involving howitzers, anti-tank grenades, anti-aircraft artillery and mobile communication systems was carried out by one of its two mountain brigades.

A more worrying signal emerged on Tuesday with The Indian Express' Shubhajit Roy reporting that China last week conducted a closed-door meeting with foreign diplomats in Beijing to convey a message that "PLA troops have been waiting patiently at the plateau but will not wait for an indefinite period." According to the report, the envoys have relayed the memo to their Indian and Bhutanese counterparts.

Simultaneously, Chinese state-controlled media has been keeping up the rhetoric with the latest Global Times editorial declaring that China isnt afraid of war. Under the circumstances, what are India's options?

While New Delhi would like nothing more than to revert to pre-June 2017 status at the zone, the levers of escalation are not in its hands. NSA Ajit Doval's visit to Beijing for BRICS Summit later this month would be crucial and he would look to engage his Chinese counterpart. Other diplomatic channels are still available but it isn't clear whether India possesses the wherewithal to engage with China while not acceding to Beijing's precondition.

India doesn't have a treaty with the US, and a transactional Washington under Donald Trump is unlikely to come to its aid in the event of a war. Moreover, China's considerable geopolitical influence arising out of massive economic investments in nearly every corner of the globe would force many nations to stay neutral in the case of a Sino-Indian military conflict. Foreign policy is not a matter of principle. Therefore, for New Delhi, it will ultimately boil down to a battle of nerves. Will it give in, or manage to persuade China against using force? This question may be answered sooner than many in India are ready to admit.
New Delhi: Demanding loan waiver and fair prices for agricultural produces to farmers, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) along with CPM leaders staged protest in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The protest, 'Kisan Mukti Sansad', was culmination of the farmers' agitation of 'Kisan Mukti Yatra' launched on 6 July from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, where six farmers were allegedly killed in police firing on 6 June, by the peasants' bodies.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, party MPs Mohammed Salim, Tapan Sen and Jitendra Choudhary, AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah and other farmers' leaders from various parts of the country took part in the 'sansad' at Jantar Mantar, the AIKS said in a statement.

The 'Kisan Yatra' passed through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana before reaching the national capital.

"The AIKS and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan representing over 300 organisations of the peasantry, agricultural workers, adivasis and Dalits were part of this initiative.

"They raised common demands of full loan waiver of the peasantry, fair prices as recommended by Swaminathan Commission," the statement said.

The AIKS said children of farmers who ended their lives by killing self also took part in the protest meeting and pledged to make the country free of farmers' suicides.

AIKS joint secretaries NK Shukla, Vijoo Krishnan, finance secretary P Krishnaprasad and other leaders took part in the protest.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court decided to set up a nine-judge bench to decide whether right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said that the larger bench would examine the correctness of the two judgments delivered in the cases of Kharak Singh and MP Sharma in which it was held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

While the Kharak Singh judgement was delivered by a six- judge bench in 1960, the MP Sharma verdict was reported in 1950 and was delivered by an eight-judge Constitution bench.

The five-judge bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer, said that the nine-judge bench would commence hearing on Wednesday and decide the issue as to whether the fundamental rights, described under Part III of the Constitution, also include the right to privacy.

The order came over a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme. It has also been alleged that the Aadhaar scheme infringes the 'fundamental right to privacy'.

The petitions were referred to a larger bench in 2015 when then attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi had referred to the inconsistencies in the past apex court verdicts and said that the issue whether right to privacy was a fundamental right or not, needed to be settled first.
Seven years ago, this month in 2010, Jats began their tryst with reservation in education and jobs. It has been a roller coaster ride for the community since. During this time, the laddoo of quota has come comfortably close to their mouths multiple times only to be snatched away by the judiciary before they could even taste it. The community has tried every trick in the book that others have employed to get on the quota bus, from peaceful protests to breaking and burning things. However, the much-sought-after tag of backwardness has remained elusive.

In the meantime, much ink has been spilled either justifying or questioning the demands for quota from a seemingly affluent caste. Christophe Jaffrelot, diagnosing the quota demands of Jats, writes that 21.5 percent of the Jats of Haryana do not earn more than 4 percent of the castes income with a mean income of Rs 11,191  half the average income of the SCs! An article in Swarajya has poked many holes in Supreme Courts reasoning in the case which cancelled inclusion of Jats in the central OBC list. The apex court is seen arguing that just because other more affluent castes than Jats have wrongly got the share in the quota pie, it doesnt mean it will let Jats enjoy it too. Opponent of Jat quota point towards their sizable share in government posts, well-enough representation in political class and strong social status.

However, all these complex debates revolving around constitutional arguments, economic and social parameters seem to have missed an important development. The pie of government jobs for Jats in Haryana shrinks every time they stand up to revolt against the status quo.

Consider the quota situation in Haryana on 1 July 2010, seven years ago, when the clamour for reservation hadnt started. Twenty percent seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) in both Class III & IV and Class I & II jobs. Backward Classes (BC) category was split into two further categories: BC (A) and BC (B). BC (A), which comprised of 67 castes, got 16 percent reservation while BC (B), which comprised of 6 castes, got 11 percent reservation in Class III & IV posts. Both categories got 10 percent reservation in Class I & II posts. Heres how the quota composition looked like:

Class I & II Class III & IV Scheduled Caste (SC) 20% 20% Backward Classes (A) Backward Classes (B) 10% 16% 11% Total Reserved Posts 30% 47% % of seats Jats could compete in 70% 53%

After months of sustained protests and the death of an individual, the Congress-led government at the Centre, already battered by numerous scams, thought it would be wise to keep itself in the communitys good books. In March 2011, it tweaked certain rules so that National Commission Of Backward Classes (NCBC) could reconsider its earlier ruling which had said that Jats didnt deserve the backward tag. In April, the Congress government in Haryana reconstituted the states backward class commission under the chairmanship of KC Gupta.

In all probability, this was done to smoothen the legal hurdles that might arise in the future and provide an institutional backing to the governments decision that was all but inevitable. Unsurprisingly then, the Haryana government created Special Backward Classes (SBC) category and provided 10 percent reservation to six communities including Jats in Class III & IV posts based on Gupta commissions report. Also, based on the same report, 10 percent reservation in Class III & IV was also given to poor people of hitherto unreserved upper castes under Economically Backward Classes (EBC) category. Later, the state government extended the reservation to Class I & II posts by allotting separate 5 percent quota to BC (B), same share to SBC and 4 percent share to EBC. This is how the quota scene looked at the start of 2015:

Class I & II Class III & IV Scheduled Caste (SC) 20% 20% BC (A) 10% 16% BC (B) 5% 11% SBC 5% 10% EBC 4% 10% Total 44% 67% % of seats Jats could compete in 56% open + 5% reserved = 61% 33% open + 10% reserved = 43%

As one can see, Jats could compete in 70 percent seats prior to 2011 in Class I & II posts which reduced to 61 percent in 2015. In Class III & IV posts, the same share for Jats reduced from 53 percent to 43 percent. After years of protests, breaking and burning, and wasting crores of cash, the community ended up hurting itself more than anyone else.

In 2015, the Supreme Court cancelled the inclusion of Jats in the Centre list, a decision the Congress government had taken one day before the 2014 General Election Code of Conduct was about to kick in. The decision was taken on the basis of the Gupta Commission report. Effectively, the Supreme Court quashed the commissions report. Based on the apex courts decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court nullified Haryana governments decision to carve out SBC category to give quota to Jats.

In February 2016, Jats again mobilised themselves and how. What started out as peaceful dharnas blocking roads and railways soon turned the state into an inter-caste battlefield as OBC castes engaged in counter-mobilisation of their own and clashed with Jat protesters. Neither the police nor the army could control the situation. Scores of people died, mostly Jats. Tens of crores of public property was vandalised and arsoned. The inter-caste harmony in the state laid in tatters and perhaps will lie so for years to come, if not decades. And what did Jats achieve in exchange? The BJP government in Haryana passed a bill in March 2016. This is how the quota setup stands now:

Class I & II Class III & IV Scheduled Caste (SC) 20% 20% BC (A) 11% 16% BC (B) 6% 11% SBC 6% 10% EBC 4% 10% Total 47% 67% % of posts Jats could compete in 53% open + 6% reserved = 59% 33% open + 10% reserved = 43%

There was no change in the share of Class III & IV posts but the proportion of posts Jats could compete in Class I & II further shrank by 2 percent.

This is the proposed setup and not the one currently in force as the cases are sub-judice. The Punjab and Haryana High Court is yet to give final judgment on the constitutionality of the bill passed last year by the BJP government. The court had concluded the case back in March. However, it decided to reserve the judgment.

To conclude, in 2010, Jats could compete in 70 percent and 53 percent posts under Class I & II and Class III & IV respectively. Today, if the bill is held constitutional, they would be able to do so only in 59 percent and 43 percent posts respectively.

So, the question one must ask is: Who is benefiting from these Jat quota protests? Surely, its not the community. Ironically, the OBCs in Haryana which have been most vocal in their opposition to giving quota to Jats stand to benefit the most from such a development.

With inputs from Shri Ram Kanwar, Professor (retd), Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar.
Agartala: BJP workers on Tuesday gheraoed the residence of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar alleging that the government has failed to remove the indefinite road and railway blockade by Indigenous People's Front Tripura (IPFT) demanding a separate state.

The blockade to press for a separate state by carving out the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) area entered ninth day on Tuesday.

It has been causing problems for the common people as prices of essential commodities have gone up.

"We have gheraoed his residence due to his and his government's failure to withdraw the national highway blockade by the IPFT. Our demonstration would continue unless the blockade is withdrawn," state BJP president Biplab Deb said.

The chief minister, who also holds home portfolio, is inactive and has not paid attention to the problems of the people, Deb alleged.

"Law and order is a state subject and it is his government's duty to give relief to the people from inconveniences," he told reporters.

The BJP leader said party leaders would meet Governor Tathagata Roy on Tuesday and demand President's rule in the state as law and order has withered away in the state.

Meanwhile, opposition Congress has called a dawn-to-dusk bandh in the state tomorrow alleging the government's failure to withdraw the blockade of IPFT.

"We oppose the demand of separate state and the indefinite blockade of IPFT. We also oppose the silence of the government about the blockade, which is creating inconveniences to common people," state Congress president, Birajit Sinha told reporters.

In a statement on Monday, the state government said that Union Minister of State from Home, Kiren Rijiju informed the chief minister that he would meet a delegation of IPFT in Delhi regarding the blockade.

However, BJP central observer for Tripura, Sunil Deodhar said he had talks with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Rijiju and both of them made it clear that talks would be possible only after the blockade is withdrawn.
Patna: In the eye of a storm after lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday attended a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Amid the continuing standoff between JD(U) and RJD over the former's demand to explain the alleged acquisition of massive wealth, deputy chief minister Yadav went to the chief minister's chamber after the Cabinet meeting.

His minister brother Tej Pratap Yadav and state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary too were present in the chief minister's room.

It was not clear what transpired in the meeting, which appeared to show that the Grand Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress is intact.

Amid the mounting tension between JD(U) and RJD over the the former's demand from the deputy chief minister to clear his name in public with facts over the CBI allegation in the case and the later saying 'no' to Tejashwi's resignation, there was speculation if he would attend the Cabinet meeting at all.

Tejashwi had on Saturday skipped a government function in which he had to share dais with the chief minister. The deputy chief minister, however, arrived for the meeting along with Tej Pratap Yadav in the same car.

Earlier, many RJD ministers assembled at the residence of former chief minister Rabri Devi and moved together for the Cabinet meeting from there in a motorcade.

The mediapersons were barred entry into the secretariat, the venue of the Cabinet meeting, following a scuffle between Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav's securitymen and mediapersons after the last Cabinet meet on Wednesday.

The press briefing by Cabinet Coordination Department Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra has also been shifted to the Public Relations Department office at some distance. It is used to be held at the secretariat itself.

Despite the show of unity, JD(U) spokesmen Neeraj Kumar, however, said the coalition dharma is bigger than showing obstinacy.

Another JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad repeated the party's demand that the accused come clean on accusations on the basis of facts.

The BJP and its NDA partners on Tuesday stepped up its demand for resignation of Tejashwi Yadav.

Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the deputy chief minister has amassed 26 properties at 26 years of age without declaring his sources of income. "Tejashwi should tell people about his sources of income and how he acquired all these properties," Modi told reporters.

Attacking Nitish Kumar for failing to take a call on Tejashwi Yadav, Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi said, "He is indulging in 'nautanki' (drama) to hold on to the power anyhow."

Union minister and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha said "Nitish Kumar has lust for chair."
Patna: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar should sack his deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, who is mired in corruption charges, to protect his image and his government.

Modi alleged that Tejashwi, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, has amassed 26 properties at the age of 26 without declaring his sources of income.

"Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has said that he has been implicated by CBI and other agencies. But he should tell people how he became the owner of 26 properties at the young age of 26 years. Tejashwi should tell people about his sources of income and how he acquired these properties," Modi told reporters on the sidelines of his weekly Janata Darbar.

He claimed that out of the 26 properties, 13 plots in Patna and Gopalganj were registered in the name of Tejashwi when he was a minor and between 2004-09, when his father was the railway minister.

"Tejashwi acquired the rest 13 properties through shell companies when he was around 24 years," he claimed, quipping, "He had a full grown beard and moustache (by then)."

Tejashwi had said a few days ago that the allegations against him by the BJP referred to the time when he was just 14 years and did not even have a moustache.

Tejashwi had not disowned the properties which were allegedly gifted to him when he was a minor, Modi said, adding, "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has set a benchmark in the fight against corruption. I am quite hopeful that he will not compromise on the issue. He will not try to protect Tejashwi Yadav and will certainly act against him."

Modi, the leader of Opposition in the legislative council, demanded that Tejashwi should resign or the chief minister should sack him.

The CBI has lodged an FIR against Tejashwi for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct besides lodging a case under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, he said, while referring to JD(U)'s decision to ask him to explain the allegations point-wise in public.

In reply to a query whether he thought Kumar was waiting for a charge sheet to be filed against Tejashwi, Modi said that he did not say so, adding, "Rather there is ample evidence against Tejashwi."

"Perception is important in politics and so the chief minister should act against Tejashwi Yadav to protect his image and his government," he said.

On Tejashwi not resigning despite JD(U) asking him to come clean on corruption charges, the BJP leader said it was certainly disrespect and contempt of the authority and prerogative of a chief minister.
Following three murders in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada region in the last one month, clashes have engulfed the coastal region and RSS functionary Prabhakar Bhat Kalladka has emerged at the forefront as a controversial figure. Kalladka rose through the ranks of the RSS and gained prominence on account of allegations that he is a key player in spreading communal tensions in the region. He has also led rallies and protests after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, The Financial Express reported.

Kalladka's rise from a behind-the-scenes strongman to the forefront, in what seems like the BJP's attempt to win the region in the upcoming elections in 2018, fans speculations that the Sangh Parivar is trying to reinforce the Hindu identity to regain the region.

The attempts started soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed his government at the Centre. RSS leaders campaigned for the BJP in the name of Hindutva and nation building in the region.

The Indian Express quoted a Congress MLA of Vasanth Bangera as saying, "There is a chief commander for Mangalore who is above the collector, the superintendent of police or anybody  Dr Kalladka. The control of the whole district is with Prabhakar Bhat Kalladka. I am telling you the truth about what is happening in my district."

Dakshina Kannada is the only region where the saffron party and its outfits are vocal about the beheading of Indian soldiers by Pakistan, Chinese intrusions and the Indian Mujahideen. Kalladka is also accused of making provocative statements and supporting people involved in moral policing, according to the report.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has also said that there would be peace in the coastal region if the BJP and the other Sangh Parivar outfits did not create trouble, The Hindu reported. "It is their provocative speeches that are disturbing peace in the coastal area. To cover up their misdeeds, they are pointing fingers at Congress leaders Ramanath Rai and UT Khader for the communal disturbance," he said.

As this Scroll article pointed out, "With elections approaching, it is likely that things will only get worse. The RSS' agenda is to polarise the community and sell the idea of a Congress that only cares about Muslims without bothering about Hindu sentiments." This explains the sudden importance that is being given to Kalladka.

So much so, that BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa has warned that the whole of Karnataka will burn if Kalladka is arrested, a News18 report stated. This came after Karnataka Minister for Environment and Forests, B Ramanath Rai directed Dakshina Kannada SP to book Kalladka for the murder of an RSS activist on 4 July. It is only under Kalladka's tutelage that fringe outfits like Sri Rama Sene and the Hindu Jagaran Vedike are thriving.

The Bengaluru police even registered a suo motu case against Sri Rama Sene's chief Pramod Muthalik for hate speech. Muthalik and his supporters staged a protest, attacking Pejawar Mutt seer for hosting an iftar party at a temple complex, The News Minute reported. The chief reportedly said that there will be bloodshed if iftar parties are held in temples.

Meanwhile the police has been arresting people in connection with stone pelting during the funeral procession of the RSS activist. Among the arrested are some members of the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, which is believed to be fanning tensions in the region, The Hindu reported. The outfit's men even detained a Muslim youth and a Hindu girl. When the couple was released by the police, Kalladka issued a warning. "I would like to remind the police that it is we who will protect their wives and children after they retire," he had said.

Prior to Modi's win, the BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the region in the 2013 Assembly polls because it was the first time in almost 20 years that BJP candidates did not have the support of the Sangh Parivar. However, things turned around after Modi was elected the prime minister. "There is a sense of belief among the Sangh workers that even if Modi does not overtly talk about Hindutva issues, he will not betray Hindutva in any way," a senior Sangh member was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Corroborating the member's statement, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that if you peel off Modi's exterior, it is all Hindutva. The Huffington Post quoted him as saying, "we [BJP] articulated this Hindutva  of uniting the Hindus and dividing the minorities."

Needless to say, the BJP government at the Centre has given an impetus to the Sangh outfits to continue their atrocities in Karnataka and try to polarise the voters ahead of the Assembly polls.
An ominous script is being prepared, which could be deployed to try and rivet the negative attention of world powers on Kashmir. According to this new narrative, Indian forces are using chemical weapons, specifically to 'dissolve' and render bodies unrecognisable in Kashmir.

This narrative surfaced for the first time earlier this month: A little before Chinas intervention came to the fore. So audacious have these intertwined strands become that the Pakistani extremist Islamist outfit, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has officially adopted and promoted both in tandem.

Immediately after asserting its appreciation of Chinas "immense militarily and moral diplomatic support to the freedom struggle of Kashmir," it stated that "India has been using deadly chemicals weapons on innocents since long (sic). The houses and properties are destroyed under the disguise of fake search operations while the bodies of victims are dissolved with chemical weapons, rendering them unidentifiable.

Lashkar also endorsed Chinese suzerainty in the region: "China is the key player in this region and can play a vital role in its stability. We urge them to take more steps so as to pressurise India in implementation of UN resolutions and expose the barbarism of Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Abdullah Ghazanvi, the militant outfits spokesman, issued this statement on 14 July on the behalf of Lashkar chief Mahmood Shah.

The statement indicates that China did not use its veto to prevent the UN from naming Lashkar founder Hafeez Saeed as a 'terrorist' just to please its ally Pakistan.

Analysts ought to examine whether the sophistication of the attack on Mumbai in November 2008 could have stemmed from Chinese training and logistics. Which ought to lead to further questions about how much US intelligence agencies knew of the involvement in the Mumbai attack of a US citizen of part-Pakistani descent, David Headley.

Horrific precedent

If this chemical weapons narrative gathers steam, China could seek to use it to horrify and harness world opinion against India. The US has provided potent examples for this. It demonised Iraq over chemical weapons before invading it in 2003. And it used reports about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime to attack Syrian military installations earlier this year.

Chinas massive investments in a wide variety of countries around the world gives it leverage to influence what they might say at the UN and elsewhere. These include many African countries, which are already deeply distressed over racist attacks against African expatriates in places such as Noida.

The government and various security-related think-tanks appear to have underestimated the range and potency of recent international antagonism against India over Kashmir. It is unprecedented.

Last week, Irans Ayatollah Khamenei all but urged a struggle against India over Kashmir. And not long ago, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to mediate between India and Pakistan while on an official visit to India.

Already, it is clear that Russia stands with the China-Pakistan axis, while it is not clear what the US will do (on anything) under President Donald Trump. One hears disturbing reports about what other important powers are up to.

Conflict economy

Narratives about human rights abuses in Kashmir have generally had a free run. The gamut of Indian agencies have watched while narratives about mass graves, mass rapes, mass disappearances and half-widows have become run of the mill since 2008. Some key officials and functionaries have even facilitated such narratives: Which tend to keep the lucrative conflict economy in place.

There is no doubt that disappearances, rapes, and killings have taken place in Kashmir, particularly during the 1990s. Ironically, very little notice was taken of these at the time. The narratives got going after the Vajpayee-Musharraf peace process.

In fact, most Kashmiris were acutely aware around the mid-90s (before the depredations of mercenaries and police Special Operations Group kicked in) that violations had taken place from both sides. By and large, rural people were keenly aware of the complexity of the truth regarding abuse. Which was reflected in voter turnout.
A Confucius museum under construction in the hometown of the ancient Chinese educator and philosopher will be home to more than 700,000 relics, including well-known Confucius family documents, sources with the museum said on Saturday.

Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, hosts a ceremony to pay tribute to the sage on April 2. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A display plan of the museum, which is expected to open in the second half of 2018, was finalized following a meeting in Qufu city of Shandong province earlier this month.

The major museum complex in Qufu consists of an 11,000-square-meter display area, 7,000 square meters of warehouses and a 1,000-square-meter cultural heritage restoration center, says deputy curator Yang Jinquan.

The items to be displayed on rotation include more than 300,000 documents of the Confucius family from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) up to 1948 that contain details of the family history during feudal times.

In addition, there will be more than 40,000 books dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and more than 8,000 pieces of clothing and accessories from the Ming and Qing (1368-1911) dynasties.

Confucius (551-479 BC), an educator and philosopher, founded Confucianism, a school of thought that deeply influenced later Chinese generations.
Months ahead of the state Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Congress-led government pitched the demand for a separate state symbol. The Karnataka government has constituted a nine-member committee to design a 'state' flag  a separate symbolic identity  and to study its constitutional validity, according to The Times of India.

If the state government has its way, Karnataka will be the second Indian state after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370, to have a separate state flag. However, the demand has triggered a pitched debate on the constitutional validity of the move and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's motive behind it.

While Congress claimed that the state flag will be symbolic of the Kannada pride, the BJP has accused the state government of whipping up divisive emotions for electoral gains ahead of the Assembly polls.

BJP leader and Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said that the nation must come first. He, however, added that the people may have some sentiments about it but it is always advisable to promote nationalism. Dattatreya blamed the Congress for using people's sentiments and deepening regional divides for political gains. "There are already so many divisions: regional divides, religious differences, linguistic divides. Why do you want to encourage more such feelings? The Congress is clearly doing it with its eye on the polls," the minister told CNN-News 18.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on the other hand batted for specific rules to incorporate such demands in a constitutional manner. Tharoor said that he sees no problem in the concept if specific norms are set, like making it mandatory to hoist the state flag below the National Flag. The Congress leader also added that if such demands are accepted and legalised in a systematic way, Jammu and Kashmir having a separate flag, will no longer be such an exception, thereby ruling out the BJP's exception that the demand will set a dangerous precedent.

The demand for a separate flag has not surfaced for the first time. According to a report in Navbharat Times, a similar demand was raised in 2012 also but the then state government led by BJP had opposed the demand, stating that it contradicted the National Flag Code. The BJP had also said that a separate state flag will undermine the idea of a single National Flag and promote regional divides.

Karnataka has recently been in news over anti-Hindi protests over the use of Hindi language on signboards in Bengaluru metro stations  a move that was seen as language imposition. The #NammaMetroHindi Beda campaign which was started in June-end has been seeking the removal of Hindi signboards from all Namma Metro stations as well as stopping of announcements in Hindi in the metro. Several groups have also opposed the three-language policy, in which Hindi translation is provided as the third language, apart from English and the regional language script.
Bhopal: Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has said West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's "narrow mentality" was responsible for the current situation in Darjeeling where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is agitating for a separate Gorkhaland.

He also defended BJP leader Roopa Ganguly over her controversial statement on women safety, saying she was referring to the "poor" law and order situation in West Bengal.

Though the BJP is in favour of creation of smaller states it is for West Bengal to take a call on that, Vijayvargiya, who is in-charge of the party affairs in the state, told PTI.

"The BJP is normally in favour of creation of smaller states, but the state government should sit and talk to the people and take a decision on it," he said.

"It is the right of the state. After it decides and passes a resolution in the state assembly, then the Centre can consider it," Vijayvargiya said.

"How it will be like... Its geographical situation. It has to be decided by the state. If a smaller state can be created, then it is good, otherwise a solution to the problem should be found by sitting with them (agitators)," the BJP leader said.

He suggested the West Bengal chief minister should discuss the issue threadbare with all concerned to find a solution to the problem.

Earlier, a (regional) council was created but it was not given adequate rights, he said. "Nothing should be imposed on them (agitators)," he said.

Asked who in his view was responsible for the strife in Darjeeling, he said, "Whatever happening there is intentional and because of the narrow mentality of Mamataji."

"She wants to suppress Gorkhas by invoking Bengali sentiments and trying to curb the voice of those raising the issue of the Gorkhaland democratically," Vijayvargiya said.

He also partly blamed West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee for the current situation alleging he had stated that Bengali will be made compulsory in schools in the entire state which resulted in the agitation. "The government is working with a narrow mentality on the issue and therefore it is unable to handle it properly," he remarked.

"There is a poor administrator in West Bengal, and to hide her failures, she blames the BJP for it. In fact, the West Bengal government is a total failure," Vijayvargiya alleged.

The BJP leader identified "poor" law and order and the state government's "failure" to check infiltration as the two major challanges facing the West Bengal government. "The appeasement of infiltrators who are being given citizenship to enhance her vote bank is a threat to nation's internal security," Vijayvargiya said.

On the controversial statement made by BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly about the safety of women, he said she was referring to the poor law and order situation (in West Bengal) and whoever will spend 15 days in the state will come to know about it.

"Women are not safe and this is totally right. Women are being treated as a second grade citizen," he said.
The electoral college that voted on Monday to pick the next President of India had only nine percent of it who were women. That is, from among all the Members of Parliaments in both Houses  Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and all state legislatures  less than one out of ten elected representative was a woman. This statistics should wake up the country to provide proper representation to women who, roughly, constitute half the countrys population.

It could well be called political misogyny in a country where she is said to be worshipped as Shakti, Durga, et al, but keeps them low in the social order by restricting them at most levels, objectifying them. This poor proportion reflects how the country, despite a declaration to provide them at least a third of the seats in Parliament and assemblies, treats them. The fact that half the population has to get only a third representation is also a reflection of it.

That one-third representation has not come about yet, though the idea was mooted over two decades ago. The quota of between a third and half of all panchayat raj seats emerged in 1998 but it has not become a reality for either the Parliament or the legislatures. It is as if there is a concerted bid to scuttle it has succeeded even though a constitutional amendment was adopted by Rajya Sabha. But it has not passed muster with the Lok Sabha.

Before we move to look at Indias history of punctured efforts, it is important to note two recent developments, one in France and another in the United Kingdom where the voters made history. In France, they elected 233 women as MPs when the total strength of their parliament is 577. That is a tad above 40 percent in a country where for funding, women are required to be nominated, not a share assigned in seats in the law-making body.

In the United Kingdom where the recent elections clipped Theresa Mays wings, the parliament has more than 200 women MPs, which is higher than their previous strength of 196. Interestingly, according to published accounts of statistics from the House of Commons Library, all of them are from the Conservative Party. This one partys dominance in the share of women MPs is unique so far. The party was led by May, a woman.

According to a review of representations till 2015, out of 67 law-making bodies, more than 30 percent are women. Tanzania rubbed shoulders with Switzerland with over a third of its membership in parliaments being women, and for the first time, Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador, Portugal, and Sudan and joined the ranks. Ethiopia and in Trinidad and Tobago also have reached that milestone. But India is nowhere there.

Nine percent in all law-making bodies together is peanuts because, despite major political parties like the BJP and the Congress in favour of it, the Womens Reservation Bill has not become an Act. There have been shameful attempts, including physical, to derail the very intent to have a law favouring a share for women.

When the Rajya Sabha approved it in 1996, it seemed history was being made but it was an ephemeral dream. When the UPA law minister, HR Bharadwaj moved it in the House, his copy was sought to be snatched and women MPs had to guard him then. Even Vice-President Hamid Ansari, chairing the Upper House, was sought to be attacked as The Hindu described it then.

MPs like Sharad Yadav had gone to the extent of asking if the women elected -- "these women with short hair can speak for our women" implying that the women who get elected are different from the women who populated the country. It would, however, be wrong to single out Sharad, for the parties led by the other two, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav were in the forefront opposing the one-third quota.

At one point, at a press conference in Mumbai, CPMs Brinda Karat went to the extent of saying that these two parties had no social agenda but could not defend hers and other parties which were allies with them. She accused the then government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee of not ensuring the passage of the Bill without conceding that the MPs or political parties also have their responsibility to ensure adoption of the quota Bill.

There were slogans from Samajwadi Party like "Take back the Womens Reservation Bill" in 1996. An RJD MP went on to snatch the copy of the Bill from the Speaker and tore it. The Bill was sought to be introduced time and again but political misogyny thwarted the attempts. It was a resolute sabotage of womens empowerment.

In this background, it is silly to pride ourselves on the fact that India once had a woman president or a speaker, and that yesterday, the lady who had occupied the speakers chair was a candidate to be the countrys president. Such elevations are merely token.

To pat ourselves on the fact that West Bengal has a woman chief minister in Mamata Banerjee, with a counterpart in Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, and till she died, Jayalalithaa makes no sense. That Mayawati and Anandiben Patel too had occupied that post. They were the few who battled their way up in a male-dominated world of politics. But there is a huge section of women who would like to get there but are kept out. Women are even elected to gram panchayats because of quotas, their husbands, fathers, or brothers who work as their proxies.
On Tuesday, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said she would resign from the Rajya Sabha after legislators created a ruckus in the Rajya Sabha when the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister was speaking about 'rampant' atrocities against Dalits. Mayawati is BSP's lone member in the Upper House and her term ends next year April.

However, let's take a look at the protocol if a member wants to resign or quit from the Rajya Sabha.

According to the Rajya Sabha's Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business, a member who intends to resign his seat must write a letter to the chairman, stating his or her intention to resign the seat. If the member hands over the letter in person and conveys to the chairman that the resignation is voluntary and genuine, the chairman may accept the resignation immediately.

If the chairman receives the letter by any other means, he or she may make inquiries to determine through himself, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat or any other agency  that the resignation is voluntary and genuine  if he determines otherwise, he may reject the resignation. A member may withdraw his resignation at any time before it is accepted, according to the rules of procedures.

The chairman shall also inform the council that the member has resigned and that he has accepted the resignation. After the resignation, the secretary-general shall publish the information in the Bulletin and the Gazette and send a copy of the notification to the Election Commission for filling the vacancy, according to the rules.

Why did Mayawati threaten to resign?

Mayawati was told to introduce a motion in the Upper House, when the leader instead started speaking about the rising atrocities against minorities and Dalits in the country. Mayawati said that the BJP-ruled states have failed to reign in the atrocities against minorities and Dalits.

Claiming that the atrocities in Uttar Pradesh are on the rise, Mayawati said that the government is not even allowing her party to help the people. Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien was quick to remind the BSP chief that she only has three minutes in Zero Hour to discuss an issue. Rajya Sabha immediately erupted over Kurien's comments and soon saw several MLAs storm the Well.

Speaking on developments inside Rajya Sabha, Mayawati said that she is well aware that there is a limit of 3 minutes in Zero Hour, but she was not speaking under the Zero Hour. She said that when she tried to keep her point, the Treasury Benches stood up and disrupted her speech.

"If I am not allowed to speak right now, I will resign right away. I will come and give my resignation right now, if I am not allowed to speak right now," the BSP chief said after being asked to wrap up her impromptu speech on Saharanpur anti-Dalit violence.

"When I tried speaking about the weaker sections today in the Rajya Sabha, I was not allowed to speak. Why?" asked Mayawati at a press conference after the Upper House was adjourned.

"Laanat hai. Agar mai apne weaker sections ki baat sadan mein nahi rakh sakti to mujhe House mein rehne ka adhikaar nahi hai (It's shameful. If I am not allowed to speak out for the weaker sections in Parliament, then I have no right being inside either of the Houses). This is the reason I have decided to quit Rajya Sabha, I am not being heard, not allowed to speak," Mayawati said.

Mayawati also invoked BR Ambedkar and said that a similar incident had occurred with the Dalit leader who resigned and then later spoke to media over his reasons to quit Parliament.

Visuals of Mayawati getting frustrated with the House's way of functioning went viral. Visuals showed Mayawati slapping her desk, mumbling a few words and leaving the Rajya Sabha in a huff. Mayawati is the lone BSP MP in Rajya Sabha and her term ends in a year.

After a solemn first day of Monsoon Session of Parliament on Monday, Tuesday was slated to be an active day with Opposition all geared up to corner the Narendra Modi government over issues ranging from cow vigilantes, farmer crisis and GST bill.

Follow the live blog on Parliament here.
For BSP chief Mayawati five minutes in Parliament was not enough to make an introductory statement on the issue of Dalit atrocities in Saharanpur. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asking her to conclude her speech within the given time limit infuriated her to such an extent that initially she threatened and later resigned as an MP of Rajya Sabha.

Was the decision to quit the coveted post of Member of Parliament an impulsive one or was it a well thought out move to make an honourable exit from Parliament and gain maximum political mileage out of it? She had after all made her point by telling everyone concerned that her being a Dalit makes her the principal spokesperson on issues related to Dalits.

The facts make it clear that she was using it as a convenient political ploy, even a desperate attempt to regain at least a fraction of her lost glory as a leader.

Mayawati, four-time chief minister and multiple-term MP, is very well aware of parliamentary practices in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and the state Assemblies. These democratic bodies function through set norms and practices. Five minutes (Mayawati was first allowed three minutes, then given an extension and was later reminded that her time was over) was too much time given to a member to make her point.

During a structured debate, the time allocated to various party leaders is as per the respective party strength in the House. Mayawati's party BSP has six MPs in Rajya Sabha and does not have a member in Lok Sabha. Given her party strength in Rajya Sabha, her turn would have come after Congress, BJP, SP, AIADMK, TMC, BJD, CPM and JD(U). Being aware of her diminished position in the House, she asserted her presence by rising to speak out of turn. The BSP supremo claimed that she was speaking on an adjournment motion but the fact remains that a debate on adjournment motion begins only after the Chair accepts the motion. In this case, the adjournment motion was never accepted.

After submitting her resignation to the Rajya Sabha chairman on Tuesday, Mayawati said that the deputy chairman, instead of asking the ruling party MPs to remain quiet, rang the bell and asked her to sit.

The RS Deputy Chairman, unfortunately, instead of asking ruling party MPs to remain quiet, ringed the bell and told me to sit: Mayawati pic.twitter.com/XMMlnGsojt  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 18, 2017

Mayawati's current Rajya Sabha term would have ended on 2 April, 2018. She would have had two more sessions  this year's Winter Session and next year's Budget Session. Given the composition of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and her party's meagre strength of 19 MLAs, she didn't have a chance of getting re-elected again to Rajya Sabha. That would have been ignominious. She would have faced a harrowing time in telling her social constituency that she had become so weak as a leader that she can't even enter Rajya Sabha. As it is her party couldn't win even a single seat in the 2014 parliamentary polls. By resigning now, she can tell them that by doing so she upheld their pride and Parliament was not a fit place for her.

Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have made deep inroads in Mayawati's core social constituency. She no longer commands the position of the supreme Dalit leader. The outcome of the 2014 general election and 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election was indicative of her eroded social base.

Modi and BJP president played a masterstroke by picking Ram Nath Kovind  a Dalit from Uttar Pradesh  as NDA's presidential candidate. The decision has a debilitating impact on Mayawati's politics. On Monday, while voting for the presidential election, she had said that whoever wins  Kovind or Meira Kumar  a Dalit would occupy the President's post. She took the credit of taking politics in such a direction that both the ruling BJP and the Opposition were forced to pick a Dalit candidate for the top post. That was public posturing.

The next Uttar Pradesh Assembly election will be held in 2023. By then, all six BSP MPs from Rajya Sabha would retire and the party's strength in the Rajya Sabha would reduce to zero. Her only chance to resurrect herself as a leader would be in 2019 parliamentary election. For that she needs to work hard among the people in Uttar Pradesh and that would require a change of functioning style.
A major drama unfolded in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when an angry BSP supremo Mayawati said she will quit the Rajya Sabha after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. "I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when deputy chairman PJ Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

BSP chief Mayawati says will resign from Rajya Sabha today. pic.twitter.com/Dbf3UWrXDa  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien, asking how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this." "I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said. Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion. A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advice of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion. Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati rebuffed him, saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community. "I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Let me speak or I will resign: BSP chief Mayawati in Rajya Sabha. pic.twitter.com/c8ubFNgqu2  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Speaking on developments inside Rajya Sabha, Mayawati said that she is well aware that there is a limit of 3 minutes in Zero Hour, but she was not speaking under the Zero Hour. She said that when she tried to make her point, the Treasury Benches stood up and disrupted her speech.

"If I am not allowed to speak right now, I will resign right away. I will come and give my resignation right now, if I am not allowed to speak right now," the BSP chief said after being asked to wrap up her impromptu speech on Saharanpur anti-Dalit violence.

"When I tried speaking about the weaker sections today in the Rajya Sabha, I was not allowed to speak. Why?" asked Mayawati at a press conference after the Upper House was adjourned.

"Laanat hai. Agar mai apne weaker sections ki baat sadan mein nahi rakh sakti to mujhe House mein rehne ka adhikaar nahi hai (It's shameful. If I am not allowed to speak out for the weaker sections in Parliament, then I have no right being inside either of the Houses). This is the reason I have decided to quit Rajya Sabha, I am not being heard, not allowed to speak," Mayawati said.

Mayawati also invoked BR Ambedkar and said that a similar incident had occurred with the Dalit leader who resigned and then later spoke to media over his reasons to quit Parliament.

Visuals of Mayawati getting frustrated with the House's way of functioning went viral. Visuals showed Mayawati slapping her desk, mumbling a few words and leaving the Rajya Sabha in a huff. Mayawati is the lone BSP MP in Rajya Sabha and her term ends in a year.

Let me speak or I will resign: BSP chief Mayawati in Rajya Sabha. #MonsoonSession pic.twitter.com/8CwlAqDfnB  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) July 18, 2017

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challeging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well shouting "Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (anti-Dalit government will not be tolerated). Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed upon them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house. "Promise was made to us in the presence of the prime minister. You are going against that," Azad said.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities. Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

"You didnt get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," he said adding the Congress was staging a walkout of the House in protest. Congress members then walked out of the House.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well shouting anti-government slogans. After a solemn first day of Monsoon Session of Parliament on Monday, Tuesday was slated to be an active day with Opposition all geared up to corner the Narendra Modi government over issues ranging from cow vigilantes, farmer crisis and GST bill.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide. Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the Opposition should give a notice. Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the Opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no solution. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the Opposition members refused to relent, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 2.00 pm.

Earlier, Mayawati, elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on 14 April. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on 5 May, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.

Follow the live blog on Parliament here.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday slammed BSP supremo Mayawati's resignation from the Rajya Sabha, calling the move a "drama" aimed at "creating confusion" by raising an emotional pitch.

BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav said the people will not be misled by her.

Talking to reporters, he stated that Mayawati had lost the mandate among the masses and her six-year tenure in the Upper House would have any way ended in the next session of Parliament while suggesting that her action was driven more by "frustration".

He said the Dalit leader was given twice the allotted time to raise her issue in the House and it was "unfortunate" that she did not give due respect to the Chair.

She did not follow the parliamentary decorum while raising issues, Yadav, a Rajya Sabha member, said.

It was surprising that she chose to resign, he said.

"So the question is why did she do so? She has lost people's mandate. She is likely to be in frustration. Her tenure is anyway going to end in the next session.

"Some people are resorting to emotional pitch in politics by doing drama so as to create confusion. People will not be misled," he said.

The Modi government, Yadav said, had been working overtime to empower Dalits, backwards and the poor.

The saffron party had been successful in weaning away a section of the core vote bank of the BSP in the Lok Sabha and the recent Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, sweeping both the elections and reducing Mayawati's party to a marginal status.

Mayawati has been strategising to reclaim her lost clout and had joined hands with opposition parties to take on the BJP.

The Dalit leader on Tuesday tendered her resignation, hours after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on alleged anti-Dalit violence in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur.
Amid noisy protests in both the Houses on Tuesday, the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha had to be adjourned till 11 am on Wednesday.

In the Rajya Sabha, the proceedings were repeatedly disrupted by an angry Opposition which sought to raise several issues like the violence against Dalits and minorities, to attack the government, as an angry BSP chief Mayawati also threatened to quit the House.

As Opposition members trooped into the Well, raising slogans, the adjournment of the proceedings was forced, once till noon, then till 2 pm and again till 3 pm.

Soon after the Upper House assembled for the day, a visibly angry Mayawati, who was speaking on the recent anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, threatened to resign from the House after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech.

"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April 2018, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this."

"I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.

Asking her not to make a speech, Kurien told the BSP chief to seek a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue.

Refusing to budge, Mayawati said she had no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community. "I am going to resign from the House," she said and walked out in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challenging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

The BSP members immediately rushed into the Well shouting "Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (anti-Dalit government will not be tolerated).

#RajyaSabha adjourns till noon amid opposition uproar over cow slaughter related incidents, farmers' issues.  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 18, 2017

Prevailing briefly over the protesting BSP members, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the Opposition wants to raise in the house. "Promise was made to us in the presence of the prime minister. You are going against that," he said.

He said the Congress-led Opposition had given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development. Congress members then walked out of the House.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well shouting slogans against the government. Sitaram Yechury (CPM) said the government policies were pushing farmers to commit suicide.

Directing the Opposition to return to their seats, Kurien said, "Shouting slogan is no solution. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the Opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of BR Ambedkar on 14 April. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on 5 May, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.

#Mayawati says will resign from RS for not being allowed to speak on Dalits Read @ANI_news story | https://t.co/jkt40ugwoE pic.twitter.com/imLcv1XA4J  ANI Digital (@ani_digital) July 18, 2017

Amid slogan shouting by members of Congress and other parties, Chairman Hamid Ansari called for taking up the Question Hour.

The continued sloganeering forced the Chairman to adjourn the House till 2 pm.

When the House reassembled at 2 pm, TMC member Derek O'Brien said that several Opposition members had given notices on issues related to farmers and the lynchings that have taken place across the country.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government was ready for a discussion which could be held immediately.

Naresh Agarwal of the Samajwadi Party said that the number of sittings or the House were getting reduced. However, several Opposition members then trooped into the Well of the House and raised anti-government slogans.

Even as Union minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said the government had taken steps for the weaker sections, the din continued and Kurien adjourned the House till 3 pm.

Meanwhile, in the Lower House

The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned on the first working day of the Monsoon Session on Tuesday following noisy protests by the Opposition which sought to corner the government by raising several issues, including violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers.

A belligerent Opposition wanted to discuss a host of issues as its members stormed the Well of the House during the Question Hour as well as later during the Zero Hour, forcing adjournment of the day's proceedings.

Members from the Congress, RJD, TMC and the Left, among others, trooped into Well. Many were shouting slogans and also displaying placards.

The Opposition members wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues. The House was first adjourned after 15 minutes into Question Hour till noon as the bedlam continued.

As the House reassembled after the adjournment during Question Hour, the Opposition members again trooped into the Well raising anti-government slogans.

As many as three bills, including the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, were introduced. Besides, reports of various parliamentary committees were tabled before Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the proceedings for the day.

#LokSabha #adjourned for the day after continued Opposition protests over several issues.  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 18, 2017

One of the Opposition placards read, "Gau mata toh bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (Cow protection is a tool to divert attention from farm loan waiver)".

"Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya (Vijay Mallya was allowed to leave, while farmers were made to cry)," read another placard.

BJP members from Karnataka were also seen holding placards and standing at their benches asking the state government to protect honest officers.

They were referring to the recent transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had reportedly exposed that AIADMK leader Sasikala Natrajan was provided special facilities and services inside prison.
Kohima: Embattled Nagaland chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu, who is facing dissidence by his party NPF's MLAs, on Monday said he would not seek vote of confidence in the assembly.

"There is no rule for seeking the vote of confidence. There is no point in going to the assembly," Liezietsu told reporters, adding that there is no point in proving his majority in the assembly since no 'No Confidence motion' was brought against him.

"But if anybody challenges with a no confidence motion against the government, only then can the governor summon the assembly... Presently there is no no confidence motion so the governor has no role at this juncture," he said.

Governor PB Acharya had asked Liezietsu to seek the floor test on or before 15 July which was stayed by the Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court. The verdict is expected on Tuesday.

Liezietsu, who is facing rebellion by 43 NPF MLAs led by former chief minister TR Zeliang demanding change of leadership in the present house of 59, said "Our number may be small but we are running our offices normally and regularly".

'There is no rule that prevents from running the government with the present numbers that the ministry presently has,' he claimed, adding the NPF was fully intact. "These members (dissidents) have forgotten their responsibility as run-aways but they are trying to claim inheritance from a distance, which is not possible... They will have to come and join us to continue in the government. We will welcome them (dissidents) if they return because they belong to our family," he said, reiterating NPF's call to dissident MLAs for reconciliation.

"I hope they will not remain in Kaziranga for all time to come. So we have already issued the revocation order of those who were suspended, including that of Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio who was suspended in 2016," he said.

Liezietsu said the reconciliation was proposed as per the desire and request of the church bodies and Naga organisations. "But as soon as we opened the way, they (dissidents) said that the reconciliation period is over and so it is up to them now".

If the dissidents do not return, the NPF is prepared to select fresh candidates to fill up the gap for the 2018 state general election, the chief minister said.

He also refuted the chances of his council of ministers recommending President's Rule at this juncture.
Kohima: In a major setback to Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu, the Gauhati High Court on Tuesday dismissed his plea to stay Governor PB Acharya's directive for floor test.

The court left the matter to the discretion of the governor, who had asked Liezietsu to seek the trust vote in view of the turbulence within the ruling NPF.

Justice LS Jamir of the Kohima bench of the high court had heard the argument in the case on Monday and delivered his verdict on Tuesday.

Acharya had on 11 July and 13 July directed Liezietsu to seek vote of confidence by 15 July after former chief minister TR Zeliang staked claim saying he had the majority support in the House.

Liezietsu, who is facing rebellion by 43 Naga Peoples Front MLAs led by Zeliang demanding change of leadership in the present house of 59, had filed the petition on 14 July seeking a stay on the governor's directive.

The court had issued an interim order stalling the governor's directive till Monday so that the matter could be taken up for hearing.

After the hearing, Justice Jamir on Tuesday dismissed Liezietsu's petition and also vacated the 14 July interim order.

This court is of the considered opinion that the governor had taken the right decision to ask the petitioner (Liezietsu) to have a vote of confidence at the floor of the House to see which out of the two contesting claimants of the chief ministership has a majority in the House, the court observed.

It also maintained that it has no reasons to interfere with the governors letter to the chief minister on the matter. Dismissing the petition, the court said, The matter is left to the wisdom of the governor to take a decision on the same after proper application of mind."

The court further stated that there was no merit in the writ petition filed by Shurhozelie Liezietsu and it was, accordingly, dismissed.

Liezietsu will face the trust vote on Wednesday at a special session of the Assembly as directed by the governor.
China should improve its investment and market environment, accelerate opening up to the outside world and lower operating costs, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday.

The country should "create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment, and speed up efforts to build an open economy in a bid to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese economy," Xi said at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs.

An important goal of building an open economy is to stimulate improvement of domestic institutions and laws for higher efficiency and greater competitive strength in the global market, said the president.

Foreign investment has played a significant role in China's economic development, promoting reasonable allocation of resources and driving market-oriented reforms, he told the meeting.

China should continue to make good use of foreign investment to advance supply-side structural reforms, upgrade the economy, and catch up with global technology development, Xi said.

He urged faster efforts to lift restrictions on foreign access to and ownership in sectors such as child care, elderly care, architectural design, accounting, auditing, commerce, logistics, e-commerce, general manufacturing and services.

The "negative list" approach on foreign investment management, which has been adopted in the country's pilot free trade zones, should be expanded to the whole nation as soon as possible, he said.

A negative list approach identifies sectors and businesses that are off-limits or restricted for investment.

Xi also called for faster work to unify laws and regulations on domestic and foreign businesses and make new fundamental laws on foreign investment.

Laws, rules, and policies out of tune with the overall direction and principle of opening up should be abolished or revised within a time limit, and national treatment in laws and policies should be granted to foreign-funded companies after they enter the market, the president said.

Xi urged megacities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to take the lead in improving business environment, demanding moves to reduce inspections and fines on companies and ban illegal fee charging.

He stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR), calling on authorities to better laws and regulations, improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property examinations, and speed up institutional improvement for IPR protection related to emerging sectors and new business types.

Wrongdoing should be punished more severely so that IPR infringers will pay heavy prices, said the president.

Speaking of the financial sector, Xi said those areas that help protect consumers' rights and interests, promote orderly competition, and prevent financial risks should be opened up faster.

He demanded efforts to advance opening-up of the capital account in an orderly manner, and steadily push the yuan to become an international currency.

The yuan's exchange rate formation mechanism should be improved, and the currency's value should be kept basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level, Xi said.

To keep up with the pace of financial opening up, China must have a strong regulatory capability, the president noted.

He urged financial regulators to learn from international experience, address weak links and improve the way of regulation.

On foreign trade, Xi stressed expanding imports while stabilizing exports to promote balance of payment under the current account.

He demanded measures to make foreign trade more liberalized and convenient, saying institutional costs of import should be lowered, quarantine and custom clearance be streamlined, and that companies' complaints be better addressed.

Authorities must study reducing tariffs on certain consumer goods and encourage the import of specialty products, Xi said.

A market environment featuring fair play should be created in the country, giving businesses equal treatment in tariff collection, import quarantine and marketing to let consumers and the market have the say, according to the president, who is also head of the leading group.

The meeting was also attended by Premier Li Keqiang, who is deputy head of the group, and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, a member of the group.
Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought the support of Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswami for the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

The prime minister spoke to E Palaniswami, who leads the Amma faction of the ruling AIADMK, over the phone and thanked him for supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, an official release issued in Chennai late on Monday said.

"Palaniswami extended his greetings to Naidu," it stated.

The 68-year-old Naidu was chosen on Monday as the NDA's vice presidential candidate at a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary board.

His nomination is seen as part of the BJP's attempts to expand in south India, which has been identified by party chief Amit Shah as a key region for growth before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The two-time BJP president is pitted against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was chosen by an alliance of 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, but his election is almost inevitable due to the NDA's huge numerical superiority over the opposition.
The Monsoon Session of the Parliament, which began on Monday, is likely to see a stormy session on Day 2, as Monday's opening session was adjourned after obituaries and swearing-in of newly elected members owing to the presidential elections.

A united Opposition is all set to raise the heat on the government over other key issues like the action of law enforcement agencies against some opposition leaders over corruption, fallout of the GST, the agrarian crisis and the policy towards Pakistan. The increased opposition synergy comes at a time when 18 parties have come together under one platform to pin the government on some key issues. The Opposition parties are likely to raise issues of lynching incidents and vigilantism, the Kashmir situation and the border stand-off with China.

While the Congress party held a meeting on Monday to chalk out a strategy to corner the Centre in the Parliament, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has also indicated that a stormy session lies ahead.

"We will play an aggressive role in the Parliament. We are ready to go to jail but will not bow our heads," Banerjee had told PTI.

However, the Centre on the other hand is treading cautiously and has tried to reach out to the Opposition. From customary exchange of greetings to setting the tenor for a 'fruitful' session, the Narendra Modi government is sending amicable signals to the Opposition.

On Monday, the prime minister walked up to Opposition benches in the Lok Sabha before the start of proceedings and greeted Opposition leaders. They included former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, apart from Sonia Gandhi. Seeing Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in the second row, he also greeted them.

Modi also urged all parties to work in the interest of the nation, expressing hope that the Parliament's session will be a fruitful one.

"GST shows the good that can be achieved when all parties come together and work for the nation. The GST spirit is about growing stronger together. I hope the same GST spirit prevails in the session," he said.

Terming the start of the session as very significant, Modi noted that this session gets an opportunity to elect a new president and a vice-president for the country, which will also complete seven decades of its Independence on 15 August. He said like the Monsoon brings hope, "this session also brings same spirit of hope".

The government's agenda for the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, includes a total of 34 bills and needs a cooperative Opposition for the smooth functioning of House, even as it has the numbers in the House.
Following the resignation of NDA's vice-president candidate Venkaiah Naidu as Information and Broadcasting Minister and from the Housing and Urban Development ministry, Smriti Irani and Narendra Tomar were appointed as the new ministers of the respective ministries on 18 July.

Irani, who is the incumbent textile minister, has been given the additional charge of the I&B ministry.

The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to @smritiirani.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 18, 2017

Irani will be the fourth I&B minister appointed in the three years of Narendra Modi-led NDA government. Between 2014 and 2016, the current HRD minister Prakash Javadekar held the portfolio, followed by finance minister Arun Jaitley. In a cabinet reshuffle in 2016, Naidu had assumed the charge of I&B ministry.

A popular face on Indian television, 41-year-old Irani has been a Union minister for the last three years.

Starting her political career as vice-president of the Maharashtra Youth Wing of the BJP in 2004, Irani rose to the rank of Union human resource minister in 2014, following a narrow defeat against Rahul Gandhi in his home constituency of Amethi in the general elections.

Her appointment to one of the most important ministries (human resource and development) was followed by severe criticism, particularly due to her perceived lack of formal higher education. Critics argued how the countrys education portfolio could be handed to a person who had not even gone to college, reported Hindustan Times.

Shortly after her appointment, a case was filed against the minister over allegations that she made contradictory claims about her education in documents filed in different years with the Election Commission, Hindustan Times reported, adding, her claim to have a degree from Yale University was also lampooned.

Irani also faced public outrage and the Oppositions ire over her handling of the episode related to Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide in early 2016. This incident snowballed into a political flashpoint with the Opposition alleging that the HRD ministry pushed for the punishment of Dalit students, including Vemula, by sending five reminders to the Hyderabad universitys vice-chancellor on a complaint from labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya. Opposition parties alleged Irani distorted facts, the daily reported.

Irani's handling of 9 February 2016, JNU row was also criticised, which she however defended in a fiery speech in Parliament later.

Apart from these incidents, Irani was also criticised for appointing Vishram Jamdar as the chairman of the Vishweshwaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) in Nagpur. Jamdar, The Indian Express reported, then had RSS connections.

The controversies in her stint go back to November 2014, when the HRD ministry had asked all Kendriya Vidyalayas to put an end to German as the third language option. The ministry wanted it to be replaced by the Sanskrit language. However, later, she said German would continue to be taught as an "additional subject of hobby class". This, again, created a furore and even German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the matter with Prime Minister Modi.

Despite all the controversies and pressure to remove Irani from her position, the Narendra Modi government stuck with her for two years. However, internally, especially Amit Shah, was not happy with the controversies she had generated, reported Hindustan Times. According to the report, RSS was also critical of her as she couldn't "saffronise" the education system enough.

In the July 2016 Cabinet reshuffle, the HRD ministry was taken away from Irani and she was given the ministry of textiles instead. As a textile minister, her stint was relatively smooth and incident free. Irani was also conspicuously missing from the media glare throughout her stint as a textile minister.

By giving the additional responsibility of one of the most important ministries to Irani now, the BJP government has again shown confidence in her. A more visible and talked about ministry than the textile, information and broadcasting ministry, could again thrust Irani into the limelight.

Iranis appointment comes at a time when the I&B ministry is in the process of revamping the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) or Censor Board with a new Cinematograph Act. CBFC, constituted under the Cinematograph Act 1952, reviews and certifies films for public exhibition, Livemint reported.

The ministry is also planning to formulate a national communication policy in a bid to enhance access and dissemination of information across the country.
Hyderabad: The BJP on Tuesday sought to downplay the support extended to the NDA's vice-presidential candidate by the TRS as "incidental" and "not unusual" and made it clear the saffron party's aim is to come to power on its own in Telangana in 2019.

"This is incidental," said Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao when asked about the ruling TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) backing M Venkaiah Naidu for the post.

The regional outfit, led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, had also backed NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

The BJP is an opposition party in the state.

"The support extended by the TRS to both presidential and vice-presidential candidates (of NDA) is incidental," the BJP spokesperson told PTI, noting that as many as six parties, including the YSR Congress, who are "outside of NDA", had also

backed both Kovind and Naidu.

"So, it's not unusual because, apart from the TRS, we have other five parties who have extended support," Rao asserted the TRS would remain a political "adversary" despite the issue-based support that they have extended, and the BJP has "serious conviction" of coming to power by itself in Telangana in the 2019 assembly elections.

"So, the fight will still be between the BJP and the TRS in the next elections."

"Aspiration of the national party is: no matter what, we have to form the next government in Telangana", he said, adding, the BJP wants to make Telangana the "highway for south Indian entry (to get to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and going a little up to Odisha), while Karnataka is already one for a while".

To achieve this objective, the newly created state becomes "extremely critical", Rao said.

"The BJP has a very strong opportunity to ensure victory in this particular region. The BJP considers the Congress as a dead horse."

Rao recalled party president Amit Shah, during a visit to Telangana, had made no bones about the BJP's aspiration to come to power in the 2014-formed state.

"It (the TRS) is a family-run party. We have taken very strong position on corruption which exists in this government," he said.
Flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and veteran BJP leader LK Advani, former Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for the vice-presidential election. The veteran politician, one of BJP's most prominent faces in the national as well as South Indian politics, also quit his party of many years.

Naidu asserted that his new responsibility compels him to rise above party politics, adding that if elected he would work to strengthen the Parliamentary democratic system and uphold the traditions and dignity of the office. He has also resigned from his position as a Cabinet minister. However he will continue as a Member of Parliament as voting and discussions on crucial issues are pending. He said that if all goes well, he'll soon give up that responsibility also.

BJP president Amit Shah, senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi as well as leaders from BJP allies and those from other regional parties, including the AIADMK and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, accompanied Naidu as he filed his papers in the Parliament House. Members of the Shiv Sena was also present.

NDA's Vice Presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu files nomination papers: https://t.co/uVN72gfPVL via @YouTube  Rajya Sabha TV (@rajyasabhatv) July 18, 2017

Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and several top leaders of the NDA were among those who proposed and seconded Naidu's candidature in the several sets of nomination papers filed in his favour. After filing his nomination, Naidu talked to the media. He said that he was honoured to be the NDA candidate for vice-president.

Honored to be a candidate for #VicePresident of India. I have been actively engaged in public life for over four decades: Venkaiah Naidu pic.twitter.com/BKrqsksMRG  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

He thanked Modi and Shah for their support and said that he hoped that he would be able to do justice to the office. He insisted that there will be no election campaign for the post. He named the various luminaries who have graced the office of the Vice-President like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Shankar Dayal Sharma and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

"I am clear about the responsibility of the Vice President's post. I will of course endeavour to strengthen the parliamentary democratic system and I will uphold the traditions and standards set by my worthy predecessors and the dignity of the office of Vice President," Naidu told the media.

He also noted the modalities of the election which will be held on 5 August. The tenure of the incumbent Vice-President Hamid Ansari will end on 10 August and the new Vice-President will take office on 11 August.

He said that he did not want to make many comments on election at this time but said that this was more a greeting than a meeting. He said that he's an ordinary person from a humble agricultural background with no great family history. He maintained that he rose in life due to the support of the people and BJP. He added that he has been entrusted with various responsibilities by the party and has greatly enjoyed working for the people.

He mentioned the loss of his mother at an early age and how it meant that the party became his mother and brought him up. He stressed his pain at leaving the party and admitted to being a little emotional.

He said he planned to work and get Modi back in power in 2019 after which he wanted to do social service. However destiny decided otherwise and he accepted the decision of the party to nominate him as its Vice-Presidential candidate.

He took leave of political leaders in the BJP and other allied parties. He admitted that now there was no question of going to party offices and hoped to meet the leaders as part of his other official responsibilities.

Naidu, known to be a BJP loyalist had been associated with the saffron party since the start of his political career spanning over 40 years. He had joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP's ideological fountainhead in his college days. He gained prominence as a student leader as the member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, BJP's youth wing, before he took the political plunge.

The BJP's Parliamentary Board had on Monday picked Naidu as the NDA's vice presidential nominee. The senior BJP leader resigned as Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting minister hours before he filed his nomination papers.

Smriti Irani has been given the additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting while the additional charge of the Ministry of Urban Development has been given to Narendra Singh Tomar

Naidu will contest against the opposition's vice presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

With inputs from agencies
Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced his party's support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Opposition's candidate for the vice-presidential election.

The regional party had supported NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, polling for which was held on Monday. However, Patnaik preferred to go with opposition parties this time.

"The Biju Janata Dal will support Sri Gopalkrishna Gandhi," the BJD president told reporters in Bhubaneshwar.

BJD parliamentary party spokesman Kalikesh Singhdeo said, "Patnaik has proved that the BJD has been maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP".

Patnaik had in 2012 said Gandhi was an "old and valued friend. We were friends even when I was not in politics".
Puducherry: The opposition AINRC in Puducherry on Tuesday welcomed the announcement of the name of senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu as the NDA nominee for the post of vice-president.

In a release on Tuesday, Opposition leader and founder of the AINRC, N Rangasamy said that his party "wholeheartedly welcomes the fielding of senior leader Venkiah Naidu and extends full support to him".

Rangasamy said that Naidu had displayed his "excellent capability in discharging his duties" while holding different positions.

"Naidu's long political experience is exemplary. He has been cordial to everyone cutting across party differences. His simplicity has also been a distinct feature", he added.

The former chief minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the national president of BJP Amit Shah for their initiatives.

"I convey my party's wishes to Venkiah Naidu for his victory in the vice presidential election", Rangasamy said.

The party had extended support to NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.
Beijing: China is battle ready and not afraid to go to war with India, and will face "all-out confrontation" along the entire disputed border, a Chinese daily warned on Tuesday.

An article in the state-run Global Times said China must deploy more troops along the border with India and speed up road construction in Doklam where the two sides have been engaged in a month-long standoff.

The stand-off began when Indian troops stopped Chinese soldiers from building a road in Doklam, an area disputed by China and Bhutan.

"China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation", a commentary by Duo Mu said.

"China must be prepared for future conflicts and confrontation. China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC".

"The 3,500-km border has never been short of disputes. Since the 1962 border war, the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations", Duo said.

China and India have a 3,488-km border, of which 220 km falls in the Sikkim sector where Doklam is situated.

Doklam is at a tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan.

China calls Doklam its own, a claim contested by India and Bhutan who cite the pending ownership of the territory.

The commentary comes after the People's Liberation Army conducted a live-fire drill in Tibet, which borders India.

"According to the Indian media, Indian troops are stationed at the border area and have set up logistical support. They even claim that India will continue the confrontation with China at the Sikkim section of the China-India border until the Chinese troops withdraw".

"In response, China must continue strengthening border construction and speed up troop deployment and construction in the Doklam area. These are legitimate actions of a sovereign country".

"If India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage in a competition with India over economic and military resources deployment in the border area. With growing national strength, China is capable of deploying resources in remote border areas".

"As the confrontation goes on, China needs to get ready for the face-off becoming a long-term situation and at the same time needs to maintain a sense of rationality".
Washington: US President Donald Trump has warned Venezuela that Washington would take "strong and swift" economic sanctions if President Nicolas Maduro proceeds with creating a National Constituent Assembly.

"The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," Trump said in a statement on Monday.

Trump also referred to the unofficial referendum held on 16 July by the opposition in which 7.5 million people participated, saying that "the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law", reports Efe news.

"Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator."

The US President also reiterated his call for "free and fair elections" and showed his support for Venezuelans "in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy".

In June, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump government was preparing a "very robust list" of individuals in Venezuela to be sanctioned over human rights abuses.

According to media reports, the US is considering extending these sanctions to Venezuela's energy industry, including the state oil company PDVSA, a measure that has yet to be confirmed by the White House.

"Imperialism ... is threatening us that if the National Constituent Assembly is created, they are going to block Venezuela. Block Venezuela? Venezuela is not blocked by anyone, my friend," Maduro said last week in response to threats of sanctions from Washington.

Maduro added that Venezuela "is a free and sovereign country" and that his country will not "allow itself to be threatened or intimidated by any global empire".
Washington: The State Department has expanded its definition of "close family" to include grandparents and other relatives that constitute a bona fide US relationship for visa applicants and refugees from six mainly Muslim nations.

In response to a Hawaii federal judge's order last week, the department had on Monday instructed US diplomats to consider grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and first cousins to meet the criteria for applicants from the six countries to receive a US visa.

They had been omitted by the department after the Supreme Court partially upheld the Trump administration's travel ban in June. Initially, it had included only parents, spouses, fiances, children, adult sons or daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and siblings. Monday's instructions change that.

"The ruling is effective immediately and we have issued instructions to our embassies and consulates to use the expanded definition when adjudicating visa cases," the department said. Under the rules, applicants from the six countries Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen have to prove a bona fide relationship with a person or entity, including a "close familial relationship" in the US to be exempt from the ban.

US District Judge Derrick Watson had ruled on Thursday that excluding grandparents and others defied common sense.

"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."
An international summer camp opens in Beijing on July 17, bringing over 200 children from 16 countries. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

An international summer camp opened in Beijing on July 17, bringing over 200 children from 16 countries.

Under the theme of "In China, Be Friends," the camp is sponsored by the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation (CSCLF), a Beijing-based NGO named after the late wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

The week-long event, already in its 8th year, aims to further promote the consensus achieved during last May's Belt and Road Forum (BRF) to enhance communication between the younger generation of various countries and strengthen people-to-people exchanges through various group activities, exhibitions, talent shows, cultural carnivals as well as sightseeing around China, the foundation stated.

Young people from different countries play games during an ice-breaking session of the 8th Soong Ching Ling International Summer Camp in Beijing on July 17. [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

Hang Yuanxiang, CSCLF's standing vice chairman, speaking at the camp's opening ceremony, declared: "Through this event, we hope young people could get closer, promote exchanges of different civilizations and contribute to a better and peaceful world when they grow up."

Aimar Poom, a team manager of four Estonian teenagers, said it would be a very exciting experience for youngsters being in China along with peers of different skin colors and cultural backgrounds.

Beside their stay in Beijing, participants will go on separate trips to north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai to experience the country's traditional culture and development.
Moscow: Russia has offered to upgrade its existing Su-30 fleet in India to make it "very close to" the fifth generation fighter, but India has asked for time to evaluate its strategy, an official from Russian helicopters maker Rostec said.

Interacting with a select group of journalists on the sidelines of International Air show MAKS in Moscow, Rostec's Director of International Cooperation and Regional Policy Victor N Kladov said Russia had made the offer for upgradation of the Su-30 during a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

"As far as I know it was raised between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in St Petersburg last month. The Indian prime minister once again reiterated that the Indian side needs time to evaluate its strategy of development and how to spend the money," Kladov said.

"We are offering a package for modernising the Su-30 aircraft. It will obtain new capabilities, it will be very close to the fifth generation aircraft in capabilities. This is a deep modernisation, everything should be changed - engine, computers, radar etc," he said.

Asked how much would such upgradation cost, he said that would depend on what upgradation India selects.

"The Indian Air Force has to evaluate its strategy and then take a decision," he said.

The twin-jet multirole air superiority fighter Su-30 is developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

India has around 230 Su-30 jets which remain the frontline fighter for the IAF.

The upgraded Super Sukhois will include a modernized cockpit. A major part of the upgrade also involves avionics and sensors. The aircraft will have advanced stealth capabilities and be equipped with the Indo-Russian supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, an infrared homing system, new advanced avionics, and active electronically scanned array.
United Nations: Iran is receiving "contradictory signals" from the US administration about the fate of the nuclear deal but foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he has yet to discuss it with US secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

In New York to attend a UN forum on development, Zarif said he was open to speak with Tillerson as Washington carries out a review of the 2015 agreement reached with world powers on curbing Iran's nuclear program. "There are no communications between myself and Secretary Tillerson," Zarif said at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open." President Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to scrap the nuclear agreement  which he described as "the worst deal ever"  and in May ordered a review of the pact. "We receive contradictory signals," Zarif said when asked about the possible outcome of the review.

"It's very clear that Iran is serious about the nuclear deal and we believe the nuclear deal can lay the foundation." The absence of communication with the US administration is in sharp contrast with Zarif's dealings with former secretary of state John Kerry, with whom he negotiated the agreement.

Zarif said he and Kerry spent more time together "than with anybody else."

The foreign minister asserted that Iran would never seek to develop nuclear weapons and recalled that the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, had certified that Tehran was in compliance with the agreement. Representatives of the five nuclear powers  China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States  plus Germany are to meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.

Zarif said they would discuss Iran's complaints about non-US compliance, accusing the US administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal. Any move by the US Congress to re-impose sanctions on Iran would "of course" be "a violation" of the nuclear deal, Zarif said, but he did not say what Tehran's response would be to such legislation.

The foreign minister also offered to do "all it takes from my side" to address, on humanitarian grounds, the case of a Chinese-American sentenced to 10 years in prison and that of

other US detainees.

Asked about Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old researcher at Princeton University, Zarif said Iran's courts were independent and that "we in the government do not have any control over the decisions of the judiciary."
Tehran: Iran's parliament voted on Tuesday to urgently work towards increasing funds for the country's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards in response to Washington's "adventurism" in the region, media reported.

An overwhelming majority of Iranian lawmakers passed a motion to prioritise legislation "to confront terrorist and adventurist actions by the United States in the region," the Mizan Online website reported.

The motion was originally introduced after the US Senate passed new sanctions on Iran in June and sent them to the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill, published by the ISNA news agency, mandates the government to allocate an additional $260 million to the joint armed forces for the "development of the missile programme" and the same amount to the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, the Quds Force.

The motion sends a clear message to the Americans that Iran's parliament "will resist them with all its power", speaker Ali Larijani said.

The Quds Force leads Iran's military role in Syria and Iraq.

Tehran offers financial, political and military support for the governments of both countries, in particular by posting advisers on the ground and organising and training volunteer Shiite fighters.

The Pentagon has also repeatedly voiced concern over a string of high-profile incidents in waters off Iran involving Iranian vessels.

It has accused the Revolutionary Guards of conducting risky manoeuvres around US warships in the Gulf, some of which resulted in the Americans firing warning shots.

US President Donald Trump's administration has spared no effort to show a tough stance on Iran, promising new non-nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of a two-year-old nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.

On Monday the White House said the nuclear accord would stay in place for now, backing away from a campaign pledge by Trump to scrap the agreement, under which Tehran scaled back its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of some sanctions.
London: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan today opposed the UK government's plan to "roll out the red carpet" for Donald Trump, saying the US President should not be accorded the honour as his policies are at odds with many around the world.

"State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the US has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet," first Asian mayor of London Khan, 46, said on Monday.

"If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role. If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump," Pakistan-origin Khan told CNN.

Khan has previously clashed with Trump on Twitter over his decision to bar people from travelling to the US from mainly Muslim countries and the response to the London Bridge terror attack last month.

An invitation to a state visit to the UK was extended to Trump and US First Lady Melania by British prime minister Theresa May on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Washington DC in January this year.

However, there were doubts cast over the visit taking place this year after it was left out of the Queen's Speech, which lays out all state visits planned for the UK's Parliamentary calendar.

Some media reports have also been speculating over a recent phone call between Trump and May in which the US President is believed to have expressed his unwillingness to visit the UK this year until coverage around him is fixed to be more positive.

The White House, however, has denied reports of delays over feared public protests in Britain.

There has been considerable opposition in the UK over Trump being accorded all the pomp and pageantry associated with a state visit.

An online petition against such a visit had attracted over 100,000 signatures earlier this year and debated in the House of Commons as a result.
Torture is "routine and endemic" in Sri Lanka and the Tamil community in the country has taken the brunt of it, a UN expert has concluded at the end of a fact-finding mission to the island-nation.

The Tamil community has borne the brunt of the States well-oiled torture apparatus, as the law is used disproportionately against them, said Ben Emmerson, special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, on Tuesday.

"The use of torture is deeply ingrained in the security sector. I heard deeply disturbing, first-hand accounts of brutal torture," Emmerson added.

About a dozen prisoners had been detained without trial for more than 10 years under the deeply flawed Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and 70 others for more than five years. Eighty percent of suspects arrested under the anti-terror legislation in late 2016 had reported torture and other physical ill-treatment.

In spite of its widespread prevalence, there is a lack of effective investigation into such cases, the UN expert observed.

Meanwhile, reforms promised by Sri Lanka two years ago through a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution remains woefully slow.

"Yet, two years on, and already four months into a two-year extension granted to the government by the UNHRC, progress in achieving the key goals set out in the resolution is not only slow, but seems to have grounded to a virtual halt, Emmerson says in a statement.

All the measures adopted so far to fulfill Sri Lankas transitional justice commitments are inadequate to ensure real progress, and there is little evidence that the perpetrators of war crimes (from the Sri Lankan armed forces) are being brought to justice, he added.

In 2015, a framework for promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, was adopted by the UNHRC  which was co-sponsored by the Government of Sri Lanka  and was taken to be indicative of the governments commitment to heal the country.

For almost 26 years, Sri Lanka dealt with violent acts of terrorism committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam (LTTE), including suicide bombings and political assassinations, which resulted in a civil war that ended in 2009.

The resolution aimed at taking a series of specific steps to end the culture of impunity for crimes committed by public officials while ensuring accountability, peace and justice. The goal was to achieve durable reconciliation and prevent a recurrence of the human rights violations committed by both sides during the conflict.

The significance of the systemic use of torture  that includes using stress position, asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, pulling out of fingernails, insertion of needles beneath the fingernails, various forms of water torture, suspension for several hours by the thumbs, and mutilation of the genitals  to obtain confessions needs to be seen against the "deplorable delays" that are built into the framework for the handling of cases under the PTA.

The PTA was temporarily enacted as an emergency measure in 1979 but was made permanent in 1982 and remains on the statute books even today. It admits the use of uncorroborated confessions made to police officers as the sole basis for convictions  that have fostered the endemic and systematic use of torture in the country. Sri Lanka, in the UNHRC resolution, had also committed to a draft legislation which would replace this dreaded anti-terror law.

"The most senior judge responsible for PTA cases in Colombo informed the special rapporteur that in over 90 percent of the cases he had dealt with so far in 2017, he had been forced to exclude the essential confession evidence because it had not been given voluntarily  that is that it had been obtained through the use or threat of force," said Emmerson, who specialises in European human rights law.

Though the UN is encouraged by Sri Lankas recent adoption of a 'zero tolerance policy' towards the use of torture and by the appointment of a committee to eradicate torture by the police in July 2016, anti-terror legislation is still used disproportionately against Tamilians.

"These staggering figures are a stain on Sri Lankas reputation," Emmerson said, urging the immediate release of the 81 suspects.

In his five-day mission between 10 July and 14 July, the UN expert met with representatives of the government, including the ministries for foreign affairs, law and order, justice, defence, finance, media, prison reforms, rehabilitation, resettlement and Hindu religious affairs.

He will submit his full report with findings and recommendations to the UNHRC in March 2018.

A UN Committee had also recently pulled up Sri Lanka asking its military to end its interference in civilian and commercial activities.

Since the end of the civil war, the military has used various laws to bring land under its control and away from the local Tamil population, the UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) had concluded after its review of the country in June. The Land Acquisition Act allows the government of Sri Lanka to seize lands for public purposes, but the law has a blurry definition of a public purpose.

The committee was also "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 had said.
Beirut: Nearly a dozen Syrian rebels have been killed in hit-and-run clashes with a US-backed alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country's north, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

Rebels were locked in their second day of fighting on Monday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the village of Ain Daqna.

"The fighting (on Monday) killed 11 fighters from Syrian rebel factions and wounded four SDF fighters," according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February.

It lies in a contested sliver of land between the alliance and Turkish-backed rebels.

In a statement released on Monday, rebels fighting under the banner of "Ahl al-Diyar" said they attacked Ain Daqna because

they see the SDF as "occupiers."

"We promise our people more flash attacks... We will make them (SDF) regret occupying this land and displacing thousands," the statement said.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers.

Turkey has backed rebels in Syria's north to take on both the Islamic State group as well as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF.

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged

an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied.
Washington: The Pentagon has asked countries in East and South China Sea to exercise restraint and avoid indulging in provocative behaviour.

"We would continue to urge everybody in that area, in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, to exercise restraint and not do things that are provocative, and to respect each other's sovereignty in their operations," Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters during an off-camera news conference.

Davis was responding to questions on Chinese H-6 bombers flying over the Bashi Channel and the Miyako Strait several times over the past week.

The Chinese defense ministry has told Japan that it should get used to it.

"China's air force over the past week conducted multiple drills far out at sea, with H-6K bombers and many other types of aircraft flying through the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait, testing actual battle capabilities over the sea," Chinese Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke was quoted as saying by the state-run CGTN website.

Japan scrambled fighters in response, the Japanese media reported.

"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," China defense department spokesman Ren Guoqiang Guoqiang said.

"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," he said.

However, China protested when a United States Air Force Bomber flew over South China Sea ahead of the meeting between the United States president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Huddled around a small table in the halls of a cavernous Washington concert hall, a group of Afghan girls tweak gears and sprockets on their radio-controlled robot, hoping to best the competition.

The plight of the Afghan team had made headlines around the world after it appeared to underscore the negative consequences of stricter visa policies for Muslim countries under Trump. The US leader recently succeeded in passing a limited version of a long-touted travel ban -- temporarily barring visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen without a "bona fide" US connection and all refugees - pending a hearing by the Supreme Court. Afghanistan was not on the list, but critics contended the frequency of such refusals undermined the administration's pledge to empower women. A team from Gambia was also temporarily barred.

Eventually, however, all 163 teams -- including those from Iran, Sudan and a team of Syrian refugees -- were granted visas.

"Robotics is a field that is part of my life. I'm so happy to be here and participate against the other teams," said 15-year-old Lida Azizi told, adding she was a "bit nervous" about taking part in her first competition.

The competition tests multiple skill sets -- programming the machines, adjusting the hardware to maneuver more efficiently, and dexterity in controlling the devices while under time pressure.

"We up-cycled material and used trash," said Alireza Mehraban, the Afghan team mentor, explaining how the team created a simple suction device using a Coca-Cola bottle.

Unlike their counterparts from wealthier countries, the Afghans had unique problems they had to contend with, such as a lack of some basic equipment.

"Fifteen years ago, Afghan women couldn't read and write and they didn't have any rights," said Roya Mahboob, an Afghan tech entrepreneur.

"And today with the help of the international community, we have a lot of women going to school, going to university -- they are becoming ministers. We are the same as the boys and they should give us the same opportunity. If you give access to education and technology it doesn't matter what your gender is," she said.
You are here: Top 10

Beijing has been ranked as the best tourism city on the Chinese mainland, according to a study jointly issued by Jiemian.com and toutiao.com.

Cities on the Chinese mainland were evaluated based on five aspects: number of visitors, tourism revenue and its contribution to the local economy, traffic and tourism infrastructure.

It's not surprising that Beijing, China's capital city, came out on top.

In 2016, Beijing received 280 million domestic tourists and 4.16 million foreign visitors. Its tourism revenue amounted to about 502.1 billion yuan, 20 percent of the city's total GDP.

Travel in Beijing is very convenient as its highways, railways and airlines connect with many locations.

With a history of more than 3,000 years, Beijing is a metropolis with abundant natural and cultural resources.





It houses 244 national A-class scenic spots and eight are five-A, the top grade of the country's tourist site classification system. There are 554 starred hotels, 64 of which are five-star alongside 2,204 travel agencies who provide diversified services to visitors.

Receiving 450 million visitors in 2016, Chongqing, China's "hotpot capital", was the most visited. Its tourism revenue totaled 264.5 billion yuan, accounting for 15 percent of its GDP.

As a transport hub in the southwest region, Chongqing has a developed traffic network consisting of highways, railways, waterways and airlines.

The mountainous city embraces 214 national A-class scenic spots and seven are five-A grade. Approximately 227 starred hotels and 479 travel agencies are available to visitors.

Shanghai comes third on the list. In 2016, the metropolis was the second most visited city with 300 million visitors recorded. Its tourism industry had registered revenue of 389.7 billion yuan last year, contributing to 14 percent of its GDP.

As China's economic center, Shanghai has a perfect traffic network but it offers relatively less in terms of natural and cultural resources compared to Beijing and Chongqing. Nevertheless, the newly opened Disneyland Resort has added much more glamour for tourists.

Significantly, the research found that five cities can truly be labeled as tourism cities as the contribution of the tourism industry to their local economies exceeds 60 percent.

They are Lijiang City of Yunnan Province, Huangshan City of Anhui Province, Sanya City of Hainan Province, Jinzhong City of Shanxi Province, and Shangrao City of Jiangxi Province,

Here is the list of the top ten tourism cities on the Chinese mainland.

Nanjing





Confucius Temple in Nanjing. As one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China (the other three being Beijing, Luoyang and Xi'an), Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history. [nanjing.gov.cn]




Xiaomi just launched the Mi Max 2, successor of last years Mi Max phablet in India. It packs a 6.44-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with 0.7mm ultra narrow bezel on the side, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and has a huge 5300mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 along with parallel charging that lets you charge the phone up to 68% in one hour. It promises up to 18 hours of video playback or 57 hours of talk time on a single charge.

It is powered by Snapdragon 625 processor, has an improved 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX386 sensor, 1.25m pixel size, PDAF and dual-tone LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It has a unibody metal design and is just 7.6mm thick.

Xiaomi Mi Max 2 specifications

6.44-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display with 450nits brightness, 1000 : 1 contrast ratio, 72% NTSC color gamut, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection

2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU

4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, expandable memory with microSD

MIUI 8 based on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Hybrid Dual SIM (micro+nano/microSD)

12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, PDAF, f/2.2 aperture, Sony IMX386 sensor, 1.25m pixel size

5MP front-facing camera with 85-degree wide-angle lens, f/2.0 aperture

3.5mm audio jack, stereo speakers

Fingerprint sensor, infrared sensor

Dimensions: 174.188.77.6mm; Weight: 211g

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4 / 5GHz) MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C

5300mAh (typical) / 5200mAh (minimum) battery with Quick Charge 3.0

The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 comes in Matte Black color in India and is priced at Rs. 16,999. It will be available from Mi.com and Mi Home during Mi 3rd anniversary sale on July 20 and 21st at 12PM. It also comes with up to 100GB 4G data for Reliance Jio customers at 10GB data per recharge for 10 recharges.

It will be available from Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Cliq and Paytm mall from July 27th 10AM and will also be available from offline stores such as Poorvika, BigC, Sangeetha, Croma, Lot, Vijay Sales, eZone and Reliance Digital on the same day.
To expand production capacities at its Portugese Mangualde location, Sonae Arauco decided to order a MDF/HDF plant from Siempelkamp. The scope of supply includes a forming and press line with a complex handling system for different board lengths and widths and an interface to the existing storage system and the sanding and packing lines.

The new production line for Mangualde will replace a multi-daylight press and will allow Sonae Arauco material and energy efficient production of MDF and HDF with a wide thickness range. The order comprises of the forming and press line with all pneumatic and mechanical conveyors including the automation technology. The press line with a ContiRoll press of the latest design will be equipped with cutting-edge and energy-efficient synchronous motor drive technology. The press will be 28.8 m long and 8 wide. It will produce MDF and HDF with a thickness ranging from 2  37.8 mm.

The concept of sequential thickness changeovers will allow the operator to change the production automatically to new order-specific parameters and thus make the production of smaller batches possible. In this way product and quality variations as well as material losses will be minimized.

Sonae Arauco S.A. is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of wood-based materials and operates in Europe, Canada, South America, and South Africa. The companys portfolio includes products from all areas of the wood-based materials industry, such as particleboard, MDF or OSB, if desired with melamine finish, as well as various special products.
 Flash

A total of 47 Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Monday in Iraqi airstrikes in and near the IS-held town of Tal Afar in west of Mosul, the Iraqi military said.

Iraqi jets conducted airstrikes on an IS post in the IS-held town of Mahalabiyah near the IS stronghold in Tal Afar, which itself located some 70 km west of Mosul, the Iraqi federal intelligence agency said in a statement.

The airstrikes resulted in the killing of 18 IS militants and the destruction of five vehicles, the statement said.

Other airstrikes targeted IS redoubts in the al-Qal'a neighborhood in Tal Afar and killed 22 IS militants, including eight of the group leaders, the statement added.

In addition, the airstrikes hit a bomb-making site in al-Qadsiyah neighborhood in Tal Afar, destroying the site and killing seven IS militants inside

The airstrikes came after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on July 10 formally declared Mosul liberated from IS after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Earlier in the month, Iraqi military officials, including Abdul Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command, said after the liberation of Mosul the troops will advance westward to free Tal Afar, the last IS redoubt in Nineveh province.

Tal-Afar is home of majority of both Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to other minorities of Kurds and Arabs. The town fell to IS in 2014.
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Kicking off Made in America week, President Trump held a showcase Monday at the White House highlighting products made in the USA. Tervis President Rogan Donelly, who attended the showcase, told the FOX Business Networks Stuart Varney, People were very excited, it was an honor to be among so many other great American-made companies and certainly exciting to represent our company, Tervis.

Though Donelly agreed it would be cheaper to manufacture the companys water bottles and tumblers overseas, he said there were other benefits to making their products in the U.S.

In America you get the focus on your quality and also the rapid response time. So we really have a lot of control when were made in America versus going overseas. But absolutely, theres certainly a lot of costs that you could save outside the U.S.

When Varney asked if tax cuts were the biggest thing companies are looking for from Trump, Donelly responded, Well, well certainly take it, but were happy to have the focus on the made in America products.
Last quarter, Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT: LNG) gave a glimpse of what the company will be capable of in the coming quarters as its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal gets up and running. In the first quarter, it only had two facilities at full capacity, and it's already blowing by analyst expectations.

According to management, though, there are even better times coming down the road. I'm not just talking about the completion of the facilities under construction, but the options the company has beyond that. Here's a set of quotes from the company's most recent conference call that will give investors an idea of those opportunities coming down the pipe.

Expansion chances looking good

Earlier in the quarter, Cheniere Energy made a rather large land purchase: 500 acres in Corpus Christi, Texas. It just so happens that plot of land is adjacent to its existing Corpus Christi LNG export facility under construction. It's looking highly likely that the company will be using this land to expand its Corpus Christi facility. According to CEO Jack Fusco, the ability to expand its current facilities should give the company a big leg up compared to other LNG exporters both globally and in the U.S. regarding economics.

Here is the slightly odd thing about this. It wasn't that long ago that Cheniere was embroiled in a proxy war between activist investor Carl Icahn and then CEO Charif Souki regarding growing the company versus returning cash to shareholders. It seems strange that after ousting Souki, who planned to do these expansions, the company still wants to grow.

Either way, Cheniere has a great opportunity here, and it looks like it is taking the initial steps to capture it.

Big marketing opportunity

So much of the original investment thesis for Cheniere was the 20-year contracts it signed with buyers. Those contracts ensured the company would have a fixed revenue stream that is well insulated from fluctuating commodity prices. The rest of the companies production capacity was considered a risk because there was no telling what kind of market there would be to sell LNG on the spot market.

That dynamic is starting to change, though, thanks to floating storage, regasification, and unloading (FSRU) vessels. These ships act as temporary, mobile LNG import terminals that are ideal for places where the economics for a larger, fixed facility don't make sense or where seasonal demand fluctuations may require additional import capacity. According to Anatol Feygn, Cheniere's Chief Commercial Officer, these FSRUs are turning out to be a much more lucrative demand source than originally anticipated.

If demand for smaller, shorter contracts or spot market shipments to FSRUs continue to be such a lucrative market, don't be surprised if Cheniere's expansion plans dedicate a larger portion to these kinds of contracts rather than its long-term, fixed-fee contracts.

Great start to year one of operations

Now that three of Cheniere's LNG liquefaction trains are fully operational and delivering commercial cargoes -- with Train 4 expected to start up by the end of the year -- we are now in full operations mode. As a result, the company's income statement is going to look wildly different than it has in prior years as cash is coming in the door. According to CFO Michael Wortley, 2017 is going to look very good.

One thing to keep in mind is that distributable cash flow is related to Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSEMKT: CQP), which is the entity that owns Sabine Pass. Parent company Cheniere Energy's revenue and cash flow come from its direct ownership in Cheniere Energy Partners. What is surprising is it was only last year that Cheniere was running perpetual losses and burning through cash. Numbers like this for a few years will help pay off debt and make funding for those expansion plans.

Getting more out of what we have

As more and more LNG export facilities pop up around the world, the margins for LNG are getting squeezed. Granted, Cheniere's existing contract portfolio does ensure a stable revenue stream for its existing facilities, but the competition for its expanded facilities will be much greater. The company does have a leg up against some global players because of low-cost natural gas in the U.S. When stacked up against other U.S. based exporters, though, it will need to be a low-cost operator. When asked about the expansion capacity at Cheniere, Fusco thinks Cheniere's existing facilities will give it a big leg up in that regard.

The benefit here is that unlike other facilities that will need to build dock space and all the ancillary assets related to an export terminal. Cheniere thinks it can utilize the existing docks at Corpus and Sabine Pass with minor upgrades rather than entirely new facilities. This means all the company needs to do is build a liquefaction train. As mentioned above, Cheniere has some pretty favorable economics, and this is a huge reason why.

10 stocks we like better than Cheniere EnergyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Cheniere Energy wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017

Tyler Crowe has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
President Donald Trump campaigned on cutting the U.S. corporate tax rate to 15 percent, but administration officials said on Monday negotiators engaged in closed-door talks are now shooting for a little over 20 percent because they realize the super-low rate would balloon the federal deficit.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate are unlikely to allow the budget deficit to grow, so officials said they now hope for a corporate tax at the low end of a 20 percent to 25 percent range.

"It's going to be truly deficit neutral," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters. "We're going for permanence. That means our reforms have to balance in the budget."

Six months into Trumps presidency, Republicans who control House, Senate and the White House have yet to agree on important features of a tax code overhaul. Under Senate rules, Republicans who want to take advantage of their simple majority and pass tax legislation without Democratic support must show the new policies will not add to the federal deficit after 10 years.

Cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from a current 35 percent would cost more than $2 trillion over a decade, according to independent analysts, and that total would be hard to offset when proposals to raise revenue face broad political opposition.

"I dont think there are $2 trillion of politically saleable offsets on the corporate side of the ledger," said Rohit Kumar, a former aide to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who now serves as a principal in the tax policy group at the consulting and accounting firm PwC LLP.

Two House Republican proposals could help pay for such a reduction: a border adjustment tax and a proposed elimination of business deduction of debt interest payments. But these face broad opposition from industry and many Republican lawmakers.

Administration officials hope the negotiators will agree on a plan by the end of July, convert it to legislation during August, unveil it in September and have Trump sign it into law well before the end of 2017.

Independent analysts and lobbyists say a more likely timeline would see the release of tax legislation in October or November and a vote in early 2018.

The negotiators, Brady, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch, have yet to agree on a new corporate tax rate or how to pay for tax cuts. They also have yet to agree on which tax breaks to eliminate or whether to include a controversial border tax on imports.

They want to end taxation on the foreign profits of U.S. multinational corporations and must agree on a measure to stop U.S. corporations from moving headquarters and shifting profits overseas. Lobbyists say the group is likely to consider a minimum tax on foreign corporate earnings as an alternative to the border tax.

Some Republicans in Congress acknowledge that it will be a challenge to identify tax code changes that can unite party factions now battling over healthcare and a fiscal 2018 budget that includes a legislative tool crucial for passing tax legislation without Democratic votes.

"The question is, can we get a framework that has a chance of passage? And the answer to that is, we'll see," Hatch told reporters after taking part in a principals meeting last week.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Chris Sanders and David Gregorio)
Make no mistake -- investing can be risky. But it doesn't have to be too risky. Warren Buffett once said that rule No. 1 for investing is to "never lose money," with rule No. 2 being "never forget rule No. 1."

Even Buffett hasn't been able to totally adhere to those rules in his investing career. There are some stocks that improve your chances of doing so, though. If you're a risk-averse investor, Buffett's own Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), along with Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) and Waste Management (NYSE: WM), are top stocks to make solid returns over the long run.

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway's risk advantage stems from its diversification. It's not really just one company. Instead, more than 60 different companies fall under Berkshire's umbrella. These include insurers such as Geico and GenRe, retailers such as Borsheims Fine Jewelry and See's Candies, and manufacturers such as Benjamin Moore and Precision Castparts, in addition to companies in several other industries.

Those are just the companies that are part of Berkshire. It also owns stakes in more than 40 publicly traded companies across multiple industries.

Warren Buffett's strategy has certainly worked in the past for Berkshire Hathaway. The stock has generated compound annual returns of nearly 21% since 1965 -- more than doubling the return of the S&P 500 index during that period. Those gains aren't just a thing of the past: Berkshire stock has enjoyed a terrific year in 2017, with its share price up almost 21% year to date.

Will Berkshire produce market-beating returns year in and year out? Probably not. Over the long run, though, the company's diversification and shrewd investing strategy should help investors abide by Buffett's top two rules more often than not.

Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain has a different kind of diversification. The records and data storage company counts more than 230,000 organizations as customers. That list includes around 95% of the Fortune 1,000.

Aside from this huge customer base that continues to grow, Iron Mountain's business itself helps reduce risk for investors. The company provides services that will only increase in demand. Organizations continue to generate more records and data than ever before. They must retain these records and data for legal reasons. As a dominant player in the records and data storage market, Iron Mountain is often the first provider these customers turn to.

When customers pick Iron Mountain, they tend to remain customers for quite a while. Half of the boxes stored in Iron Mountain's facilities have been there for 15 years. One-quarter of the boxes have been there for 22 years. That excellent customer retention stems from the simple fact that it's too much of a hassle for most customers to move their records somewhere else.

There's also one other reason Iron Mountain is less risky than most stocks: its dividend. As a real estate investment trust (REIT), the company must return at least 90% of its earnings to shareholders in the form of dividends. Iron Mountain's dividend yield currently stands at 5.8%, giving shareholders a nice cushion even if the stock declines. No cushion has been needed in 2017, though. Iron Mountain stock is up 25% so far this year.

Waste Management

In a way, Waste Management's low risk level comes from the exact opposite reason than that of Iron Mountain. Instead of succeeding because customers need to hold on to records, Waste Management thrives because they need to discard them -- as well as lots of other things.

Waste Management is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management environmental services in North America. The company owns or operates 248 landfill sites and manages 310 transfer stations that consolidate, compact, and transport waste.

While Waste Management's business might not be the most glamorous, it's certainly lucrative. The company is on track to generate revenue of around $14.4 billion in 2017, with earnings of close to $1.4 billion. In the third quarter, Waste Management's management said its cash flow reached all-time high levels.

More good news for investors is that Waste Management like to return some of that impressive cash flow to its shareholders. The company's dividend currently yields north of 2%. Future dividend increases seem likely.

Some risks remain

It should be noted that lower risk doesn't mean no risk. All three of these companies face some threats that could derail their stocks. Deteriorating economic conditions in the U.S. could cause problems for each of the stocks. Because Wall Street places a heavy emphasis on quarterly results, a significant earnings miss could make any of these stocks drop.

Those risks are temporary in nature, though. Berkshire Hathaway, Iron Mountain, and Waste Management have solid business models and strong financial positions that should make them great -- and relatively low risk -- picks over the long run.

10 stocks we like better than Berkshire Hathaway (A shares)When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Berkshire Hathaway (A shares) wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of December 4, 2017

Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The Latest on the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Obama health law (all times local):

8:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump has invited Senate Republicans to the White House after a GOP attempt to repeal and replace the Obama-era health care law collapsed for a second time.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirms that the senators have been invited to lunch to discuss the way forward on health care after it became clear that they did not have the votes to pass a plan to replace "Obamacare."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced earlier Tuesday that the Senate would move ahead on a straight-up repeal vote early next week. It's a plan Trump has endorsed.

___

6:30 p.m.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate will vote early next week on trying to move ahead on a straight-up repeal of Barack Obama's health care law.

McConnell made the announcement Tuesday night. He says the vote was at the request of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Three Republican senators  Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia  have turned on McConnell's repeal of Obamacare.

McConnell also had delayed action because of Sen. John McCain, who is recuperating in Arizona after having a blood clot removed from above his left eye.

___

4:15 p.m.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump's declaration that he and the Republican Party won't take the blame for the health care system's problems is "small and petty."

The New York Democrat made the remarks to The Associated Press after Senate GOP leaders abandoned their effort to rewrite President Barack Obama's health care law due to Republican opposition. Trump said Republicans won't own the issue and said he'll let the statute fail to force Democrats to ask him to fix it.

Schumer says Trump is in charge, but "To hurt millions of people because he's angry and he didn't get his way is not being a leader."

Schumer says Democrats will work with Republicans to fix problems with the law once the GOP abandons its repeal effort.

___

2:40 p.m.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate will vote "sometime in the near future" on repealing the Obama health care law.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican says "this has been a very, very challenging experience for all of us" after the collapse of the Senate GOP plan to rewrite much of the 2010 law.

McConnell said the GOP doesn't have 50 members to agree on a replacement. He made the comments after the weekly closed-door GOP lunch attended by Vice President Mike Pence.

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said the GOP needs to find out "where the votes are."

Opposition from three Republican senators left McConnell's alternative plan to move ahead on a straight repeal in doubt.

___

1:45 p.m.

A bipartisan group of 11 governors says Senate Republicans should abandon the effort to repeal the Obama health care law and replace it later.

In a statement on Tuesday, the governors, who hold considerable sway with their senators, said the latest approach pushed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would leave millions of Americans without insurance coverage.

The governors said the best step is a bipartisan approach and a fix to the unstable insurance markets.

Among the Republicans on the statement were Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, Maryland's Larry Hogan, Massachusetts' Charlie Baker and Ohio's John Kasich. Also signing on was Independent Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska.

McConnell lacked the votes to push ahead on his plan as three Republican senators  Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine  opposed it.

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12:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he is deeply "disappointed" by the collapse of the GOP effort to rewrite former President Barack Obama's health care law.

Trump told reporters during a lunch with service members Tuesday that Republicans have been talking for years about repealing and replacing "Obamacare," and is disappointed they couldn't deliver.

Trump says it's time to "Let Obamacare fail," and says that "I'm not going to own it."

He says letting Obamacare fail will encourage Democrats to come to the table and negotiate.

Trump also says he does not blame Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the decision by two more Republican senators to come out against the legislation, effectively killing the bill.

___

12:40 p.m.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has announced she will oppose moving forward on an "Obamacare" repeal bill  leaving Republicans once again short of votes.

Murkowski became the third GOP senator to announce her opposition to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's latest health care bill. McConnell can lose only two votes in the closely divided Senate, meaning the bill cannot advance.

McConnell was urging senators to advance to debate on a repeal-only bill on "Obamacare." That was after his earlier repeal-and-replace bill was killed Monday by opposition from Republican senators.

Tuesday's development marked the third straight defeat for McConnell as he struggles to make good on longstanding GOP promises to get rid of "Obamacare."

__

11 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence says Congress needs to "step up" and "do their job" in the aftermath of the Republican health care plan's failure to win consensus in the Senate.

Pence said in a speech to the National Retail Federation on Tuesday that the Senate should vote to repeal the so-called Obamacare law and replace it with a new plan. Or he says it should return to the "carefully crafted" legislation in the House and the Senate.

But Pence says "inaction is not an option" and Congress needs to act to address health care.

Pence spoke shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted late Monday that Republicans should repeal the law and work on a new health care plan "that will start from a clean slate."

__

10:50 a.m.

At least two Republican senators say they can't vote to repeal the health care law without a replacement.

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a statement Tuesday that she "did not come to Washington to hurt people." She said she had reservations about the GOP health care plan to erase much of Barack Obama's health care law. Her concerns focused on proposed cuts to Medicaid and the impact on treating the opioid epidemic, which has hit her state hard.

Separately, Maine Sen. Susan Collins also said she opposes the repeal and delay approach. Collins said it's not constructive to repeal a law so interwoven within the health care system and then hope over the next two years to come up with a replacement.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell needs at least 50 votes to move ahead. With Capito and Collins' objections, he can't afford another defection.

__

10:30 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the Senate will soon vote on a fresh bill repealing much of President Barack Obama's health care law.

The Kentucky Republican is conceding that his party's prized legislation erasing big chunks of the 2010 statute and replacing it with GOP-favored programs won't succeed. He spoke Tuesday, the morning after the GOP bill collapsed under opposition from Republican senators.

McConnell says his chamber will vote in coming days on legislation dismantling much of Obama's law that would take effect in two years. He says that would give lawmakers time to craft a replacement.

The prospects for that bill seem doubtful. Democrats oppose it and many Republicans agree, worrying that a two-year gap would roil insurance markets and be politically damaging to the GOP.

__

10:10 a.m.

Speaker Paul Ryan says he would like to see the Senate "move on something" after the collapse of GOP plan to repeal and replace the health care law.

Ryan told reporters on Tuesday that the House is proud of the bill they passed in early May and is waiting to see what Senate can do.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, faced with defeat on his repeal and replace plan, is pushing ahead with a repeal and delay effort but faces uncertainty in getting that done.

Ryan said he was "worried Obamacare will stand" and repeated that the law is failing.

Ryan said, "We'd like to see the Senate move on something ... We've got a promise to keep."

___

9:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling for a 51-vote majority in the Senate instead of the current 60 votes as a means for getting individual pieces of legislation passed without the threat of a filibuster.

The president tweeted Tuesday, "The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!"

Trump's health care bill suffered its latest blow after two GOP senators  Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas announced Monday that they would vote "no" in a critical vote.

At least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block the measure  two more than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to spare in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition.

___

7:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is blasting Democrats and "a few Republicans" over the failure of the Republican effort to write a new health care law. "We will return," Trump declared in an early morning tweet.

The president tweeted Tuesday that "Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard," but says, "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans."

He added, "As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!"

Two GOP senators  Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas  sealed the Republican health care bill's doom late Monday when each announced he would vote "no."

At least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block the measure  two more than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to spare.

__

3 a.m.

The implosion of the Senate Republican health care bill leaves a divided GOP with its flagship legislative priority in tatters. And it confronts a wounded President Donald Trump and congressional leaders with difficult decisions about addressing their seven-year-old promise of repealing President Barack Obama's law.

Two GOP senators  Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas  sealed the measure's doom late Monday when each said they would vote "no" in an initial, critical vote that had been expected as soon as next week. Their startling announcement meant at least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block the measure. That's two more than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to spare in the face of a wall of Democratic opposition.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares jumped to record highs on Tuesday after revealing a surge in new subscribers to the streaming video service.

Netflix widely beat Wall Street expectations when it reported an increase of 5.2 million global customers in the second quarter. Analysts were looking for a smaller gain of 3.2 million new subscribers.

Shares rallied 10% to $177.93 in recent trading. Netflix climbed as high as $177.98 a share, soaring above its previous all-time high of $166.87 set on June 8.

By the end of June, Netflix had 52.03 million subscribers outside the U.S. and 52.92 million in its home market. It was the first time that Netflix had more international customers. The company also said it now expects to log its first-ever annual profit in non-U.S. markets.

Netflix anticipates adding 3.65 million international subscribers in the current quarter. Wall Street had projected a 3.2 million increase.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % NFLX NETFLIX INC. 290.13 +15.16 +5.51%

The Los Gatos, California-based company has spent heavily on original shows to attract new subscribers, finding success with hit shows such as House of Cards. Netflix has been in a race with Amazon.coms (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime Video, which has also invested in a growing lineup of exclusive programming like The Grand Tour.

Morgan Stanley, which raised its price target to $210, noted that Netflixs original content has encouraged more pay-TV companies to incorporate the streaming service into their plans.

The 2Q results and 3Q guidance support the view that more recently launched international markets are accelerating in the pace of net [subscriber additions], as demand for Netflixs service benefits from its rising exclusive content offering, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to clients.
Oil prices rose slightly on Tuesday as solid demand soaked up some of what is seen as an oversupplied market, but Ecuador's decision to opt out of a supply reduction complicated the outlook for an OPEC-led cut agreement.

Benchmark Brent crude was up 21 cents at $48.63 a barrel at 11:25 a.m. EDT (1525 GMT), while U.S. light crude oil was 16 cents higher at $46.18.

In a sign of strong demand, data on Monday showed refineries in China increased crude throughput in June to the second highest on record.

But many markets are well supplied and oil for prompt delivery is trading at heavy discounts to forward futures in several parts of the world.

As a result, crude oil prices are trading at only around half the levels seen three years ago.

A deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with Russia and other non-OPEC producers to cut supplies by around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018 has so far failed to tighten the market or push up prices.

Although many OPEC countries have restricted production, others including Nigeria and Libya are allowed to increase output.

Ecuador said on Monday it will no longer comply with an agreed OPEC production cut of 26,000 bpd due to the country's financial difficulties.

Oil Minister Carlos Perez said Ecuador was cutting only 60 percent of that figure, putting current output at 545,000 bpd.

While Ecuador is a small producer, in a note RBC Capital Markets wrote that "it could embolden other cash strapped producers to seek an exit (from the OPEC deal) as well."

"We highlight Iraq as the most important at-risk OPEC member," the RBC note said, the "Iraqi oil minister ... has repeatedly criticized the terms of the November 2016 agreement, insisting that Iraq should have been exempted like Libya and Nigeria and that the (210,000 bpd) cut imposes too high a financial burden on the war-ravaged country."

U.S. oil production is also rising steadily.

The U.S. Energy Department said in a report on Monday U.S. shale oil output was likely to rise for the eighth consecutive month in August, climbing 112,000 bpd to 5.585 million bpd.

U.S. crude watchers are "keeping a close eye on the fifty day moving average," said Tony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging. WTI was still trading below the 46.56 number on Monday but Headrick said traders will be watching the settle. "Today's close becomes important."

(By Julia Simon; Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London, Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Alexander Smith and Chris Reese)
Beleaguered retailer Sears Canada received approval from a judge Tuesday to begin liquidation sales Friday at 59 locations it plans to shutter.

Sears lawyer Jeremy Dacks says the company wants to start sales of its merchandise, furniture, fixtures and equipment as soon as possible so it can maximize benefits for its stakeholders.

The liquidation sales will only occur at the 59 stores that are set for closure. They will begin Friday and run until Oct. 12, with the majority to be overseen by a third-party liquidator.

The struggling department store owner has been operating under court protection from creditors since June 22, when it announced its plan to shutter 59 stores and cut approximately 2,900 jobs. The company said in June it did not expect its cash flow to meet obligations due in the next 12 months. At the end of the first quarter, Sears Canada had $164.4 million in cash, down from $235.8 million a few months prior.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) driver who reportedly told investigators that his car's Autopilot feature caused a crash now says he deactivated the system beforehand.

In its police report obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office said David Clark, 58, blamed Autopilot for a crash Saturday evening in Hawick, Minnesota. Clark initially told deputies that when he engaged the Autopilot feature, the car suddenly accelerated, left the roadway and overturned in a marsh. Clark and his passengers sustained minor injuries.

But in an email sent Monday afternoon to the sheriff's office, Clark said he was confused in the moments after the crash. After discussing the crash with his fellow passengers, he now believes that he disengaged Autopilot by stepping on the accelerator before the crash.

"I then remember looking up and seeing the sharp left turn which I was accelerating into. I believe we started to make the turn but then felt the car give way and lose its footing like we hit loose gravel," Clark wrote in the email.

Clark confirmed to the AP that he sent the email.

Tesla, whose shares were down 2.5% on Monday, rebounded 1.3% to $323.64 in recent trading Tuesday.

Not true. Email from customer. pic.twitter.com/4P3QO7EMLW  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2017

Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said it's investigating the incident and will cooperate with local authorities.

Autopilot automatically maintains a set speed, slows down and brakes in traffic and keeps the car within a lane. When drivers turn on the system, a message reminds them to remain engaged and be prepared to take the wheel. Drivers can take their hands off the wheel, but only for short periods. If they ignore three separate warnings to put their hands on the wheel, the system will turn off.

Federal safety regulators investigated Tesla's Autopilot last year after a fatal crash in Florida. In that case, a Tesla Model S hit a tractor-trailer.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in January it found no safety defects in the system and declined to issue a recall. The agency examined the Florida crash and others where Autopilot was engaged and found that, in many cases, driver error was to blame. It also said Tesla's manuals and instructions make clear that human drivers are responsible for driving the car.

It is unclear if the agency will investigate the Minnesota crash. A message seeking comment was left with a NHTSA spokeswoman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A few thoughts now as the White House kicks off a three-week messaging campaign, focusing on the president's agenda and trying to rebuild momentum behind President Trump's agenda.

The idea for theme weeks reportedly came from White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

This week it's "Made in America" week... And the theme wasn't helped much by colleague Sean Spicer, who said that some things can't be made in America. In his first press briefing appearance since June 26, Spicer said "certain supply chains" aren't available in this country.

Politico last month reported that the president gave Reince Priebus until the Fourth of July to clean up the White House. But some two weeks later, Priebus is still on the job.

Priebus and Spicer are not the only ones struggling to support the president's message. National Economic Advisor Gary Cohn is also contributing.

A former partner at Goldman Sachs says Cohn bragged to him that he has blunted the president's economic nationalism, stating that he has "tempered the reactionary influence of people around the president. He added that "he is dedicated to making sure the U.S. doesn't start any ridiculous trade wars or do something 'crazy' on health care."

Gary Cohn must not be the cleverest politician to be saying things like that. Who does he think he is?

As for Congress, Republican leaders are either unwilling or unable to deliver for the president.

I have never seen anything like this. So many White House appointees who feel entitled to oppose the president of the United States...and for who there seems to be no accountability. That can't go on much longer...Not without disastrous consequences for the Trump agenda.
Leupold & Stevens sales director Shane Meisel on Monday discussed the companys experience at President Trumps Made in America showcase and explained why the company refused to leave the U.S.

Leupold & Stevens is a fifth-generation, family-owned manufacturer. Headquartered in Oregon, the company is known for producing rifle scopes. President Trump met with U.S.-based companies from every state as part of his push to support the countrys homegrown businesses.

We did get to talk to the president and the vice president as well as some members of his senior staff and members of Congress. It was really a fantastic experience. In terms of a Kumbaya moment, it was nice to have like-minded companies that share the same passion for this country there to be able to sort of collaborate and ensure the future of U.S.A made products for the future, Meisel told FOX Business Gerri Willis.

Meisel said Leupold & Stevens has refused to move production outside the United States out of loyalty to its employees.

We are a family owned company, but we are a family of employees and we have over 700-plus people there and if we were to pick up and move, that would disrupt a lot of lives. So we want to make sure that were very conscientious about our family members and our team members lives, he said.
Made in America President Donald Trump hosted a product showcase at the White House Monday featuring items from all 50 states to kick off Made in America week.

In an interview on FOX Business, Kimmie Candy Company CEO Joe Dutra said Trumps Made in America initiative will allow other companies to realize the importance of U.S. manufacturing.

[Trump] talked about how its a trickle down affect. Every dollar we pay in wages gets put back into the local economies and so it helps grocery stores and different companies that are producing goods for our workers and its just good for the economy and the community, he said.

Despite increasing costs and regulatory fears, the third generation farmer decided to move Kimmie Candys South Korean offshore manufacturing operations to Reno, Nevada in 2004 where it has been able to create jobs and boost its sales.

President Trump is trying to make it easier for us to bring companies back onshore, Dutra said. You know its very simple to say, you know, we dont care what happens in trade, but it affects small businesses like mine.

According Dutra, rolling back some of the Obama-era regulations has made it a little easier to do business in US. However, the Kimmie Candy Company CEO urges the Trump Administration to lower the corporate tax rate in order to further help small businesses.

[Trump]s gotta reduce, somehow, taxes on corporations like ours so that we have a little extra money to reinvest into the business, he said.
The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.

For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an "appropriate" provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators.

The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years.

Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers. {ID:nL1N1K81D1]

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was "part of its internal process" although a source familiar with Canadian government thinking said the document was "not earth shattering."

Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved by revising trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.

"The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits, and that's unfortunate," said Chad Brown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There's not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That's more of a macroeconomic issue."

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from NAFTA countries.

No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August.

AUTOMAKERS SUPPORT STANCE

Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include in the list of objectives the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation.

A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA. We look forward to working with the administration to achieve this objective by including strong and enforceable currency prohibitions as part of NAFTA."

The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Representative Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, said there was nothing in the document that would change the way Mexico treated its workers.

"Mexico has used their workers having no rights and suppressing labor costs as a key part of their industrial policy," he said, "There is nothing in the summary that assures in these vital aspects that a new NAFTA will be different than the old."

There was no formal reaction to the letter from Mexican government.

Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," the head of the 12.5-million strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.

"If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $63 billion last year.

(Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Howard Goller)
While a lot of attention in the nationas capital has been focused on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have a full docket of items to tackle within the coming months including raising the debt ceiling, passing a spending bill and overhauling the U.S. tax code.

The Senate delayed its August recess in order to make progress on these legislative goals. While Americans eagerly await the Trump administrationas long-anticipated tax cuts, there are a couple of things that have to happen in Congress before households see any benefit.

Adopt a new budget

Before any tax bill can even be introduced into Congress, lawmakers must agree on a fiscal year 2018 budget. This has to do with the nature of the reconciliation process, which will allow Republicans to approve the legislation with a simple majority. Currently, lawmakers are operating under spending mandate for 2017awhich includes instructions to pass health care through the fast-track process. Once the current fiscal bill expires, Republicans lose that reconciliation directive and will resubmit for a new directive to pass tax reform through reconciliation.

This will mean that once the new budget is approved, they can no longer pass health care measures with a 51-vote majority. But only after the budget is adopted can Congress begin working on tax reformawhich will then need to be approved by both chambers of Congress as well. The White House has said it expects to have a tax bill signed before the end of the year.

Whereas the budget process at now?

On Tuesday, the House Budget Committee released a draft proposal, authored by Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.). The bill is expected to be put up for a vote to advance within the chamber on Wednesday. It will first have to be approved by the specific committee, then the full House and then it will be sent to the Senate for another round of voting.

Challenges

Like the ill-fated Senate health care debate, some experts believe fractures within the GOP could make passing a spending bill a difficult task for the Republican Party. Intraparty fissures among moderates and conservatives could trip this bill up in a similar fashion.

Additionally there are some fiscal challenges. Reconciliation requires a bill to reduce the deficit over the long-term. Republicans designed their health care proposals to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal deficit over the next decade.

Tax reform, however, is expected to be revenue neutral. The reason the GOP tackled health care reform first is because they were expecting those massive tax cuts to allow them to have extra money to play around with for the tax overhaul.

aThe savings from health care were [supposed to be used to] pay for tax reform,a said Chris Pope, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, during an interview with FOX Business. aIf the health care bill is completely dead itas going to be a lot harder.a
Mercedes-Benz has finally unveiled the production version of its first proper pickup, the X-Class.

The long-gestating midsize truck the product of a joint venture with Nissan and based on the Japanese automakers Navara pickup. The Germans take looks very much like a Mercedes, however, from the shape of its grille to its interior design.

With a starting price of around $40,000 in Germany, its also a very luxed-up effort. Mercedes calls it the first pickup from a premium manufacturer, which is a little bit of a stretch considering Lincoln and Cadillac have both had offerings in the segment, not to mention the fact that you can easily spend over $70,000 on a high tech, leather-lined Ford, Chevy or Ram today.

Nevertheless, it is dressy for a midsize pickup and will be offered with a list of electronic safety features that includes emergency braking and lane-keeping assist. A range of four diesel and gasoline engines will be available, the most potent one a 258 hp gasoline V6.

Built with a traditional body-on-frame construction and a live rear axle, the X-Class uses coil springs front and rear like a Ram 1500. Its four-wheel-drive system has a low range transfer case and a locking rear differential is optional for added traction. Mercedes says its maximum payload and tow ratings are 2,200 pounds and 7,000 pounds, respectively.

Aside from its platform, one very important thing that the X-Class has in common with the Navara is that it will be sold just about everywhere but the United States. In its current form, it wasnt engineered to meet safety standards here. It would also be subject to a 25 percent import tax, unless Mercedes started building it here, where it doesnt think theres a big enough market for a high-end small truck.

At least not yet.
Following the news that Disney has fired the longtime voice of Kermit the Frog, the actor is determined to shed light on the circumstances of his exit. Steve Whitmire went into detail on Monday about the specifics of his ongoing dispute with the company.

Whitmire said in a previous blog post he was made aware of "two stated issues" that led to his firing.

DISNEY FIRED KERMIT THE FROG MUPPETEER OVER REPEATED UNACCEPTABLE BUSINESS CONDUCT

One issue that was pointed out to him when he was let go in October regarded a union dispute, he told The New York Times. He claims while on his way to a shoot where he would voice Kermit, there was a contract disagreement between the Screen Actors Guild and Disney over how much money he should be paid. Caught in the middle, Whitmire says he acquiesced to his Guild and didnt do the shoot.

The second reason for his firing, according to Whitmire, was the notes he was giving during the short-lived Muppets revival at ABC in 2015. He claims that the Disney-owned network was uncomfortable with the way in which he gave notes to creative executives.

Nobody was yelling and screaming or using inappropriate language or typing in capitals, he said. It was strictly that I was sending detailed notes. I dont feel that I was, in any way, disrespectful by doing that.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Whitmire went into more detail about some of these notes, sharing a story about his thoughts on one scene in particular in which Kermit lied to his nephew, Robin, about breaking up with Miss Piggy.

I dont think Kermit would lie to him, he said. I think that as Robin came to Kermit, he would say things happen, people go their separate ways, but that doesnt mean we dont care about you. Kermit is too compassionate to lie to him to spare his feelings.

Disney, which acquired the rights to The Muppets in 2004, stated a series of repeated unacceptable business conduct led to the decision to get rid of Whitmire.

KERMIT THE FROG MUPPETEER: I WAS FIRED BY DISNEY

Despite his claims, the company maintains that there were more than two isolated incidents that led to its decision to recast the role of Kermit. It was previously announced that Matt Vogel will take over as Kermit the Frog for the foreseeable future.
Kid Rocks apparent announcement that he plans to run for Senate surprised many  but the rock star has been involved in politics for quite a while.

Rock  who was born Robert Ritchie  said on social media last week that the website kidrockforsenate.com is, in fact, real. He plans to challenge incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who has held office since 2001.

While the 46-year-old is known mostly for his lucrative and eclectic music career, Rock has also been politically active.

I came into this business with two middle fingers in the air, Kid Rock told Howard Stern in 2012. If I had realized you could just be political and piss people off so much I would have done this s--t a long time ago.

Read on to find out more about Rocks political involvement.

Mitt Romney

At a Michigan rally for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Kid Rock performed a small concert for the event.

Rock later told radio host Howard Stern that he talked with Romney to make sure he would help Detroit. Romney agreed and gained the musicians support, Rock said.

KID ROCK INTRODUCES GOP VEEP CANDIDATE PAUL RYAN, SAYS HES SORRY OBAMA DIDNT DO BETTER

Romney used Rocks Born Free for his campaign theme song.

Gun control

Rock said he bought a semiautomatic gun with a silencer when Obummer came into office as he was worried the former president would ban guns."

If all the guns were taken from American citizens, the only ones who would have guns would be the damn outlaws, Rock said in a long-ranging interview with Rolling Stone.

Ben Carson

When asked by the New York Times Magazine if he would endorse anyone in the 2016 presidential election, Rock said he liked Republican candidate Ben Carson.

KID ROCK SHARES THOUGHTS ON GUNS, ABORTION AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Im very interested in the things that Ben Carson has to say, Rock said in February 2015.

Confederate flag controversy

Following the 2015 massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., several groups protested Rock and museum exhibits showcasing his work.

The demonstrators demanded Rock stop displaying the Confederate flag, which he used in shows in the early 2000s.

Please tell the people who are protesting to kiss my a--, Rock said in a statement at the time.

The protests were eventually called off as Rocks representatives said the flag hadnt been used since 2011 when the Detroit chapter of the NAACP gave him a Great Expectations Award.

Donald Trump

Rock told Rolling Stone in February 2016 that he was digging then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and predicted that he could win the White House.

KID ROCKS DONALD TRUMP-THEMED MERCHANDISE CAUSES STIR ON SOCIAL MEDIA

To me, I'm just like, We gotta try something else, and ... I'm not an expert at political science or anything. I do try to follow things, obviously. I'm a pretty good, tax-paying citizen of this country, Rock said. Let the business guy in there. It's not really working too well running it not like a business. I mean, what business f-----g survives when they're f------g broke?

Rock, along with fellow musician Ted Nugent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, visited Trump at the White House in April.

Senate run

Rocks campaign website is pretty bare. It only includes links to campaign merchandise and music videos.

On Facebook, Rock said he still plans to release music throughout his campaign just as politicians write books during their campaigns.

Its not a hoax, its a strategy and marketing 101! Rock said.

Senator Stabenow and I do share a love of music, although probably not the same kind, Rock continued on Facebook. I concede she is better at playing politics than I am so Ill keep doing what I do best, which is being a voice for tax paying, hardworking AMERICANS and letting politicians like her know that We the People are sick and tired of their bulls-t!

He also released what appears to be part of his campaign platform on social media.

I believe if you work your butt off and pay taxes, you should be able to easily understand and navigate the laws, tax codes, health care and anything else the government puts in place that affects us all, Rock said.
There's plenty of great barbecue to be had across America, but some of the best is served up by folks who also served America.

Here's five of the best veteran-offiliated barbecue joints in the United States.

Fox's BBQ

After serving in the Army for 24 years, Jessie Fox opened Foxs BBQ in Clarksville, Tenn. in 2001.

In 2001, when 9/11 kicked off, a lot of soldiers were stranded on the side of the road at Ft. Campbell [Kentucky]. It was mess, said Fox, who served overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and Panama, among other stations. Soldiers didnt have anything to eat and would run out of gas trying to get on and off post. So we opened up a grill and fed the soldiers.

Foxs food was such a hit that eventually Ft. Campbell solicited the former soldier to open up shop on post. We were at Campbell for four years and the response was overwhelming, Fox said. We needed more space, so we finally moved to Clarksville. Weve been growing ever since.

5 SIGNS YOU'RE AT A BAD BBQ JOINT

My passion for barbecue goes back to my grandma, Fox explained. When my grandma was home, Id have to walk to the coal yard and then Id start the fire for my grandma. Thats how I learned different woods, like hickory and apple wood. From that, I learned to watch her and tried different things. She gave me her secret recipe when she passed away.

Fox serves up full and half racks of ribs smoked over hickory wood (wet or dry), as well as brisket, pork and smoked sausage with his special barbecue sauce. A favorite at the restaurant is the loaded fries, topped with chicken or pork and drizzled in cheese, and splashed with Foxs special sauce.

Swig and Swine

Anthony DiBernardo left the Navy in 1994 in Charleston when the culinary scene was just starting to take off. I was a cook on the U.S.S. Batfish SSN681 for four years, Philadelphia-born DiBernardo told Fox News. I love cooking, so I decided to stay in Charleston.

After working at fine dining establishments around Charleston, DiBernardo opened his first restaurant, Swig and Swine in Charleston, which today has two locations in the city.

Were one of the only places in South Carolina that cooks the whole pig, nose to tail, over wood, he said. Its a dying art.

At Swig and Swine, pitmasters roast the pigs over wood 24/7. We man the smokers the whole time, DiBernardo added. Its like being back on the submarine. Theres no downtime. And we make everything in house, from pickles to pastries.

This year, DiBernardo is planning on opening his third Swig and Swine location in Charleston.

BBQ HACKS EVERY WANNABE-PITMASTER NEEDS TO KNOW

Q Barbeque

A Marine Corps veteran who served from 1982 to 1986 and a professionally trained chef, Tuffy Stone was looking for a challenge after the military. But hes always had a real love for barbecue.

Barbeque is the most gregarious, friendly food. It doesnt discriminate. Its relaxed and casual, Stone explained to Fox News. Historically, its for feeding large groups of people, such as family picnics at the park.

In 2008, Stone and his wife, Leslie, opened Q Barbeque in Richmond, Va. and today own three additional Q Barbeques in the Richmond area.

What makes Stones barbeque special, Stone said, is a combination of putting the right amount of smoke on the meats with a rub that has a savory pop. Were very good at holding our meats hot, once theyre finished cooking, which is a challenge for barbeque restaurants, he said. A sample of these meats include Stones brisket burnt ends, the spicy sausage, and the Memphis baby back ribs.

My experience as a Marine helped me immensely, Stone explained. Attention to detail, hard work, the chain of command and leadership all come into play with running a restaurant. Early mornings and long days are the norm when cooking barbeque and serving as a Marine.

In 2012, Stone went to Kuwait to cook for U.S. troops stationed overseas. We fed more than 5,000 troops during the course of our visit, and many of the soldiers said that eating barbecue was the closest they had felt to home since they had been deployed.

Nordic Smoke BBQ

Kacy Tellesson served as an infantry machine gunner in the Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009. Four years later, Tellesson and his brother, Dusty, originally from Spangle, Wash., launched Nordic Smoke BBQ, a barbeque food truck and catering business out of Spokane. We discovered we had a passion for it, Tellesson told Fox News. Our dad, Gary, always smoked meat, and that's where I gained my base knowledge for how to manage a smoker.

Tellesson says he was drawn to the mystery of figuring out how to cook different cuts of meat.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Out of all of the meats, brisket challenged Tellesson the most. Brisket is a notoriously finicky cut of meat. Every weekend one summer, I would tweak the recipe, changing the injection, or changing the way I trimmed the brisket. I kept a notebook detailing my many failures, but with each botched brisket I got a little closer. Today, Tellesson even specializes in a brisket that he says hes certainly not ashamed of.

It's really the attention to detail that separates mediocre barbecue from celestial barbecue, says the business-owner. The rub, the injection, the temperature, the type of wood, and the cooking time all create this symbiotic process that transforms a shoe leather cut of meat, like a brisket, into something that can give a 4-star rib eye a run for its money.

Nordics beef brisket, the most popular item, is injected with butter and beer before being rubbed down and smoked for fourteen hours. The ribs are cut in the St. Louis style, a trimmed-down version of the larger spare rib, and basted with butter and honey halfway through the five-hour smoking process.

Mission BBQ

Best friends Bill Kraus and Steve Newton launched Mission BBQ on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 with the goal of restoring the country to what it was before the attack  and building a business that reminded people of how fortunate they are to live in America.

With a love of barbecue and country, the men started their lofty endeavor in Glen Burnie, Md. and have since expanded to 50 locations in eleven states.

While Kraus and Newton are not veterans themselves, Kraus father, Al, and grandfather, Frank Shinners, served. Kraus son Alex is graduating from the USNA and his other son, Andrew, is in the Army.

MISSION BBQ GIVES BACK TO NATION'S HEROES WITH MEATY USO DONATION

Every day at noon, Mission BBQ employees stop cooking or taking orders in order to play the National Anthem.

Mission BBQ also donates $2 from each American Heroes Cup purchased to the organization featured on the cup, such as Wreathes Across America (of which they've given $228,664), Special Operations Warrior Foundation ($105,994) and the Semper Fi Fund: ($61,618).
Perdues entire business model is predicated on raising and slaughtering chickens, but that doesnt mean the company is completely callous to the well-being of those birds.

In Perdues first annual progress report on animal welfare, released on Monday, the Maryland-based company outlined plans to improve conditions for the chickens in its slaughtering facilities.

This is a big change for our company as well as the industry, said Perdue Farms chairman Jim Perdue in an interview shortly before the report was released, according to The Baltimore Sun.

WHAT IS 'MECHANICALLY SEPARATED' CHICKEN?

The progress report detailed several of Perdues upcoming efforts to improve the lives of its birds, including: more floor space and outdoor space for the chickens at its processing facilities; giving the birds at least six hours of darkness, as well as more natural light; third-party monitoring of the facilities; and, perhaps most notably, the increased use of controlled-atmosphere stunning  or gas stunning  which desensitizes the chickens to pain before slaughtering, per a press release from animal rights group Mercy for Animals.

There are a lot of reasons for us to move forward on better care, Perdue told The Portland Press-Herald. Its good for the chicken, farmer and the meat.

Its also good news for the consumer, reports Mercy for Animals. According to a nation-wide survey conducted by the group, more than three quarters of consumers felt that supermarkets should require their suppliers to improve the manner in which they raise and process broiler chickens.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The Herald, too, reports that Perdue is likely trying to appeal to millennial shoppers and the changing tastes of the consumer.

Perdue Foods originally announced plans to improve its practices in June 2016, after a series of meetings with the Humane Society of the United States.

Perdue says the company will expand its gas stunning practices at a Delaware facility in November before rolling it out at other facilities.
A 10-year-old Miami boy died of a fentanyl overdose after visiting a local pool last month, making him among Florida's youngest victims of the opioid crisis sweeping the nation.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon that authorities did not know how the child, Alton Banks, came into contact with the powerful painkiller.



"We don't believe he got it at his home," Rundle told reporters. "It could be as simple as touching it. It could have been a towel at the pool ... We just don't know."



BOY WITH RARE 'STONE MAN' SYNDROME WON'T LET IT STOP BASEBALL DREAMS

Alton began vomiting at his home June 23 after visiting the pool in the Overtown section of Miami. He was found unconscious that evening and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Assistant Miami Fire Chief Pete Gomez told the Associated Press he has seen a spike in overdoses over the past year in Overtown, a poor, high-crime neighborhood where needles sometimes litter the streets.

"There is an epidemic," Gomez said. "Overtown seems to have the highest percentage of where these incidents are occurring."



MAN CONTRACTS HANTAVIRUS AFTER STAYING IN CABINS AT CALIFORNIA PARK, FAMILY SAYS

The three-block walk between the pool and Alton's home took him down streets that appeared relatively clean Tuesday, but on the block in the other direction from his home, trash littered the pavement and empty lots. Homeless people slept in the shade of an Interstate 95 overpass.

Detectives are still trying to piece together the boy's final day. Rundle appealed to the public for information.

"This is of such great importance. We need to solve this case," she said. "I believe this may be the youngest victim of this scourge in our community."

The boy's mother, Shantell Banks, was informed of the preliminary findings last week. A distraught Banks told The Miami Herald that her son was a "fun kid" who wanted to become an engineer and loved the NFL's Carolina Panthers, especially Cam Newton.

Jessie Davis, who lives in an apartment house next to the building where Alton lived, said her grandchildren, ages 8, 9 and 10, regularly make the same walk to the nearby park with a swimming pool. She said she initially thought the pool water made Alton sick and was shocked by news reports that he had been exposed to fentanyl.

"Where would a 10-year-old baby get something like that?" Davis said.

Thinking about her own grandchildren going to the pool, Davis said, "I'm going to tell them, 'Don't touch nothing.' I don't know whether they think it's candy, but somebody needs to tell these kids something."

The Florida Department of Children and Families said it is conducting its own investigation, in addition to that of the police.

Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that has been used for decades to treat cancer patients and others in severe pain. But recently it has been front-and-center in the U.S. opioid abuse crisis.

Perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star Prince, it is many times stronger than heroin. Dealers often mix it with heroin, a combination that has often proved lethal.

Fentanyl is so powerful that some police departments have warned officers not to even touch it. Last year, three police dogs in Broward County got sick after sniffing the drug during a federal raid, officials said.

Gomez said his crews wear long sleeves, coveralls, gloves and masks while handling fentanyl. And "you never want to start reaching into people's pockets," he said, explaining that crews often cut people's pockets open for fear of pricking themselves with needles.

The Florida Legislature addressed the epidemic, passing a law that imposes stiff mandatory sentences on dealers caught with 4 grams or more of fentanyl or its variants. The law also makes it possible to charge dealers with murder if they provide a fatal dose of fentanyl or drugs mixed with fentanyl. The law goes into effect Oct. 1.

Nearly 300 overdose deaths in Miami-Dade County last year involved variants of fentanyl, according to the medical examiner's office. Statewide, fentanyl and its variants killed 853 people in the first half of 2016. Of those, only nine were under age 18.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Health officials in New Hampshire issued a warning Monday about potential exposure to measles at a popular beach on the Atlantic Ocean.

State officials said the out-of-state resident with measles traveled to Hampton Beach on July 9, and spent several hours there at various locations.

The infected visitor was in the area from noon until 6 p.m. and spent time on the beach, in addition to several locations on Ocean Boulevard.

The person spent almost all their time in the open air, which "likely minimizes the risk of further transmission," the health department said.

Measles is a very contagious disease because it can be transmitted through the air. However, we do not anticipate a large outbreak because of the high vaccination rate of people in the state, State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said in a statement. This situation is a good reminder for people to check their own vaccination status to make sure they are protected against future infection.

Officials, however, are encouraging people who were at Hampton Beach on July 9 to monitor themselves for symptoms, which usually begin with high fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis several days before development of a body rash.

Anyone who feels sick is urged by health officials to contact their healthcare provider before going directly to a healthcare facility.
Editors note: This has been updated from an earlier version, written prior to McConnells cancellation of the Senate health care vote.

Monday nights headlines announced: Health bill stalls as more GOP senators announce opposition. Imagine the dismay of House Republicans when they read or hear these sound bites. More importantly, imagine the distress of constituents across the nation who are suffering under ObamaCare. Our party campaigned on repealing and replacing ObamaCare with something better, but until now the opportunity was never truly possible.

We House Republican freshmen remain fully aware that we were elected with a mandate from voters to end the pain that ObamaCare has caused and provide a better solution. Failure to do so is a failure to follow the will of our voters who elected a Republican majority to both the House and Senate, placed a Republican in the White House, and worked tirelessly to secure change from the status quo.

Irene Solesky, a mortgage underwriter from Maryland, points out that medical insurance, designed to protect people from financial ruin when they become ill, is actually driving people to financial ruin.

None of this comes as a surprise given the staggering statistics: Just seven years after the Affordable Care Act became law, 3 million people could have just one insurer available to them, while 35,000 could have no carriers at all. Premiums have increased 105 percent. Rather than bear these excessive costs, 6.5 million Americans chose to pay penalties, amounting to a total of $3 billion in 2015 alone. Its no wonder many have chosen not to purchase insurance given that those with insurance bear massive deductibles ranging from $3,000 to $10,000.

Behind these statistics are people. People like Michelle Harris, a retired waitress who suffers from arthritis, an ailment brought on by years of serving tables. With ObamaCare co-pays and deductibles, she cant afford to see a physician to manage her disease. It hurts, she said, but we dont have that kind of money.

Irene Solesky, a mortgage underwriter from Maryland, points out that medical insurance, designed to protect people from financial ruin when they become ill, is actually driving people to financial ruin. Soleskys family paid $1,351 in premiums in 2016 and a had a massive $13,100 deductible. Yet, this is what ObamaCare has led toit took a system that needed improvement and piled a complex network of taxes and regulations on top of it, further harming American families. Less choice, less access and higher costs. This is the reality ObamaCare has forced upon Americans.

Simply putting a band-aid on the problem will not fix the gaping wound ObamaCare has created. Handing billions of dollars to insurance companies to deal with skyrocketing premiums will not fix the problem, rather it will just temporarily alleviate the losses insurance carriers have taken under ObamaCare. Insurers will continue to leave the exchange, and the American people will continue to have fewer options. Just this week, we saw a 38 percent drop in the number of insurers that have agreed to participate in the 2018 ObamaCare exchange. This is not because Republicans are obstructing ObamaCare fixes, but because ObamaCare, at its core, is unsustainable.

The American people sent Republican majorities to Washington to end business as usual and save our health care system before it collapses. We can no longer afford to kick the can down the road. It is time for real solutions. The American people can no longer suffer under the collapse of ObamaCare  which is inevitable if the GOP fails to act. Thats why the House passed the American Health Care Act, and why the Senate must act.

The House did its work, it is time for our colleagues in the Senate to do theirs.

By Reps. Jodey Arrington (TX-19), Don Bacon (NE-2), Jack Bergman (MI-1), Neal Dunn (FL-2), Drew Ferguson (GA-3), Matt Gaetz (FL-1), Mike Johnson (LA-4), Roger Marshall, M.D. (KS-1), Brian Mast (FL-18), Paul Mitchell (MI-10), John Rutherford (FL-4), and Claudia Tenney (NY-22)
The silence is deafening.

A new federal case teases the makeup of a classic horror story: abused children, womens rights, sexuality and big-name lawyers. Yet, the news media who pride themselves on covering feminism are censoring a case out of Michigan alleging that up to 100 young girls were victims of female genital mutilation (FGM).

The blackout can be stopped. I saw firsthand, covering the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, that public outrage can shame the media into reporting a case. And this media silence, as with Gosnell, is shameful.

Since 2005, girls as young as 6-years-old reportedly suffered FGM in a federal case the Department of Justice calls the first of its kind. Thats because, while a recent CDC study estimated that half a million U.S. women and girls were at risk of or subjected to FGM, evidence was difficult to pinpoint. Until now.

Each child was told to keep her abuse a secret. They didnt. But the national media have.

In late April, a grand jury issued the first federal FGM indictment in U.S. history. Complaints by government officials singled out three alleged perpetrators, all part of a Shiite Muslim sect. According to initial reports: Dr. Fakhruddin Attar allowed Dr. Jumana Nagarwala use of his clinic to perform FGM, while his wife, Farida Attar, held the girls hands for comfort.

While the case claims more victims, the complaints centered on the disturbing testimonies and medical examinations of two seven-year-olds from Minnesota.

The first little girl revealed that both children traveled to Michigan under the premise of a special girls trip. They visited the doctor, she said, because our tummies hurt and underwent a procedure to get the germs out. While on an examination table, with her legs spread, she remembered being pinched on the place [where] she goes pee.

The second seven-year-old got a shot that made her scream in pain, she recalled. In a picture she drew of the scene, she placed blood on the examination table and said that she could barely walk afterwards.

Each child was told to keep her abuse a secret. They didnt. But the national media have.

A Nexis search of the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) would leave any researcher in the dark about the case, even as it has inspired new legislation nationwide. And while newspapers and magazines have noted it, the story has been largely left to local reporters.

That might have something to do with another, controversial, factor at play. As local news confirmed, Dr. Nagarwala, the Attars and the girls families belong to a small sect of Shiite Muslims, the Dawoodi Bohra.

According to some members of this community, the Michigan case complaints read, the purpose of this cutting is to suppress female sexuality in an attempt to reduce sexual pleasure and promiscuity.

The defense team, consulted by attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Mayer Morganroth, is arguing religious freedom for a symbolic pinprick.

Dershowitz, professor emeritus of law at Harvard and Fox News contributor, submitted a statement for this piece. He agrees that the media response has been generally ill informed, but from a different standpoint.

This is not a case of female genital mutilation, he argues in a statement for this piece. The practice at issue is far more benign, as will be shown at trial.

He also stresses that his role in the case, as a consultant to the religious group, whose goal is to work out a compromise resolution that assures no harm to the child, has been misrepresented.

The media should interview the women who belong to this group and get their take on the practice, he recommended. This is a complicated constitutional case that should be covered with nuance.

If only the broadcast networks would cover it at all.

While disputed, its a case illuminating a scarily secretive form of enslavement for our countrys girls. Unlike male circumcision (which Dershowitz brought up in relation to the case), FGM presents no health benefits, the World Health Organization says, but can inflict lasting physical and emotional pain. FGM victims, such as those Dershowitz recommended interviewing, agree.

Yet the networks have not only ignored this case, but also failed to mention female genital mutilation once in 2017. Let this sink in: the media that obsess over abortion, free birth control and events like the Womens March havent uttered one word on this human rights violation plaguing 200 million women worldwide today.

A similar situation happened with the case of Gosnell. Among other things, the abortionist was convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder of three babies, following a trial where witnesses described abortion survivors swimming" in toilets to get out.

While they have differences, both cases present the same issues: abuse of societys vulnerable by doctors, hot-button political topics (abortion for one, Islam for the other), and censorship by the network news shows.

During Gosnells case, I counted a mere 12 to 15 reporters present while I covered the trial. It took 56 days, letters from politicians, a USA Today column and a public outcry, before the networks reported on Gosnell.

That pressure needs to happen again.

Its the sacred duty of the news media to inform the public. When journalists shirk that responsibility, it falls upon American citizens to educate the press  and insist they shed light on atrocities against our most vulnerable.
Editor's note: The following column originally appeared in The Hill newspaper and on TheHill.com.

Last week, President Trump said it is just blather  not a fact  that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted him to win the presidency.

So, what I keep hearingthat he would have rather had Trump [win], I think Probably not, the president said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Who is annoying the president with evidence that the Russians spread fake news and hacked email accounts to turn voters against his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton?

The sources are intelligence agents of the United States  the men and women who are the presidents frontline for information on threats to the U.S. from terrorists and hostile nations.

Since the end of World War Two, presidents of both parties have given special consideration to the people who put their lives on the line to provide sensitive, often secret information to the president and Congress. Historically, presidents defend intelligence agents, even when they use excessive tactics to get facts.

Trump does not see it that way. In his first six months in office, he has displayed unprecedented presidential disdain for the intelligence community.

Just before his inaugural, he tweeted that U.S. intelligence agencies were engaged in tactics similar to those of Nazi Germany. He accused them of being behind leaks to reporters that led to news stories about Russias efforts to help his campaign.

Trumps extreme attacks on intelligence officials are in line with his outbursts against the media. In both instances, he is intent on diminishing claims that his election victory is not legitimate because Russia, a hostile foreign power, wanted him in office to advance its own agenda  specifically ending economic sanctions.

But when it comes to publicly trashing the people working at the CIA, the FBI and the NSA, Trump is making history. No president has attacked the entire intelligence community to serve his own political interests.

Two weeks ago, the president reopened old wounds when he reminded reporters at a press conference in Poland that Americas best intelligence agencies failed when they said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Why did he bring that up? Once again, his goal was to diminish the value of their finding that Russia wanted him to win the 2016 election.

Well, I think it was Russia and I think it could have been other people and other countries, the president said. It could have been a lot of people interfered. He has previously said China or a fat man on a basement bed could have had a hand in meddling in the election.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), in a CNN interview after the president skewered the intelligence community at the Poland news conference, said flatly, the president is not telling the truth when he says no one really knows if Russia engaged in the cyberattack last year. Russia did it. There is no rational person who looked at evidence and concluded otherwise.

The president continued his attack on intelligence agencies findings last week even after the disclosure that his son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed to meet with a Russian lawyer  having being told in an email message that she had information damaging to Clinton that came from the Russian government.

Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden said Trump Jr.s emails were game-changing

"The overall American intelligence community, with a high confidence in judgment, [says] the Russians interfered in the American election," Hayden said in a television interview.

A Suffolk University/USA Today poll taken in late June  before these emails were revealed  found that 73 percent of voters agree Russias meddling in our election was either a very serious or somewhat serious issue (55 and 18 percent, respectively).

That public perception is rooted in the January report from the office of the Director of National Intelligence  based on reporting done by the CIA, FBI and NSA  that concluded with high confidence that Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential electionto undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.

And despite Trumps denials, the intelligence report added that Putin had a clear preference for President-elect Trump.

Last week, McClatchys Washington bureau reported Congressional committees as well as the FBI are looking at whether the Trump campaign helped guide Russias sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks, on the Clinton campaign.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters Peter Stone and Greg Gordon of McClatchy that he is probing how the Russians knew the best timing and best targets for placing damaging stories, many fake, about Clinton on social media for voters in key states.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, similarly has told reporters that Russians somehow knew how to target states and levels of voters, including women and African Americans, in states that proved decisive to the outcome of the election, such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

Trump calls these probes the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in U.S. history.

The presidents distaste for the independence of the intelligence communitys work was evident in his May dismissal of James Comey as FBI director. Trump derided Comey as crazy and a real nut job, to top Russian government officials during a later meeting in the Oval Office.

A friend recently called to ask what I made of a 3 a.m. tweet from Eric Holder. The former Attorney General advised the career men and women at the Justice Department and FBI that their actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned  be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country.

It is the right response  the only response  to attacks on the intelligence community from the president.
The circus is back in town. O.J. Simpson is getting exactly what he loves  attention.

There's never a pause as to why any news on Orenthal James Simpson is cutting-edge journalism. I got it 23 years ago: "Heisman Trophy winner and star running back kills ex-wife and boyfriend."

But the tragedy has been lived, televised, and documented to death. And now O.J. is center stage once more trying to get parole for a two-bit robbery in Las Vegas where 10 years ago he rationalized that property that was once his somehow always remains "O.J.s Stuff."

Ten years ago, when O.J. took an entourage of dummies to a Las Vegas hotel to retrieve his "stuff," he once again felt above the law.

He walked into that hotel room where the victims knew exactly who was confronting them.

Someone was hit, pushed. A gun was waved around. One victim was forced to move  ah, a kidnapping! Quite a caper.

Somewhere along the way Simpson forgot about a little thing called a civil judgment and even if these disputed items in this Las Vegas hotel weren't legally the victim's property, they surely were not Simpson's  they belonged to the Brown and Goldman families.

The Simpson gang gets arrested. Now the Las Vegas detectives play the small fish to land the big one. Suspects start rolling over to get a deal.

The detectives did exactly what I would have done. A suspect who got away with a double murder was dumb enough to come here and pull this silly robbery.

They threw every charge at Simpson they could including the big enchilada  kidnapping. Trial goes down and the "Juice" gets 10 to 33 years. Good work guys.

Now nine years later O.J. is up for parole. Of course he is. He has done more time for a business dispute robbery where the main suspect knew the victim than any case in my law enforcement experience.

Nine years in prison! Thats a big chunk of time for a suspect with a clean rap sheet.

The big question: "Will O.J. get paroled?" I would say, "Yes."

The legal reasoning for parole is that he did the minimum time without any prison violations. But the behind-the-scenes motivation might be to get Simpson out of the Nevada prison system.

Regardless, I predict that on October 1, O.J. Simpson will walk out of Lovelock Prison.
NYPD Commissioner James ONeill deserves answers. In his heartfelt and passionate eulogy at the funeral of Bronx Police Officer Miosotis Familia, who was assassinated by a cop-hating madman, ONeill demanded to know, Where are the demonstrations for this single mom, who cared for her elderly mother and her own three children? There is anger and sorrow, but why is there no is outrage?

His questions are straightforward, and sadly, so are the answers. They are rooted in the age-old warning that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Most New Yorkers are blase about a dedicated police officers murder because they forget how their city got to be great, and so are blind to signs of decline. Two decades after Gotham hit rock bottom, its glorious comeback is threatened by a return of the political incompetence, corruption and public apathy that nearly destroyed it.

That earlier era was notorious for exploding crime and the emptying of mental hospitals that created the first wave of homelessness. Taking stock of the breakdown of civic order, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote an article for The American Scholar in 1993 titled Defining Deviancy Down in which he warned about normalizing abnormal behavior.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column from the New York Post, click here.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared and several other Democratic senators sent a letter to GOP leadership members Monday demanding a further delay of a vote on the Republican's partial repeal and replace of Obamacare -- pending "public hearings" to discuss the bill's contents.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to delay the Senate's vote on the Better Care Conciliation Act originally planned for this week while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recovers from a surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye. Because Republicans only hold 52 seats and 50 votes are required for the bill's passage, McConnell cannot afford a single further GOP defection. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) have already pledged to vote against the measure.

The Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, included Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The trio penned a letter to McConnell, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) looking to throw a further wrench into the GOP's tenuous shot at passing health care reform.

"Given your decision to delay the vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, we request that you use this additional time to hold public hearings ... on the policies in the bill, especially the radically conservative Cruz/Lee proposal released to the public only five days ago," Schumer and the other Democrats wrote.

The "radically conservative" proposal that Schumer cited originated from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and would allow health insurance providers to sell plans that do not fully comply with Obamacare mandates, so long as at least one fully compliant plan was also offered.

The "public hearings" the Senate Democrats called for would allow senators and the American people to "hear unfiltered and unbiased analysis" of the GOP's bill, the letter claimed. Schumer also urged his Republican counterparts to forgo voting on the bill until the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could release its finalized analysis.

The longer a vote is delayed, the greater the risk for GOP leaders that one more Republican will defect.

Paul noted Sunday on Fox News' "Fox News Sunday" that "the longer the bill's out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it's not repeal."

Schumer and the Democrats, however, hope the bill will collapse, potentially spurring GOP leaders to cut a deal with Democrats to shore-up Obamacare rather than allow a health care system collapse.

"This bill should be scrapped because it hurts middle class Americans too much at the same time that it gives tax breaks to the wealthy," Schumer told reporters Sunday. "Instead, have Democrats and Republicans sit down and work together on improving Obamacare, specifically making premiums lower and health care better."

Schumer added that "time is not the problem in the present health care bill" because the problem is with "the substance."

The Democrats hope this legislative failure will reflect poorly on Trump and turn his base against him.

"They can point the finger at Trump, but he was unable to fix what they broke," said Dr. Ramin Oskoui, a leading cardiologist in the Washington, D.C., area and a senior health care adviser to LifeZette. "So, I don't think it's at all a failure of Trump's. They can try to tie it to him."

"Trump was really good at messaging during the campaign, and he campaigned in a unique way -- a way that really distanced himself from the establishment. This is a failure of the Republican establishment, and they will hang for this, I think, because the American people elected them across the country to fix this," Oskoui added. "Trump can very easily rationalize to them, 'Listen, I'm a Washington newbie. [House Speaker Paul] Ryan and McConnell, they've passed these bills before. They couldn't even give me one of the bills they passed before for me to sign. I would do it. But I can't sign what they don't pass."

Oskoui suggested the political cost will be staggering for Republicans in Congress.

"The big loser here is congressional Republicans. After bloviating for seven years about how they were gonna repeal and replace the [Affordable Care Act], they haven't been able to pull it together," Oskoui said, noting that "liberal" Republicans like Collins "know that their constituents are addicted to government-subsidized healthcare, as are the insurance industries."

"So I think Schumer wins," Oskoui said, noting that the Democrats have "shown the Republicans to be as dysfunctional as I've always been afraid they were."

"I don't think Trump loses, though. I think Trump has been very clever with his message. 'I'm sitting here in the White House with a pen ready to sign,'" Oskoui added.

Sure enough, Trump repeatedly has pressured GOP congress members through tweets, speeches and meetings to follow through on their campaign promises and deliver the healthcare reform they promised the American people.

"Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!" Trump tweet Friday, adding, "After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!"

"Trump got elected because people were tired of the lack of rule of law, they were tired of the corruption in Washington. And the Republicans, I think, unfortunately brought the focus on themselves by not being able to put forward a bill that changes things like they promised they would. There's always an excuse," Oskoui said.

If Republicans fail to deliver, Oskoui noted that "McConnell and Ryan are going to have to go hat in hand to [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi and Schumer."

"McCain's illness is really icing on the cake. The Republicans were never going to be able to pass a bill that would meaningfully lower premiums and healthcare costs," Oskoui said. "Even as our economy collapses, these guys diddle and make political points ... They played petty politics. They curried donors' favor."

Oskoui noted however that even if Democrats succeed in stopping the GOP push for health care reform, they do still face a messaging problem.

"Democrats have a bigger problem," he said, "they don't have a message. You know, they can talk about Russia and Trump, they can talk about Trump's coarseness of speech, but the problem is ... they don't have have a message as to why I should vote Democratic."

A new Washington Post/ABC News revealed that 52 percent of respondents believe that Democrats stand "just against Trump," rather than standing for a positive and cohesive message of their own. And this, Oskoui warned, could cause Democrats to suffer severe consequences in the 2018 midterm elections.

"They've got to actually think about how they're going to come up with a message that will still win the day, and I think that's their biggest problem. Instead of giving Trump all this air time, I think they need to start coming up with a message that makes sense to everyone," Oskoui said. "We would't be in this position if they hadn't screwed it up in 2009. So that's a double-edged sword."

"I wouldn't be laughing too hard," Oskoui added. "I think that that's like running into a brick wall. I don't think that's going to help them. I think they're going to look like obstructionists, and it will be easy to frame them that way."

"Unfortunately, I think the American people lose, I think the congressional Republicans lose big, and I think the next group that loses is -- I think the Demorcats aren't able to monetize this, because then they still own healthcare, which is good for Trump, which is good for everyone but them. We're here because of you," Oskoui concluded.
Republican Senators Mike Lee, of Utah, and Jerry Moran, of Kansas, announced late Monday they would not support the GOP's most recent verison of the Senate health care bill, effectively stalling the legislation.

In a statement released Monday night, Sen. Lee said he will vote no on the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest version of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, Sen. Lee said. In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesnt go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations.

Sen. Moran tweeted his official statement in which he voiced his opposition to the Senate's latest bill, stating, "We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy."

The two senators join Senators Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Susan Collins, of Maine, who both made clear last week they would not support the bill.

With a 52-48 majority, the two senators' opposition to the bill means it is effectively dead in the Senate.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate's second failure at attempting to repeal and replace ObamaCare is "proof" that the bill is "unworkable."

The legislation, which was strongly backed by President Donald Trump, is the second failure in the Senate for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had to cancel voting on an earlier version of the bill last month when it became clear it wouldn't pass. McConnell had planned to "move to proceed" on the health care bill this week.

The Senate bill eliminated mandates and taxes under ObamaCare, and unraveled a Medicaid expansion. But for conservatives like Lee and Paul it didn't go far enough in delivering on Republican Party promises to undo Obama's law, while moderates like Collins viewed the bill as too extreme in yanking insurance coverage from millions.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Republican National Committee is condemning a member who shared a social media post encouraging Arizona Sen. John McCain to "just die already."

The message came Monday from Republican national committeewoman Diana Orrock of Nevada. Orrock tweeted, "Amen," in response to another Twitter user who had written, "Please Just (expletive) Die Already" above the hashtag "JohnMcCain".

MCCAIN'S ABSENCE EXPOSES MCCONNELL'S SHAKY HEALTH VOTE MATH

McCain, 80, is recuperating from surgery to remove a blood clot.

Republican National Committee spokesman Ryan Mahoney called Orrock's tweet "extremely inappropriate." He called McCain a war hero who made countless sacrifices on behalf of all Americans.

Mahoney wished the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee a "speedy recovery."

Orrock deleted the tweet after it attracted media coverage. She did not respond to a voicemail or a text message seeking comment.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said he will not resign from office following calls from city leadership to do so.

Murray made the announcement Monday, stating We do not need the sort of abrupt and destabilizing transition that a resignation would create.

Calls for the citys first openly gay mayors resignation came after four men, one of them his foster son, claimed Murray sexually abused them as teenagers in the 1980s.

CALLS GROW FOR SEATTLE MAYOR TO RESIGN AFTER SEXUAL ABUSE REPORT

Four city councilmembers issued a statement of their own, following Murrays announcement Monday afternoon.

As we speak today, there has been no proof that he has willfully violated his duties, part of the statement reads, referring to the mayor. The Mayor has directed staff in the necessary transitions this fall to a new mayoral administration and these are necessary steps for a successful transition.

Murray, who has strongly denied the allegations against him, said in May that he would not seek reelection in the fall but pledged to serve the remainder of his term.

Murray said the allegations of sexual abuse were fully investigated, but prosecutors never brought charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Trump administration will certify that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear agreement signed two years ago in Vienna, according to administration officials, but insisted that Tehran will face consequences for breaching the spirit of the deal.

President Trump, who lambasted the 2015 pact as a candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to scuttle the agreement or let it stand. Senior administration officials, instead, sought to emphasize their concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions won't go unpunished.

In a shift from Trump's previous threat to "rip up" the deal, officials said the administration was working with U.S. allies to try to fix the deal's flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more. The officials also said the U.S. would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalizing it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Senior administration officials say they will, in coordination with European allies, push for stronger interpretation and enforcement of the nuclear agreement and enact more sanctions in response to Iran's ballistic missile program.

Trump called the nuclear agreement "the worst deal ever" during the 2016 campaign, but his administration has now certified Iran's compliance twice.

The officials say the U.S. is not pursuing regime change in Iran, but wants to stop its aggressive behavior.

In its condemnation of Iran, senior officials emphasized several longstanding U.S. concerns about Iran's ballistic missile programs, human rights abuses and support for terrorism in the region. They also criticized Iran for detaining U.S. citizens and limiting freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

US is certifying that conditions laid out have been met based on info avail to us as of today, a senior official said to Fox News on Monday. However, The Secretary of State and the President intend to emphasize that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to regional stability.

The late-night announcement capped a day of frenzied, last-minute decision-making by the president, exposing deep divisions within his administration in handling a top national security issue.

Since early last week, Trump's administration had been prepared to make the certification, a quarterly requirement. Trump first told Congress in April that Iran was indeed complying, but with no final decision on his broader Iran policy, the White House had planned to let it stand for another three months.

When Trump made his first certification, he paired it with new sanctions for non-nuclear behavior to show there was no softening of his stance toward the Islamic Republic.

The deal was first enacted in 2015, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear program, long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons, in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

The deal does not address global concerns about Iran's non-nuclear activities, but also doesn't prevent the U.S. and others from punishing Iran for those activities. Iran remains on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism for its support of anti-Israel groups.

Scuttling the deal would put further distance between Trump and foreign leaders who are already upset over his move to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris global climate change accord.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
The White House has threatened Venezuela with potential strong and swift economic actions if the country's socialist government imposes a plan to rewrite the constitution and consolidate the ruling party's power -- a plan that more than 7 million people rejected in a vote over the weekend.

Yesterday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law, the White House said in a statement on Monday evening. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.

Organizers said they hoped Sunday's symbolic referendum would discourage President Nicolas Maduros planned national election on July 30 to pick a 545-member special assembly that would have the ability to build a new constitution.

The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles, The White House said. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions. The United States once again calls for free and fair elections and stands with the people of Venezuela in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy.

VENEZUELA VIOLENCE: WOMAN KILLED, 4 INJURED AS THOUSANDS VOTE IN OPPOSITION REFERENDUM

Maduro made no mention of the opposition's strike plans in a lengthy television appearance Monday afternoon but called on his foes to recognize that Sunday's vote had been almost entirely peaceful.

The vote was marred by violence when a 61-year-old woman was killed and four people wounded by gunfire after government supporters on motorcycles swarmed an opposition polling site at a church in western Caracas.

Fox News' Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A CNN political commentator repeatedly referred to President Trump as your president on a panel Monday, refusing to acknowledge him as her president too.

Angela Rye appeared on host John Bermans show for a discussion with former Republican Rep. Jack Kingston on Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials during the 2016 presidential election.

Do you really think they would have had five people in a meeting if this was about collusion with Russia? Kingston, a former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said as he defended Donald Trump Jr.s June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. It just defies logic.

Rye responded: There are a lot of things that your president has done to defy logiclets at least acknowledge that.

Your president too, Angela. Your president, too, Kingston fired back.

Well, hes your president, Rye said again, refusing to call Trump her president.

CNN host John Berman chimed in to moderate the discussion and said, the president of the United States.

Rye took to Twitter on Monday evening, posting a video clip from the discussion.

Rye tweeted: Another day of #RussiaGate. #AlternativeFactChecker! #NotMyPresident...
Republican Larry Hogan is among the most popular governors in Maryland history, but Democrats in the deep-blue state are intent on denying him a second term.

As many as eight Democrats already have announced or hinted at a campaign to knock off Hogan -- only the second Republican governor in Maryland in nearly five decades -- in next year's election.

The latest polling that we have shows about 6 percent of the people in Maryland strongly disapprove of the job Im doing, Hogan told Fox News, during a recent event in voter-rich Montgomery County. It seems like all of them want to run for governor. I wish them all well. I dont know wholl be the lucky one  but well be ready for them.

His November 2014 victory was widely considered the political upset of that election cycle, with Hogan even admitting he pulled off the nearly impossible.

The evolving field of 2018 Democratic hopefuls includes such marquee names as former NAACP leader Ben Jealous, Maryland Rep. John Delaney and former state Attorney General Doug Gansler.

Theres no question about Marylands political tilt. Roughly half the states 3.9 million voters are registered Democrats; Republicans havent controlled the General Assembly since the early 1900s; the last GOP senator was elected to Congress in 1970; and a Democrat has been governor in roughly 42 of the past 49 years.

Former Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards acknowledged the party primary will be very, very robust" but suggested Democrats must do more than lean on their historical advantages to defeat Hogan.

If youre just going by the numbers, Democrats should win statewide offices, she told Fox News last week. But we havent always seen that in gubernatorial races. Its incumbent upon Democrats to have a message for people in this state.

Democrats also are targeting Hogan in another attempt to hand Republican President Trump his first big election loss -- after failing so far this year in four special elections to take a GOP-held seat.

If Democrats are raring to steal one back from Trump, then Maryland is ripe for the picking, said Maryland Republican Party official Rob Carter, who suggested recent polling data shows Democrats in the state are as strong as ever, even a little bit stronger.

Democrats largely attribute Hogans 2014 win over then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown to their candidates lackluster campaign, voters being over-taxed for eight years by Democratic Gov. Martin OMalley and low voter turnout in strongholds Montgomery and Prince Georges counties.

However, Hogan, a former businessman who didnt endorse Trump, captured the attention of voters with a steady message of jobs and economic growth that he continues to tout.

The 61-year-old Hogan has also largely averted the kind of political battles with the Democrat-controlled Assembly that contributed to Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. losing his 2006 reelection bid.

And he has spent millions on critical taxpayer concerns while continuing to avoid standoffs on such social issues as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Hogan last year yielded to complaints from state Democrats, including members of the Black Legislative Caucus, about his request for roughly $18 million for a new jail, recommending the money instead go to projects for state universities.

And in March, he committed an additional $50 million to the Marylands opioid addiction crisis.

I was the first governor in the country to declare a state of emergency on heroin and opioid, he said last week, while touring the Wider Circle charity center in Montgomerys Silver Spring.

Hogan remains widely popular, according to recent Washington Post/University of Maryland polls.

Delaney, though, recently said the governors only noteworthy legislative accomplishments have been lowering tolls and making schools start after Labor Day.

Im just going to try to stay focused on Maryland, said Hogan, diagnosed in 2015 with cancer that is now in remission. Maybe a year or so from now well start thinking about reelection.

Carter also said Hogan has been "nearly flawless in his first three years, despite great headwinds."

Most political observers argue that the Democrats path to the governorship is through Baltimore City and Montgomery and Prince Georges counties -- each a party stronghold and three of the states four biggest voting blocs.

Voting in Prince Georges, a big part of Edwards' former congressional district, could play a pivotal role.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the county more than 10-to-1, and 65 percent of the population is African-American.

Jealous and other candidates must compete in the primary there against popular County Executive Rushern Baker, who if successful would become the states first black governor.

But you have to show up and have a message that appeals to voters, said Edwards, elected to four terms with an average 79 percent of the general election vote before losing a 2016 Senate bid. You cannot just show up at churches on Election Day and hope that is going to work.
The Russian lawyer who landed a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during last years presidential campaign with the promise of dirt on Hillary Clinton had one big thing in common with the Democratic candidate: Both had opposed Russia sanctions targeting human-rights abusers.

Further, former Secretary of State Clintons initial opposition coincided with a $500,000 speech her husband gave in Moscow  a link her 2016 campaign fought to downplay in the press, according to WikiLeaks-released documents.

Trump White House officials now are trying to draw attention to that speech and the Clintons ties to Russia in a bid to counter criticism over Trump Jr.s now-infamous meeting.

If you want to talk about having relationships with Russia, I'd look no further than the Clintons, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a briefing last week. Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give a speech to a Russian bank, personally thanked by President Putin.

With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRCs opposition to the Magnitsky bill a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow.  May, 2015 email from Clinton campaign staffer

The former president indeed had received a personal call from then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressing his appreciation for the speech. According to Mrs. Clintons ethics disclosure form filed while she was secretary of State, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 by the Russia-based finance company Renaissance Capital for his June 29, 2010, speech in Moscow to its employees and guests attending the company's annual conference.

The speech is now coming back to haunt the Clintons, considering the company that cut the check was allegedly tied to the scandal that spurred the Global Magnitsky Act, a bill that imposed sanctions on Russians designated as human-rights abusers and eventually would become law in 2012.

This was the same law Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was lobbying against during her sit-down with Trump Jr. last year. And back in 2010, it would have put the Clintons on her side.

Shortly before Bill Clintons speech in 2010, when members of Congress pushing the sanctions bill had asked Hillary Clinton to refuse visas to Russian officials implicated under the policy, the State Department denied the request. The Obama administration initially was opposed to the Magnitsky Act because then-President Barack Obama was seeking a reset with Russia and did not want to deepen the divide between the two countries.

Former President Bill Clintons speech to Renaissance just weeks later was all the more curious, considering Renaissances Russian investment bank executives would have been banned from the U.S. under the law.

Fast-forward to 2015, and the timeline apparently had caught the attention of Bloomberg News.

According to a memo from Clintons presidential campaign team later published by WikiLeaks, however, the Clinton campaign was able to stop the presses.

With the help of the research team, we killed a Bloomberg story trying to link HRCs opposition to the Magnitsky bill a $500,000 speech that WJC gave in Moscow, Jesse Lehrich, on the Rapid Response Communications team for Hillary For America, boasted on May 21, 2015.

The Global Magnitsky Act was named for 36-year-old tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky, who died in the custody of the Russian government after accusing the government and organized crime of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a foreign company, Hermitage Capital Management. Magnitsky, hired by foreign investor and Hermitage owner William Browder, had tracked what turned out to be hundreds of millions of dollars in tax fraud. He reported the fraud to the Russian authorities, but instead of pursuing charges against the alleged offender, Russian authorities jailed Magnitsky.

After Magnitsky died in November 2009, Browder said Magnitsky proved Renaissance officials were among those orchestrating the scheme.

The State Department finally reversed its position in 2011 and refused visas to some Russians purportedly involved in the financial fraud seeking to enter the country.

The Magnitsky Act passed with bipartisan support in 2012.

Russia retaliated against the U.S., ending any possibility for Americans to adopt Russian orphans and also banning 18 U.S. officials from entering their country.
Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO, is unloading on Washington gridlockand pointing a finger at the press.

Why you guys dont write about it every day is completely beyond me, Dimon said on an earnings conference call.

So I thought about it: Why dont we?

Well, for one thing, the Beltway paralysis has been going on for so long that it would be like writing that D.C. is unbearably humid in July.

It was true in George W. Bushs second term, when he couldnt even get a committee vote on his Social Security privatization bill. It was true for the last six years of Barack Obamas administration, after he shoved through the health care bill on a party-line vote. And its been true for the first six months under Donald Trump, whose strategic and policy forum includes Dimon as a member.

So when Democrats are dragging their feet on Trumps agenda, just as Republicans did on Obamas, theres a tendency to throw up our hands and say it will always be thus.

At the same time, we in the media have written and talked about gridlock quite a bit, but usually through the prism of assessing Trump.

As in: Why hasnt he been able to pass major legislation when his party controls both houses of Congress?

The president was able to get his ObamaCare revamp through the House, but the Senate keeps postponing a vote, most recently because John McCain is recovering from surgery. The Republicans dont have the votes, and that reflects a deep divide in the party.

Dimon says that this administration can make breakthroughs in taxes and infrastructure and regulatory reform. And he may be right. But the White House has yet to unveil a tax cut bill or an infrastructure measure.

And the Democrats are having their own identity crisis.

A Washington Post/ABC poll, which has Trump declining six points to 36 percent, contains some clues. About twice as many Americans prefer ObamaCare to the Republican plan to replace it, 50 to 24 percent.

But there is a major warning sign for the Democratic Party as well: Some 37 percent say the party currently stands for something, while 52 percent say it mainly stands against Trump. Even among Democrats, over one-quarter say their party primarily stands in opposition to Trump rather than for their own agenda.

Its hard to argue when Dimon says we have become one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies on the planet. 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.

And most people would probably agree when Dimon argues that at one point, we all have to get our act together, or we wont do what were supposed to do for the average Americans.

Thats a view that many businessmen have, which fails to take into account our more polarized parties, more polarized districts, more polarized constituents and more polarized media. None of them pays a price for digging in their partisan heels.

Perhaps the gridlock gets broken if Trump and the GOP are stymied and are forced to make deals with Democrats. But no one should hold their breath.
Former Obama official Samantha Power, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has agreed to testify before the House intelligence committee as part of its Russia probe, Fox News has learned.

Power will join the roster of former Obama administration officials in testifying before the congressional panel as part of their probe into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials in the 2016 presidential election.

Some lawmakers also want to hear from Obama administration officials over their potential role in "unmasking" the identities of Trump associates from intelligence reports last year. Power and former national security adviser Susan Rice are among the former officials who could face such questions.

Rice initially had been expected to testify at a closed-door session Tuesday before the same House panel, but is instead expected to speak to lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee later this week.

Power, though, has agreed to engage with the House committee, a spokesman for the former ambassador told Fox News.

Ambassador Power strongly supports any bipartisan effort to investigate and address Russias interference in our electoral process and she wanted to engage both House and Senate Committees charged with investigating it, David Pressman, counsel to Power and partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, told Fox News. Ambassador Power is very much looking forward to providing any assistance and encouragement she can to bipartisan efforts aimed at addressing this serious threat to our nations security.

A date for Power to testify has yet to be confirmed, and a source close to the committee told Fox News it will not be this week.

Several other Obama officials are making an appearance on Capitol Hill this week to testify behind closed doors.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared before both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Monday.

MORE OBAMA OFFICIALS SCRUTINIZED IN 'UNMASKING' PROBE

Former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough will also testify this week, Fox News was told.

All sessions with former Obama administration officials are set to be closed, according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Fox News Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Vice President Pence demanded Congress step up and do their job by taking action to replace ObamaCare after the collapse of Republicans latest health care bill, stepping up pressure on his former congressional colleagues to deliver on a campaign promise.

The vice president has maintained ties on Capitol Hill, where he once served as a House member, but made clear Tuesday morning that the administrations patience is wearing thin.

Inaction is not an option. Congress needs to step up. Congress needs to do their job and Congress needs to do their job now, he said, during an address to a National Retail Federation summit in Washington.

He spoke as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was moving forward on a last-resort bid to scrap ObamaCare, pushing to repeal the 2010 health law now and replace it later. Pence said Tuesday that he and President Trump fully support that plan. He said the Senate should either go that route, or return to the legislation already on the table.

ObamaCare has failed, and ObamaCare must go, he said.

PENCE KEEPS DISTANCE FROM RUSSIA UPHEAVAL, WHILE STANDING BY TRUMP IN PUBLIC

McConnell, R-Ky., is trying to press ahead after several GOP senators said late Monday they would not support the bill he unveiled last week -- after his first plan also failed to attract enough support to even get a vote.

McConnell says the Senate will in the coming days revive a 2015 measure -- passed by the Republican-led Congress but vetoed by then-President Barack Obama -- to repeal ObamaCare with a two-year delay. He said such an effort will provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered health care system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care.

Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, McConnell said: I regret the effort to repeal and immediately replace will not be successful, but that doesnt mean we should give up.  [T]his does not have to be the end of the story.

Pence and Trump appear united in their push to pressure Congress into action.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, the president blamed Democrats and some Republicans for the latest collapse, while vowing to press ahead.

"We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!" he said.

After the bill collapsed Monday night, he tweeted that Republicans should repeal ObamaCare now and start from a clean slate.

McConnell needs support from 50 of the chambers 52 Republican senators to pass such a bill. Early Monday, the bill was formally opposed only by GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine.

However, while Trump was meeting with several Republican senators who supported McConnells bill, GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas also announced their opposition, dashing any hopes of passage.

We were talking about a next step, Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, who was at the White House dinner meeting, told Fox News Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning.

McConnell, lauded for his ability to present only bills that he can pass, would be taking a big risk in a repeal-only effort, though such a move would effectively fulfill Trump and congressional Republicans campaign vows to end ObamaCare. The program has seen rising premium costs while offering customers diminishing policy options.

Lankford, like other senators, expressed opposition over McConnell drafting the bill behind closed doors with only a handful of other lawmakers. And he joined in calls for a more open, collaborative process.

If we can get everybody together at one time, I think we can do this, he said.

The GOP-led House this spring passed its ObamaCare overhaul bill. No Senate Democrats support Republicans repeal-and-replace efforts, but have acknowledged problems with ObamaCare and have said they would work in a bipartisan effort to make fixes.

Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Republicans in Washington state are calling for civil disobedience as they openly encourage Seattle residents to refuse paying a newly passed income tax that critics claim is illegal.

The tax, passed by the Seattle City Council, targets high-income earners as part of what local lawmakers call a new formula for fairness.

But critics and analysts say it was passed in defiance of state law, and the state GOP has escalated its opposition by urging residents to forcefully resist.

This law is unconstitutional, illegal, and against the voters will expressed nine times at the ballot box and it deserves nothing less than civil disobedience  that is, refusal to comply, file or pay, the Washington State Republican Party said in a written statement.

The tax measure would require residents to pay a 2.25 percent tax if they are a single filer and make more than $250,000 annually or file jointly and make more than $500,000.

Our goal is to replace our regressive tax system with a new formula for fairness while ensuring Seattle stands up to President Trumps austere budget that cuts transportation, affordable housing, healthcare and social services, outgoing Democratic Mayor Ed Murray said.

CALLS GROW FOR SEATTLE MAYOR TO RESIGN AFTER SEXUAL ABUSE REPORT

The city estimates the new tax would raise $140 million a year and cost between $10 million and $13 million to set up, plus an additional $6 million a year to enforce.

The money made would go toward affordable housing projects as well as other services for lower-paid workers.

Opponents of the bill, however, argue that Seattles plan to tax the rich is unconstitutional, because the state of Washington imposes strict limits on taxes; prohibits taxes on net income; and requires cities to get permission to tax residents.

Seattles tax seems to fail these tests, but local officials like Councilmember Kshama Sawant arent backing down and have enthusiastically signaled the city is ready to fight in what could be a very costly legal battle.

We will no longer tolerate a system that buries poor and working class people in taxes, while giving big business and the super-rich yet another free ride; a system that underfunds affordable housing to the point where thousands are homeless, a system that criminally underfunds education, Sawant told Fox News in an email Tuesday, adding that the need for the tax is crystal clear.

When the bill was signed, Sawant asked supporters, If we need to pack the courts, will you be there with me?

But not everyone is on Team Tax.

"No matter who starts out paying it, everyone will eventually suffer."  Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe

The citys decision to pass a bill that violates state law and supreme court precedents teaches the public that it is acceptable to ignore the law if it is to your advantage, the Washington Policy Center said in a statement. The violation is so obvious that city leaders know they are inviting a lawsuit, as citizens seek to defend their rights under state law and the state constitution.

Dann Smith, president of WPC and a lifelong Seattle resident, said its frustrating to see the Seattle City Council choose to waste taxpayer dollars on lawsuits for an income tax that is not needed.

The Freedom Foundation said it is prepared to challenge the tax in court. The conservative think tank also argued the tax is a slippery slope and could open the door to more taxes in the future.

No matter who starts out paying it, everyone will eventually suffer, CEO Tom McCabe said in a statement.

Washington is one of seven states in the country that does not have a personal income tax.

Analysts at the Washington Policy Center also note the Washington Supreme Court ruled in 1951 to invalidate the income tax. Further, a law passed in 1984 prohibits any city or county from levying a tax on net income.

The states voters have rejected the idea of an income tax nine separate times. Washington voters did approve an income tax in 1932, but the state Supreme Court ruled the measure was unconstitutional.
President Trump said Tuesday he's prepared to let ObamaCare fail after the collapse of Senate Republicans' latest health care bill, indicating he's willing to move on to tax reform and other issues  and deal with an Affordable Care Act fix down the road.

I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let ObamaCare fail, Trump told reporters at the White House. We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let ObamaCare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us."

He spoke after two more Republican senators came out late Monday against the Senate bill, effectively killing its chances in its current form. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plans to call a vote on a bill to repeal ObamaCare now and replace it later, but on Tuesday afternoon left the door open to working with Democrats if that fails.

PENCE DEMANDS CONGRESS 'DO THEIR JOB'

The White House focused its ire Tuesday on Democratic lawmakers, suggesting they'll regret their opposition.

"The failure of ObamaCare rests solely on the shoulder of the Democrats. They pushed it through, and they need to own the failure of it," Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

But even as the current health law suffers from rising premiums and diminishing coverage options, Republican lawmakers had faced vocal protests from constituents unhappy over the party's replacement legislation.

The collapse of the bill late Monday leaves unclear how and whether Republicans, now in total control of Congress and the White House, can make good on their campaign promise to scrap the ACA.

Trump told reporters Tuesday he was very disappointed that Republicans havent been able to pass legislation after seven years of calling to repeal and replace the law.

Something will happen  it may not be as quick as we had hoped, but its going to happen, Trump said of passing a health care bill.

Trump also called for getting more Republicans elected to make it easier to get his agenda passed in Congress. Ill be working very hard for that to happen, he said.

The president also vowed to continue to work on implementing other campaign promises not yet fulfilled.

Were going to win on taxes, were going to win on infrastructure, he said.

On Monday evening, Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas joined Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine in opposition, making passage of the Senate bill impossible.

Republicans needed 50 votes (plus Vice President Pence as a tie-breaker) to pass the bill.

After learning the Better Care Reconciliation Act was effectively dead, Trump tweeted late Monday night urging Republicans to just REPEAL the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new health care plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! he said, suggesting a bipartisan plan.

But at least one Republican senator said shes against repealing the law without replacement legislation.

"As I stated earlier this year, I cannot vote to proceed to repeal the ACA without reform that allows people the choice they want, the affordability they need and the quality of care they deserve," Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday.

Last month on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., challenged Republicans and Trump to start over and turn over a new leaf on bipartisan health care.

We have an opportunity to go back to the drawing board, we are willing to debate and compromise on health care but we have to be included, Schumer said on June 28.

But despite the bill imploding and Trumps guidance, McConnell said, this does not have to be the end of the story.

I regret the effort to repeal and immediately replace will not be successful, but that doesnt mean we should give up, McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. Its regretful that our Democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us to help deliver that relief, but this does not have to be the end of the story.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
When all else fails, kill it.

President Trump tweeted late Monday that Republicans should just REPEAL ObamaCare after two key Republican Senators announced they would not support the bill, ending any chance the bill had of passing the Senate.

Republican Senators Mike Lee, of Utah and Jerry Moran, of Kansas joined Senators Rand Paul, of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine. Republicans hold onto a 52-48 majority and the two senators opposition means the bill is effectively dead.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! Trump tweeted.

Trump appears confident that a straight repeal of ObamaCare is a shoo-in, but moderate Republicans may feel pressure to vote against the legislation. It is also unclear how many Democrats would support the move.

Trump's tweet was in stark contrast to his faith in the Senate just hours before when he predicted the legislation would pass.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acknowledged the roadblock and, like Trump, said he plans a repeal vote. McConnell also mentioned a two-year delay for a substitute.

"Regretfully, it's now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," McConnell said in a statement. "So, in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered health care system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care."

It was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of the bill last month when defeat became inevitable.

Trump failed to rally support for what has been the GOP's trademark issue for seven years  ever since President Obama and the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Republicans won the White House and full control of Congress in large part on the basis of their promises to repeal and replace the health law but have struggled to overcome their deep internal divisions and deliver.

The Associated Press reported that Democrats "could barely contain their glee."

"This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. "Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

The Associated Press contributed to this report
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the latest version of President Trump's controversial travel ban that affects residents of some majority-Muslim countries.

The ban applies to people from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also placed limits on people from North Korea and Venezuela.

Since the president signed an executive order in January 2017 establishing a ban on travel of people from Muslim-majority nations, it has been a point of contention and challenged in court. Heres a look at the bans journey through the legal system.

June 26  Supreme Court upholds ban

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court issued its first substantive ruling on a Trump administration policy on June 26, upholding the travel ban. The court said the president has substantial power to regulate immigration.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by his four conservative colleagues.

The sole prerequisite set forth in [federal law] is that the President find that the entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. The President has undoubtedly fulfilled that requirement here, Roberts wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented, said "a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus."

April 25  Supreme Court hears oral arguments

In the last case the justices will hear until October, oral arguments on the travel ban will be delivered before the Supreme Court on April 25. This is the first time the justices are considering whether it violates immigration law or the Constitution.

People waited for a seat inside the courtroom for days ahead of the hearing.

A decision is expected by June.

April 10  Chad removed from travel ban

The Trump administration removed Chad from the travel ban because the African country had improved its identity-management and information sharing practices enough, press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

It had been included on the list because of an office supply glitch that prevented it from supplying homeland security officials with recent samples of its passports. It was also unable to adequately share public safety and terror-related information with U.S. officials who screen foreigners seeking to enter the country, officials said.

March 30  More than a dozen states back lawsuit against ban

Washington, D.C. and 16 states backed Hawaiis lawsuit against the travel ban with an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court.

President Trumps discriminatory ban both hurts the families caught up in the chaos of his draconian policies, and undermines our states residents, institutions, businesses and economies, New York Attorney Gen. Eric Schneiderman said in a statement.

Jan. 19  Supreme Court announces it will rule on the travel ban

The Supreme Court announced on Jan. 19 that it will rule on Trump's controversial travel ban. The justices plan to hear arguments in April and issue a final ruling by late June.

Dec. 4  Supreme Court OKs full enforcement of Trump travel ban

Handing the White House a huge judicial victory, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trumps travel ban affecting residents of six majority-Muslim countries.

Lower courts had said people from those countries with a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the United States could not be prevented from entry.

Grandparents and cousins were among the relatives courts said could not be excluded.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have left the lower court orders in place.

Oct. 17  Federal judge temporarily blocks travel ban

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson granted a request from Hawaii to temporarily block a version of Trump's travel ban, which was supposed to take effect at midnight ET on Oct. 18.

Hawaii argued that the revised ban  which included citizens from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, and some Venezuelan government officials and their families  was a continuation of Trump's "promise to exclude Muslims from the United States."

"Todays dangerously flawed district court order undercuts the Presidents efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States," the White House said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will vigorously defend the Presidents lawful action."

Oct. 10  Supreme Court dismisses one case

The Supreme Court didnt take action on a case that originated in Hawaii pertaining to Trumps travel ban and a ban on refugees.

However, it did dismiss another case that originated in Maryland. That case involved a ban that has since expired and been replaced with a new one by the administration.

Oct. 5  Justice Department asks Supreme Court to drop travel ban case

The Department of Justice asked the nations highest court to dismiss the case challenging the administrations travel ban. The administration argued the case should be dismissed because it was regarding a previous travel ban that is now moot.

Sept. 24  Trump signs new travel ban

As Trumps original ban was set to expire, the president unveiled new restrictions on travel to the U.S. from certain countries citizens.

The revised ban included citizens from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It also included some government officials from Venezuela.

Sept. 12  Supreme Court lifts restrictions

The Supreme Court blocked a lower courts decision that would have allowed refugees to enter the country under certain conditions, blocking a ruling that said a resettlement agency counts as a bona fide relationship.

Sept. 7  Appeals court limits travel ban

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that would allow for more refugees to enter the country despite the ban. The federal court ruled that refugees working with a resettlement agency would be considered to have established an approved bona fide relationship with a contact in the U.S.

WHO DOES TRUMPS TRAVEL BAN BLOCK FROM ENTERING THE US?

It also expanded the scope of a bona fide relationship to include other family members, such as grandparents and other relatives.

July 19  Supreme Court allows for strict enforcement of refugee ban

The Supreme Court, temporarily, allowed for the administrations travel ban to keep a strict enforcement on its ban of refugees. It did, however, leave in place the court order that made it easier for travelers from the six Muslim-majority countries to enter the U.S. and allowed a previous expansion of bona fide relationships to stay.

July 13  Federal judge expands scope of travel ban

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, in Hawaii, ruled that a bona fide relationship certain travelers need before entering the U.S. could be expanded to include grandparents and other relatives.

The Justice Department filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court for clarification.

June 29  Travel ban goes into effect

After the Supreme Courts ruling, the Trump administration issued guidance on who would be allowed into the country and who would be barred.

June 26  Supreme Court allows for travel ban to continue

The Supreme Court announced it would allow Trump to forge ahead with a limited version of his travel ban. Trump hailed the decision as a victory for national security.

HAWAII GETS CHANCE TO MAKE CASE FOR FIGHTING 3RD TRAVEL BAN

The court said it would hear arguments in October, but until then, the ban on travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could be enforced if the visitors lacked a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

May 25  Travel ban blocked by federal court

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia blocked the travel ban from being implemented. It had begun to hear the case earlier in May.

We remain unconvinced [the ban] has more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the Presidents promised Muslim ban," the court said at the time.

March 30  Trump administration appeals ruling

The Department of Justice filed an appeal with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the ruling against the travel ban.

March 29  Federal judge continues to block travel ban

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson granted a request to continue to halt the travel ban.

March 16  Another federal judge temporarily blocks the order

Sitting in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang temporarily halted the executive order. The injunction was not as comprehensive as the one issued earlier in Hawaii, but it did contend that the ban was discriminatory toward Muslims.

The order did not change the previous injunction in Hawaii, but rather just reinforced it.

March 15  Federal judge blocks travel ban

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson prevented the travel ban from being implemented just before it was set to take effect. Watson granted the state of Hawaiis request for a temporary restraining order.

Trump called the decision an unprecedented judicial overreach.

March 8  Hawaii sues to block the travel ban

The state of Hawaii sued in an attempt to halt the Trump administrations travel ban from going into effect. Lawyers said the new executive order is resulting in the establishment of religion in the State of Hawaii contrary to its state Constitution.

Lawyers also argued that the ban would damage Hawaiis economy, educational institutions and tourism industry; and it is subjecting a portion of the states citizens to second-class treatment and discrimination, while denying all Hawaii residents the benefits of an inclusive and pluralistic society.

March 6  Trump unveils new travel ban

Trump signed a new executive order which barred travel from six predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days  removing Iraq from the new ban.

The new order also exempted permanent residents and current visa holders from the travel ban. Syrian refugees were still included in the new order but only for 120 instead of indefinitely.

Feb. 15  Trumps travel ban gets a defender

Texas Attorney Ken Paxton split with other states and defended the travel ban as he filed documents with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asking to reconsider a decision blocking the ban.

Paxton argued that the order is a legal exercise of presidential authority.

Feb. 13  Federal judge grants injunction against ban

A federal judge in Virginia granted an injunction to prevent the administration from implementing the ban.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said the ban was unconstitutional as it had a religious bias.

Feb. 9  Travel ban is again blocked

The travel bans suspension was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a unanimous decision.

MUSLIM ADVOCATES, LEGAL ORG FILES SUITS OVER TRAVEL BAN

Those judges were Michelle Friedland, appointed by former President Barack Obama; Richard Clifton, appointed by former President George W. Bush; and William Canby, appointed by former President Jimmy Carter.

The court began to hear arguments from the Justice Department and lawyers from the states of Washington and Maryland  in opposition to the ban  on Feb. 7.

Feb. 6  Justice Department asks federal court to intervene

The Justice Department filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asking it to intervene and reverse a previous judges decision to halt the travel ban.

Sixteen attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit against the travel ban. Those included: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Feb. 3  Judge declines to extend injunction against travel ban

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton did not extend a temporary injunction against the administrations travel ban.

But U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle did issue a temporary block of the ban on the same day.

The state has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury, Robart said as he ruled in favor of lawyers from the states of Washington and Minnesota.

Feb. 1  Administration tweaks travel ban

The Trump administration tweaked its travel ban to exempt legal permanent residents of the U.S.

AFGHAN GIRLS ROBOTICS TEAM ARRIVES IN US JUST IN TIME

They no longer need a waiver because if they are a legal permanent resident, they wont need it anymore, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of green card holders.

Jan. 30  Senate Republicans save travel ban from Democrats

Senate Republicans squashed an effort by Democrats to overturn the executive order. When Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. sought a vote on legislation to reverse the ban, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., objected.

Trump also fired acting Attorney Gen. Sally Yates on this day when she refused to defend the travel ban.

Jan. 29  Temporary stay issued on travel ban

A Boston federal court temporarily put Trumps travel ban on hold for one week.

The ruling stipulated that previously approved refugees, valid visa holders and lawful permanent residents or travelers from the seven countries included in Trumps order could not be detained or removed from the U.S. because of the executive order.

Jan. 28  Federal judge issues emergency injunction against ban

A federal judge in New York issued an emergency order blocking, in part, the executive order. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnellys ruling temporarily barred the U.S. from deporting people who arrived with a valid visa or who had already completed a refugee application.

As dozens of people were detained after their planes landed in the U.S., massive protests erupted at airports nationwide.

Jan. 27  Trump signs executive order barring travel from seven Muslim-majority nations

Trump signed an executive order which immediately barred entry into the U.S. for the citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The order, dubbed Protection the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, also halted the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, but indefinitely barred all Syrian refugees from entering the country.

Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty, Bill Mears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The final photo that a teenager in New Mexico texted from her phone -- before she was electrocuted in her bathtub earlier this month -- was released by her family.

Fourteen-year-old Madison Coe, of Lubbock, Texas, sent a picture of her phone plugged into an extension cord on top of a bath towel, just before she was electrocuted, police said.

NEW JERSEY GIRL, 11, ELECTROCUTED WHILE SWIMMING

The picture was accompanied by a text message that said, When you use and (sic) extension cord so you can plug your phone in while youre in the bath.

It was originally believed Coe dropped her Samsung Edge Plus in the water while taking a bath, but The Sun reported the phone was never immersed in the bath with her.

Coe reportedly touched the extension cord, which was frayed, while in the tub when she was charging her phone.

There was a burn mark on her hand, the hand that would have grabbed the phone, Coes grandmother, Donna OGuinn, told KCBD. And that was just very obvious that thats what had happened.

ENDANGERED ELEPHANT IN CAMBODIA ELECTROCUTED BY POWER POLE

Coe, who had just recently graduated middle school, was at her fathers house in Lovington, New Mexico, when the incident unfolded.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is looking into the situation, according to Lubbock Avalance-Journal.
Just when you thought you were safe to go outside again, "glassholes" are back.

X announced that it is updating the much-maligned product for the enterprise with a new version, known as Glass Enterprise Edition. X is a division of Google's parent company, Alphabet.

GOOGLE'S PIXEL 2XL WILL HAVE A NEW FEATURE YOU WON'T FIND ON THE IPHONE 8

In a blog post discussing the new version, Jay Kothari, project lead Glass at X, noted the many use cases in the workplace, where EE is already helping.

"GE was one of the first businesses to experience the benefits of Glass in the workplace," Kothari wrote, adding that there are more than 50 companies using Glass, including Boeing, Volkswagen, DHL and a host of others. "Based on the positive feedback weve received from these customers in a special program weve been running for the past two years, were now making Glass Enterprise Edition available to more businesses through our network of partners.

The latest version of the wearable headset is getting some upgrades, including a bump in the camera. It now has an 8 megapixel camera, up from 5 megapixels. It also will have a longer battery life, a better processor, an indicator for video recording and improved Wi-Fi speeds.

It also looks radically different, with Glass EE now being decoupled from integrated frames so it can work with all types of eye-wear, including industrial safety glasses.

"The new units cost around the same as the earlier Explorer Edition for developers and consumers  $1300 to $1500  but are now optimized for different scenarios, with better networking and security support and more flexible options for frames including prescription lenses," said Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson in comments obtained by Fox News.

Regarding the push towards the enterprise, Dawson said he has "always felt like this space was a much better fit for Glass-like products than the consumer market."

FOLLOW FOX NEWS TECH ON FACEBOOK

Kothari also highlighted how it's already being used in the workplace, including how AGCO, an American agricultural equipment maker, is using it.

"Workers at AGCO, an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Jackson, Minnesota, are using Glass Enterprise Edition," Kothari wrote. "By reducing the amount of back and forth workers have to do accessing checklists, viewing instruction manuals or sending photos from tablets or laptops as they assemble machines, Glass has reduced machinery production time by 25 percent and inspection times by 30 percent."

In 2012, Google unveiled the first version of Google Glass, garnering widespread attention, but it soon fizzled as a consumer product because of privacy concerns and its unattractive aesthetics.

People who wore it were termed "glassholes" because of the creepy nature of using the device. Google went so far as to write a best practices for using it, including listing the "do's" and "don'ts" of using it in public, even mentioning the term "glasshole" in the post.

This story has been updated to reflect that X is no longer a division of Google and Jay Kothari is project lead Glass at X.
He was thought to be a kingpin in the mysterious world of the dark web, and now the 26-year-old Canadian is dead. Authorities say that Alexandre Cazes is believed to have hanged himself in his holding cell in Thailand after his arrest earlier this month, reports the Bangkok Post.

As the Sydney Morning Herald explains, Cazes is reputed to be a co-founder of AlphaBay, one of the internet's top sites for the illicit sale of everything from drugs and weapons to forged IDs and stolen credit cards.

Or at least it was: AlphaBay went dark on July 5 after authorities seized its servers in Canada as part of a multi-nation raid. Police also arrested Cazes on July 5 in Bangkok, where he is believed to have been living for the last eight years, and impounded luxury cars and mansions, per the Bangkok newspaper.

He was known as DeSnake online. Cazes, who was being held at Bangkok's Narcotics Suppression Bureau, was found dead in his cell last week, about an hour before he was to meet with prosecutors over his extradition to the US.

His AlphaBay became a force on the dark web a few years ago after the downfall of its main predecessor, Silk Road. It was "more than twice as big as Silk Road was in its heyday, with a revenue of somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000 a day in early 2017, and that's a rather conservative estimate," one expert tells the AFP.

The US Embassy in Bangkok confirmed that Cazes had been detained "with a view toward extradition to face federal criminal charges." If it was indeed a suicide, Cazes might have wanted to avoid the fate of Silk Road founder "Dread Pirate Roberts," now serving a life sentence.

This article originally appeared on Newser: Reputed Dark Web Mastermind Found Dead in Jail Cell
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, 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.

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 .
Ann Coulter went on live TV to set the record straight after a three-day torrent of tweets tearing apart Delta Air Lines.

The conservative commentator appeared on Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning to discuss the events that transpired aboard her flight from New York to West Palm Beach, when she alleges that Delta took away the extra-legroom seat she specifically reserved.

It was before boarding, I had picked out the seat I wanted. I was in the waiting area, the boarding area, for 90 minutes, said Coulter. And then as I was boarding, the ticket agent snatched the ticket out of my hand and said, No, weve given you a different seat. And I said Why?, and she said Emergency.

'CAPTAIN AMERICA' ACTOR TROLLS ANN COULTER OVER DELTA INCIDENT

Coulter said she went ahead and sat in the seat she booked anyway. A stewardess soon told her shed have to move for another passenger, but couldnt give any explanation as to why.

[The other passenger] was not an elderly person, was not a sickly person, a very tall person, claimed Coulter, who is six feet tall. Its been three days now, and Delta still hasnt given an explanation, much less an apology.

Coulter added that she doesnt appreciate Deltas snarky response on Twitter, in which they offered to refund her the $30 she paid for her original Comfort+ seat.

Theyre lying so much about this  that was one of the snarky tweets they sent out, said Coulter. No, its not about the $30. You gave me a more cramped seat.

Coulter, 55, originally began airing her grievances with Delta on Saturday afternoon, telling her Twitter followers that Delta is "the worst airline in America after they gave away her preferred seat without any explanation, compensation or apology. Coulter further fueled #DeltaGate by blasting the airlines customer service record, and tweeting out a photo of the woman who occupied the seat Coulter initially reserved.

DELTA FLIGHT GETS STUCK IN DIRT, SHUTS DOWN NC AIRPORT FOR HOURS

Id be perfectly happy to move for an old person, for an air marshal  very clearly, that wasnt the case. Thats why I took a picture of the passenger, because I knew Delta would lie about it. And of the stewardess, because I knew theyd say We have no idea what youre talking about.

Theyve been unbelievably arrogant, added Coulter.

The day after Coulter began her Twitter attack, Delta responded with a half-hearted apology, much to the delight of Coulters detractors.

We're sorry you did not receive the preferred seat you paid for and will refund your $30, Delta tweeted at Coulter.

"Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary," they added.

Delta also issued an official statement on its News Hub on Sunday evening, explaining the source of the confusion, and adding that the airline could not overlook Coulters public attack on its crew and passengers.

According to Delta, Coulter had originally reserved a window seat in the exit aisle, but less than a day before departure, Coulter switched to an aisle seat. Delta, however, admitted to accidentally moving Coulter to another window seat.

Coulter herself even confirmed on Fox and Friends that her new seat also offered extra legroom, though not as much as she would have had in her original seat. It was, but not as much, she said.

In trying to clear up the confusion, Delta claims a flight attendant seated all passengers in their assigned seats, and the flight departed without incident.

Delta, however, felt Coulters tweets went beyond mere complaints, and took a nasty turn, turning into a public attack on the airlines employees and customers.

"We are sorry that the customer did not receive the seat she reserved and paid for. More importantly, we are disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers by posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos in social media.

Her actions are unnecessary and unacceptable, Deltas News Hub reported.

Delta also wrote that theyd already attempted to call Coulter and apologize for the confusion.

The airlines social media and customer care teams made several attempts to connect with her to apologize for the seat mix-up; however, they did not hear back from Coulter until Sunday evening.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Coulter, however, claimed on Fox and Friends that shes still waiting for a response.

They may think this is very witty, to be firing back at me on Twitter after behaving rudely  again, no explanation, no apology. Just, Here, you have to move for this other person. What is the reason for that?

Theyve had four days to investigate. Why did they do this? Its not the worst thing in the world, but is it that hard for Delta employees to simply be polite and simply give passengers the seat that they booked? Is that such a high hurdle?
Emails that have been released by Chicagos Inspector General show racist and sexist conversations between employees of the Chicago Department of Water Management.

One of the emails, reportedly sent by water department superintendent Paul Hansen, was subject lined Chicago Safari Tickets, The Chicago Tribune reported on Monday.

ACTIVISTS SCALE TRUMP TOWER, RAISE 'RESIST AND DEFEND' BANNER

The email message said, If you didnt book a Chicago Safari adventure with us this 4th of July weekend this is what you missed, before listing the amount of people shot in various neighborhoods around the city.

Hansen reportedly then writes, Youll also see a lot of animals in their natural habitat, before adding, Remember all Chicago Safari packages include 3 deluxe Harolds Chicken meals a day.

Another email written by Hansen included a picture of a wheel barrow full of watermelons with a sign stating Apply for a Credit Card. Free Watermelons, with subject line: U Know U Be In Da Hood, the Tribune reported.

LOUISIANA GIRL, 7, GOES TO CHICAGO TO HUG POLICE OFFICERS

Hansen resigned in May after the Inspector Generals investigation began to heat up. The former superintendent also used his city email account to negotiate firearm deals, which is against city rules.

A second water department official sent anti-Muslim and anti-black emails, according to the citys report. The Tribune identified the official as Thomas J. Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers, who also resigned while under investigation.

CHICAGO MAN, 98, TURNS $1,000 IN STOCK INTO $2 MILLION AND DONATES IT ALL TO WILDLIFE

Hansen was found using a city email account to visit sexually explicit, age-restricted YouTube videos and visited other internet sites unrelated to city business on thousands of occasions, The Tribune reported.

Both of the officials have been placed on the citys ineligible-for-rehire list.
The family of a man suspected in the slaying of his millionaire grandfather filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire on Monday accusing him of killing his grandfather and possibly his mother, who was lost at sea during a mother-son fishing trip, in a bid to collect a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

Nathan Carman's maternal grandfather, wealthy real estate developer John Chakalos, was found fatally shot at his Connecticut home in 2013. Carman, of Vernon, Vermont, was a suspect in the death of Chakalos, who was 87, but no one was arrested.

Carman, who's in his early 20s, survived the fishing trip near Rhode Island after the boat carrying him and his mother sank in 2016. His mother, Linda Carman, is presumed dead.

Linda Carman's three sisters sued in New Hampshire's Cheshire County, where Chakalos owned another home. They've asked a judge to block Nathan Carman from collecting money from his grandfather's estate. Chakalos left more than $42 million to his four daughters, including Linda Carman.

Nathan Carman has denied any involvement in his grandfather's death and has said he didn't sabotage the boat used for the mother-son fishing trip. A cellphone number for him rang unanswered on Monday, and messages left for his attorneys weren't immediately returned.

The sisters' attorney, Dan Small, said the details and evidence in Chakalos' death and in Linda Carman's disappearance "all point to Nathan as the prime suspect."

"Yet he now stands to inherit millions of dollars from their estates," Small said in a statement.

Small said if the sisters win the lawsuit and any of the money that would have gone to Nathan Carman goes to them, "they pledge to use those funds exclusively to pay for expenses incurred relating to the investigation into the death of their father and disappearance of their sister, and any remaining funds will go to charity."

The lawsuit says that, according to a police investigation, Nathan Carman bought a semi-automatic rifle from a gun store in New Hampshire before his grandfather's shooting death and it was the same caliber weapon used in the killing. The document says he concealed the information from investigators and now says the weapon is missing.

In February, Nathan Carman told ABC's "20/20" that he's misunderstood and an easy target for police because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum. A few of its hallmarks are awkward social and communication skills.

He said he patched some holes on the 31-foot-long boat with marine putty before going fishing with his mother but insisted the boat was seaworthy. Insurance companies claimed in court last month that "incomplete, improper, and faulty repairs" were made the day before the boat sank.

In the 2013 case, a search warrant said that Nathan Carman was the last person known to have seen Chakalos alive and that he discarded his computer hard drive and a GPS unit used around the time of the shooting.

Carman said last year that his grandfather "was the closest person in the world to me, and I loved him and he loved me."
The Latest on Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch's appearance at a judicial conference in San Francisco (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch encouraged a group of newly naturalized U.S. citizens to tolerate different points of view and respect people with whom they disagree.

Gorsuch welcomed the new citizens on Monday following a naturalization ceremony at the 9th Circuit Court's judicial conference in San Francisco. Gorsuch's visit comes as the Trump administration asks the high court to again weigh in on its ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries. Gorsuch was among three justices who said in June that the ban should be completely reinstated pending arguments before the high court.

Gorsuch told the new citizens that tolerance can be difficult, especially in polarizing times. But he said it was vital to democracy.

Gorsuch was a late fill-in at the conference for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

___

3:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, can't escape discussion of the president's travel ban during an appearance at a judicial conference in San Francisco.

With Gorsuch seated next to her, an Alaska high school student read her winning essay Monday at the 9th Circuit courts' conference. The topic was Japanese internment.

Fifteen-year-old Olivia Tafs compared the treatment of Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks to that of Japanese Americans during World War II. She cited Trump's travel ban as an example of what she said was ethnic profiling.

Gorsuch was among three justices who argued in June in favor of completely reinstating the ban on travelers from six majority-Muslim countries.

Gorsuch shook Tafs' hand after her speech.

___

3 p.m.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch says judges listen to each other and welcome different ideas when reaching decisions, and that's a good lesson for other branches of government.

Gorsuch spoke on a panel on Monday at the 9th Circuit courts' judicial conference in San Francisco. The panel focused on educating Americans about their system of government.

Asked what he would like people to know about the judiciary, Gorsuch pointed out that the vast majority of legal disputes are resolved at the district court level and the U.S. Supreme Court often rules unanimously.

Gorsuch was a late fill-in at the conference for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Gorsuch is scheduled to speak to new U.S. citizens later in the day.

___

11:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump's pick to the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, is scheduled to welcome new U.S. citizens at a federal judicial conference in San Francisco.

A district court judge will swear in the immigrants Monday at a naturalization ceremony at the annual meeting of the 9th Circuit courts. Ninth Circuit spokesman David Madden says Gorsuch will then speak to the new citizens.

The justice was a late fill-in for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who canceled his trip to the conference after his wife fractured her hip in Austria.

Gorsuch's visit comes as the Trump administration asks the high court to again weigh in on its ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries. Gorsuch was among three justices who said in June that the ban should be completely reinstated pending arguments before the high court.
The Latest on a deadly fire in a Honolulu high-rise apartment building (all times local):

3:35 p.m.

Police aren't treating the Honolulu high-rise apartment building where three people died in a fire as a crime scene.

Honolulu Police spokesman Capt. Rade Vanic said Monday the case is classified as an unattended death. He says even though the criminal investigation division is assigned to the case, it's not considered a crime at this point.

The fire department is still investigating. Vanic says police haven't initiated an arson investigation.

He says police and firefighters released the scene back to building security, which would be responsible for blocking off access to the floor where Friday's fire originated.

The morning after the blaze in the Marco Polo building, some people were able to take photos of the charred 26th floor.

The fire department says the blaze began in unit 2602.

___

11:30 a.m.

Fire investigators have determined where a deadly fire began in a Honolulu high-rise apartment building, but they're still working to identify the cause.

Honolulu Fire Department Capt. David Jenkins says Monday the origin of the fire is unit 2602. He says it's across the hall from units where bodies of two women and a man were found.

Jenkins says investigators will determine exactly where in the unit Friday's fire started and what caused it.

The Marco Polo building was constructed in 1971, before fire sprinklers were required in high-rises. Fire officials say sprinklers would have prevented flames from spreading.

Jenkins says it's one of the worst fires in modern Honolulu history.

Some residents say they had trouble hearing sirens and didn't realize there was fire raging until opening their doors.
The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman Saturday night has offered his condolences to her family.

The officer, identified by his attorney on Monday as Somali-American Mohamed Noor, said in a statement that he came to the U.S. at a young age and that he believes being a police officer is his calling.

Noor, who joined the force two years ago, was one of the responding officers on Saturday night after 40-year-old Justine Damond called authorities to report what she believed was a sexual assault happening nearby.

AUSTRALIAN WOMAN SHOT DEAD BY MINNEAPOLIS POLICE AFTER CALLING TO REPORT POSSIBLE CRIME

Damond's shooting death has been ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office.

Minnesota police Chief Janee Harteau said Damonds shooting is a tragic death. Harteau said that she immediately asked for an outside investigation, Fox 9 reported.

But Damonds American fiance, Don, said in a news conference Monday that he and Justines family are desperate for information in the shooting and that they just want to piece together Justines last moments.

Noor allegedly shot and killed Damond, but the body cameras on the responding officers were not activated, and the police cars camera did not capture the shooting.

Investigators are trying to determine if any video of the shooting exists.

Click for more from Fox 9.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A grand jury has decided it won't charge a Florida man who drove his dead neighbor's body to his lawyer's office, saying he had killed the other man in self-defense.

The grand jury decided Monday it would not charge 54-year-old John Marshall in the March 2015 death of 65-year-old Theodore Hubbell Jr. Marshall said he acted in self-defense, and jurors found there was insufficient evidence to rebut that.

Marshall had bought property in the rural island community of Bokeelia, where he planned to build a home.

Marshall's attorney at the time, Robert Harris, said Hubbell didn't want Marshall to build, and the men had argued. Several days later, according to Harris, Hubbell returned with a gun. Harris said a struggle over the weapon ensued and ended with Hubbell being shot.
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice will speak to staff on the Senate intelligence committee this week.

The panel, which is investigating Russian interference in U.S. elections, is interviewing several former Obama administration officials. Panel staff met with National Intelligence Director James Clapper Monday and will also interview former President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, a source familiar with the interviews told The Associated Press. The source declined to be named because the interviews are closed.

President Donald Trump has argued that Rice may have committed a crime when she asked intelligence analysts to disclose the name of a Trump associate mentioned in an intelligence report. Rice has said she did nothing improper.

Clapper testified publicly about the meddling earlier this year. He was part of an extensive review of Russian interference conducted by the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, three Senate Democrats called on the White House to review and possibly revoke Jared Kushner's security clearance, pointing to the revelation of a meeting with Russian contacts during Trump's campaign.

Kushner is a senior adviser to Trump and his son-in-law. Along with other Trump officials, he attended a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who indicated she had damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Kushner disclosed the meeting on his security clearance paperwork, but Democrats have questioned how much he disclosed.

Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Al Franken of Minnesota and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said in a letter to the White House that given the meeting, Kushner's top access "may pose a danger to this country."
Male prep school students who recorded relationships with girls on a cardboard crown this spring violated campus rules but not the law, the head of the school said Monday.

The crown incident at St. Paul's School was among those cited by the state attorney general's office last week when it began an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and misconduct there. The investigation also was prompted by information about a student sexual conquest ritual called the Senior Salute, revealed during a recent graduate's 2015 trial and the school's recent release of a report about teachers sexually assaulting students years ago.

In a letter to parents, students and school personnel on Monday, Rector Michael Hirschfeld said the school hired an investigator in May after a student reported a possible sexual competition.

The investigation, which was completed last week, found that five boys violated a school rule by using the crown to document their relationships with girls. The boys listed their own names and were neither competing with each other nor soliciting sexual relationships to be listed, Hirschfeld said, and the investigator found no violations of state law.

Current students have been disciplined, he said.

"While we recognize our community is not immune to the pressure adolescents face in today's world, it is our shared belief that our community and our values do not tolerate disrespectful behavior of any kind," he wrote.

The director of public affairs at the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Amanda Grady Sexton, criticized the school for relying on a private investigator.

"Under no circumstances should schools be launching their own investigations into suspected child abuse or criminal activity, and we hope that this practice has come to an end at St. Paul's School," she said.

School officials have said they're cooperating with the attorney general's investigation, which is focused on whether the school engaged in conduct that endangered the welfare of a child. Authorities also are looking into whether the school violated a law that prohibits obstructing criminal investigations.

The spotlight first fell on St. Paul's when new graduate Owen Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was charged with sexually assaulting a freshman girl as part of Senior Salute, a tradition in which seniors seek out younger students as sexual conquests.

Labrie was acquitted in 2015 of raping a 15-year-old girl but was convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault, child endangerment and using a computer to lure the girl for sex, a felony that requires him to register as a sex offender for life. Although sentenced to a year in jail, the 21-year-old Labrie has remained free under curfew while he appeals his convictions. He was 18 at the time of the assault.

The report released in May detailed sexual misconduct at the school spanning decades. It found credible allegations against 13 former faculty and staff along with evidence the school failed to either protect students or fully investigate their complaints when asked 17 years ago. The school has denied it has a culture of sexual abuse but has enacted measures to address the issue.
The soldiers who served with him in Afghanistan call him "Fred."

Fraidoon Akhtari participated in more than 500 combat missions, translating for the U.S. military for the past 13 years.

On Sunday, after a harrowing wait of nearly five years, Fred and his wife and two children walked through the arrivals hall at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.

Sgt. Ryan Craig and 25 members of the Pennsylvania National Guard's 103rd Armor Regiment, and the veteran charity No One Left Behind greeted him at the airport, recalling how he saved all of their lives at a remote combat outpost.

Completely cut off, no air support, limited artillery support, and throughout the entire battle Fred was redirecting us, 'Hey, they're going to come from the east side. They're going to come from the west side, you guys need to shift fire this way,' Craig, who recently separated from the Army, recalled. And just giving us that valuable actionable intelligence that single-handedly kept all of us safe.

It took years of pushing an entrenched U.S. government bureaucracy to get Fred and his family a Special Immigrant Visa to the U.S. and out of harm's way.

Former FBI agent David Lemoine disobeyed his doctor who told him not to fly after open heart surgery a month ago. He arrived from Omaha, Nebraska, where Fred and his family will be resettled with the help of Lutheran Services. He explained what would have happened had Fred stayed in Afghanistan.

Fred had trouble getting a visa because he assisted in the capture of a high-ranking Taliban member, Lemoine said. So a death threat was placed on his life and they put a note on his fathers door and they said, We know where your son is going... he will be captured alive and he will die like no other.

After walking out of Customs and past a Welcome to America sign, Fred embraced each member of his old unit as they stood in honor formation. He explained what the Taliban would do to him if he had stayed in Afghanistan after having worked for the U.S. military. He would not allow us to photograph or name his wife and two young children.

They shot my car two times with an RPG (rocket propelled grenade. They shot me many times, but couldn't kill me. They sent a threat to my family a few times, but they couldn't kill me because I had good friends with me here and in Afghanistan. They protect me and I am here today, he said, standing inside the USO where veterans are welcomed each day.

He began tearing up when asked how he felt to be in America at long last.

My mom and dad back in the country, they are upset, but my wife and my kids are happy to be here, he said. My hope is my kids grow up like Americans to study hard, and be human.

He then turned to the soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard who had driven from across the country to greet him and had set up a GoFundMe page and raised money for his airline tickets -- and had enough left over to buy him a used car.

If they had not, it would have taken another six months for the State Department to issue his ticket and he would have had to pay the government back.

For these guys, I do not know what to say, they are the greatest people, he said. "They are members of my family.

Originally a mistake on his employment record held up his visa. It took lawyer Sari Long, who was given Fred's case by the International Refugee Assistance Project, three years of pressing the U.S. government and a military contract employer. Eventually, she wore him down. The soldiers from his unit call Long a pitbull in a skirt.

He is the poster child for the special immigrant visa program. He put in 10 years of service, he was in over 100 firefights and incidents shoulder-to-shoulder with his U.S. soldiers he was working with, Long explained as she teared up talking about her pro-bono client.

They put their lives on the line for us and I believe we should just do everything we can to help them out, said Sgt. David Shiner, who led the GoFundMe effort.

There are 14,000 Afghan translators who have served since 9/11 still waiting for Special Immigrant Visas, according to No One Left Behind. Escaping the Taliban, and making it to America, where the cost of living is high, is just the beginning of the struggle for many of them.

There are guys sleeping under bridges that should be in apartments, and we're breaking our promise to these guys, the retired FBI agent Lemoine explained, holding a folded American flag in his hands to give to Fred.

No One Left Behind is lobbying Congress to give honorary veteran status to these Afghan and Iraqi interpreters who risked their lives for the U.S. government. But many are proud and dont want government handouts and dont use some of the government services available to them. Food stamps, for instance. They prefer to work.

"No, we are not asking for Title 34 or (Veterans Affairs) benefits, James Miervaldis, who volunteers with No One Left Behind, explains. "This is an honorary title that will allow 56,000 501(c)(3) non-profits to use their money for our new veterans."

No One Left Behind wants Congress to increase the quota of Special Immigrant Visas in the Defense Authorization Act being debated this week on Capitol Hill. Right now, there are none in the bill that passed the House on Friday.

These soldiers, on the other hand, believe in the Soldier's Creed; "Leave no one behind."

I am an American Soldier.

I am a warrior and a member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.

I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.
A longtime Arkansas soybean farmer, Mike Wallace thought of his neighbors as a community and always was willing to lend a hand if they faced any hardships with their crops.

"Mike would do anything for any farmer," his wife, Karen, said. "If there was a farmer who got sick in harvest time or planting time or whatever, he would say, 'What can I do to help? Here's my equipment. Here's my guys. Let's go do it.'"

But across much of farm country, a dispute over a common weed killer is turning neighbor against neighbor. The furor surrounding the herbicide known as dicamba has quickly become the biggest controversy of its kind in U.S. agriculture, and it is even suspected as a factor in Wallace's death in October, when he was allegedly shot by a worker from a nearby farm where the chemical had been sprayed.

Concern about the herbicide drifting onto unprotected crops, especially soybeans, has spawned lawsuits and prompted Arkansas and Missouri to impose temporary bans on dicamba. Losses blamed on accidental chemical damage could climb into the tens of millions of dollars, if not higher, and may have a ripple effect on other products that rely on soybeans, including chicken.

The number of complaints "far exceeds anything we've ever seen," Arkansas Plant Board Director Terry Walker recently told lawmakers.

Dicamba has been around for decades, but problems arose over the past couple of years as farmers began to use it on soybean and cotton fields where they planted new seeds engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. Because it can easily evaporate after being applied, the chemical sometimes settles onto neighboring fields. Some farmers illegally sprayed dicamba before federal regulators approved versions that were designed to be less volatile.

The chemical "has made good neighbors look like bad neighbors," said Reed Storey, an Arkansas farmer who says about half of his soybean crop has shown damage from drifting dicamba.

As the herbicide was put into broader use, complaints began pouring in from farmers in Arkansas and other states. Crops near many dicamba-treated soybean fields turned up with leaves that were cupped and crinkled. The Plant Board has received more than 630 complaints about dicamba so far this year, many more than the 250 or so total complaints normally received in a full year. Complaints have also been registered in Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The issue illustrates the struggle to control agricultural pests as they gradually mutate to render the chemicals used against them less effective. And while some farmers fear damage from their neighbors' dicamba, others are worried that their fields will be defenseless against weeds without it.

The drifting herbicide has been particularly damaging for soybeans. A group of farmers in Arkansas filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against BASF and Monsanto, which make dicamba.

The chemical has hurt other crops too, including vegetables and peanuts. As the damage piles up, dicamba has also made it more difficult for one company, Ozark Mountain Poultry, to find non-genetically modified soybeans to use as feed for chickens because more farmers are relying on seeds engineered by Monsanto to resist the herbicide. Non-modified soybeans are needed to market chicken as non-GMO.

Dicamba's makers insist the problem is not with the herbicide but how some farmers apply it. They say the states should focus on other restrictions, such as limiting spraying to daytime hours.

"It is premature at this point to conclude that it is a fault of the product," Dan Westberg of BASF told lawmakers this month.

Farmers say the herbicide is desperately needed to kill pigweed, which can grow and spread seeds rapidly, threatening a soybean farmer's yield.

"We cannot lose this technology," Perry Galloway, an Arkansas farmer who has used dicamba and dicamba-tolerant soybean seeds. "We've come too far at this point to just throw it away."

It's not clear what states will do about the herbicide after this year. Missouri lifted its sale-and-use ban for three dicamba herbicides after approving new labels and restrictions for its use. The ban on other dicamba products will be in effect until Dec. 1. Arkansas' ban expires in November. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said a task force needs to study the issue further.

"This debate will continue into future planting seasons, and Arkansas needs a long-term solution," he wrote in a letter last month to state agriculture officials.

Wallace's relatives said they are glad the herbicide will be banned for the time being in Arkansas. For them, too much damage has already been done.

Farm worker Allan Curtis Jones, 27, is accused of shooting Wallace, 55, in a confrontation over dicamba, which Wallace believed had drifted from the farm where Jones worked to damage his soybean crop.

Jones told authorities that Wallace called him to talk about the spraying. Jones brought his cousin with him as a witness because he believed Wallace wanted to fight, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in October.

When the two men met, Jones told police, Wallace grabbed him by the arm. Jones said he pulled a handgun from his pocket and fired "until the gun was empty," Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook told the paper. He is set to go on trial this fall.

Wallace "did not want to hurt his neighbor, and he could not understand why people would spray things that would hurt others," said Kerin Hawkins, his sister, who has also seen crops damaged by dicamba. "He could not understand because you were supposed to be a good neighbor."

___

Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo .
Menomonie Market Food Co-op, in partnership with their distributors, farmer vendors, and customers finalized their 2016-17 fundraising in support of Stepping Stones Food Pantry. Co-op Customers raised more than $3,000 in cash, local farmers contributed pallets of organic produce, and distributors contributed the remaining pallets of healthy soups, broths and vegetables, for a total donation of $15,000.
CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill has been defending his tweet that wished a "Happy 70th Birthday" to a convicted cop killer currently on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists.

Hill posted his birthday wish to Asata Shakur Monday night and used the hashtags "HandsOffAssata."

Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, the godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, is suspected in a series of early 1970s incidents linked to black revolutionary groups in New York City -- including a bank robbery, grenade attack and the ambushing of police officers in Queens and Brooklyn.

She was convicted of shooting a New Jersey trooper to death in 1973, but she escaped prison and, in the early 1980s, fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum.

Hill, who is also a professor of media and communication at Temple University, tweeted Tuesday that he believed Shakur to be "INNOCENT" and "WRONGLY CONVICTED."

Hill's tweets came days after organizers of the Women's March tweeted their own tribute to Shakur Sunday night.

The post created a firestorm on Twitter, with many slamming the group for celebrating the birthday of a wanted fugitive.

Radio host Dana Loesch, who has been targeted by the group for her pro-NRA ad, also responded to the tweet.

The Women's March has celebrated controversial individuals in the past, including Donna Hylton, who was convicted of kidnapping a man and torturing him to death.
A San Jose construction worker rescued a 1-year-old boy Monday when the toddler's suspected kidnapper tried pawning the child off on strangers.

Colin Blevin saved the 1-year-old after the suspect, Raymond Randy Gutierrez, attempted to convince a couple to take the boy. Blevin reached into the car, took the boy out and called 911.

My spider sense is going offSomethings not right here, Blevin said of his thinking.

SAN FRANCISCO KIDNAPPING SUSPECT: I DON'T KIDNAP BABIES

Early Monday morning, the childs father had left the baby sitting in the car as he rushed into his home to grab his lunch. But the man came back outside to find his car -- and son -- missing.

Soon after the disappearance, an Amber Alert for the boy was sent out from the Soledad Police.

Blevin had not heard the alert, however, when he encountered the suspect blocking his work entrance. Blevin got out of the car to ask the driver to move and noticed a baby in the back seat and the disoriented driver, The Mercury News reported.

The suspect allegedly tried to leave the baby with a couple that lived in an RV nearby when Blevin stepped in.

SAN DIEGO KIDNAP ATTEMPT FOILED AFTER ABDUCTOR'S TRUCK WONT START

Blevin said the woman in the RV looked at him and said, Help me save this baby," which prompted him to take the baby out of the car and call the police.

Gutierrez, 42, was arrested a few hours later and was booked in Monterey County Jail.

He is facing charges of grand theft auto, kidnapping, child

cruelty, child stealing and vehicle theft.

The child is safe, and the parents get their baby back. This is a win for us, Soledad Deputy Chief Damon Chuck Wasson said.
An American family is still desperate for answers, months after a 20-year-old woman was fatally injured at a luxury resort in Mexico.

In January, Abbey Conner and her brother, Austin, 23, were found unconscious in a hotel swimming pool at the five-star Iberostar Paraiso Resort in Playa Del Carmen.

The two, from Wisconsin, had been on a family trip, ABC News reported. Their mother and stepfather left them at the hotel pool, went to get ready for dinner, and only later found out that the brother and sister were taken unconscious from the pool to the hospital.

AUSTRALIAN TOURIST KILLED IN SAN FRANCISCO SCUFFLE

Abbey Conner suffered a broken collar bone and was brain dead. She died at a Florida hospital days later, according to ABC News. Austin had a concussion and a lump on his head.

Officials said the blood alcohol level for each was around .25, three times the legal limit in Wisconsin.

Mexican officials ruled Abbey Conner's death accidental, but the family isn't satisfied, ABC News reported.

They said authorities won't investigate further.

ARRESTS MADE IN KILLING OF AMERICAN TOURIST IN GREECE

"Someone needs to be held responsible for this," Bill Conner, their father who was not in Mexico at the time, told ABC News. "It doesn't make any sense. We're lucky we didn't lose both of our kids."

Authorities acknowledged that there are many unanswered questions.

The State Department told ABC News it is "aware of the case."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that an Iberostar representative didnt immediately provide answers to its questions.


A 24-year-old former Colorado teacher's aide accused of having sex with and sending explicit pictures to a 14-year-old boy also had intimate contact with a sixth-grade student, according to court documents.

Jerica Enriquez waived her right to a preliminary hearing Monday as negotiations continued with the Weld County District Attorney's Office, The Greeley Tribune reported.

The former teacher's aide at Jefferson Junior High School in Greeley was arrested Sunday and charged with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, obscenity to a minor and enticement of a child.

According to the affidavit for Enriquez's arrest, both cases came during her time as a teacher's aide in 2015 and 2016. Enriquez allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old student in the fall of 2016 and later sent a picture of herself naked to the same student, in addition to a photo of a negative pregnancy test, according to prosecutors.

JAIL FOR MUSIC TEACHER, 54, WHO BLAMES MALE STUDENT, 17, FOR TRICKING HER INTO HAVING SEX 'LIKE A USED CAR SALESMAN'

In an earlier incident, prosecutors say Enriquez kissed a student in a classroom at a separate middle school around Christmas in 2015 and offered to have sex with him. The boy later told police he thought the request was weird, and wanted her to stop talking to him.

Later on in the year, the teacher's aide offered to take the boy home from school, even though his mother was planning to meet him, according to the affidavit.

When the boy refused and told Enriquez he would get home faster "if you would stop talking to me," the 24-year-old persisted, telling him "no one would catch us," the affidavit said.

JAIL FOR MARRIED ENGLISH TEACHER, 27, WHO ARRANGED TRYST WITH 16-YEAR-OLD BOY 'FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEXUAL PENETRATION'

The boy told prosecutors she also sent him two photographs of herself, with one of her in her bra and panties, and the other one of her naked.

Enriquez has yet to enter a plea in either case, but her attorney, Jim Merson, said in court Monday she agreed to waive her right to a preliminary hearing to negotiate a possible plea agreement with prosecutors, The Greeley Tribune reported.
A Florida landscaper was arrested Wednesday after authorities said he chopped down and stole an exotic caucus from the front of a home and strapped it on the roof of his car.

Police in Surfside, located north of Miami Beach, said 31-year-old Rafael Tinoco-Diaz was spotted last week by a passing officer placing the prickly plant on top of his vehicle.

She noticed that the subject was attaching a cactus plant to the roof of his vehicle, Surfside Police Detective Marian Cruz told WSVN. This is not something we see all the time.

Police said Tinoco-Diaz told the officer who spotted him he was a landscaper.

[He said] he collects cactus plants, and that was his excuse, Cruz said. "I say he just wanted some money.

Cruz said the plant is worth $500, and she was still astonished by the brazen theft.

Very gutsy, actually, to do something like this in the front lawn of someones house, she told WSVN.

The homeowner said he first thought it was a joke when he answered the door and cops told him someone took his cactus.

This is whats concerning to me, is that there are children in the house, Shlomo Danzinger told WSVN. How do I know the next time hes not going to see something through the window and decide hes just going to go in and take it, or maybe think nobodys here and decide to walk in?

Read more from WSVN.
A Louisiana man left stranded on the side of the road flagged down what turned out to be a police car and was arrested for outstanding warrants early Monday morning.

There had been a warrant out for the arrest of 30-year-old Jansen Simon since he allegedly used a hammer to pummel another man in the head during a bar fight. The Lafourche Parish Sheriffs Office reported the fight broke out in Cut Off, Louisiana on August 3, 2013.

Simon was walking on the side of Highway 182 in Raceland early Monday. He stopped the deputy, who was in a marked police car heading home for the night. Simon was left by his friends on the side of the road, according to the sheriffs department.

ARIZONA MAN WHO FLED 1976 RAPE TRIAL SENT BACK TO NEW YORK

As is protocol for any stranded person picked up by a deputy, the officer verified Simons identity and found his arrest warrant, as well as two contempt of court warrants from the same time period.

Its not clear whether he knew he was flagging down a deputy, LPSO spokesman Brennan Matherne told Fox 31. Although it was a fully marked patrol car, it was also 1:30 in the morning.

Simon is being held without bail in the Lafourche Parish Detention Center in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where he was booked for one count of aggravated second degree battery and two counts of contempt of court, according to the LPSO.

Read more from Fox 31.
A destructive group of four-legged criminals remained on the loose in suburban Denver on Tuesday after police said a gang of goats spent nearly 30 minutes terrorizing a business Monday.

Employees at Kryptane Systems in Louisville, Colo., located about 20 miles north of Denver, started off the work week by showing up to find the front doors' glass had been shattered. The company's president contacted police to report a break-in.

"We understand the description is he's very hairy, has some large horns, and is possibly hooved."  Jeff Fisher, police commander

"There was shattered glass everywhere. Instantly he thought it was vandals of some sort," Greg Cappert, an engineer for the company, told FOX 31 Denver.

When police arrived to investigate, surveillance video from the front of the building revealed the culprits to be a group of goats.

"For 20 minutes he just sat and banged on that one side until he broke it, and then he left and came back and decided to break the other side too. I don't know why," Cappert said. "That was just to be mean I guess."

After breaking the doors, the goats hoofed it away from the scene.

"We understand the description is he's very hairy, has some large horns, and is possibly hooved," Commander Jeff Fisher with the Louisville Police Department told FOX 31.

Besides leaving behind a shattered pile of glass, employees at the company said the goats left behind...something else.

"We did find some feces that was nearby the site," Cappert told FOX 31.

Police believe the goats escaped from a nearby farm, and it's only a matter of time before they're caught.

"They're still out there somewhere, so protect your doors everyone," Cappert said.
A young mother in Georgia was arrested after leaving her 1-year-old daughter to die in a hot car while she spent six hours getting her hair done, police said.

DiJanelle Etta Fowler, 25, is facing charges of felony murder, cruelty to children and concealing a death in the June 15 death of Skylar Fowler  who was found dead inside a parking deck at Emory University Hospital, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Fowler, according to warrants obtained by the newspaper, had a hair appointment at the Northlake Tower Festival Shopping Center in Tucker. Police say Fowler left her baby in the car before she entered a salon at the shopping center at 10:06 a.m. She didnt leave until 4 p.m., according to witnesses and security camera footage.

But when she did return to her car, Fowler didnt show any signs of panic  and even asked a man for help starting her car. Investigators believe the mother covered the childs body to hide it from the mans view.

Fowler texted the childs godfather about an hour later  telling him that she was heading to an urgent care facility for headaches. Records show she searched the internet for signs of having a seizure around the same time.

Fowler arrived at the hospital a short time later and dialed 911. She didnt mention her daughter, however, and said she was having a seizure of some kind, a detective wrote in a warrant.

Police initially believed the child died during Fowlers visit to the hospital  but her timeline of events didnt add up, and an autopsy suggested the little girl had been dead for a longer period of time.

Were thinking mom had an episode and the child unfortunately died while being in the vehicle with mom because the vehicle was extremely hot, Lewis told WAGA.

We determined the mother stopped at a business on Lavista Road to have her hair done, Lewis said. We had knowledge the child was with her at the time. And during the course of her being in the hair salon it was apparent the child was left in the vehicle.

Read more from the New York Post.
A Pennsylvania man allegedly threatened to divorce his wife if she stopped providing her prostitution money, according to a new report.

Scott Allen Shadle, 34, allegedly told his wife, Rebecca Shadle, 38, that if she were to stop giving him the money she made from their alleged prostitution business, he would divorce her, PennLive.com reported.

TEACHER'S AIDE, 24, ACCUSED OF SEX WITH HER 14-YEAR-OLD BOY STUDENT, TRYING TO 'ENTICE' SIXTH-GRADER

Scott had acted as a pimp for his wife when he posted advertisements online looking for people to pay to have sex with her, police said.

Shadle reportedly prostituted out of an apartment in Eastmont Estates in Westmoreland County, according to PennLive.

Police are examining text messages between the couple that show detailed discussions of how much money they should charge for sex, how much Rebecca would keep of her money, as well as how much would be turned over from another woman who was making money for him, PennLive reported.

KANSAS CITY BABYSITTER ACCUSED OF MOLESTING 1-YEAR-OLD GIRL IS ATTACKED BY HER FATHER

When Rebecca reportedly threatened to cut off the prostitution income to her husband, he texted her that he would file for divorce and call her caseworker.

Additionally, police said Rebecca acknowledged that she allowed men to touch a 7-year-old girl she looked after for an extra fee.

Brian Spillar, 49, the man accused of paying to have sexual contact with the child, told authorities the girl came on to him when he was drunk, TribLive.com reported.

All three face sex crimes charges.
A composite sketch of a man wanted in connection with the killing of two Indiana teenagers has yielded nearly 1,000 responses to an Indiana State Police tip line since its release Monday.

Indiana State Police Sergeant Kim Riley tweeted an update Tuesday: We have received almost 1,000 tips since the release of the composite picture yesterday at 11:00am. Thanks for the great response! (@ISPLafayette)

In an e-mail to Fox News, Riley wrote that the tips appear to be local with some of the information being repeatwe have had some that are outside of the state of Indiana. He added that most of the tips included names and locations.

Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, were reported missing on Feb. 13, the day they were dropped off to go hiking on trails near Delphi, located about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis, according to police.

The bodies of the two girls were found the next day along the edge of Deer Creek, about three-quarters of a mile from an abandoned railroad bridge, their drop-off location.

The sketch of the suspect depicts a man described as white, between 5 1 to 5 6, weighing 180 to 220 pounds, with reddish brown hair. It is the first picture released depicting the suspects face.

Police asked the sketch to be paired with a photo they released near the beginning of the investigation that depicts what they believe to be is the same man, walking on the bridge around the time of the girls' disappearance. Police say the photo was found on Liberty's cell phone. In that photo, a man wearing a hat is seen walking with his head down, making it difficult to identify facial features.

Investigators also released chilling audio that came from Liberty's cell phone. A man can be heard saying down the hill.

The department said investigators are still pursuing leads.

This case is not dried up. It's not a cold case," Riley told reporters, adding: "We've always felt like we are going to solve this."

A $230,000 reward is being offered by authorities for information into the murders. Anyone with information about the murders or the person in the composite sketch is asked to call the anonymous tip line at 844-459-5786.
On July 8, Dr. Tim Shiell, director of the civil liberties focused UW-Stout Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation, presented a discussion of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.

Rand grew up in a Jewish family in St. Petersburg in the early 20th century where her father was a pharmacist. Outgoing, confident and adversarial, she was disappointed with the results of the communist takeover of Russia and with her education.

Granted a visa to the United States in 1925, Rand arrived in 1926, moved to Hollywood, became a writer and playwright, and later moved to New York City. Her mentor was Isabel Paterson, a journalist and political philosopher, who espoused beliefs in individualism and was opposed to Franklin Roosevelts New Deal.

Rand wrote the books of fiction Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). Encouraged to do more scholarly works by her friend Nathaniel Branden in 1958, she developed the philosophy of Objectivism. Although she only acknowledged the influence of Aristotle on her philosophy, Objectivism also contains elements of Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th century German philosopher.

In her philosophy of Objectivism, Rand feels that to pursue your own happiness is your highest moral aim. You should figure out what you want to do in your life and do everything to get it.

According to Rand, there are only two sides to every issue. One side is the right side and the other is wrong. Those who have opinions between the two sides or who compromise are evil. She believes in both economic and civil liberty, but considers economic liberty to be the most important.

Rand is in favor of a laissez-faire economy and small government. She does not believe in religion, the soul or divine beings. According to her Objectivist theory, all knowledge is obtained though our senses. Mans productive achievement is his noblest activity. The reason of mankind is the only absolute. Altruism is evil. In her Rational Egotism the I is her God.

Dr. Shiell pointed out a number of individuals that have accepted parts of Ayn Rands philosophy. They include presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, President Ronald Reagan, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Representative Paul Ryan, Senator Ron Johnson, Drs. Ron and Rand Paul, and former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan. The list also includes Peter Theil who founded Pay Pal; Mark Cuban, owner of the NBAs Dallas Mavericks; actress Angelina Jolie; rock band drummer Neil Peart, who uses her philosophy in the lyrics to his music; Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original Star Trek TV series; and Hugh Hefner, publisher and playboy.

Ayn Rand is credited as one of the three women who began the Libertarian movement in the United States. Libertarianism is the Objectivist position in politics. Government should only be able to protect people from violence, theft, fraud and other things that go against the peoples rights. People should have the right to liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. Regulations allow big business to create monopolies. Being in a majority does not make things right. Taxation is theft. Charity should be private charity.

Critics of Ayn Rand feel that self interest has rational limits. Others believe in equal opportunity that comes from governmental regulation and redistribution. Also, no one acquires their wealth by 100 percent of their own efforts so their wealth does not 100 percent belong to them. With Ayn Rands advocaty against social programs, she has been criticized for accepting Medicare and Social Security with her diagnosis and treatment for lung cancer in 1974.

Dr. Shiell explained that Ayn Rands philosophy has created a cult of her personality. Our young adults have been more likely to follow her as they have the desire to get ahead in life. On the positive side, for those who are trained to be giving, they need also to learn to take care of themselves.
The man who was convicted of having sex with his stepdaughters corpse after he killed her is challenging the divorce terms with her mother.

Gregory Graf, 55, said Monday in court via a video feed from his Pennsylvania prison cell that he never agreed to terms that would give him 25 percent of the assets he shares with his wife.

Grafs attorney, Jack McMahon, said in February that Graf was happy with the terms reached at the time, but Graf said he didnt understand the information McMahon gave him.

I dont know what is going on, Graf said. Im not a legal person.

PROSECUTOR: NECROPHILIA MOTIVATED MAN TO FATALLY SHOOT HIS STEPDAUGHTER

Graf was convicted in 2014 of fatally shooting his stepdaughter, 33-year-old Jessica Padgett, and recording himself on video sexually abusing her corpse. A jury convicted Graf of first-degree murder within a few minutes of deliberation after seeing the video.

McMahons argument for defending Graf was that something snapped and the murder was not premeditated.

Graf, who is serving a life sentence in prison, is being sued by Padgetts husband for monetary damage for the womans three children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For decades, a Whitman, Mass., family kept a military souvenir in the garage collecting dust.

They had no idea the memento they had for 80 years  stored next to boxes, tools and equipment  was actually a live, pre-World War II-era bomb.

Jeremy Bechen said he found the training bomb when he was cleaning out his familys garage Saturday morning. His grandfather, he said, brought it home as a keepsake after he served in the Navy in the 1930s.

TEENAGER DISCOVERS 7.44 CARAT DIAMOND IN ARKANSAS STATE PARK

Bechen, a chemist, had been told by his parents the bomb was a dummy. But then he looked at it carefully.

On closer inspection, you can see the charge in there. It seemed pretty real to me, Bechen told Fox25 in Boston. It was kind of a heart-skip moment. You look down the tail pipe of it and see, Oh, theres something in there!

He alerted authorities, and police, fire and bomb technicians showed up to collect the device. Bomb technicians detonated it in a remote area across town.

GANG OF GOATS TERRORIZE COLORADO BUSINESS

Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the State Fire Marshals Office, said it is not uncommon for veterans to collect military souvenirs and for family members to find them years or decades later.

In this case, she said, the souvenir was an old practice bomb that was determined to be live.

CLICK TO READ MORE FROM FOX25 BOSTON.
A decomposing body discovered by a hiker at a Florida nature preserve last week has been identified as a missing 13-year-old girl.

Janessa Shannon was initially reported missing on July 3, however, authorities said she was a habitual runaway so her disappearance was not made public. They said her disappearance didnt meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.

Her body was found July 12 by a hiker at Triple Creek Nature Preserve in Riverview, Florida. Her death is now being treated as a homicide.

COLORADO GIRL RUN OVER, KILLED BY BOAT DRIVEN BY DAD

We to be deliberate and methodical in our investigation, Col. Donna Lusczynski of the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office told Fox 13. Whats important to us is identifying this killer and putting him behind bars.

The Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office did not immediately return calls for comment.

Authorities have not revealed the cause of her death.

According to Fox 13, authorities said they have interviewed the teenagers father, Nahshon Shannon, who they said cooperated at first, but then refused to answer more questions.

The teens mother, Michelle Mosley, said her daughter was staying with her biological father when she disappeared and he told her she ran away.

Forensics teams searched the elder Shannons home in Riverview, but did not reveal what, if anything, was found.

The teenagers family members have criticized the sheriffs office for failing to do more to find her.

It wasnt until they found her body that people, cops started knocking on the doors and asking questions, Sabrina Remillard, the fathers next-door neighbor, told Fox 13.

GIRL SCOUT WHO SAVED GRANDMOTHER FROM CHOKING ON POTATO HONORED WITH AWARD

Mosley said her daughter was very loving, caring and had a heart of gold.

Justice is the only thing we want right now. And, its not gonna make anything better, its not gonna bring her back, its definitely not going to help me sleep at night, she told Fox 13.

Mosley also disputed the sheriffs office assertion that her daughter was a habitual runaway.

She didnt have a history of running away. She never ran away before and thats how it was treated, she said.

The teens family members want answers and say they want whomever was responsible for her death to be held accountable.

Just to know the person that did this to her is behind bars or anything else, Mosley said, it might give me a little comfort but its still not enough. It wont ever be enough.
A U.S. Navy sailor who was presumed lost at sea  but had actually been hiding in the engine room of his ship the entire time  was charged last week with dereliction of duty.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Peter Mims, who was working on the USS Shiloh, admitted last week he actively avoided searches while military officers were looking for him, 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Paul Newell told Fox News.

Mims, 23, was reported missing June 8 while the ship was near Okinawa, Japan, sparking a wide ocean search. He was thought to have gone overboard.

MISSING NAVY SAILOR FOUND IN SHIP'S ENGINE ROOM REPORTEDLY FACES COURT-MARTIAL

Military officials said they spent 50 hours searching for him in an area that covered 5,500 square miles. The search was suspended three days later, but the crew continued looking for him onboard the vessel.

Crew members were planning a memorial service for Mims when he was found in the engine room on June 15, according to Stars and Stripes.

After Mims was found, he was placed in pre-trial confinement but released a week later. He was then assigned to the Naval Surface Force, Pacific Fleet in California. Its unclear what his duties are, but he will be assigned there until his case is adjudicated.

US NAVY SAILOR PRESUMED LOST AT SEA IS FOUND HIDING IN SHIP'S ENGINE ROOM

Mims faced an admirals mast on July 13, according to the Navy Times. He was charged with abandoning watch and dereliction of duty. He could be discharged  though military officials have not said what actions would be taken against him.

We are not disclosing any of the punitive actions taken against him, Newell said. "However, I can say that Mims is facing possible further administrative action."

Mims joined the service in February 2014 and had served aboard the Shiloh since August 2014. His awards included the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
President Trump tweeted late Monday that Republicans should just REPEAL ObamaCare after two key Republican Senators announced they would not support the bill, ending any chance the bill had of passing the Senate.

Republican Senators Mike Lee, of Utah and Jerry Moran, of Kansas joined Senators Rand Paul, of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine. Republicans hold onto a 52-48 majority and the two senators opposition means the bill is effectively dead.

Pence Hits Back at Dem Who Accused Him of Health Care 'Evil'

KILLING QUESTIONED

The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday qurestioned why the two Minneapolis police officers who arrived at Justine Damonds home shortly before midnight on Saturday did not have their body cameras on, Reuters reported.

Authorities released no details about what led to the shooting of Damond, whose fiance said she had called 911 to report what she believed was a sexual assault in an alley near her home.

'HANNITY'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Congress needs to start working on things they know they can pass. "We've had six months of patience, it's time to perform," he said, agreeing with Sean Hannity that legislators must get their house in order.

DEADLY LESSON

A Mississippi man who fatally beat a 3-year-old girl because she couldn't correctly answer questions about numbers told investigators that "this was a tough world and she had to be tough if she wanted to survive," authorities said.

Joshua Salovich was charged with capital murder, meaning he could face the death penalty, and held without bail. Detectives testified in an initial court appearance that the 25-year-old boxer-in-training beat Bailey Salovich at maximum force with a bamboo rod, a cellphone cord and his hands.

COMING UP ON FOX BUSINESS

6 AM ET: Bob Nardelli, former Home Depot CEO

7:30 AM ET: Senator Luther Strange, R-Alabama

10:15 AM ET: Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana

EARNINGS REPORTS: Watch FoX Business and FOXBusiness.com for earnings from: Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Also earnings Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group.
The notorious international jewel bandit dubbed "granny gem thief" was back in custody on Monday after shoplifting at a Georgia Walmart, police said.

Doris Payne, 86, was arrested at a Walmart in Chamblee, 16 miles north of Atlanta, after an officer spotted her shoving items into her purse, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. She allegedly shoplifted $86.22 worth of items from the store's pharmacy, electronics and grocery departments.

Payne was charged with multiple counts of theft by shoplifting.

Payne, whose rap sheet details more than 20 arrests, has stolen about $2 million worth of goods over the last six decades, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Her last run-in with the law was in March, when she failed to appear for an arraignment hearing for allegedly stealing a $2,000 necklace. She was then banned from all Atlanta-area malls.

INVESTIGATOR 'CONVINCED' $580M OF STOLEN ART FROM BOSTON MUSEUM IS HIDDEN IN IRELAND

In 2013, she told her story in the Netflix documentary "The Life and crimes of Doris Payne." Payne revealed details of her life starting from the first time she shoplifted at the age of 10 to when she took her thieving ways to countries including Greece, Switzerland and France. Her daughter and son also appeared in the film.

"There's never been a day that I went to steal that I did not get what I went to do," Payne said in the documentary.

Over the years she has served short sentences for her crimes before ultimately ending up behind bars again.

Click here for more from Fox 5 Atlanta.
Philadelphia officials are trying to figure out what caused thousands of cockroaches to emerge from a manhole this weekend and swarm a neighborhood.

A resident of the Bridesburg neighborhood told WCAU-TV the bugs emerged Sunday night, and have been invading the area ever since.

"When I tell you thousands of them, there were thousands of them," Pat Wall told WCAU-TV.

Wall said the sea of bugs was so thick that residents couldn't see the ground, describing it as "a horror story."

Another resident told the television station the infestation has spurred neighbors to venture outside with spray cans and go after the critters.

"They were stomping them and they were running right out of there," Paul Basfort said.

Water department spokesman John DiGiulio said crews will be out Tuesday investigating. DiGiulio said a sewer inlet might be clogged with food and trash that can attract the bugs, which are also known to multiply in warmer weather.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A New Mexico man is facing charges after police say he threatened to pull a gun on a taco shop employee for giving him the wrong order.

The Los Alamos Monitor reports that Lex Norman Deines was arrested Sunday following a heated exchange with an employee at Rigoberto's Taco Shop near one of the nation's premiere weapons labs.

Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Jemuel Montoya says an employee said Deines promised to retrieve a gun out of his car over the allegedly botched tacos. Witnesses said they heard the threat.

The 48-year-old Deines was booked at the Los Alamos County Detention Center and is facing disorderly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges.

It was not known if he had an attorney. The shop is near Los Alamos lab.
Three men were arrested after authorities discovered nearly 2,000 marijuana plants and 200 fighting roosters during a raid in California.

On Friday, Bernardino County sheriff's deputies served a search warrant at a property in El Mirage where they found an outdoor marijuana grow operation with several greenhouses, KABC reported.

TEEN CALLS POLICE AFTER FATHER SETS POT PLANTS ON FIRE

Outdoor growing operations are illegal in the county, officials said.

Authorities said they also found more than 200 roosters training for illegal cockfighting.

MAN GREW POT PLANTS AT VERMONT CEMETERY

Jesus Lopez, 78, Pedro Tirado, 62, and Alfonso Botello, 22, -- all of El Mirage -- were arrested at the scene.

The three suspects were facing cultivation of marijuana charges. According to KABC, officials plan to seek charges against Lopez related to cockfighting.
On a spring afternoon nearly a decade ago, Joseph "Dusty" Ridlon was walking a friend's dog along a street in Nyack, N.Y.  a suburb of New York City  when he picked up a shiny item on the ground covered in sand.

What happened next stunned him. There, in his hand, was a Purple Heart medal  one of the highest military honors awarded to those wounded or killed in action.

Now, some 10 years later, a nationwide search is underway to identify the rightful owner of the prestigious medal, which bears a single clue: an inscription on its back reading, "For Military Merit," and "B.J. McNamara Dec. 9, 1943."

"There's no doubt its a real Purple Heart," said Anthony DelRegno, a former Navy corpsman and post commander of the C.R. and R.O. Blauvelt American Legion Post 310 in Nyack.

"This is definitely someone who served in World War II," DelRegno told Fox News Tuesday. "This represents the highest honor a human being could get when it comes to serving one's country This person is a hero who sacrificed his life."

DelRegno first saw the medal in early July when a friend of Ridlon's brought it to post headquarters. Ridlon had tried to locate the owner himself before tucking the medal into a box for years and forgetting about it.

"It wasn't until I was cleaning out my house and throwing out stuff that I remembered I had it," said Ridlon, who noted that the medal is engraved with a likeness of George Washington on its front and missing its purple ribbon.

The Purple Heart is the oldest award still given to combat-wounded veterans of the U.S. military. The award  established by George Washington and originally called the Merit Badge  has been awarded nearly two million times to recognize the sacrifice of combat-wounded veterans.

There is no national database for all Purple Heart recipients, though various military organizations have been instrumental over the years in helping to reunite lost or stolen Purple Hearts with their owners or families. In 1973, a disastrous fire at the National Personnel Records Center destroyed approximately 16 to 18 million military personnel files  some of them Purple Heart recipients  DelRegno said.

DelRegno has summoned the help of war historian James Leiner, who DelRegno said has so far identified 12 or 13 McNamaras in the U.S. with the first name initials, "B.J."

"But none of these names may be the one hes looking for," said DelRegno. "Its a challenge  figuring of what these initials stand for."

The office of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is also assisting in the quest to find B.J. McNamara or his family.

DelRegno, meanwhile, said he's confident the medal will be returned to its rightful owner.

"I'm truly optimistic that thats going to happen," DelRegno said.

"The true measure of a mans worth is the memories people have of him," he said, "And Im hoping the medal can be returned to his family or to the veteran if hes still alive."
The Somali-born Minnesota police officer alleged to have shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman on Saturday had been lauded by Minneapolis mayor and feted by the local community when he joined the force in 2015.

I want to take a moment to recognize Officer Mohamed Noor, the newest Somali officer in the Minneapolis Police Department, Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote in a Facebook post when Noor began serving the city. Officer Noor has been assigned to the 5th Precinct, where his arrival has been highly celebrated, particularly by the Somali community in and around Karmel Mall.

In fact, The Washington Post reported that community threw a party for Noor  the first Somali-American officer to serve in the precinct. Minneapolis is home to one of the nation's largest Somali communities.

He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities, Thomas Plunkett, Noors attorney, said Monday. For him, being a police officer is a calling.

Abdikadir Hassan, a local community leader, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune that Noor was a role model.

He is inspiring to young people in the community, Hassan said. He is very supportive and good with the kids. He is such a lovely guy.

Noor, 31, attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis and earned a degree in business administration, management and economics, The Star Tribune reported.

But despite reportedly viewing the police force as his calling, Noor took a winding road to the departments door. He first had jobs in residential property management and as the general manager of a hotel, according to The Star Tribune.

In his short time with the Minneapolis Police, Noor has had three complaints filed against him  two that are still open. The other was closed and Noor wasnt disciplined.

On May 25, a woman accused Noor of assault and battery because he grabbed her right wrist and upper arm and inflamed a pre-existing shoulder injury while officers were forcibly removing her from her home and bringing her to a hospital.

Noor, who spoke Somali at home, divorced his wife in December, but documents obtained by The Star Tribune also suggest he was a workaholic.

An evaluator was reportedly sent to observe Noor and his son together for an unspecified reason and concluded Noor had an even keel and calm demeanor.

But questions continue to surround Noors alleged actions on Saturday night.

Justine Damond called police to report a possible crime occurring near her house. Officers arrived, and Noor, at some point, and for an as yet unknown reason, allegedly fired his gun, striking Damond in the abdomen and ultimately killing her.

When she was shot, Damond was standing, in her pajamas, talking to an officer on the driver's side of the squad car. Noor, in the passenger's seat, allegedly fired, shooting Damond through the driver's side door, three sources with knowledge of the incident told The Star Tribune.

Noor did not activate his body camera  as required by the department in all use-of-force scenarios  and his patrol cars dashcam did not capture the pivotal moments, either.
When a young man from Minnesota's Somali community who admitted trying to join ISIS appeared for sentencing in November, the judge made him an offer: avoid more prison time and participate in an experimental terrorist rehabilitation.

But two months ago Abdullahi Yusuf, 21, was back before the judge charged with violating the terms of his probation after watching a news documentary about western ISIS fighters in a halfway house where he is confined.

Critics say Yusufs troubles underscore the limits of trying to rehabilitate wanna-be terrorists in the U.S.

Terrorist rehab is a joke and a total waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars, said Col. James Williamson, who founded the group OPSEC that advocates for U.S. Special Forces. All cases are different as are each of the individuals but as a rule, there is no such thing as rehabilitating a committed jihadist. They should be dealt with by military courts and, if not able to execute under the military courts martial, they should be locked up forever.

This latest infraction was not Yusefs first while undergoing de-radicalization in the halfway house.

After pleading guilty after his arrest in 2014, he was sent back to federal custody after a banned weapon  a box cutter  was found under his bed. His rehabilitation resumed after it was determined that the weapon belonged to a roommate.

When he appeared in court in May, Minnesota Federal Court Judge Michael Davis gave Yusef another chance, sending him back to the halfway house and the rehab program with a warning that further slip-ups would see him promptly back behind bars.

The judge told Yusef authorities were working to make you well.

Yusef is undergoing the de-radicalization as part of a sentence of 20-years-supervised release. His sentence takes into account the 21 months he spent behind bars and his cooperation with prosecutors.

Davis has made Yusef the poster boy for the first effort in the U.S. to de-radicalize rather than criminalize the offense. The judge believed Yusuf was a candidate, finding that he had been manipulated to try and join ISIS by three older Muslim freinds who are now in prison for providing support to the terror group.

The de-radicalization effort is following in the footsteps of countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and Denmark that offer rehab for terrorists. Such programs typically take several years and consist of a combination of religious teachings, creative therapies, vocational training and counseling.

Chief Kevin Lowry of the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services to the District of Minnesota argued that terrorist rehab and de-radicalization programs are crucial for public safety, especially in Minnesota-- home to the largest Somali population in North America. In recent years more than 30 young Somali men in the state have been charged with having links to ISIS and Al-Shabab, a terror group in Somalia.

Lowry noted the trial rehab initiative is still running, and that they are continuing to train officers both in Minnesota and other states to develop new tools and strategies in the realm of rehabilitation. They are learning how the radicalization process works in the mind of a would-be terrorist and how to reverse it.

Each individual is different, we tailor it to that person and to what enticed them. It is very important to take this seriously, we cant allow extremism to grow, Lowry said.

He stressed that more resources outside their scope are needed to really keep communities safe. As it stands, the program green-lighted by Judge Davis in Minnesota is designed to begin only at the time of arrest. Prevention programs to fight radicalization before it even starts are gaining some traction in local communities, yet it is still a relatively untouched area. Even more concerning, some experts say, is the lack of de-radicalization programs in prisons across the country.

The probation office is only responsible for post-release, which means that for most of the defendants, the work will begin only after many years from now, said Daniel Koehler, co-founder of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS), whom Davis personally tasked with laying the groundwork for the first U.S program given his unparalleled global experience in the field.

Koehler was tasked with assessing the convicted terrorists and training Lowry and his probation team. Since then, he noted, little has been done and the U.S overall still lacks any comprehensive countering violent extremism strategy within federal prisons.

HOW ISIS USES HUMAN SHIELDS IN FIGHTING COALITION FORCES

ARAB GUNMEN KILL 2 ISRAELI POLICEMEN AT JERUSALEM SHRINE

HOW TERRORISTS FREELY ENTER AFGHANISTAN AND MOVE AROUND UNHINDERED

Authorities routinely complain that federal prisons have and will continue to become breeding grounds for radicalization among inmates. Furthermore, a January report by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) entitled U.S. Homegrown Violent Extremism Recidivism Likely stated that at least some of the more than 90 homegrown violent extremists incarcerated in the U.S. who are due to be released in the next five years will probably re-engage in terrorist activity, possibly including attack plotting.

The Obama administration made a concerted effort to explore non-criminalization options, and an increasing number of U.N agencies  including those centered on education and development issues  have placed de-radicalization a top priority.

But the future of funding for de-radicalization programs under President Trump remains uncertain.

A Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News that they have no immediate plans to develop de-radicalization programs for convicted terrorists, but that they do support local efforts to create protocols and partnerships to conduct early interventions.

The Justice Department also stated that they were continuing to engage in outreach at the local level to foster trust, improve awareness and educate communities in the hopes of stopping radicalization before it starts. Yet the notion of de-radicalization and rehab rather than prison continues to generate debate.

Raheel Raza, President of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, which endeavors to reclaim Islam and opposes extremism, said de-radicalization can work  if only by exposing the problem, educating the masses and eliminating the ideology.

President Trump should look into how such programs have worked, keeping in mind that bringing moderate, reform-minded Muslims to the table is urgent and can give important insights, Raza said.

Leaders of other Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia insist that their rehab initiatives are highly successful with low levels of re-offending. Other terrorism experts are more skeptical, and argue that these would likely be a waste of American taxpayer dollars.

To devise a program to de-radicalize, we must first know what radicalizes them in the first place, said Samuel Tadros, a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom. Is it merely violent acts? If that is the case, then no one is a radical until he actually commits an act, which makes the whole venture useless.
Jeff Hensley, a former Navy fighter pilot, spent 21 years in the military and did multiple deployments before retiring in 2009 and settling in Texas.

When he found himself in a dark place, the local Veterans Affairs hospital was unable to treat him. Then he heard about a private program for military veterans called the Cohen Veterans Network. He met with Dr. Amy Williams, the clinical director for Cohens north Texas location, near Dallas.

The clinic is one of more than five locations up-and-running around the country  with four new offices scheduled to open in the coming months, from Washington, D.C. to Denver. The network focuses on mental health and doesnt believe in making people wait to see a professional.

VETERANS BATTLE THE INVISIBLE SCARS OF WAR WITH ART

The great debate over how to best meet the health care needs of veterans remains a contentious issue in America, particular after the VA was accused of neglecting those who served the country. But some believe agencies like the Cohen Veterans Network could be the solution.

"When people call the clinic we can offer an appointment within a week, so there's not really a wait time," says Dr. Amy Williams.

The Cohen network, started by hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen, offers free clinics that are funded through private donations. Perhaps the biggest draw, some say, is the family component.

We will serve families, regardless of whether the veteran is involved," Williams said.

VETERANS ORGANIZATION HELPING WAR HEROES FORGE SPECIAL BONDS

That means spouses and children can also take advantage of the free services, something clients say the VA is not really setup to do. Cohen clinicians say the focus on healing the entire family unit has been extremely successful and military families have responded well.

It particularly helped Hensleys family.

The retired naval pilot said he struggled to transition back to civilian life after leaving the military. He also started to notice the toll his military service had taken on his young children and he describes that as his rock-bottom.

"I think I was most shocked about my older son, Hensley said. He bore the brunt of most of my deployment and my time away."

He now understands how badly his children were hurting and how they also needed help. He said his experiences at Cohen essentially gave him his life back  and his kids are also healthy.

"It would not have happened if we had never come here," he said.

Hensley applauds any efforts being made to improve the existing VA system  but adds that private competition, like Cohen, gives veterans and their families more options when it comes to seeking the best possible care available.

Something, he said, his fellow comrades desperately need more of.
A new law in Washington State kicks in next week that imposes stiff penalties against those who drive under the influenceof electronics.

The new distracted driving law, referred to as E-DUI, goes into effect Sunday in the Evergreen State. Drivers will no longer be able to use a cell phone or any electronic device while driving, even when stopped at a traffic light. The bill was drafted in response to a 32 percent increase in deaths from distracted driving from 2014 to 2015.

Put the cell phones down, preserve life, Gov. Jay Inslee said on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia, according to Q13 Fox.

Inslee says the bill is called "electronic driving while impaired" for a reason.

When you are driving with a cell phone, you are a more dangerous driver than if you are driving drunk with a .08 blood alcohol level, he said.

State troopers will give out warnings for the first few months before tickets get written. The first citation will cost drivers $136. A second citation within five years of the first one will increase to $236.

Tickets issued for driving while using hand-held electronics will go on a motorists record and reported to their insurance provider, according to a website set up by the state explaining the new law.

The E-DUI prevents drivers from using their phone at nearly any time while they are behind the wheeleven if they are stopped in traffic or waiting for a red light.

Inslee says he expects this law to be as successful as the click it, or ticket seatbelt law that now has 95 percent compliance in the state.

Theres hardly anything weve done in the last several years at the state Capitol to save more lives than this distracted driving law, said Inslee.

Under the new law, drivers can also get a $99 ticket for other types of distractions like grooming, smoking, eating or reading if it interferes with safe driving and you are pulled over for another traffic offense.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that his country has an entirely "independent judiciary" set in stone in its constitution, and deflected the notion that he or the government had much immediate authority in helping free the jailed Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang.

"But we hope an acceptable resolution can be found," Zarif said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. "There are Iranians being detained (by the U.S.) on charges of sanction violations that are not applicable today... for bogus and purely political reasons."

Wang, who was in Iran working on his Princeton University thesis on Eurasian history, was sentenced over the weekend to ten years behind bars for "spying," in a trial that was held behind closed doors.

Zarif also expressed his skepticism that the Syrian regime, led by embattled President Bashar al-Assad, had used chemical weapons in the country's northwestern rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in April this year, despite certainty from U.S officials and other international bodies.

"I have serious doubts... And no one has a red-line (on the use of chemical weapons more than Iran. When we were victims, nobody cared," he said, referencing the Iran-Iraq war in which Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein dropped an array of chemical concoctions on Iranian combatants and non-combatants in the 1980s.

Zarif went on to blame both "foreign intervention" and the failure of Arab governments to provide their people with their "basic needs," as the key reasons for all the anger and frustration that has led to the rise of extremism in the Middle East.

Zarif, who was in New York for a high-level United Nations meeting on sustainable development and to "see old friends," also used the platform to tout Iran's "democracy," and the resilience of the Iranian leadership and its people.

VIDEO: IRAN SENTENCES AMERICAN GRAD STUDENT TO PRISON

"People lined up for ten hours to vote, and in Los Angeles they lined up for four hours to vote (in the recent election) as this was their Avenue to express themselves," he continued. "Gen. Mattis said that Iranians don't have a choice, but why would people stand in line for ten hours for a president that was pre-determined? Come on. Don't kid yourselves."

Zarif also called the current fighting in Yemen the "worst humanitarian nightmare you can think of" and said he hoped it would not escalate into full-scale war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

"We certainly hope that if we don't agree with each other about the situation in Yemen or about the situation in Syria we can still work with each other in order to bring those situations to an end," he noted.

Saudi Arabia launched an ongoing bombing campaign on its border with Yemen over two years ago, with U.S support, after Houthi rebels believed to be backed by Tehran took control of large swaths of the country including the nation's capital, Sana'a.

PRINCETON DEFENDS STUDENT SENTENCED IN IRAN

The top official also shunned reports that Iran effectively controlled Iraq post the U.S.-led invasion, instead mandating that his government is against the presence of foreign militaries anywhere in the region. He stated that Iranian groups are merely in military "advising" roles in both Iraq and Syria, at the invitation of both sovereign governments, and that they offer support only when asked.

Zarif pointed out that when the Islamic State terror network was close to encroaching the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq in 2014, its president, Masoud Barzani, made three calls for help -- to the U.S., Turkey and Iran -- and it was Iran who came to their assistance in just two hours with advisors and planes of weaponry.

"Foreigners should assist, anything beyond that is destabilizing," he said.

Zarif also suggested that while the U.S. has simply and unjustly now chosen Iran as its "enemy of choice" and he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have so far had no direct communication, he is open to fostering relations.

The minister additionally indicated that Israel is not Iran's immediate concern, but expressed dismay over the continued "repression of the Palestinian people" and denied that Iran was developing missiles to carry nuclear warheads, which is prohibited under the reigning nuclear deal.

"We need them to make sure that another Saddam Hussein around the corner will not come and hit us again," he said, reiterating several times that Iran is committed to never producing nuclear weapons even after the deal expires in just over ten years.

"We will continue to produce enriched uranium," Zarif said, "for fuel purposes."

His address Monday was met with a small group of around twenty protestors outside carrying signs and chanting their anger towards Iran's human rights abuses, a concept that the minister also vehemently dismissed. Zarif said that he found it somewhat odd that Iran is singled out by the U.S. as human rights abusers when there are countries that have "never heard of elections" and go on "beheading" their citizens but a deemed American allies and have never had sanctions imposed on them.
Half a world from where an Australian woman was shot dead by a Minneapolis police officer, a front-page headline in her hometown Sydney newspaper summarized Australia's reaction in blunt terms: "AMERICAN NIGHTMARE."

In Justine Damond's native country, news of the meditation teacher's baffling death has dominated the airwaves, newspapers and websites for days, feeding into Australians' long-held fears about America's notorious culture of gun violence.

"The country is infested with possibly more guns than people," said Philip Alpers, a gun policy analyst with the University of Sydney who has studied the stark differences in gun laws between the nations. "We see America as a very risky place in terms of gun violence  and so does the rest of the world."

While police officers carry guns in Australia, deadly shootings by police are exceedingly rare; there are only a handful reported each year, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. And though the U.S. doesn't keep a national database of deadly police-involved shootings, even incomplete statistics show there are hundreds every year.

America's reluctance to strengthen its gun regulations and its seemingly endless stream of shooting deaths have long been a source of confusion and concern in Australia, which instituted tough gun ownership laws in 1996 following a deadly mass shooting. At the time, then-Prime Minister John Howard  a conservative  warned Australians against following America's lead on gun control, saying: "We have an opportunity in this country not to go down the American path."

The Australian government's official travel advice to those heading to the U.S. specifically warns tourists to be on guard for gun crime, and urges Australians living in the U.S. to be familiar with "active shooter" training drills. Australian media coverage of America's frequent mass shootings is often tinged with disbelief  "another day, another shooting in America" is a common refrain on newscasts.

The death of Damond, a 40-year-old meditation teacher who was reportedly dressed in her pajamas when she was shot by a police officer late Saturday, has sparked a similarly stunned reaction. The story has led network newscasts and was splashed across newspapers' front pages. Sydney's Daily Telegraph ran an editorial headlined "A senseless and tragic death."

The shooting occurred after Damond called police to report what she believed to be an active sexual assault in an alley near her home.

"We thought yesterday was our worst nightmare, but we awoke to the ugly truth and it hurt even more," Damond's father, John Ruszczyk, told reporters on Tuesday. "Justine was a beacon to all of us. We only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death."

On Wednesday, the family and nearly 300 friends of Damond gathered on a Sydney beach for a silent vigil. Dozens carried candles in the early morning light on Freshwater Beach and each mourner tossed a single pink blossom into the Pacific Ocean, in honor of Damond's favorite color.

"We're here to come together as a community around our beautiful Justine to honor her life, share our love and mourn her death," the family said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday demanded answers in Damond's death, saying something "clearly went tragically wrong."

"How can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from police be shot like that? It is a shocking killing," Turnbull said in an interview with Australia's "Today Show." ''We are demanding answers on behalf of her family. And our hearts go out to her family and all of her friends and loved ones. It's a truly tragic, tragic killing there in Minneapolis."
The remains of a Swiss couple who disappeared while walking to feed their cattle are believed to have been recovered from a retreating glacier, local media reported Tuesday.

Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, aged 40 and 37 respectively, were last seen on August 15, 1942 near the village of Chandolin, around 125 miles south of Bern.

Police in Valais canton said that the bodies of a man and a woman dating from around the time of World War II was found by a worker near a ski lift last week. DNA tests were expected to confirm their identity as the Dumoulins.

"The bodies were lying near each other." Bernhard Tschannen, director of a local cable car and ski lift company, told Le Matin newspaper. "They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact."

Tschannen told another Swiss paper, the Tribune de Geneve, that he believed the couple fell into a crevasse and were "perfectly preserved" by the Tsanfleuron glacier at an altitude of 8,580 feet.

The Dumoulins had seven children, who were separated and placed with relatives or in foster homes after their parents' disappearance. The couple's youngest daughter, 79-year-old Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, told Le Matin that August 15, 1942 was the first time her mother had accompanied her father to the pasture.

"She was always pregnant and couldn't climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier," she said, later adding, "We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day."

Swiss officials say that 280 people have been reported missing in the Alps or rivers of Valais since 1925.

Click for more from Sky News.
The European Union said Monday that it is looking to limit the amount of migrants coming into its member countries by restricting the sale of rubber dinghies to Libya.

The foreign ministers of the 28 member states of the EU made the decision, which also covers rubber vessels that have outboard motors, to assist the North African nation stem the flow of migrants leaving its shores for Italy.

"We took a decision to introduce restrictions from today onwards on the export and supply to Libya of the inflatable boats and motors," EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini said according to Deutsche Welle. "These are devices are used by traffickers for smuggling activities. This decision we have taken on the European Union level will help make their businesses and lives even more complicated."

According to a statement released by EU officials, they claim that there is now a legal basis to block the supply of the boats to Libya is there are reasonable grounds.

The sales restrictions, however, will not apply to legitimate Libyan businesses, such as professional fishing crews. It was not immediately clear how the Union will check to ensure that exports do not end up in the wrong hands.

Europe, and Italy in particular, has seen a sharp rise in Migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea for 2017.

More than 88,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy so far this year, and more than a quarter of them arrived in June alone, according to BBC News.

The EU foreign ministers have also extended a mission to help Libya re-establish effective controls at its southern borders where migrants first arrive. The country has been struggling to maintain its land borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger. The EU has also started training Libyan Coast Guard members.

The union has been facing growing pressure from Italy to quell the flow of migrants to its coast.

The country has also demanded that EU member states admit tens of thousands of migrants, as part of a unenforced emergency plan nearly two years ago.
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Hungary's collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II was a "mistake" and a "sin" as it failed to protect its Jewish community, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday.

Orban said he told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was aware of the "difficult history behind us." Some 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

"At an earlier time, the government of Hungary made a mistake, moreover, committed a sin when it did not protect its citizens of Jewish heritage," Orban said during a press briefing after his meeting with Netanyahu in Parliament. "Every Hungarian government has the duty to protect all of its citizens, regardless of their heritage."

"During World War II, Hungary did not comply with this moral and political requirement. This is a sin because at the time we decided that instead of protecting the Jewish community, we chose collaboration with the Nazis," Orban continued. "I made it clear to the prime minister that this can never happen again. In the future, the Hungarian government will protect all its citizens."

Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Hungary since 1989, when Hungary was still under communist rule.

Netanyahu said he thought about Hungary first in relation to the birth of modern Zionism, as Theodore Herzl, "our modern Moses," was born in Budapest in 1860.

Netanyahu thanked Orban for Hungary's repeated support for Israel, citing President Emmanuel Macron's recent statement drawing a parallel between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel. Netanyahu visited France before coming to Hungary.

"Macron said there is a new anti-Semitism that is expressed in anti-Zionism, that is delegitimizing the one and only Jewish state," Netanyahu said. "In many ways, Hungary is at the forefront of the states that are opposed to this anti-Jewish policy and I welcome it and I express the appreciation of my government and the people, many people in Israel for this."

Orban again expressed his government's "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitism, though a recent government campaign against George Soros and the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist's support for migration and refugees has been criticized by Jewish organizations for its anti-Semitic overtones, which Orban's government denies.

Orban also repeated his opposition to mass migration mostly by Muslims, which he has said would lead to irreversible changes in European culture and its population.

"I made it clear that Hungary has serious disputes in the European Union, as Hungary does not want a mixed population," Orban said. Hungary "does not want to change its current ethnic composition, it does not want to defer to any external, artificial influence."

"We'd like to remain as we are, even if, I have to admit, we are not perfect," Orban added.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu and Orban will meet with leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia  Hungary's partners in the so-called Visegrad Group  and also visit representatives of Hungary's Jewish
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Conservative Islamic groups protested Tuesday in the capital of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, denouncing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's attempt to ban radical organizations.

Demonstrators from an alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and held up banners calling the government tyrannical and repressive.

The crowd, which swelled to an estimated 2,000 people, was divided into separate rows for men and women and was mostly peaceful, said Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono.

A decree signed by Jokowi last week that amends a law regulating mass organizations will give the government almost unfettered power to ban groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. Parliament has one year to reject or approve it.

It is likely that Hizbut Tahrir, a group that campaigns for Indonesia to adopt Shariah law, is among the targets of the decree, with the government announcing in May that it planned to ban the organization.

"Jokowi's anti-Islam decree is proof this is a dictatorial regime," a rally coordinator, Kholilulloh Al-Habsyi, told the crowd from a truck.

Rights groups have criticized the decree as a draconian and anti-democratic measure and say governments could easily abuse its power.

Jokowi's measure followed months of sectarian tensions in Jakarta that shook the government and undermined the country's reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.

Hizbut Tahrir, along with groups such as the violent Islamic Defenders Front, was behind a series of massive protests in Jakarta, the capital, against the city's minority Christian governor, an ally of Jokowi who was accused of blaspheming Islam. He subsequently lost a bid for re-election to a Muslim candidate and was imprisoned for two years for blasphemy despite prosecutors downgrading the charge to a lesser offense.

Hizbut, a global organization that is already banned or circumscribed in some countries, is estimated to have tens of thousands of members in Indonesia.
WASHINGTON  Lyndon Johnson could be vulgar to the extreme, giving interviews while sitting on the toilet with the door open, pulling up dogs by their ears, exposing his stomach to show a scar from an operation.

The Kennedys were notorious for their fickleness when it came to the press, courting favorites, then dismissing or ostracizing them at the first sign of criticism or disagreement. They hid their dedication to philandering behind a facade of good will. Woodrow Wilson, dismissive of the press at times, also worked to court favor with powerful publishers like E. W. Scripps.

Dwight Eisenhower and Barrack Obama were aloof. George H.W. Bush was condescending, beneath it all a president raised in an atmosphere of snobbery  not unlike Thomas Jefferson, who despite his upbringing saw the absolute importance of a free press.

All these men and indeed every president until now have had two things in common. They tried as hard as they could to manage the flow of news and those who control it, while at the same time openly reaffirming their belief in the Fourth Estate no matter how frustrated they were by its zealousness. None of them condemned the entire institution as has the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Why? Because they swore to defend the Constitution, whose First Amendment has guided this nation since the beginning. Even more important, they understood that curtailing the peoples right to know is the first objective of every authoritarian government. Once a free press goes away, the rest of bedrock liberty  freedom of religion, speech and peaceable assembly  soon disappears too.

In the months Donald Trump has called himself president, evidence has piled up indicating he not only is unaware of his responsibilities to the Constitution but that he is fully capable of shredding the dignity of the office he holds to get his way. His recent video-attack showing him as a wrestler undoing a nemesis, CNN, was a silly and sophomoric attempt to play to the mob that elected him and stimulated his campaign rallies with lock her up cries befitting the French Revolution.

What really seems to be occurring in this display of little boy pique with its fake news theme is an attempt to distract Americans from a lack of campaign-promised achievement and understanding of the job.

But when do verbal attacks cross into kill the messenger territory? Its worth asking in this age of unfettered firearms and online hate. One need only think of the violence committed against journalists around the world to imagine the worst.

Every American understood Harry Trumans threat to thrash a critic whose opinion of his daughters singing was less than kind. It was a father defending his daughter. But there is no comparison here with Trumps diatribes.

In 65 years in journalism, I have tried to treat criticism as the right of the reader and to admit mistakes openly. I have been sued only once, and the judge directed a verdict of innocence. I truly believe that most of the men and women who have been my colleagues have diligently tried to hold themselves to the same standards.

At the same time, I am not naive to the fact that we are not perfect in our effort to be the watchdogs of liberty. Our opinions do creep into our news columns, we are shrill and sometimes unfair in our dislikes, and yes, were even frequently guilty of political bias.

But flawed or not, we are necessary to a free society.

Trump should get on with the business of trying to run the country, accepting criticism for what it is, perhaps even showing some civility and dignity in the process. Those two traits, above all others, are absolutely necessary for holding the nations top office.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake, followed by several aftershocks above 5.0 magnitude, rocked the area near Russias Kamchatka Penisula Tuesday morning, triggering a brief tsunami warning.

The quake struck at 11:34 a.m. local time, with the epicenter west of Attu, the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands, roughly 1,400 miles east of Anchorage.

The earthquake was shallow, occurring only 6 miles below the seabed, and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

MAGNITUDE 6.4 EARTHQUAKE SHAKES PERU'S SOUTHERN COAST

The Kamchatka branch of Russia's emergency situations ministry had warned that waves up to 1-2 feet high could reach the city of Nikolskoye, Reuters reported.

Waves later Monday were reported only 6 inches above tide at the sparsely populated Shemya, Alaska, site of a remote Air Force station in the extreme western Aleutians.

EARTHQUAKES RUMBLE CENTRAL OKLAHOMA BUT NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had warned earlier that "hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 186 miles of the earthquake epicenter." But it later said that based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake had passed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More than 170 acres of Israeli land -- including the area that features the Roman amphitheater and hippodrome -- were secretly sold by the Greek Orthodox Church to a mysterious buyer -- prompting the Israeli government to call an emergency meeting to examine the transaction.

The land in Caesarea was sold in the last month, The Times of Israel reported. Much of the land has been designated as a historic national park and was under lease to the Jewish National Fund.

The church acquired the land in the early 19th century for agriculture and leased large chunks of it to the JNF for 99 years after Israels independence in the 1950s.

The JNF -- in addition to government departments such as the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the Israel Lands Authority and the Justice Ministry -- were shocked by the sale. The Justice Ministry called for a meeting to discuss future land sales by the church, which is the second largest land owner in Israel, following the Israel Lands Authority.

ISRAEL, LGBT ACTIVISTS FIGHT OVER ADOPTION RIGHTS

According to the Times, deals such as the most recent one require the intervention of the relevant bodies.

The Parks Authority said it would "act to ensure the protection of the ancient assets of the land. Caesarea was built by King Herod and served as the commercial capital of ancient Judaea 2000 years ago. New archaeological discoveries are still being made in the ancient city.

The amphitheater, which was located on the recently sold land, is a popular venue for Israeli and international musicians and performers. The land was sold to a company called Saint Ventures Limited, which is registered in the Caribbean, a region known for tax havens.

Recently, the church also sold the land of 1,500 property owners in an affluent Jerusalem neighborhood.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend by one year the martial law he declared in the south to ensure the "total eradication" of pro-Islamic State group extremists.

Duterte warned that extremists continue to plot public uprisings aimed at establishing a caliphate in Southeast Asia despite a failed but disastrous attempt to set up one in the southern Philippines.

Duterte said in a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives that extending his martial law declaration in the south through the end of 2018 would allow government forces to press offensives against other armed groups, including the brutal Abu Sayyaf group and communist guerrillas, who have intensified their attacks.

A copy of the president's letter was made available to reporters Monday.
Two former executives of a Vatican children's hospital were set for trial on charges of embezzlement after a Vatican court rejected dismissing the case on Tuesday



The pair are accused of using more than $500,000 in hospital donations to renovate a top cardinal's penthouse.

Lawyers for former hospital president Giuseppe Profiti and ex-treasurer Massimo Spina argued the Vatican court had no jurisdiction to prosecute activities of a hospital foundation that was located in Italy, not Vatican City.

VATICAN CARDINAL FACES SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES

However, tribunal president Judge Paolo Papanti-Pelletier rejected the motion as the trial opened and set a new round of hearings in September.

Profiti said the funds used from the Bambino Gesu hospital foundation were an investment because he planned to use Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's apartment for future fundraising events for the hospital.

Bertone, Castelli Reconstruction and the companys owner, Gianantonio Bandera, were not prosecuted.

HOLY COMMUNION WAFER CANNOT BE GLUTEN-FREE, VATICAN SAYS

If Profiti and Spina are found guilty of embezzlement by the Vatican court, they may face between three and five years in prison in addition to fines.

It's not clear if Italian authorities will launch their own investigation into the deal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
It began Monday night as a domestic assault call and ended an hour later with a 43-year-old man being shot dead by two Culpeper County deputies at the intersection of the Sperryville Pike (U.S. 522) and Griffinsburg Road.

That shooting, according to reports from the Sheriffs Office and the Virginia State Police, who are investigating it, took place after a vehicle being sought in connection with the domestic incident was spotted by a deputy near Culpeper shortly before 11 p.m.

The unnamed deputy followed the vehicle and attempted to pull it over, according to the state police. When the driver refused to stop, two more deputies joined the pursuit. The vehicle finally was pulled over at the intersection of Griffinsburg Road.

Exactly what happened after that remained unclear Tuesday, but at some point during the encounter, two deputies reportedly fired multiple shots that left Eric Wesley Clark dead. A Sheriffs Office press release stated that Clark presented a deadly threat to the deputies.

According to State Police Sgt. Les Tyler, a shotgun was recovered from that location. No other informationincluding the names of the deputies involvedhad been released as of Tuesday afternoon.

Since 2013, Culpeper County deputies have been involved in at least two other fatal shootings.

On April 11 of that year, 59-year-old Harold Lee Daniels died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Deputy Patrick Cooper was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting. Authorities say it occurred after Daniels pointed a gun at law-enforcement officers at his home in Rapidan.

The Sheriffs Office responded to the residence after Daniels was accused of driving in excess of 100 mph on U.S. 15, according to authorities.

The other deputy-involved fatal shooting happened June 8, 2016, during a domestic situation off Sperryville Pike.

Willis Walker Jr., 49, was fatally wounded by a sheriffs deputy responding to a report that Walker had shot and killed a neighbor, 74-year-old James Stewart, and then assaulted his estranged wife, according to state police.

Walker reportedly refused to comply with repeated commands to put down his weapon and started walking toward deputies with a shotgun, at which time Sheriffs Office Sgt. Chad A. Abate fired one shot, killing Walker.
148 Organizations Certified as Best Christian Workplaces Contact: Kathy Lopus, Best Christian Workplaces Institute, 206-230-8111, klopus@bcwinstitute.org



MERCER ISLAND, Wash., July 18, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Best Christian Workplaces Institute today honors 148 ministries, churches, and Christian-owned businesses as "Certified Best Christian Workplaces." These organizations participated in the online, confidential employee engagement survey between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.



It marks the largest number of annual certified honorees in BCWI's 15-year history. The 148 honorees are based primarily in the U.S. and Canada, with Australia, Albania and Guatemala also involved.



Since 2002, more than 233,000 employees from over 900 organizations, churches and Christian-owned businesses have completed the BCWI's Employee Engagement Survey. This online instrument provides an objective, quantifiable measure of a flourishing workplace culture based on eight factors: fantastic teams, life-giving work, outstanding talent, uplifting growth, rewarding compensation, inspirational leadership, sustainable strategy and healthy communication.



BCWI President, Al Lopus, says, "The workplace excellence of each of these certified honorees confirms the fact that healthy-to-flourishing workplace culture drives the efficiency and productivity essential to organizational effectiveness."



About Best Christian Workplaces Institute

BCWI is an international non-profit, research-based, organizational development and human resources consulting firm, with a head office in Mercer Island, WA. BCWI's vision is to see Christian workplaces set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world.



For more information, visit Best Christian Workplaces Institute online: www.bcwinstitute.org. Each week, find proven insights from top Christian leaders on the BCWI Blog (blog.bcwinstitute.org) and Flourishing Culture Podcast (blog.bcwinstitute.org/podcast).



CAMPS & CONFERENCE CENTERS BigStuf  Alpharetta, GA

CRISTA Camps  Seattle, WA

Lake Ann Camp  Lake Ann, MI CHRISTIAN-OWNED BUSINESSES Aspen Group  Frankfort, IL

Dr. Bray & Dr. Young  Statesboro, GA

Dow Smith Contracting Company, Inc.  Smyrna, TN

The Human Capital Group, Inc.  Brentwood, TN

Outreach  Colorado Springs, CO CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS Briarcrest Christian School  Memphis TN

Calvary Christian Academy  Fort Lauderdale, FL

Celebration Kinderschool  Tallahassee, FL

Chapelwood School for Young Children  Houston, TX

Cherry Hills Christian School  Highlands Ranch, CO

Colegio Cristiano Nicolas  Nebaj, Guatemala

College Heights Christian School  Joplin, MO

Crossings Christian School  Oklahoma City, OK

GDQ International Christian School  Tirana, Albania

King's Schools  Seattle, WA

Lionheart Children's Academy  Euless, TX

Pine Harbor Christian Academy  Hastings, MN

Santa Fe Christian Schools  Solana Beach, CA

Seattle Urban Academy  Seattle, WA

Southside Christian School  Simpsonville, SC

Trinity Academy  Raleigh, NC

Trinity Academy  Wichita, KS

Valley Christian Schools  Cerritos, CA

The Woodlands Christian Academy  The Woodlands, TX CHURCHES Ada Bible Church  Ada, MI

Antioch Community Church  Waco, TX

Bridgeway Community Church  Columbia, MD

Brookville Road Community Church  New Palestine, IN

Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale  Fort Lauderdale, FL

Calvary Lutheran Church of Golden Valley  Golden Valley, MN

Celebration Baptist Church  Tallahassee, FL

CenterPoint Church  Massapequa, NY

Chapelwood United Methodist Church  Houston, TX

Cherry Hills Community Church  Highlands Ranch, CO

Christ's Church of the Valley  Peoria, AZ

City Hope Church  Spanish Fort, AL

Coquitlam Alliance Church  Coquitlam, BC, Canada

Cornwall Church  Bellingham, WA

Crossings Community Church  Oklahoma City, OK

CROSSROADS  Odessa, TX

Crossroads Christian Church  Evansville, IN

Eastminster Presbyterian Church  Wichita, KS

Eastview Christian Church  Normal, IL

Experience Life Church  Lubbock, TX

Fairhaven Church  Dayton, OH

Faith Promise Church  Knoxville, TN

Gateway Church  Southlake, TX

Grace Community Church  Tyler, TX

The Harbor Church  Hastings, MN

Harvest Church  Billings, MT

Hillside Baptist Church  Moncton, NB, Canada

Irving Bible Church  Irving, TX

Lake Pointe Church  Rockwall, TX

Lancaster Baptist Church  Lancaster, CA

Lutheran Church of Hope  West Des Moines, IA

Metropolitan Baptist Church  Houston, TX

Northridge Christian Church  Milledgeville, GA

Pantano Christian Church  Tucson, AZ

Park Community Church  Chicago, IL

Providence Road Church of Christ  Charlotte, NC

Pure Heart Church  Glendale, AZ

Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church  San Diego, CA

Red Cedar Church  Rice Lake, WI

Redeemer Presbyterian Church  New York, NY

Redemption to the Nations Church  Chattanooga, TN

River Pointe Church  Richmond, TX

Rocky Mountain Christian Church  Niwot, CO

Rolling Hills Christian Church  El Dorado Hills, CA

Southeast Christian Church  Louisville, KY

Southridge Community Church  St. Catharines, ON, Canada

Sparks Christian Fellowship  Sparks, NV

Stafford Crossing Community Church  Fredericksburg, VA

Stone Ridge Church  Yuma, AZ

Summit Church  Durham, NC

Sunnybrook Community Church  Sioux City, IA

Timberline Church  Fort Collins, CO

Traders Point Christian Church  Indianapolis, IN

The Village Church  Flower Mound, TX

Vineyard Columbus  Westerville, OH

Willow Creek Community Church  South Barrington, IL HIGHER EDUCATION Columbia Bible College  Abbotsford, BC, Canada

Faith Builders  Guys Mills, PA

Grace School of Theology  The Woodlands, TX

MacArthur School of Leadership at Palm Beach Atlantic  West Palm Beach, FL

Olivet Nazarene University  Bourbonnais, IL MEDIA CRISTA Media  Seattle, WA

InterVarsity Press  Westmont, IL

LightMelbourne  VIC, Australia

Positive Alternative Radio, Inc.  Blacksburg, VA

Tyndale House Publishers  Carol Stream, IL

The Urban Alternative  Dallas, TX PARACHURCH & MISSIONS Apartment Life  Euless, TX

Bethesda  Colorado Springs, CO

BMA America  Conway, AR

Buckner National Missions and Family Hope Center Collaboration  Mission, TX

Care Net  Lansdowne, VA

Catholic Christian Outreach  Ottawa, ON, Canada

Child Evangelism Fellowship, Greenville/Piedmont District  Taylors, SC

The Christian and Missionary Alliance  Colorado Springs, CO

Christian Veterinary Mission  Seattle, WA

Coalition for Christian Outreach  Pittsburgh, PA

Compass  Kearney, NE

Compassion Australia  Warabrook, NSW Australia

CRISTA Ministries  Seattle, WA

East-West Ministries  Plano, TX

English Language Institute/China  Fort Collins, CO

Every Nation Ministries  Brentwood, TN

Food for the Hungry-Uganda  Kampala, Uganda

Focus on the Family Canada  Langley, BC, Canada

The Gideons International  Nashville, TN

International Leadership Institute  Carrollton, GA

Jewish Voice Ministries International  Phoenix, AZ

Jill's House  Vienna, VA

Joni and Friends  Agoura Hills, CA

Lexington Rescue Mission  Lexington, KY

Lifeshape  Atlanta, GA

Light of Life Ministries  Pittsburgh, PA

Miracle Hill Ministries  Greenville, SC

Mission India  Grand Rapids, MI

The Navigators  Colorado Springs, CO

New Horizons Ministries, Inc.  Canon City, CO

Novo Ministries  Oklahoma City, OK

Rachel House  Lee's Summit, MO

Union Gospel Mission  Vancouver, BC, Canada

VisionTrust International  Colorado Springs, CO

Water Mission  North Charleston, SC

Willow Creek Association  South Barrington, IL

Willow Creek Canada  Ottawa, ON, Canada

World Concern  Seattle, WA

WorldServe Ministries (Canada)  White Rock, BC, Canada

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A Colonial Beach man and a New York woman were arrested in Westmoreland County this week in connection with a New York homicide.

Devin Hunter Davis, 22, and Taylor Irene Beckstead, 20, of Watertown, N.Y., were arrested Monday after a traffic stop at the Stop Inn convenience store in the Oak Grove area, according to the Westmoreland Sheriffs Office.

The arrests followed a two-week joint investigation by New York State Police, the Westmoreland Sheriffs Office and other local agencies.

Davis and Beckstead face charges of second-degree murder. Davis was also charged with possession of marijuana, which authorities allege he had on him Monday.

Both suspects were arraigned in Westmoreland General District Court on Tuesday. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 22. Both are being held without bond at the Northern Neck Regional Jail.

New York State Police previously arrested two other suspects in the homicide, New York residents Jamaal Carr, 26, and Sammy Brown, 25. Each man faces a second-degree murder charge.

The four are suspected in the May 18 shooting death of Tyler J. Johnson in the town of Pamelia in upstate New York. Johnson was found in his home suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where he later died, according to New York State Police.

Police have not released details about what led to the shooting or the arrests.

Westmoreland Sheriff C.O. Balderson said he didnt know much about the shooting. He said New York police contacted his office and said Davis and Beckstead could be in the area, which launched the local investigation and led to the arrests.

The Virginia State Police and King George Sheriffs Office helped track down Davis and Beckstead.

Crime does not stop at county or state lines, Balderson said.

This is another example of how and why agencies must work together to rid our communities of criminal activity.
Judicial Watch Sues for Voter Registration Data Under National Voter Registration Act

Defendant Montgomery County, Maryland Has More Registered Voters Than Voting Age Citizens



Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5172



WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit today in order to gain access under federal law to voter registration lists in Montgomery County, Maryland. The suit was filed against Montgomery County and the Maryland State Boards of Elections under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Baltimore Division (Judicial Watch vs. Linda H. Lamone, et al. (No. 1:17-cv-02006)).



In an April 11, 2017, notice letter sent to Maryland election officials, Judicial Watch explained that there were more registered voters in Montgomery County than there were citizens over the age of 18. The letter threatened a lawsuit if the problems with Montgomery County's voter rolls were not fixed. The letter also requested access to Montgomery County voter registration lists in order to evaluate the efficacy of any "programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of Maryland's official eligible voter lists during the past 2 years." On July 7, Maryland denied Judicial Watch access to the voter registration list because Maryland laws supposedly restricts the release of voter registration information only to Maryland registered voters.



But Section 8(i) of the NVRA provides that "[e]ach State shall maintain for at least 2 years and shall make available for public inspection and, where available, photocopying at a reasonable cost, all records concerning the implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voter."



Judicial Watch, in its lawsuit, noted that the registration list it requested from the Maryland and Montgomery County boards is covered under Section 8(i) of the NVRA:

"Section 8(i) of the NVRA contains no requirement that only an individual person or a registered voter may request the documents that the statute describes. Accordingly, Section 8(i) authorizes and entitles Judicial Watch to inspect and copy the requested voter list."

Judicial Watch regularly requests and receives records from state and local governments pursuant to Section 8(i) of the NVRA.



In April, Judicial Watch sent letters notifying to 11 states having counties in which the number of registered voters exceeds the number of voting-age citizens. The states are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee.



"Maryland needs to make this voter registration information available as federal law requires," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "Maryland doesn't want its voter rolls mess to be exposed by Judicial Watch, and we hope the courts move quickly so we can begin the process of cleaning up the voter rolls. This is a national problem and Maryland is one of many legal battles for clean elections."



The director of Judicial Watch's Election Integrity Project is senior attorney Robert Popper, who was formerly deputy chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.



MORE: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-sues-voter-registration-data-national-voter-registration-act
When we think about a tumor, we usually think about the accumulation of tumor cells, she said. But when we look at these tumors, we have these islands of tumor cells and they are surrounded by immune cells. So theres a really strong immune reaction to the tumor, but the reaction just hasnt been the right one to kill the tumor cells.

Those pools of immune cells in lung cancer mainly include one type of cell: neutrophils, typically the immune systems first responder to infections or injuries. Normally, neutrophils live only six hours, but the lung tumors have figured out tricks to both keep the immune cells alive longer and to continually attract a new supply of neutrophils to the neighborhood. The tumors coerce the neutrophils to form living moats around the cancerous islands that other immune cells, like cancer-killing T cells, may not be able to bridge.

Past research has shown that patients with fewer T cells present in their tumors tend to fare worse overall  and are less likely to benefit from checkpoint inhibitors. If there are few T cells present in the tumor, there may be no cancer-killing cells around for drugs like pembrolizumab to wake up. But its not entirely clear why some tumors have plenty of T cells on board and some dont. In their recent study, Kargl and her colleagues saw that lung tumors with more neutrophils had fewer T cells, and vice versa.

Its not clear from their study what the neutrophils are doing in the tumors, Kargl said, and they dont have biopsies from patients who have received checkpoint inhibitors  the biopsies were all taken from patients while they were undergoing surgery to remove their tumors before theyd received any other treatments. But their theory is that if these neutrophils are actively keeping helpful immune cells out of the tumor, a treatment that killed off or otherwise blocked the neutrophils could allow T cells in  and could allow more patients to benefit from checkpoint inhibitors. The research team is currently conducting preliminary experiments in a mouse model of lung cancer to test the idea.

Making T-cell therapy work for solid tumors

The microenvironment also plays a big role when it comes to the success or failure of T-cell therapy, which relies on T cells that are put into the patients bloodstream to seek out the tumor rather than T cells that are already inside the tumor. This form of immunotherapy is showing early promise in certain blood cancers, but researchers are still working to translate that promise for most solid tumors. T-cell therapy most often entails extracting a patients own T cells from their blood, engineering the cells with new cancer-killing abilities in the laboratory, and multiplying them many times before they are infused back into the patients bloodstream.

Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow working with Fred Hutch immunotherapy researcher Dr. Phil Greenberg, recently led a study that underscored the importance of the tumor microenvironment in developing these immunotherapies for ovarian cancer. Anderson and colleagues found that engineered T cells can kill cancer cells, which leads to extended survival in a mouse model of cancer. But the therapy is not ready for testing in humans yet, she said. The research, which Anderson presented in April at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., also identified several roadblocks to achieving an effective ovarian cancer T-cell therapy that can eradicate the tumor, many of them related to the tumor microenvironment.
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I recently visited a farm in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As you can imagine, their challenges are enormous but, amazingly, their limitations to yield are the same as mine.

This is a huge, water-rich country  3.3% of its area is covered by water compared with the UK, which only has 0.7% coverage. Rainfall is high and the soils run deep.

The area I visited is so far inland it is effectively landlocked. As for cropping, everything needs to be imported including the heavy, bulky stuff such as lime and fertiliser.

See also: Read more from our Arable Farmer Focus writers

As the soil has originated in a warm, high-rainfall area, it is highly weathered, low in fertility and very acidic.

At home in South Africa, I also have acidic soil  some of my soil is naturally acidic, similar to the DRC, and other soil has man-induced acidity.

This primarily comes from the overuse of nitrogen fertilisers, which dont cause much acidity themselves but it is the nitrogen that escapes the root profile of the crop that acidifies the soil.

Lime solution

It doesnt matter where your acidic soil comes from, the solution is the same, deep incorporation of lime.

Highly weathered soil is also low on macronutrients, such as phosphorus and potassium, and micronutrients, such as zinc and molybdenum.

This is all easily fixable, although it might not be cheap. It doesnt matter where you farm, the basics stay the same.

Acidic soil inhibits root development, and plants with compromised root cant access nutrients and moisture from the soil.

Soil deficient in essential nutrients will not yield. The next level in yield comes from increasing soil carbon.

Unlike lime and fertiliser there is no practical way to buy organic matter, you must grow it. Organic matter comes from no-tilling your fields together with growing cover crops.

Whether you farm in South Africa, the DRC or the UK, the next level in increased yield comes from increasing your soils organic matter content.

Bruce Shepherd farms in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He plants 500ha of rain-fed summer crops across 3,000ha. He also runs 2,600 weaner oxen on pastures, finishing them in a feedlot with maize grown on the farm.
Winter wheat harvesting is kicking off in Cambridgeshire this week with grain quality looking good although very hot weather in June has trimmed yields.

Very early milling wheat crops were showing good protein and specific weights levels as the combines rolled across some light land in the county.

David White, farming between Cambridge and Newmarket on some sandy land, cut 14ha of the old milling wheat variety Solstice on Monday 17 July and reports protein levels of over 13% and a specific weight of 77-78kg/hl.

See also: Harvest 2017: Dorset oilseed rape sees good yields

Yields were coming in at 8t/ha compared with the 9t/ha he would usually expect, and this lower yield was largely due to the very hot spell of weather in June.

Quality is good, but there is not as much grain as we would have liked, he told Farmers Weekly.

He moved into 8ha of the milling variety Crusoe on Monday night (17 July) with similar yields and quality to the Solstice.

He has 40-45ha of winter wheat to cut in total, and his remaining crop is on some fenland which will be later to mature.

Traditional milling wheat minimum industry standards are for protein of 13%, specific weight of 76kg/hl and a Hagberg level of 250.

On the other side of Cambridge, James Peck near Dry Drayton started cutting winter wheat for a neighbour on Monday (17 July), and is hoping to move into his own wheat on Thursday (20 July).

Down in Kent, James Loder-Symonds is set to start cutting his milling wheat Skyfall today, some two weeks earlier than normal, at a time he would normally be starting cutting oilseed rape.

He is moving into 70ha of second wheats at Nonington Farms between Canterbury and Dover on the edge of the North Downs after cutting 300ha of oilseed rape earlier this month.
Leading academics have accused the government of having no vision for UK agriculture after Brexit and being unprepared for the most complex ever change to our food system.

Three UK food policy experts published a report on Monday (17 July)  A Food Brexit: Time to get real  (PDF) which warned that the UK is sleepwalking into a crisis over its food supply.

The silence about the future of UK food since the Brexit referendum is an astonishing act of political irresponsibility and suggests chaos unless redressed, the report said.

See also: Read the latest news and features on the impact of Brexit on farming

The country could sleepwalk into a food crisis, unless these problems are acknowledged and addressed, it noted.

With the Brexit deadline in 20 months, this is a serious policy failure on an unprecedented scale. Anyone would think they [the government] want a drop into the World Trade Organisation abyss A Food Brexit report

Currently, the EU provides 31% of the UKs food and the report authors warn plans must be in place before the country exits the European Union in 2019.

The 88-page report warns that even if Britain opts for a soft Brexit, which would see the UK remain in the single market and customs union, it could badly affect food supplies, prices, agriculture and the environment.

The report cites research from the British Retail Consortium that leaving the EU with no trade deal could increase the price of food imports by 22%.

Lead author Tim Lang, a professor from City University in London, accused the government of becoming complacent after decades of consistency with food and farming.

The government has provided next to no details on agriculture and fisheries, and there has been total silence on the rest of the food chain where most employment, value adding and consumer choice are made, said Prof Lang.

With the Brexit deadline in 20 months, this is a serious policy failure on an unprecedented scale. Anyone would think they want a drop into the World Trade Organisation abyss.

Lack of action

The report criticises the government for a lack of action on food and farming issues, including subsidies, future supply of migrant labour and welfare standards.

It says 35% of food manufacturing workers come from the EU. But so far, there has been no clarity from the government concerning plans for migration or the future composition and sourcing of the food workforce.

The authors identify 16 issues it urges Theresa Mays government to consider. These include: measures to increase UK food security (currently 61%), assurances on farm subsidies after 2022, commitments on food quality and standards, and a UK vision for a post-EU food system.

Tariff-free trade

Responding to the report, a Defra spokeswoman said: Leaving the EU will provide our hugely successful food and drinks industry with new opportunities to expand and flourish.

When we leave we are determined to benefit from tariff-free trade for our goods that is as frictionless as possible.

But we also want to provide stability for the sector when we leave the EU  which is why the Repeal Bill will make sure the laws and rules we have will, so far as possible, still apply and why our Agriculture Bill will make sure farmers can continue to compete domestically and on the global market.
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World Emoji Day : Can you figure out the Bonn Emojis?

Bonn It all started with 176 little icons and now there are many more than 2,000 Emojis. World Emoji Day was celebrated on July 17. Take the Bonn Emoji quiz and see how well you do!

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Emoji Day has been celebrated unofficially since 2014 and keeps growing in importance. The fan base is increasing worldwide.

Global players such as Google, Disney, Twitter or Coca-Cola sent out messages on the web; its a great platform for their marketing ideas on Emoji Day. Even the Empire State Building in New York was bathed in glowing yellow as a tribute to the popular Emojis on Monday.

There are exactly 2,623 Emojis that can currently be used on the various social media platforms, according to the Unicode consortium on its homepage. The US based association creates guidelines for modern software, including for Emojis.

Anyone can suggest an Emoji

Whoever wants to can suggest a new symbol to Unicode. Whats important is the reasoning behind the Emoji, the graphic clarity of it and patience. It can take years to implement it. The experts receive new wishes for Emojis all the time and have to decide: Should we include this Emoji in the program?

But its about more than just colors and shapes: In the new Unicode version 10, there will be an Emoji with a headscarf. And thats only the beginning, says Anatol Stefanowitsch of the Freie Universitat Berlin. Next will come Emojis with a cross around the neck or a kippah on the head. Once you start taking all the various populations groups into account, more and more wishes are coming.

How well do you know the symbols? Can you figure out these Bonn places and events using their German names? (When you click on klicken und entdecken you will get the answer.)
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
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.
Pope Francis Representative, Antonio Guido Arrives Nigeria Over Ahiara Diocese Crisis (PHOTO)

felicilin at 18-07-2017 01:34 PM (5 years ago) (f)

Pope Francis representative, Monsignor Antonio Guido Filipazzi, has arrived Nigeria to resolve the crisis the appointment of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as Bishop of Ahiara Diocese in Imo State by the then pontiff Benedict XVI caused.

Pope Francis representative, Monsignor Antonio Guido Filipazzi, has arrived Nigeria to resolve the crisis the appointment of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as Bishop of Ahiara Diocese in Imo State by the then pontiff Benedict XVI caused. Pope Francis Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria is also expected to make Priests who refused to see Okpaleke as a Bishop, comply with the Popes directives.

Pope Francis' representative

Bishop Okpaleke, of Anambra origin had been rejected since 2012 when he was posted to the Diocese of Ahiara because he was not a native of Mbaise in Imo state.

The new Pope representative speaks Italian, English, French and German.

Pope Francis Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria is also expected to make Priests who refused to see Okpaleke as a Bishop, comply with the Popes directives.Pope Francis' representativeBishop Okpaleke, of Anambra origin had been rejected since 2012 when he was posted to the Diocese of Ahiara because he was not a native of Mbaise in Imo state.The new Pope representative speaks Italian, English, French and German.

Post Reply Posted: at 18-07-2017 01:34 PM (5 years ago) | Hero

DrSoba at 18-07-2017 01:40 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Imagine biafra rejecting biafra. Posted: at 18-07-2017 01:40 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Imagine biafra rejecting biafra. Reply

tegonwa at 18-07-2017 01:52 PM (5 years ago)

(m) You Need Biafra But Even Many Of These Ahiara Priests Cannot Bear To Live With An Igbo Bishop.You Want Biafra When You Are Even Fighting Yourselves, Worst Of All At Church!You Call Nigeria A Zoo But Even Your 'Angels' In White Exhibit Zoo-ish Tendencies.How Can A Roman Catholic Priest Vehemently Reject A Fellow Priest Taking Residence In His Parish Or Diocese?What Would U Then Preach About Vanity And Love?Read About Blessed Iwene Tansi(a Fellow Priest)and Learn To Be As Docile As The Lamb.Quite Hopeless Rejecting A Duely Appointed Bishop.Indeed Hopeless. Posted: at 18-07-2017 01:52 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac You Need Biafra But Even Many Of These Ahiara Priests Cannot Bear To Live With An Igbo Bishop.You Want Biafra When You Are Even Fighting Yourselves, Worst Of All At Church!You Call Nigeria A Zoo But Even Your 'Angels' In White Exhibit Zoo-ish Tendencies.How Can A Roman Catholic Priest Vehemently Reject A Fellow Priest Taking Residence In His Parish Or Diocese?What Would U Then Preach About Vanity And Love?Read About Blessed Iwene Tansi(a Fellow Priest)and Learn To Be As Docile As The Lamb.Quite Hopeless Rejecting A Duely Appointed Bishop.Indeed Hopeless. Reply

Dramaking at 18-07-2017 03:22 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Smh... If yall check ya history very well, yall wuld see Igbos had been hvin problem rulin em selves, even since pre-colonial era, The British had 2 appoint warrant chiefs when they found out they aint got a particular leader, thats why since then till now they cant provide a single credible candidate that will represent that region come 2019. #Shame.. Posted: at 18-07-2017 03:22 PM (5 years ago) | Gistmaniac Smh... If yall check ya history very well, yall wuld see Igbos had been hvin problem rulin em selves, even since pre-colonial era, The British had 2 appoint warrant chiefs when they found out they aint got a particular leader, thats why since then till now they cant provide a single credible candidate that will represent that region come 2019. #Shame.. Reply

gogoman at 18-07-2017 03:29 PM (5 years ago)

(m) Quote from: Dramaking on 18-07-2017 03:22 PM Smh... If yall check ya history very well, yall wuld see Igbos had been hvin problem rulin em selves, even since pre-colonial era, The British had 2 appoint warrant chiefs when they found out they aint got a particular leader, thats why since then till now they cant provide a single credible candidate that will represent that region come 2019. #Shame..





NO MIND THEM, MAKE THEM PROVIDE CANDIDATE FOR 2019 THEY WON'T .. NA SO SO COMPLAIN LIKE WOMAN Posted: at 18-07-2017 03:29 PM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero NO MIND THEM, MAKE THEM PROVIDE CANDIDATE FOR 2019 THEY WON'T .. NA SO SO COMPLAIN LIKE WOMAN Reply
Overall, dont let the bhoot mislead you, nothing bhootiya about this story. Had the makers tried to push the envelope, the idea could have been outstanding for a bhootiya comedy.
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 17, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 31 strikes consisting of 51 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 22 strikes consisting of 34 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS checkpoint and a trailer.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, three strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three weapons caches, two staging areas and a wellhead.

-- Near Raqqa, 15 strikes engaged 13 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 18 fighting positions, two vehicle bomb factories and a mortar system.

-- Near Shadaddi, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle and a vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 17 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units, destroyed two fighting positions and two tunnel entrances and damaged a fighting position.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two ISIS-held buildings.

-- Near Rawah, two strikes destroyed two ISIS-held buildings and two tactical vehicles.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes destroyed an ISIS tactical vehicle and a mortar system.

July 15 Strikes

Additionally, 14 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 15 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Shadaddi, Syria, a strike destroyed a fighting position.

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, 12 strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions, three mortar team positions, a mortar system, a fighting position and a vehicle.

-- Near Kisik, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tunnel entrance.

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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Terrorist Leader's Death Disrupts Group's Expansion Efforts, DoD Spokesman Says

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2017  The recent death of a terrorist leader in Afghanistan will further disrupt his group's plans to expand its operations in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters today.

The death of Abu Sayed, emir of an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria affiliate known as ISIS-Khorasan, was reported July 14. The U.S. strike that killed him also killed other ISIS-K members and marked the third time in the past year U.S. forces in Afghanistan have killed a sitting leader of ISIS-K, Davis said.

"ISIS threatens America in the west because of its commitment to plot, direct and inspire terrorist attacks and its ability to recruit, move and finance the terrorists who commit these attacks," he said. "The terrorists have been very clear in their propaganda.  They want to recruit and attack globally."

ISIS-K members in Afghanistan number in the hundreds, Davis said, noting that the group doesn't hold any meaningful territory in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

"There are certainly fighters there, but they are mostly spending their time trying to stay alive," he said. "The Afghan forces partnered with the U.S. forces are keeping constant pressure on them. We assess that they are most active in Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan [provinces]. We've been putting pressure on them as they try to gain footholds elsewhere."

Taliban Driven From Nawa

In Helmand province, Afghan forces, advised by U.S. Marines with Task Force Southwest, retook the Nawa district center from the Taliban today, Davis said, supported by F-16 fighter jets and AH-64 Apache helicopters conducting airstrikes in support of the operation.

"Nawa plays a large role in the security of Lashkar Gah, because it is one of the larger towns that is just south of Lashkar Gah," Davis said. As part of an expeditionary advising package, he told reporters, Marines with Task Force Southwest are advising Afghan forces to improve command and control, battle tracking, intelligence, maneuver, fires integration, and leadership evaluation and development.

Afghan forces plan to set up security checkpoints throughout the district center and on the route to Lashkar Gah to ensure security, stability and quality of life to the people of Helmand province, Davis said.

ISIS in Iraq

Turning to ISIS in Iraq, Davis said the Iraqi security forces announced that coalition forces continue to support them as they carry out detailed clearance operations in Mosul and prepare for follow-on operations in Tal Afar.

Although Iraqi forces now control all parts of Mosul, he said, detailed clearance operations of rubble caves and tunnel systems are still being conducted in the Old City to look for any ISIS fighters in hiding and identify explosive devices that could threaten friendly forces or civilians, he said.

The Iraqi army, emergency response division, counterterrorism service and federal police forces will hold their sectors of Mosul until the hold force takes over security of the area, Davis said. To the west of Mosul, the 15th Iraqi Army Division maintained defensive positions in its offensive toward Kissick Junction and Tal Afar, he added.

ISIS in Syria

Yesterday in Raqqa, Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces liberated about 2 square kilometers of terrain  about three-quarters of a square mile  within Raqqa as they fought along three axes against stiff resistance and significant improvised-explosive-device belts, Davis said.

On the western axis, he added, the SDF cleared nearly 2 square kilometers on the western edge of the city, isolated and secured a high-rise complex, and improved their defensive positions, despite sniper fire and extensive IED belts.

On the eastern axis, the SDF advanced west along the southern edge of the city, repelled ISIS counterattacks, and initiated offensive operations along four avenues of assault, Davis said.

On the southern axis, south of the Euphrates River, the SDF improved their defensive positions along the forward line of troops, he said.

The east-west de-confliction line south of the Euphrates is holding as regime forces remain south and SDF forces remain north of the agreed-upon line, Davis added.

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U.S. Forces Work With Partners in Numerous Military Exercises

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2017  Military exercises are underway between U.S. military forces and those of many other nations, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, told reporters today.

In the Pacific region, Exercise Talisman Saber 2017 involves more than 33,000 U.S. and Australian personnel who are participating in the biennial military training exercise in Australia, June 23 to July 25.

U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel, as well as Australian forces and members of other government agencies in both countries are participating in Talisman Saber, which is jointly sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command and the Australian military's Joint Operations Command.

It features 21 ships, including the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, and more than 200 joint aircraft. This year's seventh iteration of the exercise is focusing on training a combined task force of U.S. and Australian forces in a mid-intensity, high-end warfighting scenario, incorporating interagency participation, along with a command post exercise involving a transition between a three- and four-star headquarters.

"Talisman Saber provides an invaluable opportunity to conduct operations in a combined, joint and interagency environment that will increase both countries' ability to plan and execute contingency responses, from combat missions to humanitarian assistance efforts," Davis said.

Africa Exercises

In Africa, The U.S. military, in partnership with the South African military, will conduct Shared Accord 2017, a command post exercise and field training exercise at South Africa's combat training center. It began today and runs to Aug. 3.

"Shared Accord 2017 is an annual, combined, joint military exercise that brings together U.S. forces and partner nations to foster security cooperation while improving operational planning and mission command capabilities," Davis said.

"Shared Accord promotes regional relationships, increases capacity, trains U.S. and South African forces, and furthers cross training and interoperability," he added.

The exercise will provide participating military forces the skills required to enable readiness in support of peacekeeping operations, Davis said, noting that the U.S. military is getting valuable training as well, in areas such as planning for peace support operations, combined command and expeditionary operations.

United Kingdom - Royal International Air Tattoo

In the United Kingdom over the weekend, U.S. airmen and sailors participated in flying demonstrations and static displays for the Royal International Air Tattoo at Royal Air Force Fairford.

"U.S. participation in RIAT highlighted the strength of the U.S. commitment to European security, the NATO alliance, our ever-strong alliance with U.K., and demonstrates interoperability with allies and partners from around the world," Davis said.

This year's airshow also was designated as a commemoration for the U.S. Air Force's 70th birthday by U.S. Air Forces in Europe with the theme "American Airmen: Breaking Barriers since 1947."

Europe Exercises

Exercise Saber Guardian 17, a U.S. Army Europe-led multinational exercise, is nearing completion in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The exercise began July 11 and will end July 20. Saber Guardian 17 is larger in both scale and scope over previous iterations, Davis said. About 25,000 service members from 22 allied and partner nations are taking part, he added, and the exercise highlights participant deterrence capabilities -- specifically, the ability to mass forces at any given time anywhere in Europe.

Davis also highlighted several enabling and integrated exercises:

-- Tobruq Legacy 2017, a U.S.-led air defense artillery exercise July 12-22 at several Czech Republic, Lithuanian and Romanian locations;

-- Swift Response 2017, a U.S.-led, airborne exercise involving the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team at several Bulgarian, Hungarian and Romanian locations July 13-23; and

-- Sea Breeze 2017, a U.S. Naval Forces Europe-led multinational exercise in the Black Sea supporting NATO's Partnership for Peace initiative, July 11-21;

Allied and partner exercises involving about 40,000 personnel from 30 nations comprise the Black Sea Region Exercises for 2017, with Saber Guardian 17 being the largest, Davis said. While each is separate and distinct, the exercises as a whole demonstrate the commitment of the United States and its allies and partners as well as NATO's superior joint and combined capabilities, and they highlight the collective will to defend against regional aggression, Davis said.

South America  UNITAS

Naval maritime forces from 18 countries gathered in Lima, Peru, for the 58th iteration of the annual multilateral exercise UNITAS, which starts today and runs through July 26, the captain said.

This year's exercise is hosted by Peru. Participating countries include the United States, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Panama, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom.

UNITAS 2017 comprises two concurrent phases:

-- UNITAS Pacific is designed to train each navy to conduct combined naval operations through the execution of littoral warfare, anti-piracy, maritime interdiction operations, countering transnational organized crime, anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare, communications exercises, and air and amphibious operations to increase the capabilities of participating naval and marine forces.

-- UNITAS Amphibious is designed to enhance interoperability and improve partner nations' ability to plan combined amphibious operations, stability operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the region.

UNITAS began in 1960, making it the world's longest-running annual multinational maritime exercise. It has evolved over many years, Davis said, and now includes training for 21st-century threats that are encountered in today's maritime environment.

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'No Slack' battalion stays true to its name in preparations for U.S. Africa-led exercise

By 2nd Lt. Lucas Hodge, 1st Brigade Combat Team July 17, 2017

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division -- also known as the "No Slack" battalion -- are finally witnessing the fruition of their hard work over the past seven months in preparing for Shared Accord 17, a U.S. Army Africa-led joint training exercise in South Africa.

The exercise takes place this month and continues through August.

The preparation for this deployment saw 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment Soldiers surmount innumerable hurdles to successfully plan and execute the movement to South Africa. The burden of the planning fell to the unit's S-4 section, led by Capt. Clay Drnek, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment battalion supply officer.

"This was a lot for such a small unit to handle," Drnek explained.

Drnek said that unlike most deployments, this one required only part of the battalion rather than a full brigade and its planning staff. Even with the support of 1st Brigade Combat Team's planning staff, the challenge of preparing to deploy as a battalion was significant.

"We received the mission in January, which gave us over six months to plan, but that coincided with an intensive training cycle and other administrative hurdles," he said. Among the many obstacles faced by the battalion's planning staff was the closure of Campbell Army Airfield. To surmount this, unit personnel had to fly out of the Nashville International Airport, which required the military staff to form a close working relationship with the civilian personnel at the airport and the division transportation office.

The battalion's equipment was loaded into shipping containers and Air Force pallets in the battalion footprint before flying out from Fort Campbell's Sabre Army Airfield on military aircraft.

"This deployment was entirely by air," Drnek said. "Even with the airfield closed, we still had to deploy all our personnel and equipment by airplane."

The bulk of the battalion's equipment was loaded into nine tri-con shipping containers, which are smaller versions of the shipping containers seen on truck trailers and shipping vessels across the world. Each container weighed more than 3,300 pounds and included everything from weapons, to spare parts, to food and ammunition. Soldiers carried all their personal gear as they boarded the plane in Nashville.

"A lot of people think of Africa and see jungles and open grasslands. That's not where we're going -- it's rocky and full of sagebrush, very similar to the high country in Arizona and Nevada," Drnek said. "Among other things, we had to order specialized supplies like leg gaiters to keep the Soldiers from getting torn up by thorns. We also brought a huge amount of extra tires in preparation for the rocky terrain and poor roads."

Deployment to South Africa required coordination with U.S. Army Africa staff, located in Italy, and numerous South African government agencies. Some equipment and supplies, including 22 vehicles and meals ready-to-eat, were provided from Army pre-positioned stocks in Europe. South African government agencies had to clear everything that came into the country, including MREs, ammunition and vehicles.

Despite the challenge to overcome innumerable hurdles during preparation and planning, the "No Slack" Soldiers' successful execution to the operation demonstrated their ability to accomplish any mission they are given.

As part of the Regionally Aligned Force, the 1st Brigade Combat Team is supporting U.S. Army Africa events and exercises across the African continent this year. Exercises like Southern Accord 17 assist United States' allies in building relations and strengthening the multinational coalition in the region.

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Playing 'the long game': US, partner nations build global readiness through excess equipment sales

By David Vergun July 17, 2017

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army continues to build on its core themes of readiness and global engagement through U.S. foreign military sales, or FMS, according to Maj. Gen. Stephen Farmen, commander, U.S. Army Security Assistance Command.

Speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army's Hot Topics seminar on June 29, Farmen reiterated that the FMS program encourages allies to invest in training and sustainment, in addition to purchasing former U.S. military equipment and hardware.

By providing these partner nations with opportunities to utilize excess U.S. military equipment, the Army continues to sustain a ready coalition of U.S. forces and partner nations who are prepared to engage anywhere around the world at any time.

LEVERAGING FMS

The policy and execution of U.S. foreign military sales are in the capable hands of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who is "very astute when it comes to leveraging FMS as a tool of foreign policy," Farmen said. For example, Farmen noted that Mattis takes a USASAC representative with him whenever he travels the globe, as he recently did to Saudi Arabia.

The secretary uses an approach known as Threat-Based Security Cooperation, which encourages countries to "look at the mutual threats out there instead of chasing the shiny object," according to Farmen.

The approach focuses on obtaining and deploying the right capabilities and capacities that are available to deal with those mutual threats in case they arise. FMS is an integral part of that approach, since it allows partners nations to obtain equipment when and where it is needed, according to Farmen.

Farmen cited Iraq as an example, where the M1A1 Abrams is playing a crucial role in the ongoing fight to liberate Mosul. Iraq obtained 150 tanks through the FMS process several years ago, along with the necessary training for crews and maintainers.

USASAC also provided the Iraqis with thousands of rounds of ammunition, recovery vehicles, spares, and maintenance for the tanks through the FMS program, Farmen said. It even provided fuel trucks and a fleet of support vehicles that were needed to move the tanks from place to place.

DEVELOPING NATIONS GET CAPABILITIES, TOO

While the benefit of modernized equipment is evident, how can developing nations with a low gross domestic product afford to pay for these necessary capabilities?

Farmen noted that many interested nations can cut their costs by utilizing older or excess Army equipment -- known as excess defense articles, or EDA -- that is no longer needed by the U.S. armed forces. Morocco, for example, acquired over 200 M-1 tanks through this program. Farmen mentioned that other countries in Africa and South America also take advantage of FMS.

Farmen noted that proper coordination and timing help to facilitate a smooth FMS or EDA process. Combatant commands of partner nations need to communicate with one another, and their U.S. counterparts, to ascertain their equipment priorities in accordance with planned strategic impacts and regional threats.

PLAYING THE 'LONG GAME'

Farmen said USASAC is working to make the FMS and EDA processes even more streamlined and efficient, for the benefit of the United States and all other countries involved. USASAC currently sells FMS equipment to 151 partner nations, managing over 5,000 cases and over $170 billion in equipment per year -- and those numbers are growing.

But Farmen noted that FMS and EDA are not just about obtaining revenue for equipment. The programs' overall aims are the strategic effects of these equipment sales on regional and global readiness, both for the U.S. Army and its partner nations.

Farmen described the FMS process as "business savvy with a warfighter edge." The ultimate goal of the program is to build partner capacity, reassure allies, and ensure interoperability. "We play the long game," he said.

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1st Battalion, 204th Air Defense Artillery Regiment Qualifies with M3P

By Spc. Justin Humphreys July 17, 2017

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 204th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, Mississippi Army National Guard, conducted M3P .50-caliber machine gun qualifications July 11, 2017, at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, during their annual training.

The M3P is meant to shoot down aircraft or to protect a Soldier from ground troops, said Master Sgt. Russell Jones, assistant operations noncommissioned officer of the 1/204.

The M3P .50-caliber machine gun is the secondary air defense weapon, with the Stinger missile being the primary.

"The M3P is our secondary weapon system that is mounted on the Avenger weapon system," said Sgt. First Class Jon Mason, the battalion master gunner of the 1/204. "It will allow us to engage aircraft and ground targets, if necessary."

The M3P was developed during World War II for aircraft, but has long served as a dependable weapon platform for various purposes. It is able to fire up to 1,000 rounds of ammunition per minute with a maximum range of over 1,800 meters.

The past couple of months have been busy for the Soldiers of the 1/204. They went to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, for a month to support the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team and now they are at Camp Shelby. Soon, they'll go to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for more training.

"We had a group of Soldiers that just returned from NTC that was out there supporting the brigade during their rotation," said Mason. "We've got a group of Soldiers that will be proceeding to JRTC at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the rest of us are here at Camp Shelby performing our annual training."

JRTC is the Joint Readiness Training Center, and Soldiers from the 1/204 will be supporting other units during their annual training.

As the only air defense unit in the Mississippi Army National Guard, they play a crucial role in the state's overall mission; and their annual training allows them to enhance their skills.

"We don't get to do the things at home station that we're able to do at AT," said Mason. "We're doing our crew gunnery during this AT and that definitely helps the gunners with their skills. We do things at Camp Shelby that we cannot perform at home station."

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US, Romanian forces build bridge at Bordusani

By Pvt. Nicholas Vidro July 16, 2017

BORDUSANI, Romania -- Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Cavalry Regiment successfully completed a crossing of the Danube River with Romanian Allies at Bordusani, Romania on July 16, 2017.

The river crossing was complemented with a large scale tactical demonstration, joining together the Romanian air and naval forces as well. One of the highlights included a tank and ship assault against a simulated enemy providing cover for the crossing vehicles. Many Romanian and American military and civilian leaders were also present to witness the event.

The operation is a part of Saber Guardian, a US European Command, US Army Europe-led exercise taking place in multiple countries in Eastern Europe, designed to enhance a unified military command that improves the ability of each country to deter aggression.

The river crossing focused on a combined contingent of Romanian T-55 battle tanks and American M1126 Stryker Combat Vehicles. The panels of a floating bridge were pushed into place by Romanian boats and secured by Romanian soldiers before the combined convoy was allowed to move across the river.

Capt. Christopher Frost, commander of Company A, 1st Battalion, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, explained how this exercise was important for Romanian Allies, as well his own Soldiers.

"This training exercise has allowed us to asses the differences between our Strykers and their tanks, as well as given the soldiers more time to learn about the ins and outs of their vehicles," he said.

Understanding the differences between the vehicles allowed previous weaknesses to be turned into strengths for these Allies, now working together as a singular unit. Frost went on to compliment his Romanian comrades on how the two armies have come together in such a short time.

"Our Allies have made unit integration extremely easy for us and now there's barely a difference between working with them and with our own soldiers," he said.

Both countries had only practiced the exercise for two days before putting everything into action. This type of determination on both sides proved that these Allies are ready to become a cohesive fighting force at a moment's notice. Romanian Capt. Lucian Boboc, commander of the Company 3, 114th Armored Battalion, was quick to agree that teamwork proved vital to the successful crossing.

"Working alongside the Americans was great, in my opinion, because they adapted to work with us in a short amount of time," he said.

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USS Pearl Harbor Arrives In Pearl Harbor

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170717-13

Release Date: 7/17/2017 12:39:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tarra Samoluk, Commander, Amphibious Squadron 3 Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The crew of the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) arrived in Pearl Harbor for their first scheduled port visit of their 2017 deployment, July 14.

The ship's arrival at its namesake location marks the first time Pearl Harbor has visited Hawaii since completing Pacific Partnership in 2013, followed by a nearly two-and-a-half-year long maintenance period.

"It is only fitting that our first port visit after a major overhaul and work-up period should be to our namesake, Pearl Harbor," said Cmdr. Theodore Essenfeld, Pearl Harbor's commanding officer. "After a 25-month extended docking phased maintenance availability and a year of extensive training and certifications, Pearl Harbor has essentially been resurrected from the ship she was in 2013."

The ship is arriving with various defense capabilities in its arsenal, to include .50-caliber Browning machine gun mounts, Phalanx Close-in Weapons Systems, Rolling Airframe Missiles, and more.

"If you look at the phoenix rising on our ship's crest, memorializing the rising of our fleet to power after the devastating attack of Dec. 7, 1941, you can see how appropriate the symbolism is for us now," said Essenfeld. "We're not a new ship, but we feel like one. With all new systems, new capabilities, a new crew, it's like the ship is reborn and the crew is ready to flex their muscles, ready to do our nation's bidding. We're not looking for a fight, but we're ready for one if called upon."

The events following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 represent the United States military's capabilities to recover from such a devastating attack and rally the troops to mobilize.

"As Sailors aboard this ship, we get the opportunity every day to represent the fighting spirit of Pearl Harbor," said Ensign Kris Rodriguez, Pearl Harbor's administrative officer. "To finally be able to bring her back to her namesake location, where so much history took place, is a very humbling experience. I know many of us are truly looking forward to seeing firsthand the place where so much history has happened."

While Hawaii is a working port for Pearl Harbor, with departmental inspections, equipment onloads, and scheduled maintenance, Sailors and Marines will still be able to experience Hawaii and explore Pearl Harbor's history, such as the USS Arizona Memorial.

"We've put together a two-hour remembrance tour, which will consist of a harbor cruise that will most notably include the USS Arizona memorial," said Command Master Chief Thane Douglass, Pearl Harbor's command master chief. "This is an amazing opportunity for Sailors and Marines from the namesake ship to visit the memorial for the first time in almost five years. It's a great chance for our Sailors and Marines aboard to really soak up the heritage and history, and really take pride in being a part of Pearl Harbor."

After visiting Hawaii, Pearl Harbor will continue on her scheduled deployment as a part of the America Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).

The America ARG consists of amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS San Diego (LPD 22), and Harpers Ferry-class amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52), and more than 2,500 Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the eastern Pacific Ocean and engages in joint, interagency and international relationships that strengthen the ability to respond to crises and protect the collective maritime interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners.

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Militants' shooting, blasts kill 5 Egyptian policemen in northern Sinai Peninsula

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:13PM

At least five Egyptian security forces have been killed and several others wounded in northern Sinai Peninsula after militants, suspected to be with the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, launched ambush attacks against army's military vehicles, using gunfire and bombs.

The deadly incident occurred on Monday, when militants initially opened fire on an armored vehicle, carrying a number of security forces, before torching it in the city of al-Arish, security officials reported, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

As reinforcements reached the site, the militants detonated a roadside bomb, the explosion of which ripped through another army vehicle. The pair of attacks claimed the lives of five security forces and inflicted injuries to at least 11 others, the officials added.

Six other policemen were also wounded in the vicinity of an airport south of the restive city after their armored vehicle was hit by another remotely-controlled roadside bomb.

An official with the country's Interior Ministry confirmed the killings to the state news agency.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks, but such attacks are usually carried out by Daesh's local affiliate Velayat Sinai Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014.

Earlier in the day, Egyptian F-16 warplanes reportedly pounded gatherings of the terror outfit in different areas across the volatile region, killing 30 militants.

Over the past year, Egypt has been suffering from a spike in terrorist attacks targeting civilians in the mainland. The Velayat Sinai terror group had mainly attacked security forces in the restive region since its inception in 2013. Terrorists have so far killed hundreds of members of the security forces.

The group later expanded the assaults to target members of Egypt's Coptic Christian community as well as foreigners visiting the country. That has prompted the government to impose a state of emergency and widen a controversial crackdown, which critics say has mostly targeted dissidents.

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Renewed fighting in Kashmir kills 6 as Pakistan, India exchange fire

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:50PM

Indian and Pakistani forces have again exchanged fire along Kashmir's Line of Control (LoC), with reports saying six people have been killed on the two sides of the border.

The director general of Pakistan's military operations, Maj. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza, said Monday that Indian forces had attacked a Pakistani military vehicle traveling along the LoC, the de facto border that separates the two parts of Kashmir between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Shamshad Mirza said that four soldiers were killed in the attack.

Indian authorities denied the report, saying forces deployed in the Rajouri sector of Indian-administered Kashmir had returned fire after Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and automatic weapons into the area.

Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. Manish Mehta said a soldier died at a hospital after being wounded in the attack. The official condemned Pakistan's shelling as an unprovoked violation of a 2003 ceasefire.

Indian police officials said an 8-year-old girl was killed when a shell fired by the Pakistani army landed on her house in Poonch area, near Rajouri. Senior police officer S.P. Vaid said the girl's mother was also injured in the attack. Two other civilians, one on the Indian side and one on the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, were also wounded in the violence on Monday.

Indian officials say Pakistan's repeated attacks on their side of the Himalayan region have affected at least 5,000 civilians. Local civil administrator Shahid Iqbal said Monday that at least 120 students were evacuated from one school in armored vehicles after shells landed in Poonch area. He said all schools have been closed in the area.

India and Pakistan have seen a surge in fighting along the LoC over the past months. The two countries have repeatedly accused each other of violating the 2003 truce.

The cross-border clashes intensified following a spike in protests in Kashmir last year, which came after a senior militant commander was killed in the area.

People in the Muslim-majority region have for years demanded independence or a merger with Pakistan.

India has ignored the call and continues to police the region with a 500,000-strong military force. It also accuses Pakistan of supporting the militants in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad. About 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir's violence since 1989.

The violence on Monday came a day after Pakistan said four of its soldiers had been killed in firing from across the LoC. Indian officials denied any knowledge of the incident, which again involved Pakistani troops patrolling along the border in a military vehicle.

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Doha says US media report showed UAE attack on Qatar's news agency

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:30PM

Doha says it regards as true an American media report that points the finger of blame at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the alleged hacking of Qatar's state news agency in late May.

"The information published in the Washington Post ... revealed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates and senior Emirati officials in the hacking of Qatar News Agency," said the Qatari Government Communication Affairs Office in a statement on Monday, adding that the report "unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place."

A day earlier, the American paper quoted unnamed US intelligence officials as saying that senior members of the Emirati government had discussed the cyber attack and its implementation on Qatar on May 23.

The Emirati Embassy in Washington released a statement in response, calling the Post report "false" and insisting that Abu Dhabi "had no role whatsoever" in the alleged hacking.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash also rejected the article as "purely not true," and denied that his country was behind the alleged cyber attack, which sparked a diplomatic rift between Doha and its neighbors.

In June, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with and imposed a trade and diplomatic embargo on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. They presented Qatar with a list of 13 wide-ranging demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face unspecified consequences.

Doha rejected the demands, which included shutting down the broadcaster Al Jazeera, removing Turkish troops from Qatar's soil, scaling back cooperation with Iran and ending ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Qatar complained that the demands were meant to force it to surrender its sovereignty.

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Afghan forces push Taliban out of southern area in Helmand province

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 3:14PM

Afghan security forces have recaptured a southern district in the restive province of Helmand from the Taliban, as part of Kabul's campaign to push the militant group from one of the key heartlands of insurgency and narcotics production.

In a two-day operation launched on Saturday, the security forces took the district center of Nawa to the south of the provincial capital city of Lashkar Gah, killing more than 50 militants and destroying their vehicles and equipment, Defense Ministry spokesman, General Dawlat Waziri, was cited as saying by Reuters on Monday.

The casualties announced by the Defense Ministry could not be immediately verified.

The security forces plan to continue the operation southward along the main road to the town of Garmsir, officials said.

The Taliban control large stretches of Helmand Province, which is considered the source of much of the world's illegal opium.

Afghanistan has been gripped by violence and insecurity since the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

During the past 16 years, the Taliban militants have been conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing civilians.

In addition, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq, has recently managed to take recruits from Afghan Taliban defectors.

According to the mid-year report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan published on Monday, 1,662 people were killed and more than 3,500 injured in the war-torn country in the first half of 2017, showing a sharp rise in the civilian casualties.

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Boko Haram bomber kills eight in fresh attack in Nigeria's Maiduguri

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:24PM

A bomb attack has claimed the lives of at least eight people and wounded several others in Nigeria's troubled northeast, officials say.

The attack was carried out by a suspected female member of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, local Nigerian officials said on Monday.

The head of the Borno state emergency management agency, Ahmed Satomi, said that the female bomber had detonated her explosives at a mosque in the London Ciki area of Maiduguri at about 5:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT).

"She killed eight people and injured 15 others. The mosque was being guarded by civilian JTF (joint task force) militia during prayers," media outlets quoted Satomi as saying.

"Unknown to them, the girl was being pursued from another part of town by residents who were suspicious of her movement at the time," he added, noting, "When she approached the mosque, they demanded that she stop to be searched but she suddenly bolted into the mosque and set off her bombs."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Satomi pointed out that three other female bombers were located in Maiduguri at about the same time.

He went onto say that two were killed in Mammanti area as they tried to cross the ditch around the city perimeter. This is while another set off her explosives in the suburb of Simari.

It is the second time in a week that Boko Haram bombers have sought to cause carnage in Maiduguri.

Last Monday, at least 19 people were killed and nearly two dozen others injured when four women set off their bombs in the Molai Kolemari area of the city.

In recent weeks, a number of bomb attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram have taken place in the capital of Borno state and its environs.

Militants have regularly targeted mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict and other civilians across the troubled region.

In December 2016, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had "crushed" the terror group by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in Borno.

The group has, however, resorted to sporadic shooting and bombing attacks in the northeast of the African country, spreading panic among local residents.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly terror attacks in Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.7 million displaced.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by the Boko Haram militancy face a humanitarian crisis.

Back in February 2016, four nations of the Lake Chad Basin -- Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria --launched a campaign, together with a contingent from Benin, to confront the threat from Boko Haram in the region.

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GCC may be about to eject member Qatar

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:55AM

The regional grouping of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may well be on its way to excommunicating member state Qatar, as political tectonic plates seem to be widening a bitter divide.

Seismic uproar first surfaced early last month, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain  all GCC members  abruptly cut their diplomatic ties to Qatar, another member of the bloc, and blocked their transit routes with the country.

They accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism and later issued a list of 13 demands they said Doha had to meet in order for ties to be normalized. The Qatari government denied the accusation and rejected the demands.

On Monday, in a speech at Chatham House in London, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash gave the strongest signal yet that the GCC might act to expel Qatar.

"You cannot be part of a regional organization dedicated to strengthening mutual security and furthering mutual interests, and at the same time undermine that security and harm those interests," Gargash said, referring to the GCC and addressing Qatar.

Will the GCC survive?

Observers say the dispute with Qatar has less to do with the terrorism sponsorship claims and more to do with the fact that Doha follows a foreign policy that is more independent of Saudi Arabia. That view is specially strengthened given the fact that Saudi Arabia itself stands accused of supporting terrorism.

Speculation already existed that the GCC might eject Qatar. But as the dispute escalates into a battle between hegemony and sovereign independence, there is also a likelihood that the GCC would cease to exist at all.

Oman and Kuwait, the only two other GCC members beside Qatar, have refused to take the tough line of cutting ties with Doha, a policy believed to have been largely directed by Saudi Arabia. Muscat and Kuwait City have been trying to work out a negotiated solution and have even been sending foodstuffs to Qatar to mitigate the impacts of the blockade imposed by the three other members.

In his Monday speech, Gargash attempted to downplay such speculation.

"Understandably, many of our friends in Europe and beyond are concerned about this crisis," he said. "They see the Arab Gulf as a haven of stability in an unstable Middle East, and as an important and functioning common market But as we know from meetings with American and European officials, they are also aware of Qatar's duplicity."

Awkward timing

The remarks about Qatari "duplicity" made by the Emirati minister came shortly after a report by The Washington Post said what apparently sparked the dispute with Qatar  a report posted on the website of Qatari state news agency that Doha said was the result of a hack  had in fact been online sabotage work arranged by UAE officials.

"The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in order to post incendiary false quotes attributed to Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, in late May," the Post said, citing US intelligence officials.

The report said that information collected by US intelligence agencies "confirmed that on May 23, senior members of the UAE government discussed the plan [to arrange a hack] and its implementation."

Awkward timing has been a prominent feature of the dispute involving the Arab countries. The feud began just days after Saudi Arabia set up an extravagant show of Arab "unity" against Iran in Riyadh, where Qatar and other countries signed off on a final communique stressing a unified stance against Tehran.

The report posted on the Qatari state news agency attributed a remark to Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani that Iran was an Islamic power and must not be opposed by the regional Arab countries.

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Australia to boost army powers in response to potential terror attacks

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 7:26AM

The Australian prime minister says Canberra is set to extend the powers of the military to take action in response to potential terrorist attacks in the country.

On Monday, Malcolm Turnbull announced a set of proposed changes to Australia's security laws, which pave the way for an easier army deployment to respond to "terrorist incidents."

Under the changes territory police forces would remain the first responders to possible terror attacks on Australian soil, but they would be authorized to ask for the army's help during such incidents before exhausting all their capacity.

Special forces would also be embedded in law enforcement agencies for better cooperation. Defense officials will also provide specialized training to police forces as part of the measures.

"What I am doing is taking a lot of the red tape and the gum out of the works to enable the cooperation between the police and the ADF (Australian Defense Forces) and particularly the specialists ... so they can work together more seamlessly," Turnbull said on Monday.

"In the current threat environment, it's most likely that a terrorist attack will use simple methodologies, a knife, a gun, a vehicle and the attack itself could be over in minutes," Turnbull said.

He said the proposed measures "will ensure that the ADF is more readily available to respond to terrorism incidents, providing state and territory police with the extra support to call on when they need it."

Turnbull also said the government will need to mobilize all available resources to stand up against terrorists.

"Our enemies are agile and innovative.We have to ensure that every resource we have - legislative, military, police, intelligence, security - is always at the highest standard  We have to stay ahead of them," he said.

The decision to grant the army greater powers came following a review of security forces' responses to a spate of local and international incidents.

In May, a coronial inquiry established that police had failed to give a swift response to a 16-hour siege at a central Sydney cafe in December 2014. Two hostages were killed in the siege, which was described as Australia's deadliest Daesh-inspired incident.

The Australian prime minister recently paid a visit to the site of a Daesh terror attack in London, which left seven people dead and nearly 50 others wounded on June 3.

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Over 7 million vote in anti-Maduro referendum: Venezuela opposition

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:34AM

Venezuela's opposition says more than seven million people have voted in an unofficial referendum that was held to increase pressure on the government of embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Opposition leaders hailed the results of the symbolic polls held on Sunday against a plan by Maduro to rewrite the constitution in an effort to end months-long political tensions in the South American state.

According to the president of the Central University of Venezuela, Cecilia Garcia Arocha, 6,492,381 cast their vote in the country and 693,789 voted abroad in the symbolic plebiscite that was boycotted by government supporters.

In an incident on Sunday, gunmen on motorcycles started shooting towards people at an opposition polling site in a church in western Caracas. The gunmen killed a 61-year old woman and wounded four people.

The opposition mayor of the Caracas region of Sucre, Carlos Ocariz, accused pro-government paramilitary groups of being behind the attack.

However, in comments on state TV following the closure of the vote, Maduro blamed the opposition for violence in the country, without commenting on the shooting incident.

"I'm calling on the opposition to return to peace, to respect for the constitution, to sit and talk," Maduro said. "Let's start a new round of talks, of dialogue for peace."

The president dismissed Sunday's vote as unconstitutional and renewed support for an upcoming July 30 vote to create a legislative assembly that would have the power to rewrite Venezuela's 1999 constitution and dissolve state institutions.

The president signed an executive order back in May to form the assembly.

Maduro insists that a new constitution is needed "to restore peace," stop the opposition from carrying out a "coup d'etat," and rid the country of social and economic woes.

Opposition leaders, however, say writing a new constitution would give the president an excuse to put off regional elections scheduled for this year and a presidential election slated for 2018.

The South American nation of 30 million, has recently been the scene of intense protests, which broke out after the Supreme Court stripped the opposition-controlled parliament of its powers in April.

The move unleashed long-simmering anger and sparked the fiercest protests against Maduro in three years. While that decision was later revoked, protests have only gained momentum.

The embattled president is also blamed for Venezuela's economic woes. People have been facing acute shortages of foodstuffs and medicine in recent months and looting has been repeatedly happening in the country.

Maduro, however, blames the crisis on foreign powers seeking to wage an economic war against his government.

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UAE hacked Qatari websites, US intelligence sources confirm

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:32AM

The United Arab Emirates was behind an effort to hack Qatari government news and social media websites, sparking a diplomatic dispute among Arab states, US intelligence officials say.

Newly analyzed information gathered by US intelligence agencies confirmed last week that the late May hack was orchestrated by the UAE, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The hack sparked anger among some Persian Gulf states over comments attributed to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on sensitive issues, including Iran, Israel and the US, on May 24.

Immediately after the move, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt rushed to ban all Qatari media.

US President Donald Trump also rushed to back the Saudis, who had just clinched an arms deal with Washington worth of billions of dollars, although Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on all sides to deescalate.

"The nation of Qatar has unfortunately been a funder of terrorism, and at a very high level," Trump said at the time.

As The Post released the new report, citing unnamed sources with the American intelligence community, the Emirati ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, rejected the allegations as "false" by issuing a statement.

"The UAE had no role whatsoever in the alleged hacking described in the article," read the statement. "What is true is Qatar's behavior. Funding, supporting, and enabling extremists from the Taliban to Hamas and Qadafi. Inciting violence, encouraging radicalization, and undermining the stability of its neighbors."

Otaiba's private email account has also been hacked by an apparently pro-Qatari organization, called GlobalLeaks.

According to The Post, "Many of the emails highlight the UAE's determination over the years to rally Washington thinkers and policymakers to its side on the issues at the center of its dispute with Qatar."

Ties between Doha and other Persian Gulf Arab states suffered an eight-month breach in 2014 over Doha's alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

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NATO's secretary general calls on Germany, Turkey to end airbase dispute

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:39AM

NATO's secretary general has called on Turkey and Germany to put an end to their dispute over MPs visiting Turkish air bases.

On Sunday, a NATO spokesman said that Jens Stoltenberg had contacted German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Turkish Mevlut Cavusoglu and asked them to put an end to their dispute.

The disagreement began after Turkey refused to allow German lawmakers to visit military personnel at Incirlik and another base in Konya, located some 50 kilometers (150 miles) south of the Turkish capital Ankara.

Turkey and Germany have been locked in a number of diplomatic disputes, including Turkey's way of handling the aftermaths of a failed coup in July last year, which has sparked massive criticism in Germany.

Turkey's refusal to grant access to German lawmakers came after Berlin blocked visits and speeches by senior Turkish officials to members of Turkish diaspora in Germany ahead of an April referendum in Turkey. Turkey is also critical of Germany over the country's alleged support for suspected coup plotters and outlawed Kurdish militants.

"We hope that Germany and Turkey are able to find a mutually acceptable date for a visit," said the NATO spokesman.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed German lawmakers must be permitted to visit the Bundeswehr soldiers at the NATO air base in Konya.

"This whole issue is unfortunate, very unfortunate," she said during a televised interview. Merkel added that further talks were required to find a solution to the current predicament with the help of NATO.

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UN Report: Civilian Casualties Still High In Afghanistan's 'Ugly War'

RFE/RL July 17, 2017

The number of civilians killed and wounded in conflict in Afghanistan in the first half of 2017 remains at the same record high level as last year, the United Nations mission in the country says.

A total of 1,662 civilian deaths were confirmed between January 1 and June 30, a 2 percent increase from the same period last year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says in a report released on July 17.

"The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan -- loss of life, destruction and immense suffering -- is too far too high," said the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Tadamichi Yamamoto.

The number of civilians wounded in the same period fell 1 percent to 3,581, the report says.

UNAMA highlights that 40 percent of all civilian casualties during the six months were caused by antigovernment forces using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices -- or roadside bombs.

The figures include civilian casualties from suicide attacks and "complex attacks" -- assaults involving more than one perpetrator and at least two forms of weaponry, including IEDs -- that saw a 15 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The highest numbers of casualties occurred in provinces of Kabul, Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Faryab, Herat, Laghman, Kunduz, and Farah.

At least 92 civilians were killed and nearly 500 others injured in a single attack in the capital, Kabul, on May 31. The truck bomb attack was the single deadliest incident documented by UNAMA since 2001.

Yamamoto called on antigovernment forces to immediately stop the use of IEDs.

The report urges antigovernment forces to stop targeting civilians, and also calls on government troops to stop using weapons, including mortars and rockets in civilian populated areas.

The report commends Afghan security forces for their continued efforts to reduce civilian casualties.

UNAMA annual reports indicate that civilian casualties were on the rise from the withdrawal of many international troops from Afghanistan after 2011 and the official end of NATO's combat mission in 2014.

Since January 2009, UN figures show that more than 26,500 civilians have died and just under 49,000 have been wounded in the Afghan conflict.

The UN reports include only incidents that have been confirmed after a thorough verification process.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanbistan -civilian-casualties-high-un- reportr/28620764.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, Pakistan Trade Accusations as Cross Border Firing Claims Seven Lives

Sputnik News

16:55 17.07.2017

Pakistan has called upon the Indian Army for peace amid heavy cross firing at the border since a week. India has retorted by claiming that firing was only retaliatory. Both countries have accused each other of violating ceasefire.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan made an unscheduled call to his Indian counterpart Monday morning and accused India of targeting the Pakistani army and killing four of its personnel. The Indian DGMO is learnt to have said that it was Pakistan which initiated the firing in violation of the ceasefire and that the Indian forces only responded.

"During the talks, the Pakistani DGMO raised the issue of targeting of Pakistan Army troops which resulted in the death of four Pakistani soldiers and one civilian in Athmuqam Sector of Pakistan Administered Kashmir opposite Indian Keren Sector, Kupwara District," Indian Army said in a statement.

Earlier on Sunday, the Pakistan Army claimed that Indian forces had targeted a military vehicle and that it had responded accordingly.

"Indian troops targeted an Army vehicle moving along LOC along Neelum River at Athmuqam. The vehicle fell into the Neelum river. Four soldiers drowned. The body of one martyr has been recovered, search for remaining 3 in progress. Ceasefire violation responded," Pakistani Army's statement read.

However, the Indian Army claimed that the firing was mainly targeted at armed intruders. "Firing by Indian troops was initiated against armed intruders when attempting to infiltrate from the close proximity of Pakistani posts along the Line of Control (LOC)" the statement read.

India's counter accusation came in the wake of the death of a five-year-old girl in the firing by Pakistani troops at the Line of Control (the de-facto border between India and Pakistan) in Jammu and Kashmir. A soldier was also martyred in the firing. The Indian Army claimed that a civilian was heavily injured when mortar shells fired by the Pakistani forces landed on his bunker in Bhimber Gali sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Five days ago, two Indian soldiers were killed during cross- border firing at Kupwara sector.

The last conversation between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan was on June 5 this year at the behest of the Pakistani side during which both sides discussed the current situation along the Line of Control. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, forty security personnel and thirty civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year till now, which is the highest in the last few years.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, which stems from the unfinished business of the partition of British India in 1947.

 Sputnik

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'Purely Not True': UAE FM Denies Responsibility for Qatar News Agency Hack

Sputnik News

11:55 17.07.2017

United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash denied on Monday US media reports that it was behind the hacking of the Qatari news agency that led to a diplomatic crisis.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Speaking to reporters following a Chatham House speech in London, Gargash said that the Washington Post story was "purely not true," adding that it "will die" soon.

The newspaper cited US intelligence officials as saying they have learned about the UAE's alleged involvement in the May 24 breach of the Qatari news agency after analyzing the gathered information of senior UAE government members discussing the plan and its implementation a day prior to the attack.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic relations and communication with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. The Maldives, Mauritius, and Mauritania followed suite, while Jordan and Djibouti reduced the level of their diplomatic missions in Qatar.

In late June, Kuwait acting as a mediator in the crisis, handed over to Doha the ultimatum of the four Arab states with 13 demands, including the requests to severe Qatar's relations with Iran, close Turkey's military base in Qatar and shut down Al Jazeera TV channel, as well as to end support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

On July 5, the four Arab states confirmed Doha's refusal to comply with their demands and expressed regret over such a position.

 Sputnik

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UAE Behind Hacking Attacks on Qatar's Media Aimed at Provoking Diplomatic Row

Sputnik News

04:22 17.07.2017(updated 10:40 17.07.2017)

The hacking attacks on the Qatari news agency that later sparked the diplomatic row between Doha and several Arab states were masterminded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Washington Post reported, citing US intelligence officials.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and a number of other countries cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar in June, one week after the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, when the Qatari news agency posted a speech on behalf of the country's emir in support of Iran. The official representative of the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the agency's site was hacked, the speech was published by hackers and has nothing to do with the country's leader.

The US intelligence learned about the UAE's involvement after analyzing the obtained information that UAE senior officials allegedly discussed the plan of hacking Qatar's media outlet on May 23, one day prior to the attack. It is unclear whether Abu Dhabi conducted the attacks itself or recruited the third-party contractors, according to the newspaper.

Abu Dhabi in response to the newspaper's article refuted the allegations and said that the story is false.

"The UAE had no role whatsoever in the alleged hacking described in the article  What is true is Qatar's behavior. Funding, supporting, and enabling extremists from the Taliban to Hamas [terrorist organizations, outlawed in Russia] and Qadafi. Inciting violence, encouraging radicalization, and undermining the stability of its neighbors," UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba said, as quoted by the newspaper.

In late June, Kuwait, as a mediator in the crisis, handed over to Qatar the ultimatum of the four Arab states with 13 demands, including the requests to severe Doha's relations with Tehran, close Turkey's military base in Qatar and shut down the Al Jazeera TV channel, as well as to end support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization banned in Russia. On July 5, the four Arab states confirmed Doha's refusal to comply with their demands and expressed regret over such a position.

 Sputnik

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Update: air strikes against Daesh

17 July 2017

The RAF are continuing to take the fight to Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Summary

- Thursday 13 July  Tornados struck a Daesh-held building in Mosul.

- Friday 14 July  Typhoons destroyed a tunnel entrance in Raqqa.

- Saturday 15 July  Tornados hit a sniper in Mosul, Typhoons and Tornados attacked mortar positions in Raqqa.

- Sunday 16 July  in Raqqa, a Reaper killed terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades, whilst Tornados and Typhoons dealt with three sniper teams and three other defended positions.

Detail

Royal Air Force continued to support operations by the Iraqi security forces to eradicate any remaining Daesh fighters in Mosul. On Thursday 13 July, two Tornados used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a building occupied by extremists on the west bank of the Tigris, in the Old City of Mosul.

With Mosul largely liberated, the major focus for RAF missions has been to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces fighting in Raqqa. Two Typhoons used a Paveway IV on Friday 14 July to destroy the entrance to a tunnel dug beneath an area in the west of the city. The following day, Tornados and Typhoons utilised eleven Paveway IV bombs against mortar positions in Raqqa, whilst a pair of Tornados used a Brimstone missile against a sniper holding out in western Mosul.

In the course of surveillance over Raqqa on Sunday 16 July, a Reaper delivered a Hellfire missile attack which killed a small group of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades, who had been firing on the Syrian Democratic Forces from a rooftop. Tornados and Typhoons were also very active over the city, and used a Brimstone missile to attack one terrorist firing point, and Paveway IVs to deal with three sniper teams and two other positions defended by Daesh extremists.

Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon said:

"Mosul may have been freed from the brutal grip of Daesh, but the battle against this dangerous death-cult is far from over. Over the weekend the RAF repeatedly struck Daesh targets in Raqqa, their Syrian stronghold, with precision and purpose. It is key that we maintain momentum in the campaign to remove Daesh from Syria and the remaining towns across Iraq, both to stop the spread of a poisonous ideology and to help keep us safe at home."

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.

Wednesday 12 July: A mixed Tornado and Typhoon provided support, 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.

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Civilians continue to bear the brunt of Afghanistan's 'ugly war' - UN report

17 July 2017  Civilians lives  including those of women and children  continue to be lost at record high levels amid a worsening toll of suicide attacks, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said today, calling on anti-government forces to stop indiscriminate attacks against civilians as well as on the Government to stop using mortars and rockets in populated areas.

"The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan  loss of life, destruction and immense suffering  is too far too high," said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Tadamichi Yamamoto, in a news release today.

"The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal IEDs [improvised explosive devices] by anti-government elements is particularly appalling and must immediately stop."

According to the UN Mission's 2017 Mid-year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, 1,662 civilian died (up two per cent on the same period last year) and 3,581 were injured (down one per cent) between 1 January and 30 June 2017.

Many of those casualties occurred in a single attack in Kabul city on 31 May, when a truck bomb killed at least 92 civilians and injured nearly 500. This was the deadliest incident documented by UNAMA since 2001.

Women and children in the country continue be particularly affected. In the report, the UN Mission noted that so far this year, 174 women were confirmed killed and 462 injured (an overall rise of about 23 per cent), reversing a decline documented in 2016.

Child casualties, overall also increased by one per cent, with 436 deaths (a nine per cent increase) and 1,141 injuries, it added, highlighting that the use of pressure-plate IEDs and aerial operations in civilian-populated areas led to substantial increases in both women and child casualties.

Also in the news release, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights underscored that behind each death or injury, there is a broken family, unimaginable trauma and the brutal violation of people's rights.

"Many Afghan civilians are suffering psychological trauma, having lost family and friends, and are living in fear knowing the risks they face as they go about their daily lives. Many more have been forced from their homes and suffered lasting damage to their health, education and livelihoods," he stated.

"The continuing national tragedy of Afghanistan must not be overlooked."

Highest number of casualties occurred in Kabul

The UNAMA report also highlighted that 40 per cent of all civilian casualties during the six-month period were due to anti-government forces using IEDs, such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices.

In total, anti-government forces caused the deaths of 1,141 people and injured 2,348. These deaths and injuries represent 67 per cent of the total number of civilian casualties, with 43 per cent attributed to the Taliban, five per cent to Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), and the rest to unidentified attackers.

Also in the report, the UN Mission noted continued efforts by the Afghan security forces to reduce civilian casualties resulting from ground engagements, which represent the second leading cause of deaths and injuries.

Pro-government forces were responsible for 327 civilian deaths and 618 injuries, a 21 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year, although UNAMA noted a 43 per cent rise in civilian casualties during aerial operations (95 deaths and 137 injuries).

In terms of locations, 19 per cent of the casualties occurred in the capital, Kabul and deaths and injuries increased in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, mainly due to increased attacks by anti-government forces. After Kabul, the highest numbers of casualties occurred in Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Faryab, Herat, Laghman, Kunduz and Farah provinces.

Recommendations

In its recommendations, the report has called on anti-government forces to stop targeting civilians and to enforce directives from the Taliban leadership calling for an end to such attacks. It has also urged the Government to stop using weapons such as mortars and rockets in civilian populated areas, and to disband pro-government militias and similar groups.

It also recommended ongoing support from international military forces to support and train the Afghan national army.

In the news release, the UN Mission also noted that the report includes only those incidents that have been confirmed after a thorough verification process, meaning that the actual figures could be higher.

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Afghan Forces Retake Key Southern District From Taliban

By Ayaz Gul July 17, 2017

Afghan security forces, backed by U.S. military advisers and air power, have evicted insurgents from a strategically important southern district, nine months after the Taliban had overrun it.

A regional military spokesman, Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, told VOA that Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) entered Nawa district in southern Helmand province early Monday and established government control over it following two days of intense battles with the Taliban.

He said overnight U.S. airstrikes against three important Taliban bases in the area killed more than 20 insurgents and made it easier for Afghan forces to retake control of the district center.

The Taliban has not yet commented on official victory claims.

Ahmadzai said a search and clearing operation is currently underway in the district where insurgents have heavily mined areas around key installations. He promised to release details of casualties suffered by both sides, saying the Taliban lost dozens of its fighters since Afghan forces launched a large-scale offensive on Saturday to retake Nawa.

The agriculturally-rich Afghan district is located about 30 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Lashkarga and its collapse had enabled the Taliban to stage repeated assaults on the city in their bid to capture it.

Lashkarga hosts hundreds of U.S. marines who returned to Afghanistan earlier this year to assist struggling local forces reverse Taliban advances in Helmand. The insurgents control many of the districts in the country's largest province and poppy producing region.

Helmand borders Pakistan, where Afghan officials allege the Taliban has established recruiting and training centers, charges the neighboring country denies.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned the Afghan conflict continued to inflict record high levels of casualties on innocent civilians in the first six months of 2017.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in its mid-year report released Monday, documented a total of 1,662 civilian deaths between January 1 and June 30, showing an increase of two percent over the same period last year. The fatalities included 174 women and 436 children, it said. UNAMA began documenting civilian casualties in January, 2009, and has since recorded more than 26,600 civilian deaths and just under 49,000 injuries as result of the armed conflict in Afghanistan.

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Trump Again Defends Son's Meeting with Russian Lawyer

By Ken Bredemeier July 17, 2017

President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his eldest son's meeting last year with a Russian lawyer he expected was going to hand him incriminating material about Trump's election challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!" Trump said Monday on his Twitter account.

Trump has tried several times now to defuse the controversy over Donald Trump Jr.'s June 2016 meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya. The younger Trump agreed to the meeting after being told by an intermediary in an email chain she was a Russian government attorney who would give him material damaging Clinton to support Moscow's effort to help Trump win the election.

The younger Trump said the lawyer had no information about Clinton and the meeting quickly ended.

President Trump has said he only learned of the meeting in the last week, a gathering at Trump Tower in New York that also was attended by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump's then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and a long-time Russian-American lobbyist in Washington who was a one-time Soviet military officer.

But Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says that he finds it "unbelievable" that Trump was not told about the meeting a year ago.

The meeting is now one focus of several Washington investigations into Russian meddling in the election, with numerous congressional panels interviewing witnesses and scheduling hearings.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is now heading a criminal investigation. He is probing contacts between Trump's campaign and Russian interests and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey, then the FBI director who was leading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller took over.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll said that 60 percent of those it surveyed believe the younger Trump's meeting with the Russian lawyer was inappropriate.

President Trump on Sunday fumed at the American news media for its reporting on the meeting, accusing reporters of "distorting democracy."

"Hillary Clinton can illegally get the questions to the debate and delete 33,000 emails, but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?" Trump wrote on Twitter.

"With all of its phony unnamed sources and highly slanted and even fraudulent reporting, Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country," he said in a separate tweet.

The White House Correspondents Association rejected the president's assertions.

"A free and independent press is actually critical to democracy," it said.

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UAE Rejects Reports That it Hacked Qatar

By VOA News July 17, 2017

The United Arab Emirates on Monday denied hacking Qatar's state news agency. Officials in Doha, however, say they believe a report implicating Abu Dhabi in the incident, which sparked a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf this May.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that U.S. intelligence officials became aware last week that the UAE orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites, posting quotes falsely attributed to Qatar's emir.

UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash rejected the report. "Of course not. Of course not, and I think already our embassy in Washington has put these denials in place, and I think this is a crisis and is a lot of rumors, a lot of false news and stories."

Qatar's government communication office, on the other hand, says the report "unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place."

The report says it is unclear whether Abu Dhabi carried out the hacks itself or contracted to have them done.

The U.S. State Department has not commented on the report, saying it does not comment on intelligence matters.

Quotes falsely attributed to Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani in late May called Iran an "Islamic power" and praised the Palestinian Hamas organization. Since the May 24th hacking, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and gave Doha 13 demands after severing diplomatic ties in early June.

Doha 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 such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limit its links to Iran and expel Turkish troops from its territory.

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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 18, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 29 strikes consisting of 36 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 25 strikes consisting of 32 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed four ISIS oil refinement stills, three oil storage tanks and three oil barrels.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, six strikes destroyed 12 ISIS oil refinement stills, four wellheads and two oil storage tanks.

-- Near Raqqa, 16 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed 13 fighting positions, two ISIS-held buildings, a tactical vehicle and an unmanned aerial system.

-- Near Shadaddi, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held warehouse and a fighting position.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted four strikes consisting of four engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Mosul, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed a weapons cache and a staging area.

-- Near Qayyarah, a strike suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a weapons cache and an ISIS-held building.

July 16 Strikes

Additionally, 13 strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on July 16 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, 12 strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed six fighting positions, three ISIS communication towers and a vehicle.

-- Near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged a tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position.

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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Concept demonstration explores robotic aviation refueling system

By Nikki Ficken, AMRDEC Public Affairs July 18, 2017

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Could a robotic, unmanned refueling system limit rotary-wing aircraft time on the ground and remove Soldiers from isolated fueling stations?

A Limited Initial Capabilities Demonstration was performed by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center to test that theory.

The demonstration unveiled a new science and technology, or S&T, effort designed by the Center's Aviation Development Directorate and Operational Energy Lab called Autonomous & Robotic Remote Refueling Point, or AR3P. The event presented stakeholders with a potential material set of solutions, proof of concept, and demonstrated the technical feasibility of an autonomous robot refueling operation.

The project's goal is to enable Army Aviation manned rotary-wing aircraft to address current and emerging range and endurance requirements, as well as refueling challenges created by the non-contiguous battlefield. By using self-aligning robotics, articulated arms and sensors, the system would support a Quick Hook-Up, ultimately reducing the aircraft's time on the ground. The robotic, unmanned system would also increase safety by removing Soldiers from the fueling station -- a location that could put them at risk of enemy targeting.

"One of the most useful activities of the S&T enterprise is to conduct concept demonstrations like the AR3P," said Layne Merritt AMRDEC's chief engineer for Aviation Development. "For relatively little investment, we can demonstrate the technical viability of a new concept like unmanned or unattended Forward Area Refueling Point operations and at the same time identify possible challenges and considerations that would need to be addressed in a full S&T or acquisition program."

The AR3P concept uses an isolated FARP approach which seeks to provide an autonomous, unmanned refueling capability using existing technologies. These technologies include Aviation Ground Support Equipment, sensors, energy efficient sustainment equipment, aircraft components with minor modifications and aircraft refueling interfaces and equipment.

A majority of the robotic package comes from commercial off-the-shelf materials, but the fuel port system is an AMRDEC-designed solution. Use of additive manufacturing assisted in the rapid prototyping of this S&T project.

Merritt explained examples of technical challenges include size, weight, power, robotic control, detectability and durability.

"It makes sense for us to fill this need," said AR3P Project Lead, Will Nikonchuk. "We address target acquisition and engagement all of the time as the aviation and missile research and development community. That is what AR3P does."

Nikonchuk reported at the demonstration that the project is currently addressing Technical Risk areas in Phase 2 and hopes to establish a framework for future funding. Phase 3 includes aircraft modification and flight testing of a Mosquito Test aircraft, while the final, Phase 4 will feature a flight test of an Apache AH-64 at the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

---

U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to provide innovative research, development and engineering to produce capabilities for decisive overmatch to the Army against the complexities of the current and future operating environments in support of the Joint Warfighter and the Nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

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36th Infantry Division celebrates 100th Anniversary

By Sgt. Michael Giles July 18, 2017

AUSTIN, Texas -- The 36th Infantry Division celebrates its 100th anniversary July 18, 2017 and soldiers from the division honored their 100-year legacy of service during their July drill, with sweat, reverence and festivities.

The celebration began as several hundred soldiers marched along Congress Avenue from across Lady Bird Lake and up to the Texas State Capitol. When they arrived, they stood in formation behind unit colors, as Maj. Gen. S. Lee Henry, the division commander, and division Command Sgt. Maj. Mark J. Horn, ceremoniously placed a wreath at the base of the granite T-patch monument on the west side of the Capitol.

As the formation of soldiers solemnly saluted the monument, Henry spoke to them about the symbolism of the wreath and the granite.

"The Texas sunset red granite monument honors the soldiers of the 36th Infantry Division, both past and present," Henry said. "The laying of the wreath today honors those 36th Infantry Division soldiers who have gone before us, and the sacrifices that both they and their families made for our freedom and security."

As soldiers listened silently, Henry related the symbolism to the 36th's history of answering the call to serve. He referred to the division's service in war abroad, in response to disasters at home, and in support of domestic security.

"It represents those who answered the call in July of 1917, as the nation ramped up for war, to form a new division made of soldiers from both Texas and Oklahoma," Henry said. "It represents those who answered the call when nature wreaks havoc in the form of floods, fire or tornados. It represents those who are currently deployed overseas, and those who stand watch on our southern border."

Spc. Josh Strickland, an all-source intelligence analyst with the 36th Infantry Division, said participating in this celebration strengthens his esprit de corps and reminds him of his own military heritage.

"It makes you proud to be part of a unit with such a great legacy," Strickland said. "Both of my grandfathers served in World War II. Participating in this celebration adds meaning to my time in the Guard."

The 100-year history of the 36th Infantry Division began July 18, 1917. It was formed to fight in the first world war, and decades later it was the first U.S. division to land on the European continent to fight in World War II. Since then, the division has supported the War on Terror with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and several other countries around the world. At home, the 36th sent soldiers to responded to Hurricane Katrina and the Bastrop, Texas wildfires, and has played key roles both in border security and efforts to reduce drug trafficking.

During his speech, Henry also mentioned World War II veteran Sgt. Jim Niederer, living evidence of the 36th Infantry Division's legacy. Niederer, who received six Bronze Star Medals for his service in Europe, expressed a belief that the 36th always has been, and always will be, a unit to be proud of.

"It's a good outfit, and I'm sure it will get better," Niederer said. "I'm just proud to have been one of the members of the 36th."

During his more than two years in Europe, he explained, he landed in four invasions: in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and in Southern France.

"All those things I still remember," Niederer said. "So many things I just can't forget. I was fortunate to be able to serve my country. Thank God I made it."

Those soldiers wounded in action or killed in action were also appreciated during Henry's speech about the granite T-patch memorial.

"It recognizes the sacrifice made by those who are wounded and come back different people, both physically and mentally," Henry said. "It memorializes and honors those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while wearing the famous T-patch on their shoulders."

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New York Army National Guard Soldiers pick up mission to train Ukrainian Soldiers

By Eric Durr, New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs July 18, 2017

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- More than two hundred New York Army National Guard Soldiers will be heading to Ukraine in the fall on a nine-month mission to train Ukrainia Soldiers.

Most of the Soldiers will come from the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry based at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The squadron also has units in Jamestown, Geneva, and Buffalo.

The Squadron is part of New York's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Col. Christopher Cronin, the commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will command the mission.

The New York Soldiers will become part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine.

The training group is tasked with teaching tactics and staff work to five battalions of Ukrainian troops each year at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, near Yavoriv, Ukraine. A battalion is composed of approximately 600 Soldiers.

New York Army National Guard officers and non-commissioned officers skilled in mission planning and staff operations will teach and mentor the staffs of the Ukrainian units. Other non-commissioned officers and officers will work as observer/controllers conducting field exercises for maneuver companies.

The goal is to recreate the combat training center environment like those at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, at which U.S. Army units hone their skills before deployment.

Last summer the 27th Brigade Soldiers proved their ability to handle a variety of missions during a three-week rotation to the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Cronin said. The center trains infantry units in real-world conditions that include civilian role-players and a well-trained opposing force.

The Soldiers "pushed themselves to their limits," Cronin said, in order to "prepare themselves both individually and collectively for a deployment anywhere in the world."

"Having been selected by the United States Army to fill this vital role in the Ukraine, the Soldiers of the New York Army National Guard are now working diligently in preparation to serve alongside our NATO partners to execute this important mission," Cronin said.

"In the current volatile and complex global environment, this is one more example of the important role the National Guard and our 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team plays in supporting our military engagement around the world," Cronin added.

Training for the Ukrainians will focus on defense and security missions. Other elements are working with the Ukrainian Army on a review and modernization of their doctrine.

Troops from Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom are also part of the training mission.

The New York National Guard troops are expected to mobilize in October and report to Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany for specialized training delivered by the 7th Army Training Command. The Grafenwoehr training facility has been used to train American and allied Soldiers since the end of the Second World War.

The New York National Guard contingent will replace a team from the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 45th Brigade Combat Team that has been in the Ukraine since January this year.

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Nimitz Carrier Strike Group Concludes Malabar 2017

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170718-01

Release Date: 7/18/2017 7:54:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Weston A. Mohr

BAY OF BENGAL (NNS) -- Maritime forces from India, Japan, and the United States completed Exercise Malabar 2017, July 17, in the Bay of Bengal.

The exercise was designed to advance military-to-military coordination and capacity to plan and execute tactical operations in a multinational environment.

Exercise Malabar began in 1992 and this year marks the 21st rendition of the exercise. The objectives of Malabar 2017 were to improve interoperability between the U.S., Indian and Japanese maritime forces, provide an opportunity to conduct engagements with India and Japan, and demonstrate U.S. naval presence in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

"Exercise Malabar is a great symbol of friendship between India, the United States and Japan," said Indian Navy Rear Adm. Biswajit Dasgupta, flag officer commanding Eastern Fleet. "Malabar is one of the main elements in our defense partnership, and it conveys a message that the three countries are willing to work together closely in the maritime arena."

Events during the at-sea portion included professional exchanges and embarks, a photo exercise, submarine familiarization, defense exercises, medical evacuation drills, surface warfare exercises, communications exercises, search and rescue exercises, helicopter cross-deck evolutions, underway replenishments, gunnery exercises, and anti-submarine warfare.

"Exercise Malabar ensures that we can operate with our partners in this region of the world as seamlessly as possible," said U.S. Navy Capt. Robert Westendorff, commander, Carrier Air Wing 11. "The main way it improves our capabilities is that we can all operate together."

Westendorff said that practicing operations as a cohesive unit will help with understanding common terms between the maritime forces in case they have to work together in the future.

"What it says to the world is that we operate as a coalition with friendly nations across the world in a partnership-building relationship so that if any contingency operation should arise in this region, the United States Navy can operate freely with our partners, working as one unit and one team," said Westendorff.

Participants in Malabar from the U.S. Navy included the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which consists of USS Nimitz (CVN 68), the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, CSG 11 staff and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 9. The deployed units from DESRON 9 include the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Howard (DDG 83), USS Shoup (DDG 86), USS Pinckney (DDG 91) and USS Kidd (DDG 100).

The U.S. Navy has patrolled the Indo-Asia Pacific routinely for more than 70 years promoting regional peace and security.

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Taliban militants kill five policemen in northern Afghanistan

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:12PM

At least five Afghan policemen have been killed and another six have been wounded in a fierce battle with the Taliban militant group in the country's troubled north, security sources say.

The casualties were caused after heavily-armed militants launched a three-pronged push in the northern province of Baghlan.

Police official Amir Gul Hussainkhil said police repelled the Taliban assault in Baghlan's Jaded district on Tuesday. Intense fighting is still underway in some areas, the official added.

Asadullah Shabaz, the provincial council chief, said the road between Baghlan and neighboring Kunduz province remained closed because of the fighting.

He said several houses had been damaged and hundreds of residents had been relocated.

Reports said local schools and markets were also closed across the troubled region.

The Taliban, meanwhile, claimed in a statement that they killed several members of Afghan security forces and wounded at least three dozen others in the deadly raid.

Afghan forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the Taliban to contain insurgency in various parts of the country.

Taliban militants were removed from power following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, but they have stepped up activities in recent months, attempting to overrun several regions.

The United Nations recently expressed deep concern over the rise in the number of civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan.

According to the mid-year report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan published on Monday, 1,662 people were killed and more than 3,500 injured in the war-torn country in the first half of 2017, showing a sharp rise in the civilian casualties.

During the past 16 years, the Taliban militants have been conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing civilians.

In addition, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group recently managed to take recruits from Afghan Taliban defectors.

Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

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Afghan Vice President's Failed Homecoming Signals Deepening Political Crisis

Frud Bezhan July 18, 2017

A vice president being barred from landing in his own country -- it's a scenario that could spark a major political crisis.

That appears to be the case after a private jet carrying Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful former warlord who had been on medical leave in Turkey in recent months, was turned away when it tried to land on July 17 in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

The plane carrying the critic of President Ashraf Ghani was reportedly told to divert its course to the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he is facing a court case over allegations he beat up and tortured a political rival.

Instead, the vice president and his entourage landed in neighboring Turkmenistan. He is expected to reenter Afghanistan by land.

Alliance With Key Brokers

During his absence in Turkey, Dostum had announced the formation of a political alliance with key brokers from northern Afghanistan, the ethnic Uzbek leader's traditional power base.

Dostum's office denied he had tried to enter Afghanistan, saying that a guest of the local governor had been due to land in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh Province, but had gone to Turkmenistan because of "technical issues."

However, hundreds of Dostum's supporters were waiting for him at the airport.

The NATO-led Resolute Support force, which maintains troops at Mazar-e Sharif's airport under German command, said it had no role in turning the aircraft away:

The unprecedented step is likely to deepen the long-running political crisis in Afghanistan, where Ghani is facing antigovernment protests calling for his resignation and a mutiny by former allies, including Dostum, who last month announced the formation of a new opposition movement.

Ahmad K. Majidyar, a South Asia analyst, described the current political crisis in Afghanistan as the worst since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Dostum has been at loggerheads with his own government for months. Since coming into office after the disputed 2014 presidential elections, Dostum has accused Ghani of sidelining him and monopolizing power.

It is widely believed that Ghani put the former Uzbek militia leader on his ticket as first vice president to secure the votes of ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen, who constitute some 10 percent of Afghanistan's population.

Most recently, the two clashed over a criminal investigation into allegations that Dostum and his bodyguards kidnapped, tortured, and sexually assaulted Ahmad Ischi, a former political ally from Dostum's Junbesh-i Milli-Yi Islami party. Dostum has described the allegations as "politically motivated."

Last week, the attorney general's office announced that a court case against Dostum and nine of his bodyguards over the accusations was handed over to the country's Supreme Court, with some questioning the timing of the announcement.

Heaping Pressure On Ghani

Dostum has not been formally charged with any crimes but his departure to Turkey for medical reasons was seen as a cover that allowed the government to sideline him without the embarrassment of a public dismissal. But his case has highlighted mounting political and ethnic tensions that have threatened the stability of the fragile national unity government.

Dostum, who has been accused of grave human rights violations, formed a new political opposition group in Turkey in June that heaped pressure on Ghani.

Dostum has teamed up with two powerful northern figures who have vented their anger and frustration at the embattled president: Atta Muhammad Noor, the ethnic Tajik governor of Balkh, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, the Hazara deputy chief executive of the Afghan government.

During the devastating civil war from 1992 to 1996, the three men fought over control of Balkh, a rare beacon of relative peace and economic development. But the three have since allied to combat what they see as a mutual foe in Ghani, a Pashtun who has been accused of favoring that ethnic group.

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-dostum-failed- homecoming-political-crisis-ghani/28623447.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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Venezuela Vows to Reconsider Relations With US Amid Threat of Sanctions

Sputnik News

21:22 18.07.2017(updated 21:23 18.07.2017)

Venezuela will reconsider its relations with the United States, if Washington takes strong economic measures against Caracas over plans of the government of Nicolas Maduro to impose its Constituent Assembly on July 30, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump said that the United States would take swift and strong economic action if Maduro remained committed to his plans.

"In accordance with the order of President Nicolas Maduro, we will substantially reconsider the relations with the United States. We will not allow anyone to humiliate us," the ministry wrote on Twitter, citing Moncada.

Moncada confirmed that the government's plans to convene the Constituent Assembly remained in force.

Venezuela will hold voting on July 30 to elect the Constitutional Assembly, set to rewrite the constitution as a way out of the political turmoil, which started in January 2016, when a new legislature was elected and relations between Maduro and the parliament became strained.

An unofficial referendum organized by the opposition on Sunday rejected the Maduro's plan to convene the Constituent Assembly. An absolute majority of 98 percent of the voters refused to accept the president's plan.

Venezuela has been experiencing a period of political instability amid the drastic economic situation in the country. The most recent protests erupted in April after the country's Supreme Court tried to take over legislative powers from the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The top court reversed the ruling but the step did not stop mass demonstrations.

In May, Maduro announced his decision to call the National Constituent Assembly, which was regarded by the opposition as an attempted coup and resulted in further escalation of tensions that resulted in the deaths of over 90 people.

 Sputnik

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UN and partners call for nearly $24 million in emergency aid for the Congo's Pool region

18 July 2017  United Nations, the Republic of Congo's Government and humanitarian partners today appealed for $23.7 million to aid Congolese in the area of southern Brazzaville known as "the Pool", where fighting and insecurity has displaced one out of every three people.

"The most pressing humanitarian needs are related to food security, nutrition, living conditions, and access to basic health services," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the announcement.

People in the Pool are also vulnerable to attacks, threats, sexual violence, loss or family separation, OCHA said, stressing the need for protection.

The requested funding  which was made by national authorities, the UN and 16 aid partners  would provide emergency humanitarian aid to 138,000 people for the next six months.

Since the time that the violence began in April of last year, more than half of the families in the Pool are hungry, with up to 20 per cent of children under five acutely malnourished.

Access to health care, education and any market products is limited, OCHA said. Facilities for people who are displaced are "virtually non-existent."

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Venezuela Balks at Trump Sanctions Threat

By VOA News July 18, 2017

Venezuela's foreign minister said Tuesday the country will move forward with plans to elect members of a constitutional assembly and review relations with the United States, despite sanction threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

"The constitutional assembly is happening," Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said on state television. He also said Venezuela is "conducting a deep review of relations with the U.S. government because we don't accept humiliation from anyone."

Trump said late Monday the United States will take "strong and swift economic actions" if Maduro goes through with his plans.

"The Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and the rule of law," the U.S. president said in a statement. "Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator."

Trump's comments came after Venezuela's opposition launched what it says is a "final offensive" on Maduro to call for early presidential elections.

In a nonbinding national referendum Sunday organized by opposition groups, more than seven million Venezuelans - nearly one-third of the national electorate - called on Maduro to give up the idea of electing a special assembly to put together a new constitution.

The opposition group also called for a daylong general strike Thursday, hoping to pressure Maduro into calling off plans for a new constitution.

Maduro brushes off opposition

Maduro called the opposition referendum illegal and is continuing to push ahead with plans for a July 30 vote for the special assembly.

Changing the constitution is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its deep economic and social crisis, the president said.

"I'm calling on the opposition to return to peace, to respect the constitution, to sit and talk," he said Sunday. "Let's start a new round of talks, of dialogue for peace."

The opposition says the assembly will be rigged in Maduro's favor. It says rewriting the constitution is nothing but a Maduro ploy to dissolve state institutions and turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship, leaving the opposition-led national assembly irrelevant.

No food, no rights

One voter who rejects the idea of a new constitution told The Associated Press: "There's no medicine, no food, no security. ... No separation of powers, no freedom of expression."

Lower global energy prices and government corruption have destroyed Venezuela's once thriving economy, which is dependent on oil revenues.

Consumers face severe shortages of basic goods such as gasoline, flour, sugar and cooking oil. Supermarket shelves are bare and many Venezuelans cross into neighboring Brazil and Colombia to buy food.

Daily street protests against the government frequently blow up into violence. Nearly 100 people have been killed over the last three months.

Maduro blames his country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism. He warns against intervention by the Organization of American States, saying that would surely bring on civil war.

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Wisconsin National Guard ends flood-relief mission

By Wisconsin National GuardJuly 17, 2017

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers and Airmen serving on state active duty in the wake of extreme flooding have concluded their mission to support civil authorities in Burlington, Wisconsin.

While the local response effort will continue in the coming days and weeks, the National Guard troops were released Saturday from state active duty as floodwaters began receding.

The National Guard manned traffic control checkpoints on roadways and bridges affected by high water, but the city has now reopened most of the affected roadways. The Soldiers also conducted health and welfare checks, knocking on approximately 370 doors in the city over the course of their time there.

In one case, Guard Soldiers worked with neighbors to evacuate a woman trapped in her home by floodwaters. The Soldiers and neighbors used a boat to get her from her home and finally into a Wisconsin National Guard vehicle capable of fording through high water back to safety.

Approximately 85 Guard members were on duty in Burlington after torrential rains soaked the region July 11-12 causing the Fox River to rise above major flood stage. The Fox River at Burlington crested at a record 16.1 feet Thursday morning.

Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency, which authorized Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin's adjutant general, to activate the National Guard to assist local response efforts in the southeastern part of the state.

The National Guard Reaction Force, made up of Soldiers from the Madison, Wisconsin-based 1st Squadron, 105th Cavalry, arrived in Burlington early July 13 to assist local authorities as needed. Airmen from the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee also supported the effort.

Assisting civil authorities during times of emergency is at the core of the National Guard's dual mission as the state's first military responder and primary combat reserve of the Army and Air Force.

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Indonesian Attempts to Curb Hardliners, Terrorists Worry Activists

By Krithika Varagur July 17, 2017

A raft of recent moves by the Indonesian government to curb the presence of hardliners and terrorists has human rights activists worried.

Last week came a presidential decree banning the hardline group Hizbut Tahrir (HTI), which advocates for a global Islamic caliphate. Then came proposed revisions to the national counterterrorism law that are "overbroad, vague, and would unjustifiably restrict basic rights," according to Human Rights Watch.

Finally, on Friday, the country banned the encrypted messaging application Telegram, citing its popularity among extremist and radical groups.

Activists say the combination of actions present a considerable threat to Indonesian civil liberties. Some think they constitute a reaction to the visibility of political Islam during the contentious Jakarta gubernatorial election, when hardliner groups showed their power by staging huge rallies in the capital city.

"The awareness was heightened with the anti-Ahok protests," said Andreas Harsono, of Human Rights Watch. "It was a wake up call." But now he worries the pendulum may have swung too far in the other direction.

HTI ban

The Indonesian parliament has a year to approve or reject the presidential decree banning HTI, which President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo issued at the behest of 14 Islamic organizations, including Nahdlatul Ulama, the world's largest Sunni body.

Hizbut Tahrir, founded in 1953, is a "pan-Islamist" group based in London that seeks to create a caliphate of Muslim-majority countries from Morocco to the Philippines. It is already banned in 12 countries, including Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.

The decree comes after months of hints and speculation from the Indonesian police, dating to even before the verdict against Jakarta's Christian governor Ahok, who was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy.

HTI is "intolerant, highly disciplined but non-violent," according to Sidney Jones of the Institute for Policy Analysis and Conflict.

"It is loathed by moderate members of the two largest Muslim social organizations in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, which have seen it take over many of their schools and mosques," writes Jones.

Jones said the case against HTI was levied clumsily, using rhetoric of preserving Pancasila, Indonesia's national political philosophy.

Harsono drew parallels to President Suharto's presidential decree against the Indonesian Communist Party in 1966, which came on the heels of the infamous anti-communist purge that killed about 500,000 people.

"The Indonesian government's decision to ban Hizbut Tahrir constitutes a troubling violation of universal rights of freedom of association and expression," said Harsono.

Counterterrorism law revisions

The effort to revise Indonesia's counterterrorism laws dates to January 2016, when IS-linked bombings in Jakarta killed eight people, including the four attackers.

The proposed edits would allow the country to revoke citizenship for people suspected of going abroad to join wars or engage in terrorism. It also would criminalize "speech, thought, behavior or writings" linked to "actions which adversely impact other people/communities."

It's the second part that concerns many observers.

"The Indonesian government has legitimate concerns about terrorism, but disregarding basic rights will only undermine efforts to address the threat," said Harsono.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo linked the amendments with the phenomenon of foreign fighters in the southern Philippines, where security forces are trying to beat back a militant siege.

There are a number of Indonesian nationals among the militant ranks in the city of Marawi.

Telegram block

On Friday, the Indonesian Communications Ministry abruptly announced a ban on Telegram, a mobile messaging app that has become the medium of choice for several extremist groups, including the so-called Islamic State.

The next day, Communications Minister Rudiantara threatened all social media platforms that they too could be blocked if they don't step up efforts to filter radical content.

That seems unlikely in a country as social-media-proficient as Indonesia.

Still, the government "exceeded its authority" in banning Telegram, said Damar Juniarto, founder of the Digital Democracy Forum. It is ironic, he said, that "Telegram is actually one of the first apps to actively fight online radicalism through internal channels such as @isiswatch."

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said he has contacted the Ministry of Communications since the ban was announced and is "confident we can efficiently eradicate terrorist propaganda without disrupting the legitimate use of Telegram by millions of Indonesians."

But just as extremists took up apps like Telegram as a refuge from crackdowns on Facebook and Twitter, they will likely adapt even if the ban is upheld. As of Friday, according to one observer, Indonesian IS-sympathizers had already moved on to a platform called "Baaz."

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China Holds Live Fire Drills in Tibet to Practice Invading India

Sputnik News

22:10 17.07.2017(updated 23:00 17.07.2017)

The Chinese People's Liberation Army simulated battle conditions with live rounds in Tibet over the weekend, as Indian and Chinese forces remain at a standoff over the disputed area of Sikkim.

Some 4,000 to 7,000 troops armed with shoulder-launched assault weapons and light arms were filmed striking an "enemy position," the South China Morning Post reported on Monday. Soldiers practiced mobilizing around a battlefield, coordinating digital attacks and engaging hypothetical enemies on a 5,000 meter plateau, the Post added.

The drills "covering a dozen elements was testimony to the PLA's combined strike capability," a narrator said on CCTV in China.

Beijing and New Dehli have both accused each other of intrusion in Sikkim, which is roughly where Bhutan, India and Tibet meet. Troops have confronted each other in the area several times since June 16. Bhutan claims that China intruded on Bhutanese soil when it began construction on a new road, a claim India supports, while Beijing argues that it was building on its own territory.

In China's view the contested area is part of its Donglang region. India calls the land Doka La; Bhutan recognizes and claims the area as Dokalam.

Beijing hoped to show "it could easily overpower its Indian counterparts," analyst Zhou Chenming told the SCMP. The point of projecting power in such a fashion, Zhou says, is to reduce the chances that a larger conflict erupts.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg earlier in July. While they claimed to have spoken about a range of issues, the Sikkim confrontation surely arose, and tensions were said to have decreased following the two leaders' discussion. Nevertheless, "the ongoing standoff between Indian and Chinese troops has several dimensions," Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Srikanth Kondapalli told Sputnik at the time.

"Although it started with road construction activities by China, it has more strategic ramifications. China is more concerned with growing India-US alliance," Kondapalli noted.

On July 11, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group joined the Indian and Japanese navies for joint exercises US Navy Cmdr. Rear Adm. William Byrne described as a "strategic message to China."

 Sputnik

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Concerned nations should get used to China's naval presence in Indian Ocean: expert

People's Daily Online

By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 17:21, July 18, 2017

"China should send more submarines to the Indian Ocean to make concerned countries get used to their presence in that region," said Hu Bo, researcher with Peking University Ocean Strategy Research Center.

According to Indian English-language fortnightly news magazine, India Today, a Chinese attack submarine was deployed in the Indian Ocean for two months in late 2013. And another conventional power submarine appeared in the region in September 2014.

In response, China's Ministry of National Defense said the two vessels were deployed to conduct anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden.

Since 2008, Chinese vessels have increased their escort missions in the Gulf of Aden, said Li Jie, a naval expert. He added that it was reasonable for nuclear and conventional power submarines to participate in such missions given that they are China's main battle vessels.

The Times of India reported that a total of 12 to 14 Chinese vessels appeared in high seas in the Indian Ocean in the past 2 months; meanwhile there were only 3 to 4 several years ago. In addition, 7 nuke submarines have entered the region so far, the paper said.

The ongoing 2017 Malabar naval exercise involving the U.S., Japan and India is drawing to a close, with more than 100 aircraft and 21 vessels participating in the drill.

Officials from the three countries all claimed in public that the objective of the drill was to cooperate on humanitarian aid and anti-piracy missions. However, India Today said that the drill was indeed a strategic message to China.

"Taking China as the imaginary enemy is a reflection of Cold War mentality," Hu said, adding that the ocean is a global public product that does not come within the jurisdiction of any single country.

Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies with Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told thepaper.cn that extension of military power was only a natural step taken by China to protect its national interests.

The geo-strategic position of the Indian Ocean has a profound influence on China's national security and development, Zhao said, adding that sending vessels to the region was normal for the country.

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Russia to Complete Contract to Supply Su-35 Jets to China in 2019

Sputnik News

14:15 18.07.2017(updated 14:18 18.07.2017)

Russia will complete the contract on supplies of 24 Su-35 planes to China in 2019, the director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), Dmitry Shugaev, said Tuesday.

ZHUKOVSKY (Sputnik)  In April, the president of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said that Russia will supply 10 Su-35 4++ generation aircraft to China in 2017.

"The contract for supplies of the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China is being implemented, the first equipment was supplied last year. We shall complete the supplies of aircraft to China in two years," Shugaev told the Aviastroyeniye newspaper.

In 2015, China became the first country to order the Su-35 aircraft, ordering 24 vehicles worth $2 billion. In 2016, Russia started the delivery of Su-35 aircraft to China.

The Su-35 fighter is a 4++ generation aircraft employing technologies of the fifth generation, designed by the Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company, which belongs to Russia's United Aircraft Corporation. The first experimental Su-35 was first presented at Russia's MAKS-2007 air show and was later introduced to a foreign audience at the 2013 Paris Air Show.

 Sputnik

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North Korea: US Strike Would Effectively 'Ruin' the 'Empire of America'

Sputnik News

22:02 18.07.2017(updated 22:17 18.07.2017)

North Korean state-run media has called out a high ranking member of the Trump administration for beating the war drums against Pyongyang.

Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea, headed by national leader Kim Jong-un, slammed Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis as the "peerless bellicose element well known to be a 'war-maniac' and 'rabid dog' in the overseas aggression wars.

"It is ridiculous, indeed, that such warmonger talked about 'non-military counteraction' and 'diplomatic solution.'"

In June, Mattis called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) the "most urgent" national security threat to the US, writing in a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, "The regime's nuclear weapons program is a clear and present danger to all, and the regime's provocative actions, manifestly illegal under international law, have not abated despite United Nations' censure and sanctions."

His comments followed the expansion of targeted sanctions leveled at Pyongyang by the UN Security Council, in response to the DPRK's continued ballistic missile tests.

US President Donald Trump has said that Washington will no longer use the tactic of "strategic patience" with North Korea as practiced by his predecessor Barack Obama, and that the "US has a very strong and definite scenario" to mount a military strike against the isolated nation.

A separate Rodong Sinmun article said that such a move would be a "very foolish act of precipitating self-ruin" that would bring the "empire of America" to a "shameful end."

Before a test missile launch earlier in July, the North also decried South Korea as "puppet military warmongers" for their continued cooperation with Washington, especially in allowing the US to place its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in their country.

Although Trump took a decidedly cool stance toward the North in the early days of his presidency, the saber-rattling between Washington and Pyongyang has intensified over the last few months.

The North claims that the Hwasong-14 projectile it tested earlier this month is capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead, and experts posit that within two years Pyongyang could develop a missile capable of striking major targets on the US West Coast, including San Diego, California.

Although the US is much better equipped for combat than North Korea, a recent report by Newsweek suggest that a war between the two nations would "likely result in 1 million dead, and nearly $1 trillion of economic damage."

 Sputnik

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US House Approves Bill Proposing Stronger Defense Ties With India

Sputnik News

23:18 17.07.2017(updated 23:31 17.07.2017)

Passed by voice vote, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2018 directs the administration of US President Donald Trump to develop ways to advance defense ties with India.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The NDAA is essentially the US' annual defense budget in the form of a mega bill that also encompasses provisions for defense cooperation with other countries, often moved by the House of Representatives, individually or as a group. This year's budget has authorized $696 billion for US defense forces.

The amendment in India's case has been moved by California Democrat Ami Bera, who is of Indian heritage. After clearing the House hurdle, it will be reconciled with a bill that will test the waters in the US Senate. A combined bill will finally be sent to the president for signature.

Following the bill's enactment, the secretaries of state and defense will have 180 days to evolve a strategy to advance defense cooperation between the two countries.

"It is vitally important to develop a strategy that advances defense cooperation between our two nations. I am grateful this amendment passed and look forward to the Defense Department's strategy that addresses critical issues like common security challenges, the role of partners and allies, and areas for collaboration in science and technology," Bera said in a statement.

Bera is the vice-ranking member of House Foreign Relations Committee.

Last year's NDAA also included a provision directing the administration of former President Barack Obama to declare India a "major defense partner," to enhance military-to-military ties and defense trade between the two countries.

The Obama administration designated India a "major defense partner," allowing the country access to defense equipment and technology as well as joint production that the US shares only with its closest allies.

Likewise, as stated in a joint statement after the June meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump, the current US administration has already said it was committed to treating India as a "major defense partner."

"The United States and India look forward to working together on advanced defense equipment and technology at a level commensurate with that of the closest allies and partners of the United States," the joint statement said.

Experts said sustained lobbying efforts among Congress members and the Capitol has created a huge constituency of bipartisan support for India.

"India enjoys huge popular bipartisan support among US Congress members and, in fact, [the] India caucus of legislators cutting across party lines is one of the largest interest groups in the US.

To put it into perspective, one needs to see how India was perceived among US legislators throughout the 1990s and for a short period in early 2000. During the same period, there was huge support for Pakistan," Ashok Sharma, adjunct faculty at the University of Melbourne, told Sputnik.

India ordered the purchase of 22 Sea Guardian unmanned aerial systems, making the country the first foreign buyer of the sophisticated naval drones.

 Sputnik

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As Tension Heightens On China Border, IAF Seeks To Hasten Rafale Jet Delivery

Sputnik News

19:42 17.07.2017

India's conflict with China and Pakistan has reached a tipping point, pressing the need for astute military strategies. In consonance with this situation, the Indian Air Force is looking to expedite the delivery of Rafale jets from France.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa is currently on a three-day visit to France where he will review the production facility of Dassault Aviation where the Rafale multi-role fighter jets meant for India are being built. The IAF Chief is also expected to take a test flight of one the fighter jets.

The IAF is plagued with steady erosion of current fleet with no replacements in sight. The ongoing two-front conflict with China and Pakistan has deepened the concern.

"IAF is eagerly awaiting the Rafale. The Air Chief is likely assessing the possibility of hastening the aircraft supplies and quicker setting of technical infrastructure." Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retired) told Sputnik.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa will also visit headquarters of French air force and a few operational air bases apart from holding high-level interaction with representatives of France's military aviation industry.

"During his stay at France, the Chief of the Air Staff is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the senior military officials of the French armed forces. The challenges faced by the armed forces of both the countries in the current geo-political scenario are expected to be discussed during these meetings. The main focus of the visit will be on improving bilateral relations, promoting defense ties, and outlining further areas of defense cooperation," IAF said in a statement.

India and France are currently working together on crucial ventures including the revival of India's home-made Kaveri engines for combat planes and another project involving the production of stealthy unmanned combat air vehicles.

France has been one of the oldest suppliers of fighter aircrafts to India. Dassault MD 450 Ouragan (Hurricane) called 'Toofani' in India was inducted in 1954. This was followed by Dassault Mystere IV. Mirage 2000 had excelled in Kargil war (1999) and maintained a very high mission success rate. Meanwhile, Dassault Aviation has also expressed interest in providing fighter jets for Indian Navy's aircraft carriers.

 Sputnik

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Missile capability non-negotiable: Iran Army

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 17, IRNA -- Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces warned on Monday against designating Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a terrorist organization, saying the country's missile power is nonnegotiable.

New threats designed by arrogant powers and regional reactionaries and enemy's intention to expose Iran to direct threats, make it necessary for Iran to exercise vigilance and be ready to foil plots, Major General Mohammad-Hossein Baqeri said during a meeting with commanders of the Iranian Ground Forces.

Iran, focusing on a progressive capacity-building strategy, has been able to defend its borders and establish strong security inside its borders , General Baqeri said.

He pointed to the south-west Asia, describing the region as the epicenter of world developments.

Due to the interference by arrogant powers, as well as Zionists plots and disloyalty of some unpopular governments, the region now is facing new conspiracies.

Baqeri also referred to new threats made against Iran by the US officials, saying the Iranian people are not going to allow others interfere in the country's affairs and determine their fate.

The Iranian commander went on to say that US recent move to impose fresh sanctions on Iran and on the IRGC, is base o0n Washington's miscalculations.

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Sanctions can not affect Iran defensive system: MP

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 17, IRNA -- Foreign sanctions cannot affect Iran's defensive system, Chairman of Iran's Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein naqavi Hosseini said on Monday.

Naqavi Hosseini made the remarks during a visit to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Airspace Organization.

The MP hailed Iran's technical advancement in missile field and said that sanctions cannot reverse development of Iran's defense system.

He noted that IRGC missiles have been constructed based on domestic capabilities.

Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said in a meeting with MPs on Sunday that the Defense Ministry has elevated the range, accuracy and durability of its sea-launched cruise missiles.

Dehqan added that Iran is now producing anti-armor and automat missiles and has making of warships and submarines on its agenda as well as manufacturing planes, drones and other defense equipment.

Iran is able to manufacture airplane and fighter aircrafts, noted the defense minister.

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Zarif to CNN: US is violating JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 17, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that Iran has implemented the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) faithfully, fully and completely but 'the US failed to implement its part of the bargain.'

Zarif, who is currently in New York to attend the UN High Ranking Political Assembly made the remarks in an interview with Farid Zakaria from the US news network, CNN.

Responding to a question about accusing Iran of non-compliance with the deal Zarif said, "When we negotiated the deal, we decided to make the IAEA the only accepted body to monitor the implementation of the nuclear side of the deal and the IAEA has on seven occasions verified Iran's full compliance under the deal.

"Iran has implemented the deal faithfully, fully and completely but unfortunately we cannot make the same statement about the United States," Zarif stressed.

Referring to an example of US violations of the nuclear deal, Zarif said that President Donald Trump used his presence in the G20 Meeting in Hamburg to dissuade leaders from other countries not to engage in business with Iran and that is a "violation of not the spirit but the letter of JCPOA."

"I believe the United States needs to bring itself into compliance with its part of the obligations under the deal." Zarif Stressed.

Iran has fulfilled its commitments under the deal and this has been verified by the IAEA which is the only responsible body to monitor the implementation of the deal, Iranian top diplomat said.

The nuclear deal does not prevent Iran from continuing with its peaceful nuclear program and the deal is very clear and recognizes Iran's right to engage in enrichment for peaceful purposes, he said, opining that it is a realization that this is a knowledge had been acquired domestically and this cannot be taken away from Iran.

Iran clinched a landmark nuclear deal with world six major powers, namely the US, China, Russia, France, and Britain plus Germany, in July 2015 which placed restrictions on its nuclear program in return for relief from international sanctions.

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Iran warns US of 'big risk' if it blacklists IRGC

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:11PM

Iran's top military official has warned the US of the repercussions which Washington's possible branding of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization would have.

Last month, US senators passed a bill of sanctions that target Iranian individuals and entities after they called on the State Department to designate IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization.

"Tagging the Guards along with terrorist groups and imposing similar sanctions is a big risk for the Americans, their bases and their forces in the region," Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said Monday.

The bipartisan US Senate vote, which is now to go to the House, is demanding major action from the Trump administration against the IRGC, Iran's key arm to protect the Islamic Republic.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently stated that Washington would support a "peaceful" regime change in Iran, and that the overall Iran policy was under development.

Baqeri warned the United States against "wrong calculations" regarding the Islamic Republic, including its planned sanctions and possible blacklisting of the IRGC.

"American officials are advised to talk somewhat wiser, more measured and mature to other countries, especially a country like Iran that has stood against all conspiracies with pride and strength, and no longer play with their honor."

Washington's measures against Iran fly in the face of a landmark nuclear accord which prohibits new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US says the new sanctions target Iran over its missile program, the country's support for resistance groups such as Hezbollah and its alleged human rights violations.

Baqeri stressed that Iran's "missile power is defensive and not subject to bargaining and negotiation at any level."

"The Iranian nation has always stood up to the system of domination and arrogance, especially America, and become more firmly established; hence, further sanctions will provide an opportunity for growth, self-reliance and attention to the indigenous and domestic capacities of the country," he said.

Baqeri said Iran, which has weathered "about four decades of conspiracies and threats as well as an intensified anti-Iranian investment by the regional extras of America and the Zionist regime," is facing new threats.

"The emergence of new security threats, which with the design and endeavors of the arrogant powers and reactionary regimes of the region and the negligence of some neighbors has targeted the Islamic Republic with the aim of moving the threats inside Iran, calls for more vigilance and readiness in order to counteract and neutralize them," he added.

Baqeri was apparently referencing to Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman's vague remarks in April that Riyadh would work to move "the battle" to Iran.

The Iranian official touched on the ongoing conflicts in the region, saying they were the result of "interference by arrogant powers, Zionist plots and the stupidity and treachery of some unpopular and oppressive regimes of the region."

Threat of new war

Baqeri further said a planned referendum by Iraq's Kurdish leaders on secession from the Arab country could lead to new challenges and problems in the region.

In April, representatives of the two main Kurdish parties of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) discussed the issue of a referendum and decided to hold the vote this year.

"That just after the defeat of Daesh and Takfiri terrorists following three years of war and displacement of the Iraqi people ... there is this talk of a referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan and the separation of a part of Iraq does not seem to be normal," Baqeri said.

"This is by no means acceptable to Iraq's neighbors," he said. "Preserving the independence and integrity of Iraq is in the interest of all the tribes, religions and different parts of the region," he added.

Baqeri also said the region cannot bear another war, warning that a new conflict would definitely pave the way for "ill-wishers and aggressors" to establish a foothold in the region.

Another senior military commander, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, described the US as the main sponsor of terrorist groups and state terrorism in the Middle East.

"All evidences point to the formation and reinforcement of terror outfits in the region by the US and the United Kingdom," said Jazayeri who is the deputy head of Iran's chief of staff of the armed forces.

The official also said that "all the regimes that have helped the terrorists in Iraq and Syria are now suffering from the problems that will continue to plague them in the future and the United States is no exception."

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U.S. says Iran complying with 2015 nuclear deal

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 13:36, July 18, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Monday declared for the second time that Iran was complying with a 2015 nuclear deal.

However, the Trump administration said Iran was "in default of the spirit" of the 2015 deal and that it was working on new non-nuclear sanctions against Iran.

According to senior Trump administration officials, the Trump administration would certify to U.S. Congress that Iran had so far been compliant with its commitments under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"The Secretary of State is in the process as we speak of certifying to the Congress that the conditions that are laid out in the (2015 Iran nuclear deal) have been met based on information available to the United States," a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters in a background briefing.

However, the official said the Trump administration saw Iran as "one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability."

Stressing that the Trump administration was not going soft on Iran, senior officials told reporters that the Trump administration was expected to implement new sanctions that pertain to Iran's ballistic missile program and fast boat program.

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US adding new sanctions against Iran over missile program

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:1PM

The administration of US President Donald Trump says it is imposing new economic sanctions against Iran over the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program.

The US Departments of Treasury and State said Tuesday they are targeting 18 Iranian individuals, groups and networks.

The new sanctions freeze any assets the targets may have in the US and prevents Americans from doing business with them.

The restrictions ranged from a company that allegedly aided Iran's drone program to a Turkey-based provider of naval equipment and a China-based network that provided electronics to Iran, according to the Associated Press.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions "send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran's provocative and destabilizing behavior."

The move comes one day after the Trump administration certified to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, which lifted nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

The Trump administration notified the Congress of Iran's compliance for the first time in April.

The White House is bound by US law to notify Congress of Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days. The Trump administration had notified the Congress of Iran's compliance for the first time in April.

The certification that Iran is technically complying with the nuclear agreement clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

Washington claims Iran's missile program is in breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed Tehran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 states in 2015.

However, Tehran insists its missile tests do not breach any UN resolutions because they are solely for defense purposes and not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

The Islamic Republic has said it will spare no effort to meet its national security needs, and does not allow any party to intervene in the imperative.

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Rohani's Brother Reportedly Released On Bail

RFE/RL July 18, 2017

Iranian President Hassan Rohani's younger brother, Hossein Fereidoun, has been released on bail days after his arrest over unspecified allegations of financial impropriety, Iranian news agencies reported.

Fereidoun's release on July 17 followed reports that he was taken to a hospital after seeming unwell at a court appearance.

Reports did not reveal the amount of the bail for Fereidoun, a close adviser to Rohani who was involved in negotiations that resulted in the 2015 deal with global powers to curtail Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The arrest is seen as pressure by hard-liners in the ruling establishment on Rohani, who has come under fire over his attempts to improve ties with the West and ease social restrictions.

A judiciary spokesman announced his arrest on July 16 and said that he had been taken into custody after failing to post bail.

Tasnim news agency reported that "Fereidoun's health was not good from the moment he appeared in court and...because his health situation became critical, the questioning session did not take place and the accused left the court in an ambulance."

Hard-liners have long accused Fereidoun -- a member of Rohani's inner circle who has been called his "eyes and ears" -- of corruption.

Earlier this year, more than 46 lawmakers called on Rohani to present his brother to the judiciary to face "financial corruption charges."

Rohani won a second presidential term by a convincing margin in May, but his power is limited in a country where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds final authority on most matters.

Neither Rohani nor Khamenei has publicly commented on Fereidoun's detention or his release on bail.

Rohani was born Hassan Fereidoun.

With reporting by Reuters, ISNA, and Tasmin

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/rohanis-brother -released-on-bail/28622583.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 Sanctions Iran Over Ballistic Missile Program Just After Certifying Nuke Deal

Sputnik News

21:53 18.07.2017(updated 22:17 18.07.2017)

The United States on Tuesday announced new sanctions targeting Iran's military and Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over the country's ballistic missile program, along with Chinese and Turkish intermediaries, just hours after the State Department recertified Tehran's compliance to the nuclear agreement.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US Treasury and State Departments together sanctioned 18 individuals and entities tied to the Iranian military and IRGC involved with the ballistic missile program, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Among the entities sanctioned were one Turkish and four Chinese companies, as well as two IRGC organizations.

The sanctions freeze any of the individuals' or entities' assets that are subject to US jurisdiction and generally prohibit US companies or persons from doing business with them.

Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified to Congress that Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear agreement reached in 2015 with the P5+1 group of countries.

Under the terms of the 2015 deal, the United States agreed to lift nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for assurances Tehran's nuclear program would remain peaceful.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the JCPOA, calling it one of the worst deals in history.

After taking office, Trump ordered the administration to review whether the lifting of those sanctions is in the interest of US national security. The deadline for the review is scheduled for Tuesday.

The State Department said Tuesday that the United States "continues to waive sanctions as required to continue implementing US sanctions-lifting commitments in the JCPOA" while the review continues.

In 2010, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling on Iran to refrain from "any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology."

Tehran maintains its ballistics program complies with the resolution. Following the latest ballistic missile test-launch in February, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the test did not violate the UN resolution because the missiles are not produced to carry nuclear warheads.

He further said his country would never use Iranian-produced missiles to attack any other country.

The JCPOA does not apply to Iran's ballistics program, and former President Barack Obama's administration continued to impose new sanctions on the IRGC after the nuclear deal was implemented.

Congressional Republicans, who are widely opposed to the nuclear deal and Iran, have also continued to advocate tough sanctions against Tehran and the IRGC.

IRGC-Linked Companies

In a press release Tuesday, the State Department said it sanctioned two IRGC organizations under a 2005 executive order targeting "activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a risk of materially contributing to, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery."

The entities, the IRGC Aerospace Force Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization (ASF SSJO) and IRGC Research and Self Sufficiency Jehad Organization (RSSJO), are said to be involved in ballistic missile research, development and test launches.

Additionally, the Treasury Department sanctioned an Iran-based company and three of its directors for providing or attempting to provide support to the IRGC.

Rayan Roshd Afzar Company has produced technical components for the IRGC's drone program, software for its aerospace program, and tools the IRGC uses to restrict social media and telecommunications in Iran, the Department said.

Rayan Roshd CEO Seyyed Reza Ghasemi, its board chairman Mohsen Parsajam and a company representative, Farshad Hakemzadeh, were also sanctioned.

OFAC alleged Parsajam obtained "a range of military-applicable items from China on behalf of Rayan Roshd" and completed other contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with Iranian customers including the IRGC's Qods Aviation Industries, which is involved in drone production.

Ghasemi and Hakemzadeh were also involved in the company's defense contracts and procuring military items from China, according to the Treasury Department.

Chinese and Turkish Companies

The OFAC designations also included Ramor Group, a Turkey-based firm that distributes marine equipment, and its president Resit Tavan.

According to the Treasury Department, Ramor Group sold US products to an Iranian company, Qeshm Madkandaloo Shipbuilding Cooperative Co., that supplies the IRGC Navy with equipment and services, and has tested IRGC weapons in the Strait of Hormuz.

Qeshm Madkandaloo was designated for ties to the IRGC, which is already sanctioned by multiple US programs, as well as the United Nations.

OFAC also sanctioned four Chinese firms and a procurement agent, Emily Liu, "for proliferation activities related to a key supporter of Iran's military."

Since at least 2014, Liu, who is based in China, has sought to obtain US, Canadian and European equipment for Iran's Shiraz Electronics Industries (SEI).

SEI, which was sanctioned in 2008, is responsible for procuring electronic equipment for Iran's military, including naval, avionics and air missile guidance technology.

The Treasury Department sanctioned four China-based companies Liu is accused of using: Abascience Tech Co. Ltd., Raybeam Optronics Co. Ltd., Raytronic Corporation Limited, and Sunway Tech Co., Ltd.

Alleged Theft of US Technology

OFAC designated an Iran-based company, Ajily Software Procurement Group, as "a significant transnational criminal organization," alleging the group used hackers to steal engineering software programs from the United States and other nations.

Some of the software is used in rocket and GPS-guided weapon design, according to OFAC.

Iranian businessman Mohammed Saeed Ajily was also sanctioned. OFAC said he directs hackers to steal specific software programs, using servers based in western nations, and then sells the computer programs inside Iran.

Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, a computer hacker, was also sanctioned, as was Andisheh Vesal Middle East Company, an Iran-based company that Ajily purportedly uses to sell stolen technology to Iranian purchasers, including military and government entities.

On Monday, the US Department of Justice charged Ajily and Rezakhah for hacking computers belonging to Arrow Tech Associates, a company based in the US state of Vermont. According to the indictment, they stole the company's ballistics software in 2012 with the help of a third man, Nima Golestaneh.

Golestaneh was arrested in 2013, extradited to the United States and later pleaded guilty to computer hacking and fraud charges. The United States released Golestaneh to Iran in January 2016 as part of a prisoner swap between the two nations.

Ajily and Rezakhah are believed to be in Iran.

 Sputnik

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Kurdish independence plan will weaken Iraq: Iranian official

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:51PM

A senior Iranian official has warned that a plan by Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to hold an independence referendum will weaken the entire Arab country.

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani made the comment in a meeting in Tehran on Monday with deputy secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Kosrat Rasul Ali, and the Chief of the Executive Body of the PUK's Political Bureau, Mala Bakhtiar.

Shamkhani said the independence plan would "in fact put pressure on and isolate Iraqi Kurds and weaken Kurdistan and eventually all of Iraq."

The Iranian official added that the plan went against the policies and initiatives of the Iraqi officials and was not a priority and requirement of the country's people.

Shamkhani further noted that certain regional and extra-regional countries sought to undermine Iraq and big countries in the Middle East, stressing that such arrogant plots should be thwarted by remaining vigilant and paying attention to the interests of the nation and those of the Muslim world.

He said the Islamic Republic wishes "security, economic development and prosperity" for people, parties and groups in the north of Iraq whose realization would prevent the activities and spread of terrorist groups.

The president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, announced on Twitter in June that the northern territory would hold an independence referendum on September 25 not only in the three provinces that make up the Kurdish region, but also in the areas that were bone of contention between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the central government in Baghdad.

After the announcement, the Iraqi government issued a statement in response that it would reject any unilateral move by Kurdish regional authorities to press for independence.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 13 that the Kurdish minority's decision to hold an independence referendum was untimely.

"Every part of Iraq has aspirations and has a dream, and we respect that, even if we disagree with it. We live in one homeland and they are our partners," Abadi said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the SNSC secretary further pointed to the liberation of the Iraqi northern city of Mosul from the grip of Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and said it would herald a better future for an integrated Iraq and foil foreign plots aimed at creating a division in the country.

"A secure, stable and united Iraq promotes the country's sustainable security, stability and progress and friendly countries to Iraq and its well-wishers must support such an approach," Shamkhani pointed out.

Delivering a formal statement aired by the state television on July 10, the Iraqi premier formally declared the victory of the country's forces over the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Mosul, one day after Iraqi military and Popular Mobilization Forces took full control of the city.

The recapture of Mosul marks the biggest blow to the Takfiri extremist group since it declared its so-called caliphate three years ago.

Iran averted security disaster in Kurdistan

Rasul Ali, for his part, said Iran had always played a leading role in supporting Kurdistan, particularly in countering Daesh terrorists, and prevented a security disaster in this region.

He said the Islamic Republic and the Kurdistan region had deep-rooted and historical bonds.

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Iraq test-fires indigenous short-range Yaqeen-1 rocket

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:51PM

Iraq has successfully test-fired a locally designed and manufactured rocket as part of efforts to revive its defense industries and use indigenous military hardware in the fight against Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and potential foreign threats.

Director of the General Military Industries Sadiq al-Tamimi said in a statement on Monday that al-Yaqeen-1 (Certainty-1) missile was successfully fired at its designated target on Monday.

Tamimi stressed that the short-range rocket, which has a range of 15 kilometers and is capable of carrying 350 kilograms of warheads, has been fully designed and manufactured at home by Iraqi experts.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry later released footage showing al-Yaqeen-1 blasting off from a launcher deployed in an unknown location.

The military achievement came exactly a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the extremists' main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, had made sweeping gains against Daesh since launching the operation on October 17, 2016.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle to retake the city began eight months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.

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After Mosul victory, senior UN officials detail Iraq's political and humanitarian needs

17 July 2017  Senior United Nations officials today called for regional and international support to stabilize newly liberated Mosul and to create conditions for peace and development throughout Iraq.

"The historic liberation of Mosul should not conceal the fact that the road ahead is extremely challenging," the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, told the Security Council.

He praised the Iraqi security forces and international partners for "an exceptional effort" to save and protect civilians during the military drive to liberate the Iraqi city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, and for showing a readiness to be held accountable for violations.

The effort was "in stark contrast" to ISIL, which showed "absolute disregard for human lives and civilization" by booby-trapping and destroying homes and critical monuments, indiscriminately shelling civilians, and by having civilians "butchered" by females and brainwashed children suicide bombers.

"To turn the gains of the military victory into stability, security, justice and development, the Government will have to do everything possible to give the people back their lives in security and dignity," said Mr. Kubis, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

De-mining, stabilization and reconstruction efforts to allow the return of displaced people, as well as the elimination of ISIL cells and militias, are among the priorities.

He noted that the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait had confirmed their willingness to assist the Government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, and urged all of Iraq's partners to "stay on course."

In addition, the Iraqi Government has to work for national settlement and societal reconciliation within the country, as well as to enter into negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the UN envoy said.

ISIL would ultimately be defeated only "through inclusive solutions, addressing the grievances, needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people," noted Mr. Kubis.

He reiterated the UN's commitment to facilitating the national settlement process and supporting grassroots reconciliation efforts. Also, with ISIL pushed out of Mosul and the people held by the group freed, the UN is "repositioning" its response to supporting survivors of sexual violence and helping to integrate them back into their communities. The UN is also working to ensure that children arrested for terrorism-related charges are transferred to juvenile institutions.

'Fighting may be over, humanitarian crisis is not'

Some 700,000 civilians have been displaced from Western Mosul, according to UN figures.

Speaking via videolink from Baghdad, UN Deputy Special Representative Lise Grande told journalists in New York that the top priority right now is to reach civilians who might still be in Mosul's old city.

"We believe perhaps hundreds of people are still there," said Ms. Grande, who is also the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. She noted that in the last week of fighting some 12,000 people were evacuated. The majority of them are children and the elderly, who without sufficient water or food were too weak to even walk on their own.

Triage stabilization units established right on the front lines by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) received up to 100 patients per hour, spending about 4 minutes to stabilize each patient, before passing him or her on to a field hospital.

"The fighting may be stopping but the humanitarian crisis has not," noted Ms. Grande.

Of the 54 residential districts in western Mosul, 15 are heavily damaged, "basically flattened," Ms. Grande said, 23 are moderately damaged and 16 neighbourhoods have light damage.

The UN estimates the costs to stabilizing these areas and making them liveable to be more than $700 million, of which $237 million would be for the moderately and lightly damaged areas and $470 million for the more destroyed neighbourhoods.

"That is double the estimate for stabilization," Ms. Grande said, due to fighting which was "so fierce and so much worse that what anyone else experienced."

The UN has requested nearly $1 billion in assistance to aid the people in Mosul, with a focus on re-establishing crucial services so that people can safely return home to western Mosul.

Meanwhile, in eastern Mosul, which has been liberated since January, "schools are open, businesses are thriving, the city is recovering," said Ms. Grande.

Since the beginning of the fighting last year, about 940,000 civilians fled Mosul. Nearly all have been housed and are receiving direct assistance, an outcome that Ms. Grande called "very positive."

The UN official attributed the ability of aid workers to stay "one step ahead" due to the UN's early contingency planning under the Government's leadership and a flash appeal that was 100 per cent funded; Iraqi forces' commitment to protecting civilians during the battles; and strong civilian-military liaison communication.

She noted that an additional 100,000 civilians are expected to flee their homes by the end of this year, as Iraqi forces start to reclaim new areas in other parts of Ninewa and Anbar Governorates and in Kirkuk Governorate, where ISIL still holds territory.

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UN Envoy for Iraq Warns Against 'Collective Punishment' for IS Families

By VOA News July 17, 2017

The United Nations envoy for Iraq says he is concerned about the rise of revenge attacks in Mosul against civilians believed to be linked to Islamic State militants following the liberation of the city.

Jan Kubis told the U.N. Security Council Monday that there is a "rising popular sentiment in favor of collective punishment of families perceived to be associated" with IS.

He said Iraqis who are seen as having ties to the militants are increasingly being subjected to "evictions, confiscations of homes, and other retribution and revenge measures."

Kubis urged Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to take "urgent steps" to stop the attacks, saying that actions taken against civilians without sufficient evidence violate Iraq's constitution and obligations under international law.

He said all evidence of crimes committed by Islamic State militants must be preserved to support possible prosecutions.

The envoy also warned the Security Council that the future in Mosul is "extremely challenging" and said the government will need to do a lot of work to turn its military victory in the city into stability. He stressed that securing the rule of law and promoting development will be essential.

Kubis also spoke about plans by the Kurdistan region of Iraq to hold a referendum on independence in September and urged both sides to quickly start negotiations. He said the talks should address sharing oil and revenue as well as the status of disputed territories.

Iraqi forces, along with their coalition allies, recaptured Mosul from Islamic State militants recently following a nine-month military campaign. Islamic State militants had held Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, since June 2014.

The fighting led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and caused more than 900,000 people to flee their homes. Much of Mosul's Old City has been destroyed and vast swaths of the city and the surrounding towns and villages have been abandoned.

Islamic State still controls some territory outside Mosul as well as much bigger areas in neighboring Syria.

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Germany Postpones Submarines Sales Deal With Israel Due to Corruption Probe

Sputnik News

14:45 18.07.2017

Germany has indefinitely postponed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the sale of three submarines to Israel in light of the ongoing Israeli probe into corruption allegations in connection with the multi-billion dollar deal, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  On July 12, a personal lawyer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adm. Eliezer Merom, a former commander of the Israeli Navy, were reportedly questioned within the probe into government contracts to purchase the submarines from the German ThyssenKrupp company.

The decision to postpone the signing, which was initially set for this week, could eventually lead to the cancellation of the deal as a whole, the Ynetnews media outlet reported.

The cancellation of the signing is possible due to a clause in the agreement which allows the German side to unilaterally withdraw from the deal in the event it is proven that it was reached through corruption and bribery.

Israeli police have detained seven individuals to be questioned over their suspected involvement in the corruption scandal, according to media reports.

The investigation into the 2014 deal began in November 2016. Netanyahu himself is not being investigated for possible wrongdoing.

 Sputnik

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Libya's Sarraj Warns Against 'Liberation of Tripoli', Wants Dialogue With Rivals

Sputnik News

14:44 17.07.2017(updated 14:47 17.07.2017)

The prime minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Sarraj, has outlined his views on the situation in the war-torn country and the ways to resolve the crisis in an interview with Sputnik.

TRIPOLI (Sputnik)  Statements by representatives of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls the east of the country, about the forthcoming "liberation of Tripoli" are unacceptable, Sarraj told Sputnik.

"Firstly, Tripoli is not occupied for someone to liberate it. It is necessary to refrain from provocative statements in the media, so as not to complicate the problems. Taking advantage of our meeting today, I urge all parties to refrain from expressions such as the 'liberation of Tripoli,'" Sarraj said.

On July 4, the spokesman of the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the intention of the military "to enter Tripoli without an armed confrontation, with the help of its citizens."

"We call for dialogue, to get together and solve our problems. If this does not happen, the problem will become more complicated, a civil war will be the replacement, and all Libyans will pay the price," Sarraj said.

Sarraj denied to Sputnik that he had reached an agreement with Commander of the Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar on establishment of a united army and a presidential council during a meeting in early may in Abu Dhabi.

"There were no agreements there  Many opinions were discussed, we listened to those of Mr Khalifa, but we did not reach the agreements you mentioned," Sarraj said.

Sarraj pointed out that the Libyan army should be under the control of a civilian executive power.

"We have stated that any military organization should be under the control of civilian executive power. It is the basic principle when building a military organization," Sarraj said, answering a question about the main disagreement with eastern Libya's Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar.

He went on by stating it is too early to speak of involvement of Saif Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in the country's political process.

"At present, he has been charged with several judicial charges here [in Libya], he is wanted by the International Criminal Court. I believe speaking of him is premature," Sarraj added.

Overall, Negative interference of foreign countries hampered the political process in Libya, Sarraj pointed out.

"The actions of foreign states, their negative interference into Libyan affairs, hampered the political process," he said.

Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) lost control over territories in Libya after its defeat near Sirte, only some hotbeds in the desert remain under its control, Sarraj said.

"The IS [Daesh] group does not exist in the same way as it was in Sirte. They lost control over territories. After their defeat in Sirte, only individual hotbeds remain in the desert. In recent months, efforts have been made to destroy them, with the air force carrying out airstrikes against them," Sarraj said.

Libya has been in state of a civil war since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. From that point on, the country has been governed by rival governments, with the latest division between the Council of Deputies based in Tobruk and the Tripoli-based General National Congress, headed by Sarraj and backed by the United Nations and Europe. The authorities in country's eastern part operate independently of Tripoli and cooperate with the National Army, which is led by Haftar and engaged in a protracted war with radical Islamists.

 Sputnik

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Over 80,000 Rohingya kids 'wasting' from hunger in Myanmar: UN

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 10:8AM

The United Nations has warned that tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslim children under the age of five are in dire need of treatment for "acute malnutrition" in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.

The World Food Program (WFP) reported on Monday that 80,500 children living in the areas are "wasting" and will need treatment for acute malnutrition within the next 12 months.

According to WFP spokesperson in Myanmar, the "wasting" condition, which is a rapid weight lose that can become fatal, impairs the functioning of the immune system.

"Based on the household hunger scale, about 38,000 households corresponding to 225,800 people are suffering from hunger and are in need of humanitarian assistance," said the report.

The agency warned that "households with children under the age of five," and those that composed of only one female adult, had the highest frequency of episodes of severe hunger.

A WFP spokesperson in Myanmar said this "wasting"  condition of rapid weight loss that can become fatal  impairs the functioning of the immune system.

The report was based an assessment in April of villages in the Rakhine state, which has been under a military lockdown since October 2016, when the military launched a campaign to hunt down those who allegedly staged deadly attacks on police posts..

A quarter of all Rohingya households composed of only one female adult because the men had left due to the military campaign, it added.

Since the beginning of the army's operation, some 75,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to UN estimates. Those who remain are now reeling from a food crisis.

There have also been numerous accounts by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks against Muslims since the crackdown began.

The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed in March to send an international fact-finding mission to Myanmar, but the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has so far denied entry to members of the mission.

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Pakistan army launches major operation to stop Daesh penetration

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, July 17, IRNA -- Pakistan army says a new major operation called 'Khyber-4' has been launched to stop militant group Daesh from entering into country's north western tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The military spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor in media briefing said, 'We will not allow them to establish themselves. In Afghanistan, yes, it is getting stronger, but we don't believe it is the same as the Daesh in the Middle East.

'In Pakistan, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has shown an alliance with Daesh .... Daesh as an organized terrorist group does not exist in Pakistan, but if splinter groups of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other terror groups try to jump on the Daesh bandwagon, we are already taking care of them through other means, like in the 'Khyber-4' operation,' said Ghafoor also Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

He announced that the army has launched Operation Khyber-4 under Radd-ul-Fasaad (RuF) to wipe out terrorists in the Rajgal Valley area of Khyber tribal area.

There is no timeline for the operation as yet, Ghafoor added.

The army had informed Afghan forces ahead of the launch of the Khyber-4 operation in Rajgal, he said, so that the Afghan army would be able to support on their side of the border if they wished.

'No other force will have boots on the ground in our country. All operations are conducted by Pakistani security forces,' he asserted.

The army's spokesman observed that reports of a joint border operation with Afghan forces had surfaced during a visit made by a top-level United States Congressional delegation.

Clarifying the reports, Ghafoor said, 'The true meaning of this [joint operation] is when both forces conduct operations at the same time. There is a coordinated and complementary operation on their respective sides of the border.'

Information would be shared with Kabul if the Afghan leadership wished to conduct supporting operations and coordination in this regard is ongoing, he elaborated.

272**1723**1394

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Pakistan's Supreme Court starts hearings on PM's graft charges

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:21AM

Pakistan's Supreme Court has resumed hearings over corruption charges against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family, in a process that will decide the premier's political future.

The hearing on Monday is expected to focus on a damaging 254-page corruption report run by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigative panel into the wealth of the Sharif family.

The JIT was set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the corruption claims that surfaced following the Panama Papers leak. The panel spent two months probing the Sharif family's wealth and gave its finding to the court last week.

Based on the evidence tabled in the damning JIT report, the Supreme Court is expected to either put Sharif on trial on corruption charges or disqualify him as prime minister.

Sharif has denied any wrongdoing and described the report as "slander."

The report alleges the Nawaz family's vast wealth was beyond their means, and accuses his children, including presumed heir Maryam, of signing forged documents to obscure ownership of posh London flats.

Sharif's team of legal experts will be allowed to defend Sharif against the report's findings. He is, however, expected to be summoned before the court for questioning.

Sharif, 67, has rejected demands by opposition parties to resign, warning that his ouster would destabilize the country and imperil hard-won economic gains since his poll victory in 2013.

"It hurts that despite of our hard work, attempts are afoot once again to push the country back," Sharif told a meeting of his ruling PML-N parliamentary party over the weekend.

Sharif in April narrowly escaped disqualification after the Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to remove him -- by a 2-3 split -- over documents released by the Panama Papers leak into off-shore wealth.

But the tribunal ordered further investigations as well as the formation of the JIT.

Sharif claims there is a conspiracy aimed at toppling him, but he has not named anyone.

If Sharif is disqualified, another member of his party will replace him until the nation chooses a new premier in next year's general elections.

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S Korea offers rare talks with North on tensions, family reunions

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:12AM

South Korea has proposed to hold military talks with the North this week in an effort to end animosities along their tense border, in what could mark the first official inter-Korean negotiations since late 2015.

The South's Defense Ministry on Monday proposed the meeting to be held on Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom, which also hosted the last such negotiations in December 2015.

"We request military talks with the North on July 21 at Tongilgak to stop all hostile activities that raise military tension at the military demarcation line," said South Korea's Vice Defense Minister Suh Choo-suk.

This is Seoul's first proposal for government-level talks with Pyongyang since President Moon Jae-in came to power in May. Moon declared his willingness to work for peace with North Korea following his inauguration. He has been known as an advocate of engagement with Pyongyang.

Seoul's offer of the rare talks comes after North Korea said earlier this month that it had successfully test-fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and acquired the technology to load the projectile with a nuclear warhead. The South and the US disputed the claim.

In a separate proposal, the South Korean Red Cross offered to hold discussions with the North over reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on August 1 at the same place.

Speaking at a news briefing, the South's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said "talks and cooperation between the two Koreas to ease tension and bring about peace on the Korean peninsula will be instrumental for pushing forth a mutual, virtuous cycle for inter-Korea relations and North Korea's nuclear problem."

Relations between the two neighbors have been characterized by consistent tension. The two Koreas fought a war in the early 1950s, and have been at odds ever since the war ended.

Millions of families were separated and many died without getting a chance to reunify with their families on the other side of the border, across which all civilian communication is banned.

The North has repeatedly announced its refusal to hold family reunion talks with Seoul, unless the South returns 13 people who Pyongyang says are abducted. Seoul however says the group12 waitresses and a restaurant manager had defected to the South last year.

In recent years, Seoul and its ally Washington have expressed deep concerns about the North's missile and nuclear programs.

The North, which is currently under a raft of crippling United Nations sanctions over its military programs, says it will continue the programs until the US ends its hostility toward the country.

The US maintains almost 29,000 military servicemen stationed in South Korea, claiming they act as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea.

Washington and Seoul have further angered Pyongyang by the controversial deployment of the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system to the restive peninsula to counter what they call the North's "threats."

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South Korea Proposes Military Talks With North For First Time Since 2015

July 17, 2017

South Korea on July 17 proposed holding military talks with rival North Korea and a halt to hostile activities near their tense border.

South Korean Vice Defense Mnister Suh Choo-suk's comments come after a series of missile tests by the North in recent weeks raised tensions with the South, the United States, and Japan, and brought condemnation from many other nations.

"We request military talks with the North on July 21 at Tongilgak to stop all hostile activities that raise military tension at the military demarcation line," Suh told a news briefing.

Tongilgak is a North Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom used for previous talks in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two natoins.

If talks are held, they would be the first government-level negotiations since late 2015.

South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, has expressed a willingness to improve relations with the North.

On July 6, he said he was willing to meet North leader Kim Jong Un to try to reduce tensions after North Korea's successful test launch of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 4.

The North's missile program is banned by the United Nations.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Yonhap

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/south-korea-proposes- military-talks-north/28620221.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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Seoul Ready for Dialogue With Pyongyang Depending on N Korea's Denuclearization

Sputnik News

08:01 17.07.2017(updated 12:11 17.07.2017)

Seoul is ready to fully launch the dialogue with Pyongyang, but depending on what position North Korea would have on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said Monday.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Seoul offered Pyongyang to hold negotiations on the level of military officials on Friday in order to stop all hostilities on the bilateral border and also proposed to have talks on the level of Red Cross charity representatives on August 1, according to the Yonhap news agency.

"We will consider the normalization of dialogue between the South and the North, monitoring the latter's position on denuclearization," the unification minister said, as quoted by the agency.

Tensions between the two countries have risen in the recent years amid Pyongyang's nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, conducted in violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions. However, the dialogue with North Korea and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula became a part of policy of new South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

 Sputnik

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South Korea Proposes Military Talks with North Korea This Month

Sputnik News

03:24 17.07.2017(updated 10:53 17.07.2017)

South Korea has proposed holding military talks with its northern neighbor, the first such talks since 2014.

"We request military talks with the North on July 21 at Tongilgak to stop all hostile activities that raise military tension at the military demarcation line," Vice Defence Minister Suh Choo-suk told a media briefing Monday.

Tongilgak is a North Korean building in the village of Panmunjom, which straddles the demarcation line that divides the countries. The armistice ending active hostilities in the Korean War was signed in that village.

Talks have been requested between high level military officials for July 21, and among Red Cross representatives from both countries on August 1. An agenda has not been specified for the military meeting, but the Red Cross meeting would be expected to cover ways to resume family reunions with the Chuseok holiday coming up in October.

South Korea's Defense Ministry has asked that the inter-Korean military communication line in the western region be restored, and that North Korea respond to their offer through it.

New South Korean President Moon Jae-in is a proponent of dialogue, and has recently said the need for talks to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs is more pressing than ever.

The talks would be the first among high level military officials in nearly three years, Yonhap points out. A working-level meeting was held in Panmunjom on Oct. 15, 2014, but no agreement on how to ease tensions was reached. The last government level talks were held in December 2015.

North Korea has conducted 11 missile tests this year, despite international condemnation. Its most recent ballistic missile test may have shown it to have the capability of reaching US territories with a long-range, nuclear armed weapon. Pyongyang has also conducted five nuclear tests, in violation of international sanctions.

 Sputnik

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South Korea Proposes Military Talks With North

By Brian Padden July 17, 2017

South Korea proposed military talks and family reunions with North Korea on Monday to reduce the increasing potential for conflict over Pyongyang's continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

"The Defense Ministry proposes to hold a military talks between the two Koreas on July 21 at Tongilgak in North Korea to stop all hostile actions which heightens military tensions at the border," said Seoul's Vice Defense Minister Seo Joo-seok on Monday.

Military talks

Tongilgak is a North Korean building at the Panmunjom truce village on the border used in the past for inter-Korea talks. The last government-level meetings were held in December, 2015.

Since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took power in May, his government has tried to engage the North to reduce tensions, including offers of humanitarian aid, non-political exchanges and reviving the inter-Korean military hotline that Pyongyang cut off in early 2016 after Seoul shut down the jointly run Kaesong Industrial complex to punish the North for its nuclear testing and long-range rocket launches.

But so far the Kim Jong Un government has rejected most of these overtures. Analysts say South Korea may be willing to suspend loudspeaker broadcasts at the border that are highly critical of the North Korean leader to re-establish contact.

"Once that is established, then both sides can understand what the other is seeking. They can signal to the other side what they want, what problems or issues they have with the other side," said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with Troy University in Seoul.

North Korea has called for the suspension of South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, but Pinkston said that is unlikely given Pyongyang's repeated ballistic missile launches, including the July 4 test of what some experts say was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with the potential range to reach Alaska, although the U.S. disputes this claim.

There are also reports of increased activity at the Yongbyon uranium enrichment facility that could indicate plutonium production underway in the last year to further increase the North's nuclear weapons stockpile.

Family reunions

The South Korean Red Cross on Monday also proposed holding talks in August with the North to arrange reunions of family members separated during the 1950-53 Korean War, with the hope of scheduling the reunions in October during the Korean Chuseok holiday.

Many of the estimated 60,000 South Koreans that have signed up to participate in these sporadically held inter-Korean reunions are elderly and have had virtually no contact with relatives living in the repressive North where contact with the outside world is highly restricted.

"Meeting with their families while they are alive must be prioritized more than any other political concerns," said Kim Sun-hyang, acting president of South Korea's Red Cross.

Pyongyang, however, has demanded Seoul turn over 12 waitresses who defected to the South last year before it will agree to holding family reunions. North Korea says the South abducted the 12 waitresses and the restaurant manager and has demanded their return, but the South has said the group decided to defect of its own free will.

Sanctions

Seoul's Unification Ministry says these latest proposals are in line with President Moon Jae-in's dual track policy to pursue both engagement with the Kim Jong Un government while also supporting U.S. led sanctions to pressure Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs.

"There is no change in our position that we will put forth effort to (persuade) North Korea to come out for denuclearization by using all possible measures such as sanctions and talks," said South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myung-kyun.

While Cho says there is no "separation" between the U.S. and South Korea on dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat, Washington continues to emphasize pressure over dialogue and is preparing new sanctions on Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang possibly within weeks, according to U.S. officials.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

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US conditions for returning Russia's seized property 'daylight robbery': Russian FM

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:8PM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says any US attempts to set preconditions for returning Russia's diplomatic property in New York and Maryland are "daylight robbery," as Moscow presses for access to the seized compounds.

The top Russian diplomat made the remarks in a press conference on Monday, reacting to a report by the RIA Novosti news agency published earlier in the day, which cited an unnamed senior official in the White House as saying that Washington was not planning to return the diplomatic property without asking for "something in return."

"It looks like some highway thieves are commenting on this situation. How is that, to seize property which was assigned by a bilateral intergovernmental ratified document, and to give it back they follow the principle, 'Mine is mine, and yours will be shared," Lavrov further said.

Back in December last year, the Russian compounds were seized by the administration of then-President Barack Obama over allegation of Moscow's involvement in hacking the US 2016 presidential election, which Moscow flatly denies. Obama also ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over the hacking accusation despite Moscow's strong denial.

Lavrov also expressed hope that incumbent US President Donald Trump has some people with logic, who understand that their predecessors in the former president Barack Obama's administration decided to seize the residential complexes and expel Russian diplomats in "a state of agony."

"Such a zealous desire to seek some 'hidden' channels of Russian influence on what is happening in the US is clearly not subsiding, to my great regret, and does not add confidence that we would be able to establish normal cooperation in international relations," he added.

The Russian foreign minister further said that the Obama-led authorities did not know how else they could destroy Moscow-Washington relations "in such a way that the Trump administration would fail to restore them."

Obama said at the time that Washington decided to shut down the compounds in response to US intelligence reports of Moscow's hacking and a purported influence campaign to divert the US presidential election in Trump's favor. He even claimed that Russia used the property for "intelligence-related purposes."

Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said that Washington must unconditionally restore Moscow's access to diplomatic complexes in the US ahead of high-level talks on the issue due to be held between Thomas Shannon, the US State Department's third-in-command, and Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov in the American capital later on Monday.

"We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property, we consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking," he further told journalists in a press conference in Moscow.

Russian initially hoped that Trump would return the property soon after he took office in January, and earlier speculations were also in line with the Kremlin's expectation. But over the past six months no progress has been made, prompting Moscow to ratchet up threats that it could belatedly take revenge by blocking a country house and a storage facility used by the US Embassy in the Russian capital in a tit-for-tat move.

"If Washington decides not to solve this issue, we will have to take counter-actions," Lavrov warned last week.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry's spokeswoman, stated last week that Washington was also refusing to issue visas for new Russian diplomats, who are to replace those expelled.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration has reportedly been considering returning the compounds in an effort to improve relations with Russia. Relations between Moscow and Washington are being described as at their worst since the Cold War.

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Ahead Of Meeting, Russia Presses For Access To Diplomatic Compounds

RFE/RL July 17, 2017

Russia is again calling on the United States to restore its access to two diplomatic compounds that were seized in December by then-President Barack Obama's administration.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke on July 17, hours ahead of a scheduled meeting in Washington between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.

"We still hope that our American colleagues will demonstrate a certain political wisdom and political will," Peskov told a conference call with reporters when asked about the dispute.

Obama ordered the seizure of the diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York State, as well as the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, in response to what he said was their involvement in efforts to influence the election of his successor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised many in both countries by declining to retaliate -- a gesture to then-President-elect Donald Trump, who had repeatedly indicated during the campaign that he would seek to improve ties with Moscow.

But relations remain tense amid multiple investigations into what the U.S. intelligence community says was an "influence campaign" ordered by Putin in an attempt to help Trump and denigrate his Democratic rival on the November 8 ballot, Hillary Clinton.

Russian officials have repeatedly called for the unconditional restoration of access to the diplomatic compounds, saying Moscow's patience is running out.

They have threatened to retaliate and indicated their actions may depend on the outcome of the meeting between Shannon and Ryabkov.

'Daylight Robbery'

Peskov said that any U.S. preconditions for the return of the property would be unacceptable for Moscow, and that Washington's actions contradicted international law.

"We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property. We consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking," he said.

Lavrov, speaking during a visit to Belarus, said that what he called U.S. attempts to set preconditions amounted to "daylight robbery."

He also said that "anti-Russian feeling" in the United States meant it was not certain that Moscow and Washington could agree on key global issues.

Obama sought to "reset" troubled relations with Moscow after he entered office in 2009, but ties were badly strained by Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and support for separatists whose war against Kyiv's forces has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014, among other issues.

Relations were further damaged by Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. election.

The talks between Ryabkov and Shannon, the undersecretary for political affairs, had been scheduled for June but Russia cancelled them, citing new U.S. sanctions linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-u-s-diplomatic- compounds-shannon-ryabkov/28621221.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia Demands Return of 2 Shuttered Compounds in US

By Ken Bredemeier July 17, 2017

Russia demanded Monday that the United States return two compounds that were ordered closed last year after the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the U.S. closure of the properties in the eastern states of New York and Maryland "daylight robbery."

Then-U.S. President Barack Obama shut the compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats it accused of spying in December, less than a month before he left office, in response to the Russian election interference, a claim Moscow rejects.

Russia has refrained from a retaliatory response, but Lavrov said last week, "If Washington decides not to solve this issue, we will have to take counter actions," possibly by blocking use of a country house and storage facility used by U.S. Embassy personnel in Moscow.

There was political speculation in Washington that President Donald Trump would quickly return the compounds to Russia when he took office in late January, but he did not.

Trump now is in the midst of months of congressional and criminal investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton and whether he obstructed justice with the firing back in May of then-FBI director James Comey, who was heading the agency's Russia investigation. Since then, another former FBI chief, Robert Mueller, has been named, over Trump's objections, to lead the criminal probe.

The issue of the closure of the two Russian compounds is on the agenda again in Washington on Monday, with a meeting between U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Lavrov, in a visit to Belarus, said that "anti-Russian feeling" in the U.S. makes it uncertain whether Moscow and Washington can agree to cooperate on world issues.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, "We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property; we consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking."

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin, blamed by the U.S. intelligence community for personally ordering the U.S. election interference, "quite unambiguously" raised the issue of the closure of the compounds when he met with Trump at the recent G-20 summit in Germany.

The Kremlin spokesman said Russia still has hope that "our American colleagues will show political wisdom and political will" and return the properties to Russian use.

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Russia, China navies to conduct joint drills in Baltic Sea

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:27AM

Russia and China are set to conduct joint naval drills featuring military aircraft and warships from both sides, including one of Beijing's most advanced destroyers.

In a Tuesday statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said the Baltic Sea phase of the naval drills, codenamed Joint Sea 2017, starting Friday, will involve about a dozen warships in addition to military aircraft and helicopters, RT reported.

The naval base of Baltiysk in Russia's Kaliningrad region will receive the Chinese naval forces in an official welcoming ceremony on July 21.

The active phase of the maneuvers will be held between July 24 and 27.

"The main goals of the exercises are to increase the efficiency in cooperation between the two fleets in countering security threats at sea, to train compatibility of the crews of Russian and Chinese warships, to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the Russian Navy and the Naval Forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army," the Russian ministry said.

Earlier, Chinese media reported that Beijing has deployed the Changsha, the second advanced Type 052D guided missile destroyer, which was commissioned just two years ago. The warship will be accompanied by the missile frigate Yuncheng and the Luoma Lake supply ship.

Last week, on their way to the Baltic, the Chinese fleet engaged in live-fire drills in the Mediterranean.

The second phase of the wargames will take place in September, when the Chinese navy will join Russian warships in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.

The Chinese and Russian navies have been staging their Joint Sea maneuvers since 2012. Last year, an active stage of the drills was conducted in the South China Sea.

Xinhua reported last month that this year's edition of the joint drills with Russia would "improve coordination between the two navies on joint defense operations at sea."

It added that the main objective was "to consolidate and advance the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and deepen friendly and practical cooperation between the two militaries."

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After U.S. Talks, Ryabkov Says Russia Has 'Almost' Gotten Diplomatic Compounds Back

RFE/RL July 18, 2017

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has suggested that Moscow and Washington are close to an agreement that would restore Russian access to two diplomatic compounds seized in December by then-President Barack Obama's administration.

But Ryabkov later indicated that a deal was not imminent following his talks with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon, and the State Department said on July 18 that "more work needs to be done " to mend badly strained ties.

Ryabkov initially spoke in response to a reporter's shouted question after his meeting with Shannon in Washington on July 17. According to CNN, Ryabkov was asked, "Did you get your compounds back?" He responded: "Almost, almost."

On July 18, however, Ryabkov said, "You know, 'almost' doesn't count -- so we will continue to work on it."

He said that Russia had "warned the Americans that we need the unconditional return of the property; otherwise retaliatory measures will follow."

A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on July 18 said that Shannon and Ryabkov discussed the diplomatic compounds, but made no mention of any outcome.

"The search for solutions to problems that have built up, including those linked to the illegal seizure...of U.S. real estate belonging to Russia, was continued," the ministry said.

It said Ryabkov underscored that Russia reserves the right to respond in kind "if Washington does not remove this and other irritants."

The State Department statement made no specific mention of the diplomatic compounds.

Shannon's discussion with Ryabkov about "areas of mutual concern" was "tough, forthright, and deliberate, reflecting both parties' commitment to a resolution," it said.

"The United States and Russia seek a long-term solution that would address areas of bilateral concern that have strained the relationship. The talks reflected a spirit of goodwill, but it is clear that more work needs to be done," the U.S. statement said.

It said that Shannon and Ryabkov had committed to holding future talks on the implementation of the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty and broader issues of strategic stability, and would "exchange scheduling proposals in the near future."

Obama ordered the seizure of the compounds in Maryland and New York, and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, in response to what he said were Russian efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election and mistreatment of U.S. diplomats in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised many in both countries by declining to retaliate -- a gesture to then-President-elect Donald Trump, who had repeatedly indicated during the campaign he would seek to improve ties with Moscow.

But relations remain tense amid multiple investigations into what the U.S. intelligence community says was an "influence campaign" ordered by Putin in an attempt to help Trump and denigrate his Democratic rival on the November 8 ballot, Hillary Clinton.

Russian officials have stepped up their calls for the unconditional restoration of access to the diplomatic compounds, saying Moscow's patience is running out.

They have threatened to retaliate and indicated their actions would depend heavily on the outcome of the meeting between Shannon and Ryabkov.

Hours before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that any U.S. preconditions for the return of the property would be unacceptable for Moscow.

"We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property. We consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that what he called U.S. attempts to set preconditions amounted to "daylight robbery."

He said that "anti-Russian sentiment" in the United States meant it was not certain that Moscow and Washington could agree on key global issues.

Obama sought to "reset" troubled relations with Moscow after he entered office in 2009, but ties were badly strained by Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and support for separatists whose war against Kyiv's forces has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014, among other issues. Relations were further damaged by Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. election.

The talks between Ryabkov and Shannon, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, had been scheduled for June but Russia cancelled them, citing new U.S. sanctions linked to the conflict in Ukraine. The new date for the talks was set after Trump and Putin met for the first time, on July 7, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Germany.

With reporting by cnn.com, TASS, Reuters, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ryabkov-says-russia- almost-gotten-compounds-back/28622320.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia Considering Development of Vertical Takeoff Planes for Aircraft Carriers

Sputnik News

18:10 18.07.2017(updated 18:17 18.07.2017)

The Russian Defense Ministry is considering the development of a vertical takeoff (VTOL) plane for aircraft carriers based on the Yak-family, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said Tuesday.

ZHUKOVSKY (Sputnik)  The VTOL aircraft would be based on the Yak-family jets.

"The Defense Ministry is discussing with our aircraft manufacturers the development of an aircraft with a short take-off and landing, possibly with a vertical take-off and landing, this is the development of the Yak line," Borisov said on the sidelines of the MAKS-2017 air show.

Currently, Russia possesses only one aicraft-carrying cruiser, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Late last month, Vice-Adm. Viktor Bursuk, Russia's deputy navy commander in charge of procurement, said that the Russian Navy is planning the construction of a new aircraft carrier to accompany the Admiral Kuznetsov.

MAKS-2017, one of the world's largest aviation shows, kicked off in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow earlier in the day. It will conclude on Sunday.

 Sputnik

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US: Talks With Russia on Closed Compounds, Other Issues Need 'More Work'

By VOA News July 18, 2017

Senior United States and Russian diplomats held "tough" talks on a range of issues Monday, but still "more work needs to be done," according to the State Department.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met Monday to discuss areas of mutual concern.

The State Department described the meeting as "tough, forthright, and deliberate, reflecting both parties' commitment to a resolution."

The issue of two closed Russian compounds in the United States was discussed. Then president Barack Obama ordered the compounds closed in December, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Moscow attempted to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Both sides agreed to meet again to work on bilateral issues, but no date was set.

Russia has demanded the closed compounds be returned. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the U.S. closure of the properties in (the eastern states of) New York and Maryland "daylight robbery."

Less than a month before he left office Obama also expelled 35 Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying, in response to the Russian election interference, a claim Moscow rejects.

Russia has refrained from a retaliatory response, but Lavrov said last week, "If Washington decides not to solve this issue, we will have to take counter actions," possibly by blocking use of a country house and storage facility used by U.S. embassy personnel in Moscow.

Lavrov, during a visit to Belarus, said "anti-Russian feeling" in the United States makes it uncertain whether Moscow and Washington can agree to cooperate on world issues.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, "We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property; we consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking."

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin, blamed by the U.S. intelligence community for personally ordering the U.S. election interference, "quite unambiguously" raised the issue of the closure of the compounds when he met with President Donald Trump at the recent G-20 summit in Germany.

The Kremlin spokesman said Russia still has hope that "our American colleagues will show political wisdom and political will" and return the properties to Russian use.

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What's Behind Putin's Hate for the Magnitsky Act?

By Cindy Saine July 18, 2017

Congress passed the "Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act" in 2012 to punish Russian human rights abusers by banning them from entering the United States.

The Magnitsky Act is back in the headlines after it was reportedly on the agenda of a recently revealed meeting last June at Trump Tower in New York involving President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., along with the elder Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

VOA diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine spoke with former U.S. ambassadors and veteran diplomats Laura Kennedy and John Herbst, now of the Atlantic Council, to learn more about the law, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has long considered an irritant.

Q: Who was Sergei Magnitsky and what is the Magnitsky Act?

Kennedy: Sergei Magnitsky was the lawyer of American-born [British national] investor William Browder, whose business in Moscow had fallen out of favor with Russian officials. Magnitsky was working to expose alleged malfeasance on the part of those Russian officials, but was himself jailed and then died in prison in 2009 under decidedly odd circumstances. [Editor's note: He was reportedly denied medical care and beaten.] Many independent observers believe this was tantamount to murder and that the jail sentence was meted out by the Kremlin because Magnitsky was exposing corruption on the part of the Russian government.

Browder worked extensively to seek redress on this case and, in 2012, a bipartisan group of senators passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which identified specific Russian government officials involved in the case and imposed a visa ban on them. The act was not supported by the Obama administration which, as is often the case with the executive branch, preferred to deal with bilateral issues in its own way. After the president nevertheless signed the act, the [Russian parliament] Duma immediately voted to ban all Russian adoptions by U.S. citizens.

Q: How did the Kremlin react and why is Russian President Putin still irritated by the Magnitksy Act?

Kennedy: The Kremlin reacted viscerally. Putin instituted his own visa ban which targeted U.S. officials who had, in the Kremlin view, been involved with torture and escalated its own case against Browder. Undeterred, Browder continued to lobby other countries on the case. The U.S. Congress named an additional bill, which targeted human rights abusers around the world, in honor of Magnitsky.

The Magnitsky bills have remained a source of extreme resentment on the part of Putin and the Russian government, whose officials have been stigmatized not just by the charges of gross governmental corruption, but also by the specter of a murdered whistleblower.

Q. Can you explain what the Magnitsky Act has to do with U.S. citizens adopting Russian children?

Herbst: Well, when we passed the Magnitsky Act, Putin felt the need  as he usually does  to punch back when steps are taken which he doesn't like. But he couldn't pass Russia's own version of the Magnitsky Act because, by and large, the practices, these unethical practices, which are fairly common at senior levels in Russia, are not very common here. So he wanted to take a step that he thought would hurt Americans. And the step was he would deny them the possibility of adopting Russian children. Now this is sad for the American would-be parents. But it is much worse for the Russian children, who are stuck in these orphanages that are not the nicest places to grow up.

Q. Why is the Magnitsky Act back in the headlines now?

Kennedy: The apparently well-connected Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was able to reach a new and highly promising avenue of potential influence when she arranged a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the [2016 presidential] campaign, allegedly to offer damaging information on candidate [Hillary] Clinton and the DNC [Democratic National Committee]. While Mr. Trump Jr. said recently that Veselnitskaya focused on adoptions, many commentators will note that the issue of adoption and the Magnitsky case are highly intertwined.

John Herbst served for 31 years as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, retiring at the rank of career-minister. He was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, when he worked to enhance U.S.-Ukrainian relations, help ensure the conduct of a fair Ukrainian presidential election and prevent violence during the Orange Revolution. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-03).

Laura E. Kennedy joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1975. She served at U.S. embassies in Moscow (twice), Ankara, Yerevan (Charge d'Affaires) and Ashgabat, and at U.S. missions to international organizations in Vienna (Deputy Permanent Representative) and Geneva. She was appointed by President George W. Bush as ambassador to Turkmenistan (2001-2003).

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Beijing calls on Washington to avoid damaging Sino-US ties over Taiwan

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:28PM

Beijing has lodged an official complaint with Washington over the passage of a bill that would expand military ties between the United States and Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Monday expressed his country's opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) recently passed by the US House of Representatives, saying the measure went seriously against the "One China" principle and was interference in China's internal affairs.

"China firmly opposes any forms of official exchange and military contact between the US and Taiwan," Lu told reporters at a regular press briefing, adding that Beijing had made "stern representations" to Washington over the "negative content" of the bill.

The NDAA, passed on Friday, contains a section that calls on the US to expand its defense spending in Taiwan and to provide Taipei with increased military training.

"We urge the United States to fully recognize the serious harmfulness of the relevant clauses in the act, and not allow them into law, and not turn back the wheel of history to avoid damaging the broad picture of Sino-US cooperation," the Chinese official noted.

The bill will move to the US Senate to be signed by the president before becoming law.

Beijing has long objected to any US military assistance to the self-governing island.

The United States is the sole arms supplier to Taiwan, which China regards as a rebel province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back under its control.

The United States angered China last month over its approval of $1.3 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan, with Beijing calling on Washington to immediately revoke its "wrong decision" to strike the deal.

Beijing says it expects other countries to adhere to the policy of "One China."

The "One China" policy refers to the policy or the diplomatic acknowledgement that there is only one state called China, despite the existence of two governments  one in China and another in the island of Taiwan.

Under the policy, the United States recognizes and has formal ties with the government in Beijing rather than with Taiwan

US President Donald Trump has often questioned America's commitment to the "One China" policy in the China-Taiwan row.

China has considered Taiwan a breakaway province since a government was established there in 1949. Beijing believes the island will be reunified with the mainland one day.

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PKK bombing leaves 17 soldiers injured in southeastern Turkey

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:37PM

More than a dozen Turkish soldiers have sustained injuries in a roadside bomb explosion that targeted their military vehicle in Turkey's southeastern and Kurdish-populated province of Hakkari.

The Turkish General Staff said in a statement on Monday that militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) detonated an improvised explosive device as the vehicle was passing through the Yuksekova district of the province, located 1,026 kilometers (638 miles) east of the capital Ankara.

The statement added that the wounded soldiers were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Hospital sources said none of the troopers is in critical condition.

The development came less than a week after Turkish fighter jets struck an area in the Dargecit district of the southeastern province of Mardin, killing eight PKK militants who were preparing to launch an attack on Turkish soldiers.

Separately, Turkish warplanes conducted air raids against areas near the border with Iraq and Iran on July 11, leaving three PKK members dead.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country's troubled southeastern border region as well as northern Iraq and Syria.

Turkey has declared the PKK a terrorist organization. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict over the past few decades.

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Russian S-400 Systems' Delivery Contract With Turkey Ready, Loan Being Discussed

Sputnik News

17:47 18.07.2017(updated 18:02 18.07.2017)

Technical issues of the contract for the supply of Russian S-400 missile systems to Turkey have been resolved, only administrative ones remain, the general director of Russia's Rostec state corporation said Tuesday.

ZHUKOVSKY (Sputnik)  Earlier, CEO of Rostec Corporation Sergey Chemezov said that Russia and Turkey agreed on all technical aspects of the deal on supplies of S-400 missile systems.

"We have resolved all technical issues, only the administrative ones remained," Sergey Chemezov told reporters on the sidelines of the MAKS-2017 air show.

"The final decision will be made by the Russian and Turkish governments. Negotiations with the [Russian] Ministry of Finance are underway and, most likely, some funds for this project will be provided by Turkey itself, and some will be received in the form of a loan," Chemezov added.

Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said Tuesday that the negotiations regarding Russia's delivery of S-400 air defense systems to Turkey have reached the final stage.

"We have approached the final stage with regard to S-400. Namely, the talks are about to have a positive outcome. However, one cannot say that the issue is closed until the signatures are put. We are at the final stage and no problems are foreseen," Isik said, as quoted by the Yeni Safak newspaper.

The negotiations on possible deliveries of the Russian S-400 air defense systems to Turkey have taken place since 2016. In March, Chemezov said Ankara was ready to buy the S-400 systems with a loan granted by Moscow.

On April 28, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Moscow and Ankara had reached an agreement on the purchase of the S-400 air defense systems with the negotiations on joint production and the prices being underway.

On May 3, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the supplies of S-400 systems with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting in Sochi, stressing that the issue of S-400 was a "sensitive" one.

The S-400 Triumf, which NATO refers to as the SA-21 Growler, was developed by the Almaz-Antey defense contractor and manufactured by the Fakel Machine-Building Design Bureau. The system is capable of intercepting all types of modern air weaponry, including fifth-generation warplanes, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles at a maximum range of nearly 250 miles.

 Sputnik

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UK losing millions on flawed F-35 fighter jets: Report

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:38AM

The British Royal Air Force (RAF) is spending millions of pounds on flawed F-35 Lightning II jets that it might never be able to fly properly, a new report has revealed.

Setbacks and hidden costs have driven the unit price of each jet to around 153 million, way higher than Lockheed Martin's asking price of between 77 million and 100 million, The Times reported Monday.

The British daily suggested that besides the already overblown price, the taxpayers would also be required to pay for extra services such as software upgrades, spare parts and "cost reduction initiatives" buried deep in Lockheed's contracts.

This is while according to a former senior RAF officer, the aircraft was still suffering from "utterly pathetic" software bugs and technical setbacks.

The UK has put in orders for 138 units. Forty-eight of those will be of the F-35B variant, which can take off and land vertically.

However, the report noted that four of the aircraft purchased so far are too heavy and cannot perform the function safely.

The fifth-generation stealth jet is also unable to transmit data to British ships or older planes without giving away its own position to the enemy.

More importantly, the aircraft's 12 billion software system is prone to cyber attacks and Britain won't be able to alter the code on its own, the report added.

In order to operate the aircraft, the UK military department in charge must set aside at least 400 million this year in order to get the required computer networks.

The daily noted that weak bandwidth on British Navy warships was threatening the F-35's ability to communicate with ground forces, hurting one of the aircraft's main missions.

Upgrading satellite broadband across the RAF and the UK navy and buying technology the F-35 needs to communicate securely would cost up to 1 billion, according to General Richard Barrons, who was in charge of the British military's information networks until last year.

Initially announced in 2001, the US-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project has ballooned into the most expensive weapons project in history.

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UK Readies to Pay Millions of Dollars for 'Hidden Costs' of US F-35 Fighter Jets

Sputnik News

15:14 17.07.2017

The US F-35 military aircraft purchased by the United Kingdom will cost London extra millions of dollars due to the "hidden costs" forming a large part of each aircraft's total price, the UK media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Times newspaper reported, citing its investigation that analysis of 44 contracts for purchase of the aircraft suggests, that the total cost for every F-35 jet delivered in 2017 was between 130 million UK pounds ($182 million) and 155 million pounds. This was in spite of the fact that the aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin had initially stated that the jets' cost would be between 77 and 100 million pounds each. Such figures and estimates are not public, the newspaper noted.

The reports listed a number of the aircraft's drawbacks, including, among others, the jet's inability to transmit data to UK ships or older planes without revealing its position to the enemy, its vulnerability to cyberattacks, and London's inability to test the jet's security independently.

Gen. Richard Barrons, who has been in charge of the UK military's information networks until 2016, said that it was "utterly pathetic" that the United Kingdom had prioritized "metal and platforms" over "warfare in the information age," according to the newspaper.

The United Kingdom will purchase a total of 138 F-35 jets, the report noted.

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed for many missions with advanced, integrated sensors built into every aircraft.

 Sputnik

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Three Years On, Families of MH17 Victims Still Seeking Justice

Alan Crosby July 16, 2017

Zijtveld doesn't want to talk about the 2014 plane crash in eastern Ukraine that took the lives of his two teenage children. He wants justice.

But three years after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the bereaved Dutch father -- who also lost his in-laws in the crash -- is still waiting. As are the loved ones of all 298 passengers and crew killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down during what should have been a routine trip from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

"Whoever did it should be brought to justice. That's the only story I can share with anyone," van Zijtveld told RFE/RL by telephone on July 13, four days before the third anniversary of the disaster.

MH17 took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 12:31 p.m. local time and headed east along its approved flight path. After flying over Germany and Poland, the plane, as planned, vectored slightly south into Ukrainian airspace.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft a little under two hours after takeoff, as it entered the airspace above territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists near the Russian frontier.

Soon afterwards, there were reports of a missing plane. These were followed by footage of a crash site and witnesses speaking of dozens of bodies on the ground.

All 283 passengers -- including van Zijtveld's 19-year-old daughter Frederique and 18-year-old son Robert-Jan, who were on their way to Bali for a three-week holiday with their grandparents -- were dead. None of the 15 crew members survived, either.

Of the victims, 189 were Dutch nationals, 44, including the crew, were Malaysian, 27 were Australian while there were also 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, and one each from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Ireland. Some of the passengers on the plane were also dual citizens.

Confusion, Misinformation

As questions about what happened began to arise, so too did confusion, misinformation and accusations over why MH17 plummeted from the sky.

A post on the Russian social media site VKontakte attributed to Igor Girkin, a Russian who was a commander of separatist militants at the time, claimed responsibility. The same day, the separatists denied involvement and the post was taken down.

Communications intercepts made public later in July 2014 appeared to show separatists discussing an aircraft that they had downed and only afterward realized was a civilian jet -- not a warplane.

As the controversy swirled, grieving relatives became increasingly distressed and angry at a lack of answers to their questions about the crash.

In October 2015, the Dutch Safety Board concluded the plane was brought down by a Russian-made rocket and outlined the area from which it was fired, which was largely held by the separatists.

That was followed by a report by Bellingcat, a team of independent, open-source researchers, who said it had positively identified the actual Russian Buk missile launcher as the weapon that brought the passenger jet's flight to a fiery end.

And in September 2016, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that conducted the international investigation said it had determined that the Buk missile system had been brought into Ukraine from Russia shortly before MH17 was shot down and then quickly smuggled back to Russia afterward. It said the missile was fired from a field in separatist-held territory.

U.S-born aviation attorney Jerome Skinner is leading a group of 33 next-of-kin of victims from Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia who are suing Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, in the European Court of Human Rights for $330 million.

Skinner says the overwhelming evidence can only lead to one conclusion.

"Do you really think that you have no responsibility to the families of the 80 children on board?" Skinner asked Putin in an open letter on July 12. "What about all the others? Did you see the dolls, coloring books and toys among the blood and carnage? Did you see the photo of the hardened rebel fighter holding the soiled teddy bear like a prize from a carnival?"

"My clients have waited three years, Mr. Putin. There is still no accountability.... You stand as the only man who can set this right," he wrote.

Despite the evidence, and so many fingers pointing at Russia's involvement in the crash, the Kremlin has denied involvement. Russia has likewise rejected accusations, backed by plentiful evidence, that it has sent weapons and troops into eastern Ukraine to support the separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people -- including the victims of MH17 -- in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's ambassador to the Netherlands, Vsevolod Chentsov, says that while the conventions of the Council of Europe oblige Russia to provide mutual legal assistance in criminal matters such as the MH17 case, "taking into account the position of the Russian Federation on the issue of MH17, we can assume that such interaction is, to put it mildly, difficult."

"Everything will depend on political will on the part of the Russian Federation," he said, adding that "it is important to depoliticize the future judicial process, to avoid even hypothetical allegations of bias."

Some Progress

Though no suspects have been named, some progress is being made in the investigation.

In a July 13 commemoration of the crash anniversary, Malaysian Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that more than 200 people had been questioned in the case and that he expected charges to be laid by the end of this year -- or early in 2018 -- against at least some of the perpetrators.

"We also want the person who launched the missile to come forward and tell us what happened on that day," he said. "This was a tragic incident and we will ensure we can claim justice for the family members of the victims."

Headway is also being made on the legal front.

On July 5, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said any suspects in the downing of MH17 will be prosecuted in a court in the Netherlands after an agreement was reached by the countries jointly investigating the crash: Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine, and the Netherlands.

In announcing the deal, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said those countries will continue to cooperate on the prosecution and that the trial will cover all of the victims.

"In this way, the JIT countries are jointly heeding the UN Security Council's call to hold those responsible for this incident to account," Koenders said. "We have every confidence that we can continue to count on broad international support. And I will continue to do my utmost to ensure that this remains the case."

Whether or not that raises the hopes of van Zijtveld and others who lost loved ones in the crash, Skinner wants more.

"Some think MH17 must have been a terrible, inevitable mistake of war. I do not think that is the truth. The facts scream intent and motive. It was a calculated military strike as willful as the killing of one more political opponent. You stand as the only man who can set this right," he told Putin in his letter.

"I will use the European Court of Human Rights and every other avenue available to bring the Kremlin to accountability.... Meet me and finally make amends for the victims of this tragedy."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mh-17-families-seek- justice-russia-three-years/28619155.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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MH17 Victims Remembered Three Years After Jet's Downing

RFE/RL July 17, 2017

More than 2,000 relatives gathered in the Netherlands to unveil a memorial to family members who were killed when a passenger jet was shot down by a missile over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on July 17 attended the ceremony the ceremony to dedicate the memorial to flight MH17's victims in Vijfhuizen park, near Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

Family members read the names of the 298 passengers and crew killed when the Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down during what should have been a routine flight from Schiphol to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.

Most of the passengers were Dutch but there were people of 17 nationalities on board on board the Boeing 777, including Australians, Britons, Malaysians, and Indonesians.

A total of 298 trees have been planted in the shape of a green ribbon -- one for each of the 283 passengers and 15 crew  in what organizers called a "living memorial." They said the trees will be surrounded by sunflowers, which bloom in July and will "radiate a golden glow" over the site.

Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his two teenage children in the crash, told a ceremony attended by relatives and friends of the victims that they "shall not give up and shall not be silenced until those who are responsible have been brought to justice."

"Our loved ones together went on a journey on July 17, 2014, and this memorial forest symbolically unites them again," he added.

The plane was shot down months after the start of a war between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists who seized parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk amid unrest that was fomented by Moscow.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014 including the passengers and crew of MH17, which crashed in separatist-held territory in the Donetsk region.

An international investigative team concluded in September 2016 that the Russian-made Buk missile system that was used to down the airliner had been brought into Ukraine from Russia shortly before it was shot down and then quickly smuggled back to Russia afterward. It said the missile was fired from a field in separatist-held territory.

In a statement on July 17, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reiterated the bloc's "full support" for continuing investigations into the downing of the plane, saying "it is crucial that the investigators can complete their work, independently and thoroughly."

Despite voluminous evidence that it has sent troops, weapons, and other support to the separatists, Russia denies involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. It has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on evidence of involvement in shooting down MH17.

"This insolent crime would not have happened if it were not for Russian aggression, a Russian installation, and a Russian rocket brought from the territory of Russia," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement.

"Our responsibility before the victims as well as future generations is to prove to the aggressor and terrorist that it is impossible to escape liability for all the crimes it has committed," he said.

In a tweet earlier in the day, Poroshenko said: "We bow our heads before the 298 innocent victims whose heartbeats were stopped by a Russian missile three years ago."

About 15 relatives of victims demonstrated on July 16 in front of the Russian Embassy in The Hague, protesting what they called attempts by Moscow to block investigations into the disaster.

The demonstrators set a sign in front of the embassy saying: "Waiting for responsibility and full disclosure."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop urged Russia to cooperate with new initiatives to prosecute suspected perpetrators.

In an interview on July 16, Bishop urged Russia to comply with UN Security Council resolution 2166, authored by Australia.

"That calls on all states to cooperate to ensure that those responsible for the killing are brought to justice," Bishop said. She said suspects may be tried in absentia.

No suspects have been arrested. Dutch authorities have said any eventual trials would be held in the Netherlands.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/mh17-amsterdam-ukraine- russia-malaysia-disaster/28620074.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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UK extends training of Ukrainian Armed Forces

17 July 2017

The UK is expanding its training of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with new military courses covering threats like countering attacks from snipers, armoured vehicles and mortars.

The Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has confirmed this will provide Ukrainian personnel with enhanced skills to protect themselves against these threats - a key cause of injuries and fatalities  now and into the future in the Donbas.

Since the beginning of the Donbas conflict in March 2014, 2,700 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and a further 10,000 injured. 128 UAF have been killed this year alone.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said:

"We continue to stand side by side with our Ukrainian friends in the face of Russian belligerence and aggression. This training, defensive in nature, will help protect Ukrainian troops against the threats that they face on a daily basis. By stepping up our training programmes we are sending a clear message that we support the people of Ukraine and are firmly committed to its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity."

Last week, Sir Michael also announced that the UK has directly trained over 5,000 members of Ukraine's Armed Forces in 14 locations away from the Donbas.

Since 2015, over 1,300 British personnel have been deployed in support of Operation ORBITAL. Drawing from eleven different regiments, including two squadrons of reservists, they have been training the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a number of skills such as the identification of mines and IEDs, medical care and logistics. Last year, Sir Michael confirmed that the training mission will continue until at least early 2018.

The new training elements confirmed today will be rolled out later this year.

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Ukraine Separatists Criticized Over Call For Creation Of 'Little Russia'

RFE/RL July 18, 2017

Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region have announced what they say is the creation of a new state called Malorossia, or Little Russia, a declaration that was swiftly condemned by Kyiv.

The announcement on July 18 appeared to be the latest twist in attempts by the separatists who seized territory with Russian help in 2014 to claim legitimacy and discredit the government of Ukraine.

But it was met with silence from the Kremlin and failed to win support from fellow separatists in the neighboring Luhansk region, where one leader said the idea "raises big doubts."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggested it was part of a Russian effort to divide and conquer his country, and said that would never happen.

Steeped in the history of Ukraine and its perennially troubled ties with Russia, the announcement comes amid a war that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine and continues despite an internationally backed cease-fire mandated by the 2015 Minsk accords.

'Failed State'

Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the separatists who control the city of Donetsk and part of the surrounding province, which borders Russia, read out a declaration on the creation of Malorossia, according to the separatist-affiliated Donetsk News Agency.

Speaking at a meeting with unidentified "representatives" of numerous provinces that are controlled by Kyiv, he suggested that the idea is for Malorossia to assume the mantle of Ukraine, which the declaration asserted "has revealed itself as a failed state."

"We must build a new country in which the concepts of conscience and honor are not forgotten," Zakharchenko said, according to the Donetsk separatists' website.

Another Donetsk separatist leader, Aleksandr Timofeyev, read out a so-called "Constitutional Act" that said participants at the meeting "agree that the new state will be called Malorossia, because the very name Ukraine has discredited itself."

Tsarist-Era Term

Malorossia, which means Little Russia or Lesser Russia, was a name used in Tsarist-era Russia for several regions of today's Ukraine.

Another tsarist-era term for parts of Ukraine, Novorossia -- New Russia -- was sometimes used by separatists and Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, around the time that Russia was fomenting separatism in Ukraine.

Use of the term added to concerns in Kyiv and the West that Russia would seek to take control over large portions of eastern and southern Ukraine, and might try to annex the area or create a new state beholden to Moscow.

But talk of Novorossia faded after a few months, as Kyiv's forces held the Russia-backed separatists to territory covering parts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia has not formally recognized the self-proclaimed separatist entities in Ukraine as independent, and Moscow's stated position is that they should be part of Ukraine.

'Big Doubts'

Analysts say Russia hopes to continue to use them as long as it can to destabilize Ukraine and maintain pressure on its pro-Western government.

There was no immediate Kremlin comment on the declaration about Malorossia.

But Poroshenko suggested the initiative was part of a Russian effort to break Ukraine into pieces and said it would not succeed.

"From the beginning of the military aggression against my nation, the Russian Federation's goal has been to divide Ukraine into parts," Poroshenko said during a visit to Tbilisi.

He said that the "Novorossia project" had "completely failed."

Poroshenko said that Zakharchenko and Luhansk separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky are "not political figures but a puppet show that transmits messages received from Russia."

Plotnitsky's press service, meanwhile, said the Luhansk leadership had not even been invited to discuss the new initiative and that they support the Minsk peace process, in which Western governments are still pushing for an end to the war in eastern Ukraine.

Another leader of the separatists in Luhansk, Vladimir Degtyarenko, said that "at the moment the expediency of such a step raises big doubts."

Yevhen Marchuk, a representative of Kyiv in talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the separatists, said the announcement by the Donetsk separatists could scuttle a meeting scheduled to be held in Minsk on July 19.

And Igor Girkin, a Russian who was once a senior commander of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and also uses the name Igor Strelkov, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that the plan to create Malorossia was "stillborn."

With reporting by Current Time TV, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, UNIAN, 112.Ukraina, TASS, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-separatists- malorussia-criticism-zakharchenko- plotnitsky-poroshenko/28623190.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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Donetsk Republic Leader's 'Malorossiya' Proposal His Own Initiative - Kremlin

Sputnik News

19:49 18.07.2017(updated 21:03 18.07.2017)

The proposal of the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, on the establishment of the Malorossiya state is his personal initiative, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of east Ukraine's self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk (DPR), proposed a three-year transition period toward a new state called Malorossiya ("Little Russia") as a way to settle the conflict in the region. Noting that discussions within the DPR had "come to the conclusion that Ukraine has shown itself as a failed state," he called on the international community to support his proposal.

Russian envoy to the Contact Group on the Ukrainian settlement, Boris Gryzlov, said that the DPR leader's proclamation of a new state called Malorossiya doesn't fit in the Ukrainian reconciliation process as part of the Minsk deal, adding that it "is not a subject of realpolitik."

"Zakharchenko's statement, made this morning on the topic of Malorossiya, is his personal initiative, Moscow learned about this from the media reports this morning. We remain committed to Minsk agreements," Peskov told journalists.

Following DPR's announcement, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed to restore sovereignty over Donbass.

Germany and France condemned the move with Berlin calling the proposal "absolutely unacceptable" and Paris urging Russia to condemn the DPR's decision.

 Sputnik

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Donetsk Republic Declares Creation of New State of Malorossiya

Sputnik News

11:08 18.07.2017(updated 14:19 18.07.2017)

The Donetsk People's Republic has declared the establishment of a new country - Malorossiya - which the local leadership described as a successor state to Ukraine.

DONETSK (Sputnik)  Self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Leader Alexander Zakharchenko proposed on Tuesday a three-year transition period toward a new state called Malorossiya ("Little Russia") as a way to settle the three-year conflict.

"We propose to establish the state of Malorossiya. Malorossiya is an independent young state. A transition period of up to 3 years," Zakharchenko told reporters.

Noting that discussions within the DPR had "come to the conclusion that Ukraine has shown itself as a failed state," he called on the international community to support his proposal.

"We should be supported by the residents of the regions. This solution is possible provided that the international community supports the idea," Zakharchenko said.

Malorossiya has been declared as a sovereign federation of states with wide-ranging autonomy, with the capital of Donetsk and successor state to Ukraine. The new state's constitution will be approved after a referendum and broad discussion. The country's central authorities will be in charge of the federal budget, army and security services, according to DPR Income and Charges Minister Alexander Timofeev.

"We, the representatives of former Ukraine, declare the establishment of a new state, Malorossiya, which is a successor state to Ukraine. We agree that the new state's name will be Malorossiya because the very name of Ukraine has discredited itself. The city of Donetsk becomes Malorossiya's capital," Timofeev said while reading a constitution act on the formation of the new country.

Malorossiya's constitution will state its non-aligned status and policy toward restoring ties with Russia, he added. The new country will seek to join the union state of Russia and Belarus while keeping its sovereignty.

"Malorossiya is a multinational state with Russian and Malorossiyan being its official languages, and regional languages retaining their rights and statuses," Timofeev read.

He noted that in Malorossiya, religions will have equal rights. The state aims at resuming activities within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and launching trilateral talks with Russia and the European Union.

"The policy aimed at joining the Union State of Russia and Belarus while preserving independence and sovereignty. The keeping of a visa-free regime in agreement with the European Union. De-oligarchisation, uncluding on a legal basis," the minister read out.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.

"The constitution of Malorossiya will be drafted, approved in its initial iteration by the constitutional assembly and then submitted for the nationwide referendum. This will follow the wide public discussion both on the regional and the federal levels," Timofeev pointed out.

Zakharchenko suggested declaring a state of emergency in Malorossiya for three years due to "economic difficulties, possible chaos and a possible war of all against all", and during these three years order shall be restored and the constitution shall be adopted.

 Sputnik

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (the Company or PreveCeutical) (CSE:PREV) announces, further to its news release dated April 13, 2017, that it has entered into a research and option agreement through an agreement made effective as of July 14, 2017 (the Research Agreement) between its wholly-owned subsidiary, PreveCeutical Medicals Holdings Inc., and UniQuest Pty Limited (UniQuest), the main commercialization company for the University of Queensland (UQ), to conduct a research program (the Research Program) focused on the development of Smart-siRNAs for the treatment of diabetes and obesity. This will be the third research and option agreement between PreveCeutical and UniQuest.



The Research Program

The four year Research Program, which has a targeted start date of the 1st day of September, 2017, will be led by UQ researcher and PreveCeuticals Chief Research Officer, Dr. Harendra Parekh (see PreveCeuticals news release dated May 17, 2017). The research will be carried out by UQ in collaboration with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institutes Professor Grant Ramm and Murdoch Universitys Dr. Rakesh Veedu.

To address the global rise of diabetes and obesity, and in furtherance of PreveCeuticals preventive health care focus, the Research Program builds on years of multi-disciplinary research and development in diabetes and obesity. It will pursue a dual-gene therapy strategy using proprietary bionanotechnological approaches. The rational design of tissue targeted bio-responsive gene delivery systems will be accompanied by systematic evaluation towards gene and protein-silencing in appropriate cell and animal models of obesity and diabetes, to be undertaken in multiple phases.

This really is a great example of cross-disciplinary collaboration, with leading researchers possessing complementary skills from three Australian institutions, UQ, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Murdoch University, coming together with the common goal of addressing one of the most challenging epidemics facing humankind this century  diabetes and obesity, said Dr. Parekh.

PreveCeutical will own all intellectual property developed under the funded Research Agreement and will be granted an option to negotiate an exclusive, world-wide licence to UniQuests background intellectual property in an agreed field. In return for the licence, UniQuest will receive payments for development milestones and sales based royalties in accordance with the terms of the Research Agreement.

Collaborating Researchers

Professor Grant Ramm is currently the head of the Hepatic Fibrosis Group and Coordinator of the Cell and Molecular Biology Department at QIMR Berghofer, a leading medical research institute located in Brisbane, Australia. He is an internationally renowned expert in liver pathobiology, hepatic fibrosis and chronic liver disease.

Dr. Rakesh Veedu is head of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Research at the Centre for Comparative Genomics located at Murdoch University (Perth, Australia) and McCusker Research Fellow with the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science. He is an emerging expert, nationally and internationally, in the field of nucleic acid-based biotechnologies and developing novel nucleic acid drug therapies for a range of neurological diseases, genetic disorders and solid cancers.

About UniQuest Pty Limited

UniQuest specializes in the commercialization of intellectual property, research outcomes and expertise developed by UQ and is the principal commercialization company of UQ. UniQuest benchmarks in the top ten percent globally for university-based technology transfers and UQ innovations licensed by UniQuest are now generating annual sales of over AUD $3 billion. For example, UQ superconductor technology, through licensing arrangements, is used in two-thirds of the worlds MRIs and more than 80 million doses of the life-saving Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, patented by UniQuest in 1991, have been distributed throughout 121 countries, including 72 developing countries.

About PreveCeutical Medical Inc.

PreveCeutical is a biomedical company that coined the platform for preventive health sciences. PreveCeuticals innovative research and development department advances organic and nature identical products for both prevention and curative therapies.

For more information about PreveCeutical, please visit www.preveceutical.com, follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/preveceuticals, or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PreveCeutical/.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

PreveCeutical Medical Inc.

Stephen Van Deventer

Chairman & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Deanna Kress

Director of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

+1-778-999-6063

deanna@preveceutical.com

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly, are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. Statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as pro forma, plans, expects, may, should, budget, schedules, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, believes, potential or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements as to the terms and conditions or other matters related to the Research Agreement and any licence agreement, the proposed research and development services to be provided by UniQuest, the details of the Research Program, the anticipated business plans of the Company regarding the foregoing, the timing of future activities and the prospects of their success for the Company, and the Companys ability and success in executing its proposed business plans. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including risks and uncertainties relating to the inability of the Company or UniQuest, as applicable, to, among other things, complete the Research Program as planned or the inability of the Company to obtain any required governmental approvals, permits, consents or authorizations required, including Canadian Securities Exchange acceptance of any planned future activities, or financing required to carry out its planned future activities. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry, may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company, including the completion of the Research Program. There is no guarantee that the Research Program will be successful or that its results can be commercialized by the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that those statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to other periodic reports provided by the Company from time-to-time. These reports and the Companys filings are available at www.sedar.com.
TORONTO, Jul 17, 2017 - Aberdeen International Inc. ("Aberdeen" or the "Company") (TSX:AAB) reports, in accordance with the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange, that the nominees listed in the management proxy circular dated June 14, 2017 for the 2017 annual and special meeting of shareholders of Aberdeen (the "Meeting") were elected as directors of the Company. Shareholders at the annual meeting also approved the appointment of the Company's auditors and the renewal of the Company's stock option plan. Aberdeen management would like to thank shareholders for their participation and continuing support.

Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors held at the Meeting on July 13, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario are set out below.

Election of Directors

The shareholders approved the election as directors of the persons listed below, based on the following vote.

Nominee Percentage of

Votes For Percentage of

Votes Withheld Stan Bharti 98.33% 1.67% George Faught 98.57% 1.43% Bernard Wilson 98.58% 1.42% Maurice Colson 98.57% 1.43% General Lewis MacKenzie 98.81% 1.19%

NORMAL COURSE ISSUER BID

The Company is renewing its Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB"), subject to Toronto Stock Exchange ("Exchange") approval, to buy back its common shares through the facilities of the Exchange. Any purchases made pursuant to the NCIB will be made in accordance with the rules of the Exchange and in some instances may be effected through alternative Canadian trading systems and will be made at the market price of the common shares at the time of the acquisition.

The board of directors of Aberdeen believes that the underlying value of the Company is not reflected in the current market price of its common shares, and may not be so reflected at certain times during the course of the NCIB, and has thus concluded that the repurchase and cancellation of common shares pursuant to the proposed NCIB presently constitutes an appropriate use of financial resources and would be in the best interest of Aberdeen shareholders.

The maximum number of common shares that may be purchased for cancellation pursuant to the NCIB is that number of common shares that represents 10% of the common shares in the public float. Based on the 62,786,282 common shares in the public float as at July 11, 2017, the maximum number of shares to be purchased and cancelled would be 6,278,628. Aberdeen notes that the number of its shares in the public float is less than the 88,912,282 total basic issued and outstanding Aberdeen common shares as of July 11, 2017 because the public float number does not include 26,126,000 common shares held by Aberdeen reporting insiders. Daily purchases will be limited to 16,608 common shares other than block purchase exceptions. This number represents 25% of the average daily trading volume for the six-month period from January 2017 to June 2017 being 66,433 common shares. The actual number of common shares that would be purchased, if any, and the timing of such purchases will be determined by Aberdeen considering market conditions, share price, its cash position, and other factors including other investment opportunities. Aberdeen had a previous NCIB, which terminated effective March 9, 2017, pursuant to which Aberdeen purchased 6,616,846 securities at a weighted average price of $0.18.

Purchases under the NCIB are permitted to commence on July 20, 2017 and will terminate on July 19, 2018 or the date upon which the maximum number of common shares have been purchased by Aberdeen pursuant to the NCIB. There cannot be any assurance as to how many common shares, if any, will ultimately be acquired by Aberdeen under the NCIB. Aberdeen intends that any shares acquired pursuant to the NCIB will be cancelled.

Aberdeen will make no purchases of common shares other than open market purchases that may be made during the period that the NCIB is outstanding.

ABOUT ABERDEEN INTERNATIONAL

Aberdeen International is a global resource investment company and merchant bank focused on small capitalization companies in the mining and metals sector.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.aberdeeninternational.ca and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and check out Aberdeen's YouTube Channel.

Cautionary Notes

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the election of directors and purchases proposed to be made under the NCIB. 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 the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.aberdeeninternational.com. Although the Company 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. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.







Contact



Stan Bharti, Interim Chief Executive Officer

Aberdeen International Inc.

stan@forbesmanhattan.com

+1 416-861-2267


Toronto, ON (FSCwire) - Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY) (Aston Bay or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has closed today the second tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement offering for gross proceeds of $131,500.

In the second tranche of the Offering, 550,000 Units were issued at a price of $0.13 per Unit, for total gross consideration of $71,500. Each Unit consisted of one common share and one half-warrant. A total of 275,000 warrants were issued to Unit subscribers in the second tranche of the Offering. In addition, 375,000 common shares (the Flow-Through Shares) were issued on a flow-through basis under the Canada Income Tax Act at a per share price of $0.16, for total gross consideration of $60,000.

Pursuant to the first and second tranches of the Offering, a total of 10,014,200 Units and 5,787,500 Flow-Through Shares were issued for total gross proceeds of $2,227,846, which represents an over-subscription of $227,846 to the $2,000,000 offering as announced on May 11, 2017, June 21, 2017 and July 10, 2017. Of the total gross proceeds, $1,556,026 was raised in the brokered portion of the financing and $671,820 was raised in the non-brokered portion.

Shares acquired by the placees under the second tranche of the Offering are subject to a hold period until November 18, 2017, in accordance with applicable Canadian securities legislation.

Aggregate cash finders fees of $2,370 were paid by Aston Bay to various arms length parties, in addition to an aggregate of 16,500 finders warrants issued (having the same attributes as the warrants underlying the Units), under agreements with the arms length parties in connection with certain non-brokered subscriptions under this second tranche of the Offering.

Net proceeds from the Offering will be used by Aston Bay to conduct a planned property-wide geophysical survey, a planned geological field program on Somerset Island to be led by Dr. David Broughton, Chief Geologist for the Storm and Seal Projects, as well as for general corporate purposes. The Company intends to use the data collected from these programs to generate and prioritize drill targets.

About Aston Bay Holdings

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY) is a publicly traded mineral exploration company focused on the approximately 374,000-hectare (923,000-acre) Aston Bay Property located on northwest Somerset Island, Nunavut. The Aston Bay Property hosts the Storm Copper project and the Seal Zinc project. Historical drilling has confirmed the presence of sediment-hosted copper and zinc mineralization on the property.

The Companys public disclosure documents are available on http://www.sedar.com. For further information about Aston Bay Holdings Ltd or this news release, please visit our website at www.astonbayholdings.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Thomas Ullrich, Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: (416) 456-3516

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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.

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, potential and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made. In the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

We seek Safe Harbor.



THIS PRESS RELEASE, REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE CANADIAN LAWS, IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN IN THE UNITED STATES. THESE SECURITIES HAVE NOT BEEN, AND WILL NOT BE, REGISTERED UNDER THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, OR ANY STATE SECURITIES LAWS, AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS UNLESS REGISTERED OR EXEMPT THEREFROM.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/AstonBay07172017.pdfSource: Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX Venture:BAY)

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Copyright  2017 Filing Services Canada Inc.
TSXV: NEV

VANCOUVER, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. ("Nevada Sunrise" or the "Company") (TSXV: NEV) is pleased to announce that it has executed a non-binding letter of intent (the "LOI") with Emgold Mining Corp. (TSXV: EMR, "Emgold") to enter into an option agreement (the "Option Agreement") on the Golden Arrow property ("Golden Arrow", or the "Property") located 40 miles (60 kilometres) east of Tonopah in Nye County, Nevada, USA.

The LOI provides that Nevada Sunrise will grant Emgold an option to acquire up to an 80 percent interest in Golden Arrow in exchange for Emgold meeting the following obligations over a 3-year period from closing (the Transaction"):

Cash payments to the Company totaling $250,000 (all dollar figures are quoted in Canadian dollars);

Issuance to Nevada Sunrise of 2.5 million units of Emgold, with each unit consisting of one post consolidation common share and 1 transferable special warrant exercisable for one post consolidation common share of Emgold at no cost to the Company (a "Unit");

Incurring $2,750,000 in exploration expenditures.

"We are very pleased that Emgold has committed to this agreement for Golden Arrow," said Warren Stanyer, President and CEO of Nevada Sunrise. "There are few properties in Nevada with established gold resources that have an approved Plan of Operations allowing significant exploration work, and Emgold has recognized that value. We look forward to Emgold executing their exploration plan at Golden Arrow."

To earn an initial 51 percent interest in Golden Arrow (the "First Option"), Emgold has agreed to the following schedule of cash payments, common share payments and exploration expenditures:

Cash payment of $35,000 (non-refundable) upon execution of the LOI;

Cash payment of $215,000 and issuance of 312,500 Units within 5 days of acceptance of the transaction by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") ("the Closing Date") Issuance of an additional 312,500 Units within 6 months of the Closing Date; Issuance of an additional 312,500 Units and exploration expenditures of $250,000 within 12 months of the Closing Date; Issuance of an additional 312,500 Units within 18 months of the Closing Date; Issuance of an additional 312,500 Units and exploration expenditures of an additional $1,250,000 within 24 months of the Closing Date.

Summary of Emgold's obligations to exercise the First Option and earn a 51 percent interest in Golden Arrow: $250,000 cash, 1,562,500 Units and $1,500,000 in exploration expenditures.

Upon Emgold exercising the First Option, a joint venture would be formed, and Emgold will act as operator of exploration. Nevada Sunrise would not be obligated to contribute to exploration expenditures until Emgold completes the second stage of the option agreement.

To earn an additional 29 percent interest in Golden Arrow (the "Second Option"), Emgold has agreed to the following schedule of cash payments, common share payments and exploration expenditures:

Issuance of an additional 468,750 Units within 30 months of the Closing Date; Issuance of an additional 468,750 Units and additional exploration expenditures of $1,250,000 within 36 months of the Closing Date;

Summary of Emgold's obligations to exercise the Second Option and earn an 80 percent interest in Golden Arrow: an additional 937,500 Units and an additional $1,250,000 in exploration expenditures.

Should Emgold not have incurred $1,250,000 in exploration expenditures required to complete the Second Option within the scheduled 12 month period, and provided it gives written notice of its intention to extend the Option Period to Nevada Sunrise not less than 30 days' prior to the expiration of the Second Option, it would have an additional 12 months to incur these expenditures and its interest in the Joint Venture would be reduced to 75 percent. During the extension period, Nevada Sunrise would not be required to contribute to the Joint Venture.

After its exercise of the Second Option, and provided it holds at least a 75 percent interest in the Project, Emgold shall have the option to purchase the Company's participating interest in Golden Arrow, ranging from a maximum $10.0 million cash payment for a 25 percent interest to a minimum $1.65 million cash payment for an 11 percent interest. If any party to the joint venture falls below a 10 percent interest in the joint venture, the other party will have the option of purchasing the diluted party's remaining interest for $1.0 million.

Nevada Sunrise and Emgold have agreed to negotiate a definitive agreement as soon as practicable, which would include requirements that Nevada Sunrise's shareholdings in Emgold would not be equal to or exceed 10 percent of the then issued and outstanding shares of Emgold until such time as Emgold has obtained shareholder approval for the Company to become a "control person" of Emgold. Emgold's obligation to close the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including:

Emgold's completion of satisfactory due diligence on the Property; Emgold's completion of a minimum 10:1 consolidation of its currently issued and outstanding common shares; Emgold's receipt of cash proceeds from a contemplated post-consolidation equity financing in the amount necessary to pay: (i) related fees and expenses of the Transaction; (ii) the second Property payment of $215,000; (iii) general corporate overhead for 6 months; and (iii) the first 12 months of minimum Exploration Expenditures on the Property in the amount of $250,000; the Board of Directors and shareholders (if necessary) of Emgold and Nevada Sunrise approving the Transaction; the receipt of any regulatory approvals and third party consents, if necessary, on terms satisfactory to the Parties, acting reasonably, including the acceptance of the Transaction, and the issuance of the Units to Nevada Sunrise as described above, by the TSXV; and the Parties' execution of the definitive agreement and any ancillary agreements.

The Company has agreed to deal exclusively with Emgold in connection with the proposed option of the Golden Arrow property for a period of 90 days, during which Nevada Sunrise and Emgold intend to settle the definitive terms of the Option Agreement. Emgold has the right to extend the period to finalize the Option Agreement by up to sixty days.

About Golden Arrow

Golden Arrow consists of 357 unpatented claims and 17 patented claims on the western flank of the Kawich Range approximately 40 miles (60 kilometres) southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. The Property is situated on the eastern margin of the Walker Lane Structural Belt in a mining district with a long history of precious metals mining and exploration.

Golden Arrow hosts an estimated Measured and Indicated resource of 296,500 ounces of gold and 4,008,000 ounces of silver contained in 12,172,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.024 oz/t gold, and 0.33 oz/t silver. It also hosts an estimated Inferred resource of 50,400 ounces gold and 1,249,000 ounces silver contained in 3,790,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.013 oz/t gold and 0.33 oz/t silver. Silver to gold ratio is 55 to 1; variable cutoff grades are 0.01 oz/t gold for oxide and 0.015 oz/t gold for unoxidized (resource estimates calculated by Mine Development Associates, Reno, NV, May 2009  for further information access the link to National Instrument 43-101 technical report entitled "Updated Technical Report on the Golden Arrow Project, Nye County, Nevada, USA", by Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada, co-authored by Steven Ristorcelli, C.P.G., and Odin Christensen, Ph.D., C.P.G. dated May 1, 2009, located in "Investors" at www.nevadasunrise.ca or under Nevada Sunrise's filed public documents at www.sedar.com).

Nevada Sunrise, through its wholly-owned Nevada subsidiary Intor Resources Corp., submitted a Plan of Operations (the "Plan") for Golden Arrow to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (the "BLM") in early 2015. The Plan contemplates approximately 240,000 feet (73,170 metres) of drilling in up to 240 holes to explore for new areas of gold mineralization on the Property, and to potentially expand the known gold resources. In February 2016, an Environmental Assessment for Golden Arrow was filed online by the BLM. After a period of public review, the Plan was approved on May 11, 2016.

To review the Golden Arrow Environmental Assessment and other documents related to the permitting process, please visit: http://1.usa.gov/23ZvuY0

The technical information contained in this news release for Golden Arrow was reviewed and approved by Steven Ristorcelli, C.P.G., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Nevada Sunrise

Nevada Sunrise is a junior mineral exploration company with a strong technical team based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, that holds interests in nine gold and lithium mineral exploration projects in the State of Nevada, USA.

The Company's two key gold assets include a 100% interest in the Golden Arrow project near Tonopah, and a 21% interest in a joint venture with Liberty Gold Corp. (TSX: LGD, formerly Pilot Gold Inc.) at Kinsley Mountain, with each of the properties subject to certain production royalties.

Nevada Sunrise began acquisitions of Nevada lithium properties in September 2015, which include options to earn 100% interests in the Neptune (Resolve Ventures, TSXV: RSV owns a 25% interest in Neptune), Clayton Northeast and Triton projects, and a 100% interest in the Aquarius project, all located in the Clayton Valley area. The Company also holds options to earn 100% interests in the Jackson Wash and Atlantis lithium projects, and holds a 3% gross overriding royalty interest in in the Gemini lithium project, each located in playas proximal to the Clayton Valley. The Company has optioned six of its Nevada lithium projects to Advantage Lithium Corp., (TSXV: AAL), who has earned a 51% interest in Clayton Northeast, Triton, Aquarius, and Jackson Wash projects, and a 50% interest in the Gemini project. The Atlantis project is currently under option to American Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LI).

Forward Looking Statements

All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. ("Nevada Sunrise") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including the letter of intent signed with Emgold Mining Corp., the amount of future exploration work, the timing of the negotiation and completion of the Option Agreement, and statements regarding the resource estimates at Golden Arrow. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Nevada Sunrise to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Such factors include, among others, risks related to the interpretation and actual results of historical exploration at the Golden Arrow property; the results of Emgold's due diligence on the Golden Arrow property; the satisfaction of the conditions to closing set out above, including Emgold's third party financing, share consolidation and regulatory approvals; reliance on technical information provided by third parties on any of our exploration properties, including access to historical information on the Golden Arrow property; current exploration and development activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; current economic conditions; future prices of commodities; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; the failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; delays in financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2017, which is available under Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Although Nevada Sunrise has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or 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. Nevada Sunrise disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and accordingly are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Nevada Sunrise, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any dispositions, monetizations, mergers, acquisitions, other business combinations or other transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Nevada Sunrise does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, 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 TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this release. The Securities of Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp. have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to the account or benefit of any U.S. person.

SOURCE Nevada Sunrise Gold Corp.
3

8

Vancouver, July 18, 2017 - Forum Uranium Corp. (TSXV: FDC) ("Forum") announces the commencement of a soil sampling program on its Northwest Athabasca project, located approximately 70km west of Uranium City (Figure 1). Soil sampling is planned over 5 of 19 known gravity anomalies on the project. In 2013-14, Forum drill tested five of these gravity anomalies, of which three were found to contain basement-hosted uranium mineralization (up to 39.5m of 0.15% U). Each zone of mineralization returned anomalous boron in the overlying sandstone with values of up to 1% over 0.5 metres. The sampling program is designed to determine if anomalous boron values are present in the soils over the prospective gravity anomalies.

This summer's field work will sample two of the known mineralized gravity anomalies and three other anomalies, in addition to background line work in the general surrounding area (Figure 2). Soil samples will be collected at 30m spacings starting directly over the anomaly and continuing in a line several hundred metres down-ice. This survey should take two weeks to complete, and samples will be sent to the Saskatchewan Research Council geoanalytical laboratory for geochemical analysis. Results should be available by September. This survey will help prioritize the remaining gravity anomalies for future drill programs.

The Northwest Athabasca Joint Venture includes: Forum 39.25%; NexGen 28.25%; Cameco Corp. 20%, and AREVA Resources Canada 12.5%. The property comprises 10,161 ha, and includes the Maurice Bay uranium deposit. It contains a historical resource of 1.5 million pounds uranium grading 0.6% U 3 O 8 (Not NI-43-101 compliant*) at a depth of 50 m (Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, Miscellaneous Report 2003-7). Numerous shallow targets for basement and sandstone-hosted unconformity style mineralization are under-explored or untested, which demonstrates a high potential for discovering additional high grade deposits. Basement-hosted mineralization of up to 8.5m at 5.68% U3O8 at a depth of 30m is present on the property.

*The Maurice Bay historical resource estimate was completed prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. Given the extensive exploration work completed by experienced mineral resource companies, and the quality of the historical work completed, the Company believes the historical estimate to be relevant and reliable. However, a qualified person has not completed sufficient work to verify and classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource, and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. Hence, the estimate should not be relied upon.

Ken Wheatley, P.Geo. and Forum's VP, Exploration and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Forum Uranium

Forum Uranium Corp. is a Canadian-based energy company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. Forum has assembled a highly experienced team of exploration professionals with a track record of mine discoveries for unconformity-style uranium deposits in Canada. The Company has a strategy to discover near surface uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan by exploring on its 100% owned properties and through strategic partnerships and joint ventures with Cameco, AREVA, RTX, NexGen and Uracan.





To view an enhanced version, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/28001_a1500327835686_26.jpg



Figure 1: Location and Geology Map of the Athabasca Basin and Northwest Athabasca Project. The project (NWA) is located in the northwest corner of the map along the edge of the Athabasca sandstone basin. Forum projects are in blue.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

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.

For further information contact:

Rick Mazur, President & CEO

Tel: 604-630-1585

Craig Christy, Vice President, Corporate Development

Tel: 250-863-0561





To view an enhanced version, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/28001_a1500327836030_93.jpg

Figure 2: Geology Map of NWA Project. The Northwest Athabasca project lies on the NW edge of the sandstone basin. Maurice Bay Deposit- A, B and Main Zones are located. Depth to the unconformity varies from 0 to 200 metres. The gravity anomalies are outlined in black. The anomalies with red fill are the untested anomalies that will be sampled. The red blobs without outlines are radioactive boulder trains. The gold area is the Athabasca sandstone.


Vancouver - Far Resources Ltd. (CSE:FAT) (FSE:F0R) (www.farresources.com) (Far Resources or the Company) announces that having recently completed its acquisition of a 100% interest in the Winston gold project located in Sierra County, New Mexico (the Winston Project), the Company now has two flagship projects for exploration, the Zoro Lithium Property located in Snow Lake, Manitoba and the Winston Project located in Sierra County, New Mexico.

With final agreements on both properties in place (see News Releases dated June 27, 2017 and May 9, 2017) the Company must now determine the best way to advance both projects while taking into account the increased demands on the Companys management team and financial resources as well as the technical and regional differences presented by these two projects, Management and the Board of Directors believe the interests of the Companys shareholders will be best served by separating the projects into two separate companies. Subject to final due diligence and tax advice, the Company intends to present shareholders with the opportunity to vote on a plan of arrangement that will create two public companies with separate management teams and boards of directors, one of which will be dedicated to advancing the Zoro Lithium Property and the other will pursue the Winston Project (the Plan of Arrangement).

Keith Anderson, President and CEO, commented, We look forward to providing more details to all our stakeholders on our future plans for the Zoro Lithium project and Winston gold project , the first step of which will be to split our projects into two separate companies with a view to building shareholder value as our shareholders will hold an interest in two separate exploration companies on completion of the proposed Plan of Arrangement.

The Plan of Arrangement will subject to approval by the Companys shareholders at a shareholder meeting to be called for the purpose of seeking such approval, the date of which has yet to be determined. It will also be subject to regulatory and court approvals. The Company will provide full details of the Plan of Arrangement in an information circular that will be mailed to eligible shareholders and made available on SEDAR. Further details will be provided to shareholders and other stakeholders via news releases.

About the Zoro Lithium Property

The Company recently completed its second round of drilling on Dyke #1 of the Zoro Lithium Property in Manitoba which confirmed extensive lithium mineralization in the Dyke 1 pegmatite. Outcrop examination at and around spodumene-bearing Dykes 5 and 7 by the Companys exploration team indicates the presence of additional pegmatite dykes. Previously, chip sampling and analysis of Dykes 5 and 7 by the Company has documented Li 2 O contents ranging from 1.46-6.35% in Dyke 5 and 1.35-2.91% in Dyke 7 (cf. May 2, 2017 news release). The new dykes were exposed in multiple trenches and pits and in outcrop between Dykes 5 and 7. These new zones of spodumene-bearing pegmatite were previously unreported in the Manitoba government assessment files. Accordingly, potential exists for new spodumene-bearing dykes adjacent to Dykes 2, 3, 4 and 6 on the property and the area will become the focus of upcoming field work in 2017.

Dr. Mark Fedikow and Orix Geoscience are collaborating to establish a further drill and exploration program and to further delineate the existing 3-D model of the property. The 2017 exploration program is proceeding with assistance from Dr. Bob Linnen of the University of Western Ontario and Dr. Tania MartIns of the Manitoba Geological Survey. The Company intends to assess Dykes 2 through 7 on the optioned ground and to prepare for the next drill program as it moves toward a Technical Report in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).

The scientific and technical information regarding the Zoro Lithium Property contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Mark Fedikow P.Geo., a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101.

About the Winston Project

The Winston Project consists of 16 unpatented mining claims, the LG Claims, owned 100% by the Company and the right to acquire an additional 4 unpatented mining claims, the Little Granite claims, and 2 patented mining claims, the Ivanhoe/Emporia claims located in Sierra County, New Mexico.

The Winston Project claims cover the past producing Little Granite and Ivanhoe-Emporia mines. The Companys initial exploration focus will be on the Little Granite Mine, where limited drilling in the mid-1980s intersected high grade silver and gold values over approximately 100 metres strike length along a well-defined epithermal vein system. The vein remains open to the north and south, and at depth.

The Company is undertaking a data review and compilation of available information from previous work with plans to carry out, pending submission and approval of a minimal impact exploration permit, an initial 6  8 hole diamond drill program to validate the historical results. This work will be carried out under the supervision of a QP in compliance with the requirements of NI 43-101.

The scientific and technical information regarding the Winston Project contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Lindsay Bottomer, P.Geo., an independent director of Far Resources and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

About the Company

Far Resources Ltd. is an exploration company, publicly traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol FAT, focused on the identification and development of high potential mineral opportunities in stable jurisdictions. Far Resources may acquire or option properties of merit to meet its ongoing goal to locate, advance and unlock the potential of these mineral opportunities. Far Resources currently has two highly prospective projects in place. The Zoro Lithium Property covers a number of known lithium pegmatite occurrences and is located near Snow Lake, MB. Manitoba has been ranked as the worlds second best jurisdiction for mining investment by the Fraser Institute. The second project, the Winston Project in New Mexico, USA, is another historic mining property with potential for gold and silver. New Mexico is also listed by the Fraser Institute, ranking in the top 25 mining jurisdictions in the world. Please visit our updated website at www.farresources.com for full details on our current projects. Far Resources has optioned its wholly owned Tchentlo Lake Property in British Columbia, Canada to Alchemist Mining Inc.

###

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

Far Resources Ltd.

Keith C. Anderson, President

604-805-5035

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance (including our proposed division of the Winston Project and the Zoro Lithium Property into two separate companies) and reflect managements current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect managements current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. All of the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell securities and the Company is not soliciting an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.



Source: Far Resources Ltd. (CSE:FAT, FWB:F0R)


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jul 18, 2017) - Viscount Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE:VML)(OTCQB:VLMGF) ("Viscount" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gilles Arseneau to complete a NI43-101 Report of its historical and current data from drilling and sampling at its Silver Cliff Project in Colorado. Dr. Arseneau holds a Ph.D Geology, from Colorado School of Mines, an M.Sc from the University of Western Ontario, 1984, and a B.Sc Univ. of New Brunswick.

Dr. Arseneau's technical expertise includes evaluating gold and base metal deposits in North, Central, and South America, as well as China and Europe. He has more than 25 years' experience consulting to mining companies and engineering firms. Since 2010 he has been independent, working as an associate to SRK Canada, fulfilling the role of Principal Geologist mainly responsible for due diligence reviews of mining projects, preparing resource estimates, including scoping and pre-feasibility studies for many types of metal deposits. Prior to SRK, Dr. Arseneau was the Manager of Geology at Wardrop Engineering from 2006 to 2010, supervising 18 staff in 4 offices in Canada, the UK, and China.

Extremely helpful to Viscount will be his insight gained while at the TSX Venture Exchange from 2002 to 2006, serving as Manager of Geology. Dr. Arseneau was the principal technical advisor for all major mining transactions, including reviewing NI43-101 technical reports, reviewing reverse takeovers, and listing applications. From 1997 to 2002, just after he left Echo Bay Mines, Dr. Arseneau established and then managed the Vancouver office for "RPA" (Roscoe Postle Associates Inc). Dr. Arseneau directed ore reserve audits, resource estimations, valuation of exploration properties and business development for gold and base metal projects in the Americas.

Over the years, some of Dr. Arseneau's clients have included: Teck Mining, Hecla Mining, Nevsun, Silver Standard and Northair Mines.

Chairman Kaare Foy stated, "We are pleased to welcome Dr. Arseneau to the team. His technical expertise will be a tremendous asset reviewing not only our field work and drilling data, but also the newly acquired historical data. This data includes extensive maps of the district showing claims, locations of historic resource estimates, drill holes, township, and infrastructure data. This is all proving to be valuable as we move the project forward."

About Viscount Mining (TSX VENTURE: VML) (OTCQB: VLMGF)

Viscount Mining is a project generator and an exploration company with a portfolio of silver and gold properties in the Western United States, including Silver Cliff in Colorado and Cherry Creek in Nevada.

The Silver Cliff property in Colorado lies within the historic Hardscrabble Silver District in the Wet Mountain Valley, Custer County, south-central Colorado. It is located 44 miles WSW of Pueblo, Colorado, and has year-around access by paved road. The property consists of 2,029 acres where high grade silver, gold and base metal production came from numerous mines during the period 1878 to the early 1900's. Subsequently, there was little activity until the late 1960s to early 1990s when the property underwent substantial periods of exploration and evaluation. Drilling in the 1980s by Tenneco resulted in a historical pre-feasibility study which formed the company's decision to put the property into production. Plans were halted due to the restructuring of Tenneco after it was sold. Other companies exploring here besides Tenneco Minerals have included: Freeport, Hecla, Homestake, Moly Corp, Coca Mines and Tenneco Minerals. In January 2017, Viscount Mining reported additional high grade silver intersections from the drill program completed in December 2016.

The Cherry Creek Property is focused on exploration in the immediate vicinity of an area commonly known as the Cherry Creek Mining District, located approximately 30 miles north of the town of Ely, in White Pine County, Nevada. Cherry Creek consists of over 400 unpatented and patented claims as well as mill rights, and is comprised of more than 9,000 acres. Cherry Creek includes more than 20 past producing mines including Blue Bird, Chance Mine, Filmore, Last Chance, Exchequer/ New Century Mine, Ticup and Motherlode mines.

For additional information regarding the above noted property and other corporate information, please visit the Company's website at www.viscountmining.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jim MacKenzie, President, CEO and Director

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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Viscount Mining Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Viscount Mining Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Viscount Mining Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
BRISBANE, Jul 18, 2017 - In accordance with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTR"), SolGold plc ("SolGold" or the "Company") was informed by Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone") on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the purchase of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Cornerstone now holds 154,406,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 10.19% of the Company's issued share capital.

Cornerstone will acquire an additional 15,750,000 ordinary shares in the Company following the ordinary course of filing documentation clearance required by the TSX Venture Exchange. As a result, Cornerstone will hold 170,156,414 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 11.23% of the Company's issued share capital.

SolGold was also informed by Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha on 14 July 2017 that, in fulfilment of the obligations of Rule 5 of the DTR, and as a result of the disposal of shares with voting rights made on 12 July 2017, Mr Dmyant (Bob) Sangha has ceased to be a significant holder of the Company.

By the order of the Board

Karl Schlobohm, Company Secretary

Follow us on twitter @SolGold_plc

NOTES TO EDITORS

SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia based, AIMlisted (SOLG) copper gold exploration and future development company with assets in Ecuador, Solomon Islands and Australia. SolGold's primary objective is to discover and define worldclass coppergold deposits. The Board and Management Team have substantial vested interests in the success of the Company as shareholders as well as strong track records in the areas of exploration, mine appraisal and development, investment, finance and law. SolGold's experience is augmented by state of the art geophysical and modelling techniques and the guidance of porphyry copper and gold expert Dr Steve Garwin.

SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. SolGold was shortlisted as a nominee for the Mining Journal Explorer Achievement Award for 2016. The Company announced USD54m in capital raisings in September 2016 involving Maxit Capital LP, Newcrest International Ltd and DGR Global Ltd, and a USD41.2m raising in June of 2017 largely from Newcrest International with USD1.2m raised from Ecuadorean investors. All of these raisings were undertaken at substantial premiums to previous raisings, and SolGold has circa USD70 million in available cash to continue the exploration and development of its flagship Cascabel Project.

Mr Craig Jones joined the SolGold Board on 3 March 2017, nominated to the Board of SolGold by Newcrest Mining, now a 14.54% shareholder in SolGold. Mr Jones is a Mechanical Engineer and is currently the Executive General Manager Wafi-Golpu (Newcrest-Harmony MMJV). He has held various senior management and executive roles within the Newcrest Group, including General Manager Projects, General Manager Cadia Valley Operations, Executive General Manager Projects and Asset Management, Executive General Manager Australian and Indonesian Operations, Executive General Manager Australian Operations and Projects, and Executive General Manager Cadia and Morobe Mining Joint Venture. Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr Jones worked for Rio Tinto.

Cascabel, SolGold's 85% owned "World Class" flagship coppergold porphyry project, is located in northern Ecuador on the underexplored northern section of the richly endowed Andean Copper Belt. SolGold owns 85% of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA") and approximately 11% of TSXVlisted Cornerstone Capital Resources ("Cornerstone"), which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuadorian registered company which holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.

The investments by Newcrest for 14.54% of SolGold, and the investments into SolGold by Guyana Goldfields, Maxit Capital and its clients, endorses Ecuador as an exploration and mining destination, the management team at SolGold, the dimension, size and scale of the growing Alpala, and the prospectivity of Cascabel and its multiple targets. The gold endowment, location, infrastructure, logistics are important competitive advantages offered by the project.

To date SolGold has completed geological mapping, soil sampling, rock saw channel sampling, geochemical and spectral alteration mapping over 25km2, along with an additional 9km2 of Induced Polarisation and 14km2 Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets.

SolGold has completed over 39,000m of drilling and expended over USD45.6M on the program, which includes corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone. This has been accomplished with a workforce of up to 176 Ecuadorean workers and geoscientists, and 6 expatriate Australian geoscientists. The results of 26 holes drilled (including re-drilled holes) and assayed to date have produced some of the greatest drill hole intercepts in porphyry copper-gold exploration history, as indicated by Hole 12 (CSD-16-012) returning 1560m grading 0.59% copper and 0.54 g/t gold including, 1044m grading 0.74% copper and 0.54 g/t gold. The average grade of all metres drilled to date on the project currently stands at 0.32% copper and 0.27 g/t gold. Intensive diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with 10 drill rigs expected to be operational by early 2018, targeting over 90,000m of drilling per annum.

Cascabel is characterised by fifteen (15) identified targets, "World Class" drilling intersections over 1km in length at potentially economic grades, and high copper and gold grades in richer sections, as well as logistic advantages in location, elevation, water supply, proximity to roads, port and power services; and a progressive legislative approach to resource development in Ecuador.

To date, SolGold has drill tested 4 of the 15 targets, being Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central, Hematite Hill, and Alpala Southeast. Currently drill testing of Alpala Northwest, Alpala Central and Alpala Southeast targets is underway, with drill testing of the Aguinaga target to commence in August 2017.

The Alpala deposit is open in multiple directions and the mineralised corridor marked for drill testing of the greater Alpala cluster occurs over a 2.2km strike length from Trivinio in the northwest to Cristal in the southeast. The mineralised corridor is known to be prospective over approximately 700m width.

High priority targets within the Alpala cluster, at Moran approximately 700m to the north, and at Aguinaga approximately 2.3km north east, are closely modelled by 3D MVI magnetic signatures that currently encompass over 15Bt of magnetic rock. Based on a strong spatial and genetic relationship between copper sulphides and magnetite, this body of magnetic rock is considered to be highly prospective for significant copper and gold mineralisation, and requires drill testing.

SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of the Alpala deposit including Hematite Hill, Alpala South East, Cristal, Alpala Northwest and Trivinio before completing a resource statement and drill testing of the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Aguinaga, Tandayama-America, Alpala West, Carmen, Alpala East, Moran, Parambas, and Chinambicito.

The Company is currently planning further metallurgical testing and completion of an independent Pre-Feasibility Study at Cascabel. SolGold is investigating both high tonnage open cut and underground block caving operations, as well as a high grade / low tonnage initial underground development towards the economic development of the copper gold deposit/s at Cascabel.

Drill hole intercepts have been updated to reflect current commodity prices, using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample. Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.63, determined using an updated copper price of USD3.00/pound and an updated gold price of USD1300/ounce. True widths of down hole intersections are estimated to be approximately 25-50%.

Following a comprehensive review of the geology and prospectivity of Ecuador, SolGold and its subsidiaries have also applied for additional exploration licences in Ecuador over a number of promising porphyry copper gold targets throughout the Country. SolGold is negotiating external funding options which will provide the Company with the ability to have some of these projects fully funded by a third party while focussing on Cascabel.

In Queensland, Australia the Company is evaluating the future exploration plans for the Mt Perry, Rannes and Normanby projects, with drill testing of the Normanby project planned for the coming quarter. Joint venture agreements are being investigated for a joint venture partner to commit funds and carry out exploration to earn an interest in the tenements.

SolGold retains interests in its original theatre of operations, Solomon Islands in the South West Pacific, where the 100% owned, but as yet undrilled, Kuma prospect on the island of Guadalcanal exhibits surface lithocap characteristics which are traditionally indicative of a large metal rich copper gold intrusive porphyry system. SolGold intends in the future to apply intellectual property and experience developed in Ecuador to target additional "World Class" copper gold porphyries at Kuma and other targets in Ecuador and Argentina.



SolGold is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Company listed on London's AIM Market in 2006, under the AIM code 'SOLG' and currently has a total of 1,515,555,686 ordinary shares issued, together with 31,795,884 options exercisable at 28p and 9,795,884 options exercisable at 14p.







Contact



Mr Nicholas Mather (Executive Director)

SolGold plc

nmather@solgold.com.au

Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0665, +61 (0) 417 880 448



Mr Karl Schlobohm (Company Secretary)

SolGold plc

kschlobohm@solgold.com.au

Tel: +61 (0) 7 3303 0661



Mr Ewan Leggat / Richard Morrison

SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (NOMAD and Broker)

Ewan.leggat@spangel.co.uk / richard.morrison@spangel.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470


Officials at the Sacramento City Unified School District took an international field trip to the Philippines this year -- to hire teachers.The district says it has no choice but to look abroad to fill vacancies, as schools around California and the nation face a shortage of employable teachers.Sacramento City Unified is the only district in the greater Sacramento region hiring from the Philippines through a program that began last year.In the Philippines, English is widely taught in schools and is an official language, along with Tagalog. The country, which was governed by the United States before World War II, retains a similar school system, which is why teachers can easily transfer their credentials to the U.S., according to Ligaya Avenida, CEO of AIC Inc., the consulting firm that brings teachers over."The teachers from the Philippines, they have a strong desire to do the best they can," Avenida said. "They have a high level of commitment."Avenida, who charges the teachers $2,500 for a placement in the U.S., completes all of the paperwork, including transcript verifications and visa applications. The process can take a couple of months. There is no cost to the district, except for hotel rooms in the Philippines for its staff.Jake Hansen, personnel specialist for Sacramento City Unified, flew to the Philippines last year for the first time to hire 12 special education teachers. After three days of interviews, he flew back to Sacramento."We couldn't fill our needs locally," Hansen said. "We always have a need for special education teachers."The teachers are able to work in the U.S. through the J-1 non-immigrant visa program, which promotes cultural and educational exchanges. Legally, they can stay for an initial three-year period and then apply for a two-year extension. However, each district has its own contract with the Filipino teachers.In Sacramento City's case, each teacher is evaluated annually. The district is required to treat the teachers the same way as local hires, offering commensurate pay and equal benefits based on the contract with the teachers' union.American salary levels are the biggest motivating factor for the Filipino teachers, who can earn 10 times what they make at home."Obviously it pays a lot here," said Paolo Legaspi, 35, who came to Sacramento last summer from the Manila area.Legaspi is the only man in the cohort of 12 teachers that arrived last year to teach special education in elementary, middle and high schools. His salary is $5,700 a month in Sacramento, compared to $500 in the Philippines. Each teacher also has to pay roughly $12,000 in startup costs to get placed in the U.S.Even accounting for the higher cost of living, Legaspi said he still comes out ahead and plans to save up so he can open a catering business back home."There was some hesitation from my wife," said Legaspi about the decision to share an apartment with other Filipino teachers who are female. "We talked about it before she agreed."Avenida said the Filipino teachers are focused on saving money, so they make do without the luxuries of American life like a car, single apartment and restaurant meals. Instead, she said, they cook at home, share rooms and commute by bus.Legaspi's expenses, however, will increase this year, since he is bringing his family here, including his wife and two young children, ages 2 and 5. They will be moving into a two-bedroom apartment, and Legaspi has purchased a used Honda Civic for $2,000.The transition to California has been bumpy, Legaspi said. From a language standpoint, he said, in the Philippines, "we don't speak English every day."The district is hiring seven additional teachers this year from the Philippines. It has spent nearly $3,000 on hotel rooms during the past two years for its staff to travel there.The Sacramento City Teachers Association suggested the district's foray into international recruitment reflects less competitive pay."It's indicative of their inability to retain and recruit teachers," said David Fisher, SCTA president. "Other districts don't have the same difficulties. The fact that they have to do this is more or less a crisis of their own making."The union, which represents 2,400 teachers, including the ones from the Philippines, has been deadlocked in negotiations for a new labor contract. SCTA has said that the district is failing to spend money on teachers and resources despite district revenues growing by 41 percent. District leaders dispute that assertion, pointing to growing costs to provide benefits like lifetime health insurance.Benita Ayala, a former vice president of the SCUSD Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, expressed some concern that foreign teachers may have an accent that can be difficult to understand for kids with disabilities like autism."That's our biggest concern -- the language barrier," Ayala said. "If you are not pronouncing the words right, that could be a challenge."
Calling painkiller abuse a "modern plague," Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens sidestepped the Legislature Monday to create a prescription drug monitoring program on his own.In issuing an executive order to bring Missouri in line with the rest of the nation, the Republican governor launched a weeklong series of events designed to focus on opioid abuse and drug trafficking.Greitens said he was moving forward on the database without the GOP-led House and Senate's endorsement because opioid abuse must be addressed."There are too many families that have had to deal with this," Greitens said during an event at St. Louis-based Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager. "We have to look this problem square in the eye."Monitoring programs underway in other states and in more than a dozen Missouri counties keep track of every time a patient is prescribed an opioid painkiller. Hydrocodone, sometimes sold under the brand name Vicodin or Norco, and oxycodone, which is often sold as OxyContin or Percocet, are some of the most frequently prescribed opioids.The programs monitor the prescription of these and other opioids. Doctors can see if their patients are receiving painkillers from other doctors too, and can make decisions about adjusting their treatment options or getting help for an addiction.Under Greitens' plan, the Department of Health and Senior services will enter into contracts with Express Scripts and other pharmacy benefit management companies to analyze doctor and pharmacy prescription and dispensing data for schedule II through IV controlled substances.The agency will use the information to identify activity indicating that controlled substances are being inappropriately prescribed, dispensed, or obtained.Greitens said he wants the program to target "pill mills" that pump out prescription drugs at "dangerous and unlawful levels."The executive order notes that "Prescription and dispensation information received by DHSS shall be confidential."The estimated start-up cost of the program is $250,000, said Greitens' health chief Randall Williams.St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger issued a statement saying the county-level program, which covers 58 percent of Missouri's population, will continue to operate "with the hope that whatever the governor proposes does nothing to hinder our progress."Missouri is the only state in the country without a way to track opioid abuse. A measure that would have created a database failed to win approval before the legislative session adjourned in May.The Senate approved a prescription drug monitoring program that attempted to address privacy concerns. It would have required patients' medical information be purged after 180 days and included restrictions on what kinds of drugs can be tracked.But some members of the House balked, saying the data should be kept for a longer period of time. They also said the Senate version would allow highly addictive drugs such as Adderall to go unpoliced.The lead sponsor of the legislation in the House, Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Cape Girardeau, did not immediately return messages Monday. Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, who sponsored legislation in the Senate, had not yet been briefed on the order.The governor's manuever rankled some lawmakers. On Twitter, Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, wrote, "Governing by executive order because you couldn't get a bill passed was wrong under Obama and it's wrong today."Greitens has issued 18 executive orders since taking office in January.In a release, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price praised the governor."I commend Missouri Governor Eric Greitens for taking a strong step in fighting the opioid epidemic by joining other states in establishing a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program," Price noted.The announcement marks the first of a week's worth of focus on drugs and drug abuse by the first-year governor. On Tuesday he will be in St. Louis discussing ways to prevent overdose deaths. He will be in Cape Girardeau and Springfield later in the week to outline plans for combating drug traffickers and treating addiction in rural Missouri.
Gov. Greg Abbott said that he would publicly call out lawmakers who didnt support his 20-item legislative agenda while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick came out swinging against House leadership during Monday appearances on the eve of Texas' special legislative session.Abbott said he would aggressively hold lawmakers accountable for their positions on his legislative agenda and encouraged others to do the same.Im going to be establishing a list, he said in remarks before the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. We all need to establish lists that we publish on a daily basis to call people out  who is for this, who is against this, who has not taken a position yet. No one gets to hide.The governor was forced to call the session after lawmakers jeopardized a handful of state agencies, including the Texas Medical Board, when legislation reauthorizing them fell victim to a standoff between the House and Senate over a bill that would regulate bathroom use in public buildings for transgender people.Along with the "bathroom bill," Abbott put 19 additional topics on lawmakers' plate, including teacher pay, limits on property tax increases not approved by voters, private school vouchers for special needs students and limits on municipal annexations.Abbott said that while all were important, he considered addressing property taxes the number one issue of the special session.We are hearing stories about people who are being taxed out of their homes because of rising property taxes," he said. "You dont really own your home, it seems like, its the appraisers. That must stop.Leading up to the special session, Abbott has urged lawmakers to go 20 for 20 and pass all of his priorities. Patrick has declared his support for the governors full agenda, saying last week that his agenda is my agenda is the peoples agenda.The governor faces more challenges in the House, where Speaker Joe Straus has made clear he opposes the legislation restricting public bathroom use for transgender Texans.In a speech following Abbott, Patrick spent most of his remarks detailing the education plan he unveiled at a press conference last week, but he worked in plenty of jabs at Straus, again making an unfounded accusation that the speaker was behind a push for a statewide income tax. (In response, a spokesman for Straus issued a statement saying the speaker "doesn't support a state income tax because it would be bad for Texas and harm our economy, just like the bathroom bill.")Patrick promised to be the governors wingman, repeatedly casting Straus as the enemy of Abbotts priorities and saying he would not sit back while Straus derailed their conservative agenda.Gov. Abbott and I dont want Texas to become Illinois or California, he said. Now the speaker? Nice guy. But hes opposite on the issues.Straus has faced fierce criticism from a 12-member bloc of conservative House members organized as the Freedom Caucus. That group in May killed more than 100 bills because, they said, Straus and other House leaders routinely obstruct their anti-abortion, 2nd Amendment and property rights bills. State Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, accused Abbott and Patrick of trying to topple Straus, who gained and has maintained the speakership with support from Democrats and moderate Republicans.He blasted the governor's vow to keep a list of where lawmakers stand on the issues they will tackle in the special session, saying Abbott and Patrick are using the next 30 days to stir up Republican voters likely to cast ballots in March's primary elections."They win if they win and they win if they lose," Johnson said. "Taxpayers are paying $1 million for the best 30-day political commercial ever filmed."Abbott also weighed in on school finance reform during his remarks, touting his plan to create a commission to study the topic.Straus has said a school finance reform study is too little, too late.Abbott cast doubt that there would be some genius moment in the course of the next 30 days where some brilliant legislator is going to come up with the silver bullet to solve the persistent problem that has led multiple judges to declare the state's system unconstitutional.If it has been studied aplenty that means someone would have come up with a solution, said Abbott, responding to the criticism that the time had come for action rather than further studies on school finance. No one has been able to galvanize behind the studies that have been done so far, so I submit to you that the studies that have been done so far have been inadequate.
Description

GIS - 18 July 2017: Early detection of Early detection of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is critical to the effective control of the disease and to prevent severe complications at a later stage and most of NCDs are preventable through a healthy lifestyle.

This statement was made by the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Dr Anwar Husnoo at the launching of the Prevention Nationale pour Maladies Non Transmissibles Programme for public officers held yesterday, at the Sir Harilal Vaghjee Hall, New Government Centre in Port-Louis.

This initiative, a joint venture of the Ministry of Health and Quality of life and the Public Officers Welfare Council, included a series of activities aiming at raising awareness and educating the public against the threats, complication and prevention of NCDs. It included a screening for NCDs, c ounselling / health education and breast cervical screening, amongst others.

In his address, Minister Husnoo pointed out that Mauritius has made considerable progress in raising the health status of its population, which is reflected by increased life expectancy at birth, improved maternal and child health and control of infectious diseases. However, he expressed concern at the ageing population and the increasing burden of NCDs, notably, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic respiratory diseases, amongst others.

Mauritius continues to be saddled by the prevalence of NCDs and this, he stressed, is responsible for the bulk of morbidity, disability as well as premature death. NCDs not only constitute around 80 % of the burden of disease currently being treated at hospitals but also is the leading cause of death in Mauritius, he underscored.

The Minister recalled that the latest NCD Survey carried out in 2015 reveals that diabetes prevalence has increased from 14.3% in 1987 to 22.8% in 2015; the prevalence of hypertension is 28.4% ; that of current smoking is 19.3% and alcohol consumption stands at 52.8% in the Mauritian population.

Dr Husnoo stressed that NCDs are not only a burden for the patient, jeopardising his life in various ways but also affect his family.

For his part, the Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms, Mr Eddy Boissezon, underpinned the importance of having a healthy workforce that will be able to effectively perform its role and deliver its duties. On this score, he pointed out that people should undergo systematic medical tests to be aware of their changing medical status and take precautionary measures following these.
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GIS  18 July, 2017:

A two-day high level discussion on the need to engage the worlds of art, nature and science organised at the initiative of the Office of the President opened this morning at the State House, Le Reduit. The President of the Republic, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim; the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr. Nandcoomar Bodha, and other eminent personalities were present at the event.

The high level discussion lies in the context of activities to mark the National Day celebrations which will culminate with the 50th Anniversary of the Independence of Mauritius in 2018. The main objective is to raise awareness on the multidisciplinarity of science and to showcase the contribution of works of art and nature to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development.

In her address the President underlined the importance of the high level discussion which will help to answer the question of how to reconcile science, art and nature. Referring to the fact that science and art naturally overlap, Dr. Gurib-Fakim pointed that this can be traced as far back as the Egyptian pyramids and the great cities of Ancient China, for instance.

While art and science are principally about communication, they differ in the direction in which they are communicating, she said. History proves that the two disciplines cannot exist without each other, enduring a constantly changing relationship and there is great potential when art and science collaborate, resulting in the unexpected outcomes that can be exponentially more valuable than when they work apart, she added.

Dr. Gurib-Fakim further stated that both disciplines can also involve pushing technological boundaries to their limits. Science begins with the physical, observable and concrete occurrences in the world and scientists generate abstractions that communicate their understandings of these phenomena. Artists and scientists tend to approach problems with a similar open-mindedness and wisdom, she said.

For his part, Minister Bodha pointed out that there are extraordinary and formidable challenges as regards science and nature. Speaking about climate change, he stated that this challenge puts us in a position where we have a great responsibility as to what will be bestowed to future generations. Scientists and decision makers, thus have a major role to play to propose solutions for the future of our planet, he added.

Mr Bodha lauded the President of the Republic for the dimension brought to the 50th Anniversary of the Independence of Mauritius through the high level discussion.
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GIS - 18 July 2017: A three-day regional conference and ministerial roundtable to strengthen synergies for the protection of cultural heritage in Eastern Africa and Adjacent Indian Ocean States aiming to provide a platform for discussion at national and international level kicked off this morning at the Intercontinental Hotel, Balaclava. A three-dayaiming to provide a platform for discussion at national and international level kicked off this morning at the Intercontinental Hotel, Balaclava. This initiative of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), endeavours to safeguard and sustainably develop cultural heritage in Eastern Africa and the adjacent Indian Ocean Islands in the wake of increasing threats to cultural heritage through the implementation of mutually reinforcing culture programmes. Participants from thirteen countries are attending the conference including Ministers from Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda. In his opening address, the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Prithvirajsing Roopun commended UNESCO for giving Mauritius the opportunity to host this Roundtable and bring people of the Africa n region together to pave the w ay forward for the protection of cultural heritage. He outlined some of the ways of h ow synergies can be strengthened by ensuring the right to creativity while earning a livelihood , strengthening policy legislation, carrying out an i nventory , and investigation of cultural goods.

He recalled that Mauritius is already a signatory of various UNESCO conventions promoting the concept of togetherness and sharing of common cultural heritage. As a State Party to the 1972 Convention, Mauritius is proud to have two World Heritage sites namely, the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site, and Le Morne Cultural Landscape .

Mr Roopun pointed out Mauritius success in inscribing two elements on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural heritage , that is , the Sega Tipik and the Bhojpuri Geet Gawai in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Mauritius became a member of the Inter-Governmental Committee for the Intangible Cultural Heritage , for a four-year term. In March 2016, Government submitted the nomination dossier of the Sega Tambour of Rodrigues , for inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage and same will be examined at the next Inter-Governmental Committee to be he ld in December in South Korea.

Regarding the preparation of the Status of Artist Bill, UNESCO has offered the services of an expert for the preparation of the legislation on which the Ministry is working, said Mr Roopun. This legislation is in line with the 1980 Belgrade Recommendation of the UNESCO.

For her part, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, recalled that safeguarding of culture directly contributes to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) that the global community has subscribed to. The SDGs, she said, epitomise a paradigm shift about the notion of socio-cultural development which goes far beyond the mere span of economic growth.

To this end she called for collaborative actions through joint ventures and urged the population to participate actively in the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage and to adopt a sense of ownership.
Relying on Parking Fees

Not Just Parking

(TNS) -- Ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft already have struck a financial blow to their competitors in the taxi industry. Now many officials fear they may take a big bite out of airport parking revenue.Rather than driving and leaving their cars at garages, a growing number of passengers are tapping their smartphone apps and turning to ride-hailing to get to and from the airport.At some airports, proceeds from parking, which officials rely on to help keep the system up and running, are already taking a hit.And airport officials worry the popular digital technology may have an impact not just on parking, but on revenue from taxis and rental cars as well.Because many airports have only had formal agreements with the ride-hailing services, also called transportation network companies (TNCs), for a year or two  or even less in some places  officials havent had enough time to figure out exactly how their bottom line is affected, they say.Airport managers are just now coming to understand how this trend will impact them, and they are concerned, said Carter Morris, an executive vice president for the American Association of Airport Executives, which represents airport managers. Its disruptive technology, and airports need to adapt and do it quickly.Ride-hailing has skyrocketed since 2014, when a handful of U.S. airports first permitted it. Today, Lyft has agreements with nearly 240 airports and Uber has agreements with more than a hundred, including large ones, such as Chicagos OHare International and Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International, and small ones, such as Punta Gorda, in Florida, and Laramie Regional, in Wyoming.Many airports are charging TNCs a fee to pick up passengers, to compensate for potential revenue loss and ensure that the companies dont gain an unfair advantage. Some also charge for drop-offs, and some charge an annual permit fee or a one-time operating fee.Trip fees, which get tacked on to the riders bill, vary from airport to airport: from $5 in Chicago and $4 in Los Angeles to $2 at Dallas-Fort Worth.Federal regulations prohibit airports from making a profit. But they are expected to raise enough money to cover their costs. And to do that, they collect revenue from a number of sources.Airlines pay landing and arrival fees and other charges; rental car companies pay to operate at the airport, and taxis, limos and other ground transportation services often do the same.Fees from parking and ground transportation are important to an airports balance sheet. Last year, the $3.5 billion in fees represented 41 percent of the $8.5 billion in U.S. airport revenue not related to airlines, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.Parking fees typically represent between one-fifth and one-quarter of that revenue category, Morris said. His groups facilities committee plans to examine the impact TNCs have on airport budgets.Parking usually is a pretty significant part of an airports revenue, said Marshall Stevens, deputy executive director of the Harrisburg International Airport, in Pennsylvania, and chair of the committee. A loss of that revenue either has to be made up or offset with a decrease in expenses.At Fresno Yosemite International Airport, in California, TNCs already are having a considerable impact, officials say. The airport collects about $5.5 million a year from parking fees, nearly a quarter of its revenue, said Aviation Director Kevin Meikle.The airport is losing an estimated $180,000 a year in parking revenue because of the growth of TNCs, which made about 4,500 trips in April, Meikle said. ( Uber stopped serving Fresno Yosemite in May.)To recoup most of that loss and make sure the TNCs are paying a fair fee, officials asked the Fresno City Council to approve a $3 pickup and drop-off fee for ride-hailing. The council rejected the request in April. Some members argued it would hurt passengers , who ultimately would have to pick up the tab.The money comes from the average person, the poor slob thats trying to get to his moms funeral, said Council President Clinton Olivier, who voted against the request.Meikle said the councils decision wont have an immediate impact, but the airport will need to find a way to offset lost parking revenue in the next decade.We might need to raise parking rates because of the missing money. We dont want to do that, he said. Or we could raise the rates the airlines pay. But that would be our very last option.Meikle and officials from some other small and mid-sized airports say trying to make airlines cough up more to make up for lost parking revenue could result in losing their business.If the airlines are not making enough money, theyre going to look for other places to go, other markets, Meikle said.At Lehigh Valley International Airport, in Pennsylvania, Executive Director Charles Everett acknowledges that ride-hailing services may have been one reason why the airports parking revenue was down $123,000 in fiscal 2016. The airports total parking revenue was $4.4 million. He said staffers are collecting data to try to explain the drop. (Uber stopped operating at the airport this month.)At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, parking revenue was up in the first six months of the current fiscal year, compared to last year. But it was nearly $4 million lower than projected, in part because of TNCs. So the airport reduced spending by deferring hiring for open positions and delaying some information technology projects.As more people turn to ride-hailing to get around, airport officials also worry that taxi and rental car revenue could take a hit.At Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, TNC pickups and drop-offs more than doubled in April compared to a year ago. But taxi pickups were down nearly 13 percent.At San Francisco International Airport, where TNCs accounted for more than two-thirds of commercial ground transportation in May, rental car revenue dipped this year, to $46.3 million, from $48 million last year, said spokesman Doug Yakel.And at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, in New York, officials estimate they could lose more than $2 million in revenue a year from parking, taxi and car rental fees because of TNCs, which started service there last month. As part of a one-year pilot agreement, the airport is charging Lyft $3 per ride and Uber a flat fee of $180,000.Ride-hailing companies often end up agreeing to pay a per-ride fee. But Bakari Brock, Lyfts senior director of U.S. operations, said that while he understands the need for airports to balance their budgets, customers shouldnt have to pay more to make up for a revenue shortfall created by unused parking spaces.Thats why we are so passionate that we should only agree to fees that we believe are fair, he said.And while some airports continue to build and expand garages, Brock questioned whether this is a wise practice, considering how much technology is changing the way the public gets to and from the airport.They built these garages years ago and theyre still building them, he said. Do you need to do that if the travel behavior of the passengers is changing?And it may not just be ride-hailing companies that end up transforming the ground transportation system at airports. If autonomous vehicles become commonplace, parking garages could become dinosaurs.TNCs showed up and we started dealing with them after the fact, said Stevens, the Harrisburg airport executive. We need to be a little bit ahead of the automated vehicles. We cant say well worry about our garages after they empty out.
(TNS) -- Opioid products like fentanyl and carfentanil, which are many times more powerful and dangerous than heroin, have become well-known by law enforcement and first-responders in Louisville, Lexington and northern Kentucky, where fatal opioid overdoses have become a public health emergency.There were over 1,400 fatal drug overdoses in Kentucky last year, with fentanyl found in 623 cases. Fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid, is manufactured in China and shipped to the United States. In February, China banned the legal manufacture of fentanyl, carfentanil and other synthetic opioids.But a former member of the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama said the United States could further curb the flow of synthetic opioids from overseas by requiring countries to provide more detailed data on mail they send to America. Bills that would mandate the collection of such data have been introduced in Congress and are awaiting action."What we're addressing is a piece of an epidemic that we all know has many solutions. But, obviously, the supply chain is a major issue," said Juliette Kayyem, who was assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at DHS during the Obama Administration.The U.S. Postal Service does collect "advance electronic data" on some mail, which includes the sender's name and address, weight, quantity and a description of the contents. According to testimony presented to a Senate homeland security committee in May, Robert Cintron, vice president of network operations for the U.S. Postal Service, advance electronic data has been collected by the U.S. and "other industrialized counties" since 2002.About 40 percent to 50 percent of mail entering the U.S. contains advance electronic data, Cintron told senators. Organizations such as Americans for Security All Packages are advocating for data collection on all mail entering the United States from overseas that is handled by the Postal Service.Kayyem, who is a former member of the National Commission on Terrorism, said while other systems were made more secure after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, "there has been almost no movement" in postal security.Because all countries are not required to provide advanced data on packages handled by USPS, drugs like fentanyl can be mailed "in a small package from China or Russia, and it hits the streets in the U.S.," Kayyem said.While some private shipping companies require advanced data on packages, USPS does not require advance data from all countries, Kayyem said.Resistance to requiring advance data for all packages is likely the result of "inertia," Kayyem said."'There's no requirement to do it, so why should we do it? Why change when no one is demanding change?'" Kayyem said.The Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act would require countries to collect advance data on all mail entering the U.S. and being sent through the Postal Service."The sending country would obviously bear the cost," Kayyem said. The technology needed to collect and handle the information "is better now than in 2001," she said.In his statement to the Senate in May, Cintron testified the STOP act would cost the Postal Service $1.2 billion to $4.8 billion over a 10-year period. Cintron said USPS would have to pay new customs fees, but would be unable to recoup the expense from customers. If the Postal Service blocked mail entering the country, other nations could retaliate by blocking mail sent from the U.S., Cintron said.The Postal Service recommends that specific countries be targeted for advanced data collection, based on "relative security risks" and each country's ability to collect the information, Cintron told senators.Kayyem said collecting advance data would help crack down on drug trafficking, by giving law enforcement specific information on where drugs like fentanyl were being shipped from, and what addresses they were being shipped to in the U.S."That's how you pick up trends -- is there a specific (location) in China that is sending to a particular home in Kentucky," Kayyem said."What we do know is no epidemic can ignore the supply chain side of it," she said. If advance data were collected, overseas traffickers "may find another loophole, but that's a success, because you've delayed the movement of the stuff."The STOP Act proposals in the House and Senate have bipartisan support. "With all the distractions (in Washington), there's an incentive to get something done," Kayyem said. "It's a bipartisan bill, so we're hopeful it can get through. Another piece is President Trump's Opioid Commission ... The president took this issue very seriously in the campaign."
(TNS) -- Starting today, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Outdoor Corps will spend the next two weeks in New Kensington counting trees.The Urban Tree Inventory, as the effort is called, isn't terribly different from a census, except the only residents it will count are the ones with leaves.From July 17 through July 28 members of the Outdoor Corps will note the location, size, species and condition of trees found on city property or in a public right-of-way.Counting the trees will provide the city's Shade Tree Commission the ability to more effectively plan the management of trees growing on city property and demonstrate the needs of the city when it comes time to apply for grant funding.According to city councilman Dante Cicconi, who oversees the Shade Tree Commission, having this data is important as the city moves forward.As the city of New Kensington undergoes its transformation into a smart city, this exercise will provide the crucial initial base data of the current city-owned tree stock. This information will assist the Shade Tree Commission, government officials and the public in preparing and utilizing the best management practices of the city's tree assets, Cicconi said.The Shade Tree Commission is tasked with preserving and maintaining municipal tree stock.The Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps is staffed by young adult volunteers and, according to the program's website, offers work experience, job training, and educational opportunities to young people who complete recreation and conservation projects on Pennsylvania's public lands.Cicconi asked that residents be reminded that pruning or removing shade trees requires a permit and that removal of trees without a permit can result in a fine. Residents with questions or concerns about city shade trees, or those interested in being involved in the city's Shade Tree Commission, are advised to call the city clerk's office at 724-335-3554.
(TNS)  A Way Out, the Lake County, Ill.,program that attempts to prevent crime by offering drug treatment options, has garnered national attention in recent months.The program allows individuals with an opioid-based addiction to walk into a police station at any time of day and get immediate access to treatment without fear of being arrested.Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther said he was among the speakers at U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' June 20 invite-only National Summit on Crime Reduction and Public Safety in Bethesda, Md., where Vice President Mike Pence also gave a speech."It was an eye-opening experience for me," Guenther said. "I was the small guy in a big room."About 300 people attended the conference. Guenther said he was one of the presenters at a session, although neither Sessions nor Pence were part of his 60-person group. He said the discussion involved police and prosecutors from major cities throughout the country."A lot of them were intrigued as to how we've made it successful," Guenther said. "What I found puzzling was a lot of them could come up with reasons for why it wouldn't work by them, but they stopped there and didn't approach those obstacles and explore ways to actually make it work."Guenther also attended another national summit this past April and is scheduled to speak at the Oct. 21 annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Philadelphia.Partnership is the key ingredient that's missing in many other cities and states, Guenther said."It seems to hinge greatly on the collaboration and the ability for us in Lake County to sit down with a lot of key players and get people to do this for the right reasons, to put egos and financial concerns aside in order to get the mission taken care of," Guenther said.A Way Out is a product of the Lake County Opioid Initiative, which was created by Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim and includes community groups, police agencies and treatment providers.June 1 marked the program's one-year anniversary. During the first year, 144 people entered police stations seeking help, according to Guenther. He said only 14 of them changed their minds.Of the 130 people who were taken to a medical facility, Guenther said about 75 percent completed treatment."We started out not really knowing if there would be a level of trust in law enforcement from the user population," Guenther said. "The raw numbers are an absolute indicator that we're building trust with a population that normally avoids us."Nerheim said police departments are an important part of the process. He said eliminating that fear of arrest allows the person to focus on recovery."We have great programs like drug court and some of our court diversion programs, but that's after someone has committed a crime and been arrested, and we're telling them to get treatment or go to jail," Nerheim said. "A Way Out is designed for people who on their own decided they're ready for change and we're getting them help before they commit a crime and enter the system."Those decisions to change are usually during a state of mind that only last 30 minutes before cravings return, Nerheim said.Data is not yet available as to how many of those 130 individuals are working on staying clean post-detox or have been arrested for a crime event after treatment.Nerheim said Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago commissioned a study on participants of the A Way Out program and the report is still pending."They only started about six months ago," Nerheim said. "It takes a while to get approval for that study and we didn't want to wait to roll out the program."Guenther said the program recently applied for a $400,000 grant under the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act."We're very hopeful that we'll get at least a portion of that grant," Guenther said, noting that a decision is expected by early fall. "That will be a significant key to the program's long-term success."Nerheim said if received, the money could go toward hiring a case manager, reimbursing police departments for transportation costs and creating a scholarship program to help individuals pay for care or equipment needed for getting a job post-treatment."We've never to this point turned anyone away because of ability to pay," Nerheim said. "And that's the beauty of the Opioid Initiative, we have every treatment provider in Lake County as a member of that group. With all those people at the table, we can find something for anybody."Of the 144 people who entered police stations seeking help, more than 60 went to the Mundelein station and more than 30 to Gurnee, according to Guenther."We end up getting referrals, particularly from nonprofits that work with people who are struggling," Guenther said. "So they have trusting relationships and Mundelein is a little more well-known because we initiated the program and I do a lot of traveling for talks like this."Guenther said fewer than 10 of the people who checked into Mundelein's police station are residents of Mundelein. Regardless of where a person lives, Guenther said drug abuse crosses borders every day and impacts everyone in some way.Mundelein's financial contribution to the A Way Out program is Guenther's time, the hourly wages of officers who help people complete paperwork and the gas used to transport the individuals to treatment, according to Guenther.rkambic@pioneerlocal.com2017 Pioneer Press Newspapers (Suburban Chicago, Ill.)Visit Pioneer Press Newspapers (Suburban Chicago, Ill.) at www.chicagotribune.com/suburbsDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- Boston is becoming a national and global leader for self-driving car tests as Toyota becomes the latest  and biggest  company to signal interest in putting its autonomous vehicles on Hub streets.Gill Pratt, chief executive of the Toyota Research Institute, said the auto giant has been in talks with both Boston and Cambridge about testing its autonomous vehicles.The move would make Toyota the first big automaker to put self-driving cars on local streets. TRI, the billion-dollar robotics and artificial intelligence arm of Toyota Motor Corp., has 50 employees in Cambridge, and another 150 in offices in Michigan and California.While access to the regions top-notch universities and technical talent is a draw for autonomous companies, Bostons intrinsic Bostonness, with unpredictable weather, unique streets and traffic patterns and Boston drivers, makes it an attractive challenge.Boston requires significant skill to drive well, Pratt said.Local startups nuTonomy and Optimus Ride and auto parts company Delphi are all testing in Bostons Seaport and Fort Point neighborhoods.Last month, nuTonomy and Lyft said they would be partnering to give rides in self-driving cars later this year.TRIs cars have been on local streets for months, but with human drivers behind the wheel. Pratt said those cars are collecting the same data autonomous cars do, which is then run through computer simulations to see how the car would have reacted.Were using those cars to record human driving, to record traffic, and build maps, and to record the actions of drivers in our cars, Pratt said. Its impossible to test physical cars with enough miles.Toyota still has to reach a testing deal with a city, which must be approved by MassDOT.
After more than a decade of legislative efforts have proven unsuccessful, leaving Missouri as the only holdout without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), its highest elected official has stepped in to resolve the issue.On Tuesday, July 17, Gov. Eric Greitens signed Executive Order (EO) 17-18 , creating what is described as a multi-phase prescription drug monitoring program that would be enacted in at least three stages  though their exact timing remains unclear.The governor directed the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to enter into contracts with pharmacy benefit management organizations, sometimes referred to as third-party administrators, to provide it with analyses of prescriber and pharmacy prescription and dispensing data for Schedule II through Schedule IV controlled substances.That would, of course, include opioids, which the governor said in his EO were responsible for the deaths in 2016 of more than 900 Missourians by overdose.In a news release, the state said the PDMP would use de-identified data from private-sector partners to specifically target "pill mills" that pump out prescription drugs at dangerous and unlawful levels.The arrangement will also enable DHSS to better inform doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health-care providers, and patients and their families about pain management best practices to decrease over-prescribing.The prescription and dispensation information DHSS receives, the state said, shall be kept confidential and disclosed only pursuant to as provided by Missouri State Statute 195.042, enacted in August 1994.That statute mandates that all complaints, investigatory reports and information be confidential, disclosed only by written consent of the person whose records are involved or to other administrative or law enforcement agencies acting within the scope of their statutory authority.Greitens also ordered DHSS to require dispensers to provide controlled substance prescription and dispensation information to it for the purpose of identifying activity indicating that controlled substances are being inappropriately obtained, prescribed, or dispensed; for investigations; and for referring such activity to law enforcement and professional licensing boards.Last, the governor called for DHSS to work with private companies, government agencies and other groups to purchase and utilize innovative technology and software to effectively and efficiently monitor controlled substance prescription information sent to DHSS or its designee  .The EO made no specific mention of targeting patients private medical information  a point the Associated Press' Jim Salter noted  nor did it appear to come with a sunset, after which it would expire, or with a prescribed period of time after which the data collected would expire. These latter two issues have been sticking points this winter and spring with the state Legislature.In a statement, Greitens asked residents to be honest and clear about the scale of what we are up against, calling opioids a modern plague visited on the young, the old, the healthy, the sick, the virtuous and the sinful alike.There is no single program, or law, or executive order that can fix this crisis. This program is a step  and it's a big step, Greitens said, indicating further steps to address the crisis will come throughout the week, including, on Thursday, July 20, an opioid summit in Springfield on treating addiction in rural areas of the state.The only thing we won't do is wait. That's not an option, Greitens added.In a statement, Richard Baum, acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, hailed the governor for enacting a statewide PDMP after about 12 years of wrangling in the Legislature.In the context of both the ongoing opioid epidemic and the health of Missourians, its vital to have safeguards in place to make sure that doctors arent over-prescribing opioids that can be misused and patients arent doctor-shopping for multiple prescriptions that could be misused or diverted, Baum said.This has been a momentous year already for prescription drug monitoring in Missouri. County PDMPs , in an effort led by St. Louis County, which spans more than 500 square miles and is home to around 1 million people, have stepped in to fill the void left by lack of a statewide PDMP  creating a county framework to cover more than 3 million Missourians as of May, or more than half the states 2015 population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.But at least one professional organization is reserving judgment on the EO: the Missouri State Medical Association, which in May joined other groups in withdrawing its support from an amended state House of Representatives PDMP bill concerned it would restrict county efforts.Jeff Howell, director of government relations for the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA), toldthat his organization wasnt aware the EO was coming and doesnt think many people were aware of it either.MSMA is still trying to digest the governor's edict, Howell said, indicating he believes it's targeting mail-order pharmacies.It looks to be more a law enforcement tool than it does to be a patient treatment tool. We like to think part of the reason to have a PDMP is to have a clinical tool that subscribers can use to treat patients, Howell said.MSMA, he said, doesnt want to see anything interfere with an effective program like the one created by St. Louis County. But, he added: Everything is kind of still up in the air.Dr. Sam Page, a St. Louis County Council member who testified in January to a state Senate committee in support of the House of Representatives bill from state Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, also characterized the EO as generally a law enforcement program not aimed at supporting physicians.Its what some states do when they cant do anything else. In all fairness, the governors options are limited without the support of the Legislature, Page told. Its a step forward, but I hope it doesnt distract us from a program that would be available for doctors to use for patients who are in their offices and need help.Page added that he's concerned the governor's order could unfairly target doctors prescribing pain medication for cancer patients in severe distress, and that it may not yet do enough to go after so-called pill mills.There will be a pretty big hole in reporting," he said. "Folks who are determined to beat the system will figure it out pretty quickly."House Bill 90, Rehders legislation that foundered in May, would have derived its data from prescribing physicians, similar to the county-level PDMP now led by St. Louis County. The state representative praised Greitens forward thinking, saying in a statement that the concept of a cross-check through private-sector partnerships has never been done before.Rehder toldthat the process activated by the governor will complement the PDMP being stood up by counties across the state.That is what they were saying, that this will work in conjunction with the traditional PDMP that were passing on the county level," Rehder said. "This will be a wonderful addition to a statewide PDMP that the physicians can see."
Army Band playing locally

COLUMBUS -- The 43rd Army Band  Nebraska National Guard will wrap up its summer concert tour in Columbus with a 7 p.m. concert Friday in Frankfort Square.

The concert is free and open to the public.

For more information about the band, visit www.facebook.com/43rd.

Auxiliary holding salad luncheon

SCHUYLER  CHI Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Schuyler will hold its annual salad luncheon 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Schuyler.

There will be a large variety of salads and desserts featuring hot chicken salad. Takeout orders are available.

Proceeds from the event go toward equipment purchases at CHI Health Schuyler.

Alzheimers support offered

COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Alzheimer's/Dementia Support Group will meet 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Columbus Community Center, 3111 19th St.

The program will be cookies and conversation.

For more information, call Adam Lassen at 402-564-5729 or Martha Davidson at 402-564-1980.

Workshop on customer service

COLUMBUS -- A customer service workshop will be held 1-5 p.m. Aug. 15 in the West Education Center, Room 177, at Central Community College-Columbus.

Participants will learn tips and techniques for anticipating, meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Cost is $65, with registration required by Aug. 8.

For more information or to register, contact Sue Mahlin at 402-562-1409; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1409; or email smahlin@cccneb.edu.

Health care camp at CCC

COLUMBUS -- A Health Care Expedition Camp will be held 8 a.m.-noon Aug. 7-9 at Central Community College-Columbus.

The camp is designed for youths who want to learn more about health care careers. Participants will have the opportunity to meet local professionals in a variety of fields, tour local health care facilities and learn basic first aid and what to do in an emergency situation.

Registration is required to reserve a space in the camp. The cost is $40, which includes snacks.

For more information or to register, contact Karen Mroczek at 402-562-1249; toll-free in Nebraska at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1249; or kmroczek@cccneb.edu.

Forklift training at Central CC

COLUMBUS -- A forklift certification training course will be offered 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 8 in the West Education Center, Room 179, at Central Community College-Columbus.

The class meets OSHA for powered industrial trucks. It will cover prestart inspections, safety procedures, handling and transporting hazardous materials and federal regulations. Participants also will gain driving experience by using the colleges forklift and taking a driving test. Preregistration is required by Aug. 1. The cost is $70. Students must be at least 18 years old and have a valid drivers license.

For more information or to preregister, contact Susan Baer at 402-562-1425; toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 1425; or email sbaer@cccneb.edu.
Detention Center

The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Monday was 54, with 44 from Platte County and 10 from out of county.

Police

June 6

6:01 p.m. - In the 2500 block of 12th Street, Terry Gaver, 80, 27 Lottie Lane, was cited for leaving the scene of an accident.

July 8

3:10 p.m. - In the 700 block of 33rd Avenue, John Klammes, 56, 2410 19th St., was cited for no operator's license.

10:50 p.m. - At 4620 23rd St., Amy Garcia, 18, 2015 24th St., was cited for possession of marijuana-one ounce or less and possession of drug paraphernalia.

July 9

3:18 a.m. - At the intersection of 17th Avenue and the railroad tracks, Jose Rodriguez, 19, 806 20th St., was cited for reckless driving and minor in consumption of alcohol.

7:35 p.m.  In a parking lot at 1565 18th Ave., an unknown vehicle struck a parked vehicle owned by Jane Buresh, 76, 832 Becton St., and left the scene.

July 10

4:37 p.m. - At the intersection of 23rd Street and Third Avenue, Francisco Cerros, 21, Richland, was cited for a traffic signal violation.

July 12

3:58 p.m. - At the intersection of 23rd Street and 33rd Avenue, Marvin Payne, 68, Helena, North Dakota, was cited for a traffic signal violation.

July 13

11:52 p.m. - At the intersection of 26th Avenue and 15th Street, Bradley Beach, 27, 1004 Eighth St., was cited for no operator's license, no valid registration and no proof of insurance.

July 16

1:01 p.m. - Criminal mischief at Brown's Shoe Fit Co., 825 23rd St., Suite 300, window damaged, $300 loss.

Sheriff

July 9

5:29 p.m. - On 48th Avenue, just north of the intersection with Lost Creek Parkway, traffic accident. Drivers were Blake Schroeder, 21, 651 Red Fox Lane, and Jaime Reilly, 41, Shelton.

July 13

11:06 a.m.  Criminal mischief north of 310th Street on 175th Avenue, cornfield damaged, $100 loss.

1:43 p.m.  Theft of gas at A Js C Store, 903 U.S. Highway 30, $14.71 loss.

5:06 p.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of Highway 91 and 430th Avenue, Ross Korth of Lindsay was cited for speeding.

6:12 p.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of Highway 91 and 160th Avenue, Keisha Podliska of Humphrey cited for speeding.

July 14

1:28 a.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of U.S. Highway 81 and 51st Avenue, Alexei Pita-Nova of Columbus cited for speeding.

1:41 a.m. - Wanted person on Highway 81 west of 48th Avenue, Arnulfo Cantu Velasquez of Texas jailed on a Platte County warrant.

3:07 a.m. - At the intersection of Highway 81 and 51st Avenue, Samuel Redfern of Columbus cited for speeding and jailed on a Lancaster County warrant.

8:41 a.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of Lost Creek Parkway and Highway 81, Corene Bloomquist of Battle Creek cited for no valid registration and no proof of insurance.

11:51 a.m. - Wanted person at the Platte County Courthouse, 2610 14th St., Francis Massimango of turned self in on a Platte County warrant.

3:43 p.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of 23rd Street and 14th Avenue, Yohany Llanes Revuelta of Columbus cited for a traffic single violation.

July 15

2:22 a.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of East Eighth Street and Southeast 36th Avenue, Angela Snyder of Columbus jailed for driving under the influence, open container of alcohol, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, driving left of center and driving on the shoulder.

9:23 a.m. - Wanted person at 1878 43rd Ave., Zachary Gray of Columbus jailed on a Platte County warrant.

9:52 a.m. - Wanted person at the Platte County Detention Facility, 1125 E. 17th St., Joseph Ryan of Columbus jailed on a Platte County warrant.

4:03 p.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of Highway 81 and 242nd Avenue, Kevin Lloyd of Plainview cited for speeding.

4:16 p.m. - Traffic violation at the intersection of Highway 81 and 242nd Avenue, Catherine Suckstorf of Norfolk cited for speeding.

July 16

10:09 a.m. - Traffic violation at 3607 18th St., Brandon Thomas of Columbus jailed on a Platte County warrant.

11:10 a.m. - Domestic dispute at 759 S. 33rd Ave., Justyn Franklin of Columbus jailed for third-degree domestic assault and strangulation.

7:42 p.m. - Traffic violation on U.S. Highway 30 at the Merrick County line, Lea Bird of Grand Island cited for speeding.

7:48 p.m. - Traffic violation at the entrance to Country View Estates on East Highway 30, Victor Gonzalez Gonzalez of Columbus cited for speeding an operator's license.

9:18 p.m. - Traffic violation on Highway 30 west of Duncan, Carlos Triana Alvarez of Columbus cited for careless driving and no seat belt.

11:50 p.m. - Traffic violation on Highway 81 south of 310th Street, Matthew Davis of Elba cited for speeding.

Fire

July 13

8:15 a.m.  In the 2500 block of 26th Street, medical.

8:27 p.m.  In the 1200 block of East 19th Street, medical.

July 14

4:34 a.m.  In the 3200 block of 29th Avenue, medical.

5:38 p.m. - In the 4500 block of 38th Street, medical.

7:42 p.m. - In the 2400 block of 32nd Avenue, medical.

July 15

12:56 a.m. - In the 2500 block of 11th Street, medical.

2:27 p.m. - In the 600 block of 12th Avenue, no patient transport.

8:11 p.m. - In the 2700 block of Pershing Road, medical.

8:49 p.m. - In the 5000 block of Howard Boulevard, medical.

July 16

12:48 a.m. - In the 200 block of 33rd Avenue, no patient transport.

11:14 a.m. - In the 700 block of South 33rd Avenue, medical.

11:18 a.m. - In the 2700 block of East 12th Avenue, medical.

2:33 p.m. - In the 3900 block of 12th Street, medical.

July 17

3:51 a.m. - In the 1300 block of Eighth Street, medical.
Page Content

MEPs, regions, cities and the tourism industry urge the European Commission to come forward with a European Tourism Strategy

More than 70 Members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), 40 MEP's and representatives of Europe's tourism industry call for a comprehensive strategy supporting the tourism sector in an Open Letter addressed to the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.



The Open Letter underlines that "tourism often regenerates dilapidated areas and less developed regions, particularly rural ones." Additionally tourism also contributes "to creating a sense of pride in European citizenship and promotes mutual understanding within the EU" with the numerous benefits European citizens enjoy when travelling in the EU, such as removed roaming charges, EU passenger- and cross-border consumer rights, the European healthcare regime, as well as customs free shopping with a single currency in the Eurozone.



However, the sector faces massive challenges like a growing investment gap, burdensome bureaucracy for SMEs, the need to align the sector with the energy and climate targets as well as digitalisation, a growing crisis of missing skills, security and marketing issues related to terrorism, and fierce competition from new non-European markets. These challenges cannot be dealt with at national level alone. Therefore political action at the European level is needed to secure Europe's position as the world's leading tourist destination while continuing creating jobs and sustainable growth.



A consistent multi-annual EU tourism strategy is needed. It's time that the European Union steps up its efforts to support this industry which is crucial for Europe's economic development and a shared European identity.


A North Carolina trooper has resigned after a video surfaced appearing to show the trooper going the wrong way on U.S. 321 while responding to a street racing call in Catawba County on Sunday, the Highway Patrol told WBTV.

A group of people were blocking traffic to race along U.S. 321 at about 4:30 p.m. in Newton. Troopers said the individuals were creating hazardous conditions for other drivers and nearly caused several wrecks.

The video of the trooper, which was shot by Carisa Lynn, has been widely shared on social media.

Just freaked out, Lynn told WSOC. It was crazy. It was very dangerous.

Multiple media outlets reported Tuesday that Trooper T.J. Williamson was put on administrative duty pending an internal investigation. The State Highway Patrol released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying Williamson had resigned.

Williamson had been employed with the Highway Patrol since August 2016.

Lynn said she believes the trooper put more people at risk by the way he responded to the reported street racing.

Street racing isnt what you should be doing, but it was more reckless in my opinion of the police officer to be driving the way he was driving, in general, to pull over some people racing, Lynn told WSOC.

In the street racing bust, the Highway Patrol seized at least five BMWs that were travelling at speeds over 100 mph.

Authorities reportedly shut down the highway near Exit 37 to stop the street racing.

None of the seized cars were registered in North Carolina. Each is worth between $80,000 and $100,000.

Troopers said the drivers were issued criminal citations on charges of pre-arranged speed racing. No names have been released, and it's unclear how many people received the citations.
Gov. Roy Cooper issued a veto Monday of a controversial House bill affecting newspaper legal notices in Guilford County and also eliminating a statewide exemption on workers compensation for newspaper carriers that has been state law for more than 20 years.

Given that the House passed the bill by a 60-53 vote late on June 29  the night before the 2017 legislative session hit pause for five weeks  it could be the first Cooper veto that does not get overridden by the Republican-controlled legislature. Each chamber would have to vote in favor of an override by at least a two-thirds margin of the quorum present.

The legislature established a special regular day of the 2017 session for noon Aug. 3, with taking action on Coopers vetoes as a primary reason for the extra day.

Coopers veto had been expected by some political analysts and Democratic legislators, in part as a rebuff to sponsor Sen. Trudy Wade, R-Guilford. Cooper won Guilford County handily in the November general election.

There was bipartisan opposition to the final version of HB205 in the House, and similar legislation, Senate Bill 343  was defeated 15-12 in the House Finance committee.

An HB205 compromise was achieved in a House and Senate concurrence committee. The Senate approved the compromise by a 32-14 vote.

Mitch Kokai, policy analyst with Libertarian think tank John Locke Foundation, said With 53 no votes in the House, including 14 from Republicans, it seems as if supporters would have a tough time overriding the governors veto in this case. Its also important to note that legislative rules require the House to act first on an override of a vetoed House bill. So if the House cant round up the votes, theres nothing Senate supporters of the disputed provisions can do about it.

In a statement, Cooper said: Time and again, this legislature has used the levers of big government to attack important institutions in our state who may disagree with them from time to time. Unfortunately, this legislation is another example of that misguided philosophy meant to specifically threaten and harm the media.

Legislation that enacts retribution on the media threatens a free and open press, which is fundamental to our democracy, he said.

Wade issued a statement in response to Coopers veto in which she said the bill was an action of eliminating special carve-outs for the newspaper industry. Coopers veto, she said, makes it clear his number one priority is brown-nosing those who cover him  to the detriment of the newspaper employees (contractor workers) denied workers compensation coverage.

Wade said the veto also is detrimental to taxpayers currently (are) being forced to subsidize newspapers, the citizen who want to access public information for free, and the public school teachers hes denying raises to.

The compromise bill establishes a pilot program only in Guilford where commissioners could opt to publish non-county legal notices on the countys website for a fee, as well as county legal notices at no charge. Those notices could be in place of or addition to notices in newspapers.

Fees collected by the Guilford clerk of court would be dispersed 50 percent to the county board of education for local teacher supplements, while 40 percent would go to the Guilford general fund and 10 percent to administrative costs.

The bill says that Guilford commissioners are not required to adopt the ordinance and publish legal notices on the county website.

This is not a pilot program, but a target program against the News & Record, Rep. Amos Quick, D-Guilford, said on June 29.

The original HB205 dealt only with workers compensation issues for prison inmates, which had unanimous House support.

Included in this legislation is an important change to the prison industry enhancement program that I do support, Cooper said. I urge the legislature to address that separately and I will sign it.

The compromise version of HB205 would end a more than 20-year exemption from state law that allows all newspapers in the state to treat newspaper carriers as independent contractors, rather than full-time employees, when it comes to workers compensation.

Previous Senate versions of HB205 listed certain criteria that gave newspapers exemptions from ending the overall workers compensation carveout.

The version of SB343 rejected by the House Finance committee would have included Buncombe, Durham and Forsyth counties in the pilot program. That version would have permitted county governments to post their legal notices solely on their websites.

Forsyth commissioners notified bill sponsors twice that they did not support the legal notice pilot program.

Some legislators opposed to HB205 said their main objections were the lack of widespread accessible broadband for internet coverage in many rural counties, and the potential for rural community newspapers to lose tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue from county government legal notices.

The bill initially would have covered the entire state. After getting push back, sponsors amended the bill  with Wades approval  to feature the pilot program.

The N.C. League of Municipalities supports Wades version of HB205, saying in a recent newsletter that cities and towns have long supported legislation allowing municipalities to publish required public notices electronically on their own websites, benefiting taxpayers and the publics knowledge.

The N.C. Press Association said that for some community newspapers, public legal notices can represent as much as 50 percent of their revenue.

Several community and rural newspapers, including the publishers of the Kernersville News and Jamestown News, have said losing the revenue from the county legal notices could force them out of business.
WASHINGTON  The latest GOP effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare" was fatally wounded in the Senate Monday night when two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the legislation strongly backed by President Donald Trump.

The announcements from Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Party's long-promised efforts to get rid of President Barack Obama's health care legislation reeling. Next steps, if any, were not immediately clear.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's legislation in its current form. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill last Thursday.

McConnell is now at least two votes short in the closely divided Senate and may have to go back to the drawing board or even begin to negotiate with Democrats, a prospect he's threatened but resisted so far. Or he could abandon the health care effort, which has proven more difficult than many Republicans envisioned after campaigning on the issue for years, and move on to tax legislation, a bigger Trump priority to begin with.

McConnell's bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," said Moran.

Lee said, "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

It was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of the bill last month when defeat became inevitable.

Trump had kept his distance from the Senate process, but Monday night's development was a major blow for him, too, as the president failed to rally support for what has been the GOP's trademark issue for seven years  ever since Obama and the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act. Republicans won the White House and full control of Congress in large part on the basis of their promises to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but have struggled to overcome their deep internal divisions and deliver.

The Senate bill, like an earlier version that barely passed the House, eliminated mandates and taxes under Obamacare, and unraveled an expansion of the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled. But for conservatives like Lee and Paul it didn't go far enough in delivering on Republican Party promises to undo Obama's law, while moderates like Collins viewed the bill as too extreme in yanking insurance coverage from millions.

McConnell's latest version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding billions to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs.

But his efforts did not achieve the intended result.

There was no immediate reaction from McConnell's office. But Democrats could barely contain their glee.

"This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."
Finally, a clear, concise, honest, hard-hitting editorial in the News & Record (July 16).

Charles Davenport Jr.s column nailed liberal media bias that included ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, etc.

He quoted Michael Goodwin, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism professor.

Goodwin was a pre-eminent leader of the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial board of the New York Daily News and prior to that toiled at The New York Times for 16 years. In a recent keynote college speech he said the demise of journalistic standards is a devastating indictment.

He continued: Most of what you read, watch, and listen to is distorted by intentional bias and hostility. Ive never seen anything like it. Not even close.

If you didnt read the column, I encourage you to go online and read it.

I applaud Mr. Davenport for exposing the media bias every commonsense American sees and reads every single day. The only ones who deny it are those on the progressive far left who endorse it.

Jim Turnage

Greensboro
No one from the Trump campaign had any contacts with anyone from Russia.

Stories about Donald Trump and Russia are fake news, an excuse created by Democrats for losing the election.

The investigations are the biggest witch hunt in American political history.

Every dodge and denial by President Trump, family members and White House flaks rings hollow now. The trail is warm, and its leading to very disturbing conclusions.

Last weeks news about a June 2016 meeting Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort held with Russian operatives, as alarming as it was, probably isnt the end of troubling revelations.

Trump Jr., faced with an impending story by The New York Times, initially explained that he was asked to see a Russian lawyer about a suspended adoption program. Then, heading off more reporting, he released emails in which he was told Russia was supporting his fathers campaign and that a Russian government lawyer intended to give him damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Even then, Trump Jr. neglected to disclose that other Russians attended the meeting.

Information always has to be dug up one shovel-full at a time, and sifted for truth, when it comes to Trump. Yet a picture is emerging. It shows widespread engagement between members of Trumps inner circle and Russians who were trying to influence the election in Trumps favor. It looks like collusion, but Special Counsel Robert Mueller, appointed after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because of the Russia investigation, will get to the bottom of it.

N.C. Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also must learn the full extent of Russian activities. He will do a great service for our country if he pursues this investigation to its conclusion. This is a matter of national security, because foreign interference in U.S. elections presents a threat to our democracy.

The president poses an obstacle. He continues to defy the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies and denigrate their abilities. He seems to accept Vladimir Putins false assurance that if the Russians really meddled, we wouldnt have known about it. Our agencies do know about it. As Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has said, the only person in Washington who doesnt know it is the president. But ignorance cant account for Trumps evasions. There must be something else.

What do the Russians want? The lifting of sanctions imposed for their election interference (by President Barack Obama), for human rights abuses and for their annexation of Crimea. They want U.S. cooperation in Syria. They want discord within the NATO alliance. Trump is strangely complimentary of Putin and apparently amenable to Putins agenda.

And now it is known that members of Trumps inner circle were willing, even eager, to accept help from the Russian government during the campaign. What were the next steps, and what did the Russians think they would get in return?
In a flurry of events that brings Connecticut lawmakers closer to finally enacting a new budget that is already three weeks late, more than 45,400 unionized state employees overwhelmingly approved $1.5-billion in concessions on Tuesday, but called for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

While Republicans said that more savings could be reached if collective-bargaining law were changed, House Democrats said they are on track to push through a two-year $40-billion budget by the end of the month.

But with an 18-18 tie in the Senate and a narrow, 79-72 edge in the House, Democrats will need all their members, during the height of the summer vacation season, if they are to approve the union deal and biennial budget.

Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz would not detail whether his caucus, which supports raising the sales tax, would back higher income taxes.

Meanwhile, hundreds of advocates for the disabled, whose program are facing massive cuts, filled the Capitol during a noontime event that resulted in the arrests of five wheelchair-bound people who crowded into the governors office and were charged with second-degree trespassing.

The deal culminates nine months of negotiations with Gov. Dannel P. Malloys labor-negotiating team, which pushed changes in health benefits and retirement plans for tens of thousands of state employees in exchange for five years of job security. The deal includes higher copays, a pay freeze and a hybrid, 401(k)-style retirement plan for up to 16,000 new state employees expected to be hired over the next five years.

This agreement contains significant short-term savings that will be the foundation of a responsible, balanced budget, Malloy said. They agreed to historic concessions that will put the state on a sustainable path.

A few blocks away from the Capitol, during a late-morning news conference, hundreds of union members gathered to commemorate the approval of the givebacks by 15 units that are members of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition. The vote was 83 percent in favor and 17 percent opposed, with passage from each unit.

State workers who provide invaluable services to our communities just saved the state $1.56 billion over the next two years, said Darnell Ford, a Department of Children and Families worker who led the news conference. He said that if lawmakers closed the tax loophole in the so-called carried interest income enjoyed by hedge fund employees, the state could generate $550 million. Another $500 million in revenue could be generated by increasing the capital gains tax rate and taxes on the most wealthy.

kdixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT
A security researcher said last week that sales of Samsung's Galaxy S8/S8+ flagships are slowing down. Not only that, the report even claimed that the company sold more S7 units compared to what it achieved so far with the S8.

However, according to the South Korean tech giant, that's not the case. The company's president of mobile communications DJ Koh effectively refuted the aforementioned claims, saying that its latest flagship is continuing to outsell its predecessor.

He even provided numbers, revealing that sales of the S8 and S8 Plus combined are around 15% higher than their predecessors. Koh also said that he sees no trends indicating that will change in the coming months.

Via
Samsung may have just teased the Galaxy Note8 as new report says it will ship in September
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Info from unnamed industry sources claims that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will use the same screen sizes as the S8 generation. Samsung Electronics has allegedly already given Samsung Display the specs  5.77 for the S9, 6.22 for the S9+.

That is not to say that the displays themselves will not be updated. If nothing else, Samsung is going to have another shot at placing the fingerprint reader under the screen. Qualcomm and vivo already showed a working prototype, so maybe next year things will work out better (though rumors would have us believe that Apple is struggling with this too).

Anyway, the Galaxy S9 will feature the same Infinity Display design with curved sides and nearly no bezels. Small surprise, given the hugely positive response the company got for the new flagship.

A very similar screen (sans the fingerprint reader) is expected to feature on the soon to be unveiled Galaxy Note8 - a 6.32 panel.

Source | Via
Samsung has reportedly signed a deal with Apple to build 7nm A12 chips for the next-year iPhone. This marks the first time the Korean company will make the SoC after it lost the deal to its Taiwanese rival TSMC in 2013.

Samsung purchased extreme UV machines, which is the most advanced equipment for chipset production to build the 7nm processor solely for iPhone. One of three co-CEOs in Korea played a key role in clinching the deal.

An industry insider revealed Samsung and Apple finalized the deal after the successful trade for OLED panels. The Korean manufacturer is currently completing its initial tests of the new chip-making machines and will start producing the A12 integrated circuits once Apple approves the process.

Source




Haiti - ALERT : Canadian travelers, dangerous neighborhoods to avoid





In its latest warning to travelers the Government of Canada through "Global Affairs Canada" advises against non-essential travel to the neighbourhoods of Martissant, Carrefour, Bel Air and Cite Soleil, in the Port-au-Prince area, as the security situation is particularly unstable and dangerous.



"These areas continue to be dangerous due to criminal activity and the local authorities' lack of capacity to ensure order. Personal safety and a police presence are not guaranteed. The police are unable to respond in a timely manner to calls for assistance in these areas. It is strongly advised to avoid going out after nightfall.



It is imperative that Canadians who must travel to these areas take appropriate security precautions. Ensure that family members, friends, colleagues, local business representatives or organizations know when to expect you so they can meet you as soon as you arrive at the airport or border, and can guide you in your travels. The use of public transport of any kind is not recommended. As the security situation can change at any moment, check with the organizations, institutes or hosts that are taking care of you to receive the latest updates on the region to which you are travelling."



There is no nationwide advisory in effect for Haiti However, you should exercise a high degree of caution due to high crime rates in various parts of the country and ongoing political tension."




















Published on 2017/07/17 | Source

Actor Gang Dong-won received an award for his performance in "Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned" at this year's New York Asian Film Festival last week.

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"Thank you for inviting me to this film festival and giving me such a huge honor", Gang Dong-won said in his acceptance speech. "It was an uncommon genre, but many people worked hard together to make the film. I'm happy to be able to meet audiences in New York".

He is currently working on the new film "1987: When the Day Comes" about the 1987 pro-democracy movement in Korea, and preparing for another project "Illang : The Wolf Brigade" based on the Japanese animated film "Jin-Roh" by Kim Jee-woon.
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Published on 2017/07/18 | Source

Added episodes 11 and 12 captures for the Korean drama "Secret Forest" (2017)

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Directed by Ahn Gil-ho

Written by Lee Soo-yeon-I

Network : tvN

With Cho Seung-woo, Bae Doona, Lee Joon-hyuk, Yoo Jae-myung, Shin Hye-sun, Choi Byung-mo,...

16 episodes - Fri, Sat 20:00

Synopsis

A prosecutor who's lost his emotions delves into the secret of the District Attorney's Office to track down the real criminal.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/06/10

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Published on 2017/07/18 | Source

Added episodes 19 and 20 captures for the Korean drama "Bad Thief, Good Thief" (2017)

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Directed by Jang Joon-ho, Oh Kyeong-hoon

Written by Cha I-yeong, Son Yeong-mok

Network : MBC

With Ji Hyun-woo, Seohyun, Kim Ji-hoon-I, Lim Ju-eun, Ahn Kil-kang, Jung Kyung-soon,...

50 episodes - Sat, Sun 22:00

Synopsis

A story of thieves who affect the authorities that manipulate Korea. It serves to bring satisfaction to those who are frustrated at the reality of the world.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/13

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Stock Spirits acquires 25% stake in Quintessential Brands Irish whiskey division

By Lisa Riley

London-listed Stock Spirits Group has signed a deal to buy a 25% stake in the Irish whiskey division of Quintessential Brands Group for up to 18.3m (16m) in cash.

The investment from Stock Spirits in the premium branded spirits and liqueurs producer, principally sold in Central and Eastern Europe, would primarily be used to complete the construction of the Dublin Liberties Distillery  a state-of-the-art distillery currently being build in the centre of Dublin, which will also include a visitor and brand experience centre.

In addition, the cash injection would be used to accelerate advertising and promotional investment in the Quintessential Brands Irish Whiskey (QBIW) brands, including The Dublin Liberties and The Dubliner Irish Whiskey, to finance working capital and stock maturation, said Quintessential Brands Group co-founder, Warren Scott.

This investment and partnership with Stock Spirits comes at the beginning of a very exciting next phase of the development for our Irish whiskies - we are a brand-led business and both The Dublin Liberties and The Dubliner Irish Whiskey have developed great traction in more than 30 markets with significant potential for further growth and range expansion in the coming years.

QBIW claimed its portfolio, which ranges from ultra premium to standard Irish whiskey products, was currently sold in more than 30 countries, with in excess of 32,000 9L cases sold in the 12 months to 31 March 2017.

Stock Spirits chief executive, Mirek Stachowicz, said the investment was in line with the companys stated strategy of expanding its portfolio through strategic investments and bolt-on acquisitions in order to enhance shareholder value.

Whiskey is the second largest spirits category globally behind vodka and, within the whiskey category, Irish whiskey has been the fastest- growing segment since 2007. It is also the fastest growing category in Stock Spirits key markets of Poland and Czech Republic, and this Investment will allow the Company to capitalise on this trend.

Prior to the Investment, QBIW was a 100% owned subsidiary of Quintessential Brands, an independent spirits business which owns, manages, markets and distributes a portfolio of spirits brands internationally from manufacturing operations in the UK, Ireland and France.

Post the Investment, the company will continue to provide blending and bottling services, as well as sales and marketing support, with Stock Spirits entitled to nominate two of the five directors on the board of QBIW.
A two-year audit of local job advertisements on Chinese, Korean and Spanish websites has found almost 80% of proposed rates were under the Australian minimum award wage, according to a new report titled Lighting up the black market: Enforcing minimum wages.



Separate audits in 2016 and 2017 examined 200 jobs, with 78% advertising pay rates below the award minimum.



Moreover, the 2017 audit of Mandarin and Cantonese job advertisements found 100% of rates offered below Award rates.



The study found hospitality was a particularly bad offender. The average rate of pay advertised was $13.60 an hour, while the 2017-18 Award minimum for an introductory level worker on the Restaurant Industry Award is $18.29 per hour, according to the audit by Unions NSW.



For the 200 jobs audited, the survey found a total annual underpayment of $1.62 million, equating to $8,000 per business per year or $31,100 per week.



HRD contacted the Minister for Employment office for comment and a spokesperson for Michaelia Cash said the Turnbull Government will not tolerate exploitation of workers in any shape or form.



"This is why the government introduced and passed Vulnerable Workers legislation through the House of Representatives, which will be debated in the Senate when Parliament resumes next month, to protect workers and impose heavy penalties on employers who deliberately and systematically underpay them," said the spokesperson.



The Government set up the Migrant Workers Taskforce and provided an extra $20.1 million to support the investigation and enforcement work of the Fair Work Ombudsman to stamp out exploitative behaviour.



The Taskforce was established to identify further proposals for improvements in law, law enforcement and investigation, or other practical measures to more quickly identify and rectify any cases of migrant worker exploitation. The Taskforce will consider any further changes in this context.



The Productivity Commission considered the exploitation of migrant workers in its inquiry into the workplace relations laws and did not recommend changes to union entry to investigate breaches of workplace laws. Rather, it made a number of recommendations to enhance the enforcement powers of the Fair Work Ombudsman. The government is responding to a number of these recommendations with our Vulnerable Workers legislation.



Unions NSW is demanding greater powers under the Fair Work Act to inspect businesses' wage books if they're suspected of exploiting workers.



Unions NSW also argues there should be powers given back to unions to be able to inspect wage books where they can demonstrate systematic wage theft happening.



Moreover, Mark Morey, Unions NSW Secretary, said this is wage theft on a massive scale. And it's being perpetrated against people ill-equipped to fight back.



"Migrants often know they are being ripped off but lack the language skills, confidence and support to stand up for their rights, said Morey.



Often migrant workers are threatened, or must consider how a complaint will affect their visa or residency status.



Morey added that the union intends to keep shining a bright light on this problem while taking action against wage theft employers.



"Our research finds that some employers believe they can offer a 'Korean' 'Chinese' or 'Spanish' rate of pay, he said.



Your pay rate is not determined by passport or ethnicity. We are all entitled to Australian standards.



"Allowing unions better access to dodgy workplaces would empower workers to stand up for their rights as would criminal sanctions against wage thieves. These are both measures that should be adopted by Commonwealth and NSW governments.






The world is drowning in disasters. Today, the dual threats of climate change and human migration mean we are experiencing an increase in the intensity and frequency of natural disasters  a trend that is expected to continue.

When it comes to disaster-recovery efforts, the pillar of culture is often missing from aid planning. Investing in what the community wants and empowering local involvement could make aid more efficient and effective.

The numbers are staggering: Between 2000 and 2012, $1.7 trillion in damage; 2.9 billion affected; 1.2 million killed.

In the wake of disasters and in the midst of mourning and loss, individuals and families almost always need help rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. To fill the need, the international disaster community responds with immediate aid, disaster recovery, longer-term disaster risk reduction and often, though not always, generous financial support. Its often said that the disaster aid community is like the Olympics of care: good people bringing needed help to the most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, this goodwill sometimes falls short of expectations. These failures can range from a lack of donor funding for disasters outside the spotlight of the international media to investments in infrastructure that ultimately dont meet the needs of communities.

The aftermath of the 2004 tsunami is instructive in understanding some of these failures. When the earthquake and tsunami hit nations in the Indian Ocean in 2004, more than 230,000 lives were lost. In total, the tsunami displaced more than two million people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, and completely devastated more than half a million houses. While Thailand did not experience the extent of deaths, displacements and economic devastation as some of the other nations affected, the toll was nonetheless severe: 4,812 confirmed deaths, 8,457 injuries and nearly 4,500 people missing. Additionally, 3,539 fishing boats were either damaged or wrecked  93 percent of those boats belonging to small-scale fishers living along the coast who depend on such vessels to provide their entire families livelihood.

In the aftermath of the storm, disaster experts, aid workers and international aid organizations helped rebuild communities that had been wiped out by the waves, crushing debris and inundation of the coastline. On the Thai island of Koh Phra Thong, a fishing village called Bak Joke was destroyed by the waves and the national government  in conjunction with international aid organizations  built extensive new infrastructure named Lions Village two miles from the coast. This buffer zone between the village and coast lowered the chances that another tsunami, earthquake or storm would threaten the safety of residents and the solidity of their now tsunami-resistant homes.

Unfortunately, by 2014, Lions Village was abandoned. Community members had either relocated to mainland Thailand or rebuilt smaller homes in the old town of Bak Joke, which was near the ocean. In this case, the livelihood of the community  namely, fishing  made living in Lions Village impossible. It was too far from the ocean.

It turns out, you cant help a fisherman if you dont account for the sea.

The reasons individuals and families abandoned Lions Village are complex, but the pattern of abandoned infrastructure built by aid organizations happened throughout the nations affected by the tsunami  often for reasons similar to Lions Village, such as the lack of access to traditional livelihoods and other local considerations in planning and development.

We believe what is missing from many disaster-recovery plans is the notion of culture. Across the world, small neighborhoods, communities and villages have particular customs, economies, family networks and needs that are unique. These customs often keep people strong during times of crisis and disruption. Investing in what a community wants, and investing through organizations and pre-existing networks, are ways to make disaster aid efficient and effective  and to ensure effort is not going to waste.

International organizations know this, and many are striving to empower local communities and civil society. However, putting culture at the centre of disaster recovery is hard because it means moving away from standardized one-size-fits-all solutions. Putting culture first means creating partnerships and true collaborations among national, international and local organizations. Sometimes, it means giving full control of financial means and planning procedures to local people  even when local solutions are surprising and divergent from national and international planning.

Disasters are all around us. More than half of the worlds population has experienced one kind of disaster or another. Disaster aid is the international communitys attempt to intervene to relieve suffering now and into the future. How this aid is distributed and who ultimately makes decisions about the best way to relieve risk in the present and future are essential questions. Putting culture first and bringing to the table the meaningful participation of local people may ultimately be the worlds best bet to face the threat of disasters and lower global levels of risk.

The Culture and Disaster Action Network (CADAN) brings academics and practitioners together to integrate culturally relevant strategies into the work of disaster risk reduction and recovery. CADAN members are involved in projects demonstrating how cultural considerations can be efficiently integrated into disaster response and recovery efforts to improve outcomes. Authors: Elizabeth Marino, Assistant Professor, Oregon State University  Cascades, Adam Koons, Senior Humanitarian Response Practitioner, Laura Olson, Senior Disaster Recovery Practitioner, Katherine Browne, Professor, Colorado State University; A.J. Faas, Assistant Professor, San Jose State University, Julie Maldonado, Director of Research for the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN).
Respondents of the survey ranked eighty countries according to subjective perceptions of economic stability, quality of the job market, income equality, and whether the country is one in which the respondent could imagine living in. Moreover, the percentage of immigrants in a countrys population, the amount of remittances sent home, and an assessment by the United Nations of integration measures provided for immigrants were included in the methodology.

Sweden is the best country to be an immigrant in, according to a recent survey by U.S. News. Finland takes ninth place, with Norway and Denmark also present in the top ten.

The data on global perceptions of various countries were gathered through survey responses from more than 21,000 business leaders, intellectuals and general citizens.

Nordic countries are ranked so high primarily because of favourable ratings on economic stability and income equality. However, some Nordic countries, notably Finland, fall in rankings because of the low percentage of immigrants in the overall population. According to the latest data by OECD, immigrants make up 16 per cent of Swedens overall population, while the equivalent number lies at no more than 5.6 per cent in Finland. This explains why Finland ranks nine places behind Sweden in best countries to be an immigrant in.

Surprisingly, the United Kingdom, despite hosting the sixth largest number of immigrants in the world, ranks at seventeenth place. According to U.S. News, this is because the UK currently employs immigration policies that are purely concerned with the interests of nationals, as opposed to those of immigrants.

The United States, on the other hand, hosts the largest number of immigrants in the world  that is 46.6 million  and takes seventh place in the survey. The primary reason the U.S. failed to climb to the very first places in the ranking was a low score in perceived income equality.

In terms of the share of immigrants in a countrys population, the United Arab Emirates hosts, by far, most immigrants, with almost 90 per cent of the population having migrated from abroad. Nevertheless, the country falls at 15th place due to a lack of integration policies.

Read more about the best countries to be an immigrant here.

Nicole Berglund

Helsinki Times
YLE reports that the vessel used in the operation was previously used for research purposes by the Finnish Maritime Administration, a now defunct government agency that was responsible for overseeing maritime safety in Finland.

Generation Identitaire (GI), a far-right movement with active chapters across Europe, has leased a vessel to intercept migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean before their arrival in Europe.

The vessel was sold abroad some four years ago following the incorporation of the maritime safety agency. It was subsequently re-named from Suunta to C Star and is currently sailing under the flag of Mongolia.

Lorenzo Fiato, the head of GI-Italy, revealed to the public broadcasting company that roughly a dozen far-right activists and a professional crew will board the vessel in Sicily, Italy, in order to begin patrolling along the coast of Libya. The activists will provide first aid to any stranded migrants they encounter before asking the coast guard to escort the migrants back to Africa.

The activists will also keep an eye on the humanitarian organisations that are rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, according to Fiato.

Such organisations, he added, are co-operating indirectly with human smugglers by allowing the smugglers to use rickety boats to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. They arent saving lives but rather providing a taxi service to Europe, he said to YLE.

The objective of the activists is to prevent the spreading of hatred and disorder in Europe, added Fiato.

Fiato was reluctant to disclose the current owner of the former research vessel, revealing only that the owner is a European citizen  but not a Finn  who is supportive of the cause of the far-right movement.

GI was founded as the youth wing of Bloc Identitaire in France in 2002. It opposes immigration, multiculturalism and Islam and presently has a total of a few thousand active members in Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia and Czech Republic and the Netherlands, writes YLE.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Taha Jawashi  AFP/Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
A little girl who has cheated death on several occasions, as she bravely battled cancer for the past nine years, has suffered a worrying setback.

Robyn Smyth (12), from Whitehall in Dublin, has been battling neuroblastoma since the age of three.

Robyn was given a 20pc to 30pc chance of surviving when she was first diagnosed.

Her mum, Bernadette, discovered a lump on Robyn's face - and a scan showed it was a tumour that had protruded through her jaw bone.

Following years of treatment, Robyn went into remission, but the cancer returned in 2013 and at various times since, with it showing up in her spine, pelvis and legs.

Survival

Expand Close Robyn, on right, with her mum Bernadette and sister Millie / Facebook

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Whatsapp Robyn, on right, with her mum Bernadette and sister Millie

It was when her chances of survival dropped to 5pc that her family decided to fundraise to take her to the US and Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Michigan, but so far it has cost hundreds and thousands of euro.

Plucky Robyn - who made her Confirmation earlier this year - was on a routine hospital visit last week due to low blood pressure.

Doctors at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, in Crumlin, found she was seriously ill, with fluid around her heart.

"Positive thoughts and prayers [are] needed right now," said Bernadette.

"Robyn feels well but was admitted due to low blood pressure and high heart rate. She never fails to try and smile through all of this.

"Their first concern was that these are the early symptoms of sepsis, and sepsis is serious.

"Robyn had an echo test and that's when they discovered she had a pericardial effusion [water in the sac around her heart]. We don't know how this happened. We don't have all the answers.

"Doctors took her into theatre for urgent surgery yesterday and put a drain in.

"Last January, Robyn almost died having what should have been a routine procedure, so we are obviously nervous.

"I explained to Robyn about the drain, she was scared but OK with it once she was [put] to sleep. They took out 160ml of fluid, which looked like blood, but it has been sent off to be tested and hopefully that will give us more answers.

"The cause of the fluid could also be that she is so underweight and malnourished. This is a huge concern with Robyn, so we are doing our best to get on top of that," she added.

"We are scared right now because we feel Robyn is defenceless against her disease. All meds have stopped and Robyn will not be able to have any treatment until we get her a bit stronger.

Hope

"We are hoping the neuroblastoma remains stable while getting all this under control.

"I have hope and I will not give up. I know it's possible to get her back on track and get her into remission. I'm always thinking ahead but we have to.

"If Robyn gets into remission we need to be able to get her on the next available trial that is having good success with keeping kids in remission.

"This is our goal. Getting her clear and doing everything we can to keep her that way.

"Robyn has been travelling to America since 2015. I'm so grateful to everyone who donated and volunteered on numerous charity events for this, because without this help Robyn wouldn't get these opportunities.

"We need to be ready when Robyn gets clear. We need to have the funds available for the next trial. Please keep helping. We love Robyn so much. Her fight is our fight."

Donations can be made to robynslife.com or gofundme.com/robynslife.
Gardai probing the "suspicious" death of a woman whose badly-decomposed body was found in a Dublin woods are eager to track down a man for questioning over the gruesome discovery.

The remains of Linda Christian were found in undergrowth in the Coolmine area of the capital shortly before 2pm yesterday.

The 29-year-old had been missing for more than three weeks and gardai had raised serious concerns about her well-being.

Her remains were in a decomposed state and sources have said that the death is being treated as "very suspicious" and they fear she was the victim of foul play.

A number of lines of inquiry are being investigated by officers at Blanchardstown Garda Station and it is being examined whether she met a violent end.

It has also emerged that gardai are attempting to establish the whereabouts of a male friend of Ms Christian, who may have key information in relation to her disappearance.

Expand Close Gardai at the scene where the body of Linda Christian was discovered / Facebook

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Whatsapp Gardai at the scene where the body of Linda Christian was discovered

However, detectives fear that this man has left the country in the last three weeks and are in the process of tracking him down.

Anxious

"He is a person of interest in this investigation and officers are anxious to question him about anything he may know," a source said last night.

"But he has left the jurisdiction at the moment and gardai are trying to track him down."

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The cause of death has not yet been established and a post-mortem examination will be carried out today.

Ms Christian was first reported missing on June 24 and gardai issued a number of fresh appeals in recent days.

When her remains were discovered yesterday, she was wearing the same clothes as when she was last seen.

Sources last night said that a DNA sample may be required to formally identify the woman.

The scene is located between Clonsilla Road and Snugborough Road and close to the Blanchardstown Centre shopping complex.

The search was carried out by the DMR West Divisional Search Unit after receiving information on the whereabouts of Ms Christian's remains.

It is understood that she was adopted, and gardai were last night in the process of notifying her adopted family, as well as her biological parents, of the tragedy.

Shock

The area remained sealed off yesterday, and the scene was attended by senior gardai, including Supt William Carolan, who is leading the investigation.

A technical examination of the scene where Ms Christian's body was found was carried out by a Garda forensic team.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy also carried out a preliminary examination of the body before it was removed.

Local people expressed their shock at the news.

"That is shocking. I would normally walk the dog up this road. It's a very busy main road, that area is a bit more secluded. The poor girl," one local woman said.

Gardai first appealed for information in relation to Ms Christian's disappearance on July 3. She was reported missing on June 24, and when last seen she was wearing a green bomber jacket, blue jeans and carrying a pink gym bag.

Sources said she was being treated in hospital at the time of her disappearance.

Last Wednesday, another fresh call for information was issued by gardai, while another appeal was made on Saturday.

In the most recent appeal, Ms Christian's family and gardai expressed "serious concern" about her welfare.
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The Bristol, Tennessee man charged in a July 8 fatal shooting appeared in Sullivan County General Sessions Court Tuesday morning.

Johnny F. Royston Jr. told Judge J. Klyne Lauderback that he hadn't been employed since 2008 and had no source of income. He asked for a court-appointed attorney and was assigned to Ilya Berenshteyn.

Royston Jr.'s preliminary hearing is set for August 25 at 10 a.m.

He faces charges of second-degree murder, drug possession, evading arrest, driving on a suspended license, due care, driving left of center, stop sign violation and reckless endangerment.

Just after midnight on July 8, the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office responded to a property in the 500 block of Eaton Private Drive, off Bethel Drive, just outside of the Bristol city limits.

Officers found 44-year-old Rowdy Yates unconscious with an apparent gunshot wound lying beside a camper in the woods behind the residence.

Law enforcement began searching for Royston in connection with Yates' death. Royston ultimately led police on a 70-hour manhunt across the region before he was captured along Emmett Way near U.S. Highway 421 on July 10.

As of Tuesday, Royston Jr. was being held in Sullivan County Jail on a $300,000 bail.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.  The murder trial of a Bristol, Tennessee, man charged in the death of three family members was postponed Monday afternoon after he fired his attorneys.

Robert Seth Denton is accused of fatally shooting his mother, stepfather and grandmother in front of six children in August 2015. Dentons mother, 39-year-old Toshya Millhorn, and 57-year-old Lena Rose, the grandmother, died at the scene. Dentons stepfather, James Millhorn, 36, died at the hospital.

Monday was the first day of the trial, which was expected to last about two weeks. Following a 30-minute break from jury selection, Dentons court-appointed attorney, Douglas Payne, told Sullivan County Criminal Court Judge Jim Goodwin that he and Louis Ricker had been discharged under Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 8, which governs rules of professional conduct. Denton was represented pro bono by Ricker.

Goodwin, who said the trial could be delayed for more than a year, granted the firing of the attorneys. The reason for the firings is confidential.

Jury selection had been going on for several hours. All potential jurors were discharged from the case. A new panel of jurors will have to be called.

The trial will be reset. It was first reset from October 2016 to this week.

Now we have to start from square one, said Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus. It was a complete surprise. I didnt see it coming. Obviously, its a disappointment that we couldnt get the trial off the ground, but well start over.

Denton has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless endangerment. The aggravated assault and reckless endangerment charges stem from the children, ages 2 to 12, who were in the home during the shooting. Five were the Millhorns children. The sixth was a friend of one of the children.

Denton pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in February 2016. Staubus is seeking life without the possibility of parole.

Goodwin could appoint a new attorney for Denton on July 28, when the case is set for announcement.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam on Tuesday pitched a $15 million expansion at the University of Virginia's College at Wise as part of his seven-point plan to revive Southwest Virginia and other rural regions across the commonwealth.

Under Northam's proposal, the state would spend $15 million to grow the campus in Virginia's coalfields region, so the college could enhance its course offerings in high-demand job fields like cybersecurity, energy, computer science and unmanned aerial systems.

Virginia's lieutenant governor faces Republican Ed Gillespie and Libertarian Cliff Hyra, a Mechanicsville lawyer, in the general election.

Northam characterized the expansion as a public-private partnership that would include investment from the state and other sources. In addition, Northam suggested the university could court more out-of-state and international students, who pay higher tuition rates.

The university growth could translate to more businesses and jobs in and around Wise County, Northam said. Expanding course offerings would attract new talent to the region, which in turn, could lead to the university netting more grant funding, he said.

"Just look at what's happening in Roanoke right now with Virginia Tech Carilion, it's literally what I would call on fire," he said. "The talent that they've brought in is just exciting, businesses are popping up in the area and it is really driving the economy there."

Northam's newly released plan also calls for additional broadband in rural areas, expanding renewable energy and a two-year tax break for small businesses that open in rural and economically depressed areas.

Gillespie announced plans to combat the opioid epidemic that has swept Southwest and Southside Virginia. His plan centers on educating students about the dangers of prescription pain pills, train teachers and community leaders to recognize the signs of addiction and reform medical school curriculum on prescribing pain pills.

In the lead-up to the Republican primary, the former Republican National Committee chairman also introduced a tax reform plan that will cut income tax rates by 10 percent across-the-board  a proposal he argues will help families in rural and low-income areas. Gillespie also has promised to cut state regulations that make impede small business owners from opening and flourishing.
After Parrott's lead disappears, Trone takes 6th District race

Republican state Del. Neil Parrott conceded on Friday after close race. Trone to return as congressman for 6th District.
In recent years I have been fortunate to make three trips to the winter Quarter Horse meet at Hialeah Park, where even though the breed changed, the walls-adorned with famous silks and photos of famous people-still told stories.

And those walls echoed with new stories, specifically cheers of young fans enthusiastically encouraging horses, even sprinting with horses through the stretch.

Hialeah president John Brunetti Jr., pumped $60 million into the racing facility to bring modern amenities to one of racing's most hallowed tracks. Here was a live meet bringing in new, young fans with a passion for racing. Taken as a whole, the experience sent chills. The 2015-2016 meet attracted nearly $2 million in handle.

This year Hialeah offered a much different race meet, racing not recognized by the American Quarter Horse Association or reported by Equibase. For many, this meet created chills of concern as Hialeah rolled out a series of match races to meet its minimum state racing requirements to retain its casino license.

According to a spokesperson for the Pari-Mutuel Division of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, total handle on this "racing" from May 31-June 25 was $4,116. That number suggests that as far as the public was concerned, there was no Quarter Horse Racing at Hialeah.

Brunetti couldn't be reached, but last month told BloodHorse the new approach reduced racing costs.

Ron Smith, president of the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association that put on the Hialeah meets from 2009-16, said this year's meet should concern the entire industry.

"It's not just the Florida Quarter Horse industry," Smith said. "We think that we are the guinea pigs. We believe that if they can pull this off in Florida, and eliminate us, it will go all over the country and it will not just be Quarter Horses, it will be Thoroughbreds too."

After committing about $5 million in purses a year to the meet in recent years, Brunetti and the horsemen failed to reach an agreement ahead of a 2016-17 winter meet. The track instead turned to the South Florida Quarter Horse Association; several of that group's founders are also part of the "low-cost" Gretna Racing.

While tracks and horsemen have always haggled, a difference in Florida compared with other racing states is the lack of a racing commission to step in during such disputes, noted Bill White, who heads the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents the interests of Thoroughbred horsemen.

"The closest thing we have is the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering," White said. "They view themselves as a licensing organization and they are reluctant to become involved in any disputes. That's why pretty much every dispute in Florida ends up in court."

One factor in the corner of Florida Thoroughbred horsemen, White said, is the law specifically requires tracks to reach agreements with a majority horsemen's group. He said the law is not as specific when it comes to Quarter Horse racing. With that in mind, Smith's group is working to change and update laws on the Quarter Horse side in the state.
A project to bring art to Carlisles public spaces is getting a boost through storytelling.

Mallory Frank, a volunteer with the social media team for Color Carlisle, has been featuring the stories of Carlisle residents on the organizations social media accounts to inspire community and to bring attention to their project.

Frank said she and her boyfriend, Padraic Wood, approach residents of Carlisle and tell them about the project. Wood takes the photos that have appeared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter while the two interview the residents.

Some of the questions they ask revolve around what they like about Carlisle, what makes the town special, why they are there and what they see in the boroughs future. Then, Frank and Wood compile the pictures and interviews and post them.

The idea is that we get more people involved in the community with our project, and we can then raise more money, Frank said.

The first art project is scheduled to start this fall with York-based artist Ophelia Chambliss, who will create a mural on an exterior wall at St. Pauls Lutheran Church in the 200 block of West Louther Street.

The initial mural at St. Paul Lutheran Church is expected to cost $10,000, which includes supplies and Chambliss fee.

Frank answered five questions this week to give an update on the project.

Q. How did Color Carlisle come together?

A. Following the election, we recognized the need to bring together our community to work on our project to focus on a collaborative, inclusive environment. There is a group of us that feel that there was a need to create a positive impact in our environment, and connect people to other people. Greg Guenther, our president, started our committee, and we are now a part of the Downtown Carlisle Association. The Color Carlisle board members are Greg Guenther (president), Ashley Gogoj (vice president), Laura Guenther, Brenda Landis, Miranda Aaron, Blythe Foreman, Todd Arsenault and myself.

Q. How can a public art project help a community thrive?

A. There are a lot of documents on the impact of community art, in that there is economic growth built around public art. Public art promotes tourism, financial stability, and a healthy relationship with the community in which you live.

Mark Stern, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that, Investment in the arts and cultural resources can benefit local and state economies by supporting job growth, stimulating commerce and sustaining neighborhoods by stabilizing property values. The benefits are especially great in communities that dont have highly visible art identities but do contain rich cultural resources.

Additionally, he mentioned, Communities benefit in multiple ways when there is a vibrant arts and culture base ... We can combine information on a full variety of measures of well-being in a neighborhood, including arts and culture, to see where in the city there are major barriers to having neighborhoods that are affordable, livable, safe and healthy.

Q. Would you give us an update on the mural project?

A. Our first project location is at St Pauls Lutheran Church in Carlisle. We have so far raised 75% for this first project. We acquired a substantial grant through Jump Street to pay our artist in residency, and community donations will fund the rest.

We have been approached for two upcoming projects. First, we will be working on a public gallery concept on the Pomfret Street apartment building, which is a collaborative effort with CALC and Pat Craig Studios. We will be creating minimurals, featuring local artists to create a public version of an art gallery. The second is a mural piece and community art project on the Sadler Health Center, which will include a beautification project for that portion of Louther Street.

Q. Your social media posts have been featuring the stories of Carlisle residents. How do these stories help share the mission of Color Carlisle?

A. Our overall mission is to create an accepting community. Our approach for our pieces and the public art is to allow community to participate in the creation of them. The reason for creating the social media campaign is to connect the dots of people that are working together to create the pieces of art in the community, and to profile people who are already making our community a great one.

Q. If people are interested in donating, how would they do that, and is there a deadline?

A. If people are interested in donating, they can go to our GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/color-carlisle/. They can also send donations to the Downtown Carlisle Association (c/o Greg Guenther, president) with a memo to Color Carlisle. Their address is 53 W. South Street, Carlisle, PA 17013. All donations made to the DCA are tax deductible. There is not a deadline for donations, because we are individualizing each project, but we are acquiring donations to create every piece. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact us at carlislemural@gmail.com.
This month, U.S. attorneys in New York's eastern district filed a civil action against craft giant Hobby Lobby that led to a $3 million fine imposed on the retailer by the Justice Department for smuggling Iraqi artifacts into America.

Hobby Lobby received a formal expert's warning as early as 2010 advising against the acquisition of any artifact likely to have originated from Iraq as "carrying considerable risk," in violation of federal laws and the international ban adopted by the U.N. Security Council in 2003, the ban following strong advocacy by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

But the company didn't pay attention to its expert consultant's counsel and, as a result, it has contributed to a market in stolen antiquities that puts cultural heritage and lives at risk.

Illicit trafficking is a major cause of heritage destruction. When violent extremists target monuments while cameras roll, their propaganda machine is diverting attention from the systematic pillaging and trafficking of antiquities to fund their reprehensible agendas. In Iraq and Syria, this looting has reached an industrial scale.

Satellite imagery reveals the pockmarked terrain of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor in Syria, Iraq's Nineveh and elsewhere, where thousands of holes dug into excavation sites attest to the scale of cultural devastation.

This rapacious enterprise severely damages fragile artifacts: Recall how robbers who were afraid to be caught red-handed with a 66-pound old Roman statue, looted in the seabed off Corsica in the '90s, got rid of it by melting and dismantling it. Today in Iraq and Syria, looters slice statues to facilitate transport and sell humanity's heritage like secondhand parts in the automotive trade.

But destruction of antiquities is only one side of the story. Looting is part of a deliberate strategy of cultural cleansing, to wipe out all forms of cultural diversity and impose a sectarian vision of the world. When local populations are robbed of their identity, it accelerates social destabilization, fueling the cycle of violence over the long term.

Last month at the University of Geneva, I attended the ceremony of restitution of a beautiful three-ton Roman sarcophagus excavated 30 years ago from Turkey. I looked at its beautiful sculptures representing the story of Hercules and thought about the time it took to find its way home to its rightful owner.

I remembered 2013, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art returned to Cambodia two statues of Apsara dancers from Angkor, after years of effort and investigations. It was as if a piece of national identity had been given back to the people. How long will it be before the people of Iraq get their identity back?

This is more than a cultural issue: It is a security issue as well. When criminal organizations like ISIS loot and sell blood antiquities, they are not just erasing their victim's history, they are financing their mass murder. Trafficking in looted objects represents one of the most important revenue streams for ISIS, along with illegal oil and gas sales, and ransoms from kidnapping.

After several years of violent extremist propaganda and destruction of heritage in the Middle East, culture is on the front lines of conflict, and this must lead us to renew our strategies to fight back. It is time to adopt stronger preventive measures and provenance checks, provide appropriate training and support specialized police and customs officers.

Since these officers are not cultural experts, it is sometimes difficult for them to detect suspicious objects and prioritize culture in a long list of sensitive issues. Therefore, historians and museum curators are a vital part of the process of verification.

Building on the legal basis of the UNESCO 1970 Convention against illicit trafficking, recent decisions by the U.N. Security Council attest to a shift underway - with a new ban on cultural trade from Syria, and the deliberate destruction of heritage fully recognized as a war crime and a tactic of war.

But all that we have achieved can slip away if we fail to translate international commitments into sanctions. This is why the strengthening of UNESCO's cooperation with institutions in the United States to block the trafficking of blood antiquities is so important. As is the implementation of international law and stronger awareness of the public on the broader implications at stake.

Hobby Lobby ignored expert advice, and instead pumped money into a black market that endangers lives and makes preserving the objects it sought to procure even more difficult.

Bokova is the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
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The resident doctors association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi has written to the Prime Minister, asking for his help to curb incidents of biting and snatching by dogs and monkeys at the hospital campus in Ansari Nagar.

The monkeys and the dogs are attacking us, biting us, and snatching our valuables. We are under continuous threat. We are not anti-animal, but we need a safe working environment, read the letter sent to the Prime Ministers office.

On Monday, three people  a doctor, a nurse and an MBBS student  were bitten by monkeys. Valuables, documents and eatables are snatched from patients and their family members waiting for their treatment outside the out-patient department and the wards.

Usually, three to four incidents of snatching are reported to the hospital authorities every day. And, one case of severe injury due to dog or monkey bite is reported every two or three days. Around two weeks ago, a resident doctor was bitten by what we suspect was a rabid dog. The dog has died since, said Dr Vijay Gurjar, president of the resident doctors association.

There are so many monkeys and dogs around the campus that even guards are helpless. The guards try and drive away the animals, but they always come back. There has to be a concerted effort to relocate the animals from the campus as they are a threat to both the doctors and patients, said Dr Gurjar.

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When Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman portrayed the role of a cabaret dancer and courtesan, Satine, in Moulin Rouge! (2001), she enamoured many including Delhi-based artist Raghu Vyas. I saw the film in 2008 and it left an impression on my mind and touched my heart. I then decided to make a painting on Nicole Kidman, says Vyas.

As an artist, Vyas felt it necessary to seek permission from the actor before painting her on the canvas. In 2015, I got to attend Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS), where Nicole Kidman was being interviewed by author Suhel Seth. There, I asked her if I could make her painting and she was kind enough to allow me. It took me one and a half year to draw, sketch and put together my thoughts on the canvas; the way I wanted it, says the artist, who is known for using Renaissance techniques with oil paint.

The three figures in Raghu Vyas 42X58 inches painting, titled Three Graces, represent charm, beauty and creativity.

The essence of the Renaissance paintings is evident in Vyas painting titled Three Graces. Vyas says, Italian painter Raphael created Three Graces in 1504-05 and Rubens [from Germany] created The Three Graces in 1635. So this painting, dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus, has a long tradition, but in India I dont think theres anyone who has created it.

The title of the painting denotes charm, beauty and creativity. The artist feels these three traits are also present in Nicoles personality. Keeping these adjectives in mind, Vyas has created three figures of Kidman. I remember, she said during the interview at HTLS that she feels like an angel and that her husband is a magician. So I painted the figure in the centre with the wings to represent beauty. The one on the left, in a sculpturesque pose, represents charm. And, the third one on the right playing the flute represents creativity, he explains.

Nicole Kidman in the Hollywood movie Moulin Rouge!

Traces of his previous series on Krishna are visible in this artwork, through the crown of peacock feathers adorning the hair of the figure representing creativity. I specifically painted the centre figure with a westernised gown so that Nicole could identify with the costume. And the addition of the flute and the peacock feather crown is an extension of my earlier works. But Krishna, here, also represents sakhi or the female friend; and the lotuses represent purity.

The Three Graces created by the European painters were nudes. But in our country, India, the psyche of people is very different. Yet I have retained the drama, so that it catches viewers attention and they come back to see it again and again.

 Raghu Vyas

In the works of the Renaissance painters, the female form used to be voluptuous to attract the male attention. The Three Graces created by the European painters were nudes. But in our country India, the psyche of people is very different. Yet I have retained the drama, so that it catches the viewer attention, and they come back to see it again and again.

The artist also wishes to send the painting to Nicole. Vyas says, I have messaged her on Facebook that I have completed the painting. I want to exhibit it once in Delhi and then I will gift it to her.

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Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan, who is at the centre of a storm ever since the IIFA episode, has apologised for his Nepotism rocks act at the IIFA Awards in New Jersey.

Varun Dhawan performs during the green carpet of IIFA Awards 2017. (IANS)

Varun, son of filmmaker David Dhawan, along with filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Saif Ali Khan, sparked the controversy over the nepotism debate at the awards gala. Later, all three of them received flak on social media with people calling their act disappointing. I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act, Varun tweeted on Tuesday.

I express my apology and regret .. I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act..  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) July 18, 2017

Performing at #NewYorkCity iifa was an amazing experience. Inspired and humbled and sorry if I let anyone down.  #onelove  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) July 17, 2017

Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about nepotism issue that started in Bollywood when actress Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a flagbearer of nepotism on his chat show Koffee With Karan.

Salman Khan (C) and Varun Dhawan (R) perform on the stage. (AFP)

When Varun joined the two actors on stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for Dishoom, Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father. You are here because of your papa, Saif quipped. Varun said: And youre here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore).

Karan then promptly added: I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar). They then said in unison: Nepotism rocks.

Later on, a string of criticism followed over Twitter, describing what the personalities said was unfunny and joking about Kangana in her absence was unfair.

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Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has shared a cryptic message about the discrimination he has faced in the Hindi film industry over his appearance.

Taking to Twitter on Monday, Nawazuddin, who recently starred in Mom, wrote: Thank you for making me realise that I cannot be paired along with the fair and handsome because I am dark and not good looking. But I never focus on that.

Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) July 17, 2017

However, it is unclear as to whom the 43-year-old actors message is directed towards.

Nawazuddin is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film Munna Michael. The film directed by Sabbir Khan is set to release on July 21.

Nawazuddin was last seen in the Sridevi starrer Mom and will also be feature in Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, which is slated to release on August 25.

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With the work nearly done, the Shippensburg Public Library is ready to celebrate.

The library has scheduled a Library Celebration Day on Sept. 30 to show off the recently completed addition at the facility at 73 W. King St. The 9 a.m. event will serve as the grand opening of the librarys addition and celebrate completion of its $6 million renovation and expansion project.

Its a beautiful new space for the community to come and enjoy, said Jody Cole, library executive director. Weve improved a large area of downtown Shippensburg.  Were very grateful to the community for supporting us.

Work began at the library in July 2015 and was completed in two phases. The final phase, construction of a 6,000-square-foot one-story addition, is nearing completion and expected to open later this month.

Were pretty close, Cole said. Weve had a few delays. We were originally scheduled to open in May. But a rainy spring held up some of the brick work, and we had some delays with steel construction. But were not that much behind schedule.

According to Cole, the first phase of the project, completed at a cost of $1.3 million, focused on renovation of the existing library; the second phase, construction of the addition at a cost of $4.7 million, started in August 2016.

Cole said improvements to the library include the addition of elevators; sprinkler, and heating and cooling systems; and handicapped accessible rest rooms. The Pennsylvania Room, which houses a collection of books on the states history, was renovated and moved from the second floor to the third floor.

She said the addition connects to the existing library and houses the childrens collection, a community room, staff offices, rest rooms and storage space.

The project also includes additional parking with new lighting, accessible to the library via a bridge over Branch Creek, Cole said.

The project received state funding through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, and was also aided by the librarys Capital Campaign, a community fundraiser that raised $2 million.

Celebrate

Library Celebration Day activities will include an open air market and book sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and chicken dinner sale from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

According to Betsy Haller, Library Celebration Day chair, the open air market will be held in the new parking area at the library and feature produce and crafts from local vendors. The book sale will be held at the Book Nook, located next to the library.

The library will be open, and tours will be offered throughout the day. Childrens activities are also planned.

Chicken dinners can be picked up at the former Adams Electric building, 204 W. King St. Friends of the Library will have a bake sale at that site as well.

Chicken dinner tickets will be on sale by mid-August at the library and the Book Nook. They can also be purchased from library board members and Friends of the Library.

Haller said the librarys parking lots will be closed during the event. Parking will be available at the borough parking lot on West Burd Street and the Shippensburg Firefighters Activities Center, 33 W. Orange St.

All proceeds will benefit the library.
Air India is drawing up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to just over a third of its 40,000 employees, a senior company official said, one of the largest such offers in Indias state sector, as the airline slashes costs ahead of a 2018 sale.

The official, who could not be named as the plans are not public, said the state-owned airline had also put fleet expansion on hold, scrapping a proposal to lease eight Boeing 787 wide-body aircraft. Air Indias board approved the proposal in April but nothing further had been done.

Indias flag carrier is on the block after Prime Minister Narendra Modis cabinet last month approved plans to privatise the loss-making airline by selling part or all of the company and ending decades of state support.

Founded in the 1930s and known to generations of Indians for its Maharajah mascot, Air India has a complex fleet, too many staff relative to rivals and $8.5 billion in debt. Since 2012, New Delhi has injected $3.6 billion to keep it afloat.

An official in Modis office said the Prime Minister, under pressure to cut spending and boost basic infrastructure such as ports and roads, was in no mood to provide fresh monetary assistance to any loss-making public sector company.

The official said top bureaucrats in the civil aviation ministry and at Air India had been asked to present a report on how a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) could be offered to some 15,000 of Air Indias 40,000 staff, including contractors.

Nothing has been finalised but our aim is to make the strategic sale as simple as we can, said a second top official in New Delhi, who is involved in the airlines daily operations, adding that any fresh investment would also be put on hold.

Previous attempts to offload the airline have failed mainly because of the scale and complexity of Air Indias problems, as well as its influential unions.

If Modi can pull the privatisation off, it will buttress his credentials as a reformer brave enough to wade into some of the countrys most intractable problems.

United Front

In its heyday, Air India boasted a talent pool that newly founded airlines dipped into. The government will, however, need to convince seven trade unions to accept the plan to make the airline attractive to potential buyers, including buyouts and other efforts to slash costs. Their initial response was not positive.

The government will propose a VRS scheme and we will throw their proposal in the dustbin, said JB Kadian, leader of a union that represents 8,000 non-technical Air India staff.

Kadian said a joint forum of unions representing Air India employees will launch an agitation in August if the government pursues its privatisation plans.

Air India employees hold placards as they shout slogans during a protest against the proposed privatisation of Air India by the government, in New Delhi. (Reuters Photo)

On Tuesday, dozens of members of the Air Corporations Employees Union gathered near Delhi airport holding placards and shouting slogans opposing the privatisation and demanding the airlines debt be written off, marking the first protest against the governments plan.

A committee of five senior ministers, led by finance minister Arun Jaitley, is expected to meet this month and begin ironing out the finer details of the privatisation plan.

In the meantime, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said he wanted Air India to begin cutting at all levels.

Earlier this month, the airline decided to stop serving non-vegetarian meals in economy class on domestic flights in a bid to save up to 100 million rupees ($1.6 million) over 10 months.

The action provoked uproar on social media and was belittled by aviation experts, who argue that Air Indias management needs a massive structural overhaul, tackling thornier issues such as its fleet and staff, rather than meals.

The airline is also working to reduce the time its planes spend on the ground and launching direct flights to new international destinations.

In July, Air India started a direct flight to Washington and it will start flying to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Los Angeles later this year.

Keeping planes in the hangar makes no sense when Air India is trying to find new sources of income. We should optimize the use of all possible resources, Raju said. The idea is to present a robust company to potential buyers.
A Gorkhaland supporter was allegedy shot dead by police during a demonstration in Darjeelings Mirik town, statehood activists said on Tuesday, the 8th death in a violent unrest in West Bengals hill districts.

Asish Tamang, 38, was killed on Monday night when police allegedly opened fire on a group of Gorkhaland supporters in the popular tourist town, about 50 km from Darjeeling.

Police refused to comment on the issue.

The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee, spearheading the statehood movement, is scheduled to meet at Kalimpong on Tuesday, and Tamangs death could trigger fresh tension in the hills.

The committee is an umbrella body of several organisations which are demanding creation of a Gorkhaland state, to be carved out of the hills and parts of Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts in north Bengal.

An indefinite shutdown of the hills entered the 34th day on Tuesday with no signs of an early settlement to the issue.

The state government led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee has ruled out bifurcation of the state and has blamed outside forces, including militant groups of the northeast and Maoist rebels from Nepal, of backing the Gorkhaland movement.

Yogesh Goley, a senior member of the Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha, said Tamang was killed around 10.30 pm.

Activists said police fired on them when they gheraoed the Mirik police station demanding release of a Gorkhaland supporter who was detained following a clash between agitators and Trinamool supporters.

Police, however, deny opening fire in any of the incidents which have allagedy killed eight people.

Darjeeling, known as the Queen of the Hills for its picturesque tourist spots, and other hill areas of the state are on the boil since the first week of June when the GJM launched an agitation over alleged attempts to impose Bengali in schools of the Gorkha-dominated hills.

The GJM later revived the 110-year old statehood demand but has refused to hold talks with the Mamata-led government.

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Ahead of BJP president Amit Shahs three-day Rajasthan visit, the state government appeared to be bending backwards to placate the Rajputs who threatened to launch an agitation over gangster Anandpal Singhs police encounter.

On Tuesday, the Raje government agreed to a seven-point demand, including CBI investigation, into the police encounter and subsequent violence that left a Rajput man dead.

Shah will be in Jaipur from July 21 to 23.

The Rajputs, following the agreement with the government, have called off their Jaipur March scheduled for July 22.

The move is a major climbdown for the state government as only a few days ago, state home minister Gulab Chand Kataria had asked, How can I order CBI probe against the force that I head?

On Tuesday, he said the U-turn was due to the situation developing in the state.

After a meeting with government negotiators (Kataria, rural development minister Rajendra Rathore and state BJP president Ashok Parnami), we have reached agreement on seven points, so we are calling off the agitation for now, Rajput Sabha president Giriraj Singh Lotwara told reporters.

Another major demand the government has agreed to is recommending CBI inquiry into the death of Surendra Singh who was killed after protests turned violent in Anandpals native village Sanvrad on July 12.

Other demands included removing roadblocks in visit of Anandpals Dubai-based daughter to India, providing a copy of the post-mortem report to Anandpals family, granting compensation to the injured in Sanvrad clash and allowing family of Sharavan Singh, who had sheltered Anandpal, to lead a normal life.

The BJP was facing internal dissent with some senior party leaders belonging to Rajput community openly criticising the police for what they called mishandling of the situation.

BJP MLA Narpat Singh Rajvi had written to Shah accusing the Rajasthan police of acting arbitrarily against the Rajputs.

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Though Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) has filled almost 92% of its seats, it released a fourth cutoff list on Tuesday, which saw most courses still open for admissions in the general category with a drop of upto 3.25% points.

Of the 445 seats that are available at the two AUD campuses at Kashmere Gate and Karampura, 416 seats have already been filled by the end of admissions under the third cutoff list.

The only course that has been closed in the general category in the fourth list is Mathematics (Hons) where seats reserved for students from national capital territory of Delhi have been filled. However, seats are still available for non-NCT students, with a cutoff of 85.5%, 89.5%, and 90.5% for arts, science and commerce stream students, respectively.

The highest cutoffs are set for Psychology (Hons) programme. For NCT students, the cutoffs are set at 90%, 94% and 95% for arts, science and commerce stream students, respectively. Non-NCT students who are from arts, science and commerce stream will need a best four score of 91.25%, 95.25% and 96.25%, respectively, to qualify for the Psychology (Hons) programme.

For Non-NCT students, the highest drop in cutoffs were for the BA (Hons) Social Sciences and Humanities programme, where the cutoff has dropped by 3.25% points. For Delhi students the highest drop has been for Sociology (Hons) programme, where the cutoff has dropped by 2.5% points.

Students will have until Thursday to confirm their admissions at the university, if they have cleared the cutoff. The orientation programme for admitted students will be held on August 1.
A man was arrested for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in southeast Delhis Jamia Nagar, the police said on Monday.

The incident was reported to the police last month but the accused was absconding since then.

He was arrested on Sunday after the police received a tip-off about his presence in the area.

The accused is related to the girls family and had been staying with them. Whenever the victims parents were away for work, he would sexually assault her, police said, adding he used to threaten her of dire consequences if she revealed about the incident to anyone.

Last month, when the accused had gone to West Bengal to visit his family, the girl narrated her ordeal to her parents and they informed the police. Police teams were formed to nab the accused and raids were also conducted in West Bengal but he could not be traced for about a month, they added.
Wary of the dangers linked with street crimes, 47-year-old Nand Kishore alias Karate decided many years ago to elevate himself to the position of a manager of a company he founded, where he would hire employees to indulge in these activities.

Karate hired snatchers and thieves, and paid them salaries, much like a private company.

He had recently decided to hand over the reins of his company to his 22-year-old son, Subhash. The younger man was still in training period when a police team from outer district arrested the father-son duo on Saturday.

Given the elaborate arrangement and the organised manner in which Karate ran his gang, the police are planning to also book the father and son under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

MN Tiwari, DCP (outer), said Karate had first entered the world of crime in 1992, and indulged in street crimes such as robbery, thefts, pick-pocketing, burglaries and drug deals.

However, he did not find the earnings worth the risks associated with these crimes. So, he decided to elevate himself into organising these crimes, where he recruited others to carry out the risky activities, said Tiwari.

So, Karate began hiring burglars and snatchers, police said. Investigators estimate there are over 30 members in his gang that he called company. These men were divided into six groups, where each member was allotted a specific role. Those who executed the snatching or thefts were called a machine.

Karate knew that getting caught with stolen items would result in a high chance of conviction. So, his focus was on preventing the recovery of the stolen goods, said Tiwari, adding that while one man would steal from the targets  mostly passengers in crowded buses  another man would be deployed just to get caught, if at all. Since nothing would be recovered from the apprehended man, there was little danger of legal action.

Investigators said Karate paid his men a daily salary. The father and son mainly indulged in selling the stolen goods. He paid his employees a substantial portion of the money earned from the loot, said an investigator.

In case a team failed to make a killing on any particular day, Karate would still pay them a certain amount, apart from ensuring three meals a day for all his men. That kept his men loyal to him. But he had his own way of threatening the men into ensuring that no one isolated him or branched out, said the officer.

The father and son were arrested based on a tip-off from Mangolpuri on Saturday. The recovered loot from them included 54 smartphones, 11 laptops, and Rs 2 lakh in cash. The duo were making Rs 2-4 lakh profits every month, said an investigator.
A 17-year-old national level junior kabaddi player has alleged that she was raped by a man in his thirties in northwest Delhis Model Town area on Saturday.

The teenager told police in her statement that on July 9 she was outside a stadium when the man, who runs a wrestling training centre, befriended her posing as a stadium official. She alleged that the man took her to a flat in Rohini on the pretext of introducing her to a few of his friends and then raped her.

The girl alleged that he served her drinks laced with sedatives after which she fell unconscious and realised later that she was sexually abused.

The girl approached police on Monday morning and said that she was traumatised because of which she could not approach police earlier. She alleged the man dropped her on a road outside the stadium and threatened to kill her if she reported the matter.

Police took the girl to a hospital for medical examination, which confirmed rape. Police are yet to make any arrests. Following her complaint, police have registered a case of rape and other sections of POCSO (Protection of children from sexual offences act) and have also detained the man.

He was identified and has been detained. He is being questioned and will soon be put under arrest, a police officer said.

According to the Delhi Police crime statistics, a rape case is reported every four hours in the city. In 2016, 2,155 cases of rape were reported. This year the number has already touched 930. The Delhi Police have released a tender inviting experts to conduct a sociological and psychological study on the causes of rape in Delhi.
A BSES engineer was killed and four others were injured when their car rammed a tree, allegedly in their bid to flee a violent mob, in west Delhis Jaffarpur on Monday morning.

Electricity distribution company, BSES, claimed that the five were part of a power theft inspection team and they met with the accident after being chased by goons in the area.

The deceased has been identified as Abhimanyu Singh (28), an assistant manager at BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL). The four others  graduate engineer Yoginder, cameraman Shahruk, technician Pawan Negi and driver Mohammad Wasim  are recuperating at Sri Venketeshwar Hospital.

Abhimanyu Singh

The discom said Jaffarpur continues to have losses up to 60% owing to power thefts  one of the highest in Delhi.

Singh, who was from Munger in Bihar, had been working with BRPL for over two years. He was a team leader among the 15 officials who were part of the inspection teams deployed in the area. BSES officials said that around 20 policemen, who were a part of the drive, tried to control the situation, but to no avail.

Surender Kumar, DCP (south-west), said a case of causing death by negligence has been registered in connection with the accident and investigations have been taken up. He said that a team of around two dozen policemen had been tasked with accompanying the BSES team.

Our staff has so far not reported any mob violence, but we are investigating what occurred there and if it had any bearing on the accident. We will take legal action if any such crime surfaces, said the DCP.

The BSES teams were undertaking inspections in the locality after the discom got a tip-off of rampant power theft in Jaffarpurs Jhuli Jhuli village. They were checking for metres and illegal wires in the village when a mob of 30-40 gathered around them. The teams were attacked by the mob which caused them to retreat, a BSES official said.

As they were retreating, the teams were chased by bike-borne goons. In the ensuing melee, one of the cars met with an accident after it hit a speed breaker and rammed into a tree. Singh was sitting on the front seat. The mob and the goons were so aggressive that the other four occupants were scared of being dragged out of the car, the official added.

Attacks on teams inspecting power thefts are common in Delhi which has now taken shape of an organised crime. Only a few days ago, a similar attack took place in which a BSES official sustained injuries, the discom stated.

Such brazen was the attack that the presence of Delhi Police personnel accompanying the BSES teams did not deter the mob. In the case that happened a few days ago, the team was also accompanied by several policemen. Yet, the attack was not stopped, BSES officials stated.
The Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that the Delhi University administration, under pressure from the Central government, has deliberately not constituted governing bodies of the 28 colleges which are fully or partially aided by the Delhi government.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh said on Tuesday that the DUs vice-chancellor was acting under pressure from the Central government and the university administration was delaying the process as it wants to put in place a team that suits the interest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The tenure of governing bodies in these colleges expired in October 2016. But the governing bodies are yet to be constituted. The DU V-C and administration is acting under pressure from BJP government at the Centre. It (Centre) wants to constitute the governing body that suits them. The Delhi University is an autonomous institution, but the Centre is resorting to similar tactics as it is doing with other universities across the country, Ashutosh said at a press conference at party headquarters.

The Delhi government funds 28 DU colleges, of which 12 receive 100% funding from the state government and 16 receive 5% funding from the government.

The governing body of each of these colleges has 15 members out of which five are nominated by the government. The government also chooses additional five members, from the list of nominations given by the college. The rest five members include the principal of the college, two university nominees, and two teachers representatives.

The V-C did not respond to HTs multiple attempts to contact him.

However, another EC member who had attended the meeting where the decision to defer the constitution of governing bodies was taken said that this cannot have been done under pressure from the Centre. The person who had raised objections regarding the propriety of procedure, is not know to have leanings towards the present central government regime, he said.

The executive council meeting was held on Friday. Officials said the council deferred taking a decision on the governing body as they alleged that nominations had been filed under improper procedures, and had reportedly constituted a four-member committee to look into the suggested names.

The AAP leaders, however, questioned the formation of the committee saying, What was the need to review the panels which were recommended by the university itself. AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha said it seems the university is not interested in constituting the governing body.

Earlier three months extensions used to be given to the governing body in case their tenure expired. This time, even that practice was not adhered to. In February we sent name of panelists chosen from the list of 500 teachers provided by the university. Two months later, it was rejected on frivolous ground saying that it was not sent in tabular form. We resent the list in the format sought, but even that is pending for two months now, Jha said.
New Delhi

Traffic crawled in many parts of Lutyens Delhi on Tuesday after more than a thousand farmers from across the country gathered at Jantar Mantar to protest their dire state.

On Tuesday, farmers from Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh joined force with farmers from Tamil Nadu for a united agitation.

The protests led to massive jams at Connaught Place, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Janpath and Barakhamba Road with traffic police officials blaming the continous pouring in of farmers into Jantar Mantar for the snarls.

Our main is to stop farmer suicides. One way to stop farmers from committing suicide is to waive loans. However, this is not a long-term solution. We would like recommendations of the Swaminathan report implemented, and for agricultural produce to be fixed at 50% profitable price, which would be over and above the input costs, said VM Singh, the convener of the All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee, which has played a pivotal role in mobilising and uniting fragmented farmers agitations under one umbrella.

Though individual groups of farmers had their own specific demands, like that of a Cauvery Management Board, the major concern of farmers has been battling drought like conditions, which has ruined their crops. We have no water in Rajasthan. What are we supposed to grow? How are we to feed our families, asked Ram Das, a farmer from the state.

Tamil Nadu farmers, who had grabbed headlines with their novel and sometimes gimmicky protest methods earlier this year, were seen with chains around their wrists, to symbolize their helplessness on Tuesday.

Our hands have been tied by the Central government which has refused to intervene and help us get more water. Without water, how are we to work?, asked John Milkyaraj, a protesting farmer from Tamil Nadu.

A group of 40 children from Maharashtra, whose farmer parents had committed suicide, also joined the agitation on Tuesday to urge farmers to not take their own lives, no matter how difficult their circumstances might be.

My father, who was a farmer, left me alone in the world. We are here, so that other kids dont have to face the same situation. I would like to tell farmers here not to make your kids orphans like us, said Ashok Patil, from Maharashtra, whose father had allegedly committed suicide.

According to the National Crime Records Bureaus latest available data, 12,602 farmers have committed suicide in 2015. This is almost 2% more than the number of suicides in 2014.

The farmers from Tamil Nadu are expected to stay on in Jantar Mantar, while the others are expected to carry on their Kisan Mukti Sangathan Yatra in other parts of the country.

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A former Carlisle man was convicted of witness tampering for his role in a homicide in April 1992, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Willie Tyler, 65, was convicted by a jury after two hours of deliberation in a four-day trial in Harrisburg.

According to U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler, the case involved the murder of a confidential informant from the Carlisle area. The victim had been scheduled to testify in Cumberland County Court against David Tyler, Willie Tylers brother, on the day of her murder.

The office said Willie Tyler planned to murder the woman. Four others were convicted for their roles in the murder in previous federal and state court proceedings.

Willie Tyler was first tried in state court for the murder in 1994, and was acquitted. The case was adopted by federal prosecution, and Tyler was convicted by a federal jury trial in 1996, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, and the case was re-tried in 2000, where he was again convicted.

In 2013, the appeals court overturned that conviction and remanded the case to the federal district court for a new trial. Tyler was re-tried and convicted Tuesday.

After 25 years and three federal trials, justice has been served, yet again, in the brutal murder of a witness who was cooperating with a drug task force, Brandler said in a news release. Our office will not rest, no matter how long it takes, to ensure that individuals who attempt to subvert justice by silencing witnesses are held accountable for their crimes.
To improve its Swachh Bharat ranking, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will now reach out to citizens through WhatsApp groups.

In a recent meeting of the South corporation, zonal level officials were asked to monitor the cleanliness of roads, public places and dhalaos with the help of WhatsApp groups by adding members of Resident Welfare Associations and market associations.

The association members can give their feedback, registers complaints and suggest new initiatives in these groups, said a senior official of South Corporation.

These groups will include officials of the zone, including deputy commissioners, sanitation superintendents and sanitation inspectors of the wards concerned.

In the Swachh Bharat reckoning of 434 cities for 2016-17, the rankings of the three municipal corporations were East Corporation 196, South Corporation 202 and North Corporation 279.

Besides, the corporation will buy 31 automatic litter-picking machines to be deployed in South Delhi markets. The civic body has sanctioned Rs 1.1 crore for the project.

After the procurement of these machines, most South Delhi markets would be swept twice everyday as mandated under Solid Waste Management Rules, he said.

The corporation has been pushing use of technology in the recent past and mulling interactive features in its website through which people can contact.

We are exploring more options through which a two-way communication could be established with the people through our website, he added.

The corporation had recently made major changes in the interface of its website and during its launch Delhi BJP head Manoj Tiwari had also hinted that the civic body will explore more options to communicate with people through different social media tools.

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The group of farmers from Tamil Nadu who had grabbed headlines earlier this year, for their unique methods of protests, have returned to Jantar Mantar with 17 skulls and 17 pairs of femur bones allegedly of farmers who had committed suicide in the face of drought and debt.

The group of almost a 100 farmers resumed their protest, demanding loan waivers, revised drought packages, a Cauvery Management Committee, and fair prices for their products, among other things. The farmers, clad in green loin cloth, and waiting with the skulls of their peers and two bottles of poison prove an ominous sight.

The farmers had earlier this year been at Jantar Mantar for over 40 days, and had made headlines for their unique protest methods, including biting mice and snake bits. (Ravi Choudhary/HT Photo)

What are we to do? We cant live like this. We went back based on the reassurances of Edappadi (Palanisamy, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu) and others. But they have not delivered on any of their promises. Maybe our deaths will move these people into action, said John Milkyaraj, a farmer who owes over 25 lakh rupees in loans.

The farmers had earlier this year been at Jantar Mantar for over 40 days, and had made headlines for their unique protest methods, including biting mice and snake bits, holding mock funerals and threatening to drink their own urine.

The Tamil Nadu government declared a drought in the state after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the northeast monsoon in 2016 was the worst in 140 years. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

The farmers resumed their protest after the Supreme Court stayed the Madras High Court order directing the state government to waive all agricultural loans, irrespective of how much land the farmer owned. The state government had moved the apex court, asking it to restrict the loan waivers to small or marginal farmers who owned less than five acres of land.

The Tamil Nadu government declared a drought in the state after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that the northeast monsoon in 2016 was the worst in 140 years. Farmers allege that their crops were ruined in the drought and the subsequent Cyclone Vardah, and are still reeling under its adverse effects.

The farmers are braving the rains as they do not have tents this time and scouring for meals at the nearby gurdwara. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

We have no water left in our area. How are we to grow crops, if we dont have water, asked another farmer, R Krishnan, who owes around Rs 10.5 lakh in loans and co-owns 10.5 acres of farmland with his son.

The farmers, who have been braving the rains as they do not have tents this time and scouring for meals at the nearby gurdwara, are expected to meet peers from the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.

This time we will not leave until we have something concrete. We cannot go back. There isnt much to go back to, said P Ayyakannu, the state president of the National South Indian Rivers Inter-Linking Farmers Association, and the leader of the protesting farmers.
Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidus candidature for the post of vice-president makes it clear that the BJP and its parent organisation are deeply invested in expanding the base of the party into South India. Mr. Naidu has been a champion of what is otherwise seen as a North Indian party. That rare south Indian to support the cause of Hindi in a political milieu that sees the use of Hindi as an imposition, his elevation to vice-president would be another feather in the cap of the Sangh loyalist.

He has been a two-time MLA of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, a four-time member of the Rajya Sabha, and has held several important portfolios in government  having been the minister for rural development, urban development, housing and poverty alleviation, parliamentary affairs, and information and broadcasting under two prime ministers. His being from the south of India is likely to have figured prominently in deliberations; given the BJPs Mission South programme, part of BJP President Amit Shahs masterplan for the party.

His long association with the RSS and the Sangh Parivar may also have been an important consideration. A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he has been involved with its student wing, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) since his college days. He is certainly better known than the presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who has risen from relative obscurity. And the two together would make it the first time that the country would have both a president and vice-president from the Sangh Parivar. He has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even going so far as to say that Modi stood for Making of Developed India. Mr. Naidu has served as the spokesperson of his party for many years, coming across as a non-confrontational person; and someone with the management abilities and political acumen to handle the pressures of the post.

Known for his alliterations, witticisms and quips, Mr. Naidu is likely to be appealing to parties across the political spectrum. Should he be elected to the post, a scenario that seems highly likely, his experience as a four-time MP of the Rajya Sabha will be useful as he takes on the Chairpersonship of the House.
Its raining text messages on candidates who have qualified National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year from touts promising them seats in private medical colleges for anything between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore. Anyone tempted by such offers and skipping NEET counselling, which is mandatory for joining medical and dental programmes, runs the risk of having his or her admission cancelled, a senior Medical Council of India (MCI) official has warned.

He said such candidates would be caught out by the MCI as it gets lists from all state governments of all students who have appeared for counselling and selected their colleges.

Students who get direct admission by paying money to agents or the colleges can be caught easily and we will cancel their admission, he said.

While NEET rules mandate admissions only through counselling, many people have complained of a flood of text messages from agents or touts guaranteeing seats for money - without counselling.

When this correspondent, as a parent of a candidate qualifying NEET, met some of the touts, most were offering admissions to well known institutes in Uttar Pradesh.

If you pay Rs 10 lakh, we can get your son admitted to any of the private medical colleges in UP, one agent with an office in a posh east Delhi colony said.

This amount was over and above the regular college fee. Assuring that the admission would be valid, the agent promised to introduce the candidate to the chairman of a private college in the state who would accept the amount as donation.

My commission is only Rs 2 lakh per admission. If you can bring more candidates, I can pay you half from my share, ie, Rs 1 lakh as your commission, he offered.

Another agent in central Delhi advertised a seat in a top medical college in Karnataka for Rs 1.25 crore.

None of the agents, however, said they had access to government colleges though some claimed they could influence government counselling as well.

If the candidate hasnt applied for online counselling, he will have to pay Rs 5 lakh extra for getting his name included through the back door, another agent said.

Academic experts warn students against falling into such traps. Many candidates with low NEET ranks might find such offers tempting but they should know it is illegal and will land them in trouble. NEET counselling is mandatory and joining a medical college directly can lead to disqualification of a candidate. Any attempts to gain a back door entry through an agent will not be recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) which oversees medical education.

Counselling of students is being done by the Medical Counselling Committee.

Candidates have to apply for online counselling and then get all documents verified for admissions. After that they have to give names of preferred colleges and if they qualify for admissions in those colleges on the basis of their NEET marks they will be admitted, the MCI official said.

This is the only legal way to get admission, he added.

Last year, the MCI cancelled the admission of 519 students from 37 medical colleges across the country for taking direct admission to colleges and skipping the counselling process.

These students are now fighting a court battle to legalise their admissions.

A number of medical colleges are also reportedly misleading candidates by asking them to take direct admission through management quotas.

There is no management quota after NEET was implemented in 2016 and all admissions are through counselling, the MCI official said.

Out of 12 lakh students appearing appeared for NEET 2017, 6 lakh have qualified.

But according to the website of the Medical Council of India, there are only 59,570 MBBS seats available.

There are 26,000 seats available for BDS aspirants as per the Dental Council of India, which regulates the programme.

Since MBBS is a more popular choice, students and their parents are desperate to try out all possible means to secure a seat.

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Smart dressing not only boosts confidence but also helps keep your look sharp and appropriate for work. From blending white and black to going for neutral or classic colour scheme, small tweaks can make you look different and classy at work.

Here are some useful tips from Tabby Bhatia, director, Voganow.com, Saggar Mehra, creative director of brand Sunil Mehra and Salesh Grover, business head, OSL Luxury.

* In order to keep things conservative, opt for patterns with a neutral or classic color scheme. Mix different textures of shirts with well-tailored pants. Shirts are the focal point of business casual looks, so ensure they fit well.

* The work jackets main function is in its practicality; and it can definitely add an interesting twist to your attire.

* Blending white or black round neck t-shirts with window checked coat is also an interesting way to complete the look. Put on a pair of tassel loafers or suede shoes and youre good to go.

* A club printed shirt with a slim lapel jacket and a sleek tie looks sharp and trendy. It is the ultimate combination that will make sure you are taken seriously.

* Checkered or pinstriped trousers with solid shirts are also make for a great pick, In order to make solid shirts interesting, add details like printed inside collar band, contrasting coloured button placket or a double cuff with quirky cufflinks.

* If you end up travelling a lot, opt for a basket weaved office laptop bag in shades of tan or dark brown.

* Leather shoes are considered to be an undeniable part of a mans wardrobe. Brogues -- a must-have shoe style -- popped up in early 1900s in Ireland. Brogues in tones of tans, black, olives and grey are absolute timeless add on to a mans wardrobe this season.

* Also, a pair of double monk strap shoes handcrafted and hand painted in genuine leather gives a flawless styling appeal. Perfect for office and formal occasions, these pairs can be worn with chinos and crisp shirts. Break the monotony of laces and go for a monk strap style.

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Gurgaon: 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 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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A 25-year-old woman, working in a private telecom company, was robbed at gunpoint on the Iffco Chowk flyover by two bike-borne men while she was on her way home in an auto-rickshaw on Monday night.

The woman, who resides in Sector 30, was riding home from work at Cyber City at around 8.40 pm when the incident took place, the police said.

The police said that the auto-rickshaw had just hit the Iffco Chowk flyover when two men on a bike forced it to stop. One of the men took out a pistol while the other snatched the womans bag before fleeing the scene, the complaint filed by the woman stated.

The bag contained her Lenovo mobile phone, two debit cards, one credit card, her Aadhar card and 2,500 in cash, the FIR said.

The complaint also mentions that while one of the accused was wearing a helmet, she could not identify the other one.

The woman and the auto driver stood helplessly on the flyover when a Delhi Police constable, who happened to be passing by at the time, approached them, Sudip Singh, station house officer (SHO), DLF Phase 2, said.

He said the officer asked the woman to calm down and rang up Gurgaon police.

Her husband, who is from Jharkhand, was in Ramgarh on some work on Monday. The woman called up her husband and filed a written complaint at the DLF Phase 2 police station, Singh said.

Read I Gurgaon: Two women stave off robbery attempt at SBI kiosk, to be rewarded

He also said the woman was then dropped off at her residence in a PCR van along with a police escort.

The SHO said the police also questioned the auto driver, who said he would be able to identify the culprits. However, neither the victim nor the auto driver could recall the registration number of the bike on which the culprits came.

The FIR was filed under sections 379 B (snatching and use of force) and the Arms Act.
In less than a year, Brad Pitt has been through two breakups, if recent reports of him splitting up with actor Sienna Miller are to be believed.

Celebrity Insider reports that the couple - dubbed Brienna - called off their summer romance soon after they were spotted together at the Glastonbury Music Festival.

Brad and Sienna couldnt keep their hands off each other, touching and stroking each other at every opportunity. They seemed really intimate, source told The Sun.

Brad Pitt arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of The Lost City of Z at the ArcLight Hollywood. Pitt told GQ Style magazine in an interview published online May 3, 2017, that he quit drinking since Angelina Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

The reason behind the split isnt clear, but an insider says that it was Miller who pulled the breaks, leaving Pitt heartbroken.

Rumours of the two dating began during the press tour of the film The Lost City of Z, which starred Miller and was produced by Pitt. Miller laughed off the rumours as silly.

Pitt was involved in a highly-publicised split from his wife Angelina Jolie in September 2016.

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Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe rushed to the aid of a man attacked by two men on mopeds in London.

The victim, a tourist, was walking down Londons fashionable Kings Road, when two men on a moped stole his bag and left him with a facial injury, reported the Evening Standard.

A former policeman tried to intervene and managed to scare off the robbers by shunting his car against their moped. When he returned to the scene of the crime, he noticed Daniel Radcliffe consoling the victim.

It was a bit of the surreal moment, I said youre Daniel Radcliffe and he replied I am, the ex-counter terror unit officer said.

He was a really nice bloke, a lot of stars wouldnt have stopped to help, he continued. The victim was very, very shaken up.

The Evening Standard reached out to Radcliffes spokespeople, who confirmed he was present at the incident, but refused to comment further.

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A youth in his twenties was killed and 30 people received injuries after a private bus from Punjab carrying pilgrims rammed into a tree before hitting a road divider near Panniwala village of Sirsa district on Tuesday.

The bus, which was carrying 42 pilgrims, including 31 women, was heading to the Radha Soami Satsang dera near Sirsa town from Punjabs Malout. The accident took place at about 8am when the bus driver lost control over the vehicle. Twenty three women are among those injured.

Some villagers, who were working nearby, informed the police and started rescue work. Police personnel and officials from the local administration reached the spot and with the help of the locals sent the injured to three hospitals and a nearby primary health centre.

The deceased, identified as Amit Makkar (26) of Malout, was sitting in the seat next to the driver. Police sent his body to the general hospital in Sirsa for post-mortem examination.

Talking to mediapersons, tehsildar Vazir Singh said, "Forty-two pilgrims were on their way to attend a discourse at Radha Soami Satsang near Sikandarpur village. The bus driver, identified as Malkeet Singh (32), lost control over the vehicle. Amit Makkar died on the spot. Bus conductor Rohit Kumar (25) received minor injuries.

He said all the victims are residents of Malout. Among those identified are Simran, Kajal, Shakuntala, Saloni, Sashi Madan, Rajni Rani, Nitu, Pawan, Asha Gaba, Meena, Amit Chand, Rahul Kumar, Sunita, Asha and Malkeet Kaur.

Odhan police station station house officer (SHO) Jagdish Joshi said, We are investigating the matter. the police are recording the victims statement.
Congressman Lou Barletta (R-11) stayed close to his core message on infrastructure and job growth during an appearance on Monday, expressing dismay that such initiatives are getting lost in the GOPs fight over health care.

I think if the administration had their way, wed have tackled infrastructure first, Barletta said, advocating for more aggressive spending on road-building and other public capital initiatives.

Im afraid Congress is going to get stalled in the how do we pay for it part, Barletta said. Infrastructure will grow the economy and create more tax revenue in return. We need to drive home the point that its an investment.

Barletta spoke before the Keystone Contractors Association, the states trade group for the construction industry, at the Radisson Hotel in Camp Hill. The conference was the inaugural event in the KCAs leadership speaking series.

Barletta was an early supporter of Donald Trump in his run for the Republican nomination, citing Trumps promise of $1 trillion in additional federal spending on infrastructure. Barletta was in the road construction industry before entering politics.

I do believe they get it, when it comes to infrastructure, Barletta said of the Trump administration.

However, the White House infrastructure plan thus far features only $200 billion over 10 years, saying that this money will leverage another $800 billion in private investment. Details of exactly how this would work are limited.

Further, congressional leadership has concentrated on spending cuts instead of new programs. Measures such as the Republican health care plan, which cuts billions from Medicaid due to what the GOP sees as an unsustainable funding arc, play at odds with putting additional tax dollars toward infrastructure.

Barletta, who voted for the health care bill in May, reconciled this juxtaposition by saying that infrastructure funding can and should be justified as self-supporting.

Barletta said he has pressed for the inclusion of a dedicated transportation infrastructure funding stream, involving user fees, as a way to get Trump and Congress moving in the right direction, but said he was very worried that haggling over health care cuts and other distractions would see the infrastructure plan go by the wayside.

Im not afraid to say I support a user fee, Barletta said. If we can guarantee that the money will go toward infrastructure, the American people will support it.

The issue with any spending bill that doesnt include a long-term funding mechanism is that it wont get contractors to invest in new capital, since they have no guarantee of continued work, Barletta said.

He also stressed public-private partnerships  often called P3s by builders  as a way to get public infrastructure work done with less overhead.

This is particularly useful when it comes to federal buildings that are historically too large, Barletta said, citing the potential cost savings of newer, consolidated federal offices. Barlettas initiative to require longer leases and lower footage ratios on federal buildings has saved around $3.4 billion since 2013, he said.

This could be applied to projects such as the construction of a new FBI headquarters, a yearslong initiative that was recently scrapped due to funding holdups. A P3 deal involving a ground lease and leaseback could see the private sector putting capital into the project rather than Congress having to appropriate everything up-front, Barletta said.

But Barletta also recognized that the construction industry is running up against a labor shortage  a concern voiced by a number of attendees at the KCA event  that would cut into a federal infrastructure plan.

All the contractors I talk to, they say we have work, but we cant find employees, Barletta said. We have a disconnect  and its a big problem.

Federal support is needed to help businesses and schools work together to develop curricula that fit the current job market, Barletta said, especially when it comes to the skilled trades, which are too often neglected in favor of traditional college programs.

We need to match the skills to the jobs that exist, Barletta said. Welders are now out there making six-figure incomes, but its highly technical work. Its not how it used to be.
Starting Wednesday, the special investigation team (SIT) of the Telangana excise and prohibition enforcement department will question 12 top Telugu film personalities who allegedly purchased cocaine and other narcotics from drug peddlers arrested this month.

Though the SIT did not name any specific film personality, sources in the department said those served notices included popular Tollywood director Puri Jagannath, hero Ravi Teja, dancer Mumaith Khan, villain-cum-character actor Subba Raju and some young heroes such as Navdeep, Tarun, Nandu and Tanish, who have not made it big in the industry.

The SIT has served notices to these filmstars, asking them to appear for questioning about alleged links with the drug peddlers.

The questioning of these film personalities will go on till July 27. Only one person will be interrogated every day, a senior official of the excise enforcement department said, refusing to be identified. Depending on the information we obtain from them, we may summon some more suspects.

Senior IPS officer Akun Sabharwal, who is heading the SIT, said it was too early to suspect the involvement of film stars in the drug racket. We dont want to jump to conclusions till the investigation is completed. All the suspects might not be guilty. So, let us not speculate about their involvement, he said.

Actors Ravi Teja, Navadeep and comedian Subba Raju confirmed they received notices but denied any link with the drug racket.

Others said they were yet to get notices, but said, We are no way connected with the drug peddling. We shall clarify everything before the SIT officials and cooperate with them in the investigation, Subba Raju said.

Sources said the SIT stumbled upon the names of these film stars while interrogating drug peddlers arrested on July 2. The accused - Calvin Mascarenhas (28) and Brendon Ben (20) - who are suspected to be the kingpins of the drug racket, reportedly confessed to SIT officials that they were regularly supplying drugs to these film stars.

The cops seized contraband worth Rs 22 lakh from them.

Besides, the drug peddlers also reportedly admitted to have supplied drugs to select students belonging to rich families studying in various top schools, engineering colleges and universities. However, department authorities decided against prosecuting the students, keeping in view their future.

An advisory was issued to the school managements to watch the movements of students and counsel them as required.

Sabharwal, who was supposed go on a 10-day personal leave from July 16, cancelled his leave following the reports of alleged involvement of film stars. So far, the SIT has arrested 13 persons in the case.

A similar drug peddling racket shook the Telugu film industry in June 2010. Then Hyderabad police commissioner AK Khan too launched a massive probe into the drug racket involving Tollywood personalities. Several film stars and their family members were questioned, but there was not much progress for want of evidence.

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Children in at least three schools along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Nowshera sector of Rajouri district were trapped on Tuesday as the Pakistan army pounded Indian posts and forward villages along the de-facto border in neighbouring Poonch, prompting India to retaliate in equal measure.

SSP Rajouri, Yougal Manhas told HT over phone that nearly 200 children had to be evacuated to safety in bullet proof vehicles in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.

Heavy shelling was reported in Bhawani, Sair and Kadali villages of Nowshera sector. Even now (5.45 pm), intense shelling is on. At least 11 students were trapped in middle school Sair and nearly 50 students at high school Sair and around 150 in high school Bhawani, he said, adding that there was another school where children had to be kept inside because of the shelling.

Villagers showing the remains of mortar shells fired by Pakistan at Niaka Panjgrian area of Manjakote sector in Rajouri district on Monday. (PTI)

Rajouri deputy commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary rushed to Bhawani to take stock of the situation and evacuation.

The children were ferried from the school in bullet proof vehicles during the intermittent shelling by Pakistan, Choudhary said.

We have sent three bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from a high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling lessens, we will rescue them too, Choudhary said.

Schools in 23 villages close to the LoC have been closed indefinitely and 3,500 people have been moved to relief camps, he said, adding that close to 5,000 people have been affected by the shelling.

The district administration had sought the armys help to evacuate the small children. Field officers have been deputed for coordination, Choudhary said.

A soldier reportedly sustained injuries in the exchange of fire in Mendhar sector of Poonch district, but the army has not confirmed it yet.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta said on Tuesday morning, there was unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sectors from 6.45 am. Around 1.50 pm, Pakistani troops opened fire, including mortars, in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.

On Monday, Pakistani army had violated the ceasefire in Balakote and Poonch sectors, killing a minor girl and a soldier besides injuring four others.

Pakistani forces have also violated the ceasefire in the Manjakote sector.

Around 5,000 people in the villages of Panjgrain, Rajdhani, and Naika in Rajouri district were affected due to truce violations.

In Rajouri, 16 schools close to LoC have been shut indefinitely. The district administration has ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

In a post on its website, the Pakistani armys publicity wing, ISPR said Pakistani Army DGMO Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, in a hotline contact, lodged its protest against the deliberate targeting of Pakistan Armys vehicle resulting into Shahadat (death) of 4 soldiers besides injuring one soldier and a civilian passer-by.

It emphasized the importance of controlling tactical actions, warning that such indiscretions can potentially spiral major standoffs.

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As many as 73 roads with operational significance are being constructed along the Sino-India border, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

The government has decided to undertake construction of 73 roads of operational significance along Indo-China border. Out of these 73 roads, 46 are being constructed by the Ministry of Defence and 27 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, said in reply to a written question.

He said 30 roads had been completed so far. The roads were scheduled to be completed by 2012-13.

The major reasons for the delay included limited working season combined with logistical issues due to high altitude, rugged and difficult terrain, natural calamities, delay in forest/ wildlife clearances and land acquisition, Rijiju said.

The minister said a number of steps have been taken to expedite the road projects such as setting up of a high level empowered committee, headed by the Union home secretary, to review and monitor the progress of border infrastructure projects regularly.

India and China share a 3,488 km-long border  from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.

The two countries have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area along the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction for the past three weeks after a construction party of the Chinese Army attempted to build a road in the region.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced his partys support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the oppositions candidate for the vice-presidential election.

The regional party had supported NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, polling for which was held on Monday. However, Patnaik preferred to go with opposition parties this time.

The Biju Janata Dal will support Sri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the BJD president told reporters here.

BJD parliamentary party spokesman Kalikesh Singhdeo said, Patnaik has proved that the BJD has been maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP.

Patnaik had in 2012 said Gandhi was an old and valued friend. We were friends even when I was not in politics.
In 2011-12, more than 50% of deliveries in nine of 10 Telangana districts were caesarean section deliveries (C-sections), according to an analysis of district-level health data. In comparison, none of the districts in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar had C-section rates of more than 25%.

C-section is a specialised procedure that is needed to deal with complicated delivery cases. The healthy rates of C-section should range from 10% to 15%, according to this April, 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, while a December 2015 study led by Ariadne Labs, a joint centre of Brigham and Womens Hospital and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, suggested that optimal C-section rate could be as high as 19%.

The procedure brings risk of infection and can cause complications in future pregnancies, so it should be used only when medically necessary.

At the national level, while India lies near the healthy range, around 8.5% as per WHO data ,it is deceptive of the underlying inequalities and variations.

In many districts in India, the C-section rate is either too low or too high, according to the analysis we conducted at Evidence for Policy Design of district-level estimates for C-section rates across the country  in both public and private healthcare institutions  from the District Level Household Survey Round 4 and the Annual Health Survey.

What is driving high C-section rates?

Higher than necessary C-section rates can be presented as a case of market failure, an economic term used to describe cases where allocation of goods or services is not efficient.

In this case, market failure could arise due to information asymmetrydoctors generally know more about the treatments than the patients. Combine that with potential incentives for doctors to provide expensive treatments, and you are looking at a healthcare market that is inclined to over-treat.

In private facilities, where incentives for over-treatment are potentially higher, C-section rates were higher than 20% in nearly 85% of the districts in the country. In public institutions, C-sections rates were more varied.

In several districts in South India, we found high rates of caesarean deliveries even in public institutions. For instance, C-section rates in public institutions were higher than 20% in all the districts of Telangana, which is a rare example of extremely high C-section deliveries overall.

C-section rates proxy of healthcare system performance

India spent 1.4% of its gross domestic product on public healthcare in 2014. In comparison, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 35 advanced economies, spent an average of 7.7%. Low spending could be one reason behind the poor health outcomes in India compared to other countries.

The answer to this is not a blanket approach of investing in healthcare facilities and personnel. The outcome budget of the ministry of health and family welfare follows this as a solution with an overarching emphasis on quantity: the underlying assumption being that more public health facilities would lead to increased access to public facilities, which would be followed by more people accessing public facilities, and eventually better health outcomes.

There is a need to indulge in preliminary diagnostics to determine site-specific needs and strategies. One way to approach a diagnosis of Indias ailing public healthcare system is to identify cases where outcomes vary widely. The extent to which C-section is available and availed by women is a good proxy of the performance of the healthcare system.

Challenges in the low C-section districts are quite different from those with very high rates, and the healthcare policy should reflect such differences. For districts with low rates, there is a possible case for greater investments in public healthcare infrastructure and facilities, and more qualified medical personnel.

It is not clear if this approach would be appropriate for some of the regions with high C-section rates. For one, it ignores the critical role of the private sector, which is the more dominant health service provider in India.

Across India, for treatment of most ailments, citizens prefer private healthcare service providers approximately 70% of the time, an analysis of National Sample Survey Round 71 data shows. When asked why they chose a private facility over a public facility, the dominant response was the quality of facilities, which is not satisfactory in public institutions.

More appropriate solutions for these areas could be to invest more in quality of care rather than quantity, and to design regulatory frameworks to ensure that healthcare institutionsboth public and privateare held more accountable.

There is a need to better understand the landscape before indulging in target-oriented policy design and solutions. While there are data to understand the problemsthat are different in different regions of the countrythere is a need for more information to decipher the underlying factors driving these differences.

For instance, there are not enough data that can help us gauge quality of care, without which we do not have a clear sense of what drives perception of quality. Building on that, we will need more robust evidence on what works in different contexts.

Cross-country and cross-region lessons in attempts to improve overall quality of healthcare can serve as preliminary evidence to determine the direction in which investments in the health sector in India. Only then can we be sure that we get the most out of our limited resources.

(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.)
Chinas official media on Tuesday denounced groundless reports by a section of Pakistani news outlets claiming the death of 158 Indian soldiers in attacks by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) amid a military standoff along the border with Sikkim.

According to Dunya News, a 24-hours Urdu language news service in Pakistan, the Indian soldiers were killed, and several others were injured, on Monday in a Chinese rocket attack across the border.

Indias external affairs ministry on Monday denied the report, calling it malicious propaganda.

A day later, Chinas official and mainstream media denied the report.

Chinese mainstream media outlets on Tuesday denounced Pakistani medias groundless report, which claims that over 150 Indian soldiers were killed in Sikkim due to a Chinese rocket attack, the Peoples Daily online said.

According to an investigative report released by the Peoples Daily on Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in India had noticed the report and has denounced its authenticity. Some Pakistani media outlets claim that the fake news is based on unverified information from social media and the Internet, the PD article said.

The nationalistic tabloid Global Times also published a report on Tuesday, calling the Pakistani media report groundless and fake.

Several other news portals on social media published reports, denying the story.

A report in the Chinese version of the Global Times pointed out that the photographs carried with Pakistani media story were from conflict in the Kashmir region.

On Monday, MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said such reports are utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous. No cognisance should be taken of them by responsible media.

Border troops from India and China are locked in standoff near the Sikkim border for about a month. But it has not escalated into exchange of fire.

China has blamed New Delhi for the ongoing Donglang (Doklam) impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan.

Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Donglang before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who filed his nomination on Tuesday as the vice presidential candidate of 18 opposition parties, said he believes death penalty belongs to the medieval ages and its wrong.

Gandhis statement came amid allegations by Shiv Sena that he had opposed 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memons death sentence.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had said on Monday: Even after the plotters of the Mumbai 1993 blasts were given capital punishment, some people tried their best to get the death sentence commuted and show leniency. Gopalkrishna Gandhi was one of them. I think the Congress party is insulting the country by nominating such a person to a constitutional post.

But the former West Bengal governor cleared his stand on Tuesday, saying: I believe death penalty belongs to the medieval ages. Its wrong. My views inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkakar.

Gandhi said such an allegation was expected from the Shiv Sena.

Yes, I had also written to Pakistan PM demanding that he should not hang Kulbhushan Jadhav, Gandhi said after filing papers for the vice-presidential election.

He said he is an ordinary citizen, and not associated with any party.

My views are my own. I am not here to oppose any person or party, here with all humility to place before electors, the aspirations of citizens.

The former West Bengal governor said there is a peoples faith in politics has diminished and collapsed. I would like to see a revival of that, he said.
The Delhi high court sought response of the Centre on a plea against imposition of 12% GST on sanitary napkins.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar also issued notices to the Finance Ministry and the Goods and Services Tax Council directing them to file their counter in the matter.

The bench was of the view that the issue needs to be examined, therefore, the authorities need to justify their stand in their counter affidavit.

The court has fixed the matter for hearing on November 15.

The petition filed by Zarmina Israr Khan, who is a PhD scholar in African studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, challenged the levying of 12% GST on sanitary napkins, terming it illegal and unconstitutional.

She claimed that the petition has been filed for the benefit of women in general, particularly those belonging to the lower economic strata of society.

The plea filed through advocate Amit George sought quashing of the imposition of 12% GST on sanitary napkins, and declaring them to be liable to a nil rate or a reduced rate.

The plea alleged that 12% slab on sanitary napkins, a shade lower than 13.7% in the previous indirect tax regime, is ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary which has witnessed strong dissent and calls for corrective action from individuals and organizations across the country.

The petition said that the government had exempted goods like kajal, kumkum, bindis, sindur, alta, plastic and glass bangles, hearing aids, passenger baggage, puja samagri of all kinds, and all types of contraceptives, including condoms, from the purview of taxation but not extended the exemption to sanitary napkins which are essential for the health of women.

The government has grouped sanitary napkins with toys, leather goods, roasted coffee, mobile phones and processed foods amongst others for the imposition of a GST rate of 12% under the present tax regime. Such an action/omission is palpably arbitrary and unreasonable, it said.
A dengue outbreak has killed at least 21 in Kerala in the last three weeks, a government official said on Tuesday, adding that there was a shortage of medicines and health workers to tackle the crisis in the tourist hot spot.

The mosquito-borne dengue virus, which causes flu-like symptoms and can develop into the deadly haemorrhagic dengue fever, has infected more than 11,000 people in Kerala since May, forcing the state to buy hospital beds and cancel medical staff leave.

We are staring at a massive health crisis, Keralas director of health services, RL Sarita, told Reuters on Tuesday. Theres a shortage of medicines and health professionals to tackle the situation.

Dengue cases  found in the worlds tropical and subtropical regions  have increased 30-fold over 50 years, according to the World Health Organisation. Up to 100 million infections occur annually in more than 100 endemic countries.

Sarita said more than 40,000 people were suffering from high fever in the state and that the government was planning to set up emergency medical camps in schools and temples.

With its sweeping coastline, riverboats and tea plantations, Kerala has become a leading tourist destination in India, promoting itself as Gods Own Country.

But experts say stagnant water left behind after torrential rains was contributing to the spread of dengue. Authorities said they were trying to prevent breeding of mosquitoes by insecticide fogging, a common sight in Indian cities including New Delhi notorious for open garbage dumps.

Patients are lying in (hospital) corridors and availing treatment. The situation looks really bad, said a health professional at a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
India should get ready for an all-out confrontation along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary with China, the countrys state media said on Tuesday, threatening to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries.

China isnt afraid to go to war with India and will be ready for a long-term confrontation, the Global Times comment piece said.

The threat of new geographical points of conflict being opened up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) comes amid the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) recently carrying out live-fire drills in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) close to Arunachal Pradesh, claimed by China as part of south Tibet.

Read more: India rejects malicious Pakistani media report of soldier deaths in Chinese attack

The continuing hostile posturing by Chinas state-controlled media is a crucial aspect of Beijings overall aggressive stand taken on the ongoing military impasse at Donglang across the Sikkim border.

China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC, the nationalistic tabloid, Global Times, said in a comment piece on Tuesday. China doesnt advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesnt fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation, it added.

Affiliated to the Communist Party of China (CPC) mouthpiece, Peoples Daily, the Global Times has been on the forefront of Chinese medias editorial attack on India. Its battle-plan is short and simple  obfuscate New Delhis points of view on the current impasse and peddle Chinas deliberately one-sided view of the situation.

For one, the GT article claimed that since the 1962 war, it is only India that has provoked China along the border, conveniently not mentioning the incursions made by the PLAs border troops over the decades.

The 3,500-kilometer border has never been short of disputes. Since the 1962 border war, the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations. China must be prepared for future conflicts and confrontation. China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), wrote GTs Duo Mu in the newspaper.

If India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage in a competition with India over economic and military resources deployment in the border area, the newspaper wrote.

The article mentioned Chinas superior military and economic infrastructure in the Sino-India border region, and how thats an advantage.

With growing national strength, China is capable of deploying resources in remote border areas. It is conducive to the economic growth of these regions, as well as to safeguarding integration of Chinas territory. Road and rail in the Tibetan area have been extended close to the border area with India, Nepal and Bhutan. Its a competition of military strength, as well as a competition of overall economic strength, it said.

The author said in China there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the countrys sovereignty, while Indian public opinion is clamoring for war with China. However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiraling out of control.

China has blamed India for the ongoing Donglang (Doklam) impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan.

Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Donglang before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India.
The Karnataka government has appointed retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar to probe into the alleged special treatment meted out to AIADMK (Amma) leader VK Sasikala and other erroneous practises in the central jail in Bengaluru.

Kumar was appointed by the government for the probe after D Roopa, shunted out as DIG (Prisons) on Monday, highlighted in a report the alleged special privileges given to Sasikala and others inside Parapana Agrahara Central Jail.

The home department had issued notification (to start a probe) in this regard yesterday itself, Kumar told PTI.

He, however, refused to divulge the deadline given by the government to finish the probe and submit the report.

I will not be providing any more details, but will come before the media if required, Kumar added.

Kumar had met Home Secretary Subhash Chandra yesterday, an official said.

Kumar is in possession of the report submitted by Roopa, who had alleged irregularities and destruction of evidence, the official also said adding that Kumar has also been given the copies of the show-cause notices issued to the officials for the alleged lapses.

The government had yesterday transferred Roopa and asked DGP (Prisons) HN Sathyanarayana Rao to go on compulsory leave after they sparred over a report on the allegations in public.

The government also shifted Bengaluru central jail chief superintendent Krishna Kumar, who had also been blamed in the report by Roopa for alleged illegal activities in the prison.

Roopas transfer had stirred a huge controversy with the Opposition slamming the decision.

The issue figured in Parliament today when BJP members from Karnataka were seen holding placards asking the Karnataka government to protect honest officers.

In a report submitted on July 12 to Rao, Roopa had said there was a talk that Rs two crore had exchanged hands to give preferential treatment to Sasikala and there were allegations against him also.

Rao had rubbished the charges as absolutely false, baseless and wild.

Roopa had also said a special kitchen was functioning in the jail for Sasikala in violation of the prison rules.

Sasikala is lodged at Parappana Agrahara central prison here ever since her conviction in February in the disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, all serving a 4-year jail term.
Facebook plans to add 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities in India in the next six months as part of its Boost Your Business programme to help them scale up their businesses, its top executive said in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

The social network company has tied up with Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) to train people to achieve the target.

The initiative was launched on Tuesday at EDII by chief minister Vijay Rupani.

Our Boost Your Business initiative was launched in 2015, but with EDII, we plan to go to 20 states and 100 cities in the next six months in its first phase, expanding five times than what we have achieved so far, said Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia.

Mehta said apart from EDII, Facebook will also continue to take up other initiatives to connect people through Facebook to help them do business.

The programme is designed to equip small and medium businesses with the knowledge, skill and technology to stay innovative and increase markets across globally, he said.

Mehta said the programme is part of Facebooks public partnership policy, and aimed at giving back to the community.

They (businesses) see a measurable difference (when connected to Facebook). First, the cost of business goes down. The service is free (setting up a Facebook page is free, communicating with your customer is free, and reaching new customers is free). Money that you spend on marketing can be spent on other things, like improving your business, scaling your business, hiring more people, he said.

Secondly, it is essentially allowing you to reach a lot more customers. Facebook allows you to reach out to expand nationally and internationally, he added.

India has 201 million active people on Facebook, with 95% of them accessing it on the mobile. Globally, over 65 business million SMBs have pages on Facebook, and 57% people on Facebook in India are connected to at least one small business, the company said.
Fake currency having face-value of over Rs 11.23 crore was detected in 29 states post demonetisation, the government informed the parliament on Tuesday.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, finance minister Arun Jaitley also said a mobile app was recently launched by the Reserve Bank which allows users to see the features of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.

The users can check authenticity of the new notes using the app, which can be downloaded from the Play Store in Android phones or App Store in iPhones.

Citing data of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the minister said 1,57,797 number of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), having face-value of over 11.23 crore has been detected in 29 states post demonetisation until July 14.

In a surprise move, the government had scrapped high currency notes from November 9, 2016 with an aim to check fake currency, terror financing and black money.

Later, the Reserve Bank issued new Rs 500 and also Rs 2,000 notes in Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series.

Jaitley also said banks are under instruction to display design and security features of all the bank notes prominently at the branches for information of the public.
Foreign secretary S Jaishankar will brief the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs on the issue of the Sino-India standoff at the border tri-junction with Bhutan on Tuesday.

The foreign secretary along with other senior officials will brief the panel of which is chaired by Congress member of parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor and also has party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as a member.

There has been tension in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese army construction party attempted to build a road there.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region, which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

The government has restored a crucial senior-level post in the Sino-India border guarding force ITBP after three years, a development seen as strengthening the paramilitary.

1986-batch Indian Police Service officer R K Mishra today took over as the new additional director general (ADG) of the about 90,000 personnel strong force. The lone ADG post of the ITBP was diverted to the NDRF in February, 2014 by the Union home ministry.
To avoid beef shortage in Goa, chief minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said the BJP-led government had kept open its option of importing it from Karnataka.

Parrikar told the Goa assembly: We have not closed the option to stop getting meat from Belgaum (in Karnataka) to ensure that there is no shortage.

I can assure you that inspection of beef from the neighbouring state will be done by a proper and authorised medical doctor, and not others, he said in response to a question by BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral.

Parrikar also said around 2,000 kg of beef was slaughtered daily at the states only legal abattoir, the Goa Meat Complex, at Ponda, around 40 km from here.

The rest (of the beef demand) is met by Karnataka, Parrikar said. The government does not have any intention to restrict bringing animals for slaughter at the Goa Meat Complex from the neighbouring state.

Beef is commonly consumed in the states tourism belt as well as by Goas minorities, which account for more than 30% of the states population.
For a region that has emerged as the epicentre of a new-age militancy, south Kashmirs Tral saw hundreds gather on Tuesday to pay their last respects to an Indian soldier killed by Pakistani forces.

Naik Mudassar Ahmad was one of two casualties  the other a five-year-old girl  when Pakistani soldiers opened fire across the Line of Control in Poonch district, the latest in a series of ceasefire violations that has the Jammu and Kashmir region on edge.

His home is less than two kilometres from the school of Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant whose death last year plunged Kashmir into one of its worst periods of unrest that has claimed at least 100 civilian lives.

The high school in which Burhan studied is just two km from here. His family home is perhaps six km and even Sabzar Bhats village is very near, says Shahid Ahmed, a class 10 student and a relative of Mudassars who had come to attend the funeral in Mudassars ancestral home in Buchoo village in Tral.

Bhat, killed in May this year, was widely seen as Wanis successor.

On Tuesday morning, Naik Mudassars wife Shahina and his mother Hafiza wept loudly under a tarpaulin sheet erected as a shelter for the scores of women mourners. Shahina shouted slogans against Pakistan, rare for a village where militants like Wani are looked up to.

Mudassars father, Mohammad Afzal Rather, sat with a group of men in the sitting room. He had last come home on July 3, said Afzal, visibly holding back his tears. A relative next to him pointed at a photo of the soldier on the shelf and ask, Is this an age to die?

Bad weather over the Pir Panjal mountain range thwarted attempts to airlift Mudassars body. Till the time the report was filed, the funeral had not taken place.

As the rest of the family anxiously waited for the body, Mudassar and Shahinas children  Burhan (7) and Mehram (4)  were playing with neighbourhood children, oblivious to their fathers death. Burhan has still not understood that his father is no more, a relative said.

Mudassars home in Buchoo village of Tral adjoins vast forest areas dotted by streams where locals often report militant presence. Almost every pillar or electricity post carries graffiti such as: Burhan is our hero.

But, villagers say, many locals are also enlisted in the forces, including army and police. Mudassars brother Farooq Ahmad, for instance, is serving in the Army.

Many residents of villages in Tral are in the armed forces because they see it as a good source of livelihood, a stable income. As far as political ideology is concerned, that depends on the individual and each one alone can answer for himself, said Ashiq Hussain, a teacher at a local government college.

Hussain adds that although a strong secessionist sentiment runs through the area, the families of soldiers have never suffered any social discrimination by society.

He was vindicated by the turnout at Mudassars home.

Shahid, a student at the Government Higher Secondary School Dardsara  the one Wani went to before he took to the militancy  said the conflict seems to claim only Kashmiri blood.

Everywhere only Kashmiris are killed in this conflict -- be it the militants, the cops, soldiers on the border, or civilians. When will this bloodshed end?

Shahids uncle Nasir Ahmed is in the army and serves on a border front in the Jammu region, not far from where Mudassar was killed.

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An Indo-Russian joint venture to manufacture 200 Kamov military helicopters in India under a $1 billion deal has been registered in India and it will finalise the delivery schedule and the number of units, officials from Russian Helicopters, part of State Corporation Rostec, said.

Interacting with a select group of journalists on the sidelines of the International Air show MAKS in Moscow, Rostecs Director of International Cooperation and Regional Policy Victor N Kladov said the joint venture is now final and further negotiations will be done by this joint venture company in which India has 50.5% stake while Russia has 49.5%.

The India-Russia joint venture got the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin in April this year.

Around 40-60 of the 200 helicopters will be supplied from Russia in a knock-down kit state, to be assembled in India, and rest will be made in India. The extent of transfer of technology will be discussed by the JV.

The inter-government agreement was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Russia in December 2015.

In October last year, India and Russia finalised a broad agreement for the JV between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Russian Helicopters and Rosoboronexport.

The Kamov choppers will replace the aging fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters in India.

We are very happy that the joint venture is final. Everything is now in the hands of the joint venture, Kladov said.

He added that the JV was registered in India as India has major share -- 50.5%, in the venture.

The schedule of delivery and localisation as well as the terms and the number of units will be finalised by the JV.
China s criticism of India over the standoff in Sikkim sector continued unabated on Tuesday, with the foreign ministry saying New Delhi should withdraw troops from Donglang region to prevent any escalation and not adopt illegal trespass as a policy to achieve its political targets.

The foreign ministry said the impasse had attracted the world communitys attention and indicated that members of the diplomatic corps in Beijing had been updated about the standoff.

The illegal trespass by the Indian border personnel has drawn extensive attention from the international community and many foreign diplomatic missions in China said they were shocked by this, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a regular news briefing.

We also stressed that the facts are very clear in this incident. The Sikkim section in the China-India boundary is mutually recognised by the two sides. This time, the Indian border personnel illegally trespassed into Chinese territory, he said.

Since the illegal trespass, many diplomats in China felt shocked and (wanted) to confirm whether it was true from the Chinese sidethe Chinese side maintained close communication (with the diplomats), he added. We stressed that the Indian side should not take the trespass as a policy to reach its political targets.

China hopes India gets a clear understanding of the current situation and takes immediate (steps to) bring back the personnel who illegally crossed the border to avoid escalation, Lu said.

Beijing has already made it clear that there is no room for negotiations to resolve the military impasse near the Sikkim border and India must withdraw its troops to end the standoff.

A commentary by the official Xinhua news agency last week said India would face embarrassment if does not withdraw its troops to its own side of the frontier and the situation could get worse.

It further said India had lied to the world by saying it dispatched troops to help it ally Bhutan, whereas apparently Thimphu had sent no such invitation to New Delhi for help.

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, the commentary said.

Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a standoff in the Donglang or Doklam region at the tri-junction of the boundaries of India, Bhutan and China since June 16. India has said its troops acted in coordination with the Bhutan government to oppose the construction of a road by Chinese troops in the strategic region. Donglang is under the control of the Chinese though the area is claimed by Bhutan.
India participated in the fourth Joint International Taskforce on Shared Intelligence and Collaboration (JITSIC) meeting reconvened in Paris to pursue work on Panama Papers in the last week of June 2017, officials said on Tuesday.

Based on legal instruments under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Council of Europe Multilateral Convention and tax treaties, a number of countries shared information in confidential competent authorities sessions, on structures that facilitate, enable and promote tax avoidance/evasion. India also shared its experience in this regard, the Indian finance ministry said in a statement.

Collaboration with JITSIC has been useful for India in its fight against offshore tax evasion, the statement noted.

Demonstrating the value and strength of JITSIC, 30 project participant countries have continued to exchange, analyse and act on information about taxpayers and intermediaries connected to law firm Mossack Fonseca.

In the past six months, more than 570 requests for information have been sent to 32 countries. India has also sent several requests for information to various jurisdictions in the Panama Paper cases since the last meeting in January 2017, it said.

JITSIC members have established the capability to allow for fast, effective and coordinated multilateral responses to any future data leaks and are sharing the same.

The joint international taskforce will continue to identify more arrangements as countries continue their investigations and share intelligence and new data comes to light, it said.
India and the UK have discussed the issues that affect the extradition of fugitives across the board and the problems faced due to delays by British authorities in granting visas to Indians, including students.

The issues were raised with British authorities by Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who was in the UK as part of the India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue, which concluded on Monday.

Asked if the extradition of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi were raised specifically with the UK, Mehrishi said the issues that affect extradition across the board were discussed, rather than specific cases.

Mr Mallyas case is sub-judice. The issues around extradition discussed during the meetings only focused on any difficulties that may arise in extradition cases in general, he said at the Indian High Commission at the end of his week-long visit.

Mallya, the 61-year-old former chief of the now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines, has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18. The airliner owes nearly Rs 9,000 crore to various Indian banks.

Out on a bail, he is fighting the extradition case in a UK court. He had fled India on March 2 last year.

And Modi, also said to be in the UK, is wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a money laundering case.

India and Britain have an extradition treaty, signed in 1992, but so far only one extradition has taken place under the arrangement - that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel.

During the talks Mehrishi held in the UK, India raised the issue of visa problems faced by Indians, including delays in student visa decisions, the high amount charged for the UK visas and the lengthy waiting period for Indian tourist visas.

The issue of women abandoned by Indian-origin and NRI spouses from the UK back in India was also raised by India and it was agreed that follow-up meetings on that would take place next week with senior Indian High Commission diplomats.

The Union home secretary held talks with Brandon Lewis, UK minister for immigration and others over the past week, most of which are not in the public domain.

The UK raised the issue of illegal Indian immigrants overstaying in the UK.

Approximately, the UK has been able to identify in the region of about 1,000 illegal immigrants from India a year. We made it clear that it is a matter of policy for India that anybody identified as an Indian who is illegally in the UK, we will expedite his or her return, Mehrishi said.

The only issue is about cross-checks and time taken because sometimes illegal immigrants, understandably, destroy their documents and therefore identifying them as Indians takes a lot of time, he said.

The India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue was set up during UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays visit to India in November 2016.

The first meeting under the process took place in New Delhi in May and the meeting in London was co-chaired by Mehrishi with UK Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam.
Kudos to Reed Galen  a lifelong Republican, veteran of three presidential campaigns, son of former Republican operative Rich Galen  for articulating the obvious truths that his cowardly party breathren loath to admit.

After hearing the bombshell news that dim princeling Donald Trump Jr. gleefully emailed I love it at the prospect of getting Russian intel about Hillary, and took the meeting with Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort, Galen cut loose.

The Republican Party I was born into and worked in for two decades is nearly gone...Far from (advocating) a strong national defense, far too many members of the GOP appear ready and willing to die on the hill for a president who certainly would not do the same for them, Galen wrote. How long will Republican leaders on Capitol Hill continue to defend the president, his family, and the strange actions related to one of our foremost foreign opponents?...How much longer will they man the ramparts for him?

How much longer indeed. Because even now, even after top Trumpsters have finally been caught copping to collusion with the enemy, elected Republican leaders are still refusing to speak out. Whats their definition of a smoking guna video of Trump sleeping with Putins hackers?

What we got from senators of the party that once prided itself for being tough on Russia was denialism and silence. Orrin Hatch said the emails are not relevant to the administration. John Cornyn, the Republican whip, said, I dont really have a reaction. Tom Cotton took refuge behind a closed door. Charles Grassley tried to praise Jr. for releasing the emails, somehow forgetting that he released the emails only because The New York Times was poised to do it first, and that Juniors coerced transparency came after two days of lies about his meeting with the Kremlin-connected lawyer.

Basically, theyre still fine with Russia penetrating our sovereignty, and with Russias chumps running the White House into the ground, as long as they can cling to their wet dream of getting Trumps signature on a bill that slashes taxes for the wealthy and zaps health coverage for 20 million people.

Politically, Republicans do have a dilemma. If they stood tall and denounced Trump, and called for the impeachment proceedings that are so richly warranted, the Trumpkins back home would go bat-crazy. Theyd stay home in the 2018 congressional midterms, convinced that Trump was being railroaded by the Republican establishment. If I were to give Republican leaders the benefit of the doubt, Id guess that theyre waiting for a sufficient share of Trumpkins to wake up to reality  something that could conceivably happen when the revelations become too explosive to dismiss.

As Reed Galen acknowledges, Only when the questions shift from, How can you take away my healthcare? to How can you support a president in league with the Russians? will we start to see any movement. Only when their home town newspapers, television and radio stations and local grandees start calling them out for their defense of indefensible behavior will Republican members stand up.

It would be nicer, of course, if Republican leaders behaved like leaders instead of followers. And there are plenty of people in the conservative commentariat to help stiffen their spines. On Fox News, right-wing pundit Charles Krauthammer remarked on Donald Juniors emails: To say I love it contradicts six months of stories (denying any links to Russia). I defended them because, up until today, there was no there there. Now there is a there.

Do Republicans on the Hill not think its significant that Trumps eldest son took the meeting, and brought two other insiders to the meeting, without having checked out and vetted the Russian with whom they were meeting? In Juniors own words, he was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand. Thats worse than amateur hour; thats a security risk. What a disgrace that no Republican yesterday saw fit to condemn it.

And whos filling their moral vaccum? Trump. He tweeted madly this morning, most notably this gem: Remember, when you hear the words sources say from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist. Alas, his tiresome agitprop has been trumped by the words of his high-quality son.

All told, says Reed Galen, Every new angry tweetstorm pushes us further down the road to instability. President Trump is facing a crisis likely of his own making and certainly of his own behavior. Republicans need to be Americans first and tell him enough is enough: Put the country first; or let someone govern who will.

Country first. At the end of the day, how is that not a no-brainer?
Indias standoff with China at Doklam is casting a shadow on the cross-border trade through the Shipkila pass in the tribal Kinnaur district.

The inordinate delay in giving a green signal to the annual trade that usually starts in July has left the local traders worried. The trade usually commences in the first week of July. But this year, the traders have not been given the security clearances so far, complained Shar Chander Negi, general manager of General Industries Corporation, Kinnaur.

This year, a total of 82 traders, most of them local villagers, had applied for trade passes. Trade at the Shipkila officially starts in mid July but it picks up pace in August after the locals are free from apple harvest, but so far the government has not issued any security passes to us, says Hishey Negi, president of Kinnaur Indo-China Trade Association.

Traders are sent to security agencies through the office of the tehsildar at Pooh in Kinnaur. Till 2012, the trade passes were issued by the Himachal polices Crime Investigation Department but now it is the central agencies that give clearance to the traders .

The trade between the two countries opened in 1994 after India and China signed a bilateral protocol. The trade is carried through the 18,599-foot-high Shipkila pass connecting India and China. Himachals Kinnaur and Lahual Spiti districts share 280 kms of border with China.

Indians trade in items such as agricultural implements, blankets, copper products, clothes, textiles, cycles, coffee, tea, barley, rice, flour, dry fruit, dry and fresh vegetables, vegetable oil, jaggery and tobacco. They return with items like jackets. Earlier, they also used to bring livestock from China, but it was banned in 1992 due to lack of quarantine facilities. The traders have been repeatedly urging the Centre to create more facilities at the Namgya trading point in India.

Traditionally, trade with Tibet was carried out through barter system. But in 2013, the central government added more items to the trading list, which resulted in a quantum leap in trade, which touched 7.32 crore. The highest trade was recorded in 2105 when the total revenue exceeded 9.38 crore. The demonetisation drive by the Modi Government last year, however, had hit the cross-border trade adversely.

What is peculiar about this trade that only Indian traders visit Shipki village in China. After trade was resumed in 1994, no Chinese trader has visited the Namgya village. Tibetan writer and freedom activist Tenzin Tsudenue says it could be because Chinese who come to India are spied upon when they return. Pooh tehsildhar Rajiv Verma says, So far, we have not understood the reasons for the Chinese not visiting India.

Year Number of traders

2012 -- 54

2013 -- 74

2014 -- 115

2015 -- 98

2016 -- 96

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At a time when the Islamic State is being squeezed out of its strongholds such as Mosul in Iraq, members and supporters of the group have stepped up efforts to gain a toehold in India by creating a group focussed on Jammu and Kashmir.

The group  Ansarul Khilafah Jammu Kashmir  has an active channel on the encrypted messaging service Telegram that is used to disseminate the usual IS propaganda along with manuals for making weapons and planning and carrying out attacks.

In recent weeks, the channel has featured a call to Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel to defy their officers and direct their weapons at the enemy of Muslims and Islam. On July 5, the group put out detailed instructions on how IS supporters on the ground in Kashmir and present at the clashes against the Enemies of Islam could prepare for attacks.

Read more: Playing the oppression card: How Islamic State is radicalising youth in India

On Monday, the group put out instructions in Hindi on how attacks could be carried out with large trucks, such as the ones in Nice, France and the German capital Berlin last year, along with potential targets.

The groups emergence has coincided with the increasing adoption of Islamic State banners and flags by disaffected youngsters of Kashmir during the unrest that followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani a year ago.

Indian security officials insist the IS has no real presence in the Kashmir Valley and they also point to the fact that the group has not so far claimed responsibility for an attack anywhere in India. However, they acknowledge the group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has no dearth of sympathisers, including in Kashmir.

Read more: Kashmiri mans plan to join Islamic State foiled, deported from Turkey

Amarnath Amarasingam, a senior research fellow at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue who is one of the worlds leading experts in tracking the IS online activity, told Hindustan Times the terror group definitely has an interest in South Asia, and is trying to plant a stronger hold there.

An Islamic State banner.

Whether it happens is another matter. The interest in Kashmir is very old amongst jihadists, just like their interest in Palestine is old. For them, anywhere they see Muslims suffering is a potential theatre of jihad, a place to send help and fight back, he said.

Read more: Why Indian Muslims feel shaken and harassed

There is a precedent of IS-linked terrorists in India forming a group named Ansarul Khilafah (soldiers of the caliphate). Last October, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) busted a group of six men from Keralas Kannur district who formed Ansarul Khilafah Kerala and were using Telegram to coordinate and plot IS-style attacks. The men, led by Manseed alias Omar al-Hindi, were reportedly radicalised online.

Amarasingam said such groups are usually a mixture of IS members based in countries such as Syria and disparate sympathisers. Some groups definitely have people who are in direct communication with IS operatives in Syria, and they often transfer money, share logistics and tactics, and also communicate attack claims for IS to release. Other groups are strictly made up of fanboys, he added.

On Sunday, the Telegram channel of Ansarul Khilafah Jammu Kashmir was replete with tributes to Sajad Gilkar, a slain terrorist whose body was wrapped in the IS flag at his funeral in Srinagar on Wednesday. It featured a photo of Gilkar standing before a brick wall with the graffiti ISIS Town and described him as a mujahid who lived by the flag of tawhid (the doctrine of monotheism that defines Islam) even though say he was linked to Hizbul Mujahideen.

Read more: Wedding on mobile phone: How an IS man courted a medical student from UP



Since the group was created on Telegram on June 2, it has shared among its more than 100 members a number of manuals that provide information on handling weapons commonly used by terrorists, such as AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and on making suicide vests and car bombs. These include the Open Source Jihad Trainer and the Book of Terror.

Other material shared with the aim of inspiring attacks was footage from high-profile terrorist assaults around the world, including CCTV footage from inside the Taj Hotel during the carnage in Mumbai in November 2008.

In its instructions for IS supporters on the ground in Kashmir to organise themselves for attacks, there was a call for uniting all groups under one banner and choosing an ameer (leader).

The instructions included assigning tasks among members, including the mujahid (fighters), a medical man capable of dealing with injuries, scouts to carry out assessments before and after attacks, members who could raise funds without raising attention and media man, who takes photos or videos of the attack (make sure to blur faces of fellow brothers) and propagate the material on social media.

In another message posted on July 7, the group called on Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel to distance yourselves from aiding Kuffar and their agents with Muslim names (CM etc and your officers) and declare your disobedience to the commands of the taghut (your leaders and officers).

Read more: Kerala man who joined Islamic State killed in Afghanistan

It also called on the police not to target terrorists and, using Quranic verses, asked them direct their weapons at the enemy of Muslims and Islam.

Amarasingam believes law enforcement should take online communities such as Ansarul Khilafah Jammu and Kashmir pretty seriously.

Sometimes they are small, but that doesnt mean these groups are not made up of committed followers. If they are already sharing attack logistics and bomb-making materials, its only a matter of time before someone takes these tips and carries out something. I would hope that law enforcement has infiltrated these online spaces, but in my experience, thats not always the case, he said.

Animesh Roul, executive director of Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict, a New Delhi-based think tank, said there were indications of several fringe groups in Kashmir that subscribed to the caliphate and its ideals. There was also the possibility, he said, of Pakistan trying to inject new groups into the Kashmir theatre in the name of IS.

We dont know their actual strengthA large coordinated attack needs a lot of planning and that may not be immediate. But we need to be careful as the IS does have sympathisers in India and their ideology is expanding as the group looks to spread elsewhere after the fall of strongholds like Mosul, Roul said.

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An Army jawan was killed as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmirs Kupwara district on Tuesday, officials said.

Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on the forward positions along the LoC in Naugam sector, killing the Indian soldier, an army official said.

He said troops guarding the LoC fired in retaliation to silence the Pakistani guns and an exchange of firing between the two sides was continuing when the last reports were received.

It was not immediately known of the Pakistani side suffered any retaliatory action, the official said.

This was the third major ceasefire violation by Pakistan in north Kashmir during the past week.

On July 12, two soldiers  Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat  were killed when they were targeted by Pakistani troops while manning forward posts in Keran sector of Kupwara district.

Another jawan was injured when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Kamalkote area of Uri sector in Baramulla district on Monday.

There were several ceasefire violations by the Pakistan army during the day. Civilian areas and Indian positions along the LOC were targeted by the Pakistani army which fired mortar shells in various sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate.

India had on Monday told Pakistan that it reserves the right to retaliate appropriately against any incident of ceasefire violation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jharkhand Police which detained six men in Giridh on Tuesday  one for allegedly desecrating a temple and five for rioting in retaliation - claimed that the quick action prevented the desecration from snowballing into a possible conflagration.

Tension had been simmering in Keswari village in Giridh district, about 180 km from the state capital Ranchi after miscreants vandalized a Durga idol in a temple late Monday night. The desecration was the second such incident in less than a week in Jharkhand.

Irate villagers set several poultry shops ablaze in retaliation as the news spread.

On Tuesday, police detained 45-year-old Sikandar Ansari for allegedly vandalizing the temple. Biltu Thakur, Birju Rana, Vikash Rana, Gopi Paswan and Ajay Yadav were detained for rioting, sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Deepak Sharma told HT.

Sharma said the situation was now under control and over 250 policemen have been deployed in the affected area to prevent any likely clashes.

Read more: Jharkhands Hazaribagh tense after mentally-ill man vandalises temple

We have had a meeting with the senior members of both the communities and requested them to maintain peace, he said.

Earlier on July 14, a Shiva temple was vandalized by a Muslim man in Hazaribag. It sparked communal clashes at four different locations in the district. Police said the accused who is now in jail, was mentally challenged. However, medical reports are yet to prove his mental disorder.

Police personnel deployed in Keswari village in Giridh district to maintain peace. (HT PHOTO)

The Hazaribag police also made 23 arrests in connection with the case on Monday. Hazaribag superintendent of police Anup Birthare said that a majority of the arrested men  from the both communities - were in the age group of 18 to 22 years. They have been charged with rioting and disrupting communal harmony, he added.

More than five incidents of communal tension have been reported from different parts of Jharkhand in the past one month.

The BJP government in the state has been taking several initiatives, including externment of rumour mongers from their respective districts in a bid to avert communal clashes.

A few ministers in the Raghubar Das government have said that a well-planned nexus of rumour mongers was running in the state to cause unrest.
Karnataka has set up a nine-member panel to study legal provisions of having a state flag, officials said on Tuesday, in a move seen as a political gambit by the Congress government ahead of assembly polls next year.

The only state with a separate flag is Jammu and Kashmir which enjoys special powers under Article 370 of the Constitution. The Centre is also said to be toying with the idea of granting a separate flag to Nagaland under a treaty likely to be signed with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (I-M).

Karnataka has an unofficial red-and-yellow flag which is used for cultural events and as a symbol of Kannada pride.

The move by the Congress government in Karnataka comes amid rising public sentiments against the Centres alleged move to impose Hindi on the Kannada-speaking people of the state.

Officials said the official notification constituting the panel was issued on June 9.

The moves comes at the backdrop of representations made by writer Patil Puttappa and RTI activist Bheemappa Gadad, asking for such a flag.

Gadad, a resident of Belagavi district, said he felt a flag for the state was required because of the alleged disrespect shown to Karnataka by the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti, which has called for the district to be integrated into Maharashtra.

We need a flag for the state to show that this is Karnataka, Gadad said. Our intention is not to demean the national flag. In fact, the national flag is supreme, there is no questioning that, Gadad said.

A defiant chief minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday defended his move.

Is there any provision in the Constitution that prohibits a state from having a flag? Siddaramaiah told reporters.

In 2012, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in the state, the state government had opposed a similar move in an affidavit submitted to the Karnataka high court then, saying that separate flag would undermine the sanctity afforded to the national flag.

Experts HT spoke to, said there was no legal bar on a state flag.

There is no provision either in the Constitution or in the Flag Code that prohibits a state from having a separate official flag, said Alok Prasana Kumar, a Bengaluru-based lawyer, who has also practiced at the Supreme Court.

Kumar said a code for this flag similar to the National Code will require to be passed as a law.

If such a code is planned then it will need the assent of the President. This is because the government will then have to consider the relation of this flag with the national flag.

While Siddarmaiah denied any connection between the decision and the coming assembly elections, political analyst Narendar Pani said it was part of the widespread anger in the state against the Centre.

There has always been an anti-Hindi sentiment here, which boiled over in 1983 during the Gokak agitation, said Pani, a faculty at the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

The Gokak agitation of the 1980s was successful in giving primacy to the Kannada language in the state which had earlier followed a three-language formula that included Hindi and English.

One must realise that this reaction is informed by various factors, including what is seen as injustice being meted out to the state over the Cauvery issue, he added, referring to a decades-old water-sharing dispute with Tamil Nadu.

Pani said for the Congress, the coming elections would be led by Siddarmaiah and the leaders at the district level. In that sense, the national leadership will have little say over these matters, he added.

SG Siddarmaiah, chairman of the Kannada Development Authority and a member of the panel, said the committee was yet to meet.

I have not even received a letter informing me that I am on the committee, so I am pretty certain that it hasnt met, Siddarmaiah added.

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At least two militants were killed when the army challenged a group of infiltrators in Bandipora district of the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday morning, a defence source said.

The exchange of fire began in Gurez sector when the militants were challenged on the Indian side of the LoC, the source said.

The operation against the intruding militants is going on, said the source at 11 am.
A 19-year-old youth, who was taken into custody by police for questioning and later let off, allegedly committed suicide at home in Thrissur district in Kerala on Tuesday, after reportedly being tortured.

The youth, Vinayakan, and his friend had been picked up for questioning when they were talking to a girl on Monday afternoon, relatives said. They were allegedly beaten up and questioned in connection with gold chain thefts in the area.

Police maintained that the duo were picked up as they did not have relevant papers for the motorbike they had. Thrissur police commissioner T Narayanan told PTI that the Guruvayur assistant commissioner of police has been tasked with conducting a probe into the incident.

Only a probe will bring out the truth, Narayanan said.

Vinayakan, who works at a beauty parlour, was also reportedly asked to shave off his long hair. The youth came home and committed suicide by hanging, relatives said.
A Christian priest in Kerala has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor boys of an orphanage for two years, police said on Tuesday.

The victims were staying at Balbhavan in Meenangadi where the priest was working, a police official said.

Fr Saji Joseph, who was allegedly sexually assaulting the boys since March 2015, was arrested following complaints from the relatives of the children, the official said.

He was absconding for the past three days and was arrested from Thamarassery near here on Monday. He hid at various places, including Mangaluru, they said.

The official said Joseph has been charged under section 377 (unanatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

Statements of the children have been taken, the official said.

The priest had gone missing after relatives of the children complained to the police. Childline authorities were also informed.

The priest hails from Kottiyoor in Kannur district.

On February 28, a Catholic priest had been arrested on the charge of sexually abusing a minor girl who later gave birth to a child.

The 48-year-old priest Robin Vadakkancheril was a vicar at the St Sebastians Church in Kottiyoor.
Tempers rose in the upper house on the second day of the monsoon session on Tuesday with BSP chief Mayawati threatening to resign from Rajya Sabha after her speech on atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh was cut short.

If I am not allowed to talk, if I cant represent the section of the society I belong to, then theres no point in staying in the House. I will resign, an angry Mayawati threatened as deputy chairman PJ Kurien stopped her.

Kurien tried to argue that she can only make a demand for a full discussion and cannot make a full speech. But Mayawati refused to budge.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her samaj (community) and the Dalits. I have not finished. You cannot do this.

I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits, she said.

Kurien asked her not to make a full-fledged speech and she can seek a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

I am going to resign from the house, she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of state for Parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challeging the Chair. She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair, he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the well shouting Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (anti-dalit government will not be tolerated).

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.

Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that, he said.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the peoples mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

You didnt get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits, he said adding the Congress was staging a walkout of the House in protest. Congress members then walked out of the House.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well shouting anti-government slogans.

Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

Shouting slogan is no soluition. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start, he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours. (With PTI inputs)

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Jammu and Kashmir Police is probing links of the three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants who were killed in an encounter in Anantnag district in South Kashmir late Monday night.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, IG Kashmir Muneer Khan said that the police were investigating the role of the slain militants in the attack as there was suspicion they were involved in the Amarnath Yatra attack in which seven pilgrims lost their lives.

We are still investigating whether there is any role of these militants in the Amarnath Yatra attack. We cant be firm but there is suspicion, he said.

Nineteen of Indian Armys Rashtriya Rifles and personnel of Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir police had laid an ambush at Sheikh Mohalla-Watergam near Bulbul Nowgam seven kilometres from Anantnag town  during which the militants were spotted in a vehicle.

Police officials said when the men were challenged they started firing at the forces, resulting in the killing.

Three militants  Showket Lohar, Muzaffar Hajam and Naseer Ahmad  all residents of South Kashmir were killed in the ambush.

Senior police officials claimed the militants killed were associates of slain LeT commander Bashir Lashkari alias Okasha who was killed in an encounter early this month at Brenthi-Batpora in Dialgam.

While the LeT had denounced the attack on the yatris and claimed they had no role in the attack, police had claimed that it was Lashkar which had carried out the attack on the bus carrying the pilgrims.

Police sources even suggest that the attack could have been to avenge Lashkaris killing as militants attacked police parties at three different places before attacking the bus carrying the pilgrims. The police had maintained that the pilgrims bus had come under crossfire and was not the target.

Showket Lohar was said to be very close to Bashir Lashkari.

Jammu and Kashmir Police has formed a time-bound Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the attack. The SIT is being headed by DIG South Kashmir, SP Pani.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.(French proverb)

While scanning YouTube videos, I came across an appearance by Ronald Reagan on The Tonight Show, hosted by Johnny Carson. The year was 1975 and Reagan was between jobs, having left office as governor of California, where he served for eight years, but not yet president. He would challenge Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976, barely losing at the nominating convention, but setting himself up for what would be a successful run in 1980.

What fascinates about Reagans appearance with Carson is how little has changed in the intervening 42 years, except some things are worse.

The questions Carson asked Reagan and his responses sound like recent campaigns.

Heres one of Reagans comments on taxes: I still say the answers to our problems in this country ... is to have a law that says there is a percentage limit of the peoples earnings that government cannot go beyond without the consent of the people.

Later he noted that when he and Carson were boys, governments, whether federal, state, or local, were only taking about 15 cents out of every dollar earned. Today theyre taking almost half...

Its gotten worse. Depending on where you live, the combined total of government taxes can exceed 50 percent, including income, sales and hidden taxes. According to the Tax Foundation, the nations leading independent tax policy nonprofit, Americans this year will pay $3.5 trillion in federal taxes and $1.6 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total of $5.1 trillion, or 31 percent of the nations income. Still, governments never have enough of our money. The feds borrow from other governments and the national debt approaches $20 trillion.

In one of his many clever turns of phrases, Reagan told Carson: We live in a country where it takes more brains to figure out your income tax than it does to earn the income.

Then came a line he would use to great benefit when he ran for president in 1980: ...people keep looking to government for the answer and government is the problem. ... Theres very little government can do as efficiently and economically as the people can do themselves...

Reagan added, The biggest problem is that we have built a permanent structure of government  federal, state and local  theyre permanent employees. And theyve come to the place where they actually determine policy in this country more than does the Congress...

At the time, Reagan said there were 14.5 million public employees in the U.S. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2015, there were nearly 22 million government workers. Can anyone claim governments are more efficient and cost-effective because there are more government workers?

Reagan bemoaned the deficit, which then was about $53 billion. Last Friday, the White House said faltering tax revenues will cause the budget deficit to rise to $702 billion this year, $99 billion higher than was predicted in late May.

When Carson asked for his solution, Reagan cracked, I think balancing the budget is like protecting your virtue. You have to learn to say no.

Politicians cant say no to themselves or to petitioners for our tax dollars. They buy loyalty and votes to protect their careers. As Reagan noted and would mention again, people become addicted to government handouts and once addicted embrace the notion of entitlement, losing the virtue of personal responsibility and coming to see government as a first resource, not a last resort.

As the 1975 Reagan interview demonstrates, the problems havent changed because the solutions have not been embraced. Contemporary Republicans should learn lessons from Reagan, but many of them appear too eager to tread water while we sink deeper and deeper into debt and slowly lose our freedoms.
At least 11 persons were killed when an autorickshaw was hit by a speeding bus in Bihars Vaishali district on Tuesday.

The accident took place on national highway (NH)-77 near Sarai Bazar, 32 km north of Patna, when a Sitamarhi-bound bus rammed into the autorickshaw carrying 12 persons.

Vaishali superintendent of police Rakesh Kumar said nine autorickshaw passengers, travelling to Goraul from Hajipur, died on the spot, while two others succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Three injured persons, including the bus driver and a bus passenger, were undergoing treatment at a Hajipur hospital, about 15 km from the accident site, the SP said.

Those killed have been identified as Sanjay Singh , Manju Singh, Gyan Prakash Singh, Mohhmamad Satar, his wife Sakila Begum, Jasomati Devi, Lakhendra Rai, Pramila Devi, Rajmati Devi, Asha Devi, and a seven-month old child Aditya Raj.

Angry over the accident, villagers blocked the highway and demanded compensation for the victims families. The blockade was cleared after Vaishali district magistrate Rachna Patil and the SP assured all assistance to the families of victims.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, has expressed shock over the accident and announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the victims.
India will give medical visa to a man from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) without a request letter from Islamabad, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday, reiterating that the disputed region is an integral part of India.

Swarajs announcement came in response to a plea by a 24-year-old PoK resident, Osama Ali, who appealed to the minister to waive the request letter from Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistan prime ministers advisor on foreign affairs.

Ali, who had been diagnosed with a tumour in the liver, is seeking medical treatment at a private hospital in Delhi.

PoK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required, Swaraj said in a tweet, responding to a report in the Indian Express highlighting Alis dilemma.

The report quoted Alis family as saying that Aziz has refused to write a letter to the Indian government.

PoK, a 13,297-square km area with an estimated population of about four million, is under Pakistans control since 1947 but India says it is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Swarajs tweet came amid heightened tensions between the neighbours, especially over rising militancy and civilian protests in Kashmir which India says are orchestrated by Pakistan.

Though India has been giving medical visa to people from Pakistan, on July 10, Swaraj put out a series of tweets saying the Indian government needs Azizs recommendation for the grant of medical visa to Pakistan nationals.

The precondition was seen as a retaliation to Islamabads refusal to grant visa to the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer sentenced to death on espionage charges.

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, Swaraj wrote.

Expressing sympathies for all Pakistan nationals seeking medical visa for their treatment in India, Swaraj said: I am sure Mr Sartaj Aziz also has consideration for the nationals of his country. I see no reason why should he hesitate to give his recommendation for nationals of his own country.
It is not possible to isolate the impact of demonetisation on Indias GDP as economic growth of a country depends on a number of factors, including monetary ones, the government said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year had announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country depends on a number of factors, including monetary factors (which is partly reflected by demonetisation). Therefore, it is not possible to isolate the impact of demonetisation on Indias GDP, minister of state for finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per the latest estimates released by Central Statistical Office in May, the growth rate of GDP at constant market prices for 2015-16 and 2016-17 was 8% and 7.1% respectively, he said.

To another query on whether the government has identified the number of households that have lost their jobs due to demonetisation since November 8, Gangwar said: No such official report has been received.

Replying to separate query, the minister said that as on July 7, 2017, 8.19 crore individuals, including 6.20 crore women, have availed loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). Of this, 2.46 crore are new entrepreneurs.

Gangwar said in another reply that Reserve Bank of India has informed there is no specific circular asking banks to compensate customers for theft of articles from bank lockers.

Nevertheless banks have been advised by RBI that it would be the responsibility of the banks to ensure that the lockers remain safe and there is no negligence in the matter of safe guarding the lockers that could render the banks concerned liable by locker holders, he said.

The minister further informed that 344 incidence of robbery, theft, dacoity and burglaries reported by State Bank of India, followed by Bank of Baroda (188), ICICI Bank Ltd (103) and HDFC Bank Ltd (67) during the last three years (from 2014-15 to 2016-17).
The Odisha police has been successful in rescuing 489 children in distress during the first three days of Operation Muskan-III, officials said.

DGP, crime, BK Sharma said in a tweet:

Odisha Police achieves laudable success in first 3 days of Operation Muskaan III. 489 children rescued which includes 427 boys & 62 girls  Bijay Kumar Sharma (@BijayKumarShar7) July 18, 2017

Operation Muskan-III, a dedicated campaign to trace missing children in and outside Odisha, was launched in joint coordination with Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).

The children rescued from different places are lodged at two open shelters - Ruchika Social Service Organisation and Vishwa Jeevan Sangha.

While the first phase of Muskan-III is being carried out within Odisha, the second phase will focus on rescuing and tracing missing children from Odisha in other parts of the country. The second phase will be launched from July 31.

Eight special teams have been formed to trace, rescue and rehabilitate missing children under the operation, which will continue till August.
Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing on Tuesday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said.

Pakistan Army initiated the unprovoked firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 0645 hours, defence ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said, adding the Indian Army was retaliating strongly and effectively.

The district administration in Rajouri has shut down 16 schools close to the LoC indefinitely. It has also ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

This was after a soldier and a child were killed on Monday in Pakistani shelling on the LoC in Rajouri, forcing India to warn the neighbouring country it reserved the right to hit back .

In a telephonic conversation, Lieutenant General A K Bhatt, the director general of military operations (DGMO), told his Pakistani counterpart that the Indian Army was sincere about maintaining peace on the LoC.

However, the DGMO made it explicit that the Indian Army reserves the right to retaliate against any ceasefire violation.
There was little work on the second day of monsoon session on Tuesday as both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned following protests by opposition parties.

On Monday, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned after obituary references and oath taking of new lawmakers. saw voting for the presidential election.

Before the start of the session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said he hopes all parties would discuss and take decisions in national interest as they did on Goods and Services Tax.

Top Congress leaders met under the chairmanship of Sonia Gandhi on Monday and deliberated on their strategy to raise issues of lynching incidents and vigilantism, the Kashmir situation and the border standoff with China.

Here are the highlights:

3.08pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 11am on Tuesday as opposition parties continue protest.

2.08pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 3pm amid uproar.

2.05pm: Deputy chairman PJ Kurien says he is ready for discussion but opposition leaders move to the Well of the House demanding apology from the government.

2.03pm: TMC leader Derek OBrien says it was the ruling party members who disturbed the proceedings, not the opposition MPs. Deputy chairman PJ Kurien and leader of Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely oppose.

2pm: Rajya Sabha resumes amid uproar.

12.50pm: A Dalit leader (Mayawati) was not allowed to speak. She tried to speak by moving a notice in the House, says Congress leader Renuka Chaudhary.

12.40pm: Opposition candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi files nomination for vice-presidential election in the presence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders.

12.10pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till 11am on Wednesday after continued Opposition protests over several issues.

12.03pm: Rajya Sabha chairman adjourns the House till 2pm following pandemonium.

11.55am: Outside the Parliament, Mayawati accuses government of being a spectator when Dalits were attacked in Saharanpur.

11.30am: In the Parliament, former Union minister Venkaiah Naidu files nomination for vice presidential election in the presence of PM Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other NDA leaders.

11.25am: Rajya Sabha also adjourned till noon following uproar.

11.24am: Opposition leaders stand in support of Mayawati, urge the chairman to allow them to speak.

11.17am: Mayawati walks out of Rajya Sabha as ruling party members demand her apology for threatening to quit.

11.13am: BSP chief threatens to quit from Rajya Sabha if she is mot allowed to speak.

11.12am: Mayawati blames the Uttar Pradesh government for Saharanpur riots.

11.10am: Ruckus in Rajya Sabha as BSP chief Mayawati speaks on attrocities against Dalits.

11.08am: Lok Sabha adjourned till noon amid noisy opposition protests over several issues, including farmers plight and cow slaughter.

10.59am: TMC leader Derek OBrien says all opposition in Rajya Sabha will raise issue of atrocities against marginalised and Dalits in the name of cow terrorism, and plight of farmers in Lok Sabha.

10.45am: Ahead of session, BJP lawmaker Shobha Karan says 24 political killings happened in Karnataka but the state government is not serious. She also questioned transfer of IPS officer D Roopa.

10.40am: Trinamool Congress gives notice in Rajya sabha on rise in mob lynching incidents.

10.26am: Opposition leaders hold a meeting in Parliament ahead of second day of monsoon session.

10.24am: RJDs JP Yadav moves adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha against harassment of opposition leaders including Lalu Prasad.

10.18am: NDAs vice-presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu arrives in Parliament to file nomination. Naidu resigned as a Union minister on Monday after his name was announced as a candidate.

10.15am: Karnataka BJP leaders hold a protest in Parliament against transfer of IPS officer Roopa D Moudgil.

D Roopa had recently alleged that AIADMK leader VK Sasikala received preferential treatment in Bengaluru Central Prison by paying a bribe.
With West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee backing opposition presidential nominee Meira Kumar as a mark of protest against the Centres atrocities, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said it does not expect support from parties who pursue communal politics.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader GVL Narsimha Rao said the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) represented regressive politics and had been pursuing communal and vote-bank politics which did not represent the kind of politics that the BJP was following that is sabka saath, sabka vikas.

So at another level, the opposition is more like a corrupt alliance of different desperate parties. TMC, RJD, Congress, they are all facing serious charges of corruption. So, obviously we do not expect her (Mamata) to vote for the NDA candidate because we represent positive politics, we represent secular and non-discriminatory administrative regime, positive agenda and honest government, he added.

Another BJP leader, Rahul Sinha, blamed the chief minister of practising politics of appeasement and said she had no right to talk about the Centre when her own state was burning in communal violence.

She herself is not able to control the law and order situation in the state and is blaming the Centre. All the anti-social elements are in the TMC. Because of Mamata the hills are burning, it was because of her that in seven months there were 14 cases of riots, he added.

Training guns at the Centre for the growing unlawfulness and injustice in the country, Mamata on Monday said, We support Meira Kumar and will stand by her always. Our vote is against unlawfulness and injustice which is growing in the country. For the sake of the country we urge everyone to not support the BJP and stand by the common man.

Demanding Banerjees immediate resignation, Sinha said the TMC chief was making such absurd statements out of frustration.

Further slamming the government, Banerjee had stated that the TMC will not bow down their heads and will rather fight and be happy to go to jail.

Demonetisation and GST are the two biggest scams of the country, which is making it, lag behind. After all this, we will not bow down our heads... If the BJP thinks that Bengal is an easy place, then they are wrong. We already have 18 political parties that have come together and this is a good time for coalition, Banerjee said.

Targeting the Centre for having bad relations with West Bengal, Banerjee said, The Centre has always had bad relations with neighbouring countries like China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal and now its with West Bengal which has become like a sandwich.

The counting of the votes for the Presidential election will take place on July 20.

There are two candidates in the fray for the post - National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind and opposition candidate Meira Kumar.

President Pranab Mukherjees term will expire on July 25.
The Kolkata Police have registered an FIR against RSS vicharak (thinker) and Delhi University professor Rakesh Sinha for allegedly fanning communal hatred through social media posts on violence that rocked West Bengals Basirhat.

Sinha, who often articulates the viewpoint of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Singh, the ideological parent of the BJP, in television debates, has been accused of promoting communal disharmony and attempting to hurt a communitys religious feelings.

A teacher of political science, Sinha has denied posting such material and said it was a repressive tactic to silence him.

I posted a picture with my mother offering prayers at the Mahakal temple in Ujjain on July 9, another of receiving an award from the President and one of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat releasing a book on Prime Minister. What is provocative about these? Sinha said while speaking to Hindustan Times on Monday.

The repressive tactics of the Mamata government wouldnt silence him, Sinha said in a series of tweets on Monday.

your @MamataOfficial repressive tactics , threats, dictatorial regime cant silence my democratic , secular & nationalist commitment.  Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) July 17, 2017

.@MamataOfficial r you same Mamata whom I met during my college days in'87 interviewed against Marxist repression?NowU r more repressive !!  Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) July 17, 2017

We will crush crushing mentality of @MamataOfficial !100s of FIRs or imprisonments cant silence me,cant reduce my commitment to nationalism  Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) July 17, 2017

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Manoj Kumar Singh, a shopowner in Kolkata.

Early this month communal violence swept through Basirhat in the North 24 Parganas district, which borders Bangladesh, after Muslim mobs went on a rampage, angered by a controversial Facebook post by a Hindu teenager. A man was killed and several homes, business and vehicles burnt in the violence that continued for days.

The complaint is vague and has no annexure. The police have charged him with non-bailable sections. We are moving court, seeking anticipatory bail, Sinhas lawyer Brajesh Jha said.

Sinha is the fourth person to faces charges of inciting violence through using social media. Three of them are either from the RSS and or the BJP, which has been accused by chief minister Mamata Banerjee of stoking trouble.

BJPs Asansol district IT cell chief Tarun Sengupta was arrested on July 13, three days after the Kolkata Police booked BJPs Delhi spokesperson Nupur Sharma for allegedly circulating fake images of Basirhat violence.

One Bhabatosh Chatterjee was also arrested from Sonarpur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, for posting a still from a film and passing it off as a picture of Basirhat.

Banerjee has accused RSS and BJP supporters of circulating inflammatory material on social media to create trouble in Basirhat.
PATNA

At 26, Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav owns as many property as his age  all hidden from public gaze.

Thats what senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi claimed on Tuesday with documented proof, even as the JD(U) and the RJD attempted a political compromise after taking the Grand Alliance to the edge of a political precipice over CBI charges against the deputy CM, said to be a prime beneficiary of a hotel for land deal going back to the days when his father and RJD chief was railway minister.

Post the CBI FIR, which involves Tejashwi, 26, directly to the ownership of a mall on the outskirts of Patna  said to be a sweetener paid by the hotel owners to Lalu Prasad for awarding rights to two railway hotels  the fresh allegations came as a counter to the compromise that the RJD dictated by directing Tejashwi to meet chief minister and explain his stand. The JD(U) had demanded that Tejashwi come clean, or resign even as the RJD had maintained that he had done no wrong and he would not.

However, the fresh BJP charges, earlier in the day, added to the worries and may have prompted the RJDs climbdown to some extent.

Modi, who has been going hammer and tongs at Lalu & family for over a hundred days, claimed on Tuesday, that Tejashwi became the owner of 13 immovable assets while he was still a minor, and 13 properties when he was a full grown adult.

I have proof that while the first 13 properties were transferred in his name when he was not yet 13, the rest came when had already grown a moustache and beard, which makes him culpable, Modi said.

Modis refernce to the moustache and beard was an answer to Tejashwi, who had tried to stave off media queries last week on the issue of the JD(U)s call for his resignation, saying, Can a boy who was yet to sport a moustache be involved in a scam?

Handing over a list of the assets acquired by the deputy CM to the media, Modi dared Tejashwi to make it public as to how he came to be owner of the properties, while he was not into any known business.

Contesting the assertion by Tejashwi that BJP was implicating him for his recent troubles, Modi said Tejashwi was fully adult (23 years old), when he became the owner of Delight Marketing Private Ltd (DMPL) with its assets.

Not only that, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was deputy chief minister of Bihar when he signed an agreement on May 5, 2016 with a private company to develop a mall on three acres of land owned by the DMPL at Patnas Saguna Mor, he added.

In fact, Tejashwi became the owner of shell companies like DMPL, AB Exports and AK Infosystem through which he acquired properties in Patna and Delhi, while he was an adult and had attained the age of 23, said Modi, while talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of his  Janata Durbar here on Tuesday.

The BJP leader said, of the 26 properties Tejashwi owned, 13 were acquired through shell companies, while the rest he got through registration. Even if he was a minor, he could have said no to the gifts (immoveable properties), which were given to him, said Modi, who had worked as deputy chief minister in the NDA government led by chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Modi said of the 26 properties, the income-tax department has declared 13 assets as benami and attached them provisionally. The CBI has lodged an FIR against Tejashwi and seven others under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, he said, adding that the case must not be taken lightly as the central agency files an FIR only after ascertaining that the complaints were prima facie true.

He hoped that in view of the serious nature of offences committed by his deputy, CM Nitish Kumar would definitely seek resignation from him or expel him from his cabinet. The chief minister has set a benchmark on the issue of corruption and he, it is hoped, would not compromise with his principles, Modi said, adding, I also appeal to the deputy CM to resign before he is expelled from the cabinet.

He reiterated that owing to the political impasse caused by Tejashwis refusal to resign, Bihars governance has been hard hit and the situation would further worsen if the deadlock continues.

When asked why the Narendra Modi government was not taking action against the cases of benami property elsewhere in the country, the senior opposition leader said the central government had already identified 400 benami assets across the nations and initiated action against the owners.

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BLURBs

Modi, who has been going hammer and tongs at Lalu & family for over a hundred days, claimed on Tuesday, that Tejashwi became the owner of 13 immovable assets while he was still a minor, and 13 properties when he was a full grown adult

The fresh BJP charges, earlier in the day, added to the worries and may have prompted the RJDs climbdown to some extent

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Australia would like all competing parties in the ongoing standoff in the Donglang sector to resolve their problems peacefully, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said on Tuesday.

Bishop, on a two-day visit to India, spoke about the border face-off with all her major interlocutors in New Delhi, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Arun Jaitley and foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.

I understand this is a long-standing dispute, she told a news briefing. She drew an indirect comparison to the dispute over Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea, saying that in this case as well the Australian government wanted a peaceful resolution but one based on rules laid out under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.

Asked about Indias refusal to allow Australia to join the recently concluded Malabar naval exercises, she said Australia remained keen to join but it was up to each country to decide who they wanted to work with. She noted India and Australia had recently concluded the second round of their bilateral naval exercises.

On energy, Bishop noted that the first shipment of Australian uranium for India was on its way right now. The necessary parliamentary clearances to activate the bilateral civil nuclear supply agreement had been accomplished and Australia is satisfied about Indias commitment to global nuclear non-proliferation norms.

Bishop also spoke with the Indian side about counter-terrorism, the continuing negotiations over a bilateral free trade agreement, Australias role as an energy supplier to India and two types of new temporary work visas that Canberra has introduced to replace the older 457 visa category.

Commenting on recent surveys that showed the Australian public had among the most positive views about China, she said her country had a positive engagement with China. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently had a successful visit to Australia and had so far travelled to every one of the countrys states and territories.

But Beijing has an increasingly assertive foreign policy and we do not see eye-to-eye on everything, including the South China Sea, Bishop said.
UK's first woman Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill elected to Home Affairs Select Committee

Published: July 18, 2017

Britains first woman Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill was elected to Home Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament. She will be one of 11 MPs on the cross-party home affairs committee.

The Home Affairs Select Committee is an influential cross-party panel in the UK Parliament that examines the workings of the Home Office. It investigates the spending, policy and administration of the ministerial department.

The committee chooses its own subjects of inquiry within the remit of the home office. Previous inquiries have looked at extremism, immigration, hate crime, asylum, drugs, human trafficking, prostitution, extradition, counter-terrorism and the police. It publishes reports and the Government must respond to its recommendations.

Labour party MP Yvette Cooper was recently elected unopposed as chairman of the committee. Earlier it was chaired by Keith Vaz, Britains longest-serving Indian-origin MP, who had stepped down in September 2016.

Preet Kaur Gill had won the Edgbaston seat for the Labour party in the June 2017 snap general election. She also has been chosen to lead the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, which promotes the interests of Sikhs in Britain. Gills whose family is from Jamsher, in Jalandhar, Punjab. Her father, Daljit Singh, had moved and settled in the UK in 1962.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017

Category: Awards, Persons & Places in News

Topics: Indian diaspora  International  Persons in News  Preet Kaur Gill  United Kingdom

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Former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam has announced support of the AIADMK faction led by him for National Democratic Alliances (NDA) vice presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

In a statement issued here late on Monday, the Panneerselvam faction said Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought their support for Naidu in the August 5 election.

On his part, Panneerselvam assured his factions support to Naidu.

The three warring factions in the ruling AIADMK had supported NDAs Presidential election candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

Voting for electing the 14th President of India was held on Monday.

The government said Modi had thanked chief minister K Palaniswami for the support extended to Kovind and also sought his support for Naidu. Palaniswami wished Naidu over phone.

Naidu was chosen at the BJP parliamentary board meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior party leaders.

The 68-year-old Naidu holds the two portfolios of information and broadcasting and housing and urban affairs.

The two-time BJP president is pitted against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was chosen by an alliance of 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, but his election is almost inevitable due to the NDAs huge numerical superiority over the opposition.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday stormed out of the Rajya Sabha and threatened to resign if she was not allowed to speak in the House on alleged atrocities against the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister accused Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien of not giving her a chance to speak.

The BSP chief, who has suffered back-to-back defeats in the state elections, the recent one was in March, is struggling to hold on to her Dalit support base.

Senior colleagues have left the party, accusing her of corruption and nepotism.

So, is her threat to quit real? What happens if she makes good on the threat? Five points to chew on:

1. If Mayawati resigns, the BSP and the Opposition will lose an MP and it will be BJPs gain. The BSP leader is from Uttar Pradesh where the BJP enjoys a brute majority in the assembly. As Rajya Sabha members are elected by MLAs, it will be cakewalk for the BJP, which is short of majority in the Upper House.

2. With her term set to end in April 2018, Mayawati or the BSP doesnt have much to lose. Her party has just 19 MLAs in the 403-member UP assembly. The chances of the BSP winning a Rajya Sabha seat in the biennial poll in April are bleak.

3. If she is determined to quit, the 61-year-old Dalit leader would have to send her resignation letter to Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari.

4. But, she cant attribute motives in her resignation letter even though she is angry over not being allowed to speak in House. She will have to sign a proforma and if she deviates from it, by airing her grouse, the letter would be rejected.

5. If she does carry out her threat, she can go back to her support base and score a political point by projecting herself as a champion of Dalit cause. Many opposition parties have backed her accusation that atrocities were being committed against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is in power.

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Kolkata Police have waded into a controversy by allegedly coercing a 54-year-old domestic help into agreeing to a lie-detector test over a theft reported at top Bengali actress Rituparna Senguptas house in April.

The help, Aloka Naskar, says she has worked at the house for 26 years and that police took advantage of her lack of proper education. She has filed a petition to withdraw her consent for the narco-analysis test.

The police misled me. I am illiterate I was kept in complete dark about the harmful effects of the test. However, my relatives brought these into notice and I decided to withdraw my consent, said Naskar.

I got no lawyer. There was no one to guide me.

The actor reported a theft of jewellery worth Rs nine lakhs from her mothers south Kolkata home in April but told media that she didnt suspect any of her helps. Sengupta couldnt be reached despite repeated attempts.

A person subjected to the test is injected with sodium amytal or sodium pentothal that neutralise the power to imagine necessary for lying. The person becomes semi-conscious. A narco analysis may help the police is getting crucial clues but statements made during the test are not admissible in court.

Police denied the charges and said the magistrate explained the test to Naskar and that the results might go against her. But even after that she agreed to the test. We have all the necessary documents with us, said Praveen Kumar Tripathi, deputy commissioner, south, Kolkata Police.

The allegations have triggered outrage in Kolkata with many activists saying the police overstepped its limits.

In my two decades of work in human rights, I have never come across narco test for petty theft. The Supreme Court turned down a request for narco test on CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kobad Ghandy since he declined permission, remarked Ranjit Sur, vice-president of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).

Others said Naskar was likely a victim of police trying to humour a prominent actor, who is said to be close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM has elevated many top actors and artists to the state assembly and even Parliament.

Naskar does not even know how to sign and applies thumb impression. She has no idea of the implications of a narco analysis test and how it is conducted. It is an example of what an overzealous police force does to please an influential personality, remarked Sur. APDR provided Naskar a lawyer.

During the investigation, police has spoken to Naskar on various occasions. Forensic and finger print experts have also investigated the case.

This is the second controversy to hit the city police in recent months after allegations that investigators dragged their feet in arresting actor Bikram Chatterjee, who is an accused in the accident that killed model Sonika Chauhan.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to step up its campaign against Chinese goods in the run up to the Hindu campaign against the Hindu festival Rakshabandhan on August 7 by encouraging traders to not sell Chinese-made Rakhis.

Volunteers of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), the RSS Muslim wing, burnt Chinese goods in Lucknow. Whatsapp messages like Wear an Indian Rakhi if you care about your country have started being circulated in the city.

Raksha Bandhan is among the six major festivals that the Sangh celebrates and the campaign comes amid an increasingly bitter New Delhi-Beijing standoff over Doklam, which is under Chinas control but claimed by Bhutan. This, Sangh leaders say, has prompted them to think of ways to weaken the Chinese financially.

This time we are going to encourage both traders and buyers not to sell Chinese Rakhiwe want to make the people aware of the sinister designs of the dragon and how by cooperating with us they can help deflate the Chinese ambitions, said RSS pracharak Mahirajdhwaj Singh, who is associated with the MRM.

The RSS has previously campaigned against Chinese crackers during Diwali and its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, called for a boycott of Chinese goods earlier this year.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an RSS affiliate floated to promote Indian products, will follow up the initiative with a two-day meeting in Gonda from July 29.

Part of the campaign includes door-to-door contacts, making people aware of how the Chinese are allying with Pakistan to create disturbances in India.

Sangh volunteers at the Gonda meeting will discuss ways to create awareness among people to boycott Chinese products. Bhola Nath, who is associated with the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, told HT that a massive rally would be organised in Delhis Ramlila grounds in October. During the rally, the Modi government will be urged to opt out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

China is cunningly using the WTO to flood the Indian market with cheap goods. There are larger concerns too. Several Chinese telecommunication companies, a few of which have earned huge profits, make the countrys mobile communications network vulnerable, he said.

Read more| Sikkim standoff: Dont buy Made in China stationery, Mumbai schools tell students

Prashant Bhatia, convener of Laghu Udyog Bharti, another RSS affiliate working to promote small and medium scale industries, has also joined the no Chinese product campaign. The move has also found support from Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Sanghs political wing.

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Attendants of patients compelled to leave the KGMU Trauma Centre after fire in the medical facility on Saturday night ,are having a harrowing time seeking alternate medical aid for their kin.

One such hapless duo, Satish Pathak and Manish Chaubey of Varanasi, failed to get their ailing brother Ritesh Chaubey, 24, admitted to the SGPGI .

After the July 15 fire, the brothers shifted Ritesh to the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital. Ritesh is suffering from a serious urological problem and needs immediate surgery.

On Monday morning, they got Ritesh discharged from the Civil Hospital to seek admission to the SGPGI. But all their efforts came to a nought. Even after toiling for the entire day, they could not get Ritesh admitted to the institute. At the end of the day, the brothers shifted him to a lodge outside the PGI.

We were made to run from one counter to another in the SGPGI. At the registration counter, we were asked to go to the emergency ward. But doctors in the emergency told us to report in the OPD, said a dejected Manish. How can I report in the OPD without registration of the patient? he questioned . Even getting our patient registered turned out to be an ordeal, he said .

At the end of the day, we were unable to get the patient registered, said Satish.As returning to Varanasi was out of question , we settled in a lodge outside the SGPGI, he said .

Read more| Trauma centre fire: KGMU campus lacks fire safety measures

Despite problems galore, the brothers have not lost hope. On Tuesday, they will again try to get the patient registered and seek some medical help for him.

To recall, Satish and Manish played the role of good Samaritans on Saturday night during the fire at the Trauma Centre. After rescuing Ritesh, they shifted several other patients from the third floor of the building.

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Its the soundtrack of summer: ice cubes clinking, effervescent bubbles fizzing and corks a-popping. To help jazz up your backyard barbecue or Sunday brunch, award-winning mixologist Philip Bischoff of Manhattan bar in Singapore shares his version of a Bloody Mary called Brunchin, which spices up the traditional brunch cocktail with everything from HP sauce and Port wine, to caper berry vinegar. The Manhattan bar at The Regent Singapore Hotel was named best bar in Asia 2017, by the same organizers responsible for The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants.

INGREDIENTS

Rutte celery gin 45ml; Bloody mary mix - 80ml

Lemon juice 20ml; Port wine 1 cup

Simple syrup 15ml; Tomato juice 1l

HP sauce 20ml; Worcestershire sauce 44ml

Celery juice 20ml; Pepper 20ml

Salt 20ml; Horseradish 30ml

Sugar syrup 30ml; Lemon juice 20ml

Angostura bitters 13 dashes ; Caper berry vinegar 20ml

METHOD

1. Pour all ingredients in a shaker.

2. Dry shake without ice first and then shake with ice cubes until chilled.

3. Pour in a tall highball glass.

4. Add ice cubes.

5. Garnish with dehydrated vegetable chips.

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Almost two weeks after the Maharashtra governor rapped the University of Mumbai (MU) for delay in exam assessments, work on correction of answer paper has picked up some speed. According to figures revealed by MU officials, close to 50% of the answer papers have been evaluated and the university hopes to announce results of some courses within the next few days.

The assessments are expected to pick up further after ten colleges have approached the university to be part of the Central Assessment Process (CAP) method. The new method assesses answer papers online, but technical problems have delayed the work. Ten new colleges have been added into the CAP centres list, giving more computers for teachers to finish the process. Many of these centres were approved so that teachers dont have to travel a lot for the purpose of assessment, said M A Khan, registrar, MU. Originally, 142 CAP centres were approved by the university and the figure now stands at 152. We might add more centres depending on availability of colleges, he added.

In the first week of July, HT had highlighted the plight of MU students who havent received results almost three months after their exams got over last semester. Two days later, Maharashtra governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, chancellor of all varsities in the state, had called for an urgent meeting with MU vice chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh and other senior education officials to discuss this issue. MU was directed to announce all results by July 31.

We might not manage to announce all results by July 31, especially those courses with high number of students. However, maximum results should be released within the deadline, added Khan.

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Mumbai: John Pareiras wife Gracy told HT on Tuesday that she still doesnt know how her husband - an alleged smuggler - made a living. She said that the family was secure while he was alive but his murder changed everything.

She said John was the sixth of his parents 17 children. The family lived in Juhu village, on a plot opposite a five-star hotel. There were fights at home every day. Sometimes they turned ugly, such as a the time his sisters lodged a false complaint against him and got him arrested. He was beaten up by the police and was kept in the lockup overnight, she said. John, however, never let anything affect them, she added.

She said, He never discussed his work with me. Whenever I asked him about his job, he would say, Dont get into that, I am bringing enough money home. I dont know why he was killed and who was behind it. The only time she saw him work was when he would go fishing with his elder brother and help him put out the net.

After years of being shunned by her husbands family and cheated by people pretending to help, Gracy met Valmik Darkonde, an autorickshaw driver. He used to buy alcohol from my brother-in-law. He saw us struggling to make ends meet and offered to help. He also asked me to marry him but I wasnt ready and refused. Despite this, he helped us. He would take a tiffin for Helen twice a day.

Damodar passe away two years ago and Gracy now lives at Mira Road with her youngest son Jackson. Her elder son lives separately with his family.
Mumbai: Helen Nair was just nine when her father John Pareira was stabbed to death before her eyes at Juhu beach. Thirty-five years later, she refuses to return to the beach and finds it hard to even talk about the events of February 21, 1983. She told HT that when CBI officers investigating the case approached her, she declined to give them any information. It has been many years and I dont remember everything. I dont know who this man Rajan is and I dont want to get into such things now, she said.

Pareira lived in Juhu village with his parents, wife, a daughter and two sons. Helen, the eldest of the three, was the only eyewitness and identified four suspects. She told HT, It was a weekday. As usual, father dropped my younger brother, Bill Robinson, to the nursery and took (two-year-old) Jackson and me for a walk.

Suddenly, a few people appeared from behind us and caught hold of father. I was frightened but I held Jackson and hid behind a balloon stall until the people left.

After a while, she emerged from her hiding place and ran to her father. I cried for help but there was no one there. After some time I saw a coconut vendor and asked him to help us contact my fathers brother. My uncle arrived and we rushed father to Cooper Hospital, but it was too late, she said.

After Pereiras death, the family fell on hard times. The very next day, Helen said, the municipal corporation demolished their house, saying it had been built illegally. We suddenly had nothing. Even my grandmother refused to take us in. Father had bought a flat and a car and planned to surprise my mother. But when she asked the friend from whom he had bought the flat and the car, he refused to acknowledge any such deal, she said.

We then moved in with my maternal grandmother at Santacruz. My mother went to Kuwait and worked as a maid for two years. We began attending school and our uncles took care of us. But my youngest brother fell ill and she had to return after two years, she added.

With her brothers help, her mother bought a house at Moora village in Andheri and sent Helen to a boarding school. When she was 12 her mother decided to remarry. Their lives soon improved. My stepfather was very good. He took care of our education and looked after us. We were very fortunate to have him in our lives, she said.
The first year junior college (FYJC) seats available in coveted colleges may remain beyond the reach of students scoring in 80s and 70s in the second merit list, which will be declared on Thursday, said college heads. Applicants and colleges are worried whether the second list will be out on time, especially considering the delays in the announcing the first merit list.

Only a handful of Commerce and Arts seats are available in Mumbais top 10 colleges during the second round. This indicates that cut-offs have not fallen drastically for both these streams.

Comparatively, the Science stream will be easier to get into as there are more seats available. Cut-offs for science could fall to 75% to 80% even in the top colleges, said principals.

At Jai Hind College, Churchgate, only 175 seats are available for the upcoming rounds. But majority of them are in the Science stream. We are surprised that science did not find many takers in the first list, said Ashok Wadia, principal of the college.

Similarly, a majority of seats at the citys most coveted colleges, especially in the Commerce stream, have already been claimed. At HR College, Churchgate, only 22 seats remain in the Commerce stream, while RA Podar, Matunga, has only four seats available for the next rounds. ML Dahanukar, Vile Parle, has eight seats in general category.

Some of the colleges are training their staff to handle parents and students in case the second merit list is delayed. Chaos had ensued in colleges on July 12, after the first list was delayed by more than 18 hours. Though students were allotted seats past midnight, colleges could not access the list till afternoon.

We have informed our staff to come prepared for a similar situation in case the second list gets delayed, said Kavita Rege, principal, Sathaye College, Vile Parle. She also asked students not to panic in case of delays.

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Heavy rain hits commuters, officegoers from Mumbais suburb Thane on Tuesday morning.

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has alerted of heavy downpour till July 20 and asked residents to leave home only when necessary.

Thane which received barely 40mm rainfall till Monday evening, recorded 110mm from late evening till 6.30am on Tuesday.

Santosh Kadam, regional disaster management officer of TMC, said, Thane received 112mm rainfall till 8.30am. The total rainfall this year has reached 1456mm, compared to 1481.50 mm last year. We received several complaints of tree falls . A nullah wall and compound wall also collapsed owing to heavy rain, but there were no injuries or casualties.

The downpour and waterlogging slowed down traffic.

Read more: In pics: Mumbai braves heavy rain, rushes to work

Officegoers were stuck in congestion . AR Sandhan, a resident of Hiranandani Estate in Thane, said, My regular bus from Patlipada came half an hour late. Auto drivers too were not willing to ply. I had to wait for over 30 minutes and got drenched in heavy downpour.

The entire Eastern Express Highway was jammed from Majiwada uptill Anadnagar toll plaza.

Traffic was also slow along the Mumbra bypass from Kharegaon Toll Plaza.

Residents took to Twitter expressing their woes.

The civic authority has asked the residents to keep in touch on their helpline number 1800 222 108 in case they need help.

Read: Mumbaiites, dont take western express highway if you want to reach on time

Meanwhile, the traffic at Runde bridge in Titwala, Kalyan will be closed if rain continues . The water under the bridge is touching it and it may get submerged soon, according to the Kalyan Tehsil office.

The water level has increased since last night. If it continues to rain, the traffic will come to halt, said Amit Sanap, Tehsildar , Kalyan.

If the bridge over the Kalu river gets submerged villagers from Runde, Ambivli, Falegaon, Madh, Haal, Ushid, Bhongle pada, Arela, Nadgaon will be affected as they wont be able to connect to Titwala and Kalyan city. The bridge helps villagers connect between Kalyan, Murbad, Titwala, Padgha to Mumbai and Nashik.

The twin city received 82 mm of rainfall on Monday. The total rainfall this year in Kalyan Dombivli is 1456 mm.

Read: After Sundays break, brace for heavy rain through the week in Mumbai, says IMD

The incessant rain led to waterlogging in several areas in Navi Mumbai.

The traffic movement along the Sion-Panvel highway, too, was slow, thanks to the poor condition of roads at Belapur, Kharghar and Vashi.

Satish Gaikward, senior police inspector of Vashi traffic unit, said, Whenever we see serpentine snarls, we ask toll naka officials to leave vehicles without collecting toll.

According to the officials from the disaster management cell, with 171.50 mm Nerul saw the maximum rainfall in the city in the past 24 hours. It was followed by Belapur (160.20 mm), Vashi (153.20 mm) and Airoli (149 mm).
Years after arrest, retired major Ramesh Upadhyay raised questions over evoking Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Claiming the state government did not follow proper procedure, Upadhyay on Monday moved an application calling for records of the procedure followed while granting sanction to prosecute the accused under UAPA.

Upadhyay claimed the law makes it mandatory for the government to set up an independent review committee before evoking UAPA.

The job of the committee is to evaluate the evidence gathered by the investigating agency and recommend if the charges can be evoked in the case.

Upadhyay said the government appointed the directorate of prosecution as the reviewing authority and asked for recommendation on application of UAPA in May 2010. However, Upadhyay claimed the records obtained under Right to Information Act showed several discrepancies.

The directorate of prosecution did not receive any evidence gathered by the ATS Mumbai and gave no recommendations to the sanctioning authorities. The home ministry and government of India did not give the National Investigating Agency the nod to prosecute the accused, alleged Upadhyay in his application.

The special court has now asked the prosecution to file a reply on the plea.

Read more: Malegaon blast: Accused Purohit forged court order to stay in hospital for 6 years?
Despite the heavy rain, Mumbai officegoers stepped out for work on Tuesday morning.

A man balances his umbrella as he heads to work. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT)

While the heavy rain led to traffic snarls on Mumbais western express highway on Tuesday morning, the traffic situation across the city, however, was normal.

Some chose to step out in style. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT)

Snarls were reported at the start of JVLR.

Why should rain take away the cheer? (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT)

No major traffic jams were reported on the eastern express highway, with heavy snarls only on Sion flyover.

Like this man, the dog too is rain-ready. (Satish Bate/HT)

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has alerted of heavy downpour till July 20 and asked residents to leave home only when necessary.

People wade through a waterlogged street in Thane. (Praful Gangurde)

It is likely to rain through the week, the IMD has predicted.

The traffic on the western express highway in Kandivli. (Pramod Thakur/HT)

Motorists had a harrowing time reaching office.
In a bid to ensure that only eligible farmers get the benefit of the over Rs36,000 crore loan waiver, the Mahrashtra government is looking at an Information Technology platform to prepare a comprehensive data base of the beneficiaries.

The state is planning to use its soon-to-be launched direct benefit transfer portal to create this data base, where farmers will be asked to register themselves for the loan waiver.

Chief miinister Devendra Fadnavis confirmed that such a system was being finalised, which will make use of the government portal to avoid loan benefit going into the wrong hands.

The DBT portal on the lines of the existing central portal is to ensure simpler and faster flow of funds to genuine beneficiaries and weed out frauds. This state portal is to be launched next month. Currently, several central schemes including scholarships offered by higher education department, employment guarantee scheme and other social benefit schemes operate through the centre linked portal, where payments are electronically transferred into the accounts of the beneficiaries. The list of the beneficiaries with Aadhar numbers has been seeded into the system by different departments.

Farmers who register for the loan waiver will put in their individual Aadhar numbers to access and feed in other information about land records and income.

The government will hire a private firm to run the software that will bring together bank information on loan accounts, and government data, including income tax and service tax, and land records. IT will cross-check information and arrive at a final data set, said a senior official from the information technology (IT) department.

For instance, farmers who have a secondary income and file tax returns for the same, who are registered as value added tax payees or are as retired with a monthly income of Rs 15,000, are not eligible for the waiver. Those elected on the board of sugar co-operative mills, district co-operative banks and agricultural produce marketing committees are not eligible for the waiver. Those elected to these bodies are generally local politicians, who have both money and muscle power.

Every farmer who applies for the loan will have to be vetted through the central data information to ensure that he or she does not fall in any of these categories.

The IT department is working with the co-operation department and the Chief Ministers Office to come out with the loan disbursal system.

Given that the co-operation department estimates nearly 89 lakh farmers as beneficiaries under the newly announced loan waiver scheme, collating the data is no easy task. The process should take at least another two months and the earliest the loan will only get disbursed in October.

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The driver who was on duty with Neha Bhalsingh, 25, who was allegedly murdered by her husband Sachin on a road in Andheri on Monday, told the police that he saw Sachin minutes before the incident.

He did not find his presence suspicious as Sachin was a colleague of his.

The Versova police arrested Sachin in Pune 10 hours after the incident . He was remanded in police custody for three days on Tuesday.

The police said the driver had seen Sachin roaming around Gyan Kendra School, which had hired the company they worked for to pick up and drop off their students.

Sachin became our prime suspect after the driver told us that he had seen him around the school. We immediately sent a team to Pune after tracing his phones location, said Arun Chavan, assistant commissioner of police (Andheri region).

The police added that Sachin planned the murder a few days ago when he found out that Neha was having an affair.

Sachin told us that he was ready to accept Neha back in his life if she was ready leave the other man but she refused, said Kiran Kale, senior police inspector, Versova police station.

The police said it was dark and raining when the murder took place around 6.30am. She was found dead on a footpath near the school soon after by the driver.

Neha was an attendant with the same firm. The couple had been married five years and has a two-year-old son.

The police said on Monday morning Neha went to the school and entered the vehicle assigned to her to pick up the children. When the driver she would be travelling with returned after drinking a cup of tea he found the vehicle empty. He telephoned the companys owner and reported that Neha was missing.

The owner asked him to look around as she wasnt answering her phone. The driver looked around and soon found Nehas body on a footpath nearby. She had stab wounds and her throat had been slit.

The driver telephoned the police control room. The Amboli and Versova police reached the spot and took Neha to Cooper Hospital, where she was declared dead.
The Sahar police on Sunday arrested a 25-year-old man who was caught carrying a pistols bullet in his luggage while on his way to Mumbai from Paris. He has been booked under the Indian Arms Act.

According to the Sahar police, the accused, identified as Varun Kalra, a resident of Godhra, Gujarat, had gone to the United States of America and Paris for a trip. He had taken an American flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta on July 13 and then from Atlanta to Paris. A friend from America gave him the bullet as a souvenir, Kalra claimed in his police statement.

He landed in India from Paris at the CST International Airport in on Monday morning. During a security check, an official from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) found a Blazer Luger 9 mm bullet, which is used in pistols.

Read: Passenger in wheel chair caught with gold bars worth Rs20 lakh at Mumbai airport

The bullet was kept in the front pocket of one of his bags. When questioned if he had a license for carrying the ammunition and what was the purpose behind carrying it, Kalra had no answers and was detained at the Airport.

Kalra said he was not aware that carrying bullets on flights was against the law. However, as per the procedure, the CISF alerted the Sahar police and Kalra was handed over to them.

You cannot escape the law by saying that you are ignorant of it. Other countries allowed passengers to carry bullets on flight, but in India you cannot carry any weapon or bullets without permission from the government, said senior police inspector Baburao Mukhedkar of Sahar police station.

The Sahar police booked Kalra under section 3 (license for acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition) and 25 (punishment for section 3) of the Indian Arms Act. The police are now questioning him as to why he was carrying a bullet and where he bought it from.

Read: Dubai-bound bizman caught with foreign currency, banned notes worth 8 lakh at Mumbai airport
Water along Mumbais coast is dirtiest around Juhu, Girgaum Chowpatty and Haji Ali, but the citys filthiest water is in the Mithi River which flows into the Mahim creek.

Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MBPC) analysed water quality along Mumbais coast between January and May to create a Water Quality Index (WQI). Juhu, Girgaum and Haji Ali recorded 44, 45 and 45.2 WQI levels, Mahim recorded 45.2, Worli Sea-face 46.1, Nariman Point 46.8 and Dadar Chowpatty 46.8. WQI between 38 and 50 is classified as polluted; a reading between 63 and 100 indicates clean water. Mithis WQI is 28, which means highly polluted water. Thane creek, Versova and Gateway of India has relatively cleaner water.

MPCB officials said untreated sewage from slums and inadequately treated waste from other sources is fouling Mumbais coastal waters. The civic body has been informed about the condition of Mithi River time and again. They have submitted a Mithi River rejuvenation plan and will be spending to the tune of Rs400 crore to ensure it is clean again. We are supporting them in this activity, said YB Sontakke, joint director, water quality, MPCB.

Marine biologists said that a bad WQI means low levels of oxygen in water. The level of oxygen will decline if poor water quality marred with sewage and plastic take over the surface of areas close to the coast. Not only will it wipe out marine life, it will lead to a tremendous drop in fish catch, said E Vivekanandan, consultant and scientist, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute.

There is no control on the sewage entering the sea. This has led to brown coloured muddy coastal water, which turns darker during sewage discharge daily, said BM Chaturvedi, senior vice president of the Cuffe Parade Residents Association.

The MPCB study shows that remedial steps can improve water quality. For instance, Versova, which recorded relatively cleaner water, WQI at 47, between March and May, had a WQI of 37 - equivalent of Mithis reading - in February. The periodic cleaning of Versova beach has improved the quality of water. Versova residents led by city-based lawyer Afroz Shah have removed over 5.7million kg of trash over 92 weeks. Regular beach cleanup drives at the coast have also helped reduce the amount of waste in the form of plastic and sewage to enter the sea, said Sontakke.

The cleanest coastal water was recorded near Gateway of India with WQI levels at 47 and since major portions of the Thane creek are protected as a Flamingo Sanctuary, the water quality there was the best in the city with WQI levels at 48.

Environmentalists said the water quality assessment, which was done before the monsoon season, has probably worsened now. If the same study is done now, the WQI levels will be far worse than what is currently seen. This is because most of the sewage, stuck in pipelines or nullahs, is now being pushed into the sea, said Godfrey Pimenta, trustee, Watchdog Foundation.

MPCB said that water quality along Mumbais sea coast could improve as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to treat more sewage before releasing it into the sea. As per our directions, the civic body has assured that the sewage water from nullahs located along slums will be directed to the closest sewage treatment plants and only then discharged at sea, said Sontakke. As per the current roadmap, we expect a significant improvement in water quality levels over the next six months to a year.

Sontakke added that from June, parameters to measure WQI will change. We are going to take samples from different locations along the coastline, creeks and rivers, to narrow down and scrutinise the worst affected spots at each of these locations, he said.

Untreated sewage is fouling Mumbais coast

According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) sewage operations department, the city produces sewage amounting to 2,200 to 2,400 million litres per day (MLD). Of this, the civic body treats 1,500 MLD at Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Versova, Malad, Colaba, Worli and Bandra sewage treatment plants (STPs). Of the remaining 700-900 MLD, private STPS are treating some of the sewage at hotels and housing complexes while remaining pours into rivers, streams, creeks or directly at sea.

Apart from sensitising slums along the coastline or river bodies, the state government has sanctioned the development of more sewage treatment plants across the city, especially at marine outfalls. The process will take time but within a year, we expect another 500MLD to be treated per day, said a senior official from BMCs sewage operations department.

Water quality in your city

Location Water Quality Index Mithi  Most polluted river water 28 (Very bad/ heavily polluted) Juhu - Most polluted coastal water 44 (Bad/polluted) Girgaum Chowpatty 45 (Bad/polluted) Haji Ali 45.2 (Bad/polluted) Mahim 45.2 (Bad/polluted) Worli Sea Face 46.1 (Bad/polluted) Nariman Point 46.8 (Bad/polluted) Dadar 46.8 (Bad/polluted) Versova 47 (Bad/polluted) Gateway of India 47 (Bad/polluted) Thane creek 48 (Bad/polluted)

(Source: Five month average of WQI levels recorded by MPCB in Mumbai)

Interpretation of Water Quality Index  Surface Water

WQI Quality Classification Class (as per Central Pollution Control Board) Remarks 63-100 Good to Excellent A Non-Polluted 50-63 Medium to Good B Non-Polluted 38-50 Bad C Polluted 38 and less Bad to Very Bad D, E Heavily polluted

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The Mumbai crime branch on Monday arrested a 60-year-old man who had stolen data of a digital company. He allegedly tried to extort Rs8crore from the owner of the company using it.

Ravindra Khera from Navi Mumbai was arrested while accepting Rs20 lakh from the complainant. Khera had demanded Rs20 lakh upfront for not selling the data to a rival company. Earlier, he had received Rs10 lakh from the owner of the company, Niyati Shah. The police are still investigating how he got the data. Shah alleged that it was an insider job.

Shah started getting calls from Khera after her partner and her husband had resigned from the company, according to the complaint.

My partners were anticipating legal action against him after which the caller threatened us, said Shah.

On June 20 this year, Shah filed a written complaint with the additional and joint commissioner of crime, saying that Khera had demanded Rs8 crore from them.

A nine-member police team led by senior inspector Chimaji Adhav arrested him from a five-star hotel at Goregaon.

Khera used to buy sensitive information of a company and then file a complaint with various government departments over irregularities. Later, he would approach the firm to settle the matter, said an officer from unit 11, who did not wish to be named.

The police searched Kheras apartment in Oshiwara and found sensitive financial and technical data of 25 other companies, said the officer.

READ

Card cloning racket: Mumbai gang steals debit, credit card data from 1,000 customers of 96 banks

Beware, Bulgarian man who swiped cloned cards in Mumbai targeted overseas citizens
Farmers, who have been protesting against land acquisition for the ambitious Rs46,000-crore Mumbai-Nagpur super communication highway, will now march against Fadnavis-led government on August 10.

The project affected farmers across ten districts have grouped themselves together to form a 35-member led committee to lead the opposition to the highway. The protest march on August 10 will see hundreds of farmers walk to Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.

The decision to intensify the protests comes even as the state government had announced competitive land prices for acquiring land in a direct settlement with the farmers. In a bid to show the farmers have reacted positively to the land rates, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the nodal agency started registering sale deeds with a few farmers in every district.

For the past one year, we have been protesting against this project. We have used all legal means to register our dissent. We have filed objections under the law with the local administration. We have filed petitions in all three benches of the high court and have met leaders of all political parties. But the state seems to be keen on road rolling this project, so we have decided to intensify our opposition, said Baban Harne, one of the members of this state-level committee.

The farmers committee is not convinced with the land rate offered by the government as compensation and it has also questioned the land acquisition procedure adopted by the state as well as the proposed alignment of the highway.

The706-km proposed eight lane highway passes through ten districts of the state, linking backward regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada with Thane district. Nearly, 10,200 hectares will have to be acquired for the highway and another 10,000 hectares is proposed for building 24 smart cities along the alignment of the highway. Nearly 84 per cent of this land is agricultural.

While both Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have taken a stand in favour of the protesting farmers, the latter are not convinced of their backing.

A Shiv Sena minister heads the department, which is implementing the project and NCP is not seen as reliable party.

The state government is keen on getting the project off the ground by October this year and plans to construct some phases of the highway by the next Assembly polls in 2019.

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Heavy rain over the past 24 hours led to traffic snarls across Mumbai on Tuesday.

Traffic snarls were reported on the western express highway between Borivli and Malad area. The road was jammed till Jogeshwari. There are traffic snarls from Andheri towards WEH Metro station.

Snarls are reported at the start of Jogeshwari-Vikhroli link road.

Motorists along the new link road and SV road witnessed heavy traffic along the stretch.

The traffic on WEH at Goregaon. (Pramod Thakur/HT)

Motorists are likely to face heavy traffic on the Bandra-Worli sea link as well the southbound stretch.

The traffic was slow moving on the eastern express highway, and from from Kings Circle Flyover until the start of JJ Flyover.

The southbound stretch of the Eastern Freeway, too, was congested.

Motorists could avoid Peddar Road and Bhulabhai Desai Marg in south Mumbai.

The rain also hit the local train services during morning peak hours. The services on the central, harbour line and western railway were running late by 15 to 20 minutes.
The University of Mumbai (MU) on Monday released the degree course results of students seeking post-graduate studies in the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs).

The results were declared just in time for the counselling session for admission to MPharm, MS Pharmacy and MTech Pharmacy courses at NIPERs, that began on Monday. So far, the university had released the results of just five MBA Pharmacy aspirants, who did their course counselling between July 10 and 12.

There was some confusion in the morning regarding our results. So, one of us contacted the MU vice-chancellor. And now it seems that all the results have been sent, said an aspirant. We are happy that the results have arrived, added Raghuram Rao, director, NIPER Mohali, which is conducting the admission process.

Read: Delayed Mumbai University results to cost pharmacy aspirants a year

This year, MU adopted an on-screen marking process for the assessment of answersheets, in place of the traditional pen-and-paper evaluation. The decision caused a huge delay in the results, as MU couldnt appoint an agency for a long time and the technical glitches continue to plague the system. Pharma students, who were interested in doing post-graduate studies, were worried that the delay in the assessments of their degree examination could spoil their plans.

The delay has affected admissions to various post-graduation courses. Around 100 aspirants from the colleges affiliated to MU, who made it to the list of top 1,000 rankers of the NIPER joint entrance examination (JEE), were afraid of losing a year due to delay in their degree results.

According to Rao, MU was the only varsity that couldnt declare the results before counselling. Students from more than 200 universities took the entrance test this year. If a university fails to declare results on time, NIPERs seek access to the results of the pharma aspirants directly from the varsity.

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The special CBI court on Monday granted the defences request to defer the cross-examination of the first witness in the Sheena Bora murder trial until accused-turned-approver Shyamwar Rai deposes in court.

Lawyers for the accused  Indrani and Peter Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna  had pleaded that they would not like to cross-examine the first witness  police officer Ganesha Dalvi, who nabbed Rai with a pistol in Khar  before Rai deposed.

The defence lawyer said it would prejudice his clients case if they cross-examined any witnesses before Rai deposed. They said that in case there were nay any contradiction in his deposition, they would have to cross-examine Dalvi.

The prosecution objected to the plea, saying that it would delay the trial and affect its flow. The court, however, refused to accept the objections and granted the defences request. The case was adjourned to July 28.

Meanwhile, Peter has sought the case diary of officers of Khar police station who probed the case before it was handed over to CBI. The plea is likely to be heard next week.

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After a video by a local private FM channel poking fun at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) went viral on social media, two Yuva Sena members on Tuesday urged the municipal commissioner to file a Rs500-crore defamation suit against 93.5 Red FM.

The two leaders  Amey Ghole, who is also a corporator, and Samadhan Sarvankar, who is Sena legislator Sada Sarvankars son  said the radio channel and its radio host, Malishka, were unfairly blaming the BMC for problems that are not under its jurisdiction.

Read: RJ Malishka hits back at BMC, tweets she has six more songs ready

They submitted a letter to BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta, saying the video maligned the image of Mumbai and the BMC, and also dented the confidence of several thousand of BMC employees who work hard to keep the city afloat during the rains.

Sarvankar said, The song did not name the Shiv Sena directly, but it hurts us that Mumbais and the BMCs image is unnecessarily taking a hit. The two main highways of Mumbai dont come under the BMC and it is not responsible for Mumbais traffic or the functioning of its railways. He added that Mehta assured that the BMC will take some action.

Read: More trouble for RJ Malishka: Now, BMC sends her notice for mosquito-breeding at Mumbai home

Ghole, a corporator from Wadala, said, The BMCs legal department will decide what action is best suited in this case. The song has hurt the citys efforts at attracting foreign investment and global talent. The civic body can either file a defamation suit or issue a warning.

Read more: RJ Malishka gets BMC notice: BJP, Congress blame Shiv Sena

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The crime branch of Ghaziabad police on Tuesday arrested a gang of eight persons who allegedly bought stolen mobile phones and sold them after changing their IMEI numbers. The police also recovered 779 such mobile phones from their possession.

The accused identified as Mohammad Chand, Akram, Kashif, Shanu, Gaurav, Afsar, Manoj Kumar and Hari Om, were arrested following inputs provided to police by a local informer. The police also recovered computer, laptop, IMEI changing equipment and seven other IMEI changing devices from their possession.

The police conducted a raid at Navyug Market and arrested the accused persons while recovering mobiles and IMEI changing devices. Hari Om is the mastermind of the gang and said that he used different software to change models of different mobile phones. They have been into the business for 8-10 years and had roped in other accused as well. They procured the software from Gaffar Market in Delhi and changed the IMEI numbers of nearly all the models barring Apple and Blackberry, said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).

Officials said the gang procured the mobiles at cheaper prices from different persons and the handsets were either stolen or robbed from different persons. Later, they changed the IMEIs and also changed the parts of the mobile phones brought in for repairs by their customers.

Read I Thieves escape with car tyres in Ghaziabad, leave brand new Honda City on bricks

After changing the IMEIs, they sold the mobile phones to different customers and also shared the profit among themselves. Our teams are working on such gangs and have also nabbed several similar gangs in the past.The idea is to eradicate such facilitators who change IMEIs of robbed and stolen mobiles, Tomar added.

On July 6, the crime branch had also arrested four persons, including a Delhi University student, on charges of snatching mobile phones and later tampering with their IMEI number for selling the phones further. The accused were nabbed from Sahibabad and a total of 149 robbed mobile phones, including 19 iphones, were recovered from their possession.

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The chief executive officer (CEO) of the Noida authority, Amit Mohan Prasad, said applications for co-developers by builders unable to finish their project will be approved if the new builders clear land dues and have adequate funds to finish the projects.

Under the co-developer plan, developers unable to finish their projects can get another developer to finish the housing project.

The Uttar Pradesh government had on December 13, 2016, approved a project settlement policy to address issues faced by the realty sector in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway areas.

Under the policy, one of the options was for a builder to rope in a new builder who wants to invest money and finish incomplete housing projects.

We are here to solve issues and ensure delivery of flats to buyers. I am ready to approve co-developer applications of any builder who is unable to finish a realty project. But the co-developer will have to clear land dues of the project and have the financial strength to finish the project and deliver flats to homebuyers, said Prasad.

For instance, if a developer has to pay Rs100 crore in land dues in a stuck realty project, the co-developer will first have to first deposit Rs25 crore (25% of total land dues in the particular project) before taking it over.

Before approving an application, we will examine whether the builder has adequate funds to finish the project. As of now, the Amrapali Group has submitted two applications as it wants to introduce co-developers in its two projects. We will check and take a decision soon, said Prasad.

However, homebuyers whose flats are stuck in delayed housing projects are apprehensive of the co-developer scheme as they feel the old builder will be able to get away without fulfilling the promises made at the time of purchase of the flat.

Our concern is what will happen if the old builder exits from the project and the new builder too fails to finish the project. We will have to suffer again. We hope the authority ensures that the new builder has the capacity to complete a stuck project, said Vinay Gupta, a buyer.

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The Noida authority has earmarked Rs15 crore to elevate all major internal roads in block C and D in Sector 63 to address waterlogging issues in the area.

Hoping that the elevation of roads in these two blocks will rid the area of severe waterlogging, officials said the authority was forced to address the issue as waterlogging leads to massive traffic jams every year.

Last year, due to waterlogging, Road No.6 that connects central Noida with national highway (NH) 24 towards Ghaziabad had witnessed traffic jam for about four hours. The internal roads in blocks C and D were submerged and vehicles remained stuck for many hours.

We hope that elevation of all major roads in the two blocks will help us resolve the waterlogging problem. Water logging takes place as the level of the roads in these two blocks is much too low as compared to the buildings along the roads, said PK Garg, project engineer of the Noida authority.

As the Noida authority CEO has given his in-principle approval for this plan, we will make estimates of the project and get necessary approvals in the next four months to make way for tenders, said a Noida authority official.

On August 2, 2016 when commuters had experienced hours long traffic jam, the then district magistrate NP Singh had directed engineers to clean drains and submit a report. On Monday, after an hour of rain, most roads in the two blocks of Sector 63 were again waterlogged. We will also upgrade the drains so that rainwater reaches Yamuna through smaller drains. We will ensure that in the next monsoon, Sector 63 faces no waterlogging at all, said the official.

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Overwhelmed by the support extended by the Indian government and medical staff of a Noida-based hospital, Pakistani couple Kanwal Siddiq and Anam Siddiq bid a teary farewell to India after their four and a half months old son Rohaan recovered from a complex heart surgery.

The Lahore-based couple will take a flight back home on Tuesday evening after a month long stay in India, which was made possible after multiple interventions by the minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj.

At a time when hostilities and skirmishes on the Line of Control (LoC) have strained bilateral ties between the nuclear neighbours, it has got increasingly difficult for residents to obtain visa to travel to each others countries.

Thank You India. Thank you for everything. The past one month has been a spiritual and emotional journey for us. There was a time when we feared losing our son. I simply cant express how happy I am to see him fully recovered and smiling, a teary-eyed Kanwal said.

Kanwal thanked Swaraj for helping them secure medical visas. He had taken to micro-blogging site Twitter to express his angst over being denied permit to travel to India.

Minister Swaraj made a personal intervention in our case and ensured that we receive our visa. I could even go as far as to say that it is the big heart of Sushma Swaraj that his pumping blood into Rohaans (his son) veins, Kanwal said.

Pakistani couple Kanwal Siddiq and Anam with their son Rohaan. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT Photo)

A civil engineer by profession, Kanwal (32) arrived at Jaypee Hospital in Noidas Sector 132 on June 12 after doctors in Pakistan told him that Rohaan has a hole in his heart.

When doctors in Pakistan told me rare condition that Rohaan had been diagnosed with, I frantically started looking for medical help in UAE and other countries. But Id heard a lot of good things about Indian doctors and thus, with the help of Indian diplomats, I secured visas to travel to the country, Siddiq said.

Rohaan had a hole in his heart and the Aorta and pulmonary arteries were not positioned as they are in a normal human body. Due to this condition, his heart was pumping blood sans oxygen and his body was turning blue. He was also suffering from continuous bouts of pneumonia, Dr Rajesh Sharma, director, paediatric cardiac surgery department, Jaypee Hospital, said.

Doctors began an exhaustive 5-hour surgery on June 14 where his condition was treated with Arterial Switch with VSD closure.

In this surgery, the AORTA and Pulmonary arteries were removed from their place and adjusted to their right place. Post-surgery, the baby was shifted to the ICU and was put on ventilator support. Now, he is fully recovered, Sharma said.

Though the Siddiqs dont have much hope of travelling to India again anytime soon owing to the prevailing climate of hostility between the neighbours, Kanwal said their month-long has given them spiritual strength.

Now, I want to dedicate my life towards raising awareness for a healthy heart. I want to enlighten more and more people on the need to take care of ones heart from an early age. I also wish to form an organisation in Lahore to take my cause forward, Kanwal said.

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Defining democracy is no easy task. The elements of democracy are contextual. In its nascent form it may not include all the elements found and tested over time in mature liberal democracies. The period between October 1951 and March 1952 was a curtain raiser with the holding of the first general elections to the Lok Sabha. With the festival of elections held thereafter, we celebrate the peaceful transfer of power. The closing of the electoral process after each election is the first step in embracing democracy. After 69 years of Independence, what are the essential institutional elements necessary for us to be satisfied that democracy is alive and kicking in India?

First, we yearn for a media, objective on issues and fiercely independent in approach. Today, barring a few laudable exceptions, it has become a cheerleader of dispensations. Democracy loses much of its lustre in the absence of a vibrant fourth estate.

Second, we all aspire for an independent judiciary which is incorruptible. In the several tiers of the judicial system, some are perceived to have fallen apart. This is attributable not just to the quality of the manpower but to the appalling conditions under which it operates. At the highest level, haste, not studied reflection on issues, sours some outcomes. Retired judges of the Supreme Court have themselves lamented the state of the judiciary.

Third, investigation agencies must inspire confidence. The two elements required to instil confidence are quality manpower and absence of taint in investigation. Both elements are missing in the present investigation apparatus.

When investigating agencies do a U-turn, one limb of the investigation definitely stands tainted. The classic example of this U-turn was the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case. The National Investigating Agency (NIA) having taken over the investigation in 2011 filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2016 which stated that prosecution against six of the prime accused was not maintainable. This came after investigation had been completed and a 4,528-page chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra ATS. Such an obvious volte face defied logic. Such blatant partisan conduct erodes faith in investigating agencies.

The investigation agencies seem to collaborate with government to target the allegedly corrupt in Opposition and protect their own. While students and teachers landed in jail, named politicians have not even been investigated in the Vyapam scam. Similarly, no investigation is underway against all those involved in public distribution system scams in Chhattisgarh.

On the other hand, we witness the alacrity with which certain NGOs are being harassed and persecuted by launching multiple investigations against them. Convenient leaks by agencies help facilitate governments desire to damage reputations. The latest being targeting journalists and television channels, who the government considers to have been troublemakers in the past.

Fourth, spineless bureaucrats, committed to their own advancement, hesitant to speak their mind; coupled with an establishment that looks for hatchet men who will do their bidding. This has tarnished the bureaucrats image. The honest bureaucrat hesitates to take decisions lest years later, courts hold that he be prosecuted for deciding contrary to public interest. Strange but true. At that stage there is none to defend him.

Fifth, for a robust economy, merit-based arms-length lending is crucial. Today, over 17% of all bank loans are estimated to be non-performing. Erstwhile RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on August 11, 2014, stated: The crooked politician needs the businessman to provide the funds.....The crooked businessman needs the crooked politician to get public resources and contracts cheaply. That says it all.

Ultimately, the taxpayer has to pay for the reckless lending by banks. Gross NPAs of public sector banks as of 2014-2015 were about Rs 2.67 trillion. The situation has not improved since then. In fact, it has worsened as Gross NPAs stand at Rs 6.06 trillion as of December 2016. The present government is contemplating setting up a bad bank to take over dud loans to clean up the balance sheets of lenders. If implemented properly it may work.

Apart from these alarming institutional inadequacies, the situation is exacerbated by a government in which ministers await the nod of the all-powerful PMO and wherein secretaries of ministries, bypassing their ministers, deal directly with the PMO. We also witness the dilution of time-tested legislative processes by terming ordinary legislation as money bills ensuring they are not debated in the Rajya Sabha. All this is very worrisome.

While the election commission needs to be cheered, our institutions, the building blocks of democracy are woefully wanting. In fact, we have miles to go before we sleep.

Kapil Sibal is a Congress leader and former Union minister

The views expressed are personal
The India-China military standoff near Sikkim continues. The rhetoric from both sides is very revealing of their states of mind. India is adopting a conciliatory tone and China an uncompromising one. India will be patient and peaceful in dealing with its neighbours says the Narendra Modi government, commentators emphasise Delhis moderation and maturity. China insists that withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam is a precondition for dialogue. Chinese experts are not mincing words. Victor Gao, a former diplomat and once an interpreter for Deng Xiaoping, has said that any other country in Chinas situation of seeing foreign (Indian) soldiers on its territory would send troops to drive them out. He says the longer India keeps troops in Doklam the more likely a military confrontation is.

The reaction in Indian media to the standoff with China is markedly different from what tensions with Pakistan usually provoke. Television channels are not dishing out angry hashtags about Beijing as they usually do about Islamabads misdemeanours. The Indian establishment clearly wants to avoid a confrontation. In Delhis muted reaction and Beijings belligerence there is perhaps a tacit acknowledgment in both capitals that the reason China is being aggressive is because India now is the weakest it has been for years.

China wants to symbolically establish dominance in Asia and it has chosen a moment when the contours of Indias path to decline are fairly well-established, three years into Modis rule. This is the lesson that Delhi should take away from this standoff, that not only is India militarily not in a position to challenge China now (short of a nuclear exchange), the direction that the BJP is taking the country undermines Indias capabilities as a power and leaves it in no position to resist Chinas belligerence in the years to come. This is the time to starkly assess Indias situation, let go of the positive spin the BJP government puts out, and see India how its adversaries would.

This may be a counterintuitive argument to make because India certainly has some impressive attributes: a large youthful population, a formidable military machine with nuclear weapons, a sizeable middle class and elite to keep foreign companies interested for years and, like any happening power, it hosts several business and think-tank conferences. China is evidently not daunted by this because some indicators of Indias power make for grim reading.

Indias vulnerabilities are manifest in four areas. The first is in the economy, where India has recently seen a series of self-inflicted wounds. India has had a weak investment climate for years owing to regulatory bottlenecks and because its banks are saddled with bad loans. Demonetisation was needlessly introduced in an already difficult situation and it brought cities to a standstill for weeks on end and compounded an agrarian distress by simply short-circuiting billions of transactions in rural India and disrupting supply chains. Growth slowed to 6.1% in the last quarter, one economist believes it may have permanently damaged the countrys informal sector. After demonetisation came changed rules for cattle slaughter which essentially constitute a form of trade war against Muslim entrepreneurs, Dalits and the meat export industry at large. The subsequent introduction of GST has bred widespread confusion; one businessman simply warns that small traders will die.

Alongside the effects of recent decision-making India has a jobs crisis, an education crisis and a skills crisis. PM Modi promised 100 million manufacturing jobs by 2022; around 135,000 materialised in eight sectors in 2015--far shorter of the 12 million that reportedly enter the workforce each year. The government has simply abandoned the goal of training 500 million Indians as part of its Skill India plans. The education sector looks almost irredeemable. A committee appointed by the ministry of human resource development has conceded that large segments of the education sectorface a serious crisis of credibility in terms of the quality of education which they provide, as well as the worth of the degrees which they confer on students. There are simply too many bad teachers in government schools, many of whom get their jobs through patronage or corruption. Students are not failed in schools and colleges for political reasons--since parents would be angry if governments provided their children bad education to begin with and then failed them. India thus has millions of youth with college degrees often lacking foundational skills let alone employable ones.

If challenges in the economy, education and skills werent enough there is now an active attack on Indias social cohesion, the one thing that held the country together despite all its problems. BJP rule has seen a spike in hate speech directed at Muslims that has led to their targeting and lynching. The Indian Muslim is being constantly represented as a hate figure with a view to snap the possibility of an associational life between Hindus and Muslims. All this corrodes social life and undermines economic productivity - a divided and fear-ridden country is hardly in a position to pool its energies and talents to tackle present and future challenges.

Several other fissures have come to the surface since 2014. In addition to intensifying Hindu-Muslim strife, there is the North-South divide which we are increasingly seeing because of the NDAs attempts to impose the Hindi language. There is continuing conflict in Kashmir and great restiveness among different social groups elsewhere: Patels and Dalits in Gujarat, Rajputs in Rajasthan, and farmers in various states, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Not only is society beyond polarised by identity politics, the Modi government is also instinctively anti-intellectual and waging a war against knowledge, particularly targeting the liberal arts and social sciences. There is not a single variety of independent intellectual endeavour that is potentially not under threat in India now either by regulation, censorship or physical intimidation - be it a play, film, comedy sketches, documentaries, political discussions in universities or academic publications.

This is a disturbing trend with real implications because the Modi government is letting its antipathy toward liberal intellectuals undermine the transmission of social science knowledge in India - which is indispensable for a society to understand itself and the world. The problem here is two-fold. Progressive intellectuals dominate the social science scene in India, perhaps not in number but in the standing they have in their disciplines. On the contrary, there is no credible right-wing intellectual ecosystem in India--in that one can scarcely find historians or sociologists sympathetic to the BJP who are capable of being published by university presses, the gold standard of academic publishing. Rather than treat progressive intellectuals as a national resource, the BJP government is hell bent on marginalising them, thereby threatening to snuff out forms of knowledge that have developed with some difficulty over the decades. If India is struggling with its quality of education to begin with, it makes little sense to undercut whatever little intellectual capital it has. The Modi government may well note that in the US a few years ago around 58-66 percent of social science professors identified themselves as liberals, only 5-8 percent as conservative. Liberal intellectuals are often critical of America and yet its governments do not interfere in academic life as universities advance knowledge and ultimately Americas cultural power.

The real source of Indias weakness at the moment is that the Modi government is concentrating its energies on achieving political and ideological dominance, rather than addressing the countrys glaring deficits. Politics of polarisation has taken precedence over governmental efforts to facilitate cooperation among citizens that can yield productive outcomes. All regimes in big powers aim to increase power, but they strive for excellence as well (in the hope of compensating for weaknesses). In India we are, for most part, seeing the former without much evidence of support for the latter. The Chinese Communist Party is, on the contrary, unflinching about exercising political control but is pushing the country towards new frontiers. It wants to introduce 100,000 industrial robots every year and plans on having 150 robots in operation for every 10,000 employees by 2020. It is making major investments in artificial intelligence; this year an international conference of AI researchers in the US had to be rescheduled because Chinese delegates could not attend as it clashed with the Chinese New Year. China takes social science seriously too and is making strenuous efforts to get Western academics to teach and undertake research projects in China, through initiatives such as the Thousand Talent and Thousand Foreign Experts programmes.

India, by contrast, is grappling with basic issues of social order, the rule of law - and constrictions on the life of the mind. The military standoff with China is an important opportunity to take a hard look at its own realities and see how they stack up against the priorities of other countries. If the Modi government does not change course now, the gap between India and China will increase in the future and give Beijing more reason to continue bullying India.

(Views expressed are personal. The writer tweets as @SushilAaron)

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The next time you are caught littering in public places, be ready to shell out Rs 5,000 in residential areas and Rs 10,000 in commercial establishments.

Amending the 1999 by laws, the UT administration on Monday notified the Municipal Corporation (Sanitation and Public Health Amendment Bylaws, 2017), which came into force with immediate effect.

According to new bylaws, a defaulter will be charged for the removal and disposal of waste at the rates decided by the MC. In case of non-payment of charges, the same will be added to the water bill of the defaulter.

Approved in May this year

At the general House meeting held in may this year, the MC decided to impose recovery charges of Rs 5,000 for residential and 10,000 for commercial establishments on those littering garbage in the city.

MC joint commissioner Manoj Khatri said Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 will not be considered as a fine but will be termed as recovery charges as this amount will be utilised for employing additional labour and machinery to clear the garbage.

Mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal said: We will not tolerate littering on streets. Sanitation byelaws state that it is the responsibility of residents to ensure that their garbage is disposed of properly. Even if a resident has employed somebody else to dump garbage or debris, it is his/her duty to ensure that it is disposed of properly.

What is littering?

Throwing garbage outside a house or shop, accumulation of water outside houses, throwing debris or disposing waste in non-designated areas.

Team to check littering

MC joint commissioner Manoj Khatri said: Inspection teams will be constituted under a sanitation inspector and a health supervisor. The teams will also act on complaints and if found true, a challan will be issued. The defaulter will have to pay the challan at the office of the medical officer health in Sector 17. If the defaulter fails to pay, charges will be added as arrears in the water bill.

The city, which ranked second in the Swachh Survekshan Survey under Swachh Bharat Mission  Urban (SBM-U) conducted by the ministry of urban development  in 2016, slipped to 11th rank this year.

Fine was just Rs 500

Earlier, the MC used to impose a fine of Rs 500 for littering in the open. MC officials claim that around 10 challans were issued per month. But the paltry fine was not a deterrent for residents, so the MC decided to increase the amount to Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. Earlier, the MC used to move court for non-payment of the fine. The convicts can be prosecuted under Section 65, 66, 67 (imprisonment for non-payment of fine up to six month) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Sanitation and Public Health) Bye Laws, 1999. However, there is no record of any defaulter being imprisonment.

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In a landmark order, the Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has granted relief to a 93-year-old World War II veteran by setting aside the differential treatment meted out to soldiers injured in pre and post independence wars.

At present, the Centre extends war injury benefits only to those injured in post-independence wars.

The tribunal was hearing a petition filed by 93-year-old Amar Singh, a resident of Bhiwani, Haryana. Singh was a Sepoy in the British Indian Army. He was attached with the King George Vs 8th Light Cavalry and was injured during a grenade blast in Burma (present day Myanmar) in 1944. He lost three fingers of his right hand and suffered multiple shoulder injuries in the blast.

Centre must show magnanimity

The AFT bench comprising justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra (retd) held that such differential treatment by distinguishing between injuries suffered in different wars is uncalled for. The bench also directed the Centre to show magnanimity and identify other such soldiers and release the benefits due to them without them being forced to approach the courts.

The concept of war injury pension to those injured in international wars was introduced only in January 1996, vide a letter issued in 2001 with retrospective effect. However, since Singh retired before 1996, these benefits have not been extended to him. Furthermore, these pensions are applicable only to the injured in post-independence international wars.

Singh, through his lawyer, asked whether the government could deny war injury pension/benefits to personnel injured in the World War II on the pretext that they were fighting for the British and not for an Indian government? He added that the action of depriving war injury pensions to the veterans was faulty because World War II was a war of humanity against the Nazi and fascist forces and was not a war for or against a particular nation.

About 26 lakh personnel were recruited from India in the British Indian Army during the war.

Civilians get benefits, soldiers dont

Interestingly, civilian employees injured even in pre-independence international wars, including those of the Central Police Organisations (now known as the Central Armed Police Forces), especially those of the Crown Reserve Police, became eligible for war injury pension since January 1, 1996.

The petitioner argued that only a handful of World War II disabled survivors are alive today. Furthermore, it seems odd that the government is continuing with such differential practices despite being fully aware that these veterans are extremely old. The benefits due do not impose huge financial burden on the government, he said.

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The judicial custody of Pulsar Suni, arrested for his alleged role in abduction and assault of a popular South Indian actress, was extended till August one by an Angamaly magisterial court on Tuesday.

Counsel for Suni, arrested in the last week of February, submitted to the court that a bail application has been filed in the court. The court will consider the bail plea on July 20, he said.

Asked by media outside the court whether he had handed over the phone used for allegedly taking the video of the actress, he told the VIP lodged in the Aluva prison could tell about it.

The police has also arrested actor Dileep for allegedly plotting the February 17 abduction and assault of the actress. He is lodged in the Aluva prison.

Suni, meanwhile, was booked allegedly for attempting to abduct another Malayalam actress in 2011, the police said today.

An FIR has been lodged against Suni at Ernakulam central police on the basis of a complaint filed by film producer Johny Sagarika, the police said. Arrest of Suni, currently lodged in Kakkanad district jail, would be effected soon, they said. Suni allegedly plotted the abduction of the actress in a van while she was on the way to a hotel here in 2011.

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Television actor Mrunal Jain and his Uttaran co-star Tinaa Duttaa made a fans dream come true by taking time out to meet her, despite a packed schedule at their live show in Indonesia. The Indonesian fan, Shirley Lin, had made a sketch of them and came to meet them in Jakarata, all the way from Jombang. The fan was keen on presenting the sketch to them in person.

It was so nice to meet Shirley. More than her, I am so happy that I got to interact with such an ardent fan of mine. Her drawings were amazing. We are what we are because of our fans. Acting is a challenging job and fan experiences like these make it worthwhile, says Mrunal, who has been part of shows such as Uttaran and Bandhan. Shirley has been in touch with the actors for a long time now, and had informed Mrunal through e-mail that she would personally like to give him the artwork in person. The actor promptly gave her the address.

Tinaa was awestruck by Shirley and said, She is a bundle of talent and an amazing girl. It was a happy moment to meet a good and honest fan. I am thankful to her for making my lovely sketches

Meeting Tinaa was an unexpected surprise for Shirley, as she had expected to see only Mrunal.  Its a dream come true to finally meet your favourite stars. Mrunal and Tinaa gave me gifts as well. They also autographed my drawings and we took pictures together. Im feeling so blessed, thankful and happy. What a precious moment! She says.

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It could not be a more exhilarating cocktail with Indias Ritesh Batra (who wowed the world with his debut feature, The Lunchbox, in 2013), Hollywood icons Jane Fonda and Robert Redford, Netflix and the upcoming Venice Film Festival. The American streaming giant and Venice have teamed up to present Batras third movie, Our Souls at Night, at a festival that has always had a soft corner for Indian cinema.

Once Mira Nairs The Monsoon Wedding won the Golden Lion at the Lido, the quaint little island off mainland Venice washed by the waves of the Adriatic Sea that hosts the festival, the oldest in the world having begun its roll in 1932 during the heyday of Fascism, Mussolini and Hitler.

More recently, Mani Ratnams Raavanan in Tamil with Aishwarya Rai, Vikram and others screened at Venice, and in fact the Hindi version, Raavan, was also a part of the annual cinematic extravaganza.

In 2015, Vetrimaarans Visaaranai rocked Venice with its brutally poignant tale of poor Tamil migrant labourers being tortured in an Andhra jail. The work was based on the true story of a Coimbatore-based autorickshaw driver, M Chandrakumar. One of the victims of police bestiality, he wrote a novel, Lock-Up, about his dark days in a suffocatingly small cell, and this formed the basis for Vetrimaarans picture.

Jane Fondas life has been marked by intense passion in her pursuit of freedom from every kind of conformism, with touching and vulnerable generosity.

Batra, who seems to be drawn to English-language fiction (with his second feature, The Sense of an Ending, based on the British writer, Julian Patrick Barnes, who won the Man Booker Prize in 2011), finds his latest inspiration from American novelist Kent Harufs work, Ours Souls at Night.

Here is a broad description of what the plot of the book and movie is about: In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Harufs fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbour, Louis Waters. Addie husband died years ago, as did Louis wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louiss wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk to.

Batra has spun his story around loneliness (a theme we also saw in The Lunchbox -- with Irrfan Khans Fernandes pining for love - that premiered at the Cannes Critics Week in 2013), casting such great performers as Redford and Fonda.

Interestingly, Batra would get a far greater mileage with the 74th edition of Venice deciding to honour both Fonda and Redford with a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. The ceremony on September 1 (with the festival running from August 30 to September 9) will be followed by a screening of Our Souls at Night. Fonda and Redford have had exceptional lives and careers.

Robert Redford has been an exceptional actor, director, producer and environmentalist.

Not many Hollywood actors have shown the kind of courage as Fonda has. Her life has been marked by intense passion in her pursuit of freedom from every kind of conformism, with touching and vulnerable generosity. At times a political and social activist, a sex symbol, a writer, a feminist icon, a producer and a prophet of physical fitness, but above all an extraordinarily successful and talented actor, Fonda has been one of the greatest protagonists of contemporary international cinema. Her ability to reinvent herself and to sink into myriad characters has been proof of her brilliance.

Redford, on the other hand, has been an exceptional actor, director, producer and environmentalist - one who has given what some call a unique experiment in cinema, why the Sundance Film Festival. He has been a vociferous voice of independent cinema - making and promoting movies about issues he believed in. A masterful storyteller, he is bound to produce sparks acting out his part - along with Jane - in Our Souls at Night.

The film has been adapted for the screen by Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber (The Fault in Our Stars), and produced by Netflix, the streaming giant that caused a row at Cannes in May, when it refused to allow its competition title, Okja, to be screened by French theaters before the streaming started.

We do not know whether there would be a similar controversy on the Lido, given the fact that the festival director, Alberto Barbera, has, along with the Cannes chief, Thierry Fremaux, been a strong advocate of theatres. Both want to save the cinemas in a world where the screen is shrinking from the size of a television set to that of a tablet and, now, the mobile telephone!

(The author has covered the Venice Film Festival for 18 years.)

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A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck in the northern Pacific Ocean between the tip of Alaskas Aleutian Islands and Russias Kamchatka Peninsula, the US Geological Survey said on Monday.

The quake struck at 11:34 am on Tuesday (2334 GMT on Monday) some 125 miles (200 km) from the city of Nikolskoye on Bering island off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicentre was west of Attu, the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of Alaskas remote Aleutian Islands.

The earthquake was very shallow, only 6 miles (10 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect, but it was far from any mainland but it was far from any mainland and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage..

Map of Russia locating a 7.8-magnitude quake off the east coast on Monday. (AFP Photo)

The Kamchatka branch of Russias emergency situations ministry had warned that waves up to 50 cm (1-2/2 feet) high could reach Nikolskoye.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had warned earlier that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 km (186 miles) of the earthquake epicentre. But it later said that based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake had passed.

The quake was initially reported as a magnitude 7.7 before being revised down to 7.4 and finally upgraded to 7.8, a major quake normally capable of causing widespread and heavy damage when striking on or near land.

The quake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including several above magnitude 5.0.
Irked by ministers briefing the news media against colleagues, Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday upbraided her cabinet amid continuing speculation in Westminster over her own future in office.

In office with diminished standing after losing majority in the June 8 election, May has been hit by news reports about cabinet members criticising colleagues, particularly on the issue of Brexit. She told colleagues at a drinks reception on Monday to return from summer holiday to attend serious business.

The focus of headlines was chancellor Philip Hammond, who is allegedly trying to frustrate the Brexit process and has suggested that public sector workers are overpaid. May told cabinet members there should be no carping, no backbiting.

May, who is also said to be facing a coup plot from within the Conservative Party, said: There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the cabinet table.

Home secretary Amber Rudd added her voice to the row by advising colleagues on Tuesday to get on with the job: I wholly support the prime minister in her views that we must all  as ministers and, indeed, backbenchers  get on with the job in hand.

There is an important job of government to be done and(ministers) are honoured to have their roles and I know they should be getting on, as some of them do, and delivering on what they have been asked to do.

The Guardian quoted a pro-Brexit MP as saying that he was asked to sign a letter of no-confidence in May but had refused to so far because of doubts over who would take over, including concerns that a pro-EU leader could be installed.

If there was someone credible to take over Id probably back them. But Im not convinced that where we are now is tenable. There is not a winning situation at the moment, the MP reportedly said.

Former prime minister David Cameron has urged party leaders not to slip backwards, telling the Evening Standard (now edited by his former chancellor George Osborne): The Conservative Party only succeeds if it is a party of the futureI want us to go on being the open, liberal, tolerant party that we became post-2005, because I think that was part of our success.

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US President Donald Trump blasted congressional Democrats and a few Republicans Tuesday over the collapse of the GOP effort to rewrite the Obama healthcare law, and warned, We will return.

Trumps early morning tweet led off a barrage of Republican criticism of Congress over the partys failure on its flagship legislative priority. For seven years, the GOP has pledged to repeal President Barack Obamas law.

Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard, Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans.

He added, As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!

Two GOP senators  Utahs Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas  sealed the measures doom late Monday when they announced they would vote no in an initial, critical vote that had been expected as soon as next week. That meant that at least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block the measure  two more than Majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had to spare in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

On the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell conceded that the legislation repealing the 2010 law and replacing it with GOP-preferred programs will not be successful, essentially waving a white flag.

He said instead, the Senate would vote on legislation dismantling much of Obamas statute that would take effect in two years, which Republicans say would give Congress time to approve replacement legislation. But such legislation seems unlikely to be approved, with many Republicans concerned the two-year gap would roil insurance markets and produce a political backlash against the GOP.

This doesnt have to be the end of the story, McConnell said.

The retreat was the second stinging setback on the issue in three weeks for McConnell, whose reputation as a legislative mastermind has been marred as hes failed to unite his chambers Republicans behind a health overhaul package that highlighted jagged divides between conservatives and moderates. In late June, he abandoned an initial package after he lacked enough GOP support to pass.

With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The episode has also been jarring for Trump, whose intermittent lobbying and nebulous, often contradictory descriptions of what hes wanted have shown he has limited clout with senators. That despite a determination by Trump, McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to demonstrate that a GOP running the White House and Congress can govern effectively.

McConnells failed bill would have left 22 million uninsured by 2026, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, a number that many Republicans found unpalatable. But the vetoed 2015 measure would be even worse, the budget office said last January, producing 32 million additional uninsured people by 2026  figures that seemed likely to drive a stake into that bills prospects for passing Congress.

That would seem to leave McConnell with an option he described last month  negotiating with Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. That would likely be on a narrower package aimed more at keeping insurers in difficult marketplaces theyre either abandoning or imposing rapidly growing premiums.

The core of this bill is unworkable, Schumer said in a statement. He said Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system.

Similar to legislation the House approved in May after its own setbacks, McConnells bill would repeal Obamas tax penalties on people who dont buy coverage and cut the Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and nursing home residents.

It rolled back many of the statutes requirements for the policies insurers can sell and eliminated many tax increases that raised money for Obamas expansion to 20 million more people, though it retained the laws tax boosts on high earners.

Besides Lee and Moran, two other GOP senators had previously declared their opposition to McConnells bill: moderate Maine Sen. Susan Collins and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky. And other moderates were wavering and could have been difficult for McConnell and Trump to win over because of the bills Medicaid cuts: Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Dean Heller of Nevada, probably the most endangered Senate Republican in next years elections.

The range of objections lodged by the dissident senators underscored the warring viewpoints within his own party that McConnell had to try patching over. Lee complained that the GOP bill didnt go far enough in rolling back Obamas robust coverage requirements, while moderates like Collins berated its Medicaid cuts and the millions it would leave without insurance.

McConnells revised version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding tens of billions of dollars to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs. His efforts did not achieve the intended result.
Hyenas roam the streets of Harar in eastern Ethiopia every night, seeking scraps of meat to drag to the nearby caves but residents are not afraid. A family chosen by the town to feed the animals is not daunted by the task despite the dangers that are associated with coming into close quarters with such wild animals.

Hyenas wait for Hyena Man Abbas Yusuf fro their daily mean on the outskirts of the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

Harar, with a population of 240,000 people, started to expand out of its original wall after 1882 and is now surrounded by modern buildings.

People drive tuk-tuks outside of the walled city of Harar. 16th century Emir Nur Ibn Mujahid built a four-meter-high protective wall around the city, which rising population has breached, creating a need for protection against wild hyenas. (REUTERS)

Abbas Yusuf, known as Hyena Man, learnt to feed the hyenas from his father, Yusuf Mume Salleh, who fed them for 45 years before passing the job to his son 13 years ago.

Hyenas have never attacked the people of Harar after my father started feeding them, unless you harm their babies, Abbas Yusuf told Reuters.

Yusuf Mume salleh, 70, known as the first Hyena Man, sits near his house within the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

My father is always thankful that I continued the good work he started and I will pass it onto my children when I grow old.

His work is now an attraction, drawing in tourists who came to see the citys ancient mosques nestled within its old stone walls.

Abbas Yusuf plays with a hyena cub near his house in Harar, Ethiopia. Abbas has given the hyenas names according to their behavior and appearance. Among them are Dabbassoo or Hairy, Tuqan Dilii or Lazy, and Qallaa, meaning skinny. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

I am privileged by God to be a good friend to those misunderstood animals, he said.

I have a baby hyena in my house and keep it in my bedroom (and Im) not worried it will bite me when I sleep.

To encourage visitors to trust the hyenas, Abbas feeds them directly from his mouth.

People sit outside the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia. The work undertaken by Abbass family has made brought about a change in the behaviour of the wild hyenas, making the city safer, and cleaner once night falls. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

The hyenas live in caves outside the city and roam the rubbish dumps, also outside the walls. Some hyenas give birth in the ditches in the middle of the city.

The hyenas are a gift of nature to clean up the city we mess during the day time. Without them the city will be much dirtier, Anisa Mohammed, a 32-year old bread vendor, said.

Abbas collects the leftover meat from the slaughterhouse and meat market within Harar. He uses this refuse from within the city and feeds it to the hyenas, reducing their need to forage and hunt within city limits. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

It has been a center of Islamic culture since it was founded in the 7th century. In the 16th century Emir Nur Ibn Mujahid built a four-meter-high protective wall around the city, pierced by five gates.

Muslims take part in Friday prayers within the walled city of Harar, Ethiopia. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

Every year since the 16th century, to mark the birth of Prophet Mohammed, the citys residents offer the hyenas porridge mixed with butter and goat meat on the Hakim Mountain, outside the city, believed to be a holy site because the ancient Muslim leaders of the city are buried there.

Abbas unique way of feeding hyenas has become another attraction for visitors to the ancient city who would earlier focus on its religious sites. (Tiksa Negeri / REUTERS)

If the hyenas refuse the sacrifice, people believe the country will have bad luck.
The US said on Tuesday it would encourage India and China to engage in a direct dialogue to reduce tension between them in the Sikkim sector.

We encourage India and China to engage in a direct dialogue aimed at reducing tensions, a State Department official told PTI.

Responding to questions on the India-China border standoff, the official refrained from saying anything else.

We refer you to the governments of India and China for further information, the official said.

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.
The range of immigration-related issues between India and the United Kingdom  including returning illegal migrants, extradition and visas  is to be addressed in a comprehensive agreement due to be signed in New Delhi later this year.

These issues were discussed by home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi in a series of meetings with British interlocutors during his week-long visit here. Most of the interactions, including on counter-terrorism, were said to be out of the public domain.

Officials told Hindustan Times the British side is keen to address the range of issues as a package and reach an agreement during immigration minister Brandon Lewis visit to New Delhi later this year.

Key issues include visas for diplomats, students and IT professionals, radicalisation and New Delhis concerns about London allowing groups perceived as anti-India to function and raise funds in the UK.

The British side said while there was no compromise on terrorism, it preferred engagement with such groups than confrontation. British authorities withdrew permission earlier this month for a rally in Birmingham to commemorate the death of Hizbul Mujahidden commander Burhan Wani.

Mehrishi told journalists that terror threat assessments were shared by the two sides during the talks, which covered issues such as cyber security, fighting organised crime, the mutual legal assistance treaty and maritime security.

There is no dispute or willingness to take back Indians who may be in the UK illegally. Their assessment is that on an average, 1,000 illegal Indians show up. We will expedite the return of all those who are identified as Indians, he said.

The annual figure of 1,000 adds another dimension to the issue that has been linked by Prime Minister Theresa May to improving the overall visa offer for Indians. The British side is keen to speed up the process of identifying and returning illegal Indians.

No official figures for illegal migrants are published but according to a top British functionary, Indians top the list, numbering over 100,000 - more than twice the number from Nigeria, the next country on the list of illegal foreign nationals.

Another key issue related to India considerably lowering the visa fees for British nationals, particularly the e-visa, while the cost of UK visas for Indians remained high. The principle of reciprocity demanded a similar reduction of UK visa fees for India, the officials said.

Mehrishi also said India will shortly extradite an individual to the UK but did not name the person. However, officials later said the man was Bangladeshi national Mohammad Abdul Shakur, who arrested in Assam after he was accused of murdering his family in 2007. Mehrishi added the 1993 India-UK extradition treaty is working well and no individual case was discussed during his talks here.

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The Trump administration may not dump the Iran deal as the president had promised as a candidate but, in a move India will be tracking closely, it will enforce it more strictly in letter and spirit and hold Tehran accountable for its malign behaviour.

The administration was working on a strategy that will address the totality of Irans actions, which will not be focussed narrowly on the implementation by Tehran of its end of the nuclear deal, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday

The term malign behaviour/activity was used for Irans purported support of terrorism and proliferation, hostility to Israel, support of the Assad government in Syria and the arbitrary detention of foreigners including Americans.

As a result, the official said, the administration believed Iran had undermined the intent of the deal, which was to promote peace in the region and outside, and it was unquestionably in default of the spirit of the deal.

Though not surprised, New Delhi will be watching closely for signs of the resumption of the sanctions that the Obama administration had deployed against Teheran and which had compelled India to drastically cut its crude oil imports from Iran, a long-time supplier and ally.

More significantly perhaps, New Delhi will be worried about the potential impact of renewed US-Iran hostilities on its plans for co-development of Chabahar port in Iran that is key to Indias push for strategic and trade links into landlocked Afghanistan and beyond into Central Asia.

Under an agreement signed with Tehran in 2016, a year after the Iran deal, India is contracted to develop parts of the port but has faced problems in finding suppliers for the machinery and equipment needed, specially from western manufacturers anxious about impending sanctions from the Trump administration, in line with the presidents poll promises.

For now though, the Trump administration appears prepared to stay with the deal as it gave congress the executive branchs quarterly certification Monday of Tehrans adherence of its end of the deal as required by law instead of stating, as it could have, it was rescinding the agreement.

But President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson intend to stress, the senior administration official said, that while Iran had fulfilled conditions of the JCPOA  the Joint Comprehensive Place of Action signed by P-5 countries and Germany and the European Union with Iran in 2015  it was unquestionably in default of the spirit of the deal.

According to the agreement pushed by President Barack Obama, as a legacy defining issue according to critics, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons programme for 15 years in exchange for the lifting of the US-led economic sanctions  in addition to those mandated by the United Nations  that had crippled its economy. But thats all.

The agreement was opposed by most Republicans, specially hawks who argued the administration had squandered a chance to compel the Iranian government reeling under the debilitating effects of the sanctions to give up its nuclear programme entirely instead of settling on a temporary freeze.

But the Trump administration concluded that the malign behaviour/actions of Iran undermined the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security, the official said, And it hadnt.
The frozen bodies of a Swiss couple who went missing 75 years ago in the Alps have been found on a shrinking glacier, Swiss media said on Tuesday.

Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, the parents of seven children, had gone to milk their cows in a meadow above Chandolin in the Valais canton on August 15, 1942.

We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day, their youngest daughter Marceline Udry-Dumoulin told the Lausanne daily Le Matin.

I can say that after 75 years of waiting this news gives me a deep sense of calm, added the 79-year-old.

In an overnight statement, Valais cantonal police said that two bodies bearing identity papers had been discovered last week by a worker on Tsanfleuron glacier near a ski lift above Les Diablerets resort at an altitude of 2,615 metres (8,600 feet).

DNA testing would be carried out to confirm the identities of the couple.

The bodies were lying near each other. It was a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War Two, Bernhard Tschannen, director of Glacier 3000, told the paper.

They were perfectly preserved in the glacier and their belongings were intact.

We think they may have fallen into a crevasse where they stayed for decades. As the glacier receded, it gave up their bodies, he told the daily Tribune de Geneve.

Marcelin Dumoulin, 40, was a shoemaker, while Francine, 37, was a teacher. They left five sons and two daughters.

It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldnt climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier, Udry-Dumoulin said.

After a while, we children were separated and placed in families. I was lucky to stay with my aunt, she said. We all lived in the region but became strangers.

For the funeral, I wont wear black. I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost.
The US state department has expanded the definition of close family exempted from the temporary travel ban on visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries to include grandparents, grandchildren and other relatives of US residents.

The exemptions, as notified to US missions worldwide, now cover parents, children, siblings, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, stepchildren, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles and fiances.

A similar dilution of restrictions has been taking place as regards laptops and other electronic devices allowed as cabin baggage on US-bound flights from West Asian countries. Saudi Arabian airlines on Monday became the last to be freed from the ban.

The restrictions were introduced in March but began to be dropped recently as the US announced new security guidelines applying to all airlines, and a revised directive was sent out by the department of homeland security last Thursday.

But these changes were not mandated by courts as has been the case with President Donald Trumps controversial travel ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries  Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.

The expansion of the exempted list was ordered by a Hawaii court, which called the administrations definition the antithesis of common sense. It found the exclusion of grandparents  the epitome of close family members  specially egregious.

The Trump administration has appealed against the order but has begun implementing it. The ruling is effective immediately and we have issued instructions to our embassies and consulates to use the expanded definition when adjudicating visa cases, the state department said.

Trump first ordered the temporary ban in January, just days after assuming office. At the time, it prevented all visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries - Iraq was the seventh - from entering the US for 90 days. Refugees from these countries were prohibited for a longer period, 120 days, and those from Syria were banned forever.

The ban rolled out to worldwide outrage and confusion and was mired in legal challenges from the night it went into effect.

International passengers embrace family members as they arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport after the Trump administration's travel ban was allowed back into effect pending further judicial review on June 29, 2017. (Reuters)

The administration tried again, with a narrower ban in March, which was allowed to be partially implemented by the Supreme Court in June after exempting visitors claiming bona fideclose familial relationships with US residents and entities.

But the apex court left it to the administration to define the term close family. It came up with one that ran into trouble right away  it covered only parents, children, siblings, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, fiances and stepchildren.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the justice department said the Hawaii courts order empties the court's decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just 'close' family members, but virtually all family members.

Treating all of these relationships as close familial relationship(s) reads the term close out of the court's decision.
US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Republicans in Congress to repeal Obamacare and work on a healthcare plan that he said would draw Democratic support.

In a tweet following the loss of support for a Senate Republican bill, Trump said, Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

Democrats have insisted that they will not cooperate with any Republican legislation that repeals President Barack Obamas landmark healthcare law, but would work in a bipartisan way to improve it.

Trump tweeted his message Monday night after two more GOP senators announced their opposition to legislation he backs. The defections left Republicans short of the votes they need to pass the measure.

The announcements from Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Partys long-promised efforts to get rid of President Barack Obamas health care legislation reeling. Next steps, if any, were not immediately clear.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support Majority Leader Mitch McConnells legislation in its current form. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill last Thursday.

McConnell is now at least two votes short in the closely divided Senate and may have to go back to the drawing board or even begin to negotiate with Democrats, a prospect hes threatened but resisted so far. Or he could abandon the health care effort, which has proven more difficult than many Republicans envisioned after campaigning on the issue for years, and move on to tax legislation, a bigger Trump priority to begin with.

McConnells bill fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcares rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one, said Moran.

Lee said, In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesnt go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations.

It was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of the bill last month when defeat became inevitable.
A second Australian senator in less than a week said Tuesday she was quitting Parliament after discovering she was a dual national and had therefore never really been elected. The controversy has raised questions about how many other lawmakers might also have no right to be there.

Larissa Waters, co-deputy leader of the minor Greens party, said she was quitting after six years as a senator after the Canadian High Commission in Canberra told her on Monday that she was Canadian.

On Friday, the Greens other co-deputy, Scott Ludlam, revealed that he was a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which made him ineligible for the Senate job hes held since July 2008.

Australias constitution states that a citizen of a foreign power is not eligible to be elected to Parliament.

Waters, who in May became the first lawmaker to breastfeed in Parliament, was born in the Canadian city of Winnipeg on Feb. 8, 1977, to Australian parents. She moved to Australia before her first birthday.

She said she thought she had an option of becoming a Canadian citizen and did not take it. She has since found that the law changed a week after she was born, meaning she automatically became a Canadian unless she took steps to prevent it.

Waters said other foreign-born lawmakers among the 226 in Parliament could find themselves in a similar predicament.

There are many politicians in the Senate and the federal House of Representatives that were born overseas and it may well be that others have to make this embarrassing revelation as well, an emotional Waters told reporters.

But I can hold my head up high knowing that the moment I found out, I have taken the step of announcing that I will sadly have to resign, she added.

After Ludlams resignation, government lawmaker and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott posted on social media a document confirming he had renounced his own British citizenship in 1993, a year before he was elected to Parliament.

Sydney University constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said Canada and New Zealand were not considered foreign powers when the Australian constitution came into force in 1901 because, like Australia, they were part of the British Empire. The High Court has ruled that Britain has been regarded as a foreign power under Australian law since 1986.

One or two prime ministers might have been dual nationals in the past, but lawmakers eligibility was never tested in the courts until the 1970s, Twomey said.

Up until then, people didnt look too closely. Its only been in recent times when perhaps politics has become a bit more visceral ... that these issues have arisen, Twomey told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Ludlam was exposed by Australian lawyer John Cameron, who had investigated whether the senator and another New Zealand-born lawmaker, Derryn Hinch, were dual nationals.

Hinch, an independent senator, had renounced his citizenship.

The Greens will likely retain all eight Senate seats and their balance-of-power role despite the two resignations. A recount of votes at the last election a year ago will probably deliver the seats to other Greens candidates.

But both Ludlam and Waters could be forced to repay their salaries. Ludlam was reportedly paid more than 1.6 million Australian dollars ($1.3 million) during his nine years in office.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said that he was gutted by the loss of his deputies and that the party will tighten procedures to prevent ineligible candidates from running again.
US President Donald Trump has pushed for Made in America products to fight unfair and stupid trade practices amid criticism that his family business outsources product manufacturing to countries such as India, China and Bangladesh.

Surrounded by Gibson guitars, Stetson cowboy hats and other Made in America products, Trump promised to stand up for American companies and their employees, warning that the US would take retaliatory action against other countries unfair trade practices.

We have countries that charge us 100% tax on a product. And when that product is sold by them to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing, Trump said, with a tinge of sarcasm.

People say, Oh thats free trade. No, thats stupid trade. Thats really stupid trade. Its incredible, he was quoted as saying by CNN.

Noting that he was elected on promises of reigniting American manufacturing, Trump touted his administrations efforts to bolster US manufacturing and strip away burdensome government regulations and promised he would do more to level the playing field for US companies.

But Trump offered up no new policy or specific action that would advance those goals, signing only a symbolic Made in America proclamation and promising still-unrevealed policies that will make US manufacturers so happy.

Over the next short period of time youre going to see things announced that you wont even believe for our country and for selling product in our country and making product in our country and things that are great for American jobs, he said.

The day provided an opportunity for Trump to turn the page away from Russia-related controversies swirling around his administration and instead provide images of him marvelling at a host of products made in all 50 US states.

My administration is removing the burdens and regulations on your companies so that you can compete, thrive and grow, he said.

For decades, Washington has allowed other nations to wipe out millions of American jobs through unfair trade practices, he said.

This exodus of American jobs was marked by a period of sluggish growth, falling incomes, surging welfare and shrinking participation in the workforce, he said as he called for free and fair trade with other countries.

We must fight the unfair trade practices that have gutted our industry, and that includes cracking down on the predatory online sales of foreign goods, which is absolutely killing our shoppers and our shopping centers, he said.

Since the beginning of the year, we have already created over 50,000 brand-new manufacturing jobs, and were just getting started. We will lift our citizens from welfare to work. We will turn boarded-up communities into new outposts of American commerce. And we will once again rediscover our heritage as a manufacturing nation, he added.

The US used to be a manufacturing nation. Not so much anymore, he said.

Restoring American manufacturing will not only restore our wealth, it will restore our pride and pride in ourselves. It will revitalise our independence, and it will rebuild the bonds of kinship between our communities and our citizens, which has been lagging, Trump said.

However, his push for Made in America received some criticism from political opponents, who alleged that his family businesses are still selling products made overseas, including from India, China and Bangladesh.

Where are the shirts made? Bangladesh. Where are the ties made? China, tweeted Matthew Wagner, the communication director of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Trump organisation continues to outsource much of its product manufacturing to Bangladesh, China & Mexico, tweeted congressman Dan Kildee.

Trumps DC hotel sells clothes made in China, Vietnam, Peru, Bangladesh and Pakistan during Made in America, said another tweet.

In July, the Washington Post traced Trumps daughter Ivanka Trumps products to Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The issue also came up during the daily White House news conference.

After all, he has shirts made in China and Bangladesh and India. Other products made - like Trump vodka made in the Netherlands, said a reporter.

I actually look at it in a very different way, which is the president has been a very successful businessman on a number of fronts and a number of areas and industries, and to understand first-hand what the tax burden and what the regulatory burden do to a business that wants to grow or expand here or hire here, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer replied.
President Donald Trumps administration on Monday declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was in default of the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it.

It was the second time Trump certified Iranian compliance with the agreement since he took office in January, despite criticizing it during the 2016 campaign as the worst deal ever.

Trump administration officials, briefing reporters on Monday on the decision, said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions.

Under US law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Irans compliance with the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Trump had faced a congressionally mandated deadline of Monday to decide.

A senior administration official said Iran was judged in compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal but that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believed Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability.

The official ticked off a list of accusations about Iranian behaviour in the region, including ballistic missile development and proliferation, support for terrorism and militancy, complicity in atrocities committed in Syria and threats to Gulf waterways.

The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security. As a result, the president, the secretary of state and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA, the official said.

Totality of behaviour

The landmark 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.

Iran denies seeking nuclear arms. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, concluded in December 2015, however, 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 Irans ballistic missile program, human rights record and what Washington charges is its support for international terrorism.

The senior administration official said the Trump administration intended to employ a strategy that would address the totality of Irans malign behaviour and not just focus on the Iran nuclear agreement.

The administration is also looking at ways to strengthen the nuclear deal and more strictly enforce it, the official said, citing concerns that the deal over time would let Iran openly pursue industrial-scale nuclear fuel enrichment.

Were in a period where were going to be working with our allies to explore options for addressing the JCPOAs flaws, which there are many, the official said.
Russias foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Moscow reserved the right to take retaliatory measures against the United States after a meeting in Washington ended without a deal on returning seized Russian diplomatic property.

Barack Obama, then US president, ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats in December over what he said was their involvement in hacking the 2016 US presidential election campaign, something Russia flatly denies.

Moscow had said a lot would depend on the outcome of a meeting in Washington on Monday between Russian Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov and US undersecretary of state Thomas Shannon who discussed the diplomatic row.

But the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday a resolution to the problem had not yet been found.

The Russian side stressed (in the meeting) that if Washington does not remove this and other irritants, including continued obstacles to the work of our diplomatic institutions, we reserve the right to take retaliatory measures based on the principle of reciprocity, the statement said.

Russia wanted to resume regular dialogue with the United States about strategic stability too, it said, saying it was up to Washington to make a move on the issue.
The Spanish-American War began with a naval battle  and a Pacific empire at stake.

MAY 1, 1898, MANILA BAY, PHILIPPINES

Nine U.S. Navy ships of the Asiatic Squadron, with their lights extinguished and with Commodore George Deweys flagship, USS lead, sailed quietly into Manila Bay shortly after midnight on the night of April 30-May 1, 1898. This was to be no friendly port call to the capital city of the Philippines, a Spanish colony for over 300 years. Five days earlier, the United States had declared war on Spain. Dewey was leading his seven warships and two support vessels into Manila Bay to attack Admiral Patricio Montojos Spanish Pacific Squadron. It would be the U.S. Navys first major naval engagement since the end of the Civil War, 33 years earlier.

As Deweys line of ships passed the four small islands strung across Manila Bays entrance, a Spanish shore battery on El Fraile Island fired three ineffective shots. Brief return fire from USS Raleigh and USS Boston quickly silenced the Spanish gun. Despite certainly being alerted by the booming noise and bright flashes of the gunfire exchange, none of the other Spanish shore batteries fired. Deweys ships steamed unmolested into the inner bay and waited for daybreak.

At sunrise, Dewey was momentarily startled to discover that Montojos ships were not lying at Manila Bays best anchorage, located near the city of Manila itself. As the Americans sailed on to search for the Spanish squadron, Deweys ships came under fire from three shore batteries. The Spanish gunners, however, missed as USS Boston and USS Concord returned fire.

Finally, at 5:41 a.m., Deweys battle line located the Spanish squadron anchored near Cavite on Sangley Point, south of Manila city. As his ships steamed within 5,000 yards of Montojos anchored squadron, the guns of the Spanish ships along with the shore batteries at Cavite opened fire at the Americans. Dewey calmly turned to Olympias captain and said, You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.

The Battle of Manila Bay had begun.

A SAILORS LIFE

George Dewey was born December 26, 1837, in Montpelier, Vt., to Julius Dewey and Mary Perrin. Mary passed away when George was only 5 years old, and the energetic and spirited youngster often got into trouble. His interest in pursuing a military career was sparked early on when he received a book about the exploits of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. Due to Georges unruly behavior, his father deemed that the boy was in dire need of discipline  so he packed off the 14-year-old to the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy at Norwich, Vt.

Founded in 1819, the school, known today as Norwich University, is the oldest private military college in the United States and is recognized as the birthplace of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). George spent two years there before receiving an appointment in 1854 to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He graduated from Annapolis with the class of 1858 and was assigned as a midshipman to the steam frigate USS Wabash.

After the Civil War began in April 1861, Dewey was assigned on May 10 to USS Mississippi. He took part in the naval actions leading to the Union capture of New Orleans in 1862 and the 1863 Battle of Port Hudson (in which Mississippi grounded and then was sunk by shore battery fire). From 1863-65, Dewey served on USS Brooklyn, USS Agawa, and finally USS Colorado. As Colorados executive officer, he participated in the 1864-65 Battles of Fort Fisher. During the Civil War, Dewey was highly praised for his seamanship, leadership and courage, and at wars end he was promoted to lieutenant commander.

Following the Civil War and until 1867, Dewey served on a number of vessels  including USS Kearsarge, USS Canandaigua and again USS Colorado  and in a variety of assignments at sea and ashore. After that he was assigned to shore duty at the U.S. Naval Academy, placed in charge of a class of midshipmen and the ships stationed at the school. In 1873, Dewey was given his first command, USS Narragansett. His other ships and assignments between 1875 and 1896 included USS Juniata in the Asiatic Squadron; USS Dolphin on the American east coast; the venerable Civil War veteran USS Pensacola in the European Squadron; and shore duty in Washington, D.C., in two assignments to the Lighthouse Board, the last one (1893-96) as the boards naval secretary. Dewey received promotions to commander, captain and then (in 1896) commodore.

In 1897, the commanding officer positions in both the Asiatic Squadron and the Atlantic Squadron opened up with the departure of their respective commanders. Dewey requested command of the Asiatic Squadron, but the post had been all but assigned to Commodore John A. Howell, who was backed by Secretary of the Navy John Long. However, the dynamic, energetic and resourceful Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt favored Dewey for the posting. Roosevelt urged Dewey to speak with Redfield Proctor, a U.S. senator from Deweys home state of Vermont. Proctor enthusiastically endorsed his family friend and in turn encouraged President William McKinley to direct the Naval Department to appoint Dewey. McKinley so ordered, and Secretary Long, although unenthusiastically, dutifully complied with the order. However, Long refused to promote Dewey to rear admiral, the rank held by his predecessor in the important command.

The Asiatic Squadron command was a significant advancement for Dewey; but with tensions rising between the United States and Spain, it was even more critical for the U.S. Navy to have an officer of his experience, skill and initiative in charge of Americas naval strike force in the Pacific.

WAR WITH SPAIN

Following the Civil War, the United States had renewed its westward expansion that took American interests beyond the countrys Pacific coast, across the ocean and into Asia. New markets in China and rapidly modernizing Japan drew the United States into a region that had long been exploited by European colonial powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Spain. Spains Philippines colony, given its superb strategic position astride the main western Pacific sea-lanes, and the fact that Manila Bay was the finest natural port in Asia, was of particular interest to Americans (notably Theodore Roosevelt) who longed for a U.S. Pacific empire.

Meanwhile, in another Spanish colony closer to home, nationalists in Cuba chafed under despotic Spanish rule, with violence breaking out in the mid-1890s. The American public strongly supported Cuban revolutionaries and their cause, as did the McKinley administration that took the reins of government after the 1896 election. As tensions between the United States and Spain mounted, USS Maine exploded and sank in Cubas Havana harbor February 15, 1898, killing 266 of the ships 355-man crew.

The American press immediately claimed the explosion was an act of war by Spain against the United States  a charge the Spanish government vehemently (and probably truthfully) denied. McKinley, under increasing political and public opinion pressure, sent Spain an ultimatum demanding that the Spanish withdraw from Cuba. On April 24, Spain declared war on the United States, which reciprocated April 25.

Thanks to Theodore Roosevelt, always alert to opportunity and ever eager to seize the unforgiving moment, U.S. Navy ships were made ready for battle soon after war was declared. Although only Assistant Navy Secretary Roosevelt took the initiative to speed ammunition and supplies to American warships worldwide and place the vessels on alert for imminent action. On April 26, the Navy Department sent Dewey, who had been readying his Asiatic Squadron, a message reading: Proceed at once to Philippine Islands. Commence operations at once, particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture vessels or destroy. Use utmost endeavors.

On April 27, Dewey set out from the China coast, where the Asiatic Squadron was based, en route to the Philippines, 600 miles away across the South China Sea. In addition to Deweys flagship, USS Olympia, the squadron included three other cruisers, Baltimore, Raleigh and Boston; two gunboats, Concord and Petrel; the revenue cutter McCulloch (essentially a lightly armed gunboat); the collier Nanshan; and the supply steamer Zafiro. The squadrons striking power was contained in the 8-inch, 6-inch and 5-inch naval guns mounted on the cruisers and gunboats (although McCulloch mounted only small, 3-inch guns).

The Asiatic Squadrons destination, Manila Bay, was guarded at its 12-mile entrance by shore batteries. A total of 17 guns were mounted on four islands: Corregidor, Caballo, El Fraile and Carabao. The islands divided ship passage into Manila Bay into two channels, north and south. Although Dewey realized the channels were likely protected by naval mines, while en route he met with his captains and concluded that the mines would not pose a major threat to his ships passing into the bay. Moreover, despite the fact that Admiral Montojos Spanish squadron outnumbered Deweys squadron in fighting vessels 11-to-7, the American ships were newer, faster, had thicker armor protection, mounted larger guns and were manned by much better trained crews.

On April 30, the American squadron reached the coast of the northern Philippines island of Luzon, the most important of the over 7,000 islands making up the Philippine Archipelago. Dewey dispatched Boston and Concord to examine Subic Bay, on Luzons western coast 60 miles north of Manila Bay, for the presence of any Spanish warships. Although a report of firing at Subic led Dewey to send Baltimore to join the other two ships, there had been no enemy contact. Subic Bay contained no Spanish ships and therefore posed no threat to Deweys advance. Since it then seemed certain that the Spanish squadron was concentrated in Manila Bay, a more relaxed Dewey told one of his officers, Now we have them!

As the Asiatic Squadron approached within 30 miles of Manila Bays entrance, Dewey decided to bring his ships past the Spanish island outposts and into the bay under cover of darkness. He brought his captains onboard Olympia and instructed them: We shall enter Manila Bay tonight and you will follow the motions and movements of the flagship, which will lead.

BATTLE OF MANILA BAY

After Deweys ships sailed unscathed past the islands guarding Manila Bays entrance and eventually discovered the Spanish squadron anchored at Sangley Point, the battle that would decide the fate of the Philippines began at 5:41 a.m. on May 1, 1898. In response to Deweys fire when ready instructions, Olympias 8-inch guns launched the squadrons first rounds toward the Spanish ships, followed immediately by volleys from the other American warships. Much to Deweys consternation, however, the initial volleys went wild. Although these first shots missed, billowing smoke from the ships guns obscured the American vessels from the Spanish gunners observation, thereby preventing the Spaniards from firing accurately at Deweys ships.

Tactically, the American ships steamed in line ahead battle formation  with Olympia leading, followed by the rest of the squadrons ships, one behind the other  tracing a circular course that kept them 2,000-3,000 yards from the Spanish ships while firing successive volleys at the enemy. Throughout the battle, Deweys circular turning and firing maneuver was repeated five times.

The first casualty of the battle was a small Spanish torpedo boat that drove straight toward Olympia but was promptly sunk. The American ships then targeted Montojos flagship, Reina Cristina, and began systematically tearing it apart. Shots landed on its stern, forecastle and mizzenmast, killing 80 Spanish sailors before the ship was abandoned. Reina Cristinas captain, Don Luis Cadarso, was killed as he worked to evacuate his men, and Pacific Squadron commander Admiral Montojo was forced to move his flag to Isla de Cuba.

Raleigh targeted the Spanish ship Castilla on its third firing run, landing a shot under the ships bridge that destroyed two of its guns and wounded many members of its command staff. Continual fire from Raleigh forced Castillas crew to abandon the vessel just before it sank. The Spanish cruiser Don Juan de Austria got under way and attempted to charge the American battle line but was forced to turn away after Olympias guns inflicted heavy damage.

On the American squadrons fourth firing pass, one of Deweys ships was finally hit. A Spanish shell penetrated Baltimores hull, ricocheted through the ship, disabled a gun and exploded in the ammunition store, injuring eight U.S. sailors. Except for McCullochs chief engineer, Francis Randall, who died from a heart attack (or heatstroke), these eight wounded sailors were Deweys only battle casualties. The next American volley, however, heavily damaged two more Spanish ships, Isla de Luzon and Marques del Duero.

At 7:15 a.m., the American squadron began its fifth and final firing run against the Spanish ships. Midway through the maneuver, however, Dewey received a report that Olympia was running low on ammunition  only 15 rounds per gun remained aboard ship. Furthermore, gun smoke hanging over the battle area concealed the damage the American ships had wrought on the Spanish vessels, leaving Dewey unaware of the enemys disposition and status. These circumstances convinced him to pause his attacks, and he ordered his crews to rest and eat breakfast.

While Deweys crews rested, the smoke cleared and it became evident that the Spanish squadron was in serious trouble. Additionally, Dewey received the good news that Olympia actually had plenty of ammunition left. The initial report was incorrect  only 15 rounds per gun had been fired. Dewey brought his officers aboard Olympia, where he learned that during the mornings battle his squadron had suffered few casualties and that only four ships had been hit by Spanish fire: Baltimore suffered minor damage and eight wounded sailors; Olympia had been struck in the hull at five non-critical locations; Boston sustained minor damage; and Petrel was hit once.

At 11:16 a.m., Dewey ordered his squadron to resume the attack, targeting Don Antonio de Ulloa, the remaining intact Spanish warship, and the enemy shore batteries still firing. Within minutes, Ulloa was sunk and the gunnery duel with the shore batteries proved one-sided in the Americans favor  the batteries guns had insufficient range to hit the U.S. ships.

All that remained to Dewey was to finish off the stricken enemy ships, some of which the Spaniards had intentionally beached to prevent their sinking. Deweys ships closed on the Spanish squadrons remnants, destroyed the beached transport Mindanao, and dispatched American crews to set fire to other beached ships. Petrel was ordered to lob several rounds at the Spanish colonial government building, and that prompted the surrender of Spanish forces.

By 12:30 p.m. on May 1, Montojos ships Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Cuba, Isla de Luzon, Marques del Duero, Correo and General Lezo were ablaze and the rest of his Pacific Squadron had been sunk. In all, the Spaniards had lost 167 sailors killed and 214 wounded. The Battle for Manila Bay was over. Thanks to Deweys leadership, the U.S. Navys first major engagement since the Civil War was a stunning American victory.

Later that night, Dewey wrote in his journal: Sunday, May 1. Reached Manila at daylight and immediately engaged the Spanish ships and batteries at Cavite. Destroyed [eight] of the former including the Reina Cristina and Castilla. Anchored at noon off Manila. [Also one large steam transport].

SEIZING A PACIFIC EMPIRE

Shortly after the Spanish surrender, Dewey dispatched a message to Manilas Spanish captain general: The American warships would level the city if they were fired upon from that point forward, and any Spanish ships remaining in the adjacent rivers were to be handed over to Deweys forces. If those conditions were met, Dewey would leave intact the telegraph cable and allow its use by the Spaniards. The captain general agreed to the first term but refused the second. In response, Dewey cut the telegraph cable, severing communications to and from the Philippines.

On May 2, the Spanish flag was raised over Cavite arsenal, and Dewey learned it signaled that the Spanish garrison intended a temporary truce. Uninterested in only a temporary truce, he quickly sent an ultimatum: The arsenal was to surrender by noon or the American ships would open fire. The threat worked, and the soldiers manning the arsenal promptly surrendered. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish squadrons survivors and Cavite garrison soldiers were allowed to evacuate the islands. Admiral Montojo was recalled to Madrid, where he was court-martialed, convicted, imprisoned and dismissed from the Spanish navy. (Montojo was later absolved of the court-martial conviction, and Dewey was one of his principal supporters.)

Dewey dispatched McCulloch to Hong Kong on May 4 to report back to Washington. Upon receiving the news of Deweys great success in the Philippines, Senator Proctor wrote to President McKinley: I want to say that [Dewey] will be as wise and safe, if there are political duties devolving on him, as he is forcible in action. There is no better man in discretion and safe judgment. We may run him against you for president. He would make a good one. Deweys victory at Manila had indeed electrified the nation. Roosevelt and countless others wrote their congratulations, and McKinley promoted Dewey to acting rear admiral.

With victory won, Dewey set about ensuring that he would be able to hold onto his prize  Americas new Pacific empire. He established a blockade sealing off Manilas sea approaches, and when a Spanish vessel appeared on May 12, it was quickly captured (the Spanish crew, it was discovered, had been out of touch since the war began and hadnt even realized that Spain and the United States were at war). Throughout the rest of May and into June, Dewey worked to consolidate his hold on Manila while Filipino nationalists sought out and engaged Spanish garrisons that remained scattered throughout the Philippines interior. On May 16, Dewey received the welcome news that 2,500 American reinforcements were under way along with badly needed ammunition resupply. In August, American forces formally entered Manila alongside Filipino soldiers.

The end result of Deweys naval victory and subsequent capture of Manila is best summed up in his biography: Hitherto the United States had been considered a second-class power, whose foreign policy was an unimportant factor beyond the 3-mile limit of the American hemisphere. By a mornings battle, we had secured a base in the Far East at a juncture in international relations when the parceling out of China among the European powers seemed imminent.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in the Caribbean, U.S. land and sea forces achieved more successes against Spains army and navy. Americans invaded Cuba and defeated the Spanish army on the island  and Deweys staunch supporter, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, gained battlefield fame leading the Rough Riders up San Juan Heights, which would eventually propel Roosevelt into the White House. The Spanish naval squadron based in Santiago Bay, Cuba, shared the same fate as Montojos Pacific Squadron and was destroyed as it left harbor.

On July 26, 1898, after decisive defeats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the Spanish government had enough. Spain signed a ceasefire August 12. The peace treaty, signed in December, required Spain to formally relinquish Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spains Pacific colonies (Philippines and Guam) to a new imperial power  the United States. The Spanish-American War lasted a mere 109 days, but it propelled the United States to the forefront of world affairs.

Filipino nationalists, however, soon recognized Deweys rapid conquest of the Philippines as merely one occupying power, Spain, being replaced with another colonial master, the United States. American military forces in the Philippines soon began to clash with Filipino insurrectionists demanding total independence. From 1899 to 1902, the United States was involved in a bloody guerrilla war in which over 4,300 Americans and countless Filipinos died before the insurrection was quelled. Decades later, on July 4, 1946, after Americans and Filipinos had fought side by side to defeat the Japanese in World War II, the independent Republic of the Philippines was established.

NATIONAL HERO

In March 1899, Dewey was promoted to admiral, and he soon departed Manila, leaving the Asiatic Squadron in the hands of Captain A.S. Barker. Upon returning to the United States, Dewey discovered his Manila Bay triumph had made him a national hero. Books, magazines and Dewey-themed memorabilia  his image appeared on commemorative plates, busts, calendars and other trinkets  were best-sellers nationwide. He was met by cheering crowds everywhere as he crossed the country. In New York City and in his hometown of Montpelier, Vt., he was feted and honored in overwhelming celebrations.

As early as 1898, while Dewey was still in Manila, supporters began to consider him as a potential political candidate and a suitable alternative to anti-imperialist Democrat William Jennings Bryan to run for president against McKinley. Although Dewey initially resisted running, he was strongly encouraged to do so by a number of the eras notable figures, including Joseph Pulitzer, J.P. Morgan and William Randolph Hearst. In 1900, Dewey relented, announced he would run for president, and was strongly backed in Pulitzers and Hearsts newspaper empires.

While Dewey was Americas most renowned naval hero, he was out of his depth in politics. He lacked the necessary experience in the political arena to run for the nations highest office and ended up withdrawing from the race in favor of Bryan. Ironically, Deweys stunning Manila Bay victory  which McKinley trumpeted as occurring during his administration  significantly helped the incumbent and his running mate, Deweys fellow Spanish-American War hero Theodore Roosevelt, decisively defeat Bryan in the 1900 election.

In 1903, Dewey was promoted to the unprecedented rank of admiral of the Navy (retroactive to March 2, 1899). He was the only officer to hold this highest-ever U.S. naval rank that is considered equivalent to John J. Pershings later (promoted 1919) general of the armies rank. On January 16, 1917, just before the United States became involved in World War I, Admiral George Dewey passed away in Washington, D.C., and is buried under a memorial plaque in the floor of Washington National Cathedral.

Andrew Liptak, a graduate of Norwich University, is a freelance writer and historian currently residing in Vermont. He specializes in 20th-century military and popular culture history.

Originally published in the September 2013 issue of Armchair General.
The local chapter of a military support organization held a fundraiser Saturday to send condolence packages to the families of the 18 total service members killed around the world in the last week.

The Military Mamas Network regularly sends care packages to soldiers deployed overseas, but local Chapter Leader Kandace McFarland said some young people involved with the organization first had this idea.

We originally were going to do it to send care packages overseas to troops, which we do all the time, McFarland said. But then, in light of the tragedy in Mississippi, they decided that they wanted to send condolence packages for the service members that were lost this week.

McFarland referred to an incident in Mississippi that occurred July 10, in which a KC-130 aircraft crashed in Mississippi while en route from North Carolina, resulting in the death of 15 Marines and one Navy service member. The additional two deaths occurred overseas.

There were 18 we lost this week, McFarland said. We dont want to forget the two that we lost overseas. Were including everybody. So were trying to raise enough money to send 18 condolence packages to the families of service members who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

McFarland said the condolence packages will contain cards signed by members of the local community and additional memorial items, depending on the amount of money raised.

Its to let the family know that theres still people out there that care about the military, she said. And were here for them no matter what. They might not know us and we might not ever meet them, but were still here for them.

McFarland said the efforts are a way of paying it forward, because she has a child who is currently serving in the military. She said the thought that there are other groups around the nation who might send her son a care package is comforting.

Members of the organization were up late Friday night and back at early Saturday morning to get the goods baked that would be sold at the Farmers Market area in Park Hills. McFarland said the efforts that started with kids of the organization are also good for those same kids, in keeping them involved in patriotic support.

We try to keep our kids and grandkids involved in all sorts of patriotic things, McFarland said. Were also members of the VFW and Patriot Guard. With the VFW we go to schools and teach kids the Pledge of Allegiance or how to fold flags.

McFarland added that the education and awareness work done by Military Mamas isnt just for kids, but also for adults who arent exposed to the realities of being in a military family.

A lot of people dont know what a blue star, silver star or gold star means, McFarland said. To be a blue star family means you have a loved one actively serving. Silver star means your loved one has been injured and gold star means that the loved one has passed in the line of duty.

For those who missed the bake sale, donations are always accepted by the Military Mamas organization.

Theres always a need for donations because theres always a need for care packages to be sent overseas, McFarland said.

For more information about Military Mamas or to make a donation, contact McFarland at 573-915-6015 or co-leader Teresa Barnhouse at 573-366-6186.
For the Rebels, Cabin Creek proved too little, too late. But the victory was fun while it lasted.

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n a bright moonlit night, Confederate Brig. Gen. Richard M. Gano, a former physician and respected Indian fighter from Grapevine, Texas, advanced his troopers toward the Union post of Cabin Creek in northeastern Indian Territory. Under the moons glare, they could see hundreds of covered wagons. Captain Patrick Cosgrove, commander of the Union pickets, noticed a line of dim shapes approaching. After one of his pickets fired a warning shot, Cosgrove, in a distinctly Irish brogue, barked out a command to halt.

A rattled Gano replied, What are your men?

Federals, Cosgrove answered. And you?

Rebels, by God!

Cosgrove defiantly hurled back, May God damn you, sir! I invite you to come forward.

Hoping for a negotiated surrender, Gano withheld acceptance of the invitation, saying Will you protect a flag of truce?

I will tell you in five minutes.

After a 15-minute wait, Cosgrove still hadnt replied. Gano answered for him. He ordered the attack.

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore the Civil War, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) was considered mostly a dumping ground for many of the countrys Native American tribes. The U.S. government forcibly removed the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Creeks (known by whites as the Five Civilized Tribes) to the territory between 1830 and 1835. Internal differences among the tribes led to a bitter divide between pro-removal, pro-slavery factions that supported the Confederacy, and anti-removal, conservative factions that supported the Union. Despite attempts to keep Indian Territory peaceful, those smoldering differences became tribal firestorms during the Civil War. Both Union Indians, called Pins for the cross-pin insignias on their coat lapels, and Confederate Indians burned farms, butchered livestock, and forced thousands into refugee camps in Kansas and Texas. Indian Territory became a charred wasteland.

By the end of 1863, Federal forces held the northeastern portion of the territory, including all of the Cherokee Nation. Lacking manpower and local farms to forage from, they used fortified posts to secure their gains. Forts, however, were vulnerable to severed supply lines. Fort Gibson, an old U.S. Army post on the Arkansas River in what is now east-central Oklahoma, was the key to holding the northern Indian Territory. The Old Texas Road, between Fort Scott in eastern Kansas and Fort Gibson, was its vital supply artery, with the mule-driven supply wagons traversing it very tempting targets.

The Trans-Mississippi Confederacy relied heavily on hit-and-run cavalry raids, an ideal tactic for its outnumbered, supply-strapped forces. Few performed this ploy better than Confederate Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, a short, bowlegged Cherokee with a knack for guerrilla fighting. In September 1864, he received intelligence about a massive Union wagon train heading toward Fort Gibson. With Confederate command approval, a combined 2,000-man cavalry force of Texans, under General Gano, and Confederate Indians, under Watie, headed north from Camp Pike, near Fort Smith in Arkansas, to intercept it. Because of his seniority, Gano had overall command.

Sent ahead, scouts encountered a haying operation of 125 laborers at Flat Rock, just 12 miles northwest of Fort Gibson. Using horse-drawn mowers, members of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry cut the hay, while a detachment of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry kept watch. On September 16, Ganos troopers surrounded the haying operation, then attacked. I dismounted my men and placed them in a ravine, which was no sooner accomplished than the main body of the enemy appeared and attacked me from 5 different points, recalled Union Captain Edgar A. Barker.

[quote style=boxed float=right]The sun witnessed our complete success, and its lingering rays rested upon a field of blood. Seventy-three Federals, mostly negroes, lay dead upon the field.  Brig. Gen. Richard M. Gano[/quote]

Fifteen members of the 2nd Kansas managed to fight their way out. The rest were killed or captured. Based on Union reports and the considerable number of dead, some African-American soldiers were likely killed as they surrendered.

The sun witnessed our complete success, and its lingering rays rested upon a field of blood, Gano wrote. Seventy-three Federals, mostly negroes, lay dead upon the field. Confederate casualties numbered three. With time pressing to find that wagon train, Gano dispatched a released prisoner toward Fort Gibson to inform them of what happened. He would let the Federals bury their own dead.

After destroying the haying equipment, Gano continued north along the Texas Road and finally discovered the wagon train parked at Cabin Creek. His ragged men had never seen such a bonanza. Though a wooden stockade and a high bluff in the rear provided protection for the soldiers, there was not the same degree of protection for the wagon train. Most of them were parked haphazardly outside the stockade, guarded by no firm line of troops. The wagon trains commander, Major Henry M. Hopkins, held little regard for warnings of local Confederate activity. Alfred Collins, a teamster, later remarked: The train was allowed to camp in open order, scattered all over creation. It seemed like as though there wasnt an enemy within one hundred miles of us. To make matters worse, the Federals had no artillery. The Confederates did.

Early on September 19, Gano assembled his line of attack half a mile from the Union position, which was manned by about 330 Kansas and Union Cherokee cavalry. He placed the six guns of Captain Sylvanus Howells Texas Battery in the center. The 30th Texas Cavalry, meanwhile, was positioned to the batterys left, and the 31st and 29th Texas Cavalry were placed to its right. Waties Indian Brigade, of Creeks and Cherokees, lined up on the right of the 29th, which, interestingly, was commanded by Colonel Charles DeMorse. A noted newspaper publisher from north Texas, DeMorse hated fighting alongside Indians, especially with Indian officers like Watie who outranked him.

Armed mostly with shotguns and outdated muskets, the Confederate line advanced north before encountering Cosgroves pickets.

The First Battle of Cabin Creek In July 1863, Confederate Colonel Stand Watie (right) first attempted the capture of a Union wagon train en route to Fort Gibson. The results, however, were much different. Watie and about 1,600 men were ordered to Cabin Creek to intercept a wagon train heading out of Baxter Springs, Kansas. He took a position along the opposite side of a Cabin Creek ford and waited in ambush. The wagons were closely guarded by detached troops under the command of Colonel James Monroe Williams. Among his troops was the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, the Unions first African-American regiment. Hoping to prevent Williams crossing, Watie suffered through a sustained artillery barrage followed by an infantry attack. His men held off the attack until the Union troops withdrew across the creek. The Union troops launched a second attack with cavalry and this time, Watie was routed from the field. The urgent need for supplies at Fort Gibson prevented Williams from pursuing Watie further. Confederate casualties numbered 65 while Williams loses were 53 killed and wounded. The wagon train reached Fort Gibson safely and the supplies helped keep the fort in Union hands until the end of the war.

While they waited for Cosgroves reply, they could hear drunken taunts coming from the Union lines. Many of the Federals had helped themselves to buckets of whiskey inside the stockade. One drunken teamster approached the Rebel line heaping vile epithets and curses. Warnings from Ganos men only increased the drunks resolve; he was shot dead. The opposing Cherokees taunted each other with the ancient turkey gobble calla challenge no Cherokee warrior could ignore. At 1 a.m., the Confederate attack began in earnest with an artillery barrage of solid shot and shell. Wagons were set on fire while mules, troops, and teamsters ran about in panic.

As teamster Robert Morris Peck later wrote:

Soldiers, teamsters, mules and wagons, in a perfect cyclone of excitement, went flying towards the timber [nearby woods]. Some men mounted and unhitched mules, where they could catch them, often only to be thrown off by the frantic animal. Some teams and parts of teams dragging their wagons, without guidance crashed into each other as they turned from rebel gunfire. There seemed to be no effort on the part of Hopkins and his officers so far as I could judge, to form the soldiers for a defense of the camp. I could see soldiers, teamsters and others striking out for the timber, on a track back to Ft. Scott. I started out afoot when a soldiers horse, bridled and saddled but without rider came galloping past. I lunged out and quickly climbed into the saddle.

FIGHT FACTS 2ND cabin creek Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory

September 19, 1864 Campaign Confederate cavalry raid to capture Union wagon train bound for Fort Gibson, Indian Territory COMMANDERS Confederate:

Brig. Gen. Richard M. Gano (overall commander)

Brig. Gen. Stand Watie

Union:

Major Henry M. Hopkins Numbers Confederate: 2,000 cavalry and artilleryman

Union: Approx. 600 infantry, cavalry, and teamsters FORCES ENGAGED Confederate: Ganos Texas Brigade Waties Indian Brigade Howells Texas Artillery Battery

Union: Detachments from 6th Kansas Cavalry 14th Kansas Cavalry 2nd Kansas Cavalry 1st Indian Home Guard 2nd Indian Home Guard 3rd Indian Home Guard ESTIMATED CASUALTIES Confederate 9 killed, 38 wounded (Waties wounded N/A)

Union 20 killed, 26 captured,

wounded not reported OUTCOME Confederate Victory



Twelve Union cavalrymen, under Captain Henry Ledger of the 6th Kansas, charged the Rebel battery. Ledger fell 15 feet from a cannon muzzlehis horse was riddled with canister shot, but he miraculously survived. Hopkins, meanwhile, had galloped off in a vain attempt to find reinforcements, but by 9 a.m., a white flag appeared over the stockade, the battle over. Ganos men, sorely lacking in food, ammunition, uniforms, and shoes, were suddenly blessed with an overwhelming bounty. Of 300 Union wagons, valued at a whopping $1.5 million, the Confederates had salvaged 130, along with 740 mules. Twenty Union soldiers were killed, 26 surrendered, and an unreported number wounded. The Rebels lost nine killed and 38 wounded.

Within two hours, the captured wagons were assembled for the return home. Gano moved southwesterly along backroads to avoid Union troops marching from Fort Smith. At Pryor Creek, Federal troops under Colonel J.M. Williams caught up with the wagon train. An artillery duel ensued until nightfall. Employing a clever ruse, a Rebel detachment continuously drove a single wagon over rocky ground to sound like the captured wagons were being parked for the night. While the ruse was in play, Gano kept moving west and outdistanced Williams troops. When the Federals awoke the next morning, the Rebels were long gone. Having marched more than 80 miles, the Union troops were too exhausted to continue the chase. Instead, they fell back to reinforce Fort Gibson. Gano and the wagons had escaped.

Congratulatory messages were sent out by the Confederate-controlled Indian Territorys commander, Maj. Gen. Samuel Bell Maxey. The Confederate Congress issued a vote of thanks. The raids greatest impact was on the Confederate Indians. A rush of confidence surged over the troops after months of neglect. From her home in North Texas, Stand Waties wife wrote her husband, I thought I would send you some clothes, but I hear you have done better. The morale boost would last only until the following spring. In June 1865, Watie surrenderedthe wars last Confederate general to do so.

Donald L. Barnhart Jr., a volunteer historian with the Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth, resides in The Colony, Texas.
Thousands of soldiers from Britains Jewel in the Crown colony fought for the Japanese against British forces.

Perhaps more than any other conflict, World War II produced some unusual military formations that defied easy categorization. One such unit was the Indian National Army (INA) that fought for Japan in the Burma Theater 1942-45. It consisted of soldiers from Britains then-colony India who had been captured by the Japanese and convinced to fight against British and Commonwealth forces. Later, its ranks also included Indian civilian volunteers living in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Burma. The INAs combat record was undistinguished, and the army arguably achieved its greatest success after the war.

The INA resulted from an informal alliance between exiled political leaders of the Indian Independence League (IIL), which sought Indias freedom from British colonial rule, and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The INA existed in two distinct incarnations. In the first, it was raised and initially led by a disillusioned British Indian army officer, Captain Mohan Singh, who had been captured in the opening stages of the Japanese invasion of Malaya. After the British surrender at Singapore in February 1942, Singh recruited Indian troops of the British Indian army from Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camps with the aim of eventually fighting the British in India.

For many Indian soldiers, their experiences in the Malaya campaign  whether it was enduring British racism or seeing the previously undefeated British vanquished by the Japanese in such a convincing fashion  proved the vital catalyst in their willingness to join the INA. Few on the Allied side  British, Indian or Australian  covered themselves with glory in Malaya and Singapore, and disillusionment and recrimination was widespread following the humiliating surrender.

The British Indian army traditionally drew its recruits from the martial races of India that were considered indifferent to political matters and it took great efforts to insulate the troops from political ideas. However, with the ongoing agitation for Indias independence from Britain, many Indian officers had given considerable thought to Indias future. For these men, the INA was merely the logical extension of previously held political feelings.

Indeed, the loyalty of Indian officers was under suspicion well before the outbreak of war and well before the IIL or the disasters in Malaya and Singapore had a chance to politicize them further. The ongoing program of Indianization of the Indian army officer corps played a role in this. In 1942, a secret British report stated: We have  bred a new class of officer who may be loyal to India and perhaps to [Indias] Congress [Party], but is not necessarily loyal to us. And as early as 1939, British intelligence was raising concerns about the activities of Japanese nationals in Malaya: There are indications that the local Japanese are anxious to affect rapprochement with the newly arrived Indian troops. Indian officers have been entertained by Japanese and more prominence to Indian matters is evident in the Singapore Herald, a Japanese newspaper printed in English.

The strength of the Indian army resided in the high degree of regimental pride and a tradition of service that often existed through several generations of the same families. British officers frequently stayed with their units from subaltern up to lieutenant colonel. The outbreak of World War II in Europe, however, necessitated the expansion of the Indian army and consequently diluted many of its strengths. Existing Indian army battalions were stripped of their more seasoned noncommissioned officers and officers and received replacements with little or no experience  many of whom often could not even speak the soldiers language. The IIL and the Japanese skillfully exploited these weaknesses.

Disagreements between Singh and the Japanese, over both the intended size and the specific role of the INA, led to Singhs dismissal in December 1942. His eventual replacement was a well-known political figure in the Indian independence movement, Subhas Chandra Bose. This second incarnation of the INA proved far more robust and substantial than the one under Singh.

Prewar, Bose had established an international reputation as a nationalist politician, although his belief in the best way to achieve independence increasingly brought him into conflict with other leaders of the Congress Party. Following periods in various British prisons, and after serving as president of Congress for a year in 1938, Bose fled India. He spent time in exile in Nazi Germany and there raised a small force from among Indian POWs captured by the Germans in North Africa. However, this force had little hope of actually fighting in India.

With the British defeat at Singapore, Bose saw that the best chance of winning Indian independence lay with the Japanese and the fledgling INA. But before he could make his journey to Singapore, the first INA under Singh fell apart. When Bose eventually arrived in June 1943, he was required to rebuild the INA as well as lead it.

Bose expanded the scale of the INA and overcame many of the problems that had defeated Mohan Singh. He recruited extensively among Indian civilians in Malaya as well as the POW constituency established by his predecessor. More significantly, Bose was instrumental in providing a wider, political context in which the INA could operate. He created a Japanese-sponsored Indian provisional government and the INA became, in effect, the military arm of what Bose considered a legitimate government-in-exile.

When Bose met with Mohan Singh in December 1943, Singh warned Bose that his hope for the collapse of Britains Indian army was seriously misplaced. Singh pointed out that many thousands of Indian POWs had refused to join the INA in the aftermath of the 1942 British defeat, and that the likelihood of whole units changing sides now that Japans fortunes were starting to wane was slim indeed. Bose reluctantly agreed that there was some truth in what Singh had said, but despite this he pressed on with his demands to see the INA join battle with the British.

At Boses insistence, the INA accompanied the IJA in the assault on Burma, and the so-called Bose Brigade, consisting of three battalions of five companies each, drew the INAs best men and participated in the January-February 1944 Japanese attack in the Arakan and the March-July 1944 Battle of Imphal. (See You Command, November 2012 ACG.) The INA, however, fought with mixed results and its level of military effectiveness was generally low. Moreover, only a few British Indian army troops could be persuaded to cross over and join the INA.

Initial efforts by small groups of INA soldiers in a reconnaissance and intelligence gathering role did little to change the negative impressions the Japanese had of the Indians. Many were captured without performing any useful task and others surrendered to British forces as soon as the opportunity presented itself. British intelligence concluded that the INA was not to be feared as a fighting force but purely because of the psychological effect it might have on a portion of the army as well as the civil population of [India]. Yet despite such fears, Boses frequent claim that the mere presence of the INA would prompt mass desertions proved false.

Although Bose had ensured the INAs participation in the fighting, he was frustrated by the reluctance of the Japanese to employ the INA in anything more than secondary roles. The Japanese, at all levels of IJA command, did not think highly of the Indian soldiers, and this attitude contributed to the INAs poor combat performance. Japanese commanders limited the size of the INA, provided it with inadequate logistical support, and gave it substandard arms and equipment. Initially, the Indian soldiers received captured Allied weapons, much of them in a poor state of repair (including old and rusty rifles) with a general paucity of ammunition. However, even these severe restrictions might have been overcome had the Japanese possessed the confidence to deploy the INA in tactical operations as a cohesive unit rather than in a dispersed penny packet fashion.

Nonetheless, some INA units, such as 1st Battalion, 2d INA Division, performed well. The Japanese felt that the Tamil troops, recruited exclusively from Malaya, had generally done far better than their ex-Indian army/ex-POW comrades. But despite Boses assertions that the INA should be above all else a secular organization, there is evidence that conflict between the INAs Muslim and Sikh troops undermined both the effectiveness and the willingness of Muslim troops to fight.

As the war progressed and the Japanese position worsened, so too did that of the INA. With its soldiers dispirited and suffering low morale, the INA joined in the general retreat of Japanese 15th Army as British and Commonwealth forces recaptured Burma in 1944-45. Desertions increased considerably and Bose was obliged to introduce capital punishment in March 1945 to try to address the problem. Yet it was noted, From April 1945  the INAs retreat, which had hitherto been orderly, became a rout and mass surrenders became frequent.

With the Japanese defeat in Burma in mid-1945, the INA crumbled without ever securing the mass defections from the British Indian army that Bose had confidently predicted. Bose died in an air crash while en route to the USSR, where he had hoped to elicit Soviet aid to continue his struggle against the British to achieve Indias independence.

Arguably, the INA achieved far more after Boses death. With thousands of INA soldiers becoming British prisoners at the end of World War II, British authorities made a series of misjudgments regarding the prisoners fate that only served to fuel Indias desire for independence from Britain. The first mistake was to publicly try some former INA soldiers in November 1945  thereby alerting the entire Indian population to the INAs existence and pro-independence mission. British censors had carefully kept this information from the public during the war, but it was now suddenly thrust upon an increasingly restive Indian population that was more than ever ready for independence.

Britains next egregious misjudgment was in the selection of which INA soldiers to put on trial. The British opted to try Major General Shah Nawaz, Lieutenant Colonel P.K. Sahgal and Lieutenant Colonel G.S. Dhillon  respectively, a Muslim, a Sikh and a Hindu. Yet in their determination to demonstrate their even-handedness by selecting a representative defendant from each of Indias major religions, British authorities unwittingly united these disparate population elements in sympathy for the accused.

Compounding these issues was another misjudgment regarding the choice of location for the trial proceedings  Delhis Red Fort. Dating back to the 17th century, Red Fort not only was a famous symbol of Indias once-mighty independent Mughal empire, it also stirred memories of previous armed resistance to British rule, the bloody 1857 Indian Mutiny. Known as the Red Fort Trials, the INA proceedings ended in farce. The main accused were released after being found guilty, their sentences suspended.

Britain had hoped that the show of British resolve represented by the INA trials would cow Indias restive population, calm the growing mood of militancy among Indian nationalists, and result in widespread vilification of the INA traitors. That plan, however, backfired. The trials and associated publicity not only helped ensure that the INAs anti-British, pro-independence activities became widely known, they also resulted in the INA receiving extensive popular support from the Indian population.

Indias independence, assured as soon as the July 1945 elections in Britain swept Prime Minister Clement Attlee and the Labor Party into power, was finally achieved in 1947.

Rob Havers is currently the director of the National Churchill Museum. Prior to that he was senior lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He is the author of several books and articles concerning World War II, with a special focus on the war in Southeast Asia.

Originally published in the September 2013 issue of Armchair General.
Elan and ruthlessness characterized World War IIs best light infantry force.

Imperial Japanese Army infantrymen of World War II were something of a para- dox. Their unequaled fighting spirit, ability to adapt to widely varied climates and terrain, capacity to endure incredible hardships, and willingness to launch attacks against overwhelming odds and fight to the death rather than surrender made them the wars best light infantry force. Yet their routinely brutal treatment of both enemy prisoners of war and the civilian population of occupied territories earned them a reputation for pitiless ruthlessness seldom matched in 20th-century armies. At least part of this can be explained by their rigidly enforced adherence to Bushido (the uncompromising warrior code) and the harshly administered discipline (including corporal punishment) they endured on a daily basis.

From 1937 until early 1943, Japanese infantrymen proved nearly unstoppable as they launched lightning campaigns against Chinese, British, Commonwealth and American forces. They spearheaded Japans conquest of huge areas of China, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Their battlefield accomplishments seem even more remarkable given the generally inferior quality of their weaponry  unwieldy bolt-action rifles, substandard machine guns and unreliable hand grenades. Despite this handicap, and the fact that their artillery support was often woefully inadequate compared to that of their opponents, attacking Japanese infantrymen won some stunning victories. One of the most notable was their early 1942 conquest of Malaya and Singapore when 70,000 Japanese soldiers defeated British and Commonwealth troops who outnumbered them 2-to-1.

Although Japans offensive operations continued in China and Burma until late 1944-early 1945, its Pacific area operations were defensive after the American-inflicted defeats at New Guinea (January 1943) and Guadalcanal (February 1943). From early 1943 until the end of the Pacific War, Japanese army infantrymen were as formidable on the defense as they had been on the attack during their opening war offensives. Fighting from dugin, fortified positions, they (and Imperial Japanese Navy Special Naval Landing Force troops) exacted a heavy toll on invading U.S. Marines and Soldiers, typically fighting to the death.

American troops rightly feared Japanese infantrymens terrifying banzai charges. Yet after the largest such attack of the Pacific War (4,500 Japanese infantry and sailors, Saipan, July 7, 1944), Japanese commanders adopted defensive tactics that proved even more deadly to their opponents, notably at Iwo Jima (February-March 1945) and Okinawa (April-June 1945). Rather than launching suicidal banzai charges, Japanese defenders remained in underground tunnels and bunkers (which were generally impervious to air, artillery and naval bombardment) that the Americans were forced to clear, one by one, at an appallingly high cost in casualties.

Jerry D. Morelock, PhD, Armchair General Editor in Chief

Originally published in the November 2013 issue of Armchair General.
Remembering Willy Williams and a legendary lifetime of service

In the history of the U.S. Navy only seven men have earned all of the Big Three valor awards: Medal of Honor, Navy Cross and Silver Star Medal. Six were World War II officers, including one aviator and four submarine commanders. The seventh was enlisted sailor James Elliott Willy Williams in Vietnam.

In 1947, Williams, a 16-year-old from Fort Mill, South Carolina, enlisted in the Navy with a fraudulent birth certificate. His first 19 years in the Navy included service aboard the destroyer USS Douglas H. Fox during the Korean War and tours on a variety of naval vessels from 1953 to 1965.

In May 1966 Boatswains Mate 1st Class Williams was assigned to River Squadron 5 in South Vietnam to command Patrol Boat, River 105. The approximately 30-foot fiberglass boat usually carried a four-man crew who patrolled inland waterways to prevent the Viet Cong from using them to transport troops and supplies.

On July 1 Williams led a patrol that came under fire from a Viet Cong sampan. His deft maneuvers and accurate fire killed five VC and resulted in capture of the enemy boat, earning Williams a Bronze Star Medal with a V for valor. Twenty-two days later the capture of another sampan brought Williams a second Bronze Star for valor. Less than a month later, he received a Silver Star and his first Purple Heart.

On Halloween, Oct. 31, 1966, Williams was commanding a two-boat patrol on the Mekong River when he was fired on by two sampans. He and his crew killed the occupants of one and then went after the other. That pursuit put the Navy boats into a VC staging area containing two junks and eight sampans, supported by machine guns on the river banks. Williams called for helicopter gunship support while holding the enemy at bay. During this movement he discovered an even larger force. Not waiting for the armed helicopters, Williams attacked. Maneuvering through devastating fire from enemy boats and the shore, his two-boat patrol fought a three-hour battle that destroyed or damaged 65 VC boats and eliminated some 1,200 Communist troops. For his actions, Williams was nominated for the Medal of Honor.

On Jan. 9, 1967, the Navy dredge Jamaica Bay was blown up by mines in the Mekong Delta, and PBR-105 arrived to pick up seven of the survivors. Another man was trapped in the rapidly sinking dredge. Williams dove into the water and, with a rope attached to a nearby tug, pulled clear an obstruction, then swam through a hatch to recover the sailor.

Six days later Williams was wounded while leading a three-boat patrol that interdicted a crossing attempt by three VC heavy-weapons companies of 400 fighters. He and his boats accounted for 16 VC killed, 20 wounded and the destruction of nine sampans and junks. Williams was awarded the Navy Cross.

When Williams returned home in spring 1967, he had a list of awards unmatched by any enlisted man in Navy history. He retired after 20 years of service and began a career in the U.S. Marshals Service.

On May 14, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Williams with the Medal of Honor. For his lifesaving actions at the sinking Jamaica Bay, he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, often called the noncombat medal of honor.

During his last seven months in the Navy, Williams received every sea-service award for heroism including the Legion of Merit with V, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor and three Purple Hearts.

Williams died on Oct. 13, 1999, and in 2003 his widow, Elaine, watched the launching of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer, USS James E. Williams.

Doug Sterner, an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, is curator of the worlds largest database of U.S. military valor awards.

Published in the August 2017 issue of Vietnam magazine.
An Islamist takeover offers terrorists a safe havenand a launching pad for future attacks- in Northwest Africa.

A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY

On September 30, 1938, Britains Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the infamous Munich Agreement that sacrificed Czechoslovakia in what ultimately proved to be a vain attempt to appease Nazi dictator Adolf Hitlers rapacious aggression. During a radio broadcast to the British public three days earlier, Chamberlain had explained why: How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here [in England] because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing. To the leader of one of the worlds great powers, tiny Czechoslovakia was merely a faraway country that simply didnt matter. Yet, encouraged by Britains (and Frances) cowardly behavior at Munich, Hitler continued his aggression, invading Poland in September 1939 and starting World War II that unleashed Nazi terror against all of Europe. In hindsight, it is clear that Chamberlain was tragically wrong  faraway Czechoslovakia mattered very much indeed.

Fast-forward 75 years. To most Americans today, the Republic of Mali, a former French colony in West Africa, is a faraway country beset by a quarrel between people of whom [they] know nothing. Yet, like Czechoslovakia in 1938, faraway Mali matters. Heres why.

TERRORISTS, SAFE HAVENS AND THE CALIPHATE

Terrorist organizations around the globe today  whether they be drug lords, smugglers and pirates seeking ill-gotten wealth or, more dangerous, Islamists waging jihad  cannot thrive without safe havens. The groups need secure, remote locations where they can plan, organize, recruit, train and build weapons arsenals, and from which they can launch attacks to strike distant targets. For Hezbollah it is eastern Lebanons Beqaa (Bekka) Valley; for the Taliban it is the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan; for alQaeda in Afghanistan it is the mountainous Pakistani tribal regions; and for al-Shabab it is the desolate Somalia hinterlands. Malis vast northern region, composed of the Sahel (south Sahara desert) and the rugged Adrar des Ifoghas Mountains, is a devils playground that can support the manning, training and equipping of a veritable legion of terrorists that could strike forth from Mali to all points of the compass.

Of all the terrorist groups that might covet northern Mali as a perfect safe haven, none poses more of a threat to Western security and values  and U.S. national interests  than Islamist jihadis. The principal strategic goal of the jihadis is to reconquer the Late Great Caliphate. According to their pan-Islamic vision, any land conquered by Muslims must remain Muslim or be returned to Muslim rule. At its peak a millennium ago, the Caliphate ranged from Morocco and Spain in the West to India in the East, and from the Balkans in the North to Yemen in the South. The extent of the Caliphate rivaled that of the Roman Empire at its height, and Muslim armies very nearly overran Europe more than once were it not for timely defeats inflicted by Charles the Hammer at Tours (732), Don John of Austria at the naval battle of Lepanto (1571) and the Holy League at Vienna (1683).

By A.D. 670, the Caliphate encompassed all of North Africa (beginning in the Middle Ages, represented by Ottoman Empire rule); but in the 19th century, Muslim control was lost to European colonizers (France, Britain, Spain and Italy). Today, Islamist jihadis want it back. Remote, ungoverned northern Mali offers the safe haven needed to host jihadists efforts to destabilize North Africa  and, not incidentally, bring them ever closer to Europe.

MALI: FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU

Americans today likely know only one thing about Mali  the countrys most famous city is the exotic, almost mythical Timbuktu. As the epitome of any far distant or outlandishly remote place at the end of the Earth, it has become immortalized in the commonly used phrase from here to Timbuktu. Located on the southwest edge of northern Mali, Timbuktu (population 55,000) is the capital of Malis Tombouctou administrative region, containing the entire western half of the potential terrorist safe haven in northern Mali. Timbuktu is, indeed, physically remote from the United States and the West; yet, if northern Mali becomes an Islamist jihadi safe haven and launching pad for terror attacks, Timbuktu is going to feel a lot closer to home. Americans, for their own good, need to know much more about Mali than merely Timbuktu.

LAND: Mali is landlocked and is bounded by Algeria in the North; Guinea, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso in the South; Mauritania and Senegal in the West; and Niger in the East. (See Mali map, p. 45.) It is the worlds 24th-largest country  double the size of Texas, Afghanistan or France. About 65 percent of Mali (northern and eastern portions) is dry and arid desert or semi-desert, while the countrys much smaller wet, tropical region is in the southwest along the Niger River. Less than 4 percent of Mali is arable land suitable for growing crops. Although a poor country, Mali has substantial deposits of salt, uranium (at least 17,400 tons are known) and gold (Mali is Africas third-largest producer of gold).

Northern Mali is ideal guerrilla country, comprised of the Sahel (southern Sahara desert ecological transitional zone) and the rugged, 3,000-feet-high Adrar des Ifoghas Mountains. It is figuratively Lawrence of Arabia meets Bin Laden of Tora Bora.

PEOPLE: Malis population is 14.5 million, with most living in rural areas with a sizable nomadic minority in the North. More than 90 percent of Malians live in the lush South in and around the capital, Bamako. Bambara or black Malians are Malis largest ethnic group (37 percent). Their language is Malis lingua franca (80 percent of all Malians speak Bambara), although French remains Malis official language. Nomadic Tuareg (10 percent of the population) are Arab Berbers seen as white Malians. Recent persistent droughts forced the Tuareg to temporarily abandon their nomadic life as many of them fled to Algeria and Libya. Other ethnic groups include Fula, Voltaic and Songhai (totaling 35 percent of Malis population).

Longstanding ethnic tensions pit white Tuareg of the North against black Africans of the South. The animosity dates back to the Caliphate-era slave trade  Arab Berbers kept and sold black slaves until stopped by early 20th-century French colonizers (although there are claims that some black Malians are still enslaved in the North). Given this history, coupled with the backlash against the Tuareg after Malian independence, both groups complain of racial discrimination.

RELIGION: Islam came to West Africa in the 11th century and remains the regions dominant religion today, with 90 percent of Malians being Sunni or Sufi Muslim. Five percent of Malians are Christian (Roman Catholic and Protestant) and the remaining 5 percent are animist. The Malian constitution provides for a secular state and freedom of religion. Yet, that is under fire by Islamists seeking Wahhabi-style Sharia.

HISTORY  FROM FIRST TO WORST: One must travel back seven centuries to Timbuktu to find historys wealthiest man  Mansa Musa I. He ruled the Malian Empire 1280-1337 and grew fantastically rich on the salt and gold trades. Things have changed. Mali today is one of the worlds poorest countries, with an average annual per capita income of only $1,500. In 1892 Mali became a French colony and for the next 68 years supplied Frances labor needs along the West African coast. Mali gained its independence in 1960 and quickly emplaced a one-party socialist state. Mali withdrew from the French Community and built a close relationship with the USSR-dominated Communist Eastern bloc.

POLITICS  FROM COUPS TO INSURGENCIES: Economic woes caused Mali to rejoin the Franc Zone in 1967 and to initiate economic reforms. Malis first military coup came in 1968. Its leaders attempted economic reform but failed in the face of internal struggles and devastating drought. They intended to install civilian rule but the military stayed in power. Mali stabilized in the 1980s and economic reforms were resurrected under an austerity agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The populace resented the austerity measures, believing the ruling elites didnt share their sacrifices.

Calls for a multiparty democracy intensified in 1990 and opposition to one-party rule emerged; yet, so did ethnic violence in the North. Large numbers of Tuareg, who had fled the droughts, returned from Algeria and Libya, sparking unrest in the North. Fearing Tuareg secession, the Mali government imposed a state of emergency to put them down. Rioting in 1991 triggered yet another military coup. This time a majority civilian body was established to appoint a civilian-led government. In 1992 a free election led to the inauguration of Alpha Oumar Konare as Malis president. Konare stepped down after his mandated two-term limit, and the 2002 election became a first when Mali transitioned from one democratically elected leader to another.

In January 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) rebelled (Azawad is the Tuareg name for northern Mali). Although expected, the Tuareg insurgency came as a double surprise  its timing and alliance with the Islamists were unforeseen. The Malian Armed Forces (MAF) were soundly beaten in the initial engagements. Given the years of training and support the MAF had received from the West in preparation for this very event, its losses were also unexpected. The MAFs poor performance cast doubt on the governments effectiveness.

In March 2012, amid the panic and confusion of a mutiny at Kati military camp 6 miles from the Bamako presidential palace, MAF officer Captain Amadou Sanogo joined the mutineers and led another coup. Rebel MAF soldiers appeared on state-run television announcing the overthrow of the government due to its mishandling of the conflict in the North. In response to the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) froze Malian assets and imposed an embargo. The new government promised but found no answer for combating the insurgency as the rebels seized Timbuktu and took northern Mali without serious resistance. Apprehension turned to panic when news arrived that Islamists were marching on Bamako.

RE-ENTER THE FRENCH

In December 2012, a day after Konna (360 miles north of Bamako) fell to the Islamists, French forces intervened with their launch of Operation Serval. Mali had been a French colony for nearly 70 years and its connection with France runs deep (French is Malis official language and French nationals still live there). Operation Servals multiple aims were to block the Islamist advance on Bamako; regain control of northern Mali; secure the lines of communication all the way to the Algerian border; and then hand off stabilization operations to the African force fighting alongside French troops. To accomplish these ambitious aims, France fielded a versatile 4,000-man force that included mobile infantry, paratroopers and special forces, backed by Mirage fighters in close air support and U.S. surveillance drones.

Realizing the importance of putting an African face on the effort, the French quickly went to work recruiting African partners from their former colonies, with Chad leading the way by pledging 2,000 troops to the mission (other countries contributing include ECOWAS members Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Niger). Ultimately, the French would leave and Africans would fulfill a U.N. peacekeeping role. This was a smart move: when Westerners keep the peace in Africa, it feels like imperialism; when Africans keep the peace in Africa, it feels like teamwork.

French forces proceeded systematically by securing the chokepoint in the Sahel connecting northern and southern Mali, thereby blocking the invasion route to Bamako. Next, they recaptured two key northern cities, Timbuktu and Gao. They then worked their way north, securing the lines of communication between Bamako and the Algerian border while retaking Kidal and Tessalit along the way. Finally, the French gradually put the African ECOWAS forces in the lead. All the while, the French nurtured a new partnership between the MAF and ECOWAS.

The French exploited their overwhelming tactical firepower and superior mobility by employing the Vehicule Blinde de Combat dInfanterie (VBCI, armored vehicle for infantry combat, similar to the U.S. Stryker) supported by AMX 56 Leclerc tanks and 155 mm Caesar self-propelled howitzers to dominate the road networks. They also capitalized on superior operational mobility through the use of paratroopers and air-inserted special forces to rapidly seize remote locations in the North. French forces achieved their objectives quickly and with ease  perhaps too much ease.

It is entirely possible that Malis insurgents were repeating the tactics Lawrence had taught Arab insurgents fighting the Ottomans nearly a century earlier: fade into the desert when the enemy is strong and attack when he is weak. When fighting an insurgency in its infancy, it is common for counterinsurgency forces to gain the upper hand. But the difficult part is maintaining the upper hand after the guerrillas fade away and before they are defeated  they come back. Insurgents seek protracted conflict to wear down the governments will and exhaust the peoples patience. Suicide bombings are already taking place in the newly recaptured northern cities. If this continues, it will widen the gulf of mistrust between Malis urban population and the desert and mountain nomads.

MALI MATTERS

If one or more of Malis Islamist insurgent groups manage to regain and maintain control of northern Mali, they will have captured their largest safe haven ever. (See Malis Militants, p. 47.) The Adrar des Ifoghas Mountains are the perfect guerrilla stronghold and hideout, essentially Malis Tortuga, Fallujah or Tora Bora. The mountains are the regions historic bandit badlands (the home of drug smugglers, gunrunners and bandits for decades), made even worse by having a porous Algerian border nearby that facilitates the flow of weapons and supplies to the insurgents. These mountains are riddled with caves formerly used as shelter from sandstorms. Now they provide shelter from counterinsurgency drones and helicopter gunships.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and their Islamist allies know the area well. AQIM set up shop there in 2003, using the mountains and the Sahara desert to hide hostages and to train recruits such as Nigers Boko Haram jihadist organization. The largest town in the area, Kidal (population 25,000), has been the epicenter of every Tuareg rebellion since 1962  tellingly, it is also home to a 90-year-old French Foreign Legion fort, a lasting symbol to the longstanding danger of this remote center of resistance. Larger than other terrorist safe havens such as Lebanons Beqaa Valley, Afghanistans Tora Bora, and Pakistans tribal regions, the area is rife with potential Islamist terror clients. In addition to Malis homegrown insurgents, these include Boko Haram from Niger and Burkina Faso, Islamists from Algeria and Libya, the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt, and al-Shabab from Somalia.

There are plenty of weapons to be had as well from Libyas abundant stocks captured in the wake of dictator Moammar Gadhafis fall. Insurgents based in northern Mali can also count on political top cover from sympathetic North African regimes in Islamist Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Already, Egypt has condemned Frances military intervention in Mali, while a wary Algeria will most likely keep quiet in the hopes that its own Islamist tormentors will stay south of the border in northern Mali.

Thats why Mali matters  and why it compels U.S. policymakers to develop and implement a strategy to do something about it.

U.S. STRATEGY

If northern Mali continues to live up to its historic reputation as a safe haven for bandits and guerrillas, it will remain a magnet for North Africas Islamists, particularly AQIM. After having lost its 10-year insurgency against Algeria as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the newly branded AQIM is seeking a home. Northern Mali more than fits the bill. Moreover, AQIM has ready clients with deep pockets like Boko Haram, masters like al-Qaeda with decades of experience planning and executing deadly strikes, and a clear, if nonetheless apocalyptic, vision  restoration of the North African Caliphate. AQIM has an arms room called Libya and enjoys the support of the sympathetic regional states Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. If the northern Mali safe haven is permitted to exist, North Africa  and the West, including the United States  will be at great risk. U.S. strategy, therefore, must address Malis key players and most compelling issues.

The Tuareg are the key to the security of northern Mali. If the Tuareg reject the Islamists, the Islamists will be gone. If they embrace Islamists, the Islamists will stay. The Malian Tuareg are much like the Afghan tribes in the wake of 9/11. When the Afghan tribes turned on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in 2002, the terrorists were defeated. Likewise, the rejection of the tribals in al-Anbar in 2006 had the same effect on al-Qaeda in Iraq.

One of the most profound observations of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the famed philosopher of war, was Everything in war is simple; but the simplest thing is difficult. This dictum applies to the problem confronting U.S. policymakers in Mali. The solution to the problem presented by northern Mali is simple to define yet difficult to execute. The tension between the former slave-owning white Arab Berbers and their former slaves, the black southern Malians, is longstanding. The sedentary Northerners and the nomadic Tuareg also distrust one another. Add the Sunni/Sufi Muslim sectarianism antagonisms exemplified by the insurgents destruction of the Timbuktu Sufi Temples and rampant banditry and one ends up with a complex problem set. The United States must build up and professionalize the MAF while weakening the Islamists and, simultaneously, begin bridging the political gap between the Tuareg and the rest of the Malian population.

The U.S. objective must be to rid northern Mali of Islamists while forging long-term solutions to the regions political, social and economic problems, arrested economic development, poverty, institutional chaos, government power vacuum and ethnic tensions. Specific actions to achieve these goals should include:

Allow semi-autonomy for the Tuareg in the North  perhaps a provincial governorship.

Ensure Tuareg political representation in Bamako.

Upgrade and maintain the Norths deteriorating infrastructure.

Provide basic government services in the North.

Arrange political mediation between sedentary and nomadic Northerners.

Discredit Wahhabism  most Malians already oppose Sharia.

Crack down on drug running, kidnapping and smuggling in the North while providing viable economic alternatives.

Improve MAF professional education to decrease the likelihood of future coups.

Restore the Mali populations democratic spirit that flourished 1992-2002.

On October 22, 2012, during the U.S. presidential elections third candidate debate, Republican nominee Mitt Romney stated: Mali has been taken over, the northern part of Mali, by al-Qaeda type individuals. Yet, since then Mali has largely dropped off the American publics radar. Mali matters and it needs to reappear on the U.S. radar screen  soon.

John Sutherland is a retired U.S. Army infantry lieutenant colonel, a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Colleges School of Advanced Military Studies, and currently a senior operations and intelligence analyst at the Joint and Coalition Operational Analysis (JCOA) group in the Joint Staff. He was a senior analyst and contributor on the June 2012 JCOA Decade at War study, which can be read online at tinyurl.com/DecadeAtWar.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.

Originally published in the September 2013 issue of Armchair General.
The CEO and head of Qatar Airways just apologized for making snide remarks and mocking the age of American flight attendants. His apology came after there was a controversial outcry from the airline industry of the United States.

It can be recalled that Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar al Baker just called the American flight attendants as "crap" and that they were all grandmothers. This happened during the launch of the new flight route between Doha and Dublin event last week and this was recorded on a video that was posted on the Internet lately by an Irish travel publication.

According to PEOPLE, the CEO of Qatar Airways just apologized last Wednesday and mentioned in his apology that the comments which were made informally at the said gala dinner were not meant to be offensive. With this, he apologized unreservedly to those who got offended because of his snide remarks and which compared U.S. carriers' cabin crew with flight attendants on Qatar Airways.

The said CEO likewise mentioned that cabin crew is the face of all airlines across the globe and that he recognized their professionalism and hard work. Moreover, he added his appreciation by saying that the flight attendants are playing a significant role in the comfort and safety of all the passengers, irrespective of their status or age.

However, al Baker also cited the strong rivalry between the Qatar Airways and the U.S. carriers and that he is extremely proud of their own cabin crew. This was also the time when he said that the average age limit of his cabin crew is only 26 years old; therefore, there is no need for a passenger to opt to travel on the crap American carriers.

The snide remarks and comments made by the CEO of Qatar Airways sparked a backlash all over the aviation community in the United States. It can be recalled too that prior to the incident, Qatar Airways expressed its interest in buying up to 10 percent of the shares of American Airlines.

With this, the said CEO of Qatar Airways was even accused by the Association of Flight Attendants of discrimination and misogyny. The said airline then received criticism as it was noted too that flight attendants are onboard to save lives since lives are deemed precious.

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Monday may have been Dan Bryan's first official day as Desloge's new city administrator, but he has been a part of the vibrant and growing St. Francois County city since the day he was born.

About two weeks ago, the Desloge Board of Aldermen offered Bryan the job  vacated in May by long-time city administrator Greg Camp who took a similar position with the city of Festus  and after accepting the offer he hit the ground running.

Despite a July 17 start date, Bryan immediately became a frequent presence around city hall and even attended last week's monthly city meeting, although he kept his comments to a minimum as Mayor David Kater moved the brief agenda along.

"My family is from Desloge," said the affable Bryan, as he sat behind the desk in his still-bare office. "There's a long history with my grandparents being here. They lived in the oldest house here in Desloge. My grandpa was one of the founding members of the fire department here in town and the first assistant fire chief. He also served many years as a municipal judge here.

"There's a little bit of pride there to be associated with that and keep that connection with the city. Ever since we moved back to the area 19 years ago  I was in the Army for some time  Desloge is the place where we landed and that we've called home."

Bryan earned a degree in public administration from Central Methodist University and a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice Administration at Lindenwood University that served him well in his previous career.

"Government is what I've worked in my whole adult life," Bryan said. "I went from the Army  so, federal government  to working for 18-plus years with the state government in the Missouri Department of Corrections. I held many roles there. I started out as a corrections officer and then worked my way up to a management position.

"Looking at that, a lot of people might look and say, 'Where's the connection with the Missouri Department of Corrections and working for a city?' Well, there's a lot of connections. You have to take a look at those prisons as cities themselves  how they operate and all those different levels. There's a lot of similarities between both jobs."

Asked how he felt when offered the position of city administrator, Bryan grinned wide and said, "That was a great feeling! There was true excitement there, but again, there was a lot of pride there to be able to stay connected with this city.

"I love this town and I want to see nothing but the best for this city and I know that Greg [Camp] and Dave [Kater] and the aldermen have done a great job in progressing things. The great thing about following somebody who's done a great job is that a lot of outstanding groundwork has been made and already laid for you.

"Right now I'm spending my time getting familiar with all the new projects and finding out what stages we're at and jumping in. I want to move forward. I'm ready to see these things through that have already been established and I'm exercising my mind to see in what other directions we can go, how we can continue improving and be one of the premiere cities in the area."

Bryan expressed his appreciation for the city employees he'll be working alongside in his new position.

"There are great people working in this city," he said. "I did come a few days before my first official day and I made priority one to get out there and meet everybody  not in my office or them coming by and seeing me  but I wanted to meet them out on the job.

"I made sure I made my rounds and I found everybody that was out there. I wanted to meet them before starting on day one because I wanted them to see where the support is and I understand that without them this city does not operate. I wanted to establish those relationships from the get-go."
Fresh from the announcement that they'll be headlining a 3Arena show in Dublin, Scottish rockers The Waterboys have given us a taste of their new album with the release of a grooving single.

'If The Answer Is Yeah' is the first track to appear from the band's forthcoming double album Out Of All This Blue, due out September 8 through BMG.

A download of the track is available if you pre-order the new album.

Advertisement

Mike Scott and the boys announced their return to Dublin in March, and tickets are still available.
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The Houston investment firm EnerVest is selling oil and gas holdings to fend off creditors after the value of a $2 billion hedge fund launched during the oil boom plunged to almost nothing as the effects of the worst oil bust in a generation are still felt.

The stakes of some the nation's biggest institutional investors, including foundations and pension funds, appear all but wiped out.

EnerVest, founded 25 years ago, developed a complex financial structure and an unusual approach to investing in the energy industry, but its fund ultimately succumbed to the same miscalculations that pushed hundreds of drillers into bankruptcy during the two-year oil bust.

EnerVest bought at the top of the market and borrowed heavily to finance purchases.

"The lesson for everyone is that excessive (borrowing) in a commodity down-cycle can be lethal," said Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst at Raymond James in Houston. "That's what led to EnerVest's meltdown. No big surprise there."

EnerVest executives brushed aside concerns about the firm's viability, arguing that selling oil and gas properties concentrated in Texas and the Northeast would raise enough money to satisfy most of its debt and avoid a tug-of-war with Wells Fargo and other lenders over control of the embattled fund. The fund represented about one-fourth of the assets managed by EnerVest.

"We're in active negotiations where we can divest assets, and that gets us back to close to compliance with the banks," Whitmire said. "EnerVest is fine."

He declined to comment on the impact on investors and what the company is telling them.

EnerVest is unique among private equity companies that offer alternative investments to large, wealthy and usually institutional investors. Rather than speculating on future oil prices, EnerVest buys what it describes as undervalued oil-and-gas-producing land and operates wells, boosting its returns by borrowing.

It launched the $2 billion fund, which it called "Fund XIII" in 2012, as the shale boom gained speed and oil made its run to $107 a barrel. Another earlier fund that caught the shale drilling wave, dubbed "Fund XII," also lost much of its value after launching in 2011 with about $1.5 billion.

"We have two portfolio funds that are in need of repair," Whitmire said. "We've got to fix those and move on."

$10 million in fund

The Houston Municipal Employees Pension, which lists EnerVest as a financial adviser, has about $10 million invested in Fund XII. Pension funds for state employees, teachers, firefighters and police officers around the country - including in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and California - invested money in some of EnerVest's funds.

The Orange County Employee Retirement System, for instance, invested $40 million in Fund XIII. The system has written down that investment to zero, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the fund's losses. Large foundations, including J. Paul Getty Trust and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, also had investments in the fund wiped out, the Journal reported.

Neither the retirement system nor the foundations could be reached for comment.

EnerVest is the rare private equity firm focused almost entirely on oil and gas exploration and production. The plunge in prices to $26 a barrel in February 2016 battered its funds and returns. Crude settled Monday at $46.02 per barrel.

In an interview in June, EnerVest CEO John Walker said the crash took a toll, and the firm laid off employees for the first time in its history. "Everything was going sideways," Walker said. "We started shutting down rigs and pulling in our horns a little bit."

Meanwhile, the stock of EnerVest's publicly traded subsidiary, EV Energy Partners, has plunged from more than $40 a unit in August 2014 to 61 cents Monday, slashing the EV Energy's stock market value from more than $1 billion to $30 million in a little less than three years. EV Energy recently warned investors in a regulatory filing that it faces the risk of defaulting on some of its $612 million in debt in early 2018 if it can't work out new deals with lenders and its finances don't improve.

In solid position

EV Energy Partners, founded in 2006 to help its parent acquire and mange oil and gas assets, operates as an exploration and production master-limited partnership, a tax-avoiding corporate structure that requires the companies to distribute most of their income to investors in payments similar to stock dividends. MLPs are most popular with pipeline companies, but EV Energy Partners is one of the few oil-and-gas-producing MLPs.

Another Houston company used this structure and became of one fastest rising stars among investors during the oil boom. That company, Linn Energy grew rapidly, but fell hard, becoming the largest bankruptcy of the energy bust.

Whitmire contended that EnerVest is in a solid position overall because of its diversification, finding bargains in areas like South Texas' Eagle Ford shale as other companies rush to pay dollar for land in West Texas' Permian Basin. Another EnerVest fund launched with almost $2.5 billion in 2015, when prices for oil and gas acreage were falling, is doing well, Whitmire said.

"We're opportunistic buyers," he said.

L.M. Sixel and Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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There was a moment, not too long ago, when more permits for apartment buildings were issued in Texas than for single-family homes. From 2010 to 2015, those two classes of housing approached parity, as big cities like Houston and Dallas encouraged denser development rather than sprawling into suburban neighborhoods.

Well, that trend has ended. The number of new multifamily buildings starting construction has fallen over the past couple of years, as single-family units continued marching upward.

So what's going on here? Have cities stopped building dense urban neighborhoods, and returned instead to white picket fences?

The downturn in multifamily projects is probably temporary as housing markets work off the excess supply that's built up over the past few years, according to Jim Gaines, chief economist at the real estate center at Texas A&M .

"The multi-family market is showing some signs of slowdown/weakness as more landlords report concessions and inability to increase rents along with slightly higher vacancies," Gaines wrote in an email. "The impact of the energy downturn is finally hitting the multi-family market."

This is easy to see in Houston, where Marcus & Millichap reports that rental vacancy rates averaged about 10 percent in the second quarter of 2017, while single-family home sales set new records.

The composition of housing supply is not just an indicator of how the economy is doing  it's also information about how we can expect cities to look and function. Larger buildings that accommodate more people can allow for the development of more robust transit options, for example.

The factors that would push the pace of multifamily construction rate faster than single-family construction are varied and complex, ranging from the availability of financing to decisions made by local planners to the demographics and preferences of people moving to a certain place.

That may just be a matter of time. Or Texas may revert to its longer-term habit of preferring single-family homes over apartments and condos. Urbanization isn't a given.
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The nurse gently takes the baby's temperature as a nearby mom furrows her brow. The newborn has a slight fever.

"I want my baby to be OK," Adalyn Vargas says. "I want to help you."

The nurse places the baby in an incubator with an oxygen mask. Vargas watches intently, her eyes welling up with concern.

A few minutes later, the baby's temperature returns to normal. She's now ready to go home with Vargas, with a few special care instructions - be gentle, don't forget feedings and bring her back for a check-up.

But this is no ordinary hospital.

Whiffs of strawberry and blueberry fill the room. Rainbow arches mark the entrance. Perky pop music pumps softly through the speakers.

The newborn, known as a Nerlie, has plastic purple skin, two sprightly pigtails and fits in the palm of your hand. And "mom" has just turned three years old.

Welcome to Distroller World, where shopping is a full-on sensory experience.

The store, which exclusively sells Neonate Babies, had its soft opening earlier this month at The Galleria. It's located on the first floor near Nordstrom, nestled among children's stores like Crazy 8, Janie and Jack and Monsoon. A grand opening event is set for noon July 29.

Distroller World grand opening When: Noon July 29 Where: The Galleria, 5085 Westheimer, first floor near Nordstrom What: Giveaways, free candy and more activities; the first 50 children at the store will receive a surprise gift; Distroller creator Amparo Serrano will be in attendance See More Collapse

Distroller originated in 2004 and has more than 60 locations throughout Mexico, both stand-alones and shops inside bigger department stores. The Galleria location is the second in the U.S. A San Diego location opened in May.

"We had to be here," says Daryn Fillis, Distroller CEO, who was in town to survey the soft opening. Planning began two years ago for stateside locations.

"People know about us in Houston because of all the Mexico City expats that live in The Woodlands, that live in Houston. They know the brand, and there's high demand."

Aliens up for adoption

Part of the success is likely due to the Neonate Babies' whimsical origin story. They're sweet aliens who crash landed on Earth from outer space, where they were rescued by Nurse Tania. Each store has its own Nurse Tania along with several nurse's aides.

The babies are in four stages of development: Espongie, Zygolicious, Neonerdie and Nerlie.

There are 20 types of Neonate Babies, each with a distinct color and smell. Neonerdies are particularly adorable, tiny "party animals" that come in costumes. One dressed as a dinosaur smelled like coffee beans.

Families floated in and out of the Galleria location, drawn in by the vibrant colors and bright lights.

"Oh my god, I think I want one!" yelped one mother as her two daughters peered around the store.

I wasn't sure how my son, Emerson, would react to the Neonate adoption process. Yes, adoption. Language here is important. You don't buy, you adopt. You don't purchase, you pay an adoption fee, which ranges from $19.99-$29.99. The Neonate Babies are not in boxes, they're in incubators. And the smallest ones, preemies, come with an IV called "drippity drop."

'We never compromise'

Each baby comes with a name but can be rechristened during the adoption process. Vargas now calls hers "Moana Baby."

"We never compromise our story. We never refer to these as products. So the kids will believe it," says Karen Tora, Distroller marketing director.

Emerson was immediately intrigued and chose two babies he named Lloyd and Carlos. Once you select your baby, he's delivered in a blinking capsule that moves through a maze of clear tubing above the store. Emerson raced excitedly around the store, following the capsule until it landed at Nurse Tania's examination area. There, with the new dad by her side, she filled out an ID card and birth certificate, recording weight, length, head circumference and temperature. The entire process takes about 10 minutes.

Each Neonate Baby also gets a series of vaccinations and can come back in two months for a free follow-up.

"We'll do a checkup, we have X-rays, they get therapy. It's a full-on medical experience," Fillis says. "The Neonate health care plan is the best."

Nurse Tania interacts with each child as she cares for their baby, asking them their age or what they want to be when they grow up.

"I want to be a teacher," Vargas says of her future career choice.

Emerson even offered his own information.

"You know what kind of candy I like?" he asked. It's Sour Patch Kids, for the record.

More products in store

Distroller World also offers bassinets, diaper bags, clothes, milk bottles and pacifiers to complete the experience. Ka-ching, mom and dad. There's also a take-home "pharmacy" that boasts vitamins, a dental kit and a series of medicines, including Flu-away, Tummy Trouble and Temper Tamer. (If only.)

Additional Distroller products, including a series of elves, will be introduced later this year. But for the next few months, Nurse Tania and her staff are focusing on the Neonate experience - and encouraging kids to exercise their imaginations.

"Kids believe in Santa Claus, they believe in the Easter Bunny. They give it life because they believe it's real," Fillis says. "We want the kids to tell the story. They're the stars."
David Jennings, writing on the Big Jolly Politics blog, counted himself as a #neverTrumper but is coming around to President Donald Trump. "Like I said earlier, it is tough to be a conservative Republican with President Trump as the face of our party, given the attacks from the press and his own vulgarity," he writes.

But Jennings was cheered by Trump's defense of Western Civilization in his July 6 speech in Warsaw:

We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, embrace our timeless traditions and customs, and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers. We reward brilliance, we strive for excellence, and [we] cherish inspiring works of art that honor God. We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success. We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives. And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything, so that we can better know ourselves. And above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person and share the hopes of every soul to live in freedom. That's who we are. Those are the priceless ties that bind us together as nations, as allies, and as a civilization. What we have, what we inherited from our . . . ancestors has never existed to this extent before. And if we fail to preserve it, it will never, ever exist again. So we cannot fail.

Defending these values, Jennings says, is how conservative Republicans can support Trump "without losing our own integrity."

"Will it be a balancing act? Sure," Jennings writes. "Will we sometimes end up looking foolish because of his temper tantrums? Yes. But if we care about our past, if we care about our future, if we care about the fundamental value of Western Civilization, we must join and fight back against the falsehoods that stem from the press's obsession to 'get' him."

If you've got something worth posting about Houston, or Texas, in Must Read, send it to me at vernon.loeb@chron.com, with a brief comment on why you liked it. We'll include submissions from readers in future posts. Also, send me a note about what books you're reading, and why you'd recommend them. And thanks for reading Gray Matters.
AUSTIN - Running for re-election with no announced formidable challenger in a state known for its no-limit political contributions, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott now has a war chest as big as Texas itself.

Abbott, who announced Friday he will seek a second term in 2018, on Monday filed paperwork showing he now has nearly $41 million in his campaign account - a massive amount even by Texas standards - including $10 million raised during the last 12 days of June.

That compares to the $34 million in the bank that the 59-year-old former attorney general and judge had in the bank last January, after raising $9 million in his most-lucrative six-month fundraising period since he took office two years earlier.

In a statement issued by his office, Abbott seemed to signal that the huge haul would ensure a GOP victory in a state that already is the reddest of the red, in a race where Democrats so far have failed to find a well-known challenger. Such a large campaign account will almost certainly discourage any Republicans from thinking about challenging him, as well.

"My campaign is building the largest grass-roots army ever assembled in the Lone Star State, with the goal of keeping Texas the brightest beacon of freedom in the country," Abbott said. "In the upcoming election, our campaign will be relentless in our efforts to identify and turn out conservatives to keep Texas red."

A special legislative session called by Abbott is set to begin on Tuesday with an ultra-conservative agenda. That agenda has drawn denunciations from Democrats and moderate Republicans. It's being taken up as the national GOP faces steep political challenges with Donald Trump and a stumbling effort to repeal Obamacare.

Opponents of that conservative agenda have said they hope the 2018 elections will curb Texas' continuing veer to the right.

But Abbott's report appears to show that his brand of conservative politics retains some momentum.

Abbott's campaign on Monday reported that nearly 45 percent of his donations came from first-time donors, with more than 91 percent of all donations being less than $200 - showing that his campaign is not just being financed by a few millionaire supporters and friends.

Abbott's campaign also reported that 92 percent of his donors are Texans. His last gubernatorial opponent, Democrat Wendy Davis, raised a significant amount of her campaign donations from outside the state.

In the past two years, campaign finance reports show Abbott has raised a total of $43.1 million - with 90 percent of those contributions for less than $200, 89 percent from Texans and 75 percent from first-time contributors.

Patrick has $17 million

Monday's campaign filings by Abbott seemed to set the stage for a repeat of 2014, when he crushed former state Sen. Davis, even though she raised more than $38 million - more than any other Democratic candidate has in Texas - and cemented the continued Republican dominance of state politics for two decades.

Abbott raised more than $46 million for that race, reports at the time showed.

Democrats last held the Texas governor's office when Ann Richards won in 1990.

To put the size of Abbott's war chest in perspective, consider that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has Democrat Mike Collier running against him, announced last week that he more than $17 million in the bank - including $4 million that he raised in June.

Patrick, who had repeatedly been mentioned as a possible challenger to Abbott, announced earlier this year that he has no intention of seeking to move up in 2018.

On Friday, Dallas business executive Jeffrey Payne said he is exploring a run against Abbott as a Democrat. He said he plans to loan his campaign $2.5 million to get started.

"Forty-one million dollars means Greg Abbott has a tremendous amount of financial energy going into this campaign  and that he can be the kingmaker in many races around the stater if he wants to," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor who has examined political contribution patterns in Texas. "That amount of money will keep a lot of people from even thinking about running against him and, if he should start contributing to other campaigns that would make him a very strong governor - in the mold of Rick Perry."

Giving may change

In the past, campaign finance reports show that Abbott has given mostly to the Republican Party, not to individual down-ballot and legislative candidates. But while speaking to a group at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation on Monday, Abbott suggested that could change.

"I'm going to be establishing a list," he said. "We all need to establish lists that we publish on a daily basis to call people out - who is for this, who is against this, who has not taken a position yet. No one gets to hide."

Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor who has watched Texas politics for decades, said he expects Abbott could raise as much as $80 million before the current election cycle ends with the general election in November 2018. For comparison, Jillson noted that Democrat Tony Sanchez spent an estimated $70 million - most of his own money - to run against Perry in 2002, and lost.

"This much money does sort out the field," Jillson said, echoing several Austin political consultants. "Rick Perry never had that much money to start any of his races."

Two years ago, campaign finance reports show Abbott started his gubernatorial race with about $30 million in the bank.

"For any serious candidate with any experience who's thinking about running against Abbott, this amount of money will make them say 'I can't do that,' and they won't run," he said. "If they're not a serious candidate, they'll say 'What the heck' and run and get beat."
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Gov. Greg Abbott is making no apologies for loading up this week's special session agenda with items challenging the authority of local governments, which he declared Monday are threatening the Texas brand.

He said regulations like local tree ordinances are promoting "socialism" and "collectivism."

In a speech blocks from the state Capitol, Abbott warned that local governments are infringing on property rights, increasing regulations and growing taxes, when the state is trying to do the opposite. Those are "California-like" policies, he said.

"If we don't stop this real quick, we are in real danger of losing the standard as being the state for freedom, for free enterprise," Abbott told a sold-out auditorium at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation's offices.

That battle starts in earnest Tuesday, the day Abbott has ordered the Legislature back in for a 30-day special session taking up 20 items. First on that agenda is passing a bill to reauthorize the Texas Medical Board, which is among five state boards that would be in jeopardy without the Legislature voting to continue them. Legislation preserving those boards died in the chaotic conclusion of the 140-day regular session.

Beyond that, Abbott outlined 19 other highly controversial items on a wish list he wants passed, including property tax reform, new abortion restriction, city annexation rules, texting and driving pre-emption laws and tree ordinances.

Abbott also cautioned that he'll be keeping a list of which lawmakers buck his priorities.

"We all need to establish lists that we publish on a daily basis and call people out - 'Who is for this, who is against this, who has not taken a position?' No one gets to hide," the governor declared.

Tree ordinances have particularly frustrated Abbott, who called them an example of the government "taking" property from the people. On Friday, Texas Attorney General Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote an opinion saying local tree ordinances could be considered a "taking that requires just compensation" if they impede with a landowner's right to use and enjoy their property.

"Municipalities are saying that they have the right to impose a fee for removing a tree because if you remove a tree you diminish the greater good of the city and the greater good of the environment," Abbott said Monday. "What they are doing, they have articulated the per se definition of collectivism, socialism."

Teachers rally at Capitol

Abbott said people should have the right to do with their trees as they please.

"This is your dirt, these are your trees, you should be able to do with them what you want," said Abbott, who himself has said he had to fight Austin to cut down a pecan tree when he was attorney general.

Texas Municipal League officials said preventing clear cutting of trees enhances property values.

"Tree ordinances are far from socialist; in fact, you could say they're capitalistic," said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League.

The ambitious special session agenda had the typically dormant Texas Capitol this time of year buzzing with activity as lawmakers began returning to work.

Nearly 2,000 teachers, many waving signs, spent the afternoon rallying outside the Texas Capitol in the mid-90-degree heat calling for the Legislature to kill Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's plan for school vouchers and Abbott's proposal to stop union due collections - both on the special session agenda. Instead, they said, lawmakers should focus on improving public schools and shoring up pay and retirement benefits for teachers.

"Thank God for (House Speaker) Joe Straus," read one sign. "Use your teacher voice," read another. One woman held a cutout of a large red apple with two worms with Abbott's and Patrick's faces.

As the teachers chanted "vote them out" and cheered in agreement that some lawmakers are waging a war on teachers, a plane circled above with a banner that read, "kids before unions #setedfree," a clear counterpoint to the union-sponsored rally below.

"Stop using kids as pawns for their political agenda," said Linda Holleman, a retired teacher disgusted with the plane's message and with lawmakers pushing school voucher programs. She taught culinary arts at Tarkington Independent School District, about 50 miles north of Houston, and said she came to the rally because speaking up for public education is too important, she said.

She voted for the Republican governor in the last election, but said she won't again. "I'm disappointed in Greg Abbott. I thought he'd be better than that," she said.

Also on Monday, IBM, one of the state's largest technology companies, declared it will continue to fight proposed legislation to restrict which bathrooms transgender people could use - another issue on the special session agenda.

The tech giant sent a letter to employees Monday vowing to fight the legislation. The letter followed a day after IBM ran full-page ads in major Texas newspapers opposing the proposals, and it comes as the company is sending 20 employees, including top executives, to Austin to fight the legislation.

Dallas-area CEOs concerned

IBM wasn't alone in its opposition to the bathroom bill. Fourteen CEOs and chairmen from large Dallas-area businesses like American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, AT&T and Texas Instruments sent a letter of concern to Abbott, saying they worry a bill would "seriously hurt the state's ability to attract new businesses, investment and jobs."

"Our companies are competing every day to bring the best and brightest talent to Dallas. To that end, we strongly support diversity and inclusion," read the letter. "This legislation threatens our ability to attract and retain the best talent in Texas, as well as the greatest sporting and cultural attractions in the world."

That did nothing to quell Patrick's determination to pass a bathroom bill, which he framed as a public safety issue.

"I don't want sexual predators masquerading as being transgender to enter into a bathroom to follow a little girl or somebody's wife or somebody's daughter," Patrick told the Texas Public Policy Foundation after Abbott had finished speaking to the group.

The session puts Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus' relationship back front-and-center in Texas politics. The two Republicans, with vastly different approaches to public policy, are not waiting until Tuesday session to resume their back-and-forth.

Straus, in an email to supporters, accused the Senate of gutting school finance reform proposals that would improve funding for schools. He also said the House will weigh each item on the special session agenda to see whether it promotes private sector growth and how it affects vulnerable Texans.

Patrick has labeled Straus' school finance plan a "Ponzi scheme" that is a precursor to creating a state income tax. Patrick lobbed that criticism last week in a press conference and repeated it again on Monday. He also blasted Straus for calling the special session agenda "manure" during a speech in San Antonio last month.

"I don't think it is helpful or professional for the speaker - especially because he's in the same party - to call the governor's special session manure," Patrick said.

Straus' spokesman released a statement, making it clear Straus does not support a state income tax as Patrick has suggested twice in two weeks.

"Speaker Straus doesn't support a state income tax because it would be bad for Texas and harm our economy, just like the bathroom bill," spokesman Jason Embry said.
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Houston firefighters delivered over 32,000 signatures to City Hall on Monday in support of asking voters in November to mandate parity in pay between firefighter and police officer ranks, a maneuver that could threaten the city's plans to sell $1 billion in bonds as part of its pension reform plan.

While the two measures are unrelated, both are tied to firefighters' displeasure with the Turner administration.

As such, a unified voting bloc of firefighters during what is expected to be a low-turnout election in November could spell trouble for Mayor Sylvester Turner's signature pension reform plan, and potentially thrust the city back into the fiscal quagmire Turner spent his first year in office trying to escape.

"If one issue is a five-alarm fire, both together are a 10-alarm fire," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

The proceeds of the pension bonds are intended to go to the city's underfunded police and municipal employee pension systems in exchange for $1.8 billion in benefit cuts Turner negotiated with both groups as part of the overall reform plan aimed at eliminating an $8 billion debt over 30 years.

Should voters reject the pension bonds, the reform legislation approved by Texas lawmakers could rescind the $1.8 billion in benefit cuts, immediately hiking the city's annual pension costs by $155 million.

That would be on top of the $100 million in annual budget deficits the city finance department is projecting for the next five years.

The importance of the pension bonds' passage to the city's financial health was underscored earlier this month when Turner announced he likely would not ask voters also to repeal a imposed revenue cap that has constrained the city's finances and prompted some layoffs in recent years. Turner has said he would like to eliminate the revenue cap, but political experts had said putting it on the ballot could spark a backlash that could doom the pension bonds.

The pay parity referendum could pose a similar threat.

The petition drive for the equal pay initiative began more than a week ago, and followed the fire union's decision last month to sue the city over stalled contract talks, accusing Turner's administration of failing to negotiate in good faith.

'At a breaking point'

The union originally sought a 21 percent pay raise over three years, according to Turner, but lowered that request to 17 percent. The city, meanwhile, offered 9.5 percent over three years, which Turner said would stretch the city's financial capabilities.

Houston firefighters have been without a contract for three years. The "evergreen" terms that had governed their employment during that time lapsed last month, reverting to state law and local ordinance. City Council made the terms in that local ordinance less favorable in a unanimous vote on the same morning the union filed its lawsuit.

"This petition drive was necessary because Houston firefighters are at a breaking point," said Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association at a press conference Monday. "We now are asking the voters to help Houston firefighters because the city refuses to do so."

The petition seeks to amend the city's charter to mandate equal pay and benefits between firefighters and police-officers of similar status, but not necessarily title, accounting for varied rank structures between the two departments.

In a statement responding to the petitions, the mayor called the union's demands "ill-defined," saying there are significant differences between the two departments' workweek, command staff, overtime pay policy and benefits.

"What they are asking voters to sign is ill-defined, and making the most simplistic assumptions could cost the city more than $40 million," Turner said. "That would force the city to schedule layoffs in all department areas or further delay maintenance on buildings and purchase schedules for much needed equipment. The city appreciates and respects every firefighter, but the demands of their union leadership will financially cripple the city, absent removing the revenue cap and a further tax increase."

Good chance to pass

Lancton said the base pay earned by various ranks in the fire department is 13 percent to 23 percent below that earned by police personnel of equivalent rank.

The signatures for the initiative still need to be verified by the city secretary. State law requires 20,000 signatures from qualified voters to place a proposed amendment to the city charter on the ballot.

Houston political consultant Nancy Sims said voters are likely to pass the pay parity referendum.

"People just like their firefighters; they're heroes," she said. "It's very hard when firefighters start pushing something to the broader public for it to not succeed."

And the firefighters have made their displeasure with Turner clear.

The firefighter pension board sued the city over the pension reform plan, which was approved by the state Legislature in May, arguing that it undercuts the board's legal authority. The suit was dismissed by a state district judge.

Though their pension benefits are not contingent on the passage of the $1 billion in bonds, firefighters could spite the city by voting against them anyway.

"I think with both pension and pay parity on the agenda, there's good chance that if firefighters vote uniformly, it could be problematic for the pension issue," Rottinghaus said.
AUSTIN  Texas legislators are flooding back into the state's Capitol on Tuesday for a special session to take up a bundle of bills that fell short during the spring term.

The legislative overtime comes at the hands of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is the only person who can call lawmakers back to the capitol city for a special session.

Here's an Q&A about what to expect.

When does it begin?

The House and Senate will gavel in at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 18. Special sessions can run for no more than 30 days, which means they have to finish their business by Aug. 16.

What's on the agenda?

The governor gave them a to-do list of about 20 items, mostly involving social issues, although he wants lawmakers to tackle a controversial property tax proposal, bathroom access and several education bills.

What's the most important bill on the docket?

The so-called "sunset bill" is considered a must-pass piece of legislation. It would continue operations at several agencies, including the Texas medical Board. This is the big reason why lawmakers are in a special session, because they failed to pass this fairly routine bill during the regular session. If this legislation falters, the agencies that regulates doctors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, professional councilors and social workers would soon cease to exist.

What about these other 20 bills?

Once the sunset bill passes out of the Senate, Abbott will unlock another 20 topics to the special session agenda. They are mostly conservative Republican issues.

What are they and are they likely to pass?

Glad you asked. Here's a list of the bills, which we handicapped with their chances of success should both houses take them up in earnest.

Sunset legislation for five medical regulatory agencies: Will pass.

Teacher pay increase of $1,000: Good chance will pass.

Flexibility in teacher hiring and retention: Uncertain; some teacher groups may oppose.

Commission to study school finance reform: Likely to pass.

School choice for special needs students: Unlikely to pass. The House and the speaker are adamantly opposed.

Property tax reform: May pass; many cities and local taxing entities strongly oppose rollback election provisions.

New caps on state and local spending: Likely to pass.

Prevent cities from regulating tree-cutting on private land: Uncertain; strong opposition from cities expected.

Prevent local governments from changing development rules midway through construction projects: May pass; strong opposition from cities expected.

Speeding up local permitting processes: May pass; strong opposition from cities expected.

Annexation reform that requires a public vote of the areas to be annexed: May pass; strong opposition from cities expected.

Preempting local government ordinances on texting while driving: Unclear. Lawmakers approved a texting while driving ban earlier this year, but this proposal seeks to nullify stricter regulations in municipalities.

Privacy/bathroom bill: Unlikely to pass; strong opposition from outside groups including the Texas business lobby could bring a thumbs-down again in the House.

Prohibit union dues from being collected with government paychecks: Uncertain; Senate support is there, but opposition heavier in House.

Prohibit local governments from funding abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood: May pass; opposition from pro-choice groups and local activists.

Pro-life insurance reform: Likely to pass; opposition from anti-abortion groups and others.

Stronger abortion reporting rules: Likely to pass.

Strengthen patient protections relating to do-not-resuscitate orders: Likely to pass.

Crackdown on mail-in ballot fraud: Likely to pass.

Extending the maternal mortality task force: Passage expected.

Adjustments in dates when state agencies' operations can be reviewed: Passage expected.

OK. Aren't the House and Senate at odds right now?

Tension between the House and Senate will be on full display in during the session. Already, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threw some verbal barbs at House Speaker Joe Straus on Monday, accusing him of laying the groundwork for an income tax. Of course, Straus compared the special session agenda to a pile of horse manure and hinted the House could pass the sunset bill and go home without passing the rest.

Wait, could that happen?

There's already a movement afoot called "sunset and sine die," which is the Latin term for "without a day" for lawmakers to return. There are even lapel pins. Abbott, who wants his bills to passed, came up with a lapel pin of his own: "20 for 20," and wants lawmakers to "pass them all."

What's the governor saying about all this?

Gov. Greg Abbott already threatened to create a naughty and nice list of people who oppose the bills. "No one gets to hide. No one gets to be neutral," he said today at an event hosted the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Republican organization. So he's pretty determined to get his agenda passed.

Alright, but what is this all going to cost me?

A 30-day special session could easily cost taxpayers more than $800,000 - and perhaps as much as $1 million, officials say.

The calculation is based on the costs of per diem for lawmakers, who collect #150 per day to cover expenses. With 182 lawmakers - 31 senators, 150 House members and the lieutenant governor - the amount for 30 days would be more than $800,000. Then add in overhead costs like security, printing and staff, and the cost could climb to $1 million.

How can I follow along?

Happy you asked. Check in on the Houston Chronicle's Texas Legislature landing page, like our Austin Bureau Facebook Page and follow our reporters on Twitter, including me at @andreazelinski, @JeremySWallace, @ChronicleMike, @Jamesjdrew and politics editor, @Grav1.
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Feeling nostalgic for a return to the 1980s and 1990s? It seems that Jeff Sessions is. "D.A.R.E. is I think the best-remembered anti-drug program today," the attorney general told attendees last week at a Drug Abuse Resistance Education training conference in Texas.

Sessions is right that many people can still recall sitting in an assembly of students wearing black and red T-shirts, humming the D.A.R.E. theme song, "I Will," and listening to uniformed police give presentations on the dangers of drug use.

But he's wrong about the power of D.A.R.E.'s "just say no" mantra. Our children deserve an evidence-based approach, not one that merely feels good.

Decades of research found that D.A.R.E. didn't actually make much of a difference in preventing drug use by youth. In 2014, Scientific American reviewed several studies of D.A.R.E. and reported that "the program does little or nothing to combat substance use in youth." D.A.R.E.'s redesigned program "keepin' it REAL" has had positive results, but this sounder program about personal safety and responsibility needs further study.

Sessions seems unaware of the empirical evidence or the status of the new program. The objections to D.A.R.E. extend beyond its overly simplistic curriculum to its structure. While parents welcome the opportunity to introduce students to the police in a friendly setting, the most effective drug prevention programs involve substantial amounts of interaction between instructors and students, yet policeman aren't trained as teachers. Nor are they trained in public health. There are more effective ways to deliver an anti-drug message.

Further, it's also worth investigating whether any drug program, no matter how good, is a better use of resources than increasing social services to target those most likely to try drugs. Augmented mental health resources, for instance, would be an immense step forward in this regard.

What's clear is that it makes no sense to reintroduce a program if too many students who matriculate from it wind up saying "yes" to drugs anyway. Trey Radel, a former U.S. congressman from Florida who resigned in 2014 after pleading guilty to cocaine possession, weighed in on Sessions' remarks on Twitter. '"We had DARE at my school, Nuff said.'"

No question that the best-intentioned efforts can backfire, as when students jokingly refer to D.A.R.E. as "Drugs Are Really Exciting." If the U.S. attorney general truly wants to make an impact to help young people avoid drug use, reinvigorating D.A.R.E. would squander precious resources and send the wrong message. If we already know D.A.R.E. doesn't work, why would Sessions want to support failure?
Texas trees

Regarding "Mayor Abbott" (Page A13, Monday), I love trees and I am not alone. Dozens of Texas cities and towns have recognized the importance of the urban forest and have passed ordinances that protect trees. These municipalities are not bastions of California-biased thinking but represent the thoughtfulness of local Texas citizens caring about the quality of life in their towns.

The benefits of the urban canopy are well documented as they provide flood control, clean the air and, as a study by Texas A&M found, reduce stress along our congested streets and highways. These ordinances are bottom-up driven and reflect the will of the citizens of Texas cities of all sizes. There is no tree ordinance problem in Texas.

We have real problems in the state of Texas especially with a broken school funding system, out-of-control real-estate taxes, the highest number of uninsured citizens in the nation and the lowest high school graduation rates. Let's not impose "big brother" thinking on issues that should be local control.

John T. Fenoglio, Houston

Communion

Regarding "Gluten-free communion not an option, Vatican says. Here's why" (Page F1, Sunday), why in the world is the Vatican, its bishops and Catholics the world over debating what kind of bread and wafers should be used during communion at a Catholic Mass? Are there not more critical issues that need addressing?

Let me mention a few: declining church membership, shortage of priests, financial corruption, abortion, pedophile priests and the resulting legal judgments against the church that hav already totaled in the billions of dollars.

Mike Gonzales, Houston

Involved parents

Regarding "Does the Legislature hate our kids?" (Page A27, Sunday), the op-ed focused on the Texas Legislature's failure to increase school spending. That is a legitimate and well-founded criticism, but it did not make mention of the one overwhelming factor in a child's success or failure in school.

Parents whose only purpose for schools is to warehouse their children virtually guarantee their children's lack of educational success.

Education takes work, and no one learns without hard and often agonizing work. Parents who fail to ensure their children work in school are thereby ensuring their children's economic failure later in life.

This is the underlying reason why American children are not being adequately educated, and it is totally unrelated to school funding. But, it seems, no one in the media or in politics has the courage to ever admit it.

Lynn K. Circle, Houston

Feeling uneasy

Regarding "Weapons laws create dilemma for businesses" (Page B1, Sunday), thank you to business columnist Chris Tomlinson for voicing his thoughtful, sober resistance to Texas' disturbing new open-carry laws. The only purpose of a gun is to kill.

As a mother, a Quaker and an university educator, I am horrified by the spread of weapons into our shared public spaces, including the presence of concealed weapons in my classrooms and office. Why does one person's right to bear arms trump everyone else's right to safety, not to mention my own right as a religious pacifist to religious freedom?

Katharine Jager, Houston
WASHINGTON - President Trump's attorney, Jay Sekulow, seems to be an adherent of the just-yell-louder-school of legal argumentation. That tactic was on vivid display again Sunday, as the blustering lawyer made the full round of talk shows. It might have been the most striking part of Sekulow's performance, but it wasn't the most ominous.

He combines obstreperousness ("I'm going to answer your question, I am, and you're going to let me answer it," he lectured/interrupted Fox News's Chris Wallace) with obfuscatory legal jargon ("I'm not in privity of contract, as we say, with the party that's responsible for the actual payment of the bill").

Sekulow compulsively redirects ("I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in," he told ABC's Jonathan Karl). The Secret Service said later in the day that Donald Trump Jr. wasn't under protection at that time. Sekulow is internally inconsistent ("I mean, opposition research in campaigns happens all the time," he told CBS' John Dickerson, just after noting that Trump Jr. had said that "if he had to do it all over again, there are things he would do differently").

So watching a Sekulow performance, it is tempting simply to ask: Why is this man shouting?

The better question is: What is this man shouting? Because if you turn down the volume and pay attention to Sekulow's words, you can deduce the disturbing outlines of where the president's legal team may be heading. He signaled the expansion of the Trump team's assault on former FBI director James Comey and, in turn, on the legitimacy of special counsel Robert Mueller. This is worrisome, because it lays the foundation for firing Mueller and/or issuing pardons and declaring, "Case closed."

Thus, when Wallace asked Sekulow whether the Trump team's repeated denials of dealings with Russia were now "suspect," it triggered this disquisition:

"I think it's important to put the framework here. How did we end up with a special counsel? ... Comey had a series of meetings with the president of the United States. In those meetings, he took notes. He put them on his government computer, put them in his government desk, and when he was terminated from that position, which you would acknowledge that the president had the authority to do, he gave them to a friend of his to leak to the press ... to get a special counsel."

In this retelling, Mueller is the fruit of the poisonous tree planted by Comey. Therefore, Mueller's appointment is illegitimate and he should go - and with him the investigation.

"So the basis upon which this entire special counsel investigation is taking place is based on what? Illegally leaked information that was a conversation of the president of the United States with the then-FBI director," Sekulow told NBC's Chuck Todd. "And I think that raises very serious legal issues as to the scope and nature of what really can take place."

Does it? In his previous round of Sunday shows, Sekulow muddied the waters by claiming that Comey had violated attorney-client privilege in revealing his conversations with Trump. As Wallace explained Sunday, this assertion was incoherent, since Comey was not acting in any way as Trump's lawyer.

Sekulow's pivot to executive privilege is scarcely more convincing. Perhaps Trump could have asserted privilege to bar Comey from testifying before Congress, especially before the firing. That's different from claiming that Comey's decision as a private citizen to reveal information about his conversations with the president was "illegal," even if Comey proceeded through the distasteful cutout of a memo leaked by a friend. If such disclosures were against the law, every administration veteran who wrote a tell-all book would be in jail.

Another strand of Sekulow's argument involves the notion that the memo was essentially government property, not Comey's to decide to convert to his own use, even if the information contained in it is unclassified. Irony alert: This argument requires concluding that Comey took something of value from the U.S. government, while asserting that the Trump campaign did not solicit anything of value from the Russian government. On the Lawfare blog, Timothy Edgar and Susan Hennessey assess the argument that Comey's action violated the conversion statute as "cutout."

Even if it weren't, what would be the relevance? Comey's alleged crime wouldn't make Mueller's appointment void or voidable. A leak of classified information that is intended to trigger a criminal investigation doesn't make the ensuing investigation improper.

But watch that space. I suspect - and fear - that we haven't heard the last of this bogus argument.

Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.
As we Texans watch the start of a special session of the Legislature, it seems clear that the leadership of our public officials hasn't a clue about what to do to deal with a public education system in deep trouble. And the private sector doesn't seem to provide any serious insight or initiative either. Considering what's going on in Austin, one has to ask: Where are the bold, forward thinking leaders that made Texas great?

The public school finance system is dysfunctional. After more than a quarter century of state Supreme Court rulings declaring the finance system unconstitutional and attempting to prescribe an outcome from the bench - ineptly - the court's most recent ruling last year at last threw in the towel and told the Legislature that it's their duty - so: Fix It! - in the strongest words of criticism of the system imaginable.

Finally, the opportunity came for the elected officials and state agencies to show leadership and focus on one of the most critical issues of our time.

What happened in the regular session was the weakest, incomprehensible attempt in both chambers of the Legislature and no plan at all from the executive branch. The only effort now seems to be another study group, with no political direction or clout, and weak disparate efforts from all sides.

What's needed is an intense focus on the issue, directed by the leaders in the Capitol, with a distinct nonpartisan collaboration, and a hard deadline of producing a radical, systemic change. Talk of a constitutional convention reminds us that difficult problems can be resolved with strong effort by exceptional leaders. Maybe locking a group in an un-air conditioned room in the middle of the summer, working in secret, might work.

There are other possibilities. Getting the private sector involved heavily is needed no matter what. If the leaders in the Capitol appointed a business group with financial and organizational expertise to work on the most glaring weakness of the financing system - what do we get in results for what we spend, but also, what is the investment required to get the results Texas needs - we might have the framework for a solution. Measuring outcomes based on what any policy or program costs is basic good sense in the rest of the world outside of public education.

Today, we spend money on many different ideas without the vaguest analysis of what those funds directly produce or how that expenditure might compare to other alternatives. This approach would surely be a game changer.

That's exactly what the Supreme Court asked us to do. We can't decide issues like adequacy or equity if we don't know what we get for what we spend. That's how money matters, they said.

We've known that for years. The public would surely understand. We do that every day. It's time to deal with it. Or else.

Miller is chairman of the nonprofit Institute for Productivity in Education and is former chairman of the University of Texas System board of regents.
The following are excerpts from reports generated by the Texas County Sheriffs Department:

A 60-year-old Houston man reported Sunday that he had been assaulted by a 47-year-old Houston man.

The alleged victim told an investigating officer the alleged assailant had driven at a high rate of speed past his Brown Hill Road residence several times, and that on the fourth time he had gone out to the road to confront him about it. The victim said the driver got out of his vehicle and punched him in his left eye, knocking him down, and then kicked him 30 times.

The officer attempted to make contact with the alleged assailant, but was unable to find him. The officer returned to the victims house, and he changed his story, indicating the suspect had held a 9-millimeter pistol to his head and pulled the trigger three times, but the gun only clicked and he threw it into a ditch in the weeds.

The officer searched for a weapon but didnt find one. The officer noted that the alleged victim had in the past reported that someone pulled a gun on him and no weapon was found. A report was sent to the county prosecutor.

On July 14, a deputy went to a Golden Drive residence at Raymondville to serve civil papers to a 79-year-old man who lives there.

While the officer was there, the man showed him eight marijuana plants growing behind a barn, and said they belonged to his 36-year-old stepson, who also lived there. The officer pulled up the plants and transported them to the Texas County Jail for disposal.

A deputy was dispatched July 13 to a Highway AW residence at Plato regarding a report of property damage.

The officer determined there was no property damage at the location, but a woman who lives there said she feared for the lives of her family because of a man. The officer advised the woman on steps to take to obtain a restraining order.

At about 9:50 a.m. July 14, a woman from the Division of Family Services came to the TCSD office and said she had received a report that a boy had broken his leg on a slip-and-slide at a Highway 137 residence at Raymondville.

An investigating officer went with the woman to the location, but nobody was there.

A man called July 13 to report that a neighbor had placed a large pile of gravel in his driveway and he couldnt get his car to his Slaughter Road residence at Licking.

An investigating officer observed a small berm that had been placed to divert water, and the property owner confirmed that it was there to keep the driveway from washing out. The officer tried to make contact with the man who made the complaint, but was unable to reach him.

A deputy was dispatched July 6 regarding a report of property damage at a church at Varvel Road and Highway HH at Willow Springs.

The officer observed that the churchs sign had been shot and the door kicked, but nothing was apparently stolen. There are no suspects.

A deputy on July 7 investigated a reported theft at an 80-year-old Cabool mans Highway M residence.

Swiped items reportedly included a tractor valued at $2,000, an ATV worth $400 and a mower estimated at $200. A 46-year-old Mountain Grove man is a suspect.

A deputy was dispatched July 10 regarding a report of theft at a Veda Road residence at Success.

A 41-year-old man there told the officer a cargo trailer that had broken into and several items with a total value of $510 had been swiped. There are no suspects.

Texas County Jail admissions

July 5

Wilford H. Storm  burglary, property damage

July 6

Evan A. Lawson  assault

Tyler D. Flores  forgery

Wesley M. Parsons  writ

Daniel Campbell  writ

Cassandra Boyle  Rolla PD hold

Pamela D. Harris  arson

Charles M. Hill  possession (X2)

July 7

Susan I. Gould  possession of controlled substance

James D. Wakenight  possession of controlled substance, stealing

Matthew K. Randall II  stealing

Kenny L. Courville  48-hour commitment

July 8

Patrick A. Dodson  possession of controlled substance

Krystal N. Base  possession of controlled substance

July 10

Donald Pearson Jr.  possession of controlled substance

Kayla M. Turner  stealing motor vehicle

Marissa A. Gilbert  hindering prosecution, abuse, child neglect

July 11

Dayton A. Terrill-Austin  1-year commitment

Joanna L. Fox  possession of controlled substance

Tommy H. Jackson  non-support

Lori L. Cox  48-hour commitment

July 12

Christopher A. Pate  non-support

July 14

Daniel J. Hickman  48-hour commitment

Thomas W. Murphy  possession of controlled substance, endangering the welfare of a child

Sheyla D. Chase  48-hour commitment

Patrick L. Vaughan  DWI, endangering the welfare of a child

Christopher L. Hadley  enticement of a child

July 15

Alex J. Collins  failure to appear (drug paraphernalia)

July 16

Alexandr A. Tadzhibayev  DWI, driving while revoked

Brittany M. George  passing bad check
The new leaders of two fine arts programs at Houston Schools have been established.

Wayne Brown was hired last Tuesday night by the school board as the band director while Calley Rogers was named the elementary music instructor. Both were unanimously approved during the closed session of the monthly meeting.

Brown and Rogers are both Central Methodist University graduates. Both are in their 20s, according to Dr. Allen Moss, superintendent of Houston Schools.

Brown comes to Houston after one year as the 6-12 grade choir and band director at North Shelby. It was his first job in education. He replaces Michael Roy, who resigned in late June for a position closer to his Mississippi home.

Rogers, a Lebanon native, will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of longtime elementary music educator Jodie Forbes. It will be Rogers first job in education.

Brown and Rogers were among seven new hires by the board. Also employed were: Dave Rust (transportation assistant), Haylee Pitts (Title I paraprofessional), Brandon Pitts (speech implementer), Michelle Williams-King (speech/debate) and Andrea Williams (drama).

The board also discussed the welding/maintenance position, according to minutes from the district. No action was taken.

Also during the meeting, school board members

Approved an amended Field Trip Policy for the elementary school. The policy will allow parents who pass a background check and volunteer 10 hours at the district to travel on field trips with their child.

Parents were not allowed on field trips during the 2016-17 school year, prompting several to appear before the board in previous months asking for a change.

Accepted physical therapy bids from Advanced Care Services for the district as well as the Exceptional Child Cooperative.

Accepted an occupational therapy bid from Full Potential Therapy Services.

Gave approval to Moss to send out bids to repair the roof on the central office.

Heard a presentation related to energy saving performance projects on campus from a Schneider Electric representative. No action was taken.

Approved a tax rate hearing and school start date hearing on Aug. 8.

Heard six students have applied thus far to participate in vocational training at the South Central Career Center. This school year will be the districts first sending students to the West Plains organization.
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In fact, a 2016 survey of remote workers found that 91 per cent feel more productive when working from home compared to in the office. Further, a Connect Solutions study found that 77 per cent of remote workers get more done in less time thanks to fewer distractions.

Weve found that when you give people the freedom to work in their own space which is comfortable to them, and at the times that theyre the most productive, you get a lot more from them, says Beuhler.

Despite the evidence, many organisations still fear their employees will slack off or slip out of the home office if there isnt someone there to keep an eye on them.

Atlanta-based Buehler admits its a challenge the company faces every day but says staff and leaders do their best to combat suspicion by actively assuming the best, rather than the worst.

Were really intentional about running to those challenges so they dont become a problem, Beuhler tells HRM. So we choose to go a different direction and fill the gap with trust  that means telling yourself that maybe the reason someone isnt getting back to you is because theyre in a meeting or on a call.
A few avid Brexiteers may still believe that leaving the EU after four decades can be done in the manner of Tommy Cooper, "just like that". As the appearance of the first of eight Brexit Bills demonstrates, it will be no easy task.

Quite apart from negotiating our new trading and diplomatic relations with 27 other countries, there is the small question of untangling thousands of regulations that affect our everyday lives.

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Consumer protections against unsafe goods. Quality checks on food and drink. Harmonised building sizes, so that parts can be changed. Employment rights, to keep workers safe and properly rewarded. Banking systems which help money move swiftly with the account holder. Insurance cover, so we can drive abroad without extra paperwork. Child protection measures, to ensure maintenance and access rulings are upheld across the continent.

It was to deal with these and other everyday matters that the government produced its European Union (Withdrawal) Bill - loosely referred to as the 'Repeal' Bill.

The Bill sets out to achieve four things. To repeal the 1982 Act, which gives affect in the UK to cross EU regulations. To 'domesticate' those regulations so that similar ones continue in place the day we exit. To bring into law anything needed as a result of the 'divorce' negotiations. And to give legal approval to the end of the 'Article 50' process, i.e. Parliament saying "we're out".

While the first of these is legally clear, the second - empowering the government to use secondary legislation to entrench existing rules into UK law - is necessary so that business and everyone else can work as before. However, the volume of such legislation - some thousands of statutory instruments (SIs) - raises serious questions as to whether Westminster and Whitehall have the ability to ensure these are fit for purpose.

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More serious are the other two parts of the Bill.

Clause 9 will allow the government to use SIs for issues arising from the negotiations. Legislation that comes under far less scrutiny than that in primary bills, and can only be approved or rejected rather than amended.

Not only will it mean using this power for something new but it may also be deployed at a very late stage, between the end of the negotiations and the day of departure. Never a good time to make law, but the proposals are fairly open about it all: "A Minister ... may by regulations make such provision as the Minister considers appropriate for the purposes of implementing the withdrawal agreement."

The government says these powers may not be used to impose taxation. Yet it admits new quangos might be needed to take over functions hitherto done by the Commission or EU agencies, and these will need fee-charging powers. Plus powers to introduce new criminal offences, provided they couldn't lead to a sentence of more than two years. There are also plans to bring some EU competencies back to Whitehall which should by rights go to the devolved administrations, prompting Wales and Scotland to threaten to withhold their consent.

There remains the interesting, fourth, assertion that the Bill will give effect to the act of withdrawal from the EU and Euratom - the end point of the triggering of Article 50. Perhaps, but it also says that this is quite separate from the promised vote in both Houses on 'the deal'. And it will take a lawyer to advise which of these actually authorises Ministers to conclude the final withdrawal agreement.

Lastly, the Bill specifically deletes reference to the Charter of Fundamental Rights that has set the context in which EU regulations are implemented. Without this, there will be no framework for a court to judge whether the new laws are appropriate and being upheld. It's hard to see why the Charter couldn't be included in the Bill, given ministerial claims that it adds no new rights which aren't elsewhere in UK legislation. Doing so would make it clear that all regulations brought in by SI should be read in the context of these vital citizens' rights.

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This first of eight Bills will test the government, the civil service and Parliament as to whether the UK really can untangle four decades of close cooperation and rule making while at the same time negotiating and legislating for a completely new relationship with our near neighbours and close trading partners. It will also test whether Ministers are willing to talk, listen and compromise in order to build a consensus for a route out of the EU.

As the Opposition in the Lords, we have been clear there are no blank cheques - and we will not take on trust bland assertions that nothing of consequence is being squeezed through by the secondary 'back door'. We will do our usual job of exposing shortcomings, demanding change and scrutinising legislation in whatever form, and giving both the Commons and the government the opportunity to think again. It's the least that will be expected of us.
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I used to believe in "the system": the political and economic structure of what we might call western democracy and capitalism. I worked for it: for many years, I was a diplomat for my country. I resigned from government over the Iraq war. I began a political journey. I no longer believed in the system I represented. But what would work instead? To my great surprise, I came to think that anarchism is the answer. I never thought I would believe such radical ideas. But now I think it's the only political philosophy that makes sense for today's world, and the crazy ones are those who think that the current system will save us.

But why, and what is anarchism? These 10 steps can explain:

1.No one feels they have control over the things that matter to them: locally or nationally, let alone internationally. This frustration helps explain Brexit and Trump and the divisiveness and volatility of politics today.

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2. "Representative" democracy, where the few are elected by the many, is not working. Disillusionment with politics and institutions is high. Many people feel disenfranchised: no one speaks for them. Access to the few in government, the policymakers, is much easier for those who already have power and money.

3.Modern capitalism allows a tiny few to become grotesquely rich. For most, income and wealth have flat-lined or declined while basic goods, including housing, are more expensive than ever. The majority is becoming worse not better off. The young do not expect to do better than their parents. On the contrary: facing decades of student debt and unaffordable housing, they can expect far less. Cities are being ruined by speculators who buy up housing, often to leave it empty, forcing residents out and gutting communities.

4.Modern work and life, in my opinion, do not offer meaning. Most work is boring and often repetitive. Material progress is important, but it's not enough (and in any case is increasingly limited to a few). A lot of contemporary culture speaks of a deep hollowness. There is a profound yet unexpressed yearning for something more. Call it purpose, meaning, the things without names that matter most: the things the dying talk about. The hope for something better has withered.

5.Society is fracturing. The old are isolated. The disabled are left to the inadequate care of state (remember Gandhi: society is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable). Other races and immigrants get the blame. Envy and anger predominate. But we need each other. Only relationships give life meaning. Alone we are nothing. Solitary confinement is punishment for a reason.

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6.The need to take back control - agency - is at the heart of this crisis. Rather than discredited politicians, we need to decide the things that matter to us.

7.This means direct democracy, a return to the earliest practice where Athenian citizens took turns to debate and take decisions for the city. Today, in "participatory" models of democracy, everyone can take part. It's already happening in towns and cities across the world. It works. When everyone gets an equal say, the resulting decisions - on healthcare or schools - are fairer: in one Brazilian city the number of schools quadrupled. Debate and discussion promote understanding - as long as they're practiced face-to-face rather than online. The division and hostility of party politics can be replaced by a new and more tolerant culture of democracy that is created and sustained by its practice. In such forums, we start to see each other as individuals - real people with needs just like our own - not political labels. Corruption will perish when decisions are made in the open.

8.There cannot be a fair democracy without a fair economy. The wealthy will always get more of a say. The unfettered free market has permitted exploitation of the many by the few. The alternative - government ownership - has been proven to be inefficient and it's no more democratic if a few are taking all the decisions. Instead, cooperatives bake equality into the business model. Everyone who contributes to the business gets a share, and a say. When everyone has a stake, the business thrives and offers its partners more than just a wage: it transforms into a shared enterprise. Cooperatives, particularly when working together across an economy, are as competitive as profit-seeking companies. Think of John Lewis, or Mondragon, Spain's tenth largest company which has helped to transform Spain's Basque region.

9.It can start small, and build up. It requires effort and action, in contrast to the trivial act of voting over facile slogans every five years. It won't happen unless we build it: democracy is a process, not a utopia. It will take work and learning and patience. New forms of participation - local forums at schools, hospitals or the town - will gain legitimacy, and power, when we show up and speak and listen. Old forms of politics will have to take notice and eventually step aside. Society's tattered bonds will be re-woven.

10.This is anarchism. It's not chaos, a "war of all against all" or naive idealism. It promises a deeper order created from the bottom-up not imposed from the top down by government and rules. It's radical democracy - democracy returned to its roots: people taking decisions about the things that matter to them. Rather than a fractious bunch of individuals consuming and competing with one another, we can start to feel like a community again, with shared purpose, reinvigorated by a sense that, at last, change is possible, and it's in our hands, and ours alone.
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One of the Tories' favourite stories is about a note left by the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, after Labour were ejected from office and the coalition took over in 2010. The single sentence, 'I'm afraid there is no money', was deemed to be of such worth that David Cameron paraded a photocopy of the letter around in the 2015 General Election. The point they're trying to prove is simple: Labour can't be trusted with your money, and only the Tories will manage the finances with the prudence required.

More than seven years after that note was written and the Tories claims to be the party of careful financial management have fallen apart. Not only have we missed every election target they set on reducing the debt and deficit, but the spending choices made by ministers have been disastrous. Savings have been made, by slashing spending on local authorities and freezing benefits and capping public sector pay rises. At the same time we've seen corporate taxes slashed - with the aim of making Britain into a haven for companies who want to contribute as little as possible to the country in which they operate.

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Public sector cuts and corporate tax giveaways might be both callous and economically illiterate, but they are, to some extent, what you'd expect from a party with a history of backing big money. Some of the Government's other spending decisions are, however, harder to explain.

Take the purchase of the F-35 Lightning II - a next generation warplane that is set to cost the Government 150million a pop, despite multiple failings exposed just this week. These jets, which were originally set to cost far less, are designed to take off and land vertically - but a recent expose by the Times has shown that four of those already purchased are actually too heavy to perform this function. Add to this major communications problems with the planes, night-vision failures and a software system vulnerable to cyber attack, and it's clear that we're ploughing billions into an incredibly risky project. Britain is set to spend 12billion on the new jets and aircraft carriers by 2021, and there's a very real chance that they won't be fully operational.

Of all of the mega-projects, it is the renewal of Trident that is potentially the most catastrophic. We're set to spend over 100billion on a weapon that makes us less safe, not more, at the very same time as nurses and firefighters are being told that they can't have pay rise because such a move would risk the country's finances. The arguments against Trident are well-rehearsed. But the very fact that building a new generation of weapons of mass destruction is pitched by politicians as central to our nationhood should give us pause for thought. What makes Britain need nukes so desperately when almost all other countries on earth maintain their safety without them?

Perhaps the most surprising spending commitment by this Government (and indeed by the Labour Party) is on HS2. The scheme could cost up to 104billion in total, including extensions to Manchester and Leeds. According to transport expert Michael Byng, the first 6.6miles from Euston to Old Oak Common would cost 8.25billion, or 1.25billion a mile. The line will shave minutes off journeys to London while channelling funding away from where it's really needed - providing people with improved local rail connections between our towns and cities across the country.

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Any claim the Tories might have had to be the party of sound finances has demonstrably fallen by the wayside. The country is being run by a group of Ministers who are willing to flush billions down the drain on projects we don't need, while refusing to support the social infrastructure that's needed to keep this country's social fabric from being ripped apart. At a time when we should be diverting every available resource towards building a zero-carbon economy, we see support for renewables and energy efficiency stalling. If we were to divert cash away from these overprices vanity projects and into building an economy fit for the future, we'd quickly be world-leaders for all the right reasons.

My challenge to both the Tories and the Official Opposition is simple: let's think again before we plough ahead with these projects. We're a small country that should be bold in its ambition, but not reliant on megaprojects to show the strength of a Government.

Britain has a chance to build an economy that not only meets the challenges of the 21st Century head-on but creates a better country in the process. We can do without overpriced fighter jets, nuclear weapons and HS2 - let's not miss this opportunity.
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Young people are not equipped to deal with pornography. It can have a deeply damaging effect on their behaviour and their understanding of consent and healthy relationships. It can distort their views on body image. It can be downright dangerous when it comes to learning about sexual health.

NSPCC research shows that by the age of 16 nearly half of young people have viewed pornography, and those children are just as likely to find it accidentally as they are to deliberately search for it.

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At the NSPCC we have worked hard to stress this to Government, so its pledge to introduce a regulator and age verification measures to block children from accessing pornography websites online is a vital and welcome first step towards keeping children safe online.

But there is much more work to do.

By the age of 13 three quarters of young people now have a social media account. For children these networks are a way of chatting with friends, watching funny videos or finding out about the world.

Yet all too often we hear of grooming, hate speech, self-harm content, cyber bullying and even child abuse images cropping up on social media.

Some social networks have designed their platforms with child safety in mind, others have not. Some are good at taking action when harmful content is reported, others are not.

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The problem is that each network has their own rules for handling inappropriate content or abusive behaviour on their platforms. This leads to inconsistencies in keeping children safe, and ultimately means social networks are marking their own homework.

We've had enough and children have had enough. Recent NSPCC research found four out of five children feel that social media companies aren't doing enough to protect them on their sites.

Government must now grasp the nettle and draw up a universal set of rules for all social networks and to create an independent regulator with teeth to enforce those rules.

These rules should require social networks to offer Safe Accounts to under 18s, with high privacy settings as default, location settings locked off, control over who follows you, and clear child-friendly rules and reporting buttons that are easy to find and easy to read.

Social networks should also bring in groomer and bully alerts for these accounts, to automatically flag behaviours to moderators and to the children being targeted.

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And these companies must hire an army of online child safety moderators, to disclose the number of reports they receive and how moderation decisions are made to the regulator. Within this framework harmful, violent, abusive or adult content can be proactively filtered using key words - either to block it for Safe Accounts or to issue a pop-up warning to young people.

Out in the real world you'd be comfortable for your child to go to youth club, but there are laws in place to stop them entering an adult environment, such as a night club. Yet online our children are finding themselves in a very adult arena, with scarce legal safeguards to protect them.

Proper regulation of social networks will make the internet a better place for young people by protecting and empowering them. Children must be as safe online as they are offline.
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Our growing 'gig economy' just got a warning shot to improve worker rights, and the 'Great Repeal Bill' may see the start of a mass removal of many more. Quite a week.

The two landmark events are connected: The Taylor review into changing working practices, which wants to create the idea of 'dependent contractors', and the so-called repeal bill (officially the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill), with its repatriation of powers, will both shape our working future.

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But as what? Are we to be a beacon to light regulation and even lighter economic security? Or are we going to be a place where employment rights are protected and enhanced?

It could go either way. The Prime Minister tellingly offered nothing specific in response to Taylor, and neither has she given decent assurances that more than 40 years of EU legislation currently woven into the fabric of our life will not be unstitched. Many of the laws deal with employment rights.

And in the background of this mosaic is the promise of what President Trump called a 'very big, very powerful' trade deal with the United States. Queasy? Me too. Good for whom? As Mr Trump will clearly be putting America first, that leaves us second.

It will be disappointing if the Prime Minister, weakened as she is by a cross, confused electorate, fails to implement the reasonable recommendations put forward by Matthew Taylor to improve rights for those 'self-employed' by digital giants. It would send an important signal.

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The global economy has changed for ever, but that distracts from what is the real issue. Namely, that capitalism remains the same from generation to generation: a tension between employer and worker.

Both want to make money off the other. The big tech giants disrupting patterns of business are no different to those industrial titans of the Nineteenth Century who harnessed mass production. They cannot merely exempt themselves from social obligations, most bitterly fought for over generations, simply because they know a technical way to do so.

Equally, self-employment is more than a choice or a trick, not something to be given elastic definitions based on some fiscal expediency. It has real tax implications that affect us all; for example, reducing the Treasury's take from both those businesses whose model is only to employ the self-employed, and from the 'self-employed' themselves. That money has to come from somebody else or public services must drop.

Flexible working may be a personal choice, or a euphemism for institutionalised exploitation, but it is also clearly a tax problem. Matthew Taylor offered a very reasonable way forward for the gig economy, and it is less than satisfactory that we have politicians unable to support it with more than words

Meanwhile, The repeal bill, which dumps the legislation that took us into the EU and ceded sovereignty to its laws, may see a further change in employment rights. Not now, perhaps. But soon.

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The danger is that the broadly evolved European social model, which has helped draw the sting out of once poisonous industrial relations in the UK through dialogues between unions and employers across the EU, is lost. Instead, we could see a return to that uniquely British polarisation that caused us to be the 'sick man of Europe' for so long .

The repeal must not be allowed to open up a return to that time, but instead help us stand out as a place in which enlightened business should feel encouraged to invest once we have left the EU. Part of the deal is that the social contract between employed and employer must be respected.
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"The current state of affairs is dangerous, counterproductive and will inevitably end in tragedy unless urgent corrective action is taken."

This is the stark conclusion of the Chief Inspector of Prisons of child prisons in England and Wales, which was today published in his annual report. It is the most alarming warnings we have heard about children in prison.

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The Chief Inspector concluded that there was not a single prison inspected in England and Wales where children are safe and that the speed of the decline has been "staggering". Violence is rising, increasing numbers of children are locked in isolation for 23 hours a day, conditions are deteriorating and significant numbers of children are simply too scared to leave their cells. Prisons have failed to punish their way out of the crisis, and, as set out in the report, have made the situation worse:

"There seems to be something of a vicious circle. Violence leads to a restrictive regime and security measures which in turn frustrate those being held there. We have seen regimes were boys take every meal alone in their cell, where they are locked up for excessive amounts of time, where they do not get enough exercise, education or training, and where there do not appear to be any credible plans to break the cycle of violence."

Behind each of these cell doors in each of these failing institutions is a child. The Howard League, which has the only dedicated legal team for children in prison England and Wales, recently secured a High Court ruling into the case of AB, who spent more than 100 days in isolation. The court declared this boy's isolation for certain periods and the denial of adequate education was unlawful. The court accepted that during the worst periods, when he had no educational provision at all, "the lack of mental and physical activity contributed to his frustration and so to his disruptive behaviour".

Troubled and damaged children cannot be helped in a fatally flawed system. The proposals to build new child prisons - so called 'secure schools' - are the wrong answer to the wrong question. Building more prisons only causes problems to grow; it does not solve them. They threaten repeating the mistakes of the past and expanding the number of children in prison.

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The focus should instead be on investing in community solutions and closing child prisons. This could be achieved by addressing the over-representation of BME children, reducing the use of remand and scrapping needless, and harmful, short term sentences.

Dr Jerome Miller emptied Massachusetts' reformatories in the early 1970s and revolutionised America's youth justice system. As Robert D. Behn, a senior lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, wrote in 1976, Dr Miller "changed the political question from 'What do we do with these bad kids?' to 'What do we do with these bad institutions?' By focussing public attention on evils of the institutions, he elicited from the public the only logical conclusion: The institutions must be closed." Instead these children went to evidence based community treatment programmes, foster carers, or simply back to their parents. A study concluded that "Massachusetts reforms still realised impressive outcome improvements, reducing criminality, saving taxpayers money and minimising harm and disruption to young people's lives".

As evidence in today's report, and by decades of work by the Howard League, the youth justice system in England and Wales is fundamentally broken. It does not serve the children we incarcerate in violent, failing institutions. It does not serve the taxpayer. And it does not serve the communities they return to when they are released.

For the majority of children, the best possible thing is to keep them as far away from 'the system' as possible. The Howard League's work with the police is a prime example of this - the number of child arrests has fallen dramatically, which has led to huge reductions to the numbers of children in the youth justice system.

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The evidence from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons could not be clearer - the state is failing to its duty to protect children.

There is not a single prison in the country where a child is safe. As Dr Miller told the local politicians in the 1970s: "You can have the institutions; we are taking the kids."
The 'cuts' and 'cutting'. Both should be bothering us Brits a lot right now.

'Cuts', of course, are austerity.

And 'cutting' is what unsuspecting little girls will experience over the coming summer break, when they are taken to locations - probably in the country of origin/ heritage of their parents, but perhaps somewhere secret on UK soil - to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).

No money?

The UK is the sixth most prosperous nation in the world, but whilst billions may be available for matters of immediate political convenience, the NHS, education and many other public services are feeling the pinch. Funding for bedrock community provisions is seriously stretched.

These two facts of contemporary life - that 'the cuts' hurt our communities, and that FGM is one of the cruellest, most horrific acts which could be visited upon a child - are inevitably connected.

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Austerity causes poverty, and poverty restricts opportunity, which leaves women and girls ever more vulnerable to gender-based harm. Anyone who's undergone FGM is less likely to have the health and educational opportunities to enjoy well-being in maturity.

Tragically, cuts may themselves enable 'cutting'

July is a peak month for small girls to be taken for 'vacation cutting' - a time when, like the other peak times of Christmas and Easter, there will be weeks of school holiday and no questions asked about where children are or what's happening to them.

And it's also when action to stop FGM, by border agencies, the police, teachers and community activists, is on highest alert.

Often community campaigns comprise in reality just a few people, perhaps a single individual, doing what they feel they must to consign FGM to history.

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But all around Britain there are voices quietly worrying that funds to support community based on-the-ground campaigns against FGM are drying up. There is no money to pay activists' expenses, let alone a fee for their efforts.

Different roles for different people

The larger EndFGM organisations have structures and technical skills to obtain, manage and ultimately account for financial awards, but they must rely on appointed professional staff, few of whom have direct connection with the communities in which FGM still occurs.

Of course the bigger organisations have a critical role to play. They can analyse and share prevalence data, develop the reference materials and teaching resources medical, educational, legal and other professionals need to take forward their subject-specific agendas, and prod the wider public into awareness of this grim and harmful traditional practice.

But, EndFGM messages are harder to deliver on the ground when those so tasked are not themselves trusted members of the relevant community.

This mis-match has unintended consequences

People who work within their own communities find themselves un-resourced and limited in what they can do. Unsurprisingly, they become aggrieved about this lack of support.

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It almost impossible to campaign against FGM without any funds, but, as several narrators in my book Female Mutilation point out, everyone in their community knows when local activists are not funded, and this itself becomes 'evidence' the authorities don't attach much importance to the EndFGM message.

Accountability - national leaders pass the buck

Issues of propriety and governance about which groups of people receive formal funding to stop FGM are inevitable but not insurmountable.

Both local government and public health services are under serious threat, but they are ideally placed to manage on-the-ground FGM campaigns. These locally grounded organisations reach into the highest levels of national policy whilst also having excellent locality-specific intelligence, fully equipped to administer small funds for community action.

What's missing is political will at the pinnacle of government to determine strategies around FGM. 'Multi-agency' arrangements alone won't succeed.

Politicians at the top must take courage to determine very clearly how the UK's national bodies, the larger NGOs and the irreplaceable individuals and tiny groups at local level will share resourcing and responsibility to make FGM history.

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Holidays, not nightmares

As Qamar Naseem of Blue Veins in Pakistan reports,

'young British girls ... pack their best clothes and favourite treasures, excited at the thought of a long visit to see their relatives.... These little girls don't know that, when they arrive, the plan is for them to undergo female genital mutilation.'

EndFGM community activists in our communities must have support. They are uniquely placed to insist, 'no more'.

Hilary Burrage is the author of two books about FGM (see www.hilaryburrage.com)
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Little is known about what life - or death - is like for animals in British laboratories.

Last week the Home Office released their 2016 statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, a report that reveals a lot about the state of animal experiments in Great Britain, including the numbers of each species used, where they were bred, and ranks their suffering from 'mild' to 'severe'.

But far more information is withheld from the public than published. Specifically, we aren't told how animals are treated, and we aren't told for what exact purposes or products those animals were used and killed.

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For example, 1,700 procedures involved the testing of household product ingredients on animals last year. But we do not know what species were used, or how they were tested on. Or what products those ingredients may end up in.

We're told that over 18,000 procedures on guinea pigs last year were classed as 'non-recovery'. But what was done to those guinea pigs that was so invasive they were killed while under general anaesthetic? We will never know.

And 1,400 animals were used in higher education and training last year - but we can't link them to particular training purposes or methods.

It's all because of an archaic law that makes it a criminal offence to disclose this level of detail about animal experiments.

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Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 blocks access to information about animal experiments held by public authorities, even if the people or companies conducting the research have no objection to its disclosure. It's a legal exemption under the Freedom of Information Act.

Because of section 24, the Home Office does not release information they hold on methods for breeding, housing, transporting, feeding, training, testing or killing animals for licensed scientific procedures. It would be a criminal offence punishable by up to two years' imprisonment if disclosed.

As far back as 1999 various government committees have called for change, acknowledging conflict with the central principles of Freedom of Information. Finally in 2014 the Home Office conducted a public consultation on section 24. They received almost 5000 submissions from individuals, animal welfare groups and scientific bodies overwhelmingly calling for the clause to be repealed. But three years later the department has still not released an official response to the consultation.

What is taking them so long?

The Home Office has a mantra of 'openness and transparency' when it comes to animal experiments, recognising that the British public are deeply concerned about laboratory animals. So the fact this clause lingers on is mystifying.

It is in the interest of scientists and research organisations to be transparent about their use of animals - they want the public to understand why and how they use animals. Repealing section 24 would not enable disclosure of personal details, or information that may impact commercial interests of scientists. This would all be protected under the Freedom of Information Act. But even when they want details of what is done to the animals in their own laboratories shared, it is still a criminal offence to do so. Many institutions have even signed a Concordat on Openness on Animal Research to show support for increased transparency and communication, but this is limited by the legislation.

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The latest statistics show that 3.87 million animals were used in scientific procedures last year, and around 114 thousand procedures were rated as causing severe harm to the animals. We are expected to trust the Government authorities that approve these procedures. Perhaps that trust is justified - but don't we have a right to make up our own minds about that?

Thanks to a portfolio reshuffle, there's a new Home Office Minister of State with responsibility for animal experiments: Baroness Williams of Trafford. Will she be the one to begin the process of repealing section 24, so the British public can finally become fully informed about animal experiments?
Jokey attitudes about stalking are pervasive. The Spectator's 'Cartoon at Noon' published on Friday 14 July joked about stalking: "How do I get my stalker to lose interest in me", said one woman to another. "Marry him", the answer. Just one such example published by a high profile magazine with 110k followers - a publication that should know better. This was followed by Cosmopolitan's image in their magazine joking about stalking followed by an article in The Guardian about "stalking" ex's on Facebook - namely looking up to see what they were doing - which is not stalking.

Stalking is a pattern of unwanted fixated, obsessive behaviour, which is intrusive and causes fear of violence or serious alarm of distress. It became a criminal offence in 2012 following our successful All Party Parliamentary Stalking Law Reform campaign. The Parliamentary Inquiry heard from Tricia Bernal, mother of Clare who was stalked and murdered on September 5 2005 in Harvey Nichols. She was terrified and reported a threat to kill before she was murdered. John and Penny Clough, whose daughter Jane was also scared that she would be murdered by her stalker and refused to leave the house, such was her fear, was murdered after she returned to work from maternity leave nine months after she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was stabbed 71 times in the hospital car park where she worked.

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These are not isolated incidents either. There was a pattern of fixated, obsessive and intrusive behaviour before the murders. In fact, at least two women are stalked and murdered each week. Paladin, National Stalking Advocacy Service, the world's only trauma informed high-risk service for stalking, has assisted over two thousand victims following our launch in 2013. We well understand that 76% of murders happen on separation; 34% in the first month (Femicide Census 2016).

At Paladin we take all threats to harm and kill seriously, including an alarming increase in threats to throw acid at a victim, which has happened in 12% of our recent cases. We know that 1 in 2 of domestic stalkers, if they make a threat will act on it and it's 1 in 10 of non-intimate stalkers, if they make threat, will act on it. There is a critical window of opportunity to intervene and prevent what we call 'murders in slow motion' and we work hard to better protect victims and their children. Figures from the Crime Survey of England and Wales show at least one million are targeted by stalkers every year and not all of them have had a relationship with their stalkers.

Helen Pearson suffered 124 behaviours that she reported to Devon and Cornwall Police, including graffiti to her apartment and car, paint thrown at her property, threat letters, her windows being put in in the middle of the night, damage to her car and a dead cat being left on her door step across five years. The 125th call was her attempted murder, whereby she was grabbed on the way to the gym and stabbed multiple times by the stalker. A female intervened and saved her life. The stalker had asked her out and reacted to the rejection in this way. This could have happened to anyone, yet she was not believed or taken seriously.

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In fact, alarmingly, just 1% of stalking cases are being recorded by police, and the same proportion result in charges or prosecutions. While this rate has increased marginally in recent years, we believe the police service, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and agencies have much to learn. However, many people continue to make light of such serious, terrifying and damaging patterns of behaviour - until it happens to them or someone they know - and yet these links are not made and we continue to count dead women.

On August last year Shana Grice was murdered in the bedroom of her Brighton flat. Her ex boyfriend had been stalking her for months. He was obsessed with her and had placed a tracking device on her car. She was scared and reported him to police a number of times. However, police issued her with a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time. She was dead within four months.

Michael Lane had stalked 13 other girls before Shana. The Judge criticised Sussex police for jumping to conclusions. Mr Justice Green said "there was seemingly no appreciation on the part of those investigating that a young woman in a sexual relationship with a man could at one and the same time be vulnerable and at risk of serious harm."

Last October, 24-year-old Alice Ruggles was found dead in her home in Gateshead, having been fatally stabbed by former boyfriend Trimaan Dhillon. Dhillon, 26, had become obsessed with Alice, stalked and threatened her after she ended the relationship.

Justene Reece took her own life in February. Her ex was convicted of coercive control, six counts of stalking and manslaughter. We hear from victims who attempt suicide because the war of attrition becomes too great - battling the stalker, the system and these attitudes.

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These horrific cases are not isolated incidents - they were murders in slow motion and all referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. I am writing this two weeks after Paladin's first national best practice conference at Amnesty International HQ and when Alice's father, Clive, gave the opening address and said his daughter would still be alive if police took stalking seriously - you could hear a pin drop.

Last week stalking was back in the headlines as Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the CPS published their damning report highlighting that victims of stalking continue to be let down and placed further at risk.

Helen Pearson and I went on Good Morning Britain and spoke with Victoria Derbyshire at the BBC about what needs to change. We highlighted cultural shift was necessary and jokey attitudes must stop.

The Spectator cartoon serves to illustrate there is still much to do. At Paladin we strive to educate people including the media as well as train police, CPS and other agencies to identify the warning signs and use the law to protect victims. These jokey attitudes are damaging and harmful and have no place in society. Stalkers steal lives and take lives. Take stalking seriously.

Laura Richards

Founder and Director of Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service
2630ben via Getty Images

It's fair to say that most of us know that ivory comes from elephant tusks. But, even today, not everyone knows or appreciates that to get the ivory the elephant dies in a horrific way. Each year, at least 20,000 elephants are cruelly slaughtered just for their tusks, just so someone can own a little bit of ivory.

Here in the UK, the situation that many people find themselves in is that they may be an unwilling ivory owner. They may have a bit of dead elephant on their mantelpiece, maybe a bit of dead elephant in their jewellery box, maybe a bit of dead elephant in their hallway. And, maybe, they don't want it - they didn't buy it, or they bought it before they knew the true cause and effect of buying ivory. But now they're stuck with it - they don't want to sell it as they don't want to contribute to the trade or maybe because it was handed down to them and has some sentimental value, and after all, you can't really just throw ivory in the bin. And, you know what? That's completely fine.

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But now the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is helping resolve that very issue. IFAW has just launched a public ivory surrender, where members of the public keen to help protect elephants from further slaughter are being invited to surrender ivory that they own. Then IFAW will ensure it is professionally destroyed and taken out of circulation on their behalf. No longer will that ivory be able to be used to prop up the illegal market, no longer will it be at risk of being exported to fuel demand in Asia, no longer will it have a value, propping up the very false notion that ivory not attached to a magnificent elephant has any value whatsoever.

The surrender is all part of IFAW's fight against illegal wildlife crime. Only the other week IFAW saw first-hand the daily impact of poaching as our dedicated investigators led a dangerous sting operation, resulting in the arrests of three poachers in Malawi, and the recovery of two huge bull elephant tusks. The tusks measured over five feet in length and weighed 70 kilos, meaning that another 'big tusker' was no more. The story and images were widely reported in the press, but these successful missions are often too late for the elephants.

Closer to home, as well as surrendering ivory, the UK can play a much bigger role in the race against the clock to save the elephants. IFAW, along with many leading conservation organisations, is calling on the Government to put in place a total ivory ban in the UK. Right now, antique worked ivory or products containing ivory can be sold openly, without permits and without formal age certification. Whilst it may, to an extent, be possible to tell if ivory is old or new, there are many common ways to 'wash' new illegal ivory through these legal markets, such as false ageing or staining. The current law prohibits post 1947 ivory from being sold (without the relevant permits), but it is physically impossible to age ivory to the exact year without carbon dating, which is costly and time consuming. What's more, the law relies pretty much on the principle of 'buyer beware'.

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The 2015 Conservative Manifesto pledged to press for a total ban on ivory sales, but this vanished from this year's promises. But, out of sight didn't mean out of mind, with the UK public (95% according to IFAW surveys) not interested in buying antique ivory, and MPs themselves share the concerns, with a staggering 97% in support of a total ban or a ban with exemptions according to an IFAW/You Gov Poll. Just last week Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said at Foreign and Commonwealth Office Questions that "the Government have a commitment to an all-out ban on the sale of ivory in this country, and that is what we intend to pursue".

In the US and China we've now seen great headway in domestic ivory bans, as well as in France. Now the UK risks lagging behind, at a time when we've pitched ourselves as global leaders in this fight. In 2018 the UK hosts a significant global conference on tackling illegal wildlife crime. I know I won't be the only delegate not attending if the Government hasn't taken clear, tangible and positive steps towards doing all they can to end this barbaric slaughter.
Samantha Dawson

Often the first thing people ask me is how did it happen to me, how did I get HIV? I guess that's because HIV is often associated with sexuality, and I'm a heterosexual woman. But the answer is simple. Like most people with HIV, gay and straight; I had sex.

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I was diagnosed with HIV on 19th March 2008. I was in a relationship and we'd had unprotected sex. But he, like 1 in 7 people who are living with HIV, didn't know he had the virus.

I'd gone to the sexual health clinic because I had an STI and while I was there I was offered an HIV test. In my head I weighed up if I need one, as I thought my risk was low. But I decided to take one anyway.

I was diagnosed there and then. It was a total shock. I felt like a cloud floating around the room, unsure what to think and feel. My cousin had come with me to the clinic and when I told her she was screaming and wailing with shock and upset. She thought I'd been given a death sentence, as did I.

I told my husband who I was separated from, and he looked after me for three months. In that time I developed general anxiety disorder and an eating disorder. If you saw pictures of me from then and compared to now, you wouldn't recognise me. I hid myself behind sunglasses and a big hat.

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I was lucky with the support around me. My health adviser from the hospital where I was receiving my treatment even came with me to tell my mum and dad. I remember my mum saying 'god, she's going to die', because like me when I was first diagnosed, she thought I couldn't live well with HIV.

Three years after my diagnosis, I met other HIV positive women at a gathering in London, called Pozfem, after a support worker in Dorset convinced me to attend. This was a really big moment for me - to meet other women in the same position as me, and to share experiences.

After learning I was living with HIV, I didn't date for a while. I felt so unattractive. When you are feeling so unappealing you think you need approval from other people, and when I went after that I got knockbacks. Dating can be one of the hardest things for people living with HIV, simply because of the ignorance and stigma still surrounding our long term health condition.

I've faced a lot of stigma in healthcare settings, which often surprises people, but the lack of knowledge and out-dated beliefs around HIV means the wrong information is being passed on, and you are treated as a risk. Once a nurse threw medication into my room as she didn't want to come inside because she feared I might infect her. I've been asked by medical professionals countless times 'how did you catch HIV', 'do you use drugs', and 'are you a sex worker'?

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There is no reason to treat me any differently - because I can't pass on HIV. This is one of the main things people still can't believe and can't understand. I'm on effective HIV treatment so I can't pass it on. I, like tens of thousands of others who are living with HIV and on effective treatment, am uninfectious. This is because the treatment reduces the amount of the virus in our blood to such a low levels, 'undetectable' levels, that we no longer pass on the virus.

This is one of the biggest developments since the start of the HIV epidemic, yet people don't know it. It means people can have sex, relationships and children, with someone living with HIV, without becoming infected. For some it can sound a bit unreal - but it's true. And if everyone know this we could stop HIV stigma.

Five years after being diagnosed I started effective HIV treatment. When I started it wasn't all about not being able to pass it on, it was more about longevity of life and being healthy, as well as for me, feeling part of society and being more "normal" again. But now, following the findings of the pioneering PARTNER study last year - which looked at 58,000 instances of sex without a condom between couples where one was undetectable and one was HIV negative and found zero HIV transmissions - I have the confidence to say I'm healthy, living well and can't pass it on.

Today, 10 years after my diagnosis, I'm very open about my HIV status. All my family know, including my a daughter and son, as well as my two lovely grandchildren, even though they don't fully understand everything yet.

At the beginning I always did consider them first, and especially with my granddaughter who is going to be 13 this year. She coming to that age when they start talking about things. I've gone into schools to talk about HIV to 13 year olds, and I've seen them when they're nudging each other. I even had one boy who asked me if I'd had sex with a monkey. He did get asked to leave the assembly, but you can't blame him, because that's what he might have been told.

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Samantha (left) and friend.

But this also highlights the battle we're fighting against HIV stigma and ignorance. There is still a lot to do to bring public attitudes and awareness up to date with these medical advances.

Just last month, a Terrence Higgins Trust survey revealed that 40% of people would be uncomfortable going on a date with someone on effective HIV treatment, and shockingly only 9% of the public know that people on effective treatment can't pass on HIV.

We need to challenge stigma with science. HIV no longer has to prevent people living normal, happy and long lives, but we know that it does.

That's why I am backing Terrence Higgins Trust's Can't Pass It On campaign, which aims to bust stigma and help stop HIV transmissions. I want everyone to know, that Samantha Dawson, grandmother of two, is living well with HIV and can't pass it on.

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Mariana Guedes / EyeEm via Getty Images

The London Family Planning Summit held in London last week was heralded a major success. At least $2.5billion was committed for reproductive health services. New partners and countries signed up to the 2020 targets and the fundamental rights of women and girls was once again justly championed to a world which seems increasingly macho and cruel.

At the same time, four and a half thousand miles away on a Himalayan hillside, just a few valleys south of the Chinese border, the theory of change being espoused from London seemed a world away from the everyday lives of women and girls. As I spent time in remote villages listening to the experiences of teachers, village elders, mothers and young women, I struggled with the disconnect between the theory and practice. Even if I could speak Nepali, I realised I could not articulate any answers to the questions raging in my head.

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The previous week I had met with Giulia Vallese who oversees the gender-equality work the United Nations Population Fund is doing in Nepal. She outlined the challenge girls and women face in this country of beauty and brokenness. "Son preference is still prevalent in the country and sex ratio at birth in favour of boys is alarmingly higher than it should be." She explained, "Research shows that 48% of Nepali women have experienced gender-based violence with 61% of these women never telling anyone about it."

Two years on from the devastating earthquake which destroyed roads, homes, and thousands of lives across the country, the less audible, but equally terrifying rumblings and upheaval of poverty and prejudice are still finding their victims. As in other parts of the world, the victims are disproportionately women and girls.

I was in remote Nepal to see the work the charity I run is undertaking in re-building schools damaged by the earthquake two years ago. The human tragedy is well known with thousands of people killed. However, in terms of educational progress this earthquake was also a killer. In the Sindhupalchok district where we work with our partner the Helambu Education and Livelihoods Partnership (HELP) 470 of the 545 schools were destroyed. This is the region where we are working with local villagers in rebuilding 15 schools. By valuing their 'sweat equity' they are becoming equal partners with us and the government in the construction and ownership of these new schools. Furthermore, as we provide masonry training and make the building skills they need accessible, they are then able to use this new-found knowledge and skills as they set about the task of re-building their own more earthquake-resilient homes.

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However, we are not just building new schools. Working with our partners we are focusing on girls' education and in the Helambu Valley we have created a number of girls' hostels that allow them to board close by to secondary schools. This helps reduce the large number of girls in the region who abandon their education after primary level. The more support girls have to stay in education, the less vulnerable they are to child marriages, trafficking and the cycle of poverty that reduced education and early pregnancy perpetuates. With greater levels of education, girls and women will be empowered to live healthy, productive lives and to push for further progress within their own communities.

This support extends longer term and to date we have provided 264 scholarships to enable students to progress into tertiary education, for this is the precious 'window' for this type of intervention. As Giulia explained to me, 49% of Nepali women aged 20 to 49 were married before their 18th birthday, and 17% of girls age 15-19 are either pregnant or mothers, with rural teenagers getting pregnant earlier than girls in urban areas.

As I took a joyous photo of the hostel girls laughing, I reflected on the serious issue of what else was needed to help change a girl's life. Yes, building a hostel for 60 girls is significant, but in the same way the process of involving local people to build the schools helps transfer building skills, does involving local people to build the hostel help dismantle some of the local attitudes and practices and educate the wider community on the rights of women and girls? Changing hearts and minds is harder to measure than assessing newly acquired building skills, but we believe there is a correlation.

But there is more to do if we want to turn this safe hostel "fortress" into an amphitheatre of creative education and empowerment where the girls themselves are equipped to take the centre stage. One element which is often overlooked is to co-design an education and change programme amongst men and boys, for surely to answer the question "How do you change a girl's life?" involves tackling the underlying attitudes and beliefs of men who hold power, both at the local, national and indeed international level.

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This is where it gets personal. As a man myself, how do I work for gender equality? I may have been born in India and brought up in Nepal, I may feel informed because I have a 19-year-old daughter, I may make all the right liberal noises of an enlightened 'new' man (taking my wife's maiden name to join with mine when we got married), but do I really know and understand what it is like to be a girl growing up in Nepal today? Do I really comprehend the impact of gender inequality? Can our work be relevant to girls who are forced into early labour because of crushing family poverty? Am I able to really empathise with an adolescent girl who is excluded from her community at the time of her menstruation; who has to walk hours each day to and from school; who lives in fear of being forced into bonded labour in a foreign country? Of course I can't.

But if we are to end the inequality and violence against women we need to bring boys and male leaders into the conversation. Critically, those of us who are older also need to relinquish power and begin to trust both young men and women in imagining and working for change themselves in Nepal, but also here in the UK. If we will listen, they have something vital to say, as Olive Mackintosh-Lowe, a young woman volunteering with our charity here in London put it:

"Gender inequality is not limited to developing nations. Nor is it the preserve of middle-class white women. Discrimination against women and girls is pervasive. It is a worldwide issue and, as such, it is an issue that often needs to be tackled differently in each new context and culture. However, the one thing every society, every individual can do today to bring about change for women and girls is to educate men and boys. Teach them to be allies, not bystanders or perpetrators of gender inequality. Discrimination and violence against women is not a female affliction. It is very much a male issue."

Developing impactful education programmes involves helping those who hold power to both unlearn, and relearn what it means to be a girl. Yes, this is complex and as the commentators from the London Summit point out, we are all grappling to translate the theory to empower girls and provide sexual health care, into practical life-changing action on the ground. We can only do it through locally-led teams, who may not know all the answers to all the questions but know the people and come from the communities.

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Net Neutrality Central To The Streaming Economy, Heres Why

In the wake the recent flare-up of the net neutrality debate, we're take a close look at what net neutrality means for the streaming economy, and what effect Ajit Pais alterations would have on music streaming as we currently know it, both in the US and abroad.

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Guest post Tim Mulligan of Midia

The existential question of the digital era is net neutrality. Since the utopian days of 1989 when World Wide Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee first connected his colleagues via computers at CERN in Switzerland, the emerging interconnected world of academics and entrepreneurs has been engaged in an ongoing battle of the underlying principles of the infrastructure underpinning the internet. The fundamental question is one of equality of access for all users versus the costs of providing that access.

Net neutrality is the principle that ISP (Internet Service Provider)s should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites. Despite contrary public perceptions, the internet is not free and there are direct costs involved in building, maintaining and delivering data to the end user. Short of government delivery of the internet, there needs to be a viable commercial model. Internet Service Providers are facing increasing strains upon their business models and agitating for the issue to be legally re-examined. This week, the debate flared back into life with yesterdays Net Neutrality Day organised by such tech stalwarts as Google, Facebook, Netflix and Twitter. The action is in direct response to the new Federal Communication Chairman Ajit Pais preference for taking the ISPs position on treating broadband access in the same way that Cable TV is provided-through bundles of content packages. In an April speech the Trump administration appointee stated:

Its basic economics. The more heavily you regulate something, the less of it youre likely to get, he said in a speech at the Newseum in Washington in April.

Net Neutrality Day was therefore a day of organised protest by the tech majors and 80,000 participating websites in a concerted effort to mobilise US consumers to lobby their elected representatives against what seems like an irresistible push by the Trump administration to end the era of net neutrality.

Net Neutrality Underpins The Streaming Economy

As we transition from an ownership model to an access model, where consumers prefer on-demand rental access to content and services rather than buying to own, streaming is becoming central to the digital economy. The streaming giants of Netflix and Spotify have built their businesses around servicing and fuelling demand for this type of consumption behaviour. The result is an explosion in data consumption by consumers which the ISPs have to service rather than the streaming services. Effectively, the ISPs are currently subsidising the streaming services business models.

The challenge for regulators is how to ensure that the ISPs are allowed to maintain their profit margins while at the same time allowing unhindered access to both sites and potential customers for emerging streaming competitors looking to challenge the major streaming providers. Additionally established streaming services have to re-evaluate both their pricing models and their engagement strategies with the ISPs. The January purchase of a 33% stake in Jay-Zs streaming service Tidal by the fourth largest US Telco Sprint was followed by last months rollout of a 6 month complimentary Tidal subscription for new Sprint customers. Sprints takeover target T-Mobile USA, which is the USs third largest Telco provider already, offers a Binge On service premium data package. This provides zero-rating (ie the data used does not count against the users monthly data allowance) for Spotify, Netflix, Tidal, Apple Music and more and received an FCC validation that was within the spirit of the existing regulatory system. This would subsequently not penalise non-users.

The Next Billion Will Be Brought On Board By Zero Rating

So far the debate on net neutrality is revolving around the US market place. However, it is in countries such as India where the drive to bring on board the next billion internet users comes against the practical inability of consumers to pay for metered data plans. Ironically considering its support for yesterdays Net Neutrality Day, Facebook actually proposed a zero rating package called Free Basics with Indian Telco Reliance Telecom for its platform which was promptly blocked by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Yesterdays protest was the latest round of positioning in what is becoming a defining debate for the future of the digital economy.

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Update July 18, 2017: The body discovered Monday afternoon on Mount Greylock has been identified as Kurt Kruger of Great Barrington.

Kruger's death is not considered suspicious, according to a statement from the Berkshire district attorney's office.

His was discovered by a pair of hikers on the Cheshire Harbor Trail about a mile from the summit of Mount Greylock at about 3:30 p.m. Kruger's body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Holyoke where an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

Kruger was a furniture maker and poet, whose work often appeared in the Berkshire Edge.

The investigation was conducted by state police detectives assigned to district attorney's office with assistance from the Crime Scene Services Section, troopers assigned to the Cheshire barracks, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Berkshire Mountain Search and Rescue, the Adams Forest Wardens, the Cheshire Fire Department and Adams Ambulance Service.
The Finance Committee will ask the Board of Selectmen to draft a letter to state Sen. Adam Hinds explaining the town's desire to change the health care split.

Lanesborough FinCom Looks to State For Help With Retiree Health Care

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.  With support from the last election, Finance Committee Chairman Ray Jones is now calling on the state Legislature to allow the town to increase the percentage retirees pay for health insurance.

Jones had requested a ballot question on the town election to "change the health insurance premium contribution rate for eligible town retirees from town's share 85 percent and retirees' share 15 percent to town's share 70 percent and retirees share 30 percent."

The non-binding questioned was approved by voters at the election by a 138-71 margin  which with 2,286 total registered voters translates to about 6 percent of townspeople voting in favor of the change.

The question faced challenges immediately. First of all, the state has a moratorium in place on such changes and that has been in place for a number of years. And secondly, the Board of Selectmen is the authorizing authority and because two members on the current board have conflicts of interest preventing them from voting on it.

"Now we, the town, has spoken. I'm trying to figure out what to do next, tell our representatives this is what the town would like to do, and other towns can start talking about it," Jones said.

In 2011, cities and towns were given the authority to increase retiree health insurance splits without collective bargaining. But soon after a moratorium was put in place on that section. Since then the moratorium has repeatedly been renewed.

Last year, Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the renewal of the moratorium, but the Legislature overrode that, preventing towns from being able to unilaterally make the shift on its own.

"A year ago, the governor vetoed it but they overrode that veto. They keep kicking the can down the road," Finance Committee member Stephen Wentworth said.

Locally, town officials had expressed on multiple occasions the desire to change the split but have been hamstrung. Jones has since taken the lead in trying to change the state law to make it happen. That started with the ballot question placed on the annual town election.

"We are just following through with what the voters said," Jones said.

The next steps are twofold: ask the Legislature to both lift the moratorium and create a way to allow the local board to do it. Two members of the Board of Selectmen  Henry "Hank" Sayers and John Goerlach  have conflicts of interest in voting on it. Sayers has a family member employed by the town and Goerlach used to work for the town. Both of them have voiced in favor of making the move, which would be against their interests, but neither can vote on it.

"They are voting against their interest and they are not allowed to do that. You would think that would be an exemption but ethics is a very pure part of the MGL. They don't like to make exceptions," Sieloff said.

Finance Committee member Ronald Tinkham suggested in contacting legislators, to ask for provisions such as allowing town meeting to approve such a change be included in the law.

"I would like to see, at a minimum, we draft a letter to state legislators identifying the problem the town has related to how it can be voted, that we are a small community and our Selectmen are in a conflict to meet the qualifications of the law. There should be an option in there for another way to vote it," Tinkham said.

The Finance Committee agreed to take the issue to the Board of Selectmen's next meeting and ask it to craft the letter to state Sen. Adam Hinds explaining the situation.

Sieloff, however, doesn't feel the town will have much luck persuading the Legislature to make a change. The moratorium expires in July 2018 and he doesn't expect many in the State House will be looking to make such a change before then.

"These type of proposals are less popular on the eastern shore of Massachusetts. Out here, we always try to look for alternatives for things," Sieloff said. "With health insurance, there is a lot of resistance there and to some degree, we are a much smaller part of the state. I don't have an answer going forward, frankly."

He said his focus is on controlling the things he can. He said he's been trying to hire more part-time positions, and encouraging the schools to do the same, to lower health insurance costs overall.

Nearly all local towns have voiced concern with the rising cost of health insurance, though different communities suggest different ways to go about solving it. State lawmakers have been slowly implementing changes in hopes to bring those costs down, efforts that have been ongoing for years, but the premiums continue to be a struggle for cities and towns in Berkshire County.
Some 122 voters attended the special town meeting, approving the Cheshire's share of the regional school budget by a margin of 48 votes. Some members of the Advisory Board encouraged rejecting the budget as a way to gain leverage; the Selectmen warned that a failed budget would affect the town's ability to function. PreviousNext

Cheshire Passes School District Budget by Comfortable Margin



Superintendent Robert Putnam explains to the special town meeting what could happen if the state takes over the school district. CHESHIRE, Mass.  Cheshire voters on Monday agreed to fund the regional school budget, ending weeks of mounting anxieties over the consequences of not having a school budget in place.

The second time was the charm at Monday's special town meeting, scheduled solely to vote on the town's $3.1 million assessment to the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District.

The assessment passed 85-37 vote, ensuring the $19.2 million fiscal 2017 budget for the regional school district.

Town meeting agreed to take the vote by secret ballot so that people would not feel pushed to take a side in what has been an emotional debate.

"I want Adams-Cheshire to provide the best education that we can and the additional positions this budget allows us to have will improve education, and I believe the reorganizing of the district ... is also going to allow us to provide a better education," Superintendent Robert Putnam said. "This is the best way we can meet the needs of all of the kids."

Monday's meeting was a rehash of June's nearly three-hour town meeting during which a majority of the more than 200 voters in attendance rejected a school budget that reflected the closing of Cheshire Elementary School.

Although only 122 people attended the Monday's meeting, it still ran an hour and a half.

The budget passed by a comfortable margin, but did not sail through without opposition.

Advisory Committee member E. Richard Scholz suggested rejecting the budget and letting the state take over the school district.

"They will set a budget at which time we would all have an opportunity to provide input to them about what is important to us," he said. "I would like to see a larger budget and there is no way we are going to get a larger budget this year unless this one gets voted down."

If the budget did not pass Monday night, a districtwide vote with all eligible voters in both communities would be held. If a budget still was not in place by December, the state would take over the district.

Advisory Board member Justin Kruszyna said rejecting the budget may give Cheshire more leverage against the larger Adams.

"I am tired of seeing Adams control the budget and being at their mercy," he said. "I think there is more that we can do as a town and we need to move forward as a community. We need our independence back we don't need to be told what to do by another town."

Putnam said the state takes fiscal control over the district and only aims to make it fiscally sustainable until the communities can come to an agreement. He said the commissioner of education must sign off on any fiscal operation and can take any action to create fiscal sustainability.

He said they will not change the district agreement or significantly change the district in the ways the Advisory Board suggested.

"It's not warm and fuzzy ... what they want to do is to make sure the school district is functioning but they aren't going to reach in and tell people how to run their schools."

Paul Astorino, a former selectman, said Advisory Board members and other residents should stop gambling with the children's education.

"We are here to try to provide an education to the kids and this will tie the school's hands," he said. "You can't straighten out this mess in one year and you are going to make the children suffer while you guys hammer out how the hell we are going to get even with Adams. You're nuts."

Selectwoman Carol Francesconi added that not passing a budget Monday would not only hurt students but the town. Without a complete budget in place, the town cannot set a tax rate.

"I was as upset as anyone else with the closing of Cheshire School ... but if this is not passed we cannot send out a tax bill," she said. "We will not have the money that we usually have accumulated from tax revenue and we may have to borrow money and that could cause a great deal of trouble."

Much of the arguments on Monday were reiterations of discussions that took place at prior meetings, however, it was asked if there was a definite number of kids leaving the district.

Putnam said the current number is around 30 but this number will not be known for sure until school starts.

School Committee member Darlene Rodowicz added that this equals about $5,000 per student and that school oficials have programmed this possible reduction in the budget.

It was also asked what the town plans to do if the budget moves forward.

Francesconi said the town plans to reopen the district agreement, meet with Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and possibly reach out to other school districts within the region.
An illustration of a proposed accessory structure on Veazie Street for the Porches Inn. The proposal still has to go through the Planning Board. The new building would be set back enough to allow a full sidewalk along that 26 feet. PreviousNext

North Adams ZBA Approves Special Permit for Porches Project



The ZBA approved waivers for the Porches and a variance for a resident seeking to install a carport. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Porches Inn was given a special permit and waivers that will allow it to begin the process for a new building on Veazie Street.

Attorney Jeffrey Grandchamp of Grinnell Partners LLC, representing the inn, said two of the structures  10 and 18-20 Veazie  would be demolished to make way for a standalone building largely for use as a breakfast or gathering location.

"The building itself is not going to be for public use," he told the Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday. "It's only going to be for Porches guests and their invitees, and it will not have a kitchen."

There are about 47 rooms in the connected duplexes along River Street that makeup the inn, and a smaller structure in the back. Grandchamp said there is no space that can accommodate guests for breakfast.

The proposed structure is a single story oriented inward toward the hotel with a large open area with tables, an accessible bathroom, and a back area set up for serving foods. There is, however, no kitchen so food would have to be generally prepared offsite.

It will also have a basement accessible by stairs and elevator with more bathrooms, mechanicals and storage areas. It will not be rented out or open to the general public.

Grandchamp said the immediate neighbors had reviewed the plans and did not have any issues with them.

"They're in favor of the project," he said. "They said traffic would not be a concern because there's always a lot of traffic on Veazie Street and they'e interested in seeing that portion improved."

One concern was pushing the building too far back off the street, considering the structures being taken down are at or on the sidewalk. Instead, the new structure will be setback about 4 to 5 feet from the sidewalk to make it more in line with the existing buildings, including inn property to its south, and keep it from looking too much "like a commercial venture," Grandchamp said.

Francis "Biggs" Waterman, of Waterman Construction, the general manager for the project, said the sidewalk would be improved in that area.

"The idea is internally to sort of bring some exciting architecture within the scope of what's going on in North Adams but at the same time try to incorporate some traditional architectural features from the streetscape, so the neighbors feel like it's a building that belongs there," Grandchamp said.

The inn, operating as Berkshire Hills Development Co. LLC, had recently been granted a change in zoning for the four Veazie Street parcels that are adjacent its River Street property. The Planning Board and City Council approved the change from residential to commercial, allowing use of the properties.

The ZBA, with board members Ross Jacobs and Peter Milanesi absent, questioned the parking situation, should a guest possibly hold a reception of some type.

Waterman said there are spaces for parking at the public lot at the corner of River and Houghton and on the street. Grandchamp noted that hotel parking lots are rarely full during the day since most guests are out doing things; only in the evening and the morning would it be full.

Waterman, who also worked on the Porches when it was built, said they had been tracking the parking and been in regular contact with police about ticketing or violations. There had been no issues, he said.

The ZBA approved the special permit as well as two waivers related to off-street parking at the hotel. The first was to approve the 58 parking spots at the hotel to bring it into compliance, the second was to waive a requirement for additional spots for the new building.

When the hotel was built, the first pass was that it needed 139 parking spots; that was whittled down to 71 based on 52 rooms, employee spaces and a proposed public fitness center. Instead, the final tally was 47 rooms, no public fitness center, with a calculation of one space per room, one employee space for every 10 rooms, and six spots for the three apartments for the building at the corner of River and Veazie.

The total is 58, which the hotel has now.

The idea, said Grandchamp, is to set a precedent with the calculation should any future changes occur. He also said the site plan review would next go before the Planning Board.

In other business, the board approved a side yard variance for Ronald Mahar of 68 George Ave. to install a carport in a residential zone within the 10-foot setback. The yard runs alongside a paper road where the Mahars have been regularly parking a vehicle.




Haiti - DR : 3 Haitians die drowned while fleeing police patrol





Saturday, four undocumented Haitians died after jumping into an irrigation canal in Santa Cruz (Montecristi) while trying to escape a police patrol that was chasing the motorcycle taxi that carried them. A Haitian witness of the drama said he saw from afar around 4:00 in the afternoon his compatriots get off the bike and jump into the canal.



On Sunday, three bodies were found and authorities are continuing investigations assuming that there is another drowned Haitian whose body has not yet been found. The medical examiner confirmed the death by drowning.



The driver of the motorcycle fled, but Johanna Bejaran, Montecristi's prosecutor said Monday that he had been identified and located him, announcing his imminent arrest.



The victims lived in the community of Ounaminthe, Haiti and were transported on a motorcycle by a migrant trafficker.



SL/ iciHaiti


















The Monday night collapse of Mitch McConnells Better Care Reconciliation Act has many causes, but the least discussed, and most important, is this: Obamacare is working, and thats why the Republican replacement effort is failing.We have gotten used to discussing the Affordable Care Act mainly in terms of its problems, and those problems are real. There are pockets of the country in which it is working poorly. Deductibles are too high, and premiums are volatile. The Trump administration has worked hard to sabotage the insurance exchanges and drive insurers out of the marketplaces.But focusing on the problems obscures the overwhelming reality: The Affordable Care is popular, it is working, and on every dimension that voters care about, it outperforms the Republican alternatives. And that makes it damn hard to replace.It far outperforms the Republican replacement plans: A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found voters prefer Obamacare to the Republican health bill by a 2-to-1 margin  50 to 24 percent. You rarely see numbers like that in American politics.These numbers are strange if you listen to Republicans describe the Affordable Care Act. In their telling, it is always imploding, failing, dying, disastrous. How can a law in such crisis command such healthy public support? The answer is that the law is, for the most part, not in crisis. There are areas of the country where the exchanges have struggled to attract insurers, and there are markets in which premiums have increased rapidly. These problems are real and, if the party in power were interested in improving the law, solvable.But even without improvements, the reality is that for most people, in most places, the Affordable Care Act is working. The bulk of its coverage expansion has been through Medicaid, which is immune to the problems of the insurance marketplaces. Surveys find that Medicaid enrollees really like their coverage; theyre just as satisfied as people who get health insurance at work. Indeed, the Medicaid expansion has proven so popular, and so effective, that Senate Republicans from Medicaid-expanding states like Ohio and Nevada have been fighting to preserve it.Nor are the exchanges in anything close to a state of collapse. More than 10 million people are buying insurance off Obamacares exchanges, and surveys show most of them are happy with their plans. While there are some counties at risk of beginning 2018 without participating insurers, the total number is quite small  38 out of 3,143 counties, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.Nor has the Affordable Care Act seen exploding costs either in the program or in the health care system more broadly; the ACA has cost less than the Congressional Budget Office expected, and spending growth in the health system overall has been at historic lows (an achievement for which Obamacare deserves some, though not all, of the credit). Cost control in the health system has been so unexpectedly effective that the government is now projected to spend less on health care with Obamacare than we were projected to spend without Obamacare.This is the reality that Republicans are flinging their repeal effort against  and it is a reality that their plans mostly worsen. According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 10 years, 23 million fewer people would have insurance if the House health bill passed, 22 million fewer people would have insurance if the Senate health bill passed, and 32 million fewer people would have insurance if the 2015 repeal bill  which McConnell now wants to bring to a vote  passed.Obamacares biggest problem is the high cost sharing that frustrates those who buy coverage on the marketplaces. But all of the Republican bills would lead to higher deductibles, higher copays, sparer insurance, and, on an apples-to-apples basis, higher premiums. The reasons for this are simple: The GOP bills cancel the individual mandate, which pushes young and healthy people to buy health insurance, and then take hundreds of billions of dollars Obamacare is currently spending to make insurance more affordable and spend it instead on tax cuts and deficit reduction.If the Affordable Care Act were truly as bad as Republicans say it is, it would be easier to replace. Hell, if it were as bad as they say it is, straight repeal would be an improvement  but even conservative Republicans dont dare discuss repeal without some kind of vague, wonderful replacement.The most concise description of GOP health policy thinking was President Donald Trumps promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something terrific. But every time Republicans offer up an actual replacement, it dramatically, embarrassingly underperforms the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have spent years complaining that the Affordable Care Act covers too few people with insurance that costs too much and covers too little. But they have not managed to come up with a replacement that covers even as many people with insurance that costs less.Could the American health care system be better than it is today? Of course. But it could also be much worse. And so far, much worse is what Republicans have offered. The reality is that Obamacare took many of their best ideas on health care, the GOP remains divided on what its health care policies are even meant to achieve, and the result has been a disastrous process that has created appallingly cruel and unworkable legislation.But make no mistake: The Republican failure to craft an effective replacement for Obamacare isnt an accident. Its a function of the fact that Obamacare is largely working, and Republicans who spent years persuading themselves and their base its a catastrophic failure are now slamming into that reality.
MAKS 2017, the biennial Russian air show opened for business today in Zhukovsky near Moscow, hosting President Vladimir Putin as the guest of honor. Customary to Russian aerospace and defense shows, Putin and other senior delegations visited a special display reserved only for VIPs, where they could see some of the latest military products currently in development. Other guests were impressed with over a hundred aircraft at the static park and on the flight display.

Several Russias Sukhoi T-50 5th Generation fighter planes arrived at Zhukovsky for MAKS, but were not shown on the static display. Two participated in the flight display though. Currently undergoing flight testing the T-50 (PAK FA) is expected to finish the first phase of tests in December, Russian Aerospace Forces Commander Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said on the show. The aircraft currently flies with two Saturn 117S (AL-41F1S) engines, which also powers the Su-35S. This is a temporary fit. Next year the new stealth fighter will get a new type of engine expected to improve its available power, fuel consumption, and reduce heat signature. Among the unique capabilities of the T-50 are super maneuverability and supercruise, enabling the aircraft to fly faster and outmaneuver its adversaries in close air combat. Equipped with distributed multi-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and virtual co-pilot, the T-50 is operated by a single pilot, yet provides a superior capability in both in air-to-air and air-to-ground operation, over current two-seaters. The aircraft has four internal weapon bays maintaining the aircraft low-observable characteristic while carrying combat loads. Six external hardpoints can also be used to maximize combat load when stealth is not mandatory.

MAKS is mainly a Russian show, featuring over 500 companies from Russia and about 150 from foreign countries. Despite the sanctions imposed by the West, European countries are the largest exhibitors here, represented by almost 100 companies from France, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Italy. 10 US companies also participated. Other large exhibitors were Iran (16), China (10) and Belarus (10). The main military oriented exhibits featured Russian products developed for Russian customers and export. While European exhibitors displayed hardware for space, commercial and general aviation, China and Iran also featured military hardware, particularly such products designed to complement, replace or augment Russian equipment.

This years event highlights many systems recently used in combat in the Middle East, combat aircraft, helicopters, aerial weapons, and countermeasures, unmanned systems, payloads, missiles and air defense systems. Among the advanced systems employed in Syria in recent months were the Su-30 fighter and Su-32 strike fighter, attack helicopters including the Mi-28 and Ka-52 and assault helicopters, among them the latest models of Mi-17 fitted with electronic warfare and missile countermeasures. While all these models were on display in previous events, this year the exhibitors are more open to discuss their successful employment in combat.

Aviation export accounts for the lions share in our export, said Rosoboronexport director general Sergey Ladygin. The Russian arms exporter recorded aircraft sales worth US$2 billion in the first half of 2017, and, according to Ladygin, new orders expected to be promoted here at the show will add to our backlog, paving the way for future deliveries. Rosoboronexport expects to sign at least 10 contracts and cooperation agreements during MAKS 2017 this week, with foreign governments, companies, and Russian equipment manufacturers.

Another successful program is the Yak-130 advanced trainer. Last month the aircraft manufacturer Irkut announced it delivered 80 such combat trainers since it was first delivered to training units in Russia in 2013. Yak-130 provides performance level similar to modern fighters at a subsonic flight speed, thus improving pilots training for 4+ and 5 generation aircraft.

The company expects delegations from 50 countries at its booth. The main attractions are expected to be the combat proven Su-30, Mi-28NE, and Ka-52 helicopters, Mi-35M, Mi-17, Mi-26T2, as well as the brand new Su-35 and MiG-29M/M2. Air defense systems are also drawing much interest; The S-400 SAM and Pantsir S1 gun-missile system received special interest here, following their recent combat deployment to Syria. The S-400 is becoming a hot export item, with its reported selection by India and Turkey. Other air defense systems highlighted here are Tor M2E, BuK-M2E. Our specialists prepared presentations including clips and data attesting to successful operations of the Russian combat aviation in real combat fighting terrorists in Syria, Ladygin noted.

The Russian airshow featured many unmanned systems from domestic and foreign makers, reflecting their growing role in recent conflicts. Drone countermeasures of different types were also on display, addressing the growing concern of the imminent threat such systems pose on the battlefield and for homeland security.

The war in the Middle East provides an important sales opportunity not only for the Russian arms exporters but also to the Iranians. Iran showcases here its locally developed drones, and weapons designed for use by drones and small helicopters. Of particular interest are unmanned aerial vehicles and associated weapon systems specially designed for them. Among the systems on display at the Iranian pavilion was the Yasir drone  this drone is likely based on a Boeing ScanEagle. Few such drones were lost over the Persian Gulf since 2010, some were recovered by the Iranians and were likely reverse-engineered to become the Yasir. Iran hasnt kept all the technology for itself  in 2013 they delivered one of the captured Scan Eagles to Russia for technical evaluation.

Iran also displayed the new Sadid guided weapon, designed for use with unmanned aerial vehicles and small aircraft. Sadid is a family of seven small precision bombs and missiles sharing some components. The smallest weapon of this family is Sadid-L which carry a five-kilogram warhead to a range of four kilometers. Sadid-345 smart bomb is designed for use on tactical UAVs, such as the Shahed 129. Both were extensively used in Syria.

Iran displayed the new Sadid guided weapon, designed for use with unmanned aerial vehicles and small aircraft. Sadid is a family of seven small precision bombs and missiles sharing some components. The smallest weapon of this family is Sadid-L which carry a five-kilogram warhead to a range of four kilometers. Sadid-345 smart bomb is designed for use on tactical UAVs, such as the Shahed 129. Both were extensively used in Syria.

The weapon can glide to a distance of about six kilometers to strike small targets with high precision. The largest variant in the Sadid family is Model-636, a guided bomb with a warhead weighing 20 kilograms.
DEVELOPING INDIANA'S WORKFORCE FOR THE JOBS OF TOMORROW Click here for Skill UP Round 3 winners.

Click here for the Skill UP 3 Guidelines, Budget Form and Outcomes Worksheet.

Click here to watch the 10/10 Skill UP 3 Applicant Webinar.

Click here for a map and here for a list of all Skill UP 3 applicants.

Click here for a list of Talent Supply Chain Feedback Sessions.

Click here for the Skill UP Round 3 Webinar Presentation. For more information and questions, please contact Bryon Silk, Executive Director of Business Services, Indiana Department of Workforce Development, BSilk@dwd.IN.gov.



THE CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY

Over the next decade Indiana will need to fill more than 1 million jobs. Of those million jobs, more than a third will be new or growth occupations within the state. As the nature of work continues to change at an accelerated pace, the workforce will need new skills to meet the challenge at all levels of education. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 job openings per year will require an industry-recognized certificate/certification in addition to a high school diploma. Approximately 13,500 certificates are earned annually in Indiana in either high school or post-secondary, but only 9,200 of these certificates are in high-demand, high-wage (HDHW) fields. DWD has identified more than 100 occupations which align with many of these opportunities.

Building on this, DWD is offering Skill Up grant funding during the next biennium to support Innovation Networks. Innovation Networks are centered around employers, educators, economic and workforce development partners, as well as other critical community partners in order to skill up students, adults, and incumbent workers within a regional labor market. Innovation Networks improve alignment of future (projected) employer demand and current and future workforce (talent) supply. These networks are data driven, focusing on the 109 In Demand Occupations outlined on Indianas Regional Labor Market Dashboard, or possible emerging occupations applicable to the area, and focus on designing effective strategies to ensure that Indiana communities have a strong talent pipeline.

THE VISION

Create a series of Innovation Networks throughout Indiana driven by the needs of employers. Innovation Networks are partnerships among local employers, educators, community organizations, workforce and economic development partners, and others all working in collaboration to align community education resources (K-12, career and technical education, adult education, higher education, and incumbent worker training programs) with the skill and talent needs of the areas industries. These include education and training providers committed to leveraging shared resources, teaching against the same set of skills and competencies, and serving all Hoosiers (including secondary students, post-secondary students, adult education students, and incumbent workers), while avoiding duplication of efforts and fostering collaboration around this work.

Click here for Round 1 and Round 2 information.
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a beloved writer celebrating a notable anniversary must be in want of a news feature.

But where to begin with Jane Austen? Died 200 years ago today, aged just 41; author of six major novels (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Emma and Persuasion); combined Regency grace with biting social commentary; insanely popular the world over to this very day.

Why should we care, though, about this Oxford-educated daughter of a rector, swanning around in her long frocks and bonnets? What relevance does all this old literature have on our lives today? What, indeed, has Jane Austen ever done for us?

Shes on the new 10 note, which is released into the wild by the Bank of England today, the anniversary of her death, though its likely to be another couple of months before the new polymer tenner finds its way into your purse. Since Winston Churchill replaced Elizabeth Fry on the fiver, it means that Jane Austen  accompanied by a quote from Pride and Prejudice, I declare after all there is no enjoyment but reading!  will be the only woman apart from the Queen currently on British legal tender.

You think that picture of Beyonce posing with her twins looked maybe too good to be true for a woman who gave birth a month ago? Well, theres been a bit of a row after Jane Austens picture was airbrushed to make her look better on the aforementioned tenner. Its based on a painting done after Austens death; the original sketch for it, by her sister Cassandra, showed Austen with bags under her eyes and plump cheeks, prompting TV historian Lucy Worsley to say when it was unveiled: It's deeply ironic that the image chosen by the Bank of England isn't really her ... It's an author publicity portrait after she died in which she's been given the Georgian equivalent of an airbrushing.

If you wake up every day thanking Jane Austen for the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which saw Colin Firth as Mr Darcy striding from the lake with his shirt plastered to his chest, then think again. The famous scene wasnt even in the book. Though its entirely possible Austen would have written it in if shed known that Colin Firth was going to do that.

Colin Firth in the 1995 film version of Pride and Prejudice (Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock)

We can thank Austen for Bridget Jones, though. Helen Fieldings series of books following the lives of London singletons, adapted for the big screen starring Renee Zellweger. Bridget Joness Diary mirrored the plot of Pride and Prejudice, even to the point of having love interest Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth, while the second outing, Edge of Reason, loosely followed Persuasion. It is unknown how many calories, units of alcohol and Marlborough Lights Jane Austen consumed on a daily basis.

Austen's work has been adapted into a plethora of TV series and films. The first version of Pride and Prejudice was made in 1938, starring Curigwen Lewis as Elizabeth Bennet; that role in the latest production, in 2005, went to Keira Knightley. There were nine other adaptations in between. Between 1948 and 2009 six actors took the title role in Emma: Judy Campbell, Diana Fairfax, Doran Godwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale and Romola Garai.

And that's not counting the loose adaptations. The 1995 romcom Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, is actually considered a successful adaptation of Emma by Austen scholars, mainly because of the voiceover technique, which director Amy Heckerling employed to mirror Austens omniscient narrative voice in the books. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was released last year and based on Seth Grahame-Smiths 2009 novel which took the original text of the book and inserted scenes of the Bennet sisters kicking undead ass.

Jane Austen was a feminist. Or maybe not. The Scottish Book Trust asked the question of a pair of Austenite members a couple of years ago and got some very different answers. No, said Brianne Moore: she did create some very spirited and strong female characters who many argue made their own decisions in life, rather than adhering simply to what society expected of them  after all, didnt Lizzy Bennet turn down Mr Collins? But the thing is, those characters inevitably wound up fitting into exactly the mould their patriarchal society expected them to: they all married wealthy men of position, and took their places as good wives. Yes, said Leila Cruickshank: Austen lived in a time when the very notion that women could hold rational opinions and manage their own affairs was highly controversial, and while Austen is certainly not a radical in the sense that Mary Wollstonecraft is, she repeatedly demonstrates that women who are slaves to emotion, or who follow the dictates of social expectations over their own intelligence, cannot thrive.

She certainly knew how to throw some Regency shade, especially at her fellow writers. In 1816, the year before she died, Austen wrote a piece entitled Plan Of A Novel According To Hints From Various Quarters (her knack for a catchy, movie poster-friendly title seems to have deserted her by this point). She parodied the things in then contemporary literature, such as pretty-pretty perfect heroines, which she admitted admitted made her sick and wicked. She also railed against anything she thought not a natural depiction of real life.

Renee Zellweger starred in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, which mirrored the plot of Pride and Prejudice (Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock)

Speaking of sick and wicked, Austen was a bit of a ladette in her younger years. At least in her writing. A bit biting of the landowning culture that surrounded her the novels might well have been, but they still revolved around the buttoned-down society where a good marriage was the true goal. But you should take a look at the stuff she committed to paper when she was in her teens. In three surviving notebooks held by the British Library, Austen documents  according to Kathryn Sutherland, a professor of English at Oxford  the often absurd adventures of confident, wilful, even rebellious young women in a series of exuberantly expressionistic tales of sexual misdemeanour, of female drunkenness and violence.

We might have had a seventh Jane Austen novel had she not become very ill, beginning in 1816. By the time of her death in July 1817 she had part-written a novel called Sanditon, completing 12 chapters of the book, around 23,000 words. It was meant to satirise the newish fad for going to the seaside for the rejuvenating properties of seawater, and focused on the attempts of a businessman to transform a sleepy village, the Sanditon of the title, into a Brighton-esque health spa. She stopped writing it due to ill health in March, four months before she died.

Jane Austen died of poisoning, if the latest theory surround her death is to be believed. The casue of her death at the age of 41 is not well-documented. The prevailing wisdom is that it was tuberculosis or possibly even cancer. But earlier this year the British Library had tests carried out on three surviving pairs of spectacles owned by the writer. The three pairs of glasses had varying levels of lens-strength, suggesting Austen might have suffered from cataracts. One cause of cataracts is known to be arsenic poisoning. Accidental, in this case, suggests the British Library, but backing up a theory put forward in 2011 by the crime writer Lindsay Ashford.

However Jane Austen died, she left us a fine crop of classics, and has earned her place in the highest pantheon of writers as well as on the 10 note. She was funny, shrewd and caustic and we owe her a lot. And if you havent yet had the pleasure of her books, well, Ill leave you with her own words voiced by Mr Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey: The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
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It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when there was no such thing as a cheeky Nandos, and the options for so-called "exotic" food on the British high street largely boiled down to a Chinese and Indian takeaways or a kebab.

Now, Nandos and other restaurants serving chicken seasoned with hot peri-peri spices, a bowl of tangy slaw and peppery chips for less than a tenner have been adopted into our melting pot of food culture. There are around 340 Nando's stores in the UK: a third of the world's total.

So, how did this fiery chicken graudally take over our palettes, and where did it come from in the first place?

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Nandos opened its first UK restaurant in Ealing in 1992. "Any move into a new country is a risky move in some ways, but we were confident our peri-peri chicken would go down well in the UK with its combination of heat and flavour, a spokesperson for Nando's told The Independent. Peri-peri chicken entered the British market at a time when fast-casual dining exploded against a consumer backlash directed against McDonalds, explains George Shaw, a food journalist and a judge on the Asian Curry Awards.

By that time, British taste buds had already become accustomed to spices, heat and a variety of flavours thanks to South Asian food. Unfortunately, adds Shaw, the mainly Bangladeshi curry houses across the country are now struggling to keep up with the changing demands of consumers who enjoy spiced food in a market they helped to create.

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"With the Asian Catering Federation, we run road shows urging owners and chefs to change with the times. Some are doing great things, others haven't changed their menus in 20 years, and are nowhere near as busy, with two closing every week, adds Shaw.

The success of Nando's, which caused other smaller peri-peri chicken outlets to spring up in its path, plays on the narrative surrounding the flavouring's multicultural origins, says Professor Rebecca Earle, a food historian at the University of Warwick.

"The owners have mythologised a back story as the home of the legendary Portuguese flame-grilled peri-peri chicken. Peri-peri is swahili for pepper. It suggests a Mozambique heritage although the founders are South African," she adds. Peri-peri as a term derives from Swahili and other African languages for the type of chile used in the sauce.

Chile peppers originated in the Americas, and peri-peri sauce is similar in some ways to the salsas typical of many parts of Latin America, with its combination of spicy chiles, a source of sourness such as vinegar, and chopped onions and herbs. Chiles were spread across southern Africa as a result of the trade links that resulted from European colonisation of the Americas and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

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Similar forces took both chiles and peri peri chicken to Portuguese settlements in Goa, India, and beyond. Peri peri chicken is thus one of the few positive consequences of colonialism, she adds.

Fast forward a few centuries, and Nando's has hit a dining sweetspot which has seen it open over 1,000 stores across the world.

"Nando's is more upmarket but more classless than most chains, sitting somewhere between McDonalds and Pizza Express. The food is decent, tasty and healthy where you can eat for sub 8," says Shaw. Its cult status is bolstered by rumours that a select group of celebrities including Ed Sheeran, David Beckham, and Nicola Adams are Black Card owners, which entitles them to free chicken for four guests for life. One particularly dedicated fan tried to eat at every Nando's in the hope he'd get a Black Card, only to learn that the promotion had expired over two years prior. According to Nandos Rihanna, Drake and Beyonce all ask for their chicken on their riders when they tour the UK. Reports emerged in 2013 that Queen Bey spent 1,500 at Nando's at V Festival.

On top of that, many of its restaurants are halal, appealing to Muslim customers, and the emergency services, NHS and military personnel get a 20 per cent discount. The origins of peri-peri chicken, and the colourful decor and artwork mean appeals to cash-strapped millennials who value authentic-seeming brands with personality. The almost untranslatlable concept of the "cheeky Nando's", which generally involves a group "lads, lads, lads" eating peri-peri chicken spontaneously, is further proof that it is cemented in the UK culture.

As the popularity of peri-peri chicken shows no sign of fading, Nando's has unveiled new products, including the Peri-Vusa in February, its hottest sauce to date, and smaller peri-peri restaurants are snapping at their heels. And that is how a mid-range chicken shop won over the nation.
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A robot has drowned itself by driving into a pool.

The company markets the security robot as better than real guards in part because it never gets bored of what it does. But it appears to have looked to put an end to that work and has driven into a pond.

Pictures from the Georgetown Waterfront  the shopping centre and office complex where the robot worked  show staff members looking to decide how best to fish the now defunct robot out of the pool.

When the robot works, it is able to understand its own environment and judge whether something is wrong, using a combination of microphones, video cameras and other sensors. In the future it's expected to get other features like gun detection and artificial intelligence.

If it detects that something is wrong then it can squeak, whistle and make other loud noises intended to dissuade criminals and others from causing a nuisance.

The Knightscope security robot, which looks something like a rounded dalek, is a cheap way of patrolling around sensitive and public areas. It costs only $7 per hour to rent out, and has extra skills including the ability to withstand attack and not to get bored, freeing people from having to carry out dull patrols.

But the Knightscope robot has run into a number of problems. Earlier this year, it emerged that a drunken man had tried to assault one of the machines while it was out on patrol, and another had knocked over a toddler.

The company had said it was proud of its robot after the assault by a man, for which he was arrested. "The robot did exactly as it was suppose to do  the 'assault' was detected and immediately reported, the alarms on the robot sounded, the suspect attempted to flee the scene and was detained by one of my colleagues and me until the Mountain View Police arrived," a spokesperson told The Independent at the time.
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WhatsApp appears to be breaking in China.

The Facebook-owned chat app is being hit by service disruptions and may be on its way to being entirely blocked, according to experts.

Users have reported on other social media platforms that the app is no longer properly accessible unless they use a virtual priavte network to send their internet traffic outside the country and around its great firewall.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to-end encryption, has a relatively small but loyal following among users seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than afforded by popular domestic app WeChat, which is ubiquitous but closely monitored and filtered.

Questions over WhatsApp's status come at a politically fraught time in China. The government is in the midst of preparing for a sensitive party congress while Chinese censors this week revved up a sprawling effort to scrub all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

A report this week by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab detailed how Chinese censors were able to intercept, in real time, images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat, a feat that hinted at the government's image recognition capabilities.

It appeared that pictures were also the focus of the move to censor WhatsApp. Late Tuesday, users in China could send texts over WhatsApp without the use of VPNs, but not images.

Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptography researcher based in Paris who has been investigating the WhatsApp disruption, said he believed The Great Firewall was only blocking access to WhatsApp servers that route media between users, while leaving servers that handle text messages untouched. He said voice messages also appeared to be blocked.

But there was no evidence to suggest that Chinese authorities were decrypting WhatsApp messages, Kobeissi added.

A Chinese censorship researcher known by his pseudonym Charlie Smith said authorities appeared to be blocking non-text WhatsApp messages wholesale precisely because they have not been able to selectively block content on the platform like they have with WeChat, which is produced by Shenzhen-based internet giant Tencent and legally bound to cooperate with Chinese security agencies.

Because WhatsApp content is encrypted, "they have moved to brute censor all non-text content," Smith said in an email. "It would not be surprising to find that everything on WhatsApp gets blocked, forcing users in China to use unencrypted, monitored and censored services like WeChat."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on the issue when asked by reporters on Tuesday.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. WhatsApp is one of the world's most widely used messaging services, with over 1.2 billion users.

Signal, another encrypted messaging service, appeared to also have patchy service with significant delays.

China has long blocked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with officials arguing that foreign social media services operating beyond their control pose a threat to national security. But authorities in China, as with other governments, are paying increasing attention to encrypted messaging apps.

After Beijing waged its largest-ever crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists in 2015, the People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece, singled out Telegram as the platform where lawyers the coordinated their activities. And in closely orchestrated and televised trials, the arrested lawyers read scripted confessions explaining how they used the apps to communicate freely with collaborators overseas.

Telegram has since been blocked, with many Chinese dissidents switching in recent months to WhatsApp.

The progressive tightening of messaging apps forces Chinese users to resort to domestic apps such as WeChat "to simply function and have day-to-day communications," said Kobeissi, the security researcher. "Then they can be monitored en masse."

Additional reporting by Associated Press
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It's a Wednesday morning in Manhattan, and I am lying on a thin, white table, being beaten with a dried shrub.

A ceaseless ringing emanates from the centre of the room. The air is thick with the scent of orange oil and the sounds of chanting. In my palms are two oblong crystals; on my chest is a small silver bell.

I am receiving a 'medicine reading' from Deborah Hanekamp, a self-described 'seeress' and energy healer.

The 34-year-old Ms Hanekamp claims that she can read auras  colourful energy fields that allegedly surround the body, revealing inner truths about the bearer. Through the process of a medicine reading, Ms Hanekamp says she can cleanse her clients auras, for the price of $225.

On her website, where she goes by 'Mama Medicine,' Ms Hanekamp promises to elicit feelings of euphoria, bliss, stability, and well-being in her clients. Long-term benefits allegedly include weight loss, enhanced physical radiance, and the ability to "be open to love and connected to your purpose.

Her treatments have been hailed as a cleanse and a rebirth, and, according to Vogue, she is a favourite among the fashion elite.

Ive arrived at her trendy Soho studio to figure out what, exactly, a medicine reading is  and if it lives up to the hype.

Ms Hanekamp poses at the entry to her 'medicine reading' room (Stevi Sesin)

Walking into Ms Hanekamps office, I feel like I am stepping into an Urban Outfitters catalogue. The walls are dripping with hanging plants, and the counters are dotted with candles and crystals. Copper-coated accents litter the room. The whole places smells like rose petals.

A receptionist greets me as I walk in the front door, and asks me politely to take off my shoes. Ms Hanekamp is in the other room, arranging pillows on a small bed, surrounded by what appear to be blown-glass mixing bowls.

She smiles when she sees me, revealing her dazzlingly straight, white teeth, and invites me to step into the room. I oblige.

The studio is so peacful its easy to forget you're in a crowded New York City office building (BFA)

The medicine reading process starts with an aura reading  something Ms Hanekamp says shes been able to do for as long as she can remember.

In fact, the seeress tells me it wasnt until age 12 that she realised her peers didnt see glowing, colourful blobs around other people, too.

I was talking to my friend about the different colours around people, just like matter of factly, Ms Hanekamp recalled. And they were like, What are you talking about? Youre crazy.

The experience inspired the young Ms Hanekamp to start down a spiritual path, studying up on aura reading and other sacred traditions at her local library.

While the word 'aura' can call to mind images of tarot decks and other cringey New-Age trends, Ms Hanekamp says she found her inspiration in Renaissance writings and artists, like William Blake, who painted colourful washes around many of his subjects.

During my reading, Ms Hanekamp tells me my aura is blue-green, which signifies a need for balance and a love of nature  both of which, she says, are currently lacking in my life.

To be fair, this could be said of almost anyone in New York City, where the most 'nature' we get is untended parking strip, and work-life 'balance' means drinking too much with friends after a hard day at the office. But still, it is nice to hear someone tell me to slow down, get out, and log off.

In fact, the aura-reading portion feels oddly like a therapy session: I tell Ms Hanekamp whats irking me; she tells me what my aura says to do about it.

The medicine reading ceremony, however, is like no therapy session I've ever been to.

The process starts with a rapid breathing pattern  in, in, out, out  as I lay flat on the bed, arms across my chest.

At the beginning of my reading, Ms Hanekamp puts a cold, smooth object in each of my hands. She sprays the air around my head with scented oils, and snaps her fingers in circles around my blindfolded eyes.

As she prances around my body, administering her various remedies, she also begins to sing; whispering a sort of tuneless chant of which I can only make out one word: 'limpia,' or Spanish for 'clean'.

Occasionally, she stops to stroke the blown-glass bowls, which I learn are not mixing bowls at all, but an instrument used to create an eerie, all-encompassing ringing sound.

When the ceremony ends, I do feel somewhat lighter  like something is pulling my body upwards. Or perhaps, I think reasonably, I am just light-headed from all the fast breathing.

Ms Hanekamp tells me her medicine reading ceremonies stem from a vareity of spiritual traditions. She was born a Christian, in a church she describes as 'cult-like. Her brother, she says, wasnt allowed to play guitar, as it was considered the 'devils music'. Many of her friends from the church are now addicted to drugs, or dead.

In the wake of a family tragedy, Ms Hanekamp and her brother decided to leave the church. But they were also left largely without supervision, and began partying and drinking heavily.

By 17, however, her spiritual leanings won out. She quit drinking and using drugs, but kept studying ancient traditions at the library. At 19, she moved to New York City and started teaching yoga. That was also about the time she started travelling back and forth to Thailand to learn reiki, sound healing, and crystal healing.

Eventually, she opened her own yoga studio in Brooklyn, where she taught classes, yoga teacher trainings, and the beginnings of what would later become medicine readings. (Reviews of the now-defunct studio on Yelp praise the calming presence of a teacher called Debbie.)

Getting back to nature is a key tenant of Ms Hanekamp's healing philosophy (BFA)

At the same time, Ms Hanekamp started travelling between New York and Peru, where she trained with a native healer practised in administering ayahuasca  an Amazonian plant known for inducing strong hallucinations.

But after eight years of gruelling training, Ms Hanekamp told me, she decided she didnt want to lead ayahuasca ceremonies after all. Part of the reason? She learned she was pregnant with her now four-year-old daughter.

Ayahuasca  just by the nature of the medicine  you can't be pregnant; You can't breast feed and drink ayahuasca, she said. Theres a place where it doesnt really add up.

She also realised that working at her yoga studio 12 hours a day, seven days a week, wasnt conducive to raising a child. She shut down the studio, too.

It was at this point that Ms Hanekamp sat down, turned her attention to the universe, and asked it, What do you want me to do with my life?

The universe, she said, handed down medicine readings.

I got all the information in a channelled message, which just feels like guidance from a source outside of my own mental chatter, she explained. [I got] a channelled message about, Ok you're going to do medicine readings. This is exactly how you do them; This is the exact formula. It's a one-on -one experience, a group experience, and a retreat experience."

Ms Hanekamp began administering the readings immediately  to family, friends, and anyone else who expressed interest. To her surprise, business took off. It quickly became more popular, and more profitable, than her yoga studio had ever been.

(BFA (BFA)

In some ways, this success is attributable to the growing popularity of spirituality among millennials. Yoga  once a dubious activity for hamsa-wearing hippies  is now as popular as Saturday-morning brunch. In my neighbourhood in Brooklyn (where Ms Hanekamp also happens to live), there are entire stores dedicated to spell casting and potions.

When I asked the seeress why she thinks spirituality is experiencing such a boom, she gave a surprising answer: Because its pretty.

Even those who scoff at meditation, and wouldnt go near an astrology chart, can appreciate the beauty of a selenite crystal. More importantly, they can feel compelled to share its beauty on Instagram. (Ms Hanekamps own Instagram boasts more than 27,000 followers, with whom she regularly shares photos of crystals, candles, and petal-laden baths.)

But there are other reasons she feels spirituality is flourishing  reasons not centred around crafting the perfect Instagram aesthetic.

I think that because we are becoming disconnected from each other, in a weird way we are also seeking a way to connect more, she told me.

Spiritually brings you into connecting to yourself, to others," she added. "It helps you to see you're not so separate from one another. And I think it's something that we are so desperately craving in such a large way right now.

Thats not to say Ms Hanekamp doesnt still get her share of sceptics. Even those closest to her, she says, have expressed doubt about her psychic abilities. She said she likes to tell them: Just come try it out. You can't lose anything.

Thats a message I heard over and over again from the 'Mama Medicine' clients I spoke to. All of the women I interviewed  each of whom see Ms Hanekamp regularly  said they tell the sceptics in their lives just to give it a go.

Just try it, you have nothing to lose, Luciana Naclerio, a nonprofit worker and Ms Hanekamps former nanny, said she tells her friends. Maybe It's not your path. But just try it.

Far from hurting them, in fact, many of these women say the medicine readings have helped them immensely.

Danielle Gould, a 34-year-old entrepreneur living in Brooklyn, claims Ms Hanekamp was the hidden key to solving her chronic digestive issues.

When she first attended one of Ms Hanekamps group sessions, she said, she had no idea what to expect. But she also knew she would try anything to cure the persistent pains in her stomach.

That group session, she says, was life-changing.

For me it was really profound, she said. My entire body was crying. I couldn't stop  By the end of the ceremony I could sort of see white light shooting from my stomach, and had some really profound realisations."

"I was kind of hooked after that," she added.

Ms Gould has now been seeing Ms Hanekamp regularly for five months. She said shes greatly expanded the number of foods she can eat without trouble  something numerous doctors have tried and failed to do.

I just saw my doctor, and my doctor agreed that nothing has helped heal me more than seeing Deborah, she told me.

Clients say visiting Ms Hanekamp just once makes them feel calmer, and more grounded (BFA)

Other patients said Ms Hanekamp didnt have a physical effect on them, so much as a mental one.

It has that element of therapy but its not that, it goes deeper than that, said Catherine Dash, a freelance writer and prop stylist who also lives in Brooklyn. On her first visit, she said, I had these things that I didnt realise were were bothering me, and I left feeling like I had control over the situation that I had discussed with her.

Ana Meier, a lighting and furniture designer who lives in the city, echoed that sentiment.

After her sessions, she said, I have more clarity, feel more peaceful, more aligned, and happier. I guess the biggest thing is more of a sense of peace.

People around me notice, she added. Theyre like, Oh, you just went to Deborah.

The women know that claiming to have been healed by a chanting, shrub-brandishing 'seeress' doesnt sound the most believable. Many said they dont even know how she does it themselves. But in the end, they said, thats not the point.

What I take away from it is  whether or not people think its hooey  it doesnt matter, because I feel awesome, Ms Dash said. It doesnt matter what the background and science is of what shes doing. Its just that I feel good about it, and thats what matters.
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This is precisely why a lot of people voted for Brexit, said Fraser Nelson.

The FT still doesnt get it, Tim Montgomerie added.

They were referring to a Financial Times story: The owner of pizzeria chain Franco Manca warned that the Brexit vote had started to affect the availability of European restaurant staff in the UK, potentially pushing up wages for new hires.

Of course, Brexit  in the sense of any legal or policy change to freedom of movement  hasnt happened yet and wont for some time, so what Nelson and Montgomerie are really celebrating is that Europeans feel that, after the Brexit vote, the UK is a less welcoming and more hostile country with fewer opportunities and where their prospects are worse.

But lets leave that aside, and assume that they are making the simple supply-and-demand argument made by many on the Leave side of the referendum campaign, and more generally by those who want to reduce immigration, especially of low-skilled or low-paid workers. That is, that lower immigration of such workers will push up pay for lower-paid Brits.

So is Brexit good news for the low-paid? The early indications are mixed at best. Just a few days after the FT story appeared, The Times reported: Bosses are calling for a freeze in the minimum wage amid the latest signs that Brexit fears are holding back investment by businesses ... increases in the national living wage ... could prevent firms from growing or lead to job losses, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.

So, at the same time as Brexit is pushing up wages for low-paid pizza workers, business is saying that if their pay is not in effect cut, the result will be job losses. How to reconcile these two accounts?

Neither, of course, provides hard evidence.

The first is just an anecdote. As for the BCC view on the national minimum wage, well, they would, wouldnt they?

But lets assume for the moment that they both reflect reality, albeit imperfectly.

Recommended How a sharp fall in migration could damage the economy

This is an excellent illustration of a fundamental point in economic analysis  the distinction between partial equilibrium, or what happens in one market (here the market for pizza workers) and general equilibrium, or what happens to the economy.

It is perfectly possible that reducing immigration will push up wages for pizza workers, while doing nothing  or indeed having the opposite effect  for wages overall, or even for wages for low-paid workers in general.

There is essentially no evidence that migration to the UK has increased unemployment for British workers. But this doesnt mean that immigrants dont take our jobs (indeed, as Ive frequently said, Im sure that I, like many UK-born economists, have at some point failed to get a job because the employer preferred to hire an immigrant).

The point is that immigrants (directly or indirectly) add to labour demand as well as labour supply; they earn money and spend it.

Ignoring this effect, as many do, is what economists call the lump of labour fallacy  the idea that there are only a certain number of jobs to go around, so that if an immigrant (or an old person, or a woman) takes one, then a Briton (or a young person, or a man) must lose out.

So while an immigrant may take one job from a British worker directly, she may also create one job  or indeed more than one job  for a British worker.

The overall impact is an empirical question, and the empirical evidence in the UK is pretty clear  these two effects more or less balance.

That doesnt mean there wont be distributional impacts  some Britons may find it easier to find jobs, others harder  just that the overall impact on the employment rate will be broadly neutral, certainly over anything other than the very short term.

Broadly, the same thing applies for wages.

Again, anyone who claims that reduced immigration will increase wages simply because of supply and demand is ignoring basic economics.

Reduced immigration may push up wages for pizza restaurants; but if it also reduces demand across the economy as a whole, then it will reduce labour demand too, and hence wages.

Again, this is an empirical question. And again, we have evidence.

A recent study by Steve Nickell and Jumana Saleheen  much cited during the referendum campaign  looked at the impact of immigration on wages. Iain Duncan Smith, for example, claimed that it showed that immigration had led to a 10 per cent fall in wages.

This was, of course, complete fiction  the actual impact is perhaps only one twenty-fifth as large.

Professor Nickell himself later described the actual impact on the wages of low-paid workers as infinitesimally small, and regretted that he wasnt able to say so during the campaign.

Again, there will be distributional impacts  perhaps pizza workers will see some wage gains, while pizza eaters will lose, as higher wages feed through into prices.

But the net impact, even for low-paid workers, is likely to be very small.

However, even this analysis is still mostly a partial equilibrium one.

Studies like that by Nickell and Saleheen that look at the regional or sectoral impact of immigration on wages cant necessarily pick up wider, or indirect, economic impacts  in particular, the impact of migration on productivity for the economy as a whole, and hence growth in earnings and GDP per capita.

As with trade, the evidence suggests that migration enhances productivity. This could be for a variety of reasons: by increasing competition  certainly true for us economists, who have to raise our game with so many well-qualified immigrants around; by facilitating the growth of high-productivity clusters; or because immigrants produce goods and services that are complementary to native workers.

Perhaps the availability of reasonably priced, high-quality pizza makes journalists such as Nelson and Montgomerie more productive? Maybe this is implausible, but research in Italy has shown that low-skilled immigration  by making childcare more affordable  makes it more likely that high-skilled Italian women will be in work.

So whats the overall impact of Brexit likely to be? In my recent research with Giuseppe Forte, I looked at both the direct impact of possible Brexit-induced reductions in migration on the wages of low-paid workers, as estimated by Nickell and Saleheen, and the wider economic impacts, using the work of other researchers.

The numbers are highly uncertain but the conclusion is clear: our analysis suggest that the negative overall economic impact of reduced migration will far outweigh any modest wage gains for low-paid workers.

If low wages are the problem, ending free movement is not the solution.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King's College London, and senior fellow in UK in a Changing Europe
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Citigroup has chosen Frankfurt as its newest trading hub in the European Union and plans to present that option to its board of directors this week for approval, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

The choice to expand the banks existing broker-dealer in the German city means it will create between 150 and 250 new roles there, said the person, who asked not to be identified talking about internal policies. Its yet to be decided if the jobs will be filled by moving existing employees or by hiring locally, and its likely to be some combination, the person said.

The location, where Citigroup already has about 350 employees, is expected to handle some of the trading activities currently done in London, though the UK capital will remain the headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the person said. Sky News reported the decision on Monday.

Frankfurt has emerged as a winner of the Brexit vote, with Standard Chartered, Nomura, Sumitomo Mitsui and Daiwa Securities picking the city as their EU hub in recent weeks. Deutsche Bank is preparing to move large parts of the trading and investment-banking assets it currently books in London to its hometown of Frankfurt, people familiar with the matter said this month.

Citigroup has been considering the move for months. The firm was evaluating locations in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, Jim Cowles, the banks top executive for the region, said at a Dublin conference in January.

Bloomberg News reported in November that the firm was in discussions with BaFin, the German regulator thats seen by many as the only regulator outside of London capable of handling the banks complicated derivatives business, about moving some of its London-based equity and interest-rate derivatives traders to Frankfurt. The lender is also in discussions with the European Central Bank and regulators in EU nations including Ireland about relocating other parts of its operations.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

Frankfurt is a natural pick for many international firms given a financial ecosystem featuring Deutsche Bank, the ECB and BaFin.

Even as the chance remains for a UK deal maintaining some sort of access to the single market, banks are preparing for the worst and want to have new or expanded offices up and running inside the bloc before the UK formally departs in 2019.

Bloomberg
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Crisis-hit infrastructure firm Carillion has been awarded two Ministry of Defence contracts worth 158m just days after the companys shares plummeted following a shock profit warning.

The wins mark a partial turnaround for Carillion after it last week announced that it had booked a 845m write-down on some of is problematic construction contracts. That announcement wiped 600m off the companys market value, prompting UBS analysts to suggest shares might slump to zero.

On Monday Carillion was named as one of the winners of 6.6bn-worth of contracts to build the controversial HS2 train line.

Under the new MoD contracts, Carillion will provide catering, retail and leisure services, as well as hotel and mess services at more than 230 military sites across the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The company said it could double the 158m it will be paid by the MoD through catering and retail sales.

Shares in Carillion rose as much as 12.5 per cent in morning trading on Tuesday, following Monday's 17.5 per cent boost which was spurred by news of the HS2 contract as well as an announcement of plans to appoint accountancy giant EY to review its business.

Despite the gains, Carillion shares are trading at one third of the price they were just over a week ago, prior to the profit warning. Chief executive Richard Howson stepped down with immediate effect last week after the group said it was struggling to stay within its borrowing limits and warned of tough trading conditions.

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 North contract will employ around 1,500 people, covering 130 military establishments and will go live at the beginning of January 2018, Carillion said in a statement. The contract for the Scotland and Northern Ireland region will go live at the beginning of November this year. That will covers a further 103 military establishments and will employ around 1,030 people.

Interim boss Keith Cochrane said: These contracts play a critical role in supporting our armed forces and they have a number of unique aspects that require a specific, regional focus.
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Royal Mail reported a 1 per cent rise in first quarter revenue on Tuesday, as a robust performance in its European parcel delivery business helped to offset more lacklustre figures out of the UK.

The company reported a 1 per cent fall in is combined UK parcel and letter division. Fewer people sent letters, but the soaring popularity of e-commerce helped offset that to a large extent.

The company is at the mercy of the shifting trends in letters and parcels, said Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital. People are sending fewer letters to each other but online shopping means far more parcels are being sent  the Amazon effect, which is proving so destructive for high street retailers, is at least supporting Royal Mail, he added.

Recommended Royal Mail plans to close defined benefit pension scheme next year

The company reiterated its full-year guidance and said that it continues to monitor the impact of overall business uncertainty in the UK on letter volumes.

Royal Mail has in recent months been embroiled in a pension dispute. Its one of the few major UK companies that still offers a defined-benefit plan but wants to replace this with a modified defined benefit plan, or contribution pension scheme, which it says will dramatically slash costs.

On 14 July the main trade union for Royal Mail, the Communications Workers Union, rejected a new pension arrangement, raising the possibility of a strike. The CWU said that the proposed move would result in employees in the plan losing on average up to a third of their future pensions.

"It does not meet our aspiration of a wage in retirement pension scheme, but rather still promotes the conventional wisdom of a cash-out arrangement at the point of retirement," CWU deputy general secretary of postal, Terry Pullinger, said at the time.

"It would still represent a significant shortfall in the pensions promise and it is not something that we are prepared to recommend to our members.

On Tuesday Royal Mail said that it continues to discuss future pension arrangements with the CWU.

Unite, the countrys largest union, said on 14 June that it would be holding a consultative ballot of its 6,000 Royal Mail managers on the pension proposals put forward by the company.

The union said that it would be making no recommendation to its members on the package. The balloting started this week and will close on 7 August.

We think it is important that Unite members have an opportunity to express an opinion on what is being put forward by the company, Unite officer for the Royal Mail Brian Scott said at the time.

Shares in Royal Mail ended the day just over 3 per cent higher.

Additional reporting by newswires
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The Government should disclose what post-Brexit reassurances it offered Japanese carmaker Toyota ahead of a 240m ($313m) investment in its English car plant, two parliamentary committee heads said on Monday.

On Friday, Reuters cited two sources saying that Britain had helped to secure an investment in the firm's Burnaston car plant with a letter reassuring the Japanese carmaker over future trading arrangements.

The business ministry has confirmed the existence of a letter but has refused to release it.

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One of the sources said the letter to Toyota was similar to one sent to Japanese carmaker Nissan last year when it decided to build two new models at its plant in northern England.

The previous chairman of parliament's Treasury Select Committee raised questions about the Nissan deal last year. Reuters contacted the new committee chairwoman on Monday for comment on the reported reassurances to Toyota.

"To provide clarity to the public, as the assurances may cost the taxpayer money, and to other businesses, who are craving certainty to plan for Brexit, the letters should be published immediately," Nicky Morgan said in an emailed statement.

"It remains to be seen what these assurances could have been that were robust enough for them to invest in the UK, but avoided any obligation to report to parliament," she said.

A Toyota spokesman referred to the company's statement from the day of the 16 March investment announcement which said the Government was providing up to 21.3m in funding for training and research and development.

The chairwoman of parliament's business committee, opposition Labour lawmaker Rachel Reeves, said it was unacceptable that the Government had refused to disclose its private reassurances to Toyota.

"It is vital that the Government is not seen to be cutting sweetheart deals or granting special favours that could undermine our negotiating position," she said in a statement.

"The Government needs to swiftly develop an open and inclusive strategy when it comes to its Brexit negotiations that offer all sectors the best chance of success when it comes to creating jobs and securing investment."

A business ministry spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Business minister Greg Clark suggested last year that assurances offered to Nissan were available to other firms.

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 Labour Party said "secretive, one-off deals were unfair and showed a lack of coherent strategy.

"The Government can't go round making individual deals with some companies whilst leaving others out in the cold," said the party's business spokeswoman Rebecca Long-Bailey.

A first full round of Brexit negotiations kicked off on Monday in Brussels amid divisions among Prime Minister Theresa May's ministers over what form Britain's exit from the European Union should take.

Major 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.

Reuters
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Zhou Qunfei is the richest self-made woman billionaire in the world, according to new data, after her predecessor plummeted from billions to zero when she was sued for fraud.

Zhou, the 47-year-old founder of Lens Technology, which makes glass screens for iPhones, instantly became a multi-billionaire when her company went public in 2015.

She is estimated to be worth $9.2 billion, found Bloomberg and reported by Time. Her company is worth around $11 billion.

Her number one status replaces Elizabeth Holmes, the 33-year-old founder of healthcare tech firm Theranos, who was worth $4.5 billion but lost her cash when she was sued for fraud.

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Born in China, the country with the most woman billionaires in the world, she benefited from the Chinese Communist partys commitment to gender equality which allowed women to flourish after capitalism started to take hold, Huang Yasheng, an MIT professor, told the New York Times.

She grew up on a farm and dropped out of high school age 16. She started working on the factory floor for a watch lens company, and attended evening classes in subjects like accounting and fire safety at Shenzhen University.

I had a mentality back then that I only wanted to learn whether you paid me or not. I had a pursuit different from others because they all came from downtown areas with money but I didnt have any. All I wanted is to change my destiny with my own efforts.

Sunday Times Rich List - Sport Show all 10 1 /10 Sunday Times Rich List - Sport Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 9= Pep Guardiola  Football 50m (New entry) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 50m (New entry) 50m (Up 7m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 8. Gareth Bale  Football 54m (Up 20m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 7. Jose Mourinho  Football 61m (Up 11m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 6. Andy Murray  Tennis 77m (Up 20m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 5. Rory McIlroy  Golf 82m (Up 26m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 4. Jenson Button  Motor racing 86m (Up 9m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 3. Wayne Rooney  Football 93m (Up 11m) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic  Football 110m (New entry) Getty Sunday Times Rich List - Sport 1. Lewis Hamilton  Motor racing 131m (Up 25m) Getty

At the age of 22 and with a few thousand dollars, she founded her own company making watch lenses in 1993.

She told the Australian Financial Review: "During the period of China's rapid economic growth, there were plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs, including women.

"It allowed me to develop my business."

 The super-rich are buying luxury bunkers to prepare for an apocalypse

She added that she didnt regret going into business. In the village where she grew up, she said girls did not often have a choice whether to continue their schooling, and would get married and stay in the same place for their entire lives.

In 2003, after running her company for a decade, Motorola phoned Zhou and asked if she wanted to help develop a scratch-proof glass lens for its new Razr V3 phone.

Orders then followed from HTC, Nokia and Samsung. In 2007, Apple launched its first iPhone, and also contacted Zhou.

Five years later Zhou had factories in three cities. In 2017, it has 32 factories and employs more than 90,000 staff.
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Humans must start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as soon as possible to avoid saddling future generations with a choice between extreme climate change or spending hundreds of trillions of dollars to avoid it, according to new research.

An international team of researchers  led by Professor Jim Hansen, Nasas former climate science chief  said their conclusion that the world had already overshot targets to limit global warming to within acceptable levels was sufficiently grim to force them to urge rapid emission reductions.

But they warned this would not be enough and efforts would need to be made to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 12.5 per cent.

This, the scientists argued, could be mostly achieved by agricultural measures such as planting trees and improving soil fertility, a relatively low-cost way to remove carbon from the air.

Other more expensive methods, such as burning biomass in power plants fitted with carbon-capture-and-storage or devices that can remove carbon from the air directly, might also be necessary and would become increasingly needed if steps were not taken soon.

An academic paper in the journal Earth System Dynamics estimated such industrial processes could cost up to $535 trillion this century and also have large risks and uncertain feasibility.

Continued high fossil fuel emissions unarguably sentences young people to either a massive, implausible clean-up or growing deleterious climate impacts or both, said the paper.

We conclude that the world has already overshot appropriate targets for greenhouse gas amount and global temperature, and we thus infer an urgent need for rapid phasedown of fossil fuel emissions [and] actions that draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.

These tasks are formidable and  they are not being pursued globally.

Cuts to emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and ozone would also be required.

The study is to be used as part of a ground-breaking lawsuit brought against the US Government by 21 children in which the plaintiffs claim their constitutional right to have a health climate in which to live in is being violated by federal policies.

If the case succeeds, environmentalists believe it could force the Trump administration to reduce greenhouse gases and take other measures to prevent global warming.

The paper pointed out that the last time temperatures were this high, during the Eemian period, global sea levels were about six to nine metres higher than they are today, suggesting significant rises are still to occur.

The paper said that the Paris Agreement, the tumbling price of renewable energy and the recent slowdown in the increase of fossil fuel emissions had led to a sense of optimism around the world.

But, speaking to The Independent, Professor Hansen said he believed this optimism was misplaced.

The narrative thats out there now  is that weve turned the corner, he said.

On the contrary, what we show is the rate of growth of climate forcing caused by increased methane [and other gases] is actually accelerating. Thats why its urgent.

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Asked to assess the worlds current progress in fighting climate change, he said the s*** is hitting the fan.

Professor Hansen, now a scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute in the US, said he believed the court case had a chance of winning.

A court would not be able to tell the Government what to do, he admitted, but would be able to say that failing to deal with the problem was unconstitutional and require politicians to produce an effective plan.

The paper said the need for prompt action implied by these realities [of climate change] may not be a surprise to the relevant scientific community because of the available evidence.

However, effective communication with the public of the urgency to stem human-caused climate change is hampered by the inertia of the climate system, especially the ocean and the ice sheets, which respond rather slowly to climate forcings, thus allowing future consequences to build up before broad public concern awakens, it said.

All amplifying feedbacks, including atmospheric water vapor, sea ice cover, soil carbon release and ice sheet melt could be reduced by rapid emissions phasedown.

This would reduce the risk of climate change running out of humanitys control and provide time to assess the climate response, develop relevant technologies, and consider further purposeful actions to limit and/or adapt to climate change.

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

It warned that sea level rise of up to a metre may be inevitable even if emissions decline and would have dire consequences.

Sea level rise of several metres would result in humanitarian and economic disasters.

Given the increasing proportion of global population living in coastal areas, there is potential for forced migrations of hundreds of millions of people, dwarfing prior refugee humanitarian crises, challenging global governance and security, the paper said.

About 65 per cent of the power produced by the massive Drax power plant in North Yorkshire comes from burning biomass, making it the largest single renewable electricity generator in the UK, although some dispute how green the process is.

If it was to be fitted with carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS), it would create the type of negative emissions system envisaged in the paper. Drax was involved in the White Rose project to build a 1bn CCS plant but pulled out after cuts to renewable energy subsidies by the Government.

It insisted that biomass with CCS could make a major difference to the fight against climate change.

A Drax spokesperson said: We are confident the technology we developed as part of the White Rose project has real potential in terms of delivering dramatic reductions to carbon emissions produced by power stations and heavy industry.

However, the current regulatory environment means any such project isnt viable at the present time. We are also awaiting the Governments response to Lord Oxburghs review into CCS.
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If the world keeps burning fossil fuels and releasing carbon emissions indefinitely, climate change will eventually melt all the ice at the poles and on mountains, according to National Geographic.

This would raise global sea levels by approximately 216 feet, engulfing oceanside cities like Miami, Buenos Aires, and Cairo.

Business Insider made an animated map that shows what the world would look like if this doomsday future came true.

 Iceberg four times the size of London breaks from Antarctica

Take a look at the highlights below.

As soon as the end of this century, climate scientists say that parts of the Earth will become inhospitable. Risks brought on by climate change include mass famine, drought, severe flooding, plagues, poisoned oceans, and record heat waves.

As David Wallace-Wells noted in his recent New York magazine feature, researchers predict that these kind of disasters make war and permanent economic collapse more likely.

The increasingly rapid melting of ice sheets and glaciers is raising sea levels and changing the world's coastlines. Miami, along with the entire eastern seaboard, would be underwater if all the world's ice melted.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

Europe would say goodbye to London, Venice, and the Netherlands.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

Water would swallow all of Bangladesh, currently home to over 160 million, and Kolkata, population 4.6 million. The overflow of the Mekong Delta would strand Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains as an island.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

Australia would lose much of the coastal strip where approximately 80% of its residents live.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

Shanghai would be reclaimed by the East China Sea.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

In South America, the Amazon Basin and the Paraguay River Basin would vanish, destroying Buenos Aires and most of Paraguay.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

Africa would lose less of its land to sea level rise, compared to other continents. However, insufferable heat waves would make much of the area inhabitable.

(Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider (Alex Kuzoian/Business Insider)

There are over five million cubic miles of ice on Earth. It would take more than 5,000 years to melt it all, according to some scientists. But within the next generation, some cities may cease to exist if countries do not substantially lower carbon emissions.

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Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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A paramedic had a noxious substance thrown in her face while answering a 999 call, the London Ambulance Service has said.

Three men flagged down the 32-year-old emergency services worker as she was on her way to help a man with chest pain in Tottenham, north-east London.

She stopped to check if the men were OK, as they appeared to be in distress.

But as she approached them, the men pulled bandanas over their faces and then threw liquid at her from a plastic bottle in what appeared to be a premeditated attack.

It was horrible. I didnt know what was going to happen to me, said the unnamed paramedic.

It all happened very quickly  one of them threw liquid out of a plastic bottle at me. The window was only open a few inches but the liquid went on my face, neck and chest.

He was wearing latex gloves, so my first thought was, is this acid?

Peter Rhodes, the London Ambulance Services assistant director of operations, said he was appalled by the incident, which took place at 1.30am on Sunday morning.

The paramedic was taken to hospital and later discharged, as the liquid  which was not acid but another noxious substance  had caused irritation to her skin.

 CCTV shows man police want to speak to in relation to acid attack in Luton on 19 May 2016

It was terrifying. This was so cowardly. It is my job to help people. I was on my way to help a patient and I stopped because I am caring and I thought they needed my help, she said.

What theyve done is horrific in so many ways. It was premeditated and it delayed a patient getting treatment. It took a paramedic off the road that night. And yet if one my attackers were hurt, I would still treat them because that is the job.

Recommended Teenager charged over London acid attacks

Campaigners are calling for new laws to make it more difficult for people to buy corrosive substances, which are sold as common cleaning products.

More than 400 acid or corrosive substance attacks were carried out in six months to April 2017, according to 39 police forces in England and Wales.

A 16-year-old accused of carrying out five similar attacks in the space of 90 minutes last Thursday night is facing trial after being charged with 15 offences.

These include one count of possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance, three counts of robbery and one count of GBH with intent.

Although it is legal to buy a corrosive substance, possession of acid or similar liquids with the intent to cause harm can be treated as possession of an offensive weapon under the Prevention of Crime Act, with a maximum penalty of four years.

Mr Rhodes said the incident has been reported to the police and the ambulance service will do everything in our power to make sure those responsible are identified and convicted for this senseless attack.

I am appalled by this attack on our paramedic who stopped to help these men who she believed were in trouble, but instead they assaulted her in a premeditated attack, not only harming her but delaying treatment to a potentially critically ill patient, he said.

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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 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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

While this type of situation is thankfully very rare, we are reminding medics they should be mindful of the potential risk and be cautious in similar situations.

Naturally we are doing everything we can to support the paramedic who is understandably distressed by this incident. We encourage our staff to report violent incidents and do everything we can to give our crews a sense of safety at work.

Anyone with information concerning the attack has been asked to call the police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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A self-confessed acid attacker has claimed that victims deserve to be targeted, saying, If I can get acid, Ill use it.

Gangs sometimes dipped knives in acid and even targeted rivals girlfriends because they love their beauty, said the man who spoke to a Vice documentary on the condition of anonymity.

He said that he and his friend picked on the partner of a rival gang member and that nine times out of 10 he would attack women.

 Hundreds of mopeds block road outside Parliament in protest over acid attacks

[We] went to a rave, met some ops (enemy) there," he said. We were just fighting in the club. A couple of days later I just randomly see the ops and his baby mum.

Theyre there at Tesco, just shopping so I was like, cool. I ran to my boy who was in the car. My boy bought a bottle, like a Lucozade bottle.

I was like, whats that?. He was like dont worry, fam. Just come, lets go, lets go.

Im racking up the guy, just punching him and whatnot. And my boy, he just undid the bottle and he just splashed the girl.

He added: Like if I cant damage you enough Im coming for your people.

The documentary comes after a series of acid attacks in London this week, when six people were attacked in 24 hours by thugs on mopeds.

The attacker in the documentary, from East London, said that knives were still more popular than acid, but gang members were often dipping knives in acid to prevent the wound from healing.

Another interviewee in the documentary, Samir Hussien, said he wears a mask after he was left scarred by an acid attack as he left a cinema.

There was a substance thrown at me which I found out was acid, he said.

After that I ran to my car to get a bottle of water, but I think by then the damage was pretty much done.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA

More than 400 acid or corrosive substance attacks were carried out in six months to April 2017, according to 39 police forces in England and Wales. Only a quarter of charges brought have led to convictions.

Campaigners are calling for new laws to make it more difficult for people to buy corrosive substances, which are sold as common cleaning products.

Although it is legal to buy a corrosive substance, possession of acid or similar liquids with the intent to cause harm can be treated as possession of an offensive weapon under the Prevention of Crime Act, with a maximum penalty of four years.
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MPs are to be urged to outlaw the practice of catfishing, which refers to online predators using fake dating profiles to trick victims into sexual relationships.

The increasingly common phenomenon involves perpetrators stealing the online identity of a good-looking man or woman, and creating a profile to lure multiple victims into having sex or sending explicit photos.

The practice is deceitful, but it is not illegal  despite victims complaining of mental harm, and saying they would never have consented to sexual contact had they known the catfishs true identity.

In one case, police allegedly dismissed a complaint by comparing catfishing to going into a bar and claiming youre a millionaire when you actually work on the bins.

Recommended Kittenfishing is the new online dating term you need to worry about

On Tuesday, Labour MP Ann Coffey will use an adjournment debate to call for the introduction of a new law that will criminalise catfishing, by making it an offence to steal someones identity and pose as them online to lure people into sexual relationships.

She will also urge Facebook and online dating companies to be more proactive against catfishing by monitoring their websites more stringently, and by providing warning messages.

The Stockport MP has been prompted to act partly by the experiences of her constituent Matt Peacock, a male model who was briefly married to Jodie Marsh and who also dated Katie Price.

Male model was sickened when a catfish stole his identity to dupe women (Rex Features)

Mr Peacock, who is now remarried, says he was put under enormous strain after his identity was stolen by a catfish, with his new wife being repeatedly contacted and told he was cheating on her by going on dating websites and asking women for sexual photographs and videos.

Recounting the experience on his killingcatfish website, Mr Peacock said the catfish preyed on more than 30 women and used images of his niece and nephew to create the image of a family man.

My family is a strong one, said Mr Peacock, But this created a lot of distress.

He added: My wife began to get messages from women. They told her that I was cheating on her by sending indecent images and videos of myself.

If the women questioned or doubted him, once he talked them round and they believed him, he tried to punish them. As payment for their doubt, he wanted naked videos and pictures. To which the majority obliged.

My catfisher would arrange dates with women. When I wasnt there to greet them, he would tell them he was my cousin and I couldnt make it. Some would leave, and some stayed and had dinner with him.

Mr Peacock said that with the help of a private detective, he tracked down the catfish and informed his victims that they had been deceived.

A lot were heartbroken, wrote Mr Peacock. Three had fallen in love, and the majority didnt believe they could trust anyone again. A lot of them had mental health problems and had opened up about their domestic abuse histories. To say I was sickened is an understatement.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon 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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 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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

Yet Mr Peacock claimed that when he and the private detective presented police with 30 pages of evidence and the catfishs videoed confession, officers took no action.

He said: The police told us Its the equivalent of going into a bar in the 1980s, [and] claiming youre a millionaire when you actually work on the bins. I disagree. If Ive told someone Im a millionaire and Im not, I havent stolen someone elses identity to do so.

My catfisher didnt just take my face, he gave me the persona of a person [who] is manipulative, deceitful and in my opinion mentally abuses women for his own sexual gratification. In no way do I want any association to that kind of person.

He was backed by Ms Coffey, who said: Without a specific offence, catfish who cause so much distress to individuals and their families will continue to exploit and harm other people.

Catfishing is a modern day menace affecting the lives of many innocent people. It can cause years of heartache. We must do something to deter this, and a change in the law is the most effective deterrent.

Ms Coffey has also been contacted by other victims of catfishing, including Anna Rowe, who collected 41,472 signatures for a Change.org petition calling for it to be made illegal to create a fake online profile with the intention of using it to lead others into sex.

Ms Rowe, a mother-of-two in her 40s said she was deceived by someone who used a slightly doctored photo of a similar-looking Bollywood star on his Tinder profile. Ms Rowe said he lied about his name, and the fact he was married.

After she publicised her case, she said she was contacted by many other women who said they too had been deceived by the same man.

Supporting her petition for catfishing to be made a criminal offence, Ms Rowe said: He took advantage of my trust and took away my right to choose.

Had I known, I would never have consented to a sexual relationship with a married man, let alone a man who was actively having relations with multiple women simultaneously.

She added: If this man had asked me for money, he would have committed a criminal offence under the Fraud Act. But I gave him presents and bought many things that come with being in a long-term relationship.

If this man had used his fake profile to cause distress by trolling me or posting an intimate picture, he would have committed a criminal offence under the Communications Act. But he caused me distress by misrepresenting who he was.

His behaviour was premeditated, yet the current law will not find his actions a criminal offence.

Catfishing takes its name from the 2011 documentary Catfish, about a New Yorker who was duped by a woman who posed online as a younger love interest. An MTV series of the same name followed.

In the documentary the catfishs husband related the story of how, when live cod were shipped from North America to Asia, their inactivity in the tanks turned their flesh mushy.

This changed when fishermen started putting catfish in the tanks, to keep the cod active and maintain the quality of their flesh.

This, the husband told the documentary makers, showed how everyone needed a catfish in their lives to keep them alert and active.

Some psychologists think that catfish start deceiving to fill otherwise empty lives, and also to experience a thrill of dupers delight when they succeed in their deception.

There are also fears that catfishing is being unreported, because many victims feel too embarrassed about being duped to say anything.
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A 16-year-old girl took her own life by hanging after she was bullied at school, an inquest was told.

Dagmara Przybysz, who was born in Poland and went to school at Pool Academy near Redruth, was found dead in a toilet in May 2016.

The inquest heard that a pastoral support manager at the school, Susan Kent, said she saw the teenager several times before she died, but she had "never mentioned any problems of racism".

The girls parents, Jedrzej and Ewelina Przybysz, said their daughter told them that another girl had banged into her and she heard people calling her things like stupid Pole and that she "did not belong here" in the 12 months before she died.

Her mother insisted the biggest problem for her daughter was not racism but bullying.

Dagmaras boyfriend, Lewis Simpson, said she had mentioned pupils making horrible comments about her nationality and mocking her during a PE lesson.

She reportedly hurt her hand after the class by punching a wall when she overheard their comments.

(Ask.fm (Ask.fm)

The night before her death she reportedly asked Lewis, "What would you do if I killed myself?"

"I did not take it seriously, as I thought was just worked up by hurting her hand," he said, as reported by The Guardian.

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

She also told him during a Facebook call that she was so angry about false rumours the couple were going to break up that she wanted to jump off a bridge, but appeared to be calmer by the end of the call, Lewis said.

On the day she was found, Dagmara called her father in tears, but he said she would not tell him at first what was wrong.

She then admitted she was having problems at school and he would not understand. He told her to go to school and they would talk about the problem when she came home.

Dagmara moved to the UK in 2009 and made friends in primary school, but asked to move high schools.

Principal Zelma Hill said the teenager was a "beautiful, bright and creative 16-year-old student with a very promising future ahead of her".

On website Ask.fm, she answered the question "What problems did you have in school?" with the word "racism".

When asked how she would like to be remembered, she said: "For being a nice but strong person."

The inquest continues.
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A woman whose sister was refused entry to the UK to donate her perfect match bone marrow has died from leukaemia.

May Brown, 24, was told she needed an urgent stem cell transplant last year.

But her sister, Martha Brown, was blocked from travelling to Britain from Nigeria despite being a 10 out of 10 tissue match.

According to the family, the Home Office said it was not satisfied that she would be a genuine visitor or had the funds to cover the costs of the trip.

That decision was overturned following a campaign, and the stem cell transplant was performed at Kings College Hospital in London in January.

The transplant appeared to have been successful and Martha returned to Nigeria, but three months later May, who had a three-year-old daughter, relapsed.

The 24-year-old, from Weymouth in Dorset, was told by consultants there was nothing more that doctors could do for her, and last Friday she died with loved ones, including her husband Mike, by her side.

The Home Offices decision to temporarily halt Marthas entry to the UK came despite a pledge by the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) to cover the full costs of her trip.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. 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The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. 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On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

ACLT said Marthas 222-a-month teachers salary was too low to meet entry requirements, despite the urgent medical needs of her sister.

May said at the time: I was elated when I received the news Martha was a 10 out of 10 match. But when I received notification her visa was rejected, I felt distraught and helpless.

My two-year-old daughter Selina needs me. She needs me to be back home with her, looking after her.

To know my life isnt important to those who have the power to help me is deeply upsetting. My life can be saved if my sister is granted to enter the UK to donate her stem cells.

This is a six-hour journey which will help save my life. I am begging for the UK Home Office to review their decision and grant my sister admission to the UK.

A petition to grant Martha a visa attracted more than 60,000 signatures, and was delivered to the Home Office, which declined to comment on her case but said all visa applications must be assessed against the immigration rules.

Reversing the Home Office decision last October, immigration minister Robert Goodwill cited compassionate and exceptional circumstances in granting her leave to visit the UK.

Ms Browns husband said in a statement after her death: May will forever be remembered in our hearts. She was a strong, beautiful, supportive, wonderful wife and mother. Selina and I will truly miss her.

May was incredibly grateful to the support given to her from ACLT, and I echo those words on behalf of me and our daughter Selina.

May will forever remain in our hearts.

Beverley De-Gale, co-founder of ACLT, said: In the 18 months Ive known her, I can say May was a remarkable woman who fought hard to beat this terrible illness.

Every member of the ACLT team is extremely saddened by her passing. Our thoughts are with her husband Mike, three-year-old daughter Selina and Mays sister Martha.

As a result of the SaveMayBrown campaign, thousands more people were added to the stem cell register in the UK and Nigeria.

In a similar ongoing case, leukaemia sufferer Isaac Aganozor is appealing for his brother, Patrick, to be allowed to travel from Nigeria to the UK for a bone marrow transplant.

Patrick earns 69 a month as a tricycle courier, and was refused a visa by the British High Commission in Lagos after they said in a letter they were not satisfied he would leave at the end of his stay.

Isaac told the Evening Standard: I was so happy when I found out that my brother was a match. But when his application was rejected it was a bigger shock than getting told I had leukaemia in the first place.

The immigration officers didnt consider my health, only economics.

The Home Office said he was free to submit a new application with supporting evidence.
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A small Scottish island with a notorious lighthouse has gone on sale for 325,000.

The 29-acre island of Little Ross, off the Meikle Ross headland on the south coast of Scotland, is home to a lighthouse, cottages, a natural harbour and pebbly beach.

Potential buyers have been warned they must be capable seamen by the estate agents, as they will need their own boat get there - or a helicopter.

 An entire island is being powered by solar energy

The island hit national headlines in 1960 after lighthouse keeper Hugh Clarke was found dead by two visitors. His assistant, Robert Dickson, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.

The lighthouse, which is not included in the sale, was designed and built by Alan Stevenson and first lit in 1843.

It has been fully automated since the 1960s and is no longer manned. The Northern Lighthouse Board maintains both the lighthouse and the sighting tower.

Included in the listing is a six-bedroom, B-listed cottage and courtyard. The island is also off the grid and runs on power generated by a small wind turbine and solar panels.

The lighthouse is not included in the sale (Galbraith)

Estate agent firm Galbraith has called the listing a rare opportunity to purchase a unique property offering an alternative lifestyle as a retreat or holiday home.

The island is accessible by boat or helicopter (Galbraith)

David Corrie, a senior associate at the firm, said: Private islands rarely come up for sale at an affordable price and particularly one with a habitable house and additional properties.
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The police and Crown Prosecution Service have been accused of failing to disclose crucial information about cases, resulting in defendants right to a fair trial potentially being undermined, according to a new report.

Compiled by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, it found that it was rare for police officers to tell prosecutors about evidence that could undermine their case or assist the accuseds  known in legal terms as unused material.

Their recording of sensitive and non-sensitive evidence was routinely poor, it said, adding that prosecutors in turn were failing to challenge the poor recording of material and carry out their duty to consider what to hand over to the defence throughout a case. This lead to delays and even to trials collapsing, it said.

There is a culture of defeated acceptance where authorities and lawyers would seek to work around the failings rather than fixing them, it said.

Inspectors drew their conclusions after examining 146 crown court case files, including 56 that the CPS identified as failing as a result of disclosure issues.

Inspectors found that in 55.5 per cent of the cases they reviewed there were obvious disclosure issues before a defendant was charged. Prosecutors only dealt fully with these issues in only one in four cases and in 38.3 per cent of cases they were not dealt with at all.

Zoe Gascoyne, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, blamed the emphasis on speedy justice to churn through court cases in a time of cuts to public services.

She added that defendants would be horrified if they knew the extent of the problem.

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She said clients could be put in the dreadful position of being advised to plead guilty to receive maximum credit without all the evidence having been presented to the court.

It is frightening when someone who doesnt have a previous conviction [is in this situation] and a conviction can have a life-changing impact, she said.

Police officers rarely told prosecutors about evidence that could undermine their case or assist the defendant, known as unused material, and polices recording of sensitive information was routinely poor.

Prosecutors were in turn accused of failing to challenge the poor practice by police or consider what should be handed over to the defence during a case.

The results lead to delays, trials collapsing, and defendants making a plea without all the evidence being available.

Richard Atkinson, partner at Tuckers Solicitors, told The Independent that it was not at all uncommon in [his] experience or in colleagues experience for disclosure to not be properly addressed until the door of the court room.

The report added that these chaotic scenes were likely to reflect badly on the criminal justice system in the eyes of victims and witnesses.

 CCTV shows man police want to speak to in relation to acid attack in Luton on 19 May 2016

One example was a man who was accused of robbery who said he was the victim of a violent drug dealer. His claim was not investigated by the police or the CPS before he was charged and he was held in custody for six months.

Shortly before the trial, a review discovered police intelligence that matched his claim, and the case was dismissed.

Matthew Claughton, criminal defence solicitor at Olliers Solicitors, told The Independent: Im speaking in general terms but frequently the disclosure officer can be cavalier without proper regard to their duties. The pressures on cuts to public funding mean that defence lawyers are not always in a position to pursue these issues.

And whats more, I think police know this. They realise that they are up against badly funded defence teams.

Mr Atkinson said the problem did not just come down to police who deliberately disregarded their duties, however.

 Men on mopeds hurl acid at five victims in 90-minute London rampage, say police

There are some police officers for whom that is true but there are others who do not understand the significance of material they have in their possession or think its that important, he said.

The new report has made nine recommendations, including training police officers to deal with disclosure more effectively.

Kevin McGinty, co-author of the report and HM Chief Inspectorate of the CPS, said a failure to address disclosure undermines the principles of a fair trial which is the foundation of our system.

It adds delay, cost and increases the stress faced by witnesses, victims and defendants, he said.

The findings of this inspection will surprise no one who works within the criminal justice system as there appears to be a culture of defeated acceptance that issues of disclosure will often only be dealt with at the last moment, if at all. If the police and CPS are ever going to comply fully with what the law requires of them by way of disclosure, then there needs to be a determined cultural change.

Lawyers welcomed the new report as a first attempt to fix the root cause of the problem.

In a digital age where vast quantities of evidence no longer need to be copied into paper files and can be simply stored on a hard drive, there was less reason to restrict disclosure due to the costs involved, the report said.
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Not one youth jail in England and Wales is now deemed safe after a staggering rise in violence over the past year, the prison watchdog has warned.

Easy access to drugs and soaring numbers of inmates locked up for well over the recommended period have also contributed to a vicious cycle in which emphasis on rehabilitation has declined, Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said.

Speaking at the launch of the annual report today, Mr Clarke warned that any hope for prison reform would be in vain unless the issues were addressed as a matter of urgency with fundamental shifts in the way local and training prisons are run.

Figures show a dramatic rise in violence, self-harm and drug use in jails over the past year, at the same time as activities designed to encourage rehabilitation have declined  with education and employment classes in youth jails hitting a seven-year low.

In the months to December 2016, there was a 27 per cent increase in assaults, amounting to 26,000, with assaults on staff up by a staggering 38 per cent, at 6,844, in the same period, the report says.

The number of self-inflicted deaths has more than doubled since 2013, with 113 prisoners taking their own lives in the 12 months to March 2017.

Mr Clarke said some of the most concerning findings during the year came from young offender institutions (YOIs), where he said a vicious cycle was taking hold as rising violence led to a restrictive regime and security measures, which in turn lead to growing frustration among inmates.

Self-harm rates and violent incidents have surged, while the proportion of youth offenders engaged in any form of training or education is the lowest it has been since 2010, with just 16 per cent of inmates across YOIs engaged in a job, 11 per cent in vocational training and 16 per cent in offending behaviour programmes.

He said that in terms of safety and respect there had been a dramatic decline, adding: In early 2017 I felt compelled to bring to the attention of ministers my serious concern about our findings in the youth estates.

By February 2017, we concluded that there was not a single establishment that we inspected in England and Wales in which it was safe to hold children and young people.

The speed of decline has been staggering. In 2013-14 we found that nine out of 12 institutions were graded good or reasonably good for safety. The reasons for this slump in standards are no doubt complex, but need to be understood and addressed as a matter of urgency.

Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon accused the Government of failing to get a grip on the prison crisis and described the lack of safety in youth jails as a stain on the nation, condemning the Tories decision to drop prison reform in the Queens Speech.

The Ministry of Justice said following the report that it would create a new Youth Custody Service with an executive director for the first time, who it said would lead on reforms to the running of the youth estate, including boosting the number of front-line staff by 20 per cent  all of whom it said would be specially trained to work in this area.

The Inspectorate said that across all prisons in England and Wales, drugs were far too easy to obtain, stating that it was not unusual for 50 per cent of those they surveyed during inspections to have access to a range of substances.

Many inmates have become addicted to drugs since being in prison  which only serves to increase bullying, violence and self-harm. I can't see an overall strategy to deal with the prevalence of drugs, Mr Clarke added.

As well as violence, drugs and solitary confinement, Mr Clarke said a rapidly ageing prison population and utterly appalling living conditions also contributed to the stark decline in standards over the past year.

He described the general living conditions in many institutions, citing cases in which prisoners were locked up for almost entire days, both eating and going to the toilet, in cells that are filthy and dilapidated.

I have too often been appalled by the conditions in which we hold many prisoners, he said.

Far too often I have seen men sharing a cell in which they are locked up for as much as 23 hours a day, in which they are required to eat all their meals, and in which there is an unscreened lavatory.

On several occasions prisoners have pointed out insect and vermin infestations to me. In many prisons I have seen shower and lavatory facilities that are filthy and dilapidated but with no credible or affordable plans for refurbishment.

The report highlights widespread failure by prisons to take on board the guidance of the Inspectorate, noting that while 95 per cent of the recommendations were accepted, 42 per cent had not been implemented.

Mr Clarke said this demonstrated a huge gap between accepting the recommendations and achieving them, which said was unacceptable.

Responding to the report, Shadow Justice Secretary Mr Burgon said: This report makes it clear that the crisis in our prisons is getting worse by the day.

Recommended Teenager being locked up for almost 24 hours a day speaks out

Our prisons are becoming ever more dangerous for prisoners and staff alike. Assaults on staff are up by over a third and it is a stain on the nation that not a single young offenders institute inspected was deemed safe.

The Conservative Governments failure to get a grip of the prisons crisis, including dropping prison reform from the Queens Speech, is making it more difficult to turn prisoners lives around and to reduce risk to the public.

Drastic Conservative cuts to prison budgets and staff numbers are driving this prisons crisis. Labour would tackle it by recruiting thousands of new prisons officers and increasing staff retention by improving terms and conditions.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: Prisons are out of control. A prisoner dies by suicide every three days. Children are locked up with nothing to do for 23 hours a day.

Record levels of violence mean that men are too scared to leave their cells. Women are injuring themselves more and more. Staff fear for their lives. Conditions are filthy. Enough is enough.

On the day of the Queens Speech, the new Secretary of State for Justice sought to assure us that the Government would respond positively to criticism from Her Majestys Chief Inspector of Prisons. Today, that criticism could not be clearer  the state is failing in its duty to people in prison and staff. Now, I expect to see action.

She added: Prisons for children should be closed forthwith. For decades, children have been subjected to abuse and neglect by the state. Now the official watchdog has confirmed what the Howard League has been saying for years  there is not a single prison in the country where a child is safe.

The Chief Inspectors conclusion that a tragedy is inevitable unless action is taken is one of the starkest warnings we have heard about children in prison.

Commenting on the report, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: The Chief Inspector of Prisons could not put it any more clearly  political rhetoric on prison reform counts for nothing when so many prisons lack the most basic elements of a civilised way of life for either prisoners or staff.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at 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A dramatic reduction in staffing numbers prompted this crisis, but its solution lies in a similarly dramatic change in the way we use prison. Ending the use of pointless short sentences and needless recalls would ease pressure quickly on the worst affected prisons.

But a timetabled plan to end overcrowding, reserving prison to only the most serious offences, and for periods that punish without destroying hope, is essential to achieving a permanent improvement in the longer term.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: The safety and welfare of every young person in custody is our absolute priority and we are clear that more needs to be done to achieve this. But we also want custody to improve the life chances of children in our care and to deliver improvements to education and health services within youth custody.

Thats why we have created a new Youth Custody Service, with an executive director for the first time in the departments history  to make sure this vital area is given the priority and weight it deserves.

The new director will lead on reforms to the running of the youth estate, including boosting the number of front-line staff by 20 per cent  all of whom will be specially trained to work in the youth estate.
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A forgotten chapter in black history is to be revisited with an exhibition revealing how some of the first fighters in the struggle against slavery were once held in a British prison.

During the wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, when Britains black population numbered no more than 10,000, some 2,000 African-Caribbean people were held as prisoners of war in Portchester Castle in Portsmouth Harbour.

In the intervening 200 years, many POWs names were forgotten, but now, after years of painstaking research, Abigail Coppins, curator at English Heritage, which manages the castle, has been able to rediscover their identities.

Ms Coppins said: To discover the identities of 2,000 African-Caribbean prisoners of war imprisoned in Portchester Castle was quite astonishing.

At a time when the entire black population of Britain was roughly 10 - 15,000, our exhibition completely turns the tables on the views of the period. These names and this exhibition restores a forgotten chapter of black history to Englands story.

These were not slaves, but free men and women, fighting and in some cases dying for a cause they believed in. 

Portchester Castle (English Heritage)

As the new exhibition at the castle will reveal when it opens on Wednesday, the black prisoners of war included some of the most distinguished fighters in the early battles against slavery in the Caribbean.

Among those held within the castle walls were Captain Louis Delgres, who in 1998 was accorded the honour of having his body transferred to the Pantheon, the mausoleum where France inters the remains of its greatest citizens.

Born free on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Delgres, of mixed race, was captured on St Vincent in 1796, when the British crushed a force comprised of the islands local population, runaway slaves and French soldiers.

This rebel force had risen up against St Vincents British rulers after revolutionary France had voted to end slavery in all its colonies in 1794.

Transported to England with other defeated survivors of what became known as the Second Carib War, Delgres was allowed to go to France in a prisoner exchange deal that saw British prisoners return to England.

He went back to the Caribbean, but despite being a free man himself, took up arms against Napoleon when the French emperor reinstated slavery.

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At the Battle of Matouba on Guadeloupe in 1802, finding themselves surrounded but refusing to be taken alive, Delgres and about 400 of his followers ignited their gunpowder stores, killing themselves and attempting to take as many French soldiers as possible with them.

Ms Coppins research has shown that other Portchester prisoners had fought on St Lucia, which in 1795 had been taken from the British, allowing the island to enjoy what became known as lAnnee de la Liberte  the year of freedom from slavery.

The year of freedom ended when British troops under Sir Ralph Abercrombie recaptured St Lucia in May 1796, but some pro-French fighters, former slaves among them, slipped into the bush and began a guerrilla campaign that the British took until 1797 to suppress.

The rebels called themselves Larmee Francaise dans les bois (the French army in the woods); the British called them brigands.

Among the more charismatic rebels was Jean-Louis Marin Pedre, whom even his British adversary Brigadier-General John Moore described as a man with great goodness of heart.

An illiterate but free-born property owner, Pedre had been driven into armed opposition to the British by the behaviour of Sir Charles Gordon, who as governor of St Lucia had detained hundreds of people arbitrarily, demanding money for their release.

After his surrender to the British, Pedre found himself detained in Portchester Castle  alongside his wife Charlotte.

The presence of soldiers wives in the prison does not appear especially unusual. Ms Coppins has confirmed that General Marinier, Commander in Chief of the French forces on St Lucia was also kept in the castle with his wife Eulalie Piemont.

At this stage of the hostilities with France, conditions at Portchester, a castle dating from Roman times, were not especially arduous.

Because many of the black prisoners had arrived at the castle in attire suitable only for a Caribbean climate and suffering from chilblains, the prison officers issued them with thick woollen vests and extra socks.

It was, however, reported that it was not immediately possible to find shoes that fitted them the West Indians having all large feet.

The prison doctor was, though, able to arrange for them to be given additional provisions, which included extra potatoes, soup before bedtime, and beer flavoured with ginger, which was thought to be warming.

Deaths were rare, and there were some limited opportunities for exercise, because in response to prisoners rioting over cramped conditions in 1743, during the War of Austrian Succession, a fenced airing ground had been built in the castle grounds.

Indeed, at about this time, there were complaints that while the French subjected English POWs to inhumanity unprecedented in the annals of civilised nations, the British looked after their prisoners so well that, as a letter writer to the Gentlemans Magazine put it in 1793: The Sans Culottes we hold in prison never lived so well in their lives before.

During this period conditions in Portchester and elsewhere remained sufficiently relaxed for there to be regular markets where the British public would be admitted to buy or barter articles from the prisoners.

Prisoners keen to boost their resources of either money or food were said to have fashioned scale models of ships or musical instruments built from the bones of their meat rations.

At Portchester, during the Napoleonic wars, a group of prisoners from mainland France were even able to create a theatre where the quality of their music, dance, scenery and costumes approached that of the professional stage. Monsieur Carre, the troupes leader was sent new plays by the Theatre Feydeau in Paris.

As part of the new exhibition, English Heritage has now installed a replica of the theatre in the ground floor of Portchesters great keep, featuring a wooden stage complete with the original backdrop of the Pont Neuf in Paris.

And on Wednesday, a local audience will be treated to a special staging of one of the prisoners original plays, entitled Roseliska. An original manuscript for the three-act melodrama survived because it was dedicated to Captain Pearson, the man in charge of the prison, and was handed down through generations of the British officers family.

Despite such apparently friendly relations between warders and inmates, however, the prison was not immune to racial tension.

The guards could not stop prisoners of war from mainland France stealing the Caribbean contingents clothes, and this eventually led to black and mixed-race soldiers being accommodated separately on two new prison ships.

The African-Caribbean men and women were eventually exchanged for captured British soldiers and sent to France.
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A tougher line is required to tackle potentially harmful gender stereotypes in advertising that instil gender roles and drive unfair outcomes in society, the UK's advertising watchdog has warned.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concluded that regulations must be stricter after carrying out research which found that stereotypes in ads can restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people and adults".

The report, published on Tuesday, says that while the regulator had a record of banning ads on the grounds of objectification and inappropriate sexualisation, a "tougher line" was needed on those that feature stereotypical gender roles, including those that mock people for not conforming.

It cites examples of a number of depictions in adverts it states are problematic, including depicting family members creating a mess while a woman has sole responsibility for cleaning it up and suggesting a specific activity is inappropriate for boys because it is stereotypically associated with girls, or vice versa.

In response to the evidence, the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), which writes the UK Advertising Codes, will develop new standards on ads that feature stereotypical gender roles or characteristics, which the ASA will then administer and enforce. The new standards are set to come into force next year.

Evelyn Greeves, an 18-year-old Girl Guiding advocate, told The Independent she was highly influenced and pushed to think a certain way by adverts as she was growing up, saying: Its taken me a long time to unlearn the stereotypes that were instilled into me by adverts and the media while I was growing up.

The images of women make me feel like my body should be a certain way, and I think Im still unlearning this idea that its always the woman who does the cooking and cleaning.

It can definitely sway people in a subconscious way to believe they should look a certain way or pursue a certain future. And the ads are everywhere. Once youve started noticing them, you notice they are all over the place.

It comes as the Girlguiding from the Girls Attitude Survey 2017 revealed that more than nine in 10 (93 per cent) girls and young women aged 11-21 think the advertising industry should stop using gender stereotypes of women and men,

Fifty-nine per cent of the same group, meanwhile, had seen airbrushed images in the media in the past week which made them feel pressured to look different, while 47 per cent had seen stereotypical images of men and women in the media in the past week which made them feel less confident to do what they want.

Guy Parker, chief executive of the ASA, said tougher advertising standards could play an important role in tackling inequalities not only for individuals but throughout society as a whole.

Portrayals which reinforce outdated and stereotypical views on gender roles in society can play their part in driving unfair outcomes for people, he said.

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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

While advertising is only one of many factors that contribute to unequal gender outcomes, tougher advertising standards can play an important role in tackling inequalities and improving outcomes for individuals, the economy and society as a whole.

Ella Smillie, lead report author, said: Our review shows that specific forms of gender stereotypes in ads can contribute to harm for adults and children.

Such portrayals can limit how people see themselves, how others see them, and limit the life decisions they take. Tougher standards in the areas weve identified will address harms and ensure that modern society is better represented.
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David Davis left Brexit discussions with the EU after less than an hour before returning to Westminster.

The Brexit Secretary's meeting during a flying visit to Brussels included 10-15 minutes alone and away from officials with the European Commission chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in discussions described as "very friendly" and "positive".

But shortly after declaring it was time to "get down to work" in a media event alongside Mr Barnier, Mr Davis returned to London.

A Government source talking to the Press Association dismissed suggestions Mr Davis had to leave talks early to get back to the House of Commons in time to vote against a Labour motion to vastly increase the amount of debating time for backbenchers' legislation.

 Tony Blair: It's necessary that Brexit doesn't happen

The speculation came as the minority Government is mired in difficulties, with Theresa May set to order senior ministers to keep Cabinet discussions private after a series of leaks targeting Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Labour said Mr Davis's exit from Brussels after a few hours, amid the storm of leaks at home, showed the Government is in "disarray", while the Liberal Democrats mocked the Brexit Secretary for "skulking back to the UK after just half a day".

Mr Davis had also spent time speaking to some of the 98 UK officials carrying out the detailed talks, and a Government source insisted: "He didn't go back for anything specific, just that the timetable for today was always set out this way, that he would go back this morning, they had already agreed that."

During their meeting, Mr Davis and Mr Barnier talked about tasking their teams for talks, and said they were looking forward to getting into the substance of the issues, the source said.

Mr Davis is expected to return for further talks with Mr Barnier on Thursday and a potential press conference to wrap up the second formal round of negotiations.

The four day talks got under way with a plenary session followed by working groups on the issues of citizens' rights, borders, the UK's financial settlement and separation issues, including the UK's position in relation to the European civil nuclear regulator, Euratom, the source of Tory disquiet at home.

The mood among the 98 British officials in Brussels was said to be "determined" and a source told PA they "covered quite a lot of ground" in the talks, conducted in English and French.

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

A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said: "As the Secretary of State has said, it's time to get down to business.

"Both sides have today got round the table and started the serious business of working through our positions in a number of areas.

"We recognise that this will be a complicated and technical process and we look forward to coming back tomorrow to make progress on the work we have begun today."

The negotiations were overshadowed by an explosive Cabinet row in Britain.

The Prime Minister is set to use Tuesday's regular Cabinet meeting to "remind" ministers they should maintain silence about the content of meetings and focus on their job of delivering for the public.

It comes after a series of newspaper headlines about Mr Hammond's comments at last week's Cabinet, culminating in a Daily Telegraph front page story quoting an unnamed minister accusing the Chancellor of trying to "f*** up" Brexit.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: "Since the election the Government has been in disarray. There is no agreed Cabinet position on vital Brexit issues, the negotiating team is not prepared and the Prime Minister has lost her authority.

"Meanwhile the clock is ticking and the risks are increasing day by day.

"David Davis can hardly say this is the time to get down to business and then spend only a few minutes in Brussels before heading back to Whitehall.

"We need a fresh approach and to see real progress in negotiations. That means engaging with the substance of talks. And it means resolving vital issues such as citizens' rights that have already dragged on for too long."

The UK team had fewer notes than the EU one (PA Images)

As talks opened in Brussels, Mr Davis and his team were photographed sitting without any papers opposite EU negotiators with stacks of papers on the table in front of them.

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said: "This is a Government with no papers, no plan and no time for the most important negotiations of a lifetime.

"They are meant to be negotiating Brexit, but they can't even negotiate among themselves."

Additional reporting by agencies
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Philip Hammond has said he welcomes the opportunity to work with other parties to reach a consensus on leaving the EU - as he dismissed reports of colleagues briefing against him.

Confronted with reports that Mr Hammond is prepared to champion a longer transition period for Britain to remain in the tariff-free single market, the Chancellor said he welcomed the opportunity to work with other parties on Britains exit from the bloc.

Chris Leslie, a leading supporter of a soft Brexit and a former shadow minister, pointed to recent analysis from the Office of Budget Responsibility, the UK's fiscal watchdog, which he said indicated that a hard Brexit presents the biggest threat to our national debt".

Speaking during Treasury questions in the Commons, Mr Leslie asked: So if the reports are true that the Chancellor is prepared to maybe champion a longer transition period for the UK in the single market, can I not just say that's welcome news but it's also something that might be able to secure a lot of support on all sides of the House?

Mr Hammond replied: I welcome your contribution and in an issue as important to our nation's future as our exit from the European Union, I welcome any opportunity to build consensus across the House and across the nation.

You are absolutely right to draw attention to what the OBR pointed out, that even a very small decline in our productivity performance would add huge amounts to debt and reduce by significant amounts our projected growth in GDP.

But asked by his Conservative colleague, Sir Edward Leigh, to assure MPs he was absolutely, personally and enthusiastically committed to leaving the single market and customs union, the Chancellor replied confirmed he was, adding: Those are matters of legal necessity.

Mr Hammond also used the Treasury questions session in the Commons to brush aside jibes from the opposition benches, regarding a series of damaging briefings against him from his own Cabinet colleagues over the weekend, including claims he made sexist comments, said public sector workers were overpaid, and attempting to sabotage the Brexit process.

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

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow city minister, said: Are we more likely to see a transitional Chancellor than a transitional [Brexit] deal?

Responding to a description of him as an enfeebled Chancellor by the shadow treasury minister, Peter Dowd, Mr Hammond responded: I dont know what planet you live on but I dont feel particularly enfeebled.

Mr Hammonds comments after Theresa May reprimanded Cabinet ministers for the damaging leaks and briefs against the Chancellor, telling them the stories were seen as a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously.
Growing up in Rochester, New York, Barbara Adler used to gaze at the mirror and ask herself whose features she was seeing there. Were those her fathers eyes? Her mothers lips?

Adler knew from an early age that she had been adopted in infancy, but the couple who raised her gave her only the basic facts about her birth parents. She knew, for instance, that her birth father was Jewish but her birth mother was not, that her parents were in college when they met and that they had to give her up for adoption; that was about it.

She never felt resentful, Adler says today. The couple who raised her were loving, caring people who gave her and her brother (who was also adopted) a solid middle-class upbringing, and she always thought of them as Mom and Dad. Still, sometimes her mind would turn to the question of her personal origins.

When we were kids, we used to play orphanage, said Adler, now 64 and living in Corvallis. I dont think all kids play orphanage.

As she grew older, she sometimes thought about trying to track down her birth family but always dismissed the idea, partly out of loyalty to her adoptive parents and partly because she didnt want to stir up painful memories for the mother and father who gave her up.

Yet she remained curious about her ethnic background, and her attitude about researching her family tree started to shift some years back after her adoptive parents and brother died.

About a year ago, Adler decided to take the plunge. She joined Ancestry.com, an online genealogy research service, and sent in a saliva sample for testing. The company sent her a list of other Ancestry subscribers who might be related to her, but none who could be closer than third cousins.

Intrigued, Adler used Ancestrys in-app messaging service to reach out to the people on the list, providing what little she knew about her own background and asking if any of them knew someone who had been put up for adoption in Rochester in 1952.

No one did, but a woman named Amy Sanchez wrote back to say Adler might be related to a family named Dudman. That was interesting, as far as it went, but Adlers search seemed to hit a dead end at that point.

Then, on May 4, Adler got an email on the Ancestry service from a woman named Joan Hall who said they might be related. She wanted to know Adlers birthdate and whether she had been adopted.

The questions were telling, but what really caught Adlers attention was the notation on the email from Ancestry.com. Based on information the sender had provided, the company said, there appeared to be just a single degree of separation between Adler and Hall.

I knew it had to be my mother, she said.

Adler responded with the information and soon got a reply.

Im very certain you are my daughter, the email said, and Im very glad that I found you.

Adler wasnt sure what she would find when she set out to investigate her roots, but the unexpected email exchange filled her with powerful emotions. Even now, weeks later, she struggles to describe what she felt in that moment.

There are not adequate words, she said. Happy is not enough of a word. Awesome is not enough of a word. I dont know how to express it very well.

The two women exchanged phone numbers, and Hall promised to call her daughter soon. My heart, she wrote, is full to overflowing.

Their first phone call lasted for an hour as mother and daughter filled each other in on six decades worth of intimate details from lives that each had imagined but knew nothing about.

For the first time, Adler learned that her father was a man named Harlan Dudman, a schoolteacher from Rochester who died in 1974. He and her mother met in college and fell in love. When they learned that she was pregnant, they decided to get married, but religion was an issue. Dudmans family was dead-set against his marrying outside the Jewish faith, an attitude his brother made abundantly clear.

If you marry that girl, he said, we will hold a funeral for you, and you will be dead to our family.

Bowing to his familys wishes, Dudman never saw his pregnant lover again. She delivered the baby at a local hospital and put her up for adoption as Baby Girl Martin, using her great-great-grandmothers maiden name.

Adler also learned that her mother, whose own maiden name was Cornish, went on to marry a man named Hall and give birth to two girls and a boy, who all lived near her in the Rochester area.

Things moved quickly after Adler learned that. On June 29, Adler flew to New York with one of her two grown daughters for a long-overdue reunion. She visited a local cemetery where five generations of her mothers family are buried. She met her half-siblings Beth Thomas, Julie Jugle and Andy Hall, as well as their children and a smattering of grandchildren. After a lifetime of separation, the whole clan chattered away together as though theyd never been apart.

Remarkably, Im the only person who did not cry, Adler said. I was trying to take in as much as I could and remember it.

She learned that while she and her Hall relations had all kinds of things in common, there was little in the way of a physical resemblance. Then she saw a photograph of her father.

I always wondered who I looked like, Adler said. Now I know.

And now she has another family reunion to attend.

After reconnecting with her mother over Ancestry.com back in May, Adler emailed Amy Sanchez, the woman who had first suggested a possible Dudman relationship, to tell her she had just learned that her fathers name was Harlan Dudman. The response from Sanchez came as a shock, Adler recalled.

She wrote back, What? You are my sister!

Like Adlers mother, her father had gone on to marry and have three kids, all girls. But unlike Hall, who had told all her children when they were in high school about the baby she had given up for adoption, Dudman never shared that information with his own kids. For them, Adlers revelation was a bolt from the blue.

Adlers Dudman half-sisters are scattered around the country  Sanchez in Texas, Sherri Bauer in New York and Tracie Decker in California  but all are planning to gather this October in Chicago, where Adler will travel to meet them for the first time.

Shes not quite sure what to expect from the get-together, and shes still processing the avalanche of new information shes learned about herself over the last two months. She confesses to feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

For awhile it was like: Who am I? Am I Barbara Adler or am I not? she said.

But now, she added, she feels like shes beginning to come to terms with her new identity  and reconcile it with the one shes had all along.

I have just a ton of Adler history I always have been fascinated by  its who I am, she said. Im not giving it up  but I have two more families now.
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EU diplomats have hit out at Britains failure to agree it must pay a hefty financial settlement for Brexit, suggesting the controversy will stall the talks.

The second round of the negotiations appeared to have run into trouble within 24 hours of resuming in Brussels, over the vexed issue of the so-called divorce bill

Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, was preparing to tell the British side that the negotiations served little purpose until Britain engaged seriously with the issue of payments.

 Michel Barnier encourages the UK to make haste in the Brexit negotiations

Financial settlement is the priority, one EU diplomat told the Politico website.

The EU will not walk away from talks but will stall them. The impression we got so far is that the UK is not ready for these talks.

Another EU diplomat said: It is reasonable to expect the Brits to say something other than we will not pay a penny. If thats not the case, what is there to talk about?

The warning comes after eyebrows were raised over David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, leaving the talks after just one hour on Monday.

Mr Davis made only a flying visit to Brussels, speaking with Mr Barnier for no more than 15 minutes, before heading back to London and leaving the negotiations to his officials.

The agenda for the four-day talks includes the rights of EU citizens in the UK  and British ex-pats in the EU  the exit bill and the Northern Ireland border.

 David Davis arrives for 2nd round of EU talks

Last week, Mr Barnier urged the British side to present detailed proposals on all three priorities before the talks resumed, but there is no evidence that this happened.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman, asked about the diplomats criticism, said: I havent seen those comments.

Negotiations are ongoing and, as I have said throughout, we are not providing a running commentary on it. Ms May was updated all the time, he added.

The European Commission declined to comment on the state of the negotiations, but said a working group on the UKs financial settlement had convened as planned.

The Government has sent out mixed messages about its willingness to pay a large financial settlement in recognition of its past and future commitments.

The Brexit department acknowledged last week that there would be obligations even after departure day  but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told MPs the EU could go whistle.

The EU has refused to put a hard figure on the financial settlement it is demanding, amid claims it could run to 100bn.

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 Davis officials insisted it had always been the plan for him to open the negotiations, leave his team to handle the detailed talks and return to Brussels on Wednesday afternoon.

They denied he had been forced to return to Westminster early because Labour had forced an emergency debate and the Conservatives lacked a majority.

Labours shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, said the Government was in disarray over the Brexit talks. The clock is ticking and the risks are increasing day by day.
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The Governments spending watchdog has called for an overhaul in the way aid spending is monitored after it found it impossible to tell whether the 12bn being spent annually is achieving its stated aims.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said it was not possible to assess whether the aid budget spending was making any difference to the Governments four key development goals because of a lack of measurable performance metrics.

The Government has four main goals in spending British aid: strengthen global peace, security and governance, enhance crisis resilience, promote global prosperity, and tackle extreme poverty.

But the NAO said progress can only be measured for the last aim. With only one of the four of the UK Aid Strategys objectives supported by measurable targets, it is not possible to assess progress in its implementation, it said.

The watchdog says assessing the spending of the aid is complicated because of its distribution across 14 government departments. The Department for International Development (DFID), which manages the bulk of aid is said to have improved its monitoring processes  but the NAO warns that other departments apparently lack the staff and systems in place to deal with the cash properly.

Sir Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: The Government has decided that departments and cross-government funds other than DFID should have responsibility for expenditure which makes up the 0.7 per cent aid target.

This means that meeting the target has become a more complex undertaking and the resulting gaps in accountability and responsibility require more effort to manage.

HM Treasury and DFID, together with other relevant bodies, should now focus on developing ways to demonstrate the overall effectiveness and coherence of ODA expenditure.

NGOs welcomed the report and said government departments outside of DFID needed to improve their processes. Richard Pyle, head of UK policy at Oxfam, said: This report shows that too often other departments  to whom the Government is giving increasing volumes of aid  are falling short in this respect.

Priti Patel heads the Department for International Development, which came out of the report well (Getty)

No financial increases should be made by ministers to non-DFID departments, without action to improve the transparency and quality of aid they deliver.

Neil Thorns, director of advocacy at the aid agency Cafod, said: Given that overseas development assistance is increasingly being spent outside DFID, yet the report notes a lack of clarity about which part of Government is responsible for monitoring overall effectiveness, its imperative the Government ensures all aid spending is being held to the same standards of transparency and effectiveness as money spent by DFID.

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. 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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. 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

Kat Sladden, UK director of the ONE Campaign, which tackles poverty, said: The progress DFID has made in managing its budget is to be applauded  but more accountability is needed across Government.

A spokesman for DFID said: DFID is responsible for 74 per cent of the Governments ODA spending. Other Government departments have direct responsibility for their share of the development budget and are accountable to Parliament and UK taxpayers for how they spend ODA.

The International Development Secretary continuously reviews all DFID spending and stops programmes deemed not to be delivering value for money or which fail to meet international development objectives.
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Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has insisted that some permanent homes will be ready for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire very shortly.

Of the 220 households affected, just nine are in temporary accommodation with the rest still in hotels or staying with friends or family.

But Mr Javid said that many families had chosen to turn down offers of temporary accommodation  leading MPs to question the suitability of the housing on offer in a parliamentary debate.

Hammersmiths Labour MP Andy Slaughter accused the Government of lying over its promise to provide suitable accommodation until the promised permanent homes in Kensington are ready.

He went on to call on the Government to force Kensington and Chelsea Council to use some of the 274 million it has in reserves to build social homes.

A growing number of Grenfell survivors are being places in budget hotels in my constituency as the central London hotels fill up for the tourist season, he said.

Despite these being unsuitable for long stays, especially for young families, they are being booked by the month. This gives the lie to the fact that the Government has suitable accommodation ready; not temporary, not unsuitable accommodation, permanent accommodation.

Will the Secretary of State ask Kensington and Chelsea to take some of the 274m it has on its balance sheet and go and buy a couple of hundred homes and make sure these people have decent housing?

Mr Javid told the House that money was not the issue and said instead it was the survivors choosing to stay put because they were not ready to move.

I can confirm that the first new permanent homes will be available very shortly and more are being secured either in Kensington and Chelsea or very close by.

In the meantime, good quality, fully furnished, temporary accommodation in the local area has been offered to every family.

Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP for Kensington, said: Im dealing with case workday by day and Im amazed that only 22 households have been matched with temporary accommodation, four have moved in. What on earth is going on here?

Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Show all 10 1 /10 Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Inside a flat at 375 Kensington High Street - Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The 68 flats are being acquired by the City of London Corporation as part of the response to the tragedy berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The luxury flats are located just a couple of miles from Grenfell Tower berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The families will be offered permanent homes in the building berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Penthouses in the block can go for up to 13m berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street A spokesman for the Berkeley Group confirmed they were finalising plans berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The property boasts a gym, swimming pool and 24-hour concierge service harrodsestates.com Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The families will live in the award winning 2bn development berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Families whose lives were devastated by the fire at Grenfell Tower are to be housed in a luxury development berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street 68 families are to be rehomed in the block berkeleygroup.co.uk

There are empty homes all across the borough and they are still not being taken up. They are being offered unsuitable homes.

But Mr Javid told the House: In terms of the families, 169 families have received offers, 30 offers of temporary accommodation have been accepted by those families, nine families have already moved in.

As she will know full well from talking to her constituents, many families dont feel ready to move into temporary accommodation yet and we will absolutely respect their wishes.

Mr Javid said that more than 220 temporary homes of good quality had been found as suitable temporary accommodation until the promised permanent homes in Kensington become available.

The majority of those affected have expressed their wish to stay in the borough. Mr Javid asked Ms Dent Coad to pass on details of any unsuitable offers to him.

Recommended Jeremy Corbyn says diverse people from must sit on Grenfell inquiry

Last week, it emerged that one family was offered a flat in a tower block while a disabled woman was asked to live in a building with no lift.

The Grenfell Response Team, set up by the Government, has said all rent payments will be suspended for one year to enable the victims to get back on their feet, and that residents should feel under no pressure to take up the first offer of accommodation they receive.

The GRT has said that after the one years grace period, rent will be on a similar scale to council homes or social rent.

At least 80 people died when the west London block went up in flames on 14 June.
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan is not sure it is appropriate for our government to toll out the red carpet for Donald Trump.

The US leader was offered a state visit to Britain by Theresa May, seven days after his presidential inauguration, when she became the first foreign leader to visit the White House.

She said she had extended an invitation from the Queen to Trump and his wife, Melania, to make a state visit later in the year and was delighted that the president has accepted that invitation.

But Mr Khan, who has clashed with Mr Trump over his decision to bar people from travelling to the US from mainly Muslim countries and the response to the London Bridge terror attack, has questioned whether it takes place.

"State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet," he told CNN.

He added: "If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role.

"If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump."

After months of doubt about whether it would take place, amid speculation the US president could have made a surprise stopover after last weeks G20 summit, the government has conceded that the official visit will not take place until 2018.

Donald Trump reportedly told Theresa May he will not make a state visit to the UK until he is guaranteed a "better reception".

The US President asked the Prime Minister to prepare a "warm welcome" before he agrees to set a date, it has been claimed.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

"I havent had great coverage out there lately, Theresa," Mr Trump told Ms May, according to a transcript of the conversation seen by The Sun.

Ms May replied: "Well, you know what the British press are like."

But Mr Trump added: "I still want to come, but Im in no rush.

It leaves open the possibility of a low-key visit to London before the end of this year if Trump is in Europe on other business.

After the terror attack on London Bridge last month that left eight people dead, Mr Trump took to Twitter to criticise Mr Khan after he said there was "no reason to be alarmed" by the increased police presence drew an extraordinary rebuke from Trump on Twitter.

"At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!'" Trump tweeted.

Mr Khan responded by saying his remarks had been taken out of context because he had been referring to the enhanced police presence.

But Mr Trump then tweeted: "Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his 'no reason to be alarmed' statement. MSM [mainstream media] is working hard to sell it!"

Earlier this year, more than 1.8 million people signed a petition seeking to block Trump's trip over fears that it would "cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen."
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Survivors of the 9/11 attacks have written to Prime Minister Theresa May  urging her to make public a British government report into the extent of Saudi Arabias funding of Islamist extremism in the UK.

The report into the significance of the financing of Islamic extremists in Britain by Saudi Arabia and other nations was commissioned by Ms Mays predecessor, David Cameron, as part of a deal to obtain political support for a parliamentary vote on UK airstrikes on Syria.

Last week, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the report was not being published because of the volume of personal information it contains and for national security reasons. Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas suggested the refusal to make public the report was linked to a reluctance to criticise the kingdom, with which Britain has long had close strategic and economic ties.

Almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks (Getty)

Now, a group representing US survivors of the 9/11 attacks and the relatives of some of the almost 3,000 people who died, has urged Ms May to seize the chance to release the report, even if it is not fully complete.

The UK now has the unique historic opportunity to stop the killing spree of Wahhabism-inspired terrorists by releasing the UK governments report on terrorism financing in the UK which, according to media reports, places Saudi Arabia at its centre of culpability, says the letter, signed by 15 people.

The longer Saudi Arabias complicity is hidden from sunlight, the longer terrorism will continue. They must be stopped; but who will stop them? We submit that you are uniquely situated to shine the cleansing light of public consciousness.

It adds: We respectfully urge you to release the report now, finished or unfinished. We ask you to consider all the victims of state-sponsored, Saudi-financed terrorism, their families and their survivors in the UK and all over the world.

Sharon Premoli, one of the authors of the letter, was on the 80th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre when the first Al-Qaeda plane struck and rushed to safety. She is among those who have been pursuing legal action against Saudi Arabia and is adamant the attacks could not have happened without its support.

Ms Premoli, from Vermont, told The Independent that in the 16 years since the attacks were carried out, she and others have pursued the money trail. We are always led to the source - Saudi Arabia, she said.

 US Congress overrides Obama's veto on 9/11 bill

She added: This has been a long time coming. If you think, were 16 years on from the murder of 3,000 people and the injuring of another 6,000 and the deaths and illnesses of countless others.

Others who have signed the letter are Brett and Gail Eagleson, the son and widow of John Eagleton, who died on the 17th floor of the Second Tower, Ellen Saracini, the widow of Victor Saracini, a pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, which was hijacked as it made its way from Boston to Los Angeles and flown into the South Tower, and Kathy Owens, whose husband, Peter, perished on the 104th Floor of the North Tower.

Copies of the letter have been sent to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, Ms Rudd, and Sir Kim Darroch, Britains Ambassador to Washington.

Ms Premoli, the author of a memoir Autumn: On the Way Back from 9/11, said the US government was actively involved in a cover-up of Saudi Arabias role. In addition, she said the US and Britain were promoting closer ties with Riyadh, and the sale of arms and weapons.

She said the weapons were now being used to devastating effect in Yemen, where the Saudis have been attacking Shia Houthi rebels, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths.

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

Though 15 of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks on New York and Washington were from Saudi Arabia, the government has always denied having any role. The bi-partisan 9/11 Commission Report found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organisation.

Last year, a long-classified section comprising 28 pages that detailed potential Saudi government ties to the attack but which had not been verified, were finally made public.

Earlier this spring, a lawsuit was filed in New York on behalf of the families of 850 individuals who were killed and 1,500 who were injured.

The suit, which was filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York and will be heard US District Judge George Daniels, seeks unspecified monetary damages and says Saudi supported Al-Qaeda in four critical ways  supporting government-linked charities that ran training camps, directly funding Osama Bin Ladens terror group, supporting the hijackers by providing them with passports and, finally, offering on-the-ground support to the hijackers in the 18 months leading up to the attacks.

9/11 could not have happened without Saudi Arabias support for al-Qaeda, said lead lawyer Jim Kreindler.

Ground Zero in New York City (Rex)

Many believe Britain and the US share a long history of promoting and using Islamist extremists when it has benefited their strategic, economic or military goals. Mark Curtis, the historian and author of Secret Affairs: Britains Collusion with Radical Islam, wrote recently that Saudi Arabias role in promoting Wahhabism had been known for decades.

The British elite is perfectly aware of the insidious role that Saudi Arabia plays in fomenting terrorism, he said. In October 2014, General Jonathan Shaw, a former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, told the Telegraph that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires Isis terrorists.

This is not the first time that a British government has sought to protect strategic ties with Saudi Arabia by covering up embarrassing or damaging information.

In 2006, Tony Blair halted a major criminal investigation into alleged corruption by the arms company BAE Systems and payments to Saudi officials involved in the Al-Yamamah arms deal, after it was decided continuing the probe would endanger Britains security - the same excuse cited by Ms Rudd.

Downing Street directed enquiries to the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office did not immediately respond. The Saudi Arabia Embassy in Washington also did respond to questions.

The attacks of 2001 killed people from around the world. In addition to the more than 2,600 US victims, 372 foreign nationals from 61 countries lost their lives. The second largest number, 67, were British.

Ms Lucas, the MP Brighton Pavilion said she supported the efforts of the survivors.

I fully support these 9/11 survivors in their appeal to Theresa May to release this report. The Governments refusal to publish it, and their recent vague statement on the issue, are completely unacceptable, she said in a statement.

The Government accepts that foreign funding is a significant source of income for some extremist groups here in Britain  but they wont say in public where that money is coming from. This group of 9/11 survivors are right to demand answers... and I hope Theresa May takes heed of their calls.
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The Electoral Commission has warned of a troubling rise in alleged voter fraud amid suggestions that Labour in particular could have been boosted at the general election by students voting for them twice.

Students are legally allowed to register at both their university address and their home address, but must only vote in one location.

However, some have reportedly admitted that they voted twice for Labour in order to boost the partys chances at the election.

The Electoral Commission has received over 1,000 complaints and letters from 38 MPs alleging that voters cast duplicate ballots. It is working with police to determine how best to investigate the claims.

The current system, which relies largely on paper lists being distributed to polling stations, makes it difficult to prevent people voting twice if they are registered in two places.

The Commission called on ministers to invest in a new IT system that would prevent duplicate voting.

Over 500,000 more people registered to vote in the June 8 poll than in the previous election in 2015, taking the total number of voters on the electoral roll to 46.8 million  the largest ever for a UK election.

More than 2.9 million people applied to register to vote between the announcement of the election on 18 April and the deadline for applications on 22 May, including 612,000 on 22 May itself.

The majority of those applying for a vote  around 70 per cent  were under the age of 34, although many of them were already on the register.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. Stormont and the political situation in Northern Ireland has been in limbo following the collapse of the power sharing executive due to the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme scandal which implicated the DUP Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Larry the Downing Street cat runs ahead of Michael Fallon Britain's Secretary of State for Defence as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth REUTERS UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Michael Gove, Environment Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon (C) leaves after speaking to the media in Parliament Square. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (C, L) holds the first Cabinet meeting of her new team. Getty UK General Election 2017 11 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May attends church in her constituency with her husband Philip May, a few days after disappointing results in a general election. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn leaves Labour Party HQ this morning, following a general election yesterday. Parliament is hung, with no individual party gaining an overall majority. Post general election reaction. Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A demonstrator wears a mask depicting Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May, poses with a mock gravestone bearing the words "Hard Brexit, RIP", during a protest photocall near the entrance 10 Downing Street in central London AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London Reuters UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo Getty UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country' Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ukip leader Paul Nuttall speaks during a press conference at Boston West Golf Club where he announced that he is standing down as party leader Joe Giddens/PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, leaves the counting centre for Britain's general election with her partner Jen Wilson in Edinburgh, Scotland REUTERS/Russell Cheyne UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale celebrates with candidate for Edinburgh South Ian Murray as he retains his seat at the Meadowbank Sports Centre counting centre in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election Andrew Milligan/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon reacts at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, arrives at the Labour Party's Headquarters in London REUTERS/Marko Djurica UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall leaves in a car following the vote count for the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Boston, England Anthony Devlin/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, England. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A policer officer enters a polling station in London AP UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A woman leaves after casting her vote at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery near Brighton, in southern England Getty UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 A woman walks past a general election display in the window of a betting shop in Camden on June 7, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow, Getty Images UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May visits Atherley Bowling Club during an election campaign visit on June 7, 2017 in Southampton, England. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow June 8 to vote in a general election. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A supporter wears a pair of Jeremy Corbyn decorated tights at a general election campaign event in Birmingham, central England, on June 6, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another deadly terror attack in the nation's captial. AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A picture taken in London, shows election leaflets from various parties displayed ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 Election workers, George Gaunt and Luca Tragid deliver the first ballot boxes, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh AFP UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Conservative party supporters during an election campaign visit to a bakery during an election campaign visit on June 6, 2017 in Fleetwood, north-west England. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital Getty Images UK General Election 2017 5 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a general election campaign visit to a removals depot in Edinburgh AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Pro-Independence supporters hold a march through Glasgow AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn campaigns for the upcoming general election in Beeston, Nottinghamshire AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to supporters after a rally at Beeston Youth and Community Centre as he visits the East Midlands during the final weekend of the General Election campaign on June 3, 2017 in Nottingham, England. If elected in next week's general election Mr Corbyn is pledging to create a million new jobs and to scrap zero-hours contracts Getty Images UK General Election 2017 1 June 2017 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leader Ruth Davidson joins a selection of Scottish Conservative election candidates and activists during campaigning on May 1, 2017 in South Queensferry, Scotland. With only seven days to go until the general election on June 8th, polls are showing the SNP out in front and the Conservatives set to close in on Labour. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 29 May 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May canvasses in Richmond with Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith on May 29, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. After suffering defeat in the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith resigned over the Government's position on Heathrow expansion. He stood as an Independent but lost in a by-election to the Liberal Democrats. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election AFP/Getty Images

Labours Cat Smith, the shadow minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, said the Government should be wary of making changes that could deter people from voting and should not ban people from registering in two places.

To build a healthy democracy we need active participation of all citizens, which is why the Labour Party delivered a ground-breaking digital campaign which sought to maximise the number of young people to register to vote during the election period, she said.

In contrast, the Conservative party assumed that young people were apathetic to party politics. They made no effort to encourage voter registration, or to put forward policies that would offer real opportunities to young people.

We agree with a number of the key recommendations put forward by the Electoral Commission. Double voting is a serious crime and it is vital that the police have the resources they need to bring about prosecution.

"However, we urge caution when looking at measures to tackle this issue - a blanket ban on being registered at two addresses would exclude those who for reasons of work or study need to be registered in two places. This cannot be an attempt to make it harder for young people and students to register to vote.
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The divisions tearing apart the Conservative party have been laid bare as backbench MPs told the Prime Minister she has their backing to sack disloyal cabinet ministers.

Charles Walker, a vice-chairman of the influential Conservative backbench 1922 committee, said he and his colleagues would support Theresa May in firing ministers who were focusing on their own personal ambitions rather than getting on with their jobs.

He spoke out after sustained attacks on the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, who has been on the receiving end of a series of leaked conversations, which claimed he had displayed sexist attitudes and described public sector workers as overpaid.

One unnamed minister separately accused Mr Hammond of trying to fuck up Brexit.

Ms May was yesterday forced to try and reassert her authority in a showdown cabinet meeting, where she spelt out that the rows being played out in public were undermining the Government.

Warring Cabinet ministers agreed to stop briefing against each other after being read the riot act by Theresa May, a spokesman for No 10 said.

There was widespread agreement that the leaking of damaging stories from the recent weekly meeting of the Cabinet had to end, Downing Street insisted.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said the mood in the room was that the Government was being damaged by the failure to keep its private discussions under wraps.

Ms May laid bare her frustration by telling her Cabinet that some of its members had failed to take their responsibilities seriously.

There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the Cabinet table, she said, her spokesman told reporters.

At the weekend, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond all-but admitted a report that he had told the Cabinet that public sector workers are overpaid  while denying he said even a woman can drive a train.

The leaks of his remarks in Cabinet meetings have made front-page headlines in recent days, prompting claims they are coming from rival ministers.

Mr Hammond then claimed his colleagues were out to get him because they are not happy with the agenda that I have on Brexit, which is to strike a lengthy transitional exit deal.

 Tony Blair: It's necessary that Brexit doesn't happen

Ms May said she had tried to encourage open discussion of policy within Cabinet, but it was vital for the Government that this remained private, her spokesman said.

The PM said that the briefings and counter-briefings over the weekend had been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously, he added.

She said the government would make better decisions if colleagues were able to hold open discussions, but it was vital that discussions in Cabinet must remain private.

Following yesterdays Cabinet meeting, Mr Walker said he was very angry about the feuding.

The party is united behind the Prime Minister, he said. And those who have leadership ambitions should really try to understand that. They are not doing themselves any favours at all.

If the Prime Minister has to start removing secretaries of state because they are not focusing on their job, they are focusing on their own personal ambitions, so be it, and she will have the support of the 1922 committee.

Mr Walker added: The vast majority of members of parliament wish to see Theresa May continue as prime minister and get on with the job.

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

Meanwhile, in the Commons chamber, Mr Hammond appeared to send a message to his Cabinet enemies, telling MPs: I dont feel particularly enfeebled.

The Chancellor also risked further Tory backbiting by saying he wanted to build consensus with Labour and other parties to soften the terms of Brexit.

He spoke after being asked by Chris Leslie, a leading pro-EU Labour MP, if it was true that he was pushing for a longer transitional period that would keep close economic ties with the EU.

If so, that was welcome news, Mr Leslie said, adding that this approach might be able to secure a lot of support on all sides of the House.

In reply, the Chancellor said: In an issue as important to our nations future as our exit from the European Union, I welcome any opportunity to build consensus across the House and across the nation.
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Warring Cabinet ministers have agreed to stop briefing against each other after being read the riot act by Theresa May, No 10 says.

There was widespread agreement that the leaking of damaging stories from the recent weekly meeting of the Cabinet had to end, Downing Street insisted.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said the mood in the room was that the Government was being damaged by the failure to keep its private discussions under wraps.

Earlier, Ms May laid bare her frustration by telling her Cabinet that some of its members had failed to take their responsibilities seriously.

There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the Cabinet table, she said, her spokesman told reporters.

At the weekend, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond all-but admitted a report that he had told the Cabinet that public sector workers are overpaid  while denying he said even a woman can drive a train.

The leaks of his remarks in Cabinet meetings have made front-page headlines in recent days, prompting claims they are coming from rival ministers.

Mr Hammond then claimed his colleagues were out to get him because they are not happy with the agenda that I have on Brexit, which is to strike a lengthy transitional exit deal.

The feuding plunged new depths when an unnamed minister accusing the Chancellor of trying to f*** up Brexit, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Ms May said she had tried to encourage open discussion of policy within Cabinet, but it was vital for the Government that this remained private, her spokesman said.

The PM said that the briefings and counter-briefings over the weekend had been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously, he added.

She said the government would make better decisions if colleagues were able to hold open discussions, but it was vital that discussions in Cabinet must remain private.

The comments came as the Prime Minister was told that Tory backbenchers will back her if she sacks disloyal cabinet ministers.

Charles Walker, a vice-chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee, said he was very angry about the feuding, telling the BBC: The party is united behind the Prime Minister.

And those who have leadership ambitions should really try to understand that. They are not doing themselves any favours at all.

If the Prime Minister has to start removing secretaries of state because they are not focusing on their job, they are focusing on their own personal ambitions, so be it, and she will have the support of the 1922 committee.

Mr Walker added: The vast majority of members of parliament wish to see Theresa May continue as prime minister and get on with the job.

Meanwhile, in the Commons chamber, Mr Hammond appeared to send a message to his Cabinet enemies, telling MPs: I dont feel particularly enfeebled.

The Chancellor also risked further Tory backbiting by saying he wanted to build consensus with Labour and other parties to soften the terms of Brexit.

He spoke after being asked by Chris Leslie, a leading pro-EU Labour MP, if it was true that he was pushing for a longer transitional period that would keep close economic ties with the EU.

If so, that was welcome news, Mr Leslie said, adding that this approach might be able to secure a lot of support on all sides of the House.

In reply, the Chancellor said: In an issue as important to our nations future as our exit from the European Union, I welcome any opportunity to build consensus across the House and across the nation.
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A man's ex-girlfriend called the police when she feared he would kill himself in his locked room, but a Swat team showed up resulting in a ten-hour standoff and their son's suicide.

Russell Reeves told The Boston Globe his son Austin's death was "totally preventable".

The younger Mr Reeves, 26, had just experienced a break up with his girlfriend and had moved out of their shared home to his parents' house in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Recommended Texas Republican says suicide kept him from pushing bathroom bill

He had been working a few jobs and friends said he was his usual "charming and funny and outgoing" self the day he killed himself.

Mr Reeves said Austin had returned home after working for an event planner at a party, distressed after a phone call with his ex-girlfriend. Fearing the worst, she called the police to check on him at his parents' home.

Mr Reeves checked his gun collection, all locked up. However, before he could check on his son's 9mm handgun, Austin came home, distressed over the phone call and the police being notified.

He said to his father: Dont back me into a corner..because Ill make it go away in four seconds. His parents rang up local police as well after Austin locked himself, with his gun, in his bedroom.

His mother Kate Harrison is from a family of police officers and felt confident they could help, but Mr Reeves warned them not to pressure Austin too much.

Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Show all 18 1 /18 Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health Sow Ay illustrations on mental health

At first two officers answered the call, but the situation quickly escalated as they said Austin threatened to hurt anyone, including police, who approached the upstairs of his parents home in an attempt to get to him.

More and more officers showed up, including a fully armoured SWAT team. A military-style vehicle was parked on the yard and seven windows were broken to place a camera inside to look for Austin.

Austin did not have any hostages and Mr Reeves repeatedly begged police to back down.

What resulted was all night standoff, lasting nearly ten hours, and Austen's body being found in the early morning hours after having shot himself.

Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz, president of the regional law enforcement council did not comment on the incident to the Boston Globe, but did say that in these situations a team of specilised crisis negotiators and investigators respond to the scene.

A mental health professional will serve as a consultant but does not respond with the rest of the crisis team for some reason.

His parents are still left wondering how a simple check on their son's well being turned into a siege on their home and his death.
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The salacious video, of a naked man in bed with two women, was one of the most prominent examples of kompromat, the Russian art of spreading damaging information to discredit a rival or an enemy, in recent Russian history.

It was made available to Russian state television in the late 1990s and authenticated in public by Yuri Chaika, Russias prosecutor general, who at 66 has a long and storied background in kompromat. Chaika benefited from the video, as it destroyed a predecessor as prosecutor general, Yuri Skuratov, who had been looking into suspicions of corruption by President Boris Yeltsin and his associates.

Chaika is also the man who is widely considered to have been the source of the incriminating information on Hillary Clinton that Donald Trump Jr was promised at a meeting in June last year in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American lobbyist. And yet, oddly, the accusations brought to New York fell flat, by the accounts of those present, despite their having originated from such a seasoned master of kompromat.

Donald Trump Jr said in a statement that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had offered him the information but that it made no sense and was not meaningful.

Veselnitskaya has said that two others at the meeting, the Trump campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort, and President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, paid little attention.

That stands in sharp contrast to the video, which led to the ouster of Skuratov, helped Vladimir Putin establish himself as the successor to Yeltsin and, ultimately, enabled Chaika to ascend to the prosecutor generals office.

In Russia, said Thomas Rid, a scholar of intelligence history at Kings College London, theres an appreciation that information is power, and having information that somebody considers very private information is even more powerful.

Skuratov has insisted all along that he was not the man in the tape. But Chaika, after becoming acting prosecutor general in 1999, endorsed the videos authenticity, saying it showed a legal basis to open an investigation.

News media coverage in Russia was relentless, with state television going so far as to interview one of the women in the video. He is a good uncle, she said, in a final twist of the knife. I feel sorry for him.

In the current case, Rob Goldstone, the former British tabloid journalist and music promoter who arranged the Trump Tower meeting, had written in an email to Donald Trump Jr that Veselnitskaya would bring information from Chaika that would be damaging to Clinton.

What that information was is still not known. But at the time, Chaika was trying to push back against a US sanctions law, the Magnitsky Act, in part by trying to discredit an American-born businessman, William J. Browder, who had lobbied for its passage. At least some of the information seemed to concern accusations of tax evasion by prominent Democratic donors involved with Browder.

Chaika made the same accusations in a statement on his website and in documents handed to Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Repuiblican-California, when he was in Moscow. In an interview, Rohrabacher said using the information in opposition research against the Democrats in the presidential campaign had never crossed his mind. Thats a big zero, he said.

Whether anything discussed at the Trump Tower meeting was as explosive as that long-ago video remains to be seen. But the Russian prosecutors subsequent experience with kompromat has shown that those who live by the sword may die from it  or at least feel the pain.

Chaika benefited enormously from the video, becoming acting prosecutor general after Skuratov was dismissed and then justice minister. He returned to the prosecutor general position in 2006 in another shake-up of the law enforcement and intelligence elite.

But in that capacity, Chaika made the surprising mistake of investigating suspected corruption at the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB, a bit too enthusiastically.

So in 2007, Putin realigned the prosecutorial powers again, giving control of high-profile cases to a separate agency, the Investigative Committee. That created a fierce rival for Chaika  and compromising material started to spill into public view.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

In 2011, the committee accused Chaikas son, Artyom Chaika, of protecting illegal casinos operating in the Moscow region. He was never charged, but the publicity dented his fathers standing.

Chaika has been masterful, but not every time and in every fight, Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and founder of the National Strategy Institute, a think tank based in Moscow, said of the prosecutor generals role in Russias kompromat wars.

The New York Times
LINN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT

Robbery trial set  Joseph Rocky Rodriguez, 33, of Albany, pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree robbery on Monday morning. He was set for a one-day jury trial on Aug. 29. Rodriguez was initially charged with the crime on July 14.

Burglary, meth charges  Tara Ann Baker, 37, of Albany, was charged on Monday afternoon with first-degree burglary, unlawful possession of methamphetamine and third-degree theft. The crimes allegedly occurred on Saturday, with the burglary happening in the 1000 block of Front Avenue NE. She also was charged in a separate case with possession of methamphetamine, which allegedly occurred on June 29.

Menacing, weapon, firearm charges  Salvador Sepulveda, 54, of Albany, was charged on Monday afternoon with two counts of menacing (domestic violence), two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of pointing a firearm at another. The crimes allegedly occurred on Saturday. A male and female victim were listed on court documents.
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Pablo Escobars top hitman has called on Theresa May to legalise cocaine and help prevent thousands of drug deaths in Britain.

John Jairo Velasquez, also known as Popeye, argued that the white powder should be dished out in pharmacies where it would be regulated and clean.

The once-feared assassin said cocaine in its purest form and in small doses is no more of a danger to health than fatty food or fizzy drinks.

Nearly 4,000 people in Britain died in 2015 after being poisoned by drugs sold on the streets.

The figure includes hundreds who fatally snuffed cocaine mixed with toxic ingredients including clothes detergent and horse tranquiliser.

Velasquez made the appeal to save lives despite a past in which he shot dead more than 300 people for drug lord Pablo Escobar. He is linked to nearly 1,000 murders.

The 54-year-old, speaking from Medellin where he is in hiding, said: Look, everything kills. The soft drinks, whiskey, the beer. Cigarettes, marijuana. The bread.

McDonalds food probably kills more than cocaine. But people have the choice to take these things.

If cocaine is legalised it will be sold only in pharmacies, and people who choose to take it will know it is clean.

Some 3,674 people died of drugs poisoning in 2015, latest figures show. It included deaths from cocaine which nearly trebled, jumping from 112 to 320.

Velasquez also argued that legalising coke would help wipe out deaths in gangland war feuds in Britain over the sale of the illicit drug.

He said the the move would suck the vast profits from the contraband and put traffickers and dealers out of business.

And he said legalising coke was needed because the US War on Drugs strategy, aimed at wiping out the cocaine trade at source in countries - including Colombia - that produced the drug, had failed.

Velasquez said: The Drug War is an illusion. It is all lies. Every day the illicit trade grows and grows.

And everywhere the Colombian cocaine goes: Great Britain, United States, South Africa, Ireland, it brings misery and bloodshed.

In the transit of cocaine a lot of people die. Thousands die. It destroys everything.

More people are in danger when it is in the hands of the mafia.

In the moment it is legalised it will be sold in pharmacies, so your government should do that."

The authorities in Colombia freed Velasquez in 2014 after he spent nearly 24 years in prison on charges of terrorism and drug trafficking.

He has since dedicated himself to telling his story of his days as a feared hitman for his narco lord boss including in his book Surviving Pablo Escobar.

A 60-part TV series on his life - El Patron del Mal or Boss of Evil  is due to air on Netflix.

Velasquez recalled how when he was just 17 he fell under the spell of the Patron.

He said: It was like I had seen a God. He had this huge presence, like an aura around him. He had incredible magnetism.

And he enjoyed his work as an assassin for his boss, saying: For me it was like a dream.

I loved guns and Pablo Escobar was very friendly, very respectful, never shouted at anyone, and always paid the assassins for their work quickly.

He was a great leader. For us Pablo Escobar wasnt just a Patron, he was a religion. Pablo Escobar was our God.

Despite Popeyes spree of murder and rampage, he claims to be a reformed hitman.

He said: Today, now, I am regretful. I have changed.

But his reign of terror under the watch of his boss Pablo means he has gone into hiding  in fear of reprisal attacks.

He said: I move around a lot. I stay in my place, with family and in a farm.

But Popeye claims he is not afraid of being killed. He said: Either way Im with God, the Holy Spirit, the virgin, my guardian angel and Jesus.
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A police officer has been charged with negligent homicide after his infant son drowned in a bath while he argued with his estranged wife over the phone.

Raymond Licon Junior, 27, of the El Paso Police Department in Texas, put his eleven-month old son, Azrael, in the bath before stepping away to make a phone call.

Investigations showed he got into an argument with his wife via text message before continuing on the phone.

Records indicate he called the emergency services 45 minutes after the argument began, at which point the water had overflowed, flooding the upstairs of his flat.

Mr Licon allegedly told a neighbour and responding officers that in the midst of the argument he had forgotten his son was in the bathtub and blamed himself for the death.

Azraels grandfather, George Montenegro, revealed his daughter and Mr Licon are currently in the middle of a divorce.

Pure common sense. You dont leave a baby in the bathtub. You just dont do it, Mr Montenegro told KFOX-TV.

Speaking about his daughter, Mr Montenegro added that she was emotionally completely broken.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Licon has been arrested and has been relieved of his duties with the police department.

He has been booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $10,000 (7,600) bond.
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer has refused to answer questions about businesses belonging to Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka, declaring them "out of bounds.

Journalists asked about the companies' overseas manufacturing practices on the first day of what White House aides have dubbed Made in America Week.

The President has vowed to increase trade regulations in an effort to protect American companies and workers.

 Trump handshake with Macron goes on forever

But Mr Spicer avoided saying whether the President and Ms Trump  whose businesses rely on cheap labour in countries including Bangladesh and China  would commit to stopping manufacturing abroad.

Instead he said the President was focussing on the message that all companies can hire here, can expand here, can manufacture here.

Asked about the Trump family businesses, he said: Its not appropriate for me to stand up here and comment about a business. I believe that is a little out of bounds.

Mr Spicer was asked to say whether legislation could be introduced to stop businesses, such as Ms Trump's, complaining that some products could not be produced in the US.

I cant answer that question, in the sense that Im not  but I can tell you that it depends on the product, Mr Spicer said.

There are certain things that, certain industries that we dont do as much any more, and there are certain things that we do do more .... In terms of scalability, there are certain things that we may not have the capacity to do here, in terms of having a plant or factory that can do it.

He continued by saying the beautiful thing about a capitalistic society was that if there was demand for change, it would happen.

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

Mr Trump has already come under heavy fire for granting seasonal visas to thousands of foreign workers at the start of the Made in America campaign.

Advocates of stricter immigration control lambasted the move, arguing American workers should get the jobs.

Launching the drive promising to protect American companies, Mr Trump said: We're going to stand up for our companies and maybe most importantly for our workers.

Clearly it's time for a new policy, one defined by two simple rules: We will buy American. And we will hire American."
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Donald Trump and the Senates Republican leader are pushing for a vote on a bill that would scrap Obamacare without an immediate replacement, after efforts to repeal and replace the healthcare law at the same time collapsed.

Two more Republicans  Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah  on Monday announced they would oppose the Senate measure meant to overturn the Affordable Care Care, killing  at least for now  an attempt to dismantle a pillar of former President Barack Obamas legacy. Two other Republicans  conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky and moderate Susan Collins of Maine  had already said they would vote against beginning debate on the legislation.

After it became clear that he did not have the votes to pass his healthcare bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate would soon vote to take up a measure to repeal Obamacare, with it taking effect later.

Recommended McCain blood clot surgery delays vote on replacement for Obamacare

The House of Representatives had passed the Obamacare replacement in 2015, but it was vetoed by then-President Obama.

A straight Obamacare repeal could lead to 32 million people losing their health insurance, according to an analysis of the Republicans 2015 repeal legislation by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The CBO predicted that the previous Senate healthcare bill, released last month, would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026.

Mr Morans and Mr Lees defections surprised many on Capitol Hill and Mr Trump, who was having dinner with Republican senators in a healthcare strategy session. The President reportedly told the Republicans that the party would look like dopes if they couldnt pass a healthcare bill after passing a repeal bill in 2015.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! the President tweeted on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, he tweeted: Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard, but said, We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans.

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

He added, As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!

Mr McConnell is still expected to face hurdles in his mission to get the Senate to take up the Obamacare repeal bill. He needs 50 yea votes and has already indicated that he does not intend to reach out to Democrats, despite calls by other Republicans for bipartisanship.

One of the major problems with Obamacare was that it was written on a strict party-line basis and driven through Congress without a single Republican vote, said Arizona senator John McCain. As this law continues to crumble in Arizona and states across the country, we must not repeat the original mistakes that led to Obamacares failure.

He added, The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care.

Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Show all 10 1 /10 Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images

The Senates Republican leadership had been hoping to hold a vote on the healthcare bill this week. However, Mr McConnell was forced to abandon this plan after it was announced that Mr McCain had surgery last week to remove a blood clot above his left eye.

Mr McCains office has said the Republican and Vietnam War veteran is recovering in Arizona this week  but his condition may be more serious than first thought  which would further delay his return to Washington to vote on a healthcare measure.

On the Senate floor on Tuesday, Mr McConnell said he regretted that the Republicans efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare were not successful, but added, That doesn't mean we should give up.

We will now try a different way to bring the American people relief from Obamcare, I think we owe them that much, Mr McConnell said. The Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable two-year transition period as we work toward patient-centered health care.

About 20 million people gained health insurance coverage through Obamacare. Repealing the law has been a top priority for Mr Trump and Republicans in Congress, who say it has driven up premiums and forced consumers to buy insurance they do not want and cannot afford.

Mr McConnell said it was regretful our Democratic colleagues did not want to engage with us seriously to deliver relief to the American people. But this doesn't have to be the end of this story, Mr McConnell said.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer rebutted Mr McConnell's claims that Democrats were unwilling to work with Republicans on healthcare, saying that the Majority Leader early on in the process of healthcare reform told Democrats: We don't need you, we don't want you."

Respectfully, I take issue with the idea Democrats didn't want to engage on health care, the Majority Leader admitted he decided the matter for us when he locked Democrats out of process at the outset, Mr Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Now that their one-party effort largely failed, we hope they will change their tune, he added, also asserting that passing a repeal without a replacement plan would be a disaster to America's healthcare system.
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The eighth person in a controversial meeting between Donald Trumps son and a Russian lawyer has been identified as Ike Kaveladze, an American-based employee of a Russian real estate company.

Mr Kaveladze was identified by an attorney for Emin and Aras Agalarov, the two Russian developers who instigated the meeting. The attorney said Mr Kaveladze is employed by the Agalarovs, and attended the meeting as their representative.

News of the meeting set off a firestorm of criticism this month, when The New York Times reported that Donald Trump Jr had agreed to an audience with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June of 2016. Mr Trump Jr initially claimed that the meeting was convened to discuss US-Russia adoption policies, but later revealed it was motivated by promises of incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.

Mr Balber said he revealed the identity of the eighth participant after receiving a call from a representative of special counsel Robert Mueller  the first indication that the Justice Department is looking into the meeting.

Mr Kaveladze, the attorney said, is an American citizen who has lived in the US for many years. He works as a vice president of the Agalarov's company, the Crocus Group, focusing on real estate and finance.

The businessman was asked to attend the meeting purely to  make sure it happened, Mr Balber said. He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Mr Balber said he believes the full list of participants, which the White House has declined to reveal, is now known.

Emails released by Mr Trump Jr last week revel other participants as former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and top presidential adviser Jared Kushner.

The news of Mr Kushner's participation has fuelled calls for his security clearance to be revoked. Mr Kushner has claimed he did not read to the bottom of the email thread, which promised official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia as part of "Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.

The meeting was also attended by Rob Goldstone, a business contact of both the Agalarovs and Mr Trump, and former State Department employee Anatoli Samochornov, who acted as a translator.

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist and Soviet military veteran, also admitted to attending. Mr Akhmestshin's presence was touted by Mr Trump's detractors as clear evidence of cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russian government interests.

Mr Trump has maintained that the meeting was brief, and that no meaningful information on Ms Clinton was exchanged. Mr Balber said the Agalarovs are "baffled" by the importance the meeting has taken on.

Mr Kaveladze, he added, is equally perplexed.

"Nobody had any expectation this would be what its become," Mr Balber said, "especially this poor guy, who had not been involved before."
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The Trump administration has announced new sanctions against Iran over the countrys ballistic missile programme.

The economic penalties target at least 16 individuals and entities the Treasury Department said have supported illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity.

The action comes one day after the Trump administration warned Iran was not following the spirit of its nuclear weapons agreement. Donald Trump has been a long time critic of the 2015 deal.

The new sanctions do not relate to the terms of the nuclear deal, which Washington yesterday confirmed Iran is technically complying with, but the Treasury Department said the new sanctions will still target the proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery and supporters of such activity.

It targets groups and individuals which the US says has supported Irans military, or Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a statement issued on Tuesday the department said the sanctions came after three networks reportedly supported Irans military procurement through the development of unmanned aerial vehicles and military equipment, as well as the production and maintenance of fast attack boats.

The statement also said the sanctions would target networks and businessmen who carried out the theft of US and western software programmes which they say were sold to the Government of Iran.

The US will freeze any assets the targets of the sanctions may have in the US, and will prevent US citizens from doing any business with them.

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said the penalties will continue to aggressively target Iran's malign activity, including their ongoing state support of terrorism, ballistic missile program, and human rights abuses.

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He added: These sanctions target procurement of advanced military hardware, such as fast attack boats and unmanned aerial vehicles, and send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Irans provocative and destabilising behaviour. We will continue to target the IRGC and pressure Iran to cease its ballistic missile program and malign activities in the region.
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President Donald Trump has promised to repeal and replace the landmark healthcare legislation that former President Barack Obama claims as a signature legal achievement. But, his efforts seems to have stalled, at least for now.

As Republicans in Congress consider the new way forward  if they should do so at all, given that Mr Trump has stated that they should just let Obamacare fizzle out on its own accord  its worth taking a look at the differences between the two men and their attempts to radically reshape the American healthcare system.

Obama took 14 months to try and get a consensus on a bill before passing it

The timelines that Mr Obama and Mr Trump engaged were quite different. While Mr Trump pushed for a vote on repeal in the House of Representatives as early as March  about two months into his presidency  Mr Obamas push lasted for 14 months.

The most recent effort by Republicans to pass a repeal bill in the Senate fizzled out just six months int Mr Trumps presidency. Of course, theres always more time for Mr Trump to cobble something together, but so far his efforts have been rushed and secretive.

Obama pushed for bipartisan debate, while Republicans under Trump have worked in secret

While Obamacare has become a strikingly partisan issue in 2017, Mr Obamas Democratic-controlled Congress did not engage the process in a way that excluded the Republican Party. Instead, bipartisan committees in both the House and the Senate worked to come up with compromises to push forward with the legislation.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

It wasnt until later that Senator Mitch McConnell  then the minority leader  realised that allowing the bill to seem publicly bipartisan could hurt the party at the polls, and began to push back against Obamacare saying the individual mandate was unconstitutional.

Mr Trumps Republican-controlled Congress, on the other hand, has made all of its attempts to repeal Obamacare in private. The group has frequently met criticism for this approach,

Obama made it deeply personal, Trump has stuck to attacking people over Twitter

Both of the presidents have toured the country and given speeches promoting their positions, but theyve contrasted a bit in terms of how personal theyve been willing to get with it.

Mr Obama, amid an increasingly contentious debate around his bill, once remarked at a town hall in 2009, in Colorado that the issue was personal for him.

I know what it's like to watch somebody you love, who's aging, deteriorate, and have to struggle with that, he said in August of that year.

Mr Trump, on the other hand, has mostly stuck with attacks on Obamacare as the reasoning behind his position. He says he wants to give the American people a better healthcare bill, and often uses Twitter to push that position.

Mr Obama learned the ins and out, whereas Mr Trump didn't even seem to know basic details

Compared to Mr Trump, Mr Obama is well known for being a bit bookish and perhaps wonky when it comes to policy. By all accounts, he became well versed in the legislation he later signed, and encouraged congressional negotiations on the matter.

Mr Trump, on the other hand, has showed a shaky understanding of the legislation he is pushing. While he has been active in the negotiation process with Congress, he frequently tweets statements that seem at odds with the facts of healthcare debate. In addition to that, at least one story has emerged indicating he didn't even know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr Obama's confidence in his knowledge was also on display throughout his push for healthcare. He took on numerous town halls, press conferences and interviews where he was asked about the ins and outs of his bill. Mr Trump, on the other hand, hasn't really allowed himself to be grilled on his policy at all.

In 2009, Obama comforted a woman with cancer who had concerns about the healthcare bill, and reassured her everything would be ok during a town hall meeting. Trump has so far not held any town halls.

Obama's plan gave millions affordable insurance, Trump's would have left millions uninsured

Whatever the motivation, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of Mr Obamas landmark bill and those pushed by Republicans thus far in Congress suggested much different outcomes.

The CBO estimated that Mr Obamas legislation would reduce the deficit, and reduce the uninsured rates by 31 million people.

The bills drafted by Republicans during the Trump administration, however, are expected to result in more than 20 million people losing their insurance. The CBO has also estimated that draft legislation could reduce the deficit as well.
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A new survey from Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) has revealed that less than half of all Trump supporters believe the Presidents son met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign  a fact Donald Trump Jr himself has confirmed.

Only 45 per cent of Trump voters, the national poll found, believe that Mr Trump Jr met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr has confirmed multiple times that he took this meeting. The White House has not disputed this account.

Emails from June of last year  released by Mr Trump Jr himself  show he helped plan a meeting between himself, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, adviser Jared Kushner, and a woman described as a Russian government lawyer.

The purpose of the meeting, according to the emails, was to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia as part of "Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.

Still, only 13 per cent of Trump voters believe members of the Trump campaign worked with Russia to boost his presidential bid. In fact, only 26 per cent of Trump voters believe that Russia even wanted Mr Trump to win the election. Forty-four per cent believe Russia wanted Ms Clinton to win.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

This belief  contradicted by reports from multiple US intelligence agencies  has been encouraged by Mr Trump himself, who last week claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have liked to see Ms Clinton win.

We are the most powerful country in the world, and we are getting more and more powerful because Im a big military person, he said. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated  There are many things that I do that are the exact opposite of what [Mr Putin] would want.

Trump voters are also likely to repeat another of the Presidents favourite lines: According to the PPP poll, almost two-thirds of Trump voters consider the Russia story to be fake news.

Mr Trump has alternately called the allegations of his ties to Russia fake news, a hoax, and a witch hunt.

But even this fake news turned out to be true, the poll finds, Mr Trumps base would stand by him. Seventy-seven per cent of Trump voters said they would support the President staying in office, even if investigations find he did collude with Russia.
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A Chinese-born American citizen has been sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of spying in Iran.

Xiyue Wang, an American citizen and graduate student in history at Princeton University, was arrested last summer while doing research in connection with his PhD dissertation.

The exact details of the trial have not been released but Mr Wang was arrested and put on trial for gathering information.

The 37-year-olds current field of study is late 19th and 20th century Eurasian history and he was looking into the cultural history of Iran.

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, said a US citizen who was also a national of a second country had been convicted for being an infiltrating American agent, according to Mizan Online, the judiciary's official news agency.

He had entered the country through a special connection but the ministry of intelligence identified him and arrested him, Mr Mohseni-Ejei said.

It became clear that he was involved in the infiltration project and the initial court has sentenced him to 10 years but this could be appealed.

Mr Wang will now have 20 days to appeal the sentence and officials at Princeton said they are working with his family and lawyer to secure his release.

The US State Department called for the immediate release of all US citizens in jail in Iran.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The Iranian regime continues to detain US citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related changes, a statement said.

The safety and security of US citizens remains a top priority. All US citizens, especially dual nationals considering travel to Iran, should carefully read our latest travel warning.
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A suicidal man is at the hospital in an unknown condition after police officers used a stun gun on him and the gasoline he had doused on him caught fire.

The man reportedly had what was thought to be a lighter in his hand, and was planning on burning himself alive in his Virginia home. The officer acknowledged that using the Taser was a risk, but said that the man was very frantic and erratic and became a danger to everyone in the room.

We realise that a Taser can have some other implications, but we also know he had something in his hand, a spokeswoman for the Arlington Police Department told local reporters. Its unclear at this moment whether he became engulfed in flames from the gasoline and ignitable object he had in his hand or from the Taser.

The mans attempted suicide-by-fire also resulted in three officers being taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. The officers did not experience life-threatening injuries, the spokeswoman said.

The man had already doused himself with gasoline when police arrived on the scene after a call from two women who said that he was mentally ill.

After evacuating the two women from the scene, the officers attempted to calm the man to no avail. Instead, he poured more gasoline onto his body. Officers werent sure if he was holding a lighter or not.

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 Taser was used to subdue him, the spokeswoman said. Instead, the man became engulfed in flames. Officers reacted quickly to save his life, wrapping a blanket around him to put the flames out while taking him out of the house.
A young Texas woman is in stable condition after rescuers pulled her from Tamolitch Falls, also known as Blue Pool, after she struck a rock while cliff-jumping Monday at the popular swimming site along the McKenzie River Trail.

According to Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley, Kyra Odom, 17, of Kountze, Texas, was swimming with friends at about 12:30 p.m. when she slipped while attempting a jump. As she fell, she hit a rock approximately 20 feet down and continued to fall, landing in approximately 18 inches of water. Odom suffered an injury to her left hip. Two friends who had previously jumped from the cliff were able to pull her across Blue Pool to safety.

With no cell phone service at the remote location, another swimmer, not related to Odom's group, hiked two miles out to the trailhead near Trail Bridge Reservoir to call for help, contacting authorities at 2 p.m. The initial 9-1-1 call went to the Lane County Sheriff's Office, but was routed to Linn County.

Search and rescue teams from Linn County, Lane County, Corvallis Mountain Rescue, Eugene Mountain Rescue, along with The Upper McKenzie Fire Department, Sweet Home Fire Department and the United States Forest Service, responded.

Initial responding teams were able to reach Odom by 3 p.m. and hoisted her manually with ropes and climbing gear to the top of the dry Blue Pool Waterfall. More than 40 personnel assisted with the rescue mission.

At 5:43 p.m., an Oregon Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was able to safely hoist Odom from the top of the waterfall and transport her to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield.

Sheriff Riley says hikers and swimmers should use extreme caution when visiting the Blue Pool recreation site. According to LCSO records, five people have been injured and required rescue at the site since 2012. In 2013, Alex Rovello, 21, died when he struck the water after jumping from a cliff at Blue Pool.
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A family in Canada have been saved from a devastating fire that tore through their home after the youngest son woke his mother to raise the alarm.

Eleven-year-old David Lutgendorf was FaceTiming his father at his home in Glovertown, Newfoundland, when he noticed the flames.

He was the only family member awake at the time and rushed to rouse his mother and sister.

Within seconds of him getting us up, the flames were everywhere, his mother, Marcy Smith, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"It happened so fast, she said, describing how the flames ate around her and her son as they stood in their kitchen by a wood stove.

The entire kitchen just disappeared while we were standing in it, she said.

Ms Smith and her two children escaped the house, but their dog, Marley, cats and pet rats were unable to be saved.

The fire is understood to have been started after Ms Smith burned some rubbish in her wood stove, which she told the publication she had done a thousand times.

The familys fire alarm did not go off and they were left with nothing but the pyjamas they had been wearing when they escaped the house.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by Ms Smiths sister-in-law on behalf of the family, explaining that they had lost everything, including most of their pets, in the fire.

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

Both children were left unharmed by the fire, but Ms Smith was burned on one of her arms and one leg, it states.

Please folks reach out and help, nobody deserves to have something this horrible happen, sister-in-law Mae Smith-Ward wrote.

People have donated over $1,200 (730) in the space of three days though the GoFundMe page.

Ms Smith told the CBC she is grateful for her sons actions and the donations her family has received from the community since the fire.

People have already given shoes, clothes and money for food to the family, with one anonymous person giving David a bike.

Ms Smith added that her son does not realise how significant his actions were in helping the family to escape with their lives.

All he understands is that they three of them got out of the house, he doesnt understand that hes the only reason we did, she said.
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Conservation land deemed "sacred" to an indigenous people of New Zealands North Island is at the heart of a stalemate between an anti-mining group and the company New Talisman Gold Mines after a seam of high-quality gold was discovered last week.

The company declared it had discovered over 8,500kg of gold at its Dubbo site in the Karangahake Gorge, located between the Coromandel and Kaimai ranges. It is at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula.

The gold is set to be worth tens of millions of New Zealand dollars. Matthew Hill, the companys chief executive, stated: The grades that have come out show 21 grams a tonne which in todays terms one of the top five or certainly one of the top ten in the world.

New Talisman Gold Mines intends to begin bulk sampling the gold next year. The companys board will decide from the results what the next step is and whether to mine in the area or not.

Protect Karangahake, an environmental group, expressed concerns for the consequences the mining project would have on the environment.

The Conservation estate is important. Its precious for New Zealand and its not to be divided and sold off for [the] gold mining industry because they will do nothing but destroy it.

As we know in the past in Karangahake they devastate the area once the mining starts.

On 17 July, 30 protesters blocked the mining company from accessing the site for an hour and a half. The conservation group explained they were now doubling their efforts to protect Karangahake Gorge.

Duncan Shearer, head of the environmental group, described their protests: Sometimes [we go] walking up the mountain track, holding up the vehicles to enjoy the beautiful view. Sometimes were doing these big protests that get arranged at quite short notice.

The Crown, Talisman and Woodstock batteries at the lower end of the gorge are reminders that this area once experienced mining from the 1880s to 1950s. It is currently legal to mine on conservation land if approved by the government and local council, as well as receiving permission from the department of conservation.

Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty criticised the companys plans to mine on the Karangahake Gorge, telling the Guardian: This is public land which has been set aside to protect its ecological values and for recreation. It is a sacred mountain to the indigenous people of the area and local residents are actively and peacefully opposing the initial development of the mining activity on the mountain.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to focus on business rather than history in Budapest as he looks to deepen ties with Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban's flirtation with the radical right has unnerved Jews living there.

During a two-day visit starting today, Netanyahu will also meet the Polish, Czech and Slovak leaders as part of efforts to build support for Israel's interests in international forums.

He arrives at a sensitive moment, less than a month after Orban praised Hungary's interwar leader Miklos Horthy - a Hitler ally - and used an image of Jewish US financier George Soros in an anti-immigration billboard campaign.

Yair Lapid, who heads Israel's centrist Yesh Atid opposition party, called on Netanyahu to cancel the visit over the poster campaign, which Budapest has denied was anti-Semitic.

But Israel's foreign ministry last week accused Soros - who funds dozens of pro-democracy and human rights groups - of undermining the government, suggesting right-winger Netanyahu may find common ground with Orban over clampdowns on non-governmental organisations critical of their administrations.

We had the Horthy (remark) and then the billboard campaign. The billboard campaign created a certain domino effect reaction in the Jewish community, Israeli ambassador Yossi Amrani told Reuters in Budapest. People expressed fears.

Amrani reiterated that Israel was committed to protecting Jewish communities and fighting anti-Semitism. At the same time, Israel was seeking cooperation with Budapest.

The PM is visiting because we believe there is common ground and certain strategic interests. We still believe this is possible, Amrani said.

Netanyahu's visit will be the first to Hungary by an Israeli Prime Minister since the fall of Communism.

Like Hungary, Israel has passed legislation that seeks to limit the influence of NGOs that receive a large portion of their funding from abroad.

Human rights group Amnesty International said on Monday it was worrisome that both leaders were conducting campaigns against civil organisations.

We call on both prime ministers to fundamentally change their attitude with relation to human rights, Amnesty said.

The meetings will focus on business cooperation, mainly in the car industry, as Central Europe hosts assembly plants of major manufacturers, the Israeli ambassador and an official close to Netanyahu told Reuters.

There's quite a bit of economic activity in the region in which Israel shares an interest... Israel has expertise in technology related to the (auto) industry, the official said.

Israel has an interest in building good bilateral relations that are then reflected in multinational forums, he added.

Israel has sought better ties with countries that have a vote in multilateral forums, whether the EU or the United Nations, which it hopes will help defend its interests when Israel is criticised.

Poland has just been elected into the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member for the next two years.

Defence and security would also be discussed, as Europe struggles with the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

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

Europe is awash in refugees so people are interested in how to deal with that issue, the official close to Netanyahu said.

Hungary, which built a double fence on its southern border to keep migrants out, has held discussions with Israel about purchasing security fences.

Reuters
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A Muslim who was attacked by a knife-wielding robber in a mosque cooked him breakfast to calm him down and then sat to hear his life story.

Ali Yassine spotted Stefan Boyle, 28, hiding under a table in a mosque in Dundrum, Dublin, and told him to leave.

Boyle lunged at him and nicked him with a knife before trying to escape out of a window, the Irish Independent reported in May.

Mr Yassine, who works as a caretaker in the mosque, kicked the burglar in self defence and then told him to relax.

He went on to make him scrambled eggs and sat down to let Boyle tell him about he he was homeless, had been in and out of prison and was having problems with his girlfriend.

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

Boyle pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the burglary of Ali Hussain House on 2 November, 2016. He has 110 previous convictions, of those, 63 are for burglary.

He will be allowed to attend residential drug treatment before he is sentenced, the Irish Times reports.

The prosecution heard that Mr Yassine did not realise until after the robber had left that he had stolen two phones from his bedroom in a building attached to the mosque.

When Mr Yassine was in the city centre organising for his phones to be blocked the next day, he bumped into Boyle, who handed the phones back to him and apologised.

Boyle told police he got on well with the victim, describing him as a "good guy," and apologised.

He said he wanted to get money for drugs and had forgotten he had taken the phones during his 30-minute conversation over breakfast.

He also said he did not have the 30 (27) needed to unlock both phones.

Judge Karen O'Connor told Boyle: This is your very very final chance.
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A ban on Jehovahs Witnesses is to come into full force in Russia after a court dismissed an appeal against the groups classification as an extremist organisation.

The British and American governments were among those raising human rights concerns over the prohibition, which will liquidate the groups administrative centre near St Petersburg and 395 local religious organisations.

Russias Supreme Court upheld the ruling on Monday, having previously decided in favour of the justice ministrys characterisation of the Jehovahs Witnesses as an extremist organisation whose members pose a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security.

Judges ordered the closure of the group's Russian headquarters, local chapters and the seizure of its property by the state.

While we were prepared for a negative ruling, it is still very disappointing, said David Semonian, international spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses.

It is very concerning that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, powerful elements within Russia continue to frame our organisation as extremist.

We can only hope a fair evaluation of the facts will eventually prevail and our right to worship in Russia will be legally restored.

An appeal hearing at Russia's Supreme Court over the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses as an 'extremist' organisation on 17 July 2017 (JWRU)

The Christian denomination put forward requests to allow experts to testify on whether their beliefs can be considered extremist but the three-judge panel rejected all motions.

In the two months following the initial ruling on 20 April, the Jehovahs Witnesses international headquarters reported a seven-fold increase in incidents of violence and harassment it said was linked to the case.

Members have raised concern Russias ban will give impetus to further acts of aggression.

Regardless of what negative consequences this decision brings, Jehovah's Witnesses will continue to act within the law to secure their rights and support their fellow worshippers in Russia who must bear the burden of injustice, Mr Semonian said.

The case could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled a previous attempted ban on Jehovahs Witnesses in Russia unlawful in 2010, but the court has no power to enforce its decisions and Russia could ignore any verdict.

The British Government previously said it was alarmed by the ban and called on Vladimir Putin to uphold religious freedom.

Human rights attacks around the world Show all 10 1 /10 Human rights attacks around the world Human rights attacks around the world China Escalating crackdown against human rights activists including mass arrests of lawyers and a series of sweeping laws in the name of national security. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Egypt The arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Gambia Torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalisation of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Hungary Sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Israel Maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Kenya Extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Pakistan The severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be against the interests of the country. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Russia Repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Saudi Arabia Brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticise the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it has led in Yemen (pictured) while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Syria Killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians. Getty Images

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the minister for human rights, said he was deeply concerned by the appeal's rejection in light of Russia's public commitments to freedom of religion.

"This ruling confirms the criminalisation of the peaceful worship of 175,000 Russian citizens and contravenes the right to religious freedom that is enshrined in the Russian constitution, he added.

"The British Government continues to call upon the Russian Government to uphold its international commitment to this basic freedom.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom denounced the Russian Supreme Courts latest ruling and said it reflects the governments continued equating of peaceful religious freedom practice to extremism.

The Witnesses are not an extremist group, and should be able to practice their faith openly and freely and without government repression, said its chairman, Daniel Mark, following the by-partisan bodys call for Russia to be designated a country of particular concern for violations of religious freedom.

The Russian government is intensifying its crackdown on religious freedom at home while also extending its repressive policies to neighbouring states.

Jehovah's Witnesses, who are known for door-to-door preaching and handing out literature, reject some of mainstream Christianity's core beliefs and have more than 8.3 million members around the world.

Stacks of booklets distributed by the local leader of a Jehovahs Witnesses congregation Alexander Kalistratov. He was sentenced to two years in prison by a Russian court of inciting religious hatred for distributing literature about his beliefs (Reuters)

The US-based group has generated controversy for stances including its rejection of blood transfusions and opposition to military service, facing court proceedings in several countries.

Jehovahs Witnesses first registered as a religious group in Russia in 1991 and registered again in 1999, but have been targeted repeatedly by authorities in a wide-ranging crackdown on religious freedom.

Russia changed its legal definition of extremism in 2006, removing requirements for violence or hatred but stating the incitement of.religious discord as criteria, leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses with the same legal status as Isis or Nazis.

The group's international website was blocked in Russia two years ago over alleged extremism, with its Bibles banned the following year, while a local chairman was jailed for two years on charges of possessing extremist literature in 2010.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was among the international bodies condemning a state sponsored campaign of harassment and mistreatment of Jehovahs Witnesses it said dated back to the 1990s in Russia.

It listed police searches, assaults, arson attacks, vandalism, seizures and raids on worship, as well as the arrest of several members and criminal investigations.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which enjoys close ties with the Kremlin and the patronage of Mr Putin, is the countrys largest religion, with followers representing around 41 per cent of the population.
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A Christian man has been charged with murdering his daughter over her relationship with a Muslim man in Israel.

Sami Karra denies killing his 17-year-old daughter, Henriette, in what prosecutors describe as a suspected honour killing.

An indictment seen by local media said the Israeli Arab family objected to her relationship with the man, who was serving time in prison, and intention to convert to Islam for him.

Their year-long relationship had sparked vehement opposition from relatives, whose threats allegedly forced her to flee her home in May and send messages to friend fearing they are sending people to kill me.

Police and social services had intervened in the case, summoning Henriette and her parents to a joint meeting on 11 June  two days before she was killed  and suggesting she enter a womens shelter.

Officials said the teenager refused the offer and asked for help to rent a flat instead, returning to her parents home and attending a graduation party at her Jewish school the next day.

On 13 June, Henriette deposited 400 shekels (86) into her boyfriend's prison canteen account before returning home and telling a relative he would be released at the end of the week, and that she intended on converting to Islam.

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

Haaretz reported that the relative called Henriettes father and told him of her plans.

She was found dead with stab wounds to the neck in the kitchen of her parents home in the town on Ramle on 13 June.

According to documents seen by the Jerusalem Post, the father believed Henriettes actions damaged the honour of the family and made him feel ashamed.

The defendant decided to cause the death of the deceased and in order to realise his goal he was equipped with a knife, the indictment said.

The defendant stabbed the deceased three times, causing her death on the spot.

Lawyers representing Karra said he was not guilty and claimed the bad relationship between Henriette and her family was no secret, adding: This did not lead to murder and could not lead to murder. The complaints against [Henriette] were only to reunite the family.
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US President Donald Trumps administration has delayed a decision on whether to scrap the historic 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, acknowledging that the country is complying with its terms.

Officials told Congress on Monday that despite Mr Trumps order for sanctions relief to be reviewed in April, interagency findings show that Tehran is following the agreed curbs to its nuclear programme.

The presidents campaign trail proposal to scrap the nuclear deal altogether - which lifted the international sanctions which have crippled Irans economy - was widely criticised for endangering an agreement which former Secretary of State John Kerry said made the world a safer place.

 What happened when US officials were asked why they criticised Iran but not Saudi Arabia

The certification of Iran's compliance, which must be sent to Congress every 90 days, is now the second issued by the Trump administration.

However, Mr Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the agreement, one official said, hinting that the US may seek to ratchet up the pressure on Tehran in other ways.

Washington will work with international allies to address flaws in the existing deal such as expiration dates on nuclear restrictions, and consider fresh sanctions over non-nuclear activity, such as the testing earlier this year of ballistic missiles, officials said.

Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Show all 10 1 /10 Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images

The US also maintains a separate sanctions list unrelated to nuclear issues which includes terrorism-related offences, human rights abuses, and penalties for support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government.

Mr Trumps administration announced the decision just hours before the midnight Tuesday deadline for notifying Congress.

We receive contradictory signals, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday, before the decision was announced. So we don't know which one to interpret in what way.

While Mondays decision to let the status quo stand was expected, the president has not laid out a broader Iran policy, creating a tri-monthly headache in which the White House must decide whether to either support the UN-brokered agreement or claim Iran is breaching it.

Relations between Tehran and Washington have soured quickly since Donald Trump took office.

The new president immediately set about imposing new financial penalties on individuals related to terror-related offences, and imposed a travel ban for citizens of Iran and six other Muslim countries, which has since become the subject of intense legal battles.
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A German 16-year-old who is thought to have disappeared last year to join Isis has reportedly been discovered alive and well in the ruins of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Pictures of a teenager being arrested by Iraqi police have been widely circulated on social media in the last few days. Although the girls identity is still unclear, it is thought she is Linda W, who left her hometown of Pulsnitz near Dresden last July.

 Drone footage shows the devastation in Mosul's old city and the destroyed al-Nuri Mosque

The authorities managed to track her movements to Istanbul, after which the trail went cold.

A reporter for German newspaper Bild, Bjorn Stritzel, said on Twitter that according to his rebel sources Linda had been held in an area of Idlib province last August by Islamist rebels sympathetic to Isis before being smuggled to the so-called caliphate.

In pictures: Mosul offensive Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Mosul offensive In pictures: Mosul offensive A doctor carries an Iraqi newborn baby at a hospital in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi girls play at a yard of a school in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017alal Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A woman on crutches who is a relative of men accused of being Islamic State militants is seen at a camp in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq July 15, 2017. Picture taken July 15, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A displaced girl, who fled from home carries a doll at Hamam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq July 13, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi federal police members and civilians celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on 9 July 2017 after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he was in "liberated" Mosul to congratulate "the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory" AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken on 9 July 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City. Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. AFP In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of the Iraqi federal police raise the victory gesture as they ride on a humvee while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on 28 June 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Smoke billows as Iraqi forces advance through the Old City of Mosul on 26 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district held by the Islamic State (IS) group. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi man wearing the green scarf of the Shi'ite faith kisses an Iraqi Army soldier on safely reaching the Iraqi forces position as Iraqi civilians flee the Old City of west Mosul where heavy fighting continues on 23 June 2017. Iraqi forces continue to encounter stiff resistance with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken from the inside of an Iraqi forces armoured vehicle shows residents walking through a damaged street as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City on 18 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group. Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi Army soldiers advance in a destroyed street after an Iraqi forces airstrike targeted an Islamic State sniper position 17 June 2017 in al-Shifa, the last district of west Mosul under Islamic State control. IS snipers, as well as car and suicide bomb attacks continue to hinder the Iraqi forces efforts to retake the final district. A series of airstrikes by Iraqi helicopter gunships attempted to hit multiple Islamic State sniper positions in al-Shifa. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier frisks a displaced Iraqi man at a temporary camp in the compound of the closed Nineveh International Hotel in Mosul on 16 June 2017 which was recovered by Iraqi troops from Islamic State group fighters earlier in the year. A screening centre set up in the compound's fairgrounds sees a constant stream of Iraqis fleeing the battle for Mosul, awaiting their turn to be checked by the Iraqi forces who are searching for suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. The small fairground lies at the end of a pontoon bridge across the Tigris recently opened to civilians that is the only physical link between the two banks of the river. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis staying at the al-Khazir camp swim in a river near the camp for internally displaced people, located between Arbil and Mosul on 11 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi government forces drive on a road leading to Tal Afar on 9 June 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi policeman carries a poster bearing an image of Mosul's iconic leaning minaret, known as the "Hadba" (Hunchback), on 22 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis stand in line to receive food aid in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood on 7 June 2017, during ongoing battles as Iraqi forces try to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Living conditions in Mosul have again deteriorated since the start of the Iraqi government's offensive on the city in October in which they retook a large part of the west of the city. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced Iraqis carry lightbulbs and sacks as they evacuate from western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) flashes the victory gesture as he patrols in western Mosul's al-Islah al-Zaraye neighbourhood on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th armoured division on a truck flash the sign of victory as they drive back from Mosul to the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of Iraqi forces flash the sign of victory on their vehicle as they advance towards Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi security forces gestures in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi children, one flashing the sign of victory, greet Iraqi army's soldiers from the 9th armoured division in the area of Ali Rash, adjacent to the eastern Al-Intissar neighbourhood of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Peshmerga forces look at a tunnel used by Islamic State militants near the town of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier takes a photograph with his phone as his comrade stands next to a detained man, whom the Iraqi army soldiers accused of being an Islamic State fighter, who was fleeing with his family in the Intisar disrict of eastern Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families, who fled their homes in Hamam al-Alil, gather on the outskirts of their town Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced people walk past a checkpoint near Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadists of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering in an area near Qayyarah In pictures: Mosul offensive A boy who just fled Abu Jarbuah village is seen with his family at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi child eats a pomegranate upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive People who just fled Abu Jarbuah village sit as they eat at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A couple who just fled Abu Jarbuah village are escorted by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Women carry a boy over a wall as civilians flee their houses in the village of Tob Zawa, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier and a civilian ride a motorbike as smoke rises behind them, on the road between Qayyarah and Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces, wearing a skull mask, waits at a checkpoint for people fleeing the main hub city of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier sits at a checkpoint in an area near Qayyarah Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi men prepare food portions for Iraqi forces deployed in areas south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi forces celebrate upon the arrival of vehicles bringing food to them Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi childen smoke cigarettes upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces distributes drinks to children in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty

He saw several pictures of the girl and rebels knew her real name  suggesting that she had indeed crossed into Isis-held territory. The new photos match the information previously collected about Linda, Mr Stritzel said.

It is not clear when Linda  if she has been correctly identified  went to Mosul. The city has been under siege by US-backed Iraqi coalition forces since October 2016.

Fierce fighting and a US-led air campaign have killed thousands of civilians, and caused almost a million to flee their homes. While Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared last week that Isis has been defeated, clashes continue in a tiny pocket of the Old City, and the authorities remain fearful of sleeper cell attacks.

Five German women who travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the caliphate have been captured by Iraqi security forces during Mosul's fall.

Foreign men who joined Isis were often put in frontline combat roles or used as suicide bombers during the brutal nine-month-long campaign to retake the city. Earlier this month, shocking footage emerged of a woman cradling a baby who then blew herself up to take out two nearby soldiers.

At least 27,000 foreigners are estimated to have travelled to Syria to take part in various sides of the fighting in the countrys six years of civil war.
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An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) medic who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing a Palestinian assailant has been released to house arrest.

In March 2016, 20-year-old Elor Azaria shot Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head when he was wounded and immobilised on the ground, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. He was found guilty of manslaughter by a Tel Aviv military court in January 2017.

His sentence is being considered by a military court of appeals, and will be decided 30 July. Since his three-year military service ends on 20 July, Azaria has been allowed to travel to his parents home in Ramla and will remain there under house arrest until his appeal is heard.

 Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldier as he lies on the ground

While his lawyer argued for half house arrest, under which Azaria would be allowed to leave home during the day, the former sergeant  demoted to private  will only be allowed to leave the house to attend prayers on the Sabbath.

The landmark ruling against the young medic marked the first time a member of the IDF had been convicted of the charge in 12 years  but the case exposed a huge division in Israeli society over attitudes towards the actions of the IDF.

Since military service is compulsory, there is widespread sympathy for members of the army.

Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541126.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541129.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541124.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541123.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541130.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541125.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541121.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541128.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541127.bin  Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures 541122.bin  Bruno Stevens

Azarias lawyers claims of self-defence were supported by 65 per cent of the Jewish Israeli public, an August 2016 survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found.

However, Palestinians and rights activists have widely criticised the punishment as not severe enough for the killing, which was recorded on a mobile phone.

The prosecution had sought a sentence of between three and five years, although manslaughter can carry a sentence of up to 20 years under Israeli law.

It is possible that Azaria could walk free after serving 12 months of his sentence, and there have been several high-profile calls for the young recruit to be pardoned altogether.

Sharifs family had called for Azaria to receive a life sentence.

The sentence he received is less than a Palestinian child gets for throwing stones, his father Yasri told media earlier this year.
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The American military commander in charge of the special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden has said the al-Qaeda founder could absolutely have been captured alive.

Admiral William McRaven, the former head of the US Special Operations Command, insisted Seal Team Sixs assault on the compound where the terrorist lived with his family in Pakistan was not a kill only mission.

He told the BBCs Newsnight programme that the 2011 mission went pretty much as we planned it with the exception of a helicopter that was destroyed by American forces after clipping the compounds walls during landing.

The damage destroyed hopes of secrecy under the original plan to drop Seals down ropes on to the roof, forcing troops to blast their way into the building housing Bin Laden.

"You always plan for the worst case scenario so we had a Plan A and a Plan B and a Plan C and a Plan D, Admiral McRaven said.

"Plan A went a little askew so we immediately jumped into Plan B, but we got our man."

US officials said commandos were fired on by one of Bin Ladens confidantes, who was shot dead alongside his wife, brother and one of Bin Ladens sons, Khalid.

(Getty)

Bin Laden was found around 20 minutes into the raid in a third floor corridor, before retreating into his bedroom and being shot dead.

Asked whether there was a chance that Bin Laden could have been captured alive, Admiral McRaven replied: "Absolutely.

"I think a lot of people feel that this was a 'kill only' mission and that was not the case, he told Newsnight.

"The strict rules of engagement said that if he is clearly not a threat, then you have to capture him - you can't just kill him.

"But, conversely, I made sure the guys understood that if they felt that there was at all a threat, that they had to make the right decision and they have to do that in a split second.

"So you're coming up to the third floor, people are moving around, you have night vision goggles on, a lot of things are happening - clearly they made the right decision."

Initial American accounts of the mission said Bin Laden exchanged fire with the commandos while using his wife as a human shield, but officials later told the Associated Press that Seals found two women screaming and attempting to protect the unarmed man.

Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with US national security officials as soldiers carry out the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden (White House)

Robert ONeill, who identified himself publicly as the man who killed Bin Laden, said he shot the terror leader twice in the head and a third time as he fell to the ground.

Another Seal, Matt Bissonnette, claimed he also fired at Bin Laden but alleged that Seals opened fire immediately after he looked out of his bedroom.

Barack Obama, who watched the raid unfold from the White Houses situation room alongside Hillary Clinton and other leaders, later said he hoped Bin Laden could have been captured.

"Frankly, my belief was if we had captured him, that I would be in a pretty strong position, politically, here, to argue that displaying due process and rule of law would be our best weapon against al-Qaeda, in preventing him from appearing as a martyr," he told Vanity Fair journalist Mark Bowden.

Jeremy Corbyn was heavily criticised for describing Bin Ladens death without trial as a tragedy on Iranian state television following the Abbottabad raid.

He claimed there had been no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him and put him on trial, to go through that process, adding: This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy.

The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. Tens of thousands of people have died.

David Cameron, who was Prime Minister at the time of the raid, congratulated the US for a "strike at the heart of international terrorism" in a statement to the House of Commons.
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A major solar power project in the Middle East will provide electricity during the night, the developers have said.

The $1bn (770m) scheme will provide up to 200 megawatts to the grid in Dubai between 4pm and 10am, according to the news service Bloomberg.

Instead of generating electricity using photovoltaic cells, the system works by using mirrors to concentrate the suns energy and heat water. The heat is stored in molten salt and then used to create steam that drives a turbine.

Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive of the Saudi Arabia-based company behind the project, ACWA Power International, told the news service that this system was likely to become more popular around the world.

I expect concentrated-solar power, within 18 months, to be head-to-head with combined-cycle gas, if not more competitive, he said.

The focus has been on photovoltaic and batteries, but theres a limit on how long they can hold a charge for. Were proving that CSP [concentrated solar power] can work through the night.

The system can heat the molten salt to a staggering 490 degrees Celsius.

Mr Padmanathan said there were currently only two companies supplying solar CSP devices.

The others have gone bankrupt, he said, but he added: I know of at least five Chinese companies that are starting to enter the market.

ACWA has built CSP plants in Morocco and South Africa and hopes to build another in Saudi Arabia.

Right now theyre tendering for solar PV and wind, but I think theyll want a CSP project as well, especially when they see how cost competitive it can be, Mr Padmanathan said.

Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said the plunging costs of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels was reducing the chance that this rival method of harnessing the suns energy would take off.

This plant in Dubai is for delivery by 2021, she said. By then, were expecting solar PV and batteries to be in the same order of magnitude for cost and will be a lot more flexible than a solar thermal plant.


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Car rental in the 21st century is a ferociously competitive industry, which can provide travellers with outstandingly good value. For 20 a day or less, you can get unlimited use of an asset that is worth 10,000 or more. But like many dimensions of the travel industry, the whole business has become distorted and opaque since the internet intervened between the holidaymaker and their wheels. This guide can help you get good value  and avoid the pitfalls.

Where do I start?

Like everything in travel, car rental rates vary dramatically depending on supply and demand; in the short run, supply is fixed, while demand is highly volatile. In summer on Spanish islands, prices can go through the roof, while in winter the same car might cost only a few euros a day.

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To get an idea of price levels, enter your requirements at a price-comparison website, such as Skyscanner or Travelsupermarket. But be aware that the very lowest quotes may have some or all of these features: a very high excess on damage; a fuel policy that isnt out full, back full; and awkward access arrangements.

Having established the prevailing price level, either ask a travel agent to book a car as part of your trip, or pick up the phone. This last recommendation is based on a couple of things. Clicking through to the best deal on a price comparison site may take you to a broker; both these enterprises will collect a margin, so in general firms prefer to sell direct. And if there are problems it helps to cut out the middlemen.

Talk to the UK office of two or three of the big multinational car-rental firms, such as Hertz, Avis and Enterprise, and any local companies that have been recommended to you; for example, I find Cicar is very good in the Canary Islands. In addition, if you belong to an airline or hotel loyalty scheme, it is well worth seeing if there are discounts or special deals, such as a second driver free.

After decades of renting cars abroad, and being clobbered for unexpected extras on several occasions, I have concluded that I would rather pay a few pounds extra and have the chance for a proper conversation with someone.

What do I ask?

1 The price. It should include everything, including airport surcharge, taxes and basic insurance (typically the minimum legal requirement of the country you are in).

2 The excess: how much may I have to pay in the event of damage? If I choose to take out separate insurance for that excess, will you accept the policy? And can you guarantee that I wont be asked for a deposit?

3 Can I add a second driver for free? If not, how much will it cost?

4 Whats the fuel policy? The traditional plan is out full/back full. Many internet deals, though, insist on out full/back empty. You pay an inflated amount for the tank of fuel, and are cheerfully told to bring it back empty  which, of course, is an impossibility. Every drop of fuel that you leave represents profit for the provider. If its not an out full/back full policy, I will politely decline.

5 Tolls. In locations such as Portugal and Florida, there are sometimes-complex toll systems in place. I ask: can I pay tolls manually? If I can, I do. If not, I ask if I can enrol online for a scheme rather than take a more expensive option.

Having phoned around, simply take the best deal.

Anything else to bear in mind?

Plenty, in particular when you pick up the car up. In many cases, car rental staff are incentivised on the extras they can persuade you to take when you pick up the car. My rule is politely to decline everything. They are mostly absurdly overpriced insurance options. Roadside Assistance Plus, for example, is not necessary. If your car breaks down, it's their problem, not yours, and they need to sort it out. Decline the chance to pay for this benefit.

Even then, in the US, in particular, Ive been one of the many unwitting fools who dont spot that theyve been upgraded and are paying a small fortune for something they didnt ask for.

Talking of the US, the cheapest quote is for a sub-compact. How tiny is it? Quite large. Sub-compact or economy car in American terms is a perfectly respectable size for a European family. So politely ignore the salesperson's assessment of your pre-booked vehicle as being thoroughly unsuitable for the journey you plan (You're not seriously thinking of all sharing that car, are you?), the costs swiftly increase; the upgrade fee is itself uprated by a range of additional charges. And experience suggests you stand a good chance of a bigger car than you ordered anyway. On about half the occasions I hire in the US, there is not a single economy or sub-compact car in the rental lot, and I get a vehicle built like a Sherman tank without paying a penny more.

How can I keep prices down?

Dont rent at an airport. Airports recognise the value of car rental to passengers and know they can extract a premium. This is passed on to the customer  with lots of other people trying to get a slice. When I tested an Enterprise rental in San Francisco, the rate was one-third more than from the firms office in the city centre. The discrepancy was made up of a whole range of fees, including a $20 flat fee per rental for Airport Transportation and an 11.11 per cent concession recovery fee that the airport charges the rental company. There was also a 3.5 per cent tourism fee (heading for the California Travel and Tourism Commission) and a 2.5 per cent San Mateo County Business Licence fee.

In a two-week rental, those charges can add hundreds of dollars, but you can avoid them by hopping on the train from the airport and hiring downtown.

My package holiday to Florida includes free basic car rental. Is it free, and how basic will it be?

Many Florida  and California  packages include the offer of a car. But my understanding of the business model is that the supplier of the vehicle expects to extract a reasonable amount of money from the person who rents it. By steadfastly refusing all offers of options, you can make it genuinely free.

Im booking a budget flight, and the airline says it has a deal with a car-rental firm that guarantees the lowest rates. Should I take it?

If you have straightforward requirements (eg one driver only) and you are satisfied it is the best price, then do. Plenty of people speak highly about the easyJet/Europcar tie-up, for example. But be fast off the plane: if you have taken up the deal, the chances are that plenty of other people have, too. Its worth the named driver going straight through to the desk, while the rest of the group waits for the luggage.

What about GPS?

Car rental firms will be delighted to rent you one, but it will prove extremely expensive compared with using your smartphone (in Europe and elsewhere if you enjoy free roaming) or that old fallback, a road map.
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Reports have emerged that tourists are being asked to show they have 20,000 baht (455) in cash before theyre allowed entry into Thailand.

Immigration officials at some border checkpoints are being more stringent when it comes to letting in those with a history of tourist visa entries, reports the Asia News Network. Educational (ED) visa holders are also facing extra scrutiny.

The move is thought to be an attempt to keep out those who are not genuine tourists and may be working in Thailand illegally. It could also help put a stop to begpacking  the practice of Western backpackers begging for money to fund their travels around Asia.

It has been reported that immigration officials at Padang Besar were pulling tourist visa holders aside on Friday 14 July, taking anyone who could not show they had 20,000 baht in cash away for questioning.

A British national in Hua Hin was reportedly asked to show 20,000 baht in cash when trying to enter the country at Don Mueang airport on Wednesday 12 July. He had three previous tourist visa entries in his passport and was questioned about whether he works in Thailand and how he could financially support himself while staying in the country.

Another tourist in possession of an ED visa was held at Suvarnabhumi Airport last week after he was asked to show 20,000 baht in cash and only had 8,000. The man in question previously had four tourist visas and a 30 day stamp on arrival.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) currently doesnt mention anything about needing a minimum amount of money to enter Thailand  however, it does advise having return flights booked. Immigration officials in Thailand may ask you for proof of onward travel (e.g. a return or onward air ticket), reads the FCO advice. You should make all reservations before leaving for Thailand. Some airlines have refused to board passengers without evidence of onward travel.
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Lets ponder how marvellous is the manure pile that the Republicans have built for themselves since taking control of the whole bag of tricks in Washington. If this is to suggest that they have no one to blame but themselves, well then so be it.

They didnt have to begin their glorious new reign by focusing first on nuking the healthcare law Democrats pushed through in 2010. Apart from busying themselves dismantling assorted regulatory orders born in the dying days of Barack Obamas presidency, they needed some big and noisy legislative accomplishment early on to show they could effectively govern.

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Wisdom might have suggested tackling something that, first, they could all actually agree on and, second, would be well received by a wide spectrum of voters. Lets say tax reform, which even some on the left agree is urgently needed, or the promise made by Donald Trump finally to throw big money at the countrys crumbling infrastructure. The latter would have had the added advantage of splitting Democrats  repairing roads, bridges, tunnels and schools creates jobs.

But no. For seven years, Republicans had picked obsessively at a single sore: the Affordable Care Act, derisively known as Obamacare. Most of them, and especially those to the right flank, made repealing it a sort of blood-handshake with their supporters. Upon finally taking charge in Washington  House of Representatives, Senate and White House  they would do it or die.

Well, now they are dying.

Paul Ryan hardly distinguished himself when this was in his lap. But what should we expect from a limp-d**k motherf***** who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation. Don't laugh. This is the considered and choice appraisal of the House speaker from Steve Bannon, the firebrand top advisor to Trump, according to a new book, Devils Bargain, by Bloomberg journalist Joshua Green. Its good to see Republicans sticking together.

In early May, Ryan did finally grind out a House bill to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a new system to keep the country healthy. Trump invited him to the White House to celebrate only to tweet days later he thought his draft mean. By then, though, the action had moved to the Senate, where majority leader Mitch McConnell was vowing to move lickety-split towards passage of his own version of repeal-and-replace. Surely by early summer the exercise would finally be over. The new law would be on Trumps desk to sign and it would be smiles all around.

Oh boy. Masterful McConnell has been exposed as Mangling Mitch. He had a Plan A. Then he had a plan B. Both foundered because he could not find a way to suppress rebellion either from the right, which considered what was on the table to be far short of actually obliterating Obamacare in the manner they crave, or from moderates who fretted that the end result would be, as Trump himself put it, too mean. A forecast from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that Plan A would have robbed 23 million Americans of healthcare insurance, mostly by rolling back a huge expansion of insurance benefits for the poor known as Medicaid. We were about to hear their predictions for Plan B when McConnell decided it wouldnt fly either.

Are we feeling sorry for the Republicans? They have always had real intellectual and ideological arguments for doing away with Obamacare which has at its heart a mandate that makes buying some form of health insurance obligatory. Folk who fail to do so are hit by a fine come tax day. This is anathema to the American right  its government intrusion incarnate  and so is the original broadening of Medicaid, essentially a welfare programme. But without the mandate, Obamacare crumbles. And no provision of Obamacare is more important to the main goal of reducing the numbers of Americans without health insurance than the expansion of Medicaid.

And the sins of the Republicans are hard to ignore. How is it possible that for seven full years they bleated about Obamacare without at the same time coming up with a viable alternative of their own? Its easy to rant and rail when the levers of power are elsewhere, isnt it?

McConnell accused the Democrats of ramming the original 2010 law through without input from their side. Thats fair, but he has proceeded to behave in exactly the same way. Plan A and his Plan B were concocted in secret. Even most of his own senators had no clue what was going on. No committee hearings, no open debate of any kind. That meant that no attempt has been made to sell what Republicans were proposing to the general public, never mind that this law that would impact one fifth of the nations economy and the lives of more or less every American.

This is especially unwise given the latest intelligence from the polls about Obamacare. It is more popular now than it ever was when Obama was actually in the Oval Office. A new Washington Post/ABC poll suggests that twice as many Americans favour keeping Obamacare rather than repealing and replacing it with what the Republicans eventually came up with.

Now every Senate plan has gone down in flames, a total humiliation for McConnell from which he may never recover and a political catastrophe for Trump also. For a brief moment on Tuesday McConnell suggested moving to Plan Z  simply repealing Obamacare with full effect in two years time and leaving for another time for finally figuring out how to replace it. That, however, would be an obvious recipe for disaster  even more millions would stand to loose coverage  and moderates in the party quickly made clear they would bolt from that option also. McConnell is now out of road.

It should dawn on Republicans at this point that their mission to consign Obamacare to history was always a dead-end proposition. If they'd been able to agree ahead of time on a viable, sellable alternative plan perhaps it would have been a different story. But that wasn't the case. Meanwhile, that poll  50 per cent for keeping Obamacare, 25 per cent for the Republican alternative  should tell them that even their own constituents may be not as obsessed with the issue as they are. The big legislative win they so badly need will come from elsewhere  from bridges, tunnels or tax. Return to healthcare when you have calmed down. And if your mission then is to improve Obamacare  not simply to wreck it  maybe even Democrats will join you in trying.
The euro sculpture in front of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany

Citigroup has decided on Frankfurt as its latest European trading hub and intends to show this option to its board of directors this week for their approval, according to an individual with knowledge of the plan.

The decision means it will create between 150 and 250 new jobs in Frankfurt, according to the individual, who asked to remain anonymous in discussing internal policies.

The person went on to say that a decision has yet to be taken on whether the roles will be filled through hiring locally or through moving exiting staff, probably a combination the person said.

Citigroup already has around 350 employees working in Frankfurt, and it is expected that the group will use the location to deal with some of the trading activities currently done in London.

London will continue to be the banks European headquarters. Sky News reported this decision earlier yesterday.

Read more: Frankfurt emerging as the big winner from Brexit fallout

The move has been considered for some months now following the UKs vote to leave the EU.

The firm had been looking at various locations across Europe including Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, the banks top executive for the region, Jim Cowles, said in January.

It was also reported in November by Bloomberg News that the firm was in talks with the German regulator BaFin, a regulator seen by many as being the only European regulator outside of London which has the ability to deal with Citis complex derivatives business, about relocating some of its derivative business to Frankfurt.

The bank is also in talks with the European Central Bank and regulators in other EU nations including Ireland about relocating other sections of its business.

Given the financial ecosystem in Frankfurt, it is seen as the natural option for many multinational firms.

Despite there being a possibility for a UK deal continuing to give it some sort of access to the single European market, international firms are preparing for the worst and working towards having new or expanded offices running inside the single market prior to the UK officially departing in 2019.
Richard Pym, chairman of AIB, at the banks annual general meeting in the Bank Centre in Ballsbridge. Photo: Damien Eagers

There will be no flurry of companies relocating to Ireland in the wake of Brexit, according to the chairman of Allied Irish Bank (AIB).

Richard Pym told the MacGill Summer School that Frankfurt and Paris, rather than Dublin, are best placed to take advantage of the decision by the UK to leave the European Union.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Mr Pym said there is the real prospect of us ending up with a "car-crash Brexit".

He said such a scenario would involve customs checks on the border with Northern Ireland and Irish trucks being forced to queue for two days at Dover.

"Remember the British Prime Minister said, 'no deal is better than a bad deal', which is odd as surely 'no deal' must be the 'worst deal'," Mr Pym said.

"Whilst there are a few grown-ups in the British cabinet like Philip Hammond, there are also those seemingly determined to continue adolescence beyond previous age boundaries, and for whom 'no deal' would be victory. These are the people who dream of creating a new British-led world trade order described as Empire 2.0," he added.

In relation to investment, Mr Pym said even the arrival of a few thousand jobs to Ireland would have a major impact. But he warned against the idea that Ireland will be the main benefactor of a flight of jobs from the UK.

"Do not expect vast numbers of evacuees to arrive in Dublin, as Frankfurt and Paris will be the main job winners," Mr Pym told the summer school.

"But even a few thousand highly paid jobs arriving will generate knock-on economic activity. The one downside is that incoming firms will poach their senior staff from the large domestic firms and as they are not subject to the same pay constraints this will weaken our main national financial institutions.

"Where Ireland could win serious amounts of new business activity is from inward overseas investment displaced from the UK. Britain will be a less attractive business location for firms seeking access to the EU and if you want an English style legal system and language, then Ireland must be your destination of choice."

The session - 'Coping with Brexit: Is our infrastructure fit for purpose' - was moderated by Sunday Independent political editor Samantha McCaughren.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, warned that there is no "tooth fairy" to fund infrastructure.

Mr Watt said the Government must now put in place the "fiscal buffers" necessary to prepare for the prospect of an economic shock in 2019 or 2020.

Also speaking at the summer school, IBECs Director of Policy Fergal OBrien said Ireland must be focused on trying to "swim against the tide" in order to insulate the country from Brexit.

He said there is "no doubt" that Brexit will have a negative impact on the economy.

But he added that debt levels in Ireland have "fallen like a stone" in recent years and we are now living in a "incredibly wealthy high-income" country.
Goods exports to Britain were 153m higher in May than in the same month last year, new CSO figures show.

Despite Brexit denting exports to Britain last year to the tune of almost half a billion euro, the Central Statistics Office painted a more positive picture for 2017 so far.

It said goods exports across the Irish Sea totalled 1.24bn in May, compared with 1.1bn in the same month last year.

In the first five months of the year, exports to Britain rose to 5.9bn, compared with 5.19bn in the same five months in 2016.

Overall, on a seasonally adjusted basis, goods exports increased by 644m, or 7pc, to 10.18bn in May, compared with April, according to the preliminary figures.

Goods imports decreased, however, by 519m, or 8pc, to 5.88bn leading to an increase of 1.17bn, or a massive 37pc, in the trade surplus to 4.3bn.Alan McQuaid of Merrion Capital said a record trade surplus could be on the cards for the year.

"The trade outlook going forward remains clouded in uncertainty, but we are still anticipating another solid performance this year," he said.

"Indeed, based on the very positive start to 2017, with the trade balance in the first five months running 3.3bn above that of the same time last year, another record surplus now looks on the cards of around 49-50bn."

Data published earlier this year showed that while Irish goods exports reached a record last year of almost 117bn, exports to Britain dropped by almost half a billion euro as the Brexit vote took its toll.

Imports from Britain also fell back by 1.36bn.

Exporting businesses - particularly in the agri-food sector and those in border areas - have been hit hard by the slump in the value of sterling in the wake of last June's vote.

Yesterday's data suggested the exporting sector may be weathering the currency volatility.

Tanaiste and Enterprise Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the data was positive news.

"The Government is committed to facilitating the development of a strong exporting sector and exporting companies are contributing hugely to the performance of the Irish economy," Ms Fitzgerald said.

Mr McQuaid said that one can only speculate as to how Brexit will impact Ireland in the coming months and years, but there is clearly likely to be a negative impact on trade.

"The UK is the second largest single country for Ireland's goods and the largest for its services. At the same time, Ireland imports 30pc of its goods from the UK," he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has hit out at loose talk on Brexit, which he says has "hardened" positions on both sides.

Speaking a day after his Cabinet colleague Michael Creed said in a newspaper interview that there was a lack of political coherence and leadership from the UK, Mr Coveney said politicians needed to be careful what they said.

"All of us who comment on Brexit publicly - whether it's in the Irish Government, whether it's in the British government, or in other European countries - I think the level of seriousness that we need to be addressing this with now means that we need to be careful with what we say," Mr Coveney told reporters in Brussels yesterday.

He had been asked about Mr Creed's comments.

He continued: "Some of that commentary is unhelpful, I have to say - and it's not just on the British side. Some of the tough talk that we've seen in relation to Brexit on both sides, I think, has actually probably hardened views. What we need to do now is focus on the real negotiation."

Mr Coveney was speaking to reporters in Brussels as a second round of Brexit talks got under way, with negotiators focusing on citizens' rights and the UK's EU budget obligations.

This is the first substantive round of talks following a one-day kick-off meeting in June.

Today, negotiators are due to examine citizens and money and delve into more detail on other separation issues, such as nuclear energy, goods in transit on Brexit day and the jurisdiction of EU courts. The latter is a UK red line.

Read More

A "political dialogue" on Ireland will also begin today, steered by EU deputy negotiator Sabine Weyand and her UK counterpart Olly Robbins, to ensure that Brexit does not reintroduce a hard Border or damage the peace process.

Non-starter

Mr Coveney said he hoped for "political acknowledgement of what needs to be achieved in terms of outcome" on the Border, but emphasised that customs checks were a "non-starter".

"What we do not want is to pretend here that we can solve the problems of the Border on through technical solutions like cameras and pre-registration and so on," Mr Coveney said. "That is not going to work."

He also said the UK was not being "realistic" about the kind of future trade deal it could get with the EU if it insisted on leaving the single market and the customs union.

"Some of the expectations being set, particularly in the UK, in terms of what's possible - particularly around the ability to be able to negotiate free trade agreements with countries all over the world while at the same time having open barrier-free access to the single market - I don't think that's realistic," said Mr Coveney.

A spokesperson for the UK's Department for Exiting the EU said both sides had "started the serious business of working through our positions in a number of areas".

He added: "We recognise that this will be a complicated and technical process and we look forward to coming back tomorrow to make progress on the work we have begun today."

EU and UK negotiators were without their political masters in Brussels for the talks, as UK Brexit secretary David Davis left after an hour-long meeting with EU negotiator Michel Barnier. He is expected to return for the conclusion of talks on Thursday.

"It's incredibly important that we now make good progress," Mr Davis told reporters ahead of the meeting, "that we negotiate through this and identify the differences, so we can deal with them."
Warnings the UK government is "sleepwalking" into a post-Brexit future of insecure, unsafe and expensive food supplies, reinforce the need for a "common sense" approach to negotiations in Brussels, a leading farm organisation has said.

Yesterday, three British food policy academics published a substantive study on the challenges Brexit poses to the UK food system.

Chief concerns include food insecurity, food safety and increasingly expensive food supplies on a scale "unprecedented for an advanced economy outside of wartime".

The report, 'A Food Brexit: Time to Get Real', said: "The silence about the future of UK food since the Brexit referendum is an astonishing act of political irresponsibility and suggests chaos unless redressed. The country could sleepwalk into a food crisis, unless these problems are acknowledged and addressed."

The paper highlights that Ireland is the UK's second-largest source of food, with imports worth 4bn (4.6bn)annually.

Eddie Punch, general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA), said the report points to the fact the UK, which is just 52pc self-sufficient in food, needs to maintain strong trade ties with Ireland.

"The report reinforces the need for common sense in the Brexit negotiations. The UK needs us and we need them and ultimately that is going to have to prevail in the ongoing Brexit talks in Brussels," he said.

The 88-page report notes that departure from the EU raises serious questions over the future of food safety in the UK, which the authors claim "will decline if the UK ceases to adopt EU safety rules, and instead accepts free-trade agreements with countries with significantly weaker standards".

Mr Punch said this should serve as a "wake-up call" to UK supermarkets.

"Supermarkets in Britain need to be aware that they have put a lot of money into talking about traceability, quality assurance and standards. If they think that free-trade deals with countries with standards way lower is the way to go that's a catastrophic error.

"The British government must realise that whether it's a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit they have a need to import food and Ireland is one it's most important, most reliable suppliers of beef, dairy and so on. Common sense ultimately has to prevail in the negotiations," he said.

The ICSA said high tariff barriers with the UK and Europe are in nobody's best interests.

"Hopefully this report will give pause to thought for the UK government that they have a strong standing trading relationship with Ireland and because of our high standards in quality and traceability they shouldn't glibly assume that those markets can easily be replaced," he said.
Ex-Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington is one of Irelands most highly regarded non executives. Photo: Frank McGrath

Colm Barrington, the high-profile former chairman of Aer Lingus, risks losing his board seat at the listed property landlord Hibernia REIT after an influential global advisory firm urged investors to reject his re-election as a director at the firm's annual general meeting next week.

The unexpected opposition to Mr Barrington's continued presence on the board comes as another powerful international advisory firm took issue with how Hibernia rewards its senior executives and recommended shareholders vote against endorsing the remuneration report at the AGM.

The twin criticisms threaten to stoke an investor revolt at Hibernia, which owns Twitter's freshly renovated European headquarters at Cumberland Place in Dublin's city centre.

Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS), a proxy adviser to many large-scale shareholders, recommended opposing Mr Barrington's re-election as a non-executive director at Hibernia, on the grounds that he has too many board commitments elsewhere.

In a recently published report, ISS noted that Mr Barrington is also the CEO of Fly Leasing, a stock market-quoted aircraft lessor, and serves on the boards of IFG Group, a Dublin-based, UK-focused financial services group, and the Nordic airline, Finnair.

Mr Barrington is one of the country's most highly experienced and highly regarded non executives.

The view that Mr Barrington is burdened by too many responsibilities may put an unexpected brake on the aviation guru's career. Yet Mr Barrington, a keen sailor who is also Vice President of the Olympic Council of Ireland, is no stranger to corporate tussles.

In 2009 Ryanair's famously pugilistic CEO, Michael O'Leary, attacked Mr Barrington for his 175,000 salary at Aer Lingus, which represented a steep ascent from the 35,000 earned in 2006 by the previous chairman, John Sharman.

Glass Lewis, also an adviser to some of the world's biggest asset managers, recommended in favour of Mr Barrington's re-election. But the firm criticised the lack of transparency over executive pay, arguing investors were offered "no rationale" for a 32.5pc increase in the salary of chief financial officer Thomas Edwards-Moss, and were left largely in the dark about how short-term cash bonuses are rewarded.

In a recently published report, Glass Lewis noted Hibernia's remuneration committee greenlighted a rise in Mr Edwards-Moss's wage to 265,000 from 200,000.

The cost of the salary jump is borne by the directors of WK Nowlan REIT Management, the investment trust, which sold the management of the REIT to shareholders in 2015 as part of a move to 'internalise' the property trust.

But Glass Lewis argues that Hibernia has failed to disclose its "rationale for the necessity of such a significant increase".

ISS, on the other hand, recommended investors support the remuneration report.

Hibernia declined to comment.
A trade delegation from Morocco is currently in Ireland visiting a number of state bodies.

The visiting delegation from Morocco, headed by Mr Hammou Ouhelli, Secretary of State for Rural Development. The Secretary of State was accompanied by Senior Officials from ONSSA, ADA and industry representatives.

This visit follows on from the successful Trade Mission to Morocco, lead by Minister Creed last November.

Senior Department officials accompanied by Sustainable Food Systems Ireland hosted high level discussions in Agriculture House, where opportunities for enhanced trade and cooperation were discussed.

The Moroccan delegation is also meeting with key state agencies such as Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc.

Last year Minister Creed spent three days in Morocco, where he held a series of political and commercial meetings in the Agadir region to raise the profile of the Irish agri-food sector.

At the time he said that Morocco is a country with whom we have an existing trade in agri-food already and which is showing phenomenal growth in recent years but this week has highlighted the potential for this to grow much further.

Agri-food exports from Ireland to Morocco in 2015 continued to grow. They have now almost doubled from around 8m in 2013 to almost 14.5m in 2015.

In 2015 almost 13m or 3,650t of dairy produce was exported.

Almost 13m in agri-food products had been exported by the end of July 2016 in Morocco, which is close to the entire amount for 2015.
Brazil needs to make progress on inspections before any timeline can be set to end a US ban on imports of fresh Brazilian beef, the US agriculture secretary said this week.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and his Brazilian counterpart Blairo Maggi met in Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss the ban that went into effect on June 22. The US has said a high percentage of beef shipments from Brazil did not pass safety checks.

In June, the US blocked shipments of fresh Brazilian beef and said it had found abscesses in the meat and signs of systemic failure of inspections in meat from the world's largest beef exporter.

In March, some Brazilian meatpackers were hit with a scandal involving alleged bribery of health officials, which briefly shut Brazil's protein exports out of major global markets from China to Europe.

Brazilian cattle ranchers have said they believe the abscesses were linked to foot-and-mouth vaccines used in Brazil, the only country where foot-and-mouth disease can be found in cattle that can sell to the US because it uses vaccinations.

After the meeting, Brazil's Agriculture Ministry released a recording of Maggi's remarks in which he said the US could lift a ban on imports of fresh Brazilian beef in 30 to 60 days but the final decision would be made after analysis of information presented by Brazil.

Perdue said in a statement that Maggi had pressed for a timeline for restoring imports of fresh Brazilian beef to the US, but he said any timeline would depend upon progress being made by Brazil.

Brazil had been selling fresh beef to the US since July 2016 when the countries signed an agreement ending 17 years of talks about such imports.

Fresh beef shipments to the United States represent 3pc of Brazil's beef exports and were worth $58.1m from January to June.
European bakeries and food producers are starting to look at substituting margarine for butter as spot prices hit record highs of 6,000 a tonne.

French bakeries have been particularly vocal about butter shortages impacting on their famed croissants and pain au chocolat.

Ornua dairy trading expert Joe Collins says customers are now buying "hand to mouth" as the spot butter prices have surged 160pc in the last year.

"In the food ingredient sector we are hearing customers talking about reformulation and looking at veg fat instead of butter fat," said Mr Collins.

"We are hearing in the food service sector of firms replacing margarine with butter and some food service outlets are not putting butter out on the table."

With the Kerrygold butter brand achieving retail sales of 900m, Mr Collins said all brand owners' margins were being impacted and they were concerned about long-term brand damage if consumers trade down to lower quality own label brands.

Butter sales were back around 11pc during May at retail level in Germany which is one of the key markets.

Exports from the EU to countries outside the union have slumped 19pc up to the end of April, with exports to the Middle East and North Africa down 40pc as lower oil prices also impact.

However, Mr Collins cautioned that was before the prices surged even higher, with a 70pc increase in the last two months to 6,000/t.

"The previous record was for 4,100/t for two months in late 2007," he said.

Most of the price increase can be explained by the low unsustainable starting base of intervention for skimmed milk powder which is a by-product of butter, Mr Collins pointed out.

'Mis-match'

He said the depressed prices over the past 12 months have seen it at $1,850/t which is just 15pc above the intervention floor.

The product price "mismatch" has discouraged processors from making butter as the cent-per-litre returns are impacted by the SMP.

The demand for dairy has been growing over the past five years, with it acknowledged as a natural food.

However, he said the lower milk output in Europe, a reduction in the butter fat content of milk and increased volumes of cream going into items like yoghurt and high fat cheeses has also contributed.

"It looks like it will stay reasonably heated for the next few months. Supply is improving a bit and demand is burning off a bit," he said. "What is going on at the moment isn't sustainable."

Ornua's Kevin Lane said they planned to invest more in their brands in their key markets of Germany and the US.

He added that Ornua aims to target the growing Chinese market, alongside the Middle East, Africa and certain Eastern European countries with slightly altered products to appeal to local palates.

Margarine back on the menu as spot prices reach 6,000 per tonne
Champion dairy farmers from Counties Cavan, Monaghan, Offaly, Westmeath, Down and Tyrone win awards for Excellence in Milk Production.

At the Lakeland Dairies Milk Quality Awards, dairy farmers from both sides of the border won top honours for the exceptionally high quality of milk produced on their farms.

The winners emerged from among over 2,000 milk producers supplying a total milk pool of 1.2 Bn litres.

The awards were presented by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed together with Lakeland Dairies Chairman Alo Duffy and Chief Executive, Michael Hanley.

Seamus and Gerard Quinn, Ardboe, Co. Tyrone won the Lakeland Dairies Supreme Milk Quality Award and also won the overall Northern Ireland Milk Quality Award.

Francis Goodman, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, won the 500,000+ litres milk production category. The runner-up in this category was Nigel Trenier, Belturbet, Co. Cavan.

Terence McGovern, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, won the 0  500,000 litres milk production category, closely followed by runner-up Adrian Kelly, Cloghan, Co. Offaly.

In the category for New Entrants to Dairy Farming, G.D. Young from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, and Raymond, James and Graham Harrison, Hillsborough, Co. Down both won awards for exceptional milk quality.

The overall Northern Ireland Runners-Up were Keith & Robin Crawford, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone

Joseph & Paul Molloy, Lea more, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, won the inaugural Lakeland Dairies Sustainability Award for outstanding commitment to sustainable milk production, based on measures including carbon footprint, biodiversity, water management and milk quality results.

Lakeland Chief Executive Michael Hanley said agriculture and dairying will be key engines of economic progress both regionally and on an all-island basis as we continue to grow food exports in the future.

With the strategic investments we have made, we are able to process as much milk as our suppliers can provide. We have a strong presence in international markets, exporting nearly 100pc of our output, and we have built a name for quality and reliability on a worldwide basis."
An Bord Pleanala failed to take into account the rights of affected landowners or the potential impact of Brexit in approving the development of the North-South electricity interconnector, the Commercial Court has been told.

Members of the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign Ltd, representing about 190 affected landowners, and Maura Sheehy, a farmer, of Teltown Road, Donaghpatrick, Co Meath, were in the packed court on Tuesday for the opening of their challenge to the Board's approval.

The case by the group and Ms Sheehy is against An Bord Pleanala; the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources; and the State, with Eirgrid plc, the developer, as a notice party.

Conleth Bradley SC, for the applicants, said the grounds of challenge include failure by the Board to properly address the rights of the landowners, environmental issues or potential impact of Brexit.

The case is being heard by Mr Justice Max Barret who will also later hear two separate other challenges over the permission brought by David Malone, of Eurolaw Environmental Consultants, St Joseph's Terrace, Portarlington, Co Laois, and Val Martin, a farmer and environmental campaigner of Gortnakesh, Cavan.

All three cases concern the December 19, 2016, decision by the Board, following a 12 day oral hearing, to grant EirGrid permission, subject to various conditions, to construct almost 300 pylons in counties Meath, Cavan and Monaghan.

The interconnector is planned to run from Batterstown in Co Meath to Turleenan in Co Tyrone. Eirgrid had said the overall cost of construction will be 286m - 180m for the proposed development in the Republic and 106m for the Northern Ireland element.

Outlining the landowners case, Mr Bradley said the dialogue concerning the interconnector was between the planning authority and the developer and the landowners were excluded.

In contrast to the application concerning the northern aspect of the development, the planning application here did not include an application for access to affected lands south of the border, he said.

While the developer maintains access is provided for arising from the environmental impact assessment, the applicants claim that access has to be applied for in the planning application raises an important legal issue concerning the difference between an EIA and a planning permission or approval, he said.

The landowners' exclusion from dialogue concerning conditions for the development breached their rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights, counsel submitted.

The Board, it is also argued, breached the Environmental Impact Assessment directive concerning assessment of the environmental effects of public and private projects. The Board, it is claimed, failed to ensure appropriate public participation in the process or to consider or apply any appropriate mitigation measures in respect of the EIA process.

Mr Bradley argued the rationale of the Board and developer centred on costs, security and exense but not the environment.

It is also alleged the Board's decision is contrary to the Habitats Directive and failed to consider the situation of the Whooper Swan.

Further arguments include there was no lawful basis for the Board to exercise decision making power in relation to a permit granting procedure for Projects of Common Interest (PCI) or Clusters of PCI.

The Board, it is alleged, was not lawfully designated as a competent authority, to grant approval for the development under Section 182B of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

Mr Bradley said minutes of meetings in 2016 and 2017 indicated concerns by the developers in this joint venture - Eirgrid and SONI in Northern Ireland, that the designation of provision of electricity on this island under an integrated single electricity market will be revisited as result of the UK leaving EU. None of the concerns raised by the developer were assessed and considered by the Board in its role as competent authority, counsel argued.

The case continues.
Talks between An Post and postmasters on the future of the network and the operation of a new current account have broken down amid a dispute over payments.

The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) has told Government and An Post that its members will not co-operate with the roll-out of the new Smart Account.

However, some IPU members are defying the union, as 200 post offices have signed up to operate it already.

A message sent to members of the postmasters' union states: "The national executive has decided to withdraw from the current negotiations with An Post because there appears to be no prospect of agreement at present.

"The union has advised the Government and An Post that it will not be in a position to co-operate with the roll-out of the An Post Smart Account."

Communications Minister Denis Naughten appointed senior counsel Turlough O'Donnell to agree a strategy for the future of the network through talks between the postmasters, An Post management and his officials.

Postmasters are still talking to the Government, but claim there has been no progress from the Government side and are planning a protest outside Mr Naughten's office tomorrow.

They say they will not agree to roll out the new account until An Post management agrees to its demands on how postmasters are paid.

The Smart account is aimed at offering an electronic payment option to the 1.7 million customers who use the post office network each week.

General secretary of the IPU Ned O'Hara claimed An Post and Mr Naughten's officials were not engaging in the talks.

His members had hoped the talks would produce a shared vision on the future of the post office network.

He claimed An Post boss David McRedmond could end up closing down 700 post offices, as many were not considered commercially viable. "We are not getting proper engagement from the Government. We are opposed to any closures unless postmasters themselves can't make a living," he said.

He denied the main stumbling block was agreeing exit payments for retiring postmasters,

Mr O'Hara disputed claims his members were signing up to operate the Smart Account, despite the union telling its members not to co-operate.

A spokeswoman for Mr Naughten said department officials were not engaged in the talks process. She pointed out that the minister had appointed the barrister to facilitate talks.

The minster had met IPU officials on several occasions, and executives from An Post, she said. An Post said it looked forward to the resumption of the talks in the autumn. The new Smart account is a key attempt to ensure the survival of the post office network.

The dispute comes as there are fears that up to 500 post offices could be forced to close as they are losing money, with consumers increasingly using electronic forms of payment.

The Smart account is aimed at offering an alternative to the situation where people getting social welfare payments, such as child benefit, are increasingly having the money transferred straight to a bank account.

An Post lost 15.6m last year.

The new account will be a direct challenge to the banks.

Account holders will get a debit card, which can be used across the MasterCard network.
Record store chain Golden Discs is back in black after the group posted a profit of 172,878 for financial year-end 2016, according to a statement from the group.

Turnover for period-end December 2016 was 17.9m, driven in part by new store openings and a significant growth in sales of vinyl records.

Store openings included a store in Dundrum Town Centre and a pop-up store on Dublins Henry Street for the busy Christmas trading period.

Sales of audio products also performed significantly well for Golden Discs, with vinyl sales up over 100pc on 2015.

"Vinyl sales are at a 25 year high and are continuing to grow, its renaissance proves the desire to own music in the physical format remains strong," Stephen Fitzgerald, Golden Disc group ceo, said.

Read more: Adele's sell-out concerts help profits soar at 3Arena firm

The company, which was established in 1962, has also further enhanced its customer experience, with the opening of the Vinyl Lounge, a hybrid vinyl shop, cafe, exhibition space and music venue in their Cork flagship store on Patrick Street.

Golden Discs, which currently has 13 stand alone stores across Ireland, said that the project has been well received and they are looking for suitable space in Dublin to expand the concept.

Later this month it will launch a new online store with an extensive range of catalogue as well as new release audio and visual products.

So far in 2017 the companys year to-date performance is in line with forecasts, thanks in part to strong album sales from Ed Sheeran, Imelda May and Harry Styles, and films such as Star Wars and Moana and Fantastic Beasts.
The fifth-year programs that have been pioneered by mid-valley high schools over the last few years withstood another legislative challenge in the session that wrapped up earlier this month  and, although lawmakers faced tough funding choices to the related Oregon Promise program, more work remains to be done there.

You recall the basic idea behind these fifth-year programs, which now go under the label "post-graduate scholar programs." Mid-valley high schools from Lebanon to Philomath embraced the programs, which essentially allow high school students who have met all the requirements for graduation to remain enrolled in their school districts for a fifth year while attending community college. Using state school fund money, those districts cover all or some of their tuition and fees.

The programs have scored some success, particularly in helping those students (often the first members of their families to attend college) get a head start on their postsecondary education.

The programs withstood a withering attack during the 2015 session, when legislators argued that it was unfair to use money intended for K-12 education to help pay for a 13th year for some students. And lawmakers noted, with justification, that the program wasn't financially sustainable.

A deal mid-valley Sen. Sara Gelser struck in 2015 basically attached sideboards to the fifth-year programs to help limit costs, but kept the programs alive for some students. Students must first apply for the Oregon Promise tuition assistance program, which helps high school graduates and GED recipients pay for community college. They must also complete the federal form known as FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The idea is to control costs by trying to ensure that students also take advantage of other grants that might be available to them.

Despite Gelser's efforts, a bill in the 2017 session from Sen. Rod Monroe, a Democrat from Multnomah County, would have moved up the sunset date for the post-graduate programs by two years, to June 30, 2019. The bill failed to gain any traction in the Legislature, and stalled in the Senate Committee on Education (Gelser is a member), so the programs are intact for now  although the long-term outlook still is unclear.

In the meantime, lawmakers were not able to fully fund the Oregon Promise program, so made the difficult choice to cut off grants to wealthier families in an attempt to make up the difference.

That decision likely was inevitable, although the timing of it was dreadful, coming just days before the July 3 application deadline for students seeking Oregon Promise grants for the fall term.

Legislators also declined to make some fixes to the Oregon Promise that could make the program more useful for the students who need the most help from it: For example, the required grade point average for the program remains at 2.5. (In theory at least, students with a lower GPA are eligible to be included in a post-graduate scholar program.)

In addition, the Oregon Promise still requires students to enroll at a community college within six months after graduating from high schools or obtaining a GED  another factor that could limit access to the program for students who really could use it to get a leg up at a community college.

We continue to embrace the spirit behind both the Oregon Promise and post-graduate scholar programs; both programs flow from the understanding that students sometimes need a little additional help when it comes time to pursue postsecondary education. But the struggles that both programs have endured over the last few years speak volumes about the problems Oregon has in both carrying through and properly funding education innovations. (mm)
It is not clear whether Independent News & Media (INM) CEO Robert Pitt will vote to support the re-election of his fellow board members or in favour of other resolutions put to the group's annual general meeting (AGM) next month, according to a letter circulated to shareholders yesterday.

At the shareholder meeting on August 23, INM's non-executive directors, with the exception of Jerome Kennedy, who is retiring from the board, will all seek re-election. That is in keeping with the group's practice of non executives putting themselves up for election annually.

CEO Robert Pitt, as an executive director, is not subject to annual re-election.

The election of the directors is among a number of motions - mainly on technical issues such as remuneration, the calling of general meetings and share issuance - proposed under seven resolutions outlined by chairman Leslie Buckley in the letter circulated yesterday.

In his letter, Mr Buckley said the board believes that the resolutions are in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, and recommends that shareholders vote in favour of each, including supporting the re-election of directors at the AGM.

The directors, other than Robert Pitt who reserves his position, intend to vote in favour of the resolutions in respect of their own shares, the letter states.

A chief executive potentially abstaining or voting against resolutions proposed by the board of their own plc would be highly unusual, and highlights tensions at the top of the group behind the country's leading media titles, including the Irish Independent.

Late last year Mr Pitt made a complaint under new whistle-blowing legislation to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).

The complaint was made around the time INM issued a statement to the stock exchange confirming that an "issue" had arisen between Mr Pitt and INM chairman Leslie Buckley over a proposed acquisition of radio station Newstalk. That issue is understood to have been around the valuation of Newstalk.

Businessman Denis O'Brien is the largest single shareholder in INM and is also the owner of the Communicorp Group, whose assets include Newstalk.
AIB has launched Apple Pay, the digital payment system that uses your iPhone as a contactless payment card in a shop.

Apple Pay will now work with AIB debit and personal credit cards everywhere contactless payments are accepted.

Using it requires a swipe of a phone or Apple Watch against a contactless terminal to pay for something.

The move means that AIB, Ulster Bank and KBC support Apple Pay while Bank Of Ireland and Permanent TSB do not. Bank Of Ireland also does not support Android pay, leaving it alone as one of the pillar banks without such capability.

Using Apple Pay requires one of the newer iPhones (an iPhone 6, iPhone 7 or iPhone SE). It can also be used with newer iPad models, MacBooks after 2012, with Touch ID on the new MacBook Pro and on all Apple Watches.

Transactions using iPhones are validated by using a fingerprint or a pin code. Transaction limits are similar to those for existing contactless cards.

Retail partners using the system include supermarkets such as Supervalu, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Aldi, Centra and Marks and Spencers. Other retails chains such as Insomnia, Boots and Harvey Norman also accept the payment system as do petrol stations such as Applegreen and Amber Oil.

The system works by incorporating Mastercard or Visa contactless debit and credit cards. It can also be used shopping online or within apps.

Adding a card to an iPhone or an iPad is done through the Wallet app on the device. For an Apple Watch, its done through the Watch app on an iPhone.

For iPhones that are lost or stolen, the card can be disabled through icloud.com/find or by ringing the bank and cancelling the card in the normal way.

Apple says that Apple Pay is safer than using a traditional credit or debit card because each transaction is protected with either Touch ID or a passcode. It also says that card numbers and identities arent shared with the retailer or merchant and that the card numbers arent stored on your device or on Apple servers.

Apple also says that products bought using Apple Pay on an iPhone or Watch can be returned, with the balance recredited using the gadgets themselves at the retailers payment terminal.

Supporting Apple Pay is the latest in a number of innovative, customer focused developments that cements digital banking as an essential part of our customers daily lives, said Fergal Coburn, head of digital products in AIB. Its about making banking more convenient for AIB customers, The way people are banking is changing and with Apple Pay our customers will have even greater choice in the way they purchase goods and services.
Christopher Nolans Dunkirk, which tells the story of the evacuation of British forces from the beach at Dunkirk in 1940, is his first venture into historical film making.

Expand Close (L-R) Harry Styles as Alex, Aneurin Barnard as Gibson and Fionn Whitehead as Tommy in the Warner Bros. Pictures action thriller DUNKIRK, a Warner Bros. Pictures release  2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED . Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon. / Facebook

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Whatsapp (L-R) Harry Styles as Alex, Aneurin Barnard as Gibson and Fionn Whitehead as Tommy in the Warner Bros. Pictures action thriller DUNKIRK, a Warner Bros. Pictures release  2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED . Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.

But how does it square up in the eyes of a film critic?

Press Association reviewer Damon Smith has his say:

Brevity is the soul of writer-director Christopher Nolans harrowing wartime drama.

In his shortest feature since the acclaimed 1998 debut Following, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker crafts a stunning mosaic of personal stories of hard fought triumph and agonising defeat against the sprawling backdrop of the largest evacuation of allied forces during the Second World War.

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Whatsapp Mark Rylance as Mr. Dawson in the Warner Bros. Pictures action thriller DUNKIRK, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Nolan adopts a stripped back approach to storytelling that jettisons dialogue for long sequences.

He sets our nerves on edge in the hauntingly beautiful opening scene and steadily tightens the knot of tension in our stomachs until we are physically and emotionally spent.

Pulses race in time with composer Hans Zimmers terrific score, which includes a soft percussive beat like a clock ticking down to doomsday, and a new arrangement of Elgars melancholic Nimrod from Enigma Variations.

Expand Close Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas attend the world premiere of Dunkirk at the Odeon Leicester Square in London (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

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By keeping his script lean, Nolan allows us to remain white-knuckle taut in our seats for the duration.

However, strict rationing of screen time comes at a price.

Characters fates intersect on oil-slicked sea, land and air largely without back-stories and when we do learn about these brave mens pasts, it is predominantly through expository dialogue.

Expand Close Tom Glynn-Carney, Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles and Jack Lowden at the premiere of Dunkirk, in France (Michel Spingler/AP) / Facebook

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Young British soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) escapes a hail of German bullets and races to the beaches of Dunkirk, where over 300,000 exhausted men await rescue.

Tommy huddles alongside terrified recruits Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) and Alex (Harry Styles), whose fates rest in the hands of Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and Captain Winnant (James DArcy).

The officers take tough decisions about the order of evacuation under enemy fire.

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One stretcher takes the space of seven standing men, coolly observes the Commander.

On the other side of the Channel, sailor Mr Dawson (Mark Rylance) answers Winston Churchills impassioned call for civilian boats to rescue our boys.

He is accompanied by his surviving teenage son, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney), and the lads friend, George (Barry Keoghan).

At sea, the family rescues a shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) from the hull of an overturned vessel and witnesses a dogfight between German fighter planes and Royal Air Force spitfires piloted by Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden).

Dunkirk glisters in fragments, which slot together to form a compelling and deeply moving narrative that captures this page in recent history from multiple perspectives.

The ensemble cast is excellent, including One Direction dreamboat Styles, who confidently hefts the emotional weight of one nerve-jangling stand-off in a sinking boat.

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Aerial sequences are breathtaking, especially in the immersive 70mm format, which projects at selected cinemas and should be sought out wherever possible.

Sound design is also striking, most notably when Zimmers score surrenders to the ears-splitting scream of dive-bombing Luftwaffe targeting British soldiers on the sand.

When the Oscar nominees are announced in January next year, you can be sure that Nolan and his gifted technical crew will be leading the charge.

Rating: 8.5/10

DUNKIRK, Cert 12A, is in Irish cinemas this Friday
Dublin city's business have voted marginally in favour of keeping the Dublin Town Business Improvement District (BID) levy with almost half of more than 1,500 votes opting against the scheme.

It comes after a large campaign in opposition to the BID scheme in recent months.

However, with a victory of 843 votes to 715, BID has been given a mandate to continue their service.

It means that 46pc of the businesses will be expected to pay a yearly levy against their will.

The levy is around 5pc on top of Dublin City Council rates.

The scheme has been in place to offer a number of services in the upkeep, improvement and promotion of the city centre.

Though, it is understood the opposition 'No to BID' will now launch a campaign for businesses to boycott the payment.

Independent councillor, Mannix Flynn insisted that the despite the mandate, "this was not a victory for BID" and has put pressure on Council chief, Owen Keegan for its removal.

"This campaign is only beginning. We have almost 750 premises who voted no," he said.

"They don't want to pay this extra levy. This will be a campaign of disobedience - can't pay, won't pay," he added.

Meanwhile, councillor Nial Ring hailed the victory.

"We can now assure the City Centre business members, even those who vote no, that the additional services provided by BIDS to its members can now continue without a 34pc increase in the BIDS levy as stated by the no side," he said.

"We will have Christmas lights on 30 City Centre streets, we will have the rapid response litter/dumping clean up, we will have graffiti removal from private property and we will continue the hugely popular and essential ambassador services" he added.
A Workplace Relations Commission adjudication hearing was told that the motor dealer had responded badly to the news that his ex was planning to live closer to her new boyfriend.. Stock Image

A motor dealer employee, who was fired by her ex-boyfriend after she told him that she was moving house to be closer to her new boyfriend, has been awarded 8,900 for her unfair dismissal.

A Workplace Relations Commission adjudication hearing was told that the motor dealer had responded badly to the news that his ex was planning to live closer to her new boyfriend.

The employee said that when she told the motor dealer the news in April of last year, he responded: I want you gone, get your stuff and go.

Of course the inter-personal relationship between the parties played a part in the matter, said Pat Brady, the adjudication officer.

The pairs relationship had ended years before and they had an amicable agreement concerning her employment: if her new relationship made things difficult, she would give three months notice and leave.

However, when she told her boss about her plans to move he dismissed her.

I can see no basis on which the complainant could do other than take them at face value and as an indication that her employment was being terminated, Mr Brady said.

She did not return to work and she left behind her company car, although her employer had made no reference to it.

The hearing heard that the man called her a number of days later and informed her that she "did not have to lose her job over the incident".

Mr Brady said he found the man "evasive and unclear" and the subsequent call did not amount to a "heat of the moment" defence as the clarification had not happened quickly enough.

Three days is too long to undo a heat of the moment action. The complainant said that at that stage it would have been too uncomfortable for her to go back as her departure was known to her co-workers, Mr Brady said.

The dismissal was found to be unfair under Mr Bradys general reasoning that the employer had a particular responsibility in the management of the employment relationship.

She remained out of work for five months and also lost social welfare benefits to which she was entitled as a part-time worker.

The words he uttered were at best irresponsible and at worst, (and more probably) a clear indication to the complainant of the termination of her employment, he added.
A DAD-of-three grabbed a neighbour's throat and pushed her against a wall after screaming at her that she was not welcome in an apartment block.

Robert Albert (31) assaulted the woman in front of two young children who were "terrified" by his behaviour.

Judge Patricia McNamara imposed a two-month sentence, but suspended it for a year.

The defendant was found guilty before Tallaght District Court of assaulting Deborah Carroll at Ardmore Park, Tall-aght, on March 3 last year.

Ms Carroll said she was in the foyer of the apartment block with a couple of her friend's children, waiting for the rain to stop, when Albert came in and said he wanted to speak to her.

She said she told him she had nothing to say to him.

Ms Carroll told the court that Albert started shouting and calling her names, telling her he would "show her her place".

She said he grabbed her by the throat and forced her back, and she put her hands out to stop him.

She nearly fell over another neighbour's children, who were standing behind her, and she smacked her arm against a wall.

Screaming

Ms Carroll said Albert held her there and was screaming at her. The children were "terrified", she added.

A neighbour's father pulled him off her, and he came after her again with clenched fists.

In cross-examination, Ms Carroll accepted that Albert told her to leave the apartment block and she wasn't wanted there.

However, she said she told him that she had been invited into the apartment block by other residents and had every right to be there. She also lived on the estate, she said.

Albert's lawyer argued that Ms Carroll was acting as a trespasser and had no right to be in the apartment, but Judge McNamara ruled against him and found Albert guilty of assault.

The court heard that Albert had never been in trouble before.

Defence solicitor Michael Hennessy said Albert is originally from Nigeria but had lived in Ireland for eight years and has full Irish citizenship.

Mr Hennessy said the father-of-three is currently out of work.

Albert was convicted in his absence. He maintained his innocence when he appeared in court for sentencing on the charge and appealed the conviction.
A Dublin man with more than 200 previous convictions was jailed yesterday after being caught smoking on the Luas.

Jean Champ pleaded guilty at Tallaght District Court to a number of public order offences.

He has 229 previous convictions, all for public order offences.

Garda Sergeant Eithne Madden told Judge Patricia McNamara that, at 10.20pm on July 13, Champ had been smoking on a Luas tram and was asked to leave by security.

She said Champ became abusive and aggressive, and was later arrested when gardai were called.

Sgt Madden added that, on May 27, Champ was in the Insomnia coffee shop on Upper Abbey Street. He was drunk and was asked to leave the shop.

She said Champ became aggressive and was later arrested.

Champ, (60), of Oak House, Benburb Street, Dublin 7, admitted public drunkenness and breaching the peace at Insomnia, Upper Abbey Street, Dublin 1, on May 27.

He also admitted public drunkenness and breaching the peace at the Belgard Luas terminal, Tallaght, on July 13.

Champ's defence lawyer Kevin Tunney said his client was homeless and living in a hostel.

He said Champ was originally from Tullamore and all his siblings had emigrated to Canada.

Detox

Mr Tunney said his client had a problem with alcohol.

"Prison could be a good detox for him," said Judge McNamara.

She jailed Champ for two months for the breach of the peace on May 27 and fined him 40 for public drunkenness.

She also sentenced him to two months in jail, consecutive to the first sentence, for the second breach of the peace on July 13, and 50 for the second public drunkenness charge.

In 2009, Champ pleaded guilty to assault causing harm after he beat a widow and mother-of-six so violently it left blood splattered throughout his flat.

The victim, Bernadette Barnes (48), died 10 days later in hospital from a heart attack, but it was accepted this was not related to the injuries she received in the assault.

Champ, who was 51 at the time, first tried to tell gardai that he was in custody at the time of the assault, but this was found to be false.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm and to attempting to intentionally or recklessly cause Ms Barnes serious harm at his home on January 19, 2006.

The court heard that, on the morning in question, the building's caretaker saw the woman lying face down outside the flat, "covered in blood".

Champ told gardai he "boxed her" because she had a man in the flat while he was out and would not tell him who it was.
A UK lottery-winning millionaire carried on a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old Irish schoolgirl he met online, eventually buying her a 2,500 designer engagement ring, it has been alleged.

A court has been told the now 27-year-old businessman travelled to and from Ireland by ferry, having sex with the teenager in hotels and taking her to Dublin Zoo.

According to gardai, he was fully aware of the age of the girl, who was 15 when they first made contact on social media and is now 16.

Their alleged relationship began before the accuseds lottery windfall and he was arrested when he arrived in Dublin at the weekend to confront the girls mother about his feelings for her daughter.

Despite garda objections, Judge Fiona Lydon granted the wealthy British man bail under strict conditions, and with cash lodgments totalling 150,000.

The man is charged with four sample counts of defilement of a child under the age of 17 on dates in 2016 and 2017.

Garda Stephen Faulkner of the Bridewell Station told Dublin District Court the alleged victims mother made a complaint in January this year that her daughter was in a sexual relationship with a man who had travelled from the UK to procure sex.

The girl told officers she met the accused in a named online chat forum, where she was subscribed to an under 17s category.

After a number of months they exchanged phone details and continued to have contact through apps such as Snapchat and Whatsapp, Garda Faulkner continued.

The pair first met last year, stayed in a Dublin city hotel and engaged in sexual intercourse.

The girl was 15 years old and in the aftermath, she informed the accused of her age and that it was her first time.

This did not discourage the accused, the garda alleged. It was the prosecutions case that he returned to this jurisdiction a number of times, the meetings continuing every four to six weeks, with the same modus operandi.

Their last meeting was in January this year, when the girls parents unearthed the alleged relationship, the court heard.

Garda Faulkner objected to bail due to the nature and seriousness of the allegations and his belief that the accused was a flight risk.

He said there was a CCTV footage of the pair coming and going from a Dublin city hotel, as well as the zoo.

Analysis of the girls phone and Whatsapp, which was their main point of contact, revealed 2,970 screenshots of conversations .

It is clear that sexual activity did take place on various occasions, some of which are actual recordings during the course of sexual activity, the garda said of the data retrieved.

Gardai also confirmed details of the accuseds journeys to Ireland on Stena Line and information was obtained on stays in various hotels.

The accused purchased two rings for the girl, the garda alleged, one of which was bought in a Dublin shopping centre for 2,550. The man explained to the shop assistant that this was purchased as an engagement ring and he later gave it to the girl, Garda Faulkner said.

Detectives obtained the accuseds financial details and established he was a man of considerable wealth.

The alleged victim said the man had told her he won the UK lottery and gardai established a large sum of money had been transferred into the accuseds bank account from Camelot.

When he was arrested on July 15, the accused was removed from his Audi S5 Quattro, which was searched. His silver iPhone had 69 images of an incriminating nature on it, including five videos featuring his and the alleged victim nude, Garda Faulkner said.

There was also an image of the girls scout troop identity card, including her date of birth. In the image, the girl was in her secondary school uniform.

Garda Faulkner had no doubt whatsoever the accused was aware of the girls age. He believed that the man, who has no ties to this jurisdiction would return to the UK if granted bail.

On July 15, he sailed on the ferry from Holyhead having made the booking the same day. Garda Faulkner believed he purposely made the late booking to avoid being detected.

The accused had a considerable amount of resources due to his windfall, the garda said, adding that he believed the defendant would interfere with witnesses if granted bail.

The garda said he expected to have the DPPs directions by the end of the month.

Cross-examining Garda Faulkner, Seamus Clarke BL, for the accused, said any trial date would be at least 18 months from now. The garda agreed there was no evidence the accused tried to disguise his real age.

The accuseds business partner was supportive in relation to the man staying in this jurisdiction. The garda accepted the defendant had the wealth to do this.

The man would also stay far away from the alleged victim. When he arrived here at the weekend having contacted the girls mother through Facebook, he had been aware a complaint had been made and that he could be arrested, Mr Clarke said.

It looks like both parties believed they were in a relationship, Mr Clarke said. There seems to have been a consensual relationship between two people where the age gap seems to be 10 to 11 years.

Garda Faulkner said the accused had a six-figure sum in a bank account.

There are not really any terms and conditions that would satisfy me, Judge, he added.

Judge Lydon set bail in the accuseds cash bond of 100,000, with two independent sureties of 50,000 each, half of which is to be lodged in cash.

He must surrender his passport, reside at an agreed address, sign on twice daily at a garda station, observe an 11pm to 8am curfew and be contactable by mobile phone at all times.

The accused is to have no contact direct or indirect with the alleged victim or her family.

He was remanded in custody with consent to bail, to appear in court again on July 21.

He has not yet indicated a plea to the charges.
Martin Lafferty, of Clady, Strabane, Co. Tyrone pictured leaving the Four Courts after the opening day of a High Court action.Pic: Collins Courts

Martin Lafferty, Clady, Strabane, Co. Tyrone pictured leaving the Four Courts after the opening day of a High Court action.Pic: Collins Courts

THE leader of a group which commemorates fallen IRA men has denied in the High Court he was involved in an "arranged road traffic accident."

Martin Lafferty (55), from Clady in Strabane, Co Tyrone, sued the driver of a rented car, as well as Hertz Rent-a-Car itself, for injuries arising out of a collision with Mr Lafferty's Peugeot 406 at a roundabout in Lifford, Co Donegal, on June 28, 2011.

Mr Lafferty was driving with three other people in his vehicle while the other car, driven by Gareth Feeney, with addresses in Strabane and Middlesex, England, had a total of five people in it.

Seven out of the nine, including Mr Lafferty were awarded sums of less than 10,000 in Buncrana Circuit Court in 2015 for injuries from the accident.

Hertz, which is owned by Ryans Investments NI Ltd, appealed those awards to the High Court.

In evidence on Tuesday, Mr Lafferty said he was on his way to check on his cattle when Mr Feeney's hired Ford Fiesta approached the roundabout but failed to stop and hit his car.

Expand Close Martin Lafferty, of Clady, Strabane, Co. Tyrone pictured leaving the Four Courts after the opening day of a High Court action.Pic: Collins Courts / Facebook

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Whatsapp Martin Lafferty, of Clady, Strabane, Co. Tyrone pictured leaving the Four Courts after the opening day of a High Court action.Pic: Collins Courts

His car was not driveable afterwards because of the damage while the Fiesta could be driven.

The court heard a garda who arrived at the scene saw extensive damage to the rear passenger side of the Peugeot and some damage to the front of the Fiesta.

Under cross examination by Joseph McGettigan SC, for Ryans/Hertz, Mr Lafferty said he had been involved in three other road traffic accidents in the last 14 or 15 years, including one which was settled and one he is still pursuing.

He was also injured in 1993 when he was shot by a British soldier in Newtownards.

His father was Neil Lafferty who was in charge of the west Tyrone brigade of the IRA and who died in Long Kesh prison.

He agreed he was the person carrying a tri-colour at the head of a commemoration march by the "Joseph Plunkett 1916 Society" - which commemorates the IRA dead - in November 2011, a few months after the accident in which he claimed he suffered pain in his head and right shoulder.

He said he was the leader of that society but disagreed that carrying the flag was difficult with his injuries. He disagreed it was more difficult that the act of trying to turn the steering wheel on his van which he said he had difficulty doing after the accident.

He said all the people in his car were members of the Joseph Plunkett Society while one of them in the other car had just attended a commemoration ceremony and was a member of another similar group called the Charlie Darcy 1916 Society.

Mr McGettigan put it to him this was "an arranged accident between you and Mr Feeney" and that he had been in touch with Mr Feeney over it.

He replied: "That is a very serious allegation and it is untrue".

Mr McGettigan said when Mr Feeney arrived at the Hertz office in Derry to return the car, he did not have Mr Lafferty's details.

He was able to immediately ring him (Lafferty) and the first thing he said was "How're ya Marty".

Mr Lafferty said he has never been called Marty in his life and could not remember any such phone call but knew he must have provided his details to Mr Feeney.

He also denied he knew Mr Feeney except to see from him coming into a night club in Strabane where he had worked for 12 years.

The case continues before Mr Justice Charles Meenan.
The parents of a teen girl (15) who assaulted her after she posted nude pictures of herself online have been spared jail.

The teen had uploaded the pictures on Facebook.

The pair were each given a five-month suspended jail sentences by the District Court in Cork, RTE reports.

While they disputed aspects of the case put forward by the prosecution according to their solicitor, both pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court heard that the parents were motivated by a desire to protect their daughter.

They were concerned about substance abuse, promiscuity and self-harm by their daughter.

Judge Olann Kelleher said he took the assaults seriously and described the case as "very sad".

The court heard that there was a footprint on the girl's face.

The assault charges related to two incidents with her parents the court heard previously.

The first incident occurred when her father spotted the teen using her phone when she was not allowed to do so.

She alleged that he pulled her hair and kicked her on the ground when he tried to get the phone from her, a claim he denied.

The girl left the house but was later returned to the family home by her mother who assaulted her.

The court previously heard that the mother slapped her daughter across the face, that she threatened to bite her mother and that her mother kicked her in order to stop her.

Those involved have not been identified to protect the girl's identity.
Restaurateur and publican Jay Bourke has been disqualified by the High Court from acting as a company director for seven years.

Mr Bourke had earlier this year agreed to a disqualification period of five years arising out of the liquidation of his now closed Shebeen Chic pub on South Great George's Street in Dublin.

However Mr Justice Robert Haughton said the focus of the misconduct by Mr Bourke in this case must be that he had continued to trade for two years after he knew the operating company was insolvent.

"He attempted to trade out of difficulties but did so for far too long and eventually Revenue petitioned for a winding up in December 2012", the judge said.

There was an eventual VAT liability of 105,000, showing a very significant revenue which was not reflected in the books and records of the company, he said. It had been accepted by Mr Bourke that books and records were not kept or provided and there was also a failure to make annual returns.

This was "significant misconduct and a significant loss to the taxpayer", he said.

Taking all factors into account, the appropriate disqualification period was eight years, the judge said.

He deducted one year for Mr Bourke's acceptance of his behaviour after the liquidator's grounding affidavit was filed and because a number of other sanctions originally sought against him had been withdrawn. After hearing Mr Bourke was a director of 14 companies and needed time to resign the directorships, the judge agreed a stay on his order until August 1.
A 13-year-old schoolgirl, who lacerated her chest wall while exiting a swimming pool at the Hilton Hotel, Kilmainham, Dublin, has been awarded 35,000 damages.

Barrister David Allen told the Circuit Civil Court that Sophie Casey had been left with two permanent scars which would be visible if she was to wear a swimsuit or an off-shoulder dress.

Mr Allen, who appeared with solicitors Coleman Legal Partners, said she had been in the hotel with her mum and had gone for a swim. As she was exiting the pool her chest was caught on the sharp edge of a broken glass tile and cut in two places.

Sophie, of Woodfield Terrace, Inchicore, Dublin, sued Hilton Hotels (Ireland) Limited, through her mother Niamh Casey. Hilton Hotels has a registered office in Charlemont Place, Dublin.

Mr Allen told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, that the hotel had offered Sophie a 35,000 settlement without admission of liability.

He said the incident occurred on the evening of 22nd October 2013 when her upper body scraped against the broken tile as she climbed out of the pool. She had suffered two lacerations to the left side of her chest wall which had left two permanent scars, one about an inch and the other a half inch long.

Mr Allen said Sophie had visited her GP, Dr Emer Loughrey, in Inchicore, who felt the appearance of the scars could be improved by a surgical procedure done by a plastic surgeon.

Given the location of the scars no treatment was recommended at this time but Dr Loughrey felt that an opinion could be sought from a plastic surgeon in the future.

Judge Groarke said that due to the scars being permanent and visible dependent on what Sophie would be wearing he felt they should be examined and transferred the claim to Judge Jacqueline Linnane who saw the scars in her chamber and discussed them with Sophie.

Judge Linnane, approving the 35,000 offer, said Sophie did not now seem as conscious of them as previously and it was possible that if the case went to trial before another judge an award below that figure might be made.

Taking everything into account I think it is a fair offer that should not be put at risk, Judge Linnane said.
Hostel residents Cindy Mattern 25 and Matthais Lensch 27 from Germany at a suspected fire in Issac's Hostel at Frenchman's Lane. Photo: Tony Gavin

Members of Dublin Fire Brigade use thermal imaging cameras at a suspected fire in Issac's Hostel at Frenchman's Lane. Photo: Tony Gavin

Members of Dublin Fire Brigade at a suspected fire in Issac's Hostel at Frenchman's Lane. Photo: Tony Gavin

The popular Isaac's Hostel in Dublin's north inner city was evacuated this morning after smoke was spotted in the building.

The alarm was raised just after 7.20am.

Five units of Dublin Fire Brigade, a turntable ladder and an ambulance responded to the call and emergency crews immediately set about searching for the cause of the smoke.

The building's 200 residents were evacuated as a precaution.

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Fire crews used thermal imaging cameras from on top of the turntable ladder to search for hot-spots in the roof space.

The source of the smoke was believed to have been from an accidental bin fire in a nearby building and was quickly extinguished.

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Cindy Mattern (25) and Matthis Lensch (27) are staying in the hostel and had been there just one night.

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Units from North Strand, HQ and Phibsboro are at the scene of a fire off Gardiner Street. Fire is now out. pic.twitter.com/tga3tMlIV8  Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) July 18, 2017

"The fire alarm went off at around 7.20am and we all left the building. There was no panic. It was quite orderly," said Cindy, from Germany.

A fire brigade spokesman said the fire and smoke detection systems in the hostel on Frenchman's Lane, just off Gardiner Street had worked effectively and they were pleased with the manner in which the evacuation was carried out.

"Thankfully there was no emergency, but where there are 200 people involved we have to be cautious and react appropriately," he said.
Nutritionist Jane Clarke believes you can make a difference for people suffering with Alzheimer's with the help of food. Photo: Andrew Crowley

It was sitting on a bench under a tree in the grounds of Chatsworth House after a dog walk that Jane Clarke first broached the subject of dementia with her dad. A retired teacher, Brian was only 64, but Jane - a nutritionist who, by then, had worked with dementia patients for 10 years - was beginning to notice a change in him.

"We had already tried to have those horrendous conversations where he would say 'There's nothing wrong with me, it's just old age', so I thought let's just go to a lovely spot which he's very familiar with and talk. We said: 'Dad, we're really concerned and we don't think it's just old age. You're struggling.'"

Brian had always prided himself on being a skilled communicator, especially when it came to children, but his character was rapidly changing in front of his family's eyes. "He was saying things he never would have said, being a little more inappropriate, less tactful," explains Jane. "He was becoming more extroverted, which you might think is a good thing, but I just knew something was going on".

"We got him to be assessed and they diagnosed him with Alzheimer's, but that turned out to be an incorrect diagnosis.

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"They just left him on the Alzheimer's medication and I wasn't noticing any improvement in his behaviour and his character was changing. I thought: 'There's something else going on here, this isn't Alzheimer's.'"

Through her contacts, Jane - along with her mum, Patricia, sister, Ann, and brother, Paul - brought him down from Nottinghamshire to the London Neurological Hospital in Queen's Square, where there is a specialist dementia unit. "We had different tests and they showed that the whole of his frontotemporal lobe had disappeared. On the imaging, it was just black where you're meant to see brain. They told us it was frontotemporal dementia, which has nothing to do with Alzheimer's."

That was 10 years ago. Jane's dad is still living at home, and though there is no cure for frontotemporal dementia, his condition is as stable as it could be. Jane had already worked with dementia patients for years before her own father began suffering from the disease, but caring for her dad has made her even more passionate about finding solutions to symptoms through food and nourishment.

"I'm not saying food has the answer to everything, but boy, it has a lot of answers," says Jane, as she whips up an instant banana ice cream - one of the easy homemade treats she has come up with as part of a huge repertoire of recipes which specifically cater to the needs of dementia patients.

Jane believes that while it's true that there are a few key symptoms which tend to go part and parcel with dementia, which can make it difficult for them to eat and are hard to treat with medication, that doesn't mean we should ever just accept the inevitable and let dementia patients fade away. Difficulty swallowing, bowel problems such as constipation and diarrhoea, fatigue, memory loss - all of these can be combated to varying extents with careful nutrition.

"Someone choking is not normal, someone not drinking is not normal, someone fading away is not normal," she says.

"People die of malnutrition - they don't generally die of dementia. That's horrible and that should never happen, but dehydration and malnutrition are going on in our care homes and our hospitals, and it's not a pretty subject, but it's happening.

"You're seeing them fade away, and all that is offered is mush and disgusting-tasting chemical drinks and baby food. It's totally unnecessary."

For Jane, it's crucial that effective, tailored dementia care isn't limited to those who can afford it. "Our call to action is that care homes need to realise that there are gorgeous meals you can make that are really easy. It's not just about looking after people who have a hands-on relative and the resources to pay for a private nutritionist. The care home and hospital settings need to change.

"People think there is no hope, but there is. You can give dignity and you can give love and affection through food. You can support them so that they're not fading away, not losing their muscle strength. There are so many things you can do, depending on what their body needs."

On her website, nourishbyjaneclarke.com, Jane has come up with a huge range of recipes which can help with different symptoms. The site is free, and each recipe can be followed religiously or used as inspiration for something which you know your loved one might enjoy.

"Just seeing someone fade away is so distressing and horrible. And these illnesses are so disempowering for the carers. You need to believe you can make a difference through food."

Dementia | How food can help with symptoms

 Swallowing difficulties - Dementia patients often lose the sensory stimulation in the back of the mouth that reminds you to swallow. "It's really horrible and distressing," says Jane. "I've started to notice now with my dad that he sometimes starts to choke, even with water. It's a cruel disease, so undignified.

"A glass of water is the worst thing, because a thin liquid is far harder to swallow, so you need to engage the muscles. Just putting a bit of elderflower in a glass of water can stimulate the swallowing reflex and mean they'll rehydrate."

When it comes to swallowing solids, Jane suggests sandwiches made with bread soaked in a little olive oil to make them go down easier. Using herbs, spices and citrus in the filling will help trigger the swallowing reflex. "It's my little shortcut," she says.

 Bowel problems - One of the most distressing side effects of dementia medication can be constipation and diarrhoea. Someone with dementia may not be able to articulate that they are suffering from either of these awfully degrading symptoms, and may stop eating and drinking as a result.

"It could be as simple as encouraging them to drink a cup of coffee, or making a little cake packed with fibre to get the bowels moving if they're constipated, or making some stewed apple, which can be very settling on the gut because it contains pectin and is great for anti-nausea, which many dementia patients suffer from because of their medication."

 Stress - Sitting down to a meal can be very stressful for dementia sufferers. If you are sharing a meal together, Jane suggests it's important to minimise distractions so that they can focus on swallowing. Don't attempt to hurry the meal along, either. "We juggle so many tasks when caring for someone that it can be tempting to hurry meals, which only increases the likelihood of upset, and for very little food to get eaten.

"If a meal is becoming challenging, it can help to step back for a minute, to find a moment of quiet.

"With us, we're a musical family, so if things are getting stressful, we'll put on some music and have a boogie with dad, which triggers endorphins in the brain, after which he's fine again."

 Memory loss - It is one of the most upsetting things about the disease, but there are ways to stimulate memory through food, as often our most treasured memories of birthdays or holidays are linked to eating. "For me, childhood summer holidays are rekindled as soon as I think about knickerbocker glories and eating fish and chips out of the newspaper on the North Wales coast, while my treasured aunt and uncle sang with the choir on the seafront," says Jane.

"A personal food mood board made out of photos of favourite dishes, people and places can be a great way to communicate and also stimulate a jaded appetite."

 For recipes and advice, visit Jane's website: nourishbyjaneclarke.com

DEMENTIA: THE FACTS

 What is dementia?

Dementia is a loose term used to describe different degenerative disorders that trigger a gradual loss of brain function, including: memory loss; thinking speed; mental agility; language; understanding.

 Is it the same as Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia.

 Who gets it?

One-in-three people over 65 will develop dementia, and two-thirds of people with dementia are women.

 Is there a cure?

Most types of dementia can't be cured, but if it is detected early there are ways to slow it down and maintain mental function.
Police are treating the death of a 53-year-old woman as murder

Police are appealing for information after a man had part of his ear bitten off during an attack in Belfast.

The 31-year-old man was walking through the Ross Street area at around 2am on Tuesday when he was assaulted by four males.

Police said part of his ear was bitten off and a tooth was knocked out in the attack.

The man was treated in hospital for his injuries.

Anyone who may have witnessed the assault has been asked to contact detectives at Musgrave Criminal Investigation Branch on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 154 18/07/17.

Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers and speak to them anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Gardai have arrested three people and seized a large quantity of drugs during an operation targeting drug trafficking activities of organised criminals.

Three men have been arrested after gardai seized 4m worth of drugs, and weapons, during a raid on a Dublin premises.

It is understood the seizure was made by gardai investigating the activities of the Kinahan crime cartel.

A search operation took place in the Ballyfermot Parade area of Dublin 10 on Monday, July 17.

Cannabis and heroin, with an estimated street value of 4m was seized, along with drug paraphernalia, vacuum packing machine and cash counting machine.

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Weapons were also found at the scene, including stun guns, a sawn-off shotgun and a semi-automatic pistol.

Three males, aged 44, 44 and 39, were arrested at the scene and detained at Clondalkin and Ballyfermot Garda Stations under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996.

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Two of the men arrested are from the south inner city, while the third is from Crumlin.
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Sinead Moriarty: 'Weve got to disconnect to reconnect to our gift of the gab'

Are we losing our world-famous gift of the gab? In an attempt to save our traditional national pastime, a pub in west Cork has banned people from using mobile phones. Billy Fleming, owner of the Anchor Bar, in Courtmacsherry, has said that the locals who drink in his pub support his decision and that mobile phones have gradually killed conversation over the last few years.
The law would automatically impose three-month driving bans for those caught with a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg per 100ml. Stock Image

The 'do-nothing Dail' didn't achieve an awful lot by the time it broke up for the summer, but it managed to make a considerable amount of noise while doing it.

A lot of hot air was certainly produced around a piece of legislation that was never even going to pass.

Transport Minister Shane Ross had the support of the Cabinet and the ministers in the main party in Government for his proposals to cut the drink-driving limits.

The law would automatically impose three-month driving bans for those caught with a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg per 100ml.

Fine Gael as a whole has a 'shilling each way' option of voting for or against the proposal by way of a free vote allowed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

And Fianna Fail's opposition to the bill means it is highly unlikely to pass.

Not even Mr Ross's Independent Alliance ministers are all supporting the measure.

Mr Ross is now seeking a late consolation prize so has latched on to "naming and shaming" motorists who are disqualified for drink-driving.

Presumably, similar to the tax defaulters list, the Transport Minister wants to bring in the public exposure of drink-drivers. He's not ruling out adopting the same approach for other offences such as speeding.

There is no indication this measure will actually improve the level of enforcement of the existing drink-driving laws.
I cant be the only one who scrolls though my Instagram feed filled with luscious, smooth skinned bodies and looks down at my hairy thighs and sighs (stock photo)

You have them, your mam has them, that woman sitting beside you on the Dart has them. But the world of women's magazines constantly tells us we aren't supposed to have stretch marks. Flick through any magazine and you'll be bombarded by images of size-8, digitally retouched perfection, without a stretch mark to be seen.

Now after an eternity of being Photoshopped out of existence, online shopping site ASOS has acknowledged that stretch marks exist. A series of new photos were added quietly to the site, but Twitter users were quick to point them out. "ASOS not editing out girls' stretch marks on their swimwear photos is giving me so much life, look how beautiful they all are," one user wrote.

ASOS is following a few other brands that have given up airbrushing imperfections for realism, such as Target, which launched unretouched swimwear ads back in March, and Aerie, which has committed to being Photoshop-free since 2014.

Even Victoria's Secret, often accused of over-the-top Photoshopping, released photos with Angel Jasmine Tookes showing stretch marks last November.

Considering normal women whose bodies wobble, have stretch marks and aren't retouched, will be buying and wearing swimsuits this year as usual, a campaign featuring women just like the rest of us shouldn't be significant, but it is.

Have you ever airbrushed yourself? Run your selfie through an Instagram filter before posting it? In reality, more and more of us are retouching photos of ourselves before we're prepared to show the world our own image too. It may not technically be classed as "airbrushing", but we're manipulating our raw photos. I can't be the only one who scrolls through my Instagram feed filled with luscious, smooth-skinned bodies, and then looks down at my own slightly wobbly, mottled, hairy thighs and sighs.

Not all that long ago everybody's holiday pictures featured soft, sunburned bellies. Now, it can be hard to tell the difference between a real person's holiday hot dogs legs (pictures of people's bronzed limbs stretched out in front of them on sunloungers) and a picture in a holiday brochure. I suspect that the more often we're exposed to these seemingly perfect images, the more reluctant we become to reveal our regular selves. Long gone are the days when we would only see our holiday photos in the chemist after we'd arrived back. Now, we're sharing our retouched holiday memories as soon as they happen, and with a much wider circle of friends and family.

This is all having a negative effect. The 'Looking Glass Survey', published by the National Women's Council of Ireland and Ignite Research, showed that body image insecurities are holding women back. Some 41pc of us reported being unhappy or very unhappy about our looks. Negative feelings about how they look prevent one in five young women from applying for a job.

Social media has the most negative influence on a young woman's body image, while advertising has the most negative influence overall on women's body image.

Now, I have to admit that I'm slightly cynical about ASOS's stretch mark pictures. If a fashion brand wants to score an easy PR win, they often quit Photoshop and tell the world they won't be airbrushing their photos, at least for a little while. There's no easier way to create splashy, right-on headlines to convince women that the brand cares about female body politics. A zero-retouching policy shouts: "We know what real women look like. We're not corrupt corporates trying to sell you stuff you don't need. Promise."

Make no mistake, this is definitely a way to boost ASOS sales but it seems there's something bigger going on here too. The body positivity movement seems to be changing the face of an industry which has spent far too many years slimming waists, chiselling abs and blurring skin.

The most shocking thing about the pictures of stretch marks on ASOS is that we find them shocking at all. You look at those little wavy silver lines, something familiar to every woman, and it looks out of place, so used are we to seeing perfect images where every blemish has been eliminated. But maybe the tide is turning against the airbrushed-as-hell image.

With a major, mass brand like ASOS on board with a campaign showing bodies as they are in real life, flaunting their stretch marks, maybe the rest of us will move towards being totally comfortable with our saggy boobs, or lazing on the beach with our bellies out, licking a 99.
Some 300 Irish people have grown their wealth by more than 100bn, our national media stated in April 2017. There is stark contrast when one reads in the Social Justice Ireland report of an increase of 100,000 of our citizens who have slipped into poverty, bringing the total to 750,000.

Single people on job-seekers' allowance or disability payments get less than 200 a week. One has to manage to live with dignity and resolve on this money. Many depend on the various levels of handouts from charitable bodies that vouch for the growing needs through Ireland. This can erode one's self-worth and esteem, and standing in the community.

The latter has been backed up by the Central Statics Office and the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

It goes on to state that 57pc of people living in poverty are older people, students, those in a caring role, those who are ill and people with a disability.

Then when we drill down, there is the term 'the working poor', who get the minimum wage but need welfare supplements in order to support them in the job, rather than go back on the dole.

In Ireland we have extremes of poverty and extremes of wealth.

The Annual Survey of Income and Living Conditions, reported in the Social Inclusion Monitor, states that 277,000 are in basic deprivation and consistent poverty.

I lost a job in 2011, in my mid-50s. It is impossible to recover, especially when one has a disability. The family belt had to be tightened significantly. A special occasion was no longer marked with an outing, annual holidays no longer an option. With two growing teens, one learns to manage, with my wife doing a part-time job.

The October Budget needs to focus on those in poverty and low income. To have so many dependent on charity undermines any aspirations of a true republic in 2017.

Dermot Hayes

Ennis, Co Clare

Dubs not getting credit they deserve

Before Cassius Clay stepped into the ring to face Sonny Liston in 1964, he'd done a lot of talking, something the white people of America frowned upon.

He might have got away with it had he not been an African-American. We all know the result of that fight. What caused more hatred against Clay was changing his name shortly afterwards to Muhammad Ali, and his flat-out refusal to kill people he did not know.

There is, you might be surprised to learn, a correlation between Clay and the Dubs, and it is this: both are disliked by a large majority of their own country, the exception being true blue Dublin followers, and like the late Ali it will be long after they've retired that our country cousins finally bow their heads and accept quietly - in case anyone else might hear - "God, they really were a hell of a team".

At present, radio, TV, and even newspaper pundits make a living reporting on any little error this magnificent team makes. For those who remain non-believers after the Kildare-Dublin clash: bow your heads, go now and sin no more.

Fred Molloy

Clonsilla, Dublin 15

East Africa facing devastation

East Africa stands on the brink of what the UN has described as potentially the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Drought and conflict have left some 25 million people reliant on food aid for survival, with shockingly high rates of severe, acute malnutrition among children across the affected regions of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan. Governments and humanitarian organisations across the region are responding. Through urgent and robust action, they have helped stave off extreme levels of death from famine that have loomed over East Africa throughout this crisis. But appeals for international support have been met with a wholly insufficient response, and levels of funding across the region are now desperately low.

As two of Ireland's largest development and humanitarian agencies, Concern Worldwide and Trocaire are delivering food, water and healthcare to hundreds of thousands of people in east Africa.

Humanitarian aid saves lives. South Sudan has been pulled out of famine because of aid. But failed rains, continued conflict, and disastrous outbreaks of cholera mean the situation in south Sudan and Somalia, in particular, is more desperate now than ever. Without adequate support, the humanitarian crisis across these regions will become a catastrophe.

Dominic MacSorley

Chief executive of Concern Worldwide

Eamonn Meehan

Executive director of Trocaire

Water refunds wash away the fear

I am delighted to hear Taoiseach Leo Varadkar say consumers will get back money paid for water prior to charges being scrapped. I have endured great distress over this issue, and spent a lot of time waiting for the knock on the door, in fear of the creature from the black lagoon being sent to collect from me.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry, Co Cork

Comics passing the screen test

There's a spring in my step getting the Irish Independent on a Saturday now; many thanks for the reproduction of kids' comics from yesteryear, of the 1970s/80s to be precise. Having grown up in those decades, I'm sure there are many like myself who wouldn't mind seeing a Saturday reproduction of those other comics that we graduated to after we did our tour of duty with the 'Beano', 'Dandy', 'Beezer' and the rest.

I'm thinking of the more grown-up kids' comics I collected thereafter, such as the 'Victor', 'Hotspur', 'Battle', 'Action', 'Bullet', '2000AD' and others that have sadly fallen by the wayside. Many an afternoon's adventures were had and imaginations fired up through their pages; today people look at a small five-inch screen. I wonder who benefited more?

Seamus Ferry

Nenagh, Co Tipperary

President trumps opposition...

It is interesting to read the near-daily diatribe from many of your readers and correspondents against the US president. What you get from Mr Trump may be crass in some people's eyes, but thank God he saved us from Hillary Clinton. It would serve this paper and other media outlets well to feature more articles on who we might have got if Mr Trump was not elected.

The public are shielded by a biased, left-leaning media. It appears the public in Ireland listens to CNN, who recently fired three reporters for falsely reporting a story on Anthony Scaramucci, or how about Donna Brazil, a CNN contributor, feeding Hillary questions prior to debates?

Trump's not perfect, but compared to so many double-talking politicians in Ireland and the USA, I'll take him any day.

Michael Halpin

Manchester, New Jersey
A man dressed as Jesus Christ at an LGBTQ Pride parade in Seoul, South Korea, has captured the imagination of people across the world.

Stood in front of Christian protesters, who bore a sign declaring: Homosexuality is sin! Return to Jesus!, Robert Evans held a sign which said simply: Im cool with it in rainbow colours.

I wanted the message to be simple, positive, and contrary to the protesters and at the same time I wanted to be proudly supporting the equal human rights and acceptance of my many close friends, said Evans, 27, who is an American photographer from Atlanta, Georgia but has lived in South Koreas capital for four years.

Evans is heterosexual, but says he experienced what it felt like to be discriminated against when he first went to Seouls Pride event two years ago.

Walking amongst them and feeling their (the protesters) pure hatred directed right at me as if I was gay was an unforgettable moment, he said. It was such a visceral experience that I was literally moved to tears.

The hate was tangible and intense and as a straight western male I had never felt anything like it.

Since that experience, Evans says he has developed close friendships in the LGBTQ community in Seoul  and this inspired him to do something more when this years pride came about.

The only protesters that are there are Christians and they always preach a hate-filled interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, said Evans, who isnt religious.

Since I have some resemblance to the classic representation of Jesus, I figured it would be meaningful to present an alternative interpretation.

Korea still has a long way to go in terms of rights and acceptance but Im glad to see and be a part of the small steps it is making in the right direction.

Every year Pride gets bigger, the protests get smaller, and the long road towards equality gets a little bit shorter.

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The picture which was widely shared on Reddit and Twitter of Evans in his outfit was captured by Rachel Stine, a blogger who helps North Korean refugees and lives in Seoul.

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According to Evans friends the response at the Pride event was warm too.

Once we got inside the event people immediately began to congregate around him, said Evans friend Simon Clarke, a 32-year-old Australian writer working in Korea. Polite lines formed with people wanting photos.

It began to almost feel like a piece of performance art.

Clarke pointed out that Evans took a risk wearing the costume to the event as the Immigration Control Act in South Korea states: No foreigner sojourning in the Republic of Korea shall engage in any political activity.
EasyJet is hoping to inspire a generation of young flyers to become readers by adding libraries to its planes.

The books in the flybraries  flying libraries  have been chosen by author and former childrens laureate Dame Jacqueline Wilson and include classics like Peter Pan, Alices Adventures In Wonderland and The Railway Children.

She unveiled her selection at the official launch of the easyJet Book Club at Gatwick Airport.

Children can start the books while on board then download the title to finish on a device while away. The next passenger can then pick up the book. Some 7,000 books are available across the airlines 147 planes flying to European destinations.

EasyJet started the flybraries after research found a decline in reading among young children.

The airline polled 2,000 British parents with children aged eight to 12 and found more than eight in 10 parents (83%) say children are reading less in comparison to when they were younger.

Whereas parents would read four books over the summer holidays, on average children now read three.
Larissa Waters said other foreign-born politicians among the 226 in parliament could find themselves in a similar predicament

A second Australian senator in less than a week has said she is quitting parliament after discovering she was a dual national and had therefore never really been elected.

The controversy has raised questions about how many other politicians might also have no right to be there.

Larissa Waters, co-deputy leader of the Greens party, said she was quitting after six years as a senator after the Canadian High Commission in Canberra told her on Monday that she was Canadian.

On Friday, the Greens' other co-deputy, Scott Ludlam, revealed 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.

Australia's constitution states that a "citizen of a foreign power" is not eligible to be elected to parliament.

Ms Waters, who in May became the first politician to breastfeed in parliament, was born in the Canadian city of Winnipeg on February 8 1977 to Australian parents.

She moved to Australia before her first birthday.

Ms Waters said she thought she had an option of becoming a Canadian citizen and did not take it.

She has since found that the law changed a week after she was born, meaning she automatically became a Canadian unless she took steps to prevent it.

Ms Waters said other foreign-born politicians among the 226 in parliament could find themselves in a similar predicament.

"There are many politicians in the Senate and the federal House of Representatives that were born overseas and it may well be that others have to make this embarrassing revelation as well," an emotional Ms Waters told reporters.

"But I can hold my head up high knowing that the moment I found out, I have taken the step of announcing that I will sadly have to resign," she added.

After Mr Ludlam's resignation, government politician and former prime minister Tony Abbott posted on social media a document confirming he had renounced his own British citizenship in 1993, a year before he was elected to parliament.

Sydney University constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said Canada and New Zealand were not considered foreign powers when the Australian constitution came into force in 1901 because, like Australia, they were part of the British Empire.

The High Court has ruled that Britain has been regarded as a foreign power under Australian law since 1986.

One or two prime ministers might have been dual nationals in the past, but politicians' eligibility was never tested in the courts until the 1970s, Ms Twomey said.

"Up until then, people didn't look too closely. It's only been in recent times when perhaps politics has become a bit more visceral ... that these issues have arisen," Ms Twomey told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Ludlam was exposed by Australian lawyer John Cameron, who had investigated whether the senator and another New Zealand-born politician, Derryn Hinch, were dual nationals.

Mr Hinch, an independent senator, had renounced his citizenship.

The Greens are likely to retain all eight Senate seats and their balance-of-power role despite the two resignations.

A recount of votes at the last election a year ago will probably deliver the seats to other Greens candidates.

But both Mr Ludlam and Ms Waters could be forced to repay their salaries.

Mr Ludlam was reportedly paid more than 1.6 million Australian dollars (966,000) during his nine years in office.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said that he was "gutted" by the loss of his deputies and that the party will tighten procedures to prevent ineligible candidates from running again.

AP
Smoke rises over the Montenegro capital Podgorica as firefighters try to contain wildfires along the Adriatic coast (AP)

Montenegro has asked for international help to fight wildfires raging along the Adriatic Sea coastline that are also affecting neighbouring Croatia, reaching a key port.

Croatian TV reported that the blaze near the coastal town of Split - a central port and tourism centre - had reached houses in some parts of the city, with residents joining firefighters in efforts to contain the flames.

Authorities warned residents throughout the town to remain calm, stay indoors and keep windows closed as thick smoke spread around the area.

Soldiers joined in the battle to stop the fire and some parts of Split were left without electricity, Croatian TV said.

Prime minister Andrej Plenkovic scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday, saying Croatia could also seek international help if the crisis continues.

In Montenegro, at least 100 tourists were forced to evacuate the coastal area hardest hit by the blaze.

Fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, the fire on the Lustica peninsula in southern Montenegro has spread near to homes and camping zones.

"Our forces are not enough to put out a fire of such proportion," said Stevan Katic, head of Herceg Novi municipality.

State TV reported that the Interior Ministry had asked for international help through the European Union disaster relief system. The navy also stepped in to help evacuate the area by sea, officials said.

Emergency services said strong winds are hampering firefighters' efforts to save homes.

"The fire has spread over the road, an entire hill is burning," emergency official Maksim Mandic told Montenegrin TV. "It is impossible to put out the fire completely in such winds."

Further north in Croatia, firefighters have also been battling a number of fires along the Adriatic coast. Several hundred acres of pine forests and low shrubbery have been burnt, with the winds sending the blaze spreading in several directions.

Earlier, fires around Srinjine, near Split, forced tourists to leave the area, which was left without electricity or water, Croatian TV said.

Several houses and offices were destroyed as well as a nursery school, part of a cemetery and surrounding olive groves. A man died in a nearby village, but it was not clear whether his death was directly related to the fire, state TV said.

Firefighting planes took off Monday afternoon after previously being grounded because of strong winds and turbulence.

Around the town of Zadar, planes were also used because some areas remain mined from the 1990s war.

AP
An international tribunal has ordered Russia to pay damages and costs of nearly 5.4 million euros to the Netherlands for unlawfully seizing a Greenpeace ship protesting at an oil platform in Arctic waters.

The Arctic Sunrise, sailing under a Dutch flag, was seized by Russian authorities in September 2013 during a protest against an offshore oil platform.

The 30 people on board were arrested and detained for months before being released shortly before the Sochi Olympics.

The tribunal, which ruled two years ago that the seizure breached an international treaty regulating the laws of the sea, announced the damages on Tuesday.

Greenpeace International's general counsel, Jasper Teulings, said the ruling "emphatically upholds international law and the right to peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic".

SIx Britons were among a group of 28 activists and two freelance journalists detained on the Arctic Sunrise by Russian security forces during a protest at a Gazprom drilling platform in the Arctic's Pechora Sea.

Mr Teulings said: "The road to justice can be long but today's award emphatically upholds international law and the right to peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic - and at sea worldwide."

Dutch foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders said: "The rulings make clear that you can't just board ships in international waters and arrest those on board.

"The Arctic Sunrise was exercising the right to demonstrate. The rulings contribute to the development of international law, particularly the laws of the sea and freedom of expression."

Mr Koenders called on Moscow to respect the ruling and pay up, adding that the Dutch government would add interest until Russia pays the damages.

The order to Russia included compensation of nearly 1.7 million euros (1.5 million) for damage to the Arctic Sunrise and just over 3 million euros (2.6 million) in compensation for material and non-material damages linked to the treatment of those aboard the ship who were detained, known as the Arctic 30.
The 98-strong team of officials from across Whitehall arrived for the first substantive talks at the European Commission. Stock picture

Britain deployed nearly 100 negotiators to Brussels yesterday in a bureaucratic show of force that saw its Brexit negotiating team outnumber its EU counterpart two-to-one.

After months of goading from the European Union that the UK was failing to fully engage, the 98-strong team of officials from across Whitehall arrived for the first substantive talks at the European Commission.

The deployment was lost in the main image of the opening day of talks, however, after David Davis and Olivier Robbins, the UK's top Brexit officials, were photographed facing Michel Barnier in a meeting room without any documents.

Taken minutes before Mr Davis jetted back to London for a parliamentary vote, the EU's top negotiators struck stern expressions behind their thick sheaves of paper, as the British team grinned for the camera with their side of the table empty. The image provoked a deluge of comment on social media about the lack of preparedness for the talks. UK staff later insisted the photo was taken before they had unpacked.

"We have less than 20 months of Brexit talks left, yet David Davis has skulked back to the UK after just half a day," said Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman. "He didn't have any position papers with him because this government has no agreed Brexit position."

Labour was also critical of Mr Davis, who spent less than three hours in Brussels, including a one-to-one meeting with Mr Barnier to discuss the objectives of the week, which officials described as "friendly". "Mr Davis can hardly say this is the time 'to get down to business' and then spend only a few minutes in Brussels before heading back to Whitehall," said Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary.

Before the British negotiators got down to business, starting with a "line by line" rebuttal of the EU's demand for a gross 100bn financial settlement, they were given a rousing pep talk by Mr Robbins. A source who was present reported him as saying: "This is the biggest thing any of you will ever do in your career. So let's get it right." ( Daily Telegraph London)
Over a period of about six months, the wife sent her husband several text messages, including one after she was hospitalised from a car accident. (Stock photo)

A Taiwanese husband has paid the ultimate price for ignoring his wifes texts.

According to the BBC, the woman was granted a divorce because the Read indicators connected to the messages she had sent to her husband confirmed that he had been ignoring her.

A judge accepted her claim that the husband had been anything but attentive when it was proven that an app indicated that although he had opened the text messages, he had failed to reply to any of them.

The BBC described the process as blue-ticking  the act of reading but not replying to messages. According to the report, the judge in Hsinchu districts family affairs court cited the ignored Line messages as key evidence of the womans marriage being beyond repair, and decided that she was entitled to a divorce.

Over a period of about six months, the wife, surnamed Lin, sent her husband several text messages, including one after she was hospitalised from a car accident, according to Judge Kao.

Although her husband did visit her once in hospital, the court in Taiwan found that his ignoring of her messages was grounds for divorce.
Pictures of teen arrested by Iraqi security forces believed to be Linda W, originally from Saxony, who has not been seen since July 2016

A German 16-year-old who is thought to have disappeared last year to join Isis has reportedly been discovered alive and well in the ruins of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Pictures of a teenager being arrested by Iraqi police have been widely circulated on social media in the last few days. Although the girls identity is still unclear, it is thought she is Linda W, who left her hometown of Pulsnitz near Dresden last July.

The authorities managed to track her movements to Istanbul, after which the trail went cold.

A reporter for German newspaper Bild, Bjorn Stritzel, said on Twitter that according to his rebel sources Linda had been held in an area of Idlib province last August by Islamist rebels sympathetic to Isis before being smuggled to the so-called caliphate.

He saw several pictures of the girl and rebels knew her real name  suggesting that she had indeed crossed into Isis-held territory. The new photos match the information previously collected about Linda, Mr Stritzel said.

It is not clear when Linda  if she has been correctly identified  went to Mosul. The city has been under siege by US-backed Iraqi coalition forces since October 2016.

Fierce fighting and a US-led air campaign have killed thousands of civilians, and caused almost a million to flee their homes. While Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared last week that Isis has been defeated, clashes continue in a tiny pocket of the Old City, and the authorities remain fearful of sleeper cell attacks.

Five German women who travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the caliphate have been captured by Iraqi security forces during Mosul's fall.

Foreign men who joined Isis were often put in frontline combat roles or used as suicide bombers during the brutal nine-month-long campaign to retake the city. Earlier this month, shocking footage emerged of a woman cradling a baby who then blew herself up to take out two nearby soldiers.

At least 27,000 foreigners are estimated to have travelled to Syria to take part in various sides of the fighting in the countrys six years of civil war.
Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive and hiding in Syria, despite Russian reports of his death, Iraqi and Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have said.

"Baghdadi is definitely not dead. We have information that he is alive. We believe 99pc he is alive," Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said yesterday.

Mr Talabany claimed that the Isil leader was somewhere south of Raqqa, the capital of the jihadist group's so-called caliphate.

"Don't forget his roots go back to al-Qa'ida days in Iraq. He has years of experience in hiding and getting away from the security services," he said. "He knows what he is doing."

Russia had claimed that it killed the elusive leader in an air strike on a meeting of senior Isil commanders near Raqqa on May 28.

The Isil leader has not been seen in public since declaring its so-called caliphate from the Iraqi city of Mosul in July 2014.

The UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) last week said it had "unconfirmed information" that Baghdadi had been killed in Syria. However, Western and Iraqi officials could not confirm either of the claims.

"Our approach is we assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove otherwise," Jim Mattis, US Defence Secretary, said last week, adding: "We'll go after him until he's gone."

Abu Ali Basri, the director general of the Iraqi intelligence and counter-terrorism office in the ministry of interior, agreed that Baghdadi was still alive and in Syria.

He said: "We have more of a vested interest than others, than international and Arab intelligence services, to pursue and hunt down, to monitor all the movements of the leader of and his followers.

"The monitoring cells deny news of his death and other reports regarding his health which have recently been published."

Baghdadi is not thought to have been in Raqqa, which has been heavily targeted by the US-led coalition, for some time and is believed to have been moving within Isil territory along the Syria-Iraq border.

One local in the village of Jdaidet al-Okaibat on the outskirts of the Isil-controlled eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor said that he appeared on June 24 for Eid al-Fitr prayers, which mark the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

He claimed that a group of around 200 people took part in the prayers, led by Baghdadi, who he said looked "fit and well".

Officials have warned that despite Isil's losses in its major strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa, the threat from the group had not disappeared. "The group has sent sleeper cells from Syria to spread around the world to carry out attacks and spread chaos," Mr Basri said.

Mr Talabany said Isil was shifting tactics despite low morale within the terror organisation and that it would take three or four years to eliminate the group entirely. He added that after defeat, the jihadists would wage an insurgency and resemble al-Qa'ida on "steroids". ( Daily Telegraph London)
Hollywood is in mourning after the deaths of Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau, at the age of 89, and horror director George A Romero, who was 77.

Landau died of "unexpected complications" on Saturday during a brief spell in a Los Angeles hospital, his publicist Dick Guttman said.

Expand Close Director George A Romero. Photo: Getty / Facebook

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He won the best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of horror actor Bela Lugosi in the 1994 Tim Burton film 'Ed Wood', which also starred Johnny Depp.

Actress Patricia Arquette paid tribute to Landau as a "talented, sweet, generous" actor.

"Working with Martin Landau on 'Ed Wood' was a joy," she added.

Actor Ralph Macchio said he was a "simply wonderful" performer whose Oscar-nominated performance in Woody Allen's 'Crimes And Misdemeanours' is among his favourites.

Landau, who was born in New York, also starred in the British series 'Space: 1999' alongside his then wife, Barbara Bain. He won his first Oscar nomination for his role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1988 film 'Tucker: The Man And His Dream'.

Mr Guttman announced his death in a statement on Sunday.

"We are overcome with sadness to report the death of iconic actor Martin Landau on July 15, 2017, at 1.30pm at UCLA Medical Centre, where he succumbed to unexpected complications during a short hospitalisation," he said. "He had just celebrated his 89th birthday."

Romero died on Sunday following a battle with lung cancer, said his family in a statement. His family said he died while listening to the score of 'The Quiet Man', one of his favourite films, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher, and daughter, Tina Romero, by his side.

Romero is credited with reinventing the zombie movie with his directorial debut, the 1968 cult classic, 'Night of the Living Dead'.

The movie set the rules imitators lived by: zombies move slowly, lust for human flesh and can only be killed when shot in the head. If a zombie bites a human, the person dies and returns as a zombie.

Romero's zombies, however, were always more than mere cannibals. They were metaphors for conformity, racism, mall culture, militarism, class differences and other social ills.

Romero's death was immediately felt across a wide spectrum of horror fans and filmmakers.

Stephen King, whose 'The Dark Half' was adapted by Romero, called him his favourite collaborator and said, "There will never be another like you."

Director Guillermo del Toro called the loss "enormous".

Ten years after 'Night of the Living Dead', Romero made 'Dawn of the Dead', where survivors take refuge from the undead in a shopping mall and then turn on each other.
Vice President Mike Pence laughs as US President Donald Trump holds a baseball bat as they attend an event at the White House Photo: Reuters

US President Donald Trump took to Twitter yesterday to further defend his son Donald Jr over a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the election camaping, saying that Mr Trump Jr took the meeting expecting "info on an opponent".

"Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent," Mr Trump wrote in his tweet. "That's politics!"

Expand Close Donald Trump Jr attended a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the election campaign. Photo: AP / Facebook

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Just hours later, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted that the meeting was about adoption policy for Russian children, despite emails Mr Trump Jr released showing that he expected to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton supplied by the Kremlin.

"There was nothing, as far as we know, that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption, the Magnitsky Act," Mr Spicer told reporters.

Mr Trump Jr issued public statements about the meeting shortly after it was revealed by the 'New York Times' in which he said he agreed to the meeting in hopes of receiving information to discredit Mrs Clinton and that he was told in the meeting the Russians had politically embarrassing evidence on her.

The meeting was attended by Mr Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who served as a top campaign adviser.

Before the meeting, Mr Trump Jr forwarded email correspondence about its planning to Mr Manafort and Mr Kushner with the subject line, "Re: Russia - Clinton - private and confidential."

Other facts also indicate that the meeting was arranged on the premise of providing political information rather than to discuss adoption or the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law imposing US sanctions against certain Russian officials.

In a news conference in Paris last week, Mr Trump said his son simply took a meeting that ended up not producing much valuable information or opposition research. Mr Trump said he only learned of the meeting recently.

Members of Congress have called on those who attended the meeting to testify before the House and Senate committees investigating Russia's alleged meddling in the US presidential election.

Yesterday a US court asked Mr Trump's staff to turn over records of visitors to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Mr Trump visited his private "Winter White House" seven times in February and May.

That led to a legal challenge from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) demanding to know who he had been meeting.

In response, a New York court has asked the Secret Service to turn over records of the people who visited Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has renewed his feud with Mr Trump and suggested there should be no "rolling out the red carpet" with a state visit for the US president.

Mr Khan told CNN: "State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the president of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet."

British Prime Minister Theresa May extended the invitation of a state visit in January and it was accepted, but a source in Washington said no preliminary arrangements of any kind have been made.

Mr Khan added: "If someone has views that I think can be changed, I am ready to play my role. If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud Westerner, I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump."

Mr Khan previously vocally opposed Mr Trump's travel ban against people from a group of predominantly Muslim countries entering the US.

After the London Bridge terrorist attack, Mr Trump criticised Mr Khan for telling Londoners there was "no reason to be alarmed" by an increased police presence on the streets.

Elsewhere, the US government is allowing 15,000 additional visas for temporary seasonal workers to help American businesses in danger of suffering irreparable harm because of a shortage of such labour, the Department of Homeland Security said.

US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly found after consulting with Labour Secretary Alexander Acosta that there were not enough qualified and willing American workers available to perform temporary non-agricultural work, the department said in a statement. ( Daily Telegraph London)
Soldiers at the scene of the attack near Hebron (AP)

The Israeli military says it has shot and killed a Palestinian attacker who rammed his car into a group of soldiers, injuring two.

Officials said the attacker veered into troops securing a junction north of the West Bank city of Hebron.

In the past two years, Palestinians have killed 45 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks.

During that period, Israeli forces have killed more than 255 Palestinians, most of them said by Israel to be attackers while others were killed in clashes with troops.

Israel blames the violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders.

Palestinians say the attacks stem from anger over decades of Israeli occupation of territories they claim for their future state.
Russian security services boarded the Arctic Sunrise and seized the ship at gunpoint (Greenpeace/PA)

An international tribunal has ordered Russia to pay damages and costs of nearly 5.4 million euros (4.8 million) to the Netherlands for unlawfully seizing a Greenpeace ship protesting at an oil platform in Arctic waters.

The Arctic Sunrise, sailing under a Dutch flag, was seized by Russian authorities in September 2013 during a protest against an offshore oil platform.

The 30 people on board were arrested and detained for months before being released shortly before the Sochi Olympics.

The tribunal, which ruled two years ago that the seizure breached an international treaty regulating the laws of the sea, announced the damages on Tuesday.

Greenpeace International's general counsel, Jasper Teulings, said the ruling "emphatically upholds international law and the right to peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic".

SIx Britons were among a group of 28 activists and two freelance journalists detained on the Arctic Sunrise by Russian security forces during a protest at a Gazprom drilling platform in the Arctic's Pechora Sea.

Mr Teulings said: "The road to justice can be long but today's award emphatically upholds international law and the right to peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic - and at sea worldwide."

Dutch foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders said: "The rulings make clear that you can't just board ships in international waters and arrest those on board.

"The Arctic Sunrise was exercising the right to demonstrate. The rulings contribute to the development of international law, particularly the laws of the sea and freedom of expression."

Mr Koenders called on Moscow to respect the ruling and pay up, adding that the Dutch government would add interest until Russia pays the damages.

The order to Russia included compensation of nearly 1.7 million euros (1.5 million) for damage to the Arctic Sunrise and just over 3 million euros (2.6 million) in compensation for material and non-material damages linked to the treatment of those aboard the ship who were detained, known as the Arctic 30.

AP
Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of directing the rebels' hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine (AP)

Separatists in eastern Ukraine have proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of Ukraine.

The surprise announcement in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 ceasefire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine's industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev's fold while granting them wide autonomy.

It also caught unawares some rebels who said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

The rebels originally sought to join Russia but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the whole area or publicising its military support for the rebels.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most of the areas which are part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Mr Zakharchenko said the rebels are drawing up a constitution that will be put up to a popular vote.

"We believe that the Ukrainian state as it was cannot be restored," he said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency.

"We, representatives of the regions of the former Ukraine, excluding Crimea, proclaim the creation of a new state which is a successor to Ukraine."

Although separatists in the east have sympathisers in other Ukrainian regions, they have not attempted to capture territories there, and they have no political representation.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk later denied that they were part of the deal.

Local news website Luhansk Information Centre quoted rebel representative Vladimir Degtyarenko as saying they had not been informed of the plans and have "great doubts about the expediency of such a step".

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-proclaimed authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk who call themselves the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike their counterparts in Donetsk, have tended to stay away from directly expressing intentions to join Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of directing the rebels' hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine.

"You should understand that Zakharchenko and (rebel leader Igor) Plotnitsky are not political actors," he said, dismissing them as "puppets" whose only job is to voice "the messages they receive from Russia".

Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine is committed to the peace accords and pledged to restore control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia worked out an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015 which laid out a road map for ending the conflict between government troops and separatists.

The rebels and the Ukrainian government agreed that the rebels would return the control of the territories they had captured to Kiev while Ukraine would allow a local election there and grant wide autonomy to the region.

While the deal helped to reduce the intensity of fighting, none of the political components has been implemented.

The Luhansk rebels insisted on Tuesday that they were committed to Minsk while Donetsk representatives argued that the creation of a new state does not contradict the deal.

AP
Turkish human rights activists who were detained by police while attending a training workshop appeared at a court in Istanbul (AP)

A Turkish court has jailed Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser and five other human rights activists pending trial for allegedly aiding an armed terror group.

They are the latest victims of a massive government crackdown initially launched against alleged supporters of last year's failed coup which has since broadened to include government opponents.

In a decision Amnesty International called a "crushing blow for rights in Turkey", the court in Istanbul also decided to release four other activists from custody pending the outcome of a trial, but barred them from travelling abroad.

They will also have to report regularly to police.

The 10 - seven human rights defenders and their German and Swedish trainers -were detained in a July 5 police raid on a hotel on the island of Buyukada, off Istanbul, where they were attending a digital security workshop.

It added to growing concerns over rights and freedoms in the country where the post-coup crackdown has resulted in more than 50,000 arrests and the dismissal of over 110,000 people from government jobs.

The crackdown has netted journalists, politicians and activists. Several media outlets and non-governmental organisations have been shut down.

"This is not a legitimate investigation, this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.

"Today we have learnt that standing up for human rights has become a crime in Turkey. This is a moment of truth, for Turkey and for the international community."

Amnesty said the 10 are suspected of "committing crime in the name of a terrorist organisation without being a member".

Turkish media reports said prosecutors, requesting the arrests, presented as evidence records of their communications with suspects linked to Kurdish and left-wing militants as well as the movement led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating last year's failed coup attempt.

Amnesty said accusations against Ms Eser tried to link her to three terror organisations through her work with the advocacy group. Prosecutors had referred to two campaigns led by Amnesty, which were not authored by Amnesty Turkey, the rights group said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month rejected the label "activists" when asked about the 10, and made vague accusations, saying the group was involved in a meeting that had the "nature of a continuation" of the coup attempt.

Turkey says the crackdown is necessary to weed out Mr Gulen's followers amid a continued threat from his movement and to eradicate terror groups.

In April, Mr Erdogan won by a narrow majority a referendum on a series of constitutional amendments that increase the powers of his office with few checks and balances and abolish the position of prime minister, a development critics fear will lead Turkey towards authoritarian rule.

The European Parliament has advised the European Union to freeze accession talks with Turkey amid growing concerns over declining human rights, media freedoms and rule of law in Turkey.

AP
The Trump administration has slapped 18 Iranian individuals and groups with sanctions for aiding the country's non-nuclear weapons programmes.

The move aims to show that President Donald Trump is staying tough on Iran despite his moves to let the nuclear agreement remain in place for now.

The latest attempt to clamp down on Iran's military financing ranged from an Iranian-based company that aided the country's drone programme to a Turkey-based provider of naval equipment and a Chinese network that helped secure electronics for Tehran.

The sanctions freeze any assets in the US and prevent Americans from doing business with them.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions "send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran's provocative and destabilising behaviour".

"This administration will continue to aggressively target Iran's malign activity, including their ongoing state support of terrorism, ballistic missile programme, and human rights abuses."

The announcement came hours after the Trump administration told Congress for a second time that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and can retain sanctions relief, but officials insisted Tehran was breaching "the spirit" of the deal.

Mr Trump, who lambasted the 2015 pact as a presidential candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to scuttle it or let it stand.

Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasise their deep concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behaviour and vowed that those transgressions will not go unpunished.

During the campaign, Mr Trump told the American Israel Political Action Committee: "My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran."

In a shift from that earlier threat to dismantle the deal, officials said the administration was working with US allies to try to fix the deal's flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more.

The officials also said the US would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalising it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Mr Trump, secretary of state Rex Tillerson and "the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the agreement, one official said. That assessment carries no legal force, while Mr Trump's certification that Iran is technically complying clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

AP
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What is your idea of a night out with your buddies? Does it involve you, your friends and a whisky decanter? If yes, then guys, youve arrived at the right place. We are here to bring you some exciting news about your favourite alcoholic beverage! If you ask me, whisky is just a distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash, but thats not what you think (right?). For many of you, whisky is more than just a drink, in fact, it is something that makes your friendship stronger, start meaningful conversations and rings the room with laughter. In a bid to reunite all whisky lovers on a single platform (the one's always keen to more about their favourite drink), a new website has cropped up on the fun and crazy world of the internet called The Whiskypedia.

Whiskypedia

Yes, you read that right! Now there is a huge site dedicated to all things whisky. For starters, this encyclopedia of all things whisky finally puts the age old question to rest- is it whisky or whiskey? Well, according to Whiskypedia its all about the touch of heritage. While the golden elixir (with magical powers of getting you in high spirits) remains the same, the world all over spells it differently. Where the Irish go it becomes whiskey and where the Scottish men arrive its time for whisky!

Whiskypedia

Other than everything about the history and origin of this magical golden liquid, Whiskypedia dives deep into a lowdown on all your favourite brands and where to find them! Whats more, the Bar neighbourhood section on the site lets you find the best bar and lounges in your area that serves the best whisky. Like this wasnt enough, they even have a section to help you out with some awesome DIY whisky cocktails. Did you know that you could mix your own unique concoction of whisky chai? Well, this and many more DIY cocktail recipes are at your disposal on this site.

Whisky diet sounds like a plan. #TheWhiskypedia #Whisky #whiskey #WhiskyQuotes #InstaQuotes A post shared by The Whiskypedia (@thewhiskypedia) on Jul 7, 2017 at 10:58pm PDT

Im too tempted to sneak out of office and try my own version of the whisky chai or maybe go with the whisky, tango and ice cream combination (would be perfect with this climate, wouldn't it?). What about you? Don't spend hours whiling away on the internet, check out the crazy whisky recipes they have and get experimenting. For more update and exciting recipes and trivia related to whisky, follow their social handles. We bet once you have a look you too won't be able to resist!

Check out the site TheWhiskypedia.com to know more about your biggest love - whisky!
Madhur Bhandarkar's controversial film Indu Sarkar is up for release later this month and it's already under a scanner. This time not by the Censor Board but by the Congress party.

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Congress has objected to the film, set against the Emergency era, saying it may have portrayed Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi in a bad light. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam demanded that the film should be screened before senior party leaders to allay their concerns of any defamatory references to the Gandhi family.

A press conference for the promotion of Indu Sarkar had to be cancelled in Nagpur yesterday after the Congress workers protested against the film. A day earlier, a promotional event of the film at Pune too was cancelled after few Congress workers took to protest against the movie.

Twitter

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has been provided a security cover by the Maharashtra government in the wake of several protests that the director is facing.

Bhandarkar had earlier tweeted saying that team was stranded like hostages in the hotel room in Pune when the press conference was opposed in that city. Yesterday, the director took to Twitter and wrote to Rahul Gandhi, Dear @OfficeOfRG after Pune I have 2 cancel todays PressCon at Nagpur. Do you approve this hooliganism? Can I have my Freedom of Expression? The film is scheduled to release on July 28.
Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan, who is at the centre of a storm ever since the IIFA episode, has apologised for his Nepotism rocks act at the IIFA Awards in New Jersey.

Twitter/Varun Dhawan

Varun, son of filmmaker David Dhawan, along with filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Saif Ali Khan, sparked a controversy over the nepotism debate at the awards gala.

Later, all three of them received flak on social media with people calling their act disappointing. I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act, Varun tweeted.

Performing at #NewYorkCity iifa was an amazing experience. Inspired and humbled and sorry if I let anyone down.  #onelove  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) July 17, 2017

I express my apology and regret .. I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act..  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) July 18, 2017

Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about nepotism issue that started in Bollywood when actress Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a flagbearer of nepotism on his chat show Koffee With Karan.

Twitter/IIFA

When Varun joined the two actors on stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for Dishoom, Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father. You are here because of your papa, Saif quipped. Varun said: And youre here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore).

Twitter/Varun Dhawan

Karan then promptly added: I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar). They then said in unison: Nepotism rocks.



Later on, a string of criticism followed over Twitter, describing what the personalities said was unfunny and joking about Kangana in her absence was unfair.
A father-son duo has been arrested in Delhi's Mangolpuri with 54 stolen mobile phones and laptops when they were returning after collecting the booty from a member of their snatching 'company'.

The police said the duo, known for running the largest snatching syndicate in Delhi, had employed more than 50 youths for stealing valuable items from cars and auto-rickshaws in crowded markets.

indiatimes

The syndicate was referred to as the 'company' and the snatchers were paid a monthly salary along with perks, the police said. The accused used to organise snatching classes for newcomers before sending them on internship with experienced members.

Nand Kishore (47) and his son Subhash (22) mosty operated in west, outer and northwest Delhi. While on weekdays, just five-six snatchers used to be out on duty, at least 20 men were generally sent to crowded markets on the weekends.

BCCL/Representational Image

A team led by inspector (Special Staff) Sukhbir Malik received a tip-off on Saturday that Kishore and Subhash would come to Mangolpuri's L block in a car. A trap was laid and both were arrested as soon as they sat in the car after collecting the stolen items from one of the snatchers working for them, said deputy commissioner of police (outer) M N Tiwari. The police also found Rs 2 lakh on them.

BCCL/Representational Image

The accused initially tried to mislead the police but later said young people were hired as they were more active and could devote more time to the "job". After collecting the stolen items, the duo used to sell these items at a much higher price. They managed to buy four houses across the city and two cars  a Santro and a Swift  with the money they had earned. They had put all houses on rent for extra income.

Representational Image

"Over 42 cases of robbery, theft, pickpocketing, house theft and illegal arms have been registered against him in the past. This was, however, the first time that Subhash has been arrested," said a senior officer. The police are trying to recover more stolen items and trace other members of the syndicate.
AFP/ File

A day after India termed a report in a Pakistani news channel claiming that Chinese Army had killed 158 Indian soldiers in Sikkim as utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous, Chinese media, too, has called the story fake. Read more

Here are more top news of the day:

1) Angry At 'Not Being Allowed To Speak', BSP Chief Mayawati Says She Will Quit Rajya Sabha

BCCL





Things took a serious turn in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when BSP chief Mayawati said she will quit as Parliamentarian for 'not being allowed to speak" about atrocities against Dalits and minorities. Read more

2) Muslim Filmmaker Adopts A Cow & Calf, Urges Gau Rakshaks To Adopt Stray Cattle

JiaMumbai

While the incidents of cow-vigilantism are at an all-time high, a Muslim filmmaker has sent a message of peace in the country with his unique gesture. Kota-based Sarosh Khan has adopted a cow and a calf and performed house warming rituals for the animals in his house. Read more

3) Sushma Swaraj Grants Medical Visa To Ailing PoK Man, Makes It Clear Pak's Occupying Indian Land

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Union minister Sushma Swaraj has conveyed an important message to Pakistan when she said India will issue a medical visa to an ailing man from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). That message is - PoK belongs to India. Read more

4) Images Of Kashmiri Stone Pelters With Injured Amarnath Pilgrims Go Viral, But For The Right Reasons

On July 16, 17 Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 29 injured after a bus skidded off the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and rolled down into a deep nallah in the Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir. Read more

5) Freedom Fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak's Great-Grandson Accused Of Raping 40-YO Woman

Google

The great-grandson of freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rohit Tikal, who is also a Congress leader, has been booked for allegedly raping a woman and forcing her into 'unnatural' sex, the police said. A complaint was registered against him on Monday night. Read more
India has said that a report in a Pakistani news channel about its army suffering fatalities at the hand of China in Sikkim was utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous.

AP/ Representational Image

The Indian Foreign Ministry said that no cognisance should be taken of these reports by responsible media.

Such reports are utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous, MEA Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

This came after Pakistan based Dunya News claimed that at least 158 Indian soldiers have been killed on Monday as China fired rockets across the border on Indian border installations.

AFP/ File

The channel in its report calimed China's state broadcaster CCTV had aired a 2-minute-long footage of PLA soldiers attacking an enemy position using rocket launchers, machine guns, and mortars.

This incident came amidst India-China's month long stand-off in China, Bhutan, and India tri-junction Doklam border.

AFP

While India claims Sikkim border as part of its territory, China has said that the area falls on their side as per the 1890 treaty signed between British and China.
Naik Mudasir Ahmad, who was martyred yesterday in Pakistans shelling at the LoC has made his parents and village proud by laying his life on the line of duty. Hailing from Jammus Rajouri district, Mudasir had called his mother on Sunday and told her that he was safe, but next morning his friend broke the sad news to his family.

"He had called his mother and assured her that he is safe. I was listening to the news when he called up. On Monday morning his friend came and broke the sad news to us," his father Mohammed Afzal Rather told DNA.

DNA

Mudasir, 37, of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry had joined the army because he loved the uniform and thats why one fine morning he left school to join the army and was selected in first go. Mudasir is survived by his wife and two sons. Mudasir was planning his post retirement life and would have celebrated his 10 wedding anniversary next month.

"He had built a house and recently refurbished it. He had planned to shift there with his family after retirement," said his father.

"He was a very lovable man. In fact, this village is home to many soldiers and some have risen to high ranks in the army. Now, not many youth from the area want to join the army," said a local resident here.

His death has descended a havoc on family, relatives and friends and people are coming relentlessly to Mudasirs house to console family. His son Burhan who studies on class 3 broke down after seeing his mother crying. Naik Mudasirs body will be flown to Victor force headquarters at Awantipora on Tuesday. He will be laid to rest with full military honours at his village.
Meet Captain Jodi Harskamp, a pilot with Alaska Airlines who decided to save a co-worker's life by donating her a kidney.

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Jenny Stansel had to leave on medical leave after she learnt that her kidneys are not supporting her body anymore.

She was in the middle of a flight when an unbearable pain took over the best of her and she had to take a passenger's seat to rest. She was admitted to the hospital that day.

adn

She then learnt that her kidneys were failing and that she had to spend nearly half of her day, every day, on dialysis. She then asked co-workers and friends to take a test to see if they might be a good donor and Captain Jodi was the first one to sign up.

"She sent out the word and when I filled out the paperwork I think the title of the fax I sent in was girl I got your kidney and then I was joking with her that I was going to deliver the kidney on the beverage cart on an ice bucket, haha!" said Captain Jody Harskamp.

KIRO

Turning this unfortunate situation into a favourable one, Captain Jodi ended up donating her kidney to Jenny and both of them are fine now.

"If it means Jenni is going to get another 20, 30, 40, 50 years out of my kidney and I'm going to live just as long as I was going to live before, why not?" said an elated Jodi.

On Monday, Harskamp was back to work for the first time since the donation. Both of them barely knew each other prior to the donation drive, but they now share a bond for life.
For those who lived through nearly three years of constant bombardment, grief overpowers the sense of joy. The northern Iraqi city of Mosul's liberation from Islamic State (IS) may be seen as an event turning the history of the city, but for the people who lost their loved ones, it comes at a heavy cost.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi waved his national flag in Mosul that has been grounded into rubble. He celebrated the victory of his U.S.-supported troops over the ISIS. But the happiness pales in comparison to the destruction the terrorists left behind.

DigitalGlobe, a satellite imagery company, recently released new pictures of the citys destruction after nine months of fighting. For Mosul civilians caught in the crossfire between Iraqi troops and ISIS militants it has been a nightmare and continues to be so.

As the saying goes, pictures speak louder than words. It's heartbreaking to see an entire city razed to the ground, with countless live buried in the rubble.

#1 The city's hotel and hospital crushed to rubble in a span of three years.

#2 Half of the city's bridge has gone missing with the constant bombardment.

#3 Mosul's historic Al-Nuri mosque before and after the war.

#4 The city's main hospital razed to the ground after the crossfire.

According to IraqiNews, the government declared victory over the Islamic State in October 2016, ending an eight-month campaign to drive the group out of the city. The Iraqi command leading the campaign said more than 25,000 IS members were killed in the battles.
A huge chunk of marijuana was seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials in the US after the pot was smuggled into the country from Mexico in newly manufactured Ford Fusion cars.

Cannabis Marketing Consultants/facebook

The $1 million worth of marijuana was smuggled in spare tire wells of the cars. The officials are investigating the case after a local car dealership found a portion of the pot hidden in the trunk of one of the Fusions.

cars.com

The cars, that were built at the Ford plant in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico were shipped by rail to Lordstown, Ohio, US, reports RT.

The officials said that each of the 15 Ford Fusions impounded carried approximately 32lb (14.5kg) of marijuana in the trunks.
Internet is the oxygen of the 21st century. Without access to it, people will wilt and die.

With the launch of Reliance Jio last September, and the cut-throat competition between rival telcos, getting online has become increasingly cheaper to the point where anyone with a smartphone can afford to buy an Internet pack. People are free to choose their Internet provider, data plan, and there's a lot of flexibility for the consumer.

But that freedom is still dependent on our access to the Internet, which is not always in our control.

According to statistics from the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), India has seen 29 instances of Internet shutdowns in 2017. Yes, thats almost 30 times that the government has blocked our access to the Internet in just these past six and a half months, all in the name of preserving law and order. Just the last month saw parts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra cut off from the Internet, a fact thats caused the global Human Rights Watch group to question Indian authorities, calling for them to cease arbitrary restrictions of the countrys internet and telecommunications networks.

Here are the few key points you need to know about the problem, and why it should matter to you.

Images courtesy: SFLC

1. Authorities are cutting us off more often every year

SFLC has been tracking Internet shutdowns in India since 2012, which you can find for yourself here, cataloguing the dates, durations, and reasons behind each instance.There have been a total of 88 recorded shutdowns since 2012, with 31 reported in 2016 and 29 in 2017 alone. That number has steadily progressed since the three reported instances in 2012. And at 29, were just two off last years total, only halfway through 2017.

2. Your smartphone is the target more often than your Wi-Fi

Also, 49 of the 73 recorded shutdowns (at the time of the report) targeted mobile Internet services, and 10 targeted both mobile and fixed-line services. No shutdowns were reported to have only targeted fixed-line Internet services though the targets of 14 shutdowns remain unknown.

Then, 27 of the 73 recorded shutdowns lasted for less than a day, 17 lasted between 1 and 3 days, and 16 lasted for more than 3 days. No information is available on the duration of 13 shutdown instances.

Of the 73 shutdowns recorded since 2012 (at the time), 37 were imposed preemptively to prevent a possible law and order problem, while 36 instances were reactive in nature. Authorities concerns over the misuse of the internet and social media should not be the default option to prevent social unrest, said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, Human Rights Watch, on Friday.

3. We have more Internet shutdowns than anyone else

In 2016, India had a total of a 31 Internet shutdowns, more than any other country around the world. As a result, statistics indicate India lost almost Rs 6,000 crore of its usual income.

4. J&K suffers the most in India

Jammu and Kashmir has been cut off from the Internet a total of 38 times since 2012, with 20 of those instances being split evenly between 2016 and 2017. The most recent shutdown was initiated on the 10th of this month as a precautionary measure after separatists called for people to launch a Kashmir awareness campaign on social media on July 11

5. The UN told the world over a year ago that this is wrong

The United Nations Human Rights Council has already voiced its opinion on this trend, passing a resolution in July of 2016 condemning Internet shutdowns as a means to curb the dissemination of information. The most often cited reason for Internet shutdowns in India is to prevent people from spreading messages on social media that may incite anti- social sentiments in a sensitive situation. However, the UNHRC believes the scale of the reaction is unjustified. Plainly put, when the government shuts down the internet to supposedly keep the peace, its impinging on our freedom of speech, something the UN believes should be protected online as much as it should be offline.
RENO  Five lucky sportsmen received some very good news when they were contacted by the Community Foundation of Western Nevada, the nonprofit organization that runs the Dream Tag Raffle, informing them that they had won one of five Nevada Dream Tags.

The winners were Gary Harper from Elko (antelope), Bill McGeever from Santa Barbara, California (California bighorn sheep), Gary Nunes from Orland, California (mule deer), Shane Edgar from Battle Mountain (desert bighorn sheep) and Nicholas Collie from Elko (elk).

Getting to hand out these tags to the winners is my second favorite part of working with the Nevada Dream Tag program, said Lauren Renda, program officer for the Dream Tag Fund. My favorite part is watching the money raised each year help fund desperately needed habitat restoration projects throughout Nevada.

The money raised through the sale of the Dream Tags goes directly to desperately needed wildlife rehabilitation. With this years wildfires already ravaging crucial wildlife habitat, these funds are more needed than ever. In the past 20 years wildfires in Nevada have ravaged more than 14 million acres of crucial habitat. To date, the Nevada Dream Tag Program has been able to donate more than $1 million to habitat projects.

Wildlife habitat rehabilitation projects are awarded via a competitive grants process administered by the nonprofit NV Dream Tags Fund. Projects may include restoration to large areas of the state that have been ravaged by wildfires and drought, water availability for vulnerable herds, emergency response, and other projects deemed critical by the NV Dream Tags advisory board. Nonprofit organizations as well as government agencies are welcome to apply for project funding.

Tickets will go on sale in September for next years hunts. For $5 per raffle ticket, the Nevada Dream Tag gives sportsmen the shot at winning one of five premier big game tags. All that is required to get started in the raffle is to purchase a Resource Enhancement Stamp for $10. Once you have your stamp, you can purchase an unlimited number of raffle tickets for each species. Both the RES Stamp and the raffle tickets can be purchased at NVDreamTag.org.
ELKO  Local businesses are helping Soroptimist International of Elko and Communities in Schools to collect supplies for students in Elko County.

The two nonprofit groups are asking the public to help gather the items needed for The Magic School Supply Bus program, which runs through Aug. 11.

People can purchase school supplies and donate them to the program by dropping them off at the Elko County Library and local businesses including Ignite Life Chiropractic, Country Financial, Greater Nevada Credit Union, Nevada State Bank, Summit Funding, Century 21, Straight Blast Gym and Taylor Chiropractic.

The items needed include backpacks, binders, tabbed dividers, pocket folders, spiral notebooks, composition books, notebook paper, pencil cases, highlighters, pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, erasers, glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers, scissors, index cards, crayons, markers, tissues and dry erase markers.

If people dont want to buy items, they can also help by making a donation to SIE (Soroptimist International of Elko) with the memo of MSSB or Magic School Supply Bus, and mail it to SIE, P.O. Box 814, Elko, NV 89803.

For more information call 753-9183 or 340-4334.
The residents of Edo State are still mourning the death pf Late retired Justice Andrew Obaseki, the Edo State Government has expressed sadness over the death of retired Justice Andrew Obaseki.

According to the statement released on Monday by the Secretary to the Edo State Government, Osarodion Ogie, the Edo State Government said though it was pained by Justice Obasekis death, it would take solace in the fact that the late jurist not only distinguished himself on the apex court bench but also lived long enough to see his family continue its record of distinguished public service as the state now has an Obaseki as governor.

Ogie said Edo State was proud that the late Justice Obaseki belonged to the Golden Year of the Supreme Court when groundbreaking judicial pronouncements were handed down.

The statement partly, The Edo people recall with pride and nostalgia the remarkable judicial career of Justice Obaseki which started in Benin City and culminated at the Supreme Court of Nigeria. There, he became a distinguished member of that galaxy of immortal jurists who created what is now known as the Golden year of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

In the course of a long and distinguished career as a jurist at the apex court, Justice Obaseki set down groundbreaking judicial precedents and notable pronouncements in such classical decision as Governor of Lagos State v. Ojukwu; Garba v. University of Maiduguri; Obeko v. Olowo and Awolowo v. Shagari, where the principles of fair hearing, natural justice, rule of law, and the protection of the citizens from extrajudicial acts of governments were laid down and, which, till this day, form the bedrock of our jurisprudence.

The statement added that it was the late Justice Obasekis sterling achievements on the Supreme Court bench that paved the way for the likes of the late Justice Omorose Akpata and Justice S.F Uwaifo, who also did the state proud.

It added, We also celebrate the fact that Justice Obaseki lived long enough to see his family continue its record of distinguished public service by producing the current governor of our state, His Excellency, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Obaseki family and we are certain that at the appropriate time, the entirety of our polity will rise as one to celebrate the passing of a distinguished superstar whose memory will forever remain in our hearts as treasure and inspiration.

Justice Obaseki, an uncle of the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, died on July 13, 2017 at the age of 93.

Source:( Punch Newspaper )
A former governor of Jigawa State who is on trial for allegedly laundering money, has been remanded in prison custody.

Less than just five days after a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, Abuja, granted bail to a former Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki, a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered his remand in Kuje Prison, Abuja.

According to a The Punch report, although Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court granted bail to the ex-governor on fresh bail conditions on Tuesday, he ordered the defendant to remain in Kuje Prisons, Abuja, pending when the bail conditions were met.

Justice Dimgba gave the order shortly after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission re-arraigned Turaki and three companies on 32 counts of money laundering offences involving about N37bn.

The defendants allegedly committed the offences between 2006 and 2007 while the former governor was in office.

Turaki, alongside his co-defendants  INC Natural Resources Ltd., Arkel Construction Nigeria Ltd and Wildcat Construction Ltd  were earlier arraigned before the Dutse, Jigawa State Division of the Federal High Court, in 2011.

But he was said to have since evaded trial until the EFCC, acting on an arrest warrant issued against Turaki by the court in Dutse about three years ago, arrested him on July 4, 2017, at an event in Abuja.

While the EFCC was facilitating how to produce him before the court in Dutse, the judge went on his annual vacation and Turaki then filed a rights enforcement suit before the FCT High Court in Abuja, seeking an order of the court releasing him from the anti-graft agencys custody.

He also filed an interlocutory application which he urged the court to consider before the hearing of the main suit.

The application was opposed by the EFCC on the grounds that with Turakis antecedent of jumping bail earlier granted him six years ago by the Federal High Court in Dutse and his evasion of the arrest warrant issued by the same court about three years ago, he would likely jump bail again.

But in his ruling on Thursday, Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court granted bail to the ex-governor on conditions which merely required him to submit his travel documents to the registry of the court, produce two reasonable sureties residing in Abuja, and sign a register to be opened at the EFCCs office every two weeks.

But instead of releasing him, the EFCC filed afresh in the Federal High Court in Abuja, the same set of charges already pending against the defendants before the court in Dutse.

The anti-graft agency then re-arraigned Turaki and the three companies before Justice Dimgba in Abuja, being the only judge sitting as a vacation judge in the northern region of the country while the other Federal High Court judges proceed on vacation.

After Turaki pleaded not guilty to the 32 counts on Tuesday, Justice Dimgba said he was inclined to granting bail to the ex-governor in deference to the earlier bail granted the defendant by Justice Halilu of the FCT High Court.

He asked the prosecution and the defence led by Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), to agree on the bail conditions to be imposed on the defendant.

The judge resumed sitting after about 10 minutes.
Four persons have been arrested by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC ), Abia office, for allegedly revalidating beverages.

The Abia Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr Olisa Okeke, on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the arrested men relabelled the beverages with new expiry dates.

Okeke said a joint team from Lagos and Abia offices led by Mr Emeka Onwuasonya arrested the men at Eziukwu market on Monday.

The coordinator said that the suspects were caught revalidating drinks in cans and dairy products at the time of the arrests.

He said that the men had been moved to Lagos for further investigation and prosecution.

Okeke said it was unfair for people to fake or revalidate products, knowing it was harmful to the body.

According to him, NAFDAC has devised new means of tackling the menace and would not relent in its efforts to check the perpetrators.

He urged operators in the market to desist from attacking officials on lawful duty.

About four weeks ago, some dealers in the market assaulted the agency staff during a raid of the market.

They injured one of the NAFDAC officials in the shoulder and the other in the head with stones and also damaged one of the agencys vehicle during the operation, he said.
A married teacher has been nabbed and punished after it was found out that she had arranged a birthday s*x with a school pupil.

Emily Lofing, a 27-year-old American teacher who set up a sex tryst with a pupil on his 16th birthday has been jailed.

The young woman was said to be living a double life during the scandal.

According to Daily Star UK, investigators said the US brunette struck up a relationship with the student in July last year.

Court documents show Lofing planned to meet the boy for the purpose of s*xual penetration.

It was just over two years after she got married. Lofing worked at the time in a school in Weeping Water, Nebraska, where then teen attended.

She pleaded no contest to an amended charge of contributing to the delinquency of a child  the boy was 16.

Prosecutor John Palmtag said: I would urge the court in this matter to send a strong message to the defendant and the people of the state that we as a society wont tolerate these sort of actions by our teachers in the classrooms.

We wont tolerate predatory acts among students.

Lofing was jailed for 90 days, put on two years probation and must do 240 hours of community work.

Judge John Steinheider told her: You send kids to school, to day care, to Bible school.

You expect them to be treated with respect and be in safe places and you took that away from at least the victim in this instance.

Lofing, who was also fined $1,000 (766), quit in disgrace after she was charged in February.

She had moved from Weeping Water to teach English at Nebraska City Middle School.

Judge Steinheider told her: This alleged indiscretion, Ill say, took place on the victims 16th birthday. You were less than 24 hours from a felony here.
ELKO  The Enhanced 911 Board has chosen a consulting group to help get E-911 service off the ground.

Winbourne Consulting Group was the number one option for all seven members of the board, and County Commissioners chose to accept the boards recommendation.

The consulting group will be a key in helping all three dispatch centers in the county get the right infrastructure in place to handle enhanced 911 calls. The system would relay location information to emergency responders without the caller having to state their address.

Enhanced 911 Board Chairman Ben Reed said the consulting group has worked with other municipalities on projects like this before.

A couple of the people who they proposed to be the lead of their project team are people that come pretty highly recommended in this industry, he said.

The company bid $161,280 to plan the enhancement, advise on procurement of equipment, and advise on installation and setup.

Winbourne is based in Arlington, Virginia, but would have a project manager in Las Vegas to work with Elko County.

Cash Minor, assistant county manager, said letters will be going out this week to phone companies to begin sending checks from the surcharge, which they are already collecting.

There also is more than $200,000 in the community donation fund to help with the project, Reed said.

The Enhanced 911 board has been meeting regularly since the beginning of the year and Reed said he is proud of the progress the board has made and was thankful for the community support that helped them afford Winbournes services.

This is another big step for us. This consultant and the development of the plan from the community donations, he said. The communitys generosity is allowing us to get this going and get this up and running. Im excited.
Nigerian television host, Denrele Edun and Sexy Actor, Bolanle Ninalowo has joined the star studded cast of Funke Akindeles Sitcom, Jenifas Diary.

Denrele Edun is set to bring his energy and craziness to the series while Bolanle is there to win some ladies right.

Jenifas Diary is a Nigerian television comedy series, created by Funke Akindele. The series is part of the Jenifa franchise, based on a naive and funny character of the same name.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWpNYK0lS1k/
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his confidence that Nigerians still believes in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to lead the country.

Jonathan stated this at the expanded National Caucus of the party held on Monday night at Wadata House, Abuja.

He said that this was demonstrated with reactions by Nigerians to the Supreme Court judgment on the partys leadership crisis on Wednesday.

He urged that all our efforts by PDP members and supporters within this period should be channeled towards building the party.

Nigerians still believe in the PDP because when the Supreme Court judgment was given, I was so surprised because some of people called and sent text messages to me.

They are not even politicians but they are so happy that PDP has come on stream because they were worried that PDP will go down.

So, if people who are not even members of PDP are so happy that PDP has now gotten a platform to operate in spite of the negative propaganda against us, it means people still believe in PDP.

PDP is a party that Nigerians still believe in, Jonathan said.

He appealed to party members to rebuild it, assuring that many people who stepped aside from the party as a result of its leadership crisis would return.

The first thing we need to do is to rebuild the party because when the party is strong, everything will be added to that.

Whether you have individual or group interest, as a politician, you must serve. These are very basic things, but first and foremost, we must strengthen the party.

Let us cooperate with the Caretaker Committee and make sure that PDP is very cohesive. And when that happens, people who stepped aside may step back.

We may not even need to go on a voyage of discovery to discover people. But they, themselves will come back because a strong party acts like a magnet.

It will attract all the people that are interested, he said.

On his part, Chairman of the PDP National Caretaker Committee, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, said only a miracle would stop PDP from regaining power in 2019.

Makarfi said the meeting was convened to chart the way forward for the party.

We call this caucus before the meeting of other organs. You are our party leaders.

Immediately judgment was delivered, I said no victor nor vanquished, and we mean it.

It does not mean taking what belong to people and giving to a few people.

On his part, Mr Ayodele Fayose, Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, urged party members and leaders to return to the home and mobilise Nigerians at the grassroots.

If this party must win, if PDP must get the confidence of Nigerians, if this party must be restored, our leaders must go back home and work, Fayose said.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, said that the Lord gave PDP the victory because He loved Nigerian.

He said that the time had come for the party to work together and deliver good governance to the country.

Time to work is now; we must go back to the drawing board. We must not disappoint Nigerians. It is time for fence-mending and reconstructing Nigeria for real change.

We all believe in the party that was why we stayed. We need everybody in this party to re-build the party, Ekweremadu said.

The Board of Trustees Chairman, Alhaji Jubril Walid, said it was time for the party to build a new Nigeria.

Walid, who was represented by Mr Aminu Wali, said this is a new PDP. It is going to have a new beginning, a new start, by the grace of God.

Present at the meeting were David Mark, Remi Bakare, Stella Omu, Godswill Akpabio, Nyesom Wike, Sule Lamido, Ahmadu Ali and also Uche Secondus.

Others were Olisa Metu, Jonah Jang, Jerry Gana, Grace Bent, Gabriel Suswam, Emmanuel Udom, Sen Ifeanyi Okowa, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Darius Ishyaku

The other persons were Jonah Jang, Tom Ikimi, Vincent Ogbulafor, Ahmadu Ali, Jim Agbaje, Solomon Ewuga, Liyel Imoke, Ibrahim Mantu, Emeka Ihedioha, Dimeji Bankole.

Meanwhile, the former Chairman of the Party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff was absent.

Source: ( PM News )
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday in Abuja advised consumers of petroleum products not to engage in panic buying following a fire that engulfed a tank farm at the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ) in Cross River on Saturday.

In a statement by NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the corporation assured that the unfortunate fire at a private tank farm had not affected its operations.

The statement also assured that the corporations stock holding was robust.

NNPC has over 40 day-sufficiency for petrol, and adequate volumes of diesel and kerosene to meet consumers demand nationwide.

Therefore it is pointless to engage in panic buying, Ughamadu said.

It said the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, had received briefs on the incident and had expressed regrets over the unfortunate loss of life in the inferno.

Dr Baru consoled the families of those who lost their loved ones in the incident.

He advised communities in areas of Oil and Gas operations to always exercise caution and be vigilant at all times.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Police officers who were accused of maltreating a suspect and even chaining him to a generator, have been nabbed.

Three policemen attached to Bariga Division in Lagos have been arrested for allegedly chaining a man to a generator, The Nation reports.

The state Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, said the cops are currently facing orderly room trial at the command headquarters in Ikeja and would get appropriate sanctions.

He said the errant cops arrested the victim on July 16.

Rather than treat him in accordance with the rules, they chained him to a power generating set at the station.

Fortunately, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), who was on a routine inspection at the station, discovered the dehumanising act and ordered the three officers arrested.

Owoseni, who frowned at unprofessional conducts by some policemen, assured the public that the directives of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on international best practices for policing, would be respected.

He said: In view of the desire by the IGP to sanitize the force, the three policemen involved in the act are being tried and adequate disciplinary actions would be taken against them at the end of the trial. The Policemen had arrested a man for committing an offence along Bariga road. They took him to the station where he was handcuffed to a generator.

The command frowns at any case of misconduct against any of its men. Policemen are advised to operate within the ambit of their guidelines. Anyone found wanting in the discharge of his duty would be made to face the wrath of the law.

People who feel their rights have been trampled on should approach the various platforms for compliant and desist from self- help.
The Ogun State Police Command on Monday has commenced the investigation into the robbery attack on two popular Yoruba film actors, Bolaji Amusan, popularly called Mr Latin and Odunlade Adekola.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, made this known to when he was giving updates on the incident exclusively reported by this newspaper.

The men were attacked by armed robbers on Saturday night when they were returning from a Glo music show in Ijebu-Ode. Their cars reportedly ran into the armed robbers who had laid siege along Ilishan-Sagamu road.

Mr. Oyeyemi said the quick response of police officers and some men of the local vigilante service saved the situation leading to the rescue of the victims.

He said the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has directed the Area Commander, Sagamu, Isa Grema, to work in conjunction with men of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, to bring the hoodlums to book within a very short possible period.

The police spokesperson added further that the commissioner has equally assured residents of the state of adequate security despite the incident.

Source: ( Premium Times )
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta, Paul Boroh, said President Muhammadu Buhari approved everything he asked him for concerning his activities in the Niger-Delta.

Mr. Boroh, who is also the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, told the News Agency of Nigeria in New York that President Buharis commitment had brought about peace in the region.

The main reason the Niger-Delta is stable today is because of the total commitment of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, in ensuring that the Niger-Delta is peaceful, stable.

This is mainly to allow for development in the region.

The president is very concerned about the region  that it has not developed the way he expected.

That is why candidly speaking, all that I ask for, he approves.

It is more so because hes very committed to ensuring development in the region.

And while he gives me the support to achieve his commitment, the stakeholders of the Presidential Amnesty Programme are also in total support of the administration.

We meet from time to time and they pledge their loyalty, they are happy with the way the programme is being conducted.

And they are ready to ensure that they support the administration and the programme until we achieve the result for which it was established.

The Presidential Amnesty Office and PANDEF- Pan Niger Delta Forum  work hand-in-hand; very satisfactory relationship.

In fact, we have some members of PANDEF that are in my office. So, we discuss from time to time ways and means of how we can impact the Niger Delta region.

The presidential aide said with the ongoing efforts of the federal government, the Niger Delta has very great future adding, generally, there will be infrastructural development to create massive job opportunities for the people in Niger Delta region.

Mr. Boroh, a retired brigadier general, said President Muhammadu Buharis administration is committed to a peaceful and developed Niger Delta region.

He said the impact of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta region has been very satisfactory and encouraging because the ex-agitators have imbibed the culture of ensuring peace.

This is to allow for growth in the region and they are happy about it because a lot of valuable entrepreneurship programmes are ongoing in the entire Niger-Delta region.

Their (ex-agitators) morale is high and they are happy.

Each time I go to discuss with the ex-agitators and the youth, they pledge their loyalty and support to the present administration.

This is so that the administration can continue the good things it is doing because of the commitment of Mr President in ensuring peace, stability and development in the region.

The Niger Delta today is stable, peaceful and expecting investors moving there and help in adding value to the region, Mr. Boroh said.

According to him, well over 5,000 ex-agitators have benefitted within the past two years in critical areas of aviation, maritime, oil and gas and agriculture.

The amnesty coordinator said agriculture was now the main focus of the programme in line with the governments economic diversification strategy.

This is to ensure that the ex-agitators imbibe the details of the new agricultural policy so that they can be professional farmers at the end of the day.

This will create massive job opportunities, ensure that theres food security in the region and the country at large and again, enhance our financial position.

Niger Delta is stable and investors are moving in to continue their business, Boroh said.

The presidential aide also explained that the programme has a terminal phase but that the ex-agitators would be empowered before the final phase.

The programme has a timeline to phase out. It has to do with ensuring that the ex-agitators that are in the programme are adequately trained and empowered so that they can leave and this is ongoing.

Source: (NAN)
A sales girl with Shoprite stores, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mariam Mufutau has been arrested and arraigned before a Lagos Magistrate Court for allegedly stealing the sum of N553,956,000 she realized from sales just one month after she was employed.

The management of Shoprite Stores had reported a case of theft to the Divisional Police Officer, DPO in charge of Ilasan Division, Lekki, Eti-Osa, SP Oyinye Onwuamaegbu and that they suspected their sales girl to have stolen their N535,956,000 she realized from sales just one month after she was employed.

Following the report, Onwuamaegbu ordered Inspector Orukotan Lonikola to arrest the accused. During investigation, the accused could not give account of the missing money. Mufutau was arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate Court, Lagos on a two count charge of felony to wit. stealing.

Police prosecutor, Esther Adesulu informed the court in charge No: J/38/2017 that the accused committed the alleged offence between 1 April and 31 May, 2017 at Shoprite Stores, Eti-Osa during working hours.

Adesulu told the court that the accused betrayed the trust reposed in her as a sales girl by her employer and stole the sum of N535,956,000 she realized from sales instead of remitting the money into her employers account, she was using her own personal POS to syphon the money. She said the management at Shoprite Stores uncovered the fraud when they audited the account.

Adesulu said the offence the accused committed were punishable under section 411 and 287 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015. The accused pleaded not guilty to the alleged crime and Magistrate O.O Owunmi granted her to bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum.

Owunmi adjourned the case till 28 July, 2017 for mention while the defendant was taken to Kirikiri Prison pending when she would be able to fulfill her bail condition.

Source: LindaIkeji
A man has been caught storming a bank completely n*ked in the wee hours of the morning and doing what has left many people dumbfounded.

A man has been caught on camera storming a bank at night in India.

The burglary which occurred at a State Bank of India branch in Pathankot has left everyone befuddled because the man came into the bank n*ked and ended up just making away with the guards shoes and some utensils. He even didnt touch the money which would normally have been the target of every thief.

The strange case of robbery occurred at the branch at Jugial, and was discovered when officials found a broad hole dug up near the rear wall of the bank.

Security footage from CCTV cameras showed a totally n*ked man entering the bank through the hole dug by him at around 2:54 am on Monday.

He spent more than an hour at the bank before escaping the same way he came, taking with him a pair of shoes, two pressure cookers, and a pan.

Regional manager Vipin Mittal, who lodged a complaint at the Shahpur Kandi police station, claimed that the CCTV footage showed the man prancing about in the bank.

Police are trying to identify the person using the footage.

It is suspected that the man could be mentally challenged.
By Bharath Vasudevan, Product Manager, HPE Software-defined and Cloud Group

Life is full of unpredictable and catastrophic events. When one occurs in the data center, it can result in property damage and data loss. With potential threats to data lurking around every corner, many businesses have disaster recovery strategies even if the strategy is something as dated as tape. For Danny Yeo, computer systems administrator at Brigham Young University (BYU) College of Life Sciences, recovering from tape-based backups that could take hours or days was no longer a possibility.

The BYU College of Life Sciences, originally the College of Biology and Agriculture, was founded in 1954 in Provo, Utah. The college has approximately 350 students and faculty, including the four full-time and 20 part-time development and engineering team members that provide IT services to the rest of the college. Yeo knew he needed to put a strong disaster recovery and backup policy in place because, in the event of a disaster, he could not risk the hours (or even days) it could take to recover from tape-based backups.

At the time, Yeos team was leveraging a traditional infrastructure that was approaching end-of-life and causing a number of issues for the team. With a small full-time team, managing the infrastructure was a time-consuming task. The system engineer, for instance, spent long evenings in the data center, patching, upgrading, or troubleshooting problems in the system or completing backups  sometimes staying well past midnight. To add to their frustrations, the BYU College of Life Sciences team could not rely on the vendors support teams for help as it usually ended with Yeo and his team being blamed for the issues.

Choosing Hyperconverged

When researching an affordable solution from a single vendor that would minimize recovery downtime and operational expenditures, Yeo was introduced to hyperconverged technology. At a VMware user conference in 2014, a leading hyperconverged vendor invited him into their booth. After watching a recovery demo and chatting with their on-site team, the BYU system administrator was blown away and decided that they had to have the product.

Danny Yeo requested a proof of concept (POC) from the vendor to show his team how they could fail over in under a minute, run a backup in mere minutes, and have the system monitor the equipment and scheduled maintenances perfectly from a single product. They were sold and by the beginning of 2015, three systems were installed and were performing as promised.

The Bake-off Battle of the Vendors

After deploying their hyperconverged solution, the BYU team was presented with a unique opportunity. A second leading hyperconverged vendor approached the team offering a POC with its product, testing its solution against their existing hyperconverged solution. If BYU determined the competitive product was superior, the vendor offered to swap out the already purchased solution at no additional charge.

With nothing to lose, the team took them up on the offer. The College of Life Sciences team decided to simulate several drive failures to see how the two industry-leading solutions would react in a recovery situation, without a replicated recovery site. Things were running smoothly until they pulled the sixth drive and the competiting solution failed and couldnt recover the data. When the competitors support team was called, Yeo was faced with that old blame game and was told he has to time such a shutdown to avoid data loss. But how can a shutdown be timed when disaster could strike at any moment, Yeo wondered?

While this was happening, BYUs existing hyperconverged solution continued to operate effectively after the sixth drive was removed without any data loss. The solution also automatically recorded and flagged each failure to the support team to prepare a method to resolve the issues. This winning solution was HPE SimpliVity.

After the bake-off, BYU felt confident in their purchase of HPE SimpliVity powered by Intel. They even purchased a fourth unit to replicate all production workloads off-site. Should disaster strike, BYU would be able to fail over and operate as usual. Yeo even invited teams from other BYU colleges to check out their solution which led to three other colleges investing in HPE SimpliVity solutions. And with a growing portfolio of tools and solutions that are compatible with HPE SimpliVity, there are more possibilities for future development and advancement for the BYU colleges and the many other HPE SimpliVity customers.

It is hard to say what the future will hold for the BYU team, but recovery failure wont be a concern. No one can predict the unpredictable, but all of us can rest a little easier by being more prepared.

Learn more about BYUs success in SiliconANGLE interview and in this Upshot blog.

And read more about hyperconvergence in this free e-book: Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Dummies.
Russian search engine creator Yandex has joined the ranks of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft by releasing its own open source machine learning library, CatBoost.

The Apache-licensed CatBoost is for open-source gradient boosting on decision trees, according to its GitHub repositorys README. It provides a way to perform classifications and rankings of data by using a collection of decision-making mechanisms, or learners, rather than a single one. Results generated by the learners are weighted and classified based on the strengths and weaknesses of each learner. By combining many learners, CatBoost can yield better results than decision-making systems that rely on individual learners.

CatBoost comes with support for Python and R, as well as a command-line interface to drive the machine learning library. The Python packages for CatBoost also include data visualization tools for plotting statistics of the training process. The resulting plots can be viewed in a Jupyter notebook or in CatBoosts own data viewer application.

Many machine learning libraries already implement some manner of gradient boosting algorithm. Pythons Scikit-learn package has one version; XGBoost is available for multiple languages and data platforms; and Microsoft has the LightGBM library as part of its Distributed Machine Learning Toolkit project.

CatBoost is meant to stand apart from those projects, according to Yandex, by being pre-tuned to perform at scale for Yandexs own services. Yandex noted that it uses CatBoost to deliver predictions for its weather services, and that CatBoost has been deployed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to refine results from the particle experiments conducted there.

Trained models created in CatBoost can be deployed in Apples Core ML format, for use in MacOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps backed by machine learning.
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.
ST. JOHNS (July 18, 2017)  The 16th annual Targa Newfoundland tarmac rally is a little over seven weeks away, and there is a considerable international contingent registered for this years event.

With the recent success of the first annual Tom Hollett Memorial Targa Bambina tarmac rally held earlier this month, which had a large number of local competitors, and held only on the lower Burin Peninsula of the island, focus has now shifted to the main Targa event.

The Targa will run in areas of the Avalon, Bonavista and Burin Peninsulas of the island, and cover over 1,500 kilometres in five days of actual competition. The international motorsports community is becoming excited and the number of competitors from all over the world attending the Targa is proof of that.

Competitors from Canada include those from Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta; Americans from California, Texas, New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Internationally, competitors are from the Turks & Caicos Islands of the Caribbean, with European entries from Switzerland, Monaco, and the United Kingdom. Targa has never had competitors from either Switzerland or Monaco, so the overall list of countries which have taken part in Targa during its history is closing in on 15.

The increase in the international competitors for this years event is quite exciting, stated Targa President Robert Giannou. Pulling competitors from rally hungry counties such as Switzerland and Monaco is quite a step forward for Targa Newfoundland. We have our unique motorsports adventure here that is not available in those countries, and Im glad these competitors have decided to make the trip over for it.

Owned and operated by Newfoundland International Motorsports Limited, Targa Newfoundland is one of three internationally recognized Targa motorsports events in the world. The 2017 competition will start in St. Johns on September 10th and concludes back in the capital on September 15th. The annual rally will cover more than 1,500 kilometres of the challenging, twisty roads of the central and eastern portion of Newfoundland, including over 430 kilometers of closed-road, flat-out Targa stages.

Contact:

Media: Robert Giannou 709-722-2413 rgiannou@targanewfoundland.com

Competitors: Darren Sheppard 1-877-332-2413 registrar@targanewfoundland.com

Websites: http://targanfld.com/  www.facebook.com/targanl  www.twitter.com/targanl  www.instagram.com/targa_nl
For years, Internet companies in China have had a reputation for copying their peers. Now some are blazing trails that their Western peers may have to follow, investors in the region say.

Chinese Internet companies have long had a reputation for merely replicating technologies invented by their Western peers. But that may be changing.

Leading investors who specialize in financial technologies and are taking stakes in new technology startups in the country say China is no longer an innovation laggard and in fact is taking a commanding lead in specific areas.

Many American investors are quickly realizing that the leading Chinese technology companies are no longer just simplified replicas of their American counterparts, says Jason Jones, co-founder of the New Yorkbased LendIt Conference, a leading event organizer that specializes in putting on investor gatherings for the financial technology industry. Rather, the leading Chinese technology companies have made major advances, especially in mobile technology and artificial intelligence, and are leaders in global innovation in those fields. The world has a lot to learn from the sophisticated technology coming out of China right now.

Take online payments. Two Chinese Internet giants, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, already hold strong leads over their U.S. counterparts in this area. Alipay, for instance, is Alibabas online escrow payment system that now counts more than 630 million users globally, of which 450 million are in China. Tencents messaging app, WeChat, boasts 900 million users, and its WeChat Pay service has about 600 million active users. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay allow their users to make transactions all over the world using their mobile phones, notes Jones, adding that at present not a single U.S. rival can offer a similar global product.

Were seeing an increasing trend of Chinese core technology companies exporting all over the world, says Yinglan Tan, the Singapore-based founding managing partner of Insignia Venture Partners and a former Asia venture partner with Sequoia Capital.

Tan, who also is the author of Chinnovation: How Chinese Innovators Are Changing the World, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011, notes that about a decade ago, a vast number of Chinese factories copied Western technology, producing low-cost knockoffs. Many of those companies have graduated, moving on to produce highly innovative technologies of their own, he says. One example is Xiaomi, a privately held mobile telecom equipment manufacturer based in Beijing that is now outselling Apple in many emerging markets. Its Mi smartphones are the third most popular, behind Apple and Samsung, according to research firm IDC.

Many Americans may not have heard of Mi, but Tan notes that the mobile handset brand is No. 1 across emerging markets, where many consumers find Apple iPhones and Samsung handsets prohibitively expensive and technologically not that much better than Mi handsets.

Another example of a leading-edge Chinese company is Da-Jiang Innovations Science and Technology Co., or DJI, the worlds leading manufacturer of recreational and industrial drones, says Tan. Were seeing many companies born in China but growing worldwide with leading-edge technology of their own that they developed, says Tan, who adds that many investors on Wall Street still mistakenly hold on to old stereotypes about Chinese enterprises without realizing that many long ago graduated from the copycat phase.

Calvin Choi, chair and president of Hong Kongbased financial conglomerate AMTD Group, says many investors on Wall Street  especially bearish hedge fund managers  tend to have outdated views on China.

In the U.S. market right now, especially in the hedge fund world, there is still so much misunderstanding about China, says Choi, who recently co-hosted the second annual AMTD-LendIt Global Fintech Investment Summit with LendIts Jones. So when they look at China, they see only the old China, dominated by old state-owned enterprises, and not the new, emerging China that is dominated by private enterprises and technology entrepreneurs.

Many on Wall Street also fail to recognize that Asia  especially major markets like Japan and China  has surpassed the U.S. in terms of infrastructure buildout, Choi adds. The U.S., in particular, is still highly reliant on infrastructure developed early last century. Meanwhile, Hong Kong authorities are working with their mainland counterparts to build high-speed railways linking to 11 major cities in South China to form a region called the Greater Bay Area, which is in the process of establishing a dozen incubation and development zones that will foster high-tech enterprises with the aim of competing against counterparts in the Tokyo Bay and San Francisco Bay areas.

The regions energy is palpable, according to music industry entrepreneur Dana Leong, an electro-jazz cellist, composer, and two-time Grammy Award winner who until recently was based year-round in New York. Leong says he decided a year ago to divide his time between New York and Shanghai in part because he wanted to tap into the energy driving Asias renewal.

China spent the past few decades building hardware, he says. Now it is building content, software. Its quite exciting, and thats why I decided to open a creative space in Shanghai. I wanted to become a part of the process.

A number of high-profile Chinese financial technology companies are in the final stages of preparing for initial public offerings this year or next year, according to Choi and others. Chief among them are peer-to-peer lender Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange Co. (Lufax), which has an estimated market value of $18.5 billion; and Alibabas Ant Financial Services Group, which has an estimated market value of $60 billion.
One Canadian hedge fund has made big gains on distressed companies, but says its still too soon to go shopping for bargains in retail. REITs, however, are another story.

Canada is not exactly known for producing standout hedge funds. But one distressed hedge fund may be among the exceptions to that.

Run by a team based out of Vancouver and headed up by Hanif Mamdani, RBC Global Asset Managements PH&N Absolute Return Fund returned 33.6 percent in 2016, a year when the average hedge fund was up 5.44 percent, according to data tracker Hedge Fund Researchs HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index. This year the distressed opportunity fund, which manages C$1.6 billion ($1.27 billion), was up 16.9 percent through the end of June. The fund had a ten-year annualized return of 13.3 percent through June.

With returns like that, its worth noting what opportunities Mamdani and his team are eyeing. Mamdani says the current environment for distressed investors is not as rich as last years, but a handful of sectors are offering some interesting prospects.

Last year one of the most profitable places of the market for PH&N was in energy companies. The fall in oil prices had a significant impact on many energy firms, causing bonds to plummet. PH&N swooped in and bought up the debt, often working with the companies themselves to restructure their balance sheets and provide an exit for the hedge fund investor.

This year opportunities have been harder to come by. One area that is getting particularly beat up right now is retail, especially companies that either lack a significant online presence or have a larger number of outlets in shopping malls or elsewhere. A number of distressed fund managers have said they have their eyes on the sector. But, speaking in late June, Mamdani echoed their sentiments that it is still too soon for distressed investors to find opportunities there.

That to me is a much more difficult and complicated trade, says Mamdani of retail. The reason the bonds are where they are is to do with structural changes to how people shop and the impact of lease obligations on the balance sheet.

As investor sentiment toward retail has turned almost universally negative, however, it may soon be time to dive in, he says. Many businesses have a large retail footprint that they no longer need, but still have significant outstanding lease obligations.

That said, Mamdani does not think all of retail is dead. Many of these companies, he says, can and should survive. For clothing retailer J. Crew Group, which is struggling with a heavy debt load and a large brick-and-mortar footprint, there will be some painful restructuring, but J. Crew 2.0 could be a very viable business.

As for supermarkets, online retailer Amazon.coms proposed acquisition of the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods has further rocked the market. After the announcement of the deal last month, Mamdani says, equity and bonds of supermarkets on both sides of the Atlantic have just been crushed.

Just like with apparel, the supermarket business is having to adapt to the new, more digital, world order. There are going to be a few companies that adapt to the new paradigm, says Mamdani. But a lot of marginal supermarkets probably will fall by the wayside.

One area Mamdani says is interesting: real estate investment trusts. REITs used to trade more or less as a block, he says. Now, however, there is much more dispersion in that sector as the actual form of the underlying real estate is starting to matter to investors.

Mamdani says that for now his best strategy is simply patience. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to bide our time yet still make an acceptable return while we wait, he says. That means looking for short-term event-driven plays, or high-coupon bonds soon to be called in low credit-risk sectors.

Before joining RBC Global Asset Management in 1998, Mamdani spent a decade in New York, where he worked on the convertible arbitrage desks at Credit Suisse and Salomon Brothers. As for being based in Canada, he says there are advantages to being far from the hedge fund and banking epicenters of New York, Connecticut, London, and even Toronto. The distance helps him and his team be more independent in their thinking, he says  as they wait for the distressed bargain basement sales to begin.
A global cyber attack could be more damaging than some of Australias largest natural disaster losses, a new Lloyds report suggests.In their latest emerging risk report, the international insurance market said that a major global attack has the potential to trigger up to US$53bn in economic losses. This is the equivalent of more than five times the economic losses of the Queensland floods of 2011  one of the most damaging natural disaster losses ever recorded ($14.1bn).The new report, compiled by Lloyds and cyber security firm Cycence, outlines two major scenarios that could see losses sky-rocket. The first is a malicious attack that takes down a cloud service provider with estimated losses of up to US$53bn.The second attacks computer operating systems run by a large number of businesses around the world which could cause losses of US$28.7bn.The report also found that whilst the uptake of cyber insurance is growing, the majority of losses in each scenario would not be insured as the insurance gap runs to tens of billions of dollars.Businesses today are interconnected by digital technology and services, meaning a single cyber event can cause a severe impact across an economy, triggering multiple claims and dramatically increasing insurers claims costs, Chris Mackinnon , Lloyds general representative in Australia said.In comparison to natural disasters, potential cyber losses are astronomical.The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria cost an estimated $7bn, the Newcastle earthquake of 1989 cost $18.7bn and losses from the recent Cyclone Debbie are estimated to be approaching $1bn, according to the ICA.With 23,700 reports of cyber crime registered with the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) in the last six months alone, there has never been a more important time to protect a business online.Where a decade ago people would talk about preventing a cyber-attack, the reality today is that any business with proprietary information worth protecting is vulnerable to attack. The issue is how you mitigate against that risk, Mackinnon said.These scenarios are designed to help both businesses and insurers gain a better understanding of their cyber risk exposures and better manage these complex and rising risks.
A pair of winners has been announced for the Suncorp police scholarship.The award will see detective inspector Peter Brewer and acting detective sergeant Dale Caulfield receive a $20,000 grant to research best-practice techniques to investigate and prosecute financial crime and fraud more effectively and efficiently.Currently, the damage caused by insurance fraud and financial crime is pegged at $6bn annually in Australia and research conducted by the pair of detectives is designed to counter a rising problem.Financial crime, cyber fraud and identity theft have a wide-reaching impact on the community. Anyone of us can be targeted by fraudsters and forced into financial distress, Suncorp chief risk officer, Fiona Thompson, said.The research that Inspector Brewer and Acting Sergeant Caulfield will undertake promises to make a huge difference to the way we counter major financial fraud in Queensland.The pair of winners will also travel on a study tour to the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office in Auckland, the Los Angeles Security Exchange and the Serious Fraud Office in London as part of the scholarship.Queensland Police commissioner, Ian Stewart, who presented the award alongside Thompson, said that the work of Brewer and Caulfield will provide an opportunity to understand financial crime and insurance fraud and give momentum to new investigative approaches and disruption strategies.Now in its fourth year, the scholarship provides the Queensland Police Service with opportunities to undertake professional development with a focus on crime prevention, road safety or disaster management preparedness, response and recovery.
ELKO  A fire that started around 1:30 p.m. Monday in Kittridge Canyon expanded to about 1,000 acres in two hours, threatening homes in the Osino area and burning across Interstate 80 and East Idaho Street.

An evacuation center was set up at the old Elko High School gym for residents along White Rock Road and from Osino, as the blaze was driven eastward by the wind.

The Oil Well Fire forced the closure of I-80 in both directions.

There were unconfirmed reports of structures being damaged. Police asked residents to stay away from the area to avoid congestion.

One Very Large Air Tanker was ordered to aid other aircraft fighting the blaze.

For questions or concerns, contact the Elko County Sheriff's Office at 738-3421 or Elko Central Dispatch at 777-7300.
Opinion

Brokers need to be more vigilant than ever about the insurance cover they source for clients, writes Clinton Hall of Solution Underwriting Agency
Ridge Canada

Ridge Canada Cyber Solutions Inc., a leading cyber insurance provider in Canada, is proud to welcome James Bennett as the newest member of the firm. James joins the underwriting team as a Senior Vice President, Management Liability and is the first member of the Ridge Canada team in the Management Liability arena
The insurance commissioner of California is demanding answers from an airline after passengers on board a flight nearly crashed into another plane two weeks ago  a flight that the commissioner himself was on.



Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is requesting that Air Canada explain to all passengers on board that fateful July 07 flight what went wrong as the plane descended on San Francisco International Airport (SFO).



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On that day, the pilot in charge of Air Canada flight 759 was cleared to land just before midnight at SFO. During the landing procedure, the plan almost landed on a taxiway parallel to the runway, where four planes were ready for takeoff. According to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot had descended to less than 100 feet above ground and flew the plane dangerously close over the first aircraft ready for takeoff, before pulling up to safety.



Following the incident, Jones took to Twitter to express his thoughts.



Close call! he posted online. We almost landed on four other planes.



Jones later sent a letter to Air Canada, calling on the airline company to tell passengers what had happened.



As the plane was close to landing, it suddenly went into a steep climb and we heard the sound of the planes jet engines increase significantly. The plane climbed over the airport and swung around to make another approach, Jones said in a letter sent July 14.



Passengers were not told that the plane had almost landed on a taxiway on which there were four other planes fully loaded with passengers and fuel. Instead, the pilot made a nonchalant announcement that he had to go around due to traffic at the airport.



The commissioner urged safety regulators to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and that the airline company involved cooperate with the enquiry. He also asked Air Canada to inform all of the passengers of the flight as to the results of its and aviation regulators investigations, and of the steps taken to prevent such a disaster in the future.





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British Airways outage: The reason revealed
Kaplansky Insurance, a Needham, Mass.-based insurance agency, has appointed David Wolberg as vice president of mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Wolberg brings with him experience from the sell-side of mergers and acquisitions. He is licensed to practice law in both Massachusetts and New York, and he seeks to utilize his legal training to apply an analytical approach to the business arena.

This is a very exciting time for M&A in the insurance industry, said Wolberg in a press release issued by Kaplansky Insurance. Private equity fueled consolidation has trickled down to even the smallest independently owned agencies.

Wolbergs appointment will enable the agency to provide continuous focus on M&A and to maintain its strategy of growth through selective acquisitions, Kaplansky Insurance President and CEO Ely Kaplansky said in the release.

Source: Kaplansky Insurance

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Massachusetts
Fire investigators are trying to find the cause of a blaze that has destroyed a popular restaurant in New Yorks Finger Lakes region.

Fire officials in the city of Canandaigua say crews were alerted around 5:30 a.m. Thursday to a blaze at Nolans on Canandaigua Lake. Dozens of firefighters from Ontario and neighboring Yates county battled the blaze for four hours before getting it under control.

No injuries were reported.

The one-story building near Canandaigua Lakes northern end was destroyed. The upscale eatery moved to the location in 2014.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York
A severe storm that swept through central Alberta during the third week of June has resulted in more than C$30 million (US$23.7 million) in insured damage, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), which quoted a report from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ)*.

On June 20, a low-pressure system caused severe thunderstorms in parts of central Alberta, including Red Deer, Innisfail and Pine Lake. The storms produced hail and winds of over 100 km/hr (62 mph).

Strong winds were the primary cause of property damage, with trees brought down on buildings and cars and roof shingles being torn off, causing flying debris, said the IBC. In addition, thousands of properties in Red Deer were left without power.

Severe storms have been happening more often and with greater intensity across Alberta, said Bill Adams, vice president, Western, IBC.

* Toronto-based CatIQ delivers analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and man-made catastrophes.

Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC)

Topics USA Profit Loss Windstorm Canada
Specialist insurer Beazley has received authorization from the Central Bank of Ireland to convert its established Dublin-based reinsurance company into an insurance company permitted to transact business throughout the European Union.

Beazley explained that its strategy to write EU non-life insurance was developed during 2015 and early in 2016  predating the UKs decision to exit the European Union in June 2016.

In 2009, Beazley formed its Dublin-based reinsurance company, Beazley Reinsurance Designated Activity Company (dac), to handle internal reinsurance transactions.

Now renamed Beazley Insurance dac, the company will provide access to European insurance markets alongside that provided by Lloyds, which in March announced plans to establish a new Brussels-based insurance company. Beazley said Lloyds Brussels unit will be ready to write European business in time for the Jan. 1, 2019 renewal season. (The UKs planned date for Brexit is March 2019.)

Continental Europe currently accounts for just over 5 percent of Beazleys total business, and the region is a focus for growth in the years ahead, said Beazley in a statement.

Beazleys specialty lines division, a team headed by Gerard Bloom, has been developing a suite of products for European markets, which reflect the companys specialties in professional indemnity, management liability, financial institutions and cyber risks.

In the coming months, Beazley Insurance said it also will be establishing branch offices in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

Beazley Chief Executive Officer Andrew Horton welcomed the authorization of Beazley Insurance. This is an important step in the realisation of our European strategy. Dublin is an excellent base for our European insurance company, with a highly regarded regulatory system and local access to talented individuals who are well versed in the operating needs of a modern insurer.

Source: Beazley

Topics Carriers Europe Reinsurance
A former volunteer firefighter in Indiana was sentenced to at least two decades in prison after he was convicted of arson.

Adam Selbee, 20, was sentenced after pleading guilty in May to four counts of arson.

The Bloomington Herald-Times reports Selbee will spend 20 years in prison and 12 years on probation.

He was arrested following a spate of fires between July and October 2016 in the Springville area, south of Bloomington.

Selbee allegedly set fire to homes, a gymnasium and hay bales. He was also accused of placing objects in roadways, which caused accidents.

Selbee was a volunteer firefighter with the Perry Township Volunteer Fire Department at the time.

Police say Selbee admitted to starting the fires and placing objects in roadways because he enjoyed responding to emergency calls

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Indiana
The driver of a Tesla vehicle involved in a crash in Minnesota on July 16 has denied that its Autopilot system caused the incident, according to an email released by the automaker on Monday.

The Kandiyohi County Sheriffs Department said in a statement on Sunday that the driver of the 2016 Tesla had said that when he engaged the Autopilot system it caused the vehicle to suddenly accelerate and then roll over, resulting in minor injuries to himself and four passengers.

But the driver said in the email released by Tesla Inc. on Monday he believed he had disengaged the Autopilot system at the time of the crash. Tesla shares fell in trading on Monday after the crash was reported.

The driver, David Clark, 58, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

I did not intend to put the blame Tesla or the auto pilot system as I am aware that I need to be in control of the vehicle regardless if the auto pilot system is engaged or not, Clark said in an email to the sheriffs department released by Tesla.

The sheriffs department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla shares, which fell as low as $313.45 on Monday, rebounded later and were down 2.8 percent at $318.69 in afternoon trading.

Autopilot has faced intense scrutiny in the past from U.S. regulators.

Tesla said in a statement it had no reason to believe that Autopilot  worked other than as designed.

Every time a driver engages Autopilot, they are reminded of their responsibility to remain engaged and to be prepared to take immediate action at all times, and drivers must acknowledge their responsibility to do so before Autopilot is enabled, the automaker added.

Joshua Brown, a former Navy SEAL, was killed near Williston, Florida, in May 2016 when his Model S collided with a truck while it was engaged in Autopilot mode.

The incident raised questions about the safety of systems that can perform driving tasks for long stretches with little or no human intervention, but which cannot completely replace human driver.

In January, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had found no evidence of defects with Autopilot following Browns death.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Brown)

Topics Auto Personal Auto Tesla Minnesota
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abandoned efforts to pass a broad Republican-only replacement of Obamacare, saying late Monday he will instead seek a vote on a simple repeal  delayed by two years to give lawmakers time to seek a replacement.

A repeal without a replacement is almost certain to get blocked in the Senate as well. The inability to deliver on seven years of GOP promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would be the biggest failure yet for President Donald Trump and Republicans since they won control of Congress and the White House.

McConnells move came after two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the Republican leaders plan, which he drafted largely in secret. The defections by Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, in addition to previous opposition by GOP Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, were enough to sink the measure.

Lee and Moran said in statements they wouldnt support McConnells bill because it doesnt go far enough to address the rising cost of health care.

McConnells move came after two more senators announced their opposition to the Republican bill.

We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy, Moran of Kansas said in a statement on Twitter. He criticized the way the health-care bill was written through a closed-door process and said the Senate must start fresh with open hearings and debate.

Lee of Utah said the latest version didnt repeal Obamacare taxes and regulations or lower premiums.

Republicans are expected to discuss how to pick up the pieces on Tuesday, when they gather for their regular policy lunch, which is often attended by Vice President Mike Pence. Several senators have made clear that they want GOP leaders to pursue an alternative that would require working with Democrats.

The defections of Moran and Lee, two Tea Party-backed senators, is a stunning blow to McConnell and Trump, who campaigned on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which he called a disaster.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! Trump wrote on Twitter. Pence echoed Trump, tweeting, Repeal now and replace later. Inaction is not an option.

That wont be easy. While Congress last year passed a repeal bill, they did so knowing it would be vetoed by President Barack Obama. This year, now that it could become law, such a proposal has drawn little support among Republican senators, with the exception of those in its most conservative wing.

Such a defeat may be part of a plan by a Republican leadership team that has expressed a desire to begin moving on to other matters, including an overhaul of the tax code, a boost in the nations debt ceiling and next years spending bills.

No Clear Path

On the health bill, McConnell was left facing an increasingly narrow path, with no apparent way to win over conservative and moderate holdouts seeking to pull the bill in opposite directions.

A sizable group of Republicans from Medicaid expansion states had yet to commit to the bill either, and Lees push for a broader repeal of Obamacares insurance regulations risked pushing away the votes of senators like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who have been among the most vocal in pushing to continue providing protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

A straight repeal bill could look even worse for them. The Congressional Budget Office in January said repealing the Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies while keeping other Obamacare regulations intact would cause many insurance markets to implode. That would result in an additional 32 million uninsured and premiums roughly doubling, with 75 percent of the country lacking insurers entirely in the individual market entirely in a decade.

Democrats immediately blasted the idea. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut called it a humanitarian disaster of incomprehensible scale. Writing on Twitter, he said, Full repeal with no replacement will cause markets to fail. No insurer will stay in an exchange that is disappearing in 24 months.

Other GOP senators have been talking about a new approach to health legislation, with Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeting again Monday about his latest proposal with Cassidy to keep most of the Affordable Care Acts taxes in place but give states far more freedom on what to do with the money.

McConnells plan already was teetering on the brink after Senator John McCains unexpected surgery late Friday left him one short of the votes needed to start debate this week. The majority leader had said the bill wouldnt be considered until McCain returned. Republicans control the Senate 52-48.

McCain, in Arizona to recover from the operation, issued a statement saying the GOP shouldnt repeat Democrats strategy of passing Obamacare without any votes from the other party.

Congress must hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nations governors to pass a health-care plan, McCain said.

House conservatives Monday immediately renewed calls for both chambers to enact a straight repeal of Obamacare, and leave the replacement debate for later.

Full Repeal Bill

Expect growing calls from conservatives for Congress to take up full repeal bill that passed under Obama, Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for the conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on Twitter.

Lees and Morans statements came shortly after Trump met privately to discuss strategy with a small group of Republican senators, including other members of McConnells leadership team. Trump said in a July 12 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Networks Pat Robertson that if the measure didnt pass the Senate, It would very bad. I will be very angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset.

McConnell spoke of the potential of moving to a scaled-back, bipartisan version of health legislation last month when an earlier version of his GOP-only bill collapsed because it lacked enough support.

He told a Rotary Club in Glasgow, Kentucky, that if Republicans cant agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Legislation Leadership Politics
The global recall of Takata Corp.s defective air bags widened last week and the number of confirmed deaths rose, but legal experts said the bigger worry for car companies caught in the fallout is playing out in a Delaware bankruptcy courtroom.

Earlier this month, people injured by the air bags, which degrade over time and can inflate with excessive force, were appointed to their own official committee in the Japanese companys U.S. bankruptcy, giving them a powerful voice in the proceedings.

This unusual committee, which includes people whose cars lost value due to the recall, will be pitted against Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., and other automakers.

The car companies have been trying to use the bankruptcy to limit their liability for installing the faulty air bags, said Kevin Dean, a Motley Rice attorney who represents injured drivers on the committee.

Because the committee has official status, Takata must provide it with funds which can be used to investigate the automakers liability or to challenge financial assumptions. Without a committee, plaintiffs lawyers would typically have to pay for that themselves.

If I were a plaintiffs lawyer, this would be a golden goose for me, said John Pottow, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, of the appointment of the special committee.

Takata, Honda, Toyota and General Motors Co. declined to comment. Other carmakers did not return requests for comment.

Bankruptcies typically only have one official creditors committee. In the Takata case, the committee of injured drivers will sit alongside another made up of suppliers and vendors, who are likely more interested in the future of the business than compensation disputes, according to bankruptcy attorneys who are not involved in the case.

Both committees were appointed by the U.S. Trustees Office, the arm of the U.S. Department of Justice that acts as a bankruptcy watchdog.

Seventeen fatalities, including one confirmed last week, and at least 180 injuries have been tied to Takatas air bags since at least 2009.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration widened a global recall of the airbags, which regulators expect to ultimately cover 69 million cars and 125 million inflators. Most defective air bags have not been replaced.

In January, Takata entered a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, setting aside $125 million to compensate consumers and $850 million in restitution for automakers.

COMPENSATION FUND

Facing up to $50 billion in liability, Takata filed for bankruptcy in June in Japan and the United States with a plan to sell its non-air bag operations for $1.6 billion to Key Safety Systems, which is owned by Chinas Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp . Its air bag business would continue to make replacements for the 125 million recalled inflators.

Takata said in its Chapter 11 filings that it will create a fund to compensate future injuries stemming from the air bags.

Companies that wind up bankrupt due to faulty products often set up such funds, and gather contributions from insurers and other potentially liable parties, who in return get shielded from ongoing litigation.

Similar funds were set up in and the 1985 bankruptcy of A.H. Robins Co, which sold Dalkon Shield contraceptive devices and the 1995 bankruptcy of Dow Corning, the maker of silicone breast implants.

A $161 million fund in the 2012 bankruptcy of Blitz U.S.A. Inc, which made red plastic gas containers, included $23 million from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In return, the retailer was protected from lawsuits that alleged it knowingly sold defective gas cans.

Automakers would likely demand similar legal protections in return for contributing to a Takata fund, and the committee will likely hire experts to challenge those proposals, bankruptcy experts said.

The committees lawyers will probably also want to investigate what car companies knew about the air bags to help determine their liability and their contributions, the experts said.

If I were an injured person, I wouldnt want Takata or the carmakers to decide on the size of the fund, said Steven Todd Brown, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law who specializes in compensation funds.

Some experts said they expected the parties to avoid protracted legal battles which have marred other product liability bankruptcies like those involving asbestos.

Pottow, at the University of Michigan Law School, cautioned that may not be so simple.

Were in pretty novel terrain here, given the amount of parties and the recall involved.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Tina Bellon in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker)

Topics USA Claims
South Carolina is one of the Southeasts most dangerous states for motorcyclists, but bikers put the blame on a range of problems from bad roads, inattentive motorists and inexperienced riders.

The Post and Courier reports the states 2015 fatality rate was its highest since 2007, and the 135 motorcyclists who died on South Carolina roads last year were the most this century.

Among nine Southeast states, South Carolinas average annual fatality rate from 2011 to 2015  10 deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles  was second only to Mississippi, which has the least number of registered motorcycles in the region, according to state statistics.

But motorcyclists disagree on requiring helmets, which motorcyclists are required to wear only if theyre 20 and younger. Nearly three-quarters of motorcyclists who died on South Carolina roads in the past decade were not wearing a helmet.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia require all motorcyclists to wear helmets. Studies have shown fatality rates in those states to be 20 to 40 percent lower than other states.

Topics Auto Mississippi South Carolina
A wildfire burning in central California tripled in size Monday, forcing more people from their homes as firefighters battle the day-old blaze.

The fire is burning near Lake McClure, a reservoir about 50 miles east of Modesto. It has scorched 17 square miles since it broke out Sunday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Officials have ordered evacuations for an unknown number of homes. The fire has destroyed one home and damaged another.

No one has been reported injured.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

In Northern California, a 900-acre wildfire in Mendocino County has also triggered an evacuation of homes. That fire is 25 percent contained.

To the south, crews are struggling to surround a 28-square-mile fire burning for more than a week in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. It is 49 percent contained after destroying 16 homes.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who was a passenger last week on the Air Canada flight 759 that nearly landed on a taxiway at San Francisco International Airport, has sent a letter to the airline and three aviation and transportation regulators seeking answers.

The pilot nearly landed on a taxiway where four other planes were sitting instead of a designated runway. Jones was on the flight from Toronto returning from a conference of insurance regulators. He described the experience to reporters after the incident and complained at the time that passengers werent being given information on what happened.

I write to request that Air Canada conduct a thorough and complete investigation of this incident, and that Air Canada cooperate with the relevant United States and Canadian aviation regulators, and that Air Canada inform all of the passengers from the flight as to the results of its and aviation regulators investigations and of the steps taken to prevent such a near disaster in the future, Jones letter states. As a passenger of Air Canada 759 I believe we have a right to know what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to make sure that no plane and its passengers are placed at such risk of loss again.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman would not comment on how close the flight came to disaster, citing the agencys ongoing investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board also will review what happened.

Topics California Aviation Canada
On June 20 2017, Mexican tax authorities published the final version of the protocol modifying the DTA entered into by Mexico and Spain. In addition, on the same date, the executive decree approving the new DTA between Mexico and Argentina was published.

Having signed more than 60 DTAs throughout the past 15-plus years, Mexico is the jurisdiction with the largest DTA network amongst Latin American economies. As a learned member of the OECD, Mexicos constant effort to expand its network progresses alongside the introduction of measures developed around the BEPS initiative, and the instruments discussed below serve as an example thereof.

One of the oldest Mexican DTAs adapted from the OECD Model Convention is the Mexico-Spain DTA enforced back in 1995. Alongside DTAs such as the Netherlands or Luxemburg, it has been widely used by multinationals investing into Mexico due to Spains socioeconomic and political reliability. Most importantly, however, it has been used for its investor-friendly provisions when it comes to the taxation at source of dividends and capital gains, further enhanced by the publication of this new protocol that, although uncertain, is expected to enter into force early next year.

On the other hand, Mexico currently holds an enforceable DTA with Argentina, an important commercial partner (4th most important in Latin America), but which merely covers the taxation of income derived from the commercial exploitation of internationally operated ships and aircrafts. After 20 years since its publication and enforcement, the DTA has been integrally renegotiated to cope with measures included in most of Mexicos modern OECD based DTAs, and although uncertain, it is also expected to enter into force early next year.

Mexico-Spain protocol

The BEPS based provisions are notable starting from the DTAs preamble, where the contracting states establish that the intention of the DTA is to avoid double taxation without creating opportunities for non-taxation or reduced taxation through tax evasion or avoidance, and goes further with the inclusion of a principal purpose test to limit the applicability of the DTA. These provisions are expected to be included in most DTAs covered by the OECDs Multilateral Instrument (ML) to which Mexico is part of.

A new and attractive dividend withholding tax exemption was introduced for payments made to companies that directly hold at least 10% of equity participation on the paying entity. Formerly, the maximum withholding tax reduction for dividends was 5% and the equity participation threshold was set at 25%.

A couple of positive amendments on the taxation of interest are:

The default rule applicable to interest payments that was different from those paid to banks or financial institutions was formerly set at 15% and is now limited to 10%; and

There will be no withholding tax levied for pension funds receiving, as beneficial owners, interest payments.

On the capital gains side, a few amendments were aimed at redrafting the sale of shares provision in order to avoid room for abusive interpretations. In addition, a maximum capital gains tax rate was limited to 10% at source, but most importantly, a significant benefit comes from the newly introduced exemption from taxation at source applicable to financial institutions, insurance companies, pension funds and companies selling shares through a recognised stock exchange. A restructuring provision was also included that provides companies with a tax deferral benefit when certain requirements are met.

Lastly, it is reasonable to assume that as a consequence of the energy reform that has allowed and attracted an important array of investors to carry out hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities in Mexico, a sector specific article was introduced to delimit narrower permanent establishment (PE) thresholds. Similar to domestic provisions introduced for the sector, the provision contemplates the possibility of companies triggering a PE within 30 days of carrying these type of activities in the other country in any 12-month period.

Mexico-Argentina DTA

From the introduction of the anti-treaty shopping preamble discussed above to specific PE provisions aimed at preventing its artificial avoidance, the DTA is clearly intended to circumvent BEPS amongst both countries economies. However, from an investors perspective, this will be far from being a go-to DTA.

From a Mexican tax perspective, the DTA will not represent a great deal of benefits with regards to the repatriation of capital through dividend payments; it includes a withholding tax limitation of 10% at source (already provided for through Mexican domestic provisions) and does not incorporate any other limitations.

This is the same with regards to interest payments under which a default 12% withholding tax limitation is applicable at source. Although there are exemptions at source, those are only granted for interest paid to or by political subdivisions and other state-owned dependencies.

With regards to the taxation of capital gains, there is a possibility to reduce source taxation to 10% on the gain when holding a direct equity participation of at least 25% in the entity being transferred, with the default rule of 15% in all other cases. However, this is only to the extent that the transferred shares do not stem their value from immovable property located in Mexico.

Unlike most Mexican DTAs, a limitation of benefits clause was included. This provision intends to narrow the eligibility for applying the DTA by imposing the application of certain substance tests that must be met before applying any treaty benefits. Similar to the Spanish protocol, the DTA includes a hydrocarbons PE provision and does not provide taxpayers with any significant benefits with regards to the payment of royalties.

Therefore, multinationals conducting business activities in Mexico should determine, based on the facts and circumstances applicable to each particular case, whether these newly introduced instruments could represent direct economic benefits if proper action is taken or if their investment structures should be reviewed in order to assess and avoid any adverse tax impacts.

Juan Jose Paullada Eguirao (jpaullada@ritch.com.mx)

Jessica Trejo Solther (jtrejo@ritch.com.mx)

Ritch, Mueller, Heather y Nicolau, S.C.

www.ritch.com.mx
By Ann O'Loughlin

The Minister for Health must urgently devise an administrative solution to a serious problem confronting the commission investigating the treatment of the intellectually disabled woman known as Grace, Commission lawyers have told the High Court.

The problem is, due to a lacuna in the relevant law, Grace cannot recover her legal costs of representation and of her involvement in the commission despite her being at the centre of it.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, has directed a hearing on Thursday aimed at ensuring the problem is resolved. There was no way to cut this Gordian knot except to make the Minister a party to a formal application, he said.

The Commission was set up to carry out a function but, due to a lacuna in the law, that will be frustrated, he said. As an amendment to the law was unlikely to happen soon, an administrative solution would have to be fashioned.

The judge was told by Raymond Comyn SC, for the Commission, correspondence received today from the Department of Health about the matter has given great comfort to the Commission and hopefully would address the concerns.

The judge, who last April approved a 6.3m HSE-funded settlement package for Grace to ensure lifelong care for her, said he had asked the Commission to ask its appointing minister, the Minister for Health, to clarify the matter as his anxiety was Graces funds will be used only to provide for her needs.

He also noted, when approving the package, he had also expressed the view a range of matters concerning her treatment required to be investigated. He had described the treatment of the "literally voiceless" Grace, who was entrusted to HSE care as a young child until aged in her early thirties, as not just shocking, but a scandal, particularly as it continued into the 21st century, and involved "abdication" of responsibility by the relevant health board and State agencies.

Grace was placed with a foster family in the south east in 1989. Despite a 1996 health board decision she and other children be removed from them following an allegation a child was sexually abused, evidence of physical abuse and neglect of Grace, as well as suggestions of sexual abuse, she, the most vulnerable child, was left there for another 13 years till 2009, the judge noted.

Because Grace is a ward of court, her case was before the judge arising from issues raised by Sara Moorhead SC, for the general solicitor of wards of court, concerning her representation before the Commission, and by the Commission itself.

Mr Comyn said the Commission considers the only practical way of speedily addressing the issue of recovery of Graces legal costs is for the Minister to fashion an administrative solution to it.

Ms Moorhead said the Commission had identified a lacuna in the relevant legislation  the Commission of Inquiry Act 2004  which meant costs of work done on behalf of Grace and her representation before the Commission were not recoverable for reasons including she is not a person whose good name or reputation will be affected.

Ms Moorhead said the general solicitor is very concerned about this as the wards of court office, which has unique knowledge concerning Grace, had heard nothing about its costs being covered or about costs of Graces representation.

Mr Comyn said the Commission concurred completely with what the judge had said about use of Graces funds but thought the letter received today from the Minister would satisfy the courts concerns. The Commission believes the Minster should be involved in the proceedings and outline his submissions as to how the matter can be resolved and it wanted the issue addressed this week, counsel added.

The judge said, unless the problem is solved, the work of the commission will be brought to a halt and that was of concern because of his view several matters required to be investigated.

Mr Comyn said Grace can be represented but the issue was about recovering her costs. Because the Commission is still at investigative stage, decisions about representation are premature at this stage, he added.

The Commission was also very concerned about matters referred to in an article in todays Examiner newspaper which are within the private investigative purview of the Commission, counsel said. It was contemplating what to do about the article.

Earlier, the judge was told the Commission has sought documents concerning Grace held by the wards of court office and additional documents from the HSE. The HSE has already provided significant documents, he was told.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said this month Brexit could bring thousands of jobs to Paris, an opportunity that could be lost if the tax were imposed.

His German counterpart, Wolfgang Schauble, said that quite a bit speaks in favour of the French argument to look first at how the Brexit negotiations are going. With the heavyweight boosters among the 10 countries pursuing the tax getting cold feet, the plans future looks bleak.

Some had said Brexit could prompt further interest in the financial-transaction tax, said Dan Neidle, a partner at Clifford Chance in London. In fact it looks like the opposite is the case. Brexit has prompted impressive efforts from the French and others to attract the financial sector  those efforts would be completely undermined by the financial transaction tax.

The European Commission proposed the tax in 2011 to make sure the industry made a fair contribution after taxpayers bore the costs of the financial crisis.

Some member states opposed the levy but a smaller group sought a compromise under enhanced co-operation rules.

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain are still at the table. A decision to impose the tax could benefit Ireland and Luxembourg. Governments have recently grown increasingly wary of pushing the tax while banks in the UK are deciding where to move staff to keep servicing clients inside the single market.

President Emmanuel Macrons French administration has also made luring firms to Paris a priority. Sure I want the tax, I just want us to take into account this change that is the UK exiting the EU, said Mr Le Maire.

Mr Schauble said the pause doesnt mean a suspension until the end of the Brexit negotiations, but one should be a bit more generous on the time horizon.

Frankfurt has emerged as the biggest winner in the fight for thousands of London-based jobs that will have to be relocated to the EU.

Standard Chartered, Daiwa Securities and Nomura have picked the German city for their HQs. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are weighing a similar decision, said sources. HSBC is the biggest non-French bank so far to opt for Paris.

n Bloomberg
More than 500,000 of that has already been earmarked for recently-announced solar energy plans. The renewable energy-focused semi-state utility unveiled, in April, a joint-venture plan with the ESB to develop four solar energy farms in Roscommon, Offaly and Kildare  to be operational by 2019  to power 150,000 homes from 1% of the companys landbank.

Ongoing funding will also be pumped into Bord na Monas rapidly growing wind energy business with construction pending on new projects in counties Mayo and Longford and a planning application being readied for a wind farm in co Offaly.

The development of new wind-energy projects will continue on a strong expansionary track in the coming years. This will build on the success we have had this year following the commissioning of the Sliabh Bawn project with Coillte and the securing of new planning permissions for Cloncreen and Oweninny windfarms, said chief executive Mike Quinn.

He said extra investment will be made in the companys fuels business, in the further development of its domestic and overseas biomass supply chain and in its long-standing waste management subsidiary AES. He also confirmed that Bord na Mona has begun legal proceedings against a 14m impairment charge taken on its acquisition of the White Moss Horticulture business in the UK.

Mr Quinn was speaking on the back of the publication of Bord na Monas annual report and accounts for 2016. The company generated a turnover of 406m and post-exceptional operating profits of 24.7m last year.

Those figures were down by 26m and 13m on the previous year but were deemed to be better-than- expected as 2016 was the first year Bord na Mona operated without the public service obligation payment support from the Government in relation to peat supply. As a consequence, the amount the company paid to the State, in terms of a dividend, fell from 10.1m to 4.5m.

The loss of the public service obligation is one aspect of the change process we are undergoing which will fundamentally alter the business profile of Bord na Mona between now and 2030, Mr Quinn said.
Advertisers from food to finance to cosmetics, squeezed by Brexit and a slowing UK economy, are busy shifting television spend to Facebook and YouTube as they reassess marketing budgets. Viewers, meanwhile, are tuning into Netflix and Amazon Prime. TV advertising is forecast to drop 2.7% in the UK this year, according to GroupM. The last decline was in 2012.

ITV is counting on Ms McCall, 55, who is leaving her job as the CEO of EasyJet just as Brexit threatens the access of UK airlines to Europe, to come up with the answers and return a struggling business to revenue growth.

Ms McCall said: Im really pleased to be joining ITV. It is a fantastic company in a dynamic and stimulating sector.

I am looking forward to getting to know all of the people at ITV and helping it make the most of the amazing opportunities that it has in the future.

Ms McCall will receive an annual salary of 900,000 (1m) and a pension allowance of 15% of salary.

The UKs largest free-to-air commercial broadcaster passed over a very impressive field of high-calibre candidates, to select Ms McCall, according to chairman Peter Bazalgette.

Her experience atop Guardian Media, owner of The Guardian and Observer newspapers, makes her well suited to tackling the challenges, said Alex DeGroote, an analyst at Cenkos Securities.

Shes got a good grip on the key issues facing traditional media, he said.

At ITV, Ms McCall will also be running a company that is a perennial subject of takeover speculation. Billionaire John Malones Liberty Global owns about 9.9% and has been tipped as one of several potential bidders, speculation that has intensified following Britains vote last year to leave the EU. Mr Malone also owns broadcaster TV3 and the Virgin Media cable business, while ITV owns UTV in Belfast.

Arresting a recent decline in ad sales, improving the quality of ITVs online video offering and warding off the challenge from international streaming services like Netflix will be Ms McCalls top priorities, and a monumental task, said Neil Campling, an analyst at Northern Trust Capital Markets.

Ms McCall, who is one of the few female chiefs in aviation, will become the first woman to lead the broadcaster when she starts in January. She is to join a company that has less revenue than EasyJet, yet is more highly valued in the stock market. ITV had 3bn (3.4bn) of revenue last year and has a market capitalisation of 7bn, while EasyJets sales were 4.7bn and its value is 5.6bn.

Bloomberg and

Irish Examiner
Irish explorer Providence Resources last month sold a 50% working interest in the Avalon prospect off the west coast to Total E&P Ireland, the French oil majors Irish subsidiary. Scottish firm Cairn Energy has also agreed a 20% stake option at Avalon, with Providences interest set to fall from 40% to 24%.

Both Total and Cairn have also invested in Providences Druid-Drombeg prospect, also off the west coast, which holds an estimated 5bn barrels and at which drilling activity began last week.
Sales advanced to 1.88m light vehicles in January to June, Renault said, at four times the rate of the global auto markets 2.6%.

Renault, based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, is reaping the rewards of a comprehensive overhaul of its lineup under chief designer Laurens van den Acker, who joined the company eight years ago. Sales have also benefited from a surge in European demand for the groups no-frills Dacia brand and more recently from the success of its Captur mini-SUV.
Despite Mr Varadkars desire that refunds be paid by the end of the year, it emerged last night that not everybody who has paid will be refunded by January 1.

Several ministers, speaking to the Irish Examiner, also sharply contradicted Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, who said on RTE Radio that the matter had not come up at Cabinet.

I havent been fully briefed on it, and we havent had a cabinet meeting to discuss it, she said.

However, the Taoiseach and other ministers told a different story last night.

Mr Varadkar said clearly that the issue of refunding domestic water charges was discussed by Cabinet.

She is wrong, maybe she misspoke or was mistaken, but we did discuss water at Cabinet, said one minister.

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphys department said last night that while it was the intention to pay as many refunds by the end of year as possible, some will have to wait longer.

There will be a small amount of cases where that wont be possible, say where people are deceased or has moved homes, that will take a little longer to iron out, said a spokesman.

However, questions remain over how the refunds will be paid for. The Government has signalled the 170m would be resourced from existing funds or savings made this year. However, they have yet to be identified. Mr Varadkar also said the Government must decide if it will deduct the 100 conservation grant from refunds, but said it would be logistically and legally very difficult.

Also, Transport Minister Shane Ross said he is unwilling to offer up any savings in his department to pay for the refunds, as had been suggested by the Taoiseach.

Im certainly not going to be offering anything immediately at the moment to anybody for that, he said.

Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael Mc-Grath questioned the apparent contradictory statements from Mr Varadkar and Ms Doherty on the issue of the refund of water charges.

The Taoiseach must outline at which Cabinet meeting was the issue of refunds discussed, and why wasnt Minister Doherty aware of this discussion, he said.
Fianna Fail TD and Dail Public Accounts Committee member Marc MacSharry made the claim before the publication of the PACs report into the garda college scandal this afternoon.

As previously reported by the Irish Examiner, the report will find Ms OSullivan failed in her duties by not informing the Department of Justice or the Comptroller and Auditor General quickly enough of the scale of the crisis at the college.

It will also find senior gardai attempted to keep the issue in-house and to prevent full transparency on what was taking place, in addition to raising serious concerns about the use of public money at the garda college.

Speaking on the eve of the reports publication, Mr MacSharry said the PAC report means Varadkar must act on Ms OSullivans future instead of waiting for other unrelated garda inquiries to conclude.

He said the decision by the EUs anti-fraud agency OLAF to formally open an investigation into the alleged rerouting of 5% of EU funds to the garda college since 1999 to a private AIB account in Cabra, Dublin, and the expected announcement from the Central Bank of an investigation under money laundering legislation means the issue must be addressed immediately.

The Government has hidden behind PAC for long enough, and the implications are clear, he said. This is not a crisis in a commercial semi-state, its the gardai.

Public confidence restoration in the gardai is more important than any individual.

Mr MacSharrys remark is likely to be raised at the PAC report launch this afternoon, in which a number of opposition TDs are expected to be heavily critical of Ms OSullivans role in the garda college controversy.

However, Fine Gael members on the committee have previously made it clear that while there are serious issues relating to the garda college, the Government retains confidence in Ms OSullivan.
The creation of a working group, possibly led by a retired judge, has been recommended by the States new national drugs strategy, launched by the Taoiseach yesterday.

He said decriminalisation models had been adopted in other countries, including Portugal, and that by and large they had helped to reduce crime and helped to reduce HIV.

He said there were counter views as to whether it was the right way to go.

He said no parent wanted a situation where their son or daughter made a mistake and for the rest of their lives was stuck with a conviction that will prevent them from traveling overseas and make it harder for them to get a job. Thats a problem for a lot of people, he said.

Speaking at the launch of Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, Mr Varadkar said: We really need to move away from a criminal justice approach to one that is health led and acknowledges putting a criminal conviction on somebodys name makes it harder for them.

Health Minister Simon Harris, to whom the working group will report to in 12 months, said the group will comprise medical and legal experts and would ideally be chaired by the likes of a retired judge.

A number of community activists at the launch complained they were not given a copy of the report beforehand, or at least sight of it, while Sinn Fein councillor Daithi Doolan pointed out that none of the six people at the launch top table were from the community or voluntary sector.

He said communities had been the driving force of State responses to the drug crisis since the 1990s and had representation at the highest level  but that this partnership approach had drifted away and that hopefully, the new strategy would reverse that.

Citywide, the community umbrella body, said this was a fundamental issue in determining the success of the new strategy which runs until 2025.

Susan Collins of Addiction Response Crumlin said resources were a key issue: Its great having a policy, but if there is no actual resources, its not going to happen. She said resources were needed for community workers and family support workers. She said communities were being intimidated and that resources need to be spent on community policing.

Public health expert Dr Joe Barry said actions on dual diagnosis needed to be implemented and said actions on rehabilitation were over a decade old.

Dr Eamon Keenan, national clinical lead for HSE addition services, welcomed the inclusion of alcohol services and said resources were needed to implement services  but noted there was a good commitment from government.

The National Family Support Network and UISCE, representing drug users, welcomed the recognition of, and actions for, families and users in the strategy.

The Taoiseach said the Government was very much committed to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill and planned to have it passed the Oireachtas by years end.
In his book The Secret War, British historian Max Hastings describes the different ways that dictatorships and democracies regard intelligence and other independent sources of information.

The nations that gathered and used information best in the Second World War were those committed to intellectual honesty and the pursuit of truth, while those that failed were the dictatorships to which truth was inherently alien, unacceptable, antipathetic, he writes. While democracies do not always trade in frankness, as the modern experience of the 2003 Iraq War vividly demonstrates, at least most of their citizens are reared to regard truth as a virtue, while those of dictatorships are not.

Hastings point is deeply relevant in the Age of Trump, where the principles of intellectual honesty and truth as a virtue are undermined every day. The president and his supporters dont just offer alternative facts, they dispute the concept that facts exist at all, that truth can be determined by trained professionals  economists and scientists, journalists and intelligence agents  conducting unbiased inquiries.

As the dictators of WWII discovered, when truth is inherently alien, when leaders make decisions based on mythology or theology or just plain stubbornness, they are doomed to failure.

Trump is not Hitler or Tojo. But in countless instances, from climate change to immigration, he is failing to learn from their mistakes  pushing policies that are motivated by politics and prejudices, not reality. Here are just three particularly egregious examples:

 Voter fraud. Trump keeps arguing that he would have won the popular vote if not for millions of illegal votes cast for Hillary Clinton. Hes even appointed a commission to validate his delusion of massive voter fraud, which has been thoroughly debunked by election analysts from both parties.

Prof. Justin Levitt of the Loyola Law School tracked every specific credible allegation of voter fraud since 2000 and found 31 cases  out of more than 1 billion votes cast.

That and many similar studies led The Washington Post to editorialize: President Trumps claim that 3 million to 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally in last falls elections is as evidence-based as the assertion that space aliens are bombarding the planet Earth with marshmallows. Even Wyomings Secretary of State, Republican Ed Murray, told the Post: I have not experienced any secretary of state who has expressed any concerns or worry about fraud.

 Health care choice. The White House is backing a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz that would end Obamacare requirements that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty, and that insurers offer policies with certain standard benefits. This is what freedom looks like, Vice President Pence told Rush Limbaugh.

But every health care economist, conservative and liberal alike, comes to the same conclusion: Consumer choice might make a good political slogan, but would be inherently destabilizing as actual policy, Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation told Politico.

Under Cruz proposal, healthy people would buy cheap policies or none at all, while sick people would purchase more extensive coverage. As a result, premiums would skyrocket, especially for policyholders with expensive pre-existing conditions. I think that really would be the definition of a death spiral, said Tara ONeill Hayes of the conservative think tank American Action Forum.

 Steel tariffs. Trump is contemplating increased duties on imported steel as a way, he says, of preserving American jobs and protecting national security. Experts strongly agree that such a move would accomplish neither objective.

Trumps argument about national security is intellectually dishonest, says the Post, because the countrys security is not jeopardized by importing steel; most of our leading suppliers, from Canada to South Korea, are strong allies. More seriously, protecting steel jobs would raise the price of goods that use steel, like cars, and trigger a backlash against American-made products and services.

If he actually pulls the trigger, it could be highly disruptive to world trade, Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who has advised Trump, said in The New York Times. Its not even going to really work in terms of helping American workers.

Experts are far from perfect, but an administration that rejects their advice and regards fact-finders as inherently alien is making a huge mistake.

Informed analysis will sometimes be wrong, Douglas Elmendorf, the former head of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Wall Street Journal, but Id rather bet on informed analysis than ignorant guesses.

In Trumps White House, impetuous ignorance is winning, to use the presidents favorite word. Informed analysis and the public interest are the losers.
The former Fine Gael minister lost the party whip in 2013 after she voiced major concerns around the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill and voted against the Government on it.

However Ms Creighton, who now runs her own consulting company, has ruled out becoming involved in any pro-life campaign in the lead-up to a vote on repealing the Eighth Amendment.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, the former EU affairs minister said: I have no plans to be involved in any referendum in Ireland in the near future. I am very busy with business and with my work commitments and I am travelling every week. So I have dont have any intention of getting involved.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has already committed to holding a referendum on the divisive issue of repealing the Eighth next year, while Health Minister Simon Harris went further and said he wants the vote to be held before the summer of 2018.

Ms Creighton said she believes many people will come out to publicly back both sides of the debate, but added that the Government has yet to announce a date for a referendum.

I am sure plenty of people will emerge when there is a referendum but there is no referendum at the moment.

She added: As I said I gave 15 years of service in my public capacity and I am not doing that anymore. I am very much focused on building my own business and its not based on Irish domestic politics. I dont intend getting back involved in that.

As a TD, Ms Creighton conceded she had changed her views on the issue from quite liberal leanings as a student to a pro-life stance.
Irish scientists have found a potential new way to treat triple negative breast cancer, which currently has limited treatment options.

They have shown that a new drug, called THZ-1, can prevent triple negative breast cancer. It occurs in one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer and is more likely to affect younger women.

The discovery was made by scientists from Breast-Predict, a collaborative research centre funded by the Irish Cancer Society and an EU-funded research consortium called RATHER.

Triple negative breast cancer is defined as a breast cancer that is negative for oestrogen receptor, negative for progesterone receptor and negative for HER2.

Patients with the resistant form of breast cancer cannot receive targeted therapies such as hormone therapy and can only rely on chemotherapy.

Although many patients do respond well to chemotherapy, a resistance of the tumour to this treatment is a common problem.

Patients with triple negative breast cancer have a poor prognosis, and their tumours are more likely to return and spread following treatment.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Research, looked at a protein called CDK7, found to be present at high levels in triple negative breast cancers. It found that patients with elevated levels of the CDK7 present in their tumour were more likely to experience a disease relapse following standard chemotherapy treatment.

High CDK7 levels could be used as a biomarker to identify patients unlikely to respond well to chemotherapy.

The test could be beneficial to their doctors, as they could then prioritise these patients for a more aggressive treatment regime.

The researchers also tested a drug that acts on CDK7, called THZ-1, to investigate if this could be a novel treatment for triple negative breast cancer. Remarkably, treating triple negative breast cancer cells grown in the laboratory with THZ-1 halted their growth, both on its own and in combination with other treatments.

The researchers proposed THZ-1 as a novel treatment option for this aggressive cancer type, particularly in combination with existing treatments, to improve their success rate.

Professor of cancer biology at UCD, William Gallagher, who led the research, said it opened up an important new treatment possibility for patients with triple negative breast cancer.

Prof Gallagher said: While further research is needed on this novel treatment before it can be used in breast cancer patients, this work is a key step in opening up a wider range of new and less toxic treatment options for triple negative breast cancer patients.

Head of research at the Irish Cancer Society, Dr Robert OConnor, described the research as a significant milestone in the ongoing work of Breast-Predict.
The Department of Health confirmed the situation after Mr Harris was warned by commission representatives in recent days that the issue means Grace will have to pay her own legal fees while those accused of wrongdoing will not.

The commission was set up in March after two damning reports into the most serious physical and sexual abuse allegations surrounding the Grace foster abuse scandal were made public after years of delays.

The state investigation, which is due to provide an initial finding on the specific issues relating to Grace at the end of this year, is also examining claims HSE officials attempted to cover-up the decades of abuse and other equally serious matters.

It had been expected the commission would provide legal representation for Grace, who has severe physical and mental disabilities, and that the State would pay for this expense.

However, Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness  who played a crucial role in uncovering the scandal when he was chair of the Dail Public Accounts Committee until last year  said the commission has, in recent days, been made aware that existing legislation means this is not the case.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr McGuinness, whose claims were verified by another source close to the process, said he has been told that under section 23 of the Commission of Investigation Act 2014, individuals are allowed to have their legal fees covered.

However, this is only in the case that their good name or conduct is called into question in evidence; or when other personal or property rights of the witness are put at risk.

Mr McGuinness said that, as neither issue relates to Grace she is, under the existing law, not entitled to have her legal representation or legal fees paid for by the State.

After informing the president of the High Court about the situation, commission officials have written to Graces solicitors in recent days about the legal issue, with the matter listed to be discussed further in the High Court next week.

In addition, they are due to write to Mr Harris urgently to ask whether Graces legal fees can be covered, a situation which may need immediate alteration to the current law.

It seems highly unusual that any person against whom allegations are made will get their legal costs but that Grace who is the centre of the inquiry would not, Mr McGuinness said.

The Department of Health declined to officially comment as it cannot speak on issues relating to an independent commission of investigation which is already in place.

However, department sources confirmed the issue has been raised with Mr Harris and he and senior officials are now scrambling to shore up the legal loophole.

There is no question of Graces cost not being covered. It will be sorted out, said a department official.

Any change in existing legislation would have to be put to the Dail, which will not return until the middle of September. However, another option may be to re-route existing Government funds to the legal costs given the limited cost compared to other expenditure.
Photo: Canadian ambassador Kevin Vickers (in the mac) tackles Brian Murphy who attempted to disrupt a state ceremony to remember the British soldiers who died in 1916. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins

Brian Murphy publicly apologised yesterday in his bid to have his recorded conviction for a public order offence overturned. Judge James ODonohue held he would be given the Probation Act if he donated 900 to charity and apologised to the garda who arrested him. Judge ODonohue also suggested he write a letter of apology to Canadian ambassador Kevin Vickers.

Youth club manager Murphy, aged 48, of Newcastle Manor, Newcastle, Co Dublin interrupted a televised 1916 commemoration service for members of the British army, at Grangegorman military cemetery on May 26 last year.

Murphy, whose great great grandfather had served in the British military and is buried in the cemetery, was an invited guest at the commemoration. His paternal grandfather had fought in Bolands Mills in the 1916 Rising and was a republican who entered politics and later became a TD.

Mr Vickers, a former Canadian House of Commons sergeant-at-arms, who was appointed as the Canadian ambassador to Ireland in January 2015, was also present. Father-of-five Murphy was found guilty following a district court trial last year on a Public Order Act charge of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour.

He had pleaded not guilty but was convicted and received a two-month sentence which was suspended for one year.

However, he launched an appeal in the circuit court which came before Judge ODonohue who rejected defence arguments about right to protest or that the accused had not caused a breach of the peace.

Garda John Cahill told the appeal hearing he saw Brian Murphy stand up in the seated area and go into the courtyard. He unbuttoned his jacket and brandished a T-shirt saying Justice for the Craigavon Two, a reference to republican prisoners and a campaign that they have been wrongfully imprisoned.

The appeal heard he said Free the Craigavon Two, this is an insult, this is an insult. A speaker at the ceremony was momentarily interrupted.

The judge heard how Canadian ambassador Mr Vickers wrestled and subdued Mr Murphy before bringing him over to gardai on duty at the event.

In evidence, Murphy told the court that he had applied to the Department of Foreign Affairs to go the event which he found objectionable.

Judge ODonohue rejected the appeal.

The case was adjourned until January.
THE world has never fallen out of love with Jane Austen because she had an ability to bottle a certain type of Englishness that is very attractive, according to Trinity College Dublin English lecturer Daragh Downes.

Dr Downes said there would not be the success of Downton Abbey or The Crown without Jane Austens creation of this micro world of the landed gentry and aristocracy.

She has had an amazing longevity. She has also been kept alive by movie adaptations and rom coms. There is even a zombie version of Pride and Prejudice. Fan fiction is proliferating as we speak.

Dr Downes attributes Austens longevity to cultural nostalgia and the yearning for the simplicities of an apparently simpler time.

However, he says the irony of all this is that fans are nostalgic for a world that in many ways Austen herself was lampooning or at least subtly undermining through parody.

It is a bit like 200 years from now somebody reading the Ross OCarroll Kelly books and saying we need to get back to the manly virtues of Leinster Schools Rugby. It is that level of stupidity behind this.

"There is a certain species of Jane Austen fan who dresses up in the costume and has tea and crumpets and feels that is at the heart of what Jane Austen is talking about. Jane Austen didnt think like that. If Jane Austen had thought like that in that nostalgic way she would have been writing novels set in Shakespeares time. She was modern for her time.

Jane Austen

Dr Downes says Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Joness Diary, is as much of an heir to Austen as anyone. Like Austen, she writes about the world around her that she knows and understands.

Downes says Austen has been claimed by conservatives and by liberals and both of them find good evidence for what they are saying.

Because the way she works is through irony and through subtly undermining, and this is also a complicating factor part of her is also in love with the world of landed gentry and Regency England. Part of her is fascinated with the textures of the chintz and the corsets and so forth. But she has great wisdom and she sees beneath the surface of that world.

Dr Downes says Austens extraordinary popularity is at times detrimental to her legacy as academics often try to reduce everything she is doing to politics rather than just appreciating her storytelling.

It is one of the things that makes me most uneasy about Jane Austen criticism  an army of academics trying to reduce everything she is doing to politics. If you can imagine an army of academics giving conference papers on Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band  and all they want to talk about is gender construction or class system bias in that album.

It is something of that scale that is happening with Austen. These are fictions. These are brilliantly-constructed fictions in which the craft of the novel is what is actually making it last. So I think Jane Austens worst enemies are in one sense her fans. Some of them. A certain breed of fan particularly in the US, where bottled Britishness is in vogue.

Downes adds that Austen has endured because she was an extraordinarily talented ordinary woman.

She was a very gifted writer. But what makes her gifted is that the real brilliance is happening under the surface. Take the famous opening line of Pride and Prejudice. In that one sentence, she has drawn her reader into an entire world with its social assumptions and its cultural assumptions. She is not being fully serious. She is being ironic.

Daragh Downes adds that Austens appeal is that her work lends itself so well to cinema and television adaptations.

I think there is a stability in the Austen world that is perfect for rom-coms. It is perfect for the game of chess that almost arranged marriages were taking place in. Regency England is very hierarchical. It is by setting herself really strict limits she is able to be subversive.

The Colin Firth effect  But was he like the real Mr Darcy?

Colin Firth made hearts beat faster as Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Colin Firth set hearts racing in the mid-1990s with his depiction of Mr Darcy in the BBCs adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

However, the Oscar-winning actor nearly lost out on the role that launched his career because casting agents decided his hair was too red.

Screenwriter Andrew Davies recently revealed he was unsure about Firth until the actor was convinced to darken his hair.

With Colin I was a bit doubtful because of his colouring at the time because he didnt have those dark curls back then. We said he had to go dark and he did go dark. Hes stayed dark ever since so he must have liked it.

Asked what Firths hair had looked like before he appeared in Davies adaptation, the writer said: Underneath all that hes sort of fairly ginger.

Though its the role that made him famous, Colin Firth almost said no to playing Mr Darcy. While speaking at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2010, Firth admitted he didnt think he was right for the role.

I couldnt see there was anything to play because the character doesnt speak most of the time, Firth said.I thought this is just a guy who stands around for hours driving people to despair.

Meanwhile, academics recently revealed what they insist is the first historically accurate portrait of Jane Austens Mr Darcy.

Instead of the broad shoulders and square jaw of Colin Firth or other modern depictions, there is a modestly-sized chest and pointy chin. Historical fashions from the 1790s would have meant that men of standing would have worn powdered wigs. There is little description of Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, so the academics used historical fashions from the 1790s, when it was written.

The first historically accurate representation of Mr Darcy, created by artist Nick Hardcastle, based on research commissioned by UKTV channel.

Our Mr Darcy portrayal reflects the male physique and common features at the time, says Amanda Vickery, professor of early modern history at Queen Mary University of London. Men sported powdered hair, had narrow jaws and muscular, defined legs were considered

very attractive.

It seems muscular chests and broad shoulders would have been the sign of a labourer and not a gentleman at the time the book was written by Austen.

The famous Mr Darcy television moments  when Colin Firth walked out of a lake dripping wet and Matthew MacFayden crossed a field in the mist  would not have looked the same with the historically accurate Mr Darcy and his narrow shoulders.

The real Mr Darcy would have had a long oval face with a small mouth, pointy chin, and long nose alongside slender sloping shoulders and a modest chest, with large quads, thighs, and calves; all common features of a gentleman of that era.

He also would have been around 5ft11in as opposed to Colin Firths 6ft2in or Matthew MacFadyens 6ft3in in the subsequent 2005 film.

It seems Darcys character has been sexed up for the modern day female audience with a super-charged injection of testosterone and charm.

Fans of the author can take a step into her world in Cork this autumn. An Evening with Jane Austen is being hosted by Words by Water, the Kinsale Literary Festival in Ballinacurra House on September 1.

From dancing to costume, the event will be a chance to take a step back into 18th century life and culture, wearing period dress or black tie.

The evening will start with canapes and sparkling wine on the lawn, followed by Baroque dance instruction with world-renowned teacher, Mary Collins. During the meal, scenes from Austen's greatest dramas will be performed by Classic Times Theatre Company.

There will be awards for awards for best dressed man and woman but no prizes for swimming in the lake!

Tickets for the evening are 85 per person, available here.
The HTC U11 smartphone has received a software update and dedicated app for Amazons intelligent voice assistant Alexa in the US, as noted in a report from The Verge.

Some of the features now available to HTC U11 owners with the relevant support include the ability to use voice controls to wake their smartphone up, play music from Amazon, add items to Alexa shopping lists, access and control smart home devices, and provide weather forecasts.
Over the next few weeks, 60,000 children in the north of Kenya may starve to death. This is the stark reality of a crisis that has inexplicably flown under the radar in Ireland and around the world.

Drought has led to starvation across huge areas of east Africa. The number of people affected is truly frightening: approximately 25 million people reliant on food aid across four countries. The United Nations has described it as potentially the worlds worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War.

It is only when you visit the affected areas that the unspeakable reality of what is happening really hits home; only then that the statistics become real people.

When I visited the Turkana region of northern Kenya last week, I was left speechless by what I saw. At feeding clinics, I saw children of eight or nine months who weighed as little as a new born baby.

These are children at immediate risk of death unless they receive high-nutritional feeding from our programmes. Even those kept alive face significant challenges  severe malnutrition at this vital age can irreversibly stunt their growth and mental development.

The desperation on the faces of mothers as their young child cry for food is heartbreaking. People walk for miles, carrying their children on their backs, to reach help.

The drought in the north of the country is the worst in living memory; worse even than the drought of 2011 which left the region teetering on the brink of famine. The Turkana region of northern Kenya has been left decimated by the drought, with food stocks long since extinguished and millions of people facing into long months of hunger.

In total, 3m people in Kenya are in need of food aid just to survive. Sadly, that number is expected to rise sharply as the effects of prolonged drought

continue to take a massive toll.

People in Turkana are used to short periods of hunger each year immediately preceding each new harvest. This year is different, however. Food stocks began running out in February  six months earlier than usual.

A nutrition survey conducted by the Turkana County Department of Health last week found that in Turkana South region alone, 12% of children under five are now severely malnourished. This is worse even than what is being experienced in regions of Somalia on the brink of full-scale famine.

The government of Kenya has been leading the response to the crisis but the situation is so stark that they have appealed for international assistance. Likewise, governments in Ethiopia

and Somalia have been overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of this crisis.

The situation in South Sudan has been worsened by the ongoing conflict between political rivals.

Conflict has also exacerbated the crisis in Somalia, where the number of people in need of assistance has risen to 6.7m. Of these, it is estimated that 2.5m may fall into famine over the next few weeks.

As with the rest of the region, Somalia has been plunged into crisis by the failure of two consecutive rainy seasons. Central and southern Somalia have registered only a third of their usual seasonal rainfall this year.

The resulting crisis has left the country in potentially a worse situation than in 2011, when famine killed an estimated 260,000 people. The number of children suffering from severe or acute malnutrition has tripled in the last few months. Trocaires health centre in the west of the country is dealing with 19,000 patients each month.

Given the scale of the crisis, it is perplexing the degree to which it has gone unnoticed in the outside world. The UNs appeal for Kenya is just 19% funded, while its appeal for Somalia has reached just 37% of its target. South Sudan and Ethiopia are at 27% and 50% funded respectively.

A busy news agenda has been dominated by the outbursts of the US president, Donald Trump, all the while the biggest story in the world has unravelled virtually unnoticed.

Mr Trump recently withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change  he should visit northern Kenya or Somalia now and see for himself the devastation being caused by climate change in the developing world.

The empty fields and pained cries of hungry children would tell him the truth about the real impact reduced rainfall is having on the worlds poorest people.

Paul Healy is Trocaires country director for Kenya and Somalia.
The image of Wuilly Arteaga crying after Venezuelan security forces destroyed his violin has been seen by millions of people around the world.

The 23-year-old Arteaga had joined in the protests against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduros government by playing patriotic songs. His look of despair speaks to what many in Venezuela are feeling as they wonder how much longer their country must suffer violence and misrule.

At least 115 protesters have died in Venezuela since the opposition-organised street protests began on April 1. More than 50 of those killed have been younger than 30, and many were just teenagers.

They include people like Neomar Lander, a 17-year-old protester who was reportedly shot at point-blank range with a teargas canister, and Yeison Mora, also 17, who was shot in the face while participating in a demonstration in the countrys southwest.

Estimating the size and demographics of protest crowds is always difficult, but two things about todays protests in Venezuela are already clear.

First, they are much broader and more socioeconomically diverse than the anti-Maduro protests in 2014, which seemed to comprise mostly middle-class Venezuelans. Second, many of todays protesters are young.

Young people have spearheaded three waves of protest against the Chavista regime, established by Maduros predecessor, Hugo Chavez, before he died in 2013.

In 2007, it was young people who led protests against Chavezs government when it shut down the popular Radio Caracas Television, and replaced it with a state-run television channel.

Then, in 2014, they demonstrated against the countrys rampant violent crime under Maduro, and in support of their own right to protest. And now, a new generation of young people has joined with the alumni of those previous waves to demand elections and the end of the regime.

The current protests have gone on for more than 90 days. Young Venezuelans are speaking out against high unemployment and the lack of economic

opportunities.

In 2016, 70% of all protests were driven by economic concerns, with the demand for jobs chief among them. The government hasnt reported official unemployment rates in over a year.

But it is clear that Venezuelans  especially young people who cannot afford food and housing  are suffering more than ever from their countrys deepening economic crisis.

Young people are particularly dangerous to the regime because they have nothing to lose now, and everything to lose later. As one student leader said in 2014: We have to protest because [the government] is stealing our future.

Older people, by contrast, tend to make the opposite calculation: They do not want to risk their possessions and livelihoods they for an uncertain future. Still, when their own children take to the streets, they sometimes follow.

The regime has only itself to blame for todays protests. Like a Latin American Donald Trump, Chavez came to power on a wave of populism in 1998, and frequently boasted of his efforts to reduce unemployment.

His government invested heavily in tertiary education and, by 2010, Venezuela ranked fifth worldwide in university enrolment. Many of the new public universities opened during this period were closely aligned with the regime.

In interviews, students have said the regime required their participation in pro-government rallies; but it also promised them government jobs after graduation.

To fulfil this promise, the regime tapped the countrys large oil revenues at the time to expand the public sector.

But spending oil revenues to educate students for jobs that depend on future oil revenues is hardly a sustainable economic model. This became readily apparent in 2014, when oil prices started plummeting.

The collapse of oil prices, combined with years of economic mismanagement, has left young Venezuelans with high expectations but no real prospects. The Maduro governments only solution seems to be stepped-up repression.

The tears that Arteaga shed for his instrument and his country, like the images of mourners at young protesters funerals, illustrates this dynamic perfectly: young people took to the streets to demand change and opportunity, and the government  a government built on promises that it cannot keep  responded with beatings and bullets.

Having failed to meet its commitments, it is betraying its supporters children with the violence it once reserved for the countrys elites.

The question now is who will give up first. The unofficial motto of the 2014 protests was El que se cansa, pierde (You tire, you lose). But on that occasion, the opposition blinked first, and the protests fizzled out with the start of the World Cup.

This time, the opposition has made more concrete demands, and has vowed to stay in the streets until those demands are met. They are calling on the government to hold a fair presidential election, free all political prisoners, and open a humanitarian corridor for the country to receive much-needed food and medicine.

Maduro has blamed the protesters for the countrys shortages. But he will need more than populist rhetoric to mollify the people this time. Venezuelans have spoken loud and clear: They are tired of populism, and they will not tire of the streets.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is president and CEO of New America. Fabiana Perera, a PhD candidate at The George Washington University, is a 2017 foreign policy interrupted fellow.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

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Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

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I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments
Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts

Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights

Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh

Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom

Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

Google Ad

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments
Today

Mainly sunny. High 72F. Winds light and variable.

Tonight

Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. Low 48F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Mainly sunny. High 72F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Lawyer demands resignation of Ara Zohrabyan and his apology (video)

Lawyer Tigran Atanesyan was charged on July 17 under Article 118 of the Armenian Criminal Code. He is charged with beating Simon Babayan, Director of the School of Advocates at his office. The lawyer brushed aside the charges considering them a lie and said everything was done under the auspices of the Chamber of Advocates. Lawyer Yervand Varosyan, another participant of the press service, said the assailants would go unpunished. There is a video showing four people enter Tigran Atanesyans office and leave the premises safe and sound. The investigative body also has the video. Obviously these people hold have certain positions in the Chamber of Advocates and could not act on their own. The chairman of the Chamber of Advocates was aware of everything. Had they acted without his knowledge, they would have been dismissed long ago. But as you see they continue to work, said the lawyer. Tigran Atanesyan is ready to withdraw the appeal, provided that criminal prosecution is stopped. The lawyer is ready to reconcile with the four advocates who came to his office if they apologize to him. At the same time, he demands that they hand in resignations. I know that I can be tried, but I do not care, I have seen a lot of injustice, he said. On April 27, lawyers Tigran Atanesyan and Armen Soghomonyan were beaten up during an argument in Atanesyans office. Based on the report, a criminal case was instituted under Article 118 of the Criminal Code. Another criminal case was instituted on the same day based on the report of lawyers Simon Babayan, Arsen Harutyunyan and Vrezh Khachikyan, who claimed that they had received bodily injuries during an argument in Atanesyans office.
Avoid voicing such low figures next time - Serzh Sargsyan

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Republic of India Armen Martirosyan reported today to Serzh Sargsyan on the Armenian-Indian cooperation agenda and the steps taken to boost exchanges in the prospective areas. Held as part of the series of consultations with the President of the Republic of Armenia on the economic component of Armenias foreign policy, the meeting was attended by the heads of those ministries and government agencies responsible for coordination of cooperation in the areas of mutual interest. Noting that this year marks the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and India, the President considered it as a good opportunity to summarize the achievements and highlight the opportunities of bilateral cooperation, especially as the economic component is concerned. Serzh Sargsyan said that all the necessary preconditions are in place in this respect, as the two countries have managed to turn the deeply-rooted friendly relations into strong ties of partnership over the past few years. Despite the present high level of the Armenian-Indian dialogue, which is anchored on strong historical ties and traditions, I think we have not yet fully tapped the potential inherent in these relations. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and, therefore, we need to advance the cooperation with that country, first and foremost, as regards the economic constituent. Indeed, the Armenian-Indian intergovernmental commission has a crucial role to play in this matter with updated and more targeted agenda items ranging from information technologies to agriculture, diamond processing and tourism. We have several good examples of cooperation. Here, I would like to single out the Yerevan State University-hosted Armenian-Indian Center of Excellence for ITC ((Information and Telecommunications) technologies, which is doing a great job. We are prioritizing the program of introduction of educational programs aimed at creating an integrated computer network between schools in Armenia as implemented in cooperation with India and the ITC Excellence Center. Tavush and Vayots-Dzor Marzes will largely benefit from the connection to the Centers network of the hardware available in the local schools. Generally, a huge work has been done in India: they have built up a wealth of long experience and enjoy significant capacity in this area. Therefore, taking into account Indias potential, we should intensify cooperation in this field. I also want to mention our cooperation in education and science. You may know that more than a thousand Indian students are currently studying in Armenias universities. Along with mastering professional skills and knowledge in Armenia, they are getting acquainted with our culture and history. Back to their homeland, they will complement the ranks of our friends. This is a very important factor, and we have huge opportunities to develop cooperation in this direction. Calling at the Yerevan State Medical University a few days ago, I got acquainted with their programs: they are prepared to increase the number of students here and expand cooperation in healthcare and education, in general. I think we have considerable opportunities to cooperate in diamond cutting, jewelry, and we have to continue work in this direction. We should avail ourselves of the opportunity to cooperate in the field of pharmaceuticals, where India boasts great achievements. They are a major supplier, and we must show our capabilities to get them involved in the Armenian market. We certainly have great potential of interaction in the field of agriculture. As far as I know, a working group is up, and reciprocated visits have been paid over the past few years. Here, too, cooperation can be effective, in particular, as regards agricultural machinery. We must definitely endeavor towards the development of tourism. This country with a huge population may offer great opportunities in the field of tourism. Mr. Martirosyan, I am urging you to address these issues more thoroughly in your report. We must be sure of what we need to do in specific spheres so that we could avoid voicing such low figures next time: I mean in the sphere of trade, where the potential is too great, the President of Armenia said. After hearing Ambassador Martirosyans report, the President issued a number of recommendations, which will be included in the agenda of the Armenian-Indian intergovernmental commission.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 77F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusett [official website] on Monday held [opinion, PDF] that a woman who was fired from her job for testing positive for medically prescribed marijuana could sue her former employer for handicap discrimination. The employee in this case was prescribed medical marijuana to combat the low appetite that she experienced due to Crohns Disease. The courts decision overturned a prior dismissal of the employees claim for handicap discrimination and will allow her to proceed with the lawsuit. The court noted that a handicap discrimination claim can be alleged where an employee could perform the essential functions of their job with some form of accommodation so long as the accommodation is facially reasonable. In rejecting the employers argument that using medical marijuana is unreasonable because it is illegal under federal law, the Court held that this fact does not make the use of medical marijuana per se unreasonable as an accommodation where a doctor deems it to be the most effective treatment for a patients condition.

The legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana has become a popular issue over the past few years. In June three Kentuckians challenged [JURIST report] the states criminal ban on medical marijuana. Earlier in June US Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked Congress [WP report] to undo the federal protections on medical marijuana. In June the California State Assembly passed a bill [JURIST report] with the bare minimum 41 out of 80 votes that, if passed by the Senate, will prohibit state and local authorities from assisting federal agencies in the enforcement of marijuana laws without a court order. Before Sessionss confirmation, Hilary Bricken of the Canna Law Group [advocacy website] wrote [JURIST op-ed] about how the Trump administration could impact the status of cannabis at the state level. Elsewhere in North America, marijuana legalization has become a priority. The Mexico Chamber of Deputies approved [JURIST report] a bill in April allowing the use, production and distribution of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes. Also in April Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed [JURIST report] Senate Bill 10, legalizing the medicinal use of a marijuana extract, into law. In March a government official from Canada announced [JURIST report] the countrys intention to legalize recreational marijuana by July 2018.
Opposition parties petitioned the Pakistan Supreme Court [official website] on Monday to remove Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office after the joint investigation teams (JIT) report [text] stipulated that there was sufficient proof that the prime minister and his family held wealth beyond their known means of income. The JIT was created in April when the Supreme Court rejected [JURIST report] disqualifying Sharif from office stating the evidence was insufficient. A special bench consisting of three justices will review the proceedings and issue summons to any further testimony or evidence needed to conclude the months-long turmoil. The court will resume hearings on Tuesday.

Pakistans current government has been under scrutiny in the last few months by its own people and around the world. In April a Pakistan military court sentenced Kulbushan Jadhav [The Hindu backgrounder], an Indian naval officer who was detained in Pakistan for the past year, to death. The court handed down [JURIST report] the death sentence after finding Jadhav guilty of espionage and sabotage. However in May the International Court of Justice instructed Pakistan [JURIST report] to withhold the execution until the international court reaches its final decision. In March the Pakistan National Assembly voted [JURIST report] to renew an amendment to the countrys constitution that allows military tribunals to oversee civilians accused of terrorist-related crimes.
The Russian Supreme Court [official website, in Russian] on Monday upheld its ruling ordering the disbanding of the Jehovahs Witnesses. In denying an appeal by the Jehovahs Witnesses, the Supreme Court affirmed [TASS report] that their previous ruling will remain in place and unchanged. The prior ruling was considered the Jehovahs Witnesses to be an extremist organization because it distributed pamphlets that promoted hatred of other denominations, such as the Russian Orthodox Church. The order for disbanding took place immediately and calls for all 395 branches of the religion to shut down and the forfeiture of their properties to the government. After having their appeal denied, the Jehovahs Witnesses plan to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights [official website].

Russias human rights and religious freedom record has been the subject of widespread international criticism. On April 20 the Russian Supreme Court issued its initial ruling [JURIST report] ordering the disbanding of the Jehovahs Witnesses. In February the Russian Supreme Court annulled the 2.5 year prison sentence of Ildar Dadin, who was the first person to be convicted under a relatively new anti-protest law [JURIST report]. Earlier in February the European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay more than 63,000 euros for arresting Alexander Navalny multiple times [JURIST report] between March 2012 and February 2014. The court held that Russia repeatedly and unjustifiably violated Navalnys right to freedom of peaceful assembly under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In January the US sanctioned [JURIST report] five Russian officials for human rights abuses in association with the death of a lawyer in prison. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced [JURIST report] in November that Russia would leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), expressing disdain over the ICCs investigation into potential human rights abuses by Russian forces in South Ossetia in 2008. In May 2015 Russian President Vladmir Putin signed a law [JURIST report] that allows for foreign undesirable NGOs or firms to be sanctioned and banned from operating in the country, drawing criticism from human rights groups.
Thousands of people rallied in Warsaw, Poland on Sunday to protest controversial proposals aimed at reforming the countrys court system. The demonstration comes as a response [Reuters report] to a series of bills passed by Polands Senate [official website] over the last week that many fear are a threat to judicial independence. The bills give parliament, where the Law and Justice (PiS) party [party website, in Polish] holds the majority, a greater role in selecting judges. One of the proposed bills will grant the justice minister the power to replace any Supreme Court justices and chief justices of the common courts without the approval of judicial circles. Opposition leaders, including Ryszard Petru of the Modern party and Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna [official website] of Civic Platform, have agreed to work together to keep the constitutionally-mandated separation of powers in place. They urged protestors to continue demonstrating in front of parliament until Tuesday when a debate concerning the Supreme Court bill will take place. The European Union [official website] has threatened to take Poland to court for undermining the democratic system of checks and balances. In order to become law, President Andrzej Duda [official website] will need to sign [BBC report] the bills. He has given no indication that he will veto the proposed legislation.

PiS has drawn ire from those in the international community for threatening democracy in Poland. In August 2016 Polish prosecutors began an investigation [JURIST report] into Constitutional Tribunal [official website] head, Andrzej Rzeplinski, to determine if he abused his power in preventing judges appointed by the ruling party to take part in decisions. In June of last year the European Commission [official website] issued a warning to Poland over the appointment of the three judges. The European Union began examining Polands decision regarding the Constitutional Court [JURIST reports] in January 2016. That February the Polish government passed a controversial surveillance law [JURIST report] that grants the government [press release, Polish] greater access to digital data and broader use of surveillance for law enforcement. In December 2015 the leader of the European Parliament [official website] compared PiS rise to power in Poland to a coup [BBC report], leading to Parliament calling for an apology. PiS has rejected [DW report] criticisms that its policies are undermining democracy in Poland.
Dallas, Texas, 07/18/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Stand your ground laws occasionally make headlines when a homeowner or property owner prevents an intruder from entering their home. Because laws vary from state to state, and even the names for these laws can be different depending on the jurisdiction, people sometimes wonder what rights they have when it comes to defending themselves and their property.

About half the states in the U.S. have some version of what is commonly called the stand your ground law. In some states, the law is referred to as the castle doctrine, which is named after the saying a persons home is his castle. You may also hear these types of laws called a line in the sand law or a no duty to retreat law.

Texas has a stand your ground law. If you have questions about the Texas stand your ground law, or youve been charged with a crime after protecting yourself through self-defense, its important to speak to a Dallas Texas criminal defense lawyer.

Self-Defense Laws in General

No matter where youre located in the country, its generally the rule that people have the right to use deadly force any time they have a reasonable belief that is necessary to stop another person from injuring or killing them. This is whats known as self-defense. In other words, you dont have to simply stand still and let someone strike you or attack you.

You have the right to defend yourself, but you cant use unreasonable or excessive force. To use an obvious example, if someone comes at you with a feather, you cant pull out a knife. In that case, its pretty obvious that youre not going to get hurt. But there are plenty of cases in which the question of reasonable belief of harm is not so clear. For example, what if someone attacks you with a glass beer bottle? The broken edge of glass can do serious damage. Or what about a toy handgun that has had the orange tip removed or painted over? Its easy to see how, in the heat of the moment, a person might believe their life is in danger and react accordingly.

Stand Your Ground Law in Texas

In Texas, individuals have no duty to retreat when they have a reasonable belief they are in danger of bodily harm or death if theyre threatened in their home, in their vehicle, or at their job. To raise the Texas stand your ground law defense, the person must be able to show that they didnt provoke the person who attacked them. They must also be able to show that they werent breaking any laws at the time of the incident.

Contact an Experienced Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer

As you might imagine, Texas stand your ground law cases can be extremely complicated. The law gives Texans the right to protect themselves. If you defended yourself from harm or the threat of death, you have the right to raise the stand your ground law as a defense. Its important to work with a Texas criminal defense lawyer who can help.

Sources:

Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Broden & Mickelsen, LLP

Broden & Mickelsen, LLP

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Considering luxury travel in Australia? Cant blame youAustralia has a lot to offer. In fact, as of April 2017, 8.46 million visitors have already arrived in the country for the year, a 9.5 percent increase compared to figures from 2016, representing an additional 731,000 visitors so far. International arrivals have also continued to grow, jumping 10.5 percent over the course of 12 months. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this increase is mainly attributed to leisure arrivals from those going on holiday or visiting friends and family in the country. But youre not looking for the usual kind of stay, right?

Taking Luxury Travel to the Next Level

Luxury travel in Australia means travelling in style, comfort, and exclusivity. Everything is tailored to your needs, complete with a private guide that can let you experience the country in a way that only you can. Whether youre more interested in cityscapes or are looking forward to exchanging the hustle and bustle for a quiet time in one (or two!) of the 60 designated wine regions in the country, youll get exactly the kind of Australian holiday youre looking for. Going to the usual places will be fun, but why settle for that when you can have a dynamic, dazzling experience instead? As a luxury traveler, youll be staying in the finest luxury hotels and resorts in the country, which can be a memorable experience in itself.

Why Australia?

As a highly biodiverse country, Australia has a reputation for being an adventurers paradise. However, it is also so much more. Following the second World War, there was an influx of talented and passionate Greek and Italian immigrants who helped to shape Melbournes culinary landscape. Add in a open-minded society who is sports-, fashion-, theater- and arts-focused and you have a recipe for a city thats full of history, events, festivals and many outdoor areas, explained Tara Bishop, The Langham, Melbournes public relations director.

And Melbournes just one of many cities you can visit in the Land Down Under! If just one destination in the country can offer all that, then it certainly has a lot in store for guests, and its especially ready for those interested in luxury travel in Australia. According to Marc von Arnim, Park Hyatt Sydneys general manager, those travelling in the luxury segment are highly discerning and have extremely high expectations. It is then the goal of the countrys hotels to ensure that those expectations are exceeded by ensuring authentic hospitality is delivered each time to every guest, which can be guaranteed by thoroughly training staff members.

The Ultimate Bucket List: Australia Edition

So what should you do in Australia? Some of the highly recommended activities you should engage in include:

 Renting your own island in Queensland

 Diving in the Great Barrier Reef

 Cruising Western Australias Kimberley Coast

 Riding a helicopter over the King George waterfall

 Visiting Kangaroo Island and staying in a luxurious lodge or beach house

 Sailing along Sydney Harbour

 Climbing the Harbour Bridge

 Experiencing natural history in Kakadu and Arnhemland

 Sampling wines in Barossa Valley, Australias most famous wine region

 Exploring Tasmanias Maria Island for a taste of local culture, history, and wildlife

 Flying over Lake Eyre and the Innamicka salt lakes

 Saddling up and going deep into the Victorian High Country in a trail ride

Travelling to Australia: What to Keep in Mind

Luxury travel in Australia generally means everything youll need will have been taken care of but it never hurts to be in the know as well. Here are some travel tips you should keep in mind for your Australian trip:

 The official language in Australia is English but its common for a range of languages to be heard in the towns and cities because of the countrys large migrant population.

 Australian dollars come in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 notes; and 5-,10-, 20-, and 50-cent and one- and two-dollar coins.

 Goods and Services Tax in Australia is set at 10 percent. A refund may be claimed no more than 60 days before leaving the country for goods priced at least AUD$300 bought from a single business.

 Tipping in restaurants is your choice but when provided with good service in upmarket locations, it is customary to tip your waiters 10 percent of your bill.

 The legal drinking age in Australia is 18 years old. You may have to present your passport or drivers licence to show proof of age.

 There is no limit to how much money you can bring into and out of the country but if you have more than AUD$10,000 (or the amounts foreign equivalent) in cash with you, it has to be declared at the airport with Australian Customs.

 Travel insurance protects you against loss, theft, medical problems, and accidents. It is recommended that you take out a policy before you leave for your trip.

 Australia has Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Norway, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

 Special vaccinations are not required for luxury travel in Australia unless you are coming from or have been to a country infected with yellow fever within six days of your arrival. Medical advice may change, however, so check with the Australian Department of Health before your departure.

 All medicines brought into Australia for personal use must be declared upon arrival. Make sure you have your prescription or a letter from your doctor detailing your medical condition and the medicines you are carrying. If you need prescription medicine while in Australia, a doctor in the country has to write you a prescription.

 You can burn under the Australian sun in as little as 15 minutes even when its cloudy, so always wear sunscreen and protective clothing.

 Smoking is banned in enclosed public spaces, like shopping centres, hotels, restaurants, public transport, and cinemas. Tobacco products are also off-limits to individuals below 18 years old.

 When swimming in beaches, stay within the red and yellow flags. These indicate sections with Surf Lifesavers on patrol.

 Australia is generally safe but always practice caution.

Luxury travel is a great way to ensure your trip to Australia goes off without a hitch. By entru
KEARNEY  When Bailey Tebow was 4 years old, her mother kept her quiet in church by giving her a sketch pad.

As prayers were pronounced, Bailey happily sketched wedding dresses. By the age of 7, she put all those sketches into a folder.

Now, 22 years later, that hobby has blossomed into a business. She works 20-35 hours a week doing alterations on bridal gowns for Hello Beautiful Bridal & Formal Wear at 5012 Third Ave.

On a recent weekday, Tebow sat in her cozy office meticulously hemming a bridal gown. Behind her, sleek bridesmaids dresses of magenta and ivory hung on the wall. Another magenta gown was draped on a nearby ironing board.

Sometimes, a good alteration is as simple as removing or adding straps to a gown, she said. Most of the designers we carry offer that option. Some brides fear their strapless dresses will fall down, but properly adjusted, they wont.

Tebow joined the staff of Hello Beautiful in January. She enjoys all facets of her job, starting with the day brides-to-be come in to find a gown. I love to be here because I can look at each dress and see what makes it unique. I can see its potential and ways to customize it, she said.

Ideally, she said, a bride should order her gown from nine to 12 months before her wedding. It takes six to nine months for the gown to come in.

A bride should then allow two to three months for alterations. She often needs two to three appointments. Ideally, alterations should be finished four to six weeks before the wedding. Then, the bride can think about other details, she said.

Born and raised in Wichita, Kan., Tebow loved clothes and pretty things and the idea of designing. Im not good at drawing. Im creative at designing, she said.

She earned two bachelors degrees at Kansas State University, one in apparel design and production (sewing, making patterns, studying fabrics and textiles) and one in apparel marketing, which taught her the basics of the business.

She learned just as much from an internship with Alicia Ybarra, who creates bridal gowns as part of her business, Vanya Designs and Custom Sewing in Wichita. We did a lot of redesign when brides brought in their mothers or grandmothers gowns. I learned styles and details. She gave me confidence, Tebow said. After graduation, she was hired as Ybarras assistant designer.

One day, as Tebow was lamenting about her own frustrating search for a wedding gown, Ybarra said, Why dont you design your own?

Inspired, Tebow altered the lacy gown that Shirley Brown, her grandmother, wore as a bride on Aug. 5, 1949. Tebow kept the cap sleeves and bodice intact (they were beautiful) but added fabric to the gowns organza skirt. As for the long, lacy gloves her grandmother wore, Tebow fashioned those into a belt. Brown, who lives in Wichita, was thrilled with the finished product.

Bailey does an amazing job, Hello Beautiful manager Jenna Lukasiewicz said. Adding a professional to the staff to do alterations has been a real asset, she added.

In turn, Tebow said, Megan (Goeke, the owner) and Jenna fuel passion in me. The brides trust me with their gowns. Im so excited to be here. This is a special place, and this job is wonderful.

She and her husband, Tyler, live in Broken Bow, where Tyler works on the feedlot of Adams Land and Cattle Co. They are expecting their first child in late January. Asked about her long-term goals, Tebow just smiled. Ive always wanted to design and make wedding dresses, she said. Shes well on her way.
NELIGH  A Neligh man already facing multiple charges of sexual assault of a child in Antelope County was arrested on three similar Madison County charges following a court appearance Monday morning.

Darryl Lierman, 51, appeared in Antelope County District Court here in Neligh before Judge Mark Johnson.

He was escorted out of the courthouse by at least four law enforcement officials and taken by an Antelope County vehicle to Madison County Jail following the Monday morning proceedings in Antelope County District Court.

The charges are from 2010-11 and are for conspiracy to commit a Class 4 Felony, and two counts of sexual assault of child-first degree.

Bond has been set at $500,000 or 10 percent cash. If he posts bond, the Madison County Court also has ordered him not to have contact with certain individuals, including any person under age 18 unless supervised.

The new charges stem from when Lierman lived in Meadow Grove.

Lierman was arrested in July 2015 and charged with five counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of child abuse in Antelope County.

He originally faced more charges, but several of them were dropped. He had been out on bond on the Antelope County charges.

Mondays hearing dealt with multiple pretrial issues, including another continuance of the trial, the extent of expert testimony that will be allowed at trial and evidentiary issues and sexual terms that might not be allowed.

Joe Smith, deputy Antelope County attorney, gave a PowerPoint presentation on multiple Nebraska court cases that detailed the extent of testimony allowed.

Johnson agreed Monday morning to continue the trial, possibly until September. The exact date was scheduled to be verified later after all attorneys checked and rectified their schedules.

Liermans court-appointed attorney is Doug Stratton of Norfolk. He appeared along with attorney Jason Doele of Norfolk.

Smith is prosecuting the case and serves as the Madison County attorney as well as a deputy Antelope County attorney.

Assisting Smith were Joel Abler, Antelope County attorney, and Sandra Allen of the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office.

It was tentatively agreed that the original trial date of Aug. 14-18 and possibly Aug. 21-23 would be used now to handle many of the motions that Stratton had filed.

Stratton asked for a continuance because he said he needs at least seven more witness depositions before trial. Smith did not object to the continuance, which Johnson then ordered.

The exact date in September has yet to be determined. Also at issue is the judges schedule, which already has trials scheduled in the later months of 2017.

Lierman previously went on trial in December 2011 for two counts of sexual assault of a child. One of those counts was dropped during the trial, and Lierman was found not guilty by a jury.
OMAHA -- A man convicted of sexual assaults and other horrific crimes learned Monday that he is now facing his own worst fear: spending the rest of his life in prison.

Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka sentenced Anthony Swindle, 45, to at least 115 years in prison. After a six-day trial in May, a jury deliberated just 90 minutes before convicting Swindle in the rape and sex trafficking of a 15-year-old girl and the sex trafficking of a 21-year-old woman.

Jennifer Madsen, the teens mother, asked to go on the record after the hearing. She said her daughter, now 18, is still haunted by Swindles actions.

For what he did, (any prison sentence) will never be enough, Madsen said. Were OK with that (sentence).

Otepka noted that Swindle had said during a presentence investigation that his greatest fear is dying in prison.

The judge then effectively swung the prison door shut on Swindle by sentencing him to 60 years to life on each of two counts of sexual assault of a child, 40 to 60 years for sex trafficking and 20 to 60 years for sex trafficking of a minor.

The sentences are to run consecutively and were enhanced when Otepka found Swindle guilty of being an habitual criminal. Swindle, the judge said, is a gang member and drug dealer with a lengthy criminal history: 96 arrests and two previous prison stints.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine applauded the judges decision.

This is a very, very appropriate sentence for the crimes that he committed, Kleine said in a phone interview. It sends an important message to the people involved in sex trafficking that this is the kind of time they are looking at serving.

In one of the first sex trafficking trials in Douglas County, prosecutors Beth Beninato and Sean Lynch told jurors that Swindle had a habit of luring females into his car as they walked along Omaha streets late at night.

He became a boyfriend of Lisa Villanova-White after pulling up beside her near 62nd Street and Ames Avenue in January 2015. Before long, Villanova-White confided in him that she was a prostitute.

He then became her driver and sometimes her heavy. The 6-foot-1, 270-pound Swindle would shake down, and sometimes even punch, johns who refused to pay. Advertising on a website, Villanova-White, in her early 50s, accumulated 406 different johns in 20 months from 2013 to 2015.

In May 2015 Swindle approached a 21-year-old woman walking home from her job at McDonalds.

The woman  sexually abused as a child and teen  was down on her luck. He and Villanova-White posted photos of her on a website ad under the title Thickness young bold beauty.

With Swindle keeping tabs on her, she met several men at a hotel in northwest Omaha or at Villanova-Whites house near 110th and Jones Streets. Estimated number of customers: 100.

She didnt keep any of the money she made from being forced to have sex, Beninato told the jurors. It all went to Swindle.

In September 2015 Swindle saw the 15-year-old girl, who had just run away from home, walking near 42nd Street and Sorensen Parkway. He asked her if she wanted to make money, and she got into his vehicle. He drove down a secluded road, pulled over and told her to perform oral sex on him. He then climbed on top of her and raped her.

Hours later, he dropped her off at Villanova-Whites room at the hotel near 105th and Grand.

Villanova-White, who testified for the state against Swindle, pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted child abuse and was sentenced to one year in jail on each count with the sentences to be served at the same time.

Swindle sold the 15-year-old girl for sex for about a week, courtesy of an online ad with the title Play with innocence and my booty.

Someone saw the ad and alerted police that the girl appeared underage. Amber Schlote, a former Omaha police officer who is now a human-trafficking investigator with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office, contacted an undercover officer. That officer set up a meeting with the girl and took her into custody.

She has been in treatment in the 20 months since. Madsen said her daughter has a history of mental illness, including a form of schizophrenia.

I want the people of Omaha to know there are people out there like him, Madsen said. Everybody thinks my kid was a bad kid, but she wasnt a bad kid. Its about a beast preying on innocents.
Nebraska beef is once again being sold in China after the Trump administration negotiated an end to a 14-year ban. This is a great development for Nebraska agriculture, as well as for Chinese consumers who finally get to enjoy this high-quality, delicious product.

In contrast to this good news, Japan and the European Union announced a trade agreement early this month which would lower Japans tariffs on European meat and dairy products. Understandably, this is causing deep concern among U.S. beef, pork, and dairy producers.

With the worlds third-largest GDP, Japan is the largest export market for U.S. beef and the second-largest export market for U.S. pork. However, significant barriers to trade still exist, and Japan remains a market with plenty of untapped potential for U.S. exporters.

Other nations are currently making market gains in Japan at the expense of the U.S. For example, Australia, whose own bilateral trade agreement with Japan took effect in January 2015, saw the tariff on its beef drop from the nearly 40 percent rate the U.S. pays to approximately 30 percent in April 2017. This rate will continue to decrease until it reaches 19.5 percent for frozen Australian beef and 23.5 percent for fresh Australian beef.

These tariff rate discrepancies between U.S. and Australian beef undermine U.S. competitiveness and resulted in a 14.6 percent increase in Australian beef exports to Japan in 2015.

Now, with a new agreement negotiated between Japan and the European Union, U.S. producers fear losing further market share in this crucial economy.

This is why my resolution urging the Trump administration to negotiate a trade agreement with Japan is so important. The resolution, which I introduced in the House in March, calls on the Trump administration to use the process established under the Trade Priorities and Accountability Act, or TPA, to begin working on a trade deal with Japan. I supported passing TPA in 2015 because it empowered Congress to direct trade negotiations while giving other countries the confidence to bring their best offers to the table.

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiated between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, the tariff on U.S. beef exports to Japan was set to fall to 9 percent over 15 years. With President Trump pulling the U.S. out of TPP in favor of bilateral agreements, we need to move quickly on initiating trade talks with Japan.

As we work to expand our partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, we must also continue to strengthen our relationships with our neighbors Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration has expressed its commitment to modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

There is no reason we cannot take another look at a 25-year-old agreement, but we need to ensure the gains achieved for U.S. agriculture are not undermined. We must move through this process quickly and assure Mexican consumers quality U.S. products will continue to be as available and affordable for them as they have been to this point.

Our agriculture producers fuel our economy and feed the world, and it is our job to make sure markets are open to them. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade policy, I will keep emphasizing the importance of asserting U.S. leadership in the global marketplace.

Rep. Adrian Smiths 3rd Congressional District covers 75 counties in central and western Nebraska.
LEXINGTON  A missing teenage girl from South Dakota was found by Dawson County Sheriffs deputies at a Lexington truck stop Friday evening.

A South Dakota man who was traveling with her was charged in Dawson County Court on multiple crimes against the teen, according to Dawson County Court records.

The Madison, S.D., 14 year old was reported missing Wednesday, according to Madison, S.D., Police Chief Justin Meyer. She was reported to have been with Chase Zingmark, 18, also of Madison. They were traveling westbound on Interstate 80 in Nebraska.

A South Dakota warrant was out for Zingmarks arrest on multiple charges. Meyer wouldnt provide details about Zingmarks charges.

I would say at this point the investigation is ongoing, and that is yet to be determined, he said.

According to Dawson County Sheriff Gary Reiber, Lexington police spotted a vehicle, matching the Madison Police Departments description, at a Lexington truck stop at about 8:39 p.m. Friday. A sheriffs deputy identified two people in the vehicle, which was parked underneath a light pole, Reiber said. Dawson County deputies initiated a high-risk traffic stop on the vehicle, Reiber said. Zingmark was seated in the drivers seat and the girl was seated in the front passenger seat.

Zingmark was taken to the Dawson County Jail, Reiber said, and the girl was taken into the sheriffs office for an interview.

The girl has since been returned home to South Dakota, Meyer said.

Zingmark is charged in Dawson County Court with debauching a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a child, both Class I misdemeanors. He also was charged with first offense possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana and possession or use of drug paraphernalia, both infractions.

Nebraska Class I misdemeanors carry a maximum punishment of one year in jail.

Zingmark is scheduled to enter a plea Aug. 1 in Dawson County Court.

Reiber and Meyer said their offices are continuing to investigate the case.
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We scoured the nation to identify the best stock in every state. Royal Caribbean Cruises (symbol RCL (opens in new tab)) is the publicly traded company we picked in Florida. The company headquarters is located in Miami.

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.

Royal Caribbean Cruises by the Numbers

Headquarters: Miami

Miami Share price: $112.15

$112.15 Market value: $24.1 billion

$24.1 billion Price-earnings ratio: 15

(Prices and data are as of June 22, 2017)

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Theres a lot to like about a company that keeps its promises to investors, and Royal Caribbean appears to be doing exactly that. Under its Double Double initiative, announced in 2014, the company set out to increase the return on investor capital (a measure of the return a company makes on each dollar invested in the business) to a double-digit annual rate, and to double earnings per share by 2017. Here we are in 2017, and Value Line projects return on investor capital this year of 10%, up from 5.9% in 2014. And Wall Street analysts, on average, expect the company to post $7.20 in earnings per share this year, more than twice 2014s figure of $3.43 per share.

Investors have taken notice: The stock has soared 38% since the beginning of the year. But analysts still view the stock favorably. Value Line analyst Adam Platt notes that bookings for 2017 are already above last years record high, and they are being issued at higher prices. He adds that the addition of new ships should drive earnings growth through 2022, with newer ships yielding more revenue per room and proving more cost-efficient to run. Analysts at Wedbush are bullish on cruise-line operators overall, and Royal is their top recommendation, given its attractive mix of growing profitability and robust cost controls. They see the stock hitting $117 over the next 12 months.
Recently a reporter asked for my thoughts on what investors should consider when investing in spirits and alcohol, an industry that has shown great growth numbers in the past several years.

The Distilled Spirits Council counted 750 micro-distilleries in the United States in 2015, compared with just 92 in 2010 (opens in new tab). And the U.S. craft spirits market showed a compound annual growth rate of 27.4% in volume and 27.9% in value between 2010 and 2015, according to the American Craft Spirits Association (opens in new tab), a non-profit trade group representing the industry.

Time to Invest? Not so fast. Sure, micro-distilleries have seen a huge boom in popularity. It seems a new micro-distillery pops up every day in my neck of the woods in San Diego. Witness, too, Constellation Brands $1 billion acquisition of the well-known micro-brewery Ballast Point in 2015.

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3 Considerations Before You Buy into the Micro-Brew Trend

Heres my caveat, which I offer as a way to help you see how I weigh such investment decisions as an investment adviser (full disclosure, neither I nor my firm have a stake or financial interest in Constellation Brands). Though the trends appear positive, there are other factors investors must consider before buying into micro-breweries, or any hot trend, industry or company for that matter. You may love drinking Ballast Point beer, but you still may want to look more closely at investing in the micro-brewery industry through Constellation Brands, for three reasons:

Amped-up competition. The field is getting crowded. With a 715% increase in micro-distilleries since 2010 and the possibility of that number continuing to rise, there is potential for lost market share, which could have an adverse effect on sales for other companies.

The field is getting crowded. With a 715% increase in micro-distilleries since 2010 and the possibility of that number continuing to rise, there is potential for lost market share, which could have an adverse effect on sales for other companies. Cost of materials. If the demand for malt, barley, rice, rye and corn continues to rise, a supply shortage could develop and prices could increase. This would have a direct effect on the profit margin for alcohol-producing companies.

If the demand for malt, barley, rice, rye and corn continues to rise, a supply shortage could develop and prices could increase. This would have a direct effect on the profit margin for alcohol-producing companies. Individual corporate strength. The final consideration investors must think about is the company they are buying. Just because micro-breweries are hot doesnt make an investment in a distilled spirits company a sure thing.

Measuring Financial Fundamentals

Lets take a closer look at the fundamentals for Constellation Brands (Ticker: STZ). It was trading at around $182 earlier this summer, with a 52-week range of $144.00 - $186.05. The company produces such well-known brands as Robert Mondavi wines, Svedka vodka and Corona, Pacifico and Modelo beers, along with the previously mentioned Ballast Point brand, with its Manta Ray Double IPA and Pineapple Sculpin ale. Constellation Brands sales have grown by 11.96% in the 12-month period ending Feb. 28, 2017, and EPS has risen 53.21% during the same time frame.

So far, so good. But it is always important to see what you are paying for various aspects of the business by analyzing the valuation ratios. Price/earnings for the last 12 months stood at 25.71 at the end of May 2017, which is above the spirits industry average of 9.8. This is a negative, as I like to see valuation ratios lower because it shows we are getting a good value for that particular measure.

The price to sales ratio at that time was 4.86, once again above the industry average of 2.66. Price/cash flow was 19.42, which is also above the industry average of 16.53. Like the P/E ratio, these valuation ratios all appear to be expensive when comparing to the industry average.

I have other concerns with the balance sheet. Two ratios that show the companys ability to cover its debts include the current ratio (which considers the current total assets of a company  both liquid and illiquid  relative to its current total liabilities) and the so-called quick ratio, which looks at the companys ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets. Constellation Brands current ratio of 1.20 looked OK. I begin to worry if a companys current ratio falls below 1. But the quick ratio of 0.47 made me pause. The quick ratio gives a better idea of the short-term liquidity for a company as it excludes inventory from the calculation. I would like to see this company build a stronger base of liquid assets on the balance sheet.

Total debt/equity was also high at 134.06%. In real estate, this is the equivalent of owning a million-dollar home, but owing over $1.3 million on that home. It is concerning to me the company has been increasing its debt load without repurchasing stock.

Constellation Brands has seen a major increase in total intangible assets in recent years. In 2013, goodwill was measured at $2.7 billion and net intangibles stood at $857.5 million. Looking at the last quarter, goodwill was $7.9 billion and net intangibles were $3.4 billion. Much of this was due to Constellation Brands acquiring new companies.

It is important to understand what the costs to acquire these companies were and how much goodwill (which includes such things as the value of a companys brand name and customer base, along with any patents or proprietary technology) was incurred from the transactions. If the newly acquired companies do not perform as expected, the company must write down the goodwill on the balance sheet  which is exactly what Constellation Brands did in late June, when it recorded an $87 billion non-cash impairment charge (opens in new tab). This could send total equity lower, and debt/equity would then be higher.

Looking forward to February 2019, estimated EPS on a GAAP basis is $8.74. Based on a forward multiple of 16.5, I get a target sell price of $144.21. I use a forward multiple of 16.5, because it is the 40-year average for the forward P/E. These numbers dont appear to support an investment in Constellation Brands, in my judgment.

The Downside to Buying into a Trend

Trend investing can be very fun and exciting, but it can result in a herd mentality. As an industrys growth increases, so does the number of investors bidding up share prices to overvalued levels. Once the trend begins to dissipate or investors begin to realize the companies are overpriced, the stock price either falls out or goes nowhere for many years.

The tech boom and bust is the quintessential example of trend investing. Many investors lost a lot of money during this time due to overpaying for hot tech stocks that were a part of the trend in the late 1990s.

Looking at trends may be a good starting point to conduct your research, but it should never be the final step. You want to make sure you are buying a company that has a good product or service, has room for growth and that you are not overpaying for that company.
Most Americans still think about retirement as something that will happen around age 65  give or take a few years.

Thats when you reach the traditional milestones: Medicare kicks in, and Social Security is available should you need or want to start making withdrawals.

But there are other deadlines  both before and after your mid-60s  that are important to keep in mind if you want to make the most of your investments, avoid government penalties and save on taxes. Heres a quick checklist:

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Age 50: If you got a late start with your retirement savings or always wished youd socked away more money, this is the time to do it. With catch-up contributions, workers 50 and older can start saving extra money and defer taxes on as much as $24,000 in 401(k) and 403(b) plans in 2017. (Thats the maximum $18,000 contribution plus a $6,000 catch-up.) Those with traditional or Roth IRAs can contribute an extra $1,000 to the regular limit of $5,500.

Age 55: If youre 55 or older and you retire, quit or get laid off, you can take a withdrawal from your 401(k) in that same calendar year without having to pay the 10% early withdrawal penalty -- but only from the account associated with the job you most recently left. (Public safety employees can avoid the penalty if they leave a job in the year they turn 50 or later.)

Age 59: The 10% early withdrawal penalty on retirement account distributions goes away once you reach 59. Keep in mind, though, that you'll still have to pay income tax on traditional 401(k) and IRA withdrawals.

Age 62: This is a big year! Youre finally eligible to take Social Security  and many Americans do begin payments at the age of 62. But if you can hold off awhile, its probably wise. Your payments could be reduced permanently by around 30% if you sign up this early. Also, if you work and collect Social Security benefits at the same time, some or all of your payments could be temporarily withheld.

Age 65: Youll become eligible for Medicare at 65 and can sign up as early as three months before your 65th birthday. Get on it! Unlike Social Security, theres a downside if you dont sign up on time: Your Medicare Part B and D premiums could permanently increase, and you could be denied supplemental coverage. If you expect to keep working, talk to someone in human resources about how this affects your group health plan.

Age 66: First-wave Baby Boomers, rejoice! If you were born between 1943 and 1954, youre eligible to take full Social Security payments when you turn 66. (Those born between 1955 and 1959 will have to wait a few months longer.) Just remember: If you postpone collecting your payments, theyll continue to increase by 8% every year you delay until age 70. (Talk to your financial adviser about whether waiting is good for you when it comes to tax consequences.)

Age 67: If you were born in 1960 or later, this is your year. Your eligibility age for full Social Security payments is 67.

Age 70: Times up: Theres no benefit in waiting to collect your Social Security payments past age 70, so enjoy!

Age 70: Distributions from traditional IRAs and 401(k) accounts become required after age 70, and you must pay income tax on each withdrawal. These are the dreaded required minimum distributions (RMDs) you no doubt have heard about from friends and financial experts. If you fail to withdraw the correct amount, the tax penalty is steep: 50% of the amount you should have withdrawn. So talk to your adviser about determining what the correct amount is, and while youre at it, get strategies for reinvesting and minimizing taxes.

Whew! Thats more than 20 years youll need to keep track of if you want to make the most of your savings and benefits. But missing or dismissing one of these critical milestones could potentially impact tens of thousands of your hard-earned dollars  or more.

Keep this list handy - and stay on top of any policy changes or updates  while youre making your plans for a long, happy retirement.

Kim Franke-Folstad contributed to this article.
(New throughout after bonds sold)

LIMA, July 17 (Reuters) - Peru sold $3 billion worth of sol-denominated bonds due 2032 on Monday that can be settled through Euroclear, part of an ongoing effort by the Andean country to reduce its debt in foreign currencies, the finance ministry said.

Peru's first sale of Euroclearable bonds followed similar issuances by Chile and Mexico that can also be settled by Belgium-based post-trade services provider Euroclear.

Euroclear specializes in the settlement and safe-keeping of domestic and cross-border securities for bonds, equities and derivatives, making it easier for global investors to trade.

Demand for the Euroclearable bonds was more than three times that of what was sold, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The bonds were sold with a 6.15 percent yield and will be used to prepay debt in dollars, euros and yens, the finance ministry said, adding that the issuance does not increase Peru's overall debt load.

Peru has largely tapped global debt markets in recent years to extend the life of its debt at times when emerging market assets are in demand.

Monday's issuance follows stronger-than expected economic growth data in China and comments by Federal Reserve head Janet Yellen last week that also bolstered emerging market currencies. (Reporting by Ursula Scollo and Mitra Taj; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Diane Craft)
ADDIS ABABA, July 18 (Reuters) - Ethiopia plans to offer shares to private investors in its road-building and maintenance projects, its finance minister said on Tuesday, the latest step to open up and modernise the state-led economy.

"We do not have private-run roads. Through public-private partnerships, the private sector is interested to develop roads through this arrangement," Minister of Finance and Economic Development Abraham Tekeste told Reuters in an interview.

"We could work to share the risks and create an environment whereby the private sector can recoup returns on its investment."

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Duncan Miriri, Larry King)
July 18 (Reuters) - Experian Plc , the world's biggest credit data company, reported a 6 percent increase in first-quarter revenue from ongoing activities thanks to a strong performance from its North America business.

Experian said it expected growth for the year to be within its target "mid single-digit organic revenue range, with stable margins."

However, total and organic revenue at constant exchange rates in the UK and Ireland fell 3 percent in the three months to the end of June on a decline in consumer services.

The shares dipped 1 percent in early trade.

The FTSE-100 company, best known for running consumer credit checks for banks, landlords and retailers, said total revenue for the quarter rose 8 percent in North America.

It was boosted by contributions from CSIdentity, a consumer identity management and fraud detection business it bought in 2016 for $360 million. (Reporting Noor Zainab Hussain and Rahul B in Bengaluru; Editing by Keith Weir)
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Premier Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: PG) now envisions more gold and silver output in 2017 than previously was the case. Operations in 2017 have outperformed expectations and as a result the company is increasing its full-year production guidance to 130,000-140,000 ounces from 125,000 to 135,000 ounces of gold, and to 340,000 to 365,000 ounces of silver, up from 325,000 to 350,000 ounces, the company says. Premier reports second-quarter output of 37,617 gold ounces and 89,474 silver ounces.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Jaguar Mining Revises Down Output Guidance Slightly

Jaguar Mining Inc. (TSX: JAG) lowered its 2017 production guidance modestly and reports second-quarter gold production of just under 20,000 ounces from its Brazilian operations, down from 24,222 in the same period a year ago and 22,292 in the first quarter. Cash costs fell to $857 per ounce from $924 in the first quarter, although they were up from $758 in the year-ago period. The company now looks for output of 95,000 to 105,000 ounces this year, compared to the previous range of 100,000 to 110,000, reflecting a challenging first half of the year. Management says the improving trend in the second quarter should be sustained, and that production is expected to be at the high end of its range, exceeding 2016. In particular, production from Turmalina is expected to return to normal as previous operational challenges are no longer affecting output, Jaguar says. Lower cash costs are a direct result of company-wide cost reduction programs and a focus on profitable ounce production and waste reduction at the mine level, says Rodney Lamond, president and chief executive officer. For the month of June, unit costs were approximately $797 per ounce sold. Lower cash costs for the second quarter [are] a notable improvement as the decrease in cash costs was achieved despite lower-than-forecast ounces sold.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Superior Gold Begins Processing Of Oxide Material

Superior Gold Inc. (TSXV: SGI) announces the start of processing up to 155,000 tonnes of oxide material at the companys Plutonic gold mine in Australia. The material is stockpiled at Sandfire Resources NLs (ASX: SFR) DeGrussa copper mine approximately 30 kilometers to the south. Chris Bradbrook, president and chief executive officer of Superior Gold, says the ability to purchase and process the Sandfire material comes at an opportune time since Superior has begun development of the Hermes project and expects to be processing mineralization from it by 2018. The Hermes mineralization is oxide material, while the underground mineralization at the Plutonic Mine is sulphide. We need to ensure an appropriate balance is maintained between the amounts of these two types of mineralization in order to maximize recoveries, the CEO says. Consequently, processing of the Sandfire material for the remainder of 2017 will ensure we are able to optimize the relative proportions of oxide and sulphide mineralization once production commences at Hermes. The contribution of the mineralization from Hermes is anticipated to allow us to reach our annual production target of 100,000 ounces of gold. In the near term, Superior is focused on re-establishing Plutonic gold operations as a stable gold producer capable of producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually, the company says.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Turquoise Hill Reports Decline In 2Q Production

Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX, NYSE: TRQ) reports second-quarter production of 37,200 tonnes of copper concentrates and 24,000 ounces of gold concentrates from its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. This is down from 51,700 tonnes of copper and 70,000 ounces of gold in the same quarter a year ago, although only slightly lower than 38,100 tonnes of copper and 25,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter. The company also produces some silver. Oyu Tolgois second-quarter production results were as planned, says Jeff Tygesen, chief executive officer. Ore treated in the quarter was impacted by a scheduled five-day maintenance shutdown in May, which was successfully completed. Concentrator throughput for the first half of 2017 continued to perform well, as did material mined. Oyu Tolgoi is expected to produce 130,000 to 160,000 tonnes of copper and 100,000 to 140,000 ounces of gold in concentrates for 2017, Turquoise Hill reports.
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Image Courtesy of Flickr user Alison Thomas

New Zealand is now in the middle of a new mining controversy, as the latest gold discovery exploded into a fierce stand-off between the local community in the North Island conservation area and the New Talisman Gold Mines.

Talisman said last week that it found a large layer of gold at its Dubbo site in the Karangahake Gorge, located on the protected land in New Zealands North Island.

The deposit, identified as 8,500 kg of highest quality gold, is said to be worth up to tens of millions of New Zealand dollars. This kind of quality puts Talismans new discovery into the top five percent of global deposits based on grade, the company said in a statement.

Talisman wanted to begin extraction as early as next year, according to the mining companys general manager of operations Wayne Chowles.

But, those plans have been derailed as the locals came out in force to block the access road to the gorge, claiming the proposed mining operations would disrupt the peace and harmony of the sacred mountain and the local community.

We dont want to take direct action but we are left with no choice, the government and the department of conservation have failed to protect this treasured land, Ruby Jane Powell, a member of the protest group Protect Karangahake, told The Guardian.

It is a really popular recreation area, and the local water source is taken down-stream from the mine. In general our culture and economy is really interlinked with the eco-tourism and outdoor aspect of life in the Coromandel, and mining threatens that.

Protests in the area are not new, but demonstrators efforts have intensified this week, with dozens of people attempting to either block the access road or at least slow down the mining companys vehicles heading to the mining site.

And communication channels between the locals and the mining company have been cut off, according to media reports.

Chowles have said in the past that Talismans activities will not significantly disrupt the peace and beauty of the gorge, adding that just 0.4 of a hectare would be impacted in the reserve area.

The few politicians who agree with the protesters are in the minority. New Zealands Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty spoke out against the mining company, stating that its activities on Karangahake mountain would turn a beautiful recreational park and sacred mountain into an industrial zone.

The New Zealand Government is hell bent on opening up conservation areas to mining but they do not have a mandate to destroy our precious places, she said. This is public land which has been set aside to protect its ecological values and for recreation. It is a sacred mountain to the indigenous people of the area and local residents are actively and peacefully opposing the initial development of the mining activity on the mountain.

The Karangahake Gorge is located on protected department of conservation land in the Coromandel peninsula. The destination is very popular with the locals as well tourists.

All of Talismans mining activities have been approved by the local authorities. Back in 2009, Talisman was given a 25-year mining permit to prospect and mine on conservation land in Karangahake.

According to the countrys laws, any mining company can conduct operations on protected land if given a permit by the government and local council.

Since May of this year, there have been 43 active mines operating in conservation areas in New Zealand, according to the data provided by the ministry of business, innovation and employment.
By Kane Wu and Dasha Afanasieva

HONG KONG/LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - European private equity investor AAC Capital is selecting banks to sell Envirotainer, a Swedish company renting cold containers for shipping temperature-sensitive healthcare products, sources familiar with the matter said.

Two of the sources familiar with the business, which has 250 employees and was founded in 1985, said it could be worth at least 800 million euros ($925 million). One of the sources said his more than 800 million-euro enterprise value estimate was "on a solid double-digit multiple" to earnings.

The other said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 70 million euros and while AAC wanted an enterprise value multiple of 15 or 16 times EBITDA, a multiple of 12 or 13 was more typical.

Another source familiar with the company said its high growth profile resulted in a broad range of valuation expectations for the company.

A fourth person said it was not clear whether there had been a formal pitching process to sell the company, but banks were actively seeking the mandate.

Eurotainer and AAC, the former UK private equity arm of ABN Amro, declined to comment. AAC Capital Partners Holding has 1.7 billion euros under management and two specialized investment funds, dedicated to mid-market buyouts in northwest Europe.

Private equity investment company HarbourVest valued its 0.28 percent stake in Envirotainer at $3.6 million at January 31, 2017. ($1 = 0.8645 euros)

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

DATA The statistics office is to release employment and wages data for June at 1200 GMT.

FUELS

Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has pulled back from the plan to launch a new fuel fee that might have resulted in fuel higher prices, state-run news agency PAP quoted PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski as saying.

BOGDANKA Polish coal miner Bogdanka plans to spend up to 1.3 billion zlotys ($356.81 million) on increasing its mine's resources to 446 million tonnes from 227 million, which will prolong the mine's life to 50 years, Parkiet daily quoted Bogdanka's CEO as saying.

LOTOS Polish refiner Lotos, which refines mostly Russian oil, is testing the U.S. market in light of potential future oil supplies, Puls Biznesu daily quoted Lotos CEO as saying.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 3.6434 zlotys)

(Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)
MOSCOW, July 18 (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a shareholder in state-controlled oil pipeline monopoly Transneft , proposes converting the company's preferred shares into ordinary ones, Interfax news agency on Tuesday cited the RDIF CEO as saying. Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East have bought into Transneft shares along with RDIF, its Chief Executive Kirill Dmitriev said.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov)

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 18 (Reuters) - IP Group sweetened its offer for rival intellectual property firm Touchstone Innovations Plc to about 490 million pounds ($641.7 million), IP Group said on Tuesday, sending Touchstone shares up as much as 8 percent.

The revised all-share offer values each Touchstone share at 304 pence, representing a premium of 11.1 percent to Touchstone's closing price of 273.63 pence on Monday. IP Group said it received support for the improved offer from Touchstone shareholders representing about 89.7 percent of Touchstone's share capital.

IP Group said Touchstone shareholders would receive 2.2178 new shares of IP Group for each Touchstone share, compared with 2.1575 new shares under the pervious offer in June. Touchstone shareholders would own about 34 percent of the combined company, one percent higher than under IP Group's previous offer.

Shares of IP Group were down 1.2 percent at 135.3 pence. ($1 = 0.7637 pounds)

(Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)
* June new home prices +0.7 pct m/m vs +0.7 pct in May

* Yearly growth in June +10.2 pct vs May's +10.4 pct

* Beijing prices fall for first time since Feb 2015

(adds details, quotes, background)

By Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo

BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) - Home property prices in Beijing fell for the first time in more than two years in June, while Shanghai further declined and Shenzhen stalled, pointing to significant cooling in China's biggest real estate markets, official data showed.

Nationwide, home price growth slowed slightly in June as government efforts to keep prices in check weighed on larger cities, though smaller cities maintained rapid growth.

People in the industry expect home prices in China's largest cities to stay on a mild slowing trend for the next 12 months.

In June, average new home prices in China's 70 major cities rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier, decelerating from May's 10.4 percent gain, according to Reuters calculations based on an official survey out on Tuesday.

On a monthly basis, new home prices rose 0.7 percent in June, the same as the previous month's reading, Reuters calculations based on data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

"China's 15 hottest property markets, mostly first- and second-tier cities, remained stable in June as a city-based property policy continued to take effect," the NBS said in a statement accompanying the data release.

More than 45 cities, most of them top-tier cities with a sizable population, have imposed varying levels of restrictions since last October to curb fast-rising prices, with most of the latest measures introduced in late March.

These measures have started taking some heat out of the market, with sales and investment in property cooling slightly in the second quarter. The cooling effect is most visible in China's the biggest cities.

Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing price growth slowed to 2.7 percent, 8.6 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

From a month earlier, prices in Beijing fell 0.4 percent, marking the first fall since February 2015. Shanghai prices slipped by a further 0.2 percent, while Shenzhen prices remained unchanged.

DECLINING SALES

The value of new personal home mortgages in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in the first half of 2017 was equal to 30 percent of the total value of home loans in 2016, a Chinese state newspaper has reported.

"Sales declines in the biggest cities were quite significant, so prices are certainly not going to rebound," said Rosealea Yao, a property economist with Gavekal Dragonomics.

"I think the mild declining trend will continue through at least the first half of 2018," Yao said.

Nonetheless, real estate investment and sales growth both sped up in June after slowing in May, most likely due to more robust demand in smaller centres that have been encouraged to reduce inventory and are not subject to the strict curbs at work in bigger cities. Luoyang, a third-tier city in central Henan province, topped the list in June, with prices of new units up 2.3 percent on month, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in May, taking the annual growth to 10.2 percent.

That has also been reflected in stronger credit demand in the month from households.

Household loans - mostly mortgages - in June rose to 738.4 billion yuan from 610.6 billion yuan in May, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by China's central bank. "This property cycle has been quite different from the previous ones in that there have been many mini-cycles of booms, which reflects loose credit conditions and monetary support especially in smaller cities," said Gavekal Dragonomics's Yao.

China's booming property market has been a solid support for economic growth for the past year, but it came at the cost of soaring housing prices that have triggered fears of a market collapse and the breakout of systemic financial risk.

Keeping a lid on price fluctuations has become a priority for policymakers in a politically important year, with a major leadership reshuffle expected this autumn.

But to make sure the market is neither too hot nor too cold, authorities have increasingly resorted to administrative measures that many analysts warn are anti-market in nature.

For example, sales prices for new units in a few cities like Zhenzhou - capital of Henan - are not allowed to be higher than the price level seen last October for new units in the vicinity. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Cooling China's property market ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Eric Meijer)
* Idemitsu plans to issue $1.1 billion in new shares

* Court earlier rejected founding family's petition to stop sale

* Planned merger with Showa Shell opposed by Idemitsu family

(Recasts, adds share prices)

TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters) - Idemitsu Kosan Co said it would proceed with a $1.1 billion sale of new shares, after a court rejected the founding family's petition to block the stock offering, potentially clearing the way for a takeover of Showa Shell Sekiyu .

The descendents of the Idemitsu founder, Sazo Idemitsu, have been locked in a battle with the Japanese refiner's management over the proposed buyout. The new share sale would dilute the family's stake and make it harder for them to oppose the deal.

The family has lodged an appeal with the Tokyo High Court, their lawyer said, calling the latest decision "unjust".

Earlier this month, Idemitsu announced plans to sell 48 million new shares, equivalent to 30 percent of its outstanding shares, saying it needed to raise funds partly to repay loans.

The founding family quickly sought a court injunction to block the stock sale, which according to calculations by Thomson Reuters would cut its stake to about 26 percent, from more than a third now, eliminating its ability to veto the merger.

Idemitsu hopes to raise 124.8 billion yen ($1.11 billion) by issuing the shares at 2,600 yen apiece. Payment for the shares is due on Thursday.

Idemitsu, Japan's No.2 refiner by sales, in December completed the purchase of just under a third of Showa Shell, the first stage in its planned merger with the smaller competitor.

If the deal goes through, it would be the second in Japan's bloated refining sector after JX Holdings Inc bought TonenGeneral Sekiyu.

Idemitsu shares were down about 2.6 percent by 0342 GMT, while Showa Shell was up early 3 percent. The Nikkei 225 was down about 0.6 percent. ($1 = 112.0900 yen)

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Osamu Tsukimori, writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
* June new home prices +0.7 pct m/m vs +0.7 pct in May

* Yearly growth in June +10.2 pct vs May's +10.4 pct

* Declining affordability raises housing market risk

(Adds detail, quotes, on housing affordability)

By Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo

BEIJING, July 18 (Reuters) - Home property prices in Beijing fell for the first time in more than two years in June, while Shanghai further declined and Shenzhen stalled, pointing to significant cooling in China's biggest real estate markets, official data showed.

Nationwide, home price growth slowed slightly in June as government efforts to keep prices in check weighed on larger cities, though smaller cities maintained rapid growth.

People in the industry expect home price growth in China's largest cities to stay on a mild slowing trend for the next 12 months.

In June, average new home prices in China's 70 major cities rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier, decelerating from May's 10.4 percent gain, according to Reuters calculations based on an official survey out on Tuesday.

On a monthly basis, new home prices rose 0.7 percent in June, the same as the previous month's reading, Reuters calculations based on data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

"China's 15 hottest property markets, mostly first- and second-tier cities, remained stable in June as a city-based property policy continued to take effect," the NBS said in a statement accompanying the data release.

More than 45 cities, most of them top-tier cities with a sizable population, have imposed varying levels of restrictions since last October to curb fast-rising prices, with most of the latest measures introduced in late March.

These measures have started taking some heat out of the market, with sales and investment in property cooling slightly in the second quarter. The cooling effect is most visible in China's the biggest cities. Price growth in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing slowed to 2.7 percent, 8.6 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

From a month earlier, prices in Beijing fell 0.4 percent, marking the first fall since February 2015. Shanghai prices slipped by a further 0.2 percent, while Shenzhen prices remained unchanged.

DECLINING SALES

The value of new personal home mortgages in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in the first half of 2017 was equal to 30 percent of the total value of home loans in 2016, a Chinese state newspaper reported.

"Sales declines in the biggest cities were quite significant, so prices are certainly not going to rebound," said Rosealea Yao, a property economist with Gavekal Dragonomics.

"I think the mild declining trend will continue through at least the first half of 2018," Yao said.

Nonetheless, real estate investment and sales growth both sped up in June after slowing in May, most likely due to more robust demand in smaller centres that have been encouraged to reduce inventory and are not subject to the strict curbs at work in bigger cities. Luoyang, a third-tier city in central Henan province, topped the list in June, with prices of new units up 2.3 percent on month, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in May, taking the annual growth to 10.2 percent.

That has also been reflected in stronger credit demand in the month from households.

Household loans - mostly mortgages - in June rose to 738.4 billion yuan from 610.6 billion yuan in May, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by China's central bank. Keeping a lid on price fluctuations has become a priority for policymakers in a politically important year, with a major leadership reshuffle expected this autumn.

But to make sure the market is neither too hot nor too cold, authorities have increasingly resorted to administrative measures that many analysts warn are anti-market in nature.

For example, sales prices for new units in a few cities like Zhengzhou - capital of Henan - are not allowed to be higher than the price level seen last October for new units in the vicinity. FADING AFFORDABILITY

The upsurge in house prices since 2001 in most major Chinese cities has spurred growing concerns about affordability.

A typical two-bedroom new home in Beijing now costs around 6 million yuan ($870,000), about 69 times the average per capita disposable income in the city, much higher than the ratio of less than 25 times for New York City.

Economists worry that slowing growth in incomes, which had been rising at double-digit rates for decades, will no longer be able to cushion financial risks in an extremely inflated housing market.

On average, China's disposable income was up 8.1 percent on-year for city-dwellers in the first half of the year, official data showed, slower than the 10.2 percent annual property price growth in June.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Cooling China's property market ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo; Additional Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Eric Meijer)
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(Kitco News) - When downward spikes in gold and silver happen, some are quick to point to the mysterious fat finger  but why is there no speculation with upward momentum?

This is what research firm CPM Group questioned in a note sent out Tuesday morning.

In recent weeks there has been a fair bit of discussion in the gold and silver markets about recent downward spikes in the prices of these metals[T]he discussions have ignored similar upward spikes in the prices, which is typical of conversations run by conspiracy believers who only look at downward moves, analysts at CPM said.

The New-York based research firm is led by Jeffrey Christian, who in the past has dismissed theories that the metals markets are manipulated.

These are not really flash crashes, the note explained.

The moves appear to reflect the effects of a combination of program trading, stop-loss order practices, and an influx of institutional money into these markets. They do not appear to be fat fingered erroneous trades or any nefarious efforts to know prices lower, CPM said.

CPM Group added that these sorts of spikes, up and down, are not unique to the precious metals, rather they are occurring in equity indices, currencies, and bonds due to the same three factors.

[I]t does not involve conspiracies to suppress precious metals, the firm noted.

On Tuesday, gold prices hit a two-week high with August Comex gold last up $4.90 an ounce at $1,238.50. The solid mount from the yellow metal had even revived talk of gold hitting $1,300 an ounce by year-end.

Talk of a fat-finger move was last seen on July 6 when the price of silver crashed. The move, albeit brief, was intense. Silver futures dropped 10% to $14.40 an ounce within minutes. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) described it as a glitch.

The reality is that program trading, stop-loss order practices, and the enormous increase in large institutional investors into precious metals have combined to make such events more common, CPM said.
Grainger County Tomato Festival set for July 28-30





Grainger County Tomato Festival. Image courtesy of Wayfarin' Stranger.







The Grainger County Tomato Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The Festival was organized in 1992 to promote world famous Grainger County Tomatoes. The Festival also promotes all Grainger County agricultural products, specifically the Grainger County Tomato, and the many local artists, authors, talent, and craftsmen in the Grainger County area.



Over the years a number of special events have been added, making the festival one of the largest free festivals in East Tennessee. It has been named by Parade magazine as one of the top ten free festivals in the USA. The festival is always the last full weekend in July in Rutledge, Tennessee. Be sure to mark your calendar this year for July 28-30. There will be numerous vendors with food, crafts, art, authors, and commercial exhibits.



A living history section features people dressed in period clothing to exhibit what life was like during the Revolutionary War. There are vendors in this area as well selling handmade items like leather goods, wooden toys, and iron tools. These craftsmen are demonstrating their craft right there on the festival grounds, and they love to share their knowledge. This is an educational opportunity for the entire family.



Another crowd favorite is the tractor and engine exhibit and its not just for the guys. The ladies are included, thanks to the pink tractors. The folks that own these wonderful machines are right there with them and love to talk about all that is involved with restoration and use.



The Tomato Wars is so popular that an extra day has been added to accommodate all the sign up, The war is a fundraiser for God's Planet for Haiti. TV stations and news stations sign up and battle it out with the too ripe to sell tomatoes that the Grainger County tomato farmers have donated for the event. It's not so clean fun for families, businesses, and church groups to get in on the action.



The storyteller this year is Harry Bumgardner, a member of the Sons of the Revolution. He knows most everything a man needs to know about the early history of our country. Be sure and bring the young folks by to see him because he has a variety of things to talk about.



Grainger County Tomato Festival. Image courtesy of Wayfarin' Stranger.


City of Pigeon Forge seeks to become a Firewise Community





PIGEON FORGE, TN  The City of Pigeon Forge Fire Department (PFFD), wildfire safety experts from the National Fire Protection Associations (NFPA) Firewise Communities Program and the Tennessee Division of Forestry are working together to assist Pigeon Forge residents and businesses in an effort to become nationally recognized as a Firewise community in 2017.



The Firewise USA program provides a number of proven tools and resources for homeowners and other community residents to help prepare for and reduce the risk of wildfire damage and loss.



Pigeon Forge community members are encouraged to learn more about the Firewise program by contacting Kevin Nunn at the PFFD at (865)-429-7381 for more information or to become involved.



Other Firewise communities have demonstrated that individual efforts do make a big difference as it relates to reducing risk through preparedness, said Pigeon Forge Fire Chief Tony Watson. We want to educate our community, both our residents and our businesses, and encourage everyone to take an active role in making our Pigeon Forge community fire wise.



More than 1,400 communities in the U.S. have dramatically lowered their risk of wildfire damage by participating in the Firewise Communities/USA Recognition Program. For more information, visit www.firewise.org or contact the Pigeon Forge Fire Department.



Firewise prevention includes:

 Clearing leaves and other debris from gutters, eaves, porches and decks;

 Removing fuel, in this case vegetation and man-made structures, within three to five feet of a homes foundation and out buildings, including garages and sheds. Any combustible should not touch a home;

 Removing dead vegetation within 30 to 100 feet of a home;

 Landscaping with native and less-flammable plants. State forestry or county extension agents have additional information on which plants are best.



The Firewise Communities Program encourages local solutions for safety by involving homeowners in taking individual responsibility for preparing their homes from the risk of wildfire. Firewise is one element of the Fire Adapted Communities initiative, a national effort that engages homeowners, firefighters, civic leaders and land managers to reduce wildfire risk in communities throughout the U.S. The Firewise Communities Program and the Fire Adapted Communities initiative are sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association and USDA Forest Service.



Published July 17, 2017
NongHyup Financial Group Chairman Kim Yong-hwan, right, poses with Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo after signing a memorandum of understanding at Bank Mandiri's head office in Jakarta, Monday. / Courtesy of NongHyup Financial Group



By Nam Hyun-woo



NongHyup Financial Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia's PT Bank Mandiri Tbk for business cooperation, leading a proactive expansion in the country, the Korean bank said Tuesday.



At Bank Mandiri's head office in Jakarta, NongHyup Financial Group Chairman Kim Yong-hwan and Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo agreed to enhance their partnership in eight segments, including corporate financing, trade financing and human resources.



They also agreed to set up a committee overseeing the two financial firms' collaborative projects.



Bank Mandiri is Indonesia's largest bank by assets at $83.5 billion. Eleven subsidiaries are under its wing, with 3,626 branches and offices run by 39,000 employees.



"Through multi-pronged cooperation in banking, insurance, securities, capital, asset management and other fields, the two lenders should seek growth together," Kim said.



Wirjoatmodjo echoed that idea: "The MOU will be a model case for cooperation between financial groups representing Indonesia and Korea."



Market watchers say Kim's trip to Indonesia is aimed at increasing the banks presence in the Southeast Asian country more aggressively.



NH Capital CEO Go Tae-soon accompanied Kim. Go met with the senior management of PT Mandiri Tunas Finance, Mandiri's microfinancing subsidiary, and talked about mutual cooperation and NH Capital's operations in Indonesia.



Another domain that NongHyup Financial seeks to expand in Indonesia is securities. NH Investment & Securities has a subsidiary, NH Korindo Securities in Indonesia, and NongHyup plans to use NH Korindo to strengthen its partnership with Bank Mandiri in the brokerage business.



NH Korindo recently launched its mobile trading system Win Pro, which is tailor-made for the Indonesian mobile environment.



During the launching ceremony, Kim said he plans to set up an investment banking desk and expand the workforce for initial public offerings (IPOs) to draw more IPO deals from Indonesian companies.



"Since Kim became chairman, NongHyup Financial Group has been expanding its overseas networks, including new NongHyup Bank branches and offices in Vietnam and India," a group official said.



"The group will continue its efforts to expand its global businesses in countries with rich financial demands."
President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook, left, applaud Lee Hee-ho, right, the widow of late President Kim Dae-jung, during a ceremony at the 63 Building on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit between Kim Dae-jung and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. / Joint Press Corps



Moon to push for legalization of inter-Korean pacts



By Yi Whan-woo

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that he is open to dialogue with North Korea if the Kim Jong-un regime suspends its nuclear and ballistic missile provocations.

In a speech to mark the 17th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, Moon also said the inter-Korean agreements made between the liberal Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, and North Korea's Kim Jong-il in the 2000s should be carried out regardless of any change in government.

He cited a need to seek methods to legalize such agreements, while urging Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program and honor the inter-Korean accords.

"I'm willing to talk with North Korea right away if it stops additional nuclear and ballistic missile provocations," he said during the event at the 63 Building on Yeouido, Seoul, to commemorate the summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il on June 15, 2000. "Giving up its nuclear programs will serve as proof of North Korea's determination to carry out the inter-Korean accords. And we'll actively help if Pyongyang is willing to do so."

He said topics of possible discussion with North Korea would include how to suspend its nuclear program completely and normalize relations with the United States.

He attributed an inconsistency in North Korea policies as the cause of the failure to stand by the accords, including two landmark declarations signed by the leaders of Seoul and Pyongyang.

The June 15 Joint Declaration, which was adopted by Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il during their 2000 summit in Pyongyang, was aimed at creating a reconciliatory mood on the Korean Peninsula and taking initiatives for inter-Korean unification.

During the second inter-Korean summit in 2007, also in Pyongyang, Roh and Kim Jong-il signed the October 4 Declaration. The two leaders promised to "inherit" the June 15 Joint Declaration and continue to improve cross-border relations.

But Seoul-Pyongyang ties reached their lowest level under the two conservative governments of Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.

"The inter-Korean agreements are precious assets that must be respected regardless of the change in governments," Moon said.












President Tran Dai Quang (L) and former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (Source: VNA)



He congratulated the State and people of Mexico on their socio-economic achievements over the past time, contributing to elevating Mexicos role and position in the region and the international arena.

The host noted with satisfaction the development pace of the bilateral ties with the most noteworthy being two-way trade which reached USD2.37 billion in 2016, representing a ten-fold increase compared with ten years ago.

The two sides have effectively implemented the political consultation mechanism between their foreign ministries and established the joint committee on economic, trade and investment cooperation, he said, adding that they have also closely cooperated and supported each other at international organisations and multilateral forums, especially the UN, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Forum forEast Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC).

President Tran Dai Quang suggested the two sides promptly put the joint committee on economic, trade and investment cooperation into place in order to define areas and methods for bilateral collaboration.

The two countries should continue finalysing the legal framework through negotiations and sign more cooperation documents along with encouraging their businesses to promote trade and access the respective markets, he said.

Multilaterally, the President urged the two sides continue their close coordination and mutual support at international and inter-regional cooperation mechanisms.

He called for Mexicos support for Vietnams candidacy for a seat at the UN Security Council during 2020-2021 and for the post of the UNESCO General Director for 2017-2021 tenure.

For his part, Carlos Salinas de Gortari congratulated the Vietnamese State and people on their socio-economic achievements and shared Mexicos experience in national development.

He agreed with President Tran Dai Quangs proposals for ways to step up the bilateral ties, saying Vietnam and Mexico hold a lot of potential to advance their relationship.

Vietnams hosting of the APEC Year 2017 will create an opportunity for the two countries to tighten their relations in various realms, he said./.
By Kim Jae-kyoung

North Korea is seeking to forestall South Korea's attempt to take a leadership role in nuclear talks by using its missile technology as leverage, according to experts on the North.

They said that the latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has made it clear that Pyongyang led by its young leader Kim Jong-un will never give up its ambition to become a nuclear weapons state.

The views came as the North successfully test-fired an alleged ICBM, Monday, following a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump last week, and ahead of the G20 summit slated for July 7 to 8.

"Kim wants the U.S.'s and world's acknowledgement that his country is a nuclear weapons state as the next step," Tara O, an adjunct fellow at the Washington-based Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told The Korea Times.

"As such, it would want to exclude South Korea from talks and deal directly with the U.S.," she said.

Trump is supportive of Moon's strategy proposed at the summit, under which Seoul will take more of a leadership role in opening dialogue with Pyongyang, and Washington will actively participate.

In her view, one of North Korea's efforts has been to portray South Korea as a U.S. puppet in order to claim legitimacy over the entire Korean Peninsula.

"Dealing directly with the U.S. without South Korea delegitimizes the South Korean government while Pyongyang tries to force a U.S. military withdrawal from South Korea," she said.
The White House expressed veiled opposition to South Korea's proposal for rare inter-Korean talks Monday, saying current conditions are "far away" from those needed to reopen dialogue with the recalcitrant state.

Seoul proposed military talks for this coming Friday and Red Cross talks on Aug. 1 to discuss ways to ease tensions along their shared border and resume reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The offer came amid renewed tensions over the North's first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4.

"Well, obviously those comments came out of the Republic of Korea and I would refer you back to them," Press Secretary Sean Spicer said during a briefing, when asked if there are certain conditions U.S. President Donald Trump would like to see met before the talks take place. "That being said, I think the president has made clear in the past with respect that any type of conditions that would have to be met are clearly far away from where we are now."

Other government officials expressed a cautious attitude earlier in the day.

"We refer you to the ROK government for comment," Katina Adams, a State Department spokeswoman, said in response to a query from Yonhap about whether Washington views the proposal as appropriate in the wake of the latest provocation.

The last time the Koreas held official talks was in December 2015.
By Park Si-soo



An American who organized a controversial march of 30 female peace activists spanning the two Koreas in 2015 has been denied entry to South Korea.

Christine Ahn, a South Korean-born American citizen, learned about being "persona non grata" after Asiana Airlines stopped her from boarding a flight at San Francisco Airport on Thursday, according to the New York Times (NYT).

She reportedly planned to transit through South Korea's Incheon International Airport on her way to China. After being told she was not allowed to, she bought a new ticket to fly directly to Shanghai, it reported.

A justice ministry official was quoted as saying in the report that Ahn had been denied entry because there were sufficient grounds to fear she might "hurt the national interest and public safety."












Kang pushes for talks with China, Japan counterparts



By Yi Whan-woo





Kang Kyung-wha Wang Yi Fumio Kishida

The government plans to hold foreign ministerial talks with China and Japan, respectively, early next month on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a multinational security dialogue, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tuesday.

If held, it will be Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's first one-on-one meetings with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida since taking office on June 19.

"We'll push for our one-on-one talks with foreign ministers of China and Japan. We're making preparations in a comprehensive manner," a ministry official said.

The diplomatic sources speculate that Kishida, however, could be replaced by someone else considering a possible cabinet reshuffle in Japan in early August.

The possible foreign ministerial talks are coming after President Moon Jae-in met Chinese President Xi Jinping, July 6, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, July 7, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany.

Kang may share thoughts on how to shape Seoul's cooperation with Beijing and Tokyo as discussed by their leaders.

Kang and Yi may talk about China's economic retaliation against South Korea over the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here and how Beijing should press Pyongyang harder in line with international sanctions.

Kang and Kishida are expected to discuss the accord agreed upon in late 2015 aimed at settling conflict over the "comfort women" issue but which stirred up controversy afterwards. The agreement was announced by Kishida and Kang's predecessor Yun Byung-se in December 2015.

Other possible topics to be discussed are bolstering summit diplomacy and cooperation against North Korea's ever-growing nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

The ARF is slated from Aug. 6 to 8 in Manila.

The annual forum involves 10 ASEAN nations as well as members of the dormant six-party talks on denuclearization of North Korea _ the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The Seoul government said nothing has been decided over whether foreign ministers of the two Koreas will meet on the sidelines of the ARF.

"Nothing has been planned as of now. We'll need to consider the situation when we get there," a foreign ministry official said.

The official also did not specify whether Kang will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Kang had one-on-one talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the South Korea-U.S. summit June 29 and 30.
By Yi Whan-woo



Japan is being self-contradictory as it shows different stances toward the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and toward Korea over two historical issues in an apparent bid to cover up its wartime crimes.



The country has been refusing to provide information of its forced labor of Koreans at seven of its 23 Meiji-era industrial sites, although it was a condition for the sites to win UNESCO World Heritage status in July 2015.



On the other hand, it has been pressing Korea to carry out a December 2015 agreement, under which the two countries agreed to address Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women.



In the recent session of the World Heritage Committee in Krakow, Poland, Japan kept mum over Korea's call to carry out its earlier promise about the forced labor issue.



When having the sites placed on the World Heritage list in 2015, including Hashima Island, Japan promised to set up an information center commemorating exploited laborers including Koreans and to state not only the facilities' contribution to their modernization but also their "dark history," as recommended by UNESCO.



At that time, Japanese Ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato promised to "take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought there against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s" at the sites.



Right after the listing, however, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida shrugged off Sato's statement written in English, saying the Japanese-language version did not include any straightforward expression of "forced labor."



Under this circumstance, 12 of the 21 committee members at this session supported Korean Ambassador to UNESCO Lee Byong-hyun when he urged Japan to observe the UNESCO recommendation, according to diplomatic sources.



Japan is also still turning a blind eye to the Korean opposition to the sex slavery deal, saying the agreement addressed the issue "finally and irreversibly."



On July 9, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, also a top government spokesman, protested the Korean government's plan to support a bid to enlist documents about sex slaves in UNESCO's Memory of the World.



During a meeting with surviving victims, Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back said she will support the civilian groups' campaign for it.



Suga criticized the plan as "a behavior that can go against the original objective and purpose" of UNESCO to promote friendship and mutual understanding of its members.



He also called on Seoul to carry out the agreement, saying it is extremely critical for an internationally-valued agreement to be implemented in a steady manner.



"Japan is two-faced when it comes to its promises with UNESCO and Korea," said Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute. "In that regard, Tokyo's efforts to resolve historical conflicts merely appear to be nothing more than aiming at covering its shameful history."



The anti-Japan sentiment still prevails in Korea and many Koreans view that Tokyo was not sincere in its repentance compared to Germany that repeatedly apologized for the crimes committed by the Nazis.



The Moon Jae-in administration has been calling for improvement of the deal, saying it was made hastily and without reflecting the victims' opinions under Moon's predecessor Park Geun-hye.








Sue Kinoshita, the British Charge d'Affaires, poses after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Hana Foundation for the Hana-U.K .Global Career development program at the British embassy in Seoul on July 7. / Courtesy of British Embassy



By Rachel Lee

The British Embassy will launch a career development program for North Korean defectors with the Korea Hana Foundation, a South Korean unification ministry affiliate, in September.

The embassy and the organization signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to continue working together for the HUG (Hana-U.K .Global Career development) program at the embassy in Seoul on July 7. The program will give three defectors six months of intensive English language training at the British Council and six months' training in London.

Sue Kinoshita, the British Charge d'Affaires, said: "I am really pleased to sign the MOU for the HUG program with the Hana Foundation today.

"The British Embassy hopes that we can do our bit to help North Korean defectors settle successfully here in the South, helping them to achieve their dreams. I truly believe that the selected students will acquire the skills and experience necessary for their future through the HUG program."

A pilot program was implemented in 2016-17 and three young defectors went to London for language training in January. They return this month.

The foundation will advertise the program through its website to recruit applicants in mid-July.

For more information, visit www.koreahana.co.kr.
By Rachel Lee

The French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) hosted an event to celebrate Bastille Day, or French National Day, at Floating Islands on Seoul's Han River on July 14.

France celebrates the day to remember the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison on July 14, 1789, which is seen as a symbol of the end of the absolute monarchy and the beginning of the French Revolution, the FKCCI said.

The evening featured French music, food and wine. There was also a lucky draw and a picture contest for participants to win prizes.

The FKCCI, set up in 1986, has more than 350 member companies, including most French companies in Korea, and Korean companies that have business relationships with France. The chamber aims to promote exchanges, investment and trade relations between France and Korea through various events.
Patricio Parragues, trade commission and agricultural affairs director at the Embassy of Chile, speaks at the "Food from Chile" at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on July 12. /Korea Times photo by Rachel Lee



By Rachel Lee

Chile, a big supplier to Korea's wine market, is ready to hit Seoul with its diverse fresh foods.

At "Food from Chile" at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on July 12, organized by Chilean government trade and export organization Prochile, importers, buyers and the media had an opportunity to taste food including salmon, mussels, meat, dried fruits and pisco, all of which the country is eager to bring to the Korean market.

"Chile is a country with great natural and human potential located in a place of amazing geographical and climatic contrasts," said Patricio Parragues, trade commission and agricultural affairs director at the Embassy of Chile.

Parragues said the South American country's competitiveness comes from its political and economic stability, modern infrastructure and export logistics, the use of cutting-edge technology for producing and processing products and compliance with demanding international standards and certifications.

Thanks to its location, a variety of seafood is available. Santiago is the biggest exporter of frozen whole salmon and the second-largest exporter of salmon fillets.

It also boasts a million hectares of grazing land, 500,000 dairy farmers, 20 large milk plants and almost 100 small and medium cheese producers.

Parragues emphasized Korea's strict food controls, especially for imported foods, and said Chile's high food control system met these.

"Chile is free from most of the diseases on the A list of the OIE-World Organisation for Animal Health, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)," Parragues said.

"It is also free of avian flu and has established strict controls to prevent these and other diseases from entering Chile."

The promotion also introduced Chile's traditional alcohol, pisco, which has a 500-year history. A shot of pisco is drunk after dinner. It can be mixed with juices and flavours.

"Because of its history and tradition, pisco is a characteristically Chilean product," Parragues said. "It is made in an area measuring 10,500 hectares in the Coquimbo and Atacama regions, the only two areas permitted for pisco production according to the Denomination of Origin."

More than 2,800 pisco grape growers produce some 36 million litres of the drink.

In 2016, Chile's food exports hit $15.6 billion. The main markets last year were the United States ($1.8 billion), China ($1.164 billion) and the European Union ($1.147 billion).

Chile's food exports to Korea reached over $390 million last year, accounting for 2.6 percent of Chile's global food shipments, according to the organization.

Pork was the most important Chilean product shipped to Korea, with an export value of more than $99.5 million (a 25.4 percent share). Other notable exports were fresh grapes, salmon and trout, giant squid and bottled red wine.

In the past seven years, average annual growth in food exports to Korea exceeded growth in Chile's total global food shipments, reaching 7.5 percent.

The two nations signed a free trade agreement in 2004 and 6,900 Chilean products have entered the Korean market duty free since, Prochile said.

Chile is the world's longest country (4,300 kilometers) and is recognized as South America's safest. It boasts five great historical places that UNESCO has declared World Heritage sites: the city and port of Valparaiso; Easter Island, with the Rapa Nui ethnicity; the saltpeter mines of Humberstone and Santa Laura; the Sewell Mining Camp and the Churches of Chiloe, according to the organization.
By Rachel Lee



Food experts from Korea and Brunei will gather in Bandar Seri Begawan to discuss ways to boost cooperation in the food sector.



The ASEAN-Korea Centre will organize the "Trade Facilitation Workshop for Brunei Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises" on July 19. The aim is to enhance competitiveness of Bruneian food companies by introducing smart technologies and to further strengthen business partnerships between Brunei and Korea.



Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), the Energy and Industry Department of the Prime Minister's Office (EIDPMO) and the Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) organized the event.



"Trade and commercial ties between Brunei and Korea have become increasingly close over the last decade," ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun said.



"However, business cooperation in the food industry has remained relatively unexplored, offering great opportunities for the two countries to seek closer business partnerships."



Representatives from CJ and Pulmuone will give presentations on topics that include an "Overview of the Food Industry in Korea: Sourcing Trends and Procedures of Seafood Products," "Purchasing Trends and Import Procedures of Processed Food Products" and "Introducing Smart Technology in Agribusinesses," the organization said.



About 100 business representatives from local companies are expected to attend.



Starting this year, the ASEAN-Korea Centre has developed its capacity-building program, formerly the Product Development Workshop, into the Trade Facilitation Workshop that covers wider areas important for the acceleration of trade, such as the ASEAN-Korea free trade agreement.



The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 to promote exchanges among Korea and the 10 ASEAN member states.






By Ko Dong-hwan

A man was arrested after attacking 11 people in a Seoul club with a broken bottle.



Seobu District Court issued the arrest warrant for the suspect, surnamed Park, 23, Monday.

The court heard that Park initiated the attack after he did not like the way a man, surnamed Song, 20, looked at him in a smoking room at a club in Hongdae District, one of Seoul's hottest nightspots, on July 15.

Park, who was drunk, got into a scuffle with Song's friends and began attacking them with a broken liquor bottle. He stabbed a person not linked to the argument in the neck and injured 10 others. He also punched three people.

Park, unemployed, arrived at the club with three friends at about 12:30 a.m. to celebrate a birthday.

The court said Park "may abscond to avoid punishment" and decided to arrest him on attempted murder charges.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc at the launching ceremony

Speaking at the event, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, Deputy Editor-in-Chief in charge of the World & Vietnam Report, said that in this time of deep integration with the world, as well as the developments of media - communication in the flat world right now, the launching of the Report English version is extremely important. It will meet the urgent need of the diplomatic missions, while affirming the status of the Foreign Ministrys newspaper.

The English version will update news in politics, diplomacy, opinion, business-economics, society, culture-travel, and photos about Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc congratulated and applauded the efforts of the Reports leaders, reporters, editors and technicians, who over generations boosted the newspaper to its current status with quality and prestige in the field of diplomatic press in particular and Vietnamese press in general.

He emphasized that the new English version is an important bridge connecting Vietnamese at home and abroad, combining the nations strength with its international power.

The launching ceremony of the online World & Vietnam Report English version

Also at the ceremony, Head of the Press and Information Department, Spokeswoman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang expressed congratulations and said that this is a great joy, marking a new important moment of the newspaper./.
By Kim Hyo-jin



The United States and Japan expressed negative responses to the South Korean government's proposal for inter-Korean dialogue to North Korea, Monday.



This came after Seoul proposed that the two Koreas hold military talks to ease tension along the border, and Red Cross talks to resume reunions of separated families, follow-up measures to President Moon Jae-in's peace overture made during his Berlin speech in early July.



When asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's position on Seoul's proposal, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer expressed reservations, saying conditions for talks with North Korea were not currently present.



"Well, obviously those comments came out of the Republic of Korea and I would refer you back to them," Spicer said during a regular press briefing.



"That being said, I think the president has made clear in the past with respect that any type of conditions that would have to be met are clearly far away from where we are now."



Japan responded with a clearly negative tone, saying now was the time to increase pressure on North Korea.



"This is not a time for dialogue. This is a time for pressure," Japan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Maruyama said during a press conference in New York where Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was attending a United Nations meeting.



Stressing that North Korea had reached "a new level" with its latest launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile July 4, Maruyama said increasing international actions was now essential in order to conduct a "serious dialogue" with the North in the future.



"Dialogue for the sake of dialogue is meaningless," he noted.



On the U.S. response, Seoul's unification ministry insisted Tuesday that there was no gap between the two countries in assessing conditions for talks with Pyongyang.



"We don't see a difference in our understanding," a ministry official told reporters.



He said the government had fully explained through diplomatic channels the planned offer for dialogue before its announcement and earned full understanding from Washington.



"The unification minister has repeatedly mentioned since his inauguration that inter-Korean talks should aim at freeze of its nuclear program and denuclearization. The government's offer this time does not mean that conditions for a full-fledged dialogue have been met," he said.



"They're early-stage talks to ease tension and deal with humanitarian issues."



The official added the government will continue working on approaches to the North "in close coordination" with the U.S.



Meanwhile, China hailed Moon's offer. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a press briefing: "We hope that the two Koreas will make efforts to break the stalemate and create conditions for a resumption of negotiations."



Pundits say that Moon's offer means that he will not wait until the right conditions for talks with the North are met; rather he intends to make the conditions on his own initiative.



"The government is seeking to bring about such conditions through inter-Korean talks," said Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University.



Regarding Spicer's comment, he said, "It seems the U.S. meant it would wait and see how South Korea would take its conciliatory approach. But it is worried that Seoul's independent line could be taken too far."




The New York Post's Dec. 4, 2012, front page shows Han Ki-suck about to be crushed by a subway train at the 49th Street station. / Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan





Naeem Davis / AP-Yonhap

A Sierra Leone man dubbed the "subway fiend" after he pushed a Korean man to his death on a Manhattan subway track in 2012 has been acquitted of murder.

A jury of seven women and five men also found Naeem Davis, 34, not guilty of charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, according to the New York Times.

Monday's decision came after a three-week trial, testimonies from more than 30 witnesses and four days of deliberations. Davis, who has been in city jails for four-and-half years, insisted it was self-defense against Han Ki-suck, 58, who had accosted him in the city's 49th Street subway station.

Jury forewoman Gretchen Pfeil, who teaches linguistic anthropology at New York University, said after the verdict: "I think the vast majority of us from the beginning of our deliberations believed the prosecution had failed to prove the defendant was not justified in his actions. And by the end of our deliberations, I believe we were of one mind that he was in fact justified in his actions."

About 12:30 p.m. on December 3, 2012, Han, who was drunk, accosted and swore at Davis, a homeless refugee, after they accidentally bumped into each other near a turnstile.

Han followed Davis down to the subway platform and kept harassing him, grabbing his shoulder. Davis, frustrated, shoved him away, causing the Korean to fall onto the tracks.

Han was too drunk to climb back and a train crushed him to death a few minutes later. Davis reportedly "freaked" and fled, according to the Daily Mail.

The incident received wide attention after The New York Post showed a photo of Han about to be crushed by the train, headlined "Doomed."
Photo for illustration

Da Nang newspaper reported that after its admission to APEC, Vietnam has joined diverse cooperation programs and projects in APEC while receiving great support in terms of capital, technology and human resources training. In 2006, for the first time, Vietnam hosted the 14APEC and in 2014, Vietnam successfully organized the 6th APEC Human Resource Development Ministers Meeting in Hanoi.

Vietnam is one member economy actively proposing and joining new initiatives, including over 100 projects in diverse areas, including trade, investment, economic and technological cooperation, healthcare and food security. In 2016, Vietnam participated in developing long-term cooperation orientations in APEC, reflecting its active contribution to multilateral mechanisms as set in the 12th National Party Congress resolution.

During the first Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM 1) and Related Meetings APEC 2017 held in March in Khanh Hoa provinces Nha Trang city, Mr. Salman Al Farisi, a senior expert from Indonesia, said that Vietnam had much experience in boosting economic development, thus making diverse practical contributions to cooperation programs among APEC.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea Lee Taeho appreciated Vietnams coordination in preparing working programs of APEC Year 2017. Vietnams priorities, including promoting sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth, were assessed to suit the APEC agenda.

APEC continues to be Vietnams leading cooperation forum in the period of increased international integration. In his opening speech at the 23rd Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting in May, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that APEC played a more and more important role with Vietnam. At present, APEC members contribute 78% of foreign direct investment into Vietnam, 75% of goods commerce and 79% of international tourists to Vietnam, while some 80% of overseas Vietnamese students are studying at APEC member economies. The Vietnamese Prime Minister also noted that 13 APEC members had set up strategic and comprehensive partnerships with Vietnam.

In 2017, for the second time, Vietnam hosts APEC. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as Chair of the APEC 2017 National Committee Pham Binh Minh said that it would mark Vietnams most important contribution to APEC in the period of increased international integration.

Activities in 2017 will help set the partnership between Vietnam and APEC member economies to be strengthened, and bilateral relations be deepened.

The event will also encourage Vietnam to promote economic reform and restructuring, shift growth model, improve business environment and domestic investment. For localities and businesses, some 200 APEC activities in 2017 are expected to bring about trade, investment and tourism cooperation opportunities.

Vietnams Da Nang city is expected to welcome some 10,000 delegates during APEC Summit Week this November who are representatives from international and regional leading businesses and large communications groups. This will be a chance to promote an innovative and dynamic Vietnam, said Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh./.
Vietnams Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung (L) hands over the flower baskets and messages

to Lao Foreign Minister Saleumsay Kommasith (Photo: VNA)



Vietnams Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung on July 17th handed over the flower baskets and messages of congratulations of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to Party General Secretary and President Bounhang Volachith, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and NA Chairwoman Pany Yathotou of Laos via the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Laos Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith thanked the Vietnamese senior leaders and affirmed that over the past 55 years, the Vietnam-Laos relations have recorded outstanding developments in all fields.

The Foreign Ministry of Laos pledges to work with its counterpart and the Embassy of Vietnam in Laos to nurture and intensify the bilateral ties, he added.

Ambassador Hung said that amid complicated and unpredictable regional and global situations, the two countries should maintain close coordination to bring their relations to a new height in order to meet their peoples aspirations and interests.

He vowed to collaborate with the Lao Foreign Ministry in organising activities in celebration of the Laos-Vietnam Friendship and Solidarity Year 2017.

The diplomat affirmed that the Vietnamese Party, Government and people always treasure and will do their utmost to ensure the two countries relationship lasts forever./.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
This is a lesson for all responsible businesses - Klimkin about supply of turbines by Siemens to Russia

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said the case with Siemens in Russia is a lesson for all responsible businesses.

"A lesson for all responsible businesses: any cooperation with Russia is interaction with fraudsters. We work on this matter further," Klimkin wrote on his Twitter page.

As reported, according to the German newspaper Wirtschaftswoche, Siemens is considering the possibility of withdrawing from joint ventures in Russia - Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies LLC and Interautomatika.

According to media reports, Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies LLC (the German concern owns 65% in the JV) manufactured and supplied turbines for the construction of the Taman station in the Russian Federation, which, according to unofficial information, were supplied to Crimea. Interautomatika (Siemens holds 45.72%), according to Siemens, carried out work at the facility. The company modified the turbines in such a way that they cannot be recognized as Siemens products.
PRESS RELEASE

U.S. Debt Bubbles are Deflating...

July 17, 2017 (EIRNS)Signs of growing defaults are showing across the range of ultimately unpayable debt bubbles in the United States economy, while underlying economic growth continues in the crater of a 1.5% nominal GDP annual rate.

The July 17 Wall Street Journal featured a report of an "unheard-of event"a Houston-based private equity fund once "worth" more than $2 billion, is now worth zero. Even following the report in the July 11 Houston Chronicle that defaults throughout Texas corporations are shooting up and exceed even 2009 economic collapse levels, securities funds of this size losing all their value remains "unheard of"; 25% maximum losses are typical when large PE funds go bust. Yet, the Journal quotes one expert, "several other energy-focused funds are in danger of doing so." Big losers in the evaporation of $2.1 billion EnerVest Ltd. include Canadas second-largest pension fund, the Teamsters Western Conference Pension Fund; various high-roller charitable foundations like Getty Trust, MacArthur Foundation; and Wells Fargo bank, which loaned EnerVest Ltd. $1.3 billion to leverage its investments in oil securities.

In the consumer debt bubble, auto loan (90-day) delinquencies have reached just under 4% (3.96%) for all $1.3 trillion of auto loans, comparable to the mortgage sector in late 2006. Bloomberg News today reports on growing fraud in auto lending, as well as lax to non-existent underwriting standards, as well as spreading securitization of payments (and thus of defaults) in the entire sector. The volume of both auto and mortgage lending is dropping as the biggest banks head for the exits, according to a separate report in Credit Union Times.

The falling economy is making tax revenues sink. Some 33 states reported shortfalls in projected revenues in their fiscal year, which ended June 30. This was similar to the budget-collapse year 2010. But less publicized has been the fact that the Federal government deficit is ballooning this Federal fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) because of much lower tax revenues than expected, as well as forced restatement of the value of student debtbecause of mass defaults and delinquencieswhich counted as a loss of nearly $90 billion for the Federal government in June.
PRESS RELEASE

Lavrov Demands U.S. Return Russian Property, or Its Robbery

July 17, 2017 (EIRNS)Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that it would be a "robbery in broad daylight" if the United States sets conditions for the return of the Russian diplomatic properties it seized.

Lavrov was referring to a RIA Novosti report today which cited an unnamed, high-ranking White House official as saying that the United States is not planning to return the diplomatic property to Russia without asking for "something in return." (original emphasis)

"Is that source [the high-ranking official] anonymous?", Lavrov asked, while speaking to journalists today. "[If] so, I believe that their conscience is not clear.

"As for the issue [not returning the Russian diplomatic property without any preconditions], I consider it a robbery in broad daylight.... It appears some highway thieves are commenting on this situation. How is that property, which was assigned by a bilateral intergovernmental ratified document, can be seized, and then in giving it back, they follow the principle, Mine is mine, and yours will be shared?"

Lavrov concluded.

Lavrov said he hopes that the Trump administration includes people with logic, who understand that their predecessors in the Obama Administration decided to seize the Russian property, as well as expel 35 Russian diplomats, in a "state of agony." Lavrov said the Obama-led authorities did not know

"how else they could ruin [Moscows] relations with Washington in such a way that the Trump AdministRation would fail to restore them.... Such a zealous desire to seek some hidden channels of Russian influence on what is happening in the United States is clearly not subsiding, to my great regret, and does not add confidence that we would be able to establish normal cooperation in international relations,"

Lavrov said.
PRESS RELEASE

South Korea Proposes Inter-Korean Talks at Defense Minister Level

July 17, 2017 (EIRNS)The South Korean government has proposed holding talks with North Korea on July 21, at the level of defense ministers, in an effort to reduce military tensions between the two sides, reports the Korea Herald.

"In order to suspend hostile activities at the military demarcation line, we propose holding an inter-Korean military talk at Tongilgak," the North Korean building inside the Panmunjom truce village in the demilitarized zone, the Defense Ministry said in a statement issued this morning. The ministry asked North Korea to respond by restoring the two Koreas military communication line in the West Sea. The North has not yet issued an official statement in response. The fact that North Korea has made similar calls for unconditional military talks makes a positive response more likely.

The Korea Herald further reports that the proposal is designed to follow up on President Moon Jae-ins offermade in Berlin on July 6to suspend "all acts of hostile activities" at the cross-border region as of July 27, when the two Koreas mark the 64th anniversary of the armistice treaty that ended the Korean War in 1953.

China has endorsed the South Korean proposal. TASS reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kian told reporters this morning,
PRESS RELEASE

IMF To Insist on Unsustainable Debt for Greece, that Would Devour One-Fifth of Its GDP

July 17, 2017 (EIRNS)A debt sustainability analysis (DSA) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has found that Greeces debt is unsustainable under every scenario, including those proposed by the European Union itself. The report shows that the debt will be unsustainable after 2030, as servicing it will require more than 20% of Gross Domestic Product! The IMF will also likely warn about weaknesses in the Greek credit system, claiming it will need additional funding of 10 billion.

The so-called bailout of Greece with over 250 billion in new loans since 2012, was seen as unsustainable by the IMF from the beginning, because it was considered an attempt to bail-out the bankrupt Eurozone banks at the expense of the Greek people. Under the bail-out, the ratio of Greece debt to GDP has shot up from 100% to 180%.

Nonetheless, the IMF under the leadership of Madame "Save the Euro" Christine Lagarde signed on to the first two bailouts. It remains to be seen if the IMF board allows her to sign on for its third bailout.

The Greek Parliament report recently found that the Greek debt would absorb 96% of the countrys GDP.

This DSA will be presented for discussion to the IMFs Executive Council on July 20 after which they will decide whether to participate in the Greek program. According to unnamed IMF sources cited by Kathimerini, the DSA suggests that the Executive Council tell the Eurozone that unless there are more debt-relief measures, the IMF will not be able to participate with the Fund in this third "Greek" bailout.
PRESS RELEASE

These Policy Steps on U.S. Infrastructure Qualify as Insane

July 17, 2017 (EIRNS)With transportation infrastructure visibly breaking down in two of the nations three largest cities as well as in the vital Northeast Rail Corridor, the House Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, reported out of the Appropriations Committee on July 14, eliminated the Federal so-called TIGER grants (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) completelyfrom $500 million to zero. The bill, now going to the House floor for a vote, cut the overall budget of the Transportation Department by 8% in absolute terms.

TIGER grants are also used to improve port infrastructure; and inland waterway dams and locks are renewed by a Federal loan program through the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers (USACE)a program cut by 54% in the same appropriations budget. American agriculture exports are beginning to be threatened not by price competition or unfair trade, but by crumbling inland waterway infrastructure, which was given a D overall mark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Coalition for Americas Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC) on July 14 released its second in a series of White Papers that describes the decline of national freight infrastructure. Called "The Vital Role of U.S. Transportation Infrastructure in Moving Agriculture Forward," the paper reviews the impact of deteriorating infrastructure on U.S. agricultural competitiveness, focusing on soybeans grown in Illinois and Iowa. There has just been a very large sale of soybeans to China, but 58% of soybeans pass through locks on the Illinois, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers and leave the United States through Gulf ports.

"More than half of the locks are over 50 years old. The LaGrange Lock on the Illinois River is 80 years old, with concrete crumbling and other critical components difficult to maintain.... "Between 2000 and 2014, the average delay per lock nearly doubled and ... 49 percent of vessels experienced delays in 2014,"

more today.

The backlog of inland waterway maintenance to be done by the U.S.ACE keeps growingit is now at $600 millionand the time to schedule and make a major renovation/replacement has grown to decades.

Meanwhile, renewing city and town water infrastructure across the United States requires at least $50 billion in annual spending over decades; but Federal funding for it is just 25% of what it was 40 years ago, in real terms. A $500 million loan fund for rural towns is likely to be eliminated by Congress this year. So, 48 public water/sewer utilities were sold to private companies in 2015; 53 more in 2016; 23 more in the first quarter of 2017.
Jane Austen has been gone for 200 years, but shes getting back in circulation. A new 10-pound note featuring her image was unveiled Tuesday by the Bank of England.

Austen is the first female author to appear on a British bank note. But shes the third British writer to appear on the 10-pound note, joining Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.

The note, which will enter circulation Sept. 14, was unveiled at Winchester Cathedral on the 200th anniversary of Austens death at age 41, the Guardian reports.

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The bank note also features images of Queen Elizabeth II; Austens writing desk; her brothers house, Godmersham Park, which is said to have inspired many of her books; and Elizabeth Bennet, the hero of one of her most famous novels, Pride and Prejudice.

It includes one quote from one of Jane Austens books, Pride and Prejudice: I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!

That line is not as simple as it seems. In the novel, it is spoken by Miss Caroline Bingley, Bennets rival for the affection of the serious and wealthy Mr. Darcy. The Guardian notes that the choice of quotation is odd: Bingley isnt actually a fan of literature  shes pretending to be a book lover to catch Darcys attention.

Austen was born in 1775, and her literary career began in earnest with the 1811 publication of the novel Sense and Sensibility. Pride and Prejudice followed two years later, and she would go on to publish Mansfield Park and Emma before her death in 1817, possibly from Addisons disease.

The portrait of Austen was commissioned in 1870 by the authors nephew, James Edward Austen Leigh, and based on a drawing by Austens sister.

Fans in Regency-era dress with the new Jane Austen bank note. (CHRIS J RATCLIFFE / AFP/Getty Images)

After the Austen-themed banknote was announced in 2013, it drew criticism from Austen experts who thought the image of the author was airbrushed and prettied up.

Paula Byrne, an author who has written three books about Austen, called the portrait on the bank note a 19th-century airbrushed makeover. She told the BBC, It makes me quite angry, as its been prettied up for the Victorian era, when Jane Austen was very much a woman of Georgian character, Byrne said. The costume is wrong and the image creates a myth Austen was a demure spinster and not a deep-thinking author.
Now what?

With Mondays collapse of the Senate Republicans latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the GOP and the Trump White House are confronted with the question of what to do next, if anything, on healthcare. But thats a question for Democrats, too.

Although theres a general perception that Democrats consider Obamacare to be the last word on healthcare policy, thats never been true. The ACA was the product of compromise from its inception, and also something of an experiment. No one was sure how all its moving parts would work. The laws drafters and supporters expected that real-world experience would allow them to come back and strengthen the provisions that were working and fix those that werent. Those expectations were dashed by the GOPs seven-year insistence that revision of the ACA begin and end with repeal.

Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announces the collapse of Obamacare repeal

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But theres no dearth of proposals for making the ACA work better. With exquisite timing, Andrew Sprung of Xpostfactoid on Monday afternoon unearthed a package proposed in January by John Holahan and Linda J. Blumberg of the Urban Institute. Its an excellent starting point that attempts to balance improvements to the law with concessions that Republicans might find palatable enough to bring on board.

It might yet be premature to start this effort, however. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the architect of the failed Senate repeal effort and its goat, reacted to the collapse Monday night by announcing plans to vote on a full repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period. The idea is to resurrect a repeal bill that passed by Republican majorities in both houses in 2015.

Those votes were taken, however, in the full knowledge that the measure would be vetoed by President Obama, which is exactly what happened. It would presumably by signed by President Trump. If so, it would be even more of a disaster for American healthcare than the failed repeal proposals; the Congressional Budget Office forecast that it would lead to lost coverage for 32 million Americans by 2026 compared to existing law  much higher than the 22 million to 24 million who would be affected by Republican repeal measures this year  and a doubling of premiums by that date.

If Republicans and Democrats could come together in a good-faith effort to improve the Affordable Care Act, what should be on the table? Heres a digest of the suggestions for fixes and concessions offered by Holahan and Blumberg.

First, the fixes.

-- Expand the subsidies. As the Urban Institute authors observe, the ACAs premium subsidies are too low, and the income cutoff too sharp, to make coverage truly affordable for many working- and middle-class families. Under current law, subsidies are provided to households earning up to 400% of the federal poverty line, or $98,400 for a family of four. Theyre entitled to enough so that the cost of a benchmark silver-level health plan, which would cover an average 70% of medical expenses, wont cost them more than 9.69% of their income.

My statement on an upcoming vote to repeal #Obamacare pic.twitter.com/RdyDiUJfMD  Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) July 18, 2017

Above 400%, however, the subsidies disappear. Holahan and Blumberg calculated in a separate study that households just above the cutoff  those earning 400% to 500% of the poverty level  took the greatest hit in insurance costs, paying a median 18.1% of their income in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. That accounts for complaints that the ACA increased the cost burdens on the middle class in order to pay for better benefits for lower-income households, and explains why the law has struggled to win approval from more than a bare 50% of Americans.

Holahan and Blumberg propose lowering the cost cap to 8.5% of income and applying it to all households, whatever their earnings. This wouldnt be much of a windfall for higher-income families, they argue, because premiums and out-of-pocket spending dont normally increase with income, so as income rises, the share spent on health coverage falls naturally. They also would peg subsidies to a gold-level plan, which covers an average 80% of expenses, rather than silver. Gold plans typically have lower deductibles and co-pays.

--Step up education and outreach. The effectiveness of such efforts is well-established. States with vigorous public outreach programs, such as California, consistently have experienced higher ACA exchange enrollment than those that neglected them or even interfered. And the Trump administrations cutback of ACA outreach and marketing immediately after the inauguration is widely blamed for a slowdown in ACA exchange enrollments in January and February this year, relative to the same period in previous years.

The rationale is inescapable. Once Republicans capitulate to the reality that the ACA is here to stay, theres no reason not to make sure that the largest share of eligible beneficiaries know to sign up.

--Cap payments to doctors and hospitals. Reduced competition among health plans in some regions, a problem under the ACA touted incessantly by the GOP, leads to higher reimbursement rates for medical providers and consequently higher premiums. Holahan and Blumberg have a simple solution drawn from Medicare: cap those reimbursements. Its unlikely that limiting them to Medicare rates or slightly higher would drive providers out of the market  Medicare has little trouble signing up doctors and hospitals to serve their enrollees.

And now, the givebacks.

What concessions could Democrats offer to bring Republicans to the table?

-- Replace the individual mandate. This is by far the most unpopular element of the Affordable Care Act, and the focus of the GOPs pitch that Americans shouldnt be forced to buy anything they dont want. Some means of goading healthier people into buying insurance is obviously a necessary adjunct to the ACAs requirement that every buyer be offered essentially the same price, regardless of medical history  which is a part of the law that Americans widely favor.

The question is what sort of goad? Senate and House Republicans proposed replacing the tax penalties imposed on those without insurance with a waiting period for anyone who allowed a lapse in his or her coverage for at least two months. During the wait, the enrollees preexisting conditions wouldnt be covered; but that raises the issue of how to protect such buyers from what could be catastrophic costs in the meantime.

Holahan and Blumberg suggest instead a version of the late-enrollment penalties imposed under Medicare Parts B and D. These voluntary parts of Medicare, covering doctor and outpatient visits and prescription drugs, are partially paid by enrollees. Those who wait past their initial eligibility periods to sign up are hit with lifetime premium surcharges.

Holahan and Blumberg propose that ACA penalties be limited  say to one or two years  instead of permanent. The goal is to make the penalties strong enough to be effective in maximizing enrollment, yet not so punitive that people wouldnt be able to afford coverage if theyre subject to the penalties.

One objection to the late-enrollment penalties is that many people wouldnt even be aware of them until they tried to enroll, which makes them comparatively ineffective in prompting holdouts to buy coverage. The solution is to make them aware, through education and outreach.

-- Kill the employer mandate. Even pro-ACA economists acknowledge that it achieves little, especially when balanced against its unpopularity. Employers already have strong incentives to offer their workers health coverage, including tax benefits and the need to attract and keep productive employees.

-- Expand Health Savings Accounts. HSAs, which are tax-advantaged accounts that can be used to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses, are a boon to high-income households because they permit yet more sheltering of income from taxes. Thats why the GOP has placed them front-and-center among its Obamacare replacement ideas. But despite the GOPs claims that HSAs are good for everyone, for working-class families with limited income tax liability and little disposable income to use to fund the accounts, theyre relatively useless. The Tax Policy Center calculated 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 Senate and House proposed raising the maximum annual contribution limits for HSAs to $6,550 for individuals and $13,100 for families, up from $3,450 for individuals and $6,750 for families. Heres an idea for the Democrats: Let them. As a substitute for genuine ACA reform, HSAs were a fraud; but as a bargaining chip for real improvements, they have value. Expanding them wouldnt increase coverage, since the wealthier families that hold them already have effective coverage. But it wouldnt hurt much, either.

-- Kill the Cadillac tax. Among the ACA provisions that Democrats and Republicans all hate is this tax, which is imposed on high-cost employer-sponsored and multi-employer (that is, union-sponsored) health plans. The law levies a 40% tax on health plans valued at more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage and union plans. The tax has been delayed to 2020.

The tax was designed in part to equalize the treatment of employer plans, which are tax-deductible for both employers and workers, and individual plans, which are not. But there are probably justified fears that employers will respond by reducing the coverage they provide. Republicans hate the tax because it hits business; Democrats because it hits unionized workers.

So bury it. Since the tax is projected to bring in about $70 billion over 10 years, that funding will have to be replaced somehow, but that shouldnt be too difficult for Republicans and Democrats working together, should it?

Some elements of the ACA need to be preserved at all costs. They include the laws roster of Essential Health Benefits that all plans must cover, including hospitalization, mental health and substance abuse treatment, maternity care, and prescriptions. Republicans have argued in favor of cutting back the list or eliminating the mandate entirely, but that just opens the door to the return of junk insurance and the loss of protection for preexisting conditions, without any appreciable savings. The absence of any consensus within the Republican caucus on EHBs undoubtedly contributed to the GOPs repeal failure, since most lawmakers seem to understand, in their hearts, that these benefits really are the essence of decent health insurance. They should be off the table.

But that leaves a smorgasbord of workable options. Once the GOP divorces itself from an ideological commitment to repealing the ACA, the Democrats may well be inclined to a bit of horse-trading to achieve the improvements that almost everyone agrees are warranted. Let the bargaining begin, for all Americans sakes.

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.
Experts in teen pregnancy prevention were nervously holding their breaths as the Trump administration stocked key positions at the Department of Health and Human Services with advocates of ineffective abstinence-only sex education programs and opponents of birth control.

Now their fears have proven to be justified. Over the last couple of weeks, 81 teen pregnancy programs around the country have been informed that their grants will end in the next fiscal year, or as of June 30, 2018. At least one program that funded educational outreach by Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, among other institutions, was cut off immediately  just as it was beginning the second year of a five-year plan. In all, more than $200 million in annual funding is being ended, according to an analysis by the Center for Investigative Reporting, which made the shutdown public.

In most cases, the grantees were unaware that their programs were under a death sentence until they received their formal annual notices at the start of the grant year, July 1.

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Wed been expecting that funding could be cut. But we didnt think it would happen this way, and expected that there would be discussion about it.  Luanne Rohrbach, USC

Some of the notices were chilly indeed. Due to changes in program priorities, it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the Federal government to no longer continue [your] funding, read a July 5 letter sent to Meagan Downey, the head of Vermont-based Youth Catalytics, which has been coordinating a project involving Childrens Hospital of L.A. and four other institutions, including the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts. She says the notice blindsided her, because as recently as last month the program had been praised by federal officials.

Theres been no substantive change in the federal governments best interest, Downey told me. The only thing that has changed is the appointment of some very extreme, misinformed appointees in HHS.

Shes referring to a gang of three extremists whose views I outlined in a column in mid-June. Theyre Charmaine Yoest, the former head of a prominent anti-abortion group who is now assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services; Teresa Manning, a former lobbyist for the National Right to Life Committee and legislative analyst for the Family Research Council who is deputy assistant secretary for population affairs; and Valerie Huber, the former president of Ascend, a Washington group that advocates for abstinence-only sex education, who is chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health.

Yoests group has promoted the claim that abortion increases a womans chance of breast cancer and of serious mental health problems. Both claims have been conclusively refuted by medical science. Manning stated during a 2003 NPR interview, Of course, contraception doesnt work.  Its efficacy is very low. In fact, hormonal methods are 91% effective, and IUDs are 99% effective.

As a promoter of abstinence-only sex education, Hubers approach has been moralistic, not empirical. As public health experts and policymakers, we must normalize sexual delay more than we normalize teen sex, even with contraception, she told PBS last year. But studies consistently show that what reduces teen pregnancies is increased use of contraceptives.

Department of Health and Human Services didnt acknowledge that these appointees personal views had anything to do with the nationwide funding cutoff. Instead, according to an email I received from department spokeswoman Diane Gianelli, the Presidents FY 2018 Budget eliminated funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, so our grants office informed the grantees of their June 30, 2018, end date, to give them an opportunity to adjust their programs and plan for an orderly closeout.

The problem there is that the presidents budget is merely a proposal. It hasnt been enacted by Congress, so theres no evidence that the lawmakers concur with his priorities.

Wed been expecting that funding could be cut, says Luanne Rohrbach of the Keck School of Medicine at USC, which is in the third year of a $10-million grant to provide educational outreach to as many as 20,000 teens in South Los Angeles and Compton who are at risk for unintended pregnancies. But we didnt think it would happen this way, and expected that there would be discussion about it. We thought there would be an opportunity at least for the program to be deliberated.

The programs being shut down by Trumps Health and Human Services Department were the product of a major push by the Obama administration for evidence-based approaches to social problems such as teen pregnancy. The idea was to use scientific methods to identify what worked, and apply them in the field. Rohrbachs program, which has been operating on a second five-year grant after receiving a first grant in 2011-2015, is the largest in California and one of the largest in the country.

The program brings comprehensive sex education to students in middle schools in the L.A. Unified and Compton school districts, teaching them everything from anatomy to how to choose high-quality friendships, resist offers of sex if theyre not interested, and avoiding STDs through contraception. One part of the program is directed at the parents of at-risk children.

The program absolutely presents abstinence as a favorable option, Rohrbach says, but recognizes that its not enough. A great deal of evidence suggests that programs emphasizing abstinence can work, but abstinence-only programs dont. This is what people with certain political beliefs who have an agenda dont quite understand, she says.

Opponents of such educational programs sometimes argue theyre ineffective, but also that theyre unnecessary. Thats because teen pregnancy rates have been coming down in the U.S. for years  and especially since the advent of the Affordable Care Act, which vastly expanded the availability of contraceptives, typically at no cost.

The decline of rates in general involves a couple of factors. One is that the decline in rates is at least partially the result of programs like these. One reason people in the field see a difference is that far more attention is being paid to the issue, and to the kinds of interventions we know will work, Rohrbach says.

Another factor is that the pregnancy rates for some teens in some socio-economic environments are still way out of line with the national average. Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which document a decline in the national teen birth rate to 22.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 2015 from 41.5 in 2007, also show that the rates among black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska native teens remain stubbornly higher than the national average, which itself shows that nearly a fourth of U.S. women give birth before theyre 20.

According to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the birth rate for women 15 to 19 in the health planning district that includes South L.A. and Compton is 44.3 per 1,000 females in that age range. Thats nearly twice the rate of the county as a whole (22.8) and the national average. As Rohrbach observes, that district is burdened by many poor health and socioeconomic indicators, including lower educational levels, more poverty, poorer health generally, and higher chlamydia rates among teens than any of the countys other seven health planning districts.

Eliminating the funds for prevention programs isnt only bad policy from a social standpoint, its pound-foolish. Adam Thomas of Georgetown University showed in 2012 that such programs pay for themselves many times over. Every dollar spent returned from $2.50 (for evidence-based teen pregnancy interventions) to $5.60 (for expanded access to Medicaid family planning services).

Nothing could be more damaging to these crucial programs than their abrupt defunding. Although Rohrbachs program will still have funds through next June, the momentum it has built over eight years, during which it planned for a steady expansion to more schools serving more students, will wither away. Obviously, she says, were not going to be able to grow.

Rohrbach says a conference call has been scheduled for later this week among some of the grantees and Health and Human Services officials, but she doesnt hold out much hope for a reprieve. If it were a question of money or empirical results, perhaps some appeal could be based on budgetary principles or hard data.

But the presence at the department of ideologues such as Yoest, Huber, and Manning suggests that isnt the case. Their history suggests, instead, that theyre invulnerable to facts. Trump signaled the threat to evidence-based teen pregnancy intervention by placing them near the top of the Health and Human Services hierarchy, and now that threat has become reality.

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.
There are no grounds for the extension of a state of emergency in the energy sector, Ukrenergo Head Vsevolod Kovalchuk has told journalists in Kyiv.

"The term of a state of emergency in the energy sector has expired. And now there is no legislative basis for its extension," he stated.

Kovalchuk clarified the law, on the basis of which such extraordinary measures could be introduced, has not been valid since June.

"In addition, at present there is no need for emergency measures. Power plants that do not have enough coal in warehouses do not apply for work, while that have enough anthracite are now in demand," he said.

The Ukrenergo head added that in theory the need to introduce emergency measures in the energy sector could arise in October.

As reported, emergency measures in the energy sector in Ukraine had ben valid since February 17 to July 17, 2017. First of all, the measures were introduced to save anthracite coal due to the suspension of its supplies from the ATO zone.
The parents of Sarah Jones, the camera assistant who was killed during filming of a movie in Georgia in 2014, won a significant legal victory Monday when a court awarded the family $11.2 million in damages.

Jones, 27, was fatally struck by a train that crashed into a crew filming a scene on a railway for the Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider. Several other crew members also were injured during filming of the scene on a historic trestle outside of Savannah. Authorities said producers did not have permission to film on the railway.

The accident prompted multiple state and federal investigations and galvanized the film industry, prompting calls for greater attention to safety on sets worldwide. The judgment comes at a time when set safety issues are again rattling the industry after a stuntman died during filming of the AMC television series The Walking Dead last week. That accident also occurred in Georgia.

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Sarah Jones in an undated family photo. (Colin Duran / AP)

Attorneys for CSX, the trains operator, had argued that they had not authorized the Midnight Rider filmmakers to shoot on the railway.

However, on Monday the jury found that CSX was primarily liable for the accident and should pay 35% of the total judgment.

CSX is deeply sympathetic to the terrible loss suffered by the family of Ms. Sarah Jones, but respectfully disagrees with the conclusions reached by the jury today and will appeal, CSX said in statement.

Jurors ruled that Jones parents should be given just under $2 million for pain and suffering and $9.2 million for economic losses.

Elizabeth and I have spent the last 3 plus years wanting to understand how our daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Jones, tragically lost her life, Richard and Elizabeth Jones said in a statement. That search has now come to a close. We felt that this trial was necessary in order to learn what happened that tragic day of February 20, 2014. It is only with the discovery of what could have been done differently that we might avoid another similar tragic loss of life.

Jones parents agreed to a confidential settlement with the films producers in 2014. The films director, Randall Miller, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2015. Miller was sentenced to up to two years in prison and fined $20,000.

Miller was found responsible for 28% of the amount of the latest ruling. Rayonier Performance Fibers, owners of the land where the accident occurred, are responsible for 18% and the rest of the liability is divided between individual members of the films production company.

Sarah Jones was not found liable for the accident.

Midnight Rider was based on the life of Allman, a founding member of Southern rock group the Allman Brothers Band.

Allman was originally included in the civil suit against the films producers but was later dropped from the case.

The singer later sued the films producers, alleging they had lost the rights to tell his story after Jones died. Allman subsequently dropped his suit as part of an out-of-court agreement.

ethan.varian@latimes.com

@ethanvarian

UPDATES:

5:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background and a statement by CSX.

This article was originally published at 4:20 p.m.
Television networks are benefiting from surprisingly strong demand for their commercial time.

Despite falling viewer ratings and fears over cord-cutting, major advertisers in the just-concluded upfront ad sales market placed orders for $19.7 billion worth of prime-time commercial spots on cable and broadcast TV networks, an increase of 5.9% over last year, according to the New Jersey research firm Media Dynamics Inc.

The ad sales volume was higher than what several analysts were expecting. The total represented a new record for the upfront market  when television networks sell the bulk of their ads for the upcoming season  surpassing the previous high-water mark of nearly $19.2 billion in 2013.

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The major broadcast networks  ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW  increased their combined upfront ad haul 4.1% over last year to an estimated $9.1 billion, according to Media Dynamics analysis, which was released Tuesday.

Cable TV networks, meanwhile, collected $10.6 billion in advertising commitments, a 7.6% gain over 2016. Robust sales for cable time surprised some analysts because these channels have experienced more dramatic erosion in viewers as more consumers turn in their cable boxes and sign up for lower-cost streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu.

Our primary take on the 2017-18 upfront is that national TV is far from dead, Media Dynamics President Ed Papazian said in a statement. A number of major branding advertisers have decided that they have no alternative but to continue to use TV as their primary communications platform  despite rating fragmentation and increased [prices].

Some advertisers have been skittish about social media platforms, such as YouTube, after discovering their ads placed alongside offensive content, including terrorist propaganda. They also were not certain about the effectiveness of ads in online video, wondering if viewers were actually seeing their ads.

Television still has an edge because of its huge reach advantage over digital media, as well as the fact that every TV commercial is fully visible, Papazian said.

This years upfront auction also was buoyed by so-called cross-platform buys. For example, NBCUniversal whipped up demand by combining sales for time on its flagship NBC network, which boasts such hits as This Is Us, with spots on its cable networks, including USA, Bravo, E! and MSNBC, and digital outlets including NBC.com. NBCUniversal notched its best upfront ever.

There also was increased interest in late-night shows, including NBCs The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and CBS The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Television networks across the board also sold more ads on their digital outlets, helping to plump up their totals. Media Dynamics estimated that networks will sell more than $2.6 billion in digital ads in the television season that begins in late September.

Looking at historical data, Media Dynamics calculated that the price per viewer paid by advertisers at this years market was a 72% increase over the 2008 upfront. And overall revenue generated for commercials placed in prime-time programs soared 18% since 2008.

The lions share of this gain went to cable, which saw a 40% increase in ad revenue, while broadcast remained relatively flat, the Media Dynamics report found.

Thats largely because of the explosion of premium shows on cable networks, including AMCs The Walking Dead, FXs American Horror Story and The Americans, and USAs Mr. Robot. In 2008, there were considerably fewer high-quality originals on cable.

meg.james@latimes.com

@MegJamesLAT
The Trump administration on Monday unveiled its highly anticipated plans for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, explicitly stating that its key objective is to reduce the trade deficit with Canada and Mexico  an aim that most economists say is misguided as the focus of a trade policy.

The release of the administrations bargaining objectives for NAFTA sets the stage for negotiators to begin talks as early as mid-August.

The 18-page document from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, suggests that the Trump administration is seeking a comprehensive review and wide-ranging changes to the 23-year-old pact, with a new chapter on the digital economy and other provisions and rules to modernize NAFTA.

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Much of the negotiating objectives are vaguely stated, likely reflecting the administrations reluctance to make commitments that at this stage could make things more difficult politically and at the bargaining table.

The blueprint contained none of the harsh language or threats to pull out of NAFTA that marked Trumps rhetoric during the campaign and into his presidency. Trump has repeatedly stated that he would terminate the agreement if it could not be significantly improved in favor of American interests.

In its NAFTA negotiating road map, the administration made clear it wanted to strengthen trade remedies to secure fairer and what it called reciprocal trade. The USTR said it would seek to eliminate a chapter in NAFTA that allows Canada and Mexico to challenge U.S. anti-dumping duties by turning to an independent panel of arbiters.

The Trump administration also said it planned to set up an appropriate mechanism to ensure countries avoid manipulating their exchange rate to gain an advantage on trade.

But the USTR largely papered over other contentious issues. For example, it indicated that the United States would seek to update and strengthen so-called rules of origin, which essentially set a limit on the value of non-North-American-made components that can go into goods and receive NAFTAs duty-free treatment. But no quantitative target was specified, nor was there even a statement saying that U.S. negotiators would be looking to raise the local-content minimum.

On labor, the USTR said it would require NAFTA countries to adopt internationally accepted standards that call for the right to organize and abolish compulsory labor, as well as setting acceptable pay and work conditions, something many labor advocates have wanted, especially for Mexico.

But whats missing is the assurance of steps that must be taken for the rights to be real, said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), the former ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Levins concerns were echoed by civil society groups and other Democratic lawmakers on other matters as well, including environmental rules and Buy American procurement policies.

The document is quite vague, so while negotiations can start in 30 days, its unclear what will be demanded on key issues, whether improvements for working people could be in the offing or whether the worst aspects of the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] will be added, making NAFTA yet more damaging for working people, said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens Global Trade Watch. Trump formally withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation free trade deal that former President Obama had completed but that failed to win congressional backing.

The early criticisms of the USTR objectives point to the political battle ahead as Trump seeks to overhaul not only NAFTA but U.S. trade policy more generally.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a short statement after the release of the objectives, neither endorsing nor criticizing the overall plan. Many businesses have been worried about the possibility that Trumps strident position on trade could lead to significant changes or even a dismantling of NAFTA that could undermine the gains over the last 23 years, and the sophisticated supply chains and operations that connect the three countries economically.

We commend the administrations recognition that we must do no harm to the American jobs, businesses and industries that depend on trade with Canada and Mexico, the chamber said.

Canada and Mexico are the United States second and third top trading partners after China. Total U.S. trade  imports and exports  with Canada and Mexico has tripled from 1993, to $1.2 trillion in 2016.

But the U.S. trade deficit has increased significantly with Mexico over the last two decades. And with American manufacturers continuing to relocate there, Trump has seldom passed up the opportunity to trash NAFTA, repeatedly calling it a disaster and earlier this year saying he was close to withdrawing from the agreement.

Trump in particular has focused on the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, which totaled $64 billion last year. The United States has trade deficits with practically every major country, and the president has made lowering and eliminating trade deficits his primary economic focus.

In a nod to Trumps emphasis on that, the USTR said in releasing its objectives that this is the first time that it has included deficit reduction as a specific aim for NAFTA renegotiations. Most economists, however, say that the trade deficit reflects broader economic imbalances, specifically the gap between U.S. investment and savings, and that reducing the deficit may do little to bring back jobs to the United States.

Theyre really obsessed with bilateral trade deficits, and trade policy doesnt really influence those bilateral trade deficits very significantly, said Douglas Irwin, a trade expert at Dartmouth College. Trade agreements determine the rules of trade but not the levels of trade and certainly dont determine whether you have a surplus or deficit.

Whats more, he said, the NAFTA objectives outlined Monday dont say how the administration is going to reduce the deficit.

Trump is looking to renegotiate other trade agreements as well. Earlier this month, Robert Lighthizer, Trumps U.S. trade representative, took the first step toward making changes in the free trade pact with South Korea, saying that the 5-year-old deal hasnt turned out well for the United States. The trade deficit in goods with South Korea rose to $27.6 billion last year, up 33% from 2013.

This [new NAFTA] agreement will be the template, the model for how the Trump administration will move forward on subsequent deals, said Robert Holleyman, a former deputy U.S. trade representative in the Obama White House and now president of C&M International, a Washington consulting firm. It will be the administrations stamp on what it hopes for and what it wants to do on trade.

don.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @dleelatimes

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UPDATES:

10:10 a.m. July 18: This article was updated with a quote from a Dartmouth trade export.

This article was originally published at 5:50 p.m. July 17.
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 
From excellent Filipino rice bowls to ice cream in an alley, heres whats happening in the L.A. food and drink world.

Bowled over: Like the sound of garlic fried rice topped with bits of crisp pork belly, a fried egg and pickled chiles? Chef Margarita Manzke is making Filipino rice bowls and halo halo for dessert at the new Sari Sari Store at Grand Central Market. She and husband and business partner Walter Manzke (they are also the duo behind Republique) are making food sourced from Margaritas Filipino heritage, in a stall just across the walkway from China Cafe. Whats on the menu: adobo, rice porridge and lechon manok chicken, along with fresh calamansi and passion fruit sodas. 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, (323) 320-4020, sarisaristorela.com.

We all scream: Smorgasburg, the Sunday market at Row DTLA, has launched a new area called Ice Cream Alley. Each Sunday, the market will feature a rotating crew of ice cream pop-up vendors, including Jenis Splendid Ice Cream, Nancy Silvertons Nancys Fancy, Salt & Straw, Sweet Rose Creamery and the Tidbit Truck. Some of Smorgasburgs regular vendors are also participating, including Wanderlust Creamery and Donut Friend (making vegan doughnut ice cream sandwiches). The Ice Cream Alley will happen every Sunday through Labor Day weekend, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles, (718) 928-6603, la.smorgasburg.com.

So wild: Matthew Hechter and Christopher Brandon, the owners of Verlaine restaurant on Beverly Boulevard, will open Wild Beast, a new lounge, inside the restaurant on Wednesday. The menu will rotate nightly and feature Baja street food from Verlaine chef Diego Hernandez. John Neumueller (formerly of Tasting Kitchen and Scopa Italian Roots) is behind the beverage program. The space, accessible by a black door just off the entrance to Verlaine, will be open Wednesday through Sunday evenings and feature small plates, cocktails, music and art. 8715 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood, (424) 288 4621, www.verlaine.la.

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Crab fest: The Hungry Cat in Hollywood is hosting its 13th annual crab fest on July 30. Chef David Lentzs seafood restaurant is offering a $65 prix-fixe menu that includes Maryland crab soup; fried soft shell crab with heirloom tomatoes and grilled avocado; steamed blue crabs and grilled corn; and buttermilk panna cotta with summer berries for dessert. Expect plenty of drink specials as well. The festivities will take place from noon to 8 p.m. 1535 N. Vine St., Hollywood, (323) 462 2155, www.thehungrycat.com/hollywood

Drink up: Badmaash, the downtown L.A. Indian restaurant by chef Pawan Mahendro and his sons Nakul and Arjun, has launched a new wine program. Jesse Brawner, formerly of Bestia and Shibumi, has curated a list of wines meant to be paired with the restaurants butter chicken samosas, Punjabi fish fry and beef short ribs. Some of the new selections include the Populis Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino County and the Sans VD.C. ZInfandel from San Luis Obispo. Brawner is also making a spritzer with Chinato Americano. 108 W. 2nd St. #104, Los Angeles, (213) 221-7466, www.badmaashla.com.

Still hungry? BacoShop, Josef Centenos Culver City restaurant, is now offering frose, a blended rose drink, and evening-only Family Packs of bacos, sides and cookies. Shake Shack is launching a Hot Chickn sandwich Aug. 1. Beefsteak, Marcel Vignerons Melrose Avenue restaurant, has launched a daily happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. Delicious Little Tokyo, a three-day culinary festival featuring workshops, culinary demos and food tours, returns to Little Tokyo in downtown L.A. Friday through Sunday. Truxtons American Bistro is now open in Torrance at the base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Poke Me, a build-your-own poke bowl restaurant, has opened a location in Palos Verdes. All-you-can-eat roasted pig is $15 at the Standing Room in Hermosa Beach every Tuesday this summer.

Jenn.Harris@latimes.com

@Jenn_Harris_

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Unable to advance legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans now are looking at an alternative that would cause even more widespread disruption to the nations healthcare system and throw millions more Americans off the insurance rolls.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells bid to salvage the GOPs Obamacare campaign by voting on a bill that would repeal only major parts of the current law without a replacement has won the endorsement of President Trump and some conservative lawmakers.

But it was quickly losing support Tuesday morning among key Republican senators, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, both of whom said they would not back such an approach.

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I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians, Capito said in a statement.

An independent analysis of the repeal-and-delay approach by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office earlier this year concluded it would lead to 32 million more uninsured Americans over the next decade.

That is some 10 million more than the Senate repeal-and-replace plan that was scuttled Monday night, which was projected to increase the number of uninsured by 22 million by 2026.

At the same time, repealing major planks of Obamacare without a replacement would cause insurance premiums to spike by 20% to 25% next year for Americans who rely on insurance marketplaces, budget analysts concluded.

And premiums would double by 2026, according to the report.

Similar warnings came from across the nations healthcare system earlier this year when Republicans contemplated a straight repeal bill that followed the template of a repeal-and-delay plan that Congress sent President Obama in 2015 and which he subsequently vetoed.

Delaying such a replacement could create unacceptable instability in the insurance market jeopardizing the healthcare of more than 20 million Americans  many of whom are cancer patients and cancer survivors with a preexisting condition, Chris Hansen, head of the American Cancer Societys advocacy arm said in January.

Even many leading Republican senators have voiced major concerns about repealing the current law without some replacement.

Congress should replace and repeal at the same time, which requires figuring out how to replace it before fully repealing it, Senate health committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in December.

Essential Washington: Full coverage of the Trump administration 
Crossing the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego can often be a long process. But for 57 hours in September, all cars will be barred from entering Tijuana through San Ysidro.

Lasting from 3 a.m. on Sept. 23 until noon on Sept. 25, the closure is part of a plan by the U.S. General Services Administration to realign a portion of Interstate 5. The operation launches the third and final phase of the $741-million expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

The closure will affect tens of thousands of drivers  students, commuters, shoppers and others who regularly travel between San Ysidro and Tijuana, passing through the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.

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Authorities are comparing the operation to Carmageddon, when a large swath of the busy 405 Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down for a weekend in 2011 for a highway expansion project.

In this case, the partial closure of the 5 Freeway at San Ysidro will cause all vehicle traffic crossing into Mexico during that period to be rerouted to Otay Mesa, where Mexico has only five inspection lanes.

If you have to cross that weekend, plan on delays, said Anthony Kleppe, a senior asset manager with the General Services Administration.

At a forum hosted Monday by the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and the South County Economic Development Council, Kleppe announced key dates for the massive project, which entails re-building the southernmost stretch of the 5 Freeway as it leads into Tijuanas El Chaparral Port of Entry.

The project is scheduled for completion in June 2019, Kleppe told a crowd of several dozen residents, business owners and government officials from both sides of the border gathered at the Las Americas outlet mall in San Ysidro.

The aim is to double the number of southbound lanes that feed into El Chaparral from five to 10. It will also involve adding eight more northbound inspection lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, bringing the total to 33. In addition, plans call for southbound vehicle inspection booths to be operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors, and a secondary inspection area.

During the construction period, the northbound flow of vehicular traffic will not be affected, Kleppe said. Nor will the pedestrian crossings in both directions.

The 57-hour closure of the southbound vehicle lanes is necessary for the safe removal of a large steel and canvas canopy that currently covers a portion of the southbound car lanes, according to the General Services Administration. During that time, workers will also remove concrete crash barriers, and install infrastructure and temporary paving and striping.

We start with a bang, Kleppe said.

Following the closure, southbound lanes will be reduced from five to three for a two-month period. After that, the plan calls for adding a fourth lane before Thanksgiving, and softening the current sharp 110-degree turn toward El Chaparral to 90 degrees. It has a better curve, even though there are fewer lanes, Kleppe said. The General Services Administration expects that as a result of the gentler curve, the flow of traffic will not change significantly from what it is today, despite the reduction in lanes.

Mondays presentation was seen as the launching of an effort to get out the word about the closure and lane reductions. As the message continues to go out, people are going to be able to plan their trips better, said Efrain Ibarra, assistant director of the South County Economic Development Council.

We hope to turn this into a positive, said Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, which fears that a drop in traffic could mean a loss of business.

Plans to hold a festival during the closure and promote pedestrian crossings can make this an economic boost for us down here, Wells said.

Dibble writes for the San Diego-Union Tribune.
As dusk settled over a mostly industrial landscape of warehouses covered with graffiti murals, Fernando Ramirez stood in front of the lone art gallery late Saturday afternoon and urged fashionably dressed visitors not to go inside.

Dont contribute to the displacement of the people in the community right here in Boyle Heights. Our rents are going up because of the art galleries, he said. Please do not cross the picket line!

Ramirez, 38, had come to this desolate stretch of Boyle Heights with other protesters to once again declare war against a growing number of neighborhood art galleries and what he and other activists fear they foreshadow: a wave of gentrification.

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On Sunday, a few miles east, a smaller group of protesters gathered outside a white storefront on Cesar Chavez Avenue with the word COFFEE painted in black.

Months after the activists won an apparent victory by pressuring an art gallery to close down amid what the owners called constant attacks, the protests against the galleries  and now Weird Wave Coffee  have illustrated both the demonstrators knack for annoying their targets as well as the limits of their tactics.

Along the gray desolation of Anderson Street, they have contended with sometimes well-financed galleries that can largely weather the disruptions. And on the busy stretch of Boyle Heights that houses Weird Wave Coffee, they have confronted residents who dont take kindly to being told what to do or buy.

Anti-gentrification forces spent weeks trolling the coffee house on Instagram before and after it opened June 15. They held protest rallies outside the business, holding posters, including one that read  White Coffee and included an expletive, and another that said AmeriKKKano to go. They passed out fliers with a parody logo that read White Wave.

Some Latino residents who defended Weird Wave Coffee said they were called coconuts by activists. Brown on the outside, white on the inside.

It makes us look bad, Koda Torres said of the confrontational tactics used against the cafe. The way they handle the situation of gentrification wasnt appropriate. They were almost vandalizing their windows, harassing the customers, calling people sellouts and racists.

But for the protesters, the stakes are too high for niceties. As they see it, if Boyle Heights is taken over by the forces of gentrification, then no other neighborhood is safe.

Its a threat to local businesses and its one more sign of gentrification that we need to defeat, Leonardo Vilchis, director of Union de Vecinos, said of Weird Wave Coffee. Otherwise this neighborhood is going to end up just like Highland Park.

Early on in the battle against the galleries, protesters stormed into shows and threw detergent on patrons as well as the food they were being served, according to witnesses and news reports. The Los Angeles Police Department investigated the graffiti of one gallery that included an expletive and said  White Art.

The Eastside has long been a center of Los Angeles protest movements, whether it was residents marching against the Vietnam War in the 1970s or more recently demonstrating for immigrant rights.

But the activists who have fought against gentrification have so far failed to rally a large number of residents to their cause.

Some longtime residents like the rising property values and increased retail choices. Others are concerned about people being pushed out of the neighborhood. They also struggle to connect the dots, like the activists, between widespread gentrification and a cafe or art galleries in an isolated part of Boyle Heights.

I dont know the word gentrification. I know the word displacement.  Nancy Garcia, Boyle Heights resident

I dont know the word gentrification, said Nancy Garcia, 31, a Boyle Heights resident. I know the word displacement.

About 100 people, including Garcia, showed up at a separate rally activists organized last month at Mariachi Plaza to support mariachis and other tenants facing eviction from homes that will be converted into luxury apartments. The atmosphere was spirited but peaceful, with musicians playing in the background.

Leonardo Vilchis Sr., left, hands out fliers to the community boycotting Weird Wave Coffee in Boyle Heights. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

When the owners of Weird Wave Coffee decided to open their shop in Boyle Heights, they were aware of the movement against gentrification. But they did not think they would be targeted like the art galleries. They were selling coffee, not pricey paintings.

Also, Weird Wave was hardly the first cafe or trendy business in Boyle Heights.

The arrival of the Metro Gold Line nearly eight years ago paved the way for change, along with rising property values and the boom of downtown L.A.

Not far from 1st Street and Boyle Avenue, Eastside Luv, a popular wine bar, opened years ago. Across Mariachi Plaza, a Victorian-era building, once home to many mariachis, went through extensive restoration and served as affordable housing. In 2014, La Monarca Bakery, an upscale Mexican cafe and panaderia, opened in the buildings ground floor.

I thought maybe were OK now, said Mario Chavarria, co-owner of Weird Wave Coffee. It was a year ago, and you know peoples perceptions change. But when they started posting notes on the window, I thought, well, maybe not quite.

Initially, protesters thought they were protesting against two owners, Jackson Defa and John Schwarz, who are white.

Defa, 34, a San Francisco native, said he tried to extend an olive branch to the protesters when they showed up at the business, but was rejected. Defa may have made things more difficult when he snapped an Instagram photo of a fruit vendor and used the hashtag local yokel, a phrase used to describe someone living in a rural area. Defa removed the post, apologized for the remark and said he was actually making fun of himself, not the vendor, whom they sometimes purchase fruit from.

But protesters point to the incident as an example of how outsiders actually feel about the community.

Defa said he understands the protesters concerns and probably would have supported them. He said that in San Francisco, he saw his rent jump from $700 to $2,000 in a year because of gentrification and moved to L.A. for a new start. He worked at a coffee shop in West L.A. until the owner sold it.

Schwarz, 33, a video game developer, lost his job last June. He held a few jobs to make a living and rents a room for $700 in the West Adams area.

I wasnt surprised, Defa said of the protesters. I was surprised they didnt want to listen.

Chavarria, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador when he was 10, put up $100,000 of his own money to open the business. When the activists began protesting, after Defa couldnt get the group to listen, Chavarria was called in to speak to the protesters, hoping they would see that the business was not just owned by two white guys. A resident even placed a sign in the shops window pointing out that it was a Latino-owned business.

So I went out there and said, Whats going on? What seems to be the problem? And they said, These guys in there are trying to change the community, Chavarria recalled. And I said, well, I dont think were doing that. Im part of the business. This is my place and I think, as a Hispanic, youre willing to support someone like you who is trying to get ahead, using his own private money.

Chavarria said he was called a vendido  sellout.

John Schwarz, center, and Jackson Defa, right, serve customers at Weird Wave Coffee. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Critics like Vilchis say the shops minimalist aesthetics and hipster style represent a danger to the community, encouraging property owners to increase rents and eventually price out longtime tenants.

But though Vilchis and other activists oppose some businesses, they also admit they can be selective in their opposition.

They dont protest a Starbucks in Boyle Heights, for instance, because its a post-gentrification business that no longer poses a threat, Vilchis said.

He said his problem isnt with the products that businesses like the galleries or Weird Wave Coffee sell.

It doesnt matter how good of a cup of coffee it is, it doesnt matter the good intentions the owners of the business have, he said. Its about the effect that the coffee shop has on the local neighborhood. Its not about taste, its about effect.

A day after Weird Wave Coffee opened in mid-June, the protesters confrontational tactics got the attention of the media, but the coverage only made others in the area curious about the cafe. Some residents and business owners also found themselves targets.

I really couldnt believe people are that mean in our neighborhood, said Francisco Torres, 47, a longtime resident. I didnt like that.

Weird Wave Coffee is located in the 2400 block of East Cesar Chavez Avenue. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Protesters gathered outside the shop, live-streaming the event and recording themselves as they paced back and forth, holding signs. But they also recorded telling interactions between residents and protesters.

In one recording, Ashley Aragonez, 29, expresses annoyance with the anti-gentrification activists.

What are you gonna get out of this? Do you think theyre going to close down? she told a protester.

Thats our mission  for them to get out of the neighborhood, he said.

Another protester, a woman, chimed in: What do you want? Do you want a white coffee shop here?

I want to be able to come and drink coffee and not have people yelling at me, Aragonez said.

Thats not gonna happen, the young man replied.

On Saturday night, visitors to two galleries targeted by activists largely went about their business. Some walked around, looking at art and holding cans of beer, at times getting into debates with protesters.

Lorraine Molina, 46, of Eagle Rock told a protester she owned a gallery downtown before rising rents forced her out.

I think theyre naive and I think theyre militant and theyre so ill-informed, they only understand what theyre interested in, she said. Thats the problem. The dialogue isnt big enough, it isnt expansive enough and inclusive enough.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more Southern California news, follow @latvives on Twitter.

Times staff writer Steve Saldivar contributed to this report.

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California State University trustees on Tuesday will discuss how to spend $3.4 billion in taxpayer funds earmarked for the system  more than what Gov. Jerry Brown initially proposed but still not enough to reverse a controversial tuition increase and tackle certain priorities such as building upgrades and maintenance needs.

The states 2017-18 budget gave Cal State an additional $177.2 million in recurring annual funds. Thats a $20-million increase from earlier proposals, and officials have been directed to put the boost toward increasing enrollment by about 3,000 students across the 23-campus system.

Cal State, the nations largest public university system, is dependent on state general funds for about half its operating costs. Tuition and fees cover the rest.

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The increase in funding is a further step in the right direction and will result in additional students accessing and graduating from the CSU, said Chancellor Timothy P. White  who along with students and faculty had lobbied lawmakers for months. We are grateful that the budget demonstrates continued support from the governor and legislature for public higher education.

Brown also approved a one-time, $20-million expenditure for efforts to increase graduation rates, as well as to address student hunger and fund equal employment opportunity programs.

The extra state funding and tuition increase revenue amounts to about three-quarters of the additional money trustees had estimated was necessary to meet their budget needs.

Trustees on Tuesday also will hear an update on the effort to double Cal States four-year graduation rate, from about 20% to 40%, by 2025. They will discuss how to use the additional funding to, for example, hire more faculty, add classes in high-demand courses and provide extra tutoring and support for students.

Administrators also are expected to announce a new director of student wellness and basic needs initiatives  efforts that student leaders have said are important to helping their peers reach graduation.

Also on the agenda are several policy directives that came out of Browns budget, which addresses hot-button issues such as remedial classes and increasing enrollment demand.

Last year, 30,000 qualified applicants had to be turned away because their desired Cal State campus was at capacity. By May of next year, university officials must develop a policy to redirect a rejected application to less-crowded campuses if the student meets the system-wide qualifications. Officials also have to approve a policy that requires Cal State schools to give local students priority admission for impacted programs  undergraduate majors and programs that receive far more applications from qualified students than what faculty, staff and campus resources are able to accommodate. At Cal State L.A., for example, impacted programs include biology, criminal justice, psychology and social work.

The trustees are scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Long Beach, and the meetings are open to the public. A live stream of the open sessions can also be viewed here.

rosanna.xia@latimes.com

Follow @RosannaXia for more education news

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The chancellor of the California Community Colleges system says intermediate algebra should no longer be required to earn an associate degree  unless students are in the fields of science, technology, engineering or math.

Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who heads the nations largest community college system of 114 campuses, told The Times that intermediate algebra is seen as a major barrier for students of color, preventing too many from completing degrees. About three-fourths of those who transfer to four-year universities are non-STEM majors, he said, who should be able to demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills by taking statistics or other math courses more applicable to their fields.

College-level algebra is probably the greatest barrier for students  particularly first-generation students, students of color  obtaining a credential, he said. If we know were disadvantaging large swaths of students who we need in the workforce, we have to question why. And is algebra really the only means we have to determine whether a student is going to be successful in their life?

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I think theres a growing body of evidence and advocates that say no  that there are more relevant, just as rigorous, math pathways that we feel students should have the ability to take, he said.

Debate over algebra requirements has escalated in recent years. Failure to complete intermediate algebra has kept tens of thousands of California community college students in limbo each year, sparking contentious criticism of the one-size-fits-all math requirement in the state and much of the nation.

California State University administrators have been open to exploring alternative math pathways; they are consulting with faculty to determine which disciplines need to continue requiring intermediate algebra and which could be more flexible.

Oakley made the comments in an interview about a report released Monday that sets ambitious goals to improve student success.

The report by the Foundation for California Community Colleges noted that the state will need 1.1 million more workers with bachelors degrees by 2030  but that only 48% of the systems students earned a certificate or associate degree or transferred to a four-year university within six years.

This anemic completion rate is a troubling sign for the overall health of Californias higher education and workforce development system, the report said.

The reports goals include:

A 35% increase in the number of students who transfer annually to a Cal State or University of California campus.

A 20% increase in the number of students who earn an associate degree, credential or certificate. The state will need 2.4 million more skilled workers by 2024, the report said.

A reduction in racial and geographical achievement gaps in five years and complete elimination in 10 years. The report noted that program completion rates vary widely: 65% for Asians, 54% for whites, 41% for Latinos and 35% for African Americans.

A decrease in the number of average units students earn for their associate degrees from 87 to 79. Most degrees require 60 units, suggesting students are not being efficiently guided in their program paths and may be spending more money and time than needed.

Proposals include eliminating math and English placement tests for 12th-graders who meet eligibility requirements for admission to the Cal State and UC systems (completing a list of prescribed courses with acceptable grades, for instance). Placement tests are coming under fire for inaccurately gauging college readiness, sending too many students into remediation who could succeed in college-level courses with adequate support.

The report also recommends intentional recruiting by community colleges of more working-age adults  not just high school seniors  to help boost qualifications for a broader range of higher-paying jobs.

A full plan of action will be developed by the college system and presented to the Board of Governors in the fall. But the report drew wide praise at the governors meeting Monday in Sacramento. Hans Johnson, director of the Public Policy Institute of Californias Higher Education Center, said achievement of its goals would mark a milestone in state efforts to improve outcomes for Californias underserved students.

We have an army of faculty and staff who come to work every day wanting to improve the lives of people, Oakley said at the meeting. We need to empower them to do that more  and to do it on steroids because thats what our state needs from us.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

Twitter: Twitter: @teresawatanabe

rosanna.xia@latimes.com

Twitter: @RosannaXia
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrived on a three-day visit to Georgia accompanied by Ukrainian businessmen on Monday evening.

"The two countries' presidents will sign a joint declaration, which will determine the main principles of cooperation between Georgia and Ukraine," Georgian presidential advisor for international affairs Tengiz Pkhaladze told reporters.

The Ukrainian president also plans to consider security issues at the talks in Georgia, he said.

During Poroshenko's visit to Georgia a number of bilateral documents, which are aimed at expanding strategic cooperation between the two countries, are expected to be signed, the Ukrainian presidential administration said on its Facebook account.

Ukrainian President Poroshenko and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili will open a business forum in Tbilisi and will attend an investment roundtable in Batumi.
Fifty years ago, Joseph Phelan let his younger sister tag along on his first date with the woman he eventually married.

Dawn Marie Ritz sat in the back seat of the car at the Lancaster drive-in movie theater, while Phelan tried to woo his date.

Now 67, Phelan laughed recently at that memory of his developmentally disabled sister, always happy and delightful. She was pretty good at the show, he recalled. Though the siblings were close  she was like my shadow, said Phelan, who lives in Idaho  the last time he saw Ritz was in 2008.

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In the early hours of May 14, his 61-year-old sister was found dead in a Granada Hills care facility, allegedly stabbed by another resident.

According to LAPD Det. Steve Castro, 18-year-old Ravneet Kaur entered Ritzs bedroom at the Aacres group home with a kitchen knife she said she had found in a cabinet.

A caregiver at the home had gone to Ritzs room when she heard screaming and found the door locked, Castro said. She called 911 after she opened the door and found Ritz lying on the floor, bloody, with Kaur standing next to her.

Kaur said she didnt like Ritz, the detective said.

The Los Angeles County district attorneys office has filed murder charges against Kaur, who pleaded not guilty and is being held in lieu of $2 million bail, according to Sheriffs Department records.

If convicted, she could face a life sentence.

According to district attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago, officials have doubts about Kaurs mental competency to stand trial. Medical examiners will provide the results of their evaluation at an Aug. 1 court hearing.

In the meantime, the California Department of Social Services is investigating the Aacres group home to determine whether the facility provided proper care and supervision for Ritz, according to department spokesman Michael Weston.

Depending on what officials find, the department could close the facility or issue a citation, among other penalties.

We are fully committed to learning from this tragedy so as to continue to promote our clients and families safety and well-being, Robert Efford, CEO of Embassy Management, the company that oversees Aacres, said in a statement.

Officials from the group home declined further comment.

Records for the home note that sharp knives and first aid kit will be stored in locked closet with shelving and that the facility will provide 24 hour awake staffing. Social Services has cited the group home three times before for minor offenses  a leaky sink and a broken auditory alarm, insufficient disaster drills, and insufficient logs for residents medications.

Ritz was buried last month in the Joshua Tree Memorial Park cemetery, next to her parents.

I am just so glad that my mother and father arent alive to have to see this, because they gave up their whole lives for her, Phelan said.

Phelan described his sister as happy and sweet, always excited to dance, go bowling or make Valentines cards  even after the holiday was over. For years, she competed in track and field for the Special Olympics, and she loved to water-ski on Pine Flat Lake in Central California.

Ritz loved church, Phelan said, and constantly told him that Jesus touches my heart.

megan.bernhard@latimes.com

@meg_bernhard

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A 15-year-old boy and a man in his 20s were wounded Monday night in what police believe was a gang-related shooting near an entrance to Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.

Shortly after 8 p.m. a person walked up to the victims at the corner of Lemon Grove and Van Ness avenues and opened fire, shooting the boy in the arm and the second victim in the stomach, said Los Angeles Police Officer Mike Lopez.

Both victims were taken to a hospital, where the older of the two was reported in serious condition.

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Police did not have a description of the attacker, who fled on foot.

The shooting occurred near Paramounts Lemon Grove Gate, a side entrance to the studio near the back edge of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

There were still employees inside the Paramount lot when the shooting happened, according to a security guard who said he had been posted outside to escort Paramount employees to a parking garage across the street.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

11:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about where the shooting occurred.

This article was originally published at 10:05 p.m.
A good Samaritan pulled a car seat from the back of a car Monday after spotting a missing baby with a man who appeared to be under the influence of drugs, police said.

Police said 8-month-old Emiliano Salinas was abducted from the Monterey County city of Soledad before 5 a.m. Monday. Police initially said the baby was a year old.

The boy was found unharmed several hours later in San Jose and reunited with his parents.

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Soledad police told the Mercury News in San Jose that the baby was abducted when 43-year-old Raymond Randy Gutierrez stole a running Honda Accord with the baby inside from a mans driveway. Gutierrez is in custody.

Construction worker Colin Blevin is credited with pulling the child from the car. Blevin acted because he felt Gutierrez was in no condition to care for a baby, police said. Blevin told the newspaper that he saw an addled Gutierrez pacing and muttering to himself outside the stolen car.

The California Highway Patrol canceled an Amber Alert about 90 minutes after issuing it Monday morning.
For the first time in more than six months, no federally monitored rivers in California or Nevada are flooding or at risk of flooding, according to climate scientists.

From Jan. 4 to July 15, at least one California or Nevada river fed by the Sierra Nevada was at or above flood monitoring stage, following a historically wet winter.



For the record: An earlier version of this story stated storms damaged state roads and bridges to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Repairs were estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

A non-leveed river reaches monitor stage when it rises above its normal flow for that time of year, begins to wash over low-lying banks and causes minor flooding. Flood stage is when its a full inundation that causes significant damage to the area.

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For a leveed river, monitor stage is when the water is several feet below the tops of the banks, but high enough where local officials are required to begin monitoring the river around the clock.

The streak started Jan. 4 in Sacramento County, when the Cosumnes River exceeded its monitor stage about 1:45 p.m., and it ended 193 days later on Saturday, when the Walker River in Nevada dropped below its monitor stage about 3 p.m., according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center, a branch of the National Weather Service.

The streak is over! 193 days later ALL 98 river forecast points are below critical stages. Walker R @ Mason last holdout. #cawx #nvwx #flood pic.twitter.com/UpsuDbd0SE  NWS California-Nevada RFC (@NWSCNRFC) July 16, 2017

In between those events, California was at the mercy of at least 30 atmospheric rivers (compared with an annual average of six) that dumped unprecedented amounts of rain and snow across the West Coast. The storms flooded low-lying communities, buried mountain towns in snow and battered the states infrastructure.

At the peak of the floods in January, 42 of the forecast centers 98 river-monitoring stations showed water levels were at least at monitor stage  and in some areas, actually flooding.

Conditions only worsened in February, when 51% of the centers stations showed rivers were at risk of flooding or had already done so.

The next #AtmosphericRiver is taking aim on CA, and is expected to bring with it high snow levels & flood concerns to the Sierra. #CAstorm pic.twitter.com/B7cppXbf8K  NWS Hanford (@NWSHanford) February 6, 2017

The storms led Gov. Jerry Brown to declare an emergency for 50 of Californias 58 counties, where reservoirs were filling to the brim and roads and bridges were crumbling, leaving an estimated repair bill of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Dozens of people died in weather-related mishaps involving car crashes, river drownings, falling trees and exposure to the elements.

ArnieHuddin, of #Capitola, walks away after his truck is smashed in land slide on #Highway17. Both directions shut down. pic.twitter.com/ieN6JVuBAV  @Rob Fladeboe kron4 (@KRON4RFladeboe) February 7, 2017

When the storms subsided, Central Valley communities remained in the crosshairs.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack was among the largest ever recorded. When summer temperatures surged, hundreds of billions of gallons of snowmelt flowed into reservoirs and rivers, where it compromised levees.

Only in the last few weeks have counties in the Central Valley begun to reopen river access for recreation.

Though the threat of overflowing rivers may have faded for now, theres still a risk that waters could rise again if the conditions are right, the National Weather Service said.

There can always be the chance for a high-water event or flash flood. All it takes really is a thunderstorm to be stationary over the right point of the Sierra Nevada, said Kris Mattarochia, a scientist and operations officer with the weather service.

Flash Flood Warning for...

Northwestern Santa Clara County and

East Central San Mateo County

Until 145 PM PST Tuesday#castorm #caflood pic.twitter.com/FkL6OuV58P  NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) February 7, 2017

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.
A woman died Monday after she fell 150 feet from a seaside bluff in Santa Cruz County when the ground beneath her crumbled, authorities said.

Jennifer Diaz Ocampo and her friends were visiting the cliff north of Davenport just after 4 p.m., said Sgt. Chris Clark, spokesman for Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office.

Ocampo, 20, was standing about a foot away from the edge and peering over the side when the cliff  battered by winter storms  collapsed, he said.

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There just wasnt support there to hold her weight, Clark said.

The San Jose resident fell onto a remote beach that was only accessible by helicopter or water.

When lifeguards swam to her, Clark said, she was talking and moving her arms.

Soon after, Ocampo was hoisted onto a helicopter, but she died on the way to the trauma center, he said.

Ocampo and her friends would have likely walked past a sign advising them to stay back from the steep cliff, Clark said.

You just never know what the situation could be or whether the ground could hold you, he said. You have to be extremely careful.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA
In a rare legal move, a federal judge in San Diego has reopened a case that was tried in military court because of concerns that a sailor might have been wrongly convicted of molesting a child.

In his decision dated July 11, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ordered federal prosecutors to respond to a petition brought by attorneys representing Navy Petty Officer James R. Rich.

Rich contends that the military violated his constitutional rights by relying on the shaky, hearsay testimony of a toddler and then allowing a juror to disregard the sailors exemplary military record as his sentence was decided in 2014.

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David Sheldon, the Washington, D.C.-based appellate attorney for Rich, praised Curiels decision Monday. He said the military court system gave the sailor short-shrift review and failed to address his constitutional challenges to his conviction. Curiels order, he added, is the first step in righting this injustice.

Navy officials declined to discuss the case while it is undergoing appeal.

I have never seen a habeas corpus [petition] where a federal court intervened in a military case. I am sure it has happened before, but it is rare, said San Diego-based attorney Jeremiah Sullivan III, an expert in military law.

A panel of sailors convicted Rich during a general court-martial in Norfolk, Va., for the aggravated sexual abuse of a child. It sentenced him to seven years confinement; hes currently imprisoned at the base in Miramar, Calif., and his federal court case was heard in San Diego.

In early 2012, Rich was living with a girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter in Virginia. The child allegedly told her mother that she had performed oral sex on Rich, and he was arrested. Rich, who has professed his innocence, said the girl might have mistakenly seen a consensual act between him and his girlfriend recorded on his mobile phone.

The military judge conceded that the preschoolers recollections 2-1/2 years later failed to fully match what she initially told her mother and investigators. However, the judge allowed the girls clear, voluntary, uncontrived and spontaneous statements into the trial.

After a jury of Richs peers convicted him, it was supposed to weigh his otherwise outstanding military record when deciding his punishment. A lieutenant later told attorneys in a separate criminal case that he had focused solely on the alleged crime and not Richs military decorations and the glowing testimony of a supervisor.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington denied Richs bid to reopen his case. The tribunal unanimously ruled that the girls testimony was sufficiently credible. It took more than a year for Richs appeal to reach U.S. District Court.

Federal prosecutors are expected to file a response to Curiels order by Aug. 11.

cprine@sduniontribune.com

Prine writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune
Two weeks ago, Juanita Mendez-Medrano was selling flowers and Hawaiian leis to people attending a graduation ceremony at Perris High School when a Riverside sheriffs deputy approached her.

At least 15 other street vendors were cited by deputies for vending without a city permit. When it was Mendez-Medranos turn, things got complicated, according to the Riverside County Sheriffs Department.

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Unlike the other vendors, Ms. Mendez-Medrano refused to cooperate as necessary to allow our officer to issue her a citation, read the departments statement. She refused to provide her name, and attempted to walk away. Our officer repeatedly told Ms. Mendez-Medrano why she was being detained, and that she could not go without being issued a citation. After giving several fake names, attempting to leave, and pushing the officer away, our officer attempted to arrest Ms. Mendez-Medrano for violating the city ordinance and obstructing justice.

A short video of the arrest has been making its way around social media, sparking outrage. In the video, the officer is holding onto Mendez-Medranos arm. She tries to pull away, and after a brief scuffle, the deputy grabs Mendez-Medrano by the hair and slams her to the ground, scattering her flowers.

Why dont you go after gang members? Why those who are making a living? she yells at the officer. Why do you go after us like this?

A second deputy arrives to help handcuff Mendez-Medrano. In the background, people tell her not to resist. The deputies try to roll Mendez-Medrano onto her stomach to handcuff her other arm.

The brief video has led people to share it on Instagram and Twitter. Some people have left messages on the departments Facebook account expressing anger over the arrest.

Im saddened by the brutality for the poor woman selling flowers, wrote Felix Cortes.

Disgusted by the treatment of the woman selling flowers to make an honest living. Selling without a license, while illegal, is not a dangerous crime that warrants physical violence, wrote Makayla Espinoza.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, the Sheriffs Department defended the deputies actions.

Unfortunately, the video did not capture the other vendors cooperating with the citation process, nor did it capture our officers repeated efforts to convince Ms. Mendez-Medrano to do the same, the statement read. As with most police events, the short, publicly produced video does not have the full context or content of the incident seen on the video.

ruben.vives@latimes.com

For more Southern California news, follow @latvives on Twitter.

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A day after certifying that Iran is obeying international restrictions on its nuclear program, the Trump administration went in the opposite direction Tuesday and slapped new sanctions on Tehran for unrelated alleged transgressions.

The Treasury Department blacklisted 18 people and entities for supporting Irans military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which it said harassed U.S. naval vessels and tried to build ballistic missiles and steal U.S. computer software.

The sanctions mean it is illegal for U.S. citizens or companies to do business with those on the list, and any assets they have in the U.S. can be seized. Its unclear whether the 18 have such assets or businesses.

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The back-to-back actions reflect the policy crosscurrents for President Trump in trying to reconcile his campaign promises with the realities of foreign policy governance.

As a candidate, he vowed to rip up the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which was brokered by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

The accord required Tehran to destroy or ship out most of its nuclear fuel and infrastructure and to submit to intensive monitoring to ensure it doesnt cheat.

In exchange, the international community agreed to ease sanctions that had crippled Irans economy, allowing it to again export oil and rejoin the global financial system.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has repeatedly said Iran is complying with the accord. The U.S. Energy Department has offered similar assurances.

But the White House has struggled to find a way between abandoning the deal  which could allow Iran to resume nuclear development and ultimately get a bomb  and holding Tehran accountable for its development of ballistic missiles and support for militant groups in Lebanon and Yemen.

Even if Iran is complying with the nuclear accord, Tehran is violating the spirit of the deal, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.

Irans other malign activities are serving to undercut whatever positive contributions to regional and international peace and security were intended to emerge from the nuclear agreement, Nauert said.

The nuclear accord deliberately does not address Irans ballistic missile program, its support for militant groups or its human rights abuses, and the country remains under sanctions for those issues. During the negotiations, diplomats concluded it would be impossible to rein in Irans nuclear threat if other disputes were mixed in.

By law, the administration must report to Congress every 90 days whether it certifies that Iran remains in compliance with the nuclear deal, and the administration did so Monday before a midnight deadline.

It came with last-minute drama as Trump balked at approving certification, despite the advice of his principal national security team, according to a person close to the White House who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal debate.

After talking points for certifying Irans compliance already had been distributed early Monday, Trump told his top advisors he was having second thoughts and wanted other options.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in the Oval Office about 1:30 p.m. for a previously scheduled meeting with Trump. The discussion quickly turned to the Iran deal.

Tillerson argued repeatedly that major allies were deeply invested in the deal and needed more notice before the U.S. could argue that Iran wasnt in compliance.

Trump was upset at the notion that allies interests should be taken into account, and he insisted repeatedly that the accord was a bad deal for the United States, the person familiar with the meeting said.

Trumps national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, and other senior advisors also made the case for leaving the deal intact.

But Stephen K. Bannon, Trumps strategic advisor, who keeps a list of Trumps campaign pledges on a white board in his White House office, said the president should follow through with his promise to tear up the deal.

After nearly an hour, Trump agreed to support certification, but he demanded a plan for getting tougher on Iran. Advisors were still tweaking the announcement as the midnight deadline approached.

Besides Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the new sanctions target the militarys support of so-called fast attack boats, small vessels that Iran has used near U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.

Most of those sanctioned Tuesday are Iranian, but one company is based in Turkey and one person is a Chinese national.

The penalties send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Irans provocative and destabilizing behavior, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said.

The State Department reissued calls for the release of U.S. citizens arrested in Iran.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter
Environmentalists along the U.S.-Mexico border are gearing up for a fight as federal officials zero in on the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to build the first stretch of the border wall promised by President Trump.

Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used a drilling rig to extract soil samples at the Rio Grande Valley refuge to prepare for the possibility of constructing three miles of concrete levee wall and fence, according to a federal Homeland Security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal planning for the wall.

There is no money in the current federal budget for wall construction on the site. But federal engineers are preparing on the basis that Congress could approve funding for the 2018 budget year, the official said.

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The 2,088-acre refuge about 10 miles southeast of McAllen in the southern tip of Texas was created by the federal government in 1943 for the protection of migratory birds and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Straddling a bend in the Rio Grande, it is home to the endangered ocelot, as well as jaguarundi, coyote, bobcats, armadillos and 400 bird species, making it one of the top birding destinations in the world.

The proposed barrier there, first reported by the Texas Observer, would cut off the refuge from its visitors center and the rest of the country. Environmental advocates say that could have a devastating effect on the animals who live in or roam the refuge and to the residents of one of Texas poorest regions who depend on the tourism it draws.

This is insane, said Scott Nicol, co-chairman of the Borderlands Team for the Sierra Club. This is the crown jewel of the Rio Grande Valley wildlife refuge system, with one of the highest rates of biodiversity in the U.S. If its walled off, with no public access, it will be left to rot. Ocelots could be pushed over the cliff and into extinction in the United States.

But federal officials say that building a wall would allow them to ramp up immigration and drug-smuggling enforcement in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the most heavily trafficked portions of the border  with many places lacking any barrier.

The Rio Grande Valley area has been an area of exploitation by smugglers, and an area lacking in border infrastructure, Carlos Diaz, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman, wrote in an email. These miles will help connect existing segments of wall throughout the area and fill critical gaps.

Under the requested 2018 budget, Customs and Border Protection has prioritized 28 miles of new levee wall system in the Rio Grande Valley, Diaz said. The agency has already held preliminary meetings for projects under the enacted 2017 budget as well as those it hopes to fund in the next budget.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under contract with Michael Baker International, a global engineering firm, to gather geotechnical data at sites in the Rio Grande Valley and other locations along the Southwest border, according to Jenny Burke, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat from Brownsville who represents the area of the border including Santa Ana, said he requested a briefing about the wall from Customs and Border Protection officials.

Clearly, its all being done in secret and its not transparent at all, he said. I can tell you were going to fight like hell to stop it.

These refuges are national treasures and sacred places, and we have to do everything we can to stop the Trump administration from putting this wall into place, said Vela, who opposes all border walls in his district, famously telling Trump in an open letter last year: Mr. Trump, youre a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.

Estimates for a continuous wall along the southern border have ranged from $12 billion to $20 billion. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One last week that his wall would not have to cover the entire 2,000-mile border because parts were blocked by mountains and rivers. About 600 miles already have walls, fences or other barriers.

Over the last decade, the government has erected about 56 miles of fencing in the Rio Grande Valley, mostly atop levees on land the government seized through eminent domain.

Unlike much of the land the government wants to build on in south Texas, the wildlife reserve is already federally owned and will not involve the costly process of trying to seize property.

But building along the Rio Grande presents a range of engineering and other challenges, including a 1970 treaty with Mexico that could restrict construction in the floodplain.

Environmentalists are especially worried that a barrier along the levees would put animals in danger by trapping them during floods.

Essentially, youre creating an impassable barrier, so wildlife cannot get to the river or away from the river, said Jim Chapman, vice president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a nonprofit group that advocates for the valleys native habitat.

In 2010, the Santa Ana refuge was flooded by high waters that resulted from Hurricane Alex. Many plants and animals did not survive, and environmental advocates say the impact would only be more devastating if a border wall was in place.

Santa Ana was underwater for four months, Nicol said. A terrestrial animal cant tread water for four months.

A wall would also have a negative economic effect across the region, opponents say. The Santa Ana refuge is home to 165,000 visitors a year, many birders from across the world. A 2011 study by Texas A&M University found that nature tourism in the Rio Grande Valley brought in $463 million a year. The biggest portion of that is from birding.

Special correspondent Jarvie reported from Atlanta and Times staff writer Bennett from Washington.

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UPDATES:

July 18, 11:58 a.m.: The article was updated to reflect that news of the refuge as a possible site for the wall was first reported by the Texas Observer.

This article was originally published July 17 at 7:45 p.m.
Relatives and neighbors of an Australian woman fatally shot by Minneapolis police over the weekend demanded answers Monday about the mysterious shooting in which the meditation teacher was reportedly killed by an officer who fired from the passenger seat of a squad car as she stood outside the drivers door.

Authorities released no details about what led to the shooting of Justine Damond, whose fiance said she had called 911 to report what she believed was a sexual assault in an alley near her home.

Police said officers were responding to a call about a possible assault late Saturday when she was killed. There were no known witnesses other than the two officers in the squad car. A newspaper report said Damond was shot while standing alongside the car in her pajamas.

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The Hennepin County medical examiners office on Monday said the woman died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Her fiance, Don Damond, said the family has been given almost no additional information about what happened after police arrived.

Weve lost the dearest of people, and were desperate for information, he said. Piecing together Justines last moments before the homicide would be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy.

Damonds family in Australia released a statement Monday through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, saying they are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened.

Authorities did not release the womans name, but the Star Tribune newspaper identified her as Damond. It reported that she was engaged to be married in August and was using her fiances last name. Her maiden name was Ruszczyk.

Almost two days after her death, police offered no public explanation and referred questions to the states Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was investigating.

The bureau said Monday that no weapons were found at the scene. More information would be provided once the officers were interviewed, it said in a statement.

Local news media identified the officer who fired the shot as Mohamed Noor. A city newsletter said he joined the Police Department in March 2015.

His attorney, Tom Plunkett, said in a statement that Noor offered his condolences to Damonds family and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers.

Plunkett added: He joined the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves, and he empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

Noor was sued this year after a May 25 incident in which he and other officers took a woman to a hospital on a mental health hold. The lawsuit alleges that the officers violated the womans rights when they entered her home without her permission and Noor grabbed her wrist and upper arm. Noor relaxed his grip when the woman said she had a previous shoulder injury, the lawsuit says.

Television station KSTP reported that city records show Noor had three complaints on file. The station did not provide details on the nature of the complaints but said that one was dismissed with no disciplinary action and that the two others are pending.

The Star Tribune, citing three people with knowledge of the shooting it did not name, said that the officers pulled into the alley in a squad car and that Damond talked to the driver. The sources said the officer in the passenger seat shot Damond through the drivers side door. A Bureau of Criminal Apprehension spokeswoman did not return messages seeking to confirm that account.

Neighbor Joan Hargrave called the killing an execution and said there was no reason for a well-trained officer to see Damond as a threat.

This is a tragedy, that someone whos asking for help would call the police and get shot by the police, Hargrave said.

Officials said that the officers body cameras were not turned on and that a squad car camera did not capture the shooting. Investigators were still trying to determine whether other video exists.
The Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine stresses the need to create an independent and effective judicial body to fight corruption in Ukraine.

On Monday morning, the EU Delegation met with Members of the Verkhovna Rada Svitlana Zalishchuk, Ivan Krulko, Mustafa Nayyem and Serhiy Leshchenko as well as representatives of civil society to discuss about the outcomes of the EU-Ukraine Summit held last week, the EU Delegation said on its Facebook page.

Ambassador Mingarelli reassured the meeting participants that there has been no change in the EU's position on the fight against corruption, which should be further accelerated and intensified.

"EU has closely followed the process on the creation of appropriate judicial instruments to adjudicate corruption offenses as prescribed in the Law on the Judiciary adopted last year. We continue to ask for the establishment of an independent, efficient judicial body with the necessary authority and resources to fight corruption. We call for a transparent and independent process in establishing this body and selecting specialized judges," European Union quoted Mingarelli as saying on Facebook.

A roundtable on the next steps in the establishment of appropriate institutions to bring corruption offenders to justice will continue in early September, the message says.

As it was reported, on July 13, 2017, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that the European Union does not insist Ukraine should set up a separate anti-corruption court, but suggests a special anti-corruption chamber created within the Ukrainian judiciary could be enough.

"Fight against corruption is crucial and needs further acceleration and activation. So we were offering to the president this morning, President Tusk and myself, how to deal with this problem when it comes to jurisdictions. Till now the EU was requesting from Ukraine to create a special court in charge of corruption affairs. Now we agreed this morning that if Ukraine would introduce in its judicial system a chamber dedicated to dealing with this that would be sufficient. Not the instruments are important, but the intentions and decisions and the consequences of all this are important," Juncker said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and EU President Donald Tusk in Kyiv.

On July 14, the EU Delegation to Ukraine said President Juncker was clear in his speech: fight against corruption is crucial and needs further acceleration and activation. He said it is important that an independent, effective judicial body with the necessary powers and resources to fight against corruption is being created.

At the same time, Juncker added the question of the name and structure of this judicial body is a matter of details. The independence, effectiveness and sufficient resources and powers this authority must possess are important, the official said.
Words matter. And when those words appear on the ballot, where space is limited and the competition for voter attention is high, they matter a lot.

This has become an issue for a group of Republicans who have proposed a ballot initiative to repeal a recently passed package of gas taxes and vehicle fees. On Friday, they sued California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, claiming his office put a partisan spin on the title it gave their initiative. Instead of describing the initiative in a straightforward way, saying something like Repeals the gas tax, the title says instead: Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes.

The description is accurate, as far as it goes. And even though the words taxes and fees dont appear in the title, they do appear in the summary that goes directly after the title on the signature petitions and on the ballot, if it qualifies. Anyone taking the time to read through the petition before signing it would figure out what the measure was all about.

Theres a pretty simple solution: Give the duty to a nonpartisan third party.

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Still, the title is clunky and manages to avoid the simple and direct words that would clarify for voters what the initiative actually does. Worse yet, the initiatives proponents believe that the language was made intentionally opaque to weaken the measures support.

Ballot proponents do not get to dictate the titles that go with their proposals, but there was no reason this title had to be so tortured. Does that mean the word choice was politically motivated? Not necessarily. It could merely be the result of having been written by lawyers. Ultimately, it will be up to a judge to decide whether Becerra should rewrite the title and summary.

But such complaints are unnecessarily common in situations where an attorney general from one party prepares the language for a ballot initiative pushed by people in the other party. State law gives the attorney general the responsibility of writing true and impartial titles and summaries for ballot measures without creating prejudice, for or against the proposed measure. Nevertheless, more than a couple of attorneys general have been accused of choosing  or omitting  words for the ballot title or summary to make a political point or to sway voters.

For example, former Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, a Republican, was sued for his decision not to include the hot button words affirmative action in the summary of Proposition 209, the controversial 1996 ballot measure that ended state affirmative action programs. Former Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat, was accused of bias when she wrote the summary for a pension reform proposal. Jerry Brown, when he served as attorney general, was criticized for the language he used to describe Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage initiative.

Theres a pretty simple solution: Give the duty to a nonpartisan third party. This idea has cropped up periodically in recent years, but hasnt gone anywhere. The most recent proposal, by Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Roseville), would reassign the writing of ballot titles and summaries to the Legislative Analysts Office. The proposal (which would itself be in the form of a ballot initiative) was supported by California Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of California. But it was opposed by Becerra and died in its first committee hearing.

Kileys bill may be dead, but this is an idea that ought to be given serious consideration by both parties. The LAO has done an admirable job of writing clear, concise and apolitical analyses of proposed legislation. It stands to reason the LAO would produce ballot titles and summaries with the same non-partisan balance and clarity.

Its bad enough that the titles of ballot measures are often vague and unhelpful. (Just consider two competing measures on the November statewide ballot: Proposition 62, titled simply Death Penalty, and Proposition 66, with the title Death Penalty. Procedures. Only when voters read the summary did it become clear that one measure proposed ending the death penalty in California and the other proposed speeding it up.)

Voters shouldnt have to wonder also if ballot titles are a product of political spin.

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Seven years ago, Congress had a chance to take a humane approach to people living in the United States illegally not through their own actions, but through the actions of their parents. Arriving as children, some of these immigrants were smuggled across the border while others entered legally but their families failed to leave when they were supposed to. Many werent even aware of their immigration status until they tried to get a job or had some other official contact that required proof of citizenship or a Social Security number. Many also know no other country  they have been raised as Americans, educated in American schools, and share American dreams and values. It would be cruel to send them packing now.

To lessen the threat of deportation for those who arrived in the United States as children, the House in 2010 passed the Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for those who met certain conditions. But Democrats in the Senate failed to muster enough support to bring it to a vote, so it died. In the wake of that political debacle, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, using prosecutorial discretion to grant temporary relief for people who met roughly the same conditions spelled out in the failed Dream Act. Of the 1.3 million people eligible for protection  a renewable two-year card granting permission to live and work in the United States  some 750,000 have applied for and received it.

Enter Donald Trump. One of the mainstays of his presidential campaign was demonization of immigrants in the country illegally and bellicose promises to deport them all, build a wall along the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. But Trump was strangely, for him, conciliatory about the Dreamers  those who would have been eligible for protection under the Dream Act. After initially pledging to immediately end the program once he moved into the Oval Office, he softened on the campaign trail.

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He should show some political courage, endorse the DACA provisions and defend them should Texas carry through with its threat to sue.

As well he should. The usual arguments for escalating deportations  that low-wage immigrants compete unfairly with U.S. citizens, and that they somehow pose a threat to public safety  are especially hollow when applied to those brought into the country as young children.

As president, Trump has expressed sympathy for the Dreamers plight and has left the DACA program alone even as he ramped up deportations and ended Obamas planned extension of protections to parents of citizens and legal residents, but who are themselves in the United States illegally. Yet Trump also has not endorsed DACA, likely fearing backlash from political supporters who bought into his draconian views on immigration.

Those waters were further muddied recently when Texas and several other states threatened to file a legal challenge to DACA if Trump did not rescind it. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly told members of Congress that he thought the Obama executive action that created DACA was likely illegal and an abuse of executive power. He questioned whether the Trump administration would defend it in court if the states did sue. Trump responded that he would make the decision on DACA, not Kelly or U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions (whose antipathy to immigration runs deep). Meanwhile, the Dreamers are left in limbo as the infighting in the White House continues between the hard-liners who want to end DACA and those whose hearts arent made completely of ice.

The best solution here is a comprehensive immigration overhaul that would include a reprieve for the Dreamers, but its quixotic to think that this White House, and this Congress, would ever agree on humane reforms. The closest we came was the 2013 Gang of Eight Senate bill that, while imperfect, offered a bipartisan blueprint for dealing with immigrants who are in the country illegally, among other improvements in the law. That measure died in the House when Republican Speaker John A. Boehner refused to let it come to a vote.

Trump can move us in a better direction. He should show some political courage, endorse the DACA provisions and defend them should Texas carry through with its threat to sue. That would leave some of his core supporters frothing at the mouth, but thats what a leader does  makes the tough calls in the countrys best interests regardless of the politics.

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Rumors are swirling that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Republican-appointed judge whose swing vote has preserved detente between the courts left and right for nearly a generation, may announce his retirement in the next year.

The mere idea that Kennedys seat could get filled by President Trump and the conservative Republican Senate has sent many on the left into a tailspin of anxiety and despair. In the 28 years Kennedy has served on the court, he has authored opinions or cast tie-breaking votes in major, divisive cases, including decisions that preserved a constitutional right to abortion, recognized social and sexual liberties for gays and lesbians, granted habeas corpus protections to Guantanamo Bay prisoners, confirmed a 2nd Amendment right to own a handgun in the home and applied the 1st Amendment to corporations engaged in political speech.

To many liberals, Kennedys replacement with a strict originalist like Justice Neil Gorsuch would feel downright apocalyptic. Indeed, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch told reporters in April that the battle to replace Kennedy will be Armageddon.

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Some liberals are so worried about the health of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is 84, that theyre sending her kale recipes. Things are clearly out of hand.

Liberals arent the only ones who get anxious over Supreme Court appointments, of course. When it seemed Antonin Scalias seat would go to Merrick Garland, which would have created a more liberal majority on the court, the Republican-led Senate refused to give Garland any hearings or votes for an unprecedented 293 days  until Obama was no longer president  a maneuver that led to bitter resentment and set a worrisome precedent for future vacancies. Meanwhile, some liberals are so worried about the health of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is 84, that theyre sending her kale recipes. Things are clearly out of hand.

This level of speculation, fear and dramatic suspense over when any single public official retires is a sign that the stakes of Supreme Court appointments are simply too high. To lower the stakes  and attending dysfunction  of each court appointment, both parties would do well to consider a scheme put forward by two Northwestern University law professors.

In a 2006 paper for the Harvard Law Review, Steven Calabresi and James Lindgren proposed that Supreme Court justices should serve 18-year terms, with a new judge appointed every two years. Each president would effectively get to nominate two justices for every term in office, and the Senate would agree to promptly consider them on a regular schedule.

The sitting court would be composed of the nine most recent appointees. More senior judges would continue receiving full pay and would sit as judges on lower federal appellate courts or back on the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy or recusal. The plan has the advantage of potentially being achievable by statute, rather than requiring a constitutional amendment.

Of course, a justice might unexpectedly die, retire, resign or be impeached. But for the most part, Supreme Court appointments would become more quotidian, like other executive or judicial nominations. The public, the press and Congress would know what to expect and when to expect it.

With a new justice always around the corner and a built-in limit to the length of any one persons influence, the Senate could more easily accept an opposing presidents nomination, breaking the go-nowhere tit-for-tat cycle of congressional partisanship that stalled the appointment of Garland.

Such a system would also eliminate the tyranny of the young, whereby presidents seek to appoint the youngest possible justices in a calculated effort to further their legacies for the greatest number of decades. New voices and ideas could more easily populate the court, and brilliant, innovative judges wouldnt be sidestepped for being too old. The frequency of appointments might allow presidents to experiment a little, perhaps by appointing a trial judge or a politician. It might also encourage minority parties and interest groups to limit their cries of impending doom.

The Constitutions Article III has long been interpreted to grant judges life tenure. But the text actually has some leeway. It states that judges shall hold their offices during good behaviour and receive a compensation, which shall not be diminished while in office. The rest of the Supreme Courts structure, and what it means to hold the office of a Supreme Court justice, is left to Congress.

The benefits of life tenure are clear. By eliminating the ability of political actors to remove judges, the Constitution frees judges to make decisions based on reason and their honest understanding of law, rather than to protect their positions by pleasing a political patron.

But life expectancy today is a full 30 years greater than it was in 1789. In the countrys first 200 years, the average Supreme Court justice served for 15 years; Kennedy is creeping up on 30. Gorsuch, fit and 49 years old, could serve for the next 35 years or more.

Thats a very long time for an unelected official to exercise such vast public authority.

Ben Feuer is chairman of the California Appellate Law Group, an appellate law firm that practices in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The greatest trick any politician can pull off is to get his self-interest and his principles in perfect alignment. As Thomas More observed in Robert Bolts A Man for All Seasons, If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly.

Which brings me to Sen. Rand Paul, the GOPs would-be Man for All Seasons. Paul has managed to make his opposition to the GOPs healthcare bill a matter of high libertarian principle. The fact that the bill is terribly unpopular in his home state of Kentucky  where more than 1 out of 5 Kentuckians are on Medicaid  is apparently just a coincidence.

Indeed, it seems like whenever I turn on the news, hes explaining why the GOPs healthcare efforts are disappointing. Look, this is what we ran on for four elections. Republicans ran four times and won every time on repeal Obamacare, he told Fox News Neil Cavuto, and now theyre going to vote to keep it. Disappointing.

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Principles, meet self-interest.

But is Pauls idealism really whats driving him, or is that just a convenient excuse for doing whats politically expedient? Its tough to say.

Every time healthcare proceedings move one step in Pauls direction, he seems to move one step back.

Paul learned politics on the knee of his father, Ron Paul, a longtime Texas congressman and irrepressible presidential candidate. In the House, the elder Paul earned the nickname Dr. No because he voted against nearly everything on the grounds that it wasnt constitutional or libertarian enough. The fusion of cynicism and idealism was so complete, it was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended.

Im absolutely for free trade, more so than any other member of the House, he told National Reviews John Miller in 2007. But Im against managed trade. So he opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and all other trade deals, not on Trumpian protectionist grounds but in service to his higher libertarian conscience which, in a brilliant pas de deux landed him in the protectionist position anyway.

Ron Paul loved earmarks. Hed cram pork for his district in must-pass spending bills like an overstuffed burrito  and then vote against them in the name of purity, often boasting that he never approved an earmark or a spending bill.

In 2006, Republicans proposed legislation to slow the growth of entitlements by $40 billion over five years. Democrats screamed bloody murder about Republican heartlessness and voted against it. So did Ron Paul  on the grounds the reform didnt go far enough.

Now I cant say for sure that Rand Paul is carrying on the family tradition.

And yet: Every time healthcare proceedings move one step in Pauls direction, he seems to move one step back. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offered an amendment that would open up the market for more flexible and affordable plans, like Paul wants. No good, he told Foxs Chris Wallace. Those plans are still in the context of the Obamacare mandates.

My idea always was to replace it with freedom, legalize choice, legalize inexpensive insurance, allow people to join associations to buy their insurance.

Sounds good. Except a provision for exempting associations from Obamacare mandates is already in the bill.

Paul insists hes sympathetic to the GOPs plight and its need to avoid a midterm catastrophe. (It would look awful if the party did nothing on healthcare at all.) His solution? Just repeal Obamacare now, and work on a replacement later. I still think the entire 52 of us can get together on a more narrow, clean repeal, he told Wallace.

That sounds like a constructive idea, grounded in principle.

Oddly, thats what the GOP leadership wanted to do back in January.

And one senator more than any other fought to stop them and even lobbied the White House successfully to change course. Guess who?

If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, Paul wrote, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come.

Thats true, particularly, if Paul stays true to his principles.

jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com

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When George Romero died Sunday, he was almost universally hailed as the father of the zombie movie. The title was both too much and not enough. Romeros The Night of the Living Dead didnt invent the zombie movie; that credit goes to White Zombie from 1932. But in his great trilogy  Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead  Romero reinvented the genre of the zombie movie so thoroughly that what before had been a minor subspecies of B-flick became a functioning allegory for the American way of life.

The figure of the zombie was not originally American, of course. It was a figure of fear and mortal terror developed in Haitian voodoo. Before the revolution, Haitian slaves believed that death would return them to lan guinee, or Guinea in Africa. But the zombie could not go home. He was a slave even in death. The notion of the zombie may have begun as colonists proscription against suicide; even in certain kinds of death there would not be liberation. The ultimate agony was to be a slave eternally.

Given this history, the zombie is perhaps the most grotesque of any major pop culture trope. When you wear a zombie costume, you are appropriating a Haitian narrative about the despair of slavery. In a time when a college lecturer can be forced to resign over an email about Halloween costumes, and a novelist can provoke outrage by wearing a sombrero to a lecture, it is remarkable that the zombie goes almost entirely unchallenged as a cultural icon. (The Walking Dead is in its seventh season.)

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We have Romero to thank, I believe, not just for the popularity of zombies but for the transcendence of their specific, charged context. In 1932s White Zombie, Bela Lugosi plays Murder Legendre, who owns a plantation in Haiti and uses the undead as laborers. A passing couple is visiting a neighboring plantation, and a love triangle emerges in which Madeleine, a white woman, is turned into a zombie. Hence the title. What was extraordinary in the original zombie movie is that white people could become zombies. That was the horror.

In a way, Romero excised history from the zombie narrative. No character in his trilogy refers to the monsters in question as zombies. In The Night of the Living Dead, they are ghouls. The word does appear in the script to Dawn of the Dead but mostly the creatures are referred to as the dead or simply them.

Not that the traditional roots of the zombie story were entirely removed. In Dawn of the Dead, Peter, played by Ken Foree, looks over a crowd of zombies: Theyre us, thats all. Theres no more room in hell. When his fellow survivors ask him what he means, he says, Something my granddaddy used to tell us. You know Macumba? Voodoo? Granddaddy was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, When theres no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

Romeros other key modification  against the White Zombie standard was to make at least one of the heroes African American in each film in the trilogy. The zombies are mostly white. In The Night of the Living Dead, a black man fights off a bunch of unthinking rural white Americans who want to eat him. The movie ends with the hero being casually shot by a white paramilitary group evocative of a lynch mob.

Thus Romero took the real fear of the zombie  the fear of the loss of humanity  and placed it right at the heart of the American story. Thats what great cult films do.

He also gave that fear a contemporary analogue, turning American consumerism, rather than the plantation, into the soul-destroying force. Dawn of the Dead is not necessarily a great example of filmmaking craftsmanship or art, but its symbolism is immaculate. The scene in Dawn of the Dead when the survivors of the outbreak arrive in the middle of a zombie-infested suburban mall  this is genius. The wandering crowds look at mannequins. They want to look like the mannequins. They dont know that they are already mannequins, mannequins that can move. They stumble from store to store because they vaguely remember real desires they once might have had.

Zombies, in Romeros hands, are not super violent. Compared to the undead in Resident Evil or 28 Days Later or World War Z, his zombies are quite gentle. Sure, they eat human beings, but mostly they stumble around bumping up against chain-link fences or boarded-up doors. You have to do something really dumb to be killed by a Romero zombie, like go down a mine shaft without a light or put a gun in its hand.

Except when they occasionally need to eat flesh, Romeros zombies mostly just go about their business. Thats whats so scary about them: Theyre not that different from ordinary people.

Stephen Marche is the author, most recently, of The Unmade Bed: The Messy Truth About Men and Women in the Twenty-First Century.

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Two years ago my beloved high school English teacher Mrs. O-W posted on social media, after locking up her classroom for the last time, It was a happy place. I will miss both it and the kids, but NO MORE ESSAYS! After 32 years of service in public education, Mrs. O-W finally left what she calls the best job ever in 2015 with a hard-earned pension from CalSTRS, the California State Teachers Retirement System.

Like Mrs. O-W, most public school teachers working today count on traditional pensions  which guarantee a monthly income based on age, salary and years of service  as the main source of financial security in retirement. Forty percent of teachers nationwide arent covered by Social Security; pension plans, in which employer and employee contributions are invested in a pooled, professionally managed fund governed by a board of trustees, provide their only source of guaranteed retirement income.

Now teachers across the country are facing aggressive political attacks on their pensions. In 2010 Michigan placed new teachers into a hybrid plan consisting of a significantly reduced pension and a mandatory 401(k)-type plan. Last week, the states Republican governor, Rick Snyder, under pressure from right-wing legislators to scrap the pension component, signed a bill that will direct most new teachers into just a 401(k). Pennsylvania also recently passed a hybrid pension bill that pushes new teachers into 401(k)-only plans, and similar efforts are afoot in other states.

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As they move to dismantle secure pensions for teachers, GOP politicians are starting to argue that eliminating guaranteed pensions is whats best for teachers. They base this claim on dubious research, sponsored by anti-pension groups, that uses high attrition rates among entering teachers to claim that most teachers dont stay in their jobs long enough to get a decent pension.

Three out of four teachers currently working in the state will put in at least 20 years before leaving, and half will put in 30 years or more.

Its true that 40% of new teachers are likely to leave in the first five years. But the vast majority of the teaching profession consists of teachers who stick it out. Anti-pension studies obscure this by weighting teachers who work three months and leave, never to return, exactly the same as those who work 30 years and occupy a much greater share of teaching positions. Among all working teachers, from fresh-faced novices to experienced veterans, it turns out that Mrs. O-Ws long career is typical in California, and its likely not far from the national average.

The UC Berkeley Labor Center analyzed how long most teachers stay in the classroom in California based on CalSTRS demographic data for all active teachers and on detailed actuarial studies on statewide teacher turnover. We found that three out of four teachers currently working in the state will put in at least 20 years before leaving, and half will put in 30 years or more. Nearly 9 out of 10 will stay until at least age 55, and the average classroom teacher will work in California schools into their 60s. Our study was funded by CalSTRS, but anti-pension researchers have not been able to refute the fact that most classrooms in the state are occupied by long-term teachers.

Although we dont yet have career projections at the national level, we know that California is fairly typical in terms of average teacher experience. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that a large majority of teachers currently working in the U.S. have made it past the early years when most new teachers quit. We can surmise, then, that as in California, they will probably stay in the classroom for decades.

Teacher pensions are designed to encourage this kind of commitment to the profession. Vesting typically happens after five years of service (if teachers leave before then, the contributions theyve paid into the system are refunded, plus modest interest). Pension amounts build up slowly at first, then more and more quickly, providing an incentive for experienced teachers to stay. But around age 65, benefits flatten out, encouraging teachers to retire rather than burn out.

And, our research shows, by the time most active teachers leave service  in their early 50s or later  they will be far better off with their pensions than they would have been with 401(k)s.

Using the teacher longevity data we calculated, we compared current levels of CalSTRS benefits with the yield from an idealized 401(k). We found that 86% of working teachers in California will get higher retirement income from the existing pension than they would from even a best-case-scenario 401(k).

In fact, a 401(k) plan would provide 40% less retirement income for the typical California classroom teacher compared with the current pension, which is consistent with rigorous studies in other states, including one commissioned by the Colorado legislature and another conducted in Texas.

Traditional pensions attract recruits to the profession and keep experienced teachers in the classroom. Doing away with pensions would increase teacher attrition and, worse, severely diminish the retirement security of those like Mrs. O-W who commit to our children long term.

Nari Rhee is director of the Retirement Security Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. She is co-author, with William B. Fornia, of the report Are California Teachers Better Off With a Pension or a 401(k)?

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Kamala Harris works to forge relationship with Central Valley

Sen @kamalaharris talking grapes with Fowler Packing Co president Dennis Parnagian in the fields outside metro Fresno pic.twitter.com/smVuRfbSpQ  Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) July 5, 2017

The drought may be over in the minds of urban Californians, quite literally washed away by huge accumulations of rain last year that filled reservoirs and left the states mountains covered with snow even now.

But the farmers and others in the Central Valley, veterans of multiple drought-and-flood cycles, know the reprieve is only temporary. On Wednesday they pressed new U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to work to ensure a more reliable source of water for the nations most bountiful farming region.

This area is drying on the vine, Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, told Harris during a roundtable with Central Valley officials.

A long-term solution can only come through federal and state action to protect the areas water supply, he said.

Jason Phillips, chief executive of the Friant Water Authority, said recent rainfall had done little to stem problems caused by nearly a decade of drought.

A canal that runs from Fresno to north of Bakersfield sunk in some places as much as 2 feet in two years, he said, wreaking havoc on a system that operates on the force of gravity.

We cannot get all the water to our growers, he said.

The meeting between Harris and nearly two dozen agriculture and water officials was meant to ease what is typically a fraught relationship between the states Democratic leaders  all of whose power bases are in metropolitan areas  and the mostly Republican Central Valley powers that traditionally look at them with skepticism.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has worked for two decades to aid the agricultural industry  at the roundtable, several nodded as Harris referred to the senior senator as an incredible warrior for the area.

But Harris predecessor, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, was allied more with environmental groups that have fought dams and other water systems. As a result, she was viewed negatively by many here.

Harris was intent Wednesday on persuading the Central Valley representatives of her interest in places beyond her base in Alameda and San Francisco counties.

They, on the other hand, worked to convince her to be more in the Feinstein mold on issues important to the area  from reliable water to immigration programs to environmental protections that take into consideration the areas needs.

President Trump was highly popular in much of the Central Valley, apart from Fresno County, which leans Democratic because of its metropolitan shadings. But some issues important to the valley cut in politically unorthodox ways.

Republicans here are more concerned than those elsewhere with passing a plan that would give legal status to immigrants, on whom agriculture depends. With undocumented workers worried about deportation, and the border tightening to those not yet here, the labor supply has already shrunk, farmers said.

Theyre out there working, being productive people, said farmer Joe Del Bosque. They work hard for us, and we have nowhere to reach.

Del Bosque said he recently held a training session for new workers. Of the 200 people who showed up, only a handful were born in the United States, he said.

Environmental regulations prized by Democrats elsewhere are often frowned on by some party members here and blamed for the areas water difficulties.

Several of the participants lobbied Harris for her support of dams that have long been under consideration by federal and state officials, particularly the Temperance Flat Dam, which would be constructed on the San Joaquin River.

Harris offered no assurances on the topic to the group on Wednesday. Afterward, speaking to reporters, she also did not take a position.

One of the things that were going to have to figure out ... is what is the right solution for that, she said of a plan to construct the Temperance Flat Dam and several others. Is it going to be about the building of dams? Is it also going to be about looking at  also looking at  other sources of renewable and sustainable reliable sources?

Both sides signaled they did not expect an alliance on all fronts. But Harris said she would serve as an advocate for farmers during the crafting of a new farm bill and other measures before the Senate.

William Bourdeau, executive vice president of the politically influential Harris Farms, told the senator he wished the majority of her supporters who reside in urban areas would have a better understanding of the risks and challenges of farming.

We need somebody to explain the symbiotic relationship we have, he said.

I agree with you completely, she replied.
Ben Ray Lujan was a relatively new congressman, barely finding his way through the halls of the Capitol, when his mom called with an urgent message from home.

The llamas, she told him, had broken out of their pen again.

From nearly 2,000 miles away, Lujan helped her figure out how to corral the animals, which were supposed to be guarding the familys sheep herd in New Mexico.

Its a skill that could serve him well in his current job, in which he will be expected to play a leading role in guiding Democrats as they try to win the House majority in 2018.

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Something that I learned just around here, growing up on this small farm, is that every job mattered, and whatever job you were asked to do or tasked with, you had to do it, and you had to do it right, said Rep. Lujan, 45, sitting beneath a towering cottonwood at his familys generations-old farm.

As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Lujan has a difficult, often thankless, job at a time when almost every Democrat seems to have an opinion about what the party needs to win in the age of President Trump.

Energetic anti-Trump groups are hammering the campaign committee for not doing enough to recruit and promote fresh candidates, portraying party leaders as tone-deaf to Trumps populist appeal.

At the same time, more moderate forces are pushing Democrats to the center, trying to keep the party from drifting too far left into the Bernie Sanders wing.

It falls largely to Lujan to shepherd the campaign arm of the fracturing party, united mainly by opposition to Trump and by a desire to win back the House majority. Lujan must help recruit dozens of candidates and persuade deep-pocketed donors to shell out more than $200 million for the midterm election.

As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan has a difficult, often thankless, job. (Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times)

This is a moment of opportunity and a moment of truth for Ben Ray Lujan, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an outside group promoting progressive candidates.

Does he fill the map with bold, inspiring economic populists who can win in red and purple districts? Or does he go the traditional route of finding milquetoast candidates or self-funding candidates who lose cycle after cycle? Thats what a lot of people are looking at.

After losses in four special elections this spring, many Democrats blamed party leaders for failing to pick up a single House seat.

But Lujan held firm, rejecting pressure to spend more money in long-shot races. Although the campaign committee poured $6 million into suburban Atlanta, where Democrat Jon Ossoff appeared to have the best chance to pick up a traditionally Republican seat, it declined to go big in deep-red districts in Kansas, Montana or South Carolina. Ossoff still lost, but the campaign committee learned valuable lessons and Lujan saved resources for what he believes are more promising battles to come.

It was an unexpectedly hard-line approach from the typically good-natured Lujan, who is preparing to go on the offense next year in 80 Republican-held battleground districts, particularly those Trump lost to Hillary Clinton or only narrowly won. Colleagues made note of his resolve.

The chairmans responsibility is to look at it in a coldblooded, strategic way  to look at what we need for 2018 to win the majority, said Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), co-chairman of the House Democrats Policy and Communications Committee. That always creates some disappointment for people.

Laid-back and bluejean casual, Lujan seemed like an odd choice when he was first tapped for the job. He was pulled from relative obscurity as a back-bench, four-term congressman from a small, poor state, hardly seen as a power player in Washington.

But as the first Latino to run the committee  and the first Westerner in years  Lujan represents an aspirational face of the party, one that is more energetic, youthful and rural.

On his familys 4-acre farm nestled among tribal lands in the Nambe valley  the street is named for his grandparents  Lujan explains his system for cooking bite-size chicharrones snacks on a New Mexican disco  a wok-like pan originally made from a tractor disc  on the outdoor grill.

Later he shows off rows of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers growing in a greenhouse he built on weekend trips home.

His father, the long-serving speaker of the state House, encouraged him to pursue politics, which he did only after a circuitous route through college, finally graduating later in his 20s after working night shifts as a blackjack dealer at a nearby tribal casino.

You learn how to visit with people, carry on a conversation, he said about his time playing cards. My political opponents tried attacking me for having those jobs. This paid the bills. If youre going to attack me doing that, then you clearly dont understand the constituents youre fighting to represent.

His predecessors at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee were usually hard-charging Washingtonians  think Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel or former New York Rep. Steve Israel.

But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi saw in Lujan a well-liked and charismatic newcomer when she asked him to take the job after the 2014 midterm election losses.

Lujan accepted and quickly set out to expand the committees team. He stacked it with lawmakers newer to Congress, naming vice chairpersons from regions across the country. He also worked to improve relations with minority groups in the House, particularly the Congressional Black Caucus, which often feels shortchanged in campaigns.

His first big challenge, the 2016 election, became a brighter spot on a dismal night for Democrats, with six House seats netted. But disappointed Democrats agitated for House leadership changes after Trumps win.

When Lujan sought election as chairman later that year  the job would no longer be appointed by Pelosi, as she heeded demands to loosen her grip  he fended off a potential challenger and won unopposed.

This year he was hit with an ethics review after a conservative watchdog gorup filed a complaint over his use of photos from a Democratic sit-in on the House floor for his own reelection fundraising, a potential violation of House rules.

Overservers say Lujan has grown into the job, an assessment he readily admits.

A core debate among House Democrats is whether their focus should be on reaching white, working-class Trump Democrats who have broken away from the party, or on investing more heavily in outreach to the African America, Latino and other electoral groups sometimes taken for granted.

Democrats need 24 seats to pick up the majority, about as many as a party historically wins during midterm elections when it does not control the White House.

The committee is trying new strategies to tap into unprecedented grass-roots enthusiasm, including recruiting more locals for campaign jobs rather than parachuting in experts from Washington, believing the new faces will provide on-the-ground expertise and build a deep bench of new leaders.

It has also moved its entire Western state operation to Southern California to aggressively target Republican-held House seats in Orange County.

We need to do a better job in understanding that were talking about real people, Lujan said. And be able to connect with those people all across the country, like the ones I represent and the family I grew up in.

Lujan makes no secret that the committee is willing to take sides in primary battles, a position that angers many Democrats.

Pelosi, as party leader in the House, still plays a mighty role, particularly as fundraiser in chief, and Lujan must toggle between his allegiance to the San Francisco Democrat and the reality that some in the party would prefer new leadership.

No matter what you do, somebodys going to be upset, especially if you have high expectations  and we do have high expectations, said Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus political action committee.

Meeks says he appreciates Lujans more open, bottom-up approach at the campaign committee, as opposed to someone just saying, This is what were doing.

We have honest, open, tough conversations, he said. He can deal with it.

As the hot afternoon sun begins to relent on his farm, Lujan walks across the property to the pen with his last llama, Tony. The sheep have died or been sold off and the other llama sent to a new home, but he has plans to resume the family traditions once he can repair the fences to protect from predators. He calls the farm work therapy.

Lujan recalls once when he couldnt get close enough to collar the llamas after another escape. He simply parked his trailer up the road, filled the bed with feed, unfolded his lawn chair nearby, sat down and waited.

Eventually, the llamas climbed in and he took them home.

Its another lesson from the farm  this one in patience  that could come in handy for Democrats in 2018.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

@LisaMascaro

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California lawmakers voted Monday evening to extend the states premier program on climate change, a victory for Gov. Jerry Brown that included unprecedented Republican support for fighting global warming.

In a break with party leaders and activists in California and Washington, eight Republicans joined with Democrats to continue the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The legislation would keep the 5-year-old program operating until 2030, providing a key tool for meeting the states ambitious goal for slashing emissions. Cap and trade also generates important revenue for building the bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, another priority for the governor.

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Californias program is the only one of its kind in the U.S. and has been considered an international model for using financial pressure to prod industry to reduce emissions. Bipartisan support for the system comes as Republicans in Washington, including President Trump, have blocked, resisted or undermined national efforts to fight global warming.

California Republicans are different than national Republicans, said Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley), who pushed members of his caucus to work with Democrats on the issue. Many of us believe that climate change is real, and that its a responsibility we have to work to address it.

The legislation to extend cap and trade, Assembly Bill 398, passed 55 to 21 in the Assembly and 28 to 12 in the Senate.

Lawmakers also approved a companion measure, AB 617, aimed at reducing pollution that cause local public health problems like asthma. It passed 50 to 24 in the Assembly and 27 to 13 in the Senate.

Republicans and Democrats set aside their differences, came together and took courageous action, Brown said in a statement before holding a celebratory bipartisan press conference in the Capitol. Thats what good government looks like.

What you need to know about Californias big vote on climate change policies>>

The willingness to support cap and trade was hardly unanimous among GOP lawmakers. Only one Republican in the Senate, Tom Berryhill of Modesto, voted for the proposal. A majority of Assembly Republicans, who were involved in negotiations for weeks, did not support the plan.

But Republican backing was much stronger than in the past, when major California climate policies never gained more than one or two votes from the minority party. Some grew emotional as they spoke on the floor.

 GOP Assemblyman Devon Mathis on cap and trade vote

We have to make decisions as legislators  do we do what is right or do we do what is politically right? said Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-Visalia), choking up during his speech.

Support for cap and trade is a bid for political relevance for Republicans who have been shut out of all positions of power in state government and have paltry prospects to regain influence.

There is a broad consensus among California voters that global warming merits a response from Sacramento, said Mark Baldassare, who handles polling as president of Public Policy Institute of California.

While Democrats are more supportive of climate change policy than Republican voters overall, theres a substantial number of Republican voters [who say] climate change is real and the state should be acting, he said.

Some advocates hope California could become a political trendsetter when it comes to broader political support for fighting climate change.

Theres an important signal coming from California Republicans willingness to engage in the conversation, said Bob Inglis, a former South Carolina congressman who leads republicEn, an advocacy organization dedicated to persuading conservatives to back climate policies.

Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the 2006 legislation that provided the foundation for cap and trade, said the bipartisan vote fills me with tremendous pride.

We can fight for free market policies to clean up our environment for our children at the same time we fight for a booming economy, Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Democratic Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia, of Bell Gardens, left, and Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, of San Diego, watch as the votes are posted for Garcias climate change bill on Monday in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)

Others doubt there will be ripple effects.

Is this California leading the way with a new Republican philosophy? No, said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist. Thats not going to happen any more than Ohio Democrats advocating for backing off of gun control measures will spread to California.

Eight Republicans backed Jerry Browns climate change bill  heres what that means for their political futures>>

Mondays vote involved an unusual coalition for a climate change measure because Brown wanted a two-thirds vote for the legislation to insulate cap and trade from legal challenges. The bill to extend cap and trade, AB 398, received the supermajority vote Brown hoped for.

National advocacy organizations, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, backed the legislation despite initial concerns that it wouldnt be tough enough on greenhouse gas emissions.

Also supporting the deal were powerful business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce and associations representing manufacturers and agriculture interests. Oil companies, while not staking a public position, backed the deal behind the scenes. Although businesses have fought the program in the past, they viewed it as less costly for their bottom line than other direct regulations that have been considered to reach the 2030 goal.

Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) called the measure a legislative unicorn because of its broad support from organizations usually at cross purposes.

Here's @ChadMayesCA on why seven Republicans in his Assembly caucus voted for #CapandTrade extension on Monday night. pic.twitter.com/4e0XGIyynp  John Myers (@johnmyers) July 18, 2017

Meanwhile, activists at the California Environmental Justice Alliance and the Sierra Club continued to criticize the measures as too favorable to industry. Particularly troublesome to them was a provision to limit some separate regulations on refineries.

Also opposing the legislation were conservative activists disappointed to see Republicans sign on to legislation that could increase costs for Californians.

Earlier this year, Republicans almost universally opposed funding road repairs with an increase in the gasoline tax.

However, cap and trade could boost prices at the pump 24 to 73 cents a gallon by 2031, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office. By voting to extend the program, Republicans are weakening a potential political cudgel they could have used against Democrats during next years campaigns, said Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

They lose the moral high ground of representing themselves as representing the middle class, Coupal said.

Cap-and-trade legislation was opposed by U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who had Mayes position in the state Legislature a little more than a decade ago.

In a letter signed by some of his California House colleagues, McCarthy said the measure would end up raising more taxes on California drivers and families so that Sacramento has more money to spend wastefully on building the bullet train.

Some establishment Republicans tried to provide political cover. George Shultz, a former secretary of state who has supported climate policies, wrote in a letter that the late President Reagan would be proud to see cap and trade receive bipartisan support. Former California Gov. Pete Wilson also signaled his support.

Securing Republican support involved a number of concessions, including rolling back a fire prevention tax levied on landowners largely in rural areas of the state, which has long been a target for repeal by the GOP. Republicans also secured the extension of a tax credit for manufacturers, which was broadened to include some power companies.

More negotiations focused on a proposed ballot measure, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1, that Republicans hope will give them more say over how cap-and-trade revenue is spent. The proposal was passed by lawmakers, and if approved by voters next year it would require a one-time two-thirds vote to continue spending the money in 2024.

The higher threshold could provide Republicans with an opportunity to undermine funding for the bullet train project, which counts on cap-and-trade revenue.

Times staff writer Liam Dillon contributed to this report.

melanie.mason@latimes.com and chris.megerian@latimes.com

Follow @melmason and @chrismegerian on Twitter for the latest on California politics.

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Updates from Sacramento

UPDATES:

9:15 p.m.: This article was updated with a quote from Gov. Jerry Brown.

This article was originally published at 8:50 p.m.
Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and EU to start working on second stage of Eastern Partnership  Poroshenko

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, together with their European partners, are starting to form the next stage of the agenda of the European Union's Eastern Partnership program, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Now we, together with partners from Georgia, Moldova and our European partners will form the second stage of the agenda of the Eastern Partnership," he said at a joint press conference with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili in Tbilisi on Tuesday.

Poroshenko also said that the Ukrainian and Georgian sides had discussed the coordination of joint actions on cooperation with the EU.
After it was repeatedly rejected by Los Angeles County voters, a proposal to expand the county Board of Supervisors is gaining traction in the state Legislature amid complaints that the panel is too small to properly serve the most populous county in the U.S.

A plan to ask voters statewide to expand the board from five to seven members and create a new, elected county chief executive officer has sailed through two legislative policy committees despite a split in the countys delegation to the Legislature.

Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) leads a group of 10 senators who have introduced legislation for a statewide ballot measure based on the belief it would make the board more representative of and accessible to constituents.

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With nearly 10 million residents, L.A. County is nearly twice the size of the second most populous county in the nation, Cook County in Illinois.

Currently, each board member represents about 2 million people.

Representing more than 1 million people makes access to a supervisor nearly impossible for an individual when they need help to access county services, a key function of local government, Mendoza said during a recent legislative hearing.

The measure was approved by the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee on a 4-1 vote Wednesday, but still needs approval by the full Senate and Assembly.

Sen. Henry Stern (D-Woodland Hills), the committees chairman, voted against the measure. He said he was wary of having Los Angeles County government dictated by the Legislature and voters in other counties, including San Francisco.

I am uncomfortable making these decisions here in the Legislature, Stern said. On board members, he added, If we feel they are not representing us well, we can vote them out of office.

The measure is opposed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which said in a letter to lawmakers that the proposal completely undermines the ability of county residents to self-govern and the decision should be one for county voters to make, not voters statewide. County voters have rejected board expansion measures eight times going back to 1926.

Board Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas said the county is served well by a chief executive officer and its most diverse board ever.

The people of Los Angeles County are perfectly able to decide whats best for them and should not be dictated to by lawmakers in Sacramento imposing their will upon the county, Ridley-Thomas said.

Sen. Robert Hertzberg (D-Los Angeles) said the proposal would have a better chance as a state ballot measure because county elections are more easily dominated by those holding power in Los Angeles County who want to protect the status quo.

Backers said the measure would hold down costs by prohibiting the expanded boards budget from exceeding funding in 2021, and limit the new elected county executives pay to the salary of the presiding judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Updates from Sacramento 

The measure was supported in the committee by Democratic Sen. Benjamin Allen of Santa Monica and Hertzberg.

All I know is the people in the San Gabriel Valley dont have a hell of a lot in common with people of the San Fernando Valley in terms of issues that affect them on a day-to-day basis, Hertzberg said, describing one district. It is just too damn big.

Supporters say the expansion would also increase the ethnic diversity of the board and make it more representative of the countys population.

With three of the five seats held by whites, that racial group has 60% of the boards representation, though it makes up only 30% of the countys population, according to Alan Clayton, a demographics expert who has been a redistricting consultant to Democrats.

Latinos make up 48% of the countys population, but 20% of the boards representation, with one seat. A seven-member board would allow for two seats where Latinos can elect a candidate of their choice. In addition, one district could be drawn to eventually allow Asian American voters to elect a candidate of their choice, Clayton said.

In the largest county in the country, with the largest Latino population, suddenly Latinos would have the ability to be influencing the board on policy issues where right now they dont have the ability, Clayton said.

State Constitutional Amendment 12 has steadily advanced through the Legislature. One possible motivating factor for lawmakers may be that it will create new political opportunities for legislators in a state where there are more ambitious Democrats than there are available higher levels of office, observers said.

The job of elected chief executive could have more power than mayor of Los Angeles, with oversight of a much larger jurisdiction.

State lawmakers make $104,118 annually, but dont get state pensions. Members of the Board of Supervisors get pensions and salaries of $191,612.

Term-limited legislators want new jobs that they can run for, said John J. Pitney Jr., political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. Even with a seven-member board, each supervisor would represent nearly 1.5 million people. That translates into a lot of power, prestige and perks.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcgreevy99

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Lawmakers propose expanding L.A. County Board of Supervisors from 5 to 7 members with one elected executive
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
Scientists have traced the roots of dementia back to midlife, a time when hearing loss and changes in speech patterns may signal the onset of cognitive decline.

In research presented Monday at the Alzheimers Assn.s annual international conference in London, investigators also reported that for people in their 80s, those who were admitted to a hospital for an urgent or emergency medical problem subsequently suffered more dramatic decline in mental functioning than their peers who checked into a hospital for an elective procedure or avoided the hospital altogether.

Collectively, the new research helps sketch a fuller picture both of who is at risk of cognitive decline and how early those processes probably begin. It suggests that even when a diagnosis of Alzheimers disease or another form of dementia could be years away, factors detectable when a person is in her 50s and 60s may signal  or even contribute to  the disease process.

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It also offers further evidence that certain behaviors, including vibrant intellectual and social engagement, offer some protection from the ravages of cognitive decline as we age.

In a University of Wisconsin study that tracks the cognitive health of more than 1,500 middle-aged adults, researchers selected a subset who had at least one parent with Alzheimers to investigate changes in speech patterns and what they might portend. All of these participants recorded at least two minute-long verbal descriptions of a picture, separated by at least two years.

The researchers focused on 64 participants whose test results over eight to 10 years led to a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, a condition that often progresses into Alzheimers disease. Their average age was 60 years old.

The speech patterns of these participants differed in subtle but measurable ways from those of study subjects who were not diagnosed with MCI, the researchers found. They tended to use shorter, simpler sentences, and their delivery was more halting.

The researchers also compared changes in verbal samples taken two years apart. They observed that in participants who had established mild cognitive impairment, the flow of descriptive language changed more dramatically over two years  becoming even less fluid  than it did in participants with no such diagnosis. Those with MCI grew more likely to pause, repeat words, or insert pauses like um and ah into their everyday speech.

The researchers were surprised to observe that, in their first everyday language sample, people with MCI actually had used more descriptive and uncommon words than their counterparts who were cognitively healthy. But over two years time, the participants with MCI showed a much steeper decline in the semantic complexity of their speech. They increasingly used simpler words as they described objects, people and places in their pictures. They used more pronouns  he, she, it and they  and fewer nouns that would have been more specific.

The studys lead author, Kimberly Mueller of the Wisconsin Alzheimers Institute, said speech analysis may be a valuable cognitive marker for early detection of cognitive slide. The next step, she said, would be to see how easy-to-detect changes in speech patterns align with some of the hallmark brain changes that come with Alzheimers.

The role of hearing in predicting dementia also emerged as an early marker for cognitive decline  but one more amenable to modern fixes.

In a study that looked at 783 fiftysomethings participating in the University of Wisconsin study, researchers found that those reporting a diagnosis of hearing loss performed worse on a welter of tests of cognitive skills. In addition, when they were examined not more than four years later, those with hearing loss were more than three times likelier than their peers with normal hearing to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

Experts have long surmised that hearing loss may deepen the isolation of a sufferer, limiting social and intellectual engagement and accelerating an individuals cognitive decline.

But aside from being a telling detail, its not yet clear what the relationship between hearing loss and dementia is. Long-standing research has shown, for instance, that one of Alzheimers earliest warning signs is a lost sense of smell. But few experts believe that an impaired olfactory sense accelerates Alzheimers; rather, they suspect that the brains olfactory bulb is one of the first regions affected by the proteins that clump in the brain.

Hearing loss is, however, a problem with a ready fix  the hearing aid. The study authors suggest that more widespread use of such corrective technologies might make a difference in Alzheimers rates.

Identification and treatment of hearing loss might be a viable approach to forestall the public health crisis posed by Alzheimers disease, wrote the authors, all from the University of Wisconsins School of Medicine and Public Health.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that about 37.5 million Americans have hearing loss, and 28.8 million of them could benefit from hearing aids. But even among those most likely to use them  people 70 and above with hearing loss  only 30% have ever used one.

For patients in their 80s, an emergency trip to the hospital may be more difficult to avoid than deafness. But a third study presented Monday in London found that elderly adults who had a hospital stay for an urgent medical need were more likely to suffer a subsequent cognitive decline than were those not admitted to any hospital.

And compared to their peers who had an elective hospital stay, the cognitive decline of emergency patients was almost twice as fast after they left the hospital. That study was conducted by researchers at the Rush University Medical Centers Memory and Aging Project, which has tracked the cognitive health of older Chicago residents since 1997.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

@LATMelissaHealy

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Three San Francisco women were arrested Saturday on suspicion of stealing high-end Louis Vuitton luggage from the Neiman Marcus department store at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

Employees of the Louis Vuitton boutique inside the store at 601 Newport Center Drive called police shortly after noon Saturday to report that three women grabbed two pieces of designer luggage and fled in a black SUV, said police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella.

Soon afterward, Costa Mesa police saw a vehicle believed to be the one involved and arrested the occupants, Manzella said.

Azanaye Anne Cail, 24, Loyresha Racine Gage, 28, and Shonnece Laniece Rodgers, 23, were arrested on suspicion of commercial burglary, possession of burglary tools and possession of stolen property.

Cail was booked into Orange County Jail and released after posting bond Sunday.

Gage and Rodgers were in jail with bail set at $20,000 and $50,000, respectively, according to jail records.

Manzella said police are looking into the possibility of a link between Saturdays burglary and the July 9 theft of designer handbags from Bloomingdales at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, but said it is too early to determine whether they are related.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
Paint is chipping off the two-story house at 38 Oxley Road. If not for the empty white guard posts, few could tell it housed the man who built Singapore into a global symbol of order and opportunity.

Now this modest former residence of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapores founder and first prime minister, is at the crux of a bewildering battle that has entangled the city-states most prominent family  his own. It has tested the very principles he relied on to transform an unknown backwater into one of the most prosperous societies in Asia.

His two youngest children accuse their brother, the current prime minister, of betraying their fathers wishes to demolish the house after his death. They say he abused his power for political capital and to ensure his own sons dynastic rule. The leader argues he wants to honor Lees desires, but must leave the decision about such an iconic place in the hands of the government, as his father recognized.

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It was in the basement of 38 Oxley Road that Lee and his supporters plotted an independent Singapore in the early 1960s, free of its British colonial masters. They envisioned a disciplined society based on meritocracy, one that rooted out corruption even at the sacrifice of some political freedoms. That vision steered the country during his three-decade rule.

Under Lees watch, Singapore became a gleaming financial capital known for having one of the worlds best education systems  and a penchant for strictness that bordered on the obsessive. Chewing gum was famously outlawed, and caning was employed as a punishment for relatively minor crimes.

Many Singaporeans credit founder Lee Kuan Yew with transforming an unknown backwater into one of Asias most prosperous societies. (Jessica Meyers/for the Los Angeles Times)

Lee himself cultivated an image as a humble exemplar of Confucian virtues  of which none is more important than loyalty to family.

These recent allegations of impropriety, from within that circle, have shaken the long-term conviction in the sanctity of Lees ideals.

People wonder will good governance be maintained in Singapore and transcend the lifespan of Lee Kuan Yew, or is it fraying? said Gillian Koh, who researches local politics at the National University of Singapore. Is it falling apart, imploding right at the heart of government?

Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 2011. (Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP/Getty Images)

Lee Kuan Yew, who died two years ago, gave instructions in his will to eventually tear down the house. It lacks a foundation and needs repair, making it the plain cousin in a neighborhood with multimillion-dollar condos and Singapores glitzy version of Rodeo Drive.

The former leader talked about houses that become a shambles when they are turned into museums and opened to the public. He considered it an unnecessary, costly expense.

So Singaporeans were shocked when the dispute erupted into public view last month on Facebook, an unprecedented outburst against a government that often sues its critics.

The siblings titled their attack: What has happened to Lee Kuan Yews values?

The youngest of Lees children, Lee Hsien Yang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority and former chief executive of global telecom company Singtel, said he planned to flee the country. He feared his brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, would use the organs of state against us.

Their sister, Lee Wei Ling, a well-known neurologist, also signed a six-page letter that questioned their elder brothers character, conduct, motives and leadership.

The pair accused the prime minister of setting up a secret government committee to drive his own agenda for the house and milk their fathers legacy. They indicated he may have lied under oath and claimed his wife, Ho Ching, who runs the sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, helped mastermind the deception.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks in Parliament. (Handout / AFP/Getty Images)

This sudden publicity drew attention to the small circle that governs the city-state. Lee Hsien Loong, a lauded Cambridge graduate who took power in 2004, is only the third leader, after his father and Goh Chok Tong, a longtime civil servant.

The prime minister, wearing a simple blue button-down, held a special session of Parliament this month to refute the allegations. He called them baseless and said he had no role in a committee that explored the future of the house.

His father understood the government might want to preserve the place, he said, and had considered other options for it.

The leader further described how he sold the house to his brother to avoid any conflict of interest, and stressed his son had no interest in politics.

When the dust has settled on this unhappy episode, people must know the government in Singapore operates transparently impartially and properly, he said. That in Singapore, even Mr. Lees house and Mr. Lees wishes are subject to the rule of law.

The siblings called the session a whitewash since the prime ministers party controls almost all parliamentary seats. But they agreed to handle the dispute privately, at least for now.

Ultimately, it is up to the people of Singapore whether they hold Lee Hsien Loong to a true accounting, they said.

Singaporeans appear divided. Some view the building as a national treasure. Its not only Lees home, but the birthplace of the Peoples Action Party  the only party to ever govern Singapore.

Others believe the nation should respect the wishes of a dying man. Many are embarrassed by the discord in a state that prides itself on decorum.

This is a private matter, said Jeffrey Koh, 55, as he scanned the newspaper at a cafe off Oxley Road. Were a laughingstock.

Lee Kuan Yew suffered his own short-lived property scandal in the mid-1990s, when he and family members were accused of buying condominiums at discounted prices. He also went before Parliament. A government investigation found no wrongdoing.

But this time the allegations arent directed at the family; theyre from within it.

This nation of 5.5 million already is wrestling with its future. The tiny island, just south of Malaysia and slightly more than half the size of Los Angeles, has thrived off free trade. Now it faces rising protectionism and an increasingly aggressive China. Pictures of squirming sperm and signs about fertility wellness cover Singapore subways, a reminder the city has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

The dispute is a referendum, in a way, on what Singapore politics is today, how sustainable it is and whether one-party rule is effective in meeting Singapores challenges, said Ali Wyne, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, who co-wrote a book on Lee Kuan Yew.

The incident adds to concerns among some young people about the nations strong-arm tendencies. A U.S. judge granted asylum in March to a Singapore blogger jailed twice for critical social media posts about politics and religion.

Hundreds stood in the rain last weekend and demanded an independent inquiry into the siblings allegations, a rare show of public frustration.

Its worrying, said Kirsten Han, 28, an activist and journalist. This seems to suggest our democratic institutions are not as strong as we think they are.

Lee Kuan Yew ruled until 1990. His blend of tough political enforcement and capitalist business practices still stands as a model for nations such as China. The former British colony remains a global finance hub, and shows no signs that investors have lost faith in its governance.

We do not believe Singapores reputation for an honest and transparent government has been damaged by this episode, Chang Li Lin, the prime ministers spokeswoman, said in an email.

Lee Kuan Yews 62-year-old daughter, who cared for him until his death, continues to live in the house. Lees will specified the place exist until she leaves, meaning a decision on its future  and a conclusion to the episode will probably not come anytime soon.

If it happened to be a less powerful Singaporean family, they would go to court and there would be a winner, said Aloysius Sng, 29, who runs a tech-start up.

Sng looked around at the greenery and glass towers.

The dispute was never about the building, he said. If you want a monument to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore is that monument.

Meyers is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @jessicameyers

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Afghanistans protracted war killed a record number of civilians during the first six months of this year, according to a United Nations report released Monday, which blamed the majority of the deaths on bombings by insurgents.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Hussein said the horrifying figure of 1,662 people killed between January and June of this year can never fully convey the sheer human suffering of the people of Afghanistan.

Each one of these casualty figures reflects a broken family, unimaginable trauma and suffering and the brutal violation of peoples human rights, he added.

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The report confirms that a massive truck bomb in the center of Kabul on May 31, which killed at least 90 people, was the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. It also noted that more women and children were among the dead this year.

Insurgent attacks killed 1,141 civilians, a 12% increase over the same period last year, according to the report, which said such attacks wounded an additional 2,348 people.

The report commends Afghanistans security forces, saying fewer civilians were caught in the crossfire compared with last year. It says 434 civilians were killed during military operations against insurgents.

Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, blamed the high toll on the insurgents use of human shields. The army is being very careful during operations to prevent civilian deaths, Waziri said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected the biased report, saying it did not take into account civilians killed by Afghan and coalition forces in areas controlled by the Taliban. He did not provide any figures and there was no way to verify his claims.

The insurgents have expanded their footprint in Afghanistan since U.S. and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, and the Taliban now controls a number of districts across the country.

The Afghan government said Monday that troops retook a key district in the southern province of Helmand from the Taliban. The fighting in the Naway district was fierce, with more than 50 Taliban killed, according to Waziri, who said just five members of the security forces were wounded. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Naway is about 10 miles from Lashkar Gah and had been a staging area for militant attacks on the provincial capital. U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are assisting Afghan troops in Helmand.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban snatched three border police officers from their car in the western province of Herat, including a woman, and killed them, said Jelani Farhad, the provincial governors spokesman.
The Ukrainian side expects reaction to the statement of the head of the so-called DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, about the creation of Malorossiya from the OSCE special representative in the Trilateral Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in Donbas, Martin Sajdik, at a meeting of the group in Minsk on Wednesday.

"We are responding [to this statement of Zakharchenko] and tomorrow a TCG meeting will begin. We assess, put in place, address the OSCE so that the OSCE makes an official statement. It is always done by OSCE representative Sajdik ... when a statement is made by the main OSCE coordinator, this is considered an objective assessment," the Ukrainian representative in the TGG security subgroup, Yevhen Marchuk, told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday.
U.S.-backed Syrian fighters fought Islamic State militants in the heart of Raqqah, the extremists self-styled capital, on Monday, as scores of civilians fled areas controlled by the group.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, has been one of the most effective groups fighting Islamic State in Syria, but has also clashed with Turkish-backed Syrian forces elsewhere in the country. As it battled Islamic State in Raqqah, the SDF also fought Turkish-allied Syrian forces in Ein Daqna, in neighboring Aleppo province, according to Syrian activists and Turkish media.

The SDF, aided by the U.S.-led coalition, launched its offensive to capture Raqqah on June 6, and has since taken several areas. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Mondays fighting is concentrated in Raqqahs southwestern neighborhood of Yarmouk as well as a central area close to the Old City.

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The SDF says intense fighting is underway in central Raqqah, adding that its fighters have taken positions near a centuries-old mosque known as the Old Mosque. The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency said about 180 civilians were able to flee areas controlled by Islamic State, while the Observatory for Human Rights put the number in the hundreds.

The SDF said 11 Islamic State fighters have been killed in the clashes since Sunday. The Islamic State-linked Amaq news agency said 14 SDF fighters were killed in the fighting in Raqqah on Sunday alone.

The intensification of fighting comes a week after Iraqi forces declared victory against Islamic State in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the largest the extremists have held. The loss of Raqqah would deal a major blow to Islamic State, but the group still holds wide areas of the eastern province of Dair Alzour, bordering Iraq.

That province figures to be the backdrop of the next phase of the war on Islamic State, with government forces backed by Russia and Iran approaching from the west and south. Pro-government forces reached the edges of the Bashari mountain range on Monday, after seizing the Zamla natural gas field one day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian military media reported. The advance secures further natural resources revenues for the government and puts government forces in a position to penetrate the Dair Alzour countryside.

The SDF is dominated by a Kurdish militia known as the Peoples Protection Units, which Turkey views as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in its own territory. Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces rolled into Syria last year to battle Islamic State and halt the advance of the SDF. The U.S.-led coalition has sought to stop the fighting between Turkey and the SDF, both of which are allies against Islamic State.

The website of Turkeys pro-government A Haber television said Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters launched a large operation against the SDF in Ein Daqna, close to the Turkish border. The website quotes unnamed local sources as saying that intense clashes are ongoing.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Mondays fighting killed two Turkey-backed fighters and left several SDF fighters wounded. A Haber said at least one Turkish-backed fighter was killed and about 14 were wounded.

Rezan Hiddo, an SDF political officer, said the group had repelled the assault on Ein Daqna. Hiddo said Turkish artillery struck the village as well as near a Russian military outpost in nearby Kafr Janneh, which is also under SDF control. Russia deployed what it called observer units into the region this year to discourage clashes between Turkey and the SDF.

We are waiting for the American government to apply diplomatic pressure on Turkey to halt the aggression, said Hiddo.
The father of two siblings killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine three years ago said Monday that relatives of the 298 people killed would not rest until those responsible face justice.

At an emotional ceremony marking three years since the jet was shot down, Evert van Zijtveld said a group representing victims families shall not give up and shall not be silenced until those who are responsible have been brought to justice.

As Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima along with about 2,000 friends and relatives of victims gathered at a new memorial, Van Zijtveld said the loss of his 19-year-old daughter, Frederique, and 18-year-old son, Robert-Jan, left a hole in our hearts.

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The commemoration came as international investigators continue their painstaking probe aimed at prosecuting those responsible for shooting down Flight 17 and killing all the passengers and crew.

The Boeing 777 was destroyed by a Buk missile on July 17, 2014, over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine. The international criminal probe has concluded that the missile was fired from rebel-controlled territory by a mobile launcher trucked in from Russia. Russia has denied any involvement, and denounced the conclusions as politically biased.

The U.S. has urged other countries to cooperate in the investigation.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Washington also welcomed a recent decision to grant jurisdiction to the Dutch courts for the prosecution of those responsible for this tragedy.

We have full confidence in the ability of the Dutch criminal justice system to conduct a prosecution that is comprehensive, objective and just, she said.

Investigators last year said they had pinpointed 100 people they want to speak to who are believed to have been involved in transporting the Buk missile launcher or its use.

Nations involved in the probe have agreed to prosecute any suspects in the Netherlands, home to nearly 200 of the victims.

The European Union foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, called for international cooperation in the hunt for the perpetrators.

To ensure that those responsible for the downing of MH17 are held accountable and brought to justice, the criminal investigation needs the continuing support of the international community, Mogherini said in a statement. We expect all the states that are in a position to assist the investigation and prosecution of those responsible to do so, as demanded by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2166.

After a ceremony at which relatives read out the names of victims, Willem-Alexander and Maxima, joined by 17 local children, each holding a single sunflower, were first to inspect the new monument.

The monument, a curved steel wall and an eye-shaped sculpture engraved with the victims names, stands in an amphitheater surrounded by 298 trees  still saplings  planted in the form of a commemorative ribbon. Each tree has a plaque bearing the name of a victim.

The monument is close to Amsterdams Schiphol Airport, from which Flight 17 departed on its way to Kuala Lumpur. In the silence preceding the commemoration, planes could be seen and heard flying to and from the airport.

Last week, more than 90 family members attended a memorial in Malaysia for victims and a briefing on the ongoing probe.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters after the event, which was closed to the media, that the investigation was very detailed and we are quite convinced that we will be able to find the culprits.

In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said his country is mourning the victims and said he believes the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice.

We have faith in the objectivity and impartiality of the Dutch justice and that masterminds behind this crime will be inevitably brought to justice, Poroshenko said in a Twitter post Monday.
A Turkish court on Tuesday jailed Amnesty Internationals Turkey director and five other human rights activists pending trial on allegations that they aided a terror group  making them the latest suspects in a massive government crackdown initially launched against alleged supporters of last years coup attempt but has since broadened to include government opponents.

Amnesty International called the action a crushing blow for rights in Turkey. The court in Istanbul also decided to release four other activists from custody pending the outcome of a trial, but barred them from traveling abroad. They must to report regularly to police.

The 10  Amnestys Turkey director Idil Eser, seven human rights defenders and their German and Swedish trainers  were detained in a July 5 police raid on a hotel on the island of Buyukada, off Istanbul, where they were attending a digital security workshop.

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The detentions added to the growing concerns over rights and freedoms in the country where the post-coup crackdown has resulted in more than 50,000 arrests and the dismissal of more than 110,000 from government jobs. The crackdown has netted journalists, politicians and activists. Several media outlets and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down.

This is not a legitimate investigation, this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey, said Salil Shetty, Amnesty Internationals secretary general.

Today we have learnt that standing up for human rights has become a crime in Turkey, he said in a statement. This is a moment of truth, for Turkey and for the international community.

Shetty also called on countries to put pressure on Turkey to release the activists. Leaders around the world must stop biting their tongues and acting as if they continue business as usual.

Amnesty said the 10 are suspected of committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member.

Germanys government is calling for the release of the German trainer, who it identified as Peter Steudtner.

We are in solidarity with Peter Steudtner, who is in unjustified custody in Turkey, and will lobby for him at all levels, German Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, wrote on Twitter.

Turkish media reports said prosecutors, requesting the arrests, presented as evidence records of their communications with suspects linked to Kurdish and left-wing militants as well as the movement led by U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating last years failed coup attempt.

Amnesty said accusations against Eser tried to link her to three terrorist organizations through her work with the advocacy group. Prosecutors had referred to two campaigns led by Amnesty, which werent authored by Amnesty Turkey, the rights group said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month rejected the label activists when asked about the 10 and made vague accusations, saying the group was involved in a meeting that had the nature of a continuation of the coup attempt.

Turkey says the crackdown is necessary to weed out Gulens followers amid a continued threat from his movement and to eradicate terror groups.

In April, Erdogan went on to win by a narrow majority a referendum on a series of constitutional amendments that will increase the powers of his office with few checks and balances and abolish the position of prime minister, a development critics fear will lead Turkey toward authoritarian rule.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament advised the European Union to freeze accession talks with Turkey amid growing concerns over declining human rights and media freedoms as well as rule of law issues. Frequent comments by Erdogan vowing to reinstate the death penalty have also raised alarm.

Turkeys main opposition party called the courts decision a shame for Turkey and raised concerns about whether the activists would get a fair trial.

In Turkey, the judiciary is far away from being objective and independent, said Sezgin Tanrikulu, a former human rights lawyer and legislator from the opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP. Its impossible to speak of fair hearings in an environment where there is no objective and independent judiciary.

Earlier this month, CHPs leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu completed a 25-day March for Justice from Ankara to Istanbul to oppose the governments crackdown and highlight alleged government interference in the judiciary.

In addition to Eser, activists from the Helsinki Citizens Assembly and the Human Rights Agenda Assn. were jailed. The four activists that were released on bail are from the Citizens Assembly, the Womens Coalition, Equal Rights Watch Assn. and the Rights Initiative.

Eser is the second top Amnesty International official in Turkey to be arrested. Last month, Amnestys Turkey chairman, Taner Kilic, was arrested on allegations of links to Gulens movement.
A one-time rising star of Mexicos ruling party who became the public face of suspected egregious corruption afflicting the countrys political system was extradited Monday from Guatemala to face a wide range of criminal charges.

Javier Duarte, former governor of Veracruz state, had been arrested in April while a fugitive from Mexican justice.

Prosecutors charged Duarte with setting up shell companies to divert millions of dollars for himself and his political cronies and for having links to the criminal gangs that have made Veracruz among the countrys most violent states. Illegally obtained funds were allegedly used to purchase properties in Mexico, the United States and Spain, prosecutors said.

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Authorities have hinted that the pilfering of public money during Duartes almost six-year term in Veracruz could reach historic levels, perhaps in excess of $3 billion.

Duarte faces up to 55 years in prison if convicted of the various charges facing him, prosecutors say. He left office last year six weeks before his gubernatorial term ended, vowing to defend himself against mounting allegations and defiantly declaring that he had not stolen one cent. But Duarte went on the run and was a fugitive until detained in April at a Guatemalan mountain resort town.

Several of Duartes former colleagues in Veracruz are also facing criminal corruption charges or are on the run.

While in custody in Guatemala, Duarte declared his innocence and was pictured in televised images appearing to smirk during extradition hearings.

The burly Duarte, in handcuffs but shorn of the shaggy beard he sported in Guatemala, was shown on television Monday being led by heavily armed federal officers on the tarmac of the Mexico City airport after emerging from an official jet that transported him from Guatemala City. A police convoy flanked by cameramen on motorbikes later whisked Duarte to the capitals Reclusorio Norte prison.

His lawyer, Pablo Campusano, told journalists who mobbed the attorneys car that Duarte was tranquil, despite the many legal problems he faces.

Duartes case has become infamous in a country where a cascading series of official corruption scandals has drawn widespread outrage and become a profound embarrassment for the countrys political class  especially for President Enrique Pena Nietos Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

At least eight former governors, including Duarte, are facing criminal charges or have already been convicted. Most served under the banner of the ruling party, which hopes to hold on to the presidency in next years national elections.

The scandals are indicative of what many call runaway corruption. State administrations in Mexico are often rife with graft, allowing governors to amass great wealth and dole out patronage to relatives and supporters, critics say.

Duarte, 43, who served as governor of oil-rich Veracruz state from 2000 to 2016, is a former PRI stalwart who was among a number of young ruling-party governors once viewed as the face of a makeover for a party seeking to revamp its tarnished image as a dinosaur institution.

Now, Duarte has become the poster boy for kleptocratic governance in Mexico.

The ex-governors reported excesses  and the chaotic state of affairs under his leadership in Veracruz, where killings and disappearances have reached alarming levels  were too much for authorities to ignore. Duartes unpopularity contributed to the ruling party losing control of Veracruz state for the first time in elections last year.

Under Duarte, the state became a place of extreme danger for human rights activists, journalists and others. Drug cartels, often working in cahoots with police and local politicians, fight for territory in a key trafficking corridor.

At least 17 journalists were killed and three others disappeared  vanished without a trace  during Duartes term as governor of Veracruz, according to the free-press group Articulo 19. The charges against Duarte do not include allegations linking him to any killings.

Duartes successor as governor of Veracruz, Miguel Angel Yunes of the opposition National Action Party, has accused his predecessor of leaving the state a looted and crime-ridden mess.

It is unfortunate that someone who left the state in a financial and security crisis is shown laughing saying he is innocent, that hes a victim and soon he will be free, Yunes said in a television interview in June. Its a joke not only on the people of Veracruz, but on all Mexicans.

Yunes has also accused his predecessors administration of leaving state hospitals without medicine to treat cancer patients.

Mexican authorities painted Duartes extradition and the cases against other ex-governors as examples of official dedication to combat graft.

With actions like this, the government of Mexico is fulfilling its commitment to obtain concrete results to shut the spaces of impunity, Mexicos Foreign Ministry said Monday in a statement announcing Duartes extradition.

But many in Mexico remain skeptical, viewing the cases against Duarte and other ex-politicos as exceptions involving figures who are already widely discredited. Some Mexican observers also voice fears that Duarte and others may ultimately be acquitted.

Now all we need is that they give him [Duarte] legal protection, that he has a VIP trial, that a nice judge decides his faults are not grave and declares him innocent, wrote one reader to the newspaper Reforma, reflecting a widespread sense of skepticism. That we ask [Duarte] for forgiveness and compensate him for psychological damage.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcdneville

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
President Trump will wait for another day to rip up the Iran deal, as he promised on the campaign trail.

Late Monday, three senior officials said the Trump administration would formally certify by a midnight deadline that Iran is in compliance with the restrictions on its nuclear program imposed under the 2015 deal negotiated with the United States, five other nations and the European Union. The action keeps in place sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for its continued freeze of its weapons program.

By law, every 90 days the administration has to decide whether Iran has fulfilled its obligations under the pact brokered by the Obama administration. Trump made his first such certification in April.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make certification today on behalf of the president that the accords terms agreed to in Geneva, Switzerland, two years ago have been met based on the information available to the United States as of today, one senior administration official told reporters late Monday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the decision before it was formally announced and Congress was informed.

Tillerson also plans to criticize Iran, saying it remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability and is unequivocally in default of the spirit of the agreement, the official said.

The U.S. has criticized Iran for supporting the government of Bashar Assad in Syria and fomenting unrest in Yemen and elsewhere in the region.

In addition, Tillerson will push to more strictly enforce the deal, impose additional restrictions and eliminate the aspect of the deal that allows Iran to resume some nuclear production after 10 years, the official said.

The U.S. is considering new sanctions against Irans ballistic missile program as well as its fast boat program, in which Iran uses small vessels to harass U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, the official said.

I think you all know that the president has made very clear that he thought this was a bad deal, a bad deal for the United States, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters earlier Monday.

Were Trump to pull out of the deal as he repeatedly threatened, that would cause a rupture with allies who helped negotiate it and force the administration to come up with an alternative strategy to curtail Irans nuclear program, a problem it is far from fixing in North Korea.

The deal was agreed to by Iran, the European Union, Germany, and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Yet the deal is deeply unpopular among many conservatives. John Bolton, a former ambassador influential on the right, called for immediate withdrawal in an opinion column published Sunday in the Hill, a publication that covers Capitol Hill.

The administration should stop reviewing and start deciding, he wrote.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
A Georgian government delegation will visit Ukraine in November, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told reporters after a meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili on Tuesday.

"We are expecting a Georgian government delegation led by the prime minister in autumn," Poroshenko said.

According to the Georgian prime minister's press service, during their meeting the parties discussed ways to further promote strategic relations between Georgia and Ukraine, their common interests and the common challenges facing the two countries.

"The sides discussed the importance of strategic cooperation, which means close political and economic relations between the two countries and also steps to even further strengthen the existing partnership in bilateral and multilateral formats," the press service said.

Special attention was given to close cooperation within international and regional organizations, the process of integration with Europe, the countries' Euro-Atlantic aspirations, the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit and also ways to further develop bilateral trade and economic relations and make the most of their potential.

In particular, Kvirikashvili and Poroshenko discussed large-scale international transport and energy projects and also cooperation as part of the new Silk Road initiative.

"During the meeting, the sides once again reaffirmed their strong support of the two countries' territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders," the press service said.
Ukraine has sent a letter to the Council of Europe, presenting the official position regarding blocking Russian websites, such as Yandex, Mail.ru, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki and the introduction of economic sanctions against companies from Russia.

"The aggression of the Russian Federation and challenges Ukraine is facing concerning the territorial integrity require appropriate measures in response. Such resources as Yandex, Mail.ru, Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki have long been used by Russian intelligence agencies as tools of the so called hybrid warfare," reads the letter of Ukraine posted on the Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists created by the Council of Europe.

According to the document, Russian intelligence agencies private correspondence and other confidential information of the users of Russian Internet resources and use these data to manipulate public opinion by means of disinformation, propaganda and information attacks.

Ukraine also said that given the policy of aggression that the Russian Federation conducts against Ukraine, access of Russian companies to Ukrainian information and telecommunication systems allows for sabotage, intelligence and subversive activities against Ukraine by Russian intelligence agencies.

"Therefore, blocking access to certain Russian Internet resources is exclusively the issue of national security and is not aimed at suppressing the freedom of speech in Ukraine the decision adopted by Ukrainian authorities is the adequate response to the threat to information security of the state and citizens," the letter said.
2017 is a year of reinvention for Subaru. Starting with the Impreza, the Japanese automaker launched into what it considers its third generation of modern vehicles. The 2018 Subaru Crosstrek is the second model to be overhauled in this push, and a key element in the company's efforts to capitalize on the phenomenal success of its second-generation products.

What you see before you, however, is as much a monument to branding as it is a testament to Subaru's competence in the "crossover" market. The Crosstrek is not a new formula, but rather an old idea made new with a little marketing savvy and some excellent timing.

If you lived through the 1990s, you probably remember (fondly or otherwise) Paul Hogan's relentless hocking of the "Suberu Outbeck Spoat." In fact, depending on your age and level of automotive knowledge at the time, you may even have operated under the impression that Subaru was actually an Australian brand.

Born again, again With the release of the second-generation Subaru Crosstrek, the Outback Sport is now two generations behind us, but the basics are still the same. Underneath the badge and the aggressive cladding, the Crosstrek is essentially an Impreza Hatchback (or wagon, depending on who you ask) on stilts.

To see for ourselves, we joined Subaru in Deadwood, South Dakota, at the (sadly temporary) "Camp Crosstrek" to take it for a spin.

And while that's an excellent example of how powerful marketing can go wrong, Crosstrek shows that it can do good things too. Fundamentally, a Subaru Crosstrek is just a Subaru Outback Sport, but thanks to the buzzy new nameplate (and the abandonment of "XV," which happened before the '16 model year), what was old became new again.

We couldn't nail any of Subaru's spokespeople down on the exact number of components shared between Impreza and Crosstrek, but let's go ahead and say it's a pretty hefty percentage. The suspension has been changed to accommodate the Crosstrek's jacked-up ride height, for starters, and the Crosstrek gets some dirt-trail gizmos to match its extra ground clearance but, really, we're talking about fraternal twins rather than mere siblings. We'll get to the specifics of that later.

What you should know off the bat (and what Subaru relentlessly drove home) is that the Crosstrek has been updated significantly for the 2018 model year. It has grown noticeably on the inside despite almost no change in its footprint; it has a much wider rear hatch opening (by four inches) thanks to the same taillight trickery Subaru employed on the Impreza; it also gets an updated engine and new transmissions.

The dimensional changes are thanks to a ground-up redesign of the chassis as part of Subaru's Global Platform initiative. It's a modular setup similar to what is being embraced throughout the industry, and the new platform will underpin everything from the Impreza and Crosstrek to a forthcoming three-row model.

The new platform is significantly more rigid (70 percent) and more capable of absorbing crash energy (40 percent). Like many others, Subaru has been expanding its use of high-strength steel and structural adhesives. These are far from firsts in the segment, but they are firsts for Subaru.

Moving partsWith a new platform comes an overhauled engine and new transmissions. At a quick glance, the updates may not be too obvious. The Crossktrek is still powered by a two-liter, four-cylinder boxer engine, but it now direct-injected and boasts an output of 152 horsepower and 145lb-ft of torque; the former is up by four, the latter remains the same.

Despite early concerns that the Crosstrek was going to abandon the manual transmission, Subaru continues to offer it. As a bonus, they even threw a new one in. It's a six-speed now, and it's available on both the base 2.0i model and the mid-range Premium. Of course, you can also option Subaru's "Lineartronic" CVT, which has been redesigned as well. It now features stepped acceleration curves and seven manually selectable ratios.

Since we're talking about a Subaru, it almost goes without saying that all-wheel-drive is standard, and all models get Active Torque Vectoring (electronically controlled brake activation to control torque proportioning). However, manual-transmission models are stuck with a simple 50/50 power split front and rear, while CVT models get a variable front/rear split depending on conditions and drive modes.

The lookThe changes to the exterior really aren't all that drastic. Subaru redesigned the 2018 Crosstrek's front fascia, taking away the middle rib in the lower grille and making the vertical components of the bumper cover and upper grille surround more pronounced. The headlamps are also a bit skinnier (height-wise) and the hoot accents have gone from ribs to ridges. Out back (har har), details such as the leading edges of the tail lights and the taper of the d-pillar are sharper; the bumper protrusions more clipped and less bulbous.

If you look closely, you'll notice the wheels are new, too, and we're fond of the updated designs.

From the outside inThe 2018 Crosstrek also gets some tech upgrades inside. It starts with a new base audio system incorporating Android Auto and Apple CarPlay functionality, including a significantly improved premium audio system on the top-tier Limited model.

Looks-wise, there's a lot more going on inside than there was out. The center stack is completely redesigned, with the center air vents now flanking the infotainment screen. The hooded information center above the stack remains, as does the general orientation of the HVAC controls. A new steering wheel places less emphasis on its vertical spokes (unlike the the previous unit) and ends up looking all the more sporty for it.

Behind the wheelIf this were one of our longer-term reviews, this section would be titled, "But does it go?" We're going to pretend that's the case here and get this out of the way: Man, is this sucker slow.

There are a few things to consider. First off, the Crosstrek's curb weight runs from 3,113 pounds to 3,220. That's not heavy. Power output is identical up and down the lineup--152 horses. That's not a lot. Surely this is a "slow car fast" type situation, yeah?

Well, kind of.

The good news is that the ground clearance and suspension travel gained in the translation from Impreza to Crosstrek did not erase the former's wonderful handling characteristics. Yes, there's a touch of roll in the Crosstrek, but it's of the informative rather than the alarming variety. There's a hint of motion on turn-in, followed by an immediate set that is very difficult to perturb. This is a car which can conserve momentum--a good thing, because once you lose it, good luck getting it back.

Which brings us to the bad news. Uphill passing in the Crosstrek (especially at elevation) is not fun. The manual transmission has six ratios, but third is top gear if you're trying to make progress on a grade. Fourth might hold you if it's not too steep, but fifth and sixth might as well be neutral for all the speed you'll carry. We frequently flipped the CVT over to manual mode to see which of its fixed ratios were closest to its choices for the same scenarios, and we found the computer's choices inevitably mirrored our own.

We're not convinced that the Crosstrek needs the full-on WRX treatment to be compelling to enthusiasts, but a small-displacement turbocharged engine would make a lot of sense here. Just a touch more power and a good thump of low-end and mid-range torque could make up for its shortcomings.

One other thing did stick out, and that's just how quiet and comfortable Subaru's newer vehicles have become. Like the Impreza, the Crosstrek only exhibits road noise over truly poor surfaces and we found the cabin quiet and free of intrusive vibrations, even from the CVT--a component typically known for producing unpleasant thrums and drones.

Off the pavementThe Crosstrek's trump card is its versatility, and in that regard, it shines. With 8.7" of ground clearance, it has the entire segment beat except for Jeeps with the "Trailhawk" box checked. The Compass and Renegade have the edge in crawl ratios, which we longed for when we tried out the Crosstrek's X-Mode and hill descent control, but for the situations these sorts of vehicles will encounter in the real world, distance from the hard parts to the ground is really what matters 99% of the time.

Still, Subaru had us try out X-Mode on a gravel mound in a local quarry, and even without low-range options, it performed admirably on the alarmingly loose surface. Even with the path literally falling out from under us with every bounce and dip, it did an admirable job of controlling the Crosstrek's momentum. Where we really found ourselves grinning, however, was on the side roads.

And by side roads, we mean dirt roads, gravel roads, dust roads and mud roads. Anything with a loose surface and plenty of curves will do, and the Black Hills of South Dakota have them in spades.

Get momentum, turn in, lift and stab--the formula for tail-out happiness in a Crosstrek is easily sleuthed. The stability control will intervene eventually (probably for the best considering how young the Crosstrek buying demographic really is) but it's generous enough for reasonable public-road shenanigans. Don't try this at home, but maybe go try it in South Dakota.

Leftlane's bottom lineThe 2018 Subaru Crosstrek is not a fast car, but it's a good one. It handles beautifully, won't rattle your teeth out and won't make your eardrums bleed. Now, if we promise to behave, can we please have a turbocharger for the new Crosstrek's first birthday?

2018 Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i Premium 6MT base price, $22,595; as tested, $23,510Destination, $9152018 Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i Premium CVT base price, $22,595; as tested, $26,905Lineartronic CVT, $1,000; Eyesight and moonroof package, $2,395; Destination, $915

Exterior photos by Byron Hurd; interior photos courtesy of Subaru.
An Easton man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly selling heroin to a confidential police informant during a controlled buy.

Stephen Wilson, 38, of North Locust Street, is charged with delivery of a controlled substance.

City police said that at 3:23 p.m. Wednesday, a controlled buy was set up at 200 Pine Street. After the informant told city police that Wilson sells heroin in the downtown area, police arranged the exchange, according to court records.

The informant was searched prior to the buy and did not have any contraband on him/her, police said.

When Wilson arrived, police said they immediately recognized him as the subject of an ongoing investigation involving narcotic sales in Easton.

Officers then observed the informant have a brief interaction with Wilson, at which time they allegedly saw an exchange of heroin and money.

District Judge Jacqueline Taschner set bail at $30,000.

Alyssa Mursch may be reached at amursch@lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
WILSON BOROUGH -- Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer Tyler Kreider referred to the male bear that for the last couple of days wandered Easton and Wilson Borough as a teenager acting up.

So it was fitting the yearling ended up Tuesday afternoon in a tree outside Wilson Area High School.

The animal had been attempting to define his new territory since his mom kicked him out, Kreider said. But the noise and congestion of the urban communities was probably not to his liking, the officer added.

Wilson police kept the bear cornered until Kreider could get to the school at 424 Warrior Lane and fire a tranquilizer dart.

The bear was 10 to 15 up in the tree and school district personnel figured the bear's landing might be happier if they brought out some blue mats from the gym, Kreider said.

So, with the blue mats on the sidewalk and a plan shelved to catch the 120-pound animal in a tarp, Kreider took aim and brought down the bear.

"It was almost a dead-center fall," Kreider said. "He fell as perfectly as he could -- like a stunt man."

Bears are "extremely resilient animals," Kreider said after checking the animal for broken bones and determining his breathing was fine. The bear is in "excellent health," he said.

The bear was put in a containment vehicle and will be brought around and checked again before being transported after dark to a place from which Kreider hopes the animal doesn't return.

Being a yearling, the bear is more likely to adapt to his new home, Kreider said. Because the young bears would be at risk of being killed by adult male bears if they were still around when their mothers go into heat, the mother takes them out of her territory, scares them up a tree and then runs off, Kreider said.

It's then up to the young bear to define his new territory. Which is what he was likely doing the past few days. The process will continue in the bear's new home, Kreider said.

Adult bears are more likely to try and get home, Kreider added.

Te officer was happy to find just one bear on Tuesday. Because it's the height of breeding season, it was likely the young male would be following a young female, making the capture doubly difficult, Kreider said.

Bears are "excellent climbers," Kreider said, which is why it wasn't a surprise to find the animal well off the ground.

"They shoot right up a tree," he said.

After a short bear-education class for several onlookers outside the school and a few minutes speaking with police officers, who also expressed an interest in future bear education, Kreider drove off as the bear's journey to his new life -- ad new territory -- continued.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
In an unsettling profile on Cosmo DiNardo, the 20-year-old charged with killing four men in Bucks County, the New York Times added an intriguing line on Monday.

Cosmo DiNardo (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

"During Mr. DiNardo's confession, according to a person with knowledge of it, he also claimed that, at 15, he killed two people in Philadelphia," the newspaper said.

In the past day, other news organizations have attempted to expand on that, but details are hard to come by.

Sources tell CBS 3 Philadelphia that city police are "actively investigating DiNardo's claims."

DiNardo's attorneys refused to answer questions about his alleged claims, NBC 10 reported.

Dinardo and his cousin Sean Michael Kratz, 20, of Philadelphia, are 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 burned bodies were found Wednesday in a 12-foot-deep common grave elsewhere on the same property.

Dinardo is also accused of killing Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, on July 5, and burying him on DiNardo's parents' land.

Philly.com said police on Monday were awaiting more specifics.

"Bucks County is still examining the contents of DiNardo's statement, so we're not sure if what he said can be corroborated yet on our end," Capt. Sekou Kinebrew told reporters there. "As soon as we get something concrete, we will advise the media."

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
What is believed to be a gang-related riot involving 15 inmates broke out on May 23 at the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

According to a news release, corrections officers at the facility began an emergency lockdown of the C-Unit at about 9 p.m. following the altercation.

The Monroe County District Attorney's Office detectives investigated the incident and circumstances leading to the altercation.

The investigation, conducted by Monroe County District Attorney Detective Michael Kreischer, found that Fred Baumgartner had a confrontation with Tyrell Ravenell over phone usage. Baumgartner told police he was then approached in his cell by two of Ravenell's associates -- Patrick Player and Regulus Hoyt.

Baumgartner told police that Ravenell, Player and Medina are leaders of the Bloods gang, and that they control the phones.

The gang members were "bogarting phones" during prime calling hours of 6:30 to 9 p.m., Baumgartner told police, and Ravenell would leave the phone off the hook so that no one could use it. He did this as a way to show his control, Baumgartner said.

After speaking with Ravenell about the phone usage, Baumgartner said he was approached by Player and Hoyt who told him that "this is how it's run around here... we control this."

When the three inmates were ordered out of the cell by a corrections officer, numerous others circled around Baumgartner and began punching and kicking him.

Baumgartner defended himself in the assault by biting and kicking other inmates. Baumgartner was treated for multiple cuts, and a bite mark was identified on the right thigh of Player.

Corrections officers assisting in the investigation identified inmates involved altercation by reviewing security footage recorded by the facility's surveillance system.

As a result of the investigation, criminal charges have been filed with the office of District Judge Jolana Krawitz.

Charged are Tyrell Ravenell, 29, of Wind Gap; Patrick Player, 21; Kevin Strickland, 26; Johnathyn White, 21; Luis Medina, 23; Dayquan Salaman, 25; and Regulus Hoyt, 27, all of Mount Pocono.

With the exception of Salaman -- who has since been transferred to federal prison -- the men will have preliminary hearings before Judge Krawitz.

Alyssa Mursch may be reached at amursch@lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A mother of two might have missed out on the opportunity to have her children and watch them grow had it not been for Planned Parenthood. In her early 20s, a routine pap smear at the clinic turned up an early, treatable cervical cancer.

"(Planned Parenthood) literally saved my life," Sara Altshul, 66, of Easton told lehighvalleylive.com in January.

One in five women rely on Planned Parenthood as their sole health-care provider. One in five women have nowhere else to go to receive birth control, STD treatment, cancer screenings and checkups.

One in five women could end up with an unwanted pregnancy, an untreated STD that could result in infertility, breast or cervical cancer if these clinics continue to close.

But pro-life advocates who believe Planned Parenthood does more harm than good by performing abortions want to keep tax dollars away from the non-profit organization.

The Senate's health-care bill would defund Planned Parenthood for at least a year, and those living in or near Lehigh and Northampton counties may already be feeling the effects, as two local Planned Parenthoods closed recently, one of which was right in Easton.

According to the 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment, Northampton and Lehigh counties are in great need of many of the services that Planned Parenthood provides.

One of the biggest issues plaguing the area is the high rate of STIs. According to the report, there was a spike in newly diagnosed chlamydia infections between 2009 and 2012 - with Northampton County going from 169 to 287 and Lehigh County going from 333 to 441.

The percentage of women who are receiving mammography screenings has also decreased from 2012 to 2015. In Northampton County, there was a slight decline from 69 to 66. Lehigh County experienced a larger dip, however, going from 66 to 61.3.

It's important to note, as the report points out, that these numbers coincide with a change in screening guidelines which now recommend less frequent screenings.

Pennsylvania also has significantly more pregnant women with late or no prenatal care than the national average, according to the report. In the U.S., 17.35 percent of mothers have late or no prenatal care. In Pennsylvania, that percentage spikes to 26.79.

Supporters and patients of Planned Parenthood take part in a "Pink the Night Out" rally at City Hall, which is part of a nationwide series of actions in support of the organization and in opposition to the health care proposal, in Los Angeles, CA on June 21, 2017.

Planned Parenthood Keystone CEO Melissa Reed said the organization provides these services to 90,000 across the state.

Of those 90,000 patients, at least one third rely on Medicaid -- meaning they would have difficulty finding other affordable places to get their care if Planned Parenthood wasn't around, she said.

In 24 percent of Pennsylvania counties, Planned Parenthood served the majority of patients receiving publicly funded family planning in 2010. Although Planned Parenthood health centers comprised 15 percent of Pennsylvania's safety net centers that offered family planning care in 2010, they served 38 percent of patients served by such centers.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that community health centers can absorb the patients, Reed said. In Pennsylvania, there are four counties that don't even have federally qualified health centers. There aren't enough other providers to account for all the patients who would need new care, she said.

Planned Parenthoods across the country have been -- and will continue to be -- shut down as a result of proposed legislation from the Trump administration.

Although the government does not directly fund the nonprofit, they are reimbursed for preventative services such as STI/STD testing and treatment, well visits, birth control and cancer screenings.

Opponents of Planned Parenthood often say taxpayers should not have to pay for services that they don't believe in, such as abortions.

But none of the federal funding goes toward abortions, Reed said, which is another widespread misconception.

However, those rallying to defund the organization still attest to the fact that by receiving funding for other services, Planned Parenthood has more of their own funds available to put toward abortions.

In 2015, protestors gathered "in response to recent horrifying revelations" in videos from the Center for Medical Progress, after that group alleged Planned Parenthood profits in taking fetal tissue from abortions.

Under the proposed GOP repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the goal to "defund" Planned Parenthood would prevent the clinic from providing services to at least 60 percent of its patients -- specifically those who use public programs like Medicaid and Title X. Although an earlier bill never got a vote, the new Senate bill would also defund Planned Parenthood for a year.

Under the latest bill, access to free preventative services such as mammograms and colonoscopies, yearly wellness visits, birth control and STD/STI testing and treatment would disappear.

Many of the patients who Planned Parenthood treats can't afford to get these services anywhere else and the effects could be detrimental, Reed said. She further demonstrated this point by citing a very specific example.

"In Indiana -- when Mike Pence was Governor -- he defunded Planned Parenthood (in Scott County). The county experienced an HIV epidemic soon afterward. That's the real-world impact that we face when we lose access to STI screenings," she said. "It's vital that people have early detection and education on safe sex."

Planned Parenthood is doing everything it can to stay open, but it need the public's help, Reed said. She emphasized the importance of those in support attending rallies, calling their congressmen and writing letters to their senators.

They can also sign up to be a Planned Parenthood defender, which is a free text messaging service that will send out alerts whenever there is a need for phone calls or a rally in the area.

Senate Republicans are now torn on defunding Planned Parenthood in their bill.



Keep. The. Pressure. Up. https://t.co/15GIVOGWOO #PinkOut pic.twitter.com/JPd2yfN3h9  Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) June 21, 2017

"The most important thing folks can do is to take action," Reed said.

In the meantime, the organization will continue its fight to keep clinics open.

"We're doing everything we can to make sure our doors stay open," Reed said, reiterating that their goal is to defeat the Republican's new health-care bill. "If unsuccessful, we will litigate. Our patients deserve nothing less. They rely on us."

Alyssa Mursch may be reached at amursch@lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Pennsylvania, despite a balanced-budget requirement in the state constitution, is becoming a debtor state. For years it has been carrying a structural deficit that can't be covered by the projected revenues.

Majority Republicans in the Legislature -- who are averse to a tax increase that would offend the general public or a favored industry -- get around the balanced-budget requirement by using one-time revenues, too-rosy projections, and the ever-popular tactic of "dealing with that later."

This year Gov. Tom Wolf and GOP leaders took that evasion to a new level. Wolf, who has abandoned his initial demand for a hike in the sales and/or income tax, allowed a spending plan to become law without his signature. The expectation was the Legislature would follow up with a revenue plan the following week to plug a $2 billion deficit.

We're now in the third week after the budget deadline, with no agreement. The state's bond rating keeps getting shakier.

Legislators are looking to expand legalized gambling (again), but that won't plug a gap as wide as the Susquehanna River. The only things that will, absent Draconian-style budget cuts that neither party wants, are a broad-based tax increase or borrowing billions against future revenues -- in this case, Pennsylvania's share of a multi-state settlement with tobacco companies. This type of borrowing comes back to haunt future budgets. Another option is enacting a tax on natural gas drilling, which many people favor, but it wouldn't come close to plugging the deficit.

The choice isn't politically digestible, which is why lawmakers are avoiding it. But they're setting the state up for worse times and bigger deficits.

If you had to choose, would you vote to raise the sales or income tax, or borrow billions against future revenues? Have a say in our poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comments section.
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Leicester City target Kelechi Iheanacho is yet to make an appearance on Manchester Citys pre-season tour of the US, sparking rumours his move to the King Power Stadium could be close to completion.

City have agreed a 25m fee for the Nigerian striker but a legal dispute between his current and former agents over image rights has proven a considerable delay.

However, Manchester City flew out to Houston yesterday morning to begin their pre-season tour of the States, with no sign of Iheanacho.

The 20-year-old was expected to be part of the travelling party but was not spotted at Manchester Airport on Monday morning as Pep Guardiolas men boarded a flight to the US and did not appear to be present at their training session in Texas on Tuesday.

Iheanacho was one of seven Manchester City players noted as absent by the Manchester Evening News, but while they have since said the likes of Yaya Toure and Leroy Sane will be making their own way to America, there has been no updates on Iheanacho.

The MEN said the Nigerians absence is no great surprise with the striker expected to leave this summer.

However, other players expected to leave the Etihad Stadium this window, including Samir Nasri, Jason Denayer and Eliaquim Mangala, are in the US with the rest of the squad.
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A branch of Wetherspoons in Leicester has revealed plans to create a hotel above the pub.

The Last Plantagenet, on Granby Street, hopes to convert disused floors above the pub into a 38 bedroom hotel.

Costing 2.5 million, the conversion will be aimed at tourists and people travelling on business.

Eddie Gershon, spokesman for Wetherspoons, said: "We believe a hotel above The Last Plantagenet will be a welcome addition to the pub and Leicester itself.

"Leicester is a thriving city and there is always demand for good quality accommodation in the city centre."

But its not the first hotel above a Wetherspoons  the pub chain actually has over 50 hotels in the UK already.

You can stay overnight at boozers in locations from Essex to Aberdeenshire.

So what do you need to know about Wetherspoons hotels?

Where do Wetherspoons have hotels?

(Image: Abby Ruston)

The first ever Wetherspoons hotel opened in 1998, in Shrewsbury.

Since then many more hotels have been opened by the chain  a grand total of 900 rooms in 53 branches.

The nearest one to Leicester is currently The Saxon Crown in Corby, Northamptonshire.

What do the Wetherspoons hotels look like?

(Image: Wetherspoons)

Wetherspoons hotels have been opened in a huge range of buildings, from traditional inns to modern pubs.

For example, The Unicorn in North Yorkshire is in one of the areas most historic inns, and retains a level of historic splendour.

Whereas The Angel Hotel in Whitby boasts brass telescopes and other nautical memorabilia reflecting its harbour setting.

What do the rooms come with?

(Image: Wetherspoons)

Each room is as unique as its building, but all of them boast comfy beds and stylish decor.

Single rooms are available for business travellers, as well as double, twin and family rooms.

They all come with free Wi-Fi, tea and coffee, and Freeview TVs as standard.

And, of course, all hotels come with its very own pub downstairs or next door.

How much do they cost?

(Image: Jack Harland)

Boasting quality accommodation at great prices as their main selling point, rooms at Wetherspoons hotels are available from 59 a night Monday-Saturday.

They also have a deal on Sundays where rooms start from just 39.

View our map of all the Wetherspoons hotels below.
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Met Office experts are warning of violent thunderstorms which could bring flooding to homes, businesses and roads in Leicestershire tonight.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for part of the country which includes Leicestershire and Rutland.

The warning, which covers the period between 4pm today and midnight tonight, says that up to 30mm (1.1 inches) of rain could fall within an hour.

A Met Office spokesman said: Thundery showers are expected to push north across southern parts of the UK through this evening.

Although many places won't see these showers, there is a chance of localised flooding of homes, businesses and susceptible roads.

Frequent lightning may be an additional hazard with possible disruption to power networks. Similarly, but very locally, hail may cause impacts.

The Met Office chief forecaster said Southwest England looks like it will be first to see scattered thunderstorms.

He said: The threat then expanding northeastwards through the course of the evening.

There is relatively low confidence in the areas more at risk of intense downpours.

Some places will miss them altogether but where they do occur, there is the potential for locally 20 to 30 mm of rain within an hour.

This may result in surface water flooding, particularly should these amounts fall across urban areas.
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Over 100 members of Leicester's Somalian community are holding a protest outside City Hall from 10am this morning.

People took to the microphone to demand 'justice' outside the building.

A cordoned walkway was set up on Charles Street, while one lane of traffic was closed off.

The crowd gathered over a family dispute with Leicester City Council in regards to a child custody matter.

Numerous families joined the protest with children.

(Image: Jacob Jarvis)

They chanted in unison: "What do we want, justice. When do we want it, now."

The demonstration is set to go on until 4pm.

One speaker addressed the crowd saying: "We are a small community.

"We are all a family. We know the family. They have been good to us. We are here to support them."

He encouraged those gathered to make themselves "heard all the way to the Highcross".
A foreign national has been granted an appeal against a prison sentence for his part in an incident in which a plainclothes garda was assaulted, after Portlaoise Circuit Court ruled that the man did not know the injured party was a garda.

Attila Szabo (38), 20 Ard Erin, Mountrath, was convicted in the district court of threatening behaviour and being intoxicated in public, at the Top Square, Portlaoise, on January 17, 2016.

He was sentenced to one month in jail for this offence, after refusing to pay compensation and complete community service.

At the recent appeal, Garda John Masterson gave evidence that he was attending to an unrelated assault in the Top Square on the night, in plain clothes but in a marked patrol car. Across the street, he observed a car with its reverse lights on and two males lying on the bonnet. He said the car was trying to get out, but was unable to due to the two males.

Garda Masterson said he went across the road to assist, but a male grabbed him by the arm and threatened him.

A group of males, including the appellant, stood around the garda and one of the men lunged at Garda Masterson with his head, forcing the garda to deploy his pepper-spray. Garda Masterson said he received a number of punches to the head, not from the appellant, before another male got out of a car and punched him once to the head and then attempted to punch him again.

Another member of the group punched the garda twice. Garda Masterson said that the appellant, Attila Szabo was shouting and pulling at him, so the garda used his pepper-spray on him, but he continued to be aggressive and Garda Masterson called for assistance.

A number of people were arrested in the incident, all of whom have been dealt with by the courts.

Garda Masterson said that the appellant was verbally and physically aggressive throughout the incident.

Defence for the appellant put it to the garda that he had been a man in plain clothes who went into the middle of a group, to which Garda Masterson replied: But I dont think anyone deserves to be treated like that.

He said that the appellant was dragging and pulling at him, to which defence suggested that the appellant was trying to be a peacemaker.

I dont accept that, he was shouting, said Garda Masterson. I would not pepper-spray someone who was trying to break up an argument.

He said that the appellant was standing over him shouting while he was cuffing another man.

Garda Ray Dermody, who assisted in the incident, said that the appellant had a hold of Garda Masterson by the top of his clothing and was shouting and acting aggressively, so he struck the appellant with his baton. He said that the appellant continued to be aggressive, so Garda Masterson pepper-sprayed him.

The appellant took the witness box to say that he had been out with friends in a local nightclub and his wife and brother-in-law came to collect him. He said it had been his brother-in-law who had been on the bonnet of the car.

The appellant said that on the night he saw a person pushing his friend so he went over and asked what he wanted, and he was then pepper-sprayed in the eyes. He said the person then jumped on his brother-in-law and started fighting.

I started shouting stop it, why are you doing this? It shocked me, he said, adding that after he was sprayed he couldnt see anything for two hours.

He said he didnt know at the time who the man was who came over to them.

I tried to calm him down, Im not a fighter. I tried to calm down Garda Masterson. I still didnt know he was a garda, he had no uniform.

Judge Johnson said that Garda Masterson had been subjected to a savage assault on the night, but the appellant was by far the least culpable involved and may have had too much to drink.

Judge Johnson said he accepted the appellant had not realised that Garda Masterson had been a garda and allowed the appeal.
The private screening of a new short film in which a young Kildare girl plays a lead role is taking place in Dublin on July 22.

Eight year old Isabel Connolly from Clane girl landed a role in the new short Irish film which has been shot in a mill Belmont, Offaly.

Isabel, who featured in Expressway advert running across radio and television and other media and also in a Dublin Airport advertisement, spent around three days on set during the filming of, A Timely Gift, which is about a troubled artist struggling to come to terms with the loss of her identity who receives a mysterious gift from her late grandfather.

Director and writer, Paireac Keane,from Tullamore, told the Leinster Leader that Isabel came along for the fourth day to see other cast.

On Saturday next, July 22, cast, crew, friends and others will gather for a private showing in Dublin.

Isabel (7), who lives with her sister, Ruby (5), and parents, Mandy and Peter on Kilcock road, Clane, is a pupil at Scoil Bhride.

Her mother, Mandy, has accompanied Isabel on her film travels,and helped out on the set, told the Leader this week, said it was planned to run the film on the film festival circuit.

Of Isabels participation, Mandy said: She absolutely loved it.

Mandy said the team was very mindful of Isobels age.

For Paireac Keane, the twenty two minutes film is his first. He had high praise for Isabel. It is my first film. Im in the same boat as Isabel but I am not quite as cute. She was brilliant. Shes going to be a future star, Ive no doubt. She is easy to work with.

Isabel plays a younger version of the lead character, Fay ODonovan.

She suffers from a condition called retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is a condition resulting from severe brain trauma in which the afflicted individual experiences significant memory loss for the time period preceding the injury. Memory loss may stretch from a few minutes to several years in the life.

Filming on the project began at the end of October last and Paireac said he will be applying to have it shown in a number of film festivals. Other actors are Jane Walsh, Janine Hardy and Degnan Geraghty. Other producers are Grainne Carey and James Fagan. Paireac thanked Offaly County Council Arts Office who part-funded the production through the Arts Act Grant, 2017
Clare Daly, the Independents 4 Change TD, has won her appeal against a speeding conviction at Naas Circuirt Court just after 3pm this afternoon.

Deputy Daly, with an address in Elmwood Drive, Swords, was convicted by Judge Desmond Zaidan on October 26, 2016 after it was alleged that she was travelling at 59kph in a 50kph zone on January 1, 2016 at Ballymany, Newbridge.

Her appeal, heard before Judge Sarah Berkley, focused on the fact that no evidence of a contract between the Minister for Justice and the company Go Safe, which administers speed detection and prosecutions, was presented to the court as part of the State's evidence.

Counsel for Deputy Daly, Sharbee Morrin, instructed by Wilkinson and Price, referred to an earlier ruling by the then President of the High Court Nicholas Kearns that at least some evidence of the contract must be submitted in evidence in these cases.

The recording equipment in the courtroom in Naas Courthouse was replayed to confirm whether the witness for Go Safe, the operator of the speed detection van, had or had not given such evidence.

Judge Berkely concluded that he had not and said she had no option but to allow the appeal.

Last October 26, Deputy Daly was fined 300 at Naas District Court for speeding despite an attempt to plead not guilty to the charge. And she was accused of a total abuse of court process in the course of the hearing by judge Desmond Zaidan.

A bench warrant with discretion was issued for the arrest of Ms Daly by Judge Zaidan after she did not appear before him the previous Thursday, October 13. She had been present in court that morning, but with her case at the end of the list, she left her solicitor Cairbre Finan with make her excuses and to plead guilty to the charge on her behalf.

When she appeared the following Thursday, October 26, he refused to allow her to charge her plea to not guilty, and fined her.

See also: VIDEO: TD Clare Daly slams Naas District Court judge during Dail speech
The office of the Charities Regulator has released details of its involvement in the Console charity saga.

The former Celbridge-based suicide bereavement charity closed last summer following revelations of alleged expenses claimed by its CEO Paul Kelly.

And in its annual report the Charities Regulator outlines the significant actions it took in response to the controversy - explaining that they asked the HSE for a copy of its internal audit into Console and once they had seen this, reported the matter to the Gardai.

The report explains that Console had held a valid charitable tax exemption issued by the Revenue Commissioners and therefore was automatically registered as a charity.

On foot of concerns received in respect of Console Suicide Bereavement Counselling charity, on June 23, 2016 the Charities Regulator sought a copy of the HSE internal audit report.

On receipt of the document and following examination by the Charity Regulators Compliance Unit, the matter was referred to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and An Garda Siochana.

At the same time, the Charities Regulator wrote to the charity trustees requiring a meeting and seeking written assurances and undertakings from all the charity trustees that the property of the charity was secure; that they would investigate the issues raised by media reports and provide a report to the Charities Regulator and that they would consent to the Charities Regulator appointing new trustees to the charity, if required.

On June 30, 2016, under section 25 of the Charities Act 1961, the Charities Regulator authorised the charity to issue proceedings in the High Court against named defendants and to apply for various orders including injunctions to protect the charity.

On the same day, the board of the Charities Regulator proposed to appoint five new trustees to the charity.

Throughout this period, the report explains, the Charities Regulator worked with the interim CEO (David Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Association and Lifeline Ambulances CEO), the HSE and Pieta House to ensure that the charitable activities and services of Console continued.

In July 2016 the High Court appointed a liquidator and ordered that the company be wound up, the report recounts.

In the same month, the Revenue Commissioners revoked the charitable tax status of the charity, and as a result, the charity was no longer deemed to be registered on the Register of Charities.
The search has begun for Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur with Leitrim Local Enterprise Office confirming that a 50,000 county investment fund on offer to local winners and runners-up in Leitrim.

IBYE is a programme run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), including LEO Leitrim with the support of the Department of Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland.

The competition is open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business. Now in its 4th year, IBYE has an investment fund of up to 2 million.

The closing date to enter this years competition is Friday, September, 29, 2017.

Joe Lowe, Head of Enterprise, Local Enterprise Office Leitrim, said, "The substantial investments available under IBYE are a very important part of the programme and will help more young entrepreneurs here locally to grow their businesses and create more jobs.

"Other business supports, such as management training, networking and one-to-one mentoring are also at the heart of IBYE. Last year, 450 young entrepreneurs all over the country benefitted from these business supports and 180 of them won investment funding to help start and grow their own businesses, so the rewards are there for participants, as well as for the winners.

IBYE is run locally by Local Enterprise Office Leitrim across three categories: Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best Established Business. Up to 450 young entrepreneurs will be invited by the LEOs to attend free regional Entrepreneur Bootcamps later in the year to help them develop their business and new venture ideas.

With an IBYE investment fund of 50,000, LEO Leitrim will award up to six investments to three category winners and three runners-up at county level. The local winners in the Best Start-Up and Best Established Business categories at county level will receive investments of up to 15,000 each and the two runners-up will each receive up to 5,000.

The Best Business Idea winner at county level will receive an investment of up to 7,000 and the runner-up will receive up to 3,000 of investment. These winners at county level will progress to Regional Finals early next year and the national IBYE finals will be held in March 2018.

Previous county winners and runners-up of #IBYE have included Michelle Fanning, Assorted Fitness, Lorcan Kearns, Wild Atlantic Crusades, Aoife McNiffe, Edwina Guckian, Jennifer Wrynne, Richard Wilson Wilson Machinery, Niall Kiernan Global Green Consultancy.
I know British media and voters are less used to coupling the behavior of European Parliament grandees and domestic, Westminster Parliamentary Parties but it is high time they did.

At least the Dutch media pay close attention to how the group(s) of MEP(s) from each Dutch political party behave and vote in Brussels and Strasbourg. If they diverge from the line their national parliamentarians behave and vote (or the other way around), a big stink can follow, embarrassing national party leaders. In France the link is even stronger. Their MPs from the Assemblee and even national party leaders like Marine Le Pen sit in the European Parliament as well, and thus are obliged to vote similarly in both assemblies.

So it was very unwise, uninformed, very egocentric (in short: very Brexiteerish) for the May government to pooh-pooh the opinion piece by a number of prominent MEPs in The Guardian last week. In it, they warn that between 67 and 77% of MEPs would block any Brexit overall deal if EU citizens in the UK continue to be pestered by Home Office shenanigans, and if the UK maintains the unsettled settled status that EU Brexit Negotiator Barnier complaints can be scrapped at will by any British parliament after Brexit.

As I quoted in my earlier post, this uncertainty is helping to sour EU expats views of Britain, its government, encouraged by the attitude of the ever so moderate, always respectful British tabloids of Up Y**** Delors fame .

I strongly urge British politicians to see the positioning of the European Parliament group leaders and grandees as warning about their member parties positioning if national parliaments decide about the final Brexit deal. To give you a flavor, look at four states: Germany (leader of Europe), Netherlands (faithful ally of Britain against Louis XIV, Napoleon and De Gaulle), Spain and Ireland (with border issues around Brexit). Which parties in those parliaments will/could follow Verhofstadts veto threat?

In the German parliament: CDU/CSU, SPD, Greens, Die Linke, even the Pirates, and after the next election FDP will be back; In the Netherlands: VVD, CDA, D66 (now the hard core, 95% of the upcoming majority government), Labour, Greens, SP, PvdD (lefties). The upcoming Dutch line is clear. In the Spanish one: PP, PSOE, Ciudadanos, Podemos/IU; all four main parties. And in the Irish and UK/Ulster parliaments: Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein.

And whos not vetoing? In Germany only the AfD and NPD (Neonazis), in Greece only New Dawns bullies, and in the Netherlands Geert Wilders wont go along with this, and thus are on Theresa Mays side.

* Dr. Bernard Aris is a historian, a D66 parliamentary researcher and a LibDem supporting member.
In December 2015, the House of Commons voted on whether to carry out airstrikes in Syria. Had I been a Liberal Democrat MP, Id have voted against. However, Tim led 75% of ours through the voting lobbies in support of the Governments plans.

I wrote about my mixed feelings at the time:

Yesterday, though, I could totally understand and empathise with our leaders stance, driven as it was by the best of liberal, humanitarian and internationalist motivations. He made an absolute cracker of a speech, delivered with passion and confidence I was glad, however, that my views were represented in the division lobbies by two of our MPs, Norman Lamb and Mark Williams. Its a great credit to our party that we were able to debate this in a very serious manner and without rancour or recrimination. Tim could have given himself an easy life and led our MPs to vote against, but thats not who he is. He made his decision knowing that there was considerable opposition amongst activists at least. He showed courage and principle. I hope that whatever our views, we can all be very proud of him for that.

Here, courtesy of the Guardian, is an extract from Tims speech:

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
TWO families with young children have been offered rented accommodation for a month by Irish Water, after their homes were flooded in Bengal Terrace at the weekend.

However, many other residents are refusing to leave their homes, in spite of fears that the water is contaminated with sewage.

Residents reported being pushed back by the force of the water, which was as high as three feet, following a burst water mains pipe at approximately 2am on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Irish Water said that based on visual inspections carried out in the affected homes, while the water was contaminated with silt and dirt washed in from the road, they did not see any evidence of sewage matter.

However, water flooding can on occasion cause overflows of nearby sewers. While we have not found any evidence of sewage contamination in any of the affected properties, the response of the cleaning contractor appointed by Irish Water would be the same irrespective of whether or not there was sewage contamination, i.e. the properties will be fully disinfected and sanitised as part of the cleaning process, said the spokeperson.

A couple and their first-born eight-week-old baby girl are among those who said that after spending three nights in two different hotels they have been offered a private rented house for a month by Irish Water.

Niamh Counihan, partner Cian Healy and little Fiadh, who turned eight weeks old on Sunday, were among up to a dozen residents affected by flooding.

A contractor was brought on site by Irish Water to spray the properties with disinfectant, and dehumidifiers were also provided in an attempt to dry out the homes.

Residents praised council workers who assisted them in the aftermath of the deluge.
UNITED Airlines decision to suspend its daily Shannon-New York route for the winter is a bombshell to the industry.

Thats according to local businessman and Shannon board member Tony Brazil, who added: Airlines do not have an awful lot of sympathy for 20 years of success. They are only looking at today and tomorrow".

United currently operates daily flights from Shannon to Newark, New Jersey, a short distance from the biggest city in the United States.

The international carrier says it will suspend its daily service between November 26 and March 9, saying its in response to a seasonal reduction in market demand.

Mr Brazil said airport bosses are trying to bridge the gap while United Airlines is away.

Another part of the bigger picture which really hurts is that 87% of all air traffic is going into Dublin. When you include a service like that, the alternative for people is to travel to Dublin. It only increases the number there rather than help local industry, he added.

An airport spokesperson said: We are disappointed by Uniteds decision to reduce its Shannon/New York service for the winter period. United have operated services at Shannon since 1999 and are a core and valued customer.

We remain very committed to working with them and our other airline partners to continue to provide services and access to key markets. Maximising Shannons potential will continue to be a priority.
LIMERICK born solicitor and property developer Brian ODonnell has seen his Killiney mansion sold for 9.5m.

The now infamous Gorse Hill on the Vico Road, which features six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, was sold for a 1m above its asking price.

The new owner has purchased one of the most expensive homes to come to the market in Dublin this year, and will count Bono and Enya as neighbours.

The 10,220sq ft property on two acres was sold through joint agents Sherry FitzGerald and Knight Frank on behalf of receiver Tom Kavanagh of Deloitte for Bank of Ireland.

The property was the subject of a high profile and lengthy High Court dispute, after attempts by his family to stop receivers repossessing the family home, which Mr O'Donnell insisted was in his childrens names.

Mr ODonnell famously walked into the Bank of Ireland AGM and threw a set of keys with a keyring marked The Bloody Keys at Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher.

The case ended last October when a Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the ODonnell family against a decision to lift a legal bar on the sale of the property.

Mr ODonnell, 64, who is originally from the Ennis Road in Limerick and attended Crescent College, was known as a talented rugby player in the city and played senior cup for Crescent College and has family member still living in Limerick.

At one point the couple barricaded themselves inside the property, which was once valued at 30m.

TV3 broadcaster and Limerick native Vincent Browne gained entry to the grounds in 2015, describing it as the most spectacular place Ive seen, certainly in Ireland.

Charlie Haugheys house was far exceeded in lavishness by this house, [it] was worth a fraction of what this house is worth, said Mr Browne. Mr ODonnell and his wife were being pursued for a debt of 71.5m by Bank of Ireland.
LIMERICK farmers are being invited to join a new farming and wildlife project to help a rare species of bat called the Lesser Horseshoe Bat.

Information will be available at a meeting on Monday, July 24, 11am in the Teagasc Office, Newcastle West.

Dr Kate McAney, project leader, says the lesser horseshoe bat is totally dependent on the farming community for its survival and is quite different to the other eight species of bat in Ireland.

It does not use modern buildings, it needs to fly directly into a structure  like a swallow, it does not fly out in the open at night but flies along hedgerows, stone walls, tree-lines, and it needs underground places like cellars and caves to hibernate in winter. And, in Ireland, it is only found in six western counties  Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork and Kerry, said Kate.

They are focusing on ten areas in County Limerick  places where the bat still occurs or has been recorded - Grange/Lough Gur, Fedamore, Adare, Pallaskenry, Croagh, Curraghchase, Rathkeale, Askeaton, Ardagh and Glin. If enough farmers are interested, an application will be made for funding from the Department of Agriculture.

If we take action now, this bat wont go the way of the corncrake. There are a range of simple actions that Limerick farmers can take that will make a significant impact for this species, but that wont affect the way they farm, and the funding is there to help them to do this. Contact 086 8308849 for more information.
A BIKER died from a single shotgun wound to the head fired from a gun that was about ten feet away, a pathologist told a murder trial.

Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis was giving evidence this Tuesday in the trial of Alan 'Cookie' McNamara, aged 51, of Mountfune, Murroe, County Limerick who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew O'Donoghue on June 20, 2015 at Mountfune.

Also on trial is Mr McNamara's stepson Robert Cusack, aged 28, of Abington, Murroe who has pleaded not guilty to impeding Mr McNamara's apprehension knowing or believing him to have committed a serious offence.

The trial, being at the Central Criminal Court, has previously heard that the deceased was a member of the Road Tramps motorcycle club while Mr McNamara was associated with the rival Caballeros.

Dr Curtis told Michael Delaney SC, prosecuting, that he examined Mr O'Donoghue's body at University Hospital Limerick the day after he was shot.

He said a rash of about 100 individual pellets from the shotgun cartridge had created a wound of 20cm by 60cm from the top of the forehead to the face and jaw.

Some of the pellets had gone through his eye sockets and penetrated his brain. He gave the cause of death as a single shotgun wound to the head, face and neck.

The pattern of the pellets, he said, showed that the gun was in excess of eight to ten feet away from the deceased when fired.

The jury then heard from Detective Garda Niall Fitzgerald who said that gardai went to Mr McNamara's home with a warrant sometime after the shooting having received information that linked the accused man to the shooting.

When they got there they found the front door open but nobody home so they entered and began their search.

The detective said he found a shotgun cartridge in a cabinet at the foot of a bed in one of the bedrooms. Alongside it was a red book or diary with handwritten notes.

He said another garda found four shotgun cartridges in a bedside locker.

The red book contained what Garda Fitzgerald said appeared to be lists of names and minutes of meetings. The first page was headed Caballeros MC Ireland and mentioned a proposed trip to Spain.

He said the lists of names seemed to be members or potential members of the Caballeros. There were various references to "Cookie" and a "Robert" or "Rob" alongside phone numbers.

Dated June 16 under the title "Prospects", he said the name Robert appeared again. Detective Garda Fitzgerald agreed with defence counsel Andrew Sexton SC, that this appeared to tie in with his client, Robert Cusack.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven men and four women.
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A man federal officials say is the father-in-law of a top-ranking member of the Zetas drug cartel has admitted to taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

Jesus Fernandez de Luna, who's from northern Mexico near the Texas border city of Eagle Pass, had been accused by U.S. prosecutors of smuggling drugs and helping the Zetas launder money through quarter horse purchases.

In a criminal complaint filed in 2012 in Austin, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent wrote that Fernandez was the father-in-law of Omar Trevino, who briefly served as the Zetas boss.

On Thursday, Fernandez pleaded guilty in a federal court in Sherman, near Dallas, to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

READ MORE: 3 sentenced in Laredo in smuggling case involving high-powered rifle, Zetas drug cartel

He faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced at a later date. According to online court records, he admitted taking part in a scheme to distribute at least 450 kilograms of cocaine in this country. He was extradited to the U.S. last year.

Fernandez had also been wanted in Austin as part of an investigation into the Zetas' use of U.S. quarter horse ranches and races to launder money. According to the criminal complaint filed there, Fernandez ran a company named Ganadera 5 Manantiales, a cattle exporting company that was actually a front for the Zetas.

Fernandez's daughter married Omar Trevino, who was arrested in 2015 and had taken over as the Zetas' boss after his brother Miguel was arrested in 2013. Both Trevino brothers are in jail in Mexico.

Another brother, Jose Trevino Morales, was arrested in 2012 and accused of laundering his brothers' drug money.

RELATED: Factions of Zetas drug cartel feuding for territory near Laredo

Months after that arrest, which resulted in the feds seizing hundreds of horses and Jose Trevino's receiving a 20-year prison sentence, Fernandez used a front man based in the border town of Quemado to purchase more quarter horses, prosecutors alleged. The U.S. Treasury Department has added him to a blacklist.
"The Essential W.S. Merwin" (Copper Canyon) beautifully demonstrates why Merwin has been one of America's most decorated and important poets for more than 60 years. Edited by Michael Wiegers, this concise collection contains the best of the two-time Pulitzer winner's work, including selections from Merwin's first book, "A Mask for Janus" (1952) as well as "The Lice" (1967), "The Carrier of Ladders" (1970) and "The Shadow of Sirius" (2008). The book, which will be published in September, also includes translations and prose pieces that help give readers a fuller understanding of Merwin's range and changing aesthetics. His earlier poems reflect the formal style of the time and are influenced by classical myths, biblical stories and medieval poetry and ballads. Over time, Merwin's writing became looser and more experimental, eventually dropping all punctuation. His focus, too, shifted from a keen sense of impending loss to an abiding connection with the natural and unseen realms. What remained constant was Merwin's striking, evocative imagery, as in these lines from "The Unwritten": "Inside this pencil/ crouch words that have never been written/ never been spoken/ never been taught/ they're hiding/ they're awake in there/ dark in the dark/ hearing us/ but they won't come out/ not for love not for time not for fire." Merwin's skill is matched by his wisdom and his ability to connect a particular moment with something larger. A singing bird in "The Wren," for instance, is "one of those voices without question/ and without answer like the beam of some/ star familiar."

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"Lessons on Expulsion" (Graywolf) is the fierce, assertive debut by Erika L. Sanchez. In these pages, Sanchez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, examines the origins of misogyny, the struggles of poor women who are forced to sell their bodies, and the unfair balance of power in romantic relationships. She also confronts desire, shame and the painful choices immigrants must face, using language that varies from gritty to dreamlike. Sometimes a single piece contains both, as with "La Cueva," where "The glittering women swing/ their hips like eternal bells. With pink,/ histrionic mouths they sing: (BEGIN ITAL)Who is this/ in the mirror? Why won't you love me?/ Why won't you let me be(END ITAL)?" The writing feels consistently authentic, as with the moving and memorable poem "Crossing," in which the American-born speaker contemplates the experience of her forebears, including her grandmother, who did not learn to read, and her mother, who declares that "You will not work like us. You will not work like a donkey." That poem, like others, raises questions about how people define themselves, or are defined by others, and the borders they traverse, both literally and figuratively.

---

In "Some Say," the fifth book of poetry by Maureen N. McLane (FSG), the sun is the focal point for poems that are deceptively simple. As with her previous collection, "Mz N: the serial, A Poem-in-Episodes," the writing here is breezy and inviting but also rich and far-reaching. The speaker considers both global and personal concerns, among them politics, sex, the natural world and the divine presence. Many of the poems are so lovely that one notices their phrasing and pacing first, and then their deeper layers. The poem "Enough," for example, opens with "The storm dissolves/ into sun./ We had no expectation/ The clouds full/ of pomp ignored/ whatever/ the wind did/below" and ends with "The world was full/ as it always was/ of wings of meaning & nothing." As the speaker considers various moments in time, she also explores some archetypal poetic themes such as beauty and truth, adding a modern twist to old ideas and playing off some famous lines, as when she notes that "No roads diverged/ no ski trail split/ the mind forked itself/ and doubled back." McLane, who was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for "This Blue," knows when to dazzle and when to disrupt the reader's expectations with a risque or cheeky observation.

---

Lund writes about poetry each month for The Washington Post.
Federal authorities said they have arrested a man who allegedly tried to smuggle $108,500 into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Mexican customs and the military arrested him Friday night at the World Trade Bridge following a routine inspection after he was returning from Laredo. He allegedly had cash strapped to his body.
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A man arrested last month after several children were found living in deplorable conditions has now been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, who is pregnant with his child, according to court documents.

Edas Alonso Lopez-Castillo, 25, told authorities he had asked her parents for permission to be with her, states a criminal complaint.

Lopez-Castillo, of Honduras, was served with an arrest warrant July 7 charging him with sexual assault. He remains behind bars at the Webb County Jail.

The case unfolded June 10, when police responded to a child abandonment report in the 2200 block of Cedar Avenue. A naked 2-year-old girl had been found banging on the door of a home.

READ MORE: Children found allegedly abandoned in central Laredo home filled with trash, fecal matter

Officers forced the door open to check on the welfare of the parents. Inside, authorities said they found fecal matter, trash and dirty laundry. Officers then found three more children  ages 1, 4 and 7  unsupervised in a small swimming pool in the back of the house, according to police.

All were in good health, according to court documents.

Police then located a locked room with the 15-year-old girl and her boyfriend, Lopez-Castillo, inside. They eventually opened the door. Lopez-Castillo told police he was the one taking care of the children.

He was arrested and charged with abandoning, endangering a child with criminal negligence.

Investigators met with the parents of the girl June 13 as the investigation continued. Police asked them if they knew about the relationship between their teenage daughter and Lopez-Castillo.

"They told (the investigator that) Edas Alonso Lopez-Castillo went to their home and asked them for permission to be with their daughter," states a criminal complaint.

MORE FROM LMTonline: Police identify suspect car involved in south Laredo shooting

The girl was later interviewed at the Children's Advocacy Center. She stated Lopez-Castillo was her boyfriend and that they had met via Facebook, police recounted in the complaint.

"She acknowledged that Edas was (25 years old) and they have known each other for about a year. (The girl) said she is about six months pregnant and that Edas Alonso Lopez-Castillo is the father of her child," the complaint states.

Police spoke with Lopez-Castillo on June 26 at the Webb County Jail, where he was held on the child abandonment charge.

He stated he and the girl would have intercourse and that she was pregnant with his child, records state.

"Finally, Edas explained he was willing to take any punishment in accordance with the laws of the state of Texas," states the complaint.

A warrant for his arrest was approved June 29.
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Authorities said Monday they have identified a suspect car involved in a shooting that occurred over the weekend in south Laredo.

Laredo police said the male suspect was driving a possible 2008 or 2009 black Dodge Avenger with a spoiler.

Investigators said the shooting occurred at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday in the 3200 block of Jaime Zapata Memorial Highway.

Laredo Medical Center staff called LPD about 15 minutes later saying a man had been shot in the left eye. Authorities identified him as Alfonso Alvarado, 32.

READ MORE: 'We realize the pain:' Laredo PD offers support to San Antonio PD after officer-involved shooting

He was airlifted to a San Antonio hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition, police said.

Alvarado told police he was in his Mitsubishi sport utility vehicle when a person pulled up next to him and shot him, according to authorities. LPD said the man then drove to his girlfriend's residence in the 1600 block of Jacaman Road. She then took him to LMC.

Police said the vehicle had bullet holes and blood inside.

To provide information on the case, call police at 956-795-2800 or Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Information leading to an arrest may be eligible for a cash reward.
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A host of Laredo citizens spoke out against Texas' Senate Bill 4 during Monday's City Council meeting, saying the law will hurt the local economy, make some residents apprehensive about calling law enforcement and intrude upon police departments' day-to-day priorities.

Laredo City Council agreed with their sentiments, and voted unanimously to join the lawsuit against the bill, which permits local peace officers to ask the people they detain or arrest about their immigration status, and furthermore punishes local officeholders who stop police from asking these questions.

Council's discussion on the question lasted two hours, with 13 members of the public testifying, including former Laredo Mayor Betty Flores and El Cenizo Mayor Raul Reyes, one of the first signers of the lawsuit against the bill.

Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz could not attend Monday's meeting, as he is in New York for an education program held by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. He participated in the discussion via phone, but could not vote.

READ MORE: Laredo city officials voice stance on 'sanctuary cities' lawsuit

All but two of the people who spoke publicly asked that City Council vote to join the lawsuit, which has already been bolstered by the cities of San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Austin and El Paso.

Mayor Reyes said the hate and divide in the country is trickling down to Texas communities in the form of this bill. He noted that SB 4 denies the right for City Council to speak out against this law, and denies the right of Laredo's police chief to direct his officers away from asking for people's papers.

Former Laredo Mayor Flores said she was speaking on behalf of Laredo Main Street, a nonprofit that works to revitalize the downtown area.

Targeting Mexican citizens, Flores said, would dissuade them from visiting Laredo and shopping downtown, putting in danger the economic vitality of the area. The effects of Senate Bill 4 would be "worse than any peso devaluation, worse than any base closing," she said.

Sister Rosemary Welsh, executive director of women's shelter Casa de Misericordia, said she has read SB 4, and while it protects people at school or at church, it does not protect people at shelters. Already she has seen a dramatic increase in people not wanting to be escorted to the shelter by law enforcement officials.

Ricardo De Anda, a member of the board for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said if the City of Laredo were to join the lawsuit, it would not be charged legal fees.

It would be powerful for the City of Laredo to link arms with the City of El Cenizo on this issue, De Anda said.

Council discussion

Councilman Roberto Balli said he asked Mayor Saenz several times to hold a special-called meeting to discuss SB 4, which takes effect in September, but that he never gave the OK because he has been working out of town.

Saenz has been hesitant to condone joining the lawsuit, and has said he is fearful of Laredo being labeled a "sanctuary city" and therefore losing state and federal funding for several multimillion-dollar infrastructure projects the city is hoping to be awarded. He reiterated these points over the phone Monday during the City Council meeting.

"I think as leaders of this community we cannot stand by with this law in effect," Balli said. "We need to take a stand. That's why I brought this item forward."

Councilman George Altgelt said SB 4 is a symptom of the "post-presidential election confusion that has ensued," and the only reason the Texas Legislature passed it is because Congress lacks the "intestinal fortitude" to really address immigration issues.

"I think it speaks for itself," Altgelt said. "It's the fear of the unknown."

He also took issue with the fact that this law is unfunded. Altgelt said it does not provide funds to the municipalities that will be charged with conducting immigration enforcement.

RELATED: Laredo police concerned 'sanctuary cities' bill will result in loss of public trust

Councilman Alberto Torres said now is the time to fight against a law that would discriminate against "every single one of us up here," along with most of the children and citizens of Laredo.

Councilwoman Nelly Vielma, an immigration attorney of 17 years, said she is concerned about racial profiling under SB 4, and especially fearful of how it would affect her children.

In the past five years, 19 of her clients who were wrongfully deported were U.S. citizens, she said. If trained immigration officers can make these mistakes, local law enforcement officers, without proper training, would be making them even more often, Vielma said.

Councilman Rudy Gonzalez said as a law enforcement officer he stands against SB 4.

"This ain't going to break us. ... We're going to be stronger," Gonzalez said. "Whatever you guys need, we'll be here."

Vidal Rodriguez spoke in Spanish on behalf of the 95 percent of the Hispanic residents in Laredo, and offered his solidarity in standing against SB 4.

Sanctuary city

Councilman Charlie San Miguel drew some negative feedback from the crowd when he said this bill would protect victims who report a crime who may be undocumented immigrants. Someone in the audience yelled, "Read the bill, Charlie!"

De Anda, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said this law does the opposite, making it legal to ask victims their legal status. The investigator would be at risk if he were to ignore that, De Anda said.

San Miguel also asked De Anda what a "sanctuary city" really is, since that term seems to be at the crux of the debate.

De Anda said there is no statute defining a "sanctuary city," and that it's really a political expression. He said that sometimes immigration enforcement officers will take several weeks to arrest or charge a detained immigrant. Cities labeled "sanctuary cities" follow the laws that stipulate a person cannot be held without charges for over 48 hours.

Another ACLU attorney told interim City Attorney Kristina Hale that the City of Laredo may be too late to join the lawsuit, but could file an amicus brief. Balli's motion was that the city join the lawsuit against SB 4, or if that is not possible, that the city join with an amicus.

When council supported this motion, it was met with a standing ovation in the audience.
Its not enough to say that Dunkirk is Christopher Nolans best film. Its one of the best war films ever made, distinct in its look, in its approach and in the effect it has on viewers. There are movies  they are rare  that lift you out of your present circumstances and immerse you so fully in another experience that you watch in a state of jaw-dropped awe. Dunkirk is that kind of movie.

The battle of Dunkirk was not a victory but a successful evacuation, and Nolan doesnt try to give it the contours of a conventional tale of triumph. When France fell to Hitler in 1940, it left 400,000 Allied soldiers, most of them British  basically the entire British Army  stranded on the beach, needing transport across the English Channel. To convey a sense of that day, Nolan stays focused on a handful of soldiers, sailors, RAF pilots and civilian volunteers, all struggling to do their part and go home.

If we know the history, we know that almost 340,000 were successfully evacuated and lived to fight another day  and for years thereafter  and that Hitler missed his best and only chance to win World War II in a single blow. But Nolan takes us into a mind-set that doesnt know these things. He throws us into the middle of the action, where there is no grand scheme and no overview, just moment-by-moment struggle.

And from the point of view of the men on that beach, in the boats and in the air, it seems inconceivable that any of them, much less most of them, could possibly survive.

Dunkirk begins, as great films often will, with a scene of wonder and awe that lets us know, virtually from the first frame, that the filmmaker has his teeth into something big. We see a half dozen soldiers from behind, walking down the middle of the road in a picturesque French village. The colors are saturated to beautiful effect, and papers are billowing down from the sky. And then a soldier picks one up and we see that its leaflet that has been dropped from an enemy airplane, telling the Allies that theyre surrounded, that its hopeless, and that they should surrender.

A skirmish immediately follows this, except that its barely even a skirmish. Its just soldiers getting shot at and running for their lives. They never see whos shooting at them, and neither do we. Its chaos. Soon, the movie settles on a single soldier, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) to become a major focus, but we dont know much about him, and we never find out. Dunkirk is not a war movie where everybody gets to have a scintillating personality. Rather, it depicts a hiatus from personality, an ordeal in which life, under assault, is reduced to the basics.

This distance has the unique effect of keeping us from fully identifying with one character as the viewers surrogate, in a way that, say, Tom Hanks was our surrogate in Saving Private Ryan. In this way, Nolan doesnt offer us a replacement for our participation in the war. Rather, he enlists us in the war ourselves, so that we jump out of our skins when snipers shoot holes in a boat that we feel that were on. And we react in terror when the ocean blazes with an oil fire, as men, underwater, hold their breath and try to find a safe spot to resurface.

Nolan forces us out of the usual movie mode of thinking, well, so long as the hero survives, everything will be OK. He involves us instead in every scene and every disaster and near disaster, so that we feel it  and end up, by the end of the film, drained and exhausted and yet strangely excited, in the way great art is always exciting. Were in the plane with Tom Hardy as an RAF pilot, trying to prevent the German planes from bombing the British boats, just as we are with Mark Rylance as an average British citizen, piloting his pleasure boat to Dunkirk in hope of rescuing his countrymen.

Like the men at Dunkirk, the actors do their duty to the fullest, but no one stands out from the pack, because its not that kind of movie. In this way and others, Dunkirk feels supremely and appropriately English. Its all no fuss, no bother and no obvious tugging at the emotions, but the emotions are there. Its all in days work  but what a days work.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

Dunkirk

War movie. Starring Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy. Directed by Christopher Nolan. (PG-13. 106 minutes.)
The newest member of the U.S. Supreme Courts conservative bloc appeared before a San Francisco judicial conference Monday and sang the praises of bipartisanship.

Democracy depends on our ability to learn from those who have very different convictions, said Justice Neil Gorsuch, speaking on a civics education panel at the annual meeting of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Those with whom we disagree still have the best interests of the country at heart.

Gorsuch, a former judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, was nominated by President Trump to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a vacancy that the new president was able to fill only because Senate Republican leaders had refused to hold hearings on President Barack Obamas nomination of Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland last year.

The Senate confirmed him in April after Republican leaders prevented a Democratic blockade by repealing the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments and allowing approval by majority vote.

Gorsuch has lived up to his conservative reputation so far on a court that often splits along ideological lines. He joined Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in an opinion that signaled their willingness to uphold Trumps travel ban, aimed at countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations, and called for its enforcement while the court considers the case.

In another case, Gorsuch dissented from a ruling requiring Arkansas to list two lesbian spouses as parents on their childs birth certificate.

On Monday, however, Gorsuch portrayed the courts as a forum where disputes are peacefully resolved.

The rule of law in this country is amazing, he said  95 percent of federal cases are resolved in trial courts, a great majority of appeals court rulings are unanimous, and even at the Supreme Court, which reviews the most closely contested cases, more than 40 percent of the decisions have been unanimous for decades.

We are able to achieve resolutions of our social disputes in a remarkable, peaceful way in the courts, Gorsuch said.

Gorsuch was filling in for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Courts liaison with the Ninth Circuit, which oversees federal courts in California and eight other Western states. Kennedy canceled his annual appearance at the conference because his wife broke her hip in a fall in Austria, where Kennedy was teaching a summer law course.

Other panel participants stressed the need for civics education in a nation where barely one-fourth of the adult population can name the three branches of government (legislative, executive and judicial), according to a recent opinion poll.

Robert Katzmann, chief judge of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, said the media add to public misunderstanding by frequently identifying the president who appointed each judge in a divided case in news stories, as if being a judge was a partisan activity.

Gorsuch did not blame anyone for the information gap, but said bridging it was a task for courts and other institutions as well as schools. Self-government is not self-executing or self-perpetuating, he said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
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The city-wide debate over Houston firefighters' pay has come down to a battle between city hall and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association and the war room is just north of downtown at the union office on Freeman Street in the Heights.

The association represents around 4,000 firefighters and their families and starting in early July and continuing for at least two weeks thousands of Houston's first responders and their supporters are flooding into the small, beige building to prepare for a massive block-walking and petitioning drive.

Their mission is to gather at least 21,000 signatures from registered voters in the city of Houston so that a measure can be placed on the November ballot that would allow the public to decide whether or not to add a charter amendment authorizing "parity in the compensation provided to Houston Firefighters compared to the compensation provided to Houston Police Officers," reads the heading on the petition form next to a small, red firefighter's helmet with the words, "Let The Voters Decide" inscribed around it.

"Since 2011, Houston firefighters have received only a 3 percent cost-of-living pay raise," said Patrick "Marty" Lancton, president of the firefighters association. "HPD, who we love and respect, have gotten a 26 percent increase."

The Union Local 341 is headquarters for training in petitioning procedure as well as some talking points for those knocking on doors.

Lancton, along with association Director Position No. 1 John Franco, are training HFD staff and civilian alike on petition gathering rules so that all signatures are deemed valid by the Houston City Secretary.

Two HFD firefighters, Jason Danvir and Kirk Ponce de Leon, have already knocked on doors or been allowed by some businesses to inform customers on their property about the petition.

"The majority of people who signed our petition had already heard a lot about it," said Danvir, an 18-year veteran with the department who was allowed by Karbach Brewery to solicit there on Sunday, his day off. "But a lot of people were surprised we didn't make the same as police officers."

He estimates he secured about 30 signatures at Karbach.

Ponce de Leon has just under two years as a firefighter, but got a thorough education in compensation woes early on.

"Ever since I've come into this, it's all I've heard," he said.

The rookie firefighter has said he signed up anywhere from 50 to 60 people in the hour he spent at a small grocery market on Washington Avenue.

Danvir describes people as "overwhelmingly positive" when he tells them about the effort and asks for their signature. Buffalo Wild Wings on Washington Avenue has also allowed HFD to set up petition stations inside their doors.

All of the petitioning is done during off-time, said Lancton, which is usually an already packed schedule with side jobs and family obligations.

"This is very difficult for firefighters and their families," he said. "The hole keeps widening and no one wants to address it."

Franco, a firefighter of 13 years, trains those who petition to ask for verbal verification that the signer is a registered voter in the city of Houston - which will be checked agaisnst records by the City of Houston Secretary once turned in - and to make sure no one signs for a spouse or family member.

The firm who helped local activists gather signatures to get a measure to repeal alcohol restrictions in the Heights on the ballot last year, Texas Petition Strategies, is consulting with the association on this effort to guide them in the legal aspects of obtaining signatures.

Someone is at the office from 7 a.m. till 10 p.m., said Franco, to assist anyone who stops by to volunteer.

"It's non-stop. Guys are coming through on a regular basis," he said. "If firefighters come in, we'll be ready."
As the blame game launches on the Senate health-care bill, there is perhaps no more illustrative example of President Donald Trump's role in the negotiations than this:

It's Monday evening. A second version of the Republicans' bill is in danger of flatlining. Two GOP senators are opposed to it, almost a dozen have expressed serious concerns with it, and if just one more Republican opposes it, it's game over for an Obamacare overhaul.

Trump is having dinner at the White House with seven Republican senators to talk health care. Of the seven, only Steve Daines, Mont., had publicly expressed concerns about the bill.

As they dined, fellow Republican Sens. Mike Lee, Utah, and Jerry Moran, Kan., were crafting statements that would implode the GOP's attempts to unravel Obamacare for the foreseeable future.

That Trump was blindsided by the news that the bill was effectively dead shows, despite his rhetoric, how unable or unwilling Trump has been to influence the outcome of the health-care debate.

Lee and Moran announced, together, on Twitter around 7:30 p.m. Eastern time that they couldn't support the bill because it didn't go far enough to repealing Obamacare.

That would make four "no's" - two more than the bill could afford. Just like that, the Republicans' second attempt to undo Obamacare died. And the person arguably in charge of the Republican Party and its platform - Trump - was caught off guard by this, as he was dining with senators who actually support the legislation.

Here's Trump, speaking briefly to reporters on Tuesday:

Trump: "I was very surprised when the 2 folks came out last night because we thought they were in fairly good shape, but they did."

- Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) July 18, 2017

Republicans in Washington were dumbfounded that, with the GOP health-care bill on the line, Trump decided to spend his time eating with allies, rather than trying to win over adversaries. And it blew up in his face in the most spectacular way.

"The senators who announced their opposition last night were two that have been most vocal about their hesitation to McConnell's efforts for weeks," said a Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday as to speak candidly about the president's strategy. "It hasn't been a secret who those people are, and those are who the president should be wining and dining. To be spending valuable time with reliable 'yes' votes doesn't seem to make much sense."

Trump wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden death of the Republican health-care bill. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, whose job as the No. 2 Senate Republican is to count votes, said he was caught off guard by the timing of Lee and Moran's announcement.

But Cornyn has played an active role in at least trying to sell these senators on the legislation. Politico called him "Obamacare repeal's top salesman."

Cornyn was one of the attendees at the Monday White House dinner, along with Sens. Daines, Lamar Alexander, Tenn., Roy Blunt, Mo., James Lankford, Okla., and Richard Shelby, Ala., and John Thune, S.D.

Unlike Cornyn, Trump never expressed more than a passing interest in getting the bill passed. Sure, he tweets about how bad Obamacare is. And he tweets veiled threats at some Republicans who aren't cooperating. But he hasn't made any concrete lobbying effort to win over those senators. He hasn't gone out of his way to explain why Americans should support the bill, other than it's not Obamacare. Not coincidentally, the bill is really unpopular.

In fact, on Tuesday, he raised eyebrows by trying to spin the bill's loss as a personal win.

As Senate health bill collapses, Trump takes credit for winning over most Republicans: "would have been 48-4. impressive by any standard"

- John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 18, 2017

We can look all the way back to this spring, when House Republicans were trying to pass their measure unraveling Obamacare. Trump wasn't a central figure in that fight, either.

As House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was about to face an embarrassing setback on the legislation, Trump went to Michigan to promote his administration's reconsideration of fuel efficiency standards. He didn't mention health care once.

There are several reasons Republicans control all of Washington and have failed to deliver on their singular promise, to repeal Obamacare.

But Trump's total lack of interest in selling the legislation - and seemingly ham-handed efforts to inject himself in the debate - is perhaps Republicans' biggest struggle of all. They don't have a president who seems to understand how to close a deal in Washington.

---

Robert Costa contributed to this report.
As CONCACAF competitions tend to be, the Gold Cup group stage was a strange little rodeo:

French Guiana fielded an ineligible player, knowing full well it would forfeit the match (and subsequently get hit by sanctions).

Honduras advanced despite failing to score; it's three "goals" were awarded through French Guiana's forfeit.

The United States relinquished a two-goal lead in the second half to lightly regarded Martinique, but won anyway.

Mexico labored to put aside Curacao.

The tournament's leading scorers with three goals apiece were a 16-year-old Canadian (Vancouver Whitecaps forward Alphonso Davies) and a Martinican who was briefly a Seattle Sounder (Kevin Parsemain).

The U.S. matches (Nashville, Tampa, Cleveland) drew an average of 32,975. Mexico's games (San Diego, Denver, San Antonio) attracted 48,829. Well, that's not so strange.

And now it's onto the quarterfinals . . .

(All times are Eastern)

Wednesday in Philadelphia:

Costa Rica vs. Panama, 6 p.m. (FS1, UniMas)

United States vs. El Salvador, 9 p.m. (FS1, UniMas)

Thursday in Glendale, Arizona:

Jamaica vs. Canada, 7:30 p.m. (FS1, Univision)

Mexico vs. Honduras, 10:30 p.m. (FS1, Univision)

The Philadelphia winners will meet in Saturday's semifinal in Arlington, Texas. The Glendale winners will play Sunday in Pasadena, California. The final is next Wednesday at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

If the quarterfinals and semifinals are tied after 90 minutes, the match will proceed directly to penalty kicks. The final will, if necessary, utilize 30 minutes of extra time before turning to penalties. Teams are afforded one additional sub during extra time.

The United States boasts a 16-match unbeaten streak against El Salvador since 1993 (13-0-3). Four years ago, the Americans rolled to a 5-1 victory in a Gold Cup quarterfinal in Baltimore.
Maryland state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., D-Montgomery, formally launched his campaign for governor Monday, saying his progressive track record and nearly 15 years as a state lawmaker distinguish him from others in a growing field.

"I am the only Democrat who can take on and beat Larry Hogan next November," said Madaleno, 52, who first announced his plans to challenge the popular Republican governor at a rally for more Metro funding in May.

Other Democrats who have said they will compete in the June 2018 primary include Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III; former NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, who recently won endorsements from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution, the progressive group Sanders formed after his 2016 run for the Democratic presidential nomination; entrepreneur Alec Ross; and attorney James Shea.

Three other Democrats -- Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, U.S. Rep. John Delaney and former state attorney general Doug Gansler -- are also weighing bids.

Madaleno, who would be Maryland's first openly gay governor, is one of two candidates trying to win over far-left voters and carry the progressive mantle in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Both he and Jealous, who would be the state's first African-American governor, have strong social-justice records and support a $15 minimum wage.

As governor, Madaleno said, he would push for universal prekindergarten in Maryland and larger investments in higher education "to make the dream of a college degree without debt a reality."

Like many of his fellow Democrats, he criticized Hogan for not speaking out more forcefully against Republican plans to overhaul the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. He said he would be willing to use Maryland taxpayer money to ensure that the state's Medicaid is not diminished if Congress repeals the federal health-care law, which provided funding to expand eligibility for the program in Maryland.

By running for governor, Madaleno must forfeit his chance to run for another term in the legislature, where he is vice-chair of the powerful Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. He described his gubernatorial campaign as an "up-or-out situation."

Madaleno worked as a legislative aide in the General Assembly before winning election to the House of Delegates in 2002 and the Senate in 2006.

He helped lead the push to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland and sponsored legislation this year that makes Maryland the first state to guarantee Planned Parenthood will not lose funding in the state if Congress cuts off federal money for the organization.

Madaleno was joined at the campaign kickoff by his parents, his husband and their two children, along with campaign and legislative staffers and Dels. Alfred C. Carr Jr. and Jeff Waldstriecher, both Montgomery County Democrats.

He told reporters he believes Democrats should wait until later in the primary cycle, after seeing which candidate connects with and energizes voters the most, before making endorsements. And he shrugged off the endorsement of Jealous by Sanders as relatively inconsequential in Maryland, where voters backed Hillary Clinton by a wide margin.

"I doubt I will get a lot of votes in Vermont, but then again, that's not a high priority in this campaign," he quipped.
Washington

The United States and Russia on Monday resumed high-level talks aimed at resolving irritants between Washington and Moscow, as Russian patience dwindles for the return of two seized diplomatic compounds.

Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov were meeting Monday. U.S. officials downplayed chances for a breakthrough, especially since Russia abruptly canceled the diplomats' last scheduled meeting in June in response to new Ukraine-related sanctions. Ryabkov did not respond to a reporter's question as he arrived at the State Department with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

The goal is to pave the way for future cooperation on Syria, Ukraine and other global issues by first building trust through discussions about smaller issues. The resumption in talks came less than two weeks after President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a first meeting in Germany, an encounter both countries described as a positive first step toward improving relations.

Driving the agenda are grievances each country wants the other to address. The U.S. wants Moscow to stop harassing American diplomats and to lift a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. Russia wants the U.S. to return two Cold War-era recreational estates that the Obama administration seized as part of its response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Though Putin declined to retaliate in December for Obama's response  which also included expelling 35 Russian diplomats the U.S. said were really spies  frustration has mounted in Moscow amid disappointment that Trump has not reversed those actions. Senior Russian officials have said in recent days that without a resolution soon, Moscow will have to retaliate, possibly by expelling American diplomats and moving against U.S. properties in Russia.

At the same time, pressure has been mounting on the Trump administration not to return the two compounds at least until investigations into the role Russia played in the 2016 election are completed.
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WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans all but admitted defeat Tuesday in their seven-year quest to overturn the Affordable Care Act, acknowledging that they lacked the votes to make good on their vow to "repeal and replace" President Barack Obama's signature legislative accomplishment.

Hours after GOP leaders abandoned a bill to overhaul the law known as Obamacare, their fallback plan - a proposal to repeal major parts of the law without replacing them - quickly collapsed. A trio of moderate Republicans quashed the idea, saying it would irresponsibly snatch insurance coverage from millions of Americans.

"I did not come to Washington to hurt people," tweeted Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who joined Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, in opposing immediate repeal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., who spent weeks trying to knit together his fractious caucus in support of the original GOP legislation, said he would nonetheless schedule a vote "early next week" on the repeal plan. But he appeared to acknowledge that it seemed doomed.

"This has been a very, very challenging experience for all of us," McConnell told reporters. "It's pretty obvious that we don't have 50 members who can agree on a replacement."

The collapse of the effort marks a devastating political defeat for congressional Republicans and for President Trump, who had pledged to roll back the Affordable Care Act on "Day One" of his presidency.

It also leaves millions of consumers who receive health insurance through the law in a kind of administrative limbo, wondering how their care will be affected now that the program is in the hands of government officials who have rooted openly for its demise.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the White House's Roosevelt Room that he now plans to "let Obamacare fail. It will be a lot easier." That way, he said, his party would bear no political responsibility for the system's collapse.

"We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it," the president said. "I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us" to fix it.

But Trump's comments appeared to ignore the many Republican lawmakers who are anxious about depriving their constituents of federal benefits on which they now rely. The president invited all 52 Republican senators to join him for lunch Wednesday at the White House to try to get the repeal effort back on track.

Senate leaders have been struggling to devise a plan to overhaul Obamacare since the House passed its version of the legislation in May, a flawed bill that some House members openly invited the Senate to fix. With just 52 seats, McConnell could afford to lose the support of only two members of his caucus - and even then would rely on Vice President Pence to break the tie.

The measure he produced would have scaled back key federal insurance regulations and slashed Medicaid deeply over time. But it did not go far enough for many conservative Republicans, who wanted to roll back more of the ACA's mandates on insurers.

And the bill went much too far for many moderates, especially Republicans from states that had taken advantage of the ACA's offer to expand Medicaid eligibility. The bill would have cut Medicaid funding and phased out its expansion in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Some senators worried that their states would be saddled with the unpalatable choice of cutting off people's health coverage or shouldering a massive new financial burden.

"This is the Senate. Leadership sets the agenda, but senators vote in the interests of their states," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offered a blunt assessment of why the effort fell short: "We are so evenly divided, and we've got to have every Republican to make things work, and we didn't have every Republican," he said.

Two Republicans - Collins, a moderate, and conservative Sen. Rand Paul, Ky. - declared late last week that they could not support the latest version of the bill. Late Monday night, as six of their colleagues talked health-care strategy with Trump over dinner at the White House, conservative Sens. Mike Lee, Utah, and Jerry Moran, Kan., announced that they, too, would oppose the bill, and the measure was dead.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, whose job is to count votes, said he had "no idea" Lee was defecting until he left the White House meeting - though he had gotten a heads up from Moran.

Key Republicans held out hope that the effort could be revived. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday that he "would like to see the Senate move on something" to keep the repeal-and-replace process alive.

Pence, speaking at the National Retail Federation's annual Retail Advocates Summit, lent his support to the repeal plan, challenging Congress to "step up" and repeal the current law so lawmakers could "work on a new health-care plan that will start with a clean slate."

Republicans last voted on repeal in 2015. Every current GOP senator who was then in the Senate voted for it, except Collins. But it was a meaningless protest vote; Obama was president, and he quickly vetoed it. With Trump in the White House, a vote to repeal the law without replacing it could have far-reaching consequences.

Abolishing Obamacare's central pillars - such as the mandate that taxpayers buy coverage; federal subsidies for many consumers' premiums; and Medicaid coverage for roughly 11 million Americans - without replacing them could wreak havoc in the insurance market. In January, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that premiums in the individual insurance market would rise by as much as 25 percent next year and would roughly double by 2026.

The CBO said repeal would cause the number of uninsured people to rise by 18 million next year and by 32 million by 2026.

"For insurers, the worst possible outcome in this debate has always been a partial repeal with no replacement, which is exactly what Congress is about to take up," Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote in an email. "Insurance companies would be on the hook for covering people with preexisting conditions, but with no individual mandate or premium subsidies to get healthy people to sign up as well."

With the repeal effort foundering, White House officials seem to lack a clear road map for managing the law. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who chairs the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Health and Human Services Department, said Tuesday, "I'm not sure what's going on right now."

HHS Secretary Tom Price issued a news release Tuesday saying, "The status quo is not acceptable or sustainable." But he offered no clues to what his agency plans to do in the coming weeks as insurers finalize rates for 2018 and decide whether to participate next year in the federal insurance marketplaces.

"We will work tirelessly to get Washington out of the way, bring down the cost of coverage, expand healthcare choices, and strengthen the safety net for future generations," Price said.

Several lawmakers and governors, meanwhile, said they would begin pushing for a bipartisan fix to shore up the ACA. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said in a statement that his panel would hold hearings to explore "how to stabilize the individual market" under the existing law.

A bipartisan group of 11 governors - including Republicans Charlie Baker, Mass., Larry Hogan, Md., John Kasich, Ohio, Brian Sandoval, Nev., and Phil Scott, Vt. - said they "stand ready to work with lawmakers in an open, bipartisan way to provide better insurance for all Americans."

Asked if he would be willing to work with Democrats, McConnell said that "we'll have to see what happens" with next week's vote.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., renewed their calls for Republicans to work with Democrats.

"It should be crystal clear to everyone on the other side of the aisle that the core of the bill is unworkable," Schumer said. "The door to bipartisanship is open now. Republicans only need to walk through it."

As Schumer spoke on the Senate floor, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., one of the few in the chamber who has tried to be a bipartisan broker on health care, was placing calls to fellow senators who, like him, are former governors - a total of 11 senators including Alexander, John Hoeven, R-N.D., Mike Rounds , R-S.D., Angus King, I-Maine, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Margaret Wood Hassan, D-N.H.

Aides said Manchin was presenting nothing specific yet to his colleagues, just a plea to "sit down and start bipartisan talking."

While the path forward remained uncertain, consumers and health industry players continued to reach out to lawmakers. On Monday, two members of the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network journeyed from West Virginia, and one of them spoke with a Capito aide about an 18-month-old girl who had developed cancer while her mother was working part-time at a bank. After the woman lost her job, both she and the little girl went on Medicaid, allowing the child to receive treatment.

"A lot of times people assume anyone on Medicaid is too lazy to work," the child's grandmother Lora Wilkerson told the aide, handing her a photo of the girl - bald, with a teddy bear in her arms.

"Can you please ask Ms. Capito to look at this picture when she casts her vote?" Wilkerson said.

The aide, according to Capito's spokeswoman, made sure the senator saw it.

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The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis and Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.

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Video: The Senate Republicans' health-care bill was dealt a fatal blow on July 17, when two more senators came out against it. Now President Trump is suggesting to repeal Obamacare, let the insurance market fail and then come up with "a great healthcare plan." (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

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WASHINGTON - The Trump administration certified to Congress late Monday that Iran has continued to meet the required conditions of its nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers.

But senior administration officials made clear that the certification was grudging, and said that Trump intended to impose a new round of sanctions against Iran for ongoing "malign activities" in non-nuclear areas such as ballistic missile development and support for terrorism.

"We judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent" of the agreement as a force for international stability, one official said. Iran is "unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA," or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that went into effect in Janary 2016 after years of negotiations, the official said.

International monitors, and other signatories of the agreement, have said that Iran is meeting its terms, giving the administration little room for maneuver in providing the assessment required by Congress every 90 days.

The last certification of Iranian compliance, in April, was also followed by a new round of sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies the administration said played a role in ballistic missile tests that are not covered by the nuclear agreement.

"We do expect to be implementing new sanctions" related to missiles and Iran's "fast boat program," the official said, but declined to specify what the measures would be. The administration has charged Iran with using military patrol boats to impede free navigation in the Persian Gulf.

Three senior administration officials briefed reporters on the certification on conditions of anononymity imposed by the White House.

Earlier in the day, Trump's national security adviser, Gen. H.R. McMaster, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previewed the sanctions in a closed-door meeting with representatives of Washington-based think tanks to which reporters were not invited.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran, which denied it was developing nuclear weapons, agreed to sharply limit the number and capability of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, give up nearly all of its previously enriched stock, and submit to intrusive verification measures in exchange for an end to U.S. and international sanctions related to the program.

Trump has called the deal fatally flawed, and said he would either renegotiate it or kill it.

In making the certification, an official said, "the secretary of state and the president intend to emphasize that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability, and to highlight the range of malign actities." They include "atrocities by the Assad regime" that Iran supports in Syria, "continuing hostility to Israel" and other actions, as well as its missile program and terrorist support.

Other signatories to the nuclear deal - Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union - have indicated that they believe it is working.

An administration review of the JCPOA is expected to be finished before the next certification is due in October. In the meantime, officials said, they will work with allies to come to a common agreement on its flaws.
WASHINGTON - For Mitch McConnell, Monday night was as embarrassing a blow as they come for a Senate majority leader. Two more Republican senators came out against his bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, effectively dooming the latest version. That forced the Kentucky Republican to confront a difficult question with no good options: What now?

The answer he came up with and then articulated in a 90-word written statement was essentially a dare.

McConnell practically challenged conservative critics of the bill to vote against moving the process ahead. How? By publicly dangling in front of them what they have said they wanted if the current effort falls apart: a so-called clean repeal of the law known as Obamacare, with a two-year delay to come up with a replacement.

But there is a catch: to get that vote, they will now have vote to proceed to consideration of the House-passed repeal and replace bill, which Senate GOP leaders have been trying to reconcile with their own version (through an arcane procedural tactic known appropriately as budget reconciliation).

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

If hard-right conservative senators vote no on proceeding with the bill and it collapses, McConnell can come back at them and say, "Well, you had your chance at the 'clean repeal' you demanded. And you decided not to take it." He will have shifted some of the blame onto others and given himself a new talking point to counter the "clean repeal" crowd - which includes President Trump.

If they vote yes - hey, they're suddenly back on track, at the table debating legislation with at least some chance of passing.

But don't count on the latter scenario ever happening. Why?

Because even if the Senate got to a clean repeal vote, it wouldn't likely have the votes to pass. So why would the conservatives go out on a limb for something that isn't expected to actually become law?

Sure, it passed back in 2015. But the stakes were lower back then. Barack Obama was president and he wasn't ever going to sign a bill that undid his signature law. So Republicans were free to vote for it with little on the line.

Now, there's a lot on the line - which is why moderate Republicans have openly worried the current Senate bill goes too far in attacking Obamacare. How are they supposed to support a more aggressive repeal?

What's less clear at this point is McConnell's longer game. If this doesn't work out, will he move on to other matters? Follow through on his threats to work with Democrats and narrower reforms, which were seen as ways to try to pressure conservatives not to let this fail? We'll find out soon.

There are no longer any good outcomes for McConnell - politically speaking. There are bad ones and less bad ones. And putting the onus on other senators means there will be more blame to go around when this all ends.
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The American Red Cross issued a call for volunteers in San Antonio to install smoke alarms and educate the public on fire safety at an outreach event this fall.

The local goal of the nationwide Sound The Alarm event, set for Oct.14, is to install 1,000 smoke alarms in homes that dont already have them, said Henry Van De Putte III, the executive director of the local Red Cross chapter. In a video posted on Facebook, he said the Red Cross wants to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from home fires, which make up the bulk of the disasters the chapter responds to.

Nationwide, the goal is 100,000 new smoke alarms this year, which would bring the total to 1 million installed since the Red Cross began the program.

Our biggest disaster in the area is specifically home fires, Van De Putte said. We need help. This is a community-wide effort. We really want to reduce home fires and home fire deaths by 25 percent..

He said the local chapter is in dire need of Spanish speaking volunteers.

We work with the San Antonio Fire Department, said Tracy Beach, the chapters disaster program manager. They put together a map for us with structural and home fires which, combined with Red Cross response records, point to neighborhoods where more than 8,000 homes might need smoke alarms.

On the day of the event, teams of volunteers  one to install, another to educate and a third to document which homes had alarms tested, replaced or installed  will go door-to-door. Installers need to be comfortable with a ladder and drill and must be over 18. Even for households that already have alarms, the educator can talk to people about escape plans and what to do in case of a fire.

All you have to do to become an everyday hero is to join this movement, Van De Putte said. We want to make our community more resilient  we want to make it safer.

Registration can be done online at redcross.org/soundthealarmsa or by phone at 210-224-5151.

The Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters, holds blood drives and teaches the public life-saving skills.

jpolcyn@express-news.net
AUSTIN  Attorney General Ken Paxton raked in more than $1 million during the first half of the year, bringing the indicted Republican's political war chest to more $5.2 million, according to state records.

Details of Paxton's political fundraising, filed Monday with the Texas Ethics Commission, shows that the attorney general who is facing felony charges of securities fraud still enjoys political and financial support from big donors as he nears his trial and his first reelection bid as the state's top lawyer.

"Even prior to his public service, he was a GOP activist working in the political trenches at the local level," said Matt Welch, Paxton's campaign spokesman. "The fact that more people are supporting Attorney General Paxton's campaign to a greater extent than before is a testament to his track record of success and outstanding leadership on issues important to all Texans."

Most of Paxton's support comes from big donors who cut five-figure checks to his campaign. Eighty-five percent of his take this year came from contributions of at least $10,000, and nearly all came from within the state.

The bulk of his contributions in the six-month reporting period spanning January through June came from corporate CEOs and presidents, including those from oil and gas companies and investment firms.

More than half of the $1,056,356 collection was made in checks for more than $20,000. Paxton's largest contribution came from the Republican Attorney General Association, which gave him $100,000.

The largest check from an individual came from Dan Wilks, who gave $51,000. Wilks' brother, Farris, nearly matched the contribution with a $50,000 check.

The two West Texas fracking billionaires are listed as CEOs of Wilks Brothers LLC and spent at least $15 million to support Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential bid. The Wilks family has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Texas tea party groups and conservative causes, including those pushing efforts to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate Republican from San Antonio.

Paxton received a third $50,000 check from Kenny Troutt, chairman and CEO of Mount Vernon Investments, headquartered in Dallas. The former director of Excel Telecommunications Inc., Troutt's net worth is valued at $1.41 billion, according to Forbes.

They attorney general also received a $25,000 check from James Webb of Frisco, CEO of Preferred Imaging. Paxton has received contributions in the past from Webb, although Webb's company was under investigation by the attorney general's office for Medicaid fraud. Paxton's office and the U.S. Justice Department signed off on a $3.5 million settlement on a whistleblower lawsuit against the company. Paxton's spokesman said at the time the attorney general was not involved in the case.

While the campaign finance reporting period spans from January to June, office holders are barred from fundraising directly before, after and during a legislative session. That left 12 days for Paxton to accept donations, during which he collected more than $1 million.

In the first six months of the year, Paxton spent $298,249 from his campaign account. His total cash on hand totals $5,270,565, although no one has announced plans to run against him in the primary or general election.

Paxton, a tea party Republican from Collin County, has spent much of his tenure in the attorney general's office fighting allegations he committed securities fraud by failing to tell friends and colleagues he would make a commission off their investment in Servergy, a North Texas tech company. He is also charged with failing to register with the state as an investment adviser. He faces two first-degree felony charges and one lesser, third-degree charge.

He maintains his innocence and contends he is the victim of a political witch hunt. A federal judge this year tossed similar charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He raised nearly $218,000 in 2016 in gifts from friends and relatives to support his legal defense fund.

Paxton, who faces 99 years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines if found guilty, is due in Houston for a criminal court hearing July 27.
Long overdue: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will soon join the highest courts in 29 other states that allow viewing of oral arguments online.

The Texas Supreme Court has made oral arguments available online for 10 years, ever since cameras were installed in that courtroom at the urging of former Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson of San Antonio.

It took legislation by state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, to get the cameras authorized in the states highest criminal appeals court. It provides $346,000 to buy the equipment and operate the video system.

Video of appellate court arguments are not going to win any viewer rating contests. But there is a select audience that will benefit. Court proceedings online spares interested parties the time and expense of traveling to Austin to watch them in person. It can also be a great benefit for legal scholars, law students and those interested in the justice system.

Much of the opposition against cameras in the courtroom has focused on the unwanted theatrics that the cameras might prompt. There are no reports that has been a problem before the Texas Supreme Court. The judges are ultimately in control of their courtroom, and they can admonish those who get out of line.

All courts proceedings, at the state and federal level, should be accessible for viewing online.

Attempts to open the proceedings of the countrys highest court have not gained much traction in the past, but earlier this year U.S. Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Ted Poe, R-Texas, reintroduced the Cameras in the Court Act, which would allow the broadcast of open proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court can only accommodate 50 members of the public when arguments are presented. Every citizen should have front-row access, via video, to the most important cases presented to the highest court in the land.

Opening up the judicial branch of government, at all levels, to public viewing is good public policy.
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Local News, Crime, Business & Finance, Health & Wellness, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 18 2017

VNS Choice Improperly Billed Medicaid, Agrees To Pay $4.4 Million To Settle Reverse False Claims Act Allegations In Whistleblower Case.

New York, NY - July 18, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Acting United States Attorney Joon H. Kim today announced that Visiting Nurse Service of New York and its Managed Long-Term Care Plan, VNS Choice, will pay a total of $4,392,150.00 to resolve allegations that the plan improperly obtained public funds and knowingly retained over $1.6 million in Medicaid overpayments. Under the settlement, the service provider admitted that between January 1, 2011 and March 31, 2015 it failed to identify and disenroll 365 VNS Choice members in a timely manner and consequently continued receiving payment for care it did not provide. Once VNS disenrolled the members, it did not repay Medicaid for the funds it had improperly received. By knowingly retaining overpayments for many of these members for more than 60 days, the entities involvedVisiting Nurse Service of New York, VNS Choice, and VNS Choice Community Care (collectively, VNS)violated both the federal and state false claim acts. As a result, New York State will receive $2.63 million as part of the settlement agreement.

Blatantly retaining and failing to repay Medicaid overpayments undermines the system on which so many vulnerable New Yorkers rely, said Attorney General Schneiderman. The law makes clear that overpayments must be repaid in a timely manner  and well hold providers to the law.

Pursuant to Medicaid regulations, Managed Long Term Care plans (MLTCs), like VNS Choice, receive monthly capitation payments for each member enrolled in the MLTC plan, in exchange for arranging and providing certain community-based long-term care services, such as care management, skilled nursing services, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and preventive services for the member. From January 2011 to March 2015, VNS received monthly capitation payments between $3,800-4,200 from Medicaid for providing services to MLTC members.

However, VNSs contract with the State required it to disenroll MLTC members under certain circumstancesincluding when a member no longer resides in the service area, has been absent from the service area for a specified number of consecutive days, is hospitalized for 45 consecutive days or longer, or is no longer eligible for the MLTC plan.

The settlements, unsealed today in federal court, resolve allegations that although VNS ultimately  albeit belatedly  disenrolled the 365 members, it never reimbursed Medicaid for the monthly capitation payments improperly received for these members. During the period in question, VNS was aware that many of the members should have been disenrolled earlier and that it was not entitled to the recent capitation payments. However, despite this knowledge, VNS kept the Medicaid capitation payments for the members who should have been disenrolled, often as many as four and five months earlier.

Todays settlement is the second reached with VNS regarding its MLTC plan, VNS Choice. In November 2014, the court unsealed settlement agreements by the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorneys Office with VNS for nearly $35 million to settle allegations relating to the improper use of social adult day care centers to enroll members in VNS Choice.

This investigation was initiated after a whistleblower filed a lawsuit under the qui tam provisions of the federal and New York False Claims Acts, which allow private persons, known as relators, to file civil actions on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. The relator in this case will receive from the State a share of the settlement proceeds after full payment by the defendants.

The investigation and settlement were the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, and the New York State Attorney Generals Office. Attorney General Schneiderman would like to the Office of the New York State Medicaid Inspector General for its assistance in the matter.

The case is captioned United States and the State of New York, ex rel. David Heisler v. VNS Choice, VNS Choice Community Care, and Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and is docketed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under Civil Action No. 13 Civ. 4261 (Abrams, J.).
China has reassured the rest of the world about its commitment to opening up in its latest move to attract foreign investment.

China should improve its investment and market environment, accelerate opening up to the outside world and lower operating costs, President Xi Jinping said Monday.

The country should "create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment, and speed up efforts to build an open economy in a bid to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese economy," Xi said at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland was basically stable in the first half of 2017, as the government continued to open up the market and seek a fair and transparent environment.

In the six months, FDI inflow edged down 0.1 percent year on year to 441.5 billion yuan (about 65 billion U.S. dollars), but the decline narrowed from that in the first five months, as foreign investment in June rose 2.3 percent to 100 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The number of new foreign-funded companies rose 12.3 percent to 15,053 in the first half, with 2,894 new foreign companies set up last month, according to the MOC.

Foreign investment has played a significant role in China's economic development, promoting reasonable allocation of resources and driving market-oriented reform, Xi said.

The manufacturing sector attracted 128.6 billion yuan of foreign investment, up 3 percent year on year, accounting for 29.1 percent of total FDI, while FDI in the service sector reached 309.99 billion yuan, making up 70.2 percent of the total.

China should continue to make good use of foreign investment to advance supply-side structural reform, upgrade the economy, and catch up with global technology development, Xi said.

The influx of foreign investment into high-end sectors continued in the January-June period, with high-tech manufacturing seeing FDI rise 11.1 percent to 34.97 billion yuan, while foreign investment in high-tech services rose 20.4 percent to 64.72 billion yuan.

The 2017 China Business Report unveiled last week by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said that 77 percent of U.S. companies in China remained profitable last year, up 6 percentage points from 2015, and 73.5 percent reported revenue growth, up 12 percentage points from 2015.

The report also pointed out that the surveyed firms still have concerns about transparency of China's regulatory environment, and lack of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement. They also face operational challenges including high costs and domestic competition.

Laws, rules, and policies out of tune with the overall direction and principle of opening up should be abolished or revised within a time limit, and national treatment in laws and policies should be granted to foreign-funded companies after they enter the market, the president said.

He stressed the importance of protecting IPR, calling on authorities to better laws and regulations, improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property examinations, and speed up institutional improvement for IPR protection related to emerging sectors and new business types.

Foreign firms should be able to invest more sectors in China. Last month, the government announced that it will use a "negative list" management approach for all foreign investment, open up more sectors and further relax restrictions for foreign businesses.

Starting on July 28, China will also implement a revised foreign investment catalogue, which includes the negative list as well as sectors and industries that the government wants to encourage foreign companies to invest in.

The catalogue shortens the list of sectors that are completely off-limits for foreign investment from 36 to 28.

Strong economic performance makes China an ideal destination for foreign investors. The economy expanded steadily by 6.9 percent in the first half of this year, well above the government's target for the year of 6.5 percent, official data showed Monday.
Local News, Crime, Business & Finance

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 18 2017

New York is First State in the Nation with Employer Pledge.

Albany, NY - July 18, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the official launch of the Work for Success Pledge, an online pledge in which businesses commit to consider hiring qualified individuals with criminal convictions. New York is the first state in the nation to develop such a pledge. More than 80 companies who do business in New York, including Fresh Direct, the Target Corporation, Staples, and VICE Media, have already signed on to the Pledge. Other employers are encouraged to sign on at this Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the official launch of the Work for Success Pledge, an online pledge in which businesses commit to consider hiring qualified individuals with criminal convictions. New York is the first state in the nation to develop such a pledge. More than 80 companies who do business in New York, including Fresh Direct, the Target Corporation, Staples, and VICE Media, have already signed on to the Pledge. Other employers are encouraged to sign on at this link

"Providing job training and opportunities to New Yorkers with criminal histories is proven to help break the vicious cycle of recidivism and increase public safety," Governor Cuomo said. "The Work for Success Pledge will help provide a chance for these individuals to reenter society and build stronger communities. I thank these businesses for signing up for this critically important program and I urge others to join them."?

Lieutenant Governor Hochul said, "When we write off segments of our population because of a single set of circumstances or mistakes made in their past, we deny society of their contributions, and they are denied a chance at a better life. Governor Cuomo's Work for Success Pledge helps bring formally incarcerated individuals into the mainstream, economically and socially, while helping connect employers to a qualified workforce. Let's remember Jesse Hawley, the man who crafted the original blueprint of the Erie Canal, had a criminal record - and without him, one of the greatest public works of all time may not have been created."

The Work for Success Employer Pledge was launched at an event held today at VICE Media in Brooklyn. The event featured Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Secretary of State Rossana Rosado, and Alphonso David, Counsel to the Governor, as well as representatives from Action Environmental, Ben & Jerry's, ConBody, and VICE Media, and Chris Watler, Executive Director for Center for Employment Opportunities New York, who discussed the benefits of hiring formerly incarcerated individuals.

The Pledge provides an opportunity for companies to publicly showcase their company's practice of considering people with criminal convictions for employment. The Pledge does not require employers to hire any particular individual or numbers of individuals but to conduct, as necessary, individualized assessments of whether a conviction affects a person's suitability for the job. A complete list of the signatory companies can be found here

The Governor also announced that over 18,000 formerly incarcerated people have been hired through New York's Work for Success program . The program, launched in February 2012, connects individuals with criminal convictions with jobs through the New York State Department of Labor's job bank, at no cost to the listing businesses or the individual job-seeker. To date, over 14,000 businesses have hired qualified employees through the program, giving those businesses the talent they need to run their businesses and stay competitive, and giving employees a much-needed way to support themselves and their families, benefitting all New Yorkers. Companies signing the Work for Success Employer Pledge also agree to list suitable jobs with the Work for Success program.

The event was hosted by VICE Media, a signee of the Pledge, due to the success of the VICE Apprenticeship Program, which hires and trains formerly incarcerated people for production, editorial and creative jobs at the company. The VICE Apprenticeship is born out of VICE's longtime activism and support for formerly incarcerated people, which includes Fixing the System, an hour long documentary that gave viewers an in-depth look at America's broken criminal justice system, featuring President Obama's historic visit with inmates at the El Reno prison in Oklahoma.

Nearly 1 in 3 American adults have a criminal record, and there are 2.3 million individuals with a prior New York State criminal conviction. Currently, only 47% of people able to work on NYS parole are employed. While New York State law requires companies to consider hiring people with criminal convictions, many of these individuals, meet resistance and discrimination when trying to reenter the workforce -- one study found that, in New York City, a criminal record reduced the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50 percent. Governor Cuomo launched the Work for Success Pledge to encourage companies to hire those with previous criminal convictions and enable their smooth reentry after leaving prison. New research on military recruits suggests that recruits with felony convictions have higher promotion rates than their colleagues without such records and that their disciplinary records are no worse than that of their non-convicted peers.

New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta L. Reardon said, "Work for Success is continuing to bolster New York's workforce with qualified and motivated employees from across the State. With vital engagement from businesses in the private sector, we are continuing to create opportunities for individuals and their families to take part in a competitive job market. This is a win/win for businesses and the state, and we are safer and more economically robust because of this program."

Secretary of State Rossana Rosado said, "I commend Governor Cuomo and all the businesses that have signed this pledge, which will help to ensure an easier re-entry to those who have worked so hard to turn their lives around. The 'Work for Success Pledge' will provide significant employment opportunities for candidates with felony records."

Rachel Love, Director of Human Resources for VICE Media, said, "The Work for Success Pledge is going to drastically increase the hiring of people with criminal records in New York State, and I don't just commend Governor Cuomo and his team, I also call upon other elected officials to create similar initiatives. Of the many issues we have taken on at VICE, I think the one for which we can be most proud is the VICE Apprenticeship Program, which hires and trains formerly incarcerated people for production and creative jobs at our company. The goal is not just to provide these people with an opportunity to work with some of the brightest writers, editors and producers, but also with the skills they need to hold quality jobs for life. It has been incredibly rewarding to help make a difference for these people, and to provide them with an opportunity upon their release from prison."

Ron Bergamini, CEO of Action Environmental Group, said, "This is important topic and a discussion such as this will dispel many false assumptions. We have hired many decent hard working folks who simple want to make an honest living. Our partnership with CEO group has inspired us from the beginning and continue to do so."

Regis Mulot, Chief Human Resources Officer, Staples, Inc., said, "We applaud New York State for publicizing the importance of hiring people with criminal backgrounds. With one-third of the U.S. population holding some type of conviction, businesses are hurting themselves by not considering this massive talent-rich pool, not to mention hurting those individuals who are trying to start anew. Giving people a second chance is good ethics, and hiring hard-working and loyal employees is good business." Regis Mulot, Staples Inc., EVP and Chief HR Officer
There should be no statute of limitations on terrorism cases. Thats why the murder of 85 Argentines who were at the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) when it was bombed 23 years ago today should serve as a sobering reminder that even with the passage of time, those responsible must be held to account.

But once again, Iran is seeking to absolve itself of responsibility for its role in the deadliest attack on Argentine soil.

Five Interpol red notices, which call for international cooperation to arrest and extradite the suspects for aggravated homicide in connection with the bombing of the AMIA, are in force against Iranian suspects in the bombing. At the time of the bombing, Mohsen Rezai was commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohsen Rabbani was Irans Cultural Attache in Buenos Aires, Ahmad Vahidi was Irans Defense Minister, Amhad Asghari was third secretary in Irans Embassy in Argentina and Ali Fallahian, was Irans Minister of Intelligence.

Last week, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is ready to work with Interpol to resolve a dispute over the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. That is analogous to the arsonist volunteering to work with the police to find the source of the fire.

Todays AMIA leadership understands Irans move for what it is: yet another Iranian maneuver aimed at lifting the red notices from those who have been wanted by Interpol since 2007.

A statement from the AMIA rejects any negotiation with Iran: The only formal cooperation [with Iran] that Argentina can accept is the appearance of those wanted by Interpol, and of the rest of the accused, before the [Argentine] judiciary. AMIA president Agustin Zbar said the Iranian government has protected the accused, and denied the evidence put forth which links the red notice holders to the terrorist attack.

Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor for the case from 2004 through Jan. 2015  when he was found dead in his apartment the day before he was to present to Argentinas Congress his findings of a plan to cover up Irans role in the bombing  had provided Interpol with evidence of the Iranians roles in the attack.

In addition to links of the five red notice holders to the AMIA bombing, several have been linked to other terrorist attacks.

Germany maintains an international arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian in connection with the 1992 murder of four Kurdish opposition leaders at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. Following a trial which implicated Irans former minister of intelligence in the attack, 15 European countries (plus Australia and New Zealand) temporarily cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran.

According to US court documents, Mohsen Rabbani was a key contact for the men who plotted to bomb fuel lines at New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2007. Had it not been foiled, the attack might have been deadlier than 9/11. The culprits, convicted of the plot, are serving life sentences in American jails. Rabbani continues his nefarious activities aimed at exporting Irans revolution throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Araghchis statement was not the only effort made by the Islamic Republic to free itself of culpability in the 1994 bombing.

In 2013, Iran and Argentinas then-Cristina Kirchner government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly investigate the bombing. It was widely regarded as a scheme to whitewash the role of the red notice holders and accuse imaginary suspects, reportedly in exchange for favorable trade terms and perhaps other incentives. An Argentine court found the MOU to be unconstitutional. The Kirchner government filed an appeal but the new Argentine government, headed by President Mauricio Macri since 2015, withdrew Kirchners appeal, effectively voiding implementation of the MOU. Its noteworthy that Iran reportedly did not ratify the MOU.

In 2013, Interpol added a mitigating caveat onto the red notices after Kirchners foreign minister Hector Timerman and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, sent a letter to Interpol stating that the two countries would jointly investigate the charges in order to resolve the matter diplomatically. This was required by the MOU and was sent before the MOU was judged unconstitutional. No joint investigation has ever taken place.

While Interpol could not remove it at that time, the caveat  sent to airports worldwide  in effect relaxed the red notices, making it easier for the suspects to travel internationally.

When the scheme became known to the Macri government earlier this year, it protested to Interpol, but the international police organization refused to remove the caveat.

The Macri government has called on Interpol to maintain the red notices. As recently as May, Federal Judge Canicoba Corral officially requested they be renewed when they are up for review.

Interpol reviews red notices every 10 years and the AMIA red notices are up for review in Sept. 2017 at Interpols annual meeting in Beijing. Those concerned not only about long-awaited justice in Argentina but also about Irans malign behavior in their own backyards, should insist that Interpol not yield to Irans pressure to remove the AMIA red notices. They should ensure that these notices are renewed and strictly enforced  with no mitigating caveats  lest Iran not be held to account for its role in the murder of the 85 victims of the AMIA bombing and feel free to mount similar future attacks with impunity.

Toby Dershowitz is Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Strategy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Gardner Lange is her research assistant.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Death toll from flooding and mudslides in Fukuoka and Oita prefectures has risen to 34, while seven people were still missing following the torrential rain that began to pummel southwestern Japan on July 5.

Two more bodies discovered in the Ariake Sea, tens of kilometers from the disaster-hit areas, were identified on Monday as victims of the torrential rain who had been washed downstream from Asakura in Fukuoka prefecture, bringing the total death toll to 34.

Meanwhile, search and rescue operations continued on Monday, with a total of some 2,700 members from Japan's Self-Defense Force (SDF) and firefighters deployed, while 9,000 volunteers worked in the disaster-hit area to clear mud and damaged furniture from houses.

The search and rescue operations as well as the voluntary work were suspended on Monday afternoon, as some 16,000 residents in the city of Asakura and the village of Toho, both in Fukuoka Prefecture, were advised to evacuate due to possible heavy rain.

The evacuation orders were lifted some time after 5:00 p.m. local time, but the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that heavy rain might still occur in Fukuoka prefecture on Tuesday.

The disaster-hit areas also suffered from high temperature on Monday, with the highest temperature hitting 34.8 Celsius degree and 36.2 Celsius degree, respectively, in Asakura and in Hita, two of the hardest hit areas, according to the weather agency.
The Macalope is all for job mobility, he just wishes it would stop being used as a cudgel against Apple any time some former employee says something about the company.

Former Apple Executive Says Company Stalling in Design Innovations Following Death of Steve Jobs. (Tip o the antlers to Chris Adamson.)

Former Apple and Samsung executive. Might be relevant information.

A recent report by The Wall Street Journal has taken a look into the smartphone design war happening between Apple and Samsung, suggesting that the latter company has begun edging out the former with the design of the Galaxy S8.

Oh, for sure. If you have any doubts that Samsung is super-duper and number one at the whole design thing, just check out this series of tweets from The Verges Dan Seifert in which he tries out the Samsung S8s ability to unlock a Windows PC and goes from Wow! This is great! to nvm this is crap in about 35 minutes.

If that doesnt convince you, then maybe the fact that Samsung installs crapware like Peel Remote on some of its phones by default.

Clicking the advertisement unlocked my phone without pin, a major security breach. Now my phone sometimes doesnt request pin to unlock.

This is design. Its crap design, design that cedes your experience (and data) to some third party that paid Samsung to get on their phones, but its design nonetheless.

Also, wasnt there something else related to how their phones were designed that Samsung screwed up recently? What was that?



Huh. Just not coming to the Macalope. And a web search of news reports about it turns up nothing. Oh, well.

It couldnt have been a big deal, anyway, since everyone seems so eager to shove it down the memory hole like a rabid beaver trying home invasion via the loo.

Even if you thought Samsungs phones look nicer, hardware alone doesnt determine design. You cant lay one companys phone down against anothers and, without unlocking them, decided which is better designed. Thats not how design works. Thats not how things work. Its not even how soup works.

Also, surprise, Apple makes more than just smartphones. AirPods may look a little odd in your ears, but the user experience is terrific. And the attention to detail in the design of the HomePod appears to be pretty nice as well.

And whats the purported solution to Samsungs fictional design lead? Cramming in features.

For Apple to outdo Samsung on design, analysts said, it would need a new distinguishing feature, like a fingerprint sensor beneath the display rather than a physical home button.

Adding features does nothing if it doesnt make the user experience better. Apple has shown it understands this. Samsung and analysts have shown they dont.
New Delhi : An angry BSP supremo Mayawati today said she will quit from the Rajya Sabha after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. "I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission. Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented

from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this."

I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.

Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion. A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion. Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff. He party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but

were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challeging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said. BSP members immediately rushed into the Well shouting Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (anti-dalit government will not be tolerated). Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission. PTI
Chinese mainstream media outlets on Tuesday denounced Pakistani medias groundless report, which claims that over 150 Indian soldiers were killed in Sikkim due to a Chinese rocket attack.

According to Dunya News, a 24-hours Urdu language news service in Pakistan, at least 158 Indian soldiers died and several others injured on Monday due to a Chinese rocket attack across the border.

The news was rejected by India. The Hindustan Times on Monday quoted Gopal Baglay, spokesperson for Indias Ministry of External Affairs, as saying that the reports are utterly baseless, malicious, and mischievous.

Meanwhile, Chinese media outlets have carried out a series of investigations, claiming that the fake news should not be taken seriously.

According to an investigative report released by the Peoples Daily on Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in India had noticed the report and has denounced its authenticity. Some Pakistani media outlets claim that the fake news is based on unverified information from social media and the Internet.

The Global Times also published a report on Tuesday, calling the Pakistani media report "groundless and fake."

Chinese authorities have yet to responded to the incident, while the fake news article is still posted on Dunya News website.
The real estate cycle lasts about 7-10 years. Dr. Bader Ibrahim Ibn Saedan, General Manager of Al Saedan Real Estate, discusses how they deal with the crises that occur in the real estate market. The family has been in the business for three generations. Al Saedan has survived a complete cycle and they know what to do to prepare for the crisis. More importantly, they have transferred that experience for the generations after to ensure continued success.

"Al Saedan family has been working in real estate for generations. Our company has faced the crises in the real estate market before and we know how to deal with any crisis, whether in the prices, the market, or political instability."

About Al Saedan

Al Saedan Real Estate is one of the leading real-estate companies in Saudi Arabia. The company has a strong expertise in master-plan developments, land development, building commercial and residential centers, selling and buying local and international real estates, providing consultation in real estates, and providing valuation and estimation services. Al Saedan is an international real estate company with projects in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.
Metal Ar Profile

About Metal Ar

Contact Metal Ar Address:

Av. Leoncio de Magalhaes, 722

Jardim Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo

BRAZIL Tel: +55 (11) 2212 5277 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Website: http://metalar.com.br/

Institutional Presentation

Locations

{tab Code of Ethics}

Metal Ar Code of Ethics

Our company is run in a professional manner, with responsibility, honesty, fairness and transparency in order to ensure perpetuity. We act according to the law, internal rules and procedures. We maintain the confidentiality of all the information regarding out clients, suppliers and employees, as physical and intellectual properties. We do not use such information as an advantage, personally or for third parties. If compelled to disclose it, by law or judicial decision, we will previously inform the interested party and we will restrict its disclosure to the minimum necessary to comply with such order. We are committed to environmental preservation.

We disapprove of attitudes that:

Involve payments or receipts of objects or undue values or characterized as bribery, corruption or similar, that are unacceptable and will be punished;

Involve the use of internal positions, functions or information to influence decisions and / or obtain any benefits, favors or advantages, personally or for third parties;

Practice or demonstrate any form of prejudice or discrimination based on race, color, origin, nationality, social class, sex, political choice, religious belief, age, physical disability or other special needs;

Intimidate, constrain as verbal, physical or psychological violence, as well as any form of harassment;

Explore slave and child labor, as well as any form of harm to human dignity.

Relationship with our Employees

Metal Ar recognizes the merit of each employee and provides opportunities for professional growth and development through procedures of Skills Management. Our priority is safety - as such we orient and require compliance with the Regulatory Standards and offer Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with Certificates, trainings and health - we maintain medical insurance for the employees, as well as for their dependents.

The company has formalized the following:

Compensation: Through Internal Procedures of Positions and Salaries. Seeks to recognize performance in the job for which the employee was hired. Aims to ensure the transparency and reliability of existing positions in the company, as well as its compatibility with the conditions of the salaries of the market.

Individual Development - Personal and Professional: We believe that the development of the company depends directly on the development of its employees, as such we are always valuing and encouraging this growth.

Program of Results Sharing and Continuous Improvement: Values and encourages entrepreneurship and personal responsibility to reach results.

Private Pensions: To ensure and complement the financial stability of our employees after retirement.

Metal Ar Association: Our goal is to assist in the educational and intellectual development and improvement of our employees' children. As such, the association maintains various projects such as: reading, IT, toy library, crafting, guitar, among others, and has a library and internet access. Metal Ar Association also has an agreement with the Scelisul Faculty (Cajati). Read more...
King Mohammed VI's Speech: Move Towards Constitutional Reform and Democracy



Morocco has been a loyal member of the Arab League. However, it has often attempted to serve as intermediary on peace issues



The Kings Speech

In a televised speech on March 9, 2011, the King announced that "We have decided to undertake a comprehensive constitutional reform."

The speech was hailed by people flowing into the streets to express their joy, praise for the king, and their loyalty to him.

According to the announcement, the constitution of Morocco will be revised for the first time in fifteen years in order to achieve "comprehensive constitutional reform" aimed at improving democracy and the rule of law.

By launching today the work of constitutional reform, we embark on a major phase in the process of consolidation of our model of democracy and development," the King added in his first national address since last month's protests across the nation.



The King announced that a committee has been set up to work on proposing constitutional revisions. These shall be completed by June, and the draft will then be submitted to a national referendum.

The main features of the reform plan so far indicated are to expand individual and collective rights, an independent judiciary, a stronger role for the legislature and political parties, and devolution of more powers down to local governments.

Dancing in the streets

The Kings speech was received by Moroccans literally with dancing in the streets. Most political parties affirmed that the King had heard their concerns. Foreign sources, particularly the French, expressed praise for the leadership of the king in meeting democratic desires of the people. Of course, all look forward to exactly what changes will be recommended in June.






by Gerard Al-Fil



Despite Western media relentlessly branding Saudi Arabia an archaic, backwards-oriented Islamic monarchy, the kingdom has done bold steps which aim to get its population back to work by diversifying its energy-oriented economy, empowering women to study work and by embracing the digital age like few other Arab countries.

A selfie made its round. On July 5th, a picture showing late Saudi King Abdullah posing with his grandson Prince Bander Bin Saud went viral when it was revealed that the young representative of the Saud family took the first ever selfie of the most powerful monarch in the Middle East.

King Abdallah Selfie

Much is discussed on CNN & Co. about Saudi Arabia as an absolute monarchy and its sometimes controversial role as a wealthy oil state which strictly separates genders in line with Islamic law (Shariah), but little is known about Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University. This higher school is the largest university for women, capable of hosting 52,000 female students. The university is the biggest sole educational institution for women in the world.

This higher school is the largest university for women, capable of hosting 52,000 female students. The university is the biggest sole educational institution for women in the world.

But few countries in the world are in this intense and permanent struggle to justify its politics and way of life like Saudi Arabia, the worlds only country with a family name in its state name.

The skewed judgment of the House of Saud has triggered stereotypes that are quickly connected with a general skeptical view of Islam and it has led many politicians in West and East to underestimated the oil-rich kingdoms political, financial and regional power. Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil producer globally and a member of the G20, OPEC and WTO.

Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University

Few people, however, have noticed that the kingdom has entered a phase of gradual change and there is no way back. Women in Riyadh and Jeddah can walk in public without wearing veil, the black robe Abaya is sufficient. KSA, as the biggest Gulf state by surface and population is also called (the abbreviation stands for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) number one in relation to easiness in setting up a business and no Gulf country launches more YouTube channels than the Kingdom.

When Marcopolis interviewed decision makers, it became clear that the Saudis are not ignorant of their internal and external challenges.

Whether it is the ban for women to drive a car or the chronic high jobless rate  the problems are known among executives and the man on the street alike.

Unemployment stands at 6 percent, says Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, the chairman of Zamil Group, one o of the biggest stock-listed family conglomerate in the kingdom. I am talking about the males. With the females, its a very special case. There are up to 25 percent that are unemployed.

In order to keep social unrest at bay, the government pledged to spend 500 billion dollars until 2020 into infrastructure, education and industrial diversification.

In order to keep social unrest at bay, the government pledged to spend 500 billion dollars until 2020 into infrastructure, education and industrial diversification.

Long road to reforms

Due to the kingdoms conservative foundation (Shariah is the basis for all laws, Islam is the official state religion), the pace of reform policy cant reach the speed like in Western countries. But unnoticed in the Western world, a silent rhythm of changes has started since the late king Abduallah took over in 2005 after the death of King Fahd who ruled since 1982. Following king Abdullah's death in 2015, king Salman became the new ruler of the kingdom. Upon his accession to the trone, he pledged to continue on the "straight path" indicating the reform vector for the kingdom.

Kingdom Tower, Riyadh

Late Saudi King Abdulla who held the official title the custodian of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina knows that the biggest Gulf country by population (over 29 million inhabitants, of which 9 million are foreigners) cannot be transformed into a diversified economy with jobs for everyone overnight.

Educated Saudis tell Westerners under four eyes that forbidding women to drive was of course backwards, but a huge share of the Saudi population which was stuck in the past had to be educated in order to avoid a cultural shock for the ultra-conservative society.

Others see chances in the challenges. Said Mohammed S. Alkhalil, the president of FAD Investment and Development: Saudi Arabian youth represents more than 60 percent of the population, which is a positive figure for future growth. He added that the government is spending a large amount, which further stimulates the economy. The economy is doing well overall and is very attractive for investors.

KSA is not only attractive because it builds complete new 4 economic cities like the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) at the Red Sea, with an estimated value of $69 billionwith the total investment worth USD 63 bn. The Saudis new appetite to exploit minerals in the Western region of the country has lured American Aluminum giant Alcoa to enter into a joint venture with Maaden (Arabic for metals), Saudi Arabias biggest stock-listed firm for the exploitation of minerals. The share price of Maaden doubled in the last four years.

KSA is not only attractive because it builds complete new 4 economic cities like the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) at the Red Sea, with an estimated value of $69 billion with the total investment worth USD 63 bn.

Travel and tourism is another sector KSA invests in, also a sign for increasing openness. Since 2005, the kingdom has been granting group tourism visa for citizens of many countries.

Saudi Arabia is now starting to encourage and support both the leisure and the business tourism by creating a private sector for tourism, with one big commission for tourism, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, says Abdullah Saad Al-Mogren, the general manager of the Riyad Palace Hotel. Westerners who travelled the country praise Saudi hospitality, the luxury lifestyle and its natural diversity, despite the absence of cinemas and theatres.
Economy and Politics in Jordan Today



1. The Royal Couple



All politics and economics in Jordan today are dominated by the popular and charismatic personalitiesand dynamic hands-on personal leadershipof Jordans ruling couple, King Abdullah II and his wife, Queen Rania. No aspect of the Jordanian economy can be appreciated without understanding their personal roles. 

Abdullah IIs Personal Role in Opening Jordan to International Markets

Upon Abdullah IIs accession to the throne in 1999, he enthusiastically took up King Husseins dream of opening Jordan to world trade.



In 2000, he achieved the first fruits of that policy with Jordans admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO); and by signing the first (among Arab nations) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.

This was followed up in 2001 with a partnership agreement with the EU, which ripened into advanced status in 2010, which means that Jordan is on tack to achieve full economic integration into the EU as early as 2011.



Abdullah II has also made FTAs and cooperation agreements the cornerstone of his dealings regionally.



As a result, Jordan has more free trade agreements than any other Arab state. It has also become the most open and investor-friendly of Arab states.



The best statement of Abdullah IIs personal leadership role in opening Jordan to fee trade is by Bassem Faradj, Secretary General of the Amman Chamber of Commerce and CEO of Arab Technical Group:





Secretary General of the Amman Chamber of Commerce, Bassem Faradj Jordan can offer a lot as far as the business environment is concerned because of our leadership. Our king has been adamant about putting Jordan on the political and economic map of the world.





Jordan can offer a lot as far as the business environment is concerned because of our leadership. Our king has been adamant about putting Jordan on the political and economic map of the world. This required gallant decisions like working in a free market economy and being open to the rest of the world, and because of this we have signed free-trade agreements with the US; [which] is attractive for other countries interested in investing in Jordan.



At the end of this year we are working on similar agreements with Canada, Turkey, Singapore, and an association agreement with the EU. Jordan has great potential when you consider it has opened itself up to one billion consumers by having agreements with these markets. The Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement is also beneficial to the business climate here because it links 17 countries for trade and this provides opportunity for products produced in Jordan.

Abdullah IIs Personal, Hands-On involvement in the Economy

From the moment he became King, Abdullah II has not been shy about injecting himself, his ideas, and his personal leadership into shapingencouraging, spurring, even proddingevery facet of the economy to enter the international economy in order to export services and provide employment for Jordanians. Abdullahs basic ideas are four simple principles:



1. The ability to see the path ahead, starts with understanding where we are.



2. Lacking naturally recoverable resources, Jordan must develop the only resource it has, which is the talents of our people.



3. Growth economies began with an investment in human capital: education, health, and innovation, where excellence is rewarded and new knowledge put to work for the economy,



4. Dynamism is the means to economic success, not its end. Dynamism is the very engine that drives economies forward. And like a locomotive engine, if it is to pull all society, it must be linked to every car in the train.



Abdullah II has personally intervened in many different sectors of the economy in order to spur them to meet and excel international standards. The result is that many Jordanian businesses have so developed that they have become regional leaders in exporting services to international markets.



At this point, let us cite just one example. Shabib Ammari, Chairman of Jordan Telecom Group, credits Abdullah II with spurring the ICT sector in Jordan to become a major regional exporter of services:





Minister of ICT, Marwan Junaa ICT sector grew from about 4000 employees and zero exports in 1999 to over 70,000 employees and 250 million dollars in exports in 2009.





His Majesty King Abdullah constructed a vision that the Jordan economy must be transformed into a knowledge-based economy. The presence of his political leadership made it an incentive to push players to develop. I am very pleased to report that the King personallyis very involved.

As a result of the Kings personal intervention, according to

Marwan Junaa, Minister of ICT, the ICT sector grew from about 4000 employees and zero exports in 1999 to over 70,000 employees and 250 million dollars in exports in 2009.



Abdullah II has exerted the same personal leadership in a multitude of other sectors, including energy, education, health, ICT, aircraft, and tourism, each of which shall be discussed individually in the Sector Analyses below.

Abdullah IIs Role as Spokesman for Peace and Regional Cooperation

Abdullah II has been become known as the most passionate and articulate spokesman for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His basic positions presented to almost every world leader and world audience have been:



1. The Arab-Israeli conflict has been a central cause of instability and a recruiting ground for extremism and global terror. It has caused untold suffering and injustice.



2. I say: enough. And I am not alone. Palestinians and Israelis, Arabs and non-Arabs, East and West, yearn for an end to this destructive conflict. It is time for us to create a new mindset and a real peace.



3. The Arab-Israeli conflict has been my region's major obstacle to development and reform.



4. By all rights, the Middle East should be thriving. Our [region] is a dynamic world of youth, where sixty percent of the people are under the age of 25. We have a rich heritage of scholarship, culture and faith.We have great economic potential. Our region as a whole holds more than 65 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and 36 percent of gas reserves. Arab countries that do not have these natural resources have a tremendous talent pool of human capability and determination. Yet the plain fact is, economic development has not measured up to the promise. All 22 Arab states combined have a GDP less than that of Spain.



As a result, almost all Jordanians, Palestinians, and other Arabs, especially Arab leaders, are pleased to have Abdullah II as their most articulate spokesman.



In Abdullah IIs address to the United Nations on September 23, 2010, he added a note of urgency, warning that the failure of the settlement talks now taking place in Washington are likely to result in spreading instability and violence in the Middle Eastand soonunless a resolution of the conflict is reached.



He has been assiduous in visiting foreign capitals to take that message to world leaders, to myriad international meetings and conferences, and to all diplomats and dignitaries passing through Amman.



Abdullah II has also taken this message to Western public audiences, as demonstrated in his recent televised appearance on the Jon Stewart Show in the United States where he was granted the unusual privilege of an extended interview.



In addition to the millions who watched the live show, the online video of the extended interview has been seen around the world over 283,000 times. (See http://www.truth-out.org/king-abdullah-ii-jordan-hopes-middle-east-peace-video63553 for videos both the initial and extended interview.)



Abdullah II is undoubtedly the most well-known, liked, respected, and admired Middle Eastern national leaderby Arabs, Israelis, and Westerners alike.
MARTINSVILLE  Shorthand was the skill that got Marsha Garren in the door at First Baptist Church 42 years ago. Feeling like the church is just home is what has kept her there.

Garren is retiring the churchs administrative assistant this week. She began in 1975 as a recent graduate of Danville Community Colleges business-secretarial program.

She just loved shorthand, she said, and thats what they were looking for here in their search for church secretary.

Dr. Chevis Horne was the pastor at the time.

Dr. Horne wrote a lot of books and liked to correspond, so shorthand was a requirement of the job, she said.

She talks fondly of her time working for the legendary pastor, whose accomplishments, among many, included helping to bring together the black and white communities during the height of the Civil Rights movement.

He knew everybody in the community, she said. He was very intellectual. He taught me lots of big words Id never heard before. He was very caring; if anybody came by for help, he just talked to them. He was a very smart, very caring guy.

He was so well known throughout not only Virginia, but the United States, church member Pam Burgess added.

I was 19 years old, so he kind of opened my eyes, Garren said. She had three years working for Horne before he retired.

Dr. James Baucom, Dr. Tom McCann, Dr. Dennis Knight and the Rev. John Fulcher were the other pastors under whom she has worked. Fulcher, the current pastor, plans to retire in December, she said.

Katherine Draper, who was the financial secretary at the time, was my mentor, she said. Everything I know I learned from her.

When she was hired, they did not want a church member as secretary, Garren said. However, a few years into her employment there, she asked if she could be part of the church not just as an employee, but as a member of the congregation.

After I started having children, I had to have church for my family, and this church had all I needed, she said.

Her husband, Ronnie, is semi-retired, she said, now working as the clerk for the Town of Ridgeway.

They have two children. Robert is a pharmacist at Walmart in Eden, North Carolina; he and his wife, Lindsay, have two children. Juliana Carter, a teacher at Carlisle School, and her husband, Brad, live in Leatherwood and are expecting their first child in August.

That will be my next career, she quipped. She and the other grandmother, Brenda Carter, plan to babysit.

Renee Fulcher (no relation to the pastor) has been the churchs full-time financial secretary for 18 years, Garren said. Weve grown very close. Were gonna miss each other, but weve got the phone.

A day at work

At First Baptist, Garrens duties include answering the phone, preparing the newsletters and bulletins, handing communications for committees, keeping membership records and other tasks.

She runs the church, Burgess said. Marsha was asked to be a deacon. I think its outstanding: The church thinks enough of Marsha to be a deacon.

Garren started working on typewriters with carbon paper and now she does her work on computers. The only hard part about learning to use computers was the initial trepidation, she said. After the initial jump, it was ok.

She is cooperative, cordial, even-tempered, and can maintain her composure under the most trying circumstances, the Rev. Fulcher wrote in the churchs July newsletter.

Her replacement will be Mary Taylor, an interior decorator who has worked for Janice Cain Stationery.

She will continue to do it (decorating) on the side, Garren said. Taylor has been training with her, Garren said, and will start on July 31.

Garren already expects to be busy in her retirement.

I have hobbies lined up, she said, such as continuing stained glass classes with Lynn Berry, and going with her friend Susan Sapp to yoga classes.

She also plans to go to Danville once a week to take care of her aunt and mother, who are in their 80s. And, of course, shell be babysitting for her new grandchild at the Carter family home in Leatherwood.

A luncheon to celebrate Garrens 42 years at First Baptist and her retirement will be held after the 11 a.m. service on Sunday at the church. Nancy McDaniel, who was an associate pastor and a co-pastor at First Baptist 20 years ago, will preach for that Sundays service.
You do not need to be a political scientist to know that Washington is a total mess. The power fight that began before the general election lingers on, and with no clear end in sight. Not only has the country been thrust into political chaos, but the nation is more divided than ever. As a result, the new government cannot get anything meaningful done. In addition, US foreign policy is in total disarray, and world regard for the US has plummeted. Indeed, America is making China great again. But it is not just the fault of the Trump Administration; the US system is malfunctioning.

Trust and confidence in US leadership and governance has been damaged by its own broken political system. Despite strong opposition, for example, the new government riled much of the world by withdrawing from the nearly 200-nation Paris Climate Agreement. On the domestic front, the new government is getting nowhere in its battle to fix one of the worst healthcare systems in the developed world. And there is still no agreement on how to pay for Trumps ambitious one-trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan to build or rebuild ports, roads, bridges, and airports, among other things.

Meanwhile, China is leading the world in infrastructure investment, and now boasts the worlds highest and longest bridges and a host of other engineering marvels. In America, we dont [even] have high-speed trains, wrote a reader on the Facebook page of the Peoples Daily in response to an article about how passengers onboard China's high-speed trains can now order food from their smartphones. China is home to the worlds largest bullet-train network, and recently rolled out its newest high-speed train the Fuxing. As a different reader pointed out, Chinas infrastructure and its stable economy are the envy of many Americans and the world.

Once the worlds model, the great American meltdown has turned the US into some bizarre soap opera, with characters trying to handle tragedy on a daily basis. This farce is getting more and more exciting from the other side of the ocean, said Xiakedao, the WeChat account of the overseas edition of the Peoples Daily, in a recent commentary piece about Trumps eldest son being dragged into the Trump-Russia soap opera.

China cannot afford to play such political games. As a country with 1.4 billion people, China must focus on economic development, and a strong central leadership is needed, said one expert, who asked to remain anonymous. In fact, strong leadership was the core of Trumps appeal to return America to its former glory but the American political system makes it difficult if not impossible for him to fully roll out his Make America Great Again agenda and fulfill all of his campaign promises.

This is not the case in Chinaa country on the move. Leaders are gearing up for a smooth power transition this fall, and the government has a laundry list of major achievements under its belt. For example, China is rolling out grand global initiatives such as the Belt and Road, an economic and diplomatic program that will almost certainly transform the world economic landscape, as well as an ambitious domestic agenda that, among other things, aims to lift all of the countrys poor out of poverty by 2020some 10 million people each year. These are remarkable achievements. Meanwhile, the US remains stuck in a mudslinging political fight between so-called liberals and conservatives.

A simple reason explains why China is rising: its system is working. Americas shrinking global influence in the face of rising China shows that the Chinese model is not destined to fail simply because it does not look like the American model of democracy. In addition, this shows that Western democracy is not always a panacea. Like it or not, Chinas system confers advantages over the fractious democracies, such as long-term planning, the ability to adapt quickly, and the ability to make and implement decisions effectively, and it should be taken seriously.

So think what you want about Chinas political system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, but there is no way China could have accomplished so much in so little time under a system of opposition. The modern, prosperous, and strong China of today is a product of efficiency and effectiveness, and the China of tomorrow will most likely be borne out of the same system. Perhaps the US could learn a thing or two from the China model.
MARTINSVILLE-A Henry County Grand Jury on Monday handed down 148 indictments, including one on a charge of first degree murder, according to documents in the Henry County Circuit Court Clerks Office. An indictment is not an indication of guilt; it is a grand jurys determination that enough evidence exists to hold a trial.

Benjamin Rios Tovar was among those indicted on Monday. The 29-year-old, from Dallas, Texas was charged with first degree murder in the July 7, 2015 killing of Sandesh Rajendra Dhavan. In preliminary hearings, the charge had been second-degree murder, but that was altered by the grand jury.

Dhavan, who was from India, was a 23-year-old student at Southern Methodist University in Texas who was in Henry County on a work-study internship program. He was in Henry County to work assessing the signal of cell phone towers, and Tovar was his driver. His body was found July 7, 2015 in the room he shared with Tovar at the Knights Inn location in Collinsville. He had died from multiple stab wounds.

Tovar had fled to Texas, where he was eventually located and placed in custody in the Dallas County Jail. When Henry County sheriffs deputies flew to Texas and picked Tovar up from the Dallas County Jail, they said he told them he had killed Dhavan in self-defense.

Others indicted on Monday include:

Sara Elizabeth Bates, 30, of Martinsville, faces 35 counts of obtaining money/property by false pretense less than $200. She also has been charged with one count each of credit card theft and credit card fraud. Those charges stem from alleged incidents between March 13 to 29.

Jesse Lewis Martin, 33, of Bassett, who faces one count of conspiracy to distribute roxycodone. This stems from an alleged incident Jan. 30.

Andra Lavon Hodge, 39, of Martinsville, faces one count of felony failure to appear, after an alleged incident Jan. 17.

Roger Dale Conner, 19, of Martinsville, faces one count of grand larceny after an alleged incident Dec. 29.

Jessica Lauren Brooks Dudley, 32, of Ferrum, faces one count of felony failure to appear after an alleged incident Jan. 17.

Strother Talbert Fulcher III, 34, of Martinsville, faces one count of cocaine possession. That stems from an alleged incident Feb. 21.

Christopher Scott Keller, 29, of Fieldale, faces one count of breaking and entering a dwelling in the nighttime with the intent to commit larceny. That stems from an alleged incident Feb. 11.

Bobbi Jo Leghorn, 36, of Fieldale, faces one count of grand larceny after a series of alleged incidents between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3.

Houston Everett Norris, 33, of Bassett, faces one count of possession of a firearm by a felon within 10 years of release. This stems from an alleged incident Jan. 15.

Joshua Jeremiah Poteat, 18, of Ridgeway, faces one count of grand larceny after an alleged incident Dec. 29.

Joseph Mernasir Robinson III, 61, of Fieldale, faces one count of felonious violation of the habitual offender act  second or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident Jan. 12.

Johnathan David Stallard II, 26, of Martinsville, faces one count of eluding police at a speed 20 mph or more over the limit. That stems from an alleged incident March 18.

Coley Wesley Watkins, 27, of Ridgeway, faces one count each of malicious wounding and assault and battery of a family/household member  third or subsequent offense. These charges stem from an alleged incident Dec. 29.

Johnnie Ways Carter, 24, of Axton, faces one count of cocaine possession after an alleged incident Aug. 20.

Alan Kent Reid Hall, 56, of Martinsville, faces one count each of obtaining money by false pretense -- $200 or more and grand larceny. Those charges stem from alleged incidents between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6.

Jamie Michael Hodges, 39, of Collinsville, faces one count each of possession of methamphetamine and possession of cocaine after an alleged incident Oct. 28.

Travis Allen Pace, 39, of Spencer, faces one count each of assault and battery of a family/household member  third or subsequent offense. That stems from an alleged incident April 15.

Harry James Stanley, 71, of Martinsville, faces one count of felonious violation of the habitual offender act  second or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident Feb. 5.

Ethan Aubrey James Wingfield, 23, of Penhook, faces one count each of felony failure to appear, after an alleged incident Nov. 21.

Herman Lee Estes Jr., 33, of Bassett, faces one count of cocaine possession from an alleged incident Feb. 1.

Brandi Nicole Custer, 27, of Martinsville, faces one count each of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of methamphetamine after an alleged incident Feb. 2.

Leslie Anne Gardner, 28, of Bassett, faces one count of shoplifting  third or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident Feb. 6.

Jody Lee Pulliam Jr., 21, Stoneville, N.C., faces one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute  greater than five pounds. This stems from an alleged incident Sept. 17, 2016.

Kiya Michelle Holland, 22, of Ridgeway, faces one count of felony failure to appear, after an alleged incident March 20.

Gregory Deon Hampton, 40, of Martinsville, faces one felony count of a violation of the habitual offender act  second or subsequent offense. This stems from an alleged incident March 17.

Douglas Lowell Westmoreland, 28, of Ridgeway, faces one count each of malicious wounding; robbery and breaking and entering a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny or a felony. This stems from an alleged incident June 1, 2016.

Magdalene Coleman, 68, of Martinsville, faces one count of breaking and entering a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny and grand larceny. These charges stem from alleged actions between Nov. 3 and Nov. 4, 2016.

Michael Leonard Emerson, 31, of Martinsville, faces one count each of breaking and entering a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny and grand larceny. These charges stem from alleged incidents between Nov. 3 and 4.

Justin Wade Gilbert, 30, of Martinsville, faces one count each of robbery; malicious wounding; and breaking and entering a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny or a felony. Those charges stem from an alleged incident June 1, 2016.

Tevin Maurice Harris, 21, of Collinsville, faces one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, stemming from an alleged incident between Jan. 6 to 8.

William Nathaniel Robinson, 27, of Austinville, faces one one count each of forging a public document; uttering counterfeit currency and obtaining money by false pretense  third or subsequent offense. These stem from an alleged incident Feb. 1.

Robert Edgar Torrey, 50, of Spencer, faces one count of maliciously shooting at/in an occupied dwelling and breaking and entering with intent to commit assault and battery or felony while armed with deadly weapon. These charges stem from an alleged incident March 27.

Kevin Duane Webster Jr., 24, of Fieldale, faces one count of felony destruction of property, after an alleged incident Jan. 14.

Darrell Wayne Martin, 45, of Fieldale, faces one count of breaking and entering a building with intent to commit larceny and grand larceny. These charges stem from alleged incidents March 8 and March 11.

Marcus Antonio Bradley, 38, of Collinsville, faces one count of shoplifting  third or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident March 8.

Luz Cruz-Miguel, 19, of Fieldale, faces one count of grand larceny after an alleged incident March 10.

Timothy Jerome Francis, 33, of Chatham, faces one count of possession of methamphetamine after an alleged incident March 21.

Kermit Douglas Waller, 51, of Martinsville, faces one count of shoplifting  third or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident Feb. 12.

Kaitlyn Rose Dyer, 20, of Axton, faces one count of grand larceny of a firearm after alleged incidents between Dec. 19 and Dec. 26.

Graylin Elroy Claybrooks, 37, of Martinsville, faces one count each of grand larceny of a motor vehicle, robbery and assault and battery of a family/household member  third or subsequent offense. These charges stem from an alleged incident Dec. 18.

Deandre Javon Kellam, 22, of Bassett, faces one count of carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years old, after an alleged incident Sept. 3, 2016.

Viviana Anselme, 42, of Roanoke, faces one count each of forgery; obtaining money by false pretense -- $200 or more; uttering a forged check and felony failure to appear. These charges stem from alleged incidents between April 5, 2015 and Nov. 5, 2015.

John Richard Arant, 31, of Rocky Mount, faces one count of breaking and entering a dwelling with the intent to commit larceny. These charges stem from an alleged incident March 5.

Gregory Deon Hampton, 40, of Martinsville, face one felony count of a violation of the habitual offender act  second of subsequent offense. This stems from an alleged incident Jan. 29.

Amee Jane Hodges, 27, of Callaway, faces one count of felony shoplifting greater than $200, after an alleged incident May 1.

Angela Renae Lawson, 50, of Martinsville, faces one count of failure of involved driver to remain at scene of accident, after an alleged incident April 9.

Tonya Dawn Lineberry, 35, of Bassett, faces one count of shoplifting  third or subsequent offense, after an alleged incident Feb. 20.

Kristina Rebecca Johnson, 38, faces one count of felony failure to appear, after an alleged incident May 25.

Jessica Lane Shelton, 32, of Bassett, faces one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. This stems from an alleged incident Feb. 3.

Michael Dashone Watkins, 43, of Bassett, faces two counts of attempted malicious wounding; one count each of entering a building in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony and strangulation. These all stem from an alleged incident April 28.

Daniel Adam Perdue, 26, of Collinsville, faces one count of malicious wounding of a family/household member, after an alleged incident Jan. 19.

Darrell Jason David Harris, 37, of Ridgeway, faces one count of abduction after an alleged incident between Feb. 24 to 25.

Devin Matthew Hodges, 22, of Martinsville, faces one count each of grand larceny; breaking and entering a dwelling with intent to commit larceny and grand larceny of motor vehicle, Feb. 27 and March 10.

John Taylor Motley, 30, of Martinsville, faces two counts of assault and battery of a family/household member  third or subsequent offense and one count of eluding police, May 6 and June 1.

Roger Lee Bartlett Jr., 41, of Fieldale, faces one count each of grand larceny of a motor vehicle and obtaining money by false pretense -- $200 or more, after an alleged incident Jan. 23.

Christopher Clayton Meeks, 40, of Stuart, faces one count of possession of methamphetamine after an alleged incident March 19.

Jerome Markiess Moyer II, 23, of Martinsville, faces one count of grand larceny after an alleged incident March 21.

Brandy Nicole Scott, 36, of Bassett, faces one count of failure of passenger to report accident, after an alleged incident Dec. 22.

Kimberly Michelle Stroud, 30, of Eden, N.C., faces one count each of shoplifting  third or subsequent offense and felony fail to appear, after alleged incidents Aug. 21 and Dec. 15, 2016.

Joseph Corbett, 52, of Axton, faces one count of felony shoplifting greater than $200 after an alleged incident March 6.

Glenn Wesley Johnson, 51, of Ridgeway, faces one felony charge of a violation of the habitual offender act  second or subsequent offense after an alleged incident Feb. 12.

Kristina Rebecca Johnson, 38, of Roanoke, faces one count of embezzlement  $200 or more, after an alleged incident Feb. 26, 2016.

Travis Wayne Cooley, 26, of Bassett, faces one count of possession of a firearm by a violent felon after an alleged incident April 19.

Georgia Joyce Flowers, 43, of Ridgeway, faces one count of receiving stolen property -- $200 or more. This stems from an alleged incident Feb. 27.

Justin Matthew Glass, 32, of Fieldale, faces one count each of grand larceny, breaking and entering a dwelling with intent to commit larceny and grand larceny of a firearm. These charges stem from alleged incidents Dec. 19 to 20, 2016.

Alfred Ray Lemons, 61, of Collinsville, faces one count of entering a dwelling in the nighttime while armed with a deadly weapon. This charge stems from an alleged incident May 6.

Loretta Tillman Warner, 46, of Fieldale, faces three counts of petty larceny  third or subsequent offense. These charges stem from alleged incidents Dec. 15 and 17, 2016.

Daniel Adam Perdue, 26, of Collinsville, faces one count of threatening to bomb, burn, damage or destroy structure after an alleged incident Jan. 19.

Darrell Wayne Martin, 45, of Fieldale, faces one count of grand larceny after an alleged incident March 11.

Ashley Michelle Belcher, 28, of Bassett, faces one count of perjury after an alleged incident June 13.

Christopher Ray Hooker, 34, of Bassett, faces one count of perjury after an alleged incident June 6.

Jeffrey Scott Donavant, 43, of Collinsville, faces one count each of practicing a contractors profession without a license, practicing as an electrical tradesman without a license and practicing as a plumbing tradesman without a license. These all stem from alleged incidents between Oct. 29 and Jan. 31.

Amber Marie Fackler, also known as Amber Marie Mays, 24, of Bassett, faces two counts of petit larceny  second offense, as well as one count of credit card theft. These stem from alleged incidents June 8.

Samuel Deshawn Harris, 20, of Danville, faces one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute  more than  ounce, but less than five pounds. This stems from an alleged incident Dec. 5, 2016.
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Orson Welles' film essay "Filming Othello" will be released on home video for the first time this fall, nearly 40 years after its release.

The Criterion Collection will include the rarely seen 1978 documentary in its two-disc Blu-ray and DVD release of Welles' 1952 Shakespearean drama "Othello" on Oct. 10. "Othello" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952.

Begun in 1949, "Othello" was financed and filmed by Welles over three years in numerous locations. At the request of West German television producers, Welles produced a documentary recalling his herculean efforts to film "Othello."

"Filming Othello" features Welles' reflections, a chat with actors Hilton Edwards and Micheal MacLiammoir and a conversation with a Cambridge audience on Jan. 8, 1977.

On Jan. 7, 1977, some 2,100 people turned out for what was billed as "As Evening With Orson Welles" at Boston Symphony Hall despite a massive winter storm that dumped 14 inches of snow and shut down major roads. The "Filming Othello" segment was shot the following day at the 400-seat Cinema 1 of the Orson Welles Cinema Complex in Cambridge.

Larry Jackson of Amherst, a former vice president at Samuel Goldwyn Co., Orion Pictures and Miramax, produced the Boston appearance. He worked with Welles on four film projects in the 1970s.

"Filming Othello" debuted at the 1978 Berlin Film Festival and had its U.S. premiere in New York the following year.

It was the final film Welles completed before his death in 1985.

Netflix and Royal Road Productions are presently editing his unfinished "The Other Side of the Wind" starring John Huston and Peter Bogdanvich for release in 2018.
Easthampton High School graduate Anastasia Lusnia is making her way in the pageant scene, and recently competed in the Miss Florida competition.



While she didn't walk away with the tiara this time, she did win the preliminary lifestyle and fitness in swimwear award, according to her proud parents, Deb and Kent Lusnia, of Easthampton. Judges in the swimwear event look for healthy lifestyles, fitness and confidence.



The Miss Florida competition is an official precursor to the Miss America Scholarship Pageant. Lusnia qualified for the state pageant after being crowned Miss Kissimee in Orlando in March.



"Competing for the job of Miss Florida was truly a life shaping and enriching experience. It was so much more than just a competition," she said. "I came away with skills that will help me in so many different aspects of life, and friendships that will last a lifetime. I hope to compete again for the title of Miss Florida sometime in the future."



Lusnia, 20, who attends the the University of South Florida, performed a ballet routine for the talent portion of the competition. She has been dancing for 17 years, including six years of intensive ballet.

The Miss Florida Pageant was held in Lakeland the week of June 26, and consisted of three nights of competition followed by finals on July 1. The contestants took part in swimwear and evening gown presentations, answered an onstage question and were privately interviewed by a panel of judges.

Lusnia will continue as Miss Kissimmee through 2018, and promote her platform of eating disorder awareness and education.
Reebok is nearing the finish line towards moving into its new global headquarters in Boston's Seaport District.

Gensler, the architect on the buildout, shared renderings of the project. Reebok will take over 220,000 square feet over five floors at the Innovation and Design Building, 25 Drydock Ave.

In addition to offices for their 700 employees, the space will feature a retail store, design lab, restaurant and a two-story gym.

"We have a goal of being the fittest, healthiest workplace in the country, and this new location will go a long way in helping us achieve that goal," Reebok president Matt O'Toole said in a statement. "It will be a workplace unlike any other in the city."

The company intends to build a running track around the Seaport building.

O'Toole said, when announcing the move to Boston in November, he wants the company to relocate to a busier, urban neighborhood where young people live. He added that much of the predominantly young staff live in Boston already.

The company's headquarters are currently housed in Canton. Reebok is expected to move into their new facility next fall.
(Photo/Thepaper.cn)

A popular bookstore in Hefei, eastern Chinas Anhui province, has become the worlds first shared bookstore, in a move meant to encourage more reading among Chinese citizens.

The Saoxiaokou Xinhua Bookstore, one of the most renowned Xinhua bookstores of the Anhui Xinhua Distribution Group, first rose to fame in 2014, after it announced it would be open 24/7. Now it is back in the spotlight, as more than 200,000 visitors flooded the store on its first day as a shared bookstore on July 16, a record high since its opening in 2013. Some 4,000 books were brought home on the first day, Thepaper.cn reported.

(Photo/Thepaper.cn)

Customers are allowed to borrow up to two books valued under 150 yuan per visit after registering with an app and paying the 99 yuan deposit fee. All books on sale in the bookstore are available for the service. Returned books that are damaged are sold at a discount. The bookstore also provides a bonus for bookworms. People who finish reading 12 books in three months receive eight percent of their deposit back, and members can receive one yuan for every book read.

We want to bring down the cost of reading so people read more books, Xu Xinwei, who helps run the bookstore, told Thepaper.cn.

Some parents buy a lot of books for their children, but they usually end up collecting dust as their children grow up. Similarly, some popular novels for young people also fall out of fashion, according to Xu. Books are more effectively circulated when theyre shared.
G. M. D. Atchia State College is the winner of the 2021 Omnicane Award. The results were made official during a ceremony held at Holiday Inn Mauritius Mon Tresor, Plaine Magnien, this Wednesday 13 April 2022.

The theme of the competition was: Health is a Nations most valuable wealth. How to adopt a holistic approach towards healthcare and wellbeing in Mauritius over the next decade to effectively tackle the high prevalence of diabetes and its associated chronic complications so as to reduce i ts socio-economic impacts on the country?

The Hon Mrs. Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun,GCSK, Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology and Mr. Jacques M. dUnienville, GOSK, Chief Executive Officer of Omnicane, presented the souvenir shields to the members of the winning team, from G. M. D. Atchia State College, which comprised of Mahirah Dinally, Zafeerah Tarsoo, Gia Ramsurrun, Haniifa Kumally and Shristi Nepaulsing. The Omnicane Award challenge trophy was presented to Mrs Khomal Chutoo Coopposawmy, English educator at GMD. Atchia State College. Each member of the winning also received a cash prize of Rs 20 000.

For Mr. Jacques M. dUnienville, GOSK, Chief Executive Officer of Omnicane:

The objective of the 2021 Omnicane Award was to hear from our youth, how they relate to the issues, challenges and threats, posed by diabetes. We have no doubts, by just taking cognizance of the number of entries, that they did feel motivated and critically reviewed the theme and came up with a high-quality assessment of the situation, while also bringing forward valuable recommendations and testimonies.

During her speech, the Hon Mrs. Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, GCSK, said :

Team work implies Collaborative Learning, and when you are involved in collaborative learning, it shows your engagement vis a vis your peers. It leads to greater empathy and promotes mutual learning. Indeed, perhaps the greatest virtue of Collaborative Learning is that it makes the group responsible for one anothers learningand that is the acme, the peak of selflessness.

The runner up team of the competition is the Queen Elizabeth College team, composed of: Chitrishabye Govind, Yakshini Mattarooa, Aditi Rughoobur, Ganesha Darshinee Soomarchun, Sanaa Nabeelah Unuth. They each received a cash prize of Rs 8 000 and a souvenir shield was handed to each member of the team. And the third team is Le Bocge International School composed of Shanya Dawoo, Deepa Ramtohul, Aishani Awatarsing, Aaliyah Jahanger, Aliya Bahemia, each member of the team received a cash prize of Rs 8 000 and a souvenir shield.

The jury was composed of:

 Mr Pierre Dinan (Chairperson)

Company Director for a number of public companies in the manufacturing and financial services sectors and he is a regular contributor to the local press on economic and financial issues.

 Mr Ashok Kalleechurn, MSK

Medical consultant of Omnicane. He is the Team Leader of Posititive Attitude to Total Health, a Nongovernmental Organisation. He has been decorated by the Government of Mauritius in 2015 as M.S.K for Social Services in the Medical Field.

 Dr Aveeraj Peedoly

Research Coordinator at the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC). He is sociologist by training. He heads the Centre for Applied Social Research and is also responsible for the Social Innovation Programme of the Council.

Shanya Dawoo, Deepa Ramtohul, Aishani Awatarsing, Aaliyah Jahanger, Aliya Bahemia of Le Bocage International School were attributed the third prize. Every member of the team received a cheque of Rs 2,000 and a souvenir shield.

This inter-college competition, which began in 1971, was known as the Lonrho Award until 1996. From 1997 to 2000 it was known as the Illovo Award, and from 2004 to 2008 as the Mon Tresor Award.The Omnicane award took over from the Mon Tresor award and is organized under the auspices of Omnicane Foundation.

The aim of the competition is to enable young people to work in teams on topical issues, to research, meet people, come to their own conclusions, and make proposals and recommendations.

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(Jin Hanmiao)

Jin Hanmiao, a first grader from China, received a reply letter from Buckingham Palace recently after writing to introduce the China-Britain express railway service.

The letter is based on the 19-day journey of the first China-U.K. freight train. Seeing the news of its return to Yiwu, Jins mother encouraged him to write about it and then send the letter to Queen Elizabeth II.

I was just trying to encourage his interest in English, and was surprised when Buckingham Palace wrote back. Jins mother said.

In his letter, Jin introduced himself and Yiwu, as well as his hope that the Queen would appreciate traditional Chinese culture. He also expressed his interest in the U.K., after mentioning some British celebrities and landmarks including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and the British Museum. He then sent his letter to the Queen.

Jins mother helped translate the letter into English, and sent both the original letter and the translation to London on May 8. Two months later, they received a reply from Buckingham Palace. The letter talked about the living and working conditions of the Queen at an early age, and included a detailed introduction of the Palace.

(The screenshot of the translated letter)

The China Railway Express train left Yiwu on Jan. 1, carrying 34 containers of clothes, shoes, suitcases, and other goods made in China. The train passed through seven countries before entering the U.K. It returned on April 29, loaded with 32 containers of maternity products and soft drinks.

The China-Britain freight service paves a safe and efficient trade route by land, strengthening bilateral trade ties and better serving the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, according to the China Railway Corporation.
Hyposmia is when a person loses part or all of their sense of smell. It can be disconcerting for an individual, but it can also have more serious implications. Scientists say that the human olfactory system, which governs the sense of smell, can detect between 10,000 and 100 billion different odors. The sense of smell can help create and recall memories, and it can add to the pleasure of many everyday experiences, improving a persons quality of life. Olfactory information also plays a crucial role in keeping a person physically safe. A loss of sense of smell can increase the risk of not noticing warning signs, such as the smell of gas, fire, or spoiled food. It can also indicate a more serious condition that needs medical attention. According to the National Institutes of Health, 12% of adults in the United States have some loss of their sense of smell. This issue becomes more common with age.

Causes Share on Pinterest Hyposmia refers to the loss of the sense of smell. Possible causes of hyposmia include : allergies

a head injury

infections, such as the flu

small growths called polyps in the nose or sinuses

a deviated nasal septum

chronic sinus problems

smoking

a hormonal imbalance

dental problems Some medications can also affect the sense of smell. These include: several antibiotics, including ampicillin and tetracycline

some antidepressants, such as amitriptyline

certain antihistamines, such as loratadine Other factors that could contribute to a loss of the sense of smell include: long-term exposure to certain chemicals

tobacco smoking

the use of recreational drugs, such as cocaine

radiation treatment for cancers of the head and neck

Related conditions Share on Pinterest Hyposmia can be a sign of an underlying condition. Hyposmia can also be a sign of other health issues, including the following neurological conditions: Parkinsons disease

multiple sclerosis (MS)

Alzheimers disease The findings of a 2013 study of 50 people suggested that 40% of those with MS may have at least a partial loss of their sense of smell. A reduced sense of smell does not necessarily mean that a person will develop one of these conditions, but some experts have suggested that a smell screening test could aid early diagnosis. Other conditions that can affect the sense of smell include: obesity

type 1 diabetes

high blood pressure

malnutrition Researchers have also found that people with type 1 diabetes can have trouble detecting and distinguishing scents. A study showed that the more discomfort these individuals experienced as a result of diabetic nerve damage, called diabetic neuropathy, the more problems they had with their sense of smell.

Other changes to the sense of smell Hyposmia is the partial loss of the sense of smell, but some people may experience other issues with this sense. For example, anosmia is the complete loss of the sense of smell. Some people have anosmia from birth, but it can sometimes result from a head injury, a problem with the nasal passages, such as chronic inflammatory nasal or sinus disease, or a severe viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. Other types of smell dysfunction are: Parosmia , which is when the perception of smells becomes distorted, so smells that used to be pleasing start to seem unpleasant, or an odor appears to change in intensity.

, which is when the perception of smells becomes distorted, so smells that used to be pleasing start to seem unpleasant, or an odor appears to change in intensity. Phantosmia, which is when a person believes that they can smell something, but it is not actually there.

Progression Hyposmia that is due to a seasonal allergy or a cold usually improves without treatment, but some medications and types of therapy to retrain the sense of smell may help. If a person loses their sense of smell after a head injury or a significant inflammatory injury to the olfactory system, a complete recovery may not be possible. According to the Anosmia Foundation, up to 22% of cases have no clear cause.

Diagnosis and treatment Share on Pinterest A physical examination may reveal the reason for hyposmia. If a person starts to lose their ability to smell for no apparent reason, they should seek medical help, especially if the change is sudden and severe. A doctor will carry out a physical examination. They will check the nasal passages, sinuses, and surrounding structures. They will also ask about the persons medical history, especially that of upper respiratory problems, and if they are experiencing any other symptoms. A nose and throat specialist (otolaryngologist) may perform a nasal endoscopy, in which they insert a long, thin tube with a camera on it into the persons nose to inspect the nasal and sinus cavities. A doctor will be looking for signs of: swelling

bleeding

pus

growths that could indicate polyps or a tumor

blockages

enlarged nasal structures

a deviated nasal septum If these tests do not reveal a cause, the doctor may recommend an MRI scan to assess the areas in the brain that detect smells. A scratch-and-sniff test or tests with Sniffin Sticks can help a doctor determine whether someone has anosmia or hyposmia. In cases of hyposmia, these tests will measure the extent of the loss of smell. Treatment Treatment options include medication, surgery, and any necessary therapy for an underlying condition. The doctor may recommend surgery for: nasal polyps

a deviated septum

other structural problems They may prescribe medications, such as steroids and antihistamines, to calm any inflammation resulting from an allergy or respiratory infection.
The first thing that you notice about Vivek Oberoi when you meet him in person is his optimistic nature and calm persona. Donning a casual navy blue shirt, Vivek gave us a warm smile nestling comfortably on his leather couch. 15 years ago, the actor made his Bollywood debut with Ram Gopal Verma's Company', opting for a unconventional role than those stereotypical roles. Leaving us stunned with his honest acting in 'Saathiya' to playing Arjun Balachandran in 'Yuva', the actor has received his share of love and criticism. Over a bowl of freshly cut apples, sitting in his living room, the actor talks to MensXP about living in slums, rejections, being a feminist, relationship and his latest series Inside-Edge.

How would you describe your journey in Bollywood?

A rollercoaster ride (laughs). I have always tried to do things my way, I have broken boundaries, changed pieces, structures and definition ever since I joined the industry. When I joined the industry people said a hero has to be launched and my father said let me launch this guy. He was about to spend all the money he had earned to make a film which would be a big launch and my show reel. And that time I came back from New York after completing my masters in film and I was under the whole pressure that I can't allow my dad to gamble on me. And if I have talent then I should get picked up anyway. That time I did something radical, I went to my dad and said I don't want you to produce this film, he was like am I crazy? I went to Abbas Mastan, who was supposed to direct that film and said, sir, I am not willing to do this film. Because if it's my father's money that is going to get me a film then I don't want it. If it's my talent and you believe in me then take me. I went on to a journey where I decided to struggle. I dropped my father's name and used to go everywhere as Vivek Anand which is my middle name. I started giving auditions, waiting in line for 6-7 hours waiting for them to only tell me that you can't make it, and you don't have it in you. One thing you get free in India is advice and they constantly kept giving me random advice. Year, year and a half of rejection. Every time I got rejected, I used to make my mind stronger.

How did you get your first break?

One fine day I found out that Ram Gopal Verma is casting for his film Company'. I landed up in his office and introduced myself to him. He said look you look too sophisticated, internationally educated. I am looking for a guy who is rough-tough from Mumbai's slum, underbelly and you can't do that character. I told him sir give me one chance. He said see you don't look like it. I told him to give me a meeting after 15 days and just to get me out of his office, he said fine. Then I went and rented a kholi' in a slum and lived there for 15 days, literally using the sulabh shauchalaya and slept on a floor. I had massive cockroaches and rats around me. Watched their body language, and observed then came back out of that place after 15 days. Called a photographer friend, asked him to shoot photos of me in this look and said can't pay you at the moment but if I make it will make sure you shoot a whole bunch of cover photos for me. Wearing torn vest, dirty pants and shirt, I landed at RGV's office and watchman stopped me and I was like this is a victory. With beedi in my hand, smashing mud on my face from the flower pot I went to him and threw my picture on the table. I said, Aye thopada kya dekhta hai photo dekh. He looked at the picture, got up clapped and said have never seen an audition like this. He said you are the guy of my film and that's how I got Company. And ever since I am trying to break the norms. When I got Saathiya, people told me am I crazy, doing such film, killing my career, I am an action hero and I should ask them to add some action scenes. Since then I kept trying to do different roles.

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It's very natural for an actor to venture into film production, what prompted you to take a different turn and get into infrastructure business?

I always had a business mind and wanted to do something which would have a social impact. My preference to get into any business is how I can make life better. How can I change someone's life? Affordable housing is one such thing and it is life changing. A number of people who live in sub-human conditions, I have seen their lives when I stayed there. It's a poverty trap. You pay unaffordable rents, when you can give payment on time, they grab your child and say will keep it until you pay them the amount, such things do happen. Physical and sex abuse is rampant, lack of infrastructure and sewage everywhere, that's not how anyone is supposed to live. The idea was how to get these hard working people who aren't in the banking system houses? How do you get them out of poverty trap? And with the grace of God, I have been successful. And the Prime Minister has a vision for housing for all, the timing for that has been perfect. So the effort is to build a community where their child has access to what your child has. There shouldn't be a difference of having or have not.

You have been in news lately for all the goodwill you have earned. What prompts you to do so?

I try to be an agent of social change. It's like I am doing this how many of you will follow or try to do such thing, so I try to show that it's possible. So if I have donated 25 flats, there are 100 developers across the country who are huge, they can do this. For them, it's nothing they can make it out of their CSR budget. It's 2500 flats. 2500 families lost their sons, fighting for your nation, protecting your life, your child, your mother, your people. They suddenly have security a roof on their head, giving them a feeling that somebody cares for us. And it is so easy to do so. My thought is if I do it, others too can. The idea is to inspire people. It will be so cool when some young guy who takes over his dad's developing business and says I am going to do this as well. I learned this from my mom, for 25 years she would relentlessly go and help the palliative care patients. And she would do various things for them. Even when their families wouldn't go, she would know that person has just 20 days to live. To me, she is a real hero. I am a big feminist. I believe women shouldn't fight for equality because they are unequal, they are superior.

Amazing love story of my little sister,Lalita Bansi,an acid attack survivor,got married today to an amazing man Ravi Shankar who loves her for who she is! Lalita is a true hero because she proves to thousands of acid attack survivors across the nation that this isnt a full stop,just a comma,life has so many possibilities! A post shared by Vivek Oberoi (@vivekoberoi) on May 23, 2017 at 9:56am PDT

Tell us about Vivek Oberoi, the family man

I think I am a joru ka ghulam'. My wife is away with kids and her mother and here I am getting the kitchen remade for her, so when she comes back I give her this surprise. So I am trying to be a good husband.

What according to you makes a relationship work?

Respect! You know when we are in a relationship, we take each other for granted. We forget to respect each other. And when you don't have that person, you release what you have lost, when that person is gone. I feel when you have that person, get up every day and respect that person. I do this thing, whenever I am missing my wife or thinking of her I spend two minutes thinking about how lucky I am and say pray of gratitude. I say thank you god for giving me this amazing person in my life. Thank you for this person who keeps this family together and has given so much to me. Just try to do this small ritual it can be for anyone, you parents, your best friend, your partner, anyone.

What made you pick up inside-edge and how is it different than the web-series we are already watching?

When Farhan Khan and Ritesh Sidhwani called me and explained me the subject, I realised it was huge and on another parameter. I was really happy that Amazon is coming here with such a commitment in the Indian market. It was a great time working with such great actors giving a brilliant performance. And the way it has been received online it's incredible. When it went live, the next day I got a call from one of my person saying you are trending. Was I like Inside Edge'? It is a paid trend, he said no you are trending, I was like good but I have been trending before also, so ok. But he was like it is not just India, you are trending worldwide. 5-6 hours I was trending and it was great. My character in the series is larger than life, playing chess with people's life. Seducing them, luring them to the dark side. He will do anything to do whatever he can.

Talking about the difference, the budget, the making. Web-series generally are very small budget but which inside edge these people decided to get all out. It costs three times the film. The ads were everywhere, literally everywhere. And the platform it was released on people in more than 196 countries is watching us.

How was experience working with Richa Chadha?

Well, she is a great performer. She is natural and has got an incredible watchable personality. She is exceptional.

What web-series you binge-watch?

Lots! I love The Man in the High Castle', Game of Thrones, well who doesn't love it? I haven't watched the latest episode, I promised my wife we will watch it together. Game of Thrones is our thing together. I love House of Cards, it's one of my favourite. I enjoyed Pitchers, Bang Baaja Baraat, Permanent Roommates. I watch a lot of shows.

What do you think is the future of the adult-comedy genre, since the Censor board is hyperactive these days?

It's ridiculous. Censor board can't be a decision making authority, it needs to be a guiding authority that's all. It's absurd what they are doing. I think the future for this is to go on the web and use that platform.

With inputs from Harshleen Anand
With a career spanning almost three decades, Vin Diesel has starred in quite a lot of movies. Even though we can't think of The Fast and Furious' series without thinking of Vin Diesel as well, but there are so many other movies where he completely proves his acting skills. These are some movies that you should definitely check out if you haven't already.

1. The Iron Giant (1999)

An animated movie set during the Cold War in 1957, The Iron Giant' follows a young boy named Hogarth Hughes, voiced by Eli Marienthal, who discovers a giant metallic robot that fell from space, with Vin Diesel playing the titular role of this giant robot. The movie revolves around both them, along with beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, trying to prevent the U.S. military and a paranoid federal agent from finding and destroying the Giant. Even though the movie received widespread critical acclaim from critics, it didn't do that well at the box-office but, over the years, it has gathered a cult following, being hailed as a modern animated classic.

2. Boiler Room (2000)

This crime-drama movie follows Seth Davis, played by Giovanni Ribisi, a college dropout, attempting to win his father's approval. He gets a job as a stock broker and finds success easily, but he soon realizes that the might not as legitimate as he thought. Diesel plays against his type and stars as a stock broker, giving us another look at his acting range.

3. Knockaround Guys (2001)

The movie follows the four sons of a mob boss as they team up to retrieve a bag of cash from a town in Montana which is ruled by a corrupt sheriff. Diesel is at his best in this film as he kicks some serious ass in one standout scene set in a bar. Just remember the number 500.

4. A Man Apart (2003)

A Man Apart' is about an undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter, played by Vin Diesel, who is out to avenge the death of his wife, who was killed by a mysterious drug lord named Diablo. The story is thrilling and the action sequences are badass as well.

5. Strays (1997)

Last but not the least, Strays', which was Diesel's feature length debut, followed Rick, a drug dealer and hustler, completely fed up his life and looking for a change, trying to find meaning in his existence. The movie not only stars Diesel in the main role, it is also produced and directed by him as well.
Senior Chinese official Qiangba Puncog highlighted cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road construction when he visited Israel, Palestine and Jordan.

Qiangba Puncog, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) who was in Jordan from Friday to Monday, pledged to dovetail China's Belt and Road Initiative with "Jordan 2025" to better serve the development of the two countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa, along and beyond the ancient trade routes.

The Jordanian side said it is willing to actively participate in the Belt and Road construction and expects China to play a bigger role in regional and international affairs.

During his stay in Israel from July 9 to 12, Qiangba Puncog noted that China and Israel upgraded their relationship to a new height by forging a comprehensive innovation partnership in March.

He called on the two countries to seize the opportunities unleashed by the Belt and Road Initiative, to further cooperation in various spheres and at local level in a comprehensive and down-to-earth manner to better benefit the two countries and peoples.

Israel, for its part, pledged support for bilateral cooperation in such areas as science and technology, education, culture, medical care, water utility and energy conservation and emission reduction.

In Palestine, hailing the friendship between China and Palestine, Qiangba Puncog said China is ready to keep promoting practical cooperation and enhancing cultural and people-to-people exchanges with the Palestinian side to further consolidate the foundation of their friendship.

The Palestinian side spoke highly of the huge achievements China has made in economic and social development. The Palestinian government, parties, media and colleges and universities pay high attention to and expect to actively participate in the Belt and Road construction.

Qiangba Puncog was in Palestine on Wednesday and Thursday, during which he met with Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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After introducing e-commerce in the US for the first time on the new website, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer continues to expand its distribution network in North America: "We want to make it easy and convenient for customers to research and purchase our products", says the North America Brand President - Edouard d'Arbaudmont. "In line with our omnichannel distribution strategy, we are now adding another IWC boutique to our existing sales network in North America  one of the most important watch markets in the world".

The Toronto boutique is IWCs first in Canada, and seventh in North America. It is located in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, one of Canadas leading shopping destinations, in the immediate vicinity to other global luxury brands from the worlds of fashion, jewellery, and watchmaking. The new boutique concept which IWC is implementing across the globe uses a blend of materials such as natural stone, dark wood and glass surfaces to create the perfect backdrop for the high-quality mechanical watches from Schaffhausen.

In these luxurious surroundings, Canadian watch lovers can now discover IWCs six product families as the iconic Pilots Watches, the sporty Aquatimer dive watches or the beautiful Da Vinci.
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Hermes is one of those brands, along with Dior, Chanel and Cartier, that continues to fly the flag for the French luxury industry all over the world. However, Hermes story began, almost by accident, in Germany, in the town of Krefeld, then part of France, where Thierry Hermes was born in 1801. He became a master harness-maker and saddler, and set up shop in Paris in 1837. The high quality of his leather work quickly established a reputation for the Hermes name, well before the company diversified into bags, fashion clothing, perfumes and watches.

From horse to wristwatch

But watches have in fact been part of the Hermes story for more than a century. Around 1910, Emile Hermes made his daughter a special pocket watch that she could attach to her wrist, where it was easier for her to consult while riding.

(Or, when horses inspire horological innovation) After working with various watchmakers including Movado, Universal Geneve, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin beginning in the 1930s, Hermes took a decisive step in 1978 and founded La Montre Hermes S.A., headquartered in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The Arceau, inspired by the shape of a stirrup, was one of the first products to come out of Hermes new watchmaking division. Those horses, again



Poetry and artistic crafts

Designed by Hermes artistic director Henri dOrigny, the Arceau, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next year, is an icon of Hermess watch collections. What makes this classically simple round watch subtly different are its asymmetrical bracelet fittings: the larger upper bow stretches between 10 and 2 oclock, while the lower bracelet fitting sits flush with the case. The slanted Arabic numerals and small round knurled crown are testament to the companys loyalty to tradition, originality and elegance. The Arceau collection is also home to some of the companys most iconic, poetic and artistic watch creations, including Le Temps Suspendu, Lift Flying Tourbillon, Millefiori and H Cube.

TGM hazelnut and blue

Hermes is unapologetically French, as its watch model names attest. There are no XS, Large or Big models here. Sizes go from TPM or Tres Petit Modele (very small model) to TGM or Tres Grand Modele (very big model), with in-between sizes PM  Petit Modele, MM  Moyen Modele and GM  Grand Modele. The latest two Arceau models unveiled by Hermes are 40mm TGM variations, in stainless steel with a 30m water resistance. The first has an unusual hazelnut-coloured dial, echoed by a matching alligator leather strap. Vertical guilloche chevrons decorate the centre, with the surrounding numerals set against a sunray-brushed background. Hour, minute and second functions are driven by the self-winding manufacture H1837 movement  the number is a nod to the year Hermes was founded  which has a power reserve of 50 hours, and is satin-brushed with circular graining and snailing. The watch is a picture of elegance both inside and out, and comes with a price tag of 5,000 Swiss francs.

The lacquered dial and matt alligator leather strap set the tone for this deep blue watch, contrasting with the powdered silver numerals, rhodium-plated hands and polished steel case. A Swiss-made quartz movement drives the hour, minute and second functions. The price is 3,050 Swiss francs.
Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is set to visit Baghdad on Wednesday to congratulate the Iraqi government on its victory over Daesh forces in Mosul, Egypts foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu-Zeid said on Tuesday.

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.

Shoukry will meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, discussing bilateral relations and strategic issues of concern to the two nations.

"The visit comes amid strategic developments and regional challenges facing the Arab world, said the statement published on the FM spokesman's Facebook page.

Among the key topics for discussion, said Abu-Zeid, is the activation of the Egyptian-Iraqi high-level committee, headed by the prime ministers of the two countries.

The committee will hold its first meeting in Baghdad at a later date.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Masum in May, on the sidelines of the Arab Islamic American Summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

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BAD AXE  Despite pleas from her defense attorney requesting jail time, the judge ordered a Sebewaing woman to serve her sentence in one of the state's prisons for her cocaine- and heroin-related crime.

Huron County Circuit Judge Gerald M. Prill told Angela L. Palmer her continuous drug use seems like a broken record repeating itself moments before handing down a minimum-year-and-a-half prison sentence.

Angela L. Palmer pleaded guilty in May to two counts of delivery of heroin and a single count of delivery of cocaine stemming from a drug bust earlier this year.

Palmer, 32, was arrested on March 21 after the Huron County Sheriffs Office executed a search warrant at a Sebewaing home and found heroin and cocaine inside the home. Codefendant Alan Nowiski, of Sebewaing, was also inside the home and was arrested and charged.

Palmer's attorney, Walt Salens, asked Prill to give his client time in jail as opposed to prison during the sentencing hearing on Monday.

She does have a problem and a sickness, Salens told the judge, adding Palmer has had an on-and-off addiction to opioids dating back to 2013.

Prior to this incident, Palmer was drug-free after completing a rehabilitation program, Salens said. But she fell off the wagon and got back into the same pattern, he added.

Ms. Palmer wishes to turn her life around, finally, Salens said.  Shes lost her family. Shes lost a lot. It could be worse than what it is now.

A humble Palmer admitted to the court she has a drug-fueled disease.

I do have a sickness and Im ready to turn my life around, Palmer told Prill while requesting rehab. I have a problem.

Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski disagreed with the rehab request, noting a previous case where Palmer introduced a man to drugs.

She is spreading that sickness to other individuals, he said. We dont want her poisoning this community anymore.

Prill didnt agree with a jail sentence.

Im all for giving individuals the opportunity of bettering themselves  but it only goes so far, Prill said.

Palmer was sentenced to a minimum term of 18 months in a state prison  maximum 30 years  for all three counts. For each count, she was credited with 118 days for time already served. The sentences will run concurrently.

A lesson shouldve been learned, Prill added.

In related news, Nowiski, 27, is scheduled to appear before Prill on July 24 for sentencing. He previously pleaded guilty to single counts of possession of a controlled substance and maintaining a drug house. He faces up to four years behind bars.
CASEVILLE TOWNSHIP  A new trailer is out and the airtime has been announced for an upcoming reality series filmed in Huron County.

The trailer, Lots of Love Under One Roof: Meet the Putman Family, can be accessed from the TLC cable networks Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TLC/.

America will meet the 26th Putman this fall, according to TLCs website.

We met the family earlier this year: 25 people, 3 generations, 10 adults, and 15 kids all in one house, the site states.

Well, we're about to meet the 26th Putman this fall, when Meet the Putmans premieres on TLC September 11th at 10/9c!

The big family on a small screen, as described by TLC, consists of Bill and Barb, who have been married for 34 years.

They have four adult children, and each of them has a spouse and children of their own.

And they all live under one roof on Sand Point.

The Putmans only daughter, Blair, recently gave birth to a child  making the baby Putman No. 26.

A Meet the Putmans pilot premiered in January on TLC, and it attracted enough viewers to launch a series.

The episode centered on Blair and husband Jamie wanting to leave the nest so that Jamie could be closer to his work.

The Putmans were seen out and about a few times over the summer  with a camera crew and show producers in tow.

Outings landed the shows production in the Bay Wash Coin Laundry in Caseville and the Bad Axe Goodwill.

Barb says in the new teaser that laundry, dishes and picking up are a constant in the house. The family goes through some 50 socks, 25 pair of underwear, and 25 towels  all in a day.

I dont always like the people in the house, daughter-in-law Jennifer says in the clip. But I love them no matter what.

The family is now building a 34,000-square-foot home near Caro on the family farm, which is much larger than their current 6,250-foot structure.
Egyptian police have killed two members of the Hasm militant group in a shootout near New Cairo, a statement by the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry says the two suspects, identified as Ahmed El-Bahnasawy and Emad El-Far, shot at police as they attempted to apprehend them.

The ministry says the men were suspected of involvement in two deadly attacks in May against security forces, including a drive-by shooting in Cairo's Nasr City that killed three policemen and injured five others.

The ministry also linked the suspects to a June bombing that killed a Central Security officer on Cairo's Autostrad Road, as well as the 2016 attempted assassination of the Nasr City Criminal Court head judge Ahmed Abdel-Fotouh.

The two men were previously sentenced in several terrorism-related cases, with sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.

Hasm has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Egyptian security personnel in recent months, mostly targeting police checkpoints.

Egyptian security forces have arrested and killed dozens of suspected Hasm members in the past few months.

Egyptian officials have said that that the group is linked to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

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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. Air Force has stopped all C-5M Super Galaxy operations from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware after two aircraft experienced nose-gear malfunctions overseas, the service said Tuesday.

Col. Chris Karns, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command, told Military.com that two C-5Ms -- first fielded in 2009 -- have not been able to move the nose-gear "to the fullest extent."

In an emailed statement, the head of the command, Gen. Carlton Everhart, said, "Aircrew safety is always my top priority and is taken very seriously. We are taking the appropriate measures to properly diagnose the issue and implement a solution."

Separate incidents involving C-5M aircraft from Dover occurred May 22 and again Saturday at Naval Station Rota in Spain, in which "the nose landing gear could not extend all the way" on the Lockheed Martin Corp.-made aircraft, Karns said.

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The stand-down affects a total of 18 C-5M aircraft from Dover, including 12 primary aircraft and six in backup status, Karns said. If any of the planes were deployed or en route to an interim location, pilots and crew were instructed to hold in place, he said.

Overall, the Air Force as of Sept. 30 had a total of 38 Super Galaxies in the fleet, including 35 in the active force and three in the Reserve component, according to information compiled by the Air Force Association.

The latest setback "will require AMC to work with the 18th Air Force to see where we can make adjustments," Karns said. The numbered Air Force is responsible for tasking and executing all air mobility missions.

The Air Force has said the C-5, the U.S. military's largest transport aircraft, is a crucial capability needed to conduct global operations.

The C-5s have recently been active in Operation Atlantic Resolve -- the Pentagon's missions in Europe designed to reassure allies in response to Russian military activity in the region -- as well as missions into Afghanistan, Karns said.

Everhart said a C-5M earlier this year flew from Travis Air Force Base, California, to Yokota, Japan -- a feat for the 247-foot-long airlifter, which can take off at a maximum weight of 840,000 pounds. Normally, the aircraft stops in Hawaii. But it kept going.

"It's the only airlifter in the inventory that can make the flight non-stop, which means we can put the American flag on the ground in hours versus days," Everhart said.

Budget caps in recent years forced officials to move airlifters into what the service calls backup inventory, "which means we still have the aircraft but lost all manning and funding to operate them," Everhart has said.

In May, officials said that over the next few years, the Air Force plans to allocate funding to move at least eight of the strategic airlifters out of backup status.

"We're going to buy back two a year for four years, if we're able to have a predictable budget to get the fleet back to a higher quality," said Lt. Gen. Jerry D. Harris, the service's deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements.

Everhart has said he wants to activate the C-5s over an even shorter period of time.

"Those eight C-5Ms? I was going to buy them back within a two-year period," Everhart told reporters and lawmakers at a March 31 event at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. But due to spending caps and the lack of an appropriations bill, he said, that effort has "been delayed twice ... in two budget cycles."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
A top official with the Department of Veterans Affairs told lawmakers his main concern regarding a major post-9/11 GI Bill expansion package is that the agency will not have the technology to support the upgrades.

"Probably my biggest concern is two words: 'IT,' " Curtis Coy, deputy under secretary for economic opportunity at the VA, told lawmakers. "Much or almost all of these sections require some changes in our IT system."

Coy spoke on Capitol Hill on Monday at a late evening House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing on a bipartisan package that would give the post-9/11 GI Bill a series of major upgrades.

Among the 28 changes included in the legislation is the removal for future troops of a 15-year use-it-or-lose-it rule, and a change that gives the full benefit to Guard and Reserve troops who are involuntarily activated.

It also includes a measure making Purple Heart recipients eligible for the education benefits no matter how long they served on active duty. That change could impact almost 700 troops a year, proponents said.

The bill also restores some lost benefits to troops who attended now defunct for-profit schools. And it allows survivors of troops killed in action who are using the benefit under the Fry Scholarship to qualify for the Yellow Ribbon program, which helps convert the benefit to cover the cost of private colleges and universities.

The legislation has the strong support of a parade of veteran service organizations (VSOs) including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Student Veterans of America and the American Legion.

The organizations were part of a large group of VSOs helping lawmakers develop the series of proposals that were rolled into the current legislation. Known as the "Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017," the title pays homage to the late American Legion national commander who wrote the original GI Bill in 1944.

Coy's words of caution about the VA's ability to administer the changes were among the few departures from praise for the measure during the hearing. Coy emphasized that Congress should consider tech support for the changes at the VA, as well as staffing and funding.

Others who testified noted the need for even further expansions to the provision that helps veterans hurt by the closure of for-profit schools. The included change restores benefits lost for only the month the school shut down -- not all benefits lost by the closure. As written, if a veteran used six months of his benefit for the now-defunct school, five months would still be lost forever under the change, while one month would be restored. Yet students using other types of public funding, such as Pell Grants, have their full funding restored in that situation, veteran advocates noted.

"We think veterans should be able to recoup their months of eligibility at the closed schools," Patrick Murray, an associate legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told the committee. "GI bill eligibility should be allowed to be recouped, and student veterans deserve the same equality as every other student affected by school closures."

The committee plans to finish its work on the legislation this week and send it to the House floor, where it is expected to pass easily. Senate staffers said they expect similar legislation to be introduced soon in the Senate.

"Senator [Johnny] Isakson is working closely with his Senate colleagues on companion GI Bill legislation," said a spokesperson for Isakson, a Georgia Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "We are hoping to introduce soon."

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.
Egyptian police killed a leading commander of Sinai-based militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis in a shootout on Tuesday, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The 31-year-old militant leader Ahmed Hassan Ahmed  also known as Ghandar El-Masry  was in charge of recruiting fighters to the group, which swore allegiance to Daesh in 2014.

Ahmed was killed as police conducted a raid on a militant hideout in the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.

Security forces have been battling an Islamist insurgency for several years in North Sinai, with hundreds killed on both sides.

The militants have also carried out deadly attacks against Christians.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in the country over the past four years, including an attack earlier this month on a military checkpoint that killed or injured 26 soldiers.

The group also claimed an attack in May on a bus carrying Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in central Egypt, which killed at least 29 people.

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ANN ARBOR, MI - The Ann Arbor City Council is asking the federal government to reconsider the imminent deportation of Lourdes Salazar Bautista, a local mother of three.

Mayor Christopher Taylor said her deportation will not make the United States safer or protect American jobs.

"All it will achieve is to devastate a family and impoverish a community that values her," he said. "It's not a wise use of government resources. We should be doing better."

Her scheduled deportation on Aug. 2 will leave a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl without a parent and legal guardian, or force her eldest daughter, an incoming sophomore at Michigan State University, to try to take care of them, the City Council stated in a resolution.

"Lourdes Salazar Bautista has been a lawful, positive, contributing resident and taxpayer of Ann Arbor for close to twenty years," the resolution states, describing her as a single mother. "Mrs. Salazar Bautista is the source of care and economic stability for this family and is essential for the continued development of all three of her children."

The council voted unanimously Monday night, July 17, to approve the resolution, asking the federal government for a stay of deportation to allow Salazar Bautista, who has no criminal record, to continue to financially and emotionally support her children in Ann Arbor.

The resolution specifically asks Rebecca Adducci, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Detroit, or any other capable official, to use discretion to grant a stay.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Council Members Chuck Warpehoski and Chip Smith, both 5th Ward reps.

Council members voiced strong objections to ICE actions under President Donald Trump before the resolution's passage, saying ICE's actions in this case will further tear apart a good family and significantly harm Salazar Bautista's three children who were born in the U.S. and already saw their father deported several years ago.

"What is so painful for me and for us and for her friends and family is the fact that really we're talking about ripping apart a family with a 13-year-old, a 15-year-old, and a (19-year-old), potentially asking that (19-year-old) to be responsible for the younger two siblings," Smith said, adding he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try to stop what he considers an unjust deportation.

Salazar Bautista came to the United States from Mexico in 1997 and was ordered to leave the country in 1998.

She and her husband were detained by ICE in 2010, and he was deported while she was allowed to stay to care for their children.

ICE has used discretion to defer her deportation multiple times over the years, but now the agency says it's time for her to leave.

Warpehoski said he's thinking about how the children would be affected. Losing their mother after already losing their father, he said, would have devastating impacts on the lives of three U.S. citizens.

"The aggressive deportation actions that we're seeing under ICE under this administration tear families apart. They have a real impact on people's lives," he said, arguing ICE is being overly aggressive.

"This is a woman who has been working with ICE since she was in contact with them several years ago, fulfilling her annual check-ins," he said, describing Salazar Bautista as an active member of the community and St. Mary's Student Parish in Ann Arbor.

"I mean, it's not like she's a criminal," said Council Member Sumi Kailasapathy, D-1st Ward. "No, she's a mom taking care of (her children). And it's all well and good talking about family values, and ripping families apart just doesn't make sense to me at all."

Kailasapathy said she considers herself a representative of all Ann Arbor residents, not just those with citizenship.

"For the life of me, I just can't understand the priority of deporting this single mother," said Council Member Kirk Westphal, D-2nd Ward, who argued the federal immigration system is broken and needs reform.

He said the city should do everything it can to support delaying deportation in cases such as this.

"I hope this has an impact," he said.

"By forcing her deportation, we are as a country, in effect, telling her that her presence in this country is itself a crime, and so her existence is as a criminal, and that's disgusting and reminiscent of regimes that do terrible things to people," said Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, saying it's a "terrifying act" to harm young children who are going through tremendous transitions in their lives.

"When our people are in danger, we need to do everything we can to make sure they feel safe in this community," he said.

Supporters of Salazar Bautista are holding a vigil and rally at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, at St. Mary's Student Parish downtown.

The Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights and its allies have launched a campaign to fight Salazar Bautista's deportation.

As of Tuesday, more than 7,400 people had signed an online petition asking ICE to stop the deportation, and more than 1,300 people had liked or followed a Facebook support page, which contains information about efforts to fight her deportation.

There's also a Twitter account set up for the campaign using the hashtag #LuchaPorLourdes. The campaign produced and shared the following video on Twitter on Monday.

Lourdes & her family have called our community to action. Stand with her & millions of other undocumented immigrants https://t.co/u7MulkuZKm  LuchaPorLourdes (@LuchaPorLourdes) July 17, 2017

ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said ICE already granted Salazar Bautista multiple stays of removal in the past.

"In a current exercise of discretion, the agency has allowed her to remain free from custody while timely finalizing her departure plans," he said in a statement this week. "The agency will continue to closely monitor her case to ensure compliance."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect updated information from police on the driver's city of residence.

ANN ARBOR, MI - Anthony Mack and his fellow landscapers, one holding an ice pack to his shoulder, shook their heads as they eyed a silver Ford Focus embedded in the wall of a condominium south of downtown Ann Arbor on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 18.

The group of workers from A & D Home Services, who watched the vehicle careen into the building, had hoped to rescue the driver, said Mack, 40, of Belleville.

Instead, the would-be rescuers found a gruesome scene and a life they couldn't save.

"I broke down in tears," Mack said. "You don't want to see that for anybody."

Police were investigating the fatal crash reported about noon Tuesday at 1901 Washtenaw Avenue, said Ann Arbor police Sgt. William Clock.

A 35-year-old Ann Arbor man was driving southbound on Washtenaw Avenue when the vehicle crossed the centerline, struck a support pole on the three-condo home, and came to a stop in a living room, Clock said.

The unit was vacant and the exact cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Mack was weeding the lawn across the street about noon Tuesday when he heard tires squealing and saw a vehicle in the far right lane cross the centerline, drive off the road and strike the home, he said.

"We went over to assist with the accident," Mack said. "We couldn't get in through any side windows so we kicked the door in to see if we could assist and there was nothing we could do ... They're gone."

After finding the driver deceased, the group of landscapers called police, he said.

Mack believes the vehicle may have been speeding, though police could not immediately confirm whether speed was involved in the crash.

"It sounded like a freight train," Mack said. "I don't even think (he) had the opportunity to stop the vehicle."

Clock briefly thanked Mack for his efforts while standing at the scene Tuesday, as Mack explained why the door was kicked in.

"You did what you had to do," Clock said.

Mack and onlookers, including business manager for the nearby Ann Arbor City Club Debbie Nabozmy, said they've seen crashes in the area before, but nothing compared to the incident Tuesday.

Though Nabozmy said she did not see the crash, she heard it.

"I just heard a large crash and then I heard sirens," she said. "I didn't expect this."

Officials from the Ann Arbor Construction and Building Department and employees from the Belfor restoration company remained on scene about 2:40 p.m. preparing the structure for safe entry by investigators.

Washtenaw Avenue remained closed between Berkshire Road and Vinewood Boulevard as police investigated.

The road reopened at 5:51 p.m., according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN -- A good Samaritan rescued five people from a burning 31-foot near Big Sable Point on Tuesday, July 18.

One of those rescued was transferred to a U.S. Coast Guard boat and taken to be checked for possible smoke inhalation.

Coast Guard officials say the 31-foot Tiara Cabin Cruiser was already on fire when the good Samaritan arrived to help. Those aboard the Tiara were transferred to the good Samaritan's boat.

The scene of a boat fire on Lake Michigan near Big Sable Point on Tuesday, July 18

A crew from the Coast Guard's Ludington station also responded to help.

A fire boat crew from Ludington assisted in extinguishing the fire. Coast Guard officials said the destroyed boat sank in about 75 feet of water.

the Coast Guard has issued a safety marine information broadcast about the situation.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids Community College is getting help from the state to expand and renovate a building to provide the capacity to meet the demands of the growing information technology and manufacturing sectors.

GRCC President Bill Pink said the college is thrilled the state is expected to contribute $6.3 million toward a $12.7 million project to remodel the Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center and upgrade technology.

Seven community college projects totaling $68 million received planning authorizations in the state budget. The next step is construction authorization. The state contributes 50 percent toward community college projects.

"We are very excited about what this capital outlay means to not only our information technology areas but of course the high demand for manufacturing in our region,'' aid Amy Koning, dean of Workforce Development for GRCC.

"The students who complete these programs are in high demand, so it's important for GRCC to keep its classrooms current with the latest equipment and tools used in these industries."

Koning said the college will be able to expand capacity in the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) lab, which is particularly fundamental to training students that are looking to enter the workforce as manufacturing engineering technicians, tool and die makers, mold makers or CNC programmers.

When Pink took over as president in May, he spoke to the Board of Trustees about the need for the college to be relevant and responsive, including the programming that's offered.

"I firmly believe that GRCC must stay relevant to the needs of West Michigan, and the expansion that will be done through these funds will help ensure that we do just that, specifically in the manufacturing and IT sectors," Pink said.

Koning said the funding would also support the college's robust apprenticeships in the skilled trade areas.

The Applied Technology Center, located at 151 Fountain St., houses classrooms and labs for academic programs from both arts, sciences and workforce development.

Plans are to renovate approximately 20,000 square feet of existing space and expand 20,000 square feet to support its Information Technology and Machine Tool programs.

State Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell Township, said the West Michigan delegation was able to convince their fellow lawmakers and governor's office that the building expansion and renovation were great not only for the future of region but the state.

"GRCC can provide the trainings and programs to help meet the job demands for the skilled trades, information technology and high-tech manufacturing,'' said Hildenbrand, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The last time GRCC received state funding support was in the 2011-12 capital outlay budget for the renovation of Cook Academic Hall. The state contributed $5 million to the $14.3 million project.

The college has done $57 million of building renovation work over the last eight years without state support.

In recent years, the college was unsuccessful at lobbying the state to contribute $4.2 million to help address the lack of classroom space and other needs at its Ford Fieldhouse. The project continues to be a priority.

The 25-year-old Applied Technology Center was a collaboration between GRCC and Ferris State University and the state, which provided $13 million of the $27 million construction costs.

Grand Valley State University was one of six universities to receive construction authorizations in the recently signed state budget for its $70 million health sciences building.

The state will contribute $29 million toward the project, which received its planning authorization last year. The 160,000-square-foot building will provide additional space, including for new labs, classrooms and faculty and staff offices.

The university has been in need of more space to increase capacity to serve more students in high-demand fields. Officials expect to break ground next year on the building that will be to the east of the GVSU Cook DeVos Center for Health Sciences, located at 301 Michigan St. NE.

On Friday, July 14, the Board of Trustees approved another new building for the planned downtown health campus. The new $70-million building project will create additional spaces for the health professions and nursing programs.
LEELANAU COUNTY, MI - After she rolled her car, the driver had what might have been an obvious explanation: "I'm drunk."

Sheriff's deputies said she wouldn't follow instructions, so police obtained a search warrant to have her blood drawn at Munson Medical Center.

The driver, a 56-year-old from Tyler, Texas, was arrested for operating while intoxicated.

The crash was reported at 1:19 a.m. Tuesday, July 18, at River Street and Chandler Street in the Village of Leland.

Leland firefighters found the 2015 Kia on its roof, in the middle of the road. The driver was still inside.

Police said she was driving on River Street when her car hit a parked vehicle and rolled over. Rescuers helped her out of her car. Police detected a "strong odor of alcohol."

She suffered minor injuries but would not cooperate with medical workers or deputies, police said.

Police said the woman "refused to comply with directions stating she had hit another vehicle and rolled over and (said) 'I'm drunk,'" police said.

She was taken to jail after having blood drawn, police said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated after speaking with family of the injured motorcyclist.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Grand Rapids man was seriously injured this weekend when he was hit by a vehicle while riding a motorcycle in Southeast Grand Rapids.

The collision occurred around 10:40 p.m. Saturday, July 15, near the intersection of Hall Street SE and Prospect Avenue SE.

Police said a 30-year-old man was driving his vehicle north on Prospect Avenue SE when he failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into a motorcycle traveling west on Hall Street.

The motorcyclist, a 29-year-old male, was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, police said.

Family of the motorcyclist identified him as Travis Tucker of Grand Rapids. They said he is in critical but stable condition with a traumatic brain injury and a badly injured leg.

The motorcyclist had the right-of-way.

Police said alcohol appears to be a factor in the crash. The driver has not been cited for drunken driving, but the case was turned over to the Grand Rapids Police Department's traffic unit. Their investigation will be sent to the Kent County Prosecutor's Office for review pending completion.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A pilot program in Kent County will explore the potential benefits of coordinating physical and mental health services.

The Kent Total Health Collaborative program is identified in the state budget signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in Grand Rapids last week. The budget identifies $3.1 million to support the state's implementation costs of four such pilot projects across Michigan, including the Kent County program.

The project aims to integrate services provided to Medicaid recipients in the areas of physical health, mental health, substance use disorder and developmental disabilities.

The project in Grand Rapids is a collaborative effort between Mercy Health's Affinia Health Network, Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services and Network180, Kent County's community mental health authority. Locations for the three other potential pilot projects funded in the budget have yet to be determined.

Network 180 Executive Director Scott Gilman explained the program links mental health services to physical health services for local Medicaid recipients. Gilman is hopeful all six Medicaid providers in Kent County will participate.

"The hope is we are able to duplicate this for anybody in Kent County who is interested," he said.

Under the new model, Gilman said, a patient who mentions issues with depression would be directly provided mental health services.

"Physical health and mental health work hand in hand," he said. "We've designed a system that wraps around a person no matter where they're at."

The program will allow patients to access range of mental health and substance abuse treatment and recovery options that will be "fully integrated into physical care," according to statement from Marry Boyd, executive vice president of regional operations at Mercy Health.

"The partners involved in this pilot understand to have successful health outcomes, behavioral health providers must work together with primary care physicians and health systems," Boyd said.

Working alongside Mercy Health and Kent County on the pilot project is Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, a psychiatric hospital and behavioral health provider based in Gaines Township.

"Our goal is to design the system of care around the patient to achieve the best quality of life possible," Pine Rest CEO Mark Eastburg said in a statement.

In addition to aligning the different type of services, Gilman said the pilot program also aims to capture anticipated cost savings.

"That's the really innovative thing about this," Gilman said.

The risk-bearing, provider-led integration model requires savings to be reinvested in services and supports in the county. That means savings realized could be devoted to housing, transportation and other factors that can play a role in patient's mental and physical health, Gilman said.

Funds set aside in the state budget will support an independent project facilitator, evaluation costs, modifications to state contracts and three full-time state employees.

Gilman expects it could take three years after the initial implementation before positive results are seen, but is optimistic that Kent County's program could serve as a model for other communities.

"I think we're really going to be able to show the way," he said. "It's very exciting."
Donald Trump has backed away from a campaign promise to scrap a major nuclear security deal with Iran, with officials announcing the agreement and related sanctions relief will stay in place for now.

The Trump administration faced a new congressional deadline Monday to say whether Iran has curbed its nuclear weapons program in line with the accord.

Under the terms of the two-year-old agreement, Tehran scaled back production of nuke-making material in return for massive sanctions relief.

"The conditions," according to one official who the White House would not name publicly, "have been met, based on information available to the United States."

The 2015 agreement rests on a series of technical benchmarks, and was seen in Washington as a way of avoiding military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuke.

But it has not relieved tensions between Tehran and Washington, which continue to clash particularly over conflicts in the Middle East like Syria and Yemen, where Iran-backed militias hold clout.

On a trip to Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia in May, Trump called on all nations to "isolate" Shia Iran.

During his election campaign Trump denounced the deal -- reached under former president Barack Obama -- and promised to renegotiate it and get tough on Iran.

Trump has now twice affirmed Iran's compliance since taking office, effectively keeping the deal in place.

But the White House took pains to stress it was not going soft on Iran, pointing to new non-nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of the deal.

An official added: "We do expect that we will be implementing new sanctions that pertain to Iran's ballistic missile program and fast boat program."

"Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to US interests and regional stability," the official said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in New York on Monday to attend a UN forum on development, said he has yet to discuss the nuclear deal with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"There are no communications between myself and Secretary Tillerson," Zarif said at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open."

"We receive contradictory signals," Zarif said when asked about the possible outcome of the review.

"It's very clear that Iran is serious about the nuclear deal and we believe the nuclear deal can lay the foundation."

The absence of communication is in sharp contrast with Zarif's dealings with former secretary of state John Kerry, with whom he negotiated the agreement.

Zarif said that the United Nations nuclear watchdog has certified that Tehran was in compliance with the agreement.

Representatives of the five nuclear powers -- China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States -- plus Germany are to meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.

Zarif said they would discuss Iran's complaints about non-US compliance, accusing the Trump administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.

A steely view of Iran binds Trump's national security team, which at times appear to have little else in common.

Many in Trump's cabinet tangled with Iran-backed militias during the US occupation of Iraq.

Ex-Marines like Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also keenly remember Iran-backed Hezbollah's attack on the corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983.

Top among the list of concerns today are improved Iranian missile capabilities, support for the Syrian government, human rights abuses and the detention of Americans.

Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese-American researcher at Princeton University, was recently sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison.

Zarif offered to do "all it takes from my side" to address Wang's case "on humanitarian grounds."

But he emphasized Iran's courts were independent. "We in the government do not have any control over the decisions of the judiciary," he said.

Trump and Tillerson believe "these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the (agreement), which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security," one official said.

"As a result the president and the secretary of state and the entire administration judged that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the accord, the official added.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the Gulf this month on a trip taking him notably to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are locked in a deep diplomatic crisis, his office announced Tuesday.

Erdogan will also visit Kuwait, the main mediator in the Qatar crisis, during the July 23-24 tour.

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A suicide car bomb attack killed four people overnight at a Kurdish security checkpoint in northeast Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Tuesday.

The attack comes as Kurdish forces from the People's Protection Units (YPG) spearhead the fight for the Islamic State (IS) militant group's Syrian stronghold Raqa as part of a US-backed alliance.

The Britain-based monitor said the blast hit a checkpoint manned by the Asayesh security forces in Hasakeh province, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the town of Ras al-Ain.

At least two of the dead were Asayesh members, the monitor said, while the identities of the other two were not yet confirmed.

Syrian state television also reported the blast on Tuesday and said four people were killed.

Kurdish-controlled areas have come under regular bomb attack, with IS often claiming responsibility. There was no immediate claim for Tuesday's incident.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by Kurdish forces, is battling IS for control of the Islamist militant group's Syrian stronghold Raqa.

The militia now controls around 35 percent of the city, according to the Observatory.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

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Flooding last week destroyed all the cash in the vault of a southeastern Wisconsin bank.

Fox River State Bank president Keith Polleck refused to disclose how much money was ruined, but said the Federal Reserve will have to replace every dollar.

Polleck told WISN-TV that the vault at the bank in Burlington, 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Milwaukee, is water resistant but not waterproof. As the Fox River rose above flood stage, water flooded the bank, rising up to 21 inches (53 centimeters) deep inside the facility.

Now that the river is back below flood stage, restoration crews have started to clean up. Carpets have been ripped out. Drywall is being replaced. The bank's documents are drying, though most are backed up electronically.

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In furtherance to our letter dated June 22, 2017, we confirm that the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company held on Tuesday, July 18, 2017 from 10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. at the Registered Office of the Company at No.139/25, Ring Road, Domlur, Bengaluru -560 071, Karnataka, India.As required under Regulation 30, Part-A of Schedule III of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, please find enclosed the summary of the proceedings of the aforesaid AGM.Source : BSE
McDonald's released an ad of a widow and her son in which the only thing in common between the kid and his father was their favourite burger. After facing severe backlash Mcdonald's decided to pull the ad

McDonald's Corporation says it will reopen its 43 outlets in the Delhi region only after the franchisee that operates them, Connaught Plaza Restaurants (CPRL), gets the eating house licences renewed from the Indian authorities.

The American fast food chain told Moneycontrol that, until then, the affected restaurants will continue to be suspended. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday reinstated Vikram Bakshi as the Managing Director of CPRL, an equal joint venture between Bakshi and McDonalds.

CPRL is the licence owner for operating the outlets in the north and east India. Westlife Development, a listed company, has the franchisee to operate the outlets in south and west India.

While the expiry of the licences and the failure to get them renewed in time was the immediate ruse to shut 43 of its 55 outlets in the Delhi region, the real reason is the feud between the American chain and Bakshi. Bakshi, ousted by Mcdonalds as MD of CPRL in 2013, approached NCLT which ruled in his favour.

"Before the required eating house licences have been obtained, operations of the affected restaurants will continue to be suspended. McDonalds is committed to ensuring that our restaurants are operating in full compliance with McDonalds standards and applicable regulations. We hope to resolve the situation as soon as possible so that the impact on our stakeholders will be mitigated, Barry Sum, Director, Corporate Relations, Asia Foundational Markets, McDonalds, said in an email to Moneycontrol.

Bakshi contends that the licences expired on March 31, but the outlets were closed only on June 29.

"The current situation is the result of our former joint venture partner's refusal to co-sign the licence renewal applications with McDonald's India (MIPL)-nominated director, which were the protocols previously approved by Connaught Plaza Restaurants (CPRL)," Sum said in another e-mail.

Bakshi had refused to sign the papers, alleging declining product quality at the outlets.
Mitessh Thakkar of miteshthacker.com told CNBC-TV18, "I have two buy calls. We saw breakout candlestick pattern in Bharat Forge, buy with a stop at Rs 1,122 for target of Rs 1,190. Century Textiles is a buy - a good candlestick pattern is there  buy with a stop of Rs 1,144 for target of Rs 1,220."

"Three sell calls, the first of them is JSW Energy, that has given some kind of a negative crossovers on the indicated charts, so it is likely to fall more. Sell with a stop above Rs 64.25, look for Rs 58 as the first target. Karnataka Bank has negative patterns on the charts, I would sell with a stop at Rs 162.50 for target of Rs 150," he added.

"Godfrey Phillips might have a gap down but as of yet, it looks heading towards Rs 1,170 and this stop loss on the upside could be around Rs 1,250."

"If ITC starts below Rs 300, the next call should be closer to about Rs 280 zone, so we will see some more selling and then around Rs 280 we might see the stock stabilise."

"Adani Ports could be interesting. That is the one stock which has turned positive immediately and keeping todays low as some kind of a short-term stop loss, maybe for trading for next two-three days that could be a long trading."

"I have taken two long positions as well. Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is a buy with a stop at Rs 60, it has been consolidating sideways for about six days now and now moving on the upside. So, buy with a stop at Rs 60 for Rs 66 kind of a target."

"Amongst the non-banking financial stocks or the financial side, I have got Ujjivan Financial as a buy call with a stop at Rs 334 just below todays low and look for target of Rs 355."
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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has decided to not give adjournments of beyond one week while hearing insolvency and bankruptcy cases.

The tribunal has been loaded with multiple petitions filed under the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC), which became operational in December last year. The number went up especially after the government empowered the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by passing the ordinance of the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act which enabled them to direct banks to act against large defaulting corporates.

On June 13, the RBI released a circular directing banks to file cases against those 12 large defaulting corporates including Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Power & Steel (unlisted), Jaypee Infratech, Electrosteel Steels, Alok Industries, ABG Shipyard, Jyoti Structures, Era Infra Engineering, Amtek Auto, Lanco Infratech and Monnet Ispat and Energy.

As a matter of urgency from the government and the Reserve Banks side, the IBC cases are taken hands on by the tribunal to ensure the judgments are heard and brought to a closure as soon as possible and do not get embroiled in delaying tactics used by the companies.

Judge BSV Prakash Kumar, the presiding judge in the Mumbai bench at the NCLT, on Monday, was hearing multiple cases filed by banks against defaulting companies where many counsels sought adjournments for next month.

However, for the cases those under the IBC, Kumar told the judicial assistant in the courtroom to give a date next week. He said, Do not give more than one week in IB (insolvency and bankruptcy) matters.

In other cases such as Innoventive Industries filed by ICICI Bank, Kumar also pulled up the companys lawyers to come sufficiently prepared for the hearings as the courts time is valuable.

Among the 12 non-performing asset (NPA) accounts referred by the RBI to be filed on priority with the NCLT, Monnet Ispat and Energys case filed by State Bank of India witnessed two adjournments over failure to clarify a mismatch in the claim and default amount.

Coming down heavily on SBI, the bench observed that there appeared to be a lack of seriousness on SBI's part on a case of national importance.

He said, "It is your job to show the defaulted amount. Today, if we pass this order, then tomorrow this claim will be applicable to other cases as well. I don't know whether you are seeing seriousness in the query asked by us or not.

In Essar Steels case, the Gujarat High Court dismissed the companys arguments to rule in favour of banks to fast-track the insolvency proceedings against the steel producer.

The NCLT is due to hear most of the 12 cases this week and the next with a view to kick-start the resolution process.

The 12 defaulting companies comprise a quarter of the total bad loans in the banking industry, the total which stands at about Rs 7 lakh crore.

As per the IBC, 2016, once the application filed by a financial creditor under Section 7 of the IBC is admitted by the NCLT, a moratorium period of 180 days commences, extendable up to 270 days. During the moratorium period, the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) takes operating and financial control of the defaulting entitys Board till the resolution process is completed.
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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Tuesday admitted the case of Monnet Ispat and Energy, filed by State Bank of India-led banks, after the confusion over the default amount ended.

The SBI counsel clarified the claim amount to be Rs 1,539 crore, the default by the company as on Tuesday in SBIs books. The balance Rs 704 crore is payable later as it is not a default yet.

A lawyer representing SBI said they would claim the balance Rs 704 crore before the committee of creditors as it is still payable.

Monnet Ispats counsel said they conceded the default and had no objections to the insolvency proceedings. As per their instructions, they already have an interested buyer in the form of JSW Steel which has offered to buy assets of Monnet. The Sajjan Jindal-promoted firm will now make a revised offer as the previous offer bid was rejected by SBI.

Earlier, the tribunal had asked SBI to take the case 'seriously' as their claim amount of Rs 2,243 crore was higher than the default of Rs 1,539 crore by Monnet Ispat, which is one of the 12 non-performing asset (NPA) accounts identified by the Reserve Bank of India to be filed at the NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) on a priority basis.

The 12 defaulting companies comprise of a quarter of the total bad loans in the banking industry, the total of which stands at about Rs 7 lakh crore.

The debt of Monnet Ispat, promoted by Sandeep Jajodia, surged to nearly Rs 12,500 crore due to severe financial crunch on slowdown in the steel sector owing to the drop in commodity prices, de-allocation of its captive coal mines and huge steel imports from China.

Lenders to the company had invoked the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme to convert the its debt into equity in August 2015 and now control 51 percent of Monnet Ispat.

The creditors committee has appointed Grant Thornton as its insolvency resolution professional (IRP) agency, which will now kick-start the resolution process.

As per the IBC, 2016, once the application filed by a financial creditor under Section 7 of the IBC is admitted by the NCLT, a moratorium period of 180 days commences, extendable up to 270 days. During the moratorium period, the IRP takes operating and financial control of the defaulting entitys Board till the resolution process is completed.

It made losses for the past three years. In 2016-17, Monnet Ispats losses jumped to Rs 2,132 crore, eroding its net worth, which stood at minus Rs 1,602 crore. Its losses were at Rs 381 crore in the quarter ending June 30, 2017.
A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered that six human rights activists including Amnesty International's Turkey director remain in custody for allegedly aiding a "terror" group, in a case the rights watchdog called a "travesty of justice."

Idil Eser, head of Amnesty in Turkey, was detained on July 5 with seven activists and two foreign trainers during a digital security and information management workshop on an island south of Istanbul.

"Six were remanded in custody and four released on judicial control," Amnesty's Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner told AFP.

Prosecutors accuse them of "committing a crime in the name of a terror organisation without being a member," he said.

Their detention sparked international alarm and amplified fears of declining freedom of expression under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The ruling came a day after the activists, who have not yet been formally charged, gave statements to prosecutors at an Istanbul court for the first time since their detention.

Eight of the 10 initially detained are Turkish rights activists, including Ilknur Ustun of the Women's Coalition and Veli Acu of the Human Rights Agenda Association. The other two are a German and a Swede who were leading the digital information workshop and they remain in pre-trial detention.

Berlin slammed as "unjustified" the detention of the German national.

"We stand in solidarity with Peter Steudtner whose detention in Turkey is unjustified and will advocate for him on all levels," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted.

The German foreign ministry issued a separate statement condemning the detention of the six activists, calling for their "quick release from custody".

"Linking a fighter and spokesman for human rights and democracy like Peter Steudtner to supporters of terrorists is wrong," a ministry spokeswoman said in a statement.

Sweden's foreign ministry was "concerned by the detention of a Swedish national," a spokesman told AFP, adding: "We are looking into the accusations."

Gardner said the court verdict was a "shocking travesty of justice."

"It is politically motivated targeting not just of these six human rights defenders who have been remanded in pre-trial prison custody but it is taking aim at Turkey's entire human rights movement," he told AFP.

"What we've learnt today is that defending human rights has become a crime in Turkey," Gardner said.

"This decision cannot be allowed to stand."

Turkey's leader said this month the activists were detained on a tip-off they were working against the government, comparing them to those involved in a failed coup in July last year.

Gardner earlier said the meeting had been a "routine" workshop and there was nothing suspicious about it.

"What is absolutely crystal clear, one hundred percent clear is this was a routine human rights workshop -- the sort of workshop that happens all over Turkey, in fact the sort of workshop that happens all over the world," he said.

Amnesty International called on world leaders to pressure Turkey into releasing the activists, saying the country was turning "increasingly rogue".

John Dalhuisen, Europe chief for the global human rights watchdog, told AFP in London that the accusations against the activists including Amnesty's Turkey director were "palpably absurd".

"The Turkish prosecutor knows it, the judges know it, the Turkish government knows it and foreign governments know it as well," he said.

"The international community needs to be engaging with Turkey and articulating this relationship with Turkey as what it is: a relationship with an increasingly rogue and unreliable partner," he said.

Turkish authorities have launched a massive crackdown on people suspected of links to a movement led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who denies Ankara's accusations of masterminding the attempted power grab.

Amnesty International's Turkey chair Taner Kilic was also arrested last month, accused of links to Gulen.

More than 50,000 people have been jailed and over 100,000 including judges, teachers, police and other state servants have been dismissed.

Gardner said before the court ruling that country director Eser remained "in good spirits."

"She sent messages that as soon as she is released she wants to carry on from where she left off," he said.

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Indian-American hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal-led Dream Hotel Group today said it has signed an agreement with Viiking Ventures to open a property under the Dream Hotel brand in New Delhi.

"Dream Hotel Group today signed a hotel management agreement with Chairman of Viiking Ventures, Sachiin J Joshi to open Dream New Delhi in 2019," the company said in a statement.

"I am thrilled to expand our global footprint to India and bring the Dream Hotel brand back to my home country," Dream Hotel Group Chairman Sant Singh Chatwal said.

With the Group's unprecedented growth and high-velocity expansion, the company is well positioned to triple its existing portfolio in less than five years, he added. "India is among the fastest growing economies and we are excited to take the hospitality industry in this country to new heights with Chatwal himself, who is an inspiration to us all in India," Joshi said.

Dream Hotel Group has 16 operational hotels and an additional 26 properties are in the pipeline.
Tourist take pictures from a boat as people bath in the Ganges river in Varanasi, October 29, 2014. Picture taken October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (INDIA - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION TRAVEL ENVIRONMENT) - RTR4CA9V

India has witnessed over 22 percent increase in the foreign tourists' arrival in June as compared to the same period last year, the Tourism Ministry said.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India in June 2017 was 6.70 lakh as compared to FTAs of 5.47 lakh in June 2016 and 5.12 lakh in June 2015, the Ministry said in a statement.

"The growth rate in FTAs in June 2017 over June 2016 is 22.5 percent compared to 6.8 percent in June 2016 over June 2015," it said.

Most tourists travelled to India from Bangladesh (29.23 percent) followed by the US (19.70 percent), the UK (6.14 percent), Malaysia (3.82 percent), Australia (2.56 percent), and China (2.52 percent).

The Delhi airport, with almost 23 percent share of FTAs, remained the busiest airport followed by Haridaspur Land Check Post on India-Bangladesh border (17.06 percent), Mumbai airport (14.98 percent), Chennai airport (9.06 percent) and Bengaluru airport (6.72 percent).

Based on the data received from the Bureau of Immigration (BOI), the Ministry compiles monthly estimates of FTAs, including those with e-tourist visas on the basis of their nationality and port.

A substantial rise in the number of tourists arriving on e-visas was also witnessed in June.

"During the month of June, a total of 0.67 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 0.37 lakh during the month of June 2016 registering a growth of 81.7 percent," the statement said.

In fact, even during January-June 2017, a total of 7.17 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 4.72 lakh during January-June 2016, registering a growth of 52.0 percent, it said.

Most tourists from the US (17 percent) used the e- Tourist Visa facilities during June 2017 followed by UK (10.8 percent), China (6.8 percent), Australia (5.2 percent) and Singapore (5.1 percent).

Tourists with e-visas used the New Delhi Airport (42.4 percent), Mumbai Airport (20.6 percent), Chennai Airport (10.0 percent), Bengaluru Airport (9.2 percent) and Kochi Airport (3.7 percent) to enter into India.
Representative image

The Malaysian government has evinced interest in developing the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Eknath Shinde said.

A delegation from Malaysia called on Shinde and discussed the intricacies of the 700km road project that will connect two key cities of Maharashtra.

"India and Malaysia have a long-standing relation. Malaysia has taken part in various development projects in the country and has used its advanced technology to develop roads, flyovers and subways," Shinde said.

He was speaking to reporters at Mantralaya after meeting the visiting delegation.

Shinde said the Malaysian government is keen to be part of the venture and the state appreciated their cooperation. "We would also like to work with them not only on this project, but more such projects."

The project, a brainchild of the BJP-led Fadnavis government, seeks to transform the economy of drought-prone Vidarbha and Marathwada, the regions through which a major portion of the expressway will be constructed.

Officially called the Nagpur Mumbai Super Communication Expressway (NMSCE), the project will pass through Nagpur, Buldhana, Amravati, Wardha, Washim, Thane, Aurangabad, Akola and Nashik districts.

Land acquisition process for the project has already started.

Shinde was present at two events in Nagpur and Thane last week where farmers signed land sale deeds with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the venture, which is also called 'samruddhi mahamarg' (prosperity expressway).
Issues like the proposed trade facilitation agreement in services would figure in the meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Roberto Azevedo today in Geneva, an official said.

Besides, Sitharaman would also meet officials at the Indian Mission and speak at The Graduate Institute on - 'Reclaiming Multilateralism - India and the WTO'.

The other issues which would come up for discussions during her visit include finding permanent solution to the issue of public stock holding of grains for food security purposes; fishery subsidies; and preparations for the forthcoming meeting at Argentina.

"The meeting is important as the next ministerial conference is in Argentina in December. India has made it clear it would always protect the interest of the coastal community," the commerce ministry official, who did not wish to be named, said.

India wants that new issues such as e-commerce in the WTO agenda should be taken up only after consensus among the member nations.

Developed countries including the US are pushing for inclusion of certain issues like investment facilitation and e-commerce in the WTO agenda.

India has submitted a paper on trade facilitation agreement in services (TFS) and it wants WTO member countries to talk about it.

The 11th Ministerial Conference, highest decision making body of the WTO, is in December.

The official added that before this meeting, the technical work needs to be tied up properly.
The National Capital Region (NCR) has the maximum number of integrated townships - 42 projects with approximately 1.33 lakh units

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The Code of Wages Bill which is set to subsume four existing laws related to wages and compensation may increase the overall salary cost if a universal minimum wage provision is included in it. At present, different states pay different minimum wages based on the place and the cost of living, including food and rent.

If there is one universal minimum wage proposed, all states would have to pay the same set of wages.

Sonal Arora, Vice President, TeamLease Services said that the Code of Wages Bill that is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of the Parliament will bring about a big change in compensation policies across industries.

For the government, this is a low hanging fruit since the laws related to compensation are less controversial, she said. The Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act and Equal Remuneration Act are likely to be subsumed into the Code of Wages Bill to have one comprehensive policy related to payment of wages.

According to a report by Labour Ministry, about 44 different labour laws will be condensed into different bills including industrial relations, social security and safety, health and working conditions, apart from the one on wages.

Arora said that this bill, once passed, will make life a little easy for companies. She said that one of the challenges that companies face is that there are multiple definition of wages.

This will standardise procedural aspects and the multiple returns that are required to be filed currently. Once the law comes into force, a company will have to only file one return, she explained.

However, clarity is still being awaited on whether universal minimum wages would be included in the new bill and what the exact definition of it should be. She added that this could lead to wage-related costs going up for companies.

At present, there could be a difference of 10-30 percent in the wages paid in one region to the other. The level of development, economic prosperity, and standard of living apart from costs of rent, food and transport are considered to decide on the final compensation of a worker. For instance, average wages in Mumbai are almost 30 percent higher than that of Kolkata due to the higher cost of food and house rent in the former.

Wages paid to workers are based on the skill categorisation. While there is also the pay parity issue between male and female workers, Arora said that this bill may be unable to deal with the issue.

Males and females usually start at the same salary but women lose out on the way and also may take breaks due to maternity and other family responsibilities. Bridging that gap is expected to take more time, she added.

It is estimated that for the same kind of jobs, women are paid 20-30 percent less than their male counterparts.
An Indo-Russian joint venture to produce the Kamov military helicopters under a USD 1 billion deal has been registered in India and efforts are on to co- produce them, a senior official of the Russian defence major Rostec has said.

The joint venture was registered in May, said Victor Nikolayevich Kladov, the head of the Department of International Cooperation and Regional Policy, Rostec State Corp, Russia's umbrella organisation for 700 hi-tech civilian and military firms which was established in 2007.

In October last year, India and Russia finalised a broad agreement for the JV between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and two Russian defence majors.

India is procuring Kamov choppers to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

Sixty Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India under a USD 1 billion deal inked in 2015.

"We are very happy to know that the joint venture has finally been registered by the Indian Government in May," Kladov told reporters here ahead of the MAKS-2017 airshow that began today in the Russian town of Zhukovsky near Moscow.

The airshow will continue till July 23.

"Everything will be in the hands of the joint venture. Now initiative all goes to this joint venture," Kladov said.

"It is registered in India because judicially it is in India. It was approved by the Russian Government in April and then after having been approved by the Russian government, it was registered in India," the top Rostec official said.

The agreement for the Kamov choppers was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in December, 2015. In October last year, Russian Helicopters, Rosoboronexport and India's HAL Corp had almost completed the formalities for the joint venture to localise the production of Ka-226Ts and deliver them to the Indian market.

On the supply of S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems to India, Kladov said, "We are talking already".

"There is a G to G (government to government) agreement on this subject and parties are in the midst of negotiations," he said.

Asked about the upgrading of Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Kladov said the Indian government is "evaluating" it.

"This question as far as I know was raised between President Vladimir Putin and esteemed Prime Minister Modi in St Petersburg last month. The Indian prime minister once again reiterated that the Indian side needs time to evaluate it's strategy of development and how to spend money," Kladov said.

"We are offering a package for modernising the Su-30 aircraft. It will obtain new capabilities, it will be very close to the fifth generation aircraft in capabilities. This is a deep modernisation, everything should be changed engine, radar etc," he said.

Kladov said it was up to India whether it wants to pick up the entire package or opt for selective modernisation.

"The Indian Air Force has to evaluate its strategy and then take a decision," he said.

On reports that the Indian Air Force has been planning to order more Mi-17V-5 chopper for long, he said, "We are waiting for an invitation to negotiate. It's been quite a long time. It was announced...and delayed a few times because of budget complications or whatever, but we expect this to happen later this year."

Talking about the 13th MAKS airshow, Kladov said it was a "big show".

Some 800 companies are participating from Russia and 180 companies from worldwide from 37 countries.

There were 10 national pavilions, he said, adding that Indian firms like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Larsen and Toubro and many others were participating in the event.

"We will further talk on our joint venture Ka-226 helicopter production and a number of other mutual defence projects," he said of India's participation in the airshow.

Asked if any project with India he wants to highlight, Kladov said they are "well known".

Rostec Corporation, one of the main organisers of MAKS- 2017, will present the latest Russian developments in the space industry as well as in aircraft and helicopter engineering and weapons.

"During the salon, we plan to reach several key agreements with our strategic partners. In particular, we intend to conclude an agreement with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) on the supply of new engines for Il-114-300 and to sign a memorandum with Chinese partners for the creation of a Russian engine for wide-body long-range aircraft on the basis of United Engine Corporation (UEC)," said Sergey Chemezov, Rostec's General Director.

"During the negotiations with our foreign partners, we intend to focus on after-sales service of aviation equipment and on construction of service centres," Chemezov said.

Asked if western sanctions against Russia would hamper the airshow, Kladov said they won't affect it as, "politics is politics and business is business.
In a CNBC-TV18 exclusive, sources have said that Jet Airways is looking to phase out its smaller air planes by subleasing them. The national air carrier is already in talks with regional airline TruJet to sublease its planes. TruJet is a regional airline from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Jet Airways is planning to sublease its ATR aircraft to TruJet.

Jet Airways currently has a fleet of 18 ATR planes which are the smaller aircraft. Sources have said that the subleasing to TruJet will happen in a phased manner. TruJet is a regional airline, which operates 4 ATR aircraft.

The main reason behind this move may be that the ATRs are not fitting in with Jet's Premium Push, as it wants to go big on flying international, and hence it will start by subleasing 3-4 ATR planes.

This is a win-win for both the companies, as TruJet Plans to Focus on regional connectivity under UDAAN Scheme.

Jet Airways refused to comment on this saying, As a policy, Jet Airways does not comment on speculation

The second largest airline Jet Airways on Tuesday also announced 96 new flights on the domestic network during the Monsoon season, including 14 new direct, non-stop flights to small towns under the regional connectivity scheme.

Smaller rival Spicejet has already announced three new routes under the RCS in the past fortnight.

This augmentation of domestic services between smaller cities is a result of the rising demand for aviation services between these fast-growing cities, reflecting their economic progress, the airline said in a statement.

Announcing the monsoon schedule, Jayaraj Shanmugam, chief commercial officer of the airline said, "our new nonstop flights, additional frequencies, as well as direct, one-stop flights are part of our continuing efforts to provide connectivity and choice."

"The new connections will enable guests from emerging cities to connect seamlessly on to metro cities throughout the country as well as onwards to our wide international network," Shanmugam said.

Some of the key non-stop direct flights include Delhi-Indore-Delhi, Ahmedabad-Indore-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Lucknow- Delhi, Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi, Lucknow-Jaipur-Lucknow, Indore- Jaipur-Indore, Jaipur-Udaipur-Jaipur, among others.

The airline said it has been witnessing steady growth in guest traffic, primarily in the North, especially between cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Udaipur and Indore.

"These new flights will deepen our domestic footprint, helping us support and facilitate travel aspirations of our guests from these regions," the airline said.

The airline also announced direct, return non-stop flights from Indore to Ahmedabad and Jaipur, making it the only airline to do so. It has also commenced new, direct non-stop flights between Delhi and Indore, Lucknow, Jaipur as well as connecting Jaipur with Udaipur and Lucknow.

It has also introduced 11 direct, one-stop flights between Delhi and Silchar, Dehradun and Jaipur, Chandigarh and Dehradun, Chandigarh and Lucknow, and Indore and Lucknow.

Further Jet has increased its capacity on key routes via additional frequencies, that include a second flight between Bengaluru and Guwahati, a third frequency between Delhi and Indore, a seventh daily frequency between Delhi and Lucknow, and Delhi and Jaipur, together with a second daily flight between Delhi and Udaipur.

Jet Airways Group connect 65 destinations, including domestic and overseas which include Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America. The group has a fleet of 113 aircraft, comprising Boeing 777-300 ERs, Airbus A330-200/300s, Next Generation Boeing 737s and ATR 72- 500/600s.
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Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has reduced its stake in Tata Global Beverages by 2.14 per cent, selling 1.35 crore shares in the market.

The public sector insurer, which had 9.85 per cent stake earlier, brought down its shareholding in the company to 7.70 per cent by selling shares between July 20, 2016, and July 4, 2017, Tata Global Beverages (TGBL) said in a filing to BSE.

TGBL's tea brand includes Tata Tea, Tetley, Good Earth Teas, Vitax, teapigs and JEMCA.

It is the world's second-largest manufacturer and distributor of tea with significant brand presence in over 40 countries across Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Australia.

In coffee segment, it has brands as Eight O'Clock and Grand. The Tata group firm also operates a coffee chain with Starbucks in India in a 50:50 joint venture.

Shares of TGBL were trading at Rs 175 apiece, down 1.02 per cent, on BSE.
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Diversified Indian conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra is "very bullish" will "double" its bets in the US, Executive Chairman Anand Mahindra said, underscoring that the company is a "big believer" in America and in its talent.

"We believe in America. I am sure you all wonder how the rest of the world is looking at America in this world of President Donald Trump," Mahindra told a group of reporters here yesterday.

He said there can be arguments about immigration and whether immigration will hurt talent in America.

"But that is something that will have an effect may be 5-10 years down the road. But for the moment, the cycle seems to be very much in favour of a very robust US economy," he said, adding that it is not for him to say whether that has happened as a result of former US President Barack Obama's policies finally having incubated or whether it is a result of Trump's focus of 'Make in America'.

"We do know that we are very very big believers in America and in its talent. We are going to double our bets in America," he said.

Mahindra and Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka said the team of Mahindra Automotive North America is working on an off-road utility vehicle that is expected to be launched in the US within this year.

A manufacturing facility for those vehicles is likely to come up in Michigan, he said.

"The team is doing complete vehicle development for Mahindra. So it is a situation of reversal where an Indian company is going to the US and setting up a technical centre here to draw upon the US expertise of engineers to do global product development," Goenka said.

Responding to a question by PTI on concerns over the rise of a protectionist attitude in the US given President Donald Trump's 'Make America Great Again' focus, Mahindra said "I think a lot of it is rhetoric. The world is far too inter- connected for people to untangle that web that already exists.

"A lot of the tangled webs that constitute global trade are going to surface. I think the rhetoric is going to be softened," he said.

Mahindra added that he does not blame Trump for his focus on increasing investments in the country.

"If his statements are going to make people think a little harder about investing in America, so be it. This will contribute to the growth of the US economy," he said.

"We are very bullish, we are going to double our bets here. We are thrilled about that because we had already decided to invest in assembly, manufacturing. We are cheering that statement on. It is not that we are jumping on the bandwagon. We were the bandwagon," he said.

On plans of the company to manufacture cars for the US market, Goenka said as of now the company is not thinking of making cars for the US market.

Mahindra owns a 72 per cent stake in Korean automotive company SsangYong Motor and it is currently in the process of doing market research to find out whether SsangYong vehicles' could make sense in the US. That is going to be our on road vehicle entry in the US if we decide it makes sense for us," Goenka said.

On the electric vehicles in market in India, Mahindra said the Indian government's 2030 target of all-electric cars is aspirational.

"In India, we've suffered from a poverty of aspirations, not just a poverty of income," Mahindra said.

"I am very delighted that this current (Indian) government does not lack the courage to make statements like this," he said.

He said the prospect of 250 to 300 million households owning conventional cars is "a nightmare for the globe, not just for India".

"You're going to have to move towards fleet sharing and you're going to have to move towards electric," he added.
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Moneycontrol Research

On Monday, Inox Wind lost Rs 141 crore in market capitalisation following a claim made by one of its creditors for a sum of Rs 57 lakh. While the damage is already done, the magnitude and implications are little understood.

To put it in perspective, Jeena & Company, the creditor in question, filed a case against Inox at the National Company Law Tribunal for dues outstanding of Rs 57 lakh. It is too small an amount for Inox which is sitting on cash of close to Rs 750 crore. Moreover, the company with a net worth of close to Rs 2200 crore and debt-to-equity of mere 0.8 times, is quite comfortably placed to service its debt. Its interest coverage ratio in the year FY17 stood at about 4 times and 5.3 times in the quarter ended March 2017. Moreover, its cash and cash equivalent (Rs 750 crore) and annual estimated operating cash flows of about Rs 800 crore in FY17 are far more than the liability highlighted by the creditor. It has a comfortable liquidity position that can not only meet the creditor's demand but also repay the debt of Rs 138 crore maturing in FY18.

So, what is the deal?

Today any creditor, even when he faces a default of a lakh of rupees, can file its case for insolvency proceedings at NCLT for the dues. There is nothing wrong because it protects the creditors interest. However, one should understand that the word insolvency may not actually mean that the company is insolvent. Even if the company is solvent, the creditor can initiate a case on the ground of default, said Prakash Pandya of legal firm PK Pandya & Co.

Referring a case (creditor) to NCLT has come to be seen as a big weapon for the creditors as they are now able to enforce and resolve the issue. If a creditor can produce valid evidence, companies are given 10 days to respond and resolve the issue or face the proceeds of the insolvency, which is an avoidable option particularly if the company is solvent on all the critical parameters.

Weak Earnings Ahead

Even though Inox has settled the dues, the dent to the sentiment is significant. "I think more than the issue of the creditor which is very small in our view, the pressure caused by the changing dynamics is more relevant from the investors' point of view. After the cancellation of orders because of the change in tariff mechanism, the company is left with close to 300 MW of order book which is nothing in the light of the fact that the company has been executing close to 1000-1100 MW orders annually," said Dhavan Shah who is tracking the company at KR Choksey Research.

The impact is already felt. In Q4FY17, Inox Wind saw its net sales falling by 45 percent to Rs 1019 crore and profits declining by 36 percent to Rs 127 crore. But this will not be limited to just a quarter. The Street is worried that in FY18 there will be more pressure on margins and the working capital cycle will be extended thus putting further pressure on the liquidity and coverage ratio. In FY17, it has debtors of close to Rs 2400 crore on sales turnover of Rs 3400 crore, which is about 256 days of debtors as against 196 days in FY16.

While these are key concerns, the interest coverage ratio will still be stable. For instance, with an estimated execution of about 450-480 MW in FY18, the company will be making an EBIT of about Rs 360 crore which is more than twice the finance cost it incurred in the FY17. There is enough headroom in terms of liquidity at least for the medium-term. It might get worse if the problem extends for a longer period and companys visibility deteriorates further.

What is in the price?

Part of these worries are in the price with the recent development (insolvency) further impacting the share price. While the share price has fallen, the valuation looks to be far from attractive in the backdrop of changing industry dynamics like concerns over fresh orders and viability of wind at current rates. At least for a year, there will be pressure on earnings.

As against an annual profit of Rs 303 crore in FY17, with the current visibility (execution of about 480 MW in FY18) the company could generate profits of about Rs 160-170 crore in FY18. At the current market capitalisation at Rs 3300 crore, price-to-earnings works out to close to 19 times (FY18).
About 2,000 people have rallied in the capital of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, denouncing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's attempt to ban radical organizations.

A decree signed by Jokowi earlier this month that amends a law regulating mass organizations will give the government almost unfettered power to ban groups it deems contrary to the country's constitution. Parliament has one year to reject or approve it.

It is likely that Hizbut Tahrir, a group that campaigns for Shariah law, is among the targets of the decree, with the government announcing in May that it planned to ban the organization.

Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said the crowd Tuesday was peaceful.

Demonstrators from an alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and held up banners calling the government tyrannical and repressive.

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UTI Mutual Fund is targeting at least 5,000 new retail investors for its new open-ended equity oriented ETF Nifty Next 50 launched on Tuesday.

The new fund offer (NFO) opening on Tuesday will close on July 28 and will be available for repurchase/redemption and trading in cash segment on the exchanges from August 8, a company statement said.

"We are targeting at 5,000 new retail investors through UTI Nifty Next 50 ETF during the NFO period itself," Suraj Kaeley, group president, sales and marketing at UTI AMC, told PTI.

"Mid-cap companies can grow at a much faster rate, even though the market was a bit expensive today," he said, adding, "valuation was justified given the growth rate of the mid-cap companies."

UTI Nifty Next 50 ETF will invest in securities which are constituents of Nifty Next 50 Index and in cash/money market instrument including CBLO and units of liquid mutual fund in accordance with the asset allocation pattern.

Baroda Global Shared Services appoints Rana as MD & CEO.

State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday appointed Joginder Rana as managing director and CEO of its newly created Baroda Global Shared Services.

Baroda Global Shared Services was started in March 2017 and is into backend operations of its the bank's centralised retail operations across retail products in both assets and liability side.

Rana has earlier worked with Citigroup and RBL Bank at senior positions.

MCX, Thomson Reuters launch co-branded commodity indices

Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) on Tuesday joined hands with Thomson Reuters to launch co-branded commodity indices which will track the performance of commodity derivatives listed on MCX.

The indices will be created and maintained by Thomson Reuters, while MCX will have the exclusive rights to list the indices on its own platform for trading.

Thomson Reuters can also sub-licence the indices to institutions such as mutual funds, alternative investment funds, among others.
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Nine of the 21 public sector banks, including IDBI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, reported losses during 2016-17, the parliament was informed today.

As many as 13 state-owned banks had reported losses during 2015-16 financial year.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said IDBI Bank had reported a loss of Rs 5,158 crore in the last fiscal, while the amount was Rs 3,417 crore in the case of Indian Overseas Bank.

Other loss making state-owned banks were Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank and UCO Bank.

The minister further said all the public sector banks are maintaining a positive balance in revenue reserves.

Revenue reserves, refers to undistributed revenue created for strengthening the financial position of a bank.

Replying to a question in relation to capitalisation of PSBs, Gangwar said the government under the Indradhanush Plan has earmarked Rs 70,000 crore for infusion in them between financial years 2016 and 2019.

"The government has already infused a sum of Rs 47,915 crore to PSBs during 2015-16 and 2016-17 based on quantitative analysis of growth and compliance levels," the minister said.
State Bank of India (SBI)

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India's largest commercial bank SBI today said it has launched a dedicated portal 'SBI Realty' that will help home buyers to choose flats from its 3,000 approved projects across the country.

"State Bank of India has taken another step towards customers' convenience by launching 'SBI Realty'  a one stop integrated website www.sbirealty.in for home buyers," the bank said in a statement.

SBI Realty will help customers to choose their dream home from 3,000 SBI approved projects, which are spread across 13 states and Union Territories covering 30 cities.

At present, there are 9.5 lakh home units available on the website. Customers can compare current and past trends of prices for the properties in various localities in the city.

The portal will assist customers in calculating appropriate loan amount a customer should borrow based on income and credit profile.

"We believe in innovation combined with an emphasis on market research, contemporary architecture, strong project execution and quality construction. We believe that this new proposition will help customers in identifying their dream house in reliable projects with higher credibility and goodwill in the market," said Rajnish Kumar, MD NBG, SBI.

The SBI Realty website has been developed by SBICAP Securities in association with PropEquity in terms of data support, project information, etc.

SBI is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, profits, branches, customers and employees. The company has a deposit base of Rs 25.85 lakh crore. It has an extensive network, with over 24 thousand branches in India and 194 offices in 35 other countries.
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, Sameet Chavan, Rakesh Bansal and Sumeet Jain battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Sameet Chavan of Angel Broking

Buy Mastek with a stoploss at Rs 291 and target of Rs 332

Buy Cholamandalam Investment with a stoploss at Rs 1135 and target of Rs 1220

Buy Just Dial with a stoploss at Rs 347 and target of Rs 385

Sell Godrej Industries with a stoploss at Rs 670 and target of Rs 631

Rakesh Bansal of RK Global

Buy Anant Raj with a stoploss at Rs 62.5 and target of Rs 74

Buy JSW Steel with a stoploss at Rs 209.9 and target of Rs 223

Buy Bharat Forge with a stoploss at Rs 1099 and target of Rs 1197

Buy DLF with a stoploss at Rs 198.2 and target of Rs 214

Sumeet Jain of Destimoney Securities

Buy Ramco System with a stoploss at Rs 388 and target of Rs 432

Buy DHFL with a stoploss at Rs 445 and target of Rs 478

Buy IDBI Bank with a stoploss at Rs 55.5 and target of Rs 63

Buy Rolta with a stoploss at Rs 58.5 and target of Rs 68
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Jubilant Foodworks continued its upmove from Monday, post strong Q1 results, as investors cheered the largely positive review of the earnings by global brokerage houses. The stock gained over 4 percent intraday on Tuesday.

The operator of Dominos Pizza brand in India posted a net profit for the June quarter at Rs 24 crore beat the Street expectations, posting a rise of 25 percent year on year.

The companys revenue from operations witnessed a rise of 11.5 percent to Rs 679 crore against Rs 609 crore in the same period last year, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at Rs 79.6 crore, a rise of 37.8 percent from Rs 57.7 crore. The operating margin, meanwhile, came in at 11.7 percent against 9.5 percent year on year.

The same store sales growth, a key metric for gauging the progress of the company, was reported at 6.5 percent, a huge jump from its previous performance of -7.5 percent. Analysts had expected this figure to be between 3 and 4 percent.

Global brokerage houses Macquarie and Morgan Stanley were bullish on the stock post the Q1 trends and see it as one of their top picks in the space. Having said that, there were a few sell or neutral calls as well, but are waiting for subsequent quarter performance.

Moneycontrol takes a look at what are brokerages talking about the stock.

Brokerage: Morgan Stanley | Rating: Equal-weight

The research firm highlighted the management commentary of maintaining its current same store sales growth trend for the current fiscal. These views, it said, are seen as a marked shift. The short term prognosis is undoubtedly strong for the company, he added. The key pivot of improvement is Everyday Value offer on core pizza offerings.

Brokerage: Macquarie | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 1,465

Macquarie said that the company was its top pick in the consumer discretionary space. It is building in 30 percent CAGR EBITDA growth for FY17-20.

Brokerage: Kotak Institutional Equities | Rating: Sell | Target: Rs 900

The brokerage firm said that the PAT at 5-year high underscores the cyclical nature of the business. It will refrain from going overboard on the short term prognosis and values the stock at 32 times June 2019 earnings per share (EPS) estimates.

Brokerage: Ambit | Rating: Sell | Target: Rs 822

The brokerage said that the valuation of 58 times FY19 EPS is expensive and that the SSSG was no longer a key margin driver.

Brokerage: Nomura | Rating: Reduce | Target: Rs 919

The research firm said that the valuation was running ahead of a recovery and that core business challenges remain.

Brokerage: Citi | Rating: Sell | Target: Rs 935

Citi termed the companys Q1 operating profit to be in line with estimates and that the stock was already pricing in the recovery.

Brokerage: Deutsche Bank | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 1,400

The global financial services firm said that the companys June quarter performance was driven by higher number of orders and increase in transaction size. The company said that it was its top pick in the consumer discretionary space along with Titan.

At 10:07 hrs Jubilant Foodworks was quoting at Rs 1,298.50, up Rs 23.95, or 1.88 percent on the BSE.
A section of Air India employees today staged a protest against the government's decision to privatize the national carrier, saying they were always ready for a turn around of the airline.

Around 300 employees, associated with the Air Corporation's Employees Union (ACEU), gathered outside the Air India office near the Indira Gandhi International airport here.

They chanted slogans opposing the decision taken by the Union Cabinet last month approving disinvestment of Air India.

The ACEU is the biggest union of Air India employees and represents nearly 8,000 of the total 24,000 staff members. It is a grouping of non-technical staff of the airline.

"We appeal to the government of India not to go for privatisation and disinvestment of Air India. We are always ready to turn around Air India," the ACEU said in its statement.

The union also plans to hold similar protests in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai later this month, according to a union member.
Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu resigned after he was chosen as the NDA's candidate for the vice presidential election.

The BJP Parliamentary board, in a meeting, picked Naidu for contesting the poll for vice president, the post he is almost certain to occupy.

A source said Naidu has tendered his resignation. He was holding two portfolios of Information and Broadcasting, and Housing and Urban Affairs.

"Although Naidu was not required to resign technically, he has tendered his resignation to set high political standards as he has entered the electoral fray (for vice presidential position)" he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought the support of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

The prime minister spoke to Palaniswami, who leads the Amma faction of the ruling AIADMK, over the phone and thanked him for supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, an official release issued here late last night said.

"Palaniswami extended his greetings to Naidu," it added.

The 68-year-old Naidu was yesterday chosen the NDA's vice presidential candidate at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board.

His nomination is seen as part of the BJP's attempts to expand in south India, which has been identified by party chief Amit Shah as a key region for growth before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The two-time BJP president is pitted against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was chosen by an alliance of 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, but his election is almost inevitable due to the NDA's huge numerical superiority over the opposition.
Answer: Lei Jun & Xiaomi (Image: Reuters)

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi is confident of clocking revenues in excess of USD 2 billion (Rs 12,867 crore) from its India operations this year, doubling its top-line over 2016.

The growth, according to Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain, will be driven by strong sales of its smartphones and further expansion of the brand in the country.

"We have seen 328 percent growth in H1 2017 compared to same period last year. This was driven by strong sales of devices like Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4A and Redmi 4. 2X growth over last year is definitely achievable in 2017," Jain told PTI.

The company had registered revenues of USD 1 billion last year.

According to research firm IDC, Xiaomi had a market share of 14.2 percent during January-March 2017 quarter.

Jain said the company is focussing on expanding its retail presence as well as after-sales service. Xiaomi India now has 500 service

Xiaomi India now has 500 service centres compared to about 225 at the beginning of the year.

Also, the company is setting up Mi Homes to allow consumers to experience the products before buying them. The first Mi Home was set up in Bengaluru in May.

"We had said we will set up 100 such Mi Homes. The next two will come up within this month in Bengaluru. However, we hope to have one Mi Home each in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad within this quarter," Jain said.

Xiaomi, which competes with the likes of Samsung, Lenovo, Vivo and Oppo in India, launched a new handset -- Mi Max 2 -- priced at Rs 16,999.

The device features a 6.44-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage (expandable up to 128GB), 12MP rear and 5MP front cameras and 5,300 mAh battery.

The above 5.5-inch display handset market has grown from less than 15 percent at the end of December 2014 to over 35 percent currently, Jain said.

While the 6-inch display handset category is nascent, it is fast growing as more and more people consume content on their mobile screens and look for larger displays, he added.

"Globally, Mi Max (first generation) sold 3 million units. We are sure the second generation -- Mi Max 2 -- will be received well too," he said.

The device will go on sale from July 27 across online and offline platforms. It will also be available on sale on July 20 and 21 on Mi.com and Mi Home as part of the company's three-year anniversary celebration.
Customers stand under lanterns for sale as they look at them at a roadside market ahead of the Hindu festival of Diwali in Mumbai, India, October 23, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTX2Q396

Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT backbone of Indias new indirect tax system has opened registration for casual or seasonal taxpayers from today, a move that will enable bringing more traders into the formal economy.

We have started registration of non-resident and casual taxpayers from today. A casual taxpayer is a person who does not do business throughout the year, Chairman of GSTN, Navin Kumar told Moneycontrol.

For example, someone who comes to Dilli Haat to sell products for only a few months or someone from Romania selling leather products in India, can now register themselves at the GSTN portal, Kumar explained.

GST, which promises to stitch a common national market by subsuming a web of local and central taxes into a single levy, was rolled out from July 1. GSTN, a special purpose vehicle portal has been set up to enable real-time taxpayer registration, filing returns, handle invoices, and connect states for two-way data flow.

GSTN has also made provision for making amendments in registration process from today.

Many people said that we had filled up information. But there is a mistake we need to correct it. We have acquired a new place, I need to update that information. Bank account needs to change. This provision for amendments was not there. These functionalities has started from today, Kumar said.

The industries can start uploading their sale and purchase invoices generated after July 1 on GSTN portal from Monday. In addition, a trial for the exercise will be carried out for next one week starting today.

The service that we are starting is uploading of invoices and viewing by the seller and purchaser. These services will be started from July 24, Kumar said.

Also read: `Forgot password commonest query in GSTs first fortnight; offline utility to be launched on July 24, says GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar

GSTN plans to come up with an offline utility starting Monday for taxpayers involved in business-to-business (B2B) transactions. The facility will suit businesses, especially small players as they generate few invoices, and it will certainly reduce their load at the time of filing returns as all the data would have been fed into the portal in advance, which will also avoid last minute rush.

We are providing this offline utility, which is a java based utility and it has an excel sheet linked to it. In the excel sheet, you can keep entering you invoices and then that utility uploads data from that sheet into our portal. The offline utility will be releasing on July 24 from which we will start the facility of uploading of invoices, Kumar explained.

The trial exercise would be available to a closed user group of tax officers, tax payers.

Our basic is purpose for them is to see how these tools can be used and how they can upload the invoice data. Also, who are these people who would be required to upload? So the big business, who generate large number of invoices we want to see how they can do it, he said.

He further said taxpayers, particularly those who have large number of invoices in a month, should not wait until the last day for uploading the invoices.

Similarly, the big businesses, which generate lakhs of invoices, they should do it every night. At the end of the day they should upload their invoices. Our system provides facility of upload 24x7. Best time for them would be at night, Kumar said.
The British Embassy in Egypt launched the Oil and Gas International Scholarship Programme on Monday for up to 2,000 Egyptian employees over the coming five years to meet the changing needs of businesses in the oil and gas sector, according to an embassy statement.

The programme, which is the largest scholarship program in its sector in Egypt, aims to "support the work of the Egyptian government as it modernises the oil and gas sector," the embassy said in an emailed statement late on Monday.

The program was designed by the International Academy for Advanced Research and Studies (IARS) and its training partner Pearson, the largest awarding body in UK, in cooperation with Oil and Gas Skills Egypt (OGS). It will provide accessible and affordable high-quality international training programs, the embassy statement said.

Today we launch new UK scholarships to give Egypts oil and gas workers the world-class skills and qualifications to make Egypt the energy superpower of the Eastern Mediterranean," British Ambassador John Casson was quoted as saying in the statement.

"When you combine world-class British qualifications with Egypts smart and ambitious young workforce, it is an unstoppable combination," Cason said.

The launch event, which was held at the British Embassy, was attended by representatives of more than 80 of the top Oil and Gas companies in Egypt, including British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Petrojet, EGAS, GASCO, Shell, and ECHEM.

This year, the United Kingdom has invested over $7 billion in Egypt in different fields, according to the embassy's statement.

Egypt and Britain are natural economic partners with $2 billion of trade each year and $30.5 billion of investment powering the Egyptian economy since 2011, the British ambassador said in a statement in mid-February.

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A fortnight into GSTs rollout from July 1, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT backbone and portal has begun rolling real-time taxpayer registration and migration.

While the first set of returns will be filed only in September, the portal is equipped to deal with filing returns, handle invoices of more than 5 billion a month, execute inter-state tax settlements, and connect states for two-way data flow on real time basis.

GSTN Chairman, Navin Kumar told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview that forgot password has been the commonest query that traders have been raising. There are also challenges that on digital signature certificates (DSCs), which have mainly arisen because companies mostly skip the follow instruction step while applying for a DSC through the portal.

Edited excerpts:

Can you give us an update on the registrations?

There are two partsmigration and registration. Migrationanybody who was registered under any of the existing tax systems and wants to move to GSTwas 66 lakhs until June 15 and has gone up to 70.1 lakhs as of July 16. When we opened the process again on June 25, (initially) we would get 25,000-35,000 people coming for migrations every day. But that number has slowly come down to about 10,000-12000 per day now. We are keeping this open for. This will remain open for three monthsup to September 22.

On registration, we made an assessment (at the design stage) about the likely number of additional taxpayers that would come into the system. Based on studies of VAT (value added tax), service tax we found the annual addition was roughly 5 percent. So, on a base of 80 lakhs, a 5 percent addition would be 4 lakh per annum. But, in the last 20 days we have had 7.2 lakh additional applications. Of these, 5.01 lakh have already been approved. More people are registering. It is an indication that people, businesses, like GST.

What if someone has not registered or is eligible for shifting to GSTN in the next few months or after a year?

The registration window will remain open always. This one-month time limit that has been given for those people who were not registered under any taxes, but the liability has increased (turnover of more than Rs 20 lakhs) before or on July 1. The law says that the day turnover crosses Rs 20 lakhs, you must register yourself within one month. If your liability arose before July 1, when GST was not there, you still have one months time. But if your liability arises on July 15, then you have one month time after that. Therefore, we have to keep the window open always. It will always remain open, so that whenever a new or an existing business turnover goes beyond 20 lakhs, they can register themselves.

How will government identify if somebody was evading taxes by not registering on GSTN despite having an annual turnover of over Rs 20 lakhs?

The onus is on the taxpayer. When he crosses Rs 20 lakhs (turnover), he has to register. The tax department keeps conducting surveys in the market, on people who are doing business. It is basically on the basis of intelligence. But, suppose my liability arose on July 15 and I register on September 25. When the audit takes place, the tax officer will want to look at the turnover data. If you are not registered on time, then you will have to face certain consequences, such as you will have to pay tax for that period, or penalty. In addition, you will not get input tax credit for that period. It is there in the law. GSTN has nothing to do with it.

A two-month extension has been given till September for companies to file their first set of returns. What is your key focus area for GSTN in the meanwhile?

After July 1, we have allowed existing taxpayers to opt for the `composition scheme. One can opt for the scheme with an annual turnover of up to Rs 75 lakhs. That service we started on July 5.

We are going to get an offline utility for taxpayers who have business-to-business (B2B) transactions. Such traders have to provide invoice level data in their returns. One can punch all the invoice datathe name of the seller, GSTN of the seller, the commodity, the tax amount, tax invoice at our portal. It will suit people who have few invoices in a month, say only 200 invoices. For those with greater volume of invoices such as 5000, it will not be practically possible to type in all the details. We are providing this offline utility for them. It is a java-based utility and has an excel sheet linked to it. The utility will be releasing on July 24.

We have started giving this offline facility for uploading data to a closed user group of tax officers and tax payers. They can now use that tool and try to input invoice data and upload it on the portal.

We have identified 34 companies as GST Suvidha Providers and they will be providing these services to these big businesses. We want to see how the GSPs have prepared themselves, how they are connecting to our system, how their clients are coming to our portal. This one week is kind of a pilot that we are doing and on July 24, the offline utility and the facility of invoice uploading will be available to taxpayers.

We want to tell the tax payers, particularly those who have large number of invoices in a month that they should not wait until the last day for uploading the invoices. They should use this facility that we will start from Jul 24 to put the invoice data on GSTR1.

Will you be empaneling more GSPs in the future?

Yes. We have invited applications and have shortlisted more than 80 GSPs. They are now supposed to come and tell us what they propose to do, and then we will make the final selections.

What are the key challenges that you foresee once traders actually start filing returns?

Our main challenge is persuading taxpayers to upload invoice data in advance. If everybody comes at the last moment it could be a problem for the system. It will not only be a problem for us, it will be a problem for the taxpayer also. We are telling the GSPs that they have to persuade their clients to upload their invoice data in advance.

We have designed our system assuming that 50 percent of the people will come on the last day and 30 percent of them on the day prior to that. But, if everybody comes on the last day, then the system may not be as fast as we would like it to be.

What are some of the most common queries from tax payers?

They are facing issues regarding the use of DSCdigital signature certificate (DSC). When you come for registration you have to sign it digitally. There are two options availableone is DSC, other is electronic verification code (EVC).

For companies, use of DSC is mandatory. Everybody else can use EVC, which is simpler. You press a button, you an OTP (one time password) on your mobile, you enter that and you are done.

The DSC is a bit tricky because you have to follow a certain process. We get a large number of queries from users on DSC. We have analysed that the problem is that people dont read instructions. There is a user guide (which people don't read).

The other issue, very surprisingly, is problems while logging on to the system. And what are the problems? I have forgotten my password.

My tax advocate has taken away my password is also another common complaint.

The capacity of the system has been said to be 3 billion transactions a month. So, when you talk about scaling up, how much can it scale up?

We estimated 3 billion invoices on the basis of the invoices being submitted in VAT. Our study revealed that the average number of invoices generated by businesses was 127 per month. But the range was very wide. The maximum number was 28 lakh invoices a month, and minimum was 10 a month. We have designed our system for three times that capacity. So, 400 invoices per dealer per month, multiplied by 80 lakh, gives you that figure of 320 crore. And our system can handle double of that. So, lot of spare capacity is there. The system is designed to be scaled horizontally. If there is any problem, we can add more storage or more servers, but we have huge capacity to scale up.

Is part of this on the cloud also?

No, its all dedicated hardware. You can say its a dedicated cloud, and its all in India and its ours.

What is the status of the e-way bill?

NIC (National Informatics Centre) is working on it. Initially, we were asked to work on it, but since we were saddled with this work, to again float a tender and work on that, the government thought it would be better if the NIC does it because they already have a system in Karnataka.

What about those States where electricity and Internet are major challenges?

You need internet connectivity for filing your returns, and in this case, for uploading your invoice data and pressing that button "make GSTR1". Through this offline utility, with the worst kind of connection, that is 256 Kbps speed, it takes one minute. Making that GSTR will not take more than five minutes. Connectivity for ten minutes to half an hour is good enough. Even the remotest place in the country, you have power supply for 2-3 hours a day.

But having said that, we had also pointed out to government that they should look at the North East, where because of location, there is no connectivity provided. The revenue department has been regularly talking to telecom department and the state governments to see that lines are laid or wireless connectivity is provided.

Will there be a time when people will be able to file their returns on the phone?

We have given a mobile app also. This offline tool you can use on mobile also, and our website is also available on the mobile, but the problem with mobile is, if you have large volume of data, then it becomes difficult. But you may use it on a tab, and I find some GSPs are also working on providing connectivity, tab-based applications connecting to our system through SIM card, to obviate the need for electricity. Just like smartphone, you can you can use tab to connect to Internet. Those kind of solutions are also coming up.

What about cyber security?

Security is very important for any IT system. We have also been looking at it right from the request for proposal (RFP) stage. The RFP had a specific section on security requirements. Our system is going to be ISO 27001 certified.

We have set up a security operations centre or SoC which runs 24X7X365 days. It is located in Chennai. Infosys has their global security operations centre at Chennai. This is housed over there. There are third party functional and security audits. Third party audits will continue at different intervals. We are also going to set up a security management and analytics centre (SMAC), which will be operated by a separate agency, not Infosys. They will be looking at all the data that is generated by the SoC, and analysing that and also looking at what improved solutions are available.
Amazon show Inside Edge

After Hollywood stars, Indian actors Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi are making their debut in the online content space. While Oberoi took the lead with Amazon Prime's Inside Edge, Saif Ali Khan will be seen in Netflix's Sacred Games.

Video streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are looking to produce more original Indian shows to cater to the Indian audience. Inside Edge was aired on Amazon Prime on July 10.

On the international front, popular actors who are already doing the online content include names like Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), Neil Patrick Harris (A Series of Unfortunate Events), Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), Ashton Kutcher (Ranch), Brad Pitt (War Machine), Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex) and Jessica Lange (Feud, American Horror Story).

Why Online Series could be a Hit?

Saif Ali Khan, who was recently seen in the film Rangoon, said "Content in the digital space is taking over the existing dynamics at a rapid pace."

Makers of Inside Edge say the digital space is not only affordable but also convenient for the consumer. Arguing about the cost, they say that a visit to a multiplex costs no less than Rs 2,000 but an online subscription is just Rs 500 annually with the option of watching their favourite shows anywhere and anytime.

Online Video Market in India

According to a FICCI report, urban consumers have been early adopters of videos, especially in the age group of 15-34, which constitute 70-75 percent of the total internet base. With on demand accessibility, aggressively priced high speed 4G data services, and a latent demand for differentiated content, OTT Video on Demand (VoD) services have seen an upsurge in the last one year.

Growing consumption has seen advertisers' interest rise steadily, with digital advertising market growing to Rs 7,690 crore in 2016 and could increase nearly 4 times to Rs 29,450 crore by 2021, the report said.
Five persons have died of the H1N1 influenza virus and two succumbed to leptospirosis here in the last two weeks, the city civic body has said.

The rise in cases of influenza has been a cause of worry, especially during the monsoon season, for the civic health officials.

According to a statement issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, in the first fortnight of this month, the civic hospitals registered 250 new cases of H1N1 while five people succumbed to the air-borne infection.

The cases of H1N1 since January this year have gone up to 874, out of which 672 have been registered in Mumbai alone. The remaining 202 cases were reported from outside the metropolis.

A BMC official said that 22 people, 14 of them in Mumbai, have succumbed to the disease so far this year.

The civic body has prepared a plan to prevent and control these diseases during the monsoon.

"The fluctuation in temperature and high moisture content in the air are conducive for the spread of H1N1 virus and therefore, people are advised for adequate preventive measures," the official said.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease with symptoms that include fever, coughing, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body ache and fatigue.

The city has also reported scores of cases related to other monsoon-related diseases.

Between July 1 and 15, there were 309 cases of malaria cases, 544 of gastroenteritis, 23 of leptospirosis and 28 of dengue, said the BMC's statement.

A vegetable vendor from suburban Kanjurmarg and an electrician from Matunga died of leptospirosis in the last fortnight, the BMC's public health department said.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that spreads through water contaminated with the urine of rats and dogs.

"Both the deceased had a history of alcohol addiction and they had developed fever, vomiting and muscle pain around three-four days before their admission in hospital," a civic official said.

He said a spurt in the viral infections is likely during the dry spell after showers.

However, he said there was no reason to panic and what is important is to seek medical aid in case of persistent symptoms like cough, cold and fever.
Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 weapons supplier, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher sales in its aeronautics division that makes fighter jets.

Shares of the company, which also raised its full-year revenue and profit forecasts, rose 2.6 percent to $296.00 in premarket trading on Tuesday. Lockheed's shares had gained about 15 percent this year through Monday's close.

Lockheed raised its 2017 profit forecast for the second time and said it now expects to earn $12.30 to $12.60 per share. The company in April forecast $12.15 to $12.45 per share.

The company raised it 2017 sales forecast to $49.80 billion to $51.00 billion, from $49.50 billion to $50.70 billion.

Lockheed said sales in its aeronautics business, the company's biggest, rose 19.4 percent during the second quarter.

The F-35 program is the Pentagon's costliest arms program and has been criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials for being too expensive.

The company's net income from continuing operations rose about 5 percent to $942 million, or $3.23 per share, in the quarter ended June 25.

Net sales rose to $12.69 billion from $11.58 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $3.11 per share and revenue of $12.40 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
The San Francisco-based cab-hailing company Uber increased their fare prices in Egypt early on Tuesday "to meet the new rise in fuel prices" that were implemented last month, Abdel-Latif Waked, Uber Egypt's general manager, told Ahram Online.

"The aim of the fare increase is to maintain a sustainable living for Uber drivers while ensuring that our riders continue to move around their cities with affordable, efficient and safe rides," Waked said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

For an average UberX ride, the base fare has been raised from EGP 5 to EGP 6, and the EGP 1.5 per kilometer has been raised to EGP 1.85, according to the emailed statement.

As for the more luxurious UberSELECT rides, the fare base is EGP 7 and the price per kilometre is EGP 2.

Uber says that its average UberX ride in Cairo remains more affordable than other Car hailing apps, despite the new price increase.

"Uber is committed to the Egyptian market and continues to work towards providing more economic opportunity to thousands of partner drivers and increasing access to safe transport for millions of Egyptians through its technology," Waked said.

The company is currently operating in Cairo, Alexandria and Mansoura, in addition to providing services in North Coast resort area during the summer season.

Uber's rival, the UAE-based cab-hailing app Careem, increased their fares in Egypt on Monday.

In June, the Egyptian government cut fuel subsidies for the second time in less than one year.

In November 2016, Egypts petroleum ministry announced fuel subsidy cuts as part of its fiscal reform programme, shortly following the Central Bank of Egypt freely floated the pound, after which cab-hailing applications increased their fares.

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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 18, 2017

"Zero Day" for Violent Regime Change in Venezuela

The U.S. supports the right-wing opposition in Venezuela against the socialist government of President Maduro.

Since April the opposition tries to dislodge the government by instigating a regime change by force. Its protests and street fights with the police are led by violent, militarized gangs:

Venezuelas ongoing street protests are increasingly looking like outright warfare. As security forces shoot rubber bullets, tear-gas canisters and sometimes live rounds at the churning crowds, increasingly restive mobs are responding with lethal slingshots, homemade mortars and Molotov cocktails. This week, seven National Guard members were injured in Caracas when a roadside bomb exploded as they drove by on motorcycles. Leading the opposition shock-troops are loose-knit groups of young men and women that have names like The Templars, The Warriors and The Arcadias. Collectively, theyre known as the Chamos de la Resistencia or, roughly, the Youth Resistance.

This is not just by chance a similar development as was seen during the U.S. instigated color revolutions by force in Libya, Ukraine and Syria. Para-military forces hiding behind "peaceful protesters" attack police, military and civil government institutions to provoke an escalation towards a civil war. Last week the opposition in Venezuela announced that today is the "zero day" for another violent coup attempt against President Maduro:

The fugitive police pilot who allegedly stole a helicopter and used it to attack Venezuela's Supreme Court has appeared at an opposition rally in the capital, Caracas, attendees tell CNN. Oscar Perez, an officer in the country's investigative police force, addressed the gathering, urging the opposition to continue protesting.

...

"A general walkout for July 18, walkout with no return. The zero-hour will start on Tuesday. The referendum we'll do it, with dignity, we'll be in the street defending the people."

The date was confirmed yesterday:

Venezuelan opposition leaders have called for their supporters to escalate street protests and support a 24-hour national strike later this week after more than 7.1 million people rejected a government plan to rewrite the constitution.

...

A coalition of some 20 opposition parties assembled in its headquarters Monday to call for a zero hour campaign of civil disobedience in the two weeks leading to the government vote.

On Sunday the opposition held a private poll in which less people attended than the opposition had hoped for. No results but the number of attendees was announced:

The opposition released only turnout numbers Sunday night, not tallies of responses to those questions, although virtually all who voted were believed to have answered yes to the central rejection of the constitutional rewrite.

There are some 19 million registered voters in Venezuela. A seven million turnout for a private poll, if real, is significant but neither decisive nor relevant. The hiding of the results lets one assume that the answers to the poll questions were not in favor of the opposition's plan.

It is difficult to ascertain what the real opinion of people in Venezuela is. Polls in the country are traditionally skewed. Maduro's economic polices, restricted by falling oil prices, sabotage by rich im- and exporters and U.S. sanction, was not successful. But the 2015 National Assembly vote won by the opposition was more a protest vote against the economic problems than a vote for the opposition's vague program.

It is obvious that the opposition in Venezuela is heavily supported by the various regime change institutions of the United States. Some of its operatives have deep ties with DEA and the CIA. U.S. media is -as usual- completely on the side of the U.S. regime change program. It has long agitated against the socialist government of Venezuela.

An official Trump statement on Venezuela released yesterday is noticeable for its lack of facts:

Yesterday, the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and rule of law. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator. The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions.

Would Trump write a similar statement about the will of the "American people" if Democrats held a private poll against him with an assured multi-million strong turnout?

The Maduro government has called for a July 30 vote to elect members of an upcoming constitutional assembly. There is nothing "imposed" with that. The opposition will try to sew chaos in the streets up to that date and likely has planned for some culmination point of action.

The government has so far reacted passively to the violent protests. The police protects some government buildings and removes some road blocking barricades. But no arrest wave or more assertiveness for government control has been ordered. One wonders at what point such measures will become inevitable.

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The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has received the final instalment of the first $4 billion tranche of a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), state-run news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

The deposit follows the IMF executive board's approval of the first review of the loan, said MENA.

According to an informed source at the CBE, the bank received the instalment on Tuesday.

On Friday, the IMF's executive board approved the first review of a $12 billion loan to Egypt and has disbursed $1.25 billion, the final instalment of the first $4 billion tranche of the loan, the IMF said in a statement.

The IMF's review included an assessment of the implementation of Egypt's reform programme since 2014, which includes cutting subsidies and government expenditure while implementing new taxes.

"The approval by the IMF Executive Board of the First Review of the program shows the IMFs strong support for Egypt in these efforts. We believe that these efforts will yield results," the fund's chief Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying in the statement last week.

In mid-August 2016, Egypt reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF over a three-year $12 billion loan to endorse the countrys fiscal reform programme, which the government embarked on in 2014 in an attempt to curb the growing state budget deficit.

In November, Egypt received the first funding instalment  an initial dispersal of $2.75 billion  of the first tranche following the floating of the Egyptian pound.

Egypt is expected to receive a third loan instalment worth $2 billion from the IMF between December and January following the next review between November and December, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy told Reuters on Monday.

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Ron McGee, known as Python Ron, brought his traveling reptile kingdom to the Morgan Hill Library July 14 to give local children a chance to get up close and personal with giant snakes and other critters theyre unlikely to encounter anywhere else near their homes.

The kids and their parents learned all about the albino python, black and white tegu, bearded dragon, Borneo roughneck lizard, African spur tortoise and other reptiles while getting a chance to pet and hold the animals.

Python Rons Reptile Kingdom is based in Modesto. McGee and his animals travel the state to give educational and entertaining hands-on presentations about the world of reptiles, spiders and insects, according to his website, pythonron.com.

The July 14 presentation at the Morgan Hill Library, 660 W. Main Ave., is one event in a summer filled with educational programs for children at the site. For more information about summer learning and events at the library, visit sccl.org/Locations/Morgan-Hill.
Auto burglary

A resident near Diana Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard woke up after hearing his car alarm going off outside his home and saw multiple subjects running away from the vehicle. A window of the victims car, a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban, had been smashed and the stereo was stolen. The crime was reported 12:30 a.m. July 12.

Someone broke into a work truck parked on Mason Lane and stole power tools, electronics items and large hand tools from the vehicle. The crime was reported 7:02 a.m. July 12.

A thief or thieves broke into a Toyota Solara on Serene Drive but didnt steal anything. The break-in was reported 5:03 p.m. July 10.

Someone broke the window of a Chevrolet S10 on Barrett Avenue. The crime was reported 8:26 a.m. July 11.

A resident of Fountain Oaks Drive caught a suspect trying to break into his work truck. The resident yelled at the suspect through the window, and the attempted thief fled in a white mini-van. The incident was reported 2:54 a.m. July 10.

Animal control

Police gave the owner of three pit bulls a citation after the dogs were seen running loose and trying to attack goats in a yard on Monterey Road north of town. The dogs were impounded at MHPD kennels. The incident was reported 2:58 p.m. July 11.

Grand theft

A power pressure washer was stolen from the bed of a truck parked on Annatto Lane. The crime was reported 7:30 a.m. July 12.

Municipal code violation

Police told the occupants of two motorhomes parked in the area of De Paul Drive and Cochrane Road that they needed to move the vehicles within three days or they would be towed. A nearby resident reported the oversized vehicle parking violation to MHPD 2:18 p.m. July 13.

Petty theft

A suspect reached under a cash register at Wal-mart, 170 Cochrane Plaza, and stole about 20 packs of cigarettes. The suspect was described as a white male with tattoos on his arms and neck. The crime was reported 9:09 p.m. July 5.

Someone stole a wallet from a victims unlocked Honda Pilot on Morning Star Drive and used the victims credit card three times to make purchases. The crime was reported 2:45 p.m. July 11.

Three juveniles attempted to steal alcohol from Wal-mart, 170 Cochrane Plaza. They were followed by store employees as they ran away on foot in a westerly direction on Cochrane Road. The crime was reported 2:46 p.m. July 11.

Theft

A guest at Microtel Inn and Suites, 16245 Condit Road, stole a television, sheets and towels from a room. The theft was reported 4:17 p.m. July 6.

Stolen vehicle

A thief or thieves stole a gold 1998 Honda Accord from a parking spot outside Commonwealth Central Credit Union at Tennant Station. The owner of the vehicle told police he went into the bank to cash his check, and the car was gone when he came back outside. The crime was reported 4:46 p.m. July 6.

Someone stole a white Ford F350 pickup from a parking spot on Cory Drive. The crime was reported 6:44 a.m. July 10.

A black 2012 Audi A4 was stolen from Morning Star Drive. The crime was reported 4:16 p.m. July 10.

A dark gray Lexus IS250 was stolen from the parking lot of Wal-mart, 170 Cochrane Plaza. The crime was reported 1:31 a.m. July 8.

Someone stole a Ford F350 work truck from a parking spot on Cory Drive. The crime was reported 6:44 a.m. July 10.

Disturbance

Police wrote a social host citation and towed several vehicles in response to complaints of a loud party at a home on the 16600 block of Jackson Oaks Drive. The party was reported 11:53 p.m. July 8.

All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. Information is compiled from public records.
NEWTON  A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper resigned Tuesday, according to a North Carolina Department of Public Safety press release.

T.J. Williamsons resignation comes after video footage surfaced of him driving on the wrong side of U.S. 321 while responding to a street racing incident Sunday, according to a WSOC-TV report.

Williamson had been with the agency since August 2016, N.C. DPS Public Information Officer Michael Baker said in an email Tuesday.

Seven individuals have been charged in connection with the street racing incident Sunday, according to a North Carolina Highway Patrol Office press release.

None of the individuals are from North Carolina, with registrations from states including New Jersey, Maryland, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Anthony W. OBrien, 20, Hoang T. Nguyen, 44, Tran Hai Phi, 26, Haroon Masood, 27, and Saad Ahmed Gil, 25, were all charged with impeding traffic and prearranged racing. The quintet had each of their cars seized, as is procedure when charged with prearranged racing.

All five cars seized were BMWs, according to N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Kelly Stewart.

Brennan T. Rowe, 22, was charged with impeding traffic and exceeding the posted speed limit, and Tamer Arslanouk, 24, was charged with impeding traffic.

The charges come as a result of highway patrol troopers responding to a stretch of U.S. 321 Sunday afternoon near exit 41, resulting in the stoppage of nine passenger vehicles and one SUV, according to the release.

Multiple callers reported reckless and careless driving, Stewart said Tuesday, and they reported situations (where the cars were) impeding traffic, speeding, and most of all frightening the public to the point that (callers) described near collisions.

Our investigation revealed that there were 10 vehicles, one of which was an SUV that was filming (the cars driving recklessly), Stewart said.

Stewart also confirmed evidence was confiscated in the incident.

The seized vehicles are being held by the Catawba County Sheriffs Office, and will not be released until, this is resolved in court, Stewart said.

I also received a report from a caller (Tuesday) that they observed this behavior (with these cars) on I-85 in Charlotte, so it had been going on that long, Stewart said.

The seven individuals charged have pending court dates, with the confiscated cars set to remain in custody of the Catawba County Sheriffs Office until the cases are resolved.
Randy Nichols looks to his left and his right. Nothing.

He looks behind him and then straight ahead  not a soul in sight. He sits on the ground all alone, with a couple quarts of water and a tin can of food to hold him over for the next three days.

It may seem like hell for a 17-year-old boy. But with all thats going on in the world in 1967, maybe being alone is just what he needs.

I was never so glad to be away from somewhere in my entire life, he said.

Nichols was a member of the original crew that underwent the first North Carolina Outward Bound School expedition, which lasted more than 20 days in the summer of 67.

And on July 13, Nichols returned with other members of the original crew to welcome one of the newest crews back to the Table Rock base camp during their 22-day expedition.

Sharing a mindset

Nichols sits all alone on a bench outside the school on July 13 with the luscious mountains stretching as far as his eyes can see. He looks to his left and spots some rhododendron. The memories begin to flood his mind.

Dont be fooled by the wooded plant and its beautiful pink flowers. He remembers hacking away at the leaves and buds to clear paths back when he was a student.

The plant was nothing but trouble  except for that time he piled the plants together to form a tent. It won him a competition. It won him the luxury of not having to set up camp that night.

It may sound like a small prize, but the little things seem bigger when being challenged day in and day out. Thats what Outward Bound is all about. And thats what its been about in North Carolina for 50 years now.

But take a step back to 1941 when German educator Kurt Hahn had his vision. With merchant seamen dying due to a lack of training, he saw the need to develop a course that went beyond teaching skills. Hahn saw the need to teach people to believe in themselves, which led to the first Outward Bound school being established in Wales.

There is more in us than we know, Hahn said. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.

That mindset was passed on to Marjorie Buckley, who started the North Carolina school in 1967, and has since been passed on to current Executive Director Whitney Montgomery.

But in between these likeminded leaders was Executive Director John Huie, who led the school from 1977 to 1994 and was at the welcoming ceremony July 13. Although leaders and students have come and gone, Huie said some things always will stay the same.

You have ingredients to work with that are remarkable, he said. You have voluntary commitment on the part of the young person to learn and grow and accept challenges. You have an extraordinarily compassionate staff, a remarkable environment and a methodology  do your best, try your hardest, make and effort in every challenge.

Since the North Carolina school was established, Huie said it has impacted 150,000 lives. And as you are reading this article, students are most likely out in the wilderness being impacted now. Each crew is comprised of 12 members and two instructors, and 11 crews can be out at a time, Montgomery said.

But what exactly do they do out there?

Understanding the crew

Backpacking, rock climbing, camping and canoeing are just a few of the activities students partake in. Oh, and theres a day dedicated to solidarity and a service project, too.

While its thought we teach about wilderness, we actually teach through wilderness, Montgomery said.

Each activity is based on four pillars: physical fitness, craftsmanship, self-reliance and compassion. But Huie summed up the goal of Outward Bound in just two words: creative self-discovery.

For many young people, Outward Bound is a rite of passage experience, Huie said. And theyve been told this could be the hardest thing youve ever done.

And all 12 students in the crew agreed on July 13  it has been hard. Some said the weather has been challenging  especially the rain. Some said the canoeing was difficult and had the bandages to prove it.

But camper Robby Marsh said a challenge has been understanding and accommodating everyones different physical capabilities. Some people didnt know how to swim, and others had never even been long-term camping before, he said. Simply, everyone was different.

We know there is great value in the crew to have people from all walks of life, Montgomery said. When you get to know people really close in an Outward Bound context, you get to know them very deeply.

Part of the attraction to the North Carolina school, which is the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world, is the interesting topography and dedicated staff, Montgomery said. Also, about half of the students receive financial aid to participate.

The current students range in age from 14 to 18. Some are from the southeast while others came from as far as Seattle. And one original crew member came from as far as Pennsylvania to participate July 13.

Hitting a 50-year anniversary is a milestone in any program, Montgomery said. This specific gathering is to honor those original members for their boldness and what theyve accomplished because of their outward bound courses. Also, its about helping the older crew understand and youth and pairing them with someone they used to look like.

Sharing Experiences

Nichols sits together with an old crew member and a few members of the current Outward Bound crew, who still have five more days before their expedition is over.

Its time to share stories, but the older crew members do most of the talking  not because the current members are shy but because going back to the school is like going back in time. The memories suddenly become clearer.

But to tell the truth, the current crew members stories wouldnt compare anyways. Because the most important goal of Outward Bound is not the memories made on the expedition, Montgomery said. Its about the life lessons that students take with them and apply in the future.

And as for the future of the North Carolina Outward Bound program, Huie believes its impact will continue to last. After all, the ingredients have never changed, he said.

Its wonderful to see the school thriving, he said. And Im thrilled to know its got another 50 years ahead.

For more information on the North Carolina Outward Bound School, visit ncobs.org.

Ryan Wilusz can be reached at rwilusz@morganton.com or 828-432-8941.
Cairo has the cheapest taxi service in the world, a study by online used car dealership Carspring revealed on Tuesday.

The Egyptian capital came in first out of 80 cities for the cheapest taxis, which cost $0.55 per 3km for an inner city ride.

The website provided a breakdown of fares for journeys between the airport and the city centre, as well as the cost of waiting time per hour.

Cairo was followed by Mumbai, Jakarta, Bucharest and Mexico City.

The Swiss city of Zurich had the most expensive taxis, with an initial hire of $8.30 and a 3km ride costing $25.25.

Carspring used data provided by the official website of each city, as well as official airport sites and tourist information webpages.

Nothing beats the relief of hopping into a comfortable taxi after a long day of sightseeing in a new city, says Carspring cofounder Maximilian Vollenbroich.

But in some cities, this simply isnt affordable, and in other places, tourists are at risk of being overcharged. We hope our research helps travellers prepare for safe, fun, and budget-friendly travel in whatever ride best suits them.

In 2009, Egypt introduced the white taxi service, which had an updated fare metre.

Prior to the introduction of the new taxi, customers would often have to negotiate the price of rides with drivers.

However, some drivers have resorted to rigging their metres or claiming that they do not function.

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Vice-President Gabriela Michetti is in Egypt to celebrate 70 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations

Argentina's Vice-President Gabriela Michetti paid a visit to the Giza Plateau on Tuesday morning, stopping to admire the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Ashraf Mohi, Director General of Giza Plateau, told Ahram Online that Michettie captured her visit on camera, even planting a virtual "kiss" on the Sphinx.

Michetti is in Egypt to mark 70 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations, meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi at the presidential palace in Cairo on Sunday.

However, she took time out on Tuesday to head to the Giza Plateau, admiring the famous ancient structures.

Mohi told Ahram Online that Michetti was impressed with the view from the plateau and with the ancient Egyptian civilization in general.

She promised to return to Egypt soon with her family and make a longer tour of the plateau and its various sites.

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Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
For most Canadians, mortgage brokers continue to be crucial part of the home purchase process. In a recent analysis, Vancouver-based DLC accredited mortgage professional Geoff Lee offered some justifications as to why this remains so.Mortgage brokers have access to different lenders, giving consumers more chances to benefit from rates lower than those offered by banks. They can also often get you a SHARPER rate at your own bank simply because of the high volume that they do with them, Lee explained.Among the most important numbers that would-be buyers look at is the credit score. All lenders will look at [a] credit history and score first then they build a file around that. A mortgage broker can obtain [the] credit score in mere minutes, Lee stated.Brokers also help clients focus their searches. You may think that more options lead to better rates, but in fact lenders will frown upon you having your credit score pulled multiple times. This is where the benefits of using a broker come into play, Lee wrote. They will pull your score ONE time only and use that to shop around with lenders for you.More than anyone else, mortgage brokers have knowledge of just how fickle the market can be, and it is this understanding that can help them establish firmer ground for their clients in terms of expectations.Rates might be low right now, but new rules and implications can change things when you are up for renewal. Understand that you MUST be able to carry your mortgage payment on at a higher rate if new laws are put in place, Lee said.
'The big truck is still on ...
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Florida's agricultural commissioner, and leading Republican contender for governor, wants to allow open carry in the state.

Adam Putnam supports open carry, guns on college campuses

Putnam made remarks at event in Tallahassee

Putnam is the main Republican running for governor in 2018

Adam Putnam made the statement Tuesday at an event in Tallahassee.

Putnam said the state should have fewer "gun free zones." He also said he supports allowing guns on college campuses.

As agricultural commissioner, Putnam oversees the office that handles concealed weapons permits.

That Putnam supports reducing gun laws in Florida is not surprising. He expanded the state's concealed weapons license program so that it's the largest in the country, according to his campaign website. He's continually lowered fees for concealed weapon license applications and renewals.

In a video from his campaign, he promises to work with the NRA to protect gun rights and expand hunting on public lands.

Legislators have long proposed allowing open carry in the state and lifting or loosening "gun-free zone" rules for public schools, colleges and other facilities. Those efforts have not yet made it out of the Florida Legislature.

Putnam would not say if he would repeal the ban on guns in stadiums.

Putnam is the only major Republican who has officially announced his gubernatorial run. A son of a famous citrus growing family in Polk County, Putnam was also one of the youngest to serve in the U.S. House.

Other Republicans considering a run for the office in 2018 include House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Lutz, and State Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor. Latvala said this week that he would announce a decision either way next month.

Several Democrats have announced a run for the office as well, including former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and Orlando businessman Chris King. Orlando power lawyer and political fundraiser John Morgan and Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine are also considering runs.

To see a complete list of candidates for governor in 2018, go to the Florida Division of Elections website.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Don has lost its center of circulation and is now an open wave in the Caribbean.

Don has degenerated into an open wave

Another wave is forming, but no threat to land

RELATED: Formation graphics, models on the Weather Experts' Tropics page

Data from Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft shows Don would still have gusty winds as it made its way through the Caribbean islands Wednesday morning.

All tropical watches and warnings are no longer in effect.

Don is moving about 55 miles WSW of Grenada.

A second wave traveling behind Don remains in the central Atlantic with no threat to land, but it may show signs of some development in the next two to five days as it curves to the west-northwest at 10 to 15 mph.

Over the next few days, environmental conditions will become less conducive for further development.

Stay tuned for the latest each hour at :51 past with the complete Tropical Update.
The simple act of feeding yourself is often taken for granted by many. For others, including those with special needs, its an unachievable dream.

With the help of the Plainview Elks Lodge and four members, that dream has become a reality for Izzy Ortiz, an 8-year-old student at La Mesa Elementary School who suffers from cerebral palsy.

On June 29, Izzy received three of the Liftware Level stabilizing handheld spoons  one to use at school, one for his moms house and the other for his dads house.

The special utensils will allow him to finally be the independent little guy he is, and eat a meal on his own, explains Laurie Cruz, his mother.

This is no ordinary spoon, it will adjust to his movements so that he doesnt have an issue of keeping food in place, she explains.

As parents, there are things we can do and other things that take a little more time. Today, people showed how the statement there are still good people out there proves to be. As I drove away (from the Elks Lodge), I cried, only because I will never be able to explain how grateful we truly are. Thank you so very much for your selfless act.

According to the manufacturer, Liftware Level is designed to help people with limited hand and arm mobility, which may be related to cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, Huntingtons disease or post-stroke deficits, eat more easily.

Liftware Level uses electronic motion-stabilizing technology to keep the utensil level, regardless of how the users hand or arm twists, bends or movies. The leveling handle contains sensors that detect changes from the intended movement of the hand in three dimensions. To level the utensil, the computer directs two motors in the handle to bend the flexible gray joint, keeping the attachment at the right angle. The rechargeable battery is good for an hour of continuous use (about three meals), and the utensil attachment can be easily switched from soup spoon to fork.

Izzys mother had done her resource and came across these robotic spoons that a doctor in California developed, explains Mary ONeil, a school nurse and member of the Elks. They are designed for children and adults with trimmers from Parkinsons and other conditions which robs them of the necessary muscle control required to feed themselves. With these spoons, they are able to bring food right up to their mouth and it remains steady and stable.

Upon realizing that the robotic utensils would give her son a new sense of independence that comes with being able to feed himself, Izzys mom approached ONeil and the Elks Lodge for their help.

After we met and heard her request, I told her it might take a few weeks to raise the necessary funds, but I was wrong, ONeil says. Before the meeting was over, ONeil learned that four lodge members  Greg Noel, Scott McKelvy, Paul Herrera and David Gandy  already had donated enough money to buy Izzy three Liftware Level starter kits. Each kit costs $200, and extra utensil attachments are $35 more.

The local Elks Lodge is in the process of applying for grant funding specifically to assist special needs children, ONeil explains. In fact, we soon will be getting some glasses for another child.

In a separate Facebook post, ONeill adds, Special needs kids are so very awesome. They are so very loving. I hope that when we all see the beautiful smile on this little guys face, we just take a moment to remember what Elks do on a daily basis for these special little ones. I love my lodge.
Plainview police are investigating the forgery of a check that was reported about 2:15 p.m. Monday. The victim lives in the 1500 block of Milwaukee and reported a loss of $499 as a result of the crime.

--A 32-year-old Plainview man was held in Hale County jail Tuesday on $200 bond for disorderly conduct. He was arrested about 3:45 p.m. Monday in the 1400 block of Houston for breach of the peace.

--A 34-year-old Plainview woman was held in Hale County jail Tuesday on $1,500 bond for criminal trespass. She was arrested about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday in the 2400 block of North Columbia.

--Eight dollars was stolen from a business in the 600 block of West 24th about 1 p.m. Monday.

--The forgery of a financial instrument (counterfeiting) was reported in the 200 block of West Sixth about 10 a.m. Monday. The crime occurred between July 14-17.

--A residence in the 1900 block of Quincy was burglarized either Sunday or Monday, The break-in was discovered about 8 a.m. Monday. Missing is $80 in cash.

--A 19-year-old Plainview man was held in Hale County jail Tuesday on $1,500 for harassment. He was arrested about 5 p.m. Monday at 24th and Yonkers.

--A Magic Tracks toy, valued at $19, was stolen during a shoplifting incident in the 1800 block of West Fifth Street about 9:50 a.m. Monday.

--A 2009 Toyota Tundra pickup was vandalized either Saturday or Sunday in the 2400 block of Dimmitt Road. Damage ranged between $100 and $750 and includes a destroyed fuel filter worth $200.

--Two individuals, a man and a woman, were arrested about 4:40 a.m. Tuesday in the 2500 block of North Quincy on a variety of active misdemeanor arrest warrants. Information on charges and bonds were not available since they were still being processed when the inmate booking report was generated at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

(Anyone with information on crime in Plainview and Hale County may contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 293-8477 or 293-TIPS.)
PLAINVILLE More than a dozen people voiced opposition to the plan to close the gap in the Plainville-Southington section of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail during a meeting this week.



We are not numbers and houses, Plainville resident Roberta Lauria said during a Town Council meeting Monday.



The trail route was chosen at a steering committee meeting last week after four options were presented at a public meeting in May. The route runs through the Perron Road neighborhood lle where Lauria lives. Maria Dimauro, who also lives on Perron Road, said she is also against the proposed trail.



I strongly oppose, she said.



Other Perron Road residents cited safety and noise concerns. Many said they chose the neighborhood because it is a quiet area.



With a trail cutting through, residents said they fear it will no longer be a quiet street.



Tim Malone, principal planner for Capitol Region Council of Governments, said last week the route selected was the least expensive option and was mostly off town streets, which was a primary request in community surveys last year.



The plan will continue to be refined through the summer.



The proposed trail includes a box culvert under Route 72. Separated side paths will keep the trail away from motor vehicle traffic.



The route will start at Northwest Drive to the west and go through Tomasso Nature Park.



Many residents said the trail would disrupt the wildlife and quiet atmosphere of the park.



I think you need to look for other areas, said Marge Burris, Conservation Commission chair.



She said the nature park does not allow bikes or dogs, which are popular on the trail. Garbage could also be an issue.



The Town Council has taken no action on this whatsoever, Council Chairwoman Kathy Pugliese told residents Monday night.



The proposed route will be presented to the council for approval at a later date. A public meeting is expected to be held in September.



More information can be found at http://www.gapclosurestudy.com.



akus@record-journal.com 203-317-2448 Twitter: @KusReporter






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Academics and scholars must be mindful about using research done by only straight, white men, according to two scientists who argued that it oppresses diverse voices and bolsters the status of already privileged and established white male scholars.

Geographers Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argued in a recent paper that doing so also perpetuates what they call "white heteromasculinism," which they defined as a "system of oppression" that benefits only those who are "white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered." (Cisgendered describes people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.)

Mott, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Cockayne, who teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, argued that scholars or researchers disproportionately cite the work of white men, thereby unfairly adding credence to the body of knowledge they offer while ignoring the voices of other groups, like women and black male academics. Although citation seems like a mundane practice, the feminist professors argue that citing someone's work has implications on his or her ability to be hired, get promoted and obtain tenured status, among others.

"This important research has drawn direct attention to the continued underrepresentation and marginalization of women, people of color . . . To cite narrowly, to only cite white men . . . or to only cite established scholars, does a disservice not only to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism . . .," they wrote in the paper published recently in the journal Gender, Place and Culture.

Story continues below.

Mott and Cockayne did not immediately respond to questions from The Washington Post, but Mott told Campus Reform last week that they decided to write about citation practices after observing that research done by white men are relied upon more heavily than those done by experts from other backgrounds.

Work done by women and other minorities have often been overlooked by their peers, hindering their professional advancement and depriving disciplines of diverse perspectives, she argued.

When citations are predominantly those of the work of white, straight males, "this means that the views and knowledge that are represented do not reflect the experience of people from other backgrounds," she told Campus Reform. "When scholars continue to cite only white men on a given topic, they ignore the broader diversity of voices and researchers that are also doing important work on that topic."

In their 22-page paper, "Citation matters: mobilizing the politics of citation toward a practice of 'conscientious engagement,'" they explained that their work was motivated by "shared feelings of discomfort, frustration, and anger" over actions of fellow scholars and publication practices.

The authors offer what they describe as practical strategies for fellow geographers who work in a largely male-dominated discipline. According to the American Association of Geographers, men and women account for 62 percent and 38 percent of its members, respectively.

Scholars should read through their work and count all the citations before submitting their work for publication, and see how many people of diverse backgrounds - women, people of color, early-career scholars, graduate students and non-academics - are cited.

"Today, the field is more diverse, but this diversity is largely represented by earlier career scholars. Citing only tenured, established scholars means that these voices are ignored, especially when it is well-known that today's brutally competitive academic job market continues to privilege the white heteromasculinist body," they wrote.

Editors and reviewers also can act as watchdogs of sort by scrutinizing a scholar's body of citation, they argued.

Campus Reform writer said she asked the researchers whether the disparity in citations is simply because there are more men than women in the field of geography. In response, Cockayne said their point is that research done by "marginalized voices" is often ignored.
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A federal judge held antiabortion activist David Daleiden and his lawyers in contempt of court Monday for defying the judges order by posting videos of conversations secretly recorded at national meetings of abortion providers.

The lawyers claim they were protecting Daleidens right to a fair trial on criminal charges related to the recordings was a fig leaf to cover their plan to violate the (court order) ... to score a win in the court of public opinion, said U.S. District Judge William Orrick III of San Francisco.

He issued contempt orders against Daleiden, his nonprofit company, the Center for Medical Progress, and his criminal defense lawyers, Steve Cooley  a former Los Angeles County district attorney  and Brent Ferreira. Orrick said they would be required to reimburse the National Abortion Federation, whose conventions they entered, for the added security costs as a result of the inflammatory disclosures as well as attorneys fees, sums that add up to $140,000 so far.

Ferreira said the lawyers would appeal. The Center for Medical Progress issued a statement calling the contempt order an unprecedented attack on David Daleidens rights as a defendant in a criminal case, the felony charges filed by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra for recording the conversations without consent.

The bogus criminal case is so weak that the AG needs a biased, Planned Parenthood-affiliated judge to intervene in it to try to rig the outcome, Daleidens organization said.

Orrick had served until 2006 on the board of a San Francisco charity that hosted a Planned Parenthood clinic on its grounds. Daleiden claimed Orrick was biased and sought to remove him from the case, but another federal judge rejected that argument last month, finding no relationship between Orrick and Planned Parenthood or any other organization on either side of the issue.

Daleiden and others from the Center for Medical Progress posed as fetal researchers to enter the abortion federations conventions, in San Francisco in 2014 and in Baltimore in 2015, and surreptitiously record conversations that they posted on line.

They said they had been acting as investigative reporters. But Orrick ruled that they had obtained the recordings by fraud and issued a nationwide injunction in February 2016requiring them to remove the postings and prohibiting further disclosure.

Becerras office filed criminal charges this March against Daleiden and an employee, Sandra Merritt, under a California law forbidding the secret recording of conversations. After Cooley and Ferreira, Daleidens lawyers in that case, obtained the videos from Becerras office, links to the conversations and much more  144 hours of recordings from the conventions  were posted on YouTube by the lawyers and the Center for Medical Progress on May 25.

The abortion federation got YouTube to remove the links but said its members received numerous threats. Cooley and Ferreira, who refused to answer Orricks questions at a hearing last week, contended they were not bound by the judges orders in the National Abortion Federation lawsuit. But Orrick said the order clearly applied to Daleiden and to any lawyers representing him.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko




A leading business coalition has warned that employers could pick up the tab if millions of people lose their coverage under the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

David Lansky, president and chief executive of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a nonprofit organization whose members include Boeing, Chevron, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Intel, Walmart and the Walt Disney Company, told the Washington Post that the Senate proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act could push the costs of providing health care to uninsured people onto employers and their workers.

There are a couple of specific reasons for continuing to support an effective Medicaid program and an individual market is important, and one of those is its importance to business, Lansky said .

Approximately 177 million Americans receive insurance through employers. Until now those plans have been largely left out of the debate over the future of the Senate health bill, which would make long-term cuts to Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, and reshape the individual market where people buy their own coverage.

But if the bill is passed and more people are uninsured, or public sector programs facing federal funding cuts decrease their reimbursements, Lansky said hospitals will simply shift those costs onto commercially insured patients  namely employers and employees.

He added that if Medicaid is cut and the individual market doesnt provide affordable, comprehensive coverage, new workers may delay care until they get a job  which could make workers less productive and also create an initial surge in health-care costs that could increase premiums.

Any additional cuts to public programs are likely to make additional increases [on costs] to the employer and the employee  at a time that most of us are worried about what were spending on health care, Lansky said.

Until now, big employers have praised elements of the health-care bill that would benefit them and been restrained in any criticism. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been one of the few major industry groups to come out in support of the bill. The National Business Group on Health has praised the delay of the Cadillac tax that would have been leveled on generous health-care plans and the greater flexibility in how health savings accounts could be used.

The biggest impact on employers are the taxes and the added administrative requirements that have been imposed by the Affordable Care Act. We see the changes in those provisions, since they alleviate our concerns, as a good thing, said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy at the National Business Group on Health.

But Lansky said despite those benefits, employers are becoming aware that insurance markets arent as siloed as it was once thought.

Commercially insured patients generally pay higher rates for health care  in part to compensate for shortfalls created by public health-care programs and the uninsured. Lansky argued the cost-shifting would likely increase if millions more Americans were to lose coverage, as has been predicted. That could push health-care costs higher in the employer market.

(The most recent version of the Senate health bill has not yet been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, but a previous iteration was predicted to result in 22 million people becoming uninsured within a decade.)

Employers have a natural interest in a healthy workforce. If people delay health care while they are unemployed, they could be less productive - or need more health services - once they do start a new job.

Most large employers have been reluctant to be vocal about any health-care concerns. Its not their primary business or expertise - and many have other, industry-specific issues pending before lawmakers or the White House that are bigger priorities, so they do not want to use up their political capital by taking a side.

Theyre a little uncomfortable to be in this space; its very politically charged. And these companies have no desire to get in the midst of a partisan debate that isnt their primary issue, Lansky said. I think the stakes are very high, and they realize with this issue, its at least important to share our perspective - to educate policymakers there are some effects of these bills that may have a larger effect.
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Frontier Airlines has added six nonstop flights from the San Antonio International Airport to U.S. cities including Orlando, New Orleans and San Diego, the airline said Monday.

Starting in October, Frontier will begin flying passengers on three year-round, nonstop routes to New Orleans, Phoenix and San Diego that leave San Antonio at least three times a week, the Denver-based company announced Monday. Introductory fares start at $39.

These new non-stop flights will have a tremendous positive impact on business and tourism between all three cities, Russ Handy, the citys aviation director, said in a statement.

RELATED: Virgin America will be the latest airline brand to disappear

The airline will also launch three nonstop seasonal routes in spring 2018 to Cincinnati, Orlando and San Jose, the airline said in a news release.

The move marks a significant San Antonio expansion for the Denver-based airline, which now flies 11 routes out of San Antonio International Airport.

Frontier returned to the San Antonio market in May 2016 with a direct flight to Philadelphia and routes to Atlanta, Denver and Las Vegas after pulling out of the city in 2012. The airline launched a nonstop flight from San Antonio International Airport to Chicago OHare International Airport in April.

We see that theres a pent-up demand for low-cost fares in the market, Frontier spokesman Jim Faulkner said. The San Antonio market has responded very well to Frontiers offerings since it re-entered the market, Faulker said.

RELATED: Photos: Grenades, knives seized from passengers at San Antonio airport by TSA agents

The San Antonio International Airport currently hubs 38 nonstop routes to destinations in the U.S. and Mexico, including flights to Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. and JFK International Airport in New York City.

The airport added a nonstop Southwest flight to Kansas City in November and a nonstop Air Canada route to Toronto in May.

jfechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is appealing directly to President Donald Trump to continue a cost-sharing program for cotton farmers that was meant to be a short-term fix for low commodity prices and subsidized competition abroad.

We cant continue ignoring the economic turmoil of U.S. cotton farmers, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, said of the letter sent Tuesday. It was also signed by ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, and more than 100 others. Cotton producers cant wait until the next farm bill  they need help now.

Former U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in June 2016 announced a $300 million shot in the arm for cotton growers who have been struggling for years as high foreign supplies and a low U.S. dollar drove cotton prices south. While prices for almost all commodities have been low, cotton farmers also lost a bulk of their federal subsidies under the 2014 farm bill. The cuts were made to settle a trade dispute with Brazil  which accused the U.S. of undercutting the global market  but it was negotiated at a time when commodity prices were soaring.

Growers contend they are up against foreign governments subsidizing their own cotton growers and keeping prices artificially low.

As a consequence, Americas cotton farming families are struggling to compete on a lopsided global playing field heavily weighted to our competitors in countries like China and India, the letter reads.

Cotton farmers who are now pushing for the continued aid thought they would be able to get cotton redesignated as an oilseed during negotiations for the $1 trillion-plus omnibus spending bill, which passed in May. The designation would have restored cotton as a program crop eligible for price support programs, something Vilsack said he was not qualified to do administratively. But their proposal failed in the Senate.

So we were really just kind of back to square one after that, said Steve Verett, executive president of the Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Growers. We really had nothing left but to ask for the secretary to once again put in place the gin cost share assistance, since we had a precedence for that program.

The cotton ginning cost sharing program paid 40 percent of ginning costs in a one-time payment based on farmers 2015 acreage. Verett said the intentions of Tuesdays letter is to have the program continued until implementation of the next five-year farm bill.

Texas is the nations leading producer of cotton. While current USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue comes from Georgia, another cotton producing state, Verett said growers felt it necessary that their request to reach the president directly.

The secretary is certainly aware of the issue, but this letter from Congress is basically attempting to appeal to the president, to get him involved through his administration and through the (Office of Management and Budget), Verett said. Everythings about money and you know the secretary only has a certain amount of monetary authority to be able to do anything on his or her own.

Cotton growers have, meanwhile, had a roller coaster of a year. At the beginning of the year, future prices were around 74 cents a pound. Thats nowhere near the highs of more than $2 a pound in 2011, but still worth planting considering the soils promised abundant yields. But prices since then have fallen, with December futures now trading at around 68 cents.

Cotton produces both lint and seed, and up until recently cottonseed was selling so high it offset low prices for the fiber. But cottonseed has plunged to less than $150 a ton in recent months. In February it was valued at $203 a ton.

Thats below the break-even cost for ginning, so in addition to cotton prices not being that great now producers  unless something happens to cottonseed prices  theyre going to be paying to get their cotton ginned above and beyond the value of the cottonseed, Verett said.

According to the letter to Trump, planted U.S. cotton acreage is at a 30-year low, which affects a not only farms but also a $21 billion revenue sector that includes gins, warehouses, processors and manufacturers across a 17-state Cotton Belt.

lbrezosky@express-news.net
NEW YORK  Subway wants to freshen the look of its stores as it tries to stem a sales decline.

The sandwich chain says the redesign  which includes a brighter atmosphere, displays of vegetables behind the counter and ordering tablets  is the first major revamp since the early 2000s. The changes will take place as stores around the country are remodeled and new ones are built.

The makeover comes as Subways sales have fallen for four straight years amid competition from places including Jimmy Johns and Firehouse Subs. Since 2012, Subways average annual sales per store are down 13 percent at $420,000, according to industry tracker Technomic. Last year, its number of U.S. stores also shrank for the first time, though the company says it still has more than 26,200 domestic locations. Globally, the chain says it has more than 44,800.

Don Fertman, Subways chief development officer, says franchisee agreements require that stores be remodeled every seven to 10 years. The company says franchisees will have a variety of design options to pick from and that it is looking for ways to help them lower costs.

Fertman says the current Tuscany design was intended, in part, to reflect the Italian heritage of founder Fred DeLuca, who died in 2015. His sister, Suzanne Greco, is now CEO of the privately held company.

Its been working for us since the early 2000s, Fertman said, but noted that it was time to evolve.

In the U.S. and Canada, new stores will be built using the redesign. About 150 stores will get the new look in the coming months, Fertman said. By the end of next year, he said, 3,000 to 5,000 stores globally should have it, with most of those being in the United States and Canada. Subway says the stores with new designs will include new menu items, such as bread made without gluten.

Some have reservations about the plans.

John Gordon, a restaurant industry analyst, said Subway might be better off focusing on improving its food before turning to remodeling, given the tight financial situations of many franchisees.

While the company hasnt yet specified the cost, the remodeling looks like it will be pricey for franchisees, notes Keith Miller, who has three Subway stores in Northern California.

Miller, who is also head of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations, said two key questions are whether remodeling would boost sales, and whether franchisees can afford it. If franchisees cant afford it, Miller said its not really a solution.

How do you require someone to do something that they cant financially do? he said.
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Denman Heard was volunteering at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo when he got a message to call his wife, Laura, right away.

It was 1998, and the young lawyer was worried something was wrong with one of their children. But when he called back, she said she had found the perfect house for their family: an old house in River Oaks on more than an acre. It just needed a lot of work.

The house had the original boiler room and every commode was original, the couple recalled on a recent tour of the property, which was built in 1933 for philanthropist and construction magnate George R. Brown and his wife, Alice Pratt Brown.

"We made an offer immediately," said Denman Heard, now a prominent trial attorney.

After almost 20 years in the house, he and Laura are selling. They're asking $9.995 million for the 9,057-square-foot house designed by Houston architect John Thomas Rather Jr., an associate and later business partner of the prominent John F. Staub.

The Brown home is the second high-profile estate to be listed for sale this month in arguably Houston's most exclusive residential enclave.

Earlier this month, the owners of the 23,870-square-foot River Oaks estate at 1000 Kirby listed their home  built in the mid-1980s for a Saudi Arabian prince  for $20 million.

RELATED: River Oaks manse built for a prince hits the market

River Oaks has the highest average home prices among the high-end neighborhoods within the Beltway, according to recent data.

The Brown home at 3363 Inwood is relatively modest among many of its neighbors with a more overbearing street presence. It's shaded by mature trees and sits behind a low, ivy-covered fence.

"You can drive by this house and never really see it," listing agent Ruthie Newberry Porterfield, of of Martha Turner Sotheby's International Realty, said.

The Heards bought their house "as is" in 1998 for $2.1 million.

They liked the property, the location and the scale of the house, relative to some of the more opulent properties nearby.

"We didn't want to raise our kids with marble floors and spiral staircases," Denman Heard said.

They spent "several million dollars" renovating and restoring the home. They made sure additions were consistent with the original New England Colonial architecture.

RELATED: Realtors list late surgeon Denton Cooley's River Oaks estate

Architectural historian and Rice University lecturer Stephen Fox said the home has "wonderfully proportioned spaces" and that the additions are compatible with the original house.

"I think they really enhanced what was best about the house and have preserved the architecturally distinctive core of the house," he said.

On the recent tour, the Heards noted many of the home's historic features, from its original pegged Northern English Brown oak floors to its glassed-in sun room where Brown would relax after work.

They pointed out an area off the kitchen where there was a phone booth, where Brown would sit and make business calls.

"There's so much history that's happened at this house that probably has  and hasn't  been written about," Heard said.

LOOPED IN: Keep up with Houston's real estate scene on Nancy Sarnoff's podcast

One of the stories that's been passed down is about the Magnolia tree in the front yard.

It was said that Ladybird Johnson, who was good friends with Alice Brown, used to stay at the home frequently, and that the tree was planted for the first lady.

President Lyndon Johnson, Heard said, "had a seedling from the Andrew Jackson magnolia on the grounds of the White House brought down here and planted so that when Ladybird Johnson looked out of her window in the morning having coffee she could think of the president while he was working in Washington."

NOTE: There have been 38 home sales in River Oaks/Avalon through June at an average price of $2.69 million, compared with 36 sales and $3.08 million a year earlier, according to Greenwood King Properties. An earlier version of this story included market data from a report that was inaccurate.
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What are the odds? Two actors from San Antonio have starring roles in the same TV movie, Party Boat, which promises to be the ultimate wild-and-crazy summer romp.

Flame-haired Alamo City native Katie Leclerc, best known for her five seasons as hearing-impaired teen Daphne Vasquez on Freeforms Peabody-winning drama Switched at Birth, portrays the romantic lead in the film.

The second actor from San Antonio, Jc Caylen, is a 24-year-old Internet sensation who grew up in the Alamo City and graduated from OConnor High.

Party Boat debuts Aug. 24 on free ad-based streaming service Crackle.

In the comedy, Leclerc plays Kiley, a woman pursued by two guys  best friend Max and steady boyfriend Greg, whos about to pop the question.

Max (Brett Davern, Awkward) is a fun, albeit irresponsible, party animal. He aims to throw his most outrageous bash to date  celebrating Kileys 25th birthday  on a boat. He hopes the secret crush hes had on her since middle school finally will turn into something real.

When Max discovers the devoted, buttoned-up Greg (Sung Kang, Power) plans to propose, he embarks on an adventure to win her heart while throwing what a press release describes as an epic rager.

As for Caylen, who was born Justin Caylen Castillo, his character is a young lake patrol officer named Hicks. He and a more senior officer named Walsh, played by Jay Mohr (Jerry Maguire), try to bust the carousing kids.

Im so excited to see it, Caylen said in a phone chat. He described the film as funny but also visually pretty, particularly the many nighttime scenes filmed on Lake Lanier, just outside Atlanta.

S.A.s YouTube star

Caylens route to acting was different from your average aspiring thespian. He rose to fame via his own increasingly popular videos on YouTube.

The Houston native, who moved to San Antonio at age 6 and lived here until he was 20, attended Taft High for one year, then transferred to OConnor, where he graduated in 2011.

He tried college for a bit, attending the University of Texas-San Antonio, but felt it wasnt for him.

Meanwhile, he was pouring energy into making videos, using YouTube as an outlet, he said. In 2010, he made his first.

I put some clips together of me hanging out with my family, he said. It was on what we called Sunday fun day. Since it was at New Years, there were fireworks, and my grandma was drunk on wine.

He posted it on social media. It only got 30 views at first, he said, but that number steadily increased. Initially, his videos consisted of recording his large family, most of whom, including his mom and three siblings, still live in the Alamo City.

The first time I got 1,000 views I was so excited, he said.

He started with a simple digital camera, then graduated to more sophisticated equipment.

Online, he decided to drop his last name, Castillo, and went by Jc  a nickname since middle school  and his middle name, Caylen, to protect his privacy.

It didnt take long for YouTube to bring me out of my shell and give me confidence, he said. This led to a move to Los Angeles, where he and his friends soon started churning out scripts, acting in their videos and going viral.

His most-viewed video to date is titled 4 Guys Get Messy; which he made with three of his friends.

Basically, it consists of a big food fight, he said. We all were asked different questions, and if we didnt get the answers right, got smacked with different types of food.

Items included raw fish, maple syrup, raw eggs  you get the picture.

So far, Messy has clocked nearly 10 million YouTube views.

On that and other videos, Caylen comes through as a rambunctious bad boy. One, for instance, shows him and a pal attempting yoga poses while getting increasingly drunk. He also has made humorous use of his pets.

Caylen said hes more subdued in real life. I can be really shy. He also was the opposite of a cut-up in school. I was a good kid, didnt get into trouble.

Caylens movie roles

His video acting eventually led to movie roles. In last years Boo! A Madea Halloween, starring Tyler Perry in the title role, he played a fraternity pledge. He also was cast in the sequel, Boo II! A Madea Halloween, which will bow in October.

Party Boat appears to be his biggest acting break so far.

They added three more scenes with my friend Jay, he said, adding that hanging with Mohr was a laugh a minute.

It was such a fun time; hes very witty, comes up with jokes on the spot, goes off book a lot. Wed chill together  talk about all kinds of stuff.

Any advice to other young people hoping to make it big via YouTube?

Have fun, be original, but also be consistent and work hard, if you want to build a fan base, he said.

If, like Caylen, you want to make money off the videos by selling time to advertisers, keep your content friendly.

More on S.A.s Leclerc

As for his fellow San Antonian and Party Boat co-star Leclerc, 30, shes a more established actor.

She got her start on Veronica Mars in 2005 and has been working ever since.

Like her character in Switched at Birth, Leclerc  who was born in the Alamo City and divided her growing-up years among S.A., Colorado and California  has a hearing disorder and is proficient in American Sign Language.

At 20, she was diagnosed with Menieres disease, she said in an earlier interview, and suffers from fluctuating hearing loss. Though she described the condition as annoying, it hasnt stopped Leclerc from landing plum roles.

She also has starred in two Hallmark movies and some indie films. One of her more memorable recurring TV turns was as Emily, the deaf love interest of Raj Koothrappali, on The Big Bang Theory.

Jeanne Jakles column appears Wednesdays and Sundays in mySA.

jjakle@express-news.net
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NORWALK A local doctor implicated in last weeks crackdown on over-prescribing narcotic pain killers and defrauding health care insurers has been arrested in Canada.

Ramil Mansourov, 47, of Tokeneke Road, Darien, was arrested just hours after federal authorities here issued an alert that he may have fled to Canada.
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GREENWICH  The People of the State of Connecticut versus Chris Von Keyserling is going to a jury trial.

After months of legal deliberations between Von Keyserlings attorneys and state prosecutors, no agreement was reached on how to adjudicate the criminal case against him. Von Keyserling, a longtime member of the Representative Town Meeting, was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault earlier this year after he was accused of grabbing a womans body.
The Labor-Religion of Coalition of New York State convened a Truth Commission on Poverty in New York on July 13 at First United Methodist Church in Schenectady. At the public meeting, held in partnership with the national Poor People's Campaign, people told their stories about the effect of poverty and other injustices on their lives. This was the second meeting. A third will be on Long Island in September followed by a statewide gathering in Binghamton in October.
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NARDO CAMP, Ethiopia - Zeinab Taher once roamed through Ethiopia's arid Somali region tending a vast herd of 350 sheep, goats and cattle with her nine children.

Then the autumn rains failed and the grass that fed her animals didn't grow. No rain came this spring, either, and then the livestock began to die. Now, wrapped in her orange shawl, the 60-year-old huddles in a makeshift windblown camp along with several thousand others, depending on food and water from international agencies.

Another drought has seized the Horn of Africa, devastating the livestock herders in these already dry lands. Even as the government and aid agencies struggle to help them, there is a growing realization that with climate change, certain ways of life in certain parts of the world are becoming much more difficult to sustain.

In Ethiopia, which unlike neighboring Somalia or South Sudan has a strong, functioning government, the emergency effort has kept people alive. Authorities and aid agencies are trying to get beyond the immediate humanitarian response and encourage a shift to livelihoods less vulnerable to drought and climate shocks.

"In many pastoral lands, pastoral livelihoods are no longer viable," said Samir Wanmali, the deputy country director for the World Food Program.

An estimated 450,000 people in the southeastern Somali region have abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and retreated to camps to receive food aid in recent months, according to the International Organization for Migration.

At one of the camps, an expanse of sand and thorny scrub dotted with hundreds of huts made out of plastic tarps and twigs, Taher worried that even when the drought ended, she couldn't simply resume her traditional way of life.

"Even if it rained, we have no animals," she said. "I can't think of going back to herding."

It was just last year that a drought caused by the El Nino warming phenomenon in the Pacific baked Ethiopia's fertile highlands in the north and center of the country and left more than 10 million people needing food aid. This year, temperature changes in the Indian Ocean have caused a drought in the south and east of the country, a much more arid region populated by shepherds and their flocks.

There are an estimated 5 million people in Ethiopia's Somali region, of whom about 40 percent are pastoralists engaged in raising animals, according to the last census.

Last year, the Ethiopian government scraped together $700 million of its own funds together with nearly a billion dollars in international assistance to fight the drought. For this year's crisis, nowhere near the same funding is available as international donors grapple with severe hunger crises in two neighboring war-torn nations - Somalia and South Sudan - and, farther afield, Nigeria and Yemen.

"There's no appetite out there for another drought in Ethiopia,"said John Graham, the recently departed Ethiopia country director for Save the Children. "Donors are saying we are giving to fragile states, nonexistent states, because we know that no else is going to pick it up" in those countries. Ethiopia, by contrast, is stable, he noted.

It certainly isn't shaping up to be an easy year for Ethiopia, however, with the latest humanitarian assessment indicating 7.8 million people need food aid at a cost of nearly $1 billion. The Somali region was also battered by severe droughts in 2008 and 2011. With aid less certain, there is more urgency to work on long-term efforts to address the country's needs.

"It is a vicious cycle because you are literally going from one crisis to another with very little breathing room to take stock," Wanmali said . "It doesn't matter where within the country you are, the frequency of climate shocks is getting much closer."

The man with the unenviable task of heading up Ethiopia's disaster response is Mitiku Kassa, and he said last-minute donations from Britain, the United States and the European Union should secure food aid to this blighted region until the autumn.

"We realize that the emergency response is just a painkiller, aside from the real problem, so from our side we are working on water harvesting," he said, explaining that by digging deep wells and pulling water from the region's few rivers, the government can introduce irrigated agriculture and small farms in a land long known for just herding animals.

Local authorities in the district where Taher and thousands of others have lost their flocks say this effortis the way forward in the face of diminishing rains every year.

"It is getting worse and worse, and we are trying to raise awareness to tell people to change their lifestyle to agro-pastoralist," said Ali Maadey Ali, the acting administrator for the district. The plan is to get people to grow some food and fodder on irrigated land while owning smaller herds that would be easier to feed in times of drought.

Local officials have been trying to show community elders examples of farms where people have made the transition. From the air, along the area's main river, a visitor can see a few irrigated fields of corn and other crops glowing green amid the beige wasteland of sand.

"It is tough, it takes time and the budget allocated by the government to this transformation is very low," Ali acknowledged.

For people who have lived only one way for generations, becoming something else can be daunting.

" We don't have any farming skills," said Kira Ali, 63, who lives in the temporary camp with Taher. As it is, she yearns to be out of the squalid, dense camp.

"Turning to a new life would be very hard - I was living with my animals and we moved from place to place," she recalled. "Here, we are confined."

The drought, however, can be a persuasive force. Standing next to her, Taher is starting to come around to the idea of changing her life.

"The government wants us to live in a permanent place, with schools and health centers and leave behind this life," she said. "We are far from water; if we go to water maybe we could farm." She said, though, that she would need a lot of help to learn how.

Under Ethiopia's previous Marxist regime, inhabitants of drought-stricken regions were sometimes forcibly relocated to new areas and told to farm - often with disastrous results.

Current efforts rely on the people being ready for a change. According to Michael Jacobs, who heads a U.S. government-funded aid program called PRIME to develop the livestock sector, in these times of hardship many are looking for new livelihoods.

"If we get a series of these kinds of droughts of this magnitude, livestock populations will just plummet and then there should be a large exodus out of that livelihood," he said. "More than half may not be pastoralists again."

Rather than promote farming, his program works on training people in other professions, such as carpentry, welding and mechanics, more suited to the growing urban environments of these regions. At the same time, the program works on modernizing the country's livestock sector while involving fewer people.

Jacobs explained that although animal raising is always going to be part of Ethiopian culture, it is going to look very different moving forward.

"The way it's been done in the past will end, but that's a normal progression as areas become more developed," he said.

Back in the camp, a few lucky people have other sources of income they hope will see them through the crisis. Abdallahi Abdulay, 55, said he lost the herds of cattle and goats that had let him support three wives and 18 children. But he has some land.

"I can see a way to bring back my life," said the tall man dressed in a sarong, a blue embroidered shawl on his head.

"If the rains come, we have some rain-fed land, and if we plant and get a harvest, I can buy new animals."
Minneapolis

Relatives and neighbors of an Australian woman who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police over the weekend demanded answers Monday about her death, with one calling the shooting of the meditation teacher and bride-to-be "an execution."

Details about what led to the shooting remained unclear, with authorities saying only that officers were responding to a 911 call about a possible assault when she was killed.

The woman's family members released a statement Monday through Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, saying they "are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened."

Minneapolis authorities have not released the woman's name. The Star Tribune identified her as Justine Damond, 40, from Sydney, Australia. The newspaper reported that she was engaged to be married and had already taken her fiance's last name.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released a statement Sunday saying two Minneapolis officers responded to the call late Saturday. At some point, an officer fired a gun, hitting Damond. The BCA said no weapons were found at the scene.

Local media identified the officer who fired his weapon as Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American.

His attorney, Tom Plunkett, released a statement to Minneapolis television station WCCO saying: "We take this seriously with great compassion for all persons who are being touched by this." Plunkett did not return messages from The Associated Press.

The Star Tribune, citing three people with knowledge of the shooting, said Damond had called 911 about a possible assault in the alley behind her house.

The three people said two officers pulled into the alley in a single squad car. Damond, wearing pajamas, stood at the driver's side door and talked to the driver. The newspaper's sources said the officer in the passenger seat shot Damond through the driver's side door.

Police referred questions to the BCA. A spokeswoman for the agency did not return messages seeking to confirm that account. A Monday statement from the BCA said more information would be provided once the officers were interviewed.

Neighbor Joan Hargrave called the killing "an execution" and said there was no reason for a well-trained officer to see Damond as a threat.

"This is a tragedy  that someone who's asking for help would call the police and get shot by the police," Hargrave said.
BERLIN - A report released Tuesday found that at least 547 former members of Germany's most storied Catholic choir for boys were physically or sexually abused, the latest revelation in a case that has roiled the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg, led for many years by the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, Georg Ratzinger.

The abuse was carried out by priests and teachers at the prestigious choir in southeast Germany, according to a lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who was tasked with carrying out an independent investigation. All told, he discovered 500 cases of physical abuse and 67 cases of sexual abuse.

Claims of misconduct spilled into public view in 2010, amid mounting charges across the continent that the Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of young boys. The controversy has proven especially fraught for Germany, where Benedict served as archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. After that, he led the branch of the Vatican, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for examining allegations of abuse.

The alleged wrongdoing dates from 1945 to 1992, Weber wrote in his 440-page report, though much of it was concentrated in the 1960s and 1970s, when Ratzinger was in charge. Weber has said he had to "assume" the pope's brother, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994, knew of sexual abuse, though Ratzinger, now 93, has denied this.

The former choir director told German media in 2010 that he had slapped pupils in the face but was unaware of the level of brutality described by victims.

"Pupils told me on concert trips about what went on, but it didn't dawn on me from their stories that I should do something," Ratzinger said. "I ask the victims for forgiveness." At the same time, Ratzinger, has called it "insane" to scrutinize every wrongdoing over the past half-century, noting that corporal punishment was once widely practiced.

But Weber's conclusions point to a more systematic form of mistreatment. He found that 49 teachers and church officials bore responsibility for turning life at the choir, and the associated boarding school, into "hell," as victims described it. For many, Weber wrote, their stay at the school was "the worst time of their lives, characterized by fear, violence and hopelessness."

The Catholic Church in Regensburg didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday morning, Michael Fuchs, a vicar general, said the church must play a more active role in future investigations.

"We could have done a lot better," he said, according to a German public broadcaster.

Because many of the incidents described occurred decades ago, the cases can no longer be tried in German courts.

Weber's first report, in early 2016, found that 231 young boys had been abused. That was triple the number published by the Regensburg diocese the previous year. The figures released Tuesday are higher still.

- - -

The Washington Post's Alexandra Rojkov contributed to this report.
Campaigns to manipulate public opinion through false or misleading social media postings have become standard political practice across much of the world, with information ministries, specialized military units and political operatives shaping the flow of information in dozens of countries, a British research group reported Monday.

These propaganda efforts exploit every major social media platform - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and beyond - and rely on both human users and computerized "bots" that can dramatically amplify the power of disinformation campaigns by automating the process of preparing and delivering posts. Bots interact with human users and also with other bots.

Though most social media platforms are designed and run by corporations based the United States, the platforms are infiltrated almost immediately upon their release to the public by a range of international actors skilled at using information to advance political agendas, both within their own countries and often beyond, said the researchers from Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Research Project.

"The government propaganda evolved with social media and has grown along with it," said Philip N. Howard, an Oxford professor and co-author of the report, called "Troops, trolls and trouble makers: A global inventory of organized social media manipulation."

The report draws on news accounts of social media propaganda in 29 countries to reach broader conclusions about the global growth of various techniques, including issuing false news reports, attacking journalists or countering critical social media posts with messages supporting a government position or political view.

These efforts are often, though not always, clandestine, with the origin of the social media posts obscured through phony account information. Automated bot accounts often play key roles by automatically creating social media posts, responding to other users and echoing select themes in a way that are very difficult to distinguish from ordinary human users. Bots can post far more often than human users, in some cases more than 1,000 times a day; human users dubbed "cyborgs" rely on similar automation technology to bolster the power of their accounts as well.

Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram, declined to comment on the report. Neither company was singled out in the report, though Twitter and Facebook have become particularly popular targets for social media manipulation because of their global reach.

Howard said he and the report's other lead researcher, Oxford's Samantha Bradshaw, were struck by how much of the propaganda activity and innovation happened in Western-style democracies, including Britain, the United States, Israel, Australia and Mexico.

The report, citing a previously published news account, said that Israel had 350 social media accounts on multiple platforms, operating in English, Hebrew and Arabic. A British propaganda campaign posts fake YouTube videos in an attempt to prevent Muslims from becoming radicalized and joining the war in Syria, the report said. And political forces in Mexico used bots and human users to attack journalists and spread disinformation over social media.

In some cases, these efforts involved full-blown government bureaucracies, with a steady number of employees and fixed payrolls. Other times bands of online activists or ad-hoc groups of paid workers worked together for a single campaign before being disbanded. Some efforts also get outsourced to private vendors that specialize in influencing opinion through social media.

Though Russia leads the world in the sophistication of its online propaganda efforts, Howard said that efforts to support Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign broke new ground for using social media to shape political opinion. Howard's group and others have previously reported that Twitter bots supporting Trump were far more vocal and organized than bots supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton, particularly in the closing days of the election.

"It's the presidential election cycles that put tens of millions of dollars into these innovations," Howard said. "The big-money innovations happen in the United States and then get adopted everywhere."

Other researchers have documented the power of social media to bolster Trump's surprise electoral success and shown that some of those social media resources are now spreading to other nations.

The spread of unflattering documents about French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron - now debunked as phony - got key support in the final days of the May election from Twitter bots that also had supported Trump in the U.S., according to Emilio Ferrara, a researcher at the University of Southern California.

He analyzed 17 million tweets, finding that bots based outside of France focused on different issues than human Twitter users in France. His latest report, published this month, suggested the possibility of "a black-market for reusable political-disinformation bots."

The use of these techniques is growing rapidly as bots and other techniques for manipulating opinion on social media become cheaper and easier to use, and as evidence grows of their effectiveness. Many companies now sell bot accounts by the thousands and, for a fee, will manage them for customers, Ferrara said.

He and other researchers said that the social media platforms do not do enough to combat the spread of bots and the resulting propaganda. The impact goes beyond electoral politics to hot-button issues such as climate change and the safety of vaccines.

"The vast majority of people. . . they would be surprised at the extent to which these platforms are used for political manipulation," Ferrara said. "Especially with nobody doing anything about it."

Howard's group at Oxford also has detected bots that supported Trump working on other issues globally, often in concert with bots supporting "alt-right" causes and also Russian propaganda campaigns.

"They generate so much content - and they share each other's content - that it's hard to disaggregate the networks," Howard said.
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NORWALK  Deborah Benns daughter  Z, as she prefers to be called  spends her days volunteering in the community, attending cooking classes and hanging out with friends.

Z is a participant at STAR, Inc., a Norwalk-based nonprofit provider of day and residential services for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Benn, a single parent, counts on STARs services to care for her 38-year-old daughter, who cannot be left alone.

I am the sole provider for her, Benn said. This program is my lifeline. If my daughter doesnt come to this program, I have nothing. I cant work. If I cant work, we cant keep our home, and if I cant keep our home, what am I to do? The services that STAR provides are the best services that Ive ever, ever had a chance to be in.

But on July 26, the state budget impasse cuts will result in the first of six planned furlough days, as designated by the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services. Benn will have to choose between losing her summer job as a paraprofessional with the Norwalk School District to stay home and take care of her daughter for the day, or hiring someone to take care of Z, a costly expense for the single mother.

One thing is for sure, though, STAR will be closed for the day.

I dont know what Im going to do, Benn said through tears. It makes me very emotional. All weekend long, all I could think is, What am I going to do? One day out of that month will devastate me. You put six into the year? I dont know how Im going to make it. Its not right. There are other programs that you can cut. These are the most vulnerable people in the state. They are in this program because they cant stay home.

More Information Furlough days, as designated by the State of Connecticut Department of Developmental Services Wednesday July 26, 2017 Wednesday August 23, 2017 Wednesday September 27, 2017 Wednesday October 25, 2017 Wednesday February 28, 2017 Wednesday April 25, 2017 See More Collapse

The state has yet to pass a biannual budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. As a result, an emergency interim budget was put in place by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The interim budget cut DDS funding by 10 percent for day services and up to 18 percent for residential services at places like STAR. Roughly 90 percent of the states population of people with developmental disabilities are cared for in private facilities like STAR.

State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk said the crisis at STAR is only further evidence of the need for an approved budget as soon as possible.

Thats why its extremely important to get a biannual budget as quickly as possible, Duff said. Ive been in meetings to work to hammer out an agreement. The work continues daily to try and hammer out an agreement for a biannual budget. I will say thats why the Senate, in a bipartisan manner, wanted to vote on the governors proposed mini-budget. Unfortunately the House did not take that up. That mini-budget would have helped a lot of our nonprofit providers.

Katie Banzhaf, STARs executive director, said, with tears in her own eyes, shes notified all the families that will be affected by the furlough day, shes notified the staff they wont be paid July 26 and shes notified the community organizations that count on STARs participants for volunteers.

On a normal day at STAR, day program participants are busy with activities, helping in the kitchen volunteering in the community. During the week, the Wolfpit Avenue facility is busy, bursting at the seams with activity and excitement.

It'll look like a Saturday here, Banzhaf said of the planned midweek shutdown.

STAR has an annual budget of $12 million, comprised of state funding, Medicaid funding and more than $1 million in private philanthropy. The governors interim budget could result in a roughly $1 million loss for STAR.

For those that live in STARs residential facilities full time, Banzhaf said the organization cant afford to pay overtime to the regular employees. Instead, shell have to hire temporary employees or turn to managers, who are exempt from overtime requirements, to cover the staffing requirements.

Obviously I have very serious concerns for our staff because theyre not making high wages to begin with, then to have six days unpaid, people are going to lose their housing," Banzhaf said. People are not going to make mortgages. It has a direct impact on them."

But the staff, it seems, are more concerned with the impact on the clients.

Solange Buissereth, who works directly with the clients on everything from community trips to projects to toileting and meal assistance, could only express despair as tears streamed down her face.

I just feel very emotional just by listening to Zs mother, Buissereth said. I do feel that if they cut the budget, its going to affect the clients because they count on coming here. I work directly with them, with their daily routine every day ... Cutting the budget will affect everyone. Staff, parents and the clients, most of all.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
A commission set to convene Wednesday to advise President Donald Trump on "election integrity" includes the publisher of "Alien Invasion II," a report on undocumented immigrants who mysteriously showed up on the voter rolls in Virginia.

Another member is known for scanning obituaries in his West Virginia county to make sure dead people are promptly deleted from voter lists. Another championed some of the strictest voter identification laws in the country during her days in the Indiana legislature.

And yet another warned nearly a decade ago of the "possibility for voter fraud on a scale never seen before in this country." During his tenure as Ohio secretary of state, the Social Security numbers of 1.2 million state voters were accidentally posted on the agency's website.

Even before this panel of 12 holds its first official meeting at the White House complex, it has sparked more controversy - and more questions about its competency - than any presidential advisory commission in memory.

Spawned by Trump's baseless claim that illegal voting cost him the popular vote against Democrat Hillary Clinton in last year's election, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity will gather Wednesday to chart its agenda, led by Vice President Mike Pence and guided by a goal to shore up Americans' confidence in voting systems.

The commission's first public action - requesting massive amounts of voter data from the states - seems to have had the opposite effect.

The request late last month was met with stiff resistance, even from many Republican-led states, and prompted multiple lawsuits that accuse the panel of breaching the privacy of tens of millions of Americans and offering no indication of what it plans to do with the data, including home addresses, dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers.

In the wake of those concerns, the commission posted on its website last week hundreds of comments it had received about its work - almost all of them negative and some laced with profanity - and drew criticism for not redacting, in some cases, the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and employers of those weighing in.

On Tuesday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund became at least the seventh party to sue the commission in federal court. The group alleged that the panel "was formed with the intent to discriminate against voters of color in violation of the Constitution."

Separately, a federal judge on Tuesday declined to block the commission from meeting as planned Wednesday, while she considers challenges by two civil rights groups that charge that the voting panel was violating government transparency laws.

Members of the commission, which is billed as bipartisan, say they are undeterred.

"I think the hysterical reaction to this commission is just that: hysterical," said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a Fox News Channel commentator.

"I long ago stopped worrying about people who say mean things about me because I wrote about actual cases of voter fraud," said von Spakovsky, adding he was bewildered by how many people seemed "scared" of an advisory commission.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, R, the vice chairman and driving force behind the panel, dismissed much of the criticism as "irrational hyperventilating" and said the collection of data will be integral to quantifying the extent to which voter fraud is a problem - an exercise that will inform recommendations on changes in state and federal laws over the next year.

"Part of the commission's job is to just put data on the table and say, 'Well, here's what we know' - and let people draw their own conclusions about how big or small the problem is," Kobach said. "It seems to me that's a good thing, no matter what one's party and what one's perspective."

Data collection has been put on hold pending the decision on one of the lawsuits. Kobach and other commission members said they are seeking only data that states already make public - a point they argue has been lost.

Critics say the past actions of several of the panel's leading members - including Kobach, who is now running for governor of Kansas - provide little comfort.

"Secretary Kobach wants permission to do surgery with a chain saw quickly on a rickety table," said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who was deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's civil rights division during the Obama administration. "Some of the other folks he's got on the commission have shown themselves to be equally careless."

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, said her organization fears that the commission will push "discriminatory" voter ID laws, "burdensome, documentary proof of citizenship requirements" and undertake other efforts that "could lead to massive purging of the voter registration rolls."

In recent years, Kobach has become an outspoken critic of the U.S. voting system and claimed that voting fraud is rampant.

He has turned his perch in Kansas into a powerful platform for his ideas. Next to his desk in Topeka, which overlooks the state capitol, is an 1892 copper ballot box with a secure lock, lent to him by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, for whom Kobach worked in 2001 as a White House Fellow.

On Kobach's office wall is a framed copy of a voting law he helped craft, the 2011 Secure and Fair Elections Act, which requires citizens who register to vote using the state voter form to provide certain proof-of-citizenship documents, such as a birth certificate or a passport. Those with incomplete voter registration applications are removed from the rolls after 90 days and must try to re-register. In the past couple of years, he has pushed for other states to require similar proof of citizenship.

"The reason we have to do this is there is a significant problem in Kansas and in the rest of the country of aliens getting on our voting rolls," Kobach said.

Other commission members who've been targeted by critics include von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams, a longtime crusader against alleged voter fraud by undocumented immigrants.

"Election fraud, whether it's phony voter registration, illegal absentee ballots, vote-buying, shady recounts or old-fashioned ballot stuffing, can be found in every part of the United States," van Spakovsky wrote with a co-author in the 2012 book "Who's Counting?"

He said in an interview that the commission is seeking data to build on previous studies that have found people registered to vote in more than one state. The panel wants to go further by showing how many of those are actually voting in multiple states, he said.

In states where data requests have been rebuffed, the commission is contemplating filing public-records requests to obtain what it wants. In other instances, members said, they are willing to comply with procedures that require payment for the data. One state, Alabama, has said that would cost more than $32,000. The commission has an estimated budget of $500,000.

Van Spakovsky also suggested another target for data: lists kept by clerks in courthouses nationwide of jurors, culled from voter rolls, who are dismissed because they are noncitizens.

Adams, who previously served in the voting rights section of the Justice Department and heads a foundation that produced this year's report on the "alien invasion" in Virginia, said in a recent Fox News Channel interview that those complaining about the commission are "flat-earthers."

"They want to hide the truth," he said.

Levitt said Trump's panel stands in "pretty stark" contrast to a 2013 presidential election commission that "was designed to make bipartisan recommendations and based on careful research." The Obama-era commission, he said, was co-chaired by "longtime exceedingly well-respected" Democratic and Republican campaign lawyers.

The Trump commission includes seven Republicans and five Democrats. Pence and Kobach, both Republicans, occupy the chairman and vice chairman slots.

The commission includes no members who live west of Kansas - meaning the nation's most populous state, California, is not represented, nor is the rapidly growing Southwest.

The only Latino named to the panel, Maryland Deputy Secretary of State Luis Borunda, a Republican, has already resigned.

The commission's only African American member is former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell, a Republican who was accused of voter suppression during his tenure by ordering county clerks to not accept voter registrations on anything less than 80-pound stock paper, the thickness of a postcard.

The commission's five Democratic members include two secretaries of state whom Kobach knows well, Bill Gardner of New Hampshire and Matthew Dunlap of Maine, who said in an interview that his inclusion remains "a little bit of a mystery to me."

The three other Democrats are local officials in Alabama, Arkansas and West Virginia with connections to the Republican secretaries of state in their states, who in turn have relationships with Kobach.

That includes David Dunn, a former Arkansas state legislator who now runs a government relations firm and said he learned of his appointment when the White House sent out a news release announcing it.

"I think they were looking for a Southern Democrat to serve on the commission for some diversity," he said.

Dunn said he is skeptical of Trump's claim about losing the popular vote because of illegal voting and of claims of widespread voter fraud more broadly.

But, he added, "I'm certainly open to considering what makes people feel that way."

Mark Rhodes, the county clerk in Wood County, West Virginia, who has pared his county's voter rolls by combing through obituaries and death certificates, said he has not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud.

"I can speak for Wood County, West Virginia, and the local clerks around here that I deal with, that it's not a concern," Rhodes said.

Alan King, a probate judge in Jefferson County, Alabama, insists that he will not be a "rubber stamp" for the commission. King, who serves as his county's chief election official, said he is wary of talk about widespread voter fraud.

"If this commission is going to go down that road, there needs to be hard, cold facts," he said.

Dunlap, Maine's secretary of state, said he agreed to serve on the panel with the hope that the exercise will prove purveyors of widespread voter fraud wrong. That includes Trump's claims about millions of illegal votes, he said.

"I would be astonished to see anything that comes close to that, even one-tenth of that, even one-twentieth of that," Dunlap said. "My premise I work from is that most of the public is very law-abiding."

---

The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu and Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.
ISTANBUL - A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the formal arrest of Amnesty International's Turkey director and five other human rights workers in a sign of what rights advocates say is the government's growing intolerance of critical voices.

The Amnesty director, Idil Eser, was detained along with nine other human rights advocates this month during a raid on a hotel where the group was attending a workshop. The formal charges were not immediately available Tuesday, but Amnesty said in a statement that the rights workers had been held on the "unfounded suspicion of 'committing crime in the name of terrorist organization without being a member.' "

Four members of the group were released on bail on Tuesday, but remain under investigation, Amnesty said. "This is not a legitimate prosecution," Salil Shetty, Amnesty's international director, said in a statement. "This is a politically motivated persecution that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey."

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrested more than 50,000 people in the year since an attempted coup by renegade soldiers last July, according to Justice Ministry figures. Tens of thousands of people have also been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. Authorities have said their campaign is aimed at followers of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric whom authorities have called the mastermind of the coup, as well as at Kurdish militants.

During ceremonies commemorating the failed coup Saturday, Erdogan promised that the state's hunt for its enemies would continue, vowing that "none of the traitors who betrayed this country will remain unpunished."

Human rights group including Amnesty have said that the post-coup arrests and purges have swept up ordinary dissidents, critics or innocent citizens. In a recent Amnesty report, some people dismissed from their jobs said they had fallen under scrutiny because of union activism or else been the victims of score-settling.

About two weeks after the release of that report, Turkish police arrested Taner Kilic, Amnesty's Turkey board chairman, and charged him with being a member of Gulen's organization.

As part of its campaign to protest the arrests this month, Amnesty called attention to its past advocacy on behalf of Erdogan, who was jailed in 1998 when he was the mayor of Istanbul, for reading a poem at a demonstration. The organization said it had written a letter to the Turkish government demanding Erdogan's release, had declared him a prisoner of conscience and "launched a global campaign on his behalf."

In a comment on the arrests, Erdogan questioned why the human rights workers had been gathering at the hotel and linked their meeting to the "continuation of July 15," the day of the attempted coup.

Amnesty said the gathering was for a workshop on "digital security and information management." Those arrested on Tuesday also included two foreign nationals, a Swedish citizen and a German citizen, who were the workshop trainers.
Not everyone wants to shut down Backpage.com. The online classified ad site, which generates millions of dollars in revenue by hosting sex-related ads, has been vilified for allowing apparent prostitution ads that sometimes include child trafficking victims. Backpage has claimed for years it is merely a passive host of third-party content, but a story last week in The Washington Post showed that Backpage has been using a contractor in the Philippines to attract more sex advertisers, and sex customers, to its sites around the world.

But Backpage argues there's an upside to all this and some anti-trafficking advocates agree: The site provides a responsive, reliable repository for local and federal investigators to track illegal activity, from prostitution to murder. Backpage responds quickly to subpoenas and provides testimony and research to police and prosecutors. Shutting down Backpage's "dating" section would disperse those ads to many smaller and foreign sites who might not be so helpful to American investigators trying to rescue a child or capture a pimp.

"We harness the technologies that have been created," Backpage general counsel Liz McDougall told an Arizona human trafficking task force in 2013, "and use them intelligently to find and stop the perpetrators of this horrific crime. . . . Backpage has no tolerance for sex trafficking. As a result, Backpage is one of the best places in America to get busted trafficking a child."

Statements like these draw extreme skepticism from many anti-trafficking groups, especially those who work with girls once prostituted through Backpage. Eight civil suits have been filed this year alone by women who were underage and sold for sex on Backpage, with renowned attorney David Boies serving as lead counsel in two of them. The suits seek money and injunctions as a way to persuade Backpage to stop hosting sex ads. Five members of Congress last week called for the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of the site.

But it's a tougher call for law enforcement. They have worked with Backpage for years, and they have gotten information and convictions. McDougall, who declined to speak to The Post on the record, quoted numerous examples in 2013 of law enforcement officials thanking Backpage for their help.

"Mr. Ferrer," went one email from the FBI in 2011, referring to Backpage chief executive Carl Ferrer, "We want to submit your name for recognition of your assistance following this case."

"We appreciate Backpage's vigilance to help protect kids," an email from Texas said in 2011.

"Your company's level of cooperation is not the norm," said an email from a Massachusetts agency in 2011, "and makes a huge difference in our ability to target and ultimately arrest the offender."

We reached out to a number of law enforcement groups who investigate human trafficking, and several of them didn't want to discuss Backpage. Defending Backpage is "not a popular position to take in the law enforcement world," said Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, a human trafficking expert who often testifies in such cases. "In my talks with law enforcement, they do say they use it as a tool."

Mehlman-Orozco said of the campaign against Backpage, "If these ads ceased to exist would these women not be sold? The answer is no. There's not a single piece of empirical research to suggest that. It will simply displace these ads."

The administrator of a smaller rival site has said he is hoping that Backpage gets shut down, Mehlman-Orozco said, because they would scoop up all the sex ads and avoid American law enforcement because it is located outside the country. "Why on earth would anybody who opposes human trafficking," she said, "risk the advertisements being displaced to a non-U.S. website? It makes no sense." She also noted that social media are now involved: Facebook has been used to recruit girls for prostitution, and prostitutes now advertise their services on Twitter.

McDougall has noted that the courts have repeatedly upheld Backpage's right to publish adult content and that their First Amendment right to free speech protects them. In addition, the Communications Decency Act holds that websites that merely host third-party content are not liable for that content.

But beyond legal theory, there's the actual practice, and that's where there is a stark divide. McDougall said in 2013 that "Backpage's role in the rescue of victims and conviction of predators in the United States gets short shrift - if it is mentioned at all." She said, "Backpage has developed a team and systems in order to respond to law enforcement subpoenas within 24 hours or less," and that in one case they were able to facilitate three same-day rescues of trafficked children by providing data to the vice lieutenant within an hour of his call.

Lois Lee, who has worked on the streets of Los Angeles for 38 years rescuing child trafficking victims, is a big believer in Backpage, and strongly agreed with Mehlman-Orozco that shutting one website would have no impact on child trafficking.

"The parents or lawyers are able to find these kids. I know," Lee said in a telephone interview. "Backpage becomes a place where everyone on the street can find their kid." When Backpage shut down its adult ads category in January, in response to a highly critical report from a Senate subcommittee, Lee issued a public statement calling it "a sad day for America's children victimized by prostitution." [The ads have reappeared in the "dating" category.]

Lee acknowledges that Backpage has provided significant funding to her group Children of the Night. They also allow her to post free ads on the site for teens who want to call her for help. But she said that doesn't change her view that there are many other websites where the ads can go, and the underlying problem of why trafficking happens remains unaddressed.

"Backpage is the looking glass for what is going on with adolescent sexuality in American society now," Lee said. "Nobody wants to deal with that issue. The reaction of the government, it's almost like McCarthyism."

Andrea Powell, the executive director of FAIR Girls, which fights trafficking and helps its victims, agreed with Lee about the underlying problems of trafficking. But she said Backpage is not helping. She said FAIR asked Backpage to require age verification for its advertisers, and submit ads to law enforcement in advance, but they refused. "Be a positive force," Powell has told Backpage. "They chose not to."

Powell said 90 percent of the girls they help were trafficked on Backpage. The practices of scrubbing questionable words from ads but leaving the ads online, of soliciting sex advertisers and customers from other sites, "make it more difficult for law enforcement," Powell said. "They're not helping. They're acting criminally. You can't light a whole bunch of matches in a box and say, 'Hope you find the fire.' You made the fire."

In Minnesota, one longtime human trafficking cop voiced his support for Backpage. Minneapolis vice Sgt. Grant Snyder, who has used Backpage to track down pimps for years, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that closing down the site's sex ads would make victims "no safer today than they were before, and in fact, may be at greater risk." Speaking to columnist Ruben Rosario from a personal viewpoint, not the opinion of his department, Snyder said that attacking Backpage "fits a national narrative that vilifies select organizations, but fails to appropriately consider and address the realities of sex trafficking."

Other trafficking experts strenuously disagreed, saying the isolated cases where Backpage helps are overwhelmed by the numbers who remain victimized. Rutgers University professor emeritus James Finckenauer, who co-authored a book on human trafficking and served on a trafficking task force, said, "If you had a number of the potential pool of people victimized, versus the number of cases which you received assistance, I think there'd be a large number in the former and less in the latter. This argument that they're helpful to law enforcement is specious."

Finckenauer added, "These folks are in business to make money. I understand that. There's also areas where business runs into the innocent. At some point. Somebody has to say, 'Hey, you crossed the line.'"

Plenty in law enforcement are ready to say that, if only because prostitution itself is illegal and cops oppose illegal things. Both Sheriff Tom Dart of Cook County, Ill., who has tried a couple of different ways to stop Backpage through the courts and failed, and Lt. Barry Hill of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department human trafficking bureau, said they had never gotten a call from Backpage alerting them to illegal activity.

"If they were the least bit proactive in any form or fashion," Dart said, "there might be something to this argument. If they were calling me saying 'We've found a pattern' or something like that, but I've never received a phone call from them." He said he had written them suggesting ways to actually detect illicit activity, including hiring retired police detectives to monitor the ads and removing (rather than just editing) problem ads, "they theoretically could be a great partner. But that requires activity, not just press releases."

Boies, the lawyer who represented the Justice Department in the break-up of Microsoft, said his firm researched Backpage for a year before filing civil suits in Arizona and Florida earlier this year. He acknowledged that "closing up Backpage is not going to solve the entire problem. But it will save thousands and thousands of lives."

Boies echoed many in the police world when he said, "The fact that taking out one sex trafficker doesn't solve the problem doesn't mean you shouldn't take it on, particularly when it's the most pervasive. And then work on some of the others. It may be we're going to need additional tools to take out some of the other websites. We can deal with that as we go after them. We need to deal with the websites now that we can deal with."

Dart said, "We can't have something that's right in front of our faces, so actively involved with different crimes. We can't just stand there and do nothing. It could get worse? It's already pretty bad."
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Two former Beaumont ISD employees who accused the district and more than 30 others of defamation and a racist conspiracy are appealing the dismissal of their case in federal court.

Calvin Walker, a former contract electrician, and Jessie Haynes, a former district spokeswoman, filed a notice of appeal Monday in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, challenging Judge Marcia Crone's dismissal of all of their claims.

Walker, who is currently facing charges of fraud and money-laundering in Jefferson County Criminal District Court, has filed suit as himself and for his two businesses, Walker's Electric and Walkers Electric.

Walker and Haynes filed suit in July 2015 against 35 defendants, including Beaumont ISD, two former BISD trustees, a local and international union, The Examiner and The Beaumont Enterprise newspapers and FBI agents involved in the investigation of the district.

They wrote in their initial complaint that the defendants' behaviors were "aimed at depriving African-American individuals in Beaumont of social mobility, economic prosperity, the ability to participate in public life, their civil rights and - ultimately - their liberty."

"The conspiracy sought to impose its power on those who dared to 'step out of line' and those who were perceived as helping members of the black community running the Beaumont Independent School District," according to the complaint.

Between February 2016 and last month, Crone dismissed all of the claims for reasons including failure to state a claim and protection under the Texas Citizens Participation Act.

The notice of appeal asks the Fifth Circuit to rule on all of the dismissals.

Last week, five parties filed motions seeking reimbursement for legal fees and expenses totaling more than $1.2 million. In a filing in federal court Friday, Misty Gasiorowski, who represents Walker and Haynes, asked the court for at least three weeks to respond to those motions for fees.

Walker, who could not be reached for comment, has previously said he intended to appeal the dismissals.

Several of the parties seeking legal fees also asked the court to order that Walker pay sanctions to deter him from filing similar suits in the future and asked for payment of fees to fight an appeal.

Beaumont ISD, which said the suit has cost the district more than $80,000, said the appeal would likely cost another $50,000.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/LizTeitz
The municipal court judge for the cities of Montgomery and Magnolia will challenge Judge Cara Wood for the 284th state District Court bench in the March 2018 Republican primary.

Robert Rosenquist, who is also a civil and family attorney with Conroe-based Darden, Fowler and Creighton LLP, told The Courier Tuesday he believes he's the perfect fit for the 284th. Rosenquist began his legal career about 20 years ago and has worked with the County Attorney's Office as a prosecutor and civil litigant for years.

He also has been working "after hours" as a prosecutor and alternate judge for Magnolia and Montgomery, as well as a prosecutor for Woodbranch.

Municipal prosecutors and judges are charged with prosecuting or overseeing some Class C misdemeanor offenses, such as traffic tickets or violations of city ordinances.

At the Conroe law firm, Rosenquist mostly handles family cases, although he said he's consistently had some type of civil case on his desk throughout his time there. The 284th state District Court handles only civil cases and all the tax cases in Montgomery County.The court started hearing civil and tax cases in 2012 after hearing primarily criminal cases when the criminal case load was shifted to the 9th, 221st, 359th, 410th and 435th state District Courts. Currently, only the 9th, 221st, 359th and 435th Courts hear felony criminal cases.

"The lion's share of what I do is family law with some civil cases," Rosenquist said. "I feel I'd be the perfect fit for (the 284th state District Court)."Rosenquist is no stranger to the election process. He lost a primary runoff election for the 418th state District Court against Judge Tracy Gilbert in 2008, the first election for the newly created court at the time. Four years prior, he also lost a bid for Conroe's municipal court judge seat to James Cates.

According to a press release, Rosenquist graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science in psychology and earned his law degree from the South Texas College of Law while working at civil litigation defense firms in Houston and Conroe. He and his wife Sissie live in Conroe, where they raise and home-school their 11- and 16-year-old children.

Rosenquist has been involved and worked with several nonprofit organizations, including Access Builds Children (ABC) where he was a board member; Children's Safe Harbor, where he has been pro bono legal counsel; the United Way, the Conroe Evening Lions Club and a Boy Scout Assistant Scout Master. Wood has served as judge in the 284th state District Court since 2006 when she took over the bench from current Second Administrative Judicial Region of Texas Judge Olen Underwood, who retired.

The primary election is scheduled for March 6. Candidacy filing period runs from Nov. 11 to Dec. 11. Early voting will begin Feb. 20 and end March 2. The last day to register to vote in the March 6 election is Feb. 5.

For more information about the election or how to register to vote, visit www.mctx.org.

2018 Elections

Below is a list of positions up for election in 2018 and those who have announced their candidacies.

U.S. Rep District 8

Incumbent:

Kevin Brady, R

Announced:

Steven David, D

Todd Carlton, I

State Senator, District 3

Incumbent:

Robert Nichols, R

State Representative, District 3

Incumbent:

Cecil Bell, Jr., R

State Representative, District 15

Announced:

Steve Toth, R

(Mark Keough will not seek re-election.)

State Representative, District 16

Incumbent:

Will Metcalf, R

Justice, 9th District Court of Appeals

Incumbent:

Leanne Johnson, R

District Judge, 221st Judicial District

Incumbent:

Lisa Michalk, R

District Judge, 284th Judicial District

Incumbent:

Cara Wood, RAnnounced:

Robert Rosenquist, R

District Judge, 359th Judicial District

Incumbent:

Kathleen A. Hamilton, R

County Judge

Incumbent:

Craig Doyal, R

Announced:

Mark Keough, R

Judge, County Court at Law No. 2

Incumbent:

Claudia Laird, R

Judge, County Court at Law No. 3

Incumbent:

Patrice McDonald, R

Judge, County Court at Law No. 4

Incumbent:

Mary Ann Turner, R

District Clerk

Incumbent:

Barbara Gladden Adamick, R

Announced:

Melisa Miller, R

County Clerk

Incumbent:

Mark Turnbull, R

Announced:

Jeanie Stewart, R

County Treasurer

Incumbent:

Stephanne Davenport, R

Announced:

Melanie Bush, R

County Commissioners, Precinct 2

Incumbent:

Charlie Riley, R

Announced:

Brian Dawson, R

Greg Parker, R

County Commissioner, Precinct 4

Incumbent:

Jim Clark, R

Announced:

Bob Bagley, R

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1

Incumbent:

Wayne Mack, R

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2

Incumbent:

Trey Spikes, R

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3

Incumbent:

Edie Connelly, R

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4

Incumbent:

James Metts, R

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5

Incumbent:

Matt Masden, R

Republican County Chairman

Incumbent:

Wally Wilkerson, R

Democratic County Chairman

Incumbent:

Marc Meyer, D
BOERNE  Chuck Pena, who championed law-and-order in his recent unsuccessful mayoral campaign here, was being sought by police Tuesday, accused of impersonating a peace officer during a midnight encounter with a local woman in a Walmart parking lot.

A video recorded by Tiffany LaSelva, who confronted Pena there early Saturday after he parked his van near her vehicle, appears to capture Pena saying hes in law enforcement and associated with the Precinct 3 constables office in Bexar County.

Pena, a former teacher who said he is seeking a peace officers license, denied making such statements.

I said I have law enforcement training, he asserted during a brief interview Monday at his River Road apartment.

La Selva,43, said she was unsettled by the late-night interaction with Pena and provided police with a copy of the video and also gave them a statement Monday evening.

Zeke MacCormack / Staff

Lt. Steve Perez said Tuesday afternoon that an arrest warrant had been issued charging Pena with impersonating a public servant, a third degree felony, but that officers had yet to locate him.

Pena is not a licensed peace officer, Perez said, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

He said past police department interactions with Pena, 54, stemmed from Pena repeatedly calling police to report suspicious activity around his residence and elsewhere.

The May 6 municipal election saw incumbent Mayor Mike Schultz soundly defeat Pena, who made citizen safety the top priority in his first bid for elected office.

With my law enforcement experience, Im not afraid to take matters into my own hands, Pena said at a candidate forum where he pledged to boost night time police patrols, if elected.

Amanda West, the office manager for Bexar County Pct. 3 Constable Mark Vojvodich, said Tuesday the office has no knowledge of Pena and that he is not associated with the office.

Boerne police and the Kendall County Sheriffs Office said Pena isnt affiliated with them, either.

In recounting her experience, LaSelva said she noticed a red van pass directly in front her as she exited the store just before midnight Friday, then park about 50 yards from her pickup in the mostly-empty lot and turn off its lights.

She called her husband to report that someone was watching her from inside the vans darkened interior, from which dim flickers of light emitted periodically.

This guys recording me, so Im recording him, LaSelva tells her husband on the video, while stalling her departure in a bid to wait out the vans driver.

Pena said he parked near LaSelvas truck as she wheeled a cart of groceries in the parking lot to safeguard her from a transient he claims was sitting nearby and drinking beer.

I went over there because Im always on the damn transients. We need to get rid of the transients, he said Monday.

When LaSelva finally got in her truck to leave, the van drove to another section of the lot and parked, where she intercepted it with her phone camera still recording as she engaged Pena.

It was kind of creepy, she said Monday. I definitely wanted to get his license plate.

Although noise from her trucks diesel engine drowns out their first words, and Pena is not shown on the video, he can be heard saying, Precinct 3 Constable in San Antonio. Whats going on?

You were watching me, LaSelva responds.

I wasnt watching you. There was a black man who was sitting there watching you and I didnt want to leave, said Pena, adding, Im Chuck Pena. I ran for mayor here. You can look that up.

LaSelva apologized and shook Penas hand, saying she hadnt seen anyone else.

They part ways after Pena tells her she can check his credentials online, adding, I ran for mayor, but Im also in law enforcement.

LaSelva and her husband, Brett LaSelva, said they were hesitant about alerting authorities, but turned over her video in response to police requests that stemmed from press inquiries about past calls involving Pena.

I dont want to ruin his life, but if hes not law enforcement then he has to have a discussion with the police, said Brett LaSelva. If I had been there, most likely he would be in the hospital.

On Monday Pena denied telling Tiffany LaSelva he was affiliated with the Pct. 3 constables office, asking, Does she have me on tape saying that?

When told that she does, Pena said, OK, good. I didnt say that.

zeke@express-news.net
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The family of a missing 17-year-old girl from San Antonio is asking for the public's help to find her.

According to the San Antonio Police Department, Kalista Kluetz was last seen on Wednesday, when she asked to stay at a friend's home.

Alyson Leija, Kluetz's sister, told mySA.com, Kluetz told her family she would be staying with a friend Thursday night, but it was later discovered that the two friends had told their families contradicting stories.

She was reported missing on Friday after she didn't show up for work that day.

Alyson Leija, Kluetz' sister, told mySA.com, her sister's last known whereabouts were on the East Side, near W.W. White Road, Mercury Drive and Midland Drive.

READ ALSO: S.A. teen goes missing after leaving family a note that he was going for a run

Kluetz' family believe that Kluetz and her friend were with Kluetz' boyfriend on Thursday night. Her friend arrived home safely that evening, but Kluetz remains missing.

Leija said neither Kluetz' boyfriend nor her friend have told them where Kluetz is.

Kluetz' mother and San Antonio police officers went to her boyfriend's home but police determined Kluetz wasn't there.

An officer told Kluetz' mother her daughter was likely with her boyfriend. Even so, her family just wants to hear from her.

RELATED: S.A. teen Audrey Taylor believed to be missing with boyfriend Joshua Koob

"If it's her choice to not come home, then that's her choice. But we need to know she's alive and that's where she wants to be," Leija said. "We just want to know she is safe."

Kluetz was last seen with a blue and black zebra print JanSport backpack and Bill Miller Bar-B-Q uniform.

To report any information on the disappearance or whereabouts of Kalista Kluetz contact 911 or the Missing Persons Division at (210) 207-7662.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
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AUSTIN - Republicans ran over Democrats in the Senate Tuesday to fast-track a special session agenda thats under fire from big-city mayors, transgender advocates, educators, immigration proponents and abortion-rights activists, among others.

Its frustrating, but were not going to take anything lying down. Were going to do everything we can to represent our community, said Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, after Democratic efforts to slow down the process were shut down by the Republican majority.

Hundreds of protesters came to the Texas Capitol on the first day of the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, taking aim at key elements of his agenda. Organized by One Texas Resistance, a coalition of progressive groups across the state, they said special session priorities that include a contentious bathroom bill are all wrong.

Children in Texas have a damn hard time getting access to health care. Thats a tragedy. Access to education for all too many students is not there. Thats a tragedy. You have too many people working a full-time job and living in poverty. We have too many adults without health care, said Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez. Thats what you should be talking about.

Nick Morrow, the Human Rights Campaign's press secretary for southern states, said the rally was organized by a range of diverse groups concerned that the agenda being pushed by state Republicans would make Texas the most discriminatory state in the nation.

All of us realized that our fights are really interconnected, Morrow said.

Besides the items on the special session agenda, protesters continued their outcry over a sanctuary cities law approved earlier this year that they fear will lead to racial profiling as officers ask about peoples immigration status. Democrats including Menendez are pushing a beyond-longshot repeal of the measure.

Eighteen mayors from across Texas, including San Antonio's Ron Nirenberg, separately voiced objections to the special session agenda. They sent a letter to Abbott asking to meet with him, citing harmful proposals such as revenue and spending caps, limiting annexation authority, and other measures preempting local development ordinances.

The proposals, the mayors said, directly harm our ability to plan for future growth and continue to serve as the economic engines of Texas.

An Abbott spokesman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the requested meeting.

Meanwhile, the Legislature kept its focus on the agenda before it.

The Senate moved quickly to have a committee hearing on must-pass measures to keep several state agencies in business, overriding a Democratic effort to delay consideration. Democrats said the move gave the public virtually no notice of the bills, which the full Senate could take up Wednesday.

I think if we're doing the people's work, we should let the people have a say, Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said to cheers at the rally when she recounted the goings-on. It is wrong, it is un-Texan, to do the people's work without people's input.

Democrats didnt object to the sunset legislation itself, which is acknowledged as necessary and got unanimous backing in Tuesdays Senate committee hearing.

These are non-controversial bills, said Sen. Van Taylor, a Plano Republican who authored them. I dont expect anybody to vote against them.

But Democrats are worried about what comes next. After the Senate approves the sunset legislation, Abbott said he would allow lawmakers to consider a slew of other measures that are opposed by a wide swath of groups and championed by Patrick. The lieutenant governor forced the special session by stalling the sunset legislation in the regular session, giving him another chance at passing some of his priorities.

The other proposals would restrict which public restrooms transgender people can use; allow for state support for private school tuition for special-needs students; affect abortion, including health plan coverage; and restrict local officials authority in areas ranging from taxes to rules on cell phones to permitting.

The bathroom bill, in particular, has highlighted a chasm between Abbott and Patrick, who say its necessary for privacy and safety; and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, who opposes it as harmful to the state economy and vulnerable Texans.

Straus nevertheless has said his chamber will give due consideration to Abbotts agenda. Like the Senate, the House is moving forward on the sunset legislation, with a hearing set for Wednesday.

There have been rumors that Democrats, outnumbered in the House as they are in the Senate, might opt against showing up and deny Republicans a quorum. But such a move would be extraordinary and high-risk, since Republicans could paint them as not doing their jobs, and the Democrats couldn't stay away forever.

Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, has filed a resolution to provide for penalties if members break quorum. He expressed concern Tuesday at the prospect that his measure would be referred to the Rules and Resolutions Committee, which is headed by a Democrat, Rep. Eddie Lucio III of Brownsville.

As lawmakers came together for the session, both chambers began with a prayer that included a plea for wisdom.

Save our leaders from themselves, prayed Capt. Brett Anderson, chaplain of the 1st Squadron, 124th Cavalry Division of the Texas Army National Guard based in Waco. Save them from their friends, and their enemies too.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
Selma City Council has unanimously approved zoning variances for two businesses located near Interstate 35 South.

The council at its July 13 meeting waived a 75 percent masonry requirement for a three-studio building development that Carmen Lenz, owner of Carmens European Hair Design, hopes to begin within the next four weeks. Construction will take place behind the hair salon, less than half a mile from I-35.

Lenz, who purchased the Old Austin Road property two years ago, said the state-of-the-art studios will resemble German-style cottages that pay homage to her German ancestry. Two buildings will be 640 square feet, and the other will be 790 square feet. The three buildings should accommodate six tenants.

Lenz said she hopes tenants will include nail technicians, massage therapists and artists.

I want (the property) to be a unique, special place where people can gather and get their hair done, nails done, feet done, whatever they like, said Lenz, who moved to San Antonio from Berlin in 2007.

She also plans to host a German Christmas Market that would include authentic German offerings, such as blue wine and bratwurst.

She expects the project to be completed three months after it breaks ground.

Before the city approved the Lenz project, it granted a zoning variance to Spawglass that will allow the company to create additional parking spaces.

Jason Smith, president of Spawglass San Antonio division, said the company plans on adding 15 parking spaces on the east side of its corporate office in advance of hiring 10 employees for its human resources, operations, marketing and accounting departments this year.

Selma has been the home of Spawglass for 25 years.
A 37-year-old employee of a local lawyer was arrested Monday after she allegedly took $3,000 from a client, threw away several of the firm's computers and stole one for herself.

Zenaida Ann Gonzales, of San Antonio, now faces a charge of theft and another charge of criminal mischief. She remains in the Bexar County Jail on a $12,500 bond.

RELATED: At redistricting trial, Rep. Hurd says more districts should be like his

According to her affidavit, Gonzales was a former employee of Luis Vera, a San Antonio attorney with the League of United Latin American Citizens. Vera is currently representing a plaintiff in a 2011 lawsuit by a coalition of civil rights groups and individuals who claim the state has suppressed minority voting rights in at least three congressional districts.

On Friday, May 26, a client came to Vera's office in the 100 block of Soledad Street to drop off some documents and $3,000 for her case, authorities said. The client met Gonzales at the office and left the materials with her. The client then sent Vera a message informing him she had delivered the documents and money to Gonzales, police said.

Gonzales was not authorized to make such transactions for Vera's law firm, according to the affidavit. Vera called Gonzales to confront her about the transaction, and Gonzales reportedly told him she had left the money in his desk.

RELATED: DPS: Driver didn't stop after fatally striking San Antonio man near Luling

According to the affidavit, Vera did not find the money in his desk, and he noticed Gonzales's desk had been cleared out. He tried to call her back, but she never answered.

Vera reported the incident to police, who reviewed security camera footage and watched as Gonzales allegedly tossed four of the law firm's computers into a dumpster on May 27, a Saturday that Gonzales was not scheduled to work. She also allegedly stole a computer and other items.

The client who handed over the $3,000 to Gonzales later identified her in a photo lineup, according to the affidavit. Police were then able to obtain the affidavit for her arrest, which was executed on Monday.

All told, Gonzales is accused of stealing almost $5,000 worth of items from the law firm and throwing away another $2,400 worth.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
The pit bull mix who severely mauled a 7-year-old Manor boy has been euthanized.

"It was in the best interest of the public," Manor Police Sgt. Craig Struble told mySA.com. "The dog is no longer an issue."

On July 3, a group of Manor boys playing in a cul-de-sac in their neighborhood were interrupted when a pit bull burst through the door of its home.

READ ALSO: Seized horses find welcome home at rescue ranch in Smiley

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Brison Aldridge was attacked and bitten and the scene was captured via a house's security camera.

The dog was known to be aggressive in the neighborhood, but Brison's mother said she didn't think the dog had never attacked a person up until this point.

Upon investigating the dog's history, though, MPD found that in 2014 it had attacked another small child.

RELATED: Security camera footage captures mauling of Central Texas boy by loose pit bull

The dog was quarantined by animal control for 10 days before being put down on Friday.

MPD said the owner of the pit bull requested for the dog to be euthanized.

Police are not pursuing charges against the dog's owner.

jthorpe@express-news.net

@jerilynnthorpe
WASHINGTON - Shouldn't President Donald Trump's "fake news" defense be dead by now?

For months, he has relentlessly branded the possible Russian-collusion story a hoax and denigrated the reporters who dig into it.

But when his son, Donald Trump Jr., was forced to come clean about a meeting last year with a Russian lawyer to gather dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trump Jr.'s emails seemed to prove the opposite: There was a there, after all. Undeniably so.

Even some members of the pro-Trump media were stunned: "So, like, this is straight-up collusion. Right?" reacted a top Breitbart editor in an internal Slack message, according to CNN's Oliver Darcy. (The editor later said his remark was taken out of context.)

Some in the mainstream media were quick to gloat that this would be the end of the denials. How could he claim the news media were lying when, for once, the proof was right there? And not from ghostly unnamed sources but with real names attached.

But a day later, the president was back to ranting about how journalistic sources are fabricated. (He tweeted: "Remember, when you hear the words 'sources say' from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist.")

He had hardly skipped a beat.

"Yes, they are forced to admit that a meeting happened - but everything else is still 'fake news,' " said Joel Kaplan, an associate dean at Syracuse University's Newhouse School.

Consider the head-spinning words of White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "The only thing I see inappropriate about the meeting was the people that leaked the information on the meeting after it was voluntarily disclosed." (That isn't how it happened but hey, leaks are always fake news in Trump World.)

The fake-news defense will live on, Kaplan said, for one simple reason: It works.

"The mantra is not going to go away. It has resonance - it's the replacement for the claim of liberal bias, and is a far more effective one."

Of course, for Trump skeptics, the fake-news defense has never been anything but a diversion.

But for Trump's base, and some independents, Kaplan said, "it does call the reliability and credibility" of the mainstream media into question.

And the media's own flaws help to foster that doubt. When CNN fired three journalists after a story was retracted; when Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, announced a few days ago that it was unable to verify the existence of more than 100 sources of a reporter; and when people recall famous journalism scandals such as those involving Jayson Blair at The New York Times or Stephen Glass at the New Republic, the president's fake-news attacks get a foothold.

For most journalists, these scandals prove not that the news media is full of liars and cheats, but that such incidents are so rare as to be a big deal when they happen. Mainstream news organizations, for the most part, take accuracy and accountability seriously enough to self-investigate and 'fess up.

But not everyone buys that.

"People come to news with their own built-in biases - we filter information that way," said Nikki Usher, associate professor at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.

So those who want to see collusion will agree with Mother Jones' David Corn: "The Trump campaign shielded a foreign adversary that sought to destabilize American democracy."

Others will shrug it off.

"There's been so much negative coverage of this administration - arguably, rightfully so - that it's hard for most people to know what counts," Usher said. "News junkies are obsessed with it, but a lot of others are going to tune it out."

Or blame the messenger.

One conservative radio host, Robert Leonard, told CNN's Brian Stelter that his conservative friends in Iowa "are very angry - they think the Trump/Russia deal is a coup attempt by the media. They don't understand why the media is trying to oust our duly elected president."

Those reactions shouldn't diminish the value of the journalistic digging - in this case by the New York Times - that forced Trump Jr.'s hand. He tweeted out his emails just before the Times was due to publish them.

The Trump camp's virtuous claims of "transparency" were laughable, but only if you were following the story closely, Usher said. And how many were paying attention later in the week when NBC News reported that a Russian American lobbyist,with a Soviet military background, also attended the meeting?

Trump Jr.'s tweeting out his emails, Usher said, "was a brilliant move - a way of going directly to the audience, and seizing control of the story."

Despite the bombshell, there was a speedy effort by the Trump administration to return to business as usual: Chaos, distraction, and information overload, accompanied by a presidential kiss-off - "Most people would have taken that meeting," Trump said.

We're in a golden era for accountability journalism, but that doesn't mean everyone is going to hear what the watchdogs are barking about. Even if they do, they may not believe it.

And that, after all, is the aim of Trump's fake-news defense. Which is exactly why it's here to stay.
I live in England. My husband is stationed with the U.S. military in England, and it has been a little scary lately. Hearing about U.S. politics from a European perspective can be overwhelming. With two consecutive overseas assignments, we have learned a lot about the world, thus developing an even greater appreciation of our own country.

This new perspective has caused me to become more involved in causes that matter to me, so as a voter in Texas District 20, I recently joined the San Antonio chapter of a bipartisan group called Citizens Climate Lobby, volunteering long-distance.

In June, President Donald Trump backed out of the Paris climate accord, designed to create the opportunity for accountability and teamwork between the U.S. and other leading nations. The recent G-20 meetings in Germany showed that other global leaders have begun to move forward on climate without our involvement. But there is an upside, of sorts, in what Trump has done. It exposes the need for others to fill the gap and find effective solutions to support the health of our economy and our planet. One such solution is a proposal from the Citizens Climate Lobby, and it involves giving back to the American people.

Here is brief description:

A fee is placed on fossil fuels at the source (well, mine, port of entry).

One hundred percent of carbon fees collected are given to American households as dividend checks. Two-thirds of all households break even or receive more than they would pay in higher carbon prices due to the fee.

A border tariff is placed on goods imported from, or exported to, countries without an equivalent price on carbon, discouraging businesses from relocating to areas with fewer carbon restrictions.

As a result, a predictably increasing carbon price will send a clear market signal, helping entrepreneurs and investors to transition to clean energy. Other nations will also have an incentive to adopt an equivalent price on carbon and switch to clean energy.

So why does the carbon impact on climate matter? I view the effects of climate change through two lenses. First is my personal appreciation for nature. An increase in extreme weather is changing some of the natural landscapes I love the most, perhaps permanently. With all our military moves over the years, nature has been a comfort to me. If you feel refreshed by a day on the river or lake, or a hike in the Hill Country, you probably understand. I hope to preserve these types of experiences.

Additionally, I view climate change through the lens of my concern for the poor, which stems from my Midwest upbringing. The effects of climate change hit the poor first and hardest. We have seen this through the devastating poverty in countries such as Africa and India. Water shortages and battles against the elements, with few resources to help, make every aspect of life incredibly difficult for these people. Even in the U.S., we can see how extreme weather such as hurricanes, drought and heat waves affect poorer regions, where residents have fewer means for survival or recovery. The poor need better solutions, and they need them now.

These reasons are more than enough to step in and fill the gap created by failure to address climate change. If you agree, I hope you will consider joining me. To learn more, visit citizensclimatelobby.org.

Danielle Bancroft, a former San Antonio resident, lives in Mildenhall, England.
Drawing upon two years worth of impertinent comments, offensive tweets and harmful policy positions, Donald Trump can aptly be described with a number of words that end in -ist.

Protectionist. Nativist. Misogynist. Racist.

And now we can add to the list: Restrictionist. Politico recently reported that Trump and his White House aides are quietly working with two GOP senators to dramatically roll back legal immigration. According to the site, Trump plans to get behind a bill being introduced later this summer by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia that would cut in half the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country each year.

I have to ask, what part of legal do these Republicans not understand? And does anyone in the party still wonder why the GOP is considered by many to be not just opposed to illegal immigration but flat-out anti-immigrant?

But, as the president showed while he was in Europe for the recent G-20 summit, one -ist word that doesnt fit Trump very well is isolationist.

The fact that Trump gets stuck with that label so often is an indication of how the global elitists who hover around insular outfits like the Council on Foreign Relations dont get this president. They dont have the foggiest idea why he appeals to those around the world who know oppression and expect the United States to do something about it.

The elites brush aside Trumps missile strike in Syria, his dropping of the Mother of all Bombs in Afghanistan, his efforts to repair the relationship between the United States and Israel, and his threatening rhetoric toward North Korea. Instead, they define isolationism as narrowly as possible, focusing on the presidents justifiable decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and terminate the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They also like to harp on his admittedly boorish treatment of foreign leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

But one need only look to Trumps inspirational and resolute speech in Warsaws Krasinski Square.

Trumps critics seem to think that this was the sermon of an isolationist: On behalf of all Americans, let me thank the entire Polish people for the generosity you have shown in welcoming our soldiers to your country. These soldiers are not only brave defenders of freedom, but also symbols of Americas commitment to your security and your place in a strong and democratic Europe.

And this: Polish heroes and American patriots fought side by side in our War of Independence and in many wars that followed. Our soldiers still serve together today in Afghanistan and Iraq, combating the enemies of all civilization. For Americas part, we have never given up on freedom and independence as the right and destiny of the Polish people, and we never, ever will.

And this: America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another.  During a historic gathering in Saudi Arabia, I called on the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations to join together to drive out this menace which threatens all of humanity. We must stand united against these shared enemies to strip them of their territory and their funding, and their networks, and any form of ideological support that they may have.

And this: We urge Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere, and its support for hostile regimes  including Syria and Iran  and to instead join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies and in defense of civilization itself.

And this: Our citizens did not win freedom together, did not survive horrors together, did not face down evil together, only to lose our freedom to a lack of pride and confidence in our values. We did not and we will not. We will never back down.

And finally this: The West will never, ever be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph.

Holy smokes. If these are the words of someone who would like to withdraw from the world, I cant imagine what wed hear from someone who wants to go all in.

ruben@rubennavarrette.com
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.

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 was itself a distraction from an even more important issue: the fact that Republicans were trying to remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy, largely in secret, while ripping health insurance away from 22 million Americans.

They were laying out changes opposed by insurers, providers and patient advocacy groups. They did 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.

However, all the noise over the recently torpedoed health care reform was 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 Ryan, was 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 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.

And then 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.

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.

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.

crampell@washpost.com
By the standards of the Francis papacy, things were rather quiet in Rome for much of 2017. The great controversy of the previous two years, the debate over communion for the divorced and remarried, had entered a kind of stalemate, with bishops the world over disagreeing and the pope himself keeping a deliberate silence. The question was how much drama there was still to come.

In rapid succession, four important cardinals have been removed from the stage. The first, George Pell, was both in charge of the popes financial reforms and a leading opponent of communion for the remarried. He has returned to his native Australia to face charges of sexual abuse.

The second cardinal, Gerhard Mueller, was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office charged with safeguarding Catholic doctrine. He had performed a careful tightrope walk on the popes marriage document, Amoris Laetitia, insisting that it did not change church teaching on remarriage and the sacraments while downplaying the signals that the pope himself thought otherwise. His five-year term was expiring; these are often renewed but his was not.

The third cardinal, Joachim Meisner, was a retired archbishop of Cologne and a longtime friend of Benedict XVI. He was one of the signatories of the dubia  the public questions four cardinals posed last year to Francis about Amoris Laetitia, effectively questioning its orthodoxy. He died in his sleep at 83  shortly after Mueller, his fellow countryman, had called him to report the news that he had been cashiered.

The fourth, Angelo Scola, was another Benedict XVI confidant and a leading contender for the papacy at the last conclave. He retired as archbishop of Milan five days after Muellers departure.

So, with high-level opposition thinned out and the Benedict/John Paul II vision in eclipse, how far does the pope intend to push?

It is clear enough that Francis has friends and allies who want him to go forward in a hurry. They regard the ambiguous shift on divorce and remarriage as a proof-of-concept for how the church can change on a wider range of issues  intercommunion with Protestants, married priests, same-sex relationships, euthanasia, female deacons, artificial birth control, and more.

So too in politics, where the popes obvious hostility to Trumpian populism has been leveraged by some of his friends into a sweeping critique of all Catholic engagement with the political right, and especially the American Catholic alliance with evangelical Protestants.

But the pope himself remains both more cautious than his friends  the men he appointed to succeed Mueller and Scola are moderate, not radical  and also perhaps more unpredictable.

His more liberal appointees can get ahead of him, as in the case of Charlie Gard, the dying English baby whose doctors and government wont let his parents pay for an unlikely-to-succeed treatment. The popes refashioned Pontifical Academy for Life, which now accepts pro-choice and euthanasia-friendly members, issued a statement that seemed to support the government over the parents. But shortly thereafter, Francis intervened in support of the parents rights, creating a somewhat defensive scramble by his allies.

This small example gets at a larger point. We know that Francis is a liberal pope, but apart from the remarriage debate we dont know what priority he places on any given liberal-Catholic goal.

Among many liberals there is a palpable ambition, a sense that a sweeping opportunity to rout conservative Catholicism might finally be at hand. But there is also a palpable anxiety, since the churchs long-term future is not obviously progressive  not with a growing African church and a shrinking European one, a priesthood whose younger ranks are often quite conservative, and little evidence that the Francis era has brought any sudden renewal.

How much does Francis himself share either sentiment  the ambition, the anxiety? The next act of this papacy will tell.

Ross Douthat writes a column for the New York Times.
1 Missing sailors: Cameroons defense minister said Monday that at least 34 people have been declared missing after a military vessel sank off the countrys Atlantic coast. Joseph Beti Assomo said helicopters rescued three soldiers and were continuing the search. The ship was on a routine mission to the Bakassi peninsula when it sank Sunday, Assomo said. The oil-rich Bakassi peninsula was transferred to Cameroon by Nigeria following an International Court of Justice ruling. Nigerian forces had occupied the area in the 1980s, leading to violent confrontations with Cameroons military.

2 Mexico corruption: Guatemala has handed Mexican authorities a former governor wanted on corruption charges. Former Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte arrived Monday in Mexico City after dropping a fight against extradition. Duarte fled to Guatemala after resigning as governor of one of the countrys most populous states amid mounting allegations of corruption. He faces charges that include organized crime, influence trafficking and bribery. The case is sensitive for Mexicos ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which is trying to clean up its image ahead of next years presidential vote. Duarte has insisted he is innocent.
MILFORD, Conn.  Subway is rolling out the Subway Fresh Forward design, transforming every aspect of the customer experience at its restaurants worldwide.

We've created a modern design that gives our guests choicesfrom how they order, to how they pick up their food, to how they enjoy their meal," said Trevor Haynes, vice president of operations at Subway.

Highlights include:

Digital: Self-order kiosks in select locations, digital menu boards, and Apple and Samsung Pay options. Guests can enjoy a speedy Subway experience with a separate food preparation area and a designated pre-order pick-up location for kiosk, mobile app, delivery, catering and bot for Messenger orders.

Self-order kiosks in select locations, digital menu boards, and Apple and Samsung Pay options. Guests can enjoy a speedy Subway experience with a separate food preparation area and a designated pre-order pick-up location for kiosk, mobile app, delivery, catering and bot for Messenger orders. Food: Fresh veggie display with whole tomatoes, green peppers, onions and cucumbers that are sliced daily, plus new bread and cookie displays on the front of the line. Subway Fresh Forward restaurants also include new menu items like pico de gallo, new sauces, house-made pickles, and made-without-gluten bread.

Fresh veggie display with whole tomatoes, green peppers, onions and cucumbers that are sliced daily, plus new bread and cookie displays on the front of the line. Subway Fresh Forward restaurants also include new menu items like pico de gallo, new sauces, house-made pickles, and made-without-gluten bread. Dine-In Experience: Bright and playful decor, curated music and comfortable seating with USB charging ports and complimentary Wi-Fi to create a welcoming environment.

The Subway Fresh Forward design has been brought to life with input from franchisees and customers around the world. There are 12 pilot locations open today in the United States (Tamarac, FL; Orlando, FL (2); Winter Park, FL; Chula Vista, CA; Knoxville, TN; Palmview, TX; Hillsboro, OR; Vancouver, WA), Canada (Beauport, QC; Granby, QC) and the United Kingdom (Manchester).

The new restaurant design is the next phase of Subway's evolution. The company created Subway Digital in 2016 to develop an omni-channel strategy. Subway also revealed a new brand identity, including a logotype, new symbol called the Choice Mark and optimized color palette that is brought to life with new imagery, new packaging, uniforms and signage. It all started rolling out this spring in North America. Many elements of the new brand identity will be worldwide by the end of 2017.
Emojis are Proving a Hot Topic In and Out of the Courtroom ;) The Fashion Law

As Paperwork Goes Missing, Private Student Loan Debts May Be Wiped Away NYT (AF). AF: If only theyd wiped out the mortgage debt.

More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Arent Making Payments WSJ

New U.S. Subprime Boom, Same Old Sins: Auto Defaults Are Soaring Bloomberg

Treasury Reassures Markets About Secret Debt-Ceiling Plan Bloomberg. Mint the coin!

Big Four Audit Firms Enjoy a Too Few to Fail Regulatory Hall Pass Francine McKenna, Pro-Market

Plastic-Versus-Cash Battle Heats Up After Visa, Mastercard Deals Bloomberg

Resurrecting A Comprehensive Charter of Economic Liberty: The Latent Power of the Federal Trade Commission (PDF) University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law

Syraqistan

Brexit

IMF hails ambitious French reforms under Macron Agence France Presse

Jeremy Corbyn, Emmanuel Macron and the age of volatility New Statesman

China?

New Cold War

Health Care

Trump Transition

How Andrew Cuomo broke the New York subway The Week

Democrats in Disarray

An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of USC med school dean Los Angeles Times. If you want a real college administrator scandal, this is what one looks like.

Black Injustice Tipping Point
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Well, Doctor, what have we gota Republic or a Monarchy? A Republic, if you can keep it. Answer attributed to Benjamin Franklin in 1787.

As readers know, Ive been doing a bit of travelling this summer, and when I travel, I like to have something exciting to read on the bus or the train. For this trip, I picked up Mary Beards SPQR, a history of ancient Rome beginning with the Cataline conspiracy in 63BCE and ending with Caracallas extension of Roman citizen to all free inhabitants of the Empire in 212. (SPQR was published in 2015, so Im a little late to the party.) I wouldnt call SPQR a  dread word  popularization, since its clearly informed by vast scholarship, but its not, perhaps, a work of scholarship; there are no footnotes, so we have to take Beards sources on trust. Beard also deploys a contemporary, almost breezy style; SPQR reads almost like a podcast, as spoken word. SQPR is very accessible, a quick read, but dense with information; wisdom, even.

Beard is a well-known Cambridge Don and a public figure in the UK; the New York Review of Books has this to say about SPQR:

[H]er opening sentence bluntly asserts, Ancient Rome is important. Her title is the standard ancient abbreviation for Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and People of Rome, and as she points out, it still adorns manhole covers and rubbish bins in Rome today. No one could doubt that what she has written has contemporary relevance. Her history evokes a past that visibly impinges upon the present, as modern travelers in Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, North Africa, and the Near East are constantly made aware. By the time Beard has finished, she has explored not only archaic, republican, and imperial Rome, but the eastern and western provinces over which it eventually won control. She deploys an immense range of ancient sources, in both Greek and Latin, and an equally wide range of material objects, from pots and coins to inscriptions, sculptures, reliefs, and temples. She moves with ease and mastery through archaeology, numismatics, and philology, as well as a mass of written documents on stone and papyrus.

The London School of Economics summarizes the central thesis of the work:

In Chapter 10: Fourteen Emperors, Beard takes a novel approach to the study of empire. Fourteen emperors, from Tiberius to Commodus, ruled over a stable and largely similar structure of imperial power. It is these structures, rather than their personalities, that are worth studying , the author argues. While much has been written about each individual emperor (many of whom had colourful reputations), their characters in fact mattered little, as the means of their rule and the day-to-day lives of their citizens remained relatively unchanged. They all followed the precedent of Augustus, the first emperor, in measuring their success: through building grandiose works, flaunting their generosity to the people and displaying military feats. This was the standard by which the emperors were admired and criticised, and by which they judged themselves. For instance, the Colosseum, now one of Romes most memorable monuments, combined these three aspects for the Emperor Vespasian. It was a grand construction project, the celebration of a victory over Jewish rebels and an obvious mark of munificence to the Roman people. The emperors, however, also inherited Augustuss problems: namely, an unclear method of succession, which generated family intrigues as well as military coups and was sometimes overcome by strategic adoptions; an uneasy relationship with the Senate; and a confusion in how their power might be represented and defined. Were the emperors gods? And if so, were their family and friends, if they declared them to be? Beard here makes a persuasive case for her approach of focusing on the structure and patterns of power, rather than individual personalities.

In this post, Ill tease out one structural aspect of contemporary politics  succession  using the method Beard herself employs. From page 535:

I no longer think, as I once naively did, that we have much to learn directly from the Romans  or, for that matter, from the ancient Greeks, or from any other ancient civilization. We do not need to read of the difficulties of the Roman legions in Mesopotamia or against the Parthians to understand why modern military interventions in Western Asia might be ill-advised.

(Here I pause to remark that Graham Allisons popularization of The Thucycides Trap, so-called, does exactly what Beard recommends avoiding. See Naked Capitalism here.)

But I am more and more convinced that we have an enormous amound to learn  as much about ourselves as about the past  b engaging with the history of the Romans Since the Renaissance at least,

In this post, I hope to understand a little more about our own legitimacy crisis  which takes the form of liberal Democrats challenging the legitimacy of a Presidential succession  by engaging with a similar structural issue faced by the Romans. (Yes, this is a view from the armchair at 30,000 feet, but if you want to survey the terrain, youve got to get up high. Eh?)

Beard summarizes the issues of imperial succession as follows (pp 414-415):

Despite the impressive survival rate of the emperors (fourtee rulers in almost 200 years is one testament to stablity), the moment of succession was frought with violence and surrounded by allegations of treachery 

Note that if you frame the Beltway as an imperial court, as opposed to the capital of a Republic, Trumps jarring insistence on the importance of loyalty  even if derived from his own weird corporate environment[1]  doesnt look so out of place.

The names, dates, and details change, but the story remains the same. Some said that Livia poisoned Augustus to ease Tiberius onto the throne; Tiberius was widely believed to have been poisoned or smothered to make way for Gaius [as professional historians call Caligula]; Agrippina is supposed to have dispatched her husband Claudius with some poisoned mushrooms in her successful bid to make her son emperor; and some said Domitian had a hand in the early death of Tituscontrary to a hopeful story in the Talmud which claims that after Titus destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, a gnat flew into his nostril and gradually ate away his brain.

(If anybody here reads Kos, please let me know if the story that a gnat flew into his nostril and gradually ate away his brain turns up in a secular imprecatory prayer in re: Donald Trump. Its certainly worthy of doing so!)

And now Beard employs a media critique[2]:

Many of these stories must be fiction . It takes a lot to believe that the elderly Livia would have painstakingly smeared poison on figs still growing on a tree, then tricked her husband into eating them. But true or not, together they underline the uncertainty and danger in the transmission of power .

How like the stories in the media appropriate to our own day! Beard goes on to describe the imperial court (page 416):

These uncertainties about how to establish a legitimate claim to rule also help to explain the peculiarly murderous image of the Roman court, where danger seems to have lurked on every fig and such an atmosphere of suspicion prevailed that Domitian is said to have had the palace walls lined with reflecting stone so that he could see who was coming up behind .

Thats about as Beltway as you can get, although of course today our reflections are not merely visual, but digital. And the transmission of power (page 416-417):

Without any agreed system for the transmission of power , every relative counted as a potential rival of the emperor or of his likely heir There were alternative routes to power. One was exactly what the first Augustus had tried to preclude: elevation by the army. Roman emperors and their advisors never solved the problem of succession. They were defeated in part by biology, in part by lingering uncertainties and disagreements about how inheritance should best operate. Succession always came down to some combination of luck, plotting, violence, and secret deals . The moment when Roman power was handed on was always the moment when it was most vulnerable.

At this point, we recall the instant reaction by the dominant liberal factions in the Democrat Party to their humiliating defeat  and loss of their third, and final, branch of the Federal government, most states already having been lost  in the Clinton debacle of 2016: They sought[3] to revise the agreed system for the transmission of power. In rough chronological order: Liberal Democrats sought, through a faithless elector strategy, to give the intelligence community veto power over the post-election selection of a President; they advocated the abolition of the electoral college and its replacement by a popular vote; they advocated a regent as a new institutional and extra-Constitutional check on the President; they advocated secession, which amounts to Civil War (with Californians being the fire eaters of the 21st Century).

All of these tactics[4] have a common thread: Hitherto, the United States and the political class have regarded the agreed system for the transmission of power as a solved problem. Liberal Democrats now wish to unsolve, or, better, dissolve this system so that electoral results accord with the desires of their party faction. (Ill skip over how unhinged it is for an out of power faction to try this!) I think that engaging with Roman history, as presented by SPQR, must compel any fair-minded reader to be less than sanguine about such a systemic change. When Franklin said If you can keep it, he was not kidding. Specifically, a system of government where unelected intelligence officials can veto a Presidents selection based on information withheld from voters  explicitly advocated by liberal Democrats in their faithless elector strategy  is no longer a Republic. Be careful what you wish for.

NOTES

[1] The Atlantic: Its possible [Trump] truly did not realize that the FBI Director is not the equivalent of the security chief at a large corporation. Perhaps one beneficial result of the Trump administration will be that the noxious meme that government should be run like a business  exemplified by [genuflects] Al Gores reinventing government initiative under the first, and so far only, Clinton administration  will finally be laid to rest.

[2] Some reviews dont think much of Beards media critique:

Its a weakness of SPQR that Ms. Beard seems more eager to tell us what historians dont know than what they do. She is so subtle, hedging every bet, that the ceiling fans sometimes cease to circulate the air. You push past this books occasional unventilated corner, however, because Ms. Beard is competent and charming company.

The New York Times. Of course. Other reviewers consider Beards skepticism healthy (here, here, and here). (And I love charming company, as if Beard were a beshawled and white-haired Agatha Christie, say, with a more elevated style.)

[3] Rather than sucking it up and figuring out how to appeal to more voters than they did; the Democrat post mortem for 2016 still remains secret.

[4] The impeachment effort pushed (so far, only) by liberal Democrats is an agreed mechanism for removing a President, regardless of the case being made for it, and hence out of scope for this post. As Gerald Ford said: An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office. Political, yes. But agreed the mechanism is.
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.
(Natural News) Most preppers dont need a good reason to continue improving their chances of survival during any given national or global emergency. However, a new report definitely puts new urgency into doubling and tripling your current readiness efforts.

A group of experts led by Adam Liska, a biological engineering professor at the University of Nebraska, says that even the detonation of a single nuclear warhead could trigger massive climate-related changes that would lead to widespread drought followed by famine, costing a billion lives.

The report notes that for decades during the Cold War, the theory of MAD  Mutually Assured Destruction  kept the worlds two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, from engaging in a hot war that most certainly would have gone nuclear. The theory went that no matter who struck first, the other side would retain enough of a capability to launch a massive nuclear counterstrike, thus wiping out both nations (and the rest of the world).

However, they argue, Cold War rules based on MAD no longer seem to apply, as smaller, less stable nations like North Korea, Pakistan and (eventually) Iran gain nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them anywhere in the world.

Were losing our memory of the Cold War and were losing our memory of how important it is to get this right, observed co-author Tyler White, a political scientist professor at the university who specializes in international security and nuclear policy. Even a conflict that doesnt involve the United States can impact us and people around the world.

Pakistan has a nuclear capability and the missiles with which to launch them. Though North Korea recently tested an ICBM-capable missile, Western military intelligence experts do not think Pyongyang has yet mastered the technology to miniaturize the nuclear devices it has and place them atop an ICBM. However, they also note that North Korea is getting closer to the day when it will master the technology and deploy nuclear-tipped ICBMs. (RELATED: As North Korea tests new ICBM capable of reaching Alaska, Trump phones leaders of Japan, China: Is war on the horizon? Preppers be warned).

In addition to that threat, some analysts note that there are nuclear powers who have adopted first-use or limited-use policies regarding nuclear weapons as a way to make up for their lack of conventional military power. That includes Russian defense strategy, by the way.

But U.S. military planners also note that the Pentagon may recommend the same strategy to the White House if the country or an ally were under serious military threat or invasion; if a country used chemical or biological weapons against U.S. and allied forces; or to target rogue nuclear countries (like North Korea and Iran).

As reported by Homeland Security Newswire:

Using publicly available data on 19 types of weapons now held by five major nuclear powers  the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France  Liska and his colleagues calculated how many nuclear bombs in each category could be used before triggering conditions they describe as nuclear autumn or nuclear drought. Not as severe as the nuclear winter predicted by scientists in the 1980s, a nuclear autumn nonetheless would significantly impact Earths climate.

The question is not if a nuclear drought can occur, but what factors increase its probability of occurring and what actions can be taken to mitigate the potentially devastating global impacts? noted Liska.

Previous studies have concluded that a nuclear blast capable of destroying a large U.S. metropolitan area the size of Los Angeles (roughly 500 square miles) would release 5.5 million tons of soot and ash into the stratosphere, causing a loss of sunlight, decreased temperatures and less rainfall around the world for at least five years.

The effect of that one blast, analysts say, would significantly reduce growing seasons, while rainfall could decrease as much as 80 percent in some parts of the world.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

HomelandSecurityNewswire.com

Tandfonline.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

ScienceDaily.com
(Natural News) Can you guess how many Americans take prescription drugs? Did you guess one in 20 or maybe one in 10? Or did you possibly guess as many as one out of every five Americans? If you guessed any of those you would be wrong. A new report published by the CDC shows nearly half of all Americans are taking chemical medicine for their ailments. That means over 150 million Americans have experimental, unproven chemical drugs swimming in their bloodstream right now, adding to the health chaos that comes mainly from consuming chemicals.

Whats even more shocking is that the statistic is up almost ten percent from the early 1990s. Why such a spike in just over two decades? Well, thats when direct-to-consumer drug advertising first bombarded our television sets. Before that, it was illegal in America for pill-pushing pharmaceutical firms to broadcast their poisons like food on the boob-tube.

If you are one of the 150 million Americans who has fallen hook, line and sinker for the con  believing you should ask your doctor if a chemical concocted in a laboratory made to cover up your symptoms of a bad lifestyle is right for you  then you should know that not only will chemical medicines rarely cure your ills, but most of them make your health worse instantly.

Most people have no clue that prescription medications are actually bad for their short-term and long-term health. People tend to ignore the list of horrible side effects  even though they are usually listed on the medicine and vaccine inserts or mentioned during the television ads  because they are more interested in immediate relief of whatever ails them.

Heres are six of the most popular medications and medical procedures that actually make matters worse within days and sometimes just hours of receiving them:

#1. Flu Shot (influenza vaccine)

Most flu shots contain shocking amounts of mercury (listed as thimerosal), aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury at any amount is highly toxic to humans. Injecting mercury into muscle tissue sends shockwaves through the body and causes a dangerous, immediate hyper-immune response from the central nervous system. This is not natural. Mercury toxicity can cause oral health problems, digestive imbalances, respiratory problems, memory loss, depression, ADD and cardiovascular diseases. Many flu shot victims develop pneumonia, ear infections and bronchiolitis within just days of getting the vaccine because their immunity is lowered by all the carcinogens in the jab.

#2. Blood thinners

Though blood thinners are often heralded as life-saving medications, the new generation of anti-coagulants also bring about a fatal side effect with no way to reverse it. Any simple cut, including a minor internal injury, can be fatal because its next to impossible to stop the bleeding. Did you just slightly bump your head on a cabinet or while getting into your car? You could die within hours. Did you step on a piece of glass or a bottle cap while walking barefoot? Danger  you could bleed out. Plus, blood thinners deplete critical nutrients from the body daily. Medical doctors in the US are not allowed to prescribe or even talk about resveratrol because it is a natural remedy for blood clots. Ask your Naturopathic doctor about natural remedies.

#3. Chemotherapy

Chemo should be illegal. Most Americans have no clue that chemo only yields a 2.3 percent success rate, while failing to beat cancer 97.7 percent of the time, on average. On top of that, 75 percent of doctors and oncologists would never take chemo themselves or recommend it to family members with cancer. What does that tell you? Chemotherapy immediately turns the blood acidic, inviting more cancer cells to form and multiply out of control, even if it kills the current ones. Chemo destroys good gut bacteria and debases human immunity, taking away a persons natural ability to fight cancer. Taking chemo for cancer is like dumping a bucket full of toxic pesticide in a swimming pool while youre swimming in it, just so you can kill a few bugs that are in the water.

#4. Rotavirus Vaccine

There is no form of medicine more dangerous than injecting combinations of known deadly viruses along with genetically modified bacteria into human muscle tissue. The Rotateq vaccine, developed by the insidious Dr. Paul Offit, contains two strains of a deadly pig virus called circovirus, and there is no explanation anywhere as to why this deadly virus that kills thousands of pigs in China is now an ingredient in a vaccine for treating infant diarrhea. If you dont believe this is true, check the Merck vaccine ingredient insert sheet for yourself.

#5. Benzodiazepines (anxiety medications)

Benzos are highly dangerous immediately because they slow down the central nervous system, giving you the false impression that you are relaxed both physically and mentally. This leads directly to unwanted side effects, and the higher the dose, the more intense these side effects will be. All benzodiazepines are physically addictive too. Popular benzodiazepines include Xanax, Klonopin, Valium and Ativan. They are the most widely prescribed medication for anxiety. Immediate side effects include increased anxiety (imagine that), irritability, agitation, aggression, rage, mania, impulsive behavior, worsened depression (according to the FDA), hallucinations, and of course increased suicidal thoughts. Combining benzos with anti-depressant SSRIs (like Prozac and Zoloft) can heighten benzo toxicity.

#6. Seizure Medications

The entire class of seizure drugs can cause damage to the liver very quickly. Sometimes the effects of liver damage will not show up until weeks or months later, but that doesnt mean the damage did not begin immediately. What good is it to end seizures if the medication damages your liver? You cant live without your liver, so go figure! Ask a naturopathic physician about how CBD oil is known to cut epileptic seizures in half.

Sources Include:

BeWellBuzz.com

Rejuvination-Science.com

Scribd.com

RealFarmacy.com

CancerFightingStrategies.com

NaturalNewsReference.com

EDrugSearch.com

HelpGuide.org

NaturalNews.com

Books.Google.com

CDC.news
A San Francisco woman was recently duped out of $5,000 by a trio that allegedly convinced her that she was suffering from cancer and that the money was to pay for a cure, according to police.

Police on Monday issued a warning, specifically for the Chinese community that the victim belongs to, informing them of the July 11 crime also known as a blessing scam.

The San Francisco Police Department urges older members of the Chinese community to be suspicious of strangers claiming to provide relief from a curse, an illness, or who provide purification ceremonies in which cash and valuable items must be offered as part of the process, they wrote in a statement.

Last Tuesday, the victim was in the Sunset district when the first suspect  a woman  approached her and asked for directions to a healing salon, police said. The second suspect  a man  walked by just then, police said, and offered to use his phone to help find the salon. He then convinced the victim to walk to a car that was nearby, where the third suspect  another man  was waiting.

Once there, the suspects allegedly led the woman to believe that she had cancer and urged her to give them $5,000 to fund a cure. The trio promised to give some of the money back to her later in the day, but they didnt, according to police.

Police have asked residents to call 911 if they are ever faced with such a situation. Children and caregivers of elderly residents should also explain the scam to them, police added, because it is that demographic that is typically targeted by so-called blessing scammers.

Additional details about the victim and suspects were not immediately available.

People with information about any such cases are asked to call the San Francisco Police Departments anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to Tip411 with the keyword SFPD.
A man was rescued from rocks along the shoreline of San Francisco's Treasure Island late Monday night, according to fire officials.

San Francisco firefighters responded at 11:20 p.m. to a report of a man stuck on the rocks in an area between the Bay Bridge and the front security gate to the island, fire department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said.

Crews on a rescue boat and fire boat were able to retrieve the man, who had no injuries, Baxter said.

The rescue took about 30 minutes and the man was then turned over to San Francisco police for an interview, according to Baxter.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch says judges listen to each other and welcome different ideas when reaching decisions, and that's a good lesson for the other branches of government.

Gorsuch spoke on a panel Monday at the 9th Circuit courts' judicial conference in San Francisco. The panel focused on educating Americans about their system of government.

Asked what he would like people to know about the judiciary, Gorsuch pointed out that the vast majority of legal disputes are resolved at the district court level and the U.S. Supreme Court often rules unanimously.

Gorsuch was a late fill-in at the conference for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who canceled his trip to the conference after his wife fractured her hip in Austria.

Gorsuch was scheduled to speak to new U.S. citizens later in the day. A district court judge in Alaska will swear in the immigrants at a naturalization ceremony.

Gorsuch's visit comes as the Trump administration asks court to again weigh in on its ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries. Gorsuch was among three justices who said in June that the ban should be completely reinstated pending arguments before the high court.
About a quarter of the Millennium Tower owners will get a slight break on their 2017 property tax bills on the leaning and sinking high rise, the San Francisco Assessor's Office has decided.

The action amounts to an average $3,000 savings for about 100 owners who qualify and will cost the city about $300,000, officials say. There will be no property tax break, however, for 75 percent of the units.

That is a joke, that is absolutely absurd  we are not accepting that, that is not a reduction, thats a joke, said Pat Dodson, an owner who has led the challenge.

She said the city is to blame for the problem in the first place, for allowing residents to move in without revealing that the building was sinking.

This is an outrageous decision  and we are going to fight this, Dodson said.

City Assessor Carmen Chu stressed that the property value at the time of purchase is a key element in determining whether current market fluctuations will merit a reduction.

Sale prices during economic downturns, she said, would serve as a benchmark value for taxes. That means that any loss in value would not translate into a tax cut.

The $3,000 average reduction for the 100 or so owners who do qualify reflects about a $300,000 loss in value.

We have taken a look at the Jan. 1, 2017 value, the city assessor said. Based on condos that are similar in the area, trends in the marketplace and sales in the building -- we take all those factors into account.

Chu says people are free to appeal before the assessment appeals board. We fully recognize if we are missing information and it is brought to our attention, we will take that into account.

The decision for 2017 comes as more than 100 owners are appealing of their Jan. 1, 2016 property tax bills, a date that would not reflect the buildings spate of troubles that became public in August of last year.

Still, more than 100 owners have disputed their taxes, saying their property values have sunk along with the building itself, which has settled some 16 inches and also tilting about as much to the north and west.

A hearing on whether to hear the 2016 appeals en masse will be held Tuesday.
A judge on Monday pushed back to January the trial against a Chinese real estate scion charged with orchestrating the murder of her children's father, prosecutors said.



The San Mateo District Attorney's Office said a judge set a new trial date for Tiffany Li for Jan. 16, 2018, to allow both prosecution and defense more time for discovery.

Li, 31, is charged with directing her boyfriend and another man to kill Keith Green, 27, and dispose of his body, which was found in May with a bullet wound to the neck 80 miles north of the suburban San Francisco mansion he and Li once shared with their two young daughters.

Prosecutors say Li feared she would lose custody of her daughters. Li and the two men were arrested shortly after Green's body was found. She has pleaded not guilty.

Li's family helped her post $35 million in April, and she is free from jail pending trial. Two men also charged in the case remained jailed, unable to post an extravagant bail amount.
A Bay Area woman's wish for a peaceful death has been dashed, and now her family is taking legal action.

Judy Dale's family is filing a lawsuit against UCSF, claiming her doctors misled her about participating in California's End of Life Option Act.

Dale's family said she asked her doctors to help her end her life. The lawsuit claims the doctors didn't live up to the agreement, and she suffered as a result.

"Her mother had cancer, she had cancer, she knew what cancer looked like," attorney Kathryn Stebner said. "In the end, she made a strong decision; she didn't want her life to end that way."

Stebner said the 77-year-old Dale wanted to have control over her death. California's End of Life Option Act passed one month after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. Dale spoke with her doctors at UCSF about it.

"During the entire time she is there, she is having conversations with health care providers, saying, 'I want to take advantage of this.' It's all over the records," Stebner said.

According to the lawsuit, a social worker told Dale in August her doctors did not plan to help her. Dale's family then scrambled to find a doctor who would. But before a new doctor could be found, Dale died. That was in September.

"She died the exact kind of death she didn't want," Stebner said.

UCSF's website says participation in the End of Life Option Act is voluntary for doctors. It also says if a patient's doctor refuses, a social worker will help that patient find a doctor who will participate.

In a statement Monday night, UCSF outilined its protocols, but said it can't comment on Dale's case.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses UCSF of elder abuse and fraud. Dale's family wants the health care organization to change.

"This lawsuit says if you are not going allow it, tell people," Stebner said. "Super simple. For her it's too late."

Stebner says Dale's children don't want this to happen to another family.
There have been high-profile gang busts, meetings with community leaders and bike rides for peace.

And still the violence hasn't stopped.

Boston's bloody summer continued over the weekend, with a fatal shooting in Roxbury on Saturday night, a drive-by shooting in Dorchester on Sunday night, followed by a fatal double shooting in Dorchester on Monday afternoon, a shooting in Roxbury Monday night, the fatal shooting of a well-known store owner in Mission Hill on Tuesday afternoon and a shooting in Dorchester on Wednesday morning.

From Memorial Day Weekend through Sunday, there have been 59 shootings in Boston, 7 of them fatal. That's up 37 percent from the 43 shootings (7 fatal) during that same period in 2016.

Shooting Category 2016 2017 #Change %Change Non-fatal shootings 36 52 16 44 Fatal shootings 7 7 0 0 Total shooting victims 43 59 16 37

The year-to-date numbers aren't much better. From Jan. 1 through Sunday, there had been 137 shootings in Boston, 19 of them fatal. That's up 30 percent from the 106 shootings (15 fatal) for the same period last year.

Shooting Category 2016 2017 #Change %Change Non-fatal shootings 91 118 27 30 Fatal shootings 15 19 4 27 Total shooting victims 106 137 31 29

"There's too many guns on the street, but this is definitely a village concept," said Boston Police Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross. "We're talking about clergy, residents... everybody is included."

The recent spate of violence has even become a campaign issue, with challenger Tito Jackson criticizing incumbent Mayor Marty Walsh for being "flat-footed" in his response.

"This can't continue to happen and neighborhoods like this  it can't be the new normal in these neighborhoods," Jackson said Tuesday. "We want to make sure that every neighborhood in the city of Boston is safe."

Walsh said he's been working on the problem, but there's no easy solution.

"This summer we've seen an uptick here in the neighborhoods," he said. "It's something that bothers us, and we're going to continue to work at it every day.

"There's too many guns on the street," Walsh said, echoing Gross. "We're just going to continue to work at it. This is where we need to double down our efforts... It has to be a whole program solution to how we deal with this."
A normal childhood condition changed her sons behavior, and on Tuesday, a suburban moms campaign paid off when Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that will help families like hers all across Illinois.

Rauner signed Charlies Law in Lombard, at the kitchen table of Charlie Drury, a 12-year-old who suffered a debilitating mental illness after a case of strep throat.

"My son on his eighth birthday got strep throat and was never the same child, his mother Kate Drury said. Every day he grew farther away from us. He developed extreme OCD, anxiety, he became anorexic because he was scared of food. He was hallucinating, his brain was inflamed and we had no idea.

Drury said she paid $12,000 out of pocket to eventually fund the treatment Charlie needed, but the experience made her think about other Illinois families who may not have that ability.

She joined with Wendy Nawara, whose children also suffered from Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infections and Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANDAS/PANS).

Together they worked on legislation, named for their sons, to close a coverage gap and make Illinois the first state to require insurance providers to cover the cost of PANDAS/PANS treatment.

"This bill will change families lives, Nawara said. Not only will it affect the families, but it will encourage the doctors to learn more about about PANDAS/PANS so that they can treat it more expeditiously and get these kids what they need.

State Sen. Tom Cullerton introduced the bill after hearing their families stories, and after four years of work, their experience is now law.

"This is going to make an impact on lives throughout our state, and the goal is to get this throughout the country, Cullerton said.

PANDAS/PANS advocates and lawmakers said it was a labor-intensive process to get insurance companies on board, but now the state of New York is looking to draft similar legislation.
A Saudi man who was arrested before flying to the United States to begin college in Michigan now faces imminent beheading for attending anti-government protests, officials say.

Mujtabaa al-Sweikat was accepted to Western Michigan University and was slated to begin classes in 2012 when he was arrested at an airport in Saudi Arabia, according to the American Federation of Teachers.

Yesterday, the AFT and AFT Michigan learned that Mujtabaa al-Sweikat, who was detained at King Fahd Airport in 2012 on his way to the United States to attend college, was moved from detention in Dammam to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where executions by beheading customarily take place, Randi Weingarten and David Hecker, of the AFT, said in a joint statement. Mujtabaa and others were arrested for attending a peaceful, anti-government protest, for which they were sentenced to death, a despicable violation of international law and basic humanity.

The AFT has asked that President Donald Trump, noting his close relationship with Saudi leaders, demand a halt to the impending executions.

Cheryl Roland, the executive director of university relations at Western Michigan, said in an email that its not unusual for an admitted student to opt out of enrolling at the last minute, so the university had no idea there was such a troubling reason behind al-Sweikats failure to appear on campus.

The AFT information makes it clear that the critical national political figures with influence in such a situation are informed, a statement from the university reads. We join the AFT in urging them to use that influence to ask the Saudi government to exhibit compassion.

The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Last May, Trump signed a nearly $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia on his inaugural foreign trip as president. He focused mainly on the joint efforts of the U.S. and its Middle East allies to combat extremism.

"America is a sovereign nation and our first priority is always the safety and security of our citizens," Trump said at the time, NBC News reported. "We are not here to lecture  we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership  based on shared interests and values  to pursue a better future for us all."

The group of 13 prisoners condemned to death along with al-Sweikat include a disabled man and several others who were children at the time of their alleged offenses, according to UK-based human rights group Reprieve.

The Saudi embassy did not respond to request for comment.

Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, leaned on Prime Minister Theresa May in a statement, saying there was deafening silence on the issue.

The Prime Minister needs to use her visits to the kingdom and deepening ties with its leaders to promote reform, not just tout for trade, Foa said. Theresa May must now pick up the phone to King Salman and the new Crown Prince, make clear that the UK opposes the beheading of children and protesters like Mujtaba and Munir, and call for an immediate halt to the 14 imminent executions.

Of the world's 1,032 total executions in 2017, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan put the most people to death, according to a recent Amnesty International report.

al-Sweikat reportedly planned to study finance.
It started off as a family vacation to remember: walks on sandy beaches, poolside relaxation and a tropical atmosphere.

But what was supposed to be a relaxing getaway quickly turned into a horrific nightmare, and now, a Wisconsin family is searching for answers after their 20-year-old daughter suddenly died at a Mexico resort earlier this year.

The family of Abbey Conner says the college student was on winter break with her older brother, mother and stepdad in Playa del Carmen when Conner mysteriously suffered a "traumatic brain injury."

John and Ginny McGowan, Conners mother and stepdad, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they had spent their afternoon relaxing by the pool while their children swam. Just before 6 p.m., the couple went up to their rooms to get ready for dinner with their children, but when they arrived in the lobby to meet them an hour later, they realized something was wrong.

Ginny McGowan said she asked the hotel desk to call her childrens room, but the employee quickly appeared flustered. She told the Journal Sentinel hotel workers said her children had been in an accident and she needed to go to a nearby hospital.

Both Abbey and her brother Austin, who had spent part of their afternoon at a poolside bar, were found unconscious, face down in chest-deep water.

Iberostar Paraiso Resort confirmed the two received "immediate medical attention" by on-staff doctors, paramedics and security guards before they were taken to a hospital.



Austin survived, but Abbey Conner was transferred to a hospital in Cancun and later flown to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the publication reports. There, doctors confirmed Conner was brain-dead.

On Jan. 12, the family decided to withdraw life support and donate Conners organs.

But months later, they still dont know what actually happened to their daughter.

The Journal Sentinel reports the official cause of death was "accidental drowning," but family said they have doubts about that ruling.

Conners brother reportedly told the publication the duo had done a few shots together before a group invited them to do a shot together. They all drank one, and that was the last thing he remembers before waking up in an ambulance.

According to the report, Austin Conner's blood-alcohol level was 0.26 and Abbey's was 0.25.

A police report was given to the family for the first time last week, which includes statements from three staffers who arrived at the scene and pulled the kids from the water, family members told the Journal Sentinel. It does not contain any statements from hotel guests, the bartender or a woman who alerted hotel staff after seeing the Conners in the pool, the family said.

"My kids were at this hotel for less than two hours. The last thing my son remembers is having a drink in the pool," the children's father, Bill Conner, who was not in Mexico at the time, told NBC affiliate WMTV in April. "The next thing my son remembers is they woke up in the hospital. Somebody got to them This was at 5:30 in the afternoon, daylight, exclusive hotel and you just don't think it'll happen to you."



"It's all too convenient," the McGowans attorney, Florentino Ramirez, told the Journal Sentinel. "If it was an accident, where was everybody? It just doesn't make sense. There are too many open ends."

Iberostar Paraiso Resort released a statement to say they are taking the situation "very seriously" and that the company "has always remained cooperative."



"The safety and security of guests is utmost priority for us," the statement said. "We are deeply saddened by this incident and reiterate our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family."



A State Department official confirmed to NBC 5 the department is aware of this case.

We extend our sincere condolences to family and friends, the official said in a statement. In cases of U.S. citizens injured overseas, the Department of State works to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the family, we have no further comment.

Conner's organs went on to save the lives of four others, her family said.

Bill Conner has since rode his bicycle 2,000 miles across the country, from Madison to Fort Lauderdale, to the hospital where his daughter took her last breath. The ride raised money for Donate Life America in an effort to honor his "daughter's good deeds and empower others to the same."

"Organ donation and carrying Abbey's name forward, that's what she'd want me to do," Conner told WMTV.

A GoFundMe page for the ride raised more than $23,000.
Russia said Tuesday it reserves the right to retaliate against America for the "illegal seizure" of two Russian diplomatic compounds, NBC News reported.

Top Russian and U.S. officials met on Monday to discuss the compounds in Maryland and New York.

The mansions were seized in December under former President Barack Obama as part of sanctions over Russia's involvement in hacking the U.S. election, which Russia has denied.

"Russia stressed that if Washington does not address this and other concerns, including persistent efforts to hinder the operation of Russias diplomatic missions, Russia has the right to take retaliatory measures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity," the ministry said in a statement after Monday's meeting ended without a deal.
Afghanistan's protracted war killed a record number of civilians during the first six months of this year, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which blamed the majority of the deaths on bombings by insurgents.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the "horrifying" figure of 1,662 people killed between January and June of this year "can never fully convey the sheer human suffering of the people of Afghanistan."

"Each one of these casualty figures reflects a broken family, unimaginable trauma and suffering and the brutal violation of people's human rights," he added.

The report confirmed that a massive truck bomb in the center of Kabul on May 31, which killed at least 90 people, was the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. It also noted that more women and children were among the dead this year.

Insurgent attacks killed 1,141 civilians, a 12 per cent increase over the same period last year, according to the report, which said such attacks wounded another 2,348 people.

The report commended Afghanistan's security forces, saying fewer civilians were caught in the crossfire compared to last year. It said 434 civilians were killed during military operations against insurgents.

Gen. Dowlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, blamed the high toll on the insurgents' use of human shields. "The army is being very careful during operations to prevent civilian deaths," Waziri told The Associated Press.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the "biased" report, saying it did not take into account civilians killed by Afghan and coalition forces in areas controlled by the Taliban. He did not provide any figures and there was no way to verify his claims.

The insurgents have expanded their footprint in Afghanistan since U.S. and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, and the Taliban now control a number of districts across the country.

The Afghan government said Monday that troops retook a key district in the southern Helmand province from the Taliban. The fighting in the Naway district was fierce, with more than 50 Taliban killed, according to Waziri, who said just five security forces were wounded. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Naway is located just 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Lashkar Gah, and had been a staging area for militant attacks on the provincial capital. U.S. and NATO forces are assisting Afghan troops in Helmand.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban snatched three border police officers from their car in the western Herat province, including a woman, and killed them, said Jelani Farhad, the provincial governor's spokesman.
The battle over school funding in Illinois heated up Monday, as Gov. Bruce Rauner announced plans to issue an amendatory veto of a major reform bill  a move that Chicago Public Schools quickly claimed he cannot legally do.

State aid for K-12 schools is contingent on changing Illinois funding formula to an evidence-based model like that of Senate Bill 1, which passed the legislature in May.

SB 1 which would change the way new school funding is distributed statewide to make Illinois system (among the most regressive in the nation when it comes to serving low-income students) more equitable.

It is currently being held on a procedural motion, as lawmakers seek more time to negotiate after Rauner vowed to veto the measure, decrying it as a bailout for CPS. [[432983263, C]]

On Monday, Rauner called on Senate President John Cullerton to send the legislation to his desk so he can issue an amendatory veto to remove certain funding considerations for cash-strapped CPS.

We have a chance to make history and adopt a new school funding plan that, for the first time, ensures all school districts in Illinois are equitably and adequately funded, Rauner said in a statement. Unfortunately, Democrats want to turn this historic opportunity into a bailout for the CPS pension system. The point of this school reform bill is to help low income students across the state, including those in Chicago, get the education they deserve  not to bailout CPSs mismanaged teacher pension system.

At issue is the way the bill factors CPS finances into what would become the new statewide funding formula. SB 1 eliminates the Chicago block grant, which automatically appropriates specific funding to CPS each year, but takes that $203 million into account  plus the districts $221 million in employer pension contributions  when calculating the districts baseline funding minimum.

That, plus the $505.8 million reduction in the bills assessment of Chicagos local fundraising capabilities based on its unfunded pension liability, is what Rauner said led to his decision to issue an amendatory veto. [[419186634, C]]

However, a spokeswoman for CPS said the governor cannot legally use an amendatory veto on SB 1, saying it would exceed his power under the Illinois Constitution.

Governor Rauners stunt wont pass legal muster, and instead jeopardizes the opening for dozens of school districts around the state, CPS spokewoman Emily Bittner said in a statement, adding that an amendatory veto would change a fundamental purpose of the legislation  a power not granted by the Constitution.

A spokesman for Cullerton said the legal constraints arent quite that explicit, and the situation still remains very much up in the air.

In short, the legislature will have to wait to see how Rauner changes the bill before choosing to accept his veto, override it  both of which would take a 3/5 majority in the House and Senate  or ruling that it exceeds his authority, in which case the legislation would die and lawmakers would have to start from square one.

No matter what, something must be done to move Illinois to an evidence-based model of funding like the intent of SB 1, otherwise no state aid will be disbursed to schools  rendering many unable to open in the fall.
President Donald Trump's attorney insisted Sunday there was nothing illegal in the meeting Trump's eldest son had with a Russian lawyer during last year's presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Jr.'s willingness to meet with the lawyer in the expectation of receiving incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has raised new questions about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The information had been described as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

The president's attorney, Jay Sekulow, defended Trump and his son in a series of appearances Sunday on five television networks.

"Nothing in that meeting that would have taken place, even if it was about the topic of an opposition research paper from a Russian lawyer, is illegal or a violation of the law," Sekulow said on "Fox News Sunday," a point he repeated several times. He said the president did not attend the meeting and was not aware of it.

The attorney's focus on the law appears aimed at moving beyond the shifting accounts of the meeting given by Trump Jr. At first, the June 2016 meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program. Then, it was to hear information about Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was compelled to release emails that revealed he had told an associate that he would "love" Russia's help in obtaining incriminating information about the Democratic nominee.

The number of people known to be at the meeting also changed over time. As recently as Friday, Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer, confirmed his participation to The Associated Press.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that he wants everyone who attended the meeting to appear before his committee, one of several in Congress investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and potential coordination with the Trump campaign.

In addition to Trump Jr. others in the Trump Tower meeting included Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, both of whom played major roles in the campaign.

"I want to hear from everyone in that meeting and get their version of the story, as well as I think we may find out there may have been other meetings as well. We don't know that yet," Warner, D-Va., said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Sekulow said he was not aware of any other meetings involving Russians. "I represent the president of the United States, but Donald Trump Jr. said not in the context of formal meetings. He said he may have met with Russian people, as a lot of people meet with Russian people, so that's not unusual," Sekulow said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Trump himself came to the defense of his son, who he said "is being scorned by the Fake News Media." The president ended a series of Sunday morning tweets by writing: "With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!"
Using the HARC as a backdrop, a non-profit that works with the intellectually disabled, Governor Dannel Malloy chided lawmakers for their inaction on even a short-term spending plan.

He said a "mini budget," as hes called it, could have provided some relief from sweeping budget cuts that are the result of the state not having a two-year budget in place.

Nobody was willing to check their egos at the door, Malloy told a group of reporters, in a room filled with staff and advocates for the HARC.

At the HARC, staff there said they have had no choice but to start limiting programs and furloughing staff in response to the cuts that have already taken effect.

For now, some staff will be forced to take one unpaid day off soon, and those who oversee the facility said the wide-ranging impact across the organization will be significant.

I dont know if I can really quantify that but I can tell you that it is much more than that one person, said Hajib Habesch, who sits on the Board of the HARC.

Democrats and Republicans in the Connecticut Senate had voiced their support for a mini budget, acknowledging it was a way forward even though it wasnt their favored method of running state government.

In the Connecticut House, however, both Democrats and Republicans ruled out a short-term spending plan, killing any notion of passage.

Democrats in the House will meet Tuesday to discuss a possible route forward on the budget.

Gov. Malloy described the lack of a short-term budget in terms of a lost opportunity.

If were not going to have a permanent budget or a biennium budget in a matter of days then lets get beyond that and bring something about that brings a level of relief, Malloy said. Thats what Im looking for.

At the HARC, Irene Fortier spoke with the governor about her sister whos been in the groups care for nearly four decades.

Fortier said she hopes lawmakers and the governor comprehend what will happen without a budget for the foreseeable future.

She said, Its frightening to not know what the future holds for my sister or anyone else that the HARC is helping.
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for a home invasion and botched robbery that ended with a fake bomb strapped to an executive at a New Britain, Connecticut, bank in 2015.

Michael Benanti, 45, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, was sentenced Tuesday to four life sentences and an additional 155 years after being convicted for involvement in a violent bank extortion and robbery spree that spanned four states.

He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and armed bank extortion, two counts of attempted armed bank extortion, one count of armed bank extortion, three counts of carjacking, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of being a previously-convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and 10 counts of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence

The crime happened on Feb. 23, 2015, when two masked men, Benanti and Brian Withman, of Maine, broke into the Bristol home of a 46-year-old Matthew Yussman, a credit union manager, strapped a fake explosive device to him and tied his mom to a bed, authorities said.

Police said the intruders demanded Yussman drive them to Achieve Financial Credit Union in New Britain and empty the vault, but the suspects eventually fled with nothing.

Yussman's mother described finding her son face-down in the garage at their Bristol home with his hands tied and said she overheard two assailants saying they owed money and would kill Yussman and his mother if they didn't pay up.

Shortly after the incident, FBI started to investigate the case.

Tennessee investigators said Withman and Benanti committed similar crimes in their state: multiple attempts to extort money from federal credit union employees by taking family members hostage.

Withman pleaded guilty in March 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
A Norwalk mother who has lived in the United States for 24 years faces deportation, and now a lawyer in New Haven and a group of advocates are working on her behalf against an immigration policy that isnt in her favor.

Nury Chavarria left her native Guatemala in 1993, when she was 19, and applied for asylum. Her application was denied, but she remained in the US, with nothing to go back to at home.

Since 2011, she has had yearly check-ins with immigration officials. Each year she was given the approval to remain in the US.

Chavarria said she has no criminal record, works as a housekeeper, and pays taxes. She believed those factors would allow her to remain in the US, despite the Trump Administrations focus on deportations. All that changed at her June check-in, when ICE officials told her in five weeks she would have to pack up her life and leave.

I told him Im not a criminal. Im a mother with four children. They are citizens. USA. I want to stay here to help them and keep my family together, she said.

ICE issued Chavarria an ankle-monitor to track her movements ahead of her removal. Meanwhile, her 9-year-old daughter has a plea for President Donald Trump.

Please let my mom stay because she has four children and Im one of them and I really want her to stay, Hayley Chavarria said.

New Haven attorney Glenn Formica and volunteer activist group Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible have taken on the case, hoping to reverse the order that will separate Nury from her four children on July 20.

"The current policy doesnt allow common sense adjudication. Doesnt allow them any discretion them to say 'Yeah, it doesnt make sense to force Nury to leave her four children here and become burdens on the state,'" Formica said.

This is just inhumane. Things have to change. This is not who we are as a people. We have compassion, we care about people, added Charla Nich of Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible.

NBC Connecticut reached out to ICE on the case, and they released the following statement Monday:

"Nury Chavarria was allowed to voluntarily depart by a federal immigration judge in 1998, and failed to comply, rendering her subject to final order of removal in 1999. In 2010, the agency deferred her removal for one year on humanitarian grounds.

As a current exercise of discretion, the agency has allowed her to remain free from custody while finalizing her timely departure plans. The agency will continue to closely monitor her case to ensure compliance."

Nury's request to stay was denied Tuesday. Nury and her attorney will again request to stay, but if that request is denied, she will have to leave on Thursday.
At lunchtime, the staff at Costello's Clam Shack, in the Noank part of Groton, expects to fry up a lot of clam strips this summer.

But a strip shortage has owner Deirdre Mears a bit clammy.

"The name of the restaurant is Costello's Clam Shack. It's kind of embarrassing if you don't have a clam, she said.

The shack had one Sunday this summer when they ran out of clam strips for four hours.

"It would've been better if we said we ordered wrong, we just screwed up. But no it's a supply issue, Mears said.

Some seafood shacks said it's been challenging to get clam strips this summer.



And the thought of a shortage has customers in a frenzy.

"If I came someplace and I wanted a particular thing, and it's right on the seashore, I would be shocked, said Pam Zbierski, of Mystic, who was eating a dish with clam strips at Costellos.

Atlantic Capes Fisheries sells to major northeast seafood distributors. The vice president of sales, Jim Mullin, said at one point, three of the companys six clam boats were down.

Two of the clam boats were out because of mechanical issues. Combine that with storms and bad weather, which prevents other boats from getting out on the water, and that results with a supply shortage.

Mullin told NBC Connecticut that all six boats should be back on the water this week. The company said it is working on introducing a seventh boat to the fleet.

It's very tough when you have a product that people love and are coming just for it, send them away without what they came for, said Ryan Devlin-Perry, operations manager at Sea Swirl in Mystic.

Delvin-Perry has had a couple of days without clam strips. The company posted on Instagram and wrote, in part, Because we wont serve you frozen clam strips that came from who-knows-where, there may be days when we dont have clam strips available on our menu.

Distributors are also feeling the clam strip shortage. James Lampropoulos, the key account manager for Ipswich Maritime in Massachusetts, said at this point they're only able supply to the top 25 of their 1,200 businesses. That includes Costellos.

Lampropoulos said it's not that they don't want to provide everyone with clam strips, its just not possible to fill all of the orders. Many businesses are looking to multiple distributors for a clam strip supply, he added. And the area where some fisheries go, there are not as many clams.
Russia has refrained from a retaliatory response, but Lavrov said last week, "If Washington decides not to solve this issue, we will have to take counter actions," possibly by blocking use of a country house and storage facility used by U.S. Embassy personnel in Moscow.

Then-U.S. President Barack Obama shut the compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats it accused of spying in December, less than a month before he left office, in response to the Russian election interference, a claim Moscow rejects.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the U.S. closure of the properties in the eastern states of New York and Maryland "daylight robbery."

Russia demanded Monday that the United States return two compounds that were ordered closed last year after the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

There was political speculation in Washington that President Donald Trump would quickly return the compounds to Russia when he took office in late January, but he did not.

Trump now is in the midst of months of congressional and criminal investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton and whether he obstructed justice with the firing back in May of then-FBI director James Comey, who was heading the agency's Russia investigation. Since then, another former FBI chief, Robert Mueller, has been named, over Trump's objections, to lead the criminal probe.

The issue of the closure of the two Russian compounds is on the agenda again in Washington on Monday, with a meeting between U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Lavrov, in a visit to Belarus, said that "anti-Russian feeling" in the U.S. makes it uncertain whether Moscow and Washington can agree to cooperate on world issues.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, "We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property; we consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking."

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin, blamed by the U.S. intelligence community for personally ordering the U.S. election interference, "quite unambiguously" raised the issue of the closure of the compounds when he met with Trump at the recent G-20 summit in Germany.

The Kremlin spokesman said Russia still has hope that "our American colleagues will show political wisdom and political will" and return the properties to Russian use.


Fourteen Dallas-area CEOs and the Dallas Regional Chamber sent letters to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Monday urging they reconsider "bathroom bill" legislation they say would hamper their ability to retain the best employees.

Proposed legislation before the Texas legislature, which begins a special session Tuesday, would limit which restrooms transgender people can use to the gender listed on their birth certificate and not the one they identify with.

Industry leaders from American Airlines, AT&T, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments, and others, said Texas has long been a magnet for big business because of a "pro-growth" environment that encouraged diversity.

"As CEOs of Dallas-based businesses, were writing to express our concern that the so-called 'bathroom bill' that the Texas legislature is considering would seriously hurt the states ability to attract new businesses, investment and jobs. Our companies are competing every day to bring the best and brightest talent to Dallas. To that end, we strongly support diversity and inclusion. This legislation threatens our ability to attract and retain the best talent in Texas, as well as the greatest sporting and cultural attractions in the world," the letter said.

The Dallas Regional Chamber also sent Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick a letter Thursday showing its opposition to the legislation.

In their letter, they highlighted that more than 75 companies have relocated headquarters to the region from other states and said that the success did not happen by accident or overnight.

"We are deeply committed to maintaining and enhancing our states pro-business environment, which includes being welcoming and diverse. We want Texas to remains a beacon for companies and workers from around the country and the world," the Dallas Regional Chamber wrote.

The letters arrived in Austin a day before New York-based IBM planned to take out full-page advertisements in Texas newspapers opposing the proposed legislation. The company's ad war against the legislation said it discriminates against transgender Texans, The Dallas Morning News reported.

"As one of the largest technology employers in Texas, IBM firmly opposes any measure that would harm the state's LGBT+ community and make it difficult for businesses to attract and retain talented Texans," the ads read.

IBM is taking out full-page advertisements in Texas newspapers opposing the state's proposed legislation that would limit which restrooms transgender people can use.

IBM also planned to send 20 employees, including top executives, to express their opposition to the bill Tuesday at the Texas Capitol, when state lawmakers will reconvene for a special legislative session.

IBM, which employs more than 10,000 people in Texas, is one of several companies outside of DFW, including Apple and Facebook, to oppose the bill.

Letter from Dallas-Area CEOs to Gov. Greg Abbott

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Dallas Regional Chamber's Letter to Gov. Greg Abbott

[[435204793,C]]
A few thousand voters in Colorado, Vermont and other states are removing themselves from state voter rolls, fearing that personal information could be revealed by President Donald Trump's voter fraud commission, NBC News reported.

The Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, which was formed in May to study "vulnerabilities" in the American election system, sent a letter to all states requesting voter information on June 28.

From then until Friday, over 3,700 voters in Colorado had their names struck from the rolls, including over 2,000 Democrats and nearly 400 Republicans, according to the secretary of state's office.

Chris Winters, the Vermont deputy secretary of state, said that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why 372 voters in his state  which is not complying with the commission  have asked to unregister. "We try to discourage people from trying to get off the voter rolls," he said.


More people are moving to North Texas, which means more people are in need of a driver's license. With that comes longer lines at the driver's license centers.

On Monday morning, the driver license office at Parker Road, in Plano, had a line wrapped around the door.

NBC 5 reached out to officials with Texas Department of Public Safety to figure out how people can avoid long wait times.

The DPS said summertime is the busiest time of the year at driver license offices. Also, Monday and Friday tend to be the busiest days of the week at the offices, so to try to avoid going on these days if possible.

Make sure to check if you are eligible to renew your license online, by phone, or mail. You might not even have to physically go to the driver license center to get what you need done.

As far as office locations, they encourage using one of the Mega Centers, which have higher capacity than smaller officers.

There is also a get in line online option, however officials said some offices are currently experiencing intermittent issues and they are working to fix them.



Lastly, make sure that you have all the proper documents before arriving to the driver license office. This is crucial in making sure you dont have to make a second trip back to the office.

Online: Texas DPS Driver License


The state has moved forward Senate Bill 42 to help acquire the trail to Martin's Beach. The new legislation follows a multi-year legal battle between public groups and Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla.

Formerly known for co-founding Sun Microsystems, Khosla has been involved in a highly-publicized legal battle for the last seven years following his purchase of roughly 53-acres of the surrounding coastal property for $37.5 million. In 2010, the trail to the sandy alcove near Half Moon Bay boasted a gate reading "Beach Closed, Keep Out."

The sign and negotiation efforts for public access to the nearly 80-year-old beach has attracted national attention.

The new bill, introduced by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, sets aside a sub-account to accept funding through donations as well as a contribution from San Mateo County, to acquire roughly 6.4 acres of Khosla's estate through eminent domain.



San Mateo County has said that it will finance the acquisition up to $1 million. Jennifer Savage, the California policy manager for the Surfrider Foundation says she hopes the funds will be enough.

Google Maps

Previous negotiations between the State Lands Commission (SLC) and Khosla failed, due to disputed estimates of worth. While official estimates for the portion of land was valued at $360,000, Khosla demanded $30 million.

If the acquisition requires more than $1 million, Savage said the sub-account will allow private parties to chip in or hold fundraisers.

"Everyone in California has the right to go to the beach," Savage said. "Its an equalizer. You can be rich, you can be poor, but you can still dig your toes in the sand."

While just a small beach, Savage says what happens at Martin's Beach affects all Californians and sets a precedent for the state's roughly $40 billion coastal economy.

"Beach access is one of the primary reasons that we exist," Savage said.

The group has been involved in a number of lawsuits against landowners restricting public access to beaches, a move it argues is not only wrong, but against the law.

The Coastal Act of 1976, which ensures the public's right to state-owned beaches, has been one of the arguments the group has used against wealthy landowners whose arguments center around privacy and property rights.

While the Surfrider Foundation won its lawsuit against Khosla, which ordered him to open the gates, access remained tricky. Savage said the last six times she's visited this month, the gate has still been in place.

Khosla has since filed an appeal of the court order and has individual lawsuits against the Coastal Commission and the staff of both San Mateo County and the State Lands Commission.

Savage says she sees the legal battle continuing for many years, but Hill's legislation would move forward eminent domain proceedings.

The bill is expected to be brought to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a vote no sooner than August.

Vinod Khosla's representation was unavailable for comment.
Residents in a Philadelphia neighborhood are keeping their bug spray on hand after they say thousands of cockroaches crawled out of a manhole and began invading their street.

"When I tell you thousands of them, there were thousands of them," Pat Wall told NBC10 Monday.

Wall and other neighbors say the roaches began crawling out of a manhole at the intersection of Salmon and Plum streets in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia Sunday night and haven't stopped since. At one point, according to Wall, there were so many that she couldn't see the ground.

"When I tell you all the neighbors down this end were out here spraying and stomping, it was a horror story that I couldn't believe I was living," she said. "And they were flying all over. Never had to duck a flying roach."

Wall said it's the worst roach infestation she's ever seen.

"Everybody is out here with spray cans spraying bugs," said Paul Basfort, another resident. "They were stomping them and they were running right out of there."

Three residents called the Philadelphia Water Department asking for help with the issue, spokesman John DiGiulio said.

A crew was dispatched to the street Tuesday morning. They opened the manhole and used a mobile vacuum truck  known as a VACTOR  to clear any debris, trash or discarded food that may have been stuck in the sewer.

DiGiulio said the crew didn't spot any roaches, but inspectors from the Philadelphia Department of Health left bait for the insects.



Why the hoard of roaches swarmed that particular sewer remains a mystery. Heavy rain could have forced the bugs out of the pipe and infestations are more common in hot and humid summer months.

DiGiulio offered a more pragmatic view of the invasion: "Unfortunately, roaches live in sewers."


A woman who was allegedly kidnapped and raped by a Georgia couple honeymooning in south Florida says she didn't know if she would survive the abuse, adding that her life has forever been changed by the experience.

"When I finally did escape, I was running in the street naked. As a woman, you're never going to feel the same about yourself," the 28-year-old victim said. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get over this."

Flanked by her attorney, the woman detailed the alleged abuse endured at the hands of a man and woman who are accused of a crime spree. The victim asked not to be identified during a press conference Monday with her attorney Carlos Silva.

"I didn't know if I was gonna get out alive," the victim said.

Rashada Hurley, 32, and Timothy Lowe, 37, were arrested last week on sexual battery, kidnapping and carjacking charges, two days after they were charged with indecent exposure for allegedly walking through two stores naked and grabbing sodas without paying.

The victim said she was in her car outside a Hialeah grocery store when Hurley approached her from the driver's side window and asked for directions. When she rolled down the window Hurley punched her in the head, knocking her out, the woman said.

According to the woman, when she regained consciousness, Lowe was in the driver's seat and Hurley was in the passenger side. She said she screamed and that's when Hurley put her in a chokehold and Lowe hit her in the face.

"The woman [is] holding my legs and the man keeps on asking the woman if she has the knife, and the woman is fumbling in her purse," the victim recalled. "At this point, I'm panicking. I'm terrified. I don't know what's going to happen."

Lowe then drove the victims car to a Motel 6 in Miami where Hurley booked a room using the victims credit card, police said.

"You never think you would pay to get raped," the woman said, choking back tears.

Once inside, the couple took turns sexually abusing the victim and held her for hours against her will. When Hurley and Lowe became distracted with the victim's phone she ran out out of the motel room naked, a police report said.

"Of course, the first opportunity I saw, I took it," the woman said.

The next day, the couple entered a convenience store naked and grabbed sodas without paying. Police arrested the naked couple a block away from the store.

"These people are not well, they are sick and demented," Silva said.

The 28-year-old said she was stunned that the couple was allowed to book the room using her credit card without providing the motel proper identification. She said she wants the motel to look into this and prevent a similar situation from ever happening to anyone else.

"I don't want this to ever happen to any other woman. This can happen to anybody," the victim said.

The victim and her attorney said they intend to file a lawsuit against Motel 6 for allowing the suspects use the woman's credit card without identification. Motel 6 has not responded to NBC 6's request for comment on the incident.
Could you help thieves steal millions of dollars from your own employer without even knowing it?

Its the latest twist in a hacking scheme that has the feds concerned. So concerned, the Department of Justice allowed NBC6 cameras to document their top cyber security expert training dozens of local companies on how to stop this potentially devastating scheme.

The training took place in a conference room at the law office of Holland and Knight. The room was full of the top executives of South Floridas most important companies. All of them were there to hear Michael Stawasz, the head of the cyber security unit for the Department of Justices criminal division talk about how to prevent employees from causing financial disaster at their own companies.

The insider threat remains the biggest threat, says Stawasz who explains that you have to give certain people access to the system so they can use it for legitimate purposes. If they then misuse that access, they can do a lot of damage to your organization.

Were talking thousands, even millions of dollars in damage.

While bad employees can intentionally use their access to steal, a growing concern today are cyber hackers targeting honest employees via emails that impersonate colleagues or a boss in the company.

It's very, very common to see phishing attacks that are very, very effective, says Silka Gonzalez, President of Enterprise Risk Management and one of the organizers of the cyber security event.

These cyber experts showed us how easy it is for hackers to create e-mails that look identical to what you would receive from co-workers.

Sometimes it becomes really difficult to identify whether its a fake email or not, says Animesh Srivasdava, a cyber security consultant for Enterprise Risk Management.

Hackers then request money transfers and unsuspecting employees comply. By the time the scheme is discovered, the money is usually gone and the culprits are tough to find.

Silka Gonzalez says hackers are everywhere.

They can be coming from China, from Brazil, from Russia, they might be here in Florida, she says, adding the last one we saw was coming from Hialeah.

To avoid being a victim, cyber experts recommend employees:

Confirm transfers by phone or in person before making them

Never leave computers on at the end of your day

Use hard-to-decipher passwords

Dont enter unsecure sites

Question suspicious emails, even ones that come from colleagues if something doesnt seem right

Gonzalez says you need to think about different things you see in the email. You should pay attention to things like grammar and the style of writing.

Is the style similar to the style of the person that usually sends you that kind of request, asks Gonzalez.

Experts say this scheme has been painful for a growing number of corporations. But for smaller companies, that are a top target for hackers, the scam can be financially catastrophic.
For Jeff Mudgett, one day in early May was a moment of truth, or at least the next step in his pursuit of the truth. Years of research and debate were coming down to this day in a Yeadon, Pennsylvania, cemetery.

It was straight out of Alfred Hitchcock. It was scary, Mudgett said.

Anthropologists and archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania were excavating the gravesite of Mudgetts great-great grandfather Herman Webster Mudgett, more infamously known as serial killer and con-man H.H. Holmes.

Hes evil personified! And I decided rather than running away from it, I decided to try to make something worthwhile of coming up with the truth, Mudgett said.

Some credit Holmes with killing more than two hundred people in the late 1800s. Most of the killings are believed to have taken place in a building Holmes owned in Chicago, dubbed the Murder Castle, events described in the 2003 bestseller "The Devil in the White City." But Holmes was only convicted of one murder. In 1895 he was put on trial in Philadelphia for the murder of his business partner Benjamin Pitezel and was sentenced to die by hanging.

This is where Mudgett and others say the mystery begins.

According to newspaper accounts, Holmes was marched to the gallows at Moyamensing Prison where he was hanged. The prison was located on 1400 South 10th Street in Philadelphia before it closed in 1963 and was demolished in 1968. Holmes body was eventually interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon. Holmes requested his casket be encased in concrete so no one would steal his body. However, an 1898 newspaper article sparked the conspiracy theory that Holmes somehow escaped death at Moyamensing and ended up in South America.

Fast-forward to 2017 with Mudgett standing in what many believe to be the grave of his murderous relative. Descendants of Holmes were granted permission by a Delaware County judge to exhume the remains.

It actually brought tears to my eyes, Mudgett said. And I was sitting there, trying to figure out, why am I crying for this monster of a man?

As they dug, the group found a wooden box.

We dug down to 10 feet and we found a fake pine box, Mudgett said.

Mudgett told the NBC10 Investigators there was nothing in the box and he was ready to give up but the team continued to dig. Next, they ran into the cement reported on in 1890s newspaper accounts.

"And we found the cement sarcophagus, which many of the newspapers described back then. Thats when the hard work began, Mudgett said.

After breaking through the cement, the team from Penn found what they were looking for.

They carefully opened it up and we found a skeleton of a man, which we removed and took to the university, Mudgett said.

Before the remains were taken away, Mudgett held the skull in his hand.

"To see that skeleton and that skull with the brains still inside, which is a phenomenon that the scientists still havent explained, scared the heck out of me," Mudgett said.

Once the remains were taking to Penn, the tests began to see if the bones belonged to Holmes.

We were there when they took the DNA samples from the skull and, you know, put them in the proper packaging. They took some comparison DNA from me, Mudgett said.

But Mudgetts crusade to see if Holmes was actually buried in the grave has another angle.

"Here was a moment that could possibly change American and English history. And it was staring us in the face," he said.

Mudgett believes his great-great grandfather is not only H.H. Holmes but also Jack the Ripper.

"As of yet, I still havent seen anything which would cause me to change my mind regarding my theories that H.H. Holmes was Jack the Ripper," he said.

While there is skepticism among Holmes experts about the Jack the Ripper theory, it is another reason Mudgett and his team spent time searching for and finding the tomb where Holmes was believed to be buried.

The great-great grandson is currently starring in a History Channel show entitled American Ripper. The premise of the show has Mudgett connecting the two notorious killers as the same man.

Jack the Ripper was the J-V compared to H.H. Holmes. In my opinion, the world should be trying to prove Jack the Ripper was H.H. Holmes, not me proving Holmes was Jack the Ripper, Mudgett said.

The last piece of the puzzle seems to be the DNA taken from the found remains and Mudgett. Those results are not yet in.

"I have my beliefs, I have, you know, doubts. I want to see those DNA results to come up with a firm conclusion," he said. "Im waiting for them right now. I could get a phone call as we speak, right now."

As for the remains, a lawyer for Holmes descendants told a judge they are still at Penn awaiting more testing. He believed they could be returned to Holy Cross Cemetery in late July.


The latest GOP effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare" was fatally wounded in the Senate Monday night when two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the legislation strongly backed by President Donald Trump.

The announcements from Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Party's long-promised efforts to get rid of President Barack Obama's health care legislation reeling. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he will retreat, and try to pass the more straightforward Obamacare repeal bill that Republicans approved while Obama was still in office and certain to veto it. That looks unlikely to succeed now that it could actually become law and unleash wide-ranging effects likely to frighten off senators.

"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," McConnell said in a statement that sounded like a death knell to the GOP's promises to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better.

Trump, who had predicted success for McConnell's repeal-and-replace legislation just hours earlier, urged over Twitter: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" But Republican leaders rejected that clean-repeal approach months ago because it could not pass Congress.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support McConnell's legislation in the form unveiled last week. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill on Thursday.

McConnell's bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs," Moran said.



Lee said, "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

That left McConnell at least two votes short in the closely divided Senate from being able to move forward with his bill. Instead he said he would try to open debate on a repeal-and-replace bill passed by the House, and the first allowed amendment would be on the legislation approved by Congress in 2015 repealing much of Obamacare, with a two-year delay for the repeal to take effect.

Obama was in the White House when that bill passed, and he vetoed it. Few Republicans reckoned then with the reality of sending the bill to a president of their party who might actually sign it and invite all the consequences, including casting tens of millions off the rolls of the insured and off of Medicaid. This year's debate has already shown Republicans are highly wary of any such move, and a similar straightforward repeal was rejected early on.

Monday night's retreat was the second straight failure for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version of his repeal-and-replace bill last month when defeat became inevitable.

Trump had kept his distance from the Senate process, but Monday night's development was a major blow for him, too, as the president failed to rally support for what has been the GOP's trademark issue for seven years, ever since Obama and the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act. Republicans won the White House and full control of Congress in large part on the basis of their promises to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but have struggled to overcome their deep internal divisions and deliver on those promises.

The Senate bill, like an earlier version that barely passed the House, eliminated mandates and taxes under Obamacare, and unraveled an expansion of the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled. For conservatives like Lee and Paul, it didn't go far enough in delivering on Republican Party promises to undo Obama's law. But moderates like Collins viewed the bill as too extreme in yanking insurance coverage from millions.

McConnell's latest version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding billions to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs. His efforts did not achieve the intended result.

"This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

Some Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, also called for a new bipartisan approach, but McConnell opted to go in the other direction. One outcome could be to prove to conservatives agitating for a repeal-only vote that such repeal-only legislation cannot pass the Senate.

Prior to the stunning announcements from Lee and Moran, the GOP bill stood on the knife's edge, with zero votes to spare but not dead yet. It was apparent that no GOP senator wanted to be the third to announce opposition and become responsible for killing the bill, so the news from Lee and Moran came simultaneously.

It arrived as about a half-dozen senators were at the White House meeting with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about the next steps in the GOP effort to ensure passage of the bill.
The Turkish parliament voted Monday to extend a state of emergency by three months, nearly a year after it was implemented in the wake of a failed coup attempt.

A statement from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's office earlier Monday had asked parliament to extend the state of emergency, which was due to expire on Wednesday.

About 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured last year when a disgruntled army faction commandeered tanks and warplanes in a bid to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after 15 years in power. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.


Hazmat crews responded to St. Raphaels Hospital in New Haven after someone broke into a nuclear medicine lab, according to fire officials.

New Haven Fire Chief John Alston said employees discovered the lab had been vandalized when they came in around 8 a.m. Saturday.

Twelve employees were exposed to an unidentified radioactive substance in the basement-level lab.

Depending on what type of radiation it is, and the amount, and the energy source it is it can be devastating, Alston said.

Three employees underwent decontamination due to a black powder on the bottoms of their shoes. None of the employees were exhibiting any symptoms.

The bottom floor of the hospital and the immediate area above were evacuated as a precaution.

The fire chief said that because the medicine is made in small doses, exposure was limited.

Hospital officials later said that while the employees were exposed, no one was contaminated. The victims are expected to be fine.

It is unclear at this time if anything was stolen from the lab. Authorities are reviewing surveillance footage to determine who broke in and why.

People break in to all types of buildings. They dont really know sometimes what theyre breaking into, Alston said.
Cosmo DiNardo, who has confessed to a murder spree that left four young men dead and buried on his familys sprawling Bucks County, Pennsylvania, farm, says he previously killed a woman and man in Philadelphia, law enforcement sources tell NBC10.

DiNardo told Bucks County detectives he killed the woman in the basement of a Philadelphia home, the sources said. He also allegedly offered the nickname of a man he claims to have murdered.

However, the dates, times and locations of the 20-year-old suspects alleged previous killings remains unknown, sources said.

Sources said Philadelphia and Bucks County detectives have been communicating about DiNardos claims.

Bucks County District Attorney's Office via AP

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Tuesday morning his detectives would be "remiss" to not look into the admitted murder suspect's assertion.

"In order for us to lend any credence to it we would have to talk to him directly," Ross said. "When you're dealing with someone who is pathological like that you don't know where he is coming from."

Prosecutors said DiNardo, a college dropout who has been described by sources as a small-time marijuana dealer, is schizophrenic and was not allowed to have firearms. He was involuntarily committed to a mental institution in the past, though details of his institutionalization are unclear.



DiNardo, of Bensalem, and his 20-year-old cousin, Sean Kratz, remain in the Bucks County jail charged with murder and related crimes in the deaths of Jimi Taro Patrick, 19; Dean Finocchiaro, 19; Mark Sturgis, 22; and Tom Meo, 21.

DiNardo confessed to the crimes as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.



An intense, meticulous search of the 90-acre farm in Solebury Township stretched on for days last week as local, state and federal investigators hunted for the men who began to disappear on July 7.



Prosecutors twice arrested DiNardo as they closed in on finding the men and linking their disappearance to him. The burned remains of Finocchiaro, Sturgis and Meo were found buried more than 12 feet underground in a common grave last Wednesday.

DiNardo later admitted to killing the men after becoming upset with them during a drug deal. He pointed investigators to a wooded hill where Patrick's body was buried.

On Friday, police arrested Kratz at his Northeast Philadelphia home and charged him with criminal homicide in the killings. A preliminary hearing at the county courthouse in Doylestown for both Kratz and DiNardo is scheduled for Sept. 7.

On Tuesday, NBC10 spoke with Kratz's lawyer, Abby Leeds, in an exclusive interview.

"He's very quiet. He seems to be in shock," Leeds said. "It's very early in the game. Sean is presumed innocent. He deserves a very vigorous defense and we intend to give that to him. And don't forget, at this point, Sean's story and DiNardo's story don't match up."



Newtown Township Police, Middletown Township Police

Bucks County District Attorney's Office

Sturgis' family has retained personal injury law firm Ross Feller Casey, LLP to represent them since DiNardo possibly used family-owned weapons to commit the murders, the Philadelphia-based law firm said.

"We will likely never make sense of this ghastly murder spree, but we will not rest until we understand every detail, every nuance surrounding this horrific crime," Sturgis family attorney Robert Ross said. "The families of these young men deserve nothing less."

No lawsuit was immediately filed against DiNardo or his family, which has various real estate holdings.

The families of Finocchiaro, Meo, Patrick and Sturgis have announced funeral plans for family and friends.

Funeral services for Finocchiaro will be held Saturday in Levittown followed by private burial. His family asked that donation's in his name be made to NOVA, 2370 York Road, Suite B-1, Jamison, PA 18929.

Meo's funeral will be held Thursday in Northeast Philadelphia following a viewing Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Funeral services for Patrick will be held Friday in Newtown followed by private interment. His family asked that donations in Patrick's name be made to Boys Town, 14100 Crawford St., Boys Town, NE 68010 or Nami-Bucks Chapter, 600 Louis Dr., Suite 106 Warminster, PA 18974.

Yellow ribbons now line the Newtown street where Patrick lived with his grandparents. On Tuesday night at 7:30, Holy Ghost Prep planned a prayer service in the 2016 graduate's memory.

A memorial gathering for Sturgis will be held Thursday night in Bensalem.
An 86-year-old international jewel thief who previously faced charges in San Diego has struck again while wearing an ankle bracelet from a previous bust.

Police said Doris Payne was arrested Monday for allegedly shoplifting at a Walmart in Atlanta.

"Thieving was the farthest thing from my mind," she told NBC News in a phone interview Tuesday.

Her career as an international bling bandit spans six decades. Payne said she took some medicine that confused her before she went shopping.

"It causes me to forget," she said. Payne claims that she didn't have a basket and dropped the items in a shopping bag.

A security officer at Walmart said he saw Payne pile items in her purse and then transfer other items from her shopping cart to her purse and a bag.

The guard caught Payne as she was about to exit the store with the items that totaled $86.22.

Payne was booked into the City of Chamblee Jail, booked on a shoplifting charge and released. The stolen items were returned to the store.

She previously put a $2,000 necklace in her back pocket at a Von Maur department store in Dunwoody, Georgia, and tried to leave the store, according to the police report.

By her own admission, Payne has been stealing jewelry from high-end stores around the world for six decades. She once faced charges in San Diego and Palm Desert.

In January 2011, Payne was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing a $8,900 diamond ring from the Macys in San Diegos Fashion Valley.

Previously, she was arrested on suspicion of stealing a $690 pair of earrings from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia.

She was the subject of a 2013 documentary, "The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne."

When asked about her exploits in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, she said simply: "I was a thief." Online jail records did not show any bond information, and it wasn't immediately clear whether Payne had an attorney who could comment.

Raised in West Virginia, Payne chose her profession at the age of 23. Her arrest record is longer than she can remember. Payne has served time in California, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Colorado, and Wisconsin.
California lawmakers are considering a proposal to provide gender-neutral identification.

State Sen. Toni Atkins (D - 39th District) introduced a bill to streamline the process of providing a gender neutral or nonbinary option on the California driver license, birth certificate and other forms of state identification.

The proposal is passing through various committees of the legislature.

Oregon and the District of Columbia recently issued the gender neutral option on their drivers licenses.

Whats most valuable to us is the right to freedom liberty, justice for all. That may sound hokey but I think if you talk to the individuals this applies to they want to be part of, not separate from, part of and yet be able to be who they are," said Atkins.

a.t. furya who grew up in San Diego is only the fifth person in the country, according to the Transgender Law Center, to obtain court documents that grant nonbinary as their legally designated gender.

Nonbinary means the person does not designate male or female as a gender.

Agender for me or not having a gender has been spot on because then I dont feel like okay like, Im this, but Im not really. It fits. I dont know how else to explain it," said a.t.

NBC 7's Marianne Kushi digs deeper into the issue in this video report including opposition from State Sen. Pat Bates (R - 36th District) who says its a matter of security.
Authorities at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD) are investigating three separate attacks that left three correctional officers and one correctional counselor injured.

The first incident happened Monday morning when inmate Ronnie Moody first approached a correctional counselor and asked to speak with him during an alarm response in the Facility C yard.

Moody, 35, first came to RJD from San Francisco with an 11-year eight-month sentence for vehicle theft by a second striker, attempted robbery, resisting arrest and attempting to remove a firearm from a peace officer.

When the 35-year-old inmate approached the counselor, the counselor told Moody he could not talk with him during an active alarm.

Moody entered his office and began striking the officer in the head. The correctional counselor used physical force to defend himself.

Meanwhile, a control booth officer fired a 40-millimeter direct impact round at Moody. He was restrained as he tried to take swings at the staff.

The counselor was taken to an outside for hospital for treatment. The counselor suffered head injuries, a broken nose, and bruises and lacerations to his face and hands that needed stitches. He was later released from the hospital.

Moody was treated at the facility for minor injuries.

The second attacks happened as RJD staff were attempting to secure the dayroom.

Inmates Gary Deans and Donnel Jones jumped up, officials said, and struck two correctional officers in the head, neck and groin areas. To stop the attacks, officers used physical force.

Deans, 50, is serving a 30-years-to-life sentence for first-degree murder with a firearm.

Jones, 54, is serving 34-years-to-life for carjacking and robbery by a third striker.

At the same time, inmate Billy Williams began inciting other inmates to assault staff. Officers placed him in restraints.

As he was being escorted out of the building, Williams head-butted the officer was escorting him.

The officer used physical force to stop the assault and force him to the ground.

Williams, 53, is serving a 35-years-to-life sentence for voluntary manslaughter with use of a firearm by a third striker.

The three officers suffered minor injuries. They elected to stay on duty.

All the inmates involved in the attacks were moved to the Administrative Segregation Unit.

As officials investigate, inmate movement on Facility C and one additional yard have been limited.

The incident is under investigation.
U.S.-backed Syrian fighters fought Islamic State militants in the heart of Raqqa, the extremists' self-styled capital, on Monday, as scores of civilians fled areas controlled by the group.

The Kurdish-led group has been one of the most effective forces fighting ISIS in Syria, but has also clashed with Turkish-backed Syrian forces elsewhere in the country. As it battled ISIS in Raqqa, the SDF also fought Turkish-allied Syrian forces in Ein Daqna, in the neighboring Aleppo province, according to Syrian activists and Turkish media.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, aided by the U.S.-led coalition, launched their offensive to capture Raqqa on June 6, and have since taken several areas. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's fighting is concentrated in Raqqa's southwestern neighborhood of Yarmouk as well as a central area close to the Old City.

The SDF says intense fighting is underway in central Raqqa, adding that its fighters have taken positions near a centuries-old mosque known as the Old Mosque. The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency says some 180 civilians were able to flee areas controlled by ISIS, while the Observatory put the number in the hundreds.

The SDF said 11 ISIS fighters have been killed in the clashes since Sunday. The ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency said 14 SDF fighters were killed in the fighting in Raqqa on Sunday alone.

The intensification of fighting comes a week after Iraqi forces declared victory against ISIS in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the largest the extremists have held. The loss of Raqqa would deal a major blow to ISIS, but the group still holds wide areas of the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, bordering Iraq.

That province figures to be the backdrop to the next phase of the war on ISIS, with government forces backed by Russia and Iran approaching from the west and south. Pro-government forces reached the edges of the Bashari mountain range on Monday, after seizing the Zamla natural gas field one day earlier, the Observatory and Syrian military media reported. The advance secures further natural resources revenues for the government and puts government forces in a position to penetrate the Deir el-Zour countryside.

The SDF is dominated by a Kurdish militia known as the YPG, which Turkey views as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in its own territory. Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces rolled into Syria last year in order to battle ISIS and halt the advance of the SDF. The U.S.-led coalition has sought to stop the fighting between Turkey and the SDF, both of which are allies against ISIS.

The website of Turkey's pro-government A Haber television said Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters launched a "large" operation against the SDF in Ein Daqna, close to the Turkish border. The website quotes unnamed local sources as saying that intense clashes are ongoing.

The Observatory said Monday's fighting killed two Turkey-backed fighters and left several SDF fighters wounded. A Haber said at least one Turkish-backed fighter was killed and some 14 were wounded.

Rezan Hiddo, an SDF political officer, said the group had repelled the assault on Ein Daqna. Hiddo said Turkish artillery struck the village as well as near a Russian military outpost in nearby Kafr Janneh, which is also under SDF control. Russia deployed what it called observer units into the region earlier this year to discourage clashes between Turkey and the SDF.

"We are waiting for the American government to apply diplomatic pressure on Turkey to halt the aggression," said Hiddo.
A fifth Democrat, State Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr., launched his candidacy for governor of Maryland on Monday.

The veteran Montgomery County state senator announced his run for governor at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, together with his family and friends.

The leading Hogan critic has been a member of the Senate since 2007, after spending four years in the House of Delegates. He was the first openly gay lawmaker elected to the Senate.

Larry Hogan refuses to serve the people of Maryland, I will. Larry Hogan refuses to hold Donald Trump accountable for the damages being done to our state and to our country -- I will, said Masaleno, as he seeks to challenge the Republican governor.

He joins four others seeking the Democratic nomination, including Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker, former NAACP president Ben Jealous, Baltimore lawyer Jim Shea and tech entrepreneur Alec Ross.
Two firefighters were injured while battling a fire that damaged two row homes in Northwest Washington Tuesday morning.

Firefighters were called to the 200 block of Morgan Street NW just after 1 a.m. for a report of a fire at two occupied homes.

Fire officials say smoke detectors alerted the residents to the fire. The large fire caused extensive damage to the homes.

Two firefighters were injured in the fire and transported to the hospital.

Eight people have been displaced by the fire.
D.C. police have made one arrest after a 1-year-old boy was shot and wounded as he sat in his stroller in Northeast D.C. last week, and investigators need the public's help finding two additional suspects.

Derrick Watson, 39, was arrested in Southeast D.C. Tuesday morning, Police Chief Peter Newsham said at a news conference. Watson is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of an unlawful firearm.

"There was more than one child that was in the area as these grown men were firing weapons at each other in our community," Newsham said.



Newsham said investigators are still searching for 27-year-old Saheed Washington Sulu. Police believe Watson, Sulu and an unidentified man opened fire on July 10, just north of the H Street corridor, after a dispute.

Jeremiah White was sitting in his stroller as his dad was walking him inside for the night, when the gunfire erupted steps away from their home on the 1300 block of I Street NE. Little Jeremiah was shot.

"The doctors found one bullet and fragments of another. Basically, he has three holes, and he got shot twice," Jeremiah's mother, Shardai White, said.

Jeremiah had emergency surgery to remove the bullets. He was able to leave the hospital on Tuesday. Just two days after the shooting, he was back to acting like a typical 1-year-old.

"I don't know how he recovered so quickly, I thank God for it though," White said.



A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with medical expenses. They had raised $1,300 toward a $4,500 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.
The European Union on Monday considered tougher sanctions on North Korea over its first intercontinental ballistic missile test to prevent the isolated country from funding further nuclear weapons development.

And the EU nations insisted North Korea shouldn't expect the 28-nation bloc to make any early concessions.

"There are some people who think we should engage early with Pyongyang. We absolutely disagree. They got to make a serious move towards denuclearizing their country," British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said.


A Chipotle restaurant in Sterling, Virginia, is back open after being closed for two days because people said they got sick after eating there.

Chipotle said Tuesday that it temporarily closed the restaurant, marking a possible setback in the chain's efforts to recover from past food scares.

The company said it became aware of a "small number" of reported illnesses. The reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus, for which symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain.

The restaurant was back open Wednesday morning.

The specific cause of the outbreak has not been found, the Loudoun County Health Department said in a statement Wednesday.

"We are encouraged that those affected are starting to feel better, and we are focused on preventing any new infections," the statement said.

The health department did not release information on how many people said they got sick.

Other Chipotle locations in the D.C. area remained open.

Beth Oteyza said she and her daughter got severely ill after they shared a salad with chicken from the Chipotle location in Sterling on Friday.

"We decided to call the ambulance because I couldn't even sit up," Oteyza said. "The ambulance took me to Leesburg hospital. My daughter came and my husband came, and as they were waiting for me in the ER, she started throwing up."

"They both diagnosed us with the same thing, which is gastroenteritis. And when we compared our notes, we determined that the one thing we had both eaten in common was the Chipotle carryout food," Oteyza continued.

On Tuesday afternoon, she said she still felt sick.

Customer Chris Lee said he also got sick after he ate at the restaurant on Friday. He also ordered a salad with chicken.

"About 7 o'clock on Saturday, really bad stomach pains. I just got better today," he said Tuesday afternoon.

The Denver-based company said norovirus does not come from its food supply and it is safe to eat at its restaurants.

"We take every report of illness seriously. In accordance with our established protocols, our team is working to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, including voluntarily closing the restaurant yesterday to conduct a complete sanitization," Jim Marsden, executive director for food safety, said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus you can get from contaminated food, surfaces or people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Food workers can spread the virus through poor hygiene practices.



Chipotle said Tuesday morning that it planned to reopen the restaurant later that day after a "complete sanitization." A Loudoun County health inspector at the restaurant Tuesday afternoon said she believed the restaurant would not reopen Tuesday.

Chipotle has been working to bounce back from food scares that included an E. coli outbreak in the fall of 2015 and a norovirus case in Boston later that year. Among the changes the company has announced are tweaks to cooking methods and training for employees to prevent such cases.

In addition to reassuring customers of the safety measures it has taken, Chipotle had been giving away coupons for free burritos and stepping up marketing to win back customers. For the first three months of this year, sales were up 18 percent at established locations. That followed a 20 percent decline in 2016.

Norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infected employees are frequently the source of the outbreaks, the CDC says, often by touching foods such as raw fruits and vegetables with their bare hands before serving them.

Anyone who at at the Sterling location and fell ill is encouraged to call the county health department at 703-771-5411.

Chipotle Mexican Grill's shares fell more than 5 percent Tuesday, after Business Insider reported the closure in Virginia.

One Chipotle customer outside the restaurant on Tuesday said she'll return no matter what.

"I love Chipotle," she repeated and laughed.
Business owners from every state in the country were invited late last week to travel to the White House to present their products at the White House for the "Made in America" showcase.

The showcase served as the kick off to President Donald Trumps "Made in America" theme week, which White House officials said aims to bring attention back to hardworking American laborers.

Every state was represented, with showcased products ranging from neon signs to donuts to helicopters. However, no representative from D.C. was selected for the showcase.

When asked about the omission, an aide said, "We're honored to showcase 'Made in America' from all 50 States."

Virginias National Capital Flag Company Inc. and Maryland's Heaths Crab Pots were the area vendors selected to participate. Representatives from both businesses said it was an honor to be selected to represent their state in the showcase.

We got the phone call last week, and we couldnt wait to put everything together and get over here, said Albert Ulmner, who operates National Capital Flag Company. Were used to dealing with the government being here locally but being invited to the White House like this is just thrilling.

Susan Heath of Heaths Crab Pots said the showcase was a celebration of American business building.

You cant imagine how much pride it is, Heath said. I did that, we did that.

Other business owners from around the country echoed the pride they felt in having been selected to represent their states.

Several family businesses that are being run by third and fourth generation family members were present for the showcase, including Steinway & Sons piano company and St. Pierre Manufacturing.

Its more than just a living for me, said Peter St. Pierre, of St. Pierre Manufacturing. Its an identity.

The showcase marked the beginning of the Made in America themed week. Though vendors shared enthusiasm for the festivities surrounding the week, not everyone has been so supportive.

Critics have been quick to point out that the presidents daughter, Ivanka Trump, producing clothing for her brand in overseas factories.

Politico reported that officials wouldnt say whether the president would use the week to try to encourage his daughter to move production for her brand to the U.S.

The week will also feature a certification event on Wednesday. All of the theme week events take place as the controversial Republican health care bill nears a vote.

"Made in America" week is the first in a series of three consecutive themed weeks announced by the White House. "American Heroes" week will begin next week, followed by "American Dreams" week, starting July 31.

Jenn Vasquez contributed to this report.
Residents in the Fairlington neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, are on alert after a raccoon attacked a woman.

One resident received 87 stitches last week after she was attacked by a raccoon, according to the neighborhood's Facebook group. Another resident took photos of a raccoon using a doggy door.

The Facebook group said the Arlington Animal Welfare League will not help with removing the raccoons, because the problem is related to the neighborhood's trash rules. The homeowners association does not allow trash bins outside, only bags, which some said attracts the critters.

Animal Control suggested using wooden closed trash cans that can be picked up daily. Residents are forming an ad-hoc committee to study this solution.
The state of Virginia is moving forward with testing the possibility of allowing autonomous, or self-driving, cars on express lanes of Interstates 95 and 495 in northern Virginia.

WTOP-FM reports Virginia's transportation board is set to approve an agreement on Wednesday that would permit new testing to move forward. The deal involves the Virginia Department of Transportation, the company operating express lanes, and the Federal Highway Administration's Operations Research and Development office.

Tests would focus on whether autonomous vehicles could communicate with each other and successfully run in the same lanes as regular traffic.

The tests would also determine what wireless communication tools may be needed to keep the self-driving vehicles on track.

Some tests would require express lanes to be closed, others could be conducted during "light traffic conditions."
Police say a driver fled a crash scene by illegally turning into oncoming traffic on Interstate 395 in Northern Virginia before hitting a second vehicle, this one belonging to a Virginia state trooper.

Virginia State Police say 61-year-old Lavern Paige, of Alexandria, was driving north on I-95 when she crashed into another vehicle about 12:21 p.m. Tuesday and fled the scene by entering the I-395 express ramp.

From there, Paige drove her car up the ramp, broke through a gate, and headed north in the southbound express lanes, police said.

A state trooper was driving in the lanes when he saw Paige's 2013 Chrysler 200 driving against traffic, police said. The trooper tried to pull over the driver, but she sideswiped his patrol car before finally coming to a stop, police said.

Paige and the trooper were both taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure.

The driver in the first incident was not hurt.

Paige has been charged with reckless driving.
UPDATE: Sources say DiNardo claims to have killed a woman and man in Philadelphia.

A suspect in the murders of four young men in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, made claims that he had killed other people prior to the most recent homicides, according to NBC10 sources.

Now, Philadelphia police plan to investigate his claims.



Cosmo DiNardo, 20, told police he killed others years before he and his cousin were charged in a grisly crime spree that ended with police unearthing the victims' bodies from two deep pits on the DiNardo family's sprawling Bucks County farm, sources said.

However, the sources have not confirmed the validity and time frame of the alleged admission.

"Given what he was already been accused of its certainly a possibility we would be remiss if we didn't investigate further," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Tuesday morning.

Ross noted that Philadelphia homicide detectives have yet to talk to DiNardo and that everything is speculative at this point.

"In order for us to lend any credence to it we would have to talk to him directly," Ross said. "When you're dealing with someone who is pathological like that you don't know where he is coming from."

DiNardos attorneys refused to talk about the case or their clients alleged claim of prior murders when approached by NBC10s Deanna Durante on Monday.

Last week, DiNardo's attorneys told reporters he confessed to murdering Jimi Taro Patrick, 19; Dean Finocchiaro, 19; Mark Sturgis, 22, and 21-year-old Tom Meo.

Police found the four men at the 90-acre Solebury Township farm after a grueling, five-day search in sweltering heat and pelting rain. The confession was in exchange for being spared the death penalty, according to DiNardos attorney.

DiNardos brushes with the law began in his early teenage years. His first encounter with the Bensalem Police Department was around age 14. Over the next six years, he had more than 30 run-ins with its officers, department director Frederick Harran said, although court filings reflect only the minor infractions and traffic stops that came after age 18.

Prior to the Bucks County murders, DiNardos contacts with police resulted in one arrest; a gun charge that was later withdrawn. Prosecutors say DiNardo is schizophrenic and was not allowed to possess a gun. Officials also say a family member had DiNardo involuntarily committed to a mental institution, though the details of his institutionalization remain unclear.

Despite frequent interactions with police, DiNardo still managed to sell guns and marijuana in the area, according to a source familiar with DiNardo's confession. A police affidavit confirmed the source's story  DiNardo allegedly lured each of the victims to his family's 90-acre Solebury Township farm under the guise of marijuana deals.

Patrick, his first victim, was set to buy $8,000-worth of marijuana but arrived with only $800, DiNardo told police, so he brought the Loyola University student to a remote part of the farm and shot him with a .22 caliber rifle. He buried Patrick in a hole he dug with a backhoe.

DiNardo then allegedly enlisted his cousin, Sean Kratz, to help him rob Finocchiaro, Sturgis and Meo. The three victims were shot, placed with a backhoe into an oil tank that had been converted into a cooker, which DiNardo called a "pig roaster," and then lit on fire, according to the affidavit. He buried the drum deep underground on his family's farm.

Court records show Kratz was previously arrested on two separate burglary charges in Philadelphia for thefts in June and December of last year where he reportedly stole $1,000 in tools and $450 worth of jewelry.

A week before the second theft arrest, Kratz was picked up for shoplifting $200 worth of clothing at a Macy's near Philadelphia. Police say Kratz had been using pliers to cut off security tags. He pleaded guilty in June to retail theft after more serious charges were withdrawn.

With the Philadelphia cases still pending in January, court records show Kratz skipped bail and went to Illinois. That prompted a judge to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. Out on bail again, a prosecutor said Friday, Kratz became a killer.

Kratz, who said he works at a tiling company, did not have a lawyer with him at his arraignment. Clad in a blue jumpsuit and flanked by detectives, he told a judge that he has trouble walking because he'd been shot three months ago. Kratz's mother, Vanessa, declined to comment.

At a news conference Friday announcing that police had recovered all four previously missing bodies, a reporter asked Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub why DiNardo felt the need to kill the young men.

"I'm not really sure we could ever answer that question," he said.

Law enforcement sources told NBC10 multiple agencies continue to get calls about DiNardo and Kratz, with social media fueling their rumored involvement in other crimes. However, sources say that so far there is no indication that those rumors are valid.

Weintraub did not have any further comments on the case Monday but said any lead or report his office receives will be tracked down and if anyone has info of suspected crimes from the suspects, they will look into it.

Both DiNardo and Kratz are being held in the Bucks County Jail.

Sturgis' family has retained personal injury law firm Ross Feller Casey, LLP to represent them since DiNardo possibly used family-owned weapons to commit the murders, the Philadelphia-based law firm said.

"We will likely never make sense of this ghastly murder spree, but we will not rest until we understand every detail, every nuance surrounding this horrific crime," Sturgis family attorney Robert Ross said. "The families of these young men deserve nothing less."

No lawsuit was immediately filed against DiNardo or his family, which has various real estate holdings.

The families of Finocchiaro, Meo, Patrick and Sturgis have announced funeral plans for family and friends.

Funeral services for Finocchiaro will be held Saturday in Levittown followed by private burial. His family asked that donation's in his name be made to NOVA, 2320 York Road, Suite B-1, Jamison, PA 18929.



Meo's funeral will be held Thursday in Northeast Philadelphia following a viewing Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Funeral services for Patrick will be held Friday in Newtown followed by private interment. His family asked that donations in Patrick's name be made to Boys Town, 14100 Crawford St., Boys Town, NE 68010 or Nami-Bucks Chapter, 600 Louis Dr., Suite 106 Warminster, PA 18974.

Yellow ribbons now line the Newtown street where Patrick lived with his grandparents. On Tuesday night at 7:30, Holy Ghost Prep planned a prayer service in the 2016 graduate's memory.



A memorial gathering for Sturgis will be held Thursday night in Bensalem.
More and more, the Maine State Fire Marshals office is realizing the difference a drone can make.

Earlier this summer, footage from a drone flying over a massive mill fire in Sanford helped investigators determine it was an arson, and make an arrest.

The overhead perspective allowed them to study burn patterns in a building that was too dangerous to enter.

It was able to give us a visual of the inside of that mill that we would not be able to get, said Fire Marshal Joe Thomas.

That footage was from a drone owned by the York County Emergency Management. For now, Thomas is hesitant to get his own drone for the State Fire Marshals office, despite its applications.

We want to get our arms around the technology, and deal with the legal questions we still have, he said.

Maine State law requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before flying a drone in a criminal investigation. Fire officials do not need a warrant if they are using a drone to survey the scene of a fire.

Thomas can foresee a situation, like the Sanford mill fire, where his departments drone would start out surveying the scene, but quickly become a tool in a criminal investigation once they realize they could be dealing with an arson.

It could change within the blink of an eye, he said.

Once that happens, does law enforcement need to land the drone immediately? According to the ACLU of Maine, the law isnt clear.

The technology is advancing very rapidly, and the law is slow to keep up, said Oami Amarasingham, advocacy director at the ACLU of Maine.

She said another gray area lies in the practice of having a civilian pilot shoot drone video on an investigators behalf. Amarasingham said civilian pilots do not need warrants to fly over the same areas police do  and they could serve as a potential work-around for law enforcement avoiding a warrant.

This practice raises a lot of red flags, Amarasingham said.

Both the ACLU and the Fire Marshal said the law attempts to strike a balance between public safety and privacy.
Bringing in heavy machinery, investigators returned to the New Hampshire property where two women were found brutally slain in January for a new search.

Dozens of investigators scoured the property at 979 Meaderboro Rd. in Farmington.

By late Tuesday afternoon, police had brought in an excavator  indicating they may be searching for evidence underground.

Assistant Attorney General Geoff Ward says Christine Sullivan and her friend Jenna Pelligrini were found stabbed to death on Jan. 29. A week later, police arrested 34-year-old Timothy Verrill of Dover and charged him with two counts of second degree murder.

"This is an ongoing process, investigations are always ongoing, even after an indictment, even quite frankly during the course of a trial," Ward explained.

As for Tuesday's search  we know authorities need probable cause and must execute the search warrant within seven days. But Ward wouldn't tell us what prompted the search or what detectives are looking for inside. He spoke in general about homicide investigations.

"As the investigation continues, as you continue to talk to witnesses, you may glean new information which causes you to want to revisit certain aspects of the investigation," Ward said.

Verill was arrested in Lawrence, Massachusetts, while being treated for mental health issues, according to his public defender during his Bay State arraignment in February.

He's still being held without bail, and the deadline for a grand jury to return indictments is this week.
The Vermont man awarded a six-figure settlement after high-profile allegations of police misconduct is facing new criminal charges in an unrelated case.

Michael Mullen, 26, of Richmond, appeared in court Tuesday in Rutland to face marijuana and cocaine possession charges.

The Rutland Police Department said a traffic stop July 15 for a missing license plate led to a drug dog sniffing out evidence that led to Mullens arrest for pot, cocaine, and crack cocaine possession.

Rutland officers said the canine alerted them to $599 in currency, and subsequent searches resulted in the discovery of drug evidence in baggies.

Defense attorney Jim Gratton entered pleas of not guilty on Mullens behalf to felony charges of marijuana and cocaine possession, and a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle with a suspended license.

It was recently announced that Mullen was awarded $100,000 to settle a claim of improper behavior by a police officer in Burlington in a different drug case.

In February, body camera footage from former Burlington Police Department officer Christopher Lopez revealed Lopez telling a colleague during an October 2016 traffic stop that he did not smell marijuana in Mullen's car.

Lopez later claimed in an affidavit that he did smell pot, apparently trying to strengthen his case into drugs that other investigators later said really were in the vehicle.

Chittenden County States Attorney Sarah George blasted Lopezs claim as a lie, which she said made the cop an unreliable witness at trial.

George said in February she was forced to toss the case against Mullen and other drug suspects whom Lopez investigated.

The officer quit the force amid intense scrutiny.

Mullen settled with the city of Burlington for $100,000, attorney David Bond said earlier this month, after a lawsuit was filed alleging Lopez violated Mullens rights.

Mullen spent several months in jail before the body camera footage revealed conduct that led to the dismissal of charges.

A separate investigation was launched in the office of the Vermont Attorney General into whether Lopezs actions were criminal. However, there have been no recent updates to the media about the status of that investigation.

He just wasted a really great opportunity, Chittenden County States Attorney Sarah George said Tuesday, adding she wishes Mullen would've taken that big payout and the dismissal of charges in her county as a lucky wake-up call to get his life moving in a more positive direction.

He was in a really good place to go down a different route, and he didn't do that, George continued. And I think it's insulting. It's insulting to the criminal justice system and insulting to all Vermonters.

At his arraignment Tuesday on the new charges in Rutland County, prosecutor Steven Zwicky informed the judge of a lengthy criminal record for Mullen, which Zwicky said included past drug offenses and past situations that made Mullen a potential risk to not appear for future court dates.

Weighing that argument, and the defenses view that Mullen is unlikely to skip out on court, Judge Cortland Corsones said Mullen could be released on a 24-7 curfew, if he posts $25,000 bail.
An elderly man was pistol whipped Tuesday morning during a home invasion in Canton, Massachusetts.

Three men forced their way into the home of an elderly man and his wife in an apartment complex on Aboretum Way during a search for a relative of the victims. Two of the suspects were allegedly armed, and one of them pistol whipped the male victim.

"Lots of yelling, lots of screaming, lots of fighting," described downstairs neighbor Jacqueline Saunders. "Sounded like they were running back and forth throughout the apartment."



The suspects  two of whom were described as wearing blue hoodies, while the other wore a black hoodie  left with some personal belongings after they attacked the male victim.

The victims daughter, who lives next door, told NBC Boston she buzzed the suspects into the building, because they told her they were new residents and didnt have their key.

She said when the three men got to her parents door, they pushed it in, attacked the couple and ransacked the home before taking off in whats believed to be a Chrysler Pacifica with four occupants, according to police.

The daughter, who did not want to be named, only knew something was up when her father came to her door for help.

"He was banging on my door and when I went to the door I saw him all bleeding and all cut from everywhere, the head, his whole face was a mess," she said.

The daughter believes the suspects entered the home with the intent of looking for her brother.

Her father was hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening head injuries.

"Im just glad that hes doing you know, hes well, that hes alive," said the daughter.

Neighbors are stunned by the vicious attack on the couple in their 70s.

"To know that someone put their hands on the elderly, thats like really disgusting to me," said neighbor Ida Bozeman.

Family members say the male victim has a broken wrist, and several stitches to his head from the lacerations he received. His wife is still being evaluated for chest pains.

Canton police are working with Boston police to identify the subjects because of the similarities between this incident and another in Boston earlier this month. State police also confirmed that they were asked to assist at the crime scene.

Anyone with information is asked to call Canton Police Sgt. Paul Gallagher at 781-828-1212 or Boston Police at 617-343-4328.
And in February, a Korean tourist in Fukuoka discovered the dead body of the owner of a home he had rented, who had apparently committed suicide. The spate of incidents is fast damaging Japan's reputation as a safe travel destination.

On June 28, a Korean couple in their 20s who were staying at another Airbnb in Fukuoka discovered a camera hidden in the fire alarm on the bedroom ceiling. It contained footage of the couple.

The owner offered his two guests alcoholic drinks around midnight, and the victim said she lost consciousness after just two drinks. The owner sexually assaulted the woman until her friend recovered enough to stop him. The victim contacted the Korean Consulate, which called the police.

Police in Fukuoka said Monday that they arrested the 34-year-old owner on charges of sexually assaulting and battering a 31-year-old Korean woman who was staying there.

Koreans make up the biggest group of tourists visiting Japan. According to Japanese tourism officials, 2.83 million Koreans visited Japan in the first five months of this year. Many stay in Airbnb and other rentals since they are often cheaper than hotels. But many of them are not registered.

Osaka city cracked down on illegal rentals from January to April of this year and found 818. City officials estimate that more than 10,000 homes are being operated as illegal Airbnbs in the downtown area alone.

Japanese police are investigating whether the Airbnb rental in Fukuoka where the sexual assault occurred was also illegal. The Korean Embassy in Japan advised travelers to check if rentals are properly registered and warned, "In cases of illegal rentals it is difficult to verify the identities of owners or staff."

"As soon as we were made aware of the incident we removed the host from our platform and we banned him for life. Our team is in touch with our guest, and we will do everything in our power to support her during this difficult time, including assisting law enforcement with their investigation," said Nick Shapiro at Airbnb.

A surge in the number of young people traveling alone or in small groups exposes them to potential risks. Korean travel agency Tourbaksa in a survey found that 80 percent of customers who travel alone choose Japan as their prime destination.

Kim Mee-hwa, a travel agent in Kyoto, said, "When you go to popular tourist destinations like Kiyomizu-dera Temple these days, more than half of the visitors are Korean women who are either traveling alone or in groups of two to three. Most of them stay in unregistered rentals."

Lee Sang-mi, a 26-year-old office worker planning to travel abroad by herself this summer, said, "Japan is considered a paradise for solo vacationers because of its reputation for safety and the courtesy of the locals. But because of the latest incidents, I canceled my booking and I am looking for another place."

Read this article in Korean
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Banks battling bad loans got a booster shot on Monday with the Gujarat High Court rejecting Essar Steels plea against bankruptcy proceedings. The outcome also sends a strong signal to other loan defaulters such as Bhushan Steel, which is reportedly preparing to challenge the Reserve Bank of Indias selection of 12 large non-performing assets (NPAs) and lenders decision to initiate the insolvency process moving the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Essar was the first among the 12 shortlisted large loan defaulters to move the court stalling the insolvency process. Among the 12, only one NPA case -Jyoti Structures - was admitted with the Tribunal without a hitch so far, while the others are at different stages.

A disappointed, debt-ridden Essar has the option to move the Supreme Court further stalling the NCLTs proceedings, though the company officials could not be reached for comments. But for now, the high court order gives a green signal to the banking consortium to resume the NCLT activity.

It was in May that the government had given more teeth to RBI amending the Banking Regulation Act, which in turn allowed the RBI to handhold banks with a phase-wise NPA resolution via the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

RBI also put banks on a time clock and expects to make progress setting at least the top 40-50 large accounts before March. In all the banking system has stressed loans worth `10 lakh crore, of which the selected 12 loans account for about a quarter. This selection of a dozen companies was what Essar objected to terming the process arbitrary.

Essar argued to have paid Rs 3,567 crore and was in talks with its lead banker over a possible restructuring that failed to materialise due to IBC action.Defending its stance, RBIs counsel Darius Khambata said the Rs 5,000 crore criteria used to select companies being referred to the NCLT was logical. It stressed Essar Steels financial position was not fully accurate and that the aggregate debt of the company rose sharply.

The Gujarat HC also sought a change in RBIs June 13 press release, which was duly corrected.

MUMBAI: Banks battling bad loans got a booster shot on Monday with the Gujarat High Court rejecting Essar Steels plea against bankruptcy proceedings. The outcome also sends a strong signal to other loan defaulters such as Bhushan Steel, which is reportedly preparing to challenge the Reserve Bank of Indias selection of 12 large non-performing assets (NPAs) and lenders decision to initiate the insolvency process moving the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Essar was the first among the 12 shortlisted large loan defaulters to move the court stalling the insolvency process. Among the 12, only one NPA case -Jyoti Structures - was admitted with the Tribunal without a hitch so far, while the others are at different stages. A disappointed, debt-ridden Essar has the option to move the Supreme Court further stalling the NCLTs proceedings, though the company officials could not be reached for comments. But for now, the high court order gives a green signal to the banking consortium to resume the NCLT activity. It was in May that the government had given more teeth to RBI amending the Banking Regulation Act, which in turn allowed the RBI to handhold banks with a phase-wise NPA resolution via the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). RBI also put banks on a time clock and expects to make progress setting at least the top 40-50 large accounts before March. In all the banking system has stressed loans worth `10 lakh crore, of which the selected 12 loans account for about a quarter. This selection of a dozen companies was what Essar objected to terming the process arbitrary. Essar argued to have paid Rs 3,567 crore and was in talks with its lead banker over a possible restructuring that failed to materialise due to IBC action.Defending its stance, RBIs counsel Darius Khambata said the Rs 5,000 crore criteria used to select companies being referred to the NCLT was logical. It stressed Essar Steels financial position was not fully accurate and that the aggregate debt of the company rose sharply. The Gujarat HC also sought a change in RBIs June 13 press release, which was duly corrected.
By PTI

GANDHINAGAR: Facebook plans to add 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities in India in the next six months as part of its "Boost Your Business" programme to help them scale up their businesses, its top executive said here today.

The social network company has tied up with Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) to train people to achieve the target. The initiative was launched today at EDII by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. "Our 'Boost Your Business' initiative was launched in 2015, but with EDII, we plan to go to 20 states and 100 cities in the next six months in its first phase, expanding five times than what we have achieved so far," said Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia.

Mehta said apart from EDII, Facebook will also continue to take up other initiatives to connect people through Facebook to help them do business. "The programme is designed to equip small and medium businesses with the knowledge, skill and technology to stay innovative and increase markets across globally," he said. Mehta said the programme is part of Facebook's public partnership policy and aimed at giving back to the community. "They (businesses) see a measurable difference (when connected to Facebook). First, the cost of business goes down.

The service is free (setting up a Facebook page is free, communicating with your customer is free, and reaching new customers is free). Money that you spend on marketing can be spent on other things, like improving your business, scaling your business, hiring more people," he said. "Secondly, it is essentially allowing you to reach a lot more customers.

Facebook allows you to reach out to expand nationally and internationally," he added. India has 201 million active people on Facebook, with 95 per cent of them accessing it on the mobile. Globally, over 65 business million SMBs have pages on Facebook, and 57 per cent people on Facebook in India are connected to at least one small business, the company said.

GANDHINAGAR: Facebook plans to add 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities in India in the next six months as part of its "Boost Your Business" programme to help them scale up their businesses, its top executive said here today. The social network company has tied up with Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) to train people to achieve the target. The initiative was launched today at EDII by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. "Our 'Boost Your Business' initiative was launched in 2015, but with EDII, we plan to go to 20 states and 100 cities in the next six months in its first phase, expanding five times than what we have achieved so far," said Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia. Mehta said apart from EDII, Facebook will also continue to take up other initiatives to connect people through Facebook to help them do business. "The programme is designed to equip small and medium businesses with the knowledge, skill and technology to stay innovative and increase markets across globally," he said. Mehta said the programme is part of Facebook's public partnership policy and aimed at giving back to the community. "They (businesses) see a measurable difference (when connected to Facebook). First, the cost of business goes down. The service is free (setting up a Facebook page is free, communicating with your customer is free, and reaching new customers is free). Money that you spend on marketing can be spent on other things, like improving your business, scaling your business, hiring more people," he said. "Secondly, it is essentially allowing you to reach a lot more customers. Facebook allows you to reach out to expand nationally and internationally," he added. India has 201 million active people on Facebook, with 95 per cent of them accessing it on the mobile. Globally, over 65 business million SMBs have pages on Facebook, and 57 per cent people on Facebook in India are connected to at least one small business, the company said.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Fino Payments Bank, which made its debut on Monday, is in search of a strategic partner to raise Rs 200 crore. The newest differentiated bank also hopes to go public over the next four years. Capital is needed for expansion and Fino prefers to raise it from a strategic investor rather than a financial investor. It already counts ICICI Bank and state-run BPCL as strategic investors who own 20 per cent each in the payments bank. Fino had raised Rs 400 crore from its existing investors, and is looking a third shareholder to avoid breaching the shareholding caps.

We had a requirement of around Rs 600 crore, but raised only Rs 400 crore in capital in the last round. We will be raising Rs 150-200 crore in the next few months, said Rishi Gupta, managing director & CEO, Fino.

Speaking to reporters after formally launching the banks operations, he said the company would consider hitting the capital markets in two-and-a-half to four years. As per regulations, the bank has to list itself once its net worth cross Rs 500 crore. We will start thinking about an IPO in 2019 and do the fund raising later. We will do the IPO before we complete four years of operations.

Founded in 2006, Finos turnover stood at Rs 350 crore in FY17, but incurred huge expenses in the run-up to becoming a payments bank. It expanded its workforce to 4,000 from 2,500. It has presence in 14 states through 410 branches and 50,000 distribution points, including 25,000 business correspondent outlets, 5,000 retail outlets of BPCL and 20,000 of its own smaller outlets. Going further, the revenue share from business correspondent activity to commercial banks will grow but reduce to 20 per cent of the pie in the next five years.

The brass tacks

Fino was founded in 2006 and its turnover stood at H350 crore in FY17, but it incurred huge expenses in the run-up to becoming a payments bank. It expanded aggressively and nearly doubled its workforce from 2,500 to 4,000. It has 410 branches in 14 states and 50,000 distribution points including 25,000 business correspondents.

MUMBAI: Fino Payments Bank, which made its debut on Monday, is in search of a strategic partner to raise Rs 200 crore. The newest differentiated bank also hopes to go public over the next four years. Capital is needed for expansion and Fino prefers to raise it from a strategic investor rather than a financial investor. It already counts ICICI Bank and state-run BPCL as strategic investors who own 20 per cent each in the payments bank. Fino had raised Rs 400 crore from its existing investors, and is looking a third shareholder to avoid breaching the shareholding caps. We had a requirement of around Rs 600 crore, but raised only Rs 400 crore in capital in the last round. We will be raising Rs 150-200 crore in the next few months, said Rishi Gupta, managing director & CEO, Fino. Speaking to reporters after formally launching the banks operations, he said the company would consider hitting the capital markets in two-and-a-half to four years. As per regulations, the bank has to list itself once its net worth cross Rs 500 crore. We will start thinking about an IPO in 2019 and do the fund raising later. We will do the IPO before we complete four years of operations. Founded in 2006, Finos turnover stood at Rs 350 crore in FY17, but incurred huge expenses in the run-up to becoming a payments bank. It expanded its workforce to 4,000 from 2,500. It has presence in 14 states through 410 branches and 50,000 distribution points, including 25,000 business correspondent outlets, 5,000 retail outlets of BPCL and 20,000 of its own smaller outlets. Going further, the revenue share from business correspondent activity to commercial banks will grow but reduce to 20 per cent of the pie in the next five years. The brass tacks Fino was founded in 2006 and its turnover stood at H350 crore in FY17, but it incurred huge expenses in the run-up to becoming a payments bank. It expanded aggressively and nearly doubled its workforce from 2,500 to 4,000. It has 410 branches in 14 states and 50,000 distribution points including 25,000 business correspondents.
By IANS

MUMBAI: Actor Varun Dhawan has apologised for his "Nepotism rocks" act at the IIFA Awards in New Jersey, that created a stir over social media last week.

Varun, son of veteran filmmaker David Dhawan, along with filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Saif Ali Khan, sparked the controversy over the nepotism debate at the awards gala. Later, all three of them received flak on social media with twitteraties calling their act "disappointing".

"I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act," Varun tweeted on Tuesday.

Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about nepotism issue that started in Bollywood when actress Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a "flagbearer of nepotism" on his chat show "Koffee With Karan".

When Varun joined the two actors on stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for "Dishoom", Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father.

"You are here because of your papa," Saif quipped.

Varun said: "And you're here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore)."

Karan then promptly added: "I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar)."

They then said in unison: "Nepotism rocks".

Later on, a string of criticism followed over Twitter, describing what the personalities said was unfunny and joking about Kangana in her absence was unfair.

MUMBAI: Actor Varun Dhawan has apologised for his "Nepotism rocks" act at the IIFA Awards in New Jersey, that created a stir over social media last week. Varun, son of veteran filmmaker David Dhawan, along with filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Saif Ali Khan, sparked the controversy over the nepotism debate at the awards gala. Later, all three of them received flak on social media with twitteraties calling their act "disappointing". "I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act," Varun tweeted on Tuesday. Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about nepotism issue that started in Bollywood when actress Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a "flagbearer of nepotism" on his chat show "Koffee With Karan". When Varun joined the two actors on stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for "Dishoom", Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father. "You are here because of your papa," Saif quipped. Varun said: "And you're here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore)." Karan then promptly added: "I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar)." They then said in unison: "Nepotism rocks". Later on, a string of criticism followed over Twitter, describing what the personalities said was unfunny and joking about Kangana in her absence was unfair.
He emphasized a "two-track approach" to improving human rights in the North, both by calling it to account and engaging in dialogue.

"I believe this is a great opportunity for me to hear from different authorities of this new government about their approach and their policies toward the human rights situation" in the North, Quintana said.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Monday met with the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana.

Kang said human rights in the North are a "matter of great concern" to the new government in Seoul.

She said the government will continue to seek dialogue with Pyongyang but keep up sanctions and pressure in cooperation with the international community to counter its nuclear and missile threats.

In an earlier meeting with Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, Quintana asked about President Moon Jae-in's recent peace overture and proposal of inter-Korean talks.

A former human rights lawyer and UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Quintana has stressed the need to ramp up pressure on the North Korean regime by stirring up international public opinion about its egregious human rights violations.

This is his second visit to Seoul since he took the job two years ago.


S Subhakeerthana By

Express News Service

As he awaits the release of Tamil movie Richie, Nivin Pauly has already signed his next. The movie, a romantic comedy, is being directed by Prabhu Radhakrishnan, who has earlier assisted Priyadarshan and Santhosh Sivan.

I wanted to cast Nivin as he is a heartthrob and enjoys a huge fan base even in the North. Well be starting the shooting early next year in January; pre-production work is currently on. Its set in Chennai and is a fun, romantic film,  he tells us.



Ask him about the film not being a Tamil-Malayalam bilingual, and he says, Almost all Tamil films are released in Kerala and I dont think it has to be dubbed in Malayalam. Malayalis know a bit of Tamil anyway, he laughs.



The project is will be produced by 24 AM Studios, which had bankrolled Remo.

While PC Sreeram is cranking the camera, the films script is by producer RD Raja. In a month, the crew and cast will be finalised, says Prabhu. Nivin, meanwhile, has also signed Kairali recently, which will be directed by ace cinematographer Jomon T John.

As he awaits the release of Tamil movie Richie, Nivin Pauly has already signed his next. The movie, a romantic comedy, is being directed by Prabhu Radhakrishnan, who has earlier assisted Priyadarshan and Santhosh Sivan. I wanted to cast Nivin as he is a heartthrob and enjoys a huge fan base even in the North. Well be starting the shooting early next year in January; pre-production work is currently on. Its set in Chennai and is a fun, romantic film,  he tells us. Ask him about the film not being a Tamil-Malayalam bilingual, and he says, Almost all Tamil films are released in Kerala and I dont think it has to be dubbed in Malayalam. Malayalis know a bit of Tamil anyway, he laughs. The project is will be produced by 24 AM Studios, which had bankrolled Remo. While PC Sreeram is cranking the camera, the films script is by producer RD Raja. In a month, the crew and cast will be finalised, says Prabhu. Nivin, meanwhile, has also signed Kairali recently, which will be directed by ace cinematographer Jomon T John.
Manish Anand By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The heavy downpour which lashed the majestic Lutyens architecture of Parliament failed to dampen enthusiasm as parliamentarians queued up to cast their vote to elect the next President, with a record 99 per cent polling witnessed on Monday.Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the enthusiastic parliamentarians in the morning outside Room Number 62, which was one of the 32 polling booths across the country, to cast their votes to elect the 14th President of India. Modi noted that there had been no negative campaigning for the presidential election.

With the presidential election turning out to be a straight contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee Ram Nath Kovind and the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, poll managers of the respective candidates have their fingers crossed on the victory margin of the winning candidate when the votes are counted on July 20.

The BJP claimed to have the support of 70 per cent of the electoral college even while the party leaders stated that the margin would only increase as a few instances of cross-voting were reported. Samajwadi Party legislator Shivpal Singh Yadav told media representatives that he voted for Kovind on the direction of his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The victory of Kovind ji is certain. We are confident that he will win the presidential poll with a huge margin, said Union minister Uma Bharti.BJP patriarch L K Advani along with Murli Manohar Joshi turned up early in the morning to cast their votes. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farookh Abdullah, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha in the Srinagar by-election, also cast his vote early in the day.

While the BJP stuck to the positive campaigning for Kovind, Meira Kumar sought votes on the basis of ideology even while the West Bengal chief minister turned the electoral battle into a mandate against the Modi government.

Legislators in the state have voted against lynching, interference in state governments affairs and the communal agenda of the ruling party at the centre, Mamata Banerjee told media representatives.

Eleven states, including Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Assam Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, reported 100 per cent polling.Kovind ji will win (the election) with a respectable and comfortable margin, Union minister and BJPs vice presidential nominee Venkaiah Naidu said.

SPs Shivpal votes for Ram Nath Kovind

LUCKNOW: The internal feud in the first family of Samajwadi Party resurfaced yet again with a group of party MLAs, led by the partys former Uttar Pradesh chief Shivpal Yadav, openly admitting to the media of cross-voting in favour of UPA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential elections, against the official party line. I and a big chunk of MLAs with me and many other opposition members have voted for NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind as per the wish of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, said Shivpal after casting his vote. Political observers believe that the cross-voting in the UP House in favour of Kovind is an attempt by the ruling party to divide the oppositions unity.

Bhujbal arrives in ambulance to vote

MUMBAI: Jailed NCP MLA Chhagan Bhujbal made a unique entry to the Vidhan Sabha in Mumbai in an ambulance to cast his vote in the presidential election along with NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam, who is also jailed. The two had sought permission from various courts before they were allowed to vote.

Liezietsu left red-faced

KOHIMA: Nagaland chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu turned a shade red on Monday after he was pulled by a security member while strolling by the polling hall in the state capital. The chief minister, who is not an Assembly member and thus cant vote, in his defence said he was there to oversee security arrangements and logistics.

AAPs Phoolka doesnt vote over anti-Sikh riots case

CHANDIGARH: In Punjab, AAP member H S Phoolka went solo in not exercising his vote from the 117-member House for Meira Kumar. Reason? He is fighting the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. Meanwhile, the flutter of activity seemed to have caught up to Punjab minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, whose slip of pen left marks on his ballot paper. EC officials refused to give him a clean sheet.

NEW DELHI: The heavy downpour which lashed the majestic Lutyens architecture of Parliament failed to dampen enthusiasm as parliamentarians queued up to cast their vote to elect the next President, with a record 99 per cent polling witnessed on Monday.Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the enthusiastic parliamentarians in the morning outside Room Number 62, which was one of the 32 polling booths across the country, to cast their votes to elect the 14th President of India. Modi noted that there had been no negative campaigning for the presidential election. With the presidential election turning out to be a straight contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee Ram Nath Kovind and the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, poll managers of the respective candidates have their fingers crossed on the victory margin of the winning candidate when the votes are counted on July 20. The BJP claimed to have the support of 70 per cent of the electoral college even while the party leaders stated that the margin would only increase as a few instances of cross-voting were reported. Samajwadi Party legislator Shivpal Singh Yadav told media representatives that he voted for Kovind on the direction of his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. The victory of Kovind ji is certain. We are confident that he will win the presidential poll with a huge margin, said Union minister Uma Bharti.BJP patriarch L K Advani along with Murli Manohar Joshi turned up early in the morning to cast their votes. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farookh Abdullah, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha in the Srinagar by-election, also cast his vote early in the day. While the BJP stuck to the positive campaigning for Kovind, Meira Kumar sought votes on the basis of ideology even while the West Bengal chief minister turned the electoral battle into a mandate against the Modi government. Legislators in the state have voted against lynching, interference in state governments affairs and the communal agenda of the ruling party at the centre, Mamata Banerjee told media representatives. Eleven states, including Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Assam Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, reported 100 per cent polling.Kovind ji will win (the election) with a respectable and comfortable margin, Union minister and BJPs vice presidential nominee Venkaiah Naidu said. SPs Shivpal votes for Ram Nath Kovind LUCKNOW: The internal feud in the first family of Samajwadi Party resurfaced yet again with a group of party MLAs, led by the partys former Uttar Pradesh chief Shivpal Yadav, openly admitting to the media of cross-voting in favour of UPA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential elections, against the official party line. I and a big chunk of MLAs with me and many other opposition members have voted for NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind as per the wish of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, said Shivpal after casting his vote. Political observers believe that the cross-voting in the UP House in favour of Kovind is an attempt by the ruling party to divide the oppositions unity. Bhujbal arrives in ambulance to vote MUMBAI: Jailed NCP MLA Chhagan Bhujbal made a unique entry to the Vidhan Sabha in Mumbai in an ambulance to cast his vote in the presidential election along with NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam, who is also jailed. The two had sought permission from various courts before they were allowed to vote. Liezietsu left red-faced KOHIMA: Nagaland chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu turned a shade red on Monday after he was pulled by a security member while strolling by the polling hall in the state capital. The chief minister, who is not an Assembly member and thus cant vote, in his defence said he was there to oversee security arrangements and logistics. AAPs Phoolka doesnt vote over anti-Sikh riots case CHANDIGARH: In Punjab, AAP member H S Phoolka went solo in not exercising his vote from the 117-member House for Meira Kumar. Reason? He is fighting the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. Meanwhile, the flutter of activity seemed to have caught up to Punjab minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, whose slip of pen left marks on his ballot paper. EC officials refused to give him a clean sheet.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today waived the condition of a letter from Pakistan's Foreign Adviser Sartaj Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come here as Pakistan occupied-Kashmir was an integral part of India.

Osama Ali, a 24-year-old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, has been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wants to seek treatment in Delhi.

"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj tweeted.

Ali's family has appealed to Swaraj to revoke the requirement of a letter from Aziz for a medical emergency visa.

On July 10, Swaraj had reiterated the need for a letter by Aziz and expressed dismay over the lack of courtesy shown by her Pakistani counterpart, who she said had not even acknowledged her personal letter requesting for a Pakistani visa for Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother.

However, she assured Aziz that any Pakistani national seeking a medical visa to travel to India with his recommendation would be given one immediately.

In a series of tweets, Swaraj had said, "I have my sympathies for all Pakistan nationals seeking medical visa for their treatment in India. All that we require is his recommendation for the grant of medical visa to Pakistan nationals."

She said a visa application was pending for Indian national Avantika Jadhav who wants to meet her son in Pakistan.

"I wrote a personal letter to Mr Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her visa to Pakistan. However, Mr Aziz has not shown the courtesy even to acknowledge my letter," she had tweeted.

Jadhav, 46, was allegedly arrested by Pakistan in the restive Balochistan province last year. He has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism.

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today waived the condition of a letter from Pakistan's Foreign Adviser Sartaj Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come here as Pakistan occupied-Kashmir was an integral part of India. Osama Ali, a 24-year-old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, has been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wants to seek treatment in Delhi. "POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj tweeted. Ali's family has appealed to Swaraj to revoke the requirement of a letter from Aziz for a medical emergency visa. On July 10, Swaraj had reiterated the need for a letter by Aziz and expressed dismay over the lack of courtesy shown by her Pakistani counterpart, who she said had not even acknowledged her personal letter requesting for a Pakistani visa for Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother. However, she assured Aziz that any Pakistani national seeking a medical visa to travel to India with his recommendation would be given one immediately. In a series of tweets, Swaraj had said, "I have my sympathies for all Pakistan nationals seeking medical visa for their treatment in India. All that we require is his recommendation for the grant of medical visa to Pakistan nationals." She said a visa application was pending for Indian national Avantika Jadhav who wants to meet her son in Pakistan. "I wrote a personal letter to Mr Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her visa to Pakistan. However, Mr Aziz has not shown the courtesy even to acknowledge my letter," she had tweeted. Jadhav, 46, was allegedly arrested by Pakistan in the restive Balochistan province last year. He has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Opposition vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi today justified his efforts to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from the gallows, saying capital punishment was medieval and wrong.

Facing criticism from the Shiv Sena for backing Memon's mercy plea, he said he did so drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who were against death penalty and wanted it abolished.

"As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfil my principles. I believe in that," Gandhi said.

"In our country, we are living in times of division. A whole force which is dividing our country is in action mode and that spells danger," the former West Bengal governor told reporters after filing his papers for the vice presidential poll.

Top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well as party leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge were present as Gandhi filed his nomination.

Also present were other opposition leaders, including JD (U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, NC's Farooq Abdullah and DMK's Kanimozhi.

Gandhi, the unanimous pick of 18 opposition parties for the vice president's post, said he was representing the common citizen of the country and not any political party and would try and help bridge the gulf between the public and politics.

"People's faith in politics itself has diminished and has collapsed. I would like to see a revival of that faith."

"... if today so many parties have together proposed a common citizen, then it means that our politics have moved forward," he said.

Responding to the Shiv Sena's attack on him for petitioning the president to save Memon, Gandhi said, "Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication. What Shiv Sena has said, it had to. I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle."

Gandhi said he wanted to place the facts about Memon's case before Pranab Mukherjee and wanted him to take a decision as his predecessors K R Narayanan and Abdul Kalam had.

"I do not think I need to defend myself on this issue. The death penalty is a death penalty."

He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.

Responding to a question on whether the odds were against him, he said, "Arithmetic is about numbers, philosophy is about principles. There cannot be anything better than numbers and principle, but sometimes one has to take such steps for principles which are not linked to numbers."

Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, will contest against the NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu in the vice presidential election scheduled to be held on August 5.

NEW DELHI: Opposition vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi today justified his efforts to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from the gallows, saying capital punishment was medieval and wrong. Facing criticism from the Shiv Sena for backing Memon's mercy plea, he said he did so drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who were against death penalty and wanted it abolished. "As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfil my principles. I believe in that," Gandhi said. "In our country, we are living in times of division. A whole force which is dividing our country is in action mode and that spells danger," the former West Bengal governor told reporters after filing his papers for the vice presidential poll. Top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well as party leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge were present as Gandhi filed his nomination. Also present were other opposition leaders, including JD (U)'s Sharad Yadav, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, NC's Farooq Abdullah and DMK's Kanimozhi. Gandhi, the unanimous pick of 18 opposition parties for the vice president's post, said he was representing the common citizen of the country and not any political party and would try and help bridge the gulf between the public and politics. "People's faith in politics itself has diminished and has collapsed. I would like to see a revival of that faith." "... if today so many parties have together proposed a common citizen, then it means that our politics have moved forward," he said. Responding to the Shiv Sena's attack on him for petitioning the president to save Memon, Gandhi said, "Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication. What Shiv Sena has said, it had to. I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle." Gandhi said he wanted to place the facts about Memon's case before Pranab Mukherjee and wanted him to take a decision as his predecessors K R Narayanan and Abdul Kalam had. "I do not think I need to defend myself on this issue. The death penalty is a death penalty." He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan. Responding to a question on whether the odds were against him, he said, "Arithmetic is about numbers, philosophy is about principles. There cannot be anything better than numbers and principle, but sometimes one has to take such steps for principles which are not linked to numbers." Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, will contest against the NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu in the vice presidential election scheduled to be held on August 5.
By Express News Service

PATNA: As many as eleven persons were killed and three others injured in a road accident in Bihars Vaishali district on Tuesday when an auto-rickshaw collided head-on with a bus. Ten victims were travelling in the auto-rickshaw and one was in the bus.

The accident took place on NH-77 near Sarai Bazar, 32 km north of Patna, and the reason is said to be over-speeding by both the vehicles. The victims included six women and a seven-month-old baby.

The collision was so severe that the auto-rickshaw, which had 12 people in it, was torn apart and a part of the front portion of the bus was damaged. The three injured people include the driver of the Sitamarhi-bound bus and a bus passenger. They are under treatment at a hospital in Hajipur.

Nine of the eleven victims died on the spot immediately after the accident, said Rakesh Kumar, superintendent of police in Vaishali.

The drivers lack of control over their vehicles due to over-speeding is believed to be the reason behind the accident. A probe is on, he added.

Some locals said the bus was running at a very high speed and that it hit the auto-rickshaw that was moving at a moderate speed. The death of 11 people sparked protests by the local people, who blocked the national highway for nearly an hour.

They demanded compensation to the victims families and better road transport. The blockade was lifted after Vaishali district magistrate Rachna Patil and the SP spoke with the protesters.

The state government announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the next of kin of each victim. Chief minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths.

PATNA: As many as eleven persons were killed and three others injured in a road accident in Bihars Vaishali district on Tuesday when an auto-rickshaw collided head-on with a bus. Ten victims were travelling in the auto-rickshaw and one was in the bus. The accident took place on NH-77 near Sarai Bazar, 32 km north of Patna, and the reason is said to be over-speeding by both the vehicles. The victims included six women and a seven-month-old baby. The collision was so severe that the auto-rickshaw, which had 12 people in it, was torn apart and a part of the front portion of the bus was damaged. The three injured people include the driver of the Sitamarhi-bound bus and a bus passenger. They are under treatment at a hospital in Hajipur. Nine of the eleven victims died on the spot immediately after the accident, said Rakesh Kumar, superintendent of police in Vaishali. The drivers lack of control over their vehicles due to over-speeding is believed to be the reason behind the accident. A probe is on, he added. Some locals said the bus was running at a very high speed and that it hit the auto-rickshaw that was moving at a moderate speed. The death of 11 people sparked protests by the local people, who blocked the national highway for nearly an hour. They demanded compensation to the victims families and better road transport. The blockade was lifted after Vaishali district magistrate Rachna Patil and the SP spoke with the protesters. The state government announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the next of kin of each victim. Chief minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths.
By Express News Service

KOLKATA: A seven-member Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) team is lobbying the central government to introduce a Gorkhaland Bill in the current session of the Parliament.

In a press statement released on Tuesday evening, GJM chief Bimal Gurung said that a GJM delegation led by general secretary Roshan Giri will meet Darjeelings BJP MP SS Ahluwalia to press for bringing in a Gorkhaland statehood bill in the current session of the Parliament.

Nothing apart from Gorkhaland would be discussed with our alliance partner BJP, Gurung said. He also urged other pro-Gorkhaland parties to meet their respective national alliance party and their MP to put pressure on New Delhi.

The seven-member delegation consists of Study Forum member Swaraj Thapa, GJM central committee members R Moktan and P T Ola, Kurseong subdivision member Kishore Thapa, GJM Siliguri subdivision president Shanker Adhikari and GJM central committee member from Dooars, Jiwan Gurung.

The GJM supremo thanked the people of the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for bearing the shortages of essential commodities during the indefinite strike, which he said will continue till Gorkhaland is achieved.

KOLKATA: A seven-member Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) team is lobbying the central government to introduce a Gorkhaland Bill in the current session of the Parliament. In a press statement released on Tuesday evening, GJM chief Bimal Gurung said that a GJM delegation led by general secretary Roshan Giri will meet Darjeelings BJP MP SS Ahluwalia to press for bringing in a Gorkhaland statehood bill in the current session of the Parliament. Nothing apart from Gorkhaland would be discussed with our alliance partner BJP, Gurung said. He also urged other pro-Gorkhaland parties to meet their respective national alliance party and their MP to put pressure on New Delhi. The seven-member delegation consists of Study Forum member Swaraj Thapa, GJM central committee members R Moktan and P T Ola, Kurseong subdivision member Kishore Thapa, GJM Siliguri subdivision president Shanker Adhikari and GJM central committee member from Dooars, Jiwan Gurung. The GJM supremo thanked the people of the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts for bearing the shortages of essential commodities during the indefinite strike, which he said will continue till Gorkhaland is achieved.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

KOLKATA: The agitation in the Darjeeling hills for a separate state of Gorkhaland continued as a person died and at least eight got injured on Tuesday in clashes between Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Mirik town of Darjeeling district.

The deceased has been identified as Ashish Tamang (36), a resident of Magargunj village near Mirik. While GJM claimed that Ashish died in police firing, West Bengal administration maintained that he died in political clashes between TMC and GJM.

Speaking to media on Tuesday morning, GJM spokesperson Binay Tamang said, Ashish was killed in police firing during clashes between GJM and TMC activists on Monday night. Besides, seven TMC supporters and one of our men are injured.

He added: Ashish died when police opened fire at our activists near Mirik market, the GJM spokesperson added. TMC formed the municipal board in Mirik after civic polls in May.



Sources revealed that clashes erupted between GJM and TMC supporters when the former took out a rally at ward number 7 in Mirik on Monday night. During the rally, TMC supporter Dhanraj Tamang was allegedly beaten up by GJM supporters after which GJM and TMC supporters engaged in fights with khukuris (Nepalese dagger). Binay Tamang claimed that GJM supporters were intimidated by TMC supporters.

Situation turned worse when police picked up a few GJM supporters. A police source in Mirik police station said that GJM supporters then set fire to two police vehicles against the detentions.



The police had to resort to firing tear gas shells and lathi-charge to control the situation. More CRPF forces have been deployed in the town.

On the other hand, North Bengal development minister Goutam Deb claimed that outsiders were behind the clashes in Mirik. Police is not opening fire on any protesters in the hills.



The GJM died in clashes with TMC supporters. One of our injured cadres is serious and has been shifted to Siliguri.

The GJM supporters were brought from Sukhiapokhri to create problems in Mirik, he said. With the latest death, a total of eight Gorkhaland supporters have died as the indefinite strike called by pro-Gorkhaland leaders in the hills entered its 34th day on Tuesday.



Meanwhile, a panchayat office was gutted in Kalimpong district even as an all-party meeting of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) was underway in Kalimpong town since 11 am on Tuesday morning.



A resolution on allegations of foreign hand in the statehood movement is likely to be taken in the meeting.

KOLKATA: The agitation in the Darjeeling hills for a separate state of Gorkhaland continued as a person died and at least eight got injured on Tuesday in clashes between Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Mirik town of Darjeeling district. The deceased has been identified as Ashish Tamang (36), a resident of Magargunj village near Mirik. While GJM claimed that Ashish died in police firing, West Bengal administration maintained that he died in political clashes between TMC and GJM. Speaking to media on Tuesday morning, GJM spokesperson Binay Tamang said, Ashish was killed in police firing during clashes between GJM and TMC activists on Monday night. Besides, seven TMC supporters and one of our men are injured. He added: Ashish died when police opened fire at our activists near Mirik market, the GJM spokesperson added. TMC formed the municipal board in Mirik after civic polls in May. Sources revealed that clashes erupted between GJM and TMC supporters when the former took out a rally at ward number 7 in Mirik on Monday night. During the rally, TMC supporter Dhanraj Tamang was allegedly beaten up by GJM supporters after which GJM and TMC supporters engaged in fights with khukuris (Nepalese dagger). Binay Tamang claimed that GJM supporters were intimidated by TMC supporters. Situation turned worse when police picked up a few GJM supporters. A police source in Mirik police station said that GJM supporters then set fire to two police vehicles against the detentions. The police had to resort to firing tear gas shells and lathi-charge to control the situation. More CRPF forces have been deployed in the town. On the other hand, North Bengal development minister Goutam Deb claimed that outsiders were behind the clashes in Mirik. Police is not opening fire on any protesters in the hills. The GJM died in clashes with TMC supporters. One of our injured cadres is serious and has been shifted to Siliguri. The GJM supporters were brought from Sukhiapokhri to create problems in Mirik, he said. With the latest death, a total of eight Gorkhaland supporters have died as the indefinite strike called by pro-Gorkhaland leaders in the hills entered its 34th day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a panchayat office was gutted in Kalimpong district even as an all-party meeting of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) was underway in Kalimpong town since 11 am on Tuesday morning. A resolution on allegations of foreign hand in the statehood movement is likely to be taken in the meeting.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: As Left-ruled Tripura remains on the edge for nine days following an indefinite road and railway blockade enforced by a tribal-majority party demanding a separate state, the states ruling CPI-M sniffed the hand of the BJP in the unrest.

The CPI-M alleged that the saffron party was trying to create a Manipur-like situation in order to gain political mileage ahead of next years Assembly elections. BJP workers on Tuesday laid siege to the official residence of chief minister Manik Sarkar in protest against his governments failure to remove the blockade, enforced by the NC Debbarma faction of Indigenous Peoples Front Tripura (IPFT).

Some 300 BJP workers gheraoed Sarkars residence since early morning. The CM, who also holds the portfolio of home, was at home.

We took the action as the government failed to restore normalcy. Our protests will continue till the blockade is withdrawn, BJP state president, Biplab Deb, said. Even as the blockade continued, the Congress called a 12-hour Tripura bandh on Wednesday against the state governments failure to remove the blockade. CPI-M state secretary, Bijan Dhar, alleged that the BJP was trying to create a law and order situation in Tripura to try and grab power through the backdoor.

The BJP is with the NC Debbarma faction of IPFT. While the BJP opposes the demand of separate state, it favours Article 244 A of the Constitution which is autonomous state or state within the state. How can there be a state within the state? asked Dhar. He said union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju was scheduled to hold a meeting with some IPFT leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday but it was cancelled for reasons not known to Tripura government.

A delegation of the IPFT held a meeting with senior Tripura government officials on Sunday but it failed. The delegation told the officials that any decision on the blockade would be taken by their leaders who were camping in the national capital. Dhar said that there was no crisis of essential commodities as the traders were using alternate roads to bring supplies. The blockade is on National Highway 44 and railway, he said.

Tripura has 60 Assembly seats and in over 30 of them, the tribals are the virtual kingmakers. With the polls just months away, a resurgent BJP is trying to polarise the tribals. To cosy up to them, BJP national president Amit Shah had dined at the house of a tribal during his visit to Tripura two months ago. The Left, which accounts for 51 seats, has been in power since 1993.

After its stunning victories in Assam and Manipur, the BJP has set its sights on Tripura. The party has grown at the expense of the Congress. The Left, which has been in power since 1993, too feels that the BJP has virtually taken over the Congresss space. Yes, in terms of mobilisation, BJP is next to us. Congress is eroding, Dhar said. Tripuras six rebel Trinamool Congress MLAs and a rebel Congress MLA are likely to join the BJP any day after July 22.

GUWAHATI: As Left-ruled Tripura remains on the edge for nine days following an indefinite road and railway blockade enforced by a tribal-majority party demanding a separate state, the states ruling CPI-M sniffed the hand of the BJP in the unrest. The CPI-M alleged that the saffron party was trying to create a Manipur-like situation in order to gain political mileage ahead of next years Assembly elections. BJP workers on Tuesday laid siege to the official residence of chief minister Manik Sarkar in protest against his governments failure to remove the blockade, enforced by the NC Debbarma faction of Indigenous Peoples Front Tripura (IPFT). Some 300 BJP workers gheraoed Sarkars residence since early morning. The CM, who also holds the portfolio of home, was at home. We took the action as the government failed to restore normalcy. Our protests will continue till the blockade is withdrawn, BJP state president, Biplab Deb, said. Even as the blockade continued, the Congress called a 12-hour Tripura bandh on Wednesday against the state governments failure to remove the blockade. CPI-M state secretary, Bijan Dhar, alleged that the BJP was trying to create a law and order situation in Tripura to try and grab power through the backdoor. The BJP is with the NC Debbarma faction of IPFT. While the BJP opposes the demand of separate state, it favours Article 244 A of the Constitution which is autonomous state or state within the state. How can there be a state within the state? asked Dhar. He said union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju was scheduled to hold a meeting with some IPFT leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday but it was cancelled for reasons not known to Tripura government. A delegation of the IPFT held a meeting with senior Tripura government officials on Sunday but it failed. The delegation told the officials that any decision on the blockade would be taken by their leaders who were camping in the national capital. Dhar said that there was no crisis of essential commodities as the traders were using alternate roads to bring supplies. The blockade is on National Highway 44 and railway, he said. Tripura has 60 Assembly seats and in over 30 of them, the tribals are the virtual kingmakers. With the polls just months away, a resurgent BJP is trying to polarise the tribals. To cosy up to them, BJP national president Amit Shah had dined at the house of a tribal during his visit to Tripura two months ago. The Left, which accounts for 51 seats, has been in power since 1993. After its stunning victories in Assam and Manipur, the BJP has set its sights on Tripura. The party has grown at the expense of the Congress. The Left, which has been in power since 1993, too feels that the BJP has virtually taken over the Congresss space. Yes, in terms of mobilisation, BJP is next to us. Congress is eroding, Dhar said. Tripuras six rebel Trinamool Congress MLAs and a rebel Congress MLA are likely to join the BJP any day after July 22.
By IANS

MUMBAI: While there has been an intellectual uproar over the cuts ordered by the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) in Suman Ghoshs documentary "The Argumentative Indian", the CBFC chairperson speaking on the cuts argues that the mere deletion or beeping of six words is no reason to feel creatively smothered when those words indicate a clear contempt for Indian culture and democracy.

"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, Prof. Sen talks of Indian democracy and refers to Gujarat's 'criminalities'. We've asked for 'Gujarat' to be removed," said Nihalani

"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 Prof. 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," he added.

Nihalani says the removal of six words in 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. 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," he said.

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," he said.

The censor chief also points out a serious legal breach on the part of the documentary's makers.

He said: "They have been screening the film without a censor certificate in various public places of India. That's illegal. Freedom of expression is fine. What about breaking the law?"

MUMBAI: While there has been an intellectual uproar over the cuts ordered by the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) in Suman Ghoshs documentary "The Argumentative Indian", the CBFC chairperson speaking on the cuts argues that the mere deletion or beeping of six words is no reason to feel creatively smothered when those words indicate a clear contempt for Indian culture and democracy. "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, Prof. Sen talks of Indian democracy and refers to Gujarat's 'criminalities'. We've asked for 'Gujarat' to be removed," said Nihalani "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 Prof. 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," he added. Nihalani says the removal of six words in 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. 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," he said. 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," he said. The censor chief also points out a serious legal breach on the part of the documentary's makers. He said: "They have been screening the film without a censor certificate in various public places of India. That's illegal. Freedom of expression is fine. What about breaking the law?"
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: As the 68-year-old vice-presidential nominee of the NDA M Venkaiah Naidu filed his nomination papers, youngest cabinet minister Smriti Irani got additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, signalling that the BJP is counting on youth power for the next Lok Sabha elections.

The cabinet reshuffle, which appears likely after the monsoon session of Parliament, may see Narendra Modi banking on the youth quotient.



Union minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar got Naidus another responsibility  Ministry of Urban Development  as additional charge. Iranis strong comeback after losing the Ministry of Human Resources Development in the last cabinet reshuffle is an indication that Modi will bank on youth power, who are result oriented and combative against political rivals, said a senior BJP leader.

Meanwhile, the VP poll result appeared tilted heavily in favour of Naidu, who has the committed support of 337 MPs of the NDA in the Lok Sabha and 77 in the Rajya Sabha, besides additional support from both factions of the AIADMK, TRS, YSR Congress, INLD, and some Independents.

NEW DELHI: As the 68-year-old vice-presidential nominee of the NDA M Venkaiah Naidu filed his nomination papers, youngest cabinet minister Smriti Irani got additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, signalling that the BJP is counting on youth power for the next Lok Sabha elections. The cabinet reshuffle, which appears likely after the monsoon session of Parliament, may see Narendra Modi banking on the youth quotient. Union minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar got Naidus another responsibility  Ministry of Urban Development  as additional charge. Iranis strong comeback after losing the Ministry of Human Resources Development in the last cabinet reshuffle is an indication that Modi will bank on youth power, who are result oriented and combative against political rivals, said a senior BJP leader. Meanwhile, the VP poll result appeared tilted heavily in favour of Naidu, who has the committed support of 337 MPs of the NDA in the Lok Sabha and 77 in the Rajya Sabha, besides additional support from both factions of the AIADMK, TRS, YSR Congress, INLD, and some Independents.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offence) court on

Tuesday framed charges against Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and six of his aides, who are co-accused, in the gang-rape case of a woman corporator of Chitrakoot and molestation of her daughter.

The court fixed August 1 for recording of prosecution evidence. All the accused are in jail and they were produced in the court at the time of hearing under tight security.

The woman corporator, aged 35, of Chitrakoot had accused Prajapati and his aides of gang-raping her and sexually harassing her minor daughter at the official residence of the minister in Lucknow for two years continuously. She claimed to have approached different police stations to get a report of gang-rape and molestation lodged against the powerful minister but in vain.

Finally, the victim petitioned the Supreme Court, on the directions of which an FIR was lodged against Prajapati and his six aides in the case on February 18. Besides the minister, the other six accused include Ashok Tewari, Rupesh, Vikas Verma, Chandrapal, Amerandra Singh and Ashish Shukla.



While all the six accused were arrested one by one, the police, after a hunt of almost a month, rounded up Prajapati on March 15. The case against the former minister was registered under section 376-D (rape by two or more persons), 376 (rape), 511 (committing offences punishable with life imprisonment), 504

(intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3/4 of POCSO (Protection of Children From Sexual Offence) Act in the Gautampalli police station in Lucknow on February 18. Prajapati was granted bail by a district court on April 25, though it was subsequently cancelled by the Allahabad High Court on a petition by the state government.

LUCKNOW: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offence) court on Tuesday framed charges against Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and six of his aides, who are co-accused, in the gang-rape case of a woman corporator of Chitrakoot and molestation of her daughter. The court fixed August 1 for recording of prosecution evidence. All the accused are in jail and they were produced in the court at the time of hearing under tight security. The woman corporator, aged 35, of Chitrakoot had accused Prajapati and his aides of gang-raping her and sexually harassing her minor daughter at the official residence of the minister in Lucknow for two years continuously. She claimed to have approached different police stations to get a report of gang-rape and molestation lodged against the powerful minister but in vain. Finally, the victim petitioned the Supreme Court, on the directions of which an FIR was lodged against Prajapati and his six aides in the case on February 18. Besides the minister, the other six accused include Ashok Tewari, Rupesh, Vikas Verma, Chandrapal, Amerandra Singh and Ashish Shukla. While all the six accused were arrested one by one, the police, after a hunt of almost a month, rounded up Prajapati on March 15. The case against the former minister was registered under section 376-D (rape by two or more persons), 376 (rape), 511 (committing offences punishable with life imprisonment), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3/4 of POCSO (Protection of Children From Sexual Offence) Act in the Gautampalli police station in Lucknow on February 18. Prajapati was granted bail by a district court on April 25, though it was subsequently cancelled by the Allahabad High Court on a petition by the state government.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition vice presidential candidate, plans post card diplomacy as part of his campaign to reach out to 785 MPs.



Gandhi, in order to give a personal touch to his campaign for the VP elections scheduled August 5, will send post cards to all MPs who will vote in the elections for the post, which is the second highest constitutional office in the country.

Opposition leaders were all for it when Gandhi presented the idea. One of the leaders of the opposition parties even asked his aide to buy 1,000 post cards and by Tuesday afternoon all were bought from the post office closest to Parliament  GPO, Gol Market.



Besides, Gandhi will also send emails and letters to all MPs. A video message will also be recorded and it will accompany the emails to members of both houses of Parliament.

Gandhi was interested in giving a personal touch to the campaign and he proposed to send post cards to all MPs. The post cards will broadly have bullet-point kind of content highlighting issues while the emails and letters will have his detailed views on various issues, said a leader of the opposition.

Gandhi, after filing his nomination for the VP election left for Chennai. He is likely to return to Delhi on August 4 and will personally reach out to MPs in Parliament. When asked about not having enough numbers, Gandhi said: Arithmetic is about numbers, philosophy is about principles and I choose to fight on principle.

On the Shiv Senas attack on him for petitioning the President to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon, Gandhi said, Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication... I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle. He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.

NEW DELHI: Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition vice presidential candidate, plans post card diplomacy as part of his campaign to reach out to 785 MPs. Gandhi, in order to give a personal touch to his campaign for the VP elections scheduled August 5, will send post cards to all MPs who will vote in the elections for the post, which is the second highest constitutional office in the country. Opposition leaders were all for it when Gandhi presented the idea. One of the leaders of the opposition parties even asked his aide to buy 1,000 post cards and by Tuesday afternoon all were bought from the post office closest to Parliament  GPO, Gol Market. Besides, Gandhi will also send emails and letters to all MPs. A video message will also be recorded and it will accompany the emails to members of both houses of Parliament. Gandhi was interested in giving a personal touch to the campaign and he proposed to send post cards to all MPs. The post cards will broadly have bullet-point kind of content highlighting issues while the emails and letters will have his detailed views on various issues, said a leader of the opposition. Gandhi, after filing his nomination for the VP election left for Chennai. He is likely to return to Delhi on August 4 and will personally reach out to MPs in Parliament. When asked about not having enough numbers, Gandhi said: Arithmetic is about numbers, philosophy is about principles and I choose to fight on principle. On the Shiv Senas attack on him for petitioning the President to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon, Gandhi said, Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication... I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle. He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: A severe water crisis, worse than the one the state endured last year, looms large over the Cauvery basin. The weak monsoon so far and poor storage in the four reservoirs of Cauvery basin have not only forced Karnataka to continue its embargo on releasing water for its own farmers, but also falter on releasing water for Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka Water Resources Minister M B Patil expressed states inability to release water to Tamil Nadu to the extent stipulated by the Cauvery Tribunal. The present storage in the four reservoirs of Cauvery basinKRS, Kabini, Hemavathi, Harangiis 26 tmcft as against 57.89 tmcft same time last year. According to the Tribunal award, Karnataka has to release 44 tmcft of water for the period June 1 to July 31. But Karnataka could so far release just 2.2 tmcft, Patil said.

Right now a small quantum of water is being released to Tamil Nadu depending on the inflows into the reservoirs. We hope the situation will improve with copious rains in the coming days to enable the state to increase the discharge to Tamil Nadu, he said.

The present cumulative inflow into the reservoirs is about 9,500 cusecs and about 30 per cent of which is being discharged. This includes discharge to Tamil Nadu and to meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru, he added.

There is no hope of relief for states farmers either as the minister said that water would not be released for agriculture this year as well unless the storage in the reservoirs improves. The present storage would be utilised only for drinking water purpose.

The minister denied reports of Karnataka releasing water from Malaprabha river basin into Mahadayi to flow to neighbouring Goa. The reports to this effect in a section of the media are false and could lead to public unrest in the northern Karnataka region, Patil said.Patil also cited Karnatakas undertaking before Mahadayi Dispute Tribunal that it would not divert water through Kalasa-Banduri nala till the tribunal adjudicates the inter-state dispute.

We are ready for opening up talks with governments of Goa and Maharashtra any moment to explore out-of-court settlement of Mahadayi issue, he said.Siddaramaiah has written to his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar asking him to agree to a joint meeting with the Maharashtra CM in order to find an out of court and amicable resolution, he said. He said even the tribunal had suggested out-of-court settlement.

BENGALURU: A severe water crisis, worse than the one the state endured last year, looms large over the Cauvery basin. The weak monsoon so far and poor storage in the four reservoirs of Cauvery basin have not only forced Karnataka to continue its embargo on releasing water for its own farmers, but also falter on releasing water for Tamil Nadu. Karnataka Water Resources Minister M B Patil expressed states inability to release water to Tamil Nadu to the extent stipulated by the Cauvery Tribunal. The present storage in the four reservoirs of Cauvery basinKRS, Kabini, Hemavathi, Harangiis 26 tmcft as against 57.89 tmcft same time last year. According to the Tribunal award, Karnataka has to release 44 tmcft of water for the period June 1 to July 31. But Karnataka could so far release just 2.2 tmcft, Patil said. Right now a small quantum of water is being released to Tamil Nadu depending on the inflows into the reservoirs. We hope the situation will improve with copious rains in the coming days to enable the state to increase the discharge to Tamil Nadu, he said. The present cumulative inflow into the reservoirs is about 9,500 cusecs and about 30 per cent of which is being discharged. This includes discharge to Tamil Nadu and to meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru, he added. There is no hope of relief for states farmers either as the minister said that water would not be released for agriculture this year as well unless the storage in the reservoirs improves. The present storage would be utilised only for drinking water purpose. The minister denied reports of Karnataka releasing water from Malaprabha river basin into Mahadayi to flow to neighbouring Goa. The reports to this effect in a section of the media are false and could lead to public unrest in the northern Karnataka region, Patil said.Patil also cited Karnatakas undertaking before Mahadayi Dispute Tribunal that it would not divert water through Kalasa-Banduri nala till the tribunal adjudicates the inter-state dispute. We are ready for opening up talks with governments of Goa and Maharashtra any moment to explore out-of-court settlement of Mahadayi issue, he said.Siddaramaiah has written to his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar asking him to agree to a joint meeting with the Maharashtra CM in order to find an out of court and amicable resolution, he said. He said even the tribunal had suggested out-of-court settlement.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Kannada Development Authority (KDA) president G S Siddaramaiah, with two other KDA members, visited BBMP to check the extent of usage of Kannada language within the palike.

BBMP commissioner Manjunath Prasad assured the president and members Dr Siddalingaiah and Chandrashekar Patil that efforts were being made in this regard. Siddaramaiah appreciated the use of Kannada on BBMPs website, but said, Steps should be taken to spread Kannada usage in advertisements, BBMP shopping malls and at other places.

He then asked the commissioner to publicise the usage of Kannada through advertisements in newspapers and through other means within 15 days.Siddaramaiah advised the Commissioner to start Kannada learning centres for over 30,000 pourakarmikas. He advised that officials should be asked to conduct official work in Kannada language and offered to provide experts to train them.

The KDA president also asked for proper Kananda names to be used while renaming roads. He gave the example of Bull Temple Road, and expressed regret over the fact that the English name had become more popular than the original Kannada name - Basavanagudi Main Road.

BENGALURU: Kannada Development Authority (KDA) president G S Siddaramaiah, with two other KDA members, visited BBMP to check the extent of usage of Kannada language within the palike. BBMP commissioner Manjunath Prasad assured the president and members Dr Siddalingaiah and Chandrashekar Patil that efforts were being made in this regard. Siddaramaiah appreciated the use of Kannada on BBMPs website, but said, Steps should be taken to spread Kannada usage in advertisements, BBMP shopping malls and at other places. He then asked the commissioner to publicise the usage of Kannada through advertisements in newspapers and through other means within 15 days.Siddaramaiah advised the Commissioner to start Kannada learning centres for over 30,000 pourakarmikas. He advised that officials should be asked to conduct official work in Kannada language and offered to provide experts to train them. The KDA president also asked for proper Kananda names to be used while renaming roads. He gave the example of Bull Temple Road, and expressed regret over the fact that the English name had become more popular than the original Kannada name - Basavanagudi Main Road.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: The judicial remand of Pulsar Suni aka Sunil Kumar, the first accused in the abduction and sexual assault case of a Malayalam actress has been extended to August 3 by the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Tuesday.

Suni was produced before the court since his judicial custody was slated to end on Tuesday. The court adjourned hearing of the petition moved by the accused seeking bail to Thursday.

Police also registered a fresh case against Pulsar Suni on Monday based on the complaint by producer Johny Sagarika.

According to the police officers, when an actress came to Kochi for the shooting of a movie, a vehicle driven by Suni came to pick her. However, Suni changed the route instead of taking her to the shooting location. When she informed the matter to her husband Suni panicked and dropped her off at the hotel and fled.

Meanwhile, the Ernakulam central police arrested a youth in the case pertaining to the alleged attempt to abduct another actress in 2011.

Officers said, Ebin, hailing from Kothamangalam, who was an aide of Suni, has been arrested. He was working as cleaner of the vehicle during the time of the incident and had accompanied Suni on the day.

KOCHI: The judicial remand of Pulsar Suni aka Sunil Kumar, the first accused in the abduction and sexual assault case of a Malayalam actress has been extended to August 3 by the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Tuesday. Suni was produced before the court since his judicial custody was slated to end on Tuesday. The court adjourned hearing of the petition moved by the accused seeking bail to Thursday. Police also registered a fresh case against Pulsar Suni on Monday based on the complaint by producer Johny Sagarika. According to the police officers, when an actress came to Kochi for the shooting of a movie, a vehicle driven by Suni came to pick her. However, Suni changed the route instead of taking her to the shooting location. When she informed the matter to her husband Suni panicked and dropped her off at the hotel and fled. Meanwhile, the Ernakulam central police arrested a youth in the case pertaining to the alleged attempt to abduct another actress in 2011. Officers said, Ebin, hailing from Kothamangalam, who was an aide of Suni, has been arrested. He was working as cleaner of the vehicle during the time of the incident and had accompanied Suni on the day.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR/RAYAGADA/BHAWANIPATNA : Even as the frothing and fuming Nagavali showed signs of calming down on Monday, close to 40,000 people found themselves hit by the floods in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts a day after heavy rains lashed the western and southern pockets of the State.While death toll in the deluge stood at two, hundreds lost their belongings to the flood. Both the casualties were reported in Kalahandi whereas Rayagada borne the brunt of the flash floods.

Air-dropping of food packets started in flood-hit Rayagada district where the situation showed signs of improvement but the Government remained cautious with the weather office forecasting more rains by the low pressure formed off the coast.

The system is set to become well-marked and chances of it turning into a depression cannot be ruled out. Under the impact of the system, rains lashed many parts of the State and more showers are in the offing. Due to the inclement weather, two Indian Air Force choppers could not take off from Jagdalpur and Raipur.

Two blocks in Rayagada and seven in adjoining Kalahandi were identified as the worst-affected and the State Government operated free kitchen centres to tend to the affected villagers.More than 50 villages in Rayagada and another 20 in Kalyansinghpur blocks were badly hit, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC)s office said. As many as five villagers were injured due to wall collapse and were under treatment. State highways and other roads suffered extensive damage.Two units of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and three teams of National Disaster Response Force were engaged in shifting the flood-affected to safer places.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the situation in the morning, said the administration was providing food, medical help and other support to the affected.Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said all those trapped in the flood water have been rescued. About 4,000 people were evacuated and lodged in 15 temporary shelters where cooked food was provided from free kitchens. Emergent relief has been provided to over 5,000 villagers by the Rayagada administration while the Naval helicopter made three sorties to airdrop food packets in the affected areas. All schools of Kalyansinghpur, Rayagada and Kasipur Blocks have been closed for 3 days.

Kalahandis Thuamul-Rampur, Kalampur, Koksara and Jaipatna blocks suffered extensive damage due to flood in Hati and Tel rivers. More than 10,500 people in 10 villages of seven blocks were hit by the flash floods. More than 2,000 Bolbom devotees were stranded by the floods in Tel at Belkhandi. Police took them to safety.Of the two persons who died, one had perished in a landslide while the other drowned in flood waters. Three villagers suffered injuries.

The district administration opened free kitchen services while two ODRAF units were engaged in rescue and relief work. At least 17 villagers were rescued from Taratikili village under Bhawanipatna block. All schools of the district have been closed.The Health and Family Welfare Department opened 15 health camps in Rayagada where doctors and paramedic staff were pressed into service.

Flood update

40,000 people affected by floods in Rayagada and Kalahandi

lTwo blocks in Rayagada and seven in Kalahandi the worst-affected

lFree kitchens opened and food packets air-dropped

lODRAF and NDRF engaged in shifting people to safer places

lLow pressure in the Bay set to become well-marked and more rains in the offing

BHUBANESWAR/RAYAGADA/BHAWANIPATNA : Even as the frothing and fuming Nagavali showed signs of calming down on Monday, close to 40,000 people found themselves hit by the floods in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts a day after heavy rains lashed the western and southern pockets of the State.While death toll in the deluge stood at two, hundreds lost their belongings to the flood. Both the casualties were reported in Kalahandi whereas Rayagada borne the brunt of the flash floods. Air-dropping of food packets started in flood-hit Rayagada district where the situation showed signs of improvement but the Government remained cautious with the weather office forecasting more rains by the low pressure formed off the coast. The system is set to become well-marked and chances of it turning into a depression cannot be ruled out. Under the impact of the system, rains lashed many parts of the State and more showers are in the offing. Due to the inclement weather, two Indian Air Force choppers could not take off from Jagdalpur and Raipur. Two blocks in Rayagada and seven in adjoining Kalahandi were identified as the worst-affected and the State Government operated free kitchen centres to tend to the affected villagers.More than 50 villages in Rayagada and another 20 in Kalyansinghpur blocks were badly hit, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC)s office said. As many as five villagers were injured due to wall collapse and were under treatment. State highways and other roads suffered extensive damage.Two units of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and three teams of National Disaster Response Force were engaged in shifting the flood-affected to safer places. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who reviewed the situation in the morning, said the administration was providing food, medical help and other support to the affected.Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said all those trapped in the flood water have been rescued. About 4,000 people were evacuated and lodged in 15 temporary shelters where cooked food was provided from free kitchens. Emergent relief has been provided to over 5,000 villagers by the Rayagada administration while the Naval helicopter made three sorties to airdrop food packets in the affected areas. All schools of Kalyansinghpur, Rayagada and Kasipur Blocks have been closed for 3 days. Kalahandis Thuamul-Rampur, Kalampur, Koksara and Jaipatna blocks suffered extensive damage due to flood in Hati and Tel rivers. More than 10,500 people in 10 villages of seven blocks were hit by the flash floods. More than 2,000 Bolbom devotees were stranded by the floods in Tel at Belkhandi. Police took them to safety.Of the two persons who died, one had perished in a landslide while the other drowned in flood waters. Three villagers suffered injuries. The district administration opened free kitchen services while two ODRAF units were engaged in rescue and relief work. At least 17 villagers were rescued from Taratikili village under Bhawanipatna block. All schools of the district have been closed.The Health and Family Welfare Department opened 15 health camps in Rayagada where doctors and paramedic staff were pressed into service. Flood update 40,000 people affected by floods in Rayagada and Kalahandi lTwo blocks in Rayagada and seven in Kalahandi the worst-affected lFree kitchens opened and food packets air-dropped lODRAF and NDRF engaged in shifting people to safer places lLow pressure in the Bay set to become well-marked and more rains in the offing
By AFP

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST: Three soldiers died after shooting erupted overnight at a base in Ivory Coast, which has been gripped by tensions within the military, security sources said Saturday.

Gunfire was heard coming from the barracks at Korhogo, a city in the north of the West African country, at around 1:00 am (0100 GMT), Adama Coulibaly, a local carpenter reached by phone said.

"There are three dead soldiers," an officer told AFP separately, without giving further details.

A source at the local morgue said three bodies in military fatigues and with gunshot wounds had been taken to the facility.

In a separate incident, the shooting was heard from a former UN base near Abidjan, lasting from about 1.30 am to after 3:00 am, a local resident in the nearby district of Abobo said.

"We were all very scared. We don't know what's going on," another resident said. Calm returned on Saturday morning.

The incident took place against a backdrop of months-long tensions within the country's armed forces.

The former French colony suffered a decade-long civil war, splitting the country in two.

Thousands of rebels were incorporated into the army after President Laurent Gbagbo was ousted in 2011 by Alassane Ouattara.

But a string of revolts erupted from January to May this year after they mutinied to press demands for a promised bonus. They eventually received a payoff of 12,000 CFA francs (18,000 euros) per head from the state.

There are also 6,000 "demobilised" rebels who have not been integrated into the military and are also demanding a bonus.

Four of them were shot dead in May when security forces intervened to disperse a protest.

And on Tuesday, two former rebel leaders who obstructed a road in the central city of Bouake were jailed.

The government last year unveiled plans to modernise the 22,000-strong military, part of which would involve the departure of several thousand men, particularly ex-rebels.

But falling cocoa prices have severely crimped the government's coffers.

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST: Three soldiers died after shooting erupted overnight at a base in Ivory Coast, which has been gripped by tensions within the military, security sources said Saturday. Gunfire was heard coming from the barracks at Korhogo, a city in the north of the West African country, at around 1:00 am (0100 GMT), Adama Coulibaly, a local carpenter reached by phone said. "There are three dead soldiers," an officer told AFP separately, without giving further details. A source at the local morgue said three bodies in military fatigues and with gunshot wounds had been taken to the facility. In a separate incident, the shooting was heard from a former UN base near Abidjan, lasting from about 1.30 am to after 3:00 am, a local resident in the nearby district of Abobo said. "We were all very scared. We don't know what's going on," another resident said. Calm returned on Saturday morning. The incident took place against a backdrop of months-long tensions within the country's armed forces. The former French colony suffered a decade-long civil war, splitting the country in two. Thousands of rebels were incorporated into the army after President Laurent Gbagbo was ousted in 2011 by Alassane Ouattara. But a string of revolts erupted from January to May this year after they mutinied to press demands for a promised bonus. They eventually received a payoff of 12,000 CFA francs (18,000 euros) per head from the state. There are also 6,000 "demobilised" rebels who have not been integrated into the military and are also demanding a bonus. Four of them were shot dead in May when security forces intervened to disperse a protest. And on Tuesday, two former rebel leaders who obstructed a road in the central city of Bouake were jailed. The government last year unveiled plans to modernise the 22,000-strong military, part of which would involve the departure of several thousand men, particularly ex-rebels. But falling cocoa prices have severely crimped the government's coffers.
By AFP

RAQA: Heavy bombardment and fierce fighting shook the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa on Monday, as US-backed forces said they captured a new neighbourhood from entrenched jihadists.

Bursts of gunfire and artillery as well as the thud of air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition filled the air in western neighbourhoods of Raqa, on what AFP's correspondent said was the heaviest day of bombardment to date.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll, said the air strikes killed at least 10 civilians, two of them children.

Thick pillars of black smoke dotted the city skyline, lined with bombed-out concrete homes and the damaged minaret of a mosque.

"Our American friends are bombing with mortars," a fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said after a string of blasts near the front line in western Raqa.

The SDF's Kurdish and Arab fighters have been pressing an operation to capture the jihadist stronghold since last year with coalition air support and the backing of a US Marines artillery battery.

An AFP reporter in Jazra suburb on the western outskirts of the city on Monday saw coalition forces at a joint position with SDF fighters firing artillery in the direction of IS posts deeper inside Raqa.

Regime forces advance south of Raqa

On another front, Syrian government forces have swept across territory south of Raqa, capturing a string of villages and oilfields from the jihadists, state media said Monday.

"Over the past two days, army units recaptured a number of villages and oilfields in western parts of Deir Ezzor province and southern parts of Raqa," the official news agency SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory said the government advance was backed by heavy Syrian and Russian air strikes.

"Regime forces have captured between 1,500 and 1,800 square kilometres (580 and 700 sq miles) in Raqa province over the past 48 hours," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

In its separate operation, the SDF has spent several months encircling Raqa and first broke into the northern city in early June.

On Monday, it announced it had captured Al-Yarmuk, a large neighbourhood on the southwestern outskirts of the city.

"The Al-Yarmuk district was liberated yesterday," the SDF's spokeswoman for the Raqa operation, Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, told AFP in Ain Issa, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Raqa.

"We are taking steady and sound steps. What is important to us is not speed, but liberating civilians and eliminating Daesh (IS)," she added.

IS first seized Raqa in early 2014, and the city has since become synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities.

It carried out brutal public beheadings and is thought to have used Raqa as a hub for planning attacks overseas.

The jihadists are putting up a fierce defence against the SDF, including with car bombs, improved explosive devices, and weaponised commercial drones.

SDF fighters on Monday heard a light buzzing noise coming from outside and began looking to the sky.

"It's a Daesh drone," one militiaman warned.

Progress inside Raqa has also been hampered by extensive mining of neighbourhoods, with devastating consequences for civilians trying to flee.

"There have been many casualties, fighters and civilians, caused by mines," an SDF commander told AFP, without giving his name.

"Yesterday, we buried six civilians after a mine exploded as they were trying to escape."

Up to 50,000 civilians still trapped

The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in Raqa, down from some 100,000 people at the end of June.

The SDF on its social media accounts said Monday its forces "managed to free about 500 civilians who were trapped inside the Al-Daraiya and Al-Tayar neighbourhoods, as well as 150 others from the Old City" in Raqa.

The Syrian Observatory monitoring group said hundreds of civilians had fled IS-held parts of the city in the past 48 hours towards areas now controlled by the SDF.

"Whenever there is a lull in the fighting, they leave towards areas held by the SDF," Observatory head Abdel Rahman said.

The Britain-based monitoring group estimates the US-backed force currently holds around 35 percent of Raqa.

It said the SDF held the western portion of Al-Yarmuk district but that it had not fully captured the district and heavy fighting was continuing.

More than 330,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's multi-party conflict broke out with anti-government protests in March 2011.

RAQA: Heavy bombardment and fierce fighting shook the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa on Monday, as US-backed forces said they captured a new neighbourhood from entrenched jihadists. Bursts of gunfire and artillery as well as the thud of air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition filled the air in western neighbourhoods of Raqa, on what AFP's correspondent said was the heaviest day of bombardment to date. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll, said the air strikes killed at least 10 civilians, two of them children. Thick pillars of black smoke dotted the city skyline, lined with bombed-out concrete homes and the damaged minaret of a mosque. "Our American friends are bombing with mortars," a fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said after a string of blasts near the front line in western Raqa. The SDF's Kurdish and Arab fighters have been pressing an operation to capture the jihadist stronghold since last year with coalition air support and the backing of a US Marines artillery battery. An AFP reporter in Jazra suburb on the western outskirts of the city on Monday saw coalition forces at a joint position with SDF fighters firing artillery in the direction of IS posts deeper inside Raqa. Regime forces advance south of Raqa On another front, Syrian government forces have swept across territory south of Raqa, capturing a string of villages and oilfields from the jihadists, state media said Monday. "Over the past two days, army units recaptured a number of villages and oilfields in western parts of Deir Ezzor province and southern parts of Raqa," the official news agency SANA said. The Syrian Observatory said the government advance was backed by heavy Syrian and Russian air strikes. "Regime forces have captured between 1,500 and 1,800 square kilometres (580 and 700 sq miles) in Raqa province over the past 48 hours," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. In its separate operation, the SDF has spent several months encircling Raqa and first broke into the northern city in early June. On Monday, it announced it had captured Al-Yarmuk, a large neighbourhood on the southwestern outskirts of the city. "The Al-Yarmuk district was liberated yesterday," the SDF's spokeswoman for the Raqa operation, Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, told AFP in Ain Issa, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Raqa. "We are taking steady and sound steps. What is important to us is not speed, but liberating civilians and eliminating Daesh (IS)," she added. IS first seized Raqa in early 2014, and the city has since become synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities. It carried out brutal public beheadings and is thought to have used Raqa as a hub for planning attacks overseas. The jihadists are putting up a fierce defence against the SDF, including with car bombs, improved explosive devices, and weaponised commercial drones. SDF fighters on Monday heard a light buzzing noise coming from outside and began looking to the sky. "It's a Daesh drone," one militiaman warned. Progress inside Raqa has also been hampered by extensive mining of neighbourhoods, with devastating consequences for civilians trying to flee. "There have been many casualties, fighters and civilians, caused by mines," an SDF commander told AFP, without giving his name. "Yesterday, we buried six civilians after a mine exploded as they were trying to escape." Up to 50,000 civilians still trapped The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in Raqa, down from some 100,000 people at the end of June. The SDF on its social media accounts said Monday its forces "managed to free about 500 civilians who were trapped inside the Al-Daraiya and Al-Tayar neighbourhoods, as well as 150 others from the Old City" in Raqa. The Syrian Observatory monitoring group said hundreds of civilians had fled IS-held parts of the city in the past 48 hours towards areas now controlled by the SDF. "Whenever there is a lull in the fighting, they leave towards areas held by the SDF," Observatory head Abdel Rahman said. The Britain-based monitoring group estimates the US-backed force currently holds around 35 percent of Raqa. It said the SDF held the western portion of Al-Yarmuk district but that it had not fully captured the district and heavy fighting was continuing. More than 330,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's multi-party conflict broke out with anti-government protests in March 2011.
By PTI

BEIJING: China has started commercial production of its CH-5 Rainbow drone, touted to be a rival to the US unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 Reaper, which could attack targets on the ground.

Wang Song, an associate professor with the school of aeronautic science and engineering at China's Beihang University, said the first flight of a mass-produced CH-5 Rainbow, a heavy military drone on Friday last week meant signals China's readiness to export it.

He said the drones equals that of the US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, but at around half the cost.

However, Wang said the Chinese drone had a weakness compared to its American counterparts.

The Reaper can climb to a height of between 12,000 and 15,000 metres. This allows the US drone to stay above the reach of most ground fire.

The CH-5, on the other hand, cannot operate at more than 9,000 metres, which makes it vulnerable to some anti-aircraft weaponry, Wang was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post today.

The limited ceiling of the Rainbow is a by-product of its relatively weak engine, according to Wang, who noted that China still lagged behind the West in aircraft engine technology.

"This is in fact the weakness of all China-made aeroplanes," he said.

United States Reaper, or Predator B, was the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle that could attack targets on the ground. At USD 16.9 million, which makes it the world's most expensive drone.

"The CH-5 may come in at less than half of the price," Wang said.

State-run CGTN TV also showed a video of the CH-5 destroying targets.

On July 14, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that mass-production model of China's unmanned aerial vehicle CH-5, or "Rainbow 5", completed its trial flight in north China's Hebei Province.

It can conduct reconnaissance, surveillance, patrol, target positioning and strike missions, Shi Wen, chief engineer of the Rainbow drone project at the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics told the news agency.

"We've made several modifications after its debut, and its comprehensive functions are among the world's best," Shi Wen claimed.

The CH-5 has a wingspan of 21 meters and is capable of carrying up to 1,000 kg of equipment. It can stay in the air for 60 hours with a range of more than 10,000 kilometers, Shi said.

The CH-5 can also be used for civilian purposes such as resource surveying, marine environmental protection, disaster survey, marine law enforcement and emergency responses, Shi said.

"We will conduct more trial flights and might add fine changes to meet needs of various customers. We believe it will be a success in domestic and international markets," he added.

BEIJING: China has started commercial production of its CH-5 Rainbow drone, touted to be a rival to the US unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 Reaper, which could attack targets on the ground. Wang Song, an associate professor with the school of aeronautic science and engineering at China's Beihang University, said the first flight of a mass-produced CH-5 Rainbow, a heavy military drone on Friday last week meant signals China's readiness to export it. He said the drones equals that of the US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, but at around half the cost. However, Wang said the Chinese drone had a weakness compared to its American counterparts. The Reaper can climb to a height of between 12,000 and 15,000 metres. This allows the US drone to stay above the reach of most ground fire. The CH-5, on the other hand, cannot operate at more than 9,000 metres, which makes it vulnerable to some anti-aircraft weaponry, Wang was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post today. The limited ceiling of the Rainbow is a by-product of its relatively weak engine, according to Wang, who noted that China still lagged behind the West in aircraft engine technology. "This is in fact the weakness of all China-made aeroplanes," he said. United States Reaper, or Predator B, was the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle that could attack targets on the ground. At USD 16.9 million, which makes it the world's most expensive drone. "The CH-5 may come in at less than half of the price," Wang said. State-run CGTN TV also showed a video of the CH-5 destroying targets. On July 14, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that mass-production model of China's unmanned aerial vehicle CH-5, or "Rainbow 5", completed its trial flight in north China's Hebei Province. It can conduct reconnaissance, surveillance, patrol, target positioning and strike missions, Shi Wen, chief engineer of the Rainbow drone project at the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics told the news agency. "We've made several modifications after its debut, and its comprehensive functions are among the world's best," Shi Wen claimed. The CH-5 has a wingspan of 21 meters and is capable of carrying up to 1,000 kg of equipment. It can stay in the air for 60 hours with a range of more than 10,000 kilometers, Shi said. The CH-5 can also be used for civilian purposes such as resource surveying, marine environmental protection, disaster survey, marine law enforcement and emergency responses, Shi said. "We will conduct more trial flights and might add fine changes to meet needs of various customers. We believe it will be a success in domestic and international markets," he added.
By AFP

BEIRUT: More than a dozen Syrian rebels have died in hit-and-run clashes with a US-backed alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country's north, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

The Turkish-backed rebels were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces around the village of Ain Daqna.

"Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February.

It lies on a sliver of land contested by the SDF and Turkish-backed rebels.

A local official from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which make up the bulk of the SDF, said his forces had retrieved some of the rebels' bodies.

"We will hand over these nine bodies to the Kurdish Red Crescent in Afrin (west) for their families to retrieve them," Brusk Hasakeh said in a statement distributed to journalists.

Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the banner of "Ahl al-Diyar" said in a statement Monday they had attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as "occupiers."

"We promise our people more flash attacks... We will make them regret occupying this land and displacing thousands," it read.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers.

Turkey has backed rebels in Syria's north to take on both the Islamic State group and the YPG.

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

That places it at odds with Washington over the United States' support for the SDF, which is fighting to oust IS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqa.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied.

BEIRUT: More than a dozen Syrian rebels have died in hit-and-run clashes with a US-backed alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country's north, a monitoring group said Tuesday. The Turkish-backed rebels were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces around the village of Ain Daqna. "Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February. It lies on a sliver of land contested by the SDF and Turkish-backed rebels. A local official from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which make up the bulk of the SDF, said his forces had retrieved some of the rebels' bodies. "We will hand over these nine bodies to the Kurdish Red Crescent in Afrin (west) for their families to retrieve them," Brusk Hasakeh said in a statement distributed to journalists. Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the banner of "Ahl al-Diyar" said in a statement Monday they had attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as "occupiers." "We promise our people more flash attacks... We will make them regret occupying this land and displacing thousands," it read. Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers. Turkey has backed rebels in Syria's north to take on both the Islamic State group and the YPG. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. That places it at odds with Washington over the United States' support for the SDF, which is fighting to oust IS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqa. Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied.
What's next for Chase Marina? RIDEM has received plenty of proposals

Bob Ballou, assistant to the director of RIDEM, spoke about the goal of establishing a state port in Tiverton similar to Newports State Pier #9.
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
Alphabet Inc.s Verily Life Sciences unit has come up with a plan to release around 20 million bacteria-filled engineered mosquitoes in Fresno, California. These are male mosquitoes that have been reared by machines and the campaign begins this Friday.

Most of the mosquito borne diseases are in fact carried forth in humans and other animals with the help of female mosquitoes. It is the female mosquitoes that bite humans and take blood. The females thus act as vectors or carriers that can carry the viruses (in case of Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya viruses etc.) or parasites (in case of malaria parasites) from one person to another. The male mosquitoes on the other hand do not bite.

This campaign has a simple idea where these swarms of male mosquitoes are reared by machines and they are infected with a harmless bacteria. This bacteria is harmless for humans but in the mosquitoes it leads to forming non-hatching dead eggs when these infected male mosquitoes mate with the female mosquitoes. As the number of live eggs dwindle, so would the number of harmful mosquitoes. At present these mosquitoes are male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which are known to spread viral infections. According to experts, these infections first arrived in Fresno in 2013 and are now an invasive species in Californias Central Valley.

Aedes aegypti. Image Credit: Torres Garcia / Shutterstock

Verily has been a standalone division of Alphabet in 2015 and since then has grown immensely and taken on several health technology projects. They have raised a huge funding for their efforts and have partnered with the pharmaceutical giants in order to develop new ideas to combat disease using technology and innovations. They managed to raise $800 million from Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings Ltd. Their latest project with the mosquitoes is aptly called Debug. The experts at the division believe that this project may not show immediate profits or generate revenue, it may prove that Verily has an individual standing in the field of technology in health care and life sciences. Verily engineering Chief Linus Upson, who has an impressive CV, having created Googles Chrome web browser, now leads the project Debug. Upson said that the burden of these mosquitoes is huge and if this technology works, a sustainable business can come out of it.

Introducing Debug. Lets stop bad bugs with good bugs. Play

These mosquitoes are not genetically modified. This means that there is no real tampering of natural ways. They are just infected with a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia. These mosquitoes live and die normally but are unable to reproduce viably. Wolbachia mosquitoes have been used in the past by other organizations too. It is a well-known arena which could be tapped for effective mosquito vector control say experts. Organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have also been attempting similar methods in countries such as Indonesia and Brazil. However creating these bacteria infected male mosquitoes has been a challenge. Now Verily has come up with automatic machines that can actually count, sort and rear these mosquitoes by their sex and create large numbers of male Wolbachia infected mosquitoes in simpler and more cost effective ways. This makes the Fresno project one of the largest.

According to Verily, a minimum ratio of seven Wolbachia mosquitoes to one wild male or naturally occurring normal male mosquito is necessary to achieve control of the mosquito population as per calculations said Steve Mulligan, district manager of the Consolidate Mosquito Abatement District with whom Verily is partnering with. Another partner in the effort with Verily is Kentucky-based Mosquito Mate. Over the next twenty weeks one million mosquitoes would be released every week. The areas where the mosquitoes would be released or the trial site are across two 300-acre neighbourhoods. Come Friday, the vans carrying the mosquitoes could start with streets of Fancher Creek in the Fresno County.
Researchers in the UK have used DNA sequencing to examine bacteria in post-mortem brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease. Their findings suggest increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria in Alzheimer's, compared with healthy brains. The findings may support evidence that bacterial infection and inflammation in the brain could contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that results in cognitive decline, and eventually death. In the brain, the disease causes neurons to die and break down, and involves high levels of a peptide called amyloid and aggregations of a protein called tau. However, scientists are coming to appreciate that inflammation may also play a role.

"Alzheimer's brains usually contain evidence of neuroinflammation, and researchers increasingly think that this could be a possible driver of the disease, by causing neurons in the brain to degenerate," says David Emery, a researcher from the University of Bristol, and an author on the study, which was recently published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

So, what's causing this inflammation? Some genetic risk-factors for Alzheimer's disease can have effects on the inflammatory response, but infection may also play a role. "Neuroinflammation in the brain may be a reaction to the presence of bacteria," says Emery. The brain is normally sealed behind specialized blood vessels that make it very difficult for things like bacteria in the blood to enter. However, at least one of the genetic risk-factors for Alzheimer's disease may cause these blood vessels to lose some of their integrity, which could allow bacteria to enter and colonize the brain.

The research team set out to discover if there were any differences in the types of bacteria present in brains from Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy brains. "Previous studies looking at bacteria in the Alzheimer's brain have primarily investigated specific bacterial species," explains Shelley Allen, another researcher involved in the study. "We wanted to use an unbiased method to obtain the fullest overview possible of the entire bacterial population in the Alzheimer's brain, and compare these results with those from a healthy aged brain."

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The researchers analyzed eight Alzheimer's and six healthy brain samples from a brain bank, where people donate their brains after death for medical research. They used a technique called next generation sequencing (NGS) to detect specific bacterial genes. "NGS technology allows millions of these DNA molecules to be sequenced at the same time, providing an unbiased overview of a complex bacterial population," explains Allen.

They found that the Alzheimer's brains contained different proportions of specific bacteria compared with the healthy brains. "Comparing the bacterial populations showed at least a tenfold higher ratio overall of Actinobacteria (mostly P. acnes) to Proteobacteria in the Alzheimer's brain compared with the healthy brain," says Emery.

However, the researchers were surprised to find that there also appeared to be more bacteria in the Alzheimer's brains. "Unexpectedly, Alzheimer's brains gave on average an apparent 7-fold increase in bacterial sequences above that seen in the healthy brain," says Allen. "The healthy brains yielded only low levels of bacterial sequences, consistent with either a background signal or normal levels present in the blood stream in brain tissue."

The team caution that the NGS method does not directly indicate actual bacterial numbers, and further work will be required to confirm that bacteria play an active role in Alzheimer's disease. "We need quantitative studies on the bacterial presence in the brain," says Allen. "Larger numbers of brain samples are required, and future studies should also investigate if bacteria are involved in other neurodegenerative diseases involving neuroinflammation."
U.S. Senator John McCain, 80, is on the way to recovery after undergoing a craniotomy operation to remove a blood clot from his brain. According to a statement released by the Mayo Clinic where he is being treated, Senator McCain underwent a routine physical examination followed by which the blood clot was detected in his brain. The surgery to remove the blood clot from above his left eye was performed at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix on Friday 14th of July.

U.S. Senator John McCain - Image Credit: Alan Freed / Shutterstock.com

The surgery was deemed to be minimally invasive since it was performed by making a small incision over his eyebrow. A 5 centimetres long clot was removed from the site. The clot has been sent for pathology examination and the reports are pending. For an open brain surgery, a large incision may be required with a part of the skull being opened up for surgery. In a minimally invasive procedure a small key-hole opening is made after radiologically determining where the exact site of the clot is. In this case too, a small incision was made right above the left eye brow so that the surgeons could reach the site of the clot directly and it could be removed.

At present his doctors report that he is on the way to recovery and is resting at home after the successful surgery and is in good spirits. Further course of action is still being decided upon and no further information was divulged. He will continue with his recovery in Arizona said an official statement from his office. How big the clot it, its shape and location in the brain could be indicators that could predict how long the Senator would take to recover and return to his job. This was a fairly big clot. Its presence over the front of the brain or the frontal lobe could interfere with cognitive abilities and cause confusion. The Senator has had a melanoma over the left temple in 2000 from which he recovered.

Some experts are speculating that this mass that was removed could be a recurrence of the melanoma rather than a blood clot. He has had three more melanomas removed from his left shoulder, left arm and left nasal wall (removed in 1993, 2000 and 2002 respectively). These were all non-invasive meaning that they had not crossed the skin to deeper tissues. But it is because of these melanomas in the past that the Senator was undergoing a routine physical examination. Nothing more can be said about this until the pathological reports are in say the official statements from the hospital and the Senators office at present.

This surgery resulted in the putting off of the vote on the healthcare bill that was due. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to delay the vote on healthcare bill until Senator McCain recovered fully to return to the Senate. This new healthcare bill that was to be voted upon was to repeal and replace the present Affordable Care Act. The actual dates of when the Senator would be back and when the votes can take place are still unclear at present. According to experts it may take his around four to six weeks to return to work.
Head injuries can be fatal, particularly if the assailant intentionally targets the victim to cause maximum damage. A recent study published in the Birat Journal of Health Sciences in Nepal has found that over a third of all intentional head injuries - assaults intended to kill or incapacitate a person - were related to alcohol use.

The article, titled Intentional Head Injury: Survivor Victim's Profile, Gender Differences and Role of Alcohol Use at Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal by Alok Atreya, T Kanchan and BG Karmacharya, is based on research carried out among victims of physical assaults admitted at the Neurosurgery Unit of Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal in 2015.

"We carried out the study because not many studies are being conducted in neurological cases in Nepal," says Dr. Alok Atreya, lead author of the article and Assistant Professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Nepal Medical College, and Teaching Hospital, Nepal (previously Lecturer at Manipal Teaching Hospital). "We found that young males were the ones most affected by intentional head injuries."

The research found that intentional head injuries accounted for 17% of all head injuries during the study period. The proportion of affected males (76%) was over three times that of females (24%).

The study has established a strong correlation between alcohol use and intentional head injury. "Our study and other related studies have shown that when alcohol mixes with young blood, chances of violent occurrences increase exponentially," says Dr Atreya.

The study found that 37% of the cases of intentional head injuries were associated with alcohol use. Blunt objects were most commonly used for assault.

The research argues that violence associated with alcohol is preventable with some tweaks in policy and programming. Reducing availability of alcohol and improving the environment where alcohol is sold and consumed would largely reduce intentional physical injuries under the influence of alcohol, says Dr. Atreya.

Source: http://www.inasp.info/en/news/details/259/
A single minute of exercise each day is linked to better bone health in women, new research shows.

Scientists from the University of Exeter and the University of Leicester found those who did "brief bursts" of high-intensity, weight-bearing activity equivalent to a medium-paced run for pre-menopausal women, or a slow jog for post-menopausal women, had better bone health.

Using data from UK Biobank, the researchers found that women who on average did 60-120 seconds of high-intensity, weight-bearing activity per day had 4% better bone health than those who did less than a minute.

"We don't yet know whether it's better to accumulate this small amount of exercise in bits throughout each day or all at once, and also whether a slightly longer bout of exercise on one or two days per week is just as good as 1-2 minutes a day," said lead author Dr Victoria Stiles, of the University of Exeter.

"But there's a clear link between this kind of high-intensity, weight-bearing exercise and better bone health in women.

"Because this is a cross-sectional study - which assesses data taken from a subset of the population at a particular point in time - we can't be sure whether the high-intensity physical activity led to better bone health, or whether those with better bone health do more of this exercise.

"However, it seems likely that just 1-2 minutes of running a day is good for bone health."

The researchers looked at data on more than 2,500 women, and compared activity levels (measured by wrist-worn monitors) with bone health (measured by an ultrasound scan of heel bone).

As well as finding 4% better bone health among women who did one to two minutes of high-intensity, weight-bearing exercise, they found 6% better bone health among those who did more than two minutes a day.

Dr Stiles said data from UK Biobank - taken from monitors worn for a week - was broken down into single seconds to understand how people go about their daily activities.

"We wanted to make every second count in our analysis, because short snippets of high-intensity activity are more beneficial to bone health than longer, continuous periods," she said.

"We were careful not to ignore short bursts of activity throughout the day."

As a suggestion for anyone interested in increasing their day-to-day levels of activity, Dr Stiles said: "The UK's National Osteoporosis Society recommends increasing your walking activity first.

"Further on, we would suggest adding a few running steps to the walk, a bit like you might if you were running to catch a bus."

Good bone health has multiple health benefits, including a reduced risk of osteoporosis and fractures in older age.
As part of a collaborative R&D program, the UKs Innovation agency have co-funded SleepCognis exciting research and development into helping resolve the global epidemic of insomnia.

SleepCogni is being developed to help clinicians and healthcare professionals treat the many people suffering from sleeping problems more effectively and successfully. This takes funding and investment into SleepCogni to over seven figures in the last months, following a recent 485,000 investment led by Mercia Fund Management.

The new funding by Innovate UK allows the company to advance their research and development, using a clinical trial, (150 subjects over 1,490 research nights). SleepCogni offers a real intervention for long term suffering insomniacs. Furthermore, it allows the company to increase its world class team building on Dr Van de Werkens appointment as Chief Scientific Officer in 2016 and locate to the Kroto Innovation & research Centre within the University of Sheffield.

Problems falling to, or maintaining sleep (insomnia) is a widespread problem. One in three people have had problems sleeping and The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) consider these sleep related problems a global health epidemic. Sleep is a cornerstone of performance and health and has been associated with major diseases. Rand Europe estimates the economic costs of poor sleep at a staggering $680 billion across five OECD countries.

Current treatments either work partially, are only a short term solution or can even be damaging (e.g. sleeping medication). SleepCogni is a credible solution to sleep issues, integrating several scientifically founded treatments into a bedside personal medical device. It integrates the gold standard in alleviating insomnia, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia (CBTi), and a range of other features to help the user initiate and maintain sleep. SleepCogni offers a real intervention for users to manage their own insomnia.

SleepCogni takes environmental, physiological and behavioural measures to a research grade level, to then offer an effective intervention through our patented personal and dynamic biofeedback and active input.

Through historical accurate data we will then be able to advise and prescribe personalised treatment plans to increase the natural drive for sleep that may be currently be suppressed by environmental, mental or physiological factors. Data generated across individuals can be used to optimise treatment further and generate new knowledge on insomnia to help all users sleep better.

After a previous user study with Sheffield Hallam University and pre marketing activity, it was clear that insomniacs actually want a medical grade device that is clinically proven. Not just another consumer device making claims without substance. Trials commence later in the 2017 with Sheffield Hallam University, final clinical trials will be completed 2018 and products available in Q1 2019 after further fund raising.

We are very excited about our current progress in research and development. Validation and further development is ongoing, and we are planning our clinical trials, in collaboration with scientists from both Universities in Sheffield and internationally, in the Netherlands. We are committed to use our technology to help people that suffer from issues related to sleep. Dr Maan Van de Werken (Chief Scientific Officer & chronobiologist)

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Dr Ash Patel (board member & Investment Manager at Mercia Fund Management) says: We are excited to be supporting what could potentially be a game changing patented technology, this is a global issue that is crying out for a clinical solution.

Innovate UK grant feedback: If the project is successful, and SleepCogni is demonstrated to have a major impact on sleep, this could have a significant impact on a large proportion of the population  both economic and social. The potential benefits of SleepCogni could be relevant across a wide section of society and the verification of performance would support its use in the clinic. This substantiates the use of public funding for the project.

Rich Mills (CEO), says: I suffered from insomnia for over a decade. Just monitoring when you are or not asleep or my bedroom environment never helped my sleep initiation. Sleep is pretty complex and unique to the sufferer but there is some clear science that you need to understand to build the bigger picture. Our company may be creating the perfect clinical personalised algorithm to help the user wind down and sleep better. More importantly SleepCogni allows the user to manage their own insomnia.
Women with breast cancer who undergo nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) have a low rate of the cancer returning within the first five years, when most recurrences in the breast are diagnosed, findings of a single-center study show. The new study, published as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website in advance of print publication, found an overall 5.5 percent recurrence rate among 311 operations at a median (midrange) follow-up of 51 months, with no recurrence involving the retained nipple.

Unlike a standard mastectomy, which removes the whole breast and breast skin including the nipple, NSM removes the breast tissue but leaves intact the breast skin, nipple, and areola (the ring of darker skin around the nipple). Some physicians have reservations about the oncologic, or cancer-related, safety of nipple preservation because of lack of long-term follow-up, said principal investigator Barbara L. Smith, MD, PhD, FACS, a surgical oncologist and director of the Breast Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, where the study took place.

"More women are requesting NSM because of the superior cosmetic results, but doctors don't want to take any chances with breast cancer patients' safety for the sake of cosmetic improvement," Dr. Smith said. "Our study, which has one of the longest reported follow-ups after therapeutic NSM in the United States, provides additional support that it's safe to leave the nipple intact during mastectomy with only a few exceptions."

Their recurrence rate, she said, is comparable to reported rates of disease recurrence after standard mastectomy. Furthermore, the procedure has several advantages over standard mastectomy.

"Often, a woman feels more whole when she keeps her nipple," Dr. Smith said. "Not only does the breast look more natural after NSM, a woman who still has fully intact breast skin can often choose to have a single-stage breast reconstruction with an implant, rather than needing a tissue expander (an inflatable breast implant) to stretch the skin over several months."

More Women Eligible for Nipple Preservation

As the Massachusetts General Breast Program team has gained experience over the past decade since the hospital began performing NSM, its patient selection criteria have expanded, Dr. Smith said. According to the authors, women with breast cancer are candidates for the NSM procedure unless they have any of the following conditions: clinical or imaging evidence of cancerous involvement of the nipple and areola, which doctors call the nipple-areola complex; locally advanced breast cancer involving the skin; inflammatory breast cancer; or very large or sagging breasts, which would result in an unacceptable location of the nipple.

Dr. Smith credited their success with NSM to advances in breast cancer treatment, her team's study of breast anatomy, and their surgical techniques. Earlier European approaches to NSM typically left some breast tissue under the nipple and then applied radiation to the nipple during the operation, she said. However, she said her team and most U.S. surgeons thoroughly remove the breast tissue under the "envelope" of breast skin and nipple because they believe that recurrence rates will be lower using this technique. They then remove and test the breast tissue under the nipple. If the biopsy result shows cancer, the surgeon later removes the nipple in an outpatient procedure. Some patients can keep most of the areola, she noted.

Conceivably, however, breast tissue could remain at the nipple-areola complex or skin flaps, which might lead to a cancer recurrence, the study authors wrote. Therefore, in this study, they reviewed medical records of 297 patients whose breast cancer was treated with NSM from June 2007 through December 2012, to analyze rates and patterns of recurrence. Fourteen of these patients had cancer in both breasts and underwent NSM on both sides, for a total of 311 surgical procedures.

More than three-fourths of the women had stage 0 or stage 1 breast cancer, and the remainder had stage 2 or 3 cancer, the investigators reported. They determined that ductal carcinoma in situ, in which cancer cells have not left the milk ducts, was the diagnosis in 23 percent of cases, and the other 77 percent had invasive cancer. Results of the nipple biopsy found cancer in 20 of 311 breasts (6.4 percent), requiring later removal of the nipple or nipple-areola complex.

Because any mastectomy involves cutting nerves in the breast there is a loss of sensation at the nipple. In NSM, a small chance exists that the nipple will wither and the tissue will die, a condition called necrosis. The rate of nipple necrosis in this study was reportedly 1.7 percent.

High Survival Rate

Patient follow-up rates ranged from four to 101 months after NSM, with most patients having follow-up exams with their oncologists or other physicians for three to five years (56 percent) or longer (21 percent). According to the researchers, the disease-free survival rate--the percentage of patients who were alive and without breast cancer recurrence--was 95.7 percent at three years and 92.3 percent at five years.

Breast cancer recurred in 17 patients at 51 months' median follow-up. Among these, 10 patients had only local-regional recurrence, meaning the cancer returned in the breast, chest wall, or underarm lymph nodes; two patients had both local-regional and distant recurrence (return of their cancer elsewhere in the body); and seven had distant recurrences alone. The rate of local-regional recurrence that this study reported was 3.7 percent.

No patient had a recurrence involving the nipple-areola complex, the investigators found. Furthermore, they reported that no breast cancer developed at the nipple in any of the other 1,871 NSM procedures performed at their hospital between 2007 and 2016 for cancer treatment or as a "prophylactic" mastectomy--an operation performed to try to prevent breast cancer in women. The nipple is an uncommon site for breast cancer to start, even in high-risk patients.

No known study has compared NSM with standard mastectomy by randomly assigning women to one or the other operation, Dr. Smith said. However, she added, it appears from the low local recurrence rate in this and other reported studies that breast cancer patients who undergo NSM have no increased risk of their cancer returning because they keep their nipple.

"Women planning a mastectomy should ask their surgeon whether they are eligible for a nipple-sparing operation," she said.
The driver of a Tesla vehicle involved in a crash in Minnesota on Saturday has denied that its Autopilot system caused the incident, according to an email released by the automaker on Monday. The Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Department said in a statement on Sunday that the driver of the 2016 Tesla had said that when he engaged the Autopilot system it caused the vehicle to suddenly accelerate and then roll over, resulting in minor injuries to himself and four passengers.But the driver said in the email released by Tesla Inc on Monday he believed he had disengaged the Autopilot system at the time of the crash. Tesla shares fell in trading on Monday after the crash was reported.The driver, David Clark, 58, did not immediately respond to requests for comment."I did not intend to put the blame Tesla or the auto pilot system as I am aware that I need to be in control of the vehicle regardless if the auto pilot system is engaged or not," Clark said in an email to the sheriff's department released by Tesla.The sheriff's department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Tesla shares, which fell as low as $313.45 on Monday, rebounded later and were down 2.8 percent at $318.69 in afternoon trading.Autopilot has faced intense scrutiny in the past from U.S. regulators.Tesla said in a statement it had "no reason to believe that Autopilot ... worked other than as designed.""Every time a driver engages Autopilot, they are reminded of their responsibility to remain engaged and to be prepared to take immediate action at all times, and drivers must acknowledge their responsibility to do so before Autopilot is enabled, the auotmaker added.Joshua Brown, a former Navy SEAL, was killed near Williston, Florida, in May 2016 when his Model S collided with a truck while it was engaged in Autopilot mode.The incident raised questions about the safety of systems that can perform driving tasks for long stretches with little or no human intervention, but which cannot completely replace the human driver.In January, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had found no evidence of defects with Autopilot following Brown's death.
New Delhi: The government is considering reducing the period for mandatory forest and environment clearances for new industry units from the present 180 days, a top Environment Ministry official said on Tuesday.



The clearance process has already been streamlined. Now, forest and environment clearances are given within 180 days, he said.



Earlier, it used to take 600 days to give green clearance to projects, which has been reduced to 180 days now.



"For forest clearances, the number of days has been reduced from 550 days to 180 days and this certainly needs to be brought down," Jha said speaking at the annual session of Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).



He also invited suggestions from the industry and other stakeholders to bring down this time line and improve the process.



As per the ministry's standards, it should not take more than 90-120 days for environmental clearance and 120-150 days for forest clearances, depending on the size of forest diversion, he added.



While giving clearances, Jha said the government would maintain an environmental balance for the present as well as future generation as also keeping in mind the development goals.



That apart, the secretary also asked the industry to opt for better fuel utilisation by upgrading technology and utilising better solutions.



"We are planning to have some discussions in the near future and we would like to have your (industry) suggestion based on your experiences," he added.



The government is planing to reduce the usage of fossil fuel by up to 40 per cent by 2030 and increase energy efficiency, said Jha.
Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, a second-time MP from Ahmedabad West, said excellent connectivity between Ahmedabad and Delhi has helped him. The 66-year-old medical practitioner said, Since I have been elected by the people, I believe its my duty to remain present in Parliament. After all, what can be bigger platform to represent issues of people of my constituency, community and state?

On the contrary, Deepak Adhikari, Bengali actor who is an MP from Ghatal (West Midnapore) on Trinamool Congress ticket and better known by his screen name Dev, has only 9% attendance.

Speaking to News18 over phone, Dev said, I am in the US will get back to you soon.

When asked for the reason behind being the least active MP in Lok Sabha, the actor who has been awarded with Mahanayak Samman by West Bengal government said, It is happening because of my hectic schedule.

Gopal Chinayya Shetty, the 63-year old MP from Mumbai-North, has risen from municipal councillor to become an MP and cant even imagine missing a single session. In my 25 years of political career, I have taken only two leaves. My father was a Class 4 employee and I have come from humble background. Very few people get to rise from a municipal councillor level to become an MP. It is a big responsibility, he said.

Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who represents J&Ks Baramulla, Rama Chandra Hansdah, Biju Janata Dal MP from Mayurbhanj in Odisha, and S.P.Y. Reddy, from Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh, are other MPs with lowest attendance.
Patna: At least 10 passengers died and six seriously injured when a bus rammed into an auto in Bihars Hajipur district on Tuesday morning.



Police said the incident happened near Sarai on National Highway 77.



The bus was going to Sitamarhi from Patna and the auto was coming from the opposite side. A police officer said the auto driver was ferrying 17 passengers against the officially prescribed limit of seven.



The impact of the collision was so intense that the auto was completely damaged. Nine people died on the spot and one succumbed to injuries in the Hajipur General Hospital. The condition of one of the six injured is stated to be serious.



The driver and helper of the bus fled the scene after the accident. An angry mob attacked the bus and damaged it.
Bengaluru: She always believed in her dreams and thrived hard to achieve them. Earlier this month, Amisha, a former airhostess and a mother, overcame competition and won the coveted Miss United Nations 2017.



Since her teenage years, Amisha was keen on becoming a beauty queen and collected articles and photos of the then beauty queens in a collage in her book. This book became a road map of her dreams.



Coming from an orthodox family, it was difficult for her to realise her dream but she never gave up.



She joined Frankfinn Air Hostess Academy while she was still in college and completed both in parallel. Soon after completion she was selected for her dream job at Kingfisher Airlines in the year 2007.



After marriage she was supported by her life partner and in-laws and she continued to work for airline. But her goal of becoming a beautiful queen was always in her mind and continued to work towards it.



Amisha had a baby girl (Kohana) in the year 2015, by this time she had switched to Air India and started flying to international destinations.



In 2016, she met her mentor Aizya Joshi (Indias first transgender model) who guided her through the course of time. Amisha started taking part in many social and environment welfare activities. She adopted a girl child and sponsored her education. She also contributed to meet the basic needs of orphan girls living at Pranav Kanya Sang in Faridabad.



Amisha worked passionately to plant trees across her city, Breast Cancer awareness and women empowerment. She distributed earthen hanging pots for birds to drink water and many more of such activities that could benefit the environment.



Amisha took part in Mrs South Asia 2017, which included participants from South Asian countries. Amisha won the Title of Ms India United Nations 2017, in the contest held at Kingdom of dreams in May 2017.



Her next goal on her charter was Miss United Nations Pageant. She defeating 35 hopeful finalists from across the world, in the grand finale held at Courtleigh Auditorium in Kingston, Jamaica.



The contest was held for 8 consecutive days starting from 1st July to 8th July (grand finale).



Amisha returned to India on 12th. She said, I consider this title to be a supreme responsibility towards society and I wish to be the change ambassador for people across the globe.
Nagappan stated that he had denied having seen the letter from the Mayor in his statement to Crime Branch officers.
An aerial view of the flooded river island in the Brahmaputra river in Majuli, in Assam on September 24, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

With abysmally low attention from policy makers and policy advocates, a large percentage of population is turning into climate refugees in Assam.

Injamul drowned in the flood water. His dead-body was found under the bed.

Writings of travellers and soldiers of the medieval time reveal the story of amazing rivers and awe-inspiring seasonal rains in Assam.

Over half a century ago, the magnitude of flood was much lesser and people used to welcome the flood.

Rivers of Assam

Assam floods 2017 (Image: Bhuvan/ISRO)

The news of flood in Assam has become monotonous and boring over the years.

A baby rhino seen standing near a human settlement following floods at the Kaziranga National Park on July 27, 2016 in Assam. (Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

A rickshaw puller wades through the water logged area of Anil Nagar road after a heavy downpour on July 7, 2016 in Guwahati (Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Wild buffaloes swim through flood waters at Kaziranga National Park on July 26, 2016 in Assam. (Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

[Abdul Kalam Azad works with Tata Institute of Social Sciences as research fellow. He tweets as @abdulkazad]

The death of Haishor Ali's seven month old toddler is the second drowning case within a week in a village called Mazidbhita in Barpeta district of Assam. Ali's house got inundated in the current devastating flood. The flood water of river Beki, a tributary of mighty Brahmaputra, has submerged the earthen floor of his house. The entire family has been living on two elevated beds.On that fateful day of July 11, Ali's wife Eliza Khatun got up before dawn and went to the nearby jute field on their country boat to attend to nature's call. There is hardly any toilet in the village that can be used and open defecation is the order of the day. Women and adolescent girls have to do it before sunrise. By the time Eliza came back and started preparing breakfast on one corner of the other bed, where her mother-in-law was sleeping, Ali got up and couldn't find his son Injamul on the bed. Injamul was neither on his mother's lap or his grandmother's.Injamul drowned in the flood water. His dead-body was found under the bed. Just the thought of it brings back sharp memories of the Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, who lay dead on the shore, face down. But there was nobody to photograph Injamul, or even mourn his death.This year alone, there have been more than 50 deaths and thousands have been displaced. The numbers are still not enough to hit the collective conscience of the nation. The news of flood in Assam has become monotonous and boring over the years.This is happening silently but has dangerous repercussions on socio-economic and political spheres of the state.The intensity of flood and erosion has terribly increased in the last few decades. The weather has become more unpredictable, impact of flood and erosion has been more destructive. Over half a century ago, the magnitude of flood was much lesser and people used to welcome the flood.Assamese people used these factors to their advantage in their battles against other armies.But the situation has drastically changed. Experts believe that along with adverse impact of climate change, deforestation, destruction of natural water bodies like beels and haors, short-sighted interventions have created more problems than they could solve.Sanjay Barbora, the dean of humanities and social sciences at TISS, Guwahati says, "The propensity to build embankments and dykes with a very short-term economic logic in mind created several unintended consequences that continue to have an adverse impact on the social geography of the Brahmaputra valley."He further argues that the construction of embankment has radically altered the social structure of the place and construction of such embankment in one village creates water-logging in the paddy fields of another. Moreover, the breach of embankment causes more loss since the community doesn't remain prepared for the unforeseen disastrous event.The major casualty caused by flood in recent years in Assam has close links with some of the mindless development projects in the region. Devastation happened in 2004 in Barpeta and adjoining districts due to the release of access water from Kurishu dam in the upstream of river Beki in Bhutan. Those on the side of the downstream didn't have a clue about the imminent disaster and thus couldn't prepare at all.The floods in 2004 had far reaching impact on human and wildlife in areas including the Manas National Park. The debris carried by flood water blocked and killed a river called Hakura at Mathanguri in Indo-Bhutan border. The water of river Hakura got diverted to Beki which caused over-flowing and widening of river Beki, resulting in heavy erosion and displacement of tens of thousands people.This year the sudden release of water from NEEPCO's dam over Ranganadi has created havoc in Lakhimpur district. The flood victims allege that the dam authority didn't warn the people about the release of water and the risk of subsequent flooding. An early warning could have saved many lives and properties in the district.The government sponsored flood control and response measures deployed in Assam are one of the most frustrating things to observe. Every year, in the pre-flood scenario, the government agency concerned build or repair the embankments just before the monsoon which makes these structures extremely vulnerable and often get breached on the first web of flood.In post flood situation, the agencies wash their hands with distribution of meagre amount of essential commodities like rice, pulse and salt in the relief camps and in some cases fodder and tarpaulin. A government official informed that they have distributed 20 bags (35 Kgs per bag) of fodder among 4,000 farmers as the only flood relief measure!Though India is a signatory in the Sendai Framework, a voluntary and target oriented disaster risk reduction agreement and Assam claims to be the first state to implement it, there is hardly any initiative taken by the responsible agencies to reduce the risk and vulnerability in the flood prone areas of Assam.Sendai Framework has identified four priority areas for action i.e. i) understanding the disaster risk, ii) strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, iii) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Unfortunately, we could hardly find any of these in the priority list of the government for action.Former chief minister of Assam late Sarat Chandra Sinha realised the hollowness of government sponsored flood control and response mechanism and asked the people to learn to co-exist with the flood.Four decades later, the "Build Back Better" concept of Sendai Framework talks about promoting decentralised and participatory approach to reconstruction and best use of local and traditional knowledge and skills. Thus, making the community more resilient towards flood.Similarly, Early Warning System (EWS) involving key components like risk knowledge, monitoring and warning, dissemination and community response can reduce the vulnerability to a great extent. The Central Water Commission (CWC) has sufficient numbers of gauge water level in the state and monitors the water level on hourly basis during the flood prone monsoon season. But the readings never reach the vulnerable communities who need the information most.In our neighbouring country Nepal, the development agencies are tapping traditional and local knowledge to build successful community-based early flood warning system.In Bangladesh, an initiative called 'Char Livelihood Programme' has been one of the best interventions to eradicate extreme poverty in the flood and erosion affected char or river island areas of Bangladesh using traditional knowledge and taping local resources.Considering the impact of climate change, deforestation and destruction of natural water reservoirs, there is little doubt that the intensity of flood and erosion will continue to strike in Assam for coming years too. Our response to flood and erosion need a paradigm shift in terms of control and response.Though we are blessed with inspiring people like Jadav Payeng, who promotes afforestation as a flood and erosion control mechanism but our government seems to be not interested in investing on communities to build their capacity to reduce the disaster risks using traditional knowledge and skills.They'd rather be busy in building non-sustainable embankments, porcupines and distribution of flood relief in quantities that many would term inhumane.
Beijing: China on Tuesday warned India against "illegally trespassing" into Chinese territory, and asked it to withdraw its troops.



Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that India should not take the "illegal trespass as a policy" to realise its political target.



"The illegal trespass by the Indian border personnel has drawn extensive attention from the international community and many foreign diplomatic missions in China said they were shocked by this."



"We also stressed that the facts are very clear in this incident. The Sikkim section on China-India boundary is mutually recognised by the two sides," Lu added.



"This time the Indian border personnel illegally trespassed into Chinese territory." Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a month-long stand-off at Doklam in the Sikkim section.



Chinese media, on the other hand, have been taking potshots at India over its stance on the Doklam issue, and accused it of control and oppression over Bhutan.



An article in Global Times on Monday said that if India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).



As time is on China's side, New Delhi is deeply concerned with China's rapid rise. Provocation at the border reflects India's worry and attempt to sound out China, said the article in Global Times.



(With inputs from IANS)
New Delhi: An engineer of a power distribution company died and four others were injured on Monday as their car rammed a tree while allegedly being chased by a mob during a power theft drive in south west Delhi's Jaffarpur Kalan area.



According to a BSES spokesperson, three discom teams raided Jhul Jhuli village in Jaffarpur Kalan on Monday following a tip-off about large-scale power theft in the area.



The police, however, refuted the claim and said the engineer died in a suspected case of rash driving, reported PTI.



The teams, accompanied by Delhi Police, came under attack and had to retreat, the BSES spokesperson said.



"The teams were chased by bike-borne goons. In the ensuing melee, one of the cars rammed a tree. Assistant engineer Abhimanyu Singh (32) was grievously injured. He later died," he said.



A senior police officer said the BSES teams were provided adequate police force for the raid which went "successfully".



"Twenty-six police personnel were accompanying the BSES teams. The anti power theft drive was successful.



"One of the cars met with an accident. No one was being chased as per initial reports," said the officer.



A case has been registered in the matter, he said, adding the four injured BSES team members have been admitted to a hospital.



In June this year, a Delhi Police sub-inspector and three BSES employees were injured in stone-pelting by locals during an anti-power theft drive in outer Delhi's Ranhola area.



"These are not isolated incidents. Efforts of discom teams to check irregularities are often thwarted by law- defying people who function like organised gangs. Power theft has taken shape of an organised crime and active police support is needed to curb this menace," said the BSES spokesperson.



Despite intensive efforts to reduce power theft, Jaffarpur continues to incur 60 percent losses, he said.



In the last five years, around 14,000 cases of power theft, having a connected load of around 33,000 KW, have been unearthed in the area, the spokesman added.
New Delhi: The standoff with China along the Sikkim border is not deterring India from moving ahead with its infrastructure and road construction projects in the area.



Seventy-three road construction projects are underway along the Indo-China border, including stretches in Sikkim. Thirty of these roads have been completed, MoS Home Kiren Rijiju informed the Lok Sabha.



India is not only going ahead with the construction along the Indo-China border but also looking to ramp up its infrastructure at the Line of actual control.



"Ministry of environment, forest and climate change has accorded general approval under section (2) of Forest Conservation Act 1980 for diversion of forest land for construction and widening of border roads falling within 100 km aerial distance from Line of Actual Control," Rijiju said.



On May 20, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had reviewed the progress of Indo-China border infrastructure projects with state chief ministers and other stake holders in Gangtok. Since then, the pace to identify land for road construction has increased.



"Sikkim, Arunachal, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir have set up empowered committees to sort out issues related to land acquisition, forest/wildlife clearance, allotment of queries etc," Rijiju said.



Union home ministry is also reviewing the infrastructural development on a real time-basis and set up a steering committee under Secretary (Border Management). The committee will review and monitor the progress of construction of these roads.



Meanwhile, China on Monday warned India against "illegally trespassing" into Chinese territory, and asked it to withdraw its troops.



Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that India should not take the "illegal trespass as a policy" to realise its political target.


New Delhi: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and other senior officials will brief a parliamentary committee on Tuesday at 3pm on the issue of the Sino-India standoff at the border tri-junction with Bhutan, a panel member said.



The panel, of which Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is a member, is chaired by party MP Shashi Tharoor.



There has been tension in the area for the past three weeks after a Chinese Army construction party attempted to build a road there. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.



Last week, a meeting was called by the government to brief opposition parties on the issue.



The government had told opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border, hampering the country's strategic interests. It said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval would put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month.



The meeting was attended by Jaishankar and Doval.



(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Chinese state media reported.



As time is on China's side, New Delhi is deeply concerned with China's rapid rise. Provocation at the border reflects India's worry and attempt to sound out China, said the article in Global Times.



The article also asked for China to get ready for the face-off becoming a long-term situation and at the same time maintain a sense of rationality, before adding that the two sides needed to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiralling out of control.



This comes a day after the People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted live-fire exercises in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The brigade that conducted the drills was from the PLA's Tibet Military Command and is one of China's two plateau mountain brigades.



On Sunday, Global Times had said that India was receiving a "massive influx" of foreign investments which would greatly enhance its ability to develop the manufacturing sector and China should "keep calm" and start working on a more effective growth strategy for the new era.
Srinagar: Timely intervention of the Jammu and Kashmir Police saved eight minor boys from joining militant groups and reunited them with their families in the past one month in Kupwara District, an official spokesman said on Monday.



Four minor boys of Gulgam village were rescued and their plans to join militants were foiled by a police party deputed for the purpose near the Line of Control, he said They, after proper counseling at the Kupwara Police Station, were handed over to their parents, the spokesman said.



Timely intervention of the police last week prevented four more youths from joining militant groups, he said. Police teams were sent to different locations after receiving information that they had fled from their homes, the spokesman said.



"The parents of the boys and their relatives played a positive role by providing timely information, giving their contact numbers and other details," he said.



The spokesman said two boys from Shatmuqam Lolab were intercepted at Pulwama when they were heading towards Tral. The others hailing from Bumhama were intercepted at Vodhpora area. They were planning to move towards Shopian area, he said.



During investigation, all the boys confessed that they were going to join a militant group as they were being reprimanded by their parents for various reasons, including poor academic performance, and that they were fed-up with their poverty stricken lifestyle, he said.



All the rescued boys have been properly counseled and motivated for their re-union with their families, the spokesman said.
Srinagar: A major of 71 Armoured Regiment, currently posted with 8 Rashtriya Rifles, was shot dead by a jawan on Monday night after being reprimanded for using a mobile phone.



The incident took place in the Uri sector of north Kashmir's Baramulla district.



Sources said the incident occurred on Monday night when the jawan was using his cellphone during duty hours.



The major broke the phone's screen while trying to confiscate it. He scolded the jawan and warned him of being marched up to the Commanding Officer next day. This made the jawan angry and he fired at the major from behind.







Sources said a Court of Inquiry has been ordered by the Army.


The opposition parties went all-out against the BJP during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, claiming that the party is spreading communalism. Having walked out of the Rajya Sabha, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said that she has decided to resign from the upper house as she was not allowed to raise her issues, which included the atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, the BJPs Vice-Presidential pick, Venkaiah Naidu filed his nomination for the post. He was accompanied by PM Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other party leaders.

As it happened:

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will protect the parents of a young man who was shot dead by the son of Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh in 2011.



The CM's son was held guilty under the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and was sentenced to five years in jail which is to complete soon. CBI has chosen not to file an appeal. The parents had to move the top court, contending they were being threatened over filing the appeal to get the punishment enhanced for the CM's son.



On Tuesday, a bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said: "We will protect the parents...we will take over the responsibility for their safety."



It told the Advocate General for Manipur government that the state no longer had to bother about the security of the parents since the apex court would now take care of it.



"We will give them protection over and above what you gave...we will ask CRPF and CISF to provide them security and the top officers will be made responsible for ensuring it," said the bench.



It further stated that the case will now be shifted out of Manipur, "keeping in view the peculiar circumstances and sensitivity".



Justice Gogoi said the case will be transferred to the Guwahati High Court for adjudicating the appeal to be filed by the parents.



The Advocate General responded that the state government was already providing security to the parents as well as the lawyer and the social activist, who was helping them in filing the appeal. He added that the state had no objection if the apex court still wanted to pass further orders.



The bench will deliver its order in the afternoon when it is apprised of the designation of the officers of the CRPF and the CISF, who are to be made accountable for ensuring the parents' safety.






Srinagar: Two militants were killed as the Army is engaging with a group of six militants in Gurez sector of Bandipora district, north Kashmir. The militants tried to infiltrate India in the early hours of Tuesday morning but the Army, which had intelligence inputs on the attempt, took on the group during their attempt.



As the two militants were killed, the others hid themselves and continued to fire on the Army, making it difficult for the Army to retrieve the bodies.



Last month, the Indian Army had thwarted multiple infiltration bids by killing 14 militants in various encounters over four days along the LoC in north Kashmir.



On June 10, the Army killed a militant trying to infiltrate in Gurez, before which five militants were killed a day before in Uri.



On June 8, three militants and a jawan were killed as the Army foiled an infiltration bid in Naugam sector of Kupwara district. This came a day after three other militants were killed attempting the same.



All the four infiltration bids were aided by the Pakistani forces who provided active support, including cover fire using heavy calibre artillery, the Army's Northern Command had said in a statement.



In 2017 alone, the Army has foiled 25 infiltration attempts killing 43 armed intruders along the LoC.
Lucknow: The white powder found in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly might not be the powerful plastic explosive known as pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) as earlier claimed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, citing an initial forensic report from a lab in Lucknow.



Sources in the Vidhan Sabha have also indicated that the Agra forensic lab has found no traces of any explosive in the powder and that the samples have now been sent to Hyderabad for testing.



The UP government is now claiming that no samples were sent to the Agra lab and only the Lucknow labs primary investigation claimed a positive for PETN.



Detailed analysis of the case is still going on using infrared spectrum and gas chromatography. The final report on the materials found inside the UP assembly is expected by Thursday, said the source.



The Agra laboratory is the only one in the state which has expertise in examining explosives.



On July 12, around 60 grams of the PETN was detected near Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudharys seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly by the dog squad during a security sweep, 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.



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 nitro-glycerine.




People who were exposed to the dust cloud or sustained physical injuries during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, may be at an increased long-term risk of developing asthma and heart attack, researchers have found.



"Our findings indicate that intense exposure on a single day -- the first day of the disaster -- contributes substantially to the risk of developing chronic conditions," said Robert Brackbill from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.



The findings showed that individuals exposed to dust had a higher risk of non-neoplastic lung disease (lung conditions not involving tumours) other than asthma, while dust exposure on its own was associated with an increased risk of asthma.



The number of types of injuries, such as fractures, head injuries, or sprains, a person sustained on 9/11 was associated with an increased risk of angina or heart attack in a dose-dependent manner, which means that the risk of having angina or a heart attack increased with every additional injury type, the researchers said.



For the study, published in the journal Injury Epidemiology, the team enrolled 8,701 people to examine the association between physical injury or acute exposure to the dust cloud on the morning of September 11, 2001, and chronic disease up to 10 to 11 years later.



The researchers found that there were 92 incident cases of heart disease, 308 cases of asthma, and 297 cases of non-neoplastic lung disease among 7,503 area workers, 249 rescue workers, 131 residents and 818 passersby.
After years of taking a backseat to Western style, indigenous fashion is re-emerging in Ecuador, thanks to a new generation of designers who are re-imagining traditional clothes.



"Make the turn snappy!" says Juana Chicaiza, who founded the modeling agency "Awkis y Nustas" -- "Princes and Queens" in the Quechua language. She is teaching her young charges how to best show off the "anaco," a traditional Andean skirt, on the catwalks. A former beauty queen with long dark hair, Chicaiza -- a member of the Puruha indigenous group -- was mocked at a pageant because of her traditional garb.



The experience inspired the 32-year-old to open her agency in 2013 and "strengthen the identity" of the Puruha on the runways, where models now sashay in outfits that mix "the Western and the ancestral."



Latin American agencies generally seek models with hourglass figures and fine features, the designer told AFP. "We're not looking for that," Chicaiza said. "We're looking for women with character." In Ecuador, indigenous peoples make up 30 percent of the population of 16.5 million, according to organizations representing them. But many inhabitants do not recognize themselves as such: official census records say the country's indigenous population is just seven percent of the total. Like Chicaiza, fashion designers are also working to help people renew their pride in their heritage.



A hint of edge



Lucia Guillin and Franklin Janeta, who are also members of the Puruha ethnic group, have launched their own indigenous fashion labels -- respectively, Churandy and Vispu. "Our Puruha clothes have disappeared and young people have started dressing in the Western style," says Guillin, donning one of her own shoulder-baring creations.



Pieces from their lines, including tops and skirts embellished with hand-embroidered flowers, range in price from $150-800. The most expensive items, often embellished with stones and embroidery, are aimed at brides and beauty queens. The designers use traditional ornaments and symbols, like flowers or the sun, but are making updates more in line with contemporary styles, such as with more daring cuts. "There were no low-cut necklines, no short sleeves," Janeta said. "I asked myself, 'What if we changed it?' Because young girls like things a little more modern."



Guillin, for her part, has succeeded in convincing women to wear the anaco skirt proudly once more by giving the garment a hint of edge, playing with styles including mermaid cuts, trains, flaring and side-slits, she said. "We must put a stop to the idea that Indians are closed off," she said. "If we continue with this, we also risk losing our culture."



According to Janeta, who said he makes some $12,000 a month in sales, customers are beginning to understand the value of the handmade attire.



"We taught people how to distinguish different qualities," he said. "Before it was difficult to sell a blouse for more than 60 dollars -- not anymore. They'll pay up to 400 dollars for a corset."



This new generation of indigenous entrepreneurs also includes Esther Miranda, Jose Mullo and Jacqueline Tuquinga -- who launched the perfume brand Yuyary (Memory, in Quechua) -- designers who also see Westerners as potential target consumers.



"As it's a brand in Quechua, people think it's just for our communities," Miranda said. "But we want to go beyond that."
Bold and beautiful are few of the many words that best describe international sensation Priyanka Chopra's sartorial selections. The actress, who turns 35 today, has time and again wowed the onlookers and impressed the fashion connoisseurs with her ever-evolving fashion sense.Be it her airport style, vacation outfits, onscreen attires, offscreen ensembles or red carpet garments, Chopra has always managed to set trends with whatever she dons. Jumpsuits, maxis, pantsuit, dresses, gowns, sarees etc, Chopra can pull off any attire with utmost grace and confidence.Of the many looks that the 35-year-old actress sports, her red carpet appearances have made the most headlines. The Baywatch star has almost always nailed the red carpet look and set high standards when it comes to dressing for red carpet events.We take a look at the times when Chopra managed to make headlines for her bold and beautiful avatar on the red carpet.CFDA Fashion AwardsCredit: @ Priyanka Chopra Global icon Priyanka Chopra attended the coveted CFDA Fashion awards held in New York in June. Styled by celebrity stylist Cristina Ehrlich, the actress stunned the onlookers as she sashayed down the red carpet in a black, well-fitted, shimmery Michael Kors outfit which featured a plunging neckline. The actress teamed the attire with high heels and a sexy black belt. The international star had her hair tied in a neat bun with side parting with a dash of bold red on her lips.The Met Gala outfitCredit: @ Priyanka Chopra Chopra made headlines for sporting a custom-made Ralph Lauren trench-coat outfit which featured a long train for her debut appearance at the prestigious 2017 Met Gala event. The actress slayed it with her usual oomph and confidence at the event. The actress's edgy look which featured a messy top knot, silver-sculpted earrings, black boots and a popped collar, managed to turn heads at the event that took place at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 1.Oscars 2017Priyanka Chopra arrives at the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Image: Getty Images)The Bajirao Mastani actress has time and again proved that she is not just a global star but a global fashion icon too. After conquering the East with her fabulous acting skills and style sense, Chopra, who ventured to the West with ABC's TV series Quantico, won a millions hearts abroad too.The actress, who walked the Oscars red carpet for the second time in February 2017, slayed in a beautiful white Ralph & Russo tulle strapless gown. The outfit which featured a structured and square deep-split corset accentuated the actress's curves to perfection. The star not only lived up to the fashion police's expectations with the fabulous white number, she looked absolutely graceful on the Oscars red carpet.Oscars 2017 After Party(Photo: Reuters)After nailing her Oscars red carpet look, Chopra made another stunning appearance at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party where the gorgeous diva was snapped in a body-hugging shimmery black number which featured a plunging neckline by Michael Kors.Golden Globes AwardsPriyanka Chopra attends The Weinstein Company and Netflix Golden Globe Party, presented with FIJI Water, Grey Goose Vodka, Lindt Chocolate, and Moroccan Oil at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Image: Getty Images)The B-town beauty stunned everyone in her maiden appearance at the Golden Globe Awards. Dressed in a sequined, body-fitting Ralph Lauren gown, the actress, who was one of the awards presenters and represented the cast of her debut film Baywatch, graced the red carpet with her usual charm and panache.
When it comes to kissing, humans globally are hardwired to lean to the right and not left, a first of its kind finding that may have wider implications for neuroscience and cognitive sciences.



Researchers from universities of Dhaka in Bangladesh and Bath and Bath Spa in Britain also found that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction.



While men were about 15 times more likely than women to initiate kissing, over two-thirds of the kiss initiators and kiss recipients turned their heads to the right.



The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first to investigate an inherent bias for turning the head to one side while people kiss in a non-Western context -- in Bangladesh.



"Head turning is one of the earliest biases seen in development - even in the womb a preference for turning the head to the right is observable before that of favoring the right hand or foot. Whether this fundamental bias is innate and extends into adulthood is a lingering question for neuroscience and psychology," explained lead author Dr Rezaul Karim from the department of psychology at the University of Dhaka.



For the study, the team invited 48 married couples to kiss privately in their own homes and after kissing, they were asked to go to different rooms, open an envelope and then report on various aspects of the kiss independently of each partner.



Their results highlighted a bias to turn heads to the right when kissing for both the initiator and the recipient of the kiss.



"In addition, the kiss initiators' head-leaning direction strongly predicted the kiss recipients' head-leaning direction. This suggests that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction in order to avoid the discomfort of mirroring heads," the authors noted.



The setting for the study was significant as kissing in Bangladesh is a very private behaviour; something censored from television or films.



"So, whereas similar results from the Western countries could be attributed to cultural factors or having learnt how to kiss through influences on TV or film, the same cannot as easily be said for a non-Western country like Bangladesh," the team observed.



It suggests that the act of kissing is determined by the brain splitting up tasks to its different hemispheres -- similar to being either right or left-handed -- specifically the functions in the left cerebral hemisphere, located in the emotion and decision-related areas of the brain.



The researchers suggest different hormone levels (such as testosterone) in each hemisphere and neurotransmitters might be unevenly distributed to each hemisphere (such as dopamine, involved in reward behaviours) as giving rise to a bias to turn right.



This may have implications if you are left handed and your partner is right-handed or vice versa.



According to Dr Michael Proulx of the University of Bath, this study is unique in giving us a look into a private behaviour in a private culture with implications for all people.



"Prior works could not rule out cultural learning due to having Western samples. It turns out, we as humans are similar even if our social values differ," he said.
Pakistan has banned tourists from a valley in Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir a day after it said four of its soldiers drowned after their vehicle was hit by Indian gunfire and plunged into the Neelum River.



Choudhary Mohammad Fareed, a top government official in Neelum, says the "threat" to people is too great and that no new tourists would be able to enter. The stay permits for those already in the valley will not be extended.



Picturesque Neelum Valley stretches along the boundary separating the Pakistani- and the India-controlled parts of Kashmir and draws many tourists.



Both nuclear-armed states claim the disputed Kashmir region in its entirety. Pakistan and India often trade fire across the dividing line, blaming each other for violations of the cease-fire agreement signed in 2003.
Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role - Male - @shahidkapoor for Udta Punjab. #IIFA2017 pic.twitter.com/TUYYnaJ7do  IIFA Awards (@IIFA) July 16, 2017

A performance that made the audience go back in time! @itsSSR breathtaking moves at the #IIFA2017 stage! pic.twitter.com/Vmf5efgf1x  IIFA Awards (@IIFA) July 16, 2017

Sounds like sarcasm 

Some kind of mystery 

Or random tweet 

Tell na ?!  Sushants_world  (@Fanssrki) July 16, 2017

Bol hi nahi rahe muje negative vibes aa rahe  Vaijayanti Chahande (@its_VjC) July 16, 2017

He is laughing at IIFA for not getting best actor award..ek mauka mila tha wo bhi gaya..  Lazy Superhero (@DipyanshuShukl) July 16, 2017

Bro @itsSSR is upset becoz he does not win the best actor at @IIFA ....shahid wins the best actor  Sidd Yusuf  (@SiddYusuf3) July 16, 2017

Sushant Singh Rajput is so arrogant and obviously a cheater. Bdw acted well in M.S.Dhoni.  KIRAN (@kiran_089) July 16, 2017

A cryptic tweet by actor Sushant Singh Rajput  especially after Shahid Kapoor bagged the Best Actor award for Udta Punjab at IIFA 2017 - hasnt gone down well with many on social media. For the uninitiated, Sushant was nominated for his performance in M S Dhoni: The Untold Story, but the organisers had Shahid bag the award.Since Rajputs cryptically tweeted "hahahaha" and tagged the IIFA Twitter handle, on July 15, the day when the ceremony took place in New Jersey  his reaction has been interpreted differently by social media. While many are confused with his reaction, some feel it was done intentionally to disparage the award organisers for preferring Shahid and helping Varun win Best actor in comic role for a rather forgettable performance in Dishoom.As soon as he made this mysterious tweet, fans were quick to give their explanations:While speaking to Indian Express, a source explained that Sushants tweet wasnt related to the awards."Sushant's tweet had nothing to do with the awards. It was simply an expression of having a successful graduation from a background dancer, to now being an actor performing at the very same award function. Infact the tweet was posted right after Sushant's performance and had no relevance to the award ceremony. As opposed to the speculation, not getting an award doesn't affect Sushant as he is very secure as an actor," the source was quoted as saying by the daily.The IIFA weekend which concluded in New York and New Jersey saw the presence of several stars including Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif.
New Delhi: This year's Mountain Echoes a literary festival in Bhutan's capital Thimphu promises to be an interesting affair with the guest list including the likes of Shashi Tharoor, Nadeem Aslam and Imtiaz Ali among others.



The eighth edition of Mountain Echoes, scheduled to be held from August 24 to August 27, will celebrate the "untouched beauty, unexplored ideas and unstoppable voices from the heart of the happiest country in the world".



Announcing the second set of speakers participating in the festival this year, festival producer and CEO of Siyahi, Mita Kapur said, "The aim of the free, open festival is to showcase Bhutan and India's shared historical and traditional narratives and at the same time promote the culture of reading, writing and literature in Bhutan.



"Each year, we strive to curate programming that presents audiences with interesting insights into the literature, art and culture of Bhutan, India and the world around. With the current line-up of speakers and authors from across the globe, the eighth edition promises to turn the worlds happiest nation into a storytelling platform."



The stellar line-up of authors unveiled today includes names from Bhutan, India and around the world, including Bhutanese poet Ashi Sonam Choden Dorji, art restorer and author Ashi Kesang Choden T, politician-writer Shashi Tharoor, writer Nadeem Aslam, senior ecologist Rebecca Pradhan, author and environmentalist Pradip Krishen, biochemist and author Pranay Lal, director and writer Imtiaz Ali, contemporary fiction writer Amrita Tripathi and journalist-author Barkha Dutt, among others.



Presented by the Jaypee Group and powered by Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, the literary, arts and the cultural festival will also host a special inaugural ceremony on August 24 in Thimphu.



An initiative of the India-Bhutan Foundation, in association with Siyahi, the festival will embrace and explore globally relevant issues such as environmental conservation, natural history, spirituality, and the global evolution of textiles and design traditions over the three days of the event.
Kolkata: Tensions escalated in the Darjeeling Hills after a youths body with multiple stab injuries was found in Mirik town on Monday night.



Ashish Tamang, a resident of Magargunj, is believed to be a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter was actively involved in the Gorkhaland movement.



The local administration denied that he was killed in a police firing. However, GJM spokesperson Binay Tamang said, Ashish was killed in a police firing on Monday night when a clash broke out between the GJM and Trinamool activists. He was rushed to a local health care unit where he was declared dead.



The GJM spokesperson said the clash broke out after Morcha supporters demanded that the seven Trinamool members of Mirik municipality should immediately resign. Our activists were attacked and provoked by the TMC supporters. Seven TMC supporters were injured while one of our activists sustained serious injury after being attacked by kukri, Binay Tamang said.



Around 8 pm, a large contingent of police rushed to the spot and charged tear gas shells to disperse the mob. The crowd resorted to stone pelting.



The police opened fire at our activists near Mirik market, which claimed Ashishs life," Binay said.



In last one month, nearly eight Gorkhaland supporters have lost their lives in police firing. The local administration is trying to hide the death toll and still claiming that only two people have died. We are going to intensify our agitation from July, the GJM spokesperson added.



The protests in the Hills entered its 34th day today.



On Monday, Trinamool Congress legislator Paresh Pal shouted at three GJM legislators and told them to "go back to Darjeeling" when they went to the West Bengal Assembly to cast their votes in the Presidential elections.



Why you came here? It is only because of you people so many people are suffering in the Hills. Go back to Darjeeling. You people are maligning our government. Go to Darjeeling and cast your vote there," Pal was seen shouting at three GJM legislators Saritha Rai, Rohit Sharma and Amar Singh Rai.



Party insiders claimed that Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has expressed her annoyance over Pals behavior in the assembly. He was warned on behalf of the party to handle such sensitive issue carefully.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday waived the condition of a letter from Pakistan's Foreign Adviser Sartaj Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come here as Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir was an integral part of India.



Osama Ali, a 24-year old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, has been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wants to seek treatment in Delhi.



"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally] occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj tweeted.



Ali's family has appealed to Swaraj to revoke the requirement of a letter from Aziz for a medical emergency visa.



On July 10, Swaraj had reiterated the need for a letter by Aziz and expressed dismay over the lack of courtesy shown by her Pakistani counterpart, who she said had not even acknowledged her personal letter requesting for a Pakistani visa for Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother.



However, she assured Aziz that any Pakistani national seeking a medical visa to travel to India with his recommendation would be given one immediately.



In a series of tweets, Swaraj had said, "I have my sympathies for all Pakistan nationals seeking a medical visa for their treatment in India. All that we require is his recommendation for the grant of medical visa to Pakistan nationals."



She said a visa application was pending for Indian national Avantika Jadhav who wants to meet her son in Pakistan.



"I wrote a personal letter to Mr Sartaj Aziz for the grant of her visa to Pakistan. However, Mr. Aziz has not shown the courtesy even to acknowledge my letter," she had tweeted.



Jadhav, 46, was allegedly arrested by Pakistan in the restive Balochistan province last year. He has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism.
Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced his party's support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition's candidate for the vice-presidential election.



Though the regional party supported NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, polling for which was held yesterday, it preferred to go with the opposition's pick for vice president.



"The Biju Janata Dal will support Gandhi in the vice- presidential elections," the Odisha chief minister told reporters here.



Patnaik's decision has brought cheers in the BJD rank and file which was feeling "uncomfortable" with supporting the NDA candidate in the presidential elections.



"Very happy & totally support my leader Sri @Naveen_Odisha on his decision of @bjd_odisha supporting Sri Gopal Gandhi as VP," BJD's Dhenkanal MP Tathagat Satpathy tweeted.



BJD parliamentary party spokesman Kalikesh Singhdeo said, "Patnaik has proved that the BJD has been maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP."



Patnaik had in 2012 said Gandhi was an "old and valued friend. We were friends even when I was not in politics".



Meanwhile, the Congress welcomed Patnaik's decision to support Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari.



"We welcome Patnaik's decision to support Gandhi. But, do not accept his support to Kovind following a simple phone call from the prime minister," said the Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said.



The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was all in praise for Patnaik after BJD supported Kovind, however, has accused the BJD of having a "tacit deal" with the Congress.



"Patnaik has supported Gandhi who signed the mercy plea of terror convict Yakub Memon. The support of BJD to a Congress candidate shows a tacit deal between them," said state BJP president Basanta Panda.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called a cabinet meeting on Tuesday amid growing voices in his camp asking for the resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.



Janata Dal (United) spokesman, Nikhil Mandal, hinted at Nitish being forced to take a tough decision if Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav fails to ensure Tejashwis resignation.



Our leaders stand on corruption is clear. The decision has to be taken by the RJD, said Mandal, but declined to comment on Nitish asking Tejashwi to resign or the CM sacking the deputy in the cabinet meeting itself.



Speculation is rife that Nitish will try to avoid Tejashwi but as a cabinet minister the latter is supposed to participate in the meeting. Even during the last cabinet meeting Nitish did not interact with his deputy and gave the media a miss.



On the other hand, Tejashwi came out from the meeting, decided to go public, and claimed that all charges against him were politically motivated.



As Tejashwi and the RJD dismiss any possibility of a resignation, the ball is now in Nitishs court. The Bihar CM, known to take those facing corruption charges to the task, has been silent.



However, the JD (U) has time and again reiterated that Tejashwi will have to resign in the wake of CBI raids and filing of an FIR against him, his father Lalu Prasad Yadav and mother Rabri Devi among others in the alleged land-for-hotel scam case.
New Delhi: BSP President Mayawati on Tuesday formally handed over her resignation from the Rajya Sabha, hours after storming out of the house.



When the ruling dispensation is not giving me time to express my views, I think tendering my resignation is the only appropriate thing to do, Mayawati told reporters outside Parliament.



Mayawati said that as she started expressing her views, members of the ruling BJP, including its ministers stood up, and tried to stop her from talking.



"With the objective of not letting me speak on such an important issue (of atrocities on Dalits), Ministers obstructed the proceedings in the house," the former UP CM said in a statement later.



Mayawati also added that the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman "instead of asking ruling party's MPs to remain quiet, ringed the bell, and asked me to sit."



Earlier in the day, as day two of the Monsoon Session began, Mayawati left the Rajya Sabha, saying she was not allowed to speak about the atrocities against Dalits.



If I am not allowed to speak in Parliament about the people and constituency I represent, what is the point in continuing as the member of the house, said Mayawati speaking to the media. In half an hour of the House meeting for the Monsoon Session, she had made her political statement and left.



But in those thirty minutes, it was a vintage Mayawati performance. Aggressive, demonstrative and un-yielding. Pointing figures, flailing her hands at the Treasury Benches amid the ruckus. It had both the intensity and surprise which she was once known to wield- an act of political redemption after a string of defeats in her own backyard.



Her party drew a blank in the last Lok Sabha polls. With more than 20 percent votes in the Assembly elections earlier this year, she could manage less than twenty seats in the house of four-hundred odd MLAs.



Her Rajya Sabha term ends in April next year. She does not have numbers to return to the Upper House.



BJP has been aggressively eating into her vote-bank. Selection of Ramnath Kovind as NDAs President-pick is aimed at 2019 general elections with an eye on UP where BJP won more than 90% seats in 2014.



Mayawati knows BJP will try to squeeze her further. SPs Muslims and Yadavs are exclusive to BJPs traditional vote-base. It is BSPs Dalit BJP is eyeing. The reasons are apparent. There is a distinct possibility now that all of the opposition in UP may come together in 2019. That is more than 50 percent of the polity; and in first past the post system, when you fall, you never know where you will land.



In her resignation speech (if one may call it that) there were tell-tale signs of lurking fears of aggressive poaching by the BJP in the days ahead. BJP is dreaming it will be able to influence Dalit votes by nominating a person from the community for the Presidents elections, she said.



It was a carefully crafted speech where she spoke about Dalit atrocities under BJP rule in UP and outside. At the same time, Mayawati did not forget to mention the recent murder of five Brahmins at Rae Bareli which led to open war of words between two ministers in Yogi Adityanaths Cabinet. She always has an eye for constituencies outside her core vote base.



At the same time, Dalit czarinas aggression also betrayed nervousness at the emergence of new subaltern leadership across the country- from Jignesh Mewani in Gujarat to Chandrashekhar Azad in UP. In the last two years, from public flogging by cow vigilantes in Una to Rohith Vemula episode at Hyderabad Central University, Dalit mobilizations have fizzled out in absence of any party stepping forward and taking leadership.



If BSP or any other party is now being able to move in to sustain channelize these movements, someone else will.



Winding up her speech at the forecourt of the Parliament house, Mayawati drew an interesting analogy.



Between Dr. Ambedkars resignation from the Nehru cabinet after many failed attempts at getting the Hindu Code Bill passed and Mayawati of 2017 whose voice, she said, was also being suppressed.



Ambedkar resigned as he sought to organize the Dalits and the downtrodden before the first general elections. BSP, on the other hand, has been tried and tested by the electorate many times over.
The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to @smritiirani.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 18, 2017

Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu has resigned from his ministerial responsibilities. Additional charge of @Moud_India has been given to Shri @nstomar.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 18, 2017

Almost one year after she was moved out of the high profile Human Resource Development ministry, Smriti Irani has made a comeback.The Union Textile Minister has been given additional charge of the Information and Broadcast Ministry in place of Venkaiah Naidu who resigned after emerging as NDA's pick for Vice-Presidential Elections.In the last major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Smriti Irani was shifted from high profile Human Resource Development ministry to Textile.She was replaced by Prakash Javdekar who was also elevated to the cabinet rank.Before her transfer to a relatively less prestigious Textile Ministry last year, Irani had come under opposition fire for her handling of the Rohith Vemula episode and handling of the JNU student protest.Prime Minister has allocated additional charge of Urban Development Ministry- also held by Naidu- to Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. This is being seen as a temporary arrangement before PM may go for a major reshuffle post the monsoon session of Parliament.Meanwhile, Venkaiah Naidu has filed his nomination for Vice-presidential Elections. Naidu to take on the Opposition's nominee Gopal Krishna Gandhi."Venkaiah Naidu has a lot of experience. There were other candidates in the fray, but we have chosen him," BJP president Amit Shah said after a meeting of the party's parliamentary board made the decision.Shah also said BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance have welcomed the nomination of Naidu.
Patna: After going through a torrid time over the past few weeks, particularly after the CBI launched raids against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family, dust seems to be settling on the future of the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.



In a meeting between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, the two leaders reached a "consensus".



The compromise-formula, according to sources, will not require Tejwashwi to resign from the post of deputy CM, something RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad has been saying from the day this controversy erupted.



The meeting, which lasted 40 minutes, ended on a "positive note" and JD (U) conceded to RJD's demand that Tejashwi will not resign, a source claimed. The deputy chief minister also gave his explanation over the allegations that he faces right now.



However, when Labour Minister Vijay Prakash was asked about JD (U)'s demand for Tejashwi's resignation, he told News18 that the two leaders didn't have any such discussion. "They just concentrated on development agenda."



It is learnt that Congress party brokered peace between the two parties, and CM Nitish Kumar might travel to Delhi on July 20 to meet Sonia Gandhi.



Sources claimed that both JD (U) and RJD will soon make their stand clear on the ongoing confusion.



JD (U) and RJD, the erstwhile bitter rivals who joined hands just before the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections to thwart BJP from gaining ground, have been at loggerheads, casting doubts over the future of Mahagathbandhan. Congress is the third partner in the ruling grand alliance.



Tejashwi also attended a cabinet meeting on Tuesday after which the two leaders met each other in Nitish's chamber. Tejashwi's brother Tej Pratap Yadav and state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary, too, were present in the CM's room.



The Deputy Chief Minister has been in the eye of a storm ever since the CBI filed an FIR against him in the land-for-hotels case. While Nitish Kumar had maintained that Tejashwi and Lalu come clean on the grave allegations levelled against them, Lalu was clear in saying there was no question of Tejashwi tendering his resignation.



Tejashwi had on Saturday skipped a government function in which he had to share dais with the chief minister.



The deputy CM, however, arrived for the meeting along with Tej Pratap Yadav in the same car.



Earlier, many RJD ministers assembled at the residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and moved together for the Cabinet meeting from there in a motorcade.




San Marino is set to become the first European country to have a super-fast fifth-generation (5G) mobile network under a deal struck by the tiny republic and Telecom Italia.So-called 5G is expected to provide higher speeds and response times than 4G networks used today and wireless companies see this as a multi-billion dollar opportunity, although international standards for 5G are yet to be finalised.Telecom Italia and the government of San Marino said that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to switch the existing 4G network and reach a full nation-wide 5G trial system by the end of 2018, increasing speeds by almost 10 times.The project will start with the upgrade of several websites to 4.5G and the introduction of about 10 so-called "small cell" antennas, connected to optical fibre and required to develop the new technology, they said in a joint statement.Andrea Zafferani, Industry Secretary of State for San Marino, said the services and the application that will be created from the introduction of 5G would "favour in the immediate future both industry and society in San Marino".A study by the European Commission estimates that the development of 5G technology will require 56.6 billion euros and create 2.3 million jobs in Europe by 2020, when the high-speed connectivity should be fully deployed across countries.The benefits of 5G for the automotive, healthcare, transport and utilities sector in Europe are calculated to reach 113 billion per year, according to the study.
The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 is all set to launch on July 18. The Mi Max 2 is the successor of the first generation Mi Max phablet that was launched last year in the country. Similar to the earlier version, the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 also offers a huge 6.44-inch display and weighs a massive 211 grams. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The Mi Max 2 is expected to be priced under Rs 20,000. The company might even look at pricing it aggressively at around Rs 15,000.Xiaomi has been teasing the launch of the Mi Max 2 in India for some time with its Big is Back social media campaign. The launch event will be streamed live here . You can also watch the launch at the official Xiaomi India YouTube channel.The Mi Max 2 will come with a 6.44-inch 1080p Full HD display along with a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Powered by a 5,300mAh battery, the smartphone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system with its custom MIUI.Xiaomi has achieved a record high number of quarterly smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2017. The Chinese smartphone company has reportedly shipped 23.16 Million smartphones in this time period, indicating an increase of 70 percent from the previous quarter. Xiaomi has gained the Number 2 spot in the overall Indian smartphone market. Even Xiaomis revenue has seen a rise of 328 percent year on year as per the letter, with Redmi Note 4 becoming the highest shipped smartphone in India.
London: India and the UK have discussed key issues such as extradition, counter-terrorism and illegal immigration during high-level talks, officials said on Monday.



Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi on Monday concluded the India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue.



Asked if the case of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi were raised specifically, Mehrishi said that issues that affect extradition "across the board" were raised rather than specific cases.



"Mr Mallya's case is sub-judice. The issues around extradition discussed during the meetings only focused on any difficulties that may arise in extradition cases in general," he told reporters at the Indian High Commission at the end of his week-long visit to the UK.



During the talks, discussions were held on issues of concern for both the sides such as extradition matters, counter-terrorism and illegal immigrants from India to the UK, officials said.



The India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue was set up during British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to India in November last year.



The first meeting took place in New Delhi in May and the latest meeting was co-chaired in London by Mehrishi with UK Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam.



On the UK side, the issue of illegal immigration from India was raised with the Indian Home Secretary.



"Approximately, the UK has been able to identify in the region of about 1,000 illegal immigrants from India a year. We made it clear that it is a matter of policy for India that anybody identified as an Indian who is illegally in the UK, we will expedite his or her return," Mehrishi said.



"The only issue is about cross-checks and time taken because sometimes illegal immigrants, understandably, destroy their documents and therefore identifying them as Indians takes a lot of time," he said.



The Home Secretary also raised the issue of visa problems faced by Indians, including delays in student visa decisions, the high amount charged for UK visas and the lengthy waiting period for Indian tourist visas.



The issue of women abandoned by Indian-origin and NRI spouses from the UK back in India was also highlighted by the Indian side and it was agreed that follow-up meetings on that would take place next week with senior Indian High Commission diplomats.



Mehrishi has held talks with Brandon Lewis, UK minister for immigration and over the past week took part in a series of meetings, most of which are not in the "public domain".



Both sides also participated in a two-day counter- terrorism workshop.



Mallya, the 61-year-old former chief of now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines which owes nearly Rs 9,000 crore to various Indian banks, has been in the UK since March 2016 and was arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant on April 18.



Out on a bail, he is fighting the extradition case in a UK court. He had fled India on March 2 last year.



And Modi, who is also said to be in the UK, is wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a money laundering case.



India and Britain have an extradition treaty, signed in 1992, but so far only one extradition has taken place under the arrangement - that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel.
Caracas: US President Donald Trump threatened Venezuela with swift "economic actions" on Monday if its leader, Nicolas Maduro, pushes on with an unpopular bid to change his country's constitution in the teeth of mounting condemnation.



The warning came as the opposition coalition in Venezuela called a nationwide strike for Thursday to kick off a "final offensive" aimed at forcing Maduro from office through early elections.



Maduro, Trump said in a statement, was "a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator."



"The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," he said.



Trump did not specify what measures could be taken. But the warning dramatically raised the stakes and scope of the long political and economic crisis that has been battering Venezuela.



Nearly 100 people have died since April when street protests against Maduro turned violent.



Trump's stance explicitly sided with the Venezuela's opposition, which accuses Maduro -- a leftist, anti-American president who took over from his mentor, the late Hugo Chavez -- of trying to accumulate dictatorial powers to hang on to the reins.



It risked feeding Maduro's frequent allegations that he was the victim of a plot by a colluding right-wing opposition and the "imperialist" United States.



Nationwide strike



Venezuela's opposition coalition has called a nationwide, 24-hour strike for Thursday to add pressure to Maduro following an unofficial weekend vote it held that rejected the leader's plan.



That plan, which Maduro has shown no sign of deviating from, entails a citizens' body -- called a "Constituent Assembly" -- being elected on July 30 to redo the Constitution.



Maduro says that path is the only way to secure "peace" and economic recovery in Venezuela. His government has dismissed the opposition vote against it as "illegal."



But Trump said, "if the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions."



Venezuela, with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, is almost entirely reliant on its crude exports.



The United States imports around 270 million barrels of oil a year from Venezuela, according to the US government's Energy Information Administration -- a volume in decline by about a third compared to a decade ago.



'Final offensive'



Venezuela's opposition is intent on a "final offensive" ultimately aimed at toppling Maduro through early elections.



On Sunday, more than a third of Venezuela's 19 million voters took part in the opposition ballot, giving an overwhelming rejection to the election of a Constituent Assembly and backing a presidential election before Maduro's term ends in 2019.



The poll was lauded by the European Union, the United Nations, the US, Brazil and other countries.



However, Maduro, backed by a loyal military, has up to now shrugged off the opposition tactics and the international criticism leveled at him.



Despite growing public anger at food and medicine shortages under a spiralling economic crisis that has swelled the opposition movement, authorities in Caracas portray the efforts against them as illegitimate and fomented by the US.



'Demand for political change'



One leader in the opposition coalition, Freddy Guevara, said the strike this week was a "mechanism for pressure and to prepare for the definitive escalation to take place next week."



A total of 7.6 million Venezuelans turned out for Sunday's vote, at home and abroad, the opposition said.



That figure -- though disputed by the government -- was more than a third of Venezuela's total 19 million voters, undermining legitimacy for Maduro's future Constituent Assembly.



Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement "the high turnout in the plebiscite... was an unmistakable sign the Venezuelan people want democracy quickly restored."



Political analyst John Magdaleno told AFP that "there is evidence of a persistent and durable demand for political change."



According to the opposition, the final turnout figure was enough to overturn Maduro's mandate should there be a recall referendum, because it exceeded the 7.5 million votes that put the president in power in 2013.



To lend weight to the vote, a group of former Latin American presidents, including Mexico's Vicente Fox, who was declared "persona non grata" by the government, took part as observers.



But Luis Vicente Leon, head of the polling firm Datanalisis, said the opposition's challenge now was to leverage the vote to "press for negotiations that would give a peaceful chance for change."
Update: Republican leaders in Campbell County refiled a lawsuit Monday against two former local party officials they claim improperly issued checks in the GOPs name despite lacking authority from the organization.

An attorney for the county Republican Party said the decision to reboot the legal dispute, which started in 2015, comes after some evidentiary issues were resolved, allowing the case to go to trial.

The Campbell County Republican Committee also claims the defendants, John Ferguson and Travis Griffin, made unauthorized credit card purchases. The check and credit card transactions in dispute total $875.

Along with that sum, the lawsuit seeks nearly $2,200 in punitive damages and a court declaration putting possession of a party bank account opened by the defendants into the hands of the current local party treasurer, Will Kirk.

The civil action, filed in Campbell County Circuit Court, says punitive damages are called for in view of the egregious and willful conduct of the ex-party officials.

An attorney who represented Ferguson and Griffin in a similar suit last year, Brandon Osterbind, had no comment on the newly filed case.

Reached late Monday, Ferguson called the lawsuit frivolous. Griffin could not be reached for comment.

Dredging up hostility that dates back years among local Republicans, the lawsuit claims even after the state GOP central committee removed Ferguson as chair and Griffin as treasurer in August 2014, they refused to give up control of the account.

It currently has a balance of about $2,100, and the bank has frozen the funds with the legal dispute pending, according to Rick Boyer, the attorney and GOP member who filed the suit.

Boyer said Monday the local committee not only wants the $875 back and the bank account unfrozen so the money can be accessed but also to deter future attempts to use party funds without approval.

The lawsuit does not allege any criminal activity, though Boyer said he does not know how some funds have been used. Boyer said he asked early on for the state police to investigate but was told the issue was a civil matter.

Boyer said the punitive damage request was computed as 2.5 times the actual damage claim, based on Virginia case law, and designed to send the message that the law applies regardless of [politics].

We want something that we feel like is justifiable and defensible, he said. This isnt really about trying to hurt anybody at all.  The community needs to know the truth of what happened.

Ferguson filed his own lawsuit against the state GOP in the midst of the same election dispute in the fall of 2014, but a Campbell County judge dismissed the suit, saying the courts should not get engaged in internal party feuds.

Reached late Monday, Ferguson called the latest action a political ploy by Boyer. He said after nearly three years, Boyer should let the issue go.

Its a frivolous lawsuit. It always has been. Thats why theyve lost at about every step, Ferguson said. Hes beating a dead horse again.

Its more politics, he said. Its why people dont like politics.

Boyer said the partys lawsuit over the bank account was stymied last year because he didnt have authenticated state party minutes to show Ferguson was removed as chair. Boyer said the state party since has signed off on that, letting the matter proceed.

Online court records as of Monday did not list the first court date for the lawsuit.

Earlier: Republican leaders in Campbell County refiled a lawsuit Monday against two former local party officials they claim improperly issued checks in the GOPs name despite lacking authority from the organization.

An attorney for the county Republican Party said the decision to reboot the legal dispute, which started last year, comes after some evidentiary issues were resolved, allowing the case to go to trial.

The party committee also claims the defendants, John Ferguson and Travis Griffin, made unauthorized credit card purchases. The total of the transactions in dispute is $875.
Man in court for killing sister, teenager

Baksh was jointly charged with 25-year-old Wayne Liverpool of Sangre Grande and both men appeared before Senior Magistrate Gillian David-Scotland in the First Court. In addition to murder, the men were also charged with robbery.

Magistrate David-Scotland listed several items which included a cell phone, a red Milwaukee jack hammer valued $4,000, a yellow DeWalt hammer drill valued $6,000, a Milwaukee drill kit with pliers valued $2,000, a 32 inch LG flat screen television valued $2,000, a double link gold chain and gold ring and Mohammeds national identification card valued at $50.

It is alleged that the men also stole TT$10,000 and US$900.

The charges were laid indictably and both men were not called upon to plead. The men were represented by defence attorney Fareed Ali. The attorney in court yesterday told Magistrate David- Scotland that Liverpool complained that he was beaten by police and needed to seek medical attention.

Ali said his client complained of pains to his head, torso, lower back and wrists. Magistrate David-Scotland said she would make a note that Liverpool be seen by the prison doctor. She later adjourned the matter to August 14. The men were remanded to the Golden Grove Prison, Arouca.

Outside the court, attorney Ali expressed his disappointment with the way the police handled this matter. He said the failure of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to get convictions is partly due to the way police handle investigations.

The police deal with suspects so badly and it is so sad to see that things have not changed and they (the police) appear to be a law upon themselves. It is my view that Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams needs to examine and put training in place because if they keep repeating the same mistakes how are things going to change? The investigations into the murders continue as three other suspects remain in police custody and are expected to be placed in identification parades.

On June 28, Mohammeds husband returned to his Ajim Baksh Trace, Malabar home at 11 am to find Videshs body in the kitchen.

He later found wife Mohammeds body in a bedroom. Both were bound, gagged and had their throats slit.
Boy, 3, drowns

Shell-shocked relatives including father Atiba were inconsolable yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James as they awaited the end of an autopsy on his sons body.

According to reports, the Gorkin family went to the Boardwalk in Chaguaramas on Sunday afternoon.

At 5 pm, Atiba Gorkin was standing on the steps leading to the Boardwalk when he turned his back while speaking with friends. Minutes later, he realised Messi was nowhere to be seen and a frantic search was made.

Anxious relatives and friends combed the entire area searching in and around the Boardwalk and on the waters edge but the child was not found. Relatives alerted the Coast Guard as well as the Chaguaramas Development Corporation and officers carried out searches both on land and at sea.

At 8 pm, the father made an official report of his sons disappearance to the Carenage police.

Weeping relatives remained at the Boardwalk throughout Sunday night and yesterday morning hoping Messi would be found alive.

At 6 am, all hopes were dashed with the news that his body was found floating in the sea near Pier One, by a security guard.

Officers believe the body was pushed further out to sea by strong currents.

Residents of George Street last night lit candles and gathered at the familys home to lend support.

Messi was such a happy and loving child that you could not help but like him. We are all in shock over his death. But what can you do? The Lords ways are not ours. We just have to hold on to our faith and support the family, said a George Street resident.

Through his tears, Atiba told Newsday he felt emotionally drained. I am too emotional right now to say anything, please call me back later, Atiba said while a female relative sobbed nearby, crying out Messis name.

I want him back.

Why is my child, why my child, she cried. PC Thurton of the Carenage Police Station is continuing enquiries.
PM, Kamla meet today

Ghany opined that the difficulty within the Judiciary, especially the imbroligio which arose from the appointment of former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers Caesar as judge and her subsequent resignation from that post, could work its way into todays meeting. Ghany told Newsday the agenda outlined, suggests the Prime Minister wants to discuss a package of legislation with Persad-Bissessar that requires a special majority for passage.

The agenda includes Internal Self Government for Tobago; Campaign Finance Reform; Anti-Gang Legislation; Difficulties within the Judiciary/JLSC (Judicial and Legal Services Commission); the Integrity Commission; Service Commissions effectiveness and a Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament.

Ghany said on the surface, the meeting does not appear to be issues oriented but more legislative in nature.

He noted that Persad- Bissessar wanted to discuss crime and jobs but Rowley did not.

A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) last week said there could be discussions on crime in relation to anti-gang legislation.

Noting statements made on the JLSC by Minister in the OPM Stuart Young following the Peoples National Movements (PNM) General Council on Saturday and previous statements by Persad- Bissessar on the same issue, Ghany said the matter may be discussed in relation to some piece of legislation.

On Parliament reconvening before its scheduled return in September, Ghany said this could happen if Government meets demands from the Opposition for its support on special majority legislation.

He added that if there is no sufficiently urgent legislative matter that requires attention, Government and the Opposition could leave outstanding matters to be dealt with in the next parliamentary session.

On Sunday, political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said todays talks may not result in anything meaningful unless Rowley and Persad- Bissessar are both willing to compromise.

A statement issued yesterday by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said Rowley will hold a news conference in the J Hamilton Maurice Room at 3.30 pm.
No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
The bodies of three soldiers who were never recovered from a sunken WWII aircraft may finally get their homecoming. LiveScience reports that possible human remains were recovered from a B-24 bomber nicknamed the Tulsamerican that crashed off the coast of Croatia toward the end of the war, some 73 years ago. Damaged during battle with the German air force, the aircraft lost power and crashed into the Adriatic Sea. While seven of its passengers were rescued, three airmen were never found. Per KTUL, when the wreckage was discovered in 2010, finding those soldiers became a project many were drawn to, including assistant DA Kevin Gray of Tulsa (where the bomber was manufactured). "You've got people spending millions of dollars trying to find Amelia Earhart," Gray says. "This is our own Amelia Earhart."

Coordinated by the US military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the recovery effort was launched soon after the wrecks discovery to head off looting. Dr. Brendan Foley, an underwater archaeologist from Lund University, called the recovery "incredibly emotional" and "the most worthwhile thing we've ever done underwater." In an interview with LiveScience, he described the nose portion of the plane "almost peeled open like a banana" from the impact of the crash, but said parts like seats were still distinguishable in the two sections found 135 feet below the surface. Along with any materials that resembled bone (that will undergo DNA testing), the divers brought back soil where artifacts may be buried as well as equipment and clothes that could belong to the servicemen. The US Embassy Zagreb thanked the Croatian government for its assistance on Facebook, linking to stunning video footage of the recovery efforts. (A hiker spotted this WWII crash in India.)
After serving as the voice of Kermit the Frog for 27 years, actor and longtime Muppets vet Steve Whitmire didnt hold back on his feelings about being let go. Now Disney is telling its side of the story. In a statement via the Hollywood Reporter, the company says that the decision to fire Whitmire was a difficult one and was done with the full support of the Henson family. The statement only vaguely referenced Whitmires unacceptable business conduct over the years that he "consistently failed to address," but an unnamed insider told THR that the actor was "overly hostile and unproductive" and that his negotiation tactics delayed production. Whitmire, who was asked to voice Kermit after Jim Hensons death in 1990, spoke out again to THR on his side of the story.

"I have been outspoken about whats best for the Muppets since the Muppets came to Disney," Whitmire says, adding that though he has respect for everyone involved in the franchise, "at the same time, I also have insight into their limitations with respect to how well they know the Muppets." Whitmire cited an instance where he spoke out about a scene in which Kermit lied to his nephew Robin, something he didnt think fit with the character. Ultimately, the script was not changed. Matt Vogel, who will take over voice duties of the famous frog, has the well wishes of his predecessor. "Hes very talented with the Muppets," Whitmire says. "The performers are my brothers, my family of choice. That includes Matt, and the hardest part of this is knowing we probably will never work together again." (Read more Kermit the Frog stories.)
President Donald Trump made seven trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this year, and the public might soon get a look at who else was there with him, the AP reports. The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to hand over records related to the property's visitors in September. The move comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the National Security Archive, and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Those organizations have been seeking information about visitors to Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower, and the White House. Trump has not traveled to his New York City office tower since being inaugurated; he visited the Florida propertywhich he dubbed the "Winter White House"throughout February, March, and April.

Homeland Security oversees the Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting the president. Spokespeople for the department and the agency declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. DHS said in response to the lawsuit that it has no records about Trump Tower. CREW officials say they have no idea what kind of information DHS will share about Mar-a-Lago, but the liberal-funded government watchdog said it will make public whatever it receives. The federal judge overseeing the case ordered late last week that the administration "complete its search for and processing of responsive 'records of presidential visitors at Mar-a-Lago,' and produce any non-exempt responsive records" by Sept. 8, according to court documents. (Read more Mar-a-Lago stories.)
Relatives, neighbors, and even the chief of police are demanding answers after the fatal shooting of an Australian woman in Minneapolis Saturday night. Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau says she wants to know why a police officer fatally shot Justine Damond, and she has called for a speedy investigation, the Star Tribune reports. Damond, 40, was shot dead after her fiance says she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home. The officer involved has been identified as Mohamed Noor, who joined the force in 2015 and has three complaints against him on file, reports KSTP. The two officers at the scene did not have their body cameras turned on and there are no other known witnesses to the shooting.

Damond was reportedly shot in the abdomen after approaching the arriving squad car in her pajamas. Don Damond, her American fiance, said Monday that the family has been told almost nothing about the shooting. "Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine," he said, per the BBC. "Sadly her family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived." Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is handling the investigation, says more information will be released after it interviews Noor and partner Matthew Harrity, a community service officer who was reportedly speaking to Damond, who was due to be married in August, when she was shot. More here. (Read more Justine Damond stories.)
"Religious freedom in Russia is over," a spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses lamented Monday after the country's highest court rejected an appeal against an order banning the group. The ruling means that the religious organization will be forced to close almost 400 local chapters and hand all its "Kingdom Halls" to the Russian government, the BBC reports. There are believed to be around 175,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The group was outlawed under Josef Stalinwho sent many Witnesses to Siberiabut the ban was lifted after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia's justice ministry, supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, had called for the ban, calling the group extremists who stirred up hatred against other religions, Newsweek reports. The organization says attacks on its followers have soared since the April ban order. "It's a very sad situation for our country. As you could see today, there were no real facts of any extremism on part of Jehovah's Witnesses," a spokesman said. "It's all about bad literature and intolerance." They plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, though the BBC predicts that Moscow will ignore any ruling in favor of the group. (Read more Jehovah's Witnesses stories.)
The "replace" part of the Republican effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare collapsed Monday night, leaving the GOP in disarray. After Sens. Mike Lee and Jerry Moran announced that they would not support the ObamaCare repeal bill currently before the Senate, leaving the GOP without enough votes to even begin debate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted that the effort was doomed, Politico reports. Sens. Rand Paul and Susan Collins had already declared their opposition to the revamped version of the legislation. "It is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of ObamaCare will not be successful," McConnell said.

Republicans are now expected to focus on repealing ObamaCare first and replacing it later. "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate," President Trump tweeted, adding: "Dems will join in!" McConnell said he would seek a vote "in the coming days" on a repeal-only effort that passed the House and Senate in 2015 before being vetoed by then-President Obama, NBC reports. It is far from clear whether that bill will now have enough Republican votes to pass. Conservatives called for "clean repeal" Monday, while others called for working with Democrats on a new replacement, the Hill reports. (Read more ObamaCare stories.)
He was thought to be a kingpin in the mysterious world of the dark web, and now the 26-year-old Canadian is dead. Authorities say that Alexandre Cazes is believed to have hanged himself in his holding cell in Thailand after his arrest earlier this month, reports the Bangkok Post. As the Sydney Morning Herald explains, Cazes is reputed to be a co-founder of AlphaBay, one of the internet's top sites for the illicit sale of everything from drugs and weapons to forged IDs and stolen credit cards. Or at least it was: AlphaBay went dark on July 5 after authorities seized its servers in Canada as part of a multi-nation raid. Police also arrested Cazes on July 5 in Bangkok, where he is believed to have been living for the last eight years, and impounded luxury cars and mansions, per the Bangkok newspaper. He was known as DeSnake online.

Cazes, who was being held at Bangkok's Narcotics Suppression Bureau, was found dead in his cell last week, about an hour before he was to meet with prosecutors over his extradition to the US. His AlphaBay became a force on the dark web a few years ago after the downfall of its main predecessor, Silk Road. It was "more than twice as big as Silk Road was in its heyday, with a revenue of somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000 a day in early 2017, and that's a rather conservative estimate," one expert tells the AFP. The US Embassy in Bangkok confirmed that Cazes had been detained "with a view toward extradition to face federal criminal charges." If it was indeed a suicide, Cazes might have wanted to avoid the fate of Silk Road founder "Dread Pirate Roberts," now serving a life sentence. (Read more dark web stories.)
The US, five other countries, and the EU reached a deal with Iran two years ago this month to make sure the latter's "nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful," and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recertified on Monday that Iran was complying with the agreement, as is required every 90 days. But the New York Times reports Trump signed off "only reluctantly," after "hours of arguing with his top national security advisers." NPR notes that senior administration officials don't believe the "peaceful" part of the deal is a given, warning that Iran is still a possible danger to both the Middle East and the US. Still, the country's compliance checkmark is the second since Trump took office, even though on the campaign trail he called the agreement "the worst deal ever" and vowed to "rip it up" as soon as he got into the White House.

Iran is still "one of the most dangerous threats to US interests and to regional stability," one senior administration official told reporters Monday, per Reuters, detailing all of the ways in which the country remains problematic. Those issues include Iran's enabling of terrorism in Syria and its continued development of ballistic missiles, which, in combination with other issues, leaves Iran "unquestionably in default of the spirit of the [deal]" signed by the US, the EU, France, Britain, Russia, China, and Germany. The White House plans to handle this, per the official, by tightening the agreement (and then enforcing its mandates), and taking on "the totality of Iran's malign behavior" beyond the nuclear deal, which could include new sanctions, per CNN. Trump aides tell the Times the president is "frustrated" and won't keep recertifying compliance if Iran doesn't get its act together. (Read more Iran stories.)
The Justice Department will soon make it easier for local law enforcement to seize cash and propertypermanentlyfrom crime suspects and reap the proceeds. "We plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures," Attorney General Jeff Sessions told local prosecutors Monday in Minnesota. "No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime." Sessions said a shift will be announced this week that will increase the use of asset forfeiture, especially for drug suspects. The practice has been criticized because it allows law enforcement to take possessions, such as cars and money, without indictments or evidence a crime has been committed. A change would likely represent another reversal by Sessions of Obama-era Justice Department policies, reports the AP.

Democratic predecessor Eric Holder had restricted the feds' ability to take possession of assets seized by local authorities, who could then share the proceeds with their federal counterparts. Those who praised that move said the practice made it easier for local authorities to circumvent state laws that were sometimes stricter than the federal ones. Mother Jones points to a DOJ watchdog's report released in March that found the DEA has in the last decade seized $3.2 billion in cash from people suspected of being involved in the drug trade but never charged with a crime. Further, the inspector general reviewed 100 cases of civil asset forfeiture at random and found that 56% of the time "there was no discernible connection between the seizure and the advancement of law enforcement efforts." Holder's take on the news: "Another extremist action." (Read more asset forfeiture stories.)
Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, the Harvard-educated former dean of USC's Keck School of Medicine, oversaw hundreds of medical students, professors, and clinicians; he estimated he raised more than $1 billion in funds for the Southern California university. But in March of last year he resigned; the only reason he gave was a desire to explore other opportunities. Now, in an extensive piece, the Los Angeles Times reveals for the first time that three weeks prior to his resignation, a 21-year-old woman overdosed in a hotel room in the 66-year-old's presence. She ultimately recovered. Methamphetamine was found in the hotel room, but no arrests were made. The Times spoke to sources and reviewed dozens of videos and photos for an investigation into the drug-fueled exploits Puliafito, who remains on the medical school faculty, allegedly engaged in with a young "circle of criminals and drug users."

The Times piece delves into Puliafito's hiring at USC a decade ago and his status in the medical world (he helped invent a laser technology to treat eye disease, has coauthored more than 60 articles in medical journals, and had raised the profile of other institutions prior to his tenure at USC, among other things) as well as his "other life." That life allegedly included the aforementioned 21-year-old, who was a prostitute when she met Puliafito and became his "constant companion"; meth- and ecstasy-fueled parties that were sometimes held on the USC campus; a group of drug-using partiers that included, a 17-year-old who says Puliafito wrote him a prescription for inhalers to soothe lungs made raw from pot and meth and an Iraq war vet with a criminal history who, at one court appearance, gave Puliafito's address as his own. Despite having no known criminal record and no public record of medical license issues, the Times did find some problems in Puliafito's past, including an assault and battery lawsuit against him. Click for the full piece. (Read more University of Southern California stories.)
The collapse of the GOP's health care plan in the Senate quickly brought President Trump to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize the Republican defectors who torpedoed the bill. "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans," he tweeted, without naming names. "Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!" Trump also reiterated that's he's fully behind the new plan to repeal ObamaCare first and then replace it later. "As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!" he tweeted.

He's referring to Mitch McConnell's promise in the wake of the failed bill to have the Senate vote on a repeal-first plan. The New York Times, however, says the prospect of leaving millions of Americans uninsured all but guarantees any such vote would fail. In its recap of Monday night's turn of events, Politico reports that Trump was "blindsided" by the decision of Sens. Mike Lee and Jerry Moran to withdraw their support of the GOP bill and effectively kill it. The White House apparently had no inkling the coordinated move was in the works. (Read more President Trump stories.)
Jesus Armando Escobar, 36, was exiting a Florida interstate on Saturday morning at the same time Antonio Santiago Wharton, 33, was driving a Mack truck loaded with scrap metal on the overpass above him. Wharton lost control of the truck going around the curve and it overturned, dumping a 7,000-pound metal pipe off the overpass and onto the roof of Escobar's van. Yet somehow, the father of three suffered only minor injuriesdespite the fact that the roof of the van on the driver's side was crushed by the nearly four-ton piece of scrap metal, WFTV reports. "I thought it was a fatality, to be honest with you. But they came out and said, 'Nope, he's only got scratches,'" says a worker with AATR Orlando, a towing service. A state trooper who saw the scene and read other troopers' notes tells WESH Escobar was "alert and walking around" soon after the accident.

Authorities say Escobar, who was released from the hospital the same day the accident happened, may have been killed had he been in any other seat. "That's the exit everybody takes to go to SeaWorld with their kids. So if it had been somebody with a family full of children, it would have been a catastrophe," Escobar's lawyer says Escobar, who doesn't remember the incident, told him. The lawyer tells News4Jax his client's injuries include a significant head laceration and a neck fracture that will keep him in a neck brace for weeks, and says the family is hoping to reach a settlement in the case. Wharton received a careless-driving ticket; the load was properly secured, but authorities are investigating whether speed was an issue. (In another miraculous incident, a new dad fell 47 stories and survived.)
And just like that, Mitch McConnell's plan to repeal ObamaCare with a two-year delay appears to be doomed. McConnell announced the revised strategy Monday night, and he could afford only two GOP defections. Already, he's got three: Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said Tuesday they can't support the idea of scrapping the Affordable Care Act unless the GOP has a replacement plan, not just the promise of one, reports USA Today.

Trump's suggestion: The president says the GOP strategy is clearer now: "I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let ObamaCare fail," he told reporters Tuesday, per Politico. "We're not gonna own it. I'm not gonna own it. We'll let ObamaCare fail and then Democrats are going to come to us."

The president says the GOP strategy is clearer now: "I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let ObamaCare fail," he told reporters Tuesday, per Politico. "We're not gonna own it. I'm not gonna own it. We'll let ObamaCare fail and then Democrats are going to come to us." Also opposed: Eleven governors, including five Republicans, also came out against the repeal-with-delay plan on Tuesday, reports NBC News. Here's their joint statement, per Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Eleven governors, including five Republicans, also came out against the repeal-with-delay plan on Tuesday, reports NBC News. Here's their joint statement, per Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Bad news for HHS chief: A post at Axios notes that Health and Human Services chief Tom Price has been attacking ObamaCare almost nonstop as part of his effort to get the GOP measure passed. Now, "it's still his job to implement the law he so despises."

A post at Axios notes that Health and Human Services chief Tom Price has been attacking ObamaCare almost nonstop as part of his effort to get the GOP measure passed. Now, "it's still his job to implement the law he so despises." Old lesson: An analysis at the New York Times says the GOP got a reminder of something: "An American entitlement, once established, can almost never be retracted," writes Jennifer Steinhauer. Republican lawmakers opposed to ObamaCare in principle were loathe to take it away from constituents.

An analysis at the New York Times says the GOP got a reminder of something: "An American entitlement, once established, can almost never be retracted," writes Jennifer Steinhauer. Republican lawmakers opposed to ObamaCare in principle were loathe to take it away from constituents. Where's the deal? President Trump came to office as a promised deal-maker, but Philip Bump writes in the Washington Post that this latest impasse makes clear that when it comes to legislation, "Trump can't close the deals." His lack of familiarity with the DC process might be why.

President Trump came to office as a promised deal-maker, but Philip Bump writes in the Washington Post that this latest impasse makes clear that when it comes to legislation, "Trump can't close the deals." His lack of familiarity with the DC process might be why. Dollar blues: The collapse of the GOP deal took a toll on the US dollar, reports the Wall Street Journal.

(Read more ObamaCare stories.)
When it comes to North Korea's ability to hit the the US with a nuclear warhead, there's good news and bad news. Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that North Korea "clearly" has missiles that can reach the US, ABC News reports. Selva said the ICBM tested by North Korea on the Fourth of July could reach Alaska. But, according to Reuters, Selva added that North Korea doesn't yet have the missile re-entry and guidance technology to hit a US target with "any degree of accuracy" or to have any "reasonable confidence of success" in the strike.

Selva told the Armed Services Committee that while "we have to entertain" the possibility of a preemptive military strike against North Korea, the US also needs "to think seriously about what the consequences of that action might be." The Washington Post reports a poll conducted shortly after North Korea's July 4 missile test found 74% of Americans are concerned about a full-scale war with the country. And only 36% of poll respondents have "a good amount" of confidence in President Trump to handle the situation with North Korea. (Read more North Korea stories.)
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New Delhi:

Two foreign funds acquired 4.5 per cent stake in Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group's mutual fund arm for USD 100 million, ahead of its estimated Rs 1,800 crore IPO in October, sources said.

The shares have been bought from US-based hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital Management. When contacted to Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNAM), better known as Reliance Mutual Fund, with regard to the transaction, the company declined to comment.

According to sources, the US and Singapore based funds are the buyers of Eton Park's stake, which has been placed by JM Financial in the secondary market transaction.

This transaction has put Reliance Mutual Fund's valuation at Rs 15,000 crore. However, the company is expecting a valuation of around Rs 18,000 crore for the initial share-sale plan.

Last month, Reliance Capital announced plans to come out with an IPO for its mutual fund arm. The company is expected to raise Rs 1,800 crore through its IPO in October.

The company will use the funds raised from the IPO to grow the business as well as look for inorganic opportunities.

It could be the first initial public offering by a major asset management company (AMC) in India, though smaller rival UTI MF's IPO plans have been in the works for a long time.

Reliance MF is the third largest player in 42-member strong mutual fund industry. Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management has assets under management (AUM) of over Rs 3.6 lakh crore, including Rs 2.23 lakh crore for a mutual fund.

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New Delhi:

A 38-year-old Gorkhaland supporter was allegedly shot dead by police in Mirik, a tourist town around 50 kilometers from Darjeeling, during a demonstration on late Monday, claimed Gorkha Janmukti Morcha members of Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as Asish Tamang. He is said to be an active supporter of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and separate statehood.

The West Bengal Police officials refused to comment on the killing.

However, West Bengal Tourism Minister and Trinamools Darjeeling district chief Gautam Deb talking to the media denied reports of police firing.

According to media reports, TMC and GJM party-workers clashed on Monday evening in Mirik. GJM supporters a few hours later gathered at the police station demanding release of the activist arrested during clash. On denial the party-workers got irate and torched several police vehicles.

Police lathi-charged and then opened fire, claimed GJM workers.

The West Bengal police has briefed up security in the hill town to curb any violent incident. Meanwhile, GJM has decided to take out a rally with Tamangs body and sit outside the district magistrates office to press in their demands.

Tensions have erupted in Darjeeling and surrounding areas since June 8 after GJM renewed the movement for a separate Gorkhaland state. Indefinite shutdown in the hill town began from June 12. Eight people have lost their lives during various agitation for separate statehood since shutdown began. Except pharmacies all other business outlets are closed. The government has suspended internet in the hill town for the past 31 days and army is patrolling the hills.

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New Delhi:

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may take final decision on removal of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday. Tejashwi is accused in the land-for-hotels scandal.

JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak had earlier hinted on removal of Tejashwi by saying that Nitish has never compromised on corruption.

In the crucial meeting of JD(U) which was held earlier, the party had given time to RJD to come clean on allegations of corruption.

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

Bihar's ruling JD(U) had asked Tejashwi Yadav, an accused in the land-for-hotels scandal, to "come out with facts in public against the accusations."

However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had said, "there was no question" of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's resignation in the wake of his name appearing in the CBI FIR in the land-for-hotel case.

Also read: JDU asks RJD to come clean on allegations against Tejashwi Yadav in land-for-hotels case

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New Delhi:

The heart of my child beats today for Madam Sushma Swaraj, said Kamal Siddiqui, father of the four-month-old Pakistani boy, Rohaan, who was successfully treated at a private hospital for heart ailment in Noida on Tuesday.

He also requested the Indian External Minister Sushma Swaraj to open doors for other Pakistani nationalists waiting for medical visas.

Siddiqui said, I would like to request her to open doors for those Pakistanis who have been waiting for medical visas. It is my humble request.

The boy underwent a five hours long major heart surgery on July 14 at Jaypee Hospital. The doctors of the hospital have given green signal for the family to return.

According to the statement released by Jaypee Hospital read, D-transportation of great arteries with abnormal origin of main arteries from opposite chambers with multiple VSD and severe pulmonary hypertension.

ALSO READ: Sushma Swaraj approves visa for ailing PoK resident, says no letter from Aziz needed

The statement further stated that Rohaan had come to hospital on July 12 and was operated by doctors led by Dr. Rajesh Sharma on July 14.

Sharma talking to the media said, The boy had a hole in his heart and the aorta, that is on the left side of the heart was coming from the right side. Due to multiple VSD, oxygen less blood was flowing in his body due to which his body was turning pale.

He added, He was initially treated with an arterial switch with VSD closure method. After that the baby was put on the ventilator and then tracheostomy was done.

The Indian external minister offered him a medical visa on humanitarian grounds after the boys father brought her attention regarding his sons poor health conditions.

Siddiqui unable to fetch medical visa on May 24 had tweeted, Why my bud suffers for medical treatment!! Any answers Sir Sartaaj Azeez or Maam Sushma??

On May 31 Sawaraj had replied, No. The child will not suffer. Pls contact Indian High Commission in Pakistan. We will give the medical visa.

ALSO READ: 39 Indians missing in Iraq are probably in Badush jail: Sushma Swaraj

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New Delhi:

Goa-run abattoirs produce around 2,000 kgs of beef per day while the additional demand for the same is met by supplies from neighbouring Karnataka, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday.



Parrikar was addressing the state assembly on the first day of the monsoon session wherein a BJP member expressed his concern over beef quality being supplied from neighbouring state. The CM said that the beef purchased from Karnataka would be subjected to proper inspection.



Approximately 2,000 kgs beef is produced per day at the state abattoir the Goa Meat Complex Limited, while rest of beef is brought in from Karnataka, Parrikar said.

ALSO READ | Nagpur: Police arrest BJP worker after lab report says he was carrying beef



The estimated sale of beef, based on the meat inspection charges paid by beef dealers/traders is approximately 2,300 - 2,400 kgs/day, he further added. He was responding to the question raised by the BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral.



The balance of the required quantity of beef is procured from the neighbouring states, particularly Karnataka, by meat traders, Parrikar said.In a supplementary question, Cabral expressed his concern over the quality of beef brought from Karnataka and suggested that production of meat at the Goa abattoir could be ramped up.



To this, Parrikar replied he would issue directions to the department concerned to carry proper inspection of beef imported from Karnataka. The Goa Meat Complex Ltd has no problem in slaughtering more animals if they are brought there by traders, he added.

With PTI inputs.

ALSO READ | BJP man assaulted by 'cow vigilantes' was carrying beef: Nagpur Police

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New Delhi:

Pakistan on Tuesday violated ceasefire along the Line of Control in Mandher sector in Poonch of Jammu and Kashmir. India is giving befitting reply. Heavy shelling started at around 6:20 AM from both sides.

Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of Small arms, automatics and mortars early in the morning.

Earlier on Monday, a minor girl and an Indian Army jawan were killed in a cross-border firing by Pakistan on Monday near the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch's Balakote.

The army jawan killed in the crossfire has been identified as Naik Muddasar Ahmed, a native of J&K's Tral region.

"2 civilians seriously injured, schools closed for an indefinite period of time, evacuation to be done once there is break in firing," said DDC Rajouri.

The incident took places hours before India and Pakistans Director General of Military Operations held talks over the situation along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also read: Minor girl, army jawan killed in cross-border firing in Kashmir

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New Delhi:

The number of stone pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir have reduced to 664 in 2017 as compared to 2,808 in 2016, the Home Ministry said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The ministry presented the data till July 9.



Apart from stone pelting incidents, violence acts by the terrorists have also come down to 172 in 2017 (till July 9) from 332 in 2016, the ministry further added.



Moreover, the ministry said that the number of civilians and security personnel who lost their lives in terrorist attacks till July 9, 2017 stand at 12 and 38, respectively. Talking about terrorists, 95 were gunned down by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

ALSO READ | Eid-ul-Fitr: Stone pelting, clashes reported even as Kashmiris throng to mosques, eidgahs to celebrate festival

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New Delhi:

A soldier who was critically injured in Pakistani firing along LOC in Nowgam succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday. Pakistan on Tuesday violated ceasefire along the Line of Control in Mandher sector in Poonch of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian army too gave them a befitting reply. The authorities were however successful in rescuing children who were trapped in a primary school due to heavy mortar shelling by the Pakistan army in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district.

#UPDATE Army jawan who was critically injured in Pakistani firing along LOC in Nowgam has succumbed to injuries a ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

On Monday, a nine-year-old girl and and Army jawan were killed and three others injured in Pak firing in the Rajouri-Poonch belt.

#UPDATE: Children stuck inside two government schools due to ceasefire violation by Pakistan in J&K's Nowshera rescued. pic.twitter.com/gdWHyAbuRZ a ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

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New Delhi :

Drawing flak after Karnataka government set up a panel of nine-member to design states legally-accepted flag, KC Venugopal, state in-charge for Congress party, said he will seek a clarification from the state government on the issue. The nation has only one national flag, he said.

It is said that the Congres high-command is not happy with Karnataka government's state flag decision.

Meanwhile, the home ministry has rejected the Karnataka government's proposal of having separate flag.

A controversy erupted after Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah set up a team of nine-members in an order to have legally-accepted flag for the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party has dubbed the initiative as anti-national.

If Karnataka gets its own flag, it would be the second state in the country after Jammu and Kashmir which has already a flag.

A few days back, massive protests were staged for imposing Hindi in the state.

I will seek a clarification from state Govt, we have only one flag and that is the national flag: KC Venugopal,Congress Ktka incharge pic.twitter.com/bcHxyAfA6V  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

While talking to reporters, Siddaramaiah said the move has nothing to do with elections. He said if BJP is opposing the initiative, they are open to say that they are against a state flag.

It has nothing to do with elections. If BJP is opposed to it then can they say openly that they are against a state flag?: CM Siddaramaiah pic.twitter.com/s2fYaQEq7H  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

The chief minister said, Is there any provision in the constitution that prohibits a state from having a own flag?

Is there any provision in the constitution that prohibits a state from having a flag?: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah pic.twitter.com/VgZQWtBEn5  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

BJP leader and union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said that Congress leadership must clear its stance whether they are okay with the idea of separate flag for the state or not.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the move is against the constitution of India and such government should be dismissed immediately. He said Presidents rule should be imposed in the state.

This is against constitution,such govt should be dismissed immediately, President's rule should be imposed: Sanjay Raut on K'taka flag issue pic.twitter.com/nuqLCd24o8  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Reacting on the issue, constitutional expert PP Rao said,"There is no provision in the Constitution for a separate flag. It only provides for national flag. but, There is no restriction in the constitution that state shall not have its own separate flag."

There is no provision in the Constitution, it only provides for national flag: Constitution Expert PP Rao on Karnataka flag issue pic.twitter.com/36g7PcpZKx  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Also Read: Karnataka health department, tobacco major tie up to build super speciality hospitals sparks controversy with public health activists

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New Delhi:

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday came out in support of BSP supremo Mayawati saying, that behaviour of BJP ministers proves that "they are anti-Dalits."

He said if Mayawati wishes for another term in Rajya Sabha, his party will send her to the upper house from Bihar.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday resigned from the Rajya Sabha. She has submitted a 3-page letter to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

While talking to reporters, Mayawati blamed, saying that it is good for her to quit the Upper House as the ruling party BJP does not allow her to speak on the issues related to Dalits.

This behavior of BJP Ministers against Mayawati Ji proves that BJP is an anti-Dalit party: Lalu Prasad Yadav pic.twitter.com/UP3nIw6xd5  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

She said she represents the Dalit community and if she cannot raise the issues in the House, its is pointless to continue as a member.

We support Mayawati Ji and if she wants we will again send her to Rajya Sabha: Lalu Prasad Yadav pic.twitter.com/lyHmJbfPsz  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Also Read: BSP chief Mayawati resigns from Rajya Sabha, alleges ruling party BJP does not allow her to speak in the House

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New Delhi:

Flanked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and veteran BJP leader L K Advani, former minister M Venkaiah Naidu today filed his nomination papers for the vice presidential election.



BJP president Amit Shah, senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi as well as leaders from BJP allies and those from other regional parties, including the AIADMK and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, accompanied Naidu as he filed his papers in the parliament complex.



The Shiv Sena was also present.



Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and several top leaders of the NDA were among those who proposed and seconded Naiduas candidature in the severalA

Live updates from the nomination of Vice-Presidential candidates:

#12:20 PM: Venkaiah Naidu PCA

-Honoured to be a candidate for Vice President of India. I have been actively engaged in public life for over four decades

-Office of Vice President is a different profile, has its functional norms. Hope I will be able to do justice. Grateful to PM

-India's strength and beauty lie in Parliamentary democratic system. It will be my endeavour to strengthen that further



-On being elected I will uphold traditions, standards set by the worthy predecessors and maintain dignity of office

-Lost my mother at a very young age, treated my party as my mother and they brought me up to this level



-I have resigned from Council ofA Ministers, conveyed to Prime Minister and sent a letter too last night

-Had told my colleagues that I want to see PM Modi come back again in 2019 and then I will call it off and join social service



-But destiny decided otherwise.Finally after discussion, I have agreed. I have withdrawn myself from party, do not belong to BJP now

-I will be continuing as MP because there is voting also

# 11:52 AM

BJD extends support to Opposition Vice-Presidential candidate GopalKrishna Gandhi, says Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

# 11:48 AM

On my way to file my nomination for Vice-Presidential polls with a sense of respect and gratitude towards citizens of India: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

# 11:34 AM

I thank Thambidurai and MPs from AIADMK for extending their warm wishes and support, tweets NDA Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu

# 11:32 AM

Delhi: Venkaiah Naidu files nomination for Vice Presidential poll; PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other NDA leaders present

# 11:24 AM

Delhi: PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other NDA leaders reach Parliament to file nomination of Vice President candidate Venkaiah Naidu

Delhi: PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other NDA leaders reach Parliament to file nomination of #VicePresident candidate #VenkaiahNaidu pic.twitter.com/czhUZCJuKb a ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

# 10:56 AM

Venkaiah Naidu resigns as Union minister, additional charge of Ministry of Urban Development given to Narendra Tomar, I&B to Smriti Irani

# 10:55 AM

Happy that Mulayam Singh ji blessed me and extended his full support, tweets NDA's Vice-Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu

# 10:17 AM

Delhi: NDA's Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu arrives in Parliament to file nomination

Delhi: NDA's #VicePresidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu arrives in Parliament to file nomination pic.twitter.com/4lJOve40Hs a ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

# 10:10 AM

Delhi: NDA's Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu meets MM Joshi and LK Advani; to file nomination today

Delhi: NDA's #VicePresidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu meets MM Joshi & LK Advani; to file nomination today. pic.twitter.com/B1lDbJLKwg a ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

# 9:40 AM



NDA's Vice Presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu leaves from his residence in Delhi, to file nomination today

# 9:35 AM



Across political spectrum, all parties heartily welcomed decision. Foregone conclusion, his will be an unprecedented victory: P GoyalA on V naidu

# 9:32 AM



The Opposition in India is a very large entity and 18 parties have asked me to be their vice-president candidate GopalKrishnaA Gandhi

# 9:30 AM



Have accepted the invitation with a sense of gratitude and responsibility:Gopalkrishna Gandhi ahead of filing nomination for Vice-Presidential polls

Naidu was picked as the National Democratic Allianceas candidate for the vice presidential election with consensus at the BJP Parliamentary board meeting held on Monday. NDA allies were also present.

Naidu, 68, has had a long experience in public life as he served twice as BJP president and four-time Rajya Sabha MP.

Opposition's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi will also file his nomination for the vice presidential elections on Tuesday.

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New Delhi:

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP Supremo Mayawati has announced that she will resign from Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The announcement came moments after she walked out of the Upper House for being interrupted while she was trying to highlight the atrocities on Dalits in UP.



Addressing the media outside the house, Mayawati alleged that "BJP is deceiving dalit people in the name of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, but the government is not letting me highlight the issue in the House. This has led me to decide that I will resign from Rajya Sabha today."



BSP chief said that her party had filed for an adjournment motion over the issue, hence the rule of 3 minutes speech did not apply to her. But despite that, she was not allowed to speak.



"Dalit homes were burnt down in Sabbirpur, but the government maintained a silence. I was not allowed to visit the area. One more Dalit was murdered after that," she said.



"We tried to send aide to the bereaved families, but the local authorities did not let us. Dalits in UP are highly ostracised," she added.

Insisting that the Parliament exists for the benefit of the common man, Mayawati said that even Dr Ambedkar had resigned when not allowed to present Hindu Code bill. "I am Baba Saheb's follower, if he can resign from his ministerial birth, I can too."

Mayawati also accused Yogi Adityanath of running a biased government, which encourages Gundaraj.

Follow live updates on Monsoon Session Day here

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New Delhi:

Monsoon Session of Parliament began on Tuesday on a stormy note. The Modi Government faced attacks from Opposition parties in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over atrocities on Dalits and mob lynching. While the continuous uproar forced Lok Sabha to adjourn for the day without any work, Rajya Sabha saw high octane drama as BSP chief Mayawati walked out and threatened to resign. The Upper House will resume work in a while.

Opposition parties, led by Congress, met on Monday to decide the strategy for a full offensive against Modi Government. Apart from several regional issues, the parties have agreed upon five main problems faced by the nation. To that effect, the Opposition has filed various adjournment notices seeking debates and discussions on the topics.

Here are the highlights:

#3:05 PM: Rajya Sabha adjourned till tomorrow



#12:10 PM: Lok Sabha adjourned till 11 am tomorrow

#11:28 AM: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 12 noon following slogans of 'Dalit virodhi sarkar nahi chalegi' by BSP leaders

#11:17 AM: BJP leader Naqvi says Mayawati has disrespected the House by walking out

#11:15 AM: Mayawati says she will resign if not allowed to speak on dalit issues. I have no business in Parliament if I cannot speak for dalits.

Read full story: Maywati announces resignation from Rajya Sabha

#11:10 AM: Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 noon following an uproar.

#11:10 AM : BSP supremo attacks Modi Govt on atrocities on dalit by mobs in Rajya Sabha

24 political killings happened in Karnataka but state govt not serious, also why was IPS D Roopa transferred abruptly: Shobha Karan, BJP MP pic.twitter.com/lXm15fFpXa  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

#10:40 AM: Trinamool Congress gives notice in Rajya Sabha on rise in mob lynching incidents.

#10:40 AM: Adjournment motion notice given by RJD leader JP Yadav in Lok Sabha against 'harassment of opposition leaders including Lalu Prasad Yadav'



#Delhi Opposition leaders' meeting underway in Parliament: GN Azad,D Raja,Sharad Yadav,Tariq Anwar,Derek O'Brien and others attend. pic.twitter.com/ETObUVfDnx  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Delhi: Karnataka BJP leaders hold a protest in Parliament, protesting against transfer of IPS officer D Roopa pic.twitter.com/bKLA6mMhyM  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Key issues likely to be raised in both Houses:

Farmers' demands and suicides:

The opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi on this issue, is expected to raise farm loan waiver, Minimum Support Price and Mandsaur killings in both houses of Parliament. Opposition plans to raise a hue and cry about agrarian crisis not just in Parliament but also outside it.

GST and unemployment

The Opposition parties will demand to hold discussion on the hasty implementation of Goods and Services Tax and the potential economic fallout form the move. The parties will also seek debate on the rising unemployment in India's IT sector.

Mob lynching

Rising incidents of attrocities on dalits, beef ban related violence and mob lynching is expected to cause ruckus in both Houses, as Opposition has taken a strong united stand against these problems in India.



Kashmir situation

In view of rising incidents of ceasefire violation by Pakistan and Indian Army's massive cordon and search operation in Kashmir, Opposition parties are expected to seek discussion on the matter and demand explanation form the government on the ising tension in the Valley. Attack on Amarmnath Yatra pilgrims is also likely to be highlighted.



Sikkim standoff with China

Though the government reached out to the Opposition, and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as well as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh tried to set the record straight on China standoff, the Opposition is in no mood to buy government side of story.



The matter will be raised in both houses and demand will be raised that NDA government should make a statement on the entire episode. Opposition will also ask as to what was discussed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The matter will be raised in the Parliament's standing committee on external affairs.

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New Delhi:

Opposition parties Vice Presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi filed his nomination on Tuesday. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had nominated his name.

Gandhi was accompanied by former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, TMC leader Derek O'Brien, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechuri.

Speaking to reporters after filing the papers, Gandhi said, Not here to oppose any person or party, here with all humility to place before electors, the aspirations of citizens.

He added, Even if I win, it won't be a great thing. Its not victory or defeat that matters. Im here to unite . . . divisive nature of today's polity.

I believe death penalty belongs to the medieval ages, Its wrong. My views are inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr.Ambedkar, added the former West Bengal governor.

Yes I had also written to Pakistan PM demanding that he should not hang Kulbhushan Jadhav, added Gandhi.

I am happy BJD supported my candidature, he added.

Last week 18 opposition parties had unanimously agreed to field Gandhi as their joint candidate for the vice presidential election. The Vice President election will be held on August 5 and the votes will be counted the same evening. Members of both the Houses of Parliament, including the nominated members, will be eligible to vote.

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New Delhi:

Reports of preferential treatment to AIADMK general secretary VK Saskiala has been doing the rounds for quite some time now. Sources inside Karnataka's prison system have claimed that five cells near her were kept empty to ensure her privacy and a flat-screen television was provided in her cell. Further, she also had access to unused chambers of jail officials for meetings with visitors.

These details have emerged along with a video and photographs which show a 150 foot-long corridor which leads to Sasikala's cell which is barricaded off at both ends.

On Thursday, IPS officer D Roopa had alleged that Ms Sasikala had bribed senior jail officials with 2 crores for special treatment that included a kitchen that catered meals only for her.

ALSO READ: Sasikala bribe gate: Roopa cries foul, says targeting me is unfair

However, Roopa lost her job as Deputy Inspector General of Prisons and now looks after traffic and road safety in Bengaluru. Ms Sasikala was jailed in Bengaluru in February after the Supreme Court convicted her of corruption in a case dating back to the 1990s during J Jayalalithaa's first term as Chief Minister. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered an inquiry into the allegations of Ms Sasikala's exceptional treatment in prison.

READ: 'AIADMK leader Sasikala paid bribe to get VIP treatment in jail'

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New Delhi:

Textiles Minister Smriti Irani was on Tuesday given the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the Cabinet to contest the vice-presidential poll.



The portfolio of urban development, which too was with Naidu, was given to Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, the PMO said. The BJP had on Monday decided to field Naidu as NDAs candidate for the post of vice president.

BJP sources said a reshuffle in the Union council of ministers is expected after the monsoon session of Parliament, and some new faces could also be inducted into the Cabinet.

While Manohar Parrikars move to Goa as its chief minister in March left the defence ministry without a full-time Cabinet minister, the death of Anil Dave in May caused a vacancy in the environment ministry.

ALSO READ | Know why BJP picked Venkaiah Naidu as NDA's vice-presidential candidate

Prime Minister Modi first expanded his cabinet in November 2014 when he inducted 21 new faces, including Parrikar as defence minister.

In July last year, Modi undertook another reshuffle in which he appointed Prakash Javadekar as the human resource development minister, replacing Smriti Irani, who was shifted to textiles.

ALSO READ | Vice-Presidential Poll 2017: M Venkaiah Naidu is NDA's nominee for the coveted post; Know all about him

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New Delhi:

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday refuted claims of FSL Agra that the substance detected in UP Assembly hall is not PETN. The government clarified that no sample sent to FSL Agra as they dont have machines to conduct tests.

The principal secretary said that the factual position is that SFSL Lucknow in its report has found the substance as water insoluble.

"Different reagents confirm presence of a nitrate and preliminary test conducted using explosive detection kit tested positive for PETN. Two confirmatory tests being conducted at SFSL Lucknow - Infrared Spectrum, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrum. The report is likely to come by Thursday," said the principal secretary.

Earlier on July 15, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi 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 Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad on Friday conducted an extensive security check-up of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly after a powerful explosive PETN found under the seat of Leader of Opposition (LoP).

The UP ATS said that a media report possibly mentioned of a packet with magnesium sulphate which ATS has seized it and it will be sent for test if need be.

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New Delhi:

Former Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will file nominations for the post of Vice President of India at 11 AM on Tuesday. Naidu resigned from his posts as Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and Housing and Urban Affairs on Monday.



Two sets of nomination will be filled from NDA vice presidential candidate Naidu.



In the first set of nomination, PM Modi will be the proposer and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be the seconder.



In the second set Finance minister Arun Jaitley will be the proposer and MEA Sushma Swaraj will be the seconded.



Naidu was picked as the National Democratic Alliances candidate for the vice presidential election with consensus at the BJP Parliamentary board meeting held on Monday. NDA allies were also present.

Naidu, 68, has had a long experience in public life as he served twice as BJP president and four-time Rajya Sabha MP.

Opposition's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi will also file his nomination for the vice presidential elections on Tuesday.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A latest study led by the scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum has identified a bird-like feathered and toothy dinosaur in Alberta, Canada.

The species 'Albertavenator curriei' was named after Philip Currie, a renowned Canadian palaeolotologist and professor at the University of Alberta.

This type of dinosaur, a troodontid is one of Currie's favourite and he was really honoured after the species was named after his name.

Talking about the same Currie said, "This is a great honour  it's in fact an Alberta dinosaur and it's a type of dinosaur that I've worked on over the years, it's extra meaningful."

"There's a lot of mystery surrounding troodontids; that's why I love them so much," Currie added.

A paper, published in the 'Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences' suggests that the creature used to roam around the Red Deer River Valley about 71 million years ago.

According to scientists the bird-like creature walks on two legs, and is coverred completely with feathers. The species seems to be weighed about 60kg and also have serrated teeth and a bit related with another dinosaur named velociraptor. Velociraptor was earlier made famous by much loved movie 'Jurassic Park.'

Also Read: Mars Rovers of NASA to take a break during solar conjunction

Though initially it was thought to be the close relative of Troodon, later researchers have found that the new creature is a different one due to its shorter and more robust skull.

Troodon is said to be the cleverest of the dinosaurs because of the large size of its brain compared to its body.

"The delicate bones of these small feathered dinosaurs are very rare. We were lucky to have a critical piece of the skull that allowed us to distinguish Albertaventaor [Alberta hunter] as a new species," said David Evans, the author of the paper published in the Canadian journal.

"We hope to find a more complete skeleton of Albertavenator in the future, as this would tell us so much more about this fascinating animal," Evans stated further.

Thogh the fossilised remains of 'Albertavenator curriei' was found long back in the year 1980 near the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Ontario, scientists have identified the creature only in recent past.

Hence, the latest discovery suggests the re-examination of all museum collections yet another time.

Also Read: Lunar robots land on 'Mount Etna', most active volcano of Europe

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Cairo:

Indian Embassy in Egypt has come out with the 500th edition of the flagship Arabic magazine Sawtul-Hind.

The magazine, which acts as an interface between the two countries, is being published by the Indian Embassy in Egypt for the past six decades and its commemorative issue was celebrated at a ceremony here yesterday.

Organised by the Indian embassy, the commemoration ceremony held in Zamalek was attended by Indias ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya with Egyptian Minister of Culture Helmi el-Namnam being the Chief Guest, besides a large number of diplomats, thinkers, writers, university professors.

"Sawtul Hind devoted much effort in recording the deep connections at the social and popular level between the people of our two countries. It noted how our ancient civilisations grew around noble rivers far apart but were united by the seas. It observed how our relations swelled with trade, economic and scientific exchanges," Bhattacharyya said.

"It contributed profoundly to promotion of literary and artistic works and sharing joys of the present and dreams of the future as a participant in our vibrant cultural exchanges, especially the growing exchanges between people," he said.

Also Read: Removing salads from meals, fewer copies of in-flight magazine among cost-saving tips from Air India CMD

Sawtul Hind, whose first edition was published in 1952, is and continues to be an interface between India and Egypt and the Arab world at large, by collating information on both countries political cooperation, economic engagement and cultural ties.

"This year, as we celebrate India@70, marking 70 years of our independence and 70 years of diplomatic ties with friendly Egypt, we also commemorate the 500th edition of Sawtul Hind," Bhattacharyya said.

"It makes us proud that there is a cultural magazine published by an Embassy which is being published in Egypt for over 50 years on regular basis," Helmi said.

The Minister also said that the magazine was first established at a time when Egypt and India were experiencing political changes and has witnessed the strong relations between former Egyptian President Gamal Abel Naser and Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as well as former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat.

Also Read: Gulf Crisis | US officials claim UAE hacked Qatar Govt sites to induce regional tension: Report

"Sawtul Hind is a great magazine, one who follows its first issues will notice that some of its writers were Egyptian writes Tawfik el-Hakim, Abass Mahmoud el-Akad, Ahmed Kasem Goda and a number of big writes at that time," the Minister said.

A photo exhibition displaying various covers of the magazine was also organised as part of the commemoration.Oriental Music group from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture performed at the ceremony.

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London:

A 77-year-old British man, who wears a pacemaker, has embarked on an over 4,800 kilometre autorickshaw journey around the UK. He is doing this to raise money for an Indian charity that treats children with heart ailments in India and other Asian and African countries.



Steve Gibbs set off on the tour from the town of Wigston in Leicestershire on Monday. He will return to the town on August 6 after covering nearly 4,828 kms. He is raising money for the Healing Little Hearts charity.



His aim is to raise enough funds for at least one Healing Little Hearts camp, which operates on approximately 12-15 children during a one-week tour.



Sanjiv Nichani, who works as a consultant at Leicester Children's Hospital, praised Gibbs' efforts to ride his Indian auto-rickshaw around the UK on a three-week-long journey to raise around 6,000 pounds for the Healing Little Hearts charity.



"It is incredible that Steve, who has a pacemaker fitted, would set off on this journey to raise funds for the charity," said Nichani.



The charity, set up in 2007 by the Mumbai-origin doctor, was born as an urge to "give something back" to the country of his birth and fix the "hole in little hearts", among other heart conditions suffered by children whose families are not be able to afford expensive surgeries.



Healing Little Hearts has since hosted camps in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Raipur, Srinagar, Puducherry and Vellore, besides cities in Africa and Malaysia.

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Beijing:

China's military on Monday said it has conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus, amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted the 11-hour long live-fire exercises at an altitude of 5,000 meters on the plateau in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, aimed at improving the combat capability on such locations, the military said.

The exercise was conducted by a ground combat brigade of the PLA Tibet Regional Command this month and involved scenarios such as rapid deployment, multi-unit joint strike and anti-aircraft defence, state-run China Daily quoted a PLA press release as saying.

The exercise effectively tested the brigade's joint strike capability on plateaus, according to the press release.

The brigade that conducted the drills was from the PLA's Tibet Military Command and is one of China's two plateau mountain brigades.

The PLA Tibet command guards the Line of Actual Control (LAC) of the India-China border along several sections connecting the mountainous Tibetan region.

Analysts believe that the drill are an apparent attempt by the military to reassure the Chinese public about the combat readiness of its troops.

Also Read: Chinese Army conducts live-fire drills in Tibet amid Sikkim standoff

"Showing an opponent that you are combat ready is more likely to prevent an actual battle," Wang Dehua, South Asia studies expert at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said.

Broadcasting the drill on CCTV was also likely designed to keep the public happy, he said.

"It could also reassure the Chinese people that a strong PLA force is there, capable and determined to defend Chinese territory," Wang told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

The CCTV report did not disclose the location of the drills but said the brigade responsible for frontline combat missions has long been stationed around the middle and lower reaches of the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo in Chinese) River.

Brahmaputra flows into India from Arunachal Pradesh border.

"The PLA wanted to demonstrate it could easily overpower its Indian counterparts," Beijing-based military commentator Zhou Chenming told the Post.

The Chinese force that took part in the drill is stationed in the Lizhi region of eastern Tibet, close to the stand-off, the Post said.

Also Read: India-China-Myanmar talks to be of great geopolitical significance

India has nearly two lakh troops stationed in the areas it disputes with China, outnumbering its neighbour s forces by as much as 15 or 20 to one, it said.

Nonetheless, China has a clear advantage in terms of speed of movement, firepower, and logistics, Zhou said.

"[By staging] a small-scale drill, China wants to control the problem and lower the risk of shots being fired," he said.

Today's drills included the quick deployment of troops and different military units working together on joint attacks.

Video posted online showed soldiers using anti-tank grenades and missiles against bunkers and howitzers for artillery coverage.

The video also showed radar units identifying enemy aircraft and soldiers using anti-aircraft artillery to destroy targets, the report said.

Separately, Tibet's mobile communication agency conducted a drill on July 10 in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, where members of the agency practiced setting up a temporary mobile network to secure communications in an emergency.

Earlier reports said the PLA units exercised in Tibet with several modern weapon systems including a new light battle tank being manufactured by China.

Qin Zhen, executive editor of Ordnance Knowledge magazine, said that the recent exercises have displayed the strong combat capability of the PLA's plateau units.

Also Read: China should 'keep calm' about Indias rise: Chinese state media

He said that in recent years the Chinese military developed a number of lightweight weapons such as a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle and a new light tank to meet requirements of mountain operations.

Xiao Ning, editor-in-chief of Weapon magazine, said the new light tank features strong firepower, advanced armor and good mobility, so it is suitable for deployment on plateaus.

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16.

China claimed that they were constructing the road within their territory and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops from the disputed Dokalam plateau.

New Delhi has expressed concern over the road building, apprehending that it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

India has conveyed to the Chinese government that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for it.

Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

Also Read: Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo cremated; China says wife 'free so far'

Of the 3,488-km-long India-China border from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.

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London:

Preet Kaur Gill, Britains first woman Sikh MP, has been elected to an influential cross-party panel in the UK Parliament.

Gill will join 10 other British MPs on the committee that examines the workings of the Home Office.

Gill, had won the Edgbaston seat for the Labour party in the June 8 snap general election, was elected to the Home Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament.

We had no Sikh MPs prior to this election. So, Sikhs had no representation, and we had no female Sikh representation. Parliament must reflect the people it serves, said the 44-year-old.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee was chaired by Keith Vaz, Britains longest-serving Indian-origin MP, until he stepped down from the post last year.Its newly-elected chair is Labour party MP Yvette Cooper, elected unopposed to the post last week. The Committee chooses its own subjects of inquiry and seeks written and oral evidence from a wide range of relevant groups and individuals. At the end of an inquiry, the committee often produces a report setting out its findings and making recommendations to the UK government.It is incumbent upon the government to respond to each of the reports recommendations within two months of publication.

Also Read: London acid attacks: Teenager charged with 15 offences in UK

Gill has also been chosen to lead the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs.

The APPG has made an excellent start this weekwe are confident Preet will make an excellent chair to guide the APPG to make concrete progress on some of the key issues of importance to the Sikh community, said Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of Sikh Federation (UK).

Meanwhile, a veteran Indian-origin Labour MP, Virendra Sharma, was re-elected chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).The 70-year-old, who has been the Chair of the group for seven years and prides himself as the only first-generation member of the Indian Diaspora in the House of Commons, was unanimously re-elected by the cross-party meeting of members of both Houses of Parliament this week.

The group, of which fellow Indian-origin Labour MP Seema Malhotra was elected vice-chair, works to promote understanding and co-operation between the people and parliamentarians of India and Britain.

Also Read | AR Rahman UK concert: Tamil songs by music maestro irk fans; organisers deny 'fiasco'

The Brexit negotiation period will be a challenging time for the United Kingdom and I want to do everything I can to encourage further trade and investment opportunities between the UK and India, said Sharma, the MP for Ealing Southall.Earlier this year, he had led an international cross party delegation of parliamentarians to Agra and Delhi, where the group met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Beirut:

Four people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a check-point in Kurdish-controlled area of northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said that the attack took place near the village of Tel Tamr, some 30 km from the Syrian-Turkish border.

Syrian state TV has also reported the deaths of four people in a car bomb attack in the area, but said it had taken place in the nearby town of Ras al-Ayn.

Also Read | Syria: 18 killed as car bombers strike capital city Damascus

A Kurdish official confirmed an attack targeting a checkpoint operated by the Asayish Kurdish internal security force, but had no further details.

The Asayish could not immediately be reached for comment.

The area is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The YPG is spearheading an assault to capture the city of Raqqa from Islamic State.

Also Read: Lashkar car attack kills 34, injures more than 50 in south Afghanistan

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Nearly 1,000 people have attended a party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the popular Japanese dress-up doll Licca.

The event was held on Monday in Urayasu City, near Tokyo.

The participants brought invitation cards they got 25 years ago. These were included in a limited edition of the doll released in 1992.

About 50 dolls dressed in various styles of the past were displayed at the venue. The 1975 edition wore a mini skirt and the 1995 one had loose socks that were popular among schoolgirls at that time.

One family says they bought the limited edition when their child was born and it's hard to believe that 25 years have passed.

Launched in 1967, more than 60 million Licca Dolls have been sold.

Jul 18 (ANNnewsCH) - caaaaaaaaaaaaa25aaacYaaaaaSaaaSaaaYacaaaaaaYaa aaaaS aaaecYaaaaaaaa
Taiwan has decided in principle to lift a ban since 2001 on beef imported from Japan, action taken following the discovery there of cattle with mad cow disease, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement posted Monday on its website.

The statement also indicated Taiwan will also lift bans imposed for the same reason on beef imports from Sweden and the Netherlands.

A FDA official told Kyodo News on condition of anonymity that if all goes smoothly, Taiwan will resume imports of Japanese beef no later than Oct. 15.

Nearly 95 percent of Taiwan's beef is imported. Last year the United States was Taiwan's No. 1 beef supplier by weight and value, followed by Australia and New Zealand.

Before the ban was imposed, Japan exported a minuscule amount of beef and beef products to Taiwan. In 2000, Japan shipped only 4 tons, only 0.01 percent of the total amount imported by Taiwan that year.

Taiwan also banned beef imports from the United States and other countries in 2003. Over time, Taiwan lifted the bans on Paraguay, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Japan on Monday pledged $1 billion over the next two years to back the UN's development agenda, raising its profile as one of the world's largest foreign aid donors.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a meeting at the United Nations that the funding will go to help children and youth worldwide, in particular to promote education, health, disaster response and gender equality.

The announcement provided a boost to the United Nations as it seeks to build support for its sustainable development goals (SDGs) that call for ending extreme poverty by 2030 among other objectives.

UN humanitarian aid agencies are facing a funding crisis as they struggle to cope with growing demands from world crises while the United States is threatening deep cuts to its financial support for the world body.
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BETHEL  The historic building that was engulfed in flames early Thursday on Greenwood Avenue has been part of the fabric of the local community for nearly two centuries.

Judy Staib, whose husbands family has owned the building for more than 150 years, said the entire family is heartbroken over the blaze.

This wasnt just a fire for us, this was like a member of the family, said Staib, whose husband, Edward Staib, died a few months ago. My husbands mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born in that building.

She added that her husbands great grandmother used to rent out rooms in the building to hatters working in Danbury factories. The structure has retail spaces on the first floor and six apartments on the second-floor.

She would rent them out a room for one nickel a week, and if they wanted her to cook for them, that was another nickel a week, she said.

Staib said she hasnt been able to get into the building since the fire, but is hoping that the structure can be restored.

That building is integral to the downtowns village character, said First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker.

He added that early inspections show that the major structural components of the building, most of which are made of hardwoods like Oak and Chestnut from the 19th century, remained intact and he hopes the building can be restored.

Its part of our community and it would have been a major blow if it was lost, he said.

Countless business have called the building home over the years, from the Frenchs Grocery Store in the 1920s to the Alpine Deli and Paolo Imports toy store that were popular in the 1980s.

The building is still home to a number of businesses, several of which have been shut down as a result of the blaze including the Giggling Pig art studio and the Doherty Petri dance school. Town officials, however, said the business owners are in the process of finding new spaces and should be open soon.

Pat Rist, president of the Bethel Historical Society, said she hopes the plan is to restore the property.

Its so depressing considering how long the building has been standing, and considering all the families and businesses that have been affected, she said. Its really sad. I just hope they can rebuild.

dperrefort@newstimes.com
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HARTFORD  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has become a leading voice of opposition among Democratic governors opposed to Republican attempts to repeal and defund the Affordable Care Act.

A national political observer said Monday that Malloys high-profile attack showed states around the country another dissenting voice among Democrats solidly opposed to the GOP effort.

An early proponent of the health-exchange protocol pioneered by President Barack Obama, Malloy was front and center last week after a National Governors Association event in Rhode Island with Vice President Mike Pence, in which the planned reorganization of the ACA was harshly criticized by Democrats. They once again characterized the GOP Congressional bill as an attempt to give tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the nations most vulnerable.

Malloy said his experience with AccessHealthCT, the states insurance marketplace, combined with his leadership role at a second-term chairman of the 16-member Democratic Governors Association, gave him the experience and credibility to play a national role in battling the issue.

He said GOP efforts to foist the costs of expanding Medicare health care benefits onto states will be a budget-buster across the country. He said while Pences briefing Friday was disappointing, a Saturday session with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was infuriating.

They said were going to be okay because were going to make it up by innovation, Malloy said in an interview in his state Capitol office. It is utterly ridiculous and I called them on it and I dont mind calling them on it because what they really want to do is transfer this obligation to states, either because theyre either too chicken to say what they are actually doing, or theyre too chicken to take responsibility for what theyre doing. So they want to shift it ultimately to governors and state legislators.

By 2026 Medicaid costs will increase to $2.8 billion to retain current annual services for Connecticut, according to projections. Under the ACA, 90 percent of the states costs for the disabled and indigent are paid from federal sources.

Of the nearly 30 governors in attendance at the NGA gathering in Providence, Malloy said both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the current ACA can be improved. He likes the idea of several states getting together to run exchanges where residents can sign up for various levels of health insurance coverage.

Several Republicans maintain reservations about the pending Senate Republican plan, which has been put on hold pending the recovery of Sen. John McCain of Arizona following weekend brain surgery.

A request for comment from the 33-member Republican Governors Association was not returned Monday, while the Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its assessment of the latest Senate draft on Tuesday.

Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the non-partisan Inside Elections, said Malloy earned some increased national attention over the weekend.

I think Malloy has an outsized profile with his role with the DGA, Gonzales said in an interview. The Democratic Party is full of critics of the Republicans plan, but with no clear leader, he is one of many critics.

Gonzales said that Malloys weekend outburst might have played better around the country.

To a national audience, the governor might look like a voice outside of Washington. Hes had his own problems inside the state.

Overall, the controversial rewriting of the ACA, combined with the mercurial President Donald J. Trump, seems to be forcing Republican governors and other elected GOP officials to search their own political souls.

Under normal conditions the party defers to the president when they win the White House, Gonzales said. President Trump is a unique figure and more Republicans are emboldened. Were at the stage where every Republican elected officials is trying to navigate their own way through the Trump administration.

kdixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT
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Moving closer to fulfilling her goal of becoming the first woman from her party to serve as Connecticut House speaker, Republican Themis Klarides is eyeing a bigger prize in 2018  governor.

The 19-year lawmaker from Derby said she has a strong interest in the race to fill the seat of departing Democrat Dannel P. Malloy, characterizing it as wide open contest despite the crowded field.

With the two parties at an impasse over a $5 billion budget deficit for the next two years, Klarides sounded more and more like a contender for the states top office during a wide-ranging interview with Hearst Connecticut Media.

Or, as she put it, somebody who is seriously thinking about it because she thinks this state is a mess.

Klarides, 51, wont make a final decision on the race until a budget deal gets ironed out, saying its not too late to join the half dozen fellow Republicans with candidate or exploratory committees for governor.

Theres clearly no front-runner at this point of the people who are in, Klarides said. I think people should wait and see who all the choices are before they make a decision.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been waiting for Klarides, the first woman to lead the House GOP, to make her move. The conventional wisdom has long been that Klarides is holding out for speaker of the chamber, which Democrats control 79 to 72.

Republicans need to pick up just four seats in 2018 to seize control of the House, where Klarides younger sister, Nicole Klarides-Ditria, is a freshman lawmaker from Seymour. But the elder Klarides may have other ideas.

I think the (governors) race has a few months here still until it takes shape, Liz Kurantowicz, a former chief of staff for the Connecticut GOP and political consultant from Fairfield.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano could also be in the mix after the budget special session.

Im keeping my options open, Fasano said. Ive been concentrating on the budget.

The GOP field includes Dave Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general from Bridgeport; Tim Herbst and Mark Lauretti, the longtime Trumbull first selectman and Shelton mayor; and state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, of Glastonbury.

It is likely to expand to Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Fairfield immigration lawyer and 2014 secretary of the state candidate Peter Lumaj and Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik, each of whom has formed an exploratory committee.

The notable Democrats with gubernatorial ambitions are state Comptroller Kevin Lembo, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew, former federal prosecutor Chris Mattei and Jonathan Harris, the former state consumer protection commissioner and one-time executive director of the Connecticut Democrats.

Klarides practices law with the Bridgeport-based Cohen and Wolf in the firms Orange office. After law school, she worked as a ring girl for the McMahon family-run wrestling giant, the WWE. She got her undergraduate degree from Trinity College, the alma mater of Herbst and state GOP Chairman J.R. Romano.

Not until a budget gets passed, Klarides said, will she allow herself to focus on her political path. She railed on majority Democrats for the stalemate, saying they have blocked six to eight GOP budget proposals because they were afraid they would pass.

I do believe in my heart and my gut that we have the direction to get us out of this mess, Klarides said.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said Republicans in the House and Senate cant even get together on a budget proposal.

Even if we could pass one of their budgets they wouldnt survive the other chamber, Aresimowicz said. Look, people that are running for higher political office have a different viewpoint. I dont begrudge her for that its just a different process.

Aresimowicz pointed out that Klarides would be the first prominent woman on either side of the aisle to run for governor this cycle.

Its a tough decision for her, he said.

Twitter: @gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
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HARTFORD  Admitting growing frustration with a General Assembly that has failed to work together to solve the states budget crisis, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday met with advocates for people with intellectual disabilities to underscore what is at stake.

Malloy said the 650,000 people who depend on social services in the state are being held hostage by the divided House and Senate, which failed to negotiate in time for the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Im the only person whos put anything on the table, Malloy told reporters after a tour of Harc Inc., a provider of services for the developmentally disabled since 1951.

Since the start of the fiscal year, Malloy has overseen spending by executive order, with anticipated massive cuts to school and municipal aid scheduled for Sept. 1 if lawmakers continue the stalemate without addressing a projected $5 billion deficit.

He suggested state lawmakers reconsider adoption of a 90-day stopgap budget they recently rejected.

Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, however, rejected the idea, again, a short time later.

Every day that we delay and do not sit down and negotiate in earnest toward a full two-year budget is a step back, and that is the only thing a so-called mini-budget would do, said Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. We need to solely focus on moving our state forward.

Earlier this month, House Democrats had scheduled a Tuesday vote on a new two-year, $39-billion budget, but then abruptly canceled the special session last week. They will caucus Tuesday at 11 a.m.

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said GOP lawmakers have a balanced budget ready for debate and a vote.

House Republicans are prepared to vote on our two-year budget now, and formulated a temporary, one-month budget version, as well, that does not gut social services programs, Klarides said.

Malloy discounted the Republican budget as an unworkable bill that would reject the union concessions he has planned to save $1.5 billion during the biennium and $24 billion over the next 20 years, with higher employee insurance co-payments and a new retirement plan for the estimated 16,000 new state employees expected to be hired over the next five years, as a generation of senior-level state workers retire.

Tens of thousands of state employees who are members of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition have been voting in recent days, with the final three unions voting Monday.

You dont have a budget until you have an agreement on all the points, and were not anywhere near that, Malloy told reporters.

kdixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT
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WASHINGTON  Sensing vulnerability among Republicans, Democrats including Connecticuts senators are struggling to regain the high ground by channeling public opposition into votes to block the teetering GOP health-care bill.

With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delaying the vote because of the absence of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is recovering from surgery, it was a question of whose side time is on  Republicans adding sweeteners to win votes, or Democrats chipping away with horror stories of what might befall health-care recipients.

Late Monday, Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas announced opposition to the GOP bill, appearing to doom its chances.

Blumenthal said he spent the previous three days in Connecticut holding emergency sessions in New Haven, New London, Hartford and West Hartford, as well as visiting health centers in Bridgeport, Meriden and Windham.

The turnout was overwhelming and passionate, and I heard heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories, he said Monday.

Most of all, he said, patients and health-care providers expressed worry over the bills proposal to cap Medicaid, resulting in a downward spending curve that amounts to more than $700 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office estimate.

I think my Republican colleagues are prisoners of their right wing ideological stereotypes in thinking Medicaid somehow helps other people,  he said. These people in nursing homes are our family, friends and neighbors.

Nationally, Medicaid pays the bill for 65 percent of nursing home residents. In Connecticut, the figure is 70 percent.

Democratic senators led by Sen. Charles Schumer turned up the heat, imploring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold hearings on the Republican bill.

Were four versions into this disaster of a bill, and Senate Republicans still refuse to hold a hearing, said Sen. Chris Murphy, comparing the GOP repeal and replace bid to the 2010 debate over Obamacare for which the Senate held 30 hearings and meetings. With this weeks vote delay, now we need to end the secret negotiations and hold open hearings with doctors and patients.

There was no immediate response from McConnell on hearings, but Republicans seem unlikely to provide a stage for health-care providers and advocates who almost universally oppose the GOP bill.

Groups including the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and insurance industry trade groups are focusing fire at the bills amendment by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, which itself is aimed at placating Senate conservatives.

It would permit insurers to sell bare-bones plans primarily to younger, healthier policyholders at low cost. Insurers and health-care providers say it would capsize the traditional insurance risk pool, which relies on a mix of sick and healthy to maintain viability.

Its simply unworkable in any form, said two leading insurance groups, Americas Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association, in a letter to McConnell on Friday.

Lawmakers should take the time to hear directly from their constituents how they could be impacted by the bill, said Bill Sherman, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network managing director of government relations for Connecticut and five other states. Cancer survivors in Connecticut and across the country cannot afford a health care system that does not provide access to the health coverage they need for lifesaving care.

In a Senate divided 52-48 in favor of Republicans, McConnell and his troops have a thin margin of error to get the bill through. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have already come out against it.

McCain is in Arizona recuperating from surgery that removed a blood clot from above his left eye. He had already voiced misgivings about the bill, but hadnt stated firm opposition.

If McCain or any other Republican senator ends up voting no, the bill cannot pass the Senate.

But as it stands now, if Republicans can muster 50 to vote for the bill, it wins approval via a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence.

At a White House appearance Monday, President Donald Trump predicted ultimate victory.

I think were going to surprise a lot of people, he said.

Were getting it together and its going to happen, right, Mike? Trump said, gesturing to Pence standing beside him. When it does, it will be a big day for America, believe me.

Pence, a former House member from his native Indiana, has been a lead advocate for the GOP bill on Capitol Hill. He lobbied the nations governors this weekend at their annual summer meeting, held this year in Providence, R.I.

Results evidently were mixed. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy remarked in one news report that there are a lot of Republican governors who apparently have a neck problem, because they were all looking down.

dan@hearstdc.com
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DANBURY - A former truck driver with several previous convictions for indecent exposure was sentenced Tuesday to more than a year in prison for his most recent case, involving an incident at Newtowns Blue Colony Diner more than a decade ago.

Judge Kevin Russo noted during the sentencing that Jose Rodriguez has been convicted of exposing himself to women in at least four states and that similar complaints have been lodged against him in several others.

In my estimation, its nearly 20 percent of the country, Russo said.

Rodriguez, who has been through five attorneys since the case was filed, was convicted last month of indecent exposure and other charges stemming from the 2006 case. He had been on the lam during much of that period, until he was picked up by police during a routine traffic stop in 2015.

Rodriguez tried to fire his sixth attorney during the Tuesdays hearing, but Russo denied the request.

A waitress at the Blue Colony testified during a two-day trial that Rodriguez had sat for several hours nursing a cup of coffee before slamming it on the table. When she looked over, she saw that he was masturbating.

You couldnt miss what he had there, the waitress testified.

Rodriguez had been accused of exposing himself to waitresses several times over the years, including an incident at Dennys in Southington in 2009, for which he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence. In March 2005, he had been accused of exposing himself to both a bartender and a waitress at the Rain Forest Cafe in the Westfarms Mall in New Britain.

In court Tuesday, Rodriguez characterized the latter incident as a wake-up call about his behavior.

I dont know what was going through my mind, he said. I used to be a truck driver, and I could be graphic about what I did to waitresses at truck stops. It all started by going into the truck stops and flirting with the girls.

But Rodriguez denied Tuesday, as he has throughout the case, that he exposed himself at the Blue Colony. He insisted he had a medical condition that required scratching his genitals.

Im not the kind of person who goes around stalking people, he said. This is not me; Im a good man.

Russo said that while he doesnt believe jail cells are made for someone who exposed himself to a waitress, Rodriguezs ongoing conduct in Florida, Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska and other states requires a prison term as a deterrent to future misbehavior.

This court finds that Rodriguez is wholly apathetic to the trauma hes caused others, Russo said.

Russo sentenced Rodriguez to two years in prison, suspended after one year and two days. He also required Rodriguez to serve three years of probation upon his release, that he undergo mental health treatment and have no contact with the victims.

dperrefort@newstimes.com
Most companies trust their gut when locking in their target market. After all, the larger the prospect pool, the bigger the sales growth, right?

Not so fast.

Its not as simple as selling your products and services to anyone who will throw you a few Benjamins. To truly grow your business and keep customers coming back, you need to intimately know who your radical buyer is.

Most businesses choose their target customer based on self-perception of their brand, and then the marketing team goes after them. Your own perception of your brand, however, doesnt always reflect whats actually happening in the marketplace, leaving your business vulnerable to missed opportunities and growth.

Harley-Davidsons typical target customer, for example, is almost a cliche: bandanna, sunglasses, maybe a beard and lots of leather -- not the type who cruises around Manhattan in January. So Asaf Jacobi wasnt surprised when winter sales at his New York Harley-Davidson dealership were low. He was selling only one or two bikes a week.

However, instead of chalking up the poor sales to timing and location demographics, Jacobi took a risk and implemented Albert, a marketing tool with an AI engine. Albert quickly found that the Harley customer base in New York City was much broader than the small niche normally associated with the brand. With marketing software churning to target this larger base with messaging, Jacobis dealership sold 15 motorcycles during Alberts debut weekend.

Though AI is becoming more prevalent, not every business has access to an AI engine. Through data analysis, exhaustive research and testing, our company, like Harley-Davidson, discovered a new customer base.

Rebranding requires a deep dive.

When we launched Hatchbuck, we cast a wide net targeting salespeople, marketers and business owners. Although all of our segments were buying, we felt like some customers were a better fit for our sales and marketing automation platform. We decided to peel back the layers to reveal our best customer.

To uncover the fabric of our radical buyer, we crunched data, captured survey responses and interviewed current and past customers by asking, Do you identify as an entrepreneur or a small business owner? and Does your business compete on price, quality or service? to drill down to their attitudes, behaviors and beliefs.We also asked about their buying intent and how well we were helping them overcome challenges.

Surprisingly, our biggest promoters werent who we thought they were. While our software had been built for smaller businesses from day one, wed been attracting larger companies looking for feature-rich software on a budget. These customers were also detractors, so we shifted focus to our promoters: Small business owners looking for an all-in-one sales and marketing platform thats simple to use.

Concentrating on creating the best experience for our best customers, we whittled down our mission statement to reflect our new target, overhauled our design -- from our logo and color palette to our website -- and launched a new version of our software to home in on the needs of this narrower base. These tweaks helped define our mission and zero in on exactly whom we should sell to.

Refining for your radical buyer.

Although revelations about our customer activity led to moderate changes in our business strategy, such customer insights can cause other companies to transform entirely.

Twitter, for example, was once a podcasting platform called Odeo. After several shifts in leadership, vision and product, Twitter has become a simple tool for thought leaders to promote content. In fact, 83 percent of the worlds leaders use it to communicate with their audience and promote their brands. Twitter might never have evolved into one of todays top social media channels if it hadnt searched for other audiences.

Related: 4 Ways a Data-Driven Approach Anticipates Buyer Behavior

Here are three ways to find out who your radical customer really is and use those findings to impact all aspects of your product development, sales and marketing.

1. Step outside your comfort zone and customer base.

Everyone wants more customers, but quantity doesnt always equal quality. A client signed today might drop off tomorrow. Sales and marketing teams waste a lot of time, money and energy chasing and even celebrating the wrong type of client.

To find the right clients, research is crucial. Although our survey of current clients found promoters and detractors, we also stepped outside our pool of customers. Leveraging sites such as SurveyMonkey and Google, we surveyed their audiences based on our desired parameters. On our own website, pop-up surveys collected feedback on pricing and positioning. With this carefully crafted net, we were able to find unexpectedly ideal clients and reel them in.

Companies that research to find their ideal customers have a huge leg up on the competition. A survey by DNN (formerly DotNetNuke) found that 72 percent of companies are unable to do so.

Related: 5 Must-Answer Questions to Succeed Targeting Your Customer Base

2. Break down the data -- and use it.

Collecting great data is important, but data alone is meaningless if you dont analyze and integrate it into your strategy.

After filtering our responses by role (marketing director or owner, for example), our promoters and detractors suddenly became glaringly obvious. This type of filtering and segmenting shows whos in love with your product or service and who isnt a great fit, providing valuable intel for your sales and marketing teams to use in the future.

Companies use different filters, depending on industry. When Netflix, for example, filtered for customers who enjoy films directed by David Fincher (who went on to direct House of Cards) and films starring Kevin Spacey, it found an overwhelming majority of its subscribers at the time fell into both categories.

Analysts saw it as a bold move to pick up a full season of House of Cards as its first original series. But decision makers at Netflix rested assured -- the customer data accurately predicted the (now award-winning) show would be a sure thing.

3. Make sure your brand messaging resonates.

Once you find your target, you need to hit it accurately. Thats where messaging comes in.

Our previous tagline -- Growing Your Business -- didnt resonate with our ideal client, who was more concerned with serving customers and catching sales opportunities before they slipped through the cracks. After we understood that, our new tagline was born: Seize the Opportunity.

Related: 3 Crucial Tips to Undergo a Brand Facelift and Make the Changes Stick

A report by the Rockefeller Corporation found 68 percent of customers spurn companies that dont appear to care about them; this shows just how critical a clear, carefully crafted message is. The right message shows how your aims align with your customers needs.

If youre not growing, youre dying, as the saying goes. Even novices in the business world know that change is inevitable and stasis impossible. Still, its human nature to want to maintain the status quo. Change is scary.

Think only the brave or crazy seek out new and different markets, clients and customers? While moving the target often means changing your company in a fundamental way, its sometimes the only path forward.
The Dominion by Kate Boushel from Montreal named Canada's Next Great Cocktail

TORONTO, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - The Dominion has been announced as Canada's Next Great Cocktail in the July issue of Canada's award-winning inflight magazine, Air Canada enRoute, and online at enroute.aircanada.com. With the Caesar having ruled the nation's cocktail scene for many years, the country's leading bartenders were challenged to create a new signature cocktail using Lot No. 40 Canadian Whisky to help toast in Canada's 150th anniversary.

"As celebrations continue summer-long for Canada's 150th birthday, we are thrilled to announce The Dominion as Canada's Next Great Cocktail," said Andy Shibata, Air Canada's Managing Director, Brand. "As Canada's leading airline, we love celebrating Canadian talent across the country."

A coast-to-coast panel of the country's best bartenders were chosen to take part in a three-day getaway at Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland and Labrador to collaborate on a new cocktail for Canadians. Led by Dave Mitton, Global Brand Ambassador for Lot No. 40 Canadian Whisky, the panellists included: Amber Bruce from Vancouver, Kate Boushel from Montreal, Samantha Casuga from Calgary (now based in New York), Shane Beehan from Halifax and Gord Hannah from Toronto.

"We asked the bartenders to create what Canada tastes like to them using our national spirit, Canadian whisky," Mitton said. "Boushel's cocktail is simple and easy, but still very interesting. She paired the whisky with ginger, berry preserves and cherry brandy and topped it off with sparkling apple cider to create a tall, refreshing cocktail that speaks to Canada very well."

"If I could describe The Dominion in two words, it would be 'magic hour.' It tastes like that warm feeling you get twice a day  just after sunrise and before sunset  when you're enjoying life with loved ones," Boushel says.

Made entirely from Canadian rye, and distilled in Windsor, Ontario, Lot No. 40 serves as the perfect base spirit for Canada's Next Great Cocktail. It is copper pot-distilled and then aged in virgin white oak casks to give off baking notes of cinnamon, clove, cherry and black pepper.

As of June 26, 2017, The Dominion is available exclusively at The Keg Steakhouse + Bar locations across the country during the summer season. The full feature on the Canada's Next Great Cocktail program can be found in the July issue of Air Canada enRoute magazine, available on all Air Canada carriers throughout the month of July, and online at enroute.aircanada.com.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2016 served close to 45 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 57 in the United States and 95 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,300 airports in 191 countries. Air Canada rewards its most loyal customers through its top-tier recognition program, Altitude, which offers frequent flyers a range of priority travel services, lounge access and upgrades to Business Class. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking from the independent U.K. research firm Skytrax and was named Best Airline in North America by the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards at the International Paris Air Show. For more information on Air Canada, visit aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

About Air Canada enRoute

Air Canada enRoute is Air Canada's award-winning travel media brand. An inspirational authority for the global traveller, it reaches passengers at every step of their journey through its multimedia portfolio: print publications (including Air Canada enRoute, the iconic magazine with over 1.6 million readers each month, and a series of special-interest publications), digital channels (enroute.aircanada.com), and many prestigious programs and events (Canada's Best New Restaurants, the Air Canada Travel Design Awards). Air Canada enRoute is produced by Bookmark, the global content and communications company and one of the leading providers of content solutions in the form of content marketing, experiences and brand alliances.

Visit enroute.aircanada.com/canadascocktail, follow on Twitter and Instagram @enRoutemag, #CanadasCocktail

Lot No. 40 Canadian Rye Whisky

Lot No. 40 Canadian Rye Whisky is made the way rye whisky should be: distilled in small batches in a single copper pot still using only locally sourced ingredients. Since rye is the spiciest of all the grains, our whisky is aged in select virgin white oak casks to balance the spice with sweet notes of vanilla, toffee and oak. Every bottle is a testament to our obsession with crafting the best rye whisky in the world. For more information on Lot No. 40 visit lot40rye.com or follow on Instagram (@lot40) and Facebook (@lotNo.40).

Corby Spirit and Wine

Corby Spirit and Wine Limited is a leading Canadian marketer and distributor of spirits and imported wines. Corby's portfolio of owned-brands includes some of the most renowned brands in Canada, including J.P. Wiser's, Lot No. 40, Pike Creek, and Gooderham & Worts Canadian whiskies as well as Lamb's rum, Polar Ice vodka, McGuinness liqueurs, and the recently acquired Ungava gin. Through its affiliation with Pernod Ricard S.A., a global leader in the spirits and wine industry, Corby also represents leading international brands such as ABSOLUT vodka, Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Beefeater gin, Malibu rum, Kahlua liqueur, Mumm champagne, and Jacob's Creek, Stoneleigh, Campo Viejo, and Kenwood wines. In 2017, Corby was named one of the 50 Best Workplaces in Canada by The Great Place to Work Institute Canada for the sixth consecutive year, and was also listed among Greater Toronto's Top 100 Employers for the third time. Corby is a publicly traded company based in Toronto, Ontario, and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbols CSW.A and CSW.B. For further information, please visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter (@CorbySW), and Instagram (@CorbySW).

The Keg Steakhouse + Bar

The Keg Steakhouse + Bar has been serving great steaks across Canada and the US for over 45 years. Quality has been a cornerstone of The Keg's success since its first restaurant opened in Vancouver in 1971. The Keg's focus has been, and continues to be, on providing exceptional service, quality steaks and classic cocktails in a comfortable atmosphere for its guests.

SOURCE Air Canada's enRoute

For further information: or to request an interview please contact: Miju Kim, Bookmark, 416-350-2445, [email protected]

Related Links

http://enroute.aircanada.com


OAKVILLE, ON, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. ("APUC") (TSX: AQN, NYSE: AQN) today announced plans to release 2017 second quarter financial results on Thursday, August 10, 2017 after market close. APUC will hold an earnings conference call at 9:00 a.m. eastern time on Friday, August 11, 2017, hosted by Chief Executive Officer, Ian Robertson and Chief Financial Officer, David Bronicheski.

Conference call details are as follows:

Date: Friday, August 11, 2017

Start Time: 9:00 a.m. eastern time

Phone Number: Toll free within North America: 1-800-319-4610 or Local: 416-915-3239

Conference Access: please ask to join the Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. conference call

Presentation Access: http://services.choruscall.ca/links/algonquinpower20170811.html

For those unable to attend the live call, a digital recording will be available for replay two hours after the call by dialing 1-855-669-9658 or 1-604-674-8052, access code 1555, from August 11, 2017 until August 25, 2017. The webcast presentation will remain accessible via the URL above or APUC's website at www.AlgonquinPowerandUtilities.com.

About Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.

APUC is a North American diversified generation, transmission and distribution utility with $10 billion of total assets. Liberty Utilities provides rate regulated natural gas, water, and electricity generation, transmission, and distribution utility services to over 750,000 customers in the United States. APUC is committed to being a North American leader in the generation of clean energy through its portfolio of long term contracted wind, solar and hydroelectric generating facilities representing more than 1,300 MW of installed capacity. APUC delivers continuing growth through an expanding pipeline of renewable energy development projects, organic growth within its rate regulated generation, distribution and transmission businesses, and the pursuit of accretive acquisitions. Common shares and preferred shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols AQN, AQN.PR.A, and AQN.PR.D. APUC's common shares are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AQN.

Visit APUC at www.AlgonquinPowerandUtilities.com and follow us on Twitter @AQN_Utilities.

SOURCE Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.

For further information: Additional information can be accessed on APUC's web site or by contacting Investor Relations: Ian Tharp, CFA, Vice President, Investor Relations, Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., 354 Davis Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6J 2X1, E-mail: [email protected], Telephone: (905) 465-6770

Related Links

http://www.algonquinpower.com


Project will advance gender equality in Saskatchewan. Local women leaders will be engaged in a pan-Canadian network

REGINA, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - As Canada marks the 150th anniversary of Confederation, it is important to reflect on our legacy for the future. Despite the important milestones witnessed in these 150 years, women, girls, and gender-non-conforming people still face hardships. A lot more work remains for gender equality to become a reality in Canada. By investing in a strong and thriving women's movement today, we are laying the foundation for gender equality tomorrow.

Today, Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Status of Women and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, on behalf of the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of Status of Women, announced Government of Canada funding for a project that will help advance gender equality throughout Saskatchewan.

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan is receiving $395,000 in funding for a three-year project to improve access to support for survivors of sexual assault. Through this project, the organization will work with partner agencies across the province to research, develop and pilot promising practices. These practices will be tailored to address the specific needs of the province, with a particular focus on rural areas and Indigenous populations. The results of the project will be shared widely among stakeholders to strengthen the coordination of services for sexual assault survivors.

Quotes

"Strong, dynamic women are the heart of the women's movement and their leadership is key to achieving gender equality. Our Government's initiative will bring them together, at the national level, with the goal of facilitating the exchange of experiences and best practices. This strong, vibrant, and coordinated women's movement will lead the way to equality, for the next 150 years and beyond."

The Honourable Maryam Monsef, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Status of Women



"Gender-based violence remains one of the most significant barriers to gender equality and must be addressed. This form of violence is preventable and we are confident Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan will make a difference in the improvement of support services for sexual assault survivors in Saskatchewan. Their efforts will touch the lives of countless women and girls throughout the province. The positive effects of this will be felt by all Canadians."

Terry Duguid

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Status of Women

"Gender-based violence is a reality that affects women and girls everywhere, including right here in Saskatchewan. This project is a unique opportunity to address the specific needs of survivors in our province, including those from rural communities and Indigenous populations. We look forward to sharing the results with our partners and other organizations working to end sexual violence."

Kerrie Isaac, Executive Director

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan

Quick Facts

In October 2016 , Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across Canada . As of June 2017 , some 50 projects have been approved for over $18 million in Funding to Advance Gender Equality with the goal of empowering great Canadian women and enabling their good work to set the stage for the next 150 years . This is the most funding to ever be approved through a Status of Women Canada call for proposals. Approved projects will take place over a period of three years.

, Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across . As of , some 50 projects have been approved for over in with the goal of empowering great Canadian women and enabling their good work to set the stage for the next 150 years This is the most funding to ever be approved through a Status of Women Canada call for proposals. Approved projects will take place over a period of three years. This initiative is part of a federal investment of over $18 million in support of grassroots organizations and 150 women leaders across the country who will work together as part of a pan-Canadian network. They will thereby contribute to feminist action for gender equality at the national level. The network is being convened by the Canadian Women's Foundation.

in support of grassroots organizations and 150 women leaders across the country who will work together as part of a pan-Canadian network. They will thereby contribute to feminist action for gender equality at the national level. The network is being convened by the Canadian Women's Foundation. The Women's Program at Status of Women Canada supports eligible organizations to carry out projects to advance equality by addressing systemic barriers that contribute to gender inequality in Canada .

Related Product

Backgrounder

Associated Links

Ce texte est egalement disponible en francais.

For news releases and information on Status of Women Canada, go to women.gc.ca.

Follow us on Twitter: @Women Canada

Like us on Facebook: Women in Canada

Follow us on Instagram: women_canada

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadaSWC

Backgrounder

Project: Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan

Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan (SASS) will receive $395,000 in Government of Canada funding for their three-year project to improve access to support services for survivors of sexual assault. Through this project, the organization will work with partner agencies across the province to research, develop and pilot promising practices. These practices will be tailored to address the unique needs of Saskatchewan, with a particular focus on rural areas of the province and Indigenous populations. The results of the project will be shared widely among stakeholders to strengthen the coordination of services for sexual assault survivors.

Organization

SASS is a provincial umbrella organization dedicated to supporting agencies throughout the province that provide services to women and men who have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

Call for proposals: Funding to Advance Gender Equality in Canada

In October 2016, Status of Women Canada invited organizations to propose projects that advance gender equality across Canada. As of June 2017, some 50 projects have been approved for over $18 million in Funding to Advance Gender Equality.

Over the course of 36-months, the projects will address systemic barriers in Status of Women Canada's three areas of focus: increasing women's economic security and prosperity, encouraging women and girls in leadership and decision-making roles, and ending violence against women and girls.

The Canadian Women's Foundation will convene a strong, independent, pan-Canadian network of women leaders to support feminist action for gender equality at the national level. These leaders have been chosen for their remarkable efforts at the local level to advance gender equality with women, girls and gender non-conforming people. By creating a network of visionary women, we will broaden the reach of their efforts beyond their communities  inspiring others from across the country to add their voices and contribute their ideas towards achieving real progress.

SOURCE Status of Women Canada

For further information: Philippe Charlebois, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Status of Women, 613-618-8546; Leonie Roux, Public Affairs Officer, Status of Women Canada, 819-420-6821

Related Links

https://www.canada.ca


TORONTO, July 17, 2017 /CNW/ - Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reports a severe storm that swept through central Alberta during the third week of June has resulted in more than $30 million in insured damage according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

On June 20, a low-pressure system caused severe thunderstorms in parts of central Alberta including Red Deer, Innisfail and Pine Lake. The storms produced hail and winds of over 100 km/hr.

Strong winds were the primary cause of property damage. The wind brought trees down on top of buildings and cars, and left thousands of properties in Red Deer without power. The strong winds also tore off roof shingles, caused flying debris and blew over a tractor-trailer.

"Severe storms have been happening more often and with greater intensity across Alberta," said Bill Adams, Vice-President, Western, IBC. "It is important that Canadians understand their insurance policies and what's covered. It's also essential to have an emergency preparedness plan and know what to do when bad weather strikes."

About Insurance Bureau of Canada

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up 90% of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.

P&C insurance touches the lives of nearly every Canadian and plays a critical role in keeping businesses safe and the Canadian economy strong. It employs more than 120,000 Canadians, pays $8.2 billion in taxes and has a total premium base of $49 billion.

For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow IBC on Twitter @InsuranceBureau and @IBC_West or like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.

About CatIQ

Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) delivers detailed analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and man-made catastrophes. Through its online subscription-based platform, CatIQ combines comprehensive insured loss indices and other related information to better serve the needs of the insurance and reinsurance industries, public sector and other stakeholders. To learn more, visit www.catiq.com.

If you require more information, IBC spokespeople are available to discuss the details in this media release.

SOURCE Insurance Bureau of Canada

For further information: To schedule an interview, please contact: Andrew McGrath, Manager, Media Relations, 416-362-2031 ext. 4312, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.ibc.ca


TORONTO, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Unifor's regional councils have added another $120,000 to BC wildfire relief donations, bringing the union's total Red Cross donation to over $220,000.

"I want to thank our regional bodies for stepping up to extend Unifor's solidarity," said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. "Unifor members in every province are concerned about the welfare of families displaced during this crisis."

Unifor has several hundred members spread out across the affected area, including 100 Mile House, 150 Mile House, Dog Creek, Lac La Hache, Quesnel, Soda Creek, Wildwood, and Williams Lake. Unifor's national office made a $100,000 donation to the Canadian Red Cross on July 12. Unifor's BC, Prairie, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic councils have together raised $120,000 and are encouraging local unions to make donations too.

"I want BC residents, Unifor members, and their communities to know that we want to do everything we can to support them during this traumatic time," said Lana Payne, Unifor Atlantic Regional Director.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

SOURCE Unifor

For further information: please contact Unifor Communications Representative Ian Boyko at [email protected] or 778-903-6549 (cell).
In a first visible split with the Trump administration, South Korea on Monday said that it was ready to hold military and humanitarian talks with North Korea.



"We request military talks with the North on July 21 at Tongilgak to stop all hostile activities that raise military tension at the military demarcation line," Suh Choo-suk, South Korea's vice defense minister, told a media briefing on Monday. Seouls proposal for two sets of talks indicates that South Korean President Moon Jae-in is pushing to improve ties with Pyongyang despite the Norths first intercontinental ballistic missile test this month.



One possible agenda of the talks can be an attempt to reunite the families separated after the Korean War that took place decades ago. The Red Cross said it hoped for "a positive response" from its counterpart in the North, hoping to hold family reunions in early October.

As the military officials on both the sides do not have the direct authority to negotiate significant agreements, there was no immediate response from the North. If realized, the talks would be the first inter-Korean dialogue since December 2015.





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A teenage German schoolgirl who ran away from home a year ago to join ISIS has been captured in the ruins of Mosul in Iraq. Linda Wenzel, 16, from Pulsnitz, near Dresden, Germany was among 20 ISIS followers captured after Mosul fell following a ten-month battle which left 25,000 Jihadists dead.Linda was found last Thursday in a tunnel system in Mosul in the company of ISIS' fearsome all-female police force, some of whom were wearing suicide vests and had automatic weapons. Women from Russia, Turkey, Canada, and Chechnya were also among those found and captured as the military carried out mopping-up operations.Before Linda fled Germany, she had been unhappy at home so she turned to Islam and soon began engaging with ISIS followers in the Middle East on Internet chat rooms. She changed her name to Mariam and began to wear a headscarf in her Facebook photos. Her friends told police she had started learning Arabic, taking the Koran to school, wearing conservative clothing and becoming fascinated with Islam.This led to her being put under observation by the German intelligence officials. She is believed to have fallen in love with a Muslim man she met online who persuaded her to move to Syria to join him. She left Germany by posing as her mother Catherine and flying from Frankfurt to Turkey, before making her way into Syria. Before fleeing, Linda told her mother she was going to stay with friends but instead forged a letter pretending to be Catherine which allowed her to withdraw money from the bank.Authorities in Germany say they are examining the photos of the girl captured in Mosul to determine if it is actually Linda Wenzel. Newspaper Die Welt, citing security sources, said they are sure the captive girl is definitely Linda.
Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says all of the countrys oil savings since the inception of its savings history cannot fund 20 percent of 2017 budget.

In its second occasional paper series, NEITI said Nigeria has about three decades of experience in implementing different oil revenue funds. However, attempts at oil revenue savings have been plagued by contested legal frameworks, governance issues and inadequate political will.

Nigeria has one of lowest natural resource revenue savings in the world. The balance in the three funds (0.5% stabilization fund, ECA and NSIA) is less than $3.9 billion, not enough to fund 20% of 2017s federal budget.

Nigerias $1.5 billion sovereign wealth fund is one of the lowest in the world, has one of the worst ratio to annual budget (10%), and one of the lowest SWF per capital ($8), better only than war-torn Iraq and crisis-hit Venezuela, but not by much.

In simpler terms, if Nigerias oil savings were shared across the country, each citizen will have access to only $8, after over 60 years of oil exploration.
Asari Dokubo

Niger Delta militant warlord, Muhajid Dokubo-Asari has called on the federal government to enter into dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta region.

While speaking during a programme aired on Television Continental (TVC), leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force, (NDPSF), Alhaji Asari Dokubo, said that the Niger Delta struggle is not about war because people do not want to die, adding that the Niger Delta people were open to dialogue and not calling for war.





Fifty years after independence, what is stopping the dialogue? If they want to dialogue, let them sit with us. We are not asking for war, we dont want to die. I dont want to die, I have 21 children. I want to enjoy my life very well. Who is calling for war? he asked.





My people have never accepted Nigeria so how can I be Nigerian? If we want to be Nigerians, we will all sit down and agree to give up our separate identities and accept Nigeria as our country.

The freedom fighter said the people carrying out kidnappings are not part of the Niger Delta struggle, explaining that the struggle is a moral one.

These counter struggle elements were introduced to give the struggle a bad name so they carry out kidnappings and all sorts but they were unable to do that, he said.





Some people go to the pipeline, take the oil, cook it and destroy the environment more than what Shell, Agip, Chevron and others are doing. They are not part of our struggle, they are criminal elements. People who kidnap, rape and steal are not part of our struggle, our struggle is a moral and religious struggle.





Some rogues want to associate them with us, we are not together but sometimes their actions aid our struggle. Youre now kidnapping people, demanding for money; youre not part of our struggle. Amnesty came and was given to most criminal elements so we didnt take their amnesty bribe.

Due to attacks on oil pipelines and the unrest in the Niger Delta, Dokubo who was the former president of Ijaw youth council was arrested by Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, for treason and released by the late Umar Musa YarAdua, as part of efforts to restore peace to the Niger Delta.

According to reports, he received an annual cash payment of USD$10 million a year from Abuja as part of the federal pipeline security protection fee to protect the pipelines and creeks.

I used to eat but I stopped eating five months ago. I drink water, eat nuts, banana and other fruits. For five months now, I have not been eating because of what is coming in front, he said.





I was weighing 153kg and I thought to myself that if the thing starts now, people go carry me dey run or which one so I decided to stop eating. Before then, beans was my best food.
In a comment on his Facebook, the United States based Pastor said, Nigeria is in a recession and this is probably the longest recession we...

In a comment on his Facebook, the United States based Pastor said, Nigeria is in a recession and this is probably the longest recession we have had.

We have had three circles of recessions and it is likely to continue for a while, adding that the government of Buhari is built on lies.

The former Presidential aide also berated the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun for saying that the federal government has plans to start collecting tax from beggars.

Omokri, who described the statement as ridiculous, said, I dont know how that is going to help the recession. In civilised nations, if you are a beggar, they put you on social security, its just silly.

Right now we are in a recession and not much is being done by the Buhari-led administration and you cant really blame them because it is not a government with a lot of ideas.

Omokri also accused Buhari of de-marketing Nigeria during his foreign trips by always running the country down.

How do you talk back the investors that you told that all was lost, he asked.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Monday announced the establishment of a 1-million-dollar Venture Capital t...

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Monday announced the establishment of a 1-million-dollar Venture Capital to boost the Creative Industry.

The Minister made the announcement at the opening of a two-day Creative Industry Financing Conference holding in Lagos, saying 20 people, each investing $50,000, are expected to help make up the required amount.

He said so far, five people have volunteered to invest $50,000 each, and expressed the optimism that more investors will come forward.

Alhaji Mohammed said the $1-million Venture Capital would provide seed money for young and talented Nigerians to set up businesses in the Creative Industry.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Minister said the conference, which is being jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and the Think Tank Media, was conceived with a view to taking the Creative Industry into a golden era of smooth access to short and long term financing.

From my interactions with Industry stakeholders since assuming office, one issue has stuck out like a sore thumb: lack of access to financing is a major bane of the Industry. Instead of just lamenting over this, we have decided to tackle the problem headlong, hence the decision to host this conference.

I have no doubt that at the end of the series of events here, we will be able to come out with a way forward that will surely boost the Industry, he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the government is paying a great attention to the Creative Industry because of its capacity to create 1 million jobs in three years, boost the economy and allow the creative talents of the youths to blossom.

He listed the efforts so far made to reposition and transform the industry as including the landmark National Summit on Culture and Tourism, held in Abuja last year; the Creative Industry Roundtable held in Lagos last week, and the MoUs signed with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the British Council and the Bank of Industry.

The conference was declared open by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs Aisha Abubakar; Minister of Information and Communication from the Republic of Niger, Hadjia Koubra Sani and many Industry stakeholders, including Film and Music Producers, Artists, Copyright lawyers, representatives of Banks and journalists, are attending the conference.
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has excluded Kelechi Iheanacho from their touring party for the International Champions Cup (ICC) matches in the USA.City face rivals Manchester United in Houston on Thursday, before playing matches against Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.Iheanachos exclusion from the squad, suggests the 20-year-old is on his way out of Etihad Stadium, having been found surplus to requirements to the squad.The Super Eagles star has been linked with Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United and he is expected to sort out his future in the coming days.
Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Katsina state and a former Senate Majority Whip, Senator Kanti Bello has claimed ...

Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Katsina state and a former Senate Majority Whip, Senator Kanti Bello has claimed that he regretted inviting President Muhammadu Buhari into politics.

The former Senate Chief Whip explained that his regret was predicated on the fact that the past two years of Buharis government has been a waste.

He said this while reacting to a question from Tribune on any regrets inviting Buhari to politics.

According to Bello, I really regret it now, because I thought it is going to be better than what we are having now. Thats why I couldnt speak for two years, because you cannot bring somebody and say he is the best, work hard for him and after one year you say he isnt good. Is it fair?

But after two years and looking at it, I can talk. I hope he gets well, come back and finish his two years. Whichever way, I dont see much out of it anyway, because the first two years have been wasted, nothing to show for it. My regret is what I would tell the ordinary people I convinced to vote for Buhari.

On Buhari seeking re-election in 2019, Bello said, Let him come back and be well. We pray for him to come back in good health. He has every right to seek for our mandate, but some of us also have a right to look for who will give Nigerians the best.
Erstwhile National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, said in Abuja on Tuesday, that he was not invited ...

Erstwhile National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, said in Abuja on Tuesday, that he was not invited to any of the meeting held by the party.The national leadership of the party had four meetings at its national headquarters in Abuja between Monday and Tuesday.While the Expanded Caucus meeting was held on Monday, the party held National Caucus, Board of Trustees and National Executive Committee on Tuesday.Neither Sheriff nor any of his group was at the meetings.But Sheriff, who was said to have traveled outside the country, however appeal to members of his camp not to decamp to other parties. Sheriff, who spoke through the former spokesmen of his National Working Committee, Mr. Bernard Mikko, said that he will address a world press conference on the way forward, after studying the Supreme Court judgment.He said, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was neither in the country nor invited to the assemblage at Wadata Plaza yesterday evening.However, he will address a World Press Conference (WPC) to throw light on the way forward after we have received and studied the full judgement of the Supreme Court and analysed its import on our democracy.We therefore appeal to all our loyal supporters nationwide not to defect as we are still committed to bringing the party back to the grassroots.
A video has surfaced online of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, in their thousands showing support for the Ekiti State Gov...

A video has surfaced online of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, in their thousands showing support for the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose.

In the video, IPOB members surrounded the convoy of the EkitI governor while chanting, Fayose we love you, Fayose we love you.

Recall that the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors Forum had recently declared that his state is part of Biafra.

Fayose had made the declaration while addressing journalists during the bail hearing of Kanu at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Ekiti State is now part of Biafra, he declared.

Similarly, the outspoken governor had yesterday launched his Presidential campaign on Facebook.





Watch video here




A human rights activist and lawyer in Warri, Delta State, Benefit Orugbo, has revealed how a human trafficking syndicate based in Delta Sta...

A human rights activist and lawyer in Warri, Delta State, Benefit Orugbo, has revealed how a human trafficking syndicate based in Delta State reportedly abducted over 40 girls from Warri area of Delta state, mainly below 18 years, as sex slaves for gold miners at a mining field in Burkina Faso.

Orugbo, in a petition to the Area Commander of the Nigeria Police Force in Warri, said that the criminal gang, which contracted a voodoo priest to administer charms on the girls, seized one of the teenage girls, Miss Joy (surname withheld) about six months ago.

He also said a Nigerian couple was among the evil group and urged the police to investigate the complaint and bring all those found culpable to book in order to free the girls.

The petition reads in part, Miss Joy was in early January, 2017 coerced, detained, deceived and harboured by one the syndicate alongside two other girls of about her age at Ashaka Hotel, Owo-Olomu in Ughelli South local government area of the state for about four days within which period a member of the gang took our client and other girls to a juju shrine at Ughelli, where a man who claimed to be bishop Oku, the priest of the shrine, bathed and incised with a razor on the foreheads, chest region and shoulder of our client and the other girls and the incision rubbed with a substance which appears to be charm.

They took Joy and other girls to Lagos from where they proceeded to Cotonou and thereafter, Burkina Faso, where a lady member informed our client and the other girls that they have been sold to her in order for our client and the other girls to do prostitution.

She further informed them that they would pay her the sum of N2,000,000 (two million naira) each and our client and the other girls pleaded with her to send them back to Nigeria, as their coming was not of their own freewill and that they cannot do prostitution job as they have never been in that kind of job before.

The syndicate sold the girls to the younger sister of a prominent Delta businessman, who in turn disposed them to yet another woman in Burkina Faso. The second woman took them to the bush where a doctor injected a substance in their left armpit to prevent them from getting pregnant.

The second madam informed our client and the other girls that the cost of sleeping with a man is one deuxmille, which is equivalent to 2000 fcfa and the madam forced our client and the other girls to sleep with about 16 men a day with the target of remitting nothing less than 6000 deuxmille a day or our client and the girls would be beaten mercilessly and starved of food if they fail to meet the daily target.

Our client had to go through this awful experience on a daily basis with about 40 other girls in the bush as sex slaves to the miners since she was forced into prostitution in Burkina Faso until sometime in April 2017, when after so much search for our client by her relatives, one Cynthia informed our clients grandmother, Mrs. Martha, that she last saw our client with one Mrs. Rita

Our clients family mounted pressure on Rita and her mother for the whereabouts and return by them of our client and she was returned on the 22nd of April, 2017 to Lagos and she arrived at Egini community on 23rd of April, 2017, he asserted.

However, at the border of Benin Republic and Nigeria, the persons returning our client injected her with an unknown substance without her consent.

In the light of the forgoing, we herein pray you to urgently investigate the above complaints and all those found culpable brought to book and liberate the 40 other or so girls of less than 18 years used as sex slaves for gold miners in Burkina Faso in order to rid the society and other immediate neighbouring countries of persons, who willfully involve themselves in trafficking in persons, abduction and sex slavery, which are offences prohibited by the relevant criminal laws in Nigeria.
Passengers of Medview Airline stranded at the Gatwick Airport, London for three days were on Tuesday airlifted by the Airline to Lagos.The airlines flight schedules had been disrupted for the past few days due to what the company called operational reasons.The London passengers were brought back with a new aircraft leased by the airline in Europe to address the situation.The aircraft, which left Gatwick Airport, London at 2.25 a.m., arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by 8.30 a.m.A passenger, Mr Ben Okezie, said that his flight was delayed for two days, saying it was very frustrating.When we were told to come back on Monday night, I thought it will be another disappointment, especially as the flight was again delayed for several hours.However, we finally took off this morning and I am glad to be back home and to my family, he said.Another passenger, Mr Uche Umeadi, advised Nigerian airlines to step up their game on the Lagos-London route.Umeadi said the route was very important to the country, adding that it was unfortunate that Medview Airline was the only indigenous carrier plying the route.When we have more of our airlines on this route, the air fares will be reduced which will be in the interest of Nigerians, he said.The airline had in a statement issued by its media consultant, Mr. Obuke Oyibhota, on Sunday, apologised to the passengers over the situation.Obuke had assured them that efforts were being intensified to airlift them to their destination.We are deeply sorry for all the inconveniences suffered by the affected passengers and everything possible within Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in aviation is being done to airlift them, he said.Obuke said Medview Airline would not abandon its obligations to passengers, insisting that safety comes first in all its operations.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said it is unacceptable that Nigerians spend 5 billion dollars to fuel genera...

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said it is unacceptable that Nigerians spend 5 billion dollars to fuel generators annually, declaring that the House of Representatives will support the Executive to find a permanent solution to the power problem in Nigeria.He also explained that the House of Representatives is reviewing some of Nigerias energy laws in order to provide an appropriate legal framework that will facilitate the exploitation of renewable energy to benefit the Nigerian economy.He said, Power is arguably the single most important driver of the national economy. Indeed, it is difficult if not impossible to imagine modern life without power. Our industries and factories need electricity to run; and so do our offices, homes and businesses. It is estimated that Nigerians spend about $5 billion US Dollars yearly to fuel their generators. This is an unacceptable situation and the House of Representatives stands ready to support the Executive arm of government to put a stop to this state of affairs.Renewable energy is a source of clean energy which is environmentally friendly and is crucial to the economy of the future. We can only be self-sufficient in the energy field when we combine all of our energy resources such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, bio-fuel, landfill, sewage gas, solid waste, geothermal energy, ocean energy etc. Renewable energy sources are natural and often replenishes itself. Nigeria needs to invest more in renewable energy as fossil fuel is a diminishing asset. An appropriate legal framework to exploit renewable energy which is natures gift to mankind is not adequate in Nigeria.This makes it difficult to organise the sector in a commercially viable matter. Herein lies the merit and strength of this Bill under consideration, the Speaker said.The three bills are: (i.) A Bill for an Act to provide for the utilisation, sustainability and adequate supply of renewable energy for electricity and heat generation and for other related matters. ii.A Bill for an act to amend the National Electricity Regulatory Commission metre reading, billing and cash collection and credit management for electricity supplies and regulations to address matters relating to outstanding liability of electric bills in rented apartments. iii. A Bill for an Act to amend the Electric Power Sector Reform Act to reposition the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission for effective service delivery and for related matters.The House, had on inception of the 8th House of Representatives, committed itself in its Legislative Agenda (2015  2019) to devise a Legislative Initiative on Power: The House shall take legislative action to tackle Nigerias energy crisis that has led to a general collapse of industries and businesses and inflicted hardship on citizens.Legislative measures to support improved generation and distribution of electricity to homes and businesses will be encouraged.
The federal government has released a State by State breakdown of another tranche of Paris Club refund of over-deductions on Paris Club,...









The federal government has released a State by State breakdown of another tranche of Paris Club refund of over-deductions on Paris Club, London Club Loans and Multilateral debts on the accounts of States and Local Governments from 1995-2002.





A statement from the federal ministry of finance said these payments which totalled N243, 795,465,195.20 were made to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory upon the approval of the President on May 4, 2017.





Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Kano and Rivers states received the largest disbursements of N10 billion each.





This second tranche of Paris Club refunds is a partial settlement of long-standing claims by State Governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation for external debt service arising between 1995 and 2002.





The statement added that Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun explained that these debt service deductions were in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and Multilateral debts of the federal and State governments.





Adeosun noted that while Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005, some States had already been overcharged.





The funds were released to State Governments as part of the wider efforts to stimulate the economy and were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers.





The releases the ministry said were conditional upon a minimum of 75 per cent being applied to the payment of workers salaries and pensions for States that owe salaries and pension.





The Federal Ministry of Finance said it is reviewing the impact of these releases on the level of arrears owed by State Governments.





A detailed report is being compiled for presentation to the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as part of the process for approval for the release of any subsequent tranches.





The disbursements are contained in the table below:
Former minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has stated that defeated factional leader of the PDP, Ali Modu-Sheriff is and has always b...

Former minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has stated that defeated factional leader of the PDP, Ali Modu-Sheriff is and has always been a tool used by a sitting government to disrupt and distabilize opposition parties, arguing that Sheriff had been a mole planted by the APC led government the whole time.He said this in an interview where he pointed out that from the time of Olusegun Obasanjos government which he was also a part of, this has been the definition of Sheriffs role.This follows the Supreme Court judgement that affirmed the Ahmed Makarfis led care-taker committee When asked what his line of action would have been had Sheriff won Fani-Kayode towed the path of Ekiti state governor, by saying he would have torn and burnt his membership card before walking out of the party.Speaking further, he advised that one way the party can reposition itself ahead of the 2019 general elections is by rallying and bringing together aggrieved members to build a formidabble PDP that can oust the APC.
The UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) has commended Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo for his handling of the recent conflict ...

The UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) has commended Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo for his handling of the recent conflict in Bakassi Peninsula, which affected Nigerian fishermen.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of UNOWAS, Mr. Mohamed Chambas, spoke with the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York.

Chambas regretted the maltreatment and killings of 97 Nigerians in the Peninsula by Cameroonian Gendarmes over failure to pay a N100,000 boat levy.

But let me commend the initiative of the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who has already directed that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to find out what numbers of citizens have crossed the border to Nigeria.

He also asked the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) at the Cross River State level to look into what numbers are being displaced as a result of this.

Do they need help? If they do, that authority should also ascertain the numbers involved and provide the necessary support these newly displaced persons may need.

So I think adequate response has been undertaken by the Nigerian side to cater for any Nigerians who might have come back into the country from Bakassi.

We commend that effort on the part of the Nigerian authorities, the UN envoy said.

According to him, the conflict is of extreme interest to UNOWAS, especially with its involvement in the Joint Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission (CNMC).

He said as I speak to you now, a team from my office has left Abuja where they have been consulting with officials particularly, the Ministry of Justice, Attorney-Generals office.

They have continued to Cameroon, they were in Yaounde last week, so we would look into this and other concerns.

For now, the information we have is that the issue had to do with an imposition of a new fishing tax in communities

And this may have generated some frictions between the different fishermen, including Nigerian fishermen and tax officials.

So just to say that this really was not related directly to the border demarcation issues but have more to do with a new tax that has been imposed by the Cameroonian authority.

Chambas described the relations between Nigeria and Cameroon as cordial, particularly in the fight against Boko Haram and appealed that the trend be sustained.

The relations between the two countries remains very good and we commend that and also we encourage their continuing collaboration on a bigger-ticket item  the fighting Boko Haram.

We urge them to maintain this solidarity that they have with each other and to scale up the fight against Boko Haram, which is wounded but not dead yet, he said.

Chambas who briefed the UN Security Council on Friday, noted that five field workers of the CNMC were killed in January in attack by unidentified armed elements near Kuncha, a region believed to be unaffected by the Boko Haram threat.

While investigation into the matter is ongoing, the UN is working closely with the authorities of Cameroon and Nigeria to strengthen the security protocol for the resumption of border pillar construction in the area.

Reports on the recent conflict stated that the attackers sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ondo States, believed to be a violation of the 2005 Green Tree Agreement (GTA) by CNMC.

The GTA stipulated that the Bakassi returnees must be properly resettled to their natural habitat to have a meaningful living while Nigerians who choose to remain in Cameroon could do so without any molestation.
By Reno Omokri, When Garba Shehu says that the Jonathan administration increased the activities of terrorists, he betrays a very shallo...

By Reno Omokri,When Garba Shehu says that the Jonathan administration increased the activities of terrorists, he betrays a very shallow grasp of history which I will now prove with the benefit of some historical facts.When the Jonathan administration imposed a state of emergency in certain local governments in the Northeast of Nigeria to contain terrorists, it was precisely Muhammadu Buhari that said on Monday the 3rd of June 2013 that the military offensive against Boko Haram is anti North.Again, after the Jonathan administration banned Boko Haram in 2013, it was precisely Lai Mohammed, President Buharis current minister for information, who on Monday the 10th of June, 2013 said that banning Boko Haram was unconstitutional and that the proscription stifles the press and tampers with the fundamental human rights of Nigerians. So it is therefore rich for the Buhari administration to start making these claims against the Jonathan government.It may be that Garba Shehu is not aware that this administration has lost any credibility it has especially as regards the anti terror war.On Thursday the 24th of December, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari told the world that Boko Haram was technically defeated and gave himself a pat on the back after claiming that the terror group had lost its capacity to conduct conventional attacks. Since that time, Boko Haram has attacked military barracks and military formations multiple times as reported in the media. Since that time, there has been an upsurge in suicide attacks with more than 30 attacks reported in the media.In the last week alone, there have been three such suicide attacks with almost 20 deaths, according to media reports. There has also been attacks on military and police convoys with Boko Haram terrorists releasing a video this week of several women it says it kidnapped from a police convoy.Nigerians may want to note that it was under the Buhari administration that the World Economic Forum on Tuesday June 20, 2017 listed Nigeria as the fifth most dangerous country in the world because instances of Fulani Herdsmen terrorism are so rampant and continue with impunity.Fulani herdsmen operating in Nigeria were also named the fourth most deadly terrorists group in the world by the Global Terrorism Index on Wednesday November 18, 2014. This is not surprising in a situation where a governor, who happens to be a close confidante of President Muhammadu Buhari, confessed to giving Fulani Herdsmen money.It may also be recalled that on February 2, 2017, the US Congress cited Nigeria as the most dangerous place for Christians in the world and that impunity for those responsible for the killing of Christians in the country seems to be widespread.All these are proof positive that not only has Boko Haram not been defeated, they have metastasized under Buhari and indeed other terrorist groups have become emboldened to expand their activity nationwide. Nigerians will remember that the Jonathan administration was able to crush Boko Haram in the first quarter of 2015 which was why the 2015 elections were able to hold throughout the entire Northeast of Nigeria.The question that Nigerians may want to ask is if elections can hold in all areas of Borno state today.The answer to that question will show Who between President Buhari and former President Jonathan really defeated Boko Haram.
Everyone can be a hero: Writer David F. Walker on new Lion Forge series 'Superb' and its protagonist with Down syndrome
The bald eagle that was recently found with a mysterious mark on top of his head earlier this year in Nebraska will receive a skin graft for his injury.

Fishermen first discovered the bald eagle on the ground south of Syracuse, Nebraska, in April.

Eagles instinctively look for a high place to perch, so its place on the ground was a sign that the bird was in trouble.

The bird also had a mysterious mark on the top of its head that looked like a pock-marked scab.

The fishermen reported the eagle to a state conservation officer, who brought the adult bird to wildlife sanctuary Fontenelle Forests Rehabilitation Center near Elmwood, Nebraska.

Betsy Finch, the centers rehabilitation manager, said the eagle, who also appeared underfed, probably wouldnt have lived much longer if it hadnt been brought to the center.

When the eagle was first brought in, she and other raptor experts were baffled over what caused the strange mark on the birds head, a spot that should be covered with white feathers.

On Sunday, the rehabilitation center brought the eagle to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, where Dr. Colleen Stice examined the eagle.

Stice, an Omaha plastic and reconstructive surgeon, removed the large scab from the top of his head and determined the injury was caused from an electrical burn, according to a Facebook post made by Fontenelle Forest on Tuesday.

"At this point, prognosis for release is guarded," the post reads. "Without feathers on his head, he would quickly sunburn."

Caretakers will continue to change the bandage every day until the eagle eventually receives a skin graft in a few weeks.

As he continues to recover, he'll wear an eagle hood that the organization modified to keep his bandage in place, said Molly Mullen, manager of marketing and events for the wildlife sanctuary.

He hasn't been given a name because the organization hopes to still be able to release him back into the wild, she said.

He is the 172nd bird the rehab center has taken into recovery this year, according to Mullen.

This years initial estimate of active eagle nests in Nebraska shows about 185, according the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

- BH News Service contributed to this report.
Officials with a vested interest in the longterm viability of Offutt Air Force Base  a major engine of the local economy  arent taking anything for granted.

Although Congress rejected a round of military base closures that President Donald Trump proposed in his budget in May, and although a Nebraska representative has said the base is safe, the officials want to make sure everyone knows how important the Bellevue, Nebraska, base is to the Council Bluffs-Omaha meotrpolitan area.

John Hansen, a member of the Bellevue City Council, warned of a future round of base closings in a written memo to his fellow council members on June 26.

We need to protect and retain Offutt Air Force Base and educate the general public with facts and knowledge, Hansen said.

Gathering community support must be done in advance of any future action by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which selects military installations to recommend for closure to the president and Congress.

Toward that end, Hansen announced the creation of a Military Awareness Campaign through the Great Omaha Chamber of Commerces Prospect Omaha initiative.

The effort will be led by Tim Burke, president of the Omaha Public Power District. The City of Bellevue will give $10,000 over two years to support the awareness efforts.

Were just trying to prepare for the BRAC, trying to get all of our ducks in a row, said Hansen, who has served on the Offutt Advisory Council and other military groups for decades.

Offutts future has become a political issue in Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District, where freshman Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican, hopes to retain his seat. Bacon represents most of the Omaha area, except for a portion of Bellevue that includes Offutt, which following redistricting in 2011 is part of Rep. Jeff Fortenberrys territory.

Bacon, a former commander of Offutts 55th Wing, was the subject of online advertising last month stressing his fight to keep Offutt Air Force Base open. The ads were produced by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC devoted to electing Republican candidates.

The groups spokeswoman, Courtney Alexander, said the ad highlights Bacons commitment to protect Offutt, the jobs the base creates and a strong national defense. The group didnt identify a specific proposal to shutter Offutt.

In an interview, Bacon stressed that he had nothing to do with the Offutt-related ad campaign. But he also defended talk of his fight to keep Offutt open as truthful. He suggested no other elected official is as familiar with the base, given that he served there multiple times.

When he took over in 2011, he said, he reviewed a report on proposed base closings that had been compiled a couple years earlier. Offutt had avoided being proposed for elimination  but just barely. It was at the top of the list to be cut if the military decided to go deeper, he said.

Offutts biggest weakness, he said, is that it has a single runway, which means its impossible to conduct serious work on the runway and still have flying operations. Thats why the Air Force favors bases with dual runways, he said.

Bacon conceded that Offutts future prospects have since been bolstered by the new U.S. Strategic Command headquarters  which represents a $1.2 billion investment. Its unlikely such an facility would be mothballed soon.

StratCom doesnt mean the entire base is safe. Bacon said its possible that the military could shut down most other operations at Offutt, including moving the 55th Wing.

Hansen said the loss of the wing would represent 7,000 of the bases 10,000 employees.

John Pike, a military analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org, he said its hard to see how Offutt would end up on the chopping block now.

No one is entirely safe when the legislature is in session, Pike said, but many other places would have more to worry about than Offutt.

 The BH News Services Curtin reported from Bellevue, Nebraska and Morton reported from Washington, D.C.
McGlade wants to bring a youth perspective, greater access to Council Bluffs school board Kyle McGlade wants to bring a youthful perspective to the Council Bluffs school board while promoting improved public access and fostering a s

City and school board elections in southwest Iowa are a few months away, with several Council Bluffs city council and school board seats up for a vote.

The mayoralties of Council Bluffs and Carter Lake are also up for election this cycle.

In the Council Bluffs Community School District, the terms of board members Jill Ogg-Gress, Scott Hansen and Susan Riley expire this year. Ogg-Gress is the current board vice president.

Kyle McGlade, a 2012 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate, has announced hell seek a seat on the board.

In the Lewis Central Community School District, the terms of Dorene Scheffel, Daryl Weilage, Bob Hendrix, Ron Livingston and Jennifer McDaniel expire this year. Scheffel is the current board president.

School elections will be held on Sept. 12, with the filing period for candidates running through Aug. 3.

In Council Bluffs, the terms of board members Al Ringgenberg and Melissa Head expire this year. Former council member Lynne Branigan has announced shell run for a seat. Mayor Matt Walshs term also expires this year.

In Carter Lake, the four-year terms of Ron Cumberledge and Barb Melonis expire this year. Mayor Gerald Waltrips term also expires this year.

Additionally, a two-year term is up for election because of the death of Carter Lake Councilwoman Mary Schomer. Jason Gundersen was appointed in March to fill the position until the election, according to City Clerk Jackie Stender.

If enough candidates seek the positions, there will be a primary for the Council Bluffs and Carter Lake city elections on Oct. 10. The general election will be held on Nov. 7.

The filing period for city offices runs from Aug. 14 through 31 for the primary and Aug. 28 to Sept. 21 for the general election. Three mayoral candidates and five council candidates, respectively, would trigger a primary in those races.

To become a candidate, potential candidates must fill out an affidavit of candidacy and nomination papers, according to Pottawattamie County Auditor Mel Houser.

Both documents are available at the Auditors Office, a respective citys City Hall or the Iowa Secretary of States Office website. The papers must be turned in at city hall or the school district office for each individual race. There is no cost to file to run for office.

Part of the nomination papers process includes collecting signatures of voters in the school district or city, Houser said.

To run in Council Bluffs, 60 signatures are required, while Carter Lake requires 13. All other communities in Pottawattamie County require 10. Both the Council Bluffs and Lewis Central school districts require 50 signatures, Houser said.
A year ago, Noah Diaz decided it was time to study theater in graduate school.

The Council Bluffs native had amassed an impressive list of local credits: By the time he was 21, he had appeared in more than 80 productions at theaters including the Rose and the Omaha Community Playhouse, and had been nominated for numerous awards.

Hed been an actor, a director and a stagehand, but after some soul-searching, Diaz decided to focus his attention on playwriting.

He already had written five scripts, and one  The Motherhood Almanac  was produced this year at the Shelterbelt Theatre.

Diaz, now 24, applied to 14 schools and received five offers.

He had no trouble deciding which one to accept. In about a month, Diaz will travel to what many consider a thespian mecca: the Yale School of Drama.

Hes one of only three new students in the schools three-year playwriting program, chosen from hundreds  if not thousands  of applicants. His tuition is fully funded.

And they offer a monthly stipend so I will be able to be a human and exist, he said.

Yales theater program has launched some impressive careers. Acting alumni include Angela Bassett, Julie Harris, Holly Hunter, Ernie Hudson and Meryl Streep. Omaha alums include Matthew Gutschick, artistic director of the Rose Theater, who got his degree in theater management.

Diaz, who has a bachelors degree in special education, will have a masters in fine arts when hes finished.

On the way, hell be among some of the theater worlds most accomplished people, including one of this years Academy Award winners.

He said local playwright Ellen Struve encouraged him to apply to various places. An encounter with a current Yale student at last years Seven Devils Playwrights Conference pushed him further.

He submitted The Motherhood Almanac with his Yale application last September, and then waited.

I didnt hear anything for a very long time, he said.

In the meantime, he worked with Shelterbelt on Almanac revisions and realized he had improved the play.

I figured Yale got a pretty terrible draft as opposed to what I have now, he said. He squelched his hopes and quit thinking about his application. I knew from the get-go that (Yale) was the longest shot.

In February, he got a call. He was a finalist at Yale. He was summoned to New Haven, Connecticut, for an interview  all expenses paid.

From there, it got more surreal. One of his interviewers was Tarell Alvin McCraney, the incoming chairman of Yales playwriting department, who won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for Moonlight this year. The film also won best picture. Diaz also met playwright Sarah Ruhl, whom he had admired since two of her plays had been produced in Omaha: Eurydice at UNO and In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play at the Blue Barn. Ruhl will be one of his professors.

When he starts classes on Aug. 18, he will have one assignment completed.

Students are expected to bring a finished one-act play and a full-length piece to their first session. It has to be brand new  he couldnt use a script hed already written.

If thats any indication, I have a feeling Im going to be generating a healthy body of new work, he said, though he expects to get help developing his existing pieces.

Diaz isnt sure where this all will lead, but he knows he wants to combine his undergraduate focus on special education  especially on issues for the hearing-impaired  with his playwriting skills.

Its very important to me to continue working with access in theater, creating roles for the otherly-abled or those with exceptionalities, he said. One of the scripts Im walking in with has a role for a deaf actor.
DES MOINES (AP)  Hubbell Realty Co. is gearing up to break ground on downtown Des Moines biggest housing development yet  a project that will add the equivalent of a small city to the north bank of the Raccoon River.

Called Grays Station, the project aims to turn 75 acres of abandoned rail yards on the north bank of the Raccoon River into an upscale neighborhood with more than 1,100 housing units, some small commercial districts and a network of parks linked to a new pedestrian bridge to Grays Lake Park.

Its a new downtown neighborhood, said Rick Tollakson, CEO of the West Des Moines-based development firm. Its the only really large tract of land youre going to have to do something like this.

Hubbell awnnounced plans for Grays Station in January, but it is now releasing new details as the project approaches key votes at City Hall.

The Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission heard a request from Hubbell earlier this month to rezone the property to allow the project.

The planning commission delayed a vote until July 20, asking city planners for more detail before making a decision.

The City Council is expected to review a development agreement for the project in late July, with a final vote scheduled for Aug. 14.

The agreement would refund a majority of the developments property taxes over 17 years to help Hubbell pay for environmental cleanup at the former industrial site.

If approved by the city, Hubbell plans to close on the purchase of the land from Norfolk Southern in September and would begin construction in spring 2018.

Tenants would then start moving into the first phase as early as spring 2019.

Tollakson said the $250 million development could take 20 years to build and, depending on how many housing units ultimately are built, could bring 3,000 to 5,000 new residents downtown.

Grays Station would cover most of the empty land south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Its the largest empty spot downtown and is a property that city leaders have described as an eyesore.

Around downtown Des Moines, the 75-acre development would be unparalleled in size. West Gateway Park, by comparison, covers 13 acres.

Its a huge project, said Rita Conner, an economic development coordinator for the city. If you look at the 30,000-foot view and look at all the elements, its a small town, really.

Tollakson and other officials from Hubbell gave The Des Moines Register a tour of the site earlier this month to lay out their vision for Grays Station.

They described a dense neighborhood that would prioritize pedestrians and cyclists over cars. In the middle of the development, blocks would be lined with townhouses and tightly packed single-family homes. Instead of individual yards, houses would open to shared park space.

Six- to eight-story buildings with some mix of apartments, condos or co-ops would border the neighborhood.

Commercial developments with retailers or office space would anchor opposite ends of the development.

The pedestrian bridge has been on the citys drawing board for years and included in the 2019 budget.

A network of protected bike lanes and trails would form a grid through the neighborhood. There would be two main parks linked by a series of greenways.

The design aims to mesh natural areas with dense, walkable housing, said Justin Platts, a principal with Des Moines-based RGD Planning and Design, which developed the concept for Grays Station over the past year.

In one of our focus groups, someone told us, When you walk out your front door, you should feel like you are in a park, he said. Thats very difficult to do in an urban environment, but I think we accomplished it.

Officials at Hubbell and RDG looked at similar developments around the country, drawing inspiration from neighborhoods that preach walkability and conservation, such as Stapleton in Denver and Mueller in Austin, Texas.

Both developments turned former airport land into communities that mix densely packed homes with main street-style commercial districts to create pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that command premium home prices.

The design of Grays Station is the result of asking how a Des Moines neighborhood can compete with those in cities such as Denver, Austin, Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon, said Kris Saddoris, Hubbells vice president of development.

Weve come a long way downtown, and weve done beautiful things, but whats the next step? she said. Not only for the people who are here but also for the people we are trying to attract: What are they looking for? What are they doing today in Denver and Portland that we can do in Des Moines?

Grays Station wouldnt be the first neighborhood in central Iowa to promise walkability, shared green space and main street commercial districts. Similar principles have been implemented at suburban developments including Ankenys Prairie Trail and The Village at Ponderosa in West Des Moines.

While Hubbell has been a major player in downtowns recent housing boom, the company has decades of experience building sprawling suburban subdivisions.

But officials at Hubbell said Grays Station will be distinctly not suburban.

Its a high-density urban development with lots of green space, with biking and people preferred over cars, said Cornelison said.

What makes Grays Station stand out from other developments is the diverse mix of housing, Hubbell officials said.

Plans call for both rental and for-sale properties, including detached single-family homes, townhouses, apartments, condos and possibly co-ops or senior housing.

The goal, Saddoris said, is to offer a mix of housing that attracts a variety of different age groups, from young professionals to families with children to retirees.

But the designs and the exact mix of housing could change with buyer preferences and market conditions. Such flexibility is critical to Grays Stations long-term success, Tollakson said.

We know within a 20-year period there are going to be two to three times when the market is going to dip down into some type of recessionary trend, he said. We have to have the flexibility to respond. Were going to be tied to this thing for a very, very long time.

In conjunction with Hubbells project, the city plans to overhaul three flood basins on the north bank of the Raccoon River. Initial plans call for turning the basins into a string of wetlands and ponds that help filter sediment and pollutants before the water flows into the river.

Hubbell wants the flood basins to function like park space, with areas for bird watching and docks for fishing. Saddoris dreams of elementary school students taking field trips to the site to learn about water quality and wildlife.

Tollakson, a leading proponent of a plan to promote recreation on local rivers, wants the new pedestrian bridge to include a place to launch kayaks and canoes.

The flood basin overhaul is expected to cost up to $2.3 million, much of which the city hopes to fund with state environmental grants, Conner said.

Like much of downtown, the land where Grays Station is planned was once owned by F.M. Hubbell, the real estate and business mogul who founded Hubbell Realty Co. 160 years ago.

For years, it served as an industrial area and rail yard.

Today, its overgrown with saplings and brush. Trees rise through abandoned rail tracks. Thousands of old rail ties are buried.

Cleaning up the debris and environmental issues is expected to cost $6.5 million.

Hubbell has experience with such cleanup. Its currently building a 300-plus-unit apartment complex called CityVille on 9th on an adjacent property that Tollakson said had similar environmental problems.

Hubbell isnt the first developer to dream of overhauling the Norfolk Southern property.

About a decade ago, Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates laid out plans for developing offices and other commercial properties, but the project fell victim to the recession.

About two years ago, Orton Homes negotiated a contract to purchase the land but walked away before closing the deal. The sites complicated environmental problems would have been challenging for the Clive-based homebuilder, Conner said.

They had some good ideas, but this is not a property that just anyone can come in and undertake, she said.
A tribute to first responders and our public safety workers two years in the making moved a step closer to reality Monday morning with the ground breaking for Council Bluffs Public Safety Plaza.

In the wake of the tragic death of Omaha Police officer and Council Bluffs resident Kerrie Orozco in May 2015, two longtime Council Bluffs residents, Lloyd Marsh and Ron Mahoney, had an over-the-coffee conversation about the need for our community  all communities, actually  to show, in Marshs view, their appreciation for the men and women who provide our law enforcement and fire protection.

The outpouring of community support in the wake of Orozcos death had been unparalleled, a show of respect that touched Mahoneys wife, Suzanne, deeply.

I watched the Orozco funeral, Suzanne Mahoney said of the origins for the project. There was so much respect shown there. The citizens of Council Bluffs, people of all ages, lined the funeral route all the way from the west side of town. That sort of respect and caring should not be limited to times of tragedy. What Kerrie Orozco was doing  the dangers she faced  when she lost her life is, unfortunately, not uncommon.

That reality was underscored when Pottawattamie County Deputy Sheriff Mark Burbrige was shot and killed and Deputy Pat Morgan was wounded by an inmate attempting to escape from the Pottawattamie County Jail.

Men and women in public safety know the dangers they could encounter at any time, and they do it willingly, Suzanne Mahoney said. The pictures of all those people, all of the officers, standing at attention in the rain at the cemetery were heartbreaking.

The Mahoneys saw Marshs idea as a way they could give back to the community that has been their home and supported their business. To that end, they donated the $350,000 needed for the statues that will be installed in the plaza within the next several months and for landscaping.

When completed, the plaza will feature a statue of a police officer with a K-9, a firefighter holding an injured child, a sheriffs deputy and an Iowa State Trooper. The walkways leading to each of the statues are designed to serve as a tribute to the 911 communications workers whose efforts, often unheralded, provide the connection between the public and public safety officials.

During Mondays ground-breaking for the plaza, Ron Mahoney said he hopes the plaza will not be viewed as a memorial to police officers and firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty but as a reminder of the services they provide to us on a day-to-day basis.

These are the men and women to run toward the things most of us would run from, he said. They provide services, do the things most of us would shrink from, and we should take every opportunity to thank them for what they do.

We commend the Mahoneys and Marshes for their effort to make this plaza a reality, and the first responders who work to keep our community safe every day.
The following editorial, distributed by The Associated Press, appeared July 11 in The Des Moines Register.

Reynolds knows spending cuts will have an impact

Has the state of Iowa been frittering away millions of tax dollars under the leadership of Gov. Terry Branstrad and his successor, Kim Reynolds?

You might think so, judging by the way Reynolds and other state officials describe the impact of deep budget cuts as the state struggles to balance its budget for the just-completed fiscal year. A few months ago, the Iowa Legislature approved $118 million in budget cuts, then agreed to withdraw $131 million from the states cash reserves to fill a budgetary hole that seemed to be constantly growing in size. But state revenues continued to fall short of expectations, and so, despite the actions already taken, the budget now appears to be $97 million in the red.

Reynolds can make up only half of that by dipping back into the state reserves. The rest of the imbalance will likely have to be wiped out through additional spending cuts.

The bottom line is that there will be continuity of government and Iowans will experience no change, Reynolds has said.

No change? Can the state actually cut $170 million in spending, while raiding cash reserves that have to be replenished, with Iowans experiencing no change in government service?

No, it cannot. There is not anywhere near that much fat in the state budget. Reynolds is fully aware of this fact because the executive branch agencies under her leadership are already slashing services to Iowans due to funding reductions. Those cuts come in the wake of a long, steady erosion of state staffing and funding that is a direct result of the Branstad-Reynolds administrations approach to governing.

For example, the Iowa Department of Public Health has seen its overall budget reduced by almost 14 percent since last year. As The Registers Brianne Pfannenstiel recently reported, the department absorbed $2 million worth of cuts in the 2016-17 budget year, and lawmakers then cut $4.4 million from the agencys 2017-18 budget while ordering department officials to use their discretion to cut $1.3 million more.

Now the departments hearing aid and audiological services program has been shut down due to a $156,000 cut in state funding. This program was set up to provide Iowa children with hearing aids, which can cost up to $2,500 and often arent covered by insurance. Last year, the program helped 133 families.

The state also zeroed out its contributions to the Iowa Regional Autism Assistance Program, which assists families in early identification of children at risk for autism and steers families to more comprehensive diagnostic services, care coordination and family-to-family support groups.

Last month, in responding to the budget cuts, University of Iowa Hospitals director of health policy, Jennifer Harbinson, wrote to state lawmakers and warned that these cuts will impact Iowans with disabilities, autism, cancer and diseases.

And yet Gov. Reynolds claims the yet to be identified spending cuts, which will come on top of those already announced, will result in no change of services for Iowans.

At the same time, spokesmen for some of the agency heads who serve at the pleasure of the governor are parroting that claim. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, for example, has imposed a $1.2 million budget cut by eliminating the position of state geologist, shuttering its Bureau of Forestry and terminating a program for parks improvement.

Officially, however, the department claims none of these cuts will affect Iowans. There will be absolutely no impact on the services to the general public or any other agencies that they work with, DNR spokesman Alex Murphy said. Cities and counties and other entities will not see any impact of this.

That claim doesnt come close to passing the laugh test. Rather than advocate for the DNR and its mission, Murphy seems to be more interested in providing the governor with political cover.

For years, the condition of Iowas state parks has been spiraling downward, as campers, hikers and other visitors can readily attest. Now the DNR is eliminating its Trail Crew program, which has used two full-time DNR employees, working in conjunction with a team of federally paid AmeriCorps workers, to develop and maintain trails and other amenities in the parks. Now the Trail Crew program is toast.

To be fair, Reynolds doesnt have much choice but to make even more cuts in spending to balance the 2016-17 budget. But her first order of business should be to acknowledge the impact of the cuts already made  not just to state lawmakers who may be called back to Des Moines for a special session, but to the people of Iowa.

The governor cant continue to insist that million-dollar spending cuts have zero impact on state services. If she does, shell lose any credibility she now has with voters. Either that or the public will believe her and demand to know why the state has been spending millions on programs that have no impact on their quality of life.
A Sunday afternoon chase that exceeded 100 mph ended in an arrest at Cody Park.

People enjoying the day at the park helped police find the driver.

The chase began about 4:40 p.m. after a state trooper spotted a black 2012 Chevrolet Camaro speeding on Interstate 80 west between North Platte and Maxwell, said Trooper Ryan Hayes. When the trooper tried to perform a traffic stop, the Camaro sped off.

During the chase that followed, the Camaro driver exhibited reckless and dangerous driving behavior, Hayes said. When the Camaro entered North Platte, the State Patrol called off the chase but gave North Platte police vehicle information.

A short time later, police officers spotted the car, unoccupied, at Cody Park. They soon identified a passenger from the Camaro, and a brief manhunt for the driver ensued, with assistance from park attendees.

There was a lot of people at the park yesterday, Hayes said late Monday afternoon.

Law enforcement searched the car before it was towed and found a stolen handgun and a small amount of marijuana.

Originally arrested on 16 counts, Ricky Sanabria, 24, of Maryland, was charged with five counts in Lincoln County Court on Monday. His charges include felony flight to avoid arrest, possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony and having a concealed weapon.
State and local officials in Sidney are working to recruit new businesses, and theyre trying to sell Bass Pro Shops on why it should maintain operations in the Nebraska Panhandle town.

Two businesses already have expanded there:

 Sandhills Publishing has taken over a space formerly occupied by a Cabelas call center in Sidney and has hired 22 employees so far, said Melissa Norgard, Sidneys economic development director. The company is looking to hire up to 25 more.

Norgard took over as economic development director in Sidney about three months ago and has been working tirelessly on economic development projects since day one, she said.

 Lukjan Metal Products, a sheet-metal manufacturing plant, also expanded to Sidney, taking over a vacant building formerly occupied by a wiring plant that closed.

Lukjan plans to add up to 50 positions next year and up to 100 over the next five years. The companys flagship plant is in Conneaut, Ohio.

 Long Term Care Group, a consulting firm, also plans to hire up to 15 people for work-from-home customer service and interviewing positions.
It's official. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois Judge Pamela S. Hollis approved the sale of the remaining Strack & Van Til stores to the Jeff Strack-led Indiana Grocery Group.

The newly formed company, which includes the Strack and Van Til families, former longtime Strack & Van Til Chief Executive Officer Dave Wilkinson and other investors, has committed to closing on the deal between Aug. 2 and Sept. 11.

Indiana Grocery Group bested Jewel-Osco in a bankruptcy court-supervised auction, putting forward a bid valued at $91.3 million for 20 stores, the Strack & Van Til headquarters in Highland and a commissary in Valparaiso. The new owners also could have to spend up to $30 million to buy the inventory remaining on store shelves from Central Grocers, which is going out of business.

"We're going to work real hard starting in August to get back and give customers the shopping experience they want," Stack said.

"The reaction from our customers and associates has been overwhelming. I've probably had over 500 texts, emails and phone calls. I've been up late every night responding to each one personally. I've been getting around to it because I think that's part of being local and being part of the community, and I appreciate all those goodwill wishes that have been sent my way."

The trade publication Progressive Grocer described the sale as "a stunning turn of events that will keep Northwest Indianas hometown grocery chain in local hands."

Strack said Tuesday's court ruling was an important milestone

"One more hurdle," he said. "Closing on Aug. 2."
LAPORTE  A man and woman from two other states were charged Monday with passing counterfeit $100 bills at seven or more businesses in LaPorte.

Kasae M. Stacker, 21, of Blue Island, Illinois, is charged with two counts of counterfeiting and two counts of attempted counterfeiting, all felonies.

Jeramiah D. Johnson, 26, of Minneapolis, is charged with four counts of aiding, inducing or causing counterfeiting, all felonies.

LaPorte Police Chief of Detectives Tom Thate said the counterfeit money was found in the alleged perpetrators' possession during a Saturday night traffic stop of a blue Buick Century. The car resembled the one the suspects were spotted leaving in at some of the stores, police said.

Thate would not say how many phony bills were confiscated, but he said they were high enough quality to be accepted for payment at several locations and pass counterfeit bill detector pens.

All of the bills shared the same serial number.

Some cashiers, feeling there just wasn't something right about the bills, refused to accept them, police said.

"We don't have any specifics whether they were manufacturing the money or just receiving the money from someone else," Thate said.

Around 10 a.m. Saturday, an attempt to pay with a fake $100 was reported, police said.

A woman later identified as Stacker grabbed the bill back from the employee, who called 911, police said.

A responding LaPorte County police officer quickly pulled over a vehicle driven by Johnson on Pine Lake Avenue. After locating counterfeit money, the arrests were made, police said.
CROWN POINT  A criminal court judge denied a bond reduction Tuesday for a 63-year-old man charged with attempted murder in a stabbing at Veterans Village in Gary.

Marvin E. Chambliss requested at the court hearing that his bond, currently set at $50,000, be reduced to $5,000 so he could get treatment for damaged veins in his right leg.

Defense attorney Joseph Curosh III said his client, a military veteran, cannot get the treatment he needs while incarcerated.

The state opposed the motion, arguing Chambliss was a danger to the community.

Chambliss is charged with attempted murder and three counts of felony battery on allegations he stabbed another man in the face April 7 at Veterans Village, 830 Massachusetts St., according to a probable cause affidavit.

Both men were tenants of the village, the affidavit states.

Judge Diane Boswell denied the motion for bond reduction.

A new court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 18.
MICHIGAN CITY  A man faces up to 65 years in prison for shooting his mistress in order to keep his wife in the dark, a LaPorte Superior Court jury decided Friday.

Alan Landry, 40, was found guilty of murdering 31-year-old Nekia Hyler, and will be sentenced Aug. 11.

LaPorte County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roule said Landry could receive another 16 to 20 years as a habitual offender because he had at least three prior felony convictions, including armed robbery.

According to police, there was evidence Landry killed Hyler in April 2015 to keep his wife from finding out about an affair they were having after meeting online.

Hyler's text messages to a friend showed she kept running into Landry on the day of her killing, then later was being followed by him when she turned down an alley on Holliday Street.

That's where police say Landry walked up and shot her in the neck while she was seated in her vehicle.

Her body was found the next day in a search that began when she failed to pick up her daughter from school, police said.

Roule said Landry took her cellphone, then went to pick up his children to try and establish an alibi while texting others that he and Hyler were together.

He also pretended to be her in text messages sent to her friends on her phone, police said.

Landry later told police exactly where he had gone. Cellphone tracking technology verified he was telling the truth, but it confirmed he was in possession of the victim's phone after the killing, police said.
Joshua Michael Graham, 28, of Hammond, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for robbing the Centier Bank branch inside Strack & Van Til, 2635 169th St., on March 28.

Police said Graham took about $180 in cash after entering the bank area and handing a teller a written note that demanded money. According to police, Graham fled the area after the teller complied and handed over money from the drawer.
VALPARAISO  The Porter County Animal Shelter has found temporary homes for most of the 98 surviving animals taken Saturday from a Portage-area pet store owner, who faces a criminal charge of neglect.

The 40 reptiles, 14 birds, 20 mice and rats and six aquariums of fish were placed with rescue groups, said shelter Director Toni Bianchi.

The 24 animals that remain at the shelter will be examined by veterinarians before a determination is made whether to send them to rescue groups, fosters or put them up for adoption, Bianchi said. This list includes three dogs and rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils and a variety of other small domestic animals.

Terry Driver, 27, of Portage, faces a misdemeanor criminal charge of animal neglect after police, responding to a tip, visited his business, T&B's Exotic Animals at 5474 U.S. 6.

Driver reportedly told police he had been tied up with a personal matter and unable to do much more during the past week than let a few dogs out and feed them.

Officers discovered "filthy cages full of animals covered in their own feces and urine," according to police. There also was animal waste and seed across the floor.

The three dogs were discovered in small cages in the rear of the store covered in their own feces and with hair missing from their backs, police said.

The county shelter has received many calls and emails from the public offering assistance and donations of supplies, Bianchi said. The shelter is currently able to meet the needs of the remaining small animals, she said, but will post notice on its Facebook page if that should change.

"I want to thank all of the exotic animal rescues and fosters for their immediate outreach and assistance," Bianchi said. "Reptiles, birds and fish are not our area of expertise, and to be able to place so many of them with responsible and knowledgeable groups within 24 hours speaks volumes about the dedication of the animal and rescue community."

Any inquiries regarding the pet store, police actions or related charges should be directed to the Porter County Sheriffs office at 219-477-3000.
CHICAGO  A judge in Chicago on Monday signed an order changing the cash-bond system for one of the busiest judicial districts in the U.S. to help ensure suspects aren't held behind bars as they await trial solely because they're too poor to pay.

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans' order applies only to suspects already found by a court not to pose a threat, requiring that judges set bail at amounts they can afford.

"Defendants should not be sitting in jail awaiting trial simply because they lack the financial resources to secure their release," Evans, who oversees more than 400 judges for Chicago and more than 120 suburbs, said in a written statement.

Between 250 and 300 people on average are jailed each day in Cook County simply because they can't post bonds of $1,000 or less, contributing to overcrowding in the 9,000-inmate county jail, the Sheriff's Department said earlier this year.

Critics long argued that bail procedures in Cook County were discriminatory, often stranding largely poor, minority defendants in jail as they await trial. Those calling for change have included Sherriff Tom Dart and Cook County's new state's attorney, Kim Foxx, who made bond reform a campaign issue last year.

The new policy takes effect for suspects charged with felonies on Sept. 18; it will apply to misdemeanor cases starting Jan. 1.

Judges can, as before, still deny bond entirely if they believe that a defendant is too dangerous or that nothing the court does will ensure the person won't flee.

Guidelines in Evans' order explain how judges can calculate the amount of bail that suspects can afford while also ensuring they show up for hearings. Judges could also release suspects on their own recognizance, or put defendants with no financial resources on electronic monitoring.
SCHERERVILLE  Greyson Kammer's mom put a blue surgical mask over his face, as his nurse got the syringe ready. He started to get antsy.

"The main thing is you staying still," said the nurse, Jen Warta, cleaning the port in the 6-year-old's chest.

She put the syringe up to the port. Greyson wiggled around on the couch, while his mother tried to calm him.

"Nothing hurts  one, two, three, go," Warta said, connecting him to the IV, Morgan the cocker spaniel watching intently.

"Mom, it hurts, when I was just staying still," Greyson said.

Moments later, all was calm, Greyson wearing a pair of pink headphones and watching cartoons on his iPad.

He's used to this routine, having done it weekly for the past two years. For the first 96 weeks, he and his family had to travel to Iowa to get the medication. Now, he receives it at his home in Schererville.

But his family worries he may not be able to much longer. His insurance company refuses to cover it.

That's a shame, they say, because they believe the drug is adding mobility  and years  to his life.

Medication holds hope

Greyson has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a condition, mostly seen in boys, that causes the muscles to progressively weaken. People with the disorder generally are in wheelchairs by their teens and don't live past their early 30s.

But a bevy of research in recent years is improving their outlook. One advancement has been so-called exon skipping.

Duchenne patients are missing pieces of the genetic code (called exons), causing them to lack dystrophin, a protein that maintains muscle structure. Medications are being developed to skip exons so the genetic code connects properly again, allowing the body to once more make the protein.

Greyson is among the 13 percent of boys with the disease who could benefit from having exon 51 skipped. From mid-2015 to just a few months ago, he participated in a clinical trial for the first exon-skipping drug, called eteplirsen, at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital, getting the medication for free. The results of the study aren't likely to be published until next year at the earliest.

But last September, the Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval of the drug (brand name Exondys 51) because some patients treated with the medication were found to have increased skeletal muscle. Continued approval, however, depends on the outcomes of the clinical trials.

However, because of that condition, and the drug's hefty price tag (hundreds of thousands of dollars a year), many insurance companies are declining to cover the medication.

"You pay your premiums and hope that if anything goes wrong, you'll be covered," said Greyson's dad, Jim, who, like his wife, works as a school counselor. "When something like this happens, you feel your trust is violated."

In a statement, Greyson's insurer, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, said it refuses to pay for the drug because the company's internal review panel, mostly consisting of outside physicians, determined the medication did not improve health outcomes. The company noted that the FDA's label states that a "clinical benefit of Exondys 51 has not been established."

"We strive to further the health and well-being of our members," said Mark Robinson, a spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. "We eagerly await results of additional studies, including the FDA-required clinical trial to establish the drugs effectiveness and plan to review new information when it is made available.

Next step

For now, the Kammers, are appealing the insurer's decision, with the help of Greyson's doctors.

In the meantime, the drug's maker, Sarepta Therapeutics, continues to provide Greyson with the drug, free of charge, under a program for patients whose insurance companies won't pay for it. But the Kammers don't know how long that will last.

"Every week is like holding our breath," Jim Kammer said.

The Kammers say they've noticed improvements in their son's condition: less falling, more running and jumping. He can now go up half a dozen stairs, alternating legs, where he used to just do one leg at a time. He strides when he walks rather than dragging his heels. He can get off the floor by himself.

"No question in my mind is it making a difference," Jim said. "I have no idea to what degree, but it is making a difference. For the insurance company, it should be: Is it helping or is it not? If it's slowing it down one day, that's enough."

Greyson is getting used to the routine. He and his nurse play Transformers and Incredible Hulk action figures while the drug is being pumped into his bloodstream. She has even brought her son over to visit with him.

He doesn't yet understand what the medication is for. His parents call it his "energy source," a la Iron Man, who has a reactor on the chest of his suit to charge his armor. After Greyson gets his medication and his muscles are "charged up," he has the ability to "shock" his parents, who wither in mock pain at his touch.

The family also is relieved to be getting the medication at home, something that might not have been possible without FDA approval. No longer do they have to get up at 4 a.m. once a week and drive four hours each way to Iowa.

"We're really ready to get into a normal, a new normal of getting beyond the disease, not becoming the disease," Dessie Kammer said.

The recent treatment marked the two-year anniversary of when Greyson started taking the medication. As is tradition, the Kammers took a selfie with a chalkboard with his treatment number written on it. It said "8" for his eighth time he's gotten the drug at home.

After the bag of eteplirsen was empty, Warta inserted a saline solution to wash out Greyson's port. Then it was time to take off the tape holding the tube in place.

"This is the worst part," she said, Dessie spraying on a solution to make the tape come off easier.

"Don't spray it on my headphones," Greyson said. "Oh, it hurts. It does."

"It doesn't hurt," Dessie said. "This is the magic spray."

On the count of three, Warta ripped off the tape. Greyson didn't even flinch.
The Chesterton-Porter Rotary Club will host the third annual Babapaloosa music festival from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 6 at Sunset Hill Park in Valparaiso. Funds from the event support the efforts of both the Rotary Club and the See Change Foundation, an initiative founded by Chesterton native Eric Bouchard that works to provide children in rural Nepal with education and other essentials. The Chesterton-Porter Rotary Club supports local initiatives such as scholarships for high school students, maintenance of the ball field at 5th Street and Porter Avenue in Chesterton and Rebuilding Together Duneland.

The Corey Dennison Band headlines the event. The band released their self-titled studio debut in 2016 and are currently working on another album, which should be out this fall.

The Babapaloosa 2017 band lineup is All Good Things at 1 p.m.; Jerica Paliga at 2:30 p.m.; Township Train Wreck at 4 p.m.; Visions of Santana at 5:30 p.m.; and Corey Dennison at 7 p.m.

New this year, you can enjoy a full weekend of arts events in Chesterton on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6 by purchasing a combination ticket to the Chesterton Art Fair and Babapaloosa! Enjoy a 20-percent discount to both events when you purchase a combo ticket. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite for a discount until July 30. Kids 12 and under are free. For complete ticket information, visit www.Baba2017.eventbrite.com.

For more event information or to volunteer, visit dunelandrotary.com or contact Chris Fickel, Babapaloosa event chair, at 219-309-7634.
Senate Republicans unveiled their newest health care bill Thursday as they continue to search for the majority needed to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Now, it's up to senators to decide if they like it.

The new bill includes major changes to the original. One of the most significant was the inclusion of an amendment by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, which would allow insurers offering Obamacare plans to also offer cheaper, bare-bones policies. The amendment was included in an effort to earn more conservative support, but could also drive away some moderates who fear the amendment could drive up premiums for those with pre-existing conditions.

It also contains significant new funding for opioid treatment and money for states meant to lower premiums for high-cost enrollees. But it would keep two Obamacare-era taxes on the wealthy and maintains significant cuts to Medicaid, meaning 15 million fewer people could insured by the program by 2026.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still in search of the 50 votes he needs to pass the bill -- he can only afford to lose two senators -- but the hope for leadership is that a few changes may be able to finally get Republicans on a path to repeal and replace Obamacare after seven years of campaign promises.

Already on Thursday Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he wouldn't even support the motion to debate the bill on the floor.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, also told reporters that she would not vote for the motion to proceed unless she saw significant signs from the nonpartisan scoring agency -- the Congressional Budget Office -- that the cuts to Medicaid would be less severe than she anticipated.

"The only thing that can change that is if the CBO announcement, which come out on Monday, indicates that there would be far fewer in Medicaid than I believe there are now," Collins said.

Emerging from a meeting with fellow senators Thursday, Republicans were cautiously optimistic with many saying they needed to sit down to read the bill before they made any final decisions.

Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said he was "still thinking" as reporters swarmed him.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said "I always want to say I criticized Nancy Pelosi for saying 'we got to pass the bill to know what's in it.' I want to know what's in it before I say I'm gonna pass the bill."

Moderates from Medicaid expansion states continued to voice their concerns about the new bill. West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she was "very much undecided" and would meet once again with McConnell this afternoon.

"I still think there's a lot of unanswered questions particularly coming from a state that has a high percent of people with pre-exiting conditions," she said.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the GOP holdouts, was unhappy that reporters had seen a summary distributed to lobbyists before she had seen the bill.

Asked if she was upset by how the process unfolded, she said "yes."

"I think that as a courtesy to those of us who are actually making the decisions that we would actually have an opportunity to see it first," Murkowski added.

A major question remains whether President Donald Trump can use his bully pulpit to actually move senators.

Trump has lobbied for Republicans to move quickly. The President said Wednesday he would be "very angry" if Republicans can't pass the bill.

"I don't even want to talk about it because I think it would be very bad," Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. "I will be very angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset."

What's new?

The revised legislation has $45 billion in opioid treatment funding -- a top request from senators like Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- as well as in state stabilization money aimed at lowering premiums for high-cost enrollees.

But another concern for moderate senators -- that the Senate bill makes steep cuts to Medicaid funding -- was not addressed in the new version. The original bill calls for slashing $772 billion from Medicaid by 2026, compared to current law, leaving 15 million fewer people insured by the program.

In a retreat from a key GOP promise, the bill would also keep two Obamacare-era taxes on the wealthy. That came as members said they worried about the optics of cutting taxes for the rich while also slashing funding for subsidies that go to help low-income people to buy insurance. Retaining the taxes, which saves the federal government $230 billion over 10 years, provides McConnell money to help boost the stabilization fund, sources said. But it is also likely to infuriate conservative lawmakers and lobbying groups.

The legislation would allow consumers to use their health savings accounts to pay their premiums for the first time, which Cruz called "very significant."

Graham plan

Also Thursday, GOP Sens. Cassidy and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina proposed an alternative approach to replacing Obamacare that would keep much of the federal taxes in place and sending that money to the states to control.

They say that one of the primary reasons Republicans are having such a hard time agreeing is because they are working from the Obamacare template -- particularly federal control of health insurance.

Cruz amendment

Cruz's so-called Consumer Freedom amendment is considered contentious among Republican senators with some moderates having raised concerns that it could hurt those with pre-existing conditions. The amendment would allow insurers that offer Obamacare plans on the exchanges to also sell policies that are exempt from certain of the law's mandates. That could allow carriers to provide less comprehensive plans with lower premiums, which would likely attract younger and healthier Americans.

But that would leave the sicker, more expensive consumers in the Obamacare plans, causing their premiums to spike.

Offering Obamacare plans will also make insurers eligible for new federal funding aimed at helping insurers pay for high-cost enrollees.

Sen. Mike Lee -- a Utah Republican and close Cruz ally -- tweeted Thursday morning to say that he has not seen the newest version of the Cruz amendment included in leadership's health care bill and was unsure if he could support it.

There's also no guarantee the Cruz amendment -- in whatever form -- will even get a Senate vote. It could be stripped from bill at any time as GOP leaders negotiate and work their way through Senate rules.

Insurers, who have largely stayed on the sideline in the health care debate, voiced strong opposition to the amendment, saying it would destabilize the individual market. Two major lobbying groups said this week that it would create two sets of rules and make coverage unaffordable to those who are sick.

"I'm writing to make clear my view on how the 'Consumer Freedom Option' is unworkable as it would undermine pre-existing condition protections, increase premiums and destabilize the market," Scott Serota, CEO of Association of Independent Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans, wrote to Senators Cruz and Lee earlier this week.

This story has been updated.

CNN's Tami Luhby and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.
NEW YORK - The MTA chairman says straphangers need to do a better job keeping trash off the tracks.

Joe Lhota says the two fires that caused hours of delays Monday stemmed from a buildup of garbage tossed onto the rails.

He says commuters can help prevent travel headaches like this in the future by simply putting trash in garbage bins.

"I want to believe that this MTA, it's our MTA. We all have to band together to understand. And anything that anybody can do to make short of that trash doesn't get down on the track offer would be very very helpful. Because these fires all start with trash being thrown down there," Lhota said.

Lhota says track fires have dropped by about 90 percent since 1981, when there were more than 5,800 a year.

He says he is aiming to get that down by 100 percent.
Aware that many young students are uncertain what careers and job paths they want to pursue when they grow older, the Career Discovery Expo has been helping students since 2015.

The Expos aims to help students choose a career path that is close to home, pertinent in todays economy and one that they are likely to enjoy.

With those goals in mind, the Career Discovery Expo has scheduled its 2017 Expo College and Career Night for September 14 & 15 on Southern Unions Opelika campus. The event is open and free to the public.

The purpose is to help students make wise decisions about their future and to help them understand the value of education in preparing for careers that will lead to economic prosperity," said Janet Ormond, Career Discovery Expo Chairman. "Students will learn about occupations, educational requirements, and average salaries from the 11 career clusters."

The Expo, an industry-led initiative, targets eighth graders in a region that includes the Alabama counties of Autauga, Bullock, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Perry, Russell, and Tallapoosa.

The Expo unites regional industries and businesses with students to highlight the variety of career opportunities in our area, said Dinah Motley, Expo media relations coordinator.

More than 100 colleges, industries and businesses will be available from 3:30 to 7 p.m. on the two days for an educational, hands-on experience for the participants.
Two years ago, I was working in South Carolina the day they drove old Dixie down.

And all the bells were ringing.

It was an especially significant event at an especially sensitive time in South Carolina, as not long before, a white racist burst open with gunfire inside a Charleston black church and starting gunning down people he bowed in prayer with only moments before.

Such is hate.

Chip, chip, chip

A mere 150 years after the conclusion of the Civil War, which started in the same state, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from his capitol.

Down in Louisiana, the mayor of New Orleans created quite the spectacle in the political speech-a-fying way he ordered several historical Confederate statues removed. And so they were, under the cover of darkness.

Here in Alabama, lawmakers and our new governor felt prompted to jump in front of an angry and perturbed parade protesting such Southern heresy, and quickly the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act was passed, prohibiting the removal of historical monuments that have remained in place for 40 years or longer.

Those who see the monuments as nothing more than painful scars still unhealed from the evils of slavery and the willingness to divide a great nation rejoice at the newfound cleansing wave of revision.

Those who see the frightening dangers of hiding away history like dirt under a rug, or who weep at the sadness of lost heritage, feel either an inherited rebellious anger or a nostalgic sadness at a chiseled bedrock of Southern life quickly disappearing.

Todays Old South

The war may have ended 150 years ago, but some of the battles have just begun.

Campuses are changing building names that once signified a person of stature and impressive standing, but now are burdened with the albatross of slavery and racism.

Cities literally are rewriting their maps, changing the names of city streets, town squares or removing century-plus-old landmarks.

But what next?

Will history books be rewritten to more accurately explain the painful agony of slavery inflicted on so many for so long, with resentful, and many argue continuing socioeconomic effects still felt today?

Will those who bravely stood with courage and sacrificed their lives for the South because, right or wrong, their homeland called upon them to defend it and they answered that call, be forgotten for their finer qualities of loyalty and dedication?

Todays Old South seems still divided in too many ways, and it is a mistake for anyone to believe that removing or leaving a monument is the end-all victory of progress or preservation.

The real monuments

Healthy debates can be a good thing.

It sure beats civil war.

There are many good arguments about why change, albeit 150 years later, is good to finally arrive after the end of the Civil War.

Yet, the historian in me  and perhaps the Southern influence of growing up a white man who chose journalism as a boat of travel into exploring civil rights  sees something different.

There are options to taking down history, and while sometimes those options are not enough, in other cases they well could enhance the point of it all.

Near Wall Street in New York City, there is a famous sculpture of a bull. It represents the spirit of an aggressive free market.

Then recently, somebody decided to erect another sculpture, one of a little girl, standing defiantly in front of the bull only a short distance away. It, too, represents a certain spirit.

Some visitors gravitate to the bull; others to the little girl.

Change is afoot when it comes to the South putting its regional footnote on American history. The true spirit of that change, however, deserves a closer look.

It wont be measured in monuments made of concrete.

Troy Turner is the editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He can be contacted at tturner@oanow.com.
David Levine, a top aide of President Obama and Hillary Clinton, has moved to BerlinRosen, the Democratic public affairs shop, as its first COO to oversee its finance, HR and operations functions.

Valerie Berlin, co-founder of the Manhattan shop, noted that Levine's management savvy would help guide BR as it grows to more than 110 staffers.

David Levine

"He will drive high-functioning operations, talent and recruitment to support our work as we continue to scale," she said.

Levine served as chief of staff in the Obama White House responsible for 234 people and national operations director at Obama for America, which ranks as the largest presidential campaign.

He was deputy COO for Clinton's presidential bid and in charge of its wind-down strategy.

Prior to joining the Obama team, Levine was national operations director for the Democratic National Committee and deputy COO for M+R Strategic Services.

Founded in 2005, BR has worked for Samsung, Ford Foundation, Brooklyn Public Library, Communications Workers of America, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan.
Rachel Whetstone, who stepped down as VP-communications and public policy at Uber in April, is joining Facebook in September in charge of PR for its WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger products.

She will report to Caryn Marooney, VP-global communications.

Rachel Whetstone

Whetstone joined the car-sharing company in 2015, replacing former Obama advisor David Plouffe.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recruited Plouffe in January to run the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, social advocacy organization. CZI was formed by Zuckerberg and his wife, Chan, to give away most of their FB stock to groups that "advance human potential."

Before Uber, Whetstone did a ten-year stint at Google, where she handled PR and the search engine's relations with the European Union and Federal Trade Commission.

The UK native began her career in Conservative Party politics, advising then-Home Secretary Michael Howard.

She left for jobs at One2One and Portland PR before returning to counsel Howard when he became leader of his party.
Charges that CenturyLink engaged in fraudulent billing practices have been compared to similar charges against Wells Fargo that cost it $185 million in fines and resulted in 5,000+ staffers being fired.

CenturyLink, $17.9 billion telecom company whose communications is headed by Debra Peterson, candidate for 2018 chair-elect of PRSA, has been hit with fraud charges that could cost it up to $12B.

Minnesota on July 12 joined seven other states in filing a class-action consumer suit against the company.

Debra Peterson Oscar Suris

The state says CenturyLink customers had to contend with an incredibly complicated pricing scheme that involved more than 1,500 different scenarios of what would be charged.

Wells Fargo communications are headed by Oscar Suris, who was co-chair of the 2013 national conference of PRSA in Philadelphia. ODwyer reporters were banned from all sessions and the exhibit hall despite pleas made to Suris and Patrice Tanaka, who currently hosts joyfulplanet.com.

Suris, current chair of the Institute for PR, did not respond to phone calls and e-mails and while Tanaka was sympathetic, she was unable to change policy set by the Society's staff.

Bloomberg Sees Similarity to Wells Fargo

A Bloomberg headline said CenturyLink Is Accused of Running a Wells Fargo-Like Scheme.

Former CenturyLink employee Heidi Heiser said she became concerned about practices at the company after reading about the charges against Wells Fargo.

Heiser said she was fired shortly after bringing a complaint to CEO Glen Post during a companywide Q&A session on an internal message board.

The June 16 Bloomberg story by Polly Morendz and Scott Moritz said AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have settled cases in which third-party companies had been adding services to customers bills without consent.

CenturyLink is going to be in a world of hurt if this turns out to be true, said Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. Heiser said her initial complaints to immediate superiors were ignored.

Mark Molzen, CenturyLink spokesperson, said the company holds itself and its employees to the highest ethical standards and that the charges were being taken seriously.
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Former Cop Who Killed Jordan Edwards Indicted By Grand Jury Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

A Texas grand jury has indicted the former police officer who fatally shot 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

In a report from the Dallas News, a Dallas County grand jury indicted former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver for the murder of Edwards back in April of this year, on Monday. Oliver was also indicted on four counts of aggravated assault by a public servant for firing his rifle into the vehicle Edwards (along with his two brothers and two friends) was in, when the teenagers tried to leave a party after shots were fired from a gun.

READ: Jordan Edwards Family Sues Texas Cop, Department In 15-Year-Olds Death

Police reports had initially said that the vehicle Edwards was in was backing down the street towards the officers in an aggressive manner. However, Balch Springs police chief Jonathan Haber retracted the statement saying, I unintentionally (was) incorrect when I said the vehicle was backing down the roadin fact, I can tell you that I do have questions in relation to my observation (of) the video. After reviewing the video, I dont believe that it met our core values.

Although no date has been set for Olivers trial, Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said prosecutors will first pursue the murder charge against Oliver. I think our police officers would stand with us and say, We do not condone bad behavior,' Johnson said. Hopefully, it is a message we are sending to the bad police officers. If you do wrong, we will prosecute you.

READ: The Police Officer Who Killed Jordan Edwards Has Been Fired

Last month, Oliver was also indicted on two aggravated assault charges after being accused of pulling a gun on two people in an unrelated road-rage incident weeks before Jordans death. The district attorney called Oliver a danger to the community.

Source: dallasnews.com
Council Bluffs will host the first of three public hearings on Iowas proposed stopgap measure for individual health insurance for 2018.

If federal officials approve the plan, Blue Cross affiliate Wellmark and possibly other insurance companies may resume selling insurance to the estimated 72,000 Iowans covered by individual plans under the Affordable Care Act. So far only one company, Medica Health, plans to offer coverage in 2018.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said Monday that the temporary proposal is intended to give relief from sharply higher health plan premiums expected next year.

We hope that people who are being impacted by these continued changes will comment on the viability of our stopgap measure, he said. We hope that people are able to provide comments in a manner that allows us to take their suggestions to heart.

Under Iowas stopgap plan, the estimated $352 million in federal subsidies for Iowa next year would go to subsidize premiums and pay for a reinsurance program to protect insurers against high-cost claims. The money would not cover some out-of-pocket expenses for low-income people, as the law now provides.

The stopgap measure would guarantee coverage to individuals, prohibit annual and lifetime limits on claims and include the ACAs essential health benefits. Consumers could buy a single standard health plan, with subsidies, directly from insurance companies instead of through the ACA exchange.

Federal subsidy payments would go directly to insurance companies. Monthly premiums could vary by insurance company and by age and income.

The stopgap plan would not affect pre-ACA plans grandfathered in by the federal government.

The hearing will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Room B of the Council Bluffs Public Library, 400 Willow Ave. Other hearings will be Aug. 2 at the Des Moines Central Public Library and Aug. 10 at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, both 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The changes will substantially stabilize our individual market so that it will continue into next year, Ommen said. Under the current law we are in a collapsed market, and the rate increases are just staggering.

Under ACA next year, he said, an Iowa couple  each 30 years old, with two children and an annual income of $100,000  could face insurance premiums totaling $25,000 for the year.

If that happens, he said, people probably would cancel their insurance, especially if they are young and healthy, creating a cycle of declining dollars for payment of claims and more medical expenses that are uninsured and shared by everyone.

Were all concerned about the market, to balance the market thats broken and falling apart, Ommen said. Were trying to find some way to keep it operational and not see a large number of Iowans impacted with rate increases that are going to drive individuals out.

If federal officials approve the plan, Iowans would have at least two choices of individual health plans for 2018. Medica Health has said it will offer individual ACA exchange plans, with premiums rising an average of 43.5 percent, and also is interested in taking part in the stopgap plan, Ommen said.

Wellmark officials have said the company would resume selling individual plans under the stopgap proposal but otherwise would remain out of that market. Aetna and some other companies have said they couldnt get ramped up in time for 2018 but might be able to take part in 2019, Ommen said.

Gundersen Health System also is interested in selling coverage in northeastern Iowa if the plan is approved, he said.

The Iowa stopgap proposal, one of several state waiver requests being reviewed by federal officials, would not be a long-term solution, Ommen said. Congress still needs to act to provide long-term stability to the individual health insurance market.

Nebraska has not sought a waiver. So far, Medica is the only insurer committed to selling individual plans in Nebraska next year. Its rates for 2018 havent been made public.

The Iowa Insurance Division plans to provide a third-party economic analysis of the stopgap proposal in late July and submit the final proposal by mid-August.

The stopgap measure would be in effect for one year, although Iowa could ask for it to be extended another year.

Ommen said federal officials are working with the state on the proposal. Were moving forward because theyve been cooperative and helpful in their guidance.
Police first went to the Ralston apartments last month because a man was trapped in his crashed pickup truck.

Roughly seven hours later, they learned that another mans body had been found in a nearby garage.

It has taken authorities weeks to verify the connection between the crash and the death. On Monday, the man driving the pickup was charged with murder.

Prosecutors say Dustin Salisbury hit Jessi Domingo with his pickup truck on June 21 after the two argued.

Salisbury, 32, was arrested Monday afternoon on charges of second-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

The arrest adds to the strange circumstances of the incident  Salisbury told police that he suffers from PTSD and blackouts and didnt remember the crash.

Just before 4:30 a.m. on the day of the crash, Salisbury was preparing to go fishing when a confrontation occurred between him and Domingo, whom he didnt know, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said. Salisbury struck a power pole and Domingo with his 2016 Honda Ridgeline, Kleine said. The impact propelled Domingo into a nearby garage, and his body wasnt found until 11 a.m. that day.

An autopsy determined that Domingo suffered massive trauma consistent with being hit by a vehicle, Kleine said.

Ralston police officers went to 82nd and Seymour Streets after receiving a report that Salisbury was pinned in his overturned pickup near the entrance to the parking garages for the Orleans Square Apartments.

Firefighters freed Salisbury, who had scrapes and bruises.

(Salisbury) stated he blacked out, according to a search warrant. (He) said he had not been using any drugs or alcohol.

A judge granted a warrant for police to seize medical records and toxicology reports when Salisbury was admitted to Bergan Mercy Medical Center later that day. Salisbury was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Kleine said.

Domingos body was found by OPPD workers in a damaged garage connected to two others.

The 23-year-old was far from his relatives home in Ralston and the South Omaha house where he lived with his father. His vehicle had been left at a Runza restaurant several blocks away, a sister has said.

Authorities have said Salisburys pickup did not strike the garage in which Domingos body was found.

Salisbury previously served in the U.S. Air Force, according to court documents.

His ex-wife filed a protection order in May. In a request for the protection order, she wrote that Salisbury told her he had thought about going to her workplace to kill her and her boss. In November, she wrote, she was holding their baby when he told her she gave him no choice but to shoot and kill her. He covered my face with his hands. He said I knew what would happen if I called 911, according to court documents. She and their baby moved out of their Ralston home at the beginning of December, court documents show. Soon after, she filed for divorce.

Salisbury has a history of mental illness and violence, uses marijuana and has made threats against law enforcement, according to a protection order document. He kept handguns near the front door of his Ralston home, a shotgun in the kitchen and other weapons locked up, his ex-wife wrote.

In the other comments, section, the ex-wife wrote, Be safe!

The protection order was temporarily granted, but the ex-wife later filed a motion to dismiss it.

In 2001, Salisbury was ticketed for willful reckless driving, a misdemeanor.

This is the second time this year that Kleine has charged someone with using a vehicle to kill someone.

Prosecutors allege that Dirk Blume ran over Seth Hansen on Jan. 7 after Hansen refused to sell chewing tobacco to Blume because the gas station where Hansen worked was closed.

Blume, who also faces a second-degree murder charge, is awaiting trial, which is scheduled for November.
The Douglas County Attorneys Office has filed multiple charges against a Sarpy County deputy attorney.

Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said Jennifer Hessig, 47, will face two counts of third-degree domestic assault and five counts of negligent child abuse stemming from two incidents.

Hessig and her husband, Harold Hessig, a Bellevue police detective, were both arrested earlier this month in connection with a domestic dispute.

Beadle said prosecutors declined to file charges against Harold Hessig.

The charges were filed Monday in Sarpy County. The case will be tried there because thats where the incidents took place, Beadle said.

Jennifer Hessigs case is being handled by a special prosecutor from Douglas County because of her position within the Sarpy County Attorneys Office. She has worked for Sarpy County since 2003.

Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said that Jennifer Hessig has been on administrative leave since her arrest July 4 and that hes reviewing her job status.

Beadle said it will be up to the judges to determine who will oversee Jennifer Hessigs criminal case.

Harold Hessig filed for divorce from Jennifer Hessig in Sarpy County District Court after the incident occurred. In that case, judges in the 2nd Judicial District recused themselves and Chief Justice Michael Heavican of the Nebraska Supreme Court appointed a new judge to handle the case.

Jennifer Hessig is also facing a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence in Cass County from May. In that case, Hessig has pleaded not guilty.
Douglas County Board members, in voting Tuesday to continue property tax exemptions for Goodwill Omahas retail stores, praised the nonprofits financial reforms since a World-Herald series revealed high executive pay.

Youve taken terrific steps to correct what was reported, County Board member Mike Boyle told Goodwills interim CEO, Pauli Bishop, and its attorney.

The County Board voted 6-1 to allow Goodwills retail stores to remain exempt from property taxes in 2017.

Board member Jim Cavanaugh said Goodwill had taken good actions to correct what he called an outrageous situation.

But before the vote, Cavanaugh pressed Bishop and Jordan Adam, an attorney for Goodwill, to provide what Cavanaugh called recognition of what had gone wrong.

Recognition is the first step to recovery, he said.

We have changed certain aspects of what we do at Goodwill, Adam said.

Under further questions from Cavanaugh, Adam said certain decisions were made at Goodwill that were unfortunate and regrettable.

But the organization has new leaders and is trying to move forward, Adam said.

Be specific, Cavanaugh replied. What mistakes were made? What corrective actions were taken?

Adam replied that, as has been reported, Goodwill had previously paid more than 10 people $100,000 or more a year, but now only three people earn that much.

He said the former CEO, Frank McGree, was gone and Goodwill has new leadership.

Boyle noted that he and Cavanaugh are Irish Catholics.

Were used to hearing people confess, Boyle said. If I could give you absolution, I would.

He noted Goodwills work in the community, including its diversion program on a contract with Douglas County. Cavanaugh said the board had to find a balance.

I dont think it behooves us to sit in judgment of past bad acts when Goodwill is trying to correct that behavior and doing good things for the community, Cavanaugh said.

Goodwills property tax bill for the stores would have been $300,000 to $400,000, its attorneys have estimated.

Boyle, Cavanaugh, Marc Kraft, Mary Ann Borgeson, Chris Rodgers and P.J. Morgan voted to grant Goodwills tax exemption. Clare Duda voted no.

That matched a 2016 vote on the exemption, which, as Duda noted, happened before The World-Heralds series.

This year, for the second year in a row, the Douglas County Assessors Office had moved to require Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity to begin paying property taxes on their retail stores. The Assessors Office contended that the stores are predominantly used as retail businesses and not for charitable purposes.

The County Board voted July 11 to approve the exemptions for Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity stores.

After the County Board voted last year to grant the exemptions, Battiato appealed the boards decision to the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission. The case is pending.

Goodwill, Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity contended that their stores are used predominantly for charitable purposes, including job training.

In the case of Goodwill, the Assessors Office argued that high executive pay in 2014 and 2015 was another reason to deny the property tax exemption.

Goodwill attorneys contended that that was a misinterpretation of Nebraska law, that executive pay was not inordinately high and that the Assessors Office was basing its argument on old information. Goodwill said it had cut its executive pay by about $1 million.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Trump administration told Congress for a second time Monday that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and can keep enjoying sanctions relief, even as it insisted Tehran would face consequences for breaching the spirit of the deal.

President Donald Trump, who lambasted the 2015 pact as a candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to scuttle it or let it stand. Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasize their deep concerns about Irans non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions wont go unpunished.

In a shift from Trumps previous threat to rip up the deal, officials said the administration was working with U.S. allies to try to fix the deals flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more. The officials also said the U.S. would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalizing it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the agreement, one official said. That assessment carries no legal force, while Trumps certification that Iran is technically complying clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

The late-night announcement capped a day of frenzied, last-minute decision-making by the president, exposing deep and lingering divisions within his administration about how to deal with a top national security issue.

Since early last week, Trumps administration had been prepared to make the certification, a quarterly requirement. Trump first told Congress in April that Iran was indeed complying. With no final decision on his broader Iran policy, the White House had planned to let the status quo stand for another three months.

As planned, a public rollout began Monday morning involving close choreography among the White House, the State Department and other parts of government. The White House National Security Council distributed talking points to other agencies while national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin briefed outside policy experts who frequently comment on such issues in the media.

Then, just as the White House was preparing to brief reporters, the announcement was abruptly halted and the talking points temporarily recalled as the president reconsidered the decision, according to officials and others briefed by the administration. Among the options Trump discussed with Tillerson and other aides was to extend the sanctions relief but refuse to certify Irans compliance, several officials said.

With a midnight deadline just hours away, officials disclosed the final decision to reporters on a chaotic conference call on the condition that it not be published until the White House had a chance to formally notify Congress.

Ultimately, the presidents decision was the same on the substance to what his administration had been planning all along. Although the language was toughened to add the declaration that Iran is in default of the spirit of the deal, Iran will continue receiving the same sanctions relief that it did under former President Barack Obama.

In April, when Trump made his first certification, he paired it with new sanctions for non-nuclear behavior to show there was no softening of his stance toward the Islamic Republic. Earlier Monday, the White House had told outside experts it would repeat that playbook, by punishing more than a dozen Iranian individuals, organizations and procurement networks involved in ballistic missiles and other nefarious behavior.

But the day came and went with no such announcement, although officials said they expected more sanctions would eventually be coming. It was unclear why the administration held off or for how long, but typically the Treasury Department prefers to issue new sanctions during business hours.

We receive contradictory signals, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations before the decision was announced. So we dont know which one to interpret in what way.

For Trump, a vocal critic of the deal, the obligation to report to Congress on Irans conformity has created an unwelcome, tri-monthly headache. Still undecided about whether to withdraw from the deal, Trump must either vouch for Tehrans compliance or try to claim Iran is breaching it  even though the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors the deal says it is not.

In its condemnation of Iran, senior officials emphasized several longstanding U.S. concerns about Irans ballistic missile programs, human rights abuses and support for terrorism in the region. They also criticized Iran for detaining U.S. citizens and limiting freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

Under the deal struck by Obama and other world leaders, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear program  long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons  in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief. The deal does not address global concerns about Irans non-nuclear activities, but also doesnt prevent the U.S. and others from punishing Iran for those activities. Iran remains on the State Departments list of state sponsors of terrorism for its support of anti-Israel groups.

Scuttling the deal would put further distance between Trump and foreign leaders who are already upset over his move to withdraw from the Paris global climate change accord. Other powers that brokered the nuclear deal along with the U.S. have said theres no appetite for renegotiating it.

Copyright 2017, the Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A rash of copper thefts from rural Nebraska Public Power District substations has the utility asking for the publics help in stopping the crimes.

We are asking the public to be our eyes and ears and be on the lookout for the potential theft of copper wiring from transmission poles and substations across the state, said Tom Kent, NPPD vice president and chief operating officer.

NPPD said copper thefts from the locked substations have increased with the price of copper this year. The past week in particular saw a sharp rise in the thefts, said Mark Becker, an NPPD spokesman.

Copper theft, done specifically to pick up a small amount of cash quickly, is especially harmful because of the safety risks it creates when taken from electric utility property, such as substations and power poles, Becker said in a press release. The risk can cause fires, explosions, power outages, electric shock, or even loss of life.

The thieves have taken grounds, which usually are 8-inch copper rods used to direct stray current to the ground, thereby minimizing equipment damage, Becker said. There is no way to know by looking at the ground rod and wiring whether it is carrying electricity or not.

NPPD has urged anyone who sees suspicious activity at substations to contact law enforcement, with a description of the people and vehicles involved.

NPPDs service vehicles are well-marked with bright orange bumpers. Other utilities serving specific areas have wording or logos on their vehicles identifying them as an electric utility, too.
LINCOLN  The filmmaking brothers who put Fargo on the movie map are turning their cameras loose in Nebraskas Panhandle.

Joel and Ethan Coen are planning to shoot six episodes of a new miniseries project called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in wide-open ranch country in Sioux County beginning in September.

And, they are seeking about 50 ordinary looking Nebraskans to appear as extras on a wagon train.

News of plans to shoot part of the frontier-era project in Nebraska began trickling out on Friday, when a casting call for extras was announced. It will be held Aug. 1 at Scottsbluffs historic Midwest Theater.

The telephones been ringing off the hook and Facebook inquiries have been pouring in since, from as far away as Denver, Montana and South Dakota, according to Billy Estes, executive director of the theater.

Were super excited, Estes said on Monday. We at the theater have been Coen brothers fans for years.

The brothers, who are native Minnesotans, are well-known for their off-beat and dark independent movies such as the Academy Award-winning Fargo in 1996, The Big Lebowski in 1998 and O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2000.

Their 2007 film, No Country for Old Men, won Academy Awards for best picture and best supporting actor (Javier Bardem). More recently, the brothers remake of True Grit in 2010 was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

So, will a wood chipper  which ground up one of the bad guys in Fargo  be coming to the grassy plains of western Nebraska?

Nope, says Estes. But the title of one of the episodes, The Gal Who Got Rattled, does imply that something is going to happen involving rattlesnakes.

And out there in Sioux County, there are plenty of them, he said.

Shooting for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is supposed to begin in New Mexico this summer, with shooting in Nebraska planned throughout September. The set will be closed to the public.

Tim Blake Nelson, who starred as one of the dim-witted convicts in O Brother, Where Art Thou? is cast as the title character, a singing cowboy.

Tyne Daly, James Franco and Ralph Ineson are among the other cast members in Buster Scruggs, which follows a young woman headed west on the Oregon Trail, with some High Plains drifters, gold prospectors and a traveling show mixed in.

Estes said the filmmakers chose private land north of Mitchell for authenticitys sake.

You cant replicate the Nebraska prairie or the Oregon Trail, so you have to go to it, Estes said. Its breathtaking country.

State Film Officer Laurie Richards said she has been working with the production company for Buster Scruggs since the first of the year.

Starr Lehl, a former mayor of Gering who works for the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and serves as western Nebraska representative for the governor, helped the Coen brothers scout locations.

Laurie called me and said she had some folks who are looking for rolling hills, Lehl said. Oh, my gosh, we have that.

She said the Coen brothers, when they visited in May, fell in the love with the site, which has wide-open vistas unmarked by modern civilization, and the rancher on whose land the filming will take place.

They got out the car and said, Wow. This is exactly what we are looking for,  Lehl said.

She said the economic impact on the region will be substantial, with more than 150 motel rooms needed for a couple of weeks. Support services  like food, portable toilets, tents and tables  are also being obtained locally.

As for the extras, a press release from the producers said they are looking for men with beards and mustaches, women with long hair (not obviously dyed hair, no highlights), and families with children older than 10.

The extras will fill nonspeaking positions, and costumes will be provided.

Authentic, western-looking characters shouldnt be hard to find in the Panhandle, Estes said.

They work the land, they know what its like. Their faces tell the story, he said.
LINCOLN  A group of state senators wants Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson to back away from an effort to end temporary legal status for immigrants brought to the country unlawfully as children.

Twenty of the 49 members of the Nebraska Legislature signed a letter expressing disappointment over Petersons decision to join nine other Republican attorneys general in calling for an end to the federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Late last month, Peterson co-signed a letter asking the Trump administration to phase out the DACA program.

Ending DACA ... would be devastating to a group of young people who have called Nebraska home their entire lives, said the letter written by State Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha. The Nebraska Legislature has a long and proud history of standing by our young Nebraska immigrants.

The program, launched in 2012 by former President Barack Obama, grants two-year renewable work permits to applicants who meet guidelines that include having no serious criminal backgrounds. The program has allowed about 3,300 people in Nebraska and more than 700,000 nationally to work or attend school without fear of deportation, according to the federal government.

Although he railed against DACA on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump has not rescinded Obamas executive order and has expressed sympathy for the predicament of those in violation of the law through no fault of their own.

In May, the Legislature voted 24-1 in favor of a nonbinding resolution expressing support for the program, with 17 lawmakers opting to abstain. In recent years, senators overrode vetoes by Gov. Pete Ricketts of bills allowing DACA recipients to obtain drivers licenses and state credentials to pursue professional and trade careers.

Petersons office did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

He has recently said that on a personal level, its a difficult issue. But he called it his duty to uphold the Constitution, not to pick winners and losers with regard to policy.

Nebraska also was among 27 states that joined a successful legal challenge of Obamas 2014 expansion of DACA and the creation of a broader program to provide legal work status to the parents of DACA recipients.

Along with Vargas, other Omaha-area senators to sign the letter to the attorney general were Ernie Chambers, Burke Harr, Sara Howard, Rick Kolowski, Bob Krist, John McCollister, Mike McDonnell, Justin Wayne, Sue Crawford and Carol Blood. Others who signed are Adam Morfeld, Roy Baker, Kate Bolz, Matt Hansen, Patty Pansing Brooks and Anna Wishart, all of Lincoln; Dan Quick of Grand Island; Laura Ebke of Crete; and Matt Williams of Gothenburg.
Federal authorities have agreed to a temporary waiver allowing a public power district in Columbus, Nebraska, to resume drawing water from the Loup River into the Loup Canal.

Loup River Public Power District officials were told Saturday to halt the diversion of water into the canal after Platte River and Loup River water temperatures reached 93 degrees, said Neal Suess, president and CEO of the Loup Public Power District. Federal guidelines prevent water that is 93 degrees or warmer from being diverted, with the aim of preventing the warm water from harming protected birds such as the piping plover and least tern and protected fish such as the pallid sturgeon.

Canal water is generally cooler than river water, Suess said.

An estimated 400 to 500 fish were killed after canal water became stagnated and oxygen levels dropped when fresh river water flowing into the approximately 35-mile canal was stopped. The fish that died were mostly junk fish  carp and sauger, Suess said.

I think everybody got overly concerned about the protected species and forgot about the other fish, he said.

Suess said he didnt spot any fish kills at Lake Babcock and Lake North just north of Columbus, but that doesnt mean there werent any.

The water draws, which are used for power generation and irrigation, resumed Monday at 12:30 p.m. after a 36-hour shutoff, Suess said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Wood River and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had ordered the halt to the draws from the Loup River, Suess said. The agencies lifted the ban, which could have had an impact on irrigation and power generation for customers in the area, after agreeing to work toward a compromise plan for river-water draws, he said.

Suess said the dead fish that accumulated along the shore will be picked up and discarded. Others that sink to the bottom of the canal, he said, will decay there naturally.
Friends of a 16-year-old boy killed in a collision Monday west of Rulo, Nebraska, gathered to remember him.

Easton Vonderschmidt was driving a 2008 Ford Fusion east on U.S. Highway 159 about 2:30 p.m. Monday when the car crossed the center line and struck the drivers-side door and trailer of a 2011 Ford F-150 pickup truck, the Richardson County Sheriffs Office said.

The truck, driven by 48-year-old Bob Campbell, and the trailer ended up in a ditch, the Sheriffs Office said. The Fusion spun and stopped on the highway.

Vonderschmidt was pronounced dead on the scene, about 1 miles west of Rulo, which is in far southeast Nebraska. Campbell was taken to a Lincoln hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Both drivers were wearing seat belts.

A crisis team was available Tuesday at Falls City Sacred Heart High School, which Vonderschmidt attended, for any students who needed assistance. Counselors from Blue Valley Behavioral Health also were available for students and faculty. Counseling will be available as long as its needed, Principal Doug Goltz said.

The oldest of four children, Vonderschmidt would have been a junior at the school in the fall. He was an honor roll student who was involved in choir, journalism and art, and was a member of the schools Helping Hands service club, Goltz said. He also coached youth softball and served as an altar boy at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Falls City.

Vonderschmidt played football and basketball and ran track for the school. Goltz was the head coach of all three squads, and coached Vonderschmidt through the year.

Vonderschmidt was a quiet leader who led by example, Goltz said, and was a hard worker that always tried to do whatever you asked him to do.

When youre a coach, thats one thing you want, kids who have a good work ethic. I never had to worry about that with Easton, Goltz said. Whether it was coming to the weight room in the summer or running wind sprints at a practice, he always gave his best. Thats the same way he was as a student.

Monday evening, faculty and staff called all the schools parents to let them know about the crash and a prayer service that night for Vonderschmidt. About 300 people attended, Goltz said, filling Sts. Peter & Paul Church. About 50 miles north in Nebraska City, students at Lourdes Central Catholic School, where Vonderschmidt had friends, did the same.

I cant think of any time he would have said or done anything negative, Goltz said. He was just the nicest kid. He was a good kid anybody would be proud to have as their son.
Nebraska has some impressive natural advantages:

The Ogallala Aquifer, providing an invaluable abundance of underground water. Some of the countrys most productive farmland. The Sand Hills vast shortgrass region, making for excellent cattle country.

Then theres the central North American flyway for migratory birds, by which more than 500,000 sandhill cranes visit central Nebraska each spring.

A new report from the University of Nebraska report describes the notable economic impact from crane-related tourism.

This springs 43,300 visitors from outside central Nebraska spent an average of $93.37 apiece per day on lodging, gas, food, souvenirs and other items, the study found. In all, that activity added up to $14.3 million in economic impact.

A significant factor making this possible is the way Nebraskans  businesses as well as viewing sites and the Crane Trust educational center  plan well in advance and work hard to provide positive experiences to visitors.

This work by Nebraskans maximizes the economic value to their communities and strengthens the states tourism potential. Its smart planning that builds on one of Nebraskas most notable natural advantages.
3 terrorists killed in chance encounter at Valley

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

In a chance encounter, three terrorists were killed near Anantnag, J&K by security forces. The bodies of the three militants have been recovered with an AK-47, one SLR and a pistol.

The identities of the terrorists is being ascertained, Director General of police, Jammu and Kashmir, S P Vaid said. The security forces had launched an all out offensive against terrorists as part of their anti-terror drive.

The encounter that took place on Monday night at Wanihama village in Anantnag saw three terrorists being killed. A gun battle between the terrorists and the security forces lasted over 2 hours. The security forces were able to gun down the three terrorists suspected to be part of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 5:50 [IST]
Shubham couldn't have enmity with anyone, says father on son's stabbing in Australia

Watch Mohammed Shami's match-winning last over against Australia

Australias membership will provide great boost to ISA: PM Modi

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Welcoming Australia's joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the former's membership will provide a great boost to the alliance.

PM Modi made these remarks during his meeting with Australias Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

The ISA initiative was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on 30 November 2015 by Prime Minister Modi and former French President Francois Hollande.

Modi warmly recalled the successful visit of Prime Minister Turnbull to India in April 2017, and said that the bilateral relationship has deepened a lot since his own visit to Australia in 2014.

Bishop briefed the Prime Minister on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India in April 2017.

Prime Minister and Bishop also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Earlier, in the day Bishop met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed about deepening regional engagement, defence and security issues.

Foreign Affairs Minister is on a two-day visit focussed on strengthening bilateral engagement between the countries in various key sectors. the visit places emphasis on India as one of Australia's top economic and security partners.

During her visit, she will also call on hold talks Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Bishop will also deliver the second Indo-Pacific Oration, setting out how Australia and India can work together to build peace, prosperity and a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 21:24 [IST]
Big Cabinet rejig in the offing after Monsoon session of Parliament

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A big Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards after the Monsoon session of Parliament comes to an end. The government has decided wait since the convention is that Cabinet reshuffles do not take place when the Parliament is in session.

The posts that would be closely watched are that of Defence, Environment and Forests, Information and Broadcasting and Housing and Urban Affairs. The I&B and HUA portfolios will fall vacant after Venkaiah Naidu was selected as the BJP's vice presidential candidate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also keen on giving a minister independent charge of defence. There are indications that Arun Jaitley may be given independent charge of defence while Piyush Goyal is likely to be given the finance portfolio.

Following the Parliament session, Modi will hold consultations with Amit Shah and decide on the reshuffle. Apart from the reshuffle in the Finance and Defence ministries, the PM would also look to have a full time minister to take charge of the Environment and Forest ministry. Science and Technology minister, Harsh Vardhan was given additional charge of the ministry following the death of Anil Madhav Dave.

Sources say that while the better performing ministers will get an upgrade, the PM is also looking to induct fresh faces. During the deliberations, the top brass would also discuss the vacancies that would need to be filled up in Raj Bhavans over the next couple of months. There is talk that the post of Governor in Jammu and Kashmir is also under consideration. While there were reports that the current Governor, N Vohra had said that he wanted to quit, the government had dismissed the same.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 7:22 [IST]
Nitish Kumar has been affected by his age: Prashant Kishor

Could not care less: Nitish on Amit Shahs jibe

Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Tejashwi presents defense vetted by lawyers to Nitish

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Patna, July 18: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar met Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, who has been charged with corruption by the CBI in his chamber. This is the first time that the two leaders have met alone since the corruption scandal erupted two weeks ago.

During the 45-minutes meeting Tejashwi Yadav presented him with a detailed defense of the charges against him - his explanation had been vetted by lawyers and senior leaders of his party including his father Lalu Yadav.

According to the sources Nitish Kumar will be forced to take a tough decision if Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) fails to ensure Tejashwi Yadav's resignation in the meeting today.

The rift in the Bihar ruling grand alliance deepened when Lalu apparently rejected Nitish's demand, and said, "Tejashwi Yadav will not step down under any circumstances."

Three days ago, Tejashwi skipped an official function with Nitish Kumar in Patna.

This would be the second cabinet meeting after the crisis in the ruling Grand Alliance surfaced after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav on charges of corruption.

Sources in the ruling alliance on Tuesday said that leaders from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the RJD and Congress were in constant touch and trying to save the alliance.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the JD-U asked Tejashwi Yadav to rebut in detail the charges hurled at him.

IANS
Central Vista to be unveiled by PM Modi today | 7 things to know

Winter session of Parliament likely to commence from December first week in old building

K'taka BJP stages protest in Parliament over 'political killings', transfer of cop

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 18: On the second day of the monsoon session of Parliament on Tuesday, the Karnataka Congress government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah came under attack for its decision to transfer whistle-blower police officer D Roopa.

The leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit of Karnataka staged a protest over Roopa's transfer outside Parliament on Tuesday.

The protesting BJP leaders also raised the issue of "political killings" in Karnataka. The BJP leaders outside Parliament alleged that "political killings" are taking place in the southern state as a result of which many right-wing leaders have been murdered.

The Karnataka government on Monday transferred Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons Roopa, days after she charged convict AIADMK leader VK Sasikala with bribing officials for VIP treatment in the Bengaluru jail.

"Delhi: Karnataka BJP leaders hold a protest in Parliament, protesting against transfer of IPS officer D Roopa," reported ANI.

Delhi: Karnataka BJP leaders hold a protest in Parliament, protesting against transfer of IPS officer D Roopa pic.twitter.com/bKLA6mMhyM  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

"Twenty four political killings happened in Karnataka, but the state government is not serious about them. Also, why was IPS D Roopa transferred abruptly?" questioned Shobha Karandlaje, BJP MP from Karnataka.

The protest of Karnataka BJP leaders outside Parliament holds political significance as the state is going to polls early next year. The issue of transfer of Roopa might prove costly for the Congress government in the next assembly polls as it is fast turning "political" in nature.

The government also shunted out Director General of Police (Prisons) HN Satyanarayana Rao without a fresh posting as he is set to retire this month-end.

Roopa and Rao were engaged in a public spat over the alleged privileges given to Sasikala.

An order from the Department of Personnel said that Roopa, an Indian Police Service officer of the 2000 Karnataka batch, had been "transferred with immediate effect".

She has been posted as DIG and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in Bengaluru in place of ASN Murthy, who will now be Additional Director of Police, Forest Cell, Bengaluru.

NS Megharikh, IPS, Additional Director General of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Bengaluru, was also transferred and posted as Additional Director General of Police, Prisons, to succeed Satyanarayana Rao.

The transfers and new postings of Rao and Roopa came on a day when an one-man inquiry committee, headed by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar, was to begin probe into the charges of corruption and irregularities in Bengaluru's central jail.

After Roopa submitted two reports to the government on the illegal activities, including supply of narcotic drugs, gambling and drinking by the convicts and others in the prison, Rao submitted a report on Sunday countering his deputy's charges.

Roopa had alleged that Sasikala, jailed for corruption, was getting special privileges as she had bribed senior officials. Rao denied the charges.

OneIndia News
BJP's VP pick Naidu is V for Vice-President, V for Venkaiah

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Vice President candidate from NDA, Venkaiah Naidu is known for his statements that carry a lot of punch. Be it the criticism of other parties or defending his own party, he has a barrage of one-liners ready. Famous for his rhymes and one-liners, Naidu filed his nominations as NDA's vice presidential candidate on Tuesday.

His rhyming retorts in the Houses, at press conferences and public rallies have always evoked hearty laughter from the listeners and provided much-needed relief to those wanting to unwind after a hectic day.

The latest was when the 'Rashtrapati nominee' was to be announced by the NDA and Naidu was asked whether he was the chosen one. "I neither want to become Rashtrapati (President), nor do I want to become Rs Up-rashtrapatiRs (Vice-President). I am happy being Usha's pati (wife Usha's husband)," Naidu quipped when questioned by reporters.

After filing the nomination, he commented: "I started as Usha Pati (wife Usha's husband), now I will be Up-Rashtrapati (Vice President), eventually Sabha-Pati (Rajya Sabha chairman), not Sabka-Pati (everyone's husband)."

He has said some hilarious quotes in past which is worth remembering. Here, we pick his best one-liners.

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Venkaiah Naidu gets support of south party Telangana Rashtra Samithi | Oneindia News

Read on and enjoy.

During UPA, it was PM presides, Madam or Boy decides. Now PM presides, Team decides

India has changed, though Congress has not changed. Demonetization is yajna but asuras try to disturb peace during the yajna."

After an earthquake, Congress came down from 440 to 44

Butchers cannot be preachers

The expansion of UPA is not United Progressive Alliance, it is ulta pulta alliance

We say dynasty is nasty in politics, but Congressmen says dynasty is tasty

When we in the BJP chant Ram Ram Ram, the Congress chants scam scam scam

We don't believe in the four Bs, so we started charging Rs 5 (Rs . 10 in Tamil Nadu) from people who attend these meetings. The four Bs are Bus, Biryani, Bottle and Bhatta (the money given to the mobilised crowd)!

Zeros can't find Heroes. (When Rahul gave a 'zero' to the NDA Government's performance, Naidu took on him)

Communist Party of India is called "consumer price index"

At times, he turns out to be a poet too. Here's how a poem by him turned many readers into a poet. He invited business men to Jharkhand for investment by saying that the state has an investor-friendly government through a poem.

State is beautiful..

People are dutiful..

Resources are Plentiful..

Brand ambassador is powerful..

Chief Minister is Mindful..

Prime Minister is helpful..

What else is required, come and invest in Jharkhand...

OneIndia News
China unusually aggressive on Sikkim stand-off: Foreign Secretary briefs MPs

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

China's approach to the stand-off at Sikkim that began last month is unusually aggressive, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told a group of MPs on Tuesday which included senior opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi.

The Foreign Secretarymaintained that New Delhi is engaged with Beijing in defusing tension through diplomatic channels. The comments were relayed to reporters by some of the 20 members who were present in the meeting.

The foreign secretary told the panel that India has clearly outlined its position on the border and Chinese have their own position, but they are misinterpreting it so India was trying to clarify it.

He said that India has been maintaining the same position since 1895 as per an Anglo-Chinese agreement.

The standoff between Indian and Chinese armies have continued for a month over the construction of a road by China near the tri junction. India has expressed concern over the road construction near the trijunction, fearing it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its northeastern states. It has conveyed to China that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.

According to the Chinese interpretation of events, Indian soldiers crossed into China's Donglang region early in June and obstructed work on a road on the plateau it calls Donglang. Bhutan says the land, which it calls Doklam, belongs to its kingdom and not to China, a claim India agrees with. India also says it had warned China that the road was a serious security concern - it gives Beijing access to the so-called Chicken's Neck, a thin strip of land that links India with its seven north eastern states.

Last week, a meeting was called by the government to brief opposition parties on the issue.

The government had told opposition leaders that China is constructing roads near the international border, hampering the country's strategic interests. It said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval would put forward New Delhi's position before his Chinese counterparts later this month.

OneIndia News
Darjeeling unrest: Pro-Gorkhaland activist dies during clashes, police deny report

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 18: Ever since the Gorkhaland agitation started in Darjeeling and its neighbouring areas in West Bengal to demand for a separate state in June, activists and the police have been fighting over the death toll.

On Monday, again the leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)--the party that is spearheading the current wave of protests in the hills--and the police gave contradictory statements to the media in regard to the death of a protester, who was allegedly killed in police firing.

While the GJM claimed that one of their activists was killed and a few others were injured in police firing during a clash between Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadres and GJM supporters in Darjeeling, the police refused to divulge any details.

Though the police confirmed that they had received a dead body, they refused to give any information about the identity of the deceased or the reason behind his death.

"Yes, we have received a dead body. However, who he is and how he died cannot be confirmed till the post mortem is done on Tuesday morning," district superintendent of police, Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi told IANS.

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Gorkhaland struggle: Women out on streets protesting for separate state | Oneindia News

When asked if the police opened fire on a mob in Mirik, the officer said, "We cannot say anything on this right now."

However, GJM leader Binay Tamang identified the deceased as Ashish Tamang, a resident of Darjeeling district's Magargunj.

"Ashish was shot in the chest by the police during a clash between GJM and TMC supporters in the area. Ashish was taken to a local health centre in Mirik where he was declared dead," Binay told IANS.

According to Binay, the clash between the activists of two parties started on late Monday afternoon after the locals demanded that the seven TMC members of Mirik municipality resign and work independently.

"When we took out a large rally in Mirik this afternoon, our activists were attacked and provoked by the state ruling party supporters. Nearly seven TMC supporters got injured in the clash while one of our activists sustained serious injury inflicted by a kukri (Nepalese knife)," Binay claimed.

According to sources, the clash became more violent after the police rushed to the spot and charged tear gas shells to disperse the mob. The large crowd attacked the police and resorted to stone pelting.

"The police started tear gas shelling from around 8 pm near a market in Mirik. They also opened fire at our activists. That is when Ashish got shot," Binay added.

As per the GJM, a total of eight Gorkhaland supporters have lost their lives because of police brutality. However, the police maintained that only two persons died due to the violence in the hills.

The protest in Darjeeling and its neighbouring areas started on June 8. The indefinite bandh called by the GJM, which has the support of all the pro-Gorkhaland parties, entered the 34th day on Tuesday.

Because of the ongoing strike, life has come to a standstill in the hills. Schools, colleges, business establishments and several government offices are not functioning due to the protests.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:39 [IST]
Left ready to extend \"helping hand\" to JD(U) if it breaks up with BJP

Despite backing NDA's vice-presidential candidate TRS will remain political adversary: BJP

India

oi-PTI

Hyderabad, Jul 18: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday termed the support extended to the NDA's vice-presidential candidate by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as "incidental" and "not unusual" saying that the saffron party aims to come to power on its own in Telangana in 2019.

"This is incidental," said Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao when asked about the ruling TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) backing M Venkaiah Naidu for the post.

The regional outfit, led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, had also backed NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind. The BJP is an opposition party in the state.

"The support extended by the TRS to both presidential and vice-presidential candidates (of NDA) is incidental', the BJP spokesperson told PTI, noting that as many as six parties, including the YSR Congress, who are "outside of NDA", had also backed both Kovind and Naidu.

"So, it's not unusual because, apart from the TRS, we have other five parties who have extended support."

Rao asserted the TRS would remain a political "adversary" despite the issue-based support that they have extended, and the BJP has "serious conviction" of coming to power by itself in Telangana in the 2019 assembly elections.

"So, the fight will still be between the BJP and the TRS in the next elections."

"Aspiration of the national party is: no matter what, we have to form the next government in Telangana", he said, adding, the BJP wants to make Telangana the "highway for south Indian entry (to get to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and going a little up to Odisha), while Karnataka is already one for a while".

To achieve this objective, the newly created state becomes "extremely critical", Rao said.

"The BJP has a very strong opportunity to ensure victory in this particular region. The BJP considers the Congress as a dead horse."

Rao recalled the party president Amit Shah, during a visit to Telangana, had made no bones about the BJP's aspiration to come to power in the 2014-formed state.

He said that the TRS is a family-run party and we have taken very strong position on corruption which exists in this government.

PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 18:50 [IST]
Did Lashkar operative Sandeep alias Adil set up modules in UP, Punjab?

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The questioning of Sandeep Sharma alias Adil has led the police to believe that he may have at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba set up modules in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as well. Adil was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police last week after he was found to be part of a Lashkar module which carried out several terror attacks and ATM robberies as well.

He said that he had been visiting Punjab and UP frequently. He however did not elaborate the reason behind these visits. The police are now looking at his possible role in setting up modules in these states.

With these revelations being made, a team of both the UP and Punjab police will question Adil further. The Punjab police are also looking into recent intelligence inputs which point towards the role of the Lashkar trying to set up modules in the state. The UP police on the other hand had recently bust a module of the Islamic State. Now the police want to find out if Adil had been in touch with any locals in the state to set up modules.

Meanwhile during his questioning, Adil provided vital information on the whereabouts of Abu Ismail, the Lashkar commander who masterminded the Amarnath yatra attack in which 8 pilgrims died. The security forces in Kashmir continue to look out for Ismail and his accomplices.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:15 [IST]
Experts to meet in Delhi to discuss the future of world heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railways

India

oi-Amitava

By Amitava

Darjeeling, June 18, 2017: The ongoing agitation in the Darjeeling Hills has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the future of the world heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR.) The DHR has been bearing the brunt of the unrest with property gutted and rolling stock vandalised. The team of experts including representatives of UNESCO will be sitting in a meeting later this week to chalk out future plans for the DHR.

Darjeeling hills and Kalimpong district are in the grip of an agitation since June 8. As part of the agitation all Government offices (Centre, State and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration) were shut down. This was followed by an indefinite general bandh since June 15.

Despite the DHR having stopped operations with the declaration of Government office bandh by the GJM since June 12, the DHR properties have not been spared. The heritage Sonada Railway station was torched on July 8 followed by the Ghayabari Railway station on July 13. Both the stations have been gutted.

There were attempts to torch the DHR headquarters located at Kurseong on July 14. The wood panelled corridor of the building was gutted before residents and security forces doused the fire.

Incidentally a UNESCO team comprising of experts are working on a two year long project which includes developing a working plan for the preparation of a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP) for the DHR since 2016.

The two year long project involves survey, documentation, dialogue and will take into consideration institutional management, finances, legal and technical aspects. The fund for the two year long project is to the tune of over 5.33 lakh US dollars.

The CCNP will include preparing manuals on how the DHR should be managed along with maintenance procedures of rolling stock and buildings. A database of heritage resources; Identification of boundaries; Review of the Management process and designing of the museum in Ghoom is also included in the CCNP.

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The DHR was marked as a World Heritage site by the UNESCO on December 2, 1999. In the past there were instances when there were recommendations that the DHR be included in the world heritage endangered list" stated the UNESCO Expert.

Inclusion of a world heritage in the endangered site list is an attempt to draw focused attention. There is also a provision of delisting a world heritage site if the 21 member committee on world heritage decides on it.

The team of experts will be sitting in a meeting in Delhi later this week to review the situation and to take stock of the progress in the preparation of the CCMP.

"The meeting will take place either on Thursday or Friday in Delhi. It is a technical meeting of the project chiefs. All the issues regarding the CCMP will be discussed. The required data for the CCMP has been collected. The meeting will discuss how to collate the data and prepare a management plan" stated Moe Chiba, Section Chief and programme Specialist for Culture, UNESCO, talking to Oneindia.

A stakeholders meet is also on the anvil. However this meeting cannot be held unless the situation normalises in the Hills.

In the year 1879 work started on the DHR, then called the Darjeeling Steam Tramways. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on August 23 1880. The Siliguri to Darjeeling track was inaugurated on July 4 1881. The name of the rail company was then changed to Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Company. At present it does a 88 km stretch from Darjeeling to New Jalpaigur along with joy rides.

The DHR is a major attraction for tourists, specially foreign tourists. Tourists and Railway enthusiasts from all over the globe visit Darjeeling to experience the world heritage DHR.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 16:41 [IST]
Explained: What exactly is China doing in Kashmir

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti following a meeting with Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh blamed China's involvement for the worsening situation in the state.

Her statement came under severe criticism from former J&K CM, Omar Abdullah. He said that during his tenure as CM, he did not receive any intelligence about the involvement of China. He sought an detailed explanation from Mehbooba on the role played by China in Kashmir.

What exactly is China's involvement in Kashmir? Why did China offer to mediate the Kashmir conflict recently, a proposal, India strongly refused. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said last week that China is willing to play a constructive role in improving relations between India and Pakistan.

The tension between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue is on the rise. For China there is a vested interest here and that is its huge investment in the One Belt One Road project. Off late China has come under a lot of pressure from investors and enterprises in protecting their investments. China had stayed mum on this issue, but now the pressure to protect the investments has been increasing say experts. China cannot continue to ignore the demands and hence has decided to meddle in Kashmir, the experts also point out.

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China also is attempting to play the role of a balancing force in the Kashmir conflict. It feels that it would add to its image of becoming an alternate military and economic power to the United States.

India however does not trust China on the issue considering the leaning the country has towards Pakistan. Both Paksitan and China have called each other as all weather friends. India feels that any meddling by China on the Kashmir issue would always lean towards Pakistan. India feels that if China wants to help, it could do so by warning Pakistan to stop sponsoring terrorists in the Valley.

OneIndia News
Five-doctor committee can replace MCI oversight committee: SC to Centre

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jul 18: The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Union Government to replace the oversight committee set up to supervise the functioning of the Medical Coucil of India (MCI) with a fresh panel of five eminent doctors.

A five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, said the Centre had proposed the names of five eminent doctors to replace the oversight committee whose term had just expired.

"The doctors proposed are all outstanding people. We are satisfied with the names," the bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, R K Agrawal, D Y Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer, said.

It also gave the Centre liberty to replace any doctor in the list with another if he does not wish to be a part of the oversight committee. The bench had on Monday asked the Centre to constitute a panel which would replace the oversight committee set up last year by the apex court to oversee the MCI's functioning till the government put in place an alternate mechanism.

The committee, set up by the court on May 2 last year, was to function for a period of one year or till a suitable mechanism was brought in by the Centre to substitute it. During the hearing, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for some medical colleges, had told the bench that till date, no alternative mechanism had been put in place by the Centre despite the fact that the oversight panel was to function for only one year or till a suitable mechanism was evolved.

He had argued that the MCI was bound by directions of the oversight committee but the council was not adhering to them. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, had said the tenure of the oversight committee should be extended by one more year or till the time the Centre comes out with a mechanism to deal with the issues relating to the MCI's functioning.

The apex court had on July 13 agreed to set up a five- judge constitution bench to deal with the matter after Rohatgi had said it was an urgent matter as counselling for admissions in MBBS and BDS was underway. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that it had taken steps to put the alternative mechanism in place and there was no need now for the oversight committee to continue.

MCI had contended that the directions of the constitution bench which had set up the oversight committee were based on certain material which could not be controverted at the time of the order.

PTI
Gorkhaland Movement Joint Action Committee plans a Delhi-centric agitation

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Darjeeling, July 18, 2017: The Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GLMCC- a conglomeration of pro Gorkhaland outfits) has decided to planned a Delhi-centric agitation for the separate state demand. A GLMCC meeting on Tuesday resolved that the indefinite bandh which was clamped on June 15 in the Hills, would continue.

"Our agitation for Gorkhaland henceforth will be Delhi-centric. The indefinite bandh will however continue." stated Kalyan Dewan, Coordinator, GLMCC, talking to media persons after a meeting in Kalimpong on Tuesday.

The GLMCC will form two teams. The teams will be meeting the Governor of West Bengal and Governor of Sikkim.

Incidentally Sikkim has also been bearing the brunt of the ongoing agitation with the National Highway 10, the link road to Gangtok from the plains, also in the purview of the bandh. There have been reports of alleged attack on Sikkim vehicles on the NH10 and in Siliguri.

"We will apprise the Governors of the present political situation of the Hills and about the police excesses. 8 Gorkhaland activists are already dead" stated Dewan.

The GLMCC will be holding hunger strikes and dharnas in Delhi. GLMCC teams will also be meeting heads of different political parties in Delhi to muster support for the Gorkhaland demand.

The conglomeration demanded immediate intervention of the Union Government in the Darjeeling impasse. The GLMCC will be meeting in Delhi on August 1.

Interestingly Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders including General Secretary Roshan Giri; Central committee member PT Ola and Swaraj Thapa are already camping in Delhi. The 3 GJM Members of Legislative Assembly, at present camping in Kolkata are scheduled to join them in Delhi soon. The 3 MLAs will be accompanying the GLMCC team to meet the West Bengal Governor in Kolkata.

Meanwhile Mirik turned into a political hotbed over the death of Asish Tamang, a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activist allegedly in police firing on Monday night. Violence continued throughout Tuesday.

On Monday, Pratapgaon, Ward 7, Mirik witnessed clashes between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and GJM supporters following a GJM rally. One Nauraj Tamang of TMC was grievously injured and is undergoing treatment at a private nursing home in Siliguri.

Anand Rai, a GJM activist was also injured in the clash. The police arrested Kailash Tamang, a GJM supporter which prompted a gherao of the Mirik police station. Clashes broke out between security forces and the GJM. Police vehicles were torched and a junior constable was injured.

GJM supporters allege that security forces opened fire killing 36 year old Asish Tamang of Mangarjung. Refuting allegation police claimed that they had not fired but had only burst tear gas shells.

"The police had to intervene following clashes between two political outfits in Mirik." stated Akhilesh Chaturvedi, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling.

TMC leaders however claimed that they were constantly being threatened. "We are being constantly threatened, attacked and our properties vandalised. Why attack us?" questioned Rajen Mukhia, President, TMC, Darjeeling (Hills.)

The GJM however claimed that it is the TMC launching attacks on the GJM in Mirik. "Our supporters were attacked by the TMC. The police fired on our activists instead" alleged GJM leader Phoebe Rai.

Situation was tense in Mirik on Tuesday. The police station was gheraoed by GJM supporters. The Municipality building along with the Land and Land Reforms Office in Mirik were vandalised. The house of Poonam Sewa, TMC Municipal Councillor of Ward 2 was vandalised. Vehicles were torched.

At around 6pm a procession accompanying Asish Tamang's deadbody went amok. Tamang's dead body was being brought to Mirik from Siliguri after post mortem. The BDO office was vandalised along with a vehicle torched. Police resorted to tear gas shell bursting to quell the mob. The army was also called in.

In Darjeeling GJM supporters brought out a rally. The rally then gheraoed the District Magistrate's office located at Lebong Cart Road.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 21:32 [IST]
Gujarat HC raps RBI for giving directions to NCLT

India

oi-PTI

Ahmadabad, July 18: The Gujarat High Court rebuked the Reserve Bank of India for asking the National Company Law Tribunal in its June 13 directive to give priority to the insolvency proceedings against companies with huge debts.

It also questioned the functioning of the central bank.

The bench of Justice S G Shah came down heavily on the RBI for stating in its press release dated June 13, 2017 that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings against companies with outstanding dues of more than Rs 5,000 crore "will be accorded priority by NCLT."

Essar Steel had moved the high court challenging the RBI order to banks.

The court also questioned the "functioning" of the RBI for its decision to issue the press release in which it had directed banks to initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulting companies.

"The RBI has to be careful while issuing press releases, it must be in consonance with the Constitutional mandates, based upon sound principles of law, but in any case should not be in the form of advise, guidelines or directions to judicial or quasi-judicial authorities in any manner what so ever," the court said in its order.

Further reacting to the central bank's submission that it has no document on record based on which the decision to issue press release was taken, the court said, "This goes to show the manner in which the RBI is functioning, in as much as there is a press release even without a decision at certain level that press release is to be published and what should be included in such press release."

"This is also an equally serious issue. It has been conveyed to the respondents that on such disclosure that there is no other document, pursuant to such disclosure, now, they would be debarred from relying upon any such document, if any," it added.

The court interpreted RBI's statement in its press release that "such cases (for insolvency proceedings) will be accorded priority by the NCLT" that the tribunal "has to give priority to cases filed by the directives of RBI against the cases, which are filed by other creditors or petitioners before the NCLT."

The RBI even tendered an apology to the court saying that the statement was made due to "poor drafting" of the press release, and even issued corrigendum on July 8, to delete the line.

Through in a press release dated June 13, the RBI had directed banks to launch IBC proceedings against companies with outstanding dues of more than Rs 5,000 crore, and for other NPAs, banks should finalise resolution plans in the next six months.

During its submissions, the central bank had apologised from the court for issuing that statement in the press.

Essar Steel had moved the high court seeking the court's direction to quash the RBI's direction to the banks to initiate insolvency proceedings against it.

PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 9:52 [IST]
How did Dimple Yadav win 2012 UP bypoll unopposed? Crime Branch launches probe

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A team of the Crime Branch has launched a probe into the manner in which Dimple Yadav won the 2012 bypoll from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh unopposed. The investigating team is probing allegations that rival candidates were allegedly kidnapped by Samajwadi Party supporters as a result of which they failed to file their nomination papers.

Dimple Yadav, wife of former UP chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav had wn the 2012 bypoll from Kannauj unopposed. As part of the investigation, officials of the Crime Branch questioned several persons. Statements of various persons too were recorded by the investigators. The team will submit its report soon.

In 2009, Akhilesh Yadav had resigned from the Kannauj seat after he became the chief minister of UP. This necessitated a bypoll and the SP fielded Dimple from that seat. She won the election unopposed following which a petition was filed seeking a probe.

The court ordered a probe into the matter in 2012, but the same never took off. The probe was taken up after the BJP came to power in the state. The probe into the matter would be completed soon, officials say while adding that a report to this effect would be submitted soon.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:05 [IST]
You don't talk to me: Sonia Gandhi told Smriti Irani in Parliament over 'rashtrapatni' row

DGama's family says, 'absolutely no connection' with firm linked to Irani's family

I&B ministry portfolio ends 'political vanvas' of Smriti Irani?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 18: Back in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi during government formation at the Centre decided to give the plump portfolio of Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to Smriti Irani, protests were heard within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

However, within two years she was shunted out of the HRD ministry and replaced by "much-matured and much-efficient" Prakash Javadekar during a major cabinet reshuffle by the PM in June 2016.

The reason for her "transfer" from the all-important HRD ministry to the lesser known Textile ministry was seen by many as a "punishment".

While Irani was at the helm of the HRD ministry, several controversies rocked the country, including the nation-wide students' agitation in the wake of the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad.

The "mishandling" of Vemula's case and other important education-related issues led to Irani's departure from the HRD ministry.

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Since then Irani was literally leading a "quiet" life as the Textile ministry offers nothing much to talk about. However, once in a while she managed to hog the limelight for her attack against Rahul Gandhi.

Irani fought the parliamentary elections against the Congress vice president from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. Irani lost the elections to Gandhi, but she managed to garner a lot of support from voters in the Congress bastion.

On Tuesday, as soon as the PM made the announcement of giving the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry portfolio to Irani, a day after M Venkaiah Naidu, who was handling the ministry, was picked to be the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Vice Presidential candidate, it created a lot of "political" buzz.

The Urban Development ministry, which was also being handled by Naidu, has been given to Narendra Singh Tomar.

"M Venkaiah Naidu has resigned from his ministerial responsibilities. The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to Smriti Irani," Modi tweeted.

"Additional charge of Moud_India (Ministry of Urban Development) has been given to Tomar," he said.

Irani already heads the Textile ministry, while Tomar is in charge of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

Till the filing of this report, Irani did not make any comment on her latest "promotion".

Generally, Irani, a former actress-turned-politician, is very active on Twitter.

On Monday, she tweeted and congratulated Naidu for being made the VP candidate of the NDA. However, she is yet to tweet about her new ministerial position.

While her supporters welcomed the PM's decision, her detractors felt that Irani, infamous for her fights with journalists, would further "muzzle" the press.

On Tuesday, the hashtag--Smriti Irani--trended on Twitter. Here we bring you a few tweets:

News Of The Day 



Storm Is Coming - Smriti Irani is going to be I&B Minister. God bless NDTV and Presstitutes.#mayawati #RajyaSabha  Hitendra S Shaktawat (@Hitendra4India) July 18, 2017

Smriti Irani becomes I&B ministry...Be ready for more Ekta Kapoor shows as #nepotismrocks...Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi  Kunal (@ikunalN) July 18, 2017

Smriti Irani given additional charge of Ministry of I&B..

NDTV: have to Careful now.

Rajdeep: Choose ur words carefully.

Republic: As usual  Raju Srivastav (@Raju_Srivstav) July 18, 2017

Rahul Gandhi when informed about Smriti Irani being given the additional charge of I&B pic.twitter.com/y0xxAJ2V7h  Dhiraj Ahuja  (@DhirajAhuja1108) July 18, 2017

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 13:45 [IST]
Russian embassy takes up with MEA detention of its ship in Cochin

Two Indians missing in Kenya since July; govt in touch with Kenyan authorities: MEA

India refuses to be part of any treaty to ban nuclear weapons

India

oi-Madhuri

The ministry of external affairs on Tuesday said that India will continue to remain committed to universal, non-discriminatory & verifiable nuclear disarmament.

India however did not participate in the negotiations on a Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons which were concluded in New York on July 7th.

It further said that India believes that this Treaty in no way constitutes or contributes to the development of any customary international law.

MEA also said that India supports the commencement of negotiations on a comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention in the Conference on Disarmament.

On July 7, the United Nations adopted the first treaty imposing a total ban on nuclear weapons. This Nuclear Prohibition Treaty covers all aspects of nuclear weapons, including their use and threat of use, testing, development, possession, sharing and stationing in a different country. It provides a pathway for countries with nuclear weapons to join and destroy their nuclear arsenals.

OneIndia News
More than 7,000 Indians sought asylum in US in 2017: UN report

Members of same family seek asylum in US but face different consequences

Indians among top asylum-seekers, says global study

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Chennai, July 18: A recent global study on migration found that India has topped the list among countries whose citizens acquire foreign nationality, according to reports.

A tiny bit of this migration is driven by asylum-seekers from home who count among the biggest groups seeking refuge from "persecution" in countries as far-flung as New Zealand (NZ) and Latvia, reports Times of India.

Top asylum-seekers to New Zealand between 2012 and 2016 were from China, India, Fiji, and Iraq, according to the International Migration Outlook 2017 report on OECD member-nations.

TOI further reports that as per the country note for NZ in 2015-16, 340 people sought asylum in NZ. Among these, India and China were the largest source countries of asylum-seekers (11% and 9%), followed by Fiji (8%), Iraq (7%) and Pakistan (6%). Refugee status was granted in 110 cases (35%) in all.

India was also among the top countries for asylum requests in 2016 for Australia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Slovak Republic, UK and US, according to statistics.

Indians in a small country too!

A small country in Europe, Latvia, had 6,200 registered international students in 2015-16, of which the largest proportion was from India and Uzbekistan at 18% each. Indians requesting asylum there were either students who wanted to outstay their visas or others who were intercepted trying to enter the country, say experts.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data revealed that Indians have sought asylum in more than 40 countries for several years now.

Europe has historically seen a large number of applications from Indian asylum seekers -6,300 in 2012 and 2013. The refugee crisis in Syria and Iraq, however, has changed the situation on the continent over the last couple of years.

Experts told TOI that owing to factors ranging from students overstaying on their visas, low skilled job seekers trying to stay put in a high wage market, to refugees seeking resettlement.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 15:48 [IST]
Indo-Russian joint venture for Kamov choppers registered in India

India

oi-PTI

A senoir Russian defence major Rostec on Tuesday said that an Indo-Russian joint venture to produce the Kamov military helicopters under a USD 1 billion deal has been registered in India and efforts are on to co-produce them.

The joint venture was registered in May, said Victor Nikolayevich Kladov, the head of the Department of International Cooperation and Regional Policy, Rostec State Corp, Russia's umbrella organisation for 700 hi-tech civilian and military firms which was established in 2007.

In October last year, India and Russia finalised a broad agreement for the Joint Venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and two Russian defence majors.

India is procuring Kamov choppers to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

Sixty Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India under a USD 1 billion deal inked in 2015.

"We are very happy to know that the joint venture has finally been registered by the Indian Government in May,"

Kladov told reporters here ahead of the MAKS-2017 airshow that began today in the Russian town of Zhukovsky near Moscow. The airshow will continue till July 23.

"Everything will be in the hands of the joint venture. Now initiative all goes to this joint venture," Kladov said. "It is registered in India because judicially it is in India. It was approved by the Russian Government in April and then after having been approved by the Russian government, it was registered in India," the top Rostec official said.

The agreement for the Kamov choppers was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in December, 2015. In October last year, Russian Helicopters, Rosoboronexport and India's HAL Corp had almost completed the formalities for the joint venture to localise the production of Ka-226Ts and deliver them to the Indian market.

On the supply of S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile systems to India, Kladov said, "We are talking already". "There is a G to G (government to government) agreement on this subject and parties are in the midst of negotiations," he said.

Asked about the upgrading of Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Kladov said the Indian government is "evaluating" it.

"This question as far as I know was raised between President Vladimir Putin and esteemed Prime Minister Modi in St Petersburg last month. The Indian prime minister once again reiterated that the Indian side needs time to evaluate its strategy of development and how to spend money," Kladov said.

"We are offering a package for modernising the Su-30 aircraft. It will obtain new capabilities, it will be very close to the fifth generation aircraft in capabilities. This is a deep modernisation, everything should be changed engine, radar etc," he said.

Kladov said it was up to India whether it wants to pick up the entire package or opt for selective modernisation. "The Indian Air Force has to evaluate its strategy and then take a decision," he said.

On reports that the Indian Air Force has been planning to order more Mi-17V-5 chopper for long, he said, "We are waiting for an invitation to negotiate. It's been quite a long time. It was announced...and delayed a few times because of budget complications or whatever, but we expect this to happen later this year."

PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 15:26 [IST]
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

J&K: Pak resorts to ceasefire violation in Poonch sector again

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Pakistani troops on Tuesday resorted ceasefire violation yet againg in BG and Poonch sectors of the Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian forces are said to be giving a befitting response to the unprovoked violation by the Pakistan which occured around 6.45 am today.

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On Monday, an army jawan and a 7-year-old girl were killled during the violation of ceasefire by Pakistan in Poonch's Balakote and Rajouri's Manjakote regions along the LoC. Two civilians were also injured in the firing at Poonch where the little girl was killed. The jawan was killed in firing at Rajouri.

On Saturday, an Indian Army soldier was killed in the unprovoked firing by the Pakistani forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri sector. The martyred soldier, Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer, was a native of Poonch. Lance Naik Mohammed Naseer was severely injured in the fire exchange earlier. He later died of his injuries.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 8:53 [IST]
JD(U) to back Gopalkrishna Gandhi's candidature for VP

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The JD(U) which backed the NDA's candidate in the presidential poll has now decided to vote for the UPA's nominee in the elections to the next Vice President of India. JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said that the party has decided to back UPA nominee, Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the post of VP.

The NDA on Monday announced the candidature of Venkaiah Naidu as its VP candidate. Tyagi said that Gandhi is their VP candidate. We have the experience of working with Naidu during out time with the NDA. However Gandhi is a better candidate for VP, he also said.

The JD(U) has been sending mixed signals to the Congress led opposition. Last month it decided to back the candidature of Ram Nath Kovind over Meira Kumar. On Sunday the JD(U) skipped a meeting of the opposition parties which was addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav however said that there was no boycott. I met with Gopalkrishna Gandhi and conveyed to him that in the current situation it would not be good for us to attend the meeting.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:28 [IST]
Agnipath: Amid protest govt announces one-time waiver, relaxes upper age to 23 years for this year

Chhattisgarh: Home Guard jawans help tribal woman deliver baby on river bank in rain-hit Bijapur

India to set up joint theatre commands of tri-services: Rajnath Singh

Jammu & Kashmir: Two suspected terrorists killed as army foils infiltration bid in Rajouri

J&K: Soldier martyred in Pakistan firing

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

An Indian Army jawan was martyred in a Pakistani sniper firing along Line of Control (LoC) in Nowgam sector of Handwara in Kashmir. According to sources, the soldier belonged to 4/1 GR of the Army.

The Indian Army is retaliating to Pakistani firing across LoC.

Today afternoon ceasefire violation by Pakistan in J&K's Manjakote was reported, according to video posted by ANI.

#WATCH: Ceasefire violation by Pakistan in J&K's Manjakote earlier today, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/vXNLEBw5Ce  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Earlier, the Pakistani troops resorted ceasefire violation yet again in BG and Poonch sectors. The firing continued from 1350 hours in Naushera sector along the Line of Control.

In a separate incident, Army troops today foiled an infiltration bid by militants along the Line of Control in Kashmir's Gurez sector, killing one ultra, a defense spokesperson said.

(With agency inputs)

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 18:07 [IST]
Karnataka has released 2.2 tmc ft water to TN since June 1

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Karnataka has since June 1 released 2.2 tmc ft water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka is releasing 25 to 30 per cent of total inflows in Cauvery basin to Tamil Nadu every day as per a Supreme Court order, state minister M B Patil said.

"We are releasing 25 to 30 per cent of the inflow of water in Cauvery basin every day to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court order," the water minister told reporters.

He said that in July, the basin should have received 1,000 tmc ft of water, but had not got it. Hence, the state was not in a position to spare the stipulated 34 tmc ft to Tamil Nadu.

On July 2, farmers had staged protests at Gajalagere and Ilavala villages in Mandya district of Karnataka, flaying the government for releasing water instead of taking steps to increase storage level at KRS Dam.

The farmers and pro-Karnataka outfits had also staged protests on June 30 by getting down into a bathing ghat in Srirangapatna against the release of water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 5:58 [IST]
Lashkar operative arrested in Mumbai moved money to fund ISI's spying ring

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

On Monday, an operative of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was arrested at the Mumbai airport. Identified as Saleem Khan, he is said to have been running a hawala network which was used to transfer funds for acts of terror in the country.

Khan was apprehended after a look out notice was issued against him. The name of Khan cropped up during the interrogation of Aftab Ali who was arrested in May this year on the charge that he was spying for the ISI. Ali said that the money for the operations had been wired to him by Khan.

Suspected Lashkar terrorist arrested in Mumbai

Further the police are also looking into the alleged role played by Khan in the 2007, CRPF camp attack at Rampur. It is alleged that Khan may have been given arms training along with two other operatives who were part of the attack.

A team of the UP police which is camping in Mumbai will bring Khan to the state. The formalities are being completed following which Khan will be taken to UP. Officials part of the UP police say that while his hawala deals and possible involvement in the 2007 attack is under probe, they would also try and find out if he had any role to play in setting up modules across the state. His alleged visits to Pakistan over the past ten years are also under the scanner of the police.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:08 [IST]
Mayawati resigns hours after she walks out of Rajya Sabha

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

BSP supremo Mayawati resigned from Rajya Sabha as MP hours after she threatened to quit for restricting her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament.

The resignation of Mayawati, a Dalit leader and a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, may not be accepted since it does not follow a prescribed format, but her move could her score a political point by projecting herself as a champion of the Dalit cause.

Jab satta paksh mujhe apni baat rakhne ka bhi samay nahi de raha hai toh mera isteefa dena hi theek hai: Mayawati pic.twitter.com/gHiJcOuqNs  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

After the resignation, Mayawati said, 'When ruling party doesn't give time to present my case, then it would be better to resign'.

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Earlier in Rajya Sabha, the debate over the rise in Dalit atrocities under the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh, raised by Dalit leader and Mayawati, caused a lot of pandemonium in the Rajya Sabha.

The leaders of BJP protested when Mayawati spoke about "atrocities against Dalits" in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur.

Angry Mayawati had told the House that if she was not allowed to speak she would quit.

"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

(With agency inputs)
Mayawati threatens to resign before she walks out of RS over Dalit atrocities

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 18: As expected, the second day of the monsoon session of Parliament proved to be a stormy one on Tuesday, as opposition leaders targeted the ruling BJP-led NDA government over a range of issues including rise in atrocities against minorities and Dalits, plight of farmers, cow slaughter and India-China border standoff.

The debate over rise in Dalit atrocities under the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh, raised by Dalit leader and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, Mayawati, caused a lot of pandemonium in the Rajya Sabha.

The leaders of BJP protested when Mayawati spoke about "atrocities against Dalits" in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur.

A miffed Mayawati told the House that if she was not allowed to speak she would quit.

"If I am not allowed to speak right now, I will resign right away. I will come and give my resignation right now, if I am not allowed to speak right now," the BSP chief said.

Thereafter, Mayawati stormed out of the Rajya Sabha for not being allowed to complete her statement on treatment of Dalits in Saharanpur.

Addressing the media after she left the Rajya Sabha, Mayawati said, "When I tried to speak about the weaker sections today in the Rajya Sabha, I was not allowed to speak. Why?"

She said that it was shameful if she can't speak about the problems of weaker sections. Mayawati added that if she can't raise issues regarding the weaker sections then she had no right to be in the House.

"This is the reason I have decided to quit from the Rajya Sabha, I am not being heard, not allowed to speak," she said.

"Mayawati has been disrespectful in the House and has dared to challenge the Chair. She must apologise," says BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Meanwhile, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned till Wednesday.

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If Bengal fails to reply on complaints, will handover matter to MHA: NCW chief

Karnataka flag debate: MHA stresses on One Nation, One Flag

India

oi-PTI

There is no provision in the Constitution for a separate flag for any state and the tricolour is the only flag for India, clarifies MEA.

This comes after the Karnataka government initiated a move for a separate flag for the state with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defending the step after it came under attack from rival parties.

"We are one nation, one flag. Legally there is no provision either for providing or prohibiting a separate flag for any state," a home ministry spokesperson said.

Home ministry officials said Karnataka already has a flag which represents only the "people and not the government".

That flag is not used in national ceremonies like Republic Day or Independence Day but on occasions like state foundation day, an official said.

But the use of that flag was also challenged in courts by some people and a decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the official, who wished not to be quoted, said.

A nine-member committee has been formed by Karnataka's Congress government and tasked with submitting a report on designing the separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 23:01 [IST]
Why is Parliament being cut-short so often asks Derek O'Brien

Monsoon session: Both Houses adjourned for the day as Opposition protests continue

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 18: The 2nd day of Monsoon session in the Parliament was washed away without any business as Opposition created ruckus in both the houses. Lok Sabha was adjourned soon after it met for the second time following uproar in the House over several issues including farmers' plight and cow slaughter.

Rajya Sabha was also adjourned three times in the day and will start again on Wednesday morning at 11 AM. Several opposition leaders in Rajya Sabha including Mayawathi raised the issue of Dalit atrocities and cornered the Modi government. Opposition also slammed the government over rise in farmers' suicide cases.

Rajya Sabha proceedings

The proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were disrupted today by an angry opposition which sought to raise several issues like the attacks on Dalits and minorities, to attack the government, with an angry BSP chief Mayawati also threatening to quit the House.

The noisy protests by the opposition members, many of whom trooped into the Well raising slogans, forced adjournment of the proceedings, once till noon, then again till 2 PM and finally at 3 PM.

Soon after the House assembled for the day, a visibly angry Mayawati, who was speaking on the recent anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, threatened to resign from the House after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech.

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Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.

"Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that," he said.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide. Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no soluition. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings.

Lok Sabha proceedings

The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned on the first working day of the Monsoon Session today following noisy protests by the opposition which sought to corner the government by raising several issues, including violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers.

A belligerent opposition wanted to discuss a host of issues as its members stormed the Well of the House during the Question Hour as well as later during the Zero Hour, forcing adjournmentof the day's proceedings.

Members from the Congress, RJD, TMC RJD, TMC and the Left, among others, trooped into Well. Many were shouting slogans and also displaying placards.

The opposition members wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues.

Earlier, on Monday opening session was adjourned after obituaries and swearing-in of newly elected members owing to the presidential elections.

The monsoon session will continue till August 11.

Important Bills

Some important new and old bills that are likely to come up in the monsoon session are: the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015 , and the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

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Next Vice-President of India: Why BJP chose Venkaiah Naidu

India

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

As the voting for the election for the post of President of India came to an end, the BJP's parliamentary committee got down to business of choosing the candidate for Vice-President. And staying true to form the party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, while keeping everyone guessing till the end, with the choice of Venkaiah Naidu, have almost secured a comfortable win in the election to be held on August 5.

By deciding to back former party president and current union cabinet minister for Information and Broadcasting, and one of the most senior leaders of the BJP, the party has given a fitting reply to the gauntlet thrown at them by a joint opposition.

Electoral College: Here is how the next President of India will be elected

And they have done so in some style by selecting Naidu against the choice of a united opposition of 18 parties led by the Congress, who in trying not to repeat the mistake made in picking a candidate for President, declared Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, as its nominee for Vice-President well in advance to a decision taken by the ruling dispensation.

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In Naidu, unlike the BJP's choice for Ram Nath Kovind, the Modi-Shah duo, have selected anything but a low-key candidate, as many had expected them to do. And this was not just out of some whim, rather it is a cold and calculated move to ensure not only that the next Vice-President of India is of their choice but also that the choice ticks all the other boxes they require.

Modi-Shah did not fall for the opposition's 'trap'

The Modi-Shah duo did not fall for the trap set for them by the opposition, which came in the form of selecting someone like Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who is considered an apolitical figure, with impressive credentials such as being a former governor, a member of the coveted Indian Administrative Services as well as the Indian high commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Those backing Gandhi must have hoped that the nature of their candidate might make the BJP, in an attempt to match its opponents choice, select a candidate who would also be considered from outside of politics and hence lead to a fight between equals and would make the possibility of cross voting an option. Something that would be required for the Congress and its allies to get Gandhi elected.

Next Vice-President of India: Why opposition chose Gopalkrishna Gandhi

But the Modi and Shah have been able to control such an urge and hence side stepped the trap laid out for them.

Instead in Naidu they have gone for someone who is a political heavyweight, against who chances of cross voting are a minimum, and gives them the best chance of winning an election in which they already have the numbers on their side. Like in the case of President, with the backing of parties like AIADMK, Telengana Rashtra Samiti and YSR Congress, Naidu is likely to win the votes of 557 MPs in the electoral college of 787 MPs.

Naidu will be able to control Rajya Sabha

The importance of who becomes the next Vice-President of the country lies in the fact that the incumbent is also the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha, who presides over the sessions of the house.

Though by convention the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha are to perform their duties in a neutral manner, where the party they belong to should not influence their performance, the reality is that though usually the holders of such posts largely remain true to such a requirement of them, when push comes to shove they hold great power in deciding the workings of the house they preside over and in how they wish to control it.

By choosing Naidu, a multiple term member of Rajya Sabha, the BJP has found an individual who would help it ease its way through a house where the opposition still has considerable strength and presence, at least till the representatives from the states that the party has won since coming to power in 2014 become members of the house and give it control over it.

This might be even more important in case the BJP and it allies in the NDA suffer a fall in the numbers of seat in the Lok Sabha in the general assembly elections to be held in 2019. As in such a scenario the Rajya Sabha will assume even more strategic importance.

Ticks other boxes as well

Along with these, picking Naidu makes sure that he ticks other smaller boxes that few other options would have been able to.

One of these include, while ensuring that no cross voting takes place against the NDA's candidate, it also brings about a very high probability of parties and legislators breaking ranks within the united opposition to vote for Naidu, as he enjoys considerable goodwill on both sides of the political divide. Similar cross voting has also been reported in the case of the President's election held yesterday.

Another advantage of picking him comes from the fact that he is seen as both a choice of Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,and no apparent power tussle between the two will come to the fore following naming his candidature. As though he is now one of the most senior BJP leaders, he also has a Sangh background.

In addition, hailing from Andhra Pradesh and having represented Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha, he also represents a pick from the south of India which was seen as necessity in the candidate to be named given that Kovind comes from the state of Uttar Pradesh and a need for a balancing act was felt within the party. Especially with important elections coming up and, both the BJP and RSS, trying to increase their base in the southern part of the country.

Modi-Shah prove their political mettle again

The opposition in order to display an action that is not based on the BJP taking the first step, declared Gandhi's candidature before the Modi and Shah could decide on whom they wanted. And in this the BJP leaders were most probably for the first time put into the situation where they had to react to the opposition rather the other way around.

And the duo have not disappointed in how they have handled this challenge. In taking their time in choosing their candidate this time, as they had to show a reaction rather than take the first step, they have proven that while their government might have its critics, when it comes to the politics in the country at present there exist no equal to them in the effectiveness of the kind practiced by them.

In doing so they have also made sure it is clear that they realize, though the discussion is about an election for a particular post, it has a deeper meaning given the exercise can easily be seen as an attempt by a disjointed opposition to form a strategy to take on the all powerful pair in the upcoming and the 2019 elections. An attempt to which, they have given a strong blow through the choice of Naidu.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 5:45 [IST]
ED is 'completely independent' in what it does: Nirmala Sitharaman

FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

India will continue to rely on close cooperation of US to address global economic challenges: Sitharaman

Problems faced by IT industry raised several times with US: Govt

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The problems being faced by the IT industry have been raised with the United States from time to time at various levels, Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitaram said.

India has also taken up the matter on the US visa fee hike in the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation, the minister also said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The US contributes nearly 62 per cent of the exports, while EU is the second largest market for Indian IT services exporters contributing approximately 28 per cent.

The US has not made any 'comprehensive changes' in its work visa programmes, including H-1B visas, so far despite India taking up the issue with the American government from time to time, the minister also said.

The minister also said India has made continuous efforts to raise concerns pertaining to IT and ITeS industries in different bilateral meetings including in the Trade Policy Forum.

Indian IT industry has raised concerns over the proposed changes in the US visa regime. Any changes may result in higher operational costs and shortage of skilled workers for the USD 110 billion Indian outsourcing industry.

Indian IT sector, which contributes 9.3 per cent to the country's GDP, is one of the largest private sector employers at 3.7 million people.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 5:55 [IST]
When PM Modi stopped by on Bengaluru street to greet crowd | VIDEO

Sasikala bribegate: HS Revanna replaces D Roopa as DIG Bengaluru

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

The Karnataka government on Tuesday appointed IPS HS Revanna as Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Bengaluru and also given additional charge of Chief Superintendent, Bengaluru Central Jail replacing D Roopa.

A recent report by Roopa had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by Sasikala, including Satyanarayana, in order to avail special facilities in the Parappana Agrahara central prison.

State government on Monday transferred her out of the Prisons Department to the post of DIG, Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, Bengaluru.

"The government has every right to transfer officers. I followed the orders. I am thankful to Madam Kiran Bedi as the support from her is invaluable to me," D. Roopa told media.

To this regard, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured that strict action would be taken against the guilty and ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.

Earlier in the day, NS Megharik took additional charge as Director General (Prisons) Bengaluru replacing HN Satyanarayana Rao.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 23:36 [IST]
Special status for J&K: Centre refuses to comment, says issue is legal

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir is a legal issue and should be decided by a larger bench. Attorney General of India, K K Venugopal told a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud that this was a legal issue and hence the Centre was not filing any reply in this regard.

The court was hearing a petition against the continuance of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The petitioners argued that the government must take a stand one way or the other.

The petitioners also argued that a combined reading of Article 3 and 4 would show that J&K is an integral part of union of states and the laws made under Article 2,3 and 4 would be applicable to the state as well.

This is a sensitive matter and would require a larger debate. The court referred the matter to a three judge bench and said that the matter would come up in six weeks time.

The petitioners said that Article 35A of the Constitution be declared unconstitutional. It was contended that the President could not have amended the Constitution by the 1954 order and it was meant to be a temporary provision. A further reading of Article 370 of the Constitution shows that there is no power conferred on the President of India to amend the laws.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 6:00 [IST]
US Navy delighted over MiG-29K's performance in Malabar Naval exercise

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

US Navy is impressed with the MiG-29K, the navalised variant fighter jets, which flew from the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya at the 5-day Malabar Naval exercise between India-US-Japan in the Bay of Bengal.

According to Rear Admiral William D. Byrne, Jr., the Commander of Carrier Strike Group 11 which operates around the USS Nimitz, "the MiG-29s that were flying off the Vikramaditya and the FA-18 Super Hornets flying off Nimitz made approaches to the opposite flight decks. They got up in the air and got to do some dog fighting as well."

The MiG-29K equipped with a host of new weapons and sensors is considered among the most capable of its generation. That could potentially threaten several contemporary Western fighters including newer variants of the F-15 or F-16, reports NDTV.

Indian Navy was the first to deploy the MiG-29K. Along with the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy had received the MiG-29K as part of a package deal. The US would hardly give up any opportunity to exercise with the MiG-29K.

Yesterday, Indian Navy MiGs mounted combat air patrols (CAPs) defending a warship against US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets which simulated an anti-ship mission. Indian Navy sources have told NDTV that the Indian MiGs performed well in the mission. But the US Navy was clearly delighted as well, said NDTV.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 16:03 [IST]
In Venkaiah Naidu's VP candidature, BJP looks for permanent stay in South

India

oi-Anusha

What BJP wants is not a southern sojourn but a permanent stay and Venkaiah Naidu seems to be the perfect navigator.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, representing Karnataka as an MP three times and being the BJP's trusted envoy for alliances in Tamil Nadu, Venkaiah Naidu's engagements in the South have had a major role in NDA picking him as their Vice President candidate.

Add to it the ease and friendship that Venkaiah Naidu shares with the opposition parties, the BJP may have just managed to win the respect, if not the silence of the opposition towards the chair in the Rajya Sabha.

Finding BJP an ally in Tamil Nadu

On Tamil Nadu's hostile grounds, BJP trusted Venkaiah Naidu to forge an alliance with the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa's leadership. Way back in 2004, the then BJP President Venkaiah Naidu was the sole reason for an alliance with AIADMK. While AIADMK-BJP's first alliance had ended in 1999, Naidu took the initiative of realigning with the Dravidian party.

In December 2016, following the death of Jayalalithaa at the Apollo hospital, Venkaiah Naidu is said to have played a vital role in the rearrangement of Tamil Nadu government. O Panneerselvam took oath as the Chief Minister soon after Jayalalithaa was declared dead. The leader's prominent presence during Jayalalithaa's funeral did not go unnoticed as well.

Following Jayalalithaa's demise, Venkaiah Naidu even told the press that AIADMK was ideologically close to the BJP and that an offer for tie up was made for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.

Venkaiah Naidu was the go to man for leaders from both factions of the AIADMK after the ugly split following Panneerselvam's rebellion.

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BJP's key to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were all praises for Venkaiah Naidu after the NDA declared him their nominee for the Vice President post. Given the support Naidu has in both these Telugu-speaking states, the BJP hopes to make some foothold. The Jai Andhra Movement of 1972 put Naidu in the spotlight. Bringing Jayaprakash Narayan to Nellore just before the emergency catapulted his status as a leader who didn't mind being locked up in prison for fighting for a cause.

While he backed off from it, Venkaiah was still the first BJP MP to raise the issue of Special Status to Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha when the party was in the opposition. For someone who has been the president of BJP both at National and State level, Vankaiah Naidu manages to sense what the party needs to do to leave an impression in places that are historically not its bastion.

Three-time MP from Karnataka

A thorough product of the RSS, Venkaiah Naidu first joined the ABVP before shifting focus on BJP. Despite being elected as MLA from Andhra Pradesh twice, Naidu represented Karnataka as an MP three consecutive times. Venkaiah Naidu has been an MP since 1998 and his first three stints were as MP from Karnataka. Until Monday, he was an MP from Rajasthan. Despite receiving severe flak for being a non-Kannadiga yet an MP from the state, Venkaiah Naidu played a key role in including cities from Karnataka for the smart city project.

Ease with opposition parties

As parliamentary affairs minister, Venkaiah Naidu managed to deal with opposition party with much ease. So much so that the BJP chose to make him part of the delegation that met Congress President Sonia Gandhi on arriving at a consensus for Presidential elections. In the event that Venkaiah Naidu wins the Vice President election, the BJP hopes that his ease with opposition parties comes handy in the Rajya Sabha where BJP is still in the minority.

OneIndia News
What is common for Churches, BJP, a former top cop and High Court in Kerala?

India

oi-Anusha

From the hamlets of Kozhikode to finding mention during Church masses, from speeches of BJP leaders to orders of the High Court to the state police, apprehensions over 'Love Jihad' has become the common ground for entities divided by ideology, law and duty in Kerala.

While there is nothing on record, police teams in Kerala are assigned to carry out investigations on 'Love Jihad' angle every time an interfaith marriage, where one person belongs to the Muslim community, takes place. Kerala hasn't forgotten Merrin from Kochi and Nimisha from Thiruvananthapuram who left the country to join ISIS after converting to Islam with their husbands.

The Kerala High Court's March 2017 order annulling a marriage of a Muslim man with a Hindu girl who converted to Islam did very little to dispel apprehensions over whether 'Love Jihad' was real. The court not just annulled the marriage but directed the Kerala police to thoroughly investigate allegations of forced conversions in the case. This despite the woman in question being refuted allegations made by her father that she was forcefully converted.

Aspersions over a concept that is non-existent?

Now, it is no longer just the BJP or the RSS that highlights the possibility of 'Love Jihad' being a reality in many parts of Kerala. Former Kerala top cop Senkumar has been booked for portraying 'Love Jihad' as a tool used by youth from one community to lure young women from other communities. While Senkumar maintained that he only referred to the ISIS, his interview to a Malayalam media outlet was a classic example of how people of all communities in Kerala have begun to look at the concept of Love Jihad.

With the disappearance of Merrin, the concept of 'girls being targetted and systematically converted to Islam', started making its way to churches. "There is a rampant conversion of Christian girls into Islam in the Malabar region. Conversion is the only motto and it is aimed at increasing the numbers of one community. Some people have even alleged an IS link to all this, which needs to be probed," the Bishop of the Syrian Independent Orthodox Church was quoted as saying by a media house.

The perception and anger against 'Love Jihad', whose existence is in question, is only growing among the Christian and Hindu community in Kerala. "The more people speak of Love Jihad, the more aspersions will be cast on every interfaith relationship. This is not good for a secular society," said Merlin Jose, an activist. Christian priests of various churches claim that parents of young girls come to the Church with complaints of men from other communities attempting to lure their daughters.

Helpline to 'save Christian girls'

Earlier this year Renjith Abraham Thomas, a former BJP minority cell leader proposed to come up with a helpline. A Facebook page in the name 'Christian Help Line' highlights instances of Christian women converting to Islam. The idea of the page is to send across the message that 'Love Jihad is real'. The page is filled with hateful comments against a community.

Incidentally, the helpline that Thomas proposed is similar to what pro-Hindu organisations are doing in Kasargod. Convinced that 'Love Jihad' is the common enemy, a few Churches and their priests have decided to support the BJP in Kerala to put up a united fight against men from other communities 'luring their daughters in the name of love'. But is a non-existent concept becoming the common ground for uniting various entities is the question social activists in favour of interfaith marriages ask.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 17:21 [IST]
With a salary of Rs 75,000, this is how Pranab Mukherjee will live post-retirement

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

10 Rajaji Marg will be Pranab Mukherjee's new address. The 11,776 sq feet house which was occupied by late former President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam is being readied to house its newest occupant. Pranab Mukherjee steps down as President on July 25.

On Monday the Presidential poll between Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar was held. The elections saw 99 per cent polling. Counting for the same will be held on July 20.

For Pranab Mukherjee who has had a super charged career as a politician, life would be quiet at 10 Rajai Marg. He is expected to spend most of his time reading and writing which he enjoys. All arrangements to stack up his books at his new home are being made.

As per the President Emoluments Act of 1951, a former President is entitled to use a furnished residence without paying rent. He is entitled to two telephones, one of which would be for internet. He is also entitled for a mobile phone with national roaming.

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Further he is entitled for a motor car, secretarial staff consisting of a private secretary, one additional private secretary, one personal assistant and two peons. In addition to this the former President is also entitled for office expenses of Rs 60,000 per annum. The former President is also entitled for medical attendance and also free travel to any place in India. He is entitled for the highest class of travel by air, rail or steamer and will be accompanied by one person.

He will also be entitled for 50 per cent of the salary he was drawing as President. A President of India draws Rs 1.50 lakh as a monthly salary. Post retirement Pranab Mukherjee would draw Rs 75,000 per month. The salary revision took place during the tenure of Prathibha Patil who had increased the salary from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh per month. Vice Presidents earn Rs 1.25 lakh a month while in the case of Governors it is Rs 1.10 lakh.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 8:07 [IST]
India should get ready for all out war now says China

International

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By Vicky

The Chinese state media has issued a fresh threat and said that India should get ready for an all out confrontation. It further said that China is ready to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries.

A comment piece in the Global Times stated that China is not afraid of going to war with India. China is ready for a long term war, the report also stated. The fresh warning comes in the midst of the ongoing standoff between the two countries at Doklam.

The comment piece also said that China tries hard to avoid a military clash with India. However China does not fear going to war to safeguard its sovereignty, the report also added.

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China can take further countermeasures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC," the state media also reported.

Further the report stated that if India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage India on both the economic and military front, the report also added.

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US visa processing time expected to fall by mid-2023, says official

Iran complying with nuke deal, but remains 'dangerous threat': US

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, July 18: With Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif currently in Washington to meet Rex Tillerson, the US has said that Iran is continuing to comply with the terms of the nuclear deal that curbed Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions' relief, the media reported.

But the Trump administration on Monday coupled its certification to Congress of Iran's compliance with a blistering critique of the country's non-nuclear activities, saying Iran is "unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the deal, reports CNN.

The US is also considering additional sanctions against Iranian entities to target the country's ballistic missile programme and state sponsorship of terrorism, two items not covered by the deal, a senior administration official told CNN.

"The Secretary of State and the President intends to emphasise that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to the US and to regional security," the official said,

"Moving forward, the administration intends to employ a strategy that will address the totality of Iran's malign behaviour and not just focus on the nuclear deal."

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier on Monday that Iran has received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration and confirmed he has had no contact with his American counterpart, Rex Tillerson, CNN reported.

Zarif argued the US's failure to build on the foundation of trust created by the Iran nuclear deal suggests "US hostility to Iran will not end".

While he has never spoken with Tillerson, Zarif said lower-level talks on the implementation of the Iran deal continue.

Representatives of the five nuclear powers -- China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States -- plus Germany are to meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal. Zarif said they would discuss Iran's complaints about non-US compliance, accusing the US administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.

IANS
South Korea says Pyongyang yet to respond to its peace offer

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Seoul, July 18: South Korea's Defence Ministry on Tuesday said North Korea is yet to respond to Seoul's offer to hold talks on military affairs to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said there has been no response from Pyongynag to Seoul's dialogue overtures, saying the ministry would take additional actions in accordance with North Korea's response, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministry made an official proposal to North Korea for holding the dialogue of the military authorities to stop any hostile acts near the military demarcation line (MDL).

Seoul requested the dialogue be held on Friday at Tongilgak, a building on the North Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

[N Korea dismisses S.Korean President's peace proposal]

North Korea's state-run daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published an article branding the South Korean president's offer of cross-border rapprochement as misleading.

IANS
Two Iranians charged in US over hacking sensitive defence software

International

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Washington, Jul 18: Two Iranians, who allegedly hacked into the computers of a defence contractor and stole sensitive information, were indicted in the United States, according to the Justice Department.

According to the newly unsealed indictment businessman Mohammed Saeed Ajily, 35, recruited Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, 39, to break into companies' computers to steal their software for resale to Iranian universities, the military and the government.

The two men -- and a third who was arrested in 2013 and handed back to Iran in a prisoner swap last year -- allegedly broke into the computers of Vermont-based Arrow Tech Associates. The indictment said they stole in 2012 the company's Prodas ballistics software, which is used to design and test bullets, warheads and other military ordnance projectiles.

The material stolen from Arrow Tech was protected by US controls on the export of sensitive technologies, and its distribution to Iran was banned by US sanctions on the country. The two men were charged in the Rutland, Vermont federal district court, which issued arrest warrants for the two, who are believed to be in Iran.

In 2013 the US secured the arrest in Turkey of a third Iranian in the case, Nima Golestaneh, who was extradited to the United States.

In December 2015, Golestaneh pleaded guilty to charges of online fraud and computer hacking. One month later he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange with Iran.

In the exchange dead, Iran returned four Americans in exchange for seven Iranians who had been arrested in separate schemes to obtain and smuggle to Iran sensitive US technologies.

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Just Jared 20 Oct 2022

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup are making a rare public appearance together! The 54-year-old The Watcher had the support of the..
[NFA] Minneapolis Police shot and killed a man in an exchange of gunfire during a traffic stop in the southern part of the city..

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Even with the support of both SD senators, many don't know if they can get have enough votes.
Tukur Mamu, the media consultant to a popular Islamic cleric, Ahmed Gumi, has been reportedly arrested with his family in Cairo, Egypts capital.

Tukur Mamu Arrested With His Family In Egypt

It was gathered that Mamu, who was at the forefront of negotiations for the release of the AbujaKaduna train captives, was arrested with members of his family at Cairo International Airport while they were on their way for lesser hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking with Daily Trust, Mamu said he left Nigeria on Tuesday and was detained by Egyptian security agencies for scrutiny, but nothing incriminating was found on him.

He accused the federal government of attempting to detain him in another country like the Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho.

The newspaper reported that he is currently being repatriated back to Nigeria after the Egyptian government found that his papers were genuine.

KanyiDaily recalls that Mamu recently announced his withdrawal as the lead negotiator in securing the release of the hostages of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack after he alleged a threat to his life by the Nigerian government.
The Ooni of f Ile-Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has officially welcomed his new wife, Olori Mariam Anako, into the palace on Tuesday.

Naija News reports that photos of the event, was shared by Nigerian journalist Dele Momodu who captured the beautiful moments.

Some of the photos show the imperial majesty and his wife serving couple goals and others captured the moment when Ooni was praying for his wife.

Oonis new marriage is coming barely seven months after his estranged wife, Naomi Silekunola announced their separation on social media.

Here are five things to know about the new queen of Ile Ife:

1, Mariam Anako is a native of the Ebira ethnic group in Kogi but grew up in Ilorin. She lost her father at a young age.

2, She was reportedly brought up in the home of the former inspector general of police Mohammed Abubakar. Her mother is a retired police officer.

3, She is an administrative manager in an oil and gas firm that is also into engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, according to her LinkedIn profile.

4, Her elder sister, Medina Anako is a lawyer, businesswoman, and also Special Adviser on Intergovernmental Affairs and Kogi State, Diaspora Focal Point Officer (DFPO) to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. While another of her elder siblings, Mrs Raliat Abdulrahman nee Anako is a Special Adviser to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila.

5, She is the fourth woman to marry the monarch whose last union with Prophetess Naomi Ogunwusi crashed in December 2021.
The former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on Friday dismissed the rumour of a rift between the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The PDP is currently embroiled in a post-presidential primary crisis over the poor handling of the process that produced the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the partys vice-presidential candidate.

Atiku and Wike had met twice in the last two months in a bid to resolve their differences ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

However, the meeting between the two men has not achieved the desired results with a group loyal to Wike still pushing for the resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, over his alleged roles in the crisis.

Fayose, who spoke during the commissioning of a community school in Rivers State, blamed the misunderstanding between the two men on external forces.

He described the Rivers governor as the soul of PDP.

The ex-governor also rallied support for Atiku to win the 2023 presidential election.

Fayoses remark will surprise many as he had earlier demanded the return of power to the Southern part of the country next year.

READ ALSO: 2023: Fayose withdraws from PDP zoning committee

He said: For me, I want to believe his Excellency Atiku Abubakar is not against you but let me say this quickly: A lot of people surrounding the throne are enemies of the throne, and a lot of people surrounding the throne have an issue to grind with somebody or some issues with somebody and they take it to where they are not supposed to take it.

I believe the needful will be done because winning an election is all that matters. Wike has not come out to say that Atiku Abubakar is not the presidential candidate.

I was there the second day after the election when our candidate, the former Vice President, visited the house, the residence of Governor Wike and we had mutual conversations. We were all happy. Everything was in place to move forward. I spoke at that meeting but we dont want to aggravate this situation.

I am only appealing to people that matter. In every political party, there would be groupings. The same family, and different interests but we can do better than we are doing. People around the corridor of power, please allow this candidate to win the election.

We do not celebrate victory until it is ours. Even in my state, they said that Fayose is Tinubus man. Like I said, people were decamping  sitting governors  I did not. Some people believe that you have to destroy your leaders before they can rise.

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Global Neonatal Care Equipment Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2017 - 2022)

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A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants.Global Neonatal Care Equipment Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The industry survey report is an overview of the market. It covers all the recent trends including key developments in the Global market in present and in future. Analyses of the Global Neonatal Care Equipment market trends along with the projections of CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) are provided in the research report.The existing advancements in the Neonatal Care Equipment industry have helped in reshaping the biotechnology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and environmental markets. We have launched a whole new service that can further support the Global Neonatal Care Equipment Market with their reliable and comprehensive market research reports and analysis.For More Inquire@Any successful Global Neonatal Care Equipment market research periodically to stay tuned to the dynamically changing market trends in order to create the traction they need or to retain their booming competitive edge. Whether your company is in the start-up or the expansion phase, you need market research to grasp the vital characteristics of your target market to boost your sales and ROI. We can now be your reliable partner in understanding the different factors that can affect your business success.Get 30% Discount on the Full ReportPurchase @We back the Neonatal Care Equipment firms by making available their wide and comprehensive database of reports and analysis on various areas of the market. The company supports the growth of the industry through its market analysis of the latest technologies, trends, predictions, and company profiles of the major players in the field. Theyre proud to support a huge industry that has had a huge impact on the world. The advancements in Global Neonatal Care Equipment Market have led to great innovation and discoveries of photonics and drug products. It has also favorably impacted the environment in terms of decreasing a number of pollutants and discovering water treatment. We take pride in helping the marketers, founders, and staff of these Neonatal Care Equipment companies because they know that what these companies are up to can change the world.Key Vendor:CareFusion CorporationCooper Surgical, Inc.Covidien PLCFisher & Paykel Healthcare LimitedFUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc.Getinge ABNonin Medical, Inc.About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Global Cosmetic Dentistry Market to Reach $25 Billion by 2022: Research N Reports

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Cosmetic dentistry is generally used to refer to any dental work that improves the appearance (though not necessarily the functionality) of teeth, gums and/or bite. It primarily focuses on improvement dental aesthetics in color, position, shape, size, alignment and overall smile appearance.Global Cosmetic Dentistry Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The industry survey report is an overview of the market. It covers all the recent trends including key developments in the Global market in present and in future. Analyses of the Global Cosmetic Dentistry market trends along with the projections of CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) are provided in the research report.The existing advancements in the Cosmetic Dentistry industry have helped in reshaping the biotechnology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and environmental markets. We have launched a whole new service that can further support the Global Cosmetic Dentistry Market with their reliable and comprehensive market research reports and analysis.For More Inquire@Any successful Global Cosmetic Dentistry market research periodically to stay tuned to the dynamically changing market trends in order to create the traction they need or to retain their booming competitive edge. Whether your company is in the start-up or the expansion phase, you need market research to grasp the vital characteristics of your target market to boost your sales and ROI. We can now be your reliable partner in understanding the different factors that can affect your business success.Get 30% Discount on the Full ReportPurchase @We back the Cosmetic Dentistry firms by making available their wide and comprehensive database of reports and analysis on various areas of the market. The company supports the growth of the industry through its market analysis of the latest technologies, trends, predictions, and company profiles of the major players in the field. Theyre proud to support a huge industry that has had a huge impact on the world. The advancements in Global Cosmetic Dentistry Market have led to great innovation and discoveries of photonics and drug products. It has also favorably impacted the environment in terms of decreasing a number of pollutants and discovering water treatment. We take pride in helping the marketers, founders, and staff of these Cosmetic Dentistry companies because they know that what these companies are up to can change the world.Key Vendor:Danaher CorporationAlign TechnologyDentsply Sirona3MZimmer BiometCoast Dental ServicesQ & M Dental GroupAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Global Paracetamol Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2022

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Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen or APAP, is a medication used to treat pain and fever. It is typically used for mild to moderate pain.Global Paracetamol Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The industry survey report is an overview of the market. It covers all the recent trends including key developments in the Global market in present and in future. Analyses of the Global Paracetamol market trends along with the projections of CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) are provided in the research report.The existing advancements in the Paracetamol industry have helped in reshaping the biotechnology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and environmental markets. We have launched a whole new service that can further support the Global Paracetamol Market with their reliable and comprehensive market research reports and analysis.For More Inquire@Any successful Global Paracetamol market research periodically to stay tuned to the dynamically changing market trends in order to create the traction they need or to retain their booming competitive edge. Whether your company is in the start-up or the expansion phase, you need market research to grasp the vital characteristics of your target market to boost your sales and ROI. We can now be your reliable partner in understanding the different factors that can affect your business success.Get 30% Discount on the Full ReportPurchase @We back the Paracetamol firms by making available their wide and comprehensive database of reports and analysis on various areas of the market. The company supports the growth of the industry through its market analysis of the latest technologies, trends, predictions, and company profiles of the major players in the field. Theyre proud to support a huge industry that has had a huge impact on the world. The advancements in Global Paracetamol Market have led to great innovation and discoveries of photonics and drug products. It has also favorably impacted the environment in terms of decreasing a number of pollutants and discovering water treatment. We take pride in helping the marketers, founders, and staff of these Paracetamol companies because they know that what these companies are up to can change the world.Key Vendor:Glaxo SmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd.Captab biotechArika healthcareAknil biotechM.M. Pharmaand Genesis Biotech..About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
In-depth Research Report on Global Stadol Nasal Spray Market Forecast from 2017 To 2022

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Global Stadol Nasal Spray Market Research Report Forecast 2017 To 2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.This report delves into the complete scenario of the Global Stadol Nasal Spray market. During the research, it has found that the driving force behind this market is the consumers demand for the Stadol Nasal Spray products. The growing consumers demand is pushing companies to come up with efficient products which in turn is aiding the growth of the Stadol Nasal Spray industry.Access the Sample of this report on the below mentioned link:The measures, strategies, applications, services are prominently used to make the global Stadol Nasal Spray occurrence in the market. These regions are anticipated to be the higher producer of global Stadol Nasal Spray market. The report also covers raw materials, equipments, marketing channels, industry developments, and its proposals.Get 30% Discount on this Report:The reports have also focused on the markets restraint facts which can actually slow down the demand of global Stadol Nasal Spray market and hamper the regional economy. Whereas, the opportunity for its future growth is also mentioned for the customers so that they can easily understand the market scenario.For more inquiry before purchase:In the end, the report includes global Stadol Nasal Spray new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, investment return analysis, and development analysis. The report also presents a round-up of vulnerabilities which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period.For Complete Report, click the link:About Research n Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)
The Global Ceramic Tiles market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2017 to 2025

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Ceramic tiles are a significant facet of the construction industry and one of the prime factors that drives the claim for ceramic tiles is development in the construction division, especially in developing countries. Ceramic tiles are predictable to replace traditional products, including mosaic and even granite or marble, because of their added advantages such as flexibility, sterility, low price, and comfort in laying.The report presents a thorough analytical overview of the past and present state of the market and, with the help of present data, trends, competition, and regulatory framework gives a forward-looking perspective of the way the market will develop over the course of the next few years. Along with qualitative and qualitative details pertaining to the markets key elements, an overview of the chief macro and micro economic factors that will enable companies to the market to surmount competition are also examined in great details.For Sample copy of this report:The global Ceramic Tiles market is gaining pace and industry have started understanding the benefits of analytics in the present day highly dynamic environment. The market has witnessed several important developments over the past few years, with mounting volumes of data and the shift from traditional analysis platforms to self-service analytics being some of the most prominent ones.Of the key modes of deployment, applications, trends, types, are thoroughly observed in this report for consumers understanding. Based on geography, the report examines the market for Ceramic Tiles across regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America. The dominant regional market and the fastest growing regional market is also mentioned clearly for the better of the readers.For more information, Ask your Quires:The report firstly introduced the Ceramic Tiles basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.10916, Gold Point, Dr, Houston, TX,Pin - 77064.Email:sales@researchnreports.comPhone:+1 888-631-6977
Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market by Types, Application, Geography, Trends and Forecast 2017 to 2022

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Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market Research Report Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The report takes a close and analytical look at the various companies that strive for a higher share of the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market. Data on the leading and fastest-growing segments along with what drives them has been given. This report implements a balanced mix of primary and secondary research methodologies for its analysis. The market is segmented on the basis of key criteria. For this purpose, a section dedicated to company profiles has been included in the report.The report is presented in a clear and concise manner so that readers can understand the market structure and dynamics effectively. Recent trends and developments in the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market have been analyzed. Opportunities leading to the growth of the market have been analyzed and stated. The report focuses on the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market, and answers some of the most critical questions stakeholders are currently facing across the globe. Information about the size of the market (by the end of the forecast year), companies that are most likely to scale up their competitive abilities, leading segments, and challenges impeding the growth of the market are given.For Sample copy of this Report:Drivers and restraints impacting the growth of the market have also been analyzed. A segmentation of the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market has been done for the purpose of a detailed study. The profiling of the leading players is done in order to judge the current competitive scenario. The competitive landscape is assessed by taking into consideration many important factors such as business growth, recent developments, product pipeline, and others. The research report further makes use of graphical representations such as tables, info graphics, and charts to forecast figures and historical data of the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market. Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market: Regional Segment Analysis, North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India.The Major players reported in the market include: Pfizer, Biotest, CSL Behring, Kedrion, Octapharma, Shire, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche.Ask For Discount:For the purpose of the study, the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market is segmented based on various parameters. An in-depth regional classification of the market is also included herein. The factors which are impacting the markets growth are studied in detail.For more inquiry before buy:The report also presents a round-up of vulnerabilities which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period. Besides this, profiles of some of the leading players operating in the global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs market are included in the report. Using SWOT analysis, their weaknesses and strengths are analyzed. It also helps the report provide insights into the opportunities and threats that these companies may face during the forecast period.Table of Contents:Chapter 1 Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Hemophilia Treatment Drugs IndustryChapter 3 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter 5 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)Chapter 6 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Manufacturers AnalysisChapter 8 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Manufacturers AnalysisChapter 9 Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 10 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 11 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 12 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 13 Global Hemophilia Treatment Drugs Market Forecast (2017-2021)Chapter 14 AppendixComplete Report Available at:About Research n Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)10916, Gold Point, Dr, Houston, TX,Pin - 77064.Email:sales@researchnreports.comPhone:+1 888-631-6977
Global Plant Growing Lamps Market Research Report 2017-2022 Philips, OSRAM, Illumitex, GE, Valoya

Plant Growing Lamps Market

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Plant Growing Lamps Market Research ReportA market study based on the " Plant Growing Lamps Market " across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Plant Growing Lamps Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Plant Growing Lamps industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Plant Growing Lamps market on the basis of this analysis.Ask For Sample Copy of Report :Top Manufacturers Companies Covered In This Research Report -PhilipsOSRAMIllumitexGEValoyaEverlight ElectronicsEpistarLumiGrowLEDHYDROPONICSFionia LightingPlant Growing Lamps Market : Type AnalysisLow Power (?300W)High Power (?300W)Plant Growing Lamps Market : Application AnalysisCommercial GreenhousesIndoor Grow FacilitiesResearch ApplicationsThe report studies the industry for Plant Growing Lamps across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Plant Growing Lamps market & dynamics of demand and supply of Plant Growing Lamps into consideration. The ' Plant Growing Lamps ' research study covers each and every aspect of the Plant Growing Lamps market globally, which starts from the definition of the Plant Growing Lamps industry and develops towards Plant Growing Lamps market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Plant Growing Lamps market is classified and analysed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Plant Growing Lamps market. The geographical segmentation of the Plant Growing Lamps industry has also been covered at length in this report.Browse full Report here:The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Plant Growing Lamps is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Plant Growing Lamps market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Plant Growing Lamps market worldwide.The global Plant Growing Lamps market 2017 is also analysed on the basis of product pricing, Plant Growing Lamps production volume, data regarding demand and Plant Growing Lamps supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tool of Plant Growing Lamps such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in Plant Growing Lamps market research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Plant Growing Lamps across the globe.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
Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017

Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017

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The Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Rufloxacin Hydrochloride industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Rufloxacin Hydrochloride 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 Rufloxacin Hydrochloride 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.Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Rufloxacin Hydrochloride sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCompany 1Company 2Company 3Company 4Company 5Company 6Company 7Company 8Company 9Company 10......Ask a complete report sample or have any requirement, please contact my email: tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Market Overview2 Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Rufloxacin Hydrochloride (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017Europe Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017China Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017India Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017Japan Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017USA Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales Market Report 2017Korea Rufloxacin Hydrochloride Sales 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
Global Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017

Global Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017

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The Simetryn Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Simetryn industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Simetryn 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 Simetryn 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.Global Simetryn market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Simetryn sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCompany 1Company 2Company 3Company 4Company 5......Ask a complete report sample or have any requirement, please contact my email: tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Simetryn Market Overview2 Global Simetryn Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Simetryn (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Simetryn Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Simetryn Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Simetryn Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017Europe Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017China Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017India Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017Japan Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017USA Simetryn Sales Market Report 2017Korea Simetryn Sales 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
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Global Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017

Global Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017

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The Sorbitan Trioleate Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Sorbitan Trioleate industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Sorbitan Trioleate 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 Sorbitan Trioleate 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.Global Sorbitan Trioleate market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Sorbitan Trioleate sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCompany 1Company 2Company 3Company 4Company 5......Ask a complete report sample or have any requirement, please contact my email: tinaning@qyresearch.com or visit atTable of contents:1 Sorbitan Trioleate Market Overview2 Global Sorbitan Trioleate Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Sorbitan Trioleate (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Sorbitan Trioleate Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Sorbitan Trioleate Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Sorbitan Trioleate Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixRelated Reports:Global Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017Europe Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017China Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017India Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017Japan Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017USA Sorbitan Trioleate Sales Market Report 2017Korea Sorbitan Trioleate Sales 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
Clot Management Devices Market - Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry by 2024

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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.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:
Medical Traction Devices Market Segment Forecasts up to 2024, Research Reports

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Medical Traction Devices Market: OverviewMedical traction is a therapeutic method used in treating several situations such as muscle contracture, bone fractures, bone deformities (e.g. scoliosis, kyphosis and lordosis) and long-duration muscle spasms. Traction is widely used procedure for low back pain (LBP) and is prescribed in conjunction with other therapies and treatments. Although the results obtained from adoption of traction have been encouraging, there is insufficient clinical data to support the usage of traction devices in medical treatment.The global market for medical traction devices is expected to increase as more preference is given towards non-invasive treatment procedures for bone disorders. Furthermore, high number of patients with chronic pain due to xx and subsequent side effects of pain drugs offer good market opportunity for medical traction devices in the coming years.Obtain Report Details:Medical Traction Devices Market: SegmentationGlobal medical traction devices market is categorized on the basis of specificity and weights used for traction into two major segments, namely, skin traction devices and skeletal traction devices. Skin traction devices use 5 to 7 pounds of weight attached to the skin and is a preferred treatment over the skeletal traction as the latter involve more than 25 pounds weight attached to the specific site (femur bone) using pins and screws. On the basis of principle of operation, medical traction devices are of several types such as autotraction, continuous traction, gravity-dependent traction, intermittent traction, manual traction, mechanical traction, and pneumatic traction.On the basis of usage of these devices, the market can be also segmented as over-the-door traction devices (home use) and traction devices for clinical settings. FDA classifies traction devices under product code ITH (powered traction equipment) and product code HST (non powered traction apparatus) and the devices approved by FDA are being covered under Medicare and Medicaid as well as other private insurers as well.Medical Traction Devices Market: Product and InsightsSome of the medical traction devices available in the market include the Arthrotonic stabilizer, Anatomotor, Accu-Spina System in 2000, DRX9000 spinal decompression, and the Bass Antalgic-Trak. Cervical traction involves stretching soft tissues present in the neck and to relieve neck pain by separating spinal joint structures. The treatment of neck pain using medical traction device is recognized by the American College of Rheumatology and therefore increasingly adopted in the U.S. and Canada. Lumbar traction devices have been used to treat lower back pain and techniques involved in lumbar traction include widening or decompression of vertebral disc spaces, unloading of vertebrae, reduce disc protrusion, elongation and stabilization of spine.Cervical and lumbar traction devices have been studied profoundly than any other traction device type and therefore physicians prescribe these devices with minimal hesitation. For instance, LTX 3000 Lumbar Rehabilitation System (Spinal Designs International, Inc.), and Saunders Lumbar Home Trac (Saunders Group, Inc.) have been widely used for treating sub-acute and chronic low back pain. Recent developments in the market include development of penile traction devices that can be used for treating Peyronies disease.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Medical Traction Devices Market: Competitive OverviewSome of the companies participating in the global medical traction devices market include The Saunders Group, Inc., Chattanooga Corporation, STOLL Medizintechnik GmbH, RS Medical, Hill Laboratories Company, North American Medical (NAM) Corporation, Ito Co., Ltd., Mettler Electronics Corporation, Carteret Comprehensive Medical Care, Spinetronics, LLC, Dentsply International, Medtronic, Inc., SpineRx Technology, Spinal Designs International, Inc., CERT Health Sciences, LLC and VAX-D Medical Technologies, LLC.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: Challenges and Opportunities

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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:
Cyanoacrylate Sealant Market - Manufacturers, Product Types and Applications Forecast 2017

Cyanoacrylate Sealant

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Global Cyanoacrylate Sealant market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Cyanoacrylate Sealant sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including Henkel AG 3M Dow Super Glue Corporation Bostik SA Sureloc Krylex Krayden Parker HannifinOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue, product price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into 501 502 504 661On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Cyanoacrylate Sealant for each application, including Coating MedicalGet a Free Sample Copy of Cyanoacrylate Sealant at:Table of ContentGlobal Cyanoacrylate Sealant Sales Market Report 20171 Cyanoacrylate Sealant Market Overview2 Global Cyanoacrylate Sealant Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Cyanoacrylate Sealant (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Cyanoacrylate Sealant Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Cyanoacrylate Sealant Manufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Cyanoacrylate Sealant Market Forecast (2017-2022)15 Research Findings and ConclusionGet 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. Our central focus to make it trouble-free for decision makers to find applicable information and locate right Research reports which can save their time and assist in what they do best.New York City Zone 01, United Stateshelp@24marketreports.comInt'l: (+1) 646 781 7170UK(Toll free): +44 800 088 5734
Castor Oil Market Outlook 2017 - Kanghui, Adya Oil, Thai Castor Oil, Gokul Overseas, Hewei

Castor Oil

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Castor Oil Market Research 2017A market study  Global Castor Oil Market  examines the performance of the Castor Oil market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Castor Oil market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Castor Oil market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Castor Oil Market 2017 report includes Castor Oil market Revenue, market Share, Castor Oil industry volume, market Trends, Castor Oil Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Castor Oil Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Castor Oil Market 2017 -1. NK Proteins2. Jayant Agro Organics3. Ambuja4. Adani Group5. RPK Agrotech6. Gokul Overseas7. Kanak8. Adya Oil9. Taj Agro Products10. Girnar Industries11. Bom Brazil12. Kisan13. Thai Castor Oil14. ITOH Oil Chemicals15. Tongliao TongHua16. Tongliao Weiyu17. Tianxing18. Kanghui19. Huanghe Youzhi20. Xingtai Lantian21. HeweiCastor Oil Market : By Application Food Industry Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics Industry IndustrialCastor Oil Market : By Type Food Grade Pharmaceutical/Cosmetic Grade Industry GradeFirstly, the report covers the top Castor Oil manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Castor Oil report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Castor Oil industry, Castor Oil industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Castor Oil Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Castor Oil 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 Castor Oil market revenue worldwide.Finally, Castor Oil 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
Pest Control Services Market Poised for Robust CAGR of Over 5% Through 2026

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The US$ 16 Bn global pest control services market is set to increase at over 5% CAGR in the next decade, according to a new market forecast report by Future Market Insights (FMI). The report, titled, Pest Control Services Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016 - 2026, offers 10-year forecast and analysis on the basis of application, service, end-users, and region.Rising awareness among consumers on the importance of pest control is anticipated to ramp up demand for pest control and management during the forecast period. Increase in construction activity on account of rapid urbanisation and economic development is also expected to fuel the growth of the market.Global regulations and legislations on consumer safety are anticipated to boost adoption of pest control management as a standard operational procedure in end-use industries, especially in food and beverage manufacturing. End-use industries are focus on compliance with certification standards set by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and AIB International, and this is expected to contribute to the growth of the market in the future.Other key factors anticipated to shape up demand for pest control services include climate change (various pests thrive in warmer climates), rise in international tourism, and easy availability pest control and management solutions.Technology Making Inroads in Pest Control LandscapeUse of technology is growing in the pest control landscape, with many companies using smartphone apps and mobile communication technology to offer highly effective services to their clients. Concerns about the potential health- and environmental-impact of pest control chemicals is influencing manufacturers to include organic chemicals in their offerings.Request For Sample@North America and Western Europe Dominant Markets, APEJ to Witness Robust GrowthNorth America and Western Europe are currently the largest markets for pest control services, collectively accounting for 60% revenue share of the market in 2015. Demand for pest control services in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to witness strong growth during the forecast period. FMI estimates the APEJ pest control services market to increase at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period.The key application segments on which FMIs reports offers market forecast and analysis include,Ants ControlBedbug ControlBeetle ControlBird ControlCockroaches ControlMosquito & Flies ControlRat & Rodent ControlTermites ControlOthers (Home Lizards, Moths Mites and Reptiles)Among these, demand for termite control is currently the highest, followed by mosquito and flies control. FMI estimates the termite control segment to increase at 6.3% CAGR through 2026, whereas the mosquito and flies control segment is anticipated to expand at 5.8% CAGR.On the basis of service, the market has been segmented into,Chemical control servicesMechanical control servicesOther pest control services (moisture control, sanitation, etc.)Among these, the chemical control services segment is anticipated to witness high growth, increasing at 5.4% CAGR during the forecast period.The key end-use segments of the global pest control services market are,ResidentialAgricultureCommercialIndustrialThe commercial end-use segment currently accounts for the highest revenue share currently, whereas the agriculture segment is expected to increase at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Send An Enquiry@Leading Players Looking to Boost Presence in Emerging MarketsLeading companies profiled in FMIs report include Ecolab, Inc., Rollins, Inc., Rentokil Initial Plc., Service Master Global Holdings, Inc. (Terminix), Massey Services Inc., Arrow Exterminators Inc., Sanix Incorporated, Asante Inc. and Dodson Brothers Exterminating Company Incorporated. The pest control service market is highly fragmented and larger players are focused towards enhancing their geographical presence and expanding their customer base by entering into strategic mergers and acquisitions with regional players.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 :
Walnut Sandwich Dates Market Outlook 2017 - Bian Jiang Qing, Bestone, Jiang Zhou Yuan Ye, Be & Cheery

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Walnut Sandwich Dates Market Research 2017A market study  Global Walnut Sandwich Dates Market  examines the performance of the Walnut Sandwich Dates market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Walnut Sandwich Dates market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Walnut Sandwich Dates market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Walnut Sandwich Dates Market 2017 report includes Walnut Sandwich Dates market Revenue, market Share, Walnut Sandwich Dates industry volume, market Trends, Walnut Sandwich Dates Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Walnut Sandwich Dates Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Walnut Sandwich Dates Market 2017 -1. Three Squirrels2. Be & Cheery3. Hao Xiang Ni4. Bestone5. Xi Yu Liang Pin6. Lou Lan Mi Yu7. Bian Jiang Qing8. Jiang Zhou Yuan YeWalnut Sandwich Dates Market : By Application C-stores Supermarket GrocerWalnut Sandwich Dates Market : By Type Bulk weighing RetailFirstly, the report covers the top Walnut Sandwich Dates manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Walnut Sandwich Dates report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Walnut Sandwich Dates industry, Walnut Sandwich Dates industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Walnut Sandwich Dates Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Walnut Sandwich Dates 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 Walnut Sandwich Dates market revenue worldwide.Finally, Walnut Sandwich Dates 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
Arachidonic Acid Market Outlook 2017 - Kingdomway, Wuhan Fuxing, Martek, Hubei Hengshuo

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Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Market Research 2017A market study  Global Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Market  examines the performance of the Arachidonic Acid (ARA) market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Arachidonic Acid (ARA) market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Arachidonic Acid (ARA) market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Market 2017 report includes Arachidonic Acid (ARA) market Revenue, market Share, Arachidonic Acid (ARA) industry volume, market Trends, Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Market 2017 -1. DSM2. BASF3. Cargill4. Suntory5. Martek6. Cabio7. Guangdong Runke8. Wuhan Fuxing9. Changsha Jiage10. Hubei Hengshuo11. Wuhan Weishunda12. Kingdomway13. Xuchang YuanhuaArachidonic Acid (ARA) Market : By Application Infant Food PharmaceuticalsArachidonic Acid (ARA) Market : By Type Animal Source ARA Plant Source ARAFirstly, the report covers the top Arachidonic Acid (ARA) manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Arachidonic Acid (ARA) report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Arachidonic Acid (ARA) industry, Arachidonic Acid (ARA) industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Arachidonic Acid (ARA) Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Arachidonic Acid (ARA) 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 Arachidonic Acid (ARA) market revenue worldwide.Finally, Arachidonic Acid (ARA) 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
Pc Website Builders Market Outlook 2017 - Homestead, Jimdo, Ibuilt, Squarespace, Yola

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Pc Website Builders Market Research 2017A market study  Global Pc Website Builders Market  examines the performance of the Pc Website Builders market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Pc Website Builders market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Pc Website Builders market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Pc Website Builders Market 2017 report includes Pc Website Builders market Revenue, market Share, Pc Website Builders industry volume, market Trends, Pc Website Builders Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Pc Website Builders Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Pc Website Builders Market 2017 -1. Weebly2. Squarespace3. Wix4. Dudaone5. Yola6. Jimdo7. Yahoo8. Godaddy9. Homestead10. IbuiltPc Website Builders Market : By Application Personal Website School Or College Website Business WebsitePc Website Builders Market : By Type Laptops DesktopsFirstly, the report covers the top Pc Website Builders manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Pc Website Builders report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Pc Website Builders industry, Pc Website Builders industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Pc Website Builders Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Pc Website Builders 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 Pc Website Builders market revenue worldwide.Finally, Pc Website Builders 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
Marking Paints Market Share 2017 Aexcel, Arcon Constuction Supplies, Blastline USA, Diamond Vogel

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Marking Paints Market Research ReportA market study  Global Marking Paints Market  examines the performance of the Marking Paints market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Marking Paints market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Marking Paints market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Marking Paints Market 2017 report includes Marking Paints market Size, Revenue, market Share, Marking Paints industry volume, market Trends, Marking Paints Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Marking Paints Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Marking Paints Market 2017:1. Aexcel2. Arcon Constuction Supplies3. Blastline USA4. Diamond Vogel5. Grainger6. Garon Products7. H G Helios Group8. INCL-X9. Kelly Creswell10. NCP Coatings11. Sherwin Williams12. Spencer Coatings13. Teknos14. TherMark15. U C Coatings...Firstly, the report covers the top Marking Paints manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Marking Paints report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Marking Paints industry, Marking Paints industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Marking Paints Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report:The Marking Paints 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 Marking Paints market revenue worldwide.Finally, Marking Paints 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
Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market by Industry Overview and Key Vendors Forecasts 2022

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The Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Distributed File Systems And Object Storage industry. The study on the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market has assessed the historical and current performance of this market, especially highlighting the key trends and growth opportunities.The Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the 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 market study provides comprehensive data which enhances the understanding, scope and application of this report.Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market Professional Survey Report 2017-2022 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.According to the study, the rising demand for this product is driving the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market significantly. The expansion in the various related industry is also expected to reflect positively on the sales of Distributed File Systems And Object Storage product over the next few years.This report study is on Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market in detail and presents comprehensive forecasts regarding the markets growth trajectory during the forecast period. The rising disposable income of consumers in emerging economies and the steady technological innovation observed in the Distributed File Systems And Object Storage industry are also anticipated. Moreover, the key drivers supporting and help propelling the Global market is further mentioned. The use of advanced technological systems requires which are compatible with this market by every parameter are firmly discussed in this report. The rapid progress of driver aid technologies is thus likely to fuel the market in the coming years is thoroughly explained.Download Sample Copy@Key players have taken on a crucial role in the Distributed File Systems And Object Storage industry in recent years owing to the development of Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry sector. With respect to various parameters such as production volume, revenue, profit margin, export-import figures, and local consumption the in different regional Distributed File Systems And Object Storage markets are studied in the report. The need to employ state-of-the-art positional sensing technologies to ensure they stay on their path, making great technology absolutely essential for the industry is clearly depicted.Key Factors of Market: What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2022? What are the key factors driving the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market? What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market? What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market?Ask your Quires/Get Discount on this Report@The report broadly analyzes the Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market on the basis of the type of product and the application. Based on the type of product, the market has been classified different sections, trends, end-users, and technology. The segment which is likely to fuel the demand for Distributed File Systems And Object Storage products is mentioned.The multiple product types in the Global automotive radar sensors market and their various applications are also studied in the report. This helps provide a clear overview of the leading segments of the Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market and the hierarchy thereof, giving readers actionable insights into which category to invest in. Further, factors that help to propel the growth of the market and presentable opportunities to the market is also mentioned clearly. However, restraining negative factors to the market is given, so in advanced readers can have an idea about the market routes to take.The Market Report in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesEUChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanThe major players in Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage market, includingIBM (US)CLoudian (US)DataDirect Networks (DDN) (US)Dell EMC (US)Hitachi Data Systems (US)Caringo (US)NetApp (US)Panasas (US)Red Hat (US)HGST (US)SUSE (Germany)The Report On the basis of productLocal StorageShared StorageOn the basis on the end users/applicationsIT and TelecommunicationRetailTransportation and LogisticsBFSIGovernmentEducationOtherTable of ContentsDistributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry Overview,Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis,Asia Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market Analysis,2012-2017 Asia Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast,Asia Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Key Manufacturers Analysis,Asia Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry Development Trend,North American Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market Analysis,2012-2017 North American Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast,North American Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Key Manufacturers Analysis,North American Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry Development Trend,Europe Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Market Analysis,2012-2017 Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast,Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry Development Trend,Global Distributed File Systems And Object Storage Industry Research ConclusionsAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Beer Corporate Overview: Is Bigger Still Better?

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A-B InBev's acquisition of SABMiller has created an industry behemoth controlling over a quarter of the global beer market. At the same time, heritage-driven microbrewer offerings continue to reshape the landscape, as their popularity becomes entrenched in key mature markets and expands geographically. What are the opportunities for brewers operating in this polarised environment, against the backdrop of macroeconomic volatility and volume stagnation?Request a Sample atPublisher's Beer Corporate Overview: Is Bigger Still Better? global briefing offers an insight into to the size and shape of the Alcoholic Drinks market in both the off-trade and the on-trade, it highlights buzz topics, emerging geographies, categories and trends as well as pressing industry issues and white spaces. It identifies the leading companies and brands by total volume, offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, packaging innovations, economic/lifestyle influences, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change and criteria for success.Browse Complete Report atProduct coverage: Beer, Cider/Perry, RTDs/High-Strength Premixes, Spirits, Wine.Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.Why buy this report?* Get a detailed picture of the Alcoholic Drinks market;* Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;* Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;* Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.Get discount on report purchase atReportsWeb.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. The market research industry has changed in last decade. As corporate focus has shifted to niche markets and emerging countries, a number of publishers have stepped in to fulfil these information needs. We have experienced and trained staff that helps you navigate different options and lets you choose best research solution at most effective cost.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market Share 2017 Robert Bosch, Denso, Panasonic, Sensata, Analog Devices

MEMS Sensors for Automotive

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MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market Research ReportA market study  Global MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market  examines the performance of the MEMS Sensors for Automotive market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the MEMS Sensors for Automotive market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of MEMS Sensors for Automotive market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market 2017 report includes MEMS Sensors for Automotive market Size, Revenue, market Share, MEMS Sensors for Automotive industry volume, market Trends, MEMS Sensors for Automotive Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, MEMS Sensors for Automotive Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market 2017:1. Robert Bosch2. Denso3. Panasonic4. Sensata5. Analog Devices6. Infineon7. General Electric8. Murata9. Delphi Automotive10. Freescale11. STMicroelectronics12. Harman13. Hitachi14. Invensense...Firstly, the report covers the top MEMS Sensors for Automotive manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the MEMS Sensors for Automotive report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of MEMS Sensors for Automotive industry, MEMS Sensors for Automotive industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. MEMS Sensors for Automotive Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report:The MEMS Sensors for Automotive 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 MEMS Sensors for Automotive market revenue worldwide.Finally, MEMS Sensors for Automotive 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
Mesitylene Market Size 2017 Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Dow, Versalis, Toyo Gosei

Mesitylene

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Mesitylene Market Research ReportA market study  Global Mesitylene Market  examines the performance of the Mesitylene market Size 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Mesitylene market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Mesitylene market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Mesitylene Market 2017 report includes Mesitylene market Size, Revenue, market Share, Mesitylene industry volume, market Trends, Mesitylene Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Mesitylene Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Mesitylene Market 2017:1. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical2. Dow3. Versalis4. Refinery of Sinopec Jinling (Sinopec)5. EMD Performance Materials6. Toyo Gosei7. Jiangsu Jiuri Chemical8. Nantong Dingji Chemical Technology9. Jurong Anbei Chemical10. Jinchou PetroChem...Firstly, the report covers the top Mesitylene manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Mesitylene report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Mesitylene industry, Mesitylene industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Mesitylene Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Inquiry Before Purchasing Report:The Mesitylene 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 Mesitylene market revenue worldwide.Finally, Mesitylene 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
Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

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In 2015, one in every 12 cigarettes lit up in the world was illicit, down from one in 10 in 2014, valued collectively at around US$40 billion, with an equivalent tax loss to global governments. Illicit trade is a phenomenon that impacts tobacco manufacturers, governments and the tobacco control community, and which requires a coordinated international response. This briefing outlines the nature of illicit trade and assesses whether a common approach is possible.Request a Sample atPublisher's Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products global briefing offers an insight into to the size and shape of the Tobacco market, highlighting major industry trends and categories as well as the factors affecting operating environment. It identifies the leading companies and brands, offers impartial, strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, legislative restrictions or pricing influences. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change and where it is headed.Browse Complete Report atProduct coverage: Cigarettes, Cigarettes Including RYO Stick Equivalent, Cigars and Cigarillos, Smokeless Tobacco, Smoking Tobacco, Vapour Products.Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.Why buy this report?* Get a detailed picture of the Tobacco market;* Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;* Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;* Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.Publisher has over 40 years' experience of publishing market research reports, business reference books and online information systems. With offices in London, Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai, Vilnius, Dubai, Cape Town, Santiago, Sydney, Tokyo and Bangalore and a network of over 800 analysts worldwide, Publisher has a unique capability to develop reliable information resources to help drive informed strategic planning.Get discount on report purchase atReportsWeb.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. The market research industry has changed in last decade. As corporate focus has shifted to niche markets and emerging countries, a number of publishers have stepped in to fulfil these information needs. We have experienced and trained staff that helps you navigate different options and lets you choose best research solution at most effective cost.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Military Power Solutions Market 2017 Technology, Type and Application Analysis

Military Power Solutions Market

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A new and latest research report proposed by Market Research Globe renders a market summary of the Military Power Solutions Market industry. This widespread analysis comprises of market potentials and challenges, scope of product, sales volume, market revenue, estimates and rate of growth. The report also digs into all the major market players across the globe.Request for sample of Military Power Solutions Market research report @Chemical industry segment has a crucial role in accomplishing daily requirements of the common man. It is one of the most former industries which attributes substantially to not just economic but industrial growth as well. Nearly, each and every industry segment such as oil and gas, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and many others, depends heavily on the chemical industry. In the recent years, the global Military Power Solutions Market industry has experienced an astonishing change structure-wise such as enhancements in technology, increasing raw material costs, manufacturing base been channeled to Asian countries, novel promising growth markets, etc.The report highlights crucial dynamics and in-depth analysis of the market segment with concentrating on factual data, present industry activities, growth opportunities, new product inventions, and market forecast for the anticipated frame of time along with leading market players, market study based on several regions, and extensive product. The Military Power Solutions Market report assists in determining the projection in this meticulous industry by rendering precise potential demand prognoses. These prognoses will aid the market players to take vital decisions and take hold of the untapped regions and new entrants.This research report incorporates the current market size of this industry. It also distinguishes and assesses complex value chains across the globe such as primary factors, market growth restrains, and propelling strategies. This latest market report examines the Military Power Solutions Market by several segments such as regions, applications, companies, and for the proposed time frame. The report gives a complete insight of this industry consisting the qualitative and quantitative analysis provided for this market industry along with prime development trends, competitive analysis, and vital factors that are predominant in the Military Power Solutions Market.Detailed TOC and Charts & Tables of Military Power Solutions Market Research Report available @Market Scope:Various aspects are considered in this all-inclusive market research report and it inspects the global Military Power Solutions Market industry from an all axis perspective. It gives in-depth information on the future viewpoint, key developments, market dynamics and growth, latest trends in the market, and potential investment segment.The report furnishes: An in-depth widespread market analysis of the global Military Power Solutions Market Analysis of global market trends, forecasts for 2017, and predictions of CAGRs through proposed time frame. Thorough analysis of applications Mentioning of market players with their complete profile description Researches the vital market trends and novel developments technologically in the Military Power Solutions MarketThe research report comprises of markets comprehensive analysis geographically on several important regions such as:1. Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia)2. North America (Mexico, USA, and Canada)3. Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia)4. Africa, South America, and the Middle EastThe leading industry players across the globe are explored in detail in this report. It demonstrates product overview, company summary, and manufacturing cost, capacity, and market shares for most of the participants. The report portrays the complete overview of Military Power Solutions Market across the world including its cost/profit, demand/supply, import/export, capacity, production value, etc. The research report also prognosticates trends in the development of this industrys market. It cloaks current market analysis dynamically, downstream requirements as well as the upstream raw materials. Lastly, the report also segregates vital market figures which represent the market condition of Military Power Solutions Market manufacturers. The report can function as an assistive reference point for helping individuals as well as businesses from this segment.Check for Discount @Some points from TOC:-Table of ContentsPart I Military Power Solutions Market Industry OverviewChapter One Military Power Solutions Market Industry Overview1.1 Military Power Solutions Market Definition1.2 Military Power Solutions Market Classification Analysis1.2.1 Military Power Solutions Market Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Military Power Solutions Market Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Military Power Solutions Market Application Analysis1.3.1 Military Power Solutions Market Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Military Power Solutions Market Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Military Power Solutions Market Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Military Power Solutions Market Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Military Power Solutions Market Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Military Power Solutions Market Product Market Development Overview1.6 Military Power Solutions Market Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Military Power Solutions Market Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Military Power Solutions Market Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Military Power Solutions Market Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Military Power Solutions Market Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Military Power Solutions Market Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Two Military Power Solutions Market Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisEnquiry before Buying @About Market Research Globe:Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:US: +1-888-376-9998Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-
Current and Projected Greek Yogurt Market size in terms of volume and value 2016-2026

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Currently, greek yogurt is one of the most popular dairy products across the globe. Since greek yogurt is prepared through the straining process in order to separate the yogurt from the excess watery whey, it is also known as strained yogurt. The straining process makes the yogurt much thicker and creamier as compared to the regular or traditional yogurt. Greek yogurt contributes significantly to the growth of the global yogurt market. This is mainly attributed to its benefits such as higher protein and lower carbohydrates value as compare to traditional yogurt. Presently, greek yogurt is the highest growing product category among others including regular yogurt and yogurt drinks and second holds largest market share in terms of revenue, after traditional yogurt in the overall yogurt market. Demand for greek yogurt market is expected to increase in the next five to six forecast years owing to increasing lunch of new product with variety of flavours such as blueberry, vanilla, honey, chocolate and others.Global Greek Yogurt Market Segmentation:On the basis of product type, the global greek yogurt market is segmented into regular greek yogurt and non-fat greek yogurt, which is made from skim milk. Owing to increase the consumption of fat free and healthy products, non-fat greek yogurt products are gaining increasing popularity among the consumers.Request Report Sample@On the basis of distribution channel, the global greek yogurt market is segmented into supermarket/ hypermarket, grocery stores, convenience stores, and online retailing. In terms of revenue contribution, supermarket / hypermarket is expected to hold the highest share among all the other segments. However, online retail for global greek yogurt market witnesses steady growth in the forecasted years. This is attributed to increasing visibility of greek yogurt especially through online retailing.Geographically, global greek yogurt market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, and Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America and Western Europe are the two most lucrative market for greek yogurt in the world. In North America around half of the yogurt sold is greek yogurt.Global Greek Yogurt Market Dynamics:Increase in health consciousness among consumer has led to shift in eating preference towards healthy and nutrition food products. Availability of high nutritional value, which includes high protein, probiotics, vitamin such as vitamin D, B12, minerals such as potassium, iodine and calcium in greek yogurt is key factor that has led to increased adoption of greek yogurt among consumers and thus, fuelling the global greek yogurt market growth.Increasing application of greek yogurt is another growth driver for greek yogurt market since it is used for various medium in different countries. For instance, in Mediterranean region greek yogurt is mainly used as savoury but in the US, Mexico and Canada it is used as sweet snack with added fruits and flavours. Greek yogurt is also used in making many sauces for instance beef and lamb sauces. Greek yogurt is also used as a substitute products, for instance it is used as a substitute product for sour cream, cream cheese and butter. Thus, increasing its application among food products.Among dairy products, greek yogurt is a good option for the consumers who have slight lactose intolerance, since in the production process much of the lactose is removed from the greek yogurt. This leads to drive the scope of greek yogurt among such consumers globally. However, high lactose intolerance is restrain for adoption of greek yogurt, thus restricting the market growth. There is a high opportunity to expand and increase the revenue for greek yogurt in the Asia Pacific excluding japan and Middle East countries.Visit For TOC@Global Greek Yogurt Market Key Players:Some of the key players operating in the global greek yogurt market are Chobani LLC, Stonyfield Farm, Inc, FAGE International S.A., GROUPE DANONE, and General Mills, Inc. Owing to have strong distribution and marketing strategies companies are able to meet the increasing demand for global greek yogurtAbout 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:
Analgesics Market Analysis, Segments, Growth and Value Chain 2016-2026

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Analgesics are the medicines that alter perception, sensation, and sometimes also affects consciousness of individuals by blocking nerve impulses selectively to provide relief from pain. Analgesic drugs are generally available in three categories namely non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), opioids, and local anesthetics. The NSAID reduces pain by selectively reducing the local inflammatory reactions, opioids have their action on the brain and are utilized both in short-term and long-term relief from severe pain, while local anesthetics block the generation and the conduction of nerve impulses. Thus, analgesics form one of the largest markets in the overall pharmaceutical drugs market.Analgesics Market: Drivers and RestraintsHigh prevalence of pain worldwide, driven by an increase in the many disorders related with pain, is highly endorsing the growth of analgesics market. In addition, aging population, increasing acceptance of analgesics drugs, addition of new drugs, rising consumer awareness levels and increasing effective treatment opportunities are responsible for driving analgesics market. Growing geriatric population will be the most important growth driver for this market as such population suffer from pain due to various diseases that occurs in the old age. Due to the increasing therapeutic benefits offered by such drugs along with the faster and effective pain relief, analgesics find increased acceptance by geriatric population. The new innovative drug treatments in the category and increasing awareness about such treatments would drive the growth of this market further in future. However, chronic side effects, susceptible to abuse, high prices of drugs, limited commercialization of new products, and stringent government policies would hinder the growth of analgesics market.Request Report Sample@Analgesics Market: SegmentationThe global analgesics market has been classified on the basis of therapeutics class, pain type, and application.By therapeutics class, the global analgesics market is segmented into the following:NSAIDOpioidsLocal anestheticsOthersAntidepressantsAntimigrain agentsNeurolepticsAnxiolyticsAnticonvulsantsTriptans, ergot alkaloidsBased on application, the global analgesics market is segmented into the following:External AnalgesicsInternal AnalgesicsBased on pain type, the global analgesics market is segmented into the following:Neuropathic painInflammatory painSurgical painCancer painWound care painPhysiologic painPhantomPain arising from other diseasesOthersAnalgesics Market: OverviewBy therapeutic class, NSAID holds prominent share owing to high unmet medical requirements in pain management segment. By application, internal analgesics is leading the analgesic market. Acetaminophen, a drug under internal analgesics segment is representing the largest product segment. External analgesics market is also growing evidently due to introduction of new competitors in the market, and increased advertising.Analgesics Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, North America is the largest analgesics market followed by the Europe. The aging population in the U.S. is the major factor for the region to contribute maximum towards this market. The new opioids and non-opioids will also help meet the unmet needs of the large geriatric population of the region. Europe is also bound to grow due to their high geriatric population and commercialization of new drugs. Asia-Pacific market will experience the highest rate of growth due to the increasing consumer awareness and increasing healthcare expenditure in the region.Visit For TOC@Analgesics Market: Key PlayersKey companies operational in analgesics market are Actavis, Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Novartis AG, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Inc., Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Reckitt Benckiser plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.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.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.
Clinical Laboratory Services Market Driven By Rising Incidence Of Target Infectious Diseases Till 2025: Grand View Research, Inc.

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The global clinical laboratory services market is expected to reach USD 327.0 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Clinical labs are observed to adopt international standards thus providing opportunities for interoperability and automation.Rising concern pertaining to cost control, increasing the pace of R&D for new products, and demand for improvement in quality control parameters has resulted in pressure on lab personnel. Moreover, there has been continuous progress in a number of compounds screened in clinical settings which further demands development in this field.Improvement and implementation of informatics and automated data management solutions to perform seamless operations are anticipated to drive growth in this market. However, sample preparation and running it through experimental protocols with enhanced productivity is still a challenge in these labs.Market entities are continuously putting efforts to address this challenge through several means. For instance, vendors are adopting 384-well plates instead of 96-well plates in order to cut the reagent costs as well as time taken for performing assays.Browse full research report on Global Clinical Laboratory Services Market: (Further key findings from the report suggest: In 2016, clinical chemistry services captured the largest market share due to the presence of large number of body fluid-based screening solutions Moreover, it caters large number of specialty including liver function tests, renal function tests, along with determination of different physiological substances In addition, emergence of tests that require smaller sample size and easy collection of the sample from patients is anticipated to boost R&D, thereby leading to potential growth prospects Depending on the current level of tests, application, medical microbiology & cytology is expected to experience grow at fastest rate Ability to provide better testing services at a comparatively lower rate is anticipated to increase adoption of services by stand-alone laboratories thereby driving progress at fastest pace North America stands out as market leader owing to the technological advancements and high awareness on medical standards followed by Europe Rapid growth can be expected in the regions of Asia and Latin America in the forecast period due to the growing awareness, increased government initiatives, and positive regulatory policies Key players operating include Quest Diagnostics, Laboratory Corporation Of America Holdings (LabCorp), Abbott; Charles River Laboratories, Siemens Healthineers, OPKO Health Inc; ARUP Laboratories; Sonic Healthcare; and Neogenomics Laboratories, Inc. Competition amongst the market entities for the development of clinical chemistry analyzers that can provide rapid results is expected to support the projected CAGRGrand View Research has segmented the clinical lab services market on the basis of services, service provider, application, and region:Clinical Laboratory Services Test Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2014-2025) Human & Tumor Genetics Clinical Chemistry Medical Microbiology & Cytology Other Esoteric TestsClinical Laboratory Services Service Provider Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2014-2025) Hospital-Based Laboratories Stand-Alone Laboratories Clinic-Based LaboratoriesClinical Laboratory Services Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2014-2025) Drug discovery related Services Drug development related services Bioanalytical & Lab chemistry services Toxicology testing services Cell & gene therapy related services Preclinical & clinical trial related services Other clinical laboratory servicesClinical Laboratory Services Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2014-2025) North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo Germanyo UK Asia Pacifico Chinao Japan Latin Americao Brazil Middle East & Africao South AfricaFor more information:About Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist28 2nd Street, Suite 3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com
Synthetic Biology Market Volume Forecast and Value Chain Analysis 2016-2026

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Synthetic Biology is one of the breakthrough technologies developed by mankind from chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering which ultimately changed the approach towards therapeutics. It has a varied areas of applications in biofuels, industrial enzymes, vaccine and antibody production, bio-based chemicals and synthetic biology life science research. Synthetic biologists develop such biological systems using by molding the core components (genetic circuits, part of enzymes and metabolic pathways) and understanding their performance while using these smaller parts or devices into the specific integrated systems. The production of new medicines is now done by using synthetic biology on a cellular, molecular and genetic level to address the emerging health issues.Synthetic Biology Market: Drivers & RestraintsInternationally, companies have started investing in Synthetic biology as many governmental bodies are turning towards biomass and climate change. In past few years synthetic biology has gained industrial interest which has a large scale applications and potential of new gene editing techniques are some of the drivers for this market. Traditional medicines are being replaced by genetically engineered products, DNA sequencing and DNA synthesis technologies. This market though has a potential there with any advances there are risks and hindrance like government regulations and policies, biosafety and biosecurity issues, bio-war but these issues are being addressed by the regulatory bodies and research institutions. The synthetic biology market has changed the complete approach towards traditional ways of combating with newer diseases and genetic challenges with the advanced computing and design systems.Request Report Sample@Synthetic Biology Market: SegmentationSynthetic Biology market is basically can be classified into products, technology and applications.The Synthetic Biology market based on product can be subdivided into following:Core Products.Synthetic DNASynthetic GenesSynthetic cellsDNA & RNA Purification KitsRecombinant ProteinsThe Synthetic Biology market based on technology can be subdivided into following:MutagenesisDNA sequencingGenome engineeringThe Synthetic Biology market based on applications can be subdivided into following:Pharmaceutical CompaniesResearch OrganizationsChemical IndustriesUniversitiesSynthetic Biology Market: Market OverviewSynthetic biology market is a technology which has now a massive demand in the biotechnology sector, chemical and biofuel industries and their products will outstrip the products of the other industries in the near future. There is progress towards making this technology useful in the therapeutic areas from which the society can be directly benefited. The success of synthetic biology in DNA sequencing and synthetic microbes in vaccines, faster and efficient modular DNA assembly methods has proved to be a potential market and thus there is a significant investment done by the pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.Synthetic Biology 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.Europe is a leading market followed by North America, Europe has invested in developing synthesis of biologically based or biologically inspired systems. In North America Defense is a major contributor in the investment done in the past years. In Asia, India and China are said to progress in developments over future to be a part of the Synthetic biology market. The success of this market will depend upon the conversion from basic research to applications which will rise the future opportunities to understand the natural biological systems. Thus the market for synthetic biology is showing no sign for slowing down but managing the future social, ethical and legal responsibilities will lead to innovation.Visit For TOC@Synthetic Biology Market: Key PlayersThe major key players in the synthetic biology market are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Agilent Technologies, GEN9, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Amyris Biotechnologies, Epoch Life Science Inc., Gevo Inc., Intrexon Corporation, Sangamo Biosciences and Gingko Bioworks.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:
Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Market 2017 Global Research by Manufacturer, Application and By Regions - Venlo, Palram, RBI, Kubo, Nexus Corporation

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This report studies Solar Greenhouses (SGH) 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, covering- Venlo- Palram- RBI- Kubo- Nexus Corporation- Agra Tech- Luiten- Atlas Manufacturing- AgrowtecClick to get more details with TOC in a PDF Format:By Application, the market can be split into- Vegetables- Flowers & ornamentals- Fruit plants- Nursery crops- OthersBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)- North America- China- Europe- Southeast Asia- Japan- IndiaTable of Contents:2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Solar Greenhouses (SGH)2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Solar Greenhouses (SGH)2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Solar Greenhouses (SGH)2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Solar Greenhouses (SGH)3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Solar Greenhouses (SGH)3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Major Manufacturers in 2016Browse more details at:4 Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Solar Greenhouses (SGH) Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)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:
Hearing Aids Market Revenue, Opportunity, Forecast and Value Chain 2016-2026

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Market OverviewThe rising incidence rate of hearing disorders among the geriatric population has resulted in growing sales of efficient hearing devices. The hearing disabilities among war veterans as well as new-born infants is one of the biggest concerns in the global healthcare sector. The need for enhanced hearing aids is gaining importance as any untreated hearing loss among infants can lead to impairment in the speaking, the academic and the psychological abilities of the suffering children.Moreover, the global geriatric population is highly susceptible to developing hearing damage, which can adversely affect their personal relationships as well as their social life. As a result, the global market for hearing aids is expected to register a considerable rise, and the demand for hearing aids is likely to increase among several households during the forecast period (2016-2026).Request Report Sample@Global Hearing Aids Market: DynamicsFMIs report on the global hearing aids market consists of research that identifies the key factors that will shape up the dynamics of the market during the forecast period. Besides the obvious factor of rising incidences, the growth of the global hearing aids market is also influenced by factors such as,Rising noise pollutions levelsThe increasing noise pollution throughout the world has had a significant impact on the hearing of adults. Noise emission in heavy duty industries as well as public carnivals is expected to damage the hearing capacity of adults, thereby resulting into increase in demand for hearing aids.High decibel exposureCommon practice of exposing the ear drum with loud music played through headphones or earphones is a very common factor causing hearing problems among the young demographic. Furthermore, people working in high-decibel environments such as airports or ordnance factories are expected to suffer from hearing loss due to overexposure. The demand for hearing aids is also higher among construction worker, owing to the loud drilling and dismantling work.Digital enhancement of hearing aidsThe most recent factor stimulating the growth of enhanced hearing aids is the addition of Bluetooth, headphone, noise cancellation and other digital functions in the existing hearing devices. Such technological advancements have supplemented the demand for expensive hearing aids with additional features.On the other hand, the factors that restrain the overall growth of the global hearing aids market include,Product deficitsThe low battery life of hearing aids is one of the biggest limitation to the demand of existing products. The consumer is left helpless and deaf, after the battery of the aid runs out.Poor diagnosis methodsLack of proper diagnosis of hearing disorders will result in lower adoption of hearing aids as consumer patients will continue to adjust to the hearing impairment.Uncomfortable buzzing and amplificationThe evident buzzing and feedback sounds emitting from the hearing devices have proved to displease the users, especially the elderlies. As a result, it has distracted the thought processes of old people while having conversations with their family and friends.Market SegmentationThe global market for hearing aids is broadly segmented on the basis of the type of products, which include,In the ear hearing aids (ITE)In the canal (ITC)Completely in the canal (CIC)Behind the ear (BTE)Receiver in canal (RIC)Global Hearing Aids Market: Regional OutlineAmong the regional classification of the global hearing aids market, North America and Europe are expected to be amid the foremost lucrative regions in the global market. The rising number of hearing loss incidences in the US and Canada is expected to drive the market growth in North America, while the presence of several leading hearing device manufacturers is anticipated to fuel the hearing aid businesses across Europe. Meanwhile, the high noise pollution levels in Asia Pacific (APAC) countries such as India, China and Japan is also expected to impact the hearing aids market in the APAC region.Visit For TOC@Global Hearing Aids Market: Key PlayersThe leading manufacturers of the global hearing aids market are focussed on market consolidation and expansion of their product portfolio. ReSound, Widex, Oticon, Siemens AG, Starkey Hearing Technologies Inc., and Phonak Hearing Systems, are among the leading manufacturers of the global market that are based in European countries, and account for a majority of the global production of hearing aids. Zounds Hearing, Inc. (U.S.), SeboTek Hearing Systems, LLC (U.S.), Sivantos Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), GN Store Nord A/S (Denmark), Cochlear Limited (Australia), Sonova (Switzerland), MED-EL (Austria), and William Demant Holding A/S (Denmark), among others, are also recognised as the key players in the global hearing aids market.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Organic Cocoa Market Volume Analysis, Segments, Value Share and Key Trends 2015-2025

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The certified organic cocoa market represents a very small share of the total cocoa market, estimated around 0.5% of total production. However, the demand for organic cocoa products are growing at a very strong pace, the supply side faces a strong challenge to meet the demand of organic cocoa. Since, farmers are paying ample amount for producing organic cocoa, production of organic cocoa is more in least developed countries. Organic cocoa has many nutritional benefits such as more fiber, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese and many other minerals. Moreover it also contains antioxidants, which helps to protect skin. Organic cocoa also helps to improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. Demand for organic cocoa products are very high in U.S, U.K and Germany, hence organic cocoa are supplied to developed economies of North America and Western Europe to manufacture organic cocoa products. Currently, Dominican Republic is dominating the organic cocoa market in terms of production that holds around 70 percent of the total market share; Peru, Ecuador and Mexico together hold around 20 percent of the market share in terms of production; rest around 10 percent is held by Bolivia, Ghana, Brazil and others.Organic Cocoa Market Segmentation:On the basis of product type the organic cocoa market is segmented into cocoa powder, cocoa paste, cocoa butter, cocoa beans and others (products containing cocoa). Products containing cocoa holds the highest market share in terms of value followed by cocoa beans and cocoa butter.Request Report Sample@On the basis of application organic cocoa market is segmented into confectionaries, bakery, functional food, health drinks, home cooking use and others (pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries). Organic cocoa is majorly used in food industry as a main ingredient of chocolate.Geographically, Organic cocoa market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Latin America is dominating worldwide followed by Middle East and Africa (MEA) in terms of organic cocoa production. Majority of organic cocoa is exported to Western Europe followed by North America. U.K and U.S are the largest manufacturing countries of organic cocoa products in the world, since organic chocolate is more popular in U.K, U.S and Germany and consumers from those countries owe a significant inclination towards organic chocolates irrespective of high pricing of organic products.Organic Cocoa Market Dynamics:Chocolate is the main application of organic cocoa which is the main growth driver of organic cocoa market. Also, the organic cocoa market is expected to be largely driven by the health consciousness among consumers. However, lack of proper supply of organic cocoa restrains the global organic cocoa market which also leads to increase in price of organic cocoa. There is a huge opportunity in the North America and Western Europe and Japan. Asia Pacific excluding Japan is an untapped market which is also a potential market for organic cocoa. This is attributed to increasing inclination of consumers towards organic products, rapid urbanisation, strengthening supply chain for organic cocoa and rising health consciousness among consumers.Visit For TOC@Organic Cocoa Market Key Player:Some of the leading players are Kraft Foods Inc., Cargill Incorporated, Tradin Organic Agriculture B.V., Ciranda, Blommer Chocolate Company, Artisan Confections Company, PASCHA Company, InterNatural Foods LLC and Wilmor Publishing Corp.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:
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Coal Bed Methane Market Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Under the purview of energy, coal bed methane primarily refers to the natural gas or methane recovery from un-mined coal seams and adjacent sandstones. Such methane recovery usually occurs prior to mining, whereas in some cases, coal seams remain un-mined and methane recovery from such sites is known as virgin coal bed methane. Coal bed methane recovery from un-mined coal mines is of strategic importance as absolute or maximum drainage of the methane seam is necessary to avoid the risk of explosion as well as mitigate the emission of methane in the atmosphere from coal mining operations. From the estimated global coal bed methane reserve of about 4,000 Tcf to 5,000 Tcf, about 20% to 25% is recoverable.The fact that the coal in some sites is at a greater depth, makes it not feasible to extract it on account of the associated safety. This and other environmental and economic considerations serve as the drivers for the global coal bed methane market. Further, the shifting focus towards the use of unconventional energy sources serves as another factor for the growth of global coal bed methane market. The constraints of the coal bed methane are dependent on the accessibility of coal seams. Major constraints of the global coal bed methane market include environmental, regulatory, technical and economic challenges. Among these, environmental constraints include risk associated with greenhouse gas emission. The economical challenges associated with the global coal bed methane market are more prevalent in the early stages of the recovery, when large quantities of water are pumped in with minimal recovery of revenue producing gas. This dewatering and produced water disposal cost is of significant importance for any carbon bed methane project. Although the development cost for the coal bed methane project is relatively lower, it is always a challenge to keep it within minimal range to achieve profitability. The technical constraints of the coal bed methane market depend on the well completion and optimization design to achieve maximum production with optimum number, spacing and location of wells. Also, handling and disposal of water at a minimal cost alongwith the efficient reservoir characterisation are other key technical restraints for global coal bed methane market. Also, coal bed methane requires a low pressure pipeline system which acts as an economical constraint. However, the potential of carbon bed methane to serve as a supplement for conventional natural gas supply and its contribution towards the global energy mix will act as an opportunity for global coal bed methane market. However, the market expansion of the global coal bed methane will be dependent upon the growth of newer technology and development.Request For Report Sample@Market segmentation of global coal bed methane can be done on the basis of application, technology and geography. On the basis of application, the global carbon methane market includes commercial application, industrial application, power generation, residential application, and transportation. On the basis of technology, the global carbon bed methane market includes fracturing techniques including hydro-fracturing, proppant-based fracturing and chemical additive based fracturing, exploration, and drilling. Among these, fracturing techniques have been utilised most frequently for coal bed methane recovery. On the basis of geography, the global coal bed methane market includes North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Middle East & Africa. Among these, the largest carbon bed methane resource bases are found in Canada, China, US, Soviet Union and Australia, with Canada accounting for the maximum share followed by the Soviet Union, China, Australia and US. On a broader level, any country with abundant coal reserves and population, and high energy demand will serve as a potential market for carbon bed methane development at a global level. The demand for coal bed methane gas is evident alongwith the demand for natural gas in China and other Asian countries. Associated exploration in the US has been active in the past few years whereas Canada witnessed lower exploration and the development offewer extraction technologies pertaining to global coal bed methane market.Request For TOC@Some of the prominent players of the global coal bed methane market include Santos, Quick Silver Resources Inc, Baker Hughes Incorporated, BG Group, Arrow Energy, Blue Energy Limited, Halliburton, Dart Energy Ltd., Fortune Oil PLC, ConocoPhillips and Metgasco Limited.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:
Comprehensive Industry Report Offers Forecast and Analysis on Emission Control Catalyst Market

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Emission control and reduction are among the priorities of all the commercial, industrial, and government sector companies. Growing concerns towards mitigation of the ill effects of carbon emissions or pollution are leading to manufacturing and process industries adopting new methods, technologies, materials, and processes. Emission control catalysts are used in catalytic convertors to lessen harmful emissions to the environment. A catalytic convertor houses a typical honeycomb structure coated with emission control catalysts such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Emission control catalysts can be segmented on the basis of their application as mobile and stationary.Mobile applications include automotives. These catalysts are also called automotive catalysts. Stationary applications include thermal or conventional power plants, and other industries.Request For Report Sample@Mobile application presently is the largest segment for emission control catalysts due to the increasing demand for light and heavy commercial vehicles across the globe. Catalytic convertors are mostly used in the automotive industry while stationary emission control systems utilise selective catalytic reduction, catalytic incineration, filters, and catalytic oxidation. Passenger vehicles and cargo trucks are the main source of vehicle pollution followed by two and three wheeler vehicles. Emission control catalysts or convertors are now increasingly being used for NOx reduction from power plants, reduction of sulphur, and removal of toxins from exhaust smoke.Europe is the most lucrative emission control catalyst market. The heavy presence of automobiles manufacturers, power sector companies, and industrialisation across various geographical locations in Europe are the major driving factors for the emission control catalyst market. Europe witnessed 8.8% growth in commercial vehicle registrations. This prominent market was the global leader in FY 2013, and is expected to continue its growth trajectory in the future. Supportive government regulations to curb the ill effects of pollution offer a smooth roadmap for emission control catalyst enterprises to penetrate in European market. Industrial pollution in Europe is the next major setback for the government, as it costs them billions of dollars. Germany, Poland, UK, and Italy possess major refineries and heavy power segments which contribute major damage to the European nations. In such a scenario, the European market is in need of effective solutions that possess the capability to curb the pollution. Therefore, Europe is seen as the most lucrative market for business enterprises operating in the emission control catalyst market.Request For TOC@Other prominent markets are North America followed by MENA and APAC region. North America contributes a major share to global pollution. USA is the leading market as the highest contributor to air pollution in North America region. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas are the states reporting the highest air pollution levels in USA. Many prominent locations in USA are witnessing ozone depletion which is a major cause of concern for government officials. As such, this situation makes emission control catalysts an urgent need in these pollution chronic regions. MENA is the next potential region for the emission control catalyst market. Presence of mining industries and oil borne locations are the major driving factors in MENA region. India, China and Singapore are the prominent destinations for emission control segment. Development in the automobile sector, oil refineries and maritime transportation are the main driving factors in APAC.Increasing automotive fleet and stringent environmental regulations on the international platform are the prime driving factors for growth in emission control catalyst consumption. The global emission control catalyst market is expected to grow between 7% and 9% CAGR over the next five years. Though the market seems promising for business enterprises operating in emission control catalysts, the emergence of battery-powered vehicles could be a major setback to this flourishing industry. Some of the major players include Johnson Matthey, BASF, Umicore, Faurecia, Nett Technologies, and others. Companies are investing in R&D to offer first class products to different end use industry verticals. Acquisitions and mergers are the strategies adopted by key market players to strengthen their position on the global market platform.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:
Wood Coatings Market will be Massively Influenced by Macroeconomic Factors

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Wood coatings refer to the process of refining or protecting a wooden surface, especially in the production of furniture. Wood coating applications include: interior wood, small furniture, panels, tables, cupboards, chairs, office furniture, kitchen furniture, doors and staircases among others. There are generally three types of wood coating: evaporative, reactive and coalescing. Wood coating starts with sanding either by hand or scraping. Imperfections or nail holes on the surface may be filled using wood filler. Often, the wood's color is changed by staining, bleaching, or any other techniques. Once the wood surface is prepared and stained, the coating is applied. It usually consists of several coats of shellac, drying oil, paint, wax or lacquer. Finally, the surface may be polished using wool, steel, rotten stone or other materials, depending on the shine desired. In addition, a final coat of wax is applied over the finish to add a degree of protection.Furniture, decking, and siding are the three largest applications in value terms. However, smaller doors, windows and cabinet applications are expected to achieve faster growth in the near future. Paint is the dominant wood protection product used on siding, windows and doors, but stains and sealers are more widely utilized on cabinets, decks, furniture, and flooring. Residential end-user is the largest market for wood protection products, driven by maintenance demand for items such as fences, siding and decks. Non-residential and non-building uses account for a much smaller market for wood protection products.Request For Report Sample@The growth in the housing market is the primary driver for the wood coatings market. Homeowners are investing more in the upkeep of their decks, fences, floors and siding. A well maintained home adds value of the home and saves money in the long term. In addition, stringent regulations, rising competition, growth in unique formulations and new product developments are some of the factors stimulating the growth of wood coatings market. However, availability of cheaper and quality substitutes, such as wood composites and plastic wood could hamper the growth of this market. These alternative are often more durable and require less maintenance as compared to wood products. Although substitutes are available, wood is a primary choice for commercial and residential purposes due to wide availably in the market. Wood coatings account for the majority of the wood protection demand with paints and stains holding the largest shares. In contrast, preservatives, which are applied to lumber by the wood treatment companies, account for smaller portion of wood protection demand.Asia Pacific is currently the largest market for wood coatings, followed by Europe, North America and Rest of the world (RoW). Sustained demand from the developed markets and burgeoning demand from emerging economies will continue to drive the wood coating market. The industry is witnessing a major shift of key market players from Europe and the U.S. to the emerging economies of Asia Pacific, comprising of China and India.Request For TOC@Some of the key players in this market are Akzo Nobel Coatings nv (Netherlands), PPG Industries Inc. (U.S.), Sherwin-Williams Co. (U.S.), DuPont Coatings and Color Technologies Group (U.S.), ICI Paints (UK), BASF Coatings AG (Germany), Valspar Corp. (U.S.), Nippon Paint Co. Ltd. (Japan), Dow Coating Materials (U.S.) and Kansai Paint Co. Ltd. (Japan) among others. Dow Coating Materials has launched two new acrylic binders for the wood coatings: EXP-4414 and EXP-77. According to the company, the new binders offer improved block, print and dirt pickup resistance and improved hardness development when applied to wood.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Volume, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024

Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market

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Driven by a small number of players, the global market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests exhibits a highly competitive landscape, finds a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR). With a share of nearly 31%, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy led the global market in 2015 and was distantly followed by Mikrogen. Competitive pricing strategy among the leading players is expected to intensify the rivalry within the market in the forthcoming years.According to the research report, the global hepatitis E diagnostic tests market stood at US$43.7 mn in 2015. Expanding at a CAGR of 3.80% during the period from 2016 to 2024, the opportunity in this market is likely to increase to US$60.4 mn by the end of the forecast period. Being the primary test for the detection of hepatitis E, the kits used for ELISA HEV IgM tests have been the most valued diagnostic kits in this market in the recent past and will continue to be so due to the same reason.This 162 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market. Browse through 18 data tables and 55 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The research report has also analyzed the worldwide market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests on the basis of geography. According to the study, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East and Africa have surfaced as the main regional markets for hepatitis E diagnostic tests across the world.Due to the hyperendemicity of hepatitis E in various Asian economies, such as Nepal, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Kazakhstan, and Thailand, Asia Pacific has surfaced as the leading regional market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests and is expected to remain so over the forecast period. The Asia Pacific market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests is likely to acquire more than 48% of the overall market by 2024.Besides, the Middle East and Africa is also projected to witness a significant rise in the market for the hepatitis E diagnostic tests over the next few years due to the increasing prevalence of hepatitis E in various countries in this region, such as Kenya, Morocco, Uganda, and Nigeria, owing to lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation facilities.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:The growth of the global market for hepatitis E is directly proportional to the prevalence of hepatitis E across the world, says the author of this study. As per the WHO, nearly 20 million people suffer from HEV infections every year, worldwide, among which around 3.3 million are symptomatic cases.With the increasing scarcity of potable water and the lack of sanitation, the cases of hepatitis E infection is likely to increase considerably over the forthcoming years and will result in a substantial rise in the need for hepatitis E diagnostic test in the near future, states the research report.Although the worldwide market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests currently looks teeming with opportunity, it may face a severe challenge over the years to come from the rising incidence of asymptomatic diseases, which are difficult to diagnose. The low level of awareness among consumers is also expected to emerge as a restraining factor for the growth of this market in the long run, notes the study.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:
Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Batteries Market Research Report Forecast to 2024

Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) Devices Batteries Market

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Transparency Market Research states that the competitive landscape in the global cardiac rhythm management devices batteries market is mildly fragmented. The leading players such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Greatbatch, Inc. (Integer), and EaglePicher Technologies, LLC are focusing on developing unmatched quality of batteries through state-of-art technological development. Furthermore, companies are also expected to strengthen their position across the globe through geographical expansion. In the coming years, these players are expected to increase their investments to develop products that are aimed toward increasing streamlining clinical workflow, therapy efficacy, and improving quality of life, states the lead author of this research report.According to the research report, the global CRM devices batteries market is expected to worth US$518.4 mn by the end of 2024 as compared to US$397.3 mn in 2015. During the forecast years of 2016 and 2024, the global market is estimated to progress at a CAGR of 3.0%.This 154 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Batteries Market. Browse through 31 data tables and 42 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The various products available in the global CRM devices batteries market are implantable cardiac pacemakers (ICPs), implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices (CRT-Ds). Of these, the CRT-Ds are expected to show the maximum growth in the forecast period as the segment surges at a CAGR of 4.1%. The ability of these devices to manage heart failure cases and reduce the number of risks associated with irregular heartbeats are expected to boost their demand in the forecast period. Analysts projected that ICD will also be a lucrative segment for the global market in the coming years.In terms geography, the global CRM devices batteries market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Of these, North America is the most attractive market for CRM batteries as the region is slated to acquire a share of 38.2% by the end of 2024. Analysts estimate that Asia Pacific is also expected to gain a significant share in the overall market due to high prevalence of health conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension that have spiked the number of cardiovascular disease cases in recent years.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Batteries Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:The demand for CRM devices batteries has grown to a significantly in the past few decades as power sources have graduated from nickel-cadmium batteries to lithium ones. These sophisticated batteries are capable of powering complicated pacing devices such as CRT devices and ICDs. These batteries are known to be light weight, highly predictable and reliable, high energy density, small in size, and come with a long service life. Owing to these regions, several CRM devices manufacturers are using them in ICD, CRT devices, and pacemakers. The demand for CRM devices batteries is also being fueled by the increasing need for data logging, biventricular pacing, and telemetry.The report indicates that growing pool of geriatrics is also likely to boost the demand for ICD, CRT devices, and pacemakers, which, in turn, is expected to reflect positively on the sales of CRM devices batteries. These devices will be extensively used for managing diseases such as bradycardia, tachycardia, and congestive heart failure amongst the ageing population.Though the batteries have gained popularity and demand over the past few years, the growing number of product recalls have resulted in decline of sales of these devices. Failure of device batteries have been the predominant reason for recalls in recent past. The market is also likely to suffer due to the changes in purchasing patterns. These are attributable to the declining reimbursements, lower patient volumes, and a significant drop in capital expenditure since the economic recession of 2008.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:
Wearable Medical Devices Market Research Report by Geographical Analysis and Forecast to 2023

Wearable Medical Devices Market

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The top five providers of wearable medical devices held over 47% of the market in 2014, finds Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new study. Key companies  such as Medtronic Plc., OMRON Corporation, Fitbit, Inc., and Polar Electro  have helped strengthen this otherwise fragmented market. Through a strong presence in wearable medical devices meant for home healthcare, OMRON Corporation had held one of the largest revenue shares of close to 11% in 2014. Their product emphasis is particularly high on pedometers, blood pressure monitors, and similar home healthcare medical devices. Another key player, Fitbit, Inc., has made its mark in consumer electronics through its widely popular wearable fitness devices series.According to TMR, the large number of regional players makes for a highly competitive landscape. Smaller players are constantly pushing innovative boundaries in order to gain market share, while the larger names enjoy a greater amount of consumers trust and have a strong distribution chain.This 109 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Wearable Medical Devices Market. Unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The two key drivers that players in the wearable medical devices can latch on to are the giant scope of innovation and the growing number of people that need these devices, states a TMR expert. Market penetration is, however, easier said than done, due to the large number of players that already exist on regional and global scales. But despite these numbers, the right kind of innovative effort can bring about major success for new entrants in wearable medical devices.Companies are generally providing devices for two types of customers. The first is the wealthy, tech-savvy consumer who is highly conscious about his/her health, and the second type comes from a lower economic bracket and is looking for cheaper devices that provide basic utilities. Targeting both audiences can prove to be successful with the right kind of products and concepts, and will additionally depend on the region in which a player wishes to hold base.At the same time, the sales of wearable medical devices are consistently driven by a growing global population that comes with a higher percentage of the elderly and patient pool with chronic diseases. Those suffering from issues such as diabetes are showing a high demand for fitness trackers and other wearable medical devices that can help them keep track of their physical health.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Wearable Medical Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:As mentioned before, the patients suffering from chronic diseases are the ones showing the highest demand for wearable medical devices. The World Journal of Diabetes has stated that over 60% of the total diabetics in the world were located in Asia Pacific. Studies have shown that Asians are prone to falling prey to Type II diabetes. Additionally, the OECD, over 90 mn people from China alone are suffering from diabetes, while over US$75 bn has already been spent on diabetic patient care throughout Asia Pacific in 2011, stated the TMR expert. It is expected that these high numbers are set to pose a growing demand for wearable medical devices in the near future.The global wearable medical devices market is expected to reach about US$10 bn in 2023 owing to the above drivers and opportunities. This market was valued close to US$2.7 bn in 2014. The device type with the fastest growth rate is heart monitors, with a CAGR of 18.0% between 2015 and 2023. It is expected to help the market gain a greater revenue stream in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Image Guided Systems Market Value Share, Supply Demand, share and Value Chain 2015-2025

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Image Guided Systems (IGS) or Interventional radiology is a specialty encompassing the diagnosis, investigating and image guided therapeutic management of vascular and non-vascular diseases.Image-Guided Systems refers to a surgical procedure that are using in the preoperative images for diagnosis of accurate place, these provides guidance to surgical instruments while surgery in the operative field.Image Guided Systems are helps in diagnosis and treatment of diseases and defects. Image guidance systems are improves the accuracy in surgeries, and thus help in surgeries efficiently. IGS devices are guide doctors in planning for the surgery and help surgeons in conducting the surgeries. IGS has wide range of applications such as cardiology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics and others.Imaging modalities such as Computed Tomography (CT) scanners, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) , X- Ray Fluoroscopy Machines, Positron Emission Tomography , Endoscopes and single positron emission computed tomography (SPECT) equipment are mostly used in Image Guided Surgeries.Image Guided Systems Market: Drivers and restraintsGlobal Image guided systems market can be driven by following driving factors such as rising the incidence of cancer along with increasing demand for minimally invasive surgeries owing to ease it provides to patients compare to conventional surgeries are vital drivers of this market. Increasing awareness among people and healthcare professionals about Image Guided Systems, Increasing the Prevalence of diseases such as Neurology, Cardiology, Orthopedics and ENT problems are driving the Image guided Systems devices market. Technological advancements and improvement in health care facilities are playing a predominant role in driving the IGS devices market.Request Report Sample@Image Guided Systems Market: SegmentationGlobal Image Guided Systems market can be segmented as following typesBy Product:Computed Tomography (CT) ScannersMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)EndoscopesX- Ray FluoroscopyUltrasound SystemsPositron Emission Tomography (PET)Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)By Application:Neurology ApplicationsCardiology ApplicationsGastroenterology ApplicationsUrology ApplicationsImage Guided Systems Market: OverviewRising the demand for minimally invasive surgeries and most accurate in critical surgeries and increasing demand for reduced hospital stay are contributing growth of cardiology and neurological operations. Increasing geriatric population coupled with increase in number of surgeries are providing a significant growth rate in forecasting period.Image Guided Systems Market: Region-Wise OutlookDepending upon the geographic regions Image Guided Systems market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa.North America dominating the image guide Systems market. High income with the population of this region and increasing awareness among the people towards the use of new technologies and reimbursement policies of the government. Asian Pacific region market is considered to rapidly evolving healthcare infrastructure, this region is anticipating providing a lucrative growth of Image Guided Systems Market.Visit For TOC@Image Guided Systems Market: Key playersSome of the key players in Image Guided Systems market are GE Health Care, Inc., Siemens AG, Integra Life Science, Medtronic, Plc. Brain lab AG, St. Jude Medicals, Toshiba Corporation.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:
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Agricultural Adjuvant Market Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Agricultural adjuvant are used to enhance the effectiveness of pesticides such as herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and other agents that are used to control or eliminate the unwanted pests. Adjuvant plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency of agrochemical and also for increasing the yield or productivity of the crop. Agricultural adjuvant includes ammonium fertilizers, surfactants and oils.Agricultural adjuvant plays a key role in the global agrochemical market. The market has grown exponentially over the recent few years and this growth is expected to continue over the forecast period. Various factors such as ease of application, innovative product contributions, advanced production practices, increased accessibility and increasing attack of pests and diseases play a vital role in driving the overall agricultural adjuvant market. Adjuvants are slowly making their mark as the best tool for farmers used to improve application, achieve more cost-effective solution, facilitate the dosage, better-targeted and more environmentally acceptable pest control. A significant amount of the demand for agricultural adjuvants market is anticipated from countries such as France, India, Australia, Italy, U.S., Brazil and Germany among others. The global agricultural adjuvant market consists of activator adjuvants and utility adjuvant. Activator adjuvants include ammonium fertilizers, oils and surfactants while utility adjuvants consists of water conditioners, buffering agents, compatibility agents, buffers, anti-foam agents and drift control agents among others. Agricultural surfactant chemicals are the most dominating product which captures the maximum market share of the overall agricultural adjuvant market. North America is expected to be the largest market for agricultural adjuvant.Request For Report Sample@The leading players of agricultural adjuvant market includes Akzonoble N.V. (Netherlands),Adjuvant plus Inc. (Canada), Brandt Consolidated (U.S.),Momentive Performance Materials (U.S),Clariant International Ltd. (Switzerland), LambertiSpA (Italy),Solvay SA (Belgium), Croda Chemicals (India), Dow Croning (U.S.),Helena Chemical Company (U.S.) andTanatex Chemicals (Europe) among others. 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:
Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market Size, Analysis, and Forecast Report 2015-2025

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Ice-cream and frozen dessert belongs to frozen food industry. Ice-cream and frozen dessert are primarily consumed after meal or served as a refreshment and can be enjoyed between the meal courses. Ice-cream and frozen dessert are mainly made up of milk and cream, and often combined with fruits, nuts and flavours. Rising consumer disposable income coupled with increasing inclination of people towards sweet dishes is expected drive the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market across the globe.Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market SegmentationIce-cream and frozen dessert market is segmented on the basis of types includes regular Ice-cream and low fat ice-cream. Among both of these segment regular Ice-cream is expected occupy the major contribution on the pie. However low fat ice cream is predicted to account for healthy CAGR in next five to six years. Shifting consumer preferences towards consumption of healthy food is expected to support the demand of low fat Ice-cream in the near future. On the basis of type frozen desserts segmentation includes sherbet, frozen yoghurt, frozen ice, frozen tofu and others. Among all of these segments frozen yoghurt is expected to be the major contributor in terms of revenue followed by sherbet. Introduction of frozen yoghurt in various flavour and in innovative packaging is attracting children a lot which is expected to fuel the growth of frozen yoghurt in the near future.Request Report Sample@Ice-cream and frozen dessert market is segmented on the basis of end user which includes household and hotel/restaurant/cafe. Among both of these two segments hotel/restaurant/cafe is expected to account for major share in terms of revenue contribution. Rising consumer preferences for outside dining coupled with increasing inclination of teenager towards the consumption of frozen food is expected to support the demand of ice-cream and frozen desserts market during the forecast period. Moreover, household is expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. Increasing availability of ice-cream and frozen dessert in packaged form and in variants for household consumption is expected to support its growth during the forecast period.Geographically, North America is expected to be the major contributor in terms of value followed by Europe. However, these region is predicted to be a mature market and is expected to show a stable growth in the near future. Introduction of new variant in flavours coupled with offering low fat products may fuel the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market in these region. In developing countries of Asia Pacific region, China is expected to dominate the market in terms of Ice-cream and frozen dessert consumption followed by India. Moreover Japan is expected to show a substantial growth during the forecast period. Increasing consumption of flavoured yoghurt especially in countries such as China and Japan is predicted to support the growth of ice-cream and frozen dessert market across Asia Pacific region during forecast period.Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Market DriversRising disposable income coupled with shifting consumer eating habits is expected to drive the demand of Ice-cream and frozen dessert in the near future. Moreover, increasing availability of flavoured yoghurt especially in developing region is predicted to be major factor supporting the growth of Ice-cream and frozen dessert market during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Ice-cream and Frozen Dessert Key PlayersSome of the major players operating in ice cream and frozen dessert market includes Baskin-Robbins, Nestle SA, Unilever, Danone Groupe SA, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., Cielo USA, Kraft Foods Group Inc. 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:
Nephroureteral Stents Market 2022 - Industry Survey, Market Size, Competitive Trends, Outlook and Forecasts

Nephroureteral Stents Market

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Market Research Globe states the newly formulated research report on Nephroureteral Stents Market to their group of offerings.Report Includes:-The report based on the Nephroureteral Stents Market renders a summary of this market segment including, classification, definition, applications, strategies, segments, process of manufacturing, product specs, value structures, geography-based regional analysis and value chain analysis. The market report provides exclusive highlights to key challenges and potential opportunities along with crucial statistics and data with present situation, forecasts, insights, etc. The research report puts light on prime dynamics of this market sector.Request for Sample Copy @The report comprises of thorough analysis of this market on a global level which impacts the market in terms of restrains, growth drivers, and vital trends. It will determine the market prospects in the coming years along with the profitable areas in the industry. This exhaustive report on Global Nephroureteral Stents Market enables customers to evaluate the predicted future sales in the global market and in several regions with financial outcomes, interviews and forecasting returns. This report examines the import and export and accordingly compares the market directing on the development trend.Key features of the report: Industry overview including definitions, segments, classification based on products, application, geographical region and competitive market share Comprehensive evaluation of the market Statistically backed and industry validated market data Statistical analysis and factual data Forecasts of the market for the set time frame Developments and outlook based on the business SWOT analysis, qualitative analysis and commercial developments and product profiles Important participants, market trends, company profiles and business plansBrowse Full Report @Geographical insights:The report on the Global Nephroureteral Stents Market enables the user have an extra edge across the focuses regions along with all-inclusive competitive framework. It studies the market based on various segments at regional level paired with profit, rate, price, forecast and approximates. The report examines this industrys market in various segments to determine and predicts the growth prospects for the future. Keeping in mind the current market size and future prospects, the report cloaks the regional analysis of the current market trends. It talks about the present market situation of the Nephroureteral Stents in several major geographical locations such as Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific coupled with analysis of many countries markets for the demand for Nephroureteral Stents like United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, United States, China and Japan.Competitive Landscape:With the existence of substantial number of market players, the Global Nephroureteral Stents Market is characterized. This market report enables distinguishing crucial organizations accountable for maximum potential. It assists a customer stay at the forefront by identifying the commercial prospects, capabilities, and development of the prime market players. The report states the newest enhanced technologies along with the main industry players which are profiled in this market report. Analysis of micro and macro elements important for the current market players and novel entrants enables the user to assess the competitive dynamics. The commercial insights and market analysis of Nephroureteral Stents Market will make the customer remain knowledged with the worthy business intellect on this market.Check for Discount @Table of ContentsPart IV Europe Nephroureteral Stents Industry Analysis (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Eleven Europe Nephroureteral Stents Market Analysis11.1 Europe Nephroureteral Stents Product Development History11.2 Europe Nephroureteral Stents Competitive Landscape Analysis11.3 Europe Nephroureteral Stents Market Development TrendChapter Twelve 2012-2017 Europe Nephroureteral Stents Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast12.1 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Capacity Production Overview12.2 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Production Market Share Analysis12.3 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Demand Overview12.4 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Supply Demand and Shortage12.5 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Import Export Consumption12.6 2012-2017 Nephroureteral Stents Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginChapter Thirteen Europe Nephroureteral Stents Key Manufacturers Analysis13.1 Company A13.1.1 Company Profile13.1.2 Product Picture and Specification13.1.3 Product Application Analysis13.1.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value13.1.5 Contact Information13.2 Company B13.2.1 Company Profile13.2.2 Product Picture and Specification13.2.3 Product Application Analysis13.2.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value13.2.5 Contact InformationChapter Fourteen Europe Nephroureteral Stents Industry Development Trend14.1 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Capacity Production Overview14.2 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Production Market Share Analysis14.3 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Demand Overview14.4 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Supply Demand and Shortage14.5 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Import Export Consumption14.6 2017-2021 Nephroureteral Stents Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginEnquiry before Buying @About Market Research Globe:Market Research Globe is a competent consulting company in the field of Global Market Research. We provide our clients a wide range of customized Marketing and Business Research Solutions to choose from, with the help of our ingenious database developed by experts. We help our clients understand the strengths of diverse markets and how to exploit opportunities. Covering a diverse range of business scopes from Digital products to Food industry, we are your one- stop solution right from data collection to investment advices.Contact us:US: +1-888-376-9998Email- sales@marketresearchglobe.comWeb-
Surgical Procedures Volume Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023

Surgical Procedures Volume Market

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Transparency Market Research has published a new market report titled, Surgical Procedures Volume Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2015 - 2023. According to the report, the global surgical procedures volume market stood at 1.3 Bn procedures in 2014 and is estimated to reach 2.2 Bn procedures by 2023 at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2015 to 2023.Technological advances have not only expanded the surgical market by offering innovative medical devices, but have also made the treatment process easier for surgeons. Minimally-invasive surgeries entail shorter hospital stay, minimal incision, less post-surgery complications, and shorter recovery time. These advantages increase the number of patients opting for minimally-invasive surgeries. For instance, usage of MEMS is a growing trend in the cardiac pacemaker market. MEMS-built pacemakers are less invasive and cheaper. In April 2014, da Vinci Xi Surgical System, developed by Intuitive Surgical, Inc., would also support the growth of the Minimally-invasive surgeries. Outpatient minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques have increased rapidly in the U.S. MIS are less expensive as compared to open surgery, and it eliminates hospital stay and reduces risk of complications.This 91 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Surgical Procedures Volume Market. Browse through 20 data tables and 27 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The global surgical procedures volume market has been broadly segmented into cardiovascular, orthopedic, neurosurgery, ophthalmic, gynecology, and other procedures such as urology and dental. Based on procedure type, the ophthalmic procedures segment dominated the global surgical procedures volume market in 2014. Rising global geriatric population is a major factor driving the ophthalmic procedures segment. Ophthalmic procedures are further segmented into cataract surgery, refractive surgery, and glaucoma surgery. Cataract surgery held the largest share in the ophthalmic procedures segment. Demand for cataract surgery is expected to surge in the next few years, as more baby boomers reach 65 years of age across the world.According to projections by the World Health Organization (WHO), the worlds population is likely to increase by about one-third in 10 years. At the same time, the number of people older than 65 years will double. Hence, 32 million cataract operations will be performed by 2020, up from 12 million in 2000. Moreover, advances in medical technologies, particularly the diffusion of less invasive surgical interventions, and better anesthetics have increased the efficacy and productivity of the surgeries. Refractive surgery was the fastest growing sub-segment of the ophthalmic procedures segment in 2014. Nearly 8.4% of the population of North America is hyperopic and 23.9% is myopic. Over 150 million people in the U.S. use corrective eyewear to compensate for refractive errors, spending over US$ 15 Bn each year. Refractive surgeries have become more successful than ever before due to the development of better and efficient devices, with minimum hospital stay and higher efficiency. Hence, refractive surgery is expected to witness the highest growth rate in the near future.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Surgical Procedures Volume Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:The gynecology segment is expected to expand at the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to changing lifestyle and rising disposable income, increase in per capita income in the emerging markets, and better diagnosis of gynecological disorders such as menorrhagia, uterine fibroids and cervical cancers. Cesarean section was the largest sub-segment of the gynecology segment in 2014. The segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. Cesarean section rates are increasing globally, primarily because many patients opt for the procedure on request without clinical indication. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about 33% women in the U.S. had a cesarean delivery in 2013. C-section rate in the U.S. has risen nearly 60% since 2000, to 33% in 2012. Less pain associated with the delivery as compared to vaginal delivery is the major reason women are opting for cesarean section deliveries than normal vaginal deliveries. Brazil and China have the most number of C-section deliveries. In Brazil, C-section deliveries account for over 55% of all the births, with more women opting for the procedure each year. According to the World Health Organization, rates of cesarean delivery vary widely from country to country, ranging from 0.6% in South Sudan to 55.5% in Brazil. Thus, technological development, higher disposable income, greater personal health among the masses would further propel the C-section procedure segment during 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.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global X-Ray Inspection Systems Market By Manufacturers, Countries, Type And Application, Forecast To 2022

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"This report studies the X-ray Inspection Systems market.X-ray Inspection Systems as one of the most promising methods of non-destructive testing (NDT). The systems are also viewed as important screening tools for quality control and risk management, with their ability to detect contaminants, defects and inconsistencies in products. X-ray imaging offers superior precision, repeatability and high-speed capabilities."Get Sample Copy of Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the X-ray Inspection Systems 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 coversYXLON InternationalNikon MetrologyNordsonGE Measurement & ControlAnritsu Industrial SolutionsNorth Star ImagingIshidaMettler-Toledo InternationalVJ TechnologiesBosello High TechnologySesotec GmbHAolong GroupLomaDanDong HuariShimadzuThermo Fisher ScientificDylogMeyerMinebea IntecMesnacMarket 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, coversDigital Radiography (DR)Computed Tomography (CT)X-ray filmMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoGeneral industryAutomotive industryPackagingOthersRequest Discount @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global X-ray Inspection Systems market.Chapter 1, to describe X-ray Inspection Systems Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of X-ray Inspection Systems, with sales, revenue, and price of X-ray Inspection Systems, 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 X-ray Inspection Systems, 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, X-ray Inspection Systems market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe X-ray Inspection Systems sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceIf you have any special requirements, please let us know @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:
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Polypropylene Market Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Polypropylene (PP) also known as polypropene, is one of the largest and single most consumed polymer resin in the world. It is a synthetic, high molecular weight thermoplastic polymer, which can be easily formed by catalytic polymerization of propylene. Due to its superior quality, its demand is increasing, especially in consumer disposable and automobile industry. This has resulted in countless opportunities for the global polypropylene market. Additionally, the trend of replacing metal with polypropylene is another factor contributing to the growth of the global polypropylene market.Polypropylene Market: Opportunities, Drivers & RestraintsPolypropylene, owing to its numerous properties, has emerged as one of the most versatile polymers and is widely used in applications, such as construction, geotextiles, medical, automobile, electrical and electronics industries. These widespread applications are expected to have a progressive impact on the global polypropylene market. Opportunities are emerging in the use of eco-friendly materials, as such, demand for bio-based polypropylene is on the rise. Volatile prices of polypropylene, largely dependent on crude oil are the restraining factors for global polypropylene market.Request For Report Sample@Polypropylene Market: SegmentationGlobal polypropylene market can be segmented on the basis of its end-user industry and geographic regions. Depending on the end-user industry, global polypropylene market can be segmented into automotive, electrical, consumer durable, construction, and packaging. Packaging segment accounts for largest share in global polypropylene market, followed by automotive and electrical segments.Polypropylene Market: Region-wise OutlookGlobal polypropylene market is anticipated to expand at a high single-digit CAGR from 2015 to 2025. Depending on the geographic regions, global polypropylene market is segmented into key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to witness a decline in its share of global polypropylene market. On the other hand, China is one of the largest consumers of polypropylene in terms of production and consumption because of increasing disposable income and changing lifestyles. Adding to this, capacity additions in China and Middle East are expected to boost the market growth.Request For TOC@Polypropylene Market: Key PlayersSome of the key participants in global polypropylene market are SABIC, Reliance Industries Ltd, PetroChina Company Limited, Sinopec Ltd, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Borealis AG, Formosa Plastics Corporation, and Japan Polypropylene Corporation.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:
Castor Oil Derivatives Market will be Massively Influenced by Macroeconomic Factors

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Castor oil is one of the most multipurpose plant oils, obtained by pressing the seed of the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis).It is well known source of a monounsaturated, ricinoleic and 18-carbon fatty acid. Owing to its unique chemical structure and rich properties, castor oil and its derivatives find uses in many industries such as cosmetics, food, lubricants, paints, agriculture, electronics & telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, perfumeries, plastics and rubber, inks & adhesives and textile chemicals. After plant oils, castor oil is considered to be the most required oil. However, growing concerns pertaining to biofuels specially biodiesel and biopolymer across the globe is pushingcastor oil to play a much larger role in the world economy.Castor Oil Derivatives: Drivers & RestraintsGrowth of major end-use industries (includes lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals) and increasing demand for sustainable products & biodegradable, on account of reducing dependence on petrochemicals is anticipated to fuel the demand for castor oil derivatives market. Also regulatory support and rising prices of alternative renewable chemicals is expected to drive the global castor oil derivatives market. However, factors influencing its manufacturing cost includes raw material availability, weather uncertainties, shortage of working capital, techniques & methods used for extraction and availability of substitute oil are resulting in restraints for the castor oil derivative market.Request For Report Sample@Castor Oil Derivatives: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global castor oil derivatives market is segmented into Undecylenic Acid, Sebacic Acid (largest consumed castor oil derivatives), Castor Wax or Hydrogenated castor oil (HCO), Dehydrated Castor Oil (DCO) and others. On the basis of application, global castor oil derivatives market is segmented into Lubricants, Cosmetics & Pharmaceuticals (largest application segment), Biodiesel, Plastics & Resins and Others.Castor Oil Derivatives: Region-wise OutlookThe global castor oil derivatives market is expected to register a double digit CAGR for the forecast period, 2015?2025. Asia-Pacific is expected to continue its dominance on the global castor oil derivatives market. India accounts for largest production of castor oil derivatives worldwide, followed by China and Brazil. Higher demand from the US, Europe and China has resulted in the higher prices for castor as well as increase in demand for castor oil derivatives. The major castor producing countries are India, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Philippines, Russia and Thailand.Request For TOC@Castor Oil Derivatives: Key PlayersSome of players in global castor oil derivatives market are Thai Castor Oil Industries Co. Ltd., Jayant Agro Organics, Hokoku Corporation, ITOH Oil Chemicals Co. Ltd., Gokul Overseas, Bom Brazil, Liaoyang Huaxing Chemical Co., Ltd., Kanak Castor Products Pvt. Ltd., 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:
System-on-Chip (SoC) Market is expected to reach USD 71.98 Billion in 2021

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "System-on-Chip (SoC) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides strategic analysis of the global System-on-Chip (SoC) market. The scope of the report includes competitive analysis of various market segments based on the types of SoC, applications of SoCs in various industry verticals and in-depth scrutiny of the SoC market across different geographic segments. Global market for system-on-chip has been covered under the scope of this report. A SoC is similar to a central processing unit (CPU) of a computer. However it is much smaller in size and all the components such as microprocessor, memory and peripherals among others are packaged together onto the chip. The components of a SoC vary depending on the device it is to be used in. A typical SoC consists of a microprocessor, graphic processing unit (GPU), memory, peripherals, timing sources, analog interfaces, external interfaces, power management circuits and voltage regulators among others. The small form factor combined with computing power of SoCs has led to its integration into various devices such as smart phones, smart washing machines, tablets, smart air-conditioners, smart television, set-top boxes, industrial automation applications and electrocardiogram telemetry devices among others. Thus a SoC contains everything that a motherboard of a computer has but it consumes much less space and power while having similar or better performance.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The global SoC market is primarily driven by the increasing demand for smarter and power efficient electronic devices. Consumer demand for faster performing devices while consumption of lesser power has led to increased materialization of Moores law. Also the reducing cost per function of integrated circuits (IC) has also boosted this market. The increasing demand for better electronic devices at lower costs has led to vast improvement in technologies of SoC manufacturing. Dimensional scaling of ICs has led to decreased cost and increased manifestation of Moores law. Newer technologies of SoC designing and manufacturing have led to the reduction in the wire resistivity and capacitance of the transistors on an IC, coupled with better inter-connectivity of various parts, which has led to further declining of cost per function of ICs. Furthermore, the increasing demand for embedded graphics and multi-core technologies has also been positively impacting the SoC market. Newer SoCs having up to ten cores are entering the market and the number of cores can be expected to increase significantly during the forecast period. The increasing dependence on internet and overall increase in internet users has also led to increasing reliance on SoCs having internet centric applications. Efficient and minimal power consumption by SoCs is becoming a priority for the industry since consumers today are increasingly opting for devices having better battery back-up.The report also includes competitive profiling of leading players in the industry and their market share to aid in strategic decision making. The market attractiveness analysis and company market share analysis included in the report provide insight into market dynamics, industry competition and strategies adopted by market leaders.The report also provides breakdown and assessment of various factors impacting the market growth, which are suitably described as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. These factors determine various existing trends and their impact on market growth. Overall, taking into consideration the various factors affecting the SoC market, the report includes a holistic analysis of the global SoC market, and provides an estimate of growth for the forecast period 2015 to 2021.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Some of the leading players in the market are Apple, Inc. (US), Broadcom Corporation (US), Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (US), Infineon Technologies AG. (Germany), Intel Corporation (US), Qualcomm, Inc. (U.S.), Samsung (South Korea.), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), Toshiba Corporation (Japan) and MediaTek Inc. (Taiwan) among others.The report segments the global SoC market as:System-on-Chip (SoC) market, by Types:- Digital- Analog- Mixed Signal- OthersSystem-on-Chip (SoC) market, by Applications:-- Telecommunication- Consumer electronics- Automotive- OthersSystem-on-Chip (SoC) market, by Geography: The market is segmented on the basis of geography into:- North America- Europe- Asia Pacific- Rest of the World (Latin America, Middle East and Africa)Table Of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Report description1.2 Research scope1.3 Research methodologyChapter 2 Executive SummaryChapter 3 Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Key Trend Analysis3.3 Market Dynamics3.3.1 Market Drivers3.3.1.1 Increasing demand for smarter and power efficient electronic devices3.3.1.2 Declining cost per function of integrated circuits3.3.1.3 Increasing demand for multi-core technologies and embedded graphics3.3.2 Market Restraints3.3.2.1 Cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry3.3.2.2 Maturing of SoC technology would necessitate development of embedded software by each player3.3.3 Market Opportunities3.3.3.1 Better SoCs for varied applications3.4 SoC Market  Porters Five Forces Analysis3.4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers3.4.2 Bargaining power of buyers3.4.3 Threat from substitutes3.4.4 Threat of new entrants3.4.5 Competitive rivalry3.5 Global SoC Market: Market Attractiveness Analysis3.6 Global SoC Market: Company Market Share Analysis3.6.1 Global SoC Market: Company Market Share AnalysisChapter 4 Global System-on-Chip (SoC) Market Revenue, by Types, 2015  2021 (USD Billion)4.1 Introduction4.2 Digital4.2.1 Digital SoC Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)4.3 Analog4.3.1 Analog SoC Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)4.4 Mixed-Signal4.4.1 Mixed-Signal SoC market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)4.5 Others4.5.1 Others Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)Chapter 5 Global System-on-Chip (SoC) Market by Applications, 2015  2021 (Revenue)5.1 Introduction5.2 Telecommunication5.2.1 SoC Application in Telecommunication - Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)5.3 Consumer electronics5.3.1 SoC Application in Consumer Electronics - Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)5.4 Automotive5.4.1 SoC Application in Automotive - Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)5.5 Others5.5.1 SoC Application in Other Industry - Market Revenue and Forecast, 2014  2021 (USD Billion)Chapter 6 Global System-on-Chip (SoC) Market by Geography, 2015  2021 (Revenue)6.1 Introduction6.1.1 Global System-on-Chip (SoC) Market Revenue Share, by Geography, 2014 and 2021 (%)6.2 North America6.2.1 North America System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.2 North America System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, by country, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.3 North America System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, by type, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.4 North America System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, by application, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.5 U.S. System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.6 U.S. System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.7 Canada System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.8 Canada System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.9 Mexico System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)6.2.10 Mexico System-on-Chip (SoC) market revenue and forecast, 2014  2021 (USD billion)...Chapter 7 Company Profiles7.1 Apple Inc.7.2 Broadcom Corporation7.3 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.7.4 Infineon Technologies, AG7.5 Intel Corporation7.6 Qualcomm, Inc.7.7 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.7.8 STMicroelectronics, N.V.7.9 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.7.10 Toshiba Corporation7.11 MediaTek, Inc.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 Metal Biliary Stent Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type, and Application, Forecast to 2022

Metal Biliary Stent Market

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The stents are the metallic or plastic tube introduced inside the human body into duct or lumen to maintain the passage open. There are various types of stents which used for different purposes such as; Coronary stents, biliary stent, esophageal stents, vascular stents, ureteral stents and Prostatic stents. A biliary stent is a metallic or plastic tube-shaped structure inserted into an obstructed or stenosed bile duct to amend biliary flow. Bile duct plays a significant role in the digestion of food as it connects the liver to the intestinal passage. From liver, food is released into intestinal part via the bile duct.Stents applied in biliary diseases are called as biliary stents. Biliary stents very first acquainted in 1979, as relief of cancerous biliary stenosis which extended the standard model in biliary diseases. The bilary stents have two types; Plastic Biliary Stents and Metallic Biliary Stents. The Metallic Biliary Stents are further classified into; Metal Non-Covered Biliary Stents, Metal Partially Covered Biliary Stents, Metal Fully Covered Biliary Stents and Self-expanding metal stents (SEMs). The self-expanding metal stents (SEMs) proposes the advantages owing to amplified diameter of stent thus cutting down recurring hindrance and escalating patency period. Some self-expanding metal stents (SEMs) have recovery loops such as wall bend that assist in its relocation and elimination following the preliminary assignment.Get a Sample of Metal Biliary Stent Market Research report from @The global metal biliary stent market is likely to have high growth pace during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 with significant compound annual growth rate. The technological development in healthcare and medical global industry, increasing disease occurrence of urolithiasis and cancer, increase in the geriatric population are driving the global market growth. Self-expanding metal stents have huge scope for future research. Climb in surgical procedures of biliary diseases is anticipated to enhance the global metal biliary stents market across the world. However, the high price of procedure of biliary stents insertion, preference for plastic biliary stents over metallic biliary stents and availability of innovative alternatives like Biodegradable stents that do not require removal; these factors might restrain the global metal biliary stent market.Browse full Report with table of contents and data tables Metal Biliary Stent Market Report @The key market players in the global metal biliary stent market are Merit Endotek, MiTech Engineering Services Ltd., Boston Scientific Corporation, changzhougarson medical apparatus co., ltd., Cook Group Incorporated, Taewoong Medical Co. Ltd., Allium Medical Solutions Ltd., W. L. Gore & Associates Inc., Novatech Health Care, Micro - Tech C.N.C. Pvt. Ltd., Changzhou Zhiye Medical Devices Institute Co.,Ltd. and C. R. Bard, Inc. According to product types, the market industry is split into; Covered Metal Biliary Stent and Uncovered Metal Biliary Stent. By application, the global market is classified as; Benign Biliary Obstruction and Malignant Biliary Obstruction. Geographically, the global market is segmented into regions which are; Asia-Pacific (Korea, China, India, Japan and Southeast Asia), North America (Mexico, Canada and USA), South America (Brazil, Argentina and Columbia), Middle East and Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nigeria and Egypt) and Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Russia and UK).For more help Speak to our Experts @About 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-
Europe and Israel Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Industry Expected to Reach US$ 1.5 Mn by 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market - Europe and Israel Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that is increasing among population across the globe. During the recent years, there has been a considerable growth in the number of mobile applications for melanoma detection. There are various types of mobile applications available on platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows Mobile OS and Blackberry OS. Further, these mobile applications can be categorized into algorithm analysis applications, educational applications, mole tracking and reminder applications and interactive teaching applications. Algorithm analysis applications provide features for analysis of the moles using image processing. The educational and interactive teaching applications provide information regarding ABCDEs of melanoma detection and help in self-screening of melanoma. Mole tracking and reminder applications offer tracking of such moles that can potentially lead to melanoma and remind patients regarding clinical visits.Browse Detail Report With TOC @This research report provides in-depth analysis of mobile applications for melanoma detection market in Europe. Along with the overall Europe market, country level analyses for Greece and Israel have also been included in the study. Furthermore, the report analyzes the factors that drive and restrain the growth of mobile applications for melanoma detection market in Europe. The report also discusses the prevailing market trends, prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of mobile applications for melanoma detection. It also provides the market estimates and forecasts for Europe, Greece and Israel in terms of revenue. Also provided is the market positioning of key players providing mobile applications for melanoma detection in Europe market.Additionally, the report includes competitive profiling of major mobile application developer companies developing applications for melanoma detection. These profiles includes information such as developer/company information, country of origin, type of application, total number of downloads by platform, application features and price of the application. The key mobile applications for melanoma detection profiled in this study include Dr. Mole, LovemySkin, Mole Monitor, MoleTrac, SkinVision, FotoSKin, Dermatology Planet, Mole Check, Mollies Fund, N?vus, OnlineDermClinic, Skin Analytics, Skin Cancer, Skin Doctor, Spot Mole, Spot Mole Plus, SpotCheck, iSkin, Melanoma Watch, Mole Checker, Mole Checker/Stroika, MoleQuest, Mole Doctor, Skin Of Mine, Skin Prevention, Skin Scanner, Skin Tagger, Skin Mole Analysis, Track-A-Mole, YourSkinDiary and UMSkinCheck.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection MarketBy Geography- Europe- Greece- Rest of Europe- IsraelTable Of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Scope1.3 Research MethodologyChapter 2 Executive Summary2.1 Market Snapshot: Europe Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market (2013 and 2022)Chapter 3 Europe Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Drivers3.2.1 Impact Analysis of Drivers3.2.2 Increasing Cases of Melanoma and Skin Cancer3.2.2.1 Estimated Melanoma Incidences and Mortality Age Standardized Rate Per 100,000 Persons, Europe, 20123.2.3 Growing Trend of mHealth is Driven by Increased Smartphone and Internet Penetration3.2.3.1 Europe Smartphone Penetration, 2013 (% Population)3.2.4 Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Offer Ease of Use, Cost-effectiveness, and Advantages such as Early Detection of the Disease3.3 Market Restraints3.3.1 Impact Analysis of Restraints3.3.2 Facing Concerns Regarding Accuracy, and Uncertain and Costly Regulation Processes3.4 Market Opportunities3.4.1 Impact Analysis of Opportunities3.4.2 Integration with Patient Data Management Solutions such as EHR3.4.2.1 Europe EHR Market Revenue and Forecast, 2012  2020 (US$ Bn)3.5 Market Trends3.6 Competitive Landscape3.6.1 Market Positioning of Key Players in Europe Mobile Applications for Melanoma Detection Market3.6.2 Recommendations...Chapter 4 Company/Application Profiles4.1 ABCDEs of Melanoma4.2 DermaCompare4.3 Dermatology Planet4.4 DermLink.MD4.5 Doctor Mole4.6 FotoSkin4.7 iDoc244.8 iSkin4.9 LoveMySkin4.10 Melanoma Calculator4.11 Melanoma iABCD rule4.12 Melanoma Visual Risk Calculator4.13 Melanoma Watch4.14 MelApp4.15 Mole Check4.16 Mole Checker4.17 Mole Checker (Stroika)4.18 Mole Doctor Skin Cancer App Dermatologist4.19 Mole Monitor4.20 Mole Trac4.21 MoleQuest4.22 Mollies Fund4.23 Nevus4.24 OnlineDermClinic4.25 Skin Analytics4.26 Skin Cancer4.27 Skin Doctor4.28 Skin Of Mine4.29 Skin Prevention4.30 Skin Scanner4.31 Skin Tagger4.32 Skin MD Now4.33 Skin Mole Analysis4.34 SkinVision4.35 SPOT IT & NAME IT4.36 SpotMole, SpotMole Plus4.37 SpotCheck4.38 Track-A-Mole4.39 UMSkinCheck4.40 YourSkinDiaryMake 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 Cloud Based Digital Asset Management Market 2016-2020 - Adobe, Cognizant, EMC, HP, IBM

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DAM systems are software solutions that help manage enterprise digital content such as images, videos, texts, and audio files. Organizations can manage digital content through cloud-based DAM systems available on the Internet. Cloud-based solutions are cost-effective and flexible IT solutions with pay-per-use options. Vendors offer cloud-based DAM solutions to help companies manage digital content through a centralized IT environment.The global cloud-based DAM market to grow at a CAGR of 20.9% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global cloud-based DAM market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from cloud-based solutions to manage enterprise digital assets.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 Cloud-based Digital Asset Management 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.Browse more details at:Key vendors- Adobe- Cognizant- EMC- HP- IBMOther prominent vendors- ADAM Software- Amazon- Canto- Filecamp- Google- MediaBeacon- Microsoft- North Plains- OpenText- WidenMarket driver- High demand for dynamic documents- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Data privacy and security concerns- 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:
India Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Industry Key Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market - India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Passive optical network (PON) ensures connectivity from one access point to multiple end users. It is a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network and therefore rise in the number of FTTH subscribers coupled with increasing demand for energy conservation are bolstering the growth of PON equipment market in India. In addition, high return on investments, low cost of ownership, optimized connectivity, simplified network operations and advanced security are the other major factors driving the PON equipment market. The passive optical network is categorized into two types in terms of its structure  Gigabit passive optical network (GPON) and Ethernet passive optical network (EPON).Browse Detail Report With TOC @GPON terminal devices offer high-speed voice, video and data services to business and residential subscribers. Reliability and last-mile long-reach connection further reinforces the exceptionally high bandwidth of GPON technology. GPON reduces the quantity of active switching devices used in a computer network. In addition, GPON has been a prominent approach for defense services, owing to high bandwidth and advanced security provided by the network.EPON aids service providers to offer IPTV and voice services, residential broadband, enterprise services, such as time division multiplexing (TDM), Internet and voice connectivity. In addition, 3G, and 4G mobile backhaul carriage services are also offered by EPON. The new EPON is fully compatible with the existing Ethernet standards so no alteration is required while linking to the existing Ethernet-based networks at both ends. As Ethernet is the key networking approach used in metro-area networks (MANs) and local area networks (LANs), no protocol conversions are required.OLT and ONT, both are used in GPON as well as EPON. OLT is placed at the central office, while the ONT at the subscribers premises. The OLT functions as the Local Area Network (LAN) combination unit for assimilating data, video and voice services into a single fiber structure. The ONT terminates the passive optical network and provides different local service interfaces to the user, such as voice, data, video and telemetry. Leveraging the influence of all internet protocol/Ethernet architecture and fiber optics, GPON offers scalable, secure and high-bandwidth networks for business, military and campus applications.This market research study analyzes the passive optical network equipment market in India and provides estimates in terms of revenue (USD Million) from 2013 to 2020. It recognizes the drivers and restraints affecting the industry and analyzes their impact over the forecasted period from 2014 to 2020. Moreover, it identifies the significant opportunities for market growth in the years to come.The report segments the market based on structure which includes gigabit passive optical network (GPON) and Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). Furthermore, gigabit passive optical network has also been segmented on the basis of components which include optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network terminal (ONT). The OLT and ONT segments have also been estimated on the basis of revenue and volume in USD million and million units, respectively.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @In order to ensure a clear understanding of the India passive optical network equipment market, we have given a detailed analysis of the value chain. Moreover, a detailed Porters five forces analysis has been given for a better understanding of the intensity of competition present in the market. Furthermore, the study comprises of a market attractiveness analysis, where the equipment are benchmarked based on their market scope, growth rate and general attractiveness.The report provides company market share analysis of the various industry participants. Key players have also been profiled on the basis of company overview, financial overview, business strategies and key developments. Major market participants profiled in this report include Alphion India Pvt. Ltd., Adtran Inc., Broadcom Corporation Inc., Calix Inc., Ericsson Inc., Freescale Semiconductors Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Motorola Solutions Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. among others.Passive optical network (PON) equipment Market: By structure- Gigabit passive optical network (GPON)- Ethernet passive optical network (EPON)Gigabit Passive optical network (GPON) equipment Market: By components- Optical Network Terminal (ONT)- Optical Line Terminal (OLT)Table Of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Report Description1.2 Research Scope1.3 Research methodologyChapter 2 Executive SummaryChapter 3 Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.2 Value chain analysis3.2.1 Raw material suppliers3.2.2 Original equipment manufacturers3.2.3 Integrators3.2.4 Distributors3.2.5 End Users3.3 Market Dynamics3.3.1 Market Drivers3.3.1.1 Demand for secure and reliable network operation3.3.1.2 Eco-friendly substitute as compared to traditional networks3.3.1.3 Low total cost of ownership and high return on investment3.3.2 Market restraints3.3.2.1 High component cost at operators interface3.3.3 Market opportunities3.3.3.1 Rising demand for PON in India3.3.3.2 Increasing need for higher bandwidth3.4 Porters five forces analysis3.4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers3.4.2 Bargaining power of buyers3.4.3 Threat of substitutes3.4.4 Threat of new entrants3.4.5 Degree of competition3.5 India Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market: Market Attractiveness Analysis3.6 India Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market: Raw Material Analysis3.6.1 Nature of raw material used for GPON equipments3.6.2 Sourcing of raw materials by service providers3.7 Passive optical network equipment: Company market share analysis3.8 Strategic Recommendations for Sterlite3.9 Major service providers in IndiaChapter 4 India Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market: By Structure4.1 Overview4.1.1 India passive optical network (PON) equipment market revenue share (%), by structure, 2013 and 20204.1.2 India passive optical network (PON) equipment market volume share (%), by structure, 2013 and 20204.2 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) Equipment4.2.1 India gigabit passive optical network (GPON) equipment market revenue, volume and forecast, 2013  2020 (USD million and million units)4.2.2 India gigabit passive optical network (GPON) equipment market average selling price, 2013-2020 (USD)4.3 Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) equipment4.3.1 India Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) equipment market revenue, volume and forecast, 2013  2020 (USD million and million units)4.3.2 India Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) equipment market average selling price, 2013-2020 (USD)Chapter 5 India Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) Equipment Market: By Components5.1 Overview5.1.1 India gigabit passive optical network (GPON) equipment market revenue share (%), by components, 2013 and 20205.1.2 India gigabit passive optical network (GPON) equipment market volume share (%), by components, 2013 and 20205.2 Optical Network Terminal (ONT)5.2.1 India optical network terminal (ONT) market revenue, volume and forecast, 2013  2020 (USD million and million units)5.2.2 India optical network terminal (ONT) market average selling price, 2013-2020 (USD)5.3 Optical Line Terminal (OLT)5.3.1 India optical line terminal (OLT) market revenue, volume and forecast, 2013  2020 (USD million and million units)5.3.2 India optical line terminal (OLT) market average selling price, 2013-2020 (USD)Chapter 6 Company Profiles6.1 Alphion India Pvt. Ltd.6.1.1 Company overview6.1.2 Financial overview6.1.3 Business strategy6.1.4 Developments6.2 Adtran, Inc.6.2.1 Company overview6.2.2 Financial Overview6.2.3 Business strategy6.2.4 Developments6.3 Broadcom Corporation, Inc.6.3.1 Company overview6.3.2 Financial overview6.3.3 Business strategy6.3.4 Developments6.4 Calix, Inc.6.4.1 Company overview6.4.2 Financial overview6.4.3 Business strategy6.4.4 Developments6.5 Ericsson Inc.6.5.1 Company overview6.5.2 Financial Overview6.5.3 Business strategy6.5.4 Developments6.6 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.6.6.1 Company overview6.6.2 Financial overview6.6.3 Business strategy6.6.4 DevelopmentsContinued...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 @
Newcastle Disease Treatment Market Opportunities and Forecasts, 2017  2025

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Newcastle Disease is a highly contagious disease of avian species especially poultry caused by avian Paramyxovirus type 1 (APMV-1). The virus survives for long periods at ambient temperature, especially in faeces and can persist in houses for up to 12 months. However it is quite sensitive to fumigants, disinfectants, and sunlight. It was first identified in 1926 in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England and later found in the United States in 1944. Newcastle Disease is more prevalent in birds imported from Southeast Asia and Central America. In 1972, infected birds in an exotic aviary spread the infection to chickens on neighboring farms. Affected species by Newcastle Disease include turkeys, chickens, pigeons and ducks. Newcastle Disease affects the respiratory, nervous, and digestive systems and symptoms are very variable depending on the strain of virus, species of bird, concurrent disease and preexisting immunity.The Newcastle disease has a significant economic impact on poultry production. According to some scholar, a study was conducted on Newcastle disease (DM) diagnosed in local chickens at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria between January 1978 and December 1997 Of the 280 cases, the incidence of ND was higher in the dry season with 183 cases (68.4%) than in the rainy season with 97 cases (34.6%). 100) this is expected to register a significant growth of the Newcastle Disease Treatment market over a forecast period.Request to View Tables of Content @External partnerships and strategic collaborations between companies and academia are expected to drive R&D and revenue growth of the Newcastle Disease Treatment market. Rebounding of economic prosperity in developed markets leading to increasing demand for processed healthy meat products, this fuels the demand for effective vaccination of livestock, especially in major animal farming and meat producing nations such as India, Brazil, U.S., and Australia which propel the growth of the Newcastle Disease Treatment market.Newcastle Disease Treatment Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe Newcastle Disease Treatment market is expected to register a significant CAGR over a forecast period. Advancements in biotechnology and veterinary science in developed economies which anticipated to boost the growth of the Newcastle Disease Treatment market. Increase in government funding to the global eradication of disease rinderpest and increase in foodborne and zoonotic diseases also expected to drives the Newcastle Disease Treatment market over a forecast period. On the contrary, large gaps in understanding the epidemiology pattern of Newcastle Disease due to variations in disease patterns for endemic countries and pitfalls in identifying and understanding antigen/ immunogenic structures may hamper the growth of the Newcastle Disease Treatment market.Newcastle Disease Treatment Market: SegmentationThe global market for Newcastle Disease Treatment is segmented on the basis of Diagnosis, end user, and geography:based on the Diagnosis, the Newcastle Disease Treatment market is segmented into the following:Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay (ELISA)PCRSequence Technologybased on the Distribution Channel, the Newcastle Disease Treatment market is segmented into the following:Veterinary HospitalsVeterinary ClinicsVeterinary Research InstitutesRetail Pharmacies and Othersbased on the Vaccines , the Newcastle Disease Treatment market is segmented into the following:Live Attenuated VaccineInactivated VaccineConjugated VaccineNewcastle Disease Treatment Market: Region-wise OutlookA geographic condition regarding for Newcastle Disease Treatment market, it has been segmented into five broad regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. The North America is dominating and contributed the leading shares to the global Newcastle Disease Treatment market in terms of revenue and expected to register a significant growth over a forecast period due to the increasing initiatives by government to ensure food security and awareness regarding mass vaccination programs that would create sustainable demand for vaccines for national stockpiles. The Europe has also contributed the moderate shares and registered a healthy growth rate to the Newcastle Disease Treatment market followed by North America. The APAC has become the lucrative market for Newcastle Disease Treatment and anticipated to register significant shares over the forecast period due to the increasing research and development activities and government initiatives to invest in veterinary vaccines for both livestock and companion animals. The Latin America and MEA are at a nascent stage to the Newcastle Disease Treatment market and expected to show a moderate growth over a forecast period owing to improve access to healthcare facilities.Newcastle Disease Treatment Market: Key Market ParticipantsMajor Key players in the Newcastle Disease Treatment market include: Indovax, Zoetis, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co, and Ceva.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:
New Study On Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Industry: Leading Players Focus on Innovation to Bolster Positions

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market - Global Industry Analysis Size Share Growth Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: ScopeStrategic study of the global workflow automation and optimization software market, and the growth forecast for the period 2017 to 2025, have been provided in this report. Under the scope of the report, competitive analysis of various market segments, based on deployment type, end-use, and in-depth cross-sectional scrutiny of the workflow automation and optimization software market across different regions, have been provided.Browse Detail Report With TOC @Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: Drivers and RestraintsWorkflow automation and optimization software solutions are considered as a part of Business Process Management (BPM) solutions and aids in automation, optimization and streamlining of business workflows. Additionally, workflow automation and optimization software solutions aid in betterment of product and service consistency, faster decision making and increases productivity amongst various other advantages. The growing investment in third platform technologies and fast adoption of such technologies for business processes is the primary driver for the workflow automation and optimization software market.Additionally, the advantages offered by these software solutions have also been promoting the growth of the market. The market is also being driven by the increasing usage of cloud for business processes. The growing dependence on cloud systems, coupled with the demand for fast and efficient business processes, has been promoting the demand for cloud based workflow automation and optimization software solutions.Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: SegmentationIn terms of deployment type, the global workflow automation and optimization software market is segmented into on-premise, cloud and mixed. On the basis of end-use, the market has been segmented into banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, transportation & logistics, telecommunications & information technology (IT) and others. The market revenue for workflow automation and optimization software has been provided in terms of USD million, along with the CAGR for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. In-depth analysis of the current trends in different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa (MEA), under the regional market analysis present in the report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: Competitive LandscapeFor supporting strategic decision-making, the report also includes competitive profiling of leading companies of workflow automation and optimization software market, their overview, SWOT analysis, different product and business segments, unique business strategies adopted by them, revenue garnered by the companies and their regional revenue share. The SWOT analysis, provided for each of the companies profiled, focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the profiled companies, thus providing a enhanced understanding of the position of the major players in this market.The regional overview, provided in the report for each region, details the current trends of the workflow automation and optimization software market for the respective regions. The market attractiveness analysis, and competitive landscape included in the report provide insight into market dynamics, competition present in the industry and the most attractive segments in the workflow automation and optimization software market. The competitive landscape, provided in the report, allows for a better understanding of the major strategies undertaken by the industry leaders and their plans for a sustained growth in this industry.The report also provides specific assessment of the various factors impacting the global workflow automation and optimization software markets growth, which are described as growth drivers, market restraints, and opportunities. These factors aid in pointing out the various existing and upcoming trends, coupled with their impact on market growth. Overall, considering the various factors affecting the workflow automation and optimization software market, the report includes a comprehensive analysis of the global workflow automation and optimization software market, and provides the anticipated growth for the forecast period 2017 to 2025.Some of the leading players in the market are Xerox Corporation (The U.S.), Oracle Corporation (The U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (The U.S.), SAS Institute, Inc. (The U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), OnviSource, Inc. (The U.S.), Boston Software Systems (The U.S.), Flexera Software LLC (The U.S.), JDA Software Group, Inc. (The U.S.), and Reva Solutions (The U.S.) among others.The global workflow automation and optimization software market has been segmented as follows:Global Workflow Automation And Optimization Software Market, by Deployment Type- On-premise- Cloud- MixedGlobal Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market, by End-use- Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI)- Education- Healthcare- Manufacturing- Retail- Transportation & Logistics- Telecommunications & IT- OthersGlobal Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market, by Region- North America- The U.S.- Rest of North America- Europe- The U.K.- Germany- France- Italy- Spain- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific- China- India- Japan- Rest of Asia Pacific- South America- Brazil- Rest of South America- Middle East & Africa- Israel- South Africa- Rest of Middle-East & AfricaMake 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 @
Non-PVC IV Bags Market Trends and Opportunities by 2017  2025

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The non-PVC IV bags play a major role in the operation theater and with the increasing number of patient flow in the healthcare settings the demand for such containers is expected to propel during the forecast period. Moreover, these bags have also overcome the shortcomings of the PVC bags which often faced the problems of drug and container interaction. Therefore alternatives such as polypropylene and ethylene vinyl acetate are developed. The availability of these bags in different designs is also contributing towards the growth of the non-PVC IV bags market.Non-PVC IV Bags Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe demand for non-PVC bags is increasing gradually owing to the increasing stringent regulations in relation to the hospital acquired disease, the inproper dose delivery and also the need for innovative IV containers. The traditional IV containers lead to the interaction of drug with the packaging material and was also difficult to transport especially glass vials. All these issues were minimized with the use of non-PVC IV bags. The major use of these bags is during the targeted drug delivery and chemotherapy. The plasticizers in these containers are susceptible to interact with the drug and hence now the industry players are developing such materials which can be used to develop IV bags without plasticizers.Request to View Tables of Content @According to the Health Care Without Harm there are around 80 hospitals in the U.S. who have taken step to eliminate the use of PVC. Moreover, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden are countries with well-known environmental programs to cut own the use of PVC material. Moreover, with the increasing hospital acquired diseases the regulatory bodies have now focused their attention on the quality of care and hence the use of the non-PVC IV bags is also increasing.Non-PVC IV Bags Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, non-PVC IV bags 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 the number of players initiating newer developments towards bringing in more efficient IV bags. Moreover, there are many academic universities receiving research grants to develop new product alternatives. Market players such as Fresenius Kabi deliver their product in non-PVC IV bag. The companys anti-infective Moxifloxacin Injection comes in in Freeflex bags.Non-PVC IV Bags Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the non-PVC IV bags market participants are Renolit, Kraton Corporation, Shanghai Solve Care Co., Ltd., Shanghai Xin Gen Eco-Technologies Co., Ltd, PolyCine GmbH, Jiangxi Sanxin Medtec Co., Ltd, Cryovac Inc. (Sealed Air), Angiplast Pvt. Ltd., Baxter, B.Braun,Kelun Group, Beijing Double Crane, Fresenius Group, Otsuka, Sartorius Stedim Biotech and Huaren Pharmaceutical.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:
Worldwide High Availability Server Industry: Vendors Keen on Meeting Customers Needs to Cement Positions

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "High Availability Server Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global High Availability Server Market: OverviewHigh Availability Server Market report provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast and 2016 is the base year. The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing influential role in the high availability server markets growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to impact markets growth during the said period. The study provides a complete perspective on global high availability server markets evolution throughout the above mentioned forecast period in terms of revenue (in US$ Bn).Browse Detail Report With TOC @The market overview section of the report demonstrates the market dynamics such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market, key indicators and trends. An attractiveness analysis has also been provided for every segment in the report, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the overall scenario in the high availability server market. Moreover, the report provides an overview of various strategies adopted by the key players present in the market. Key market indicators included in the report provide significance of the factors which are capable of changing the market scenario. These indicators are expected to define the market position during the forecast period.Global High Availability Server Market: SegmentationThe report segments the market on the basis of spectrum type, deployment, operating system, and service sector. The spectrum type segment includes availability level 1, availability level 2, availability level 3, availability level 4, and availability level 5. On the basis of service sector, the market is segmented into IT & telecommunication, banking, financial service and insurance (BFSI), retail, medical & healthcare, manufacturing, government, others. On basis of operating system, the segments of this market include Linux, Windows, Others (UNIX, Free BSD, etc.). The report provides in-depth segment analysis of the global high availability server market, thereby providing valuable insights at the macro as well as micro levels.Global High Availability Server Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also highlights the competitive landscape of the global high availability server market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their presence in different regions across the world and recent key developments initiated by them in the high availability server market. The comprehensive high availability server market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting high availability server market growth.This report provides all the essential information required to understand the key developments in the high availability server market, growth trend of each segment and companies strategies to efficiently compete in the market. Also, the report provides insights related to trends and its impact on the market. Furthermore, Porters Five Forces analysis explains the factors which are currently affecting the high availability server market. This report also provides the ecosystem analysis for the High Availability Server market which explains the participants of the value chain. Also, the report includes segment share analysis for various segments to determine their growth and contribution during the forecast period. Comparison matrix pointer helps in understanding the relation between various sub-segments in terms of the revenue generated by that particular segment.IBM Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, CenterServ, Dell Inc., Fujitsu, NEC Corporation, Stratus Technologies, Inc. and Unisys Global Technologies are some of the major players operating within the high availability server market profiled in this study. Details such as financials, SWOT analysis, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players have been duly provided as part of company profiling.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global High Availability Server MarketBy Spectrum Type- Availability Level 1- Availability Level 2- Availability Level 3- Availability Level 4- Availability Level 5By Service Sector- IT & Telecommunication- Banking, Financial Service And Insurance (BFSI)- Retail- Medical & Healthcare- Manufacturing- Government- OthersBy Operating System- Linux- Windows- Others (UNIX, Free BSD, etc.)Table of Content1. Preface1.1. Market Definition and Scope1.2. Market Segmentation1.3. Key Research Objectives1.4. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary : Global High Availability Server Market4. Market Overview4.1. Introduction4.1.1. Product Definition4.1.2. Industry Evolution / Developments4.2. Market Overview4.3. Key Market Indicators4.4. Market Dynamics4.4.1. Drivers4.4.2. Restraints4.4.3. Opportunity4.5. Key Trend Analysis4.6. Global High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecasts, 2017  20254.6.1. Market Revenue Projections (US$ Mn)4.7. Porters Five Force Analysis4.8. Market Outlook5. Global High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecasts, By Availability Level5.1. Introduction & Definition5.2. Key Findings / Developments5.3. Key Trends5.4. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Availability Level, 2017  20255.4.1. Availability Level 15.4.2. Availability Level 25.4.3. Availability Level 35.4.4. Availability Level 45.4.5. Availability Level 55.5. Market Attractiveness By Availability Level6. Global High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecasts, By End-use Industry6.1. Introduction & Definition6.2. Key Findings / Developments6.3. Key Trends6.4. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By End-use Industry 2017  20256.4.1. IT & Telecommunication6.4.2. Banking, Financial Service and Insurance (BFSI)6.4.3. Retail6.4.4. Medical & Healthcare6.4.5. Manufacturing6.4.6. Government6.4.7. Others6.5. Market Attractiveness By End-use Industry7. Global High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecasts, By Operating System7.1. Introduction & Definition7.2. Key Findings / Developments7.3. Key Trends7.4. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Operating System 2017  20257.4.1. Linux7.4.2. Windows7.4.3. Others (UNIX, Free BSD, etc.)7.5. Market Attractiveness By Operating System8. Global High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecasts, By Region8.1. Key Findings8.2. Policies and Regulations8.3. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Region, 2017  20258.3.1. North America8.3.2. Europe8.3.3. Asia Pacific8.3.4. Middle East and Africa8.3.5. South America8.4. Market Attractiveness By Region9. North America High Availability Server Market Analysis and Forecast9.1. Key Findings9.2. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Availability Level, 2017  20259.2.1. Availability Level 19.2.2. Availability Level 29.2.3. Availability Level 39.2.4. Availability Level 49.2.5. Availability Level 59.3. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By End-use Industry, 2017  20259.3.1. IT & Telecommunication9.3.2. Banking, Financial Service and Insurance (BFSI)9.3.3. Retail9.3.4. Medical & Healthcare9.3.5. Manufacturing9.3.6. Government9.3.7. Others9.4. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Operating System, 2017  20259.4.1. Linux9.4.2. Windows9.4.3. Others (UNIX, Free BSD, etc.)9.5. Market Size (US$ Mn) Analysis and Forecast By Country, 2017  20259.5.1. United States9.5.2. Canada9.5.3. Rest of North America9.6. Market Attractiveness Analysis9.6.1. By Availability Level9.6.2. By End-use Industry9.6.3. By Operating System9.6.4. By CountryContinued...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 Container Shipping Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report (2017-2021)

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Container Shipping Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2017-2021)" to its huge collection of research reports.The ship which is structured specifically to hold huge quantities of cargo compressed in different types of containers is referred to as a container ship (also known as cargo ship). The process of sending cargo in special containers is known as containerization. Container ships are constructed to accommodate immense possible cargo loads. The load holding capacity of container ships is measured in terms of Twenty-foot Equivalent Units or TEUs, with the biggest container ships carrying as much as over 15,000-16,000 TEUs. Container units form the most integral part of the entire shipping industry, trade, and transport. These shipping containers are the structures that store various kinds of products that need to be shipped from one part of the world to another.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The global container shipping market is set to experience favorable growth driven by factors such as increasing sea borne trade, growing containerization, plummeting oil prices and upsurge in disposable income. Further, the scope of growth for this market will be broadened by increasing demand for shipping services therapy and accelerating economic growth. The major trends that can be observed in this market include increasing consolidation of key players, advancements in container shipping, increasing fleet management techniques and growing intermodal freight transportation. However, the growth of this budding market is constrained by challenges such as product miniaturization, environmental regulations, emergence of 3D printing technology and rising trade protectionism.The report Global Container Shipping market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2017-2021) analyses the development of this market, with focus on Asia and Europe markets. The major trends, growth drivers as well as issues being faced by the market are discussed in detail in this report. The four major players: A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, CMA CGM S.A., Hapag-Lloyd Group and COSCO Group are being profiled along with their key financials and strategies for growth. The report contains a comprehensive analysis of the global container shipping market along with the study of the regional markets.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of Content1. Overview1.1 Introduction1.2 Types of Container Shipping1.3 Industry Value Chain2. Global Container Shipping Market2.1 Global Container Shipping Market Forecast by Value2.2 Global Container Shipping Market Forecast by Volume2.3 Global Container Shipping Market Volume by Region2.4 Global Container Shipping New Contracts Volume2.5 Global Container Shipping Net Fleet Additions2.6 Global Container Shipping Trade Volume Forecast2.7 Global Container Shipping Trade Volume by Key Routes2.8 Global Container Shipping Trade Growth by Key Routes2.9 Global Container Shipping Fleet Supply Forecast3. Regional Market3.1 Asia3.1.1 Asia Container Shipping Market Forecast by Volume3.1.2 China Container Shipping Market Forecast by Volume3.2 Europe3.2.1 Europe Container Shipping Market Forecast by Volume3.3 Container Shipping Trade Volume by Key Route3.3.1 Intra Asia Container Shipping Trade Volume Forecast3.3.2 Latin America Container Shipping Trade Volume Forecast3.3.3 Trans-Pacific Container Shipping Trade Volume Forecast4. Market Dynamics4.1 Growth Drivers4.1.1 Increasing Seaborne Trade4.1.2 Growing Containerization4.1.3 Plummeting Oil Prices4.1.4 Upsurge in Disposable Income4.1.5 Accelerating Economic Growth4.1.6 Increasing Demand for Shipping Services4.2 Key Trends4.2.1 Increasing Consolidation of Key Players4.2.2 Advancements in Container Shipping4.2.3 Fleet Management Techniques4.2.4 Increasing Intermodal Freight Transportation4.3 Challenges4.3.1 Product Miniaturization4.3.2 Environmental Regulations4.3.3 Emergence of 3D Printing Technology4.3.4 Rising Trade Protectionism5. Competition5.1 Global Market5.1.1 Global Container Shipping Market Share by Company5.1.2 Global Container Shipping- Revenue Comparison of Key Companies5.1.3 Global Container Shipping- Market Cap Comparison of Key Companies6. Company Profiles6.1 A.P. Moller-Maersk Group6.1.1 Business Overview6.1.2 Financial Overview6.1.3 Business Strategies6.2 CMA CGM S.A.6.2.1 Business Overview6.2.2 Financial Overview6.2.3 Business Strategies6.3 Hapag-Lloyd Group6.3.1 Business Overview6.3.2 Financial Overview6.3.3 Business Strategies6.4 COSCO Group6.4.1 Business Overview6.4.2 Financial Overview6.4.3 Business StrategiesMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Speech Recognition Software Market 2016-2020 Key Vendors - AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Nuance Communications, Dolby Systems, LumenVox, Sensory

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Speech Recognition Software Market 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.A speech recognition software identifies words spoken by an individual or speaker into a microphone, converts them into a computer-readable format, and responds automatically. These software applications recognize speech in multiple languages. These applications are used both by individual consumers and enterprises in the healthcare; banking, financial services, and insurance; legal; and telecommunications sectors for a number of purposes including fraud management, speaker verification, speaker identification, biometrics, and vehicle telematics. The biometrics segment is seeing a high demand for speech recognition software because of the growing instances of fraud. Vendors are developing easy-to-deploy and cost-effective speech recognition applications that help in fraud management.Technavios analysts forecast the global speech recognition software market to grow at a CAGR of 16.99% 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 speech recognition software market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of speech recognition solutions, including software, integrated solutions, and services.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAGlobal Speech Recognition Software 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 vendorsAT&TIBMMicrosoftNuance CommunicationsTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Other prominent vendorsDolby SystemsLumenVoxOnMobile GlobalRaytheon BBN TechnologiesSensoryTellme NetworksVoxeoMarket driverIncreased use of biometricsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeLack of accuracyFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreased use of voice passwordsFor 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 @
Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Automotive Stamping Market Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Stamping is a metal working process by which a desired shape and structure of a material is achieved. This metal working process is adopted in manufacturing industries engaged in processing of hardened surfaces such as sheet metal and plastics components. Stamping process forms the base of all the building process in automotive industry as more than 80 percent of the components that make up a vehicle is produced by stamping. Both the interior structural components and the exterior build components are produced by this process.Since 2010, the demand for automobiles has increased exponentially after the global economic downturn during 2009. This has led to an increase in demand of the stamping machines so as to meet the demand of an impeding growth in the automotive sector. The increase in usage of stamping machines in the automotive sector attributed to the growth of stamped automotive parts and is forecast to expand at a increasing growth rates during 2016-2026.Automotive Stamping Market DynamicsThe market for stamping machines in the automotive sector is driven by reduced lead times required for manufacturing vehicles. The machines are extremely versatile as different modules can be achieved by changing the necessary die. This process has also led to reduced labor requirements as the process can be automated with the help of computers thereby reducing the labor costs. The process helps in reducing scrap wastage as precise amount of raw material is utilized. The production cost incurred in the stamping process is very low and is replacing other metal working processes such as forging and die-casting.Request For Report Sample@Automotive Stamping Market: SegmentationOn the basis of forming temperature, Automotive Stamping Market can be segmented as:Hot StampingCold StampingOn the basis of Stamping process, Automotive Stamping Market can be segmented as:Mechanical ProcessHydraulic ProcessPneumatic ProcessOn the basis of the number of stations required, Automotive Stamping Market can be segmented as:Single Tool StationProgressive StationsRequest For TOC@Automotive Stamping: Regional OutlookThe Global automotive stamping market can be divided into seven geographical locations such as North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Asia-Pacific market is anticipated to grow steeply in the stamped components, as the automotive sector in China, Japan and India is growing at a rapid pace. In Latin America, Brazil is the strongest automotive stamped components market preceded by Mexico and Argentina, due to improved production and sales of automobiles in these regions. European countries such as U.K. and Germany are also expected to grow in the stamped component market as demand for vehicles in these regions has increased exponentially.Automotive Stamping Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players which provide the Automotive Industry with Stamping Presses areSchuler GroupAIDA GlobalOrchid InternationalEagle Press & Equipment Co. Ltd.Hyundai RotemMacRodyne Hydraulic Presses & AutomationSantec GroupJier North AmericaRidgeview IndustriesBliss-Bret IndustriesABOUT 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:
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Systems Market Headed for Growth and Global Expansion by 2026

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Cogeneration (also known as combined heat and power systems (CHP)) is a cluster of technologies primarily used for the concurrent generation of electricity and useful heat. This combined generation of heat and electricity is much more effective than separate generation of electricity and useful heat in a way that CHP systems offers improved energy efficiency, reduced managing cost, low CO2 emission and others. Growing data center capacity as business operate more processes, handle complex analytics with increasing storage requirements for customer data and employing rich media. Handling of such large data requires continuous supply of reliable power making cogeneration systems of primary importance.To view complete report @Efficiency level for cogeneration systems can reach up to 80 % against separate generation of heat and electricity which provides combined efficiency of 40-50 %. CHP systems for data centers are gaining traction in the market as using such plants as source of data center power leads to energy efficient and substantial cost reduction benefits. However, another technology commercially available for powering data centers includes fuel cells. Although CHP systems are less efficient than fuel cells but requires lesser fuel to generate the same amount of power and has a win when its ability to supply chilled water is factored. Some of the major benefits offered utilizing CHP systems for data centers are limited reliance over external power supply, increased energy efficiency, low site carbon emission and others.Global CHP System market for Data Centre: Market DynamicsRegions with high electricity cost are readily adopting CHP systems primarily to save on their energy cost to provide base load power and using such systems to provide absorption cooling for the facility. Moreover, government initiatives to install CHP systems in data center facilities due to low CO2 emissions is also expected to increase its adoption rate thereby increasing the adoption of CHP system in data centers.Low economic life of data center IT equipment results in consumer reluctance towards adoption of CHP systems for data centers since these systems have equipment life of around 10-15 years in comparison to economic life of IT equipment which is only 2-3 years.A sample of this report is available upon request @Global CHP System market for Data Centre: SegmentationThe global CHP system market for data center can be segmented on the basis of data center types, facility size, installation type and region. By Data center types the market can be segmented into Telecoms, ISPs (internet Service Provider), CoLos (Co-located server hosting facilities), server farms, corporate data centers, university/ national laboratory and others. Based on facility the market can be segmented into less than 200 sq.ft, 200-700 sq.ft, 700-1,200 sq.ft, 1,200-6,000 sq.ft and more than 6,000 sq.ft. Based on installation type global cogeneration systems market for data center can be segmented into newly installed systems and retrofit systems. By region global CHP system market for data centers can be segmented into seven key regions namely North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa and Japan.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global CHP System market for Data Centre: Key PlayersSome of the major players identified across CHP system market for data center includes ENER-G, Korea Electric Power Corporation, National Grid plc, Exelon Corporation, NextEra Energy, Inc., Chubu Electric Power Company, American Electric Power Company, Inc. and others.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 Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017

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SummaryThe Global Material Transfer Vehicles Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Material Transfer Vehicles industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Material Transfer Vehicles 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 Material Transfer Vehicles 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):Roadtec (Astec Industries)Weiler (Caterpillar)BOMAGVogeleCarnehl FahrzeugbauXCMGCa-long Engineering MachineryDOAN MachineryKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Material Transfer Vehicles by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Material Transfer Vehicles by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Material Transfer Vehicles by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Material Transfer VehiclesChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Material Transfer Vehicles Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017India Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017China Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Material Transfer Vehicles Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Material Transfer Vehicles 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: 0086-20-22093278Email: 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: 0086-20-22093278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
Global Electronics Locks Market Industry Analysis Trends and Forecast

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Electronic locks can be deactivated or opened by authentication such as passwords and passphrases, numerical codes, security tokens, RFID, and biometrics, among others. Protecting valuable assets and places becomes a concern as the global economic climate sours. Rigorous access control gives peace of mind, leading to growing demand of electronic locks. Electronic lock is gradually becoming one of the primary and cost-effective way to prevent unauthorized access.Request For Sample Report :Electronic locks find application in luxury apartments, office projects, and government projects. The electronic locks market can be segmented by end-use into hospitality and professional segments. The hospitality segment includes hotels, resorts, while the professional segment includes healthcare, government, education, commercial and financial verticals. Players in the market are ensuring electronic locks compatibility with technologies such as Wi-Fi or ZigBee, Z-Wave or Bluetooth or NFC, online wireless, semi-online wireless, and data on card to gain competitive advantage. The electronic locks market can be segmented by type into mechatronic, electromechanical and digital categories. Digital door locks are further segmented by type into biometrics and keypad locks. On the basis of geography, the global electronic locks market can be segmented as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Increasing adoption of electronic locks in mature markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. spurs the growth of electronic locks market. In the coming years, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing electronic locks market mainly driven by expanding sales in China.Sales channels are growing for electronic locks. Currently, real estate developers are the key channel however, some manufacturers have started to use e-commerce websites. Electronic locks for doors are configured to an access control central command or a stand-alone system. Currently, traditional locks can also be converted to stand-alone access control systems. Electronic locks enable affordable upgrades and bring long service life, offsetting initial investment. Electronic locks track the traffic to and from the site, recording when the doors have been opened and by whom. Such features are driving the growth in demand for electronic locks.The key driver of electronic locks market growth is its high demand in the construction industry; it creates a demand for new locks which are installed directly into new buildings and also creates an additional demand for retrofit business due to large amount of companies that move to new premises. Thus, electronic security equipment such as electronic lock is further expected to find potential opportunities in the construction industry. The alarming crime rates and unethical practices globally are further fuelling the growth of electronic locks market. High profit for electronic locks is attracting more suppliers in the industry supply chain, leading to more severe pricing competition. Declining prices and enhanced convenience is being featured in new electronic lock models. Furthermore, growing popularity of access control systems is anticipated to drive the electronic locks market over the coming years.Browse Full Report With TOC :The key players in the global electronic locks market include Kwikset (Spectrum Brands, Inc.), ASSA ABLOY Group, Kaba Holding AG, CDV Group Company, DynaLock Corporation, LockState, Schlage (Allegion Company), Onity (United Technologies Corp.), Salto Systems, SimonsVoss Technologies GmbH (Allegion Company), Videx Security Ltd and Seoul Commtech Co., Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketMarket 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 StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comGoogle+:Linked in:Twitter:
Vocab Tunes Introduces K-2 Grade Reading Program to Enrich Kids Vocabulary

Vocab Tunes Root Word Grade K-2 CD Included

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Vocab Tunes comes up with a fun learning program to improve K-2 grade kids vocabularySouthgate, Michigan  July 18, 2017: Vocab Tunes  a unique vocabulary building platformhas introduced a strategically designed product for K-2 grade kids. This exclusive product consists of a workbook and a CD/DVD comprising 21 root-based music videos. Help your children learn vocabulary words fast and improve their English scores with this unique reading program in a fun-filled manner.Buy Here Vocab Tunes Root Words Grade K-2 CD included:A report of the US Education Department has showed continuous erosion in the vocabulary skills among countrys students. Concerned over the report, Michigan educationist Manisha Shelly Kaura along with her father Dr. S. R. Kaura conducted a research for more than 10 years. They discovered that the lack of knowledge about root words is a reason behind the poor vocabulary among US young minds. To improve the situation, they introduced a vocabulary building program  Vocab Tunes. This online learning program aims to improve kids vocabulary by making them aware of Latin and Greek roots in a musical way.Also Check Out Other Vocab Tunes Products: Vocab Tunes Root Words Grade 3-5 CD included: Vocab Tunes Root Words Grade 6-8 CD included:Research proves that budding minds are good at learning in a music-rich environment. To enhance their English vocabulary and comprehension skills at an early age, Vocab Tunes has come up with K-2 Grade W/CD learning program. This exceptional program consists of a workbook and CD and DVD comprising 21 exclusive upbeat songs appropriate for K-2 grade kids. For every chapter, the workbook comprises a chapter introduction that defines the root word or words to be discussed in the corresponding chapter. With an example or two, it provides an insight on the usage of that root for creating different words. Next are the lyrics for the song containing Latin roots with prefixes/suffixes to help your child discover new words. The next two pages consist of two different quizzes. One is on word definitions, and the other is on word parts.A BA degree holder from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Manisha Kaura says in a recent interview, When it comes to learning words, students get indolent but they instantly get active if you make that learning a fun activity. Therefore, we introduced the concept of Vocab Tunes to help kids fall in love with learning new words through music and dance other than monotonous classroom activities.Apart from creating four-level K-12 vocabulary program for kids, she along with her father have authored two vocabulary textbooks named Rockin Root Words (Prufrock Press, 2010) to help young minds enrich their vocabulary skills.About Vocab Tunes:A father-daughter duo initiative, Vocab Tunes, aims at making learning root words an easy and fun activity for schoolchildren. An advocate for educational reformer in Michigan and Ohio, Manisha Shelly Kaura along with her physician father Dr. S.R. Kaura started this online learning program to help kids stock new words and expand their vocabulary through singing and dancing.###Vocab Tunes, a father-daughter duo S.R. Kaura and Manisha kaura initiative, helps kids enrich vocabulary through fun activities such as singing and dancing.Vocab Tunes, Inc.14797 Dix Toledo Rd.Suit A Southgate, MI 48195Call: 1-734-855-5987Website:Email: monika@vocabtunes.com
Automotive Intercooler Market: Industry Analysis, Trend, Demand and Global Forecast to 2022

Automotive Intercooler Market

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Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on automotive intercooler. The global market for automotive intercooler is majorly driven by factors such as growing demand for high-performance turbochargers, fast and efficient operation among others.Market Highlights:The growth in automotive industry directly translates into increasing demand in the automotive intercooler market. Moreover, Technological advancement and heavy investments are helping automotive intercooler to grow. Factors such as demand for efficient turbocharged engines and strict regulations of the government to decrease the vehicle population and increase the engine efficiency are some of the major market drivers for the growth of automotive inter cooler. Additionally, environmental advantages offered by intercoolers and turbochargers largely drive the demand for intercoolers. Governments emission norms to control and reduce exhaust emission levels are driving the market of automotive intercooler. Automotive intercooler production is consequently high in Asia-pacific, with China and India expected to be the most promising markets.Request a Sample Copy @Key players of Automotive Intercooler Market: Bell Intercoolers Forge KALE Oto Radyator Mishimoto PWR Modine Manufacturing, Treadstone Performance Engineering Guangzhou Woshen Auto Radiator JC Performance Parts KVR International HoneywellMarket Research Future Analysis:Market Research Future analysis shows that the global market of automotive intercooler market is estimated to grow moderately by the end of year 2022. Asia pacific is leading the market of automotive intercooler. Moreover, the market and trends shows that Heavy investments were made from North America and European companies in Asia-Pacific, especially in India and China due to market development initiatives taken by the government and abundant availability of low-cost labors. Whereas, increasing demand for electronic vehicle, and subsidies offered by government driving the market of automotive intercooling marketAccess 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 Components, Application, Technologies 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
Automotive HVAC Market Analysis and Global Forecast to 2022

Automotive HVAC Market

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Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on global Automotive HVAC market. The global market for global Automotive HVAC market is expected to grow over the steady CAGR period 2016 to 2022.Market Highlights:Automotive HVAC is a system combining three major functions such as heating, ventilation and air- conditioning. Factors such as increasing demand for thermal insulations for energy efficient applications, and growth in the automotive sector are driving the market of Automotive HVAC. Recent trend shows that Companies, such as Audi, Mercedes, and BMW, focus on customized and consumer-friendly HVAC systems and supports automatic air conditioning, fogging sensor, and automatic climate control system. Moreover, Due to least level of human intervention, the automatic HVAC system are being installed in large extent, especially in premium and luxury segment passenger vehicles. Additionally, R&D focuses on automotive HVAC market for improving fuel efficiency, reducing environmental effect and lowering the weight of HVAC system. Government initiatives acts as a driving factor for the growth of Automotive HVAC market. Awareness about the environment in countries such as China and India lead to the growth of Automotive HVAC market.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Automotive HVAC Market: Denso Corp Valeo SA Behr GmbH Halla Climate Control Corp. Delphi Automotive Visteon Corp. Sanden Corp. Air International Thermal Systems Calsonic Kansei DelStar TechnologiesMarket Research Analysis:The Asia-Pacific region dominating the market of Automotive HVAC. Presence of automobile manufacturers and growing demand for automobiles in developing countries such as China and India. Increasing adoption of premium automobile brands in developing nation such as India and Brazil provides growth opportunities for industry players. Whereas, Japan referred as one of the largest automobile manufacturing companies in the world such as Toyota and Honda. Increasing production capacities, investment in R&D and requirement for hybrid technology drive the HVAC automotive market. Moreover, favorable government policies pushing the market towards growth. Moreover, demand for effective thermal systems in electric and hybrid powertrains. Vehicles require low-temperature cooling equipment along with normal equipment for regulated battery cooling. Whereas, increasing vehicle production and stringent government regulations to encourage the energy efficiency are driving the market in North America.Brief TOC:1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure:1.3.1 Global Automotive Hvac Market: By Technology1.3.2 Global Automotive Hvac Market: By Vehicle Type1.3.5 Global Automotive Hvac Market: By Region2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Technology2.2 Primary Researchpt2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size Estimation2.4.3 Market Crackdown & Data Triangulation3 Market Dynamics3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Drivers3.3 Market Challenges3.4 Market Opportunities4 Executive Summary5 Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.2 Supply Chain AnalysisContinueScope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global Automotive HVAC 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 Automotive HVAC market as type, component, and application. On the basis of technology it is segmented as manual and automatic. On the basis of Vehicle type it is segmented as passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle. On the basis of component it is segmented as pipes, ducts and others.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
Aircraft Tyres Market Will Generate New Growth Opportunities by 2021

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Aircraft tyres are one of the most highly engineered products having significant complexity which require large number of raw materials pertaining to steel, cord fabric, artificial and natural rubber and other chemicals. Aircraft tyres have cords which serve as the reinforcing materials in the tyre that provide dimensional stability, supporting the aircraft weight, as well as keeping the tyres in shape different road conditions. Aircraft tyres play a vital role in the performance of the aircraft. Various reinforcement constructions are needed for different types of aircrafts based on their applications and load bearing requirements. They have different requirements of tyre fabrics and tyre cords as compared to other modes of transport such as light and heavy commercial vehicles, two wheelers, agricultural vehicles as they work on different road conditions, where each tyre has a different load bearing requirement.To view complete report @The global demand for aircraft tyres has been significant due to growth from the aircraft industry, particularly commercial aircrafts, which have witnessed huge surge in demand for advanced and new aircraft, which are largely influenced by certain factors such as network expansion by new airlines as well as entry of new airlines. Other prominent factors such as replacing obsolete aircrafts, rise air passenger traffic, growing demand for fuel efficient aircrafts and healthy economic growth shown by emerging markets has also contributed towards the growth of the aircraft tyres market. Large scale corporations such as Goodyear, Bridgestone Corporation, and Dunlop are significantly involved in the manufacturing of aircraft tyres that are eco-friendly, more intelligent, economical, safer and less noisy. They are consumed in significant quantities for various civil and military applications, where military operation hold huge demand on aircraft tyres where loads can be highly substantial with speed going more than 225 miles per hour.A sample of this report is available upon request @Large scale companies such as Dunlop have been involved in the industry as a key player which manufactures tyres used in military aircrafts from the well known Vulcan and Spitfire to the modern F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Heavy military aircraft such as C-130, the Tornado and the Hawk, and the latest A400M. The company serves various segments of the military aviation industry such as marine corps, naval forces and air forces across the world with tyres designed to give maximum operation characteristics in the fluctuating environmental conditions as well. In addition, Dunlop was awarded three year deal supply of aircraft tyres in July 2014 to Chinas privately owned airlines for the purpose of expending its footprint in regional airlines. Under the contract, Dunlop would be providing tyres for China Express Airlines Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen aircraft.In terms of agreements and joint ventures, The Triangle Group in 2012 collaborated with the Harbin Institute of Technology to design and manufacture arcraft tyres. Regionally, developed regions such as North America accounted for the largest market share in the aircraft tyres market, followed by Europe. Emerging regions such as Asia Pacific is likely to exhibit the fastest growth in the market owing to certain factors such as increasing disposable incomes of the individuals leading to rising air travel expenditures, entry of low cost airlines and infrastructure developments in economies such as India, Singapore and China.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Bridgestone Corporation, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, Goodyear, Michelin, and The Triangle Group are some of the key players present in the aircraft tyre industry.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:
Tyre Inner Tubes Market Will Continue to Grow by 2021

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Tyre inner tubes are the internal components of the primary tyre which are designed to sustain air pressure. Majority of the tyres which are used in motorcycles, bicycle, large vehicles such as tractors, heavy trucks, cars, and buses are designed for their application with inner tubes. These are made from impermeable materials such as synthetic, elastic, soft rubber for the purpose of avoiding air leakge and are torus shaped in nature. In addition, inner tubes which are larger in size possess the ability to be re used for other applications such as rafting and swimming. These tubes are large inflatable toruses which are manufactured for these applications while also offering a choice of decks, handles, fabric covering, colors and other various accessories, eliminating the protruding valve stem. Manufacturers such as Schrader International develop inner tubes for two wheeler vehicles which provide high performance to motorcycle tube tyres. The company provides valve vulcanization for inner tubes ensuring high quality rubber adhesion and leaks. Schrader International also provides inner tubes for other vehicles such as agricultural and industrial machinery, buses, trucks and cars.To view complete report @The global inner tube industry is dependent on raw materials such as rubber suppliers as well as the buyers which mainly include automotive manufacturers. More than half of the global rubber production goes into the manufacturing of automotive tyres. In addition, the inner tube and tyre industry serve as the largest application segment in the overall rubber industry. The Rubbers Manufacturers Association (RMA) represent the rubber industry where members of the association contribute to more than half of revenues generated in the rubber industry. The industry for inner tubes has always been dependent on the automotive industry. The degree of competition between the tyre inner tube manufacturers has been strong, specifically for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) among the tyre manufacturers. Due to the fact that automobile end users are more inclined towards purchasing replaced tyres of the same product which is originally sold on the car, tyre and inner tube manufacturers have to reluctantly reduce the prices and have to make the automobile manufacturers select their product, which leads to high bargaining power of buyers.A sample of this report is available upon request @Besides automotives, tyre inner tubes are used largely in the aerospace industry. Large scale corporations such as Goodyear, Bridgestone Corporation, and Dunlop are significantly involved in the manufacturing of aircraft tyres that are eco-friendly, more intelligent, economical, safer and less noisy. They are consumed in significant quantities for various civil and military applications, where military operation hold huge demand on aircraft tyres where loads can be highly substantial with speed going more than 225 miles per hour. Companies such as Dunlop have been involved in the industry as a key player which manufactures tyres used in military aircrafts from the well known Vulcan and Spitfire to the modern F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Heavy military aircraft such as C-130, the Tornado and the Hawk, and the latest A400M. The company serves various segments of the military aviation industry such as marine corps, naval forces and air forces across the world with tyres designed to give maximum operation characteristics in the fluctuating environmental conditions as well.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Bridgestone Corporation, Dunlop, Goodyear, Michelin, and Schrader International are some of the key players involved in the tyre inner tube industry.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:
Automotive After Market : Market Sizing with Competitive Landscape by 2021

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The automotive aftermarket deals in manufacturing, remanufacturing, installation, distribution and retailing of vehicle parts, equipment, chemicals and accessories, after the sale of the automobile to the customer by the OEM (original equipment manufacturer). Automotive aftermarket is responsible for vehicle diagnostics, automotive spare parts and accessories and service workshop concept. In this market customers have the option to choose the offer that best fits their personal criteria and individual requirement. The automotive aftermarket includes all services and parts purchased for light duty and heavy duty vehicles after the original sale. Automotive aftermarket volume is growing rapidly and becoming important to automotive companies due to the higher margins.To view complete report @Furthermore, key players are providing innovative services such as mobility and telematics services, which in turn create opportunities to generate revenue and account for growing share of the automotive aftermarket. There is a huge potential for automotive aftermarket in countries such as the U.K, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, China and India. Automobile companies are expanding their business in these countries, which is expected to drive the growth of automobile aftermarket over forecast period.The automotive aftermarket report contains the global scenario of this market discussing detailed overview and market figures. The research report analyses the industry growth rate, industry capacity, and industry structure. The report analyses the historical data and forecasts the automotive aftermarket size along with key factors driving and restraining the market growth.A sample of this report is available upon request @The automotive aftermarket market can be segmented into two major types into channels and vehicle age. The automotive aftermarket can be segmented on the basis of its channel into two major categories namely authorized channels: such as single-brand repair shop & multi-brand repair shop and independent channels: such as franchise workshops, automotive centers, and independent repair shops. On the basis of vehicle age the automotive aftermarket can be segmented into three major categories namely vehicle age 0-4 years, vehicle age 4-8 years and vehicle age over 8 years. The market can also be segmented geographically into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (Latin America, Middle East and Africa).The automotive aftermarket across the globe is expected to show a substantial growth in CAGR, from 2013 to 2019. There is a significant increase in the automotive aftermarket market because it reduces repair and maintenance cost per vehicle.The key drivers of this market include emerging market in Europe and Asia Pacific, cost advantage and increasing demand for high quality brand, which are biggest revenue generator for the market.The key restraint to this market is legal issues, which is hindering the growth of automotive aftermarket.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the key players in the automotive aftermarket are ABS Friction Inc., ADVICS North America Inc., Bosch Brake Components LLC, Honeywell, Fritec, Link Engineering and Centric Parts among others.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:
North America Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market Research Report- Industry Analysis, Share, Growth and Forecast To 2022

Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market

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Global Epoxy Active Diluent Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022A new and latest research report proposed by Global Info Reports renders a market summary of the Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry. This widespread analysis comprises of market potentials and challenges, scope of product, sales volume, market revenue, estimates and rate of growth. The report also digs into all the major market players across the globe.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @Chemical industry segment has a crucial role in accomplishing daily requirements of the common man. It is one of the most former industries which attributes substantially to not just economic but industrial growth as well. Nearly, each and every industry segment such as oil and gas, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and many others, depends heavily on the chemical industry. In the recent years, the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry has experienced an astonishing change structure-wise such as enhancements in technology, increasing raw material costs, manufacturing base been channeled to Asian countries,novel promising growth markets, etc.The report highlights crucial dynamics and in-depth analysis of the market segment with concentrating on factual data, present industry activities, growth opportunities, new product inventions, and market forecast for the anticipated frame of time along with leading market players, market study based on several regions, and extensive product. The Epoxy Active Diluent Market report assists in determining the projection in this meticulous industry by rendering precise potential demand prognoses. These prognoses will aid the market players to take vital decisions and take hold of the untapped regions and new entrants.This research report incorporates the current market size of this industry. It also distinguishes and assesses complex value chains across the globe such as primary factors, market growth restrains, and propelling strategies. This latest market report examines the Epoxy Active Diluent Market by several segments such as regions, applications, companies, and for the proposed time frame. The report gives a complete insight of this industry consisting the qualitative and quantitative analysis provided for this market industry along with prime development trends, competitive analysis, and vital factors that are predominant in the Concrete Seale Market.Market Scope:Various aspects are considered in this all-inclusive market research report and it inspects the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry from an all axis perspective. It gives in-depth information on the future viewpoint, key developments, market dynamics and growth, latest trends in the market, and potential investment segment.Browse complete summary of this report @The report furnishes: An in-depth widespread market analysis of the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market Analysis of global market trends, forecasts for 2017, and predictions of CAGRs through proposed time frame. Thorough analysis of applications Mentioning of market players with their complete profile description Researches the vital market trends and novel developments technologically in the Epoxy Active Diluent MarketThe research report comprises of markets comprehensive analysis geographically on several important regions such as: United States Canada MexicoThe leading industry players across the globe are explored in detail in this report. It demonstrates product overview, company summary, and manufacturing cost, capacity, and market shares for most of the participants. The report portrays the complete overview of Epoxy Active Diluent Market across the world including its cost/profit, demand/supply, import/export, capacity, production value, etc. The research report also prognosticates trends in the development of this industrys market. It cloaks current market analysis dynamically, downstream requirements as well as the upstream raw materials. Lastly, the report also segregates vital market figures which represent the market condition of Epoxy Active Diluent Market manufacturers. The report can function as an assistive reference point for helping individuals as well as businesses from this segment.Get Discount on This Report @Some Point From TOC:1 Market Overview1.1 Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Type 11.2.2 Type 21.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Paints1.3.2 Adhesive1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Bayer2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Bayer Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Bayer News2.2 Vencorex2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Vencorex Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Vencorex News2.3 BASF SE2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 2Enquiry Before Buying @About Us: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-Connect with us: Twitter | Facebook
United States RFID Reader Market: Honeywell, Datalogic, Zebra, Impinj, Fieg Electronics, Unitech Forecast to 2022

RFID Reader

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An RFID reader, also known as an interrogator, is a device that provides the connection between the tag data and the enterprise system software that needs the information. The reader communicates with tags that are within its field of operation, performing any number of tasks including simple continuous inventorying, filtering (searching for tags that meet certain criteria), writing (or encoding) to select tags, etc.Get a Sample of RFID Reader Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the RFID Reader in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Major Players Included in RFID Reader Market :HoneywellDatalogicZebraImpinjFieg ElectronicsUnitechThingMagicTSLAlien TechnologyMojixAWIDCipher LabInvengo TechnologySense TechnologyChafon groupCSLChinareaderAnd Many OthersScope of the Follicle RFID Reader Market on the basis of region:CaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For RFID Reader Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversLF RFID ReaderHF RFID ReaderUHF RFID ReaderMW RFID ReaderMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoGovernmentTransportation & LogisticsRetailAutomotiveManufacturingOthersThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States RFID Reader market.Chapter 1, to describe RFID Reader Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of RFID Reader, 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 sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of RFID Reader, for each state, 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, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, RFID Reader market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe RFID Reader Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 RFID Reader Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 LF RFID Reader1.2.2 HF RFID Reader1.2.3 UHF RFID Reader1.2.4 MW RFID Reader1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Government1.3.2 Transportation & Logistics1.3.3 Retail1.3.4 Automotive1.3.5 Manufacturing1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @About 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-
Coating Pretreatment Market 2017: 3M Company, Chemetall GmbH, Kansai Paint, Akzonobel

Coating Pretreatment Market

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Market Synopsis of Coating Pretreatment Market:The Global Coating Pretreatment Market has witnessed a positive growth over the past few years and as per MRFR analysis, the global market is expected to rise at the same growth during the forecast period. The Global Coating Pretreatment Market is expected to touch more than USD 4,230 Million by 2022 with a CAGR of around 6.3%. The Global Coating Pretreatment Market has been majorly driven by its rising demand from the application industries such as consumer appliances, automotive & transportation, construction and others. Consumer appliance industry has been expected to become the major contributor to the global market. Geographically, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market in terms of value, where Chinas contribution to the market is worth appreciating as China is one of the leading producer.Request a Sample Report @Study Objectives of Coating Pretreatment 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 Coating Pretreatment Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the coating pretreatment 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 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 segments by product type, application and regions 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 marketMake an Enquiry before Buying @Key Players for Coating Pretreatment Market:Some of the key players in this market are 3M Company, Chemetall GmbH, Kansai Paint, Akzonobel, Nippon Paint, PPG Industries, Henkel, Axalta Coating Systems, Sherwin-Williams Company, Nihon Parkerizing and others.Target Audience: Manufactures of end-use industry Raw material Suppliers Aftermarket suppliers Research Institute / Education Institute Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerAdditional Information: Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsKey Points from Table of Contents:10. Company Profiles10.1 3M Company10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financials10.1.3 Product Portfolio10.1.4 Business Strategies10.1.5 Recent Development10.2 Chemetall GmbH10.2.1 Overview10.2.2 Financials10.2.3 Product Portfolio10.2.4 Business Strategies10.2.5 Recent Development10.3 Kansai Paint10.3.1 Overview10.3.2 Financials10.3.3 Product Portfolio10.3.4 Business Strategies10.3.5 Recent Development10.4 Akzonobel10.4.1 Overview10.4.2 Financials10.4.3 Product Portfolio10.4.4 Business Strategies10.4.5 Recent DevelopmentBrowse Full 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 Components, Application, Logistics 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 FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
United States Charcoal Market Market Research Report- Industry Analysis, Share, Growth and Forecast To 2022

Charcoal Market

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Global Charcoal Market Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022A new and latest research report proposed by Global Info Reports renders a market summary of the Charcoal Market Market industry. This widespread analysis comprises of market potentials and challenges, scope of product, sales volume, market revenue, estimates and rate of growth. The report also digs into all the major market players across the globe.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @Chemical industry segment has a crucial role in accomplishing daily requirements of the common man. It is one of the most former industries which attributes substantially to not just economic but industrial growth as well. Nearly, each and every industry segment such as oil and gas, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and many others, depends heavily on the chemical industry. In the recent years, the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry has experienced an astonishing change structure-wise such as enhancements in technology, increasing raw material costs, manufacturing base been channeled to Asian countries,novel promising growth markets, etc.The report highlights crucial dynamics and in-depth analysis of the market segment with concentrating on factual data, present industry activities, growth opportunities, new product inventions, and market forecast for the anticipated frame of time along with leading market players, market study based on several regions, and extensive product. The Epoxy Active Diluent Market report assists in determining the projection in this meticulous industry by rendering precise potential demand prognoses. These prognoses will aid the market players to take vital decisions and take hold of the untapped regions and new entrants.This research report incorporates the current market size of this industry. It also distinguishes and assesses complex value chains across the globe such as primary factors, market growth restrains, and propelling strategies. This latest market report examines the Epoxy Active Diluent Market by several segments such as regions, applications, companies, and for the proposed time frame. The report gives a complete insight of this industry consisting the qualitative and quantitative analysis provided for this market industry along with prime development trends, competitive analysis, and vital factors that are predominant in the Concrete Seale Market.Market Scope:Various aspects are considered in this all-inclusive market research report and it inspects the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market industry from an all axis perspective. It gives in-depth information on the future viewpoint, key developments, market dynamics and growth, latest trends in the market, and potential investment segment.Browse complete summary of this report @The report furnishes: An in-depth widespread market analysis of the global Epoxy Active Diluent Market Analysis of global market trends, forecasts for 2017, and predictions of CAGRs through proposed time frame. Thorough analysis of applications Mentioning of market players with their complete profile description Researches the vital market trends and novel developments technologically in the Epoxy Active Diluent MarketThe research report comprises of markets comprehensive analysis geographically on several important regions such as: California Texas New York Florida IllinoisThe leading industry players across the globe are explored in detail in this report. It demonstrates product overview, company summary, and manufacturing cost, capacity, and market shares for most of the participants. The report portrays the complete overview of Soluble FertilizerMarket across the world including its cost/profit, demand/supply, import/export, capacity, production value, etc. The research report also prognosticates trends in the development of this industrys market. It cloaks current market analysis dynamically, downstream requirements as well as the upstream raw materials. Lastly, the report also segregates vital market figures which represent the market condition of Soluble FertilizerMarket manufacturers. The report can function as an assistive reference point for helping individuals as well as businesses from this segment.Get Discount on This Report @Some Point From TOC:1 Market Overview1.1 Charcoal Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Charcoal Briquette1.2.2 Hardwood Charcoal1.2.3 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Metallurgical Industry1.3.2 Industrial Field1.3.3 Cooking Fuel1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Plantar Group2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Charcoal Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 2Enquiry Before Buying @About Us: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-Connect with us: Twitter | Facebook
Global Duodenoscopes Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

Duodenoscopes Market

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Duodenoscopes are lighted tubes which are flexible and that can beinserted into the top of the small intestinethrough the throat, mouth, and stomach for the visual examination of small intestine (duodenum). It is a type of endoscope. A duodenoscope instrument is specifically used in Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). ERCP is a procedure that usesboth thefluoroscopy and duodenoscopy to diagnose, analyze and treat certain problems of thepancreaticor biliary ductal systems.The Duodenoscope is a more multifaceted device than other endoscopic instrument and more difficult to disinfect and clean. Duodenoscopes have several tiny working components with concealed, frequently hard to reach, crannies. Hence, if the duodenoscope is not carefully reprocessed, living microorganisms conceal in fluid or tissue from an earlier process can be carried through the scope to a consequent patient.In infrequent cases, this can direct to patient-to-patient spread of contamination that might be extremely harmful. Although, duodenoscopes are being employed in more than 5 million GI processes in the United Statesevery year as a minimally intrusivemean than conventional surgery to draw off fluids from bile duct and pancreas duct which are clogged by gallstones, cancerous tumors or other GI conditions.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have associated to regulate and control the incidences of infection owing to reprocessing of the duodenoscopes.Get a Sample of Duodenoscopes Market Research report from @The global duodenoscopes market is anticipated to have significant growth during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 with lucrative compound annual growth rate. Rising incidences of bile, pancreatic duct cancer tumors and different gastrointestinal (GI) conditions are the chieffactorsleading the growth of the global duodenoscopes market. Additionally, growingFood and Drug Administration (FDA) actionsas well asCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)and industries association is in discovering the induces and risk factors for diffusion of contagious agents with duodenoscopes and formulating new solutions to reduce patient disclosure is another keyfactor, boosting the growth of global market. However, escalatingFood and Drug Administration (FDA) callbacks for duodenoscopes due to difficultdisinfecting and high-level cleaningprocessesallied with complex duodenoscopes and growing multidrug-defiant bacterial contagions caused by Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are main factors, those are anticipated to hinder the global duodenoscopes marketgrowth over the forecast period.Browse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Duodenoscopes Market Report @The key market players for the global duodenoscopes marketare Hoya Corporation (pentax), Olympus Corporation, FujifilmHoldings Corporation and KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG. According to types, the market industry is classified as; Fiber Duodenoscope and Electronic Duodenoscope. By applications, the market is split into; diagnostic and Therapeutic. Geographically, the global duodenoscopes marketis segmented into regions which are; Asia-Pacific (Korea, China, India, Japan and Southeast Asia), North America (Mexico, Canada andUSA), Europe (Germany,Italy, France, Russia andUK), Middle East and Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nigeria andEgypt) and South America (Brazil, Argentina and Columbia).For more help Speak to our Experts @About 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-
North America Peppers Seeds Market: Monsanto, Limagrain, Syngenta, Nunhems, Takii Seed Forecast to 2022

Peppers Seeds Market

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This report studies the Peppers Seeds market, Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Pepper seeds were imported to Spain in 1493, and from there spread to other European, African, and Asian countries. Today, China is the world's largest pepper producer.Get a Sample of Peppers Seeds Market Research report from @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Peppers Seeds 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 Peppers Seeds Market :MonsantoLimagrainSyngentaNunhemsTakii SeedRijk ZwaanEnza ZadenAdvantaSakataJingyan SeedBeijing Haihua BiotechHunan Xiangyan SeedChina Vegetable Seed TechnologyChongqing Keguang SeedAnd Many OthersScope of the Follicle Peppers Seeds Market on the basis of region:United StatesCanadaMexicoBrowse full Report with table of contents and data tables For Peppers Seeds Market Report @Market Segment by Type, coversHot PeppersSweet PeppersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoIn Intertropical AreaIn Subtropics AreaIn Temperate AreaOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Peppers Seeds market.Chapter 1, to describe Peppers Seeds 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 Peppers Seeds, 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 Peppers Seeds, 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, Peppers Seeds 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 Peppers Seeds Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data sourceCheck for Discount @Some points from TOC:-1 Market Overview1.1 Peppers Seeds Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Hot Peppers1.2.2 Sweet Peppers1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 In Intertropical Area1.3.2 In Subtropics Area1.3.3 In Temperate Area1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Monsanto2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Peppers Seeds Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Monsanto Peppers Seeds Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Monsanto News2.2 Limagrain2.2.1 Profile ContinuedFor more help Speak to our Experts @About 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 Aluminum Alloy Wheel Sales Market 2017 - Borbet, Ronal Wheels, Enkei Wheels, Superior Industries, Alcoa

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The Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel Market 2017 Industry Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Aluminum Alloy Wheel industry. Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Aluminum Alloy Wheel market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis and major regions development status.Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel Industry is an in-depth report that offers a unique mix of specialist industry knowledge and the region-wise research expertise. The report delivers the market size and the trends for each sector.Click Here for Report Sample:The report on Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market begins with an overview of the market. The report details the historical data of the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market along with the current scenario. Then the report covers the trends shaping the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market. The drivers and restraints that will shape this industry during the forecast period have been evaluated in detail. Moving on, the report dwells on the market opportunities and their impact on the key players operating in the market. Moreover, the key threats the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market will experience during the forecast period are discussed.The next part of the report features an in-depth segmentation of the market. The report includes valuable information about the key segments in the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market along with their sub-sectors. Revenue share and size along with insightful forecasts of these key segments and other prominent sub-segments are available in this report. The report explores the trends that will impact the growth of the emerging regional sectors in the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market.The recent findings along with the promise they hold for the future in the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market have also been analyzed. The report features contributions from several key industry participants along with scientists that are leading figures in their respective fields.Browse the full report:Towards the end, the report scrutinizes the competitive landscape of the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market. Most prominent players with their business overview are featured in this research study. The key players market revenue, top strategies, innovations, collaborations and other developments are mentioned in detail in the report. These insights about the top companies in the Global Aluminum Alloy Wheel market will let the user know about the market opportunities they can tap on to, with the best of tactical decisions.ABOUT USFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerOffice - 102, Sanskriti Aspirations,Near Post 91, Baner Road,Pune, MH, India - 411045Phone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
North America and Europe Bionic Eye Market Segment Analysis And Forecast: 2017-2021

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Sudden surge in bionic eye market was experienced recently after the National Health Service (NHS) announced the sponsorship to implant bionic eyes in ten patients. The bionic eye can help regain vision in individuals with visual impairment. Although currently two bionic eye systems has received regulatory approvals, other companies in the bionic eye market are also trying to develop new technology that can help in regaining visual sense in patients.The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System developed by Second Sight consist of a miniature camera mounted on patient?s glasses. This camera is connected to a video processing unit (VPU) which processes the information. This information is transmitted wirelessly to a retinal implant that helps in visualizing objects. The company claims that the implant helps in resorting vision to an extent that the patient can identify shapes. The company also plans to upgrade the current version to improve vision quality. The device had received regulatory clearance in 2013 to address adult patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP), rare genetic eye disease. Pixium Vision was awarded CE market for its IRIS II bionic vision system in 2016. The company recently completed its first implantation and activation of IRIS II in Spain. Bionic eye market comprises only these two systems that have received regulatory approval, while other products in pipeline would need more incubation for development.Request Free Report Sample@Boston Retinal Implant Project (BRIP), an organization based in the U.S. is developing retinal prosthesis to enhance visibility. Monash University, Australia is also conducting research on development of bionic eye systems that can enable visual sense at some level to individuals who are completely deprived of eyes. Such research and development would introduce more refined products in the bionic eye market. Although currently research in bionic eye market is in a nascent stage, advances in nanotechnology and deeper understanding of human diseases would reveal new ground for further research.It is estimated that over 1 million individuals globally of which more than 0.3 million individuals in North America and Europe suffer from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Blindness is also a major concern with over 285 million individuals being visually impaired globally. The reasons for blindness are varied ranging from rare genetic diseases to life style diseases such as diabetes. Cataract affects more than 20 million people, and is responsible for 50% of the global visionless population. According to American Academy of Ophthalmology, U.S., cataract affects more than 22 million people with age 40 years and above. It is also estimated that over 3 million individuals in the U.S. suffer from glaucoma, while 50% of these cases are diagnosed only in later stages. Such high prevalence and ageing population which is a major predisposing factor for diseases leading to vision loss would drive the bionic eye market.Request For TOC@NOTE: This report is currently under research and will be made available to clients on request.About UsSpearhead Acuity Business Research & Consulting Private Limited (SA-BRC) is a premium Life Science business intelligence and data analytics firm. SA-BRC team offers a wide range of business intelligence services to multiple stakeholders such as Medical Device Manufacturers, Service Providers (Hospitals, Payers, etc.), Suppliers, Group Purchase Organizations, Distributors and all other individuals in the entire value chain of healthcare industry. Our research and consulting capabilities extend across several sub-domains within the sphere of Life Sciences such as Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Medical Devices, Veterinary Sciences, Wellness Products and Pharmaceuticals.Contact UsJohn WhitmoreOffice No. 14,Hermes Kunj, Mangaldas Road,Pune, 411001IndiaPhone: +91-02041210872Email: sales@sa-brc.comWebsite:
Facial Recognition Market 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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Facial recognition technology is used for the identification of an individual. Facial recognition system measures the overall facial features of a person, which includes the eyes, mouth, nose, and jaw edges. It is being used in high-security areas for control access. Facial recognition is largely used in the government, financial, transit, and aviation sectors to identify and authenticate individuals. Facial recognition systems are widely accepted as they are non-intrusive, and they can work from a distance of more than two feet.Publisher's analysts forecast the global facial recognition market to grow at a CAGR of 22.53% 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 facial recognition market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of biometrics solutions, including hardware, software, integrated solutions, and services used in facial recognition systems.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- APAC- Europe- MEA- North America- South AmericaPublisher's report, Global Facial Recognition Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- 3M Cogent- Cognitec Systems- NEC- SafranRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- ArcSoft- Aurora Computer Services- Aware- FaceFirst- Fulcrum Biometrics- Gemalto- Google- Herta Security- Imagus Technology- KeyLemon- Lathem Time- Luxand- Netatmo- XiD TechnologiesMarket driver- Increasing instances of identity threats- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- High cost of deployment- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Integration of facial recognition in video surveillance- 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
Power Banks Market 2017 By Product Type, Power Rating & Battery Type : Global Industry Analysis, Size & Share

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Albany, New York, July 18, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Power Banks Market (Portable Power Banks, Battery Cases, Solar Power Banks) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2022" globally.Power banks i.e. external batteries have become popular as the battery life of smartphones, MP3 players, tablets and laptops is beaten by the amount of time people spend using them each day. Batteries of such electronic devices drains in a short period of time thus justifying purpose of power banks.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The research report provides a detailed analysis of trends in power banks market. The report also includes extensive analysis of the industry drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges. The market study provides comprehensive assessment of vendors strategies for succeeding in the business. The report segregates the market based on type of battery, power rating and type of power banks across different geographies, such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle-East and Africa and Latin America. For each of these geographies drivers, restraints and opportunities have been analyzed and have been provided in the report. Different regions analyzed in this report include India, China, Japan, U.S., Oceania (New Zealand and Australia), Scandinavia, EU5 (Italy, Spain, Germany, France, UK), CIS (Russia), Saudi Arabia, Israel, South Africa, UAE, and Brazil among others. The market research study analyzes the power banks market on global level, regional level and country level.The research report estimates power banks market in terms of revenue (US$ billion) and volume (Mn units) for years 2012 and 2013, along with market forecast for the period 2014 to 2022. The detailed value chain analysis helps market players to formulate their business strategies at every stage of their business. Moreover, the market estimates have been analyzed keeping in mind different factors including technological, environmental, economical, legal and social. The detailed distribution channel analysis for global power banks market is provided in the report. The market attractiveness of different types of power banks such as portable power banks, solar power banks and battery cases (phone charging case) elucidates the most attractive segment. This will help players in the ecosystem of power banks to invest in the right opportunity segment for obtaining competitive advantage.Key players have also been profiled on the basis of financial overview, company overview, segmentation, business strategies, and recent developments in the power banks market. Market participants profiled in this report are Hitachi Maxell, Ltd., Limefuel LLC, Xtorm BV, Mophie, Inc., Mipow Limited, EassyAcc.com, Inc., Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Corporation, Apacer Technologies, Inc., GP Batteries International Ltd, and Anker. The research report also explains the leading players in the ecosystem of the global power banks market and china power banks market.The segments considered within the scope of the report are  based on type of power banks: portable power banks (excluding solar power banks), battery cases (phone charging cases), and solar power banks; based on power ratings: up to 3,000 mAh, 3,001 mAh  8,000 mAh, 8,001 mAh  20,000 mAh and above 20,000 mAh; based on type of battery: lithium-ion and lithium-polymer. Out of these segments, portable power banks with capacity 3,001 mAh  8,000mAh power rating is the most attractive segment. Power banks market growth is mainly driven by growing adoption of smartphone, tablet and laptop users globally. Increasing use of smartphones for various applications is driving the need of external battery and therefore power banks to keep these device operating.Market Segmentation of Global Power Banks Market:Power Banks Market, By Product TypePortable Power BanksPhone Charging Cases (Battery Cases)Solar Power BanksPower Banks Market, By Power RatingUp To 3,000 mAh3,001 mAh  8,000 mAh8,001 mAh  20,000 mAhAbove 20,000 mAhMake an Enquiry about TOC @Power Banks Market, By Battery TypeLithium-ionLithium-polymerGlobal Power Banks Market, By GeographyNorth 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
Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Industry Dynamics, Segments, Size and Demand 2017-2022

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SummaryOrbis Research Present's Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market 2017 enhances the decision making capabilities and helps to create an effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.DescriptionThe Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales market report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales industry. This report evaluates the Europe market for "Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales ".The Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales market report report provides complete analysis of the Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales market by analysing all round market dynamics such as regional market opportunities, drivers, challenges, constraints, threats, and other market trends.The Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market report contains latest Business Data resulting from various Research sources that helps Decision Makers to deliver a Distinctive and Trustworthy Analysis for Companys Growth.Get a PDF Sample of Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market report at:The Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market Survey starts with Industry overview of Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market covering Major Regions Status, Industry Chain Structure, Definitions and Specifications, with a detailed focus on Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis including Raw Material Suppliers, Equipment Suppliers and Manufacturing Process.In Next Part, the researchers has collected and presented information on Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis which comprises of Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source of Major Manufacturers in 2015.In following segment, with Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin, Business Region Distribution Analysis, Competition between various Company Profile has been given along with Product Pictures and Specifications in Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Industry Report.Some Points Of TOC:Chapter One: Medical Plastics Extrusion Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Medical Plastics Extrusion1.2 Classification of Medical Plastics Extrusion by Product Category1.2.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Medical Tubing1.2.4 Other1.3 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Hospitals1.3.3 Clinics1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market by Region1.4.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Medical Plastics Extrusion Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Medical Plastics Extrusion (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)To Browse the Entire Report, Visit :Chapter Two: Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Medical Plastics Extrusion (Volume) by Application..The Key Players Mentioned in Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Market Report are:Vesta (US)Vention Medical (US)Putnam Plastics (US)Pexco (US)Raumedic (Germany)Fluortek (US)VistaMed (Ireland)Teel Plastics (US)Biomerics (US)Place a Purchase Order for this Report at:The Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Industry Report is also a Great Source of Marketing Type Analysis consisting:1.Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Regional Marketing Type Analysis2. Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales International Trade Type Analysis3.Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales by Regions4.Global Medical Plastics Extrusion Sales Supply Chain AnalysisNo. of Report Pages: 114Got any Query? Feel free to ask us at :Lastly, the Report provides Development Trend Analysis for 2016-2022 years which will forecast Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales Price, Consumption Forecast, Market Trend (Product Type) and Market Trend (Application). Also the List of Major Consumers is analyzed and Contact Details are provided to easy communicating.Finally, the Report is concluded with Various Methodology, Analyst Introduction and Data SourcesAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Information:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas  75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Electrorheological Fluid Market Global Industry Analysis Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Electro-rheological (ER) fluids are smart fluids with the ability to change their rheological characteristics when subjected to changing electric fields. These fluids have been a topic of research and development for more than a couple of decades. The fluid works on the principle of electro-rheological (ER) effect, also known as Winslow effect. Electrically active particles suspended in the fluid arrange themselves along the electric field lines to form rigid chains, resulting in increased viscosity. The suspension particle size varies from nanometric to micrometric scales. These fluids are capable of altering their viscosity in milliseconds. This phenomenon is reversible and repeatable. This makes the use of electro-rheological fluids highly competent in several applications such as clutches, dampers, brakes, and hydraulic valves, wherein quick engagement and activation is important.Obtain Report Details @:Electro-rheological fluids have witnessed the rise in demand lately, due to high demand from sectors such as automotive and defense research & development. ER fluids are significantly applied in electronics and defense technologies. The property of ER fluids to get transformed into semi-solid state is helpful in the manufacture of rollable keypads and screens. When in inactive state, these devises can be rolled up and when in activated state, the ER fluid rigidifies for use. These fluids are very quick in terms of response time. Hence, they are largely preferred over the existing systems such as mechanical suspensions, clutches, valves, and brakes. ER fluids are also likely to be applied in the development of bulletproof vests. These fluids can be absorbed by the cloth fabric and they can turn into a hard covering with the application of a small electric field almost instantly. Electro-rheological fluids can also be employed for controlling the fluid flow in variable-flow controls.However, the ER fluid also has significant limitations such as settling and separation of the base fluid and particulates. This effect, called sedimentation effect, may render the ER fluid entirely useless or ineffective changing its rheological properties. Furthermore, the ER fluid has a limited range of operations and it cannot change its viscosity effectively in applications that require shear and flow modes. Collectively, these factors are hampering the ER fluids market.Based on liquid base, the electro-rheological fluids market can be segmented into silicone oil, water, and others. The use of liquid base varies according to the application and shear stress. Furthermore, based on end-user industry, the electro-rheological fluids market can be divided into automotive, electronics, defense, and others. In the automotive industry, ER fluids are used for dampers and suspension systems, clutches, ER braking systems, and valves. Automotive and defense are substantially lucrative segments, especially in the markets in North America and Europe.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @:In terms of geography, the global electro-rheological fluids market can be segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe are major markets for electro-rheological fluids, due to high technological advancements in the automotive industry in these regions. High focus on innovation and research and development in industries such as automotive and defense is the primary reason for high demand for electro-rheological fluids in the two regions. Asia Pacific is also a key market for electro-rheological fluids. Countries such as China and Japan are making significant progress in the use of smart fluids in electronics. ER fluids can be used for the development of flexible touchscreens and tactile displays. This factor is projected to propel the demand for ER fluids in the electronics sector in Asia Pacific in the next few years.Prominent players operating in the global electro-rheological fluids market include Smart Technology Limited and Fludicon.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207
Study of Parking Management Solution Market in Globak Industry 2017 : Type (Parking Meters, Parking Kiosks) & Installed Location (Street Parking, Parking Venues)

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Albany, New York, July 18, 2017 : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Parking Management Solution Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.Parking management solution are a set of hardware designed and manufactured to manage parking space in a particular location. It consists of monochrome displays, LED light indicators, solar panel/battery, RFID tags, sensors, automated payment systems and centralized data management system that allow people to find parking in desired locations. The demand for parking management solution market is expected to increase in the coming years owing to rapid increase in automobile usage and increasing adoption for smart city projects across world. Thus, the need for parking management solution is expected to become prominent among government/transportation and private agencies for the smooth running of traffic across streets during the forecast period 2017-2025.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Global Parking Management Solution Market: Scope of StudyThis research report provides in-depth analysis of the global parking management solution market for the period of 2015  2025, wherein 2016 is the base year and 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. It also provides the comprehensive analysis of parking management solution market based on type, installed location type and geography.The report also provides an analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the parking management solution market. It discusses the prevailing prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of the global parking management solution market.The objective of this study is to understand the factors aiding the growth of parking management solution market. The report further aims to identify various factors that are expected to support the expansion of parking management solution market in the emerging markets. The report also provides Porters Five Forces Analysis for the global Parking management solution market. It also encompasses the key factors aiding the growth by region in the parking management solution market. It also provides the market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue (in US$ Bn) and volume (Mn Units).Global Parking Management Solution Market: Market SegmentationThe global parking management solution market is categorized based on type into parking meters (single-space parking meter) and parking kiosks (multi-space parking meter) type. Furthermore, the research report provides the complete insights into different parking management solution providers through installed location types which includes on-street parking and parking venues (parking deck, parking complex, etc). The report analyzes each of these segments for various geographies considered under the scope of the study.Based on the geographical regions, the report segments the global parking management solution market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America, which are analyzed in terms of revenue and volume generation. North America is further segmented into The U.S., Canada and Rest of North America, while Europe is divided into The U.K., Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Rest of Europe. Asia Pacific is subdivided into China, Japan, Australia and Rest of Asia Pacific. Also, MEA is further segmented into The GCC, South Africa and Rest of MEA, while South America is subdivided into Brazil and Rest of South America. The report also covers cross segmentation forecasts of Nordic countries.The report also includes the competitive profiling of major players engaged in providing parking management solutions. Major business strategies adopted by them, their market share, and recent developments have also been identified in the research report. This report also provides market positioning analysis of major players operating in the global parking management solution market. The key market players profiled in this study include parking meter and kiosks providers and OEMs. The prominent providers offering parking management solution include Parkeon S.A.S., Parking BOXX, IPS Group, Inc., METRIC Group Ltd., Ventek International, Worldwide Parking, Inc., J.J. MacKay Canada Limited, CivicSmart, Inc., LocoMobi Inc., POM Inc., and Cale Access AB (Cale Group AB).Make an Enquiry about TOC @Global Parking Management Solution MarketBy TypeParking MetersParking KiosksBy Installed LocationStreet ParkingParking VenuesBy GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaSouth 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
Global Power Bank Detailed Report Evolving Region , Type , Application & Major Players Aibocn, Crave, KMASHI, Tiergrade2022 Forecast Analysis

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A new research document with title 'Global Power Bank Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022 ' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like United States, EU, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and important players/vendors such as Aibocn, Crave, KMASHI, Tiergrade................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022This report splits Power Bank By Capacity, By Feature Keywords, By Mobile Device Charger Type, By Type Batteries, By Shell Material. 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 Power Bank industry.Request a sample report @This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Major Companies of Power BankAnker(United States)RAVPower(United States)Power bank(United States)DULLA(United States)Aibocn(United States)Crave(United States)KMASHI(United States)Tiergrade(United States)Innogie(United States)EasyAcc(United States)Jackery(United States)Elivebuy(United States)ZOOM dca(United States)Mophie(United States)SAMSUNG(Korea)SONY(Japan)PHILIPS(Netherlands)HUAWEI(China)MI(China)Aigo(China)PISEN(China)ROMOSS(China)Yoobao(China)ZMI(China)SCUD(China)Besiter(China)SOLOVE(China)IWALK(China)BASEUS(China)TECLAST(China)Emie(China)TORRAS(China)MATE(China)Viken(China)Letv(China)MEIYI(China)Coiorvis(China)MIPOW(China)OPPO(China)Moov (China)Main RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandPolandOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersMain Product TypePower Bank Market, By Capacity5000mAh or Less5000mAh-9999mAh10000mAh-11999mAh12000mAh-19999mAh20000mAh and AbovePower Bank Market, By Feature KeywordsPocket-sizeIndicator LightsFlashlightSolar ChargingBuy this report @Power Bank Market, By Mobile Device Charger TypeMicro USBLightningMini USBPower Bank Market, By Type BatteriesLithium Polymer BatteryLithium Ion BatteryPower Bank Market, By Shell MaterialAlloyPlasticOtherMain ApplicationsHomeCommercialGet customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsChapter One Power Bank Market Overview1.1 Global Power Bank Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20221.2 Power Bank, By Capacity 2012-20221.2.1 Global Power Bank Sales Market Share By Capacity 2012-20221.2.2 Global Power Bank Revenue Market Share By Capacity 2012-20221.2.3 Global Power Bank Price By Capacity 2012-20221.2.4 5000mAh or Less1.2.5 5000mAh-9999mAh1.2.6 10000mAh-11999mAh1.2.7 12000mAh-19999mAh1.2.8 20000mAh and Above1.3 Power Bank, By Feature Keywords 2012-20221.3.1 Global Power Bank Sales Market Share By Feature Keywords 2012-20221.3.2 Global Power Bank Revenue Market Share By Feature Keywords 2012-20221.3.3 Global Power Bank Price By Feature Keywords 2012-20221.3.4 Pocket-size1.3.5 Indicator Lights1.3.6 Flashlight1.3.7 Solar Charging1.4 Power Bank, By Mobile Device Charger Type 2012-20221.4.1 Global Power Bank Sales Market Share By Mobile Device Charger Type 2012-20221.4.2 Global Power Bank Revenue Market Share By Mobile Device Charger Type 2012-20221.4.3 Global Power Bank Price By Mobile Device Charger Type 2012-20221.4.4 Micro USB1.4.5 Lightning1.4.6 Mini USB1.5 Power Bank, By Type Batteries 2012-20221.5.1 Global Power Bank Sales Market Share By Type Batteries 2012-20221.5.2 Global Power Bank Revenue Market Share By Type Batteries 2012-20221.5.3 Global Power Bank Price By Type Batteries 2012-20221.5.4 Lithium Polymer Battery1.5.5 Lithium Ion Battery1.6 Power Bank, By Shell Material 2012-20221.6.1 Global Power Bank Sales Market Share By Shell Material 2012-20221.6.2 Global Power Bank Revenue Market Share By Shell Material 2012-20221.6.3 Global Power Bank Price By Shell Material 2012-20221.6.4 Alloy1.6.5 Plastic1.6.6 Other....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
Global Pressure Injector Market Research Report 2017 - 2021

Pressure Injector Market

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-pressure-injector-market-research-report-2017-129175

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The report on the Pressure Injector market gives a meticulous introduction about the Pressure Injector 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 Pressure Injector 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 Pressure Injector 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 Pressure Injector 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
Immune Repertoire Sequencing Market is Expected to Witness a Steady Growth by 2017  2025

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14911

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/immune-repertoire-sequencing-market.asp

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Some of the key players in the Immune Repertoire Sequencing market includes ArcherDX, Inc., Junom Therapeutics, Roche Holding AG, Illumina Inc., ThermoFisher Scietific, Pacific Biosciences, CD Genomics, Atreca, Inc., Adaptive Biotechnologies and many more.Immune Repertoire is the collection of B and T cells with functional diversity in the body that reflects the immune selectivity. Immune Repertoire Sequencing means to sequence the complimentary determining region of both B-cell receptor and T-cell receptor. Immune receptor repertoire profiling portrays as the antigen-specific information within lymphocytes and has become increasingly significant to understand bodys autoimmunity and healthy immunity. This also propose novel ways to tackle cancer and development of personalized medicine by understanding the genetic makeup of a person. Since the last two decades, the technical advancements in the high throughput sequencing techniques along with the development in the bioinformatics and statistical tools have made the immune repertoire sequencing to be analyzed at single sequence level. This technology has potential to explore for the novel infectious agents and also offers new approaches for vaccine or antibody development.Clinical immune repertoire sequencing has a large awaiting market because multiplexing all possible V (D) J combinations into a single assay significantly decreases material and labor costs. Nowadays, next generation sequencing techniques overcomes the traditional strategies for studying the immune repertoire. The most commonly used platforms for immune repertoire sequencing is Illumina and Roche 454. However, the clinical use applications of immune repertoire sequence studies is massive, still more work remains to be completed to integrate the experiential dynamic changes with clinical features and outcomes.Immune Repertoire Sequencing Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe growth in the high throughput sequencing techniques, new statistical and bioinformatics tools drives the Immune Repertoire Sequencing market. Increasing innovation and technology, extensive research, government funding, various applications of the technique is going to fuel the market. However, expensive machinery, algorithmic challenges, non-availability in every region, professional expertise are some of the challenges that restraints the market of DNA sequencing from growing. Real time monitoring, high accuracy and sensitivity is the demand in this industry.Request to View Tables of Content @Adaptive Bio, one of the key player in Immune Repertoire Sequencing estimated that the research market for immune profiling in blood-based cancers could reach $390 million by 2018, while the diagnostic market could be $850 million. Recently in 2016, Immuno-oncology firm Argos Therapeutics has announced a research agreement with Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies to study patient response to investigational immunotherapies. ArcherDX, one of the leader in NGS-based fusion assays, released the Archer Immunoverse immune repertoire sequencing assays. Recently in 2016, Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics has acquired AbVitro, an immune repertoire analysis company for $125 million. These trends directly shows a future probability of growth in this sector.Based on geography, DNA Sequencing market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the market followed by Europe in the use of high-throughput sequencers owing to the availability of skilled professionals and developing innovations in the sequencing technology. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow in the future because of the increasing government funds in the research sector, growing focus on cancer research by CROs and biopharmaceutical companies.Some of the key market players in the DNA sequencing market are Siemens AG, Pacific Biosciences, Eppendorf, Perkin Elmer, Agilent Technologies Inc., Illumina, Genia Corporation, Oxford Nanopore technologies, Roche Holdings AG, ThermoFisher Scientific and many others .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:
Nose Mask Market Size, Status and Forecast 2017  2025

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14806

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/nose-mask-market.asp

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Companies Operating in the Global Nose Mask MarketDoctorLi, Biore, Uno, Kose, Watsons, FaceShop, SkinFood, Mentholatum, Rolanjona, and Innisfree are some of the companies in the global nose mask market.Nose masks are generally used as protection from various types of allergies, bacteria, dust, chemicals and other airborne diseases. They are also worn by health care specialists during surgeries and some other medical procedures. While nose masks are lighter and cheaper and they may not provide as much protection as is expected, nose masks are still a comfortable alternative to respirators. Nose masks such as nasal pillows, which is small in size and is a medium nasal mask are also commonly used. Nasal pillows have a single strap around the head and are made of small cushions. This type of nasal mask is triangular in shape and does not cover the mouth. During the bird flu epidemic in 2007, in the countries like China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Toronto, surgical nose masks were widely used by the general public as well to ensure adequate protection. Apart from environmental reasons, nose masks also serve the purpose of hiding the scars on the mouth and near the nasal area. Pop star Michael Jackson frequently used to wear a surgical nose mask to hide his identity when he was out in the public. Nose masks are typically made of cotton or gauze; however, general purpose nose masks are not used during surgeries as they do not facilitate adequate filtration of microbes.Request to View Tables of Content @Global Nose Mask Market: Key Market DriversIncreasing levels of air pollution across the globe is a major driving factor for the growth of the global nose mask market. Densely populated countries such as China and India are facing the menace of air pollution. Also, a large part of the global population is suffering from various respiratory diseases caused due to air pollution. This is an important factor likely to impact the development of the global nose mask market. Rising incidents of H1N1 deaths, periodic occurrences of bird flu and SARS and increasing incidents of other contagious diseases are likely to boost the global demand for nose masks and hence create a positive impact on the global nose mask market. Further, rise in the number of surgical procedures is also expected to fuel the growth of the global respirator and surgical nose mask market. Similarly, increasing hygiene concerns among people worldwide is also propelling the growth of the global nose mask market.Global Nose Mask Market: Restraints Challenging Market GrowthThe material used to make nose masks is highly absorptive; however, it does not allow the free flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, thereby making the user breathless. This factor is likely to hamper the increased adoption of nose masks and subsequently the growth of the global nose mask market. Nose masks are usually a one-size-fits-all product. They do not fit right for unusual facial shapes and hence may not be of use to certain people who feel uncomfortable wearing a mask that doesnt completely cover their nose. This can also hinder the development of the global nose mask market. Also, nose masks cannot filter all particulates in the air and are ineffective in fighting against hazardous vapors. This factor is also likely to create a negative impact on the global nose mask market.Global Nose Mask Market: Key RegionsAPAC, Europe, and North America are likely to witness increased adoption of nose masks owing to the high levels of air pollution, especially in countries of the APAC region such as China and India. Rapid industrialization and infrastructural development across the APAC have contributed to a surge in air pollution, thereby leading to growing instances of respiratory and air-borne diseases. This has led to an increasing use of nose masks by the general public for protection.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:
How Does the New Age of Protectionism Affect the Translation Industry?

www.teck-translations.com

www.teck-translations.com

Trump, Brexit, and Their Impact on Global CommunicationsTheres certainly no doubt that the concept of protectionism  especially in the United States and United Kingdom  is being taken to a whole new level. Nations around the world are rapidly moving forward, putting plans into action to do what they feel is right for the future of their country, and in the case of the US and the UK, this means a greater level of isolation, and a distinct lack of global outreach.In the United States, Trumps vision for an American America means that, realistically, we need to consider how the US turning its back on the rest of the world could impact certain sectors. It is, of course, reasonable to assume that recruitment and hospitality could be greatly affected, but there are other, not-so-obvious industries which could experience a massive shake-up, too, such as translation.In the United Kingdom, the situation is remarkable similar. The British people voted to leave the EU; a decision which still isnt entirely understood in terms of its impact, as this is something that has never been done before. The aim of Brexit is to free the UK from the EU open door policy, closing the nation off from the rest of Europe. This is expected to have a big impact upon the UKs relationship with its neighbors.Uncertainty in the Translation SectorThe United States and United Kingdom have the highest number of native English speakers in the world, so its possible that, should these two nations turn away and close themselves off, the importance of the English language on a global scale will drastically diminish. In fact, should the UK be successful in moving off on its own, there will no longer be any EU member states that have declared English as an official language (and no, we didnt forget Ireland and Malta  they opted to formally register Gaelic and Maltese respectively as their official languages for EU Commission purposes).On the surface, it is easy to think that, during a time of such uncertainty, the effects of the new age of protectionism on the translation industry would be largely up in the air. However, by considering how needs are likely to change as a result of the implementation of new measures for protectionism, it appears that specific communication skills, such as quality translation services, will be in high demand. It is anticipated that such changes could play a key role in making the translation industry stronger, although the sector will need to evolve to stay on top of the latest translation trends and requirements.The Future of Translation in the UKWith a diminished importance and focus on the English language, there is the potential for a number of new investments to be made in non-English speaking countries, resulting in a raised number of requirements for non-English translations. In the UK specifically we can expect an influx of new trade agreements outside the EU, leading to more work in more diverse languages; languages that may be more unfamiliar and may require expert translation skills.We are already witnessing businesses pulling out of the UK due to the possibility of regulation changes; after 122 years of trading in the United Kingdom, costume firm Smiffys moved its headquarters to Europe following the vote, and earlier this year Microsoft announced plans to pull its UK-based setups over future uncertainty. Perhaps some of the biggest changes so far, however, have involved US banks like JP Morgan potentially moving operations away from London. JP Morgan has reportedly considered moving staff to Ireland, Germany, and Luxembourg, which would increase the need for translation services in other languages.We must also consider the possibility of foreign students moving out of the UK. While they may not be granted permission to study in the country, we cannot  and should not  be removing access to quality education. Students studying English as a second language, or students choosing to study separate subject matter through an English medium, will likely require translation services in their native language if they are to continue with their studies from alternative, overseas institutions.The Risk of BrexitThe biggest risk to the translation industry as a result of Brexit will undoubtedly lie in the loss of EU translation requirements. More translation and interpretation is undertaken in English by the European Commission than in any other language. Should the requirement for English translation be significantly reduced, the European Commissions Directorate-General for Translation, which employs 500 full time translators and an additional 200 freelancers, could cut jobs dramatically, and a reduction in the 800m per year spent on translation by the EC could significantly hinder the future growth of the industry.The Future of Translation in the USIn the United States, the situation is a little different. Prior to the Trump Presidency, the US translation industry was anticipated to be the fastest growing sector, creating more than 12,000 new jobs between 2014-2019. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also expected 29% industry growth in the 10 years from 2014. Of course, the driving force behind these predictions was the growing number of non-English speakers in the US, but with Trumps plans to address immigration, this may no longer be the case.However, at the same time, the shutting down of the Offshoring Act is encouraging more and more US-based global corporations to seek administrative support  including translation services  on their home turf, which could be a good sign that the US translation sector is still on track for growth.On a more lighthearted note, translators around the world are said to be rolling in job opportunities following Trumps inauguration, with Government agencies and media sources requiring the most talented language experts to provide localized translations of Trumps comments! The Presidents rather shall we say unorthodox... methods of communication  his blunt, straight-to-the-point, and sometimes a little offensive comments  are proving to be somewhat of a challenge to translate into other languages, with the sometimes-rude undertones being amplified with direct translations.The Evolution of TranslationThere is absolutely no doubt that this new age of protectionism is going to have a significant effect on translation services, not only in the United States and United Kingdom, but across the world. However, it would be irresponsible to say that these effects are going to be wholly negative. While there are risks, and there is definitely a degree of uncertainty, it is also possible that the translation industry could use this as a chance to grow, and take advantage of new opportunities that are undoubtedly going to arise in different areas of translation. If the translation industry can adapt, there is no reason why it cant thrive.--Teck Language Solutions Inc. with seat in Miami, FL, provides professional translations in numerous language combinations, including all languages of the EU and all major languages. More information:Teck Language Solutions, Inc.444 Brickell Avenue, Suite 51132Miami, FL 33131, USAWeb:press contact:info@teck-translations.comphone: (786) 408-5672
Aluminum Pigments Market to grow at over 605% CAGR from 2017 to 2024

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1663

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/aluminum-pigments-market

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1663

https://www.gminsights.com/

Aluminum pigments market application scenario is distributed in several end-user industries including paints & coatings, printing inks, personal care, plastic, and others such as construction materialsAluminum Pigments Market size will likely surpass USD 580 million by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.Rising demand for cosmetic products will drive the aluminum pigments market throughout the forecast period. Global cosmetics sector is experiencing a boost due to rising income levels and purchasing power among consumers. This trend has been more evident in the developing nations of Asia Pacific and other regions where improving economic condition and willingness to spend on personal grooming is driving the demand for cosmetic products.Request for a sample of this report @Aluminum pigments are used in cosmetic products such as lipsticks, nail polishes and pressed powders to impart metallic color and luster. It is also used as a substrate upon which another color can be precipitated. The product inhibits the flow of sweat and prevents bleeding effects in cosmetic products like lipsticks. Global cosmetics industry was valued above 290 million in 2016 and is expected to rise at a healthy rate till 2024.Usage of aluminum pigments in solvent medium may lead to serious impacts on the environment. Solvent borne aluminum coatings emit a considerable amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) which are easily converted to carbon dioxide by the oxidizing effect of sunlight. VOCs may also react with other air pollutants to produce ozone. Both carbon dioxide and ozone are serious air pollutants. Prolonged exposure to photochemical reactions of VOCs may lead to toxicity in human health and create serious health problems. These reasons pose a serious challenge for the participants in aluminum pigments market as end-user companies may look for other safer alternatives.Browse key industry insights spread across 110 pages with 140 market data tables & 14 figures & charts from the report, Aluminum Pigments Market Size By Grade (Leafing, Non-leafing), By End-user (Paints & Coatings, Plastic, Personal Care, Printing Inks), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, GCC), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Based on grade, global aluminum pigments market is segmented as non-leafing and leafing. Leafing grades are mostly used in printing inks and cosmetic products to increase the brightness and impart a lustrous effect on the surface. Non-leafing grades impart a more long-lasting effect on the coated surfaces and are resistant to abrasion and corrosion owing to which they are extensively used in automobile paints. Growing automobile industry will positively affect the demand for non-leafing grades and augment the entire aluminum pigments market.Aluminum pigments market is segmented into five end-user categories including personal care, paints & coatings, plastic, printing inks, and other end-users like construction materials. Plastic end-user category will grow with CAGR exceeding 6% and its market value is estimated to be above USD 110 million by 2024. This segment is projected to grow due to increased demand for plastic products from various sectors. Personal care end-user segment is estimated to generate a revenue exceeding USD 55 million in 2024, growing by a CAGR exceeding 6.5%. This is one of the quickest growing end-user segment owing to the booming demand for personal care products across the globe.North America share of the aluminum pigments market is estimated to be above 130 million by 2024, increasing with CAGR of almost 6%. Steady demand for cosmetic products coupled with a growing automotive and decorative coatings market will be the chief drivers in North America. Latin America is one of the quickest growing aluminum pigments market with CAGR exceeding 6.5%. This region is estimated to earn a revenue above USD 30 million by the end of 2024. Healthy growth in construction industry will increase the demand for paints & coatings which will in turn propel the aluminum pigments market in this Latin America.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Aluminum pigments market is characterized by moderate consolidation with major players like Silberline, Altana, Carlfors Bruk, and. Carl Schlenk occupying almost one third of total share. Sun Chemical, Metal Powder Chemical, BASF SE, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Mono Pigment Developments Limited, Alba Aluminiu, etc. are other important players in the aluminum pigments market.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Celebrate the festival of Rakhi with Tistabene

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Tistabene- A home for fashionable jewellery and designer rakhi.JAIPUR, India - July 11, 2017The endless quest for fashion and trendy jewellery stops right here with Tistabene, an online portal with massive range of designer pieces suitable for all occasions. The unique collection is their magic wand that adds glitter to the personality of every woman out there. To add to the charm, for the upcoming festival of Rakshabandhan, Tistabene has introduced a Rakhi section with unique designs for both men and women.The Rakhis offered by them are subtle in colors, unique in design available in combo sets as well as for men and women individually. Bangle rakhi for women, wrist band rakhi for men and various chain and stone rakhis are in store for you. Variety of colors, patterns and designs are offered by them to meet the Rakhi need of every sister.Besides, brothers can also readily select the best fashion jewellery from their online portal to gift it to their beloved sisters for the festival. Varieties of ornaments such as rings, earrings, bangles, necklaces, pendants etc are available on this exclusive portal. Another reason for you to settle down on this incredible portal is the fair price that they charge with various additional delivery, cancellation and return/exchange services.Bring home some more happiness with the classic range of Rakhis for brothers and exclusive jewellery for sisters from the online jewellery portal-Tistabene.For more offer details, visit here:Website: -Facebook: -Twitter: -Instagram: -Tistabene offers the smartest and widest range of exclusive designer fashion jewelery for women, men and children inspired by its uniqueness and affordable price. Find perfectly crafted and uniquely made modern jewellery pieces from Tistabene.344-A, Near Seva Sadan, Bees Dukan, Adarsh Nagar,Jaipur
Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Treatment Market Forecast over 2017  2025

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14866

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/lower-respiratory-tract-infection-treatment-market.asp

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Major players operating in the global lower respiratory tract infection market include Sanofi Pasteur SA, AstraZeneca, Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc., Pfizer Inc. etc among others worldwide. To maintain a significant position in the global market, companies focus on strategies like mergers and acquisitions, treatment efficiency and efficacy, cost friendly services etc.The infection below the level of larynx is said to be lower respiratory tract infection. Many a times, lower respiratory tract infection is called pneumonia. These infection are not defined uniformly, but epidemiologically, these infections includes flu, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. Many microorganisms can cause the infection such as virus viz. adenoviruses, coronaviruses, parainfluenza virus, rhinoviruses etc and bacteria viz. Bordetella pertussis, Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae etc. Lower respiratory tract infection are leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children and adults worldwide.The global lower respiratory tract infection market is anticipated to witness lucrative growth due to increasing prevalence of lung diseases, surge in geriatric population, rise in risk of pneumonia in children, etc. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is responsible for 30 million lower respiratory tract infection cases in children worldwide, the prevalence of such viral diseases will drive the growth of the global market through 2027. Furthermore, the newer advances in treatment and the facilities, treatment with lower potential side effects, etc. will propel the growth of the global market during the forecast period. Inappropriate and lack of in-vitro facilities for conducting research studies for novel treatment alternatives is the factor that can hamper the growth of the global lower respiratory tract infection market during the forecast period.On the basis of the treatment, the global market is segmented into supportive care, hospital care, drugs and vaccines. The drugs segment can be further divided into antibiotics such as penicillin, amoxicillin, vancomycin, cephalosporin and others. The drug segment is anticipated to hold the largest share of the global market, in terms of revenue owing to factors like quicker onset of action, faster response, high potency and better efficiency etc. On the basis of transmission, the global market is divided into hospital acquired, ventilator acquired and community acquired. The hospital acquired segment is anticipated to hold the share of the global market due to increase in nosocomial infection owing to MDR (multiple drug resistance) microorganism infection in the hospitals.Based on the end user, the global lower respiratory tract infection market is segmented into hospitals and clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers. Hospitals are expected to hold the maximum share of the global market since advance facilities from diagnosis to treatment are provided under a roof.Request to View Tables of Content @On the basis of geography, the global lower respiratory tract infection market is segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. North America accounts for the major market share due to rise in geriatric population, increase in multi-drug resistance bacterial infection among children and immune-compromised adults. Furthermore, government initiatives towards treatment of the infection will drive the growth of the lower respiratory tract infection treatment market in the region.Asia Pacific market is anticipated to be the fastest growing market due to factors such as rise in patient awareness, improved health care infrastructure and facilities, high disposable income, prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle etc.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:
Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) Market in United States: Manufacturers, States, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

SCBA

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https://www.24marketreports.com/energy-and-natural-resources/united-states-self-contained-breathing-apparatus-scba-market-by-manufacturers-states-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

A self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA, sometimes referred to as a compressed air breathing apparatus (CABA), or simply breathing apparatus (BA), is a device worn by rescue workers, firefighters, and others to provide breathable air in an immediately dangerous to life or health atmosphere (IDLH). When not used underwater, they are sometimes called industrial breathing sets. The term self-contained means that the breathing set is not dependent on a remote supply (e.g., through a long hose). If designed for use under water, it is called SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus).Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers MSA Scott Safety Honeywell Dr.ger Interspiro Cam Lock Shigematsu Avon Matisec Sinoma KokenGet a free sample of the report:Market Segment by States, covering California Texas New York Florida IllinoisMarket Segment by Type, covers Open-Circuit Closed-CircuitMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Fire Fighting Industrial Use Other UseGet Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) Market reports for different countries @There are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) market.Chapter 1, to describe Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), 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 sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), for each state, 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, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.Browse full report of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) Market @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
Escalation in the Malwares has grown the demand of Antivirus & Security Softwares

Antivirus

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https://www.grandresearchstore.com/report-sample/2017-2022-global-and-japan-antivirus-%26-security-software-market-analysis-report

https://www.grandresearchstore.com/ict-and-media/2017-2022-global-and-japan-antivirus-%26-security-software-market-analysis-report

The global Antivirus & Security Software market is forecasted to grow spontaneously from a period of 2016 2022. Japan plays an important role in global market, with a highest growing demand in Antivirus & Security Software Market.This report studies the Antivirus & Security Software development status and future trend in Japan, focuses on top players in Japan, also splits Antivirus & Security Software by type and by applications, to fully and deeply research and reveal the market general situation and future forecast.The major players include Digital Arts(Japan) SoftBank(Japan) Sophos(Japan) SoftBank Commerce & Service(Japan) Trend Micro(Japan) Humming Heads(Japan) Hitachi Solutions(Japan) MOTEX(Japan) C&C Associates(Japan) Symantec(US) McAfee(US) Bitdefender(Romania) Kaspersky(Russia) Webroot(US) Sonicwall(US) ESET(Slovak Republic) Panda(Spain) AVG(Czech Republic) ThreatTrack Security(US) Avanquest(France) Avira(Germany) Intego(US) Avast(Czech Republic) BullGuard(UK) RISING(China) G DATA(Germany) Kingsoft(China) F-Secure(Finland) NormanASA(Norway) Emsisoft(Austria)Get more details about associated reports about Antivirus and Security at:Geographically, this report splits the Japan market into six regions, Tokyo Yokohama Osaka Nagoya OthersOn the basis of product, the Antivirus & Security Software market is primarily split intoby Price $0.01 to $5 $5 to $20 $20 to $50 $50 to $150 $150 & AboveBy Function Antivirus OthersNot sure about the report, request a free sample at:Table of Content Antivirus & Security Software Overview Japan Antivirus & Security Software Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers Japan Antivirus & Security Software Sales and Revenue by Regions (2012-2017) Japan Antivirus & Security Software Sales and Revenue by Type/ Product Category (2012-2017) Japan Antivirus & Security Software Sales by Application (2012-2017) Japan Antivirus & Security Software Players/Manufacturers Profiles and Sales DataTable of FiguresFigures Global and Japan Market Size (Million USD) Comparison 2012-2022 Product Picture of Antivirus & Security Software Japan Antivirus & Security Software Sales Volume Market Share by Types Antivirus Product Picture Internet Security Product Picture Household Examples Commercial ExamplesGet access to full report :Grand research store is a well-known and recognized as one of the most consistently market research companies in the world wide. We currently serve a gigantic database of more than 500,000 market reports and 50000 company profiles worldwide.276 5th Avenue, New York ,NY 10001, United StatesInt'l: +1(212)-634-4884 / +1(646)-781-7170Fax: +1(212)-634-4885help@grandresearchstore.com
Point of Care Diagnostics Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/point-of-care-diagnostics-market

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/point-of-care-diagnostics-market

According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Point of Care Diagnostics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7 % to reach $32.7 billion by 2022. The speed factor, particularly, is the utmost strength of PoC diagnostics as quicker diagnosis facilitates sooner patient management. Increasing incidence of chronic disorders and contagious diseases, that need portable and quick diagnosis, is estimated to fuel the market growth. Lack of co-ordination among healthcare centers, practitioners, and manufacturers is the major factor hindering the point of care diagnostics market.Recently, the blood testing segment has been a major contributor to the market, strongly driven by portable glucose monitoring devices. Transmittable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, TB, and hepatitis, will be a rising hub for POC moving ahead. In 2015, North America commanded the POC diagnostics market accounting for more than 40% of the global revenue. Asia Pacific is projected to grow at a productive rate due to the presence of high unmet medical requirements, increase in disposable income and enhancement in healthcare infrastructure in emerging economies. In future, countries such as Japan, China, India, Brazil and Mexico are projected to grow as hot spots for progress of POCT technology.Some of the key players in global Point of Care Diagnostics market are Roche Diagnostics Limited, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Becton, Dickinson And Company, Siemens Healthcare, Bayer Healthcare AG, Nova Biomedical, Abaxis, Inc., Pharmatech Inc., Nipro Diagnostics Inc, Beckman Coulter Inc, BioMerieux, Alere Inc., Danaher Corporation and Spectral Diagnostics.For More, Please Visit:Technologies Covered: Rapid HIV Tests Electrodes Biosensors Continuous Testing Drug Testing OthersEnd Users Covered: Assisted Living Healthcare Facilities Clinics Home Hospitals Laboratories OthersTypes of Prescription Covered: OTC Testing Kits Prescription-Based Testing KitsProducts Covered: Infectious Diseases Testing Kitso Hepatitis Testing Kitso Tropical Diseases Testing Kitso Influenza Testing Kitso Sexually-Transmitted Diseases (Stds) Testing Kitso HIV Testing Kitso Tuberculosis (TB) Testing Kits Pregnancy and Fertility Testing Kitso Fertility Testing Kitso Pregnancy Testing Kits Glucose Monitoring Kitso Glucose Monitoring Deviceso Glucose Monitoring Stripso Lancets Coagulation Monitoring Kitso Activated Clotting Time (Act/Aptt) Testing Kitso Prothrombin Time (Pt/Inr) Testing Kits Hematology Testing Kitso Hemostasis Assay Kitso Hemoglobin Assay Kits Blood Gas/Electrolytes Testing Kits Cardiac Markers Cholesterol Test Strips Fecal Occult Testing Kits Food Pathogens Testing Kits Tumor/Cancer Markers Urinalysis Testing Kits 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
Global Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017

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SummaryThe Global Disposable Medical Supplies Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Disposable Medical Supplies industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Disposable Medical Supplies 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 Disposable Medical Supplies 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):Johnson & JohnsonBaxterFreseniusBoston ScientificMedtronicBD3MTerumo CorporationB. BraunSmith & NephewAbbottC. R. BardNovartis...Key Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Disposable Medical Supplies by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Disposable Medical Supplies by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Disposable Medical Supplies by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Disposable Medical SuppliesChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Disposable Medical Supplies Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017India Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017China Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Disposable Medical Supplies Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Disposable Medical Supplies 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: 0086-20-22093278Email: 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: 0086-20-22093278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
2014 - 2022: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Heparin Market In Europe By Product Such As Unfractionated Heparin, Low Molecular Weight Heparin & Ultra Low Molecular Weight Heparin

Market Research Report

http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=296897

http://www.researchmoz.us/heparin-market-unfractionated-heparin-low-molecular-weight-heparin-and-ultra-low-molecular-weight-heparin-europe-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2014-2022-report.html

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "2014 - 2022: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Heparin Market In Europe By Product Such As Unfractionated Heparin, Low Molecular Weight Heparin & Ultra Low Molecular Weight Heparin" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides in-depth analysis of the heparin market in Europe. Stakeholders for this report include manufacturers of heparin products, crude heparin suppliers, heparin processing companies, and new players planning to enter the market.The report provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of the heparin market in Europe. Qualitative analysis comprises market dynamics, trends, product overview, and country-level market information. Quantitative analysis includes market share held by companies in 2013, market size, and forecast for heparin product types across five major nations in Europe from 2012 to 2022. Market revenue is provided in terms of USD million from 2012 to 2022 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2014 to 2022 for all the segments, considering 2013 as the base year. The executive summary of the report provides a snapshot of the heparin market in Europe with information on leading segments with respect to the market size, forecast value, market share of key players, growth rate (CAGR %) from 2014 to 2022, and growth factors.The market overview section comprises impact factors such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities for the heparin market in Europe. This factors would aid the stakeholders in establishing a strong foothold in the European heparin market. Furthermore, the market overview section comprises market attractiveness and value chain analysis. The market attractiveness analysis section provides a graphical view comparing the growth and market dynamics in different countries to identify the most attractive market for the period from 2014 to 2022. Value chain analysis offers detailed information on value addition activities in the manufacturing process of heparin-based pharmaceutical products.Market share analysis is also provided in the market overview section of the report for the year 2013 in terms of value (%). Furthermore, the report analyzes different heparin product types such as unfractionated heparin, low molecular weight heparin, and ultra-low molecular weight heparin. The product type section provides market analysis for different types of heparin in Europe. This includes an overview of product types, indications for use, presence of any biosimilars, market drivers, issues, and regulations amended for its production and use. Prices of products vary based on product type and formulation. Formulations with different heparin concentrations and formulation type carry different prices across the countries in the European Union. Hence, the report provides average pricing analysis (based on the current prices) to offer an overview of prices of heparin-based pharmaceutical products in the EU.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report further provides market analysis for heparin in five major countries in the EU: the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Market analysis for different heparin types is provided for each of these countries from 2012 to 2022 along with the CAGR from 2014 to 2022. The market has been estimated for finished heparin formulation and has not considered its APIs. Major factors such as aging population and increasing prevalence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) that propel the market for heparin in Europe are elaborated in the country-level analysis. This section also covers certain regulations governing the manufacture and import of heparin in some countries.Major players operating in the heparin market in Europe such as Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Leo Pharma A/S, Pfizer, Inc., Sanofi S.A., and Syntex S.A. are profiled in this report. The report also provides important recommendations for these players and new entrants. These recommendations would enable the existing market players to expand their market share and help new companies establish their presence in the heparin market in Europe.The Europe Heparin Market is segmented into the following categories:Europe Heparin Market, by ProductUnfractionated HeparinLow Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWHs)Ultra-low Molecular Weight Heparin (ULMWHs)Europe Heparin Market, by CountryUnited KingdomUnfractionated HeparinLow Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWHs)Ultra-low Molecular Weight Heparin (ULMWHs)GermanyBrowse 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 @
Rising Demand And Growing Hygiene Concerns For Baby Diapers Market In Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and South Africa From 2015 - 2021

Market Research Report

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http://www.researchmoz.us/baby-diapers-market-asia-pacific-middle-east-latin-america-and-south-africa-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2015-2021-report.html

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Rising Demand And Growing Hygiene Concerns For Baby Diapers Market In Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and South Africa From 2015 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.The baby diapers market on the basis of product type is categorized into cloth diapers, disposable diapers, training diapers and swim pants. Factors such as high birth rate coupled with decreasing infant mortality rate have fuelled the growth of the baby diapers market. Moreover, rising population and growing hygiene concerns have increased the demand for baby diapers significantly. Furthermore, increasing disposable income has also led to an increasing acceptance of baby diapers among different consumer groups. There is greater awareness among the urban population regarding the need for diapers as a part of its hygiene and sanitation requirements which in turn has resulted in high demand for the baby diapers market.Recent trends have shown that despite the baby diapers market being saturated in the developed countries of North America and Europe, region like Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America had shown healthy signs of growth. Moreover, the presence of a large number of untapped markets possesses a huge area of opportunity for the manufacturers of baby diapers. There is a significant presence of untapped markets for baby diapers, especially in Africa, due to the lower disposable income factor. However, the disposable income is expected to increase in the next few years with rising industrialization and urbanization. The perception that diapers, especially the disposable ones, are unhealthy for babies leads to rising demand for hygienic products. Due to the changing demand, the diaper manufacturers are now more involved introducing baby diapers that have better breathability and are softer, thereby causing fewer rashes on the baby skin.However, one of the major concerns regarding cloth diapers is its lower absorption capability as compared to other product types. Due to this, the cloth diapers have a problem of leakage, which needs covering with the help of diaper covers, pants, or doublers. Moreover, there are some disadvantages associated with the use of disposable diapers. A major concern regarding the disposable diapers relates to baby health issues. The customer perception regarding disposable diapers is that they have superior absorption capability. Due to this, the parents have a tendency to change the diapers of their babies only after a long gap, which leads to extreme saturation and rashes. Another factor which restraints the growth of the baby diapers market is the perception that diapers (especially disposable diapers) cause infertility.The market for disposable diapers was the largest among all the diapers in terms of revenue in 2014 and is expected to remain so throughout the forecast period. Rapid urbanization and increasing disposable income are the major factors driving the demand for disposable diapers.The report also provides an understanding of the value (USD billion) of the baby diapers market. The study also provides forecast from 2015-2021 and highlights current and future market trends. The report also provides an understanding of company shares of baby diapers in North Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @By Geography, the market has been segmented into Asia Pacific, Middle East, South Africa and Latin America. The countries included in the Asia Pacific region are India, Indonesia and Rest of Asia Pacific. Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Iran and Rest of Middle East countries are included in the Middle East region. Brazil and Rest of Latin America countries have been included in Latin America. The report also covers the region of South Africa.The report also provides the company market share analysis of key players operating in the baby diapers domain. The key players operating in global baby diapers market are Indevco Group, Kao Corporation, Bumkins Finer Baby Products, Inc., Hengan International Group Company Limited, Johnson & Johnson, Unicharm Corporation, SCA Hygiene, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Procter & Gamble Company and Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting Ltd.Baby Diapers Market: By GeographyAsia PacificIndiaIndonesiaRest of Asia PacificMiddle EastSaudi ArabiaIranU.A.E.IranRest of Middle EastLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaSouth AfricaBaby Diapers Market: By Product TypeCloth DiapersDisposable DiapersTraining DiapersSwim DiapersBrowse 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 @
How to Save Time and Money Sourcing Semiconductors by GD Rectifiers

www.gdrectifiers.co.uk

Buyers rely on distributors to provide them with the latest semiconductor components, supplied with up to date information and datasheets on the specifications requiredToday, distributors act as a more powerful sales tool to buyers than ever before, from enquiry to delivery, distributors play an integral part of the supply and purchasing chain.GD Rectifiers are one of the UKs leading distributors of power electronic components, they supply semiconductors to over 800 companies in the UK. GD Rectifiers have serviced the rail, medical, industrial, electronics, aviation and automation industries for over five decades.They specialise in designing and manufacturing standard and custom built heatsinks, power assemblies, selenium rectifiers, silicon rectifiers, suppressors, inverters and regulators. They also distribute components for the worlds leading semiconductor manufacturers such as IXYS, Westcode, Semikron, EDI, Mersen, Sirio, Ferraz Shawmut and Ocram throughout the UK and Europe.5 Tips to Saving Time and Money on Sourcing Semiconductors1. Get the customer specification earlyThe earlier you get the brief from your customer, the better. Make sure you supply your distributor with all of the necessary information to support the quote process.It is imperative that your distributor requests pricing on the project as soon as possible, before many other distributors request a quote for the same job.2. Limit how many distributors you invite to tenderLimiting how many distributors you invite to tender is a benefit, it keeps the demand for the part down which means distributors can obtain better supported pricing from the manufacturers.3. Order in high volumes to benefit from cost savingsThe best way for customers to save money is to provide your distributor with an annual forecast on product usage. Buy small quantities of the part you need (or in some cases you can even request samples), do the relevant testing and confirm youre happy with the part, then place a large order with one distributor, this will save you time and money. GD Rectifiers provide all customers with bespoke call-off and scheduled orders, this enables customers to buy in large volumes but store the stock at the distributors warehouse if required.4. Use your distributor as an extension to your businessYour distributor knows the products and the industry inside out, develop a loyal and long-lasting relationship with them and use them as an extension to your business. Distributors are extremely knowledgeable about product life cycles, obsolescence, replacement parts, new product releases, supported pricing, lead times and end applications. Use your distributor as a knowledge centre and benefit from their expertise on the industry.5. Provide a realistic annual product forecast for the partForward planning will help you save a lot of time and money. Be sure to provide a realistic annual product forecast so that your distributor can secure you the best possible price with a short time-to-market. Disclosing an annual forecast doesnt mean you have to commit to just that quantity, you can replenish stock and raise more orders throughout the year. Discuss your options with your distributor and come to an agreement that works for both parties.GD Rectifiers pride themselves on being a medium sized distributor, with the ability to provide account management and support 24/7, remind customers when their call-off orders are running low, liaise with OEMs on securing discounts for volume orders, stocking the latest products with the shortest lead times. Large distributors tend not to compete with smaller distributors on account management and customer service, at GD Rectifiers our sales team are attentive, highly efficient and have everlasting relationships with both our customers and the manufacturers we work with.For further information on how GD Rectifiers can save you time and money sourcing semiconductors, please call: 01444 243 452 or email: enquiries@gdrectifiers.co.ukGD Rectifiers is a Global Manufacturer and Distributor of products, services and solutions to commercial and industrial users of power electronic components.Established in 1964, GD Rectifiers has over 50 years of extensive experience across a large range of markets, specialising in new and current technologies for industrial power control applications. An extensive product offering has built GD Rectifiers exceptional reputation as the go-to power specialist with innovative experience across: Aviation, Automotive, Rail, Medical, Industrial and Electronics markets.GD Rectifiers have extensive experience in the rail industry and are RISQS Qualified.GD Rectifiers are an ISO 9001:2008 registered company that design and develop bespoke power semiconductor assemblies to control voltage, current and frequency for international industrial markets.GD Rectifiers designs and manufactures Selenium and Silicon Rectifiers, Suppressors, Converters, Inverters, Regulators and all other power products for Industrial power control applications. The company distributes state of the art Diodes, Thyristors, IGBTs and MOSFETs from the worlds leading manufacturers including: IXYS, IXYS UK Westcode, Semikron and EDI.GD Rectifiers manufacture an extensive range of power components and assemblies. The company also supplies a wide range of Heat Sinks suitable for Power Semiconductors, LED Lighting and similar applications. GD Rectifiers also offer a repair and replacement service for faulty or ageing Semiconductor Rectifiers, Converters, Inverters and Regulators.GD RectifiersBentley House2 William WayBurgess HillWest SussexRH15 9AG
Global Pelvic Floor Stimulation Therapy Market Insights Shared In Detailed Report

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Pelvic floor stimulation therapy market: OverviewPelvic floor stimulation (PFS) therapy is a nonsurgical process that activates the nerves and muscle mechanism of the pelvic floor. PFS therapy is frequently prescribed to strengthen the neuromuscular mechanism of the pelvic floor for the treatment of urinary incontinence. With the help of pelvic floor stimulation therapy, patients suffering from urinary incontinence can regain control over their bladder muscle and the muscles around it.Pelvic floor stimulation therapy involves controlled electrical or magnetic stimulation with non-implantable stimulators to the nerves of the pelvic floor and bladder. The electrodes are placed around the gonads and the rectum or around the anus. The frequency and amplitude of the stimulating pulses, their duration, the number of treatments per day, and the overall duration of the treatment cycle depend on the type and severity of the incontinence. Pelvic floor stimulation therapy exercises the precise muscles involved in the excretion of urine, no surgery is required, and patient participation is also kept to a minimum.Obtain Report Details @The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market by providing 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.Pelvic floor stimulation therapy market: Trends and DriversWeakening of the pelvis floor muscles, menopause, obesity, constipation, urinary tract infections, and alcoholism are the main causes of urinary incontinence. The increasing prevalence of these conditions, added to the expanding global geriatric population, is the major driver for the global pelvic floor stimulation therapy market. The increasing healthcare awareness among patients and healthcare professionals in developing countries is also driving the demand from the global pelvic floor stimulation therapy market. On the other hand, the high prices of pelvic floor stimulation devices may hinder the growth of the market in the coming years.According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in 2012, approximately 13 million adult women and 6 million adult males above the age of 40 years were suffering from urinary incontinence in the U.S. alone. UK health data suggests that 4 in 100 adult males and 1 in 5 adult women are suffering from this disorder. As per the Canadian Incontinence Foundation, 3.3 million Canadians above the age of 40 years, equating about 10% of the total population, suffer from some kind of urinary incontinence. This has led to government agencies supporting pelvic floor stimulation therapy, which is likely to lead to better reimbursement options and thus increasing demand in the coming years.Pelvic floor stimulation therapy market: SegmentationThe global pelvic floor stimulation therapy market can be segmented according to geography and type of stimulator. Geographically, the market for pelvic floor stimulation therapy can be segmented into North American, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. Of these, North America holds the highest share in the global market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific.On the other hand, the market for pelvic floor stimulation therapy can be segmented into two segments by stimulator type, namely electrical devices and magnetic devices. The electric devices segment accounts for a major share due to the established popularity of these devices among clinicians and patients, whereas magnetic devices were introduced relatively recently and are yet to become popular on a large scale.Fill The Form To Gain Deeper Insights On This Market @Pelvic floor stimulation therapy market: Competitive LandscapeThere are many companies operating in the global pelvic floor stimulation therapy market, out of which Liberty, Athena, Active Life Technologies, and Mediwatch are the major manufacturers of electrical pelvic floor stimulation devices, while EMD Medical Technologies, MCube Technology and Iskra Medical are the key players in the market for magnetic pelvic floor stimulation devices.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:
Global & USA Reed Switch Market New Study of Trend and Forecast Report 2017-2022

Reed Switch Market

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The Reed Switch Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch market covering Reed Relays, Magnetic Sensors and Other are studied in this research. Share of Reed Switch market is covered by applications as well supported with potential applications in the future.Buy the complete Reed Switch report with Comprehensive table of contents @The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the Reed Switch market involves a primary and a secondary research. A systematic procedure has been used to arrive at the global size of the Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch market, their suppliers' information as well as analysis of downstream major consumers for Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch market.The research compiles profiles of small and big Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch 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 Reed Switch market. Some of the Key vendors profiled in this research include: OKI Littelfuse (Hamlin) RMCIP Standex-Meder Nippon Aleph HSI Sensing Coto PIT-RADWAR PIC STG Harbin Electric Group Zhejiang XuruiPartial list of Tables and Figures for this report include:Figure Korea Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Brazil Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Egypt Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Saudi Arabia Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure South Africa Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Nigeria Reed Switch Revenue (Value) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Table OKI Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsTable OKI Reed Switch Type and ApplicationsTable OKI Reed Switch Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Table Littelfuse (Hamlin) Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsTable Littelfuse (Hamlin) Reed Switch Type and ApplicationsTable Littelfuse (Hamlin) Reed Switch Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Table RMCIP Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and CompetitorsAbout 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
Research Details Developments In The Restless Legs Syndrome Treatment Market (2016-2024)

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Global Restless Legs Syndrome Treatment Market: OverviewRestless legs syndrome, also called Willis-Ekbom disease, is a neurological disorder. It triggers an urge in patients to move their legs. Because the syndrome usually occurs during sleep, it is also considered a type of sleep disorder. People suffering from restless legs syndrome often feel an overwhelming desire to rigorously move their legs, the intensity and frequency of which leads to unpleasant pain in their limbs. This also disturbs their sleep patterns, affecting their health adversely. The condition usually aggravates at night.Higher prevalence of restless legs syndrome is noted in women than in men. RLS can affect people of all ages but is mostly observed in middle-aged and elderly people. The most common symptoms of RLS include uncomfortable itching and pain in the legs that may cause a disruption in the sleep pattern and ultimately affect a patients quality of life. Despite its increasing prevalence, the precise cause of RLS is not yet known. Nevertheless, with extensive investigations being conducted in the field, the RLS market is expected to gain momentum in the near future. As of now, experts attribute the increasing incidence of the disease to genetic factors and instabilities in the dopaminergic balance.Obtain Report Details @While researchers are yet to discover a specific cure for the disorder, drugs presently available in the market ensure symptomatic treatment. They help in relieving the uneasiness commonly experienced in the disorder. The report studies the prospects for the global restless legs syndrome treatment market in the forthcoming years. The impact of research and development activities on the markets future outlook is examined in the report in detail. It also presents insights into the various social and economic factors that will influence the markets growth trajectory between 2016 and 2024.Global Restless Legs Syndrome Treatment Market: Opportunities and Market SegmentationRestless legs syndrome causes uneasiness in patients and is also associated with other health issues such as dizziness, headaches, drowsiness, flatulence, dry mouth, and nausea. Patients suffering from restless legs syndrome may also suffer from psychiatric disorders such as depression and a decreased libido. Apart from these, labyrinthitis and other ear disorders, fatigue, irritability, peripheral edema, and nutritional and metabolism disorders indicated by weight gain or increased appetite are also related to the syndrome.The treatment of restless legs syndrome is still a relatively untapped space. The market is projected to exhibit growth at an increased rate with the development of new drugs, which promise higher efficiency and minimum side effects.Based on product type, the global restless legs syndrome treatment market can be segmented into Neupro/Leganto, Mirapex/Sifrol/Mirapexin, HORIZANT/Regnite, and Requip. Restless legs syndrome treatment can be segmented into pharmacological and nonpharmacological.Global Restless Legs Syndrome Treatment Market: Competitive InsightsIn order to study the competitive landscape prevailing in the market, the report profiles companies such as GlaxoSmithKline plc., Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Manhattan Pharmaceuticals. The strengths and weaknesses of the companies are weighed out in the report using SWOT analysis. The analysis also helps the report gauge the threats and opportunities that these companies could face in the near future.Fill The Form To Gain Deeper Insights On This Market @The report offers a complete databank about the global restless legs syndrome treatment market by providing 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 regarding every facet of the market.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:
Global Intravenous Equipment Market Revenue, Opportunity, Segment and Key Players- Foresight to 2022

Intravenous Equipment Market

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This Intravenous Equipment Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.Global Intravenous Equipment Market Research Report 2017 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.Request a Sample Report @Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the Global Intravenous Equipment Market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the markets trajectory between forecast periods.Inquiry before Buying This Report@Market Segment:On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Infusion Pump Catheter Blood Administration Set Securement Device Needleless ConnectorOn 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 Intravenous Equipment for each application, including Hospitals & Clinics Homecare Ambulatory Care CenterThe ongoing market trends of Intravenous Equipment and the key factors impacting the growth prospects are elucidated. With increase in the trend, the factors affecting the trend are mentioned with perfect reasons. Top manufactures, price, revenue, market share are explained to give a depth of idea on the competitive side.Each and every segment type and their sub types are well elaborated to give a better idea about this market during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 respectively.End usres, applications, product type, regions and many such segmentations are studied and researched upon using primary and secondary research sources.Key Players: Becton Dickinson and Company B.Braun Melsungen Baxter International Fresenius SE ICU Medical Smiths Medical Moog Terumo Corporation C.R. Bard AngioDynamicsAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Worldwide RNAi for Therapeutic Market Industry Key Profiles are - Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Arbutus Biopharma (Tekmira), Arrowhead Research, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals

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Global RNAi For Therapeutic Market Research Report 2017 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.The main goal for the dissemination of this information is to give a descriptive analysis of how the trends could potentially affect the upcoming future of Global RNAi for Therapeutic Market during the forecast period. This markets competitive manufactures and the upcoming manufactures are studied with their detailed research. Revenue, production, price, market share of these players is mentioned with precise information.For more details inquire @In this report, the global RNAi for Therapeutic 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 RNAi for Therapeutic in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaOn 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 RNAi for Therapeutic for each applicationDownload Sample copy @Global RNAi for Therapeutic market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Arbutus Biopharma (Tekmira) Arrowhead Research Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Mirna Therapeutics Quark Pharmaceuticals RXi Pharmaceuticals Silence Therapeutics Benitec Biopharma Miragen Therapeutics Sylentis Gradalis Sirnaomics Silenseed Arcturus Therapeutics Ariz Biopharma Celsion Corporation Ascletis PharmaceuticalsAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market by Top players, Product and End User- Forecast by 2022

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market

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The survey report on the Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market is a comprehensive overview of the market, covering various aspects such as product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, distribution channel, supply chain analysis, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles exhaustive information sourced via proven research methodologies. The information of the High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market is accessible in a logical chapter-wise format. It is also interspersed with relevant graphs and tables to enable readers to get a better perspective of the Global market.Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market Research Report 2017 Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.Request a Sample Report @Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the markets trajectory between forecast periods.Inquiry before Buying This Report@Market Segment:On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Diagnostic Device Therapeutic DeviceOn 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 High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device for each application, including Hospitals & Clinics Homecare Ambulatory Care CenterMoreover, with the help of analytical tools, the research study gives insights into the main growth barriers, drivers, promising opportunities, and limitations in the Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market. The research report additionally addresses some of the very important questions regarding the development and latest trends in the Global market. Some of these questions are mentioned below: What are the main factors likely to encourage the growth of Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market? Which factors are expected to limit the development of the market? Which application and product segments are anticipated to top in the forecast period? Which geographical segment is expected to lead and hold main share of the Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market in the next few years? What are the projected values and growth rate of the Global market? Which are the key players operating in the Global High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Device Market?Key Vendor: EDAP TMS Sonacare Medical Haifu Medical Shanghai A&S Co Mianyang Sonic Electronic Ltd Insightec Theraclion Alpinion Medical SystemsAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
ResearchMoz - Europe Vascular Stents Market By Manufacturers, Type and Application

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "ResearchMoz - Europe Vascular Stents Market By Manufacturers, Type and Application" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of Vascular Stents in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Benelux and Spain, focuses on top players in these countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these Countries, coveringAbbott LaboratoriesB. Braun MelsungenBoston ScientificIntact VascularAMGAngioscoreBard PVCook MedicalCordisMedtronicSt. Jude MedicalMarket Segment by Countries, this report splits Europe into several key Countries, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Vascular Stents in these countries, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeGermanyFranceUKRussiaItalySpainBeneluxSplit by product type, with sales, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IIType IIISplit by application, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Vascular Stents in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsEurope Vascular Stents Market Report 20161 Vascular Stents Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Vascular Stents1.2 Classification of Vascular Stents1.2.1 Type I1.2.2 Type II1.2.3 Type III1.3 Application of Vascular Stents1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.4 Vascular Stents Market by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2011-2021)2 Europe Vascular Stents by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Europe Vascular Stents Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Europe Vascular Stents Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.1.2 Europe Vascular Stents Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Europe Vascular Stents (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Europe Vascular Stents 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 @
Learn Details Of The Sigmoidscope Devices Market Forecast To 2024

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According to U.S. FDA, sigmoidoscope is a class II medical device used in a sigmoidoscopy procedure to examine the rectum and sigmoid colon. Generally, sigmoidoscope is a small tube-like device which consists light source to see the internal part of the rectum and sigmoid colon. Physician or nurse inserts this device into the colon through end part of the large intestine called anus and pushes slowly into the rectum and sigmoid colon. Over the last few decades, prevalence and incidence rates of gastrointestinal diseases (GIT) is increasing notably and is expected to drive the overall GIT diagnosis devices market including sigmoidoscope devices over the forecast period. There are two different types of sigmoidoscopes such as flexible sigmoidoscope and rigid sigmoidoscope are available in the market to cater the patients. Among all, flexible sigmoidoscope devices are commonly used. These devices allow a physician to see around bends in the colon and it provides prominent results in the lower colon examination. Rigid sigmoidoscope is used to check the rectum part and is used less often when compared to flexible sigmoidoscope. In the aforementioned devices, flexible sigmoidoscopes are expected to register robust growth in a CAGR over the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @Generally, sigmoidscope is used to find the cause of abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea. Moreover, the device used to find the malignant polyps and benign, as well as early signs of cancer in the lower part of colon and rectum. By using flexible sigmoidoscope device, the physician can see inflammation, intestinal bleeding, ulcers and abnormal growths in the descending colon and rectum. The entire sigmoidoscopy procedure will take 20 minutes to complete and whilst performing the procedure, the patient may feel uncomfortable. Before performing procedure, patients rectum and colon must be empty. Moreover, patient has to take only clear liquids for 12 to 24 hours beforehand. Patient has to take edema before performing procedure, so that washes out the intestine.Increasing prevalence of GIT diseases is one of the major factor which is expected to drive the overall sigmoidoscope devices marker over the forecast period. Moreover, increasing technological advancements in the medical devices industry along with increasing awareness about healthcare is expected to drive the overall market demand for sigmoidoscope devices during forecast period. However, the cost of the procedure and dearth of skilled healthcare professionals in the under developed countries is expected to hamper the marker revenue growth over the forecast period. Moreover, availability of high end medical devices which offer multiple services including sigmoidoscopy is one of the key restraints for this market.This market can be categorized on three major bases such as product type, application, end user, and geography. On the basis of key products, the market can be classified into flexible sigmoidoscope and rigid sigmoidoscope. Based on the application, the market has been segmented into diagnosis, monitoring. Based on end user type the market has been segmented into hospital, ambulatory surgical centers, and gastroenterology institutes.Geographically, the sigmoidscope devices market can be classified into five regional markets such as North America (United States and Canada), Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc.) and Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Japan, India, etc.), Latin America and rest of the world. The emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa are expected to register robust growth during the forecast period 2016-2024. This would majorly be attributed to increasing investments by the key players operating in these countries, increasing prevalence of Gastro intestinal track cancers. India, China and Brazil are expected to drive strong growth among the emerging countries, owing to the increasing investments by government bodies to enhance healthcare facilities.Fill The Form To Gain Deeper Insights On This Market @Key companies operating in the global sigmoidscope devices market are Anetic Aid, Parburch Medical Ltd., HIENE USA LTD. Welch Allyn, Jindal Medical & Scientific Instruments Company (Pvt.) Ltd., Pal Surgicals and Evexar Medical, GE Healthcare to name few.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:
Global Automotive Crankshaft Market (2017-2024)- Research Nester

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Crankshaft is a mechanical device and heart of an automotive engine. It has the ability to convert linear reciprocating motion of piston to a rotary motion for engine power transmission. These are widely used in automotive field, such as in cars, trucks, trains and in other automobiles. Without crankshaft it would not be possible for a vehicle to move even inch, since it is the main link between input powers to the output powers. Further, automotive crankshaft has multiple applications in different sectors such as automobile sector, industrial machinery sector and in printing devices.Market Size & ForecastAutomotive crankshaft market is anticipated to witness a robust growth over the forecast period. Further, the global automotive crankshaft market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 2.2% over the forecast period 2017-2024. Moreover, the global automotive crankshaft market stood at revenue of USD 2.7 billion in year 2016. It is estimated that till 2024 the extreme growth of global automotive crankshaft market is anticipated to reach the valuation of USD 3.2 billion.For Sample Pages please go through link below:Europe accounted for the highest percentage share, more than any region in 2016 in crankshaft market. After Europe, North America, accounted the second highest position in revenue among other regions. Asia-Pacific comprises of some fastest emerging economies such as India and China. These regions are having far more demand than the other countries, and includes the higher demands for heavy commercial vehicles and high end luxury vehicles along with others vehicles. Considering all these factors, during forecast period, the global market of automotive crankshaft, in Asia-Pacific region will be growing further at an extreme pace. Upcoming years will appear as golden era for the automotive crankshaft manufacturers in Asia-Pacific region due to significant opportunity for them to expand their business.Market segmentationsOur in-depth analysis segmented the global market of automotive crankshaft in these following segments-By Vehicle Type Heavy commercial vehicles Light commercial vehicles Luxury vehicles Passenger vehicles Sport Utility Vehicles Multi Utility Vehicles OthersBy Crankshaft Type Flat plane(Single Plane) Cross planeBy Crankshaft Material Cast Iron Forged Steel Carbon steel alloys OthersBy RegionsGlobal automotive crankshaft market is further classified on the basis of region as follows: North America (U.S. & Canada) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Western and Eastern Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg, Rest of Western Europe) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity Analysis Middle East and Africa (GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East and Africa) Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth AnalysisGrowth Drivers & ChallengesThe growth of automotive crankshaft market is driven by the soaring demand for high end performance vehicles. Further this led all the market players to come up with quality part products for the high end performing engines, and to lead the market as well.The high earning consumers and their high purchasing power are also propelling the growth of the automotive crankshaft market in a very positive way. Further change in lifestyle of the consumers guided them to demand for better products. These factors are now forcing the market players to come up with something much better than previous products and with better qualities.Request For TOC Here:The growth of tourism sector has also given the boost to the global automotive crankshaft market due to the demand for large number of automobiles on road.The continuous development in automobile sector has also propelled the market of automotive crankshaft globally. In addition to this, with the ultimate growth in automobile sector in all regions of the world it is increasing the demand for automotive crankshaft all over the world.However, significant investment on research and development activities while manufacturing crankshaft is anticipated to hamper the growth of automotive crankshaft market during the forecast period.Key Players Thyssenkrupp Crankshaft Company LLC NSI Crankshaft Bryant Racing Inc. Arrow Precision Maschinenfabrik ALFING KESSLER GmBH Ciguenales Sanz SL Tianrun Crankshaft co. ltd. Mahindra CIE Automotive NSI CrankshaftScope & ContextOverview of the Parent MarketAnalyst ViewSegmentationThe global automotive crankshaft market is segmented as following  By Vehicle Type Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth Analysis By Crankshaft Type Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth Analysis By Crankshaft Material Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth Analysis By Regions Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth AnalysisMarket DynamicsDemand and Supply RiskCompetitive LandscapePorters Five Force ModelGeographical Economic ActivityKey Players (respective SWOT Analysis) and their Strategies and Product PortfolioRecent Trends and DevelopmentsIndustry Growth Drivers and ChallengesKey Information for players to establish themselves in current dynamic environment.To know more about this research, kindly visit:Research Nester is a global market research and consulting firm helping organizations, private entities, governments undertaking, non-legislative associations and non-profit organizations. With our decades of experience in the market research, we help our clients to gain a competitive edge over other players. Thus, helping them making strategic yet dynamic decisions for the future investments.Ajay DanielEmail: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 59191820 Avenue M, Suite# 1113,Brooklyn, New York 11230web :
Gesture Recognition Market: Industry Efficient Market Channels, Effective Workflow & Global Analysis 2025

Gesture Recognition Market

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Global Gesture Recognition Market Report Based on Type (Touch-Based Gesture Recognition, Touch less Gesture Recognition), Industry Vertical and Geography (North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa). The Global Gesture Recognition Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 29.2% from 2017 to 2025.The report provides a comprehensive analysis of changing market scenario, key manufacturers, competitive landscape, and detailed segmentation. The research also discusses regional scenario to outline emerging geographies and tap into those regions to gain major market share. The report provides detailed information for leading industry players, new entrants, and investors to determine competitive landscape and plan strategic moves for growth.View more details:Key findings of the global gesture recognition market are discussed in brief along with current market status. The research offers insights on competitive scenario and advancements that took place in the market for the historic period, 2014-2016. Research methodology adopted by research analysts to collect data, information, and statistics is covered. Journals, publications, and white papers are referred to collect data and information. Inputs from industry experts are taken and online surveys are conducted to validate data. An executive summary of the industry is provided to help in gaining a thorough understanding of the current market status.Request Sample Report:Research Factor Included in Gesture Recognition IndustryThe research provides a comprehensive landscape of the global gesture recognition industry on the basis of drivers and challenges. Growth in user-friendly features in portable electronic devices, affordable gesture recognition software, and increase in adoption by industrial sector are factors that drive the market. Detailed analysis of these factors is mentioned in the study. However, lack in precision and rise in power consumption are challenges manufacturers need to tackle. Porters Five Forces analysis is offered in the study to highlight intensity of competition and devise strategies to gain competitive advantage. Bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of substitutes, industrial rivalry, and threat of new entrants are some of the parameters analyzed in the study. The study also provides market share analysis of major segments with the help of tabular and pictorial formats for the period, 2014-2025.Segmentation of Gesture Recognition Market by Various Components and Industry VerticalThe report offers an extensive analysis of key segments of the global gesture recognition market. Detailed segmentation of the market is offered into type, vertical, and geography. Based on type, the report analyzes the industry into touch-based and touch-less gesture recognition. Touch-based gesture recognition is segmented into gyroscope and accelerometer. Touch-less gesture recognition segment is classified into ultrasonic, capacitive, infrared, 2D camera-based, and 3D machine vision. Regional analysis is offered in the study for regions such as North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and LAMEA.Request Customization:Global Key Manufacturer Analysis of Gesture Recognition MarketMarket size for each segment in aforementioned regions is outlined for the historic period and the forecast period. Moreover, an extensive analysis of countries in each region is also provided. Revenue generated by each segment in aforementioned regions are also explored in a tabular format along with growth rate for each segment. Detailed understanding of competitive scenario across various regions is gained using these insights. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of key market players operating in the global gesture recognition industry. Business overview and recent developments of each market player are highlighted in the research along with financial segments. These insights assist to determine various strategies for growth such as collaborations, agreements, expansion, and partnerships.In addition, it also helps market players determine competitive scenario and take necessary steps to gain competitive edge. Key market players analyzed in the research are Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corporation, OMRON Corporation, Infineon Technologies AG, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., Elliptic Laboratories AS, Cognitec Systems GmbH, GestureTek, Inc., and SoftKinetic SA. The research offers detailed insights on the industry to help market players, stakeholders, VPs, and investors devise strategies for the future to gain strong position in the industry.Inquire for Purchasing Report:Table of Content for Gesture Recognition Industry1. Executive summary1.1. Key Findings1.2. Market Attractiveness and Trend analysis1.3. Competitive Landscape and recent industry development analysis (2014-2016)2. Introduction2.1. Report Description2.2. Scope and Definitions2.3. Research Methodology3. Market landscape3.1. Growth Drivers3.1.1. Impact Analysis3.2. Restrains and Challenges3.2.1. Impact Analysis3.3. Porters Analysis3.3.1. Bargaining power of buyers3.3.2. Bargaining power of suppliers3.3.3. Threat of substitutes3.3.4. Industry rivalry3.3.5. Threat of new entrants3.4. Global Gesture Recognition Market shares Analysis, 2014-2025Continue to Full Report ToC:About ProgressiveThe company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsAntviews Global, Serve No. 721/1Flat No 404, Sudhanshu Society,Shastri Road, Near Kalavati Mandir,Fatak Baug, Pune 411 030Us: + 1-888-906-9222GMT: + 35-376-680-1176help@progressivemarkets.com
Global Metal Caps Market Research Report 2017 - Technocap, Mckernan, WestRock, Qorpak, Mocap, Manaksia, Alpha Packaging

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Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Metal Caps in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Metal Caps market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingCrown HoldingsGlobal Closure SystemsO.BerkPelliconiSilganAlpha PackagingFontana ManufacturersGuala ClosuresManaksiaMetal ClosuresMocapNippon closuresPhoenix closuresReynold Group HoldingsSMYPCSonocoTechnocapTri-SureWestRockQorpakMckernanRequest a Sample Report Copy for Overall Market Insights @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoAluminumAluminum alloyTINTIN PLATEOtherOn 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 Metal Caps for each application, includingFood IndustryBeverage IndustryPharmaceutical IndustryOtherExplore Full Research Report with TOC @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Metal CapsFigure Global Metal Caps Production (K MT) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Metal Caps Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of AluminumTable Major Manufacturers of AluminumFigure Product Picture of Aluminum alloyTable Major Manufacturers of Aluminum alloyFigure Product Picture of TINTable Major Manufacturers of TINFigure Product Picture of TIN PLATETable Major Manufacturers of TIN PLATETable of Contents1 Metal Caps Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Metal Caps1.2 Metal Caps Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Metal Caps Segment by Application1.4 Global Metal Caps Market by Region (2012-2022)2 Global Metal Caps Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Metal Caps Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Metal Caps Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Metal Caps Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Metal Caps Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Metal Caps Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Metal Caps Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Metal Caps Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Metal Caps Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Metal Caps Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Centralized RAN Market 2017 Conclusion, Key Trends & Strategic Recommendations

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Latest report on C-RAN Market indicates that mobile operators are expected to invest nearly $9 Billion in Centralized Radio Access Network Ecosystem infrastructure rollouts by the end of 2017. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 24% between 2017 and 2020. These investments will include spending on RRHs (Remote Radio Heads), BBUs (Baseband Units) and fronthaul transport network equipment.Complete report is available atThe C-RAN (Centralized Radio Access Network) Ecosystem: 2017  2030  Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts report presents an in-depth assessment of the C-RAN ecosystem including enabling technologies, key trends, market drivers, challenges, standardization, regulatory landscape, deployment models, operator case studies, opportunities, future roadmap, value chain, ecosystem player profiles and strategies. The report also presents forecasts for C-RAN infrastructure investments from 2017 till 2030. The forecasts cover 3 individual submarkets and 6 regions.Centralized RAN or C-RAN is an architectural shift in RAN (Radio Access Network) design, where the bulk of baseband processing is centralized and aggregated for a large number of distributed radio nodes. In comparison to standalone clusters of base stations, C-RAN provides significant performance and economic benefits such as baseband pooling, enhanced coordination between cells, virtualization, network extensibility, smaller deployment footprint and reduced power consumption.Request for discount atInitially popularized by Japanese and South Korean mobile operators, C-RAN technology is beginning to gain momentum worldwide with major tier 1 operators  including Verizon Communications, AT&T, Sprint, China Mobile, Vodafone, TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), Orange and Telefonica  seeking to leverage the benefits of centralized baseband processing.Forecast SegmentationSubmarket Segmentation - RRHs (Remote Radio Heads), BBUs (Baseband Units), FronthaulAir Interface Technology Segmentation - 3G & LTE, 5G NR (New Radio)Network Architecture Segmentation - Non-Virtualized C-RAN, vRAN/Cloud RANDeployment Model Segmentation  Indoor, OutdoorCell Size Segmentation - Small Cells, MacrocellsFronthaul Transport Network Technology Segmentation - Dedicated Fiber, WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing), OTN (Optical Transport Network), PON (Passive Optical Network), Ethernet, Microwave, Millimeter Wave, G.Fast & OthersOrder copy of report atList of Companies Mentioned3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), 3Roam, 6WIND, Accelink Technologies Corporation, Accelleran, Actelis Networks, ADLINK Technology, ADTRAN, ADVA Optical Networking, Advantech, Airspan Networks, Alpha Networks, Alphabet, Altiostar Networks, Amarisoft, America Movil Group, Anritsu Corporation, APRESIA Systems, Aquantia Corporation, Argela, ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses, Japan), Aricent, ARM Holdings, ARRIS International, Artemis Networks, Artesyn Embedded Technologies, Artiza Networks, ASOCS, ASTRI (Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute), AT&T, ATIS (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, United States), Aviat Networks, Axxcelera Broadband Wireless, Azcom Technology, Baicells Technologies, Benetel, Blu Wireless Technology, BluWan, Boomsense/Bangxun Technology, BridgeWave Communications, Broadband Forum, Broadcom, BT Group, CableFree (Wireless Excellence), Cadence Design Systems, Calix, Cambium Networks, Casa Systems, Cavium, CBNL (Cambridge Broadband Networks Ltd.), CCI (Communication Components, Inc.), CCS (Cambridge Communication Systems), CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), cellXica, Ceragon Networks, CEVA, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Ciena Corporation, Cisco Systems, Clavister, Cobham Wireless, Coherent Logix, Collision Communications, Comcores, CommAgility, CommScope, Contela, Corecess, Coriant, Corning, Dali Wireless, DASAN Zhone Solutions, Datang Mobile, Dell Technologies, DragonWave, eASIC Corporation, E-Band Communications and 200 more.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
Oxygen Free Copper Market Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Oxygen free copper, also known as oxygen free high conductivity copper, is a group of wrought copper alloys that are refined through electrolytic process. Oxygen free copper exhibit high conductivity. Electrolytic refining is done to lower the oxygen content to or below 0.001%. Oxygen free copper is not only highly conductive, but also exhibits high chemical purity. Therefore, it is highly valued and widely used in industrial applications such as manufacture of semiconductors and superconductors and high vacuum devices such as particle accelerators that involve deposition of plasma. The usage of oxygen free materials in such applications is important, as presence of oxygen or any other impurity leads to undesirable chemical reactions with the materials present in the surroundings. . Wires made up of oxygen free copper exhibit higher conductivity, better ability to transfer low frequency sounds, and durability etc. Therefore, oxygen free copper is extensively used in the manufacture of high end audio-visual systems. This includes manufacture of speaker wires, audio-video connector cable assemblies, and amplifier wires. Growth in automobile and electronic goods industries in developing countries in Asia Pacific and need for infrastructural development in underdeveloped areas are some of the factors driving the oxygen free copper market. At the same time, copper wires possess a few disadvantages such as poor binding properties and higher chances of electrical interference leading to unclear audio signals. This gives rise to the need for substitutes for better and more efficient options. Furthermore, the high cost of copper is the major disadvantage. As a result, fiber optic cables are being used as substitutes in semiconductor devices.Obtain Report Details @:Based on application, the market for oxygen free copper can be segmented into electronics & electrical semiconductors, superconductor matrices, vacuum tubes, glass to metal seals, and power substations. The electronics & electrical conductors industry is anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period primarily due to the increasing demand for electronic semiconductor devices in developing countries of Asia Pacific such as China, Japan, and India owing to factors such as rising disposable income, improvement in standard of living of the people in these countries, and industrial and infrastructural development in the region. This is one of the key factors boosting the electronics & electrical semiconductors segment of the oxygen free copper market.Geographically, the oxygen free copper market can be divided into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is anticipated to dominate the market for oxygen free copper during the forecast period due to the growth in automotive and electronic goods industries in the region. Oxygen free copper is employed extensively in these industries. Industrial, economic, and infrastructural development leads to rise in disposable income and improvement in standard of living of the people. This is a prominent factor augmenting the automotive and electronic goods industries in the Asia Pacific region, thereby propelling the demand for oxygen free copper.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @:Key players operating in the oxygen free copper market include Copper Braid Products, Farmers Copper Ltd., Citizen Metalloys Ltd., Hussey Copper Ltd., Haviland Enterprises Inc., Heyco Metals Inc., and Millard Wire & Specialty Strip Co.A significant growth is anticipated in the electronics and electrical semiconductor industry in Asia Pacific region, in the near future. Countries such as China, Japan and India of the Asia Pacific region, are an attractive market for oxygen free copper during the period of forecast.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. 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Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Report 2017- HP, Asus, SONY

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Geographically, this report split Asia-Pacific into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of 2-In-1 Laptop for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), includingChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanIndiaSoutheast AsiaAustraliaGet sample report @Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop market competition by top manufacturers/players, with 2-In-1 Laptop sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingHPAsusSONYDellAcerLenovo...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 intoScreen Size 10.1 InchesScreen Size 13.3 InchesScreen Size 14.0 InchesScreen Size 15.6 InchesOther SizeOn 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 2-In-1 Laptop for each application, includinPersonnalCommercialFill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Table of ContentsAsia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Report 20171 2-In-1 Laptop Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of 2-In-1 Laptop1.2 Classification of 2-In-1 Laptop by Product Category1.2.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.3 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Personnal1.3.3 Commercial1.4 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market by Region1.4.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop 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)2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop (Volume) by Application2.4 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3 China 2-In-1 Laptop (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 China 2-In-1 Laptop Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 China 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 China 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 China 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 China 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.3 China 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.3 Japan 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of 2-In-1 LaptopFigure Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume (K Units) by Type (2012-2022)Figure Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Figure Other Size Product PictureFigure Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Sales (K Units) by Application (2012-2022)Figure Asia-Pacific Sales Market Share of 2-In-1 Laptop by Application in 2016Figure Personnal ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in PersonnalFigure Commercial ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CommercialFigure Asia-Pacific 2-In-1 Laptop Market Size (Million USD) by Region (2012-2022)Figure China 2-In-1 Laptop Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)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:
Facial Care Market Growth Expands with Increasing Availability of Modern Distribution Channels Accross Globe

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Facial care market in Asia-Pacific is the largest and fastest growing market under the Skin Care Market. Facial care comprises of almost 70% of the skin care market revenue and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. This growth can be attributed to introduction of diversified products such as anti-ageing creams, BB creams, moisturizers, skin toners, cleansing wipes, masks & serums, and others. This has given consumers wider discretions and thus helped increase the penetration level of personal and facial care products. The market growth is further augmented by increased awareness about the facial care products and the entry of new multinationals, which has made facial care products more easily visible and accessible for the consumer.Download PDF Brochure For Industry Insight:The Asia-Pacific facial care market is primarily driven by the growing popularity of multi-functional products, and widening horizon of distribution network and channels. Additionally, growing demand for fairness products, increased focus on advertising, and consumer life style changes, are some of the identifiable factors supporting the growth of the facial care market in the Asia-Pacific region during the forecast period. The growing online retailing and the regular introduction of new product segments especially for men consumer group, are serving as new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific facial care market.Driven by impact of all the above-mentioned factors, the Asia-Pacific facial care market is expected to record growth at a CAGR of 6.9% during the period 2013 to 2019. The market is dominated by China owing to the huge population size and economic prosperity of the nation which directly affects the consumption demand.Of the different product types, skin whitening and anti-ageing constituted the largest segment in 2012. The fairness cream market in Asia-Pacific is experiencing strong demand due to enhanced awareness driven by larger penetration of media and also due to rise in consumer disposable income. The fairness cream market is poised for further growth aided by the increase in organized retailing and growing demand from the mens segment. Mens consumer group segment is expected to grow at the fastest growth rate from 2013 to 2019. The shift in trend can be attributed to reasons such as men becoming savvy consumers of skin care, and seeking ways to look and feel better. Among the retail distribution channels, non store-based retailing is expected to grow at the fastest growth rate due to the increasing internet penetration and the social networking sites where the manufacturers put their advertisements of their products.Out of the four major countries of Asia Pacific considered in the report, namely  China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and Oceania (New Zealand and Australia). China holds majority of the market share followed by Japan and India. Many Chinese consumers prefer Western Luxury brands, and a youthful beauty-driven consumer demographic is fuelling demand for skin care products.Browse Report@Large multinational players dominate the Asia-Pacific facial care market. Dominant players are participating in mergers and acquisitions to maintain their position in the market. Key Asia-Pacific players active in the facial care market are LOreal S.A, Unilever Ltd., and Shiseido Co. Ltd., The Procter and Gamble Company, Estee Lauder Company Ltd., Johnson and Johnson Ltd., Kose Corporation, and Kao Corporation among others.About Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation 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:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
2022 EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market Analysis and Forecasts New Research Report

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EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market - Premium Insight of Latest ReportA retractor is a surgical instrument with which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The two are each available in many shapes, sizes, and styles. The general term retractor usually describes a simple handheld steel tool possessing a curved, hooked, or angled blade fitted with a comfortable handle, that when in place maintains the desired position of a given region of tissue. These simple retractors may be handheld, clamped in situ, or suspended at the end of a robotic arm. Retractors can also be self-retaining and not need to be held once inserted by having two or more opposing blades or hooks which are separated via spring, ratchet, worm gear or some other method and pull on opposite sides of a wound.Technological advancements have benefited many industries and companies so far and the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market is not an exception. The Wound Retractor Market is expected to flourish in the next coming years.The report, titled EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market defines about its present scenario and briefs readers about its products, applications, and specifications. The research lists key companies operating in this EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Market and also highlights the key changing trends adopted by the companies to maintain their dominance. By using SWOT analysis and Porters five force analysis tools, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of key companies are mentioned in the report. All leading players in this EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Market are profiled with details such as product types, business overview, sales, manufacturing base, competitors, applications, and specifications.For a detailed competitive analysis, the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market is segmented on the basis of region, application, and product type. By region, the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market is divided into Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Key companies are focusing on spreading their products and services across various regions. Additionally, acquisitions and mergers from some of the leading organizations are on the cards in the near future. Efforts are being taken by most of the companies to improve their research and development activities to introduce innovations. Governments of many nations are also contributing towards the growth of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Market by increasing their funding. All these factors are predicted to propel the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market.Marketing strategies and Marketing channels adopted by key companies are highlighted in this report. Companies are focusing on improving direct & indirect Marketing strategies, develop various Marketing channels, brand strategies, and pricing strategies. With this, the key companies will get a chance to focus on adopting the new trends and innovations in Wound Retractor Market. Additionally, by merging with startups, leading companies are aiming to maintain their dominance in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Market.Innovations have helped key companies to introduce new ways of developing and advancing this Market. With the development and the introduction of tools, more concepts are able to create growth opportunities in the Market. Factor such as risks and technological progress are also highlighted in the report. Importance is given to changing consumer needs and customer preferences. The analysts also focus on changing trends in a political and economic environment that might affect the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Market. As per the findings of the report, the changing rules and regulations of governments of many nations are predicted to affect the growth of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Wound Retractor Market over the forecast period. However, changing strategies and new product developments are predicted to contribute towards the growth of the Market.Get Sample Copy of This Report:Complete report available at:About Research n Reports:Research N Reports is a new age Market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven Market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, Market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current Market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)
Alopecia Treatment Market in APAC Region to Increase at a CAGR of 6.6%

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In the report, the Asia-Pacific alopecia treatment market is analyzed on the basis of, type of alopecia, treatment type, and end user. On the basis of the type of alopecia, the overall market has been segmented into alopecia areata, alopecia totalis, and alopecia universalis. Topical drugs (creams, oils, lotions, gels, shampoos, and foam), oral drugs, injectable (platelet rich plasma therapy, steroid, and injectable fillers), hair transplant services and low-level laser therapy form the basis of treatment type. By end user segment, the market has been segmented into hospitals, dermatology and trichology clinics, home care settings, and aesthetic clinics. In the overall market, oral solid dosage formulations are expected to witness increased acceptance owing to ease of consumption by patients in Asia Pacific. Accordingly, oral drugs segment is anticipated to witness an increase in value from US$ 556.6 Mn in 2016 to US$ 1,005.1 Mn by the end of 2024.According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Asia Pacific Alopecia Treatment Market: Industry Analysis and Forecast (20162024), revenue from the Asia Pacific alopecia treatment market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period 2016 - 2024.Browse Complete Report @Rising global demand for effective hair loss treatment medications especially oral drugs is the prime driver of the market. Oral hair loss treatment drugs are gaining popularity as they help in maintaining patient-safety through reduced number of medicine dosages, but with increased drug efficacy. However, changing lifestyle along with the increase in stress level among working class population, cosmeceutical drug manufacturers focusing on expanding their hair treatment and scalp treatment product line, and cytokine therapy gaining momentum for alopecia treatment are other factors that expected to fuel the market growth for alopecia treatment market over the forecast period.Patent expiry of major blockbuster drugs resulting in market exclusivity for some brands and various side effects associated with the hair loss treatments is expected to hamper the overall market growth. Some of the side effects such as allergies, depression, and chances of permanent sexual dysfunctions. Other market deterrents include the limited efficacy of the hair loss treatment drugs and lack of reimbursement facilities for hair loss treatments services, such as laser treatments.A sample of this report is available upon request @Based on countries, the market has been divided into China, Japan, Australia & New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Rest of Asia-Pacific. Developed pharmaceuticals markets such as the China and Japan are expected to emerge as the main sourcing markets.This report assesses trends by type of alopecia, treatment type, end user, and countries; to offer analytical insights about the potential demand emerging for particular alopecia treatments in specific regions. China is estimated to dominate the alopecia treatment market accounting for maximum revenue share of the overall market by end of 2016. By 2024 end, China and Japan markets are expected to account for over three-fifth share of the Asia Pacific alopecia treatment market revenue. In terms of market share by value, China is estimated to retain its dominant position, registering a CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period.Request to view table of content @Some key companies covered in this report include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Inc., Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd., Cipla Ltd., Cellmid Ltd., The Himalaya Drug Company, Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd, Shiseido Co., Ltd., and Zhangguang 101 Science & Technology Co., Ltd. These companies are primarily focused on enhancing their product portfolio through research and development and the introduction of innovative and cost-effective advanced manufacturing procedures in order to gain higher market share and to strengthen their respective positions in the Asia Pacific 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:
Global Aerospace Composites Market 2021: Complete Research Report

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Market Research Future published a Cooked-research report on Global Aerospace Composites Market Research Report- Forecast to 2021  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2021.Global Aerospace Composites Market by Types (Glass Fiber, Carbon Fiber and Aramid Fiber), by Applications (Commercial and Military) and by Geography- Forecast To 2021Market Synopsis of Aerospace Composites MarketThe Global Aerospace Composites market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% during 2016-2021. This growth is driven due to significant demand for aircraft weight reduction and fuel efficiency and high corrosion resistance.As per the MRFR analysis, demand for aircraft weight reduction and fuel efficiency and reduction in need for MRO necessity are one of the key drivers for global aerospace composites market. The challenges associated with the market are the complex design process and high acquisition and operation cost of autoclave systems.APAC is leading the global aerospace composites market with 40% market share. With the growing procurement of next generation aircraft and increased backlog, the region is likely to outpace other in the forecast period.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players Cytec Industries, Hexcel, Koninklijke Ten Cate (TenCate), Mitsubishi Rayon, Owens Corning, Hartzell Aerospace, Hyosung, Kaman, SGL Group Teijin Aramid.Study Objectives of Aerospace Composites Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Aerospace Composites Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyse the Global Aerospace Composites 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- 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 types and applications To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Aerospace Composites MarketBrowse Full Report Details @Key Findings The APAC is predictable to lead the aerospace composite market in 2021 with a market share of 43% The carbon fiber segment is predictable to lead the aerospace composite market in 2021 with a share of around 50%, followed by glass fiber and aramid fiberThe reports also cover country level analysis:Americas (North & Latin) US Canada Brazil OthersEurope Germany France Italy Spain U.K Rest of EuropeAsia  Pacific China India Japan Australia/New Zealand Rest of Asia-PacificMiddle East & Africa UAE, Kuwait Israel Rest of Middle East & AfricaGet a Discount @The market report for Aerospace Composites 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 Aerospace Composites Market Research Report- Forecast to 2021 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
Magnificent Expansion of Disaster Recovery as a Service Market 2023: USD 21 Billion, at CAGR of 44% Worldwide

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Market Research Future published a research report on Disaster Recovery as a Service Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Disaster Recovery as a Service Market, By Service Type (Real-Time Replication, Backup, Data Security), By Service Provider (Cloud, Managed, Telecom & Communications), By Deployment (Private, Public, Hybrid) - Forecast 2023Market Synopsis of Disaster Recovery as a Service Market:Market Scenario:Disaster recovery as a service is basically replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers by a third party to provide failover in the event of a manmade or a natural catastrophe. It is cost effective and provides faster data recovery along with great flexibility.Major forces driving the growth of disaster recovery as a service market are the increasing adoption of cloud based solutions and speedy data recovery. It provides, reliable, scalable and secure solutions and ensures the continuity of business even in case of disaster.The disaster recovery as a service market has been segmented on the basis of service type, service provider, deployment and vertical. The service type is further bifurcated into real time replication, backup, data security and professional services. Out of which, the professional services segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to increasing business needs like training and consultation, support and maintenance and system integration. While the backup service is expected to hold the largest market share in the service type segment. Backup service segment plays a significant role by proving reliable and scalable solutions for disaster recovery.The global disaster recovery as a service market is expected to grow at approx. USD 21 Billion by 2023, at 44% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players: Amazon Web Services (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Sungard Availability Services (U.S.), VMware Inc. (U.S.), Cable & Wireless Communications (U.K.), Cisco Systems (U.S.), HP Enterprises Company (U.S.), Treo Information Technology (Turkey) NTT Communications (Japan) among othersStudy Objectives of Disaster Recovery as a Service Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the disaster recovery as a service market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. 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 perspective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segmentation on the basis of service type, service provider, deployment and vertical. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for disaster recovery as a service To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the disaster recovery as a serviceSegments:Disaster recovery as a service market can be segmented on the basis of following:By Service Type Real Time Replication Backup Data Security Professional Services Training & Consulting Support & Maintenance System IntegrationBy Service Provider Cloud Service Provider Managed Service Provider Telecom & Communication Service Provider OthersBy Deployment Public Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid CloudBy Vertical BFSI Manufacturing Healthcare Retail Media IT & Telecommunication Government OthersBrowse Full Report Details @Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of disaster recovery as a service market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in disaster recovery as a service market in North America attributes to the technical advancements and increasing investments in cloud based solutions in that region.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Disaster Recovery as a Service Market Research Report- Global Forecast 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
Bismuth Market to Increase at a CAGR of 6.7% by 2024

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The global bismuth market is expected to reach US$ 400.0 Mn expanding at a CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period (20162024). Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the largest market for bismuth, with a market share of 46% in overall sales by the end of 2024.Global demand for bismuth is expected to grow at a Y-o-Y growth rate of 4.9% by 2016 end. China is a major consumer, producer, and exporter of bismuth and is anticipated to maintain its dominance in the global market in the near future. The country is estimated to account for 27.0% share of overall bismuth sales by the end of 2016. The increasing use of bismuth oxide in growing manufacturing industries is anticipated to drive consumption in the region. The rapid growth of the automobile end-use industry is expected to drive further market growth.Browse Complete Report @Increasing environmental regulations regarding lead usage in various end-use industries would drive demand for bismuth and bismuth derived compounds. Stringent regulations and initiatives by leading manufacturers in end-use industries to phase out lead production is expected to spur bismuth market growth. Major paints & coatings manufacturers such as BASF SE and PPG Inc. are actively offering bismuth-based products replacing their lead based portfolio, in order to provide environmentally-friendly product offerings.A sample of this report is available upon request @The bismuth market in APAC is anticipated to witness higher growth rates due to increasing manufacturing activities in China and India. Demand in Europe is also anticipated to be above average due to stringent lead restricting directives in the region, while demand in North America, Latin America, and MEA is expected to be moderate. Declining lead production due to regulations and declining consumption of lead-acid batteries is anticipated to be a major restricting factor for the global market. The increasing use of bismuth alternatives in pharmaceuticals and alloys is also a major obstacle to market growth.Request to view table of content @Hunan Jinwang Bismuth Industry Co. Ltd., Hunan Bismuth Co. Ltd., and Nui Phao Mining Company Limited are some of the top producers of bismuth, with a cumulative annual production capacity of 11,000 metric tons.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:
Insomnia Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2026

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Global Insomnia Market: Brief AccountThe world insomnia market is envisaged to recoup promisingly from its drowsy growth in the past with a number of worthwhile and well-timed opportunities to take advantage of. Insomnia drugs could find an application in the treatment of Parkinson and Alzheimers disease as sedatives. The younger population can increase the global demand as intensively as the geriatric group with rising stress levels and persisting diseases such as cancer at the forefront. The launch of new products such as E-2006 by Eisai Co. Ltd. and Belsomra by Merck & Co. Inc. is forecasted to stimulate the market growth handsomely.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Insomnia Market:The global insomnia market could be segmented according to over-the-counter (OTC) treatment, non-pharmacological treatments, and pharmacological treatments, where each category is evaluated to contribute their part toward the global growth.The researchers who have authored this report prioritize painstaking primary and secondary research to compile statistical data and other analytics of the global insomnia market. Players in the market can gain a decisive insight into the guidelines required to extend their portfolio in the right direction and achieve a tangible success in the market.Global Insomnia Market: Key TrendsWith the two premier categorizations of the worldwide insomnia market into play, viz. non-pharmacological treatments and pharmacological treatments, manufacturers can expect lucrative prospects from both the segments. The cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) listed under non-pharmacological treatments extends the ability of physicians to heal patients or understand their health issues in a comprehensive manner. Such treatments including hypnotherapy can be employed by doctors to take multiple approaches during the treatment of their patients. There are other treatments such as aroma music, bright light, biofeedback, acupuncture, and yoga therapies which could contribute to the growth of the non-pharmacological treatments market.Likewise, pharmacological treatments are prognosticated to lay a strong platform for the global insomnia market to find more growth prospects on the back of key segments such as OTC sleep aids and prescription sleep aids.The international insomnia market could go through a downtime period due to inferior diagnosis rate, below par patient compliance, patent erosion, and ascendancy of generic products. Howbeit, the surging incidences of insomnia and unfulfilled medical needs, for instance, the inefficiency of central nervous system (CNS) drugs, are foreseen to compensate for the probable decline in growth.Global Insomnia Market: Geographical StudyFor the most part of the share in world insomnia market, the Americas including North America are foretold to showcase extensive dominance while offering some groundbreaking opportunities for global players. In the U.S., the OTC treatment market is anticipated to register a higher CAGR to address its growth in the insomnia pharmacological treatment sector. The OTC sleep aids market can be classified into valerian roots, melatonin, and antihistamines. An increasing number of patients are convinced to adopt OTC sleep aids because of the infamous side effects caused by prescription drugs and low prices and easy availability of OTC treatments. The U.S. insomnia market is predicted to gain support from the rising consumption of valerian roots and melatonin, owing to their crucial advantages such as decreased stress levels and less side effects.The Americas could be followed by Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on account of the augmenting interest in spreading health awareness through various programs and inflating geriatric population. The insomnia market in Asia Pacific is also looked upon as a decent opportunity for vendors to capitalize on with the elevating disposable income and upsurge in the occurrence of chronic diseases.Request for the Sample Report:Global Insomnia Market: Top CompaniesSome of the prominent companies functioning in the international insomnia market are Purdue Pharma L.P., Pernix Therapeutics, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Sanofi, Pfizer, Inc., Meda Consumer Healthcare Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., and Eisai, Co. Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About 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:
Global Payment Management Software Market 2017 Manufacturers - Zoho, Astral Technologies, NetSuite, AvidXchange, Canopus EpaySuite

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The report studies Payment Management Software in Global market Professional Survey 2017 : Size, Share, Trends, Industry Growth, Opportunity, Application, Production, Segmentation, Cost Structure, Company Profile, Product Picture and Specifications during the Forecast period by 2022The report firstly introduced the Payment Management Software basics: definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain overview; industry policies and plans; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Download Sample Report @Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2017 through 2022. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for Automated Liquid Handling markets. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based on public domain information.Scope of the report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global Payment Management Software market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new installations.Top ManufacturersTextura (Oracle)Bottomline TechnologiesZohoAstral TechnologiesNetSuiteAvidXchangeFusebillCanopus EpaySuiteTipaltiStripePaySimpleEBizChargeFior Markets report, Global Payment Management Software Market 2017-2022, 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.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:United StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaGet Full Report With TOC @Key questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Payment Management Software Market Research Report Split by TypeiPhoneAndroidWeb-basedPayment Management Software Market Research Report Split by ApplicationFreelancersLarge EnterprisesMid Size BusinessesPublic AdministrationsSmall BusinessesReasons To Buy- What was the size of the Global Payment Management Software market by value in 2016?- What will be the size of the Global Payment Management Software market in 2022?- What factors are affecting the strength of competition in the Global Payment Management Software market?- How has the market performed over the last five years?- What are the main segments that make up the global's Payment Management Software market?RELATED POST:The report has put special emphasis on the market share and size of global industry, owing to their large scale share in the current and upcoming market of Payment Management Software. The industry analysis have also been done to examine the impact of various factors and understand the overall attractiveness of the industry.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.ABOUT USFior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.Contact UsMark StoneSales ManagerOffice - 102, Sanskriti Aspirations,Near Post 91, Baner Road,Pune, MH, India - 411045Phone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Hemostasis Diagnostics Market Synopsis and Outlook Based on Domain and End User Application- Forecast to 2024

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Hemostasis, the bodys normal physiological response to stop bleeding after a vascular injury, is a key procedure in the first line of action attempted post an injury, by the body itself or by medical respondents. Preventing significant loss of blood is vital for the survival of a patient, making hemostasis the focus of widespread research and study. Owing to the critical nature of the procedure, the hemostasis products market has gained a prominent position in the field of medicine and health care.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Hemostasis Diagnostics Market:Rising global prevalence of hemophilia A and B, the most common inherited bleeding disorders, significant surge in a variety of surgeries and trauma patients, and increasing use of recombinant products are the factors likely to drive the hemostasis diagnostics market in the near future. The rapid rate of introduction of cost effective and biodegradable products in the global market is also aiding the growth of the market. Growth across cost-sensitive emerging markets is essentially due to easy availability of cost-effective products. However, saturation of the global hemostasis market and high cost structures of advanced hemostasis products are hampering the growth of the market.The hemostasis diagnostics market has been segmented based on product type, end-user, and region. Based on product type, the hemostasis diagnostics market has been segmented into analyzers, reagents, and consumables. Analyzers can be further segmented into fully automated analyzers and semi-automated analyzers. Accuracy of hematology analyzers has been enhanced by automation of systems and use of cell surface marker labels. Automated analyzers function by sampling the blood and classifying cell populations by quantification and description. This may be carried out using both electrical and optical techniques. Sophisticated hematology blood cell analyzers are enabling precise disease diagnosis at an early stage. Fully-automated systems compact in size, easy to use, providing networking solutions, and efficient data management have increased adoption of hematology analyzers. In terms of end-user, the hemostasis diagnostics market has been segmented into hospitals, clinical testing laboratories, research & academic institutes, and others.Hematology instruments and reagents continue to maintain strong position in the health care industry. Market players are making significant investment in product development to offer user-friendly, more sophisticated, efficient, and accurate analyzers to meet the demands of hospitals and clinics. Automated systems play a crucial role in transfusion medicines and facilitate screening of blood donors as well as quality control of blood products.Geographically, the hemostasis diagnostics market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is likely to dominate the global hemostasis diagnostics market owing to the rising installed instrument base leading to higher sales of reagents and support services in the U.S. Beckman Coulter is the market leader in hematology analyzers in the U.S.; however, it faces continuous competition from Sysmex products. The hemostasis diagnostics market in Europe is expected to be driven by steady rise in geriatric population which would boost demand for hemostasis. The vast and continuously rising set of under-served population suffering from bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, especially across developing economies such as India, is expected to boost the adoption of hemostasis products in Asia Pacific. Emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil are registering significant growth due to increasing population, rise in health care expenditure and higher affordability, economic development, and improving technical capabilities by these countries.Request for the Sample Report:Major players operating in the hemostasis diagnostics market include Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Grifols, S.A, Alere, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Siemens Healthineers, and Beckman Coulter, Inc.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:
Transfusion Diagnostics Market Projected to Grow at a Steady CAGR during Forecast Period

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Blood transfusion is a process of receiving blood products or blood into the circulatory system intravenously. Blood transfusion is used in different medical conditions for replacement of lost component in the blood. Earlier blood transfusion included whole blood; however, modern medical methods can use only a component of blood for transfusion. Blood transfusion is among the most common procedures used for patients in hospitals. Hence, it becomes imperative that clinicians have knowledge about the appropriate administration of blood products, along with the symptoms, signs, and transfusion reaction management. Different blood products that can be transfused in the human body are red blood cells, platelets, plasma, albumin, and immunoglobulin preparations.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Transfusion Diagnostics Market:The blood transfusion process is as follows: blood sample is taken and sent to hospital laboratory where tests are performed to ensure that the donor blood is compatible with patient's blood. This process is called cross-matching. Risks associated with blood transfusion are viral infections, allergic reactions, fever, hemolytic reactions, and iron overload. Everything possible should be done to reduce these risks during blood transfusion. Hence, before blood transfusion, several steps are taken to ensure the quality of blood products, compatibility, and safety to the recipient. A definite diagnosis is required for both the donor and recipient blood. Red blood cells are the most common blood products to be transfused. One of the transfusion diagnostics incudes molecular blood group diagnostics. Molecular blood group diagnostic enables safer blood preservation and on-demand supply for patients who have antibodies against clinically relevant, rare or weak antigens. Blood group serology is another blood transfusion diagnostic used to avoid side effects caused due to administration of incorrect blood preservatives or immunizations.Based on type, the transfusion diagnostics market can be segmented into instruments, reagents and others. In terms of application, the market can be segmented into blood grouping, disease screening, and others. Based on distribution channel, the market can be segmented into hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, plasma fractionation facilities, military blood banks, and others. Blood banks and hospitals are the major segments of the transfusion diagnostics market.Increasing prevalence of diseases which require complete blood transfusion is one of the major drivers of the transfusion diagnostics market. Rising number of accidents due to road rash or other reasons which lead to blood loss is also likely to propel the market. Another factor driving the transfusion diagnostics market is the rising emergency situations for blood transfusions during surgical blood loss. Rising number of diseases due to improper blood transfusion without diagnosis of blood also fuels the growth of the transfusion diagnostics market. Alternative treatments and better techniques for blood transfusion are the major restraints of the transfusion diagnostics market. More advanced, efficient, and reliable transfusion diagnostic techniques are expected to create significant opportunities in the market.Geographically, the transfusion diagnostics market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the blood transfusion diagnostics market owing to increasing health care awareness and technological advancement in the region. Europe is the second largest market for blood transfusion diagnostics due to large geriatric population in the region. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market for blood transfusion diagnostics due to increasing adoption of improved health care technologies, emerging health care infrastructure, and rising accidents, diseases, and other emergency situations which require blood transfusion.Request for the Sample Report:Major players in the blood transfusion diagnostics market include Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Beckman Coulter, Quotient Limited, Novartis AG, Abbott Diagnostics, Diagast, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Immucor, Inc., BAG Health Care, DiaSorin, Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., Grifols, S.A., Hologic/Gen-Probe, Biokit, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Quidel Corporation.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:
Hospital Infectious Disease Testing Market: Workflow Evaluation and Comprehensive Assessment

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Hospital infectious disease testing is a procedure to identify hospital acquired/related infections. Hospital infections are among the most prominent challenges faced by health care delivery systems across the globe. Hospital infectious diseases are considered a significant cause of death globally. These are acquired while receiving health care treatment. Hospital infectious diseases tests are performed by health care professionals, especially clinical laboratory technicians, for the diagnosis of infections.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Hospital Infectious Disease Testing Market:Based on test type, the global hospital infectious disease testing market has been broadly segmented into:Urinary tract infection (UTI)Surgical site InfectionPneumoniaBloodstream infectionMRSAOthersThe UTI segment accounted for the major share of the hospital infectious disease testing market, followed by surgical site infections and pneumonia. Hospital infectious diseases are required to be closely monitored due to increase in antimicrobial resistance in some regions. Automated urine microscopy is the most preferred diagnostic tool adopted by clinical technicians for UTI. Prevalence of pneumonia and deaths associated with it are increasing gradually. Other hospital infections include cardiovascular, systemic, joint and bone, respiratory, and ENT (enteric) infections.The hospital infectious disease testing market has experienced strong growth in the last decade due to factors such as increased awareness about growth in the incidence of infections globally and development of innovative prevention and treatment solutions. Major factors driving the market are establishment of quality government guidelines and uniform code for prevention of hospital infectious diseases. Lack of funding and skilled manpower in developing countries and lack of stringent guidelines and framework to control the morbidity rate of hospital infections are restraining the hospital infectious disease testing market. Lack of controlling authorities and controlling programs in lesser developed regions is another major factor hampering market growth. Technological development of molecular diagnostics and passage of the Patient Care and Affordable Care Act in the U.S. are likely to offer significant opportunities in the market in the near future.Geographically, the global hospital infectious disease testing market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the market due to growing patient awareness, favorable initiatives taken by the federal government, and large number of market players based in the region. The hospital infectious disease testing market in Europe is mature due to presence of strong and active hospital infection control and prevention authorities and guidelines such as the NHS in the U.K. Moreover, Europe is considered the hub for the global geriatric population. It is observed that geriatrics are more prone to various infections. This is likely to increase demand in Europe. Asia Pacific is a lucrative market for hospital infectious disease testing products as the overall prevalence of the infections in this region is high. Moreover, stringent guidelines have been set for the prevention and control of such conditions in the health care infrastructure in this region. Countries such as China, India, Japan, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines are expected to be the major contributors to the hospital infectious disease testing market in Asia Pacific. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are considered the emerging markets for hospital infectious disease testing. This is attributed to increasing investment by governments for effective health care infrastructure in the region.Request for the Sample Report:Key players operating in the hospital infectious disease testing market include Abbott Laboratories, Alere, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (Life Technologies Corporation), Becton, Dickinson and Company, bioMerieux SA, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Hologic, Inc., Siemens Healthineers, Diatherix Laboratories, Inc., Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Cepheid, Inc., and QIAGEN.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:
Drug Rescue Market : Trends and Opportunities 2024

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Drug rescue is also termed as rescue medicines. These are given only when needed or in emergency cases. Drug which is given to counter or block the effect of other medicines are called as rescue medicines. Rescue medications are often used for asthma, in chemotherapy, in severe allergies, in epilepsy, etc. These are fast acting or quick acting medications. Rescue medicines are used in severe asthma attack, migraine attack, or in severe allergy reaction and help to save lives. In clinical trials, rescue medicines are given with a drug to control the alleviated symptoms of the study treatment or lack of disease efficiency. The effect of rescue drugs are not long lasting, but these quickly stop the symptoms of study drug.Read the Comprehensive Overview of Drug Rescue Market:The drug rescue market has been segmented based on drug class, indication, route of administration, and distribution channel. In terms of drug class, the market has been segmented into antiepileptics, analgesics, antinauseants, muscle relaxants, and bronchodilators.Based on indication, the drug rescue market has been categorized into asthma, migraine, epilepsy, cancer, hypertension, cardiac attack, and others. Rescue medicines prevent asthma attack quickly. Bronchodilators are the generally used medication in asthma. Bronchodilators help open the airways by dilating the bronchi and enable a patient to breathe more easily. Migraine is another medical condition where rescue medications are widely used. Migraine attacks are disabling and severe. Several over-the-counter or prescription medicines are available to stop a migraine attack. Ibuprofen or acetaminophen or drugs containing caffeine are the most common rescue medicines for migraine.Benzodiazepines are the most common rescue medicines for seizures or epilepsy attack. Benzodiazepine is a fast acting drug and starts work quickly once it gets into the bloodstream to prevent seizures. Benzodiazepines are available in different forms such chewing pills, oral tablet, or nasal sprays. The most common benzodiazepines used as rescue medications are diazepam, lorazepam, and midazolam. Intravenous treatment is given in hypertension and cardiac emergencies. These directly go into the bloodstream and 100% bioavailability can be achieved by intravenous route. Sodium nitroprusside, nitroglycerin, labetalol, and nicardipine are the commonly used drugs for hypertension.In terms of route of administration, the drug rescue market has been segmented into oral, parenteral, sublingual, nasal, and rectal. Nasal route is the widely used route of administration for asthma and epilepsy attacks. Drugs given through nasal route have fast effect. The smaller mist particles directly go in systemic circulation and act quickly. Intravenous route is given in severe conditions when other route of administration do not work.Based on distribution channel, the drug rescue market has been segmented into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, and online pharmacies. Retail pharmacies is widely used distribution channel as many over-the-counter rescue drugs are also available. Growth of the online pharmacies segment is likely to boost the market during the forecast period.In terms of region, the drug rescue market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is projected to account for the major share of the drug rescue market owing to increasing incidence of severe and chronic medical conditions. The rising geriatric population is also anticipated to boost the growth of the market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is the most progressive region for the drug rescue market due to increasing over-the-counter rescue medicines in the region.Major factor boosting the growth of this market include rising demand for quick treatment for severe medical conditions. However, the increasing side effects of rescue medicines is likely to restrain the drug rescue market.Request for the Sample Report:Major players in the drug rescue market are Bioneer Corporation, VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Teva Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd., Merck & Co., Inc., and UCB Group of Companies.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:
Worldwide Bismuth Market is required to saw a gigantic improvement of USD 302.39 Million by 2022 with CAGR of 4.15%

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Market Research Future adds new report of Global Bismuth Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentSynopsis of Bismuth MarketThe Global Bismuth is expected to witnessed a significant growth of 302.39 Million by 2022 with CAGR of 4.15% between 2016 and 2022Bismuth is a frangible metal with a pinkish shade and shining oxide showing refracting colors from yellow to blue. It is the best substitute of lead, tin & antimony. The sources of bismuth are bismite(Bi2O3), bismuthinite(Bi2S3) and (BiO)2CO3.H2O) minerals. Tasna & Bolivia are the only mines at china that produce bismuth from the bismuth ores. Bismuth market can be classified in given types such as- bismuth oxide, bismuth oxychloride-bioci, bismuth subnitrate, bismuth subcarbonate and bismuth aluminate The growing industries like pharmaceutical, cosmetics, construction industry particularly in Asia-Pacific and Middle East has boosted the global bismuth market over the forecasted period.Bismuth and most of its compounds are less toxic compared to other heavy metals like lead, antimony, etc. Bismuth metal is not considered toxic and poses minimum threat to the environment. The effects and fate of bismuth in the environment is these compounds generally have very low solubility so they should they should be handled carefully.Request a Sample Report @Market SegmentationThe market of Bismuth has segmented into by types, by applications and by region. By Type it is segmented into Bismuth Oxide, Bismuth oxychloride-BiOCI, Bismuth Subnitrate, Bismuth Subcarbonate and Bismuth Aluminate By Application it is segmented into Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, Construction Industry, Automotive Industry, Chemical Industry By Region segmented into North America , Europe, APAC and RoWStudy Objectives of Bismuth Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Bismuth Market To understand the supply and demand dynamics including supply and consumption concentration mapping To provide region level market analysis and future outlook for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countries To provide competitor positioning of the market To provide company profiling of major players in the market along with their production and capacity To provide regional trade analysis To evaluate historical market trends, patents and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements that are relevant to the marketBrowse Report Details @Key PlayersKey players of the global bismuth market are Hunan Jinwang Bismuth Industry Co. Ltd (China) Hunan YuTeng Nonferrous Metals Co. (China) Met-Mex Penoles S.A. de C.V. (Mexico) 5N Plus Inc. (U.S) Nui Phao Mining Company Ltd (China) BASF SE (Germany) Geotech Internation B. V. (Netherlands) Orrion Chemicals (Europe)Intended Audience Bismuth manufacturers Traders and distributors of bismuth Production Process industries Potential investors Raw material suppliers Nationalized laboratoryRegional AnalysisOn the basis of regions, the global bismuth market is segmented into key regions APAC, USA, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is estimated to be the dominating market in terms of value and volume, over the forecast period. Presence of large scale bismuth manufacturers in China is anticipated to boost the growth of the market. North America and Europe are expected to be the highest consumers of bismuth oxide.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Geographic AnalysisThe report covers brief analysis of geographical region such as:North America US CanadaEurope Germany France Italy Netherlands U.K. Rest of EuropeAPAC China Japan Rest of Asia-PacificRoW South America Middle East AfricaAbout 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 FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Circuit Breaker Market striking at 6.5% of CAGR from 2017  2027

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Market Research Future adds new report of Global Circuit Breaker Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentCircuit Breaker Global Market - OverviewCircuit breaker is basically a switching device which can be operated manually and automatically for controlling and protection of electrical power system respectively. As the modern power system deals with huge currents, the special attention should be given during designing of circuit breaker for safe interruption of arc produced during the operation of circuit breaker. Circuit breakers are preferred over fuses because fuses have to be replaced after each operation while a circuit breaker has to be just reset after each operation.According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global market of Circuit breaker is forecasted for a record breaking growth in terms of value and volume, with a striking 6.5% of CAGR during the forecasted period (2016  2027) thanks to the growing demand for the modular and packaged substation primarily across commercial and industrial end users which is providing the impetus to the growth of global circuit breakers market during the forecast timeframe.With the growing concern for safety in industries such as electric, telecommunication, electronic, and automotive, circuit breaker devices are growing in popularity. Additionally, rising implementation of numerous medium and large capacity renewable energy projects will stimulate Circuit Breakers Market growth favorably over the period of 2016 to 2027. Elevated replacement and development activities will enhance the electricity transmission capability worldwide and will also generate exponential revenue over coming timeframe. Shifting trend towards smart transmissions and distribution network as well as high investment in the development of digital substation will drive the circuit breakers Market greatly.Request a Sample Report @Circuit Breaker Global Market -SynopsisSF6 circuit breaker technology market valued immensely in 2015 and is anticipated to register a substantial rate of CAGR during 2016 to 2024. The growth can be attributed to the rising product demand, owing to significant features such as high dielectric strength and sufficient arc quenching capability. Vacuum based technology will register a considerable rate of CAGR in the recent future, due to its upsurge demand for the various high and medium voltage substation applications.Circuit Breaker Global Market - SegmentsCircuit Breaker Market can be segmented in to 4 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; Segmentation by Type: SF6, Vacuum Segmentation by Voltage: High Voltage, Medium Voltage, and Low Voltage Segmentation by End Users : Residential, Industrial and Commercial Segmentation by Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the WorldBrowse Report Details @Circuit Breaker Global Market - Key PlayersThe key strategies traced from the MRFR analysis of recent developments of the key players operating in the Circuit Breaker Market include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, collaboration, Acquisition and expansion. Numerous contracts have changed the terrain of the circuit Breaker market landscape. Companies were active in acquisitions for a multiple motives especially the low financing cost in multiple regions of the world, which meant that borrowing rates in the United States and European Central bank were almost nil.Identified and profiled in MRFR analysis some of the key players operating in the Circuit Breaker Market are: ABB Group (Switzerland) Siemens (Germany) Honeywell International Inc. (US) STAHL (Netherlands) Schurter Electronics (Switzerland) Holley Metering Ltd. (China) General Electric (US) Sensus (US)Circuit Breaker Global Market - Regional AnalysisThe North American Region is one of the leading markets for the Circuit Breaker Market mainly due to the rapid expansion in the production base in the recent times. Europe closely follows North America in leading the circuit breaker market. In 2015, US circuit breakers market valued immensely and will grow at a considerable rate of CAGR in the recent future, primarily driven by the favorable government support to improve the reliability and safety of the distribution and transmission network.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Developing economies like India, China and Indonesia are expected to grow at the fastest pace. Considering the geographical landscape, China circuit breakers market will witness a surpassing growth in terms of revenue by 2027, owing to the numerous on-going renovation and replacement activities of existing transmission and distribution activities. In addition, China Village Electrification Program and China Township Electrification Program will also contribute favorably toward the industry growth. India circuit breakers industry size is predicted to record a substantial rate of CAGR during 2016 to 2024. The futuristic electrification mission of the Government like One Nation, One Grid, and One Price will augment the regional share noticeably.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 FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Smart Thermostat Market to Record an Impressive Growth Rate of 23.4% by 2022 along with USD 3.5 Billion

Smart Thermostat Market

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Market Research Future adds new report of Smart Thermostat Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2022 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentNest Labs, Inc.(U.S.), Emerson Electric (U.S.), Schneider Electric (France), Honeywell International Inc.(U.S.), Carrier Corporation (U.S.), Tado (Germany), Ingersoll Rand (Ireland), Nortek, Inc. (France), Ecobee (Canada), Control4 Corporation (U.S.) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Market of Smart Thermostat and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Smart Thermostat Global Market  OverviewAccording to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Smart Thermostat is projected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period (2016  2022). The Market is forecasted to demonstrate a momentous growth by 2022; with a striking, double digit CAGR during the forecast period 2016-2022. The Global Smart Thermostats Market is expected to grow at USD ~3.5 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of ~23.4% during 2016-2022.Smart Thermostat can be defined as automation device utilized for controlling air conditioning and heating of HVAC system in commercial and residential buildings. These devices enable the users to control the heating and cooling of the system through both the technology that includes wired and wireless. The growing internet penetration and raising demand of IoT based services acts as a major driver for the growth of the Smart Thermostat market. Growing urbanization and raising demand of connected & smart homes has created an immense opportunity for the growth of the Smart Thermostat market.MRFR Analysis indicates that decrease in energy wastage and high energy saving features in these devices has led an awareness among consumers; eventually has boosted the market growth of Smart Thermostat devices. With the use of these smart technology enabled devices, the consumer can remotely control his homes temperature with the help of tablets, smartphones or desktop and among others. Moreover, the Smart Thermostat used for the residential applications helps to change the temperature with the help of a dial or a control panel.Request a Sample Report @On the other hand, the factors such as lack of infrastructure, high implementation cost and inconsistency among the wireless networks are some of the restraining factors for the growth of smart thermostats market. Besides Complex Programming of a Smart Thermostat is also anticipated to pose as a challenge to the market growth of smart thermostat. The software and touchscreen display panel can be tricky to learn. If one is not into reading a manual and figuring out all the buttons and software, however, this situation can be tackled with the help of a professional and by researching the desired options.Smart Thermostat Global Market SynopsisMany advancements have been made in thermostats since the electric tele-thermoscopes hit the market in 1883. Digital is yesterday's technology. The latest technology in cooling and heating your home or office is the smart thermostat.Geo-location fencing uses cell phone's location to adjust the temperature in home or office. When the phone leaves the area, the thermostat switches to the pre-set temperature, and when the phone is within a few miles from the location, it begins heating or cooling to your comfort level.Smart thermostats, when programmed and used properly for the space, lower energy consumption. Saving energy means reduced carbon emissions and a smaller carbon footprint. The Smart Thermostat minimize temperature swings by cutting on or off closer to the desired temperature than manual thermostats.Browse Report Details @Smart Thermostat Global Market  SegmentsThe Smart Thermostat Market can be segmented in to 4 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; Segmentation by Component: Comprises Display, Humidity Sensor, Temperature Sensor Segmentation by Deployment: Comprises Wired Technology, Wireless Technology Segmentation by Application: Comprises Residential, Commercial Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the WorldSmart Thermostat Global Market  Competitive AnalysisThe Smart Thermostat market appears to be highly competitive owing to the presence of several large and small key players accounting for a substantial market share. Emphasising upon new product development initiatives, and geographical expansion; Marketers compete based upon price, product differentiation and brand reinforcement. Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and technology launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position. Increasing collaborations and partnerships with utilities and energy agencies and technology experts have gained popularity in this industry. Some marketers are anticipated to offer products at an aggressive pricing option as a part of its highest rebound program. To sustain their market position and to gain the competitive edge, marketers are relying on their ability to identify and explore the emerging technological trends while developing and maintaining competitive products.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Smart Thermostat Global Market  Regional AnalysisThe regional analysis of Global Smart Thermostat Market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. The study indicates that North America region is dominating the Smart Thermostat Market owing to factors such as increased internet penetration and technological advancements. The study also indicates that cloud deployment and raising demand of energy efficient devices is a driving factor for Asia-Pacific region to grow significantly in the Smart Thermostat market by the forecast period. Apart from it the rising adoption of IT services is also driving the Smart Thermostat market.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comAbout 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.
Amphoteric Surfactant Market by Key Players, Growth, Regions and Forecast to 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Amphoteric Surfactant Market. The study, titled Amphoteric Surfactant Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Surfactants are chemical compounds that increase cleaning efficiency by wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, or modifying the lubricity of water-based compositions. They are used as detergents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, wetting agents, and dispersants. Surfactants are manufactured by using either of the two distinct feedstock: natural vegetable oils and petrochemicals. According to the composition of their polar head, surfactants are classified into anionic, nonionic, amphoteric, and cationic surfactants. Amphoteric surfactants are further classified into amphoteric acetates, betaines, and sultains. The use of amphoteric surfactants results in better performance in applications involving hard water media and high temperature environments. Amphoteric surfactants are used in diverse application areas such as personal care and household detergency, emulsification, and foaming. Rising demand in the personal care and home care industries is expected to drive the global surfactants market in the next few years.Browse Market Research Report @The major classes of amphoteric surfactants are betaines and propionates. These are prominently used in the personal care market. These two classes of amphoteric surfactants can be sub-segmented into cocamidopropyl betaine, dimer amido propyl betaine, cetyl betaine, lauric myristic amido betaine, lauramphopropionate, and coco betaines. Amphoteric surfactants have excellent properties such as good detergency, hard water compatibility, foaming properties, mild behavior, conditioning properties, and biodegradability. They cause less irritation to human skin and eyes, and are applicable in a wide pH range. Moreover, amphoteric surfactants are compatible with nonionic, anionic, and cationic surfactants and act as viscosity builders for anionic surfactant solutions. Due to all these properties, mild amphoteric surfactants are widely used as secondary surfactants in products such as shower gels, shampoos, liquid soaps, and foam baths. Furthermore, they are employed in liquid detergent products such as all-purpose cleaners, dishwashing liquids, and car cleaners.Asia Pacific is the largest market for amphoteric surfactants due to significant demand from India, China, Japan, and South Korea. Moreover, Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing market for amphoteric surfactants, considering the rising demand in countries in Southeast Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. North America and Europe are the second and third largest markets for amphoteric surfactants. These are likely to record dismal growth rates due to slow recovery from the economic slowdown. On the contrary, countries in the Rest of the World (RoW) such as Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria are witnessing strong signs of growth. Therefore, the region is expected to become the second fastest growing market for amphoteric surfactants across the globe.Major factors driving the global amphoteric surfactants market include steep rise in demand for skin-friendly surfactants in the personal care and home care industries. Amphoteric surfactants are skin-friendly chemical compounds; therefore, they are likely to replace conventional surfactants that may harm the skin. Applications of amphoteric surfactants are anticipated to rise significantly considering the ongoing research and development activities undertaken by key players in the industry. Development of a new and cost effective range of amphoteric surfactants and growing awareness regarding the use of sulfur-free personal care products are also anticipated to lead to a tremendous growth potential in the global market for less costly and more skin friendly surfactants.Major manufacturers of amphoteric surfactants include Clariant Corporation, Akzo Nobel N.V., Huntsman Corporation, BASF SE, Lubrizol Corporation, Evonik Industries AG, Stepan Company, and Lonza Spa.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Amphoteric Surfactant market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.The study is a source of reliable data on:Key market segments and sub-segmentsEvolving market trends and dynamicsChanging supply and demand scenariosQuantifying market opportunities through market sizing and market forecastingTracking current trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive insightsOpportunity mapping in terms of technological breakthroughsThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Salsas, Dips and Spreads Market 2022 Top Vendor  Frontera Foods Inc., Hot Sauce Harry's, Tostitos, Sabra

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Market Research Future adds new report of Global Salsas, Dips and Spreads Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentKey Players:The key players profiled in the salsas, dips and spreads market are as Frontera Foods Inc. (U.S.) Hot Sauce Harry's (U.S.) Tostitos (U.S.) Sabra (U.S.) Ricos (U.S.) Arizona Spice Company (U.S.) Desert Pepper Trading Company (U.S.) Cornitos (India) Salsalito (India) Britannia Foods (India)Intended Audience: Salsas, Dips & Spreads manufacturers Savory snack manufacturers Nachos chips manufacturers Retailers, wholesalers E-commerce companies Traders, Importers and exportersRequest a Sample Report @Market Segments:Salsas, dips and spreads market has been segmented On the basis of Product Type, market is segmented into black bean, chipotle, corn, fruit, tomato, jalapeno On the basis of Cuisine, the market comprises of American, Indian, Italian, Mexican On the basis of Specialty Type, market is segmented into low fat, no artificial flavor, no preservatives On basis of Food Preference, market is segmented into vegetarian and non-vegetarian On basis of Flavor Type, market is segmented into mild, medium, hotMarket Highlight:Salsa is for the most part a tomato-based sauce or plunge which incorporates different fixings, for example, onions, chilies, beans, corn, and different flavors. It is the Italian and Spanish expression for sauce, and furthermore alluded to the sauces average of Mexican cooking known as salsa picante, especially those utilized as dunks in English talking nations. Presentation of new flavors, bundling material will help the market development amid the estimate time frame. Universally the market for salsas, plunges and spreads is relied upon to develop at the rate of around 5% from 2016 to 2022.Browse Report Details @Key Findings: Increase in demand for savory snacks specifically as accompaniments for nachos chips will drive higher demand for salsas, dips and spreads in the coming years. Change in snack consumption patterns mainly in the US has resulted in introduction of new ingredients and a flavor is driving the sales of salsas, dips and spreads market.Study Objectives of Salsas, Dips & Spreads Market: Detailed investigation of the market fragments and sub-portions. To gauge and estimate showcase measure by item sort, cooking, claim to fame sort, nourishment inclination, enhance sort, and locale. To examine the key main thrusts affecting the market. Region level market examination and market projections for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their nations. Value chain investigation and production network examination. Company profiling of real players in the market. Competitive methodology examination, mapping of key partners in the market Analysis of chronicled advertise patterns, and advances, and current government administrative prerequisitesRegional Analysis:The global salsas, dips and spreads market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Among this North America region has major market share followed by Asia Pacific and Europe.Request Table of Contents for this Report @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 FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Industrial Silica Sands Market:Global Industry Analysis,Trends and Forecast 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Industrial Silica Sands Market. The study, titled Industrial Silica Sands Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Industrial silica sand is high purity silica sand with almost similar sizing of particles. Silica sand is a low priced product but acts as the primary ingredient for a wide range of products. Industrial silica sand is found mostly in the crystalline form although amorphous forms are also available. Deposits of silica yielding substances with at least 95% silicon dioxide (SiO2) content is preferred for industrial and manufacturing applications.Browse Market Research Report @Industrial silica sand finds application in a wide range of industries. These include glass making, metal casting, metal production, chemical production, construction, paints & coatings, ceramics and refractories, oil & gas recovery, and recreational products. Initially, foundry casting was an important market for industrial silica sand. However, as heavy manufacturing in various regions started declining, demand for foundry sand too declined gradually. This demand is slowly stabilizing due to certain typical applications served by foundries in military, aerospace, and precision automotive parts.A relatively recent end use of industrial silica sand is in the hydraulic fracturing process employed in North American shale plays. The growth of the shale gas recovery industry is a key driver for the industrial silica sands market. According to the US Geological Survey, from a mere market share of around 5% in 2000, demand for industrial silica sand in hydraulic fracturing operations increased to around 40% of the US silica sand production by volume, making it the major market for the material in the U.S. In the UK, glass production is the major end use for industrial silica sand followed by foundry and other industrial uses.A major market opportunity for industrial silica sand exists in the utilization of new shale plays for natural gas recovery via the hydraulic fracturing process in countries other than the U.S. Some of the upcoming shale plays identified are found in countries such as Australia, China, India, Mexico, and a few Middle Eastern countries.The fall in crude oil prices acts as a restraint for the growth of the industrial silica sands market. Due to this scenario, oil producers have started to source low cost sand over high quality material due to cost competitiveness. As a result, low cost brown sand is increasingly preferred over high quality uniform and round industrial silica sand, leading to high rate of inventory of industrial silica sand with producers.North America is the largest consumption market for industrial silica sand. The U.S. and Canada contribute a very large chunk of the market in North America. Europe and Asia Pacific follow North America, with considerably lower market shares. Unimin Corp., U.S. Silica Co., Fairmount Minerals Ltd., Oglebay Norton Co., Sibelco UK Ltd, Hanson Aggregates, and Surrey and Kent Tarmac Group are some of the major producers of industrial silica sand.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Industrial Silica Sands market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.The study is a source of reliable data on:Key market segments and sub-segmentsEvolving market trends and dynamicsChanging supply and demand scenariosQuantifying market opportunities through market sizing and market forecastingTracking current trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive insightsOpportunity mapping in terms of technological breakthroughsThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
Polyethylene Wax Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth 2024 | Research Report

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Global Polyethylene Wax Market: SnapshotThe rapid increase in the shale gas exploration and production activities in North America, primarily in the U.S. and Canada, has significantly incremented the availability of ethylene, the raw material for the manufacturing of polyethylene wax, and provided a strong traction to the market for the same. In addition to that, the demand in the global polyethylene wax market is incrementing as a result of the prosperity of the coating and printing ink industry, although associated environment issues continue to pose challenges for the polyethylene market from attaining its true potential.This 129 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Polyethylene Wax Market. Browse through to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market @As per the estimations of the report, the global polyethylene wag market will expand at a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period of 2015 to 2023, reaching a valuation of US$359.1 mn by the end of 2023, up from its evaluated worth of 258.9 mn in 2014. Growing requirement for polyethylene wax in polyvinyl chloride production is another key driver for the polyethylene wax market, wherein the existing vendors will gain new opportunities from the advent of RPPW (recycled pyrolytic cross-linked polyethylene wax), which has shown potential for application in the asphalt industry.Plastic Additives and Lubricants Segment FlourishingApplication-wise, the global polyethylene wax market is segmented into packaging, candles, wood and firelogs, adhesive and coatings, rubber, cosmetics, plastic additives and lubricants, and others such as laminates, printing inks, and polishes. In 2014, the candles segment accounted for the maximum demand in the global polyethylene wax market, at more than 20%, and is expected to remain a highly profitable application-segment. The same year, adhesive and coatings segment was second most prominent contributor of the demand for polyethylene wax. However, towards the second half of the forecast period, the segment of plastic additives and lubricants is anticipated to prosper as most profitable. In the near future, the polyehylene wax industry is anticipated to increment its application in road marking thermoplastic paints, PVC stabilizer, PVC pipes, plastic masterbatches manufacturing. Strict regulations pertaining to the emission standards by environmental bodies such as EPA is another factor positively reflecting on PE wax market for solvent borne coatings.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Polyethylene Wax Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @China Driving Strong Demand from Asia PacificGeographically, the report gauges the potential of the polyethylene wax market in the regions of North America including the U.S., Europe including the U.K., France, and Spain, Asia Pacific including China and Japan, Latin America including Brazil, and the Middle East and Africa. Currently, Asia Pacific is the most lucrative region for the vendors operating in the polyethylene wax market, which accounted for more than 30% of the global demand for polyethylene wax, gaining prominent requirement from China, which is the hub of several end-use industries including packaging, coating, adhesives, printing ink, and cosmetics. From India, the report expects strong demand for masterbatch in the near future. North America is expected to maintain its position as second most profitable region, on account of stringent food regulations by the FDA along with shale gas development.In the present scenario, the global polyethylene wax market is quite consolidated in nature with top five companies holding more than two-third of the global shares. Some of the key players profiled in this report on the polyethylene wax market are Honeywell International Inc., WIWAX, The International Group Inc., Mitsui Chemicals America, Inc., SCG Chemicals Co., Ltd., Clariant AG, BASF SE, and Westlake Chemical Corporation.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.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Fencing Materials Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth 2024 | Research Report

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Global Fencing Materials Market: SnapshotFrom having mere ornamental purposes to serving to enclose areas for security purposes, fences continue to play a key role in a variety of construction structures and have a thriving market dealing with their construction, materials used in them, and accessories. The market for fencing materials, constituting the vast operations and processes involved in sourcing, distributing, or the technologies used to process the material to manufacture the required fencing structure, forms one of the crucial arms of the global fencing industry.Browse Market Research Report @The cost of material used to fabricate a fence makes up for a significant portion of the total cost of the final product, which makes the fencing materials market one of the key determinants of several profit-related equations of any fencing business. The global market for fencing materials is predictably driven by the growth prospects of the global fencing market, which itself is chiefly dependent on a number of socio-economic factors determining the development of the global construction industry.With a thriving construction industry, emerging economies across regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America are steadily moving ahead as the leading consumers of construction related structures. The market for fencing materials is also expected to witness significant traction in these regions in the next few years, with demand being more than across regions such as North America and Europe. The trend signifies the rapidly transforming dynamics of the fencing materials market and is expected to remain strong in the near future as well.A fence is an enclosure used for a property or a region. It is a barrier enclosing a border or a field or a yard. A fence is not a wall, as it does not have a solid foundation along its whole length. It is constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wires, rails, or netting. A fence is usually constructed to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary.A fence can be made from different materials. Based on material, the fencing materials market can be segmented into metal, wood, plastic & composite, concrete, and other materials. The metal segment dominates the fencing materials market, as metal fences are durable and require low maintenance. Ornamental metal fencing is expected to expand at a rapid pace, as increasing number of consumers believe that these fences enhance the exterior appearance and value of properties. However, chain link fencing is anticipated to continue to be the major category of metal fencing in terms of demand due to its low cost and durability.Wood and plastic & composite segments follow the metal segment. Plastic & composite is projected to be a rapidly growing segment of the global fencing materials market owing to the durability of the material and negligible repair and maintenance requirements. Demand for wood fencing is expected to remain higher than that for plastic and composite fencing during the forecast period, primarily due to its lower cost.The plastic & composite fencing segment is anticipated to register fast rate of growth in value and volume. Plastics and composites have longer lifespans, are less susceptible to damage caused by the elements, and offer long-term color consistency. Increase in adoption of high value fencing materials such as ornamental, metal, and plastic & composite lumber is anticipated to boost the demand for fencing materials in the near future. The growth of fencing materials market is driven by rising building construction expenditures. Rise in adoption of high value fencing materials such as ornamental, metal, and plastic and composite lumber will further boost demand. These materials have the ability to improve the appearance and value of the properties where they are installed.Based on application, the fencing materials market can be divided into residential, agricultural, and industrial. Residential is the major application segment of the fencing materials market. The residential segment accounts for the key share of fencing materials market. It is estimated to outpace the other segments during the forecast period. Increase in construction and remodeling activities is projected to drive the segment in the next few years. Sustained growth in housing completions and rising expenditure on residential improvement and repair are likely to boost the demand for fencing materials during the forecast period.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Fencing Materials Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @As consumer confidence continues to grow, an increasing number of homeowners is expected to undertake home improvement projects, including the addition of new fences and repair of the existing ones to improve the appearance and value of their properties. Rise in need to safeguard farm animals, crops, and farm areas from wild animals and thieves is anticipated to propel the demand for fencing materials in the agricultural sector. The industrial segment is anticipated to expand owing to the rise in demand for fencing materials in schools, colleges, and industrial premises.North America is anticipated to dominate the fencing materials market, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe, due to the rise in demand for decorative and innovative home improvement products in the region. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to be a rapidly growing region for the fencing materials market owing to the large number of construction projects and developments in the agricultural sector.Key manufacturers operating in the global fencing materials market include Betafence NV, Bekaert, Jerith Manufacturing Company Limited, Associated Materials LLC, Ply Gem Holdings Incorporated, Long Fence Company Incorporated, Poly Vinyl Company Incorporated, Gregory Industries Inc., and CertainTeed.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.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Industrial Energy Efficient Services Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share | 2024

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Global Industrial Energy Efficient Services Market: SnapshotWith the vast rise in stringent regulations pertaining to energy security, decarbonization, and air pollution, the industrial sector has started to feel the pressing need to adopt measures that can improve the energy efficiency of internal processes and operations. Countries across the globe are setting up advisory, disciplinary, and investigatory panels to ensure that energy efficiency measures are being put in place, especially in energy-intensive industries such as metal processing, chemicals, mining, and petroleum refining, to name a few. These factors are contributing to the increased demand for energy efficient services globally.Browse Market Research Report @It is estimated that the overall scope of the energy efficient services market is vast but only a small percentage of the market has been tapped, especially across emerging economies with massive and thriving industrial sectors. In regions such as Latin America and Asia Pacific, industrial boom in emerging economies in the past few decades has resulted in the vast expansion of the energy sector, ramping up the uptake of power to a massive extent. This trend has also produced ample growth opportunities for companies operating in the energy efficiency sectors as governments have started realizing the need to reduce impact of emissions led by the majorly fossil fuel-powered electricity plants.From practices such as setting up energy audit programs mandating industrial facilities to evaluate, identify, and report opportunities related to energy efficiency in their organizations from time to time to offering tax incentives to companies with energy efficient plants, governments continue to play a key role in the development of the global energy efficient services market. This report presents an overview of the present state and future scope of development of the market, covering a thorough overview of crucial aspects influencing its development.As the world is transcending toward clean energy, it is becoming increasingly clear that efficiency can make the transition faster, cheaper, and beneficial across all the sectors. Energy efficiency is an important element in energy policies around the world. Globally, around two-third of the economic potential associated with energy saving remains untapped. Around 70% of the energy use in the world is utilized without any energy efficiency and performance measures. For instance, nearly 2/3rd of the energy consumed from buildings across the world has no standards or code applied to it. The core imperatives of an energy policy such as decarbonization, energy security, and air pollution can be made achievable and accessible with the incorporation of proper energy standards and other energy efficiency measures.Growth in the industrial sector has encouraged companies to seek faster ways to lower energy consumption due to the high cost and strict environmental regulations. The industrial sector has been expanding steadily since the last few years. Opportunities for energy efficiency improvements are expected to increase constantly.There exists potential to adopt energy efficient technologies and measures that reduce the energy consumption in the industrial sector by an additional 15-30% by 2025. Governments across the globe are increasingly focusing on adopting energy efficient practices. This is the primary driver of the global energy efficient services market. The European Union devised the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) in order to lower energy consumption by 20% and maintain transparency in the overall billing process. The U.K. has set up the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), an energy audit program that mandates industrial facilities to identify, evaluate, and report energy efficiency opportunities in their organizations every four years. Similarly, the Indian Energy Conservation Act also mandates energy intensive industries in the country to conduct energy audits and consulting. The Government of India offers tax incentives to companies for energy efficient plants and for keeping a tab on energy requirements diligently. Many companies are already striving to become more energy efficient. For instance, equipment manufacturers Alstom, ABB, Schneider, and Johnson Controls offer energy saving equipment and process optimization services linked to their products.Large IT companies such as SAP, IBM, Cisco, and Microsoft have devised programs to collect, monitor, and manage energy data. According to the International Energy Agency, the global energy intensity, i.e. the amount of energy utilized per unit of GDP, improved by 1.8% in 2015 and this industry is estimated to witness double digit growth in the near future; the commercial sector is expected to account for major share of the growth. Favorable support from regulatory bodies and government institutions is likely to drive the industrial energy efficient services market. However, economic & financial, regulatory, and Informational barriers may impede the implementation of energy efficient measures.Based on service, the energy efficient market can be segmented into energy auditing & consulting, product & system optimization, and monitoring & verification. The energy auditing and consulting segment accounted for the major share of the industrial energy efficient services market in 2015. The segment is anticipated to dominate the market during the forecast period, led by the increase in governmental efforts to mandate companies to undertake energy audits and comply with energy efficient standards. In terms of region, North America held the prominent share of the industrial energy efficient services market in 2015, driven by the energy efficient initiatives in the region and rise in need to enhance energy consumption to achieve development goals.China leads the industrial energy efficient services market in Asia Pacific, driven by its 13th five year plan to achieve energy efficiency standards. The country is estimated to attract further investment in the sector considering the sheer size of its domestic energy usage. China has also developed stringent and energy efficient Monitoring and Verification (M&V). This segment is projected to witness significant growth during the forecast period.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Industrial Energy Efficient Services Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @The global industrial energy efficient services market is highly competitive due to the presence of a large number of regional and global vendors. Key players operating in the industrial energy efficient services market are Siemens, Honeywell, TERI, DuPont, Dalkia, ENGIE, Getec, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric, SGS, and Wood.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.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Smart Parking Systems Market Expected to Reach US$177.1 mn by 2022 due to Growing Need for Efficient Parking Systems

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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. 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.Request For Sample Copy Of This Report :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. 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.Send an enquiry :The global smart parking systems market is segmented as below:Smart Parking Systems MarketBy Parking SiteOn-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 AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeEU7CISRest of EuropeAsia PacificJapanChinaSouth AsiaAustralasiaRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East and Africa (MEA)GCCSouth AfricaRest of MEAMRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Sanding Pads Market is predicted to grow at approximately 4.19% by 2023

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Market research future published a cooked research report on global sanding pads market. The global sanding pads market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 4.19% during the period 2017 to 2023Global Sanding Pads Market Information by Product (Disc, Wheels, Rolls, and Others), by Backing Material (Velcro / Hook and Loop, Pressure Sensitive Adhesive, and Others), by End-User (Automotive, Construction, Metal Fabrication and Others) and by Region - Forecast to 2023Sanding pads are coated abrasives that are used with sander power tool to smoothen surfaces. They are majorly used in industrial and commercial sanding applications. Increasing in global industrial production is the factor driving the demand of the market. However, stringent government regulations on the use of silica may hamper the growth of the market.Global sanding pads market is projected to reach USD 2,764 million by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.19% from 2017 to 2023.Request for sample report atOn the basis of regions, the global sanding pads market is segmented as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and RoW. Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest market share of 40% in 2015, followed by North America. Rapid industrialization and urbanization, especially in India, China, and Japan are the key contributors of the market growth in the region. The growth in the manufacturing, automotive, and construction industries and the increase in industrial production have boosted the growth of the sanding pad market in Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.82% during the forecast period.North America was the second-largest for the market, and it was valued at USD 563.5 million in 2016. The U.S. government has taken initiatives for the growth of the construction sector by building dam, airports, and roads, which has been the major factors for the growth of the market. The rest of the world accounted for a market share of 11% in 2015 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.91% during the forecast period.This study provides an overview of the global sanding pads market, 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 sanding pads market as product type, backing material and end-user.By Product Type Discs Wheels Rolls OthersBy Backing Material Velcro / Hook and Loop Pressure Sensitive Adhesive othersBy End-User Construction Automotive Metal fabrication OthersKey Players Robert Bosch Tool Corporation (U.S.) 3M Company (U.S.) Saint-Gobain Abrasives (U.S.) SAIT Abrasivi S.p.A (Italy) Keystone Abrasives (U.S.) Klingspor AG (Germany) Mirka Ltd. (Finland) Abrasiflex Pty Ltd (Australia) Abcon industrial products Ltd (Ireland) Astro Pneumatic Tool Company (U.S.)Browse complete report atStudy Objectives of Global Sanding Pads Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next five years of various segments and sub-segments of the global sanding pads market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the global sanding pads market based on various tools such as Price Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, 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, APAC, & 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 segmented, by type, by material, by applications, and by regions To provide strategic profiling of the 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 sanding pads marketTarget Audience Manufacturing Organizations. Distributors & Suppliers Government as well as Independent Regulatory Authorities 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 atThe report for Global Sanding Pads 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.At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Global Wireless Charging Market Key Vendors Trends, Forecast, and Growth Prospects to 2025

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Latest market study on Wireless Charging Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Technology, and Application, the report include key understanding on the driving factors of this growth and also highlights the prominent players in the market and their developments.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Wireless Charging Market to 2025 @The role of wireless charging in various fields is to eliminate the hassles of a wired charger that gets tangled while carrying. The wired charger often gets degraded on excessive usage of it. Also, many times it becomes difficult to find a charging socket at public places further increasing the problems of wired charging methods. A resilient wireless charger is operable even in the harshest conditions without much difficulties and therefore is expected to imprint a stamp in the market.The report aims to provide an overview of Global Wireless Charging Market along with detailed segmentation of market by application, technology and five major geographical regions. Global wireless technology market is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period due to growing number of smart devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Also, insufficient availability of charging ports at public places and its malfunctioning due to excessive usage are creating a huge popularity for wireless chargers.Request Sample Copy @The objectives of Wireless Charging Market report are as follows: To provide overview of the global wireless charging market To analyze and forecast the global wireless charging market on the basis of technology, application To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall wireless charging market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major 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 wireless charging market players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesSome of the important players in wireless charging market are Verizon Wireless Communications, Texas Instruments, Inc., Qualcomm Inc., WiTricity Corporation, Energizer Holdings Inc., Anker, Fulton Innovation LLC, Convenient Power HK Limited, Integrated Device Technology, Inc. and Evatran LLC.Inquire about discount on this report @The report segments the global Wireless Charging Market as follows:Wireless Charging Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Application Defense Market Automotive Market Industrial Market Healthcare Market Other MarketWireless Charging Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Technology Inductive Market Resonant Market RF Market Other MarketWireless Charging Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Geographical Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America (SAM)Access Full Report @Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout The Insight Partners: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 Machine Condition Monitoring Market Is Expected To Reach USD 2.91 Billion By The End Of 2023

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Global Machine Condition Monitoring Market, By End Users (Power, Oil and Gas, Chemical and Petrochemical, Pulp and Paper, Cement, Steel and Metal, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, Food and Beverage) - Forecast 2023During the course of the 20th century, maintenance strategies have gone through many changes. Currently, predictive and proactive strategies present the maximum benefits at minimum expenditure. However, the preventive or scheduled maintenance approach is the most widely used strategy, particularly among the SMEs. This is mainly due to their reluctance to shift from a maintenance strategy that they have adapted over the years and the misconception that predictive and proactive strategies are expensive. With increased awareness, we expect the predictive and proactive approach to gain considerable momentum in the coming years.Get a sample report atMachine condition monitoring is the process of monitoring the condition of a machine with the commitment to predict mechanical wear and tear. Vibration, noise, and temperature measurements are often used as key indicators of the state of the machine. Trends in the data provide health information about the machine and help to detect machine faults early, which prevents unexpected failure and costly repair. It has been observed that an increase in need for reduced maintenance cost is boosting the machine condition monitoring market.The global Machine Condition Monitoring market is expected to reach USD 2.91 billion by the end of 2023 with 5.55% CAGR during forecast period 2017-2023.Key Players Emerson Electric (U.S.) General Electric (U.S.) Rockwell Automation (U.S.) Timken (U.S.) FLIR Systems (U.S.) SKF (Swedan) NSK (Japan) Parker-Hannifin (U.S.) PCB Piezotronics (U.S.)Global Machine Condition Monitoring Market StructureBy End Users Power Oil and Gas Chemical and Petrochemical Pulp and Paper Cement Steel and Metal Pharmaceutical Automotive Food and BeverageBy Region North America Europe Asia Pacific RowThe global Machine Condition Monitoring market is estimated to grow at a promising rate in upcoming years. The global machine condition monitoring market is segmented on the basis of geography into regions as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of world. Globally, North America Machine Condition Monitoring market has been valued at USD 754.77 million in 2016. Europe and Asia Pacific is estimated to grow at promising rate during the forecast period.Complete Report Available atIntended Audience Machine Condition Monitoring Equipment Manufactures Technology Providers Distributors Research firms Consultancy firms Semiconductor Manufacturers Stakeholders End-user sectors Technology InvestorsTable of Contents1 Executive Summary 101.1 Highlights 102 Scope of the Report 112.1 Market Overview 113 Market Research Methodology 133.1 Research Process 133.2 Primary Research 143.3 Secondary Research 143.4 Economic Indicators 154 Introduction 164.1 Key Market Highlights 164.2 Maintenance Methodologies 16Get a discount at5 Market Landscape 225.1 Market Overview 225.2 Five Forces analysis 246 Market Drivers 296.1 Shift from Preventive Maintenance to Predictive Maintenance 296.2 Employee Health and Safety Standards Commonly Followed Across Industries Worldwide 316.3 Capital investments by leading automobile companies 327 Impact of Drivers 338 Market Challenges 348.1 Lack of customization and increased costs 348.2 Slowdown in Major Economies and its Implications on Machine Condition Monitoring Market 349 Impact of Drivers and Challenges 3610 Market Trends 3710.1 Integration of IoT in machine condition monitoring 3711 Market Segmentation, By End-user 3911.1 Introduction 3911.1.1 Power 4111.1.2 Oil and Gas 4311.1.3 Chemical and Petrochemical 4411.1.4 Pulp and Paper 4611.1.5 Cement 4711.1.6 Steel and Metal 4811.1.7 Pharmaceutical 4911.1.8 Automotive 5111.1.9 Food and Beverage 5212 Geographical Segmentation 5412.1 Market Overview 5412.1.1 North America 5612.1.2 Europe 5812.1.3 Asia Pacific 6212.1.4 Rest of the World 6613 Vendor Landscape 6913.1 Competition Overview 6914 Key Vendor Analysis 7014.1 Emerson Electric 7014.1.1 Business Overview 7014.1.2 Emerson Electric  Key Products 7014.1.3 Emerson Electric  Key Financials 7014.1.4 Company Revenue 7114.1.5 Business Strategy 7214.1.6 SWOT Analysis 7214.2 General Electric 7314.2.1 Business overview 7314.2.2 General Electric  Key Products 7314.2.3 General Electric  Key Financials 7314.2.4 Company Revenue 7414.2.5 Business Strategy 7414.2.6 SWOT Analysis 7514.3 Honeywell International, Inc. 7614.3.1 Business Overview 7614.3.2 Honeywell International  Key Products 7614.3.3 Honeywell International  Key Financials 7614.3.4 Company Revenue 7614.3.5 Business Strategy 7714.3.6 SWOT Analysis 7814.4 Rockwell Automation 7914.4.1 Business Overview 7914.4.2 Rockwell Automation  Key Products 7914.4.3 Rockwell Automation  Key Financials 7914.4.4 Company Revenue 8014.4.5 Business Strategy 8014.4.6 SWOT Analysis 8114.5 Timken 8214.5.1 Business Overview 8214.5.2 Timken  Key Products 8214.5.3 Timken  Key Financials 8214.5.4 Company Revenue 8214.5.5 Business Strategy 8214.5.6 SWOT Analysis 8314.6 FLIR Systems 8414.6.1 Business Overview 8414.6.2 FLIR Systems  Key Products 8414.6.3 FLIR Systems  Key Financials 8414.6.4 Company Revenue 8414.6.5 Business Strategy 8514.6.6 SWOT Analysis 8514.7 SKF 8614.7.1 Business Overview 8614.7.2 SKF  Key Products 8614.7.3 SKF  Key Financials 8614.7.4 Company Revenue 8714.7.5 Business Strategy 8714.7.6 SWOT Analysis 8814.8 NSK 8914.8.1 Business Overview 8914.8.2 NSK  Key Products 8914.8.3 NSK  Key Financials 8914.8.4 Company Revenue 8914.8.5 Business Strategy 9014.8.6 SWOT Analysis 9014.9 Parker-Hannifin 9114.9.1 Business overview 9114.9.2 Parker-Hannifin  Key Products 9114.9.3 Parker-Hannifin  Key Financials 9114.9.4 Company Revenue 9214.9.5 Business Strategy 9214.9.6 SWOT Analysis 9314.10 PCB Piezotronics 9414.10.1 Business overview 9414.10.2 PCB Piezotronics  Key Products 9414.10.3 MTS System Corporation (PCB Piezotronics)  Key Financials 9414.10.4 Company Revenue 9414.11 Halma 9514.11.1 Business overview 9514.11.2 Halma  Key Products 9514.11.3 Halma  Key Financials 9514.11.4 Company Revenue 9514.11.5 Business Strategy 9614.12 National Instruments 9714.12.1 Business overview 9714.12.2 National Instruments  Key Products 9714.12.3 National Instruments  Key Financials 9714.12.4 Company Revenue 9714.13 Shinkawa 9914.13.1 Business Overview 9914.13.2 Shinkawa  Key Products 9914.13.3 Shinkawa  Key Financials 9914.13.4 Company Revenue 9914.14 Azima DLI 10014.14.1 Business Overview 10014.14.2 Azima DLI  Key Products 10014.15 Bruel & Kjaer Sound and Vibration Measurement 10114.15.1 Business Overview 10114.15.2 Bruel & Kjaer Sound and Vibration Measurement  Key Products 10114.16 Fluke Corporation 10214.16.1 Business Overview 10214.16.2 Fluke Corporation  Key Products 10214.17 PDS Condition Monitoring Services 10314.17.1 Business Overview 10314.17.2 PDS Condition Monitoring Services  Key Products 10314.18 Saj Engineering & Trading Company 10414.18.1 Business Overview 10414.18.2 Saj Engineering & Trading Company  Key Products 10414.19 Scientific Monitoring, Inc. 10514.19.1 Business Overview 10514.19.2 Scientific Monitoring  Key Products 10514.20 SPM Instrument 10614.20.1 Business Overview 10614.20.2 SPM Instrument  Key Products 10615 Appendix 107At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash AnandP: +1 646 845 9312W:
Sand Control Systems Market 2016 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2024

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The global sand control systems market in 2015 witnessed a decline due to a substantial fall in drilling and exploration activities and sharp reduction in global rig count. The decline in number of oil rigs is anticipated to last for a while, due to which, the overall growth of the market is expected to be cyclical in nature till 2020. Growth prospects are expected to rise again as global oil prices reach a steady price value. Stability in oil prices will consecutively lead to increase in drilling and exploration activities and an increased demand for a variety of sand control systems across the globe.Transparency Market Research estimates that the global sand control systems market will exhibit a healthy 5.8% CAGR from 2016 and 2024. If the number holds true, the market, which held an opportunity of US$3,222.5 mn in 2015, will rise to a valuation of US$5,372.8 mn by 2024.View Report @Gravel Packing Techniques to Continue to Rank HighOf the key techniques used for minimizing sand production across a number of application areas, the ones analyzed in the report include rate exclusion, resin coated gravel, plastic consolidation, standalone screens, frac pack, and gravel packing. Of these, the segment of gravel packing held the dominant position, accounting for a nearly 29% share in the global sand control systems market in 2015. The segment is expected to witness expansion at a healthy pace in the next few years and retain its dominant position, achieving a slight rise in its overall share in the global sand control systems market by 2024.The segment of standalone screens ranked second in terms of revenue contribution to the global sand control systems market, charting a nearly 26% share of the markets overall revenues in 2015. The global demand for sand control screen is expected to rise at a healthy pace in the next few years, enabling the segment to take a larger share in the global market by 2024. Frac pack, accounting for nearly 18% of the global market in 2015, is also one of the most preferred sand control techniques, especially in North America and Europe. The shale gas boom in these regions has propelled the sand control systems market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Sand Control Systems Market Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Asia Pacific and MEA to Remain Most Promising Regional MarketsOf the key regional markets for sand control systems, Asia Pacific dominated the global market 2015, accounting for a 27.5% share. Dominance of the region in the global sand control systems market can be primarily ascribed to the ongoing oil and gas well drilling and completion activities in countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Rising population and rapid industrialization have led to a significant rise in energy demand in the region, reason why the demand for sand control systems is mounting. In terms of revenue, the sand control systems market in Asia Pacific region valued US$886.8 mn in 2015 and is expected to remain the most attractive regional market in the years to come.The market for sand control systems in Middle East and Africa is driven by large offshore discoveries and huge proven oil reserves in countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE. Vast drilling activities across the region also make it an attractive market for sand control systems. Moreover, new oil and gas discoveries in countries such as Nigeria and Angola are expected to further boost the market.The competitive landscape of the global sand control systems market is highly consolidated, with the top four companies accounting for a collective share of over 92% of the overall market in 2015. These top players in the market are Schlumberger Limited, Halliburton Company, Weatherford International, and Baker Hughes, Inc. Other notable vendors in the market are Superior Energy Services, RPC Inc., Inc., Welltec A/S, Grit Industries, Inc., and Tendeka.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Polyinosinic Acid Market Analysis, Growth, Trends by Future Market Insights 2024

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Global Polyinosinic Acid Market: OverviewPolyinosinic acid used as a model RNA, is composed of a polynucleotide chain. It consists entirely of inosinic acid residues. Polyinosinic acid is made from polycytidylic acid. It is a homopolymer of inosine used with polycytidylic acid to form a double stranded homopolymer. This acts as a major effector of the immune response against viral pathogens. Polyinosinic acid is primarily used in the form of sodium salt to simulate viral infections.Browse Market Research Report:Polyinosinic acid (abbreviated as Poly I:C) along with polycytidylic acid acts as an immunostimulant. It is known to interact with toll-like receptor 3, which is expressed in the membrane of B-cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Polyinosinic acid enhances delivery of adenovirus vectors. It is used primarily in pharmaceuticals, health care, and medical sectors. Polyinosinic acid is employed as a potent adjuvant in the medical sector to enhance the specific anti-tumor immune responses against a peptide-based vaccine. Growth in pharmaceutical and health care sectors is expected to boost the demand for polyinosinic acid in the next few years. Polyinosinic acid is anticipated to penetrate the market rapidly due to the various research and development activities conducted by several companies and medical organizations. It is not available widely since it is medical product; however, demand for polyinosinic acid is high due to its anti-tumor immune responses. Polyinosinic acid requires ionic strength to maintain the double strand structure. In order to prevent denaturation, polyinosinic acid is reconstituted in solutions with physiological salt concentrations. Furthermore, it may require heating and cooling to achieve re-annealing.Asia Pacific held the major share of the polyinosinic acid market in 2015, led by the high growth of pharmaceutical and medical sectors. Demand for polyinosinic acid is also high in Europe and North America. The U.S., Germany, China, India, and Japan accounted for key share of the polyinosinic market in 2015. Polyinosinic acid is highly produced and consumed in these countries due to the increase in population, high standard of living, rise in number of diseases among the people, and expansion in pharmaceutical and medical sectors. Middle East & Africa constituted smaller share of the polyinosinic market in 2015; however, demand for polyinosinic acid is anticipated to rise at a rapid pace in the region in the next few years. Optimization of physicochemical properties of polyinosinic acid has led to generation of derivatives that have increased stability in body fluids (such as polyICLC), or reduced toxicity through reduced stability in body fluids. This is estimated to boost the polyinosinic acid market during the forecast period.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Polyinosinic Acid market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @Key manufacturers of polyinosinic acid across the globe include Biotain Pharma Co. Ltd., N&R Bio Industries Inc., Beijing Isomersyn Technology Co. Ltd., Hubei XinyuanShun Chemical Co. Ltd., and Hangzhou Dingyan Chem. Co. Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Sodium Hydrosulfite Market 2015 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2023

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Sodium hydrosulfite, commonly known as sodium dithionite, is a crystalline white powder. It is stable under normal conditions and decomposes either in acidic conditions or in contact with hot water. Sodium hydrosulfite is manufactured by different processes such as zinc dust process, amalgam process, and formate process. These three processes are primarily used to manufacture sodium hydrosulfite. Furthermore, zinc dust and amalgam processes accounted for almost 80% of the global production in 2014. All applications of sodium hydrosulfite are due to its superior reducing ability. Sodium hydrosulfite offers reducing properties in acidic medium and heated atmosphere.View Report @Sodium hydrosulfite is widely used for bleaching purposes in the paper & pulp industry, textile processing, mineral ore flotation, kaolin bleaching, pharmaceuticals, and food additives. However, it is primarily used in textile and wood pulp bleaching applications. Textile and wood pulp bleaching applications cumulatively held market share of over 80% of the sodium hydrosulfite market in 2014. Sodium hydrosulfite is used as a reducing agent as well as a reducing bleaching agent in fabrics such as nylon, wool, and cotton in the textile industry. Furthermore, sodium hydrosulfite is employed for stripping of color from fabrics. It is also used in the reduction clearing process for disperse dyes. It is used in wood pulp bleaching to brighten pulp with lower yield loss in the paper industry. It is used as a bleaching agent for mechanical pulp bleaching in the paper & pulp industry.Textile processing and wood pulp bleaching are primarily responsible for boosting demand for sodium hydrosulfite. Furthermore, the market dynamics of these applications affect the global market for sodium hydrosulfite. Demand for textile products, particularly apparel, has increased across the world, which has resulted in rise in demand for sodium hydrosulfite globally. In terms of demand, Asia Pacific, being the textile manufacturing hub of the world, held the largest share of the sodium hydrosulfite market in 2014. The paper and pulp industry, on the other hand, has struggled to keep pace with rapid global digitalization. Hence, steady decline in demand for paper and paper products has been witnessed in North America and Europe. However, the market in Asia Pacific and Latin America is expected to expand at a decent pace during the forecast period. Application in cosmetics, particularly hair care products, and kaolin bleaching is likely to provide attractive growth opportunities for the sodium hydrosulfite market in the near future.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Sodium Hydrosulfite Market Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Asia Pacific is the major producer and consumer of sodium hydrosulfite, accounting for over 65% share of the global market by demand in 2014. China is primarily driving demand for sodium hydrosulfite in this region. Apart from China, major textile producing countries such as Japan, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan account for considerable share. The market in Asia Pacific is also projected to exhibit the fastest growth rate, expanding at a CAGR of more than 4% between 2015 and 2023. Textile processing is the primary application in Asia Pacific. On the other hand, wood pulp bleaching application dominates demand in North America and Europe. The market share of North America and Europe is estimated to decline during the forecast period due to gradual slowdown in the paper economy in these regions.The global sodium hydrosulfite market is consolidated in nature with four manufacturers accounting for over 50% share. Companies such as Guangdong ZhongCheng Chemicals Inc., Ltd., BASF SE, Jinhe Group, and AZ Chemicals, Inc., held significant share of the global sodium hydrosulfite market in 2014. Other key companies include Chemtrade Logistics, Inc., Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc., and BruggemannChemical.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Butadiene Market 2015 Share, Trend, Segmentation and Forecast to 2023

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Global Synthetic & Bio-based Butadiene Market: OverviewButadiene is a key petrochemical product, used commonly as a monomer in the manufacture of multiple chemicals. Some of the leading uses of butadiene include the manufacture of polymers such as plastics, resins, and synthetic rubbers. Butadiene is also used as a primary monomer when combined with other monomers such as styrene. The manufacture of synthetic butadiene involves the process of steam cracking paraffinic hydrocarbons, ethanol dehydration, or butane and butene dehydrogenation. 1,3-butadiene, one of the two key isomers of butadiene, holds a massive scope in several industrial applications. At the moment, bio-based butadiene is being used to reduce the global dependency on fossil fuels.The global synthetic and bio-based butadiene market is projected at a CAGR of 4.9% in terms of revenue, within a forecast period from 2015 to 2023. The market is expected to be expanding at a CAGR of 3.9% for the same forecast period, in terms of volume. The global synthetic and bio-based butadiene market was valued at US$16.66 bn by the end of 2016 and is expected to reach US$23.44 bn at the end of 2023.View Report @APAC to Retain Leading Share in Global Synthetic and Bio-based Butadiene MarketIn terms of geography, the global synthetic and bio-based butadiene market can be segmented into the core regions of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the MEA, and Latin America. In 2014, the market was largely dominated by Asia Pacific with a share in value of over 50%. This region is expected to continue showing a massive upswing in demand through the rapid rate of industrialization in China and Southeast Asia. This region is expected to show an equally high demand for both types of butadiene, with a tendency to lean towards synthetic butadiene more.North America and Europe, on the other hand, are expected to show a fall in the overall demand for butadiene over the coming years, especially for synthetic butadiene. Both regions are beginning to show a strengthening of regulatory governance over the use of petrochemicals. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to show a leading growth rate in the global synthetic and bio-based butadiene market over the coming years, thanks to a growing demand for automobiles, which is spurring the demand for automotive tires.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Butadiene Market Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Synthetic Butadiene Demand Continues to RiseBetween synthetic and bio-based butadiene, the global market is expected to show a greater production rate of butadiene through synthetic means. Synthetic butadiene was the leading segment in 2014, and current status of the market suggests that it will remain in the lead for the immediate future. Synthetic butadiene is manufactured using C4 feedstock mixtures and can be used to generate valuable derivatives, including SB latex, SB rubber, and ABS. Most of these derivatives are of high use in the manufacture of tires and other components in the automotive industry.Over the coming years, bio-based butadiene is expected to witness a huge boost in demand and production, owing to the increasingly stringent regulations being applied to the oil and gas industry around the world. More and more countries are aligning themselves with ecofriendly initiatives, including cutting down on fossil fuel and fossil fuel byproducts consumption. While bio-based butadiene is more expensive than its synthetic variant, increasing competition in this field is expected to cut down prices of products over time.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Market Expected to reach US$ 8,315.1 Mn by 2024 : IHS Inc., 3E Company, International Finance Corporation, Enablon North America Corporation, SAP SE, UL LLC, and Medgate Inc

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Environmental health & safety system is mainly used by the companies to ensure employee safety and well-being at the workplace and to monitor environmental balance. The governing bodies and regional federal agencies are proactively implementing EHS across various industry verticals in order to adhere with environmental and occupational safety standards. The software solutions encompassed under EHS include quality & risk assessment, data analytics, cost management, environmental compliance, energy & carbon management and others. Furthermore, the different EHS services include consulting, project management, analytics, training, implementation, auditing and certification. The rising awareness for workplace and employee safety coupled with increasing efforts towards environmental safety have led the EHS market to grow at a substantial pace. The EHS market is expected to advance at a CAGR of 12.0% from 2016 to 2024 evaluating at a market size of US$ 8,315.1 Mn in 2024, up from US$ 3,009.0 Mn in 2015.Request For The Sample Copy Of This Report :This research study, titled Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2016  2024, provides strategic analysis of the global environmental health and safety market, along with the market growth (size in US$ Mn) forecast for the period from 2016 to 2024. The report includes an in-depth analysis of the market drivers, restraints, and industry trends. It also highlights the growth opportunities for EHS services in the next few years.The research report provides a comprehensive assessment of stakeholder strategies, and the imperatives for success in the EHS market. The report also includes competitive analysis of various market segments based on components covering software and services of EHS, and in-depth cross-sectional analysis across different geographical segments of the EHS market. In order to aid in strategic decision-making, the report includes the winning strategies adopted by key players. The report segregates the EHS market geographically into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.Send an enquiry :For a detailed understanding of the EHS market, all these segments have also been estimated in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) for the geographies mentioned above. The market research study analyzes the EHS market worldwide, and provides historical revenue estimates in terms of US$ Mn for 2014 and 2015, along with the market forecast for the period 2016 to 2024. Market forecasts have been analyzed considering the impact of various economic, political, social, legal, operational, and technological factors influencing market growth.The EHS market is segmented as follows.Environmental Health & Safety Market, by ComponentsSoftwareQuality & Risk AssessmentData AnalyticsCost ManagementEnvironmental ComplianceEnergy & Carbon ManagementOthersServicesConsultingProject ManagementAnalyticsTrainingImplementationAuditingCertificationEnvironmental Health & Safety Market, by End-use IndustryChemical & PetrochemicalEnergy & MiningConstructionAgricultureTransportationManufacturingGovernment & Public SectorRetailHealthcareOthersBrowse More Details :Environmental Health & Safety Market, by GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeEU7CISRest of EuropeAsia-Pacific (APAC)JapanChinaSouth AsiaAustralasiaRest of APACMiddle East and Africa (MEA)GCC CountriesNorth AfricaSouth AfricaRest of MEALatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Smart Lighting Market Share, Segmentation, Industrial Overview and Forecasts to 2025

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The Insight Partners added new research report Smart Lighting Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Lighting Types, Application and Connectivity Technology to its database.The smart lighting is a technology that enables its users to govern the lighting of any space without being surrounded by unnecessary wires. Smart lighting is a part of upcoming IoT technology, facilitating mobile and sensor based control on the luminosity of lights in a particular space. The intelligent connected lighting offers ecofriendly environment and effectively reduces the consumption of energy. The global Smart Lighting market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.1% during the forecast period 2017  2025 and accounts for US$ 51.05 Bn in the year 2025.Request Sample Copy @The global smart lighting market is fragmented on the basis of lighting Type into. Light Emitting Diode (LED) Lamp, Fluorescent Lamps, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), High Intensity Discharge Lamps and Others (Neon Lamps and Photographic Flashes). Furthermore the segmentation is based upon application of smart lighting viz. Industrial lighting, Commercial lighting, Residential lighting, Outdoor lighting, Automotive lighting and Government. According to the geographic regions, the market is segmented into Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific (APAC), North America and South America (SAM). With many developing countries in the region of Middle East and Africa, it is expected to have the highest CAGR of 24.4% during the forecast period.The shortcoming of a wireless system are occasional disturbance in communications among the devices. When a wireless lighting system is installed in a place, one should always make sure that the keypads, processors and dimmers are within a specific range. For example, some old residential buildings may be constructed with metal wire integrated in the walls that might create disturbance or weaken the signals of a wireless system. Though it has certain drawbacks, it is expected to capture more than half of the lighting market in next few years. Thus, maximum companies are switching their product portfolio to wireless smart lighting solutions. Major players in this segment are Philips, GE, OSRAM and Daintree.Complete Report with Company Profile and Table of Content atNow a days wireless connectivity is taking a leap over the wire abled connecting networks as wireless is more convenient to use. First this technology was used in the telephones now called as the mobile phones and since then the wireless technology has revolutionized the way things were viewed. Wireless technology has given its consumers freedom from the limited range of the wired devices.The wireless technology has become an integral part of day to day lifestyle. Wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RF Ids are experiencing high adoption rate among users. The rising popularity of wireless technology in lighting solution is thus considered to be one of the major reasons driving the smart lighting market. The wireless lighting solutions are easy to control and help its customers to attain maximum energy saving.The lighting hardware is highly integrated and dependent on the software platform being used. As there is no common standard for wireless smart lighting products, the complete idea of various smart lighting devices networked together and the entire process of networking becomes complicated. For example, Philips employs ZigBee Light Link, GreenWave uses NXP JenNet-IP and Insteon uses its own wireless technology and all these are incompatible with each other. This incompatibility would result in inconvenience for the user as the choice of products and services will get limited by the platform being used, or else the entire operation of smart lighting would get complicated.Inquire about discount on this report @Major players in the global smart lighting market comprises of Osram Licht AG (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.A), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherland), Eaton Corporation PLC. (Ireland), Digital Lumens Inc. (U.S.A), Lutron Electronics Company Inc. (U.S.A), General Electric Company (U.S.A), Legrand SA (France), Streetlight.Vision (France) and Acuity Brands Lighting Inc. (U.S.A).among others.Reasons to Buy Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies Highlights key smart lighting technologies thereby allowing organizations to gain revenues by focusing majorly on select products The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the smart lighting market, thereby allowing players across the value chain to develop effective long term strategies Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as the those hindering it Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to client products, segmentation, pricing and distribution Examine the current and future impact of the five forces namely: bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants and degree of competitionInquire before Buying @Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout The Insight Partners: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
Transformer Cores Industry Key Manufacturer, Analysis and 2022 Forecasts for Global and Chinese Markets Illuminated by New Report

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Market Research Report on Transformer Cores Industry providing Global and Chinese Market Landscape and its Growth Prospects over the coming years till 2022 is now available at ReportsWeb.comThe 'Global and Chinese Transformer Cores Industry, 2012-2022 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Transformer Cores industry with a focus on the Chinese market.View complete report atFirstly, the report provides key statistics on the market status of the Transformer Cores manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail.In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2012-2017 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Transformer Cores industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Transformer Cores industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out.In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Transformer Cores Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2012-2022 global and Chinese Transformer Cores industry covering all important parameters.Request sample copy atMajor Points from Table of ContentsIntroduction of Transformer Cores IndustryManufacturing Technology of Transformer CoresAnalysis of Global Key ManufacturersGlobal and Chinese Market of Transformer CoresMarket Status of Transformer Cores IndustryMarket Forecast of Global and Chinese Transformer Cores Industry 2017-2022Analysis of Transformer Cores Industry ChainGlobal and Chinese Economic Impact on Transformer Cores IndustryMarket Dynamics of Transformer Cores IndustryProposals for New ProjectResearch Conclusions of Global and Chinese Transformer Cores IndustryInquire for discount atList of Tables and FiguresFigure Transformer Cores Product PictureTable Development of Transformer Cores Manufacturing TechnologyFigure Manufacturing Process of Transformer CoresTable Trends of Transformer Cores Manufacturing TechnologyTable Global Transformer Cores Capacity ListTable Global Transformer Cores Key Manufacturers Capacity Share ListFigure Global Transformer Cores Manufacturers Capacity ShareTable Global Transformer Cores Key Manufacturers Production ListTable Global Transformer Cores Key Manufacturers Production Share ListFigure Global Transformer Cores Manufacturers Production ShareFigure Global Transformer Cores Capacity Production and Growth RateTable Global Transformer Cores Key Manufacturers Production Value ListFigure Global Transformer Cores Production Value and Growth RateTable Global Transformer Cores Key Manufacturers Production Value Share ListFigure Global Transformer Cores Manufacturers Production Value ShareTable Global Transformer Cores Capacity Production Cost Profit and Gross Margin ListFigure Chinese Share of Global Transformer Cores ProductionTable Global Supply and Consumption of Transformer CoresFigure Global Transformer Cores Capacity Production and Growth RateFigure Global Transformer Cores Production Value and Growth RateTable Global Transformer Cores Capacity Production Cost Profit and Gross Margin ListFigure Chinese Share of Global Transformer Cores ProductionTable Global Supply and Consumption of Transformer CoresTable Import and Export of Transformer CoresFigure Industry Chain Structure of Transformer Cores IndustryFigure Production Cost Analysis of Transformer CoresFigure Downstream Analysis of Transformer CoresPurchase this 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 Flow Pack Machine Market by Definitions, Classifications, Applications, Market Overview and Key Manufacturer Examined in New Market Research Report 2017-2022

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This report provides an in-depth insight of Global Flow Pack Machine Industry covering all important parameters including development trends, challenges, opportunities, key manufacturers and competitive analysis.This report studies Flow Pack Machine 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.View complete report atThis report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAdhesion BiomedicalBostik Ltd. (France)Henkel AG & Company (Germany)B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany)3M Company (U.S.)CryoLife, Inc. (U.S.)Chemence Ltd. (U.K.)Cyberbond LLC (U.S.)Cohera Medical, Inc.Itac Ltd. (U.S.)Ethicon Inc. (U.S.)Covidien Ltd. (Ireland)GluStitch Inc. (Canada)Adhezion Biomedical (U.S.)Cohera Medical, Inc. (U.S.)Baxter International Inc. (U.S.)GEM S.r.l (Italy)Meyer-Haake Gmbh (Germany)Biocoral, Inc. (France)Request sample copy atBy types, the market can be split intoChemical AdhesivesBiological AdhesivesBy Application, the market can be split intoMedical Appliance BondingSurgical ProceduresGeneral UseBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaInquire for discount atList of Tables and Figures1 Industry Overview of Flow Pack Machine1.1 Definition and Specifications of Flow Pack Machine1.2 Classification of Flow Pack Machine1.3 Applications of Flow Pack Machine2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Flow Pack Machine2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Flow Pack Machine2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Flow Pack Machine2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Flow Pack Machine3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Flow Pack Machine3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Flow Pack Machine Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Flow Pack Machine Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Flow Pack Machine Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Flow Pack Machine Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Flow Pack Machine Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Sales Analysis4.3 Sales Price Analysis5 Flow Pack Machine Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Flow Pack Machine Market Analysis5.2 China Flow Pack Machine Market Analysis5.3 Europe Flow Pack Machine Market Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Flow Pack Machine Market Analysis5.5 Japan Flow Pack Machine Market Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Flow Pack Machine Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Flow Pack Machine Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Flow Pack Machine Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Flow Pack Machine Product Driving Factors Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Flow Pack Machine Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Flow Pack Machine Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Flow Pack Machine Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Flow Pack Machine Product Driving Factors Analysis8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Flow Pack Machine8.1 Tennant Company8.2 Oreck8.3 Karcher8.4 Nilfisk-Advance8.5 Minuteman8.6 Sanitaire8.7 PowerBoss8.8 TASKI8.9 Power Flite8.11 Mastercraft Industries8.12 NaceCare Solutions8.13 Boss Cleaning Equipment Company8.14 NSS Enterprises8.15 Eureka8.16 Windsor Karcher Group8.17 FactoryCat8.18 Adiatek8.19 Cimel8.20 Tornado Industries9 Development Trend of Analysis of Flow Pack Machine Market9.1 Global Flow Pack Machine Market Trend Analysis9.2 Flow Pack Machine Regional Market Trend9.3 Flow Pack Machine Market Trend (Product Type)9.4 Flow Pack Machine Market Trend (Application)10 Flow Pack Machine Marketing Type Analysis10.1 Flow Pack Machine Regional Marketing Type Analysis10.2 Flow Pack Machine International Trade Type Analysis10.3 Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of Flow Pack Machine by Region10.4 Flow Pack Machine Supply Chain Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Flow Pack Machine11.1 Consumer 1 Analysis11.2 Consumer 2 Analysis11.3 Consumer 3 Analysis11.4 Consumer 4 AnalysisPurchase this 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.Pune:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market by Definitions, Classifications, Applications, Market Overview and Key Manufacturer Examined in New Market Research Report 2017-2022

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This report provides an in-depth insight of Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Industry covering all important parameters including development trends, challenges, opportunities, key manufacturers and competitive analysis.This report studies Healthcare/Medical Simulation 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.View complete report atThis report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAdhesion BiomedicalBostik Ltd. (France)Henkel AG & Company (Germany)B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany)3M Company (U.S.)CryoLife, Inc. (U.S.)Chemence Ltd. (U.K.)Cyberbond LLC (U.S.)Cohera Medical, Inc.Itac Ltd. (U.S.)Ethicon Inc. (U.S.)Covidien Ltd. (Ireland)GluStitch Inc. (Canada)Adhezion Biomedical (U.S.)Cohera Medical, Inc. (U.S.)Baxter International Inc. (U.S.)GEM S.r.l (Italy)Meyer-Haake Gmbh (Germany)Biocoral, Inc. (France)Request sample copy atBy types, the market can be split intoChemical AdhesivesBiological AdhesivesBy Application, the market can be split intoMedical Appliance BondingSurgical ProceduresGeneral UseBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaInquire for discount atList of Tables and Figures1 Industry Overview of Healthcare/Medical Simulation1.1 Definition and Specifications of Healthcare/Medical Simulation1.2 Classification of Healthcare/Medical Simulation1.3 Applications of Healthcare/Medical Simulation2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Healthcare/Medical Simulation3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Sales Analysis4.3 Sales Price Analysis5 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Analysis5.2 China Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Analysis5.3 Europe Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Analysis5.5 Japan Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Healthcare/Medical Simulation Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Healthcare/Medical Simulation Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Healthcare/Medical Simulation Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Healthcare/Medical Simulation Product Driving Factors Analysis7 Global 2012-2017E Healthcare/Medical Simulation Segment Market Analysis (by Application)7.1 Global 2012-2017E Healthcare/Medical Simulation Consumption by Application7.2 Different Application of Healthcare/Medical Simulation Product Interview Price Analysis7.3 Different Application of Healthcare/Medical Simulation Product Driving Factors Analysis8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation8.1 Tennant Company8.2 Oreck8.3 Karcher8.4 Nilfisk-Advance8.5 Minuteman8.6 Sanitaire8.7 PowerBoss8.8 TASKI8.9 Power Flite8.11 Mastercraft Industries8.12 NaceCare Solutions8.13 Boss Cleaning Equipment Company8.14 NSS Enterprises8.15 Eureka8.16 Windsor Karcher Group8.17 FactoryCat8.18 Adiatek8.19 Cimel8.20 Tornado Industries9 Development Trend of Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market9.1 Global Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Trend Analysis9.2 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Regional Market Trend9.3 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Trend (Product Type)9.4 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Trend (Application)10 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Marketing Type Analysis10.1 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Regional Marketing Type Analysis10.2 Healthcare/Medical Simulation International Trade Type Analysis10.3 Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of Healthcare/Medical Simulation by Region10.4 Healthcare/Medical Simulation Supply Chain Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Healthcare/Medical Simulation11.1 Consumer 1 Analysis11.2 Consumer 2 Analysis11.3 Consumer 3 Analysis11.4 Consumer 4 AnalysisPurchase this 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.Pune:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Turbo-generator Industry Key Manufacturer, Analysis and 2022 Forecasts for Global and Chinese Markets Illuminated by New Report

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ReportsWeb.com has added a new report on Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Market Research Report 2017-2021. The report focuses on SWOT Analysis, Investment Feasibility Analysis, and Investment Return Analysis.2017 Market Research Report on Global Turbo-generator Market Industry was a professional and depth research report on Global Turbo-generator Market industry that you would know the world's major regional market conditions of Global Turbo-generator Market industry, the main region including North American, Europe and Asia etc., and the main country including United States, Germany, Japan and China etc.Get more information about this report atThe report firstly introduced Global Turbo-generator Market information including Global Turbo-generator Market definition classification application and industry chain overview; Global Turbo-generator Market industry policy and plan, Global Turbo-generator Market 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.In the end, the report introduced Global Turbo-generator Market new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis and Global Turbo-generator Market industry.In a word, it was a depth research report on Global Turbo-generator Market industry. And thanks to the support and assistance from Global Turbo-generator Market industry chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interGet Sample copy atTable of ContentPart I Global Turbo-generator Market Industry OverviewChapter One Global Turbo-generator Market Industry OverviewPart II Asia Global Turbo-generator Market IndustryChapter Two Asia Global Turbo-generator Market Product History of DevelopmentChapter Three Asia Global Turbo-generator Market Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Four 2012-2017 Asia Global Turbo-generator Market Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast AnalysisChapter Five Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Development TrendPart III North American Global Turbo-generator Market IndustryChapter Six North American Global Turbo-generator Market Product History of DevelopmentChapter Seven North American Global Turbo-generator Market Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Eight 2012-2017 North American Global Turbo-generator Market Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast AnalysisChapter Nine Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Development TrendPart IV Europe Global Turbo-generator Market Industry AnalysisChapter Ten Europe Global Turbo-generator Market Product History of DevelopmentChapter Eleven Europe Global Turbo-generator Market Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Twelve 2012-2017 Europe Global Turbo-generator Market Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast AnalysisChapter Thirteen Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Development TrendPart V Global Turbo-generator Market Marketing Channels and Investment FeasibilityChapter Fourteen Global Turbo-generator Market Marketing Channels AnalysisChapter Fifteen Global Turbo-generator Market Development Environmental AnalysisChapter Sixteen Global Turbo-generator Market SWOT Analysis and New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisPart VI Global Turbo-generator Market Industry ConclusionsChapter Seventeen 2012-2017 Global Turbo-generator Market Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast AnalysisChapter Eighteen Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Development TrendChapter Nineteen Global Turbo-generator Market Industry Research SummaryGet discount on purchase report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
2-D Materials Market Outlook and Global Foresight to 2027

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Global 2-D Materials Market Information, by Application (Aerospace, Consumer electronic, Electronic, Consumer electronic, Energy storage), by Materials (Boron nitride, Graphene, TMDC, Black phosphorus) - Forecast 2027Objective of 2-D Materials Market Study: 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 2-D Materials market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the 2-D Materials 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- 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 material, by application 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 2-D Materials market.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Market Synopsis of 2-D Materials Market:Market ScenarioThe major growth driver of 2-D Materials Market includes growing technological advancement in electronics market, and growing demand for user-friendly devices, among others.Hence the market for 2-D Materials is expected to grow at remarkable CAGR (2016-2027).However, lack of technical expertise is one of the major factors which are hindering the growth of 2-D Materials Market.SegmentsGlobal 2-D Materials Market can be segmented as follows:Segmentation by Materials: Graphene, TMDCs, black phosphorus, and Boron nitride among others.Segmentation by Application: Semiconductor, aerospace, consumer electronics, healthcare, and energy among others.Browse Full Report Details @Key PlayersSome of the major players in Global 2-D Materials Market include 2-D tech (U.K.) ACS materials (U.S.) Planar Tech (U.S.) Garmor (U.S.) Thomas-swan (U.K.), Nitronix (U.S.) among others.Americas North America US Canada Latin AmericaEurope Western Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia Pacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificRequest for Discount @The Middle East & AfricaThe report for 2-D Materials 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.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.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Next Generation Wireless Communication Market Outlook and Global Foresight to 2027

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Global Next Generation Wireless Communication Market Information, by Technology (Wireless LAN, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G), by Application (Consumer Electronics, Telecommunication, Aerospace & Defence, Retail, Automotive, Healthcare) - Forecast 2016-2027Market Synopsis of Next Generation Wireless Communication MarketMarket ScenarioNext generation wireless communication is an advance module of current communication. Wireless communication is an option to eliminate the traditional deployment system where so many wires and systems were required. Next generation wireless communication can help to exchange the data with very high speed reduce the time of exchange. Currently. This market has been valued at US billion which is expected to grow at US billion by the end of forecasted period. It has been estimated that next generation wireless communication market will register CAGR of during the forecasted period.Market Segmentation: Segmentation by Technology: Wireless LAN, Digital TV broadcasting, WiMAX, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth among others. Segmentation by Application: Consumer Electronics, Telecommunication, Aerospace & Defence, Retail, Automotive, Healthcare, and Industrial.Request a Sample Report @Study Objective of Next Generation Wireless Communication Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Next Generation Wireless Communication Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Next Generation Wireless Communication 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- 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 technology, by application 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 Next Generation Wireless Communication MarketBrowse Full Report Details @communication-marketKey playersThe prominent players in the market of Next Generation Wireless Communication are- AT&T (U.S.) Huawei (China) Cisco Systems (U.S.) IBM Corporation (U.S.) NEC (Japan) Intel Corporation (U.S.) Netgear Inc. (U.S.) Ericsson (U.S.) ZTE Corporation (China) Qualcomm (U.S.)Industry News AT&T has invested more than US $1.3 billion in the wireless and wired network during 2013 to 2015 in St. Louis. In January 2016, Huawei and Cable & Wireless Communications Plc's announced the successful trial of fastest copper-based broadband which reach speed up to 500mbps.Regional AnalysisNorth America is dominating the market of next generation wireless communication due to the advantage of technological advancement. Countries like US and Canada which falls under the umbrella of developed countries, are leading in the world in terms of technology. Currently, North America holds market share which has been valued at US billion in the year 2015. Europe stands as second biggest market for next generation wireless communication which holds of market share. Asia-Pacific has emerged as fastest growing market with the CAGR. High development of Asia countries is the key factors for the market of next generation wireless communication in Asia-Pacific.Request Table of Contents for this Report @The report also covers the brief analysis of Geographical Region includes:Americas North America US CanadaEurope Western Europe Germany France Italy Spain U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeAsia Pacific Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of AsiaPacificThe Middle East & AfricaThe report for Global Next Generation Wireless Communication Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario, which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.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.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Smart Lighting Market Outlook and Global Foresight to 2021

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Global Smart Lighting Market Information by lighting type (led, fluorescent lights, compact fluorescent lamps) by Application (commercial applications, residential applications) by components (sensors, relays timers) Sub Types - Forecast 2016-2021Market Synopsis of Smart Lighting Market:Market Scenario:Intelligent lighting systems are being widely touted as the future of the lighting industry. With the massive proliferation of lighting fixtures such as LEDs and others in the market, the smart lighting industry is set to dominate a plethora of applications ranging from commercial to outdoor applications. The market for global Smart Lighting is expected to reach up to $ 59.973 billion by the end of the forecasted period and is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~19-21%.The major factors contributing to the growth of the Smart Lighting market are driven by continuously declining average selling price (asp) of led bulbs and influx of smart apps, internet of things and remote access & control by software providers.Request a Sample Report @Study Objectives of Global Smart Lighting Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Smart Lighting market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the global Smart Lighting market based 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 on the basis of product, component, technology and vertical. 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 Smart Lighting market.Key Players:The prominent players in the global Smart Lighting market are  Teledyne Dalsa (U.S) Cognex Corporation (U.S) Basler AG (Germany) Pixelink (U.S) Sick IVP (Germany) JAI (U.S) LMI Technologies (U.S) Adept Technologies Inc. (U.S) MVTech Software GmBH (Germany) Omron Corporation (Japan) among others.Browse Full Report Details @Segments:Global Smart Lighting market for segment on the basis of Product, Component, Technology and Vertical.Global Smart Lighting Market by Product: PC Based EmbeddedGlobal Smart Lighting Market by Component: Hardware SoftwareGlobal Smart Lighting Market by Technology: Laser Imaging AugmentedGlobal Smart Lighting Market by Vertical: Automotive Consumer Electronics Pharmaceutical Metals Healthcare Food & Packaging OthersRegional Analysis:The regional analysis of global Smart Lighting market is being studied for region such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America has the highest market share in global Smart Lighting market, because advanced technology is implemented in industries.Asia-Pacific accounts for high growth rate in the market because of major manufacturing countries such as China, Japan, India and South Korea present in the region. Europe is also one of the prominent player in the market because of major automotive manufacturers present in the region.Request Make an enquiry for this Report @Intended Audience Investors and consultants System Integrators Government Organizations Research/Consultancy firms Technology solution providers IT Solution Providers Automotive Manufacturers Original Equipment ManufacturersAt 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.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Digital Cameras Market Set to Witness Significant Growth in the Coming Years

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Global Digital Cameras Market: General OutlineThe global digital cameras market is currently influenced by a range of revolutionary trends pertaining to lenses, photo accessories, and other key facets. The post focus feature was introduced to the industry by Lytro through a light-field camera model, which was followed by Panasonic but with a slightly different feature called refocus. Post focus allows the photographer to adjust the focus after the picture is shot. Three more trends, namely 4K video, powerful mobile photography apps, and improved 360-degree video capturing, are expected to continue taking the global market by storm.The report on the global digital cameras market presented here unveils an extensive segmentation by product type, which includes all the determining types of digital camera widely embraced by consumers on an international platform. With a view to exclusively analyze the market in the major regions of the world, the report offers a critical segmentation on the basis of geography.Significant factors such as industry structure, growth drivers, restraints, crucial market trends, market projections, and factors affecting market growth are all comprehensively elucidated in this global digital cameras market report. Using the Porters five forces model, the analysts have offered a deep insight into the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, competitive rivalry, and the threat of new entrants and substitutes.Obtain Report Details @Global Digital Cameras Market: Insight into Advancements and InnovationsThe international market for digital cameras is envisioned to witness robust advancement in the near future with the rising income levels of consumers and technological developments such as HD quality cameras and automation using touch screen. The popularity of digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras is another major reason for the global market to rapidly gain traction compared to the corresponding markets. It is anticipated that the digital SLR cameras market will grow vastly on the back of falling prices, rise of digitalization, easier usage, and strong demand in similar markets. Moreover, digital SLR cameras have emerged as a significantly growing segment with superior picture quality in the offering.By product type, the global digital cameras market can be categorized into key segments such as compact digital cameras, bridge cameras, mirror-less interchangeable-lens cameras, digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, digital rangefinders, line-scan camera systems, integration, and waterproof.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Digital Cameras Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketGlobal Digital Cameras Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of geography, the market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. Manufacturers in countries such as Russia, China, and India are expected to take grip of the lucrative growth prospects as the U.S. and Europe markets demonstrate mature conditions. In terms of a lions share in the global digital cameras market, the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific are predicted to steal the glory from other regions. With the increasing affluence of consumers in Asia Pacific, the region is foretold to have excess demand for digital SLR cameras, thereby contributing to the overall growth of the global market.Global Digital Cameras Market: Vendor LandscapeWith an outright profiling of the top companies in the global digital cameras market, the report presents itself as a great resource to gauge the nature of the competitive landscape over the forecast period 20162024. Major players such as Kyocera, Matsushita (Panasonic), Samsung, Sony Corporation, Canon Corporation, Sanyo, Ricoh, Polaroid, Minolta, FujiFilm, Casio Corporation, Japan Victor Company (JVC), Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard Company, and Olympus Corporation among others are studied in the report.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market Healthy with Impressive Rate of Adoption

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Global Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market: SnapshotThe global workflow automation and optimization software market is primarily dominated by multinational tech giants. The top five players account for well over half the share in the market and are constantly trying to outdo one another through product innovation.Driving growth in the global market for workflow automation and optimization software is the rising take-up of third platform technologies and soaring popularity of business process automation. Workflow automation and optimization software allows businesses to improve communication, reduce human errors, enable real-time reporting, and allow integration of third-party applications for added benefits. Such advantages are egging organizations to shift toward digitization of business processes.Cyber threats, however, are acting as a deterrent to the market for workflow automation and optimization software market. In order to tackle the menace, savvy players in the market are trying to develop more secure solutions.A report by Transparency Market Research forecasts the global market for workflow automation and optimization software to expand at a healthy CAGR of 8.7% from 2017 to 2025 to become worth US$1.456 bn by 2025 from US$0.713 bn in 2016.Obtain Report Details @BFSI Segment Emerges Market Leader due of Customer-focused BanksThe global market for workflow automation and optimization software can be segmented depending upon end-use into education, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), transportation and logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and information technology (IT), etc. The BFSI sector, of them, held a dominant 21.8% share in the overall revenue in 2016. Expanding at a strong 8.3% CAGR between 2017 and 2025, the segment is expected to continue holding on to its dominant position. The primary reason behind it is banks increasingly leveraging enhanced fraud management solutions, mobile banking, smart automated teller machines (ATMs), etc. to offer better experience of their customers. In the years ahead too, the BFSI segment is predicted to retain its dominant position by holding 24.8% share in the market.In terms of growth rate, however, the education segment is expected to emerge as a winner by clocking a solid 9.5% CAGR between 2017 and 2025.This 119-page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Workflow Automation and Optimization Software Market. Browse to unlock the hidden opportunities in this marketThrust on Automation by Different Organizations Propels North America MarketGeography-wise, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are key regions in the global workflow automation and optimization software market. Among them, North America contributes the most to revenue because of massive automation of business processes in the region and also because of the copious number of vendors of workflow automation domiciled in the region. The North America market grossed a revenue of US$279.6 mn in 2016 and rising at a CAGR of 8.6% it will likely gross US$566 mn in 2025. Europe trails North America vis-a-vis revenue.Asia Pacific is another key region which is slated to outpace all others in terms of growth rate from 2017 to 2025. The growth in the region is expected to be brought about by the quick uptake of workflow automation and optimization software across different industry verticals. Currently, on-premise workflow automation and optimization software segment generates maximum revenue in the market in the region, but going forward, the cloud workflow automation and optimization software will likely expand at a greater pace owing to their rapid adoption by the healthcare, BFSI, and telecommunications sector.Prominent players operating in the global market for workflow automation and optimization software are Xerox Corporation, Oracle Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, SAS Institute, Inc., SAP SE, OnviSource, Inc., Boston Software Systems, Flexera Software LLC, JDA Software Group, Inc., and Reva Solutions.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Engine Pulley Market Growing Steadily with Improving Technology

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An engine pulley is a basically a wheel that is mounted to the engine of a vehicle, mostly automobile, that drives or guides a belt. It is also known as a serpentine belt. The belt is a part of a system which powers the peripheral devices within an engine compartment including the power steering, fan of the vehicle and air conditioner. An engine pulley is frequently used in combination with a timing belt  which helps in the opening as well as closing of the engine's valves.The engine pulley system in a vehicle usually features many pulleys that perform diverse functionalities. One pulley may be in control of powering the air conditioning unit, whereas another pulley or a set of pulleys may take care of the engine timing. Certain types of pulleys, known as idler pulleys, are responsible for keeping tension on the belt and aids in guiding the belt accurately through the system. Generally idler pulleys are not connected to the peripheral devices, and they are adjusted in a number of directions to regulate the tension on the belt. Adjusting the tension of the pulley need to be done very carefully in order to prevent breakage and avert dismounting of the belt.The global automotive engine pulley market is principally driven by the growth in vehicle production owing to growing disposable income and rapid urbanization, especially in the developing nations. Furthermore, increasing demand for lightweight and efficient pulley systems that reduce the vehicle weight and improve vehicle performance for meeting rigorous government regulations including the CAFE standards are likely to increase the global automotive engine pulley market growth during the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @The global automotive engine pulley market can be segmented by type, type of vehicle, and geography. Automotive engine pulleys can be of two types - drive belt, and timing belt. The drive belt segment held a significant market share in the global automotive engine pulley market in 2016. Drive belts reduce engine load along with increasing fuel efficiency and available power. Moreover, these belts are easy to maintain and replace. These factors are likely to boost the segments growth thereby augmenting the overall growth of the automotive engine pulley market. Based on vehicle type the market can be divided into passenger car, light commercial vehicle, and heavy commercial vehicle. By volume, the passenger car segment is expected to hold a substantial share of the market, owing to the rising demand for high-quality pulleys with advanced load-carrying capacity.By geography, the global automotive engine pulley market can be segmented broadly into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle east and Africa. Asia pacific held a significant market share in the global market in 2016 owing to the rising production of vehicles in Japan, and China. Asia Pacific is followed by North America and Europe, in terms of market share. The U.S. held the majority of the market for automotive engine pulleys in the North American region trailed by Mexico and Canada. The demand for automotive engine pulleys in European region is likely to be high owing to the growing demand for technologically advanced automobiles in this region.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Automotive Engine Pulley Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketThe key players in the region are investing profoundly in research and development activities to introduce strong and durable automotive pulley systems that have reduced widths and a lengthier service life than the existing ones. For instance, some R&D activities are focusing on decreasing the breadth of the belt for incorporation of those in compact engines. The primary aim of this is to attain a reduction of width from 16 to 20 mmto 10 mm to 14 mm. Some of the major players in the global automotive engine pulley market include ContiTech, Phoenix Pulleys, Bearings & Belts, Clark Pulley Industries, Zhejiang Renchi Auto Parts Co.Ltd., Panjiva, Inc., KAVO B.V., and Kanemitsu Co. Ltd., among 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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
IOT Chip Market Growing with Innovative Industrial Applications

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IOT or Internet on Thing is a smart device embedded with software or electronics that helps in exchange and collection of data. It is also referred as the infrastructure of the information society. Recent computing systems contain electric mechanisms which are called as chipsets, and this embodies an assembly of combined circuits relied widely on various consumer electronic devices that include smartphones, tablet, computers, as well as wearable technology. Chipsets are designed to work with a certain set of microprocessors and often projected for a definite purpose or device.IOT Chip Market: Market Dynamics and RestraintsMajorly, growth in healthcare and automotive sector is directly driving the market of IOT Chip market globally. Growth in the new segment of the transportation and automotive domain is driving the demand; the new segment includes an addition of connected car product line which adheres intelligent transportation system (ITS) with the advancement of Internet on Thing (IOT) technology. The retail industry is forecasted to overtake the market of IOT while becoming the leading industry in IOT usage. The other key factors that lift the market growth of IOT Chip worldwide is its capacity to process and manage an enormous amount of data which is generated by the devices or gadgets. Also, it is a protected, and adhere nonvolatile memory (NVM) for code storage, device configuration, sensor trimming, security keys, as well as stand by other storage functions which are essential during processing and execution of data produced from IOT devices. Chipset which is specifically designed for IOT system adheres different factor that is finest energy efficiency.Obtain Report Details @Although demand and necessity of IOT Chip in the varied applications of several industries ranging from automotive to pharmacy can be seen significantly, factors such as restricted throughput and high pricing of IOT Chip technology are acting as the main hindrance to the IOT Chip market growth to a certain extent.IOT Chip Market: Market SegmentationThe global IOT Chip market is segmented based on its hardware types, and end user applications type.Based on the hardware type, IOT Chip market is segmented into:ProcessorSensorConnectivity ICMemory DeviceLogic DeviceBased on the end user applications type, IOT Chip market is segmented into:Automotive & TransportationRetailEnvironmental monitoringBuilding and home automationConsumer applicationWearable DevicesMetropolitan scale deploymentsManufacturingMedical and healthcareIndustrialEnergy managementMediaInfrastructure managementGet accurate market forecast and analysis on the IOT Chip Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketIOT Chip Market: Regional OutlookRegarding geography, the global IOT chip market has been categorized into seven key regions including North and Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. The IOT chip market is globally expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. Due to the presence of large number of IOT Chip market players in the U.S and Canada, and huge practice of IOT chips in the automotive, electronics and health care sector escalates the demand of IOT Chip in North America by making it a leading region in IOT chip market worldwide. The second leading region is Western Europe in which countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and U.K practices IOT technologies in various industries. Countries like China, India, and South Korea are becoming emerging market in IOT Chip making Asia Pacific Excluding Japan fastest developing region for IOT Chip market space, this is because of the high industrial growth of automotive, pharmaceutical and retail domain. The Middle East and Africa are anticipated to grow at a healthy growth rate.IOT Chip Market PlayersSome of the players of global IOT Chip market are AMD, Whiznets, Arduino, Texas Instruments, ARM Holdings PLC., Cypress Semiconductor, Atmel Corporation, Electric Imp, Marvell Technology Group, and Freescale Semiconductor (NXP Semiconductors) among others. Other companies are Intel, MediaTek Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Qualcomm, Nvidia, Renesas Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Silicon Labs, Semtech, and STMicroelectronics and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
The ringleader of an identity theft scam that he ran out of a converted garage at his mother's Milwaukie home was sentenced Monday to more than 10 years in prison for stealing the credit information of more than 140 people throughout the Portland metro area, a prosecutor said.

Brock Kelland, 29, used strangers' stolen information to create fake Oregon IDs and credit cards, said Clackamas County Deputy District Attorney Lewis Burkhart.

He gave the counterfeit cards to other people, who would then buy electronics, jewelry and other items from Best Buy, Cabelas, Target and other large retailers in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties to resell online.

They got people's credit information by buying it online, breaking into homes, stealing credit reports and applications stored in a bathroom at a Gladstone used car dealership and other methods, Burkhart said.

Clackamas County Circuit Judge Susie Norby sentenced Kelland to 10 years and two months in prison for aggravated identity theft and delivery of methamphetamine. He pleaded guilty in May. He still faces charges of first- and second-degree theft, identity theft and computer crime in Multnomah County related to the same case.

Defense attorney Ruben Medina asked the judge to sentence Kelland to four years and two months in prison, saying in court documents that the charges Kelland faced were linked to a "single criminal episode."

Kelland is one of at least four people charged in the case. Court records show he created an online seller's account through OfferUp in June 2014 and sold new electronics, jewelry and fashion accessories below retail value until he drew the attention of Portland police in March.

"This is one of the worst ID theft rings that I've ever come across," Burkhart said after Kelland's sentencing. "He ... had all these people doing his bidding for him while damaging dozens and dozens of people's credit."

Authorities haven't set a restitution amount in the Clackamas County case, partly because investigators haven't been able to determine how much merchandise was stolen and how many people were involved in the scheme, Burkhart said.

Burkhart wrote in a sentencing memo that the investigation began when an undercover Portland police detective responded to an online ad for a Fitbit being sold "substantially lower" than retail value.

The detective later arrested the seller, Dominic George, who was found with methamphetamine, heroin and three fake Oregon IDs, the memo said. George told the detective he was a heroin addict, identified Kelland as his drug dealer, claimed he owed Kelland $1,200 and was working off his debt, according to the court records.

George, 25, told police that Kelland gave him the fake IDs, told him to open credit lines at Sears, Target, Macy's and other stores, then buy electronics or jewelry and give them to Kelland, the memo said. George said Kelland gave him drugs in return.

George said he also would sell some of the items online through OfferUp and give some of the proceeds to Kelland, according to the memo. He said Kelland had several people working for him.

Detectives recorded a call George made to Kelland when Kelland talked about making a new fake ID for George and directing him to "only go to Best Buy and Target because those retailers were 'easy,'" the memo said.

Investigators found Social Security numbers and other personal information for more than 140 people when they searched Kelland's home, including credit applications from All Cars Auto Sales in Gladstone, the memo said. Authorities also seized more than $1,000, methamphetamine, heroin, four computers, a scanner, printer, blank credit cards, embossers and other materials used to create counterfeit items.

An investigation determined no one from All Cars Auto Sales was involved in the theft of the credit applications and it was "a business with extraordinarily sloppy storage practices," the memo said.

George pleaded no contest to first-degree theft and identity theft in Multnomah County and was sentenced in June to three years of probation

Jeffrey Millstein, Kelland's former attorney, is accused in Multnomah County of second-degree theft and identity theft in the case. A fourth man, Christopher Denning, pleaded guilty to identity theft in Clackamas County and is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. His plea petition said he has agreed to 10 days in jail and a year and a half of probation.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
A 35-year-old Vancouver man has been charged with fatally stabbing two men and attempting to kill a third over the weekend.

Dustin Zapel, 35, is accused of fatally stabbing two men and attempting to kill a third over the weekend.

Dustin Zapel was arraigned Monday in Clark County Superior Court on two charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder stemming from what police reports describe as a "completely unprovoked" attack.

Vancouver police on Sunday responded to a stabbing at an apartment complex on the 1900 block of Fort Vancouver Way. Officers found two men lying in the courtyard dead from apparent stab wounds. In addition to stabbing the victims with a kitchen knife, court documents allege Zapel bit them.

Zapel, 35, has a history of run-ins with the law. According to police records, he was booked multiple times on assault, burglary and trespassing charges. Most of them were later dismissed, and Zapel never served more than three days in jail.

Police have not publicly released the names of the victims. Court records identify one of the men who was killed as 42-year-old Thomas W. West. The other is tentatively identified as 55-year-old James A. Olsen.

Zapel is also accused of attempting to kill David Garner, 51, records show.

Zapel is scheduled to appear in court again later this month.

--Olivia Dimmer

503-708-8630; @DimmerOlivia
There's a reason people wake up early to stand in line for barbecue: Meat is typically best right off the grill or out of the smoker. It's a concept the second outpost of Russell Street BBQ, like many other Portland barbecue joints that don't always keep the fires burning all day, is looking to challenge. Last month, the 14-year-old Northeast Portland barbecue spot (325 N.E. Russell St.) opened a streamlined, mustard-yellow and brick-red barbecue counter in the former Hokusei space along Southeast Belmont Avenue. The casual spot recreates a bit of that Texas vibe, where meat is sliced to order (often here by longtime employee Danny Contreras) then placed on butcher paper-topped trays. Barbecue here is regionally non-specific, with Texas-style brisket and beef ribs, Alabama-style smoked chicken and white sauce and Memphis-style baby backs. Restaurant regulars will also see new additions to the menu, including kielbasa-style pork-and-beef sausages, breakfast tacos and frozen boozy drinks. The concept leaves little room for anything other than meat. Unfortunately, Russell Street's often leans toward the dry side, particularly later in the day.

The dish: Start with the Alabama-style smoked chicken and white sauce, here served in half-chicken increments, its smoky skin stretched taut over rosy-hued meat. While good on its own, the chicken benefits from a dunk in the thin, tangy white sauce inspired by the northern Alabamian style. Spare ribs and beef ribs -- if you can snag a fresh rack -- can be good as well, with meat that rips easily and cleanly off the bone, both proffering a hint of subtle smokiness. Lean brisket erred on the dry side on our last couple visits, but jiggly, barely congealed fat kept our fatty slices juicy. Pulled pork, here served sans sauce, was stringy and dry, even when doused in the housemade barbecue sauces. The kielbasa-style sausage was so dry and poorly mixed that it crumbled and split as soon as we tried to cut into it. As for sides, make sure to snag one of the cornbread muffins, served alongside honey butter, and the mac and cheese -- although a little grainy, likely from the blend of cheeses, it had an addictive bite.

The takeaway: At Russell Street BBQ's new counter-service restaurant, the emphasis is on the meat -- not always the restaurant's best aspect.

Sample menu: Brisket (sandwich: $8.50, by the pound: $23), Alabama-style chicken ($12), pulled pork (sandwich: $8, by the pound: $20), smoked beef ribs ($18/lb), grilled baby back ribs ($23/lb), sides like mac 'n cheese, beans and slaw ($3.50-$18)

Drinks: Easy-drinking beers, by can and draft ($3-$4), European wines ($7.75-$8.50), cocktails and boozy slushies ($9), nonalcoholic sodas and tea ($2.50-$4)

Go: When you're craving barbecue without the pomp of table service.

Details: Lunch and dinner, daily; 4246 S.E. Belmont St.; 503-528-8224; russellstreetbbq.com

-- Samantha Bakall

sbakall@oregonian.com

Follow @sambakall
Not every police agency provides a log of its responses, and few do it with the finesse of the Forest Grove Police Department. Every week, we post the goings on as provided by this community 25 miles west of Portland, not because it's earth-shatteringly important, but because it provides a glimpse into the world of modern small-town policing.

July 9

* A hotel reported that a guest had stayed past checkout time and would not answer the door. Officers were greeted by a somewhat dazed man, sans clothing, who had multiple weapons, an array of adult toys, and toppled furniture strewn about the room. The man was asked to put on some clothes and leave the establishment, which he did.

* A caller reported that a man had flagged down his vehicle, stating that a "monster had robbed the store," before allegedly pulling out a gun on the caller. Officers were unable to find a man or monster, or any report of a robbed store.

* Night shift officers contacted the driver of a suspicious vehicle who was found to be a registered sex-offender who had not updated his registration in two years. When officers went to arrest the man for failure to register, the man quickly changed to a different alias - who had an outstanding felony warrant in Washington. He was arrested.

July 10

* A man called to report that his girlfriend had punched him after he took back a promise ring he had previously given her.

* A caller reported that a man was at an elderly friend's apartment falsely professing to be the friend's grandson and then rummaging through the elderly man's belongings. The alleged imposter was trespassed from the property and told to move along.

* A woman reported that the icons on her computer had been mysteriously moved around on the desktop, possibly by a hacker.

July 11

* Night shift officers contacted two juveniles who had sneaked out of the house to visit a local convenience store. They were advised of curfew rules and released to their parents.

* A woman reported that someone had taken her car at night while she was asleep, scratched up the vehicle, and returned it before she awoke in the morning.

* Officers joined medical services at a local market where an intoxicated man was bleeding from a laceration on his arm. Officers were unable to get a coherent story from the man regarding the incident and he refused medical attention.

July 12

* Police responded to the Farmers' Market where two teens allegedly stole money from a vendor before fleeing the location. Officers were able to locate and arrest one suspect. The investigation is ongoing.

* Officers followed up with a door to door salesman who was reportedly offering to upgrade TV services for residents in the area without any official license or identification. He was advised to cease and desist.

* A caller reported a man acting strangely around a fire hydrant and checking the doors at a local church. Officers found a suspect matching the description nearby; he was advised to move along.

July 13

* A woman called 911 upset over an eviction, stating that her phone was out of minutes and she needed to reach an officer. She was advised of the eviction process, which is a civil matter, as well as misuse of 911, which is a misdemeanor.

* A caller reported that they were feeling unsafe due to a pattern of "threes" that had appeared in their home. Officers believe there were mental health issues involved and transported the individual to the hospital for evaluation.

* Police received a report of a mysterious man offering sexual favors at a local store.

July 14

* Police assisted in contacting a public safety chaplain for parents who tragically lost their child.

* An elderly man was reported missing from a residence. He was found a few blocks away from the home.

* On stepped up patrols along the B Street trail, officers found several illegal camps and ordered individuals to pack their things and move along.

July 15

* Law enforcement resources and the family of an online gamer were victims of a "swatting" incident where a false call was made reporting an armed man barricaded in a residence assaulting a woman.

* A woman reported that a man grabbed her buttocks at a local establishment while she was attempting to order jello shots. The man explained that he was trying to "high five" a friend the moment the caller was pushed into his way.
The Michigan Community College Association hosted its annual awards luncheon honoring Michigan community college honor students.

Sixty-seven students from 25 Michigan community colleges were recognized for being named to the Phi Theta Kappa All-Michigan Academic Team. Students are selected based on academic achievement, community service involvement and leadership accomplishment. Phi Theta Kappa's All-State recognition programs are conducted in thirty-two states. All-state team members have the opportunity to be named to the All-USA Team, and may receive stipends from USA Today and Coca-Cola.

Held at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing, the awards luncheon was keynoted by Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner, President and CEO of Phi Theta Kappa, Kari Kahler, Michigan Region Coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, introduced the candidates and conferred the awards.

Nominees from Mid Michigan Community College: Steven Bentley, Bryan Cody, Jacklyn Evans and Kilee Sommerville.

Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, is the largest honor society in American higher education with 1,275 chapters on two-year and community college campuses in all 50 of the United States and throughout the world. More than 2 million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with about 100,000 students inducted annually.

MMCC launched a PTK chapter in 1989 -- one of nearly 1300 PTK chapters worldwide. Over the past 28 years, MMCC's chapter has grown and obtained the highest level of achievement -- a 5 Star Chapter. Through chapter and individual projects, members have succeeded in serving the college and community.

For more information about MMCC's Phi Theta Kappa Chapter, visit midmich.edu/ptk or contact Tammy Alvaro at talvaro@midmich.edu or 989-386-6622 extension 634.
ASSE International Student Exchange Programs, in cooperation with the local high school, is looking for local families to host boys and girls between the ages of 15 to 18 from a variety of countries: Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Japan, to name a few.

ASSE students come with an enthusiasm to practice their English and experience American culture -- food, sports, shopping and more. They also love to share their own culture with their host families. Host families welcome these students into their family, not as a guest, but as a family member, giving both the students and families a rich cultural experience.

In addition, ASSE students have pocket money for personal expenses; and full health, accident and liability insurance. ASSE students are academically selected onto program, and host families can choose their students from a wide variety of backgrounds, countries and personal interests.

To become a host family or to find out how to become involved with ASSE in your community, please contact Mandie Willey at 989-274-1207 or by email: mwilley.asse@gmail.com to learn more about becoming a host family. There are many students to choose from, so begin the process of welcoming your new son or daughter into your family today.
Mid Michigan Community College had 50 TRiO-Student Support Services Grant Program participants graduate in May.

Graduates have since entered careers or continued their education at area universities. A new cohort of students will join the program in the fall of 2017.

This program supports students who face barriers in achieving their maximum potential, the college stated. The primary measure of success is successful degree attainment or transfer to a four-year institution. The college received the TRiO-SSS grant in 2015, which provides more than $200,000 for salaries, equipment, supplies and materials, and software to assist 140 students who are first-generation, low-income, or who have a disability.

Through opportunities to connect to academic, career and college support systems, TRiO program participants are aided in developing growth mindsets and resiliency so that they complete their college journeys, the college stated.

To maintain grant funding, 81 percent of program participants must remain in good academic standing. At the end of the winter 2017 semester, 95 percent of MMCC's TRiO-SSS participants achieved this standard.

"As a non-traditional student, I was apprehensive to begin the journey to college, to say the least," said Melissa Robinette, TRiO-SSS Grant Program participant and 2017 MMCC nursing graduate. "I do not come from a family where college or education was important. I will be the first in my family to graduate from college."

Over the first two years of the TRiO-SSS program, more than 90 percent of participants expressed favorable experiences in the program and a feeling of unity among their fellow students. TRiO-SSS not only supports students' academic activities and achievements, but also provides cultural and educational enrichment opportunities that program participants may not otherwise experience, the college stated.

During the first two years of the program, students travelled to the Detroit Zoo, Chicago, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Mackinac Island. They also attended events at the Midland Center for the Arts and participated in numerous university visits.
Former U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, who served as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, will deliver a keynote address on tax policy at Northwood University's 11th Annual Bay Harbor Symposium on Aug. 19 at the Bay Harbor Yacht Club in Bay Harbor.

Camp is a senior policy advisor within Pricewaterhouse Cooper's Washington National Tax Services practice. As a member of the House for more than two decades and part of the House Republication leadership from 2010 to 2014, Camp played a major role in the formation of policy on a wide range of issues such as tax policy, international trade, Medicare, Social Security and fiscal policy issues.

In March 2014, Camp introduced the Tax Reform Act of 2014, the most comprehensive tax reform proposal since the mid-1980s. The Camp proposal is widely recognized as the foundational text for significant business and international tax reform in the future.

The symposium will focus on American tax policy, and also feature Northwood's Timothy Nash, senior vice president and director of the Robert C. and Janice McNair Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and Adam Guerrero, associate professor, Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management. Nash and Guerrero will provide highlights on Michigan's economy and a national economic outlook for the year so far.

Northwood University hosts the annual event for friends and family of the university, and welcomes the public to the free and open symposium. Interested attendees can register and find more information at www.northwood.edu/symposium
Saginaw Valley State University will host Camp Infinity this July to introduce girls in middle school to computer and Internet technologies through hands-on activities.

SVSU is partnering with The Dow Chemical Co., the Michigan Council of Women in Technology Foundation, IBM and Microsoft to bring the camp to the Great Lakes Bay Region.

Campers will be split into two groups based on grade level. Participants in fifth and sixth grades will explore video game design concepts and build their own web page, while participants in seventh and eighth grades will delve into robotics and HTML web design.

In addition, all campers will attend mini-sessions highlighting programming skills and real-world uses of technology. Campers will also have the opportunity to meet professional women from the Great Lakes Bay Region, who currently work in technological fields, and explore IT career pathways.

Deborah Huntley, SVSU's provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, said the initiative aligns with the university's goal of boosting STEM education in the region.

"We are very pleased to add Camp Infinity to our suite of programs that engage young people with STEM experiences and introduce them to STEM careers," Huntley said. "Camp Infinity, focused on middle school girls, addresses an important need for our region. We are grateful to the program sponsors for making this possible at SVSU."

The camp will take place July 24-28 at SVSU. The sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. The cost to attend the camp is $75; there are a limited number of scholarships available which will reduce the cost to $25.

For more information, visit www.mcwt.org
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department.

Monday, July 17

12:22 a.m. -- Police issued a citation for minor in possession of alcohol in the 2700 block of Rodd Street.

Sunday, July 16

2:02 a.m. -- A motorist was arrested at Business U.S. 10 and the roundabout for drunken driving.

9:20 a.m. -- Officers investigated a driver license violation at East Sugnet Road and Lancaster Street.

2:48 p.m. -- A deputy responded to a report of a man lying on a Midland Township roadway and found the man had become tired while walking to Walmart. The man was warned for impeding traffic, and was given a ride to his destination.

5:14 p.m. -- Police arrested a motorist at Business U.S. 10 and East Patrick Road for driving while license suspended.

7:26 p.m. -- A deputy investigated a report of suspicious activity in Midland Township and found two Midland men, age 20, who were shooting a BB gun at clay pigeons. There was no illegal activity.

9:17 p.m. -- A motorist was arrested at East Lyon Road and Bayliss Street for driving while license suspended.

10:50 p.m. -- Police investigated a hit and run traffic crash in the 4000 block of Holland Drive.

Saturday, July 15

12:44 a.m. -- A Washington, Mich., man, age 26, was arrested for marijuana possession after a Jerome Township traffic stop.

2:17 a.m. -- A 35-year-old man was arrested for illegal entry after breaking a window and climbing into a Lee Township home, which he thought was his friend's house. It was not. The man was intoxicated, which is believed to be a factor in the crime. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for review.

3:22 a.m. -- A deputy was sent to a report of a suspicious person knocking on a Midland Township home's door, and found a vehicle in the ditch and a 15-year-old girl who had run away from home to spend time with the driver of the vehicle. The girl was returned home, and the vehicle was removed from the ditch.

5:46 a.m. -- A Flint man, 19, was arrested in Lincoln Township for drug possession. He was a passenger in a car that was stopped for speeding. The driver was cited for speeding and a graduated license violation.

8:36 a.m. -- A $50 mailbox was stolen from a Homer Township address.

2:42 p.m. -- A Larkin Township man, 90, reported his home was entered and four long guns were stolen. The case is being investigated.

7:03 p.m. -- A deputy investigated a case of littering in the Village of Sanford. There are no suspects.

9:51 p.m. -- A Lee Township man, 21, was arrested at South Meridian Road and West Gordonville Road for driving while his license was suspended.

Friday, July 14

8:21 p.m. -- A deputy was sent to a Warren Township address to check on a report of a man, age 70, seen driving erratically while wearing paint around his lips. The driver was found at his home. The man stated the substance on his lips was sunscreen, not paint.

9:11 p.m. -- A counterfeit bill was passed as payment at a Porter Township campground. The business did not want to prosecute if the suspect paid with real money, thus a family member paid the business to resolve the matter.
Kiwanis makes program work

To the editor:

On behalf of the Midland County Educational Service Agency, we would like to thank the Midland Kiwanis Foundation for its generous donation of $600 to support the purchase of pre-vocational materials for the "I Can Work!" curriculum that we have adopted. The "I Can Work!" curriculum has five modules that provide hands-on learning experiences for community jobs in the areas of clerical, food service, grocery, hospitality and retail. Our prime goal is to teach our students the skills that they would need to successfully participate in work experiences, and eventually, community employment. We are excited to create functional mock work areas where our students can learn and practice these skills.

Thank you again for your generous donation and for your support of programs at the Midland County ESA.

JESSICA SIMON

and JENNIFER VARNER

Midland

The effect of a postcard

To the editor:

As antique dealer for more then 25 years, I ran across a number of unusual items, one of which was a copper postcard with swastikas boarding all four sides. In the middle, was a picture of a copper-mine from Copper Harbor, Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

A local antique dealer bought the card. Several months after that, while visiting her in her antique shop, she said "Take this" handing us the postcard. She explained that she didn't want it around. We offered to reimburse her but she said "No! Get it out of here!"

Her vile reaction to the postcard baffled us. Apparently, it had triggered some horror from her past. What was doubly perplexing was the fact, that to our knowledge; she was not Jewish and had never been in Germany.

The word "swastika" is from Sanskrit meaning "any or auspicious object of goodwill; a mark denoting good luck."

Examples of the design can be found as far back as 12,000 years ago on central Asian pottery but its use as a symbol of good luck and good fortune is thought to have originated in the sub-continent of India around 600 years ago.

On a similar note of symbolism, "A picture is worth a 1000 words." Today's fourth estate and its castigation of our political system don't seem to be doing a whole lot of good. Other then fortifying the dispositions of the electorate to be for or against those in powers, it has only managed to widen the gap between political ideologies.

DOUGLAS D. SOLOSKY

Midland
Email Trek, an installation by Chinese artist Xu Wenkai, is on display at the Beijing exhibition Heart of the Tin Man. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An ongoing art show in Beijing sheds light on the importance of human emotions in our tech era. Xing Yi reports.

A dozen artists are presenting an exhibition by simulating sight, smell, touch and sound at the M. Woods Museum in Beijing.

Running from July 1 to Oct 8, it is titled Heart of the Tin Man, and reveals alternative modes of creativity and expressions.

The curator of the exhibition, Huang Xufu, is also a co-founder of the museum.

Huang, 23, has just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. On the opening night of his first curated show, he was busy showing people around.

The idea of the show came after he met one of the artists whose work is on display.

"During one of my visits to Austine Lee (the artist), he spray-painted an image of me while I was 'glued' to the phone," Huang says. "I look like a 'tin man' in the painting."

Speaking about the concept of "tin man"the show's theme, Huang says technology enables people to share information quickly and freely and everyone has a wider access to information and a chance to be heard. But at the same time, it's eating up people's lives so much that they have stopped paying attention to real things, such as their emotions.

British artist Gillian Wearing showcases her project Your Views, which she put together after inviting people across the globe to upload onto her website short video clips taken from windows.

It is "the largest collaborative film ever made", says Wearing.
Glenvar Baptist Church finds a way to involve youth in assisting local struggling families.

The Church: Glenvar Baptist Church in Salem, Virginia

The Challenge: Finding a way to involve youth in assisting local struggling families.

One Big Idea: Inviting the community to dinner and having young people deliver meals to the needy

When Glenvar Baptist Church in Salem, Virginia, started inviting the community to its weekly Wednesday dinners and delivering to-go meals to the hungry, it not only grew attendance at Wednesday night services from just a few dozen people to nearly 80, it also provided a way to train the churchs youth in ministry.

According to Pastor Matt King, Glenvar Baptist is a multigenerational congregation in a rural community where many area families struggle financially.

Our job is to serve this community, he says. We wanted to do that to the best of our ability, and one way was to feed those who were hungry.

When Glenvar launched the project in 2015, long-time church member Randy Scaggs, a local restaurateur, donated meals that have included pulled pork, baked chicken or spaghetti along with vegetables and dessert.

On a typical Wednesday, church members and visitors eat together at 5:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall. By 6 p.m., congregants start assembling the to-go boxes. The churchs youth group, along with other members, then take the meals to elderly shut-ins and needy families. Most weeks they deliver around 40 meals, Scaggs says.

Kelsey Sledd, 16, says she enjoys delivering meals, noting one elderly church member always looks forward to it and seeing the kids and is so happy.

She also understands the importance of reaching out and ministering to people who dont attend her church. They see that we are just normal people who want to help.

Scaggs says the adults involved in the outreach often encourage the younger volunteers to engage with and invite these people to church.

King says getting teens involved has been important and points to studies showing that congregants involved in ministry report having more fulfilling worship experiences.

If thats true of adults, King says, why wouldnt it be true of young people as well?

Find more youth outreach ideas 

GLENVAR BAPTIST CHURCH

Salem, Virginia

Facebook.com/pg/GlenvarBaptist
BLOOMINGTON  Travelers flying to and from Bloomington-Normal soon will get an up-close look at the future of science.

"The Art of Science," a series of exhibits featuring massive, artistically enhanced representations of scientific research, is coming to Central Illinois Regional Airport, maybe as soon as this summer.

If youre able to see the installation and read some descriptions, it will give you a nice overview of what science looks like and how it impacts you in ways youre not aware of, said Nick Vasi, director of communications for the exhibit's creator, the University of Illinois' Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.

The institute has assembled seven annual "Art of Science" exhibits. Previous installations have featured enlarged microscope slides of rat tissue used in food research; plant genes reacting to stimuli for an experiment on crop growth; and oil, water and sediment used in examining the effects of oil spills.

"We span the gamut from plant biology to climate change to food security to cancer research to behavior, Vasi said.

Most of the exhibits have been in Champaign-Urbana, but they've also come to Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports and the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield.

"The Bloomington airport was our next step because ... it houses a lot of beautiful artwork already, and it gets us access to institutions and corporations we wouldnt otherwise have access to, said Noah Dibert, creative program manager for the institute. "It's a great way to get our name out there a little more.

Dibert said the institute has gotten sponsorships through previous "Art of Science" exhibits that otherwise wouldn't have been possible. The institute's research is funded by federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, and private foundations, said Vasi.

"They approached us about displaying it here. ... We had open space in the former gift shop and thought this might be an excellent place for the display," said Fran Strebing, deputy director of marketing for CIRA. "We are still working out the details of when the artwork would be installed, the terms and the length of the agreement."

Strebing and Dibert said they hope the exhibit will open in a couple of months.

Its going to be semipermanent, at least a 12-month installation, he said. There will be 15 to 20 pieces up, and we have about 140 pieces in stock here we can cycle through. Well be probably on a quarterly basis be swapping out the photos to keep it fresh.

Vasi said he hopes the exhibit will be another example of the institute's tagline: "Where science meets society."

"When we put in a semipermanent installation somewhere with travelers from across the globe, we reach a much wider audience, he said. "It helps break down those walls and brings a broader understanding to the public of what we do and why its so valuable.
BLOOMINGTON  A dispute over a coat led to a November shooting on Bloomingtons east side, prosecutors said Monday on the first day in the attempted-murder trial of Darvell Williams.

A six-man, six-woman jury was seated Monday before opening arguments and the states first witness, a woman who reluctantly testified against her former roommate.

McLean County Assistant States Attorney Adam Ghrist told the jury that the testimony would reveal that Williams, 30, had given a coat to Willie Love, who then either sold it or gave it away. That led to the shooting on the Saturday following Thanksgiving at an apartment complex in the 2100 block of East Empire Street, he said.

Its a really simple case, Ghrist said. It will come down to common sense. The defendant took a 9 mm handgun and shot multiple times at Willie Love. Eight shell casings were found in the apartment the defendant was living in.

Williams is facing nine felony charges, including attempted murder in the Nov. 26 shooting that also damaged a mailbox in an apartment complex, a passing car and a window at Lowes Home Improvement at 2101 E. Empire St.

The trial was delayed last month when Love did not show up for the start of the trial. A warrant for Loves arrest has been issued for indirect civil contempt.

One of the charges, an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon into a vehicle, against Williams was dropped in court Monday.

Defense attorney Brian McEldowney asked the jurors to keep an open mind and to listen to all of the evidence before making a decision on Williams' guilt or innocence.

These are volatile charges and our natural reaction is to get angry, but please listen to all of the testimony before making a judgment, he said.

The state called Chiquan Felton to the stand, who attempted to avoid Ghrists questions.

I plead the Fifth, she said. I have nothing to say.

Ghrist reminded her that she was not facing charges, so there were no grounds to invoke the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

After excusing the jury, Judge Robert Freitag explained that she had to be truthful with her testimony.

You are here pursuant to a court order and if you are asked a question, you must answer truthfully, and if you refuse, you could be held in contempt of court and be held in county jail until you decide to answer, he said.

When the jury returned, Felton testified that she never saw Williams shoot at Love because her back was turned while she was trying to open the door to the apartment she shared with Williams.

I heard gunshots, but I never saw him shoot at him, she said. Where I come from, you run away from gunshots.

The trial is expected to conclude Tuesday or Wednesday. Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
NORMAL  For Byron Benscoter, Tuesday was bittersweet.

Benscoter, a long-retired Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School employee, lived across the street from the ISSCS Administration Building for decades after it closed in 1979  all the way until it tumbled to the ground.

Its kind of sad because I think the place should have stayed open. There are a lot of children in the state of Illinois that could use it today, he said. "Its too bad it has to go, but everything cant stay around forever.

Demolition got underway ahead of schedule Tuesday, said Nicholas Africano, an artist who owns the property at Beech and Oglesby streets in northeast Normal.

I anticipated they would take a bit longer to do the remediation, he said of the Stark Excavating crew razing the building. "I dont think they are prepared to say an exact (completion) date, but were anticipating getting the results they had today, that it shouldnt take a terribly long period.

Africano has until Oct. 15 to demolish the building under a deal with the town of Normal. The town agreed in September to pay Africano $500,000 after the demolition is finished; in return, he'll give the land to the town and develop the adjoining infirmary building, which he also owns.

Africano said he's still seeking funding for the infirmary project. He has until September 2018 to finish that project.

Seeing the Administration Building come down is resulting in a renewed sense of the gravity of my obligation to proceed with the renovation of the infirmary building, he said. Wed like to get going as soon as possible.

The deal also requires Africano to address the council every 45 days with updates on his progress. So far, he hasn't done so.

"I havent been asked to address the council and think, after today, we will have demonstrated the progress they have anticipated is on or ahead of schedule, he said. The financial issues attached to the development of the infirmary building will be ready to present as soon as we complete phase one, which is the demolition.

Africano said the demolition gives him "a great sense of relief and closure." Africano bought the Administration Building, infirmary and nine other buildings before a 1991 bankruptcy hearing for One Normal Plaza, which bought the properties in 1983. The nine other buildings have been renovated.

The town hopes to sell the land, though the agreement also includes an option for Africano to buy the Administration Building site back within two years.

Then-council member Cheryl Gaines said in September the town benefits from the demolition regardless because the building is "a terrible accident waiting to happen." Officials said trespassing and vandalism on the site are common.

ISSCS took care of thousands of orphans and wards of the state over more than 114 years in operation.
Mondi and IUFRO Collaborate On Sustainable Business Strategies Mondi and IUFRO are both committed to the important role of business and science in advancing action towards sustainable development, especially to combat climate change and its impacts, conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable economic growth worldwide. (pictured above: Mondi eucalyptus plantation) Forest science and business join forces to create a more sustainable future July 18, 2017 (Press Release) - Mondi, the international packaging and paper group, and IUFRO, the global network for forest science cooperation, will co-host an open dialogue at the IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress this September in Freiburg, Germany. The aim is to identify strategies and options for long-term structured collaboration between business and science towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mondi and IUFRO are both committed to the important role of business and science in advancing action towards sustainable development, especially to combat climate change and its impacts, conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable economic growth worldwide. The IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress on 18-22 September 2017 in Freiburg will highlight the contribution of forest research to answering questions of global relevance in the past, present and future. A series of Science in Dialogue sessions will offer opportunities to strengthen the interaction between science and important national and international policymakers and stakeholders, and to build bridges to other sectors such as water and energy from local to global levels. One of these sessions will be the Science meets Business dialogue on Tuesday, 19 September. It will focus on challenges faced in reaching the SDGs and consider how science can address the needs of the private sector. It will also examine whether there is a gap between the requirements of the private sector and the knowledge, skills and competences delivered by forest-related education. Christian Skilich, Operations Services & Technical Director, Mondi Group will represent the forest-based private sector. He stated, Mondi is actively collaborating with the scientific community and intends to support joint strategies and actions. We share with IUFRO a commitment to structured collaboration on global key challenges, such as climate change, sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources and product innovation. Our 'Growing Responsibly' model is closely aligned with the SDGs and we see value in collaborating with scientific experts to deliver these goals. Prof. Mike Wingfield, IUFRO President, confirms: Business and industry are major players in promoting sustainable pathways. It is essential for science to effectively identify and address information requirements of business and industry in order to create science-based solutions for a sustainable future. Mondi and IUFRO, who coincidentally are neighbours in Vienna, jointly have the expertise, knowledge and capacity to contribute to identifying pathways for sustainable development and options for the way forward. The Science meets Business dialogue will feature a keynote speech by renowned Cambridge University Professor Bhaskar Vira that will set the scene and address interlinkages and trade-offs between SDGs. This will be followed by statements of three high-level panellists representing the forest-based, food and energy sectors, who will then engage in discussion with scientists and the audience. This collaboration between business and science aims to create a platform for linking their perspectives on key sustainable development challenges and to identify opportunities for knowledge exchange and mutual learning among scientists, young professionals and business leaders. Mondi is an international packaging and paper group. The group operates as two divisions: Europe & International, and South Africa. To learn more please visit: www.mondigroup.com. SOURCE: Mondi Group
CBS News reports that former Dallas police officer Roy Oliver was indicted on one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault by a public servant following the fatal April shooting of 15-year-old high school freshman Jordan Edwards in Balch Springs, Texas.

Another family ripped apart by police brutality. There was absolutely no justification for this murder. We demand justice! #InjusticeInHD pic.twitter.com/XsL0cDxQ1L

 S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) April 30, 2017

(A tweet from the Edwards' family's lawyer)

Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said yesterday upon announcing the formal charge, "I think our police officers would stand with us and say, 'We do not condone bad behavior.' Hopefully, it is a message we are sending to the bad police officers. If you do wrong, we will prosecute you."



The shooting happened as Oliver and another officer were responding to a call about drunken teenagers at a house party on April 29th. Edwards, his two brothers and two friends were leaving the scene in a car when Oliver fired multiple rounds at the vehicle, striking Edwards in the front passenger seat. He later died at the hospital.

Initially, the Balch Springs Police Chief stated that the car was heading towards Oliver and the other officer "aggressively," but the officers' body camera footage later disproved that claim, showing that the vehicle was driving away from the scene.

Oliver was fired shortly after the shooting and arrested for murder in May.

Though Johnson said the indictment of Oliver was not a "political statement," the government's response to police shootings like this one, which continue to occur despite public outcry, will inevitably be political by the very nature of the racially charged situations themselves.

Johnson's remark may have been referring to comments from the executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, who said Oliver's relatively quick firing and indictment had a "tinge of politics" about it.

Indeed, the Texas Tribune points out that the Balch Springs Police Department's fairly swift response to Edwards' shooting stands out. The Tribune found that between 2010 and 2015, of the 656 police shootings in Texas' largest cities, only 25 officers were disciplined by their departments. Ten were fired, seven were indicted on a criminal charge (though none for murder), and none led to a conviction.

This mirrors the legal outcomes seen in cases involving officer shootings throughout the country.

[h/t CBS]
Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, hosts a ceremony to pay tribute to the sage on April 2. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Confucius museum under construction in the hometown of the ancient Chinese educator and philosopher will be home to more than 700,000 relics, including well-known Confucius family documents, sources with the museum said on Saturday.

A display plan of the museum, which is expected to open in the second half of 2018, was finalized following a meeting in Qufu city of Shandong province earlier this month.

The major museum complex in Qufu consists of an 11,000-square-meter display area, 7,000 square meters of warehouses and a 1,000-square-meter cultural heritage restoration center, says deputy curator Yang Jinquan.

The items to be displayed on rotation include more than 300,000 documents of the Confucius family from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) up to 1948 that contain details of the family history during feudal times.

In addition, there will be more than 40,000 books dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and more than 8,000 pieces of clothing and accessories from the Ming and Qing (1368-1911) dynasties.

Confucius (551-479 BC), an educator and philosopher, founded Confucianism, a school of thought that deeply influenced later Chinese generations.
Fashion in general is in a funny place at the moment, but New York fashion in particular seems to be at a serious turning point. With some of the city's biggest houses like Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Thom Browne and Altuzarra decamping for Paris, there is a huge glamour vacuum just waiting to be filled by some seriously fierce rookies. Enter fashion world's fairy godmother, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, who choose the most promising new voices in American fashion and award them with mentoring from industry leaders and serious grip of cash to develop their brands. Today, Vogue announced their 10 nominees for the 2017 prize, who will spend the next weeks reviewing their collections with the judges before flying out to Los Angeles in October for a fashion at the Chateau Marmont. From there, judges will decide who gets to join the ranks of previous winners like Alexander Wang, Public School, Sophie Theallet, Gypsy Sport and Joseph Altuzarra, and the winners will be announced at a New York gala on November 6th.

Let's take a closer look at the nominees, shall we?

Splash image via Michael Hauptman / Chromat / Sandy Liang
As a teenaged budding fashion addict in Hanover Park, Illinois, I plastered my bedroom walls with GUESS ads from the back cover of W, which at the time was a huge fold-out fashion newspaper. Claudia Schiffer channeling Brigitte Bardot photographed by Ellen von Unwerth felt like the pinnacle of glamour. The visual identity of GUESS has always been the handiwork of Paul Marciano, one of four French brothers who started the company in 1981 in Southern California. Today, nostalgia for those amazing '80s and '90s fashion moments is stronger than ever. At GUESS headquarters, I caught up with Marciano, who, along with his brother Maurice, opened a new art foundation in LA last month, to hear the behind-the-scenes scoop on their legendary campaigns.

Photo by Daniela FedericiTell me about your first ad campaign.

I was thinking it was time to do a campaign. At the time, I loved two campaigns: Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, both shot by Bruce Weber. I went to meet Bruce. I said, "We're French. We just started in America. I would love to shoot with you." It was 1984. His agent said, "It's 50,000 dollars a day." I said, "Wow." I'm talking about 35 years ago. That's like 400,000 Euros a day today. I said, "I can't."

So I said to my friend who was a makeup artist, "I need to do a campaign." She said, "I can be the stylist." I said, "Okay, but I can't pay you. Do you know a photographer?" She said, "Yes, Wayne Maser." I asked, "Does he shoot fashion?" She said no. I said, "He doesn't know what he's doing, you don't know and I don't know!" I said, "I want a girl with short hair," the opposite of all the models at the time. We found Deidre McGuire. We went to Laguna Beach.

We shot outdoors with almost no makeup. The police arrived, came up to where we were shooting and asked if we had a permit. I said, "No. What permit?" They said, "This is illegal." I said, "We're just taking pictures. We're on the beach. Instead of taking a swim, we're taking pictures." He said, "Sir, you need a permit or we're going to arrest you." So we packed and left. We had already shot a few pictures. We went from Laguna Beach to Manhattan Beach. Same story. The police arrived and asked for a permit. Then we went to Huntington Beach. After three beaches, we had a campaign.

Deidre McGuire, 1981 Photography by Wayne Maser

How did you first start working with Ellen von Unwerth?

One day I saw pictures in The Face or Arena. They were beyond sexy. I looked at the name: Ellen von Unwerth. I looked everywhere for her and couldn't find her. I looked for three months. She was German, the magazine was English but the rumor was she lived in Paris. Finally, I had a meeting with her. She had on clothes that were way too big for her and a big smile. She had never shot a campaign before. She was a model. Her boyfriend was a photographer. They broke up and she decided to become a photographer. Her first campaign ever was GUESS.

We did a campaign in Rio with Naomi Campbell and Eva Herzigova. We had a big fight with Naomi because she refused to shoot with Eva. She wanted to be shot alone. Eva was new, she didn't speak English. She was crying. I went to Naomi and said, "I'll give you 10 minutes. You can either pack and fly back home, or you can stay here and shoot with her. I'm going to have a coffee and I'll come back in 10 minutes and you tell me." She was furious. She screamed at Ellen. I came back and she said, "Okay, I'm shooting." And we had amazing pictures. At the time my brothers were looking for me. They tracked me down and said, "Where are you?" I said, "I'm in Rio shooting a campaign at the beach." They said, "We have the best beach in the world in Santa Monica!" I said, "This is Brazil! This is emotion!" They said, "Sand is sand!" I came back and got fired.

Claudia Schiffer, 1989 Photography by Ellen von Unwerth

How long were you fired?

3 weeks.

Not too bad.



They couldn't understand that you cannot recreate that vibe. You cannot recreate that essence that you feel there. It's the air. It's the music, the people.

Let's talk about Anna Nicole Smith.

She was Vickie Smith. I changed her name to Anna Nicole Smith, you know that? I found her in San Antonio. I was shooting GUESS Kids and she came with her son Daniel. I said, "Who are you?" She said she was a waitress at Red Lobster. Everything I asked her she called me "sir." She had never done pictures before. I had the kids' photographer shoot her on the spot. I took her to New York and got her an agent and changed her name. To me, she was Anna, but Anna Smith did not sound right so we did Anna Nicole Smith. At the time, Kate Moss was doing Calvin Klein, and she was 5'7" and feminine and skinny. Anna Nicole was 6 feet tall and bigger than life with boobs and shoulders. I instantly thought of Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita. I thought, "She doesn't even know how beautiful she is."

I was crazy about shooting her. She had such a magnetic personality, but you could see that she was fragile. Success came and she got recognized by people. She started taking sleeping pills because she couldn't sleep and mixing alcohol with them. I stopped working with her because I couldn't deal with that. I said, "We're done." After that she met the wrong people, and I think that was it.

Paris Hilton, 2004 Photography by Ellen von Unwerth

Of course, another one of your most famous GUESS girls has been Paris Hilton.



Ah, Paris. That's an interesting story. I was there when she was born because I knew her mom, who was the best friend of my girlfriend at the time. One day I got a call from an agency. They said Paris Hilton would like to do a GUESS campaign. I said great and asked what the rate was. They gave me some astronomical number. I said, "Why don't you send me the covers she's done and the campaigns she has done." I said, "Do you have covers?" They said, "No." I said, "So what do you have to sell me?" They said she's in every magazine, and I said every tabloid magazine. I said, "What I can do for you is create an image for her and a brand. And for that, you should pay ME. I'm not going to pay you." They called two months later and said Paris really wants to work with you. They said they could charge 50% and I said no. Finally I met Paris. She had three bodyguards who I told to go outside. I started to show her the campaigns and she said, "Don't. I know every GUESS campaign. My dream is to be a GUESS girl." I said, "Call your agent and tell them you'll do it my way." She called and said I want to do GUESS, I don't care if I'm paid or not. And then we did campaign after campaign, and we created an image for her that she never dreamed of. She's a nice girl.

I'm a huge Paris fan.



I really like her. I bumped into her recently, and she could not thank me enough. She said, "Paul, you changed my life, you changed my career. You gave me a brand, which I did not have. I had the name of Hilton, but I did not have a brand."

It's such a crazy time in fashion and publishing. Is the image still as important as it was back then?

35 years of business, I've never seen such a transforming time as I see now. Still, I believe people do not forget a visual brand. If you do something exceptional, something iconic, something that will stay in your mind when you close your eyes, that's good. If you close your eyes, you see the image of Ralph Lauren. You see the image of Calvin Klein. You close your eyes and can see the image of GUESS. The chic, casual sexiness. It's always feminine and voluptuous, not ashamed of curves.

I think the brands that survive will be the ones that can adapt to both magazine and online. If you're still very traditional, you will not survive. If you stay true to your roots, stay true to your brand and give a good quality product without prostituting your brand, I think you'll survive. What won't come back to business as usual is shopping centers. That's over. Nobody wants to drive 30 minutes and wait in a parking lot at the mall. This is where we are today.

What's become the new standard for images and campaigns, do you think?

Today's models have Instagram. You have to talk to them and understand where their mind is. I've had models come to me and say, "I dream about these vintage GUESS pictures." I said, "You're 17, how do you even know these pictures?" They say, "Everybody knows the image of GUESS."

The kids are so nostalgic for those times.

The '90s are very much in trend right now.

Is that good or bad?

I think it's good. Look at CNN. They put on these series, The Sixties, The Seventies, The Eighties. Everybody loves to see that because they didn't live it. It was an amazing time we had. Me? I wish I lived in the '50s with Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe. I didn't live that time.
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Im terribly sorry, but I failed to make a note to myself yesterday of who it was that brought this item to my attention, and now I cant remember. In any event, Im grateful:

https://mic.com/articles/182057/more-than-20000-muslims-gathered-in-canada-for-three-days-to-denounce-terrorism#.roLjIILkp

I realize that the Ahmadiyya are a distinct and often rejected Islamic religious minority  theyve actually been called the Mormons of Islam  but its not as if theyre the only Muslims speaking out against terrorism. And these voices need to be heard.

Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii
Ma Xiaotian works on his ink creation in his Beijing studio. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Ma Xiaotian has been painting lotus flowers at his studio in Beijing even in the July heat.

The ink painter says the dark green leaves and pink flowers on paper "have a magical power to cool his body and mind".

He has just completed a painting, more than 1 meter in height, which took him three days to finish, from early morning to late night.

"When painting lotus leaves, I use the technique of lishu (a style of Chinese calligraphy)," says the 55-year-old artist.

Lotus is one of his favorite topics. The painter has also painted figures, birds and flowers, and landscapesall of which have been included in his new book released in spring.

A solo show is under plan and will be held by the end of the year, he says.

The book has more than 100 pieces of ink-and-wash paintings, almost half of which are figures, such as men fishing on a boat, children dragging a cow or an old man playing the guqin (a traditional zither) under a tall tree.

The earliest figure painting in the book is one depicting a beautiful woman in ancient clothing, which Ma painted at the age 17. The piece won him a national prize and encouraged him to explore the art form for a lifetime.

Unlike many other Chinese painters who went to art colleges to learn the skills, Ma didn't train at such an institute. He learned from different painters he admired.
Iran Identifies Jailed American; U.S. Demands Release

07/17/17

Source: RFE/RL

Iran has identified the U.S. national sentenced to 10 years for spying as Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old researcher at Princeton University. Mizanonline, the official news agency of Iran's judiciary, said on July 16 that Wang, who was born in China, was arrested on August 8, 2016, while trying to leave Iran.



Xiyue Wang



The report said the man was part of "an infiltration project" to collect "highly confidential articles" for U.S. and British organizations, including Princeton, the U.S. State Department, Harvard University, and the British Institute for Persian Studies.



The State Department issued a statement confirming it was "aware of reports regarding Xiyue Wang, a U.S. citizen detained in Iran."



"We continue to use all the means at our disposal to advocate for U.S. citizens who need our assistance overseas, especially for the release of any unjustly detained U.S. citizens held overseas," the State Department said.



"We call for the immediate release of all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran so they can return to their families," it added.



The report by Mizanonline said Wang "was able to digitally archive 4,500 pages of the country's documents, while under covert surveillance."



It said the documents were taken from "research and cultural archives" and "the libraries of some state organizations."



As "proof," Mizanonline published a note in an annual report by the British Institute of Persian Studies in which Wang thanked a librarian for helping him make contact with academics in Iran.



Princeton, however, said that Wang was conducting scholarly research.



"Xiyue Wang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate...in the Department of History at Princeton University," the prestigious university in that state of New Jersey said in a statement e-mailed to Britain's The Guardian newspaper.



"His field is late 19th- and early 20th-century Eurasian history. He was in Iran last summer solely for the purpose of doing scholarly research on the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty in connection with his PhD dissertation.



"We were very distressed to learn that charges were brought against him in connection with his scholarly work, and to learn of the subsequent conviction and sentence. We cannot comment more at the present time, except to say that the university continues to do everything it can to be supportive of Mr. Wang and his family."



Iran earlier said the man was a dual citizen of the United States and an unnamed country other than Iran. It was not immediately confirmed if Wang is also a citizen of China.



Several Iranian dual nationals from the United States and other Western countries have been detained in Iran over the past year and are being kept behind bars on charges, including espionage and collaborating with hostile governments.



In January, Tehran's chief prosecutor said as many as 70 "spies" were serving sentences in Tehran prisons.



In October, U.S.-Iranian business consultant Siamak Namazi and his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official, were sentenced to 10 years in prison for "espionage and collaboration with the American government."



Tensions between the United States and Iran have heightened since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.



Trump has vowed to pull the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that eased sanctions against Tehran in return for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.



Last month, the U.S. Senate supported further sanctions against Iran for its "continued support of terrorism." The bill must still be passed by the House.



Iran threatened to respond with "reciprocal and adequate measures."



Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Copyright (c) 2017 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Iran to export 1 million tonnes of wheat: Official

07/18/17

Source: Press TV

Iran expects to export 1 million tonnes of surplus wheat and its products this year, up 60 percent from the year ago, the country's trade regulator the Government Trading Company (GTC) says.



Wheat harvesting in Hamedan, Iran in July 2017

(photo by ISNA)

GTC Managing Director Yazdan Seif on Tuesday said the rise was "the result of the creation of necessary mechanisms and the increase in wheat production as well as guaranteed purchases of wheat, especially durum."



"Our exports will not exceed 1 million tonnes, and we will sell only the surplus wheat" purchased from Iranian farmers, the Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.



The official said given a 4 percent rise in global prices of wheat, exports were set to help with job creation and economic boom in the sector.



"Our goal is to export durum wheat, flour and flour products, and avoid exporting unprocessed and raw materials as much as possible," Seif said.



Iran always holds a carryover from the previous wheat crop as well as past stocks.



Last year, officials said state-sponsored purchases of wheat from domestic farmers reached 11 million tonnes, a rise of 30% on the year before. Former GTC head Ali Qanbari said then the country planned to export 300,000 tonnes of durum wheat.





Wheat harvesting in Lorestan, Iran in July 2016

(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)

Iran's wheat production has experienced a cycle of boom and bust. Largely self-sufficient in wheat a decade ago, the country has turned to one of the world's biggest importers. However, it bucked the trend last year, with officials saying it had produced enough wheat to make the country self-sufficient amid a better harvest.



The Ministry of Agriculture, meanwhile, banned state imports of wheat for the current Persian year which began on March 20, ordering officials to stop registering new purchase orders.



Wheat is part of the itinerary for production of basic and strategic commodities under Iran's "economy of resistance" blueprint which Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has proposed.
Details of US Student's 10-Year Sentence in Iran Reveal Yet Another Arbitrary Prosecution of a Western National

07/18/17

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

The Iranian judiciary's sentencing of American academic researcher Xiyue Wang to 10 years in prison on unspecified espionage charges reflects the continued ability of security and intelligence agencies to dictate unlawful and arbitrary judicial prosecutions of Western nationals, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.







"Over and over again we're seeing foreigners who were legally allowed to enter Iran being imprisoned as political playing cards by hardliners who want to use them as hostages in their dealings with Western countries," said CHRI's Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.

"The Rouhani administration has aimed to present Iran as an open and welcoming place to visitors, but the continued entrapment of western nationals with bona fide visas reflects a politicized justice system that sends a very different message," he added.

Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei did not name the "American infiltrator" he accused of spying during the press conference where he announced the sentence on July 16, 2017, but the judiciary's official news agency, Mizan, quoted an anonymous source identifying Wang, a 37-year-old American-Chinese graduate student at Princeton University.

Allegations about detainees in politically motivated cases are routinely leaked to right-wing news outlets by the arresting authority in order to create a misinformation campaign about the detainee that will mute any potential public criticism of their subsequent prosecution.

The article by Mizan, which maintains close ties with Iran's security establishment, suggested Wang was targeted because of the institutions he is affiliated with in his academic work.

Mizan said Wang is a graduate student in history at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University and claimed he has "collaborated" with the British Institute of Persian Studies at Harvard's Kennedy School.

The center aims to "support teaching and research on all aspects of Iran and Persian Gulf studies and to create and support productive and innovative connections across departments throughout the University," according to its website.

The center also "provides summer grants to graduate students pursuing research and intensive language training primarily related to the scholarship of Iran and the Persian Gulf."

In its article, Mizan claimed the center "was engaged in a web of ties with US and British political, security and intelligence agencies."

In a statement issued on July 16, the Office of Communications of Princeton University said the university is "very distressed by the charges brought against [Wang] in connection with his scholarly activities, and by his subsequent conviction and sentence...and hopeful that he will be released after his case is heard by the appellate authorities in Tehran."

"Xiyue Wang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate (graduate student) in the Department of History at Princeton University," added the statement. "His field is late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history. He was arrested in Iran last summer, while there doing scholarly research on the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty in connection with his PhD dissertation."

"Since his arrest, the university has worked with Mr. Wang's family, the US government, private counsel and others to facilitate his release," said the statement.

Without providing any details about Wang's alleged crimes or information about his defense, Ejei claimed that "this infiltrator, who had two nationalities, one of them being US, entered Iran in a particularly sneaky way."

"He was identified and arrested by Intelligence Ministry agents and it became obvious that he was involved in gathering intelligence," Ejei said, adding, "The sentence against this person can be appealed and if it is proven in court that he was receiving direct guidance from the US, then I might be able to give more information about his activities."

"The judiciary spokesman's claim that Wang entered Iran in a 'sneaky' way is blatantly false," said Ghaemi. "All researchers and scholars who travel to Iran obtain proper visas to do their work, and Wang acquired information from publicly available archives."

"It's stunning that after one part of the government issues permission for a visitor to enter, another part carries out that person's arrest," he added.

The judiciary's ongoing imprisonment of dual nationals and foreign visitors contradicts Rouhani's repeated calls for expatriates to return to Iran. The growing number of arrests also reflects hardliners' efforts to prevent the engagement with the West that the Rouhani administration has sought to encourage.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has historically arrested the majority of visitors who have been detained in Iran, but since 2015 an increasing number have been arrested by the Intelligence Ministry.

Iranian-born Swedish resident and emergency and disaster medicine expert Ahmadreza Jalali was arrested by the Intelligence Ministry in April 2016 while visiting Tehran on an official invitation from Tehran University.

"The fact that Wang was arrested by the Intelligence Ministry, which operates under Rouhani, is another indication of how the ministry has become a force of repression in Iran," said Ghaemi.

Under a photo of Wang included in the post by Mizan, which published Ejei's comments, the far-right website described Wang as a "spy disguised as a researcher" who "digitally recorded 4,500 pages of official documents" from libraries in Tehran and Iranian academics.

On June 19, Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani claimed domestic agents were working with an unnamed infiltrator.

"In recent months the threat of infiltration has increased and all the relevant institutions should monitor all aspects of it," he said.

"Unfortunately, there are some people inside the country who are showing the green light to enemies and sending certain signals to entice them. These people are either 'enemy combatants' or 'corrupt on earth,'" added Larijani, citing charges that are punishable by death according to Iran's Islamic Penal Code.

At least 12 foreign nationals are currently imprisoned in Iran, including three with US citizenship: Siamak Namazi, his father Baquer Namazi, and Karan Vafadari.
As part of planned activities to strengthen the ties between British and Ghanaian businesses, a delegation of government officials through the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) called on the CEO of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to deliberate on business issues that seek to benefit Ghana and its citizens.



Led by the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Marfo, the delegation included the CEO of GIPC, Yofi Grant the Minister for Railways Development, Hon. Joe Ghartey, and the Deputy Minister for Energy, Joseph Cudjoe.



The visit was made possible to enable the delegation familiarize themselves with the operations and activities of the LSE.

Speaking to the LSE team, the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Asafo-Marfo indicated that Ghana was on a new path to development with a focus on the private sector.



According to him, approach to the new development path would involve mainly the private sector and with less concentration on the public sector. Hon. Marfo also mentioned that the Chinese government has agreed to support development in Ghana adding that China has agreed to lend Ghana over 10-15 billion dollars to help exploit her bauxite mineral holdings and other projects.



He further encouraged the LSE to engage with the Government of Ghana to come up with innovative ways that would help her raise funds for ongoing and future projects.



The CEO of LSE, Nikhil Rathi, welcomed the delegation and stated that the diaspora consisted a number of Ghanaians working at the LSE. Indeed, the Commercial Director Kofi Abban-Sackey, a Ghanaian who has risen to a senior role within the LSE, is present

in this meeting, he said.



Mr. Rathi reiterated the LSE was ready to support Ghana in accessing the deep pool of liquidity and capital that it provided, and encouraged the government to do more by engaging the LSE in raising funds and bonds to support Ghanas development.



Commenting on the visit, Mr. Abban-Sackey expressed that, The one thing that separates wealthy nations in the West and most impoverished countries is the access to capital. Given Ghanas potential and abundance in natural resources and her relationship with the London Stock Exchange, presents Ghana with significant

opportunities to raise capital globally.



He urged the Government of Ghana to fully utilize the LSE's unique range of capital raising platforms and solutions. He also said Ghana could seize the opportunity to build the requisite skills, expertise, and infrastructure to develop her capital markets as well as secure the countrys economic future.

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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The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the Ghana

Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), following meetings in London have expressed their interest to co-invest in developmental projects in Ghana.



Projects such as railway infrastructure, power projects (generation and distribution), general infrastructure needs among others were under discussion for the investment.



This agreement was made when the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo Marfo and other Government of Ghana officials visited the offices of the CDC in the United Kingdom.



CDC revealed that they had several investments in Ghana which included Cal Bank, SG-SSB Ltd., Ghana Leasing Company, Ltd., Tropical Glass Company,Ltd., as well as supported several private equity firms who had in turn invested in several other projects to promote development in Ghana.



Speaking on the agreement to co-invest, Solomon Asamoah, CEO of GIIF said,"Ive known and worked with the CDC for a very long time in my previous roles at the African Development Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and IFC. It is very refreshing to hear the CDCs interest in Ghana.



He added that As the CEO of GIIF, my role and goal is not to simply invest the US$250m anchor money the GOG have provided for GIIF, but to also grow those funds. Investing or co-investing with the CDC is the kind of package or plan that I believe will allow us to achieve this.



He further appealed to the CDC to support Ghana through the infrastructure

expansion phase that the country is about to undertake.

The Director and Head of Infrastructure Team at CDC, Sameh Shenouda expressed CDCs intense interest in Ghanas development. CDC has a focus on the energy and utilities sectors of Ghana and will be happy to support investments into these sectors, he said.



According to him, a partnership with GIIF gave CDC the assurance and risk mitigation required to make some of the investments. We look forward to working with the GIIF and the rest of the team in Ghana to pursue investment projects that interests Ghana. He added.



The Senior Minister, Hon. Osafo Marfo explained that the current governments private sector focused approach to development expected to create more jobs through the private sector.



He encouraged the CDC to engage with the government of Ghana and Ghanaian businesses to enable them align their investment interests with that of the country. He also called on businesses to invest in the different sectors of the Ghanaian economy; agribusiness, railways, mining, energy, among others.



The other officials included the Minster for Railways, Hon. Joe Ghartey, the Deputy Minister for Energy, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe and the CEO of GIPC, Mr. Yofi Grant.



The visit was part of activities organized by the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) with a big conference where over 250 British investors interested in Ghana met and deliberated on business opportunities in Ghana.

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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The Reverend Professor Aaron Michael Ocquaye, the Speaker of Parliament, is to deliver Ghanas 60th independence anniversary lecture, scheduled for Friday, August 4, 2017, at the Accra International Conference Centre, Accra.



The lecture themed 4th August, Ghanas Day of Destiny, would chronicle the events of the national liberation struggle from August 4, 1897, to the day of Ghanas independence on March 6, 1957.



A delegation from the Ghanas 60th Independence Anniversary Committee, led by the Chairman, Mr Ken Amankwaa, and the Vice Mr Abu Jinapor, on Monday paid a courtesy call on the Speaker to formally invite him to deliver the lecture.



The Speaker accepted the invitation.



Mr Jinapor praised the Speaker, not only for his statesmanship, but also for his pedigree in academia, politics, religion and public service, explaining that the choice for the Speaker was based on those values.



He explained the significance of the date in the struggle for independence, when in the Gold Coast, the name of Ghana in pre-independence, the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS), led by John Mensah Sarbah, was formed as a conglomerate of different groups of intellectuals in Cape Coast and Southern Ghana, to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the indigenous Gold Coast peoples from being usurped by the colonial government of Britain.



It is on record that The Gold Coast ARPS became a voice for the rights of indigenous peoples by both broadcasting their aims in their own newspaper, Gold Coast Aborigines, and advocating on behalf of indigenous land rights by presenting the reasons for their dissent of the Lands Bill of 1897 in front of the Legislative Council.



Particularly, John Mensah Sarbah, a key member of the Gold Coast ARPS and a lawyer, helped to advocate against the introduction of the Lands Bill of 1897 by arguing that it was no different from a previous, unsuccessful bill in 1894.



Fifty years on, the United Gold Coast Convention was formed, and J B Danquah of the Convention chose the eagle as the emblem of the nation, and it was approved.



Prof Ocquaye acknowledged with thanks, the invitation, and said it was an honour to the House.



He praised the courage of the nations forebears for resisting the attempts by the colonial British to usurp Ghanas lands, as the former set out to apply land acquisition policies elsewhere in Africa to the then Gold Coast.



But in the Gold Coast, we are not people you can easily take advantage of. Mensah Sarbah was quick to protest that Ghanas costmary land is never waste. No land in Ghana is fallow, no matter bushy,.. It belongs to a family, or an individual, for which the chief is a custodian.



...The land belongs to the dead, the living and the unborn. Any chief who sells land arbitrarily must be de-stooled, speaker Ocquaye cautioned.



Speaker Ocquaye also praised the use of brain power by the forebears in the fight for independence.

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.

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A man was allegedly deported from Belgium this week because he wasnt gay enough. Boyfriend Jurgen Hendrickx issued a public plea for help on Wednesday after Festus was sent to Ghana  where homosexuality is illegal.



The pair, who met on a dating app in Antwerp in 2015, have been in a relationship for two years.



However Mr Hendrickx said immigration in Belgium didnt want to believe he was gay and refused to let him stay despite being given evidence.



Speaking to Metro.co.uk, he said that he and Festus had handed over dozens of pictures as well as evidence that Festus had been with other men before they met.



He said: We have appeal so many times, we have done everything.



Immigration in Belgium dont want to believe he is gay. They say he is not gay enough.



I have spoken to him today, he is very scared, he has nobody there. I want to go to him.

Over the last two years our relationship has grown and grown and grown, it is so good.

I have autism and its not easy for me to find love but I have.

I cant stop crying, being gay is illegal in Ghana and I fear they are going to kill him.

Festus and I cry from morning to evening, we love each other so much.

In Ghana, residents face up to three years in prison if convicted of being gay.

Mr Hendrickx now hope to travel to Ghana next week to reunite with his partner.

He said: I have lung disease, so I need to see a doctor on Monday to see if I am fit to fly.

Then I need my vaccinations on Tuesday.



Immigration dont believe Festus is gay but he is and we are a couple.



Last year I was in hospital and he sat with me for eight hours a day from 2pm to 10pm just so we could be together.











Source: metro.co.uk









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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Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, his wife Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive at a military airport in Warsaw, Poland, July 17, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

WARSAW - Britain's Prince William took his young family to Warsaw on Monday to begin a four-day tour of Poland and Germany that will take in World War II memorials and meetings with locals.

The royal couple travelled with their children - Prince George, who turns four this month and his two-year-old sister, Charlotte.

After meeting the Polish president and first lady, William, second in line to the throne, and Kate, visited the Warsaw Uprising museum which commemorates the 1944 battle against Nazi occupiers in which tens of thousands died and the city was razed to the ground.

Later they met young entrepreneurs, before attending a party organised by the British embassy to celebrate Queen's 91st birthday, where William praised the strong ties between the two countries. Around 900,000 Poles live in Britain while Poland hosts British troops as part of NATO forces.

"In our warm relationships we are NATO partners and for the first time since the Second World War our soldiers station on your soil," William said during the party in Royal Lazienki park in Warsaw.

"Such diplomatic, military, cultural ties promise a lot and give opportunities for the future," William told during his speech which he started and finished in Polish, the second most spoken language in Britain.

Poland joined the European Union in 2004 and had been one of Britain's closest allies in calling for reform of the bloc before Britons voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum.

On Tuesday the royals will tour a former concentration camp in Stutthof, the first built by Nazi Germany outside its borders after the start of World War II. More than 85,000 died there.

Also on Tuesday, they will visit a museum in Gdansk. In Germany they are due to visit the Berlin Holocaust Memorial.

Reuters
As Parliament readies to read the bill on the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the Speaker has cautioned that the President must tread cautiously in the creation of the office.



Quoting the 1992 Constitution, Professor Micheal Ocquaye says it is only the Attorney General and Justice Minister that has the prosecutorial powers and any attempt to alter that arrangement must be done in accord with the laws of Ghana.



Speaking to an entourage of the British Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN, the Speaker said whilst the office of the prosecutor is an important addition to Ghana's democratic dispensation, it cannot be done in breach of the law.



Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution says: "There shall be an Attorney-General of Ghana who shall be a Minister of State and the principal legal adviser to the Government. (3) The Attorney-General shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecutions of criminal offences. (4) All offences prosecuted in the name of the Republic of Ghana shall be at the suit of the Attorney-General or any other person authorised by him in accordance with any law."



During the 2016 elections the then presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo promised to create a new independent office to handle prosecutions of corrupt public officials. The rationale, he explained was to put an end to the chorus of witch-hunting that has attended previous prosecutions.



But the move to create the office will substantially alter the country's constitution which gives only the Attorney General powers to prosecute.



The Speaker of Parliament told the British emissaries, unlike the British laws which rely on conventions and not heavily codified, Ghana's laws are clear and rigid. He added, for such an office to be created the laws must be amended.



He was quick to add that even in some cases involving entrenched clauses within the constitution, amendments by Parliament will not be enough.



His comments come after weeks of stakeholder engagements led by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in a bid to ensure a seamless creation of the office of the Special Prosecutor, government's important anti-corruption legislation.



The Attorney General told participants at a meeting in Accra, government wants their honest and sincere views on the draft Bill of the Office of the Special Prosecutor before it is laid before Parliament.



The Justice Minister explained the stakeholder meeting has been called because government recognises that the fight against corruption is neither the sole prerogative nor the responsibility of any one individual.



Giving an outline of the draft, Gloria Akuffo said the office will have "full authority" to start investigations and finish prosecution of officials found to have been corrupt.



There will be no political interference or micromanagement; she touted the security of tenure to be embedded in the law.



But the Speaker of Parliament still believes the government must proceed cautiously in the setting up of the new office.



Road Block surmountable



Commenting on the issue, the Vice president of think tank IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, said the concerns raised by the Speaker are legitimate and calls for a lot of discussion and consultation.



He admits that Article 88 remains a roadblock to a smooth and successful creation of the office of the Special Prosecutor but was quick to add, the challenge posed by that article is not unsurmountable.

Even though he argued that the law must be amended in the long run, he said in the interim, the powers of the AG can be taken away and given to the Special Prosecutor.



The discussions have shown that it is not going to be easy mainly because it requires a Constitutional amendment but there is going to be a middle way.



The middle way is that the AG must appoint the person and there should be a law to allow the person to operate as freely as possible. It must also guarantee tenure of office, a budget for the office and the issue of parliamentary approval for the person to be accepted across the political divides, he said.



Also commenting on the issue, a former member of Parliaments Legal and Constitutional Committee said he is intrigued that the Speaker is now waking up to what the minority has been saying since day one.



Article 88 is sacrosanct unless and until something is done about it, there is no way that the special prosecutor is going to have special powers that are not derived from that Article.



The Speaker is right in saying that it is not a clear cut issue. Although laws emanate from Parliament it behoves on the AG to ensure that the kind of bill she is bringing to Parliament will stand the test of time and in conformity with the Constitution, he said.



He added that it would prevent someone going to the supreme court and quashing it and it would have been a wasted effort.



"That is why we have been saying that the office of the special prosecutor is not something we should worry about. Within the confines of the law, the AG has the power to delegate," he added.

Source: myjoyonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Founder and leader of the Elected Prayer Ministry, Prophetess Rebecca Aboagye is asking Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong to give up on his political career and become a preacher.



According to the Prophetess who has received a prophecy from God, the controversial politician has a true calling to go into evangelism.



God is, however, unhappy with Mr. Agyapong because he has deviated and ignored his call to join the table of preachers and win souls for heaven.



Mr. Agyapong who is a staunch politician and a strong member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been an advocate of a corruption-free Ghana.



His contributions on issues have led to investigations into serious scandals in the public and private sector.



Recently, he revealed that the Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST), Alfred Obeng Boateng, was rewarded his position by the Akufo-Addo government due to his contribution to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2016 campaign with whopping GHC700,000.



He is ready to die for Ghana through politics because more corrupt officials are yet to be exposed.



But according to the Prophetess, the legislator risks being assassinated if he goes against God and, therefore, has been advised to as a matter of urgency, resign from politics and venture into full time evangelism in order to lead Gods flock.



Kennedy Agyapong must respect the calling of God and preach the gospel but not to be a politician, she warned.

Source: Ghanaweb.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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Former Member of Parliament for the Nanton constituency, Murtala Mohammed has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party government of deceiving Ghanaians.



With barely seven months in government, Murtala Mohammed says the Nana Addo-led government has failed the electorate because none of what they promised has been fulfilled.



The former Trade Minister in the erstwhile John Mahama administration was speaking on Radio Golds 'Alhaji and Alhaji' political platform in relation to the performance of the ruling government.



Job Creation



Job creation was one of the promises made when the NPP was campaigning for votes.



However, when they came to power they created more unemployment. To him, the NPP has failed.



He does not understand why the ruling government promised to give jobs but they made people lose jobs by sacking already employed ones.



They should have told us that the idea of creating jobs was to sack people and replace them with our own folks . . . 



You have a flagbearer who promised the people of this country that he was going to give them the best of transparent leadership; that he was going to be accountable to them, to ensure rule of law, to provide the needed jobs for the teeming Ghanaian youth . . . unfortunately (when he came to power) what we have seen is nothing but a calculated slap on the cheek . . . he added.



Accountability



On the party of accountability, he said: what kind of accountable governance have they given us, absolutely zero. Questions have been asked and strangely there is a loud silence on the party of the President on very critical national issues. A classic example has to do with what the Delta Force didnot a single statementnobody is talking about it and that will be the end.



Meanwhile, the former MP has condemned the Akufo-Addo led government for leading a family and friends government.



According to him, one thing that is missing is the hegemonic rulership. President Mahama never had a direct family member serving in his government. The only person who was remotely even connected in terms of family to the President was the then Deputy Minister for Transport, Joyce Bawa. Today, when you go to SSNIT, they created; Im told about three or five deputies, Mr Osafo Maafos son was one of the deputies, sister of Nana Asante Bediatuo is also one of the Deputies, you go to the Ministry of Agric, you have a minister who brought his own son to work there; the President himself appointing his own children. Let no one tell me that we are talking about competency here. That story should be told to the marines. You have a government that is being run by family and friends . . . 

Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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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Following the frankly ~dizzying~ resignations of not one but two Greens senators this week over massive bloody oversights regarding dual citizenship, a bunch of other Aussie politicians are rushing to prove that they, unlike Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam, are eligible to hold their office.

Waters resigned today after it became apparent that her birth in Canada made her a Canadian citizen (the law was changed a week after she was born), Ludlam resigned last week after it came out that he still held New Zealand citizenship for similar reasons.

Following Ludlams resignation, Tony Abbott was quick to pony up evidence that he had renounced his UK citizenship before assuming office, something that a bunch of very intense internet people had hitherto been very desperate to get their paws on:

FYI rumour mongers: I renounced my UK citizenship in 1993 and heres the proof: pic.twitter.com/tHAeJeqo5T  Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) July 14, 2017

After Waters resignation today, Belgian-born Liberal senator Mathias Cormann promptly fended off claims that he still held dual Belgian-Australian citizenship:

Thats false. I only hold Australian citizenship. Whoever inaccurately changed Wikepedia did not change the facts: https://t.co/GSBCKvQU9j https://t.co/xJV7Km43Rp  Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) July 18, 2017

It appears someone also took it upon themselves to update his Wikipedia page to that effect:

Mathias Cormann Wikipedia article edited anonymously from Australian Department of Parliamentary Services https://t.co/OD2dd3osHE  AusParlGov WikiEdits (@AussieParlEdits) July 18, 2017

Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim also took the time to clear up any confusion about his UK citizenship:

For those asking, I renounced my U.K. citizenship in 2015, prior to being nominated by the Tas Parliament for the Senate.  Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) July 18, 2017

His colleague Peter Whish-Wilson did the same regarding him being born in Singapore:

No Im not automatically a dual citizen because I was borne in Singapore (unlike Canada). Must have 1 Singaporean parent as well   Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) July 18, 2017

Apart from that @larissawaters and my cases were near identical.Left as Bubs with Aussie parents on Aussie passports. So bloody frustrating  Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) July 18, 2017

While theres no excuses for our partys oversight, its a cruel shitty blow to us all to lose another great Senator on such a technicality  Peter Whish-Wilson (@SenatorSurfer) July 18, 2017

Halal snack pack aficionado and foreign donations fan Sam Dastyari took the opportunity to clear the air about his Iranian citizenship:

To put everyone at ease. I was born in Iran (born an Iranian citizen). I have met my constitutional requirements regarding section 44. (1/3)  Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) July 18, 2017

I engaged two teams of lawyers (Aus & Iran) spent 25k on legal fees (paid for myself ). 2/3  Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) July 18, 2017

It was difficult, expensive, lengthy and precarious for my family in Iran. Nonetheless the rules are the rules & I have met them. (3/3)  Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) July 18, 2017

With the entirety of the Labor Party following suit:

Comment from Acting National Secretary of the ALP Paul Erickson #auspol pic.twitter.com/K7H8wgCezk  Political Alert (@political_alert) July 18, 2017

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts  who is barely even a citizen of this planet  decided to clear up confusion over potential Indian citizenship in his characteristic (read: fucking awful) style:

STATEMENT ON CITIZENSHIP I am a citizen only of Australia and therefore eligible to hold the position as Senator in Australian parliament pic.twitter.com/yjlCOf0gBK  Sen. Malcolm Roberts (@SenatorMRoberts) July 18, 2017

On another note, I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a 7-11. Im not even a chucker #auspol #NotIndian  Sen. Malcolm Roberts (@SenatorMRoberts) July 18, 2017

Amazing that they check for that but not whether a candidate has a photo on their Facebook of them doing a Nazi salute next to a giant swastika.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has said that theyve now gone through and double checked everyone. Probs a good idea, hey mate.

Richard Di Natale says hes double checked everyone elses citizenship in the Greens as he doesnt want to be standing here again.  Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) July 18, 2017

Photo: Getty Images / Paul Jeffers.
Just in case you were wondering how the steady march into authoritarianism was going, heres a wonderful update for you: all of our security agencies are being rolled up under one ministry, headed by slack-jawed fascist Peter Dutton. Joy!

A new federal super-ministry of Home Affairs will be set up, according to an announcement from Malcolm Turnbull, which will include the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and the Australian Border Force.

For clarification, the AFP used to be handled by the Justice Minister, and ASIO used to be looked after by the office of the Attorney-General. So this is a pretty big shift, and brings Australia in line with somewhere like the United Kingdom in terms of the centralisation of security powers.

In his press conference, Turnbull said it was the most significant reform of Australias national intelligence and domestic security arrangements and their oversight in more than 40 years.

The idea is insanely controversial and has been for ages  ever since Kevin Rudd suggested a similar move back when he was Prime Minister.

National security experts have largely condemned the move, suggesting that handing such immense power to a single Minister is irresponsible, and suggest that it may actually make them less flexible than if they operated independently.

Turnbull tried to assuage fears about this problem by saying it was not similar to the system as it exists in the United States:

Let me be quite clear, this is not a United States-style Department of Homeland Security The agencies will retain their current statutory independence which is such a vital aspect of our Australian system.

There are also suggestions there is a great deal of tension within the government itself about this move  with Sky News reporting months ago that at least one minister anonymously expressed reservations about handing this kind of power to a fascist like Peter Dutton. Which is a pretty insane thing to hear from a minister.

#BREAKING: @samanthamaiden says ASIO and AFP have advised the govt against a US-style Homeland Security dept. MORE: https://t.co/I0gFX56acx pic.twitter.com/WVbjQZUlTB  Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 7, 2017

An ex-Queensland cop in charge of almost every security agency in the country? What could possibly go wrong?

Photo: Getty Images.
A Disney executive has given the companys stance on one of the most unexpected show biz beefs of business memory: the stoush between fired Kermit The Frog puppeteer Steve Whitmire, and the Disney-owned Muppets Studio.

Speaking to the New York Times, Muppets Studio head Debbie McClellan hit back at Whitmires claims that hed been cut free from the role of Kermit after 27 years over minor quibbles.

According to her, repeated unacceptable business conduct necessitated Whitmires booting. Thats a far sight from Whitmires claims that the Muppet Studio had minor complaints over his communications with execs, and the way he took the advice of the Screen Actors Guild not to participate on a third-party project.

Lisa Henson, daughter of Muppet mastermind Jim Henson and current torchbearer for the Jim Henson Company, elaborated on McLellans stance. She reckons Whitmire was notoriously difficult to negotiate with over contracts, and was consistently reluctant to show up-and-coming puppeteers the ropes.

A recent blog post from Whitmire states Muppet Performers are not created equal, and thats a good thing!, and that when you sense that something is off, you dont have to fix it, but I do. Its up to the Muppet Performers to be purposely maintaining the consistency of the characters they perform.

Brian Henson, Jim Hensons son and chairman of the Company, added that Whitmire would send emails and letters attacking everyone, attacking the writing and attacking the director.

To the Times, Whitmire said Ive been laying awake at night for nine months trying to work out why the Studio would cut him loose over he issues he believed were easily solved.

We dont like this beef, TBH. Not around something as pure as the felt-hearted Muppets, for chrissakes.

Source: New York Times.

Photo: Lawrence Lucier / Getty.
SPOILER WARNING. Obviously this post includes spoilers. Go watch S7E1 if you havent already done so.



Finally, FINALLY, Game of Thrones is back.

A lot happened in the S7 premiere last night. Daenerys landed in Westeros. Foxtel shat itself. And Arya made the crucial mistake of running into a cameo and not murdering him on site for crimes of being about as subtle as an iron fist to the face.

But we also saw two characters come into contact for the very first time: Samwell Tarly and Jorah Mormont, the latter of whom has nothing but a bung arm and a raging hard-on for the Queen of Dragons to keep him going.

Has she come yet? The dragon queen, Daenerys Stormborn.

His greyscale issue has certainly progressed.

Actor Iain Glen, who plays Jorah, told Vulture at the Los Angeles premiere that his story arch this season was about finding a cure for his mostly incurable disease.

I got to a point where I think I was quite happy to die, I suppose. Id sort of given up hope because Id lost her affection [lol Daenerys, who else] and lost her belief in me. And the last moment of our time together last season she said, I need you, I need you to look after yourself, find a cure, so you can come back and be beside me when I occupy the Iron Throne. Thats my route, really, this season  to see if I can find a cure.

So Jorah found his way to the Citadel, where Samwell is also hanging about and doing his best Harry-Potter-trying-to-access-the-restricted-section impression.

Sam ends up stealing a book, and whaddya know, its all about dragonglass and its uses, which we know is the one thing with the ability to kill White Walkers.

Eagle-eyed Redditor Beastmomdekait zoomed in on a screenshot of the book, and noticed one important detail that even Sam didnt happen on: that dragonglass has also been used as a cure for various afflictions.

enhance ENHANCE!!

Theres something about it being a cure  and how little harm incurs from the ingestion  and something about discount the harm to the gullible, which makes you think even the Maesters dont have all that much faith in its healing properties. The text also advises that youd be better off spending your money on practical treatments.

But we, the oh-so-wise viewers, already known that dragonglass cures. Benjen Stark was attacked by White Walkers and left for dead, the Children of the Forest saved him from becoming a wight by shoving a piece of dragonglass in his chest.

And as Beastmodekait points out, the only person we really know for sure who was cured of greyscale was Shireen Baratheon.

*sobs quietly*

You know  before she was burnt at the stake by her dear dad Stannis.

And where did Shireen grow up? Oh yeah, right on top of the only known mine of dragonglass (a.k.a. Dragonstone) which Sam helpfully pointed out this episode  and where Daenerys is currently making herself comfortable.



There you have it. At some point, Sam is probably going to find the cure for Jorahs greyscale, which might prove useful in forming an alliance between Jon and Daenerys. Maybe. (Jon and Sam both have strong connections to Jorahs dad, the late Commander Jeor Mormont, remember?)

Tune in next week to hopefully find everyone proved utterly correct.

Photos: HBO.
When it comes to websites that people check on a near-daily basis, there are only a select few that make the list. Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter and up there for most. Whatever news, current affairs, or pop culture website you frequent (hopefully including us) might be up there as well. Your online banking platform of choice is also a strong contender.

Oh, and if you live in Australia, most probably OzBargain.

According to Alexa (the benchmark for internet rankings), the website that crowdsources smashing deals from all over the nation is among the top 50 most visited websites in Australia, outranking such mainstays as Seek and Apple. Based purely on these rankings and my unscientific conclusions, youre more likely to try and find a way to save a couple of bucks on your next purchase than to find a job.

The reality, however, is that OzBargain is among one of the wildest, loosest websites in Australia. Over the past 11 years, a committed user base has turned OzBargain into not only a one-stop shop for finding the latest Dominos vouchers and online shopping discount codes, but into a roller-coaster of a website, full of in-jokes and memes.

At the top of it all is Scotty Yang, the founder of OzBargain. He still runs the site along with a small team, as well as a sister website in New Zealand. But, as he told PEDESTRIAN.TV, hes more keen with the website being a smaller, community-based enterprise than being anything thatd challenge any social media giant.

At the beginning, it was just a hobby. I didnt expect it to be that big. But in terms of now, I dont want it to become too big. Im trying to run it with some moderators. I dont think Im able to handle something even bigger.

But Im happy with the rate that it grows and Im happy that its not too big like Facebook or Twitter.

That said, Yang also understands how OzBargain has changed the shape of Aussie internet culture, complete with the term OzBargained (when a website crashes after posting a sale) becoming a part of commonly accepted internet slang.

I mean, the memes are quite interesting. Because the site sort of becomes a culture in itself. Theres a lot of memes, like getting OzBargained, or we call someone a Broden, meaning someone who goes in to a sale and buys a whole lot, and then off-sells it all on eBay for profit. Its great to be part of an internet culture, especially in Australia, that people recognise OzBargain and the changes we have made to the internet community here.

Theres also a long history of weird and insane happenings within the orange-and-white walls of OzBargain. From finding unique McDonalds hacks to translating foreign Amazon websites to get a better price on PC parts, the website  and Scotty  has seen it all.

The most memorable [moments] were from the beginning, when OzBargain started and it was unheard of among the retailers. CatchOfTheDay was one of the earliest adopters, using OzBargain to promote themselves. I think there was one early  2008? 2007?  they were having a big 24 hour sale. And OzBargain just totally smashed their server. Those ones, the big sales, where a lot of people come in and talk and comment and try to discuss. The shoppers helping each other to get a good deal. Those are the ones I remember.

OzBargains relationship with businesses have always been tricky: while a literal heap of merchants and websites are keen to cozy up with the website, a whole bunch of others (including some big corporations) arent too keen with them existing at all. Yang, however, isnt fazed either way.

The businesses that want to support OzBargain or dont, is not really my concern. Our focus is mainly on the shoppers. The ones who actually want fun bargains I dont want to know who actually pays for the advertisements on OzBargain. I dont want to be seen as associating or trying to promote a certain business. We much prefer to be on the shoppers side, trying to work out good deals, trying to build a platform that can help them find the best deals for everyone.

Yet, of all the wacky happenings on OzBargain, one sticks out above the rest: the websites bizarre, near-obsessive devotion to Eneloop rechargeable batteries. Yes, batteries.

I think it started with Dick Smith being the biggest Eneloop seller. And people liked them, especially when they were made by Sanyo and made in Japan. It just became a meme, somehow. Like, this year for April Fools Day we converted all the prices into the number of Eneloops.

From it all, Scotty Yang says that one of the biggest takeaways from OzBargain is that bargain hunting and saving money doesnt have to be the domain of boring nannas.

We have a culture where bargain-hunting does not have to be very serious. People can find fun in participating in this kind of community. When you look at any of the comments, yes, there are people discussing the products or features. But a lot of the comments are just people having fun together. I think thats the value of what were trying to promote. Its a fun website, everyone can participate.

Who knew saving money could be so much fun?

Photo: Girlboss.
A 42-year-old woman in northern Pennsylvania is accused of shooting her 32-year-old boyfriend dead-center in the forehead on Saturday morning and then calling 911 to report the shooting - as if the matter were routine.

Now, police in Monroe County are saying the victim, Steven Mineo of Coolbaugh Township, reportedly asked his girlfriend to shoot and kill him because he was a member of an online death cult, both WFMZ and WNEP are reporting.

Still, the alleged shooter, Barbara Rogers, 42, remains jailed in Monroe County, charged with criminal homicide. She's being held without bail.

But her story about the death cult could become a factor in the case.

From WNEP:

Stephen Mineo flew a flag with the Roman numeral two outside his residence near Tobyhanna, an outward sign of his unusual beliefs.

On Facebook, he posted about conspiracies, doomsday preparations, and getting right with God.

Police in Monroe County believe Mineo's online activities may have played a role in his death.

And WFMZ reports this about the bizarre death cult motive in the case:

"She identified that the deceased was having online issues with a cult and he wanted to be killed and requested she do it," said Lt. Steven Williams with Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

But was Mineo attempting to get out of the cult? WNEP quotes some of his friends as saying so:

Friends say Mineo had spoken of getting involved in an online cult and wanting to break away, after finding it didn't fit his beliefs.

"They dropped them, because they were too far out, instead of being religious, it was just a cult thing, they got rid of that," said Kevin Wade.

But that break may have not been clean. Rogers told police that problems with the group lead Mineo to want to die.

The investigation continues.
Prague will be connected to China with another two direct flights from Shenzhen and Kunming airports within months, the Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Tuesday.

It is expected that the direct flights between Shenzhen and Prague will be launched by the end of this year and the other direct flight will be put into operation early next year. There are currently three direct flights between Prague and Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.

Addressing the China Investment Forum in Prague on Tuesday, Sobotka said the links will help to turn his country into a regional aviation hub.

The prime minister joined Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, who is visiting the Czech Republic to deliver a keynote speech at the forum.

Liu said the Belt and Road Initiative had already become a "world platform of cooperation", which has put China and the Central and East Europe countries on a "fast train in exploring cooperation potentials".

"For the next step, we need to align our development strategies and press ahead with the construction of big projects," Liu said.

He listed the Danube-Oder-Elbe Water Corridor for the Czech Republic, the Amber Road of Poland, the Open to the East Policy of Hungary, the reindustralization strategy of Serbia and the three Seas Initiative of Croatia as areas of cooperation that converge with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

"Going forward, we should work harder to speed up construction of the Hungary-Serbia Railway, Montenegro south-north expressway and do a good job in the implementation of energy projects such as Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania," said Liu.

"China encourages its reputable and competent businesses to participate in such big projects and we also welcome the enterprises in Central and East Europe to invest in China."

The forum was partly sponsored by Shanghai-based CEFC China Energy, which is a major investor in the Czech Republic.

Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, who is also the economic adviser to Czech President Milos Zeman, said: "By talking use of our advantage of being an investment bank and wide network in China and the rest of world, we are delighted to explore synergies between China's market and production capacities and the capital and technologies overseas."

Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
This was a home-operated family business of a far different kind, and it has led to criminal charges against a husband and wife in western Pennsylvania.

As TribLive.com reports, Scott Allen Shadle, 34, allegedly threatened to divorce his wife if she stopped turning over money from their alleged prostitution business. She is accused of sexually servicing men for money -- all from the confines of a Westmoreland County apartment.

Police say Scott Shadle had posted online ads charging for sex with his wife, Rebecca Shadle, 38. The alleged sex-for-cash business took place at Eastmont Estates apartments in Greensburg, Pa.

According to TribLive.com, police have text messages detailing discussions between the pair over how much money to charge for sex and how much of the proceeds Rebecca Shadle would then turn over to her husband.

The texts also document a martial spat between the couple that grew out of the alleged home-operated prostitution business.

TribLive.com writes that when Rebecca Shadle threatened to cut off the money, her husband texted "that he would file divorce papers and call her caseworker," court documents state.

Rebecca Shadle, 38, of Greensburg, Pa., is accused of charging her male sex customers extra to touch a 7-year-old-girl entrusted to her car. She faces charges of trafficking of a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.

Rebecca Shadle also is accused of charging her male customers extra to touch a 7-year-old-girl entrusted to her care. She faces charges of trafficking of a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a child, sexual exploitation of children, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.

Police say she has acknowledged being a prostitute and letting two men inappropriately touch the girl.

Her husband, Scott Shadle, faces three counts related to promotion of prostitution.

And a pair of alleged customers -- David Allan Smith, 47, of Greensburg, and Brian Keith Spillar, 49, of Ligonier -- face sex charges in the case related to their alleged contact with the 7-year-old girl.
From the flavors of the tandoor oven to curries, dosa and biryanis, Banana Leaf Indian Cuisine restaurant marries many of India's cooking styles onto one menu.

The casual BYOB restaurant recently opened at 6520 Carlisle Pike in Silver Spring Township in a former flower shop near Wal-Mart.

"We do all parts of India. The home-style cooking is the best part of it and the quality is never a letdown," said Venkat Reddy, co-owner of Deccan Spice and a Cumberland County resident.

Deccan Spice is an Indian franchise food company that operates restaurants in New York City, Tampa, Florida, New York City and San Francisco. The company is assisting franchise owner Vani Bharata with the restaurant.

Diners order at a counter in the brightly lit dining room surrounded by oversized windows. Choices range from a $5.99 lunch to $13.99 for goat and lamb entrees.

Heading the kitchen is Bharata, a local caterer who is well known in the Indian community for events such as weddings. She is joined by chef Raju Singh.

Together, they ensure the menu covers the Indian map, from the breads and curries of the north to rice and lentil dishes representing the south. There are dozens of vegetarian options.

Dishes are by no means Americanized or lacking in spice, Reddy said, adding Vani grinds her own dried spices for the dishes.

Cauliflower soaks up hint of heat from ginger, garlic, turmeric and chilies in a gobi matar dish made with peas and tomato. Lamb chops are succulent, almost melt-in-your-mouth, thanks to a marinade of yogurt, ginger and garlic. They are delivered sizzling on a platter to diner's tables.

Over lunch, visitors line up for platters of mix-and-match curries, appetizers, naan, rice and desserts served in plastic compartmentalized containers. The menu changes daily and the containers can be sealed for takeout. Prices start at $5.99 for the vegetarian up to $9.99 for one heavier on meat choices.

Otherwise, signature menu items include a Banana Leaf mixed grill combining items such as tandoori chicken, malai tikka, chicken tikka, sheek kabob and fish such as salmon and shrimp. It sells for $16.99.

In addition, there are more than a dozen biryani options including family packs designed to be taken home.

For a sweet finish, Vadilal brand ice cream treats fill a cooler case and be a part of Banana Leaf's inventory along with milkshakes made from fruits such as sugar apple and cheeko. The frozen fruits are flown in every 15 days from India.

Banana Leaf also caters events and weddings.

Hours are 11 a.m.- midnight, Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday. Phone is 717-516-8888.
By David Wenner and Nora Shelly

The latest Republican plan to replace Obamacare was declared dead on Monday night. But that didn't stop activists from protesting at offices of Republican members of Congress across Pennsylvania on Tuesday.



At a noontime protest at the office of Sen. Pat Toomey, speakers cheered the defeat of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the Republicans' plan for replacing Obamacare. But they also stressed this is no time to relax, especially after President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that Republicans should now focus on a bill that would simply repeal Obamacare, with the replacement to be figured out later.



Other protests were scheduled across offices across Pennsylvania, including those of Harrisburg area U.S. House members Lou Barletta and Scott Perry. Also, speakers at the Toomey protest, which took place outside the federal courthouse in Harrisburg, urged protestors to join protests in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. They further said protesters had blocked the doors of Toomey's Philadelphia office on Tuesday morning.



Outside Toomey's Harrisburg office, about 50 protesters stood from nearly an hour in sweltering mid-day heat. They made statements and carried signs equating Trump-backed health care proposals to "death."





Alissa Packer, one of the protesters, said she considers it entirely possible Republicans will mount an effort to repeal Obamacare without a replacement, therefore activists can't afford to let up. Beyond preventing that, the top priority is to pressure Republicans into working with Democrats on a plan to fix Obamacare rather than replace it.



Protestors outside Toomey's office made clear their distain for him, accusing him of serving his millionaire "friends" while caring nothing about regular people. The Senate's failed replacement bill was done largely in secret, with even most Republican senators left out of the process. However, Toomey was a central figure, credited with devising changes to the Medicaid expansion brought about by Obamacare, and even the traditional Medicaid program that pays for health care and nursing home care for the poor, the disabled and seniors.



Toomey has insisted the proposal would not take Medicaid coverage from anyone, but would impose cost controls to make it sustainable. However many experts, including several Republican governors, agreed millions of people covered by Medicaid would lose their coverage.



Inside the federal building, security officers said they were ordered not to permit anyone to visit Toomey's office on Tuesday. Toomey, and presumably the other lawmakers, were in Washington, D.C. rather than the state offices targeted by protesters.



The protesters on Tuesday said Medicaid must be kept intact, and called for expanding the program or using other means to help those who remain uninsured and those who have coverage but can't afford the deductibles and co-pays.



The those outside Toomey's Harrisburg office joined the group that's regular stationed there as part of the ongoing "Tuesdays with Toomey" protests.

After they wrapped up in Harrisburg, about 20 crossed the river to voice their concerns at Rep. Scott Perry's office in Wormleysburg in Cumberland County. About 10 spoke to a Perry staffer, sharing personal stories and how a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would affect their lives.

Brennan Mills, who works at a nursing home in Camp Hill, said she and her colleagues worry that a cut in Medicare funding could affect her patients' care. But Mills, who is from Harrisburg, said her concerns extended beyond that of her patients.

"I will be 70 in a couple months, I'm scared that there will be no Medicaid or Medicare for me, and that my family won't be able to take care of me," she said. "I have good insurance right now, but what will happen in the next couple months, I don't know."

Nikki Byer, of Etters, shared similar concerns. As a grandparent of a young man with autism, Byer said she is worried that funding for care for people with disabilities will be cut.

Others also expressed support for Planned Parenthood, as Perry has voted against funding for the group in the past. Mechanicsburg resident Mary Reichart said she credits Planned Parenthood with saving her life during college.

"I don't think people really understand how important Planned Parenthood is for men and for women," she said. Both Reichart and Byer said they would fight against efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act for as long as it takes. "When you're motivated by your own passion, it doesn't matter if it takes a year or six years," Reichart said.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration told Congress for a second time Monday that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and can keep enjoying sanctions relief, even as it insisted Tehran would face consequences for breaching "the spirit" of the deal.

President Donald Trump, who lambasted the 2015 pact as a candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to scuttle it or let it stand. Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasize their deep concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions won't go unpunished.

In a shift from Trump's previous threat to "rip up" the deal, officials said the administration was working with U.S. allies to try to fix the deal's flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more. The officials also said the U.S. would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalizing it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and "the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the agreement, one official said. That assessment carries no legal force, while Trump's certification that Iran is technically complying clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

The late-night announcement capped a day of frenzied, last-minute decision-making by the president, exposing deep and lingering divisions within his administration about how to deal with a top national security issue.

Since early last week, Trump's administration had been prepared to make the certification, a quarterly requirement. Trump first told Congress in April that Iran was indeed complying. With no final decision on his broader Iran policy, the White House had planned to let the status quo stand for another three months.

As planned, a public rollout began Monday morning involving close choreography among the White House, the State Department and other parts of government. The White House National Security Council distributed talking points to other agencies while national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin briefed outside policy experts who frequently comment on such issues in the media.

Then, just as the White House was preparing to brief reporters, the announcement was abruptly halted and the talking points temporarily recalled as the president reconsidered the decision, according to officials and others briefed by the administration. Among the options Trump discussed with Tillerson and other aides was to extend the sanctions relief but refuse to certify Iran's compliance, several officials said.

With a midnight deadline just hours away, officials disclosed the final decision to reporters on a chaotic conference call on the condition that it not be published until the White House had a chance to formally notify Congress.

Ultimately, the president's decision was the same on the substance to what his administration had been planning all along. Although the language was toughened to add the declaration that Iran is "in default of the spirit" of the deal, Iran will continue receiving the same sanctions relief that it did under former President Barack Obama.

In April, when Trump made his first certification, he paired it with new sanctions for non-nuclear behavior to show there was no softening of his stance toward the Islamic Republic. Earlier Monday, the White House had told outside experts it would repeat that playbook, by punishing more than a dozen Iranian individuals, organizations and procurement networks involved in ballistic missiles and other nefarious behavior.

But the day came and went with no such announcement, although officials said they expected more sanctions would eventually be coming. It was unclear why the administration held off or for how long, but typically the Treasury Department prefers to issue new sanctions during business hours.

"We receive contradictory signals," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations before the decision was announced. "So we don't know which one to interpret in what way."

For Trump, a vocal critic of the deal, the obligation to report to Congress on Iran's conformity has created an unwelcome, tri-monthly headache. Still undecided about whether to withdraw from the deal, Trump must either vouch for Tehran's compliance or try to claim Iran is breaching it -- even though the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors the deal says it is not.

In its condemnation of Iran, senior officials emphasized several longstanding U.S. concerns about Iran's ballistic missile programs, human rights abuses and support for terrorism in the region. They also criticized Iran for detaining U.S. citizens and limiting freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

Under the deal struck by Obama and other world leaders, Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear program -- long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons -- in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief. The deal does not address global concerns about Iran's non-nuclear activities, but also doesn't prevent the U.S. and others from punishing Iran for those activities. Iran remains on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism for its support of anti-Israel groups.

Scuttling the deal would put further distance between Trump and foreign leaders who are already upset over his move to withdraw from the Paris global climate change accord. Other powers that brokered the nuclear deal along with the U.S. have said there's no appetite for renegotiating it.

-- By Josh Lederman, The Associated Press. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington and AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
A prisoner who is on death row for killing his wife and her teenage daughter nearly 21 years ago has lost a legal battle over $2,974.84.

A Commonwealth Court panel handed Harry Reid, now 68, that defeat this week in his legal battle with the state Department of Corrections.

Reid claimed the DOC was gouging him.

At issue are the deductions the department is deducting from Reid's inmate account to pay court costs a Franklin County judge ordered following Reid's 1998 convictions on two counts of first-degree murder and a burglary charge.

Reid, a native of Jamaica, was found guilty of breaking into his estranged wife Chambersburg-area home and murdering her and her 14-year-old daughter.

In suing the corrections department, Reid argued that its calculation of his court-ordered financial obligation is way off the mark. He contended that he only owes $624.30 in court costs and that the deductions from his account should have stopped years ago when that amount was paid.

Judge Robert Simpson wrote the Commonwealth Court opinion siding with the corrections department. Simpson found that the $2,974.84 figure the department relied on is accurate.

That amount was calculated by the Franklin County clerk of court after the county judge ordered Reid to pay the costs of his prosecution, Simpson noted.

Reid had won an earlier financial grievance against the department. Initially, corrections officials incorrectly tripled the amount of Reid's obligation by assuming he owed $2,974 on each of his three convictions, Simpson noted.
AllBetterCare Urgent Care Center will become part of PinnacleHealth System, with the transaction expected to be completed by early fall.

AllBetterCare runs walk-in primary care offices which are typically open for 12 hours daily and require no appointment. It has locations in Harrisburg, Carlisle and Mechanicsburg.

Dr. Gregory Smolin, the CEO of AllBetterCare said in a news release, "As healthcare evolves and consolidates in central Pennsylvania, being the urgent care arm of the largest growing and evolving healthcare system in the region is an exciting opportunity for AllBetterCare."

The move continues

with recently acquired four community hospitals in Carlisle, York and Lancaster County, and announced it will join the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

AllBetterCare employs 12 physicians and seven physician assistants. It says it has treated about 100,000 patients.

The hours, staff and management at the AllBetterCare locations will remain the same, according to a news release announcing the transaction.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey says he'll back a push to repeal Obamcare without having a replacement in hand.

On Tuesday, as Republicans inspected the ruins of yet another repeal-and-reform push, Toomey issued this statement:

"Obamacare is failing. In Pennsylvania, Obamacare premiums are up 120 percent and 40 percent of our residents are limited to one insurer on the exchange. Families are still in dire need of relief. Meanwhile, Medicaid is fiscally unsustainable as its costs continue to grow faster than our economy.

"I intend to vote to proceed to a full Obamacare repeal bill that would take effect in two years so that Congress can use this time to craft a legislative replacement and move toward a consumer-driven health care system.

"I am disappointed with the failure of the draft Senate bill. History will look back on this moment and harshly judge this Congress for not beginning the process of replacing Obamacare and for failing to put Medicaid on a sustainable trajectory when we had the opportunity to do so."

The statement puts Toomey in opposition to at least one senator from a Medicaid-expansion state.

In a Tweet, Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she'd be a no vote:

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) opposes the ACA repeal-only bill. "I did not come to Washington to hurt people." pic.twitter.com/Vl7NEJF17w  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 18, 2017

So, too, did Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine:
As their latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed, Capitol Hill Republicans found themselves in a familiar place on Tuesday: In a state of disarray and wondering what to do next.

On Monday, amid deep public opposition, two more Republican senators declared their opposition to the latest rewrite of a healthcare reform plan backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, seemingly torpedoing a 2016 campaign promise to drive a stake through the heart of Obamcare.

If there's one odd man out in all this, it's U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., an architect and chief public defender of one of the bill's most offensive provisions.

That's language rolling back a Medicaid expansion that had granted coverage to hundreds of thousands of his fellow Pennsylvanians and millions of people nationwide.

Toomey was a vocal defender, making the case at a televised town hall a couple of weeks ago sponsored by ABC-27 in Harrisburg.

Even as Toomey held forth for the cameras, dozens of citizens, many of them in wheelchairs, spoke out in protest. While they were loud, they were never violent. Even still, six were still arrested.

Toomey's claim that the Senate bill wouldn't result in anyone being thrown off Medicaid was preposterous on its face. The bill ratcheted back federal funding to the states, leaving cash-strapped governments with three choices: Slashing the rolls, cutting benefits or reducing provider-reimbursements.

It wasn't difficult to find the path of least resistance. And Gov. Tom Wolf, in a May 30, letter pushed back hard against the proposal.

"Any new proposal should not take us backward, where too many Americans sought treatment in emergency rooms and the rest of us paid for that care through higher premiums," Wolf wrote. "Rather, changes should focus on making health care more affordable, more sustainable, and more accessible."

Last month, Toomey scornfully suggested that Wolf should "stop carrying on" about the Medicaid language, even as his colleagues in expansion state paid keen attention to their governors' concerns.

That included Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who said the bill would devastate her state and hamstring efforts to fight opioid abuse.

"I only see it through the lens of a vulnerable population who needs help, who I care about very deeply," the 63-year-old lawmaker told Politico recently. "So that gives me strength. If I have to be that one person, I will be it."

The bill's apparent collapse Monday brought to mind an old Daffy Duck cartoon that retells the "Robin Hood" story in the most farcical way possible.

One scene stands out: While a skeptical Porky Pig, as Friar Tuck, looks on, Daffy tries to swoop down on a hapless rich guy on his horse, only to slam into tree trunk after tree trunk on the way down.

With Porky raising a sarcastic eyebrow at him, Daffy saws down all the trunks, dramatically swoops down, bellowing "Yikes and away!," and slams into a boulder, missing his target entirely.

If there is a more apt cinematic metaphor, you'd be hard pressed to find one.

Republicans went to the drawing board again and again, trying to remove distasteful parts of the bill they hoped would sway both small-government conservatives and senators from Medicaid expansion states alike.

It was an approach doomed to failure from the start, bringing to life a Frankenbill that pleased no one and angered many. Yet, McConnell, as Daffy, kept at it, slamming into tree trunk after tree trunk, finally hitting that final boulder at the end.

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump said the country would have to wait for the federal insurance market to collapse before launching another assault on Obamacare.

In a series of Tweets on Tuesday, Trump blamed Democrats and a handful of Republicans for the bill's inevitable collapse. And, channeling his inner Douglas MacArthur, Trump also vowed to "return" to fight another day.

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The difference between Trump and MacArthur, of course, is that World War II general ended up winning his fight. He also ended up being fired by President Harry Truman for botching Korea, so there's that object lesson, as well.

Right now, there's no clear indication, nor any reason to think, that Trump and his allies will be successful in repealing the Affordable Care Act or coming up with a replacement that can garner enough votes in the House and Senate to actually pass.

Trump's assertion that Democrats were willfully obstructionist is disingenuous in any number of ways.

The White House never reached out to Democrats in any meaningful way. Nor was it reasonable to expect them to be complicit in the disassembling of what they consider to be one of the signature public policy accomplishments of the last 10 years.

McConnell, meanwhile, has said he plans to press on for a repeal vote, even without a replacement in hand.

Toomey, in a statement, was a yes vote:

"I intend to vote to proceed to a full Obamacare repeal bill that would take effect in two years so that Congress can use this time to craft a legislative replacement and move toward a consumer-driven health care system," he said.

"I am disappointed with the failure of the draft Senate bill. History will look back on this moment and harshly judge this Congress for not beginning the process of replacing Obamacare and for failing to put Medicaid on a sustainable trajectory when we had the opportunity to do so," he said.

As a result, local activists are keeping at it. And they were outside Toomey's offices on Tuesday, as they always were.

"We consider the collapse of the bill to be a short reprieve. While we are pleased that the [Senate bill] is now dead, we know we can't stop fighting the GOP efforts to destroy the ACA," Alissa Packer, of the advocacy group Tuesdays with Toomey said. "The fact that they will now attempt to repeal immediately and replace later shows that this is far from over."
If an effort to finalize a 2017-18 general fund revenue package were determined by the length of a meeting where it was discussed, Pennsylvania might possibly have had an agreement on one by day's end Monday.

But that's not how it works.

A meeting between the top two Republican leaders that lasted 105 minutes ended in no deal on a plan to close a $1.5 billion budgetary hole and fully fund the approved $32 billion state spending plan that is now law.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, emerged from that meeting inside the Capitol office of House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, saying, "We'll take into consideration what we talked about and see what direction we try to head."

But he added, "We have some work to do yet."

House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said he was told the meeting was positive and touched on a whole array of issues along with the House Republicans' goal of not raising taxes.

"They discussed everything," he said, "everything that is on the table."

Lobbyists hanging around in the Capitol Rotunda shared the ideas that they heard are on the table - applying the state's existing gross receipts tax on natural gas as it is on electric and telecommunications, removing a long-held state sales tax exemption on bills for basic cable television, introducing mini-casinos and other expanded gambling opportunities, and other non-tax revenue sources.

While Turzai and Scarnati were meeting, Senate and House Democratic leaders walked past Turzai's office curious about what was happening behind its closed door.

House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody of Allegheny County expressed surprise the meeting was lasting as long as it was. Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, also of Allegheny County, indicated a deal hinged on how the conversation between Turzai and Scarnati went.

"Four of five parties, for the most part, have rallied around a consensus plan," Costa said, referring to the House Republicans being the one that had yet to buy-in.

Dermody said the Democratic leaders were not asked to be in that meeting with Turzai and Scarnati and urged the Republicans, who hold strong majorities in the House and Senate, to call all legislators back to the Capitol to finish the work on a revenue plan in a bipartisan way.

"Our budget work is not done and the citizens of the commonwealth need a resolution now," Dermody said.

The House members remain on six-hour call but Senate leaders called senators back to Harrisburg on Monday for a session day that was mostly spent in closed-door caucus discussions about budget-related matters.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, said he thinks having senators at the Capitol is necessary to "put pressure on the process to get it done."

He said if all goes well, the Senate will complete its work on Wednesday. But as of early Monday evening, all was still not well enough to offer any hope that that would happen.

Meanwhile, the state will continue spending money as the approved spending plan directed as long as money is available. However, state funding for Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln universities along the University of Pennsylvania vet school continue to be held up until a revenue package gets resolved.

*This post was updated to clarify the one revenue option relating to the gross receipts tax.
A student from Nanjing Normal University (left) presents tea art to guests in London, UK on July 17, 2017. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

An art exhibition with more than 100 artworks by primary school students from Nantong's Tongzhou District has opened in London to showcase the art and culture of Nantong, Jiangsu province.

The exhibition, held jointly by Tongzhou Education Bureau and Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, will last 10 days at House of Phoenix in London from Monday, and has gathered together a variety of different art pieces from all primary schools in Tongzhou.

From traditional calligraphy to paper cutting, water and ink painting, blue printed homespun works, the exhibition shows a new and fascinating picture of Nantong's rich culture and the life of local children.

"We have collected more than 1,000 pieces from the local primary schools, all done by our primary students," said Jiang Xiaofei, vice-chancellor of Shi Yan primary school in Nantong, "we brought about a hundred to London in the end, and each of them is full of Nantong style and Chinese style."

"All the works can convey our children's strong love toward life and their own understanding of art, and some of them are categorized as intangible cultural heritage like blue printed homespun, so I think it can not only show Nantong's development to the world, but also let our own children feel the beauty of art and make them more interested in Chinese traditional culture."

Chen Zhixiang, a teacher from Chinese embassy's Sunshine school, hosted the opening ceremony. He is the one who comes up with the idea of this exhibition when he brought Nantong's typical art education into his UK classes.

Chen said: "We hope to let more people, especially many Chinese in overseas companies, know more about the culture of our homeland and the life of our children."

Deputy director of Tongzhou Education Bureau, Hu Qinghua, said he believes the exhibition can epitomize the local art education, build up a bridge for the friendship between Chinese and British students and enhance the cultural exchange in both countries.

"Childish the artworks may seem," Hu added, "but they demonstrate the love toward the home country, the wish for world peace and the pursuit for a better life."

"It's so impressive! I'm thinking oh my goodness it's another world!" said Synnove Engeset, one of the visitors from Norway. "I have been to China quite a few times. I used to be an actress and I'm interested in art as well, but this is so interesting because it's a real thing and it's done by children!"

The ceremony ended with a show of tea art, performed by a student from Nanjing Normal University, where purple clay pots were presented to all the guests.

Shen Yingwen, executive director from Phoenix Publishing and Media Group and Xie Guiquan, chief of London Chinatown Chinese Association also attended the ceremony.

Zhang Yangfei in London contributed to this story.
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.
Nov. 11-12, 8 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 13, 2 p.m.

Hoogland Center for the Arts Club Room 420 S. Sixth St., Springfield Downtown

$20.00 at the door

Theater & Comedy

Ever been asked by friends for help on a crosswords puzzle? What if your friends are from a galaxy far far away? Follow the fun watching Orts. The prize for winning a writing contest is a lunch with an award-winning author. Will the lunch lead to a storybook ending or as a mutual tragedy for both writers? See Musing  2 for the answer. 217-523-2787
Stephen Klasko, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, which also encompasses the Abington and Aria health facilities. Read more

(See UPDATE below) GE Healthcare has begun moving 100 staffers into 13 area hospitals of the Jefferson Health network and its Abington and Aria facilities, under a deal the partners say should generate more than $500 million in savings and new revenue over the next eight years through increased use of GE data systems and health-care machinery.



"What's really different is, these guys are not coming in as consultants. They are going to be embedded at our place," said Stephen Klasko, Jefferson's chief executive.

While "GE doesn't do work for free," said Helen Stewart, managing principal at GE Healthcare Partners, under "risk-sharing" provisions in the Jefferson-GE contract, "we won't get paid" if Jefferson's efficiency, medical care, and financial-improvement targets aren't met.

Klasko told me he wants the "combined organization" of GE and Jefferson to "disrupt health care" so that going to Jefferson, Aria, and Abington professionals will mean less hassle  fewer repetitive forms and requests, fewer stops at different offices, fewer duplicative tests, shorter waits. Doctors and nurses would be able to spend less time updating records, so they could see more patients per day and raise care standards.

Besides the GE staffers at the hospitals, the work will be supported by another 100 or so GE staffers, including dozens of new hires, Stewart said. Jefferson hospitals, colleges, and affiliates employ about 29,000, second only to the University of Pennsylvania and its health system among the area's private employers.

About 70 Jefferson biomedical staff who service radiology and other imaging equipment will transfer over to work as GE employees.

UPDATE 7/19: Jefferson says the transfers won't include any radiology staff.

Imaging staff "are nervous and upset about the GE takeover," a senior Jefferson staff member told me, speaking on condition I not post the member's name. "By going with a single vendor, how can we guarantee to get best breed in equipment?" Can GE show its machines perform better than a Philips or Toshiba ultrasound, TC scanner or MRI machine? Are its management and information systems necessarily the best?

The staffer added, "The in-house biomed people know us. They are on site, and can troubleshoot and fix bad fuses, bad keyboards, easy software problems. They feel like Thomas Jefferson just pulled out the rug from under them." Sounds like they'll need some GE reassurance. (END UPDATE)

Klasko said the Jefferson partnership is the largest of several Stewart's group at GE has initiated with U.S. hospitals since 2015. The campaign is backed by John Flannery, the past GE Healthcare executive who now heads the parent General Electric Corp.

Klasko also cited pressure from health-insurance executives such as Independence Blue Cross boss Daniel Hilferty, who he says have pushed hospitals to make much better use of the digital data generated in enormous quantity on patients, procedures, and therapies, to streamline and standardize care and support services.

The insurers, Klasko said, have been frustrated by the lack of progress on limiting the relentless cost increases that squeeze Medicaid and Medicare programs, private employers, and patients.

He cited the IBM Watson voice-command application, which Jefferson says will make it easier for patients to adjust room conditions themselves, as the kind of improvement GE is developing.

GE-Jefferson teams will review, for example, "the flow of patients through our system" to cut down, say, the time discharged patients have to wait for a wheelchair, Stewart said. "We'll be very deliberate about leveraging analytics and other tools to help us see those inefficiencies. We have a very data-driven approach using simulation modeling and advanced analytics. Let's build a systems approach, creating consistency, so care is really cohesive."

Standardizing costs and pricing "is a byproduct," Stewart said, of making care more predictable and efficient.

Long a maker of magnetic resonance imaging machines and other big-ticket machinery, GE Healthcare bulked up its digital-monitoring equipment menu over the last decade, before today's push to sell health-care hardware, software, and management in a package. Klasko noted GE has been buying up hospital consulting firms so it can advise on strategy.

The Jefferson deal is the largest and "most transformational" of several partnerships GE has rolled out since 2015, Stewart said. Others include GE Healthcare's pact with the Mission health-care system in Asheville, N.C., which targets imaging data and cardiology improvements; Hartford Health Care, focused on patient flow and imaging; and Philadelphia's own Temple system, focusing on radiology and financial data.
Though director Christopher Nolan's films are about superheroes and space travel and world wars, the moments within them that most interest him are not about Batman or the Joker or the clash of mighty armies.

He's keen to show how ordinary people choose to act in dire circumstances, and we see in these movies vignettes that stand as mini-referendums on human decency: the passengers on the ferry boats rejecting the Joker's kill-or-be-killed game in The Dark Knight, the dilemma of the refugees seeking to cross the bridge in The Dark Knight Rises (drawn, surely, from a similar incident that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina).

No wonder Nolan was so captivated by the WWII story of Dunkirk, less a battle (it's PG-13) than a massive rescue operation facilitated by the courage and the actions of common folk.

In Nolan's stirring Dunkirk, we see that the fate of an apparently doomed British force (some 400,000 men) cannot be determined by its politicians or its generals or even its soldiers  their pell-mell retreat from Nazi forces has stranded them in the French port of Dunkirk, where they're trapped, backs to the sea, where shallow waters prevent hulking warships from evacuating them.

England's leaders are out of options, but the stranded soldiers are not out of luck. Miles away, across the English Channel, hundreds of citizens and fisherman board their own personal or commercial vessels and set out for France.

Nolan condenses the experiences of the soldiers and citizen volunteers into just a few characters (the movie runs a scant 107 minutes), and his movie becomes a compelling mixture of the epic and the intimate.

The narrative follows an infantryman (Fionn Whitehead, later joined by Harry Styles) as he eludes the Germans and tries various desperate means of finding a berth on a rescue ship. Oscar winner Mark Rylance is a boat owner, armed with nothing more than an argyle sweater vest, who takes his two sons aboard his sailboat and heads for France, along the way picking up a shipwreck survivor (Cillian Murphy) whose PTSD complicates their mission. Overhead, a British fighter pilot (Tom Hardy) deals with Nazi aircraft bombing and strafing the survivors and rescuers.

Dunkirk has some standard disaster-movie touches, and a pushy score from Hans Zimmer (next to IMAX speakers, I felt as though Zimmer was actually trying to hurt me). Yet its unglamorous tales of survival make the drama feel gritty and truthful. Whitehead's character volunteers as a stretcher bearer mainly to cut to the front of a rescue line, but there is no way to game a situation this chaotic. Men claw their way on to troop ships; those ships are strafed or torpedoed or sunk.

Human nature is on full display, for better, for worse, or both. The man who commits a selfish act in order to survive and the man who acts gallantly to save others may, in fact, be the same man.

War and survival complicate moral algebra. Hardy's pilot maneuvers to destroy a German bomber attacking a transport ship, but can't accomplish this until he diverts to destroy the Messerschmidt that's trying to destroy him. His eyes dart between the doomed ship and the German fighter, and we feel the agonizing dimension of his choice.

These aerial scenes are spectacular  photographed in panoramic 70 mm. But the spectacle coexists with realism  Nolan, for instance, puts us inside the cockpit of the Spitfire, England's justly revered fighter, but we see that the fighter's reputation does not derive from its primitive cockpit controls, which look like a '79 Corolla. Watching Hardy grapple with them adds to the tension.

Nolan fractures the narrative so that it loops back on itself  we see the events from the perspective of different characters and from different chronological vantage points, though the story coheres by movie's end.

So, at last, does the movie's emotional component, as the hope-starved men on the beach in France peer through the lifting fog to see their bobbing boats of their countrymen.

Or if not their countrymen, their allies. The evacuation included tens of thousands of French and Polish soldiers, who lived to fight another day. A reminder that important alliances and friendships, treated so flippantly by leaders today, were forged in blood, and not so long ago.

Nolan drives the point home in the final moments, when a British naval officer (Kenneth Branagh) stays long past the last possible moment, determined to save retreating French. It's my guess, watching Dunkirk, that Nolan did not vote for Brexit.

MOVIE REVIEW

Dunkirk

Directed by Christopher Nolan. With Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles and Cillian Murphy. Distributed by Warner Bros.

Running time: 107 minutes

Parent's guide: PG-13 (war violence, adult themes).

Playing at: Area theaters.
The selection of a new district attorney in Philadelphia  albeit an interim DA who will serve until the end of 2017, when the winner of the November election (in which Democrat Lawrence Krasner is heavily favored) starts a four-year term  should be a cause for celebration. It's the next big step for moving past the era of disgraced ex-DA Seth Williams, who pleaded guilty last month to selling out his office. In a perfect world, the interim DA will serve as a bridge between finally putting the dim past of the office in the rear view era and a bold new age of reform, which is coming under either Krasner or, to a lesser extent, underdog GOP rival Beth Grossman.

But this is Philadelphia, and we have a long history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (and not just in sports.) It doesn't help matters that  in classic Philly fashion  the process for picking Williams' successor on Thursday is about as undemocratic as it gets. The interim DA will be picked by 88 judges, barely accountable to the public, who will hold multiple ballots until one of the 14 interested candidates gets a majority. The system for electing a new Pope feels more transparent  at least they pump out that cool white smoke.

But here's two important things to know going into the vote later this week.

Under no circumstances  let me repeat that in big annoying capital lettersNO CIRCUMSTANCES  can the job go to the former district attorney who has tossed her hat into the ring, Lynne Abraham. Honestly, I'd rather see a return of the grifter Williams than a throwback Thursday for the bad old days of Abraham, whose zeal for the death penalty, decimation of Philadelphia neighborhoods through mass incarceration policies, and role in wrongly convicting some city residents of murder makes her completely unsuitable. Here's what I wrote about Abraham's DA politicking earlier this year:

[Abraham ran an] an office that relied in too many big cases on questionable high-pressure police confessions and hardball witness coercion, that pursued the death penalty with draconian glee, and made Philly a mass incarceration capital of the world.

Last year, a report by the Harvard Law School's Fair Punishment Project lambasted Abraham as one of America's "five deadliest DAs" who, collectively, have been responsible for one out of every seven people still on death row in America. It argues that the 108 death sentences won by Abraham  who branded herself famously as "One Tough Cookie"  are a grim example of "personality-driven capital sentencing." A top assistant who tried many of those cases, the late Roger King, had plastered his wall with pictures from the capital cases he'd prosecuted, with a circle-slash around the face of suspects and "death" written on every one.

2. I'm not big on making endorsements, and some of the candidates like retired Common Pleas Court Judge Ben Lerner, said to be a front-runner, have distinguished track records. But from everything I've seen in the months since Williams was first indicted earlier this year, his first assistant Kathleen Martin has done a perfectly fine job managing the office. Why rock the boat  whether it's for a reformer like Lerner or a regressive like Abraham  for five months? As they like to say on TV, winter is coming  and so is a long-awaited radical makeover for criminal justice in Philadelphia. Judges, don't muck this up.
Sylvie Patry, chief Barnes curator, stands in the Roberts gallery that currently is exhibiting Mohamed Bourouissa: Urban Riders. Patry is soon to depart for Musee DOrsay. Read more

Sylvie, we hardly got to know ye.

Less than two years after arriving at the Barnes Foundation from Paris' Musee d'Orsay, the Barnes' chief curator Sylvie Patry, 48, is returning to France and to her erstwhile museum. It's pretty much a dream job, she says. The Orsay, as she calls it, has carved out a position for her as deputy director for curatorial affairs and collections, giving her, essentially, the run of the place.

She will continue as consultant at the Barnes for a couple of years, shepherding several exhibition projects forward, including the intriguing Anselm Kiefer-Auguste Rodin show coming in November featuring the work of the famous German painter and sculptor, now 72, in response to the renowned French sculptor. And she will be working on the Barnes' Cezanne catalog raisonne, a scholarly account of every work by the artist in the museum's collection.

Leaving Philadelphia, even after a relatively short time here, she diplomatically says is "bittersweet." Her first curated exhibition for the Barnes, "Mohamed Bourouissa: Urban Riders," just opened (it runs through Oct. 2). But Paris, you know.

How can you leave Philadelphia for Paris?

I don't know.

The Mohamed Bourouissa exhibition is your first for the Barnes, and you're leaving before it closes.

It is the first. I had the idea when I was still in Paris at the end of 2015, when I saw Mohamed's exhibition about this project he made in Philadelphia. He had this show in [a Paris gallery] and when I visited I thought it was a good subject for the Barnes. But I am not a contemporary art person. That is not my specialty, which is Impressionism and post-Impressionism. So this is my first exhibition at the Barnes and my first exhibition of a living artist.

So, Bourouissa was in Philadelphia in 2013 and 2014 hanging out with the African American horsemen at the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club in Strawberry Mansion. He filmed and photographed and worked on a special "Horse Day" competition and celebration with them. The body of work from that project is now on view at the Barnes. What attracted you?

First, he is a very good artist, he's an emerging artist. He's mostly worked on French subject matters but he has an openness to the U.S., to North America. I love the connection  that foreign take, that international take on a local situation.

It's Philadelphia-related but it is coming from an artist with an international reputation, mostly in Europe, but he has works here, at the [Philadelphia Museum of Art]. I think it was a good fit for the Barnes. This is his first solo exhibition in a major museum.

And then the next exhibition at the Barnes, which you are jointly curating with the Rodin Museum in Paris, will be "Kiefer Rodin." Mark Rosenthal, who was then at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, co-curated Kiefer's first touring retrospective in 1988. What's Kiefer's Rodin connection?

This is a project born in Paris a couple of years ago when the Rodin Museum in Paris wanted to publish a book, the only book written by Rodin [about French cathedrals], and they wanted to republish it with new illustrations by Kiefer. So he read the book and got excited and it grew and became an exhibition.

I decided that since in Philadelphia we have the largest collection of Rodin outside of Paris that it would make sense to have it here, especially since the Barnes is celebrating its fifth year on the Parkway.

And it is the centennial of Rodin's death, with the Rodin Museum literally right next door.

Yes. This is the kind of connection made possible by the move of the Barnes to the Parkway. We have the Rodin Museum right there and also Kiefer has a special connection to Philadelphia because the Mark Rosenthal retrospective launched Kiefer's career in the U.S. and this is something Kiefer acknowledges. Philadelphia played a special role for him.

What other exhibitions are forthcoming that you will be working on a Barnes consultant?

There will be an exhibition devoted to [artist, ceramist, filmmaker] Jean Renoir, which has a strong connection to the foundation. [Jean's father was painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, whose work is a cornerstone of the Barnes collection.] This project was specifically shaped for the Barnes. I'm very excited by it. 

The other project is a retrospective devoted to Berthe Morisot. The way we shaped the exhibition program at the Barnes is to have exhibitions that deal with the history of the foundation, of the collection, or complement the collection. This is the role of Berthe Morisot because Barnes used to have a painting by her. But he sold that painting. I think she is the great absence from the collection, and we have few woman artists in the collection itself.
Roman Catholic Sisters Bernice Klostermann and George Ann Biscan show the arbor put up in an effort to block the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline. Mark Clatterbuck of the group Lancaster Against Pipelines is at right. Read more

A group of Roman Catholic nuns is suing a federal agency, saying a buried natural gas pipeline approved to run through their rolling Lancaster County cornfield would violate their religious freedom.

The suit seeking to keep the pipeline off the property says the sisters from the Adorers of the Blood of Christ order "believe that God calls humans to treasure land as a gift of beauty and sustenance that should not be used in an excessive or harmful way."

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's "decision to force the Adorers to use land they own to accommodate a fossil fuel pipeline is antithetical to the deeply held religious beliefs and convictions of the Adorers," the suit states.

"This is a really deeply held and sincere religious belief of the Adorers," the nuns' attorney, J. Dwight Yoder, said. "What is being proposed by Transco just completely violates what they believe in. This isn't just some landowner who suddenly found Jesus. These sisters live out their faith."

The federal civil suit was filed in U.S. Eastern District Court in Reading against the commission and its acting chair, Cheryl A. LaFleur. FERC approved the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, being built by the Transcontinental Pipeline Co., in February.

A spokeswoman, Tamara Young-Allen, said the agency would not comment on current litigation.

The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline would run 185 miles from the Marcellus Shale to the southern part of Pennsylvania, then into Maryland and farther south. The pipeline's parent company, Williams Partners, wants to lay a 42-inch-diameter pipe along the edge of a 23-acre parcel the sisters own off Locust Grove and Prospect Roads in West Hempfield Township.

Williams would have permanent rights to a path about 50 feet wide on 1.65 acres owned by the nuns. The company said the pipe would be buried three to five feet deep and covered over with soil so the property could continue to be farmed.

The Natural Gas Act allows companies to condemn properties on federally approved projects. Williams is seeking condemnation since the nuns have fought the easement.

Williams said in court filings that the appraised value for right of way to the nuns' land is $109,740 and that it offered the nuns more. That sum was not disclosed.

The sisters say they don't care about the money. They say an internal land ethic they signed in 2005 binds them to resist development.

"As women, we celebrate the rhythms of creation; with Mother Earth we live the Paschal mystery of life, death and new life and, with others, preserve and nurture creation," states one part of the pact.



The Adorers are also involved in a parallel court case that deals with Williams' condemnation proceedings. On Monday, a federal judge took testimony on the case, along with testimony regarding other condemnations for the pipeline. That testimony will continue Thursday.

Christopher Stockton, a spokesman for Williams, said Tuesday that the nuns "failed to raise any of these issues" about religious freedom to the commission as it was considering the project. At this point, he said, "their filing constitutes a collateral attack on the FERC order issuing the certificate. Further, their filing was made in the wrong court. We look forward to addressing the issues raised when, and if, brought in the proper forum."

Carl H. Esbeck, an expert on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, said the nuns could have a hard time proving their case but could succeed.

First, they must show sincerity of their beliefs, he said, which should not be difficult. But they then would have to demonstrate that the pipeline would place a substantial burden on their religious faith, which could be more difficult.

If they succeed in both, the burden of proof would fall on the government regarding the condemnation, something federal attorneys would fight aggressively.

"Let's just step back and take a 10-mile-high view of this," Esbeck said. "A federal judge is going to be loath to grant the nuns' claim here. There's always resistance to these types of projects. People cite concerns  environmental, safety, visual blight. And because there are always objections, that's why we have eminent domain."

Native American tribes tried a similar legal suit to block the Dakota Access pipeline and failed. The judge in that case did not rule on the merits of religious claims, however. Rather, he said the tribes had waited too long to make the claim.

"I don't mean to make light of it, but we can't just stop progress," Esbeck said. "If a religious claim was going to happen, it would have happened in North Dakota."
Description

Leader: Dr. Leslie Allee, Director of Curriculum Development and Outreach, Cornells Lost Ladybug Project

The Peconic Land Trust and the South Fork Natural History Museum (SoFo) team up with Dr. Leslie Allee from Cornell University to search for lost ladybugs. The composition of ladybug species in North America is changing, help us learn why. Native ladybugslike the endangered nine-spotted ladybug, New York States official insectwere once very common but are now extremely rare, while ladybugs from other parts of the world have greatly increased. Help in Dr. Allees research by gently capturing ladybugs at the farm. Each will be identified and then released. Children must be accompanied by a willing adult participant. If youre interested in Citizen Science, be sure to find out about the new Lost Ladybug app for your smart phone! This program is FREE for everyone, so bring your friends. The rain date is Wednesday, July 19. Please park on Deep Lane and meet at the farm stand. For more information on the Lost Ladybug Project visit www.lostladybug.org

Advance reservations are required for all events. For more information, reservations, and directions to meeting places, please call: (631) 537-9735.
Lynne Abraham, who served 18 years as Philadelphia District Attorney, wants to return to the post for the rest of 2017. Read more

Keep Abraham out of DAs Office

Appointing former District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham as the temporary DA for the next five months, replacing disgraced Seth Williams, would be an absolute horrendous decision ("Abraham blasts NAACP chief, rejects call to end bid for DA job," Tuesday). Abraham was the catalyst in catapulting Seth "I never met a bribe I didn't like" Williams to the DA's Office.

Abraham was so archaic in her view of law enforcement that she gave police free rein. Her unflinching support of the Philadelphia Police Department and its brazen acts of corruption and violations of Philadelphians' basic human rights perplexed even some of her supporters. She was the embodiment of a district attorney who used and supported tactics in law enforcement and the judicial system from a time so far gone that Darwin would have headed back to the drawing board.

Appointing Abraham as interim DA would be like pouring acid on the unhealed wounds of many Philadelphians who still have not recovered mentally from her 18 years as district attorney.

 Anthony Johnson, Philadelphia, johnsonanthony99@hotmail.com

She would restore integrity

I strongly disagree with Minister Rodney Muhammad's opposition to Lynne M. Abraham to serve as interim Philadelphia District Attorney ("NAACP: Abraham is unfit to be interim DA," Monday).

I cannot speak to what happened in 1997, when then-DA Abraham opposed a nominee to the federal bench, but I can speak to the woman I know. She is the epitome of a straight-shooting, hardworking, honest woman who is needed following the reign of Seth Williams. Give the city someone to trust again, and give the DA's office a leader to take the helm and steer this office back to the level of integrity it enjoyed before Williams smeared it.

 Sharon M. Banfe, Berlin

Fisk is uniquely qualified

I agree with Tuesday's editorial, "Wisely select interim DA." I would hope that the judges who are voting would seriously consider Arlene Fisk.

Twenty years ago, while still in law school, I had the privilege of working with Fisk when she was in the Homicide Unit of the District Attorney's Office. Her ability to craft powerful narratives for juries, while remaining focused on the smallest details of her cases, has inspired me throughout my legal career. More importantly for the position of interim DA, her integrity was beyond reproach. She taught me, first and foremost, that a prosecutor's job was not to get a conviction, but to do justice, whatever that might be in a given case.

After her time in the District Attorney's Office, Fisk went on to an equally impressive career in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. At no time has she run for political office. Her deep, apolitical experience in state and federal courts is unique among the 14 applicants and would serve the District Attorney's Office well during the next five months.

 Peter Amuso, Wyndmoor, peteramuso@mac.com

The left isnt violent

The commentary, "Liberal America has a political violence problem" (Monday) was full of distortions and cherry-picked incidences to suggest the "left" is violent. To that I ask: Which political party is supported by the National Rifle Association, which advocates guns in schools and universities and "open carrying" of firearms? Which party has a president who as a candidate called for violence against left-wing protesters and got it? Which party tolerates a top presidential adviser aligned with the KKK? Which party is advocating a health-care bill that would result in millions of Americans unable to afford health care? In the United States, more people have been killed by right-wing extremists than Islamic terrorists.

There are plenty of protests by the left  often not covered in our mainstream media  but they are not violent.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have called for a revolution, but not a violent one. They advocate sensible gun laws; higher minimum wages; a government for the people, not the wealthiest 1 percent; health care as an affordable human right; and democracy over capitalism.

 K.B. Kofoed, Drexel Hill

Calling liberals to task

It's about time a mainstream publication printed an opinion piece rebuking liberals on their deplorable violence and for reproaching liberal leaders for failing to condemn the inexcusable violence and, in many instances, actually inciting it with their despicable rhetoric. Enough is enough. Thank you to the commentary writer for speaking up.

 Donna Fitzgerald, Mount Laurel

Terrorists killed Israeli police

Nowhere in the Washington Post story, "5 die in shootout in Israel" (Saturday) are the three Arab gunmen who murdered two Israeli police officers called what they were: terrorists. The article made it sound like an ordinary, random crime, but it wasn't. The headline provided equivalency to the police and terrorists.

It was not until the penultimate paragraph that it was revealed that the terrorists planned this murder and presaged it on Facebook. The Inquirer's version of the story omitted U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman labeling the attack as terrorism.

 Steven Barrer, Huntingdon Valley, sjbarrer@gmail.com
Shawn Yarbray, the man charged with stabbing Philadelphia City Councilman David Oh in the left rib and slashing a forearm during an apparent robbery attempt in front of the councilman's Cobbs Creek home May 31, had appeared frustrated and unkempt as he muttered in disjointed fashion that he wanted his victim's car, car keys, wallet, and cash, Oh recalled in court Monday.

Oh  whose diaphragm was pierced during the attack, causing him to bleed profusely  pointed with confidence at Yarbray during a preliminary hearing when Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Hoffman asked if the man who stabbed him was in court. While being cross-examined by Yarbray's attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, Oh testified that after Yarbray walked briskly away empty-handed, the councilman managed to use his cellphone to tell a 911 operator that his assailant was about 155 pounds, 5-foot-8, and had a dark complexion, midlength hair, and facial hair.

"My focus was on his face," said Oh, 57, who later would tell police that his attacker resembled the "Pookie" character portrayed by actor Chris Rock in the 1991 film New Jack City.

In court Monday, Yarbray, 24, wearing a white undershirt, ripped and faded jeans, and a shorter haircut than in his early-June police mug shot, was ordered held for trial by Municipal Court Judge Nazario Jimenez Jr. on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and three related counts.

The only good news for Yarbray came when Jimenez reduced his bail from 10 percent of $750,000 to $150,000, after Stretton argued that Oh's wounds were superficial given that he was out of the hospital the day after the attack and that his client had no prior convictions and strong family support shown by seven relatives who attended the hearing at the Criminal Justice Center.

"Thank you, Jesus," one of Yarbray's female relatives said softly in response to the bail reduction.

Oh, a married father of four who has been an at-large councilman since 2012 and is a lifelong resident of Southwest Philadelphia, was not pleased with the reduction. He testified that the attack began after he unloaded four shopping bags from his SUV around 9:40 p.m. and was walking to his home in the 5800 block of Thomas Avenue. He said that in addition to the two injuries he suffered in the attack, Yarbray had lunged at him about 10 times in about eight minutes with a 3-inch black blade without making contact.

"I just felt like this person was at the bottom of what he perceived to be his life, and that he was willing to hurt other people for rather meaningless things. I really thought he's a danger to the public. He would have stabbed me, my mother, my wife  he was going to stab someone," Oh said after the hearing. "Hopefully, this will be an intervention for him. I hope he can get himself together."

"Anyone who goes out and stabs someone and tries to rob them is a danger to the community," said Hoffman, the prosecutor. "We felt that given the facts of this case, the [original] bail was appropriate."

Yarbray has been in jail unable to make bail since turning himself in to police June 3, shortly after Oh picked his picture out of a photo array and police named him as a suspect. His last known address was in the 5900 block of Catharine Street, but police said he may have been homeless at the time of his arrest.

Defense attorney Stretton said Yarbray is wrongly accused and has an alibi defense that will be presented at trial. "He was not present, he didn't do it, and will have alibi witnesses who can confirm that," Stretton said after the hearing. "He was at another house, at a different address, with other people."

Stretton said a judge found Yarbray not guilty of auto theft in an unrelated case last week.
One of two teens accused of gunning down a 16-year-old riding his bike in North Philadelphia in 2015 has pleaded guilty to murder.

Tyree Johnson, 19, pleaded guilty Monday to third-degree murder, conspiracy, and a gun charge in the Nov. 1, 2015, slaying of Saleem West and the attempted murder of West's 15-year-old friend.

Johnson was immediately sentenced by Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O'Keefe to the 29- to 62-year prison term that was part of the guilty plea, which defense lawyer James A. Lammendola negotiated with the District Attorney's Office.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp said Johnson's plea agreement does not require him to testify against his codefendant, Raheim Feaster, 19.

O'Keefe scheduled Feaster's murder trial for March 7, 2018.

West and his friend were riding bikes at 20th and York Streets around 4:30 p.m. when they were confronted by four or five youths, two of whom opened fire.

West, shot once in the back, was found by police in the street in the 2200 block of West Sedgley Avenue. Police recovered 17 .40-caliber cartridge casings fired from two pistols.

At the time, police said Feaster and Johnson were members of a neighborhood gang suspected in a series of North Philadelphia shootings.

At last year's preliminary hearing for Feaster and Johnson, West's friend testified that the shooting followed a street-corner dispute between West and Feaster in August 2015.
Sienna Ward was supposed to attend dance camp this summer.

Instead, she's been learning to do simple things again, such as sitting up on her own without support. Last week, she practiced lying on a floor doing sit-ups and managed to do six in a row. Small victories but significant considering that a few weeks ago, doctors weren't even sure the 11-year-old was going to make it.

Sienna had been playing with friends after an early dismissal from school June 7 when a slow-moving CSX freight train attracted their attention. The girls began tossing rocks at it and trying to touch it. Childhood antics quickly turned to tragedy when somehow Sienna lost her footing and reached to grab on to a pole on the train. Her legs got tangled beneath the train as it continued westbound, dragging her about 500 feet.

One leg was lost immediately. In the ensuing weeks, Sienna was in and out of surgery multiple times as doctors battled to stave off a life-threatening infection and also save her remaining leg. In the end, they made a gut-wrenching decision to remove it as well.

I'm happy to report that more than a month after the accident, Sienna is much improved. She's not scheduled for any more surgeries and has been moved out of the intensive care unit. Sienna is mostly off feeding tubes and eating on her own, asking for food from Taco Bell and Popeyes. Her left thigh, where she had a skin graft, is still painful but healing. She's back to being "Sassy Cee Cee," as her mother jokingly calls her.

She's using Snapchat and Instagram to stay in touch with friends and staying up late nights watching the CW show The Vampire Diaries. But the best news of all is that she's due to be released from the hospital this week and moved into the Seashore House, CHOP's 18-bed rehabilitation facility. The timing couldn't be better  with her 12th birthday on Friday.

"She's coming along nicely," said her mother, Natasha Ward, who was shopping in South Philly for birthday gifts when I caught up with her on Thursday.

So what does she want? Sienna has asked for sneakers. She loves Nike Huaraches, customized Converse, and throwback Adidas. If she were my kid, I'd get her every single pair in the store.

Relatives intend to go all out for Sienna's big day. They plan to set up a candy buffet in a hospital conference room and get balloons in Sienna's favorite colors of teal and gold. They also are hoping that maybe players from either the Sixers or the Eagles (hint, hint) might decide to make a surprise visit and encourage Sienna to keep pushing and overcoming obstacles. Because as much progress as has been made, Sienna still has a long way to go. The goal is for her to be fitted with prosthetic devices so she can move around independently again.

Plans are underway to renovate the Ward family home to make it handicapped-accessible so it will be ready when Sienna finally comes home. They've been ripping up carpets and making plans to add a wheelchair lift and create a first-floor bathroom, among other adjustments. Trevor Mackins, Landmark Group, was so moved by Sienna's situation that he offered to provide free labor for the rehab and also help locate a sponsor for the materials.

It's been like that for the Wards. After we shared her story in June, donations from Inquirer and Daily News readers poured in. The family is grateful for the many donations readers have made to Sienna's GoFundMe. People have been very generous. At last count, the crowd fund-raising account had nearly $30,000. An additional $1,000 arrived in the mail from a male reader who asked to remain anonymous.

Here is the address if you care to contribute: P.O. Box 22344, Philadelphia, PA 19110

"I cannot believe that so many people are coming and helping her," said Tina Miller, Sienna's aunt.

It's been something to see. I've been awed by all the emails I've gotten from readers offering everything from money and prayers to even a spare wheelchair for Sienna.

It's touching how in a city, where so many tragic things happen every single day, so many people still have space in their hearts to care about a little girl whose biggest goal is just to dance again.
Quadim Bass, 24, was arrested July 17, 2017, and charged with murdering his 2-year-old son, according to police. Read more

A 24-year-old Overbrook man has been charged with murdering his 2-year-old son at their home last week, according to police.

Quadim Bass, of the 1600 block of North 57th Street, was arrested Monday and charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Bass' son, Bashir Mungin-Bass, was found dead at the house July 14 around 1:10 p.m., police said. Bass allegedly told police that he was playing video games when he heard a thump and realized his son had fallen down the steps.
In Harrisburg, men dominate, but women are getting it done, study shows. Read more

Their numbers might be paltry, but by any measure Pennsylvania's female legislators are holding their own  and then some  in the male-dominated halls of Harrisburg.

Women also tend to be more collaborative and more likely to promote bills related to women's issues, such as protecting victims of domestic violence, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

"By all the measures we examine within this report, the women legislators in the General Assembly could aptly be described as few, but mighty," it said.

Women had 9.7 percent of their sponsored bills signed into law, compared with 9 percent of the men's bills during the 2013-14 legislative term, which was the period studied.

Examining the total of 3,800 bills in the session, it also found female legislators had an average of 18.2 cosponsors on their bills, compared with male colleagues, who had an average of 17.1 cosponsors.

Women held only 44 of the 253 seats in both chambers during the session, or 17 percent. They now occupy 48 seats.

The study, released in May, cautioned that rating legislator effectiveness by number of bills passed and signed into law isn't perfect; legislators' seniority can impact their effectiveness. Additionally, party matters.

But women interviewed for the study said that their female colleagues "were more likely to shop their legislation"  or their ideas  "around to legislators who might be more successful in passing it."

"I'm always of the mind that I just want somebody to get it done," said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery).

Additionally, researchers found that, similar to female legislators elsewhere, women in the state's General Assembly sponsor more bills concerning women's issues, such as protecting victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, expanding family leave, and promoting gender equality. However, many female lawmakers are quick to note that they serve all their constituents and don't want to be labeled as caring about only one set of issues.

"I think that women do look at some of the issues that are relevant to women and families. But they will take up other issues, too," said Sen. Judy Schwank (D., Berks), who has served in the state Senate since 2011.

"The big takeaway is: What if we had more women?" said Dana Brown, executive director of the political center at Chatham. "Could we not be more collaborative? Could we not move the ball forward on certain policy issues?"

Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909 or on Twitter @KateGiammarise.
Although Philadelphia spends $60 million a year on antiviolence programs, homicides are up 21 percent over last year and aggravated assaults with a gun are up by more than 4 percent, according to police.

"It's totally unacceptable," Councilman Kenyatta Johnson said. "If you're spending $60 million and shootings are increasing and homicides are increasing, then something is wrong with the strategies."

On Tuesday, Mayor Kenney announced the establishment of the Office of Violence Prevention, which will gauge the effectiveness of the dozens of existing antiviolence programs in the city that receive a portion of the $60 million in city funding. Individual evaluations of programs have been conducted before, but this is the first citywide and coordinated evaluation, according to mayoral spokeswoman Lauren Hitt.

"We felt the need to assess whether all that money was being spent well and whether we were measuring the outcome of our investments," Hitt said.

The new office is also charged with researching the latest trends and innovations in violence prevention, and it will serve as an umbrella for all other city-run violence-prevention programs. Similar initiatives are already in place in New Orleans and New York, Hitt said.

Johnson, who applauded Kenney for forming the office, said he's glad it will look at violence-prevention strategies from a coordinated perspective in a city where oftentimes "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."

He said he hopes agencies on the ground not currently receiving city funding might have the opportunity to obtain funding under the new office and he hopes those research groups that do receive funding but never set their feet on the ground are reevaluated.

"I know for a fact you have some hardworking antiviolence activists out on a daily basis who don't have a chance at funding  and you have organizations that are great at analysis, but they're not actually out in the community touching people," he said. "Let's make sure we're being effective and intentional with our strategies of reducing gun violence."

Kenney appointed Shondell Revell, 48, who most recently served as the executive director of the city's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, as the executive director of the new office. Revell, who will be supported by four staffers, said his office will reach out to antiviolence groups currently receiving city funding and to the communities they serve.

"This office doesn't believe that throwing money at violence prevention is the answer," Revell said. "We have to do a really complete evaluation of the programs in the community. A program can be great, but if the community doesn't gravitate to it, it won't be effective at all."

The announcement of the creation of the office comes less than three weeks after Inquirer and Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas called for the city to hold antiviolence programs accountable, but Hitt said plans for the office had been in motion since January.

According to police, 1,222 cases of aggravated assault with a gun had been reported in Philadelphia as of July 16, up from 1,169 at the same time last year. As of July 17, the city had marked 169 homicides this year, up from 140 at the same time last year.
Gov. Christie with President Trump at the White House in March. Read more

President Trump should abandon efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, given the GOP-controlled Senate's failure even to muster enough votes to begin officially debating the issue, Gov. Christie said Tuesday in a television interview.

"I'd advise him to move on" to "other priorities like tax reform and infrastructure," said Christie, who is a friend of Trump's. "I've said that to the president for months."

In the MSNBC interview, Christie also defended Donald Trump Jr.'s decision in June 2016 to meet with people who had promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's effort to help the Trump campaign, with the governor saying it was too early to draw conclusions about the episode.

Amid scrutiny by the news media, Trump Jr. last week released emails in which an intermediary said that a high-level Russian government official was willing to offer "official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to" his father's campaign.

"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," read one June 3, 2016, email from the intermediary, Rob Goldstone, to Trump Jr.

Trump Jr. replied that he would "love" to get the information and eventually met with a Russian lawyer and others with reported ties to the Kremlin on June 9. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.

Christie, who was the Trump campaign's transition chairman at the time, said on MSNBC Tuesday that Trump Jr. was "by no means a sophisticated political actor."

"This is a guy who loves his father," Christie said.

Christie said Trump Jr.'s decision to take the meeting demonstrated poor judgment  but wasn't evidence of a crime.

"It's not a meeting  that I would have been anxious to take," Christie said.

Congress and Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the presidential campaign.

"We can't come to conclusions now," Christie said.

Asked whether Trump had rewarded Christie's loyalty during the campaign and afterward, the New Jersey governor said: "The president doesn't owe me anything. He's the president of the United States."
Common Pleas law clerk Matthew Richards holds two battered top hats, one of which will be used to collect ballots from the 88-member Board of Judges, which will vote Thursday for an interim district attorney in Philadelphia. Read more

There is more mystery than magic when it comes to the Philadelphia Board of Judges selecting a new district attorney  even if the names are pulled from a top hat.

The 88 judges of the Court of Common Pleas will gather Wednesday afternoon in City Hall to hear presentations from 14 candidates seeking to serve 5 months as the interim district attorney. The judges will vote Thursday.

Both meetings are closed to the public. The vote will be by secret ballot. By tradition, the judges will cast that ballot by dropping a slip of paper into a battered old top hat.

Even the hat is shrouded in mystery. There are at least two origin stories. And that makes sense because there are really two top hats hanging around City Hall for just such an occasion.

The hat expected to be employed Thursday  in just slightly better condition  is a Dunlap & Co. silk hat marked inside as being sold in Harrisburg. The backup top hat hails from Thackeray & Elliott, which once had a store at 808 Chestnut St.

Judge Ann Butchart, who serves as secretary for the Board of Judges, said the court's archive holds very little information about the hats.

Retired President Judge Edward J. Bradley said one of the hats may have belonged to the late Vincent A. Carroll, who was named the first president judge of the court in 1968.

Carroll was among the founders in 1952 of the city's official St. Patrick's Day Parade. The 2012 book Irish Philadelphia features a cover picture of Carroll leading the parade in the 1950s as grand marshal, doffing a top hat.

Retired Judge Mark Bernstein, who also served as secretary to the Board of Judges, said one of the hats might have belonged to the late Adrian Bonnelly, who served as Municipal Court president judge.

An Inquirer story in May 1958 described Bonnelly as sporting a top hat on "Old Newsboy's Day," a charity fund-raiser.

The names going into one of those hats Thursday include a former DA, Lynne Abraham; two current top staffers in the office, Kathleen Martin and John Delaney; one candidate who ran for the office in this year's Democratic primary election, Joe Khan; three retired judges, Ben Lerner, William Manfredi, and Paul Panepinto; one senior judge, D. Webster Keogh; five former prosecutors, Kelley Hodge, Robert A. Rovner, Curtis Douglas, Arlene Fisk, and James Berardinelli; and one longtime defense attorney, Leon Aristotle Williams.

The post is vacant because former District Attorney Seth Williams resigned last month during his trial on federal corruption charges, just before pleading guilty to one count of bribery. Williams, now held in the Federal Detention Center, will be sentenced in October.

It has been 26 years since the Board of Judges last voted for a district attorney. That pitched battle in 1991 pitted two Common Pleas Court judges against each other. Abraham won in a 39-37 vote, defeating Russell Nigro, who went on to serve as a state Supreme Court justice.

Nigro this week said his political connection to former State Sen. Vincent Fumo was among the factors that led to his 1991 defeat.

"You have a lot of backroom stuff going on  who likes this person, who doesn't like that person," Nigro said. "You have different elements in the equation. It's not necessarily the most qualified person."

Abraham's candidacy has provoked controversy. Rodney Muhammad, president of the NAACP in Philadelphia and a Nation of Islam minister, denounced Abraham on Sunday as a "menace to society," in part because of her efforts two decades ago to derail the nomination of Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson to a federal judgeship.

Massiah-Jackson, now the longest-serving Common Pleas Court judge, is chairwoman of a three-judge panel picked to review and recommend candidates to the Board of Judges, provoking a sense of political karma around the process.

Abraham has said she expects Massiah-Jackson will judge her fairly. Massiah-Jackson has said she'll vote for the best candidate.

The Board of Judges, as befitting a relatively obscure body, also votes to appoint members of other relatively obscure boards, including the Board of Revision of Taxes, the Board of Viewers, the Board of Directors of City Trusts, the Glen Mills School Board, the Auditors of Corporate Sureties and Fiduciaries, Jury Commissioner, and the Appointment of Counsel in Criminal Cases Screening Committee.

The 88 judges are about evenly split in tenure  45 of them have served 10 or more years on the bench while 43 have less than 10 years of service. Women outnumber men, 47 to 41. Minorities make up 44 percent of the judges, with 32 African Americans, five Hispanics, and two Asians.

Despite the jockeying, intrigue, and controversy, Nigro this week said he was "perplexed" as to why any of the candidates want the interim post and why the Board of Judges is bothering to hold a vote at all.

A new district attorney will be elected in the Nov. 7 general election and take office in the first week of January.

"I don't quite understand it, why they're going down this road," Nigro said of the interim post. "No matter who gets elected, what are they going to do? They're not going to be able to set policy, because they're not going to have enough time."
A day after Philadelphia NAACP president Rodney Muhammad slammed her as a "menace to society" unfit to serve as interim district attorney, former District Attorney Lynne Abraham accused the Nation of Islam minister of being a leader in name only who has failed to address pressing crime issues impacting the city's black community.

"He sounds ridiculous, and I would never withdraw my name from anything, no matter what," said Abraham, one of 14 candidates who have submitted their names to an 88-member board of judges scheduled to select an interim Philadelphia district attorney Thursday to complete the 5 months remaining in the term of disgraced ex-District Attorney Seth Williams.

"Unless I missed it, he hasn't spoken out once about the homicide rate in the community, including [four] this weekend. He never uttered a peep about Seth Williams and all the bad things he confessed to doing, which were federal crimes. He has not said a word about the opioid crisis. So, as far as I'm concerned, he's been asleep. He's Rip Van Rodney," Abraham said in an allusion to the fictional Rip Van Winkle, who took a 20-year nap.

"He's supposed to be a leader. What's he been leading? The fact that I woke him up, I'm glad about that because he's been asleep at the switch," said Abraham, who suggested that Muhammad attacked her in such harsh terms because she is a woman.

"He would not talk to me like that if I was a guy. He thinks he can push me around. But he's not going to."

Abraham, who served as district attorney from 1991 to 2010, said that if selected to serve as interim district attorney she would not take a salary, a pension, or any other compensation. "I'm doing this out of a pure sense of duty and obligation to the court, the victims of crime in Philadelphia, and to try to reset the office," she said.

"There's a lot angst in that office. People are leaving in droves. It's a wreck. You need somebody with a strong sense of duty and the capacity to calm things down so we regain our sense of mission and duty and so that people feel safe in their communities," she said of the office that had been headed by Williams before he pleaded guilty to a corruption charge in federal court last month. He is jailed and awaits sentencing.

Muhammad, who was elected president of the local NAACP branch in December 2014, said Sunday that Abraham's contentious history with the city's black community makes her unacceptable to be the city's top prosecutor for even a stint. "Six months is enough time for Lynne Abraham to really do some damage," he said. "We don't want her in there 24 hours."

He cited her 1996 statement that blacks commit 85 percent of the city's crime and her vocal opposition to President Bill Clinton's nomination of Common Pleas Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson to the federal bench. Massiah-Jackson, who would have been the first black woman from Philadelphia to serve as a federal judge, withdrew her nomination due to opposition from Abraham and others.

Abraham said she had misspoken when talking about the overall crime rate, and previously had clarified that she was referring to the homicide rate. "It came out the wrong way, and I'm sorry for that," she said.

She said she had no animus toward Massiah-Jackson and had suggested to then-Sen. Arlen Specter several other black women for nomination to the federal bench.

"I took a stand [on Massiah-Jackson] and I stand by that," she said. "If Rodney wants to hold that against me, that's fine."

Abraham added that despite what some of her detractors say, she's no racist. "The people who are my biggest supporters, many of them are African Americans," she said. "How do you get elected in Philadelphia eight times with no votes from the African American community? People know who cares about them, and I care about everyone."
WASHINGTON  A last-gasp Hail Mary for full repeal of Obamacare appears certain to fail. There are not the votes in either chamber of Congress.

Mitch McConnell pulled the second draft of his health-care bill Monday night after two more Republican senators came out against even bringing it up for debate on the floor: Utah's Mike Lee and Kansas's Jerry Moran.

"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," the Senate majority leader said in a statement sent at 10:47 p.m. ET.

He announced that he'll bring the bill that already passed the House up for consideration "in the coming days," and the first amendment the Senate would take up would be for the full repeal of Obamacare (with a two-year delay for implementation). But to get that vote on repeal, conservative critics must vote to allow debate on the broader bill.

If the clean vote for full repeal failed, as it almost certainly would, senators could continue making additional amendments that may make the measure even more unpalatable to conservatives.

GOP lawmakers have voted repeatedly to repeal Obamacare, and the Senate even passed a bill with this exact same language in 2015. But Barack Obama was president then, and it was a safe vote because everyone knew he'd veto it. This would no longer be a show vote.

 The Post's Sean Sullivan explains that the wily Kentuckian's announcement amounts to a dare: "McConnell practically challenged conservative critics of the bill to vote against moving the process ahead. . . . If hard-right conservative senators vote no on proceeding with the bill and it collapses, McConnell can come back at them and say, 'Well, you had your chance at the 'clean repeal' you demanded. And you decided not to take it.' He will have shifted some of the blame onto others and given himself a new talking point to counter the 'clean repeal' crowd  which includes President Trump. If they vote yes  hey, they're suddenly back on track, at the table debating legislation with at least some chance of passing."

What's less clear at this point is McConnell's end game. "If this doesn't work out," Sean wonders, "will he move on to other matters? Follow through on his threats to work with Democrats and narrower reforms, which were seen as ways to try to pressure conservatives not to let this fail? . . . There are no longer any good outcomes for McConnell  politically speaking. There are bad ones and less bad ones. And putting the onus on other senators means there will be more blame to go around when this all ends."

 The Republican conference remains deeply divided. While Lee announced that he's against the bill because "it doesn't go far enough," Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) opposed the measure because it goes too far. There are several senators on each side of that divide.

"We must now start fresh with an open legislative process. . .," Moran said in his statement announcing opposition to the latest version. "This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one. . . . We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy."

Sen. John McCain, recovering from surgery in Arizona, called on Republicans to begin working with Democrats to fix the system in a statement: "One of the major problems with Obamacare was that it was written on a strict party-line basis and driven through Congress without a single Republican vote. As this law continues to crumble in Arizona and states across the country, we must not repeat the original mistakes that led to Obamacare's failure. The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), likely to face a primary from his right in 2020, encouraged McConnell to take up an alternative plan he released last week with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.):

Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) had hinted Monday, before McConnell pulled the bill, that he might vote against advancing the measure to floor debate, as well. He publicly expressed frustration with comments by McConnell, intended to reassure senators like Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, that the bill's deepest Medicaid cuts are far into the future and are unlikely to ever actually go into effect. Johnson said he read about these private comments in The Post last Thursday and then confirmed them with other senators. "If our leader is basically saying don't worry about it, we've designed it so that those reforms will never take effect, first of all, that's a pretty significant breach of trust," Johnson told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "And why support the bill then?"

 Reporters who are following the debate most closely don't think McConnell's gambit will work.

From the Post's senior congressional correspondent:

From one of the Post's political reporters:

From a New York Times reporter who covers health care:

Margot Sanger-Katz tweeted:

From a Washington Examiner reporter who covers Republicans:

From a Politico reporter who covers Congress:

 But, but, but: Pressure from conservatives and the White House could still make the repeal vote very tough for some senators.

Trump re-endorsed straight repeal Monday night, tweeting:

So did the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus:

 The mood on the Hill will continue to be tense in the coming days.

The person who broke into Republican Sen. Dean Heller's Las Vegas office over the weekend left a threatening note related to the health-care bill. The person asserted that he would lose his health care and die if the bill passes and would take Heller with him, per the Nevada Independent's Jon Ralston. (wrote the Post's Amy B Wang and Ed O'Keefe)

Protests Monday led to the arrests of 33 people at the Capitol. "The alliance between elected Democrats and protest groups, fragile just a few months ago, has strengthened even as protests have become more disruptive," The Post's David Weigel and Perry Stein report.

How its playing

 "Trump blindsided " by Politico's Josh Dawsey: "To Trump, the Obamacare fight has always been about scoring a win. He doesn't care nearly as much about the specifics, people close to him say, and hasn't understood why legislators just won't make deals and bring something, anything to his desk."

 "With Stand Against Health Bill, Republican Mike Lee Hews True to Form," by the Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Hughes: "The Utah Republican has, in fact, built a career on taking such firm stands. . . . Mr. Lee isn't known for seeking to bask in the spotlight. . . . This time, Mr. Lee played to form. In coming out against a 'motion to proceed' to debating the GOP plan, he announced that Mr. Moran would take the same position. The maneuver had the effect of ensuring that neither man would be cast as the single deciding vote in stopping the GOP plan from coming to the floor."

 "Old Truth Trips Up G.O.P. on Health Law: A Benefit Is Hard to Retract," by the New York Times's Jennifer Steinhauer: "In the end, Republicans relearned a lesson that has bedeviled them since the New Deal: An American entitlement, once established, can almost never be retracted."

 "Thank god. Now the bill can die," one senior GOP Senate aide texted Axios's Caitlin Owens.

 The Drudge Report goes with an all-red banner: "REPEAL DEAD. OBAMACARE REMAINS LAW OF LAND."

 The headline on Breitbart's homepage: "RIP: REPUBLICAN HEALTHCARE BILL FLATLINES."

 PJ Media (another conservative site): "Healthcare Bill Flatlines . . ."

 "The Party of Bad Faith?" by National Review Editor Rich Lowry: "If the Republican attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare ultimately fails, it will be a lesson in the wages of political bad faith. . . . The effort also suffers from a mismatch between the longtime public posture of Republicans (Obamacare must and will be fully repealed) and their private misgivings (do we really have to do this, even partially?)."

 "McConnell Has Few Options Left on Health Care-and the Base Is Angry as Hell," by The Daily Beast's Sam Stein and Andrew Desiderio: "McConnell now faces one of the most difficult obstacles of his decades-long career. His close aides fret that failure to pass some legislation could depress the Republican base and leave the party incredibly vulnerable in 2018. But no amount of procedural maneuvering or policy reshuffling has allowed him to crack the health care reform code. His options are limited and none are particularly confidence-inducing."

 New York Magazine: "Trumpcare as We Know It Is Dead."

 The Financial Times: "Trump suffers stinging defeat as Obamacare overhaul collapses. Republicans turn to high-risk strategy of scrapping system without an alternative."

 "BCRA is dead, but Obamacare repeal is still alive," by Vox's Matthew Yglesias: "The problem, fundamentally, for people who care about health insurance coverage is that of the four Republican defectors only one  (Susan) Collins  objects to the bill on the grounds that it doesn't cover enough people. The other three are complaining, fundamentally, that the bill isn't 'real' Obamacare repeal or doesn't go far enough. For people's coverage to be safe, something else has to happen."

 "Is Trumpcare finally dead?" by the Post's Jennifer Rubin: "To be clear, the Better Care Reconciliation Act was already at death's door before McCain took ill and before Lee and Moran's announcements. . . . Initially, McConnell may have figured a ridiculously early deadline for a vote in July could have cleared the decks (win or lose), but now he has a ready-made excuse for ditching the whole exercise."

 "Obamacare repeal could haunt Senate Republicans in 2020," by Politico's Kyle Cheney and Elana Schor: "Like the 2010 health care law, the GOP bill would not take effect all at once. Many of the most politically tricky provisions are staggered over the coming years and would hit right as a promising group of freshmen Republican senators come up for reelection in 2020."

 "GOP health bill nears demise, but Democrats' unity masks their own dangerous divide," by McClatchy's Lesley Clark: "Even as Republicans fight among themselves to dismantle the law, the liberal wing of the Democratic party is aggressively pushing Democrats to embrace a single payer system[.] . . . Yet some of those who support single payer urge caution at this point, even as Republicans continue to grapple with efforts to overturn Obamacare."

 "Could GOP health-care bill's implosion actually lead to bipartisan solution?" by MarketWatch's Mike Murphy: "Republicans can only afford to lose two votes, and if a repeal vote fails, McConnell would be left with few options. One of those options would be something many hard-line Republicans seem loathe to consider: Working with Democrats. . . . As outlandish as that plan may seem in these bitterly partisan times, it may be one step closer to reality."

Everything is happening so fast  or at least that's how it feels trying to follow politics these days. You've seen the headlines about President Trump and his policies  but what do they mean for Philadelphia? What does that mean for you? We've launched a newsletter to explore just that. You can sign up to get the weekly Trumpadelphia newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday.
A U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company took part in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., bringing to eight the number of known participants at the session that has emerged as a key focus of the investigation of the Trump campaign's interactions with Russians.

Ike Kaveladze attended the meeting as a representative of Aras and Emin Agalarov, the father-and-son Russian developers who hosted the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, according to Scott Balber, an attorney for the Agalarovs who said he also represents Kaveladze.

Balber said Tuesday that he had received a phone call over the weekend from a representative of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asking if Kaveladze would agree to be interviewed. Balber said his client would cooperate.

The request is the first public indication that Mueller's team is investigating the meeting.

The presence of Kaveladze at the Trump Tower meeting introduces a new and intriguing figure into the increasingly complex Trump-Russia drama. A native of the Soviet republic of Georgia who came to the United States in 1991, Kaveladze was the subject nearly two decades ago of a congressional inquiry into Russian money laundering in U.S. banks, although he was never charged with a crime and Balber said there was never any sign of wrongdoing by Kaveladze.

The emergence of new information on Tuesday  some 10 days after the Trump Tower meeting was first reported  underscored how details of the session have been slow to emerge amid incomplete and potentially misleading explanations from Trump Jr.

After the New York Times first reported the meeting, Trump Jr. said only that the lawyer had primarily discussed the adoption of Russian children by Americans.

More information about the meeting and its participants has emerged since July 11, when Trump Jr. said he wished to be "transparent" and released emails dating to June 2016 between himself and Rob Goldstone, a music promoter who represented Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop singer, setting up the meeting.

Those emails revealed that Trump Jr. had agreed to meet with the Russian lawyer on the promise that he would be provided damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's presidential campaign, according to emails released by Trump Jr. last week.

Trump Jr.'s acknowledgment of the meeting undercut months of denials from top Trump aides that campaign officials had any contact with Russians before the November election.

The meeting brought together then-candidate Donald Trump's innermost circle, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and top campaign adviser Paul Manafort, as well as a Russian and Russian Americans with deep ties to Trump's business and the priorities of the Russian government. Goldstone, the music promoter, told the Washington Post that he also attended.

The Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was leading an effort to get Congress to lift sanctions imposed in 2012 to punish Russia for human rights abuses, a topic of deep importance to the Russian government. Angered over the law, called the Magnitsky Act, Russia had put a hold on adoptions of children by U.S. families.

Also present at the meeting was Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet army veteran whose military service in the 1980s came in a unit whose responsibilities included counterintelligence. Now a Russian American lobbyist, he has earned a reputation as a savvy political operator, at times boosting the reputation of his clients by sullying the reputations of their enemies. He has denied working for the Russian government or intelligence services.

Kaveladze came to the meeting as a representative of the Agalarov family, business associates and friends of Donald Trump and his children who were also a key tie between the Trump family and Russia in the years before Trump began his campaign.

Trump and Aras Agalarov had discussed building a Trump Tower in Moscow, but plans fizzled after Western sanctions were imposed in 2014 and the Russian economy tanked, the elder Agalarov told The Post last year.

Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.'s attorney, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday about the presence of Kaveladze, nor did a spokesman for Kushner. An attorney for Manafort declined to comment.

Kaveladze works as a vice president focusing on real estate and finance for the Agalarovs' company, the Crocus Group, Balber said.

Balber said that Aras Agalarov asked Kaveladze to attend on his behalf. Kaveladze is a U.S. citizen and has lived in this country for many years, according to Balber.

Balber said Kaveladze believed he would act as a translator but arrived to discover that Veselnitskaya had brought her own translator, a former State Department employee named Anatoli Samochornov. Samochornov declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement he signed as a professional translator. Balber said he believes eight people attended the meeting and the names of each participant is now known to the public.

Balber said Kaveladze recalls the meeting lasted about 30 minutes and mostly involved discussion of the 2012 sanctions law.

In attending the meeting, Kaveladze brought a history of controversy.

In 2000, his actions as the head of a Delaware company called International Business Creations were the subject of a congressional investigation into how Russians and other foreigners were able to launder large amounts of money through U.S. banks.

The Government Accountability Office report, which had been requested by then-Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), concluded that it was "relatively easy" for these foreigners to use shell companies to open U.S. bank accounts and route hidden money through the American financial system.

The report described the activities of IBC's president, who Balber confirmed was Kaveladze.

Balber said Kaveladze was not charged with any crime as a result of the inquiry, which he said was largely focused on the internal procedures of U.S. banks.

"There has never been any indication that he did anything wrong," Balber said. "From his perspective, it was a big nothing."

But Levin, who at the time was the senior Democrat on a Senate investigations subcommittee and retired in 2014, issued a statement Tuesday calling Kaveladze a "poster child" of the practice of using shell companies to launder funds and that the inquiry helped spark reforms.

"Kaveladze's conduct helped us reinvigorate the requirement that banks know the true owner of their accounts, a policy that hadn't been enforced over the years," Levin said.

According to the GAO, Kaveladze opened 236 bank accounts in the United States for corporations formed in Delaware on behalf of mostly Russian brokers. The GAO report said that Kaveladze had told officers of two U.S. banks that he had conducted investigations of the Russian companies for which he opened accounts  but that he acknowledged to GAO investigators that he had not been truthful.

"He admitted to us that he made such representations to the banks but that he in fact had not investigated the companies," the report said.

All told, the report traced the movement of $1.4 billion in wire-transfer transactions deposited into 236 accounts opened at the two banks, Citibank and Commercial Bank.

What exactly was discussed at the 2016 Trump Tower meeting remains unclear.

Akhmetshin, the Soviet army veteran who attended, told The Post last week that Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, spent a portion of the meeting describing what she felt could be "a great campaign issue" for the Trumps  allegations of Russian tax improprieties by a U.S. venture capital firm whose executives were political donors. One of them had donated to the Clinton Global Initiative, an arm of the foundation established by former president Bill Clinton that became a target for Republicans who accused the Clintons of rewarding donors with political favors.

Akhmetshin said that Veselnitskaya left behind a document with the Trump associates describing the allegations. "It was corporate stuff  lawyerly stuff," Akhmetshin said.

The venture capital firm, Ziff Brothers Investments, had a financial stake in Hermitage Capital, whose chief executive became the leading global advocate of the Magnitsky Act, which was named for a former Hermitage auditor who died in a Russian jail under suspicious circumstances.

A spokesman for Ziff Brothers Investments, Michael Freitag, declined to comment.

Trump Jr. has said Veselnitskaya's information was "vague" and "made no sense," and he decided the offer of damaging information about Democrats was a pretense to secure the meeting to discuss sanctions.

The Washington Post's Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Joe Scarborough isn't the only television news host Sean Hannity went after on Monday.

During a conversation with White House advisor Sebastian Gorka on Hannity's syndicated radio show Monday (which airs locally on 1210 WPHT), Hannity called Fox News colleague Shep Smith "anti-Trump."

"I like Shep," Hannity said, noting that the two are friends. "But he's so anti-Trump. I mean, he went off on a rant last week."

Later in his show, Hannity said he had no problem that he and Smith disagreed about Trump.

"Smith disagrees with me. And he does so vehemently," Hannity said. "And the media was praising Shep and he's not the biggest fan of Trump, fine!"

"Sometimes facts are displeasing. Journalists report them without fear or favor," Smith said in a statement first reported by Mediaite.

Hannity seemed to be referencing a segment last week where Smith called out the White House for a level of deception he labeled "mind-boggling."

Smith, speaking with Fox News colleague Chris Wallace, couldn't contain his frustration at the administration's apparent inability to come clean about a June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer set up with the promise of Russian-backed dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Just Tuesday, the Washington Post revealed that Ike Kaveladze, an American-based employee of a Russian real estate company, was the mysterious eighth person in a room that included Trump Jr., ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The trio met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after emails released by Trump Jr. indicated she had materials provided by the Russian government that would be politically harmful to Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. has claimed no information was given. But Rinat Akhmetshin, a former KGB counterintelligence unit agent and Soviet army veteran who also attended the meeting, told the Associated Press Veselnitskaya brought a plastic folder into the meeting with printed-out documents that detailed what she indicated was the flow of allegedly illicit funds to the Democrats and presented them to Trump Jr.

"If there's nothing there, and that's what they tell us, why all these lies? Why is it lie after lie after lie?" an angry Smith asked Wallace. "There are still people out there who believe we're making it up, and one day they're gonna realize we're not, and look around and go, 'Where are we? And why are we getting told all these lies?' "

"I don't know what to say," responded a dumbfounded Wallace, who called the meeting a clear attempt at collusion. "I think that there's a lot of truth to everything that you've said."

Hannity's comments about Smith come as a growing divide is emerging at the popular news network. On one side, there are opinion hosts such as Hannity, Fox News Specialists host Eric Bolling, and The Five co-host (and Philadelphia native) Jesse Watters who have been outspoken defenders of Trump and his administration. Shows such as Fox & Friends, which President Trump watches and retweets on a daily basis, rarely features segments that paint the current administration in a negative light.

On the other side, news hosts such as Smith, Wallace, and Special Report host Bret Baier have often sided with the network's more liberal commentators, like Juan Willians and Jehmu Green, in calling out the administration for what they see are basic problems with honestly and forthrightness, especially when it comes to meeting with foreign officials connected to Russia.

"This really shouldn't be a matter of liberal versus conservative, pro-Trump versus anti-Trump," Wallace said on Friday. "If you're a fair-minded citizen, you should be concerned about the fact that we were repeatedly misled about what this meeting concerned."

On Monday, Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said he believes there's currently enough information about the meeting to "commence a criminal investigation" into whether high-ranking members of the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

"It is a crime to receive something of value, when you're a campaign official, from a foreign person or a foreign government," Napolitano told America's Newsroom host Shannon Bream. He also said it was "suspicious that the Trump administration tried to keep the meeting secret, and pointed out that Kushner didn't mention it on his national security application.

"If he was trying to hide something, was it that this was a bumbling, foolish thing to do or that this was the beginning of some steps in furtherance of acquiring this information?" Napolitano said.
By any measure, the collapse of the Senate health-care bill represents an epic failure for the Republican Party and a major embarrassment for President Trump. The crusade that animated  and bound  conservatives for seven years proved to be a mirage, an objective without a solution. Power comes with consequences.

There is no way to spin to those who were promised that the Affordable Care Act would be repealed and replaced once Republicans held full power in Washington that what has happened is the fault of forces outside the party. This has been a Republican undertaking from start to finish. It is as if Republicans unknowingly set a trap and then walked into it without having prepared escape routes.

What price, if any, Republicans will pay for this setback will be revealed over the coming months. Perhaps they can move quickly on other priorities  a tax bill being the most appealing now though not necessarily a slam dunk  and wash away the bitter taste of the health-care debate. That might be the best they can hope for, but there are no guarantees.

The failed promise to repeal and replace Obamacare surely will affect the mood and enthusiasm of the Republican base heading toward 2018. When the Gallup organization asked Americans about the future of Obamacare recently, 30 percent of Americans said they favored "repeal and replace," but 70 percent of Republicans picked that option. GOP lawmakers will have left them empty-handed, perhaps disillusioned. That will energize Democrats even more in their quest to take control of the House in 2018.

The breakdown that has been on vivid display over the past weeks also cannot help but to bring more attention to divisions inside a Republican Party whose coalition has been reshaped by the rising voice of white working-class voters who helped put Trump in the Oval Office. All parties have divisions, but what Republicans must reckon with is not simply a conflict between conservatives and moderate-conservatives, but differences rooted in potentially incompatible perceptions of government and Washington.

The president spent Tuesday morning tweeting his frustrations, blaming Democrats and "a few Republicans" for what happened in the Senate. "We will return!" he said in one tweet. "Stay tuned!" he said in another. Let Obamacare fail, he proclaimed. Those are standard exhortations by the president, meant to shore up his supporters but they carry no particular force with those in his party who have been doing the heavy legislative lifting.

Instead, those tweets underscored the futility of trying to make what happened on health care anything other than what it was, a self-inflicted wound by a party that succumbed to easy appeal of campaign slogans without also doing the hard work of policymaking over the past seven years.

William Galston of the Brookings Institution noted Tuesday that the health-care debate showed anew that Republicans have not bridged the gap between campaigning and governing. This has been a longtime problem for a party that is at best ambivalent about the federal government and at worst openly anti-government, at least rhetorically. This condition existed before Trump came on the scene. It has worsened because of his political success.

Trump's rise and his victory in the presidential campaign intensified a point of internal conflict for the Republicans, one that pits hard line, anti-government conservatives against many of those working-class voters who believe in the federal programs that deliver services to them and don't want them torn down.

"The Republican Party is grappling with the fact that conservative orthodoxy is one thing and populism is another," Galston said. "Populists are not anti-government. Populists are in favor of government that helps people like them."

The president's embrace of the Republican promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was and is incompatible with political views he often stated as a candidate. He adopted the rhetoric of repeal and replace but whenever he talked about health-care policy, he did not sound like a conservative Republican. He wanted coverage for everyone. He didn't want to hurt people. He didn't want to make cuts to entitlement programs, whether Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.

What Trump espoused clashed with what conservative, small-government Republicans long had been preaching. In office, his ambivalence has been evident at virtually every turn in the debate. He complained about the House bill as too mean after publicly praising it. He wanted repeal and replace without any pain. He wanted a victory but could not engineer it.

Republicans have experienced two well-known lessons. Tackling big issues on a partisan basis is fraught with political risk. And once government benefits are extended to tens of millions of Americans, taking them away is as risky politically as it is substantively difficult.

After seven years of the Affordable Care Act, despite its flaws and weaknesses, Republicans were forced to concede that parts of Obamacare were extremely popular. Trying to keep the good while fulfilling a promise to get rid of the bill called for legislative and policy gymnastics beyond their capability.

That a repeal-and-replace effort failed is all the more disheartening for Republicans, given what appeared at the start of the year as to be an almost-ideal set of players to carry it to passage. It started with Trump, who had a megaphone, as do all presidents, and came to office claiming he alone could fix things and with the reputation of a skilled dealmaker.

In the House, Republicans were led by Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), who was long seen as enough of a policy expert to be entrusted to develop an alternative to Obamacare that could match the party's stated goals and produce a legislative majority.

In the Senate, Republicans were led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), regarded not as a policy wonk but a shrewd and tough-minded legislative strategist, the best of a generation, someone who could shepherd a bill through the legislative maze, if anyone could.

Ryan, after false starts, managed to get a bill through his chamber, but it was enough flawed that Senate leaders knew they would have to change it. McConnell tried with different versions but overreached. He couldn't find the legislative magic many assumed he would be able to employ. And the president proved not to be a dealmaker.

Trump tried to walk away from the mess on Tuesday. "Let Obamacare fail," he said. "It will be a lot easier." He said Democrats would own that failure, if that is the case. He said he would not own it, regardless. Republican lawmakers will take all that in and recognize, as they already know, that the president will claim any victories they produce for him and run from any defeats but he is not likely to be the architect of a policy that will match his campaign rhetoric.

There also will be a period of recrimination in the wake of what happened in the Senate. If that spills into the debate over a tax bill, there could be more trouble ahead. The six-month battle over health care has been a time waster and a tone setter. Leaders have to regroup and quickly.

In normal times, a party would look to its president to hasten the healing process and pick up the pieces. But these are not normal times. Trump operates by his own standards. And this is a Republican Party that has yet to come to terms with what is has become and what is expected of a majority party.

Everything is happening so fast  or at least that's how it feels trying to follow politics these days. You've seen the headlines about President Trump and his policies  but what do they mean for Philadelphia? What does that mean for you? We've launched a newsletter to explore just that. You can sign up to get the weekly Trumpadelphia newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday.
HARRISBURG  The Senate returned to the State Capitol early Monday afternoon with good intentions: to consider various bills related to the still-incomplete state budget.

But by day's end, the chamber had canceled committee meetings planned to start moving those bills along the legislative pipeline. And though senators are expected to return Tuesday, it is unclear what exactly they will be doing once they convene.

It is all part of the continued uncertainty surrounding the nearly $32 billion spending bill the GOP-controlled legislature sent to Gov. Wolf, a Democrat, hours before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. He let it become law, though there is still no agreement on how to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania government continues to operate without a balanced budget, raising a host of questions about whether it violates the constitutional mandate that any spending plan must be bolstered by a revenue package.

Senate Republican leaders remained publicly optimistic, continuing to say they are near a deal with their House counterparts and the governor on many of the key sticking points, including a plan for expanding gambling in the state.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) told reporters Monday that having members in the Capitol created a more conducive atmosphere for breaking the stalemate.

"I was just afraid that if we're all sitting at home, we're not going to get an agreement," Corman said. "And I think sometimes it's good to have the members home, and sometimes it's good to have them here to try to put pressure on the process to get it done. And, sitting at home, I think, would have lengthened this considerably, so that's why we're here."

Meanwhile, House Republican leaders are sticking to being firmly noncommittal on the question of progress  and the House, as of Monday afternoon, had no plans to call the chamber back into session this week.

"Conversations are happening," said House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin, "but the reality is there are no agreements. And there won't be until everything is agreed to."

On his way to a meeting with House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) on Monday, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) said that all sides had talked over the weekend and had made "incremental progress."

He did say, however, that all sides are nearing agreement on gambling expansion, including a plan to create up to 10 satellite casinos across the state. Currently 12 casinos offering slots and table games are operating in Pennsylvania.

It would not, Scarnati said, include provisions to legalize slots-style machines called video-gaming terminals (VGTs) in bars and restaurants. That idea is being pushed hard by House Republicans.

In working toward a deal on revenues, legislative Republicans have rejected the idea of raising so-called broad-based taxes such as the personal income and sales tax. They have also said they oppose imposing a new tax on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, though Pennsylvania is the only major energy-producing state that doesn't tax extraction. (Drillers in the state do pay a fee on wells they drill, with much of the money raised going back to the communities where the wells are located.)

Instead, they have looked for other ways to plug a $1.5 billion shortfall in last fiscal year's budget, as well as a projected $700 million deficit in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Aside from expanding gambling, negotiators have discussed borrowing up to $1.5 billion and, possibly, further privatizing the sale of wine and hard liquor.
Amin Mac Ackridge was sentenced to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting four people during separate 2015 robberies in Philadelphia. Read more

A 31-year-old man was sentenced Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting and seriously injuring four people in separate 2015 robberies.

Amin "Mac" Ackridge, of Strawberry Mansion, was found guilty by a jury in April of four counts of attempted murder, six counts of robbery, and related offenses for the violent stick-ups in Kensington and North Philadelphia, including one that left a man paralyzed from the waist down.

Ackridge's getaway driver was Frank Oliver III, grandson of former State Rep. Frank L. Oliver of West Philadelphia. The younger Oliver, who was a judicial aide at the Criminal Justice Center until shortly before the crime spree, pleaded guilty to robbery, assault, and gun charges and testified against Ackridge. Oliver was sentenced in May to three to six years in prison.

Oliver drove while Ackridge, whom prosecutors dubbed a "ruthless robber" because of his gratuitous violence, got out of the car and committed the holdups.

Ackridge was robbing two men at gunpoint at Gransback and Clearfield Streets on June 7, 2014, when Robert T. Gotwalt tried to intervene. Ackridge shot Gotwalt, paralyzing him.

A week after the fourth robbery in late July, Oliver was pulled over in Center City and police found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol under the driver's seat. Ejected shell casings found at the shooting scenes matched the gun.

Oliver did not match the physical description of the shooter, but investigators checked his cellphone records and saw that he had calls with Ackridge on the days of the robberies and that their cellphones often pinged off cell towers near the robbery scenes.

Ackridge was arrested Aug. 12, 2015, in Wilmington as he allegedly was about to commit an armed robbery.
Gunfire in two sections of the city Tuesday left one woman dead and another critically wounded.

About 1:10 p.m., a 25-year-old woman was shot fatally on the 1200 block of Sanger Street in Frankford, police said. The woman, whose name was not released, was shot several times and was taken by police to Einstein Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 1:53.

Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said the shooting appeared to have resulted from a domestic dispute. He would not elaborate.

Around 7:30 a.m., a 42-year-old woman was critically wounded when she was shot by a stray bullet while driving a car in Logan, police said.

The bullet penetrated the windshield of her Honda and struck her in the face as she drove west on Rockland Street near 11th, police said. She also was taken to Einstein.

"It's just another tragic case of senseless violence," Northwest Detectives Capt. Malachi Jones said at an afternoon news conference. "Here you have a woman on her way to work, first thing in the morning, and this unfortunate incident happens. It's very alarming, to say the least."

Police said the shooter, who was still at large and whom the woman did not know, was a shirtless man wearing blue sweatpants who was firing a weapon on nearby Marvine Street. Preliminary information indicated he was initially on foot, then fled in a gold Lincoln Town Car.

Jones said a man seen in a store surveillance video running across the intersection of 11th and Rockland Streets may have been the target. He was carrying a backpack and wore a black-and-white hat, black-and-white sneakers, and blue jeans. Police said they did not know what prompted the shooting.

Tipsters should call Northwest Detectives at 215-686-3353.
Joanne P. Hoffman, 69, of Bryn Mawr, director of the Upper School at Agnes Irwin, died Wednesday, July 12, of pneumonia at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Hoffman became director of grades nine through 12 at the independent, all-girls Rosemont day school in 2013.

"Joanne's dedication to education stemmed from a deep commitment to helping young people find their own voice and passions," said Dr. Wendy Hill, head of school. "She believed every student had the potential to create a world with more beauty and understanding because of their unique contributions."

Over the last four years, she helped shape the school's future by contributing to an ambitious strategic plan unveiled late in 2016, and by revamping the Upper School curriculum to provide more opportunities for self-directed learning, Dr. Hill said.

The new curriculum, which will launch in September, includes courses in astrophysics, anatomy and physiology, art and society, the Third Reich and the Holocaust, multivariable calculus and linear algebra, economics, and neuropsychology.

"Her legacy will be woven into every Upper School classroom experience this year  and many for years to come  due to Joanne's passion for learning, empathy for the human experience, and pioneering spirit," Dr. Hill said.

Born in Corinth, N.Y., to Ruth and Joseph Petro, Mrs. Hoffman attended high school there. She earned a bachelor's degree at Marymount College in Manhattan and a master's degree at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., both in English.

Starting in 1969, she taught high school English in Connecticut. She was assistant head of school at Concord Academy in Massachusetts until 1994, when she was chosen as the first woman to head the Moses Brown School, a Quaker day school in Providence, R.I. During her tenure, the school strengthened its Quaker identity, made capital and academic improvements, and increased its endowment.

In 2009, at age 60, she retired. "I have loved every part of my job," she told www.redorbit.com, a website about science and technology." I have loved the complexity of it. But it seems a natural decision [to step down]. It wasn't painful. I think there is a natural rhythm in schools and in one's life, and this feels right."

By 2011, however, she was tapped as interim head of Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, which was in a period of transition while a new leader was recruited.

Search committee co-clerks Michael C. Kelly and Ann V. Satterthwaite said of Mrs. Hoffman: "Everyone who met Joanne was impressed by her leadership experience, her thoughtfulness, her ability to listen and communicate, and her passion for [Quaker] education."

She served two years before moving on to become director of Agnes Irwin's Upper School. At the time of her death, she was still on the school's staff.

Mrs. Hoffman also collaborated with professional organizations to increase diversity and innovation in schools. She was active in the Headmasters Association, Head Mistresses Association of the East, and the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls.

While employed as a teacher and administrator at the Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, Conn., she met Richard William Hoffman. They married in February 1979, and had a daughter.

Besides her husband, Mrs. Hoffman is survived by daughter Caitlin Elizabeth Hoffman; stepdaughters Christine and Lynda Hoffman; two grandchildren; four stepgrandchildren; a brother; and nieces and nephews.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, at the Rosemont Chapel of St. Thomas of Villanova, 1229 E. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. (The chapel is not the church of the same name on the Villanova University campus.) Burial is private.
We're all familiar with the Declaration of Independence, which asserts that each of us has certain unalienable rights, among them "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

In the name of health-care reform, politicians in Washington and Harrisburg threaten the first and most foundational of these individual rights: life itself. Their legislative agenda  curtailing important Obamacare protections and cutting back on Medicaid  threatens the lives of tens of thousands of Philadelphians.

It also jeopardizes public safety. When people are faced with chronic health problems or a life-threatening situation involving a family member, and have no options or support, they will act in desperation. When people are unable to afford treatment for behavioral health issues because they lack insurance, the criminal justice system often becomes the only societal structure that intervenes.

Under the American Health Care Act passed by the House of Representatives in May, 1.3 million Pennsylvanians would lose health insurance and 3,250 would die prematurely for lack of it, according to a statement from Marc Stier, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate's proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act would eliminate federal funding for the Medicaid expansion and impose caps on traditional Medicaid. That would cost Pennsylvania more than $30 billion in federal funding between 2020 and 2026 alone, says a Manatt Health / Robert Wood Johnson Foundation analysis.

As recently amended, the Senate bill would increase premiums and deductibles for millions of moderate-income people who buy health insurance through the ACA marketplaces; weaken consumer protections for people with preexisting conditions; and eliminate the individual mandate, which helps ensure a balanced insurance risk pool. It would block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding for a year. And it would have a profoundly negative impact on our city's world-class health-care providers.

Let's look specifically at the impact these Medicaid cuts would have. Medicaid is not just a source of health care for millions of Americans, which allows them to remain productive and to take care of other family members. It is also the source of drug treatment and mental health services for the most vulnerable members of our population, including people reentering society from incarceration.

The Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act enables 160,000 more Philadelphians to receive mental health or substance-abuse treatment. According to the Mayor's Office, almost 40,000 of them are using these services. Statewide, 140,000 people have used the Medicaid expansion for addiction treatment since 2015, the Wolf administration estimates. And nationwide, Medicaid expenditures on opioid-blocking medications such as naltrexone, which many low-income people rely on to kick their addiction, increased tenfold in 2016, according to an Urban Institute report. The demand for such treatment shows no signs of slowing down.

Cut off that funding and you cut off a lifeline for people trying to avoid the kind of behavior that can land them in the criminal justice system. If you want more crime, it's exactly what you would do.

The same short-sighted and mean-spirited policymaking is happening in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives recently amended and passed Bill 59, its own attack on Medicaid and the people who rely on it  primarily children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Unconscionable bills like these are designed not to provide health care, but to deprive people of it. They would give hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and protect the interests of big insurance and big pharma at the expense of the most vulnerable among us. They jeopardize our health, our well-being, and our lives. They would make us less safe.

As a citizen of Philadelphia and a candidate for district attorney, I stand with you to defend the safety, the health, and the well-being  indeed, the very lives  of the people of our city and state. We must do more than resist; we must resist and then build a more just society.

Larry Krasner is the Democratic candidate for Philadelphia district attorney. You can reach him at @Krasner4DA on Twitter.
The NAACP opposes the application of former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, shown here during a 2005 debate, to finish the term of convicted DA Seth Williams. Read more

It's only a five-month appointment, but Philadelphia voters should pay close attention to this week's selection of a temporary replacement for former District Attorney Seth Williams, who resigned in June after pleading guilty to corruption charges.

Neither Democratic candidate Larry Krasner or Republican Beth Grossman have applied for the job, but the interim district attorney finalists to be selected by a panel of judges should exhibit qualities that voters will want to see in the person they elect in November to a full four-year term.

Fourteen people have applied for the temporary assignment, including Kathleen Martin, Williams' former chief of staff, who has been running the office ever since he surrendered his law license in April.

The most well-known applicant is Lynne Abraham, who was the city's district attorney 18 years before stepping down and being replaced by Williams, who had worked in the DA's office under her.

Abraham's application raised objections by the NAACP, which hasn't forgotten her successful objection to President Bill Clinton's 1997 nomination of Common Pleas Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson to become the city's first black female federal judge. Abraham and the Fraternal Order of Police fueled criticism of Jackson as too lenient on criminals and biased against whites.

Ironically, Jackson serves as chair of a three-judge panel that will recommend finalists for the interim DA job to the 88-member Board of Common Pleas Court Judges. She could pay back Abraham for scuttling her elevation to the federal bench, but that's not in the judge's character. In 2010, she received the city NAACP's Cecil B. Moore Award. There's no reason to believe she won't be fair in her recommendation. The board is expected to make a final decision Thursday.

Also asking for the interim job are retired Judges Paul Panepinto and Benjamin Lerner and former federal prosecutor Joe Khan, who was one of the losers in the May Democratic primary. The other applicants are John Delaney, William Manfredi, D. Webster Keough, Kelley Hodge, Robert A. Rovner, Curtis Douglas, Arlen Fisk, James Berardinelli, and Leon Williams.

Both the judges making the temporary assignment and voters in November must recognize that despite Williams' criminality, the DA's office during his tenure did do some good things.

Williams restructured his office so the same prosecutor handled a case from start to finish. He moved thousands of misdemeanor cases into diversion programs, saving the cost of trials and expensive incarceration. He began a program to get first-time, nonviolent offenders into Community College of Philadelphia instead of jail. He started a Conviction Rate Review Unit to help free the wrongly convicted.

Williams' replacements must be able to recognize what worked and should continue and what should be discarded. Among the latter should be the disgraceful civil forfeiture program Williams insisted upon, which forced people out of their homes if a family member was accused of dealing drugs.

Williams also never addressed public corruption as strongly as he should have. Perhaps now we know why. The next district attorney must follow a different path.
VIDEO: Minneapolis Officer Shoots, Kills Woman while Responding to Her 911 Call

Late Saturday night a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed a woman while responding to her 911 call about a possible assault.

The deceased woman has been identified as Justine Damond, an Australian national. The officer's attorney says his name is Mohamed Noor.

Sources tell WCCO-TV that Damond called 911 over a possible assault, and when Noor and another officer arrived at the scene in a squad car, she spoke to them near an alley. At some point, Noor, who was in the squads passenger seat, reached over and shot Damond.

No weapons were recovered from the scene, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency called in to investigate the shooting. A cellphone was found near Damonds body.

Officer Mohamed Noor is the first Somali-born officer to serve on the Minneapolis Police Department. His attorney identified Noor as the officer who shot Damond. (Photo: Minneapolis PD)

Noors attorney issued a full statement:

Officer Noor extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers. He came to the U.S. at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities. He takes these events very seriously because for him being a police officer is a calling. He entered the police force to serve the community and to protect the people he serves. Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and he empathized with the loss others are experiencing. The current environment for police is difficult but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more and will in the future. At this time however, there are several investigations that are ongoing. More importantly Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy of the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.

Although Noor and the other officer were wearing body cameras, they were not turned on during the shooting.

Noor was the first Somali-American officer to join the Minneapolis Police Departments 5th Precinct team. He joined the department in March 2015.
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A reporter asked Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) if she was going to the White House for a health care meeting with Trump. Collins said that she wasnt invited and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) cracked up laughing.

Paul McLeod of Buzzfeed News tweeted the exchange:

Swing votes not going to White House tonight. We just asked Sen. Collins. She said "I'm not invited." Al Franken, walking by, cracks up.  Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) July 17, 2017

It appears that the White House effort to woo Republican Senators on the health care bill does not include any of the swing votes that they need to pass the healthcare bill:

Not going to tonight's White House health care meeting: Key undecideds Portman, Capito, Lee, Gardner, Flake, and others  Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 17, 2017

Only Trump and McConnell would put together a meeting at the White House on healthcare and not invite the people whose votes they will have to have to pass the bill. The White House might be planning a series of meetings, but Trumps involvement in the process is not a good omen for the future of the legislation.

Al Franken had a good reason to be laughing. By shunning the Senators that they need, Trump and his White House are showing that they have no idea what they are doing.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) celebrated the collapse of the Republican health care bill and called it a great victory for the American people.

In a statement provided to PoltiicusUSA, Sanders said, I am delighted to see that the disastrous Republican health care plan will not succeed. The American people want to proceed to health care for all, not see 22 million Americans thrown off of the health care they currently have. This is a great victory for the millions of Americans who stood up and fought back against this dangerous legislation.

Republicans have never been able to overcome the ideological divide in their caucus. The moderates have not wanted to take health care away from anyone, and far right conservatives want to take healthcare away from everyone. There is no middle ground between the two positions within the GOP caucus.

McConnell may revive the health care bill at some point, but the Senate Majority Leader was never strongly invested in repealing Obamacare. McConnells main focus has been passing a massive tax cut package for the wealthy, but make no mistake about it, McConnell tried every trick in the book to pass this bill. He drafted the bill in private, refused to hold committee hearings, and planned to strictly limit floor debate.

Mitch McConnell tried to ram this bill through the Senate, and he failed because the American people said no.

Sen. Sanders is correct. This victory was because people would not allow Republicans to pass their bill. The American people were relentless in their opposition, and wouldnt quit until Republicans had no choice but to back down.
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Trump claimed that he had signed the most bills in history, but the truth is that he is on pace to sign fewer bills than the previous six presidents have averaged.

Trump said during a White House Made In America event, Weve signed more bills  and Im talking about through the legislature  than any President ever. For a while, Harry Truman had us, and now I think we have everybody, Mike. I better say think, otherwise theyll give me a Pinocchio and I dont like those  I dont like Pinocchios.

The Presidents statement was not even close to true.

The New York Times reported, In fact, as he approaches six months in office on Thursday, Mr. Trump is slightly behind the law making pace for the past six presidents, who as a group signed an average of 43 bills during the same period. And an analysis of the bills Mr. Trump signed shows that about half were minor and inconsequential, passed by Congress with little debate. Among recent presidents, both the total number of bills he signed and the legislations substance make Mr. Trump about average.

Trumps comments are more than an example of the down is up, and fact is fiction funhouse mirror that is this White House.

They represent something more. Trump does believe that he has signed the most bills of any president in history. Trump believes that the Russia scandal is a conspiracy ginned up by the Democrats because they lost the election.

At some point, the media and political leaders have to stop treating Trumps statements as intentional absurdities and look at them for what they really might be. The man occupying the White House might be so split off from reality that he believes the things that he is saying.

The thought that too many in media, politics, and government dont want to face is that Donald Trump may be so far gone that thinks what he is saying is true.
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Donald Trumps White House and Republicans in Congress were dealt a serious blow on Monday as two more GOP senators  Mike Lee and Jerry Moran  came out against the latest form of Trumpcare, effectively killing it in its current form.

Tweet via Utah Sen. Mike Lees Twitter account:

My colleague @JerryMoran and I will not support the MTP to this version of BCRA #HealthcareBill  Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) July 18, 2017

An extended statement from Mike Lee explaining his opposition:

After conferring with trusted experts regarding the latest version of the Consumer Freedom Amendment, I have decided I cannot support the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, Sen. Lee said. In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesnt go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations.

Kansas Sen. Morans extended statement via Twitter:

My full statement opposing this version of BCRA: pic.twitter.com/CUq4Kibe0I  Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) July 18, 2017

Two Republican senators  Rand Paul and Susan Collins  had already said they would oppose the current form of legislation, meaning the GOP couldnt afford to lose any more of its members given the fact that Democrats are united in their opposition to the legislation.

The no votes from Sen. Lee and Moran bring the vote count down for Republicans to 48 on this version of Trumpcare, meaning its doomed.

Despite the victory this represents for millions of Americans who were worried about losing their health insurance, its likely that Republicans will return to the drawing board and work, yet again, to pass another form of legislation that will repeal Obamacare and strip millions of insurance and essential health benefits.

In other words, opponents of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act should remain active and vocal to ensure this GOP crusade never again gains traction.

For now, though, this is a huge loss for the president and a monumental victory for the vast majority of Americans who believe health care shouldnt be a privilege for the healthy and the wealthy, but a right for all.
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Donald Trump may love to whine about activists that speak out against his dangerous agenda, but as Rachel Maddow pointed out on Monday, the latest victory on health care is one that belongs to the millions of Americans who have persistently spoken out about Trumpcare.

These protests have been relentless, Maddow said. Theyve had a huge victory just tonight.

Video:

Rachel Maddow Explains How Grassroots Activists Prompted Tonights Huge Health Care Victory #Maddow pic.twitter.com/YfeurWr5xc  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) July 18, 2017

Maddow said:

After enduring this face-to-face pressure, this kind of intense pressure from their constituents for weeks and weeks and weeks, both at home, in their home states and home districts, and also at their offices in Washington D.C., the flood gates really did open tonight. They had two no votes before tonight. Thats all they could spare. Now were up to four.  That means that Mitch McConnell is not going to pass this thing.  This is really big news tonight, but I gotta tell you, one constant throughout this entire process, from the very start, has been how the majority of this country really strongly does not want the Republicans to do this and these protests have been relentless.  Theyve had a huge victory just tonight.

Maddow, of course, was referring to Mondays news that two more Republican senators have expressed their opposition to the latest version of Trumpcare, effectively killing it in the Senate.

Its not just the fact that polling on Trumpcare is horrendous for Republicans or that its bad policy that would take health insurance away from millions of Americans and cut billions from Medicaid.

Certainly, those were huge factors.

But without the constant pressure put on Republican members of Congress by millions of health care advocates  whether it was staging protests outside of congressional offices or showing up at town hall events to speak out  Monday nights victory could not have been possible.

As Trump and Republicans look to regroup and find another way to pass similar versions of this dangerous bill, grassroots activists shouldnt rest on their laurels  they should double down and make sure this type of legislation stays dead and buried.
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You know things are going bad in Trumpworld when unpopular New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie  a top Donald Trump ally  tries to distance himself from the presidents team.

When asked by a reporter if getting opposition research from a foreign government  as Donald Trump Jr. did last summer with a Russian lawyer  was inappropriate, Christie said, Yeah, I think it would be.

Video via Hardball with Chris Matthews:

Governor Christie recently said that getting opposition research from a foreign government is probably illegal. https://t.co/2dFRvAx2jB  Hardball (@hardball) July 17, 2017

The New Jersey governor added, I do think it would be (inappropriate), sure. And I think, quite frankly, thats probably against the law, Michael, in addition to being inappropriate.

Ouch.

Not only are Christies own ethics questionable  to put it mildly  but he has also been one of the most shameless Trump supporters since last years presidential campaign when he marched all over the country stumping for the then-GOP nominee.

To hear him say that Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort likely broke the law by knowingly taking a meeting with the Russians to get damning info on Hillary Clinton is quite stunning given how loyal the New Jersey governor has been to Trump.

Its just the latest evidence that, as the Russia scandal continues to bury the administration in bombshell developments, more and more Republicans  even those who have been Trumps most diehard supporters  are doing their best to scrub themselves of Trump before its too late.
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As the latest version of Trumpcare has officially died in the Senate on Monday, Americans view of Donald Trumps handling of health care is worse than any other issue.

According to a new Bloomberg poll, just 28 percent of Americans believe Trump is doing a good job on health care, and a stunning 64 percent disapprove of his handling of the issue.

More numbers:

New Bloomberg poll out. Trump gets his worst numbers on healthcare. https://t.co/8jnkkvYX7F pic.twitter.com/XEoldbr7rA  Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) July 17, 2017

Another unsettling sign for Trump is that just 62 percent of his diehard supporters think hes doing a good job on health care  a sign that perhaps his support is showing at least some cracks, as Bloomberg pointed out on Monday.

None of this would be as troubling for the White House if health care wasnt a big issue for voters, but according to the poll, it ranks as the most important issue by double digits.

Thirty-five percent of respondents identified health care as the top issue facing the country, and far behind, in second place, is unemployment/jobs, which 13 percent of respondents named as the most important issue.

Since former President Barack Obama left Trump a strong economy with full employment, more Americans have shifted their attention toward health care as the White House and Republicans in Congress have worked to undermine the Affordable Care at every turn and are working to pass legislation that would cut the law and hurt millions of Americans.

Luckily, Republicans have shown complete incompetence when it comes to governing and they havent been able to cobble together enough support for their various repeal proposals. Their latest setback, as I wrote a short time ago, came as two more Republican senators came out against the latest form of Trumpcare, effectively killing it in the Senate.

Their latest setback, as I wrote a short time ago, came as two more Republican senators  Mike Lee and Jerry Moran  came out against the latest form of Trumpcare, effectively killing it in the Senate.

Trump and Republicans may very well go back to the drawing board and find a version of health care legislation that will win enough GOP support, but if the president wants to improve his numbers on this issue, hed be wise to stop while he isnt ahead.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) caved to the far right and announced that he would bring to the floor a stand alone Obamacare repeal bill that will take healthcare away from 32 million Americans.

Video:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: I regret that repealing and replacing Obamacare will not be successful https://t.co/e1urk7BCDF  Deena Zeina Zaru (@Deena_CNN) July 18, 2017

McConnell said, We will now try a different way to bring the American people relief from Obamacare. I think we owe them at least that much. In the coming days, the Senate will take up and vote on a repeal of Obamacare combined with a stable two year transition period as we work towards patient centered healthcare. A majority of the Senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President Obama vetoed it then. President Trump will sign it now.

The only reason why Senate Republicans voted for the repeal in 2015 was that they knew that Obama would veto it. The 2015 vote was a show vote, pure and simple.

Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn of Texas doesnt even know if Republicans have the 50 votes that they need to begin debate on the stand alone repeal bill:

.@JohnCornyn on whether Senate Republicans have the 50 votes to even begin the debate on Obamacare repeal: "We will find out."  John Bresnahan (@BresPolitico) July 18, 2017

A stand alone repeal bill would take health care away from 32 million Americans. It is even worse than repeal and replace. If Republicans couldnt get 50 votes for their bill that took coverage away from 22 million people, they arent going to get 50 votes for a bill that takes coverage away from 32 million people.

This effort will fail, and Republicans will have to negotiate a bipartisan bill with Democrats. That is where this is going to end.
Pizza has been a constant in Brian Kesslers life, from the time he got a job in a pizzeria as a teenager until the day he met his wife in a pizza joint. Read moreIggy's Pizza Shop is now open in Mount Pleasant
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 55F. 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
In his column last week, former Mayor Joe Riley commented that Charlestons continuous growth requires careful and deliberate planning. As conservation leaders, we are mindful of the balance between preserving our community and its natural resources while acknowledging that growth will happe Read moreCommentary: Massive Cainhoy development fails to balance growth, environmental protections
The main value of Veterans Day is, unlike Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, not so much in our participating in a particular event or tradition but in our remembering at least once a year the debt we all owe to those who have served our country in uniform. Read moreEditorial: Remember our veterans today  and every day
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
A suspicious fire report in Mower County on Monday led to additional fires and a chase for two juvenile suspects.

Mower County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call at 3:30 p.m. Monday of a juvenile runaway in Racine. A woman had reported her grandson as a runaway near Harrison Avenue and told authorities she noticed fire damage to her home, the scent of accelerant and $200 missing.

An apprehension order was applied for by authorities. As they began to clear from the area, a fire and explosion was reported near the old Kraft game farm site at Oak Avenue and County Road 1  east of the grandmother's home, according to Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi.

A camper trailer that had been set on fire had exploded, causing another nearby trailer to also catch fire, Amazi said. Authorities believed the missing juvenile, along with a juvenile friend who was also reported as a runaway, set fire to the camper trailers.

Deputies believed the two juveniles were still near the properties, and called for assistance from the Rochester Police Department and Minnesota State Patrol to locate them.

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RPD brought their new drone for air support, while the state patrol brought a helicopter to aid in the search.

The combination of air support ended up helping deputies locate the two juveniles.

"Without that, we would not have apprehended them," Amazi said.

The two 13-year-old juveniles are being held at Rochester's juvenile detention center awaiting charges.
AUSTIN  A report released Monday detailed remaining barriers and proposed solutions to make Austin a more "welcoming" community.

The Austin Human Rights Commission presented its "Welcoming Report"  which described steps the city can take to be more receiving of diverse communities  to the City Council on Monday.

More than six months of interviews and community feedback from both Austin newcomers and longtime residents of diverse backgrounds went into the report.

The report describes a welcoming community as one where "all residents feel engaged and welcomed."

While Austin has seen an upswell in diversity during in the last 30 years, barriers still remain before the city can be considered a "welcoming community," the report found.

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"Diversity already exists here. We've got about a 20-year head start on a lot of communities that are just starting to deal with the changing demographic," said Jason Baskin, Austin Human Rights Commission chairman.

The report identified five barriers Austin must overcome before becoming a welcoming community:

 A lack of interaction between groups.

 Communication gaps.

 Deficient leadership development in minority communities.

 Transportation issues.

 Housing unavailability.

Insufficient opportunities for cross-cultural understanding, language barriers and a shortage of leaders among cultural groups are all contributors to some of the barriers, the report said.

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"What we heard time and time again is the leaders who are crossing between groups end up getting relied on for nearly everything," Baskin said.

The report recommended three solutions some of the barriers:

 Creating a strategic welcoming plan by the end of 2018 to outline firm goals and strategies.

 Boosting the diversity of city commissions, task forces and boards to improve multicultural community leadership.

 Having the Human Rights Commission work with community stakeholders to promote cross-cultural communication among groups.

During the meeting, Austin Mayor Thomas Stiehm said boosting the diversity of city commissions and boards has been difficult in the past.

"We've worked on putting minorities on commissions, and it's a challenge," Stiehm said. "It's a challenge finding people who want to do it."

Outreach to the city's multicultural groups must increase, said Austin City Council Member Janet Anderson.

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Community picnics or church events could help foster better understanding among different cultural groups, she said.

Community members must go out of their comfort zones and "attempt to put ourselves in their shoes" to be a more welcoming community, said Austin City Administrator Craig Clark at the meeting.

"One point that  resonated with me isn't that we're so much unwelcoming as much as indifferent as a community," Clark said. "Being purposeful about our efforts in this regard I think is where it's really at."
The Rochester City Council approved an agreement Monday night to receive the first state funds of Destination Medical Center efforts.

The DMC Corp. board filed a report in March, indicating private investments had topped a $200 million, triggering the release of state funds. The agreement with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development indicates the report was accepted without an adjustment in reported investment.

As a result, the city stands to receive more than $2.6 million later this year for infrastructure spending connected to DMC initiatives.

Interim City Administrator Gary Neumann said the funds are expected by Sept. 1, but the city would likely allocate them for projects starting next year.

"We haven't determined how we will spend it," he said.

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According to the report filed with DEED, $297.7 million had been invested in local construction efforts during a four-year period starting in 2013.

Last year saw $145.3 million in private investment, with the largest share  $107.2 million attributed to Mayo Clinic spending. The nearly $38.1 million in additional private investment ranged from $12.5 million spent on the 501 on First Apartments to $200 used to alter a rental unit on Fifth Avenue Northwest.

Under DMC legislation, the city receives $2.75 for each $100 spent beyond the initial $200 million in private investment.

The funding will be the first of 20 annual state checks expected to help fund public infrastructure, which could include transportation efforts and public space redesigns.

Approval of the 2016 report means the city will see at least $2.68 million each year for two decades. Additional funding will occur each year with new reports of private investment.

Last year's report included partial investments in at least three projects that have since opened. In addition to the 501 on First project, it included nearly $5 million spent on First Avenue Flats, 400 First Avenue NW, and $6.3 million for Lofts at Mayo Park, 123 Sixth Avenue SE.

It also included $2 million spent on the Conley-Maass building at 14 Fourth St. SW, and $8.9 million on Flats on Fourth, 412 Third Ave. SE, which is still under construction.
A longtime fugitive caught in Nevada last month did escape from federal custody in 1991, but not from Rochester as reported by national media.

Robert Frederick Nelson, 64, was apprehended by authorities after he stopped by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his state identification card.

Most media accounts reported Nelson's original escape was Rochester's Federal Medical Center, despite conflicts with reports from local authorities and Post Bulletin archives.

The prison has now definitively confirmed that Nelson did not escape from Rochester's FMC.

"Nelson transferred from Federal Correctional Institution Milan (in Milan, Mich.) to a Residential Reentry Center (halfway house) on December 17, 1991," wrote FMC executive assistant Dan Cansino in a statement Monday. "He did not escape from a federal correctional institution or a federal medical center, but Mr. Nelson was placed on escape status on February 18, 1992 for absence from the RRC."

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Neither Cansino nor any other federal prison officials have said whether Nelson was ever incarcerated.

Details of Nelson's escape are still unknown. Nelson is currently in custody at a halfway house in Phoenix, Ariz.

The whole incident with the false connection to Rochester's prison has been confusing.

Chris Clifford, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Minneapolis, told the Associated Press that Nelson was listed as having escaped from the Federal Medical Center in Rochester in 1992. Clifford said, but he didn't know the circumstances.

The FMC's Cansino stated the media accounts reporting Nelson's ties to FMC were "not correct," though he didn't elaborate on that until Monday. In its 32-year history, he said the first and only press release the FMC has issued for an escape was in 1995.

That's when inmate David A. Wieling, 34 at the time, walked away from an outside work detail on the afternoon of Aug. 8.

This marked the "first escape from FMC in the prison's 11-year-history," according to the Aug. 17, 1995, Post Bulletin story. The U.S. Marshals Service headed the search for Wieling, who was apprehended about a year later when officials found him at a farmhouse in Iowa. Bureau of Prison records indicate he was released in April 2008.

Another Post Bulletin story, dated Feb. 23, 1993, just eight years after the FMC was dedicated in September 1985, recounted the tension in the community over the prison when it was first proposed, but reported the prison's population ranged between 820 and 830 inmates.

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The 1993 story was sure to note: "there has never been an escape."

There have been attempts.

In October 1998, a detainee jumped out of a van in the parking lot, according to Post Bulletin archives.

In 1990, three prisoners were plotting their break, but the plan was foiled by prison employees, who used an inmate telephone monitoring system to uncover the plan.

At the time of the prison's dedication in September 1985, it held 150 inmates and was operated by 250 staff members on an $11 million budget. Today, the prison holds 657 inmates.
The 2016 shooting death of Philando Castile in the course of a traffic stop by suburban Twin Cities police officer Jeronimo Yanez convulsed the Twin Cities both before and after the officer involved was acquitted earlier this summer. Castiles death was live streamed and narrated by his girlfriend on Facebook. It was a horrifying, heartbreaking scene. A Ramsey County jury nevertheless found that Officer Yanez reasonably feared for his life at the time of the shooting.

Castile was armed and black; Yanez is of color. The shooing was nevertheless viewed through the racial lens to which we have grown accustomed. The day following the shooting, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton condemned the actions by police, saying that while not all the facts were in, the force used in the traffic stop was excessive. Would this have happened if the driver were white, if the passengers were white? Dayton asked. I dont think it would have.

On Saturday evening Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor shot Justine Damond in the alley behind her home in south Minneapolis. Noor has not been officially identified as the shooter, but the Star Tribune has confirmed his identity and reported it here and here. Noors attorney has not acknowledged Noors role in the events.

Damond is said by her fiance to have called the police to investigate a possible sexual assault in progress outside their home. She emerged in her pajamas to speak to the arriving officers. No one has yet offered any possible explanation for Ms. Damonds shooting. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating. It has issued a press release which simply states: At one point, an officer fired their [sic] weapon, fatally striking a woman.

Ms. Damond is originally from Sydney, Australia. She was engaged to be married to a Minneapolis man. The story is page-one news both in Minneapolis and in Sydney. It is devastating.

By contrast with his performance in the Castile case, Governor Dayton has maintained his silence. One can only speculate why. Perhaps the governor regrets his performance in that case. Perhaps there is something different about this case.

In this case there is no heartbreaking video. In this case, moreover, the officer involved is black and the shooting victim is white. Indeed, as of March 2015, Officer Noor is the first Somali officer on the Minneapolis police force to patrol the Fifth Precinct in the citys southwest neighborhoods. (He is one of nine Somali officers in the department.) I take it there will be no rush to judgment in this case and that we will be spared the disruptive protests featured in the Castile case. We may have to be grateful for small mercies.

I reached out to a trusted law enforcement source for any insight he might be able to offer. He responds: My first thought was that it was accidental, but rumor has it [Officer Noor is] denying that it was a negligent discharge. He adds: If there arent some sort of mitigating circumstances, and Im struggling to imagine what they could be, this may be the most egregious police shooting in my lifetime if not longerBut not many facts are known at this point and its hard to pass judgement before knowing more than whats being leaked to the media.
The Associated Press pined to write an article about how international travel to the U.S. is down because foreigners hate President Trump, or because of the travel ban. Or something. Alas, it was not to be:

Last winter, the U.S. tourism industry fretted that Trump administration policies might lead to a Trump slump in travel. But those fears may have been premature. International arrivals and travel-related spending are up in 2017 compared with the same period in 2016. There might even be a Trump bump, says Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit representing the travel industry. A few months ago, Dow and others warned that President Donald Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric and ban on travel from a handful of mostly Muslim countries could send an anti-tourism message.

I sincerely doubt that many international travelers are motivated by which party is currently in power.

But impending doom hasnt manifested itself, Dow said in an interview. Right now we cannot identify a loss. Its contrary to everything weve heard, but travel is in slightly better shape than it was a year ago. Everyone wants me to tell the story of the sky is falling, but for the travel industry, the sky is not falling.

Interesting: Everyone wants me to tell the story of the sky is falling. Who is everyone? AP reporters, for example? The data, as so often happens, refuse to cooperate:

Latest numbers from the U.S. Travel Associations Travel Trends Index showed 6.6 percent growth in international travel to the U.S. in April and 5 percent growth in May compared with the same months last year.

How long do you think it will be before news organizations like the AP, the New York Times and the Washington Post stop trying to make every story about President Trump?
Many Democrats, and even a few Republicans, have claimed that Donald Trump, Jrs meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have information about Hillary Clintons illicit dealings with Russia while she was Secretary of State constitutes the long-sought evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, even though the Russian with whom Trump, Jr. met conveyed no such information.

This, I think, overlooks a very basic point. Its only collusion if the parties purpose is bad. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines collusion:

secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose * acting in collusion with the enemy

Thus, when the U.S., Russia and other countries jointly operate the International Space Station, they arent colluding, they are cooperating.

Liberals talk about collusion in connection with Trump, Jrs meeting to paper over the fact that there was nothing wrong with it. Collecting information about corruption on the part of a candidate for office is a good thing, not a bad thing. We know from Clinton Cash that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a key role in turning over a large part of Americas supply of uranium to the Russians, at about the same time when Russians associated with that countrys government paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill and Hillary Clinton. So we know about the quid and the quo, the only question is whether there was a pro. If the Russian lawyer had had information on this point, it would have been a public service to disclose it.

It is different, of course, if false information about a candidate is being fabricated. Thus, we can properly say that Democrats colluded in the production of a fake dossier on President Trump.

Some have tried to argue that it would have been illegal for Trump, Jr. to get information on Mrs. Clinton from a Russian because under our election laws, foreign nationals and governments cant provide cash or other things of value to candidates. (Of course, it does sometimes happen, as when the Chinese government supported Bill Clintons re-election campaign in 1996.) I would consider taking this argument seriously if anyone had ever reported giving information about an opponent to a campaign as an in-kind contribution. To my knowledge, its never happened.

Having failed to come up with evidence that the Trump campaign had anything to do with spearfishing the DNCs and RNCs* email accountspresumably because it didntthe Democrats are now defining collusion down to include innocent conversation toward a proper purpose. If that is the standard, we have photographic evidence of Congressional Democrats colluding with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during President Trumps speech to the House and Senate in January:

*The RNC spearfishing failed because no one there was foolish enough to fall for it.
Scott wrote yesterday about a tragic shooting incident in Minneapolis. At about 11:30 last Saturday night, a 40-year-old woman named Justine Damond, a native of Australia, thought she heard a sexual assault in progress in the alley behind her house. She called 911 and a Minneapolis Police Department squad car with two officers responded to her call. She left her house in her pajamas to talk to the officers. While she was standing next to the drivers door and speaking with him, the officer in the passenger seat shot her, fatally.

The officer who shot Ms. Damond was Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American who joined the force in 2015. Bizarrely, nearly three days after the incident, we dont know whether Noor shot Damond accidentally or on purpose. My assumption is that it was an accident resulting from almost incredibly inept handling of his firearm by Officer Noor.

If the races of the participants had been reversed, Black Lives Matter would be shutting down highways, politicians like Governor Mark Dayton would be denouncing racist police officers, and newspapers around the world would be writing about racial bias in policing. But those things are not happening. Governor Dayton, who issued incendiary denunciations of the police when the races were reversed, has declined to comment.

And newspapers are forgoing any race angle. In fact, the Washington Post published a long article on the shooting that doesnt identify the police officer or mention the fact that he is a Somali. Instead, the Post focuses on the fact that a gun was involved, headlining: AMERICAN NIGHTMARE: Australians react to fatal police shooting in very risky United States. With race out of the picture, its all about gun control:

Nearly 9,000 miles away, in Australia  where lawmakers have passed some of the worlds most restrictive gun-control laws  people were struggling to make sense of Damonds death. Why on Earth did U.S. cops kill Aussie who called for help, the Courier-Mail, an Australian tabloid, asked on its cover. AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, blared a headline on the front page of the Daily Telegraph, a Sydney newspaper.

***

The Australian government passed strict gun control legislation in 1996, after a gunman opened fire in a Tasmania cafe, then hunted down more people in his car, killing a total of 35 and wounding 19 others. The National Firearms Agreement banned the possession, manufacture and sale of all semiautomatic firearms and pump-action shotguns other than in exceptional circumstances, notably military and police use.

The article goes on and on about Australias gun control laws.

But wait! This makes no sense. Police officers in Australia carry guns, too. So there is no relevant difference between the laws here and the laws in Australia.

There is a hierarchy at work, obviously. If it can be about race, its about race. If it cant be about race, its about guns. Im not sure what comes next. How far down the line do you suppose the Post would have to go before the issue would be whether affirmative action is causing police departments to hire unqualified applicants?
Jake Sullivan was a top adviser to Hillary Clintons campaign. Eight months after the election, he still isnt over Clintons defeat. Thats understandable given the closeness of the election, its surprising outcome, and Sullivans view of the man who won it.

But unlike many Clintonistas, and the candidate herself, Sullivan has managed to move beyond blaming James Comey and the Russians. According to the Washington Posts Greg Jaffe, Sullivan is shouldering some of the blame for Clintons defeat and trying to understand his mistakes.

Sullivan thinks the Clinton campaign failed to focus on diagnosing the problems Americans face and relating to their pain. He says Clinton chose, instead, to treat the election like a job interview and focus on prescribing policies.

Its easy to understand why Clinton made that choice. She loves to prescribe and doesnt care much for listening.

Reading Jaffes piece put me in mind of the discussion Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had at the Bush Library this weekend. Asked to name the most important quality a president can have, Bush identified humility, the humility to listen.

Bill Clinton agreed. He said the most important thing is to be humble, to listen, to realize everybodys got a story.

He learned this, the former president said, while traveling around rural Arkansas during his first campaign  an unsuccessful run for Congress. If Hillary was accompanying him (doubtful), she did not learn the same lesson.

No Democratic presidential candidate in my nearly 60 years of following politics has related as well to ordinary Americans as Bill Clinton did. No Democratic presidential candidate during the same period has related to them more poorly than Hillary.

Sullivan also spoke of the establishments intellectual exhaustion. He cited the mammoth 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as the most striking example of this phenomenon. Republican and Democratic national security analysts for years had touted the pact as essential to U.S. national security and containing China. Sullivan supported it, too (as did I).

But, says Sullivan, few of those experts 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. In the process, the elite lost touch with the concerns of the very people it was supposed to serve and defend. Sullivan sees this as symptomatic of a much larger problem.

Sullivans effort to learn from such mistakes reminds me of the movement Bill Clinton helped lead in the late 1980s to rethink the Democratic partys approach to winning support among the non-elites  the Democratic Leadership Council, and all that. Will we see this sort of rethinking from contemporary Democrats?

I doubt it. For one thing, it took three decisive defeats in presidential elections to produce the rethink of the late 1980s. For another, the current Democratic base is no mood for a rethink  at least not one that pays attention to the concerns of working class whites.

Finally, most Democrats may well believe that the Trump presidency will be so disastrous that in four or eight years they will be able to elect the far left candidate of their choice. They may even be right.

Jaffes article is based on time spent following Sullivan as he spoke to a group of Yale law students. Their main concern appears to be, in Jaffes words, the long-term prospects for people like them in Washington. Stated differently, the concern is that when they graduate from Yale Law School, they might actually have to practice law instead of assuming their rightful role of telling people how they must live.

One student asked Sullivan: Is this the death knell of the technocracy and the elite? If Sullivan hadnt already grasped the problem of left-wing elitism, this meeting likely would have driven it home.

Sullivan offered reassurance. He said: Goldman Sachs is running our economy, so there will always be a place for expertise.

Hes right, I think, about the perpetual need for expertise. My hope is that the experts who populate Washington in the future will be more grounded and less elitist than some of the Yale law students Sullivan met with.
You may have heard the rant about Washingtons unseriousness about economic growth that JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon delivered on an earnings call the other day. In case you missed it, here it is (with some key bits marked in bold):

Since the Great Recession, which is now 8 years old, weve been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of stupidity and political gridlock. Because the American business sector is powerful and strong, and is going to grow regardless of  people wake up in the morning, they want to feed their kids, they want to buy a home, they want to do things, the same with American businesses  what Im saying is it would be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and were there not 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, our inner city school kids are not graduating.

I was just in France, I was recently in Argentina, I was in Israel, I was in 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 and growth is good for the average citizens of those countries, for jobs and wages, and that somehow this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.

Corporate taxation is critical to that, by the way. Weve been driving capital earnings overseas, which is why theres $2 trillion overseas benefiting all these other countries and stuff like that. So if we dont get our act together  we can still grow.

Its unfortunate, but its hurting us, its hurting the body politic, its hurting the average American that we dont have these right policies. So no, in spite of gridlock well grow at maybe 1.5 or 2 percent.

I dont buy the argument that were relegated to this forever. Were not. If this administration can make breakthroughs in taxes and infrastructure, regulatory reform we have become one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies on 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 all have to get our act together or we wont do what were supposed to [do] for the average Americans.

And unfortunately people write about this saying like its for corporations. Its not for corporations. Competitive taxes are important for business and business growth, which is important for jobs and wage growth. And honestly we should be ringing that alarm bell, every single one of you, every time you talk to a client.
Eli Lake reports that President Trump came very close yesterday to not certifying Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal. Eli writes:

On Monday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was supposed to certify Iranian compliance again. Talking points were sent to columnists. Senior administration officials briefed analysts on a conference call. The Treasury Department was set to announce new sanctions against a number of Iranians to soften the blow for the Republican base. Allies in Congress were given a heads-up. There was just one problem: Donald Trump. In meetings with his national security cabinet, the president has never been keen on Obamas nuclear deal. Whats more, Irans regional behavior has only been getting worse since his inauguration. So just as Tillerson was preparing to inform Congress on Monday that Iran remained in compliance with what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Trump called it off, according to administration officials. He wanted to know his options and what would happen if Tillerson didnt make the announcement.

Suddenly, it appeared that the White House might well inform Congress it could not certify that Iran is complying. This would have triggered a 60-day period in which Congress could vote to re-impose the secondary sanctions lifted as a condition of the deal, or to strike the deal down altogether.

In the end, Trump provided certification. However, the administration followed up by imposing new sanctions on Iran for ongoing malign activities in non-nuclear areas such as ballistic missile development and support for terrorism.

Why did Trump certify Iranian compliance? Eli provides this explanation:

The predicament, according to administration officials, was that Congress (not to mention the other signatories to the seven-party agreement) was not prepared. Trump had yet to even put forward a broader Iran policy. Whats more, the U.S. intelligence community feels that Iran is pushing the edges, but overall is in compliance.

Whatever one thinks of these reasons  the claim of Iranian compliance is dubious, in my view  they suggest that the fight is not over. The next certification comes up in 90 days, by which time Congress should get itself prepared and Trump should get himself a broader Iran policy.

Secretary of State Tillerson and National Security Adviser McMaster oppose disturbing the deal. CIA Director Pompeo (a leading opponent of the deal when he was in Congress) and Steve Bannon would like to see us pull out.

President Trumps instincts seem to be with Pompeo and Bannon. Inertia is on the side of Tillerson and McMaster.

It is not on the side of the deal, though. Eli explains that, even with continued certification, the deal might well fall apart over time. Similarly, Gary Samore of Harvard, who worked on arms control in the Obama administration and who doesnt favor pulling out, has suggested that the deal will die through 1,000 cuts. (The new sanctions Trump just imposed on Iran can be viewed as another cut). Samore says he never believed the deal would hold for ten years anyway.

90 days from now seems like a good time to begin putting the deal out of its misery. Its true, however, that the administration needs to develop a plan for dealing with Irans nuclear threat in the absence of the deal.
A 41-year-old Detroit man is expected to be arraigned today on an open charge of murder after allegedly stabbing to death another man late Saturday morning in Clare County.

Clare County Central Dispatch received a call shortly before noon from the 8000 block of East Stockwell Road in Hamilton Township about a man who had been stabbed, Sheriff John Wilson said.

Deputies went to the scene and found that a 46-year-old Detroit man had been inflicted with multiple stab wounds, the sheriff said.

Mobile Medical Response ambulance took the man, who has not been named pending notification of family, to the Clare Airport to be flown to a trauma hospital but he died on the way, according to Wilson.

Investigating deputies learned that the suspect was still in the area, possibly at a home on East Stockwell.

Deputies found and arrested the suspect without incident, Wilson said.

He is being held in the Clare County Jail on an open charge of murder.

Earlier reports from 9 and 10 News indicated the suspect, victim and a woman were hitchhiking and were picked up by a woman who drove with the trio to her mothers home on East Stockwell to pick up mail when the two men allegedly began to fight.

After being stabbed several times, the victim drove to another home in the area to call for help, according to 9 and 10 News.

State police from the Mt. Pleasant post, Mobile Medical Response, a state police emergency services team, the Harrison Fire Department, Clare Police, the Clare County Sheriff Mounted Reserves and Michigan Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers assisted.
School reinvention

{child_byline}VINCENT JACKSON

Staff Writer

{/child_byline}

ATLANTIC CITY  Clergy and community members want to bring the old St. Michaels School on Mississippi Avenue out of its nearly 30-year dormancy.

The nine classrooms of the former kindergarten to eighth-grade school have been closed for decades, but the Rev. Jon Thomas, pastor of the Parish of Saint Monica, and members of the St. Michaels Church Preservation Society want the rooms and former school offices to be rehabilitated and used by the church, the parish, the city and the neighborhood.

Since I came to the parish two years ago, I have been intent on repurposing the old St. Michaels School, Thomas said Monday at the school. This floor and the floor above us have only been used for storage since the school closed in 1988. Now, I want to bring some life back to it. We want the parish  to be a part of the (citys) arts corridor.

The classrooms, located above and around St. Michaels Church, can be used by nonprofit, arts and educational organizations, and MudGirls Studios was the first group willing to make use of one, Thomas said.

The better the condition of these two floors, the longer we can keep the church alive, Thomas said.

MudGirls Studios is a nonprofit organization that designs and produces the annual commemorative Wedding of the Sea medallions.

MudGirls moved from the rectory to a former first-grade classroom on the second floor because four Franciscan nuns are converting the rectory into a convent and moving in July 31.

Harrahs Resort paid for L.A. Glass and Door in Egg Harbor Township to open the windows in three of the classrooms on the second floor.

It would have been impossible for Dorrie Papademetriou, the founder and director of MudGirls, to operate in her 20-by-30-foot classroom space without open windows and fans. Window air-conditioning units have not been installed in the building.

With Father Jons vision and his willingness to open the space to creativity, it (the St. Michaels campus) can be the center of the community again, Papademetriou said.

The old St. Michaels School gymnasium became Dante Hall Theater of the Arts in 2003.

St. Michaels Church came close to officially closing in 2015, but Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m every Sunday through Sept. 10, and the first Sunday of every month after that.

The next nonprofit group to move into one of the classrooms will be Dena Ferone and her Closet of Hope, which provides free professional dresswear for people in need.

Dominic Alcaro, owner of Barbera Seafood Market at Mississippi and Arctic avenues, said the Ducktown neighborhood is nothing without St. Michaels. He is happy to hear efforts are being made to have arts and nonprofit groups occupy the old school.

This is one of the greatest ideas ever.  Its good for the community, Alcaro said. St. Michaels has always been there for the people in Atlantic City.

The the Rev. Jon Thomas said the immediate needs for the rehabilitation of St. Michaels School are:

 An organization that wants any of the 50 free retro student desks from the 1960s and 1970s and will pick them up.

 A Dumpster if no one removes the student desks from the building.

 A donation of ceiling tiles to replace missing/broken tiles in the classrooms.

 Names of volunteers who want a Habitat for Humanity experience in Atlantic City, who have some trade experience with HVAC, plumbing, painting, etc., or who are willing to do general cleanup work in the classrooms.

People or organizations willing to help may call the Parish of Saint Monica at 609-345-1878.

{child_tagline}

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The fatal shooting of a Ventnor man last year by the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team last was justified, state Division of Criminal Justice Director Elie Honig said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

The Attorney General Shooting Response Team investigated the Oct. 3, 2016, fatal shooting of John Fetter III, 49, of Ventnor. Fetter was armed with a handgun following a standoff that began with a domestic violence incident.

The state investigation determined that presenting the case to a grand jury was not required because the undisputed facts showed that the use of force by seven police officers was justified under the law, the release states. The investigation included witness interviews, forensic analysis of the scene, an autopsy and other evidence.

Ventnor Police Chief Douglas Biagi was unavailable for comment.

Domestic fight leads to fatal Ventnor shooting VENTNOR  Authorities on Tuesday identified the man shot and killed by police during a stand

The investigation revealed Fetter was fatally shot by members of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team and other local police officers about 7:40 p.m. outside a house on the 700 block of North Burghley Avenue, where he lived with his parents.

The events leading to the shooting began at 6:22 p.m., when Fetters mother called 911 to report that Fetter was drunk, fighting with his father and armed with a long gun. When two officers from the Ventnor Police Department arrived at the two-story house, Fetters father, who was outside, reported that Fetter, who was still inside with his mother, was armed with a shotgun and had fired two shots inside the house. As Fetters mother exited, another shotgun blast was heard inside the house and the mother fell down the front porch steps. Fetters father picked up his wife while an officer provided cover. The parents were removed from danger.

Two Ventnor officers positioned their SUVs in the street in front of Fetters house, and an officer from the Longport Police Department arrived to assist. Fetters father was handcuffed and removed further down the street because, despite orders to stay back, he continued to approach the SUVs. The officers repeatedly called out to Fetter, telling him to come out unarmed. However, about 6:45 p.m., Fetter fired his shotgun out of an upstairs window toward the officers. One officer returned fire, firing two rounds from a rifle through the window.

Reward offered in Atlantic City animal cruelty case ATLANTIC CITY  A cat advocacy group as well as PETA are both offering a $5,000 reward to an

Fetter shouted that he wanted to talk to a specific officer from the Ventnor police who had acted as a mediator during previous domestic violence incidents involving Fetters family. That officer arrived and established phone communication with Fetter, but he was unable to convince Fetter to surrender peacefully. Fetter said he wanted to die and knew the SWAT team was coming. He said if he could not do it, then you guys will have to do it, the release states.

Members of the Atlantic County Emergency Response Team arrived with a Bearcat armored truck. As the SWAT team positioned the truck near the SUVs so team members could safely exit the vehicle, Fetter pointed a gun out of the living room window of the home.

Witness statements differed as to whether Fetter fired the gun. Two officers believed he did. A third officer, the one who previously fired at Fetter, reported he heard one of the officers say gun. That third officer fired two rounds from his rifle at Fetter. Fetter reportedly yelled, You missed me.

Wanted man arrested on multiple drug charges after search of West A.C. motel room EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  A search of a West Atlantic City motel room resulted in the arrest of 

The SWAT members exited the Bearcat, and one officer from the SWAT team indicated he fired a shot at Fetter when Fetter again appeared at a window and pointed a gun toward him. Fetter subsequently emerged from the front door, holding a black .22-caliber handgun, pointed down in front of his body. Almost all of the officers immediately began shouting Drop the gun. Fetter instead raised the handgun and pointed it at the officers. Seven officers then fired their weapons at Fetter.

The officers stopped firing after Fetter fell to the ground. Backup SWAT officers soon arrived and relieved the officers who were involved in the shooting. The backup officers approached Fetter, rendered first aid and secured the house.

Fetter was pronounced dead at the scene once EMTs arrived.

Stolen car hits woman during police chase, teen arrested PLEASANTVILLE  A 17-year-old boy led police on a chase through Pleasantville and Atlantic C

An autopsy revealed a total of 10 gunshot wounds to Fetters body. One shot penetrated Fetters chest and did substantial damage to his lungs and heart. The remaining shots were to his extremities and buttocks and came from various angles. Toxicology results showed Fetters blood-alcohol content was 0.258 percent, more than three times the legal limit.

The facts and circumstances reasonably led the officers to believe their actions were immediately necessary to protect themselves and their fellow officers, the release states. An officer may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm.

The response team is made up of deputy attorneys general and detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice, as well as detectives of the State Police Homicide Unit, all of whom operate independently of their usual chain of command and report directly to the director of the Division of Criminal Justice or a designee.
Price of technology high, ability to limit it low

Increasingly, todays televisions, thermostats, baby monitors and such lend themselves to wi-fi connection. These so-called smart devices are susceptible to hacking. And the hacking will be done by the unscrupulous, the criminal, the pervert, the kook, and, yes, the government.

Without justification and unknown to people, suddenly they will be followed, watched, spied on. Is this what people want, what theyre willing to accept and live with in every facet of their lives  technology out of control? Pretty soon people wont be able to go to the bathroom or make love without being watched. Sounds like North Korea to me.

No one can convince me that, in times gone by, life wasnt better in many ways. Yes, technology has made life easier, but at a price. Numerous scientific studies prove all this technology is having an increasing effect on the brain as evidenced, for instance, by peoples addiction to cell phones. We just dont seem to know where to draw the line. Wed better learn, and fast, before we lose our sense of being human.

Donald R. Ackermann

Barnegat

Mazzeo vet rating rigged

Voters in November should remember this little tidbit of information and when they are being snowed.

In a July 4 story, Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo was given credit for co-sponsoring a bill (along with wounded warrior and Assemblyman Bob Andrzejczak of Cape May County) to assist Gold Star families with the Gold Star Family Counseling Program. Very worthwhile legislation. To not invite veteran and Assemblyman Chris Brown to co-sponsor this legislation is a travesty that is becoming all too familiar in South Jersey.

So in November, when the VFW puts out its lawmakers report card and Mazzeo appears to be so much more supportive of veterans than Brown, people should remember how that is accomplished  more back-room deals and a corrupt way of doing business. All too familiar in New Jersey.

Mike Merlino

Egg Harbor Township

NY-NJ rail tunnel cost running out of control

The estimated price of the New York-New Jersey rail tunnel is increasing. It is a typical poor government estimating job to go from the original $7-$10 billion to $12.9 billion. With of all the work to be done and a start date of at least 2019, based on my previous experience the real cost will be $17-$19 billion.

Who is going to pay the piper? Just what New Jersey needs. We have enough financial problems as it is.

Ted Finkenauer

Margate
-- Marnix van Rij named new EY Global Family Business Leader

-- Helena Robertsson joins the Family Business leadership team to lead the Europe, Middle East, India and Africa area

LONDON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EY announces today that it is strengthening its support for Family Business clients around the world.

Tax and Private Client Services professional Marnix van Rij has been appointed EY Global Family Business Leader. Additionally, Helena Robertsson has been named EY Family Business Leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). They join a team of Family Business leaders in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Japan and lead a global network of EY Family Business partners. The new appointments further strengthen and expand the professional services organization's leading Family Business services, which support leading and emerging family businesses globally.

Van Rij brings extensive knowledge to the role, having advised entrepreneurial families and their businesses on tax matters, foreign investments, restructuring, emigration, policy and succession planning, as well as family and corporate governance issues. He also brings extensive public sector and government experience having served as party chair of a political party and as a current member of the Dutch First Chamber of Parliament (Senate) in the Netherlands since 2015. Previously, van Rij was Chairman of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (2012-15) and most recently served as EY Global and EMEIA Tax Leader for Private Client Services for the past eight years. He is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Uschi Schreiber, EY Global Vice Chair  Markets, says:

"Family businesses are the back bone of many economies around the world. EY is working with them through the EY Global Family Business Center of Excellence, the NextGen Academy, Family Business Leaders' Roundtables and more. Through a network of partners across 150 countries we tailor our services to the unique needs of family businesses. This global approach has made us a trusted advisor to some of the world's largest family businesses. With Marnix's appointment we will take our Family Business services to a whole new level."

Also, effective immediately, Helena Robertsson has been appointed EY EMEIA Family Business Leader. Robertsson, most recently led the Family Business and Private Client Services in the Nordics, as well as the Tax practice in Stockholm. She is also a member of the Board of the Swedish Certified Tax Advisors and a Board member of the Institute for Fiscal & Legal Security in Sweden. Robertsson is based in Stockholm.

Van Rij's leadership team also includes:

Carrie Hall , EY Family Business Leader  EY Americas: Hall, who has served in this role since 2013, was previously Southeast Region Growth Markets Leader from 2010- 13. She is an Assurance partner in the US with 30 years of experience serving family businesses and also coordinating services for a variety of other public and private clients across multiple industries. Hall is based in Atlanta .

Ian Burgess , EY Family Business Leader  EY Asia-Pacific: Burgess, a Tax partner in Australia , most recently served as the Private Client Tax Services Leader for Asia-Pacific . Experienced in asset management, he has more than 20 years' experience in providing tax advice and compliance services to clients. Burgess is based in Brisbane .

Yoshiaki Uno , EY Family Business Leader  EY Japan: Uno joined EY in 2016 as a Tax partner in Japan . He has a keen focus in private client tax services and global compliance and reporting. He has nearly 30 years' experience in providing tax and compliance advice to a broad range of clients including privately owned businesses. Uno is based in Tokyo .

Van Rij says: "The accelerated pace of disruption, shifting regulatory environments and constant changes in the global economy make for an exciting and challenging time to work with family businesses. I'm excited to have this opportunity and look forward to leveraging our global network's technical experience and talent to help our clients achieve their highest growth potential."

Notes to Editors

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 EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About EY's Growth Markets Network

EY's worldwide Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of high-growth companies. For more than 30 years, we've helped many of the world's most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international, mid-cap companies or early stage, family businesses, venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business succeed.

Peter Kelley

EY Global Media Relations

+1 424 376 7227

Peter.Kelley1@ey.com

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/381362/EY_Logo.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE EY
NASA confirms Veronica McGregor's participation at OnBrand '17 , Europe's leading branding conference from the Netherlands.

Veronica McGregor is the News and Social Media Manager of NASA, and has agreed to share her expertise in a keynote speech at OnBrand '17. Specifically working on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, McGregor launched NASA into social media in 2008 by starting the agency's earliest accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. With the help of GIFs, VR and 360 degree video campaigns she makes the space industry accessible to a broader audience.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/536501/OnBrand_2017.jpg )

"We never imagined to have NASA as a speaker when we first started with OnBrand, but needless to say we are really excited for this one," says Lidia Luttin, CMO at Bynder. "NASA first began on social media during the landing on Mars in 2008, and now reach more than 123 million followers, constantly experimenting with new ways of communication. We expect Veronica's keynote speech will draw a lot of attention during the event."

To mark this announcement, OnBrand will give visitors who purchase a ticket before 31 August, the chance to name a star after them from the official Star Register (SREU). More information is available on the OnBrand website.

Speaker Highlights for OnBrand '17:

Ben & Jerry's - Jay Curley

Creative Evangelist - Jeremy Tai Abbett

TOMS - Lisa Hogg

Google Creative Lab - Steve Vranakis

VICE - Mark Chalmers

GoSpooky - Tim van der Wiel

New York Times - Sebastian Tomich

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines - Karlijn Vogel-Meijer

LEGO Group - Peter Kim

HEMA - Adriana Hoppenbrouwer

OnBrand '17: Beyond

Location: SugarCity | Sugarcity Ring | 1165 MJ Halfweg

Date: Thursday, October 12th , 2017

About OnBrand

OnBrand is Europe's leading branding community that brings together opinion-driven marketing professionals from across the globe. OnBrand Magazine and events, which is owned by Bynder, drive the conversation around branding with unfiltered and cutting-edge insight from the most innovative players in the industry.

OnBrand '17, a one day branding conference in Amsterdam, will gather 2000 marketing professionals from 990+ brands to share strategies, best practices and valuable insights.

For more information about OnBrand '17 visit http://www.onbrand.me/17.

SOURCE OnBrand
MANILA, Philippines, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

~ 5 lucky winners will be awarded a small business worth 150,000 pesos each and 42 customers will win 10,000 pesos ~

Xpress Money, one of the world's most dependable money transfer brands, has launched 'Win your dreams', an exclusive campaign for its customers based in the Philippines, in association with M Lhuillier. The companies are giving 5 of their lucky customers a chance to win a Pangkabuhayan Showcase, a small business worth 150,000 pesos each. These customers will get the opportunity to start their own business and thereby contribute to the earnings of their families. This will also ease out the responsibilities of their loved ones abroad to an extent, who are striving overseas to give their families a better life back home in the Philippines.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151023/279887LOGO )



The campaign began on July 1st, 2017 and will be on till August 11th , 2017. During this time, all customers who receive money through Xpress Money at any M Lhuillier location will be enrolled for the lucky draw for a chance to win big. In addition to the 5 lucky winners who will win a small business worth 150,000 pesos each at the end of the campaign, there will also be weekly winners announced, who will win 10,000 pesos each. In total, 42 customers will stand a chance to win 10,000 pesos each through the campaign.

Xpress Money believes in giving back to society through different sustainable initiatives, is offering Filipino customers a chance to improve their lives with an initial backing that will help them build and sustain their livelihood.

"The Philippines is a very important market for Xpress Money, and we're constantly looking at ways to create value in the lives of our customers. Through this initiative, we aim to empower our customers by providing them with a unique business opportunity, through which they can support the monetary needs of their families and enhance their lifestyle. We encourage all our customers in the Philippines to make the most of this opportunity by using Xpress Money's services, so that they can avail the offer and stand a chance of winning the grand prize," said Ashwin Gedam, Vice President, Global Marketing, Xpress Money.

"Tulay ng PaMLyang Pilipino is a promise of service we make to the millions of loyal M Lhuillier customers who depend on us. Our partnership with Xpress Money aims to deliver on that promise, as we provide OFW's an added facility to send remittances to their loved ones here in the country. We are happy to be part of the success of each Filipino family in their journey, as they stand to win a pangakabuhayan showcase. This is a valuable prize that will help sustain their lives," said Malou Rocha, marketing manager of M Lhuillier Financial Services.

SOURCE Xpress Money Services Ltd.
WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The ways in which negative attitudes about aging can affect people's health and quality of life are the focus of 12 peer-reviewed research papers in a new supplemental issue of The Gerontologist  the respected research and analysis journal published by The Gerontological Society of America since 1961.

While the research papers examine a diverse range of aging-related subjects and research considerations, a common theme is the prevalence of negative associations about aging and their impact, ranging from memory performance to use of health care, AARP said. The research explores cultural, geographic, community, and family influences that may play a role in shaping an individual's attitude on aging.

"Attitudes and stereotypes about aging haven't changed with the times or have gotten worse," AARP Director of Thought Leadership-Health Erwin Tan, MD said. "Too often, the way aging is portrayed in the media or even in conversations among families and friends is negative and out of synch with the lives many older people lead."

"Wherever these negative perceptions come from, the damage can be profound  for individuals, communities, and larger populations," said AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins, whose book Disrupt Aging examines how aging is represented in society. "We need to change the conversation about age and aging in this country. This is not about being 'polite,' it's a necessity. "

In addition to elevating a collection of timely and insightful research, the August supplement to The Gerontologist has a broader goal, Jenkins said. "We seek to enlist the aid of gerontologists in helping to change the conversation about what it means to grow older. Additionally, we want to remind gerontologists of the critical role they play, not just in academia, but in people's real lives. We are all aging, every day so there is no more mainstream topic than aging," she said.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million that helps people turn their goals and dreams into 'Real Possibilities' by changing the way America defines aging. With staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and promote the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare security, financial security and personal fulfillment. AARP also advocates for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world's largest circulation magazine, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @aarp and our CEO @JoAnn_Jenkins on Twitter.

SOURCE AARP

Related Links

http://www.aarp.org


SHANGHAI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Acorn International, Inc. (NYSE: ATV) ("Acorn" or the "Company") today announced the resignation of two directors, David Naphtali and Cosimo Borelli, for personal reasons effective July 17, 2017.

"I'd like to thank Mr. Naphtali and Mr. Borelli for their contributions to the board over the last few years. Their expertise as professional fiduciaries was invaluable in guiding the Company through a particularly tumultuous time," said Mr. Jacob A. Fisch, President of Acorn. "Now that Acorn is at an inflection point, we will seek to replace their seats with business leaders and entrepreneurs with industry experience more relevant to Acorn's business going forward."

About Acorn International, Inc.

Co-founded in 1998 by Executive Chairman Robert Roche, Acorn is a marketing and branding company in China with a proven track record of developing, promoting and selling a diverse portfolio of proprietary-branded products, as well as well-established and promising new products from third parties. Its business is currently comprised of two main divisions, its direct sales platforms and its nationwide distribution network. For more information visit www.acorninternationalir.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "future," "going forward," "intends," "outlook," "plans," "target," "will," and similar statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Acorn International, Inc.

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NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ad Council, the largest producer of public service advertisements (PSAs) in the U.S., announced today that comedian, political commentator and Emmy-nominated Samantha Bee, will host its 64th Annual Public Service Award Dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City on November 30, 2017. The dinner will honor Unilever CEO Paul Polman. Platinum Sponsors include Adobe, Facebook, Google and iHeartMedia.

Attended by more than 1,400 prominent executives from the media, advertising, and corporate communities, the Annual Dinner recognizes the industries and individuals who support the Ad Council and its public service campaigns.

This year's event will honor Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, for his vision and commitment to make sustainable living commonplace - driving long term, responsible business growth in the process. Since becoming CEO in January 2009, Polman has set Unilever on an ambitious vision to fully decouple its growth from overall environmental footprint and increase its positive social impact through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. He is Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, a member of the B Team and sits on the Board of the UN Global Compact and the Consumer Goods Forum, where he co-chairs the Sustainability Committee. Polman has been closely involved in global discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and action to tackle climate change. In 2016, Paul was asked by the UN Secretary-General to be a member of the SDG Advocacy Group, tasked with promoting action on the 2030 Agenda. In 2016, he received France's Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, in recognition of his efforts in galvanizing business action on sustainability and for his involvement during the historic 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris.

"The annual dinner is an incredible celebration of the advertising, media and corporate communities that create meaningful change in our country," said Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of Ad Council. "We look forward to this night all year long and are thrilled to pay tribute to Paul Polman and his legacy of social good with Samantha Bee as our evening's emcee."

Samantha Bee is currently the host of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" on TBS. The show recently picked up 7 Emmy nominations. In 2017, Time Magazine named Bee one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. Previous hosts of the Ad Council's dinner include Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Conan O'Brien and James Corden. This year's dinner will be chaired by David Sable, Global CEO of Y&R and Chair of the Ad Council's Board of Directors.

The Ad Council has held the Annual Dinner, honoring corporate leaders for their contributions to public service, since 1953. The Public Service Award Dinner is the organization's largest fundraising event. Last year's benefit raised a record-breaking $4.6 million to support the Ad Council's programs.

ABOUT THE AD COUNCIL

The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has affected, and continues to affect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action, and saving lives. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit www.adcouncil.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or view our PSAs on YouTube.

SOURCE The Ad Council

Related Links

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"That's the reason I chose Beyond over any of the other opportunities," said Crystal Patterson, a team lead based in San Antonio, TX. "Beyond is a company that's on a mission to help young people. I looked at that and thought  I can go and get a job anywhere and make money. It's kind of cool to work for a company where I can make a good living and also do something bigger, helping with what I hold dear to my heart."

In less than three months, Beyond has recruited 200 people, including 120 sales personnel working across the country to provide point-of-sale, payment processing, lending, and integrated HR tools & services to small and mid-size business owners. At a recent company-wide meeting held in Tulsa, OK, Beyond's newly hired sales professionals constantly cited the Give Back partnership as a key driver for themselves and their customers.

"When I tell prospective customers that, in addition to being honest and transparent with them, we're going to put underprivileged kids through college with Give Something back, they are very excited about being part of this," said Eric Thomas, a Tulsa-based veteran salesperson who joined the company as a business advocate (Beyond's term for its sales personnel) in late June.

"We can tell merchants, 'Hey, you can get the products you need at a good price, while helping promising young students to have a chance to go to college and succeed in life.' Why would business owners say no?" added Ray Kim, of Yorba Linda CA, who just joined Beyond as Vice President of Sales after 16 years with Heartland Payment Systems (HPY), which Carr founded in 1997. "I've seen Bob Carr present a million-dollar check to Chapman University in Orange, CA. It's a good feeling to be part of that."

"Beyond is a company with corporate responsibility in its DNA," Carr noted at the company's launch. "Our commitments to our customers and to Give Back are two sides of the same coin. At Beyond, we believe that we succeed when our customers succeed and when our communities succeed. By investing in the minds and futures of smart, capable young people, we are building a well-prepared workforce and contributing to a thriving economy  which creates greater opportunities for our customers and for our company."

"I actually lead with the Give Back connection when I make a sales call," said business advocate Teri Rich, of Nashville, who joined Beyond on June 3 and swiftly became the first person in the company to post $10,000 in sales in a single month. "I'm very glad to inform merchants that they're getting state-of-the-art innovation and service at a very fair price, with Give Something Back as the ultimate benefactor. This is an organization that changes lives."

Rich worked in sales at Heartland for seven years before leaving in 2010 to attend to a family business. When she heard that Carr had formed a new company, her immediate response was, "Count me in."

"For a long time, I've known Bob Carr to be a man of great generosity and huge heart," Rich added. "Where in the world has anybody ever heard of a CEO who gives his full ownership share-- which is 50 percent of the company-- to a public charity? I just love that!"

Carr  who built Heartland Payment Systems from a $2 million startup to a $4.3 billion enterprise  stresses that Beyond's partnership with Give Back represents only one aspect of its corporate commitment to doing business the right way.

The company underscores its dedication to transparent, customer-first service with the Beyond Promises: Ten principles setting out the company's commitment to fair treatment, plain language (instead of unintelligible fine print) and full disclosure, with no hidden fees and no unexpected surcharges.

To recruit and retain a loyal, professional salesforce, Beyond has created a compensation model that offers portfolio ownership, a full slate of benefits, and uncapped earning potential. In addition, every Beyond employee hired in 2017 will have the opportunity to own part of the company.

"Companies in this sector must work hard to attract the very best employees," Carr said. "Our commitment to our core principles of fairness and transparency and our ongoing partnership with Give Back set us apart from our competitors. Already, we're seeing that Beyond's unique emphasis on doing business the right way is attracting top-quality employees and drawing a loyal and engaged customer base."

Give Back, which Carr founded in 2003, serves students who have faced economic hardship and other adversity, including the incarceration of a parent or placement in the foster care system. So far, Give Something Back has provided more than $35 million in scholarships to more than 1,500 scholars at partner colleges and universities across the country.

Beyond provides the POS, payments, lending, and integrated HR tools and services that small to mid-sized companies need to make their business operations simple, streamlined, and secure. Beyond was founded in 2017 by Robert O. Carr, a prominent businessman and philanthropist whose track record of success reflects his deep belief that "doing the right thing" for customers and employees ultimately produces the best bottom-line results. Carr is the author of two books: Through the Fires: An American Story of Turbulence, Business Triumph and Giving Back and Working Class to College: The Promise and Peril Facing Blue-Collar America.

SOURCE Beyond Inc.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Best Medical Degrees has published a ranking of 30 Most Affordable Online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Degree Programs (http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/cheapest-online-msn/).

Using information provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, school information, and national ratings and rankings, Best Medical Degrees has ranked thirty of the most affordable MSN degrees available online. The ranking looks at tuition cost, length of program, and accreditation. All programs in this ranking are accredited through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

Placing first in this ranking is the University of Nevada-Las Vegas School of Nursing in Las Vegas, Nevada. University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia, placed second, and East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, placed third.

Online MSN programs offering a variety of MSN specialties in this ranking include (in alphabetical order):

Ball State University - Muncie, Indiana

Clarion University - Clarion, Pennsylvania

East Carolina University - Greenville, North Carolina

East Tennessee State University College of Nursing - Johnson City, Tennessee

Eastern Kentucky University - Richmond, Kentucky

Fort Hays State University Virtual College - Hays, Kansas

Frontier Nursing University - Hyden, Kentucky

Georgia College - Milledgeville, Georgia

Lamar University Joanne Gay Dishman School of Nursing - Belmont, Texas

Missouri State University - Springfield, Missouri

Northern Kentucky University - Highland Heights, Kentucky

Northwestern State University-University of Louisiana - Natchitoches, Louisiana

Old Dominion University - Norfolk, Virginia

Robert Morris University - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing - Peoria, Illinois

Saint Xavier University School of Nursing - Chicago, Illinois

UMASS-Amherst - Amherst, Massachusetts

University of Alabama-Birmingham - Birmingham, Alabama

University of Alabama-Huntsville - Huntsville, Alabama

University of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, Ohio

University of Colorado College of Nursing - Denver, Colorado

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs - Colorado Springs, Colorado

University of Kansas School of Nursing - Lawrence, Kansas

University of Missouri Kansas City - Kansas City, Missouri

University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Nursing - Las Vegas, Nevada

University of North Carolina Greensboro School of Nursing - Greensboro, North Carolina

University of Southern Indiana - Evansville, Indiana

University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston - Galveston, Texas

West Georgia University - Carrollton, Georgia

Western Governors University - Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington

Susan Kemppainen, editor at Best Medical Degrees, says, "Although there continues to be a shortage of nursing professionals in the U.S., nursing is one of the fastest growing fields due to the demand created by aging baby boomers and more people accessing health care."

The traditional role of bedside nursing is advancing to include evidence based practices, education, administration and clinical leadership. Additionally, there is an increased need for family nurse practitioners in a variety of specialties including pediatrics, acute care, anesthesiology, and midwifery.

Colleges and universities, through their schools of nursing, are offering online MSN degrees for nurses interested in advancing their careers. Several programs also offer bridge programs to the MSN for students with a non-nursing baccalaureate degree or for currently working LPNs, RNs or nurses with an associate's degree in nursing.

BestMedicalDegrees.com is an independent online publication dedicated to providing accurate and useful information for prospective students considering a career in medicine. In addition to medical school profiles, reviews, and rankings, you will find online resource guides for a variety of medical fields, medical career and salary information, as well as interesting and fun articles and infographics on medical related topics. We hope you find what you're looking for here. If there is some way that you think the site could be more helpful, you notice an error in one of our articles, or you wish to provide any other kind of feedback, please message through the form our contact page.

CONTACT:

Susan A. Kemppainen, Editor

Best Medical Degrees

(865) 258-1064

[email protected]

SOURCE Best Medical Degrees

Related Links

http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com


Millennials and other coffee connoisseurs, however, are more invested in supply chain transparency. These consumer preferences indicate a fundamental shift in the importance of verification methods for fair trade certification. Jones notes, "Further, the announcement of Amazon's upcoming acquisition of Whole Foods highlights this trend, and is motivated, I believe, by Amazon's desire to create a truly transparent supply chain from producers, to storefronts, and, finally, to consumers."

"The current coffee supply chain is antiquated," Jones explains. "Our technology applies machine learning and AI to analyze coffee cherries and beans based on the quality of the goods. Coffee farmers access a mobile app to review the results, and Stellar.org's blockchain platform allows immediate payment and immutable traceability."

This platform enables all stakeholders  farmers, roasters, and consumers  to access data across the entirety of the supply chain. For example, coffee companies may use the data to assess the quality and efficiency of farming practices, while analyzing supply chain dynamics contemporaneously, to inform improvements to supply chain efficiencies.

In April 2017, bext360 exited stealth with $1.2M in seed funding. The company will pilot the bextmachine in Fall 2017 with end-to-end coffee partners, from local coffee co-ops and suppliers, to popular roasters. bext360 will formally announce selected partners in the coming months, in addition to sharing information about purchasing opportunities.

About bext360

bext360 develops technologies, which strengthen local businesses and communities in emerging economies by increasing access to capital and streamlining critical supply chains. The bext360 technology builds upon the fundamental shift in mobile access, renewable energy, microfinance, and mobile/digital currencies in developing countries. For more information on bext360, visit: https://www.bext360.com.

SOURCE bext360

Related Links

http://www.bext360.com


CHANTILLY, Va., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kadiak, LLC (Kadiak) of Anchorage, Alaska has been awarded a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Indian Economic Enterprise (IEE) contract to provide tribal court assessments across rural Alaska. The contract award is Kadiak's first with the BIA.

The tribal court assessments will analyze the needs of tribal courts and function as a tool BIA can use to determine funding allocations based on tribal court needs throughout Alaska. With 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska, the assessments will be a vital tool in assisting tribes as they work toward self-governance.

It was important to the BIA that the contract awardee understand the logistical challenges and cultural differences in Alaska as compared with tribes located in the lower 48 states. Fortunately, the Alaska based Kadiak team is comprised of nearly all Alaska Native Americans. In addition, Kadiak qualifies as an IEE company, as the company is Alaska Native owned and the President, Gordon Pullar, Jr., is an Alaskan Native enrolled member of a Federally recognized tribe.

Mr. Pullar stated "The Kadiak team is excited to support tribal courts in our home state by working closely with tribal leaders. As a tribal member, I see the importance of tribal sovereignty and am eager to help tribal courts succeed." Koniag CEO Liz Perry noted that "it is a testimony to the skills and dedication of our Alaska Native and Koniag Shareholder leadership that the Kadiak team was able to win a competitive award so soon after the formation of the company. We are very excited about this contract and the future of the company."

About Kadiak, LLC.

Kadiak, LLC, is an SBA 8(a) certified subsidiary of Koniag, Inc., an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC), offering services associated with federal contracting and tribal sovereignty. Kadiak provides cultural resource management assistance with the processes necessary for compliance with cultural resource laws, regulations along with environmental consulting services. For more information, please visit www.kadiakllc.com.

Media Contact:

MaryAnn Hoadley

Koniag Government Services

703-488-9303

[email protected]

SOURCE Kadiak, LLC

Related Links

http://www.kadiakllc.com


Revolution Foods, which has a strong track record of providing high-quality, delicious food to schools throughout the U.S., ensures that all of its meals adhere to "clean label" standards. This means that they are made from wholesome, all-natural ingredients free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives and additives. All of its meals are fresh, which will essentially eliminate the district's use of frozen food. Additionally, Revolution Foods utilizes fresh local and regional produce, high quality proteins, rBST (growth hormone)-free dairy products from local dairies, and prohibits the use of high fructose corn syrup and trans fats.

"For many students, the meals they receive at school are their most nutritious of the day," said BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang. "Revolution Foods embraces our nationally-recognized efforts of making sure every student has access to healthy foods in order to be well fed and ready to learn. I am excited that Boston Public Schools and Revolution Foods will work together to ensure all students get the healthiest and tastiest meals they deserve to help them better achieve their academic potential."

Revolution Foods is committed to providing minimally processed meals that are prepared fresh and delivered refrigerated  virtually eliminating the district's reliance on frozen food. Only about 1% of the BPS food inventory will be frozen, and even then it will adhere to clean-label standards and only be used in cases of emergency.

"Our mission is to create lifelong healthy eaters and it starts by introducing a variety of healthy ingredients and culturally relevant menu items that drive student consumption," said Kristin Groos Richmond, CEO and founder of Revolution Foods. "Revolution Foods is the only company on a national level to offer a clean-label supply chain and student-inspired, chef-crafted meals. We are incredibly honored to serve the Boston Public Schools community. We are committed to being a strong partner in setting all BPS students up for success each day."

The company currently serves 2 million meals a week to more than 22 school districts throughout the U.S, including San Francisco, Austin, Texas, Newark, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. It also serves more than 15,000 meals a day at 25 school campuses throughout Massachusetts.

Revolution Foods will build on its current relationships with local and national partners, such as Commonwealth Kitchen, Community Servings, Food Corps, Let's Talk About Food, and Share Our Strength/Cooking Matters, to help facilitate the distribution of fresh food and nutrition education for parents, teachers and students. It will also utilize the Rosev Dairy facility in Chelsea to facilitate distribution each day.

"Revolution Foods will be a strong partner as Boston Public Schools continues to make strides in expanding accessibility of healthy, delicious meals to all students," said Boston School Committee Chairperson Michael O'Neill. "Revolution Foods' strong commitment to community outreach and ensuring the healthiest possible meals is particularly encouraging."

Recognized for its active outreach to families, Revolution Foods will bring to Boston a robust community engagement program that includes "Back-to-School Nights," community open houses, staff training, student/school food tasting events, and participation in local "Let's Talk About Food" events.

Each of these will provide BPS students and families an opportunity to discuss community needs, share feedback related to nutrition and taste standards, and sample meals through regular taste-testing. The goal is to use the family feedback to help develop innovative and culturally relevant menu items tailored to each school community based on family feedback.

Revolution Foods is also committed to working with BPS on exploring all options to increase participation in both breakfast and lunch. The company recently implemented a successful "Breakfast in the Classroom" program in San Francisco in which students eat after the morning bell. The program positively impacted student test scores, attendance levels/tardiness, behavior and ability to focus as well as healthy habits and increased meal participation.

"Revolution Foods shares our vision of ensuring all students have access to healthy food," said Laura Benavidez, Executive Director of the BPS Food and Nutrition Department. "We look forward to working with Revolution Foods as we find innovative ways to expand menu choices and opportunities for students and families."

Through its partnership with BPS, Revolution Foods is creating 35 new jobs in the Boston area. Revolution Foods was selected following a thorough review process that included BPS parents, school staff, community members, and a member of the City's Finance Commission.

ABOUT BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

The Boston Public Schools (BPS), the birthplace of public education in the United States, serves nearly 57,000 pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students in 125 schools. BPS is committed to transforming the lives of all children through exemplary teaching in a world-class system of innovative, welcoming schools. We partner with the community, families, and students to develop in every learner the knowledge, skill, and character to excel in college, career, and life.

ABOUT REVOLUTION FOODS:

Founded in 2006 by two moms on a mission to transform the way America eats, Revolution Foods set out to solve the problem of limited access to healthy meals. The company's innovative approach began with serving freshly prepared, healthy meals to students in schools nationwide, and the company is now serving over two million school meals every week in 15 states. Parent and student demand for Revolution Foods products inspired the company to expand to the grocery store aisles and the company now offers a full line of healthy, ready-to-eat, on-the-go meals and snacks to nourish families throughout the day across breakfast, lunch and dinner. Revolution Foods meals and snacks can now also be found in more than 4,000 grocery stores nationwide, including Safeway, Target, Whole Foods, Acme, Harris Teeter, Shaw's and Hannaford as well as Amazon.com. Revolution Foods believes in bringing things full circle  one percent of retail sales are donated to schools through the company's "Feeding Good Fund," which provides grants to schools who need equipment to serve freshly prepared meals to their students. Revolution Foods was listed in 2015 among Fast Company's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Contact:

BPS Communications Office

[email protected]

617-635-9265

Ditas Mauricio

Senior Vice President, Havas Formula

[email protected]

619-234-0345

SOURCE Revolution Foods

Related Links

http://revolutionfoods.com


BOSTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Brian Heapps, CLU, ChFC, has been named managing partner and president of Edgewood Financial Network, it was announced by Edgewood's founder, Robert Mitchell. Heapps will take over the day-to-day management of the firm, as well as responsibility for strategic planning and growth. Mitchell will remain with the firm as chairman of the Board. With nearly 200 financial advisors in 30 states, Edgewood is one of the largest independent firms affiliated with Signator Investors, Inc.

Heapps joined Signator in 1987 as a financial advisor, and 10 years later founded Keystone Financial Management, an independent firm affiliated with Signator. He joined Signator's home office in 2007, and became President and CEO in 2012. Heapps was responsible for completing Signator's transition from John Hancock's career agency system to one of the industry's largest fully independent broker-dealers, led two successful acquisitions, and spearheaded the development of Signator's industry-leading advisor succession program.

"I am excited to return to my roots in the field and support Edgewood's advisors and their clients," said Heapps. "Signator not only provides a strong value proposition for firms, their advisors and staff, our broker dealer also has its eye keenly focused on enhancing the client experience  and both are essential to success in today's financial services environment."

"I am thrilled Brian will be joining Edgewood to continue our long history of excellence to clients and our advisors. He brings a wealth of field and home office experience to Edgewood that will be ideal for leading the organization into the future," said Mitchell.

Chris Maryanopolis, president of Signator Investors, Inc., said, "We are pleased to have Brian at the helm of one of our firms, and feel his experience will be an asset for Edgewood and Signator."

About Edgewood Financial Network

With roots leading back to 1982, Edgewood Financial Network is a national firm working with nearly 200 registered representatives and life insurance agents in 30 states. Based in Gold River, California, Edgewood Financial Network is an OSJ for Signator Investors, Inc. as well as a life insurance and annuity wholesaler. For more information about Edgewood, visit http://www.edgewoodfn.com.

About Signator Investors, Inc.

Signator Investors, Inc. is a dual-registered broker-dealer/investment adviser with a national network of independent firms and more than 2,000 financial professionals across the U.S. A leader in the financial services industry having the stability and scale to offer an innovative business model, Signator gives entrepreneurial financial professionals the power to effectively build unique businesses, based on their own vision and market opportunity. For more information on Signator Investors, Inc. and its national network of independent firms, visit http://www.signatorinvestors.com/.

0185-20170712-384394

SOURCE Signator Investors, Inc.
MIAMI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) announced yesterday a change in keeping with good corporate governance that encourages the periodic rotation of board leadership positions among directors.

Stuart Subotnick has stepped down from his role as Senior Independent Director and Presiding Director and Randall J. Weisenburger was elected by the company's Non-Executive Directors, acting in executive session, to take over as the Senior Independent Director under the UK Corporate Governance Code with immediate effect. Weisenburger will also act as the Presiding Director to preside at meetings of the Non-Executive Directors and at Board meetings in the absence of the Chairman, and to serve as the principal liaison for Non-Executive Directors.

The appointment of a new Senior Independent Director and Presiding Director brings fresh perspectives and ideas to these leadership roles and underscores the company's constant attention to succession planning and implementation.

A director since 2009, Weisenburger is chair of the Compensation Committees and a member of the Audit Committees and Nominating & Governance Committees.

Subotnick will continue as a member of the Boards of Directors, Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committees and as a member of the Audit Committees and Executive Committees.

"Stuart Subotnick's breadth of business experience has been a real asset to Carnival," said Micky Arison, Carnival Corporation & plc Chairman. "We have benefited greatly from his insights, counsel and leadership. We are pleased he will continue to serve the Board."

"Randy Weisenburger is an excellent choice to serve as our presiding director," continued Arison. "Our company has benefited from his broad experience, leadership and wise counsel. Randy will serve the board and the company well in this new role."

This announcement is made pursuant to UK Listing Rule 9.6.11.

Carnival Corporation & plc is the world's largest leisure travel company and among the most profitable and financially strong in the cruise and vacation industries, with a portfolio of 10 dynamic brands that include nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK), as well as Fathom, the corporation's immersion and enrichment experience brand.

Together, the corporation's cruise lines operate 103 ships with 231,000 lower berths visiting over 700 ports around the world, with 17 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2018 and 2022. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour company in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.

In 2017, Fast Company recognized Carnival Corporation as being among the "Top 10 Most Innovative Companies" in both the design and travel categories. Fast Company specifically recognized Carnival Corporation for its work in developing Ocean Medallion, a high-tech wearable device that enables the world's first interactive guest experience platform capable of transforming vacation travel into a highly personalized and elevated level of customized service.

Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com , www.fathom.org , www.hollandamerica.com , www.princess.com , www.seabourn.com , www.aida.de , www.costacruise.com , www.cunard.com , www.pocruises.com.au and www.pocruises.com .

SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc

Related Links

http://www.Carnivalcorp.com


SAN GABRIEL, California, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) ("CIIX" or the "Company"), the premier financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors, today announces that it will attend the Southern California Investment Forum ("SCIF") and the FreedomFest 10th Anniversary later this month in Las Vegas.

Taking place at the Capital Grille on July 19, CIIX will participate in SCIF (http://southerncaliforniainvestmentforum.com), a conference that introduces executives from high-potential, emerging small-cap companies from around the world to an audience of pre-qualified investment professionals, investment bankers, analysts, portfolio managers, hedge fund managers, top brokers and accredited investors. CIIX was invited to present at SCIF and introduce the Company's recent business updates in its Financial Services/Media Division and its Direct to Consumer Division which focuses on marketing non-industrial hemp health products and cosmeceuticals in the US and China.

CIIX will also participate in the 10th annual FreedomFest festival (https://freedomfest.com) scheduled for July 19-22 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. FreedomFest attracts thousands of thought influencers from around the world to gather, talk, strategize, socialize, and network with other experts and leaders. The conference also provides entrepreneurs a platform to showcase their operations to investors looking for opportunities to benefit their portfolio.

"I am delighted that CIIX has been invited to attend the Southern California Investment Forum and FreedomFest 10th Anniversary," says Warren Wang, founder and CEO of CIIX. "FreedomFest is one of the most well-known investor festivals, and we look forward to networking with the impressive turn-out expected for its 10th anniversary. Participating in these two events provides us with a valuable opportunity to meet with investors face-to-face and to introduce our latest business updates and developments to a new audience."

CIIX is in the early stages of penetrating the world's non-industrial hemp market through its retail and e-commerce channels and its network marketing channels that are in development Leveraging a diversified approach, CIIX is positioned to capitalize on rising demand and acceptance in this growing industry. The Company's core business of financial education has also been strengthened by a significant upgrade to its platform.

"We encourage the investment community to come to our booth at FreedomFest to learn more about CIIX and the incredible opportunities that await," says Warren.

About ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX)

Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com endeavors to be an innovative company providing: (a) real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services in Chinese language character sets (traditional and simplified); (b) advertising and public relation related support services; and (c) retail, online sales and direct sales of hemp-based products and other health related products.

For more information visit http://www.ChineseInvestors.com

Subscribe and watch our video commentaries: https://www.youtube.com/user/Chinesefncom

Follow us on Twitter for real-time Company updates: https://twitter.com/ChineseFNEnglsh

Like us on Facebook to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Chinesefncom

Add us on WeChat: Chinesefn or download iPhone iOS App: Chinesefn.

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.

Contact:

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.

227 W. Valley Blvd, #208 A

San Gabriel, CA 91776



Investor Relations:

Alan Klitenic

+1-214-636-2548

Corporate Communications:



NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

http://www.NetworkNewsWire.com

+1-212-418-1217 Office

[email protected]



SOURCE ChineseInvestors.com Inc
Publishers and App developers using the Chocolate Mediation SDK can unlock the true potential of their mobile inventory by incrementally increasing competition for their video ad inventory. By opting to bring new demand sources under one universal auction model, publishers & app developers can have their inventory compete against SDK demand, maximizing revenue opportunities. Flexible integration options enable app developers & publishers to add new demand sources effortlessly through a single-step integration using VAST or VPAID tags. In addition, BYOD supports advance filters like QPS, device, geo, and platform type. BYOD promises additional business revenue for app developers & publishers by opening up competition to ad networks that do not provide a SDK solution. BYOD also enables app developers to gain access to new video demand without bloating their app with another SDK integration.

"The ability to bring all demand sources  SDK and beyond  under one universal auction model significantly maximizes the eCPMs and fill rates for publishers and app developers," says Saurabh Bhatia, CEO, Chocolate by Vdopia. "The addition of new demand sources will give developers new access to bring the highest value video ad brand dollars through our platform, helping them monetize their inventory more efficiently."

Chocolate SSP is an end-to-end mediation platform that creates sustainable business revenues with industry leading CPMs and Fill Rates. The platform offers universal auction technology, combined with unified reporting, single-point billing, MOAT viewability reporting, branded video demand and support for all major video ad formats & ad networks.

About Chocolate by Vdopia

Chocolate by Vdopia is a global programmatic buying and selling platform for mobile video advertising. Vdopia operates the industry's only mobile video-only programmatic platform, called Chocolate, which is powered by its proprietary .VDO technology. Powered by patent-pending, .VDO technology, Vdopia's programmatic platform, 'Chocolate', is a brand safe, viewable and transparent platform for complete planning, buying and measurement of mobile video ad campaigns.

Vdopia Inc. is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Fremont, CA, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, India & Australia.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Vdopia
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Renew Financial, a leading clean energy and home improvement finance company, announced today that the City of Santa Barbara has joined the CaliforniaFIRST PACE financing program and will make the program available to City residents in the near future. This action is a crucial positive step toward Santa Barbara meeting its commendable goal of exclusively using renewable energy sources by 2030.

CaliforniaFIRST helps property owners to finance the full cost of home upgrades such as rooftop solar panels, energy and water efficiency, and even seismic resilience. Homeowners then repay those costs over time as a line item on their property tax bill. By eliminating the upfront cost barrier for environmentally-friendly home upgrades, CaliforniaFIRST makes these upgrades accessible to more Santa Barbara homeowners than ever before. Now, nearly 24,000 Santa Barbara homeowners will be able to use CaliforniaFIRST to go solar, save money on their utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help the City of Santa Barbara reach its clean energy goal.

"This is a great opportunity to make it easier for our residents to upgrade their homes and reduce our community's greenhouse gas emissions," said Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider. "The City of Santa Barbara is committed to using 100% renewable energy by 2030. Authorizing Open PACE, including the CaliforniaFIRST PACE program, will enable local homeowners to help us reach that goal."

To date, Renew Financial estimates that, over the life of the financed upgrades, the renewable energy and energy efficient products it has financed will have:

Cut total greenhouse gas emissions by 2.3 million metric tons  equivalent to the yearly emissions of 485,000 cars

Conserved 877 million gallons of water  enough water for 48 million showers

Realized over $1.5 billion in energy savings

in energy savings Created more than 15,000 jobs across 15 states

Funded over 83,600 projects

"CaliforniaFIRST means that homeowners in the City of Santa Barbara can do their part to reduce greenhouse emissions, all while reducing their utility bills," said Jeremy Hutman, Senior Regional PACE Director for Renew Financial. "We are proud to help the City move toward a future powered entirely by clean energy. By increasing demand for home upgrades, CaliforniaFIRST will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will also help local contractors create jobs here in Santa Barbarajobs that can't be outsourced. It is a win-win for the community."

About Renew Financial

Renew Financial Group, LLC ("Renew Financial") is one of the nation's leading home improvement financing companies. Renew Financial administers and provides multiple financing products across the country, with programs available in several states, including the administration of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs operating in California and Florida. PACE is a financing tool enabled by state and local governments that provides homeowners and business owners with access to private capital to finance the entire cost of renewable energy, energy efficiency, water conservation, seismic, and wind mitigation upgrades, and then pay for those upgrades on their property tax bill. PACE was named by Scientific American as one of the "top 20 ideas that can change the world." PACE is a job-creating policy tool that has enjoyed bipartisan support, having been championed in state legislatures by members from both sides of the aisle.

Renew Financial is a pending trademark of Renew Financial Holdings Inc.

Additional information:

renewfinancial.com | @RenewFinancial | LinkedIn | Facebook | Blog

SOURCE Renew Financial

Related Links

http://renewfinancial.com


HOUSTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- C&J Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: CJ) announced today that it will issue its second quarter 2017 financial and operating results on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, before the market open. In conjunction with this release, C&J Energy Services has scheduled a conference call for 10:00 a.m. E.T. (9:00 a.m. C.T.) on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, which will be webcast live. Information on how to access the conference call and webcast is set forth below:

What: C&J Energy Services' Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Call



When: Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. E.T. (9:00 a.m. C.T.)



Where: Live via phone by calling U.S. (Toll Free): 1-855-560-2574 or International: 1-412-542-4160 and asking for the "C&J Energy Services' Earnings Call," or live via webcast at www.cjenergy.com on the Investor Relations page. Participants are encouraged to dial into the conference call ten to fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time to avoid any delays entering the earnings call.

For those who cannot listen to the live call, a telephonic replay will be available through August 15, 2017 and may be accessed by calling U.S. (Toll Free): 1-877-344-7529 or International: 1-412-317-0088, using the access code: 10110772. An archive of the webcast will also be available shortly after the call at www.cjenergy.com on the Investor Relations page.

About C&J Energy Services

C&J Energy Services is a leading provider of well construction, well completion, well support and other complementary oilfield services to oil and gas exploration and production companies. We offer a comprehensive, vertically-integrated suite of services throughout the life cycle of the well, including hydraulic fracturing, cased-hole wireline and pump-down, cementing, directional drilling, coiled tubing, rig services, fluids management and other support services. We are headquartered in Houston, Texas and operate in all active onshore basins of the continental United States and Western Canada. For additional information about C&J, please visit www.cjenergy.com.

C&J Energy Services Investor Contact

Daniel E. Jenkins

Vice President  Investor Relations

[email protected]

1-713-260-9986

SOURCE C&J Energy Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cjenergy.com


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarus, a leading life science investment firm, announced today that it has closed its fourth fund, Clarus IV, L.P. a $910 million fund, above its initial $750 million target. This is the fourth investment fund formed and managed by Clarus, bringing its total assets under management to more than $2.6 billion.

"We are pleased to welcome existing and new investors into our oversubscribed $910 million fourth fund," said Managing Director Nick Galakatos. "The quality of our LP base and their level of commitment in our new fund is a testament to Clarus' performance, the quality of our team, and our leadership in the emerging field of risk-sharing investments in major biopharmaceutical products."

"Clarus IV will commit $20 million to $100 million per investment, focused both on risk-shared, co-development of late-stage clinical assets and other structured financing opportunities," added Managing Director Emmett Cunningham.

The Clarus IV team is led by Managing Directors Emmett Cunningham, Nicholas Galakatos, Robert Liptak, Scott Requadt, Nicholas Simon and Kurt Wheeler. The team includes Chief Scientific Advisor Dennis Henner, Partners Michele Park and Barry Gertz, Principal Ari Brettman, Associate Lazar Dimitrov, Senior Advisor Edward Scolnick and Venture Partners Bob DeBenedetto, Kiran Reddy and William Young.

Snowbridge Advisors LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and institutional placement agent for Clarus IV. Snowbridge offers securities through Sagent Advisors, LLC a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC.

About Clarus

Clarus is a leading global investment firm dedicated to life sciences. Founded in 2005 by a team of accomplished investment and operating professionals, Clarus manages over $2.6 billion, and has invested in more than 50 private and public companies in the biotechnology, medical device and diagnostic spaces. In every investment, Clarus employs a hands-on approach and leverages its scientific and clinical development expertise, as well as the ability to adapt to an ever-changing investment landscape. Clarus strives to generate outstanding returns for its investors by identifying and financing innovative medicines that improve people's lives.

Clarus has offices in Cambridge, MA, and South San Francisco, CA. For more information please visit www.clarusfunds.com.

Media Contact:

Amiad Finkelthal

Russo Partners

646-942-5626 office

917-217-1838 mobile

[email protected]

SOURCE Clarus

Related Links

http://www.clarusfunds.com


BELLEVUE, Wash., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinstar, LLC, a leader in self-service coin counting, today announced a new partnership with Allegiance Retail Services, LLC, to install up to 80 Coinstar kiosks at Allegiance affiliate supermarket banners, including Foodtown in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

"We're very pleased to sign this agreement with Allegiance," said Lee Pantalone, senior director of sales at Coinstar. "We look forward to deepening our kiosk density creating even greater availability and convenience for consumers living in the Northeast, especially in the New York City metropolitan area."

Allegiance affiliates who sign on to install Coinstar kiosks will receive full functionality coin-counting kiosks with features including coins-to-cash, no fee coin-to-eGift card and charity donation options.

"We're excited to offer the Coinstar kiosk to our owner-operated affiliate stores," said Joe Fantozzi, vice president, retail/member services at Allegiance. "We expect high participation given Coinstar's full-service capabilities and turnkey service combined with its proven ability to drive foot traffic and increase store revenue."

Coinstar expects to begin kiosk installations at affiliate locations in August.

About Coinstar, LLC

Based in Bellevue, Wash., Coinstar owns and operates the largest fully automated, multi-national network of self-service coin counting kiosks. With more than 20,000 kiosk locations, Coinstar provides convenient and reliable coin counting services at mass merchants, grocery and drug stores and financial institutions. Consumer solutions include coin-to-cash, coin-to-eGift card and charity donation options. For kiosk locations and information, visit www.coinstar.com.

About Allegiance Retail Services, LLC

Allegiance Retail Services, LLC supports approximately 100 independent supermarkets (e.g., Foodtown, Freshtown, Freshco, D'Agostino, LaBella Marketplace, Brooklyn Harvest, Market Fresh, Big Deal Food Market and JRs Fresh Foodtown) for retail success by providing them with marketing, advertising, technological and merchandising support, as well as a full line of Foodtown private label products.

Media Inquiries

Marci Maule Housley

Mpact Group

425.495.7413

[email protected]

SOURCE Coinstar

Related Links

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LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten-year market forecasts segmented by applications and materials, critical application and technology appraisals, company profiles



The conductive ink market will be in excess of 1,900 tonnes in 2017





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4727849/







This report provides the most comprehensive and authoritative view of the 1900 tpa conductive inks and paste market, giving detailed ten-year market forecasts segmented by application and material type. The market forecasts are given in tonnage and value at the ink level.



It includes critical reviews of all the competing conductive inks and paste technologies including firing-types pastes, PTFs, laser-cut or photo-patterned pastes, nanoparticles, stretchable inks, in mold inks, copper, copper/silver alloys, nanocarbons, and more. Here, we outline the latest performance levels/progress, technology challenges, key suppliers, existing and emerging target market, and forecasts where appropriate.



It also provides a detailed assessment of more than 25 application sectors. Here, we analyse the market needs/requirements, discuss the business dynamics, market leadership and technology change trends, competing solutions, latest product/prototype launches, key players and market forecasts in tonnes and value. The markets covered include photovoltaics, touch screen edge electrodes, automotive (defoggers, seat occupancy sensors, seat heaters, etc), In mold electronics (automotive, home appliance, etc_, Electronic textile and wearable electronics, 3D antennas and conformal printing, EMI Shielding, 3D printed electronics, ITO replacement (hybrid, direct printing, etc), printed piezoresistive, capacitive and bio sensors, PCB (DIY/hobbyist, professional, seed-and-plate), RFID (HF, UHF), printed TFT and memory, OLED and large-area LED lighting, flexible e-readers and reflective displays, large-area heaters (battery, plant, seat, etc), conductive pens, digitizers and more.



In the report we also cover more than 130 companies. For most, we provide insights based on primary intelligence obtained through interviews, visits, conference exhibition interactions, personal communications, and so on. For more than 50 we provide full interview-based company profiles including a detailed SWOT analyst and IDTechEx Index. These company provides provide value insight to company positioning, strategy, opportunities, and challenges.



Unrivalled market intelligence and insight

This report is based upon years of research. In the past five years alone, our analysts have interviewed more than 100 industry players, visited numerous users/ suppliers across the world, attended more than 20 relevant conferences/exhibitions globally, and worked with many industry players to help them with their strategy towards this market. For example, last year alone we visited 10 tradeshows in Japan, USA, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, UK and so on to update our report. Prior to this, our analysts played an active role in commercializing conductive pastes, particularly in the photovoltaic industry. In parallel to this, IDTechEx has organised the leading global conferences and tradeshows on printed electronics for the past decade in Asia, Europe and USA. These shows bring together the entire value chain on printed electronics, including all the conductive ink suppliers, printers, and end users. This has given us unrivalled access to the players and the latest market intelligence.



In search of the next big thing

The conductive ink industry is still in search of the next big thing. Adverse competitive pressures in core volume markets has led most suppliers to seek new nascent opportunities. The prevalent strategy is now to have as broad a product portfolio as possible, seeding multiple nascent markets, garnering as much customer feedback as possible, and establishing value networks early on. Suppliers also now intensely watch one another, rapidly launching comparable products which results in an erosion of differentiation. This puts suppliers in a bind: on the one hand, they want to keep technologies secret for long to perfect them in-house, but, on the other hand, they must take it to the market early because they crave customer feedback in new markets where neither the figures-of-merit nor customer needs are well known. Despite all this, the industry has identified multiple emerging applications areas in the 2013-2016 period as it seeks to rejuvenate itself.



Changing business landscape

The volume photovoltaic market will do well in the first half of 2017 thanks to the looming end of feed-in-tariff in China. This will spell good news for paste and powder suppliers, however the industry will remain concerned that it may reach peak silver consumption soon in this highly cost competitive market that sees only incremental innovation. The touch screen edge electrode market continues to be shaped by the perennial trend to narrow the bezel. This trend has already led to the introduction of new photo-patterned and laser-cut pastes to achieve L/S of 20/20. Such ink innovations have so far enabled printing to stay competitive, but the industry remains concerned here too that sputtering will become even more of a threat in the coming years as the L/S shrinks further.



New growth opportunities emerge

The behind-the-scenes interest in in-mold electronics (IME) remains robust. In fact the industry is on the cusp of success after several false starts. The first wave of products are close to market launch, the value networks are being enhanced, and the volume manufacturers are more engaged than ever.



The number of stretchable pastes keeps on increasing. Two years or so ago only a few suppliers offered such inks but in the past quarter alone we have interacted with at least ten suppliers. More ink-based e-textile products are being launched but volumes remain small and the value chain weak. The industry however has increasing momentum as it searches for its first major success story.



Aerosol and other non-contact printing processes are now a major contender for printing antennas and other conductive traces on 3D objects. The production capacity now exists, particularly in Asia and many material suppliers have qualified their products with these process. Commercial progress is set continue here. EMI shielding is emerging as new area of interest. We expect the number of chips with conformal EMI shielding coatings on consumer electronics to rapidly increase.



The competition will be between sputtering and ink spraying, and within inks the competition will be on particle size with nano inks offering thinness whilst others offer lower costs. Directly printed metal mesh films with linewidths below 5um are now possible, although most prototypes still in the pilot phase. Nonetheless, they represent a long-term risk to other metal mesh processes in an increasingly cost-sensitive industry. Several silver nanoparticle TCF technologies have lost commercial momentum, but new novel ones are emerging to take their place. Hybrid solutions also continue with their stop-start commercial progress.



In the automotive industry applications such as printed seat occupancy sensors, printed capacitive sensors for infotainments modules, and seat heaters will largely continue their progress. The efforts to develop and commercially print window de-foggers on polycarbonate substrates will also intensify, whilst printed metal mesh for window de-foggers will appear on the early-stage technology roadmap of major OEMs.



3D printed electronics (3DPE) remains an innovation opportunity front. The number of dedicated 3DPE printers is set to rise whilst ink suppliers will develop low-temperature inks compatible with a variety of substrates. Hobbyist/DIY PCB printers will see diminished interest as the buzz dissipates, whilst printers aimed at the professional end of the market slowly will penetrate the market. The seed-and-plate PCB approach will become more technologically mature but will struggle to find a sufficient cost advantage to force a widespread switch.



Printed large-area piezoresistive, capacitive and biosensors are set to become one of the largest constituents of the greater printed electronics industry. Here, inks will be used as printed bus bars and interconnects. Despite technology improvements, printed transistor and memory will remain in search of applications. Special formulations for printed backplane interconnects on flexible e-readers and flexible displays will see small boom in the short- to medium-term. Large-area LED arrays made with printing will slowly find their way into the market although competition from FPCB remains whilst the primary challenge will be developing and selling end lighting products.



There are numerous other applications that are being developed for conductive paste which we consider in our report in detail. Examples include heating, battery pack and plant heaters, frequency-selective windows, and many more. Nobody wants to be left behind These markets however represent the future growth opportunities. Indeed, as shown below, IDTechEx Research forecasts that these emerging sectors will grow to nearly become a $400m market opportunity by 2027. The ship is sailing now and nobody wants to be left behind. This is why companies are now allocating resources, iterating formulations, and development commercial ecosystems. This is why the conductive ink business has come alive again.

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SOURCE ReportBuyer

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from MarkMonitor, the world leader in enterprise brand protection, reveals counterfeit goods still pose a significant risk to consumers. More than one-quarter of respondents (27%) said they had unwittingly purchased non-genuine consumer goods online. This included every day items, such as make-up (32%), skincare (25%), supplements (22%) and, worryingly, medication (16%).

Respondents found these non-genuine goods were found through a variety of online channels, including online marketplaces (39%), search engines (34%), mobile apps (22%) and social ads (20%).

Respondents were also asked which of these channels they trusted to deliver goods that met their expectations all or most of the time. Brand websites were most trusted (89%), followed by online marketplaces (74%), online pharmacies (67%) and mobile apps (67%).

The research was conducted on behalf of MarkMonitor by independent market research firm Vitreous World. The aim was to examine online buying behaviour related to consumer goods, including make-up, toiletries, medicines, vitamins and supplements, purchased outside of supermarket shopping.

"The threat of counterfeiters is ever-present, affecting both brands and consumers. For brands it's all about the loss of revenue, reputation and customer trust. However, when it comes to non-genuine consumer goods such as cosmetics, skincare, sun care and medicines, the consequences for shoppers are far greater, affecting their health and wellbeing. As a result, it is up to brands to ensure they have a solid online brand protection policy in place to deal with the counterfeit threat and keep their customers safe from harm," says Anil Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer of MarkMonitor.

This sentiment was also reflected in the research, with 34% of respondents stating they believed it was a brand's responsibility to protect them from counterfeiters. This is reinforced by the fact that almost four in every 10 consumers that unwittingly bought a fake product complained directly to the brand. In addition, with 80% of consumers relying on online reviews before making buying decisions, ensuring customer satisfaction is crucial.

The survey also found that there is little desire to willingly purchase counterfeits. The majority of consumers (83%) stated they would not buy non-genuine consumer products, such as make-up, skincare and medicines.

Respondents were surveyed online across 10 countries, including the UK, US, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Interviews were conducted online and were completed between 4-10 May 2017.

To read the full report, please visit: http://www.markmonitor.com/shopping-barometer-2017

 2017 MarkMonitor Inc. All rights reserved. MarkMonitor is a registered trademark of MarkMonitor Inc., a brand of Clarivate Analytics. All other trademarks included herein are the property of their respective owners.

Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics accelerates the pace of innovation by providing trusted insights and analytics to customers around the world, enabling them to discover, protect and commercialize new ideas faster. Formerly the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters, we own and operate a collection of leading subscription-based businesses focused on scientific and academic research, patent analytics and regulatory standards, pharmaceutical and biotech intelligence, trademark protection, domain brand protection and intellectual property management. Clarivate Analytics is now an independent company with over 4,000 employees, operating in more than 100 countries and owns wellknown brands that include Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet, among others. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.

SOURCE Clarivate Analytics

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SKOKIE, Ill., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CPG International, a leader in premium, low maintenance, exterior building products, announced today the hiring of former Owens Corning executive Joe Ochoa as President of its AZEK Building Products unit.

Ochoa spent the last 15 years of his career at Owens Corning, a $6 billion company, in various roles. Most recently, he was vice president of strategic marketing for the Roofing and Asphalt division, and served on the operating committee and as an officer of the company. Prior to that, he was vice president and general manager of the Engineered Insulation Systems (EIS) business; vice president and general manager of the Foam Insulation division; and general manager of the Latin America division.

"Joe Ochoa is a major player in the home and building products industry and we are thrilled to bring him on board to lead the AZEK unit of our business," said Jesse Singh, CEO of CPG International. "In his role, he will provide overall strategic direction and leadership for AZEK Building Products to aid in bringing the organization to the next phase of growth."

Ochoa will also have responsibility for financial planning and management activities to lead the organization's profitability and performance.

Prior to Owens Corning, Ochoa served as vice president of technology for Servicelane, where he established a national network for home maintenance with Lowe's Home Improvement Center as a key partner.

Ochoa also co-founded Fifth Gear Media, where he laid the foundation for the profitable company to merge to form Luminant Worldwide Corp., which had a successful IPO. Before Fifth Gear Media, Ochoa held a variety of leadership positions with Frito-Lay (part of the Pepsico Company), Procter & Gamble, and AT Kearney.

Ochoa earned a master of business administration degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business as well as a bachelor's of business administration degree from the University of Texas.

"AZEK is a leader in the premium building products industry and its products are second to none, which is why the brand has enjoyed incredible success in the category," said Ochoa. "I am eager to lend my expertise in the industry to take the AZEK brand to the next level."

About CPG International

CPG International LLC is an industry leader of premium building products that replace traditional materials and provide value through lower maintenance, refined aesthetics and reduced total cost. Our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and research and design is at the core of who we are. CPG International is headquartered in Skokie, IL, in the greater Chicago area and also operates highly automated manufacturing facilities in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Ohio. The company's products are marketed under several brands including AZEK and TimberTech for residential building materials, Scranton Products for commercial building materials, and Vycom for industrial building materials. For additional information, visit www.cpgint.com.

About AZEK Building Products

AZEK Building Products is a leader in the development of premium, low maintenance exterior building products. Available to a worldwide audience, its product lines span AZEK Trim, Deck, Rail, Moulding, Porch and Pavers as well as capped wood composite Decking and Railing under the TimberTech brand. Both brands, synonymous with quality, style and innovation, are made in America and lead their market areas by continually reinventing product lines and redefining product categories. For more information about AZEK, visit www.azek.com. For more information on TimberTech, visit www.timbertech.com or call 1-877-ASK AZEK.

SOURCE CPG International

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WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Decernis LLC (http://www.decernis.com), the leading provider of technology and content solutions for product compliance, safety, and risk management, announces a new partnership with Label bank Co LTD, who bridges the gap between consumers and businesses with in-depth knowledge of food labeling and always provide workable solutions concerning any food issues to jointly market and sell solutions in Japan.

Based on this new collaboration, Decernis and Label bank are sharing information and resources based on Decernis' compliance management system, gComply Plus, comprising more than 5 million terms from over 90,000 food and beverage regulations and compliance standards across 207 countries worldwide. This will help industry users ensure their product recipes and specifications comply with global regulatory requirements, including information on additives, nutritional values, packaging, contaminants and Standards of Identity. Together, the solution's food contaminants, beverage standards, food additives, food contact, food standards, and supplements modules will be expanded.

The partnership will further benefit through the utilization of Decernis' gComply and Market Entry Reports. gComply provides access to over 90,000 global regulations by country, substance, or topic. Decernis Market Entry Reports provide a summary of food labeling requirements and food regulations to sell products in 42 different countries. They include mandatory information, ingredients, nutritional information, claims, and import requirements.

"Because manufacturers and exporters of food products imported to Japan can be unfamiliar with the market, it is important to determine which food category the product belongs in and whether the product meets the relevant definitions provided by the Japanese food labelling regulations" said Andrew (Pat) Waldo, CEO of Decernis, LLC. "By partnering with Label bank, businesses can benefit from the combined knowledge of the two companies. And, Label bank will expand Decernis' reach in the Japanese market."

"Decernis solutions offer a complete system which is an incredibly useful tool for managers responsible for the development of foods distributed in the global market and the people responsible for food product labeling," stated Hiroyuki Kawai, Managing Director of Label bank. "The ingredients composition of a product and its labeling are closely related. The mandatory content to be labeled will depend on the ingredients list. The list often needs to be adjusted in accordance with the claims or content to be set out on the label."

About Label bank

Label bank, since its foundation in 2003, has been providing a range of services surrounding food labels. We help food and beverage manufactures, retailers and inspection companies navigate regulatory hurdles including label compliance issues. Our long standing experience and expertise in the food industry allow us to offer you the service that best suit your needs. http://label-bank.com

About Decernis

Decernis LLC delivers global solutions for product compliance, safety, and risk management through smart technology, Intelligent Systems Technology, Big Data Analytics, and global expertise. Our horizon scanning, enterprise solutions, supply chain management and experts in global food, consumer, and industrial product safety support our clients in meeting complex market demands and key decisions. Decernis tracks regulatory developments in more than two hundred countries on a day-by-day basis.

Decernis contact:

Americas Contact: EU/APAC Contact:

Susanne Kuehne Christina Zimmermann

Senior Manager, Business Development Decernis GmbH

Decernis LLC Germany

Phone +1 240.428.1800 Tel. +49 (6483) 915303

[email protected] [email protected]

www.decernis.com www.decernis.com



SOURCE Decernis LLC

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Direct Relief has welcomed three new directors to its board. The new directors, who bring an abundance of knowledge in medicine, business and law, include Steven A. Amerikaner, Jamie A. Ruffing, Ph.D., and Thomas Sturgess. Each director will serve up to two three-year terms, the first of which began on June 29, 2017.

Steven A. Amerikaner currently serves as Office Managing Partner for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, a national law firm with offices in five California cities, including Santa Barbara. With 30 years of experience in real estate law, Amerikaner represents developers, businesses and homeowners with regards to zone changes, conditional use permits and other similar discretionary approvals. Past clients, such as a hedge fund with over 25,000 acres of coastal ranch land and a retirement community seeking to expand its medical facilities, are among those who Amerikaner has represented. He also serves as general counsel for two public agencies, in addition to his work in the private sector.

Amerikaner received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College. Before entering private practice in 1991, Amerikaner served as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles City Attorney and managed a field office for a Los Angeles-area Member of Congress.

As former president of the Santa Barbara Jewish Federation, former chair of the Santa Barbara Hillel and Regional Chamber of Commerce, Amerikaner has a long history of community involvement and leadership. He served on the Board of Directors for the Central Coast Judicial Selection Advisory Committee that advises the Governor on judicial appointments. Presently, he is Chair of the Santa Barbara Business Leaders Council and is also President of Congregation B'nai B'rith, an 800-member reform congregation in Santa Barbara.

In 1991, Amerikaner received the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Community Service Award and was inducted into the Hillel Hall of Fame in 2010. Each year between 2012 and 2017, Amerikaner was named Best Lawyers in America and California Super Lawyer from 2014 to 2017.

Jamie A. Ruffing, Ph.D., MPH, M.S., with more than 20 years of experience leading critical, complex government projects and programs, is an epidemiologist and engineer. She is currently the Public Health Officer and Lieutenant Colonel for the 177th Wing of the U.S. Air National Guard. She also works as General Engineer, ARDEC Liaison to Port Hueneme for the United States Army.

Before the National Guard, Ruffing was a researcher at the Helen Hayes Hospital, a sales representative for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and a general engineer for both the United States Army and Homeland Defense Technologies. In addition to being recognized as "Who's Who Among Rising Young Americans" in 1990, Ruffing received the Air Force Commendation Medal four times over the course of nine years. She was also awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal in 2001 and 2006.

Ruffing received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Columbia University, after completing undergraduate studies at West Point Military Academy. She also attended Rutgers University, where she earned her MPH in Health Care Organization and Administration.

She has served as a board member for the Montecito Education Foundation, YMCA Channel Islands and currently the Girls Scouts California Central Coast. Ruffing is also a Girl Scout Troop Leader.

Thomas Sturgess, who served in the United States Marine Corps and California Division of Forestry, is Executive Chairman of Tiri Group Limited, a diversified New Zealand manufacturing company. He is also Executive Chairman and Co-Owner of New Zealand's largest printing company, Blue Star Print Holdings, in addition to the proprietor of Lone Star Farms Limited.

Previously chairman of New Zealand King Salmon, Inc., Sturgess oversaw 400 employees and managed $100 million in revenue. He also led several other manufacturing corporations such as Blue Star Print Group, Angus and Robertson Whitcoulls for Pacific Equity Partners and Blue Star Group Ltd.

After graduating with honors from California State University, Sturgess attended Harvard Business School, where he received a master's degree in Business Administration.

Sturgess currently serves as a board member for the Golden Bay Community Trust, Mercury Capital Limited Private Equity Fund and Fifeshire Foundation.

CONTACT: Tony Morain, (530) 574-5707, [email protected]

SOURCE Direct Relief

Related Links

http://www.directrelief.org


KOWLOON, Hong Kong, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Eco Energy Tech Asia Ltd. (ECO Energy) today announced that it has signed a letter of intent with its cooperation partner Zaklad Budowy Maszin from Poland (Zaklad). The agreement between Eco Energy and Zaklad stipulates the Zaklad of Poland will be the exclusive marketing partner of Eco Energy to sell agricultural technology systems developed and successfully invented by Eco Energy. Over many years Eco Energy developed and tested different technologies which are applied in the operation of vertical farming. These technologies are used to save energy and water in an isolated mini climate as it is provided in a Biodome. The use of these systems facilitates the operation of a Biodome and allows to increase profitability by decreasing costs for water and energy used.

Over the past years, Eco Energy has become a pioneer in developing a new form of agriculture which allows the year round production of healthy organic foods on a limited space isolated from any exterior impacts such as contamination or destruction. This allows harvesting fruit or vegetables 6-8 times per year which leads to a dramatically higher output than in a normal greenhouse. To achieve this high productive level it is necessary to use the latest technology to provide a stable climate which leads to a perfect environment for the growth of the plants. Eco Energy s engineers have worked on lighting and energy saving systems over many years to find the right combination of LED lighting to stimulate the growth of the plants without overheating the Biodome and simultaneously save energy by using photovoltaic systems.

Zaklad of Poland will market the technology systems throughout Europe and bring in its experience in marketing and its client base which it has developed over the past years. Both Zaklad and Eco Energy have agreed to intensify their business cooperation over the next years by implementing new technologies developed by Eco Energy.

About Zaklad of Poland

43-330 STARA WIES

Ul. DZIAKOWA 7

POLAND

www.budowamaszyn.ig.pl

About ECO Energy Tech Asia Limited:

ECO Energy Tech Asia Limited develops, markets and produces an ETFE insulated Biodome and Vertical Growing System that allows the year-round production of fresh food produce regardless of weather conditions and significantly reduces energy and input requirements.

Contact ECO Energy Tech Asia:

Eco Energy Tech Asia Limited

Unit 503, 5/F, Silvercord Tower 2,

TST, Kowloon

http://www.eyth.co

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE ECO Energy Tech Asia Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.eyth.co


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Executive Summary

The report titled "Egypt Agricultural Machinery Market Outlook to 2021 - Consolidation of Small Farm Holdings and Improving Credit Conditions to Foster Future Growth" covers aspects such as the market size on the basis of sales volume and revenue for Tractors, Combine Harvesters, Rice Transplanters and Tractor Implements. Further segmentation for Tractors by Horsepower, segmentation of Rice Transplanters by the number of rows and Tractor Implements has been showcased by products. The report also covers the market share, competitive landscape and warranty policies of agricultural equipments. In addition to this, the report also covers the mechanization rate, land under cultivation, farm holding structure, production of major crops, cropping pattern, average usage of agricultural equipment. Regulatory policies, the import duty structure, certification and emission standard, subsidies and financing options are covered in government regulation. This report will help industry consultants, agricultural machinery manufacturers and dealers, retail chains, potential entrants and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.





Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04950116/Egypt-Agricultural-Machinery-Market-Outlook-to-Consolidation-of-Small-Farm-Holdings-and-Improving-Credit-Conditions-to-Foster-Future-Growth.html







The total land under cultivation was evaluated at ~ thousand hectares during 2011, inclining to ~ thousand hectares during 2016. Cereals including wheat and maize, rice and vegetables have been the most cultivated crops in the country. Total land under wheat cultivation inclined from ~ million hectares in 2011 to ~ million hectares during 2015.



The level of intensive and extensive agriculture utilized by farmers is directly dependent on the land holding size, price of agricultural machinery, cost of labor and the intensity of irrigation facilities. North Egypt is dominated by farmers having small land holding size with lack of efficient irrigation facilities. While the cost of renting agricultural machinery is cheap, the cost of labor is even lower in this region due to which extensive farming is predominant in North Egypt.



Conversely, South Egypt is characterized by large mega farms (~ to ~ hectares) set up by Arabs from neighboring countries who prefer the use of high powered machinery to ensure high efficiency and productivity.



There is large disparity in mechanization levels across Egypt. The overall mechanization rate in the country for planting and harvesting was evaluated at ~%. The Egyptian irrigation system is one of the most complex systems in the world. The country's irrigation system comprises of three main components, the man?made water body created since the construction of the Aswan High Dam, delivery and distribution networks and on?farm irrigation.



Domestic agricultural companies which import agricultural machinery into the country are exempted from paying customs tax or import duty and are required to pay the sales tax only. However, commercial and foreign companies importing agricultural machinery into the country need to pay an import duty of ~% levied on FG/CKD and SKD goods in addition to the sales tax of ~%.



Market for Agricultural Equipments

The revenues generated from the sale of agricultural tractors in Egypt is estimated to incline from USD ~ million during 2017 to USD ~ million during 2021, achieving a CAGR of ~% during the period 2017-2021. While the revenues generated from the tractor segment is poised to increase in the future, contribution by this segment to overall agricultural machinery market revenues is anticipated to decline to ~% during 2021 from ~% during 2017. Central and South Egypt will continue to dominate sales of agricultural tractors above 120 HP while North Egypt will witness higher sales of low powered agricultural tractors.



The revenues generated from the sale of combine harvesters in Egypt inclined from USD ~ million during 2011 to USD ~ million during 2016, witnessing a high growth of ~% during 2012. The total combine harvester sales in Egypt inclined from a meager ~ units during 2011 to ~ units during 2016.



Rice transplanters are technically advanced machines that are mainly used by owners of large mega farms, the Egyptian government and a few local agricultural machinery rental agencies.



Customer Insight

Central and South Egypt is dominated by mega farms owned by large agricultural companies and the Egyptian Government. The availability of irrigation facilities coupled with high soil fertility have resulted in higher productivity of land in these regions. The farm holding structure in North Egypt is relatively low, ranging from ~ feddan. This region is dominated by small farmers, mainly located near the delta region and around the Nile River. Price, land holding size and properties of soil are the most important parameters that farmers consider before purchasing agricultural machinery, especially farm tractors. Other important factors include the type of crop cultivated, after sales service and credit availability.



Key Topics Covered in the Report:

- The Gross Domestic Product on the Basis of Nominal and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in Egypt, 2011-2021

- Key Factors Expected To Drive Growth in GDP

- Contribution to GDP of Egypt by Agriculture, Manufacturing and Service Sector, 2011-2021

- The Population Dynamics in Egypt on the Basis of Rural to Urban and Agriculture to Non-Agriculture, 2011-2021

- The GDP Per Capita on the Basis of Nominal and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in Egypt, 2011-2021

- Total Land Under Cultivation and Distribution by Major Crops (Rice, Cassava, Rubber and Sugarcane)

- Changing Cropping Pattern in Egypt and Factors Driving Change

- Agricultural Practice in Egypt on the basis of Scale of Mechanization, Extensive and Intensive and Irrigated Land

- Government Policy impacting the Agricultural Equipment Market in Egypt on the basis of Import Duty Structure, Subsidies, Taxes Certification

- Egypt Agricultural Equipment Market Size on the Basis of Revenue in USD Million and Sales in Units, 2011-2016

- Egypt Agricultural Equipment Market Segmentation By Major Products on the Basis of Revenue in USD Million, 2011-2016

- Egypt Tractor Market Size on the Basis of Revenue in USD Million and Sales in Units, 2011-2016

- Egypt Tractor Market Segmentation by Power on the Basis of Sales Volume, 2016

- Egypt Combine Harvester Market Size on the Basis of Revenue in USD Million and Sales in Units, 2011-2016

- Egypt Rice Transplanter Market Size on The basis of Revenue in USD Million , 2011-2015

- Egypt Rice Transplanter Market Segmentation by number of rows on the Basis of Sales Volume, 2016

- Egypt Tractor Implements Market Size on the Basis of Revenue in USD Million, 2011-2016

- Egypt Tractor Implements Market Segmentation By Major Products, 2016

- Market Share and competitive Landscape of Leading Manufacturers in Egypt Agricultural Equipment Market on the Basis of Sales Volume in Units, 2016

- Competitive Landscape of Major Manufacturers in Egypt Agricultural Equipment Market, 2016

- Tractor and Tractor Implements Channel Strategies in Egypt

- After Sales Warranty and Support Policies for Agricultural Equipments in Egypt, 2015

- Export-Import of Agricultural Equipments in Egypt, 2011-2015

- Decision Making Process and Usage Pattern for Agricultural Equipments in Egypt

- Future Projections for Egypt Agricultural Equipment Market, 2017-2021



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04950116/Egypt-Agricultural-Machinery-Market-Outlook-to-Consolidation-of-Small-Farm-Holdings-and-Improving-Credit-Conditions-to-Foster-Future-Growth.html



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ALBANY, New York, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global energy management systems (EMS) market has been prognosticated in a publication by Transparency Market Research (TMR) to witness Honeywell International and Emerson Process Management boast of a convincing portfolio and global-scale operation. Their EMS services and products could hold the potential to serve a wide scope of consumers.

In the past, three players, i.e. Schneider Electric SE, Johnson Controls, Inc., and Siemens AG, had gathered a collective substantial share for EMS. India and China have been projected to attract the focus of top players to leverage aggressive industrialization rates for creating a strong environment for the application of modern EMS services.

The global EMS market has been envisaged to attain a revenue of US$36.0 bn by 2024 at a 13.4% CAGR during the forecast period of 2015-2023. According to application, the industrial market for EMS could continue achieving a larger but decreasing share until the end of the final forecast year. North America could take a leading position in the market with the U.S. exhibiting a 40.0% annual energy consumption share secured by commercial buildings alone.

Browse Research Report with ToC: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/energy-management-systems-market.html

EMS Prove Critical to Trim Energy Expenses and Carbon Footprint

The application of technologically sophisticated equipment such as EMS could allow manufacturing firms to cut back on their energy spending and hold a well-accelerated and continuous manufacturing process. With energy being a leading expense for manufacturing industries, the demand in the international EMS market has been expected to rise at a significant rate. EMS also allow substantial feasibility in manufacturing processes.

The iron and steel sector, for instance, incurs a nearly 20% to 25% of energy consumption expense in its total production cost. However, this could be reduced with the implementation of EMS facilitating enormous power consumption savings and eventually, manufacturing cost reduction. EMS has also been predicted to assist commercial structures to control their annual energy expenses, which could amount to an almost US$40.0 bn in the U.S.

One of the largest energy consumers on the globe, China is a fine example of a country employing EMS to decrease its national carbon footprint. Energy management software have been implemented in China to monitor energy consumption.

Longer Wait for Return on Investment and High Cost of Deployment Stain Growth

The world EMS market has been foreseen to be negatively impacted by a dearth of skilled and specialized workforce. Other factors such as longer phases of return of investment, exorbitant deployment cost, and absence of standardization could slow down the demand for EMS. However, the impact of these factors has been anticipated to be for a shorter period of time as companies could take to growth strategies such as product development, collaborations, and mergers and acquisitions for increasing their share of EMS in the market.

Get Sample of this Research Report in PDF: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=9647

The demand for renewable energy sources has been envisaged to bolster the growth in the world EMS market, where the U.S., Germany, China, and Japan could testify the dominance of renewables based on implementation, development, and research. The trend of government regulations supporting the implementation of EMS and its ability to curb operational costs have been envisioned to add to the growth of the market. Besides this, heavy investments for EMS from end users could raise the expectations of players in terms of share for the coming years.

The information presented in this review is based on a TMR report, titled, "Energy Management Systems (EMS) Market (Component - Hardware Component, Software, Communications Networks, Control System, and Sensors and Equipment; Application - Industrial, Building, and Home) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024."

The global EMS market has been segmented as presented below:

Global Energy Management Systems Market: By Component

Hardware Component

Software

Communications Networks

Control System

Sensors and Equipment

Global Energy Management Systems Market: By Application

Industrial

Building

Home

Global Energy Management Systems Market: By Region

North America U.S. Canada Mexico

Europe Germany U.K. Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific Japan and South Korea China Rest of Asia Pacific

Middle East and Africa Saudi Arabia U.A.E. Rest of Middle East and Africa

and South and Central America Brazil Argentina Rest of South and Central America



Browse Research Report Press Release: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/energy-management-systems-market.htm

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.

TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

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SOURCE Transparency Market Research
According to Farber, "It takes so much more than the will to win to be a successful entrepreneur. Passion, horsepower, and persistence go hand-in-hand. And, that fits Tom Maoli to a tee." Farber goes in depth with Maoli, who started his career in 1982 and built a solid, successful worldwide global company. Then, in 2011, with no automotive retailing experience, Maoli purchased his first dealership, Lexus of Route 10 in Whippany. In just six short years, he has added five more luxury dealerships to his Celebrity Motor Car brand.

Maoli says the experience with Farber was "amazing, and I love what Farber is doing because when he started, no one knew what an entrepreneur was. Today, entrepreneurs are worldwide celebrities and are idolized, like Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and on and on.

"Schools, such as Highpoint University in Highpoint North Carolina, actually have entrepreneurship as a college major. Today, there are so many people who want to be entrepreneurs, and they need mentoring," says Maoli, who added that "Mind Your Business" show allows viewers to get inside the heads of successful entrepreneurs to hear what it takes to be successful.

Maoli's Celebrity Motor Car Company's six luxury brand dealerships, are located in the Metropolitan area -- one in New York -- Mercedes Benz of Goldens Bridge New York, and five in New Jersey -- Maserati of Morris County, Alfa Romeo of Morris County, BMW of Springfield, Maserati of Bergen County, and Lexus of Route 10, all of which have a well-earned reputation for elevating both the image and operational facets of his dealerships. Maoli adds, "There are more to come in the near future."

Maoli is also a respected philanthropist. In May, Maoli donated one of his real estate holdings, Alnwick Hall (The Abbey) in Morristown, to be the showcase residence for the Women's Association for Morristown Medical Center's "Mansions in May" fundraiser. The estimated total of money raised will exceed $2 million. In April, Maoli sponsored Broadway star Melba Moore's appearance at Montclair State University's annual fundraiser for Autism New Jersey.

The December 2016 edition of Town and County Magazine named Maoli to its list of "Wealthy Supporters who are funding Trump's Transition." In 2009, he was a member of the Executive Finance Committee for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. In 2015, he was named to Governor Chris Christie's Presidential Leadership team, and last year he joined then candidate Donald Trump for President's fundraising team and then served on the Trump transition team. Maoli was also honored as the Morris County Columbus Day parade's Man of the Year. No stranger to good causes, Maoli is also a large supporter of the Morris County Community Food Bank and the Morris County Interfaith Food Pantry.

SOURCE Tom Maoli
AUSTIN, Texas, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Erda Energy International LLC, a clean energy solutions provider, has acquired Greenfield Holdings Limited for an undisclosed sum. Greenfield Holdings Group, based in Jersey, Channel Islands, has developed and patented cutting-edge, low-carbon energy and geo-exchange technologies deployed primarily in the U.K. The new, merged firm will be called Erda Energy.

Erda's services will be expanded globally and focus on businesses seeking energy solutions that move the built environment toward a zero-carbon future. Kevin Stickney, who has over 10 years of experience in designing and delivering innovative energy and geo-exchange solutions, will lead the Erda team based in London. Stickney was formerly managing director of Thermal Energy Networks Limited, which was part of the Greenfield Holdings Group.

"Having spent a number of years working with the range of energy technologies for Greenfield Holdings Group, our team is excited to become part of Erda," said Stickney. "We welcome the opportunity to expand our technology globally."

Erda plans to expand its staff and clientele in the U.S. More information will be posted on the company's website at www.erdaenergy.com later this summer.

About Erda Energy

Erda Energy is an energy solutions company that helps businesses dramatically reduce energy consumption, utility costs and carbon impact. Using advanced technologies that leverage the stability of the earth's temperature, our energy solutions increase efficiency immediately, eliminating waste and reducing energy use by up to 70%. For buildings, campuses and entire cities, Erda's proven technologies have the power to change the way we think about energy use.

SOURCE Erda Energy

Related Links

http://www.erdaenergy.com


Along with exotic marine life, the crystal blue waters of gorgeous destinations like Antigua, Dominican Republic and Belize hold countless tales of shipwrecks, pirates and valuable booty. In each episode of "Caribbean Pirate Treasure," spirited explorers Philippe and Ashlan harness their 30-year expertise to dive into a different deep-sea mystery. Meeting with passionate locals and treasure-hunting experts, the couple follows clues on land and sea in search of legendary hidden loot.

"The love of adventure and exploring the sea is in my blood," said Philippe. "Our search for sunken treasure is about far more than just gold and jewels; it's about uncovering the mysteries and history of the world."

"Every expedition we start is full of excitement and intrigue," added Ashlan. "Each of these beautiful destinations is just off the path of popular tourist beaches and there's a wealth of captivating stories filled with pirates, shipwrecks and treasures to uncover."

In the premiere episode, Philippe and Ashlan head to Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas  the biggest port of call for cruise ships in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with a storied history of pirates dating back to the 17th century. The goal is to explore the story behind ruthless French pirate Jean Hamlin, his missing flagship, La Trompeuse, and the treasure that may still be with it. The trail to La Trompeuse first takes Philippe and Ashlan on a dive to potential remnants of another shipwreck, the Trinity, before leading them directly to an elite group of treasure hunters who believe they have discovered La Trompeuse's exact location. It's a top secret mission to get there, and Philippe and Ashlan are ready to see if the ocean floor contains the treasure they came to find.

Check out "Caribbean Pirate Treasure" on TravelChannel.com for special show extras including behind-the-scenes photos and exclusive videos. Plus, follow @TravelChannel and #CaribbeanPirateTreasure on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more exclusive content and updates. Follow hosts Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau on Twitter: @pcousteau and @ashlancousteau.

ABOUT TRAVEL CHANNEL

For virtual and active travelers who want to go on a thrilling quest; taste other cultures; enjoy the mystery of the unexplored; get a dose of epic adventure or a splash of wacky fun; there is no better daily escape than Travel Channel. Reaching more than 83 million U.S. cable homes, Travel Channel is the world's leading travel media brand. Fans also can visit Travel Channel for more information or interact with other fans through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Travel Channel is owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc., which also owns and operates HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country.

Follow us on Twitter: @TravelChannelPR

SOURCE Travel Channel

Related Links

http://www.travelchannel.com


LONDON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EY announces today that it is strengthening its support for Family Business clients around the world.

Tax and Private Client Services professional Marnix van Rij has been appointed EY Global Family Business Leader. Additionally, Helena Robertsson has been named EY Family Business Leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). They join a team of Family Business leaders in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Japan and lead a global network of EY Family Business partners. The new appointments further strengthen and expand the professional services organization's leading Family Business services, which support leading and emerging family businesses globally.

Van Rij brings extensive knowledge to the role, having advised entrepreneurial families and their businesses on tax matters, foreign investments, restructuring, emigration, policy and succession planning, as well as family and corporate governance issues. He also brings extensive public sector and government experience having served as party chair of a political party and as a current member of the Dutch First Chamber of Parliament (Senate) in the Netherlands since 2015. Previously, van Rij was Chairman of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (2012-15) and most recently served as EY Global and EMEIA Tax Leader for Private Client Services for the past eight years. He is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Uschi Schreiber, EY Global Vice Chair  Markets, says:

"Family businesses are the back bone of many economies around the world. EY is working with them through the EY Global Family Business Center of Excellence, the NextGen Academy, Family Business Leaders' Roundtables and more. Through a network of partners across 150 countries we tailor our services to the unique needs of family businesses. This global approach has made us a trusted advisor to some of the world's largest family businesses. With Marnix's appointment we will take our Family Business services to a whole new level."

Also, effective immediately, Helena Robertsson has been appointed EY EMEIA Family Business Leader. Robertsson, most recently led the Family Business and Private Client Services in the Nordics, as well as the Tax practice in Stockholm. She is also a member of the Board of the Swedish Certified Tax Advisors and a Board member of the Institute for Fiscal & Legal Security in Sweden. Robertsson is based in Stockholm.

Van Rij's leadership team also includes:

Carrie Hall , EY Family Business Leader  EY Americas: Hall, who has served in this role since 2013, was previously Southeast Region Growth Markets Leader from 2010- 13. She is an Assurance partner in the US with 30 years of experience serving family businesses and also coordinating services for a variety of other public and private clients across multiple industries. Hall is based in Atlanta .

Ian Burgess , EY Family Business Leader  EY Asia-Pacific: Burgess, a Tax partner in Australia , most recently served as the Private Client Tax Services Leader for Asia-Pacific . Experienced in asset management, he has more than 20 years' experience in providing tax advice and compliance services to clients. Burgess is based in Brisbane .

Yoshiaki Uno , EY Family Business Leader  EY Japan: Uno joined EY in 2016 as a Tax partner in Japan . He has a keen focus in private client tax services and global compliance and reporting. He has nearly 30 years' experience in providing tax and compliance advice to a broad range of clients including privately owned businesses. Uno is based in Tokyo .

Van Rij says: "The accelerated pace of disruption, shifting regulatory environments and constant changes in the global economy make for an exciting and challenging time to work with family businesses. I'm excited to have this opportunity and look forward to leveraging our global network's technical experience and talent to help our clients achieve their highest growth potential."

Notes to Editors

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 EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About EY's Growth Markets Network

EY's worldwide Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of high-growth companies. For more than 30 years, we've helped many of the world's most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international, mid-cap companies or early stage, family businesses, venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business succeed.

Peter Kelley

EY Global Media Relations

+1 424 376 7227

[email protected]

SOURCE EY

Related Links

http://www.ey.com


HOLDEN, Maine, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A "love letter to Maine" is what Fabula Nebulae (www.fabneb.com) calls its new Maine gift box  a collection of popular, all-natural products that has something for just about everyone. The release of the gift box also coincides with the online shop's second anniversary. A woman-owned family business dedicated to providing consumers with safe, natural, handcrafted and unique skincare products, Fabula Nebulae has already cultivated a loyal following across the U.S. and Canada. "After using them personally and having friends and family test them, we are convinced that these are natural, nourishing skin balms of superior quality," - Beth Santmyire-Rosenberger, MD PhD, Board Certified dermatologist.

Maine Gift Box by Fabula Nebulae The founders of Fabula Nebulae, on their family farm in Maine.

The Maine gift box is a decorative birch wood box in the shape of the Pine Tree State, and evocative of its blueberry hills and rocky coastline. Each gift box contains the following items:

Bath Soak with Maine sea salt

sea salt Gentle Face Wash with milk and blueberries

Honey and Herb lip butter

Salve to Quiet the Storm

Desert Rain hydrating skin salve

Natural unscented candle

Kitchen and Garden hand scrub

Calming lavender sugar scrub

Muscle and Joint soother

Since opening for business in August 2015, Fabula Nebulae has shipped over 6,000 products and built relationships with over a dozen retailers. The Grapefruit and Ginger lip butter was recently named a finalist in the CertClean Clean Beauty Awards. Customer comments and reviews have been equally enthusiastic on their website and on Amazon.com, with Fabula Nebulae earning 99% 5-star reviews.

"This lip balm is incredible," raves Morgan. "It got me through winter and is incredibly moisturizing. It also smells wonderful, but then I love the smell of citrus (mine is in grapefruit), and it has a glossy finish to it so it's like two products in one."

Fabula Nebulae believes strongly in giving back and helping make the world a better place; to that end, the company contributes to the mission of Bee Informed Partnership, a nonprofit organization working to find causes and solutions for bee population issues. The company is a member of "Maine Made: America's Best," an association celebrating and promoting the state's tradition of superior craftsmanship, as well as the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild.

Looking ahead, Fabula Nebulae plans to move to a larger space by year's end. The company also looks to hire its first part-time employees. Several new products are now in development that will likely be released by early 2018. These products include a magnesium-based deodorant for highly sensitive skin, a tattoo salve, and an anti-chafing balm. A more long-term objective for Fabula Nebulae is FDA approval of the new facility, which would enable development of a wider range of all-natural products.

About Fabula Nebulae

Fabula Nebulae is a small, family collaboration in Maine that handcrafts effective, all-natural products for body, baby and bath. They choose their organic and fair-trade components carefully and purposefully, and use only natural, gentle, and straightforward ingredients.

Contact:

Justinas Gintautas

Fabula Nebulae LLC

Office: (207) 307-2313

Cell: (917) 545-9049

www.fabneb.com

SOURCE Fabula Nebulae

Related Links

https://fabulanebulae.com


DENVER, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AIB International recently inspected Flagship Food Group's Logistics Division in Indianapolis and presented the center with a score of 960 out of a possible 1000 points. The 600,000 square-foot facility, now 12 years old, earned an impressive perfect score in maintenance practices and overall cleanliness. Even more impressive is that they have reduced the typical internal costs of the annual audit by more by more $10,000 when compared to 5 years ago.

Established in 1919, AIB International is one of the most well-respected audit firms in the industry. Its mission is to empower the global food industry to elevate food safety and grain-based production capabilities. Their scoring is based on 5 categories: Adequacy of Food Safety Program, Pest Control, Operational Methods & Personnel Practices, Maintenance for Food Safety, and Cleaning Practices.

Find more information about AIB International here: AIB International

Although Flagship Logistics undergoes several annual inspections by customers of its client, Ingredion, AIB International is the most critical inspection the distribution center receives. This is because companies must score 900 out of a possible 1000 points to pass AIB International's annual audit in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act.

"The auditor we had this year was the same as we had last year, which is significant because she mentioned how improved our cleanliness and overall condition of the center was compared to last," said Operations Manager Joe Brown. "This can be contributed to the new outstanding maintenance department that we created in January of 2016. Clearly, I have been blessed with a fantastic team."

To learn more about the Flagship Logistics click here: Flagship Food Group - Logistics

Flagship Food Group

Flagship is a global, diversified food company serving the retail, club store, and food service channels across a broad array of product lines. Its brands include TJ Farms, Lilly B's, 505 Southwestern, Chris & Pitts, and Su Ming. It also serves as a valuable supplier to private label customers and provides industry services to food companies through its logistics and packaging divisions. Flagship is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado with more than 500 employees in key facilities and offices in or near Denver, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Boise, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis.

Contact: Kory Webber

[email protected]

303.420.6395

SOURCE Flagship Food Group

Related Links

http://www.flagshipfoodgroup.com


INGLEWOOD, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 11, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at the 30th Annual D.A.R.E. International Training Conference praising the nearly 35 year old anti-drug curricula taught in thousands of schools in every state in America and 52 other countries.

The New York Daily News, the Washington Examiner, and the Huffington Post, among other news organizations, criticized the Attorney General's statement that America needs the D.A.R.E. program today more than ever. Rather than meeting professional journalism standards by contacting D.A.R.E. for comment regarding the current curricula, these reporters dove to the lowest depths of journalistic professionalism by spending a few minutes on Google and citing a 1996 study on an old curriculuma curriculum that was replaced nearly a decade ago in middle schools and more than four years ago in elementary schools. A call to D.A.R.E. would have resulted in a direct referral to a principal researcher involved in the evaluations cited, a referral that would have put research of D.A.R.E. in the 80's and 90's in proper context with the D.A.R.E. curricula of 2017. Simply stated, the 1996 study and other outdated studies that reporters have repeatedly used are irrelevant. Sadly, flawed, faulty, and wrong reporting limits the public's awareness of today's D.A.R.E. program.

Had the authors exercised "best practices" journalism and CALLED D.A.R.E. America, they would have learned that nearly 10 years ago, D.A.R.E. America formed an alliance with The Pennsylvania State University and adopted the evidenced-based keepin' it REAL (kiR) curriculum for its middle school program. The kiR program was developed by PSU and Arizona State University with support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse utilizing rigorous longitudinal scientific evaluations to create this evidence-based program. Then, in 2013, D.A.R.E. adopted the keepin' it REAL elementary school curriculum.

Contacting D.A.R.E.  or properly researching  would also have identified the United States Surgeon General's recent landmark report entitled, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health. That exhaustive report's chapter dedicated to prevention states, "The good news is that there is strong scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of prevention programs and policies." The report lists the keepin' it REAL curriculum among a select number of select programs the Surgeon General identifies as building social, emotional, cognitive, and substance refusal skills that provide children accurate information on rates and amounts of peer substance use.

D.A.R.E.'s mission today is teaching students good decision-making skills for safe and healthy living. D.A.R.E. education programs are a collaborative effort of the essential components of a community  students, parents, schools, law enforcement, and community leaders. Perhaps some of today's reporters need the D.A.R.E. lesson on responsible decision-making to help them make better choices when writing stories.

SOURCE D.A.R.E. America

Related Links

http://www.dare.org


This reoccurring recognition acknowledges the power of hospitality-centric humanitarian efforts to bring attention to a bygone era, centuries of rituals, a lush unspoiled landscape, and unlimited freedom to explore. With the Sumba Foundation partnership an important piece of our business model, the Nihi legacy stands for more than just a destination. It stands for goodwill, and an investment in the preservation of the communities it abides.

"Our guests are looking for more than just a vacation," said Nihi Hotels owner Chris Burch. "They want to feel connected and useful, to give back and be a part of something larger than themselves. Through highly customized activities and personal itineraries, our guests experience compelling moments that inspire, and ultimately create a charitable impact."

"Nihi Sumba Island is the premiere property in our expanding Nihi Hotels portfolio," said Managing Partner James McBride. "We are actively seeking growth opportunities grounded in our doctrine 'The Edge of Wildness.' Current destinations of interest include the South Pacific and Central America. These areas present environments not entirely influenced by modern conveniences therefore benefitting from the natural exploration, education, and philanthropic aid of a Nihi Hotel."

A Nihi Hotel is not merely a hotel. It is a way of life. Through the resources and benefits of a luxury resort, Nihi continues to create awareness for the issues faced by local communities, at the same time providing jobs and services that grow incomes and families, and support basic needs such as health clinics, school lunches for children, and access to clean water. Many guests become benefactors of the Sumba Foundation, creating a connection to the island's pure culture, while promoting the health and welfare of its society.

Recent additions to Nihi Sumba Island's memorable and engaging features are:

An on site chocolate factory tour where guests learn how to make a variety of candy bars with Sumba's locally sourced cocoa beans, complete with a sample tasting. Additionally, an open-air yoga session among the factory's lush outdoors, with the sweet fragrance of chocolate may be followed by a raw cocoa and oil massage from the healing hands of the award-winning spa staff.

The latest discovery, Lake Weekuri, nature's saltwater pool separated from the ocean by a rugged cliff, for a most magical swim and lakeside picnic. The clear blue water with varying depths is surrounded by lush trees and beautiful rocks for both sun and shade, and leisurely bathing or a refreshing plunge.

Wellness retreats with world-class gurus that combine the physical benefits of yoga with mediation, movement, and flexibility designed to take you on a therapeutic journey for a balanced mind, body, and soul.

"We are honored by this award and look forward to broadening our mission in other parts of the world," added Burch. "The smiles and enhanced quality of life we witness from the local Sumbanese are truly rewarding."

Additionally, Nihi.com has been revived with visual storytelling, video, and irresistible details, transporting viewers from their everyday lives to a new territory of possibility. For more information, get lost in our world @nihiwatu on Facebook or Instagram.

About Nihi Sumba Island

Re-imagined and re-opened in 2015, Nihi Sumba Island has quickly captivated travelers from all corners of the world. On a remote island in southeastern Indonesiathe size of the state of Massachusetts and only a 50-minute flight from Balithe once cult surf destination with it's own popular, private wave was acquired by entrepreneur and investor Chris Burch in association with hotelier James McBride in 2012 and developed into a culturally immersive enclave of equal parts active adventure, barefoot luxury, and charitable giving, in an exotic and authentic setting.

About the Sumba Foundation

Maintaining its deep-rooted philosophy, and through the generosity of Chris Burch, a portion of Nihiwatu's profits are now repatriated into the Sumba Foundation established by Nihiwatu founder Claude Graves, and Sean Downs 2001. With the enthusiastic support of hotel guests, Nihiwatu is a philanthropic vehicle dedicated to fostering community-based projects. During their stay, guests are introduced to the Foundation's efforts through an impactful presentation and short film. The result is a rare collaboration between a resort and its local community that today co-exist with compelling interdependence: the resort has become the biggest employer on the island and the Sumba Foundation gives back to the local communities. Over the last fourteen years, the Foundation has set up four medical clinics, and has developed over 100 water wells and water stations. The Foundation currently feeds young children in a malnutrition program, and has refurbished and supported 15 primary schools and provides lunch for over 1,000 schoolchildren five days a week.

Media Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Nihiwatu

Related Links

http://www.nihi.com


DUXBURY, Mass., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Newport One is excited to announce it has hired Andrew Olsen, CFRE as Senior Vice President, based in Minneapolis, MN. Olsen will play a key role in new business development for the agency's expanding fundraising consulting practice.

"Andrew brings an impressive depth of experience in the nonprofit arena  specifically in the domestic hunger/poverty relief and healthcare sectors," said Partner, Craig DePole. "He is an award-winning fundraising strategist and business development leader, and we are thrilled to have Andrew join our growing team of fundraisers. His depth of fundraising expertise, passion for his clients' missions and commitment to client service is a perfect fit with Newport One."

Andrew comes to Newport One with nearly 20 years of agency experience, having raised more than $200 million throughout his career. Prior to joining Newport, Olsen specialized in direct response fundraising and major gift strategy for domestic hunger and poverty relief organizations, as Vice President, Account Management at Russ Reid. In that role he led their agency's work on behalf of Rescue Missions and Food Banks in the U.S. and Canada, The Salvation Army, and Catholic Charities. His experience also includes work on behalf of Save the Children, The Smile Train, Special Olympics, Best Friends Animal Society, St. Joseph's Indian School, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

"Newport has a strong track record of producing innovative campaigns that consistently grow revenue for their clients," said Olsen. "The agency is uniquely positioned to deliver exceptional strategic value to nonprofits, and that's exciting. I look forward to joining their team of experienced fundraising leaders and contributing to their success."

About NEWPORT ONE

At NEWPORT ONE, we believe in the power of ONE. One organization, one donor, one individual can make a difference in the world. Experienced, committed leaders in direct marketing fundraising, NEWPORT ONE can make a difference in your fundraising success so you can change the world. For more than 30 years, NEWPORT ONE has paired results-driven direct marketing strategy, analytics and service with award-winning creative and design to help nonprofit clients build long-lasting relationships with their donors. For more information, visit www.NEWPORTONE.com. Also on Twitter @NEWPORT_ONE.

SOURCE NEWPORT ONE

Related Links

http://www.NEWPORTONE.com


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nurses, nurse aides, and other healthcare workers from New York Presbyterian Hospital joined fired Teamsters today outside the hospital. Workers are protesting New York Presbyterians' decision to take furniture deliveries from Waldner's Business Environments amidst a union lockout and terminations of Waldner's long-time workers. New York Presbyterian is Waldner's largest client.

"I don't know how New York Presbyterian Hospital can stand by while quality health coverage is taken away from the workers delivering its furniture," said Kevin Roach, a 33-year Waldner's worker and Teamsters Local 814 shop steward. "My son has Down Syndrome and a compromised immune system. My family desperately needs the health care that Waldner's took away. We need New York Presbyterian's help, but they are saying it's not their problem."

Since the lockout began, two separate Waldner's deliveries by subcontractors were turned back by construction workers at a New York Presbyterian construction project on the Upper East Side.

"New York Presbyterian Hospital executives should understand that it won't be business as usual as long as they do business with Waldner's," said Jason Ide, President of Teamsters Local 814. "We aren't going away. This attack on unions is unprecedented in the furniture industry and if Presbyterian continues to buy from Waldner's, they are complicit."

"The Waldner's workers have the support of every Teamster in New York," said George Miranda, President of Teamsters Joint Council 16, which represents 120,000 Teamsters across the New York City region. "Companies are not allowed to just declare themselves non-union after decades of good labor relations. New York Presbyterian Hospital and other Waldner's clients should cease doing business with this company immediately."

Teamsters Local 814 has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board based on Waldner's unlawful refusal over a period of several months to bargain for a new contract. On July 5th, the company locked out the over 40 union drivers, helpers, and warehouse workers and replaced them with cheaper subcontractors.

The Waldner's workers have received support from across the labor movement. Last week, Jill Furillo, Executive Director of the New York State Nurses Association, wrote a letter to New York Presbyterian Hospital, urging the hospital to cut ties with Waldner's. NYSNA represents several thousand nurses at NYP.

"This sort of rapacious and socially irresponsible corporate behavior is the root cause of the stagnation of worker incomes, the continuing decline of local economies, and ever widening income inequality," Furillo wrote. "Waldner's actions are unconscionable and deplorable, but they are also inimical to the values and socially responsible culture of NewYork-Presbyterian."

"After over 50 years as a responsible employer, it is unconscionable that Waldner's Business Environments would resort to union busting as a way to cut its own business costs," said Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "This lock-out and the subsequent firings bring to light Waldner's lack of respect for working New Yorkers and their families, and New York City labor is united behind Teamsters 814 in its call for New York Presbyterian Hospital to cut ties with this employer."

Local 814 also launched a new website, DropWaldners.com, to inform Waldner's clients of the company's abuse of its workers. The website includes campaign news, a list of responsible office furniture dealers, content for supporters to post on social media, and a link for customers to join the boycott.

"This new website exposes the truth about Waldner's. I hope every customer visits and learns who they are really doing business with," said Ide.

Waldner's is one of the largest office furniture companies in the New York City area and has been unionized for over 50 years. The last union contract expired on June 30th, although many of its provisions should remain in effect, as required by federal labor law. Waldner's actions have caused elected officials to speak out.

"My community needs New York Presbyterian to support good jobs with quality wages and benefits," said New York State Senator Marisol Alcantara, whose district includes Presbyterian Hospital. "The hospital cannot turn a blind eye to the abuses perpetrated by Waldner's. These working families deserve justice and we call on New York Presbyterian to drop Waldner's. As a former NYSNA organizer, I understand how the labor of workers can be taken for granted by hospital management. I hope that Waldner's reconsiders its decision to leave its union roots and, if they do not, I hope that New York Presbyterian will cut their contract with this business."

Teamsters Local 814 is contacting all Waldner's clients to ask them to cease business with the company so long as it continues the lockout and refuses to bargaining with the union. Waldner's additional clients include CUNY, SUNY, Columbia University, New York Life, Macy's, the MTA, Estee Lauder, and Spotify.

Teamsters Local 814 is committed to bargaining a fair contract for both sides and has repeatedly expressed its willingness to consider any issues Waldner's management would bring to the table. Until that time, the union will take its case directly to Waldner's clients, in person if necessary.

Contact:

Alex Moore, [email protected], (c) 347-762-0778, (o) 718-289-0204

Julian Tysh, [email protected], 917-399-1461

SOURCE Teamsters Local 814
DALLAS, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Generational Equity, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce that at the end of June, it closed its 600th transaction, representing nearly $4 billion in wealth released for its clients. This is a level that is unmatched among M&A consulting firms specializing in the lower middle-market (companies generally valued up to $150 million).

According to Dwight Jacobs, Executive Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions for the firm, "Closing our 600th transaction is a significant achievement in our industry. But what is really most gratifying for us is that each of these transactions represents a business owner and the financial legacy for their families. We are honored that so many entrepreneurs have entrusted us with their businesses."

Generational Equity was founded with one goal in mind: To help business owners and their families achieve their financial goals through the monetization of their largest asset.

Terry Johnson, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer for the firm stated, "Reaching this level of success is extremely gratifying. Our entire team is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our clients and their families, and this milestone is indicative of their passionate commitment."

Generational Equity is one of the leading lower middle-market M&A advisory firms in North America. Having won multiple industry awards including Investment Banking Firm of the Year in 2016, Valuation Firm of the Year in 2014 and 2015 as well as M&A Consulting Firm of the Year in 2011 and 2013. The firm has solidified its leadership position by providing exemplary client service and deal making capabilities. According to Thomson Reuters, no M&A advisor has closed more deals in the lower middle-market than Generational Equity over the past several years.

Ryan Binkley, President and CEO of the firm, added, "Our goal is to serve our clients by helping them both define and discover the life they want for themselves and their loved ones. It is a real honor and privilege to work with entrepreneurs to reach their dreams."

About Generational Equity

Generational Equity, part of the Generational Group, headquartered in Dallas with over 200 professionals located throughout North America, helps business owners release the wealth of their business by providing merger, acquisition and strategic growth advisory services. Their four-step approach features exit planning education, business valuation, value enhancement strategies, and M&A transactional services. The M&A Advisor recently named the company its 2016 Investment Banking Firm of the Year. For more, visit http://www.genequityco.com or the Generational Equity press room.

For more information:

Carl Doerksen

972-232-1125

[email protected]

SOURCE Generational Equity

Related Links

http://www.genequityco.com


VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Rising prevalence of acute kidney disorders and associated risk factors such as diabetes continue to escalate the popularity of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Additional factors such as the globally increasing geriatric population, greater R&D initiatives and technological advancement in dialysis procedures are expected to further boost the demand for CRRT over the course of time. CRRT has proven to be quite an effective dialysis procedure and hence being rapidly adopted by a number of healthcare organisations. A new study conducted by Future Market Insights projects that revenue of the global market for continuous renal replacement therapy is set to increase at an impressive CAGR of 7.7 % during the forecast period (2017-2027). Moreover, robust marketing and product innovation from CRRT dialysis equipment manufacturers are favourably impacting the market's revenue growth.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161020/430874LOGO )

FMI's report titled "Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2027" reveals that in 2016, North America accounted for the largest revenue share of the global CRRT market. The presence of an advanced healthcare infrastructure and widespread awareness about the availability of latest dialysis treatments is supporting the growth of the CRRT market in North America. Meanwhile, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to emerge as the most lucrative market for CRRT over the forecast period, reflecting a CAGR of 8.8%. Towards the end of 2027, the region's market is estimated to surpass a valuation of US$ 333 Mn.

Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1211

The report mentions that many of the leading market players are actively focusing on introducing new technologies as well as upgrading their existing products in order to expand their market presence. At the same time, some of the bigger companies are going into strategic alliances to leverage the opportunities present in regions such as North America and APEJ.

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Nikkiso Co., Ltd, NxStage Medical, Inc., Asahi Kasei Corp, NIPRO Corporation, Medica spa., Toray Medical Co., Ltd, Medtronic plc., Bain Medical Equipment (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., INFOMED SA., Medical Components, Inc., Medites Pharma, S.R.O., Jihua Medical Apparatus & Instruments Co., Central Admixture Pharmacy Services Inc., Haidylina for Advanced Medical Industries, Hemoclean Co. Ltd., FARMASOL Medical Products Ind. and Trd. Co. are among the top companies that operate in the global market for continuous renal replacement therapy.

Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market: Key Opportunities

A strong product pipeline likely to benefit the global CRRT market in the years to come. Owing to the integration of extracorporeal technology, CRRT products are now catering a broader patient base.

Companies are investing in future growth by purchasing expertise and relevant technologies.

Preview Analysis on Global Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market Segmentation Product Type - Dialysis System, Consumables(Hemofilter Sets, Solution, Accessories); End User - Hospitals, Dialysis Clinics: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/continuous-renal-replacement-therapy-market

Novelty in dialysis treatment is facilitating interventional procedures with minimal patient discomfort. Based on product, the consumables segment is projected to account for the largest value share of the market during the forecast period. This segment is gaining traction primarily due to an expanding pool of patients suffering from acute kidney disease and increasing demand for dialysis in renal replacement therapy.

By end user, both dialysis centre and hospitals currently account for sizeable revenue shares of the market. The rising healthcare spending in the emerging economies is anticipated to result in the establishment of more hospitals and new multi-specialty dialysis centres in the near future.

More from FMI's Cutting-edge Intelligence:

Central Venous Catheter Market Segmentation By Product Type - Tunnelled Catheters and Non-Tunnelled Catheters, By Property - Antimicrobial Catheters and Non Antimicrobial Catheters, By Design - Single Lumen, Double Lumen and Multi Lumen, By Composition - Polyurethane, Polyurethane / Poly Carbonate and Silicone, By End Use - Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, Specialty Clinics and Others: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/central-venous-catheter-market





Segmentation By Product Type - Tunnelled Catheters and Non-Tunnelled Catheters, By Property - Antimicrobial Catheters and Non Antimicrobial Catheters, By Design - Single Lumen, Double Lumen and Multi Lumen, By Composition - Polyurethane, Polyurethane / Poly Carbonate and Silicone, By End Use - Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, Specialty Clinics and Others: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/central-venous-catheter-market Ophthalmic Lasers Market Segmentation By Product Type - Photo-coagulation Lasers, Photo-disruption Lasers, Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty; By Disease Type - Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma Surgery, Cataract Surgery; By End User - Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, Ophthalmic Clinics: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ophthalmic-lasers-therapeutic-market





Segmentation By Product Type - Photo-coagulation Lasers, Photo-disruption Lasers, Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty; By Disease Type - Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma Surgery, Cataract Surgery; By End User - Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, Ophthalmic Clinics: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ophthalmic-lasers-therapeutic-market Regenerative Medicine Market Segmentation by Technology - Stem Cell Therapy, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering; by Applications - Bone Graft Substitutes, Osteoarticular Diseases, Allogeneic Bones, Autogenic Bones: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/regenerative-medicine-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 and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.

Browse More Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Medical devices Market Insights

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SOURCE Future Market Insights
NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In August, The Wharton Business School's San Francisco Campus will host over 30 global private wealth holders and family office executives. With assets ranging from $30 million to $4 billion, this group of ultra-high net worth investors will be one of the most diverse in the 18-year history of the Private Wealth Management Program. Participants will represent 10 countries across Africa, Asia, Central America Europe, Middle East, North America and South America. Of the 30 participants, over half are under 40-years-old and just under 50% of attendees are women. This unique gathering comes in the wake of the program's spring session which hosted participants from 15 countries.

The upcoming Wharton Private Wealth Management Program will be held on July 30 - August 3, 2017 in San Francisco. For more information on the program or to participate, contact Adam Wachter, IPI Director of Membership at (212) 204-2584 or click below as only a few places remain.

REGISTER YOUR SPOT AT WHARTON NOW!

Launched in 1999 through a partnership between Charlotte Beyer, founder of the Institute for Private Investors (IPI) and The Wharton School of Business, the Private Wealth Management Program is regarded as the best of its kind. The program allows family members and their family office executives to increase their knowledge in key areas of wealth management, modern portfolio theory, asset allocation, hedge funds, risk assessment, private equity, performance measurement and manager evaluation, and wealth transfer through both theory-based learning and live case studies.

"The wealth education that family members receive is unparalleled," said Brien Biondi, President of IPI. "I am proud that IPI continues to play an integral role in this program."

Attendees meet at its University of Pennsylvania campus in the spring and its San Francisco campus in the summer.

About IPI

The Institute for Private Investors is a private membership organization offering non-commercial investor education, in-person networking and an online community for ultra-high net worth investors from across the U.S. and globally. Founded in 1992, families of substantial wealth rely on IPI to provide a safe harbor where they can learn from each other and leading experts, while fostering lifelong relationships with like-minded peers. IPI helps its members become better stewards of their wealth and make more informed decisions for their future legacy. For more information: www.instituteforprivateinvestors.com

SOURCE Institute for Private Investors

Related Links

http://www.instituteforprivateinvestors.com


VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Information technologies directed towards improving the accuracy of weather forecasts are witnessing a surge in terms of demand. Advancements in prominent technologies is further instrumenting the evolution of weather information technologies. Upgraded monitoring devices are stimulating the precision of weather forecasting, which in turn, is stimulating their demand. A recent study published by Future Market Insights predicts that revenues arising from global sales of monitoring devices will contribute over 35% of global weather information technologies market value through 2027.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161020/430874LOGO )

Apropos the report, the global market for weather information technologies is anticipated to reach US$ 800 Mn value by the end of 2017. Monitoring devices are forecasted to dominate the market by accounting for largest revenue share, turning into the most-selling product in the market. By the end of 2027, the global weather information technologies market is pegged to reach an estimated US$ 1,325.7 Mn value, reflecting a steady growth at 5.2% CAGR.

Request a Sample Report with Table of Contents with Figures: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1002

Weather Information Technologies - Rising End-use in Aerospace & Defence

Key findings in the report indicate that in 2016, use of weather information technologies in aerospace & defence sectors from around the world attributed to highest revenue share in the global market. Application of weather information technologies in aerospace industries and defence sector is gaining traction due to significance of weather monitoring & forecasting solutions in the field of aviation, and their importance in devising tactical defence operations. By the end of 2027, more than US$ 300 Mn revenues recorded in the global weather information technologies market will be accounted by the aerospace & defence industry.

Construction industry, on the other hand, will register fastest revenue growth in the global weather information technologies market. In 2017, more than US$ 50 Mn worth of weather information technology solutions were used in the building & construction business. The brick-mortar application of weather information technologies is expected to gain traction during the forecast period. Through 2027, revenues accounted by adoption of weather information technologies in global construction industry will have soared at the fastest CAGR of 5.5%.

North America - Largest Market for Weather Information Technologies

The report predicts that adoption of advanced weather information technologies is rising in the US and Canada. North America will continue to dominate the global weather information technologies market, primarily due to its robust defence spending and evolving public infrastructure. By 2027-end, more than US$ 400 Mn worth of weather information technologies will be employed across North America. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will record the highest growth in terms of value. The APEJ weather information technologies market is expected to soar at a robust CAGR of 5.4% through 2027.

Preview Analysis on Global Weather Information Technologies Market Segmentation By Industry - Agriculture, Aerospace and Defence, Oil and Gas, Railways, Construction, Others; By Product - Weather System, Monitoring Devices, Software, Mounting Hardware, Communication Devices: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/weather-information-technologies-market

The report also profiles leading companies partaking in the growth of global weather information technologies market. Observed as the market's key players, these companies include All Weather Inc., Sutron Corporation, Campbell Scientific Inc., Climatronics Corporation, Morcom International Inc., Munro Instruments, Skye Instruments Ltd., Columbia Weather Systems Inc., Met One Instruments Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Vaisala OYJ, Coastal Environmental Systems, Inc.

More from FMI's Cutting-edge Intelligence:

Mass Notification Systems Market Segmentation By Application - Interoperable Emergency Communication, Integrated Public Alert and Warning, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery and Business Operation; By Solution - In-building Solution, Wide-area Solution and Distributed Recipient Solution; By Product Type - Hardware, Software and Services; By End-user Vertical - Ommercial, Education, Energy and Power, Healthcare, Defence, Automotive, Transportation and Logistics and Government Institutions: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mass-notifications-systems-market

Segmentation By Application - Interoperable Emergency Communication, Integrated Public Alert and Warning, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery and Business Operation; By Solution - In-building Solution, Wide-area Solution and Distributed Recipient Solution; By Product Type - Hardware, Software and Services; By End-user Vertical - Ommercial, Education, Energy and Power, Healthcare, Defence, Automotive, Transportation and Logistics and Government Institutions: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mass-notifications-systems-market Mechanical Keyboard Market Segmentation By Application - Gaming, Office & Industrial; By Region - North America , Europe , Asia Pacific : http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mechanical-keyboard-market

Segmentation By Application - Gaming, Office & Industrial; By Region - , , : http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mechanical-keyboard-market eDiscovery Market By Component - Software and Services; By Software Type - On-Premise Software and Off-Premise Software; By End-users - Government and Regulatory Agencies, Enterprises (Small, Mid and Large-Size Enterprises) and Law Firms: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/ediscovery-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 and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.

Browse More Electronics, Semiconductors, and ICT Market Insights

Contact Us

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SOURCE Future Market Insights
"We conducted an exhaustive search for someone who would further strengthen our board's breadth of talent and background, and we are delighted to have identified such an outstanding leader," said Bruce Crawford, Chairman of the Omnicom Board of Directors. "Gracia's expertise in business transformation, as well as running a leading media company, will be of great benefit to Omnicom."

Ms. Martore, 65, served as CEO, TEGNA Inc., the nation's largest local media company since 2011. She stepped down last May as part of the company's spin off of Cars.com, the top online destination for the digital automotive marketplace. Ms. Martore held various leadership roles over her 30-year career at both TEGNA and the Gannett Company, including Chief Financial Officer before being named CEO. Prior to joining Gannett, she worked for 12 years in the banking industry.

Ms. Martore serves on the Boards of Directors of The Associated Press, FM Global, United Rentals and WestRock Company. Ms. Martore is a graduate of Wellesley College where she was a Wellesley Scholar. She is also a member of Wellesley College's Board of Trustees.

Ms. Martore now joins Debbie Kissire and Valerie Williams who have been appointed to the Board since the Company began its Board Refreshment process in early 2016. Since then, three long-serving board members have stepped down. The company continues to take meaningful steps towards adding Board members with a wealth of experience and diverse points of view.

"As a former Fortune 500 CEO, Gracia knows how important it is for corporations today to be diverse in every aspect and we are thrilled to welcome her as Omnicom's newest independent director," said John Wren, President and CEO, Omnicom Group. "Our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workforce starts at the top with Omnicom's independent Board of Directors now including six women and three African Americans. I look forward to working with this outstanding group as we enter our third decade as a leader in the marketing and communications business."

About Omnicom Group Inc.

Omnicom Group (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news.

SOURCE Omnicom Group

Related Links

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STOCKHOLM, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --During Q2, the market continued to be positive and Haldex experienced strong growth in Europe. However, growth in North America was slightly weaker, and as a whole Haldex' growth is somewhat weaker than in the market. The sale of actuators, which was previously the primary cause behind the fall in sales, stabilized, and only a slight reduction was noted in Q2. A number of product areas experienced positive development, and the disc brake continued to show the most growth. Operating profit dropped slightly, largely due to lower sales in North America, where the operating margin is higher than in the other Haldex regions. The quarter continued to be burdened by the bidding process, which draws focus and resources away from the core operations.

Net sales for Q2 totaled SEK 1,184 (1,147) m, which corresponds to a 3 percent increase compared with the same period of the previous year. After currency adjustments, net sales decreased by 2 percent. Net sales for the first six months of the year totaled SEK 2,332 (2,244) m, which is equivalent to a currency-adjusted decrease of 1 percent.

Operating income excluding one-off items totaled SEK 78 (87) m for Q2 and SEK 159 (164) m for the first six months of the year, which corresponds to an operating margin of 6.6 (7.6) per cent for Q2 and 6.8 (7.3) per cent for the first six months of the year. The operating margin including one-off items totaled SEK 2.6 (7.6) percent for Q2 and SEK 2.9 (7.3) for the first six months of the year. One-off items for Q2 amounted to SEK 47 (0) m net and for the first six months of the year to SEK 91 (0) m net.

Net income after tax for Q2 totaled SEK 10 (62) m and earnings per share for Q2 totaled SEK 0.22 (1.39). The corresponding figures for the first six months of the year are SEK 39 (110) m for net income before tax and SEK 0.86 (2.47) for earnings per share.

Cash flow from operating activities totaled SEK 39 (61) m in Q2 and SEK 58 (103) m for the first six months of the year.

A bidding process for Haldex was initiated on July 14, 2016, and is still ongoing. Knorr-Bremse's bid of SEK 125 m is conditional and dependent on authorization from relevant competition authorities. On June 29, 2017, the board of directors announced withdrawn support for the bid from Knorr-Bremse due to the very low probability that it will be approved by the competition authorities.

Key figures for April - June 2017

(same period previous year in brackets)

Net sales, SEK m 1,184 (1,147)

Operating income, excl. one-off items, SEK m 78 (87)

Operating income, SEK m 31 (87)

Operating margin, excl. one-off items, % 6.6 (7.6)

Operating margin, % 2.6 (7.6)

Return on capital employed, excl. one-off items,%1 12.2 (17.3)

Return on capital employed,%1 4.6 (11.7)

Net income, SEK m 10 (62)

Earnings per share, SEK 0.22 (1.39)

Cash flow, operating activities, SEK m 39 (61)



1) Rolling twelve months

Key figures for January - June 2017

(same period previous year in brackets)

Net sales, SEK m 2,332 (2,244)

Operating income, excl. one-off items, SEK m 159 (164)

Operating income, SEK m 68 (164)

Operating margin, excl. one-off items, % 6.8 (7.3)

Operating margin, % 2.9 (7.3)

Return on capital employed, excl. one-off items,%1 12.2 (17.3)

Return on capital employed,%1 4.6 (11.7)

Net income, SEK m 39 (110)

Earnings per share, SEK 0.86 (2.47)

Cash flow, operating activities, SEK m 58 (103)

2) Rolling twelve months

Comment from Ake Bengtsson, Acting President and CEO:

"The market has gradually improved during the first two quarters. During Q1 we performed better than the market in general, but we were not quite as successful in Q2. One exception is Europe, and we have been winning market shares in several products in this geographical region thanks to sales of disc brakes, which are continuing to rise. North America, which represents half of our sales, continues to be a challenge. The market in North America has improved, but Haldex has not been able to fully benefit from this upswing, primarily due to the uncertainty surrounding Haldex' situation.

Disc brake contract in USA

The disc brake was re-introduced in the USA at the beginning of last year, and we have been working intensively to secure new contracts. We are pleased to present a disc brake contract in the USA in Q2 where the fleet placed an order for a number of trailers with one of the large axle manufacturers and specified Haldex disc brakes in the vehicles. This customer is one of the customers who was previously affected by the quality problems with our actuator, and we have worked hard to regain their confidence. We are very pleased that they are now choosing Haldex for this emerging technology in the USA.

Trend reversal for actuators

This quarter is the first that we have been able to see a slow-down in the decline in actuators. It is very positive that we have successfully broken the trend that started when we had to the product recall at the end of 2014. We received positive feedback from our customers about how we handled the recall, but it takes a long time to regain trust after a quality defect. Since then we have re-designed the product in order to re-launch a new version. In order not to damage our reputation once more, we have applied incredibly rigid tests and requirements on the product's quality. Preparations are currently under way for the launch in Q3. Given that we to date have not had a replacement product, we have exceeded our expectations in terms of regaining the trust of our customers.

Uncertainty regarding ownership

The uncertainty created by the bidding situation is affecting our ability to sign long-term contracts. In the short-term, customers are not terminating signed contracts, but we are hurt during the negotiations of future contracts, i.e. the contracts that will create growth for Haldex in coming years. The long lead times in our industry result in negotiations with the large companies every 5-8 years. During this time, the customer does not normally switch suppliers. It is these long-term contracts that we have either lost or risk losing since the customer does not know who will own the company in the future. Due to dual sourcing, i.e. the practice of having more than one supplier for a single product to reduce risk, it is important for the customer not to end up in a situation where the same supplier is handling all contracts. It is therefore a safer option to place the order with a third company. We still have an opportunity to win a number of contracts where our creative solutions have kept us at the negotiating table, but with each month that passes the chances are shrinking and soon the window will be closed for a number of years in the future. An extension of the bidding process by only a few months therefore risks impairing Haldex' ability to grow over the next few years.

Focus on existing operations

The bidding process has been ongoing for a year, and Q2 2017 was very intensive in this respect. Knorr-Bremse began to seriously pursue the European process first in February, and during the spring we have invested several man-years in providing the authorities with information and helping Knorr-Bremse prepare various carve-out scenarios. We have met potential buyers for different product lines and allowed them to conduct due diligence of the different parts. The time plan presented by Knorr-Bremse set a target of having these plans approved during the summer. Going through such an extensive process creates a lot of uncertainty within the company, in addition to the time it takes from running the business. When the European authority announced in June that its criticism was more widespread than the scenarios we prepared together with Knorr-Bremse, Haldex' Board of Directors chose to withdraw its support for the bid, and I support them in this decision. There is no measured plan for gaining approval and the buyers that were presented were questionable in the opinion of the authorities.

It has been extremely challenging to focus on and perform the day-to-day activities while at the same time dedicating large parts of our day to preparing divestitures. I am proud that we did as well as we did during Q2. We surrendered some of our market shares, but we did so under incredibly challenging conditions. We have continued to invest in all strategic projects. Haldex' strong culture and loyal employees have played a large role in ensuring that we have not lost more employees than what we have so far, but the concern in the organization is noticeable. It will be difficult to successfully run the company much longer under the current conditions. At the same time, I am convinced that the long-term value of Haldex has been strengthened. Our position as a challenger on the market is highly valued by our customers, and the product portfolio that we are now continuing to develop could be a significant part of the technology shift facing the vehicle industry - for example within autonomous driving - where brake functionality naturally becomes a very important part of the solution.

Haldex in 2017

The impact of the bidding situation is difficult to assess. Even if there are positive signs on the market, we are choosing to keep our previous forecast for the full year. The assessment of 2017 is that the market could reach last year's level, but the uncertainty surrounding Haldex' situation makes it difficult for Haldex to show growth. Our ambition is to continue to ensure good profitability, but due to lower net sales and higher costs from the bidding process, the operating margin for 2017 is forecast to be slightly lower than in 2016."

Ake Bengtsson

Acting President and CEO

Full interim report

The full interim report is available at http://corporate.haldex.com/en/investors/financialreports or at http://news.cision.com/haldex

Press and analyst meeting

Media and analysts are invited to a telephone conference at which the report will be presented with comments by Ake Bengtsson, Acting President and CEO. The presentation will also be webcasted live and you can participate with questions by telephone.

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 18 at 11.00 CET

The press conference is broadcasted at:

https://tv.streamfabriken.com/haldex-q2-2017

To join the telephone conference:

SE: +46-8-566-426-92

UK: +44-203-00-898-09

US: +1-855-831-59-46

The webcast will also be available afterwards and you can download the Interim report and the presentation from Haldex website: http://corporate.haldex.com/en/investors

For further information visit http://corporate.haldex.com or contact:

Ake Bengtsson, Acting President & CEO, +46-418-476000

Catharina Paulcen, SVP Corporate Communications, [email protected] or +46-418-476157

Haldex AB (publ) is required to publish the above information under the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication by the Haldex media contact stated in the release on July 18, 2017 at 7.20 CET.

The interim report is essentially a translation of Swedish language original thereof. In the event of any discrepancies between this translation and the original Swedish document the latter shall be deemed correct.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/haldex/r/haldex-interim-report--january---june-2017--a-quarter-with-slightly-weaker-growth-than-the-market,c2311237

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/1432/2311237/701441.pdf Full interim report http://mb.cision.com/Public/1432/2311237/a9dd12ff497f435a.pdf Q2 Appendix

SOURCE Haldex
NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/  Harwood Feffer LLP (www.hfesq.com) is investigating potential claims against the board of directors of Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. ("Blue Apron" or the "Company") (NYSE: APRN), including whether the board has breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders.

On June 29, 2017, Blue Apron conducted a public offering during which it sold 30 million shares at $10 per share. In the less than three weeks since the public offering, Blue Apron's stock has lost nearly 40% in value.

Our investigation concerns whether the Company board of directors has breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders, grossly mismanaged the Company, and/or committed abuses of control.

If you own Blue Apron shares and wish to discuss this matter with us, or have any questions concerning your rights and interests with regard to this matter, please contact:

Robert I. Harwood, Esq.

Benjamin I. Sachs-Michaels, Esq.

Harwood Feffer LLP

488 Madison Avenue

New York, New York 10022

Phone Numbers: (877) 935-7400

(212)935-7400

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.hfesq.com

Follow us on Twitter: @HarwoodFeffer

Harwood Feffer has been representing individual and institutional investors for many years, serving as lead counsel in numerous cases in federal and state courts. Please visit the Harwood Feffer LLP website (http://www.hfesq.com) for more information about the firm.

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Harwood Feffer LLP (www.hfesq.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Harwood Feffer LLP

Related Links

http://www.hfesq.com


CHICAGO, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hill-Rom (NYSE: HRC) today announced the introduction of its new line of safety surgical instruments, including the Bard Parker SafeSwitch Disposable Scalpel Handle and Scalpel Handle Cover, as well as the new Bard Parker Blade Remover. These innovations help protect surgical teams from injuries that may occur before, during and after surgical procedures, and enhance the company's comprehensive line of surgical blades, scalpels and related accessories.

"Our new surgical instrument line builds on Bard Parker's 100 years of leadership and innovation," said Francisco Canal, president, Hill-Rom Surgical Solutions. "Helping to prevent injuries and associated bloodborne pathogen exposure for surgeons and clinical staff during surgical procedures is of critical importance and the driving motivation behind Hill-Rom's innovations."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hospital workers sustain more than 1,000 scalpel injuries per day in the United States,1 events that can cost as much as $3,000 per exposure2 and can lead to lifetime medical costs of more than $1 million for an infected individual.3

The new Bard Parker line of weighted SafeSwitch Disposable Scalpel Handles offers surgeons the ability to safely retract, pass and disarm surgical blades in one step, with one hand, helping to prevent sharps injuries. SafeSwitch Disposable Scalpel Handles offer the convenience of compatibility with a wide range of blades and sizes, expanding Hill-Rom Surgical Solutions' full range of surgical tools to fit a variety of needs and preferences.

The Bard Parker Blade Remover allows surgical team members to safely remove up to five contaminated blades per remover without the need to touch the blade, thereby protecting caregivers from sharps injuries. The Blade Remover's clear lid allows for easy counting of used blades and its adhesive backing secures to any surface, including drapes. In addition, locking tabs prevent blades from being removed from the device, helping to enhance safety.

For more information, visit https://www.aspensurgical.com.

About Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.

Hill-Rom (NYSE: HRC) is a leading global medical technology company with more than 10,000 employees worldwide. We partner with health care providers in more than 100 countries, across all care settings, by focusing on patient care solutions that improve clinical and economic outcomes in five core areas: Advancing Mobility, Wound Care and Prevention, Patient Monitoring and Diagnostics, Surgical Safety and Efficiency and Respiratory Health. Hill-Rom's people, products and programs work towards one mission: Every day, around the world, we enhance outcomes for patients and their caregivers. Visit www.hill-rom.com for more information.

1 Panlilio AL, Cardo DM, Campbell S, Srivastava PU, Jagger H, Orelien JG et al. Estimate of the annual number of percutaneous injuries in U.S. healthcare workers [Abstract S-T2-01]. In: Program and abstracts of the 4th International Conference on Nosocomial and Healthcare-Associated Infections; Atlanta, March 5-9, 2000:61.

2 United States General Accounting Office. Occupational safety: selected cost and benefit implications of needlestick prevention devices for hospitals. GAO-01-60R; November 17, 2000.

3 F. Hellinger and J. Fleishman, "Estimating the National Cost of Treating People With HIV Disease: Patient, Payer, and Provider Data," Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Vol. 24 (2000), pp. 182-88

SOURCE Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Homesense, a new off-price home concept from The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TJX), will open its initial U.S. store this August in Framingham, MA. With four store openings planned by the end of 2017, Homesense will offer on-trend, high-quality home merchandise at a great value.

The first Homesense store will open on August 17 in Shoppers World in Framingham, MA.

Homesense will offer a shopping experience that complements its sister chain, HomeGoods, by offering expanded departments such as large-scale furniture, lighting and art, as well as new departments like a general store. While sharing the same name, the Homesense concept in the U.S. will differ from stores bearing the same name in Europe or Canada. Rooted in inspiration and discovery, shoppers will be invited to uncover exciting finds from around the world with a greater depth of merchandise in certain categories to fuel inspiration, such as:

A broad assortment of furniture.  Customers may find oversized upholstery, such as sectionals and sofas, futons and day beds, as well as leather furniture and expanded at-home workplace essentials, such as desks, bookcases and filing cabinets.

Accent decor conceptually displayed to entice the senses and inspire new discovery.  This may include oversize rugs up to 14 feet long, as well as rounds, runners and scatters; a wide variety of hanging chandeliers and brightly lit lamps displayed individually in dedicated cubbies so that shoppers can more easily picture them in their own home; and a chair gallery where shoppers may discover everything from dining chairs to bar stools as well as pillows, poufs and ottomans of different sizes and shapes for comfortable, stylish lounging options.

Expansive displays of art, mounted for gallery-style shopping.  Free-standing fixtures and oversized easels to complement the in-store gallery wall and help customers visualize the fit in their spaces.

Entertaining options for holidays and other special occasions.  Customers may find unique bar and game room furniture, such as card tables, pool tables, foosball tables and more, and an expanded selection of gifting items and wrapping essentials, making Homesense a go-to stop for at-home entertaining.

A "General Store" with all things organization, cleaning and home improvement.  Customers can discover hardware merchandise for the home, such as mailboxes, door stops, toolkits and fireplace needs; storage options like cubbies, storage lockers and more; and outdoor options like garden storage and furniture covers.

"Just as our customers enjoy shopping both TJ Maxx and Marshalls, we are confident that loyal customers and new shoppers alike will be excited about shopping both Homesense and HomeGoods," said John Ricciuti, President of HomeGoods and Homesense in the U.S. "As the U.S. home market continues to grow, we are excited to bring consumers an expanded selection of quality merchandise at incredible prices, along with a new shopping experience in which they can discover and curate the home of their dreams."

The first Homesense store will open on August 17 in Framingham, MA, with special grand opening day hours of 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Regular store hours are Monday through Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Following the Framingham Homesense location, store openings are planned in East Hanover, NJ, Ocean Township, NJ, and Westwood, MA later in 2017. For more information, please visit http://us.homesense.com/ and follow Homesense on Instagram and Facebook.

About Homesense

Homesense is a new home concept in the U.S. from The TJX Companies, Inc., the leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. and worldwide. Complementing sister brand HomeGoods, Homesense offers unexpected finds for the home through an ever-changing selection of brand names and global discoveries, all at amazing value. Discover more: visit Homesense.com, facebook.com/HomesenseUS and on Instagram @Homesense_US.

About HomeGoods

HomeGoods operates almost 600 stores across the country and is a division of The TJX Companies, Inc., the leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. and worldwide. As of April 29, 2017, the Company operated over 3,800 stores including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post stores as well as sierratradingpost.com and tjmaxx.com in the United States; Winners, HomeSense and Marshalls stores in Canada; TK Maxx and Homesense stores, as well as tkmaxx.com in Europe; and TK Maxx stores in Australia. For store locations and additional information, please visit www.homegoods.com and www.tjx.com.

Contact: Ciara Benko

Edelman Public Relations

212-642-7701

[email protected]

SOURCE Homesense

Related Links

http://us.homesense.com


WASHINGTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The federal budget proposed by House Republicans proposes huge wage and benefit cuts to federal employees and massive cuts to programs serving many other American families, all to fund unwarranted tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, the head of the largest federal employee union said today.

The American Federation of Government Employees represents 700,000 federal and D.C. government employees nationwide.

The budget proposes a minimum of $32 billion in additional pay and retirement cuts to current, future, and retired federal workers  a down payment on President Trump's proposal to cut $149 billion from employees' pay and benefits over the next 10 years, American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. said.

"Slashing the pay and benefits of America's civil servants while lining the pockets of the wealthiest of the wealthy is a shameful way to govern the country and is emblematic of everything that's wrong with this horrible budget," Cox said.

"While many private-sector companies are increasing retirement benefits for their workers, this budget goes in the opposite direction. It would make it that much harder for federal agencies to recruit and retain the quality employees they need to deliver the programs and services that American taxpayers deserve."

Federal employees already have incurred $182 billion in cuts to their pay and benefits since the start of the decade. Under the House Budget Resolution, current workers would be forced to pay more of their income toward their retirement, while retirement benefits would be slashed for current and future retirees. The budget would eliminate defined benefit contributions, or pensions, for all newly hired federal employees. And it would eliminate supplemental payments to employees who retire before age 62, such as law enforcement agents and firefighters.

"The budget is a slap in the face to all of the workers who care for our veterans, guard our borders, support our military, and keep our air and water clean," Cox said. "Taking away retirement income from our law enforcement officers, many of whom are veterans, is particularly venomous."

Cutting wages and benefits for federal workers is just the tip of the iceberg. The budget would slash at least $203 billion from mandatory programs that help our neediest citizens, including Medicaid, food stamps, and health care.

The budget would abandon the federal government's obligation to protect our environment by imposing enormous cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency and would push more costs onto cash-strapped state and local governments.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

For the latest AFGE news and information, visit the AFGE Media Center. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

Related Links

http://www.afge.org


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hunt Mortgage Group, a leader in financing commercial real estate throughout the United States, announced today it provided a Freddie Mac Small Balance loan in the amount of $5.3 million to refinance a multifamily property located in Detroit, Michigan.

Pasadena Apartments is an 11-story mid-rise apartment building consisting of 167 residential units, two retail units and a roof-mounted cellular tower. The property is located along the East Jefferson corridor within the City of Detroit, just east of the Detroit Central Business District.

The Borrower is Pasadena Investments, LLC, a single-asset Limited Liability Company backed by Scot Turnbull and his brother Craig Turnbull. The loan is a ten-year fixed-rate loan, with three years of interest-only followed by 30 years of amortization.

"The borrower is a first time Hunt Mortgage Group and Freddie Mac sponsor," noted Josh Messier, Director, Hunt Mortgage Group. "They purchased Pasadena Apartments in March of 2009 and have invested approximately $4.5 million in capital improvements since acquisition. The improvements have really helped enhance the asset quality of the property."

Improvements completed since acquisition include kitchen renovations, exterior waterproofing and painting, new corridor lighting and paint, automated hard-wired fire detection and panel, new laundry room, elevator cabs, Wi-Fi, and security cameras.

"The borrowers are from the Detroit area and have successfully managed their family's 50-year real estate portfolio, which is based exclusively in Detroit, for the past 12 years," added Messier. "The family's portfolio has primarily consisted of multifamily assets with a few commercial properties sprinkled in. We were pleased to provide this small balance loan to this quality borrower and hope to partner with them again in the near future."

Matt Shane from Q10|Lutz Financial was the advisor on the transaction. Scot Turnbull is a long-time client of Shane and Q10|Lutz Financial.

Built in 1902 on a 0.487-acre parcel of land, Pasadena Apartments is 92% physically occupied and the commercial occupancy is 100%. Property amenities include gated parking and a laundry room.

About Hunt Mortgage Group

Hunt Mortgage Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunt Companies, Inc., is a leader in financing commercial real estate throughout the United States. The Company finances all types of commercial real estate: multifamily properties (including small balance), affordable housing, office, retail, manufactured housing, healthcare/senior living, industrial, and self-storage facilities. It offers Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD/FHA in addition to its own Proprietary loan products. Since inception, the Company has structured more than $21 billion of loans and today maintains a servicing portfolio of more than $12.5 billion. Headquartered in New York City, Hunt Mortgage Group has 198 professionals in 23 locations throughout the United States. To learn more, visit www.huntmortgagegroup.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Brent Feigenbaum

Hunt Mortgage Group

212-317-5730

[email protected]

Pam Flores

773-218-9260

[email protected]

SOURCE Hunt Mortgage Group

Related Links

http://www.huntmortgagegroup.com/


CHICAGO, July, 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two of the most highly regarded not-for-profit providers in international education, IES Abroad and The Study Abroad Foundation (SAF), today announced the completion of a strategic merger designed to offer students from around the world the most academically and culturally enriching study abroad experiences available.

The two not-for-profit organizations, which share long histories offering students semester-length and year-long study abroad programs, will now operate as one under the auspices of the IES Abroad Board of Directors. The merger of IES Abroad and SAF fulfills a key part of IES Abroad's 2020 Strategic Plan, which incorporates a goal of expanding IES Abroad's mission to include providing students from around the world the highest quality study abroad experiences.

With the merger, SAF and IES Abroad combined have more than 350 study and intern abroad programs across 20 countries offered under the highly esteemed IES Abroad, The Study Abroad Foundation (SAF), IES Internships and IES Customized Programs brands.

Dr. Mary M. Dwyer, IES Abroad President and CEO, will lead the new organization. "The merger strengthens both organizations and enhances our mission to provide innovative, high-quality academic experiences to students worldwide," said Dwyer. "This is an exciting time for IES Abroad and SAF to share best practices and to learn from one another, which will ultimately accelerate the growth of both of our organizations. This merger also opens up the range of services we provide to the educational institutions with which we each partner. Together, we can make a transformative difference in the lives of even more students across the globe."

Founded in 1950 and based in Chicago, IES Abroad has provided more than 120,000 U.S. students with the opportunity to study and intern abroad. Established in 2000, SAF has provided study abroad opportunities, including academic internships, to university students enrolled at SAF member universities in China, Japan, Korea, and other select Asian countries. More than 9,000 students from 180+ universities in Asia have enrolled to study abroad with SAF on programs at 80 host colleges and universities in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States.

The new organization will now serve an academic consortium and international university network of more than 500 top-ranked universities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, and South America.

SOURCE IES Abroad

Related Links

http://www.iesabroad.org


LOS ANGELES, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TopSEOs, coined the "independent authority on search vendors" has listed Los Angeles Web Agency Websites Depot among the best companies for search engine optimization, reputation management, and web design. July 2017 is the third month in a row that the company has been recognized in Top SEO rankings.

Websites Depot Inc.

After a close independent evaluation and analysis of its core business, Websites Depot scored over 95 percent in each of the grades assigned to each of its respective services. The web agency ranking site listed Websites Depot as the fourth best reputation management company in the United States and eighth best web design company.

In addition, Websites Depot was also ranked as the seventeenth best search engine optimization company in the United States. The company is a certified Google Partner, meaning it adheres to Google's guidelines and best practices for pay per click advertising as well as organic search boosting.

TopSEOs is a research company in the web services field that gathers information about each companies' services and assesses their clients' feedback, specialized methods, and level of responsiveness, reporting, and transparency with the client. According to their published evaluation methods, they take into account company engagement in the industry, such as trade shows and publications, the number of awards, client feedback and case studies.

As a full-service web agency, Websites Depot specializes in responsive web design, especially on the WordPress platform as well as numerous other eCommerce platforms. The company is certified for Google AdWords Management as part of their digital marketing campaigns for a wide range of businesses.

One of the company's core services that have been increasingly sought after is online reputation management, which aims to create and boost positive content for companies and individuals and fend off any existing or potential negative content.

For further information on the rankings and awards, or to make a press inquiry, call the Websites Depot press line at (213) 332-9255.

Related Images

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Related Links

Websites Depot

TopSEOs Websites Depot Profile

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnUDqQ0AQN0

SOURCE Websites Depot Inc.
"With our newly launched Vehicle Personalization system & accessory configurator from Insignia, JLR North America and its retailers are now poised to accelerate accessory sales to even higher levels than before," says Brenda Fevrier, Manager of Vehicle Accessories Sales & Marketing at Jaguar Land Rover.

"This innovative system will make average stores great, and excellent stores outstanding at satisfying the needs of their customers first; and second they will experience a consistent increase in profits by making the system an integral part of the vehicle sales process every time," says Fevrier.

The purpose of the JLR Vehicle Configurator System (VCS) is to provide prospective retail customers with a representation of JLR accessory products in an engaging virtual environment. This engagement, along with the guided training that Insignia offers, aims to increase accessory sales, CSI scores and JLR and retailer profits. This partnership will also develop additional compensation opportunities to reward and retain showroom sales talent, sustain a vehicle personalization process within JLR dealers, and increase first service appointments.

"We are delighted to be working with Jaguar Land Rover North America and the retailer network," says David Stringer, President of Insignia. "Both brands are extremely focused on providing vehicle owners with a unique and personalized experience. We are pleased to be a part of the team."

Stringer goes on to say that through Jaguar Land Rover, Insignia is compliant with all global IT standards and policies, opening the opportunity for international support of both brands.

Established in 2001, Insignia Group is a service provider for car dealerships, accessories distributors, and vehicle manufacturers like Volkswagen and Jaguar Land Rover. They offer training programs to help dealerships focus more on selling accessories, and have kiosks that greatly help the accessory selling process. Additionally, Insignia Group offers their software for vehicle manufacturer websites for customers to virtually accessorize their vehicle.

About Insignia Group

Insignia Group is the innovator and industry leader in accessory sales process consulting and configurator software. Insignia drives exceptional Vehicle Personalization sales training, configurator software, continual leadership, and process improvement to the automotive industry. These core deliverables improve the customer experience, increase customer satisfaction, reduce sales staff turnover, and maximize profits. Insignia currently supports eighteen vehicle brands, and serves dealerships nationwide. Insignia's software solution manages the fulfillment of nearly $85,000,000 in accessory sales transactions annually. For more information, visit www.insigniagroup.com.

Media Contacts:

Insignia Group

888-579-4458

SOURCE Insignia Group, LC

Related Links

http://www.insigniagroup.com


"As the traditional retail industry continues to adapt to the advent of online retail, we are seeing medical offices or wellness studios take advantage of large retail centers that offer safety and convenience that's close to home," said Steve Raub, President of Investment Realty Co., "the obvious larger trend is a shift to more service-based companies versus goods-based companies."

Medical providers are seeking retail centers due to the large increase in healthcare spending by many Americans. According to the Global Wellness institute, the global wellness industry has become a $3.7 trillion market.

Kay Paparella Spears, owner of local wellness clinic Balanced Health Healing Center, noted that "Having a convenient location is a huge advantage as people are increasingly focused on improving their health and quality of life." The clinic is located next-door to a locally sourced, health-conscious farm-to-table cafe called Red Bird Farmacy.

The new Huntington Square site is an ideal location for the medical retail focus. It will accommodate a two story, 24,050 Sq. Ft. building and will be located on North Loop 1604 W. at Collins Circle (Pond Hill) in San Antonio, TX. The leasing and sales team involved in the project include Steve Raub, Joanne V. Mirelez, and James Murry.

For more details on the Huntington Square listing and other IRC properties, please visit: http://www.investmentrealty.com/properties/huntington-square/

ABOUT INVESTMENT REALTY COMPANY

Investment Realty Company has been creating wealth from San Antonio commercial real estate property since 1975. IRC members and staff have over 100 years of combined sales and leasing experience in forming over 80 commercial real estate partnerships designed to allow individuals, pension plans, corporations and other business entities to invest in both income producing real estate and pre-development land.

CONTACT:

Alan Yancelson

SocialPath Solutions

Tel: (210) 473-9291

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Investment Realty Company

Related Links

http://www.investmentrealty.com


NEW YORK, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City announces it is investigating ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO)("ZTO" or the "Company") for possible violations of federal securities laws.

The investigation is based on whether ZTO and its executives violated federal securities law by misleading investors by making false and/or misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies.

On October 27, 2016, ZTO raised $1.4 billion by conducting a public offering (the "Offering") of 72,100,000 American Depository Shares ("ADSs") at $19.50 per share. ZTO's registration statement and prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in support of the Offering portrayed a positive picture of its business, performance, prospects, and acreage. ZTO also emphasized its strong operating leverage, superior profitability, and rapid growth. The investigation concerns whether ZTO was falsely manipulating its stated profit margins above industry norms by keeping low-margin segments of its business out of its financial statements. Since the Offering, ZTO's ADS price has dropped about 25%.

Mr. Monteverde would like to personally discuss with you how to potentially recover your monetary losses.

Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/securities/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm committed that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates PC lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave, Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2017 Monteverde & Associates PC. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com


CHEVY CHASE, Md., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- JBG SMITH Properties (NYSE: JBGS) announced today that it has completed its spin-off from Vornado Realty Trust ("Vornado") and the combination with the management business and select Washington, DC assets of The JBG Companies ("JBG"). In addition to the assets acquired from JBG, the Company owns the former Washington, DC segment of Vornado. The Company is now an independent public company that, starting today, will trade on the NYSE under the symbol "JBGS."

Vornado common shareholders and Vornado Realty L.P. ("VRLP") common limited partners at the close of business on July 7, 2017 (the "Record Date") received yesterday a distribution of one Company common share or one JBG SMITH Properties LP common limited partnership unit, as applicable, for every two Vornado common shares or VRLP common limited partnership units held as of the Record Date. Fractional shares of the Company or JBG SMITH Properties LP were not distributed, and instead Vornado common shareholders and VRLP common limited partners will receive cash in lieu of any fractional shares or units they would otherwise have been entitled to receive in the distribution.

Since July 6, 2017, JBGS shares have traded on a "when issued" basis on the NYSE under the symbol "JBGS WI", permitting shareholders to trade the right to receive JBGS shares in today's distribution. "When issued" trading of JBGS common shares ended at the close of the market yesterday. Starting today, "regular way" trading of the Company's common shares on the NYSE will commence under the symbol "JBGS".

BofA Merrill Lynch acted as the Company's exclusive financial advisor, and Hogan Lovells US LLP acted as the legal advisor to the Company in connection with the spin-off. The Advisory and Consulting Group of Green Street Advisors acted as a strategic advisor to the Company. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley acted as Vornado's exclusive financial advisors and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as legal advisor to Vornado.

About JBG SMITH

JBG SMITH is the largest, publicly traded, pure-play real estate company in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. With a track record of over 50 years, we own, operate, invest in and develop assets with a concentrated focus on leading urban infill submarkets in and around the Washington, DC metro area. Our mixed-use operating portfolio comprises approximately 20 million square feet of high-quality office, multifamily and retail assets, 98% of which are Metro-served. Our emphasis on placemaking drives synergies across the portfolio and creates unique, amenity-rich, walkable neighborhoods and attractive environments in the communities in which we invest. Our future development pipeline includes more than 18 million square feet of potential development density. JBG SMITH is active in the areas where it invests, striving to positively impact local communities via the JBG SMITH Cares program. JBG SMITH shares are traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol JBGS. For additional information on JBG SMITH and JBG SMITH Cares please visit www.jbgsmith.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. They represent our intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Our future results, financial condition and business may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. You can find many of these statements by looking for words such as "approximates," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "would," "may" or other similar expressions in this press release. Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of these and our other forward-looking statements are beyond our ability to control or predict. For a discussion of factors that could materially affect the outcome of our forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" in JBG SMITH's registration statement on Form 10 filed with the SEC, as amended.

You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to our forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

SOURCE JBG SMITH Properties

Related Links

http://jbgsmith.com


WASHINGTON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association, issued the following statement regarding the objectives for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that were released today by the Trump Administration.

"The members of the International Dairy Foods Association are encouraged to see that several key priorities for the U.S. dairy industry are reflected in the administration's objectives for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. We strongly support the call for renegotiation, and we look forward to working with the U.S. Trade Representative and others in the administration to preserve the critically important dairy export market in Mexico.

"We are pleased to see efforts to address unjustified measures that unfairly limit access to markets for U.S. goods, such as price undercutting, included in the administration's negotiating objectives. We believe these goals will allow the administration to address Canada's new milk pricing policy, referred to as Class 7, which has allowed Canadian companies to sell their products below world market prices.

"In addition, we're pleased to see an objective to expand competitive market opportunities for U.S. agricultural goods by reducing or eliminating tariffs. Canadian tariffs on some U.S. dairy products are nearly 300 percent.

"Our cheese companies, in particular, are gratified to see the administration's focus on preventing the undermining of market access for U.S. products through the improper use of geographical indications. We agree that common food names should be aggressively preserved for domestic and international use.

"We also appreciate that the objectives include the improved provisions for dealing with sanitary and phytosanitary measures that were previously negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"Overall, NAFTA has been very positive for the U.S. dairy industry, and we look forward to working with administration officials as they negotiate the new NAFTA."

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers with a membership of nearly 525 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's nearly 200 dairy processing members operate more than 600 manufacturing facilities and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States.

SOURCE International Dairy Foods Association

Related Links

http://www.idfa.org


Southern California-based Koia produces refrigerated, ready-to-drink, plant-based protein beverages that are soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and non-GMO. A proprietary blend of brown rice, hemp, and pea proteins is at the heart of Koia's recipe, creating an honest, craveable beverage that boasts an unrivaled 5-to-1 ratio of plant protein to sugar content.

This round of funding will be used to expand Koia's team, support the brand's rapid retail expansion, and launch a multi-region field marketing campaign. As part of this Series Seed round Bill Moses, the founder of Kevita (sold to PepsiCo in 2016), will join Koia's board of directors.

"We are honored and fortunate to have partners like KarpReilly, AccelFoods, and Bill Moses support our company so early in its life cycle. Their support, alongside the powerful consumer response that we've witnessed during our nationwide rollout at Whole Foods Market and with retailers like Wegmans, is validating," said Chris Hunter, CEO, Koia. "It is a testament to how strongly people value simple, natural, transparent products that don't force them to compromise on flavor. We are excited to continue to innovate and expand on our mission to power people through plants."

"We are incredibly excited to partner with Chris and the rest of the Koia team," said Allan Karp, co-founder of KarpReilly. "We rarely encounter a business that so early on has so clearly resonated with both retailers and consumers alike. Combined with an experienced and talented group of management, advisors, and co-investors we are confident that Koia is well positioned to become a category leader."

Added Jordan Gaspar, AccelFoods co-founder and managing partner, "We are thrilled to further invest in Koia and the company's vision of a plant-based future. Chris Hunter is a proven leader capable of building a world-class management team to grow this innovative next-generation brand. The consumer appetite for plant-based protein is only beginning. We could not be prouder to have partnered with Koia, Bill Moses, and KarpReilly, partners with proven track records of building innovative beverage platforms."

ABOUT KOIA

Koia (www.drinkkoia.com) is a refrigerated, plant-based protein drink made naturally craveable and nutritious using honest ingredients without excess sugars, dairy, soy or GMOs. Featuring a proprietary blend of rice, pea, and hemp proteins, Koia is an ideal fit as a healthy snack, meal accompaniment, or post-workout beverage for people with active lifestyles. Founded in 2013, Koia is now headquartered in Southern California where the drink is manufactured and produced. Koia is privately owned.

ABOUT KARPREILLY

KarpReilly, LLC (www.karpreilly.com) is a private investment firm, founded by Allan Karp and Chris Reilly, whose primary mission is to partner with premier small to mid-size growth companies and help them achieve their long-term vision. KarpReilly currently manages funds and affiliates with capital commitments in excess of $500 million. Over the past 15 years, the principals of KarpReilly have invested in, sat on the boards of and nurtured dozens of growth companies. For more information, please visit www.karpreilly.com.

ABOUT ACCELFOODS

AccelFoods invests in disruptive food and beverage companies, providing its portfolio with industry access, expertise, and infrastructure to propel innovation and fuel growth. Our fund works with founders to bridge the gap between their innovative thinking and the resources needed to scale to the highest levels of growth. To learn more please visit the AccelFoods website at: http://www.accelfoods.com.

SOURCE Koia

Related Links

http://www.drinkkoia.com


SANTA ANA, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB), a dynamic sales platform that provides unique products and services for both businesses and consumers in the cannabis industry, will be featured in an investor-focused webinar, hosted by New Cannabis Ventures. The webinar will be held on July 19, 2017 at 1pm Eastern.

Nicholas Kovacevich, Co-Founder and CEO of Kush Bottles, will discuss the company's recent performance and will answer questions from attendees.

New Cannabis Ventures, a leading cannabis industry investment publication, has been instrumental in promoting higher standards and transparency within the sector.

New Cannabis Ventures wrote that Kush Bottles "recently completed a transformational acquisition and is a leading revenue generator in the publicly-traded cannabis sector." The publication also stated, "One of the themes we have been discussing this year is revenue, something that was largely absent from the publicly-traded stocks several years ago, but is becoming much more visible in 2017. Gone are the days when public company investors had to invest in pre-revenue companies, and this change applies to both direct and ancillary cannabis companies. One of the leading public-company revenue generators is Kush Bottles."

Kovacevich said that he is looking forward to the webinar and having an opportunity to address questions, particularly from investors. "We are proud of our accomplishments and I always enjoy being able to talk about our growth, as well as discuss the opportunities that lay ahead," he said.

Registrants to the webinar will also receive a free recording after the meeting concludes.

To register for the webinar, go to: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2746246178573014785

About Kush Bottles, Inc.

Kush Bottles, Inc. is a dynamic sales platform that provides unique products and services for both businesses and consumers in the cannabis industry.

Founded in 2010 as a packaging and supplies company for dispensaries and growers, Kush Bottles has sold more than 100 million units and now regularly services more than 4,000 legally operated medical and adult-use dispensaries, growers, and producers across North America, South America, and Europe. The company has facilities in the three largest U.S. cannabis markets and a local sales presence in every major U.S. cannabis market.

Kush Bottles aims to be the gold standard for responsible and compliant products and services in the cannabis industry. Kush Bottles has no direct involvement with the cannabis plant or any products that contain THC.

The company has been featured in media nationwide, including CNBC, Los Angeles Times, TheStreet.com, Entrepreneur, and Inc. Magazine.

For more information, visit www.kushbottles.com or call (888)-920-5874.

To be added to the distribution list, please email [email protected] with "Kush" in the subject line.

Connect :

Website: www.kushbottles.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kushbottles

Facebook: facebook.com/kushbottles

Twitter: twitter.com/kushbottles

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgments, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as of the date of this release. Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. When used herein, words such as: "potential," "look forward," "believe," "dedicated," "building," or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statements made by us herein are often discussed in filings we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), available at: www.sec.gov, and on our website, at: www.kushbottles.com.

Company Contact:

Ryan Selewicz

Director of Marketing

714-243-4017

[email protected]

Investor Contact:

Elizabeth Barker / Phil Carlson

KCSA Strategic Communications

212-896-1203 / 212-896-1233

[email protected]

SOURCE Kush Bottles

Related Links

http://www.kushbottles.com


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital benchmarking firm L2 Inc releases its 1st annual Intelligence Report: Loyalty 2017.

The L2 report evaluates the successes and pitfalls of loyalty programs for 99 consumer brands across Activewear, Beauty, Big Box, Department Stores, and Specialty Retail. The report provides an analysis of the structure, benefits, and usability of loyalty programs in regard to their added value for both customers and brands with an emphasis on providing tactical recommendations to sustain consumer engagement and promote brand advocacy.

"It's no news that in today's oversaturated market brands are struggling to retain the loyalty and attention of customers," explained Mike Froggatt, Director of Intelligence at L2. "Regardless, the majority of consumers are still dissatisfied with current loyalty offerings, creating an opportunity for brands to build reward structures that add value to core products and services while differentiating the brand."

Key Findings from L2's report include:

Communicating Loyalty: Clear communication is imperative for loyalty program success. Seventy-seven percent of brands mentioned loyalty in the subject of at least one email campaign during May 2017. These brands enjoyed a substantial lift in open rates (from 19 percent to 24 percent) but failed to keep the momentum going as only 6 percent of total brand emails advertised loyalty-related topics in their subject lines during this same period.

Barriers to Entry: Fifty-six percent of brands automatically enroll users in their loyalty programs at account signup versus 39 percent who require additional information to enroll. Placing the onus on consumers to complete the signup process deters users, especially when the majority of programs (86 percent) lack any rewards for completing a profile.

No Purchase Necessary: Thirty-five percent of brands reward loyalty members for non-transactional engagement such as incentivizing referrals and reviews, and linking social media accounts. Valuing consumers beyond their wallets provides several benefits as Department Store brands that reward non-transactional engagement also enjoy 48 percent more daily site visits, 13 percent long site visits, and a 5 percent lower bounce rate.

"Properly identifying the value proposition of loyalty programs is key to their success," noted Camilla Opperman, Senior Associate at L2. "When the value exchange is skewed towards the brand, consumers have little incentive to sign up; when it is skewed towards the consumer, brands bear the burden of expensive loyalty programs with little return on investment."

The report features case studies on brands including but not limited to: Sephora, The North Face, Estee Lauder, New Balance, The Body Shop, Urban Decay, and Walgreens.

To access a complete media-only copy of L2's Intelligence Report: Loyalty 2017, contact [email protected]

About L2

L2 benchmarks the digital performance of over 2,200 brands across 12 industries globally. The L2 Digital IQ Index is the global standard for measuring digital competence. We analyze 1,250 data points to provide brands with actionable, data driven insights on their digital performance.

SOURCE L2

Related Links

http://www.l2inc.com


RESTON, Va., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology company, was awarded a prime contract by the U.S. Army to provide systems engineering, software development and integration on the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS). This single-award, cost-plus incentive-fee contract has a three-year base period of performance and one two-year option. If all options are exercised, the contract is valued at more than $102 million.

The Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) provides critical artillery systems fires command and control capability for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

Under this contract, Leidos will modernize AFATDS to improve functionality, support a more intuitive user software interface, enable more simplistic user training, and enable migration of AFATDS software into the Army's software Common Operating Environment - an initiative that is transitioning standalone warfighting software capabilities as integrated software applications. These efforts will result in a more robust system with vastly improved user functionality in both training and combat.

"This important win enables us to leverage our proven Leidos Enterprise Application Framework to modernize AFATDS," said Mike Chagnon, president of the Leidos Advanced Solutions Group. "Leidos is committed to serving the U.S. Army by making this mission-critical system easier to use and less costly to sustain."

About Leidos

Leidos is a FORTUNE 500 science and technology solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 32,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $7.04 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2016. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 30, 2015, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

SOURCE Leidos

Related Links

http://www.leidos.com


DENVER, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LenderLive Holdings, Inc., a leading mortgage services provider, announced today the appointments of Rob Clements as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and John Surface as President and Chief Operating Officer of the company, effective immediately. Mr. Clements and Mr. Surface will also join the company's Board of Directors. LenderLive Founder and CEO Rick Seehausen will move into the role of Vice Chairman and Founder.

Mr. Clements and Mr. Surface come to LenderLive after over two decades at EverBank Financial Corp, a diversified, national banking institution and strong leader in the mortgage market. Both are banking and mortgage industry veterans and have significant experience working with vendors and service providers to the financial services industry. During their tenures at EverBank, they led the transformation of the bank from a monoline mortgage company with less than $200 million in assets into a nationwide, $28 billion, diversified financial services company with deep roots in the mortgage market. They were instrumental in developing highly-successful organic growth and strategic acquisition initiatives, raising over $1.2 billion in growth capital, taking EverBank public in 2012 and selling the company for $2.6 billion to TIAA in a transaction that closed last month. Under their leadership, the company experienced profitability in every quarter and developed a reputation as an innovative, growth business in the financial services industry.

Mr. Clements joined EverBank in 1994 and served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer since 1997. Mr. Clements received a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

"After more than two decades leading EverBank, I'm incredibly excited to have this opportunity to use my experience in financial services to lead LenderLive during this next phase of its growth and evolution. LenderLive is well positioned to capitalize on the ever-changing dynamics of the financial services industry, and I am pleased to be working with my long-time colleague and friend, John Surface, to continue to build LenderLive for the future," said Mr. Clements. "Rick Seehausen has created a great company with a strong management team that has successfully grown in size, geography, product scope, and client base. We look forward to working with Rick in his role as Vice Chairman and Founder to ensure a seamless transition and continued success."

Mr. Surface joined EverBank Financial Corp in 1994 and served as Senior Executive Vice President with responsibility for corporate strategy, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and new growth initiatives. Mr. Surface received a B.S. in Business Management, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Washington and Lee University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Surface added, "Over the last few years, LenderLive has diversified and strengthened its product offering, expanded its client base and built a business with considerable expansion possibilities. This is an ideal situation that allows us to bring our experience building and transforming EverBank to another ascending company with significant momentum and growth potential. I look forward to working with Rob and our new colleagues to continue that upward trend."

After leading and growing LenderLive for nearly two decades, Rick Seehausen has been interested in finding strong, reputable leadership to guide the company through the next chapter in its evolution. Mr. Seehausen will remain with the company and work with Mr. Clements, Mr. Surface and the management team to facilitate the transition process.

Mr. Seehausen said, "Over the past 18 years, we have built LenderLive into a leading provider of fulfillment and critical services for the financial services industry. I couldn't be prouder of all that we have accomplished together, which has put the company in a great position to take the next step in its development. Given our ambitions to grow the company meaningfully, both organically and through acquisitions, it is clear that now is the right time to bring in new leadership expertise to guide the company to the next level. Rob and John are well-respected, talented professionals who I trust will accelerate LenderLive's upward trajectory and carry out the growth plans that we've put in place over the last few years."

About LenderLive

As a trusted premier services provider, LenderLive partners with financial companies to transform their day-to-day operations by delivering outsourced services and solutions that improve efficiencies, reduce operational errors, and mitigate compliance risk.

The company's solutions work together seamlessly or can be tailored to meet client needs. As a proven partner, clients rely on LenderLive daily for thousands of transactions and high-quality experiences for their valued customers. For more information about the company and its services, visit www.lenderlive.com.

SOURCE LenderLive

Related Links

http://www.lenderlive.com


A stand-out 2017 graduate of BASIS Mesa High School, Ferris will attend Stanford University in the fall, majoring in computer science and electrical engineering. He plans to pursue a career in cutting-edge data research to help expand machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) applications into new fields that will solve business and societal challenges.

"It's a great honor to win this scholarship from Liaison, especially since it's a perfect match for my field of study," Ferris said. "One of my personal goals is to pay my own way through college, and this generous scholarship from Liaison Technologies really helps!"

"Our society is built on data, and it's getting more complex, with data becoming deeply involved in how people live their lives," he continued. "I'm fascinated by the possibilities to improve society with the ability to better analyze and take action based on new data-inspired insights."

Ferris was selected from among a large pool of highly qualified candidates based on his stellar resume, academic performance and his 60-second video submission highlighting the critical importance of data in transforming business and society, along with several advances moving us closer to a data-inspired future.

Given the rapid increase in the volume, variety and velocity of dataand the potential it has for revolutionizing societythe Liaison Data-Inspired Future scholarship aims to encourage young people to consider the influential role of data and apply their talents to drive innovation.

A National Merit Scholar and National AP Scholar, Ferris has already developed and released a free smartphone app to help consumers calculate the true cost of credit card purchases and make smarter financial decisions. In 2015, he founded a non-profit that leverages technology to empower anyone to help solve world problems and formed a Science Helps chapter at his school. Ferris is proficient in numerous programming languages and 3D modeling, has participated in the highly selective Barrett Summer Scholars Program for Engineering, Stanford's Speech and Debate Summer Institute, and has completed Stanford's Machine Learning class through Coursera while still in high school.

"Antonio already has an outstanding dossier and is a highly ambitious young man who clearly has a passion for harnessing the power of data to make an impact in the world," said Pamela Osborne, director of human resources for Liaison Technologies. "He is exactly the type of individual we're looking to recognize and cultivate with this scholarship programbright, enterprising and inquisitive with the vision to create a more vibrant future driven by data. He has the talent to help us overcome obstacles to get there and to better integrate, secure and derive insight from data."

The next round of applications for the Liaison Data-Inspired Future Scholarship are being accepted now with a final deadline of October 31. The winner will be notified by November 30, in time for spring semester. For more information and application details, visit www.liaison.com/scholarship.

Liaison Technologies empowers enterprises to succeed in the data-inspired future with its award-winning ALLOY Platform. Built from the ground up to solve today's increasingly complex integration and data management challenges, ALLOY supports today's rapidly expanding data needs and the unforeseen challenges of tomorrow with a unified integration and data management solution that reduces integration complexity, eliminates data silos and puts actionable data in the hands of business users to make better-informed decisions. To learn more, visit www.liaison.com/liaison-alloy-platform.

About Liaison Technologies

Liaison Technologies provides integration and data management solutions to help customers unlock the power of a data-centric approach to their business. Liaison's cloud-based approach breaks down the barriers between data silos to tap into the valuable information needed to make better decisions, faster. Tailored to solve complex data problems today while building a robust foundation for tomorrow's unforeseen challenges, Liaison fosters a seamless flow of information securely and at scale. Founded in 2000, Liaison serves more than 7,000 customers in 46 countries, with offices in the United States, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Singapore. For more information, visit www.liaison.com and connect with Liaison on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Hanni Itah

SSPR

847-415-9324

[email protected]

SOURCE Liaison Technologies

Related Links

http://www.liaison.com


LAS VEGAS, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the 1970s, the period of one's life known as the Golden Years has been advertised as a time of relaxation and leisure, free from the burden of work and civic responsibility. Many Americans dream of retirement, looking forward to the day they can put down their tools or walk out of the office for the last time. For good reason, peoples' imaginations have been filled with images of cruises, scenic road trips across America, and blissful days spent with children and grandchildren. However, this vision of inevitable elder years fails to mention the challenges of aging. The older people grow, the more likely they are to face a variety of health complications; with diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer's being common forms. Physical pain, whether from old injuries, arthritis, or simple wear and tear, can also be a significant concern. Decreased mobility, limited resources, and isolation are all sources of worry, as well.

While these challenges may seem frightening, especially when shown together, there is an answer for nearly every question and assistance for almost every problem. Mind Body Solutions, a Las Vegas-based psychiatry and pain management practice, specializes in geriatric care and can help make sure that the precious Golden Years stay golden.

"We try to think of everything that our older clients might need. On the issue of mobility, we can offer a few different services. Our transportation department will shuttle you round-trip to and from your appointments, if you can no longer drive, for example. In some cases, such as if you're in homecare, we can send a technician to facilitate a telemedicine visit with one of our providers," says Kendall Looney, Psych Tech Director for Mind Body Solutions.

Telemedicine is an exciting new tool for doctors and other healthcare providers, allowing them to visit a patient remotely, over the Internet, using a computer monitor or tablet. There are several different platforms providers may choose from to use for this purpose, but they operate in a similar manner to Skype or Apple's Facetime.

"Telemedicine is especially useful when it comes to residents of rural communities. People who live far from medical resources can have a hard time finding appointments that fit within their schedules, or they may simply not be able to drive an hour or more to get to them. The problem gets even worse when you start needing specialists. With remote visits, we can conduct assessments or follow-ups, advise the patient, and then work with their local pharmacies, or have their prescriptions mailed to them. It has really removed some big barriers when it comes to caring for people who really need it," Looney says.

Another important service offered by Mind Body Solutions involves the lack of psychiatric care in many nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals in the Las Vegas Area. Most facilities have primary care practitioners who make rounds and visit each patient in the building, with certain exceptions, and they may have certain specialists making rounds as well, such as a cardiologist. Not only are psychiatrists more rarely seen in nursing home settings, they are rare in the city of Las Vegas in general. For that reason, Mind Body Solutions has committed significant resources to providing psychiatric and mental health care to as many of Vegas's geriatric and rehabilitative care facilities as possible.

"We know that patients in nursing homes aren't guaranteed mental health care to go along with their physical care, but it can be very important in a lot of cases. Poor mental health can slow recovery, make a patient's stay less tolerable, or impact the lives and happiness of other patients and facility staff. It's hard to rest and recover when your roommate yells at the nurses whenever they stop by, for example. When we partner with a facility, we then assess and provide continuing care to all their consenting patients. It's a part of the business of which I'm very proud, as I've personally seen how much good it can do," explains Looney.

The population of the United States is growing steadily older, such that by the year 2030, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be over the age of 65. Clinics like Mind Body Solutions provide some of the necessary answers to the hard questions regarding our Golden Years and attempt to ensure that they live up to their name. In Las Vegas, at least, individuals can be assured that they have someone to call if they are ever in need of answers.

About Mind Body Solutions

Mind Body Solutions, located just South of Sahara at 2275 S. Jones Blvd. and its owners believe in a holistic approach to pain management, by treating both the body and the mind, which they relate was the inspiration for the name of their practice. Through their efforts, they hope to provide lasting relief from not simply pain, but from addiction and the wide-ranging negative impacts, dependence can inflict on an individual and their families. America's struggle to overcome the opioid epidemic is far from over, but thanks to the work of government initiatives, charitable organizations, and healthcare providers like Mind Body Solutions, progress is being made.

To make an appointment you can call (702) 384-2238 or Contact them online at http://www.mindbodynv.com/contact.

SOURCE Mind Body Solutions

Related Links

http://mindbodynv.com


LACEY, Wash., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LoanStar Technologies has deployed version 3.0 of the MerchantLinQ platform. This major release enables credit unions and community banks to deploy vehicle programs in Marine, RV and Powersports, by connecting directly to borrowers through dealers. Additionally, the MerchantLinQ platform is now fully integrated to the MeridianLink LoansPQ loan origination system.

LoanStar member lenders are now able to compete in many underserved verticals, including recreational vehicles, boats, powersports and equipment, which provide higher yields than indirect auto loans. The MerchantLinQ platform connects lenders to dealers in their regional markets. Local service with cutting edge, easy to use technology are a winning combination for both the dealer and the local financial institution.

"The addition of non-auto vehicle verticals allows our lenders the option of more diversity in their lending offering, while giving the dealers a toolset unavailable today through their existing providers," said Andrew Turner, CEO of LoanStar Technologies. "Our goal is to allow community banks and credit unions to provide a best-in-class toolset to the dealers, offering financing options to their customers, and ultimately simplifying their marketing initiatives and transaction flow. Partnering with TwinStar on our non-vehicle launch has been a perfect fit for our dealers in both technology and service."

TwinStar Credit Union of Lacey, Washington has launched the non-auto verticals in both Washington and Oregon. Aaron Palmer, Chief Lending Officer of TwinStar CU, said: "We are excited to expand our point-of-sale lending programs via our partnership with LoanStar. The company provides a unique combination of product and market knowledge along with advanced technology that provides a superior lending experience for the business and the borrower. This is a game changer for us."

LoanStar offers state of the art technology to connect lenders to borrowers through their merchants in home improvement, elective medical, consumer durable, renewable energy and non-auto vehicle verticals. The system is currently in production in the pacific northwest, as well as throughout the southeast and northeast United States.

About LoanStar Technologies

LoanStar Technologies is a Philadelphia-based FinTech company that enables banks to create point-of-sale consumer loans. Using their proprietary MerchantLinQ platform, LoanStar has created a streamlined, technology-driven system to quickly and easily create loans as a consumer-friendly alternative to high-interest white label credit cards.

About TwinStar Credit Union

TwinStar Credit Union serves more than 100,000 members in Washington State and the Portland, OR metropolitan area. TwinStar operates 20 branch locations and manages $1.2 billion in assets. For more information, look up www.TwinStarCU.com.

For more information, please contact:

Craig Haynes

[email protected]

Related Links

Website

SOURCE LoanStar Technologies
BETHESDA, Md., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today reported second quarter 2017 net sales of $12.7 billion, compared to $11.6 billion in the second quarter of 2016. Net earnings from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2017 were $942 million, or $3.23 per share, compared to $899 million, or $2.93 per share, in the second quarter of 2016. Cash from operations in both the second quarter of 2017 and 2016 was $1.5 billion.

"Based on the corporation's strong results this quarter we increased our 2017 financial guidance for sales, profit, and earnings," said Chairman, President, and CEO Marillyn Hewson. "Our team remains focused on performing with excellence for our customers and continuing to deliver growth and outstanding value to shareholders."

Summary Financial Results

The following table presents the corporation's summary financial results.





















(in millions, except per share data)1

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016





Net sales

$ 12,685



$ 11,577



$ 23,742



$ 21,945











































Business segment operating profit

$ 1,328



$ 1,273



$ 2,379



$ 2,387





Unallocated items



































FAS/CAS pension adjustment



219





222





436





446





Special item - severance charges





















(80)





Other, net



(62)





(120)





(181)





(220)





Total unallocated items



157





102





255





146





Consolidated operating profit

$ 1,485



$ 1,375



$ 2,634



$ 2,533











































Net earnings from



































Continuing operations

$ 942



$ 899



$ 1,705



$ 1,705





Discontinued operations









122











214





Net earnings

$ 942



$ 1,021



$ 1,705



$ 1,919











































Diluted earnings per share from



































Continuing operations

$ 3.23



$ 2.93



$ 5.84



$ 5.54





Discontinued operations









0.39











0.69





Diluted earnings per share

$ 3.23



$ 3.32



$ 5.84



$ 6.23











































Cash from operations

$ 1,544



$ 1,473



$ 3,210



$ 3,140













1 On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation completed the divestiture of its Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business. Accordingly, the operating results of IS&GS have been classified as discontinued operations in the quarter and six months of 2016. However, cash from operations in the quarter and six months of 2016 includes cash generated by IS&GS of approximately $125 million and $295 million, respectively, as the corporation retained this cash as part of the divestiture. For additional information regarding changes to the corporation affecting the comparability of its operating results, refer to the "Acquisition and Divestiture" section in this news release.





2017 Financial Outlook

The following table and other sections of this news release contain forward-looking statements, which are based on the corporation's current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. It is the corporation's practice not to incorporate adjustments into its financial outlook for proposed acquisitions, divestitures, ventures, changes in law and restructuring activities until such items have been consummated or enacted. For additional factors that may impact the corporation's actual results, refer to the "Forward-Looking Statements" section in this news release.



(in millions, except per share data)

Current Update

April Outlook

















Net sales

$49,800  $51,000

$49,500  $50,700

















Business segment operating profit

$5,020  $5,140

$4,985  $5,105



FAS/CAS pension adjustment

~880

~880



Other, net

~(325)

~(350)



Consolidated operating profit

$5,575  $5,695

$5,515  $5,635

















Diluted earnings per share

$12.30  $12.60

$12.15  $12.45

















Cash from operations

 $6,000

 $6,000









Cash Deployment Activities

The corporation's cash deployment activities in the second quarter of 2017 consisted of the following:

repurchasing 1.9 million shares for $500 million , compared to 2.1 million shares for $501 million in the second quarter of 2016;

, compared to 2.1 million shares for in the second quarter of 2016; paying cash dividends of $525 million , compared to $501 million in the second quarter of 2016; and

, compared to in the second quarter of 2016; and making capital expenditures of $278 million , compared to $235 million in the second quarter of 2016.

Segment Results

The corporation operates in four business segments organized based on the nature of products and services offered: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) and Space Systems.

The following table presents summary operating results of the corporation's business segments and reconciles these amounts to the corporation's consolidated financial results.



(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016





Net sales



































Aeronautics

$ 5,225



$ 4,375



$ 9,331



$ 8,174





Missiles and Fire Control



1,637





1,680





3,126





3,114





Rotary and Mission Systems



3,410





3,303





6,511





6,307





Space Systems



2,413





2,219





4,774





4,350





Total net sales

$ 12,685



$ 11,577



$ 23,742



$ 21,945











































Operating profit



































Aeronautics

$ 550



$ 478



$ 986



$ 898





Missiles and Fire Control



268





253





487





474





Rotary and Mission Systems



254





202





362





431





Space Systems



256





340





544





584





Total business segment operating profit



1,328





1,273





2,379





2,387





Unallocated items



































FAS/CAS pension adjustment



219





222





436





446





Special item - severance charges





















(80)





Other, net



(62)





(120)





(181)





(220)





Total unallocated items



157





102





255





146





Total consolidated operating profit

$ 1,485



$ 1,375



$ 2,634



$ 2,533











































Operating profit of the business segments includes the corporation's share of earnings or losses from equity method investees as the operating activities of the equity method investees are closely aligned with the operations of the corporation's business segments. United Launch Alliance (ULA), which is part of the Space Systems business segment, is the corporation's primary equity method investee. Operating profit of the corporation's business segments excludes the FAS/CAS pension adjustment, which represents the difference between total pension expense recorded in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (FAS) and pension costs recoverable on U.S. Government contracts as determined in accordance with U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards (CAS); expense for stock-based compensation; the effects of items not considered part of management's evaluation of segment operating performance, such as charges related to significant severance actions and certain asset impairments; gains or losses from significant divestitures; the effects of certain legal settlements; corporate costs not allocated to the corporation's business segments; and other miscellaneous corporate activities.

Changes in net sales and operating profit generally are expressed in terms of volume. Changes in volume refer to increases or decreases in sales or operating profit resulting from varying production activity levels, deliveries or service levels on individual contracts. Volume changes in segment operating profit are typically based on the current profit booking rate for a particular contract.

In addition, comparability of the corporation's segment sales, operating profit and operating margin may be impacted favorably or unfavorably by changes in profit booking rates on the corporation's contracts accounted for using the percentage-of-completion method of accounting. Increases in the profit booking rates, typically referred to as risk retirements, usually relate to revisions in the estimated total costs that reflect improved conditions on a particular contract. Conversely, conditions on a particular contract may deteriorate, resulting in an increase in the estimated total costs to complete and a reduction in the profit booking rate. Increases or decreases in profit booking rates are recognized in the current period and reflect the inception-to-date effect of such changes. Segment operating profit and margin may also be impacted favorably or unfavorably by other items. Favorable items may include the positive resolution of contractual matters, cost recoveries on restructuring charges, insurance recoveries and gains on sales of assets. Unfavorable items may include the adverse resolution of contractual matters; restructuring charges, except for significant severance actions which are excluded from segment operating results; reserves for disputes; certain asset impairments; and losses on sales of certain assets.

The corporation's consolidated net adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, represented approximately 37 percent of total segment operating profit in the second quarter of 2017, compared to approximately 28 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

Aeronautics



(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016





Net sales

$ 5,225



$ 4,375



$ 9,331



$ 8,174





Operating profit

$ 550



$ 478



$ 986



$ 898





Operating margin



10.5 %



10.9 %



10.6 %



11.0 %



Aeronautics' net sales in the second quarter of 2017 increased $850 million, or 19 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to higher net sales of approximately $525 million for the F-35 program due to increased volume on aircraft production and sustainment activities; and about $120 million for the C-130 program due to aircraft configuration mix; and about $110 million for the C-5 program primarily due to increased deliveries (three aircraft delivered in 2017 compared to two in 2016) and higher sustainment activities.

Aeronautics' operating profit in the second quarter of 2017 increased $72 million, or 15 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. Operating profit increased approximately $90 million for the F-35 program due to increased volume on aircraft production and sustainment activities and higher risk retirements; and about $35 million for the C-5 program due to higher risk retirements and increased deliveries. These increases were partially offset by a decrease of about $30 million for the C-130 program due to the timing of expenses for sustainment programs. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were about $55 million higher in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

Missiles and Fire Control



(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016





Net sales

$ 1,637



$ 1,680



$ 3,126



$ 3,114





Operating profit

$ 268



$ 253



$ 487



$ 474





Operating margin



16.4 %



15.1 %



15.6 %



15.2 %



MFC's net sales in the second quarter of 2017 decreased $43 million, or 3 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. The decrease was attributable to lower net sales of approximately $120 million for air and missile defense programs due to lower deliveries on certain programs (primarily Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3)). This decrease was partially offset by an increase of approximately $100 million for tactical missile programs due to product configuration mix (primarily Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)) and due to higher deliveries (primarily Hellfire).

MFC's operating profit in the second quarter of 2017 increased $15 million, or 6 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. Operating profit increased approximately $25 million for air and missile defense programs due to the achievement of contract milestones on an international program and a reserve recorded in the second quarter of 2016 for a contractual matter that did not recur in 2017. This increase was partially offset by a decrease of approximately $10 million for tactical missiles programs primarily due to performance matters on certain programs. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, in the second quarter of 2017 were comparable to the same period in 2016.

Rotary and Mission Systems

(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended







June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



Net sales

$ 3,410



$ 3,303



$ 6,511



$ 6,307



Operating profit

$ 254



$ 202



$ 362



$ 431



Operating margin



7.4 %



6.1 %



5.6 %



6.8 %



RMS' net sales in the second quarter of 2017 increased $107 million, or 3 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to higher net sales of approximately $105 million due to certain adjustments recorded in 2016 required to account for the November 6, 2015 acquisition of Sikorsky; about $55 million for C4ISR & undersea systems & sensors (C4USS) programs due to higher volume; and about $35 million for Sikorsky helicopter programs due to higher commercial aircraft deliveries (three aircraft delivered in 2017 compared to none in 2016). These increases were partially offset by a decrease of approximately $90 million for cyber, ships, and advanced technologies (CSAT) programs (primarily Littoral Combat Ship) due to lower volume.

RMS' operating profit in the second quarter of 2017 increased $52 million, or 26 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. Operating profit increased approximately $40 million for Sikorsky helicopter programs primarily due to higher risk retirements; about $25 million for C4USS programs primarily due to a charge for performance matters on the EADGE-T contract recorded in the second quarter of 2016; and approximately $10 million due to certain adjustments recorded in 2016 required to account for the November 6, 2015 acquisition of Sikorsky. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in operating profit of approximately $20 million for CSAT programs primarily due to performance matters on certain programs and lower volume. Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were about $70 million higher in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

Space Systems



(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017



June 26,

2016





Net sales

$ 2,413



$ 2,219



$ 4,774



$ 4,350





Operating profit

$ 256



$ 340



$ 544



$ 584





Operating margin



10.6 %



15.3 %



11.4 %



13.4 %



Space Systems' net sales in the second quarter of 2017 increased $194 million, or 9 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. The increase was attributable to approximately $275 million due to net sales from AWE Management Limited (AWE), which the corporation began consolidating in the third quarter of 2016. This increase was partially offset by decreases of approximately $45 million for other programs in strategic missile and defense systems and a decrease of $30 million for government satellite programs (primarily Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) and Mobile User Objective Systems (MUOS)) both due to lower volume.

Space Systems' operating profit in the second quarter of 2017 decreased $84 million, or 25 percent, compared to the same period in 2016. Operating profit decreased about $70 million due to lower equity earnings from ULA; and a net $40 million increase in charges due to performance matters on certain commercial satellite programs. These decreases were partially offset by an increase of approximately $20 million for government satellite programs due to increased risk retirements, partially offset by a decrease due to contract mix (primarily ground solutions) and lower volume (primarily AEHF and MUOS). Adjustments not related to volume, including net profit booking rate adjustments, were about $10 million higher in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

Total equity earnings recognized by Space Systems (primarily ULA) represented approximately $45 million or 18 percent, of this business segment's operating profit in the second quarter of 2017 compared to approximately $120 million, or 35 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

Unallocated items



(in millions)

Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended









June 25, 2017



June 26, 2016



June 25, 2017



June 26, 2016





Unallocated items



































FAS/CAS pension adjustment

$ 219



$ 222



$ 436



$ 446





Special item - severance charges





















(80)





Other, net



(62)





(120)





(181)





(220)





Total unallocated items

$ 157



$ 102



$ 255



$ 146











































Consistent with the manner in which the corporation's business segment operating performance is evaluated by senior management, certain items are excluded from the business segment results and are included in "Unallocated items." For a description of the items excluded from business segment results, refer to the "Segment Results" section in this news release.

On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation completed the divestiture of its former IS&GS business. Accordingly, the operating results of IS&GS have been classified as discontinued operations in the quarter and six months ended June 26, 2016. Certain corporate overhead costs that were historically allocated to and included in the operating results of IS&GS in the quarter ended June 26, 2016 have been reclassified into "Unallocated items" and included in the results of the corporation's continuing operations because they were not directly attributable to IS&GS and the corporation continues to incur these costs subsequent to the divestiture. The amount of corporate overhead costs previously included in the operating results of IS&GS that have been reclassified to and included in the results of the corporation's continuing operations were $30 million in the quarter ended June 26, 2016. These costs are included in the "Other, net" line.

Additionally, the corporation retained all assets and obligations related to the pension benefits earned by former IS&GS business salaried employees through the date of divestiture. Therefore, the non-service portion of net pension costs (e.g., interest cost, actuarial gains and losses and expected return on plan assets) for these plans in the quarter ended June 26, 2016 have been reclassified from the operating results of the IS&GS business segment and reported as a reduction of the FAS/CAS pension adjustment. These net costs totaled $21 million in the quarter ended June 26, 2016. These costs are included in the "FAS/CAS pension adjustment" line.

Income Taxes

The corporation's effective income tax rate was 28.8 percent in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 25.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016. The rates for both periods benefited from tax deductions for U.S. manufacturing activities, dividends paid to the corporation's defined contribution plans with an employee stock ownership plan feature, tax deductions for employee equity awards, and the research and development tax credit.

Acquisition and Divestiture

On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation divested its IS&GS business. Accordingly, the operating results of the IS&GS business have been classified as discontinued operations in the quarter and six months ended June 26, 2016. However, cash from operations reported in the quarter and six months ended June 26, 2016 includes the cash generated by IS&GS of approximately $125 million and $295 million, respectively, as the corporation retained this cash as part of the divestiture. Certain items have been reclassified between "Unallocated items" in continuing operations and net earnings from discontinued operations as a result of the divestiture of IS&GS. See the "Unallocated items" section in this news release for additional information related to these reclassifications. Amounts in this news release reflect continuing operations unless otherwise noted.

On Aug. 24, 2016, the corporation increased its ownership interest in the AWE venture from 33 percent to 51 percent at which time it began consolidating AWE. Consequently, the corporation's operating results for the quarter ended June 25, 2017 include 100 percent of AWE's sales and 51 percent of its operating profit. Prior to increasing its ownership interest, the corporation accounted for its investment in AWE using the equity method of accounting. Under the equity method, the corporation recognized only 33 percent of AWE's earnings or losses and no sales. Accordingly, the corporation's operating results for the quarter ended June 26, 2016 do not include any sales generated by AWE and only 33 percent of AWE's net earnings.

Conference Call Information

Lockheed Martin will webcast live its second quarter 2017 earnings results conference call (listen-only mode) on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. ET. The live webcast and relevant financial charts will be available for download on the Lockheed Martin Investor Relations website at www.lockheedmartin.com/investor.

For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.



Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that, to the extent they are not recitations of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and are based on Lockheed Martin's current expectations and assumptions. The words "believe," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "intend," "expect," "plan," "outlook," "scheduled," "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially due to factors such as:

the corporation's reliance on contracts with the U.S. Government, all of which are conditioned upon the availability of funding and can be terminated by the U.S. Government for convenience, and the corporation's ability to negotiate favorable contract terms;

budget uncertainty and the potential for a government shutdown; affordability initiatives; the implementation of automatic sequestration under the Budget Control Act of 2011 or Congressional actions intended to replace sequestration;

risks related to the development, production, performance, schedule, cost and requirements of complex and technologically advanced programs including the corporation's largest, the F-35 program;

economic, industry, business and political conditions (domestic and international) including their effects on governmental policy;

our success expanding into and doing business in adjacent markets and internationally; the differing risks posed by international sales, including those involving commercial relationships with unfamiliar customers and different cultures; that in some instances our ability to recover investments is dependent upon the successful operation of ventures that we do not control; and changes in foreign national priorities, and foreign government budgets;

the competitive environment for the corporation's products and services, including increased pricing pressures, competition from outside the aerospace and defense industry, and increased bid protests;

planned production rates for significant programs; compliance with stringent performance and reliability standards; materials availability;

the performance and financial viability of key suppliers, teammates, ventures, venture partners, subcontractors and customers;

the timing and customer acceptance of product deliveries;

the corporation's ability to continue to innovate and develop new products and to attract and retain key personnel and transfer knowledge to new personnel; the impact of work stoppages or other labor disruptions;

the impact of cyber or other security threats or other disruptions to the corporation's businesses;

the corporation's ability to implement and continue capitalization changes such as share repurchase activity and payment of dividends, pension funding as well as the pace and effect of any such capitalization changes;

the corporation's ability to recover certain costs under U.S. Government contracts and changes in contract mix;

the accuracy of the corporation's estimates and projections and the potential impact of changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws;

movements in interest rates and other changes that may affect pension plan assumptions, equity, the level of the FAS/CAS adjustment and actual returns on pension plan assets;

realizing the anticipated benefits of acquisitions or divestitures, ventures, teaming arrangements or internal reorganizations, and the corporation's efforts to increase the efficiency of its operations and improve the affordability of its products and services;

the ability to realize synergies and other expected benefits of the Sikorsky acquisition; remediation of the material weakness in internal control over financial reporting related to Sikorsky;

risk of an impairment of goodwill, investments or other long-term assets, including the potential impairment of goodwill, intangible assets and inventory recorded as a result of the Sikorsky acquisition if Sikorsky does not perform as expected, has a deterioration of projected cash flows, negative changes in market factors, including oil and gas trends, or a significant increase in carrying value of the reporting unit;

risks related to the achievement of the intended benefits and tax treatment of the divestiture of the corporation's former IS&GS business;

the adequacy of the corporation's insurance and indemnities;

the effect of changes in (or the interpretation of): legislation, regulation or policy, including those applicable to procurement (including competition from fewer and larger prime contractors), cost allowability or recovery, accounting, taxation, or export; and

the outcome of legal proceedings, bid protests, environmental remediation efforts, government investigations or government allegations that we have failed to comply with law, other contingencies and U.S. Government identification of deficiencies in the corporation's business systems.

These are only some of the factors that may affect the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. For a discussion identifying additional important factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, see the corporation's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) including, but not limited to, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" in the corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The corporation's filings may be accessed through the Investor Relations page of its website, www.lockheedmartin.com/investor, or through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.

The corporation's actual financial results likely will be different from those projected due to the inherent nature of projections. Given these uncertainties, forward-looking statements should not be relied on in making investment decisions. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of the date of its filing. Except where required by applicable law, the corporation expressly disclaims a duty to provide updates to forward-looking statements after the date of this news release to reflect subsequent events, changed circumstances, changes in expectations, or the estimates and assumptions associated with them. The forward-looking statements in this news release are intended to be subject to the safe harbor protection provided by the federal securities laws.

Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statements of Earnings1, 2 (unaudited; in millions, except per share data)























Quarters Ended

Six Months Ended

























June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016

June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016





















Net sales

$ 12,685

$ 11,577

$ 23,742

$ 21,945





















Cost of sales

(11,260)

(10,347)

(21,164)

(19,620)





















Gross profit

1,425

1,230

2,578

2,325





















Other income, net

60

145

56

208





















Operating profit

1,485

1,375

2,634

2,533





















Interest expense

(160)

(165)

(315)

(330)





















Other non-operating (expense) income, net

(2)

-

(1)

1





















Earnings from continuing operations before income taxes

1,323

1,210

2,318

2,204





















Income tax expense

(381)

(311)

(613)

(499)





















Net earnings from continuing operations

942

899

1,705

1,705

Net earnings from discontinued operations

-

122

-

214





















Net earnings

$ 942

$ 1,021

$ 1,705

$ 1,919





















Effective tax rate

28.8 % 25.7 % 26.4 % 22.6 %



















Earnings per common share

















Basic

















Continuing operations

$ 3.27

$ 2.97

$ 5.90

$ 5.61

Discontinued operations

-

0.40

-

0.71

Basic earnings per common share

$ 3.27

$ 3.37

$ 5.90

$ 6.32





















Diluted

















Continuing operations

$ 3.23

$ 2.93

$ 5.84

$ 5.54

Discontinued operations

-

0.39

-

0.69

Diluted earnings per common share

$ 3.23

$ 3.32

$ 5.84

$ 6.23





















Weighted average shares outstanding

















Basic

288.5

303.1

289.2

303.8

Diluted

291.2

307.1

292.0

307.9





















Common shares reported in stockholders' equity at end of period









286

301





















1 The corporation closes its books and records on the last Sunday of the calendar quarter to align its financial closing with its business processes, which was on

June 25 for the second quarter of 2017 and June 26 for the second quarter of 2016. The consolidated financial statements and tables of financial information

included herein are labeled based on that convention. This practice only affects interim periods, as the corporation's fiscal year ends on Dec. 31.





















2 On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation completed the divestiture of its Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) business. Accordingly, the operating results of

IS&GS have been classified as discontinued operations in the quarter and six months ended June 26, 2016.











Lockheed Martin Corporation Business Segment Summary Operating Results (unaudited; in millions)





































Quarters Ended









Six Months Ended











June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016



% Change

June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016



% Change Net sales































Aeronautics

$ 5,225

$ 4,375



19 %

$ 9,331

$ 8,174



14 % Missiles and Fire Control

1,637

1,680



(3) %

3,126

3,114



- % Rotary and Mission Systems

3,410

3,303



3 %

6,511

6,307



3 % Space Systems

2,413

2,219



9 %

4,774

4,350



10 % Total net sales

$ 12,685

$ 11,577



10 %

$ 23,742

$ 21,945



8 %

































Operating profit































Aeronautics

$ 550

$ 478



15 %

$ 986

$ 898



10 % Missiles and Fire Control

268

253



6 %

487

474



3 % Rotary and Mission Systems

254

202



26 %

362

431



(16) % Space Systems

256

340



(25) %

544

584



(7) % Total business segment operating profit 1,328

1,273



4 %

2,379

2,387



- % Unallocated items































FAS/CAS pension adjustment

219

222









436

446







Special item - severance

-

-









-

(80)







Other, net1

(62)

(120)









(181)

(220)







Total unallocated items

157

102



54 %

255

146



75 % Total consolidated operating profit

$ 1,485

$ 1,375



8 %

$ 2,634

$ 2,533



4 %

































Operating margins































Aeronautics

10.5 % 10.9 %







10.6 % 11.0 %





Missiles and Fire Control

16.4 % 15.1 %







15.6 % 15.2 %





Rotary and Mission Systems

7.4 % 6.1 %







5.6 % 6.8 %





Space Systems

10.6 % 15.3 %







11.4 % 13.4 %





Total business segment operating margins 10.5 % 11.0 %







10.0 % 10.9 %







































Total consolidated operating margins

11.7 % 11.9 %







11.1 % 11.5 %







































1 On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation completed the divestiture of its IS&GS business. Accordingly, the operating results of IS&GS have been classified as







discontinued operations in the quarter and six months ended June 26, 2016, the corporation reclassified $30 million of corporate overhead costs







incurred in the quarter ended June 26, 2016 from the IS&GS business to other unallocated, net in our consolidated statement of earnings.











































Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited; in millions, except par value)

































June 25,

2017

December 31,

2016 Assets







Current assets







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 2,452

$ 1,837 Receivables, net

8,762

8,202 Inventories, net

4,941

4,670 Other current assets

411

399 Total current assets

16,566

15,108









Property, plant and equipment, net

5,532

5,549 Goodwill

10,780

10,764 Intangible assets, net

3,944

4,093 Deferred income taxes

6,332

6,625 Other noncurrent assets

5,557

5,667 Total assets

$ 48,711

$ 47,806









Liabilities and equity







Current liabilities







Accounts payable

$ 2,554

$ 1,653 Customer advances and amounts in excess of costs incurred 6,460

6,776 Salaries, benefits and payroll taxes

1,796

1,764 Other current liabilities

2,831

2,349 Total current liabilities

13,641

12,542









Long-term debt, net

14,283

14,282 Accrued pension liabilities

13,960

13,855 Other postretirement benefit liabilities

859

862 Other noncurrent liabilities

4,619

4,659 Total liabilities

47,362

46,200









Stockholders' equity







Common stock, $1 par value per share

286

289 Additional paid-in capital

-

- Retained earnings

12,616

13,324 Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(11,637)

(12,102) Total stockholders' equity

1,265

1,511 Noncontrolling interests in subsidiary

84

95 Total equity

1,349

1,606 Total liabilities and equity

$ 48,711

$ 47,806

Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows1 (unaudited; in millions)

















Six Months Ended









June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016







Operating activities





Net earnings $ 1,705

$ 1,919 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities





Depreciation and amortization 581

593 Stock-based compensation 101

97 Severance charges -

99 Changes in assets and liabilities





Receivables, net (560)

(1,214) Inventories, net (271)

(233) Accounts payable 940

806 Customer advances and amounts in excess of costs incurred (316)

239 Postretirement benefit plans 685

515 Income taxes 3

237 Other, net 342

82 Net cash provided by operating activities 3,210

3,140







Investing activities





Capital expenditures (448)

(386) Other, net 9

59 Net cash used for investing activities (439)

(327)







Financing activities





Repurchases of common stock (1,000)

(1,002) Dividends paid (1,069)

(1,034) Repayments of long-term debt -

(452) Proceeds from stock option exercises 44

53 Other, net (131)

(199) Net cash used for financing activities (2,156)

(2,634)







Net change in cash and cash equivalents 615

179 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 1,837

1,090 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 2,452

$ 1,269







1 On Aug. 16, 2016, the corporation completed the divestiture of its IS&GS business. Accordingly, the operating results of IS&GS have been classified as discontinued operations in the six months of 2016. However, cash from operations in the six months of 2016 includes cash generated by IS&GS of approximately $295 million, as the corporation retained this cash as part of the divestiture.







Lockheed Martin Corporation Consolidated Statement of Equity (unaudited; in millions)









































Accumulated

















Additional





Other

Total

Noncontrolling





Common

Paid-in

Retained

Comprehensive

Stockholders'

Interests

Total

Stock

Capital

Earnings

Loss

Equity

in Subsidiary

Equity























































Balance at Dec. 31, 2016 $ 289

$ -

$ 13,324

$ (12,102)

$ 1,511

$ 95

$ 1,606



























Net earnings -

-

1,705

-

1,705

-

1,705



























Other comprehensive income, net of tax1 -

-

-

465

465

-

465



























Repurchases of common stock (4)

(168)

(828)

-

(1,000)

-

(1,000)



























Dividends declared2 -

-

(1,585)

-

(1,585)

-

(1,585)



























Stock-based awards and ESOP activity 1

168

-

-

169

-

169



























Net decrease in noncontrolling interests in subsidiary -

-

-

-

-

(11)

(11)























































Balance at June 25, 2017 $ 286

$ -

$ 12,616

$ (11,637)

$ 1,265

$ 84

$ 1,349

























































1 Primarily represents the reclassification adjustment for the recognition of prior period amounts related to postretirement benefit plans.



























2 Represents dividends of $1.82 per share declared for the first, second and third quarters of 2017. In the second quarter, the corporation declared the second and third quarter dividends. However, the third quarter dividend will be paid in Sept. 2017.

Lockheed Martin Corporation















Operating Data

















(unaudited; in millions, except aircraft deliveries)









































































Backlog

June 25,

2017

Dec. 31,

2016









Aeronautics

$ 32,000

$ 34,200









Missiles and Fire Control

15,000

14,700









Rotary and Mission Systems 26,700

28,400









Space Systems

18,400

18,900









Total backlog

$ 92,100

$ 96,200

































Quarters Ended



Six Months Ended Aircraft Deliveries

June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016



June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016 F-35

14

14



29

20 F-16

3

3



5

5 C-130J

6

6



11

12 C-5

3

2



4

4 Government helicopter programs 39

46



71

87 Commercial helicopter programs 3

-



3

5 International military helicopter programs -

-



1

-





















SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


Stock Market Symbols

GIB (NYSE)

GIB.A (TSX)

www.cgi.com/newsroom

CGI Advantage ERP to help provide a more modern, flexible system to support agencies in California's largest office of education

FAIRFAX, VA, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) announced its selection by the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) for the modernization of financial and human resources IT systems that support California's largest Office of Education. Under a US$68.7 million, 5-year contract, CGI will deploy its CGI Advantage ERP solution, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed specifically for government and educational entities, that will improve access to financial and HR business data, provide a user-friendly interface and allow adaptability to evolving regulations that impact local school districts.

CGI will put decades of successful ERP deployment experience to work for the LACOE to help meet their goals for a modern, flexible system that allows more effective support of local educational agencies including school districts and community colleges throughout Los Angeles County.

LACOE is the nation's largest regional education agency and provides programs and support for more than 135 educational agencies and 1.5 million K-12 students in the Los Angeles County area. LACOE operates the payroll for approximately 150,000 employees with more than 300,000 job assignments and supports over 80,000 monthly payments for approximately 1.1 million active vendors.

"LACOE is revolutionizing the way they do business and selected CGI Advantage ERP as the best solution in the market to meet their goals. CGI brings deep expertise in built-for-public sector solutions to this project that will meet LACOE's need for flexibility and functionality with powerful new insights through improved data analytics," said Daniel Keene, Senior Vice-President of CGI's Advantage program.

CGI's Advantage ERP solution was selected as part of LACOE's Business Enhancement System Transformation (BEST) project, an initiative designed to "procure, implement and support an integrated, modern, intuitive financial and human capital management system." Deployment of CGI Advantage ERP will help LACOE leaders meet BEST strategic goals, which include local educational agencies' access to online data and reports through a highly adaptable and scalable system that meets end-user needs.

"We are proud to become part of a team that is dedicated to the important mission of effectively managing resources for schools, teachers and students in Los Angeles County," said Dave Delgado, Senior Vice-President and head of CGI's U.S. West operations. "We see this selection as validation of CGI's proven and innovative approach taken by state, local governments, and educational entities nationwide to modernize and unify complex legacy IT systems."

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Approximately 70,000 professionals serve thousands of global clients from offices and delivery centers across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, leveraging a comprehensive portfolio of services, including high-end business and IT consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance and infrastructure management, as well as 150 IP-based services and solutions. With annual revenue in excess of C$10 billion and an order backlog exceeding C$20 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Website: www.cgi.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. These statements and this information represent CGI's intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs, and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, of which many are beyond the control of the Company. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. These factors include but are not restricted to: the timing and size of new contracts; acquisitions and other corporate developments; the ability to attract and retain qualified members; market competition in the rapidly evolving IT industry; general economic and business conditions; foreign exchange and other risks identified in the press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"), in CGI's Annual Report, in CGI's Annual Report on Form 40-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (filed on EDGAR at www.sec.gov), and in the Company's Annual Information Form filed with the Canadian securities authorities (filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com), as well as assumptions regarding the foregoing. The words "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "foresee," "plan," and similar expressions and variations thereof, identify certain of such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. In particular, statements relating to future performance are forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or on this forward-looking information.

SOURCE CGI Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cgi.com/


RENO, Nevada, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) ("Magellan" or "the Company"), a U.S. based mining and exploration enterprise focused on silver and gold, today conveyed the following message to shareholders:

I want to take this opportunity to welcome our new shareholders and to bring you up to date on the progress your company is making. To reintroduce myself, my name is Pierce Carson. I hold a PhD in economic geology from Stanford University and have managed the discovery, financing, development and operation of mining properties internationally and domestically during a career spanning over forty years. I have led operating teams that have been highly successful in developing new gold and copper mines. Shareholders in the related companies saw dramatic stock pice increases. Now, at Magellan, management aims to duplicate or better that track record with the ultimate objective of creating substantial value for Magellan shareholders.

Since I became CEO in June 2016, management has refocused the company and developed a strategic plan to transform Magellan into a viable operating company. Basic elements of the strategic plan are (1) to complete the acquisition of the SDA flotation mill in the State of Nayarit, Mexico, which, importantly, would enable the company to achieve near-term production; (2) to expand the 16 million ounce historic silver resource at our flagship Silver District Project, Arizona, with the view of advancing the project towards development and production; (3) to conduct initial drilling of our Ninobamba, Peru silver-gold exploration property, which holds promise for discovery of a large, disseminated bulk-minable silver/gold deposit; and (4) to continue to build a precious metals resource base through new acquisitions, with a focus on high-quality silver properties. Our overall goal is to build a substantial mining company driven by cash flow and possessing a portfolio of quality exploration and development projects for future growth.

SDA Mill Acquisiton, Nayarit, Mexico

On March 3, 2017 Magellan acquired a 150-day option to purchase the SDA Mill from Rose Petroleum plc (Aim; ROSE) for consideration of $1.0 million in cash and $500,000 in restricted common stock of Magellan. The Company paid an intial $50,000 option fee on March 3, 2017, and on June 1, 2017 paid an additionl $100,000 option fee that also will apply to the purchase price if the transaction closes. Consummation of the mill purchase is subject to a number of conditions, among others the Company completing a financing, and there can be no assurance that the purchase will be completed.

The SDA Mill consists of an operational flotation plant, precious metals leach circuit and associated assets. The mill's normal operation is based on sales of flotation concentrates to smelters, and payment for precious metals content. Historically the mill has operated for ten years, processing its own ore and also engaged in toll milling for third party ore producers.

Management believes acquisition of the SDA Mill and transformation of Magellan into a production company would be an exciting development that would substantially enhance shareholder value. The Company's strategy following the acquisition will be to build production and increase cash flow. A key objective will be to secure high-grade feed sources located near the mill.

On June 27, 2017 the Company reported on high-grade gold and silver assays obtained from initial sampling of prospects within trucking distance of the SDA Mill. The promising assay results were obtained from three of ten prospects evaluated for their potential to supply high-grade ore to the mill. The Company intends to follow up on these as well as a number of other attractive opportunities that have been identified. The mill lies within the rich Sierra Madre Occidental mineralized belt, which historically has yielded millions of ounces of precious metals and offers multiple high-grade gold and silver epithermal vein targets.

Silver District Project, Arizona

Magellan's flagship advanced exploration project is its 100% owned district-scale Silver District Project in southwest Arizona. The project encompasses three major epithermal vein structures having a collective strike length of eight miles. Historical drilling of 465 holes (62,866 ft) delineated 16.0 million ounces of silver plus fluorspar available for open pit mining.

Magellan's district-scale property position covers the heart of the historic Silver District and includes all of the important historical producers, most of the old mines and prospects and all of the known exploration targets. Historic recorded production during 1883-1893 from underground mines was 1.56 million ounces of silver and 2.33 million pounds of lead.

Excellent potential exists to increase silver ounces through deeper drilling, as historical drilling was limited to only 130 ft vertical depth. Subject to funding, Magellan plans to conduct an extensive drilling program to test strike and depth extensions of the known vein deposits. The initial target potential is 60 million ounces silver (1 million ounces gold equivalent). Following better definition of the total size of the resource, the Company intends to update previous metallurgical and engineering studies with the objective of advancing the Silver District Project toward development and production.

Ninobamba Silver-Gold Project, Central Peru

On October 25, 2016, Magellan announced it had concluded a definitive agreement with Rio Silver, Inc. (TSX.V: RYO) whereby Magelan has the right to earn a 50% undivided interest in the Ninobamba Silver-Gold Project. To earn its 50% interest, Magellan must spend $2.0 million in exploration over three years. Ninobamba is located in south-central Peru and offers ready access. The land package includes a large, contiguous property comprising five concessions totaling 36.5 square kilometers (9,027 acres).

Early mining in the area is known since colonial times, as early as the 16th century. In more recent times, significant historical exploration work has been conducted on the Ninobamba concessions by Rio Silver and several major companies. This historical work provides the project with an an extensive database comprising geological, geochemical, geophysical and drilling data, as well as numerous silver, gold and combined silver-gold targets in an historic silver mining district with positive infrastructure in mining-friendly Peru.

Silver-gold mineralization on the concessions extends to over six kilometers in an east-west direction. This mineralized trend is extensively altered and contains a number of largely untested and open-ended silver and gold anomalies, several of which appear to represent excellent bulk mineable open pit targets. The Company is particularly encouraged by results of historical drilling and surface trenching, which returned potential ore grade mineralization over substantial widths.

Ninobamba holds potential for a large, bulk tonnage disseminated silver/gold deposit. Mineralization reflects a "high sulfidation" epithermal style that in Peru and elsewhere has produced world class precious metals deposits.

As part of its earn-in agreement, Magellan committed to conduct a 700-meter diamond drilling program in 2017. Magellan plans to focus its initial drilling effort on areas trenched by Rio Silver in 2012. As shown by results of seventeen trenches, two subparallel zones of silver-gold and silver mineralization, the "Ninobamba North Zone" and the "Ninobamba South Zone," exhibit good continuity, substantial widths and grades at surface and strike extents of 400+ meters. Mineralization demonstrates the potential for an outcropping, bulk-tonnage, and disseminated-silver-gold deposit. The goal of the drilling program will be to progressively outline a Ni 43-101 silver-gold resource in these target areas.

Acquisition of other high quality precious metals assets:

Magellan continues to assess additional acquisition opportunities. The focus is on quality silver properties with known resources and promising exploration upside.

About Magellan Gold Corporation

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) is a US public enterprise focused on the exploration and development of precious metals. The Company has obtained an option to acquire the SDA flotation plant in the State of Nayarit, Mexico, and controls two precious metals exploration properties located in Arizona and in Peru.

The 100% owned Silver District Property in southwest Arizona comprises over 2,000 acres covering the heart of the historic Silver District. The property contains a near-surface historical drilled resource of 16 million ounces of silver and exhibits exploration promise for significant expansion. The Ninobamba Silver-Gold Property in central Peru, on which the Company has the right to earn a 50% interest, covers 9,027 acres and demonstrates potential for a large, bulk tonnage, silver-gold deposit.

To learn more about Magellan Gold Corporation, visit http://www.magellangoldcorp.com.

Cautionary Statement

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can legally extract or produce. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves. Currently we have not delineated "reserves" on any of our properties. We cannot be certain that any deposits at our properties will ever be confirmed or converted into SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant "reserves." Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of any "resource" estimates will ever be confirmed or converted into reserves or that they can be economically or legally extracted.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that Magellan Gold Corporation believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated are discussed in Magellan Gold Corporation's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contacts:

Magellan Gold Corporation

Pierce Carson +1(505)463-9223

John Power +1(707)884-3766



SOURCE Magellan Gold Corporation
Total deposits as of June 30, 2017 were $539 million, or $115 million over total deposits of $423 million at June 30, 2016. The component of non-interest bearing deposits grew 41.1% from $98.5 million at June 30, 2016 to $139 million at June 30, 2017. Of significance is the continued rise in the level of non-interest bearing deposits, which represent 25.8% of total deposits at June 30, 2017, up 2.3% from June 30, 2016.

Of course the substantial growth in loans was met with a higher than normal loan provision expense of $425 thousand for the second quarter of 2017, which is more than double the amount required for the first quarter of 2017. The loan provision expense is a direct function of the growth in loans. The overall quality of the loan portfolio remains strong, with non-performing loans at just two basis points.

Dialing in the higher than normal loss provision expense, the Company still achieved net income of $950 thousand for the second quarter of 2017, bringing the year-to-date net income to $1.98 million, a 10.6% increase over June 30, 2016.

Net interest income of $9.7 million reported for June 30, 2017 improved $731 thousand over net interest income from June 30, 2016. Non-interest income is up 88.9% from June 30, 2016 to June 30, 2017.

Non-interest expense for the first half of 2017 is $7.5 million compared to $6.8 million for the first half of 2016. The change in salaries over that 12-month period was just $479 thousand, and as a result the efficiency ratio continues to demonstrate improvement.

The book value per common share is $11.30 as of June 30, 2017, up 6.1% from June 30, 2016. The share price closed on June 30, 2017 at $16.05 per common share, or 142% of book value. Per OTCQX Markets, "total share trading increased during the first half of 2017 vs. the same time period last year. Average daily volume in MNSB shares thru June 30, 2017 was 4,700 shares vs. 3,500 shares for the same time period last year. The Company's share price was higher - up 12.92% in the first half of the year as well".

QUOTES: "There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a plan truly come together," said Jeff W. Dick, Chairman and CEO of MainStreet Bancshares, Inc. and MainStreet Bank. "Our new President Chris Brockett has really hit the ground running  balancing his time between bringing on new talent and new business opportunities. This, combined with the shrinking competition in community banking due to M&A activities, is providing MainStreet with great opportunities without compromising our credit standards."

President Chris Brockett added, "Our first quarter was a bit slower than planned, but our strong second quarter closed that gap and we are on-track with our strategic initiatives. I'm pleased to report that our recently added lenders and business bankers are performing ahead of expectations, and we anticipate a strong finish for 2017."

ABOUT MAINSTREET BANK: MainStreet operates five branches in Herndon, Fairfax, Fairfax City, McLean and Clarendon. In addition, MainStreet has 55,000 free ATMs and a fully integrated online and mobile banking solution. The Bank is not restricted by a conventional branching system, as it can offer business customers the ability to Put Our Bank in Your Office. With robust and easy-to-use online business banking technology, MainStreet has literally "put our bank" in nearly 1,000 businesses in the Metropolitan area.

MainStreet has a full complement of payment system services for third party payment providers. MainStreet has a nationally known and leading market expert on-staff ready to help payment providers create a solution perfect for their needs.

MainStreet has a robust line of business and professional lending products, including government contracting lines of credit, commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction and commercial real estate. MainStreet also works with the SBA to offer 7A and 504 lending solutions. From mobile banking and Apple Pay to instant-issue Debit Cards, MainStreet Bank is always looking for ways to improve its customer experience. Additionally, MainStreet released Aircharity in 2012. Aircharity is a unique solution that empowers people and organizations to raise money via email, websites and social media. The product allows a customer to open an account and accept donations from debit cards, credit cards and electronic checks.

MainStreet Bank was the first community bank in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area to offer a full online business banking solution. MainStreet Bank was also the first bank headquartered in the Commonwealth of Virginia to offer CDARS  a solution that provides multi-million-dollar FDIC insurance. Further information on the Bank can be obtained by visiting its website at mstreetbank.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements, including our expectations with respect to future events that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations include: fluctuation in market rates of interest and loan and deposit pricing, adverse changes in the overall national economy as well as adverse economic conditions in our specific market areas, maintenance and development of well-established and valued client relationships and referral source relationships, and acquisition or loss of key production personnel. Other risks that can affect the Bank are detailed from time to time in our annual reports. We caution readers that the list of factors above is not exclusive. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and we may not undertake steps to update the forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of any circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements are made. In addition, our past results of operations are not necessarily indicative of future performance.





BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except ratios)















6/30/17 3/31/17 12/31/16 9/30/16 6/30/16 ASSETS









Cash and cash equivalents









Cash and due from banks $ 14,801 $ 11,867 $ 17,273 $ 13,142 $ 17,483 Federal funds sold 4,674 4,856 797 797  Total cash and cash equivalents 19,475 16,723 18,070 13,939 17,483 Investment securities available for sale, at fair value 38,274 29,889 36,354 26,434 25,869 Investment securities held to maturity 26,615 26,664 27,714 26,518 24,357 Restricted equity securities, at cost 3,895 3,892 3,426 3,423 3,420 Loans, net of allowance for loan losses 525,989 461,768 463,926 441,335 417,640 Premises and equipment, net 12,008 12,132 12,309 12,500 12,339 Other real estate owned, net 135 135 135 135 135 Accrued interest and other receivables 2,737 2,363 2,261 2,265 2,194 Bank owned life insurance 13,417 13,308 10,202 8,126 8,051 Other assets 1,715 1,388 1,314 1,234 1,437 Total Assets $ 644,260 $ 568,262 $ 575,711 $ 535,909 $ 512,925











LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY









Liabilities:









Non-interest bearing deposits $ 139,023 $ 114,044 $ 106,050 $ 114,128 $ 98,505 Interest bearing DDA deposits 27,639 17,443 41,611   Savings and NOW deposits 48,268 44,697 44,833 41,896 40,243 Money market deposits 86,009 79,704 75,670 76,152 59,906 Other time deposits 237,853 207,854 205,402 214,636 224,753 Total deposits 538,792 463,742 473,566 446,812 423,407 Securities sold under agreements to repurchase    2,736  Federal Home Loan Bank advances and other borrowings 40,167 40,179 40,192 40,204 44,409 Subordinated Debt 14,733 14,726 14,019   Other liabilities 1,807 2,011 1,539 872 957 Total Liabilities 595,499 520,658 529,316 490,624 468,773











Stockholders' Equity:









Common stock 16,808 16,792 16,650 16,645 16,634 Capital surplus 22,229 22,126 22,152 21,995 21,913 Retained earnings 9,777 8,827 7,801 6,724 5,712 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (53) (141) (208) (79) (107) Total Stockholders' Equity 48,761 47,604 46,395 45,285 44,152











Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 644,260 $ 568,262 $ 575,711 $ 535,909 $ 512,925











Other Financial Highlights









Annualized return on average assets 0.68% 0.72% 0.76% 0.75% 0.73% Annualized return on average equity 8.06% 8.74% 8.72% 8.52% 8.25% Annualized net interest margin 3.64% 3.75% 3.78% 3.79% 3.82% Efficiency ratio 68.47% 69.40% 69.47% 71.09% 71.02% Gross loans to deposits 98.45% 100.02% 98.58% 99.16% 99.74% Allowance for loan losses to total loans 0.84% 0.87% 0.85% 0.82% 0.87% Past due loans 30-89 days to total gross loans 0.38% 0.02% 0.07% 0.02% 0.01% Past due loans 90 days or more to total gross loans 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% Non-accrual loans to total gross loans 0.02% 0.02% 0.04% 0.09% 0.09% Quarterly net loan charge-offs (recoveries) $ 39 $ 111 $ 30 $ 109 $ 111 Book value per share $ 11.30 $ 11.09 $ 10.85 $ 10.65 $ 10.39 Closing stock price $ 16.05 $ 16.55 $ 14.20 $ 12.60 $ 11.90











Regulatory Capital Ratios









Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio 10.74% 11.78% 11.74% 9.67% 10.02% Common equity tier 1 capital ratio 10.74% 11.78% 11.74% 9.67% 10.02% Total risk-based capital ratio 11.52% 12.57% 12.53% 10.46% 10.86% Leverage ratio 10.32% 10.69% 10.95% 8.66% 8.91%









STATEMENTS OF INCOME



(Unaudited)



(In thousands, except share data)





















Year-to-Date Three Months Ended





6/30/17 6/30/16 6/30/17 3/31/17 12/31/16 9/30/16 6/30/16



INTEREST INCOME:

















Interest and fees on loans $ 11,070 $ 9,814 $ 5,717 $ 5,353 $ 5,267 $ 5,111 $ 4,969



Interest on investment securities 809 597 413 396 351 339 292



Interest on federal funds sold 87 45 47 40 19 29 21



Total interest income 11,966 10,456 6,177 5,789 5,637 5,479 5,282























INTEREST EXPENSE:

















Interest on interest bearing DDA deposits 84  43 41 11  



Interest on savings and NOW deposits 90 80 47 43 44 43 41



Interest on money market deposits 266 121 150 116 96 83 62



Interest on other time deposits 1,130 1,143 594 536 579 605 589



Interest on Federal Home Loan Bank advances and other borrowings 192 121 108 84 74 71 65



Interest on Subordinated Debt 482  241 241   



Total interest expense 2,244 1,465 1,183 1,061 804 802 757



Net interest income 9,722 8,991 4,994 4,728 4,833 4,677 4,525



Provision for loan losses 620 220 425 195 335 90 135



Net interest income after provision for loan losses 9,102 8,771 4,569 4,533 4,498 4,587 4,390



OTHER INCOME:

















Deposit account service charges 394 348 202 192 183 205 218



Bank owned life insurance income 216 51 110 106 76 75 51



Other fee income 595 239 246 349 194 156 153



Total other income 1,205 638 558 647 453 436 422



OTHER EXPENSES:

















Salaries and employee benefits 4,821 4,342 2,449 2,372 2,038 2,208 2,241



Furniture and equipment expenses 592 545 306 286 301 297 267



Advertising and marketing 57 118 26 31 56 102 78



Occupancy expenses 324 376 153 171 158 200 203



Outside services 242 246 113 129 202 167 136



Administrative expenses 188 168 98 90 89 93 99



Other operating expenses 1,258 1,043 605 653 595 571 534



Total other expenses 7,482 6,838 3,750 3,732 3,439 3,638 3,558



INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 2,825 2,571 1,377 1,448 1,512 1,385 1,254



Income tax expense 848 784 427 421 436 373 381



NET INCOME $ 1,977 $ 1,787 $ 950 $ 1,027 $ 1,076 $ 1,012 $ 873











































Net income per common share, basic and diluted $ 0.46 $ 0.42 $ 0.22 $ 0.24 $ 0.25 $ 0.24 $ 0.20



Weighted average number of shares, basic and diluted 4,315,223 4,252,611 4,315,591 4,314,852 4,260,232 4,260,232 4,261,118































Contact: Jeff W. Dick

(703) 481-4567

SOURCE MainStreet Bancshares, Inc.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BD&J, PC welcomes Mark Millard to our illustrious team of personal injury attorneys. Mr. Millard specializes in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases and has a vast amount of knowledge and trial experience, having represented clients in both state and federal courts of appeal. In fact, he has recovered over $140 million on behalf of his clients.

Mr. Millard spent 10 years as an adolescent and family counselor before and while he worked his way through law school, imbuing him with the skills necessary to build and maintain strong bonds and relationships with his clients, many of whom of had endured traumatic events. He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles and was admitted to the California Bar that same year.

About BD&J, PC

BD&J, PC is founded on honesty, hard-work, and experience. Injury victims are too often bullied and pressured into settling for less than they deserve and end up having to pay for the negligence and mistakes of others. Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys believe in fighting for the rights of the injured to ensure they receive fair and just compensation to help them move forward.

Our firm has been featured on numerous media outlets, including CNN, ABC, NBC News, Univision, and Fox News, which is not only a testament to our legal skills, but our broad knowledge of the law and attention to detail.

To learn more about our firm, click here or call us at (855) 906-3699.

SOURCE BD&J, PC

Related Links

http://www.bdjinjurylawyers.com


UnitedCorp Releases Patent Portfolio Valuation Information for its Dedicated Mobile Content Sharing iFramed Technology

MIAMI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Miami-based United American Corp (UnitedCorp), (OTC: UAMA) announced yesterday that within the context of its legal and enforcement actions for patent infringement against Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) related to Snap's use of geo-location based filters, it has released highlights of a third party valuation report completed by TechInsights which was commissioned to review and value the company's technology rights of the iFramed patent global portfolio. The use of geo-location based filters is currently a critical component for the monetization of social media networks.

With over 240 engineers and analysts, TechInsights is one of the world's foremost authorities for evaluating and establishing patent commercial value. The TechInsights valuation is based on various scenarios including negotiated value, litigated value, and discounted cash flows arising from imputed royalties within potentially infringed markets. TechInsights concluded that based on imputed royalties for the iFramed patent family under current market conditions, the valuation for the patent family ranged from US$227 million in a litigation scenario to US$1.8 billion with central negotiation value for the portfolio at US$1.04 billion.

UnitedCorp holds all technology rights related to iFramed's dedicated mobile content sharing technology with digital integration of users' selectable external content based on their location through its wholly-owned subsidiary, iFramed Canada Ltd. The technology is the basis for SnapChat's ''GeoFilters'' provided to subscribers for photos and videos based on geo-location. Snap Inc. is a provider of image and videobased social media services with head office in Venice, California.

As announced on July 11th, UnitedCorp will continue to pursue and enforce legal actions on Snap's infringement of the iFramed technology. The current lawsuit states that Snap has focused its core monetization strategy on the basis of the iFramed patent portfolio.

While Snap does hold a US patent for; ''Apparatus and method for supplying content aware photo filters'' as well as a recently acquired patent; ''Methods and systems of providing visual content editing functions'' these do not permit the use of a dedicated mobile content sharing technology with digital integration of users' selectable external content based on their location as is used in the SnapChat's ''GeoFilters''.

"Even with these patents Snap cannot use its ''GeoFilters'' without infringing on iFramed technology and they will need to cease doing so immediately." stated Benoit Laliberte, UnitedCorp's President.

UnitedCorp is also reviewing its rights and options with respect to use of the technology on other major social networks further to the global trend for using next generation integrated geo-localization branded user generated content into their platforms.

The company recently announced that is in the process of completing a Form 10 for submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and is also currently evaluating alternative exchanges for its currently trading securities.

About iFramed

iFramed is a dedicated mobile content sharing application and platform which allows its users'-originated content to be posted in real time on their social media accounts with a digital integration of external content selectable by its users based on their geo-location and other criteria. iFramed, the world's first and only social media posting gateway technology and next generation social network content sharing platform.

About UnitedCorp

UnitedCorp is a Florida-based own telecommunications, information technologies and social media business and technologies. For more information, visit: www.unitedcorp.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors that may be beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances in management's expectations or opinions change.

SOURCE United American
BEDMINSTER, N.J., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MCS Healthcare Public Relations welcomes two new team members. Chad Hyett recently joined as Executive Vice President bringing 17-plus years of integrated healthcare communications experience with an emphasis on digital. Senior Account Supervisor Emily Dell came on board earlier this year with rich experience in integrated communications.

"Chad and Emily have years of diverse experience that will bring fresh and modern perspectives to the team," said Eliot Harrison, agency president. "We are all about finding unique thinkers that can help clients, the agency and our talent stay ahead of this fast-changing industry."

Since taking the role of president in May, Eliot has led the agency's investment in technology and capabilities to enhance integrated offerings, including analytics, research and measurement tools. Adding new talent to the team will bring these investments to life.

"MCS produces some of the highest-quality, strategic and creative work I've seen. And there is a clear commitment to innovate and think differently about everything," said Chad. "With a foundation like this, there is a ton of opportunity to help clients and our team simply not settle for ordinary work."

Chad joins MCS from Porter Novelli, where he led digital programs across North America and worked to build the agency's digital capabilities. Chad also brings a diverse skillset outside of digital including years of experience leading media strategies, advocacy initiatives and traditional communications programs.

"The healthcare industry is at an inflection point regarding its approach to marketing and communications," said Emily. "I am excited to usher MCS clients into this new way of thinking and help them revolutionize their approach to how they are connecting and engaging with their key stakeholders."

Emily joined from Bliss Integrated Communication and has more than 10 years of experience driving integrated programming on behalf of global healthcare clients.

About MCS Healthcare Public Relations

MCS Healthcare Public Relations is an independent, fully-integrated communications agency that has remained a constant fixture in an ever-changing healthcare communications landscape by adapting and innovating as rapidly as the science itself. MCS has cultivated a great understanding and passion for innovative science and communications. Our dedication to the industry coupled with an exceptional work quality has earned us vast trust and respect from the World's top companies, advocates, innovators, and influencers. For more information, visit www.mcspr.com or follow us on Twitter at @MCSHealthcarePR.

Contact:

MCS Healthcare Public Relations

Eliot Harrison, President

908.234.9900

[email protected]

SOURCE MCS Healthcare Public Relations

Related Links

http://www.mcspr.com


LONDON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tales of exceptional dedication and perseverance are not unusual among top business leaders  but CheapFlightsFinder.com CEO and Founder Shahab Siddiqui is flying in a class by himself. Siddiqui is wheelchair-bound and must regularly undergo dialysis for hours on end, but rather than dwell on his fate, he took the time to ponder, and ultimately solve, one of the world's most frustrating travel problems: how to find the absolute cheapest flights online without having to hop from one site to another.

The Founder of CheapFlightsFinder.com

Despite his physical disability, Siddiqui has always had a passion for travel. However, dialysis abroad is often expensive, which makes saving money on airfare critically important for him. Naturally that was a big source of motivation behind the development of CheapFlightsFinder.com.

"After months of research while receiving dialysis in my hospital bed, I had my 'eureka!' moment  meta-meta flight search," says Siddiqui. "The well-known comparison sites have done a respectable job of locating low-cost tickets and package deals, but anyone who's done enough searching knows that prices vary significantly from one site to the next. That makes it necessary to use more than one search engine, then compare the results."

When Siddiqui realized that a multi-meta search service didn't exist, he set out to design and develop the first "search engine of search engines" for the air travel industry. This meta-meta price comparison engine would ensure that consumers could always discover the lowest prices on tickets to destinations anywhere in the world; and, best of all, they would only have to visit one site.

Siddiqui and a team of developers quickly set up the "Meta-Meta Flight Search" dashboard at CheapFlightsFinder.com. The search engine compares ticket prices from popular tools like Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo, Google Flights, TripAdvisor, Hipmunk and more. Results come back in a matter of seconds. Siddiqui noted that his search engine can save consumers up to 20% on their flight bookings.

But CheapFlightsFinder.com has been engineered to be more than another ticket search tool. It's also intended to help consumers plan their getaways effectively. The site integrates flexible fare calendars and destination features to zero in on the cheapest destinations any time of the year. Estimates of the cheapest days on which to book flights are also available.

"With CheapFlightsFinder.com and its Meta-Meta Flight Search dashboard, consumers no longer have to enter travel details into multiple search engines," adds Siddiqui. "They can fill out one master form and then almost instantly flick through the cheapest flights from ten of the best meta search tools on the market today. Doing the same task the 'old-fashioned' way would be a tedious job."

Business and travel journalists have already taken note of CheapFlightFinder.com's innovative solution to an age-old problem. Having been featured in the Times online, the Daily Mail, Frommers, Forbes, LonelyPlanet and several technology journals, the site continues picking up momentum. To date, the site has earned the loyalty of thousands of satisfied customers around the world; at the same time, CheapFlightsFinder.com has helped generate millions in sales for its travel partners. And it all started with one person's great idea.

"I hope my story serves as an inspiration to other budding entrepreneurs, especially those staring at big challenges," concludes Siddiqui. "I'm proof that with a clear vision, determination and a bit of hard work, amazing things are possible, regardless of one's individual circumstances."

Before you book your next flight, visit www.cheapflightsfinder.com.

Contact:

Shahab Siddiqui

[email protected]

07957191342

SOURCE CheapFlightsFinder.com

Related Links

http://www.cheapflightsfinder.com


PETACH TIKVA, Israel, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Minerva, a provider of endpoint security solutions, has added significant new capabilities to its Anti-Evasion Platform, which strengthens endpoint security to prevent unknown threats that get past existing defenses. The latest release is designed to fight previously-unseen malware across multiple categories of evasion techniques, spanning not only situation-aware malware, but also threats that bypass detection by employing a variety of memory injection methods and hiding within document files.

"Instead of relying on previously-known patterns, behaviors or signatures, our Anti-Evasion Platform deceives the threat regarding its ability to interact with various aspects of its environment. Our solution blocks the adversary from gaining a foothold on the endpoint, rendering evasive techniques ineffective," said Eddy Bobritsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Minerva. "Unlike other solutions, our deceptive approach to blocking unknown malware doesn't rely on which attack vector it came through. Instead, it simulates an environment where malware would never be able to execute, significantly reducing the organization's endpoint security efforts."

The Minerva Anti-Evasion Platform can be installed on both physical and virtual environments. With the lightweight nature of the Minerva agent, the Anti-Evasion Platform enhances Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) security for end-to-end, fully-enabled anti-malware protection, without adding any performance overhead. The platform is both VMware Ready and Citrix Ready certified.

The latest release includes:

Ransomware Protection  Blocks ransomware to provide full protection against data loss, ensuring that victims don't have to pay ransom to recover any files.

Memory Injection Prevention  Organizations can now block attacks that use memory injection techniques to hide malicious code in legitimate processes to evade detection by anti-malware products. By deceiving malware, the Memory Injection Prevention module blocks fileless attacks, process hollowing attacks and other injection methods, rendering these evasive techniques ineffective.

Malicious Document Prevention  Blocks malicious actions initiated by document files, such as those that employ macros, PowerShell and other scripts. The new Malicious Document Prevention module allows enterprises to utilize full capabilities of productivity suites such as Microsoft Office, without the concern of human error.

A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at a leading worldwide shipping carrier said, "Minerva's latest release significantly improves our endpoint defense strategy. We were able to deploy the solution within less than a week and saw immediate results. The number of ransomware attacks on us reduced dramatically and relieved the SOC team from having to investigate numerous alerts that resulted in days wasted on incident handling."

"Malware is consistently evolving to evade existing defenses. The latest capabilities of our Anti-Evasion Platform delivers a solution that is comprehensive in preventing stealthy and elusive attacks, all without being intrusive on the endpoint," continued Bobritsky. "Every attack stopped by Minerva can be turned into threat intelligence that enriches the organization's defense ecosystem where the attack may not be known to them as no signature, pattern or behavioral anomaly exists yet."

Minerva allows IT security teams to strengthen endpoint defenses without taking on the operational challenges often associated with deploying and maintaining security solutions. Customers can rapidly roll out Minerva's Anti-Evasion Platform and benefit from an ultra-light agent that doesn't require reboot or affect endpoint performance. With this approach, Minerva removes the burden from already scarce security resources that are overwhelmed with alerts and false positives. Minerva blocks the attack upfront without the need for any human intervention and without limiting day-to-day business activities.

Minerva will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday, July 19, at 1 p.m. (ET) titled "How to Beat Evasive Malware at Its Own Game" where its experts will discuss common evasive techniques used by malware authors and how organizations can enhance their endpoint security architecture to prevent these types of attacks. Click here to register.

About Minerva

Minerva is an innovative endpoint security solution provider that protects enterprises from today's stealthiest attacks without the need to detect threats first, all before any damage has been done. Minerva Anti-Evasion Platform blocks unknown threats which evade existing defenses through deception and trickery that controls how malware perceives its environment. Without relying on signatures, models or behavioral patterns, Minerva's solution deceives the malware and causes it to disarm itself, thwarting it before the need to engage costly security resources.

Headquartered in Petach Tikva, Israel, and with offices in New York and Atlanta, Minerva boost customers' existing defenses without the need to embark upon a costly and risky overhaul of their entire endpoint security architecture. To learn more about Minerva, visit www.minerva-labs.com.

Media contact :

Lumina Communications for Minerva

Danielle Scotto

[email protected]

SOURCE Minerva

Related Links

http://www.minerva-labs.com


TUSTIN, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New American Funding, a leader in the mortgage industry, is continuing its Midwest expansion with the grand opening of another Missouri location. This newest branch will be in Clayton, Missouri, and will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, July 20, 2017, at 4 P.M. CT.

The branch will be a full-service home loan provider located at 8000 Maryland Ave., Suite 1250, Clayton, MO. This retail location will meet the needs of local mortgage consumers by offering a complete spectrum of purchase and refinance options with a special concentration on the jumbo loan market.

Brandon and Megan Smith will be Co-Branch Managers for Clayton, collectively bringing 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry to this location. Most recently Megan was a top-producing originator with an independent mortgage company while Brandon has been with New American Funding since 2014 as a Senior Mortgage Banker. Jointly, they'll work to increase loan volume and build a sales team.

"New American Funding has a strong operational system and second-to-none technology that make it easier for originators to close loans and provide excellent customer service," said Megan. "I've truly found my home."

"The people make the difference," said Brandon. "New American Funding's culture of helping one another is unlike anything I've ever seen. We're eager to take this opportunity and grow the region."

The housing demand, along with Clayton's demographic, presented an ideal opportunity for market expansion. "We're excited to have Brandon and Megan leading the charge in Clayton," said Hamid Hamrah, Regional VP. "They're both extremely talented professionals who have extensive mortgage knowledge and they're well connected in the community."

The company has additional locations in Lee's Summit, Nixa, St. Louis, and St. Robert. For more information about this grand opening celebration, contact Megan Smith at (314) 221-6219 or [email protected].

About New American Funding

New American Funding is a national mortgage banker licensed in 48 states with 130+ branch locations that offer a variety of home loan options including: Conventional, FHA, Cash Out, Fixed Rate and Adjustable Rate Mortgages, VA, HARP 2.0, Jumbo, and Reverse Mortgages. The company is a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae Direct Seller/Servicer, FHA Direct Endorsement, and VA Automatic mortgage lender.

SOURCE New American Funding

Related Links

http://www.newamericanfunding.com


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Jason Andrew Pierre-Paul has agreed to be the "honorary bailiff" at the Philip R. Shawe Scholarship Award Ceremony, which will honor student teams conducting mock oral arguments, immediately following the contest, which starts at 5pm on July 20th, 2017 at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn, New York.

"I understand the importance of this case and how it has generated a lot of emotions and protests down in Delaware. I don't see any of that happening in New York under my watch," said Pierre-Paul in light-hearted manner. Pierre-Paul is expected to make himself available for photos, autographs and fun with the student teams who represent the top 10 out of 240 teams from law schools across the nation in attendance. "In all seriousness, this is about the students, showing the top students and teams a great time in New York City, and honoring the top 3 teams with hard-earned scholarships. I'm proud to be participating in the event."

Other notable attendees will include Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, who will lead an esteemed panel of judges that will rank oral arguments from the top 3 student teams. Suzette Kelo, property rights advocate from the Kelo v. New London U.S. Supreme Court case, which presented issues similar to those being debated regarding Chancellor Bouchard's controversial decisions in the TransPerfect case. TransPerfect is a private, profitable and thriving industry-leader that employs over 4,000 people around the world and is currently the subject of an unprecedented dissolution and "forced sale" order by the Delaware Chancery Court.

The competition was open to all second- and third-year law school students, and focused on the TransPerfect case, (In re: TransPerfect Global, Inc.) in which the Delaware Chancery Court's order has been challenged as unconstitutional, including "Due Process" and the "Takings Clause," which forbids the government from seizing private property and assigning it from one private party to another. The students addressed the constitutional implications of the Delaware courts expanding its powers under the decision, using the "deadlock" rationale to force the sale of the profitable and thriving industry leader.

Pierre-Paul will attend the award ceremony for the mock arguments, which will be heard by an esteemed panel including, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick (Ret), Senior Associate Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals; Justice Melvin Schweitzer (Ret), New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division; Professor Alan Dershowitz (also legal counsel to Philip and Shirley Shawe); and Joseph D. Hansen, former Director of Interns for Justice Schweitzer, New York State Supreme Court, Commercial Division. After being reviewed, the top submitted briefs will be narrowed to a top 3 and will determine first, second and third place finishers based on oral argument.

"I am counting the days until July 20th," said Phil Shawe. "Some of the greatest legal minds of the future will compete to persuade some of the greatest and most experienced legal minds of the present, that the Delaware Court of Chancery's order that I and my mother, Shirley Shawe, must sell our private property, against our will, is unconstitutional. What's fascinating about this case study, is that this battle is beginning to unfold in the real world now. It would not surprise me at all to see an idea generated by the students, in this contest, used in argument to the actual U.S. Supreme Court. My humble thanks to all those who made this event possible, and especially to the student teams, and our esteemed panel of judges."

SOURCE Philip R. Shawe
BROOKFIELD, Wis., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The rate of cremation in the United States is at an all-time high and surpassed the rate of burial for the second year in a row according to the National Funeral Directors Association's (NFDA) 2017 Cremation and Burial Report. The annual report found that 50.2 percent of Americans chose cremation in 2016, up from 48.5 percent in 2015, while 43.5 percent of Americans opted for burial, down from 45.4 percent in 2015.

NFDA expects the trend shifting from burial toward cremation to continue over the next 20 years, with the projected rate of cremation reaching 78.8 percent of deaths by 2035. Over the next eight years, cremation rates will likely exceed 50 percent in 44 states, up from just 16 states in 2010. Simultaneously, the rate of burial is expected to decline from 45.2 percent in 2015 to 30.3 percent over the next eight years.

In response to this changing consumer preference, many funeral homes have opened crematories to meet the demands of Americans. Today, almost 30 percent of funeral homes in the U.S. operate their own crematories and another 9.4 percent intend to open a crematory within the next five years.

"The rate of cremation is projected to continue to rise as more Americans choose cremation," says NFDA President W. Ashley Cozine, MBA, CFSP, CPC, CCO. "This shift has prompted many funeral homes to expand their service offerings to meet the emerging needs of consumers who prefer cremation."

Many consumers are still unaware of the full spectrum of choices available for end-of-life services. In 2015, 32 percent of people who were cremated had no funeral or memorial service; 37 percent had a memorial service; and 31 percent had a full funeral including viewing.

However, many consumers are not aware that cremation can be accompanied by a memorial service or viewing. Less than half of Americans associate cremation with a memorial service, and just 11.8 percent associate cremation with a funeral that includes a viewing. Over half of Americans (52.2 percent) are not aware that, as part of a funeral with cremation, they can view a body that has been prepared but is not embalmed.

"Our role as a funeral director is to help make sure families understand all of the available options and commemorate the life of their loved one in a meaningful way regardless of whether they choose burial or cremation," said Cozine.

Trends Impacting Rate of Cremation Vs. Burial

Several factors contribute to the changing rate of cremation and burial in the U.S., including:

Religion: Non-religious Americans are the most likely to consider cremation for family and friends (23 percent in 2015). In fact, since 2012, the percent of Americans who feel it is very important to have religion as part of a funeral has decreased from 49.5 percent to 39.5 percent.

Non-religious Americans are the most likely to consider cremation for family and friends (23 percent in 2015). In fact, since 2012, the percent of Americans who feel it is very important to have religion as part of a funeral has decreased from 49.5 percent to 39.5 percent. Age: The aging of the American population has a direct impact on the funeral profession. In 2011, the Baby Boomer generation began turning 65, and by 2030, all Boomers will be age 65 and older. Individuals between the ages of 65 and 79 account for 27.7 percent of funeral service marketplace, and individuals 80 and older account for 46.1 percent of the marketplace. Individuals 80 years old and older are less likely to be cremated and more likely to opt for burial.

About the NFDA 2017 Cremation and Burial Report:

The statistical projections contained in the 2017 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report were compiled by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. State-level deaths by method of disposition data were collected from state vital statistics departments or similar state regulatory agencies for the years 2002-15. Other findings presented in the report are from proprietary NFDA research studies, such as the 2017 Annual NFDA Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study.

About the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA):

NFDA is the world's leading and largest funeral service association, serving 19,700 individual members who represent more than 10,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please contact 800-228-6332 or visit www.nfda.org.

SOURCE National Funeral Directors Association

Related Links

http://www.nfda.org


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NEW YORK, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Non-contact sensors are sensors that detect position, speed, temperature, air quality and distance using non-contact technology. These sensors are solid-state electronic devices which generate electromagnetic field or beam to detect any disturbance in that particular field. Since stationary parts are used for sensing, less maintenance is required. These sensors are reliable; operate faster; work with more accuracy and have many flexible applications in compassion with contact sensors. Hence, this market is fast growing and demanding.





Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04729572/Non-Contact-Sensors-Market-Analysis-Type-Temperature-Pressure-Proximity-Flow-Vertical-Automotive-Healthcare-Food-Beverage-Electronics-Forecast.html







The market has been segmented by sensor types and end user industry verticals. Sensors such as temperature sensors, pressure sensors, proximity sensors, ultrasonic sensors and other are based on non-contact technology. By industry vertical, the market has been classified as consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare, defense and many more sectors.



Proximity and flow sensors are forecasted to be the fastest growing product segment in non-contact sensors market. In the U.S., the growth of proximity sensor is increasing in commercial and healthcare sectors. High progress of the market is forecasted due to ever-increasing demand in the automotive industry. These sensors are required to maintain safety in the vehicle, therefore, are used for applications such as wheel speed sensing systems, engine and transmission management.



Non-Contact Sensors Market



The market is also analyzed based on geographic regions which are grouped into Americas, APAC, Europe as well as RoW regions. Americas is the leading market of non-contact sensors. The demand is continuously increasing due to application of these sensors in defense, aerospace, chemical processing and automotive vehicular production industries. Europe followed by APAC is the other dominant region of the market. Growing commercial vehicle industry is expected to drive this market in APAC region.



The major companies of the market are:

- ABB Ltd. (Switzerland)

- Eaton Corp. (U.S.)

- Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.)

- Ametek, Inc. (U.S.)

- Bin Master Inc. (a subsidiary of Garner Industries, Inc. heaquartered in U.S) and many more



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04729572/Non-Contact-Sensors-Market-Analysis-Type-Temperature-Pressure-Proximity-Flow-Vertical-Automotive-Healthcare-Food-Beverage-Electronics-Forecast.html



About Reportlinker

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.



http://www.reportlinker.com





__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com


DUBLIN, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "North America HVAC Contained Server Market - Forecast to 2022" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The North America Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Contained Server Market size is expected to grow from USD 634.8 million in 2017 to USD 1.5 billion by 2022.



The market is driven by factors, such as proliferation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and startups; significant cost savings achieved by server owners; and rapid deployment and construction period. However, HVAC contained server vendors face various obstacles, such as less awareness about the technology and manufacturing the HVAC contained server cabinets according to varying rack size and volume.



There has been an increasing demand for servers that support high-intensity computing, specifically for Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing. In addition, with the rapid growth in data and server traffic, mobile devices, and social media among customers, the demand for efficiently cooled servers has grown exponentially. They are scalable servers, providing high performance for mission-critical applications. As they are high-end systems providing excellent performance, the cooling needs of these servers are also greater compared to lesser Rack Unit (RU) servers.



Among the countries taken into consideration for the study, Canada is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The ever-increasing internet penetration, due to improvement in wireless infrastructure, is expected to drive the demand for HVAC contained servers. With more and more businesses in Canada coming online, these businesses would require local data storage systems with inbuilt cooling solutions, which would be effectively catered to by HVAC contained server vendors. The country's various government initiatives for startups, along with the existence of world-class universities, have created a successful startup ecosystem in Canada.



SMEs are responsible for employing more than 90% of Canada's workforce, and the SME's contribution to the Canadian economy is around 30%, which effectively portrays the huge SME culture in the country. Since, SMEs and startups are the major customers of HVAC contained servers, they are expected to fuel the market growth in Canada.

Companies Mentioned



Black Box Corporation

Crenlo

EIC Solutions, Inc.

Hitachi Systems

Karis Technologies Inc.

Rackmount Solutions

Schneider Electric Se

Stulz GmbH

Tripp Lite

Vertiv Co.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview



6 North America HVAC Contained Server Market Analysis, By Form Factor



7 Market Analysis, By Cooling Capacity



8 Market Analysis, By Organization Size



9 North America HVAC Contained Server Market Analysis, By Vertical



10 Geographic Analysis



11 Competitive Landscape



12 Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kkqxzj/north_america

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


Since its founding, Norwegian has a time-honored tradition of celebrating iconic, historical figures on the tails of its aircraft. Each person who is featured on a tailfin embodies Norwegian's spirit of pushing boundaries, inspiring others and challenging the status quo. To commemorate Norwegian's expansion in the United States, the airline will introduce a series of American icons over the next few months. Norwegian now offers 63 routes from the U.S. There are 57 transatlantic routes from 15 U.S. airports to Denmark, France, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom and six routes to the French Caribbean.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts and relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in his late teens where he later started a successful printing business. Additionally, he was an inventor, statesman and a leading figure in American history. Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and authors of the Declaration of Independence.

"We are proud to decorate our newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft with Benjamin Franklin. Not only is he an American icon, but he was also a truly fresh air thinker and a pioneer for so many reasons," said Thomas Ramdahl, Norwegian's Chief Commercial Officer. "Norwegian has always been inspired by brave people who defy convention  and that is Mr. Franklin. It is an honor to recognize an American founder on one of our aircraft, and this gesture also symbolizes all of the great things we have planned for Norwegian in the United States."

The new aircraft featuring Benjamin Franklin is Norwegian's third Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft this year. In total, Norwegian will take delivery of three additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft from the 110 it has on order. The airline operates one of the world's youngest fleets with an average age of just 3.6 years.

About Norwegian

Norwegian is the world's sixth largest low-cost airline and carried 30 million passengers in 2016. The airline operates more than 500 routes to 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Thailand, Caribbean and the U.S. Norwegian has a fleet of more than 130 aircraft, with an average age of 3.6 years, making it one of the world's youngest fleets. Norwegian was named the Most Fuel-Efficient Airline on Transatlantic Routes by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Norwegian was named the World's Best Low-Cost Long-Haul Airline by the renowned SkyTrax World Airline Awards for the third consecutive year Europe's Best Low-Cost Airline for the fifth consecutive year. Norwegian employs 6,000 people. Follow @Fly_Norwegian on Twitter, join the discussion on Facebook and keep up with our adventures on Instagram. For more information on Norwegian and its network, visit norwegian.com.

Media Contact

Real Hamilton-Romeo Norwegian US Corporate Communications [email protected] [email protected] 954 647 4390



SOURCE Norwegian

Related Links

https://www.norwegian.com


INDIANAPOLIS, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ONI Risk Partners ("ONI"), one of the Midwest's largest independent insurance brokers, will acquire Franklin, IN based Green Owens Insurance ("Green Owens"), a leading privately-owned Indiana agency since 1979. The Green Owens team joins ONI's 300+ insurance professionals serving business and individual clients throughout Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

"Green Owens has succeeded for 38 years with an unshakable reputation for customer service and support," said Tom Flynn, ONI President & CEO. "In exploring this partnership with Jim Wise, Connie Hawkins and their team, we saw potential to help them continue their growth with stronger regional and national backing, while building our core business and capitalizing on providing expanded services within specific industry segments, where both firms share expertise."

"This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic regional and national organization that reflects the same values that made us successful," agreed Jim Wise, partner and principal agent of Green Owens. "While our clients will continue to work with the account executives and service teams they know and trust, being part of a larger organization will provide access to a fully developed platform of commercial, employee benefits, and personal risk management services."

"Green Owens is a great agency that blends well with our culture of highly personalized service delivery and we look forward to giving them the resources to do even more," finished Flynn." This will be a productive, positive partnership for both our agencies and our customers."

In partnering with ONI, Green Owens also joins the national platform of Prime Risk Partners ("PRP"). PRP is among the industry's fastest-growing firms, building a national platform founded with leading regional agencies like ONI and Green Owens that seek expansion through local management and market knowledge with access to the resources of a dynamic national organization.

"We're pleased that ONI has found a quality partner in Green Owens to further its growth in its region," said Bret Quigley, Chairman and CEO of Prime Risk Partners. "This partnership exemplifies a key component of our strategy for strong and sustainable growth  bringing together customer focused agencies that can reach the next level by embracing our platform."

With regional brokerages like ONI and New York / New Jersey based Cook Maran, PRP has seen rapid growth with a deliberate expansion strategy; PRP leapt from 86th to 50th on the Business Insurance 'Top 100 Business Brokers' ranking (2015 to 2016) and made a solid debut at 28th on Insurance Journal's 2016 list of Top 100 Property/Casualty Agencies and 23rd on its list of Top 50 Personal Lines Agencies.

About ONI Risk Partners

Headquartered in Indianapolis with offices across the Midwest, ONI Risk Partners is one of the largest insurance agency operations in the Midwest, insuring thousands of individuals and businesses regionally, nationally and internationally. ONI Risk Partners became part of the Prime Risk Partners family in 2016. Joining Prime Risk Partners allows us to provide our clients with a broader array of services and resources, expanded specialty offerings, greater market access, and the comfort of knowing we have the strength of our thriving national organization supporting us. For more information, please visit www.onirisk.com.

About Green Owens Insurance Agency

Founded in 1979, the Green Owens Insurance Agency has built their reputation as a leading privately owned independent insurance agency headquartered in Franklin, Indiana. The firm's success relies on an experienced team of professionals, trusted advisory service to clients and a long-standing reputation for conducting business based upon principles of trust, reliability, unbiased service, team, and honor. For more information, please visit www.green-owensins.com.

About Prime Risk Partners

Prime Risk Partners, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is building a superior national insurance distribution platform through selective acquisitions, strategic new hires, and thoughtful operations. A portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners, it is quickly becoming the partner of choice for industry professionals looking to grow exponentially while becoming a critical piece of an expanding national organization. For more information, please visit www.primeriskpartners.com.

SOURCE ONI Risk Partners
DENVER and BRISBANE, Australia, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Oniqua Intelligent MRO, a leading provider of software and services that optimize MRO materials and critical spares management, today announced it recently hosted three Customer Days events in Denver, Brisbane and Perth. The events drew attendance from leading companies in major asset-intensive industries, including oil and gas; mining; utilities and manufacturing.

"We look forward to our Customer Days events all year long. These events are a way for us to demonstrate how seriously we value our customer relationships, and give us the opportunity to learn more about what our customers want from our products and services," said Col Rae, EVP of Customer Success, Oniqua. "I'm happy to report that we gathered some very helpful insights that will allow us to continue enhancing our products and services into the future, and received very positive customer feedback during all three events."



With the theme "Shaping a Combined Future," the annual Customer Days events provided the opportunity for Oniqua customers to discuss and gain insights into new and upcoming Oniqua technology, as well as provide feedback directly to the product team on suggestions for new product features.

Oniqua customers in attendance included representatives from some of the world's leading asset-intensive companies, including (but not limited to):

AGL Energy

Alcoa

American Electric Power

BHP Billiton

ConocoPhillips

Dominion Diamond Corporation

Energex

ExxonMobil

Fortescue Metals Group

Freeport McMoRan

Gold Fields Australia

Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Mount Isa Mines

MMG

Minara Resources

Newmont Mining Corporation

Rio Tinto

South32

Stillwater Mining

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Transocean

The events offered content-rich sessions, which included: a presentation by Oniqua CEO Joe Berti that covered company and product visions for 2017 and beyond; a comprehensive overview of the latest Oniqua software offering branded "Oniqua IQ Inventory"; a series of interactive workshops on new product features; a demo of Oniqua IQ Analytics (Oniqua's next generation reporting and dashboarding offering), and much more.

For more information on Oniqua Intelligent MRO, visit www.oniqua.com.

About Oniqua

Oniqua provides Intelligent MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) capabilities that are transforming the way Oil & Gas, Mining, Utilities and Manufacturing companies manage their capital-intensive assets. The Company's unique cloud-based offering combines the world's most advanced MRO analytics technology with analyst services, consulting, master data cleansing and industry expertise to optimize the performance of materials management and operations & maintenance activities. Oniqua does the "heavy lifting" on behalf of customers so they can achieve rapid benefits in the form of reduced waste and costs, minimized risks, greater efficiencies and smarter decisions across their MRO operations. Oniqua is proud to serve many of the world's largest energy and resources companies, including ConocoPhillips, BP, New Gold, Occidental (OXY), ADMA, BHP Billiton, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), American Electric Power (AEP), Nebraska Public Power District, Rio Tinto, Newmont Mining, Lundin Mining, Freeport McMoRan and many others. To learn more, visit www.oniqua.com | LinkedIn

Oniqua is owned by international oilfield support services company ASCO. Through Oniqua and its other businesses, ASCO offers a wide range of services, including inventory and materials management, offshore supply base management, onshore oilfield support, environmental services, personnel and training, advisory and technical services, as well as fuel services. To learn more, visit www.ascoworld.com.

Media Contact:

Alisson Moore

Director, Global Marketing

Oniqua Intelligent MRO

+1 303-525-5994

[email protected]

SOURCE Oniqua Intelligent MRO

Related Links

http://www.oniqua.com


CHICAGO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) has released an article in memory of the 7th anniversary of Amanda Abbiehl's death.

Amanda was 18-years-old when she was admitted to hospital for a severe case of strep throat on July 15, 2010. To help her manage the pain, she was placed on a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump. The next morning, she was found unresponsive and died. Though PCA pumps are designed to deliver an exact dosage of opioid - in Amanda's case, hydromorphone - getting the 'right' dosage is not a simple task. Too high a dosage can lead to respiratory depression, sometimes in minutes.

"Amanda's story, and countless others like it, could have been prevented with the right policies and technology in place," says Michael Wong, JD, Founder & Executive Director of PPAHS. "It's a powerful reminder of our need for continuous electronic monitoring for patients receiving opioids in hospital to ensure caregivers are notified of any deterioration so that appropriate intervention can be taken."

PPAHS highlights that undetected opioid-induced respiratory depression remains an ongoing public health issue. ECRI Institute - a nonprofit with a mission to use applied scientific research to determine best practices in medical procedures, devices, drugs - has placed the issue as number 4 on its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2017. Opioid-related harm has been targeted by ECRI's annual list for consecutive years.

PPAHS has recently published a position statement calling for the use of continuous electronic monitoring, such as pulse oximetry to measure oxygenation and capnography to measure the adequacy of ventilation, to detect the early signs of opioid-related respiratory depression. Amanda was placed in a general ward with only intermittent spot checks from clinicians on rounds, which was not sufficient to detect an opioid overdose before it was too late.

The organisation has also developed a PCA Safety Checklist in collaboration with a panel of medical experts including intensive care specialist and a leader in medical checklist development Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM, Professor, Departments of Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine and Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Medical Director, Center for Innovation in Quality Patient; and Atul Gawande, MD, Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, who is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and author of "The Checklist Manifesto." The checklist is available as a free PDF download on the PPAHS website.

A foundation in Amanda's name has been created by her parents, Cindy & Brian Abbiehl. To learn more about Amanda's story and PCA safety, please visit the Promise to Amanda website.

About Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety

Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety is a non-profit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to promote safer clinical practices and standards for patients through collaboration among healthcare experts, professionals, scientific researchers, and others, in order to improve healthcare delivery. For more information, please go to www.ppahs.org.

SOURCE Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety
INDIANAPOLIS, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud-based plagiarism detection service VeriCite today announced that it has added more than 100 educational institutional clients since the company's inception a year ago. As the company continues to build momentum in the marketplace, it has added education technology veteran Valerie Schreiner as CEO. Co-founders Scott Siddall and Sam Ottenhoff will remain with the company as CFO and CTO, respectively.

The 100-client milestone is a testament to the effectiveness and value of VeriCite's plagiarism detection service. According to Pat Burns, vice president of information technology at Colorado State University and an early adopter of VeriCite, "We conducted a side-by-side evaluation of VeriCite and its competitors and found VeriCite to provide very high-quality originality reports at a substantial savings over alternatives. It integrates well with our Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), extending the value of the LMS without duplicating functionality."

Other higher education institutions using the service include the University of Oregon, University of Washington, University of Denver, institutions within the University of North Carolina system, and the California Community College System. In addition, a number of K-12 school districts, including Seminole County (FL) Public Schools, have adopted the service.

New CEO Valerie Schreiner previously held the position of chief product officer at Schoolzilla and has held senior-level positions at Elluminate and Blackboard.

"We are delighted to add Valerie to help us build on our early success" said Siddall. "Valerie is an experienced leader who has demonstrated the ability to scale organizations and has a deep commitment to customer support and organizational success, which will help us maintain our current growth rate."

"VeriCite's founders have built an impressive team and an impressive service," said Schreiner. "The rapid acceptance by the market speaks to the quality of the service, value price point, the company's ease in doing business, and its responsiveness to client feedback. I'm looking forward to helping VeriCite continue to provide excellent service in the midst of exponential growth. We have an exciting roadmap of capabilities planned that will allow us to sustain our market advantage."

Schreiner will meet with customers and potential customers at the Canvas LMS InstructureCon conference in Keystone, Colorado later this month.

About VeriCite, Inc.

VeriCite's cloud-based tool for assessing originality aims to provide an easier way for educators to turn conversations about academic integrity into positive teaching moments. Backed by technological expertise and unrivaled responsive service, VeriCite is easy to use, easy to integrate with all mainstream learning management systems, and easy on the budget. For more information, visit www.vericite.com.

SOURCE VeriCite

Related Links

http://www.vericite.com


Casey Neistat is well-known for his ever popular YouTube channel, but he first attained commercial success with the HBO series The Neistat Brothers and indie film Daddy Longlegs.

With ten years of experience in creating TV commercials, Neistat took his storytelling ability and married it with his commercial experience to re-define branded content on the internet with companies such as Mercedes and Nike. Most recently, Neistat's technology company, Beme, was acquired by CNN. Now, Neistat and CNN are building out a new digital network together with Neistat at the helm. Casey has set a new standard for the way brands interact with digital creators and carved out a niche for himself as a well-respected filmmaker, technology developer, and digital native influencer.

"In his YouTube video, 'Draw My Life,' Neistat says 'Storytelling changed my life,'" says Joe Pulizzi, founder, Content Marketing Institute and co-author of upcoming book Killing Marketing. "At the heart of what content marketers do, we want to use consistent storytelling to positively affect the lives of our customers. Casey can explain his journey to our attendees, share some inspiration, and show our audience how they can do what Casey so successfully did."

Neistat will deliver a keynote address to the expected 4,000 Content Marketing World attendees Wednesday afternoon, September 6, 2017 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. Content Marketing World is the one event where attendees can learn from and network with the best and brightest in the content marketing world, featuring over 150 sessions with marketing leaders from the world's leading brands.

There is still time to register for Content Marketing World to hear Casey Neistat plus best-selling author, Colson Whitehead and 200+ other speakers. If you hurry, you can take advantage of our special summer pricing, available until July 21, 2017.

Register today by visiting: http://www.contentmarketingworld.com/

You can also check out this video to see what #CMWorld is all about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgRee6sqags&t=2s

About Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI's Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and the Intelligent Content Conference event is held every spring. CMI publishes the bi-monthly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. Watch this video to learn more about CMI.

Content Marketing Institute is organised by UBM plc. UBM is the largest pure-play B2B Events organiser in the world. Our 3,750+ people, based in more than 20 countries, serve more than 50 different sectors. Our deep knowledge and passion for these sectors allow us to create valuable experiences which enable our customers to succeed. Please visit www.ubm.com for the latest news and information about UBM.

SOURCE Content Marketing Institute
SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Practice Fusion, the leading cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform, announced today that Richard Loomis, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Practice Fusion, has been re-elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association (EHRA) for 2017-2018.

"We're proud of Rich's recognition and continuing role at the EHRA," said Tom Langan, CEO at Practice Fusion. "He acts as a strong advocate for clinicians and will continue to make important contributions to the EHRA Executive Committee to help advance interoperability and the future of health IT."

The EHRA is committed to supporting the delivery of safe healthcare, fostering continued innovation, and operating with high integrity in the market for EHR users and their patients and families. The EHRA Executive Committee is responsible for establishing the guiding principles of the EHRA and frequently provides testimony, comments, and perspective to legislators and policymakers on many healthcare and health IT initiatives.

"Right now is an exciting time to be in healthcare," said Dr. Loomis. "It's largely unappreciated what the digitalization of medical records can mean for advancing medicine. We now have the ability to address some of the greatest challenges in care through health IT, and I'm honored to contribute to this work through our efforts at the EHRA."

Dr. Loomis oversees health informatics, analytics and real-world evidence at Practice Fusion, and works closely with the company's leadership team to provide pertinent guidance on clinical aspects of the company's product offerings. Prior to joining the company, he led informatics at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California where his team focused on initiatives related to population health, analytics, and natural language processing.

About Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion is the leading cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform for doctors and patients in the U.S., with a mission of connecting doctors, patients and data to drive better health and save lives. By facilitating over five million patient visits a month with more than 600 connected partners, Practice Fusion helps coordinate care within the largest healthcare ecosystem in the U.S. As the most widely used cloud-based ambulatory EHR, Practice Fusion is helping to reshape the future of healthcare. For more information, visit www.practicefusion.com.

Media Contact:

Rob Purvis, Senior Director of Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Practice Fusion

Related Links

http://www.practicefusion.com


DUBLIN, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Process Automation & Instrumentation Market - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The process automation & instrumentation market is expected to be valued at USD 62.64 billion in 2017 and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% to reach USD 88.92 billion by 2023.

The market growth can be attributed to the rising emphasis on regulatory compliance in process industries, increasing adoption of IoT across various industries, shift in production approach from conventional practices to digitalized methods, growing labor wages in major manufacturing hubs, and rising demand for proactive solutions that can determine failures at component level, among others.

The process automation & instrumentation market for the energy & power industry is expected to witness at the highest rate in the coming years. The cost of components and systems used in this industry is high, and consequently, the safety of components is of prime importance. In addition, the companies in the energy & power industry aim on reducing overall production downtime, for which they are increasingly installing ESD systems at their production sites. Moreover, the implementation of solutions such as APC enables to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce environmental emissions.

The investments in energy infrastructure are rising in APAC due to the increase in the demand for electricity and policy makers' push for better power reliability and home-grown industries. Also, the process automation and instrumentation market for the pharmaceuticals industry in this region is growing due to low-cost factors, changing regulatory environment, and significant development in the field of contract manufacturing. Several countries in APAC such as China and India have indulged in offshore production and exploration to increase the domestic production of energy resources and reduce the dependence on other regions for importing oil. Owing to these factors, Asia Pacific is likely to be the fastest-growing market for process automation & instrumentation between 2017 and 2023.



Companies Mentioned



ABB Ltd.

Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. Kg

Carlo Gavazzi

Delta Electronics Inc.

Emerson Electric Co.

Endress+Hauser

General Electric Co.

Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd.

Honeywell International Inc.

Idec Corporation

Inductive Automation

Intech Process Automation Inc.

Maple Systems Inc.

Metso Corporation

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH

Process Automation Solutions GmbH

R. Stahl Ag

Robert Bosch

Rockwell Automation Inc.

Schneider Electric Se

Siemens Ag

Turck Inc.

Wago Corporation

Yokogawa Electric Corporation



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview



6 Industry Trends



7 Process Automation & Instrumentation Market, By Type



8 Process Automation & Instrumentation Market, By Instrument



9 Process Automation & Instrumentation Market, By Communication Protocol



10 Process Automation & Instrumentation Market, By Solution



11 Process Automation & Instrumentation Market, By End-User Industry



12 Geographic Analysis



13 Competitive Landscape



14 Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cp58nh/process

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Switzerland has one of the old proton therapy centers in Europe and was established in 1984 and there are so many recommended proton therapy patients from other parts of Europe coming for their treatment. The old proton therapy center at CPT, PSI, Villigen was further renovated with technological advancement in 2010 and again in 2013. Switzerland Proton Therapy Market is expected to grow thrice from its present market in 2016. Rising cancer incidence and two advanced proton centers in planning stage is likely to boost the market of proton therapy in Switzerland during 2017 - 2021.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4778677/



Proton Therapy Market in Switzerland, Reimbursement Policy, Patients Treated at Proton Facility & Forecast is a research report by Renub Research. This report studies the market in two parts a) Actual Market and b) Potential Market. The report also talks about the list of all operational and future Proton Therapy centers; Economics of proton therapy including reimbursement policies. Proton Therapy revenues from 3 companies (IBA, Varian Medical Systems, Elekta) has also been studied in the report.

a) Actual Market is the current market which is already present



b) Potential Market is the market which can be achieved; but it has yet not been achieved due to demand and supply gap. At present only a few proton therapy centers are available that can treat a limited number of patients each year.

Key Questions Answered in the Report?



- What is the Proton Therapy Market in Switzerland & its growth potential in Future?

- What is the Potential Proton Therapy Market in Switzerland and its Future?

- How many Proton Therapy Facilities are operating in Switzerland?

- How many Proton Therapy Facilities are going to open in near Future?

- What is the number of people being treated in these Proton Therapy Centers yearly?

- Is Proton Therapy Treatment being covered in the Reimbursement policy of Switzerland?

- What are the sales of Proton Therapy Companies Globally (IBA, Varian, Elekta)?



Key Company Covered



1. IBA (Overview, Sales Analysis)

2. Varian Medical Systems (Overview, Sales Analysis)

3. Elekta (Overview, Sales Analysis)

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4778677/



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


SALT LAKE CITY, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Purple, a comfort technology company known for creating the "World's First No Pressure Mattress," is committed to consumer safety.

"Safety has always been a number one concern for Purple," said Sam Bernards, CEO at Purple. "We're so committed to providing consumer-focused products that we're making it known publicly and are openly sharing the certifications and lab results we receive for our products with consumers."

Purple manufactures mattresses, pillows and seat cushions in Utah, and works with international partners to provide several auxiliary sleep products. Purple's vision is to provide people with comfort technology for sitting, standing and sleeping that will help all consumers live a more comfortable life every second of every day.

Purple's research and development team, known at Purple as the Innovation team, does just that  they innovate. Over the last 20 years, since founders Tony and Terry Pearce began inventing cushioning products, looking for creative solutions to complex problems has been a tenet of what the founders, and now Purple, stand for.

One of Purple's most notable inventions is Hyper-Elastic Polymer, a stretchy, durable material that covers the top portion of the Purple Bed mattress. The purple color of the material is where Purple gets its iconic name.

"One of the major issues we ran into when trying to package the Purple Bed for shipping was the tackiness of the Purple," said Terry Pearce, one of Purple's co-founders. "If the bed is rolled tightly for shipping right after it comes out of the mold, the Purple will stick to itself. This made it impossible for us to ship mattresses around the country. We began experimenting and testing new solutions until we finally found something that worked."

That something was polyethylene copolymer powder, a powder made from one of the most commonly used plastics in the United States. The same ingredients of Purple's powder can be found in many other products like plastic forks, milk cartons and powder cosmetics such as blush. But it was the Pearce brothers who finally figured out it could work on the mattress.

"It's a completely non-toxic, 100 percent safe powder that keeps the Hyper-Elastic Polymer material from sticking to itself during shipping. No one else in the industry was able to figure this out, until we did," said Pearce.

Because of Purple's commitment to safety, the company researched the powder for its safety characteristics and had the powder independently tested to make sure it was completely harmless for consumers. Terracon did independent studies that determined the amount of powder applied to the Hyper-Elastic Polymer material is so nominal, the air around it meets the standards for clean room classification. Then the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health further independently studied the material itself and determined that, even if there were high exposures, there is nothing about it that can cause harm.

"This is just one example of how the engineers at Purple are always looking for safe, innovative solutions to the problems we face as a manufacturer," said Bernards. "But don't expect the innovation to stop there. Our teams at Purple will never stop looking for better ways to help people feel comfortable."

About Purple

After 20 years of creating and licensing comfort products, Tony and Terry Pearce launched Purple in January 2016. The founders have been granted 38 patents in the advanced cushioning arena. Sixteen patents pending were used in creating the World's First No Pressure Mattress and future products. Purple has quickly become a leader in sleep and comfort technology. Its products change lives through dramatic improvements to the quality of sleeping, sitting and standing.

Contact us:

For additional assistance, journalists, investors and analysts may contact the following member of Purple's communications team:

Savannah Turk

Director of Communications

[email protected]

801-756-2600 ext. 244

SOURCE Purple
WALTHAM, Mass., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) will issue its second quarter 2017 earnings news release at 7 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 27, 2017. The release will be posted on Raytheon's website.

The second quarter 2017 earnings results conference call will be at 9 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 27, 2017. The call will be audiocast on the Internet at www.raytheon.com/ir. Charts to be referenced during the call will be available on the website for printing prior to the call.

Participants are urged to check the website ahead of time to ensure their computers are configured for the audio stream. Instructions for obtaining the required downloadable software are posted to the site.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2016 sales of $24 billion and 63,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 95 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Follow us on Twitter.

www.raytheon.com

Investor Relations Contact

Todd Ernst

+1.781.522.5141

Media Contact

Corinne Kovalsky

+1.781.522.5899

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- One & Only Realty, Inc., an international boutique real estate company headquartered in New York City, announced its global expansion into Moscow City this past week. The new office is located in the Naberezhnaya Tower, also known as the Tower of the Embankment on the Presenskaya causeway. With five employees, the new space plans to help supplement the company's St. Petersburg office, which opened in 2016.

With this expansion, One & Only Realty, Inc. will enter into the Luxury Network Alliance, the world's largest alliance of luxury brands, with partners such as Robb Report, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini. As an elite partnership, the move aims to attract high-net worth clientele and guarantee personalized attention and confidentiality across multiple channels.

"The decision to expand our presence into Moscow City was the next logical step in our business growth strategy," said Edward Mermelstein, President of One & Only Realty, Inc. "When working with overseas buyers, it's important to have on-site support to ensure we are providing our clients with quality resources and real-time accessibility."

About One & Only Realty, Inc.

One & Only Realty, Inc. is an international boutique real estate company headquartered in New York City representing the interests of companies and individuals involved in luxury real estate transactions, including purchases and sales of apartments, houses and businesses. The firm specializes in high-end properties: exquisite and elite apartments in Manhattan, estates in Long Island, and properties in other locations of the New York's metropolitan area.

With over twenty years of proven track record in New York real estate market, One & Only Realty has access to thousands of real estate listings and provides thorough guidance and data driven consulting to each client. With a multilingual team, One & Only Realty guarantees personalized attention, confidentiality, and exceptional personal concierge service - everything that clients seeking luxury properties in New York City rightfully expect and deserve.

SOURCE One & Only Realty, Inc.
BOSTON, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Bank, N.A. today announced that, last month, it awarded nearly $2.9 million in grants to 109 non-profit organizations throughout its Northeast footprint in the first of three rounds of charitable grants the Bank will award in 2017. Financial education and first time homebuyer programs are the primary areas of focus of these donations, with the greatest percentage of dollars - more than $1.4 million - going to support 40 organizations that offer financial education and home buying courses to low- and moderate-income individuals and families.

"Affordable housing is critical for families, children and neighborhoods to thrive and we are pleased to support a number of strong community-based organizations with grant funding" said Scott Powell, Santander Bank CEO. "In addition to funding our non-profit partners, our colleagues have led credit and home ownership workshops and volunteered more than 8,900 hours this year to give back in the communities throughout the Bank's footprint where we live and work."

Santander awards grants three times a year- Spring, Summer and Fall -through the Santander Bank Charitable Contributions Program, which invests in programs serving low-income individuals and communities. In addition to supporting affordable housing and financial education programs, grants from this cycle will also assist organizations that provide community services, economic and small business development and neighborhood revitalization.

Affordable housing grant recipients from around the Bank's footprint include:



New York Mortgage Coalition - $50,000 to support the pre-purchase homeownership program and 11 housing counseling agencies, providing training, certification, compliance, data reporting, and capacity building.

- to support the pre-purchase homeownership program and 11 housing counseling agencies, providing training, certification, compliance, data reporting, and capacity building. New Hampshire Community Loan Fund - $50,000 to support one-on-one credit counseling, pre-approvals, and post-purchase troubleshooting for people in need of affordable housing assistance in four target counties.

- to support one-on-one credit counseling, pre-approvals, and post-purchase troubleshooting for people in need of affordable housing assistance in four target counties. United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley - $75,000 to fund the first-in-the-nation 'Pay for Success' initiative focused on chronic homelessness. This funding supports mental health and counseling services and provides at least 500 units of permanent supportive housing for up to 800 individuals over six years.

Other large grants awarded during this funding cycle to support entrepreneurship training as a learning and wealth-building tool include:

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) - $210,000 to support entrepreneurial education programming for the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge where middle and high school students compete for prize money for the best small business plan.

- to support entrepreneurial education programming for the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge where middle and high school students compete for prize money for the best small business plan. Esperanza - $100,000 to support neighborhood-based small business development in commercial corridors in Hunting Park, a primarily Latino neighborhood in North Philadelphia .

- to support neighborhood-based small business development in commercial corridors in Hunting Park, a primarily Latino neighborhood in . Rutgers University Center for Urban Entrepreneurship - $50,000 to support small business technical assistance services for up to 30 African-American and Latino entrepreneurs operating retail stores or restaurants in New Jersey's Essex and Hudson counties and assisting them with the tools and resources they need to grow.

- to support small business technical assistance services for up to 30 African-American and Latino entrepreneurs operating retail stores or restaurants in and counties and assisting them with the tools and resources they need to grow. ASSETS Lancaster - $20,000 to support programs that assist low-income entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania with credit-building microloans, business education, networking and consultation.

Non-profit organizations interested in applying for a grant can access Santander's grant application guidelines by visiting the Santander Charitable Contributions Program or sending questions to [email protected]. Applications for the final rounds of grants in 2017 are due on September 8 and will be awarded in November.

As part of Santander's commitment to strengthening the communities it serves, the Bank recently announced Cultivate Small Business, a new initiative designed to help early-stage entrepreneurs in low-and moderate-income neighborhoods in Greater Boston build and sustain their businesses, with a focus on women, minority and immigrant-owned businesses in food-related industries. The program will launch in October 2017 and run through June 2018. Interested applicants can contact Santander for more information at [email protected].

*For a full listing of grants from this round of funding, please visit www.santanderbank.com/us/about/media-center.

Santander Bank, N.A. is one of the country's largest retail and commercial banks with more than $83 billion in assets. With its corporate offices in Boston, the Bank's 9,500 employees, more than 650 branches, 2,100 ATMs and 2.1 million customers are principally located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) - one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more than 125 million customers in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. It is managed by Santander Holdings USA, Inc., Banco Santander's intermediate holding company in the U.S. For more information on Santander Bank, please visit www.santanderbank.com.

Santander Holdings USA, Inc . (SHUSA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) (Santander), one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more than 125 million customers in the U.K., Europe, Latin America and the U.S. As the intermediate holding company for Santander's U.S. businesses, SHUSA includes six financial companies with more than 17,500 employees, 5.2 million customers and assets of over $135 billion. These include Santander Bank, N.A., one of the country's largest retail and commercial banks by deposits; Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC), an auto finance and consumer lending company; Banco Santander International of Miami; Banco Santander Puerto Rico; Santander Securities LLC of Boston; and Santander Investment Securities Inc. of New York.

Media Contacts:

Ann Davis

617-757-5891

[email protected]

Nancy Orlando

617-757-5765

[email protected]

SOURCE Santander Bank, N.A.

Related Links

http://www.santanderbank.com


DENVER, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SendGrid, a leading customer communication platform that drives engagement and growth, today announced that it has signed leases for new office space in both Orange County and Silicon Valley. The new spaces are nearly triple the footprint of the existing offices in each location and can accommodate more than two times the current number of California employees over time.

The new 22,000+ square foot Orange County office is located at 400 Spectrum Drive in Irvine in the heart of the region's rapidly growing technology center. The office is adjacent to the Spectrum shopping center and close to myriad housing choices nearby. The building is also close to the Irvine Transportation Center, which includes iShuttle services for commuters from the station to Irvine Spectrum. Showers, lockers and covered bicycle storage in the building enable outdoor fitness as well as easy commuting by bike.

The new Silicon Valley office is located at 889 Winslow in Redwood City and encompasses 15,000+ square feet of office space. In close proximity to a Caltrain stop and adjacent to Middlefield Road restaurants and shops, the Redwood City office location also offers SendGrid employees a number of local conveniences within walking distance.

Construction of the two new offices is in progress and the moves are currently scheduled for 2018. Designed to drive employee engagement and productivity, the new offices will mirror the look and feel of SendGrid's recently opened global headquarters in Denver. Similar to the Denver headquarters, the new offices will feature an open floor plan design and will incorporate feedback from employees on the layout of shared workspaces. In addition, branding elements that represent SendGrid's award-winning 4H culture will be present throughout the new spaces.

"The investment we made in these two new locations positions us to be more competitive and attractive to local talent as well as gives us a strategic presence in two major tech communities in California," said Pattie Money, Chief People Officer at SendGrid. "Our experience expanding new offices in Denver and London has affirmed that we can attract, engage and retain a robust talent pool, while bringing our Gridders together for the benefit of our customers."

Founded in Boulder in 2009, SendGrid currently has over 400 employees spread across its Denver, Redwood City, Orange County and London locations.

About SendGrid:

SendGrid is a proven, cloud-based customer communication platform that drives engagement and business growth. A leader in email deliverability, SendGrid has sent over 30 billion emails each month for internet and mobile-based customers like Airbnb, Pandora, HubSpot, Spotify, Uber and Foursquare as well as more traditional enterprises like Intuit and Costco. For more information, visit www.sendgrid.com.

Media Contact:

David Friedman

SendGrid

303-868-9641

[email protected]

SOURCE SendGrid

Related Links

http://www.sendgrid.com


NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of FedEx Corporation ("FedEx" or the "Company") (NYSE: FDX). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether FedEx 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 June 28, 2017, FedEx announced that the worldwide operations of the Company's TNT Express unit were significantly affected by a cyber attack known as Petya. On July 17, 2017, FedEx filed an annual report on Form 10-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In its annual report, FedEx advised investors that the disruption in services caused by the Petya attack would have a material financial impact on the Company's full-year results.

The Company further advised investors that FedEx "do[es] not have cyber or other insurance in place that covers this attack." On this news, FedEx's share price fell $2.96, or 1.35%, to close at $216.10 on July 17, 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


FAIRFAX, Va., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sheehy Auto Stores has raised a record donation of $285,000 for the American Heart Association as part of the company's annual Sheehy 8000, a community-wide effort that ran May 12  July 5, raising funds and awareness for the charity.

Throughout the 54-day campaign, the Sheehy Auto Stores dealerships collectively sold over 8,000 new and used vehicles and held community events that included heart-healthy cooking and food demonstrations as well as CPR demonstrations.

Pictured from L-R are John Adamson, Don Reese, Vince Sheehy, Joe Shine, Soula Antoniou, and Paul Sheehy

"This year was a milestone for us and we are grateful for the support from our customers, communities and team members that have made this campaign such a success," said Vince Sheehy, President of Sheehy Auto Stores. "We are proud to support such a great organization that does so much to educate and help prevent the risk of heart disease and stroke."

Sheehy's support of the American Heart Association extends beyond the Sheehy 8000. For the past several years, the company has been a sponsor and active partner at the National Walking Day event held on the first Wednesday in April at Springfield Town Center, to promote walking and a heart-healthy lifestyle. In addition, each of Sheehy's dealerships held their own step challenges among employees that day.

"We are so grateful to the Sheehy Auto Stores family, their partners and customers for another record-breaking year!" said Michelle Nostheide, Vice President, American Heart Association. "The funds and awareness raised during the Sheehy 8000 will go a long way in furthering our life-saving mission in our communities."

Last year's Sheehy 7000 campaign raised $225,000 for the charity. Throughout its 50 year history, Sheehy's fundraising efforts have raised more than $40 million for community and non-profit organizations.

The mission of the American Heart Association is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

Sheehy Auto Stores, Inc.

Sheehy Auto Stores is the 32nd largest dealer group in the country and serves customers in the Richmond, Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. A family-owned business since it was founded as one Ford store in 1966 in Marlow Heights, Md., the company has grown to more than $1.5 billion in sales with more than 40,000 new and used vehicles sold each year. The company is recognized as a leader in customer satisfaction, retention and community involvement. For more information visit www.sheehy.com.

CONTACT:

Hillary Reynolds

(954) 815-1186

SOURCE Sheehy Auto Stores

Related Links

http://www.sheehy.com


SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shuttle (www.shuttlefinance.com) has announced the launch of Savings Assistance, a new employee benefit savings App focused on financial wellness. Leveraging the latest mobile and financial technology, the benefit lets employers help their employees save for the things they care about most and lets employers contribute to contextualized goals alongside their employees. Savings Assistance is a new kind of benefit that addresses the fact that the majority of adult Americans do not have $5001 in liquid savings, which can impact engagement, productivity and even tenure.

"Saving money is a fundamental necessity which many people find to be immensely challenging. Our goal is to automate the savings process in a fun, mobile-first setting that allows employers to create value for their employees," according to Shuttle's Co-founder and CEO, Brendon McQueen. "We're introducing contextualized savings goals in a 100% inclusive benefits App that any employee, regardless of their circumstance, can use to save money," adds Shuttle Co-Founder and CMO, Nick Roberts.

Shuttle lets employers create a customized Savings Assistance plan and invite their employees to the App. From there, employees create either custom savings goals or pre-selected goals chosen by their employer. These goals range from creating an emergency fund to saving for physical wellness  and almost anything between. Employees are then prompted to setup automated ways to save, including a popular feature called Round Ups, which ties savings to spending. Their employer can also opt-in to help employees reach specific goals, thereby creating a relevant personal bond.

According to SHRM2, employee financial issues can have a serious effect on their job performance  causing stress, less focus, absenteeism and tardiness  all issues than can be significantly addressed by people simply having an emergency fund. "We looked at existing benefits offerings and thought, a lot of these have time horizons out of sync with employee needs, or worse, some are so complex and restrictive that it's a wonder anyone is able to sign up for them. If an employer can directly contribute to a more immediate and tangible need like a down payment on a house or a realized emergency fund, that's something really powerful," says Mr. McQueen.

Indeed, the average tenure of America's youngest professionals is 1.3 years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics3 so offering compelling benefit packages that increase engagement and retention has never been more important.

The idea here is to provide employees with an engaging benefit while solving a real pain point in their lives  all the while helping employers with some of their biggest employee challenges. "Shuttle offers a very direct employee benefit in an easy to use, fun mobile app. Best of all it's completely flexible to meet a specific savings goal for every employee. It's really a win-win for all parties," according to John Foster, a Shuttle Advisor and Chief Wellness Officer at Thrive Market.

Improving savings rates for Americans won't happen immediately, but automating the act of saving and allowing employers the option to contribute means that pennies will ultimately turn into real change.

ABOUT SHUTTLE FINANCE

Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Shuttle Finance is co-founded by Brendon McQueen and Nick Roberts. Mr. McQueen previously founded and led Tuition.io, a market leader in student loan employee benefits. Mr. Roberts previously served as launch CMO of savings App Acorns and led marketing at Experian.

Shuttle Contact:

Brendon McQueen

CEO/Co-Founder

[email protected]

SOURCE Shuttle Finance

Related Links

http://www.shuttlefinance.com


SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Silk Road Medical, Inc., a company dedicated to alleviating the devastating burden of stroke through surgical innovation, today announced it has received $47 million in new funding led by new investors Norwest Venture Partners and funds managed by Janus Capital Management LLC. Existing investors Warburg Pincus, The Vertical Group, and CRG also participated in the round. The new financing will be used to support the company's rapid commercial growth of its proprietary ENROUTE family of products for TransCarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) procedures.

"Our syndicate of investors speaks to the global standard of care potential for TCAR and our commercial success to date. With this financing we will continue to build our commercial footprint and momentum in the United States and enter new markets abroad," commented Erica Rogers, CEO, Silk Road Medical. "We are delighted to have such strong financial support as we work to solve unmet needs through innovation, including other transcarotid applications of our intellectual property in acute ischemic stroke and aortic valve disease."

TCAR is a clinically proven procedure combining surgical principles of neuroprotection with minimally invasive endovascular techniques to treat blockages in the carotid artery at risk of causing a stroke. Silk Road's ENROUTE Neuroprotection System (NPS) allows the physician to directly access the common carotid artery in the neck and initiate high rate temporary blood flow reversal to protect the brain from stroke while delivering and implanting Silk Road's ENROUTE Transcarotid Stent. The ENROUTE NPS and Stent are currently the only two devices U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared, approved and indicated for use in transcarotid procedures. To date, more than 2,000 TCAR procedures have been performed worldwide.

As part of the financing, Dr. Robert Mittendorff, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, will join the company's board of directors. Robert is a board certified emergency physician and former operating executive in the cardiovascular device industry, where he had the privilege to partner with leading vascular surgeons around the world in product development capacities.

"The team at Silk Road has created a category-defining medical procedure that has the potential to transform the treatment of carotid artery disease, which is a major cause of stroke," said Mittendorff. "TCAR is an elegant, patient-friendly approach that has really resonated with physician leaders in the field. I have followed the company and its progress for years and have been pleased to see their rapid FDA approvals and favorable reimbursement decisions. I look forward to joining the board as we work to improve the treatment of this disease."

"TCAR represents one of the next potential multi-billion dollar medical device markets, and Silk Road is eponymous with the category with a sustainable advantage," said Ethan Lovell of Janus Henderson Investors. "With 13 million ischemic strokes occurring annually and carotid artery disease the culprit in up to one third of cases, the opportunity for TCAR is tremendous."

About Silk Road Medical

Silk Road Medical, Inc. is a private company located in Sunnyvale, CA, that develops and manufactures less-invasive medical devices intended to improve the treatment of carotid artery disease through proprietary transcarotid therapies. Detailed information can be found at www.silkroadmed.com.

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners is a leading Silicon-Valley based venture capital and growth equity investment firm managing more than $6 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders advance on their journey. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel.

About Janus Henderson Investors

Janus Henderson Investors, the parent company of Janus Capital Management LLC, is a leading global active asset manager dedicated to helping investors achieve long-term financial goals through a broad range of investment solutions, including equities, quantitative equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative asset class strategies. Janus Henderson has approximately U.S. $331 billion in assets under management (as of 31 March 2017), more than 2,000 employees and offices in 27 cities worldwide. Headquartered in London, the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), and has a market capitalization of approximately U.S. $6 billion.

About Stroke and Carotid Artery Disease

Every year, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke. Nearly six million die and another five million are left permanently disabled. Stroke is the second leading cause of disability globally.1 Ischemic strokes account for 80-90% of strokes and an estimated 20-30% of these are caused by disease in the carotid arteries which carry blood to the brain. If left untreated, these blockages can fragment, flow to the brain, and lead to a potentially disabling stroke, also known as a "brain attack."

ENROUTE is a registered trademark of Silk Road Medical, Inc.

1http://www.world-heart-federation.org/cardiovascular-health/stroke/

SOURCE Silk Road Medical, Inc.

Related Links

http://silkroadmed.com


"San Diego and San Antonio are two specific markets where we have long believed we can compete successfully, earning a relationship with untold thousands of new customers. Because we are focused on the leisure consumer, these great cities are key areas. They're famous as first-rate vacation destinations, rich with sights to see, and filled with wonderful places to drive," said Daniel Florence, Sixt USA Co-President. "When people come to our branches, they love the fun, the excitement, the music, but they also appreciate the hands-on, luxury experience with great customer service, andat the end of the daythe best cars to rent anywhere. We are thrilled to bring the 'Sixt experience' to new customers in these two powerful new markets."

"The U.S. is the most important car rental market in the world, but it's also a particularly great market for Sixt. American consumers are actively looking for something fresh, different, and distinct in what is otherwise a highly commoditized car rental landscape. Our offering is highly appealing to this consumer sensibility, and that's why we are working as hard as we can to make Sixt as widely available in as many markets as we can, as soon as possible," said Sebastian Birkel, Sixt USA Co-President. "Our strategic focus is to get into all of the top 30 U.S. airport markets first, and then to expand further from there. We will continue to focus on expansion in 2018."

The new locations will be at the following addresses:

San Antonio

9559 Airport Blvd.

San Antonio, TX 78216



San Diego

3345 Admiral Boland Way

San Diego, CA

Sixt anticipates both locations will open this fall.

Sixt has been in the US market since 2011, and is headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The company has grown to over 750 employees in the US, and more than 50 rental locations in total in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Washington, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Massachusetts. It is the 5th largest car rental company in the U.S.

About Sixt:

Sixt SE (http://sixt.com/) has its registered headquarters in Pullach near Munich and is a leading international provider of high-quality mobility services for business and corporate customers as well as private travelers. With representations in over 100 countries worldwide Sixt is continually expanding its presence. The Company's strengths lie in the high proportion of premium cars in the vehicle fleet, its employees' consistent service orientation and a good price-performance ratio. Taken together these strengths have given Company an excellent market position. Sixt was founded in 1912 and maintains alliances with renowned brands in the hotel industry, well-known airlines and numerous prominent service providers in the tourism sector. The Sixt Group generates revenues of EUR 2.4 billion (2016). http://about.sixt.com/

SOURCE SIXT Rent-a-Car

Related Links

http://sixt.com


RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marymount California University is pleased to announce Bret Johnsen as the Chair of its Board of Trustees.

The stunning view of the Pacific Ocean from Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.

Johnsen is best-known for his position as the Chief Financial Officer of SpaceX, a company revolutionizing space technology with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. In this role, he oversees the long-term financial development, interfacing with the financial community, and managing SpaceX's internal financial operations. Before SpaceX, Johnsen oversaw the financial growth of other notable companies, such as Broadcom Corporation.

"Bret embraces innovation and believes in strategic, smart growth," stated Dr. Lucas Lamadrid, President of Marymount California University. "This mindset and his vast experiences paired with his ability to understand how truly special our university is made him the perfect fit as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Marymount California University."

Johnsen's previous role on Marymount's board was Chair of the Finance Committee. During that time he oversaw a massive financial turnaround spearheaded by the university's Chief Financial Officer.

"With Bret's guidance, I have been able to take bold and decisive actions that have vastly improved the university's finances," stated Kathleen Ruiz, Marymount California University's Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer. "Bret's election to Chair of the Board demonstrates our university is serious about becoming a premier institution."

About Marymount California University

With campuses along the picturesque coastline of Rancho Palos Verdes and in the vibrant community of San Pedro, California, Marymount California University challenges its students to pursue lives of leadership and service. In the spirit of its founding order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, the University strives to graduate students who embody the virtues of integrity, respect for human dignity and commitment to justice. Marymount offers Master of Business Administration and B.A. degrees in Business, Liberal Arts, Media Studies, Criminal Justice, Biology, and Psychology. Learn More about Marymount California University

Media Contact

Bret Rowe

(310) 844-4276

[email protected]

Related Images

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SOURCE Marymount California University

Related Links

http://www.marymountcalifornia.edu


ATLANTA, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Spelman College alumna and professor, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D., has established the Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars Program as well as a companion lecture series at Spelman that will explore contemporary issues of race, gender and sexuality, beginning in 2018. The scholars program and lecture series were launched with a pledge of $100,000 in May 2017.

Dr. Levi Watkins Jr.

Dr. Watkins, a Spelman honorary degree recipient, was the first surgeon to successfully implant an automatic heart defibrillator in a human. He was also an influential civil rights activist who helped open the door to hundreds of students of color at John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Following graduation from Vanderbilt University in 1970, where he was the first Black to graduate with a medical degree, Dr. Watkins went on to become the first Black chief resident of cardiac surgery at John Hopkins University Hospital. He later became a professor of cardiac surgery and associate dean at John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Watkins is the late cousin of Dr. Guy-Sheftall, C'66, founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies. A pioneering Black feminist scholar/activist, Dr. Guy-Sheftall has published a number of texts within African-American and women's studies, which have been noted as seminal works by other scholars, including the first anthology on Black women's literature, "Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature" and "Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought."

Dr. Watkins was a member of the Women's Research and Resource Center's National Advisory Board from its establishment in 2008 until his death in 2015, and a generous donor to its endowment campaign. "He had a special relationship with Spelman College, and just as he prepared students for careers in medicine, so does Spelman. He was an advocate for social justice throughout his distinguished medical career and Spelman also encourages social change activism," Dr. Guy-Sheftall said.

"The College is grateful for this generous gift from the Levi Watkins Jr./Beverly Guy-Sheftall Charitable Trust," said Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. "As an institution that upholds a supportive student experience, this gift will present new opportunities for critical conversation on race and sexuality with distinguished scholars and thought leaders, and provide a platform to recognize campus LGBTQ advocates and their scholarly achievements."

Two sophomore students, who are self-identified LGBTQ advocates, will be named Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars in 2017 and awarded renewable $25,000 scholarships. The scholars will call attention to the importance of making visible the courageous and significant work of LGBTQ scholar activists within and beyond the academy, especially at HBCUs, said Dr. Guy-Sheftall.

She noted the lecture series will bring a variety of national and global scholars, activists and organizers to campus "whose cutting-edge work and courageous stands position them as compelling partners for our work."

The Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars Program and lecture series will be housed at the Women's Center, which has been involved in a broad range of advocacy issues and faculty/curriculum development related to gender and sexuality since its inception in 1981. The Women's Center hosted the Arcus Foundation funded historic summit, "Facilitating Campus Climates of Pluralism, Inclusivity, and Progressive Change at HBCUs," at Spelman in 2011. It was the first time a broad array of HBCUs convened to engage in dialogue about lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender issues on Black college campuses. The Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars will continue this important social justice advocacy on HBCU campuses.

About Spelman College

Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a highly selective, liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the College's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer, Broadway producer Alia Jones, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna President Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University Professor Evelynn Hammonds, author Pearl Cleage and actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson. For more information, visit: www.spelman.edu.

SOURCE Spelman College

Related Links

http://www.spelman.edu


TORONTO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - SQI Diagnostics Inc. ("SQI" or the "Company") (TSX-V: SQD; OTCQX: SQIDF), today announced the signing of a new commercial agreement with a Waltham, MA-based global biotechnology company.

SQI has been contracted to commercialize a custom multiplexed assay for one of this global biotechnology company's blood disorder drug programs.

"We are excited for the opportunity to work with another world-leading biotechnology company," said Andrew Morris, CEO of SQI Diagnostics. "Being engaged by this customer demonstrates the continued growth in confidence with SQI's technology throughout the biotech industry."

About SQI Diagnostics

SQI Diagnostics is a life sciences and diagnostics company that develops clinical grade multiplexed microarray and molecular assays run on its automated instrumentation for the pharmaceutical research, animal health, and clinical diagnostics markets. SQI develops custom research and diagnostic assays that are multiplexed; meaning the simplification, consolidation and automation of many individual tests into one. This increases sample throughput, reduces time, cost and chance for human error, and provides excellent data quality. For more information, please visit sqidiagnostics.com.

Sales and Marketing Contact:

Russ Peloquin

Vice President, Global Commercial Operations

913.484.9022

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contacts:

Chief Executive Officer

Andrew Morris

416.674.9500 ext. 229

[email protected]

Vice President, Finance and Administration

Patricia Lie

416.674.9500 ext. 277

[email protected]

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements including, without limitation, the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "believe", "in the process", "benefits", "leading to", "position" "possible", "is subject to" and other similar expressions which may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: our ability to market and sell our products including our novel multiplexing technologies and detection platforms; our ability to maintain any technical or product advantages; the success of our Diagnostic Tools and Services business and our intent to build near-term revenue streams from this business; the successful regulatory filing and receipt of regulatory approvals for our later stage quantitative diagnostic consumable kits; adverse changes in general economic conditions; international risk and currency exchange fluctuations; competitor activity; technology changes; regulatory approvals and the impact of healthcare reform legislation; and, SQI's ability to raise additional funds in the future.

Such statements, risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, and are available to the public at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by 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.

SOURCE SQI Diagnostics Inc.

Related Links

www.sqidiagnostics.com


CLEVELAND, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- StandUpPouches.net, an entity of ABC Packaging Direct, solidified a partnership with Avery WePrint, Avery Product Corporation's online professional printing service that specializes in short-run custom labels.

Clients and emerging CPG brands can now order custom-designed labels for their stock flexible packaging directly from the StandUpPouches.net online store.

All StandUpPouches.net customers will receive a discount off their order of labels at checkout. Visit StandUpPouches.net to learn more.

The partnership stems from StandUpPouches.net's deep-rooted goal of superior customer service and going above and beyond to make the process of ordering stand up pouches as efficient as possible.

The supplier identified a strong need for a market-leading, reliable label company that could make it as easy to order labels online as it is to order packaging.

Through the partnership, businesses and graphic designers can customize high-quality labels for product packaging, promotions and more online from the comfort of their home or office.

"We are thrilled to work with StandUpPouches.net to provide emerging CPG businesses with an easy solution to get premium printed labels to go with their stock packaging," Jeff Herz, Director of Marketing for Avery WePrint, said. "Together, we are able to offer a short-run packaging solution that can be done efficiently and cost-effectively online."

Users can upload their own artwork or design their labels using the free, easy-to-use software at avery.com/standuppouches.

There are no setup fees or plate charges. There are also no die charges for existing catalog products.

Labels provide the professional look of custom printing without the additional cost, time or money. Using plain stand up pouches with an applied label is the perfect solution for companies that want to begin building their brand image before upgrading to custom-printed packaging.

To order plain stand up pouches, visit: store.standuppouches.net

To order custom-printed labels, visit: avery.com/standuppouches

About Avery Products Corporation

Avery Products Corporation is the world's largest supplier of labels, specialty converted media and software solutions to enable short-run digital printing in businesses and homes alongside complementary products sold through distributors and mass market retailers under the Avery brand. Avery Products Corporation, a division of CCL Industries, is based in Brea, Calif. For more information about Avery products, visit avery.com.

About CCL Industries

CCL Industries employs more than 20,000 people operating 154 production facilities in 36 countries on six continents with corporate offices in Toronto, Canada, and Framingham, Mass. CCL is the world's largest converter of pressure sensitive and extruded film materials for a wide range of decorative, instructional, functional and security applications for government institutions and large global customers in the consumer packaging, healthcare and chemicals, consumer electronic device and automotive markets. Extruded and laminated plastic tubes, folded instructional leaflets, precision decorated and die cut components, electronic displays, polymer bank note substrate and other complementary products and services are sold in parallel to specific end-use markets.



Avery and all other Avery brands, product names and codes are trademarks of Avery Products Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

About StandUpPouches.net

StandUpPouches.net is a leading online supplier of flexible retail packaging solutions for many of the world's largest brands. By partnering with small and mid-market businesses, the company has helped its customers build their brands and successfully market their products using the finest printed pouches in the industry.

Contact: ABC Packaging Direct

Brittany Nader, Content Marketing Director

330.474.6316

[email protected]

SOURCE StandUpPouches.net

Related Links

https://www.standuppouches.net


PRINCETON, N.J., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "We have said from the beginning we would not stand for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a simultaneous replacement maintaining the same level of healthcare coverage. Republican Senators Capito, Collins and Murkowski  as well as New Jersey's Senators Booker and Menendez  have listened, understood and reiterated these concerns. I applaud their leadership and dedication to their constituents.

"The New Jersey Hospital Association continues to oppose any effort to reduce the number of people with healthcare coverage or to roll back the patient protections of the Affordable Care Act. The damage caused by uncertainty has already taken a toll on providers, payers and patients  additional efforts to dismantle the gains achieved in the last seven years would be untenable.

"There are 800,000 New Jersey residents who depend on healthcare coverage they received through the Affordable Care Act, and tens of millions more across the country in the same situation. We ask Congress to redirect their focus to the well-being of their constituents and work together to improve upon the foundation of the ACA."

SOURCE New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA)

Related Links

http://www.njha.com


ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. and SAN DIEGO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Stern Pinball, Inc., the world's oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball machines, proudly announced today it will be returning to San Diego Comic-Con International as both an exhibitor and a partner of the massive event. Fans and players alike can expect to see Stern Pinball's latest and greatest machines at its official booth, as well as at the new Pinball Ball Lounge located next door in the Marriott Marquis.

Attendees can find Stern Pinball with promo partners Nuclear Blast America and JSR Merchandising at booth #501 in Hall A of the San Diego Convention Center.

"International Comic-Con is our favorite event of the year! The convergence of pop culture, geek stuff cosplay and gaming is just amazing," said Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball. "We are very excited to return this year to bring fans our latest titles as well as to debut (with Comic-Con International) the Pinball Lounge. It's a great place to hang out, relax, and regroup while getting to play pinball with friends."

The Pinball Lounge will be open from Thursday, July 20, through Sunday, July 23, in the Marriott Marquis' Pacific Room 14-16. Casual players are encouraged to stop by the Pinball Lounge between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM, Thursday-Saturday, or between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Sunday for free play.

Tournament Info

For the more seasoned and serious pinball players the Pinball Lounge will be hosting tournament play. Everyone is welcome to enter the competition, but only the top four contenders will qualify to compete in the final. Competitors that want to take part in the tournament should visit the Pinball Lounge between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM, Thursday-Saturday, or on Sunday between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM to compete in the qualifying rounds that will be held immediately afterward, from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM on ThursdaySaturday, and from 4:00 PM-5:00 PM on Sunday. The final round of these tournaments between the top four contenders will take place immediately after the qualifying rounds, and each of these finalists will walk away with a prize!

About Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern Pinball, Inc., headquartered just outside Chicago, Illinois, is the oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball games in the world. Stern Pinball's highly talented creative and technical teams design, engineer and manufacture a full line of popular pinball games, merchandise and accessories. Recent Stern titles include Star Wars, Batman '66, Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones, WWE WrestleMania, The Walking Dead, Mustang, Star Trek, Metallica, The Avengers, X-Men, AC/DC, Tron, Transformers, Avatar, Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman and many more! All of Stern Pinball's games are crafted by hand and assembled by Stern Pinball's expert team. A broad range of players enjoy Stern's games from professional pinball players that compete in high-stakes international competitions around the globe to novice players who are discovering the allure of the silver ball for the first time. To join the fun and learn more, please visit www.sternpinball.com.

SOURCE Stern Pinball, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sternpinball.com


(In US Dollars unless otherwise stated)

TORONTO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Superior Gold Inc. ("Superior Gold" or the "Company") (TSX.V:SGI) is pleased to announce that it has commenced processing of up to approximately 155,000 tonnes of oxide material at the Company's Plutonic Gold Mine, 800 kilometres north east of Perth, in Western Australia (Figure 1).

The material ("Sandfire Material") is stockpiled at Sandfire Resources NL's (ASX:SFR  "Sandfire") DeGrussa Copper Mine, located approximately 30 kilometres south of the Plutonic Gold Mine (Figure 1). Historic samples taken from this material have provided gold grades of between 0.6 gAu/t and 1.5 gAu/t. The Company will pay Sandfire $7.80 (A$10) per tonne of material removed from the DeGrussa Mine. The plan is to process the material at the Plutonic Gold Mine at the rate of approximately 30,000 tonnes per month.

Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: "The ability to purchase and process the Sandfire Material comes at a very opportune time. As stated in our press release dated July 11, 2017, we have begun development of the Hermes project, and expect to be processing mineralization from it by 2018. The Hermes mineralization is oxide material, while the underground mineralization at the Plutonic Mine is sulphide. We need to ensure an appropriate balance is maintained between the amounts of these two types of mineralization in order to maximize recoveries. Consequently, processing of the Sandfire Material for the remainder of 2017 will ensure we are able to optimize the relative proportions of oxide and sulphide mineralization once production commences at Hermes. The contribution of the mineralization from Hermes is anticipated to allow us to reach our annual production target of 100,000 ounces of gold."

Full details of the mineral reserves and mineral resources, and production targets, for the Plutonic Gold Mine and Hermes project are included in a NI 43-101 Technical Report dated February 13, 2017 (with an effective date of September 30, 2016) that can be found under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) which was filed on February 15, 2017.

Outlook and Strategy

In the near term, the Company is focused on re-establishing the Plutonic Gold Operations as a stable gold producer capable of producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually. To achieve this goal, Superior Gold intends to focus on its growth strategy which includes:

Focusing on quality high-grade ounces

Optimizing recoveries

Increasing incremental production from underground and open pit sources

Resource and reserve additions through property wide exploration

Leveraging the excess mill capacity

With the proceeds raised on the completion of the initial public offering, and the cash being generated by the Plutonic Gold Mine, the Company has the liquidity available to execute on its near-term growth and exploration strategy.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Simon Lawson who is a member of the AusIMM and a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mr. Lawson is an employee of the Company and serves as the Chief Geologist.

About Superior Gold

Superior Gold is a Canadian based gold producer that owns 100% of the Plutonic Gold Operations located in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold Operations include the Plutonic Gold Mine, which is a producing underground operation with a central mill, the Hermes open pit development project and an interest in the Bryah Basin joint venture. Superior Gold is focused on expanding production at the Plutonic Gold Operations and building an intermediate gold producer with superior returns for shareholders.

Forward Looking Information

This press 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. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, and statements regarding exploration results and exploration plans.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management 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 future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 15, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.

The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

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.

SOURCE Superior Gold
VANCOUVER, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE MKT: TGB) ("Taseko" or the "Company") has received approval from the Province of British Columbia to undertake a site investigation program to conduct exploratory work at the New Prosperity Gold-Copper project site. The Notice of Work (NOW), which is a multi-year permit, will allow the Company to gather information for the purpose of advancing mine permitting under the British Columbia Mines Act.

"The opportunities associated with New Prosperity are rare. It has the potential to generate significant wealth and employment for the Province of British Columbia and more specifically, the Cariboo," commented Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO of Taseko Mines Limited. "Once in production, it will employ approximately 600 people and contribute roughly $1 million per day of spending on goods, services and labor. This combination of employment and spending means New Prosperity will create $12.7 billion of provincial GDP and increase provincial revenues by over $4 billion and federal revenues by over $2 billion during its life."

"The value of New Prosperity has yet to be unlocked, however, I believe the magnitude of New Prosperity's benefits are such that it will be developed into a world-class mine with the highest environmental and safety standards, similar to our nearby Gibraltar Mine," added Mr. Hallbauer. "New Prosperity would be similar in size to Gibraltar which currently employs 650 people from the Cariboo region. The development of New Prosperity would be an economic catalyst for the struggling communities of the Cariboo. In authorizing Taseko to do this work, the Government of British Columbia is giving us the tools needed to move the project towards its ultimate development."

In addition to securing Provincial Government approval, the project also requires specific authorizations from the Government of Canada. This work program will yield information which is necessary to advance the Mines Act permitting process.

New Prosperity is located 125 km southwest of Williams Lake in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of central British Columbia on a low level rolling plateau with a moderate climate and minimal precipitation. Its close proximity to important infrastructure makes for an ideal location for this large-scale project. It is not by any means an engineering or technical challenge. However, like all projects of significance regardless of location in the world, there will be those who object to its development. Provincial regulators and Taseko personnel have been working on the specific details of this work program for over 10 months. Great care and attention has been taken by each to ensure all necessary steps have been taken to fully meet their respective obligations under the permit including those duties related to consultation with local First Nations.

Russell Hallbauer

President and CEO

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained in this news release.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This document contains "forward-looking statements" that were based on Taseko's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook", "anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "should" and similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These included but are not limited to:

uncertainties and costs related to the Company's exploration and development activities, such as those associated with continuity of mineralization or determining whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a property;

uncertainties related to the accuracy of our estimates of mineral reserves, mineral resources, production rates and timing of production, future production and future cash and total costs of production and milling;

uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a mining project;

uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses permits for development projects and project delays due to third party opposition;

uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings;

changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies affecting our exploration and development activities and mining operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies;

changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the demand and market price for copper, gold and other minerals and commodities, such as diesel fuel, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar, and the continued availability of capital and financing;

the effects of forward selling instruments to protect against fluctuations in copper prices and exchange rate movements and the risks of counterparty defaults, and mark to market risk;

the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover mining risks;

the risk of loss of key employees; the risk of changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates;

environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including processing and stock piling ore; and

labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences, including third party interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our mines.

For further information on Taseko, investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE Taseko Mines Limited

Related Links

www.tasekomines.com


SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Four driver education teachers from Hawaii, Missouri, North Dakota and Oregon have been selected by their peers to receive the Teacher Excellence Award at the national conference of the American Driver & Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) here. The Teacher Excellence Awards are given by The National Road Safety Foundation, a non-profit group that creates driver safety education materials and makes them available at no cost to teachers and schools, police, traffic safety advocates and youth organizations. The award is named in memory of Dr. Francis Kenel, a traffic safety engineer, former director of the AAA, author of driver ed teacher training materials and a mentor to countless driver education instructors.

The teachers were chosen by their peers to receive the Teacher Excellence Award, which carries with it a cash stipend. They are Cynthia Bagley, who teaches at Konawaena High School in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Allyn Workman of the Parkway-Rockwood Community Education Program in Ellisville, Missouri; Jon Dondoneau, who teaches at Fargo South H.S. in Fargo, North Dakota; and Larry Fairclo, an instructor at Diamond F Driving School in The Dalles, Oregon.

All four will be honored at a luncheon July 18 at the ADTSEA national conference in Sacramento.

"The teachers selected by their peers as the best of the best demonstrate creativity and enthusiasm in the lifesaving work they do," said David Reich, public relations director of The National Road Safety Foundation and a member of the ADTSEA Board of Directors. "Driving instructors are a dedicated group whose mission is to save lives and prevent needless tragedy by helping young people learn how to drive safely and responsibly. For many, it is a calling more than it is a job."

Winner Cynthia Bagley, a driver ed teacher for ten years, began the driver education program at her school after hearing from many parents who were nervous about their own ability to properly teach their teens to drive. She regularly communicates with students and parents to help them identify aspects of their driving skills that need improvement. She also invites past students to school assemblies where they talk to their peers about ways to be safer drivers. "My hope is to improve students' and parents' driving skills to make our community a safer place to live," she said.

Allyn Workman, who has been teaching for 17 years, was motivated to become a driver ed instructor after he and his wife were involved in a fatal crash. The other driver, who was killed, was unbelted and distracted and ran through a stop sign. Workman often tells the story to his students, to make them aware of the dangers of distracted driving. In addition to teaching, he has served on committees working to advance and extend the reach of driver education throughout Missouri. He has been a facilitator for the state's First Impact program, working to increase parental awareness of teen driving risks and improve understanding of Missouri's GDL laws. He also has been working with state legislators to require driver education for all new licensed drivers, which is not currently mandated in Missouri. "Allyn is an exemplary driver education teacher," said William Whitfield, Jr., Missouri Dept. of Transportation Highway Safety Director. "His unwavering commitment and contributions to improve traffic safety are making a difference in the classroom, community and the state."

While Jon Dondoneau was teaching at a middle school in Fargo, North Dakota, he saw a news story about the number of teen traffic deaths in the state. That, coupled with a personal experience of having an aunt killed by a teen who was driving drunk, pushed him to apply for a job opening as a driver ed teacher. In the five years he's been teaching driving, he has been active beyond the classroom, working to implement that new state driver ed curriculum and develop an online statewide curriculum. He has also developed internet-based lessons as well as ways to make driver ed more exciting to capture the attention of today's social media-savvy young people. He is also pushing at the state level to actively recruit more driver ed teachers. "Bringing driver education into the 21st Century requires using media that students are familiar with and have a level of comfort," he said.

Larry Fairclo said he became a driver ed teacher 36 years ago, not by his own choice. He was hired as a phys ed teacher in a high school that had only 45 students, and there was no one to teach driver ed. The principal assigned it to "the new guy," Larry recalled. After he moved to another school with a driver ed program, it was cut due to tight budgets. Motivated by traffic safety courses he took from Oregon's Dept. of Transportation, he restored driver ed in the town and developed partnerships with local businesses and the police to help with resources. His classes include taking students for a visit to the local jail to see how DUI offenders are treated. He also coordinates a community awareness project on distracted driving, bringing in partners such as the city council, police and fire departments, principals, teachers and former students. "The impact Larry has on his students is testimony to how an outstanding educator can produce real learning through skillful teaching," said Andrew Hughes, a math teacher at The Dalles High School and whose son was taught to drive by Larry. "Larry communicates and demonstrates the skills and knowledge of driving in a manner that makes all his students feel successful."

"We are proud to honor these Teachers of Excellence and hope they will inspire others to be passionate and effective teachers of this important life skill," said Rich Hanson, who heads the selection committee for ADTSEA.

The American Driver and Traffic Safety Education is the professional association that represents traffic safety educators throughout the United States. As a national advocate for quality traffic safety education, the group creates and publishes policies and guidelines for driver ed and conducts conferences and workshops for teachers. It was instrumental in creating the new driver education curriculum standard issued recently by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF), a non-profit organization, has supported ADTSEA's Teacher Excellence Awards program for eight years. For more than 50 years, NRSF has created driver education programs and materials for free distribution to teachers, police, traffic safety agencies, youth advocacy groups and others. NRSF has programs on distraction, speed and aggression, drinking and driving, and drowsy driving. The group also sponsors contests for teens in partnership with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), NOYS, FCCLA and Scholastic, as well as regional teen contests in partnership with auto shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. To view and download free programs and for more information, visit www.nrsf.org or www.teenlane.org.

Contact: David Reich 212 573-6000 c: 914 325-9997



[email protected]

SOURCE The National Road Safety Foundation
ATLANTA, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yippy, Inc. (OTCMKTS: YIPI) ("Yippy" or the "Company"), an enterprise unification company known for its leading search and insight driven Yippy EASE 360 platform, announced today that the Company has entered into an advisory agreement with Steven Terrell "Terry" Clontz to serve as the Chief Advisor to the Company's Board of Directors. This role was formerly held by Art Huffman, the former Chief Information Officer of Halliburton, who recently became as a member of the Company's Board Directors.

Mr. Clontz is a 44-year veteran in the global telecommunications industry. He currently serves as the Non-Executive Chairman of StarHub Ltd. (CC3), Singapore's second largest telecom company and previously served as StarHub's Chief Executive Officer from 1999 to 2009. From December 1995 through December 1998, Mr. Clontz served as Chief Executive Officer, President and a Director of IPC Information Systems. Prior to that, Mr. Clontz worked at BellSouth International, joining in 1987 and holding various senior executive positions, serving the last three years as President, Asia-Pacific. He also served as a board member for Jasper Technologies until it was sold to Cisco Systems (CSCO) in February 2016, and is a current board member of Level 3 Communications (LVLT). Mr. Clontz also maintains various other board affiliations with private telecoms and technology companies in Southeast Asia and the United States.

"It is truly remarkable that a company of Yippy's size has amassed such an impressive suite of telecom and software assets which I believe to be industry-leading with true worldwide application," stated Mr. Clontz. He continued, "I am further impressed with the quality of talent that Rich and the Yippy team has assembled to build a suite of technology solutions with the potential to create a specialized ubiquitous cloud solutions. As Yippy's Chief Advisor to the Board of Directors, my goal is to advise the board and senior management on opportunities to leverage Yippy's technology assets and accelerate their business model."

"Terry is a friend and mentor and possesses one of the sharpest minds I've ever known," stated Richard Granville, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yippy. He further stated, "Terry's global reach is most impressive and we are very fortunate to have his leadership, knowledge and experience available to the Company in his new role. This is a very good day for Yippy and its future, and we look forward to getting to work with Terry on our team."

About Yippy, Inc.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Yippy, Inc. is a technology company that specializes in the development of search-based applications, data normalization, compression/optimization and aggregation through enterprise application (app) service environments (EASE). Yippy's proprietary product suites are deployed to provide secure, redundant and maintained data services. The Company also provides the most advanced search appliance and is the best alternative for those seeking a replacement for the Google Search Appliance (GSA). The Company also operates several online internet properties and educational reference portals. Investors can find current financial disclosure for the Company at http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/YIPI/filings.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information contained herein includes forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Additional information on risks and other factors that may affect the business and financial results of Yippy, Inc. can be found in the filings of Yippy, Inc. on OTC Markets (www.otcmarkets.com).

SOURCE Yippy, Inc.
BEIJING, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 16, 2017, the "7th World Smart Education Summit Forum" organized by OKAY Smart Education was held at the National Convention Center in Beijing. With the theme of "Revolution", the Forum discussed how education, driven by Internet technology in the artificial intelligence era, could transform from "industrialization era" to "intelligent era", and put forward the concept of "demand-based learning" for the first time.

Throughout the history of human civilization, education reform is inextricably linked to productivity advancement. The current class-based teaching system is the product of the last great educational transformation, when human society entered the industrial age and achieved rapid productivity development. Modern schools introduced industrial flow process and mass production to education by adopting standard and systematic knowledge curriculum, which greatly improved education capacity and therefore realized wider universal education. This transformation replaced old-style private schools in agriculture and handicraft stage, and thoroughly overturned extremely low education capacity and education being a privilege for only a few. Educational transformation in the industrial era promoted a leap in the development of human society, which led to the glory of the industrial civilization.

Mankind, however, is now moving at an unbelievable pace from the industrial age into the era of intelligent development. The Internet and artificial intelligence technologies are bringing a profound change to all aspects of human society across the world and driving changes. The current generation of teachers is from the post-industrial civilization; the new generation of students is natives of the Internet era. If the new generation of students born with cognitive characteristics of the Internet age is still trapped in the old education system of the industrial age, then what is waiting for us will be stagnation of social progress as we blunder away a historical opportunity of human civilization progress. In light of this, OKAY Smart Education is advocating the concept of "demand-based learning" in the era of the Internet and AI, and believes that education in this new era should use the power of cutting-edge technology to create advancement of intelligence.

Industry ecosystem and integration help OKAY drive education innovation using technology

Mr. Yu Minhong, Chairman of New Oriental Education Technology Group, attended this forum and delivered a keynote speech. After that, famous anchor Mr. Shui Junyi, Chairman and CEO of E Ink Holdings Frank (Fu-Jen) Ko, MyScript CEO Paddy Padmanabhan, Microsoft Developers and Artificial Intelligence Chief Scientist Liang Jian, Baidu Artificial Intelligence Comprehensive Management Department GM Wang Liangfei, Wacom Global Executive VP Lin Qiang, founder and CEO of OKAY Smart Education Mr. Jia Yunhai, and other important figures in the global education and technology field discussed on how to realize in-depth integration of technology and education to further assist the coming era of demand-based learning.

Mr. Jia Yunhai said that OKAY would be dedicated to in-depth fusion of technology and education, and that OKAY has already made a number of breakthroughs by working with world-leading technology companies: intelligent recognition technology greatly improves efficiency of teacher's correction work and data acquisition, precise push enabled by big data and artificial intelligence technology helps students really "learn what they need", while e-paper and digital handwriting technologies can protect students' eyesight and writing habits to the maximum extend. OKAY Smart Education will make full use of its unique education advantages and embrace Internet technology to assist smart education upgrade based on modern cutting-edge technology. Mr. Shui Junyi and attending guests shared the same views as Mr. Jia, and partners also expressed their commitment to moving forward with OKAY Smart Education and promoting the education industry's change of times.

E Ink, the originator of the world's top Ink screen technology, has changed the way human read in the Internet era in the last decade by launching Kindle together with Amazon in 2007. Today, E Ink and OKAY Smart Education agreed to an exclusive strategic cooperation to create absolute comfortable user experience: the OKAY e-learning tablet S4.0 perfectly integrates E Ink screen and Wacom digital handwriting technology, enabling students to experience the same writing experience as writing with a pen on paper to protect writing habits.

MyScript, a pioneer of handwriting recognition technology, has been working on words, algorithms and graphic recognition technology since its establishment in 1998, and has achieved remarkable results. In-depth cooperation between OKAY Smart Education and MyScript focuses on making smart correction function more precise in order to alleviate teachers' burden.

Microsoft and Baidu also reached strategic partnerships with OKAY Smart Education in artificial intelligence technology and content digitization, and have made breakthroughs in speech recognition, data analysis, user portrait establishment, accurate delivery of content and so on, all of which will impart intelligent power beyond imagination to important links of teaching and learning.

Education revolution in the age of artificial intelligence

Mr. Jia Yunhai delivered a keynote speech in the forum and shared exploration and practice experience of OKAY Smart Education. The clear purpose for OKAY Smart Education is to use Internet technology to reform the teaching and learning experience, and therefore actively enter the Intelligent era, rather than remain in the education shackles of the industrial age.

After many product re-designs, OKAY Smart Education had a clear focus to base this intelligent product on digital content with its core on digitalization, and finally achieved a breakthrough in many schools across the country. Principals, teachers and other frontline staff as well as student representatives attending this forum all spoke highly of OKAY Smart Education and acknowledged the revolutionary changes it has brought to traditional teaching.

Mr. Jia said in the forum: "Education that meets individual demand will eventually replace education centered around imparting knowledge, and every student will have their own learning initiative, so the era of Intelligent has arrived." Refined application of Internet technology, customized development of artificial intelligence in education environment, and tuyere effect of education transformation trend will attract more technology and resources, and usher in education to the intelligent era.

Release of world's first intelligent educational device creates a new product category

OKAY Smart Education also unveiled the world's first dedicated smart device for learning -- OKAY E-learning Tablet S4.0. OKAY Smart Education is committed to the integration and optimization of big data, handwriting recognition, user portrait and visual experience with many industry partners, providing teachers and students with a truly useful learning device.

Launch of this new intelligent learning device brings in-depth integration of cutting-edge technology and practical application, which completes the upgrade of education and teaching with the help of artificial intelligence. Based on big data and cloud computing technology, smart study AI assistant "OKAY Xiao Yun" can help students select examination questions and video lessons that help them make progress, and therefore truly realize "learn what you need". Global release of OKAY E-Learning Tablet S4.0 not only marks the creation of a new device product category -- intelligent learning device, but also creates a new era for the learning device market, and moreover, the coming of the new era of demand-base learning.

It is foreseeable that with application and popularization of the world's first dedicated intelligent device for learning -- OKAY E-learning Tablet S4.0, which is able to provide data-based teaching and learning decisions with the help of Internet and artificial intelligence technology, the new generation of students is empowered to take learning initiative and decide what to learn and how to learn, and therefore truly benefit from the new upgrade of smart learning.

SOURCE OKAY Smart Education
LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Construction Industry in Kenya: Infrastructure development is a central pillar of Kenya's Vision 2030 and in 2015 the US$3bn construction sector contributed 4.8% to the Kenyan economy. The Economic Survey 2016 published by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) reported that approximately 148,000 people are formally employed in the domestic building and construction industry. Players operating in the sector range from indigenous micro-enterprises to foreign multinational civil engineering and construction giants. Although building and construction contractors are required to be registered with the National Construction Authority (NCA), a significant number of unregistered contractors operate in the informal sector.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4886925/

A Sector with Promise : Currently 11 of the 43 major infrastructure projects in East Africa are in Kenya. These mega-projects include the US$3.8bn Mombasa  Nairobi Railway Project, the US$2.1bn Tatu City Project, the US$1bn Lamu Port Berths Project and the US$900m Lake Turkana Wind Power Project. Demand for housing continues to grow with role players estimating that more than 210,000 new residential units need to be built annually to keep pace with Kenya's expanding population. With crude oil production in the Great Rift Valley set to commence in the first half of 2017, many analysts predict that the country is on the cusp of an unprecedented construction boom.

Report Coverage:

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4886925/

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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According to Managing Partner, Tom Ewald, "We are extremely proud to give back to veterans' organizations that demonstrate direct benefit to deserving veterans and their families. We are also fortunate to employ over 40 veterans throughout our company and are always willing to provide opportunities for more." Moving forward, the Ewald Automotive Group is eager to support more for our veteran's causes and to provide employment opportunities.

Since 1964, Ewald Automotive Group has served the communities throughout southeast Wisconsin. Ewald specializes in sales and leasing of new and used vehicles servicing all makes, parts and accessory sales and rental vehicles. Ewald represents Chevrolet, Buick, KIA, Ford, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Airstream brands in seven locations conveniently located throughout Southeast Wisconsin.

Visit www.ewaldauto.com/military or www.ewaldauto.com/careers for more information.

2700 Golf Road

Delafield, WI 53018

SOURCE Ewald Automotive Group

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NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- More than half (52.4 percent) of C-suite and other executives say global corporate ethical behavior has improved since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002, according to a recent Deloitte poll. Yet, challenges remain as only 41.3 percent of execs say their organizations' global ethics cultures are strong.

"As we've seen for decades, no organization is immune to unethical behavior," said Don Fancher, Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory principal and U.S. Forensic leader, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (US), and Global Forensic leader. "But, the field of ethics compliance is evolving, as professionals' skillsets, technologies to help hone and monitor programs, and multi-jurisdictional regulator coordination all improve. Now is a great time for global organizations to take a hard look at modernizing their ethical compliance programsparticularly for those relying heavily on employees to report misconduct."

Less than one-third (32.5 percent) of execs polled are highly confident their organizations' employees will report unethical behavior. Executives say the biggest challenges to employees complying with global ethics programs include inconsistency of clear, concise and frequent ethics program communications and training for all employees (28.5 percent); lacking incentives and repercussions around ethical and unethical behavior, respectively (16.3 percent); varied ethical postures of third parties with whom employees regularly interact (14.8 percent); and, differing ethical standards for various employee groups (12.5 percent).

"Whether they need to monitor internal, external or both aspects of culture risk, we see leading companies leverage technology to modernize their compliance programs," said Carey Oven, Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP. "Some use cognitive solutions to identify anomalous employee behaviors. Others use advanced analytics to identify third-party patterns. The learnings from culture risk detection systems can help enhance the information leadership teams use to make decisions around ethics compliance policies and procedures."

Questions to ask of your global ethics program include:

Do all leaders support the program? Strong ethics programs are organization-wide with ongoing, full C-suite and board attention, as opposed to being managed by the general counsel or chief compliance officer alone. For example, chief accounting officers and CFOs can help unearth bribes, fraud and other illicit schemes that may be hiding in the books; or, by working with leaders across the C-suite, CISOs and CTOs can help discern what ethical weaknesses may lead to a higher frequency and intensity of cyberattacks.

Strong ethics programs are organization-wide with ongoing, full C-suite and board attention, as opposed to being managed by the general counsel or chief compliance officer alone. For example, chief accounting officers and CFOs can help unearth bribes, fraud and other illicit schemes that may be hiding in the books; or, by working with leaders across the C-suite, CISOs and CTOs can help discern what ethical weaknesses may lead to a higher frequency and intensity of cyberattacks. Is the whistleblower hotline or speak-up line evolving? The level, frequency, and type of reports via whistleblower communication channels can be telling. Testingsometimes leveraging advanced analytics or other toolscan help discern reasonable levels of reporting and false positives, so that anomalous reports are more easily identified and more quickly investigated.

The level, frequency, and type of reports via whistleblower communication channels can be telling. Testingsometimes leveraging advanced analytics or other toolscan help discern reasonable levels of reporting and false positives, so that anomalous reports are more easily identified and more quickly investigated. Are employees surveyed to gauge ethics culture? By surveying employees about ethical standards and behaviors on an annual basisas well as in exit interviews organizations can make better informed updates to standards language, employee training and communications. Employee feedback can also help identify disparate subcultures in which interpretations of "ethical" behavior are inconsistent with the rest of the organization.

By surveying employees about ethical standards and behaviors on an annual basisas well as in exit interviews organizations can make better informed updates to standards language, employee training and communications. Employee feedback can also help identify disparate subcultures in which interpretations of "ethical" behavior are inconsistent with the rest of the organization. Is third-party due diligence conducted annually at minimum? It's not unusual to perform background checks around third parties upon entering into new contracts. But, personnel changes, financial strain, and other factors can change cultures quickly. Leveraging everything from annual third-party surveys to more covert social media analytics can help organizations understand with whom they're doing business.

About the online poll

More than 930 c-suite and other executives responded to poll questions during the Deloitte Dbriefs webcast, "Global ethics and compliance in uncertain times: Leveling the playing field," on May 24, 2017. Respondents largely work in the financial services (27.7 percent), consumer and industrial products (23 percent) and technology, media and telecommunications (9.1 percent) industries. Answer rates differed by question.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to deliver measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to make their most challenging business decisions with confidence, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

SOURCE Deloitte

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LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Did you know?



- Molecular diagnostics has been the cornerstone of Finnish company, Immuno Diagnostic Oy's business for over 20 years.



- Q Bioscience Co., Ltd. has been Abbott Molecular's distributor in Thailand since 2009.



- Diagnostic Technology Pty Ltd has been at the forefront of the introduction and utilisation of molecular based diagnostics in Australia.



- Promociones Medicas S.A. provides its customers in Panama with a complete range of market leading, molecular diagnostics products.



- Representing more than ten international leading diagnostic companies, Onkogen Diagnostik Sistemler Ltd., is the leading company in molecular diagnostics in Turkey.



- Rebeca Miramontes Vidal is Chief Executive Officer of Biodist SA de CV, the leader in molecular diagnostics in Mexico.



- In October, 2016, British distributor, YouMed Ltd. announced an agreement with Mobidiag Ltd., a Finnish molecular diagnostics company, to became an agent for Mobidiag's Amplidiag in-vitro diagnostic tests and compatible system for the detection of gastrointestinal infections.



These are just a tiny sample of the 1,000's of facts to be found in 'The Top 100 Distributors Of Molecular Diagnostics Worldwide'.



This unique and comprehensive report identifies and profiles the leading 100 distributors of molecular diagnostics products worldwide. These companies partner with leading manufacturers and sell their products to hospitals and laboratories across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.



Profile information for each company in 'The Top 100 Distributors Of Molecular Diagnostics Worldwide' typically includes:



- Company Contact Information - Address, Telephone and Fax Numbers, Email and Website Addresses

- Key Company Decision Makers - From CEO and Main Board, to Key Senior Managers

- Specialised fields such as Company Description, Manufacturers Represented, Countries Served, Year Established, Number of Employees and Ownership.



Report Target Market:



1) Manufacturers



This report is perfect for manufacturers of molecular diagnostics products who wish to identify, assess and contact the 100 leading distributors for their products worldwide.



2) Distributors



Usage: competitive analysis and strategic partner/alliance identification.



3) IVD Associations



'The Top 100 Distributors Of Molecular Diagnostics Worldwide' is ideal for IVD associations to identify new member companies.



Note: Most people will be aware of some of the major distributors of molecular diagnostics but this major new report looks at all 100 of the top distributors of molecular diagnostics worldwide - companies like:



- Celtic Molecular Diagnostics (Pty) Ltd. - Founded in 2003, Celtic Molecular Diagnostics (Pty) Ltd. is a young, dynamic company providing high quality, innovative and affordable products to scientists in molecular research and diagnostic laboratories throughout Southern Africa. The Company aims to be a leading supplier of reagents and instrumentation in Southern Africa, through partnerships with prestigious manufacturers e.g. altona Diagnostics GmbH, Amoy Diagnostics Co., Ltd., Asuragen Inc., Invivoscribe, MRC-Holland, Primerdesign Ltd., Qnostics Ltd. and Sacace Biotechnologies Srl.. Celtic Molecular Diagnostics (Pty) Ltd. is led by Dermot Cox, Managing Director.



Report data field structure is as follows:



- Company Name

- Address

- Telephone

- Fax

- Email

- Website

- Parent Company

- Year Established

- Number of Employees

- Key Executives

- Company Description

- Manufacturers Represented

- Countries Served

- Location Status

- Ownership



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4630461/



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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CARLSBAD, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Forensic scientists who need to differentiate genetic profiles in forensic DNA mixtures, such as those commonly associated with crime scenes, now have access to a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) STR panel from Thermo Fisher Scientific. The combination of Applied Biosystems Precision ID GlobalFiler NGS STR Panel v2 and Converge Software 2.0 is designed to effectively retrieve more information from these mixed, degraded or limited DNA samples.

Forensic scientists have traditionally used capillary electrophoresis (CE) to analyze STR markers for genetic profile comparisons with known individuals from the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database and other databases worldwide. However, complicating factors, such as DNA degradation, mixtures and/or insufficient starting material, prevent an estimated 30-40 percent of samples from offering conclusive results.

The new Precision ID GlobalFiler NGS STR Panel v2 is designed to work seamlessly with the Ion Chef System for automated library and template preparation and sequencing on the Ion S5 and Ion S5 XL Systems, which offer as little as two hour sequencing run times and 15 minutes of hands-on time. The panel targets CODIS expanded core loci, with additional multi-allelic STR markers, including Penta D and Penta E, as well as sex determination markers. This expanded marker set assists in mixture resolution for identifying multiple contributors in complex casework samples.

The new Converge NGS Analysis module is required to generate profiles from the Precision ID GlobalFiler NGS STR Panel v2. The HID STR genotyping functionality provides information on length-based STR allele call, sequence-based repeat motif, known SNPs in flanking regions, and isometric heterozygote (alleles of the same fragment length, but containing different repeat sequence) information. These additional sequence-based characteristics will deliver a wider allele range with an increased power of discrimination for individual identification. With an interface which is similar to Applied Biosystems GeneMapper ID-X software, forensic analysts can easily evaluate sequencing data using familiar Process Quality Values and flags, such as allele number (AN), off-ladder allele (OL), peak height ratio (PHR), below stochastic threshold (BST) and Control Concordance (CC).

"NGS now has the ability to transform forensic genetics by enabling the recovery of highly discriminating allelic profiles from challenging mixed or degraded samples," said Claus Brsting, Ph.D., senior advisor at the Section of Forensic Genetics, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. "Our tests show full concordance with CE based methods, high sensitivity, and new possibilities for mixture interpretation. Under our ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation, we have used NGS in relationship case work since 2015. Currently, we are validating an ancestry panel to bring NGS on-line in crime case work."

"Our customers need more access to genetic identification profiles from complex DNA samples, prompting the continued development of the Precision ID NGS System, additional panels and a more comprehensive data analysis pipeline." said Rosy Lee, vice president and general manager of human identification at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Additional information on the Precision ID NGS System with Converge software can be found here.

The Precision ID NGS System is for research, forensic or paternity use only; Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $18 billion and more than 55,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Media Contact Information:

Mauricio Minotta, Thermo Fisher Scientific

+1 760 929 2456

[email protected]

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

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MIAMI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- This August marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of Diana Princess of Wales, and HOLA! TV will pay homage to the People's Princess via 4 spacial featuring her life, her iconic style, and all things dear to her and her legacy.

Hosted by Maria Jose Barraza, each Saturday Especiales HOLA! TV will showcase all aspects related to the life of the woman who was fascinating not only because she was a princess, but also because she captured the hearts of many and became a worldwide celebrity. The specials will also feature testimony by those who knew her  friends, designers and close acquaintances who will give insight on the significance of this twentieth- century icon.

SATURDAY 5  DIANA ETERNA: LA PRINCESA DEL PUEBLO (Eternal Diana: The People's Princess)

SATURDAY 12  DIANA ETERNA: ICONO DE ESTILO (Eternal Diana: Style Icon)

SATURDAY 19  DIANA ETERNA: REINA DE CORAZONES (Eternal Diana: Queen of Hearts)

SATURDAY 26  DIANA ETERNA: SUS ULTIMOS DIAS (Eternal Diana: Her Last Days)

TIMES:

US

PT: 7:00 pm/ ET: 10:00 pm

Latin America

Col: 9:00 pm/ Mex: 9:00 pm/ Ven: 10:00 pm/ Arg: 11:00 pm

In addition, HOLA! TV's, original productions: LA HORA HOLA!, HOLA! Fashion and HOLA! Cinema will present special segments dedicated to Princess Diana.

Link to download images:

https://we.tl/63N4NXb4Sn

Link to download video:

https://we.tl/z18hUDhjq3

About HOLA! TV

HOLA! TV is a joint venture formed by ATRESMEDIA INTERNACIONAL and the magazine HOLA!, the most respected and exclusive news source worldwide about celebrities, royalty, and the aristocracy. The programming of HOLA! TV presents the best of the magazine HOLA!, which publishes 31 editions for more than 120 countries, reinventing the magazine for television with news, exclusives, and special programming that reflect the style and philosophy of the HOLA! brand. The channel's coverage includes exclusive access to human interest stories, programs dedicated to the lifestyle of celebrities, and a special focus on news about royalty and the aristocracy all over the world. The main offices of HOLA! TV are located in Miami, Florida, where original daily and weekly programs are also produced. Some of its other programs are produced by HOLA! MEDIA and ATRESMEDIA, at its studios in Madrid, Spain.

Media contacts : HOLA! TV ATRESMEDIA INTERNACIONAL Idemaris Diaz Blanca Aguirre [email protected] [email protected] Office: +1 (305) 777-1900 Ext. 9503 Office: +34 619 860 074

SOURCE Atresmedia Internacional
This report, developed by ThoughtWorks in partnership with research agency Northstar, features insight from Fortune 500 C-Suite executives who are: advocates for digital transformation; have an active role in directing how technology enables their business; have seen their company's revenue or profit increase significantly due to a recent technology change; and 85 percent of which self-identified as risk takers.

"As companies across all industries embrace the changes of our increasingly digital world, we're seeing leaders at the helm of these companies dive deeper into how technology is implemented and how it works," said ThoughtWorks President and CEO, Guo Xiao. "I began my time in the industry as a developer, giving me the tools I needed to approach business with a technology first perspective. Executives across the globe are learning that a strong grasp of technology matters and they're finding ways to adapt. Our findings show that 54 percent of Courageous Executives have developed a deep understanding of technology with a remarkable 57 percent of these leaders reporting having written code," noted Xiao. "A tenacious commitment to embrace technology is what today sets apart truly Courageous Executives."

According to the report, notable themes uniting Courageous Executives include:

Proactive Approach to Technology Changes

According to the report, to keep pace and anticipate future technology shifts, Courageous Executives conduct research, analyze their competitors, troubleshoot tech challenges and hire subject matter experts. A majority of Courageous Executives (65 percent) say that digitizing and adapting to new technology is a top business priority followed by growth.

Research  63 percent of leaders do their own research to stay ahead of technology changes. Top trends they're exploring include security threats; human and machine interaction; new hardware, software and operational platforms; machine learning and artificial intelligence; virtual reality and augmented reality.

 63 percent of leaders do their own research to stay ahead of technology changes. Top trends they're exploring include security threats; human and machine interaction; new hardware, software and operational platforms; machine learning and artificial intelligence; virtual reality and augmented reality. Competitor Analysis  In all four countries, big tech decisions are most often fueled by competition. Asked to identify the largest driver motivating change, 47 percent pointed to their competitors.

Tolerance for Risk and Willingness to Fail

Understanding risks and its impact on ongoing business success is an important characteristic of a Courageous Executive along with the ability to rebound after a perceived failure.

Appetite for Risk - In fact, 87 percent of all executives agree that taking risks is necessary to achieve goals and maintain a strong competitive advantage with 62 percent pointing to their willingness to take risks their competitors won't as a key differentiator.

- In fact, 87 percent of all executives agree that taking risks is necessary to achieve goals and maintain a strong competitive advantage with 62 percent pointing to their willingness to take risks their competitors won't as a key differentiator. Failing Well - Courageous Executives reported their most common reaction to these setbacks was to focus on what went right with the second being to stay as positive as possible. When asked how failure affected their employees, 54 percent globally said that they believed failure made them even more motivated to succeed.

Use of Customer Insights

Throughout the world, courageous leaders recognize the necessity of maintaining a close connection to their customers. 91 percent report that customer input directly informs their strategic decision-making. While there is some agreement as to the best methods for gathering that customer input, there's still a lack of consensus among executives when it comes to what data they're collecting and who is assessing the insights.

Data Source - Overall, the most common source of insight is customer research, followed by social feeds which are monitored by 68 percent of Australian, 60 percent of UK and Indian and only 38 percent of US leaders. Other ways executives gather information includes using analytics from a content management system or implementing a designated customer insights task force.

- Overall, the most common source of insight is customer research, followed by social feeds which are monitored by 68 percent of Australian, 60 percent of UK and Indian and only 38 percent of US leaders. Other ways executives gather information includes using analytics from a content management system or implementing a designated customer insights task force. Customer Engagement - Gathering data from multiple sources is universally valued, but 87 percent of executives report having an internal team dedicated to their customers. Additionally, 58 percent of US and 48 percent of Australian executives say they speak to their customers themselves, which is far more than 32 percent in India and 22 percent in the UK.

The Future of Work

Across continents, nearly half of all courageous leaders describe their company culture as "team-first," meaning they hire primarily for cultural fit, with skills and experience the second consideration. A third define their company as having an "elite" culture, described as hiring only the best to change the world by untested means.

Subject Matter Experts - An overwhelming majority of Courageous Executives (90 percent) emphasized the importance of key hires, stating that discovering subject matter experts and new talents helps their context and credibility and is crucial to success.

An overwhelming majority of Courageous Executives (90 percent) emphasized the importance of key hires, stating that discovering subject matter experts and new talents helps their context and credibility and is crucial to success. Tech's Impact - 70 percent believe that replacing white-collar workers with technology is a natural progression and to be expected. To prepare for the potential impact of technology on the workforce, 87 percent of leaders admit to researching new technologies that may help them save on staff costs. 83 percent also agree that they're preparing for the impact of technology replacing their workers by limiting new hires to reduce ongoing overhead.

To download the report visit www.thoughtworks.com/courage

Methodology

Developed by ThoughtWorks, this report is based on data collected by Northstar Research Partners from C-Suite executives from Fortune 500 companies with 100 employees or more, 87 percent of whom have occupied their office for at least three years and 79 percent reporting more than $100 million in revenue. The executives are primarily Presidents or Chief Executive Officers, the data also includes insights from the full C-suite including CIOs, CMOs, COOs, and CTOs from a variety of industries from finance and retail to healthcare and manufacturing and more.

About ThoughtWorks

We are a software company and community of passionate purpose-led individuals. We think disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients' toughest challenges all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change.

SOURCE ThoughtWorks

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JERSEY CITY, N.J., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TrialScope, the global leader in patient-centric clinical trial transparency and compliance solutions, today announced that the Trial Results Summaries Portal now supports trial summaries in English and seven additional languages: Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Spanish.

The Trial Results Summaries Portal, launched in February 2017, is designed to improve patient and trial participant access to trial results summaries (also known as lay language summaries) by allowing immediate, global, web access to trial results summaries.

"Clinical Trial participants and patients want to access to research results, and we are committed to supporting and expanding the transparency efforts of trial sponsors," said Mark Heinold, TrialScope's Chief Executive Officer. "We understand the importance of making this information available to trial participants around the world in an accurate and timely manner, and the additional language support is the natural progression of these efforts."

The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) is an independent non-profit organization that specializes in delivering trial results summaries in various formats to patients. Jill McNair, CISCRP's Senior Director of Patient Engagement, commented, "Communicating trial results summaries in clinical trial participant's native language is an important step in engaging trial participants, patients and the public while arming a broader audience with important health information."

The Trial Results Summaries Portal is available at www.trialsummaries.com. Clinical trial sponsors may contact TrialScope to learn more about the benefits, features and pricing of the solution.

About TrialScope

TrialScope simplifies the complexities of clinical trial transparency. TrialScope's award-winning, proven solutions have been implemented successfully and rigorously tested in the most complex environments and are managing disclosures for sponsors that are responsible for over 35% of industry sponsored clinical trials posted on clinicaltrials.gov. The company's market-driven solutions and expertise enable sponsors to improve performance, mitigate compliance risk, and ultimately optimize efficiencies with clinical content lifecycle management tools, expertise and processes. TrialScope technologies are offered via a validation-ready SaaS platform hosted in a private cloud.

Media Contact:

Alyson Kuritz for TrialScope

[email protected]

(908) 892-7149

SOURCE TrialScope

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LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Executive Summary



The report titled "Turkey Electronic Security Market Outlook to 2021  Rising Tourist Safety Concern from Looming Threat of Neighboring Countries Will Drive Market Growth" provides a comprehensive analysis of electronic security market in Turkey. The report focuses on overall market size for sale of electronic security equipments in Turkey and Middle East region, electronics security market segmentation on the basis of type of product (CCTV, intrusion alarm, access control, fire alarm and others), sub-segmentation on the basis of technology and by sector of application. The report also covers role of consultants and system integrators, decision making matrix, trends and developments. The report concludes with market projection for future and analyst recommendation highlighting the major opportunities and cautions.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001483/







Turkey electronic security market was estimated at USD ~ million in 2011 which increased to USD ~ million in 2016 registering 5 year CAGR of ~%. Turkey is at the border of Europe, Africa and Asia and was a victim of terrorist attacks. Government increased investments in increasing surveillance expenditure on electronic security. Fire warning systems and intercom systems were Growth was mainly driven by IP-based video surveillance systems. Several large distributors began to dominate the local market. As opposed to the earlier distributors who use European manufacturers, these companies imported and distributed products mainly from Asian manufacturers making it more accessible and affordable to Turkish people.



Government bodies and public sector units were the major consumer of CCTV electronic surveillance. Majority of the modern installation opting for all new electronic security choose IP based CCTV cameras. Fire alarm system was the second largest segment. Bosch Security Systems, Optex, Castlebank Security Solutions were some global intrusion alarm manufacturers selling their product in Turkey market. Access control devices generated revenue of USD ~ million accounting for ~% market share. Pin based locks are gaining momentum in domestic households. Integrated system with multiple access control was also very popular and was generally used as combination of card and pin based access control tools. Key sectors using electronic security devices were government offices and transportation (~%), commercial offices and buildings (~%), banking and financial sector (~%), industrial sector 16.5%, residential sector (~%), hospitals and hospitality (~%), organized retail (~%) and other (~%).



Market for electronic security devices is expected to register positive growth. It will be mainly driven by demand for new and modern electronic security devices for replacement. Improved technologies such as 4K technology bring industry leading clarity and sensitivity to critical video monitoring and surveillance systems. Explosion-proof cameras are an important solution in areas which are on high risk. Turkey is expected to implement (electronic traffic inspection system) TEDES in many of its cities. This will lead to additional demand for electronic security devices as well as R&D in the sector. An estimated market size on the basis of revenue will be USD ~ million in 2021. It is expected that CCTV will continue its dominance in the electronic security market in Turkey.



Key Topics Covered in the Report

 Value chain analysis

 Role of consultants and system integrators

 Decision making matrix

 Turkey electronic security market size by revenue, 2011-2016

 Turkey Electronic Security Market segmentation by type of product and sub-segmentation by technology and by application

 Rules and regulations in Turkey Electronic Security Market

 Major Trends and developments

 Turkey electronic security market future outlook

 Analyst Rec

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001483/



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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NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Executive Summary

The report titled "UAE Genset Market Outlook to 2021  Rising Number of Construction Projects and Commercial Sector to Foster Growth" provides a comprehensive analysis of genset market in the UAE. The report focuses on overall market size of genset systems. Market is segmented based on product type and sub segmented based on their essential features and technical specifications. Segmentation is also done on the basis of KVA Ratings. The report also covers customer's buying decision parameters, competitive landscape of major players in the UAE gensets market and import scenario. The report concludes with market projection for future and analyst recommendation highlighting the major opportunities and trends.



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04950117/UAE-Genset-Market-Outlook-to-Rising-Number-of-Construction-Projects-and-Commercial-Sector-to-Foster-Growth.html

The UAE genset market has been witnessing considerable year on year growth over the past decade as the number of small and medium businesses (SMB's) and other big infrastructure development such as Dubai land, expansion of Jebel Ali zone have continuously risen the demand for gensets. In 2016, total sales of gensets in the UAE market were ~ units.



By Type of Genset: There are two types of genset available in the UAE market such as open and closed/sound proof type. In the UAE, the major demand is for closed/sound proof type genset and has acquired almost ~% market share. The main reason for the high demand is its quality of sound proof and dust proof moreover; government has also made it mandatory to use this type of genset in open area. On the other hand, open type of genset acquired ~ % market share and are majorly used in construction sector where they have room for gensets and is ~% cheaper than closed type genset.



By Power Rating: In the UAE genset market, the genset of various capacity (Below 100, 100-350, 350-750, 750-1,000, Above 1,000 KVA are available which are used in various sector according to the power requirement . Below 100 KVA have gathered the largest share of ~% in the UAE genset market as of 2016, by revenue.



Major demand of below 100KVA genset comes from small government's offices and organizations. Genset of 100-350 KVA accounted for a share of ~% in the revenues of the UAE genset market as of 2016. Genset from this category generate large demand from medium sized companies in the UAE, due to which they have accounted the second largest share in the market.



By End User: Government projects and transportation sector is the biggest customer of the gensets in the UAE market. Genset with power capacity of more than 1 MVA is required to supply electricity to projects like metro, railways, airports and city festivals. Commercial building generates the second highest demand for genset in the UAE market. There are other end users like various manufacturing industries, oil and gas sector, construction, healthcare, residence and education sector.



Competitive Landscape in the UAE Genset Market:

The UAE Gensets market is led by three players i.e. CAT, FG Wilson and Himoinsa. These three players accounted for a combined revenue share of ~% in 2016. CAT's gensets are significantly popular within the UAE due to extensive distribution network and high resale value and therefore it has accounted for highest share in the market during 2016. CAT is highly dominant in above ~ KVA segment of the market. FG Wilson has good presence in the above ~ KVA segment owing to which it has become the second largest player in the market in 2016. Other major players in the segment include MTU, Cummins and Atlas Copco. As of 2016, there are around ~players present in the UAE gensets market.



Key Topics Covered in the Report:

UAE Genset Market Size by Revenue

Value chain analysis

UAE Genset Market Segmentation by type of genset, power rating, by end user and by rental and direct sales

Snapshot on rental genset market

Trends and developments in the UAE genset market

Government rules and regulations

Import scenario in the UAE genset market

Porter Five Forces Analysis of the UAE Genset Market

Competitive Landscape in the UAE Genset Market

Future Outlook and Projections of the UAE Genset Market

Analyst recommendation

Macro Economic Variables, 2011-2021



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04950117/UAE-Genset-Market-Outlook-to-Rising-Number-of-Construction-Projects-and-Commercial-Sector-to-Foster-Growth.html



About Reportlinker

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.



http://www.reportlinker.com



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW YORK, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- UJA-Federation of New York raised a record $238.2 million in its centennial year, an increase of $30.6 million from last year. In addition to raising $157.4 million for the annual campaign - its largest ever annual campaign total - UJA raised $45.6 million in planned giving and endowments and $35.2 million for capital projects and special initiatives.

This is the fifth year in a row that UJA's annual campaign has raised more money than the previous year. The campaign year ended on June 30, 2017.

"We couldn't be more grateful to the New York Jewish community for its support of UJA's vital work during our centennial year," said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York. "More than ever, UJA serves as the critical safety net for the most vulnerable in our community, and sustains and strengthens Jewish life locally and globally."

"UJA lay leaders and donors have ensured we are prepared to meet the challenges of the next 100 years," said Jeffrey A. Schoenfeld, president of UJA-Federation of New York. "At a time of tremendous need here in New York as well as for Jews in Israel and around the world, our donors have made it clear  UJA has never been more valuable or vital as we start our second century."

UJA initiated three groundbreaking capital initiatives during its centennial year that will enable critical infrastructure for community needs well into the future: (1) transforming Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds to provide a rich and meaningful Jewish camp experience to over 6,000 children each summer; (2) creating innovative community resource hubs in Brooklyn and Queens that will bring together cutting-edge kosher food choice pantries, workforce development training, access to benefits, legal services, and case management  all under one roof; and (3) building the Kirsh Family Jerusalem Arts Campus, a cultural hub in the heart of Jerusalem that will revitalize the city and help ensure a vibrant future for Jerusalem.

UJA-Federation's annual campaign remains the single largest philanthropic undertaking by any local community anywhere in the world. The 2017 general campaign chairs were Alisa F. Levin and David L. Moore. Mark Medin serves as UJA-Federation executive vice president of Financial Resource Development responsible for all fundraising efforts.

About UJA-Federation of New York

For 100 years, UJA-Federation has inspired New Yorkers to act on their values and invest in our community for the biggest impact. Through UJA-Federation, more than 50,000 donors address issues that matter most to them, pooling their resources to care for Jews everywhere and New Yorkers of all backgrounds, respond to crises close to home and far away, and shape our Jewish future. Working with a network of more than 80 core partners and hundreds of other nonprofits, UJA-Federation is the world's leading local philanthropy; our reach extends from New York to Israel to nearly 70 other countries around the world, touching 4.5 million people each year. For more information on how to donate or volunteer, please visit our website at www.ujafedny.org.

SOURCE UJA-Federation of New York

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LONDON, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Executive Summary

The report titled "US LED Lighting Market Outlook to 2021- Demand for Energy Efficient Lighting and Government Initiatives to Lighten the Future" provides a comprehensive analysis of LED Lighting market in US. The report focuses on various aspects such as market size of US LED lighting industry by revenue generated and production volume and market segmentation by lamps, bulbs, luminiaries, by utility and by distribution channels. The report covers a detailed overview on trade scenario for Light emitting diodes of US with other countries. The report also describes about major trends and developments, issues and challenges and government role and initiatives that have influenced the market to a large extent. This publication helps the readers to understand the cost analysis for LED Lighting in US as well as recent technologies related to US LED Lighting. Competition prevailing in the sector along with detailed company profiles has been thoroughly covered in the report. The report concludes with market projection for future and analyst recommendation highlighting the major opportunities and cautions.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001486/

LED Lighting Market in US

The LED lighting market of the US has witnessed a rapid growth over the recent past. Technological advancements in the market have been the major reason responsible for growing product lines of LED lights in the country. The growing concern among the population about the amount of heat emitted by traditional fluorescent lights has made people shift to more energy saving resources, thereby expanding the overall size of LED lighting market in the country from USD ~ million in 2011 to USD ~ million during 2016.



Market Segmentation

By Type of LED: Lower initial cost and ease of installation of LED lamps have made lamps to dominate the market, contributing ~% of the revenue to the total revenues of US LED market in 2016. LED luminaires have been successful in driving the overall LED lighting market of the US by increasing their revenue share from ~% in 2014 to ~% in 2016. The traditional use of incandescent bulbs has been replaced by the use of LED reflectors, contributing revenue share of ~% to the overall market from the sale of LED lamps. LED tubes and other LEDs typically including simple bulbs contributed ~% and ~% share to the revenues of LED lamps in the US. LED luminaires which include downlights, troffers, roadway fixtures, outdoor area lights and other luminaires generated revenues worth USD ~ million, USD ~ million, USD ~ million, USD ~ million and USD ~ million revenues respectively in the LED lighting market of the US during 2016.



By Application of LED Lights: The increased demand for directional LEDs by shopping malls to showcase their products and their use in flood lights, made this segment dominate the LED market with revenue share of ~% in the overall sales of LED lights during 2016. Following directional LEDs, A-Type LEDs generated revenue of USD ~ million in 2016. LED linear fixtures and building exteriors contributed ~% and ~% of the revenues respectively in 2016. The dimming requirements and high color quality provided by decorative LEDs has enabled the segment to garner revenues worth USD ~ million during 2016. Further, LED for parking garage, Roadway LED, Small Directional LED, Parking lot LED and High/Low Bay LED contributed ~%, ~%, ~%, ~% and ~% respectively to the total revenues of LED lights in 2016.



By Usage (Indoor LEDs and Outdoor LEDs): Outdoor LEDs have contributed ~% to the revenues of LED lights in 2016. Indoor LEDs which are used in commercial, residential and industrial sector have contributed ~%, ~% and ~% share to the total sales of indoor LED lights in the US during 2016. Outdoor LEDs that are used in building exteriors, parking garage, roadway and parking lots contributed ~%, ~%, ~% and ~% share in revenues during 2016



Competitive Landscape

US LED lighting market is highly concentrated with the presence of few leading lighting manufacturers in the country. Since the sector requires large amount of capital to be invested, this has inhibited the emergence of several companies in the space. Frequent introduction of new LED products, rapid changes in technology, changing customer requirements, short product life cycles and prices of similar technology by various companies are common platforms on which the competition prevails in the overall lighting market of the US. Lighting companies such as Cree, Acuity brands, Copper Lighting division of Eaton Corporation, general electric company, Hubbell Incorporated, Philips and Osram are the major competitors in the market.



Future Analysis and Projections

The US LED lighting market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR of ~% from 2016 to 2021 owing to rising number of market players, increasing awareness about online energy saving lights among customers, and growing efforts of government to shift customers towards LED lights. The LED lighting market will witness launch of innovative LED products being introduced in the market which will lead to an increase in demand by the population, thus making the LED industry contribute a larger share to the total economy.



Key Topics Covered in the Report

 Overview and Genesis for the US LED Lighting Market

 Comparative Analysis for the US LED Lighting Market with Global Market

 US LED Lighting Market Value Chain Analysis

 US LED Lighting Market Size, 2011-2016

 US LED Light Market Segmentation

 Trade Scenario for the US LED Lighting Market

 Cost Analysis for LED Lighting in the US Market

 Decision Making Process Before Purchasing LED Lighting in the US Market

 Trends and Developments in the US LED Lighting Market

 Issues and Challenges in US LED Lighting Market

 SWOT Analysis for the US LED Lighting Market

 Recent Technologies in US LED Lighting Market

 Manufacturing Clusters for LED and Component Manufacturers in the US

 Government Initiatives and Regulations in the US LED Lighting Market

 Competitive Scenario in US LED Lighting Market

 Competitive Landscape of Major Players in US LED Lighting Market

 US LED Lighting Market Future Outlook and Projections

 Macroeconomic Indicators Affecting US LED Lighting Market

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5001486/



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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TUCSON, Ariz., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, the U.S. Navy test fired two Raytheon (NYSE: RTN)-built Tomahawk cruise missiles from new submarine payload tubes on the Virginia-class USS North Dakota (SSN-784). The tests, in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, proved the submarine's ability to load, carry and vertically launch Tomahawk missiles from the new Block III Virginia Payload Tube. The upgraded tubes feature fewer parts and will be even more reliable.

In addition to the new payload tubes, the Navy is also developing a new Virginia Payload Module. The new modules will triple the number of Tomahawk missiles that Virginia-class submarines can carry, dramatically increasing each sub's firepower.

"As the Navy continues to modernize its subs, Raytheon continues to modernize Tomahawk, keeping this one-of-a-kind weapon well ahead of the threat," said Mike Jarrett, Raytheon Air Warfare Systems vice president. "Today's Tomahawk is a far cry from its predecessors and tomorrow's missile will feature even more capability, giving our sailors the edge they need for decades to come."

The U.S. Navy continues to upgrade the Tomahawk Block IV's communications and navigation capabilities, while adding a multi-mode seeker so it can hit high-value moving targets at sea. These modernized Tomahawks are on track to deploy beginning in 2019 and will be in the U.S. Navy inventory beyond 2040.

Fired in combat more than 2,300 times, Tomahawk cruise missiles are used by U.S. and British forces to defeat integrated air defense systems and conduct long-range precision strike missions against high-value targets. Surface ships and other classes of submarines can carry more than 100 Tomahawks when needed.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2016 sales of nearly $28 billion and 65,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 95 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as cyber security and a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.

Media Contact

Tara Wood

+1.520.746.2097

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

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LAVAL, Quebec, July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX and TSX: VRX) ("Valeant" or the "Company") today announced that certain affiliates of the Company have entered into an agreement to sell its Obagi Medical Products business for $190 million in cash to Haitong International Zhonghua Finance Acquisition Fund I, L.P. (the "Fund"). Limited partners of the Fund include industry veterans in other geographic markets, such as China Regenerative Medicine International Limited (SEHK: 8158).

"The sale of Obagi marks additional progress in our efforts to streamline our operations and reduce debt," Joseph C. Papa, chairman and CEO, Valeant. "As we continue to transform Valeant, we will remain focused on the core businesses that will drive high value for our shareholders."

Obagi Medical Products is a global specialty pharmaceutical company founded by leading skin care experts in 1988. Obagi products are designed to help minimize the appearance of premature skin aging, skin damage, hyperpigmentation, acne and sun damage and are primarily available through dermatologists, plastic surgeons, medical spas and other skin care professionals. More information can be found at www.obagi.com.

Valeant will use proceeds from the sale to permanently repay term loan debt under its Senior Secured Credit Facility. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.

The Company currently estimates that the full-year 2017 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) for the Obagi business would have been approximately $85 million and $30 million, respectively.

In this transaction, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC served as financial advisor to Valeant, and Norton Rose Fulbright acted as legal advisor to Valeant.

China Regenerative Medicine International Limited (SEHK: 8158) is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of innovative bio-medical, healthcare products and medical techniques. CRMI operates seven production plants in mainland China and Hong Kong, and the business is organized across four strategic areas, encompassing tissue engineering, cell therapy, cosmetics and hospital management. More information about China Regenerative Medicine International can be found at www.crmi.hk.

About Valeant

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE/TSX:VRX) is a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of pharmaceutical products primarily in the areas of dermatology, gastrointestinal disorders, eye health, neurology and branded generics. More information about Valeant can be found at www.valeant.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believes," "estimates," "potential," "target," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's most recent annual or quarterly report and detailed from time to time in Valeant's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Valeant undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect actual outcomes, unless required by law. In addition, the revenue and Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) amounts set out above are based on the current expectations and beliefs of management, which management believes are reasonable in the circumstances, and are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, including those described above. These amounts have been included to provide information relating to the anticipated impact of the sale of the Obagi business on those measures for the Company as a whole, and they may not be appropriate for any other purpose.

Non-GAAP Information

To supplement the financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the Company has presented Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) in this press release. Adjusted EBITDA represents earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as further adjusted to exclude certain non-recurring and/or unusual items. We cannot predict the amount of such non-recurring or unusual items at this time. The Company does not provide reconciliations of projected Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) to projected GAAP net income (loss) (its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure), due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying certain amounts that are necessary for such reconciliations. The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA both to assess the current financial performance of the Company and to forecast future results as part of its guidance. The Company believes that Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) focuses management on the Company's underlying operational results and business performance. In addition, cash bonuses for the Company's executive officers and other key employees are based, in part, on the achievement of certain Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) targets.

The Company believes non-GAAP measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP), are useful to investors in their assessment of our operating performance and the valuation of our Company. However, these measures do not have any standardized meaning under GAAP and other companies may use similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures that are calculated differently from the way we calculate such measures. Accordingly, our non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similar non-GAAP measures. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on such non-GAAP measures, but instead to consider them with the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation. They should be considered as a supplement to, not a substitute for, or superior to, the corresponding measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

SOURCE Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.valeant.com


THE WOODLANDS, Texas, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vaquero Midstream announced an agreement with its bank group to increase their revolving line of credit from $40 million to $95 million. The increased bank capacity will be used to support the construction of a second 200MMSCFD cryogenic processing plant at the existing Caymus plant site located in Pecos County of the Southern Delaware Basin.

Vaquero's 30" and 24" Lariat rich-gas gathering header transverses northwest from the Caymus facility near Waha through the heart of some of the highest GOR (Gas-Oil Ratio) production in the Southern Delaware Basin. Over 70 rigs are currently active within 10 miles of Vaquero's gathering line. This drilling activity is driving volume growth for current customers as well as other potential new customers near the Vaquero rich-gas gathering header.

Upon completion of Caymus II plant construction, Vaquero will have 400 MMSCFD of processing capacity in service at the site, with further expansion capability to over 1 BSCFD. Construction is estimated to be complete in the first quarter of 2018.

"We are pleased to see the confidence our bank group has shown in the quality of our producer customers and their drilling plans," stated William Davis, Principal. "Our expectation is that this expansion and future projects should be financed with no additional equity capital, due to the level of cash flow we anticipate."

In addition to the more than a dozen markets currently available to its producer customers through connections at the WAHA Hub, Vaquero is constructing an additional interconnect to the Roadrunner Gas Transmission pipeline taking gas into Mexico. This interconnect will supply the needs of the CFE and other Mexican market demand. Producers on Vaquero's system have seen the advantages of the liquidity of the WAHA market versus the constraints often encountered in other parts of the Basin.

"We expect to need the second plant's capacity to handle our current customers' growing gas volumes by the end of the first quarter of 2018," said Gary Conway, CEO. "By initiating construction now, we are able to ensure that our producers will have capacity for processing gas volumes in our system next year."

About Vaquero Midstream LLC

Vaquero Midstream offers oil and gas producers a full suite of midstream solutions including low and high pressure gathering, treating, processing, compression, liquids handling, and transmission. The company's leadership team has experience in all facets of the midstream industry including successful construction and operations of fully integrated midstream natural gas and crude oil systems across a wide range of domestic shale basins including Barnett, Eagle Ford, Haynesville and the Permian. Vaquero's Caymus I 200 MMSCFD cryogenic processing plant was placed into service in August 2016. For more information, visit the Vaquero website at www.vaqueromidstream.com.

SOURCE Vaquero Midstream

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CINCINNATI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The list of Ward's 50 top performing insurance companies was released by Ward Group, a part of Aon plc (NYSE:AON) and the leading provider of operational and compensation benchmarking and best practices services for insurance companies.

The Ward's 50 property-casualty group of insurance companies produced an 11.4 percent statutory return on average equity from 2012 to 2016, compared to 8.4 percent for the property-casualty industry overall. The Ward's 50 life-health group of insurance companies produced a 17.5 percent statutory return on average equity from 2012 to 2016, compared to 9.6 percent for the life-health industry overall.

"Low investment returns, rising loss costs, and competitive market conditions continue to impact financial returns for the industry. In selecting the Ward's 50, we identified companies that pass financial stability requirements and measure their ability to grow while maintaining strong capital positions and underwriting results," said Jeff Rieder, partner and head of Ward Group.

In addition to achieving greater levels of income returns, the Ward's 50 benchmarks also outperformed in other key performance benchmarks:

The Ward's 50 life-health group of companies outpaced the industry for five-year policyholder surplus growth (19.8 percent compared to 16.0 percent) and net premium income growth (10.8 percent compared to 0.9 percent).

The Ward's 50 property-casualty group compared 6.4 points lower for the five-year combined ratio (92.6 percent compared to 99.0 percent) and grew policyholder surplus by 30.9 percent compared to 20.6 percent for the industry since 2012.

Net premiums written for the Ward's 50 property-casualty group grew 30.1 percent compared to the industry's 16.6 percent growth.

The Ward's 50 benchmark group also continues to achieve lower expense ratios. "The expense ratio decreased slightly in 2016 for the property-casualty but increased for the life-health benchmark. We still find the Ward's 50 benchmarks comparing better than the industry average," said Rieder.

In 2016, expenses relative to revenue were 9.3 percent lower for the Ward's 50 property-casualty group of companies and 10.0 percent lower for the Ward's 50 life-health group.

For a complete list of the 2017 Ward's 50 companies, visit www.wardinc.com. To order a Ward's 50 comparison report comparing an individual company's results to the Ward's 50 benchmarks for select metrics, go to www.wardinc.com.

About the Ward's Top 50

To develop its annual list of the top 50 performing insurance companies, Ward Group analyzes the financial performance of nearly 3,000 property-casualty insurance companies and more than 700 life-health insurance companies domiciled in the United States, identifying the top performers in each segment based on objective data and subjective quality measures. Each company has passed all safety and consistency screens and achieved superior performance over the five years analyzed. This is the 27th consecutive year Ward Group has conducted the analysis.

Safety and Consistency Tests

Insurance companies are evaluated and must pass minimum thresholds to be considered for the Ward's 50 designation. Each company must pass primary safety and consistency tests, including:

Surplus and premiums of at least $50 million for each of the five years analyzed

for each of the five years analyzed Net income in at least four of the last five years (property-casualty)

Adjusted net income in at least four of the last five years (life-health)

Compound annual growth in premiums between -10 percent and +40 percent

Performance Measurements

Companies that pass the safety and consistency tests are measured and scored on the following elements:

Five-Year Average Return on Average Equity

Five-Year Average Return on Average Assets

Five-Year Average Return on Total Revenue

Five-Year Growth in Revenue

Five-Year Average Combined Ratio (property-casualty)

Five-Year Growth in Surplus

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.

Follow Aon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aon_plc

Sign up for News Alerts: http://aon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=58

About Ward Group

Ward Group is the leading provider of benchmarking and best practices studies for the insurance industry. The firm analyzes staff levels, compensation, business practices, and expenses for all areas of company operations and helps insurers to measure results compared to peer groups, optimize performance, and improve profitability. Ward Group is part of Aon plc (NYSE: AON). For more information, please visit wardinc.com.

SOURCE Aon plc

Related Links

http://www.aon.com


PITTSBURGH, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Wombat Security Technologies (Wombat), the leading provider of cyber security awareness and training, today announces the release of its Securing Your Email  Fundamental anti-phishing training series. This latest training targets fundamental best practices surrounding three key phishing threat vectors: malicious links, infected attachments, and requests for login credentials and other sensitive information.

The Securing Your Email  Fundamental series expands Wombat's already industry-leading anti-phishing training library, and has been added as a featured option within the Anti-Phishing Training Suite. To enable targeted and timely training, ThreatSim customers can automatically auto-enroll employees with follow-up training assignments that match the type of simulated phishing attack sent to the end user (link-based, attachment-based, or data entry-based). All of Wombat's training content is directly tied to risky activity to quickly mitigate risks and change end user behavior.

The new series includes four mini-modules, which run 5 to 7 minutes in length.

Introduction to Phishing  Provides a brief but instructive look at the best practices related to identifying and handling suspicious emails;

 Provides a brief but instructive look at the best practices related to identifying and handling suspicious emails; Avoiding Dangerous Links  Gives users practical guidance on how to find out a URL's actual destination and examines common visual cues that can help users determine whether a website is legitimate or dangerous;

 Gives users practical guidance on how to find out a URL's actual destination and examines common visual cues that can help users determine whether a website is legitimate or dangerous; Avoiding Dangerous Attachments  Helps users understand why they should treat any email attachment with a healthy suspicion, and how to handle these types of messages; and

 Helps users understand why they should treat any email attachment with a healthy suspicion, and how to handle these types of messages; and Data Entry Phishing  Teaches users to identify and avoid phishing scams that request personal or sensitive data (available in July).

"With the continued increase in phishing, ransomware and social engineering attacks, employee awareness and education has become a mission-critical activity," said Joe Ferrara, President and CEO of Wombat. "Organizations worldwide are battling a multitude of increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, which is why we continually work to expand and evolve our offerings to meet our customers' needs and provide training that matches the dynamic threat landscape the Securing Your Email series further solidifies Wombat's position as the leader in comprehensive, interactive, actionable anti-phishing training  which continues to be the largest cyber security threat facing organizations today."

A companion training suite, Securing Your Email  Advanced, is set to be released Fall 2017. This series will build on the fundamental training and will provide education about more advanced topics, including spear phishing attacks and how to identify phishing emails on mobile devices.

These and other mobile-responsive Wombat security awareness training modules are U.S. Section 508, WCAG 2.0 AA, and SCORM compliant; support customizable Training Jackets; and feature localized content available in nearly 30 languages. For additional information please visit wombatsecurity.com/educate.

Those looking to learn more about security awareness and training can find the Wombat Security team at Black Hat, July 22-27, 2017 (Booth #1660) at Mandalay Bay Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

About Wombat Security Technologies

Wombat Security Technologies provides information security awareness and training software to help organizations teach their employees secure behavior. Their SaaS-based cyber security education solution includes a platform of integrated broad assessments, as well as a library of simulated attacks and brief interactive training modules. Wombat's solutions help organizations reduce successful phishing attacks and malware infections up to 90%. Wombat, recognized by Gartner as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Computer-Based Training Vendors, is helping Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 customer in industry segments such as finance and banking, energy, technology, higher education, retail and consumer packaged goods to strengthen their cyber security defenses.

SOURCE Wombat Security Technologies

Related Links

http://www.wombatsecurity.com


Xavient earned the first Gold in the Best IT Software, Business Intelligence & Analytics category, for its Real Time Deep Learning Customer Interaction Engine v2.035. The second Gold was awarded for the Most Innovative IT Software, Network Management category, for its Network Configuration Management Platform XNCM v3.75.

Xavient competed in the 2,500+ employees division and accepted these awards on June 27 during the SVUS Red Carpet Awards Ceremony Dinner, in San Francisco.

"To be honored in major categories for two consecutive years is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff," said Saif Ahmad, Xavient's Chief Operating Officer. "Success starts with listening to clients, followed by laser-focused attention to delivering the solutions that fit their specific needs. Our results speak for themselves. We are humbled by this recognition for our endeavors to create IT solutions which help our clients address their most pressing business challenges."

The honor marks the second consecutive year Xavient has been awarded by Network Products Guide, and solidifies the company's reputation as a leading provider of innovative solutions. In 2016, the company was awarded in three categories, including Gold Winner in the "Best IT Company of The Year" in the Services category.

"The awards are a result of efforts put forth by thousands of talented and dedicated engineers at Xavient, and our world-class leadership, who have made these achievements possible," said Robert Hallahan, Xavient's Vice President of Solution Architecture. "We are thrilled to be recognized for creating and delivering innovative technology solutions which are transforming the way communication service providers manage and grow their business in this rapidly evolving and highly competitive market."

About NPG's IT World Awards

As industry's leading technology research and advisory publication, Network Products Guide plays a vital role in keeping decision makers and end-users informed of the choices they can make in all areas of information technology. The Annual IT World Awards is part of the SVUS Awards recognition program from Silicon Valley. To learn more, visit www.networkproductsguide.com

About Xavient Information Systems

Xavient Information Systems Inc. is a U.S.-based provider of digital IT solutions and consulting services. Headquartered in California, the company was founded in 2002 with offices throughout the United States and international network of delivery centers in India and Canada. It leverages its global footprint to deploy best talent, time to market and cost optimization benefits for its customers. Xavient's core competencies are in digital transformation stacks and full lifecycle IT services across Telecom, Media, BFSI, Retail and Consumer Technology verticals. For more information, visit www.xavient.com .

Media Contact

Rebecca Deutsch

Makovsky

1-212-508-9611

[email protected]

SOURCE Xavient Information Systems Inc.

Related Links

http://www.xavient.com


SHANGHAI, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) today announced the appointment of Mr. William Wang and Ms. Joey Wat to the Board of the Directors, effective immediately. The appointment will increase the size of the Board of Directors to 12 members, 9 of whom are independent.

"It is my pleasure to welcome William Wang and Joey Wat to our Board of Directors," said Yum China Non-executive Chairman Dr. Fred Hu. "William will bring to our Board deep knowledge and investment insights of the Chinese market. Joey, a talented Yum China executive, will add operation perspectives to our Board. I am confident that their participation will further benefit Yum China's business and shareholders."

Micky Pant, CEO of Yum China commented, "The addition of Joey and William to the Yum China Board will be another great step forward to become one of the world's leading restaurant companies. They are unique business talents in China who can provide deep insights about the Chinese market across a variety of sectors and both have an excellent forward looking strategic perspective as well."

William is one of the founding partners of Primavera Capital Group ("Primavera"). Prior to Primavera, William served as a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking/Principal Investment Area ("GS"), where he led significant successful investments in China for the group. Prior to GS, William worked in Investment Banking Division and Private Equity Group of China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC). William currently serves as a director on the Board of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong listed company, in addition to the directorships at Primavera's portfolio companies.

Joey Wat has served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Yum China since February 2017. She served as Chief Executive Officer, KFC from October 2016 to February 2017, a position she held at Yum! Restaurants China from August 2015 to October 2016. Ms. Wat joined Yum! Restaurants China in September 2014 as President of KFC China and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer for KFC China in August 2015. Before joining YUM, Ms. Wat served in both management and strategy positions at AS Watson of Hutchison Group ("Watson"), an international health, beauty and lifestyle retailer, in the U.K. from 2004 to 2014. Her last position at Watson was Managing Director of Watson U.K., which operates Superdrug and Savers, two retail chains specializing in the sale of pharmacy and health and beauty products, from 2012 to 2014. She made the transition from Head of Strategy of Watson in Europe to Managing Director of Savers in 2007. Before joining Watson, Ms. Wat spent seven years in management consulting including with McKinsey & Company's Hong Kong office from 2000 to 2003.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We intend all forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and by the use of forward-looking words such as "expect," "expectation," "believe," "anticipate," "may," "could," "intend," "belief," "plan," "estimate," "target," "predict," "likely," "will," "should," "forecast," "outlook" or similar terminology. These statements are based on current estimates and assumptions made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable under the circumstances, but there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by those statements. We cannot assure you that any of our expectations, estimates or assumptions will be achieved. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are only made as of the date of this press release, and we disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Numerous factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: whether we are able to achieve development goals at the times and in the amounts currently anticipated, if at all, the success of our marketing campaigns and product innovation, our ability to maintain food safety and quality control systems, our ability to control costs and expenses, including tax costs as well as changes in political, economic and regulatory conditions in China. In addition, other risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could affect the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements should be evaluated with the understanding of their inherent uncertainty. You should consult our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the information set forth under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K) for additional detail about factors that could affect our financial and other results.

About Yum China Holdings, Inc.

Yum China Holdings, Inc. is a licensee of Yum! Brands in mainland China. It has exclusive rights in mainland China to KFC, China's leading quick-service restaurant brand, Pizza Hut, the leading casual dining restaurant brand in China, and Taco Bell, which opened its first restaurant in China at the end of 2016. Yum China also owns the Little Sheep and East Dawning concepts outright. Yum China is well positioned for growth thanks to its strong competitive position, integration of its brands into Chinese popular culture and consumers' daily lives, expanding geographic footprint in China and existing operational expertise. It has a strong capital position, no external debt and expects to continue growing its system sales and profit by adding new restaurants and through growing same-store sales. Yum China had more than 7,600 restaurants and more than 420,000 employees in over 1,100 cities at the end of May 2017. A new generation of younger consumers who are digitally sophisticated and brand driven are fueling growth in consumption in China. The ongoing growth of the middle class and urban population in China is expected to create the world's largest market for restaurant brands, with Yum China poised to be the market leader.

SOURCE Yum China Holdings, Inc
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Jaipur, July 13 : The situation in a Rajasthan village on Thursday continued to be tense after one person was killed in a gunfight between police and a mob.

Curfew was imposed in Sanwarda village of Nagaur district following Wednesday's violence, police said.

Thousands of people from across the state had gathered in the village on Wednesday to protest the killing of a gangster by the police in June.

"The situation is tense but under control as of now," an official told IANS on telephone from Nagaur.

The mob in Sanwarda on Wednesday night attacked the police with stones, snatched weapons and set a police vehicle ablaze. They injured 33 persons, including 30 policemen, an officer said.

A Superintendent of Police was also injured, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) N.R.K. Reddy told IANS.

"One person who had come from Haryana was killed in the firing (on Wednesday). But who fired at him is a matter of investigation," Reddy said, The police used tear gas to disperse the mob, he added.

Witnesses said five to six protesters were also injured, but the police have denied this. Three seriously injured policemen were referred to a Jaipur hospital.

The mob demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of a gangster, Anandpal Singh, on June 24.

Singh's family claimed he was killed despite his willingness to surrender before the police. They alleged a political conspiracy to eliminate him.

Internet services were suspended in the area on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the internet ban was extended in nearby Churu and Sikar districts, the police said.

"We have arrested over 100 persons since yesterday (Wednesday)," a police official said.
Kohima, July 14 : 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.
New Delhi : Kanpur/Lucknow: Mohammad Shafiq, 52, lives with his family in a small hutment in a graveyard in Kanpur's Idgah Colony, and used to earn his living by procuring meat from the nearby government slaughterhouse and selling it by the roadside.

In March 2017, the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh ordered action against slaughterhouses and meat-sellers operating without valid licences and violating environmental and health rules.

Across the state, numerous shops and slaughterhouses, including government-run abattoirs, were sealed, leading to severe shortage of meat and affecting the livelihoods of thousands like Shafiq who made a living by using common government abattoirs for a small fee.

Essentially, failure of municipal administrations to upgrade these facilities had destroyed the vast unorganised meat industry, and hundreds of thousands of ancillary jobs.

Now Shafiq hawks churan (tangy powder), tamarind and jamun around town and his son deals in scrap. "I make Rs 200-250 a day while he manages between Rs 75-125," Shafiq said.

From meat-selling, Shafiq used to earn Rs 400-500 within three hours. "The meat, fresh from the slaughterhouse, would sell quickly. We don't have refrigeration, so I would only buy as much as I could sell easily. Any leftovers, the family would use," he said.

The Prevention and Control of Pollution (Uniform Consent Procedure) Rules of 1999 list slaughterhouses under the "red" heavily-polluting category with potential to adversely impact public health.

In Uttar Pradesh, as in the rest of the country, a range of agencies regulate slaughterhouses. Foremost among these is the state-level pollution regulator, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), which gives a "no-objection certificate" for setting up a slaughterhouse after getting a go-ahead from the top district administrator. Once a slaughterhouse is set up, the UPPCB monitors its functioning to ensure pollution control measures are in place.

If the facility is for export, approval is also required from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). Slaughterhouses must also follow the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, as well as obtain a license from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to ensure all animal-derived food is healthy.

Many slaughterhouses have been accused of violating norms, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is hearing a string of petitions seeking their upgradation or closure. In May 2015, hearing one such petition, the NGT ordered all slaughterhouses running without requisite permits in Uttar Pradesh to be shut.

When the new BJP government assumed office in March this year, it began to take action on the NGT order.

Both private and government-run slaughterhouses were shut, having failed to upgrade despite the 2015 NGT order, a previous Supreme Court order and reminders by the UPPCB.

According to the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959, the construction and maintenance of public markets and slaughterhouses is an obligatory duty of the local corporation.

Of the 77 APEDA-approved slaughterhouses in India, 44 are in Uttar Pradesh. In addition to these, municipal corporations and nagar panchayats (city councils) run numerous abattoirs to meet the domestic meat requirement.

While India registered a 3.33 per cent decline in livestock population during 2007-12, Uttar Pradesh saw a 14 per cent growth, indicating the economy's dependence on livestock and allied businesses.

"I support modernisation, but the government should have made an alternative arrangement before closing it down. A gradual phase-out would have helped everyone," Shafiq said.

At the Sunday cattle market in Tirwa village, about 15 km from Kannauj city in central Uttar Pradesh, very few transactions were taking place as farmers were not getting the price they were quoting.

This was largely due to enforcement of the NGT order. The more recent central government ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle markets -- currently on hold following a Supreme Court order -- is yet to be implemented on the ground.

"Last year it was notebandi, and this year it is meat bandi that has reduced demand," said Arjun Singh, a farmer from Achanakapur village. He was seeking Rs 50,000 for a young female buffalo, but was getting offers of Rs 32,000.

Since the slaughterhouse crackdown, farmers are unable to fetch good prices even for milch cattle because buyers are worried they will be unable to resell.

"What if a buffalo is unable to breed? No other farmer would touch it. Should we keep spending on its fodder or sell it to a slaughterhouse? Why can't the government understand this simple logic?" asked a farmer at a cattle market in Chaubepur village near Kanpur.

Brajal Kumar Dwivedi, a young farmer from Jaisinghpura village, wanted to sell a mother-calf buffalo pair for Rs 90,000. He was getting offers of up to Rs 70,000. "I bought it last year for Rs 80,000 from Sakipur mandi, had it fed and impregnated, and am still unable to get the price I paid," he said.

The Pechbagh hide market in Kanpur, the largest in India for buffalo skin, has also seen trade decline over the last couple of years.

"Fear of cow vigilantes who beat up transporters even if they are transporting only buffalo skins has scared away suppliers," said Akhtar Hussein Akhtar, a godown owner at Pechbagh and an office-bearer of the local Hide Merchants' Association.

Akhtar explained that large, mechanised slaughterhouses sell hides directly to big tanneries, and only those engaged in skinning dead animals sell to merchants in Pechbagh. "[Earlier] most of the supply came from government abattoirs while weekly supply from villages filled the gap.

Supply has gone down from 10,000 hides per month to 500. "We have also reduced our employee strength from eight workers to just one now," he said.

According to the All India Meat and Livestock Exporters' Association, Uttar Pradesh's meat industry employs nearly 2.5 million people. But there's a stark difference between the formal market consisting mostly of wealthy exporters and the informal community of butchers, meat suppliers and those trading in animal byproducts.

While the former own mechanised, well-equipped slaughterhouses that usually have the requisite permits, the informal market is dependent on government-run abattoirs, most of which have now been shut down for failing to comply with rules.

The crackdown has therefore skewed the market in favour of big companies, which have thus far been engaged in export of buffalo meat.

"Big companies are making tidy profits as the cattle market has tanked due to no demand from butchers. On the other hand, shortage of meat in the market has caused its price to increase. So, the companies can buy animals at a low price and sell meat at a premium," Dharmendra Malik, General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh branch of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), told IndiaSpend.

Businesses are happy to tap the market not open to them earlier. "People are not very keen on the frozen meat we supply as they are used to getting raw and fresh meat from the city abattoirs. But that option is not available now. We are currently supplying 3-4 tonnes of buffalo meat per day to Kanpur and hope to scale it up to 30-35 tonnes," Abhishek Arora, owner of AOV Exports Limited, told IndiaSpend.

Butchers, however, are unhappy at being compelled to buy from large companies. "Around a fourth of our earnings come from selling of waste material from slaughter. Entering into an agreement with the company means to let go of this profit," said Shahabuddin Qureshi, General Secretary of Qureshi Foundation, an association of butchers and meat-sellers in Lucknow.

Many said an ideal solution would be to set up an alternative slaughtering site away from habitation until the government abattoirs are modernised.

"When an animal is slaughtered, around 20 people get work. There are the meat sellers, those who trade in animal skin, those selling bones and hooves, and then there are people who process the fat for sale to soap factories," said Ahmad of Jamiat-ul-Quresh.

"Now the meat sellers with licenced shops are the only ones able to do some business. All others have been rendered jobless."

(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Manu Moudgil is a freelance consultant with India Water Portal. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org)
Cairo, July 15 : At least eight civilians were killed on Saturday when the US-led international coalition bombarded the northeastern Syrian city of Al-Mayadin, held by the Islamic State terror group, according to a war monitoring group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the airstrikes struck several houses near a school, Efe news reported.

Among the fatalities were six minors and two women, although the UK-based watchdog said the figure could rise because several people had sustained serious injuries and others were still under the rubble.

Since May 22, the SOHR has documented the deaths of 244 civilians in bombings allegedly carried out by the coalition in Al-Mayadin.
Beijing, July 15 : China's late Nobel Peace laureate and dissident Liu Xiaobo was cremated in a private, muted ceremony in Shenyang city under official watch on Saturday.

The government allowed only his widow Liu Xia and a few other mourners to bid farewell to the man who was also the country's only Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Liu Xiaobo's ashes were later scattered into the sea in a simple ceremony, ensuring that there would be no grave on land to serve as a magnet for protest against the Communist Party, the Guardian reported.

The dissident, who had been serving a 11-year prison term for "subversion", died of liver cancer earlier this week. His wife had been under house arrest since 2010. However, the Chinese authorities said that she was "free".

The couple's close friends and relatives said Liu Xia was under surveillance and that they were unable to contact her.

At 6.30 a.m. on Saturday, Liu Xia was the first to bid farewell to her husband to the rhythm of Mozart's Requiem, then the activist's relatives and friends bowed three times in front of his body during the ceremony.

The Communist regime and the late dissident's brother Liu Xiaoguang claimed that the family decided to cremate Liu Xiaobo and hold a simple funeral for him.

Later, at a government organised press conference, the activist's brother also thanked the ruling Communist Party for its "humanity".

This was in sharp contrast to the activist's friends and his wife, who said relations between the brothers had been severed years ago, and claimed the government had made the decision to hold the private funeral and cremation.

Regarding Liu Xiaobo's widow, Shenyang Information Office spokesperson Zhang Qingyang said that "the Chinese government will protect her legitimate rights in accordance with the law."

Asked if Liu Xia could travel overseas as she previously requested, Zhang said she was free but as she was "in great sorrow" over the death of her husband, the authorities respected her wish not to be disturbed, Efe news quoted Zhang as saying.

Many close friends of Liu Xia warned she is in deteriorating health, having spent almost seven years under house arrest despite not being charged with any crime.

The late dissident's lawyer Jared Genser said Liu Xia had been held "incommunicado" since her husband's death, BBC reported.

On Friday, the committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize said it was "deeply worried" about her and urged China to free her.

The activist's friends voiced their rage and disgust over the "hastily arranged" funeral. "This is too evil, too evil," the exiled author Liao Yiwu told the Guardian. "They are a bunch of gangsters."

Artist Ai Weiwei said he suspected the authorities had decided to bury Liu at sea to deny his supporters "a physical memorial site". "It is a play," he said.

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his non-violent struggle for human rights in China.
New Delhi, July 16 : The stage is all set for the election of the 14th President of India on Monday in a contest in which National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind has a clear edge in the electoral college over the opposition nominee Meira Kumar.

The total value of votes of the electoral college is 10,98,903, and the NDA candidate is slated to cross the halfway-mark and get about 63 per cent votes.

Kovind, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has the backing of all the party's allies besides several regional parties, while Kumar has been fielded by the Congress and some major opposition parties in what they call an "ideological battle" against the ruling party.

Both Kovind and Kumar are from the Dalit community and have canvassed hard by visiting states to seek support of legislators.

All arrangements have been completed for the presidential election, and polling will take place in Parliament House and respective state assemblies between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Elected members of both houses of Parliament and assemblies in states, including the National Capital Region of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry, are eligible to vote.

Counting of votes in the election will be taken up on July 20 and the result will be known the same evening -- four days before the end of the term of President Pranab Mukherjee. The new President is set to take over on July 25.

Officials said that polling in Parliament House will take place in Room Number 62 and MPs will vote according to tables allocated to states they represent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi would vote on table number 6 as they are all MPs from Uttar Pradesh, the officials said.

They added that there will be six tables. MLAs, who have chosen to vote in Delhi, would do so from table number one.

In the electoral arithmetic, Kovind, a former Bihar Governor, has a distinct advantage over his rival, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, with parties like Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD), who are not allied with BJP, deciding to vote for him.

The Janata Dal-United has about 1.91 per cent of electoral college votes, while the BJD of Odisha has 2.99 per cent. In addition, the ruling TRS in Telangana (two per cent), different factions of AIADMK (5.39 per cent), YSR Congress (1.53 per cent) have also announced their backing for Kovind.

The announcement of Kovind's candidature created some fissures in the opposition with the JD-U announcing its support for him against the stand of its Bihar allies -- Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress.

Though the Aam Aadmi Party has declared its support to Kumar, its leader H.S. Phoolka, who has handled several 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, has said he would abstain as he cannot vote with the Congress.

The electoral college for the election comprises elected members of the two houses of Parliament as also of legislative assemblies. Election will be by secret ballot and in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.

There are no whips issued in the presidential election. Kumar has appealed to members of the electoral college to "heed the inner voice of conscience" while casting their vote.

Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra is the Returning Officer for the election.

The value of vote of an MP is 708 while that of an MLA varies from state to state depending on the size of its population.

Officials said that each polling station has been given a specified number of ballot papers. While MPs will be given green ballot paper, MLAs will be given one that is pink.

The electors have to mark the ballot only with a particular pen given to them at the polling station along with the ballot paper.

In the last presidential election in 2012, Pranab Mukherjee had defeated P.A. Sangma and got over 69 per cent votes.

Officials said that ballot papers have reached the polling stations and requests made by the members of the electoral college about their choice of exercising ballot had been taken into consideration.

The MPs have also been informed of their serial number in the electoral college.

The officials said that after end of voting, ballot boxes will start arriving in Parliament House from Monday evening and will be kept in a strong room. The Assistant Returning Officers will also furnish an account of the total votes cast in their states.

They said that the seal of ballot boxes will be opened on Aug 20 in the presence of representatives of the two candidates and the observers of the poll panel. The winning candidate will be given a certificate by the Returning Officer.

Officials said that special security arrangements have been made to see that the ballot papers reach Parliament directly from the airport.

(Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in)
Agartala, July 17 : Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday informed Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar that he will hold talks with a tribal party on Tuesday regarding the demand for a separate tribal state, an official said.

The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) has been blockading National Highway-8, the lifeline of Tripura, and the lone railway line since July 10, leading to shortages of essential commodities, fuel, food grain and other goods of basic necessities.

"On the directions of Union Home Minister (Rajnath Singh), Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Monday talked to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and told him he would talk to IPFT leaders on Tuesday afternoon," the Home Department official said.

Rijiju is said to have conveyed to the Chief Minister that Rajnath Singh had authorised him to talk to IPFT leaders staying in Delhi.

Rajnath Singh had assured Sarkar on phone on Sunday that he would look into the issue of ongoing road and rail blockade by the tribal party.

IPFT General Secretary Mevar Kumar Jamatia and the front's youth wing President Dhananjoy Tripura have been camping in New Delhi since Thursday.

The IPFT has been agitating since 2009 for a separate state to be carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq.km. area, housing 12,16,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's 37-lakh population.

Most political parties, including the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura have rejected the IPFT's demand, saying it is not practical to divide the already small state.

State Congress President Birajit Sinha said on Monday that the IPFT's separate state demand would create ethnic turmoil and communal riot in the otherwise peaceful state.

BJP leader Sunil Deodhar said on Monday that the situation arising out of the IPFT's road and rail blockade should be handled by the state's Left Front government as the state's Left parties are responsible for the prevailing situation.

The BJP leader said that from Tuesday the party would launch an agitation, including 'gherao' (forcibly confining) of the Chief Minister,against the Left Front government's failure to deal with the road blockade issue.

On Sunday, Chief Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan and Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla and other officials talked to a delegation of the IPFT and urged them to withdraw the blockade.

However, the IPFT leaders, led by party President Narenda Chandra Debbarma, asserted they would continue with their agitation till the Centre held out a positive assurance on their demand.
The partnership of National Safety Council Nebraska, OSHA, Nebraska Grain and Feed Association, and Grain Handling Safety Coalition share one mission: To prevent injuries and save lives through education and advocacy.

As part of this partnership, two safety education workshops focused on grain handling will take place in Nebraska. The Illinois Grain Handling Safety Coalition will provide training through a Susan B. Harwood grant. Cost for each workshop is $35, which includes all materials, instruction, and lunch.

The first session will be held in Omaha on Aug. 23. This workshop is a Train the Trainer session focused on grain safety and training of a team. This training will focus on building confidence and provide attendees with current safety standard skills to deliver training to others as a training leader and safety advocate. It will help to increase the understanding of safety and evaluate the best techniques to use while on the job. Topics covered in the class include safe grain handling and storage, grain bin entry hazards, lifeline protection systems, lockout/tagout, confined space hazards, and more.

The second session is Aug. 24 in Grand Island, and will review real-world scenarios regarding lock-out/tag-out and sweep augers, grain bin entry hazards, and safe handling and storage of grain. This training is designed to help those working with grain understand the vitality of safety in their workplace and how safety exercises can be carried out.

For more information or to register for the workshops, visit www.safenebraska.org

Nebraska Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of NebraskaLincoln cooperating with Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.
New Delhi, July 17 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu after he was named the NDA candidate for the Vice President's election on August 5.

"I have known Venkaiah Naidu for years. I have always admired his hard work and tenacity. (He is) a fitting candidate for the office of Vice President," Modi tweeted.

"A farmer's son, Venkaiah Naidu brings years of experience in public life and is admired across the political spectrum," Modi said.

He said Naidu's experience as Parliamentary Affairs Minister will help him discharge the important role of the Rajya Sabha Chairperson when he is elected.

BJP leader and Information and Broadcasting Minister Naidu was unanimously picked as the National Democratic Alliance nominee for Vice President's election. Naidu will file nomination at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said it was matter of happiness that a "son of a farmer" will become the next Vice President.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said Naidu was like an institution and his nomination as Vice Presidential candidate was a matter of happiness.
Bengaluru, July 17 : The Karnataka government on Monday transferred Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons D. Roopa, days after she charged AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala with bribing senior jail officials to get VIP treatment in the Bengaluru jail.

Roopa's sudden transfer has sparked outrage in the city jail with a section of inmates staging protest against the government move and demanding it be revoked.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) criticised the officer's transfer and accused state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of protecting criminals and high-profile convicts like Sasikala in the jail.

Siddaramaiah holds the Home portfolio after the ruling party's state unit president G. Parameshwara quit the post in June on the Congress High Command's advice.

The state government also transferred Director General of Police (Prisons) H.N. Satyanarayana Rao without a fresh posting, as he is set to retire this month-end.

Roopa and Rao were engaged in a public spat since June 12 over the alleged privileges given to Sasikala, lodged in the women's cell of the central jail since February 15.

An order from the Department of Personnel said Roopa, an Indian Police Service officer of 2000 Karnataka batch, had been "transferred with immediate effect".

She has been posted as DIG and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in Bengaluru in place of A.S.N. Murthy, who will now be Additional Director of Police, Forest Cell, Bengaluru.

N.S. Megharikh, IPS, Additional Director General of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Bengaluru, was posted as Additional Director General of Police, Prisons, to succeed Satyanarayana Rao.

Besides Roopa and Rao, Director General of Police (Intelligence) M.N. Reddi has been transferred as DGP of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in place of Megharikh, while Amit Paul, IGP, Intelligence, will hold additional charge of DGP, Intelligence, in Bengaluru.

The transfers of Rao and Roopa came on a day when a one-man inquiry commission, headed by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar, was to begin probe into the charges of corruption and irregularities in the city's central jail.

Justifying the transfers and new postings of the six senior IPS officers, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office later said the government had asked Rao to proceed on leave and transferred Roopa to the new post to maintain the sanctity of the inquiry process and safeguard it from interference.

"The government is committed to allow the inquiry to proceed unhindered so that evidence based on truth emerges. Strict action will be taken to bring the guilty to book," asserted the statement from the State Secretariat.

After Roopa submitted two reports to the government on the illegal activities, including supply of narcotics, gambling and drinking in the prison, Rao submitted a report on Sunday countering his deputy's charges.

Roopa had alleged that Sasikala, jailed for corruption, was getting special privileges as she had bribed senior officials. Rao denied the charges.

Noting that the public conduct of both the IPS officers (Rao and Roopa) was not in the spirit of officers abiding by service rules and protocol, the statement said they both went to the media and discussed the case even after an inquiry was ordered on July 13, a day after Roopa submitted her first report on the irregularities in the prison to state Director General of Police R.K. Dutta.

"The interaction of both police officers with the media during the course of inquiry was unwarranted, and amounted to a serious violation of the All India Services Conduct Rules," pointed out the statement.

"In view of this (service rule) violation, the government issued notice to both the officers. The subsequent visit by the concerned officers to the Central Prison on July 15 witnessed disturbance emerging in the jail premises," added the statement.

Roopa submitted her second report to Dutta on July 15, alleging tampering of jail records and deleting a part of video footage from the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the central prison.

The commission has been asked to submit a preliminary report of findings in a week and a final report in a month.
New Delhi, July 18 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave the Information and Broadcasting portfolio to Smriti Irani, a day after M. Venkaiah Naidu, who was handling the Ministry, was picked to be the NDA's Vice Presidential candidate.

The Urban Development Ministry, which was also being handled by Naidu, has been given to Narendra Singh Tomar.

"M. Venkaiah Naidu has resigned from his ministerial responsibilities. The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to Smriti Irani," Modi tweeted.

"Additional charge of Moud_India (Ministry of Urban Development) has been given to Tomar," he said.

Irani already heads the Textile Ministry, while Tomar is in charge of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
Washington, July 18 : The US has said that Iran is continuing to comply with the terms of the nuclear deal that curbed Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions' relief, the media reported.

But the Trump administration on Monday coupled its certification to Congress of Iran's compliance with a blistering critique of the country's non-nuclear activities, saying Iran is "unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the deal, reports CNN.

The US is also considering additional sanctions against Iranian entities to target the country's ballistic missile programme and state sponsorship of terrorism, two items not covered by the deal, a senior administration official told CNN.

"The Secretary of State and the President intends to emphasise that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to the US and to regional security," the official said, "Moving forward, the administration intends to employ a strategy that will address the totality of Iran's malign behaviour and not just focus on the nuclear deal."

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier on Monday that Iran has received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration and confirmed he has had no contact with his American counterpart, Rex Tillerson, CNN reported.

Zarif argued the US's failure to build on the foundation of trust created by the Iran nuclear deal suggests "US hostility to Iran will not end".

While he has never spoken with Tillerson, Zarif said lower-level talks on the implementation of the Iran deal continue.
London, July 18 : London Mayor Sadiq Khan has reiterated his opposition to US President Donald Trump being afforded an elaborate state visit when he comes to the UK next year, the media reported.

"State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the US has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet," Khan told CNN in an interview on Monday.

Last week, the White House confirmed that Trump's state visit to the UK has been delayed until 2018.

Khan, the first Muslim mayor of London, did not, however, rule out meeting with the US President, if offered the chance.

"If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role," he told CNN.

"If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump."

Khan and Trump's relationship got off to a famously bumpy start over Khan's opposition to Trump's decision to bar from the US people from a list of mainly Muslim countries.

Then, after a terror attack on London Bridge last month that left eight people dead, Khan's reassurance to Londoners that there was "no reason to be alarmed" by the increased police presence drew an extraordinary rebuke from Trump on Twitter.

Khan responded by saying his remarks had been taken out of context because he had been referring to the enhanced police presence, reports CNN.

Earlier this year, more than 1.8 million people signed a petition seeking to block Trump's UK trip over fears that it would "cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen".
New York, July 18 : Veteran actor and former censor board chief Anupam Kher, who plays a pivotal role in Madhur Bhandarkar's "Indu Sarkar" -- mired in controversy over its political flavour, has described the current scenario of the CBFC as "ridiculous".

"What is happening in the censor board, it's not only unfortunate, it's ridiculous," Anupam told IANS here on the sidelines of the recently concluded International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend and Awards here.

"We are in the 21st century. I think people are responsible enough to not do some things which they don't think they need to do. Yes, we have to have a sense of responsibility when we are creating something.

"But I think we should have the liberty to create what we want to create," added the actor, who had served as censor board chief from 2003 to 2004.

"Indu Sarkar" is a hard-hitting cinematic offering from National Award winning filmmaker Bhandarkar, whose idea behind making the movie was to tell the country's youth about the Emergency period that had a great impact on the nation.

For his film, he has modelled characters on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi -- much to the dismay of Congress representatives who have been actively protesting the film's release.

To make matters worse for Bhandarkar, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has suggested 12 cuts and two disclaimers, including removal of words like RSS and Akali from "Indu Sarkar".

But the filmmaker is fighting it out. After a verdict from the Revising Committee, he plans to take it to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which had come to rescue of "Lipstick Under My Burkha" recently.

Kher said: "The government had instituted a board under the leadership of Mr Shyam Benegal. It certainly needs to be implemented and incorporated in the rule book of the Indian censor board.

"The present rule book is very old. It has been modified here and there but it needs to be revisited completely," said the 62-year-old actor, who has been in the film industry for over three decades.

Does he feel this constant brouhaha over films with a political tinge making filmmakers increasing wary about exploring the genre?

"It's happening in any case... You cannot tell people, 'Make this'. People are making what they want to make. In fact, right now I feel this is the golden era of Indian cinema... You can make what you want to make.

"Also, there's a need to ignore negativity. We notice it too much."

Besides, he feels that a "united voice of the industry" -- much like what was raised before the release of the controversial drama "Udta Punjab" -- needs to be heard, and the troublemakers need to be ignored.

(The writer's trip was at the invitation of IIFA organisers. Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in)
Mumbai, July 18 : Actrors Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao on Tuesday released the first look of their upcoming film "Bareilly Ki Barfi", which has quirky and vibrant feel to it.

The first poster showed Kriti holding a book, titled "Bareilly Ki Barfi", over her head against a backdrop of colourful flowers.

"I cant believe what I've just read? 'Bareilly Ki Barfi'...Just cant wait for you to read it..Here's a glimpse," Kriti captioned the poster on Twitter.

Rajkummar shared the poster and wrote: "This book changed my life. Here's a glimpse of 'Bareilly Ki Barfi'."

Ayushmann wrote: "How did you manage to grab this one Kriti Sanon? How? This book is too special. 'Bareilly Ki Barfi'."

Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, "Bareilly Ki Barfi" is a romantic comedy rooted in the subculture of the north Indian city Bareilly.

The film is slated for a release on August 18.
Chennai, July 18 : Well-known cinematographer P.C. Sreeram, known for his work in films such as "Ishq" and "Remo", has been roped in for actor Nivin Pauly's next yet-untitled Tamil film.

To be produced by R.D. Raja, the film will be directed by debutant Prabhu Radhakrishnan.

"He is very excited to be part of the project. My producer and I approached him with the script which he really liked when I narrated. He understood the scope for cinematography and immediately agreed to come on board," Prabhu told IANS.

This will be Sreeram's second film with Raja after Tamil romantic-comedy "Remo".

Asked why he is collaborating with a Malayalam actor instead of someone from Tamil filmdom, he said, "Thanks to 'Premam', his popularity has grown beyond Malayalam industry. He's very popular among Tamil audiences as well."

Although tight-lipped about the genre of the film, Prabhu confirmed the project will roll from January 2018.
Beijing, July 18 : China on Tuesday said foreign diplomats in Beijing were "shocked" over the "illegal trespass" into Chinese territory by Indian troops.

Beijing again asked India to withdraw its troops and said it should not take the "illegal trespass as a policy to realise its political target.

"The illegal trespass by the Indian border personnel has drawn extensive attention from the international community and many foreign diplomatic missions in China said they were shocked by this," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

"We also stressed that the facts are very clear in this incident. The Sikim section on China-India boundary is mutually recognised by the two sides," Lu added.

"This time the Indian border personnel illegally trespassed into Chinese territory."

Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a month-long stand-off at Doklam in the Sikkim section.
Beijing, July 18 : China is battle ready and not afraid to go to war with India in an "all-out confrontation" along the entire disputed border, a Chinese daily warned on Tuesday.

A commentary in the state-run Global Times said China must deploy more troops along the winding border with India and speed up road construction in Doklam where the two sides have been engaged in a month-long standoff.

It also suggested that New Delhi triggered the dispute as it was worried over China's rapid economic rise.

The stand-off began when Indian troops stopped Chinese soldiers from building a road in Doklam, an area disputed by China and Bhutan.

"China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation," said the commentary by Duo Mu.

"Within China, there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately while Indian public opinion is clamouring for war with China. However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiralling out of control."

The writer said one important reason that prompted India to trigger the border dispute was its worry over China's economic development.

"China has risen quickly to be the world's No. 2 economy. As time is on China's side, New Delhi is deeply concerned with China's rapid rise. Provocation at the border reflects India's worry and attempt to sound out China."

The commentary said China doesn't recognise the land under India's actual control as Indian territory and accused New Delhi of "poisoning" the atmosphere for border negotiations.

"China doesn't advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation.

"China must be prepared for future conflicts and confrontation. China can take further counter-measures along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC. The 3,500-km border has never been short of disputes. Since the 1962 border war, the Indian side has repeatedly made provocations."

China and India have a 3,488-km border, of which 220 km falls in the Sikkim sector where Doklam is situated. Doklam is at a tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan.

China calls Doklam its own, a claim contested by India and Bhutan.

The commentary comes after the People's Liberation Army conducted a live-fire drill in Tibet, which borders India.

"According to the Indian media, Indian troops are stationed at the border area and have set up logistical support. They claim India will continue the confrontation with China at the Sikkim section of the border until the Chinese troops withdraw."

"In response, China must continue strengthening border construction and speed up troop deployment and construction in the Doklam area. These are legitimate actions of a sovereign country.

"If India plans to devote more resources in the border area, then so be it. China can engage in a competition with India over economic and military resources deployment in the border area.

"With growing national strength, China is capable of deploying resources in remote border areas."

The commentary said road and rail links in the Tibetan area had been extended close to the border with India, Nepal and Bhutan.

"It's a competition of military strength as well as a competition of overall economic strength."
The Presbyterian Church of Fremont will be hosting a community pool party from 6-9 p.m. Sunday at Ronin Pool in Fremont.

The pool will be open to everyone from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The event also will include a raffle, games for kids, $1 concessions and live music.

The church has invited kids from the Summer Lunch Program as well as from the Hope Center for Kids, but everyone in the community is welcome. Concession proceeds will benefit youth missions.
Le Puy-en-velay (France), July 18 : British rider Chris Froome has said that he will not gift any seconds to his rivals in the Tour de France.

After 15 stages, Froome (Sky) is the 2017 Tour de France overall race leader, as he recorded 64 hours and 40.21 minutes, 18 seconds ahead of Team Astana's Italian rider Fabio Aru, reports Efe news agency.

"I'm certainly not going to give any seconds away for free, but as I had a bad day in the Pyrenees, I could have a bad day in the Alps. I'm feeling better and better as the race goes on," Froome said on Monday, the second rest day of the 2017 Tour.

"Even with yesterday's stage, I felt pretty good, and hopefully, that's a sign of timing things well and coming into the Tour really fresh. I hope that this third week I'll be at my best," the defending champion added.

The 32-year-old Froome said that he was expecting from day one that this year's Tour would be the biggest challenge of his career and the toughest fight.

"Each rival presents a different threat. If you look at Fabio Aru, he won the first mountain top finish on Planche des Belles Filles. He perhaps didn't have the best day a couple of days ago, but he's been strong in the third week before, and we'll have to see how he goes," he continued.

"Romain Bardet has always been strong in the last week, and he has the team to back him up. So, of course, as we saw yesterday, he put me under a lot of pressure yesterday and we really had to use the whole team to keep control of the situation," the Nairobi-born Froome said.
Srinagar, July 18 : A soldier shot dead an Army Major on Tuesday following an altercation over the use of a mobile phone in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said. Both the Army and police have launched an investigation.

Major Shekhar Thapa of 8 Rashtriya Rifles was killed by a fellow soldier in Uri sector of the Line of Control (LoC) which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the police said.

A soldier who had been told not to use the mobile phone while on duty fired several shots at the officer, police sources added. Major Thapa died instantly.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said in a statement: "In an unfortunate incident at one of the forward posts in Uri sector, an Army officer was killed in firing by one of the jawans after an altercation.

"The officer succumbed to his injuries on the spot. Further investigations by the Army and police are underway."

Fratricidal killings have occurred in the past as well among security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Some of the reasons cited for such incidents are long periods of separation from families, working under constant stress and lack of recreational facilities for the troopers.

Counsellors engaged by security forces to address the problem have also cited lack of command and control among the deployed forces as a reason.
Beijing, July 18 : The remains from a mummified Buddhist master from India have been donated by a temple to the local government in northern China's Hebei province.

The remains are said to belong to Buddhist master Cixian Sanzang in the Khitan Empire or Liao Dynasty (916-1125 CE).

"Underneath the gold foil and incense ashes of the statue, teeth from the upper jaw, as well as the ribs and the spine were well preserved, including even the joints," Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Yongqing, a senior orthopedic doctor with the No. 1 People's Hospital of Wuan city, as saying.

The remains were donated by Dinghui temple in Huoshui town to Wuan's cultural relics protection institute.

Sanzang was from India and went to Khitan, translating many important sutras. After his death, his body was kept in soil and paint, the report said.

Wang Wei, head of the Wuan city's cultural relics protection institute, said the remains are quite precious.

"Due to the poor conditions for preservation at the institute, they will be kept in the temple at the moment," he added.
New Delhi, July 18 : Consumers across the country have unanimously hailed the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday, stressing the need for launching awareness exercises to overcome certain issues.

"Even though there are some initial reservations among certain sections of trading community during the transition phase following GST rollout, the consumers across India have, by and large, unanimously hailed the One Nation, One Tax GST reform introduced by the central government," Singh said here.

The minister, however, stressed for launching awareness exercise by the government and other agencies to overcome certain issues related to the new taxation measure.

"The GST has been welcomed by all sections of society, particularly the middle and lower classes. (But) there are certain initial issues, which are more of transitory nature and would be overcome in course of time through the mass awareness exercise launched by the government and other agencies."

Singh's remarks after a meeting with the National President of Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI), Manas Kumar Thakur.

Thakur informed that his organisation had opened a website (http://www.icmai.in) which contained a help desk page that could be accessed by anybody from anywhere for their queries about GST.

In his meeting with the minister, the ICAI President disclosed that, on an average, there were at least 50 to 60 important queries being received online, the response to which was being provided in a time-bound manner within 24 hours, with the help of 60 experts spread all over the country.

Singh appreciated the services rendered by ICAI and other similar organisations which had a stake in the GST implementation.

He also suggested that like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institute of Cost Accountants of India could also introduce specialized courses for its members to deal with the new nuances related to the GST.
Sydney, July 18 : A second Australian senator, who recently gained notoriety for breastfeeding her baby in Parliament, resigned from her federal seat on Tuesday as she held dual citizenship.

The Canadian-born environmental campaigner, 40, said she just found that she was ineligible to serve in office as she also holds Canadian citizenship, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under Australian constitutional law, a candidate holding dual citizenship is not allowed to run for Parliament.

The Greens Party senator, who moved to Australia when she was 11 months old and has served in the upper house since 2011, fought back tears as she fronted the media at a press conference.

"I have been under the impression all my life that I was not a Canadian citizen," Larissa Waters said.

"I thought that when I was naturalised as a baby, that was it, I was just an Australian."

"I have lived here almost all my life and I was devastated to discover the law had changed a week after I was born and that I needed to have taken active steps to renounce what was my Canadian citizenship, which I was unaware of."

The political blunder was sparked by another Greens senator, Scott Ludlam, after he resigned just days ago for the same reason.

Born in neighbouring New Zealand, the 47-year-old said he was also unaware of his dual citizenship and was forced to resign after serving more than a decade in the senate.

When Waters saw the events unfold, she decided to check the status of her own eligibility.

"I had confirmation by the Canadian High commission yesterday," Waters said.

"It's pretty weird that someone that's born in a country and leaves as a baby and has never been back, with two Australian parents turns out they have citizenship in that country, so I hope people will understand this is an honest mistake," Waters said.

Her replacement in the upper house will be 52-year-old Greens member Andrew Bartlett, who has also been plagued by controversy.

In 2003, Bartlett was leader of the now defunct Democratic Party and resigned over alcohol-related health problems, after he allegedly assaulted and hurled abuse at a female government senator.

With 23 other foreign-born politicians serving in Australia, it is quite feasible to think there may be more parliamentarians susceptible to the strict dual-citizenship laws.

As for Waters, "I've spent my entire life protecting the environment and working for equality for women and I'm not going to stop now," she said.
New Delhi, July 18 : Ragas are one of the most prominent musical heritages of India but one always falls short of expressions for explaining this terminology. An eminent musicologist has now described ragas as a "formless form".

Deepak S. Raja, a sitar and surbahar exponent (Etawah Gharana) who has studied musicology under the guidance of eminent scholars elaborated that a Raga is formless because it represents only a possibility of an aesthetically coherent and emotionally satisfying manifestation. And it is also a form in itself because it has distinct and recognisable contours.

Exploring a musician's relationship with his art and how this relationship is shaped by the phenomenon of the raga, Raja spoke in detail while discussing the topic, "Perspective on Raga-ness" at the Kumar Gandharva Memorial Lecture Series organised by the Raza Foundation here on Sunday.

Raja, who is also the author of "The Raga-ness of Ragas: Ragas Beyond the Grammar" drew upon several aspects like defining ragas as a linguistic statement, its relationship with cultural memory and the notion of a raga as a transcendental entity to present a collage of perspectives that simplified the context of ragas.

He maintained that the communicative efficiency of a raga, which is a rule-based system of sounds, is often attributed to the receptivity of the listener as much as the competence of the performer. However, despite music's universal resonance, experts in linguistics have not granted the status of a language to music.

The reason for this, Raja felt, is because "the acceptance of music - any music - as a language rests largely on the proposition that music does not support the notion of 'lexical meaning'."

But in the present context of raga-ness, this objection can be questioned, he argued.

"Each raga qualifies almost entirely as a linguistic statement, and is understood by the members of the raga music community -- just as a statement in any spoken language is understood by its 'native' ethnic-linguistic community," he claimed.

Another aspect he touched upon was how magically a raga transforms itself into melodious compositions when performed by artists and how each time it manages to elicit a different response from the audience. "It draws on the cultural memory. The association of the sound patterns of a raga with their meaning reside in the collective unconscious, just as the association of words in a spoken or written language reside in the memory of the culture in which the language has evolved," he added.

In Hindustani and Western art music, music theorists share a divergent view when it comes to giving the status of the 'commanding form' to ragas and compositions (bandish). According to Raja, the proposition that which of the two plays a pivotal role in constructing a melody will always be debatable.

"In Western art music, American philosopher of art, Prof. Susanne Langer, accords the status of the commanding form to the composition because it is the composition which determines the entire process of invention and elaboration. Whereas Prof. Susheel Saxena argues that, in Hindustani music, the raga rightfully occupies this status," he reiterated.

Connecting all these perspectives together, Raja focused on the contributions of Hindustani proponent Kumar Gandharva, who was known not only for his unique voice but his refusal to be bound by the tradition of any gharana.

"He took Hindustani music closer to its origins in the song. He did so by circumventing the raga as the commanding form of performance; he freed his music from the formal aloofness of the major gharanas, all of which were the products of the colonial-feudal-elitist era," added the much acclaimed musicologist.

"He freed himself even from the notion of raga-ness in his bhajans, which remain in wide circulation even today. Also, in all his music, there is a calculated carelessness, which has often been attributed to his involvement with folk music," he noted.

This is why, Raja said, the notion of raga-ness cannot be meaningfully discussed without reference to the contribution of Kumar Gandharva. "Because of his comprehensive rebellion against the values that dominated Hindustani music at that time, he could have been dismissed as an insignificant maverick. But it was impossible to deny his musicianship, and the impact he made with his uncanny access to the soul of ragas. His music was not easy to understand. But he influenced the aesthetic values of successive generations".

The Raza Foundation's "Kumar Gandharva Memorial Lecture" is a running series, held at the India Habitat Centre in the Capital. The talk by Raja was the fourth in the series.

Over the past four years, the popular forum has witnessed conversations with eminent personalities and expert practitioners drawn from the world of ideas, literature, visual arts, performing arts, among other disciplines and traditions.
New Delhi, July 18 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said a patient from Pakistan-administered Kashmir who is seeking treatment in New Delhi for a liver tumour needed no recommendation from the Pakistan government for a medical visa because the territory is "an integral part of India".

Osama Ali, 24, who has been diagnosed with a liver tumour, had reportedly sought visa to travel to New Delhi for treatment. However, he has not been given a recommendation letter by Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs - a clause India has made mandatory for medical visas.

As ties between the two countries soured over various issues, including the death sentence on Kulbhushan Jadhav, India made Aziz's recommendation compulsory for Pakistani patients seeking medical visa to travel to the country.

Sushma Swaraj said patients from the parts of Kashmir under Pakistani control needed no such letters because the territory is part of India.

"PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him (Ali) visa. No letter required," the Minister tweeted.

Ali, who lives in Rawlakot of Pakistani Kashmir, is to get treatment at a private Delhi hospital where he has been suggested liver transplant.

Sushma Swaraj had earlier this month launched a scathing attack against Pakistan's top diplomat, questioning why he was hesitating to write recommendations for Pakistanis seeking medical treatment in India.

"I see no reason why should he hesitate to give his recommendation for nationals of his own country. I am sure Sartaj Aziz also has consideration for the nationals of his country," the Minister said in a series of tweets on July 10 in which she also raised the issue of alleged Indian spy Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan.

She said he had personally written to Aziz regarding the visa to Jadhav's mother Avantika who wanted to meet her son, who has been kept at an unknown military prison.
New Delhi, July 18 : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday accused Delhi University (DU) Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi of acting at the Centre's behest and trying not to constitute the DU governing bodies.

"As many as 12 DU colleges are fully funded by the Delhi government while 16 are partially funded. The tenure of their governing bodies ended in October 2016 but the new ones have not been constituted till now," AAP leader Ashutosh told the media here.

The AAP leader said though the DU was an autonomous institution, the Centre was trying to do what it had been doing to other autonomous institutions in the country.

"The Vice Chancellor is being pressurised by the Bharatiya Janata Party as the party leaders want to form governing bodies as per their wishes," he added.

Ashutosh said the VC should form the governing bodies as quickly as possible for the smooth functioning of various colleges.

AAP leader Sanjeev Jha said though a list of professors was sent by the Delhi government for the governing bodies, it was sent back by the VC's office after two months on the pretext that the list was not in tabular form.

Jha also alleged corruption in the university and urged the VC not to "ruin the future of students".
Kolkata, July 18 : Asia's first public planetarium, the MP Birla Planetarium here, has been upgraded after 52 years with the latest hybrid projection system from German optical giant Zeiss, at a cost of Rs 42 crore, officials said on Tuesday.

Equipped with state-of-the-art Skymaster Velvet projection system, full-dome digital projectors and an astro corner, the renovated planetarium will open its doors to the public from July 22.

"We have transformed the planetarium from only opto-mechanical to hybrid projection system. The contrast (resolution) of the projection system is 2,500,000:1. This is really high-end technology for India. It is basically an opto-mechanical projector capable of showing the night sky as it is seen naturally. There are accompanying nine hybrid resolution digital projectors that create an immersive impression of the cosmos," said observatory director Debiprosad Duari.

The observatory, inaugurated in 1963, was the second one to be opened in the Commonwealth after London.

According to Martin Wiechmann, Vice President of Strategic Business Unit Planetariums at Carl Zeiss, the planetarium's resolution is probably the highest in India.

"The system was customised as per the planetarium's needs. This may be the system with the highest resolution in India at the moment," Wiechmann told IANS.

In its 52 years of operation, the planetarium has hosted more than 25 million people and designed and presented over 300 astronomical shows.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who unveiled the new look of the planetarium, advocated inclusion of the observatory in the Indian and international tourist map as a "must-see" destination.
Panaji, July 18 : The Pune-based Central Water and Power Research station has been asked to recommend a solution for erosion of Goa's popular beaches, Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar told the Goa assembly on Tuesday.

"The major stresses on the beaches is referred to Central Water and Power Research Station in Pune who conduct model studies and recommend solutions which are implemented by the Water Resources Department," Palienkar said in a written reply to a question by Congress MLA Isidore Fernandes, adding efforts were on to stop erosion of sand along the state's coastline.

Goa's sandy shores attract more than four million tourists every year but the increased footfalls on the state's beaches and global warming have resulted in erosion of sand along the coast.

In a written reply, Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar also told the assembly that around Rs 3.03 crore was being spent for providing CCTV coverage of Miramar, Colva, Benaulim, Dona Paula and Palolem beaches.
The 2017 National Education Association (NEA) Student Program Student Leadership Conference Awards Banquet recently took place in Boston.

Members of the Student Education Association of Nebraska (SEAN)  NSEAs student program  took the stage multiple times to accept awards for work during the 2016-17 Association year. Nebraska students swept the social justice categories.

Outstanding State Student Leader was presented to state SEAN President Denton Beacom. The Wayne State College senior from Hooper was cited for his enthusiasm for his work in building student membership statewide; for leadership in planning two statewide student conferences; and for his work with the SEAN executive committee.

Beacom also organized the first-ever SEAN Lobby Day at the Legislature, and led a delegation of 27 members to the state capitol where they met with state senators and he testified against legislation that would reduce retirement benefits for new teachers hired after July 1, 2018.
Manila, July 18 : Hundreds of young students took to the streets here on Tuesday to slam the drug war initiated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Students from the all-girls Saint Scholastica College in Manila marched to show opposition to Duterte's brutal campaign against drug dealers and users, reports Efe news.

Christine Pinto, a Catholic nun at the school, said that almost 1,000 students aged nine to 16 joined the protest, though only those who secured permission from their parents joined in.

"We encourage them to make a statement but of course we need their parents' permission. This institute has always been for social justice. For the truth, for freedom and that's what we teach to our students," she said.

Many students carried cardboard placards with messages such as "Youth Resist", "Stop the killings" and "EJK (extrajudicial killings) is not OK".

Duterte, who was elected on a tough anti-crime platform, has faced wide-ranging criticism for his war on drugs, both from his compatriots and from foreign organisations.

Philippine government data released last month states that some 3,100 people linked to drug trafficking have been killed since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016.

However, Human Rights Watch puts the figure much higher at more than 7,000, and attributes the higher number to vigilantes acting with impunity.

But Duterte remains popular among Filipinos, with the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll released on July 10 showing some 78 per cent of Filipino adults approve of his performance.
Srinagar, July 18 : An Indian soldier was killed on Tuesday in firing by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammua and Kashmir's Kupwara district, official sources said.

Rifleman Vimal Finjani of Gorkha Rifles was killed when the Pakistan Army violated the 2003 ceasefire in Naugam sector of the LoC.

"The soldier was killed after being hit by sniper fire," a Defence Ministry source said here.

This is the second incident of a soldier's death in cross-border firing in two days.
New Delhi, July 18 : With electricity demand in India lagging behind the capacity addition and tariffs falling, producers are facing offtake issues that they have not already tied up through long-term power purchase agreements, according to an energy major.

"Right now, the power sector faces a challenging macro situation. In that, while there has been a lot of capacity addition in the last 4-5 years, demand has not grown enough to utilise this," JSW Energy MD and Chief Executive Prashant Jain told BTVi in an interview.

"Power demand has not grown because industrial growth is not picking up. Secondly, the government has launched an energy efficiency drive, which has also created a lot of mismatch between demand and supply," he said.

"On the merchant tariff side, prices have crashed from Rs 4 to around Rs 2.50 per unit," he added.

Jain explained that JSW Energy had tied up for the offtake of about 65 per cent of its power generation through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and was facing challenges about disposal of its remaining "untied capacity".

"We will tie up long-term PPAs in the hydro sector... so that from 65 per cent our tied up power goes up to 75 per cent. But for the balance 25 per cent, we don't have a visibility," he said.

In this connection, Jain said the central government's Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday) debt restructuring scheme for states' electricity distribution companies (discoms) had financially benefited the discoms.

"Besides, discoms can now secure power from exchanges on RTC (round the clock) basis at rates of between Rs 2.60 and Rs 2.90, which is also a challenge for us," he said.

The JSW Energy Chief Executive was also optimistic about long term PPAs picking up "in due course."

"Economic growth and the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) is picking up. Secondly, the government focus on low income housing... as also its focus on electrical mobility, all of this will hugely boost the demand for power in the coming years."

Regarding the company's debt and consolidation plans, Jain said that while it has a debt of Rs 13,500 crore as on March 31, 2017, JSW Energy's net worth is currently around Rs 10,700 crore.

"With a net debt to equity ratio of 1:29, we have a good balance sheet," he said.

The company has about 30,000 MW of power in "stranded capacity", meaning these are stressed assets, while power tariffs are normally ranging around Rs 2.50 and Rs 3 per unit, Jain pointed out.

"So, we have to see what kind of haircuts lenders are willing to take and there will be a revival of a lot of stranded capacity at that time," he said.

Both commercial banks and the Reserve Bank of India have been emphasising on addressing the bad loans issue because of their impact on profitability.

'Haircut' is one of the options to address the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs). In the context of loan recoveries, it is the difference between the actual dues from a borrower and the amount he settles with the bank.
Lucknow, July 18 : The Ministry of Civil Aviation does not have any information on the proposed privatisation of Air India, an RTI reply has revealed.

The Right to Information application was filed by Nutan Thakur, a social activist. She had requested the ministry to provide documents related to Air India's proposed divestment, including those exchanged between the ministry and different offices.

Chandra Kishore Shukla, Under Secretary in the ministry, however, informed her that the information sought is not available with the ministry in any material form, hence it shall be treated as "Nil information".

Earlier on July 11, S.K. Bajaj, an Air India official, had also said in an RTI reply that the carrier has not made any communication with any other officers nor has it received any communication from any of the departments in respect to its proposed divestment.

Nutan Thakur told IANS that she found this strange. "It is strange that the concerned ministry and the company seem to be out of the loop in the process," she said.

On June 28, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the Cabinet has given in-principle approval for Air India stake divestment.

"In-principle approval for Air India divestment has been given. The Civil Aviation Ministry's proposal for formation of a group under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister to decide the modalities of divestment process has also been accepted," he had said.
Ghaziabad, July 18 : A gang which stole mobile phones or bought old ones and sold them as new after changing their IMEI numbers has been busted here, police said on Tuesday, adding they had seized 779 mobile telephones.

Superintendent of Police Akash Tomar told the media that police also found tools and software the gang used in the crime.

When police raided their hideout, they found eight men engaged in changing the IMEI numbers.

A gang member said they bought a software from Gaffar Market in Delhi for Rs 10,000 which can remove the IMEI number of any mobile phone except those of Apple and Blackberry and install new ones.

Each such phone was then sold as new with a fresh and concocted IMEI number. The gang made Rs 7-8,000 on every phone sale.

"They had sold thousands of mobiles," Tomar said.

The gang members were identified as Chand Mohd, Akram, Kasif, Shanu, Gaurav, Manoj and Hari Om, all residents of Ghaziabad, and Afsar, a resident of Delhi.

Besides 779 mobile phones, the police seized two laptops, two data cables, two pen drives, a device containing software to remove and install IMEI number and a LED monitor.
Patna, July 18 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is likely to attend the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday evening here, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader said.

"Tejashwi Yadav will attend the cabinet meeting," legislator Lalit Yadav told the media. Three days ago, Tejashwi skipped an official function with Nitish Kumar in Patna.

This would be the second cabinet meeting after the crisis in the ruling Grand Alliance surfaced after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav on charges of corruption.

Sources in the ruling alliance on Tuesday said that leaders from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the RJD and Congress were in constant touch and trying to save the alliance.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the JD-U asked Tejashwi Yadav to rebut in detail the charges hurled at him.
New Delhi, July 18 : A court here on Tuesday reserved its order on framing of charges in four terror cases against suspected top Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant Yasin Bhatkal and others.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma said he will on August 1 deliver order on the 2010 Jama Masjid attack and two matters related to 2008 serial blasts.

Bhatkal, his aide Asadullah Akhtar, and other IM operatives are facing trial in various terror cases, including 2010 Jama Masjid attack and 2008 serial blasts cases.

On September 19, 2010, two bikers had fired at tourists at a gate of Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. Two Taiwanese visitors were injured. Also, there was a mild explosion from a bomb fitted in a car left in that area, the police said.

The police have registered two cases against various IM men, including module co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, its chief Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal conspiracy and some sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act.

Till now, the police have arrested around 25 persons for the cases. Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal are, however, on the run.

The court will also decide on framing of charges in two bomb blast cases -- in Karol Bagh and M-Block Market in Greater Kailash here.

Several bomb blasts had rocked the capital city on September 13, 2008, which left 26 dead and 133 persons injured.

Bhatkal, arrested along with Akhtar from the India-Nepal border, in August 2013, topped the Delhi Police list of 15 most wanted terrorists involved in bombings across the country.
Panaji, July 18 : Religious leaders like Sadhvi Saraswati, who deliver hate speeches in Goa, should be arrested and banned from visiting Goa, Deputy Speaker and BJP MLA Michael Lobo told the state assembly on Tuesday.

"Sadhvi Saraswati had said that beef-eaters should be hanged. Why do they come to Goa and make such statements? Police should act against her, or someone else will come and say something else. Who all would we be able to stop," Lobo asked during a discussion on the motion of thanks on the Governor's address.

"There should be a precedent. An FIR should be filed against anyone who gives hate speeches. They must be summoned to the police headquarters," Lobo said.

Madhya Pradesh-based Sadhvi Saraswati, who was in Goa to attend a four-day All India Hindu Convention, had said that those who eat beef should be hanged.

Lobo said that such "rabble rousers" should be banned from Goa on the lines of Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik.

"Such type of people should be banned from entering Goa, whoever it is... We have to have full control of all these things. We should not allow this. Those who want to disturb Goa, they have no place here," he said.

More than 30 per cent of the state's 1.5 million population comprises conventionally beef-eating minority communities.
New Delhi, July 18 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a nine-judge constitution bench the question whether right to privacy is a fundamental right on which hinges the challenge to the validity of the Aadhaar scheme.

Referring the matter to the larger bench, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar said, "... during the course of the hearing today, it seems that it has become essential for us to determine whether there is any fundamental right of privacy under the Indian Constitution."

"The determination of this question would essentially entail whether the decision recorded by this Court (in 1954) ...by an eight-Judge Constitution Bench, and also, ... by a six-Judge Constitution Bench (in 1962), that there is no such fundamental right, is the correct expression of the constitutional position," said the bench of five judges in their order on Tuesday.

Hearing by the nine-judge constitution bench would commence on Wednesday. Though the hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday itself, the possibility of its getting extended for another day is not being ruled out.

The court permitted both the sides the liberty to submit their written briefs.

Besides Chief Justice Khehar, other judges on the bench are Justice J. Chelameswar, Justice S.A. Bobde, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer.

The apex court said that the nine-judge bench will also examine the correctness of the position taken by an eight-judge bench in 1954, and subsequently by a six-judge bench in 1962.

The court said both in 1954 and 1962, the benches had held that privacy is a not a fundamental right.

However, after the mid-1970s, benches of two and three -judges had consistently taken the position that privacy is a fundamental right.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Chelameswar said the first issue that was required to be examined is the question whether privacy was a fundamental right or just a mere right.

The court was not impressed when Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the bench that the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the common law but not so in India as it is not there in the Constitution.

"It is illogical," Justice Chelameswar said, referring to Venugopal's submission.

The issue whether privacy is a fundamental right is pivotal to the challenge to the validity of the Aadhaar scheme. Various petitioners in a batch of petitions have contended that collection of personal information - like iris scan and fingerprints - under Aadhaar was violative of their right to privacy.

The apex court said after the nine-judge bench decides whether right to privacy was a fundamental right or not, then all matters relating to the Aadhaar scheme will go back to the original three-judge bench.

The last such hearing by a nine-judge constitution bench took place in 2016 in which the top court had upheld the entry tax on goods entering a town or a city (Octroi).

Prior to that, a nine-judge bench had in 2007 said that law falling under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution too can be examined by the court.

Before that any law included in the Ninth Schedule was immune from judicial scrutiny.
Kolkata, July 18 : Notwithstanding its apprehensions about the footfall of Indian tourists after the implementation of GST on July 1, South African Tourism is eyeing one lakh visitors from India in 2017-18, an official said on Tuesday.

Despite a steady surge of 21.7 percent in the number of Indian leisure visitors in the African nation during the last calendar year the apprehension comes from the decline they witnessed in the numbers of Indian tourists for a few months since demonetisation in November.

"The reason why we are a bit apprehensive about the post GST scenario is because we did not think that we are going to get effected by the demonetisation. We were between 28-35 percent up month on month until October last year. But after demonetisation, we were not just down by two to three percent for a few months but we also lost our momentum of growth," Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager India of South African Tourism, told reporters during the seventh edition of its travel trade training session.

"So now we are a little bit reluctant to say that the number of Indian visitors to South Africa would not be affected by the GST. We are hopeful that it would go in our favour," she said adding that India held the eighth position in South Africa's international source market last year with more than 95,000 visitors.

Mentioning that South Africa offers more than 60,000 different and customised tourism packages to the visitors, Slabber claimed, under the new tax regime in India it would be much more beneficial for the leisure visitors to buy a package tour rather than paying separately for the stay and travel as less tax would be levied.

"If someone buys a package tour, he is going to pay five percent tax according to the new tax regime in India. However, if someone decides to break up the expenses and buy individual packages from individual operators, they would end up paying 18 percent tax under GST," she said.

Underscoring the massive opportunity of adventure tourism in their country, Slabber said Indian tourists are the biggest buyers of adventure packages there and thus helps in creation of more job opportunities among the locals compared to the tourists from other parts of the world.

"The Indians in South Africa pay for almost six activities in a day while the average tourists pay for only two. So in a way the Indian tourists help a lot more in terms of tourism related job creation in South Africa than the average tourists. They are also the biggest buyers of adventure packages," she said.

She also added that according to their records in the last few years, Indian women take up more adventure packages like bungee jumping and snorkelling, than the Indian men.

About tourists from Bengal, Slabber said Kolkata has been one of the most unique and rapidly growing source market driving tourist traffic to South Africa and said they are planning to customise Kolkata specific packages in South Africa.

"The number of tourists from Bengal has gone up from two percent to seven percent in the last few years.

"Also, this is the only market ever where we have been asked about art galleries, museums and more intellectual pursuit of holiday. That is something really unique about the market in West Bengal," she added.
Beijing, July 18 : China on Tuesday urged the international community, including the US which is directly involved in the Korean conflict, to back South Korea's proposal for a dialogue with North Korea to ease current tension in the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Beijing supports Seoul's proposal to hold the first military talks with North Korea in three years and urged other countries to do the same, Efe news reported.

"The international community, especially the directly concerned parties involved, should take this opportunity to give a push (to this effort)," said Lu at a press conference.

On Monday, the South Korean government suggested a reunion between families, who were separated during the Korean war, at the "Peace Pavilion" in the Joint Security Area, located in the heart of the demilitarised zone between the North and the South.

Pyongyang is yet to respond to Seoul's offer.

Seoul's proposal follows South Korean President Moon Jae-in's speech in Berlin in which he offered to initiate a dialogue to de-escalate tension on the Korean peninsula and expressed his readiness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "anytime and anywhere" under the right conditions.

Repeated missile tests by North Korea have heightened tensions in the region and led the US to hint at possible preemptive strikes against the Kim Jong-un regime.
Istanbul, July 18 : Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar to mediate in the diplomatic crisis between the Gulf countries, officials said on Tuesday.

Erdogan had already announced this trip, then not dated, after returning from the G20 summit in Germany and said he would make efforts to resolve the conflict between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt with Qatar over its alleged support to terrorist organisations, Efe news reported.

The Turkish President said at the time that the solution lay through dialogue and after July 15 he may make a special trip. Now confirmed by the presidency, his trip will take place on Sunday and Monday.

Although Turkey maintains good relations with Saudi Arabia, in this conflict Ankara clearly aligned itself with Qatar, sending not only numerous aircraft and ships with food and other products to alleviate the Saudi embargo, but also a military contingent, in a clear gesture of diplomatic support.

Since last year, Turkey had kept a small group of military instructors in the emirate to train Qatari forces, but at the end of June it sent a new contingent.

Erdogan criticised the demands, put forward by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies to restore relations with Qatar, as being contrary to international law.

In mid-June, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu travelled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to try to resolve the crisis but acknowledged that he did not make any progress.
New Delhi, July 18 : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday accused the BJP of not following rules in the capital's civic bodies.

Abdul Rehman, Leader of the Opposition in the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, told the media that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a Bill in the House on Monday without giving a prior notice to Councillors.

The AAP leader said Councillors should be told about the introduction of a Bill at least 72 hours earlier as per rules.

"Just two minutes before introducing the Bill in the House, they (BJP) gave a representation to all the Councillors," he said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Ramesh Matiala, also voiced similar views.

"If the BJP does not stop this drama, the AAP will have to take up the issue in the House and even protest on the streets," he added.
Tehran, July 18 : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother has been released on bail after he was arrested for alleged financial crimes, state-run IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Hossein Fereydoun, who was freed on Monday evening, had to pay 500 billion rials ($15.3 million) bail, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told IRNA.

Fereydoun was summoned on Sunday for the alleged financial crimes. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie said Fereydoun and other related people were subjected to "multiple investigations".

Fereydoun was previously accused by the head of the General Inspection Organisation of Iran of involvement in cases of financial corruption connected to banks.

For months, conservatives called for the arrest of Fereydoun, who is also an adviser to Rouhani, and whose case was used against the Iranian leader in recent presidential debates.
Hyderabad, July 18 : The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the state government and four ministers on a petition challenging their induction in the state cabinet.

The notices were issued to N. Amarnath Reddy, C. Adinarayana Reddy, R.S. Krishna Ranga Rao and Bhuma Akhila Priya, who were inducted into the cabinet in April after they defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the YSR Congress Party.

The High Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a journalist Sivaprasad Reddy, challenging their induction.

The petitioner argued that the induction of defected legislators in the ministry was unconstitutional.

While admitting the petition for hearing, the High Court issued notices to the government and the four ministers, asking them to file counter affidavits.

The High Court adjourned the hearing by four weeks.

The court is also hearing a separate PIL by the same petitioner challenging the induction of T. Srinivas Yadav in the Telangana cabinet.

Srinivas Yadav, who was elected as a legislator of the TDP, was made a minister after he switched loyalties to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Mumbai, July 18 : The Indian passport of televangelist Zakir Naik, who is wanted in connection with his role in a terror case, was on Tuesday revoked on the NIA's request, an official statement said here.

"The Regional Passport Office, Mumbai, has revoked the Indian passport of Dr Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, resident of B-1005/1006 Jasmine Apartment, 65-B, Dockyard Road, Mazagaon, Mumbai, under the provisions of the Passport Act 1967," a National Investigation Agency (NIA) statement said.

The NIA had requested the External Affairs Ministry to revoke Naik's passport after he failed to respond to three summons in cases filed under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against him last year, an NIA official said.

The NIA took the step after a special NIA court on April 21 issued non-bailable warrant against Naik and subsequently issued proclamation on June 15 requiring his appearance.

Following the Dhaka terror attacks last year, the NIA had filed the case against Naik, 51, and other officials of his Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation.

Naik was on a tour abroad at that time and has since not returned to India allegedly to evade arrest under various charges, including inspiring terrorist activities and money-laundering.

In December last, the Central government had permanently cancelled the FCRA licence of Naik's NGO and his educational trust after declaring it as a terror outfit.
Jaipur, July 18 : The Rajasthan government has accepted the demand for a CBI inquiry into the shootout-death of gangster Anandpal Singh leading to the Rajput community calling off its proposed July 22 agitation.

Anandpal Singh was killed in a gunfight with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police on June 24 which led to massive protests in the state in which one person was killed and 33 others, including 30 policemen, injured.

"We will recommend that a CBI inquiry be conducted into the encounter of Anandpal Singh," state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Rajput community leaders, meanwhile, have called off their demonstration which was to be held here on July 22 during the visit of BJP's national President Amit Shah from July 21 to July 23.

"Majority of our demands, including that of a CBI inquiry, have been accepted by the government so we have decided to not to have demonstration on July 22," Giriraj Singh Lotwara, President of the Rajput Sabha and senior Rajput community leader, told IANS.

Earlier on July 12, a demonstration held in Sanwarda village, the village Anandpal belonged to, in Nagaur district, had turned violent in which 33 persons were injured and one person was killed.

Calling it a political conspiracy, the family of Anandpal has alleged that he was "killed" despite being ready to surrender.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in a series of tweets questioned the delay in suggesting a CBI probe.

"State government has now been compelled to accept the demand of CBI probe of Anandpal incident under public pressure. Why did they delay the decision for so long? Was the BJP government waiting for disruption of peace in the state," Gehlot tweeted.

"If the BJP government had accepted the demand earlier then innocent people would not have died. The CM must tell the public, who is responsible for these deaths?"

"The government's adamant attitude over the entire incident is condemnable."
New Delhi, July 18 : Delhi government on Tuesday launched 'merit cum means' scholarship scheme in the national capital, with an aim to benefit the students from poor and moderate means of income group.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, while making the announcement here, said the scholarship scheme would be a fee waiver scheme for the needy students who pursue higher studies in any of the state universities of Delhi, namely GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi Technological University, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Ambedkar University, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women and Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU).

Sisodia, who also holds education portfolio, said that to avail the benefit of the scheme the students must have secured at least 60 per cent marks in the class he/she has passed.

"The scheme has been divided in three slabs -- 100 per cent fee waiver for category of students coming from a BPL family, 50 per cent fee waiver for students from families with income upto Rs 2.5 lakh per annum and 25 per cent fee waiver for students from families with income above Rs 2.5 lakh and not exceeding Rs 6 lakh per annum," Sisodia told reporters.

He added the scheme would be applicable to all students in any of the undergraduate courses.

He also said that in case of SC/ST students, an additional 5 per cent waiver in the fee would be given.

"It is a proud moment for the people of the national capital that Delhi will be the first state to provide fee waiver to students from families with income upto Rs 6 lakh per annum," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

He added that the scheme is expected to benefit about 20-25,000 students from poor and moderate means of income. The scheme has been framed under the framework of The Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust.

The scheme would also be extended to the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) as and when the institution becomes a state university.

"AAP government is committed to ensure that no child is left behind in the higher education system for want of monitory resources. We have allocated a budget of Rs 10 crore for the academic year 2017-18 for this scheme," Sisodia added.
New Delhi, July 18 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Finance Ministry and the GST Council on a plea against 12 per cent tax on sanitary napkins under the GST regime.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar sought responses from the Ministry and the Goods and Services Tax Council by November 15 on the public interest litigation, and also asked the petitioner to prepare and supply a brief note on the representations made to the Centre.

Petitioner Zarmina Israr Khan, Ph.D. scholar in African studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here, said discriminatory and illegal treatment was being meted out to women by an "unconstitutional and illegal imposition of 12 per cent tax" on sanitary napkins.

The GST, which came into force across the country on July 1, is a unified indirect tax system on various goods and services.

Khan's lawyer Amit George told the bench that 12 per cent tax makes no distinction between high- and low-cost sanitary napkins.

"This is quite opposed to differential treatment given to various goods, such as footwear, on the basis of their retail sale price. Sanitary napkins are essential for a woman's right to live with dignity and freedom, and for the protection of her overall health," argued George, seeking that the imposition of 12 per cent tax on sanitary napkins be quashed.

The petitioner pleaded for nil tax, or a reduced one, pointing out that there are certain items exempted under the GST sytem so as not to burden consumers, including "make-up items, plastic and glass bangles, hearing aids, bags, and material used in religious rituals, and contraceptives".

Sanitary napkins have been grouped with toys, leather goods, roasted coffee, mobile phones, and processed foods -- all attracting 12 per cent tax.

The plea said imposition of high tax, which is prima facie "unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary", has witnessed strong dissent and invoked calls for corrective action from individuals and organisations across the country.

The petitioner said there were an estimated 355 million menstruating women in India, with a vast majority still facing significant barriers to a comfortable and dignified experience with menstrual hygiene management.

"It is estimated that approximately 88 per cent of menstruating women in India have no access to sanitary napkins... the root cause of approximately 70 per cent of all reproductive diseases in India is poor menstrual hygiene," the petition noted.

"Commercially manufactured sanitary napkins are expensive for low-income users, and low-cost pads vary in reach and quality... various studies and surveys with adolescent girls and women in urban and rural India have indicated high cost as the primary reason for non-use of sanitary pads," the petitioner told the court.
New Delhi, July 18 : The BJP on Tuesday staged a protest here against the "continued attack on women of a particular religious community" in West Bengal, saying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is playing with communal fire to stay in power.

Hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women's wing workers assembled outside West Bengal House in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi and raised slogans against the state government.

Addressing the demonstrators, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise Babul Supriyo said: "Mamata Banerjee is playing with communal fire to continue in power."

He alleged that the communal flareup in the state was sponsored and her failure to control it fully exposed her intentions.

"The selective attack on BJP workers is proof of the murder of democracy in West Bengal," Supriyo said, who is also a Lok Sabha member from West Bengal's Asansol constituency.

He said that Banerjee would have to pay a heavy price for playing with communal fire.

Pooja Kapil Mishra, National Secretary of the BJP's Women Wing of West Bengal, said the "planned atrocities" against women under the rule of a woman Chief Minister was a blot upon the Mamata government and her party would continue to fight against the state government.
Beijing, July 18 : China must send more submarines to the Indian Ocean so that the "concerned countries" get used to their presence, Chinese experts have said.

"China should send more submarines to the Indian Ocean to make concerned countries get used to their presence in that region," Hu Bo, researcher with Peking University Ocean Strategy Research Centre, was quoted as saying by People's Daily online.

Indian worries China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean. The US and Japan are equally concerned over China flexing its muscles in the world seas.

More than a dozen submarines have been spotted by India in the Indian Ocean over the years.

Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies with Shanghai Institute for International Studies, agreed with Hu.

"The geo-strategic position of the Indian Ocean has a profound influence on China's national security and development," Zhao said, adding that sending vessels to the region was normal for the country.

Hu said the just-concluded Malabar naval drill in the Bay of Bengal between India, Japan and the US reflected that China was being taken as an "imaginary enemy".

"Taking China as the imaginary enemy is a reflection of Cold War mentality," Hu said, adding that the ocean was a global public product that does not come within the jurisdiction of any single country.
New Delhi, July 18 : The government has finalised the policy on strategic partnerships in the defence sector, Union Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The policy is intended to institutionalise a transparent, objective, and functional mechanism to encourage broader participation of the private sector in manufacture of major defence platforms and equipment such as aircraft, submarines, helicopters and armoured vehicles, Bhamre said in a written reply.

"It is expected that its implementation will enhance competition, increase efficiencies, facilitate faster and more significant absorption of technology, create a tiered industrial ecosystem, ensure development of a wider skill base, trigger innovation...," an official statement quoting the Minister said.

It said the policy would also promote participation in global value chains as well as exports, leading to reduction in dependence on imports, and greater self-reliance and dependability of supplies essential to meet national security objectives.

The policy has been uploaded on the Defence Ministry website.
Rome, July 18 : An appeals court in northern Italy on Tuesday upheld the life sentence handed to builder Massimo Bossetti for the savage 2010 murder of 13-year-old schoolgirl Yara Gambirasio.

The Brescia court's judges issued their verdict after 15 hours of deliberation, throwing out a request by Bossetti's defence for new analysis of the forensic evidence.

The traces of DNA allegedly found on Yara's underwear were Bossetti's "beyond any doubt", the court said.

Bossetti's wife broke down in tears when the ruling was read out and his lawyers said they would lodge an appeal with Italy's Supreme Court, alleging had been a miscarriage of justice.

"I am the victim of the biggest miscarriage of justice this century," Bossetti said in court after the verdict, tears running down his face.

Yara's parents stated they were satisfied that "justice has been done".

Yara vanished from a gymnastics training session in her hometown of Brembate in the province of Bergamo on November 26, 2010.

Her body was found more than three months later in an overgrown farmer's field in Chignolo d'Isola, some 20 km from Brembate.

The teen had died a slow death from cold, a fractured skull and stab wounds to her throat, chest, wrists and back, coroners said. The murder was described as "sadistic" by acting public prosecutor Marco Martani.

Bossetti was arrested in June 2014 after a complex police investigation and has always denied killing Yara, who he claimed "could have been my daughter - or anyone's".

Other evidence against Bossetti included his lack of an alibi on the evening of her abduction and murder, particles of builder's dust found in Yara's lungs, fibres on her body alleged to be from the seats of Bossetti's van and security camera footage of the vehicle driving repeatedly up an down the street where Yara disappeared.

Bossetti had also searched the Internet on his home computer for child pornographic images of girls of Yara's age, according to prosecutors.
New Delhi, July 18 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday welcomed Australia to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and said its membership will provide a great boost to the initiative.

The Prime Minister, who met Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, said that the bilateral relations had deepened a lot since his visit to Australia in 2014.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said that Bishop briefed Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's visit to India in April 2017.

It said the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.

"Prime Minister Modi welcomed Australia's joining of the International Solar Alliance, and said that Australia's membership will provide a great boost to the Alliance," the release said.

ISA is India's initiative aimed at boosting clean and affordable energy and creating a sustainable world.
New Delhi, July 18 : Urging the government for steps to make farming economically viable, 40 children -- whose farmer fathers have committed suicide -- on Tuesday appealed to peasants not to take the extreme step that has devastating effect on their families.

Wisened beyond their years by the personal tragedies and resultant emotional turmoil, these 40 youngsters now dream of becoming engineers or scientists to lead a better life.

They are among the 350-odd children who have been forced to call an ashram (charitable school) in Nashik district of Maharashtra their permanent home after their fathers committed suicide in the past one decadedue to debt burden.

On Tuesday, these 40 children made the appeal during a protest in Delhi against the government for its alleged anti-farmer policies.

They also urged the government to take necessary steps to make farming economically sustainable to ensure a better future for the farmers and their children.

Ashok Patil, 16, said: "After my father committed suicide, the responsibility fell on my mother. She tried hard but raising me and my brother became difficult. So, I was sent me to the ashram (four years ago)."

"I have not met my mother in two years. Even when I visited her last time, I could not stay over five days due to her poor financial condition."

He said he does not want to become a farmer but a scientist.

Priyanka Gaikwad, 12, from Nifad in Nashik district said she feels bad when she hears of farmers' suicide on television programmes.

"I feel unlucky as I have to stay away from my mother. Had my father been alive, I would not have stayed in the ashram," Priyanka said.

She said farmers should think twice before committing suicide as it does not just put their families under crisis but leads to separation of family members as well.

Among these children is five-year-old Arush Patil from Nagpur, who lost both parents when he was just three.

Nishant Kale from Nandurbar district and Hrishikesh Kale from Malegaon town of Nashik aim to become an engineer and policeman respectively, which they say will allow them to live a better life.

"I feel nervous thinking about my mother as she is struggling hard to earn her daily bread. After my father's death, our family has fallen apart. I want to live with my family," said 13-year-old Nishant.

The charitable school is run by Adhaartirth Ashram, which is getting more requests for admissions with each passing day.

"We had started this school to rehabilitate children of deceased farmers. Although we have about 350 children currently, around 1,800 requests for admission of such children are pending. We have sent a proposal to the state government to give us the required facilities to expand our service," said school trustee Revaji Walunj.
Rome, July 18 : Charity ships that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean are giving Islamic extremists a greater chance of slipping into Europe, Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti said on Tuesday.

"NGOs consider it their priority to save people at sea rather than guaranteeing the national security of the country that takes in the migrants," Minniti told Italian daily Il Foglio in an interview.

Previously, when all Mediterranean rescue operations were being carried out by Navy vessels, the proportion of suspected extremists among the migrants was "inevitably low", Minniti stated.

"Whoever sought to target our national security would think twice before boarding a migrant boat that would be rescued by Navy ships," Minniti said.

But private charity ships are now carrying out over one-third of Mediterranean migrant rescue operations, against 28 percent by the Italian Coastguard, 11 percent by the European Union borders agency Frontex and 9 percent by the EU's Sofia anti-smuggling operation, he said.

A total 34 percent of rescue operations in the Mediterranean were carried out by NGOs and private rescue teams in the first four months of this year.

Critics allege the charity rescue ships were fuelling illegal immigration and some claim they were in cahoots with trafficking gangs.

Islamic extremists were also stealing into Italy aboard the packed migrants boats, some rightwing politicians and observers have claimed.

More than 85,000 refugees and migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, Interior Ministry figures showed last week, while over 2,000 have perished in the Mediterranean, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Pisa (Italy), July 18 : Police in the Italian city of Pisa have detained three Roma Gypsy women suspected of robbing and repeatedly punching a Russian tourist at the city's central station.

The three women were held on Monday as they tried to flee from the station after the Russian tourist raised the alarm, police said.

Two of the Roma Gypsies are minors, aged 15 and 13. The adult female and the 15-year-old have been arrested while the 13-year-old has been put in the custody of a relative, said police.

Police were still looking for an accomplice who was allegedly waiting in a nearby underpass to receive the goods stolen from the Russian tourist.
Patna, July 18 : In their first interaction since the crisis broke out, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday night met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in his official chamber and clarified his position on the CBI case against him.

Tejashwi Yadav had a closed door meeting with Nitish Kumar for nearly 40 minutes, an official in the Chief Minister's Office here said. He is believed to have presented the Chief Minister with a detailed defence of the charges against him.

According to officials, Tejashwi Yadav's elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, who is Bihar Health Minister, and Congress state president Ashok Choudhary, who is Bihar Education Minister, were present during the meeting.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the CBI registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav in a benami property case and also raided his premises earlier this month, leading to demands for his resignation. The Janata Dal-United, the major partner in the ruling Grand Alliance, has asked its Rashtriya Janata Dal partner to come clean on the allegations.

The Tuesday evening meeting between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and the Chief Minister may help to end the crisis.

Senior JD-U leader K.C. Tyagi had earlier suggested that Tejashwi Yadav should meet Nitish Kumar, who is JD-U President, and clarify his stand on the CBI raids.
Islamabad, July 18 : Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who arrived in Pakistan on an unannounced visit on Tuesday, discussed the current tensions in the Middle East with Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif.

The Prime Minister's office in Islamabad said in a statement that Sheikh Mohammed briefed Nawaz Sharif on Qatar's response to the demands of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt and on the current status of the mediation efforts of the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Prime Minister appreciated the sagacity and wisdom of the Emir of Kuwait and said Pakistan supports his sincere efforts in finding a solution to the current crises in the Gulf region," the statement said.

Noting the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Qatar, Sharif stressed that Pakistan maintains close, friendly and cooperative relations with all Gulf Cooperation Council countries and is concerned over the recent crisis in the Middle East.

"The people and government of Pakistan wish to see a diplomatic solution of the problem between brotherly Islamic countries," the statement quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

The Qatari Foreign Minister expressed his gratitude to Sharif for the warm reception and reiterated Qatar's desire to further enhance bilateral relations between the two countries, the statement said.

Sheikh Mohammed is the first high level Qatari official to visit Pakistan since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and the Maldives cut diplomatic relations with Qatar on June 5.

Pakistan had adopted a neutral stance during the tensions between Qatar and several Arab countries.
Jammu, July 18 : Two Indian soldiers were killed on Tuesday as the Pakistan Army resorted to heavy shelling and firing along several areas of the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, leading authorities to shut down schools and ask civilians to move to safer places in Rajouri district.

After pounding Indian positions with heavy shelling and firing on the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district, the Pakistani Army on Tuesday resorted to shelling in Rajouri district's Nowshera sector and Naugam sector of Kupwara district.

Defence ministry spokesman, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said Rifleman Vimal Sinjali of Gurkha Rifles was killed in sniper fire from across the LoC in Naugam sector.

Another soldier, identified as Sepoy Jaspreet Singh, was killed in Pakistani shelling in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district.

Defence ministry sources said the Pakistani Army used small arms, automatics and mortars to target Indian positions in Bhawani Jhanger area of Nowshera.

Though the civil administration had closed 16 schools indefinitely in areas close to the LoC in Rajouri district, mobile bullet-proof bunker vehicles were rushed to rescue children trapped in schools in Nowshera sector.

Around 150 students and teachers were evacuated from two schools -- from Kadali primary school and Sair middle school in Nowshera.

The district administration in Rajouri has also ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

The intensified shelling came after a soldier and a child were killed on Monday in Pakistani shelling on the LoC in Rajouri.

Heavy firing exchanges between Indian and Pakistan army continued in Nowshera sector during the day, but guns fell silent after darkness.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing on the LoC in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Pakistani Army initiated unprovoked firing in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sectors along the LoC, Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said.

The firing started at 6.45 a.m., using small arms, automatics and mortars, to which the Indian Army retaliated "strongly and effectively".

Separately, the army killed two militants in Bandipora district.
Hiding in coffins, John Parker and two fugitive slaves hoped to avoid capture.

It was dangerous and probably terrifying.

And it was part of this nations history.

On Saturday afternoon, Arlington High School student Grace Volk told their story when she and history teacher Barry Jurgensen spoke during the John C. Fremont Days Festival.

About 50 people gathered in the May Brothers building on Sixth Street to hear Jurgensen and Volk speak.

Jurgensen, who has walked hundreds of miles to draw attention to past- and present-day slavery, and Volk talked about the Underground Railroad of the 1800s and efforts to combat human trafficking today.

Showing how history repeats itself, Jurgensen shared stories of old-time abolitionists and fugitive slaves along with recent findings from the Womens Fund of Omaha, which indicate that  every month  900 individuals are sold for sex in Nebraska, often multiple times, and how commercial sex advertising reaches nearly every town and city along Interstate 80.

Jurgensen and his students work with a National Park Service program called Network to Freedom, which recognizes and preserves sites associated with the Underground Railroad across the nation.

By dictionary definition, the Underground Railroad was a cooperative system among antislavery advocates who secretly helped slaves on their way to freedom.

The Arlington student historians research involves scouring courthouse records and newspaper articles for information.

Were the only class, the only school in the nation doing something like this, said Jurgensen, who has taught at Arlington for eight years. We have been working with federal and state historians to preserve the stories of the Underground Railroad, primarily in the Midwest.

The group has nominated 23 sites  10 of which are in Nebraska  to the Network of Freedom. The group also has nominated sites in states including Iowa, South Dakota and Ohio.

Volk talked about the research shes doing to have a home in Ripley, Ohio, nominated to the Network of Freedom.

The house was owned by Thomas Collins, who was friends with John Parker, an African American abolitionist and former slave.

Parker would cross the Ohio River into Kentucky to help free slaves and bring them across the river. Collins, who was part of the Ripley Antislavery Society, had a workshop behind his home.

In his autobiography, Parker told how Collins, a carpenter, hid two fugitives and him in coffins to keep them from being captured.

The slave-catchers went in the workshop, but they didnt think to check in the coffins so the slave-catchers were about two feet from catching John Parker and the two slaves  but they came out and escaped, Volk said.

Volk and fellow student, Jordyn Werth, who are working on the nomination, hope to learn in September if it has been accepted by the Network of Freedom.

Jurgensen told stories of abolitionists, such as Lewis Washington, whos buried in Omaha.

Washington, an African American, was born on a slave plantation in Maryland. In 1841, he escaped with the help of Charles Torrey, who eventually died in jail for helping fugitive slaves. Washington continued to fight slavery as an abolitionist speaker, and attended meetings with African American social reformer and statesman Fredrick Douglass.

He (Washington) is newspapers galore, Jurgensen said.

Washington lectured throughout the Northeast, accompanied by fellow lecturer Abel Brown. In his diary, Brown told how he and Washington were nearly killed several times.

Robert Ball Anderson, an African American, escaped from slavery and joined the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a Buffalo soldier and fought Native Americans in the Southwest. Anderson came to Nebraska and owned a large amount of land. His wife, Daisy, wrote a book about him called From Slavery to Affluence. Robert Anderson is buried in Hemmingford.

Weve done a tremendous amount of work preserving the history of the Underground Railroad and resistance to slavery in the past, Jurgensen said. This is where it really came to me that slavery still exists today.

One long-ago story has been especially motivating. Its the story of two young women Eliza and Celia, enslaved by Stephen F. Nuckolls.

Jurgensen said the women, believed to have been used by Nuckolls for sexual purposes, escaped from Nebraska City in 1858 and traveled 527 miles to Chicago. Two years later, Nuckolls caught Eliza, whod been working in a brothel, and put her in jail. People helped her escape.

These young girls truly inspired me to become a modern-day abolitionist, Jurgensen said.

Anyone can become a victim of modern-day slavery, which affects every race and religion and includes labor and sex trafficking, he said.

Last year, Jurgensen walked from Nebraska City to Chicago, following Eliza and Cecilas trail, stopping to talk about slavery, past and present.

We worked with the Fredrick Douglass Family Initiative. We raised $27,000 last year for this organization, he said.

This year, he walked from Omaha to Scottsbluff to raise awareness to fight human trafficking.

Citing the statistic of 900 individuals sold for sex each month in Nebraska, Jurgensen said this is from just one source  and therefore the numbers probably are extremely low.

People in Grand Island, considered to be one of the best places to view the total solar eclipse (Aug. 21), are expecting heightened sex trafficking during that time, Jurgensen said, adding that hotels are booked.

Grand Islanders also expect heightened activity during the Nebraska State Fair (Aug. 25-Sept. 4), he said.

Jurgensen stressed the importance of prevention education to help young people learn how to keep from becoming trafficked and become activists.

If you look at modern-day slavery today, the average age of young girls and boys being trafficked are between 12 and 16 years old, Jurgensen said. Instead of students being considered possible future victims of sexual slavery, I really do firmly believe they should see themselves as the solution, as leaders, modern-day abolitionists to help stop this. We need to provide opportunities for students to stop this.

Volk talked about Student Activists in Motion. Arlington teens started the group to increase awareness of human trafficking.

A lot of people are unaware of it or they dont think its happening here, Volk said. We want to educate people on the injustices of human trafficking. It cant stop unless people are aware and know what to do.
Agartala, July 18 : BJP supporters on Tuesday laid siege to the official residences of the Tripura Chief Minister and four Ministers over the road and rail blockade in the state even as the tribal party behind it indicated lifting of the blockade.

A state Bharatiya Janata Party delegation later met Governor Tathagata Roy, who urged them not to lay siege to the official residences as he would take the initiative to get the road and rail blockade put up by the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) lifted.

"We withdrew the siege after 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday in front of the residences of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and his Ministers after an assurance from the Governor," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tripura unit President Biplab Kumar Deb told the media here after a party meeting.

In the meantime, a 10-member IPFT delegation led by party President Narendra Chandra Debbarma also met the Governor, who asked the tribal outfit to withdraw the road and rail blockade immediately and hold parleys with the government.

Taking to the media on Tuesday evening, Debbarma indicated the IPTF might withdraw the 9-day road and rail blockade on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

Around 1,500 BJP supporters led by Deb and other senior party leaders put up barricades around the residences of Sarkar, Health Minister Badal Choudhury, Tribal Welfare Minister Aghore Debbarma, Jail Minister Manindra Reang and Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty, confining them there since early morning, police said.

As security forces took positions in and around the barricades and the residences, tension prevailed in the state capital and its outskirts. Movement of traffic was also badly affected.

"A (weekly) Cabinet meeting could not be held as the Chief Minister and other Ministers were unable to come to their offices at the Capital Complex (seven km from here)," a top official in the Chief Minister's Secretariat said.

The IPFT has been blockading the National Highway-8, the state's lifeline, and a lone railway line since July 10, leading to shortage of essential commodities, fuel, food grain and other goods.

A Tripura government release said Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday informed Sarkar that he will hold talks with the IPFT leaders on Tuesday afternoon.

The Opposition Congress on Monday called for a 12-hour shutdown in Tripura on Wednesday to protest against what it called the "conspiracy of the BJP ahead of assembly elections and to instigate tribal parties to create chaos in the state".
Jerusalem, July 19 : The Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday said that Israel has no sovereignty over al-Aqsa Mosque.

Hamdallah called on the international community and Islamic countries to intervene to halt violations made by the government of the Israeli occupation against the revered place, Efe reported.

"The entire world should know that Israel, as the occupying power, does not have any lawful authority over Jerusalem and its Muslim and Christian holy places," the prime minister said.

The Palestinian authorities and the international community do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, occupied in 1967, and later annexed by Israel.

Hamdallah called for securing international protection for the Palestinians, referring to Israeli security measures taken around Jerusalem's Temple Mount since Friday's attack, when three Israeli Arabs killed two Israeli policemen.

The Temple Mount, which contains al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, was closed for 48 hours, but was reopened on Sunday after new security measures were taken, including the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to the holy compound.

The prime minister said he holds Israel responsible for increasing tensions over these decisions.

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces continued on Tuesday in the vicinity of the Old City of Jerusalem and surrounding neighbourhoods.
At least 28 million prescriptions for blood thinners are filled by pharmacists yearly for the irregular heartbeat of atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, and other indications, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. However, on rare occasions, anticoagulants can present risks of accidental bleeding and hemorrhage or can delay emergency surgery. A newly completed phase III clinical study demonstrates the safety and efficacy of idarucizumab, a novel therapy that acts as an antidote to the blood thinner dabigatran.

Prior to idarucizumab, there was no rapid, reliable, and effective method for reversing dabigatran and other orally administered blood thinners, which otherwise may take at least 12 to 24 hours to clear from the body, says first and corresponding author Charles Pollack, M.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Pollack also serves as Associate Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Physicians will now have a potentially life-saving option for treating patients at risk of uncontrolled bleeding or in need of emergency surgery.

The results of the RE-VERSE AD clinical trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine on July 11.

The study enrolled 503 patients taking dabigatran in 39 countries between 2014 and 2016, who had an urgent medical need to reverse the blood thinner. Patients were grouped by those who had uncontrolled bleeding or hemorrhage and those who required emergency surgery that could not be safely performed under anticoagulation. All patients received one dose of five grams of idarucizumab; only nine received a second dose. The researchers checked the blood for various measures of clotting ability before the reversal agent was administered and then at six time points afterwards to assess the therapys speed and efficacy.

Idarucizumab was able to return patients to normal clotting function within minutes of administration (the first tested time point was between 10-30 minutes after therapy was given). The researchers saw that in patients with uncontrolled bleeding, idarucizumab was able to stop the bleeding within a median of 2.5 hours. Those requiring surgery were able to begin the procedure at a median of 1.6 hours.

The therapy, idarucizumab, from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, is made from an antibody segment that functions by binding tightly and specifically to dabigatran and preventing the anticoagulant from working. As such, the therapy is only an effective antidote to dabigatran and not other anticoagulants.

Interim results of this study were published in 2015 and included the analysis of results from 90 patients. Based on those results and consistent findings from pre-clinical studies, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency both granted approval for use of the drug in emergency settings. The current study confirms and strengthens the interim findings.

For the first time we have the ability to turn off oral anticoagulation like a light switch, says Dr. Pollack. In the past, we havent had the ability to do that.

The study was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. The authors report no additional conflicts of interest.

Article reference: C.V. Pollack et al., Dabigatran Reversal with Idarucizumab, NEJM, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1707278, 2017.

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About Jefferson

Jefferson, through its academic and clinical entities of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, including Abington Health and Aria Health, is reimagining health care for the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Jefferson has 23,000 people dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educating the health professionals of tomorrow, and discovering new treatments and therapies to define the future of care. With a university and hospital that date back to 1824, today Jefferson is comprised of six colleges, nine hospitals, 35 outpatient and urgent care locations, and a multitude of physician practices throughout the region, serving more than 100,000 inpatients, 373,000 emergency patients and 2.2 million outpatients annually.
City of Fruita joins Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System Posting the bid for an entire regional community of vendors to see will help us reach more variety of qualified local suppliers. We like that with the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System we can quantifiably track the level of diversity.

Today the City of Fruita has officially joined the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System to help simplify their bid and RFP distribution process. The Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is one of BidNets 20 regional purchasing groups throughout the country which offers participating local government agencies an e-procurement solution. The City of Fruita invites all vendors to register online with the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System to access its upcoming solicitations.

With the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, vendors register to access one centralized location with opportunities from nearly 200 participating agencies throughout Colorado. By posting upcoming solicitations to the regional purchasing group rather than their website, the City of Fruita hopes to make it easier for more vendors to access their documents. They also hope to expand the reach of their solicitations to a more diverse vendor pool. Unlike the prior process of only publishing bids to a webpage, the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System provides a method to track all bid activity, including the details of vendors who have received or downloaded a bid.

Sometimes distributing a bid on our site just isnt enough, says Margaret Sell, Finance Director of the City of Fruita. Posting the bid for an entire regional community of vendors to see will help us reach more variety of qualified local suppliers. We like that with the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System we can quantifiably track the level of diversity.

City of Fruita invites all local vendors to visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado and register to receive access to its upcoming solicitations as well as the upcoming bids and RFPs from nearly 200 other public agencies participating on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. Registered vendors also gain access to a team of experienced customer service support representatives and can upgrade their service to receive customized bid alerts, advanced notice of term contract expiration, and notification of a recently posted addendum.

About the City of Fruita:

The City of Fruita is located in Mesa County, on the western slope of Colorado. The population of Fruita is approximately 12,700. The City of Fruita operates and maintains a wastewater treatment system, roads and bridges, irrigation system, recreation center and provides community services including police protection, parks, open space, trails, community development, and administrative services.

About the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System:

Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System is a part of BidNets regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies. With years of input from Procurement Professionals, BidNet specifically developed the bid system to fill the need for a robust bid and supplier management solution for local government agencies. BidNet runs regional purchasing groups throughout the country used by nearly 1,100 local government agencies. To learn more about the features and modules available to government agencies, please visit http://www.SourceSuite.com
Robert Averette, CEO Homeowners in Atlanta are increasingly concerned with the chemicals to which their families are exposed. There is also a growing concern for how these chemicals affect our environment, water, and air.

ONEighty Solutions Inc., which offers 100% biodegradable mold and odor removal treatments for homes and businesses in the Greater Atlanta area, announces expanded operations and new hire.

ONEighty Solutions Inc., is leading the restoration industry with cutting-edge nano technology, which completely eliminates air born and surface contaminants without chemicals and is safe for people, pets, and the environment. In an industry that traditionally relies on strong, often toxic chemicals, ONEighty Solutions stands out as an environmentally conscience remediation provider.

As a response to increasing local market demands for high quality, environmentally-friendly mold removal, ONEighty Solutions has hired a new technician and put another vehicle in service, adding to the growing economic success and increasing employment.

"Homeowners in Atlanta are increasingly concerned with the chemicals to which their families are exposed. There is also a growing concern for how these chemicals affect our environment, water, and air. At the same time, they expect mold, bacteria, and other air-born health risks to be eliminated," says CEO Robert Averette.

With hot, humid summers and mild winters, Atlanta is an ideal location for mold to thrive, this presents a serious health risk. Symptoms of mold exposure range from mild allergic reactions to more serious infections in immune-compromised people (https://www.cdc.gov/mold/). In a report by the World Health Organization in 2014, around 7 million deaths were linked to indoor air quality (World Health Organization).

With it's recent expansion, ONEighty Solutions can now cover 30% more territory, and provide 10% quicker response times.

"When you have a mold problem, you don't want to wait two or three days before a service technician can get to you. We're talking about people's health."

A key differentiator for ONEighty Solutions is training. All technicians are certified by the IICRC, the primary standards body for remediation companies. That's actually more uncommon in Georgia than one might expect, as Georgia does not regulate mold companies.

Future Growth

As residents of Atlanta have increasing concerns about the environment, both inside and outside of their homes, ONEighty Solutions will continue to expand to meet the growing demand. But responsible, sustainable growth.

"Quality and customer experience is that our top concern. Our goal is to completely satisfy our customers. Most people spend 90% of their time indoors. So, providing safe, pollutant free air in your home is our number 1 job.

If you have questions about your indoor air quality, please contact

678-274-6511

ONEighty Solutions

1353 Riverstone Parkway, Suite 120-328

Canton, GA 30114

https://www.oneightysolutions.com
In Silicon Valley, its all about who you know, and not just about your idea for a new product or service. Unfortunately, the attorneys and investors that dominate the industry struggle in connecting with entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.

Startup@BerkeleyLaw, a fast-growing initiative on the UC Berkeley law campus to help new ventures take flight, has launched a program to help underrepresented entrepreneurs find success in Silicon Valley.

This new effort, titled Access to Entrepreneurship, is designed to educate these entrepreneurs on how to start and grow their businesses and to connect with investors, law students, attorneys, and other startup founders. Startup@BerkeleyLaw has been providing similar services to entrepreneurs across the UC Berkeley campus since 2015.

In Silicon Valley, its all about who you know, and not just about your idea for a new product or service. Unfortunately, the attorneys and investors that dominate the industry struggle in connecting with entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities, said professor Robert Bartlett, a leading expert on venture capital finance and a faculty co-chair of the law schools Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy.

Startup@BerkeleyLaw's Access program will partner with leading venture capital firms and community organizations, including San Francisco-based Code2040, a nonprofit that aims to close the racial wealth gap in the United States by creating pathways to success in the innovation economy for Black and Latinx technologists. Startup@BerkeleyLaw will sponsor travel for up to 30 entrepreneurs to Code2040s annual summit on July 28-29 in San Francisco, where it will host workshops and office hours with law students, attorneys, and investors. It will also host a half-day of intensive training for Code2040 entrepreneurs on July 30 at Berkeley Law.

Were working to make sure that we are proportionally represented in America's innovation economy by 2040, when people of color will become a majority of the U.S. population, said Deldelp Medina, director of the Code2040 residency program. Our partnership with Startup@BerkeleyLaw will help ensure that our entrepreneurs have the tools and relationships necessary to make this a reality.

Bartlett said the collaboration with Code2040 expands its work, not only at UC Berkeley, but also at UC Merced, where it joins forces with community organizations to provide comprehensive legal services to Central Valley entrepreneurs of limited means and lack of access to startup capital.

Legendary Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a founding partner of Startup@BerkeleyLaw, has contributed an undisclosed amount to help Access to Entrepreneurship expand its reach. The gift will allow us to aggressively scale up to better serve our law students and underrepresented entrepreneurs both locally and nationally, Bartlett said.

Our law firm has maintained a commitment to diversity in the legal and technology sectors since our inception more than 50 years ago, said Steve Bochner, a partner at Wilson Sonsini and a 1981 graduate of Berkeley Law. We are pleased to be a founding partner of Startup@BerkeleyLaw and are confident that its Access program will help Silicon Valley and the wider Bay Area business community make positive strides in the area of diversity and inclusion.

Startup@BerkeleyLaw is a critical offshoot of the law school's 12-year-old Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. The center serves as UC Berkeleys hub for business law: it involves more than 15 faculty members, hosts over 30 unique courses each semester and manages industry-leading research, executive programs, and conferences on venture capital, corporate social responsibility, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, antitrust, and more.

The Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy has built the worlds most innovative, and socially conscious, business law program. With Startup@BerkeleyLaw, we are seeking to increase the number of successful founders at UC Berkeley, as well as underrepresented entrepreneurs around the country, said Adam Sterling, executive director of the center. To strengthen that effort, the center will collaborate with law and social science professor Victoria Plaut, the director of a diversity lab at UC, to offer workshops on equity and inclusion in the tech space. Professor Plaut will also be presenting on behalf of Startup@BerkeleyLaw at the Code 2040 annual summit.

Other participants in Startup@BerkeleyLaw's programs include high-powered venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, AngelList, Kapor Capital, and Y Combinator. Bartlett said the school will recruit additional top venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, as well as law firms and NGOs.

About Startup@BerkeleyLawa joint initiative launched in 2015 by two UC Berkeley Law School research centers: the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy and the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. The program gives law students, entrepreneurs, investors, and attorneys access to top experts, timely courses, and dynamic programming on legal and finance issues for emerging companies.
Mike Ross Under Mikes leadership, the bank will continue to grow and strengthen its commitment to customers, employees, and the communities we serve.

As a result, the Bank announced that Mike Ross, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, will be named the new President and Chief Executive Officer of CB&S Bank effective upon Mr. Upchurchs retirement. Mr. Ross joins CB&S Bank from Renasant Bank where he held several leadership positions, most recently as Central Region President and Chief Commercial Officer. In that role, he led the retail franchise in the states of Alabama and Florida as well as the commercial banking strategy, lines of business, and product lines that supported the $8.8 billion, five state bank franchise. Prior to joining Renasant Bank, he served as Executive Vice President, Commercial Middle Market Sales Executive with Regions Financial Corporation. Mr. Ross holds a Masters of Business Administration degree through the Executive Program of the Manderson Graduate School of Business at the University of Alabama.

We are thrilled that with Mike, we have someone who has the experience, business insight, and visionary thinking to lead CB&S Bank into the future. said Mr. Upchurch. Under Mikes leadership, the bank will continue to grow and strengthen its commitment to customers, employees, and the communities we serve. After 29 years of leading this great company, I am confident that CB&S Bank is in excellent and capable hands.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of CB&S Bank, we welcome Mike to our organization. His extensive banking experience, along with his values-driven philosophy are a great combination and will fit well with our Banks culture, stated Greg Batchelor, Chairman of the Board for CB&S Bank.

I am delighted and honored to have the opportunity to serve the customers, employees, and shareholders of CB&S Bank. This company has such a long heritage of outstanding service to its communities and I look forward to being a part of continuing that tradition, said Ross.

CB&S Bank is a $1.6 billion community bank, headquartered in Russellville, Alabama, operating over 50 offices in the Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee markets. The company offers a complete line of full-service banking products and other related financial services to retail and commercial customers through its subsidiaries.
Aguirre Specialty Care in Englewood, CO is proud to announce that Dr. Oscar A. Aguirre was honored at THE Aesthetic Show in July as a finalist in two award categoriesBest Botched Patient Revision and Best Feminine Rejuvenation Enhancement. THE Aesthetic Show is an annual education conference that draws top physicians and practitioners within the aesthetic industry, and THE Aesthetic Awards is a ceremony showcasing the best outcomes for a variety of aesthetic procedures.

Dr. Aguirre also received the distinction of being a presenter at THE Aesthetic Show, moderating a pre-show symposium on vaginal rejuvenation and delivering two lecturesPatient Selection for Vaginal Rejuvenation: The Key to Success, and The Aging Vulva: An Update on Surgical and Non-Surgical Options. During the conference, Dr. Aguirre was featured on AestheticTV, where he was interviewed regarding the leading treatments in urogynecological health and aesthetics.

Aguirre Specialty Care is one of the top providers in the world for a number of urogynecological, cosmetic urogynecological, and skin care solutions. Dr. Aguirre performs more procedures than anyone else in the country with FemiLift, a non-surgical laser treatment that resurfaces the full circumference of the vagina, and Geneveve, a non-surgical technology that tightens the vaginal entrance.

To learn more or schedule a consultation at Aguirre Specialty Care, visit http://www.ascdenver.com or call 303-322-0500.

About Oscar A. Aguirre, MD

Dr. Aguirre is a fellowship-trained urogynecologist who has dedicated his entire surgical career to the evaluation and management of vaginal relaxation and bladder/bowel disorders. Dr. Aguirre was one of the first board certified urogynecologists in the United States, recognized by the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology and its sub-specialty of Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS). He is a skilled pelvic surgeon who has been providing urogynecologic care for more than 20 years, and is an expert in addressing both women's functional and aesthetic concerns.

FPMRS, also known as urogynecology, is the newest specialty recognized by the American Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. Aguirres expertise and exemplary care have been consistently recognized by his colleagues. He has been nominated by his peers as a Top Doc in FPMRS since 2012. Since early in his career, Dr. Aguirre has performed cosmetic gynecological procedures at the request of his urogynecologic patients. In 2006, he formally pursued his interest in the field of Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) under the supervision of world-renowned gynecologist, Dr. David Matlock of Beverly Hills. Dr. Matlock is the pioneer and developer of Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation (LVR) and Laser Reduction Labiaplasty. With this additional training, Dr. Aguirre became the third urogynecologist in the country to perform these aesthetic vaginal procedures and implement them at the time of urogynecological procedures to restore anatomical pelvic floor defects.

Women who have concerns with the appearance of their vulvar or vaginal function should seek out the care of an experienced urogynecologic specialist, best suited to identify and treat the underlying problem. Dr. Aguirre has two extra years of training in vaginal and pelvic floor surgery compared to most other gynecologists who perform vaginal rejuvenation. Likewise, most plastic surgeons have had little, if any, vaginal surgery training. As an associate of the Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute of America, Dr. Aguirre is trained to perform these procedures and also boasts a broad background in pelvic reconstructive surgery.

About Aguirre Specialty Care

Aguirre Specialty Care is a center of excellence for women, providing everything from urogynecologic procedures to aesthetic body contouring. ASC is located at 9800 Pyramid Court, Suite 300 in Englewood, CO. For more information, contact Aguirre Specialty Care at 303-322-0500 or visit ascdenver.com. Aguirre Specialty Care is known as THE center for female pelvic medicine and cosmetic surgery. Located just outside Denver, Colorado (in Englewood, Colorado), ASC specializes in urogynecology, cosmetic gynecology, body contouring, and dermal aesthetics.
We were pioneers in the space, being among the first group of partners publishing solutions on Microsoft AppSource and launching the first online marketplace specializing in Dynamics 365.

SBS Group, a leading information technology services and consulting firm, was awarded the 2017 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner of the Year in the East Region. The company was honored among a field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsofts cloud technology.

We are pleased to be recognized for our commitment to and innovation on Microsoft Dynamics 365, said James R. Bowman, SBS Groups President and CEO, We were pioneers in the space, being among the first group of partners publishing solutions on Microsoft AppSource and launching the first online marketplace specializing in Dynamics 365. We plan to continue to invest and introduce more exciting, new solutions in the market.

The Regional Partner of the Year Awards, held last week during Microsofts Worldwide Partner Conference, Inspire 2017, in Washington, DC. The awards recognize the extraordinary contributions of Microsoft partners serving small, mid-market and enterprise commercial customers throughout the past fiscal year.

About SBS Group

SBS Group is a Microsoft Master VAR and Indirect Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) specializing in Microsoft Dynamics solutions and services for companies of all sizes. With more than 3,000 active customers served by over 300 employees across 40 locations in North America, SBS Group is a recognized leader in cloud ERP, CRM, productivity and business intelligence solutions. We simplify the cloud experience and help our customers realize business value faster with SBS Group AXIO solutions for Dynamics 365 and our streamlined RightPath approach. SBS Group is headquartered in Edison, NJ and has been a recognized leader in Microsoft business solutions for over 30 years. http://www.sbsgroupusa.com
Smart Vent Products, Inc., a leader in wet and dry floodproofing solutions, and Superior Flood, Inc., a provider of flood insurance backed by Lloyds of London, announced today a strategic partnership that saves policyholders, who install Smart Vent flood vents, a 10% discount off Superiors already low flood insurance rates. This strategic partnership is the first of its kind where a private flood insurance company is providing discounts to homeowners for installing vents to reduce structural damage from flooding. The Smart Vent discount is available for new construction that includes the venting system and older structures that have the vents installed as well.

Smart Vents innovative and patented flood technology, unlike other competitor products, utilizes automatic internal floats to activate the flood vent so water can easily flow through, relieving hydrostatic pressure from foundation walls, said Mike Graham, CEO, Smart Vent. Smart Vent flood vents feature large unobstructed openings that keep flood debris from being trapped against screens or smaller openings. Our vents save homes and give people peace of mind as told in this compelling video about Rob and Johanna Wagner who live on the Illinois River."

Lisa Miller, Floridas former deputy insurance commissioner and long time resiliency expert said, Smart Vents are the key to reducing floodings catastrophic damage by reducing the pressure and debris from completely destroying a home or business. Since Hurricane Andrew hit 25 years ago, wind resilient techniques to strengthen roofs, windows and doors have been perfected. We are fortunate testing the Smart Vent flood vent technology is leading in flood resiliency, with the companys more than 20 years of testing and proven results.

The 10% Smart Vent discount applies to all of Superior Flood, Incs. flood insurance policies which include those with same or greater coverage than FEMA-issued National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies and a low-cost home/flood combination policy that has standard homeowners policy benefits combined with a flood policy. Other key upgrades offered by Superior Flood, Inc. include replacement costs even for non-primary residences; coverage for personal property in a basement; loss of use coverage when a structure is uninhabitable for a time; up to $30,000 in increase cost of building and ordinance code compliance (ICC) coverage; and a quick 10 day policy start versus the 30 day wait for an NFIP policy. The research is overwhelming that proves Smart Vents reduce damage to structures which can help policyholders return to their homes more quickly after the storm. We are pleased to offer a 10% discount to encourage our customers to install these incredible devices in their foundations, said Matt Herr, president, Superior Flood Insurance.

About SMART VENT PRODUCTS, INC.

Founded in 1997, Smart Vent Products, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of foundation flood venting systems and has an ICC-ES Certified product line with dual-function and insulated engineered models for residential and commercial applications. Smart Vent is providing over 100 million sq. ft. of certified flood protection around the world today. A new division called the Flood Risk Evaluator (http://www.yourfloodrisk.com) was recently established to evaluate and provide detailed reporting to property owners so they can reduce rising NFIP flood insurance premiums. For more information about SMART VENT PRODUCTS, INC., call 1-877-441-8368 or visit http://www.smartvent.com.

Media Contact:

Christian Scarborough

Inventive Public Relations

512-297-6426

christian(at)inventivepr(dot)net
The performance of the fiber-based 1g synchronous Internet we provide NEAES allows the resident companies and NEAES staff the highest speed and quality available." Janine Moses, President M2 Connections

M Connections, the leading Northeast Alabama provider of fiber-optic networks recently began serving the Anniston business community by providing fiber-based Internet access to the Northeast Alabama Entrepreneurial System (NEAES). The service provides residents of the center, a mix of service and light manufacturing businesses, with state of the art Internet speeds and service and up-time levels.

Janine Moses, President of M Connections, states, We immediately recognized the need of the Entrepreneurial Center. We understand that in todays climate of cloud-based business systems and online commerce that slow responses and Internet downtimes are not compatible with success. Like other utilities, broadband Internet access is a necessity and expectation. Were happy to help the Center provide their companies with fast, dependable high-speed Internet.

The Northeast Alabama Entrepreneurial System, NEAES or the Entrepreneurial Center, is a business incubator for start-up service companies and light manufacturing businesses. The Center facilitates the growth of home grown companies by offering turn-key space and mentoring.

Companies in the Center will notice not only the 1-gigabit per second (1gig or 1G) download speed but also the 1G upload speed. This synchronous Internet connectivity (having the same download and upload speed) will help users with increased productivity and throughput, a critical component of many online-oriented businesses whose work requires uploading large files such as video, images, and databases.

"We're grateful to M Connections for providing Fiber to the Center and recognizing the importance of this service to assist the entrepreneurs in our community. As a non-profit it would have otherwise been unaffordable" states Jennifer Soehren, Operations Director at NEAES. "Fiber is essential in today's business climate. This capability will better serve our existing resident companies and hopefully be an attraction for start-up tech companies that require large bandwidth."

In 2005 M Connections began building fiber networks for various community and educational programs before turning our focus to networks in our east Alabama communities with minimal or limited network infrastructure. That has lead to a network of several hundred miles of fiber-optic infrastructure.

Recently, M Connections begin partnering with a new technology venture: Data Storage Solutions. Data Storage Solutions provides Disaster Recovery Data Center solutions, including conventional Data Center Rack Space, High-Speed Internet, & Security Services & Short/Long term office space for regional businesses that require business continuity services.

About M Connections

M Connections has been managing the deployment of advanced broadband networks since 1998, performing network process and project management services to fiber service providers throughout the southern United States. M Connections currently operates a fiber-optic network of over 300 miles in the rural, economically distressed east-central Alabama region that includes Calhoun, Cleburne, Talladega, Clay, and Randolph Counties. The M Connections management team has been building fiber networks for over 30 years and has over 100 years combined team experience in telecommunications.

About NEAES

The Entrepreneurial Center is a non-profit business incubator that has turn-key office and light manufacturing space available for lease to start-up companies as they launch their business. It is a 40,000 square foot facility located in Golden Springs, Anniston. It was created as a result of broad community collaboration in 1998. It has served hundreds of entrepreneurs in Calhoun and surrounding counties since opening and is a valuable resource for home grown economic growth.
The Unizin Consortium is thrilled to welcome the full University of Nebraska system, bringing the total number of institutions in the consortium to 25. With the addition, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and University of Nebraska Medical Center join Unizin Founding Member the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

I appreciate the transparent and inclusive process which relied on faculty recommendations as the primary consideration in the move to Unizin by all of the campuses of the University of Nebraska, said NU Executive Vice President and Provost Susan Fritz. This move is also supported by each of our chief academic officers. We are pleased to join this important consortium.

As a System Member, the University of Nebraska will now benefit from Unizin membership by having the same access to Unizin services as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including the Unizin Data Platform.

The University of Nebraska campuses will have access to better data management solutions and analytics capabilities through Unizin, said Amin Qazi, Unizin CEO. Furthermore, they will have the ability to participate in the creation of the worlds largest learning laboratory.

The University of Nebraska will also enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with other leading higher education institutions to improve learner experiences. The Unizin Consortium supports students and instructors in digital teaching and learning environments while allowing institutions to retain control of their data, content, and technological systems.

Media Contacts:

Olivia Arredondo

Content Marketing Specialist, Unizin

(512) 640-6100

olivia.arredondo(at)unizin.org

Melissa Lee

Director of Communications, University of Nebraska

(402) 472-7127

melissalee(at)nebraska.edu
Jordan Search Consultants (JSC), a national healthcare, executive, and higher education recruitment firm, recently completed a nationwide executive search for Springfield Clinics Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Springfield, IL. Working with JSC within an aggressive timeline, Springfield Clinic named Ray Williams, a skilled healthcare executive with more than 30 years of experience, as the new CEO.

We were honored to have the opportunity to fill such an important position for the prestigious Clinic, said Kathy Jordan, President of Jordan Search Consultants. I am very proud of my team for successfully recruiting Mr. Williams in an extremely condensed timeframe in order to meet the Clinics aggressive hiring goals.

Springfield Clinic was seeking a CEO with strong leadership skills who would recognize the physicians commitment to remaining a competitive and independent medical group. Williams, who most recently served as the Senior Vice President of Physician Mergers & Integration at International Council for Quality Care, Inc., comprehensively grasps the organizations vision for the future.

The Springfield Clinic team was extremely impressed by not only the quality of candidates Jordan Search Consultants provided, but also their entire search process, said Katie Rutledge, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Springfield Clinic. They customized the process for our organization and readily incorporated our feedback to create a positive experience for us and for the candidates. The entire team was professional, responsive, and flexible; they were frequently on-site to advise us and facilitate the process for the best outcome.

Williams officially joined Springfield Clinic on Monday, January 23, replacing J. Michael Maynard, who was named interim CEO by the Board of Directors in July 2016.

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About Jordan Search Consultants

Founded in 2003, Jordan Search Consultants provides executive, healthcare, and higher education recruitment services to clients throughout the nation. By understanding the unique culture of each client organization and the professional and personal goals of each candidate, the professionals at Jordan Search Consultants are able to develop effective solutions to staffing needs. With packages that range from candidate sourcing services to complete turnkey position fulfillment solutions, Jordan Search Consultants provides a customized level of recruitment support to hospitals/integrated delivery systems, medical groups, academic institutions, IPAs, ACOs, HMOs, health plans, hospice/palliative medicine organizations, and community health centers. For more, visit http://www.jordansc.com, call 866-750-7231, or email kjordan@jordansc.com.
Accuracy of data is always a critical facet of creating parts, but has historically been prone to error since the data is manually entered. These new techniques allow a user to quickly specify required data and get the info into the software correctly

EMA Design Automation (http://www.ema-eda.com), a full-service provider and innovator of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) solutions, today announced the release of Ultra Librarian desktop software version 8.2 and an expanded library giving designers access to symbols, footprints, and 3D models for over 12 million parts. This is the first collaborative development effort for the Ultra Librarian desktop software since EMA acquired Accelerated Designs, said Manny Marcano, president and CEO of EMA. This allowed us to very quickly enhance the software to give our customers faster part creation and higher fidelity output with a significant reduction in download size.

The latest release of the desktop software uses innovative techniques to extract datasheet information into the part building process. Users can load the datasheet into the Ultra Librarian desktop software, extract the information they need to create the part, and copy it directly into the software. One such function allows a user to select a pin list table from the PDF and copy the contents into the symbol creation software. Another allows overlaying the datasheet image of a footprint on top of the software created footprint as an added quality assurance step. These types of copy/paste operations speed creation of symbols and footprints providing unparalleled accuracy of component creation based on manufacturer data. Accuracy of data collection is always a critical facet of creating parts, but has historically been prone to error since the data is often manually entered, said Marcano. These new techniques allow a user to quickly specify the data required and get the information into the software correctly.

The internal library team is also a user of the Ultra Librarian desktop software, and this new capability has helped them create parts at a faster-than-ever rate, bringing the library size to over twelve million parts. This addition of several million parts includes some of the latest parts from companies like Analog Devices, AVX, Cypress, Freescale, Infineon, Linear Technology, Samtec, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Vishay, and more.

For more information about the Ultra Librarian desktop software or how to get parts from Ultra Librarian, go to http://www.ultralibrarian.com/products/desktop or call 585.334.6001.

About Ultra Librarian

Ultra Librarian is a comprehensive electronic component solution for PCB design. http://www.UltraLibrarian.com allows visitors to search a database of over 40 million components to make part selection and sourcing decisions. Registered users can download pre-authored and verified components from the worlds largest database of over 12 million CAD neutral library parts. Symbols, footprints, and 3D models from over 400 manufacturers can be exported to over 20 different CAD tools. Library creation software includes templates for over 600 part types and allows easy customization and export to the same 20+ CAD tools. Ultra Librarian is owned by EMA Design Automation. Visit http://www.UltraLibrarian.com for more information.

About EMA Design Automation, Inc.

EMA Design Automation is a trailblazer in product development solutions offering a complete range of EDA tools, PLM integrations, services, training, and technical support. EMA is a Cadence Channel Partner serving all of North America. EMA develops Ultra Librarian, TimingDesigner, CircuitSpace, CIP, EDABuilder, and a host of custom solutions to enhance the OrCAD products, and all are distributed through a worldwide network of value added resellers. EMA is a privately held corporation headquartered in Rochester, New York. Visit EMA at http://www.ema-eda.com for more information.

# # #

EMA Design Automation, TimingDesigner, CircuitSpace, EDABuilder, Ultra Librarian and the EMA logo are registered trademarks, and Component Information Portal is a trademark of EMA Design Automation, Inc. Cadence and OrCAD are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks in this release are the property of their respective owners.
Simplus is pleased to announce the appointment of Amy Cook, Ph.D., as its vice president of marketing. This appointment is a part of the company's mission to hire experienced talent amidst the recent acquisition of EDL Consulting and rapid growth. Cook officially joined the company July 1, 2017.

Dr. Cook joins Simplus with 20 years of experience in marketing, writing, public relations and education. With a Ph.D. in organizational communication, Dr. Cook approaches organizations as constitutive of communication and specializes in understanding the ways that organizations persuade. As the CEO of Osmond Marketing, Dr. Cook grew a skilled team of content, public relations, design and web professionals from the beginning stages into one of the fastest growing businesses in Utah, receiving the MWC Fast 100 award in 2016. Under her direction, Osmond Marketing became a Google Partner and experienced more than 100 percent revenue growth year over year. Prior to Osmond Marketing, Dr. Cook taught business, writing and communication courses at Arizona State University, University of Utah, and Brigham Young University for 15 years and worked as an academic editor at Brigham Young University. She writes regular columns in the Daily Herald and Orange County Register newspapers and contributes to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, KSL, Caring, Silicon Slopes and other publications.

Ryan Westwood, Chief Executive Officer of Simplus, commented on Dr. Cooks appointment, We are pleased to have Dr. Cook join us as the VP of marketing. Her broad background, industry expertise, and ability to rapidly grow a team while improving operational efficiencies is exactly what we need to keep up with our fast-moving culture and growth.

Dr. Cook will join the executive team to oversee marketing operations, diversify lead sources and establish a content program to educate prospective and current Salesforce Quote-to-Cash users. These initiatives will allow Simplus to use its leadership in Quote-to-Cash implementations and expertise in CPQ to add to the Salesforce ecosystem and help improve the quoting, pricing and billing processes of businesses across the globe.

I am excited to join Simplus and have been especially impressed with the quality of talent at this company, Dr. Cook said. From the visionary leadership of Mr. Westwood to the experienced team and enterprise accounts, Simplus excels in every way. I am proud to be part of this amazing endeavor.

For more information, please contact 1-833-SIMPLUS or email amyc(at)simplus(dot)com.

Salesforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

About Simplus

Simplus is a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner and provider of Quote-to-Cash implementations. We provide enterprise-wide digital transformation through advisory, implementation, change management, custom configuration and managed services. Guided by the mantra, success simplified, we use leading cloud solutions to help companies achieve a strategic vision, improve performance and increase value to stakeholders. With more than 1,000 clients and high customer satisfaction, Simplus helps companies improve, innovate and grow. For more information, please visit http://www.simplus.com.
"Were happy to make this announcement, said NextGen Leads CEO Chris Kelly. "Jornaya helps us maintain the quality of our network while providing the best possible experience to both agents and consumers."

Jornaya, the fast-growing consumer journey insights platform, today announced that NextGen Leads, a leading provider of high quality, cost effective health insurance, Medicare Supplement, and life insurance leads, has integrated TCPA Guardian from Jornaya to ensure compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Jornayas software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform delivers actionable intelligence to identify high-intent prospects and eliminate process inefficiencies like non-compliant calls. Jornayas TCPA solution supports publishers and marketers who directly dial consumers by precisely identifying lead-specific, non-compliant consumer data or behavior that can result in costly TCPA compliance violations and litigation.

Additionally, the Jornaya platform has unmatched visibility into the consumer journey and the consumer's insights. Its technology is a first-hand witness to everything the consumer does across devices, browsers, and web properties. Jornaya contributes data and insights to publishers and to marketers that cannot be found from any other source.

Were happy to make this announcement, said NextGen Leads CEO Chris Kelly. Jornaya helps us maintain the quality of our network while providing the best possible experience to both agents and consumers."

"Jornaya is committed to continuously drive value for our publishers and their network, said Ross Shanken, CEO, Jornaya. The Jornaya TCPA Guardian product enables our partners to ensure that their marketing programs are not only world-class, but compliant as well."

Jornaya TCPA Compliance

Jornayas TCPA Compliance with Visual Playback solution monitors and audits leads in real time, while ensuring compliance with evolving consumer privacy regulations. Key features include:

Real-time compliance validation: Marketing and sales teams can easily audit, track and verify TCPA compliance in real time at the lead level, enhancing integrity of first-party data collection and informing purchases of third-party leads.

Persuasive proof of consent: In the event of a complaint, comprehensive Compliance Reports and Visual Playbacks provide data witnessed during the original lead event. This confirms that the consumer was shown necessary and approved disclosures, that those disclosures were displayed in a clear and conspicuous manner, and that the consumer gave consent to be contacted.



Data security: Automatic encryption and safe discard of lead-specific personally identifiable information (PII). A data-matching process validates consumer-supplied information in a privacy-friendly manner.

About Jornaya

Jornaya is the consumer journey insight platform that provides publishers, marketers, data analysts, and compliance professionals with the highest-resolution view of the consumer buying journey. It is the only technology platform that witnesses both first- and third-party consumer interactions in real time and across devices. Meeting consumers at these moments of intent enables businesses to shorten the distance between data, decision, and action. Jornaya seamlessly integrates with any buyer journey decisioning process or toolkit. Please visit http://www.jornaya.com

About NextGen Leads

NextGen Leads provides extremely high quality insurance leads, using industry-leading technology to streamline lead acquisition from end to end. Founded in 2014 in San Diego, California, the Company is focused on providing a superior lead buying experience through a focus on technology and a modern approach to lead generation. For more information about NextGen Leads, please visit their website at http://www.nextgenleads.com

Media Contact:

Sebastian Pistritto

Chief Marketing Officer

Jornaya

(267) 460-7287 X1740

spistritto(at)jornaya(dot)com
MOBI, a mobility management platform that enables enterprises to centralize, comprehend, and control their device ecosystems, has successfully completed a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 audit and has officially become SOC 2 Type 2 certified. MOBIs unique software and supporting managed services solution helps Fortune 50 to 500 customers manage their connected devices  including mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices.

MOBI is one of the first in its industry to achieve certification for SOC 2 Type 2. The certification provides independent validation that MOBIs internal security controls are in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Trust Services Principles and Criteria (TSPC). There are five key areas of the TSPC: the security, availability, and processing integrity of the systems the organization uses to process users data, as well as the confidentiality and privacy of the information processed by these systems.

A SOC report is an authoritative standard designed to help measure how well an organization securely controls its information. The purpose of the SOC standards is to provide confidence and peace of mind for organizations when they partner with third parties. SOC-certified organizations have been audited by independent certified public accountants (CPAs) who determine if the firm has appropriate SOC safeguards and procedures in place. MOBIs audit centered around the security and availability of the systems the organization uses to process users data, as well as the confidentiality of the information processed by these systems.

SOC 2 is specifically designed for service providers storing customer data in the cloud and concerns more advanced IT service providers, including cloud computing vendors, data centers, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, and managed service providers. SOC 2 requires that a companys information security policies and procedures meet the unique requirements of todays cloud technology while ensuring the safety of customer data.

The Type 2 report assesses managements description of a service organizations system and the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of controls. The SOC 2 Type 2 report typically plays an important role in oversight of an organization, vendor management programs, internal corporate governance and risk management processes, and regulatory oversight.

Obtaining the SOC 2 Type 2 certification demonstrates MOBIs continued commitment to security and ensuring that our technology remains industry-leading, said Eric Sendelbach, MOBIs Chief Technology Officer. Our customers can feel confident that we are making every investment to establish and maintain the highest level of security and compliance.

In addition to its new SOC 2 Type 2 certification, MOBI maintains regulatory compliance through certifications such as EU-US Privacy Shield and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The industry leader plans to add at least three additional certifications by the end of 2018.

To learn more about how MOBIs software can help your organization manage its device ecosystem, visit: http://mobiwm.com/software.

About MOBI:

MOBI is a mobility management platform enabling enterprises to centralize, comprehend, and control their device ecosystems. Our industry-leading cloud software saves your program money and satisfies all global enterprise needs. Learn more about our mobility software and solutions at http://mobiwm.com/.
SIB, Alexis Pope, gears up for training in the dive tank at the Carpenters International Training Center. It gives you great pride when you can drive over a bridge and say, I helped build that.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) represents over 500,000 members, and every day thousands of women play a critical role in making the UBC the best union in North America. Including Alexis Pope, who worked in a variety male-dominated fields before becoming a union pile driver. In 2011, when Pope made the move to California looking for a job, she was advised to go to the union. Soon after joining UBC Local 34 Pope knew she found the meaningful career she had been longing for.

I love the work. Seeing major projects going up, knowing that you are contributing to the community, said Pope. It may not be glorious, but what we do makes a huge difference to how the city and state run. And it gives you great pride when you can drive over a bridge and say, I helped build that.

Expanding her training & skill set for additional job opportunities, Pope attended the Department of Education & Trainings Third Year Apprentice program and recently visited the Carpenters International Training Center to get certified in Underwater Welding and Kirby Hat.

Alexis Pope is also very involved with her local Sisters in the Brotherhood (SIB) committee; actively recruiting and mentoring women. If I can help a woman get through the tough times and avoid some of the roadblocks I faced, then it is worth it, said Pope.

The SIBs goal is to build a stronger union, create a network of active sisters, provide avenues for women to eliminate barriers to their success, and promote an increase in the numbers and diversity of women in the UBC. Sisters are indeed helping to build todays UBC.

The UBC International Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee (ISIB), formed in 1998, supports active and potential female UBC members by aiding in obtaining craft training and leadership skills; by being advocates on women issues; and by mentoring new and potential members.

For more information on the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and International Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee, please visit: http://www.carpenters.org.
Microsoft is honored to recognize Blue Horseshoe for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

Blue Horseshoe, a global software firm specializing in logistics, has once again earned a spot in the prestigious 2017/2018 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements, which puts Blue Horseshoe in the top echelon of the Microsoft global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

Blue Horseshoe is among the 2017/2018 Inner Circle members invited to the Inner Circle Summit, taking place this fall, where we will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners. This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics came during Microsoft Inspire (formerly Microsoft WPC), the annual premier partner event, which took place July 9-13, 2017 in Washington, DC. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the company's road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

Each year we recognize and honor Microsoft Dynamics partners from around the world for exemplary business performance, said Frank Holland, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions Sales & Partners. These award-winning partners represent the top 1% of Microsoft Dynamics partners in terms of sales performance, but their critical impact on the success of our shared customers is what truly stands out.

Microsoft is honored to recognize Blue Horseshoe for their achievements this past year and for their dedication and support of Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

Blue Horseshoe President Chris Cason stated: We are very honored to once again join this prestigious group. This is truly a reflection of the hard work our team has put in over the past year. We are always striving to deliver more complete industry specific solutions while strengthening our relationship with Microsoft.

Inner Circle membership is considered the most prestigious honor for Dynamics Partners. Blue Horseshoe maintains three Microsoft Gold Competencies (ERP, Cloud Platform, Application Development), and was named the Microsoft Distribution Partner of the Year in 2012.

ABOUT BLUE HORSESHOE

Blue Horseshoe is a privately held solution services firm based in Carmel, Indiana. It provides expert management and strategy consulting to Fortune 500 companies and mid-market businesses across the globe, covering system design and implementation, optimization, and distribution design services. With a specific focus on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Blue Horseshoe provides custom solutions tailored for food & beverage distribution, retail supply chain, CPG distribution and logistics and transportation. Horseshoe was founded in 2001 with office locations in Carmel (IN), Columbus (OH), Denver (CO), Charlotte (NC) and Amsterdam (Netherlands).
Allsize Storage of Laguna Niguel has just unveiled their newly redesigned website that features a reservation portal that makes it easy for clients to interact with the company. According to a company spokesperson, We are very happy with the redesign of our website because it allows our clients to quickly learn about our company and the services we offer, and reserve space directly from the site.

The website has been re-designed to give visitors concise information and an easy way to communicate with the company. The site feature seven distinct pages, including the Home page, Our Services, Access & Security, FAQs, About Us, Benefits, and Contact US.

The Home page features a brief description of the companys services, the contact information and a location map. Perhaps the most significant feature of the Home page is the Reservation link that is featured prominently in the first third of the page. Clicking on the Reservation link takes visitors to the reservation page which lists the various size storage spaces offered, including the price for each space and a brief description of what the space will hold. For those who know exactly how much space they need, reserving the space is simply a matter of clicking the link under each option. Customers who are not quite sure how much space they need can call the number at the top of the page and speak with a company representative.

The other pages on the website feature a full page describing the companys various services, information about the company, the frequently asked questions the company receives, a listing of the benefits of using storing items at Allsize Storage, and a Contact Us page. Finally, there is an entire page dedicated to the safety and security features the company offers. This page covers the state-of-the-art security system in place, the 24-hour video surveillance, and the gated access.

Allsize Storage has been serving clients in south Orange County for over 30 years. The company offers storage spaces with 24-hour security monitoring, all drive up units, clean and well-lit spaces, a fully fenced facility, and electronic gate with keypad access.

The redesigned website is available at http://allsizestoragelagunaniguel.com. Company representatives can also be reached at 949.364.6219.
Give Big or Go Home "One of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerces 2017 priorities is community wellness, and ensuring that we have an adequate blood supply is a huge component of this effort,

Blood centers traditionally see a dangerous drop of blood donations during the summer that can affect patients across the region. Nationally, summer is a struggle for community blood centers as high schools are out and many frequent donors are on vacation.

This is why the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center (STBTC), a subsidiary of local nonprofit BioBridge Global, to help drive home the importance of blood donation. The Chamber has launched the B2B Blood Drive Challenge campaign, inviting its member businesses to a friendly competition to encourage employees to donate this summer. The Chamber will urge its members to host drives and aim to reach 20 percent participation by their employees. The B2B Blood Drive Challenge campaign runs through Labor Day, Sept. 4.

One of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerces 2017 priorities is community wellness, and ensuring that we have an adequate blood supply is a huge component of this effort, said Rad Weaver, 2017 Chamber Chairman and CEO of McCombs Partners. It is important for our business community to come together to help STBTC by scheduling a blood drive and encouraging their employees to donate blood. An adequate blood supply gives people across the city access to treatments and keeps our workforce healthy, and it is especially important as we seek to support and grow San Antonios medical sector.

The San Antonio Zoo, H-E-B, VIA, Whataburger, Caterpillar, and Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) are a few of the companies that have already accepted the challenge, with some of them planning multiple drives this summer. Winners of the challenge will be recognized in community ads and at a Chamber event this fall. Employee donors at winning organizations can win prizes as well.

Businesses accepting the challenge could significantly boost this summers blood supply. Declining blood collections is a national trend, with donations at a 30-year low across the United States. STBTC alone has seen a 13 percent drop in donations since 2012.

The Chamber is encouraging its member businesses to schedule blood drives with STBTC during the summer and encourage 20 percent participation of employees at those drives.

Companies can sign up for the challenge, which runs through Labor Day, Sept. 4, and monitor results on a digital leaderboard by going to http://www.b2bchallenge.org The Chamber and STBTC will be using the hashtag #B2BChallengeSA and encourage participating companies to do so as well during the campaign to spotlight participating businesses on social media.

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About the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce: The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce has been propelling business success since 1894. As the largest business association in the region, the Chamber focuses on advocating on behalf of business at the local, state and federal level on pro-business legislation, collaborates with education institutions and organizations to build a stronger workforce for the future and provides a way for businesses of every size to build their network.

About the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center: The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center (STBTC) is a nonprofit community blood center that provides blood, plasma, platelets and other blood components to more than 70 hospitals in 40 South Texas counties. It is the largest blood supplier in our region. STBTC has a proud 42-year history serving the South Texas community. The center operates under the auspices of BioBridge Global, a nonprofit organization comprising services for regenerative medicine and research including blood banking and resource management; cellular therapy; umbilical cord blood collection and storage; donated human tissue recovery and distribution for transplant; and testing of blood and plasma products to help patients in the United States and worldwide. STBTC has seven donor rooms in South Texas and conducts hundreds of mobile blood drives each year. Visit us at http://www.southtexasblood.org.
We are beginning to understand the multifactorial complexity of ocular diabetic disease, but it remains one of the leading causes of blindness in the US in the 18-64 age group.

James M. Maisel, MD, Chairman of Retina Group of New York, chairs the Epidemiology and Prevention of Diabetes section at the 5th World Congress of Diabetes 2017, July 12-14, 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Maisel will lecture on the topic of Ocular Complications of Diabetes Mellitus and Laser, Surgery and Pharmacologic Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy.

James M. Maisel, MD, a retinal specialist and recipient of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award 2017, works with patients to prevent and treat diabetic retinopathy and complications, through education and sight-saving pharmacologic treatment.

I am delighted to participate in the 5th World Congress of Diabetes as a section chair and presenter, states Dr. Maisel. We are beginning to understand the multifactorial complexity of ocular diabetic disease, but it remains one of the leading causes of blindness in the US in the 18-64 age group. Untangling the intricacy of cases that do not respond well to evidence based established treatment still requires extensive experience, analysis of multifactorial considerations and expertise in medical, laser and surgical treatment.

The abstract of Dr. Maisels presentation, Ocular Complications of Diabetes Mellitus and Laser, Surgery and Pharmacologic Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy, is available at rgony.com and the presentation will be posted afterwards.

Dr. Maisel, who is also Chairman and CEO of ZyDoc, a New York-based medical informatics company, will deliver a second presentation for the World Diabetes Congress entitled Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Identify and Manage Patient Populations at Risk for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications. That abstract is available at http://www.zydoc.com, with the presentation later posted.

The 5th World Diabetes Congress is hosted by BIT Group Global Ltd in Prague, Czech Republic, at the Vienna House Diplomat Prague. More information is available online at http://www.bitcongress.com/wce2017.

About Retina Group of New York (RGONY)

The Retina Group of New York has provided tertiary vitreoretinal care to patients in Nassau and Suffolk Counties since 1986 at its offices in Hicksville and Hauppauge. Both locations are fully equipped with in-office laser capabilities, cutting-edge diagnostic equipment, and integrated electronic records. The group holds staff privileges at eight area hospitals and teaching appointments at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, North Shore University Hospital, and NuHealth Nassau University Medical Center. The practice is limited to medical and surgical retinal problems. These commonly include diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusion, retinal detachment, macular pucker, macula hole, surgery complications, uveitis, Plaquenil toxicity and second opinions. For more information on The Retina Group of New York, visit http://www.rgony.com or call 516-939-6100.
Craig Pfeiffer, President and CEO, Money Management Institute

The Money Management Institute (MMI) today announced an initiative focused on preparing financial advisors to incorporate sustainable investing into their practices. Sustainable investing refers to the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and their impact into investment decisions. The program will include a suite of educational resources as well as workshops, forums, and thought leadership content that will provide financial advisors with the knowledge they need to engage with their clients on the topic and recommend appropriate investments.

We are excited to work with Morningstar, a distinguished industry leader and pioneer in evaluating ESG metrics with its Morningstar Sustainability RatingTM for funds, to launch the MMI/Morningstar Sustainable Investing Initiative. Morningstar, as the Presenting Sponsor, will contribute important data, analysis, and insight, and will co-host with MMI a wide array of planned events, said Craig Pfeiffer, MMIs President and CEO.

The initiative is part of MMIs strategic commitment to continuous learning and professional development and the ongoing build-out of its Continuous Learning Center. The Sustainable Investing Initiatives educational courses will balance substantive ESG academic content and related investment management practices with insights for practical application by advisors and their clients. To complement the courses, MMI will also offer access to introductory courses from CFA Institute, Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA), Principles for Responsible Investment Academy (PRIA), and US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. For those who wish to pursue more advanced topics, MMI will engage with Concordia Universitys John Molson School of Business to offer the Sustainable Investment Professional Certification program.

We are committed to advancing ESG engagement to mirror whats happening in the marketplace, Mr. Pfeiffer added. Leading asset management firms are ramping up the development and delivery of ESG-driven investment solutions as investor demand  particularly from women and millennials  for responsible investment strategies continues to grow.

Clients are clearly interested in discussing ESG with their financial advisors, but the majority of advisors need more professional education and practical insights on incorporating sustainable investing into their practices to feel comfortable having those conversations, said Jon Hale, Morningstars Head of Sustainability Research.

Mr. Pfeiffer also announced that three other industry leaders in sustainable investing  Eaton Vance affiliate Calvert Research and Management, Merrill Lynch, and FlexShares Exchange Traded Funds at Northern Trust Asset Management  have committed to support the Sustainable Investing Initiative as Leadership Sponsors, helping to underwrite the program launch and course development.

This education initiative will teach advisors how to get the most leverage for their clients, said John Streur, President, Calvert Research and Management. Responsible investors deserve strong performance, high-quality ESG research, shareholder engagement, and clear impact reporting. This program will teach them how to get what their clients deserve.

Added Anna Snider, Head of Due Diligence for the CIO Office within Bank of Americas Global Wealth & Investment Management division, Our clients are telling us loud and clear that they want their investments to reflect the environmental and social issues most important to them. So, were pleased to support this program, which will further advisor knowledge and engagement with clients seeking to adopt ESG and a broad range of impact investment strategies.

Noted Marie Dzanis, Head of Intermediary Distribution for Northern Trust Asset Management, The landscape of investing is changing and data extending beyond traditional financial reporting is readily available, globally. Investors care what companies do within a community, how they treat employees, and the impact they have on the environment. Clients increasingly want their portfolios to reflect their values, and we are proud to participate in this groundbreaking effort to prepare financial advisors for the important task of addressing the ESG interests of their clients.

To assure timely and effective delivery of this critical professional development content, the MMI/Morningstar Sustainable Investing Initiative will be guided by an Academic Advisory Board comprised of academic leaders and chief investment officers, and a Distribution Advisory Board, comprised of asset manager and industry executives.

About the Money Management Institute (MMI): Since 1997 MMI has been the leading voice for the global financial services organizations that provide financial advice and professionally-managed investment advisory solutions to individual and institutional investors. Through industry advocacy, educational initiatives, regulatory affairs, data reporting, and professional networking, MMI supports and advances the growth of a diverse spectrum of investment advisory solutions that serve an evolving worldwide financial landscape. MMI member organizations are committed to the highest standards of fiduciary responsibility and ethical conduct and to creating the most successful outcomes for investors at every level of assets. For more information, visit http://www.MMInst.org.

About Morningstar, Inc.: Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $200 billion in assets under advisement and management as of March 31, 2017. The company has operations in 27 countries.
Rexnord 1200 Series MatTop Chain from Cambridge Engineered Solutions This new product demonstrates our diversity of offerings to the food industry and our unique strength as the worlds only manufacturer of metal and plastic chain and conveyor components -- Lucas Knapp, Rexnord Global Director, Strategic Marketing

Cambridge Engineered Solutions (acquired by Rexnord in 2016) has introduced the Rexnord1200 Series MatTop Chain, a new line of side-flexing plastic modular conveyor belts designed for moving a wide range of packaged and non-packaged food products in radius applications

The chain can be installed on new OEM conveyor equipment or used to upgrade existing systems to carry heavier loads around corners at higher rates of speed.

The 1200 Series offers a tighter turn radius than other products on the market while reaching maximum speeds up to 246 ft/min (75 m/min) depending on the load of the chain. Smooth product handling is achieved due to the large support surface.

Food and beverage industry customers for the 1200 Series include bakeries; packaged salad, fruit and vegetables suppliers; snack food manufacturers; and refrigerated and frozen food processors.

The 1200 Series is the first plastic chain product line to be offered to the North American market by Cambridge Engineered Solutions following Rexnords acquisition of the company, said Lucas Knapp, Rexnord Global Director, Strategic Marketing. This new product demonstrates our diversity of offerings to the food industry and our unique strength as the worlds only manufacturer of metal and plastic chain and conveyor components.

The 1200 Series is available in four distinct versions providing solutions to all side-flexing needs.

1255

(1.25 flexbelt standard. Also available in SuperGrip option)

529 lb. (240 kg.) product weight/2.0x radius width/standard belt width

10.0 to 30.1 in. (255 to 765 mm.)

Capable of S turn; offset pin retention; direct food contact; SuperGrip option for packages and containers

1265

(1.25 flexbelt with reinforced outer modules)

675 lb. (306 kg.) product weight/2.0x radius width/standard belt width

10.0 to 40.2 in. (255 to 1020 mm.)

Fifty percent stronger than 1255; TwistLock pin retention; indirect food contact

1275

(1.25 flexbelt with tight fit inner radius modules)

529 lb. (240 kg.) product weight/1.2x radius width/standard belt width

10.0 to 30.1 in. (255 to 765 mm.)

Tight side-flex; offset pin retention; direct food contact

1285

(125 flexbelt with tight fit inner radius modules and reinforced outer modules

675 lb. (306 kg.) product weight/1.2x radius width/standard belt width

16.7 to 40.2 in. (425 to 1020 mm.)

Strong and tight side-flex; TwistLock pin retention; indirect food contact

Two modules are available. The outer reinforced end module makes it possible to carry heavier packages and products around curves (up to 50 percent more product weight).

The inner radius module makes it possible to construct conveyors in a more compact way, which optimizes the manufacturing footprint by saving valuable floor space between equipment.

Three edge versions are offered in the 1200 Series: Flat (Non Tab), Tab (Hold Down Tab) and Positrack (Bevel, which allows easy lift of the belt). The guiding tab underneath the belt is equipped with a separate sliding block that reduces friction and resistance in the curve without compromising the strength of the belt.

The 1200 Series chain is made from proven FDA-approved acetal and polypropylene for low friction and high strength. Cambridge Engineered Solutions also offers many metal belt options for similar food industry uses.

For more information, visit http://www.cambridge-es.com.

About Cambridge Engineered Solutions

Cambridge Engineered Solutions is the worlds only manufacturer of metal and plastic conveyor chain/belts bearings, drives and conveyor components following Rexnords June 2016 acquisition of the company. Cambridges metal belt division is based in Cambridge, Maryland and Rexnords plastic belt and conveyor component division is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A service center ins-Gravenzande, the Netherlands, assists customers in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. For more information, visit http://www.cambridge-es.com and http://www.rexnord.com

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The first Qatar Airways non-stop flight from Doha to Skopje touched down on Monday, July 17, 2017 at Alexander the Great Airport. The new route to the capital of the Republic of Macedonia will be served four times per week with an Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 120 seats in Economy Class.

Skopje provides a gateway to a country of dramatic scenery, including beautiful lakes, mountains, and charming historic towns. Visitors to Skopje can discover Ottoman-era neighbourhoods, shop in the old bazaar, or visit the lakeside city of Orchid and its picturesque castle. Passengers who would like to experience the unique cultural and cosmopolitan mix of the city can book their tickets on the newly-designed Qatar Airways website or mobile application.

Qatar Airways is expediting its expansion in Eastern Europe, with service to Prague, Czech Republic and Kyiv, Ukraine set to commence by end of August.
On Monday, July 24, 2017, staff from the San Clemente Dental Care will visit the Leport School in Irvine, California to teach students the proper way to brush their teeth and the importance of brushing, as well as general dental care. Doctors Mona and Karl Soliman will be on hand with their team to bring their important message to students and staff. This is a great opportunity for us, Soliman said. Nothing is more important than regular brushing and focusing on dental care, especially for our children.

The team will give their lesson in the Toddler Classroom and focus on brushing techniques and the importance of brushing. Students will see demonstrations on brushing and learn everything they need to know about keeping their teeth clean and healthy.

This type of activity fits in with the practices focus on education and prevention. According to Dr. Soliman, prevention is incredibly important in our field and prevention starts with education. The sooner we teach children the importance of dental care, the better. Going into the classroom and making brushing fun is one of the most important things we can do as dentists.

The San Clemente Dental team practices through the philosophy of dental health care rather than dental care. This philosophy emphasizes thorough examinations and all preventative methods. All doctors at the practice believe that effective dentistry doesnt just lead to a great smile, but to healthy teeth and gums.

San Clemente Dental Care provides clients will a full range of dental procedures including cleaning and prevention, orthodontics, dental implants, oral surgery, cosmetic dentistry, emergency dentistry, and much more. The practice is known for its high standards, safety, and their focus on educating clients in the best dental practices.

For more information visit the practices website at http://www.myscdental.com or call 949.248.2525 to speak with a representative.
We look forward now to equipping StayNTouchs clients with the tools they need to make better, quicker, and smarter business decisions

SnapShot, leading provider of fully integrated applications and analytics for the hospitality industry, announced today that it has joined forces with the American hotel property management systems company, StayNTouch. Through this partnership, StayNTouch customers will have complimentary access to SnapShots trademark Analytics dashboard, which provides hoteliers with in-depth insight into their properties happenings, on and offline.

SnapShot Analytics aggregates pricing, benchmarking and PMS data, as well as TripAdvisor reviews, social media statistics, and Google Analytics, all of which appear on a single, easy-to-use dashboard. Information is updated daily, so hotel managers always have access to the latest data regarding their properties.

Furthermore, StayNTouch customers will be able to take advantage of the other applications in the recently released SnapShot Marketplace, a fleet of tools which are fully integrated to each partner PMSs data, so that hoteliers can start using the apps immediately. SnapShot Marketplace tools, designed specifically for the hospitality industry, cater to hoteliers managing single- and multi-property businesses.

SnapShot and StayNTouch have been working together over the last few months to help educate hoteliers on how to make the most of the technology available to them. In April, the companies joined Travel Tripper in hosting a webinar on building the perfect hotel tech stack.

It has been a pleasure working with StayNTouch, helping hoteliers to better understand the data they have in front of them on a daily basis, said Clive Wood, SnapShots Vice President of Business Development for the East Coast. We look forward now to equipping StayNTouchs clients with the tools they need to make better, quicker, and smarter business decisions, Wood continued.

The successful hoteliers in todays ultra-competitive hospitality marketplace are looking to understand their customer better in order to provide a differentiated guest experience from pre-purchase to check-out, said, Jos Schaap, CEO and Founder of StayNTouch. With SnapShots powerful toolset integrated with their StayNTouch PMS, these hoteliers can now make decisions and take action quickly and effectively.

If you are a StayNTouch customer, activate your SnapShot Analytics dashboard here. To find out more about Analytics and Marketplace, visit the SnapShot website.

About SnapShot

Founded in 2013 in Zell-am-See, Austria, SnapShot is a hotel data company and marketplace for hotel applications, with offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States. In the last 12 months, SnapShot has signed more than 3,000 hotels to its platform, as well as 40+ data partners.

The Snapshot Marketplace offers a wide range of applications from Snapshot and third party developers. These include comprehensive hotel data analytics, easy-to-use budget control tools and a user-centric hotel communication/messaging service.

Acting as a hub for application developers needing to access and work with hotel data for applications and hotels needing secure, integrated applications, SnapShot is a unique resource in the industry, allowing a fast and efficient access to technology for hotels, and a rapid and secure access to hotel data for developers. To find out more, visit http://www.snapshot.travel.

About StayNTouch

StayNTouch is a Software as a Service hotel property management systems (PMS) company focused on developing solutions that help hotels raise service levels, drive revenues, reduce costs, and ultimately change the way hotels can captivate their guests. Developed with mobility in mind, the pioneering platform enables hotels to create long lasting relationships with their guests by delivering personalized service levels that todays guests require.

StayNTouch operates on tablets and smartphones, empowering hotel employees to go above and beyond in exceeding guest expectations at every touch point. Powering over 75,000 rooms globally, our game-changing solution frees hotels from the constraints of legacy or premise systems, dramatically streamlines operations, increases margins, and revolutionizes how front-line staff connect with guests.

StayNTouch is a trusted partner to many of the most forward thinking hotels, resorts, casinos and chains in the industry, including Yotel, Zoku Amsterdam, Valencia Hotels, The Freehand Hotels, Modus Hotels and the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. For more information, visit http://www.stayntouch.com.
Toronto, Ontario is becoming more and more of a hub for urban talent, with such high charting acts as The Weeknd, Drake and Tory Lanez dominating the airwaves across the globe. With new talent, such as Nav and PartyNextDoor entering the scene, a gem known across the city as Torontos Best Kept Secret Hakeem Roze has resurfaced to introduce a new energy to the world. Born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in Torontos East End, Hakeem seamlessly weaves between afro inspired rhythms and sultry R&B ballads.

Having worked with producers Cool & Dre (DJ Khaleds producer) and The Track Starz (Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Ludacris, etc.), as well as industry juggernauts Drake, Usher, Eve, Lloyd, Sean Paul, etc, Hakeem has perfected his sound and learned from the industrys best.

Recently, Hakeem dropped his latest single, "Big City", which is produced by Trizzlammuzik & Mike Price and is currently available to stream and download on Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes. "Big City" is the first single off of his latest EP, "In The Meanwhile", which promises to deliver much of what has been lacking in todays sound. Working with a team of in-house Canadian producers, Hakeem skillfully showcases his range, bouncing around from Dancehall, Afro, R&B and Soul on this project designed to satisfy his core fan base. If "In The Meanwhile" is any sign of whats to come from Hakeem Roze, he is surely a force to be reckoned with in this industry.

About Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes: Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes are the most widely distributed mixtapes in the world, with over 100 million downloads/plays generated by over 300 volumes officially hosted by major artists. Coast 2 Coast has a solid reach in the new music industry with a digital magazine, DJ coalition, industry tips blog, yearly convention, and more. Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes represents a unique opportunity for artists of all urban genres, from major to indie. For more information, visit http://www.coast2coastmixtapes.com.
Sterling Trading Tech Jim Nevotti, President of STT states, We are excited about the exclusive global license and look forward to providing the best service industry-wide for Fusion traders.

Sterling Trading Tech (STT) announced today an exclusive global license agreement for Fusion, a leading trading platform from Clearpool Group, Inc. Following the license, STT will be the only authorized provider of Fusion, and will offer Fusion to the trading community.

STT provides the professional trading community with trading platforms, risk and compliance tools, and infrastructure solutions. Farid Naib, CEO of STT, comments We welcome the addition of Fusion to our line-up of Trading Platforms. STT is committed to providing robust, fully featured, and scalable platforms to our clients. We are able to leverage our extensive IT infrastructure to provide all users of STT platforms with a refined trading experience. 

We are excited about this new collaboration with STT and we are confident that under the leadership of the STT team Fusion will continue to grow and serve the needs of traders using the Fusion platform, said Joe Wald, CEO of Clearpool Group.

STT platforms currently process 5% of the daily US equity volume and are used in over 30 countries to trade international financial markets around the world. Jim Nevotti, President of STT states, We are familiar with the Fusion platform since many Fusion clients also use Sterling platforms. We are excited about the exclusive global license and look forward to providing the best service industry-wide for Fusion traders.

The Fusion platform is already operating under STT with no service disruption for clients. This is STTs second strategic deal this year following the purchase of CBOEs Livevol X (now Sterling VolTrader). Additionally, earlier this year, STT announced the integration of a customized transparent algo-trading suite with Clearpool Group, Inc. The growth of STT is a continued commitment to being a leader and innovator within the industry.

Additional Information on Sterling Trading Tech and its products can be found at http://www.sterlingtradingtech.com or 312.346.9600.

About Sterling Trading Tech (http://www.sterlingtradingtech.com)

Sterling Trading Tech (STT) is a leading provider of technology solutions for the global equities, equity options and futures markets. With over 100 clients including leading brokers, clearing firms and prop groups in over 30 countries and trading supported in 10 countries, STT provides solutions tailored to our clients needs including links to over 80 execution venues in the US. STT is committed to providing fast, stable technology along with outstanding customer service.

Sterling Trading Tech Media Contact:

Melinda Joseph

(312) 517-3569

melinda.joseph(at)sterlingtradingtech.com

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Farzad Dibachi, CEO of Noribachi, and Team We wanted to create a platform for our customers, partners, and the global community to have a better understanding of what we do. The website will allow our entire audience to interact with our products and brand all in one place.

Noribachi, an industry-leading U.S. based technology company with a focus on lighting digitalization announced the launch of their brand-new website created and designed by the engineers in Noribachis Silicon Valley office. Noribachi was founded in 2011 with a mission to disrupt the lighting industry by offering high quality custom LED manufacturing for commercial and industrial applications that could be manufactured in real time and high quantities. We wanted to create a platform for our customers, partners, and the global community to have a better understanding of what we do. The website will allow our entire audience to interact with our products and brand all in one place, says Farzad Dibachi CEO of Noribachi.

Noribachi products are manufactured in Southern California and designed in Noribachis research and development facility in Northern California. The development of the revamped website, noribachi.com was driven by the need to continue scaling in high growth mode, compete more effectively in the marketplace, and provide information in real time.

The intuitive website layout and rich content clearly communicate the Noribachi message while showcasing unique LED product capabilities. The new website uses JSON to allow for rapid and flexible information delivery. The website is optimized for mobile phone access.

The re-architected website was created to provide valuable information to buyers of industrial LED products. The product section was enhanced to quickly navigate product configuration and technical lighting requirements. A new section was added to highlight Noribachis digital services (hardware, software, cloud) and cutting edge IoT (Internet of Things) technology. The Noribachi hardware and software provide capabilities to detect, control, and securely manage lighting fixtures from anywhere.

Noribachi is the first LED lighting manufacturer to bring purchasing convenience and pricing transparency to the lighting industry. Now, industrial customers, electrical contractors and lighting resellers have options to buy Noribachi products in standard configurations on five e-commerce platforms: cheaphighbays.com, cheapwallpack.com, cheapofficelighting.com, ledfullspectrum.com, and colorfullumens.com. For the products on those websites Noribachi boasts a 72-hour lead time. From the moment you place an order online, the manufacturing floor receives the order electronically and begins building the LED light fixtures. This manufacturer-direct to consumer model is changing the lighting industry.

The newly introduced e-commerce websites also offer an industry program that benefits electrical contractors and resellers. Electrical contractors are invited to apply for Noribachis Contractor Affiliate Program and are directed to a section of the website dedicated to them. Contractors involved in the Contractor Affiliate Program gain access to financial incentives, engineering, manufacturing resources, as well as a dedicated team for support.

The website also highlights BEST, Noribachis 'Bespoke, Engineered, and Specifically Tailored' manufacturing methodology, which allows us to build large configurations of our proprietary lighting engines completely customized for specific end customers needs, states Esther M. Santos, CSO of Noribachi. If you have a question or need help finding a product, you can speak directly to an engineer on the Noribachi website through chat capabilities.

Noribachis efficient, cost-effective and fully certified products differentiate them from the lighting conglomerates and oversea competitors. Over the past three years Noribachi has seen 30% growth year over year and is projected to continue this growth through 2017.
Cybersecurity on-demand, in the cloud, for one price. Anitian Beyond gives companies access to world-class information security talent and capabilities, whenever they need it.

Anitian, the oldest and most experienced cybersecurity firm in the nation, has introduced a new subscription service. Anitian Beyond solves the single greatest threat facing businesses today  a lack of cybersecurity talent.

Statistics from a recent issue of CSO magazine (http://www.csoonline.com/article/3153707/security/top-5-cybersecurity-facts-figures-and-statistics-for-2017.html) paint a disturbing picture. Data breaches are costing trillions. Ransomware alone has a price tag of US$5 billion. And hackers are more brazen than ever, targeting election systems all over the world.

We are losing the cybersecurity game, primarily because companies cannot find cybersecurity talent. Effective cybersecurity demands talented people, proven processes, and diligent monitoring working in harmony with technology.

Anitian Beyond solves this. Anitian Beyond is a subscription service, much like Office 365 or Salesforce. Companies can get whatever security they need, whenever they need it, delivered rapidly through the cloud.

Hackers dont follow rules, said Andrew Plato, CEO of Anitian. If we want to win this game, we have to change the rules so the good guys have an unfair advantage. Anitian Beyond changes the rules for how companies buy and consume information security. It gives companies access to world-class information security talent and capabilities, whenever they need it.

Anitian Beyond is part of a new way of doing business, called the Subscription Economy. Customers can select from an expansive list of security services including risk assessments, penetration tests, and managed security operations. Each subscription includes on-demand support, incident response, and Anitians monthly Sherlock Threat Intelligence Briefing.

Anitian Beyond puts us in this game to win, not merely avoid losing, said Plato.

Anitian Beyond is available now from Anitian. Learn more about Anitian Beyond here.

About Anitian

At Anitian, we believe security is essential for innovation, growth, and prosperity. To achieve this vision, we are on a mission to build great security. Anitian is the oldest, and most respected security intelligence firm in the nation. Anitians security thought-leadership and business pragmatism have earned us the honor of a diverse and loyal catalog of clients.
Carolina Restoration Services is the largest family-owned and operated full-service disaster restoration firm in NC. Over the years, weve always remained true to our purpose, core values, and unwavering commitment to helping our clients with compassion and excellence. Many things have changed over the years, but this never will!

Carolina Restoration Services proudly announced that they have been ranked by the Triangle Business Journal as the 21st largest general contracting firm in Central North Carolinas Triangle region (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) by gross billings. This distinction is a key milestone for Carolina Restoration Services which is the largest family owned and operated, full-service disaster restoration firm in North Carolina.

Carolina Restoration Services has consistently provided comprehensive, certified, turnkey insurance reconstruction solutions for tens of thousands of satisfied residential and commercial clients since 1997, and this year Carolina Restoration Services celebrates its 20th anniversary.

We are very proud to serve the Triangle region and very grateful to be recognized by the well-respected Triangle Business Journal, which does an excellent job showcasing the Triangles most progressive and innovative companies, said Travis Bailey, Vice-President, Carolina Restoration Services. We truly care about our team members and, in turn, they care tremendously about our clients. This is evidenced by the many client endorsements we receive each month in the form of emails, letters, reviews and surveys.

Added Bailey: This accolade from the Triangle Business Journal recognizes our continued strong growth over the last 20 years, which began with just a few team members and has now grown to almost 100. Over the years, weve always remained true to our purpose, core values, and unwavering commitment to helping our clients with compassion and excellence. Many things have changed over the years, but this never will!

In addition, Carolina Restoration Services has been named among the Triangles 50 Fastest-Growing Companies for the third year in a row, and has been awarded Best Family Business, Best Places to Work and Employer of the Year, respectively.

About Carolina Restoration Services

Based in Morrisville, NC, Carolina Restoration Services is the largest family-owned and operated full-service disaster restoration firm in North Carolina. The company assists residential and commercial property owners experiencing damage from fire, smoke, water or storm-related events through a full range of solutions, including 24-hour emergency response. Learn more at http://www.carolinarestorationservices.com.
Dr. James Baldwin offers remarks following his inauguration We will reclaim our place as a leader and innovator in higher education

Excelsior College inaugurated its third president, Dr. James N. Baldwin, on Friday, July 14, as part of its annual Commencement ceremony in Albany, New York. Brig. Gen. (ret.) Jerry Neff, chair of the Colleges Board of Trustees, presided over the investiture.

Human learning has, in effect, been our endless quest for the truth  and, despite what we read, see, and hear in the news today, the truth always matters, proclaimed Baldwin during a 12-minute inaugural address focused on his upbringing, the transformative power of education, and Excelsiors future. Hold those you disagree with accountable for the truth  and hold those you agree with to an even higher standard of accountability and integrity.

Sharing his vision for the future of Excelsior College, Baldwin, who has served as president since October 2016, promised to build on the institutions past successes while placing a relentless focus on providing access, affordability, and an exceptional student experience. Excelsior, a private, nonprofit online college, is home to five schools and more than 32,000 adult learners.

For 46 years, we have served as a beacon for those left behind by traditional educational institutions. I can promise you this...We will reclaim our place as a leader and innovator in higher education, said Baldwin, to wide applause from the more than 2,400 in attendance, including over 400 graduates, family, and friends.

In addition to the inauguration, the ceremony included the awarding of the Presidents Medal to Dr. Betty A. Rosa, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, and the granting of honorary degrees to Dr. Carolyn A. Woo, former president and CEO, Catholic Relief Services, and Dr. Karen Cox, executive vice president and COO of Childrens Mercy-Kansas City. Cox also served as Commencement speaker.

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Excelsior College (excelsior.edu) is a regionally accredited, nonprofit online college focused on helping adults complete their degrees and advance their careers. The College contributes to the development of a diverse, educated, and career-ready society by valuing lifelong learning with an emphasis on serving individuals historically underrepresented in higher education. Founded in 1971, Excelsior meets students where they are  academically and geographically  removing obstacles to the educational goals of adults pursuing continuing education and degree completion. Our pillars include innovation, flexibility, academic excellence, and integrity. Learn more at excelsior.edu.
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP further grows its Labor & Employment Practice with the strategic addition of Michael Taylor as shareholder in its Northern Virginia office. Taylor adds additional significant experience to the firms capabilities in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) legal services and will serve as chair of the firms Labor & Employment Practices OSHA Group. He has wide-ranging experience with OSHA matters across the country and has served as general counsel to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the federal agency that handles trials and appeals of workplace safety and health disputes between OSHA and private industry.

Given his very targeted and unique experience, Mike is an excellent addition to our Northern Virginia and Labor & Employment teams, said James N. Boudreau, co-chair of Greenberg Traurigs Labor & Employment Practice. His background and experience advising on OSHA, workplace safety, and health issues are going to be invaluable assets to serving our clients across the U.S. We are excited to welcome Mike to the Greenberg Traurig family and we look forward to working with him.

Taylor concentrates his practice on advising employers nationwide in a wide range of industries on matters related to OSHA. He has defended dozens of employers in enforcement litigation arising from significant injuries, fatalities, and other catastrophic workplace events. He also provides OSHA compliance counseling, OSHA inspection counseling, OSHA whistleblower representation, OSHA compliance audits, and OSHA due diligence reviews for clients.

I am proud to join Greenberg Traurigs well known and respected team and provide my clients with an additional range of capabilities while being able to offer my niche experience to the firms impressive client roster, Taylor said. He joined the firm from BakerHostetler where he was a partner.

Taylor received his LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, his J.D. from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, and his B.S. from Eastern Kentucky University. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Georgia. He is not admitted in Virginia. His practice in Virginia is limited to federal OSHA and proceedings before federal agencies.

Greenberg Traurigs Labor & Employment Practice

Greenberg Traurigs Global Labor & Employment Practice serves clients from offices throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Members of the practice have had numerous trial wins and are frequently called upon to handle complex, bet-the-company, and large high-stake cases, including class and collective actions. On the labor side, a leading group of lawyers regularly represents management with labor-relations matters. Labor & Employment team members assist clients with complex employment issues, and design practical, proactive strategies that can be readily implemented by todays human resources professionals. The practice has been recognized by Law360 as Practice Group of the Year for Labor & Employment (2011 and 2013), and has received a regional award from American Lawyer affiliate, Daily Report, for Litigation Department of the Year in Georgia (Labor & Employment 2015-2017). In addition, the practice is recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the areas of Labor and Employment Litigation, Labor-Management Relations, and Trade Secrets Litigation. Visit Greenberg Traurigs Labor & Employment Blog for insights and analysis of the latest labor and employment developments, including legislation, regulations, cases, policies, and trends.

About Greenberg Traurigs Northern Virginia Office

Greenberg Traurigs clients rely on the more than 40 attorneys in the firms Northern Virginia office for multifaceted, broad-based legal services. Team members primary goal is to assist clients in addressing their legal needs, locally, regionally, or on a global scale. They work collaboratively with colleagues around the region, or across to Europe, the UK, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. And when a matter requires it, they do not hesitate to utilize the firms full slate of cross border resources. Clients come to the Northern Virginia office for their corporate and securities matters, real estate transactions, wealth management and tax planning, business immigration compliance, labor and employment issues, litigation cases, and government contract needs, among others. These include the top decision makers at tech companies headquartered in the region, as well as government contractors, health care organizations, high net worth individuals, and developers. Most of the firms Northern Virginia attorneys are admitted to practice in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

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.
Istanbul is the 13th cheapest city for taxi ride, with a cost of US $2.92 for a 3km ride, according to a new survey.

Zurich named the most expensive city for 3 km fare with US$25.25, followed by Geneva with US$17.53. Following the two Swiss cities, Tokyo ranked 3rd most expensive city for 3km taxi ride with US$15.95.

When you consider taxi fares between airport and city center, Tokyo ranked most expensive with a ride cost US$189.91. Followed by Milan with US$101.62. Oslo ranked 3rd with a fare of US$86.51.

Meanwhile Cairo ranked cheapest in the world with US$0.55 for 3 km taxi ride, followed by Mumbai (US$1.40), Bucharest (US$1.47), Jakarta (US$1.47).

Cairo (US$4.20), Mumbai (US$4.44), and Tunis (US$4.49) are the cheapest cities for a taxi ride between airport and city center.

Istanbul ranked 13th with US$2.92 for 3 km ride and 26th for rides between airport and city center, average cost measured as US$24.21.

Online used car dealership Carspring have produced the study revealing the price of taxi use in 80 cities around the world. To compile the Taxi Price Index, they researched the cost of hailing a taxi, the cost per kilometer, the cost of waiting time, and the typical fare for a taxi from the airport to the city center.

Nothing beats the relief of hopping into a comfortable taxi after a long day of sightseeing in a new city, says Carspring CEO Maximilian Vollenbroich. But in some cities, this simply isnt affordable, and in other places, tourists are at risk of being overcharged. We hope our research helps travellers prepare for safe, fun, and budget-friendly travel in whatever ride best suits them.

Full results for all 80 cities can be found on the results page here: https://www.carspring.co.uk/taxi-price-index-usd/
Waterkotte Harley-Davidson

Performance Brokerage Services, a new car and Harley-Davidson dealership broker is pleased to announce the sale of Waterkotte Harley-Davidson in Mount Vernon, Illinois from the Waterkotte Family to Rodney Cabaness in June 2017. Gary Surdyke acquired then Dales Harley-Davidson from Dale Walksler in 2000. For nearly ten years, the dealership generated nearly 20 million dollars in sales annually. However, in 2008 they experienced a decline with the failing economy. Gary and Linda Surdyke have ten children, all of which grew up in the Harley-Davidson business. As an attempt to pass the business onto their children, Gary offered the dealership to his daughter, Rebecca and her husband Matt Waterkotte who changed the name to Waterkotte Harley-Davidson in 2014. Gary Surdyke commented, After receiving many announcements of Harley-Davidson dealerships that George Chaconas and Performance Brokerage Services had sold over the years, I reached out to him to help my daughter and son-in-law sell Waterkotte Harley-Davidson. It was a very complicated and difficult transaction and I want to thank George for his perseverance, professionalism and commitment to seeing the deal through to closing.

Rodneys lifelong dream of owning a Harley-Davidson dealership became a reality in 2007 when he acquired Campbells Harley-Davidson from Ms. Linda Campbell, later renamed Black Diamond Harley-Davidson. Rodney Cabaness owns and operates Black Diamond Harley-Davidson in Marion, Illinois, only 40 miles away from Waterkotte Harley-Davidson. This made for a perfect strategic acquisition to expand their footprint. Rodney Cabaness shared, This deal would not have happened without the involvement of George Chaconas from Performance Brokerage Services. Having worked with George in the past, he reached out to me about an opportunity in my market. George is a good guy to know in our industry. He was very professional and persistent and helped immensely in us buying Waterkotte Harley-Davison.

Waterkotte Harley-Davidson will operate under its new name Roadhouse Harley-Davidson and will remain at its current location at 205 North 44th Street in Mount Vernon, Illinois.

George C. Chaconas, the exclusive agent for this transaction and the head of the National Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division for Performance Brokerage Services commented, It was a pleasure working with the Surdyke and Waterkotte families and wish them luck on their future business endeavors. I wish Rodney Cabaness much success with his strategic acquisition.

About Performance Brokerage Services

Performance Brokerage Services, an auto dealership broker, specializes in professional intermediary services to buyers and sellers of automotive, Harley-Davidson and Powersports dealerships.

The company offers a different approach to the automotive, Harley-Davidson and Powersports industries by providing complimentary dealership assessments, no upfront fees, no reimbursement of costs and is paid a success fee only. Performance Brokerage Services gets paid only after the client gets paid.

With over 25 years of experience, the company utilizes an extensive network of industry related accountants, attorneys, hundreds of registered buyers and enjoys longstanding relationships with most of the auto manufacturers and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. The intermediaries at Performance Brokerage Services have been involved in well over 600 transactions. Pledging loyal and unwavering representation, confidentiality is vigilantly protected during the selling process and after the transaction closes.

With corporate offices in Irvine, California, six regional offices in Utah, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Alberta and Ontario, and a dedicated Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division, Performance Brokerage Services provides its clients national exposure with local representation. For more information about the services offered by Performance Brokerage Services, visit https://performancebrokerageservices.com.
On Thursday, June 21, The Centers Reimbursement Forum members met with representatives from CGS Administrators, LLC (CGS) to discuss Medicare audit and reimbursement issues. CGS, which assists in hospitals claims processing and payment, works regularly with The Center's Northeast Ohio hospital members to address reimbursement questions and concerns pertaining to the Medicare program. Two staff members from CGS, Judith Cummings, accounting manager, and JoEllen Draper, audit manager, delivered a presentation and answered questions for Reimbursement Forum members.

The presentation covered many Medicare topics hospitals regularly deal with, including:



Reopening of Cost Reports

Cost Report appeals process

Cost Report auditing

Hospital wage index

Bad debt claims and review

Changes in CMS rules

Following the presentation, CGS representatives addressed a number of pre-submitted questions from Reimbursement Forum members. Representatives from University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Lake Health, Southwest General, MetroHealth and St. Vincents Charity Medical Center all participated in the meeting. Additionally, guests from OSU Wexner Medical Center and Western Reserve Hospital joined member hospitals.

For questions about The Centers Reimbursement Forum members or the recent meeting with CGS, please contact George Jeney at 216.255.3666, or Bob Kaliszewski at 216.255.3652.

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With a rich history as the Northeast Ohio hospital association, dating back to 1916, The Center for Health Affairs serves as the collective voice of hospitals and the source for Northeast Ohio hospital and healthcare information. As the leading advocate for Northeast Ohio hospitals, The Center aims to enhance the effectiveness of the healthcare community and the health of the communities it serves by providing expertise, resources and solutions to address the challenges faced by the regions healthcare providers. The Centers efforts focus on areas that benefit member hospitals from a regional approach, including healthcare workforce; emergency preparedness; public policy and advocacy; finance and reimbursement; and community initiatives. And because of its business affiliation with CHAMPS Healthcare, The Center has the resources to provide a broad level of professional services to its members. The Center, located in downtown Cleveland, is proud to advocate on behalf of more than 35 acute-care hospitals located in six counties. For more, visit neohospitals.org. The Center for Health Affairs is honored to be named as one of The Cleveland Plain Dealers Top Workplaces in 2014 and 2015, as well as to ERCs NorthCoast99 List in 2003, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The average price of a residential property in Ireland was 230,000 in the first quarter of 2017, up 40% from 165,000 five years ago. In comparison, average UK house prices rose roughly 30% in the five years between January 2012 and 2017, while prices in Northern Ireland rose only 18%.

The there are almost 4,000 'property millionaires'  or people whose homes are worth 1m or more. On average, 12 properties are sold every week for 1m or more.

"Real estate forms the biggest chunk of Irish wealth, providing a natural source of funding for public services that are tied to particular locations, such as schools," said Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin.
Geekologie has shut down.

Thank you to everybody.

Now go be happy.
"We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans," the president tweeted. "Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!"

The Senate bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, fell apart Monday night when two more GOP senators  Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah  said they would not support a vote to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for debate.

That left the Republican leadership with four defections on the procedural vote, called a motion to proceed  more than the three needed to block the bill. Moran and Lee joined Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky as opponents of the motion.

According to Politico, Trump was blindsided by the defections of Moran and Lee. The president was reportedly in the middle of a strategy dinner for the bill when the announcement was made, and he told Republicans they would look like "dopes" if they did not repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

In a follow-up tweet on Tuesday, Trump once again advocated the failure of the ACA, better known as Obamacare, to bring Democrats and the public around on a Republican plan.

"As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan," Trump tweeted. "Stay tuned!"

The new tweets, however, seemed to contradict Trump's insistence on Monday night that Republicans immediately repeal Obamacare.

"Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" Trump said.

Additionally, Trump suggested that Republicans should get rid of the legislative filibuster  generally known as the "nuclear option"  to make it easier to pass any Obamacare replacement bill.

"The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes," Trump tweeted on Tuesday. "Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!"

Republicans, who hold 52 seats in the Senate, were using a process that would have required only 50 votes to pass the bill, since Vice President Mike Pence could break a tie. Despite this, Republicans still could not get the bill through.

If Trump were to end the executive branch's funding of Obamacare's cost-sharing-reduction payments, a critical provision that helps offset costs for insurers, it would most likely lead to an exodus of insurers from the individual exchanges and skyrocketing costs for Americans in those markets, effectively causing the collapse of the law.
At a rally in Homa Bay in western Kenya, the National Super Alliance party candidate urged his supporters to only consummate only after the results are declared.

Mr Odinga has likened the election to a war, saying sex before the day warriors go to battle is a bad omen that could result in defeat.

Raila further asked his supporters to wake up early and desist from activities that can prevent them from going to vote.

In many parts of Africa this is a common belief.

72-year-old Raila Odinga also called on the youth to be vigilant on the polling day to avoid rigging.

On the issue of tribalism, which has been evident during campaigns, he advised the youth to to desist from all forms of violence.

Officially campaigning started on Sunday, May 28 and will run to August 5, 3 days before the election.
Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin disappeared in the area in August 1942 while tending to their cows.

Bernhard Tschannen, the director of ski-lift company Glacier 3000, said one of his employees stumbled upon pairs of male and female shoes, some backpacks, tin bowls, and part of a body on the Tsanfleuron glacier, according to the Guardian.

Local police said in a statement that there were two bodies lying near each other  a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War Two.

DNA tests have not yet confirmed their identities, but police said the bodies had identity papers, and were perfectly preserved in the glacier.

told the Geneva Tribune that the couple likely fell into a crevasse and stayed there for decades, until the glacier receded. (The New York Times reports the The bodies were found near a ski lift above the Les Diablerets resort in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Marcelin Dumoulin, a shoemaker, and Francine, a teacher, left behind seven children. Their five sons have died, according to the Times, and their youngest daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, is now 79. She told Le Matin that the discovery brought her a deep sense of calm.

We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping she said. After the couple's disappearance, search crews combed the glacier for two months, the Times reports. Udry-Dumoulin said she and her siblings were then placed with different families and eventually lost touch.

I was lucky to stay with my aunt. We all lived in the region but became strangers, she said.

Udry-Dumoulin said she plans to have a proper funeral for her parents, and wear white to represent the hope she never lost.
The date is subject to the approval of the house in line with its schedule.

The minister is expected to review some Marco-Economic targets set out in the 2017 budget to ensure that it ends the year on a good note.

Expectations of Industry players

Some economists have indicated that the Finance Minister should use the opportunity to review the governments revenue target of 34 billion cedis for 2017.

This is because, for the first four months of this year, the government was hoping to mobilise a little over GHC10 billion, but actually made GHC8.7 billion.

This means the State is not halfway through meeting its target.

READ ALSO: 6 ways to survive on a minimum wage as a Ghanaian

Others have also asked that Ken Ofori-Atta uses the opportunity to give details on discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the programme extension.

Economist Professor Godfred Bokpin told Accra-based Joy FM that the government must consider outlining some additional measures that would help consolidate gains made in checking its expenditure.

However, he expressed worry that the challenges with the revenue mobilisation could impact negatively on the end of year deficit target.
Prof Glover was speaking at an event organised in honour of the president of Ford Foundation, Darren Walker.

Walker is on a tour to West Africa with his first stop being Ghana where he engaged arts lovers and business men on how African businesses can take advantage of the Ghanaian creative arts industry and make some economic gains.

READ ALSO: 4 African countries that are relocating their capital cities

Prof Glover said that the arts industry in Ghana will yield more if the government pays enough attention and help address the challenges of the sector.

He mentioned some challenges to include the lack of exposure, difficulty in getting raw materials, and the stereotype of the general public about arts.

He said Ghanaians needed to be educated to understand that arts can make one rich. He also called on the government to ensure that artists in the creative arts industry are given the necessary attention as they can spur economic growth and development.

He said that arts must be made part of our educational curriculum, especially in the primary and secondary schools.
According to Accra-based Kasapa FM, Awuah Darko will be whisked away immediately he steps foot in Ghana during Nana Addos governance.

Reports suggest that he is currently in the United States of America (USA).

READ ALSO: Allegation of wrongdoing at BOST a diversionary tactic

He is currently being investigated by the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) for financial malfeasance during his tenure as MD of BOST.

He is being investigated for at least 12 major transactions he supervised whilst in office.

READ ALSO: Former BOST MD sues Ken Agyapong for GHC5m

The said transactions are immediately not known.
This is an expectation by the Importers and Exporters.

The implementation of the 3 percent VAT Flat Rate policy started on July 4, 2017, to replace the previous 17.5% Input-Output VAT computation approach.

The Ghana Revenue Service has said that the new system will reduce the stress involved in tax filing as compared to the previous VAT regime.

Despite this assurance, some players have said that the new regime will lead to double taxation. This has also led to the increase in the price of some products.

But the government has indicated that it will not suspend the implementation of the 3 percent VAT Flat Rate.

The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Sampson Asaaki Awingobit explained that they could have confidence in the government again if the members of the association are exempted.

When it comes to the 3% VAT flat rate that was implemented about seventeen days ago, I can confidently tell you that it has come to crash all the good things that the government has promised in terms of tax reduction because as I speak to you now consumers are paying higher under this government.

The situation will affect most Ghanaians due to the number of goods imported. I will add that it will not only affect goods that are imported but it will also affect import distributors who are also doing distribution of manufactured products in this country, he warned.

Awingobit told Accra-based Citi FM that the Ghanaians currently believe the government is not fulfilling its tax relief promise.

So I will tell you that, they began on a good note but in the last seventeen days with what we saw in our markets it has made Ghanaians confused as to whether we are in a new government that promised tax relief and then better services to the Ghanaian community, or are we still in the old government. We are confused.
I retaliation, Chris posted screenshots of their conversation and said that Leila used to beg him for publicity.

Leila, in response to Chris claim, wrote a long essay on her blog encouraging all victims of cyber-bullying to defend themselves from the various trolls who follow them and leave nasty comments on their page.

In a long blog post, Leila wrote (unedited):

"I chose to write this because Id like to encourage other victims of cyber bullying that its Internet, you can defend yourself! DEFEND YOURSELF! When you keep the hurt and anger bottled up inside, thats when depression sets in and then insanity begins.

Yvonne Nelson, Afia Schwarzenegger, Nadia Buari, John Dumelo, footballers, singers, high powered politicians. Do you see the pattern? Chris Vincent Agyapong Febiri always woefully attempts to pull down those above him who are not particularly interested in being "his friends". When he fails, He snaps.

I'm pretty sure in his private sanctuary he pats himself on the back, thinking he has succeeded in holding the entire Ghana film industry hostage. I don't even want to think of how he congratulates himself! They say when the mad man finds a puddle of water and spreads it all around, he steps back, admires his handiwork and says to himself, "me too, I have made rain".

It's ok to write exposes and you know, blow covers, but it's how. Blow cover, but remember that's a human being you're handling and leave room for air.

Someday, someone has to say, ENOUGH!

Lets start from the very beginning!! (Singing)

You need journalists, bloggers, social media commentators on your side. Especially when you have products to promote. Never be ashamed of that! Its the nature of the job.

My then publicist made the first connection to Chris and his Ghana celebrities page when I sing of a well received an unprecedented 11 nominations at the AMAA Awards. Im a girl. I know to work with guys, you gotta really come down and not be bossy. I call them my hubby, boyfriend, wedding partner, nothing to it. When you are a strong willed person, you need to learn to slow it down sometimes.

We started out nicely. If I needed a fire quenched he and Ameyaw Debrah were my go to persons. If I needed a promo done for the films, same thing. He wanted to build my website and I chatted with him about an idea for a newspaper.We chatted about the internet trolls and hate speech and I shared what I always share, I hate it when I am called ugly on his website! I don't hate it for me, but for my parents. I don't care that I am ugly, but really, who created in God's image and likeness is called ugly by another human being? Someone as insensitive as Chris Vincent cannot see the bigger picture. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made! Run with that!

Cyber bullying destroys talent long before it is hatched. Young children are online. teenagers are online. You are responsible. We are all responsible. We are from a 3rd world country. We all owe it a duty to that country to help it grow. You have a website? use it to nurture. Not neutralize talents and your enemies so google can pay you a few bucks for rent. That's just low. Others do it, we are not others. We are Ghana. With unique challenges and it is our duty as citizens to build.

There was a lot of hate for me on his website. Sometimes hell send me the posts and Ill ask him why send that to me? His response? to make me laugh. Really?

Really vile abuse. It doesnt matter that its a faceless person. Its a human being typing those things! Never forget that. Leilas mother should have aborted her pregnancy, shes so ugly Does she have HIV. Leila Djansis mother should have aborted her pregnancy. These are not robots typing. Its humans. Maybe even people who smile at you when they see you. Let us never assume we don't damage people with the keyboard. You may not be stoning them or setting them ablaze physically but you are emotionally and mentally. Chris Vincent has managed to create his own private Denkyira Obuasi with his website. Everyday, someone is lynched and burnt and google pays. it's time to mourn!

Ties That Bind was my breaking point. Someone on his website was calling studios in LA, asking them whether Ties That Bind was a Hollywood film. That was such an embarrassment. I went to Chris and asked why he published that. He didnt care. I get it, hes a blogger. But still, at least, take a blow for the investment coming to Ghana. A million dollars. Today he says the Ghana film industry is dead! Well, he should look at the man in the mirror. Who wants to work in hate and rancor?

I am not the most patient person, so when my facebook posts dousing the fires to protect my actors from the negative press suddenly became his headlines, I flipped. I cursed him out.

Thats when the enmity began.

I appreciate that I can be used as a tool to shed light on cyber bullying. In as much as I want to vindicate myself from his atrocious lies and malice, I should not fail to use this medium to create the much needed awareness that cyber bullying is not all just fun and games. Real people get hurt. Human beings get damaged, scarred. Some commit suicide.

If Chris can fabricate stories to promote actors and his friends, who is to say he is not fabricating all those vile and horrible things hes posted about me and others? Consider it. He lies to brand people to be liked. So can he lie to brand people to be hated. Hes hoping you''ll not read between the lines. That you'll swallow anything he says, hook, line and sinker. I really want to believe you wont be that gullible!

Lets move to some hardcore evidence shall we? Law and Order theme song cue....

Apparently he sent me some links to expose my IP address? First link he sent was March 16th 2010. I was in Texas for the Clottey Pacqiao fight and stayed afterwards closing financing for Sinking Sands and planning a party for Azumah Nelson.

05/14/2010 he sent me a linked file to trouble shoot my computer. I dont click on such baits. And, I was in Ghana shooting Sinking sands.

Another link 12/20/2010. I was in Ghana, Ghana Movie Awards

Link 1/30/2011 I was still in Ghana.

Feb 19th 2011, HE ASKED FOR MY IP ADDRESS. If Chris is able to send me a link to expose my IP address, why ask me for my IP address?

Two days later, things fell apart.

I have asked him to let us have the IP address. We'll just call the service provider. if it's that frequent, it must surely be coming from a singular location, registered to someone. My best friend Aaron is a geek. He installs all the gizmo stuff for me because my computers carry sensitive information, actors information, reels, movies... As a rule, I dont click on links except on my desktop and that IP is not LA. I know a thing or two about internet. If I want to play mischief, I will route my IP, bounce it through North Korea. Try sending a bot to that, your computer will crash!

People say Leila and Shirley are enemies. I have met her on less than 5 occasions. She is not my friend, per se. I buy her work online. I support her, I support every filmmaker because I also want to be supported. Some say they perceive tension between us. You do so because of people like Chris Vincent! You hear stories. You ignore, but that doesnt mean youve not heard. People create issues where there may be none. So in self preservation, everyone cocoons. Why should it be so? Two female filmmakers from a small country.

I find it mildly interesting that he is involving Shirley in this at all. What has Christabel Ekeh's nude photos and state of mind and my little admonition to actors got to do with Shirley? Chris himself admitted he is the one who was branding the girl via deceiving the public. How does this concern Shirley? I have my theory but I will keep it to myself. Because one day, the wind will blow and we will see what the chicken has hidden under his feathers! You say the industry is failing? When it is coming, then it is doing. (I have no idea what that means!)

July 17th 1981, my mother started bleeding profusely and I was born by a stroke of grace. Two weeks later I almost died in a fire in an incubator. A year later a door fell on my head peeling my skin off my forehead. The disasters I have encountered, I was stoned in class 4 for winning the cultural studies award on speech and prize day in Kabore school. Car accidents. All in July. Freaky, huh? Anytime I am on the edge of something big, something bigger comes to attempt to derail me. Today is my birthday, so I am going to say, it is normal.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. My mid year resolution is to put on the whole Armour of God. Even if I waiver in my belief sometimes.

This post, is for Chris and others like him who have used the internet to bully. He calls others insecure? That's him foisting who he is onto others. Sociopaths are like that. They see themselves, but they are never at fault. It has to be someone else.

FIGHT BACK!

Bullies are like dogs. When they bark and you retreat, they chase you. Push back!

So he exposes your secrets so what? Are you the only one with secrets? Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone!! FIGHT BACK! TAKE YOUR JOY! Own it! IT IS YOURS!

And those who are around him, urging him on. Your time will come. When you see your neighbors beard on fire, find a gallon of water in anticipation.

The story is told of a woman and her snake. It stopped eating and started getting closer to her, wrapping around her. Her doctor said, it is getting ready to swallow you!

You need Chris Vincent to promote your photos, your movies, your brand. He will, but like the snake he is, he will one day swallow you. Its what snakes do! They are not pets, they are beasts!

You see my life? My friends are directing Black Panther and I am here dealing with Chris Vincent.

You see why the industry is repressed? We spend time on things we shouldn't. If we'll just love!"
This comes on the back of recent heavy rains as well as poor sanitation, the Association said.

GPHA in a statement issued Monday, July 18, 2017, and signed by Dr. Ishmael Norman, Chairman of Environment, Water and Sanitation Committee also called on various public entities including but not limited to the Ministries of Water and Sanitation, Zongo Affairs, Environment and Technology, Information, and agencies such as the EPA, the National News Agency, together with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies as a matter of urgency, to accelerate plans to address the worsening sanitation situation in the country to avert a major cholera outbreak.

At least 150 died in 2014 when the country recorded the worst cholera outbreak in 30 years.
Superior court judges, just like Members of Parliament and other Article 71 office holders, are entitled to some benefits after every four years of service.

But a source has told the Daily Graphic newspaper that members have not been paid since December 2016, although other Article 71 office holders have been settled.

The source also indicated that other allowances, such as book and fuel, were yet to be paid to judges on the lower and superior benches.

The allowances had been outstanding since January 2017, the source said.

Our members are struggling to fuel their vehicles and buy law books which are usually expensive and are, therefore, imploring the government to take immediate steps to settle us, the source said.

The source further indicated that even though the Ministry of Finance had given several assurances to release the funds, they are yet to receive them.

READ ALSO: Lower court judges threaten strike on Nov 21

The latest assurance was given three months ago but we are yet to receive what is due us. We have been patient enough but it appears our cries have not been heard.

We are, by this notice, urging the government to take immediate steps to pay us our due, the source said.
The Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku, who is the Ranking Member on the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee of parliament told Accra-based Class FM: It looks like it is beyond governments capability to deal with the situation.

According to the MP, the maize is a staple crop and called on the government to avoid trivialising or politicising the issue so that we can tackle the issue squarely because the infestation is now across all the 10 regions.

Over 112,000 hectares of farms have so far been destroyed by the green-striped caterpillar larvae of moths.

The pests were detected last year, and have since wreaked havoc on farms in all the 10 regions of the country.

The Programme Officer of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Charles Nyaaba believes that the government must declare a state of emergency over the matter.
The accused, Solomon Yidana, was put before the court presided over by Mr Ekow Mensah, to answer a charge of defrauding by false pretence.

He pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of GH165,000 with three sureties.

The case has been adjourned to July 24, 2017.

READ ALSO: Man bags 1 month imprisonment for stealing cables

The Police Inspector, Eric Asante told the court that the complainant, Bernice Kennedy, is a businessman in Obuasi and is the fiancee of the accused.

She told the suspect in September last year that she would want to buy a Mercedes Benz GL450 vehicle, and he convinced her that he could get the vehicle for her from a car dealer in Togo.

Bernice subsequently gave the suspect the money to get her the car, the prosecution said.

But he failed to deliver the car and the complainant was left with no option than to report to the police.
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Speaking to journalists at the Flagstaff House after his first six months in office, the president said he has been in the same political party with Mr Agyapong and he is, therefore, not surprised about some of his comments.

His comments do not irritate me, we can have different views on different matters and that is fine the president said.

The maverick politician had recently accused the president of not appointing many people from the Central Region in his administration.

Ask these MPs seated here, their names were collected with the promise to appoint them to boards of state institutions, they are here, asked any of them if they have had any such positions. The MPs have been neglected, if youre not a minister then forget it, that is NPP for you.

"So party supporters must go easy on demands from MPs as they dont hold any position. It is not easy for MPs at all. But if were able to speak such truths for our mistakes to be corrected, then it will be easy for us to win 2020, but when we remain quiet then were doomed, he said.

But the president has denied the claims by Kennedy Agyapong.
Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah announced Monday evening that they would vote against a motion to proceed to debate on the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had sought to hold a vote this week, but the plan was delayed in part because Sen. John McCain was recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot. McCain's recovery was expected to push the vote back at least a week.

McConnell could afford to lose only two senators and still have the bill move on. Two other GOP lawmakers  Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine  had already expressed their opposition, bringing the total to four.

In a statement, Moran criticized the secretive process used to draft the bill and the fact it could roll back protections for people with preexisting conditions.

"We must now start fresh with an open legislative process to develop innovative solutions that provide greater personal choice, protections for preexisting conditions, increased access, and lower overall costs for Kansans," Moran said.

Lee, on the other hand, said the bill did not do enough to roll back regulations from the ACA, the law better known as Obamacare. The Utah lawmaker supported an amendment introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz that would have allowed insurers to sell plans that did not adhere to two major Obamacare rules.

"In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesnt go far enough in lowering premiums for middle-class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations," Lee said in a statement.

McConnell admitted defeat in a statement he released Monday night:

"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful.

"So, in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered healthcare system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said he was willing to work with Republicans on a bipartisan approach:

"This second failure of Trumpcare is proof positive that the core of this bill is unworkable. Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets, and improves our healthcare system."

The Better Care Reconciliation Act was on the verge of collapse earlier Monday, but no one wanted to be the deciding vote to kill the bill, as evidenced by Moran and Lee's releasing their statements at the same time.

Reactions came in quickly Monday, with President Donald Trump tweeting that Republicans should pass a simple repeal of Obamacare and work on a replacement later.

"Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" Trump tweeted.

"It's time for a new approach when it comes to #RepealandReplace of Obamacare," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has introduced his own healthcare legislation, said Monday night.

McCain also issued a statement saying Republicans should restart their attempts on healthcare using a transparent, bipartisan process.

"The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable healthcare," McCain said.

Now that there are enough public votes to block the bill, a wave of moderates who were against the original version of the BCRA may emerge to come out against the newly updated bill, according to Rick Weissenstein at the Cowen Washington Research Group.

"Over the next several days, one of two things is likely," Weissenstein said in a note to clients on Monday. "Either McConnell finds a way to bring Moran and Lee back into the fold or several more Senators join the 'NOs' and McConnell is forced to pull the bill. At this point the later scenario seems more likely and we are now ready to join our colleague Chris Krueger in saying we think the bill is unlikely to pass."

Another big issue for undecided lawmakers had been the release of the Congressional Budget Office's score for the updated BCRA. The original score, which estimated that 22 million more Americans would be without health insurance in 2026 under the BCRA than under the current system, was a key point of contention for centrist Republicans who opposed the first iteration of the healthcare bill.
"Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate," Trump tweeted. "Dems will join in."

The president's social-media remarks came shortly after two GOP senators announced they would oppose the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Senate's health care bill that was set for a vote within a week, after Sen. John McCain returned from surgery.

Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah announced that they both would vote no on a motion to proceed to debate on the bill, effectively killing the bill and preventing it from moving forward.

Trump has often sought to publicly influence lawmakers' conversations about the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, employing his own Twitter account to pressure congressmembers into action.

The president launched into a tweetstorm on the health care bill last week in Paris while riding in his motorcade to attend Bastille Day celebrations.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded as much in a statement of his own Monday night:
try and fill out as many of the fields as you can." After testing it a bit, she discovered

It's unclear whether any Myspace accounts were compromised due to the vulnerability.

In an emailed statement, the company said that because of the recent concerns, it added an additional verification step for customers seeking to reactivate their accounts. Myspace plans to continue refining the process over time, the company said.

Although it's largely an after-thought in the social networking world these days, Myspace still gets 50 million visits every month according to the Verge. In 2016 media giant Time purchased the social networking company for an undisclosed sum. Then Chairman and CEO of Time, Joe Ripp called the purchase game changing.
With the arrest of El Chapo by US authorities, the Sinaloa cartel is no longer the top cartel in Mexico. That honour belongs to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and its leader is known as El Mencho.

The JNGC might sound like the name of a boy band but this new cartel is nothing to play with. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka El Mencho is a 50-year-old drug baron started the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in 2015.

Within five years of existence, the cartel is worth $20b as it sells mostly meth which has bigger profit margins than cocaine. This makes it considerably richer than the Sinaloa cartel. Some of that money has been invested in submarines for drug trafficking by El Mencho.

According to Rolling Stone Magazine, El Mencho moved to America in the 1980s illegally. He was deported after serving three years of a five-year sentence for dealing with heroin.

With El Chapo locked up, the JNGC and the Sinaloa cartel are fighting bitterly over territory. This has tripled the murder rate in Veracruz, Mexico.

El Mencho's thirst for power knows no end. Last year he kidnapped two of El Chapo's son who trespassed into his territory. The Sinaloa cartel had to pay $2m to set them free. The JNGC once raped and killed a 10-year old girl. They ended up burning her corpse. The JNGC operatives mistook the innocent girl for the daughter of a rival.

The Rolling Stone on El Mencho describes him as a ghost even though some of his photos are public. He is wanted by the United States who is offering $5M to anyone who has information that will lead to his arrest and conviction.
His crafty statements that tend to shun facts and make you wonder at the audacity. Lai Mohammed's latest statement is the cream of the crop, the pick of the litter and his most confusing so far.

The Minister of Information and Culture on Saturday, July 15, 2017, said that the Federal Government is considering to stop the production of movies and music videos abroad.

"I am going to meet with the relevant stake holders over this, to see that whatever amendment that is needed to be made to our Broadcasting Code in this regard, is done urgently," he said during his visit to the headquarters of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

This would be outrageous if wasn't hilarious. Once again, a Nigerian government official is putting the cart before the horse. The craze to produce Nigerian goods and patronise Nigerian services have led to many silly decisions and policies. I hope this proposal does not see the light of day.

Lai Mohammed's statement ignores the problems content creators face in Nigeria. The lack of coherent policies, facilities and training schools are the reasons why movies especially music videos are shot abroad.

You can't force people to shoot in Nigeria without making the atmosphere conducive for them. This country has no standard, modern film school. The National Film Institute in Jos is out of it. The once great Institute has been neglected by past governments. If the government can't establish proper art institutions it should encourage people who are interested in doing so.

Film makers and production companies should be given tax cuts. This would help them invest more cash in their projects. Film equipment should have no import duty on them. This would make them as cheap as possible for people to purchase.

The government should invest heavily in the arts, increase its allocation in the yearly budget, and deal with piracy. Until the government does all these things, everything else is just playing to the gallery.
According to The Nation, seven of the affected lawmakers are on trial - some of the cases are said to be as old as 10 years.

A Senator is said to be on the list for alleged stamp duty infractions.

The report said one or two senators, who are outside the list, are being investigated for their alleged involvement in the N19 billion and $86 million London-Paris Club refund in which seven governors have been implicated.

A document obtained by the newspaper shows that 11 of the senators under investigation are from the North while the others are from the South.

Most of the N367.5 billion alleged fraud border on money laundering, misappropriation, unexecuted contracts, diversion of public funds to campaigns, and others, the report said.

"The case files of all these 18 senators are already with us. Seven of them are already on trial," an EFCC source was quoted as saying.

"But, certainly, 11 others will be prosecuted at the appropriate time. It may interest you that some agencies in a few international jurisdictions are interested in some of the cases against some of these senators.

"It might also interest you that some of these cases predated the appointment of the present Acting Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu. But since continuity is a cardinal principle of the EFCC, Magu has decided to ensure that the matters in court are pursued to logical conclusion. There is also no waiver for all cases undergoing investigation."

The source clarified that "Magu has no personal problem with any senator. He inherited most of these cases."

It was also reported that the Senators have also made a "strong case for the discontinuation of either their investigation or prosecution by the EFCC as part of the conditions for supporting Magu.

"In one of the lobbying sessions, a senator from the North-East said he committed no crime to have been subjected to trial by the EFCC.

"Although a Senator from the North-Central was aggrieved, he was reported to have said: I wont block the nomination of Magu because he is probing me. I have forgiven him. But I know I did not commit any fraud and I will be vindicated in the end."

The Senate has twice rejected the nomination of Magu as the substantive Chairman of the anti-graft agency based on a report by the Department of State Service (DSS) which discredited Magu.

The Presidency has, however, refused to resubmit Magu's name to the Senate for confirmation, stating that the upper chamber's approval was not required in the first place.
Condemning the over zealousness of the security officers said to be involved in the incident, Kanu said: I strongly condemn any over zealousness on the side of any security personnel be the person a member of the Police, Road Safety, the Army and Department of States services. I think I will be the last person to encourage it because it doesnt augur well with State and the Country at large."

According to the Abia Gazette News, the lawmaker visited the officers of the FRSC at the undisclosed hospital on Tuesday, July 18, 2017.

It was further reported that the FRSC men, who were hospitalised after an alleged brawl with the Speaker's security details over the weekend, were reportedly assured their medical bills would be picked by the Speaker.

He further explained he was not physically present at scene of the incident, pointing out he only sent his security details together with his younger brother to find out the people that accosted his wife while on her way to Aba.

When I was informed of the incident, I sent my details to find out who the people in question were, because we thought the people on that uniform may not be right people. It was in the course of doing that the incident happened.

I was informed that somebody sustained a gunshot injury and we been on top of the situation, trying to find out what really happened.

But I want to say that with every sense of responsibility and humility that Im well informed about the importance of human life, and equally aware of the provisions of section 33, sub-section (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended that forbids taking away ones life, Im equally aware of the sister provision of section 33 sub-section (2) of the same constitution on the mode a human life could be taken.

ALSO READ: 2 FRSC officials shot, hospitalised in Aba

 Im well informed enough to know that I dont have the authority to order anybody to shoot and I cant even encourage such an action, even in the highest degree of provocation, I think I will move to the law court as practicing lawyer, before I joined politics, the speaker was quoted to have said.
Earlier today, July 17, 2017, a Facebook post had emerged stating the governor's intention to run for the nation's highest political seat.

The page, Fayose for President, started the post with, "Hello Nigerians, behold your next President!!"

It goes further to hail him as, "Pro Masses. Accessible. Ekiti State Governor. Chairman, PDP Governors' Forum. Husband and Father.. He's Peter (The Rock) Ayodele Fayose"

According to Channels TV, the governor's representatives confirmed that he would be running for the seat when the time comes.

The governor has never made it a secret that he has ambitions of ruling the country.

While speaking in Ado Ekiti last month, he had said, "I have penchant for taking powers; that one in Buharis hand. I will take it. Im going straight to that villa. Im the next president.

"I want to be the next president of Nigeria. My own wont be this change that has brought nothing, we are going to represent the people well and tell them the truth."

He has been very critical of President Muhammadu Buhari's governance and openly antagonised the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Pulse called the governor's Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, for comments but he didn't answer the calls.
Kalu, who arrived the Living Word Mission Hospital, Aba, at about 10 a.m., said he came to see how the men were faring.

However, the speaker was stopped from entering their ward by the victims who shouted that Kalu should not be allowed into the room.

One of the men who was shot on the neck and waist was seen on the floor reeling and crying profusely, while some hospital staff tried to console him.

I saw him at the scene. What if we had died, he would have come to see our corpses, he said.

However, Kalu who spoke to newsmen after the visit said he was satisfied that the FRSC men were recuperating and in a better health condition.

The speaker said that he had paid their hospital bills and would still pay them more visits until they were discharged from the hospital.

He said although he had no say in the fate of his police aide who shot the FRSC men, there was no reason for the shooting to have taken place at all.

I dont think I will ever condone that over-zealousness. I have been able to do the needful telling them that such a thing will never happen again, he said.

Dr Jude Ehiemere, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, when asked about the health status of the victims, declined comments, saying that he was busy and had no time for journalists.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) had on July 15 confirmed the shooting of two of its officers on duty in Abia.

The Public Education Officer of the Corps, Mr Bisi Kazeem, who confirmed the shooting to NAN, was, however, silent on the identity of those responsible.

Kazeem said the matter had been reported to the police for investigation, while the victims were receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital.

It is true that our officers were shot this afternoon. The matter has been reported to the police and we are awaiting the outcome of their investigation."

The wounded officers have been hospitalised, and they are in stable condition."
The spokesman of the command, Mr Geofrey Ogbonna, made the announcement on Monday in Umuahia in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He however declined to disclose the identities of the operatives.

The shooting did not involve the police alone: an officer from the department of State Security Service was also involved."

The two persons have been arrested and are being detained. Investigation into the incident had commenced, he said.

Ogbonna said the command condemned the dastardly act and gave assurance that there would be fairness and justice at the end of the investigation.

Meanwhile, Abia Sector Command of the FRSC has declined to comment on the matter.

However a reliable source at the command told NAN on condition of anonymity, that one of the victims had a pellet from the shot lodged in a sensitive part of his waist.

He was booked for surgery for the removal of the pellet but we learnt this morning that the surgery could no longer go on."

Doctors said that surgery could cause him permanent disability and that it would be better to manage his condition with the pellet in his body, the source said.

NAN recalls that the FRSC officials were shot on Saturday by the security aides attached to the Speaker of the Abia Assembly, Mr Chikwendu Kalu.

The incident took place at Arungwa Junction (near Aba) on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway when the officials stopped the vehicle conveying the speakers wife, Victoria, to Aba.

NAN learnt that trouble started when the officials attempted to book the vehicle on the grounds that the occupants did not wear seat belts.

The speaker told newsmen on Sunday that following a distress call he got from his relations at the scene, he sent his chief detail to the place.

He said that he was surprised to hear later that there was shooting in which FRSC officials were involved.
The Army Spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, announced this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

He described Fanami as the Ameer (leader) of Kafa hideout of the Boko Haram terrorists group that operates on Ajigin-Talala-Mungusum axis.

During preliminary interrogation, they confirmed that they abandoned the terrorism because of incessant hardship and realising that they were misled by their terrorist group leaders.

They further stated they were also erroneously misinformed and brainwashed about Islam and the Nigerian military and the society generally.

The remorseful surrendered terrorists regretted their involvement in terrorism and marveled at the courtesy and humane treatment accorded them by the military on surrendering, the army spokesman said.

He called on other remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists to follow suit and renounce the devilish creed.
The lawmaker was reported dead few days to the state's highly anticipated local government elections billed to hold on Saturday, July 22, 2017.

Alimi, who turned 50 on July 3, 2017, was elected into the lawmaking chambers on August 8, 2015 and his tenure was meant to end on July 6, 2019.

While there are no official statements from the Lagos House of Assembly, insiders squealed that the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa has expressed shock at the news.

ALSO READ: Lagos Lawmakers move to halt indiscriminate cutting of roads

Before his death, Alimi worked at Lagos House of Assembly between 1992 and 2001; the Lagos Internal Revenue Service as Head CPO between 2001 and 2010; He moved back to the Lagos Assembly in 2011 and quit 2015 after he was elected into the Lagos House of Assembly as a member.
He instead believes that what the country needs is "repackaging."

The Governor stated this in Owerri on Monday, July 17, at the 67th Annual Conference of the Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria (BON), according to a statement issued by his spokesman Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo.

Okorocha was quoted as saying, "Our nation requires repackaging. It is unfortunate that a great nation like ours has not been properly packaged for consumption by the international communities."

"Yet, there are more evils in other nations than we have in Nigeria but the reports going out about our country is such that no one will want to come into Nigeria unless for those who want to take risk. No nation can grow with this arrangement.

"I want to charge you today, as you meet, think Nigeria and see how you can repackage it. We are not the worst of them all. "Every geo-political zone has its own interpretation of restructuring. To the South-East, restructuring means creation of an additional State.

"For the South-South, restructuring means resource Control. For the South-West, it means devolution of power and the North may see it differently, but whatever is the Case, we are better of, as a United Nigeria.

"The ball is in your court to see how you can project Nigeria and repackage it for public and international consumption.

"Let me say to all of us here that there is nothing wrong with Nigeria and Nigerians. Nigeria is a great nation and will ever remain a great nation."

ALSO READ: Okorocha says Igbos have nothing to show for being part of Nigeria

Many Nigerians, especially the opposition, have been vocal about the need for Nigeria to explore the idea of restructuring as recommended in the 2014 confab report.
The Acting President made the remarks while he was hosting 20-year-old global education campaigner and UN Messenger of Peace, Malala Yousafzai on Monday, July 17, 2017, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria has some 10.5 million children out of school, with 60 percent of them being girls.

Malala had charged the Nigerian government to "declare a state of emergency for education because the education of the Nigerian girls and boys is really important."

According to a press statement signed by Osinbajo's spokesperson, Laolu Akande, the Acting President observed that there is a connection between terrorism, poverty and ignorance.

To combat it at the roots, he said, "We have to change the mindset and delegitimise the false ideas and notions of hatred and violence.

"Getting people to enroll in school is the easier part of the problem. The bigger one is to ensure that we don't promote the mindset that girls are in anyway inferior and all that."

The Acting President also said, "There is no question that we need to develop counter-narratives. We are faced with emotive narratives and its now about getting people to understand through counter-narratives that there is a different way to get things done."

He also praised Malala's advocacy for the education and the well-being of children around the world, saying, "With respect to violent extremism I am pleased you are taking it on. It is a very complex problem of those of us who have to deal with it on a daily basis.

"Your ability to articulate issues and the courage to face down hatred and terrorism is widely acknowledged.

"Your story is an inspiration for not only young women around the world but for us all."

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu; Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, and the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed, were present at the meeting.

The Acting President also met with a delegation of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), as well as a delegation of the World Leadership Alliance, also known as, Club de Madrid on Monday.

The Club de Madrid delegation, which included two former African Presidents: Festus Mogae of Botswana and Cassa Muttem of Mauritus, presented him a report of a workshop it had conducted in Nigeria earlier this year on the issue of alternative narratives to counter violent extremism.

Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama attended the meeting.

The ICAO delegation that met the Acting President was led by Dr. O.B Aliu, whom the Aviation Minister of State Hadi Sirika described at the meeting as "the first black man to lead the ICAO."

The delegation's meeting followed its appearance at a conference on Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) in Abuja.

While speaking at the meeting, Osinbajo said the Federal Government is making effort to bring down the cost of aviation services in the country as he noted that the industry is going to play a significant role in the economic development of the country.

According to the press release, the Acting President said, "We believe that aviation cost will go down and that more people will participate, more people will use the services of the airlines and people will use the airports as well."
Saraki made the remarks during the Senate's public hearing on "Smuggling - A threat to Nigerias quest to self sufficiency in rice production".

While addressing the Customs boss, the Senate President said, "Once you end smuggling, even if you want to wear jeans and T-shirt, I will personally move the motion to support you."

This is a callback to the war of words that went on between the Senate and the retired Army Colonel in March after he refused to appear before lawmakers in his Customs uniform, a gesture that was not well received.

The Nigerian Senate had asked for his resignation if he continued to defy the order to wear his uniform, but the Customs boss said he would not wear the uniform of another agency after his time in the army.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of UNOWAS, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, spoke with the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York.

Chambas regretted the maltreatment and killings of about 97 Nigerians in the Peninsula by Cameroonian Gendarmes over failure to pay a N100,000 boat levy.

But let me commend the initiative of the Acting President of Nigeria, , who has already directed that the should find out what numbers have come across the border to Nigeria."

He also asked the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) at the Cross River State level to look into what numbers are being displaced from Nigeria as a result of this."

Do they need help? If they do, that authority should also ascertain the numbers involved and provide the necessary support these newly displaced persons may need" .

So I think adequate response has been undertaken by the Nigerian side to cater for any Nigerians who might have come back into the country from Bakassi."

We commend that effort on the part of the Nigerian authorities, the UN envoy said.

According to him, the conflict is of extreme interest to UNOWAS, especially with its involvement of the Joint Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission (CNMC).

As I speak to you now, a team from my office has left Abuja where they have been consulting with officials particularly, the Ministry of Justice, Attorney-Generals office."

They have continued to Cameroon, they were in Yaounde last week, so we would look into this and other concerns."

For now, the information we have is that the issue had to do with an imposition of a new fishing tax in communities"

And this may have generated some friction between the different fishermen, including Nigerian fishermen and tax officials."

So just to say that this really was not related directly to the border demarcation issues but have more to do with a new tax that has been imposed by the Cameroonian authority.

Chambas described the relations between Nigeria and Cameroon as cordial, particularly in the fight against Boko Haram and appealed that the trend be sustained.

The relations between the two countries remain very good and we commend that and also we encourage their continuing collaboration on a bigger-ticket item  the fighting Boko Haram."

We urge them to maintain this solidarity that they have with each other and to scale up the fight against Boko Haram, which is wounded but not dead yet, he said.

Chambas had briefed the UN Security Council on Friday, noting that five field workers of the CNMC were killed in January in attack by unidentified armed elements near Kuncha, a region believed to be unaffected by the Boko Haram threat.

While investigation into the matter is ongoing, the UN is working closely with the authorities of and to strengthen the security protocol for the resumption of border pillar construction in the area.

Reports on the recent conflict stated that the attackers sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ondo States, believed to be a violation of the 2005 Green Tree Agreement (GTA) by CNMC.
Two hours ago, the party's official Twitter handle (@OfficialPDPNig) tweeted the information, posting, "Happening now at the National Secretariat of our great Party, the PDP is the meeting of the National Caucus. BOT is at 1pm while NEC is 2pm".

The party's leadership has been meeting since last night to map a new direction for the party after the Supreme Court resolved its internal crisis last week.

A five-man panel reached a unanimous decision on Wednesday, July 12, 2017, to sack Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and install Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the National Chairman of the party.

One of the main objectives of the meetings by the party's different organs is to fix a date for its national convention.

Speaking at last night's meeting, former president Goodluck Jonathan said the party's expansion is key, adding that it has to become a stronger unit first.

Some of the party leaders present at the meeting include Governor of Ekiti state and Chairman of the PDP Governors' Forum, Ayo Fayose, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and former Senate President, David Mark.
Members of the party's National Expanded Caucus met in Abuja on Monday night, July 17, to forge a national movement against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2019 elections.

It was gathered that the meeting was one out of three to be held by three different organs of the party before it fixes a date for its national convention.

The Monday's meeting was the first time the party members gathered since the Supreme Court sacked the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction that had laid claim to the national leadership the party for nearly a year.

Speaking at the meeting, former president Goodluck Jonathan said the party's expansion is key, adding that more importantly a stronger PDP has to be built first.

"First thing to do is to build the party because a strong party is the key to expansion. A strong party acts like a magnet and will attract all the people. Nigerians still believe in the PDP. So many people including non-politicians were happy at the PDP victory in Supreme Court," Jonathan said.

The former President stressed that the PDP remains the largest party that could unite Nigeria.

The Chairman of the party's National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, who also spoke at the meeting, said some key politicians from different political parties have already indicated interest in defecting to the PDP since the apex court's verdict on the party's protracted leadership tussle.

He commended the members of the party for "being unyielding in their faith on the judicial system."

"This hall will not contain us by the time they start to come back to the PDP. I will not tell you who they are or where they are," the former governor of Kaduna State said.

ALSO READ: PDP is now in the hands of looters  Sacked Ali Modu Sheriff says

Some of the party leaders present at the meeting included Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and a former President of the Senate, David Mark.
The idea is for Nigerians to commit a more hands-on approach to corruption by leveraging technology to put the power in the hands of the people. For example, if you were asked to pay a bribe somewhere, you could report it via the portal.

Another thing  and maybe the best thing about this platform  is, you can report these situations, via the website, whether you were only asked to pay a bribe or if you have already paid one. And you can even do so anonymously.

ALSO READ: The FG has banned hosting of government websites outside Nigeria

Oluseun Onigbinde, lead partner at BudgIT, says, This site is only a place to gather reports about instances of bribery and is not at all connected with law enforcement. There will not be any legal ramifications for officers who have been reported on this site as it is only a platform for collecting stories about instances of corruption in Nigeria.

When someone asks you to pay extra you go to get a drivers license, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, or when you are renting property, registering purchase of property, or common interactions with law enforcement, he adds.

While this may not directly influence government policy in the near-term, it could open doors to better dialogue and more transparency in the nations institutions.

What do you think about reportyourself.org, the website that lets you report cases of bribery [anonymously]? Would you report cases of bribery now that you have a platform where you no longer have to be afraid?
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The Russian army said in June that it was trying to verify information that its jets killed Baghdadi during a bombing raid near the IS stronghold of Raqa in Syria.

But over a month after the announcement Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia still had "no more precise information" on Baghdadi's fate.

"The information coming in is contradictory and is being checked by the relevant agencies," he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor, said last week it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria's Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.

But Pentagon chief James Mattis said on Friday that he could not "confirm or deny" if Baghdadi is dead, adding that Washington's approach was to "assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise".

Baghdadi's group has earned global notoriety for imposing a hardline form of Islam that has included stonings, beheadings and amputations as it has claimed the creation of a "caliphate" after snatching territory across Syria and Iraq.

The fortunes of its "caliphate" have since turned with massive offensives launched by US-backed forces in Iraq and Syria.
CHARLES CITY | A Charles City sex offender accused of killing a rural Jasper County man in March had worked for the victim, according to court records.

Randy Louis Linderman, 52, who was charged with first-degree murder last week in the death of 61-year-old Jose Ramirez-Berber after DNA linked him to the crime scene, told investigators he had performed tree-cutting work for Ramirez, court records state.

Linderman, who had lived in Jasper County within the past two years before returning to Charles City, told authorities he had been to Ramirez's home a couple dozen times, records state.

Ramirez was found dead in his home on March 6, and an autopsy determined he died from blunt force injuries to the head.

Charles City man charged with first-degree murder NEWTON | A Charles City man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the

During the investigation, officers found DNA on Ramirez's body. The DNA was entered into CODIS, which is a national database, and it linked the genetic material to Linderman, records state.

The nature of the genetic material wasn't disclosed, but a sexual assault kit was performed on Ramirez's remains, and DNA was recovered from "the body of the deceased as well as his undergarments," according to an affidavit from an investigator, which also notes Linderman's status as a sex offender.

Linderman is required to register as a sex offender because of a 2001 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse involving an adult woman, according to the states sex offender registry. He was released from prison in 2004 and later arrested in 2015 for allegedly taking tools and scrap metal in Charles City.
After the royal couple's plane landed under grey skies, their children George and Charlotte pressed their faces against a window and looked out as airport staff rolled out the red carpet.

London's shock decision to exit the European Union has been closely watched in Poland. There are just under a million Poles in Britain, making them the biggest minority community.

But though the main goal appears to be a charm offensive by Britain, the visit will include a heavy emphasis on history.

As guests of President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata, the royals will visit the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the former concentration camp Stutthof, which Nazi Germany set up in 1939 in what was then the free city of Danzig and is now the Polish city of Gdansk.

Walesa, Holocaust and Airbus

Also in the Baltic port city, Kate and William will visit the European Solidarity Centre museum, which tells the story of the Soviet bloc's only free trade union.

They will also meet freedom icon Lech Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize as the leader of the Solidarity trade union and later became Poland's first democratically elected president after negotiating a bloodless end to communism for the country in 1989.

But William and Kate will also experience modern-day Poland, meeting with young entrepreneurs at the top of a Warsaw skyscraper and also tour the new Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre.

A meet-and-greet with actors dressed in Elizabethan costumes is also planned.

Germany for its part will show Prince William, who is a helicopter pilot, the Airbus training centre and the assembly line of the Airbus A320. The couple will also visit the Holocaust museum.

In both countries, William will also host receptions for select guests on the occasion of the Queen's birthday.
The Trump administration faced a new congressional deadline Monday to say whether Iran has curbed its nuclear weapons program in line with the accord.

Under the terms of the two-year-old agreement, Tehran scaled back production of nuke-making material in return for massive sanctions relief.

"The conditions," according to one official who the White House would not name publicly, "have been met, based on information available to the United States."

The 2015 agreement rests on a series of technical benchmarks, and was seen in Washington as a way of avoiding military action to prevent Iran from getting a nuke.

But it has not relieved tensions between Tehran and Washington, which continue to clash particularly over conflicts in the Middle East like Syria and Yemen, where Iran-backed militias hold clout.

On a trip to Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia in May, Trump called on all nations to "isolate" Shiite Iran.

During his election campaign Trump denounced the deal -- reached under former president Barack Obama -- and promised to renegotiate it and get tough on Iran.

Trump has now twice affirmed Iran's compliance since taking office, effectively keeping the deal in place.

But the White House took pains to stress it was not going soft on Iran, pointing to new non-nuclear sanctions and stricter implementation of the deal.

An official added: "We do expect that we will be implementing new sanctions that pertain to Iran's ballistic missile program and fast boat program."

"Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to US interests and regional stability," the official said.

'Contradictory signal'

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in New York on Monday to attend a UN forum on development, said he has yet to discuss the nuclear deal with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

"There are no communications between myself and Secretary Tillerson," Zarif said at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open."

"We receive contradictory signals," Zarif said when asked about the possible outcome of the review.

"It's very clear that Iran is serious about the nuclear deal and we believe the nuclear deal can lay the foundation."

The absence of communication is in sharp contrast with Zarif's dealings with former secretary of state John Kerry, with whom he negotiated the agreement.

Zarif said that the United Nations nuclear watchdog has certified that Tehran was in compliance with the agreement.

Representatives of the five nuclear powers -- China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States -- plus Germany are to meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.

Zarif said they would discuss Iran's complaints about non-US compliance, accusing the Trump administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.

Trump officials vs Iran

A steely view of Iran binds Trump's national security team, which at times appear to have little else in common.

Many in Trump's cabinet tangled with Iran-backed militias during the US occupation of Iraq.

Ex-Marines like Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also keenly remember Iran-backed Hezbollah's attack on the corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983.

Top among the list of concerns today are improved Iranian missile capabilities, support for the Syrian government, human rights abuses and the detention of Americans.

Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese-American researcher at Princeton University, was recently sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison.

Zarif offered to do "all it takes from my side" to address Wang's case "on humanitarian grounds."

But he emphasized Iran's courts were independent. "We in the government do not have any control over the decisions of the judiciary," he said.

Trump and Tillerson believe "these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the (agreement), which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security," one official said.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie announced Fereydoun's arrest on Sunday, saying he was the subject of "multiple investigations".

The amount of bail was not officially disclosed but local media reported that the court had reduced it to 350 billion rials ($9.3 million), from 500 billion rials initially.

The arrest is seen as part of a long-running feud between the presidency and the judiciary that has taken new turns in recent months, particularly before and after Rouhani's re-election in May.

The conservative-dominated judiciary has clashed with Rouhani, who has sought to ease social restrictions and release political prisoners.

Rouhani has not yet commented on the arrest and has not appeared in public since it was announced except to attend a cabinet meeting.

Fereydoun's arrest came a year after the head of the General Inspection Organisation, Naser Seraj, first accused him of financial violations.

Seraj alleged Fereydoun had influenced the appointment of two bank directors, one of whom was accused by the Revolutionary Guards of involvement in a "large corruption scandal".

The other was fired as part of a widespread scandal into exorbitant salaries at public institutions.

Conservatives have demanded that Fereydoun be put on trial, accusing him of receiving zero-interest loans among other violations.
The announcement provided a boost to the United Nations as it seeks to build support for its sustainable development goals (SDGs) that call for ending extreme poverty by 2030 among other objectives.

UN humanitarian aid agencies are facing a funding crisis as they struggle to cope with growing demands from world crises while the United States is threatening deep cuts to its financial support for the world body.

"Today, I am pleased to announce that the government of Japan commits to provide one billion dollars of assistance by 2018," Kishida told a meeting on implementing the SDGs.
"The court has ruled in favour of extraditing Lithuanian citizen to the United States for criminal prosecution," Judge Aiva Surviliene said.

The 48-year-old was arrested in March in the Baltic state at the request of US authorities, who accuse him of deceiving the two US firms in 2013-2015 by posing as a large Asia-based hardware vendor.

Facebook and Google are mentioned in the indictment, Rimasauskas's lawyer confirmed to AFP.

In a public statement, US prosecutors said Rimasauskas used "email accounts that were designed to create the false appearance that they were sent by employees and agents" of the Asian manufacturer.

He is also accused of forging invoices, contracts and letters to trick the companies into wiring over $100 million to overseas bank accounts under his control, according to prosecutors.

The scam was pulled off using deception and no Google systems were hacked, according to the California-based internet giant.

Google updated its internal processes to guard against similar incidents and recovered the money lost.

"We detected this fraud against our vendor management team and promptly alerted the authorities," a Google spokesman told AFP.

"We recouped the funds and we're pleased this matter is resolved."

Facebook did not respond to an AFP request for comment

Rimasauskas faces a maximum of 20 years in jail if convicted, the judge said.
Kenji Fujimori said in a newspaper column that when last Friday he visited his father -- who has been locked up since 2007 on a 25-year sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity -- he told him to go and give supplies to Humala, who had just been jailed pending trial on graft charges.

"Take this with you," Alberto Fujimoritold his son, pulling out bread and cheese to give the new inmate, Kenji recounted in the daily El Comercio. He also gave him a blanket and a coat to deliver.

Guards had permitted him to meet with Humala behind bars for a couple of hours after his arrival on Thursday. He said he noted the former leader had no basic items for his stay -- "nothing -- not even a towel," he told his father.

The entourage of both ex-presidents confirmed that Kenji Fujimori had met with Humala. Television images showed him again visiting the penitentiary on Monday.

In his column, he said the camaraderie was to be expected. "Politics is one thing, life is another. This is a time to heal wounds," he wrote.

Yet the two former leaders were once enemies.

In 2000, when Humala was an army officer, he attempted a coup against the Fujimori government; he was later pardoned.

Humala and his wife were last week ordered to prison for 18 months, ahead of their trial for "money laundering against the interest of the state."

They are charged with accepting illegal campaign donations from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Humala, president from 2011-2016, said the ruling was "confirmation of abuse of power," vowing on Twitter to face it head-on "in defense of our rights."

He and his wife were to appeal the pre-trial detention.

Four of Peru's last five presidents have faced corruption scandals.

The graft scandal linked to Odebrecht has rocked several Latin American countries.

One of the main prosecution claims is that Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, accepted $3 million from Odebrecht for the 2011 presidential campaign.

The Brazilian construction giant admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru to win government building contracts between 2005 and 2014 -- a time period that also includes the presidencies of Alejandro Toledo and Alan Garcia.
"The technical issue, which has disrupted the internet connection, is resolved and the service is now resumed," telecommunications minister Abdi Anshur Hassan told a press conference in the capital Mogadishu.

The blackout affected the majority of the 6.5 million people living in Somalia's south-central region, cutting off access to everything from hotel booking sites to remittance platforms and costing $10 million (nine million euros) each day in lost business, according to a government estimate.

The outage started in late June when a container ship, believed to be the Panama-flagged MSC Alice, accidentally dragged its anchor through the main fibre optic cable connecting Somalia to the internet as it was docking outside Mogadishu's port.

Despite years of conflict, Somalia is home to a thriving telecommunications sector that drives businesses and allows Somalis in the country to communicate with the estimated two million-strong diaspora population.

By themselves, remittances from abroad make up $1.4 billion annually, or a quarter of the country's GDP, according to a World Bank estimate.

In the capital, young people greeted the news that the internet was back with jubilation.
Idil Eser, director of Amnesty International Turkey, was detained on July 5 along with seven other activists and two foreign trainers during a digital security and information management workshop on Buyukada, an island south of Istanbul.

Their detention sparked international alarm and amplified fears of declining freedom of expression under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"All requested for pre-trial (detention) and sent to court," Amnesty International's Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner told AFP.

That came after the activists, who are not yet on trial, gave statements to prosecutors for the first time since their detention.

Gardner said either the court could decide to release the detainees or "unfortunately, we could see the continuation of this process where the government has targeted all critical voices, in particular human rights civil society."

A decision was "hours away", he added, with the Istanbul court expected to make a decision early Tuesday.

Some of the relatives of the activists, who gathered outside the courthouse, looked worried and refused to speak to the journalists.

Eight of those detained are Turkish rights activists, including Ilknur Ustun of the Women's Coalition and Veli Acu of the Human Rights Agenda Association.

Two are foreign trainers -- a German and a Swedish national -- who were leading the digital information workshop.

They are accused of membership of an "armed terrorist organisation", an allegation Amnesty said was "unfounded".

- 'Disgraced'-

Speaking to journalists outside the Istanbul court early Monday, Gardner said if the activists were remanded in pre-trial prison custody, "that would be a travesty of justice," and called for their immediate release.

"This is a test for Turkey's judiciary," he said.

"Turkey will be disgraced in the eyes of the world if these human rights defenders are put in prison for defending human rights."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this month that the activists were detained on a tip-off that they were working against the government, comparing them to coup plotters involved in a failed putsch in July last year.

Gardner said the meeting on Buyukada had been a "routine" workshop and there was nothing suspicious about it.

"What is absolutely crystal clear, one hundred percent clear is this was a routine human rights workshop -- the sort of workshop that happens all over Turkey, in fact the sort of workshop that happens all over the world," he said.

Last month, Amnesty International's Turkey chair Taner Kilic was arrested, accused of links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of ordering last year's failed coup, a charge he denies.

Gardner said country director Eser remained "in good spirits."
Last month, the EU expanded its sanctions blacklist after North Korea launched a volley of surface-to-ship cruise missiles off its east coast.

The European Council, which groups the 28 EU member states, on Monday condemned the July 4 launch as an "outright violation" of UN Security Council resolutions.

"The Council will consider further appropriate responses in close consultation with key partners and in line with UN Security Council deliberations, notably through additional autonomous restrictive measures," it said in a statement during talks among EU foreign ministers.

Autonomous restrictive measures amount to sanctions separate from those called for by the UN Security Council.

EU sanctions against North Korea date back to 2006 and are part of international efforts to halt a nuclear and ballistic missile programme that experts say is intended to give Pyongyang the capability to hit the US mainland.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the foreign ministers are looking to "facilitate a solution that in our view cannot be but a diplomatic and political one."

The council also said it opposed a military solution to the North Korea problem and kept the door open to dialogue.

The ministers supported South Korea's diplomatic lead and urged North Korea to engage in a "credible and meaningful dialogue" to defuse tensions and denuclearise the peninsula.

South Korea on Monday offered to hold rare military talks with North Korea on Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said more pressure must be put on Pyongyang, particularly from Beijing, its neighbour and main trade partner.
Republican leaders are desperate for a major legislative victory this year -- and keen to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to dismantle the 2010 health care reforms of his predecessor Barack Obama, formally called the Affordable Care Act.

But they had no votes to spare.

Republicans control 52 of the chamber's 100 seats. Democrats are united against the controversial legislation, while Republicans Susan Collins and Rand Paul declared their opposition last week.

So when Senate conservatives Mike Lee and Jerry Moran announced late Monday they could not support the bill, the news sent shockwaves across Washington.

"We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy," Moran -- who faced considerable opposition at home in Kansas to the measure -- said in a statement, adding that the new bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address health care's rising costs."

For Lee, "in addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

Their defections mean that the bill has no chance of even getting a vote on the Senate floor unless Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decides to make significant changes to woo skeptics back into the fold.

"Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" Trump tweeted after Lee and Moran made their opposition known.

In a statement McConnell acknowledged "regretfully" that his effort had failed. But he wasn't giving up.

"So, in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up ... a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period," he said, without setting a date.

"Inaction is not an option," added a White House spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We look forward to Congress continuing to work toward a bill the president can sign to end the Obamacare nightmare."

'Unworkable'

Over the weekend, McConnell delayed a vote to proceed on the bill, after Senator John McCain, 80, underwent surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye and said he would recuperate at home in Arizona for at least a week.

But McCain's absence is now a moot point.

Several Republicans had already expressed concern that the new bill could slash funding for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and the disabled.

The new bill would gradually roll back the program, a move that some Republicans warn could lead to millions losing coverage.

The latest defections also show that conservatives are frustrated that the new bill does not repeal the Obamacare taxes.

Democratic reaction was swift.

This failure is proof "that the core of this bill is unworkable," said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.

Republicans should instead "start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

'Wheels off the bus'

Republican leaders are eager to notch a major victory for Trump in Congress as he nears the six-month mark of his presidency.

Congress could also address tax reform and infrastructure - but the Senate must first deal with a logjam of urgent business, including whether to raise the federal borrowing limit.

Some fear that repealing Obamacare could adversely impact millions of Americans on Medicaid, or make health costs soar for people with pre-existing health conditions.

There is little institutional support for the bill, and even less for an amendment introduced by Senator Ted Cruz that would allow insurers to offer bare-bones plans that do not comply with Obamacare's coverage requirements.

The chief executives of America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association called it "simply unworkable in any form."

A Post poll released Sunday showed Americans preferred Obamacare to the Republican plan by 50 percent to 24 percent.

Despite the Republican setback, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said his Republican colleagues will not easily give up.

"There's a couple wheels off the bus right now," Murphy told MSNBC after the announcement from Lee and Moran.
CHARLES CITY | An Ionia man accused of being high on drugs while causing a crash that seriously hurt a Chickasaw County woman, as well as his own children, was sentenced to prison Monday.

Anthony Schmitz, 44, was sentenced in Floyd County District Court after pleading guilty to two felonies, child endangerment and serious injury by vehicle. He and his family were visibly emotional during the sentencing.

Judge James Drew sentenced Schmitz to the mandatory sentence of up to 10 years for child endangerment and up to five years for serious injury by vehicle. Drew ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

There has been no genuine remorse that I can perceive, Drew told Schmitz. I dont know what it takes to get a man of your ages attention.

Schmitz, who did not speak during the sentencing, is also required to pay more than $2,000 in restitution to Heather Meyer, 52, of Bassett.

Schmitz was found to be high on an amphetamine or methamphetamine when he caused a head-on collision that injured four in Charles City Dec. 20, troopers say. His westbound Buick Terraza crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 18 and hit Meyers eastbound GMC Denali near Commercial Avenue.

Man charged in Charles City crash high on drugs, police say CHARLES CITY | An Iowa man was high on drugs when he caused a head-on collision that injured

Meyer, who sustained serious injuries to her wrists and hands, and her husband spoke at the sentencing.

We dont remember Christmas or New Years that year, her husband, Scott, said. They were just another day in my wifes recovery.

Recovery that has totaled more than $300,000 in medical bills, he added.

Heather is in physical therapy, which makes her pain worse, she said.

Meyer said she prayed for Schmitzs daughters, asking that her pain be greater so the girls would not suffer.

I just dont understand how parents can use their children in the manner that these children have been used; (with) an 11-year-old pleading for mercy for your wrongdoings, Meyer said. There comes a point where you have to take responsibility for your own actions.

Schmitz and his daughter, Mary Jane Schmitz, 11, were flown by helicopter to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The girl spoke at the sentencing in support of her father.

I am going to be 12 years old, and I cant imagine life without him, Mary Jane said. As for my injuries, I am fine.

Mary Jane talked about addiction, saying that her father needs rehab, not prison.

Her sister, Miley Schmitz, 10, was taken by ambulance to Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City.

Miley also read a statement in support of her father.

Im glad Heather is okay, Miley said. God has a bigger plan for my dad.

Miley suggested he be used as an example for others so incidents like this do not happen again.

Doctors performed surgery to repair serious injuries to one girl's face and arm and on the other girl's leg, according to court documents.

Tony is a very good dad and would never intentionally harm his children, his wife, Anna Schmitz, said as she cried. He has his own demons he deals with every day.

Schmitz claimed he veered into oncoming traffic because he had "swerved to miss a rabbit" and tried to leave before authorities arrived at the crash site, State Trooper Brian Sinnwell wrote in a report.

"Witnesses stated that Mr. Schmitz was asking for help from being trapped in the vehicle so that he could get out of there before the police arrived," Sinwell wrote.

Floyd County Attorney Rachel Ginbey said Schmitz changed his story several times and now claims the road was slippery.

Ginbey referenced the troopers report, which stated that the sky was clear and the road was wet from melting snow.

No skid marks were noted; there was no sign of sliding or turned wheels at the scene, Ginbey said.

Ginbey said Schmitz has failed to take responsibility for his actions.

Hes provided different excuses since the time the plea was taken as to how this accident occurred rather than the fact that it was due to him being the influence of methamphetamine at the time, she said.
The man was parked on a street in the capital Pretoria at night when his vehicle was set alight and he suffered severe burns, Uber Africa said in a statement.

The company said the attackers were unknown, but it pointed to the metre-taxi business that has suffered due to competition from the ride-hailing app.

"We know that these actions do not represent the entire industry, however, this violence and intimidation against those who choose to use technology apps, like Uber, must stop," Uber said.

Police declined to comment, while an action group of Uber drivers told local news website enca.com that the victim was targeted in a "turf war between Uber and metre-taxi drivers".

Since arriving in South Africa in 2013, Uber drivers have faced regular violence and intimidation from traditional meter-taxi operators, who accused them of stealing their jobs.

The San Francisco-based firm said it had requested an urgent meeting with the police minister to address safety concerns.

Attacks on Uber drivers have focused on central Pretoria, downtown Johannesburg, the main rail stations and Johannesburg airport.

Uber has hired private security teams to patrol at some locations, and launched an emergency phone line.

At least one other Uber vehicle has been torched in recent weeks.

Earlier this year, metre-taxi drivers blocked the highway to the airport to protest against Uber.

Several cases of violence against drivers have also been reported in other South African cities.

Uber has expanded rapidly but often faced regulatory hurdles and protests in countries including Germany, Spain and Hungary.
National Public Radio and the union representing news and programming employees at the nonprofit radio service have agreed to a new three-year contract.

Terms of the deal reached early Sunday morning were not disclosed. A representative for the union said the deal provides for salary increases and effectively repelled efforts to erode union protections and institute a two-tiered salary system.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and NPR had been approaching a standoff as the union balked at managements proposals for 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.

The contract with the SAG-AFTRA members working for the Washington-based NPR, which provides the daily national news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, expired June 30. The two sides agreed to another 24-hour extension after the end of a two-week extension that expired midnight Friday.
CHICAGO (AP)  A 10-year-old boy was one of 10 homicide victims in Chicago since Friday evening and the fourth child to be fatally shot in the city this year.

Police say Gustavo Garcia was in an SUV with his stepfather and another man on the city's far South Side on Friday night when someone inside a nearby car opened fire and shot him in the back.

The boy was among more than 40 people shot in Chicago since Friday evening. The weekend brought to 369 the number of homicides in Chicago so far this year.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office says there have been four children 12 and younger who have been fatally shot in Chicago in 2017  one more than were shot and killed in all of 2016.
ROCK ISLAND -- Centennial Bridge, near where Master Sgt. Stanley W. Talbot lost his life 16 years ago in a tragic dragging death at a roadside traffic checkpoint, was renamed Monday in his honor.

Hundreds of people gathered to witness the renaming of the "Master SGT Stanley W. Talbot" bridge.

The sign appears at the foot of the bridge, within sight of where the veteran state trooper died at age 50 at 1:38 a.m., June 23, 2001, according to event emcee, Capt. Victor Markowski.

Special guests included Master Sgt. Dyan Talbot, Collinsville Police Officer Doug Talbot and other members of Master Sgt. Talbot's extended family.

Master Sgt. Dyan Talbot politely declined comment, but her brother, Doug Talbot, called the occasion a "humbling experience to see all the work put into arranging the ceremony and all the people who showed up to pay tribute to my dad.

"It makes me proud to be his son and to see all the influence he had on people, even this many years later," he said.

He remembered many of the stories he heard people tell him so many years ago and called it a great day to hear them told again.

Officer Doug Talbot also said he believed his father would be surprised to know he had decided to follow in the footsteps of his sister and dad.

Dyan Talbot proudly shares her dad's rank, according to Dan Roach, Schaumburg Police Department deputy chief, a retired Illinois State Trooper and family friend.

Deputy Chief Roach also mentioned Master Sgt. Talbot's wife, Ladonna, who was an Illinois State Trooper at the time of his death.

Officer Talbot added that he hadn't talked to his stepmom in many years.

Other guest speakers at the event included Illinois Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia.

Sen. Anderson, Sens. Martin Sandoval and Karen McConnaughay and Rep. Daniel Beiser sponsored the renaming resolution, which was approved May 31.

Miranda French, of U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos office, read a congressional record declaring the bridge renaming.

Other speakers were state police director Lee Schmitz and chaplain Ken Zuithoff.

Crowd members included people from as far away as East St. Louis and the Chicago area.

Sen. Anderson called Master Sgt. Talbot a "troopers' trooper" and "even a better father," according to his kids.

State police director Schmitz referred to Master Sgt. Talbot's "legacy at the bridge" of integrity, service and pride.

And Deputy Chief Roach called him a "cop's cop."

"This bridge serves as a visible reminder of his sacrifice, but his true legacy will live on through his children, who followed their father into law enforcement," Sen. Anderson said

"When we serve others, we serve God," Deputy Chief Roach said, urging Master Sgt. Talbot's supporters always to ask who they served or can serve today.
MILAN -- Service dogs face scrutiny and misunderstanding, according to local trainers.

In May, Iraqi war veteran Cesar Ordonez and his service dog, Angel, were kicked out of a Rockford, Ill., liquor store. He recorded the incident to help educate people about service dogs.

Public education remains a primary concern for local trainers with Disability Assistance Dogs in Milan. Since taking over the organization five years ago, David and Edwina Umphrey and Linda Brown have worked to provide well-trained dogs to people with disabilities.

"Dogs are easy to train, people not so much." said Mr. Umphrey.

"People think, 'I've got a dog now, and the dog is going to fix me.' And it doesn't work that way," he said. "The dogs are there to help somebody mitigate their own disability. ... They're there to help you help yourself and have a better quality of life."

There a different types of working dogs, including emotional support dogs, therapy dogs and facility dogs. Service dogs -- the only working dog allowed public access under the Americans with Disabilities Act -- are trained to help people with disabilities and must be able to perform three tasks.

"The expectation is that the dog can come into a restaurant and lay under a table and no one even knows they're there," said Mr. Umphrey.

The ADA list of excluded areas for service dogs is short.

"There are two places that they cannot be: kitchens in restaurants or operating rooms/burn units," said Mr. Umphrey.

Business owners uncomfortable with the dogs legally can ask only two questions: 1) Is that a service dog, and 2) What tasks does it perform for you. The trainers with Disability Assistance Dogs say businesses should be accommodating and be welcoming until there is a problem.

"If you're a business owner, you want everyone to come to your place of business, and if the dog is well behaved then it won't be a problem," Mr. Umphrey said. "If you start eliminating people with disabilities, that information will go all around and you will lose a truckload of business."

He added officials that enforce ADA rules also can contact businesses refusing admittance to service dogs.

Concerns about service dogs are fed by a lack of standards. The trainers said it is possible for people to buy a vest with logos and IDs for their dogs stating they are service dogs.

"It's a huge disservice to the people that really need their service dog wherever they go," said Ms. Brown.

The trainers also advised people to respect a service dog at work. They advised people seeing a service dog keep walking and let the dog do its job. If children want to interact with a service dog, permission should be sought and the attention kept brief.

"We encourage our clients to say, 'No, not right now; the dog is working,'" said Ms. Brown. But she said they also recognize that being social is part of the dog's life.

For more details, visit http://disabilityassistancedogs.org.
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!
FORT DODGE | A woman testified Tuesday in Peter Veal's double homicide trial that a key witness for the state raped her two weeks before the victims were found dead at a Mason City home.

The woman said she knew both homicide victim Caleb Christensen and Ron Willis, the state witness who testified earlier in the trial. Willis testified he saw Veal fatally shoot Melinda Kavars Nov. 17 at Christensen's North Hampshire Avenue home and escaped after Veal tried to shoot him.

Veal is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He also faces an attempted murder charge for allegedly attempting to kill Willis.

The woman testified in front of the jury Tuesday that Christensen was mad at Willis after she told him Willis sexually assaulted her.

The Globe Gazette is not publishing the woman's name. No charges were filed in the incident.

She said she never told police Willis sexually assaulted her because "I was scared of him."

The woman began to cry when she started talking about going to Christensen's house after he was killed. A short recess was called when she didn't stop crying.

Before the woman reached the point in her testimony where she talked about her rape allegation against Willis, the jury was sent out of the courtroom so Judge Rustin Davenport could make a ruling on what questions she would be allowed to answer in front of jurors.

During this time the woman said Willis had left for a trip to Colorado when she told Christensen that Willis, who was a friend of his, had raped her.

She said Christensen told her he would ask Willis about it when he came back.

Expert: Gun found at scene of Mason City double homicide jammed by damaged cartridge FORT DODGE | A gun found at the scene of a double homicide in Mason City in November was jam

"Two weeks later Caleb was dead," she said.

The woman who says Willis raped her testified she had previously seen him with a gun, which she described as a black pistol.

Public defender Steven Kloberdanz showed her the gun recovered at the crime scene, which she said wasn't Willis' gun.

Kloberdanz then asked her if she remembered meeting with him earlier and identifying Willis' gun from a photo he showed her.

The woman said she did, but the gun Kloberdanz showed her in front of the jury didn't look the same as the one she previously saw in a photo.

Another defense witness, Carol Daniels, testified Tuesday she had observed tension between Willis and Christensen, but they had patched things up a few days before Christensen and Kavars were killed.

An investigator the defense called as a witness said when Veal learned he was being charged with two counts of first-degree murder, he replied, Youre tripping."

The investigator, Aaron Onder of the Mason City Police Department, said that seemed to him like something someone who was surprised would say.

The defense rested its case shortly before noon. The jury was sent home for the day so the judge and the attorneys could work on jury instructions.

The jury returns at 9 a.m. Wednesday for jury instructions and closing arguments.

Veal's trial was moved from Mason City to Fort Dodge due to pretrial publicity.
Celebrating Our Service Members

Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day, when we honor and show gratitude to all members of our Armed Forces  those currently serving, those who...

Transit Equity Starts With QueensLink

For decades Queens has seen a disinvestment in the necessary transit infrastructure the borough needs to promote equity and sustainability. Most of the time, transformative...
LVB awarded the Polish manufacturer a framework contract in March 2015 to supply up to 41 1458mm-gauge vehicles to replace the citys fleet of Tatra trams. The contract included an initial firm order for five vehicles and an option for nine vehicles was exercised in November 2016. All 14 LRVs will be delivered by the end of this year.

LVB says it intends to order the remaining 27 vehicles in the framework, and the entire fleet should be in service by 2020.

At 37.63m, the Tramino XL is the longest tram in the LRV fleet, accommodating up to 220 passengers, 58 of them seated.
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Ex-senator Pugachev challenges recovery of $1.3 bln because of new evidence

MOSCOW, July 18 (RAPSI)  Former beneficiary of International Industrial Bank (Mezhprombank) Sergey Pugachev has filed an application with the Moscow Commercial Court seeking to overturn a ruling requiring him and other banks top managers to pay 75.6 billion rubles (about $1.3 billion at the current exchange rate) because of new evidence, the case materials read on Tuesday.

According to Pugachev, new evidence is the fact that, as established in September 2016 by an appellate court, in July 2015 the Moscow Commercial Court examined the bankruptcy claim he was involved in by a panel illegitimately composed of a single judge.

The court is to review the application on August 24.

On April 30, 2015, the Moscow Commercial Court ruled in favor of the DIA in a lawsuit filed to declare Pugachev and other Mezhprombank executives guilty of knowingly bankrupting the bank, primarily through the transfer of liquid assets. The court decided to debit 75.6 billion rubles ($1.3 bln) from former managers of the bank.

The Moscow Commercial Court in late October granted the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) the right to forcibly collect 75.6 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) from former Mezhprombank staff, including 68.5 billion rubles from Pugachev and Marina Illarionova, the last CEO of Mezhprombank, and 7.16 billion rubles from two former chief executives, Alexander Didenko and Alexey Zlobin.

In 2014, the DIA filed a lawsuit with a UK court to collect the assets which Pugachev allegedly embezzled from Mezhprombank. In July 2014, Londons High Court granted an injunction to seize $2 billion worth of Pugachevs assets in various countries.Pugachev appealed the decision, but in December 2014 Londons High Court refused to release his assets.

In September 2015, Pugachev filed a lawsuit against Russia within Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague demanding $12 billion. The plaintiff said that the lawsuit is filed because of the alleged violations of obligations under bilateral investment contract with France by Russia. According to the ex-senator, from 2009, he has lost some of his assets without receiving compensation for them. Such assets include Middle Trading Rows" on the Red Square in Moscow as well as the Yenisei Industrial Company.

The Moscow Commercial Court declared Mezhprombank bankrupt in November 2010 after the bank defaulted and received a 40 billion ruble ($676 million at current rate) bailout from Russias Central Bank. The DIA was appointed liquidator of IIBs assets.

An investigation into the bankruptcy was launched in January 2011 on suspicion of illegal operations in the process of filing for bankruptcy and premediated bankruptcy.

Pugachev was charged with embezzlement and arrested in absentia. In November 2014, he was put on the international wanted list. In January 2015, Russia sent a request for extradition to the UK.
MASON CITY | When police told Peter Veal he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, he replied, Youre tripping, an investigator testified Tuesday morning.

Mason City Police Investigator Aaron Onder, who was called to the stand by the defense, said that seems to him like someone who was surprised would say.

During other testimony Tuesday in Webster County District Court, a friend of key state witness Ron Willis said Willis and Caleb Christensen had a disagreement but that it had been patched up.

Experts testify about gun, bloody footprints found at scene of Mason City double homicide FORT DODGE | A gun found at the scene of a double homicide in Mason City in November was jam

Peter Veal, 31, is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of Christensen and Melinda Kavars Nov. 17 in Mason City. He also faces a charge of attempted murder for allegedly trying to kill Willis.

Prosecutors say Veal shot Kavars at Chrisentensen's home on North Hampshire Avenue and then tried to shoot Willis before stabbing Christensen 25 times.

The defense has rested its case, with the jury being dismissed for the day. They will return at 9 a.m. Wednesday for jury instructions and closing arguments before beginning deliberations.

Veal's trial was moved from Mason City to Fort Dodge due to pretrial publicity.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more details.
On May 31, the day before President Trump announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, the California Senate passed a bill mandating 100% of all electrical generation be from so-called renewable sources that emit no carbon dioxide by 2045. As the vote was strictly along party lines, this means that the General Assembly will also likely pass it and send it to Governor Brown for signature.

California isnt alone. The 100% renewables movement has been sweeping across American colleges, and similarly progressive towns and some states, such as Hawaii and Vermont. This movement has resulted in state laws, local ordinances and policies at both levels that require 100% of a city or states electricity to come from renewable power sources such as wind and solar.

The first and most basic problem with the 100% renewables goal is that if by renewable one means sources of electric power that neither generate CO 2 emissions or emissions of conventional pollutants such as particulates and sulfur dioxide, then such a goal is impossible. The sun is beneath the horizon half of the time, and near it for another two hours or so, dramatically reducing incident radiation on passive solar panels. Wind is highly variable. Thus, wind and/or solar can supply 100% of electricity demand only if it can be stored for later use.

At present, the only commercially feasible way to store sufficient electrical energy to deal with the daily fluctuations in wind and solar production is pumped hydro storage in which water is pumped uphill at night (when electricity demand is low) to a storage reservoir, and then released during the day, spinning a generation turbine.

But solar with pumped hydro is extremely expensive. For example, even assuming a solar plant capable of providing power during the day for a city of 160,000 people with the other half of the energy produced used to pump water uphill, the total capital cost of solar including storage is likely to be at least ten times the cost of electricity from a natural gas power plant, according to Philip Dowd, a member of the Board of Visitors at Carnegie Mellon University.

This is a best case scenario. During the winter, when solar generation is at its lowest, enormous amounts of hydro storage would need to be provided to ensure that power would be available when winds are light. Ironically the lowest temperatures of the year, which can produce the highest demand for electricity, often occur under calm conditions.

This requires enormous investment. A study of European renewable energy estimates the wintertime hydro storage requirement is bigger than the combined European hydroelectric capacity; that is, all the water impounded behind all the dams in Europe does not contain enough potential energy even to cover European power needs during calm periods in the winter.

So if an electrical system relying 100% on renewables is infeasible, what then does an electrical grid with heavy reliance on renewables actually look like? For an answer, one can look to Germany, the country that has spent the most to subsidize wind and solar generation with feed-in tariffs that far exceed the market price for electricity.

While Germany has succeeded in increasing the share of wind and solar in German electricity production to over 30 percent, the average German household spent 50 percent more on electricity in 2016 than 2007. German firms open new manufacturing facilities not in Germany, but in Slovakia and other countries with much cheaper electricity.

Even with all this, German carbon dioxide emissions grew in 2015 and 2016, while those in the U.S. fell by an average of two percent per year.

To understand the German result, it is necessary to know a bit about the economics of wholesale electric power markets. When they are actually available, there is zero variable (or, in economic jargon, marginal) cost to produce wind and solar power. At such times, solar and wind producers flood the wholesale electricity market with power. As shown recently by economist Andreas Gerster, conventional natural gas and coal-based power generating facilities are actually paying distributors to take their power because the alternative of ramping down and then restarting generation is even more costly.

So, Gerster concludes, as renewable energy goals become more and more aggressive, negative price spikes become more and more frequent and conventional fossil-fuel based power sources are no longer financially viable without themselves being subsidized.

In addition to these costly impacts on electric power distribution, the present day environmental costs of 100% renewables are considerable. Aspen, Colorado is now 100% renewable, but 46% of its power is hydroelectric, and even though several environmental stream protection groups stand in opposition, city leaders continue to pursue the option of someday damming beautiful Castle and Maroon Creeks behind 150 foot dams so as to meet their 100% renewables pledge. Senator Bernie Sanders hometown of Burlington, Vermont says it has now reached a 100% renewables goal, but Burlington gets one third of its power from burning wood chips and another third from two hydroelectric facilities. Burlington gets its hydro in part from facilities operated by Hydro Quebec that were strongly opposed by environmentalists and tribal governments as environmentally catastrophic.

It might be argued that all these unintended consequences can be avoided by relying on geothermal energy  heat generated by the radioactive decay of minerals in the earths crust. It is true that in 2016, California got 5.8% of its electric power production from geothermal. However, 43 percent of Californias geothermal power came from The Geyers, a complex that is over 50 years old. The Geyers and most other California geothermal power production facilities are located in or near the Long Valley caldera, an active volcanic geological system lying between the Owens Valley and Mono Lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada. According to the USGS, magma is actively rising in a 100-square mile area in the central part of the caldera, causing a dome-like swelling centered in the low forested hills in the middle of the caldera.

The continuing threat of volcanic activity in the Long Valley caldera has an upside, a relatively low cost of turning geothermal power into electricity. Outside California and other locations propitiously (or perhaps not) located in active volcanic areas, making geothermal electric power a reality is much more costly and difficult. In Canada, for example, in 2011, disillusioned about the ability of geothermal power to be anything other than a bit player in the world energy equation, Limina Copper CEO Ross Beaty merged a geothermal power company he had created with a $150 million investment into another company that produces power from wind on hydro power. According to Beaty, drilling is very costly due to the wide-diameter, kilometres-deep drill holes that must be bored into complex, high-pressure and high-temperature rock formations containing high-temperature fluids, with massive volumes of water often required to cool the geothermal fluid before it can be reused and highly flammable chemicals used in electrical production. With all these on-site issues, geothermal systems are often located far from electrical demand, requiring long and costly electrical transmission lines

There is no geothermal plant operating anywhere in Canada, and aside from a few areas in the U.S., the Canadian experience is likely to be matched here. For the foreseeable future, the 100% renewables goal is yet another piece of progressive environmental rhetoric that in reality means higher costs for consumers and no improvement for the present environment.
Ukraine is the central battleground between the rapidly fraying West and the brutally ascendant East. As NATO bickers over defense contributions by member states, Article 5 commitments and its renegade member Turkey, Russia is taking concerted action to secure its borders, expand its influence and weaken the bedrock alliance that has kept the peace in Europe for the past 60 years.
This summer we mark the 20th anniversary of a major investigation by Congress of attempts by a hostile foreign power to influence an American presidential election. I'm glad the news media is pursuing the TrumpRussia scandal, but let's not forget the differences between how they are covering Russia compared with how they reported a similar story  this one involving Communist China  that developed during Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign.
Imagine if, in 1945, the War Department and senior American commanders in Europe and Asia had been permitted to define victory simply as the fall of Berlin and Tokyo, with no post-combat stabilization and reconstruction program for either Germany or Japan. Imagine if, in 2003, the United States had invaded Iraq without a realistic, implementable plan for governance after the fall of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein. Imagine if the West had fought Qaddafi in 2011 without much thought given to what would replace him. In fact, no imagination at all is required for the cases of Iraq and Libya. Both operations were undertaken with no serious regard to what would follow. Both produced disaster.

In the campaign to defeat ISIS (ISIL, Daesh, Islamic State) in Syria, the US Department of Defense and Central Command (CENTCOM) think they have a formula for addressing the whats next question in a way that evades and transfers responsibility entirely. They have defined their mission and that of the American-led, anti-ISIS international coalition, as one of supporting indigenous partner forces: in this case a Syrian-Kurdish-dominated militia (the Syrian Democratic Forces) top-heavy with Syrian Arab auxiliaries. Partner forcesfeaturing Kurds with close ties to the terrorist PKKare the ones who have been handed responsibility for what happens on the ground once predominantly Syrian Arab areas are liberated from ISIS. American military aviation and special forces on the ground are only there to support, dont you know.

The theory behind entrusting post-ISIS stabilization to a Kurdish-led militia, one trained and equipped by the United States, is that indigenous forces are much better suited for the task than foreigners. As former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter noted in a recent Washington Post op-ed, History has shown this task is difficult for outsiders to accomplish. Indeed, Douglas MacArthur and Lucius Clay would not have minimized the difficulties. Yet even they upheld the central post-combat principle of military civil affairs by drawing to the maximum on indigenous elements for policing, schooling, utilities, public sanitation, and the like. What, one might ask, does any of this have to do with autonomy-seeking Kurds operating militarily in Arab towns and cities?

Indeed, the reach of a Kurdish-dominated militia does not extend very far south in the Euphrates River Valley, where ISIS has ensconced itself. CENTCOM knows that its partner forces may be limited to the capture of Raqqa, ISIS self-proclaimed capital. It has therefore invited the Assad regime and the Iranian-led Shia foreign fighters supporting that regime to help themselves to the rest of eastern Syria so long as they shoot at ISIS and avoid targeting partner forces.

CENTCOMs finding that the restoration of Assad rule in eastern Syriasupported decisively by Iranwould contribute to the victory over terrorism and extremism is odd. Assad and Iran have been instrumental in the rise of ISIS. Does the definition of indigenous extend to Afghan, Iraqi, Lebanese, and Iranian fighters? Is it possible that ISIS in its current Syrian configuration is seen in Tampa as the sum total of the extremism problem? Apparently so. CENTCOM defines its mission in Syria simply as one of killing ISIS. Keeping it dead would be someone elses job.

The evasion and transfer of post-combat stabilization responsibility for Syrian areas liberated from ISIS is self-defeating. But it may well be a fait accompli. In a system where few able-bodied young Americans give even passing thought to serving their country in uniform, it is inevitable that military leaders will define-down military missions to the extent they can. Vesting post-combat stabilization responsibilities in a combination of hired hands in Raqqa and terrorist-abetting mass murderers elsewhere may be of no consequence to those who would define victory in eastern Syria as beat ISIS and devil take the hind-most. But the potential consequences for American national security and that of allies and partners in the region and beyond are frightening. The stage may be set for variants of Islamist extremism far more capable than todays ISIS to arise.

This writer has pressed relentlessly since 2015 for the United States to organize and lead a professional ground force coalition of the willing in eastern Syria to defeat ISIS sooner rather than later, and to work with genuine local leaders and anti-Assad opposition figuresmany of whom had received material American supportto establish competent, humane, and inclusive post-ISIS governance. Yet this kind of heavy diplomatic lifting attracted no support in the Obama White House. When three Gulf states volunteered forces to fight ISIS, the Obama administration dove for cover. When the Syrian opposition offered a plan for making eastern Syria a model for the transitional governing body called for by the June 2012 Geneva Final Communique, Obama administration officials discovered a fascination with their shoe laces.

Now the Trump administration finds itself doubling down on and justifying a policy that may keep ISIS or a more capable successor alive and breathing even as the body of the ersatz caliph rots. It may be too late to undo that which has been pursued with single-minded, stubborn determination for the better part of three years. Perhaps we have indeed discovered a new and effective way of waging war in faraway places, using partner forces. But responsibility for sealing the victory cannot be subcontracted or assigned without inviting dire consequences. There would, after all, be no war to liberate eastern Syria from ISIS had the United States not launched and sustained it.

In the end, post-combat responsibilities can indeed be evaded. They can be handed off to militiamen or ignored altogether. But the consequences of this evasion, as demonstrated in Iraq 2003 and Libya 2011, can be catastrophic.
On 13 July, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) issued a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) which will allow the banning of the Islamist organisation Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). This follows the governments announcement on 9 May that it intended to disband HTI on the grounds that its teachings conflicted with the constitution and state ideology of Pancasila, and that its activities were creating public unrest.

The governments actions have proven controversial and there are strong grounds for arguing that both decisions undermine Indonesian democracy and carry considerable political risk for Jokowi. The use of the Perppu, in particular, points to the governments inept legal and political strategies behind the banning.

Hizbut Tahrir has been present in Indonesia since the early 1980s. Initially a covert movement, it has operated above ground since 2000. It has grown rapidly over the past two decades and has branches in most of Indonesias provinces. It keeps its membership numbers secret, but has been regularly able to mobilise thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, to its rallies.

The cornerstone of its teaching is the necessity to restore a global caliphate, after the last of the Ottoman caliphs was removed by Turkey in 1924. It regards democracy as un-Islamic and campaigns fervently but peacefully for sharia law implementation and the rejection of capitalism and secularism.

The governments May announcement that HTI was to be banned came as a surprise and was met with immediate scepticism by many commentators. There were several reasons for this. First, HTIs pro-caliphate views had long been known and the organisations leaders were usually careful to avoid explicit rejection of the Indonesian state or Pancasila. The police claimed to have abundant evidence that HTI had recently begun fomenting insurrection but media leaks about details of the police case referred only to speeches by a few local HTI officials.

Second, HTI had no history of violence, unlike many other Islamist groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). Critics asked why the government was not targeting FPI, for example, which had repeatedly been involved in vicious attacks on religious minorities. Moreover, only a couple of ex-HTI members had been implicated in terrorism, far less that the number of convicted jihadists with connections to major Islamic organisations like Muhammadiyah or the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Third, the claim that HTI was creating social disturbances appeared contrived. In the month prior to the May announcement, Ansor, the youth wing of Indonesias largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), staged protests against HTI meetings, persuading police to cancel the HTI events. Simmering tension between NU and HTI was nothing new, but NUs physical confrontation of HTI was. Interviews with NU leaders suggest some level of coordination between NUs youth wing, Ansor, and Jokowi government officials, seemingly to build a case for action against HTI.

While the government claimed there were pressing security and legal reasons for banning HTI, the real reasons appear to be political. Since the massive Islamist mobilisation against the incumbent Chinese Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), in late 2016 and early 2017, resulting in his defeat in April, the Jokowi government has been scrambling to counter rising Islamist power while rallying moderate Islamic support for the president. Counter measures have included the arrest and planned prosecution of numerous Islamist leaders on a variety of charges from sedition to disseminating pornography.

HTI was one of four Islamist organisations that led the anti-Ahok campaign and the government probably regarded it as the easiest target. HTIs caliphal doctrines could be readily cast as a threat to national security and the organisation lacked the large and militant membership of FPI. Lastly, HTI was not especially popular within the broader Islamic community, with NU in particular openly calling for its banning. By announcing a ban on HTI, the government signaled to other Islamist organisations its determination to push back against them.

The sudden issuing of the Perppu last week was unexpected, as the government had previously said it would prosecute the matter through the courts, in keeping with the law governing social organisations. Last week the line changed with the government argued existing laws were inadequate for a timely prosecution and that the president had to resort to a Perppu to address a legal vacuum as well as a threat to the nation. The Perppu can be used by the Internal Affairs and Justice ministers to withdraw the legal status of a social organisation, with the obvious target being HTI. The government's actions were sharply criticised by NGOs, legal experts and the media, as well as by many Muslim leaders, as arbitrary and unwarranted.

The governments justification for the Perppu is indeed unconvincing and points to both haste and poor planning. Why was it only now aware of shortcomings in the social organisation law? Should not such matters have been investigated prior to the May announcement of HTIs dissolution? And where was the HTI threat that required such urgent action? The government has offered no good answers to these questions and its actions are better explained by the likely realisation that evidence against HTI may have been insufficient to win judicial approval of a ban. Indeed, Jokowi may be using the Perppu to maintain pressure on his Islamist foes.

All of this carries risks for Jokowi. HTI will appeal to the Constitutional Court and there appear to be grounds for arguing the government has not followed the Courts own ruling on the process for banning social organisations. If the Perppu is overturned, Jokowis standing will be diminished and Islamist groups emboldened.

There are reasons to doubt whether a ban on HTI would be effective. Its membership is disciplined and resourceful, having undergone a long process of induction and caderisation. Hizbut Tahrir also has experience, both in Indonesia and abroad, of operating underground. HTI activists could simply create new labels for their activities or have no organisation affiliation at all, while secretly working through informal networks to pursue HTIs mission.

Finally, there is the matter of whether a nation that proclaims itself as an exemplar of democracy should be seeking to proscribe an organisation without compelling evidence of wrongdoing or threat. If it is the case that individual HTI leaders have advocated seizure of power, then they can be prosecuted under existing laws without seeking to disband an entire organisation. The proposed ban on HTI looks very much like an abuse of state power for political aims.
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend dazzled in ceremonial costumes during their recent vacation in Bali.

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The 31-year-old model shared photos Saturday on Instagram from her family trip to Indonesia with Legend and 15-month-old daughter Luna.

"We had the most wonderful time in Bali," Teigen captioned a picture of herself and Legend in traditional clothes at the Como Shambhala wellness retreat.

"Como Shambhala, my body and mind have never felt so clear," she said. "Thank you got getting me to move again (first time since I was 8 months pregnant and Luna is ummmm 15 months old) and giving me some much-needed body and nutrition schooling!"

"And thank you for dressing us in your beautiful, traditional ceremonial costumes!" the star added. "And don't worry, everyone. I still love me some .99 cent two tacos. Balance! #notbeingpaidtosaythis."

Teigen also posted a snapshot of herself holding Luna while wearing a gold robe and traditional headdress.

The "Lip Sync Battle" co-host and Legend married in Como, Italy, in 2013, and welcomed Luna in April 2016.

The model shared her advice for traveling with a baby in an interview with Travel + Leisure published in November.

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"I think the less you freak out the better," she advised. "My problem is that her cries [make me] go into anxiety mode. I worry about other people so much, so I need to think more about her and how I can comfort her rather than worry about everyone around me."

"My best advice is just to block everything out," the star added. "Don't be embarrassed, it happens to everybody and just give [your baby] some love."
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MASON CITY | The Mason City School Board has unanimously voted to contract with its former human resources director.

The decision, which took place during the board's regular meeting Monday evening, came after Jodie Anderson decided not to renew her contract with the district.

Anderson, who was hired in 2015, operated under a one-year contract renewed annually. She has not publicly stated her reason for leaving the district, other than to start a consulting business.

Superintendent Dave Vetsteeg told board members Anderson is returning on a temporary, part-time basis.

Anderson will work about 25 hours a week for seven weeks, for no more than 175 hours, Versteeg said, citing the contract. Her hourly rate, Versteeg said, is $60, which is pretty much what her rate was here with salary and benefits. Anderson's past contract says she was paid $87,750 during the 2016-17 school year.

HR director resigns from Mason City Schools MASON CITY | Mason City Schools' HR director Jodie Anderson has decided to not renew her con

The School Board during its August meeting will decide whether to renew its contract with Anderson, Versteeg said, or search for a full-time human resources director.

We dont see this as being the solution to this position but something to get us to the beginning of school, he said.

Versteeg said Anderson will perform just the basics to fill the districts current openings, while he and administrative assistant Deb Thorsen will pick up the slack for those things that may come up that may need more service than that during this time.

Its an interim step, he added.

Anderson is the second director to depart the district within the past two months.

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 and not issued a contract.

Versteeg told school board members Monday the district has several applicants for the position and plans on holding group interviews during the week of July 24.
In response to the increasing awareness of local homelessness, Athens-Clarke County employees will be collecting toiletries to make personal care kits for those in need. This idea, referred to as Project TAKEcare, has been taking place since July 7 and will continue through August 7.
Now, the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government is developing a bike and pedestrian master plan, which seeks to build an interconnected network for biking, pedestrians and public transit, and to improve the quality of high-priority bike routes and sidewalk areas.
Naidu, who has served BJP in several capacities, will also be a saviour for the NDA in the Rajya Sabha, where they are still in minority, notes Onkareshwar Pande.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu who was announced as the BJP's vice-presidential candidate at the party's parliamentary board meeting, in New Delhi.

Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Housing and Urban Affairs, and Information and Broadcasting Minister Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu is the National Democratic Alliance candidate for the post of vice president.

By finalising the name of Naidu as a candidate for the vice presidential elections, the NDA has tried to balance the political equations between North and South, as Naidu hails from Andhra Pradesh and NDA has already nominated a north Indian Ram Nath Kovind as the Presidential candidate who comes from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amt Shah announced Naidus name in Delhi on Monday.

Naidu has been pitted against the Oppositions vice presidential candidate Gopal Krishna Gandhi who had already filed his nominations.

Considered a fire-fighter for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defending him on several issues in and outside the Parliament, Naidu may act as NDAs saviour in the Rajya Sabha, where NDA is still in minority.

Very few people are aware of the fact that during the Emergency, Naidu was imprisoned under Maintenance of Internal Security Act between 1975 and 1977.

In 1974, he became the convener of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Narayan Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Andhra Pradesh. He took to the streets in protest against the Emergency and was imprisoned. From 1977-80, he was designated as the president of its youth wing.

Before this, he came into spotlight for his prominent role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972. While Kakani Venkata Ratnam led the movement from Vijayawada, Naidu took active part in the agitation in Nellore.

A member of in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Naidu joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his college days. He was elected as the president of the students union of colleges affiliated to the Andhra University.

However, his political career started with the Janata Party, in which he joined as the youth wing president of Andhra Pradesh unit between 1977 and 1980.

He was elected as a MLA in the Andhra Pradesh assembly in 1978 after he got released from the jail.

In the BJP, Naidu first became the national vice-president of the BJPs youth wing in 1980 and worked till 1983 and during the same period he was also the leader of BJPs legislature party in the Andhra Pradesh assembly from 1980 to 1985.

Naidu also held the post of the state president of BJPs Andhra Pradesh unit from 1988 to 1993 and was the BJPs national general secretary between 1993 and 2000.

Naidu has been the BJPs national president on two occasions. First, he rose to become the BJPs chief in July 2002 and held the post till December 2002. The second time it was between January 2004 and October 2004.

He was also BJPs senior vice president between April 2005 and January 2006.

He was the partys national spokesperson between 1996 and 2000. From January 2006 onwards, he is a member of BJPs Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee.

Naidu enjoys the fifth position in the seniority list of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Union Cabinet after Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Born on July 1, 1949 at Chavatapalem under Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh has been famous for his rhymes and one-liners.

Naidu, got married to M Usha on April 14, 1970. He has a son and a daughter. Naidu also runs the Swarna Bharath Trust, a social service organisation founded by him in Nellore which runs a school for poor, orphaned and special-needs children and imparts self-employment training programmes especially for women and youth.

Being a fourth term Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, Naidu has long experience as a member of the Upper House of the Parliament and also in the Union Cabinet as the Minister.

He was Union minister for rural development between September 30, 2000 and June 30, 2002 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Again he became a Union minister in Prime Minister Modis government on May 26, 2014.

Naidu was elected first to the Rajya Sabha in April 1998. He was re-elected to the house in 2004, 2010 and 2016. He has been a member of several parliamentary committees and even chaired some of them.
MASON CITY | Verizon Innovative Learning and North Iowa Area Community College have teamed up to offer hands-on workshops in science, technology, engineering and math for young area girls this summer.

The three-week summer camp, which runs through July 28 at NIACC, is the first launched by Verizon Innovative Learning to address the need for more girls, especially those in rural America, to be prepared for STEM careers of the future.

We are thrilled to be partnering with Verizon to offer this amazing, and potentially life-transforming, learning experience, David Massey, NIACC vice president for academic affairs, said in a news release. Through this program, girls in our region will discover and explore the wide variety of exciting, creative and meaningful opportunities awaiting them in STEM career fields.

The program is introducing 50 middle school girls from North Iowa to the fundamentals of augmented reality, coding, 3-D design, entrepreneurship and design-thinking principles as well as to female mentors, who are professionals in STEM fields.

According to research, 86 percent of engineers and 74 percent of computer professionals are men, and the percentage of women in STEM careers has not improved since 2001.

Our hope is that by participating in this camp, girls will become interested in and excited about STEM careers. When that happens, all of North Iowa benefits, NIACC President Steve Schulz said.

After the summer program, students will continue to participate in monthly learning activities to build upon what theyve learned and complete their final augmented reality projects with NIACC.
Cracks in the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar is frittering away the ground gained in social justice and contributing to increasing polarisation in the state, says Mohammad Sajjad.

IMAGE: Demonstrations after a spate of murders in Bihar in 2015.

The state seems to be slipping towards bad governance and losing its middle space to retrogressive forces.

Intra-coalition squabbling could be the most plausible factor behind it.

Photograph: PTI Photo

As news started leaking that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar might break away from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal to form a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party once again -- or head for mid-term polls in alliance with the BJP -- one could notice the tremendous fear among the Muslims in the state.

The news comes when a series of anti-Muslim lynching in the adjacent states of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh as well as in Haryana and Rajasthan, all BJP-ruled, are taking place.

It comes at a time when an NDTV programme coordinator, Atharuddin Munne Bharti, a resident of Karneji Pakri in Vaishali district, escaped similar wrath only by chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' at the diktat of the Bajrang Dal in Muzaffarpur, when he was on the way to Samastipur, with his family.

Of late, Bihar seems to be slipping, once again, towards bad governance. The society here is losing its middle space to retrogressive forces.

Intra-coalition squabbling could be the most plausible factor behind it.

Nitish Kumar's experience with the 'coalition of extremes' between 2005 and 2013, when he was with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, and the decimation of his Janata Dal-United and Lalu's RJD in the 2014 general election gave way to the Mahagathbandhan for the 2015 assembly elections.

Nitish had built up his constituency with the Ati Pichhrha, and Mahadalits, as well as good governance.

The Mahagathbandhan came into being on the promise of sustaining social justice and equitable development as well as good governance.

Nitish sought to strengthen his women's constituency by prohibiting alcohol, and by legislating and enforcing stringent laws.

Meanwhile, Lalu consolidated and perpetuated his dynasty with two sons in the Nitish cabinet, and news reports about Lalu manoeuvring to replace Nitish with his son Tejashwi kept coming in.

The smaller constituent of the Mahagathbandhan, the Congress, is hardly any force on the ground.

Both the Congress and the RJD also face ire for perpetuating dynasty.

Yadav hegemony, deteriorating law and order, intra-coalition cracks and possibly Nitish's growing insecurity or his prime ministerial ambitions, all seem to be giving way to saffronisation of the social fabric of Bihar.

It is the tool the BJP is hoping to use to jump to power.

This social transformation may enable the BJP to dispense with Nitish, and even the Yadav votes may go over to the BJP through leaders like Nand Kishor Yadav, and Rajendra Singh, the leader of the Opposition, who belongs to an Ati Pichhrha group.

The saffron forces are also able to consolidate the middle classes and the youth who have smartphones with Internet, creating a virtual brotherhood (if not a blood brotherhood) that cuts across castes.

This generation, because of almost two decades of Mandal empowerment, does not have the memories of the atrocities of the upper castes against the backward castes, and looks upon the BJP with hope.

Overall, this communalised segment harbours hatred against Muslims, thus helping with the Hindu consolidation that is so convenient for the BJP.

This is why the cracks in the Mahagathbandhan frighten Bihar's Muslims.

IMAGE: The faces of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan -- the RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav (left) and the JD-U's Nitish Kumar.

Photograph: PTI Photo

Bihar's political history suggests that in the colonial period, the communal-separatist forces of both persuasions were much weaker, except during 1938 and 1947, when both competed with each other.

During the post-Independence period of Congress hegemony in Bihar, Oppositional politics was occupied by the Socialists and leftists.

The Lalu era (1990 to 1997) implemented firm handling of communal riots, but it was as much a failure in dispensing criminal justice as his predecessors.

And Lalu kept losing his support base to the NDA (better commented upon by Arvind N Das in 'Para Democracy in Bihar,' Economic and Political Weeekly, November 21, 1998).

Lalu's social mutiny against the upper castes, combined with gross and wilful negligence of governance and development, alienated the middle classes and provided fodder for the gradual rise of right-wing majoritarian politics.

From the late 1990s onwards (during the Rabri Devi era of 1997 to 2005), one could see rapid proliferation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh schools across rural Bihar.

This was the time when a large number of teachers serving in government schools had retired.

The government took a very long time to recruit teachers and vacancies could not be filled in adequately.

Meanwhile, the work culture in the schools started disappearing. This gave way to private schools -- the so-called English medium, also erroneously and misleadingly called as 'convent' schools in popular parlance.

This was the time when the RSS schools (Shishu Mandirs) sprang up on a large scale and came to be seen as comparatively better quality schools in comparison to the now deteriorated government schools.

Besides, these schools also provided a modicum of (under)employment to some of the rural youth who had earned some educational qualifications.

With the spurt in the number of Shishu Mandirs, Sunday drills of the RSS shakhas started being held in every nook and cranny of Bihar. They went on to become formidable BJP cadres for electoral purposes.

It should be noted that the introduction of more facilities in government schools -- mid-day meals, distribution of cycles, uniforms -- checked the spread of RSS schools.

This might not have gone unnoticed by the RSS think-tank, and could have been one of the reasons, though unarticulated, why the JD-U-BJP alliance became uneasy and finally broke down in 2013.

Communalisation of Bihar society is emerging as a menacing reality, reports from the ground tell us.

Movements like Shiv Charcha have recently gained popularity across rural Bihar.

Shiv Charcha brings together Hindu women of different castes for a series of charcha for two to three days.

It is believed that through a sustained push of Shiv Charcha, Hindu women of subaltern groups are getting saffronised.

What is needed at the moment is to comprehend the growing and unprecedented communalisation of the social spaces in Bihar.

Professor Mohammad Sajjad is with the Centre of Advanced Study in History of Aligarh Muslim University and has published two books -- Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours (Routledge, 2014), and, Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857 (Primus, 2014).
The BSP chief who raised the issue of anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh walked out of the Upper House, prompting protests and an adjournment.

An angry Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said she will quit from the Rajya Sabha after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

I will resign from Rajya Sabha today, a visibly anguished Mayawati shot back when Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

Mayawati, whose term in the Upper House is till April next year, argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her samaj (community) and the Dalits. I have not finished. You cannot do this.

I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits, she said.

Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advice of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

I am going to resign from the house, she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

He party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challenging the Chair. She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair, he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well shouting Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (Anti-dalit government will not be tolerated).

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session had agreed to discuss any issue that the Opposition wants to raise in the house.

Promise was made to us in the presence of the prime minister. You are going against that, Azad said.

Lok Sabha adjourned

for the day Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned on Tuesday following noisy protests by the opposition which sought to corner the government by raising several issues, including

violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers. A belligerent Opposition wanted to discuss a host of issues as its members stormed the Well of the House during the Question Hour as well as later during the Zero Hour, forcing adjournment of the days proceedings. The opposition members wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the peoples mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

You didnt get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits, he said adding the Congress was staging a walkout of the House in protest. Congress members then walked out of the House.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well shouting anti-government slogans.

Communist Party of India-Marxists Sitaram Yechury said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the Opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

Shouting slogan is no solution. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start, he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings afternoon.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administrations order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on May 5, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying you cannot monopolise, angering Mayawati.
IMAGE: Opposition's joint vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi files his nomination paper in Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo

Opposition vice presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday justified his efforts to save Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon from the gallows, saying the practice of capital punishment was medieval and wrong.

Facing criticism from the ruling side for backing Memons mercy plea, he said he did so drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who were against death penalty and wanted it abolished.

Gandhi filed his nomination papers on Tuesday in the presence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Also present were other opposition leaders, including Janata Dal-Uniteds Sharad Yadav, Communist Party of India-Marxists Sitaram Yechury, CPIs D Raja, Nationalist Congress Partys Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel, National Conferences Farooq Abdullah and Dravida Munnetra Kazaghams Kanimozhi.

In our country, we are living in times of division. A whole force which is dividing our country is in action mode and that spells danger, Gandhi said after filing his papers.

He said he was representing the common citizen of the country and not any political party and would try and help bridge the gulf between the public and politics.

Peoples faith in politics itself has diminished and has collapsed. I would like to see a revival of that faith, he said.

Responding to the Shiv Senas attack on him for petitioning the president to save Memon, Gandhi said, Shiv Sena is doing its duty with dedication. What Shiv Sena has said, it had to. I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle.

He said he had also written a similar petition for Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing death sentence in Pakistan.

As a common, independent citizen, it is my duty to fulfil my principles. I believe in that. I have drawn inspiration on death penalty from two persons -- Mahatma Gandhi who was opposed it and Babasaheb Ambedkar, who said it is only proper abolish it.

The former West Bengal governor, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, has been picked by 18 opposition parties to be their nominee for the post of vice president.

The vice presidential election is scheduled to be held on August 5.

Gandhi will contest against the National Democratic Alliances candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.
The Monsoon session of Parliament had a stormy start, with the Opposition forcing a washout on Tuesday by creating pandemonium over various issues and an angry Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati declaring that she would resign from the Rajya Sabha for not being allowed to speak on the Dalit issue.

Members from parties like the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal created uproar in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as soon as the Houses met for the day.

Due to the ruckus, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day minutes after noon following one adjournment earlier while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned repeatedly till 3 pm and then for the day, without transacting any business.

Though the Monsoon session began on Monday, Tuesday was the first working day as on Monday, both the Houses were adjourned, without transacting any business, after obituary references to the departed MPs.

On Tuesday, the opposition members wanted to raise issues like 'atrocities' against Dalits, violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers.

Rajya Sabha

In the Rajya Sabha, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Mayawati raised the issue of violence against Dalits against the backdrop of riots in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh sometime back.

While she was speaking, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up as she had exceeded the three-minute duration set for each member during the Zero Hour.

At this, Mayawati got angry and asked how she could be prevented from raising the issue about her samaj (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this," she said.

In anger, she went on to add, "I will resign from Rajya Sabha today... I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against dalits."

By the evening, the BSP chief sent in her resignation to the Rajya Sabha chairman.

Kurien asked her not to make a full-fledged speech and she can seek a discussion after giving a notice under Rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue.

A discussion can begin only after the chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challenging the Chair.

"She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well, shouting slogans against the government.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government, at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session, had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.

"Promise was made to us in the presence of the prime minister. You are going against that," he said.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

"You didn't get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," he said, before leading a walkout by the Congress.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well, shouting anti-government slogans.

Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India-Marxist) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no soluition. We can discuss. The chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 12 noon.

No sooner that the House reassembled at noon, slogan shouting Congress members trooped into the Well. They were followed by the members of Trinamool Congress and others.

Amid slogan shouting by members of Congress and other parties, Chairman Hamid Ansari called for taking up the Question Hour.

Trinamool Congress member Derek O'Brien tried to speak but could not be heard amidst the noisy scenes. Some members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam too rushed into the Well as other opposition party members were on their feet.

The continued sloganeering forced the Chairman to adjourn the House till 2 pm.

Similar scenes were witnessed when the House re-assembled, leading to its adjournment till 3 pm.

As the protests continued, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar challenged the opposition members to a discussion, asking why they were running away from it.

However, as the uproar continued, the House was adjourned till Wednesday.

Lok Sabha

In the Lok Sabha, the opposition wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues.

Being disallowed, members from the Congress, RJD, TMC and the Left, among others, then trooped into Well. Many were shouting slogans and also displaying placards.

The House was first adjourned after 15 minutes into Question Hour till noon as the bedlam continued.

As the House re-assembled after the adjournment during Question Hour, the opposition members again trooped into the Well raising anti-government slogans.

In the din, as many as three bills, including the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, were introduced.

Besides, reports of various parliamentary committees were tabled before Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the proceedings for the day.

One of the opposition placards read, 'Gau mata toh bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (Cow protection is a tool to divert attention from farm loan waiver)'.

'Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya (Vijay Mallya was allowed to leave, while farmers were made to cry),' read another placard.

Bharatiya Janata Party members from Karnataka were also seen holding placards and standing at their benches asking the state government to protect honest officers.

They were referring to the recent transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had reportedly exposed that AIADMK leader Sasikala Natrajan was provided special facilities and services inside prison.
Authorities in Rajouri district evacuated 217 students and 15 teachers from three schools where they were trapped for over six hours.

IMAGE: Army jawans carry coffin of Naik Muddasar Ahmed at a ceremony in Jammu on Tuesday. Ahmed lost his life in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Rajouri on Monday. Photograph: PTI Photo

Two Army jawans were killed and another was injured as Pakistani troops pounded several places, including civilian areas, in Jammu and Kashmir along the Line of Control on Tuesday, officials said.

Terrorists also made a bid to infiltrate into Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir via the Gurez sector which was foiled by the Indian troops who killed one of the infiltrators, the officials said.

The Pakistani troops targeted several areas of Rajouri, Poonch and Kupwara districts of J&K along the LoC, they said, adding the Indian troops retaliated.

The Pakistani shelling put lives of hundreds of school students at risk in Rajouri district.

The authorities rescued 217 students who were trapped in three schools in Kadali and Seha areas of Rajouri near the LoC till, according to Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.

An Army Sepoy Jaspreet Singh was killed in the Pakistani shelling in Nowshera sector in Rajouri district, a defence spokesman said.

The 24-year-old jawan hailed from Talwandi in Moga district of Punjab and leaves behind his parents, he added.

Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Naushera sector in Rajouri at around 1350 (1.50 pm) hours today (Tuesday). Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively, the defence spokesman said.

In the exchange of fire, Sepoy Jaspreet Singh was grievously injured and succumbed to his injuries, he said.

The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty, he said.

Braving shelling from across the LoC, authorities in Rajouri district evacuated 217 students and 15 teachers from three schools where they were trapped for over six hours.

All the schools in Nowshera and Manjakote sectors of Rajouri district have been closed for an indefinite period in view of repeated firing and shelling by the Pakistani Army, officials said.

Villages like Kalsian, Sair, Bahwani, Namb and Jhangar, which are close to the LoC, have been bearing the brunt of the Pakistani shelling, the officials said.

Altogether 217 students were rescued from three schools, according to Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.

Officials said 15 teachers were also evacuated by the police and civic authorities.

They were evacuated in bullet-proof vehicles and three buses, they said.

From the Government High School, Bhawani, 150 students were shifted while 12 trapped students were evacuated from Middle School, Kaladi, the officials said.

The team of rescuers had a narrow escape in Bhawani as they came under heavy shelling, with shells landing a few meters away from the school.

Likewise, 55 students and teachers of Government High School in Sair had a narrow escape as the building came under direct hit of shells, damaging its large portion, they said.

The students and teachers were rescued amid heavy shelling, they said.

More than 150 students have been shifted to camps while other students were handed over to parents.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 0645 hours (6.45 am) in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors along the LoC, the spokesman said.

According to reports, one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimbher Gali sector.

The Pakistani firing killed another Army jawan in the Nowgam sector of Kashmir valley, an army official said.

The Pakistani Army also targeted civilian areas and Indian army posts along the LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

On Monday, the Pakistan Army had resorted to firing on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

In the exchange of fire, Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife Shaheena Muddasar and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas on Monday also in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri.

There were over a dozen of ceasefire violation by Pak army along LoC in J&K in which seven people including four jawans were killed and 12 injured in the month of July this year.
In the eye of a storm after lodging of a first information report by the Central Bureau of Investigation against him in the land-for-hotels case, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday attended a

cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Amid the continuing stand off between the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal over the former's demand to explain the alleged acquisition of massive wealth, Deputy CM Yadav went to the CM's chamber after the cabinet meeting.

His minister brother Tej Pratap Yadav and state Congress chief and minister Ashok Choudhary too were present in the CM's room.

It was not clear what transpired in the meeting, which appeared to show that the Grand Alliance of the JD-U, RJD and the Congress is intact.

Amid the mounting tension between the JD-U and the RJD over the the former's demand from the deputy CM to clear his name in public with facts over the CBI allegation in the case and the later saying 'no' to Tejashwi's resignation, there was speculation if he would attend the cabinet meeting at all.

Tejashwi had on Saturday skipped a government function in which he had to share dais with the chief minister.

The deputy CM, however, arrived for the meeting along with Tej Pratap Yadav in the same car.

Earlier, many RJD ministers assembled at the residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and moved together for the cabinet meeting from there in a motorcade.

The mediapersons were barred entry into the secretariat, the venue of the Cabinet meeting, following a scuffle between Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav's securitymen and mediapersons after the last cabinet meet on Wednesday.

The press briefing by Cabinet Coordination Department Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra has also been shifted to the Public Relations Department office at some distance. It is used to be

held at the secretariat itself.

Despite the show of unity, JD-U spokesmen Neeraj Kumar, however, said the coalition dharma is bigger than showing obstinacy.

Another JD-U spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad repeated the party's demand that the accused come clean on accusations on the basis of facts.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance partners on Tuesday stepped up its demand for resignation of Tejashwi.

Senior party leader Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the deputy chief minister has amassed 26 properties at 26 years of age without declaring his sources of income.

"Tejashwi should tell people about his sources of income and how he acquired all these properties," Modi told reporters in Patna.

Attacking Nitish Kumar for failing to take a call on Tejashwi Yadav, Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi said, "He is indulging in nautanki (drama) to hold on to the power anyhow."

Union minister of state for HRD and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Kushwaha said 'Nitish Kumar has lust for chair'.

IMAGE: Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, right, with Health Minister Tej Pratap talking to the media after the party legislators meeting in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo
'When sensitive territory goes into the hands of your enemy. he becomes more powerful in military terms.'

'Assuming the Chinese take over the Doklam Plateau they will not stop at that.'

'They will keep ingressing, and it will be easier for them to further expand their territory.'

'I feel the Chinese will vacate that area in two months after it begins to snow.'

Lieutenant General Dr D B Shekatkar (retd), PVSM, AVSM, AVSM, was in charge of the entire China front in Arunachal Pradesh during the Kargil War.

The general, who served extensively in the North East, also compelled a record number (1,267) of terrorists in Kashmir, trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan to give up terrorism.

General Shekatkar spoke to Rediff.com's Archana Masih on the India-China standoff in the Sikkim sector.

Why a plateau in Bhutan is important for India:

I know the Dokalam area in Bhutan since 1992 where the Chinese are exerting their claim. It is at the tri-junction of Sikkim, Bhutan and China.

It is legally important for us because in mountain warfare, even a 10 feet high ground is of importance.

Over the years, the Chinese came during the grazing season, stayed for a few days with yaks and went away. They used to tell the Bhutanese that this is our area.

For the last two years, the Chinese came in strength and started building roads on the Doklam plateau.

It is also strategically located near the Siliguri corridor. Assuming it is occupied and deployed with guns and heavy armament, it is such a narrow patch that anyone who controls it also controls the entry and exit from the North East.

It can cut off the entire North East.

There are 2 to 3 hydel projects coming up in this area where India has invested heavily. One project is Jaldhaka (on the Indian side of the India-Bhutan border).

The Chinese have entered the Doklam plateau because it overlooks the Chumbi valley which is Chinese territory. This is the military reason why China is keen on the Bhutanese territory.

When sensitive territory goes into the hands of your enemy or adversary, he becomes more powerful in military terms.

Assuming the Chinese take over that area (the Doklam Plateau) they will not stop at that. They will keep ingressing, and it will be easier for them to further expand their territory.

The reason for the current India-China stand-off:

Linked to this is that Bhutan is a small country. It is a sovereign country in our friendly neighbourhood.

If we don't come to their help, who else will?

Pakistan won't, Bangladesh won't, China is already the aggressor. So it becomes India's responsibility to protect our neighbour, especially if its military is not strong.

We don't have any defence treaty with Bhutan, but we have an understanding from the time of the present king's grandfather.

I have had the honour of meeting the present king's father who was the previous king.

Therefore, according to the agreement, there is a small training detachment of the Indian Army to train the Bhutanese forces. It is located at Thimpu and a place called Ha in the Chumbi Valley.

The Indian Army has been in Ha for decades, which is a training establishment.

The Doklam Plateau is at close proximity to this place.

When training the Bhutanese army on operational parameters, the Chinese troops entered the area and because the Indian Army was present there, they were told to go back.

That is how the Indian Army got involved and China claims that Indian Army has entered the Doklam area.

The Chinese in the past come and go, but this time the Chinese were trying to bulldoze their way through the Bhutanese army into the Doklam Plateau.

On China asking the Indian Army to withdraw and India's refusal to stand down:

China has no business to tell the Indian Army to withdraw because that is Bhutanese territory.

If at all, somebody should ask the Indian Army to vacate, it is Bhutan.

The Chinese are telling the world that the Indian Army has ingressed into their area.

The Indian Army should stand firm.

I feel the Chinese will vacate that area in two months after it begins to snow.

In Kargil also, both the Indian Army and Pakistan army used to withdraw, but in 1999, we found they did not, which led to the Kargil War.

This time, I don't think the Bhutanese army will vacate that area lest the Chinese continue to stay on even during the winter.

Then there will be open war. Therefore, the Bhutanese army will now have to stay there.

The Indian Army should continue to remain there to support the Bhutanese army.

The Indian army will not fight anybody else's war, but they should be there and be prepared.

Once the Chinese retreat, India will also go back and leave the area for Bhutan.

The Indian Army can be positioned 3 km or so behind the Bhutanese army on the Doklam Plateau.

On the Chinese stance in the present tension:

As per Chinese strategy they will continue to harp that this area belongs to them.

According to the 1890 and 1914 treaty that area doesn't belong to them.

They will try and show that the Indian Army has ingressed into their territory.

The Indian Army cannot ingress into China through another country.

If the army had crossed over from Sikkim it would have been a totally different thing, so that stand doesn't hold good.

Why India needs to build world opinion on China:

As strategic framework, India should now build world opinion on China on the following issues:

1. China is the only nation in the world which officially protects two rogue nations -- Pakistan and North Korea.

When a member of the United Nations Security Council protects two rougue nations does it qualify to be a member?

Should not the world body take up this issue in the UN General Assembly to remove China from membership of the Security Council and take away its veto power?

2. China's military strength is based on its economic strength.

Economic strength depends on industrial strength. If China's economy is affected, its military will get impacted.

We should not sustain the Chinese economy and look at it as economic warfare.

3. India should engage China on the seas so that China's influence does not increase in the South China Sea.

Our strategy should be to engage with the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan.

India should be able to engage China in the Indian Ocean ring, starting from the Straits of Malacca to the Straits of Hormuz -- Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Gwadar.

India should take world leaders into confidence and engage China. That should be the grand strategy.

India should let it be known to China that they have been helping terrorists operating in India -- the Naxalites, insurgents in the North East.

If India does even 2% of what the Chinese are doing, they will not know how to handle the Tibetans and the people in Xinjiang.

The Indian Army is not the same army as it was in the 1962 War:

We paid them back in 1967 when the Chinese suffered great casualties in the same Sikkim sector.

We had to be tough against China in 1987 in the Tawang area.

India is well aware that we are not the same India of 1962 and China is also aware of that.

India should remind the world that does China have any neighbouring country as a friend?

Even North Korea, which is a rogue State, I don't know if the Chinese treat them as a friend. I am sure they treat them as a slave.

I don't think the Chinese will make the mistake of calling Pakistan a reliable friend.

Instead of harping on China's strengths, let us start identifying its weakness.

No country has resolved land border disputes with China on its own terms. They all had to agree to the Chinese terms including Russia.
'He was wearing military fatigues. He was tall. But I could not see much.'

'When the terrorist tried to enter, I kicked the door and closed it.'

Mukesh Vitthalbhai Patel, the cleaner on the bus that was attacked in Kashmir on July 10, expresses his anger to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.

Photograph and video: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com

IMAGE: Mukesh Vitthalbhai Patel was undergoing treatment at Kasturba Hospital, Valsad, when Rediff.com's correspondents visited July 12.

What happened when you started from Srinagar on July 10?

About 5 km from Srinagar our bus had a puncture. We stopped at a mechanic's who repaired the puncture in the tyre.

When the driver was fitting the tyre on the bus, our owner told him to double check if everything was alright. But he did not check and fitted the tyre.

Later when he began to check the tyre pressure we discovered that air was leaking again because of the problem in the tube valve.

He then removed the tyre and repaired the valve leakage. Because of this we wasted almost two hours at the mechanic's shop instead of one.

An hour-and-a-half or so after we left the mechanic's shop we were attacked by the terrorists.

What did you do when you heard the sound of firing?

Even I did not know that bullets were being fired.

When my owner's son (Harsh Desai) was hit by a bullet he warned us it wasn't firecrackers, but bullets.

Then another round hit the windshield because of which nothing could be seen in front of the bus.

Harsh then immediately asked me to shut the door.

As soon as I went towards the door, one man (a terrorist) tried to enter the bus.

The bus wasn't moving at high speed.

When he tried to enter, I kicked the door and closed it.

Harsh then asked (the driver) Salim to drive speedily and not to stop anywhere except at an army camp.

Did the terrorist not try to shoot you?

I did not get a chance to see that. He was almost in front of me trying to board the bus.

How did he look?

He was wearing military fatigues. He was tall. But I could not see much.

Was it very dark?

It wasn't too dark. It must have been 7.45, 8 pm.

When did you realise you too were hit?

When we went to the army camp... I did not know that I was hit.

Blood was oozing through my cheeks... ek dum khoon se latpat...

Then I realised I was hit and was taken to the hospital and doctors stitched the wound.

How was Harsh doing at that time? Was he conscious?

Yes, he was conscious. He too was getting stitched.

We were all conscious when we reached the army camp.

All those injured were taken care of and others were given good facilities to rest.

Those critical were shifted to hospital.

Where was Harsh when firing began?

He was in front of me.

Who was sitting in the front?

We were four people in the front.

My owner Harsh, driver (Salim), the caterer (Yogesh Prajapati, who is actually the tour manager) and I.

Where did the firing start from?

Two bullets were fired from the front first and then as the bus moved...

The bullet did not hit the driver?

It was our good fortune that the driver was not hit.

If that had happened, then that terrorist would have entered the bus and would have fired more.

Nobody would have been left alive?

Koi nahi bachta.

You are very sure that one terrorist was trying to enter the bus, but you closed the door?

Yes. He must have had a gun for there was more firing on the right side as the bus moved at speed.

There were three people... perfect (exactly) three people... judgement ek dum (that's my confirmed judgement)...

The firing continued as the bus moved along and so those sitting on the back seats were killed.

What would be your message for the terrorists?

I will rip them apart if they come before me.

If you have the guts, come out in the open and fire.

Why take advantage of darkness and attack?

Fight openly if you have to!

Why are you killing old people?
Indrani looked cheerful and upbeat and announced she had quite recovered from her wounds...

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Noah Cbina John and I spent much of the day together inside and outside Courtroom 51 of south Mumbai's sessions court.

He is from Africa. Perhaps Nigeria. He's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances case 100083 from 2013. His was the first matter of the day.

Noah, wearing a maroon shirt, dark trousers and a winning smile, got off the 11.15 am jail bus, probably from the Taloja prison on the outskirts of Mumbai, with an assortment of other male prisoners.

The variety was startling on Monday, July 17 -- a few swamis clad in saffron/white, jhap beads and elaborate tikkas (Malegaon Blast case); some long white bearded, skull-capped folks, youngsters in jeans and tees; two disabled men, one hobbling on a crutch; and a clutch of well-heeled sorts.

As I bumped into Noah, and his one sometimes two-man police escort, multiple times during the day, we exchanged tentative smiles and I mulled over who was more at sea in this setting.

He, with probably no English, but now a few words of Marathi, and a hang of the Indian lavatory sign language?

Or me?

Likely me. Six months has not enhanced my court IQ, or understanding of Indian legal procedure a whit, as I puzzled where everyone was today. For three hours the only person I had seen in the vicinity of Courtroom 51 was Noah.

The Sheena Bora murder case was scheduled for a late afternoon hearing and Judge J C Jagdale was in his seat from the morning. But nothing happened on Monday, in the pattern it has happened before, or like it did at the last hearing.

The accused -- Sanjeev Khanna, Peter Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea -- were not bussed in at the usual morning hour. Past 2 pm they still hadn't shown up. Nor a single lawyer or any member of the CBI team.

The corridors were quiet and unpopulated, as the warm monsoon rain cascaded down outside, with rivulets of water often trickling ominously towards you down the benches.

The only other seating was a broken-down chair, its back tipping drunkenly sideways. The silence was broken momentarily when the court kitten came yowling loudly along, peeped her head into the courtroom, and then the judge's chamber, before strolling off along the dripping eaves.

Had I got the day wrong? No, the matter was up on the noticeboard.

And Sanjeev's photographer cousin Nikhil Kapur, with his knapsack of paperback thrillers for Sanjeev, and Peter's friend, with a thermos of garam chai, were waiting too, for hours like me and Noah.

Noah was being taken on walks by his escort. Sometimes downstairs. Sometimes for a spin in the corridor. Or else he was parked back on a bench inside. None of it was to his wishes, it seemed.

Just before 2.30 pm, Peter's senior lawyer Shrikant Shivade arrived. He too killed time, perching himself on a high table outside, swinging his feet, as he chatted with junior lawyers outside the courtroom. CBI officer K K Singh then arrived with his colleague.

At 2.30 pm Peter, Sanjeev and Indrani all finally showed up together, at the entryway of the new sessions court building, escorted by ten policeman/women.

Together with their escorts they made an unlikely configuration.

Indrani was in a black kurta and beige salwar outfit, clutching a red plastic bag.

Sanjeev, crisp and business-like in a long-sleeved, blue-checked shirt and black pants, and she came up six flights of stairs, trailed by the platoon of khaki.

Indrani looked cheerful and upbeat and announced she had quite recovered from her wounds.

Peter, on the other hand, for unknown reasons, was taken in the rickety, noisy lift, that orders 'Close the door' every two seconds in a loud staccato.

The three sat for a while outside talking individually to their lawyers and poring over legal documents.

The fragile detente between Peter and Indrani seems to be continuing with Indrani at one point going across to him to tell him that his lawyer was there. "Peter is not talking to his lawyer. I am," she said with an infectious grin.

Their police protection swelled to 15. One of the policewomen, with them, carried a not very mean-looking rifle, whose barrel was wrapped with a blue plastic bag, in protection against the monsoon.

Would it then be able to fire bullets? Did she know how to wield it?

When their matter came up, they were summoned in, this time Peter, Sanjeev and Indrani were not taken to the formal accused enclosure at the back. Instead they sat in the rows of seating behind the lawyers' bench, with their police escort.

Maybe after Peter's request to be seated towards the front, so he could hear the trial, Judge Jagdale had relented. Or maybe Monday was a different day legally speaking.

Noah C John sat in the accused enclosure, throughout the proceedings, an amiable, calm smile playing on his face.

The business of Monday's hearing focused on legal procedure and etiquette.

No witnesses were brought in. The witness box, up front, remained empty.

No new material was unveiled. Nor could I figure out why Noah was a bystander at the day's events.

Flashback: At the last, and technically second day, of the actual trial, witness Ganesh Dalvi, a police constable posted at the Khar police station, north west Mumbai, concluded his testimony, minus the parts that were not legally admissible, on his interactions with Shyamvar Rai, the Mukerjeas' driver, who has turned approver in the case.

The defence, for Accused One, Two and Three -- which is in the hands of trial lawyers Sudeep Pasbola, Niranjan Mundargi and Shrikant Shivade (of Salman Khan case fame), respectively, assisted by Gunjan Mangla, Ayaz Khan (of Fardeen Khan trial fame) and Shreyansh Mithare -- declined to cross examine the witness.

They announced then that they reserved the right to do so later, after hearing Rai's testimony and the deposition of others.

Perhaps the lawyers were prepared -- in advance -- that the CBI counsel would hit back on that last point, in this hearing, because the arguments were all well prepared and subsequently smoothly maneuvered on both sides.

CBI advocate Kavita Patil, statuesque in a starched grey sari, with a floral gold and black border, stood up to say that the defence needed to cross examine Ganesh Dalvi now, or forfeit their right to examine later.

Shivade, who has an elegant but tactically reasonable manner of arguing, slowly rose to his feet.

He is a tall, dignified man, with a neat moustache. He methodically and gently placed his legal reasoning before the judge, in a quiet voice, buttressing it with key segments from Section 231 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Section 135 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872 (these sections back up his argument lawfully).

He voiced how there was usually a natural order and decorum to how witnesses are produced in a criminal case and indirectly chided the CBI counsel for starting off a murder trial with the testimony of an "investigating officer."

"Normally it is up to the discretion of the prosecution to (decide) the order of examination (of the witnesses)," Shivade said. But he said Section 135 suggested the progression should not be "an arbitrary order."

Shivade pointed out that it was puzzling that though there had been two chargesheets for Shyamvar Rai --one under the Arms Act for possessing an unlicensed pistol and one for murder -- the CBI had chosen to launch just one investigation.

The lawyer didn't dwell there much further but said that if they cross examined Dalvi, before hearing Rai, they would have still more questions for Dalvi later, after hearing Rai.

What's more their defence strategy might be prematurely revealed or compromised.

"My prayer is that we defer the examination of Dalvi till Shyamvar Rai testifies," was Shivade's plea.

Second CBI counsel, silver-haired Bharat Badami, whose style of argument verges on the theatrical, emphasising his points in a voice that works its way up to a crescendo, as he gets louder and angrier, spoke about how if there are any "contradictions and omissions" the defence can claim a chance to examine Dalvi later and why waste time.

Badami and Kavita Patil spoke about how an out-of-order cross examination might confuse the witness.

To which Shivade replied that Dalvi had credentials that showed him up as "a seasoned officer" not likely to be befuddled or boggled by a later-date cross examination.

Peter's defence lawyer was at pains to point out that in the interest of a "fair trial" and "to protect the fairness of the defence of the accused," and because the order of the witnesses was left up to "the discretion of the prosecution," the defence needed their appropriate time with Dalvi when they requested it.

And so the legal skirmishes went to and fro -- palavers between veteran attorneys.

Monday afternoon's hearing was all about lawyerly showmanship. And one-upmanship.

Mock emotions. Stylish verbal sparring.

Each advocate showing their best thrust and parry technique.

Indrani's sharp eyes roamed the court, between taking in the arguments and, as is habitual for her, conveyed her assessment and comments to Sanjeev at intervals.

Peter craned forward, making sure he caught every nuance, taking notes at points.

Khan, a lawyer for Accused One (Indrani) said, that while he agreed entirely with what Peter's counsel had stated, he had something vital to add.

He pointed out, in a booming voice, that got heads swiveling, that the prosecution's order of witnesses had "room for improvement."

It was his polite turn of phrase for saying it was defective, especially since first witness Dalvi caught Rai in possession of an illegal firearm and had promptly concluded him also responsible for the murder of Sheena Bora too -- this all said in the testimony of the first witness heard by the court.

Judge Jagdale heard each lawyer with rapt attention, leaning forward in his chair, at times, requesting more convincing, this way or that, from each of them -- "argue it for me."

At the end, the judge said, "I will give an order."

He then, in hushed tones, worked with the court stenographer to record a summary of the statements and construct an order.

It is interesting to note that while much of the business of the court under Judge Jagdale's recent predecessor Judge H S Mahajan, was conducted in Hindi or Marathi, it had now effortlessly shifted to mostly English.

After fifteen minutes Judge Jagdale addressed the court: "Allowed."

Badami's face fell. In an exaggerated crestfallen tone, he mournfully concluded, "We will now apply our minds on how to proceed."

The defence lawyers smiled, at which he took pretend umbrage that they were laughing at him. Later when Shivade was leaving the courtroom he playfully ribbed Badami once more.

Proceedings wound up with some disagreements on the next date. July 28 morning was settled on, although Shivade said he had to be in the Bhiwandi court, north of Mumbai, for a case and would come late.

Given that Bhiwandi is 50 km away and courts open beyond 10.30 am, well into traffic hour, I wondered how it would remain a morning matter

Shivade and Peter approached the judge requesting a Khar police thana diary and the matter would come up in court on July 25.

Half an hour after the hearing was over, Accused Two and Three departed after several rounds of chai.

Indrani was the last to leave, braving the hammering rain with her escorts under a series of bobbing red and blue umbrellas that wound their way to the jail van.

EARLIER IN THE TRIAL
A senior politician Naidu respected once tried to convince the firebrand student leader to quit the Jana Sangh, seen as a party that derided non-vegetarianism. Archis Mohan reports.

IMAGE: NDA's vice-presidential nominee Venkaiah Naidu on his way to attend nomination filing procession at Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI Photo

In the 1970s, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu -- who was on Monday declared the National Democratic Alliances vice-presidential candidate -- was a rare personality in Andhra Pradesh politics.

In South India, Naidu was a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the earlier avatar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was perceived as primarily being a north India-based, a Brahmin-Baniya party with no rural roots and one that talked of Hindis superiority over other regional languages.

But most of all, the Jana Sangh was seen as a party that derided non-vegetarianism.

When a senior politician he respected tried to convince the firebrand student leader to quit the Jana Sangh, Naidu checked with his Sangh Parivar mentor. He was told vegetarianism, as practised in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates, was primarily utilitarian, as it was cheaper.

The Sangh Parivar then had shoestring budgets and preparing for non-vegetarians meant cooking additional dishes for vegetarians.

With his doubts allayed, Naidu stuck with the Jana Sangh.

He had been a swayamsevak in his younger days. He was a student leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS student wing, and was imprisoned during the Emergency years.

In 1978, Naidu was elected a Janata Party legislator. He joined the BJP when it was founded in April 1980; and become its youngest national president in 2002, at 52.

I couldnt believe when I sat on the dais between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani. I had grown up idolising the two and there was a time when I would put up their posters on walls, Naidu had recently said.

He never got tired of pointing out that he, son of a humble farmer, could rise to such a level only in the BJP, a party that practised internal democracy.

Naidu, a four-term Rajya Sabha member, was the rural development minister in the Vajpayee government. He became the parliamentary affairs minister in the first two years of the Modi government, before being moved to the information and broadcasting portfolio, continuing to keep the urban development portfolio.

Nearly 40 years of legislative experience, and friendships with leaders of all hues, should help Naidu, when elected as vice-president, conduct Rajya Sabha proceedings smoothly.

The BJP-led NDA is in a minority in the Upper House and unlikely to cross the halfway mark until 2022.

Naidu considers the loyalty to his party the leitmotif of his political career.

He was raised by relatives because a buffalo had gored his mother to death when he was barely 18 months old. He says he considered his party his mother and devoted his waking hours to party work. He has a son and a daughter and several grandchildren.

But neither of his children is in politics because they made a pact that the children would stay away from politics as long as he was active in it. So rare were his visits to home as party president that one of his grandchildren would refer to him as TV dada; she got to see him more often on television.

Naidus organisational skills were noticed when he came to New Delhi in the early-1990s as its general secretary.

There was a time when Naidu and others would campaign against technology and machines. Automation, anti-nation was the slogan.

But political parties and ideologies have to be dynamic and respond to the times, Naidu would often say later, pointing to how his Marxist friends have failed to adapt.
Estonian English

AS LHV Group earned a consolidated profit of EUR 4.9 million in Q2 of 2017. The bank earned a profit of EUR 3.4 million, asset managements profit amounted to 1.6 million and the Lithuanian business unit Mokilizingas earned EUR 0.2 million. LHV Group's return on equity was 16.4% in Q2.

The groups profit was EUR 0.2 million lower than in Q1 and equaled the profit earned a year ago in Q2 of 2016. The groups consolidated loan portfolio grew by EUR 60 million (+11%; +EUR 8 million in Q1) and reached EUR 606 million. The consolidated deposits grew by a record EUR 210 million (+26%; +EUR 22 million in Q4) reaching EUR 1,008 million. During the quarter the volume of funds managed by LHV rose by EUR 14 million (+1%; EUR 46 million in Q4) and reached EUR 1,035 million. In Q2, the cost of the discount of loans was EUR 1.8 million (EUR 0.1 million in Q1), having been impacted by the discount of two clients in the sum of EUR 1.4 million.

AS LHV Group posted a consolidated profit of EUR 9.9 million for the first half-year of 2017. The bank earned a profit of EUR 7.6 million, asset management EUR 2.3 million and the Lithuanian business unit EUR 0.5 million. The half-year profit constitutes an EUR 1.6 million increase from last year

According to Madis Toomsalu, CEO of LHV Group, LHV was moving forward in a solid pace in the second quarter:

"Were pleased to see, that the number of the banks clients grew by around 5,000 during the quarter and the loan portfolio by EUR 59 million. Among the loans, loans to businesses grew the most. Client deposits surpassed EUR 1 billion, that includes the deposits of non-residents. This mainly includes financial technology enterprises, as the provision of services to them is a new business direction for LHV. At the same time, new records were achieved in the clients payment activity, card transactions and acquiring.

In the second half of the quarter, the bank submitted the documents required to open a branch in the United Kingdom to the Financial Supervision Authority, made an agreement on the site of the office in London and joined UK Finance. Developments regarding UK have been as expected.

The results of Q2 include loan discounts that are larger than usual. We are still in a strong credit cycle which, while decreasing the credit loss risk on the level of the portfolio, does not preclude a deterioration of solvency by specific clients. As for the budget, the discounts were in an expected amount.

As for other events of Q2, the launch of video identification can be highlighted. In addition to video identification, in order to improve user-friendliness, we adopted the Smart-ID authentication solution, expanded the network of ATMs to Rakvere and Viljandi and developed a chat robot on LHVs Facebook channel. The new salary payment solution, created in cooperation with the Tax and Customs Board, earnt this years innovation award of the Estonian Banking Association.

In order to sustain the growth that exceeds the financial plan, LHV Pank plans to increase their capital by EUR 3 million in July, involving the respective sum from LHV Group. This is the groups internal transaction and does not impact the groups own resources.

LHVs pension funds continued investments related to Estonia. In the first half-year as a whole, pension funds have already made investment decisions related to Estonia amounting to EUR 100 million. As the prices of internationally traded securities are high and the trading volumes of the Tallinn stock exchange are modest, we have started to develop the local capital market ourselves, looking for new investment opportunities. The objective of LHVs pension funds is to help the local enterprises grow, while we hope to earn a profit for the clients of our pension funds from this growth.

The profit of Mokilizingas in Q2 was EUR 0.2 million. The financing portfolio increased by EUR 0.3 million over the quarter and reached EUR 34 million by the end of the quarter. The portfolios credit quality remains stable.

LHVs outlook for the current year is good. We are aiming for growth in all our business directions. LHVs strong basic trends are also supported by the Estonian economic situation, which, according to the latest figures, is improving.

The credit market has remained strong, with its characteristic figures being an increase of loan volumes on the market and the low level of debt. There are also signs of the higher pricing of credit and an increase of the number of enterprises involved in debt.

Concluding six-month results, we have surpassed the financial plan published in February 2017 by EUR 1 million and are not currently going to change the estimated profit of EUR 21.8 million. In the medium term, we can grow with the overall market growth, but we also see an opportunity for increasing our market share by offering new and modern financial services. The cornerstone of LHVs strategy is quality growth."

Income statement, EUR t Q2-2017 Q1-2017 6 months 2017 6 months 2016 Net interest income 8 607 8 164 16 771 14 018 Net fee and commission income 5 213 5 285 10 498 7 962 Net gains from financial assets 930 396 1 326 1 345 Other income -84 -23 -108 113 Total revenue 14 665 13 822 28 487 23 438 Staff costs -3 621 -3 590 -7 211 -6 729 Office rent and expenses -374 -437 -811 -758 IT expenses -438 -416 -854 -866 Marketing expenses -1 118 -1 107 -2 224 -1 841 Other operating expenses -2 376 -2 145 -4 521 -3 734 Total operating expenses -7 926 -7 695 -15 622 -13 929 EBIT 6 739 6 127 12 866 9 509 Earnings before impairment losses 6 739 6 127 12 866 9 509 Impairment losses on loans and advances -1 839 -94 -1 933 -997 Income tax -21 -983 -1 004 -146 Net profit for the reporting period from continued operations 4 878 5 050 9 929 8 367 Profit/-loss from discontinued operations 0 0 0 0 Net profit 4 878 5 050 9 929 8 367 Profit attributable to non-controlling interest 458 581 1 039 793 Profit attributable to share holders of the parent 4 420 4 469 8 890 7 574

Balance sheet, EURt June 2017 March 2017 June 2016 Cash and cash equivalents 488 630 348 474 236 395 Financial assets 60 676 68 609 103 936 Loans granted 613 366 551 233 474 452 Loan impairments -7 314 -5 571 -5 152 Receivables from customers 4 352 2 587 2 022 Other assets 11 551 11 952 11 529 Total assets 1 171 261 977 284 823 181 Demand deposits 868 348 668 350 482 075 Term deposits 139 706 129 863 189 928 Loans received 190 90 914 Loans received and deposits from customers 1 008 244 798 303 672 918 Other liabilities 17 749 35 081 23 521 Subordinated loans 30 900 30 900 30 900 Total liabilities 1 056 893 864 284 727 339 Equity 114 368 113 000 95 842 Minority interest 6 358 5 900 4 034 Total liabilities and equity 1 171 261 977 284 823 181

Reports of AS LHV Group are available at https://investor.lhv.ee/en/reports/.

To present the results in interim report LHV will hold an investor meeting, that will take place on 18 July 2017 6.00 p.m. in LHV Tallinn client office (Tartu mnt 2, CityPlaza building, 1st floor). The presentation will be made in Estonian. All participants please register at https://fp.lhv.ee/academy/463.

LHV Group is the largest domestic financial group and capital provider in Estonia. LHV Group's key subsidiaries are AS LHV Pank and AS LHV Varahaldus. LHV employs about 350 people and over 123,000 customers use LHVs banking services. Pension funds managed by LHV have about 175,000 customers.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copper Fox Metals Inc. (Copper Fox or the Company) (TSX-V:CUU) (OTC:CPFXF) is pleased to announce that the decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia related to the judicial review in which petitioners had challenged a decision of the Chief Gold Commissioner (the CGC) for the province of British Columbia in respect of Carmax Mining Corp.s (Carmax) (TSX-V:CXM) Eaglehead Project has been received.



By way of background to the courts decision, on June 14, 2016 Carmax received notice that certain parties had filed a Petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the CGC requesting a judicial review of the CGCs decision to reinstate Carmaxs mineral claim #1034634. The decision of the CGC was issued on April 22, 2016.

Copper Fox advises that the judicial review described in a number of news releases made by Carmax and in Copper Foxs quarterly and annual MD&A disclosures was heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on January 24, 2017. Neither Copper Fox nor Carmax were a party to the proceedings.

On July 17, 2017, the Supreme Court issued its oral reasons for judgment on the Petitioners challenge. The Supreme Court dismissed the Petition, including the Petitioners request for an order setting aside the CGCs decision.

The petitioners have 30 days to file an appeal from the courts decision to the British Columbia Court of Appeal.

Copper Fox, through its wholly owned subsidiary Northern Fox Copper Inc., owns 65.4% of the issued shares of Carmax Mining Corp.

About Copper Fox

Copper Fox is a Tier 1 Canadian resource company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V:CUU) focused on copper exploration and development in Canada and the United States. The principal assets of Copper Fox and its wholly owned Canadian and United States subsidiaries, being Northern Fox Copper Inc. and Desert Fox Copper Inc., are the 25% interest in the Schaft Creek Joint Venture with Teck Resources Limited on the Schaft Creek copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project located in northwestern British Columbia and a 100% ownership of the Van Dyke oxide copper project located in Miami, Arizona. For more information on Copper Foxs other mineral properties and investments visit the Companys website at http://www.copperfoxmetals.com .

For additional information contact: Investor line 1-844-484-2820 or Lynn Ball, at 1-403-264-2820.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Elmer B. Stewart

President and Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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.
Jailing of activists, including Amnesty director, a crushing blow for rights in Turkey

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 18 July 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Jailing of activists, including Amnesty director, a crushing blow for rights in Turkey, 18 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e06384.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

The remanding of six human rights defenders in pre-trial custody is an appalling affront to justice and a new low in Turkey's post-coup crackdown, said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International Turkey's Director, Idil Eser, who was among those remanded in custody, was detained alongside nine others on 5 July whilst attending a routine workshop. Four of them have now been released on bail but are still facing investigation. All 10 are suspected, without grounds, of 'committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member'. The six who were remanded in custody join Amnesty International Turkey's Chair, Taner Kilic, behind bars.

"Turkish prosecutors have had 12 days to establish the obvious: that these activists are innocent. The decision to proceed shows that truth and justice have become total strangers in Turkey," said Amnesty International's Secretary General, Salil Shetty.

"This is not a legitimate prosecution, this is a politically motivated persecution that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey."

The bizarre accusations include attempts to link Idil Eser with three unrelated and opposing terrorist organisations through her work with Amnesty International. The prosecutors request that she be remanded in pre-trial prison custody references two Amnesty International campaigns, neither of which were authored by Amnesty Turkey, one of which was conducted before she joined the organisation.

An accusation levelled against Ilknur Ustun of the Women's Coalition, who was released on bail, is that she requested funding from "an embassy" to support a project on "gender equality, participation in policy making and reporting." "Today we have learnt that standing up for human rights has become a crime in Turkey. This is a moment of truth, for Turkey and for the international community," said Salil Shetty.

"Leaders around the world must stop biting their tongues and acting as if they can continue business as usual. They must bring pressure to bear on Turkish authorities to drop these spurious charges and to immediately and unconditionally release the rights defenders."

BACKGROUND

The six jailed human rights defenders are Idil Eser (Amnesty International), Gunal Kursun (Human Rights Agenda Association), Ozlem Dalkran (Citizens' Assembly), Veli Acu (Human Rights Agenda Association) Ali Gharavi (IT strategy consultant) and Peter Steudtner (non-violence and wellbeing trainer).

The four human rights defenders who were released on bail are Ilknur Ustun (Women's Coalition), Seyhmus Ozbekli (Rights Initiative), Nejat Tastan (Equal Rights Watch Association) and Nalan Erkem,(Citizens Assembly).



Taner Kilic was detained on 6 June. He was charged three days later with "membership of the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization" and remanded in pre-trial detention. Taner Kilic has served on the board of Amnesty International Turkey for various periods since 2002 and has been Chair since 2014. During his decades of work for human rights organizations in Turkey he has consistently demonstrated an unswerving commitment to human rights.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Colombia: Amicus Curiae regarding the Special Jurisdiction for Peace

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 17 July 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Colombia: Amicus Curiae regarding the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, 17 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e07db4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

Human Rights Watch filed the following amicus curiae to the Colombian Constitutional Court regarding Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017, which created the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a judicial system negotiated with the FARC as part of the talks that resulted in a peace agreement in November 2016 after more than 52 years of conflict.

Honorable Justice Luis Guillermo Guerrero

Colombian Constitutional Court

Palace of Justice

Bogota, D.C. - COLOMBIA

Case: RPZ-003

Subject: Human Rights Watch Amicus curiae on Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017



Jose Miguel Vivanco, on behalf of Human Rights Watch, located at 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor, New York, United States, presents this amicus brief to the Honorable Constitutional Court of Colombia in case RPZ-003 concerning Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017. For that purpose, we respectfully state:

Purpose and Summary of this Submission

Human Rights Watch respectfully requests that the Colombian Constitutional Court accept this submission for its consideration of the international legal arguments that are relevant to its assessment of Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017.

While applauding the peace process between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, Human Rights Watch has repeatedly raised concerns regarding shortcomings in the accord that could undermine justice for war crimes and asked authorities

to address these flaws in the legislation implementing the accord. Unfortunately, two key flaws were included in Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017: (1) an overly broad provision on political participation for FARC guerrillas; and (2) an indefensibly rigid definition of "command responsibility" for members of the armed forces that could impede efforts to secure accountability.

Political participation for FARC guerrillas

Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017 allows FARC war criminals to run and hold public office while serving their sentences. Under article 20, "the imposition of any sanction in the [Special Jurisdiction] will not bar [anyone] from political participation nor will it limit any right, active or passive, of political participation."[1]

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly expressed concern that this language in the peace accords allows those responsible for grave abuses to run or hold public office even while serving their sentence.[2] While we share that a fundamental aim of the peace process is to allow the FARC to pursue their political objectives within the democratic arena, such participation in politics could seriously undermine the sanctions imposed by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace

To avoid this result, Human Rights Watch requests this Honorable court to determine that the political participation of an individual held criminally responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave human rights abuses is subject to full and unconditional implementation of the sanctions issued against them by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

Command responsibility for officers within the Colombian armed forces

As explained below, the command responsibility definition in article 24 of Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017 departs from the definition under international law in ways that could thwart efforts to hold military commanders accountable to the extent international law requires.[3]

Command responsibility is not a form of strict liability

Under article 24, "command responsibility cannot be based exclusively on the rank, hierarchy, or competence" of a military officer. As a preliminary matter, we note that such language is consistent with the definition of command responsibility under international humanitarian law, which is clearly not based on strict liability- a form of liability under civil law that arises even the damage is caused without fault.[4] For example, in the Kordic and Cerkez case the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) noted that:

It should be emphasized that the doctrine of command responsibility does not hold a superior responsible merely because he is in a position of authority as, for a superior to be held liable, it is necessary to prove that he 'knew or had reason to know' of the offences and failed to act to prevent or punish their occurrence. Superior responsibility, which is a type of imputed responsibility, is therefore not a form of strict liability.[5]

Standard of knowledge

Under article 24, prosecutors must prove that commanders had "knowledge based on the information at their disposal before, during and after the commission of the respective conduct," as well as "actual or updatable knowledge of the commission of these crimes." Such language could be interpreted in a manner that is inconsistent with the standard of knowledge under international law.

The standard of knowledge to hold commanders criminally responsible under international humanitarian law is if they knew or had reason to know and should have known about the crimes. This means, as the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY noted in the "Celibici" case that the superior can be responsible if "information was available to him which would have put him on notice of offences committed by subordinates."[6] The availability of such information can be proven through a range of indicia, including, amongst others, the tactical situation, the level of training and instruction of subordinate officers and their troops, the number, type, and scope of the abuses, as well as the logistics involved, and the modus operandi of the crimes.[7] Additionally, the "had reason to know" standard requires only general information about the possibility of crimes, not specific knowledge about discrete incidents.[8]

The standard of knowledge under international law may also encompass criminal liability for commanders who fail to remain informed of the crimes committed by their subordinates. While other international criminal tribunals have limited constructive knowledge to a more restricted standard of knowledge, judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have expressed the view that, at least under the "should have known" standard in the Rome Statute, military commanders could face criminal liability if they fail to remain informed about their subordinates' crimes.[9] The ICC pre-trial chamber noted in Bemba that "the 'should have known' standard requires more of an active duty on the part of the superior to take the necessary measures to secure knowledge of the conduct of his troops and to inquire, regardless of the availability of information at the time on the commission of the crime."[10]

Effective control standard

Under the "command responsibility" definition in Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017, prosecutors must prove "effective control over the respective conduct" through a range of "concurring" criteria.

However, under international law, command responsibility arises when commanders have effective control over the troops responsible for the crimes, not over the criminal conduct itself. In their case-law, the ICC and other international tribunals have defined "effective control" as the commander's material ability to prevent or repress the commission of the criminal conduct or to submit the matter to competent authorities afterwards.[11]

While the criteria included in article 24 are similar to some of the evidentiary elements included in case-law of international courts, under international law these criteria are merely indicative, and are only some of a broad range of indicators of effective control, with proof of effective control largely case specific.[12] For example, in the Bemba case, the trial chamber of the International Criminal Court noted that these factors, and others, "may indicate" the existence of effective control.[13] Similarly, international tribunal case-law describes these factors as mere "indicators," while noting that these are "more a matter of evidence than of substantive law, and  are limited to showing that the accused had the power to prevent, punish, or initiate measures leading to proceedings against the alleged perpetrators where appropriate."[14]

In addition, case-law of international courts has clarified that some of the factors included in article 24 are not decisive factors for the purposes of command responsibility. In particular, under international law whether or not a commander enjoys de jure authority is not determinative to establish criminal liability on the basis of command responsibility. So, while under article 24 commanders would bear criminal responsibility only if the crimes were committed "within the area of responsibility assigned to the unit under his command", the ICC Prosecutor has noted that the ICC in the Bemba case did not treat this as a requirement of international law. Indeed, the court ruled that Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Democratic Republic of Congo bears criminal responsibility for crimes committed by troops operating in the Central African Republic [15]

Similarly, international law does not require, unlike article 24, that the commander have "legal and material ability to give orders, modify them, and enforce them" (emphasis added). Specifically, if the evidence establishes that the commander, in practice, had material ability to effectively control forces, it is not essential that he or she also had formal legal authority. For example, in the "Celebici" case, the ICTY convicted defendant Zdravko Mucic, who lacked legal authority to give orders in the Celebici detention camp, but had de facto authority. The Court noted that:

The Appeals Chamber considers that the ability to exercise effective control is necessary for the establishment of de facto command or superior responsibility and thus agrees with the Trial Chamber that the absence of formal appointment is not fatal to a finding of criminal responsibility, provided certain conditions are met. Mucic's argument that de facto status must be equivalent to de jure status for the purposes of superior responsibility is misplaced. Although the degree of control wielded by a de jure or de facto superior may take different forms, a de facto superior must be found to wield substantially similar powers of control over subordinates to be held criminally responsible for their acts.[16]

Human Rights Watch respectfully requests this court to determine that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace should apply the well-established definition of command responsibility under international law to military officers investigated for their role on war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Petition

For the abovementioned reasons, we ask this Honorable Court to:

Accept Human Rights Watch as a Friend of the Court in this case, and Take into account the legal arguments and international standards presented in this brief when evaluating Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017.

Jose Miguel Vivanco

Human Rights Watch

[1] "Acto Legislativo 1 del 4 de abril de 2017 por medio del cual se crea un titulo de disposiciones transitorias de la Constitucion para la terminacion del conflicto armado y la construccion de una paz estable y duradera y se dictan otras disposiciones" [Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017], April 4, 2017, http://es.presidencia.gov.co/normativa/normativa/ACTO%20LEGISLATIVO%20N%C2%B0%2001%20DE%204%20DE%20ABRIL%20DE%202017.pdf, art. 20.

[2] Human Rights Watch, "Analysis of Colombia-FARC Agreement," December 21, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/21/human-rights-watch-analysis-colombia-farc-agreement; Human Rights Watch, "Letter to President Santos on the new peace agreement with the FARC," November 23, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/23/letter-president-santos-new-peace-agreement-farc. See also Human Rights Watch, "Letter to President Santos on Future of Peace Process," October 6, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/10/06/letter-president-santos-future-peace-process

[3] Constitutional Amendment 1 of 2017, art. 24. See Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), arts. 86-87; Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia Since 1991 (ICTY Statute), art. 7(3); Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR Statute), art. 6(3); Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL Statute), art. 6(3); Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute), art. 28.

[4] See, e.g., fn 3.

[5] Prosecutor v. Kordic and Cerkez (Trial Chamber), ICTY Case No. IT-95-14/2-T, February 26, 2001, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/d4fedd/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 379.

[6] Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, November 16, 1998, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6b4a33/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 243.

[7] See, e.g., Prosecutor v. Hadzihasanovic and Kubura (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT0147T, March 15, 2006, para. 99; Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, November 16, 1998, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6b4a33/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 243; Prosecutor v. Zlatko Blaskic (Appeals Chamber), ICTY Case No. IT-95-14-A, July 29, 2004, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/88d8e6/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 69.

[8] Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, February 20, 2001, paras. 238 and 241("This information does not need to provide specific information about unlawful acts committed or about to be committed."); Prosecutor v. Ntagerura, Bagambiki, and Imanishimwe (Trial Chamber), ICTY, February 25, 2004, para. 629; Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Barayagwiza and Ngeze (Appeals Chamber), ICTR, Case No. ICTR 99-52-A, November 28, 2007, para. 791; Prosecutor v.Halilovic(Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-01-48, Judgment, November 16, 2005, para. 65.

[9] Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, November 16, 1998, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6b4a33/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 243; Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Pre-trial chamber), ICC, Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Decision Pursuant to Article 61(7)(a) and (b) of the Rome Statute on the Charges of the Prosecutor Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo," June 15, 2009, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/07965c/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 433.

[10] Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Pre-trial chamber), ICC, Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Decision Pursuant to Article 61(7)(a) and (b) of the Rome Statute on the Charges of the Prosecutor Against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo," June 15, 2009, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/07965c/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 433.

[11] See, e.g., Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Trial Chamber), ICC, Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute," March 21, 2016, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/edb0cf/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para 183; Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, November 16, 1998, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6b4a33/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 378; Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, February 20, 2001, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/051554/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 256; Prosecutor v. Zlatko Blaskic (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-95-14-A, July 29, 2004, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/88d8e6/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 69; Prosecutor v. Francois Karera (Trial Chamber), ICTR, Case No. ICTR-01-74-T, December 7, 2007, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/7bc57f/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 564.

[12] Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Trial Chamber), ICC, Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute," March 21, 2016, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/edb0cf/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 188; Prosecutor v. Momcilo Perisic (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-04-81-T, September 6, 2011, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f3b23d/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 148; Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Trial Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, November 16, 1998, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6b4a33/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 378.

[13] Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Trial Chamber), Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute," March 21, 2016, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/edb0cf/pdf/, para. 188.

[14] See, e.g., Prosecutor v. Pavle Strugar (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-01-42-A, July 17, 2008, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/981b62/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 254; Prosecutor v. Momcilo Perisic (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-04-81-T, February 28, 2013, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f3b23d/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 87; Prosecutor v. Alex Tamba Brima (Trial Chamber), SCSL, Case No. SCSL-04-16-T, June 20, 2007, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/87ef08/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 788.

[15] Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (Trial Chamber), Case No. 01/05-01/08, "Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute," March 21, 2016, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/edb0cf/pdf/, paras. 700 ff.

[16] Prosecutor v. Mucic et al. ("Celebici") (Appeals Chamber), ICTY, Case No. IT-96-21-T, February 20, 2001, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/051554/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 256. See also, e.g., Prosecutor v. Francois Karera (Trial Chamber), ICTR, Case No. ICTR-01-74-T, December 7, 2007, https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/7bc57f/pdf/ (accessed May 16, 2017), para. 564.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of Afghanistan's 'ugly war'  UN report

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 17 July 2017 Related Document(s) Afghanistan: Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict - Midyear Report 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Civilians continue to bear the brunt of Afghanistan's 'ugly war'  UN report, 17 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e0bb94.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

Civilians lives  including those of women and children  continue to be lost at record high levels amid a worsening toll of suicide attacks, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said today, calling on anti-government forces to stop indiscriminate attacks against civilians as well as on the Government to stop using mortars and rockets in populated areas.

The human cost of this ugly war in Afghanistan  loss of life, destruction and immense suffering  is too far too high, said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Tadamichi Yamamoto, in a news release today.

The continued use of indiscriminate, disproportionate and illegal IEDs [improvised explosive devices] by anti-government elements is particularly appalling and must immediately stop.

According to the UN Mission's 2017 Mid-year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, 1,662 civilian died (up two per cent on the same period last year) and 3,581 were injured (down one per cent) between 1 January and 30 June 2017.

Many of those casualties occurred in a single attack in Kabul city on 31 May, when a truck bomb killed at least 92 civilians and injured nearly 500. This was the deadliest incident documented by UNAMA since 2001.

Women and children in the country continue be particularly affected. In the report, the UN Mission noted that so far this year, 174 women were confirmed killed and 462 injured (an overall rise of about 23 per cent), reversing a decline documented in 2016.

The statistics in this report, horrifying though they are, can never fully convey the sheer human suffering of the people of Afghanistan UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein

Child casualties, overall also increased by one per cent, with 436 deaths (a nine per cent increase) and 1,141 injuries, it added, highlighting that the use of pressure-plate IEDs and aerial operations in civilian-populated areas led to substantial increases in both women and child casualties.

Also in the news release, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights underscored that behind each death or injury, there is a broken family, unimaginable trauma and the brutal violation of people's rights.

Many Afghan civilians are suffering psychological trauma, having lost family and friends, and are living in fear knowing the risks they face as they go about their daily lives. Many more have been forced from their homes and suffered lasting damage to their health, education and livelihoods, he stated.

The continuing national tragedy of Afghanistan must not be overlooked.

Highest number of casualties occurred in Kabul

The UNAMA report also highlighted that 40 per cent of all civilian casualties during the six-month period were due to anti-government forces using IEDs, such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices.

In total, anti-government forces caused the deaths of 1,141 people and injured 2,348. These deaths and injuries represent 67 per cent of the total number of civilian casualties, with 43 per cent attributed to the Taliban, five per cent to Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), and the rest to unidentified attackers.

Also in the report, the UN Mission noted continued efforts by the Afghan security forces to reduce civilian casualties resulting from ground engagements, which represent the second leading cause of deaths and injuries.

Pro-government forces were responsible for 327 civilian deaths and 618 injuries, a 21 per cent decrease compared with the same period last year, although UNAMA noted a 43 per cent rise in civilian casualties during aerial operations (95 deaths and 137 injuries).

In terms of locations, 19 per cent of the casualties occurred in the capital, Kabul and deaths and injuries increased in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, mainly due to increased attacks by anti-government forces. After Kabul, the highest numbers of casualties occurred in Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Faryab, Herat, Laghman, Kunduz and Farah provinces.

Recommendations

In its recommendations, the report has called on anti-government forces to stop targeting civilians and to enforce directives from the Taliban leadership calling for an end to such attacks. It has also urged the Government to stop using weapons such as mortars and rockets in civilian populated areas, and to disband pro-government militias and similar groups.

It also recommended ongoing support from international military forces to support and train the Afghan national army.

In the news release, the UN Mission also noted that the report includes only those incidents that have been confirmed after a thorough verification process, meaning that the actual figures could be higher.
TORONTO, July 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SelectCore Ltd. (SelectCore or the Company) (TSX-V:SCG).



SelectCore is pleased to announce the Advisory Board appointment of Rasool Verjee.

Mr. Verjee is an opportunistic serial entrepreneur with a depth of experience in telecommunications, technology and an extensive diverse global network. He holds degrees in Law from Cambridge University. His career has been marked by early adoption of emerging technologies delivering high returns on equity from start-up operations as evidenced by Telemagix, Canadas first interactive Information service; Telepersonals that went on to become LavaLife Inc: North Americas leading provider of phone and online Dating Services. Also, World Phone Inc. that partnered with Tier One carriers including AT&T, Teleglobe Canada and Codetel generating over 10,000,000 minutes a month of International Audiotex Voice traffic, Atlas Telecom Network a leader in Wholesale VOIP Termination; MobileMiser Inc: a disruptive service helping consumers reduce their international cell phone charges.

Rasool believes in blockchain's disruptive potential to reshape and transform the financial markets and consequently is an excellent fit as a Board advisor given SelectCore's transformation to fintech and a provider of digital currency accessibility.

Mohammad Abuleil, President and CEO, SelectCore comments, "we take great pleasure in welcoming Mr. Verjee to our Advisory Board. His business acumen and professional background will be an asset as we build a foundation in the payments space that encapsulates both the physical world and virtual world."

Rasool Verjee adds, "innovation and imagination is what brings the future to us in real time. The digital currency space is the future and SelectCore has the advantage of legacy infrastructure that makes this future a reality. I look forward to working with Mohammad and his team to create and capitalize on high value opportunities."

About SelectCore (www.selectcore.com)

Established in 1999, SelectCore is a leading prepaid financial services provider. From prepaid mobile top-up to stored-value cards and remittance solutions, SelectCore services a market of millions of under-banked consumers, corporates and governments through its technology platforms. SelectCore was ranked by Profit100 as one of Canada's fastest-growing companies in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. SelectCore was also ranked one of North Americas fastest growing companies on Deloittes 2011 Technology Fast 500.

Caution:

Neither TSX Venture Exchange Inc. (TSXV) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities offered in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Forward Looking Information:

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although First Global believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because First Global can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. First Global undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of First Global, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). First Global disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
After Mosul victory, senior UN officials detail Iraq's political and humanitarian needs

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 17 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, After Mosul victory, senior UN officials detail Iraq's political and humanitarian needs, 17 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e0c254.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

Senior United Nations officials today called for regional and international support to stabilize newly liberated Mosul and to create conditions for peace and development throughout Iraq.

"The historic liberation of Mosul should not conceal the fact that the road ahead is extremely challenging," the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, told the Security Council.

He praised the Iraqi security forces and international partners for "an exceptional effort" to save and protect civilians during the military drive to liberate the Iraqi city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, and for showing a readiness to be held accountable for violations.

The effort was "in stark contrast" to ISIL, which showed "absolute disregard for human lives and civilization" by booby-trapping and destroying homes and critical monuments, indiscriminately shelling civilians, and by having civilians "butchered" by females and brainwashed children suicide bombers.

"To turn the gains of the military victory into stability, security, justice and development, the Government will have to do everything possible to give the people back their lives in security and dignity," said Mr. Kubis, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

De-mining, stabilization and reconstruction efforts to allow the return of displaced people, as well as the elimination of ISIL cells and militias, are among the priorities.

He noted that the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait had confirmed their willingness to assist the Government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, and urged all of Iraq's partners to "stay on course."

In addition, the Iraqi Government has to work for national settlement and societal reconciliation within the country, as well as to enter into negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the UN envoy said.

ISIL would ultimately be defeated only "through inclusive solutions, addressing the grievances, needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people," noted Mr. Kubis.

He reiterated the UN's commitment to facilitating the national settlement process and supporting grassroots reconciliation efforts. Also, with ISIL pushed out of Mosul and the people held by the group freed, the UN is "repositioning" its response to supporting survivors of sexual violence and helping to integrate them back into their communities. The UN is also working to ensure that children arrested for terrorism-related charges are transferred to juvenile institutions.

'Fighting may be over, humanitarian crisis is not'

Some 700,000 civilians have been displaced from Western Mosul, according to UN figures.

Speaking via videolink from Baghdad, UN Deputy Special Representative Lise Grande told journalists in New York that the top priority right now is to reach civilians who might still be in Mosul's old city.

"We believe perhaps hundreds of people are still there," said Ms. Grande, who is also the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. She noted that in the last week of fighting some 12,000 people were evacuated. The majority of them are children and the elderly, who without sufficient water or food were too weak to even walk on their own.

Triage stabilization units established right on the front lines by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) received up to 100 patients per hour, spending about 4 minutes to stabilize each patient, before passing him or her on to a field hospital.

"The fighting may be stopping but the humanitarian crisis has not," noted Ms. Grande.

Of the 54 residential districts in western Mosul, 15 are heavily damaged, "basically flattened," Ms. Grande said, 23 are moderately damaged and 16 neighbourhoods have light damage.

The UN estimates the costs to stabilizing these areas and making them liveable to be more than $700 million, of which $237 million would be for the moderately and lightly damaged areas and $470 million for the more destroyed neighbourhoods.

"That is double the estimate for stabilization," Ms. Grande said, due to fighting which was "so fierce and so much worse that what anyone else experienced."

The UN has requested nearly $1 billion in assistance to aid the people in Mosul, with a focus on re-establishing crucial services so that people can safely return home to western Mosul.

Meanwhile, in eastern Mosul, which has been liberated since January, "schools are open, businesses are thriving, the city is recovering," said Ms. Grande.

Since the beginning of the fighting last year, about 940,000 civilians fled Mosul. Nearly all have been housed and are receiving direct assistance, an outcome that Ms. Grande called "very positive."

The UN official attributed the ability of aid workers to stay "one step ahead" due to the UN's early contingency planning under the Government's leadership and a flash appeal that was 100 per cent funded; Iraqi forces' commitment to protecting civilians during the battles; and strong civilian-military liaison communication.

She noted that an additional 100,000 civilians are expected to flee their homes by the end of this year, as Iraqi forces start to reclaim new areas in other parts of Ninewa and Anbar Governorates and in Kirkuk Governorate, where ISIL still holds territory.
UN rights group concludes evaluation of Palestinians living under occupation

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 17 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights group concludes evaluation of Palestinians living under occupation, 17 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e0c794.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

A committee of United Nations experts has completed its annual evaluation of the situation of people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, hearing serious concerns about Israel's human rights record, including the deteriorating situation in Gaza, inadequate protection for detained children and increasing obstacles being faced by human rights defenders and journalists.

In a news release, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories said that during its fact-finding visit to Amman, Jordan, its members heard testimony on the expansion of settlements, the ongoing use of administrative detention, excessive use of force and possible extrajudicial killings, and lack of accountability. "Based on this testimony, the Committee clearly observed that the Israeli authorities continue with policies and practices that negatively impact the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," it said in the release.

The Committee also heard troubling testimony regarding the arrest and detention of children, including cases of reported ill-treatment and lack of adequate protection.

Other testimony described grave concern over the situation of Palestinian detainees reportedly living in difficult conditions in Israeli prisons, as well as the continued use of administrative detention.

Other issues raised included the effects of the separation wall on Palestinians' rights, and the demolition of homes and other structures in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as in the Syrian Golan. The use of punitive demolitions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem was described as a form of collective punishment.

Many organizations highlighted with concern the continued lack of accountability for allegations of excessive use of force and violations of international law by the Israeli forces, including during the 2014 hostilities in Gaza. A number of organizations emphasized that the lack of accountability further exacerbated the cycle of violence.

Human rights defenders and journalists seeking to highlight violations of human rights and humanitarian law told the Committee that the space in which they were free to operate was shrinking at an alarming rate. They reported cases of the detention of peaceful demonstrators and the targeting of journalists covering protests.

The news release also noted that the Government of Israel does not recognize the Committee, which was therefore unable to speak to the relevant Israeli authorities or access the occupied territories.

The Committee will submit a full report on its mission and other activities to the UN General Assembly in November 2017.

The Committee was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968 to examine the human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It is composed of three UN Member States: Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal.
Mobile magistrates are Iraq's new frontline fighters

Publisher IRIN Author Eva Huson Publication Date 18 July 2017 Cite as IRIN, Mobile magistrates are Iraq's new frontline fighters, 18 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/596e0d804.html [accessed 12 November 2022] 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.

"My apologies, I have to go," Khalid al-Shimari proffers as he races to his car, gravel scrunching under his feet. In the pocket of his blazer a ringtone sounds for the umpteenth time. "My court needs me," he explains, pulling open the car door. His driver accelerates away.

Al-Shimari, 47, is a judge. Having just handled a host of important administrative tasks, he is speeding out of Chamakor, a camp for displaced Iraqis some 40 kilometres east of the recently liberated city of Mosul.

Since so-called Islamic State took over Mosul in June 2014, his court has operated out of the nearby district of Hamdaniya. Not only is al-Shimari a judge in exile and an internally displaced person himself, but since December he is also one of Iraq's most in-demand professionals: a mobile magistrate.

Every Thursday, al-Shimari, who has worked for the provincial court for 14 years, visits one of the IDP camps around Mosul to hold court sessions and register marriages, births, and other important life events.

A meeting with al-Shimari is a godsend for those among the tens of thousands of Iraqis who (after three years of war) no longer hold things like ID cards and birth certificates.

In Iraq, this is not just a matter of record. The absence of key documents can prevent IDPs from passing checkpoints and accessing public services, even from receiving vital humanitarian aid.

There is plenty of work to do. Some have lost or damaged their papers amid the chaos of conflict. Others couldn't renew them in time or hold documents issued by IS that aren't recognised by the Iraqi government.

But, as more and more parts of the country are liberated from IS, the trips al-Shimari and a colleague are making are hardly making a dent in one of Iraq's greatest challenges. "It is a disaster," said the judge of the administrative mess.

Mobile court

The idea of a mobile court came from the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, and the Swedish NGO Qandil.

UNHCR estimates that the average family displaced from Mosul is missing two to three key documents. In five camps alone - currently home to more than 70,000 IDPs - Qandil has identified as many as 31,481 missing documents.

According to a report by the International Organisation for Migration, 88 percent of Iraq's three million IDPs said the challenges around missing documents are one of their major concerns.

Iraq's justice system, already slow, is now even further weighed down with a document backlog that is hindering displaced Iraqis with lengthy procedures that can delay any chance of them getting their lives back on track.

"The system can be cumbersome and time-consuming," said Leila Jane Nassif, UNHCR's deputy representative in Iraq. But this seems like gross understatement when al-Shimari lays bare his workload, which goes far beyond matters of documentation: "It is horrible," he told IRIN. "There were times where my own court dealt with 500 cases a day."

Making matters worse, most displaced people who reside in camps in the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled areas are not allowed to leave the site for security reasons without special permission, preventing them from even accessing the courts or civil affairs offices.

The call to action was clear for UNHCR, explained Nassif: "[Aid organisations] needed to work with the courts to help them find new ways to deal with the large backlog of cases."

And so, together with Qandil, the UN-agency reasoned: if you can't come to the judge, we will bring the judge to you.

Too much demand

In addition to al-Shimari, there is only one other mobile judge in the area, although there are a few other NGOs working on similar issues.

On the day IRIN tagged along, al-Shimari was forced to leave Chamakor and his notary and legal team prematurely, two hours earlier than planned. The reason? Two alleged IS fighters were awaiting trial at his court in exile in Hamdaniya. He was required to adjudicate.

"And now what?" asked Ghazi, a civilian resident of west Mosul left standing forlornly in front of Qandil's white caravan office at Chamakor after al-Shimari had departed.

Ghazi had been waiting to change his IS-issued marriage certificate for a legal one issued by the Iraqi government. He would now have to wait another two to three weeks for al-Shimari to return to Chamakor.

And transferring his marriage certificate was only the first of many bureaucratic steps that lay ahead. He then had to register his two toddlers, born in Mosul during the past two years. But this couldn't be done without a valid marriage certificate. He also couldn't update the status of his government-issued identity card from "single" to "married" without a marriage certificate as this required a trip to one of the civil affairs offices based outside the camp.

"We can't leave, so that will be difficult," said Ghazi, grimly.

Next to him stood Jasim, a middle-aged man with a red-an-white traditional headscarf. He heaved a deep sigh. "Daesh [IS] burnt down my house, including my personal documents," he told IRIN.

Jasim was after a marriage certificate to register his household at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade, a step needed to register for monthly aid distributions from both UN agencies and the Iraqi government. "All these papers, I find it too complicated," he mumbled.

It's unlikely that Jasim will be served by al-Shimari any time soon either as the waiting period for a session with the mobile judge is currently three months.

With the help of Qandil's legal team, al-Shimari and the other mobile judge have settled 387 cases since December 2016.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg and Aram Mahmood, a legal aid worker at Qandil, told IRIN that speeding things up is simply not an option at the moment.

"We would like to set up a full-time court in the camps, but the high council for judges in Baghdad has not honoured that request yet," he said.

UNHCR and Qandil have also asked Iraqi courts to approve documentation applications in bulk instead of dealing with individual cases.

As negotiations on these changes continue, the IDPs have to simply take what they can get: visits once a week, one judge, in just one of the five selected camps.

Newlyweds

Zyad, 26, and Hadeel, 20, were one of the lucky couples al-Shimari did have time to put on the marriage registry that day.

Together with their 18-month-old daughter Noor, the newlyweds - from the town of Zummar, some 60 kilometres west of Mosul - have been living in Chamakor since April.

They were first married in a religious ceremony in August 2014, a month after IS took control of the town. The family celebrated the unofficial wedding out of sight of the extremists, and pictures of the clandestine party were now safely tucked away in a plastic wallet back in the tent they called home.

Receiving a state marriage certificate was certainly a relief for the young family, but it didn't solve all their problems: After routing IS, Kurdish forces took control of Zummar. "We are told we are not allowed to go back," explained Zyad.

If Zummar becomes part of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish-controlled region, there may yet be more paperwork for them to come. "That is something to be thought of later," said Zyad. "First things first: register our daughter."
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Pembroke Pines, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/18/2017 --Pizza Machine is celebrating 25 years of service as one of the South Florida's oldest pizzerias. Recently, they have announced the launch of their Italian restaurants in Hollywood Florida and Cooper City Florida that will offer local pizza delivery at affordable prices. The idea behind this launch is to spread the business as well as make the dish even more popular across the world.



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Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
An ethnic Mongolian herder jailed two years ago by Chinese authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia has been released from prison to be met by dozens of cheering supporters.



Nairalt Borjigin, who hails from Baayanunduur Som in Inner Mongolia's Ar-Horchin Banner [a county-like division], was jailed 25 months ago for his role in protests protecting the herders' traditional grazing lands from development.



In a speech widely circulated and translated into English by the New York-based Southern Mongolia Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), Nairalt Borjigin said many herding communities now face annihilation amid severe drought in the region and dwindling access to grasslands.



"With a heartfelt understanding of the enormous hardships our fellow herders are facing today, I firmly believe that each and every one of you here today represents hundreds more courageous herders in your respective communities," he said.



His speech voiced widespread anger and frustration among herders who have continually reported being forced off their land by Chinese companies, local government policies to save the grasslands from overgrazing, and illegal land grabs by incoming Han Chinese migrants encouraged to move to the region from elsewhere in China.



"I know that you all are here today not to welcome me as an individual, but you are welcoming and paying respect to our collective idea of defending our legal rights and our determination to the struggle for our future and the well-being of our children and future generations,"



Forced out by poverty



He said herders are being forced by sheer poverty to leave their traditional, nomadic way of life forever.



"The conscience of our people never fails to judge what is right and what is wrong," Nairalt Borjigin said, adding that he has received thousands of calls, text messages, and social media tweets from supporters on his release.



"I did not spend 25 months in prison in vain ... as long as my people are awakened and stand up for our rights and our future."



"We must not lose our spirit," he said.



SMHRIC chairman Enghebat Togochog said herders are routinely jailed if they try to oppose the takeover of their lands.



"It is very common for herders to be subjected to persecution for protesting against Chinese government exploitation of the grasslands for mining, and against the grasslands protection policies," he told RFA.



"Local governments take a very hard line against any attempts at protest by the herders."



He said blamed the problem on a lack of rule of law in China.



"China isn't a country that does things by law," he said. "But the herders still want to use the framework of the law to protect their legitimate rights and interests."



Grazing is forbidden



Germany-based ethnic Mongolian dissident Xi Haiming said Mongolian herding communities are now being prevented from continuing their traditional way of life by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.



"We have always been a nomadic people who have herded cattle and sheep for several thousand years," Xi told RFA in a recent interview. "Now they won't let us do that any more. Grazing is forbidden."



"The Communist Party is now openly banning ethnic Mongolians from keeping their flocks, and in a lot of places the land has already been taken from them for mining operations," he said.



He said much of the former vast expanse of the Inner Mongolian grassland has been dug up for selenium mining.



"It has all been dug away now," Xi said. "Then the army took over the area and the ethnic Mongolians were squeezed out."



"Ethnic Mongolians have become refugees in their own land."



Reported by Gao Shan and Tian Yi for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.




China's internet censors appeared on Tuesday to have blocked the sharing of anything but text on the popular WhatsApp social media app, amid a nationwide clampdown on mentions of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died of liver cancer in police custody last week.



Anti-censorship website GreatFire.org reported on Tuesday that the app was partly inaccessible from with the complex system of blocks, filters, and human censorship known as the Great Firewall.



WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to-end encryption, isn't as popular as its homegrown counterpart WeChat among China's 731 million internet users, but has until now been more resistant to government censorship.



Social media users reported that their attempts to post banned photographs of Liu, a pro-democracy activist who wasn't treated for liver cancer until it was already at an advanced stage, had failed on WhatsApp since noon local time.



"I took photographs of a memorial event for Liu Xiaobo today," one user commented. "I was about to post them to my friends group when it just wouldn't send, not on my phone's mobile data and not on Wifi."



"I can still send out text messages though, without the need to climb the Great Firewall," the user said, in a reference to the use of circumvention tools like virtual private networks (VPNs).



The user said they had previously used WhatsApp to circumvent government censorship along with a group of more than 100 friends, who regularly used it to hold "lively discussions."



Mourning 'filtered out'



Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia, a close friend of Liu Xiaobo and his widow Liu Xia, said the authorities are clamping down on the app, however, after successfully censoring WeChat users and content.



"At the moment, basic sentiments of mourning are being filtered out on a massive scale," Hu said. "This means that it's no longer convenient for a large number of rights activists and dissidents to use WhatsApp."



In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing on Tuesday that he "has no information" on the issue.



"This isn't something that is for the foreign ministry to answer," Lu said. "You need to ask the departments that deal with communications and the internet."



Earlier this week, security researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab revealed that Chinese censors were able to intercept images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat in real time, suggesting massively detailed image recognition capabilities.



According to a Chinese censorship researcher known by his pseudonym Charlie Smith, the authorities have likely implemented wholesale blocking of multimedia messages because they are unable to target the overseas-based app with the same precision.



"It would not be surprising to find that everything on WhatsApp gets blocked, forcing users in China to use unencrypted, monitored, and censored services like WeChat," Smith told the Associated Press.



Whereabouts unknown



The whereabouts of Liu Xiaobo's widow Liu Xia remained unknown on Tuesday amid growing calls for her release. Liu Xia has been under constant house arrest since her husband's Nobel Peace Prize was announced in October 2010, but has never been charged with any crime.



A friend of the family told RFA that they expect Liu Xia to remain incommunicado for some time, however.



"If the authorities continue to hold Liu Xia under house arrest, this would be the worst possible outcome," the friend said. "Let's wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. I am guessing that it won't be much longer than that."



The friend called on the international community to keep up the pressure on Beijing to allow her to leave the country.



"I think that if they keeping piling on the pressure, Liu Xia will eventually be allowed to leave," the friend said.



Tuesday was declared by Chinese activists as an "International Day of Mourning for Liu Xiaobo," marking a traditional weeklong period following a person's death.



Richard Choi, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, which has long campaigned on behalf of the Liu family, said activists in the former British colony would be taking part.



"We are holding a memorial event for Liu Xiaobo on Tuesday evening," Choi told RFA. "We call on the people of Hong Kong to take part, because the way the Chinese government has handled the entire affair has made people very angry."



"So we want to get large numbers of people out for this memorial, and share our reflections in this manner."



Barred from Macau



Alliance chairman Albert Ho said some pro-democracy activists in the former British colony had been denied entry to Macau, probably because they had attended a memorial for Liu in Hong Kong at the weekend, suggesting the long arm of Beijing is clamping down further on rights activists, using immigration controls.



"We have been attending memorials and openly taking part in countless public activities, and we have never been worried before, for example that we wouldn't be able to visit mainland China or Macau," Ho said.



"We are not going to take any notice of this now."



An employee who answered the phone at the border control police in Macau asked for questions to be sent via e-mail, but no reply had come at the time of writing on Tuesday.



Reported by Ding Wenqi and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.




A United Nations probe into alleged atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmars western Rakhine state will aggravate tension in the restive and divided region, the governments national security adviser said on Tuesday.

The U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution in March to send an international fact-finding mission to investigate atrocities that Myanmar security forces allegedly committed against Rohingya Muslims during the four-month security sweep in Rakhines northern townships.

The central government, however, disassociated itself from the resolution mandating the mission.

We dissociated ourselves from the decision because we found that it was less than constructive, said National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, speaking to U.N. officials and diplomats in the capital Naypyidaw.

We feel that that mission can only aggravate the situation on the ground, he said.

Myanmar soldiers carried out a four-month crackdown in parts of Rakhine state following a deadly raid on border guard posts in October 2016, which officials blamed on Rohingya militants in the countrys impoverished and religiously and ethnically divided westernmost area.

The government has denied most of the accusations that security forces, who swept into Maungdaw, Buithidaung, and Rathedaung townships after deadly attacks on border guard stations in October 2016, indiscriminately tortured and killed Rohingya, raped women and girls, and burned their villages.

In late June, Myanmars civilian government under de facto leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi informed the council that it was conducting its own investigation into the situation in Rakhine and refused to issue visas to three investigators the council asked to send to the region.

A commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan that is examining the situation in Rakhine and proposing ways to solve sectarian tensions between Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, although it is not evaluating possible human rights violations.

The government has implemented some of courses of action that the commission recommended in an interim report in March.

Another domestic investigation, led by Vice President Myint Swe, is looking specifically into reports of atrocities in the states northern townships.

Though the crackdown in northern Rakhine ended in February, government soldiers continue to patrol the townships in the wake of a series of disappearances, murders, and other attacks on security forces that have struck fear in ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who constitute a minority in the area.

Thaung Tun told diplomats that Myanmar had a clear right to defend the country by lawful means as it combats increasing terrorist activities.

Reported and translated by RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Tibetans opening a three-day summer festival this week in northwestern Chinas Gansu province were forced by authorities to parade on horseback with Chinese national flags, angering Tibetan onlookers and participants, a source in the region says.



The festival, which officially begins the traditional picnic season in the area of Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo) city in Gansus Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was launched on July 17 and will run for three days, a local source told RFAs Tibetan Service.



This year, the Chinese authorities ordered ordinary Tibetans to carry the Chinese flags, warning them of severe consequences if they fail to comply, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



The Chinese already had the flags ready to use in the procession. But those who were forced to carry them were deeply angered and offended, he said.



Similar orders had been given at a festival three years before, but local Tibetans defied the instructions by carrying religious flags instead, the source said.



So the Chinese sent about 150 Chinese soldiers to put on traditional Tibetan dress and carry the flags in their place.



Authorities said afterward that seven Kanlho counties would be required to participate in future parades, the source said, adding that four districts of TsoeTsoe Dentro, Dzoege To, Khagya To, and Dokarwere forced to take part this year.



Tibetans living under Chinese rule often chafe at forced displays of loyalty to Beijing and stage protests asserting Tibetan national and cultural identity.



On May 2, a 16-year-old student from a farming family named Chagdor Kyab set himself on fire near Kanlhos Bora monastery, calling out for Tibetan freedom and the return of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama while he burned.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.




For the better part of three years, furor has steadily mounted over a proposed 230-kilovolt transmission line and associated electrical infrastructure that Dominion Energy wants to build in Prince William County, primarily to power an Amazon data center expansion but also, it says, to improve reliability and electrical service in the area.

Yet in a filing last week, opponents say lawyers for Amazon have acknowledged the data center expansion may not happen, undercutting the rationale for the entire controversial project.

At present, the lines and towers more than 100 feet tall are scheduled to run from Haymarket and Gainesville through the Carver Road area, a historic black neighborhood that includes properties acquired after an 1866 law allowed newly freed slaves to own land.

On March 8, 2017, Dominions customer admitted before the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers that its block load electric services requirement, which serves as the basis of the application, does not currently exist and may not exist in the future, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County wrote in a motion for rehearing or reconsideration filed last week with the State Corporation Commission.

Amazon representatives, as in the past, did not respond to a request for comment. Dominion spokesman Chuck Penn said the project has broad public benefit, serving more than 450 customers directly upon completion and improving reliability for more than 6,000 customers in western Prince William.

The utility has not been given any reason to believe that the two additional buildings proposed at the Midwood data center project in Haymarket will not be built, Penn added. Even without the expansion, the company believes it would still need a transmission solution in the Haymarket load area, Penn said.

***

The SCC, which issued a final order authorizing the construction of the transmission line last month, announced Friday that it would suspend the order while it weighed requests for reconsideration filed by the coalition and the Somerset Crossing Homeowners Association, another area organization opposed to the project.

The order today keeps the case here at the SCC, and more than likely there will be another order of the commission as to the next step in the process regarding reconsideration, spokesman Ken Schrad said Friday.

Opponents of the project hope this time the commission takes to heart their arguments that the line forces ratepayers to fund what amounts to an extension cord for Amazon that could cost up to $62 million and takes private property for little to no public benefit.

The commission has not considered new evidence that challenges the need that serves as the basis of Dominions application, and the evidence not only fails to demonstrate a need for the transmission line, the customer has admitted there is no need, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County wrote. In the absence of need, Dominion will not have the authority to take private property through eminent domain.

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William  who has been an outspoken critic of the line, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and Dominion  predicts the case could trigger legislative changes as to how the commission should consider similar projects.

This is not government in the public interest, Marshall said. I really think that the way the SCC has handled this, and what Dominion has done, is going to necessitate a revamping of how these applications are made and handled.

Marshall was at the March 8 meeting hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers, which must issue a permit for discharging fill material into wetlands and a stream related to the construction of the third building at the data center complex. That means the permit is a federal undertaking subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and the corps convened a meeting of consulting parties to coordinate the effects of the project on historic properties, such as the Civil War Buckland Mills Battlefield, an areas that encompasses the data center site.

Marshall filed an affidavit with the State Corporation Commission stating that the attorneys for VAData, the Amazon entity that is behind the data center, said the first building is complete and requires no additional power; that the transmission line is not necessary until the third building is operational; and that buildings two and three were not projected to be built and operational in the foreseeable future.

This sure looks awkward, Marshall said in an interview. I dont see how anyone can keep a straight face. ... The need was not there. It was contrived. It was made up.

Penn said that characterization is inaccurate.

We are not sure if the VAData attorneys misspoke or the coalition misunderstood what they meant, but the statement is incorrect, he said. Dominion Energy Virginia does not have capacity to serve buildings two and three on the Midwood site from a distribution perspective. The available distribution capacity is already contracted for by the two existing data center buildings that are currently in service and ramping.

Of five possible routes for the transmission line project, the commission in April issued an interim order giving Dominion 60 days to secure an easement with Prince William for what it called the railroad route, which ran along a Norfolk-Southern rail line.

The SCC rejected as too expensive the county and residents preferred route along Interstate 66, with about 3 miles of the line buried underground. However, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors accepted a conveyance of property in the path of the railroad route from the Somerset Crossing homeowners group for an open-space easement.

In June, the supervisors rejected Dominions request for permission to build the line across the easement, reiterating their support for the partially underground route along I-66. After that vote, the SCC directed Dominion to proceed with the Carver route.

We are going to adhere to the edict we get from our regulators, Penn said. Were going to build whatever route that the SCC tells us to build.

***

But Carver Road-area residents wont give in without a fight, said Joyce Hudson, 60, whose grandparents built a house on Old Carolina Road on a 4-acre property that would be crossed by the transmission line.

Hudson started the Alliance to Save Carver Road, which will hold a news conference Tuesday to urge the supervisors to fund a legal challenge to the transmission line, to organize opposition and raise money to fight the project. Dominion workers entered her property without permission and really scared the tenants of the rental house she owns with the prospect of 110-foot towers, she said.

Theyre going to clear a bunch of the trees. And my tenants have said if that happens, they want out of the lease, Hudson said.

Dominion and Amazon, she added, are taking advantage of a community of elderly residents with very little resources and very little voice.

They expect the ratepayers to pay for the installation of the line. Amazon is not paying one dime to install these lines, she said. It is a travesty. It is degrading to our community, and it is not fair.

Penn, the Dominion spokesman, said the Carver route would cross about 75 properties that would require easements, though no displacement of homes will happen.

It is important to note that we were disappointed when what we considered the best route for the Haymarket project was placed out of our reach when a homeowners association transferred property to Prince William County. This action blocked a route that we and the SCC deemed to have fewer impacts, Penn said.

Jeanine Lawson, a member of the Board of Supervisors who represents the Carver Road area and whose Brentsville district includes the majority of the proposed line route, said she will push the county to do everything we can legally do to protect the community. Theres a dark cloud over Dominions case of the need being tied to reliability just as much as the data center client, she said.

She also rejected the notion that the Board of Supervisors forced Dominion into the Carver route.
A United Kingdom-based supplier to aircraft components maker Rolls-Royce is expanding its office and manufacturing center in Henrico County, economic development officials said Tuesday.

Erodex Ltd., a graphite products maker, is investing $2 million in its location operations to supply the Rolls-Royce factory in Prince George County, the Greater Richmond Partnership announced.

Erodex first opened an office in the area in March 2016 and is occupying 2,500 square feet in the Byrd Corporate Center at 5727 S. Laburnum Ave. in eastern Henrico. The company has four local employees.

The company is roughly doubling its work space after signing a five-year agreement to supply Rolls-Royces Crosspointe manufacturing center in Prince George, where Rolls-Royce makes aircraft components such as turbine blades.

Were very happy to call the Richmond region home, John Rolinson, co-director of Erodex, said in a statement.

Rolinson said Erodex has been supplying graphite electrodes to Rolls-Royce from its operations in the United Kingdom, but as Rolls-Royces Virginia operations grew, Erodex agreed to open a tool room in the Richmond region.

Erodex becomes one of more than 40 U.K.-based companies with operations in the Richmond region.

It is the second Rolls-Royce supplier to announce an investment in the Richmond region this year. In February, Pryor Technology Inc., another United Kingdom-based company that provides marking, identification and traceability services, announced it would open a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing center employing 10 people in Hanover County.

Although the staffing for both companies is relatively small, both have the potential to grow and add jobs, said Barry Matherly, chief executive officer of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a regional economic development organization.

Both are establishing a presence here, anticipating the current and future growth of the Rolls-Royce facility, he said. And they have the option of selling to other clients now that they are established here.

Matherly said about 70 percent of the business prospects that the partnership is working to recruit to the region are based overseas. The economic development group has recruited about 20 new foreign direct investment projects to the region during the last three years, he said.
The owners of Toast restaurant in the Village Shopping Center are opening a second location, in Powhatan County, just over the line from Chesterfield County.

The new Toast restaurant will be in the Winterfield Place shopping center at 3730 Winterfield Road in the former Mediterraneo Grill spot. Mediterraneo closed Sunday.

Jessica and Josh Bufford opened Toast in the Village Shopping Center on Three Chopt Road in 2012. They also own Talleys Meat and Three and Hutch restaurants.

Were both really excited to get to share Toast with a whole new neighborhood, Josh Bufford said.

Toast specializes in approachable American fare in a gastropub setting  plus plenty of craft beer and craft cocktails, and wine on tap.

The new spot is expected to open in early September. Toast Winterfield will serve lunch and dinner daily and weekend brunch.

***

Toast isnt the only new restaurant in the works for the area. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer announced two leases last week for Chesterfield: one on Huguenot Road near Chesterfield Towne Center and the other in Westchester Commons.

First Watch, a Florida-based chain that serves breakfast and lunch, will open its first Richmond-area location next year at 1403 Huguenot Road in the TownePlace at Huguenot shopping center (where Mellow Mushroom opened recently).

The restaurant specializes in traditional breakfast fare using fresh ingredients, plus lunch sandwiches and salads, and a juice bar.

First Watch will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The Shaved Duck Restaurant, a new American spot, is planning a location in Westchester Commons at 15408 WC Commons Way.

The restaurant is waiting on permits to get started on construction. Menu items will include shrimp and grits, duck breast and risotto, according to the restaurants Instagram account.

***

A new bakery-dessert cafe is in the works for downtown Richmond at 306 E. Grace St.

Monchou is from Mason and Ajin Gray, a husband-and-wife team who said theyve been searching for a spot for their bakery for about a year. Ajin Gray is a Paris-trained pastry chef.

We like the atmosphere (on Grace Street), Mason Gray said, noting that the area has grown immensely in recent years with popular restaurants.

The bakery, which is expected to open in the next few weeks, is next door to Godfreys, which continues to put on a popular weekend drag brunch show, and on the same block as The Red Door restaurant, Rapp Session and Rappahannock.

The next block is home to Champion Brewing Co., Wong Gonzalez, Pasture, Juleps and Pops Market  and restaurants continue around the corner and down another block on Grace.

Monchou will specialize in French pastries and serve cakes, tarts, macarons, pastries and other items.

Were not going to do a full bakery, like bread, Mason Gray said. Itll be more of a dessert cafe.

The bakery will also serve coffee.

Everything is going to be organic or non-GMO, Gray said. A lot of things are sourced from France.  Were sourcing high-quality ingredients.

The bakery is in the former Monument City Coffee spot, which opened and closed in 2014.

***

Joes Inn, the 65-year-old Richmond restaurant institution at 205 N. Shields Ave. in the Fan District, has been named one of Americas Top 100 legends and landmarks restaurant by FSR Magazine.

These restaurants are some of Americas oldest and most esteemed institutions; more than half have been in operation for over 100 years and all hold a special place in the hearts of their patrons, according to a news release.

FSR covers the full-service restaurant industry and puts out an annual Top 100 list.
A local judge who was barred from presiding in his home district after complaints surfaced that he sexually harassed courtroom clerks and made crude remarks has been reinstated to the 11th Judicial District but will not be allowed to sit on the bench in the district.

After being assigned to preside in a number of other districts across the state during his 14-month exile from the 11th District, Judge Robert B. Beasley Jr., who has apologized for his behavior, officially returned July 5 on instructions from the office of Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons of the Virginia Supreme Court.

But 11th District Chief Judge Mayo Gravatt, after meeting with Beasley, has limited Beasleys duties to presiding over mental commitment hearings at three hospitals within the district. He will not sit on the bench  at least for now  in general district courts in Petersburg or the counties of Powhatan, Dinwiddie, Amelia and Nottoway, which make up the 11th District.

In an interview this week, Gravatt said Beasleys services are not needed on the bench because the current caseload in those localities can be handled sufficiently and expeditiously by the two existing judges  himself and Judge Ray P. Lupold.

We didnt need another judge, Gravatt said, adding that a third judge in the district would leave us underutilized.

Instead, Gravatt has assigned Beasley to preside over mental commitment hearings  also known as temporary detention order hearings, which are for people who may require involuntary hospitalization for psychiatric treatment  at Central State Hospital, Southside Regional Medical Center and Poplar Springs Hospital in the Tri-Cities area.

That has always been a district court function as well, (and) its a fairly busy job with three institutions in the 11th, Gravatt said. Mental commitment cases typically have been handled by special justices  local attorneys who are appointed by the court and authorized to hear certain mental health commitment matters.

In addition to hearing mental commitment cases three days a week, Beasley has been assigned to hear civil and criminal matters two days a week in Suffolk General District Court in Virginias 5th Judicial District, Gravatt said. Beasley will sit in the 5th District at least through Oct. 30, according to a July 10 order signed by Lemons.

In ordering Beasley back to the 11th District, the Virginia Supreme Court did not specify what duties he should be assigned. That was left to the discretion of Gravatt as the 11th Districts chief judge.

Beasleys return has left a number of 11th District courtroom clerks who said the judge had harassed them feeling uneasy and fearful of reprisals if he eventually is reinstated to the bench in their localities. Gravatt acknowledged that its possible that Beasley could return to the bench at some future point.

Gravatt said Beasleys current assignment continues for the time being  until conditions change or something (else) changes.

At least one of the clerks said she recently hired an attorney as a precaution.

Beasley has declined to comment in the past, and he did not respond Tuesday to several messages seeking comment by email or through his former attorney.

Beasley came under intense scrutiny last year after it was disclosed that he had been suspended for 10 weeks in late 2015 and early 2016 for allegations of inappropriate conduct.

He was eventually reinstated on Feb. 2, 2016, after writing letters of apology the previous month to clerks in Amelia, Powhatan and Dinwiddie, where he began sitting as a judge on Dec. 1, 2014. In the letters, Beasley apologized for my offensive conduct and statements over the past year, which he described as inexcusable.

My actions towards you were inappropriate on both a personal and professional level and for that I am truly sorry, Beasley wrote. It will not happen again.

The complaints against the judge include his telling crude sexual jokes and making sexual remarks inside and outside the courtroom. He was also accused of emailing images to employees and posting pictures in clerks offices that convey sexual innuendos, sources have previously said.

Beasley is also alleged to have made repeated statements about court employees jobs, suggesting they would be terminated if he were elevated to the position of chief judge.

The clerks have said that Beasleys conduct and statements created a hostile work environment that made them uncomfortable and concerned about their continued employment. The affected employees felt uneasy in the judges presence and do not want him to return.

In early March 2016, the Virginia Supreme Courts chief justice ordered Beasley to begin serving outside his home district, and through a series of subsequent orders Beasley was assigned to various judicial districts in Virginia that were shorthanded or needed temporary assistance.

It is my understanding that he had done well in these districts that he had been sent to, Gravatt said. I did not go to monitor (Beasley), but there may have been some monitoring that Im not directly privy to.

The complaints against Beasley were reviewed in December 2015 by Virginias Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, but the body apparently took no official action against the judge. All commission matters are confidential unless the panel files a formal complaint against a judge in the Supreme Court of Virginia or, pursuant to law, reports information to the General Assembly when the judge is being considered for re-election by the legislature.

In the spring of 2016, two of the most powerful members of the Virginia Senate threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Beasley, but House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, quashed the move. He said that although Beasleys behavior was unbecoming and inappropriate, it did not substantiate an impeachment charge.

Beasley has roughly three years and four months remaining on his six-year term, which ends in December 2020. He was elected by the General Assembly in September 2014 and began work that December. Beasley filled the 11th Districts third general district court position, created in 2014.

Gravatt will retire in January 2020 after reaching 73, the mandatory retirement age for state judges. That could create an opening for Beasley if the General Assembly doesnt elect someone to specifically fill Gravatts vacancy.

Then-House of Delegates Courts Chairman David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, suggested to the Richmond Times-Dispatch last year that Beasley would have a heck of a time getting reappointed when his term expires.
In 1998, the Chesterfield County Police Department opened its first permanent police station. Nearly 20 years later, it has a police station in each of the four zones it serves.

The department celebrated the grand opening of the new Falling Creek station, near the north Jefferson Davis Highway corridor and Chippenham Parkway.

Location is extremely important, said Chesterfield police Maj. Frank Carpenter. With the north Jefferson Davis highway revitalization program, we envisioned as a police agency having representation in all four radio zones and having an actual police station.

Before police moved in, the building was operated by the Bensley-Bermuda Volunteer Rescue Squad, which offers support to the eastern portion of Chesterfield. The rescue squad provides an ambulance, first aid care and emergency assistance.

When the building became vacant as the squads services depleted, Chesterfield police worked with the rescue squad to occupy it.

The new station will allow for better communication, community outreach opportunities, more transparency and more convenient crime reporting for residents, Carpenter said.

Just to be a presence benefits the community, he said.

The department hopes to host community academy classes out of the station, share safety tips and hopefully, better equip our community to be safe, Carpenter said.

The station will be staffed with 25 to 35 officers during normal office hours and a desk officer from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The departments South Division Community Policing Officers will also be based in the building.

Falling Creek will remain operational 24 hours a day.

If there isnt someone present, theres an emergency phone that will go straight to dispatch, Carpenter said.
State police have identified a 75-year-old Midlothian man as the wrong-way driver who killed the father of a Henrico County man as the father was en route to visit his hospitalized son, who had been seriously injured in an apartment fire.

Wilber Lee Jr., who police said apparently suffered from a cognitive disorder, was driving south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 on Wednesday when his 2012 Hyundai hit a barrier wall, went airborne and struck a 2007 Kia Sorento driven by Herbert L. Ross, 56, of Richmond.

Lee was pronounced dead at the scene, and Ross died after being taken to VCU Medical Center, police said.

The crash, which remains under investigation, occurred on I-95 in Chesterfield County about 8:55 p.m., about 1 mile north of Exit 61.

After the initial collision, the Kia struck a 2007 Toyota Camry traveling northbound. The driver of that vehicle was not injured.

When the crash occurred, Ross was driving to VCU Medical Center to visit his 25-year-old son, Shawn, who was in intensive care after an apartment fire in Henrico five days earlier that would take the lives of Shawns fiancees three young children.

The children died of smoke inhalation two days after the July 7 fire, which was apparently caused by unattended cooking, authorities said.

Sgt. Stephan Vick, a Virginia State Police spokesman, said Lees caregiver provided police with information about the mans cognitive disorder.

It does appear that it was a factor in the crash, Vick said.

Lees drivers license status at the time of the crash is unclear. Vick said the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles had already classified Lee as deceased when he checked Lees license status Monday; he added that the investigating trooper would know whether Lee was licensed to drive or had some restriction but could not immediately be reached.

Carol Haydon, who picked up the phone at Lees home on Monday, said the Midlothian man and her sister, Sylvia Couch, had been life partners for 40 years.

We dont know what happened, Haydon said. We dont even know when he left the house.

Haydon, who said she could not comment on what cognitive disorder Lee had, expressed sadness for those affected by the crash.

Its just such a tragedy, the whole thing, she said.

In 2014, the most recent year for which there is data available, there were 46 fatalities in Virginia crashes that resulted from a driver whose vehicle was on the wrong side of the road, according to preliminary figures from DMV.

In 2013, there were 54 fatalities from crashes caused by drivers on the wrong side of the road, DMV figures show.
While several Richmond School Board members called for debate Monday about the possibility of removing elementary students from the most downtrodden school building in the district, others advised caution at a time of transition.

In the crosshairs is George Mason Elementary School, a squat, century-old brick building in Church Hill long considered to be in worse shape than 43 others in Richmond Public Schools portfolio.

Teachers there sometimes wear surgical masks in class, and mark the day by wiping rodent droppings from students desks. Windows, heating and mechanical systems need at least $5 million in repairs. Decades of plumbing issues have left their mark.

Ill help carry boxes, said 4th District Board member Jonathan Young.

But with 48 days remaining until students are scheduled to return, School Board Chairwoman Dawn Page said her colleagues were going down a slippery slope.

I think it is unfair to the administration, not giving them the opportunity to vet this process, to plan properly, Page said after initially declining to allow a discussion of facilities issues. You want to play politics at the expense of our children.

Mason and a broader approach to re-energizing dormant talks of rezoning and right-sizing the districts outdated schools were included on the agenda Monday but only as informational items. Page eventually voted for talks to proceed.

The stories (about our schools) are disheartening, but Im not quite sure if were hearing from the same people, Page said. When youre carrying an agenda for other people, thats concerning.

The comment drew responses from 1st District board member Liz Doerr and 3rd District representative Cindy Menz-Erb, who have been studying facilities issues and helped draft options for removing students from Mason in the coming school year.

I am trying to do whats best for our kids, just like everyone else on this board, Doerr said.

Menz-Erb said her desire to remove children from Mason boiled down to one thing: When she toured the building this summer, she could not imagine sending her kids there.

If its not good enough for my kids, its not good enough for anyones kids, she said.

The talks come a month after employees who work at the school wore surgical masks to the boards June meeting in protest of conditions they said were unfair and unsafe.

A site coordinator for Communities in Schools told the board then that children sweltered in many classrooms and needed jackets in others, and that some teachers needed breathing masks to teach. She was unavailable for an interview Monday.

Board members said their testimony added to a growing sense of urgency surrounding the historic institution, which traces its roots back to the first African-American school in the Church Hill area.

The eight options the board is scheduled to consider include:

dispersing Mason students across Woodville, Fairfield, Chimborazo and Bellevue elementary schools;

moving students into Franklin Military, which would prompt Franklin students to shift to Community High School;

and shuffling Mason students to the former Clark Springs Elementary School building once Overby-Sheppard students are able to return to their North Side campus upon the completion of renovations there.

I cant imagine anyone would make a compelling case that their students, teachers and staff dont deserve better than what they have by the start of school, Young said.

Interim Superintendent Tommy Kranz said arranging the closure with so few days remaining before the new school year would be challenging.

The timing of it is unfortunate; its just extremely tight, said Kranz, who added that George Wythe High School and Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School are barely in better shape than Mason.

Cost estimates to remove students from the elementary school range from up to $35 million for a rebuilt, larger school on the high end to $100,000 associated with a few options that involve moving students around.

Inaction would require $5 million in emergency investments for boilers, mechanical systems and window replacements, which still would leave larger structural issues untouched, according to a rubric provided to board members.

Were not taking into consideration how this is going to impact staff teachers, the families, transportation, Page said. Its a domino effect.

The board ultimately voted to schedule a public hearing at George Mason for community feedback on the possibility of moving students.

***

Meanwhile, the board pushed back on some aspects of an agreement with the state Board of Education on Monday, citing concerns about autonomy in a potentially decadelong pact to boost academic performance.

The memorandum that is set to come before the state board on July 27 emerged after Virginia Department of Education officials gave Richmond Public Schools low marks nearly across the board in a comprehensive review.

School division leaders invited the scrutiny in hopes of turning the district around, but some board members worry the draft plan from the state that would govern that transformation is too restrictive.

We need to find a balance where we can get the oversight and review we hope to have from the state but also (preserve) autonomy, said 2nd District board member Scott Barlow, a lawyer who authored the proposed changes.

Chief among Barlows concerns is a provision of the agreement that would require state officials to approve spending of state and federal funds. He asked that state officials instead review spending.

He also recommended loosening a proposed rule that the oversight remain in place for up to 10 years, during which the divisions schools all must meet the states full standards for accreditation.

Only 17 of the divisions 44 schools were fully accredited in the 2016-17 academic year, placing it among the worst-performing districts in the state.

Barlows motion to send the revisions to state officials was voted down by Page; Patrick Sapini, 5th District; and Felicia Cosby, 6th District. 7th District Board member Nadine Marsh Carter was absent.

As representatives elected by our constituents to oversee administration of our school district, we still believe it is necessary to maintain a level of autonomy regarding the selection of our new superintendent and the expenditure of funds allocated to RPS, reads a statement the board voted 5-3 to send to the Board of Education.

Some issues identified in the revisions had already been addressed, according to interim schools chief Kranz, who met with his state counterpart, Steven R. Staples, earlier Monday.

That conversation yielded a relaxed approach to the Richmond boards selection of a new superintendent, who the state previously had specified must have demonstrated experience in turning around a struggling school system.

The news was welcomed by Young, the 4th District representative who has been outspoken in his desire to pursue a new schools chief with an entrepreneurial or military background.

The state also agreed to open mandated progress meetings between the board chairwoman and Staples to the entire School Board.

Kranz assured the board ahead of a vote on Barlows motion that Staples had no desire to micromanage Richmonds operations.

(The agreement) is not intended to be  usurping the power of the School Board, Kranz said.

As of now, the corrective action plan the state has charged Richmond with implementing contains 49 individual mandates, which Kranz said will take between months and years to fix.

Those actions arose from a hard look at five categories the state assessed in an on-the-ground review last spring. Richmond scored lowest on leadership and governance and human resources tools.

The division also lost many points because its latest strategic plan, which expired in 2015, lacked a vision statement.

Of the 25 subcategories for which Richmond schools received a score, only two  professional development and support evaluation, and the legal counsel component  were considered to be fully implemented.

The division received 17 scores of one or below, including seven zeroes for categories ranging from evidence-based facilities and maintenance practices to hiring and retention customs.

Kranz warned that up to $30 million would be at stake should Richmond fail to comply with the terms of the agreement, but he added that the state had full faith in the board.
A Midlothian man has been arrested in connection with a slaying in Richmond.

James D. Faris, 37, of the 13600 block of Quail Hollow Lane, was arrested Monday morning, Richmond police said.

Richmond police said Faris was arrested with assistance from Chesterfield County police and U.S. marshals.

Faris was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in connection with the homicide, and other charges were pending, police said.

About 8:30 p.m. Saturday, officers were called to the 2100 block of Brookhaven Road for a report of a person shot. They found Carlos Terry, 36, of the 4100 block of Norborne Road in a vehicle, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he died early Sunday.

Anyone with information is asked to call Major Crimes Detective M. Godwin at (804) 646-5533 or contact Crime Stoppers at (704) 780-1000 or www.7801000.com.
ASHLAND  Hanover County NAACP leaders voiced their concerns regarding the number of minority employees in Hanover County Public Schools during a public comment period held at the June 11 Hanover County School Board meeting.

Hanover NAACP President Eddie Nelson expressed his appreciation at the willingness of Dr. Michael Gill, superintendent of schools, to meet with his organization and discuss concerns, but said the problem still exists.

He has heard our concerns, so we cannot say we havent been heard, Nelson said. We, as minorities, are well aware of the fact that we are under-represented in our school system and want to continue to have that back-and-forth with you.

Robert Barnette is the vice chair of the Hanover NAACP chapter and echoed Nelsons concerns regarding hiring practices in Hanover schools.

Im here to advocate for minority hiring in Hanover County, Barnette said. One of the first steps in addressing the low representation of African Americans  is to acknowledge it exists. We have some in the county that do not acknowledge there is a problem in this area.

Barnette said education has traditionally been a tool for institutional racism and education must be the first step in eradicating it.

Barnette offered a series of suggested steps for school officials to accept to address the problem he perceives as troubling.

To increase minority numbers, Barnette recommended the system develop a five-year plan to address low minority employment rates and interview at least two qualified minority candidates for each open position.

This does not advocate a quota system, but helps overcome the traditional social segregation of your faculty.

He also suggested the county establish a mentoring program for faculty and staff for professional development and skill enhancement.

Barnette said a system that allowed minority educators in Hanover to recruit minority candidates also would benefit efforts to increase participation.

He also advocated for the inclusion of diversity in performance reports for principals and schools.

We appreciate Dr. Gill meeting with us and we will continue to meet on this issue until our folks are represented in the classrooms as numbers represent us in the county, Barnette said.

Hanover County school officials have upped their efforts in recent years to recruit minorities. Members from the NAACP have been invited to recruitment fairs and trips to historically black colleges have doubled in an effort to find and hire qualified minority candidates.
An on-duty officer with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says he was denied service at a McDonalds restaurant in Henrico County because of his profession, prompting the owner to take what was described as appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Scott Naff, a 25-year law enforcement veteran, was apparently not given his food after he paid for it because the employee in the drive-thru allegedly refused to serve police. The event was first broadcast online late Thursday through the officers wife, whose Facebook post had received more than 2,000 comments and 3,500 shares by Monday.

The officer said Tuesday that he was not able to talk about the incident, but his wife spoke on his behalf.

Cathy Naff, the officers wife, said the post was initially meant to be shared among a group of supportive friends, and she had no idea it would garner such attention.

Freda Thornton, the franchise owner, said in a statement Tuesday that her restaurants are dedicated to serving all customers, including all authority figures who protect our wildlife and natural resources.

We regret this situation as it goes against our standards of providing a welcoming experience to everyone, and we have taken the appropriate action to resolve this situation, Thornton said in the statement.

A spokeswoman declined to specify what actions were taken or provide further comment.

Cathy Naff said in her original Facebook post that her husband was on break about 7 p.m. Thursday when he pulled into the McDonalds drive-thru at 8210 Brook Road. After ordering his food, Cathy Naff said, the employee told him, I aint serving no police, and closed the service window.

Her husband was served several minutes later by another employee, Cathy Naff said, but she said she was shocked to learn of the encounter. The couple notified the McDonalds corporate office and the franchise owner of what transpired, she said.

When asked whether McDonalds actions were satisfactory, Cathy Naff said there is no satisfaction in seeing someone lose a job. She added that the issue could likely be prevented from recurring through adequate customer training practices.
It began Monday night as a domestic assault call and ended an hour later with a 43-year-old man being shot dead by two Culpeper County deputies at the intersection of the Sperryville Pike (U.S. 522) and Griffinsburg Road.

That shooting, according to reports from the Sheriffs Office and the Virginia State Police, who are investigating the incident, took place after a vehicle being sought in connection with the domestic incident was spotted by a deputy near Culpeper shortly before 11 p.m.

The unnamed deputy followed the vehicle and attempted to pull it over, according to the state police. When the driver refused to stop, two more deputies joined the pursuit. The vehicle finally was pulled over at the intersection of Griffinsburg Road.

Exactly what happened after that remained unclear Tuesday, but at some point during the encounter, two deputies reportedly fired multiple shots that left Eric Wesley Clark dead. A Sheriffs Office press release stated that Clark presented a deadly threat to the deputies.

According to State Police Sgt. Les Tyler, a shotgun was recovered from the scene. No other informationincluding the names of the deputies involvedhad been released as of Tuesday afternoon.

Since 2013, Culpeper County deputies were involved in at least two other fatal shootings.

On April 11 of that year, 59-year-old Harold Lee Daniels died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Deputy Patrick Cooper was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting, which occurred after Daniels pointed a gun at law-enforcement officers at his home in Rapidan.

The Sheriffs Office responded to his residence after Daniels was accused of driving in excess of 100 mph on U.S. 15, according to authorities.

The other deputy-involved fatal shooting happened June 8, 2016, during a domestic situation off of Sperryville Pike.

Willis Walker Jr., 49, was fatally wounded by a sheriff's deputy responding to a report that Walker had shot and killed a neighbor, 74-year-old James Stewart, and then assaulted his estranged wife, according to state police.
Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie both raised nearly $2 million in June as they won their gubernatorial primaries, but Gillespie has nearly twice as much cash as Northam after spending less money to survive his surprisingly close nomination contest.

Gillespie had nearly $3.29 million on hand between his campaign and PAC as of June 30, compared with $1.76 million for Northam, according to campaign finance reports due at midnight Monday.

Northam, the current lieutenant governor, finished slightly ahead of Gillespie, a Northern Virginia-based political consultant and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, in fundraising for the month, bringing in $1.96 million to Gillespies $1.82 million.

Both received a $1 million post-primary contribution from their parties respective governors associations.

At the end of the reporting period, Gillespies campaign had spent $3.47 million for the entire election cycle. Northams campaign had spent $6.65 million, much of it going toward advertising in his Democratic primary battle with former congressman Tom Perriello.

The Northam-Perriello matchup was widely thought to be the more competitive race of the June 13 primaries. Instead, Northam, a pediatric neurologist and former state senator from Norfolk, cruised to a nearly 12-point victory as Gillespie eked out a close win over Corey Stewart, the tough-talking chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, who is now trying to translate his near-miss into a 2018 run against U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Looking for a silver lining, the Gillespie campaign has stressed frugality as a strong point heading into the general election phase.

We had three goals in the primary: 1. Win; 2. Dont change as Ralph Northam did; and 3. Stockpile our cash so we can bring Eds positive vision to the voters of our commonwealth right out of the gate in the general election, Gillespie campaign Chairman Pete Snyder said in a prepared statement.

After coming off of a strong primary victory, Dr. Northam continues to generate new enthusiasm across Virginia as we work together to create economic opportunity for everyone no matter where they live, said Northam campaign manager Brad Komar.

Among Northams top donations for the period were $50,000 from the Mid-Atlantic Laborers Political Education Fund and $30,000 from Baltimore Washington Construction & Public Employees.

Libertarian Cliff Hyra raised $2,979 in the period, finishing with $3,492 on hand.

Northam and Gillespie are scheduled to debate for the first time Saturday during the Virginia Bar Associations summer meeting at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs.

One of Gillespies largest donations was $50,000 from William B. Holtzman, head of Holtzman Oil Corp. and father of Republican lieutenant governor nominee Jill Vogel. A state senator from Fauquier County, Vogels campaign reported raising $147,499, with $86,591 on hand. Holtzman forgave an earlier $100,000 loan to Vogels campaign and gave an additional $35,000 in late June.

Justin Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor who won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, reported raising $187,523, led by a $25,000 donation from Gov. Terry McAuliffes Common Good VA PAC. Fairfax had $71,449 on hand as of June 30, according to reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project.
Just three days after he abruptly scuttled an agreement with prosecutors, a Roanoke man reversed his position and accepted a compromise on charges he killed his wifes infant nephew.

Mikeal Rafayel Sardarov pleaded no contest Monday to an amended count of second-degree murder. He was found guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 26.

Sardarov, 23, was indicted one year ago in the death of 5-month-old Liam Fink, whom he was babysitting on Feb. 28, 2016. Liam died two days later after being hospitalized for what medical officials deemed non-accidental trauma.

At that time, Sardarov was dating Liams aunt, but they have since been married, according to a relative. The couple has a 5-year-old son together.

By entering into his plea, Sardarov saw the primary charge against him reduced from first-degree murder.

In Virginia, second-degree murder carries punishments that range from five to 40 years in prison, whereas first-degree murder can bring 20 years to life.

Prosecutors agreed to drop two additional felonies hed faced: child abuse and child neglect.

Sardarovs entry into the agreement came after he appeared Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court and announced he was bypassing a proposed compromise and wanted to proceed to a four-day trial, which was to start Monday. But Sardarov pleaded no contest instead and the judge dismissed the group of potential jurors soon after.

Sardarov was initially indicted in July 2016. He turned himself in, was taken into custody and was held until he was granted bail in November.

Following Fridays hearing, Judge Chris Clemens revoked Sardarovs bond and ordered him back into the Roanoke City Jail. It was a decision he did not rescind Monday.

That constitutional right of being innocent until proven guilty, that right is no longer with you, Clemens told Sardarov.

In an overall summary of the evidence, Roanoke Assistant Commonwealths Attorney David Billingsley said that in early 2016, Sardarov and his wife, Ashley Adair, shared an apartment with Marie Fink, Liams mother and Adairs sister.

Around noon on the day of the incident, Liam was left in Sardarovs care for several hours while the boys mother ran errands.

Liam was perfectly fine when she left, Billinglsey said. When she came back, he was not breathing.

He also had no pulse and it took five doses of epinephrine from EMTs before his heart began to beat again.

The childs prognosis remained poor until he died March 1, 2016.

A medical examiner later found 40 separate instances of injury, including a 2-inch skull fracture and at least eight different points of impact to Liams head, Billingsley said. The examiner determined those injuries had to have occurred within 48 to 72 hours before death.

Billingsley said that during the investigation, Sardarov was interviewed by police, but denied anything unusual had happened. Well into giving his statement, however, he claimed there had been an accident.

He said he picked him up out of the bouncy seat and Liam slipped out of his hands, Billingsley told the court. He said he felt it unlikely the childs injuries could have come from a single drop of just two or three feet.

Defense attorney Michael Hartley countered that had the case gone to trial, he would have called an expert witness who would have testified the cause had been just that.

The medical evidence wouldve been consistent with an unusual fall and an unusual accident, Hartley argued.

Ultimately, however, Hartley said Sardarov chose to accept the plea agreement to skirt the possibility of a first-degree murder conviction and the two other felonies.

Late in Mondays hearing, Sardarov made only a brief remark, addressing the circumstances of Liams death.

It was an accident, he said in court. It wasnt intentional the way theyre saying it happened.

Earlier in the case, at a July 6 pre-trial conference, both sides had discussed evidence restrictions. At that hearing, the prosecution said it wouldnt call as witnesses two older children who had been in the apartment the day Liam was injured.

Prosecutors also agreed to exclude evidence of property damage in the apartment  at a bond hearing last year, Sardarovs wife had acknowledged in her testimony he sometimes had trouble controlling his temper and had punched numerous holes in the walls of their home.

But the attorneys never reached an agreement on potential testimony by a medical examiner regarding the timing of the injuries Liam suffered.

By virtue of the injuries being found, Mr. Sardarov is being accused of inflicting them, Hartley argued. Clemens had said he would rule on that issue later, but the plea hearing precluded that.

Also, in a separate-but-related matter, Sardarov was charged in November in Franklin County General District Court after Marie Fink told police hed called her and had threatened to bring the heat against her and her family.

He was found guilty of using profane language, a misdemeanor. He got a six-month suspended sentence and was charged $209 in court costs. That fee, due in February, remains unpaid, online court records show.

In a 2016 interview with The Roanoke Times, Marie Fink said that before her son was killed, he was just starting to learn how to roll over and she described him as the happiest baby ever.

His laugh and smile was priceless, Fink said.

After his death, family members said some of Liams organs were donated to three recipients  an adult, a 2-week-old girl and a 5-month-old boy who shared his first name.
Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie both raised nearly $2 million in June as they won their gubernatorial primaries, but Gillespie has almost twice as much cash as Northam after spending less money during his surprisingly close nomination contest.

Gillespie had nearly $3.29 million on hand between his campaign and PAC as of June 30, compared with $1.76 million for Northam, according to campaign finance reports due at midnight Monday.

In monthly fundraising, Northam, the current lieutenant governor, finished slightly ahead of Gillespie, a Northern Virginia-based political consultant and former chairman of the Republican National Committee; Northam brought in $1.96 million to Gillespies $1.82 million. Both received a $1 million post-primary contribution from their respective governors associations.

At the end of the reporting period, Gillespies campaign had spent $3.47 million for the entire election cycle. Northams campaign had spent $6.65 million, much of it going toward advertising in his Democratic primary battle with former Rep. Tom Perriello.

The Northam-Perriello matchup was widely thought to be the more competitive race of the June 13 primaries. Instead, Northam, a pediatric neurologist and former state senator from Norfolk, cruised to a nearly 12-point victory.

On the other hand, Gillespie squeaked out a win over Corey Stewart, the tough-talking chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, who now hopes to translate his effort into a 2018 run against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Looking for a silver lining, the Gillespie campaign has stressed frugality as a strong point heading into the general election phase.

We had three goals in the primary: 1. Win; 2. Dont change as Ralph Northam did; and 3. Stockpile our cash so we can bring Eds positive vision to the voters of our commonwealth right out of the gate in the general election, Gillespie campaign Chairman Pete Snyder said in a prepared statement.

After coming off of a strong primary victory, Dr. Northam continues to generate new enthusiasm across Virginia as we work together to create economic opportunity for everyone no matter where they live, said Northam campaign manager Brad Komar.

Northam and Gillespie are scheduled to debate for the first time this weekend during the Virginia Bar Associations summer meeting at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs
FREDERICKSBURG  The DMV isnt just the place where people list on their licenses that they want to be organ donors.

For Freida BoothPitts, it was where she got a kidney.

The Caroline County woman is an assistant manager at the North Henrico branch of the Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles. When her kidneys deteriorated to the point she needed a transplant, her donor was Sandy Bloxom, a co-worker who renews drivers licenses and updates registrations right along with her.

BoothPitts had the surgery June 5 and is slowly recovering. She takes nine different pills, twice a day, to keep her body from rejecting the transplanted organ, but shes so grateful shes already seen improvement in one key area.

Her failing kidneys couldnt remove all the toxins from her body, and BoothPitts said she felt like she was in a constant fog.

Not anymore.

As her thoughts have cleared, she doesnt hesitate to praise the one who made it happen.

Im still flabbergasted, she said, adding her sister had offered to be her donor but eventually declined. Here, Sandy comes from my DMV family and steps up and saves my life.

Perfect match

Bloxom, 52, was such a perfect match for BoothPitts, 48, that transplant officials at VCU Health System in Richmond told them they could have been blood relatives.

But when Bloxom first volunteered to be a donor in 2015, there was one aspect of her health that caused her to fail the test.

She smoked, and her lungs werent strong enough for surgery. Bloxom had quit for 11 years, then resumed the habit.

God only knows why I started up again, she said. I couldnt have a conversation without hacking and coughing.

Bloxom was devastated by the news, especially as her friend worsened. The past few years havent been easy for BoothPitts.

The doctor tells me I have the medical history of an 80-year-old, she said.

Value of checkups

At a yearly checkup about 12 years ago, BoothPitts learned she had elevated levels of creatinine.

Thats a waste product that comes from normal wear and tear on the bodys muscles. Everyone has it in their bloodstream, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and additional tests show if theres kidney failure.

BoothPitts started seeing a specialist at VCU. She didnt have any symptoms at first, but then she developed gout and had so much pain in her ankle and big toe that she couldnt stand to have a sheet touch them. Her hands and feet started to swell as well.

Seven years ago, a biopsy showed her kidneys were getting worse.

Three years ago, she was told dialysis was imminent.

In March 2016, she started peritoneal dialysis, an at-home treatment that uses the lining of the abdomen and a cleaning solution to cleanse the blood.

I had to stay hooked to this machine for nine hours, and then I would get up and go to work every day, BoothPitts said. I hardly missed a day.

Thats a fact, Bloxom added.

At another checkup, BoothPitts discovered shed had an aneurysm in the aortic valve of her heart. She had emergency valve replacement in July 2016, and during the surgery, another vein in her heart collapsed. She was on the operating table for 10 hours, almost twice as long as scheduled, but BoothPitts realized the episode could have ended much differently.

If the routine test hadnt revealed the aneurysm, that would have burst, and I would have died, BoothPitts said. Like I always say, Do your yearly checkups. 

People pulling for her

While BoothPitts health declined, Bloxom was trying to boost her own health. She had stopped smoking again and was trying to get the tobacco toxins out of her body and improve her lung strength.

She went back to VCU to be tested again.

When Bloxom was cleared for surgery, I jumped up and down and started crying and screaming, she said.

There was a sign in the North Henrico DMV office about BoothPitts needing a kidney, and several customers called Karen Huber, transplant coordinator at VCU Health System. One woman didnt match BoothPitts, but she was able to donate a kidney to someone else.

Freida had a lot of people pulling for her, she really did, Huber said, adding that many didnt meet qualifications because of health problems. It was her good friend who followed through and saved the day.

A sight to be seen

By the time Bloxom passed the donor test, she was working in the Henrico West End DMV. She went to her friends workplace on May 26 to share the news that she could give her a kidney.

Manager Heather JonesMarable arranged for several district managers to be there as well. JonesMarable likes to make announcements, such as when a customer at the DMV is celebrating a birthday.

So BoothPitts, who was with a client at the front counter, didnt pay much attention when she heard her managers voice over the intercom.

Then she noticed a few co-workers shedding tears.

And she heard something about someone being approved as a kidney donor.

Then I saw Sandy and I just lost it, BoothPitts said.

So did most others who witnessed it, her manager said.

I started crying, customers started crying, employees started crying, it was a very emotional thing, JonesMarable said. It was a sight to be seen.

Shes part of me now

In terms of the operation, it was much easier to give than to receive.

Bloxom was in surgery for six hours and away from home for two nights. Shes had no problems and little pain.

BoothPitts insurance covered all Bloxoms expenses, even prescriptions. Like most state and federal employees, she gets six weeks of leave to recover from an organ donation.

Bloxom hopes her story will inspire more people to become organ donors once they realize how easy it is for someone to save another persons life. At VCU alone, doctors transplant about 160 kidneys a year.

Its been a more arduous journey for BoothPitts, as her body has fought to get rid of what it sees as a foreign object. The medicine she takes helps trick her immune system into accepting it.

But as she tells people when she talks about the new kidney, me and little Sandy are doing just fine. Shes eager to get back to work, but Bloxom has promised to keep her posted about life in the DMV world.

She cant get rid of me now, Bloxom said.

Shes part of me, BoothPitts added.
Heres todays provocative question: Does it really matter who is elected governor this November?

If you care about social issues, it certainly does, because Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie stand on opposite sides of just about every issue you can name.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly has passed lots of bills on everything from abortion to guns to switchblades. (Yes, allowing switchblades really was an issue in the past session.) Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe has vetoed them. So would Northam. Gillespie would likely sign them. So regardless of where you stand on those issues, it matters who will be wielding the pen, be it a veto pen or a signing pen.

If youre just looking to score political points, well, the governors race matters then, too. Republicans who have been on the defensive in the Age of Trump could point to a gubernatorial pick-up in Virginia as a huge win. Democrats might crow about a Northam win, too, but that wouldnt change the scorecard  although an unlikely Democratic takeover of the House of Delegates would.

However, if youre not a partisan, and if youre not particularlyinflamed over social issues, does the identity of the next governor matter? What if you just want a job, if not for you, then for your children or your grandchildren?

Gillespie and Northam will tell you the choice matters. Both of them have made interesting proposals aimed at rejuvenating the states slow-growth economy. Gillespie calls for a tax cut, although a massive tax cut in Kansas ended up such a budgetary disaster that even the Republican legislators there repealed it. Northam has proposed a complicated plan to make community college free for certain qualifying students, with an eye toward improving the skills gap between the states workforce and the jobs being created.

Neither of those proposals, though, have any unique impact on the parts of the state with the most severe economic problems  primarily Southwest and Southside Virginia. Because thats where we live, thats what we care about most. Merely cutting taxes, as Gillespie wants to do, doesnt do anything toward closing the skills gap or infrastructure gap that rural areas have. Northams community college proposal addresses the former  but five community colleges west of the Blue Ridge already have similar programs, so Northams plan may not move the needle here as much as he thinks.

On Saturday, Gillespie and Northam hold their first debate. Their audience in Hot Springs will be a statewide one  lawyers from throughout the Old Dominion assembled at The Homestead for the annual Virginia Bar Association convention. But we still ask the candidates to give this part of the state some reason why we should have a stake in this years governors race. Northam may, or may not, do this today, when he releases what is billed as his rural economic policy plan. Well see what it says. Heres our starting point: Much of Southwest and Southside is losing population. The reason for that is pretty obvious: A lack of jobs. The traditional, dominant industries in those regions have simply collapsed. Can either candidate offer more than happy talk about how he will help build a new economy in rural Virginia? Does either candidate have an actual plan? Well even offer some prompts:

n The skills gap is real, and both candidates talk about it. Here, though, is a real-world example of why its so hard to fix. In Franklin County, the career and technical education school cant handle all the students who want to want to get in. In some of key fields, the school has to turn away more students than it can accept. This is where the skills gap begins. Business leaders have complained they cant find enough qualified workers and have urged the county to move faster on expanding the center. The catch: That expansion might cost $50 million. Thats a lot of money for a rural county to come up with. Do the candidates think it should be entirely up to Franklin County to fix that problem  which is really the local root of a statewide problem? If so, lets hear them say that.

Franklins hardly the only rural locality to face such a situation; its only the most convenient example. Gillespie and Northam can talk in generalities about bridging the skills gap, but lets hear them talk about an actual example.

n What would the candidates do about the Third World infrastructure in much of rural Virginia? By that, we specifically mean the lack of broadband Internet, which makes it difficult for many businesses to open in rural areas. Gillespie has said hed not keen on municipal broadband as a solution. Fine. The fact remains: Many rural localities have Internet speeds that are slower than those in Third World countries. What can or will the next governor do about that?

n What about a state tax code that actively discourages certain businesses from locating in rural Virginia? Gillespie talks the most about changing the tax code, so this is a more natural issue for him, although both candidates ought to address it.

Heres the key point: The Tax Foundation, which puts out regular rankings, says Virginia finishes second among all states for the highest taxes on new capital-intensive manufacturers, and its in the top 15 states for the highest taxes for new labor-intensive manufacturers. Those are the types of employers that rural areas could attract, yet our tax laws put us at a disadvantage compared to other states.

Heres the stark reality: Parts of rural Virginia  most notably the coalfields, but also some parts of Southside  are facing both an economic and demographic calamity of historic proportions.

We have big problems, and need big solutions. Del. William Morefield, R-Tazewell County, recently proposed one: Hed waive both individual and corporate income taxes in the states poorest localities 10 years. That may or may not be the right answer, but it is, at least, a big idea, one radical enough to be commensurate with the situation. Will Northam talk about that today? Will he and Gillespie talk about that Saturday? Or will they come up with their own big ideas? If not, is there any reason why voters in rural Virginia should even bother with this years governors race?
Motorcyclist Marhsall Kennedy of Swinton

A MAMMOTH motorcycle adventure saw a Swinton man make a 1,000-mile journey to support a military charity.

Marshall Kennedy (66) and pal Tim Shaw joined 75 other bikers in a mass road trek from Leeds to Scotland and back to support the Royal British Legions Poppy Appeal.

Marshall, of Church Street in Swinton, got on his Suzuki 1800 Intruder and set off from popular motorcycle cafe Squires at Sherburn-in-Elmet near Leeds at 5am last Saturday (June 25).

He and Tim, who lives in Harworth near Tickhill, travelled from Leeds to Manchester, then up to Glasgow, Fort William, Inverness, John o Groats, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh before returning to Leeds.

The massive journey took them 19 hours and 50 minutes.

It was organised by the Royal British Legion and motorcyclist group the Iron Butt Association, and Marshall, a keen biker, said he was pleased to have raised 1,200 from sponsorship.

Although he does not have a military background, Marshall said he was keen to help the Royal British Legion.

Marshall said: We all set off in 15-minute intervals and we never stopped really. We just got off the bikes to fill up with petrol and then set off again.

There was a fantastic camaraderie and we saw lovely scenery around Loch Ness and the Loch Lomond area.

I think its something that is off my bucket list now.

Marshall said he had been supported in his adventure by his wife, Sylvia.

He added: She said I was crazy to start with.
Iceland on Sycamore Road in Eastwood.

FROZEN food chain Iceland failed to put in place any one of 11 measures to ensure the safety of a worker who fell to his death at a Rotherham store, a court heard.

Iceland is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court for health ans safety breaches over the death of contractor Tony Hopkins at the Eastwood branch in October 2013.

Prosecutor Mr Nicholas de la Poer yesterday summed up his case for the jury, which is expected to retire to consider its verdict this afternoon.

Mr Hopkins (58) of Silsden in West Yorkshire, was changing air conditioning filters in the roof space at the shop on Sycamore Road when he fell three metres from the roof space and died after landing on his head.

Staff and medics tried to help Mr Hopkins, but he was pronounced dead around one hour later at Rotherham Hospital.

He said there had been 11 ways in which the firm could have made the workplace safer for Mr Hopkins, including checking for a handrail or warning contractors that it had not done so.

The court heard that the service platform posed several risks, including trip hazards and a ladder which was not properly secured.

The supermarket denies one count of failing to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the safety of contractors on its premises.

It faces a further charge of failing to protect its employees, who also accessed the platform from which Mr Hopkins fell.

Mr de la Poer told jurors that the circumstances of Mr Hopkins death were entirely avoidable.

He said: At the heart of this case is a tragedy.

Mr Hopkins, a man with years ahead of him with his wife and family, fell to his death at work.

Iceland presented a foreseeable and avoidable risk of harm to anyone going up on that platform to help it run its operations.

Mr de la Poer highlighted the absence of a handrail at the top of the ladder a risk identified while the shop was being fitted, prompting Iceland to order one installed.

But this work was never done and lawyers disagreed, during the two-week trial, about who should have checked and fixed this.

Mr de la Poer said it was Icelands responsibility to ensure that everyone working in its site was protected from harm.

He said: "It is the job of the defence to convince you that none of these (the 11 measures he highlighted to ensure safety) were reasonably practicable.

If you decide that any one of them was, it would deprive Iceland of this defence.

He added: It was perfectly reasonable for contractors to assume that a massive, national chain with 900 stores and four safety managers would have done a risk assessment for this platform.

Everyone who went up there would have assumed that Iceland had done this, so they would not have been as on their guard.

But this platform posed a risk of serious injury or death to employees and anyone Iceland invited on site to maintain its air conditioning.

The trial continues.
A JUDGE has begun summing up the case against frozen food giant Iceland, which accused of failing to protect a contractor who fell to his death.

Tony Hopkins (68), of Silsden in West Yorkshire, sustained a brain injury after crashing through a false ceiling at the store in Sycamore Road, Eastwood, in 2013 and died an hour later.

The air conditioning engineer had gone into a roof space to replace some filters, when he fell three metres onto his head, Sheffield Crown Court has heard.

Judge Roger Thomas QC started summarising evidence for jurors today, after hearing the closing remarks of defence and prosecution lawyers.

The prosecution earlier said Iceland failed to put in place any of 11 possible measures to ensure workers safety.

Mr John Cooper, defending, said the real culprits in Mr Hopkins' death were building contractors who failed to install a safety rail which might have broken his fall.

He asked: Why don't you have here the obvious people who should be held accountable?

Mr (Nicholas) de la Poer (prosecuting) doesnt have the power to prosecute the real culprits.

Mr Cooper also referred to as-built drawings of the site, found at the Eastwood Iceland store where Mr Hopkins died.

These formal documents should reflect finished construction works, he explained to jurors  but the missing handrail had been included in these diagrams.

This is a permanent record of what is actually there, said Mr Cooper.

It is there to be looked at by anyone charged with working in that area.

It is not a peripheral document, as the prosecution has suggested.

He further described defence witnesses, most of whom worked for Iceland or their subcontractors, as down-to-earth, passionate and experienced guys.

Jurors are due to retire to consider their verdicts this afternoon or tomorrow morning.


Graff Diamonds Internationals revenue and profit dropped last year, according to the luxury jewelers latest financials.

Sales fell 10% to $569.6 million in 2016, while profit slumped 66% to $15.8 million, the recent filing showed. The London-based retailer saw UK sales decline 5% to $34.3 million, with revenue from the rest of the global network down 10% to $535.3 million.

Results for Graff Diamonds International do not include all of the groups activities, such as its controlling stake in diamond manufacturer Safdico, a De Beers sightholder. Total revenue and profit for the entire operation  Graff Diamonds Holdings  increased in 2016, the companys chief financial officer, Andrew Nicholson, told Rapaport News on Tuesday.

Company chairman Laurence Graff called the group-wide results robust in a statement, adding that its new store on Place Vendome in Paris, which opened last year, had performed well.

The group plans to open a limited number of new stores in targeted, high-prestige locations during 2017, including in Singapore. It will also expand its store-in-store network in the US and Japan.

Whilst there are a number of uncertainties in the global economy at present, we remain broadly optimistic and continue to invest strategically in our retail network and in the Graff brand, the chairman said.




The Swiss stock market got off to a positive start Tuesday and remained in the green throughout the morning. However, the market slipped into the red for the bulk of the afternoon and finished the day with a loss. The positive performance from index heavyweight Novartis helped to prevent a larger drop.

Investor sentiment took a hit after two more Republican U.S. Senators opposed the Republican healthcare bill, dealing the proposed legislation a potentially fatal blow. The weak opening on Wall Street also contributed to the negative mood in the afternoon.

The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.67 percent Tuesday and finished at 8,977.98. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.71 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.62 percent.

Index heavyweight Novartis climbed 0.4 percent. The pharmaceutical giant confirmed its full-year guidance despite reporting a fall in second-quarter core earnings.

Meanwhile, Roche dropped 1.1 percent and Nestle surrendered 0.7 percent. JPMorgan confirmed its "Overweight" rating on the food giant and increased its price target on the stock.

Kuehne + Nagel jumped 3.4 percent. The logistics company reported financial results for the first half of the year and announced a pair of acquisitions.

Clariant declined 1.5 percent and Richemont fell 1.7 percent. Credit Suisse also decreased 2.0 percent after U.S. rival Goldman Sachs reported disappointing financial results.

ABB weakened by 1.5 percent, Sonova surrendered 1.3 percent and Swiss Life dropped 1.2 percent.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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By SA Commercial Prop News

Atlantic Leaf Properties has grown its assets under management, from 270m at the end of May 2016 to 303m at the end of May 2017. [ FILE PHOTO]



The injection of a substantial property portfolio into JSE-listed Atlantic Leaf Properties the past years is paying off.

The Mauritian-based real estate company that invests in light industrial nodes in the UK, says it has grown its assets under management, from 270m at the end of May 2016 to 303m at the end of May 2017.

CEO Paul Leaf-Wright said the group had timed its entry into light industrial real estate well in a competitive market.

"We entered the market at a clever time. The market was at a weak point and we saw the potential in light industrial properties," said Leaf-Wright on the sidelines of the release of the groups financial results for the quarter to May.

"These results reflect a solid performance for the quarter where the company achieved its forecast earnings target and is on track for the full-year forecast distribution of 9p.

"Our focus remains firmly on the UK, which still presents numerous good opportunities for us to consider. Notwithstanding the elections and Brexit talks, we see occupier and investment demand.

Income and capital growth continue to show value in the industrial and logistics sectors," he said.

The companys portfolio consists of 48 properties, each of which has long-term single-tenant leases with blue-chip occupiers, with an average yield of 7.3% and an average lease term of about 11 years.

Atlantic Leafs chief investment officer, Shaun Fourie, said that although no new acquisitions had been made in the reporting period, the group continued to see significant activity in the UK property market.

Paul Duncan, an investment manager at Catalyst Fund Managers, said that Atlantic Leaf had assembled a reasonable portfolio, although its external management structure meant management and shareholders incentives were not necessarily aligned well enough.

"Investors have always had negative experiences with such corporate structures," he said.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Prague's Parizska Street, is the most attractive and expensive street in Central and Eastern Europe.



There has been a change in the thinking of the South African property investor community towards offshore diversification in recent years.

The South African listed-property sector has seen a dramatic shift offshore with about 46% of its value in overseas markets, including eastern and western Europe.

South African property stocks offshore exposure has more or less doubled since 2014 as investors have diversified their risk and sought better growth opportunities.

The South African listed-property sector is now worth about R500bn and is exposed to 25 countries, most recently Spain, according to Keillen Ndlovu, head of listed-property funds at Stanlib.

"The exposure to these 25 countries now makes up almost 50% of the South African listed-property sector.

Therefore it has become a very diversified sector with most of the exposure in eastern Europe," Ndlovu said.

Much of this offshore exposure was in new and relatively untested markets.

This meant fund managers had to learn quickly to perform in highly competitive arenas, he said.

About 54.3% of all property companies listed on the JSE are based in SA. Research by Avior shows that this exposure was at 59.5% in 2015.

Ndlovu said that data showed the biggest portion of offshore exposure by market capitalisation was in eastern Europe coming in at 15.9%.

This was followed by UK exposure of 14.8% and other western European countries coming in at 4.7%. US exposure was 4.4% and Australian exposure was 4.3%. African exposure was only 1.5%.

South African property investors have flooded eastern Europe over the past two years.

The exposure to the region by market capitalisation was only 9% two years ago.

Rockcastle Global Real Estate and Redefine Properties have invested extensively in Poland. Rockcastle has also invested in the Czech Republic.

New Europe Property Investments (Nepi) has over more than 10 years become the largest owner of shopping centres in Romania.

This week, Rockcastle and Nepi will merge into the largest listed-property fund on the JSE, with a market cap of about R91bn.

JSE-listed Resilient Reit owns various shopping centres in SA and stakes in Nepi and Greenbay Properties.

Greenbay invests in listed European property funds and distressed real-estate assets. It recently bought interests in Portuguese shopping centres.

It was the best-performing property company in the first half of 2017, with a return of about 23.4%, as a result of its aggressive acquisition strategy.

Vukile Property Fund said recently it would expand into Spain, the first South African property company to do so.

It made a landmark deal worth nearly R3bn when it acquired a portfolio of nine newly built retail parks across Spain via its 98.3% holding in Castellana Properties Socimi.

The 193m off-market deal increased Vukiles diversification, boosted its international exposure to about 21% of property assets and grew its Spanish portfolio to 11 properties.

"The transaction has given Vukile immediate scale in Spain.

Vukile now offers the most focused exposure to Spanish property available in the South African real-estate investment trust or Reit market," Vukile CEO Laurence Rapp said earlier.

Senior property analyst at Nedbank CIB Len van Niekerk said property investors had realised that the South African real-estate market would struggle in 2017 and therefore had gone abroad in a pre-emptive move.

The past few years of poor economic growth and increase in retail space in SA were now, with a lag effect, being felt in the letting and performance of shopping centres.

Van Niekerk said that he expected companies to warn of lower growth in distributions from SA during the August reporting season.

The next frontier after Spain could be the US or Canada. "I believe that it is only a matter time before someone brings a portfolio of North American assets to the JSE," he said.

This region was a sophisticated and well-funded market and South African investors needed to carve out a specific niche to excel.

"One of the key issues is that the investment headlines arent as attractive as in Europe, initial yields in the US are lower and debt funding costs are higher," Van Niekerk said.
On August 21st, there will be a rare total solar eclipse viewable from certain parts of the United States, called the Great American Eclipse. According to NASA, this is the first time since 1918 that "a total eclipse will cross the entire country, coast-to-coast." As with most cool things that occur in the sky, New York City won't really get to experience it, but we will sort of get to experience it. Jackie Faherty, Senior Scientist in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History, told Gothamist:

NYC is sadly not in the path of totality. We will see a partial eclipse where ~71% of the Sun will be blocked by the Moon. The start of the partial eclipse begins at 1:23 and ends at 4 p.m. with the maximum eclipse occurring at the important hour of 2:44. The American Museum of Natural History will have educators ready to explain the event and will offer eclipse viewing glasses to make sure your eyes are protected so you can safely watch the event.

The best views of the full eclipse will be seen in Oregon, down to South Carolina, and those areas are reportedly seeing Airbnbs and hotels booking up for front row seats to the "fascinating and wondrous" experience. But NASA says that "weather permitting, the entire continent will have the opportunity to view an eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun, casting a shadow on Earths surface."

They add that the total solar eclipse will begin on August 21st at 1:15 p.m. EST in Lincoln City, Oregon, and end at 2:48 EST near Charleston, South Carolina"the partial eclipse will start earlier and end later, but the total eclipse itself will take about one hour and 40 minutes to cross the country." Here's the path:

Some helpful links:


Dear Editor

Re: Virgins application

I totally agree with the P.M. about his decision to end a partnership with Virgin Airlines.

I remember when they first started that the airfares were very cheap but all of a sudden they started raising the airfares gradually and its very unfair for us travelers because airlines blame it on the oil process which is a fabrication excuse.

The other point the P.M. is making is they should have used a bigger plane which carries more passengers and save on an extra flight and save fuel but the Virgin Airlines are playing monopoly games with our country.

I take my hat off to the P.M. for doing such a great service for our country and especially our people.

I visit every now and then and very proud of where our country is heading.

I shall return back home and serve our country either in public office or whatever I will do to serve our people.

GOD BLESS OUR HEAD OF STATE, PM , PARLIAMENT, AND OUR COUNTRY.

B. Meyer
The Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiava'asu'e Falefatu Sapolu, has issued a stern warning to members of the public against bribing the Judges.

Its illegal and its against the laws of Samoa, he said.

I tell you.... you may get away with it on this earth but you will be questioned about your actions when you get to heaven.

The Chief Justice sounded the warning last week.

He was speaking during the swearing in ceremony of the newest Judge for the Land and Titles Court, Masinalupe Tusipa Masinalupe.

Chief Justice Patu highlighted the importance of honesty, making right and neutral decisions as opposed to being biased and making rulings based on bribery and other wrong motives.

The Chief Justice spoke about the need to cling onto God as the foundation and the guidance of your decision making.

His Honour Patu stressed that no one would ever trust the Judiciary if the Judges are corrupt and dishonest.

No Samoan family would ever want to bring their familys heritage to the Land and Titles Court, if the judge is unethical and dishonest, said the Chief Justice.

I also caution members of the public who are trying to bribe the judges.

My advice to those of you who are trying to bribe the Judges is to please stop. Deviate from conducting those unlawful actions.

Please be advised that its illegal to bribe a Judge of the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration.

Because I tell you.... you may get away with it on this earth but you will be questioned about your actions when you get to heaven.

Last year, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi called for a special Commission of Inquiry to investigate the performance of Land and Titles Court (L.T.C) Judges.

As reported earlier, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry determined whether the Judges are doing what they are supposed to. At the time Tuilaepa said Parliament can submit an application to the Head of State to remove any Judge who is not performing their role with honesty.

Secondly the appointments and scrutiny of the Land and Titles judges performances. In response, earlier this year, the Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu clarified the decision by the Judiciary to abstain from a Parliament-ordered Commission of Inquiry to investigate the work of its Judges.

According to a copy obtained by the Samoa Observer, the Land and Titles Court Judges objection was based on a legitimate concern.

The main reason the Judges did not take part was because of our concern that members of the public would eventually criticise the decisions by the Land and Titles Court Judges, which was clearly reflected in the report, a translation of the response reads.

Our firm belief is that the Judges of the Land and Titles Court are not answerable to any person or any Committee in relation to their decisions.

The concern is that it diminishes the independence and the integrity of the Land and Titles Court and its decisions.
A biological brother and his sister have pleaded guilty to charges of incest.

The defendants, aged 26 and 18, appeared before the Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu yesterday for criminal mention.

It was there they pleaded guilty to the criminal charges.

The Prosecutor was lawyer, Fuifui Ioane, of the Attorney Generals Office.

During the criminal mention hearing, the brother and sister were asked if they wanted a lawyer for legal representation.

The pair declined the offer.

But their mother stood before the Court pleading for a lawyer.

Your Honour, Im the mother of the two defendants and I want a lawyer for them, she said.

It is I who want a lawyer to represent them.

The Chief Justice reminded the mother that its her children whom are appearing before the court, not her.

In that case I have to say no because you are not the one who is charged. Ive just asked your children if they want a lawyer and they said no, His Honour Patu said.

Under the law that is not allowed, the Court only considers the defendants needs, not anyone else. Please have a seat.

Chief Justice Patu then inquired again.

Ill ask you again, you both heard your mother so do you both want a lawyer? they were asked by Chief Justice Patu.

The Chief Justice then rescheduled the brothers hearing for two weeks, affording him the opportunity to get a defense lawyer.

However the sisters case has been scheduled for 23 August 2017 to await a pre-sentence report ordered by the Court before Justice Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala Warren.

The Chief Justice also ordered the Police report on this case.

According to the Police summary of facts, the incident occurred on 1st Feb and 1st June 2017 when the defendants had a sexual relationship knowing they are biological siblings.

The incident occurred in one of the villages in Savaii.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Salaa Moananu Salaa said the incident was reported by a Pastor.

According to the pastor, the brother and the sister go to the denomination that he looks after and he believes they are in a relationship, Salaa said.

The penalty for this kind of crime is imprisonment for not more than 20 years. This is a very serious offence and we cannot tolerate this kind of thing because it goes against our beliefs.

Its very hard to accept it because we are a country that is founded on God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. This kind of behavior is unacceptable and its disgusting.

We have values and our culture clearly states this. The whole of Samoa cannot and will not, accept this kind of behavior.
Members of the public received free health screening and helpful advice about health and other health-related matters at Vaitele-uta last Saturday.

The help came from staff members of the Ministry of Health who responded to a call from the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S) for a health clinic to be conducted on their premises for church members and outsiders.

The programme was initiated by the youth as well as the churchs senior Pastor, Reverend Muao Fagasua.

Darryl Pupi said the voluntary work was all about giving back to the community.

The officials here including myself are all employees of the Ministry of Health and what we have in common is that we all attend this church, he said.

So we are offering free health screening to members of our church. Instead of going out to other villages we decided to do it here at Vaitele where we attend church.

The programme was strongly supported by the Ministry of Health.

The equipment that we are using comes from the Ministry of Health.

As you know Vaitele has a big population with people from everywhere and so we wanted to reach out to the people instead of going around to other villages.

So today we are conducting screening for diabetes, hypertension, Body Mass Index (B.M.I.) and typhoid for all ages from babies to senior citizens.

Mr. Pupi said this is the first time they have conducted a programme such as this.

We are trying to make it not only annually but every two months as Vaitele have a lot of people, he said.

This is to show that even though Vaitele has a very big population we can still help people by offering free screening on Saturdays and we are starting with people from our congregation.

This is our way of giving back to the community.

In the long run we wish to sustain it because its a free service and we want the programme to move forward from here so we can do more.

This programme is an encouragement to other congregations that have people who work in the Ministry of Health to do the same.
The need to developing policies and guidelines for new business owners is one of the recommendations made by the Parliament Economic Sector Committee to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour.

The recommendation was raised in Parliament when the Chairman of Parliaments Economic Sector Committee, Faalogo Iosefa Sopi, spoke about the M.C.I.Ls Annual Report.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, read out the governments response, noting that M.C.I.L has similar programmes in place.

He noted that the Ministry has also assisted in the promotion and publication of policies to raise awareness among the business community.

The M.C.I.L. has an Awareness Day and Divisional Programmes for Upolu and Savaii.

Furthermore he said there are also promotions through ministry websites, social media and pamphlets to assist the new businesses.

Tuilaepa spoke about the importance of the Investment Guide and the National Investment Policy Statement.

This is an important publication intended to provide basic information that every investor needs to know about the investment environment of Samoa, such as the processes and procedures for setting up a business in Samoa; and who to contact on these processes.

Furthermore the National Investment Policy Statement sets out the Government policies for promotion and facilitating foreign and private sector investments.

The Government is committed to these policies and continues to review them in an endeavour to further improve the environment for private sector development.

Both booklets are reviewed regularly with the recent review that was complete in August 2016.

These booklets are available on the Ministry's website and readily available hard copies are distributed to overseas missions and are also kept on hand at the office.

The Ministry will continue to improve its monitoring methods as well as strengthen legal provisions to monitor the Reserved List and ensure that foreign investment enterprises are compliant with government legal provisions.

The Prime Minister said the Ministry continues to improve on its procedures and publications.

Another recommendation includes a call on the Ministry to seek other ways to assist business owners in producing products that can be sold and exported overseas.

Tuilaepa pointed out the Ministry have secured more funding for a Trade Sector Support Programme for on-the-ground implementation along a value chain approach.

The funds are specifically for the issue raised, the Sector envisioned that the funding of the Trade Promotion Officer under the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industries and will assist and advise local businesses on international market trends and products that yield high returns.

Moreover, the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa is also capacitated with funds to carry out Research and Development of coconut and cocoa value-added products that would in-time be passed on to the private sector for commercialization.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, seen above in his preferred Wacky Races-style way of getting around, has enjoyed playing games with the idea of who really steers the fate of the subway system. (For the record: he does.) And while bold unreality gambits like claiming the MTA, a state agency, is not a state agency, may have worked in the past, the constant nightmare that is the subway system seems to be eroding Cuomo's ability to pin this problem on someone else.

A Siena College poll found that 52 percent of New Yorkers across the state, and 53 percent of New York City residents hold Cuomo most responsible for the state of the MTA. And while 59 percent of New Yorkers say that the governor has done a fair or poor job with mass transit, somehow there's a holdout 26 percent who think he's doing an excellent job with it. Maybe they just ride the Times Square shuttle back and forth?

The bad subway grades and voters' ongoing realization that the MTA is a state agency controlled by the governor of the state of New York has also managed to hurt his reelection chances, with voters tied at 46 percent between reelecting Cuomo or going with someone else. Only 52 percent of voters have a favorable view of Cuomo overall, compared to 61 percent of voters in May.

Bill de Blasio didn't escape from the poll totally unscathed though, as 35 percent of voters in New York City still think he's primarily responsible for the MTA, and 20 percent of voters say he's doing a good job handling the whole mass transit meltdown thing. And despite his well-known contempt for cheap symbolism, it seems de Blasio is at least trying to make good with voters, including experiencing what it is to stand crushed and dead-eyed on an increasingly packed 7 train wondering what sin you committed in a past life to have this be your every day existence.
We live in a time where when a job opportunity calls; we go for it no matter what.

Even if it means leaving home as well.

Lasela Feleti of Safotu Savaii and Aleipata knows what this feels like.

The 25-year-old and her husband left their home in Savaii and came all the way to Upolu when the Member of Parliament at Falelauniu offered them a job.

We have been working for him about a year now, she tells Village Voice.

We look after his land and his herd of sheep.

Lasela and her husband only have one child and despite the fact that it was hard for them to be apart; they had to because they needed this job to earn a living.

It was important for us to have a job to do; we had to come here and work because making money doesnt come easy to us anymore.

Opportunities like these always come with challenges and risks; you know just like theres always a price to pay for everything.

So working far away from home and families was not an easy choice to make but its good to support our families and children.

Lasela is the ninth child of ten siblings and she said having a big family has made her learn to stand on her own two feet.

Money matters to me and it matters to everyone; and thats why I work.

Im not going to lie and say that I work for other different reasons, no.

We all know that we work because we need money. I need money.

I need it for my family especially for my child and without this job here; I dont think we would be working anywhere else.

I think we would probably be still looking for jobs back then because the reality today is that there are not enough jobs in Samoa.

So we cannot afford to be picky when it comes to job opportunities and thats why were here today.
WASHINGTON (AP)  After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation's military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America's ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials.

Under the plans, U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.

Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity.

The goal, they said, is to give U.S. Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA, which is responsible for monitoring and collecting telephone, internet and other intelligence data from around the world  a responsibility that can sometimes clash with military operations against enemy forces.

Making cyber an independent military command will put the fight in digital space on the same footing as more traditional realms of battle on land, in the air, at sea and in space. The move reflects the escalating threat of cyberattacks and intrusions from other nation states, terrorist groups and hackers, and comes as the U.S. faces ever-widening fears about Russian hacking following Moscow's efforts to meddle in the 2016 American election.

The U.S. has long operated quietly in cyberspace, using it to collect information, disrupt enemy networks and aid conventional military missions. But as other nations and foes expand their use of cyberspying and attacks, the U.S. is determined to improve its ability to incorporate cyber operations into its everyday warfighting.

Experts said the command will need time to find its footing.

"Right now I think it's inevitable, but it's on a very slow glide path," said Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But, he added, "A new entity is not going to be able to duplicate NSA's capabilities."

The NSA, for examples, has 300 of the country's leading mathematicians "and a gigantic super computer," Lewis said. "Things like this are hard to duplicate."

He added, however, that over time, the U.S. has increasingly used cyber as a tactical weapon, bolstering the argument for separating it from the NSA.

The two highly secretive organizations, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, have been under the same four-star commander since Cyber Command's creation in 2009.

But the Defense Department has been agitating for a separation, perceiving the NSA and intelligence community as resistant to more aggressive cyberwarfare, particularly after the Islamic State's transformation in recent years from an obscure insurgent force into an organization holding significant territory across Iraq and Syria and with a worldwide recruiting network.

While the military wanted to attack IS networks, intelligence objectives prioritized gathering information from them, according to U.S. officials familiar with the debate. They weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly and requested anonymity.

Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent a plan to President Barack Obama last year to make Cyber Command an independent military headquarters and break it away from the NSA, believing that the agency's desire to collect intelligence was at times preventing the military from eliminating IS' ability to raise money, inspire attacks and command its widely dispersed network of fighters.

Carter, at the time, also pushed for the ouster of Adm. Mike Rogers, who still heads both bodies. The Pentagon, he warned, was losing the war in the cyber domain, focusing on cyberthreats from nations such as Iran, Russia and China, rather than on countering the communications and propaganda campaigns of internet-savvy insurgents.

Officials also grew alarmed by the growing number of cyberattacks against the U.S. government, including several serious, high-level Defense Department breaches that occurred under Rogers' watch.

"NSA is truly an intelligence-collection organization," said Lauren Fish, a research associate with the Center for a New American Security. "It should be collecting information, writing reports on it. Cyber Command is meant to be an organization that uses tools to have military operational effect."

After President Donald Trump's inauguration, officials said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis endorsed much of the plan. But debate over details has dragged on for months.

It's unclear how fast the Cyber Command will break off on its own. Some officials believe the new command isn't battle-ready, given its current reliance on the NSA's expertise, staff and equipment. That effort will require the department to continue to attract and retain cyber experts.

Cyber Command was created in 2009 by the Obama administration to address threats of cyber espionage and other attacks. It was set up as a sub-unit under U.S. Strategic Command to coordinate the Pentagon's ability to conduct cyberwarfare and to defend its own networks, including those that are used by combat forces in battle.

Officials originally said the new cyber effort would likely involve hundreds, rather than thousands, of new employees.

Since then, the command has grown to more than 700 military and civilian employees. The military services also have their own cyber units, with a goal of having 133 fully operational teams with as many as 6,200 personnel.

Its proposed budget for next year is $647 million. Rogers told Congress in May that represents a 16 percent increase over this year's budget to cover costs associated with building the cyber force, fighting IS and becoming an independent command.

Under the new plan being forwarded by the Pentagon to the White House, officials said Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville would be nominated to lead Cyber Command. Leadership of the NSA could be turned over to a civilian.

Mayville is currently the director of the military's joint staff and has extensive experience as a combat-hardened commander. He deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, leading the 173rd Airborne Brigade when it made its assault into Iraq in March 2003 and later heading coalition operations in eastern Afghanistan.
Natural gas in the U.S. is abundant and figures to remain a dominant source for the nations energy supply for years to come, a leading industry analyst said at a national conference for utilities commissioners in San Diego this week.

But at the same time, Andrew Weissman warned that natural gas prices may be headed for wide fluctuations in the coming years.

We face tremendous swings in demand that we cant predict, said Weissman, founder of EBW AnalyticsGroup, a company based in Washington, D.C., that provides consulting services in the oil and natural gas markets.

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And its likely to create conditions where, either with no notice, supplies become extremely tight or, with no notice, were flooded with natural gas.

The price for natural gas has been hovering near $3 per million British thermal units in recent months.

But Weissman, appearing as a panelist at a gathering of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina on Monday, said that while U.S. natural gas supplies are spectacularly abundant, prices could bounce around from as low as $1 per million BTUs to as high as $10.

If that holds true, it would have major impacts on the bills natural gas customers pay each month.

A low price, as long as it lasts, youll be a happy camper, said Weissman, a graduate of Harvard Law School who is also a senior counsel at Pillsbury Law. But the problem even with those low prices is that it could set things up for potential price spikes in the future.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, in its outlook that came out in January, forecast that natural gas prices would rise modestly from 2020 to 2030 as electric power consumption increases but anticipates prices staying relatively flat after 2030 as technology improvements keep pace with rising demand.

But Weissman sees a more volatile picture for a couple of reasons  weather patterns and the growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) export market.

Weather is inherently variable but Weissman said EBWs senior scientist and forecaster detected warming oceans have affected the jet streams to the point where the odds of a normal winter are now much lower than the odds of an extreme winter.

In the meantime, U.S. producers in recent years have employed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques in places such as the Marcellus shale formation that have seen the sheer amount of domestically-produced natural gas skyrocket.

Higher supplies have pushed down natural gas prices, which were as high as $12.30 in June 2008, and have opened a brand new market for LNG exports, where gas is cooled to minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit, condensed into liquid and shipped to clients around the world.

LNG shipments from the U.S. have gone from essentially zero to about 6 billion cubic feet per day in barely more than one year. The first liquefaction export facility, built by Cheniere Energy, opened in February 2016 and has proven extremely profitable.

A number of other companies, including San Diego-based Sempra Energy, are on track to open their own LNG facilities, to get into the export game.

The move to LNG exports is going to multiply the unpredictability of demand, Weissman said during the panel discussion with utility commissioners across the country.

The meeting came as California policymakers debate the role of natural gas in the states power mix.

Natural gas accounts for 49.86 percent of in-state electric generation and burns twice as cleanly as coal.

But natural gas is a fossil fuel and environmental organizations and clean-energy advocates, saying the states electric grid is oversupplied with natural gas power plants, have pushed for even greater integration of renewable energy sources.

Backers of natural gas say it is necessary to provide grid reliability, especially when solar and wind production lag when the sun doesnt shine or the wind doesnt blow.

A bill in the state Legislaturecalling for California to derive 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2045has cleared a number of legislative hurdles in Sacramento and may end up on Gov. Jerry Browns desk.

Weissman said that while there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions as rapidly as we can, hes skeptical about the practicality of a 100 percent renenewable energy goal.

If the target isnt reached and we forfeited other options by shutting down Diablo Canyon and even more nuclear plants in the East, not trying to develop carbon-capture (technology) for gas-fired plants, not trying to develop fuel cells that use natural gas, the results could be tragic, Weissman said. Whats really going on with climate change, I think, is way scarier than people understand.

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rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski
San Diego County residents in unincorporated areas will have three opportunities in the near future to weigh in on the types of animal services they want to see.

The county plans to outsource the operation to another entity by next July but wants to get feedback first on what kind of services people expect and how things are working currently.

An independent external consultant will run the meetings.

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The first meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Ramona Library, 1275 Main St.

The subsequent meetings will be at 6 p.m. on July 27 at the Fallbrook Library, 124 S. Mission Road, and 6 p.m. on Aug. 17 at the Bonita Library, 4375 Bonita Road.

The county Board of Supervisors approved the potential outsourcing of the Department of Animal Services in the unincorporated areas last March. It also decided against renewing the departments agreements to provide services in six contract cities.

The county has separate contracts to round-up strays, run shelters and help rescued pets get adopted with the cities of San Diego, Carlsbad, Del Mar, Encinitas, Santee and Solana Beach.

All contracts are set to expire on June 30, 2018.

A March memo from the Board of Supervisors said that the countys intent is to provide services that are better for both the animals and the taxpayers paying for the services.

The memo noted that the county decision to have someone else carry out their animal welfare operations was in response to rising costs, demand for increasing hours of operations, facilities need maintenance and legal risks.

The county is seeking proposals other governments and non-profit organizations to provide animal services. The San Diego Humane Society and SPCA has expressed interest.

The county will evaluate proposals before entering contract negotiations with the selected outside party.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
The international conservation group Oceana has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a decision by federal fisheries regulators to pull proposed protections for whales, sea turtles and dolphins at risk of dying in swordfishing nets off California.

Oceanas lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week, alleges that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to follow correct procedures for rejecting the protections. It asks the court to reinstate the tentative rules, which set caps on the number of marine mammals and turtles that fishermen can catch, and shut down gill net fisheries for two years if they exceeded that.

If we want to keep a sustainable domestic swordfishery and grow it, but its not acceptable to harm marine mammals and turtles, we need to crack down on the gill net fishery and authorize a clean alternative, said Geoff Shester, California Program Director for Oceana.

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He said conservationists want swordfishing fleets to convert to newer fishing gear that uses deep lines to catch swordfish and virtually eliminates harm to other animals.

The national fisheries service, however, has said that the rule capping the number of whales and turtles caught is unnecessary, since improvements to gill net fishing have already significantly cut catch of unintended species.

We concluded that the cost to the fishery could be very significant, without a lot of associated environmental benefit, because there already have been a number of improvements in the way the nets are used and the technology around them that have dramatically improved the effect of the gill nets on whales, dolphins and turtles, said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the agency.

The proposed rule would have closed drift gill net fisheries for swordfish if two endangered whales or sea turtles were killed or injured within a two-year period. It also set triggers for shutting down the fishery if short-finned pilot whales or bottlenose dolphins were seriously hurt or killed in the nets.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, the decision-making body for West Coast fisheries, approved those limits, called hard caps, in 2015. The national fisheries service initially agreed with the plan and published the proposed rule in October 2016. On June 12, however, the agency reversed that decision and withdrew the rule, arguing that the economic costs exceeded the environmental benefits. Oceana sued on Wednesday to force the agency to reinstate the proposed rule.

We believe its illegal under federal fisheries law, said Shester, noting that federal law delegates fishery management to the regional councils of scientists, fishermen and other stakeholders from coastal states. They need to respect the councils authority and expertise.

Milstein said the rule would impose unnecessary conditions on swordfishing fleets, pointing out that fishermen are already taking proactive action to prevent entanglement of other animals.

In recent years, fishermen have installed devices called pingers on gill nets, that emit noise warning whales to steer clear of the hazard, Milstein said. And they set their nets at least 36 feet below the surface, to avoid traffic of whales, dolphins and turtles, which tend to swim closer to the surface. Those improvements, he said, have already reduced bycatch of marine mammals and turtles.

For instance, in 1991, drift gill nets entrapped nearly 400 short-beaked common dolphins, the species that most frequently gets tangled in the nets, according to a technical paper from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of the fisheries service. By 2015, they caught fewer than 10 of the dolphins. Similarly, there were an estimated 16 leatherback turtles entrapped in drift gill nets in 1993, but that dropped to less than one per year after 2010.

At one time there was a very high toll, but that fishery has really cleaned up its act and brought the numbers way down, he said.

The Oceana lawsuit is part of an ongoing struggle between conservation groups and the Trump Administration, which has vowed to repeal environmental regulations that it deems unfavorable to business. In other actions the administration has announced plans to expand offshore oil drilling, and to revoke a rule that gives the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority over pollution of streams and rivers.

Those measures, Shester said, have left environmental groups playing defense right now. In the case of swordfish, however, he said, theres a win-win alternative that could protect both marine life and fishing jobs.

Fishermen typically set nets at night when swordfish are near the surface hunting prey, Shester said, but that puts them in close proximity to other fish, turtles and marine mammals. Scientists have worked with fishermen to develop deep-set buoy gear that allows them to fish during daytime, when swordfish are feeding in solitude 1,000 feet below the surface.

The method nearly eliminates bycatch, he said, and yields a better product. Fish caught on the deep lines are landed immediately, resulting in fresher meat that fetches higher prices at market.

We shouldnt be using this destructive method, when were got cleaner methods that are ready to go, Shester said.

Milstein said the fisheries service has funded some of the trials for deep-set buoy gear, and is optimistic about its prospects, but theyre not sure the method can replace other swordfishing techniques yet.

Its been very promising so far, he said. Were expanding the pilot testing of that to include more vessels. The question is, can it be scaled up to a point where it can replace some of the drift gill net fishing?

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan
Every day, you walk into work expecting the worst. Your once-dream job is a nightmare.

Maybe its because your boss is a jerk, incompetent (or both). Or the company keeps downsizing but demands more and more. Maybe that work-life balance human resources once stressed in orientation is as dead as the dodo. Perhaps its all of the above, and more.

Dissatisfaction at work is common in the U.S. A Gallup study earlier this year indicated 51 percent of U.S. employees dont feel connected to their jobs. But for some, dissatisfaction is too mild a term. The same study reports 16 percent of employees are actively disengaged, meaning theyre tuned out and miserable. For these people, their workplace is toxic. That stress can impact their physical and mental health, resulting in anxiety, loss of sleep, anger or depression.

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Among the signs of a toxic workplace: constant turnover, high absenteeism, lack of positive feedback and growth opportunities, bullying, increased demands and incompetent or abusive leadership.

Catherine Mattice Zundel, a human resources consultant and expert on workplace bullying for Civility Partners in La Mesa, says much of that toxicity comes from employees feeling under duress. She gets emails that say, Im in a terrible situation at work. Can you help me?

Thirty-five percent of the workforce feels bullied on any given day, she says, citing two studies. Bullying can be in the form of constant, unjust criticism, being yelled at in front of co-workers, becoming the subject of gossip or feeling shunned or insulted by co-workers.

Workplace bullying runs the gamut from aggressive communication that we can all see and point to and say its aggressive, down to passive-aggressive, under-the-radar behaviors that are hard to pinpoint, says Mattice Zundel.

Mattice Zundel works with companies on culture change. She listens to what employees say while also discussing with executives what they want from their workers. Her goal is to propose changes that transform a toxic work environment to a positive, thriving one. Sometimes that means a complete overhaul, including redefining core values and emphasizing respect while training for better communication and conflict resolution.

But how does an employee cope if the workplace environment doesnt change? The obvious cure is to leave and find another job, but thats not always possible. What then?

If you choose to stay in the workplace, you have to choose to manage the way you think about your workplace, says Mattice Zundel.

Christy Cassisa, director of WorkLife Integration at UC San Diegos Center for Mindfulness, says there are strategies for coping, starting with knowing what you can and cant control. Practicing mindfulness  focusing on being fully aware in the moment without checking out or being reactive or judgmental  can help.

The first thing to remember, you can only manage yourself, she says. You cant control other people, especially if its a manager being the toxic factor. And in terms of managing yourself, really, thats where mindfulness comes in very powerfully, to help the employee realize what they can control and to let go of what they cant. Sometimes that letting go of what you cant control is a huge relief for people.

How to cope

Among the strategies Mattice Zundel and Cassisa suggest to mitigate the negative impacts of a toxic work environment:

Dont be helpless. Change how you react or work to change the environment. That may mean setting up a discussion with HR, a boss or developing an exit strategy. Creating a strategy to solve your problem tells your brain youre resilient and it gives you something to focus on, says Mattice Zundel.

Set boundaries. Put limits on how late youll stay, what youll accept and what kind of office politics or gossip youll allow yourself to get pulled into. Leave work at work. Tell the boss what is and isnt OK for you.

Engage more. If you see something wrong at work, try to fix it. If you see harassment, dont let it go. Be an agent of change. It will make you feel positive.

When you see uncivility or unprofessionalism occur and you dont step in and put a stop to them immediately, they are allowed to flourish, says Mattice Zundel. Then people will continue to push the boundaries until you eventually have a toxic work environment.

Do things to de-stress. Exercise releases endorphins that make us feel better. Spend time with friends or groups away from work. Avoid co-workers who drag you down with complaining.

Find self-esteem elsewhere. If youre not getting the rewards at work you need, spend time doing something you love  and are good at  such as sports, the arts or hobbies.

Be present. Even in a stressful situation  say, being criticized by a boss  dont disconnect. Listen and engage without judgment.

Right now my manager is giving me grief, and theres nothing I can do about this, says Cassisa. Just that bit of acceptance can relieve a lot of stress. Theres an equation we use and talk about in our classes, and that is pain times resistance equals suffering. So pain is going to happen. Your manager is being a jerk. But the resistance you add on top of that is what causes more suffering.

Thats not to say you shouldnt go to HR later if its justified, she says. But in the moment, accept it. That will counter the fight-flight-freeze reaction were all wired for in an emotional situation and help stop the flow of adrenaline and cortisol that shut down your ability to think clearly  or say something to make the situation worse.

Meditate. Take a class and practice meditation to keep yourself calm.

Focus on the positive. By nature, says Cassisa, were in tune with the negative as a survival instinct. It was more important for people to notice the bad stuff like snakes and poisonous berries than it was to remember beautiful sunsets, she says. But look for the good work of others and the positives in your life. Keeping a gratitude journal has been shown to increase levels of happiness, she says.

Have compassion for yourself. Dont beat yourself up about mistakes. Research is showing that people who are more self-compassionate are more likely to bounce back from failures, says Cassisa.

Seek choices

In the programs she teaches, Cassisa often talks about an odd but useful tool to use in the midst of a stressful situation. Think, Where are my feet?

Even if your boss is dressing you down, consciously thinking about your feet  their position, how they feel  helps short circuit the fight-or-flight switch and allows you to stay calm.

It can help you to remember to pause and be able to respond with intention instead of reaction, she says.

Finally, both Mattice Zundel and Cassisa counsel to seek a way out. It may not be possible, but its important to consider options.

We always have choices, but sometimes we dont see choices as choices, says Cassisa. It may be that instead of driving a Lexus and keeping this job, we downgrade to a Toyota and find a job where were happier.

Williams is a San Diego freelance writer.
Attention border crossers: For 57 hours in September, all cars will be barred from entering Tijuana through San Ysidro.

Lasting from Sept. 23 at 3 a.m. until noon on Sept. 25, the closure is part of a plan by the U.S. General Services Administration to realign a portion of Interstate 5. The operation launches the third and final phase of the $741 million expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

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The closure will affect tens of thousands of drivers--students, commuters, shoppers and others who regularly travel between San Ysidro and Tijuana, passing through the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.

Authorities are comparing the operation to Carmageddon, when a large swath of the busy Los Angeles I-405 Freeway was shut down for a weekend in 2011 for a highway expansion project.

In this case, the partial closure of I-5 at San Ysidro will cause all vehicle traffic crossing into Mexico during that period to be rerouted to Otay Mesa, where Mexico has only five inspection lanes.

If you have to cross that weekend, plan on delays, said Anthony Kleppe, a senior asset manager with the GSA.

At a forum hosted Monday by the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and the South County Economic Development Council, Kleppe announced key dates for the massive project, which entails re-building the southernmost stretch of I-5 as it leads into Tijuanas El Chaparral Port of Entry.

The project is scheduled for completion in June 2019, Kleppe told a crowd of several dozen residents, business owners, and government officials from both sides of the border gathered at the Las Americas outlet mall in San Ysidro.

The aim is to double the number of southbound lanes that feed into El Chaparral from five to ten. It will also involve adding eight more northbound inspection lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, bringing the total to 33. In addition, plans call for southbound vehicle inspection booths to be operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors, and a secondary inspection area.

During the construction period, the northbound flow of vehicular traffic will not be affected, Kleppe said. Nor will the pedestrian crossings in both directions.

The 57-hour closure of the southbound vehicle lanes is necessary for the safe removal of a large steel and canvas canopy that currently covers a portion of the southbound car lanes, according to GSA. During that time, workers will also remove concrete crash barriers, and install infrastructure and temporary paving and striping.

We start with a bang, Kleppe said.

Following the closure, southbound lanes will be reduced from five to three for a two-month period. After that the plan calls for adding a fourth lane before Thanksgiving, and softening the current sharp 110-degree turn toward El Chaparral to 90 degrees. It has a better curve, even though there are fewer lanes, Kleppe said. GSA expects that as a result of the gentler curve, the flow of traffic will not change significantly from what it is today, despite the reduction in lanes.

Mondays presentation was seen as the launching of an effort to get out the word about the closure and lane reductions. As the message continues to go out, people are going to be able to plan their trips better, said Efrain Ibarra, assistant director of the South County Economic Development Council.

We hope to turn this into a positive, said Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, where the fear is that a drop in traffic could mean loss of business.

Plans to hold a festival during the closure and promote pedestrian crossings can make this an economic boost for us down here, Wells said.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
The former dean of USCs medical school is on leave and is no longer seeing patients after the Los Angeles Times reported that he associated with criminals and drug users who said he abused methamphetamine and other drugs, university officials said Monday.

Carmen A. Puliafito led the Keck School of Medicine for nearly a decade before resigning in 2016. He remained on the Keck faculty and continued to represent the university at public events.

Puliafito, a noted ophthalmologist, also continued to accept patients at campus eye clinics as recently as this weekend, according to his USC web page.

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The Times published its investigation Monday. USC said in a statement later in the day that it was following all proper procedures to review his status in patient care. He is currently on leave from his roles at USC, including seeing patients.

If the assertions reported in the July 17 Los Angeles Times story are true, we hope that Carmen receives care and treatment that will lead him to a full recovery, the statement said. Officials declined to comment further.

As of Monday, Puliafitos USC web page had been changed to say he is not accepting or seeing patients.

Also, a tweet sent Friday by the USC Roski Eye Institute, announcing that Puliafito was among five doctors who had been inducted into the Retina Hall of Fame, was deleted.

Puliafito, 66, is a renowned eye surgeon whose skill in the operating room was matched by his gift for attracting talent and money to the medical school. USC officials hired the Harvard-educated physician in 2007 to raise the profile and ranking of the Keck School.

As dean, he oversaw hundreds of medical students and thousands of professors and clinicians. He was also a key fundraiser for USC, bringing in more than $1 billion in donations, by his own estimation.

Puliafito resigned his $1.1-million-a-year deans post in March 2016, in the middle of the spring term, saying he wanted to explore outside opportunities.

He did not mention that three weeks earlier, a 21-year-old woman had overdosed in his presence in a Pasadena hotel room. The woman was rushed to a hospital, where she recovered. Police found methamphetamine in the hotel room, according to a police report, but made no arrests.

The incident drew no notice, but a tip about it led The Times to investigate.

UPDATE: USC president tries to quell outrage over drug allegations against former medical school dean 

The newspaper found that during his tenure as dean, Puliafito kept company with a circle of criminals and drug users. They captured their exploits in photos and videos shot in 2015 and 2016.

In one video, a tuxedo-clad Puliafito displays an orange pill on his tongue and says into the camera, Thought Id take an ecstasy before the ball. Then he swallows the pill.

In another, Puliafito uses a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe outfitted for methamphetamine use. He inhales and then unleashes a thick plume of white smoke. Seated next to him on a sofa, a young woman smokes heroin from a piece of heated foil.

The overdose occurred at the Hotel Constance in Pasadena. Just before 5 p.m. on March 4, 2016, a hotel employee called 911 to report that a guest had suffered an apparent overdose. The woman, Sarah Warren, now 22, told The Times she became incapacitated while using drugs with Puliafito.

 An unidentified man who says he is a doctor speaks to a Pasadena Fire Department dispatcher during a 911 call about a suspected drug overdose of a young woman in a hotel room.

Pasadena police did not write a report on the incident. After The Times made repeated requests for information, the department acknowledged that an officer at the scene should have prepared a report, and he was belatedly ordered to do so.

In the report, Puliafito is identified as a witness to the overdose and as a friend of the victim. The rest of the document is heavily redacted.

No arrests were made, and Warren told The Times that Pasadena police never interviewed her.

A Pasadena councilman said Monday that the Police Department conducted an internal inquiry and determined that the officer handled the case inappropriately.

Councilman Victor Gordo said Police Chief Phillip Sanchez told him the officer might have prematurely determined the overdose was a medical incident, as opposed to a possible crime scene.

Gordo said Sanchez assured him the case was ultimately investigated fully and that appropriate actions have been taken in order to ensure that this does not occur again.

City government spokesman William Boyer said the officer had been disciplined. He declined to say how.

Sanchez did not return a call seeking comment.

Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell on Monday sent a memo to council members saying that The Times account of the hotel incident reflects poorly on the city and the Pasadena Police Department.

As indicated in the article, initially there was no police report made of the incident, Mermell said. There should have been and that was a failure on the part of our responding officer. Once this came to light, [police] undertook an appropriate investigation and ultimately the involved officer was the subject of disciplinary action.

Still, Councilman Tyron Hampton said he wanted a written explanation for why a police report wasnt promptly prepared.

If that was my daughter or your daughter, youd want to make sure that the people who are here to protect and serve you are doing all they can to protect you, said Hampton, a member of the councils public safety committee. Ill make sure were transparent.

Puliafito did not return a phone call and email seeking comment.

Contact the reporters

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UPDATES:

8:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from USC and from Pasadenas city manager.

This article was first published at 7:45 p.m.
Cartoonist Batton Lash will be at Booth 1909 of Comic-Con this week as he has for the past 12 years. But it wont be business as usual.

On Aug. 30, he was rushed to the hospital with a brain tumor and an uncertain outcome. But the first thing he did as soon as he could sit up was to ask nurses at Sharp Memorial for his sketching materials. He quickly began to draw and make notes.

While Lash, 63, didnt lose his artistic ability or his sense of humor, he says coloring his drawings proved challenging. Luckily, as healing progresses, his memory has begun to fill in those blanks.

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Lash is the author of the comic strip Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, which ran in a Brooklyn, N.Y., newspaper for years and in The National Law Journal from 1983 to 1997.

He considers comic book world icons Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman, fellow Brooklyn natives, as his mentors. But Lash moved to San Diego after meeting his future wife, Jackie Estrada, in Chicago  at a comic book convention, of course.

She was a copy editor and a longtime volunteer with what is now called Comic-Con International: San Diego, an event she hasnt missed since its inception in 1970. Estrada is now on staff and administers Comic-Cons Eisner awards, the Oscars of the comic book world.

Together the couple founded Exhibit A Press, which published Wolff & Byrd in a bimonthly comic book called Supernatural Law. Lash also created two Archie miniseries books, drew Underdog cartoons, created Radioactive Man stories for Bongo Comics and, most recently, began working on an online series called The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse.

My big fear was that I would lose my creativity  or part of it, Lash confesses. That hasnt happened, although he admits to getting more easily fatigued. Lash convinced his doctor to waive his chemotherapy treatment this month for Comic-Con and intends to be at the booth every day. Now that is serious dedication.

On the border: One of the most influential women in Mexico is here in San Diego.

The Mexican edition of Forbes magazine has named Olivia Graeve one of the 100 most powerful women in 2017 in Mexico.

She is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California San Diego, but her interests straddle the border, as do her family ties.

Her aunt, Mirna Cecilia Rincon Vargas, is the mayor of Rosarito. Graeve grew up in Tijuana, where her parents were born, but her grandfather and great-great grandfather were born in San Diego County.

Graeve has cited her mothers emphasis on cross-border collaboration as a driving force in her career.

Last year, she helped found a binational research center that she now directs. The CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems not only develops materials to withstand extreme atmospheric conditions, it brings students and researchers together from both sides of the border.

Graeve also started a cross-border student summer research program and spearheaded a UC San Diego collaboration with 13 Baja California institutions, the CaliBaja Education Consortium.

Joining Graeve on the list is another woman well known in America  actress and producer Salma Hayek.

Dave Hemingway, center, hoists his trophy after winning the 2016 Ernest Papa Hemingway Look-Alike Contest in Key West, Fla. It was the Macon, N.C., residents seventh attempt to win the title at the annual Hemingway Days festival. (Rob ONeal / AP)

Just call him Papa: San Diego consultant Wayne Raffesberger takes his participation in the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest extremely seriously. Aside from growing a beard before he heads to Hemingways old Key West, Fla., stomping grounds, site of the July 19-22 competition, he is making a side trip to Cuba.

In Havana, Hemingways home the mid-1940s, he hopes to channel the spirit of the late author and adventurer, with the help, of course, of Cuban cigars, mojitos and visits to Hemingway haunts. After all, its Hemingways birthday. The author was born 118 years ago this week.

diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: @dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
I got dibs!

Its a concept of fleeting ownership we learn early, somewhere around kindergarten, and never forget.

The notion behind calling dibs is that, by virtue of a pre-emptory gesture, the quick-witted caller has a right to claim something, from a preferred seat in the car to the last piece of pizza to the first date with a new girl at school.

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Dibs has no legal force, of course.

Its an expression of opportunistic desire, not of rightful privilege.

Its the staking of a claim that only sticks if others voluntarily agree to the self-serving logic of the dibs caller.

Even in adulthood, the ethos of dibs drives a lot of behavior, some of it morally indefensible as well as illegal.

From holding on to a row of unreserved movie seats to taking cuts in lines to join a place-holding friend, self-serving people, in effect, call dibs  and dare you to call them out.

Comedian Larry David has made a career out of these sorts of freighted encounters.

In snowbound Eastern cities, for example, residents have long laid claim to parking spaces theyve cleared of snow.

The logic of the custom is simple: I took the initiative to dig my car out of this space. Now I have dibs for as long as I put my lawn chair on it.

Anyone who challenges this theft of a public parking space runs the risk of an unpleasant confrontation.

Police in Philly or Pittsburgh have been able to reduce, but not stamp out, the winter malpractice.

Here in sunny San Diego, where hunting for a parking space can pose an existential threat, park campers have borrowed a page  or better, a folding chair  from our snowbound brethren.

Mission Bay Park covers 4,600 acres, roughly half land, half water. Of the 27 miles of shoreline, 19 miles overlook sandy beaches.

Mission Bays a huge jigsaw puzzle of aquatic pleasures. Families return to favorite haunts where they settle in for long, happy days.

But these familiar campsites share one thing in common.

Convenient parking can be in short supply. Consequently, ethical lines get crossed to seize an advantage. Dibs are called.

Consider a case study.

On a typical weekend, hundreds of San Diegans turn onto Gleason Road off West Mission Bay Drive and hunt for a parking place at Bahia Point Park, a long grassy strip that overlooks a white beach, a placid playground for kids as well as a launching spot for paddle boarders or kayakers.

The aggressive solution for many groups, especially large ones involving multiple cars, is to call dibs on one, two, three or four parking spaces.

To mark their spots, campers often place an object in a parking place to signal that the space is taken. The message: Move on or risk an unpleasant encounter.

Sometimes, according to park rangers, people will plant themselves in a parking space, waving away cars, which is a clear violation of a Municipal Code Section 83.0202: It shall be unlawful for any person to stand in any roadway  if such action interferes with the lawful movement of traffic.

More common, however, is the use of lawn chairs or orange traffic cones as sentries.

Last Saturday morning, I drove Gleason Road and spotted five spaces marked with objects signaling dibs, two with chairs, one with a barbecue grill, one with a cone and another with a rolled-up tent.

I contacted the city to learn what the law says about this invasion of public land.

To my surprise, there is no law preventing people from placing objects in a parking stall, a city spokesman replied.

However, when park rangers come across this type of practice, they generally will ask the park patrons in the vicinity to remove their property from the stall. If they dont get the voluntary compliance, the park rangers will move it off to the side or onto the park grounds.

Dont know about you, but this strikes me as a Charmin-soft approach.

Id have thought it must be illegal to impede traffic by whatever means. What difference does it make if its a human body or a Weber grill doing the impeding? At the least, anti-littering laws should come into play.

Theres yet another annoying angle to the angled parking in the park.

At Bahia Point, a Union-Tribune colleague tells me, an RV recently was taking up four spaces, presumably as a way to hold spots for friends or family arriving later.

When my journalist friend rolled down his window and challenged the RVs right to bogart three spots, the livid owner offered to throw down to settle the matter.

With a couple of small kids in the back seat, my colleague passed on the invitation.

The morning I cruised the park, a pickup was poorly parked, encroaching on two spaces, presumably to allow for a repark so a later-arriving friend could slip in.

In that instance, the artful mis-parking could result in a citation though the trucks owner was sitting a few feet away. He could always say that he was unaware of the encroachment.

People know that calling dibs on parking spots, by whatever means, is wrong, no matter how much pathos can be summoned on behalf of expectant mothers or disabled grandmothers.

Until theres an anti-dibs crackdown, supported by signage, this custom, which reaches back to the sandbox, will continue to irritate.

logan.jenkins@sduniontribune.com
Police are looking for a subway rider accused of "forcibly rubb[ing] himself against" a woman's backside last week. The victim said, "I tried inching away and repositioning myself so our bodies weren't touching, but it kept happening. I also quickly realized he was physically aroused, and that the movements he was making were not accidental."

The rider, Kelsey Miller, says she got on an L train at Bedford Avenue around 9:15 a.m. last Wednesday, July 12. As the train headed towards Manhattan, she felt someone grinding against her in an "aggressive" manner.

"I first assumed it was due to the crowd and the movement of the train," she said. After determining that he was deliberately rubbing against her, Miller said, "At one point, I even looked over my shoulder and was able to see his pelvis moving."

"I continued trying to move away, I looked at him directly, to let him know I knew what he was doing," she recalled. "He stopped for a few seconds then started again. Then I kind of hip-checked him, trying to shove him off, and again he stopped doing it for a few seconds then started again. That's when it occurred to me to take his picture."

Miller took photographs before the train stopped at First Avenue. "He didn't react at all in the moment, but when we stopped, he said, 'Excuse me, excuse me,' as if he were trying to exit the train through the doors on the other side of the car. Someone near the open doors even said, 'Someone's trying to get off the train,' so that the crowd would move. But he didn't exit the train. He stopped in the middle and held the pole. The same person said, 'Oh, you're not getting off the train?' It was clear to me that he was just trying to get away from me because I took his photo," she said.

At Union Square, Miller exited the train and reported the incident at the transit police station there. Officers then contacted the Transit Special Victims Squad. "Two detectives from that unit came and picked me up and brought me to their office. They interviewed me and I filed another report with them," she said.

She also told DNAinfo, "Dont question yourself. This is not something that's an icky-but-normal part of being a women in the world. It's a crime and will be treated as such."

Police are now asking for the public's help in locating the suspect, who is wanted for forcible touching. He is described as being about 5'6" with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing an orange t-shirt. 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.

Subway sex crimes are up 52% in the past three years, an increase that may be partially attributed to an option on the MTA's website, introduced in 2014, that allows riders to report incidents. If you see or experience sexual misconduct in the subway (this includes seeing a masturbator, being groped, being grinded on, etc.), you can report it to the MTA and police on this website. There's also a place for you to upload photos and/or video. Don't let the perverts win.
Several coastal municipalities in California on Monday filed lawsuits against more than three dozen oil and coal corporations for what they said are billions of dollars in property damage costs associated with climate change.

The city of Imperial Beach and Marin and San Mateo counties are going up against many of the worlds largest fossil-fuel companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell.

These conglomerates leading industry groups  the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Oil & Gas Association, both based in Washington, D.C.  could not be reached for comment Monday.

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The plaintiffs filed their nearly matching lawsuits in their local Superior Court systems. They allege that greenhouse-gas emissions caused by the dozens of companies are contributing to warming of the planet and melting of glaciers, which results in sea-level rise that worsens coastal flooding. They forecast significantly greater expenses to deal with beach erosion, property loss and the need to retool infrastructure such as wastewater and runoff systems.

The plaintiffs also allege that company officials knew, or should have known, about the climate impacts of their activities. They argue that in certain cases, industry scientists conducted their own research decades ago and found links between carbon emissions and climate change.

They knew about sea-level rise. They knew the damage it would cause, and they should be held accountable, said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina.

The legal strategy is pinned on describing these companies as having caused a public nuisance, similar to tactics used against the tobacco industry.

In the past, oil industry officials have dismissed the idea that climate-change litigation is similar to lawsuits brought against cigarette companies. They argue that unlike tobacco use, theres no direct connection between an energy company and global warmings effects on individual people, neighborhoods or regions.

I dont think this is crazy, but its a long shot, said Greg Keating, a professor at the University of Southern Californias Gould School of Law, referring to the new litigation. The hard thing is these defendants dont just directly emit the fossil fuel into the atmosphere. They do things like sell gasoline to people who drive automobiles and put emissions into the air that way.

The lawsuits seek payment for ongoing and future flooding damage caused by storms, as well as impacts from more regular occurrences such as king tides. Imperial Beach and the two counties said these flooding events are increasingly amplified by climate change and will dramatically drive down property values and could even put lives at risk. The suits also ask for punitive damages.

Efforts to extract money from fossil-fuel companies for the impacts of climate change havent had much success.

Notably, the Alaskan village of Kivalina has been hit with violent storms associated with melting sea ice. In 2008, it unsuccessfully sued oil and coal companies to pay for relocation costs.

A number of earlier lawsuits against oil and gas companies failed because they focused on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, said Ann Carlson, faculty director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law.

Here, this is a more conventional lawsuit in the sense of asking for damages, she said. The lawyers have done a very good job. The courts will have to take this seriously.

The law firm of Sher Edling, which specializes in environmental cases, is working with Imperial Beach and Marin and San Mateo counties. Its lawyers on Monday said advances in climate science and recent revelations from news outlets investigative projects have bolstered their odds. Specifically, they pointed to a series of stories by the nonprofit journalism group Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times that found ExxonMobil and other industry players conducted internal research going back to the 1980s that found ties between fossil fuels and climate change.

Since then, the state attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts have been investigating whether ExxonMobil improperly concealed this knowledge. The company has sued to block those inquiries, and that case is being heard in federal court.

Last year, ExxonMobil shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the company misled them on the financial risks associated with climate change.

There have been cases in the past that sought compensation for climate-change-related impacts, but they didnt have the science that we have today and they didnt have the (industry) documents that we have today, said Victor Sher, an attorney with Sher Edling.

Officials in Marin County estimated that under extreme conditions, thousands of homes and business valued at more than $16 billion could be regularly inundated with ocean waters by the end of the century.

Similarly, San Mateo County concluded that under similar circumstances, it could stand to lose more than $24 billion of assets at risk.

While Imperial Beach isnt projected to suffer as much financial damage, its officials said the economically challenged beach town lacks the resources to adapt the worst impacts of sea-level rise.

Scientific predictions for sea-level rise by 2100 vary widely, from less than a foot to as much as six feet if emissions continue unabated.

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UC San Diego is working on a significant revamp of its medical campus in Hillcrest, including plans for a new hospital there.

More than 50 years after it started running what was then known simply as the county hospital, the university intends to replace the 11-story UC San Diego Medical Center that stands on the edge between Hillcrest and Mission Valley.

After holding a series of community meetings in June, a planning team for the school is huddling this summer to write a master plan for the 56-acre property that is home to 37 buildings, including that landmark medical center.

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While the stated goal is to keep providing most of the hospitals most important services in Hillcrest, any successful redevelopment proposal will have to address community concerns about noise and traffic that could increase if the density of buildings on the property goes up.

The re-imaginging effort is spurred by state seismic regulations that require older hospitals to receive major earthquake-proofing upgrades by 2030 or close down, said Robert Clossin, UC San Diegos director of physical and community planning.

The plan is to avoid making extremely expensive repairs needed to bring the building up to snuff, he said.

The studies are telling us that it reaches a point where you just cant modify it anymore. It really just reaches its end and, at that point, its rebuild time, Clossin said.

He also said because the medical center must remain operational during construction, planners are looking to construct its replacement in a new spot on the overall campus in Hillcrest. He said the planning team is mulling several spots on the roughly 25 acres of the parcel that are developable. Most of the land the university owns there is so steeply sloped that its not feasible for development.

Thats one of the challenges of San Diego. Youve got these canyons and plateaus that youve got to work around, Clossin said.

In addition, the university is considering whether to convert some of the existing low-rise buildings  two to three stories tall  on the property into taller structures that could provide office space or housing for staff and faculty members. Clossin said in an era of budget cuts, this strategy could help the bottom line.

There is such a high demand for housing and medical office space that those uses would be part of a revenue-generation possibility for the campus, he added.

Leo Wilson, chair of Uptown Planners, a civic group that advises the San Diego City Council on matters involving Hillcrest and five other nearby neighborhoods, said there is some agreement that more housing would make sense, but not at the cost of traffic congestion.

The big issue that has to be addressed is traffic and providing alternative modes of transportation, Wilson said, adding that he speaks only for himself because the matter has not been brought before Uptown Planners board.

An environmental report will answer the questions about traffic, Clossin said.

For many in the community, the elephant in the room is whether the university will remain committed to San Diegos urban core.

In 2005, the universitys health system triggered an uproar when it proposed to the University of California regents that it close the Hillcrest hospital and shift all of its operations to La Jolla, where it planned to build the state-of-the-art Jacobs Medical Center. That facility is completed and operating.

At the time, many local and state leaders argued publicly that UC San Diego had a moral obligation to continue offering inpatient medical services in Hillcrest, a part of the city that has a notable number of poor patients who would face long bus rides to La Jolla for the universitys other medical campus. At the same time, nearby Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest could see a big rise in indigent patients if its UC San Diego neighbor left the neighborhood.

Five years later, the university released a statement that said it was dedicated to keeping a hospital in Hillcrest. Today, some community advocates still worry that UC San Diego intends to significantly downgrade its presence in Hillcrest.

Clossin said thats simply not the case. While the university has not decided on the specific number of beds that will be built to replace the medical center in Hillcrest, he said, there are certain non-negotiables that definitely will be included in the new hospital.

Were maintaining all of the core functionality of that facility. The trauma center, the emergency department, the burn unit, the HIV/AIDS clinic, all of those elements are going to be retained, Clossin said, adding that current research labs already on the property will be maintained or increased.

The community still has plenty of time to weigh in on whatever redesign university planners devise. A draft long-range development plan, an environmental impact report and a master plan are due late this year or in early 2018, with a formal proposal to be put before the UC regents by late next year.

These plans arrive as Hillcrest continues to struggle with its identity.

Planners and advocates have been wrestling over whether taller buildings should be allowed along University Avenue and debating various proposals that could raise building heights to as much as 200 feet.

UC San Diegos planning efforts definitely include taller structures, though where, exactly, those structures might end up has not been determined.

Once the planning team settles on the best place for a new hospital, Clossin said, it will be clear which existing buildings will need to be razed and relocated first. The goal is to open the new hospital in 2030, so no one should expect major action soon. But it is possible that some building efforts could proceed earlier than 2025, Clossin said.

The Hillcrest propertys location is far removed from busy Washington Street, and getting the hundreds of vehicles that visit the hospital in and out of the area is a formidable challenge. The sites topography also makes it a challenge to connect with the rest of the citys public transportation infrastructure.

If youre up in Hillcrest and you look straight down, you can see the Fashion Valley Transit Center. If we could get to that, it would be great, but there is a freeway and a road and a 400-foot grade change that makes it very difficult, Clossin said.

Some people may also be concerned that the university plans to abandon the physical medical center that has always been a significant source of public investment. Though the building is not expected to be housing patient beds beyond 2030, the planning group is studying whether the facility could be re-used for non-patient purposes.

The property is one of the regions oldest that has continuously been used for medical purposes.

The county opened a three-story brick hospital there in 1904 and ran the facility until 1956, when state engineers declared it structurally unsafe. The county opened the current hospital across the street in 1963 and the newly formed UC San Diego School of Medicine began leasing the 11-story structure, which has nearly 400 beds, in 1966.

UC San Diego purchased the building and the surrounding land in 1980 for $17 million.

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paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @paulsisson
A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court Monday is seeking to stop the city of San Diego from ticketing people for having tents and other possessions on public sidewalks.

The city is turning people into criminals just for existing, said attorney Kath Rogers, who filed the suit with partner Scott Dreher.

Rogers said the city has ticketed thousands of homeless people for violating an ordinance created in 2007 that was originally intended to keep businesses from leaving trash bins or large planters on the public right of way.

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Rogers said the enforcement code came from a request from the citys Environmental Services Department to keep trash bins off sidewalks, and it resulted in dozens of citations initially.

Since its been used against homeless people, she said, the number of citations has skyrocketed into the thousands.

While the citation is a misdemeanor, failure to pay the fine or show up to court has resulted in many arrests.

People literally have warrants for their arrest just for setting down their possessions, she said.

Gerry Braun, chief of staff for City Attorney Mara Elliott, said the case is being reviewed and staff members are consulting with all clients name in the suit, including Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman and all City Council members.

Rogers said the city is selectively targeting people on the street with violating the law, which she said is so vague it could be applied to anybody who sets a briefcase down on the sidewalk. Those people, however, are more likely to get off with a warning, she said, while a homeless person is cited on the spot.

The lawsuit claims the constitutional rights of the 10 people named in the suit are being violated because of the law and it asks for a stop to the citations. Rogers said a request for a temporary restraining order to stop the citations immediately could be filed later this week.

Dreher has been involved in two other lawsuits against the city regarding homelessness. One resulted in requiring police to offer a shelter bed before arresting anyone found on the street between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Another case resulted in the city creating a storage facility to store property owned by homeless people and moved off sidewalks during clean-ups.

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
A new San Diego effort to fight chronic homelessness got a boost on Monday when the City Council agreed to buy a low-budget South Bay motel so it can become 70 units of transitional housing with drug abuse treatment.

The councils 8-1 vote came despite complaints from community leaders that the proposal threatens ongoing efforts to spruce up the Palm Avenue gateway to Imperial Beach and the Silver Strand.

The South Bay has been working hard at cleaning up our community and ridding ourselves of the white trash stigma, said business owner Bobby Hicks.

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Councilman David Alvarez, who cast the lone no vote, said the city is ignoring community opposition in order to rush through a project that may never be built because of potential litigation and concerns raised by the Coastal Commission about elimination of low-cost lodging.

There are a lot of really important issues that have been raised by the community that have not been addressed, said Alvarez, whose district includes the Super 8 motel in Nestor that the council voted to buy. This is too much of a sensitive issue to get it wrong.

The rest of the council, however, said buying the hotel allows the city to expand a highly-regarded program that helps get low-level criminals off the street.

City officials said they didnt target the South Bay for the transitional housing, but that the hotel was the only available property large enough to meet the programs needs.

Councilman Scott Sherman said the citys homelessness crisis is a high priority that every neighborhood in the city must play a role in solving.

Its a citywide problem we have to deal with on a citywide basis, Sherman said.

Council members also said fears of crime and nuisances at the site are unfounded because participants have shown a commitment to turning their lives around by joining the program.

In addition, they noted that similar transitional housing projects in Old Town, the Midway district and Bankers Hill have operated without problems or complaints from the surrounding community.

City officials also contend that the Super 8 motel isnt playing a key role in boosting the image of the area. They say its a haven for crime and prostitution, estimating that only 20 percent of the motels guests are traditional tourists.

The purchase will allow the city to expand from 10 to 80 the number of beds available for San Diego Misdemeanant At-Risk Track, an innovative program that gives chronic offenders a chance to get off the streets permanently instead of clogging the justice system.

City Attorney Mara Elliott, who coordinates the SMART program, said its rare for a program to be supported by law enforcement, public defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said the program frees up police for higher priorities by getting chronic offenders off the street.

Our public deserves a system that is a win/win, providing treatment for the people who want treatment while protecting the public from the people who refuse treatment, Zimmerman said.

The program was recently awarded a $6 million state grant the city will split evenly with the county.

South Bay leaders dont have anything negative to say about the program, just the location the city is choosing.

Cindy Gomper-Graves, chief executive of the South County Economic Development Council, said momentum in upgrading Palm Avenue could be jeopardized.

Weve been working very hard to revitalize that area, she said.

Alberto Velasquez, chairman of the Otay Mesa-Nestor Community Planning Group, said its shocking that the councils approval came less than two months after he first heard of the proposal in late May.

His planning group voted unanimously to opposed the project last Wednesday.

The overwhelming concern is the safety and security of the neighborhood and also the seeming lack of community outreach and research from staff about the placement of this facility, he said on Monday.

An official with the California Coastal Commission has also raised concerns about the project, although the project hasnt been formally presented yet to the commission.

The main concern is that the proposal would further limit already scarce low-cost lodging in a coastal area, possibly forcing the city to replace the lost hotel rooms somewhere nearby.

Councilman Alvarez said those concerns and some others made Mondays approval a mistake.

The significant concerns raised by the California Coastal Commission that have been left unaddressed will ensure that this project is delayed, he said. The city chose to disrespect the community, and not follow the law and is therefore in the worst possible situation: spending millions of dollars on a property and facility that may be left vacant for years.

The council approved $6.6 million to buy the hotel on Monday. The city plans to spend another $4.2 million on renovations, which would begin next January if the council approves a conditional use permit for the transitional housing this fall.

The earliest the new housing could be ready for tenants would be June 2018, city officials said.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
An 18-year-old who didnt like how his girlfriend was being ogled was shot by the other man in Bay Park late Monday night, San Diego police said.

The wounded man was hospitalized with a serious wound and the suspected shooter was arrested.

The teen noticed the other man checking out his girlfriend as she walked into a 7-Eleven on Clairemont Drive near Iroquois Avenue about 11:30 p.m., police Officer John Buttle said.

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The two got into an argument over it and the stranger challenged the teen to a fight behind the store. That didnt happen. When the girlfriend came out of the store, she and her boyfriend started walking home, Buttle said.

They made it across the street, where the other man confronted the teen in a parking lot. The males argued again, then the stranger pulled out a gun and shot the teen once in the chest, Buttle said.

The wounded young man started to run, but collapsed in the street. His girlfriend called 911.

Meanwhile the shooter first ran south on Clairemont Drive, then back north. A police helicopter crew followed him for a few blocks.

Officers arrested the suspect, also 18, near Cowley and Dakota drives. He was jailed on a charge of attempted murder.

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Sheriffs deputies will begin wearing body-worn cameras in August after county supervisors on Tuesday agreed to spend more than $1.1 million for the equipment.

The department plans its camera roll-out to start with deputies working in rural Ramona and Alpine communities.

It is expected to take four to five months to get all 860 patrol deputies and sergeants outfitted with the cameras. They will be purchased from Axon, formerly called Taser International.

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Sheriff Bill Gore said hes starting with the two small substations to work out any bugs in the system before broadening the use of cameras across the county.

The Board of Supervisors took up the budget request and approved it, unanimously, with little comment. Supervisor Ron Roberts called the cameras an important program that he was anxious to see in widespread use.Body-worn cameras have become law enforcements response to a public demand for greater accountability and transparency after controversial shootings or other violent encounters between police and civilians.

The Sheriffs Department is one of the last local law enforcement agencies in the county to adopt the technology. Coronado police started wearing cameras in 2011, and they are used in every other city in the county except La Mesa and Oceanside. San Diego Harbor Police also have not purchased cameras.

This is a big deal, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Dianne Jacob said in an interview. From the standpoint of the deputy sheriffs its a win-win, and for the community as a whole. The body-worn cameras will present the truth.

She said other police agencies have found that frivolous complaints against officers declined after they began recording encounters with the public.

Sheriffs officials have spent more than two years studying options before selecting which camera model to buy.

People think were dragging our feet. Its more important to do it right than do it fast, Gore said in an interview after the supervisors meeting.

He said that over the two years, the county accepted bids from body camera companies, tested three, and decided none was good enough. Technology was improving and costs were plunging almost daily, Gore noted.

A major cost associated with body-worn cameras has been paying the vendor to also store all the video. Gore said his department decided to handle video storage in-house at expected considerable savings.

Also, he said they found another company that will create a way to store not only the body-worn camera footage, but video evidence collected from cellphones, surveillance cameras, recorded witness interviews and other sources.

We wanted a single video platform so detectives can review all this evidence at their desks seamlessly and ship it to the DA, Gore said.

Once that selection was made, the county asked for new bids from camera manufacturers. Axon/Taser was chosen.

During the time cameras were being studied, local deputies have been involved in more than a dozen shootings, including a controversial fatal shooting on July 5 in Vista. A witness has said Jonathan Coronel was lying flat on the ground, surrendering, when a deputy shot him multiple times.

Sheriffs officials said Coronel was crouching, then turned toward Deputy Christopher Villanueva with his hand raised and covered by his T-shirt. Coronel was known to deputies as a documented gang member.

Villanueva is one of two deputies who fatally shot another Vista gang member, Sergio Weick, at the end of a foot chase in August. The District Attorneys Office found that shooting justified.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

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Stopping for gas in Escondido early Tuesday was not a good move for a carjacking suspect.

An OnStar tracking signal from the stolen Chevrolet Suburban led police to a Shell gas station on East Via Rancho Parkway, where they arrested the suspected thief.

The black SUV had been stolen from its owner in Otay Mesa about 1:20 a.m., San Diego police said.

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He was sitting in the vehicle on Otay Pacific Drive when a man walked up to him, pointed a pistol at him and told him to get out. He did, and the gunman drove away in the Suburban.

He was last seen heading toward state Route 905, police said.

OnStar, which offers vehicle tracking service, traced the SUV to the Shell station off Interstate 15, Escondido police Sgt. Fred Cheatham said.

He said a San Diego police helicopter crew asked officers to move in on the Suburban shortly after 2 a.m. They detained its driver and handed him, and the SUV, over to San Diego officers. A replica handgun was found in the vehicle.
A video of a Saudi woman wearing a miniskirt and a crop top as she walks through a desert village has caused an uproar and landed her in jail for violating the countrys strict Islamic dress code.

The six-second clip shows the woman, who is also wearing sunglasses and flat shoes, in an outfit that would be considered modest by Western standards. Not so in the conservative Islamic country, however, where her bare legs and midriff were deemed to be immodest.

                 #___

https://t.co/1ygF1UCD53  Fawaz X (@fa_waily) July 16, 2017

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The video, which was shot in an historic village outside the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh, was posted to Snapchat over the weekend and later to Twitter where it immediately created a stir on social media, according to Reuters. Many outraged people called for the woman, identified only as Khulood, to be punished for wearing such suggestive clothes.

It also spawned a hashtag that, when translated, meant Model Khulood must be tried. Apparently, authorities agreed.

Riyadh police have detained the woman who appeared in indecent clothing in Ushaiqir and referred her to the public prosecutor, tweeted one Arabic news organization.

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear black abayas, which are long, loose robes worn over the clothes, as well as a headscarf while in public. Everything but their faces, feet and hands must be covered. Women are also banned from driving, socializing with men who are not related, and they need their husbands permission to travel, work, open a bank account and more.

One Saudi writer tweeted that the woman should not be allowed to disobey the rules of the nation.

Just like we call on people to respect the laws of countries they travel to, people must also respect the laws of this country, wrote Ibrahim al-Munayif.

The Associated Press reported that action was taken against the woman after the video became public and that the General Presidency of the Police of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vices are investigating the incident.

Saudi news sites reporting on the case have blurred the photo of the woman so as to not offend.

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Trucks drive up and down streets of a town releasing millions of scientifically engineered mosquitoes during the dog days of summer?

No, this isnt the plot of a science fiction movie. Its what Googles sister company Verily Life Sciences is up to in Fresno this July.

Debug Fresno, which launched Friday, is an initiative meant to reduce the devastating global health impact that disease-carrying mosquitoes inflict on people around the world.

How? The program will introduce tons of sterile male mosquitoes  which dont bite  to mate with female mosquitoes  which do bite and spread diseases  so that the produced eggs wont hatch. The specific target is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has plagued Fresno County since 2013 and is known to carry diseases like Zika, dengue and chikungunya.

The mosquitoes arent genetically modified, but instead infected with a naturally occurring bacteria known as Wolbachia. The company says this will be the largest U.S. release to date of such mosquitoes.

Heres a short video explaining it all.

Debug Fresno is a study that may be conducted starting in the summer of 2017, pending approval from state and federal regulators, to test a potential mosquito control method using ...

You should expect to see a heightened level of mosquito activity throughout the summer, said Jacob Crawford, a scientist for Verily.

The program will target two neighborhoods over a 20-week period.

This is only going to be temporary. Hopefully you see less and less biting females, said Jodi Holeman, scientific-technical services director of Fresno Countys Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD).

Aedes aegypti mosquitos have been detected elsewhere in California, including San Diego.

In 2016, San Diego Countys Department of Environmental Heal found that particular type of mosquito in 494 tests throughout the county. Heres a map of where they were spotted.

Feeling creeped out?

(CMAD) created this nice little video to help you avoid mosquitoes in your area.

You Can Do Mosquito Control Fresno County, CA

Godspeed, Fresno.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
A California businessman has been identified as the eighth person at the now-infamous June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

News that the presidents son met with a Russian whom he believed would offer compromising information about Hillary Clinton broke last week, and Trump Jr. responded by sharing emails about the meeting in what he said was an attempt to be transparent. But the emails have led to more speculation amid ongoing federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what, if any, ties the Trump campaign may have had to the Russian effort.

Who is this man? Why is he involved? Heres what you need to know.

Who is Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze?

Irakly Kaveladze is a businessman from Huntington Beach. His identity was confirmed to The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets by his attorney, Scott Balber. He was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia but came to the U.S. in 1991.

Why was he at the meeting?

The Times also reports he was asked to join others at the meeting at Trump Tower by Aras Agalarov, who is a Russian real estate developer who  along with his son  worked with the Trump organization to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Russia. Agalarov was mentioned in the email exchange Trump Jr. shared on his Twitter page.

Kaveladze was asked to attend the meeting to make sure it happened and to serve as an interpreter if necessary, according to Balber. He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before.

Agalarov and Kaveladze work together at a real estate development company run by Agalarov, according to CNN.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kusher were also in attendance.

Why does it matter?

Special counsel Robert Mueller is leading the investigation into possible collaboration between Trumps campaign and Russia, and Balber said Kaveladze has been contacted by Muellers team. He also said that the businessmen didnt say anything in the June meeting in Trump Tower.

A reminder of what happened at the meeting

Trump Jr. said his meeting with the Russia attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was spent discussing the Magnitsky Act, a series of Congress-approved sanctions on more than a dozen Russians. However, the emails show Trump Jr. was promised dirt on Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

Veselnitskaya denies having ties to the Kremlin, and Trumps campaign denies any collusion with Russia during the election.

Have other questions for us about Kaveladze? Add them in the comment section below and well try to answer them.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
Four suspected MS-13 gang members have been arrested in connection with the deaths of four teenagers, who were found butchered in a Long Island park in April.

According to federal court documents that were unsealed this week, Alexis Hernandez, Santos Leonel Ortiz-Flores and Omar Antonio Villalta, along with an unnamed juvenile, have been charged with the murders of Michael Lopez Banegas, 20, his cousin Jefferson Villalobos, 18, Justin Llivicura, 16, and Jorge Tigre, 18.

All four victims were found in Recreation Village Town Park in Central Islip on April 11th, and their bodies appeared to have been beaten to death and mutilated with machetes; at the time, Suffolk Police Commissioner Timothy Sini told reporters, "the manner in which they were killed is consistent with the modus operandi of MS-13." The killings prompted Governor Cuomo to create a "High Intensity Gang Unit" to aid Suffolk County police in combating MS-13.

The NY Times reports that two of the victims had come to the U.S. in order to escape gang violence in their native Honduras.

Yesterday, the three named defendants pleaded not guilty to murder charges in federal court in Central Islip. Authorities are reportedly investigating whether more alleged gang members may have been involved.

The arrests are eliciting mixed reactions among the victims' relatives, some of whom see them as a small step out of the darkness of loss. "I demand justice, what can I say," Bertha Ullaguari, Tigre's mother, told the Associated Press. "I want them to be tortured like my son was tortured."

Others say the arrests are bringing the pain back to the surface. "Its like opening a wound again, Marcelo Llivicura, the father of Justin, told the Times. "Theres nothing we can do, my son is gone. Still, there is the promise of justice. "I hope that they pay their debts," Llivicura added. They took the lives of these young boys just at the beginning of their own lives."

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York declined Gothamist's request for comment.




Summerhill, a new "boozy sandwich shop" on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, issued a press release on Monday advertising one of its cocktails next to a "bullet hole-ridden wall"remnants of a "a rumored backroom illegal gun shop."

"Yes, that bullet hole-ridden wall was originally there and, yes, we're keeping it," the release states.

Owner Becca Brennan, a 31-year-old former attorney, said the decision to preserve the wall damage at 637 Nostrand Avenue and describe it as bullet holes for promotional purposes was a "cheeky" one. Speaking to us in the dimly-let, beach-inspired room, Brennan said, "Just looking at the angle I don't know if that is possible that that's a bullet hole. We call it that because if you look at the history, someone seriously said, 'Isn't that the place where we could buy guns?' And then we were like, 'okay.'"

According to Brennan, the idea to advertise bullet holes came from a comment on the website Brooklynian, where commenters trade gossip and details about new businesses. Last September, an anonymous commenter wrote, "If I'm not mistaken this was the corner store where you could buy a 'certified pre-owned' firearm back in the day."

Brennan said she did not investigate the gun rumor further. "I don't have any backup to that, but when you think about it as a joke like, yep, that's a bullet hole," she said.

The establishment, which describes itself as an "oasis" on Nostrand Avenue, is not the first to mine the material or oral history of Crown Heights, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood with Jewish and West Indian roots. Between 2000 and 2010, the neighborhood's majority-black population shrunk while its white population nearly doubled, to 16 percent. And between 2011 and 2015, according to a recent DNAInfo analysis, the 11216 zip code covering parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights saw among the most significant increases in high-income renters in the city.



(Dan Sugrue for Summerhill)

Last September, bar owner Dan Wilby pushed back at community opposition to his new Franklin Avenue watering hole, Crow Hill. Crown Heights was known as Crow Hill in the 19th century, and while historians debate the origin of this moniker, at that time the word "crow" was used as derogatory term. Wilby eventually changed the bar's name, citing a "significant and regrettable oversight," but another ode still exists in Crow Hill Crossfit. (Bar Corvo, an Italian Restaurant on Washington Avenue that used the Italian for "crow," recently closed.)

Beyond the "bullet" wall, Brennan's press release advertises Forty Ounce Rose, a brand of wine bottled to recall a 40-oz. Colt 45. Brennan said she is planning to serve them in paper bags. That choice that has been criticized at other bars for making light of povertyan issue Crown Heights and other gentrifying neighborhoods are grappling with.

We asked Brennan to clarify her thoughts on the symbolism of the 40s. "I'm not an authority so don't feel comfortable commenting on anything other than my businessa new bar and restaurant that locals (/my neighbors) seem to really enjoy and appreciate," she said, via email.

"Actions speak louder than words," said Natherlene Bolden, 55, a founding member of the Crown Heights Tenants Union and a resident of the neighborhood since 1978. CHTU is a coalition of Crown Heights residents that challenges landlords who hike rents and harass tenants. The group protested outside of Crow Bar last fall.

"You are making money off of... negative aspects in our community which, you know, you're happy when these things go on because you can make money off of it," Bolden added. "And it's like you're not thinking about the black people or the long-term residents in the community. Or maybe you are thinking about them but they don't matter."

Can't help but  when your head bartender rides around with a forty of rose in her cage. A post shared by Summerhill (@summerhillbk) on Jul 12, 2017 at 1:42pm PDT

Brennan, who grew up in Toronto and moved to Crown Heights two years ago, alluded Monday to the evidence of gentrification on Nostrand Avenue, three blocks east of the bars and coffee shops of Franklin Avenue. She says she is close with the owners of the bodega next door, who used to rent the Summerhill space. "They got pushed out rent-wise," she said.

"I've noticed a lot of shutters," Brennan added. To her customers, "I was like, 'You're paying Franklin prices because I'm paying Franklin prices, to be honest." (Cocktails, including one called the #VanLife, run for $12.)

The comparisons to Franklin Avenue are no mistake. "As someone who lives on Nostrand, I was getting tired of walking to Franklin," Brennan said. "It's three blocks, but it's three long blocks. You just deserve something close, and a hang out, especially if you live on New York [Avenue] or Schenectady or something like that."

This story has been updated with a comment from the Crown Heights Tenants Union.

[Update 7/19]: Brennan responded to criticism in a statement Wednesday. More here.
Brooklyn, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/17/2017 -- This report is a key analysis of all the factors boosting the growth of the global Web Hosting Service market. The factors hampering or restricting the growth of this market have also been studied in detail, thus helping readers to equip themselves better for facing the many challenges and competition in the global Web Hosting Service industry. The report takes into account the present market figures and also the historical data, for predicting the future forecast of the Web Hosting Service market. The trends in the Web Hosting Service market have been discussed in detail. The key opportunities lying ahead in the global Web Hosting Service industry have also been disclosed. Thus, the report is a valuable asset for new entrants as well as those established.



The major players in global and United States Web Hosting Service market, including HostGator, 1&1, InMotion, GoDaddy, DreamHost, Bluehost, Hostwinds, Liquid Web, A2 Hosting, Arvixe



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The report is an analysis of the degree of competition, the bargaining supplier power, and bargaining buyer powers have been included in the report. The threat of new substitutes has been discussed in detail. The threat of new entrants is also given in this report. Thus, the report contains valuable data which will help companies and potential investors to clearly understand and comprehend which segment to invest on and why. The segments and sub segments of the global Web Hosting Service market have also been included in the report. The report predicts the segment which is most likely to expand at the fastest CAGR as well as the segment which will lead in the years to come. Similarly, the segment witnessing the most sluggish growth is also pointed out. Key players are studied in the report along with their useful data such as business and financial overview and business strategies adopted.



Table of Contents



2017-2022 Web Hosting Service Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications

1 Methodology and Data Source

1.1 Methodology/Research Approach

1.1.1 Research Programs/Design

1.1.2 Market Size Estimation

1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation

1.2 Data Source

2.1.1 Secondary Sources

2.1.2 Primary Sources

1.3 Disclaimer

2 Web Hosting Service Market Overview

2.1 Web Hosting Service Product Overview

2.2 Web Hosting Service Market Segment by Type

2.2.1 VPS (Virtual Private Server) Web Hosting

2.2.2 Shared Web Hosting

2.2.3 Dedicated Web Hosting

2.2.4 Others



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2.3 Global Web Hosting Service Product Segment by Type

2.3.1 Global Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)

2.3.2 Global Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)

2.3.3 Global Web Hosting Service Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)

2.3.4 Global Web Hosting Service Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)

2.4 United States Web Hosting Service Product Segment by Type

2.4.1 United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Growth by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)

2.4.2 United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)

2.4.3 United States Web Hosting Service Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)

2.4.4 United States Web Hosting Service Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)

3 Web Hosting Service Application/End Users

3.1 Web Hosting Service Segment by Application/End Users

3.1.1 Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises

3.1.2 Personal Use

3.2 Global Web Hosting Service Product Segment by Application

3.2.1 Global Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)

3.2.2 Global Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)

3.3 United States Web Hosting Service Product Segment by Application

3.3.1 United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)

3.3.2 United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)

4 Web Hosting Service Market Status and Outlook by Regions

4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions

4.1.1 Global Web Hosting Service Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)

4.1.2 North America

4.1.3 Asia-Pacific

4.1.4 Europe

4.1.5 South America

4.1.6 Middle East and Africa

4.1.7 United States



List of Tables and Figures



Table Research Programs/Design for This Report

Figure Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches for This Report

Figure Data Triangulation

Table Key Data Information from Secondary Sources

Table Key Data Information from Primary Sources

Figure Web Hosting Service Product Picture

Figure Global Web Hosting Service Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)

Figure United States Web Hosting Service Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Table United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)

Table Global Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) by Applications (2012-2017)

Table Global Web Hosting Service Sales Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)

Figure Global Sales Web Hosting Service Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)

Figure Global Sales Web Hosting Service Market Share (%) by Applications in 2016

Table United States Web Hosting Service Sales (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)



About QYReseachReports.com

QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/18/2017 -- WiseGuyReports published new report, titled "Future of the Spain Defense Industry - Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts".



The Future of Spain Defense Industry - Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts to 2022, published by Strategic Defence Intelligence, provides readers with detailed analysis of both historic and forecast defense industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of industry leading companies, and key news.



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Synopsis



This report offers detailed analysis of Spain defense industry with market size forecasts covering the next five years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for the industry, key market trends, and challenges faced by industry participants.



In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following 



- Spain defense industry market size and drivers: detailed analysis of Spain defense industry during 2018-2022, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators for the industry. It also provides a snapshot of the country's expenditure and modernization patterns



- Budget allocation and key challenges: insights into procurement schedules formulated within the country and a breakdown of the defense budget. It also details the key challenges faced by defense market participants within the country



- Porter's Five Force analysis of Spain defense industry: analysis of the market characteristics by determining the bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitution, intensity of rivalry, and barriers to entry



- Import and Export Dynamics: analysis of prevalent trends in the country's imports and exports over the last five years



- Market opportunities: details of the top five defense investment opportunities over the next 10 years



- Competitive landscape and strategic insights: analysis of the competitive landscape of Spain defense industry. It provides an overview of key players, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives, and a brief financial analysis



Scope



- In 2017, the Spanish government allocated US$8.1 billion for the total defense budget, which recorded a CAGR of 0.79% between 2013 and 2017. The marginal growth in defense expenditure is primarily due to the aftershocks of the European debt crisis, which has greatly weakened the foundations of the Spanish economy and forced the country to rationalize and re-prioritize its defense spending. The country is expected to witness higher levels of budget allocations over the forecast period, during which the expenditure is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 5.16%.



- During 2013-2017, revenue expenditure accounted for an average of 84.8% of the total Spanish defense expenditure. The remaining 15.2% was spent on procuring equipment and services. The implementation of budget cuts and reform measures, such as the reduction of troop sizes and no new procurement programs by the MoD, are expected to curtail overall expenditure. Over the forecast period, the country's defense capital allocations are anticipated to increase marginally and average 16.1% of its defense budget, while revenue expenditure accounts for the remaining 83.9% of the budget.



- The MoD is expected to invest in fighters and Multi-role aircraft, Military-IT networking and transport and utility aircraft.



Key points to buy



- This report will give the user confidence to make the correct business decisions based on a detailed analysis of Spain defense industry market trends for the coming five years



- The market opportunity section will inform the user about the various military requirements that are expected to generate revenues during the forecast period. The description includes technical specifications, recent orders, and the expected investment pattern by the country during the forecast period



- Detailed profiles of the top domestic and foreign defense manufacturers with information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins, and financial analysis wherever available. This will provide the user with a total competitive landscape of the sector



- A deep qualitative analysis of Spain defense industry covering sections including demand drivers, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, Key Trends and Growth Stimulators, and latest industry contracts



Table of Contents



1. Introduction 9

1.1. What is this Report About? 9

1.2. Definitions 9

1.3. Summary Methodology 11

1.4. About Strategic Defence Intelligence 12

2. Executive Summary 13

3. Market Attractiveness and Emerging Opportunities 15

3.1. Current Market Scenario 16

3.1.1. Primary threat perception 16

3.1.2. Military Doctrine and Strategy 17

3.1.3. Military Fleet Size 18

3.1.4. Procurement Programs 21

3.1.4.1. Ongoing procurement programs 21

3.1.4.2. Future procurement programs 22



..CONTINUED



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[NOUMEA] One of the voluntary commitments undertaken at the UN Ocean Conference held in New York in June was to accord the Pacific Ocean the same protective legal rights as individuals now enjoy.

The objective is to draft by 2020 a convention on the rights of the Pacific Ocean open for signature for all countries, says Victor David, a lawyer at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), one of the four organisations leading the initiative.

The IRDcentre based in Noumea (New Caledonia), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the NGO Conservation International, and the International Centre of Comparative Environmental Law took advantage of the UN conference to promote environmental policies that give more legal rights to nature.

This is a very bold initiative which faces both political and legal challenges. Donald Rothwell, Australian National University

Granting legal rights to the Pacific Ocean allows lawsuits to be filed on behalf of ecosystems. This means there is no longer a requirement to demonstrate personal human injury to protect and restore their (ecosystems) health  a huge roadblock in environmental protection suits, explains Michelle Bender of the Earth Law Center, a legal advocacy group andmember of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

The intergovernmentalorganisation SPREP will rally its state members in support of the proposed convention, says David. Multi-disciplinary and participative studies will identify the rights of the Pacific Ocean and the laws required to enforce them  the right to health, to be free of pollution and to not be overfished.

This is a very bold initiative which faces both political and legal challenges. Nevertheless, the proposal is one which NGOs and scientific communities are well-placed to promote and advocate, Donald Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University tells SciDev.Net.

At the UN conference, Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna said it was only natural to protect the ocean, which is our provider, our sustainer, our life force. Yet we mistreat our ocean with pollution, overfishing and the impacts of climate change".

The Pacific Ocean is the most populated ocean (Pacific small islands count 2,355,000 inhabitants) and the Pacific states are culturally and economically dependent upon their marine environment , making the sustainability of their marine environment crucial for the region.

The Pacific Ocean is already subject to the International Law of the Sea and a range of regional conventions and treaties. As I understand it, this proposal would apply to all of the Pacific and also have a strong focus on the cultural rights of the regions inhabitants. So, it would in principle be an advancement upon the existing frameworks, says Rothwell.

Also, because most of the Pacific is beyond national jurisdiction, an international agreement is needed to ensure the whole of the Ocean is managed sustainably for the benefit of the whole Earth community, argues Bender.



This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk.


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FLORENCE, S.C.  Implementing the STEM curriculum at an early age is the way to go for Boeing South Carolina, a company executive told the Florence Rotary Club on Monday.

In the nine years of Boeing South Carolinas existence, it has 7,500 employees, and in five years half of the companys engineers will be eligible to retire, said Tommy Preston, director of Boeings national strategy and government operations.

We need to get aggressive with getting the next generation involved in advanced manufacturing, Preston said.

Advanced manufacturing is not aerial mechanics working on planes or men and women painting planes, he said. Advanced manufacturing has changed.

We have additive manufacturing, Preston said. We use 3D printing and animation now.

He said robots are a big thing within the company, but he emphasized that robots are not taking jobs from humans. Boeing teaches humans how to use the robots to get tasks done.

Were constantly working with schools across South Carolina to ensure schools have information to teach their students how to work at Boeing, Preston said.

He said assets to Boeing are individuals with two-year degrees in engineering, information technology, graphic design and more. He said he knows obtaining a four-year degree is not for everybody.

He applauded Florence-Darlington Technical College for programs that provide Boeing with students in those career paths, but he said students need to get interested in math and science at a young age to pursue careers in advanced manufacturing.

Boeing has provided $32 million to S.C. nonprofits in the education realm to get youth involved in math and science. Teach America, like the one located in Florence, receives a grant from Boeing to help retain S.C. teachers, especially those in the STEM-based areas. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

A few local elementary school principals were guests at the meeting and had remarks to Prestons remarks.

We have to get students involved in STEM in the early years, said Roy Ann Volley, principal of Delmae Heights Elementary School in Florence School District One. Were now preparing children to think about careers in this field. We also use this as a way to say everybody doesnt have to attend a four-year university to have careers like this. Technical schools are the thing for STEM.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Giggles erupted from students at East Florence Mission on Tuesday when a game of karate pinata turned into a candy shower.

This is just one summer camp memory that students will log as area churches have collaborated this summer to provide creative activities for East Florence Mission students.

Peggy Key, one of the founders of East Florence Mission, said the centers goal is to provide a fun, safe atmosphere that lets children know they are loved and engages them with biblical teaching.

This summer, five churches are supporting that vision by organizing camps hosted at the East Florence Mission site. The churches are St. Johns Episcopal Church, Florence Baptist Temple, Church at Sandhurst, Cornerstone Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church.

Were really supportive of them and what theyre doing, says Brock Page, director of youth ministries at First Presbyterian. Were hoping to engage the kids with fun activities like dodgeball and capture the flag and also on a spiritual level with Bible studies.

The East Florence Mission story began 47 years ago when members of First Presbyterian Church reached out to disadvantaged children in their community. They took them to a summer camp at Camp Pee Dee and began inviting them to church. The scope of East Florence Mission continued to expand, and the group got its own building in 1985.

In addition to summer camps, East Florence Mission now provides afternoon homework help, evening Bible study and dinner and a trivia and game night. Churches support the center throughout the year as well by supplying meals and volunteering.

Key said involvement at the center has resulted in positive life change for many people. Today, the center welcomes children and grandchildren of inaugural East Florence Mission students.

We are thrilled when so many of them are doing well, Key said. Its been exciting to see how its grown.

Middle school and high school leaders are a key aspect of summer camps at East Florence Mission. Being on summer break frees up their schedule to volunteer, and youth pastors said it is crucial for their students to give back to younger community children.

The students at St. Johns need to be investing in their own community, says Charlotte Smith, minister for youth and families at St. Johns. We want them to have that muscle really developed so that when theyre adults, that becomes a natural part of who they are.

Maddie Lowe, a student in the St. Johns youth group, said she enjoys volunteering at East Florence Mission.

This place is important because it provides a nice, friendly community for the kids to enjoy over the summer, Lowe said.

Churches strive to be creative with crafts and activities. This week, volunteers from Cornerstone Baptist Church are teaching students skills such as grilling, carpentry and painting.
The only man tried in the 2013 beating of a fashion student by a mob of Hasidic Jewish vigilantes is appealing his conviction, arguing that prosecutors relied on junk science to tie his DNA to the scene. The prosecution, his lawyer argues, was meant to "scapegoat" the man, Mayer Herskovic, 23, while protecting politically connected members of Williamsburg's Hasidic neighborhood patrol.

Herskovic, an HVAC worker and father of two, was convicted in March 2016 of assault, unlawful imprisonment, and menacing, for what prosecutors said was his role in the December 2013 attack on Taj Patterson. Patterson, who is gay and African American, was walking home drunk on Flushing Avenue early one morning when 15-20 men chased him down near Bedford Avenue, falsely accusing him of breaking car mirrors. The attack that followed left Patterson blind in one eye.

Police with Williamsburg's 90th Precinct reportedly tried to close the case the following day without investigating, but reopened it when Patterson's mother contacted the media. The following spring, after overcoming what one detective said was unprecedented stonewalling by neighbors, officers arrested five men in connection with the beatdown. However, witnesses subsequently recanted, and prosecutors dropped charges against two of the suspects, Aharon Hollender and Joseph Fried. Another man fingered by witnesses, Joel Itzkowitz, was never charged. Herskovic's lawyer, Donna Aldea, argues that this is because Itzkowitz's brother is Jacob Itzkowitz, coordinator for the local Shomrim volunteer police group, the Williamsburg Safety Patrol.

"I think that it was a case that demanded that somebody be held accountable for what happened to Taj Patterson, and I think Mayer was a sort of easy target to go after," she said. "What I think is striking is that not only is the evidence so weak, in fact, nonexistent against himthe evidence was so much stronger against the people who had their charges dropped or were not charged in the first place."

The other two remaining defendants pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment as part of deals with prosecutors, and were sentenced to community service. Herskovic was offered no such deal, according to Aldea. Following the trial, Judge Danny Chun sentenced him to four years in prison. That sentence is on hold pending Herskovic's appeal, filed Friday.

In the appeal Aldea argues that the DNA analysis performed on Patterson's shoe, thrown on a roof by one of his attackers, was fatally flawed and the only evidence connecting Herskovic to the crime. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner obtained less DNA from the shoe than is standard, the appeal says, and to overcome this, performed a series of analyses on the sample that are not widely accepted by law enforcement agencies. In 2015, a Brooklyn judge deemed the techniques inadmissible as evidence because of questions about their reliability. Other judges have not followed his lead, but the Medical Examiner's Office has since stopped using the analysis techniques.

"This is not DNA evidence," Aldea said. "When we talk about DNA evidence we talk about a DNA match. When we have a DNA match, that excludes every other person on the planet. That is real scientific evidence. Here, we have no DNA match. The peoples own experts admit that there is no DNA match."

For example, the appeal argues, the DNA analysis did not show that the sample was any more likely to contain Herskovic's DNA than any other member of the insular Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, nor could prosecutors definitively say how the DNA traces ended up on the shoe. Herskovic's defense attorney was first shown the DNA evidence less than a week before trial, according to the appeal. An expert asked to testify for the defense was subsequently blocked for having insufficient credentials. Aldea emphasized that no witnesses placed Herskovic at the scene, and said he is not a member of the controversial and politically connected Shomrim.

"He was a scapegoat, offered up to take the fall for those too well connected to be charged," she wrote in an email.

Patterson has an ongoing federal lawsuit against the city, the investigating officers, the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, the five arrestees, and Itzkowitz. The suit cites the city's "long history of disparate treatment" of Hasidic Jews, focusing particularly on the ties between the police department and the unregulated Shomrim neighborhood patrol groups. The groups receive city funding, are allowed to use NYPD-esque logos and emergency red-and-blue lights on their vehicles, and are frequently feted at NYPD and political functions.

The suit notes that Herskovic's co-defendant Pinchas Braver was given a tour of the 19th Precinct station house in Manhattan after his arrest for the assault. At the time, that precinct was commanded by Deputy Inspector James Grant. Grant was subsequently arrested on charges that he took bribes in exchange for making officers available "on call" for prominent figures in the Borough Park Hasidic community.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner declined to comment on the appeal. Agency spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said that analysts stopped using the two techniques Aldea objects to at the beginning of this year in order "to comply with new FBI standards." She added that both methods "were reviewed and approved for use in casework by the New York State Commission on Forensic Science, and OCME stands by their reliability."

A Brooklyn District Attorney's Office spokesman wrote in an email, "We will review the motion and respond to it in court."

Joel Itzkowitz did not answer at numbers listed for him.
It took a little while this year, but it's damn hot outside finally. And while you have the option to easily cool off by using one of the city's many public water fountains, your dog friends either can't reach the spigot or don't have the opposable thumbs that would let them work the thing. Luckily, New York City is here to give your good doggo a free reusable water dish that's easy to take with you on walks.

The Department of Environmental Protection announced this afternoon that they would be handing out 2,000 collapsible, reusable water bowls for dogs this summer. The giveaway is both a intended to promote the city's tap water (which is really quite good) and an effort to keep the city's dogs hydrated.

The giveaway started in front of Queens Borough Hall this afternoon, but don't worry if you couldn't make it there. Additional giveaway days, including Summer Streets, are on the DEP's Water On The Go calendar.

Just keep in mind that both dogs and their owners will have to be together in order to get the drinking bowls, so if any dogs out there can read and were thinking of taking a trot down to Queens Borough Hall today, grab a passing human along the way so you don't show up alone.

And remember, a human water fountain is not a dog bidet.
Philippines Islamic militant group Abu Sayaaf turned to kidnapping ships crews for ransom in the Sulu and Celebes Seas in the south of the country.

Releasing its half-year report ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) said that there had been a total of seven attacks in the area in the first half of this year with three successful abduction attempts, and four unsuccessful attempts. All the attacks were recorded in the first four months of 2017, with no actual or attempted abductions since May.

Since May there have been no cases of armed abduction of crew so maybe the situation is improving, but it is still very much a concern, Masafumi Kuroki, executive director of ReCAAP, told a press briefing in Singapore on Tuesday.

Although since May we havent had any incidents of abduction of crew we do not yet think the situation is stable in that region and keep our advice to ships to re-route if possible, he added.

Attacks on merchant ships to abduct crew for ransom in the southern Philippines, claimed largely by Abu Sayaaf, started in March last year with 59 seafarers abducted from 13 vessels in the region. To date 28 have been released, 11 rescued and four killed, with 16 remaining in captivity. Although there have been no new abductions since May this year two weeks ago saw the beheading of two captives.

Kuroki was unable to say if ransoms had been paid in the cases where seafarers had been rescued.

In response to the attacks trilateral patrols have been launched by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia and a recommended transit corridor established for merchant shipping between Moro Gulf and Basilan Strait. A second corridor has been proposed for the Sibutu Passage.

ReCAAP retains its warning issued in November last year for ships to avoid the region if possible, a warning that has been repeated by the governments of the US, Japan and Denmark among others.

While ReCAAP does not have figures for ships choosing to avoid the region Kuroki said that he was, informed that some shipping companies are avoiding this area and are taking other routes although it may take more days and additional cost.

But I think some shipping companies still use this area.

Mindanao province in the south of the Philippines is currently under martial law due to Islamic militancy, and President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking to extend martial law till the end of the year.

Martial law was declared on 23 May after the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups inspired by Islamic State took over parts of Marawi City.
Press Release

July 18, 2017 De Lima lauds 'Youth Resist' SONA Senator Leila M. de Lima today commended the Filipino youth for standing up and speaking out against the continued spate of extrajudicial killings a year since the Duterte administration started its all-out war on illegal drugs. In her latest Dispatch from Camp Crame in Quezon City, De Lima lauded the organizers of the Youth Resist held at the St. Scholastica's College Manila for coming up with their own version of the true State of the Nation Address (SONA). "The youth have broken their silence over the crooked governance of the Duterte administration, including its spreading of fake news to destroy its critics, while diverting us from the real issues, and the continued killings under the bloody war on drugs and the chaos in Mindanao," she said. De Lima's admiration for the youth in nation-building goes way back, having been invited to speak in different colleges in Metro Manila, in her first few months as Senator. During these dialogues, she had discussed the importance of human rights and the need to stand against the extrajudicial killings committed in the name of the Duterte administration's war on illegal drugs. In the same handwritten Dispatch, De Lima also recalled the fervor of St. Scholastica student, Shibby, who, at the young age of 13, started the cardboard justice campaign on social media. "I remember meeting Shibby last year. Right there, I admired her courage for taking a stand for what is right and just, at a young age," she said. De Lima said the youth's version of the Kontra-SONA is a stark reminder for everyone to stand against the administration's failures, including its increasing number of death in the bloody war on illegal drugs. "May the voice of the youth, our children, wake up our countrymen to the truth. The deception is too much. The killings have to stop. It's time to start the change that we all have truly aspired for," she said. De Lima, a known human rights defender, said she hopes that the youth would continue organizing other mass actions in the future, adding that she intends to participate in future events, when the opportunity permits. De Lima is currently detained on trumped-up drug charges fabricated by the Duterte administration. She believes that these cases were invented by the government due to her strong opposition to its violent campaign against illegal drugs, and also President Duterte's personal vendetta against her.
Press Release

July 18, 2017 JV BATS FOR A STRONG POLICE AIR ASSET; TO PUSH FOR FUNDS TO PURCHASE 4 HELICOPTERS SENATOR JV Ejercito has vowed to revive the air asset of the Philippine National Police as part of building a strong anti-terrorism force. In a speech during the 25th Anniversary of the Police Community Relations Group (PCRG) of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame last Monday (July 17), Ejercito announced that he will convince his colleagues in the Senate to appropriate fund in next year's budget for the purchase of 3 or 4 helicopters for the police force. "In this budget season, we will strengthen the anti-terrorism unit because it (terrorism) is becoming the norm in the world today. Then, we can purchase two or three more (helicopters) so that you will improve the crime-fighting and anti-terrorism capabilities of the Philippine National Police," he said. Ejercito said boosting the capabilities of the PNP is a necessary step since police forces in most countries are the first strike units against terrorists. He said what the PNP needs are helicopters, strong weapons, vehicles, communication gadgets and monitoring and surveillance equipment and also watercrafts. Ejercito has asked PNP chief Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to submit to him the list of equipment for the PNP. "Sabi ko, Chief (Dela Rosa), ibigay mo na sa akin ang inyong wish list para ngayong budget season, aside from the air assets that we want to revive, you will improve the crime-fighting and anti-terrorism capability of the Philippine National Police," he said. He added: "We will make sure that the Philippine National Police will be well-equipped in fighting crimes, in the war against illegal drugs, and in fighting these terrorists. This time around, I will not allow that the PNP is ill-equipped."
Press Release

July 18, 2017 HONTIVEROS TO MILLENNIALS: "WINTER IS HERE," LEAD RESISTANCE VS. AUTHORITARIANISM In a youth and student forum held at the St. Scholastica's College- Manila on Tuesday, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros urged the Filipino millennials to lead the way against, what she termed, the government's "growing authoritarianism." Dubbed as the "#YouthResist Alt-SONA," student leaders from different universities protested what they called President Rodrigo Duterte's "killing spree" that resulted to 12,000 homicide cases, including at least 8,000 deaths due to the abusive war-on-drugs. "We stand here because we want to send a clear and strong message to this government. We stand here today to tell this government that the millennials are watching. That you are not blind," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros pointed to the government's war on drugs, plans for "unli-Martial Law," the culture of sexism and impunity, and the reinstatement of dirty cops, particularly those accused of killing Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, as glaring examples of Duterte's growing undemocratic rule. She called on the millennials to lead the way in opposing 'rising authoritarianism', and praised their social awareness and involvement. "I have seen firsthand your courage and patriotism. We will take back the democracy they are stealing from us. We know this darkness will pass because you, the young have the light," Hontiveros said. "Winter is here," resistance is also here Borrowing a phrase from the popular television series Game of Thrones, Hontiveros said that the youth should lead the resistance against Duterte's rising authoritarianism. "Yes, winter is here. The night gathers. But so is our resistance. The resistance is here. You are the resistance. We are the resistance," Hontiveros said. The Youth SONA was organized by#YouthResist, a broad coalition of different youth and student groups such as the Millenials Against Democracy (MAD), the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP), and Akbayan Youth.
Press Release

July 18, 2017 THE RESISTANCE IS HERE

Speech of Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros before the National Day of Youth Resistance (#YouthRESIST Alt-SONA), July 18, 2017 at the St. Cecilia's Hall, St. Scholastica's College Manila. Good morning everyone! Thank you so much for having me here with you. I just want to say that it always, always fills my heart with hope and courage to be around the young, particularly my fellow Kulasas! Mabuhay ang kababaihan! Ora et Laban! We stand here because we want to send a clear and strong message to this government. If the message of the President's state of the nation address (SONA) is supposed to be that the government is fine, that the country is getting better, that change has finally arrived; then I will say this again - nothing could be further from the truth. That 8,000-12,000 people have been killed by the government's bloody war on drugs, that this senseless campaign continues despite all the evidence, that murderers are rewarded with reinstatement to their government posts and even promotions; all the senseless death and tragedy is proof that our government does not listen. It does not listen to the poor. It kills the young and the poor. It does not respect the truth and democracy, it clouds them with fake news and disinformation. This is something we will not stand for. We stand here today to tell this government that the millennials are watching. That you are not blind. The youth will not be fooled by fake news and information on social media. After all, social media is the domain of the millennials. No group of old men in Malacanang know this place better than you. We will take back the democracy they are stealing from us. And we know this darkness will pass because you, the young have the light. Your generation has been judged by so many others and been called so many things. Tinawag kayong henerasyong makasarili, vain, spoiled, self-centered at sobrang entitled. Hinusgahan kayo na walang tapang at walang pakialam. Maling-mali sila. I have seen firsthand your courage and patriotism. I saw your courage and selflessness when you led the charge against the granting of a hero's burial to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Thousands of you, the millennials, took to the streets and said in your own voice that Marcos was not a hero. I am particularly proud of my fellow Kulasas, ang mga kagaya ni Shibby De Guzman, who poured to the streets to join the protest actions. This despite the online harrassment and abuse you took for speaking truth to power. For that, my young friends and fellow women, you will always have my respect and admiration. I am reminded of my own youth. I was 15. And I wore the blue and white of this very school when I and my fellow students led a series of protests against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. That moment began a life of larger social involvement. And I am proud that you many of you have made the same choice here today. My young friends, the fight for democracy and against authoritarian rule is a fight that we can win. But if we are to win, we must come together. And in this, you, the youth of this nation, should show us the way. Defend the truth in cyberspace, and indeed in all spaces: in your schools, in your places of work, and if need be, in times and places such as this. Teach us again to learn from history's lessons. Teach us to develop a mind that questions what is in front of us. Lead the way in tearing down the walls of authoritarian rule. Kaya ngayong araw na ito, isang malaking karangalan na kasama ko kayo ngayon. Isang karangalan na lumaban at manindigan kasama kayong lahat. To borrow a popular phrase from another world, yes, winter is here. The night gathers. But so is our resistance. THE RESISTANCE IS HERE. WE ARE THE RESISTANCE. We will fight. WE WILL FIGHT AND WE WILL WIN because in the words of your generation, you only live once, we only live once. Mabuhay ang kabataan at kababaihan!
JUMP TO RECIPE

Why It Works A simple base of bread, almonds, and water becomes unbelievably creamy after a trip to the blender.

A green grape garnish completes the soup, giving it a bright and fruity accent.

There's a hierarchy in the world of bread soupsa hierarchy of appeal. See, it takes relatively little to convince most people that gazpacho is an appealing idea. Who wouldn't want a chilled tomato soup, loaded with the ripe flavors of summer? The bread in it is almost a footnote. One step down is Italian pappa al pomodoro, a warm tomato soup in which the pieces of bread have softened to a custardy texture. It's a little hard to explain why it's so good, but I've found most people are willing to give it a try if you promise them they won't regret it. (They never do regret it, by the way.)

Somewhere further down the list is ribollita, a Tuscan bread-and-vegetable stew made from leftover minestra because, let's be honest, anything in which "leftovers" is part of the pitch gets an automatic demotion in terms of desirability. And then there's Portuguese acorda, which most folks have definitely not heard of and, more often than not, are happy to leave it that way.

Very near the bottom, though, comes a cousin of gazpacho called ajo blanco (sometimes spelled as a single word, ajoblanco). It'd be fitting to call it the black sheep of the gazpacho family, except for the fact that it's distinctly white. Its name doesn't do it any favors either, given that it means "white garlic." If I told you I was going to make you a chilled bread-and-garlic soup, how excited would you get, really? (If your answer is "very," you're in the extreme minority.)

So, how can I convince you to add this soup to your summer recipe rotation if it isn't there already? Some people take the easy route by calling this soup "white gazpacho," which is a pretty slick marketing device, and not entirely inaccuratebefore tomatoes arrived in Europe from the Americas, ajo blanco was about the closest thing to gazpacho that one was likely to find in Spain.

But I'd like to sell the soup on its own merits. I'd start by explaining that the bread is almost entirely a textural ingredient. Sure, it adds a subtle wheat-y bass note of flavor, but more than anything else, it provides the starch that thickens the soup, acting as a kind of structural backbone.

Next, I would fill in an important blank: The soup may be named for the garlic in it, but the real main ingredient is almonds. The garlic adds complexity and some kick, but it's the almonds that give ajo blanco its soul. Once blended, they release their milk, with its delicate floral and nutty fragrance, into the soup. When it meets the thickening power of the bread, the almond milk takes on an uncanny creaminessyou simply can't believe this is a dairy-free soup (a vegan one, actually!).

For my recipe, I tested a few versions of the almonds: plain blanched (skinned) almonds, toasted ones, and Marcona almonds, a Spanish variety that's usually lightly fried or toasted. My preference was for either the plain blanched almonds, which provide the lightest, freshest, cleanest almond flavor, or the Marconas, which offer just a shade of toasty complexity. The ones I toasted myself, even though they were toasted only lightly, hit the soup with a heavy-handed roasted-nut flavor that I just didn't enjoy. You can maybe make it work if you toast your almonds to an almost imperceptible degree, but otherwise, I'd just stick with plain ones or Marconas.

Back in the old days, the whole thing would have been made with a mortar and pestle, pounding the nuts and old, stale bread together to reduce them to a puree, then working in garlic, water, and olive oil, plus a splash of sherry vinegar to brighten up the richness.

Olive oil and sherry vinegar add contrasting rich and bright notes to the soup.

Today, though, you can rely on a blender. If you're using a less powerful one, you may want to pass the soup through a fine-mesh strainer afterward, just to get out any gritty bits. A high-powered blender, on the other hand, can transform it into a velvety-smooth texture in a minute or two, no straining required.

One note on the bread. Historically, most bread soups have been a vehicle for stale bread that otherwise would have gone to waste. But, after lots of testing on this soup and other bread soups, I've found that it simply doesn't matter what you use. This soup works with stale bread, it works with oven-dried bread, and it works with fresh bread. Once the bread is fully saturated with liquid, you cannot tell the difference.

Once it's blended, you won't believe it contains no cream.

After blending, you'll want to put the soup in the fridge, giving it enough time for the flavors to meld and develop, while the whole thing takes on a refreshing chill.

Here's the last thing to know about ajo blanco: Even after you've made the soup, after you've blended it and chilled it and given it time to settle into itself, if you try it just like that...you likely won't be all that impressed. Some people try to fix this by blending in other ingredients, like cucumber, apple, and more. That can be good, but I suggest trying it in its most basic form first. The key is to hold your judgment until you've eaten the finished, plated soup, because ajo blanco isn't ajo blanco without its fruit garnish.

That's true of a lot of soupsthe garnish elevates it from an everyday experience to something special. But with ajo blanco, it goes beyond that. The garnishusually fresh grapes, but sometimes other fruit, like meloncompletes it. Ajo blanco just isn't a fully realized dish until it's studded with juicy, sweet-tart bites.

But, oh boy, do I promise you: Once you try ajo blanco in that state, it'll go right to the top of your cold-summer-soup list.
Residents who were evacuated due to the Lookout fire near Wolf Creek can return home.

Law enforcement and fire officials say the fire has not advanced significantly and fire crews are working to put a line around the fire by Thursday. In the meantime, residents of 46 homes in the area can return but must be checked in and out by the Lewis and Clark County Sheriffs Office.

Residents were evacuated on Saturday in the Lyons Creek area as the blaze initially took off.

The Lookout fire flared up Saturday on the east side of Rogers Mountain about 5 miles west of Wolf Creek. Smoke from that fire and the Park Creek fire near Lincoln hang heavy in Wolf Creek Canyon to the fire camp outside of the town.

The tinge of smoke remained in Wolf Creek School as Sheriff Leo Dutton announced that residents will remain under a pre-evacuation advisory, but they can come and go as needed for work or getting supplies.

This is a serious deal and they need to get this fire out, he told about 50 in attendance. Dutton emphasized to residents that they should only use the road for necessities, as fire crews will be bringing large trucks and equipment in and out.

County commissioners Susan Good Geise and Jim McCormick offered their support to displaced residents.

A representative for Republican Sen. Steve Daines also addressed the crowd, saying that if authorities recommended evacuating, it is a good idea to listen.

On Monday a Type 1 incident command team took over the fire from state and local crews. A Type 1 team is the highest classification and generally assigned to the most complex fires.

Public information officer Kimberly Nelson said their assignment to the fire is in some ways to preposition the team in anticipation of more potential wildfires. Firefighters are taking an aggressive approach to the 390-acre fire with the goal of having a line around it by Thursday.

The camp is set up for up to 500 people, while about 300 firefighters were expected to arrive by Monday.

Andy Mitchell, the planning operations section chief for the command team, explained the firefighting plan to attendees. He called access to the fire a little sketchy with single lane roads from the north and south. Fortunately, he said, the fire has stayed mostly on ridgetops with growth through snags that has minimized its spread.

The bad news is youre being invaded by an incident management team, Mitchell said. The good news is we bring a lot of muscle to the fire.

About a third of the fire had a line around it as of Monday evening, but a major challenge is scarcity of water, he said.

Were not going to waste money but were going to spend what it takes to put the fire out, Mitchell said.
Why this time?

Why should we believe Billy Beane this time?

Thats my main question after the latest departures from Oakland over the weekend and a new crop of youngsters arriving. Thats what Im wondering after comments from executive vice president Beane that sounded oh-so-empathetic to the plight of As fans.

Why this time?

Beane politely declined a follow-up interview, according to a team spokesman Monday. So well let his Sunday words speak for themselves.

Really, whats been missing the last 20 years is keeping these players. The frustration isnt that weve had success. The frustration is that after success, we havent kept them. And we need to change that narrative by creating a good team and ultimately committing to keeping them around, so that when people buy a ticket theyll know that the team is going to be there for a few years.

To which all As fans say: Duh!

We are supposed to believe things are different now because Beane says so. Because the As say theyre going to build a stadium. Because they will have the Oakland market to themselves in the next couple of years after the Raiders and the Warriors depart.

Everything is going to be great! Have faith!

My informal Twitter poll shows that As fans are fresh out of faith. They like their team. They know that Beane is good at acquiring talent. But faith? Belief that things are going to change? Willingness to purchase a jersey other than perhaps Rickey Hendersons long-retired No. 24?

No way.

Beane says it is different this time because he has the commitment of ownership. Those words would carry more weight if ownership actually came out of hiding and pledged a commitment directly to the fans.

John Fisher owns the As. Fisher is worth, according to Forbes, $2.2 billion. Fisher has been the majority owner of the As for 13 seasons. The As have made the playoffs four times during his reign. For three seasons, including this one, theyve been dead last in their division. The repetitive dismantling of the team has been happening on his watch, while he has kept both payroll and expectations quite low.

Fisher does not speak in public. Instead, he lets Beane, or As President Dave Kaval, or, before him, minority owner Lew Wolff speak. So Fishers plans for a ballpark, for the future of the team, for a commitment to holding onto players and building something that will last, are all hearsay. Speculation. Assumptions.

Im assured by ownership that thats what were going to do as it parallels with the stadium, Beane said Sunday of his commitment to retaining players.

The stadium is still completely hypothetical. There is no site yet. Which means no neighborhood fight, environmental impact report, political hoops to jump through, new threats to make about moving elsewhere. And even once a site is decided upon, said stadium needs to be built. This process, which has been going on for years and years and years, is nowhere close to being complete.

So dont run out and buy your Sheldon Neuse jersey just yet.

The breaking point for a lot of As fans came after the 2014 season, when Beane dismantled an excellent team that had lost the American League wild-card game in its third consecutive playoff appearance. The trade of Josh Donaldson, who was still under the teams financial control, seemed to go against logic. One of the last vestiges of those playoff teams, Sean Doolittle, exited Sunday for the Nationals. Another, Sonny Gray, will be close behind, heading to a playoff contender somewhere.

That 2014 dismantling looked like a rebuild at the time. But now, we are told, this is the actual rebuild. Strip it down to the studs.

It has been years of frustration for As fans. And its frustrating for them to hear Beane talk like this is a brand-new revelation, as though it just occurred to him that this isnt a good way to connect with the community.

There are only so many cycles that I can go through before I get as exasperated as everybody else, he said.

Exasperation is a constant state for As fans. Theyll believe improvement if they see it. If young prospects come of age and are rewarded with contracts that keep them in Oakland, rather than being traded to other teams, where they can participate in postseason races and make their fans in green and gold sigh, What might have been.

Beane said of the teams new approach, Were going to have to be patient with it.

Maybe he will be. Maybe not. But the fans seem to be fresh out of both patience and faith.

Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion
A wildfire ravaging the area west of Yosemite National Park grew to 25,000 acres Tuesday, more than tripling in size in one day and causing evacuations in the area, including the town of Mariposa, officials said.

Firefighters dealing with steep terrain and dry weather said the blaze was only 5 percent contained.
Ismael Tablada was worried.

Ever since a big electric-company complex closed in 2015 next to where he works in San Franciscos Mission District, the block had become thick with camps of homeless people. Then city leaders decided to turn the old complex at South Van Ness Avenue and Cesar Chavez Street into a Navigation Center homeless shelter.

Great, Tablada thought. Now well be the new Skid Row.

What happened was just the opposite  the camps vanished soon after the Navigation Center opened three weeks ago. On Monday, Tablada got his first good look inside it and marveled at the change it has brought to the neighborhood where he has been a sales representative at the Auto Zone supply store for many years.

I was wondering what happened to all those encampments that were all around this building just a month ago, and now I know, Tablada said. They came here, and it really looks like now they have a better shot at life. They really needed professional help.

The 120-bed center opened June 29 after city Public Works crews rehabilitated the old McMillan Electric Co. at a cost of $600,000, and since then city street outreach counselors have brought in 89 people. Like the citys other three Navigation Centers, this one is geared toward long-term chronically homeless people. They can come in with partners, pets and all their belongings, and they can come and go 24/7.

Clients, as theyre called, can stay at least 60 days while case managers work intensively toward getting them housed and connected with whatever counseling they need. The new center is being run on contract with the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which also operates the citys biggest traditional shelter, the Multi-Service Center South at Fifth and Bryant streets. The Downtown Streets Team and Brilliant Corners nonprofits help with housing and job placements.

Inside, the reconstructed Navigation Center building is a study of muted colors, airy skylights  original, from the electric complex  and big, roomy common areas. Its all designed to be an oasis of serenity and respite, said program Director Lessy Benedith, a place where people can really work on moving forward.

That serenity is now reflected outside, where there are no homeless camps for blocks around.

It took us a little while to learn that we could actually stay inside like this after being outside so long, but now we really appreciate it, said Betty Mowery, 50, who with her 45-year-old boyfriend, Matthew Billy, was among the first to move in. Its a very nice place to be, to figure things out.

Mayor Ed Lee visited the center for the first time Monday to see how things were going, and when Mowery told him she was one semester short of a bachelors degree in sociology, he lit up.

We want to help you any way we can, whether its training or housing, he said. I know on the streets survival is so challenging.

Im going to work hard on this, Mowery said.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the area and held several community meetings to field complaints about the new center before it opened, said she feels vindicated.

I really wanted this center, and I think the proof is in the pudding, she said as she toured the place with the mayor. Its working  amazingly. The streets right around here, for the first time in a long time, are free of tents and needles, and people are getting a break from the harsh reality of the streets.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com
Two owners of a tenancy-in-common have sued the city over a law the Board of Supervisors passed in 2013 that was designed to help owners convert TICs into condominiums, but with a provision that they offer a lifetime lease if there was a tenant in the unit.

Plaintiffs Peyman Pakdel and Sima Chegini purchased their TIC in Russian Hill eight years ago, intending to move in when they retired. The new law thwarted their plans, requiring them to offer the property to the current tenant.

To Pakdel and Cheginis attorney, Paul Utrecht, thats a clear example of a municipal government seizing private property.

My client bought the property to live in, and now hes not allowed to, Utrecht said.

Supervisor Mark Farrell and former Supervisor Scott Wiener, who originally sponsored the ordinance, saw it as a way to help small property owners who were jammed up in the citys lottery system for condo conversions.

Farrell and Wiener wanted to expedite conversions for more than 2,000 tenancies-in-common  residential buildings in which two or more people share ownership  that were on a waiting list. They offered the lifetime lease provision as a concession to tenants rights groups, who feared the sudden flood of conversions would cause many longtime renters to be displaced.

The two supervisors also required each tenancy-in-common owner to pay a $20,000 fee to the citys affordable housing fund in exchange for the right to convert the property.

But Wiener and Farrell  who both represented the moderate side of the board  didnt vote for the final version of the measure. It was taken over by former Supervisor David Chiu and his colleagues, progressives Norman Yee, Jane Kim and David Campos. They inserted a series of amendments that complicated the law, including a 10-year moratorium on conversions after the initial pipeline ran out and a provision that stopped conversions of rented units if anyone sued.

That didnt stop Utrecht and his clients from suing.

I dont know how many people our lawsuit affects, Utrecht said. But this is not a theoretical issue for my client. Its a real issue.

City attorney spokesman John Cote said the city had just been served with the complaint and that his office was in the process of analyzing it.

In general we try very hard to protect all rental housing in San Francisco, because its considered a source of affordable housing, Cote said.

Owners of tenancies-in-common can bypass the lifetime lease requirement by offering buyouts to the people renting their units. Its not clear whether Pakdel and Chegini did that.

The plaintiffs seek more than $500,000 in damages and a declaratory judgment that would strike down the lease requirement, which they say violates federal and state laws.

Chiu and Farrell were not immediately available for comment.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
A 50-year-old Santa Rosa man died while on the water at Lake Sonoma Sunday afternoon, officials said.

About 12:45 p.m. Sonoma County sheriffs deputies were called to the private marina at Lake Sonoma on reports of a possible fatality, and upon arrival, paramedics declared 50-year-old David Hartsough dead, according to the Sheriffs Office.

It was not clear how Hartsough died. He had been boating near the Warm Springs arm of the lake with a couple and their child when the engine of the boat started acting up, said Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sheriffs Office.

An inner tube flew off the front deck of the boat and floated away, and Hartsough jumped off and swam for it, but began screaming for help when he got close, Crum said.

One of Hartsoughs friends swam over and reached him just as he went under, according to Crum. He wasnt breathing when she reached him, the woman told deputies.

The woman flagged down a nearby boat and they heaved Hartsough over the side, ferried him to the private marina and administered CPR until paramedics arrived, Crum said.

The coroners office is investigating, according to Crum.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
A pair of thieves tried to pull off an elaborate heist in Cupertino when they cut a hole in the roof of a Verizon store, disabled the security system and stole $138,000 worth of phones, tablets and Apple products, officials said.

But the alleged culprits were quickly nabbed because their getaway wasnt as well planned.

Two suspects were stopped shortly after leaving the scene of the crime and Santa Clara County sheriffs deputies spotted the stolen goods in the backseat of their car, officials said.

The burglary was reported to deputies about 5:51 a.m., according to the Sheriffs Office.

The suspects, identified as 40-year-old Tan Nguyen of San Jose and 38-year-old Marc Tran of American Canyon, cut a hole in the roof of the Stevens Creek Boulevard store, disabled the alarm, video surveillance and wiring, then entered the building, said Sgt. Rich Glennon, a Sheriffs Office spokesman. Once inside, the suspects used a saw to cut through a metal door to access the inventory storage room, Glennon said.

They stole a selection of iPads, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones and various other Apple products  189 items in total, with a retail value over $138,000, Glennon said.

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After the burglary was reported, sheriffs deputies made an enforcement stop on a silver Lexus under the Southwest Expressway on Meridian Avenue in San Jose and noticed a heap of Apple products in the backseat, according to Glennon.

Tran and Nguyen were booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of various burglary charges; Tran has since been released on bail, and Nguyen is being held on $120,000 bail, he said.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
The journalists at San Franciscos public TV and radio station, KQED, have been stuck in a time warp.

All Internet-connected devices, tools and machinery have been cut off in an attempt to isolate and contain a ransomware attack that infected the stations computers June 15. More than a month later, many remain offline.

Though the stations broadcasts have been largely uninterrupted  minus a half-day loss of the online stream on the first day of the attack  KQED journalists said every day has brought new challenges and revealed the immeasurable ways the station, like many businesses today, has become dependent on Internet-connected devices.

Its like weve been bombed back to 20 years ago, technology-wise, said Queena Kim, a senior editor at KQED. You rely on technology for so many things, so when it doesnt work, everything takes three to five times longer just to do the same job.

KQEDs experience offers a glimpse into the lasting impact of a ransomware attack, the devastating online assaults that have become more frequent, destructive and wide-reaching in recent months. Ransomware is a specific form of malware that encrypts files, rendering them unreadable, with a digital key that a hacker promises to deliver if paid.

It also underscores an uncomfortable truth: If KQED, an organization that had up-to-date security systems and an awareness cultivated by routinely producing news stories about cyberattacks, can fall victim to such an attack, most other companies can, too.

It was astonishing, Holly Kernan, KQEDs executive editor, said of the attack. It definitely showed us what kind of changes we need to make going forward. For example, we are going to have separate networks in different parts of the organization so that were all working in a more secure environment.

In the hours immediately following the malware infection, KQEDs email server stopped working. All network-connected devices were taken offline. The radio stations online broadcast went silent for more than 12 hours overnight. Radio journalists lost hours of work. Everyone with computers running Microsoft Windows was told not to touch them.

The wireless Internet in the building didnt work for several days. Email didnt return for two weeks.

Weve basically been putting everything together with duct tape for a month, said Marisa Lagos, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter who covers state politics for KQED. From an outside point of view, we really made it work. But what our listeners dont know is that people have been doing really crazy things to make sure no one notices that anything is wrong.

Lagos said the morning after the hack, she and several other journalists reported to work before 5 a.m. to do the California Report because the show they had recorded had vanished.

KQEDs television newscast recorded segments from UC Hastings for two weeks in a row because of persistent problems stemming from the hack, Kernan said.

Even now, more than a month later, simple tasks once accomplished at the push of a button continue to require manual effort and creative workarounds.

To make sure everyone sees a copy of the script for an upcoming broadcast, reporters have to plug one of the still-working computers into an old ink-jet printer, print out copies of the script and drop one off in a box at the center of the newsroom, where everyone can find it.

The timing of segments, once done automatically through the newsrooms content management system, is now done the old fashioned way  with a stopwatch.

Even getting in and out of KQEDs buildings has become an ordeal. A new reporter who started just before the hack could not report to work in KQEDs San Jose bureau because she couldnt get into the building, Kim said. The companys network-connected card readers had been deactivated.

Its sort of interesting to see all the stupid little things weve relied on technology for, Kim said. And you dont notice how dependent you are until it all breaks down.

No one is sure how the ransomware got into KQEDs system.

The company had just updated its antivirus systems the morning of the attack, chief technology officer Dan Mansergh said.

It had up-to-date firewalls, email-scanning software and multiple malware detection programs. But the malware that infected their computers was a new piece of software that was not among the viruses for which KQEDs security vendor had been scanning, he said.

The attack encrypted files on a small percentage of Microsoft computers, though it appeared that the virus had detected many more computers and servers and was preparing to encrypt their files, too, before KQEDs technical staff was able to isolate the bug.

Ransomware, like the kind that infected KQEDs systems, can be transmitted to other computers and servers if they are all connected to the same network. Once the malware is in a system, it works to encrypt any number of files and then asks the victim to pay a ransom to restore them.

The attackers who hit KQED asked for 1.7 bitcoin per machine, or roughly $3,637 apiece. With only a handful of computers infected, the asked-for ransom would have been an estimated $27,000, KQED said. That would be a fraction of KQEDs annual revenue of $71.6 million, of which $39.7 million comes from audience contributions and membership fees, according to the stations annual financial disclosure.

KQED does not break out figures on its information technology spending. Since the recovery effort is ongoing, KQEDs Mansergh could not estimate the cost.

The attack, KQED employees said, did not appear to be targeted. In fact, it didnt seem that the hackers knew what kind of organization they had hit.

KQED reported the hack to the FBI. The company declined to pay the ransom, in line with law enforcements usual advice, and has since been rebuilding the systems it lost and fortifying its network security to ensure that a virus brought in through one part of the organization cannot spread to another in the future.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

In an abundance of caution, we are wiping and restoring all Windows computers, Mansergh wrote in an email to The Chronicle this month. We will also be implementing other security measures to reduce the risk or impact of a future attack.

Ransomware viruses are usually spread through email attachments, infected links or files that make their way into a computer via a USB drive.

Mansergh said the virus appeared to be a newer version of an attack that had been circulating in 2016.

It was not related to the two global ransomware attacks that locked down computers in more than 150 countries: WannaCry, which affected more than 230,000 computers including those in hospitals and public infrastructure agencies across Europe, or Petya, which spread through large firms, including FedEx Corp.s TNT unit, food companies and legal groups. Both seemed to capitalize on Windows software that had not been updated.

The problem inherent in securing a company like KQED is that because its a news outlet that relies on public donations, there is a lot of information available about the company, the journalists who work there and what they cover, said Jake Williams, founder of cybersecurity firm Rendition InfoSec.

Nearly half of all ransomware attacks are caused by email or phishing scams that use publicly available information to pose as a trustworthy source, according to research from cybersecurity firm Datto.

Despite the challenges, several KQED workers said, they have also found a silver lining: The ransomware attack forced them to find workarounds and get creative, journalists said, and appreciate how fragile the systems they rely on really are.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @Marissa_Jae

This story has been updated to correct the ransom requested.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a kind of malicious software that once inside a computer makes files and systems inaccessible to users who do not have a digital key. Hackers will typically demand payment in exchange for the key.

How does it infect a computer?

Hackers send out emails with an attachment or an infected link, hoping the recipient will inadvertently download the malware. Ransomware can also be transmitted through online advertisements and files on USB drives.

What can I do to protect myself?

Always check the source of an email before opening links or files. Do not plug in any unknown drives to your computer. If an emailed link or attachment appears to be coming from a source like your bank, your boss or your parents, verify that it is really from that source by calling or sending a new email to a confirmed address or phone number  dont just hit reply or call a number listed in the email.

Having regularly backed-up files and data will help ensure that if hit with a ransomware attack, you do not have to pay the ransom to retrieve your files. Back up files in the cloud or an external hard drive that is stored separately from your computer.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested Monday in the fatal shooting in May of a young Discovery Bay woman at a park in Richmond, police said.

Investigators identified an El Cerrito teen as the suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Allie Sweitzer, who was shot during an argument in Booker T. Anderson Jr. Park.

It doesnt feel like justice because its not right, none of this is right, Sweitzers older sister, Teylar, told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning.

The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was arrested around 6 p.m. Monday.

Sweitzer was fatally shot about 8:45 p.m. on May 18 at the park when an argument involving her and at least one male escalated, police said.

As police went to the park to investigate the shooting, they received word that Sweitzer had been dropped off at a hospital with a gunshot wound, police said. She was pronounced dead less than two hours later.

Teylar Sweitzer, 23, said the arrest doesnt diminish the pain of losing her younger sister, her best friend. If anything, she said, the arrest made Allie Sweitzers death sink in.

She said her mother received a call on Monday night from detectives alerting her that a juvenile had been arrested in the killing of her sister.

I know its crazy, but my thoughts went to the child and family, she said of the suspect. He took my sister, but now theyre taking his life and his familys life.

At the time of the shooting, the victim was living in Teylar Sweitzers Brentwood home. On the day she was killed, Allie Sweitzer went to Richmond to visit a high school friend who had just moved into a new apartment, her sister said.

It wasnt unusual for Allie Sweitzer to go to Richmond, Teylar Sweitzer added; the young woman had friends and family who lived in the area.

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About an hour and a half before they went to the park, I had a missed call from her, said Teylar Sweitzer, choking up as she sobbed. She called me every single day, no matter what.

Growing up, Teylar Sweitzer said, she and her sister had a strong bond and were nearly inseparable.

She went to a party, I went to the party with her. She went to a friends house, I went with her, Teylar Sweitzer said.

Allie Sweitzer was born in Pleasanton and raised in Castro Valley. She graduated from high school in Discovery Bay and was working at a Subway sandwich shop in Dublin.

Allie was and has always been a wild child. She was a free spirit, Teylar Sweitzer said. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, and she did it.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Marilyn Nieves / Marilyn Nieves / Getty Images/Vetta

A 53-year-old man from Rohnert Park accused of sexually assaulting a man who has Down syndrome pleaded no-contest in the case Monday, prosecutors said.

Richard Wells met the victim outside a FoodMaxx grocery store in Rohnert Park on Jan. 17, according to the Sonoma County District Attorneys Office.
James Steidl / James Steidl / ST

A Santa Clara County man who pleaded no contest to embezzling more than $400,000 from his former high school classmates and gambling the money away in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and Dubai was sentenced Monday to five years in county jail, prosecutors said.

In 2012, Narsimha Raju Sagiraju, 28, persuaded a small group of his former classmates at Cupertino High School to invest in his startup commercial construction firm, Genwi, according to the Santa Clara County district attorneys office.
Montana's Republican Sen. Steve Daines said Tuesday he would vote for a repeal of the health care law without a replacement, but later in the day even that plan appeared to be doomed.

"I would support a repeal," Daines said Tuesday morning. "We have a health care system in this country that is collapsing on the individual market and we have a health care system that is producing financial outcomes at the state government level that are not sustainable."

Daines voted for repeal before in a 2015 effort that was vetoed by former President Barack Obama.

But later Tuesday, three Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said they could not support a repeal without a replacement. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters later in the day he would still hold the repeal vote though it does not have enough support to pass. In 2015 the repeal attempt passed the Senate 52-47 but was was vetoed by former president Barack Obama.

"I didn't come to Washington to hurt people," Capito said.

Daines was one of seven Republican senators who had dinner with Republican President Donald Trump on Monday evening. The other senators include John Thune, of South Dakota; Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee; Roy Blunt, of Missouri; Richard Shelby, of Alabama; James Lankford, of Oklahoma; and John Cornyn, of Texas.

"Health care was certainly part of that discussion," Daines said. "We talked about the need to get the economy growing again and tax reform. We talked about the concerns of the $20 trillion dollars of debt and the fiscal challenges we face as a nation and we also spent some time looking at how do we get Congress to act more quickly and efficiently."

After Daines and the other senators left the dinner, news broke that Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas would not support the Better Care Reconciliation Act and would not vote for a motion to bring the bill to the floor. It was Senate Republicans' most recent iteration of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Then, McConnell floated the repeal without replacement option.

On Tuesday morning, Daines said that while he supports a repeal, he wants to see Congress continue to focus on a replacement plan because of the possibility Montana ends its Medicaid expansion program in 2019, which could leave nearly 80,000 without insurance.

When the Montana Legislature passed the Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership in 2015, it included a sunset of 2019 to give lawmakers the option to assess how the law is working and vote to renew it. Aside from the state-imposed sunset, the Better Care Reconciliation Act gave states less money for expansion than under the Affordable Care Act, which would have also ended expansion.

Daines cited a story by the Associated Press than ran in papers around the state Tuesday quoting the state senator who carried the expansion bill voicing concern about its continuation.

"They promised that they would make it work," Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, told the Associated Press. "And if they don't, then the program needs to change, or there will be a great risk that it could go away."

Daines said that means Congress needs to act soon on a new health care bill.

"We don't have two years to wait to take action in terms of a replacement plan. We've got to provide a place for those who are on Medicaid expansion to land so they have health care coverage, they have options, they have choices if this Obamacare collapses. ... It's important we have a federal law that provides a place for these Montanans to land so they can still have access to affordable health care."

Daines said the "collapse" of exchanges that sell insurance will continue until there's a replacement.

"If we look at what's happening in Montana, which is similar to what we're seeing around the country with 133 percent increase in premiums, the poverty tax, that is the mandate where the IRS assesses a tax penalty on those who have not bought health care in Montana," he said.

In 2016, the three insurers that sell plans on the exchange in Montana proposed rate increases of from 20 percent to 62 percent on average. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana pitched increases from 40 to 108 percent, depending in the plan. About 85 percent of Montanans get a premium tax credit that offsets rate increases.

At the time, Blue Cross said the increase was needed because claims and health care costs have been higher than expected. The company collected $174.7 million in premiums for individual plans and paid out $220.6 million in claims in 2015 for a loss ratio of 126.3 percent, according to a rate change request summary.

This year Blue Cross proposed an average of 23.1 percent rate increase, while the Montana Health Co-Op proposed a 4 percent increase and PacificSource proposed for a 7.4 percent increase.

At the start of July during a health care forum in Helena, the CEO of one of Montana's largest hospitals said Republicans are are injecting instability into federal insurance marketplaces by suggesting lowering subsidies for people who buy coverage, calling the move a slick trick to ensure the failure of the exchanges.

All you have to do is threaten to defund the subsidies, Benefis CEO John Goodnow said at a panel in Helena organized by the Montana Nurses Association to discuss the bill.

During a town hall conducted by phone last month, Daines told callers that in 2014 more than 30,000 Montanans were penalized by the IRS for not having health care. Daines said Montanans paid more than $7.8 million.

"Here's the shocking part of that data: 40 percent of those Montanans make incomes of less than $25,000 a year. This is a poverty tax put into place by Obamacare that needs to be replaced."

Critics of the data on fines, which was shared by several Republican senators in the past weeks, say that Medicaid expansion would have provided coverage to some of those who were fined and more updated data would show a decrease in fines.

The Montana Nurses Association criticized Daines' support of a repeal without a replacement and released the following statement Tuesday:

"Sen. Steve Daines made a conscious decision to leave Montana citizens behind. ... Proposing to repeal the law in any form without having an alternative health care plan to replace would destabilize our health care system and jeopardize lives across our state."

During the dinner with Trump, Daines said he and the six other senators had an hour-and-a-half discussion "across a wide range of topics."

The senator said he brought up the filibusterer rule in the Senate, something the president tweeted about Tuesday morning, saying: "The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!"

On Tuesday morning, Daines called the Senate rules "archaic."

"These are archaic rules from the past that are creating, are going to create barriers for the Senate to act on behalf of the American people. It is time to blow up the filibuster. ... I was pleased to see the president tweet that out."

Daines also said Trump focused on increasing the pace at which Congress works.

"I think one of my other takeaways from dinner last night was President Trump wants to move at the speed of business, not at the speed of government. He wants to see results. ... Congress has to have the ability to walk and chew gum. We can do more than work on just one thing. We need to work on tax reform, we need to work on infrastructure, we need to work on sanctions against North Korea. There are a number of threats facing our nation, and we need to work on more than one thing."
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Navi Kitchen in Emeryville recently launched a dinner service, good news for folks craving post work, late-evening Indian-Neapolitan pizza from James Beard-nominated chef Preeti Mistry.

The byproduct of Mistry delving into the weird and wonderful phenomenon of Indian pizza means four pies like the Kheema Kale with lamb, beef, kale and red onion ($22); the Leelu Potato with fenugreek pesto, potato, sweet pepper and cherry tomatoes ($19); Preetis Peppah with pepperoni and pickled peppers ($20); and the Love Veggie with eggplant and paneer ($19.50) are all up for grabs from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The news, technically, isn't much of surprise. From the beginning, Mistry planned for Navi Kitchen to be an all-day cafe. And while the food is important, Mistry is using the space for more grand purposes: supporting the East Bay community and speaking out about social justice issues.

Starter Bakery and Highwire Coffee Roasters are among the local small businesses contributing to her menu. A portion of the restaurants proceeds will also be given to various organizations including the Destiny Arts Center, Black Lives Matter Bay Area and Planting Justice.

With the pizza-focused dinner service book-ending the ongoing breakfast-focused early morning setup, Mistry pretty much has her bases covered.

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After its normal 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. morning hours, the shop will close for an hour and then reopen at 4 p.m. for the dinner service lasting until 8 p.m. Days of operation are Wednesday through Sunday.

Navi Kitchen: 5000 Adeline St, Emeryville. (510) 285-6923 www.navikitchen.com

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
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Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story is a documentary about a working Hollywood couple who contributed immeasurably to many Hollywood films. Especially in the case of Harold, you already know their work. Youve seen it and enjoyed it. You just never knew who was responsible.

Harold Michelson was a storyboard artist and later a production designer. As a storyboard artist, he would take the script and imagine it in visual terms, shot by shot. He would then give these storyboards to the director, who, if he was smart, would just put on film the movie as Harold imagined it.
We had a huge fight in the car the other day. As is often the case, it was over directions. I wanted to go one way; she wanted to go the other way. Im sorry to say it got ugly.

Its put a strain on our relationship, and Im not sure we can recover. We had just begun to bond, and I was feeling a surge of love, and then it was all shattered.

It all began in Half Moon Bay on Friday evening at rush hour. I was driving back to our home in Marin County. I knew the way, obviously, but since it was rush hour, I decided I should be a man of the 21st century and check the traffic.

It was pretty much my first date with Waze, the navigational app for smartphones that is all the rage. Id always used Google Maps, and we had a stable but unspectacular relationship. My Millennial children urged me to download Waze, which is supposedly a more detailed alternative.

I punched in my address and my new love sweetly told me it would take an hour and 10 minutes to get home. And then she told me not to go over the hill to Interstate 280 but to take the coastal route through Pacifica to avoid freeway traffic.

How lovely. The two of us (the Waze Woman and I) took a leisurely drive along the coast on a romantic evening, the waves crashing, the sun dropping in the sky  we were definitely beginning to bond.

Then it got better. Climbing out of Pacifica, she sweetly told me to take Skyline Boulevard along the majestic sand dunes, avoiding 280 altogether, and then hooking up with Sunset Boulevard, eliminating the chaos of 19th Avenue as well.

I was rapidly falling in love. I was born and raised in San Francisco and know the streets. I went to Lowell High School, which is in the Sunset. This was my neighborhood, but I might have mindlessly headed down 19th Avenue if it hadnt been for my sweet-talking partner. She knew me.

She took me through Golden Gate Park, letting me know the names of streets (Crossover Drive, Transverse Drive) Id used for decades but never identified. I knew where she was taking me, and I smiled at her knowingly and affectionately.

We were taking one of my prized shortcuts when the regular bridge approach is jammed  25th Avenue and then through Sea Cliff and the Presidio. A gorgeous drive. I couldnt have been happier with my new love.

As we came out of the park and saw the long stretch of 25th Avenue in front of us, things changed. Let me try to re-create our conversation as I remember it:

Waze Woman: In 400 feet, take a right on Fulton Street.

Me: What?

Waze Woman: Take a right on Fulton Street.

Me: No. Im going down 25th Avenue, like we intended.

Waze Woman: You just missed Fulton Street. In 900 feet, take a right on Balboa.

Me: I dont want to take a right on Balboa. I want to go through the Presidio.

Waze Woman: Now you missed Balboa, you idiot. Why arent you listening to me? In  mile, take a right on California.

Me: I WILL NOT! YOU'RE THE IDIOT! Im on 25th and can get to the bridge faster and with more scenery this way.

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Waze Woman: This is your last chance to obey me. In 900 feet, take a right on California or Ill never speak to you again.

Me: YOURE AN ARROGANT TWIT! I AM JOE SAN FRANCISCO! I GREW UP HERE. IM GOING THROUGH THE PRESIDIO!

It was eerily quiet as I passed California Street. She didnt even suggest turning right on Lake Street, knowing I wouldnt obey. When we entered Sea Cliff, she meekly suggested turning right through the Presidio, but she clearly wasnt happy, and neither was I.

As we approached the bridge, the silence was ominous. Our love affair was clearly over. I could have been sympathetic and made amends, but I was still upset. I decided to humiliate her.

She clearly didnt know the best shortcut of all, where you turn left west of the bridge and then go through a tunnel under the toll plaza and come up on the east side and slide into the northbound lanes.

As we went through the little tunnel, Im pretty sure I heard the Waze Woman say the following: I have no idea where we are. You are a navigational genius. I will never doubt you again.

Apology accepted.

Nick Hoppes column appears Tuesdays in Datebook. Email: nickhoppe61@gmail.com
Twice in the last 15 years, labor disputes between dockworkers and the maritime companies that employ them have led to severe disruptions at West Coast ports. Now these parties have an opportunity to preserve labor peace and solidify West Coast trade for the foreseeable future. Doing so would be good for workers, good for the industry and good for the millions of Americans whose jobs depend on trade.

This summer, International Longshore and Warehouse Union members from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest will vote on a proposal that would extend their current labor contract through 2022. It would raise wages, preserve virtually no-cost health care coverage and increase pensions  all at a time when unions nationwide are facing challenging headwinds.

Approving this contract would send a strong signal to retailers, manufacturers and others who rely on the ports that the West Coast intends to remain competitive, despite slipping market share in recent years. It would also reward dockworkers by raising base wages to more than $46 per hour, while preserving no-premium health insurance that features $1 prescriptions, and increase pensions to a maximum of more than $95,000 per year, according to news reports.

Among those who would breathe a sigh of relief would be West Coast agricultural growers, whose trade association reported that sales to Asian markets were down as much as 25 percent during the latest disruption in 2014-2015. Also impacted were automakers and other manufacturers, as well as retailers  large and small  across the country.

The stakes are high in markets from Washington state to Southern California. An estimated 2 in 5 Washington-state-area jobs are connected to international trade. In Southern California, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach support enormous economic activity, and are investing $6.5 billion in capital projects toward a clean and reliable future for this crucial international gateway.

The Port of Oakland is the fourth-busiest of the 29 West Coast ports, ranking behind Los Angeles, Long Beach and Tacoma.

A report by maritime economist John Martin estimates that West Coast ports support upwards of 9 million American jobs. The cargo moving through these ports has a value in the trillions of dollars, supporting a healthy chunk of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

Strong West Coast ports are also important for the environment. California and Washington ports are leading the way to reduce harmful emissions from ships, and by updating cargo terminals with the latest in low-impact environmental technology. That means electric yard equipment, more on-dock rail and other advances toward green terminals. In this case, environmental and economic growth can go hand in hand.

Few Americans understood the huge impacts of maritime trade on the national economy before the 2002 port shutdown, in which West Coast ports were shuttered for 10 days until President George W. Bush ordered them re-opened. The subsequent disruptions during the last contract talks  which once again required federal intervention  have left some wondering if the relationship between ILWU dockworkers and their employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association, is permanently broken.

Given the current political climate, there are those in Washington who have considered extreme solutions that would handcuff future negotiators and transfer local decision-making to Washington, D.C.

Such proposals would no doubt gather steam if the contract proposal is rejected, likely leading to acrimonious talks again in two years. Yet by agreeing to a contract extension now, workers and their bosses can show that no such intervention is needed, and that the West Coast can continue to be a thriving and vital trade hub with a stable and reliable workforce.

It is rare to have an opportunity in which workers, industry and the U.S. economy can all so clearly be winners. This is one such opportunity. At a time of much uncertainty, passage of this contract would be a step in the right direction.

Mickey Kantor served as both U.S. trade representative and secretary of commerce. Norman Mineta, who represented San Jose in Congress for two decades, served as both secretary of commerce and secretary of transportation.
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San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency: Take control, take responsibility, provide transparency, find solutions, win riders back.

What you learn when working on large infrastructure projects: on time, on scope, on budget.

If you are on time, but not on budget, its a no-go.

If you are on budget, but the scope has diminished, it is also a fail.

And around the three-legged stool you go.

Clearly, SFMTA has not yet learned this fundamental infrastructure mantra, and seems to think that having one-third of the trifecta is enough. SFMTA, with its history of project delays, needs to get its house in order, make sure theres transparency and accountability with the public, and start winning back the confidence of riders. San Franciscans will not be convinced the money is well spent when these projects constantly fall behind schedule.

Just last week, it came to light that construction of the Central Subway is 10 months behind schedule because of conflicts with the contractor. But it is on budget  or so the SFMTA has said. This delay is the latest in a slew of mismanaged projects:

Last month, SFMTA announced that the Twin Peaks Tunnel upgrade would be delayed a year due to scheduling issues.

Sunset Tunnel was completed after overshooting its schedule by two whole years.

And the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project, less than one year into a three-year construction phase, is already five months behind schedule.

We recognize that huge construction projects are complex, and were grateful the SFMTA is investing in transportation infrastructure improvements. At least Gov. Jerry Brown has not had to declare a state of emergency for public transit as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did for New York City subways last month. But seriously, these delays have got to stop.

Much blame for the Central Subway lag emanates from the contractor-SFMTA relationship. SFMTA and contractor Tutor Perini are in mediation to sort out what the cause of the delay even is. They need a mediator for this? How did the relationship degrade to this point? Do folks at SFMTA and Tutor Perini talk to each other during the course of doing business together? Please dont let it be the paperwork that caused this.

On behalf of all the stranded riders (and potential riders) in San Franciscos southeast communities, waiting for years for the unfulfilled promises of the T Line, we cant accept another delay.

This delay is unacceptable for the Chinatown riders.

This delay is unacceptable for the merchants, neighbors and workers along Fourth Street in South of Market, in Union Square and Chinatown, who have been putting up with the noise, dust, detours, closed-lane bottlenecks, temporary bus stops and unusable sidewalks for more than five years (which feels like more than a decade).

SFMTA and Tutor Perini need to stop pointing fingers and get to work finding solutions. Providing financial support for affected merchants is absolutely a step in the right direction. A storm is brewing, and its time for the agency to use the rainy day fund set aside to get this work done. On time. On scope. On budget.

Rachel Hyden is the executive director of San Francisco Transit Riders, a grassroots nonprofit working to create world-class public transit for the riders

of San Francisco.
MISSOULA  Missoula County Sheriff T.J. McDermott has identified the two people killed in a pair of Missoula-area crashes on Sunday.

Carli Miller, an 8-year-old from Lolo, was pronounced dead at the hospital after a wreck near mile marker 27 on U.S. Highway 12 west of Lolo shortly before noon Sunday. According to the sheriffs office, an eastbound vehicle crossed the center line and hit the westbound vehicle in which Miller and her family were traveling. The five members of Millers family and the driver of the other car were taken to the hospital.

The sheriff said 43-year-old Cicelly Gabriel from Oregon was killed in a rollover crash around 3:45 p.m. on the interstate on-ramp near mile marker 107 near East Missoula, also on Sunday. In that incident, Gabriel apparently lost control of her vehicle and it rolled down an embankment, landing on its hood. Her two passengers were taken to the hospital.

As a department, our hearts are broken for both of these families and we grieve with them during this time, public information officer Brenda Bassett wrote in a news release identifying Miller and Gabriel.

The Montana Highway Patrol is investigating both crashes.
He may not actually be the smartest man in the world, but Greg Proops has a near-photographic memory for the San Francisco comedy scene of the past.

He can recite other comics acts from 30 years ago, recalls in detail the drugs ingested for each band he saw at the defunct concert venue Winterland and can describe the Muni bus routes to comedy clubs that have been closed for decades.

When we had any money, wed take a taxi, Proops says. Because taking a bus to a gig is a real wake-up call to the cold frosty bite of poverty, which we were living in then.

But for a comedian who so readily embraces the past  groovy is still a word he uses often  Proops has adjusted for the present as much as any comedian of his generation. After an eclectic career of stand-up comedy, acting, sketch comedy and voice-over work, his Smartest Man in the World podcast has become the center of his comedy universe.

Proops will record an episode live Thursday night, July 20, at the Punch Line  the first of five appearances over three days at the North Beach comedy club.

Ive never been happier, Proops says, during an hour-long San Francisco Chronicle podcast interview. I dont have to deal with regular show business as much. I can take it to different places.  I wont go to a comedy club if they wont let me do the podcast one of the nights. And some of them are still resistant, if you can believe that at this late date.

Peter Hartlaub

After moving to the Bay Area from Los Angeles in elementary school, Proops spent most of his formative years in San Carlos, where he walked his Chronicle paper route because the streets were too hilly for a bike.

That 1970s gig was a drag  he dropped newspapers off at San Carlos High School first so the girls wouldnt see him lugging paperboy bags  but he received an early morning radio education with entertaining hosts who included Russ The Moose Syracuse and Jim Lange on KSFO.

The paper route made me realize that individual entrepreneurship was going to be my future, Proops says. That working for a giant company would not be the way to go.

As soon as his friends were old enough to drive, he was always drawn to San Francisco. Proops performed at small clubs, including Holy City Zoo starting in 1982; joined the Faultline improv group; and by the 1990s was headlining the biggest San Francisco comedy clubs.

Nothing was more important to me than headlining here, Proops says. I remember doing Comedy Day (in Golden Gate Park) in 1992 and thinking, Wow, Ive really made it.

But the best gig of his young life  a spot on British TVs Whose Line is it Anyway?  was in England. Proops cold-called comedy clubs in England and Scotland, booked a month of shows, and moved to London. That began an eclectic TV and film acting and voice-over career, including the U.S. version of Whose Line Is it, Anyway?, voicing the childrens TV character Bob the Builder, and appearances on everything from Flight of the Conchords to @midnight.

Proops lives in Los Angeles now, reliably traveling for stand-up shows in the Bay Area a few times every year, including a late-December residency at the Punch Line that includes New Years Eve.

Proops lists the changes in San Francisco since his comedy beginnings, naming a cigar bar, favorite breakfast spot and wife Jennifers favorite boutique, all of which recently closed.

The biggest change, of course, is the tech thing. And that so many places that I love have been douche-canoed beyond measure, he says. People stand in line for ice cream in neighborhoods where you once ran to your bus because you dont want to be stabbed to death.

But his rants, like his comedy, have a bemused edge to them. Proops embraces the past with a retro personal style and manner of speech, but he doesnt dwell in it.

The Smartest Man in the World began in 2010 with conversations about Ayn Rand, the ACLU and Jerry Brown. The podcast has become his favorite part of his work. Hell eschew the green room and mingle with the crowd before a podcast show.

Podcast people are devoted, Proops says. They come for a reason. They know why theyre there.

The podcast fits into his improv-heavy comedy style, where Proops was always comfortable to stay off the rails and riff with the crowd (hecklers beware). Even if you saw his set two nights in a row, it didnt feel like the exact same act. And his podcast work, even more than his comedy, is filled with stories from his Bay Area comedy roots.

After a half-hour Chronicle podcast interview that stretches into the 65-minute mark, Proops seems to just be getting started.

We havent talked about Days on the Green yet, Proops laments.

Like so many other subjects, it can wait until next time he comes through town.

Peter Hartlaub is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com

Greg Proops: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 20; 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. Friday, July 21; 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Saturday, July 22. $25. Punch Line comedy club. 444 Battery St., S.F. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

To follow all the epsiodes: www.facebook.com/thebigeventsf
When Wood Tavern opened 10 years ago, it was an immediate hit, and persistence was required to get a seat at the table.

A decade later, little has changed. At many restaurants, demand wanes after the initial flush of newness, but at Wood Tavern its held steady.

Once in the door, part of the answer becomes evident. Owners Rich and Rebekah Wood, who recently opened the Wolf in the spot that for decades housed Bay Wolf, live in the neighborhood and set the tone.

When you dine at Wood Tavern, you feel as if youre part of the Oakland neighborhood that hugs the Berkeley city limits. Diners reflect the diversity of the surroundings, and the food delivers. With its wood chairs and prominent bar, it feels like a comfortably worn brasserie.

However, after a decade, changes are inevitable  especially when the owner isnt the chef. Original chef Maximilian DiMare earned a three-star review and a place in the Chronicles Top 100. When he left five years ago, Yang Peng, who had worked with him since the opening, picked up his toque. Peng left when the Wolf opened in February to take over that kitchen full time.

Now Esteban Escobar is in charge. Hes worked all around the Bay Area, including Corners Tavern in Walnut Creek, Basalt in Napa and Town Hall in San Francisco, so he knows how to run a kitchen.

Hes stayed with many staples  including the pan-roasted half chicken ($26) with grilled radicchio, roasted potatoes and lemon rosemary jus  but his own unique talent is evident on the plate. Often the simple items are the most satisfying, such as the chicken liver mousse ($7) enhanced with whiskey and served with a stack of warm croutons, mustard and fruit chutney; and ahi tuna tartare ($15) where Escobar resists the temptation to add so much seasoning that the best character of the raw fish disappears in the vortex of too many bold flavors. Here its lightly seasoned with lemon oil and Fresno chiles, which add an unexpected zing. The tartare is flanked by house-made potato chips and an avocado mousse that complements rather than competes.

He saves the brash flavors for the roasted cauliflower ($7), listed in the appetizer section but more appropriate as a side. The florets are flavored with brown butter and black currants, chile flakes and Parmesan.

I wish Escobar would use as much restraint on the main courses. The grilled double-cut pork chop ($33) is so moist and nicely cooked that the chunky pool of Marsala cream sauce with pancetta, farro, summer squash and thin coins of Fresno chiles becomes a distraction. So does the half peach fanned on top of the chop.

Pan-seared halibut ($32) was surrounded, and buried, in corn, morel mushrooms, corn-bread croutons, arugula and a mushroom-Parmesan brodo. Take away a couple of ingredients and the dish would have been twice as good.

The restaurant consistently shines with its cocktails and dessert. Five of the latter are offered. The lemon chiffon cake ($9) looked like a miniature birthday cake, frosted with white chocolate pastry cream. Blueberries in the center complement the same fruit and ginger in the sauce.

The peach and bourbon crostata ($9) is also good, and the tangy creme fraiche ice cream made me vow that next time Ill save room for the two scoops of house-churned ice cream ($6).

Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. Find his blog at http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com and his reviews on www.sfchronicle.com. Email: mbauer@sfchronicle.com

Twitter, Instagram: @michaelbauer1

  

Wood Tavern

Food:   

Service:   

Atmosphere:   

Price: $$$$

Noise: BOMB

Ratings Key

    Extraordinary

   Excellent

  Good  Fair Poor

$ Entrees $10 and under

$$ Entrees $11-$17

$$$ Entrees $18-$24

$$$$ Entrees more than $25

Four Bells Four Bells Two BellsCan talk only in raised

voices (75-80)

BOMBToo noisy for normal

conversation (80+)
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While millions of visitors stream into the Lake Tahoe area, Yosemite National Park and other parts of the High Sierra for vacations every summer, few ever see views like this.

While researching recently in The Chronicles archive, I discovered a thick, decades-old envelope of photo negatives labeled Lake Tahoe, Yosemite by air, July 1948.

File this find under huge summer score.

With a little more digging, I learned that Chronicle editors commissioned a series called Airphoto Report in the summer of 1948 that focused on particular regions and featured photos shot from a plane and an essay usually written by reporter Kevin Wallace.

For three locations of the series  Yosemite, Truckee-Donner Pass and Lake Tahoe  Chronicle photographer Barney Peterson hitched a ride aboard a United Airlines Mainliner-300, piloted by Capts. Tom Streicher and Frank Egbert as it flew Uniteds coast-to-coast route. Most of the photos were taken from the windows of the plane, flying about 16,000 feet up, though the pilots swung the plane lower for a few classic closeups.

During the Lake Tahoe shoot, the sky and water were so clear that Wallace reported the photographer and crew saw plenty of trout in the lakes iridescent depths.

In a stroke of bad luck, some of the negatives of the photos that ran with the essays were missing. I was particularly disappointed that the lost shots included when the plane flew low to get closer views of Meeks Bay, Crystal Bay and Tahoe City.

The images I did find, though, included dramatic shots of Yosemite Valley and a number of great photos of the foothill towns on the way up to Sierra Nevada peaks.

Its Northern California country that many have visited, but few have seen from this perspective.

More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.

Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicles vast photography archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.
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BART resumed providing the public with daily crime logs Tuesday morning after weeks of criticism over why the agency replaced the updates with an interactive website that gave minimal details of incidents.

The move by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system came a day after it released data showing a significant increase in sex crimes on its property over the first six months of the year.

Last month, BART replaced the crime log with a website called CrimeMapping.com, which offered scant information on crimes that occurred throughout the system. But on Tuesday, Bevan Dufty, a BART board director, said the daily crime log was back effective immediately.

I have been in constant communication with the general manager advocating for restoration (of the crime logs) and feeling as though BART is taking a hit from not being transparent, Dufty said. We need to be open. Our focus needs to be on recruiting more officers and not curtailing information.

The online Crime Mapping site had meager information that included type of crime, date, time and location. The crime logs includes whether arrests have been made and more of a narrative of what occurred during the crime.

On Monday night, a man was robbed of his laptop and cell phone after being beaten by four male suspects on a train at the Bay Fair BART station in San Leandro, BART police wrote in the first crime log email sent in over a month.

The thieves, who were not identified, punched and kicked the victim before robbing him, police said. They ran out of the station and were not arrested. The victim, who was also not identified, was taken to a hospital and treated for facial cuts and swelling, officials said.

On July 5, BART spokesman Taylor Huckaby said that the move to the Crime Mapping website ensured absolute transparency. But many criticized the agency for the lack of information available on the website.

The return of the crime log comes after BART reported an increase of rapes and other sexual crimes in the first six months of the year to the FBI. BART police reported that seven rapes occurred on the systems property through the end of June, compared to four over the same period in 2016, three in 2015 and two in 2014.

The number of sexual assaults also rose with 28 reported through June 30 compared to 28 in all of 2016 and 16 in the entirety of 2015, according to BART.

Its a small number, but still unacceptable, Dufty said, adding that the dissemination of the crime logs will allow BART riders to be more aware.

As BART officials continue to stress that crime rates remain relatively low, there has been significant concern among users since The Chronicle reported that 40 to 60 youths swarmed a train at Coliseum Station in Oakland on April 22, robbing and attacking passengers.

Since the robbery, Carlos Rojas, who was sworn in as BARTs new police chief in late May, has been under scrutiny for deciding to eliminate the daily police log.

Figures requested by The Chronicle after the mob robbery showed a 45 percent increase in robberies aboard BART trains and in its stations during the first quarter of the year.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
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Bubonic plague is one of the most terrifying and lethal diseases in human history. Its most infamous outbreak took place in the 14th century, when the Black Death ravaged the entire world. In Europe, it's believed to have killed up to 200 million people, 60 percent of the continent's population.

A less well-known pandemic, which started in China in 1855, killed more than 12 million people and eventually spread to every inhabited continent in the world. In 1894 it broke out in Hong Kong, and from there it reached San Francisco.

From 1900 to 1908, two plague epidemics stalked the city. It was the first appearance of the dread disease in North America.

RELATED VIDEO: Two Men Who Succumbed To The Black Death Found Holding Hands

The plague, which is transmitted to humans by fleas that have bitten infected mammals, usually rats, was eventually eradicated - no thanks to the state and the city. In what has been called "one of the sorriest episodes in American medical history," the governor, San Francisco's business community and its leading newspapers denied the existence of the disease, did everything they could to keep it a secret, and smeared the public health officials who were trying to fight the epidemic.

San Francisco's brush with the Black Death coincided with the new millennium, when the cargo steamship Australia passed through the Golden Gate on Jan. 2, 1900, at the end of a voyage from Hawaii.

Quarantine officers on Angel Island, aware that Honolulu's Chinatown had been hit by the plague, searched the ship thoroughly. But they failed to find the disease-infected rats that lurked onboard. When the Australia tied up on the waterfront, the rats scampered down the ropes and into teeming, garbage-ridden Chinatown.

Chinatown's residents were preparing to celebrate the Year of the Rat. But this year, rats would be nothing to celebrate.

Chinatown quarantine

As Marilyn Chase recounts in her 2003 book, "The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco," a lumber salesman named Wong Chut King was found unconscious March 6 in his cramped room at the Globe Hotel, a flophouse at the corner of Jackson and DuPont (now Grant Avenue). He was taken to the Wing Sang coffin shop, where he died.

A police surgeon discovered that Wong had swollen lymph nodes and an insect bite on his leg. Fluid drawn from his lymph nodes was examined under a microscope. Short, rod-shaped germs appeared. It looked like plague.

City officials acted immediately. Police surrounded Chinatown, stretching ropes around the 6-by-2-block area. Whites in the quarter were told to leave; Chinese were ordered to remain inside.

Racist assumptions were partly behind this cordon sanitaire. Many whites believed that the Chinese were inherently more susceptible to disease because they ate less meat than whites, and that the whole quarter was tainted by a disease-breeding "miasma."

And there was limited knowledge of the plague. The plague bacteria had been discovered only in 1894, and it was still not known how it entered the body. A French scientist at the Pasteur Institute had made the crucial rat-flea connection in 1897, but experts rejected his hypothesis, insisting that the plague was "a scourge of dark-skinned aliens."

Premature victory

The first quarantine didn't last long. The press mocked the blockade, and the Chinese threatened to sue. When a rat, a guinea pig and a monkey that had been injected with plague bacteria remained alive, the city health department was forced to lift the quarantine.

"The plague a phantom: More bouffe business by the health board," snorted The Chronicle.

But the sneers were premature. The lab animals soon died. And humans began dying, too. In the days following Wong's death, three more Chinatown residents collapsed and died with shocking speed.

Still, politicians, merchants and Chinatown leaders, fearing the devastating economic consequences of another quarantine, denied the plague's existence. The Chinese began to conceal their dead, hiding them and smuggling them out of Chinatown. When a second blockade was imposed in May, this time consisting not of rope but of barbed wire, riots broke out in the quarter.

The federal public health official charged with fighting the epidemic, Joseph Kinyoun, was hardworking and competent, but his brusque and high-handed manner alienated the Chinese, and he faced the implacable opposition of Gov. Henry Gage.

When Kinyoun warned other states that passengers and freight from California could carry the plague, Gage and the state's business interests exploded in rage. Gage told the press that Kinyoun had created the plague himself by mishandling bacterial cultures on Angel Island, then hinted that he had deliberately infected cadavers with the bacilli.

After the beleaguered Kinyoun was transferred, his replacement, Rupert Blue, encountered the same obstructionism and denial, but was much more politic and diplomatic. And he launched an all-out campaign to rid San Francisco of the two real causes of the plague: rats and poor sanitation.

Fumigation campaign

Blue and his team began trapping, killing and autopsying rats by the tens of thousands. They fumigated Chinatown and tore down the rotten tenement balconies that made the moist, garbage-strewn ground beneath fertile territory for rodents.

By 1905, they had apparently eradicated the disease. The death toll was 113, almost all in Chinatown - a relatively low number, because the type of flea found in the city did not inject as much bacteria as the flea associated with plague pandemics.

But the scourge wasn't through yet. In 1907, when the city was rebuilding from the earthquake and fire, the plague struck again. This time, most of the victims were white.

Blue rallied the city, warning that if the disease was not defeated the impending visit of the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet, with its thousands of free-spending sailors, would be in jeopardy.

Finally taking action

Business leaders and politicians finally sprang into action. The rat-killing campaign reached new heights. Blue's men launched a cleanup campaign in Butchertown, the unsanitary slaughterhouse district in the Bayview, and in the old produce district around Front and Jackson.

By 1908, after 2 million rats had been killed and 190 people had died in the two outbreaks, the plague was finally eradicated from San Francisco. The poobahs who once scorned Blue held a glittering banquet in his honor at the Fairmont Hotel. San Francisco's eight-year battle against one of humanity's most lethal enemies was over.

Editor's note Every corner in San Francisco has an astonishing story to tell. Every Saturday, Gary Kamiya's Portals of the Past will tell one of those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Francisco's extraordinary history - from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach, to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond.
A San Francisco store clerk was injured Sunday when he was stabbed while trying to keep a shoplifter from leaving the store, officials said.

The attack occurred shortly after 7 p.m. at a store on the 1600 block of Market Street, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
A 21-year-old woman was attacked and beaten by a group of strangers when she entered a restroom in a business in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco Sunday night, officials said.

The woman walked into the restroom of the business on the 1000 block of Harrison Street about 8:10 p.m. when she was ambushed and beaten by a group of three to five unidentified women, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
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A 15-year-old boy was arrested Monday in the fatal shooting in May of a young Discovery Bay woman at a park in Richmond, police said.

Investigators identified an El Cerrito teen as the suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Allie Sweitzer, who was shot during an argument in Booker T. Anderson Jr. Park.

It doesnt feel like justice because its not right, none of this is right, Sweitzers older sister, Teylar, told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning.

The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was arrested around 6 p.m. Monday.

Sweitzer was fatally shot about 8:45 p.m. on May 18 at the park when an argument involving her and at least one male escalated, police said.

As police went to the park to investigate the shooting, they received word that Sweitzer had been dropped off at a hospital with a gunshot wound, police said. She was pronounced dead less than two hours later.

Teylar Sweitzer, 23, said the arrest doesnt diminish the pain of losing her younger sister, her best friend. If anything, she said, the arrest made Allie Sweitzers death sink in.

She said her mother received a call on Monday night from detectives alerting her that a juvenile had been arrested in the killing of her sister.

I know its crazy, but my thoughts went to the child and family, she said of the suspect. He took my sister, but now theyre taking his life and his familys life.

At the time of the shooting, the victim was living in Teylar Sweitzers Brentwood home. On the day she was killed, Allie Sweitzer went to Richmond to visit a high school friend who had just moved into a new apartment, her sister said.

It wasnt unusual for Allie Sweitzer to go to Richmond, Teylar Sweitzer added; the young woman had friends and family who lived in the area.

About an hour and a half before they went to the park, I had a missed call from her, said Teylar Sweitzer, choking up as she sobbed. She called me every single day, no matter what.

Growing up, Teylar Sweitzer said, she and her sister had a strong bond and were nearly inseparable.

She went to a party, I went to the party with her. She went to a friends house, I went with her, Teylar Sweitzer said.

Allie Sweitzer was born in Pleasanton and raised in Castro Valley. She graduated from high school in Discovery Bay and was working at a Subway sandwich shop in Dublin.

Allie was and has always been a wild child. She was a free spirit, Teylar Sweitzer said. She wanted to do what she wanted to do, and she did it.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Gov. Jerry Browns bid to keep Californias cap-and-trade system  a key weapon against global warming  running through 2030 won the approval Monday night of state legislators, by the narrowest of margins.

Despite fierce opposition from both the left and the right, Browns bill won approval in the senate and assembly, with barely a vote to spare. The approvals ensured that a climate program Brown has touted as a model for other states and countries will continue past 2020.

Tonight, California stood tall and once again, boldly confronted the existential threat of our time, Brown said in an emailed statement Monday night. Republicans and Democrats set aside their differences, came together and took courageous action. Thats what good government looks like.

The bill, AB 398, had been the subject of an intense week of lobbying, by the governor and his opponents. Republicans complained the bill would drive up prices for gasoline and electricity, while some environmentalists slammed it as being far too kind to industry.

Passage required two-thirds of the legislators in each house. Twenty-eight senators voted in favor  one more than needed. Surviving the assembly required 54 votes in favor, and the bill secured 55. Several assembly Republicans crossed party lines to support it, even though some noted that California represents just 1 percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions.

Youre right, were a very small component of the world on this, said Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, R-Oceanside (San Diego County). But that doesnt mean we shouldnt be leaders on something thats threatening the world.

Both houses also approved a companion measure, AB 617, that will increase monitoring of industrial air pollution and toughen penalties for polluters. And they approved a related measure pitched by Republicans, ACA 1, that would put before California voters a ballot measure requiring a one-time, two-thirds vote of the Legislature to appropriate money raised by the cap-and-trade system.

Cap and trade sets an annual limit on Californias greenhouse gas emissions and forces companies to buy a permit, called an allowance, for every metric ton of gas they emit. The number of allowances available each year matches the annual limit, and both decrease slowly over time, lowering emissions.

California law requires the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. And yet, the state Legislative Analysts Office had questioned whether the states cap-and-trade system, launched in 2012, had legal authorization to continue running past 2020.

Opponents of cap and trade had for years tried to convince courts that the system constituted an illegal tax on businesses, since it was never approved by the two-thirds legislative vote required for new taxes. So Brown was determined that any extension pass by a two-thirds vote.

Democrats, who control both chambers, cast the bill as vital to Californias leadership on global warming policy, even though many of their own environmental allies criticized its details.

At a point in time when the president of the United States has withdrawn us from the Paris climate agreement and is doing everything in his power to eliminate American leadership on climate, it is more important than ever for California to send a crystal-clear message to the rest of the world, said Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

Republican senators hammered the cap-and-trade extension as a thinly veiled tax that would hit poor Californians hardest.

They cited a letter from the Legislative Analysts Office in March that estimated cap and trade could raise gasoline prices anywhere from 24 to 73 cents per gallon in 2031. That letter, however, did not analyze AB 398, whose language was only unveiled last week and which contains measures to cap price impacts.

We could shut down the entire state of California, and it would have absolutely no effect on the global climate, said Republican Sen. Andy Vidak from the Central Valley. But what is measurable is the effect this tax will have on the poorest of the poor in my district and throughout California.

First used in the 1990s to control sulfur dioxide and acid rain, cap and trade gives companies flexibility in how, where and when they cut emissions. As a result, it has often been touted as a more business-friendly way to fight pollution than imposing strict limits on emissions from individual facilities.

That flexibility, however, has fed suspicion of cap and trade among some environmentalists, who say it gives companies the option of paying to pollute. Instead, they want tighter control of emissions from individual factories and refineries, in the hopes that forcing each facility to cut greenhouse gases will reduce other, harmful air pollutants as well.

Browns bill would block that approach. It prohibits both state and local air pollution regulators from slapping hard limits on greenhouse gas emissions from any facilities already covered by cap and trade.

The move  a bid to win support from the oil industry and its legislative allies  infuriated environmental justice advocates, who waged a week-long lobbying campaign to kill the bill. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, whose directors had been poised to vote on greenhouse gas limits for refineries, complained that Brown had undercut its authority.

The bills backers readily acknowledged the compromises involved.

To win approval, Brown and legislative leaders tossed in measures sought by industry  and by Republicans. For example, the bill would suspend until 2031 the $152 annual fire-prevention fee imposed on many rural homeowners, replacing the lost funding with money raised through cap and trade. Republican representatives from rural districts had long complained about the fee.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@DavidBakerSF
BROWNING  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toured Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana over the weekend as part of his personal challenge to visit every state this year.

He noted the beauty of Glacier park while taking a ride on a red jammer bus on Saturday and visited the "bark ranger" Gracie, a border collie who helps herd wildlife away from people at popular areas, such as Logan Pass. He also noted the park's dwindling number of glaciers.

In Browning he met with tribal officials and noted the poverty and substance abuse on the reservation. He posted on his Facebook page about the need for better health care and for a government with checks and balances. Zuckerberg noted the tribe is building its buffalo herd and recently approved a compact that quantifies its water rights.
Juicero Inc., the startup behind the $399 Internet-connected juice machine, said its cutting 25 percent of its staff.

The job reductions, which are primarily in sales and marketing, are being made as Juicero is trying to lower the price of its machine and juice packs. The companys product came under scrutiny in April, when Bloomberg revealed the packs could be squeezed by hand, yielding almost the same amount of juice in a shorter period of time than with the machine. CEO Jeff Dunn addressed the revelations in a letter Friday to employees announcing the cuts and thanked them for remaining focused despite the negative press cycle.
Penguin Random House pulled plans to publish a book co-written by venture capitalist John Doerr and BetterWorks Systems CEO Kris Duggan following a sexual harassment and assault suit against Duggan.

Beatrice Kim, a former employee at BetterWorks, last week sued Duggan and two other executives at the startup, alleging they created a hostile workplace for women. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, includes allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

Kims lawsuit is among recent allegations by women working in the male-dominated technology sector who, once silent, are now coming forward with stories of mistreatment by men in positions of power. Uber is attempting to overhaul its culture following a detailed account of sexual harassment by engineer Susan Fowler. Venture investors Justin Caldbeck at Binary Capital, Dave McClure at 500 Startups and Frank Artale at Ignition Partners have resigned from their firms following detailed accounts of their mistreatment of women.

Bloomberg reported last week that the lawsuit against BetterWorks and Duggan wasnt expected to affect Doerrs plans to promote the book. But Penguin said Monday that its holding publication of Measure What Matters, written by Duggan and Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and board member at BetterWorks.

We and the authors have agreed to defer publication of Measure What Matters at the present time, said Adrian Zackheim, president and publisher of Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, which is a division of Penguin Random House.

The book focuses on goal setting and performance practices, using examples of musician and investor Bono, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google, and was due to be released in the next several months. It is no longer available for preorder on Amazon.com, and the books website is no longer accessible.

Kleiner Perkins and Doerr, who invested personal money in BetterWorks, a business software maker, arent named in the harassment lawsuit. Doerr and the firm declined to comment Monday on Penguins decision to postpone the book.

BetterWorks said it received a complaint from Kim in late 2016. Its board hired an independent investigator who concluded none of the companys policies was violated, according to the lawsuit and a statement from the board.

Both the company and the board disagree with a number of facts and characterizations presented in the lawsuit, BetterWorks board said Monday.

Lizette Chapman is a Bloomberg writer. Email: lchapman19@bloomberg.net
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Rapes and other sexual crimes at BART have increased in the first six months of the year, according to police.

Although the overall numbers are small, BART figures reported to the FBI show significant increases in violent sex crimes.

The news comes in the midst of growing public concern about safety on BART as well as a debate over how much information about crime BART should report to the public.

According to BART police, seven rapes occurred on the transit systems property through the end of June. That compares with four over the same period in 2016, three in 2015 and two in 2014. The number of sexual assaults also rose with 28 reported through June 30 compared with 28 in all of 2016 and 16 in the entirety of 2015, according to BART.

BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said that police investigations found no indication of any patterns connecting the crimes, including the work of a serial rapist. The rapes occurred at seven stations, all but one in the East Bay  in restrooms and stairwells, aboard trains and in parking lots.

These were unrelated cases, said Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman. Crime often spikes then reverts to the norm.

While all of the crimes involved sexual violence, not all involved forced sexual intercourse. Under federal crime reporting standards, sexual assaults with the intent to commit rape are reported as rapes.

They often dont fit the traditional definition of rape, Rojas said. But theyre considered rape.

BART officials stress that crime rates remain low but concerns about the systems safety have run high since the April 22 incident in which 40 to 60 youths swarmed a train at Coliseum Station, hitting and robbing passengers.

Figures requested by The Chronicle after the mob robbery showed a 45 percent increase in robberies aboard BART trains in its stations during the first quarter of the year.

The focus on BART crime has also led to criticism about a recent decision by Rojas to eliminate a daily police log detailing criminal incidents and replace it with an online crime mapping site thats devoid of details.

Huckaby, trying to put the sex-crime surge in context, said that during the time they occurred, the transit system gave 51.4 million rides to passengers.

We definitely have a safe system, said Rojas, who was sworn in as police chief in late May. But this should serve as a reminder to make sure were aware.
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A pack of 10 thieves followed a man and robbed him on a Muni bus on Monday evening near the San Francisco Civic Center, officials said.

The mob robbery occurred about 6:50 p.m. near the intersection of Market and McAllister streets when the victim, identified as a 27-year-old man, boarded a Muni bus and got into a verbal altercation with one of the suspects, said Officer Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department.

The man then got off the bus and boarded another to avoid conflict, but ten people, including the one involved in the argument, followed him, Rueca added.

Once on the bus, the suspects surrounded the man and bum-rushed him, stealing his cell phone before fleeing, Rueca said.

No arrests have been made. At least one of the thieves was described as an 18-year-old man, and the others range in age from 15 to 25, Rueca added.

If you can just imagine, in a split moment, a crowd of people come up on you and then grabs your stuff. Its hard to establish all those details when everything is just rushed right upon you, Rueca said.

No injuries were reported.

The police department is working to obtain surveillance footage of the incident from the Muni bus.

Rueca said incidents like this are not uncommon in the city.

We see it with younger aged suspects who do these kinds of things either on the street or on buses, but its not uncommon that theyll do things in packs like this, Rueca said.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
A Santa Clara County man who pleaded no contest to embezzling more than $400,000 from his former high school classmates and gambling the money away in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo and Dubai was sentenced Monday to five years in county jail, prosecutors said.

In 2012, Narsimha Raju Sagiraju, 28, persuaded a small group of his former classmates at Cupertino High School to invest in his startup commercial construction firm, Genwi, according to the Santa Clara County district attorneys office.
First baseman Brandon Belt could rejoin the lineup as soon as Tuesday night after reporting significant improvement in his left wrist, which he hurt Saturday night in San Diego.

Belt missed his second consecutive game Monday in the series opener against Cleveland. With Buster Posey returning behind the plate to catch Matt Moore, Jae-Gyun Hwang played first base in the majors for the first time after starting there 28 times for Triple-A Sacramento.

If it improves as much tomorrow as it did today, I can probably play tomorrow, Belt said before batting practice, during which he took grounders and threw, but did not swing a bat.

Belt is having a three true outcomes season. He is on pace for career highs in homers (28) and strikeouts (157). He also is on pace for 93 walks, which would be 11 fewer than his career high last season.

His batting average (.244) is down 31 points from last year.

Whos in left? When Austin Slater went on the disabled list, manager Bruce Bochy said he would use Gorkys Hernandez and Kelby Tomlinson in left field. But Hernandez has become the everyday left fielder and Tomlinson has not played in the outfield since May 10.

Although Hernandezs slash line of .238/.317/.298 entering Monday was not pretty, his hitting has improved markedly since the end of May. He entered Monday having hit .338 in his past 74 at-bats and had his first career four-hit game Friday night in San Diego.

He had a great game, Bochy said. His at-bats have been pretty good. Its good to have his defense out there, too.

Tomlinson, a natural infielder, took flyballs in left before batting practice. Bochy expects to start him soon with Hernandez moving to center or right to get Denard Span or Hunter Pence a day off.

Rookie Ryder Jones, who also can play left, will begin a rehab assignment for Triple-A Sacramento on Tuesday. Jones hand was bruised by a pitch in Pittsburgh on July 1.

New kid: The Giants have reached a contract agreement with Texas high school right-hander Jack Conlon, who was the Orioles fourth-round pick in the June draft but did not sign, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

On deck

Tuesday

vs. Indians

7:15 p.m. NBCSBA

Clevinger (5-3)

vs. Blach (6-5)

Wednesday

vs. Indians

12:45 p.m. NBCSBA

Carrasco (10-4)

vs. Cain (3-8)

Thursday

vs. Padres

7:15 p.m. Channel: 11

Chacin (8-7) vs. Bumgarner (0-3)

Leading off

Homer deficit: Entering Monday, the Giants had allowed 106 more runs than they scored. More than half that (62) was the difference between runs scored and allowed on homers.

 Henry Schulman
SIDNEY  Prosecutors have reached a plea agreement with a man charged in a seemingly unprovoked homicide in Sidney.

Raymond Hansen, 35, faces a 70-year prison sentence for the killing of 63-year-old Terry Klein on a construction site in August 2016.

Prosecuting and defense attorneys outlined the sentence recommendation in a plea agreement filed on July 12. Hansen pleaded guilty to the deliberate homicide charge on Friday, according to the Sidney Herald.

A judge is not bound to follow the sentence recommended in a plea agreement.

Hansen showed up to the job site on the morning of Aug. 24, 2016. Witnesses said he was acting erratically, and he wasn't part of the work crew.

He eventually climbed onto an excavator that Klein was operating. That's when prosecutors believe Hansen shot Klein. Another worker later saw that Klein wasn't moving and called 911.

Klein died from a gunshot wound to the head.

A sentencing date hasn't yet been set.
For decades, Frances Gabe did not clean her house, nor did anyone clean it for her. Yet for all that time, it was spotless.

Ms. Gabe, a once-celebrated inventor who died in obscurity late last year, was the creator, and long the sole inhabitant, of the worlds only self-cleaning house.

In January, the only public announcement of Ms. Gabes death appeared on the website of the Newberg Graphic, covering the Oregon community where she had long made her home. Barely two dozen words, it gave little more than than her death date  Dec. 26, 2016  and her age, 101.

But between Ms. Gabes birth, on June 23, 1915, and her death lay, unheralded, the life of a true American original, equal parts quixotic dreamer and accomplished visionary.

Locally, she was just the kind of unique person that you often see in these small towns, Allyn Brown, Ms. Gabes former lawyer and a longtime friend, said in a telephone interview last week. I dont think anybody really knew her name.

There was a time, however, when Ms. Gabes name was known round the world. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, her house was featured in newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Guardian and People; on Phil Donahues talk show; and in several books, among them Chuck Palahniuks Fugitives & Refugees (2003), about the curious characters around Portland, Ore.

When Id come out and see her, Brown recalled, I would be conflicted on whether she was delusional or whether she was so much smarter than I that I just didnt have the ability to recognize her genius.

More than half a century ago, incensed by the housecleaning that was a womans chronic lot, Ms. Gabe began to dream of a house that would see to its own hygiene: tenderly washing, rinsing and drying itself at the touch of a button.

Housework is a thankless, unending job, she told the Ottawa Citizen in 1996. Its a nerve-twangling bore. Who wants it? Nobody!

And so, with her own money and her own hands, she built just such a house, receiving U.S. patent 4,428,085 in 1984.

In a 1982 column about Ms. Gabes work, humorist Erma Bombeck proposed her as a new face for Mount Rushmore.

Yet her remarkable abode  a singular amalgam of Walden, Rube Goldberg and The Jetsons  remained the only one of its kind ever built. The reasons, recent interviews with her associates suggest, include the difficulties of maintaining the patent, the compromises required of the homeowner, and, just possibly, Ms. Gabes contrary, proudly iconoclastic temperament.

She was very difficult to get along with, Brown said, warmly. She had an adversarial relationship with all her neighbors, and she didnt do anything to discourage it.

Perhaps it was the cement mixer residing permanently in Ms. Gabes yard that inflamed the neighbors. (It was essential to her house-building enterprise.) Perhaps it was the series of snarling Great Danes she kept. Perhaps it was her penchant, at least in her younger days, for doing her yard work in the nude.

An accomplished jeweler and ceramist, Ms. Gabe was happiest when left to her own devices on her 7 overgrown acres at the end of a dirt road in the woods near Newberg, some 25 miles southwest of Portland.

It was a setting of which Henry David Thoreau would have approved. The house, on the other hand, would have given him a full-on apoplectic fit.

A cinder-block bungalow of about 1,000 square feet, Ms. Gabes house was completed in the 1980s, at a cost of some $15,000, after more than 10 years of work and decades of planning.

The result, the newspaper the Weekend Australian wrote in 2004, was basically a gigantic dishwasher.

In each room, Ms. Gabe, tucked safely under an umbrella, could press a button that activated a sprinkler in the ceiling. The first spray sent a mist of sudsy water over walls and floor. A second spray rinsed everything. Jets of warm air blew it all dry. The full cycle took less than an hour.

Runoff escaped through drains in Ms. Gabes almost imperceptibly sloping floors. It was channeled outside and straight through her doghouse, where the dog was washed as part of the bargain.

The house, whose patent consisted of 68 individual inventions, also included a cupboard in which dirty dishes, set on mesh shelves, were washed and dried in situ.

To deal with laundry  in many ways her masterstroke  Ms. Gabe designed a tightly sealed cabinet. Soiled clothing was placed inside on hangers, washed and dried there with jets of water and air, and then, still on hangers, pulled neatly by a chain into the clothes closet.

Her sink, toilet and bathtub were also self-cleaning.

Naturally, no conventional home, with its drapes, upholstery and wood furniture, could withstand Ms. Gabes restorative deluge. But she had anticipated that.

Her floors were coated with multiple layers of marine varnish. Furniture was encased in clear acrylic resin. Bedclothes were kept dry by means of an awning pulled over the bed before the cascade began.

Upholstery was made from a waterproof fabric of Ms. Gabes invention, which looked, the Boston Globe said in 1985, like heavily textured Naugahyde.

Pictures were coated in plastic and knickknacks displayed behind glass. Papers could be sealed in watertight plastic boxes; books wore waterproof jackets invented by Ms. Gabe.

Electrical outlets were, mercifully, covered.

You can talk all you like about womens liberation, but houses are still designed so women have to spend half their time on their knees or hanging their head in a hole, Ms. Gabe told the Baltimore Sun in 1981. Housework stuck in my craw even when I was a kid.

Fortunately, however, building was in her blood.

The daughter of Frederick Arnholz and the former Ernestine Ganske, Frances Grace Arnholz was born on a ranch near Boise, Idaho. Her father was an architect and builder, and the family moved wherever his job took him: Frances wound up attending 18 elementary schools.

I was born a most unusual person, so I had a heck of a time in school, Ms. Gabe was quoted as saying in Palahniuks book. Everything moved much too slowly. My last day, I stood up in class and screamed at my teacher, You told us that last week!

She graduated from Girls Polytechnic High School in Portland at 16 and at 17 married Herbert Grant Bateson. The couple ran a repair business in Portland for years (I was his boss, she liked to say) before moving to Newberg, a boyhood home of President Herbert Hoover.

Ms. Gabe divorced Bateson in the 1970s, though he continued to live in a trailer on the property. (I didnt like my husband anymore, so I kicked him out to the backyard, Lily Benson, a New York artist who visited the self-cleaning house in 2007, recalled Ms. Gabes having told her.)

After her marriage ended, Ms. Gabe coined a new surname by combining the initials of her middle, maiden and married names, plus a final e to avoid the onus of Gab.

Ms. Gabe held fast to her house for as long as she could. About eight years ago, her family arranged for her to move  kicking and screaming, a grandson, Kevin Selander, said last week  to a nursing home.

Ms. Gabes children, Grant Bateson and Lourene Bateson Selander, died before her. Besides Selander, who confirmed her death, in a hospice in Newberg, her survivors include 10 other grandchildren and many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

Margalit Fox is a New York Times writer.
1 Senator targeted: There was a break-in over the weekend at the Las Vegas office of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., a Republican who is a critical swing vote on the GOP health care bill. Police confirmed the break-in occurred Saturday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. A threatening note was also left at the office, according to 8 News Now, citing an anonymous source. A spokeswoman for Heller said she could not comment because of an ongoing investigation. Heller has been under tremendous pressure from both the left and the right on his vote on the health bill. Last month, he came out against an earlier iteration of the plan.

2 Hospital review: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has removed two top officials at New Hampshires only veterans hospital and has ordered a review of the facility starting Monday amid allegations of dangerously substandard care. The Boston Globe reported that 11 physicians and medical employees alleged the Manchester VA Medical Center was endangering patients. They described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that werent always sterilized and patients whose conditions were ignored or werent treated properly. Following the newspaper report, Shulkin removed hospital Director Danielle Ocker and Chief of Staff James Schlosser. They said patient safety was not compromised.
Police in Arlington, Texas, are defending the use of a Taser on a suicidal man who had doused himself in gasoline.

According to a numerous reports, the man became engulfed in flames after being shocked by the stun gun at an Arlington home last week.

Officers threw a blanket over the man in an effort to smother the fire. The man, later identified by NBC DFW 5 as Gabriel Olivas, was hospitalized reportedly in critical condition with burns to 80 percent of his body.

A police spokeswoman told the Star-Telegram that the officer used the Taser "to subdue him" because he believed that the man was holding a lighter in his hand and was about to use it.

While acknowledging the risk of using an electrical stun gun near a highly flammable accelerant, Sgt. VaNessa Harrison said the man was "very frantic and erratic and became a danger to everyone in the room."

"We realize that a Taser can have some other implications, but we also know he had something in his hand," Harrison told reporters. "It's unclear at this moment whether he became engulfed in flames from the gasoline and ignitable object he had in his hand or from the Taser."

That account was disputed by the man's wife, who claimed the fire started only after overzealous officers shot the man with a Taser, the electrical current sparking the blaze.

"The officer said it, 'If I tase him, he's gonna light on fire,' and that's what they did, not even a second later," she said in an NBC DFW 5 video.

So far the police department has not identified the male officer who deployed his Taser, according to the station.

Police were originally called to the home after two women reported that a mentally ill man was attempting suicide.
HAMILTON  The Lolo Peak fire just west of Florence in the Lolo National Forest sent a plume of smoke into the air Monday that could be seen from U.S. Highway 93.

The fire was estimated at 15 acres, and a helicopter dumped buckets of water to help control its size and spread.

Despite 19 new fires on the Bitterroot National Forest in the last week, no new restrictions were in place Monday.

Greg Jacobson, an assistant fire management officer, told Ravalli County Commissioners this week that most of the new starts  mainly from lightning  are out, helped in part by the recent showers.

We have had enough moisture come through. Thats really helped us out, Jacobson said.

The majority of the wildfires were held to one-tenth of an acre. Eight firefighters are working on the White Cap fire, which is on 2.5 acres in the West Fork, and was expected to be contained Monday. Due to inaccessible terrain, the Bitterroot Forest is monitoring the 15-acre Vance Mountain fire in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho.

The terrain is too tough to put firefighters in there, Jacobson said, adding that while the Bitterroot Valley has been fairly lucky, neighboring forests are seeing more activity.

In Ravalli County and the Bitterroot Forest, the fire danger is rated high and a ban on open burning is in place.

In Missoula County, the fire danger is rated very high and it also has banned open burning. The area has had multiple grass fires, caused by lightning, which escaped initial attack last week. Some of those fires transitioned into the woods with rapid rates of speed, according to Chris Johnson with the Lolo National Forest, who added that fire danger there is approaching extreme.

Smoke in the Sapphire Mountains south of Skalkaho on Monday probably came from wildfires burning on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest 20 miles southwest of Philipsburg. The largest is the Whetstone Ridge fire at 371 acres, and was not contained.

In Victor, embers from a burn barrel with a screen on top started a multi-acreage fire between two residences on Saturday about 2 p.m. One of the homes was threatened by the flames as they burned through heavy duff and trees, but about 25 people from the Victor, Stevensville and Corvallis volunteer fire departments were able to knock down the blaze within half an hour. It took another three hours to put it out entirely.

While the burn ban covers and debris piles, slash piles, burn barrels, ditches and fields, small, recreational fires no more than 48 inches in diameter are allowed.

Still, Victor Fire Chief Scott Hackett said he hopes that people will think twice before lighting a fire, noting that winds in the Bitterroot can whip up quickly.

It is getting really dry out there and given the moisture this spring, there is a lot of fuel waiting for a spark to start a serious wildfire putting homes and people in danger, Hackett said. This goes to show that even burning in a barrel can get out of control quickly.
In the Washington Examiner on July 16, Sen. Rand Paul said: The current Senate GOP health care bill creates a giant insurance bailout superfund of nearly $200 billion  a $15 billion annual profit subsidized by taxpayers  Crony capitalism is enshrined as a right by the new GOP Obamacare bill, while the bill does little to nothing to repeal Obamacare or fix our ailing healthcare sector Sen. Paul emphasizes where blame primarily belongs the politicians. Elected to look out for our interests, they instead amass wealth and power by looking out for the interests of private companies and well-connected individuals. Favored ones in turn provide finances to the politicians dispensing the favors. To describe this government growing, corruption-flourishing, freedom-destroying process, I prefer the flavor of the term pork barrel politics and the accuracy of the term mercantilism for this well-designed system. Follow the money to understand why DC-Republicans support this monstrosity, why they dont want to repeal Obamacare. Follow the financial benefits to politicians, to understand why, despite Republican control in the executive and legislative branches, the cost of government is at an all-time high. Tell Montana Sen. Steve Daines to vote no. If he continues to vote against our interests, vote him out.
2017 has been quite the year for wildfires in California.

Just this week, a fire in Central California scorched 7,040 acres (11 square miles) in two days. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the fire started on Sunday near Lake McClure, a reservoir 50 miles east of Modesto.
The Herald & Review is organizing a discussion with state lawmakers about the past legislative session  and we're looking for your input.

We've invited all Decatur-area senators and representatives to a panel talk scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1, at the Decatur Public Library, 130 N. Franklin St.

So far, Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, and Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, have confirmed they're attending. We're awaiting word from state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur. Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, has a scheduling conflict and wont be able there.

This event grew out of discussions with lawmakers about how they voted on budget issues during the special session that ended a few weeks ago.

This is fertile ground for a wide-ranging discussion. We have the first state budget since July 2015 and a $5 billion income tax increase coming our way. And there are plenty of issues about $14.6 billion in unpaid bills, $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and various education-funding puzzle pieces.

Speaking of that last point, both Halbrook and Rose joined fellow Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday in Mount Zion to discuss the contentious Senate Bill 1, which would change the school funding formula. Rauner has said the measure unfairly allocates money to Chicago Public Schools and plans to veto it. Manar is sponsoring the legislation.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. We hope to spend about an hour talking about the issues and asking questions submitted by our readers. You can send those to me at ccoates@herald-review.com.

I hope to see you there.

Meet us at Celebration

Celebration is right around the corner, and our newsroom is planning lots of exciting coverage for the big weekend.

We're also organizing a reader meetup on the Saturday of Celebration. Herald & Review staff will be on the east side of the Transfer House from 4 to 5 p.m. on Aug. 5. Well have reporters and editors there to get feedback about the job were doing and to talk about the stories you'd like to see us report.

Find us wearing our blue Herald & Review T-shirts. Stop by and chat.

And stay tuned for more details about we have in store for print, digital and social media coverage during Celebration. We're looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may have come to San Antonio on Friday to announce his intentions for a second term, but he also, unintentionally, gave one local activist the trolling opportunity of a lifetime.

After his speech, Abbott stuck around to meet with supporters. Enter Ashley Smith.

Smith said she does not support Abbott, but does have a very vested interest in the outcome of one of Abbott's pet pieces of legislation, the so called "bathroom bill."

The longtime San Antonio resident and LGBTQ activist waited through the speech for an opportunity to meet Abbott.

It wasn't so she could shout insults or spout off at the governor, it is because sometimes a picture is worth more than words.

"I did not think it (shouting) would work, or that I would be heard and was more interested in the getting the photograph and not getting thrown out," Smith said.

The picture she ended up taking was of a very happy looking governor next to a beautiful woman.

In large bright lettering in the photo, Smith captioned it with "#Bathroombuddy," and identified the governor and herself as "Texas Governor Greg Abbott," and "Ashley Smith Trans-Woman."

She then posted the photo to her Facebook page where the humor and irony of it quickly caught on and took off.

How will the Potty Police know I'm transgender if the Governor doesn't? #bathroombuddy #satx #indivisible #stopsb6 #noh8 #transgender #translivesmatter #sunsetandsinedie #classroomsnotbathrooms Posted by Ashley Smith on Saturday, July 15, 2017

"I have not tagged the Governor with it, but I know other people have," Smith said.

Since posting the photo, Smith said she has received an overwhelmingly positive response, multiple friend requests and a few thousand "likes."

"Once I had the photo, I was eager to get on social media just because I wanted to make a point," she said.

And that point is, as she wrote in her Facebook post: "How will the Potty Police know I'm transgender if the Governor doesn't?"

"We're about 1-in-300 people, we're all over the place, we're your friends and your neighbors," Smith said. "Some of us are not immediately obvious as trans. And the idea that you are going to be able to enforce a bathroom bill, I mean the enforceability is just not there."

READ ALSO: California travel ban to Texas over LGBT adoption bill could spell trouble for tourism industry

Smith said the main reason she went to the governor's event was because of the special session and because what a "bathroom bill" would mean for the trans community.

"I'm very active with Indivisible San Antonio, and I've lobbied and protested a lot this session," said Smith. "And I'm encouraged that Speaker (Joe) Straus has been able to resist the most egregious bathroom bills that come to the House."

Smith pointed out that many of Texas' larger cities have had non-discrimination ordinances in place for years, and that fears of the type of incidents proponents of "bathroom bills" have warned of have not manifested.

She said she hopes reason will prevail during the special session and that those in the trans community will be able to continue to use the bathrooms of the gender in which they long have identified.
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Despite there being more than two dozen surveillance cameras at the top of Twin Peaks, crime at the popular San Francisco tourist attraction continues to increase, hitting a troubling pitch over the weekend with the murder of a 71-year-old photographer.

One problem is the cameras near the overlooks main parking lot are not intended to prevent or help solve crimes targeting sightseers inside the city park. Instead, the equipment was set up to protect one of San Franciscos most vital telecommunication hubs, at the top of the famous Christmas Tree Point lookout where Edward French  a local film scout  was shot dead during a robbery on Sunday.

Its not clear if Frenchs slaying was captured on video from the nearby red brick building, but some city officials are no longer satisfied with merely hoping the cameras catch criminal activity on the hill.

San Francisco Supervisor Norman Yee, who represents District Seven, which includes part of Twin Peaks, is seeking funds in the latest city budget for additional security cameras at the overlook to cut down on the hundreds of auto burglaries a year in the park and to help prevent another tragedy like Frenchs killing.

The budget went before the Board of Supervisors for a first reading on Tuesday.

I think that crime at Twin Peaks is something that the whole city needs to pay attention to, Yee said Tuesday. The locals up there understand that its not as safe as it used to be and you have to be careful.

Locals may well understand the growing risks on Twin Peaks, but with a consistent stream of tourists seeking the hilltops breathtaking views, criminals have a wealth of fresh targets every day.

Property crimes at Twin Peaks have gone up 34 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2016, according to the San Francisco Police Departments crime statistics.

Most of those crimes are vehicle break-ins, 247 this year. There have also been several armed robberies in the past two years, including one this month. And before French was killed, two people were slain at Twin Peaks on Valentines Day 2016 in a high-profile early-morning triple shooting.

Richard Contreras, 27, has pleaded not guilty to the killings and his case is set for a preliminary hearing in early August.

For the most part the crimes go unsolved, and police and city officials hope Frenchs killing doesnt see a similar fate.

It illustrates my sense that its a priority to get these security cameras up there, Yee said of Sundays killing. It reinforces it even more.

The dozens of cameras currently in place are crucial for monitoring the transmission building and its radio towers, which transmit signals for the police, fire department and other city agencies.

Yee said hes asked for $45,000 in the budget to go to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department specifically for cameras on Twin Peaks dedicated to the parking lot and roads.

Once we approve the budget, I will urge Rec and Park to expedite this as quick as possible, he said.

In the meantime, city police have a fixed patrol monitoring Twin Peaks while investigators work to identify Frenchs killers.

Police said French was approached by a young man and woman shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday as he took photos in the parking lot.

Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot before the suspects ran to a dark gray Honda Accord and fled the scene with the victims camera, said Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco police spokesman.

A jogger found French bleeding in the parking lot and performed CPR, but he later died at San Francisco General Hospital.

Despite having descriptions of suspects and their vehicle, Rueca said it hasnt been determined if any of the attack was captured by cameras on the nearby building. Additional cameras on the summit, though, would be welcomed by the department, he said.

Anything that is going to assist us in catching people who are committing crimes  and more importantly will stop crime from occurring altogether  we completely support that, Rueca said.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@

sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
DECATUR  Decatur police arrested Cameron L. Anderson, 20, of Champaign, on Monday in connection with four armed robberies throughout Central Illinois.

The arrest took place after the armed robbery of a gas station in Mahomet on Monday, Sgt. Chris Copeland said in a news release. The suspect matched the description of suspects involved in robberies at Caseys on Mound Road in Decatur, Circle K on Baltimore Avenue in Decatur, and Caseys in Warrensburg.

The Illinois State Police issued a description of the suspect and his vehicle after the Mahomet incident, Copeland said, and Decatur police officer Jason Danner saw a vehicle matching the description exit Interstate 72 at Illinois 48 shortly before 11 p.m. The officer pulled over the vehicle for a traffic stop at the Pilot Travel Center.

The driver matched the description of the suspect in the Mahomet robbery, and was very similar to that of suspects in the other recent robberies, Copeland said. When police searched the suspects vehicle, they found items linking the driver to the armed robberies, including a black BB gun.

Copeland did not identify which gas station was robbed in Mahomet.

Anderson was being held without bond at the Macon County Jail on preliminary charges in the Decatur and Warrensburg robberies. Preliminary charges are subject to review by the state's attorney's office.

The Mahomet Police Department is seeking an arrest warrant for Anderson for the robbery in its jurisdiction.
SHELBYVILLE  Nearly 50 Shelbyville Township residents crowded into the township building Monday night for a special, six-minute meeting that elected a new Republican township supervisor.

Mike Holland was elected by acclimation after no other nominations were received.

The Township has been without a supervisor since Democrat Steve Shoaff resigned after being reelected in April. He and Road Commissioner Robin Robertson were the only Democrats elected on the township level and all five Democratic township commissioners were defeated by Republicans.

At Monday nights meeting, any township resident could have been nominated and all township residents were eligible to vote. After 60 days a supervisor from either party could be elected.

Since May, township employees and other bills have not been paid, since, under Illinois statute supervisors are the only township officials allowed to sign checks. Holland still must be bonded before he can pay bills.

After Monday nights meeting, he and Township Clerk Linda Halbrook filled out paperwork to be filed with the Shelby County Clerk this morning,

Weve approved paying the bills, so now we will go forward and get them paid, Halbrook said.
ASSUMPTION  Hundreds of mourners packed St. Mary's Catholic Church in Assumption on Monday morning for the funeral Mass of Capt. Joe Smith, the local-born fighter pilot killed during the Vietnam War.

His remains were recovered in 2016 and recently flown home for Monday's service. First Lt. Smith, 25, was shot down over Cambodia on April 4, 1971, while flying a ground attack mission in an F-100 Super Sabre jet. He was posthumously promoted to captain.

Those paying their last respects included family, friends, fellow pilots, veterans, active duty military, police officers, firemen and countless emergency service workers. Outside the church, the casket bearing Smith's remains was carried beneath a 30-foot-long American flag strung between the ladders of two firetrucks.

The procession was led by piper Tom Ogilvy of the St. Andrew's Society of Central Illinois Pipes and Drums band. He played the haunting Going Home tune from Dvorak's New World Symphony, and then Amazing Grace.

As the mourners gathered at graveside, a lone C-130 military aircraft dropped low out of the western sky and flew in a slow, curving salute over the cemetery before disappearing to the north.

Chief among the mourners was Smith's former wife, Elaine Mills, since remarried, who had been married to Smith for less than a year when she was widowed. Mills, 68, did not speak during the church service, but a message from her was read aloud by her sister, Annette Unser Brinker.

Mills praised the memory of all fallen veterans who watered the tree of freedom with their blood. The price that our freedom demanded didn't allow you to come back, she said. We pray for peace ... welcome home, Joe, welcome home.

The hourlong service had opened with the Rev. Alan Hunter saying those left to mourn cannot understand why Smith lost his life so young. Hunter said only God knows the answer to that: Whatever purpose Joe was created for was complete at his death, Hunter added. We do not understand this, and maybe the time will come when some of this will become clear. But we will know the full answer when we join Joe in heaven.

Several friends spoke at the service, including retired Air Force Col. Robert Plebanek, a University of Notre Dame college buddy of Smith, fellow pilot and also his brother-in-law. They had been the best man at each other's weddings, and Smith was the godfather of Plebanek's son.

He tearfully recalled his friend as a patriotic, dedicated man who flew more than 100 combat missions and won two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He said, in his own mind, that Smith would always be that dashing 25-year-old fighter pilot ready to face challenge with bravery and determination. Well, Joe, your journey is complete. We salute you, said Plebanek.

He had earlier asked a handful of Smith's fellow combat pilots, who came from all over the country for the service, to stand as the mourners honored them with a thunderous round of applause. At the graveside, those pilots stepped forward one by one to leave coins on Smith's casket.

It's a tradition, explained fellow F-100 pilot Lee Howard, 71, who served with Smith and traveled from his home in Montana to offer his comrade one last salute.

We leave a dime for the loss of someone that you knew in training and a quarter is for the loss of someone who was lost in combat. Joe and I roomed together in training and combat, and that is why Joe was especially close to me.

The small boxlike casket had been escorted from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii by Air Force Capt. Deline Tengen, 28. She carried it in the procession from the church to the graveside and had volunteered for the mission, explaining this was the first time she had done anything like this.

I had asked my commander if I could do so, she said. I believe it is a great honor to bring back a hero.

The Order of Mass booklet opened with a picture of Smith poised next to the cockpit of his jet with the Bible quote, No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends, from John 15:13.

The last page featured John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s poem High Flight, which all students of the United States Air Force Academy memorize. Its last lines are:

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew 

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
CARBONDALE  The incoming chancellor of Southern Illinois University Carbondale said he believes the university must define a vision for itself in order to move beyond the financial hardship caused by the state budget impasse and declining enrollment.

Carlo Montemagno expressed optimism about the future of SIUC at a news conference Monday.

I look at the infrastructure associated with it, I look at the town and the community thats here, I look at how its positioned itself within the landscape of higher education, and I saw a distinct opportunity for advancing the institution, to dust off that jewel and make it a bright maroon jewel in the crown of higher education, not only in Illinois but the nation, Montemagno said.

The appointment of Montemagno, a professor of engineering at the University of Alberta's Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering and founder of the Ingenuity Lab for the Province of Alberta, was officially approved by the SIU Board of Trustees last Thursday after an extended search. He will be the universitys first permanent chancellor in three years.

Montemagno stressed the need for shared governance in administrative decision-making and said he planned to engage with faculty, staff, students, alumni and the community to chart the best course moving forward.

He said he plans to launch an initiative in the next few weeks asking students and staff what they think SIU should be in 2025.

Were going to distill this information and then by the end of October, well have crafted a defined vision of what the objectives and goals of SIU will be, he said.

From that point, were going to look at our resources and the things that we do, and were going to start pivoting those resources to try and achieve that vision. We will not define ourselves by the resources that we have in hand. We will define ourselves by the vision.

Montemagno will assume the office Aug. 15 and will inherit the universitys new financial sustainability plan, a strategy that calls for a total of $26 million in cuts, the elimination of seven programs and the consolidation of some others.

The three-part plan, unveiled last week at the SIU Board of Trustees work session in Springfield, sets the foundation for providing a platform of financial stability, Montemagno said.

Montemagno said he was not deterred by the state budget crisis before legislators passed the first full budget in two years earlier this month, and that he never had second thoughts about his decision to take on the chancellor role.

Im accused of being the eternal optimist. ... Money, resources, do not define your vision, they dont define your success. They define that you have to take to achieve it, and I have led organizations that have faced just as dire of financial circumstances, and we were able to make them successful, he said.

What he did find encouraging, he said, were the students and faculty he spoke with on campus.

I saw people who were total committed to the institution and who were dismayed that they werent able to achieve the things they wanted. But the fact that they were totally committed to this institution told me that the framework was there, that if we provide the proper path, they will follow ... and well be successful, Montemagno said.
Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced four pieces of legislation this session aimed at expanding access to treatment for people with serious medical conditions. Two of those bills are moving quickly toward passage, with votes scheduled in the Assembly on Tuesday.
Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison delivered a stinging rebuke when Arizona Congressman Trent Franks proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have targeted Islam, saying the amendment "stigmatizes people simply because they practice a specific religion." A bipartisan coalition rejected the amendment.
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Have you ever considered a move to Redwood City?

That mini metropolis that kisses the bay about 30 miles south of San Francisco?

If you're house-hunting in the Bay Area and looking for value, this might be a place to start your search, according to a new report from real estate site Trulia on best value neighborhoods.

Burlingame, just a little north toward the city, would be another spot to start browsing open houses.

In the high-priced Bay Area real estate market, buying a home can be an overwhelming, perplexing experience.

When you finally find a house you can afford, you might realize it's located in a neighborhood with high-crime. When you decide on a location because the schools are great, you might find home prices you can't possibly afford.

Trulia sifted through its mountains of data to identify those Bay Area neighborhoods where you get the most bang for your buck and created a list based on real estate affordability, the quality of schools, crime rate, the commute and accessibility to shopping, restaurants and other amenities.

The researchers identified only nine Bay Area neighborhoods  all on the Peninsula  that met the criteria.

Trulia spokesperson Debbi Baratz says, "Only nine met the requirements for affordability."

Redwood City neighborhoods dominated the list with Palm Park, Roosevelt, Redwood Oaks and Woodside Plaza as the top four (in that order) and Farm Hill tying with San Mateo's Sugarloaf for the No. 8 best-value neighborhood.

Three Burlingame enclavesLyon Hoag, Burlingame Village and Burlingame Terraceall claimed the title of the No. 6 best value neighborhood.

In the gallery above, we reveal why these neighborhoods made the list, provide median home prices and examples of homes on the market or homes that recently sold.

How does this list stack up with realtors on the Peninsula?

Celeste Johnson of Keller Williams agrees Redwood City offers great livability and for reasons beyond affordability, safety and schools. She adds that the weather is good, the location is ideal as it's halfway between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, and the downtown is bustling with restaurants, shops and events.

"The downtown is walkable and it's vibrant," she says. "The downtown has been completely overhauled in recent years."

John Marshall of Coldwell Banker concurs that homebuyers are looking to Redwood City for value.

"One of the things that have kept Redwood City prices down over the years is the schools," says Marshall, who has been helping clients buy and sell on the Peninsula for more than 15 years. "The school scores were lower than Atherton, Woodside and Menlo Park. But the attitude has changed, and people are asking, 'Why would I go to Menlo Park and pay $4 to $5 million when I can be in Redwood City for $2 million or less than that. And the schools are slowly getting better."

Marshall was happy to see Redwood City's Woodside Plaza on the list. It's where he lives and he says it's the type of community where neighbors look out for one another. It also has Henry Ford Elementary School, with a Great Schools rating of 7 out of 10.

He was surprised to not see Redwood City's Mount Carmel among the best value neighborhoods as it's popular with clients. The houses go for a premium in this neighborhood, he says, and higher prices are likely why it didn't make the value cut.

And what about Burlingame and San Mateo, which also made a splash on the Trulia list?

Marshall says the schools are more consistently high-performing than in Redwood City, and the access to San Francisco is better with a BART station nearby, but the homes are more expensive.

"A lot of the houses for $2 million and under are older and haven't been updated and they're a little on the small side," Marshall says.
If youre looking for something to restore your faith in humanity, television is not going to be your first stop. Not anymore. Not for a long time. In general, television writers dont have much good to say about your fellow man and woman. Even the Hallmark Channel confirms were all a bunch of no-goodniks by the confectionery phoniness of its original programming.

Shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire and the sainted Breaking Bad have raised a cynical view of humanity to new heights in recent years. Or perhaps depths is a better word.

But for all their bleakness, those three series have nothing on the new Netflix drama, Ozark, which is one of the most cynical series youre ever likely to see on TV. The 10-episode series, created by Bill Dubuque, is available for streaming on Friday, July 21.

Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is a financial adviser married to Wendy (Laura Linney), who once worked on Barack Obamas state Senate campaign in Chicago. They have a sullen teenage daughter named Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and a younger son named Jonah (Skylar Gaertner).

Marty and his partner Bruce (Josh Randall) have been laundering money for Del (Esai Morales), the head of a drug cartel. Its made Marty and Bruce rich, but not entirely smart. Someones been skimming the laundry basket, and Del sees a need for a personnel change. Several employees lose their jobs. And their lives.

But Marty is spared by fast-talking his way out of the line of fire by promising he can launder so well, Del would realize an even greater profit. Within a couple of days, Marty has pulled his whole family out of Chicago and resettled them on the shores of Lake of the Ozarks. They buy a house from a dying man on the condition that he can live in the basement until he dies, and Marty sets out to work his wily way with the locals. His goal is to partner with established businesses, including a dockside church, as a way to launder money.

Marty may think hell have no problem manipulating dentally challenged rubes, but one group of hillbillies is growing poppies for heroin manufacture, another local runs a strip club and is too smart to fall for Martys attempt to talk his way into becoming a silent partner, and still a second group of hillbillies, the Langmore family, knows that Marty has brought $8 million with him to be laundered and blackmails him into giving them a piece of it.

From episode to episode, Ozark is a contest to see who can take the crown as the most morally bankrupt character of the pack. Were not just talking about drug-running yokels and oily money managers. The list of candidates also includes Wendy, who is conning a local real estate broker, the broker himself who fires his own mother from the business because he thinks he can make a bundle with Wendy as a partner, a preacher and his wife who justify their choice to go to the dark side as a temporary detour necessitated by practicality, a government agent tracking Martys family who pays local hustlers for nocturnal visits to his cheap motel room, and most of all, Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), mean, coldhearted, murderous, calculating and smarter than the rest of her family put together.

Marty and Wendy are having serious problems in their marriage, but they turn out to be more tightly bound by their shared ambition than love. Theyve even let their kids in on why theyve moved to the Ozarks, and we see moral decay begin to impact their young lives as well.

On and on the parade of reprehensibility continues. But, oddly enough, we find ourselves making a certain kind of moral choice among the characters. Marty is detestable for putting his entire family in jeopardy by his involvement in criminal activities to begin with, but hes not as hateful as, say, Del, who is murderous. Wendy is an unfaithful wife and a snake oil saleswoman with no moral compass, but shes not as bad as Ruth Langmore, a true psychopath. Then again, it is kind of fun to watch Ruth get the better of the male morons who make the mistake of underestimating the diminutive blonde.

The overpopulation of scoundrels almost works until the eighth episode, when Dubuque makes a strategic error: He gives us a big flashback to explain how some of these scalawags got the way they are. It not only interrupts the story line, it pulls the thematic rug out from under the show. Weve come to almost delight in how treacherous this bunch is and now, abruptly, were supposed to see that some of them have a streak of humanity left? Sheesh: Go ahead and spoil our fun, why dont you?

Fortunately, the error is not fatal.

Jackson Davis/Netflix / Jackson Davis / Netflix

And speaking of fun, Ozark is virtually humorless. I say virtually because the writers rely on pathos, irony and sad absurdity to underscore what bad choices these characters have made. In fact, the use of irony becomes so frequent that you begin to anticipate its appearance in scene after scene, causing you to forget what Martys plan is and why he has to meet the profit goal he promised Del or face the complete extinction of his family.

The performances are often very good. As much of a con artist as Marty is, we almost warm to him because hes Jason Bateman, and the series makes good use of his everyman likability. Linney is also very good, but her character is uneven. Shes Betty Crocker one minute, and Ma Barker the next. But she is fascinating to watch because the role demands things of Linney weve never seen before.

Garner is monumental. She makes Ruth Langmore one of televisions great villains by giving us just a fleeting glance at her inner sadness without for a minute really humanizing her. That momentary hint is what makes her frighteningly real. In Garners capable hands, Ruth Langmore is nothing short of a backwoods Lucrezia Borgia.

Does all of this feel off-putting? In truth, it is, at first. Nasty people who deserve each other  why would you care? But beyond the first episode, Ozark finds a certain pace and, if nothing else, you keep watching hoping at least most of them get whats coming to them.

You cant look away.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV

Ozark: Dramatic series. Complete first season available on Friday, July 21, on Netflix.
MAFRAQ, Jordan  Desperate to help Syrians stuck on Jordans sealed border, U.N. agencies agreed late last year to an aid system that critics say handed much of the control over aid distribution to Jordans military and a Jordanian contractor, and also involved armed men on the Syrian side.

Since then, the system has broken down repeatedly and only sporadic aid shipments have reached two remote desert camps on the border that house thousands of Syrians displaced by war. Rival groups in the larger Rukban camp accuse each other of diverting aid, and black marketers flourish.

Separately, the Tribal Army, a Syrian militia that says it was asked by Jordan to police Rukban, struck deals on access and protection with World Vision and Cap Anamur, but the two foreign aid groups pulled out of Rukban after bombs targeted Tribal Army forces near their installations.

Critics say the struggle to provide aid to stranded Syrians reflects the international communitys wider failure in responding to the refugee crisis. Some 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since 2011, but countless others are trapped in a country at war after neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey  which absorbed most of the influx  largely closed their borders.

Syria is locked in, and I think this is an issue which is not at all in the public debate or being raised by the aid agencies, said Kilian Kleinschmidt, a former Jordan-based U.N. refugee agency official.

Jordan closed its border for good in June 2016 after an Islamic State car bomb attack launched from near Rukban killed seven Jordanian border guards.

Jordan counters criticism of its policies, such as the border closure, by noting that it has absorbed far more refugees than wealthier Western countries, which have also failed to fully meet aid pledges to the region. The kingdom also argues that Islamic militants mingling with Syrians on the border pose a security threat.

Even before the border closure, Jordan increasingly restricted entry to Syrians. Since 2014, theyve been massing on the eastern edge of the shared border. The Rukban and Hadalat camps sprang up, with what the United Nations estimates are now 45,000 to 50,000 residents. Camp activists say the population is twice as large.

U.N. agencies can monitor movements at the distribution center through cameras, but dont know what happens in Rukban, where rival rebel groups wrestle for control.

Karin Laub is an Associated Press writer.
Hussein Malla/Associated Press

RAQQA, Syria  Hunkered down on the top floor of an abandoned building, two Americans and a British volunteer face off against Islamic State snipers in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The trio, including two who served in the French Foreign Legion and the war in Iraq, have made the war against Islamic State their own.

They are among dozens of Western volunteers who have battled the Islamic State in Iraq, and now in Raqqa, the city in northeastern Syria that the militants declared the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration slapped 18 Iranian individuals and groups with sanctions Tuesday for aiding the countrys non-nuclear weapons programs, in a bid to show that President Trump is staying tough on Iran despite his moves to let the nuclear deal stay in place for now.

The latest attempt to clamp down on Irans military financing ranged from an Iranian-based company that aided the countrys drone program to a Turkey-based provider of naval equipment and a China-based network that helped secure electronics for Tehran. The sanctions freeze any assets in the U.S. and prevent Americans from doing business with them.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Irans provocative and destabilizing behavior.

The announcement came only hours after the Trump administration told Congress for a second time that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and can keep enjoying sanctions relief. The administration insisted Tehran was breaching the spirit of the deal.

Trump, who lambasted the 2015 pact as a candidate, gave himself more time to decide whether to scuttle it or let it stand. Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasize their deep concerns about Irans non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions wont go unpunished.

During the campaign, Trump told the American Israel Political Action Committee: My No. 1 priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. And he returned to that theme often during the presidential race, describing the deal as catastrophic, among other things.

In a shift from that earlier threat to dismantle the deal, officials said the administration was working with U.S. allies to try to fix the deals flaws, including the expiration of some nuclear restrictions after a decade or more. The officials also said the U.S. would slap Tehran with new sanctions penalizing it for developing ballistic missiles and other activity.

Scuttling the deal would put further distance between Trump and foreign leaders who are already upset over his move to withdraw from the Paris global climate change accord.

Josh Lederman is an Associated Press writer.
Down on the farm

The LA Times checks in this morning with a mostly glowing profile of US Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. It starts and ends with stories about corralling llamas on the small family farm in Nambe. Llamas, you see, are like members of Congress, except these llamas are there to protect the family's sheep. WAIT! Anyhow, more useful info would be that his father, the late Ben Lujan, was a particularly effective Speaker of the House of Representatives in New Mexico, especially when it came to corralling wayward members. Lujan the younger holds the post of Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and on his shoulders rest much of the party's hopes of winning back the US House. And that's why the article's worth a read.

Down in the 2nd Congressional District

As you have surely heard, Rep. Steve Pearce is leaving his seat in Congress to run for governor next year. The Republican has turned back challengers every two years and amassed more than $1 million in campaign money. He'd like the option of

. It's allowed by federal law, but state law may block it. That's what Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham thinks. The Democrat limited her federal donation to her state campaign to $5,500. The secretary of state will issue an opinion soon. The Word will issue one now: It doesn't matter much, because there's going to be a ton of money in this race regardless. (This message brought to you by the Committee to Inject a Ton of Money into New Mexico.)

Meow Wolf's millions

Not visitors, dollars. The arts collective recently launched a fundraising campaign to help with its expansion plans both in Santa Fe and elsewhere around the country. It

in less than 48 hours and topped $1 million in about three days. It's also getting about $1 million from state and city economic development grants.

Facebook's multi-millions

The social networking website's Los Lunas data center is

. The massive facilities will employ 1,000 construction workers at its busiest building stage. Once the centers are open, 100 people will work there. New Mexico pledged billions in industrial revenue bonds for the project, as well as $10 million in economic development grants and $1.6 million in tax reimbursements.

New Mexico's financial fallback

The state's reserve funds are in better shape than anticipated, though there's still a debate over how much money New Mexico is likely to have socked away a year from now. Just weeks after threatening furloughs and shutdowns, the Martinez administration says New Mexico has relatively robust

and is likely to have 3 percent at the end of this budget year next June. Legislative agencies are less optimistic, but say the state's revenue is outpacing expectations at the moment.

Moon landmark

Consider it a National Historic Landmark you can never visit: The spot where man first set foot on the moon. A New Mexico State University professor is thinking ahead, though, and wants Tranquility Basethe site of the Apollo 11 landing

by not just Space, but the US.

Elephant Butte Bigfoot

If you're a regular reader of the Morning Word, chances are you don't get most of your news from Facebook. Good on you, because Facebook is a lousy place to get your news. The latest proof is a garbage article from a website that lets users create their own news stories. It claims bigfoot was found on the shore of Elephant Butte this month. The fake-news-debunking website Snopes.com reminds you that

.

Thanks for reading! The Word thanks you for paying attention and caring and encourages you to urge your friends to do the same. You deserve a donut. With sprinkles.

Subscribe to the Morning Word at sfreporter.com/signup

Santa Fe Reporter
The Wellington Tenths Trust has been successful in getting some of the assets belonging to Lorraine Skiffington, the partner of convicted fraudster and former chairman Ngatata Love, frozen pending a further judgment.

Last October, former Treaty negotiator Love was jailed for two years and six months after being found guilty of obtaining significant sums by deception. He and Skiffington used a $1.5 million payment from a land developer, given as a premium for access to valuable land owned by the trust, to repay most of a mortgage on a Plimmerton house they co-owned. Former trustees of the Tenths Trust gave evidence at the trial that they had never been told of the payment.

In his trial, Love sheeted the blame home to Skiffington, who he claimed had acted without his knowledge, and also blamed Shaan Stevens, a consultant who worked alongside Skiffington and Love. Skiffington was also charged but was granted a permanent stay as she was declared medically unfit to stand trial.

Wellington High Court Justice Karen Clark today ruled in favour of the Tenths Trust, who had asked for an interim freezing order on assets placed in two trusts of which Skiffington is the sole director and shareholder; Strategic Directionz and Moanatahi.

The trust is pursuing Skiffington for unjust enrichment, both for $1.7 million paid into the trust used to buy the Plimmerton house, and for payments made to Skiffington or to Stategic Directionz totalling $1.8 million. Assets belonging to Skiffington and Strategic Directionz are now frozen pending the final determination of that issue.

In an affidavit opposing that summary judgment and freezing order applications, Skiffington argued that she was not paid consultancy fees for the work she did for the Tenths Trust between 2006 and 2010, but had given the trust extensive benefit from her work, so the money she was paid by the property developers reflected that, Justice Clark said.

The judge noted that Skiffington has not made a payment on the $92,700 mortgage on the Plimmerton house since March this year, despite it being tenanted. She also never responded to a letter from the Tenths Trust in November 2016 requesting reparations for unauthorised payments she had received.

"Balancing all that has been said on behalf of the defendants against the first defendants failure to arrange payment of even part of the mortgage arrears due to Westpac, the defendants failure to respond to Tenths request for a written undertaking, and the apparent strength of the plaintiffs claim, Tenths has demonstrated that the overall interests of justice favour the grant of an interim freezing order," the judge said. "The overall interests of justice do not favour the defendants in circumstances where there is a tenable argument they have engaged in fraudulent activities that have caused serious loss to the plaintiff, its beneficiaries, and the wider Maori community in Wellington and Taranaki."

The trust was established to administer 81 hectares of Maori Reserve lands, largely in urban Wellington, on behalf of its beneficial owners, the descendants of hapu of Te Atiawa, Ngati Tama, Taranaki, and Ngati Ruanui tupuna who were living within the rohe in 1839. It held assets of $55.6 million as at March 31, 2014. There are currently 6,133 registered beneficial owners.

(BusinessDesk)

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A Dane County Circuit Court judge on Monday denied a motion to dismiss murder charges against a man accused of bludgeoning his landlady to death in April, saying the case can proceed despite a disputed witness statement.

Attorneys for Jack J.C. Hamann had asked the judge to dismiss the murder charges against him because they claimed that statements attributed to his mother were fabricated by a Dane County sheriffs detective.

But Judge Ellen Berz  without even considering the allegedly made-up statements  said the state had sufficient probable cause for the murder charges, even if those statements hadnt been included. While the evidence is circumstantial, she is required to look in favor of the states inferences.

There is sufficient evidence for a reasonable person to conclude that a crime was committed and Mr. Hamann committed that crime, Berz said.

Defense attorneys said the mother of Hamann, who is charged with the death of 82-year-old Agnes Bram, denied telling a sheriffs detective that she feared her son would hit her over the head with something and accused the detective of entering her home that day under false pretenses.

That claim, along with other assertions about the strength of the case, were why a first-degree intentional homicide charge against Hamann should be dismissed, his attorneys said.

Deputy District Attorney Matthew Moeser said the motion was just an attempt to smear the detective.

Prosecutors say Hamann killed Bram in her Middleton home sometime before April 28. Hamann had rented a room there for about two months.

Hamanns next court date is July 27.
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About Kate

Why this blog?

Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.

This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me."

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"The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle

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I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs

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Australia's peak body for outdoor advertising approached the ACT government and the National Capital Authority to consider changes to its outdoor signage rules a year before ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr flagged a review of the billboard ban.

The Outdoor Media Association represents most of Australia's outside and out-of-home media display companies and production facilities, as well as some media display asset owners.

Canberrans line up on Black Mountain to sign a petition to keep Canberra nude (free from billboards). Credit:Sam Townsend

General manager Tess Phillips said they first approached the ACT government 18 months ago to talk about "activating urban spaces" with wayfinding signage and Wi-Fi hubs, although the body "regularly engages" all state and territory governments across Australia.

"Given the changes afoot to modernise and globalise our capital, as evidenced by international flights from Canberra Airport and the light rail development, the OMA has actively queried the ACT government about its strict stance on third-party advertising," Ms Phillips said.
Some of the best in Canberra's hospitality industry have been recognised at the ACT Australian Hotels Association's (AHA) 2017 awards night.

Thirty-six awards were presented for the top hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and industry workers from across Canberra.

Pomegranate Restaurant in Kingston has been announced as best restaurant at the 2017 ACT AHA Awards. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

Pomegranate in Kingston was awarded best restaurant, with Casey Jones named as best pub bistro, and the recently refurbished The Duxton awarded best local.

Capitol Bar and Grill was named as best hotel restaurant, Bar Rochford took out the best cocktail bar category, and The District in Crace won best cafe restaurant.
On Tuesday, glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock took up residence in a dedicated studio in the Engine Room at the Canberra Glassworks.

She showed off a couple of word forms made of glass including one called illusion - but she was celebrating a happy reality.

Quenabeyan glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock is the inaugural fellow of the Art Group Creative Fellowship launched at the Kingston Glassworks. Credit:Karleen Minney

The Sydney College of the Arts graduate, who has lived in Queanbeyan with her family since 2003, was chosen from Australian and international applicants as the recipient of the inaugural Art Group Creative Fellowship.

Canberra developer Art Group donated a total of $50,0000 over two years which will be used to fund a number of six or 12-month fellowships depending on what successful recipients want to achieve.
Good morning Canberra and welcome to hump day.

The weather bureau is forecasting a chilly start of 0 degrees before a top of 11 in the capital. There's a 50 per cent chance of showers today, most likely in the early morning.

Here's all the news you need to start your Wednesday.

Growing concern over bikie shootings in Canberra
ACT fire services were called to the scene and extinguished the fire, with AFP forensics later seen on Tuesday morning inspecting the charred gas cylinder. Damage consistent with gunfire and fire could be seen along the bedroom window's panelling. Police were at the same property in March when shots were fired and a car was set alight. ACT Policing detective superintendent Ben Cartwright said more needed to be done to address OMCGs in the ACT. "Events such as those seen over the last month highlight the need for new and different approaches," Mr Cartwright said. "ACT Policing will continue discussions with the ACT government regarding legislative reform."

ACT shadow police minister Jeremy Hanson called for anti-consorting laws and said the failure of the ACT government to introduce them earlier had sent the wrong message to bikies. "The ACT is a soft target. It's essentially become an oasis or safehaven for bikies from NSW," Mr Hanson said. "I'm worried that it's only a matter of time before an innocent member of the community is killed." "I am much more concerned with the safety of our community than I am with the civil rights of violent criminal gangs." But outlaw motorcycle gang researcher and expert Terry Goldsworthy said there were still ways ACT police could make life difficult for ACT bikies.

"They have to drive somewhere, they have to go on the road and move around in public," Mr Goldsworthy said. Police should pull bikies over for licence checks, roadside breathalyser tests, check for outstanding warrants and bail conditions and place some bikies on curfews if possible. He added the community needed to see the police take action. "You're not going to be able to get [bikies] to cease through rhetoric, you're going to have to start kicking some doors in," Mr Goldsworthy said. "I would expect today or tomorrow you'll see some well publicised affirmative action."

A spokesperson for ACT police minister Mick Gentleman said Mr Gentleman would meet with police to discuss ACT firearms legislation and strategies for Taskforce Nemesis. Employees at the neighbouring childcare centre arrived at work to see the crime scene but were assured by police they were safe. Centre manager Kamal Dhooria said it was frightening but it was an otherwise good neighbourhood. "The people next door are really good and they're helpful, we haven't had any issues with them," Ms Dhooria said. Room manager Dianne Hunia said parents had been asking about the incident but no one had cancelled.

"We just reassure them: the centre's okay, the children are okay," Ms Hunia said. "If anything happens, we're accountable for all these children inside the centre. "We do want cops to do something, to see who is behind all these incidents," Ms Dhooria said. As police inspected the scene, children could be seen walking to school as families drove past. Police described one of the shooters as Caucasian, with a medium build and wearing a light top with blue jeans.

Last Tuesday, a high-powered, automatic machine gun was used to fire 27 shots at a home in Waramanga where a 17-year-old was sleeping inside. The first attack in Kambah saw shots fired at a home in the early hours of July 7 and three cars on the property set alight. Taskforce Nemesis has made 82 prosecutions for a total of 251 offences since its inception in August 2014. The taskforce has documented home invasions, assaults, arsons, kidnapping, extortion and drive by shootings. Loading
Canberra's oldest and briefest politician Val Jeffery has died, the ACT Liberals confirmed on Tuesday.

Mr Jeffery took a seat for the Liberals briefly in the ACT parliament at the end of July last year, after Brendan Smyth was made Commissioner for International Engagement.

Smiles all round when Val Jeffery entered parliament last year. Mr Jeffery, pictured with then Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson, has died. Credit:Kirsten Lawson

He was elected on countback, after initially saying he was too old to enter parliament.

Mr Jeffery, 82, served for just two and a half months officially, although he was required in the chamber for much less time, with just two sitting weeks left before the election campaign, barely time to make an inaugural speech.
It was 1967. As Australia fought in Vietnam, University of New South Wales pro vice-chancellor Rupert Myers prepared for a battle of his own: providing a tertiary education to young officers.

Sir Rupert faced opposition from anti-war colleagues concerned about associating with the Army and Navy. Others were not sold on the benefits of combining military training and academia.

Professor Sir Rupert Myers at UNSW Canberra. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

He pressed on. An agreement was forged but no formal signing held as it was assumed the partnership would be short-term.

Returning to campus 50 years later to celebrate a still-strong marriage between the institutions was "very exciting", Sir Rupert, 96, said on Tuesday.
Brisbane-based Alliance Airlines has launched its first scheduled commercial passenger routes, after success in the contract and charter flight provider.

The airline completed its first trips out of Brisbane on Monday, flying to Gladstone, Bundaberg and Port Macquarie.

Brisbane-based Alliance Airlines has expanded to Gladstone, Bundaberg and Port Macquarie.

Jet services will run between Brisbane and the three new destinations, with 34 weekly flights between Gladstone and 14 each between Bundaberg and Port Macquarie.

Alliance Airlines chief executive Lee Schofield said while it was a separate company, the airline's agreements with Virgin Australia meant there were new opportunities to service regional Queensland.
A Milwaukee mortgage firm has been ordered to pay over $7 million in unpaid wages to 175 employees after an arbitrators decision.

Pamela Herrington, a former loan officer with Waterstone Mortgage Corporation, originally brought the case in federal court in Madison in November 2011, alleging the company pressured her to under-report her hours and failed to pay overtime for hours worked beyond her normal work week. The arrangement sometimes caused her and her compensation to fall below minimum wage, the complaint said.

The class-action lawsuit was later referred to an arbitrator under employment terms set by Waterstone, which requires disputes be settled through arbitration instead of through courts.

Under the arbitrators decision, the loan officers will be compensated for unpaid overtime and business expenses accumulated since August 2010. They will also be paid damages for the late payments, according to the law firm Getman, Sweeney & Dunn, which represented the group.

The case involved employees from 17 states; about 20 percent of the workers were from Wisconsin. Waterstone employs about 200 loan officers at any time, said Matt Dunn, the plaintiffs lead attorney.

Artemio Guerra, one of the plaintiffs attorneys, said that arbitration  the settling of a dispute using a third, independent party  is a common practice for large corporations such as Waterstone.

Many employers have engaged in this practice thinking it will discourage people from wanting to go to the nearest courthouse  but over the years, it has become clear that once the employer breaks the law, it doesnt matter where (the employee) brings their complaint, Guerra said.

Guerra said the loan officers tolerated the arrangement because it came on the heels of the 2007-10 mortgage crisis.

It was still the aftershocks of the housing crisis  when jobs were evaporating overnight, he said. I think people are willing to endure certain working conditions to put bread on the table, but when that dries out, people will complain.

Waterstones CEO and legal offices were unavailable for comment.

But Dunn said Waterstone initially tried to take the position that employees had not worked overtime, later altering its argument, claiming that employees werent due overtime or minimum wages because they were outside sales employees and thus not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage and overtime pay rules.

Waterstone will also have to pay about $3.3 million in legal fees to Getman, Sweeney & Dunn.
"They were looking at fraudulent activity, and said their systems had been compromised, because someone was trying to lodge tax returns on our behalf," she said. Rather than being thrilled about the enormous windfall, she is now worried that someone - who has her address and phone number - will come looking for the money. She's also concerned that others will get caught up in the scam. "There are a lot of very vulnerable people out there. Somewhere along the line, they've probably got people organised to ring and catch the vulnerable ones out," she said. ATO assistant commissioner Kath Anderson said the office was investigating the reports, but that ATO systems had not been compromised.

She said the information may have been stolen from outside the ATO and recommended Ms Mitchell's accounting firm reach out to all of their clients to inform them of a breach. It also encouraged the firm to "continue following security best practices" to reduce the risk of fraud and maintain high professional standards. It is not known how many people have been affected by fraudsters. Radio station 3AW said it received several calls from other people who were victims in similar cases. Ms Mitchell said her accountant was working with the ATO to rectify the incident, and for now the money had to stay in her bank account. In a second incident, Woori Yallock woman Eloise Lowe received a $9,494.34 deposit from the Australian Tax Office on Monday - three days before she was due to lodge her tax return.

The ATO's fraud department told Ms Lowe her myGov account had been compromised. Ms Lowe opened the account two months ago after being told it was the only way to repay a HECS debt. Now, she's concerned about who has her personal information, and what they plan on doing next. "I am worried as to how this can happen," she said. "And who has my details? The people at the ATO couldn't even provide me with answers."

Ms Lowe said someone purporting to be from the ATO had left a reference number in a voicemail. When she called the office, she was asked for her name, not the reference number. She was supplied details on how to return the money over the phone but was concerned it was part of the scam. "That's a large sum of money," she said. "They said to use a receipt number but there is no receipt number until you've made the payment." A Department of Human Services spokesperson said there was no information to suggest myGov had been compromised.

DHS advised myGov users to protect their passwords and usernames for their online accounts, and to not click on links in text messages or emails purporting to be from myGov. An ATO spokesperson said there was "definitely" an increase in the number of scams reported during tax time, but the office had "sophisticated risk models" in place to scrutinise every tax return to identify refund fraud, blatant errors and higher-risk claims. Fraudulent refunds could be more difficult to identify as the return appeared to be legitimate, the spokesperson said. The ATO's client identity support centre works with victims of fraud to get their accounts "back in order". "The most important thing to remember is never engage with someone you suspect is trying to scam you or steal your identity and don't pay them any money, even if you think the ATO paid it to you in error," the spokesperson said.
Bruce Gordon (left) and his son Andrew Gordon run regional broadcaster WIN Television and own a 14.96 per cent stake in Network Ten. Credit:Adam McLean That administration process has now been extended to November, after the Federal Court on Monday granted KordaMentha a 120-day extension. Ten has also been granted access to more money after the guarantors agreed it could draw down another $30 million of the CBA facility. It had used $97 million at the time of administration. The three guarantors have applied as creditors owed $11 million each in fees. Mr Murdoch and Mr Gordon have since lodged an application with the competition watchdog to jointly buy Ten, although this is not allowed under existing media law. Mark Korda from KordaMentha speaks to lawyer John Atansaskovic prior to the first Ten creditors' meeting. Credit:James Alcock On Monday, the court also agreed to appoint an independent liquidator to investigate Ten's payments and KordaMentha's conduct, amid concerns the administrator was not independent enough due to work it did for the network prior to its appointment as administrator.

This court action prompted a series of emails between Arnold Bloch Leibler lawyer Leon Zwier and Mr Gordon's lawyer and adviser, John Atanaskovic, over the weekend of July 15-16. Arnold Bloch Leibler's Leon Zwier is acting for Korda Mentha in the Ten collapse. Credit:Josh Robenstone What past 'success' was there at Ten in recent years, and how could it therefore be 'continued', and how was it being 'ensured'? Lawyer John Atanaskovic Mr Atanaskovic's email reveals the thinking in Mr Gordon's camp before he decided not to guarantee any more funding. In particular, Mr Atanaskovic questions Mark Korda's statement in an affidavit that Ten was working on several projects "in an attempt to restructure the business to ensure its continued success" and that these projects were progressing well until Birketu and Illryia withdrew their guarantees.

ASIC joined KordaMentha's application to have an independent investigator supervise its work on the Network Ten administration. Credit:Jim Rice "What past 'success' was there at Ten in recent years, and how could it therefore be 'continued', and how was it being 'ensured'?" Mr Atanaskovic asked Mr Zwier on Sunday. "Indeed, the shareholder guarantors were at least justified in seriously questioning ... whether substantial achievement of what was planned was at all assured (especially given past performance of management and the board, and the massive losses incurred by the Ten group over time, including in recent years)." He then questioned why Ten did not tell the market earlier that the third guarantor, Mr Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), had withdrawn its guarantee. According to the Fort Street letter of June 12, there was prior confirmation from CPH it would not provide further guarantees. "Mark [Korda] mentions two of the shareholder guarantors here, but fails to mention both (i) the formal indication already some weeks earlier ... of the unpreparedness of a third of the shareholder guarantors to extend or increase its guarantee, and (ii) the unexplained failure by Ten at the time to disclose this publicly (as at least arguably required pursuant to ASX and statutory continuous disclosure rules)."

Mr Atanaskovic also raised concerns about the extra cost of an investigative liquidator and the "rather closed community" of Australia's insolvency industry. "My mind also strayed to President Trump's tendency towards allowing his official office to be used to assist his family and their respective businesses," he wrote. Court orders Despite these concerns, Justice David O'Callaghan of the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday agreed to an order jointly submitted by Mr Zwier and Stewart Maiden, who is acting for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Under the order, Ferrier Hodgson partner Peter Gothard will prepare a report for the second creditors' meeting that includes investigating whether Ten made any preferential payments in the six months prior to administration.

Justice O'Callaghan ordered Mr Gothard to supervise KordaMentha's conduct "so as to satisfy himself that [they] are acting consistently with their statutory duties and fiduciary obligations as administrators". He also confirmed KordaMentha were "justified in remaining in their role as the appointed administrators in the administration of the Ten Group Companies", removing any suggestion creditors or regulators might apply to have them replaced. Perception of bias The court has heard ASIC agreed to the independent investigation because it was concerned about perceptions of bias if KordaMentha were allowed to conduct the investigation, as administrators normally would. This is because KordaMentha was engaged and paid nearly $1 million by Ten's law firm Gilbert + Tobin "when the clouds of insolvency were gathering on the horizon", Mr Maiden said.

Mr Maiden argued KordaMentha might be reluctant or uncomfortable to investigate whether Gilbert + Tobin received preferential payments, which would have to be repaid if Ten went into liquidation. All parties agreed that appointing Ferrier Hodgson to conduct the investigation would remove concerns about independence. The court also allowed KordaMentha to communicate with creditors by email where possible. The administrator told the court it would cost almost $12,000 to print the 70-page report for 1094 creditors. The postage alone for the first creditors' meeting cost about $1641, including priority stamps. Independence concerns Meanwhile, an affadavit filed by Mr Korda has revealed details about his appointment, and subsequent concerns raised about his firm's independence. For example, while KordaMentha had been working with Ten since February, the board's decision to appoint an administrator was made quite suddenly.

Mr Korda was contacted on the morning of Tuesday, June 13, the first business day after the Fort Street letters arrived, and flew to Sydney that day. After a board meeting on the morning of June 14, he quickly drafted a declaration of independence, relevant relationships and indemnities (DIRRI). However, within a few days, Melbourne-based liquidator Adrian Hunter complained to the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association (ARITA) that the DIRRI was insufficient. ARITA in turn shared its concerns with ASIC, which suggested KordaMentha revise the DIRRI. It did so on June 22 with a list revealing dates and details of 51 meetings KordaMentha held with Ten, including 11 meetings with directors. Mr Korda's affadavit of last week clarified KordaMentha staff visited Ten's offices just five times while the rest of the meetings were either teleconferences or conducted in Gilbert + Tobin's offices. Despite the updated DIRRI, ARITA referred KordaMentha to its Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) on July 3. KordaMentha formally responded to the concerns 10 days later, including requesting the court appoint Mr Gothard as independent investigator. It is unclear if the PCC investigation will continue now an independent investigator has been appointed. Adviser bonanza

Mr Korda's affadavit also reveals the extent of advisory work generated by Ten's financial troubles. The network itself hired six advisory firms (not including KordaMentha, which was hired by Gilbert + Tobin). These include: Moels & Co for advice on turnaround and distressed assets; Gilbert + Tobin for legal advice; Citi for financial advice; McKinsey & Co on a transformation plan; PricewaterhouseCoopers on tax and auditing; and Mark Clifton, a specialist from Herbert Smith Freehills on corporate distress. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank, which provided the $200 million loan facility due on December 23, has been advised by two legal firms, Allens Linklaters, and King & Wood Mallesons. CBA appointed PPB as receiver of that debt on July 1. Loading And the three shareholder guarantors also retained their own advisers. Ben Keeble and Jim McKnight from Fort Street advised both Mr Murdoch and Mr Gordon, while the latter also received advice from Mr Atanaskovic.
Poor weather and railway works have dragged Rio Tinto's forecasts downwards but analysts remain confident the mining giant will post a solid full year result.

In production update for the second quarter released on Tuesday, the mining giant lowered its expectations for iron ore shipments this year to about 330 million tonnes, down from its previous estimate of between 330 and 340 million tonnes.

Shipments from Australia are now expected at about 330 million metric tons in 2017. Credit:AP

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastian Jacques described the latest quarter as "a solid quarter for production" but added that iron ore shipments (down 6 per cent on the same quarter for 2016) were affected by rail maintenance work following poor weather earlier this year.

The update revealed a slight increase in Pilbara iron ore shipments compared with the first quarter of 2017 (up 1 per cent), an increase in Pilbara iron ore production compared with the first quarter (up 3 per cent), and a solid increase in bauxite production (up 14 per cent) compared with the first quarter of 2017.
One factor in why so many reforms have failed is that Australians have known little about the constitution, and even less about the proposal they are voting on. In a system based on compulsory voting, this ignorance provides fertile space for a "no" campaign. When people cannot distinguish between good arguments and a scare campaign, the response is usually to vote "no". For many, it is not even a matter of thinking about the issue, but of responding to the well-worn slogan: "Don't know, vote no."

At this point, most Australians know little about constitutional recognition. Where they have knowledge, it has been informed by years of work by the Recognise campaign, which has focused upon symbolic recognition and reforming the races power. Very few people have heard about an Indigenous advisory body, and many will, as a result, reject the idea.

This must inform the way forward. Aboriginal people have held a convention, and so too should the community at large. A constitutional convention representing all Australians will provide a platform to argue why an Indigenous advisory body is the right change. It will fill in the missing detail of the proposal and test whether it, or other ideas, should be put to the people.

Conventions have proven the most successful means of debating constitutional reform and building momentum towards a "yes" vote. The last time Australia held such a gathering was in 1998, on whether Australia should become a republic. It attracted enormous public interest and built the sort of awareness needed to hold a referendum.

Unfortunately, the design of that convention was flawed. Only half of the delegates were chosen by the people, with the other half being appointees.
A recent study suggests a surprising way to boost your creative powers: use "switch-tasking".

Jackson Lu and colleagues at Columbia University asked participants to complete tasks involving convergent thinking and divergent thinking. Some were instructed to work on one task during the first half of their allotted time and then switch to a second task. Others were told to alternate between tasks at preset intervals, and the third group were allowed to switch between tasks at their discretion. In both experiments, those who alternated between tasks at set intervals outperformed everyone else.

Switch-tasking means we deliberately alternate between problems, whereas when we multitask we fool ourselves into thinking we're doing several things at once. Credit:Getty Images

Yet when asked which approach they preferred, most said they would choose to switch between tasks at their own discretion, presumably because they feel it gives them maximum autonomy and flexibility. However, the researchers argue that few of us recognise when we're becoming cognitively "fixated"; when our thinking is becoming "stuck". The best way to overcome this rigidity, they suggest, is to switch between tasks at regular, preset intervals. Regular switching encourages us to look at a task from new angles when we return to it, making it easier to generate more fresh ideas.

Lu's findings are not without precedent. Steven Smith and colleagues at Texas A&M University asked participants to list as many examples as possible of two different categories. Participants who were instructed to switch regularly between the two categories generated more solutions than those who completed one category listing and then switched to the second.
The former senator Scott Ludlam has had some bad luck. He found out he was a New Zealander. Boom, boom.

Things have moved beyond a joke since Friday when Mr Ludlam resigned immediately after discovering he was a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand and so, ineligible to stand for Parliament, let alone sit in it. Now the Greens' other co-deputy, Larissa Waters, has gone the same way with the realisation that she is a dual citizen of Canada despite having left there as an 11-month-old.

Former Greens senator Scott Ludlam has resigned after discovering he held dual citizenship. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"This was my error, something I should have checked when I nominated for pre-selection in 2006," Mr Ludlam said in a statement in which he apologised "unreservedly". Ms Waters, too, took full responsibility and apologised for her "grave mistake and oversight".

We could say mistakes of such magnitude are an insult to voters. The two senators have failed to uphold the exemplary standards we expect of our elected representatives and should pay back every cent they've earned from Parliament, where Mr Ludlam has served since 2008 and Ms Waters since 2011. But who among us is faultless when it comes to managing personal paperwork? To be sure, the flippant manner in which Mr Ludlam announced his resignation on Twitter  "hey everyone, i'm sorry about this, but it's a thing"  did not endear him to critics, even if it was accompanied by a rueful explanation and mea culpa. Ms Waters learnt the lesson and handled her resignation with appropriate gravitas.
Norway has a generous humanitarian intake, free university, an overflowing sovereign wealth fund from careful use of natural resources, high taxation, terrific infrastructure, good economic growth, and always wins the global quality of life index. Their population growth over decades has varied from 0.3 per cent to 1.3 per cent and hovers around 1 per cent, as do all the Scandinavian countries  a doubling time of 70 years. Ours has sat between 2 and 2.5 per cent  the latter giving us a doubling time of about 28 years. Without change, we'll need two WestConnex more after the next generation, four more for the following and eight more for the one after. What a pity Norway hasn't got our beautiful climate. Dave Goldberg Wrights Beach Jessica Irvine ignores the exponential nature of growth and the impossibility of infinite growth in a finite world. At our current rate of population growth we are doubling every 50 years or so.

As we have grown to almost 25 million we have wrought huge environmental damage and future damage with this sort of growth would be devastating. Certainly, growth has been necessary to get Australia to a viable economic size, but all natural systems, such as animals or plants, grow to their mature size and then stop. So must it be with human populations. Of course we have all benefited from immigration and most of us are immigrants or descended from immigrants. We could, however, stabilise our population by reducing immigration to about 70,000, leaving room for further immigration, especially for refugees. It's well past time that our politicians and commentators looked to the future and discussed the implications of never-ending exponential growth. To ignore it is to pander to the rent-seekers, the destroyers and the unthinking who see no further ahead than the next opportunity for profit.



John Burke Wahroonga Clearly, Jessica Irvine lives in a different part of Australia to me. In the Australia where I now live, secure, full-time work is becoming the preserve of the few; wage growth is flat; casual pay rates are falling; high-rise, high-density living is increasing; an ethnic mono-culture is dominant; television viewing is short on diversity and long on cheap, mind-numbing "reality"; political direction is bereft of long-term policy and preoccupied with meaningless personality; daily commute experiences are tear-inducing; home ownership is largely out of reach. No, Jessica. You're probably too young but give me the 1974 living standards any time. The Big Australia you advocate is certainly not better than the alternative!



James Laukka Epping Truth the only thing filtered from emission stacks The recipients of the emissions from the nine-kilometre NorthConnex tunnel were assured that "world's best filtration" would be used ("North Shore stack plan", July 17). There will be none. There will be a stack at either end and emergency ventilation at two intermediate sites "in the unlikely event of an incident in the tunnel". It is claimed that 5000 trucks a day will be forced to use the tunnel by legislation. Best of luck to the schools and homes near the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link in getting a good outcome for the proposal in their area. Marcia Horvai Pennant Hills

The unprotected stack proposed for the railway yards at Rozelle will be located in a park where children play. They have not dared to disclose the location of others in Rozelle and Balmain. The filtering of emissions is absolutely essential if this project goes ahead. P.S. Don't put any money on "community consultation".



Rosalind Ward Balmain Why is the NSW Coalition government obsessed with toll roads? In today's Herald it is reported that 'a rail alternative has not been considered'. Road tunnels are expensive, risky and polluting. Imagine the quality of the air funnelled up into the surrounding neighbourhoods in Sydney. Many years ago we drove through the tunnel under Lyons; the air was blue, thick and choking. Now, in France and the rest of Europe, rail and light rail has made travel there fast, clean and comfortable. Why don't some of our globe-trotting politicians pop over to Europe and check the improvements in train services?



Nola Tucker Kiama Flippant Berejiklian Gladys' advice on how to avoid paying tolls on the M4 is "If people don't want to use a toll road they can use the existing roads" ("M4 to ease traffic", July 17). How simple is that. Assuming toll roads are vital to minimise traffic congestion and cut pollution, this suggestion seems to overlook the bigger picture and highlight the devil-may-care attitude of the Berejiklian government. Wendy Crew Lane Cove

Liberals must focus on policy, not victory Nick Greiner's advice to the Liberal Party is to "stop infighting, focus on winning" ("Disunity is death", July 17). May I suggest some better advice: "stop infighting, focus on developing better policy and delivering that policy in a time and cost-effective manner". The fact that political parties focus mainly on gaining or retaining power is the problem, not the solution. Greiner is no political cleanskin either. Just look at his role with Big Tobacco and their donations to the Liberal Party. That alone should preclude him from any role in Australian public service. Shameful. Evan Hern Newport Unlike Nick Greiner, I do not consider frank and rigorous ideological debate as disunity. In fact, it is essential for any political party, given the nature of the dialectic process. With the greatest of respect, Mr Greiner appears to have overlooked the real malady facing the Liberal Party (as with other parties), which is declining grass-roots membership. A party's broad membership base, and the consequential diversity of viewpoints that brings, will ensure that frank and rigorous ideological debate will strengthen rather than weaken a party. As for his call for the united focus on "good government" and "winning": govern and win with what policies? It is a party's policies which will distinguish a party from the others  in both senses of the word. This perspective is lost in any poll-driven, telescope view of the electorate landscape.



Pasquale Vartuli Wahroonga

And so we learn again that the Liberal Party in NSW is as fatuously factionalised and undemocratic in its organisation as the ALP. And like the ALP, it also has branch stackathons. So what's news then?

Frank Carleton Longwarry Vic Listen to public If three quarters of the Australian public support physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia, why are endless bills (15 in South Australia as recently as last year) being introduced and defeated ("A criminal act no longer", July 17)? If statistics show the public's position is clearly in the bill's favour, you have to ask who these politicians are actually representing. Elizabeth Kroon Randwick

Keep troops out

I am a returned vet of 20 years' service ("Army to be deployed in domestic terror attacks", July 17). I am totally against the military being used to back up our state's police operations. All military personnel are trained to kill people. They do not shoot to wound. The individual makes the decision to pull the trigger. Our police forces are more able to handle situations with "terrorists". It is not a very long step for the military to take over governments, and we have many examples of this happening around the world. Howard Campbell Springfield

Raining on rail Jacob Saulwick's article deals with issues of the dam/pond on Alison Road impacting the new light rail ("Pond is a dam nuisance for light rail", July 14). Having lived in Sydney's east for 40 years, I have often observed Anzac Parade partially underwater after torrential rain between Moore Park and Kensington. Has this issue also been addressed as to the impact on the light rail? Pulling out a bunch of old fig trees nearby might have only added to the problem. John Swanton Botany

Wake up, US Credit:AP Donald Trump's scorecard includes collusion with a hostile foreign government, obstruction of justice, serial lying, subject of literally hundreds of lawsuits, boorish behaviour in a position requiring a refined image, plus a raft of objectionable personal traits. What will it take to convince Americans that they have foolishly elected a morally bankrupt odious fraud as their president? With every day that passes, the damage he is doing to America's democratic institutions and its reputation becomes harder to undo. Act now, America.



Richard Keyes Enfield Austen endures Jane Austen has been claimed variously as the mother of "chick lit", the novelist whose plot gave rise to Colin Firth's appearance in a wet white shirt and the staid spinster whose novels benefit from an injection of supernatural elements (Letters, July 17). Her knowledge of both the bright and dark sides of human nature and her capacity to evoke character traits in a few well-chosen words only just begin to hint at what her writing continues to offer today. Pretty dresses and green countryside were part of her world, but an unflinching power of observation outlasts beauty any day. On Tuesday we observe her early death, but also celebrate what she left to everyone who cares to read what she wrote. No one has ever surpassed it.



Ruth Williamson Christchurch NZ

At the risk of earning eternal damnation from the Jane Austen Society of Australia, I must echo the words of Mark Twain who said, "Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book." Just the mention of her name is enough the bring back haunting memories of my 1975 HSC, struggling with this woman whose tortuous prose made as much sense as quantum physics. To impose Ms Austen on the adolescent male is a form of child abuse.



Grant Heaton Port Macquarie It is unbelievable that shore power will not be installed at White Bay simply because it is expensive. The 'user pays' system should apply I.e. paid by cruise ship companies and their customers. It seems that air quality is no longer an important issue. This is reinforced by another SMH revelation today 17/7/17 that smoke stacks for the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel & Beaches Link could be placed within reach of many, many schools. The latter potential problem is easily solved by making the "Link" for trains only.



Carole Burns Waverton Good lord, new Doctor creates a fuss Welcome to Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor ("It's a girl! New Doctor Who is born", smh.com.au, July 17). Though I hope we won't have to endure the line, "Lady Doctor? No, just The Doctor" too often!



Richard Murnane Hornsby Despite being both a Whovian and a feminist, I have always found the insistence that the Doctor should be played by a woman completely ridiculous. I see no necessity that the path to women having equal rights include random existing fictional characters changing gender. On the upside I am very much looking forward to Meryl Streep's new role as Rochester in the latest production of John Eyre.



Catherine Craddock Hornsby

Plastic blow-up I agree with the phasing out of plastic bags but balloons ("R.I.P. plastic bags", July 15)? Come on, Judy Hungerford  you may as well ban kids' parties also!



Phil Johnson Dee Why Multiple use plastic bags are still not bio-degradable. Why aren't the supermarkets going to offer paper bags at the checkout instead of plastic? US supermarkets are way ahead of us in this regard. And why not paper bags also in the fresh food sections of supermarkets? In my youth, plastic didn't exist. Fruit came in paper bags from the greengrocer. Meat from the butcher was wrapped in paper, as were ham and cheese from the delicatessen. And my mother sent me to school with my lunch wrapped in waxed paper. I'm not one generally to look back on the "good old days", but in this respect, maybe they were.



Barry Filshie Port Macquarie Crude and lewd Surely Trump's "compliment" was plain old bad manners, revealing the oaf for what he is, crude and lewd ("Bishop takes swipe at Trump's sexist remarks", July 17).
There's a lot we still don't know about last June's secret meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian lawyers and lobbyists. Indeed, the news seems to have raised more questions than it answered. What did Donald Trump know about the meeting involving his son, his son-in-law and his campaign manager? Were there follow-up discussions? Did the meeting trigger the release of hacked emails a week later? Does all this amount to collusion, conspiracy or even treason?

We may have to wait a long time for answers to these and other questions. But there is one thing that seems clearer now than before: if the Trump administration comes to an abrupt end, it will almost certainly be because he has turned his political career into a family affair.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

Blending politics and family is in no way unprecedented in the White House. Edith Wilson served as a presidential proxy after her husband Woodrow was incapacitated by a stroke in 1919. Robert Kennedy served as his brother's attorney-general (a controversial choice at the time). And of course, Hillary Clinton oversaw health care reform in the first year of her husband's presidency.

Trump's use of family is different, though. Rather than having a single talented family member in a clearly defined role, Trump has placed his family at the centre of his campaign and now his administration. In official and unofficial roles, his sons Don and Eric, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner have become his closest advisers. And in a political career as compromised as Trump's has been, that spells real danger.
The more than 2000 asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru should be "evacuated immediately" to Australia, according to Human Rights Law Centre legal advocacy director Daniel Webb.

Wednesday marks the fourth anniversary of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's announcement, alongside PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, of a refugee deal that would ensure "any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees".

Fumigation at the Manus Island detention centre, from the film Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time. Credit:Sydney Film Festival

At the time, Mr Rudd said the arrangement would be reviewed annually.

Since then, subsequent Coalition governments have looked to strike resettlement deals with third countries including Cambodia and the US to shift people in detention off the islands.
Experts are a little more reassured than they were before the announcement of the national security super-department , but the government has significant work ahead to persuade the nation that this will have real, practical benefits.

Will it make us safer? That's always the threshold question when governments make major announcements on national security.

First, the good news. From a rights protection point of view, the Attorney-General, as the nation's first law officer, will continue to sign ASIO warrants as before. There are some who fear this will become a hinderance for ASIO because it will, in effect, have to duplicate its reporting to two ministers, but ASIO should be able to cope.

Peter Dutton faces a major test in implementing the national security changes. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Oversight arrangements such as the operations and legislation watchdogs will move into the Attorney-General's Department, which should strengthen them.

But the major agencies will retain their independence and their legislated constraints by remaining statutory bodies, helping avoid the creation of all-powerful tsars.

The morphing of the Office of National Assessments into an Office of National Intelligence that is better resourced to co-ordinate and direct foreign intelligence-gathering rather than just analyse it has been widely welcomed.
MANITOWOC  A police officer using a stun gun to restrain a naked man accidentally set the man's chest hair and beard on fire Sunday, police said.

The 32-year-old naked man was standing in the street in Manitowoc Sunday evening, yelling that he wanted to harm people living nearby, police reported.

Officers suspected he was impaired by drugs and placed him in handcuffs, but the man struggled and refused to enter a squad car, according to police.

That's when one officer deployed a stun gun, striking a lighter in the man's hand. The lighter fluid and electricity combined to spark the fire in his beard and chest hair.

As officers extinguished the blaze, the man punched one of them in the face, police said.

Manitowoc is 40 miles southeast of Green Bay.
"I have lived my life thinking that as a baby I was naturalised to be Australian and only Australian, and my parents told me that I had until age 21 to actively seek Canadian citizenship. At 21, I chose not to seek dual citizenship, and I have never even visited Canada since leaving at 11 months old. Scott Ludlam (right) and Larissa Waters (left) served as co-deputies to Greens leader Richard Di Natale. Credit:Andrew Meares "However after Scott's shock discovery, I immediately sought legal advice, and was devastated to learn that because of 70-year-old Canadian laws I had been a dual citizen from birth, and that Canadian law changed a week after I was born and required me to have actively renounced Canadian citizenship. "I had not renounced since I was unaware that I was a dual citizen. The Greens have been rocked by a second resignation after Queensland Senator Larissa Waters quit upon realising she, too, was a dual national. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"Obviously this is something that I should have sought advice on when I first nominated for the Senate in 2007, and I take full responsibility for this grave mistake and oversight. I am deeply sorry for the impact that it will have. "I apologise wholeheartedly to all those who have supported me and helped me to become a representative for the wonderful people of Queensland over the last six years." Senator Waters became the second Greens senator in less than a week to step down because of the constitutional oversight, with Senator Ludlam stepping down on Friday after a decade in the red chamber, after discovering he was still a New Zealand citizen. Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was "gutted" by the announcement. "This is unprecedented and deeply disappointing  personally for Larissa, for her family and for the Greens federally and in Queensland," he said in a statement.

"The Parliament and the nation are worse off as a result of the resignation of two leaders of such integrity and ability as Larissa and Scott. "This is an innocent mistake, and Larissa has acted quickly and honestly to correct it. I commend her for that. She's paid a very high price for this error." Senator Di Natale said he had spoken to party convenors and committed to an urgent review of processes. "As our party grows, we need to strengthen our governance and internal processes including how we vet candidates to prevent this from happening again," he said. "...Let me say this to our Greens family  my colleagues, our members, supporters and voters: today's news is challenging, but we are a movement founded in our solidarity and our commitment to working together to deliver change and to offer people choice in how we live our lives and make the world a better place for coming generations."

Senator Waters said she will talk with her party, which has been thrown into chaos with the loss of two of its most experienced performers in a matter of days, about her future, but remains proud of her achievements, which include becoming the first woman to breastfeed in Federal Parliament and working to maintain key environmental protections. "It has been an honour to work with my Greens colleagues in the Parliament and in the Queensland party," she said. "They are the best of people and I am devastated to leave them. My focus now is on working with the party to ensure Queenslanders still have a strong Green voice in the Senate, and working with our state candidates, members and supporters to elect Greens into the Queensland State Parliament. "Despite my personal circumstances, I still have unshakeable hope for our common future on this planet. "Our movement is so much bigger than any one person, and we will win in the end. Farewell dear friends."

Senator Waters said while it was "my job to check", the Greens would review their selection processes. But she said it was "way bigger than one person". Mr Bartlett, who has served as the Queensland Greens Party Convenor for the past few years after losing his senate spot in 2007, is expected to be named the successor following a count back of votes. He was widely expected to join Senator Waters in the Senate in the lead up to the 2016 election, with the Greens having made strong inroads in Queensland over the past few years. Parliament has had some practice with section 44 resignations in the past few months, with One Nation's Rod Culleton and Family First Bob Day both losing their positions. "My immediate focus is on working with the many thousands of wonderful members and supporters of the Greens in Queensland to work through this situation so that we can continue to present an effective alternative to the establishment parties who fail our community and our environment so badly," he said.
Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed a dramatic shake-up of Australia's security, police and intelligence agencies that will put Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, in charge of a sprawling new Home Affairs security portfolio.

The department of Home Affairs will bring together domestic spy agency ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC and the office of transport security and will be put together over the next year.

And Mr Turnbull has also announced the government would, in response to the L'Estrange review of Australia's intelligence agencies, establish an Office of National Intelligence and that the Australian Signals Directorate will also be established as an independent statutory authority.
Are Prince George and Princess Charlotte getting a sibling?

When Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, was gifted some soft toys that soothe newborn babies at a reception in Warsaw, Poland, during their royal tour yesterday, she turned to her husband, Prince William, and laughed: "We will just have to have more babies."

It looked as if the pair, both 35, were enjoying an in-joke, but the off-the-cuff comment will do nothing to dampen incessant British tabloid headlines such as, "Kate is expecting baby no. 3".

While British bookmakers are believed to have slashed their odds for the announcement of another baby Cambridge.
Like many Australians, Ivy Huang is just not that into her super.

"It's definitely a low priority when it comes to my attention," Huang says.

Ivy Huang, 29, admits her super is a low priority. Credit:Daniel Pockett

"Superannuation is one of those set-and-forget things. You only get reminded of it when you get sent a letter and if the performance is better than my savings account that's enough, even if the returns aren't exactly blowing my mind."

The 29-year-old Australia Post worker from Melbourne has her super in Westpac-owned BT Super. She has been with BT Super for 10 years after switching to it when she started her "first real job with an oil company". It was the default fund of the oil company.
A critically drug-resistant strain of gonorrhoea dubbed a "super-superbug" has been detected in every Australian state and territory by a new national surveillance system.

The National Alert System for Critical Antimicrobial Resistance (CARAlert) identified 1,064 bacteria highly resistant to last-line antibiotics between 17 March 2016 and 31 March 2017 across 73 laboratories.

"These are super-superbugs," said Professor John Turnidge senior medical advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which oversees CARAlert.

"They're the bugs we can't afford to let get out of hand," he said.
Killer Anthony Dent's boast in 2016 of being a violent man who couldn't be dominated has come back to haunt him.

The three-time murderer savagely beat Anthony O'Grady on March 25, 2014 and left him to die at Wickham Park before sending a text message to a woman saying: "I'm feeling so good I might belt another maggot as its addictive feeling like this".

Murderer: Anthony Dent, whose appeal against his conviction for killing a man at Wickham Park in 2014 failed. Credit:NSW Police

But a NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday rejected Dent's appeal against his conviction, and the boasts before a jury at his 2016 Newcastle trial were brought up against him.

Dent, 56, argued he was convicted and sentenced to jail for 42 years after a miscarriage of justice during the trial, linked to how the Crown described one of his co-accused.
Charlie Sharobeem, the son of disgraced Australian of the Year finalist Eman Sharobeem, has been given a 10-month suspended jail sentence for high-range drink driving.

The 29-year-old Mr Sharobeem, of Abbotsbury, was caught driving a grey Mercedes B180 on the M2 in North Rocks in January with an alcohol level of 0.16.

Charlie Sharobeem has been given a 10-month suspended jail sentence. Credit:AAP

He was convicted in Parramatta Court on Tuesday and given a 10-month good behaviour bond after his jail term was suspended. His licence was also suspended for nine months.

He was ordered to undergo Community Corrections Service supervision for as long as considered necessary "and obey all reasonable directions for counselling, educational development or drug and alcohol rehabiliation."
For Georgi York, the NSW government's plans to erect a smokestack near her children's school has made her worry about the impact of increased air pollution on their developing bodies.

"I believe if [NSW Premier] Gladys had young children going to this school, she would look at other options," said Ms York, mother of Anzac Park Public students Ellie, aged 10, Zac, 8, and Phoenix, 6.

"They're so young and still developing in every way, mentally and physically, and I'm worried about the increased air pollution."

Doctors say parents and nearby residents have every right to be concerned about the pollutants that may spew out of the proposed six exhaust ventilation stacks required for the Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link tollway, especially ones less than 200 metres from schools.
Carrying flowers of her favourite colour, hundreds of mourners descended on Sydney's Freshwater Beach in memory of US shooting victim Justine Damond.

The silent vigil for the 40-year-old, remembered as a "bright, intelligent and infectious" woman, began just before sunrise on Wednesday.

It came just days after Ms Damond, who grew up on the northern beaches, was shot dead by police responding to her 911 call about a disturbance near her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday night, local time.

Her death has sent shockwaves of grief and disbelief throughout the community of Fulton, where she lived with her fiance Don Damond and stepson Zach Damond.
A search is underway in bushland north-west of Sydney for a newborn baby suspected of being murdered up to a decade ago.

The NSW Homicide Squad received information earlier this year that the baby was murdered not long after being born in late 2007 or 2008.

It is understood the baby's mother was in her late teens when she gave birth.

The infant wasn't alive for long, possibly only a matter of days, before police believe it was killed and buried on a rural property on the north-western fringes of Sydney.
The leader of a nonprofit group that encourages people to challenge the political establishment has filed paperwork to set up a run for governor  as a Democrat.

Mike McCabe filed paperwork with state election officials Monday to establish a campaign committee.

The move allows him to begin raising money. McCabe told the Associated Press he expects to announce hell run as a Democrat in September. He had been considering running as an independent.

McCabe leads the nonpartisan group Blue Jean Nation, which promotes itself as working to promote change in government.

Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik announced earlier this month he will run for governor as a Democrat. A number of other Democrats, including state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, are pondering a run.

Other potential candidates include Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma; Reps. Dana Wachs, D-Eau Claire, and Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh; Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ; Madison mayor Paul Soglin; and former Democratic Party chairman Matt Flynn. Political unknowns Bob Harlow, of Barneveld, and Ramona Whiteaker, of Stoughton, join Gronik as the other formally declared Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

Rick Adamski, a farmer from Shawano County, is the treasurer of Commoners for Mike McCabe.

Before launching Blue Jean Nation, McCabe was executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which monitors campaign contributions. He was with the group from 2000 to 2015.

McCabe had also worked for the Madison School District, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance and three Republican senators. He ran for Assembly in 1998 as a Democrat, but lost in the primary.

His book Blue Jeans in High Places is about the influence of money in politics, and he has toured the state to promote it.

He had said he was considering the run in response to a letter from 190 Wisconsin residents, including Adamski, urging him to do so.

Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, has indicated he will announce a run for a third term after the state budget process wraps up. The budget for 2017-19 was due July 1.

A state Republican Party spokesman called McCabe a phony.
Labor and the LNP challenged each other on their records on Tuesday night to round off the first day of estimates hearings for 2017.

Opposition Employment spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said unemployment had risen in some regions, more people had given up work and decried the influence of the unions.

Opposition Employment spokesman Jarrod Bleijie has criticised Labor's efforts on employment. Credit:Chris Hyde

"It's not a very good record, is it?" Mr Bleijie said.

But Employment Minister Grace Grace said job growth was stronger under the Labor government than it "ever was under yours".
A family dog has been seized after biting a young girl on the face west of Brisbane, leaving her hospitalised with serious injuries.

Ipswich City Council workers seized the staffy cross-breed, believed to belong to the Ipswich family, on Tuesday morning.

The girl was rushed to the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital. Credit:Michelle Smith

The girl, described as younger than school age, was rushed to the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital with serious facial injuries after the reported bite about 7.45am on Tuesday, according to paramedics.

Police reported the attack to the council a little less than an hour later, according to Health, Security and Regulatory Services spokeswoman Cr Sheila Ireland said in a statement.
A 20-year-old man is in hospital after he was kneecapped and shot in the stomach, apparently with two different guns, outside his Toowoomba home.

Police are hunting two men who drove off after seemingly trying to drag the man into their car, then shooting him, about 1am on Wednesday.

Police are investigating the scene of a shooting in Toowoomba. Credit:Nine News / Twitter

Toowoomba police Detective Inspector David Isherwood said the victim had been living at the home on Curzon Street, Rangeville, temporarily and knew the men.

"It would appear that they were trying to drag him to the car prior to the shooting incident," he said.
The turnover of staff in electorate offices of Queensland MPs is about 30 per cent every year.

Speaking on the first day of budget estimates hearings, Parliament clerk Neil Laurie said there was a turnover of 30 per cent of electorate officers annually.

MP Jo-Ann Miller said the staff turnover rate indicated something was "seriously wrong". Credit:Chris Hyde

Labor member for Bundamba Jo-Ann Miller described it as "extraordinary".

"It's about the wellbeing of our electorate officers," she said.
The much-ridiculed augmented-reality goggles from Google, once known as Google Glass, are back after two years of relative silence.

On Tuesday, Google's parent company Alphabet reintroduced the device to the world, and said it is now called simply "Glass" and is under its experimental "X" department.

The new Glass is designed for productivity.

Google stopped a retail test of Google Glass in 2015, effectively ending its early ambitions to make it a consumer device. Google Glass faced major criticisms, including concerns about the device's camera making it easy to encroach on others' privacy, as well as the simple fact that the glasses looked unfashionable. The device's high price tag  $US1,500 ($1,893) for the retail edition  was also a major impediment.

But even then, analysts said that the device had potential for use in businesses as a tool for training, or to make information more accessible away from one's desk.
Two drivers tried to run down a pair of police officers on the Monash Freeway on Saturday, with one officer narrowly escaping with his life.

The hoons made multiple passes the pair before racing away, one heading up the wrong side of the Monash. Police are appealing for public assistance to track them down.

An image of a car similar to one that chased the officers. Credit:Victoria Police / Supplied

About 1.20am on Saturday July 15, officers in an unmarked patrol car spotted a pair of vehicles - a 1990s model white Honda Civic hatch and a 1990s model red Honda Civic sedan with a distinctive black bonnet  performing illegal U-turns on Wellington Road in Rowville.

Both cars had stolen number plates, so the officers decided to follow them onto the Monash Freeway. Roadworks on the freeway forced the cars to a standstill, allowing the officers to intercept.
The court heard Davsanoglu, from Lalor, had a minor, self-inflicted wound to his wrist which a forensic medical officer treated before he appeared in court.

Emergency services found Ozlem Karakoc's body at the newly-purchased house on Edgars Road, Lalor, about 1am on Tuesday.

Forensic officers at a home on Edgars Road where a woman's body was found in Lalor. Credit:TRACEY NEARMY

Murat Davsanoglu, 42, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday evening.

A man has fronted a Melbourne court charged with the murder of a Dandenong woman found dead inside a northern suburban home.

Dandenong mother Ozlem Karakoc was found dead inside a house in Lalor.

Davsanoglu was dressed in a black t-shirt and black pants and had a bandage around his left wrist.

When asked by Magistrate Robert Kumar if he understood he was being charged with murder, Davsanoglu said"yes".

Police issued an appeal for information on the Ms Karakoc's whereabouts on Monday.

Police said they were concerned because she had a health condition that required medication and they believed she could be with her partner, who was also missing and suffered from a health condition.
The families of two police officers murdered in cold blood say the time has come to say "enough is enough", after questions were again raised about the conviction of one of the killers.

The police union echoed the calls about Jason Roberts' conviction, saying the speculation would cause "pain and trauma" to the force.

Jason Roberts is led into court in December 2002. Credit:Joe Armao

Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller were gunned down in 1998 after intercepting a car in Moorabbin.

Roberts and Bandali Debs were convicted of murdering the police officers.
Star Fremantle midfielder Nat Fyfe has set his sights on becoming a long-term captain at the club after re-signing for a further six years.

Fyfe ended months of free agency speculation on Monday by re-signing with Fremantle until the end of 2023.

Nat Fyfe just resigned to the Dockers for the next six years. Credit:Getty Images

The 25-year-old is in his first year as captain at Fremantle, where each season, the playing group votes on who they want to be captain.

Matthew Pavlich was skipper for nine consecutive seasons under that format.
Arson Squad detectives have charged a second person over a factory fire in Welshpool in March 2017 that caused damage estimated at around $10 million dollars..

At around 10.25pm on March 14, emergency services were called to the warehouse on Pilbara Street.

The fire took nearly three hours to put out. Credit:9 News Perth

Around 60 firefighters attended the scene, and it took nearly three hours until the building was declared safe.

An assessment of the building found the blaze had caused extensive structural damage, and the damage bill was estimated at around $9 million.
State Senate Republicans have announced a plan to end the 18-day standoff over the states overdue budget, but its not clear if the proposal will satisfy Assembly Republicans, who have starkly different views on how to pay for roads.

The 2017-19 state spending plan released Tuesday provides the most detailed look at where Senate Republicans stand on unresolved areas of the budget, such as taxes and funding for schools, roads and bridges.

The plan would have the state take on more than $700 million in new borrowing to fund road and bridge projects. It would repeal the states prevailing, or minimum, wage requirement for workers on public construction projects.

The plan would make more families eligible for the private school voucher program outside Milwaukee and Racine. It proposes repealing the state personal property tax but abandons Gov. Scott Walkers plan for an income tax cut.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said the proposal puts the onus back on Assembly Republicans in budget talks. Fitzgerald, Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, are set to meet Wednesday.

While Tuesdays proposal is intended to restart budget discussions, Fitzgerald acknowledged, even as he unveiled it, that hes not sure if the Senate could pass the measure as-is.

Im not going to make that prediction that I have the votes right now, Fitzgerald said.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said the Senate plan contained few new proposals, but a wide gap remains on transportation funding, the main issue holding up the budgets passage. Still, Assembly GOP leaders said the plans arrival is good news.

Its good to see Senate Republicans have solidified their positions and are ready to come back to the table, Assembly Republican leaders, including Vos, said in a statement.

Walkers spokesman Tom Evenson also tweeted Tuesday that the governor welcomes the initiative by the state Senate to move the process forward while keeping his priorities largely intact on K-12 education funding, property tax relief, and transportation. The governor will continue to champion income tax relief.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, blamed Walker for the budget delay. He said past governors have stepped up to resolve budget disagreements, but Walker so far has failed to do so.

This is the fault of the governor, Erpenbach said. He needs to come back to Madison and do his job.

Lawmakers and Walker already missed a July 1 deadline to enact the next two-year state budget. The previous budget continues into the new fiscal year until a new one is enacted.

K-12 education

The budget proposal includes K-12 school proposals that have largely been negotiated with Assembly Republican leaders, including increasing the number of families eligible for a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend a private school, Fitzgerald said.

Families who earn 220 percent of the federal poverty level will now be eligible to receive a school voucher to attend a school participating in the statewide voucher program. Currently, the income limit is set at 185 percent.

That means a family of four with a combined income of $53,826 would be eligible to receive a voucher. Previously, Senate Republicans had opposed a push to increase the income limits to 300 percent of the federal poverty limit  which would match the limits for families in the separate Milwaukee and Racine voucher programs.

Assembly Republicans said they are committed to increasing the limit to 300 percent despite Fitzgeralds promise the position in his budget proposal was backed by the Assembly GOP caucus.

The budget also eliminates Walkers proposal to require school districts to force employees to pay at least 12 percent of health care costs to receive a proposed funding increase in Walkers budget. Instead, districts would be required to report employee benefit and salary information to the Department of Administration, whose officials would report that information to the budget-writing committee.

School districts ability to ask residents to raise their property taxes to fund school projects would be limited under the budget proposal, too. Districts would be allowed to seek a referendum twice a year during regularly scheduled elections only, instead of being allowed to call a special election to ask voters to raise taxes.

The Senate Republican plan also nearly eliminates Walkers proposed $20 million increase in aid for rural schools, and increases the amount of money school districts that spend less on each student than the state average can raise in property taxes.

The budget also decreases funding for summer school programs in the Milwaukee School District from the amount Walker proposed in his budget. Funding for grants districts could apply for to implement mental health programs also would increase from what Walker proposed, under the Senate Republicans budget.

Transportation relies

on borrowing

On transportation funding  where the gap between Assembly and Senate GOP leaders appears greatest  Fitzgerald said his plan would avoid delays to major highway projects, in part with $712 million in new borrowing.

Assembly Republicans have said they wont support new road borrowing without a plan to pay for it. Senate Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker have resisted proposals to provide more revenue for roads and bridges.

The Senate GOP plan uses most of its extra borrowing to fund massive freeway projects in southeast Wisconsin, including on U.S. Interstate 94 near Milwaukee. It also would repeal the prevailing wage requirement for state-funded projects, as Walker proposed. Two years ago, Walker and lawmakers repealed prevailing wage for projects funded by local governments.

The Senate plan would eliminate 200 state Department of Transportation staff positions and end DOT studies of possible future highway expansions, including one for the Madison Beltline.

Fitzgerald said the plan does not move the state closer to collecting highway tolls, a step state leaders had weighed heavily in recent months.

Tax cuts on personal property, not on income

The Senate plan includes several key tax changes, including eliminating the states personal property tax and alternative minimum tax.

It excludes Walkers proposal for a state income tax cut, which would cut the tax rates of the two bottom income brackets.

Another Walker proposal that doesnt make the Senate plan is a sales tax holiday for two days in August for school supplies, which would cost the state about $22 million in revenue.
A shark warning has been issued after a whale carcass was spotted at a beach in Western Australia's south, but it is unknown when the animal will be removed.

The whale carcass was found on Monday afternoon at Boranup Beach, about three kilometres north of the Hamelin Bay boat ramp, in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.

The shark spotted off Fremantle port was estimated to be around five metres long. Credit:Terra Australis

"It is possible the decomposing carcass will act as an attractant that could lead to sharks coming close into shore along this stretch of coast," authorities warn.

Just a week before a shark warning was issued for waters off Fremantle after a whale carcass washed up against the North Mole.
The daughter of slain Perth brothel madam Shirley Finn is pleading for public help after Legal Aid refused to fund her representation at the long-awaited inquest into her mother's murder more than 40 years ago.

Bridget Shewring has set up a Go Fund Me page to raise $70,000 in anticipated legal fees for the inquest into the 1975 gangland-style murder of her mother, when she was aged 13.

Shirley Finn was found shot dead in her car in 1975. Credit:Facebook

WA Legal Aid confirmed that it does not usually give legal assistance to people appearing at inquests.

Rumours have swirled about the case, with an investigator at the time of the murder linked to notorious NSW corrupt cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson.
Jakarta: When terrorism analyst Nava Nuraniyah monitored the encrypted chat groups of Islamic State sympathisers on the Telegram app she uncovered something surprising: they were more likely to gossip than plot terror attacks.

On Friday, Indonesia asked internet companies to block web versions of Telegram - which has been dubbed "the app of choice" for Islamic State members and supporters - and threatened to impose a total ban on the messaging app.

Indonesian maids in Hong Kong who developed ties with Indonesian jihadists via social media including Telegram.

But Ms Nuraniyah from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, says online forums provide a goldmine of information, so it is in the interests of counter-terrorism agencies to monitor rather than ban them.

Between 2015 and 2016, Ms Nuraniyah had access to the encrypted chats of two groups of Islamic State sympathisers in Indonesia on Telegram - one all-male and one all-female - and found both mainly discussed mundane personal matters.
Protesters in St Anthony, Minnesota, in June after the verdict in the Philando Castile case. Credit:Star Tribune/AP He was pulled over because a cop thought he was the suspect in a convenience story robbery  he wasn't. By all accounts a much-loved school cafeteria worker, Castile was going for his wallet. The cop though he was going for a gun and fired  he was acquitted on second-degree manslaughter charges. Police bodycam and dashboard cam video is the new porn of the digital age. It's often great footage to sex up a TV news bulletin, but as police departments around the country go live, a slew of civil rights challenges has emerged. Justine Damond was troubled by the culture of violence in the US, said her friend Letta Page. Credit:Stephen Govel On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union weighed in on the Damond killing, demanding that Minneapolis police policies be changed to make failing to activate their cameras a punishable offence.

Repeated studies support the efficacy of police body cameras  for police and for the people with whom they come into contact. Don Damond is comforted by his son Zach Damond following the death of his fiancee Justine. Credit:Star Tribune/AP A Cambridge University study of cops and cameras in Britain and California, which found that cameras had reduced complaints against police by 93 per cent, argued that awareness of the cameras took the heat out of potentially volatile encounters  and described their advent as a "profound sea change in modern policing". The study also found what it called "contagious accountability"  the falloff in complaints applied almost equally to officers with and without cameras. Police officer Mohamed Noor has declined to make a statement about the shooting.

A 2015 study of more than 1000 shifts by 54 cops in Rialto, California, revealed a dramatic decline in use-of-force incidents and in complaints of police misconduct when they wore body cameras. Before the introduction of cameras, the small force would chalk up more than 60 use-of-force incidents a year and more than 20 complaints against officers. But in the year with cameras, there were only 25 such incidents and the number of complaints fell away to just three. And a University of South Florida study found that in Orlando, use-of-force incidents dropped 53 per cent and complaints against cops were down 65 per cent when they wore cameras in the 12 months to February 2015. The studies trace the impact of a campaign for police departments across the US to make body cameras mandatory, spurred by a 2014 decision by US president Barack Obama to allocate $US75 million to cover the cost of the technology after a series of widely reported police killings and other misconduct. But if there's a feelgood factor in such study reports, police departments are still coming to terms with digital-age challenges that are more complex than a beat cop finding the on/off switch.

With six officers wearing cameras at the scene, the police shooting of 19-year-old Mary Hawkes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2014, might have been open and shut but none of them provided useful video in a case that turned on whether an officer killed the teen as she pulled a gun on him, or as she was running away. His camera was not recording as he fired five bullets  he complained that a wire connecting it to a power pack had come adrift, but this was alleged to be one of more than 200 instances in which he had not activated his camera. Officers 2, 3 and 4 arrived too late for the critical moments of the encounter; and cameras worn by Officers 4 and 5 showed nothing. The plot thickened late in 2016, when a former custodian of public records in the Albuquerque Police Department swore an affidavit in which he said it was routine for members of the force to invoke "political calculations" to justify deleting or altering video records or refusing to release the footage. In the Hawkes case, the custodian said that three of the videos appeared to have been tampered with. And that's not an isolated case  a study by the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found that dozens of big-city police departments did not have adequate policies to ensure that video evidence was treated as a public resource rather than a tool for the police. Albuquerque was singled out as the worst offender. Battles have erupted in several cities over public access to body-camera video after police shootings. In January, a judge in North Carolina ordered the release of footage of the killing of an 18-year-old man despite police protests and in the same state, the family of a 15-year-old boy allegedly set upon by cops has had to fight for the release of the footage from police body cameras.
Justine Damond, 40, originally from Sydney's northern beaches, was killed on Saturday. Credit:Stephen Govel Witnesses at the scene Saturday night said that the officer who fired his gun appeared to be Somali, activist Omar Jamalsaid, so he and others in the community began contacting all the Somalis in the department. They knew the shooting took place in the fifth precinct, where Noor is the only Somali officer. "We came to know that, 'oh gosh, that's him,'" Jamal said. "Then the word spread fast." Don Damond is comforted by his son Zach Damond following the death of his fiancee Justine. Credit:Star Tribune/AP The report stoked fear among Twin City Somalis, who have worked for decades to become part of the city's fabric. There are now Somalis on the police force, the city council and in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But the largely Muslim population of Somali Americans in the Twin Cities region still face Islamophobia and innuendo about terrorism.

"They fear this will be just another event used to create animosity toward the Somali community," Mohamud Noor, executive director at the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, told The Post. Already, hateful posts criticising Islam and sharia law are filling social media in response to the police shooting. Several far-right blogs featured sensational headlines that blamed the officer's ethnicity, not his training, for the deadly use of force. Other Somali officers in the police department are "nervous," Jamal said. "They're not talking at all," he said. "You can feel the pressure, because you know, the difference now is 'one of you guys did it.' "The fact that the police involved in the shooting is Somali makes it a different matter," he said.

Mohamud Noor, who is not related to the officer, is also a city council candidate. He and others in the Somali community have protested other police shootings in the Twin Cities region along with Black Lives Matter, but this one "changes the narrative," he said. Usually, they are protesting the death of black men at the hands of police, he said. Now it is a white woman reportedly shot by a black officer. He hopes the conversation will focus on police reform, not racial stereotypes. "This is the time to bring people together," he said. "We have so many questions. What happened? Why were the body cameras off?" According to authorities, there is no known video or audio footage of the shooting, which occurred after Damond called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home late Saturday night. Local media said she approached the police car responding to that call in her pajamas and was shot through the driver's side door by the officer in the passenger seat of the cruiser, as previously reported by The Post.

The two officers involved did not turn on their body cameras, authorities said. The police car's dash camera did not capture the incident, either. Officer Noor joined the force in 2015 and completed his field training just over a year ago, according to a May 2016 city bulletin welcoming him to the fifth precinct. The officer graduated from Augsburg College, a Lutheran school in Minneapolis, with a degree in economics and business administration, according to the posting. He worked in real estate in Minneapolis and St Louis before becoming an officer. Noor has had two complaints filed against him during his brief tenure with the police department, reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Two remain open and a third was closed without discipline, according to the newspaper. But in the wake of Monday's news tying him to Damond's death, Somali community members said he was a role model who brought enthusiasm to the job. "As you can imagine, when immigrants join the police they feel like they are part of the larger community," Jamal said. "This is our community, we serve and protect."
Jakarta: The scandal-prone speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives, Setya Novanto, could face years in jail after he was named a suspect by the nation's powerful Corruption Eradication Commission.

Mr Novanto was reappointed as speaker last November despite accusations he had tried to extort $US1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in shares from the local subsidiary of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan in exchange for lobbying to extend its contract at a copper and gold mine in Papua.

Donald Trump introduces Setya Novanto, Speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives, at a news conference at Trump Tower in September 2015. Credit:AP

He denied the allegations, the constitutional court ruled in his favour and he was cleared by parliament's ethics panel.

But on Monday the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Mr Novanto as a suspect over his role in the alleged embezzlement of $US173 million from the budget of a national electronic ID card program known as e-KTP.
Bangkok: Thailand's military government has given the country's new king full control over what is reputed to be the world's richest royal fortune, estimated at more than $US30 billion ($38 billion).

King Maha Vajiralongkorn now has authority to manage the Crown Property Bureau, a unique and little-known institution that controls a vast portfolio of properties and investments, as he sees fit.

Thailand's parliament, which is stacked with military appointees after a 2014 coup, last week rubber-stamped with little publicity the first amendments to the Crown Property Act in 69 years.

The exact size of the fortune has not been made public in the country, where draconian lese-majeste laws shield the monarchy from scrutiny.
Donald Trump's 'America First' approach is turning it into 'America Alone' according to the authors of the latest soft power index, a measure of the ability of countries to get their way through persuasion rather than force.

And France is the world's new 'soft superpower', to a large degree due to the impact of its new president Emmanuel Macron.

Emmanuel Macron and France have displaced the US at the top of the soft power index. Credit:Getty Images

British political consultancy Portland has released its third annual Soft Power Index, a meticulously calculated ranking of global soft power.

Australia, which ranked sixth in the last two indexes, fell to eighth this year. Though our overall soft power score has improved, we were out-performed by Japan and Switzerland.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Sunday, July 16, 2017, GEBE encountered some challenges which forced the company to enact safety measures. A fuel line on engine 18 ruptured causing the engine hall to be flooded with fuel. For the safety of the employees as well as the units and to avoid serious harm the emergency shutdown protocol was enacted. Engine 20 was forced to pick up some of the load which caused overheating. The engine automatically shut down throwing the island in an island wide black out. The employees worked diligently on restoring electricity as it took two and half hours to get the island up and running again.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The St. Maarten Lions has closed of 2016-2017 by winning Club of the Year Award for Region 2 from Immediate Past District Governor Lion Errol Lee. The club previously won Club of the Quarter over the months July thru September 2016. Sub-District 60b comprises of four regions and Region 2 comprises of 15 clubs spread over the islands of USVI, BVI, Saba, St. Eustatius, Anguilla, St. Kitts & Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Dominica, and St. Maarten.

St. Maarten Lions Club Immediate Past President Lion Davey Woods stated, I am extremely happy and grateful that the District Governor has recognized the hard work that the Board and members of the St. Maarten Lions Club have put in over 2016-2017 for the St. Maarten community. Our membership has worked hard and deserves the recognition in being named Club of the Year. I have to also thank the St. Maarten business community and the public in general for always supporting our various projects whenever we approach them and we urge them to continue supporting us so that we can continue to do great community work. We definitely could not serve our community without them.

The Board of the St. Maarten Lions Club also recently awarded immediate past president Lion Davey Woods with a Melvin Jones Fellowship Award for his hard work in Lionism over the years since he has joined the club in 2008. Lions Clubs worldwide recognize outstanding individuals by bestowing on them an award that is named for its founder, Melvin Jones. This award is the highest form of recognition and embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the nature and purpose of Lionism. As of January 2016, there are 386,804 Melvin Jones Fellow recipients around the world.

Lions Clubs International (LCI) is an international secular, non-political service organization founded by Melvin Jones in 1917. As of April 2017, it had over 47,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members in over 200 countries around the world. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States, the organization aims to meet the needs of communities on a local and global scale. The organization just recently celebrated its 100th year with a grand celebration at their International Convention which was held in Chicago June 29th  July 4th. The St. Maarten Lions Club has been a member of Lions Club International since December 12th. 1970.
Your speech may, um, help reveal if youre, uh, developing thinking problems. More pauses, filler words and other verbal changes might be an early sign of mental decline, which can lead to Alzheimers disease, a study suggests.

Researchers had people describe a picture they were shown in taped sessions two years apart. Those with early-stage mild cognitive impairment slid much faster on certain verbal skills than those who didnt develop thinking problems.

What weve discovered here is there are aspects of language that are affected earlier than we thought, before or at the same time that memory problems emerge, said one study leader, Sterling Johnson of UW-Madison.

This was the largest study ever done of speech analysis for this purpose, and if more testing confirms its value, it might offer a simple, cheap way to help screen people for very early signs of mental decline.

Dont panic: Lots of people say um and have trouble quickly recalling names as they age, and that doesnt mean trouble is on the way.

In normal aging, its something that may come back to you later and its not going to disrupt the whole conversation, another study leader, Kimberly Mueller, explained. The difference here is, it is more frequent in a short period, interferes with communication and gets worse over time.

The study was discussed Monday at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in London.

About 47 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimers is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5.5 million people have the disease. Current drugs cant slow or reverse it, just ease symptoms. Doctors think treatment might need to start sooner to do any good, so theres a push to find early signs.

Mild cognitive impairment causes changes that are noticeable to the person or others, but not enough to interfere with daily life. It doesnt mean these folks will develop Alzheimers, but many do  15 percent to 20 percent per year.

To see if speech analysis can find early signs, researchers first did the picture-description test on 400 people without cognitive problems and saw no change over time in verbal skills. Next, they tested 264 participants in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimers Prevention, a long-running study of people in their 50s and 60s, most of whom have a parent with Alzheimers and might be at higher risk for the disease themselves. Of those, 64 already had signs of early decline or developed it over the next two years, according to other neurological tests they took.

In the second round of tests, they declined faster on content (ideas they expressed) and fluency (the flow of speech and how many pauses and filler words they used). They used more pronouns such as it or they instead of specific names for things, spoke in shorter sentences and took longer to convey what they had to say.

Those are all indicators of struggling with that computational load that the brain has to conduct and supports the role of this test to detect decline, said Julie Liss, a speech expert at Arizona State University with no role in the work.

Liss helped lead a study in 2015 that analyzed dozens of press conferences by former President Ronald Reagan and found evidence of speech changes more than a decade before he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. She also co-founded a company that analyzes speech for many neurological problems, including dementia, traumatic brain injury and Parkinsons disease.

Researchers could not estimate the cost of testing for a single patient, but for a doctor to offer it requires only a digital recorder and a computer program or app to analyze results.

Alan Sweet, 72, a retired State of Wisconsin worker who lives in Madison, is taking part in the study and had the speech test earlier this month. His father had Alzheimers and his mother had a different type of dementia, Lewy body.

Watching my parents decline into the awful world of dementia and being responsible for their medical care was the best and worst experience of my life, he said. I want to help the researchers learn, furthering medical knowledge of treatment and ultimately, cure.

Participants dont get individual results  it just aids science.

Another study at the conference on Monday, led by doctoral student Taylor Fields, hints that hearing loss may be another clue to possible mental decline. It involved 783 people from the same Wisconsin registry project. Those who said at the start of the study that they had been diagnosed with hearing loss were more than twice as likely to develop mild cognitive impairment over the next five years as those who did not start out with a hearing problem.

That sort of information is not strong evidence, but it fits with earlier work along those lines.

Family doctors can do a lot to help us if they knew what to look for to catch early signs of decline, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimers Associations chief science officer. Hearing loss, verbal changes and other known risks such as sleep problems might warrant a referral to a neurologist for a dementia check, she said.
PHILIPSBURG:--- JIFE Music recording artist Di Anointed Vale is at the height of his Blood A Jesus Tour in the US. Arriving in the US on July 1, Vale has performed at churches and concerts in the New York and New Jersey. The Blood A Jesus Tour is spearheaded by St. Kitts-based gospel music record label JIFE Music for Di Anointed Vale and is named on the title of his award winning debut album Blood A Jesus. The tour started in St. Maarten on June 2nd where he performed at the Worship Without Apology Concert at Port De Plaisance, Cole Bay and at several churches for the month of June.

The reception of the ministry in St. Maarten is phenomenal. The ministry started off on a high note...and I am just grateful for the opportunity, Vale said, after spending one month on tour in St. Maarten. The tour ended in St. Maarten with an event called Club Hype. I believe that with the ministry we would have done in St. Maarten, I would have accomplished what I set out to do, Vale said.

While also in St. Maarten, Vale shot a music video for his highly acclaimed single 2017 Eternal Love which is expected to be released in August. The music video was shot by SnapIt Studios in St. Maarten and directed and produced by Ricardo Mardenbrough.

Now in the US, he has ministered so far at Full Gospel Assemblies Church of God in Brooklyn, HopeNYC in Queens and Perfecting Saints Apostolic Ministries in Brooklyn. He also performed at the Grace, Worship and Praise Concert at the Word of Wisdom Church in New Jersey. One of the things God would have shown us is to think big and think at a high place because he has opened doors, he said.

The US tour continues this week as he heads to Virginia with his manager and JIFE Music executive Andre Huie. While in Virginia, Vale will minister at the Beacon Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Herndon, Virginia but not before singing at an event for young adults affiliated with the church this Friday, July 21. He heads to Michigan the following week, and then to Fort Lauderdale on August 2. While there he will minister at Papa Sans Church in Florida. The tour then moves to Jamaica where he will perform at Worship Explosion in Kingston on August 19th which features Atta Boafo, Positive from Trinidad and Tobago, Rondell Positive and other major headline acts from Jamaica. He is also expected to be on a promotional tour there as well.
Mist Announces Strategic Partnership with NTT DOCOMO Ventures

CUPERTINO, CA  (Marketwired)  07/18/17  , the pioneer in self-learning wireless networks using artificial intelligence (AI), announced today a strategic partnership with NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President & CEO, Toshiki Nakayama). Through the arrangement, the two companies will work together for NTT DOCOMO and NTT Group on new AI-driven initiatives that simplify Wi-Fi operations and bring high accuracy location to enterprise environments.

NTT DOCOMO operates a major research and development (R&D) center in Japan and advanced facilities in China, Germany and the USA, as well as collaborates with a wide range of leading-edge technology innovators. As a provider of integrated services centered on mobility, NTT DOCOMO is actively engaged in the development of technologies for next-generation devices, services and networks, as well as revolutionary concepts for all-new convenience, efficiency and creativity in business and daily life.

The scope of NTT DOCOMOs extensive research and development program is unprecedented among mobile operators, said Sujai Hajela, CEO and co-founder of Mist. We are thrilled to be working with such a respected brand to develop new and exciting technologies that break down WLAN operational barriers, while enabling unprecedented new experiences for mobile users.

Mist built the first wireless platform for the smart device era. By leveraging the latest in cloud, wireless, AI and big data technologies, the Mist Learning WLAN delivers unprecedented insight into the user experience and eliminates the operational burdens of legacy wireless architectures by replacing time consuming manual tasks with proactive automation. In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IoT together to deliver personalized, location-based services for wireless users.

Mist website:

Mist partners:

Mist platform:

Mist services:

Mist BLE overview:

Mist built the first wireless platform for the Smart Device era. By taking a user-first approach to networking, the Mist Intelligent Wireless Cloud (IWC) eliminates the operational burdens of legacy wireless architectures by replacing time consuming manual tasks with machine learning and proactive automation. In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring enterprise-grade Wi-Fi and BLE together to deliver personalized, location-based services for wireless users.

The Mist team consists of leading experts in wireless, machine learning and cloud, who are responsible for building the largest and most advanced networks in the world. Founded in 2014, the company is based in Cupertino, CA and funded by top investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Cisco Investments. For more information, visit .

NTT DOCOMO Ventures is the gateway for the startup and venture community in NTT Group. We are rapidly enhancing our innovation of various services, technology, and processes. We also bring together people of diverse interests in order to create new infrastructure.

We offer strong business support and collaboration for the passionate and creative people working at startups everywhere. By shoring up our efforts together, we will create new value that changes established thinking around the world.

Tanaya Lukaszewski

Kulesa Faul for Mist

(916) 712-3791
TUV Rheinland OpenSky Cyber Security Experts to Speak at Black Hat USA

LITTLETON, MA  (Marketwired)  07/18/17  TUV Rheinland OpenSky, a global leader and independent testing services provider, today announced that Seth Art, Brian Nolan and Brian Molinari will be presenting a briefing at Black Hat USA. The session will focus on how to move penetration testing to the cloud to match your adversaries ability to scale.

Specific use-cases will cover using the cloud to bypass multi-factor authentication, and adversarial simulation exercises. Practical guidance will be given for how to setup a state-of-the-art security lab in the cloud, capable of simulating any attack methodology and approach.

Details on the session below:

Seth Art, technical lead, Brian Nolan, director of the Cyber Security Testing Team and Brian Molinari, CIO of TUV Rheinland OpenSky

Renowned security experts from TUV Rheinland OpenSky will discuss how to move your security testing to the cloud to keep pace with your adversaries. The session will give real examples of the following:

How to quickly stand-up and tear-down attack specific infrastructure

Switch out IP addresses frequently, or change whole attack infrastructures, to avoid attribution

Crack password hashes in seconds for immediate use

How to setup a state-of-the-art lab in the cloud

Thursday, July 27th, 3:40pm-4:30pm

Oceanside F, Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino at 3950 S Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas

To learn more about TUV Rheinland OpenSkys security assessment capabilities, please visit

TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group maintains a worldwide presence with 19,700 employees; annual turnover is more than EUR 1.9 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, TUV Rheinland employs a global network of approved labs, testing and education centres. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website:

OpenSky Corporation is part of the TUV Rheinland group and a 100% subsidiary of TUV Rheinland. OpenSky provides information technology expertise to help corporations optimize IT platforms, protect information assets, and accelerate the adoption of strategic technologies. It specializes in transformational IT infrastructure, security, and risk consulting.

OpenSkys key differentiators include vendor independence, deep industry and technology expertise, and a holistic approach to evolving IT infrastructure platforms.

Frank Dudley

Director Communications

TUV Rheinland of North America, Inc.

(978) 266-9500

Carissa Ryan

Scratch Marketing + Media
A Saudi woman recently posted a video of herself on Snapchat, appearing to break the country's strict dress code. The young woman - who is reportedly a model - was filmed walking around a historic fort in Ushayqir wearing a mini skirt and a crop top and now religious authorities are calling for her arrest.

A clip of a young woman walking around a historic fort in Ushayqir village, Saudi Arabia, is causing a bit of a stir. The reason? She's wearing a mini skirt.

The Snapchat footage is six seconds long and sees the young woman, reportedly a model named Khulood, walking in the Najd province, which is known for being highly religious and conservative.

    #               ..  pic.twitter.com/Hm0Y3TcZxo    (@Binjamaan_) July 16, 2017

Since the video was shared, it's sparked fierce debate on Twitter among Saudis and journalists, some of which are calling for the woman to be arrested for breaking the country's strict dress code. Others, however, are praising her for her bravery and insisting she should be allowed to wear what she wants.

According to the BBC, one journalist said: "The return of the Haia [religious police] here is a must" while another user argued: "We should respect the laws of the country. In France, the niqab [face covering veil] is banned and women are fined if they wear it. In Saudi Arabia, wearing abayas [loose fitting clothing] and modest clothing is part of of the kingdom's laws."

Some defended the model's choice of clothing and cited Donald Trump's wife Melania and daughter Ivanka as examples of women who had also chosen not wear abayas.

Fatima al-Issa tweeted in Arabic: "If she were a foreigner, they would sing about the beauty of her waist and the enchantment of her eyes But because she is Saudi they are calling for her arrest."

Saudi's religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, tweeted that it was aware of the video and is in contact with the relevant authorities.

What do you think? Is this woman brave for breaking the rules, or disrespectful? Tweet us

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A species of mosquito capable of carrying the Zika virus has been found for the first time in Dane County, officials said Monday, although researchers stressed there is no evidence of Zika-infected mosquitoes in Wisconsin and the risk of contracting the mainly tropical disease remains unlikely.

The discovery marked the first documentation of the species, Aedes albopictus, commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito, in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Zika is primarily spread by another type of mosquito, the Aedes aegypti, which has not been found in Wisconsin or other neighboring states.

The Asian tiger mosquito will sometimes lay its eggs in water-holding containers, such as rain barrels or tires.

Three mosquito larvae were discovered last week at a tire facility in Monona, in traps set by the Universitys Entomology Lab in a water-filled tire. After the larvae hatched this weekend, researchers discovered they were Asian tiger mosquitoes.

Teams with the Universitys lab are beginning to look for the mosquito in other parts of the state to figure out how widespread the species is. The Asian tiger mosquito has been discovered in Minnesota and Iowa previously, without the species becoming established or transmitting the Zika virus, officials said.
South Bend seeks proposals for housing, commercial space at 7 sites

The request builds on city planners' efforts to boost the supply of "missing-middle" housing, which can cater to lower-income renters.
Support from Dane County officials may be waning for a plan to name the City-County Building after former President Barack Obama, after the countys chapter of the NAACP voted against it.

The NAACP is objecting to the idea on grounds that naming a building that houses a portion of the county jail after the nations first black president is inappropriate.

The building is symbolic of the extreme racial disparities evident in the treatment of African Americans by the criminal justice system of the United States, the NAACP resolution states.

Greg Jones, president of NAACP Dane County, included the resolution in a letter Monday to the Dane County Board, the Madison City Council, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin stating the organizations objections to the idea.

On Tuesday, Parisi said he still liked the idea of honoring Obama, but was open to other ideas on how it could be done. He also expressed support for taking broad public input on the matter and called for such discussion to happen in a collegial, nonpartisan manner.

I think the County Boards decision to seek public input on how to best honor President Obama makes a lot of sense, Parisi said in a statement. I would like to honor President Obama in some way but am not attached to what that would be. I also think its important that this process be conducted as a discussion, rather than an argument, among people who agree with each other about the importance of the Obama presidency. To do otherwise only diminishes the goal of honoring President Obamas accomplishments and civility.

Renaming the building in Downtown Madison after Obama was floated by Parisi and three County Board supervisors last month. The resolution also was sent to the City-County Liaison Committee, which plans to meet Wednesday night to discuss the idea.

Sup. Al Matano, who introduced the county resolution to change the name of the building and is a member of the liaison committee, could not be reached Tuesday to comment on whether the NAACPs opposition to the name change would cause him to withdraw the measure.

The building, which opened in 1954, contains the oldest portion of the Dane County Jail on the sixth and seventh floors. County officials are seeking to decommission the outdated and often unsafe cell block, one of three jail buildings that include the adjacent Public Safety Building and the work-release Ferris Center on the South Side.

City and county officials have said naming the building after Obama is a way to honor the 44th president, since he is the only president to have visited the building, which came during the 2012 presidential campaign, with Obama appearing with rock icon Bruce Springsteen on the buildings front steps during a rally.

The NAACP letter also says the building lacks any historical significance to Obamas legacy and is in disrepair.

Naming the City-County Building after President Obama is not only an affront to him but to the Dane County community, the letter said. We stand together and are totally committed against this proposal.

State Journal reporter Karen Rivedal contributed to this report.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Partly cloudy. High around 75F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low near 55F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
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El-Aaiun (Refugee Camps), July 16, 2017 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has initiated visits to the wilayas of the Republic, inaugurated Sunday BY a visit in the wilaya of EL-Aaiun.

The visits come after other visits that included regions of Sahrawi People's Liberation Army and municipalities in the liberated zones of Western Sahara, within the framework of the decisions of the 14th Congress of the Polisario Front, focused on assessment of regional and local progress of national programs.

The visit in the wilaya of El-Aaiun was marked by reviewing all aspects of the struggle of the Sahrawi people, where preservation of the achievements of the Sahrawi state was emphasized, strengthening the unity, solidarity and cohesion, as well as appreciation of the role of the intifada of independence in supporting the path of national struggle, led by the pioneering heroes of the Sahrawi people in Moroccan prisons.



.



The President of the Republic is accompanied by members of National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, SADR government, Consultative and National councils, and military and civilian executives. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




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STAMFORD  Dr. Raymond Sackler, a co-founder of Purdue Pharma, died Monday after a brief illness, company officials announced. He was 97.

In 1952, Sackler and his brother Mortimer purchased Purdue, then based in Manhattan. They launched a venture that has grown into a global pharmaceutical business headquartered in Stamford that develops and markets medicine, health care products and antiseptics to treat pain, respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments and other conditions. The companys top-selling and most widely known drug is the prescription opioid OxyContin.

The Sackler family owns the privately held Purdue. A Greenwich resident, Raymond Sackler served on the companys board of directors until his death.

Dr. Raymond Sackler was a noted philanthropist, physician, entrepreneur, business leader, husband, father, grandfather, friend and mentor to many, Purdue officials said in a news release Monday. For more than 50 years, Dr. Sackler and his wife contributed directly and through the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundations to areas spanning biomedical research, the physical and engineering sciences and the arts.

The philanthropy of Sackler included the establishment and endowment of schools, institutes, centers, departments, endowed chairs, professorships, fellowships and research awards in the biomedical and physical sciences and lectureships at academic institutions around the world, according to Purdue officials.

Dr. Phillip Sharp, a friend of Sackler who is a top-ranked institute professor at MIT, praised Sackler for supporting scientific research and inquiry, including the field of convergence science, the intersection of mathematical, engineering and physical sciences with biomedical science. Sackler has funded more than 10 convergence science centers at universities in the U.S. and abroad, according to Sharp.

He was a great benefactor of science; he respected it and he enjoyed scientists, Sharp said. As a person, as a friend and as a member of the community, he was extraordinarily warm and generous and I will miss him very much.

The Sackler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and the Freer and Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., recognize Sackler and his familys contributions to those institutions.

A vast personal fortune has underpinned the philanthropy of Sackler and his family. The Sacklers ranked as the 19th-richest family in the U.S., with a net worth of some $13 billion, according to 2016 rankings compiled by Forbes.

Sackler studied at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended New York University, where he received his bachelors degree in 1938. He then pursued his medical degree, beginning at Anderson College of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland, where he volunteered in the United Kingdom home guard and served as a plane spotter in the first year of World War II.

As a result of the war, he completed his studies at the Middlesex University School of Medicine, on the site of what is now Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., where in 1944 he received his medical degree.

Sackler is survived by his wife, Beverly, and their two sons.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236;Twitter: @paulschott
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STAMFORD  There is plenty of uncertainty heading into Wednesday nights Democratic and Republican conventions as both parties expect voters to seek change in November.

While all eyes are on Democratic incumbent Mayor David Martin and his loudest challenger, Republican Barry Michelson, there could also be some fireworks over down-ballot positions.

Even with Democrats long-standing stronghold in Stamford municipal elections, local party chairman Josh Fedeli said there will be a full slate of candidates, including 40 for the Board of Representatives and one for town clerk.

Republican Town Clerk Donna Loglisci had been flirting with a mayoral bid, but the partys committee members say she has backed off that quest and will likely focus on keeping her current job.

Loglisci appears to have maintained the support of her party even as shes being questioned by the states attorney in an investigation into alleged mishandling of absentee ballots during the 2015 city election. Sources with firsthand knowledge of the case have told Hearst Connecticut Media that Loglisci gave blank ballots to political party workers instead of directly to voters as the law requires.

Anybody who knows Donna knows shes a person of character, said Republican Town Committee member Bob Kolenberg. She runs the clerks office better than anyone in the history of the city, probably. Plus, its a lot easier to get a marriage certificate than it is to get a building permit in the city of Stamford.

Even with Loglisci out of the picture for the mayors race, Michelson may not have a clear shot against Martin. Its possible that some Republicans will throw their support behind Rep. Dennis Mahoney, who has filed to run for as-yet unspecified citywide office.

More Information Stamford Conventions DCC 7:30 p.m. at 1250 Summer St., (corner of Oak Street) Suite 306 RTC 7 p.m. at Knights of Columbus Hall 507 Shippan Ave. See More Collapse

But Michelson, who launched his campaign last month on a promise to stand up to developers, has no plans to bow out if he doesnt receive his partys nomination outright.

I have huge support from residents, Michelson said. So I would primary. Once Im in, Im in for the whole nine yards.

Fedeli admits that nominating a full slate of candidates is ambitious, but said its time for Democrats to shore up amid uncharted political territory.

Our most important job is to bring the best candidates to the Democratic party in Stamford, and the most important races we do that for is in this type of municipal election year, Fedeli said. People are starting to question people in politics. They definitely want change.

Democratic candidates Wednesday night are expected to reflect a blend of fresh faces and veterans intent on delivering the change voters are seeking.

What were able to do in Stamford is see the tide change to progressive Democrats all over the country, Fedeli said. What were doing here is opening our doors to those people and giving them a platform to run.

RTC chairman Fritz Blau said the Republican nominations should be revealing.

We hope voters are tired of the same old status quo, he said. If we have a mayoral candidate that leans that way, that will be a big thing to talk about.

Joe Tarzia , RTC recruitment committee chairman, said most open seats will have nominees.

He says the Republicans face an interesting year as the city grapples with what he calls a bipartisan issue: quality of life.

The issue is that taxes keep going up and quality of life or quality of service isnt improving at the same rate, Tarzia said. There is no control in terms of zoning in this town, streets get more and more congested, houses that used to be two families are three or four... its reflected in feelings of the residents, and showing in their support for someone like a Michelson.

nnaughton@stamfordadvocate.com; @noranaughton
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STAMFORD  Citing his role in the citys success in funding retirement benefit obligations and controlling costs associated with labor contracts, Director of Administration Michael Handler has entered the 2018 governors race.

Financial experience is key for anyone seeking the states top seat, according to Handler, a Republican. Connecticut faces a fiscal crisis with deficits in the billions of dollars and revenues that have not kept pace with spending.

Whoever takes this job next had better know what theyre doing, said Handler, 47, who has formed a candidates committee. There is much discussion about the revenue problem the state faces. The revenue shortfall is a symptom of the massive expenditure problem. New tax revenue is not the answer.

The biggest budget burdens are pensions and health benefits for retired state employees that are largely unfunded, and costs built into state labor contracts.

As the citys chief financial officer, he has tackled those problems in Stamford, Handler said. But because the state has not resolved them, municipalities cant count on the same funding from Hartford.

My experience in Stamford has led me to conclude that most, if not all, of what truly holds us back as a city are the states overall fiscal challenges, said Handler, who worked on Wall Street before he was appointed Stamfords chief financial officer by former Republican Mayor Michael Pavia in 2012.

There is a true loss of confidence, which is universally felt in every aspect of our state. Restoring confidence is best done by someone who has the experience and the skill to address our issues head-on.

When Democrat David Martin became mayor in 2013, he asked Handler to stay on. Martin said Tuesday Handler has done a fabulous job as director of administration.

Stamford is as financially sound as it is, due in large part to Mikes expertise and knowledge in finance, the mayor said in an email. I have no doubt that Mike has been committed to doing what is best for Stamford. He now believes he can bring that same expertise and commitment to our state. I commend him for even considering such a step.

Connecticuts fiscal woes are immense  emergency reserves are depleted, job growth is slow and taxes are high. The state is losing population and corporations. Analysts say the budget hole over the next two years is more than $5 billion, and shortfalls are predicted well into the future.

In May, Fitch Ratings downgraded the states bond rating from AA- to A+  the fourth drop in a year.

Thats not the case in Stamford. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poors just gave Stamford AAA bond ratings, with Fitch citing the citys steady revenue growth, prudent fiscal policies and conservative budgeting practices that have resulted in historically sound operating results.

Handler has said the city has a rainy-day fund and other reserves totaling $41 million, which should be enough to cover expected cuts to the $20 million the city budgeted to come from the state this fiscal year.

During his tenure in Stamford, Handler said, the city quadrupled its cash reserves; fully funded the annual required contributions toward pensions and health benefits for retired city employees; sold Smith House  the city-owned nursing home that was losing $6 million a year  to a private operator; negotiated contracts that won concessions from labor unions; and funded a new police headquarters and school building.

Under his leadership, the long-troubled Water Pollution Control Authority is functioning properly and has a stable budget with reserves on hand, he said.

Thats something Im very proud of, said Handler, whose job includes serving as chairman of the WPCA board.

But the states budget issues translate directly into trouble for municipalities, Handler said.

Connecticut is a wonderful state that is unable to reach its true potential because we are mired in fixed structural costs, he said. Education, competitive jobs and a growing economy all start with fixing decades of fiscal mismanagement.

In entering the 2018 race, Handler joins a dozen other Republicans and a similar number of Democrats who began testing the water after Gov. Dannel Malloy announced in April that he will not seek a third term.

Among the interested Republicans are Mayor Mark Boughton of Danbury, First Selectman Tim Herbst of Trumbull and longtime Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti. Democrats include Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew and state Comptroller Kevin Lembo.

Many of the candidates are career politicians, Handler said. What I bring is practical experience in solving fiscal problems, he said.

Handler is a New Jersey native who has a masters degree in business from Columbia University and a private-sector background in finance and investment management. He said he left a 15-year Wall Street career in 2007 to pursue public service.

He lives in New Canaan with his wife, Sarah, and four daughters.

Republicans are expected to battle Democratic candidates by linking them to Malloy, who was mayor of Stamford for 14 years. Malloys approval rating has dropped to 29 percent.

Despite the challenges, Connecticut has a lot going for it, Handler said.

There are a lot of reasons this state should be very different from the way it is now, he said. We will get there. The question is when.

angelacarella@stamfordadvocate.com
Billionaire Richard Branson owns so many businesses hes said that he has a hard time keeping track of them all. Worth more than $5 billion, hes been knighted by the British government for his services to entrepreneurship and has a well-earned reputation for success.

But Bransons career has had its share of wrong turns and miscalculations. Here are a few examples of failures in his career and the lessons we can learn from them.

Related: Billionaire Richard Branson Credits To-Do Lists as a Key to His Success

1. When his first company didnt make money.

Branson dropped out of school in 1967, at the age of 16, to start his first business: Student magazine. He wanted Student to become the voice of his generation, and the magazine earned some big name interviews -- but not a lot of money. Cash flow soon became a problem for the would-be publisher.

If he had stuck to his original plan, Branson might have gone under. Instead, he decided to be flexible and pivoted into what would end up being a much more successful territory -- music. He launched a mail-order discount record business, and what began as a way to pay for the magazine grew into a billion-dollar recording empire called Virgin Records.

2. When Virgin Atlantic Airlines almost crashed before it started.

Branson launched Virgin Atlantic Airlines in 1984 to give passengers a better flying experience. He saw a big opportunity but had little experience, and his new venture almost failed before it got off the ground.

During the initial test flight of Virgins only plane, a rented Boeing 747, a flock of birds flew into an engine, causing extensive damage. The airline couldnt get certified to start carrying passengers without a working plane, and it couldnt get money for repairs without being certified.

Instead of panicking or giving up, Branson stayed optimistic. Working fast, he restructured his companies and pulled money from other ventures to get repairs done quickly. His airline got the certification it needed, and Virgins inaugural flight from Gatwick to Newark was a success.

3. When his soda company fizzled.

Virgin moved into new territory again in 1994 with the launch of Virgin Cola, a soda designed to compete with Coke and Pepsi. Early taste tests were promising, and early on, Branson had high hopes. Coke is the best known brand in the world, and if we could topple Coke, we thought it would be a lot of fun, he once said.

Before long though, it became clear that Virgin Cola wasnt selling. It was too similar to other sodas to build its own identity. The company folded after a few years, teaching Branson an important lesson in the process -- if youre not unique, you wont get noticed.

4. When his trip around the world almost killed him.

Bransons personal ambitions are just as big as his professional ones. Hes attempted several adventurous world records and was the first person to pilot a hot air balloon across the Atlantic.

But his trip around the world wasnt as successful. After accidentally losing most of their fuel, Branson and his co-pilot found themselves above the Pacific Ocean facing gale force winds. With no hope of rescue if they ditched, they calculated the likelihood of their survival at only 5 percent. Branson has said they were faced with two choices, either lay down and accept their fate or stay up for three days straight trying to reach North America.

They managed to make it to safety, and Bransons experience taught him the value of resilience. Never give up, he said in an interview. Even if it sounds slightly corny. Fight, fight, fight to survive.

Related: 11 Powerful Quotes to Make You More Successful From Billionaire Entrepreneur Richard Branson

5. When Virgin Cars missed the mark.

The Virgin Group has found plenty of success in planes and trains, but automobiles were a different story. In 2000, Branson decided to launch Virgin Cars, an online business that aimed to change the way cars were sold. While the company started out strong, it soon lost steam and shut down within a few years.

Branson blamed a failure to focus on the right form of disruption. In hindsight, he decided that what needed to change about the auto industry wasnt how cars were sold, but how they are powered. Hes since invested heavily in creating more sustainable environmental fuels.

Hes also applied a new rule across all his businesses. There can be no profit without a well-defined purpose.

6. When shoppers didnt say yes to his dresses.

Branson has made several forays into the fashion world without success. Hes had a clothing company, a cosmetic brand and even an underwear label that was meant to compete with Victorias Secret.

Perhaps the most surprising of the Virgin fashion ventures was Virgin Brides, a wedding dress and bridal boutique that opened in 1996. Branson shaved his beard and donned one the brands wedding dresses for the launch event, but his short-lived modeling career failed to drive sales.

Bransons multiple attempts to make Virgin fashionable reflect his willingness to fail. While he doesnt easily give up on projects, hes also unfazed when things dont work out as planned. He starts over with a new approach.

7. When Virgin Digital didnt get downloads.

Virgin Digital opened its doors online in 2005. A music download site in the style of iTunes, Bransons music platform boasted a massive library of songs. It also featured a digital music subscription service that foreshadowed later platforms like Spotify.

Unfortunately, what Virgin Digital didnt have was the iPod. The service fought a losing battle against Apple and pirated music sites for two years before shutting down for good in 2007. The loss was a reminder for Branson that its always better to forge your own trail than it is to follow in other companies footsteps.

Related: Why 'Fail Fast, Fail Often' Is All Hype

Everyone fails. The people who fail most succeed.

Any one of Bransons failures could have derailed his entire career if hed allowed it to, but the mark of a true entrepreneur is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. A true adventurer in both business and life, Branson will continue pushing his limits -- and we can all stand to learn a bit from his bravado.

What is holding us back from achieving our dreams? Perhaps not as much as we think.

Related:

What Richard Branson Learned From His 7 Biggest Failures

5 Worthwhile Investment Lessons I Learned From Warren Buffett

Being Nimble Is More Important Than Being Right, and 4 Other Lessons I Learned Building a Successful Company



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


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STAMFORD  Brutal, senseless and totally unnecessary, a judge scorned a teenagers actions before sentencing him Tuesday in the 2015 murder outside the downtown McDonalds.

Judge Gary White said he hopes Marquest Hall serves every day of his 20-year sentence for the stabbing death of Antonio Muralles on Bedford Street. However, White acknowledged the 17-year-old will be eligible for parole in 12 years because of his age.

Hall and his attorney, Ryan ONeil, accepted a plea agreement in March for the first-degree manslaughter charge.

Hall declined to speak at his sentencing, but ONeill said his client deeply regrets killing the 52-year-old Guatemalan immigrant.

Marquest is remorseful and deeply regrets his actions. He knew he must take responsibility for his actions and today was a product of that choice, ONeil said after the sentencing. All he can do now is seek redemption through making positive choices for himself and his family. Based upon the young man Ive come to know, I am hopeful that will happen.

Halls mother, Charlene, declined comment as she left the courthouse.

Ive got nothing to say, she said while walking to an elevator outside the fourth-floor courtroom.

Hall was 15 years old  believed to be the youngest in recent memory charged with murder in Stamford  when he killed Muralles after they bumped into each other outside the fast-food restaurant on March 11, 2015.

Prosecutor Paul Ferencek said Hall was trying to instigate a fight that night by poking men with a walking stick and harassing them.

The victim bumped into Hall and co-defendant James McLamb, 24, accidentally spilling coffee on the teen. Ferencek said the conflict quickly escalated. Police said an infuriated 5-foot-4, 140-pound Hall spit in Muralles face and asked him, Do you want to die now?

McLamb then punched Muralles and Hall stabbed him twice, Ferencek said. Muralles fell to the ground and the pair continued the attack.

During the sentencing, victim services advocate Katryn Doud read a letter written by Muralles niece. The letter said there were no words to describe how the family feels after the murder.

We could give you a million reasons of why he didnt deserve to die this way, but the truth is no one deserves to die over coffee, Doud read. Our family will pray to God that he forgive Hall and McLamb and they repent for their actions. We hope they use that time in jail as a way to think of the pain they caused because our family will never be the same again.

McLambs sentencing was postponed until next month.
B usiness Secretary Greg Clark was today urged to reform industry payment practices after the woes engulfing struggling builder Carillion.

The chairman of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group  which represents smaller firms that account for around a third of construction output  has written to the minister warning that the financial structure of the building industry is much shakier than many realise or claim.

The groups anger centres on the payment practices used by Carillion, which makes its subcontractors wait up to 120 days to be paid.

Suppliers who want to be paid earlier have to pay a fee to a bank, which is in turn repaid by Carillion at the end of the term  in effect a loan for the main contractor paid and guaranteed by subcontractors.

The concerns come amid doubts over Carillions finances which are at present crippled by more than 800 million debt and a 600 billion pension deficit.

Trevor Hursthouse, chairman of the contractors group, wrote: Carillion annually procures billions of pounds from its supply chains with a balance sheet that shows it cannot meet those liabilities without imposing unreasonable and lengthy credit periods.

"Carillion is not unique  unfortunately, they follow a business model shared by many top UK contractors. The current situation confirms the model to be dysfunctional and exposes the extent to which SMEs in the supply chain effectively fund many construction projects.

His group wants project bank accounts, from which all firms on a project would be paid at the same time rather than relying on main contractors, used more.

Carillion, which did not comment, today won Ministry of Defence contracts worth 158 million. Shares rose 13% to 75p.
W all Street giant Citigroup is poised to name Frankfurt as the hub of a new trading operation as it grapples with Brexit.

That will come as a blow to Paris, which has been candid about wanting to woo bankers and damage London.

Sky News says Citi, which has a large banking presence in Canary Wharf, wants to establish a trading arm in Europe as it worries about passporting.

Presently London banks are allowed to operate across the EU and there are fears this will be stopped after Brexit.

HSBC and JPMorgan have already said they will move jobs away from London to deal with the issue.

Citigroup had no comment on the Sky report.

Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said he is determined to secure a transitional period.

City officials say the threat of banks leaving is real, but note that London has many advantages over other places, not least a long history of financial services.
H arry Potter may still be working his magic for Bloomsbury, but sales at the publishing giant are also rising thanks to Bruce Springsteen and its new music division, it emerged on Tuesday.

The publisher noted that Bloomsbury Popular Music, an online music library which was launched this year and features artists such as The Boss, is proving popular with students.

That helped sales of digital resources in its non-consumer division jump 16% in the three months to May 31.

Total revenues surged 19%, with top-selling titles including Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman.

The firm continued to see strong demand for Harry Potter books, two decades after the first was published.

To mark the 20th anniversary, Bloomsbury will publish two new books on the boy wizard in October in conjunction with a British Library exhibition.

It added full-year profits should be in line with expectations. The shares rose 2.19p to 174.54p following the update.

Investec analyst Steven Liechti said: Strong first-quarter trading and momentum, albeit in a seasonally small quarter, is encouraging.
I mperial College today backed the controversial 490 million takeover of the company which spawned from its labs.

The London university submitted a non-binding letter of intent to IP Group, supporting its improved all-share takeover offer for Touchstone Innovations, the rival science commercialisation business.

Touchstone, which turns lab ideas from Imperial, Cambridge and Oxford universities into fully fledged businesses, refused to enter talks with IP about an offer, arguing it fundamentally undervalues the company.

IP upped its offer today, valuing Touchstone at 490 million and Imperials 15% stake at 75 million, enough to win over Touchstones founding shareholder.

We are supportive of the strategic rationale of this transaction and appreciate the increased value for Touchstones shareholders implied by the new exchange ratio, Imperials endowment board said.

It thanked Invesco, Woodford and Lansdowne, three of the largest mutual shareholders which have pushed for a merger, for their long-standing support.

The offer now has support from investors with almost 90% of Touchstones shares.
I have come to a life-changing realisation. Forget everything youve ever been told. Holidays are bad for you.

Take a holiday, they say. Enjoy your leisure. Okay. But no one tells you the truth. You get the headlines about all the benefits but no one ever tells you about the side effects. Theyre like statins.

First there is the planning. A million glossy, twinkling websites promise to do it all for you and take out all the stress.

But we all know thats a false trade description. What starts off as a quick 30-minute scan-and-search ends up in a vortex of hell cross-checking all the deals, flight times, baggage allowances and transfer details. You have a new sympathy for the Brexit negotiators. If its this hard to leave the country on A Secret Escapes deal to Kos, imagine how hard its going to be to leave the actual EU. Eek.

And then, of course, theres phenomenon of Trip Adviser. It is now the law that you have to spend at least three days trawling through the hundreds of reviews and doing the kind of deep-dive analysis you imagine only the FBI was capable of.

By the time you have completed some Enron-style investigation, you have 362 positive reviews of your hotel but are deeply anxious because Barry from Pontefract said the eggs were a bit on the rubbery side and you simply cannot be having that. Even if you dont like eggs. So its time to start all over again. By this point you have spent more time looking for a holiday as you will actually be on the damn thing.

Then theres the shopping and packing. Holiday season is basically a massive female fiscal stimulus for the high street. Most women travel with a small laboratory and Boots should see its share price soaring thanks to smaller sales of miniature toiletries which are smaller in size yet more expensive  thats sheconomics right there for you!

And every department stores holiday outlet is stuffed full of busy traumatised women who so know they are not bikini-ready and dont actually give a ****. I was advised to go for something known as a miracle suit. Its called that because it was literally a miracle that I could get it on and off without asking for a pair of scissors. The shop assistant boasted that it could take three pounds off instantly, presumably because of the high-intensity workout you get in the changing room.

Packing light is another one of those ridiculous myths. I always pack the most ludicrous things with me that never get used. Like a gym kit. My gym membership has been untouched since David Cameron was Prime Minister, yet I am always convinced that I will suddenly morph into Jessica Ennis as soon as I land on foreign soil. This year I plan to bring my cello with me.

So. You think youre all sorted. Youve managed to book your dream holiday with all the bits you wanted, including the right kind of eggs. Youre counting down the days and starting to relax into the whole idea, when suddenly you get an email saying all your flight times have changed.

You will now be travelling not at 4pm as you booked but at 4am, which puts a slightly different complexion on things such as rising levels of stress. You frantically call Secret Escapes, who were so lovely and ever so helpful when you booked but now seem strangely distant when something has gone awry.

I eventually get through to someone who tells me nothing can be done and that I should be grateful to have a holiday. He then tells me his day off involves writing Gothic poetry in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, which really does explain a lot.

Quite frankly, I wish I was staying at home on the couch while watching Love Island.

Aladdin casting raises deeper questions

Naomi Scott: will play Princess Jasmine in Guy Ritchies Aladdin / Getty Images

Praise be the Time Lord, we now have a female Dr Who. But the quest for equality is far from over, especially for BAME talent.

British actress Cush Jumbo  best known for starring in the Good Wife  recently accused the film and television industry of pulling the plug on actors of colour and said she often hit the exotic best friend ceiling.

Understandably, theres been fierce competition for the much-coveted role of Princess Jasmine, Guy Ritchies upcoming remake of Aladdin which saw Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix lose out to Naomi Scott.

The Little Mix bandmate took to social media with a message saying shes Over it, which probably means she isnt. But many have criticised the casting. While Scott is popular, many felt it was a missed, rare opportunity to have an authentic darker-skinned Middle Eastern Disney princess.

The truth is, there are still precious few roles for all actors of colour, and even fewer for those with darker skin.

Lets hope, some day soon, a casting director genie can magic some up.
T he prison system is our forgotten public service. Most citizens, thankfully, have little contact with it. The difficult and dangerous work that prison officers do, because it happens literally behind closed doors, is not recognised in the same way that we celebrate the work of the police and fire services. No politician dares promise to spend more money on prisoners. Quite the reverse. The cheap applause comes to the politician who tells the public that theyll make the prison regime harsher. But at what cost? Many people in prison have committed serious crimes, for which they should be punished and incarcerated. That does not mean they should be brutalised and given no chance of redemption.

Yet that has become the reality of life in Britains prisons, according to the report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, today. The report is presented to Parliament, though we suspect few MPs will actually read it. They should, for Mr Clarke describes a state of affairs that is dangerous, counter-productive and will inevitably end in tragedy unless urgent corrective action is taken.

What is striking is that he finds a serious deterioration in standards has taken place over a very short period of time. In the last 12 months, there has been a dramatic and rapid decline in conditions in adult male prisons, with vermin infestations, a startling increase in violence and a growing drug epidemic. Assaults are up by 26 per cent in just one year. The situation for young offenders is even worse.

Read this sentence from the chief inspectors report: We have seen regimes where boys take every meal alone in their cell, where they are locked up for excessive amounts of time, where they do not get enough exercise, education or training, and where there do not appear to be any credible plans to break the cycle of violence. Now ask yourself this: what if that were your son? Would you feel safe if that was the young man walking past you on the street, after his release?

The state of our prisons is approaching an emergency. Urgent intervention is required to prevent a disaster. The plan to close completely inadequate Victorian inner-city jails such as Brixton and replace them with modern facilities on the outskirts of cities needs to be accelerated. Prisoner education should become a priority. Mental health services need to be radically improved.

Like hospitals and schools in recent years, our prisons should become trusts where the governors and staff are given more freedom to do their jobs. Its a huge task  but a necessary one. Prison isnt working. We all have an interest in fixing it.

A womans place

The new polymer 10 note has Jane Austen on the front, nicely timed for the bicentenary of her death today. This apparently uncontroversial choice owes much to the campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who argued stubbornly for the new note to feature a woman besides the Queen; today her campaign has been vindicated. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, deserves congratulations too for making the right choice.

Austen is not the first woman on our banknotes  Elizabeth Fry, the prison reformer, appeared on the old fiver  but she is a particularly happy choice. Its perhaps a pity, though, that the quote from her work on the note  I declare, after all, there is no enjoyment like reading is actually from a silly character who didnt like reading.

As Professor John Mullan says on the page opposite, Austen wrote some of the greatest novels in the language and created immortal characters who will long outlast us. Her mordant wit has contributed vastly to the sum of human happiness. She deserves to be common currency.
T heresa Mays Government yesterday gave an emphatic go ahead to HS2. It awarded the first contracts on the controversial 56 billion project, and thus brought Birmingham and points north closer to the magnetic field of the capital.

All studies show that such projects overwhelmingly benefit the richer end of the line, as the TGV has done Paris. So this news is undeniably good for London. The only hope now is that it does not damage the case for Crossrail2, a much better project than HS2 and essential for Londons future prosperity.

HS2 has never had many friends among politicians, railway buffs or think-tanks. But it is happening, and the best question now is to ask how it can best be adapted to Londons advantage. This means asking serious questions about its most costly and controversial feature, the lines route into Euston from its last stop at Old Oak Common in west London.

Euston is Londons worst station, with the worst connections. It has no access to the Central or Circle lines and no access to Crossrail. Its half a mile down Euston Road from the Eurostar.

The new Euston will need a costly new tunnel under Primrose Hill, incidentally wiping out hundreds of houses, and will claim seven of Virgins platforms at Euston, thus not increasing but reducing station capacity. Virgin has had to be offered the operation of HS2 to stop any court case or damaging competition.

So much for the free market. The Acton to Euston stretch is now priced at 8.25 billion, or 1.25 billion a mile, making it probably the most expensive railway on earth. And that does not include between 2.5 billion and 4 billion for the new station itself.

For some time, smart money in HS2 circles has been on the line stopping at Old Oak Common, at least temporarily. A transport minister, Robert Goodwill, even floated this idea last year. The same is the view of HS2s creator, Labours Lord Adonis, who is flatly against Euston. Successive plans for a new station have been submitted to Camden council and then withdrawn, showing how impossible it is to squeeze a quart into a pint bottle. Either way, choosing Euston will mean a decade of chaos.

Meanwhile, a terminus at Old Oak Common is plausible. The old Great Western Railway depot and marshalling yard has become Londons largest regeneration area since Canary Wharf. Its acres of tracks include lines to Paddington, Euston and Heathrow, as well as stations on Crossrail and the Central and Bakerloo lines. The site is near the North Circular and the M40, and is within spitting distance of the M1 and M4. Passengers on HS2 heading for the City would find it more convenient to join Crossrail at Old Oak Common, rather than trundle their bags down crammed access tunnels at Euston.

Meanwhile, the planners rightly see Old Oak Common as the Canary Wharf of the west. Coupled with an HS2 terminus, it would do what all big cities now do, which is base growth in suburban nodes rather than cram it all into the centre. Old Oak Common should be a key outer London new town, with 25,000 homes and 55,000 jobs. An inter-city terminus would be a natural. It would be smart planning.

Old Oak Common may suffer from its present obscurity, lost to the north of Wormwood Scrubs amid the Cargiant warehouses of White City and Willesden. But it is virgin territory, with just the charming Regents Canal as a distinctive feature. It would be a tragedy if it became another dreary suburban development of glass boxes, another Croydon or Stratford. It is crying out for the design vision that uplifted the early years of Canary Wharf.

An early warning of fiasco came last year when it emerged that Transport for London was building the westward extension of Crossrail across potential housing land on the site, with inadequate piling for future air-rights development. The then master-planner, Sir Terry Farrell, pleaded to mayors Boris Johnson and then Sadiq Khan to get a grip on what he called probably the biggest cock-up that Ive seen in my career of 50 years in London. As a result, thousands of houses may not be buildable because politicians were too weak to stand up to developers. London planning truly is dire.

The Euston extension can still be halted. It would save 10 per cent of the cost of getting HS2 to Birmingham and aid an exciting new centre on the outskirts of London. A halt, or at least a mothballing, just needs Khan and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to put their heads together and agree a sensible way forward. At a time of austerity, it should be easy to persuade politicians not to waste public money. Why, when the sums are so gargantuan, is it so hard?
P atrick Cockburns article on the battle of Mosul appears to suggest that Iraqi forces achieved nothing significant in the battle [Victory in Mosul for now but Islamic state is not defeated yet, Comment, July 10].

To overlook their role in the fight against a merciless enemy which is not only threatening Iraq but the whole world, as we have already seen in Europe, is unfair. It is most disrespectful to the

memory of thousands of Iraqi fighters who lost their lives in what many people consider to be the most significant battle since the Second World War.

The negative comparison between this and the battle of Stalingrad between 1942-43 is irrelevant as we are presented now with a different set of challenges.

The victory of Iraqi forces gives a renewed sense of hope and stability to the Iraqi people who have seen their country destroyed in war after war since the Eighties. This should be celebrated.

Waheda Al-Mikdadi

Join the conversation: #esnewsviews
If, like me, you find yourself locked in the grip of Love Island fever, youd be forgiven for thinking the swimwear pool has become a lot shallower this summer. For the sake of those who arent falling over themselves to switch over to ITV2 at 9pm every night, heres all you need to know; muggy no longer just refers to high levels of humidity, and the girls have packed enough bikinis between them to fill Casa Amores infinity pool twice.

So far, the daily bikini parade has featured high Brazilian cut briefs, plunging lattice front tops and crochet cut-out styles with more bells and whistles than Chris and Olivia have had very public rows. Ruffles, sequins, lace, fringing, buckles, mirror finishes and every animal print under the Majorcan sun have also put in an appearance. But if theres one thing weve learned  aside from the fact that Marcel was in Blazin Squad  its that the villas seemingly endless supply of swimwear options are really just a variation on one theme. Or to phrase it in a more Love Island friendly way, they have put all their eggs in one itsy bitsy teeny weeny basket. What is yet to emerge as a frontrunner is a bikini which prioritises practicality over peacocking.

Of course, lets not forget that this is a show where the chance to find true love  and pocket 50,000 in the process  relies heavily on your ability to look good on a sun lounger. And in this survival of the fittest, less is more often refers only to the amount of fabric on display. Outside of the reality TV bubble, however, there are bountiful options for those who dont count a trip to the pool as an opportunity for maximum exposure as a host of brands are dipping into fuller coverage two-pieces which dont skimp on style.

New Yorks Solid & Striped swimwear label is designed to be worn, lived in and welcome spontaneity, which roughly translates into bikinis which wont leave you red-faced after an impromptu encounter with a banana boat. Think high-neck racer back tops and bikini shorts with substance, all  as the name suggests  in bold solid colours or simple stripes.

Similarly, US brand Ward Whillas fuses a high-fashion aesthetic with high-performance swimwear. Reversible, silhouette-sculpting compression fabrics feature in all their styles, which are also quick-drying, sweat-wicking, chlorine-resistant and UV protectant as standard. Its one-shoulder crop top and high-waisted brief combo are sure to make a splash in the fast lane of your local lido.

Three Graces London

Three Graces London  a brand designed with simplicity not showboating in mind  is also a safe bet with its carefully considered debut swimwear line of scooped bralets and flattering high-leg briefs, while comfort is key for sleepwear brand Ascenos collection of bandeau bikini tops and high waisted bottoms.

While the Love Island hopefuls might have missed this seasons minimalist memo, Stella McCartney and Aussie favourite Zimmermann both got the message loud and clear, offering up sports-luxe swimmers that are sexy without being skimpy.

Alternatively, had this years contestants popped into COS on their way to Mallorca they could have had their fill of beautifully basic seersucker and geometric print styles, all of which are 100 per cent our type on paper.
T he scene: The Palace of Westminsteros at Kings Landing. Queen Cersei Lannister (Theresa May) enters, accompanied by Qyburn (Philip Hammond), the Hand of the Queen, who she does not trust. They cross to the Iron Throne.

Cersei/May: Stand beside me, Qyburn/Philip, where I can see you. (She surveys the assembled crowd of friends and foes and sits. A long, drawn-out raspberry is heard. Cersei/May grimaces and pulls out a whoopee cushion from beneath her. There are titters from the crowd, and Tyrion Lannister [David Davis] looks innocently at the ceiling). Cersei/May forces a smile. Ha ha, very amusing. I know many of you thought I was a dead woman after I had to do my walk of shame following the Red Coronation  when I was stripped of all my manifesto pledges and forced to parade through the streets without any policies to cover my embarrassment. I was even mocked by the town crier Jon Snow, who was heard chanting F*** the Lannisters with some revellers at the Festival of Delirium.

Qyburn/Hammond: He knows nothing, Jon Snow.

Cersei/May: Well, I have shed my tears over that and I tell you now, I plan to sit on the Iron Throne for at least a year or two. There is a job to be done and I am getting on with the job. Brexit, I mean winter, is coming. The 27 nations of white walkers are preparing to hold us to a dear account. I would ask all the Houses here to put aside their differences  and yes, I have even approached Crimson Jez and his wildling savages  to deliver the best winter for the people of Westminsteros

Qyburn/Hammond: (Breaking in) We want a business winter, a winter which gives us control over our borders but where the white walkers can still come here, study, build our kitchens and pick fruit. Ideally, we want a soft winter, where we can hold onto things like sunshine and flowers and long evenings. Thats the kind of winter I hope to deliver in four years. (Angry murmurs from the crowd) I mean three years! (More angry murmurs) Two!!

Theresa May / PA

Ramsay Bolton (Liam Fox): (Pulls sword and brandishes it) We want a hard winter and we want it now! We should cut off all contact with the white walkers  legal, financial, commercial, social  with sharp Valyrian steel immediately. Only then can I can start negotiating trade deals with Narnia, Middle Earth and Atlantis (an aid, Adam of Wherrity, whispers in his ear)  which, er, I have just been informed is underwater. Which means we will be free to negotiate with Never-Never Land! So give us winter and give it to us now, good and hard, or by god, well put someone on the Iron Throne who can!

Daenerys Targaryen (Andrea Leadsom): (Butting in) Speaking as a mother of dragons, unlike Cersei, which means I have a very real stake in the future, I do feel that Queen Cersei seems rather slow to enact the will of my followers, the Unsullied-by-common-sense. To suggest that we need to allow free movement of white walkers or remain in the trade guild that oversees the distribution of dragonglass is just downright unpatriotic and yet another example of people talking Kings Landing down. We are the fifth largest economy in the world, quite a bit behind Brobdingnag but just ahead of Lilliput. And we were the first kingdom to have a woman sit on the Iron Throne, the blessed Margaret of Milksnatch. Now we have a second Queen, who I fully support, but should the time come for a third (There is a fearful hammering at the window: it is the wild dragon Farage, belching smoke and fumes and demanding to be let into the chamber after an extended lunch at the Bawdy Badger tavern)

Vince Cable: I don't think Brexit is going to happen

Petyr Baelish (Chris Grayling): I heard that Maester Qyburn said, in a private meeting, that the Watch, who staff the wall and keep us safe from white walkers who want to eat our swans and Wildlings who want to sequester our property, were overpaid

Qyburn/Hammond: What I actually said, if you translate correctly from the German, is that when you divide the cake of the national finances, the slice enjoyed by the Watch is proportionately bigger than that served to the great Houses of Westminsteros, once pension entitlements are factored in

Baelish/Grayling: and he said that the job of Kings Guard is so easy that even a weak and feeble woman like Brienne of Tarth could do it.

Cersei/May: Where are these leaks coming from!?! (There is muttering and gesticulating, but slowly the crowd parts and everyone points at Theon Greyjoy/Michael Gove, who is left alone in the centre  of the hall, that is).

Greyjoy/Gove: Me!?! Oh no, it wasnt me. Im not the man I was, in terms of politicking, since my, you know, ambitions were cut off. Besides, I am absolutely not one to rock the boat. Im all about the three Ls now  loyalty, loyalty and becoming leader, I mean, loyalty.

Cersei/May: Enough! (Turns to Tyrion Lannister/David Davis). Now, Tyrion/David, we appointed you as our chief negotiator with the white walkers. How did your first encounter with their leader King Michel of Barnier go?

Tyrion/Davis: Er, well, he was a bit better prepared than I was. He had all these figures and notes and things whereas when I unrolled my scroll of demands I realised it was actually a menu from the Bawdy Badger that I must have put in my saddlebag by mistake eight months ago. At one point he got quite aggressive and pulled his sword on me. I went to draw mine, but it turned out there was a saveloy in my scabbard instead. Dont know where that came from. So I just gave him a big grin and said we were taking his concerns on board but that there were some points on which we were absolutely inflexible and I would let him know what those were in the fullness of time. So I think we can say weve got Johnny Foreigner  or rather, Johnny Walker  on the back foot, and I am confident I will complete these negotiations to our advantage, at some point, somewhere in the future, and then take over the Iron Throne because I am the only man who can deliver the winter that the people want. Oh, did I say that last bit out loud?

The Hound/Boris Johnson: (Aside) Hmm, time for an intervention by yours truly. Been keeping a low profile and letting the other chaps fight it out, in the hope of a clear run at the Iron Throne. But good to serve up a soundbite now and again to please the Unsullied-by-common-sense. Here goes. (Aloud) Might I suggest that when old barmy Barnier  that blue-eyed, blustering mugwump of the undead  suggested that we pay him 40,000 golden dragons as our so-called winter divorce settlement my honourable friend should have told him to go and whistle for it?

Key Brexit Players - In pictures 1 /8 Key Brexit Players - In pictures David Davis Reuters Michel Barnier AP Tim Barrow AFP/Getty Images Oliver Robbins Sabine Weyand Didier Seeuws AFP/Getty Images

Tyrion/Davis: Funnily enough, I was teaching your sister Lady Rachel how to whistle at the annual summer party held by the High Spectator of the Sparrows. Wed had a few glasses of mead and I was persuading her to throw her lot in with House Lannister after her ill-judged allegiance to House Libdem, before their numbers were decimated at the Red Coronation and their leader, Farron the Bornagain, threw himself out of a window

Hound/Boris: Watch it, you grey-haired heap of Dothraki droppings, or Ill kick you in the bollocks.

Tyrion/Davis: Oh yeah, well Ill kick you in the boll*cks!

Hound/Boris: Youd need a stepladder to even headbutt them, titch. They are about to come to blows when Ramsay Bolton/Liam Fox jumps in, flailing his sword to part them.

Bolton/Fox: Gentlemen, please! We need unity here and wise counsel, and I will personally HEADBUTT anyone who disagrees. Now, let us all pull together, all of us against the TRAITOR who is trying to f*** up winter and DOOM us all to an ETERNAL SPRING. The Queen doesnt know what her Hand is doing  I accuse Qyburn!

He lunges at Qyburn/Hammond who shouts Christ, its like being kidnapped by pirates and draws his sword. All the other factions start stabbing each other in the back, and the dragon Farage bursts through the door and demands a knighthood and to be made Ambassador to President Tangerine of the Far Colonies. Arya Stark (Amber Rudd) sneaks quietly in and sits on the Iron Throne while Cersei/May is squirrelled away into a secret passage by her Master of Whisperers, Damian Green.

Cersei/May: Sometimes I wish I was in Doctor Who instead.

Master of Whisperers/Green: Because you could regenerate as somebody else?

Cersei/May: No, because Id go back in my Tardis and stop myself ever sitting on that bloody throne
S targazers in Canada and the US were treated to spectacular sights on Monday morning as the Northern Lights made a rare appearance.

The natural phenomenon saw Vermont, Wisconsin Michigan, New Hampshire and parts of Canada light up in dazzling green and purple hues.

Instagrammers were on hand to capture the natural phenomenon, with one Michigan resident recording a time-lapse video of the celestial display swooping over the iconic Mackinac Bridge, with ribbons of light moving across the starry night sky.

The phenomenon is usually only visible from near the North and South Poles, but a geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare caused the unusual performance in North America and Canada.

The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, form as a result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earths atmosphere and charged particles from the sun.

When the highly charged electrons drop back to a lower energy state, they release the telltale streaks of neon green light that fill the sky.

The NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Centre had given residents a heads up, tweeting that the phenomenon may be visible before nightfall.

The event lasted from about 11pm on Sunday to 5am on Monday.

Many left their houses in the early hours to watch the display, but cloud coverage proved an issue in parts of the US, diminishing chances of seeing the lights.

However, many Instagrammers were lucky enough to have a prime spot to see the spectacular display, right on their front doorstep.

Here are some of the best images captured:
A n aristocrat who wrecked his own 1 million house in a spiteful attempt to stop it being sold after his acrimonious divorce is facing a jail sentence.

Desmond Fitzgerald, 63, ripped out radiators and smashed pictures and ornaments with a hammer at the house he shared with his ex-wife, lawyer Catherine Akester, in Kings Cross. He then blocked a sink, flooding the terrace home, Blackfriars crown court heard.

Fitzgerald, whose grandfather was Major General Sir Allan Adair, the 6th Baronet Adair, left behind fingerprints which proved he was responsible for the damage, valued at some 21,000.

However, he tried to claim he had been framed, comparing himself to Theresa May in a rambling defence and likening the supposed plot to that of a James Bond film. He was convicted of criminal damage by a jury last month and was told that jail is inevitable.

Judge Davinder Gill remanded him in custody before sentencing next month and ordered a psychiatric assessment. He was due back in court today for a bail application. The judge said an assessment by probation had found signs of emotional instability and risk-taking.

Fitzgerald represented himself at trial and attacked the integrity of the judge, the prosecution and the police. The court heard he has been sofa-surfing with a friend in Islington since January and has contacted the homeless charity Crisis. He caused the damage after a hearing at Central London county court on October 3, when a judge ordered him to give up the keys to the Medburn Street home and stay away from it. He had been obstructing its sale since his marriage of over 15 years broke down.

Ms Akester recalled how Fitzgerald stormed out of the family court hearing before going home to wreak havoc. The next day she arrived at the house to a scene of some devastation. She said he had also destroyed a framed picture of her and her siblings. It had been torn into tiny, tiny shreds. I found that extremely hurtful, she told the court.

Recorder Gill will consider a restraining order on Fitzgerald contacting Ms Akester when she passes sentence.

Fitzgerald also told jurors about a legal dispute over land in Ireland he claims belongs to his aunt. In a hearing on that case in August, he tried to have a law firm partner committed to prison and filed applications in the Court of Protection. A judge dismissed his claims as a farrago of nonsense and landed him with a costs bill of almost 100,000.
A youth was mowed down by a car as hooded gangs wielding knives and metal poles brawled in a north London street.

Violence flared as a group of up to 10 youths fought in the street in Harrow on Sunday afternoon.

Shocking footage showed young men, who were dressed in black hooded tracksuits, dodging in and out of traffic during the brawl in Locket Road.

One of them was seen carrying a large wooden piece of furniture in an apparent attempt to shield himself from any blows.

In the video, some of those involved crowd together before a silver Volkswagen car speeds along the road towards them.

Warning: This video might cause distress to some readers

The youths then tried to run away but one of them was hit and sent flying before the vehicle crashed to a halt, wedged between a hedge and a lamppost.

Some of the group then surrounded the car and struck the passenger side door with their weapons before fleeing the scene.

A young man got out of the vehicle and appeared to attack the youth lying on the ground behind the car before running along a side street.

Two police officers arrived at the scene as shocked passers-by gathered on the pavement.

Fight: A group surround a silver Volkswagen car in Locket Road, Harrow

Scotland Yard confirmed officers were called to reports of a fight on Locket Road at about 4.10pm on Sunday and that a 22-year-old man was found injured.

He was taken to a west London hospital where he remained in a stable condition on Tuesday.

A Met Police spokesman said: There has been no arrests.

Enquiries continue and Harrow CID investigate.

Any witnesses or anyone with information is asked to call the police non-emergency line on 101.
A young man has been charged after two people were left seriously injured in an east London acid attack.

Mustafa Ahmed, 19, from Stepney, was charged in connection with an attack on July 4 at 2pm in Burdett Road in Mile End.

The two victims, a man aged in his 20s and a woman in her 40s, suffered burns and were taken to hospital. They have since been discharged following treatment.

Ahmed, of Musberry Street, was arrested on Sunday and has now been charged with one count of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of attempted wounding with intent to do GBH.

He will appear in custody at Thames Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

An 18-year-old man and two 19-year-old men were also arrested on suspicion of GBH but have been released under investigation.

Police in Tower Hamlets said their investigation continues.
H undreds of moped riders brought Westminster to a standstill by staging a major protest against a recent spate of acid attacks across London.

Activists descended on Parliament Square on Tuesday afternoon to call for a crackdown on acid attacks and motorcycle thefts.

Couriers and delivery drivers met at Altab Ali Park, in Whitechapel, at midday before riding in convoy to central London.

A series of motorcycle crime prevention groups met outside the Ace Cafe on the North Circular before travelling into Westminster for the protest, which began at about 2pm.

Moped riders used their vehicles to block up the roads around Parliament Square and beeped their horns during the protest.

Jabed Hussain, who was the victim of an acid attack in the capital last week, led the delivery drivers protest and carried a huge banner which read: Stop acid attacks, bike theft and motorcycle crime.

Mr Hussain was one of five people who were injured when they were targeted by two moped riding attackers in a 90-minute rampage in London last Thursday.

Motorcycle delivery drivers and motorcyclists take part in a demonstration in Parliament Square / AFP/Getty Images

Deliveroo and UberEats, two takeaway delivery firms operating in the capital, confirmed one of their employees were among those attacked.

On Monday, a 16-year-old boy denied any involvement in the rampage when he appeared at Stratford Youth Court charged with 13 offences.

Ashraf Ahmed, 38, a Deliveroo driver from Bromley, said he was threatened with a knife while he was out on his moped two days ago.

Deliveroo rider Ashraf Ahmed

He said: "I have kids, I have a wife, I have my family and no-ones bothered.

I'm scared. We want to stop acid attacks, motorbike crime. That's why we are here.

Two days ago I was attacked with a knife and he said 'give me your wallet and your mobile phone'.

The knife is pressed at my chest and you're scared. I think it was about 12 inches.

Food delivery riders demonstrate in Parliament Square / PA

Luckily he'd not stolen my bike. It was very scary.

We pay for the bikes ourselves and I lost mine three or four months ago. I'm on my third bike now.

Police are doing everything but the Government hasn't given them any power.

Ian Parkinson, 55, who lives in central London, said: "Teenagers are doing it for fun. Those guys come in the middle of the day and knock you off your bike in public.

Ian Parkinson, who took part in the protest at Parliament Square

I've had three bikes nicked in one year and the insurance [company] doesn't want to speak to me.

I'm the victim. We make 400 - 500 per week, that is what we make at the end of the day. We're low paid.

[The attacks] are not about racism, we've got everybody working for us - it's a way to make a living and they [the attackers] are taking it away from us.

I love to see the kids when I deliver pizza. We deliver happiness, they deliver terror. It's bad for London".
B rexit is already damaging London's economy, an independent think tank has warned.

Research from Centre for London found that the UKs impending departure from the EU has caused a wobble in the capitals economy because of a slowdown in job creation.

The think tank claimed Brexit is already leading to scores of Europeans not coming to the capital to work, has led to a decline in confidence among businesses and is decelerating house price growth.

It comes after a senior City of London spokesman claimed in a leaked memo that France is plotting to exploit Brexit in a bid to weaken Londons booming financial sector.

The Centre for London found that registrations for new national insurance numbers by foreign workers have fallen by 15 per cent in the capital over the last year, with three-quarters of the fall accounted for by a drop in EU migration.

Its research also found that job growth was slowing for the first time since 2015 to lag behind the rate in the rest of the UK.

Year-on-year house price growth was under 3 per cent for the three months to April 2017, the lowest level in London since 2012, while increases in private rental values dropped below 2 per cent to their lowest rate since 2010.

The research, published in The London Intelligence and released to mark the launch of Centre's new research programme, noted that the capital's unemployment rate was at an historic low of 5.5 per cent.

It said there had been a reduction in the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: The British people chose to leave the European Union, but they did not vote for fewer jobs, less investment and a slowdown in economic growth. That is why I teamed up with Centre for London, businesses, academics and politicians in the capital, to make the case for a positive deal for London.

The General Election has clearly moved the goalposts in negotiating a deal with Brussels and thats why a deal that puts jobs-first, with continued membership of the Single Market, is the only deal that will serve the best interests of our great city.

"It is crucial the government delivers a flexible system to attract the talent London needs to ensure it remains the best city in the world to do business.

Centre for London director Ben Rogers added: "London has shown remarkable resilience in the years following the recession. But its growth has not been painless. Levels of inequality have soared. Congestion, pollution and the housing shortage have all worsened.

"While no-one knows how Brexit will play out, this new analysis suggests that London's economy is beginning to wobble. It also highlights the need to tackle London's critical challenges to ensure it is in the best possible position to deal with Brexit.

"Through The London Intelligence, Centre for London will continue to deepen our understanding of how London is changing in real-time, and identify whether these are bumps in the road or changes in direction for London."
T he mother of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard has thanked two international experts who flew to London to discuss saving the 11-month-old.

Connie Yates met with the two experts and medics at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie is being treated, in a meeting that lasted more than five hours on Tuesday.

It comes a day after Charlie, who has a rare genetic condition and brain damage, was examined by Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at Columbia University in New York, who flew to the UK to see him.

Parents Chris Gard and Ms Yates are battling so that their son can be allowed to undergo a therapy trial overseen by Dr Hirano in the United States.

The parents of Charlie Gard have been fighting to take their son to the US for potentially life-saving treatment

Ms Yates told the Daily Mail: Chris and I are so grateful to Dr Hirano and the other clinicians for coming to see Charlie.

Our gorgeous baby boy is still stable. We are at his bedside and feel satisfied he is not suffering or in any pain.

"As Charlie's loving parents we are doing the right thing for our son in exploring all treatment options."

Doctors have said Charlie Gard's life support machine should be turned off / PA

Dr Hirano, who has claimed an experimental drug could potentially save Charlie, attended Tuesday's meeting with a second international expert who cannot be named due to reporting restrictions.

They were joined at the meeting by the Great Ormond Street team currently caring for Charlie, his mother and an independent chairman, a hospital spokesman said.

On Monday Dr Hirano was given full access to Charlie's medical records and hospital and clinical facilities, including diagnostic images, for four and a half hours.

Great Ormond Street said it would be for the court to decide the next steps regarding Charlie.

Specialists from the hospital say that treatment will not work, and the little boy's life support should be turned off.

His parents, from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights' judges to intervene.

Mr Justice Francis has considered the couple's latest claims at preliminary hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He is due to hold further hearings later this month following this week's meetings.
A woman paramedic feared she had become the latest victim of the acid attack epidemic when she was sprayed in the face with a noxious substance.

The London Ambulance Service medic was responding to a 999 call alone early on Sunday morning when she was flagged down by three men apparently in distress in Tottenham.

After stopping to ask if they needed help, the men pulled bandanas over their faces and one threw liquid at her when she wound down her car window.

The 32-year-old was hit by the liquid - which turned out to be an unknown irritant but not acid - in the face, neck and chest. She was checked over at a nearby ambulance station and later at North Middlesex hospital as a precaution.

The paramedic, who was too distressed by the incident to be named, said: It was horrible. I didnt know what was going to happen to me.

It all happened very quickly  one of them threw liquid out of a plastic bottle at me. The window was only open a few inches but the liquid went on my face, neck and chest. He was wearing latex gloves, so my first thought was: is this acid?

The incident happened in Ferry Lane at about 1.30am. Police are seeking witnesses. The paramedic had been responding to an emergency call concerning a man with chest pain at the time.

It was terrifying, she said. This was so cowardly. It is my job to help people. I was on my way to help a patient and I stopped because I am caring and I thought they needed my help. They have taken away my trust.

What theyve done is horrific in so many ways. It was premeditated and it delayed a patient getting treatment. It took a paramedic off the road that night. And yet if one my attackers were hurt, I would still treat them because that is the job.

In a separate incident, Met officers in Tower Hamlets today revealed that a plastic bottle suspected of containing acid had been seized after a suspected robber was stopped and searched. A man was arrested.

It came as Home Secretary Amber Rudd restated her commitment to consider life sentences for those who commit acid attacks.

She told the BBC that she did not think current sentencing was strong enough. She said her department was working with the Crown Prosecution Service to review guidelines.

She said: We should have further sentencing guidelines to make sure that acid attacks have more severe penalties because the fact is if somebody receives an acid attack quite often they have a sentence for life, and I think thats what we should have potentially for the people who are committing these dreadful acts.

Shop owners will also be asked to make sure harmful acids do not end up in the hands of young people, Ms Rudd added.

Medical advice on dealing with acid attacks is to remove as much liquid as possible, using a towel or gloves, before rinsing the affected area in cool water for at least 10 minutes.

The number of attacks, mostly verbal or physical, on London ambulance crews has risen to about 500 a year. All frontline responders are now being warned to be cautious when flagged down unexpectedly by people requesting help.

Peter Rhodes, LAS assistant director of operations said: I am appalled by this unimaginable attack of cruelty.

The paramedic stopped to help these men who she believed were in trouble. But instead they assaulted her in a premeditated attack, not only harming her but delaying treatment to a potentially critically ill patient.

We have reported this incident to the police and will do everything in our power to make sure those responsible are identified and convicted for this senseless attack.

He added: While this type of situation is thankfully very rare, we are reminding medics they should be mindful of the potential risk and be cautious in similar situations.

Naturally we are doing everything we can to support the paramedic who is understandably distressed by this incident. We encourage our staff to report violent incidents and do everything we can to give our crews a sense of safety at work

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
G atwick Airport is expected to run a "near normal" service today following huge disruption to holidaymakers' journeys.

Passengers' journeys were thrown into chaos when a planes tyre burst, with many experiencing delays of more than eight hours.

Travellers complained of "carnage" and some flights were diverted to other airports, including Heathrow and Cardiff.

Gatwick issued a statement on Tuesday saying it is planning to operate a near normal flight schedule.

The airport added: This follows flight delays and cancellations yesterday caused by a returning Air Canada Rouge aircraft with a burst tyre and resultant runway checks which closed our runway for periods yesterday.

Gatwick Airport apologies for the inconvenience experienced and advises passengers to check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight before travelling to the airport.

Scores of people caught up in Monday's chaos took to social media to complain about about the carnage and "chaos" at the airport.

Dan Cabell tweeted: "Well Gatwick Airport is absolute carnage."

Another Twitter user said: Gatwick is madness right now. At least 6 flights circling on our left hand side, passport queues massive, car parks in chaos. GET ME HOME.

Flights were forced to use Gatwick's back-up runway on Monday after the airport's main strip was closed following the incident involving the Air Canada Rouge flight to Toronto.

The plane was leaving Gatwick at 1.16pm on Monday when its tyre suffered a blowout.

It made an emergency landing at the airport just under an hour later, triggering the disruption.
A sobbing teenager who lived in a block neighbouring Grenfell Tower reduced a senior member of Kensington and Chelsea council to stunned silence during a tense public meeting.

Residents met with representatives from the council at Notting Hill Methodist church on Tuesday night.

A 17-year-old girl, who gave her name as Rhianna, said the trauma of the fire had sent her backwards in her long-term struggle with depression.

She said she had been forced to seek counselling proactively and recalled how her eight-year-old nephew was suffering after finding out his teacher had been one of those who perished in the blaze.

Police release footage from inside Grenfell Tower

At least 80 people are believed to have died when a huge fire broke out at Grenfell Tower on June 14.

Kensington and Chelsea Council has been heavily criticised for its response to the fire, with council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown resigning in the aftermath of the fire.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan was among senior politicians to blast the council, calling its response inept and incompetent.

At Tuesdays meeting, the teenager said her nephew had only recently been offered counselling and it would be three weeks before anyone could see him.

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Speaking tearfully to a panel of representatives, she said: "From this day onward, what are you as a council going to do to ensure that the survivors of Grenfell, the people who had to sit on Latimer Road and watch people falling and jump and cry and lose their family, what are you going to do to support and ensure that we can have trust in you and that we can trust our community and we can not argue at each other, not shout over each other, not come to meetings and everyone's shouting at each other - what are you going to do?

Newly-appointed interim head of paid services at Kensington and Chelsea council Barry Quirk, one of the panel representatives, appeared to struggle with emotion as he replied: "It's absolutely clear to me that you have been let down.

"And you've been let down by statutory public authorities."

He then paused while the 17-year-old broke down with her head in her hands and community members rushed to comfort her.

He added: "I will do everything I feasibly can to change the management of this organisation and to change the way in which health and other agencies respond to you directly, immediately, 24/7, not just when it's convenient for them, when you need it."
P roperty prices in London crept up by just half a per cent this year.

Data released today by Zoopla reveals the city suffered one of Britains worst performances.

According to the websites figures, the average price of a home is 673,000, up from 670,000 on January 1. Prices rose 3.5 per cent during the same period last year.

The national average house price is now 304,000. The UK-wide property market grew by about one per cent.

One estate agent said buyers from the Continent were put off by uncertainty over post-Brexit immigration status and the necessity for large deposits.

London remained the most-searched area by buyers or window-shoppers. Its most-viewed properties were a 3.95 million four-bedroom maisonette in Kensington, a 391 sq ft Chelsea studio on sale for 895,000 and a seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom, semi-detached house with a wine cellar and swimming pool for 8.5 million in Earls Court Road.

Zooplas figures show Wandsworth suffered the biggest fall in values with a drop of more than three per cent, from about 797,000 to 769,000.

Owners in Southwark, Lambeth, Greenwich and Hammersmith and Fulham also saw the value of their homes decrease.

Dreaming on: among the most-viewed London properties were this 8.5 million mansion in Earls Court Road

Among boroughs bucking the trend was Camden. Prices rose by almost five per cent. Merton, the City, Islington and Enfield also had increases above the national average.

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Values in Worcester Park leapt from 463,000 to 492,000  over six per cent and the ninth-highest rise in the UK. Central Bexley saw an increase from 448,000 to 478,000.

Zoopla based its estimates on analysis of its user data, such as valuations and nearby sales, and Land Registry sold prices between January 1 and July 1.

David Gape, the owner of Southwark-based Independent London, said: Half of potential buyers would be European and theyre not going to risk their capital on a large deposit until they know whether theyre going to be able to stay. Brexit has been a major contributor in the slowdown of the sales market.

Russell Quirk, founder of online agents eMoov, agreed that uncertain times were affecting the market. Rightmove data shows that last year the average sold price for a London flat was 518,500. Terrace houses sold for 650,000 and semi-detached homes for 637,000.
A London theatre is in hot water after it launched a bizarre tirade against millennials in a job advert.

The Tea House Theatre provoked a social media backlash with young people branding the company "snarky" and "obnoxious" after it advertised a 15-20,000 full time administrative role.

The passive-aggressive post began with the words "dear millennials" before declaring it was the third time in "many months" the company had been forced to fill the role.

After reeling off the company's successes, the advertisement continues with the suggestion young people don't live in the real world.

It reads: "Are you just not taught anything about existing in the real world, where every penny counts.

The bizarre advert was signed off by two of the directors, HG Iggulden & IF Rushton, who were unavailable for comment / Arts Jobs website

"Did no one teach you that the end of your studies is the beginning of your education?"

Oozing pretension, the company continues to slam young people further.

"One old lady used to run the whole of Mountview Academy with an IBM computer, it shouldn't be this hard," the notice reads.

According to the advertisement, the successful candidate would be "an absolute grafter, who can commit."

The advert was posted on the Arts Council website but has since been taken down / Arts Jobs website

It went on: "The absolute dogs in office skills, the ability to run a paper filing system as well as a computerised one, the ability to complete and keep track of a huge to-do list, to make our office work, create and develop business management systems that help the business to grow, giving space for more creative work to go ahead.

"To see where we are headed and realise that it is in your own hands how far you are able to go with us as we grow."

It is signed off by the two directors, whose parting words read: "We have not been impressed so far."

The tea house by day transforms into a theatre by night and is based in Vauxhall.

The advert was posted on Arts Jobs, a website run by Arts Council England, but was soon slammed by millennials online who called the company "out of touch".

One Twitter user shared a photograph of an email responding to the ad, poking fun at his "rancid Millennial kin" who realised the "harsh reality of life" after he discovered his clay pot of quinoa was empty.

"15-20k is, simply, LOADS. I've worked it all out and after rent and travel I'd have OVER 40 quid a week to spend on literally whatever I want!

"I could even save a pound a week and put down a deposit on a studio apartment when I am 735.

"When you're dangling a golden carrot that massive I am truly baffled as to why you've been quit on three times."

One user wrote: "Have the Tea House Theatre not considered that this f***** obnoxious advert puts anyone with relevant skills off ever wanting to work there."

Others mocked the advert, saying only one person had applied and that was Roz from Pixar's Monsters Inc.

Another wrote: "Tea House Theatre sound a bit like a sad angry misogynist who gets angry at women for not wanting to date him."

The advert has since been removed from the Arts Council website. The Standard contacted the Tea House Theatre.
M ayor of London Sadiq Khan has said he does not believe it is appropriate for the UK to "roll out the red carpet" for Donald Trump's state visit to Britain.

Mr Khan, who clashed with President Trump in a furious social media exchange following the London Bridge attack, said he doesn't think the Government should put on a red carpet welcome for the President of the United States.

It comes after Mr Trump, 71, reportedly told Prime Minister Theresa May he will only visit the UK once he is sure of a better reception.

In a phone call to Mrs May, it is claimed the US President said: I havent had great coverage out there lately, Theresa and fix it for me.

A date has not been set for President Trumps visit but Downing Street said it is likely to be next year.

President Donald Trump was invited for a state welcome by Theresa May. / Getty Images

Londons mayor spoke to American news organisation CNN on Monday and said: State visits are different from a normal visit and at a time when the President of the USA has policies that many in our country disagree with, I am not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet.

If someone has views that I think can be changed I am ready to play my role," he told CNN.

"If you somehow think it is not possible to be a Muslim and a proud westerner I am happy to disabuse you of that idea, whether you are a reporter for CNN or Donald Trump."

A Twitter row broke out between Mr Khan and President Trump in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack, when the US leader blasted the Mayors response as pathetic.

The PM meeting President Trump. / Getty Images

The tweet read: Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement.

"MSM is working hard to sell it!

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Mr Khan had said the morning after the attack: "Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days.

Anti-Trump protests 1 /25 Anti-Trump protests Protesters burn trash on the road at K Street Northwest outside the offices of The Washington Post REUTERS Seattle Police officers dressed in protective gear stand outside Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus AP A group of demonstrators protest against the inauguration of US President Donald J. Trump in Mexico City, Mexico EPA A protester is treated after being pepper sprayed by police at the University of Washington REUTERS Protesters outside the offices of The Washington Post REUTERS Police deploy a chemical irritant and flash bang grenades at the intersection of Southwest Morrison and 5th Avenue as a crowd marches through the streets of Portland AP Protesters march through downtown Athens, Georgia AP Police fire smoke grenades to disperse protesters in Washington DC AP A police officer holds zipties to restrain people during the protest AFP/Getty Images A line of protesters confronts police AP Smoke bombs were hurled at police officers during protests on the parade route AP Police prepare to launch concussion and pepper grenades during clashes with protesters in downtown Washington AP Lines of police officers fill Pennsylvania Avenue in preparation for the inaugural parade EPA Police officers provide security as they wait for the Presidential Inauguration Parade AFP/Getty Images A demonstrator is arrested by police AFP/Getty Images Police officers pepper spray a group of protesters AFP/Getty Images A police officer carrying pepper spray is pictured during a protest before the parade AFP/Getty Images Heavily armoured police officers stand guard on the parade route AFP/Getty Images Police officers fire pepper spray at protesters AP

"There's no reason to be alarmed."

A spokesman for the Mayor dismissed President Trumps tweet, saying he was concentrating on keeping London safe.

Leaders from across the political spectrum came out in support of Mr Khan, and Prime Minister Theresa May said he did an excellent job.

Last month it was reported that the US leader wanted to postpone the visit because of the British publics response, but the White House later denied these reports.

Prime Minister Theresa May invited President Trump to visit Britain in January, sparking a backlash which saw nearly two million people sign an online petition against the state welcome.

The following month, thousands of protesters marched to Westminster against the invitation.
A mother who became a quadruple amputee after a blood infection nearly killed her will compete in her first triathlon this weekend.

Corinne Hutton, 47, was hit by acute pneumonia and septicaemia  leading to her losing her legs below the knee and both hands. She was given a five per cent chance of surviving.

But four years on, she has entered Saturdays AJBell Triathlon to raise money and awareness for her Find Your Feet charity.

She said: There is a lot of therapy in doing this and instead of thinking what you cannot do, you have to do things that make you laugh and feel positive. At the end of March I had two thirds of a lung taken away because it was so badly scarred from my illness.

Following surgery, Ms Hutton learned how to walk on prosthetic legs, relearned to ski and was the first female quadruple amputee to scale Ben Nevis. She is hoping to become one of Britains first double hand transplant recipients.

Last year a nude image of her with organs painted on her skin was projected on to Waterloo station. / John Linton/FInding Your Feet

She is entered in the super sprint event for the AJBell, which comprises a 400m swim, a 2km run and a 10km cycle. She said: I dont like failing at things and Im determined. If I say Im going to do something then I will do it.

Last year a nude image of her with organs painted on her skin was projected on to Waterloo station and the Royal Opera House as part of a campaign to encourage more organ donors.

Ms Hutton has just published her autobiography to encourage other amputees to embrace new challenges. Her charity supports amputees by organising community events around the country after it was launched in her native Scotland.

For more information visit: livetotri.co.uk/london-triathlon


A cameraman has branded Costa Coffee a disgrace after it refused to serve him because he was buying food for a homeless man.

Adrian Pinsent stopped off at the coffee shop in Waterloo station at about midnight on Monday to buy a sandwich and a drink for the man after he met him outside.

Video footage shows staff at the shop telling him that they would be prosecuted if they sold him a sandwich because it was against station policy.

The Costa workers knew he was buying for the man because he had taken him into the shop to pick out the food.

In the footage, filmed by Mr Pinsent, the barista can be heard saying: I'm really sorry sir. I'm really, really sorry.

Mr Pinsents attempts to ask another member of staff if they will serve him also fall on deaf ears.

The barista then says: If we do that we will get prosecuted. Its not our policy, its from the security of the station and the police.

Mr Pinsent calls the situation as unbelievable before leaving ten pounds on the counter and saying he is going to leave with the food anyway.

A barista said serving a homeless person was against station policy / @Filmquotebloke

He later told the Standard: I was utterly amazed by the whole incident. The idea that the police or station security would prosecute Costa as the barista said is unbelievable, and just not true.

Either the barista was lying, and I got the impression he wasn't, or someone had told him they would be prosecuted.

I don't know who, but as a cameraman and journalist I knew his excuse for not selling me the food was completely wrong.

Network Rail and British Transport Police both denied that this was their policy.

Mr Pinsent tried to persuade to members of staff to serve him in the video / @Filmquotebloke/Twitter

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "We do not have a policy against passengers buying food in our stations and giving the food to anyone who is homeless.

"We will be asking our retailers to remind their staff of this, so we can avoid any incidents such as this in the future."

A British Transport Police spokesman added: We can confirm that we would not prosecute for selling food to a homeless person.

Costa have also been approached for a comment.
C abinet tensions over Brexit intensified today as Tory sources accused Boris Johnson and Michael Gove of trying to force Theresa May into storming out of Brexit talks.

An insider told the Standard the pair were using the row over Britains divorce payment to the EU to bring talks crashing to a halt to engineer a hard Brexit with no transitional deal.

They want a situation where the EU just say enough is enough and show us the door, claimed the source. They want the hardest of hard Brexits. Mr Johnson last week caused a furore by saying the EU could go whistle for the money it is seeking.

In the latest fightback by soft-Brexiteers, Home Secretary Amber Rudd allied herself with Chancellor Philip Hammond  who is arguing for a transitional arrangement lasting two years or more to protect jobs and the economy. Above all, even having that on the table, is set to reassure businesses that there wont be a cliff edge in this negotiation, she told Sky News this morning. We want to make sure we have a soft landing.

From Brussels, however, there were signs that the other 27 countries are already running out of patience over Britains reluctance to fix a cash settlement, reported to be between 30 billion and 60 billion, to cover long-term EU commitments.

Brexit Secretary David Davis came under fire from EU diplomats who said they would stall negotiations unless he engages on the details. Financial settlement is the priority, an EU diplomat told the Politico news site. The EU will not walk away from talks but will stall them. The diplomat added: The impression we got so far is that the UK is not ready for these talks.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd arrives at Number 10. / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Davis was photographed with no notes at the formal negotiations  unlike EC negotiator Michel Barnier, who had a bulging file. But former ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer said Mr Davis had been right to keep his notes away from prying lenses. Never show your notes when photographers are present, he tweeted. Barniers team should know that.

The Cabinet met this morning in a toxic atmosphere after Mrs May was forced to plead with ministers to stop leaking and briefing against rivals.

Ms Rudd said most ministers were getting on with their jobs and she reminded colleagues that they are honoured to have their roles.

She admitted there were full and frank discussions over policies, a traditional code for arguments, but said she was perplexed by leaks. What happens outside Cabinet with occasional briefings as we saw over the weekend is something else, she admitted.

Responding to former premier David Camerons suggestion in an Evening Standard interview that some ministers should be strapped to a raft and sent down a very, very dangerous river, Ms Rudd said: Im not too good at rafting, so I wont be volunteering for that.

She added: Im hopeful that after a holiday  whether rafting or otherwise  we can all calm down and get on with the job in hand.

Poisonous briefings continued this morning with reports of ministers being branded donkeys by colleagues.

Ex-minister Sir Robert Atkins condemned Cabinet members for fighting like ferrets in a sack and jockeying for leadership positions.
J eremy Corbyn's critics were branded Judases by a Left-winger seeking election onto a key Labour committee today.

Seema Chandwani also called for MPs to be disciplined following the brutal civil war over Mr Corbyns leadership before the election.

She claimed Labour MPs had brought our party into disrepute with impunity by speaking out as the Labour leader struggled with dismal poll ratings.

Ms Chandwani, secretary of the Tottenham Labour Party, is standing on a slate with Billy Hayes, former general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, to be elected to Labours Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) to give more power to rank-and-file members.

It is a key committee in deciding what happens at party conference, where supporters of Mr Corbyn are expected to seek to change Labours rules to prevent MPs from blocking a candidate from the partys Left from challenging for the leadership.

Members elect two representatives to the committee and Gloria De Piero MP, who resigned from Mr Corbyns shadow Cabinet last summer, and Labour veteran Michael Cashman are also standing for the positions, pledging to give members a strong voice at conference.

However, in the wake of Mr Corbyns far better-than-expected election performance, Ms Chandwani called for action against MPs who she accused of bad-mouthing party members before June 8.

A string of MPs quit Corbyn's shadow cabinet at the height of unrest in the party. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images) / AFP/Getty Images

We saw MPs use their position of profile to obtain access to the media to attack ordinary members and call them names like dogs, Trots and rabble without any remorse, she wrote in a blog on June 11.

Until there is an acknowledgement of how our members were treated and assurances that such attacks from MPs to our members will be acted upon with disciplinary action  nothing has really changed.

However, former minister John Spellar urged members to vote for Ms De Piero and Lord Cashman.

He said: Its a shame when the Theresa May government is on the ropes that we have a candidate trying to whip up a destructive purge in the Labour Party.

Thats why Michael Cashman and Gloria De Piero are the proper unity candidates for Labour members.

In her attack on Mr Corbyns critics, Ms Chandwani called on them to take responsibility for their actions.

She added: On our own ship we had our own people play the role of Judas better than the original.

With passive aggressive attacks through social media disguised as expressions of concern or advice they could easily have texted to Jeremy instead of writing about in The Guardian or on Twitter to 250,000+ people.

Condemning a string of senior centrist Labour MPs who resigned from Mr Corbyns shadow cabinet, she praised his current team for doing amazingly well.

She added: They outperformed their predecessors and they gave us a manifesto we would never have had created by others.

They were not seat warmers waiting to be returned to sitting on the floor now the self-proclaimed self-righteous would like to play again.
T heresa May went to war with her own Cabinet ministers today by accusing leakers of failing to take their duties seriously.

The Prime Minister tried to put a lid on feuding by urging her team to show the country more strength and unity.

Opening the weekly meeting around the coffin-shaped table at 10 Downing Street, Mrs May said: There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the Cabinet table.

Her plea followed days of increasingly toxic briefing and counter-briefing  and a leak directly from last weeks meeting designed to embarrass Chancellor Philip Hammond. Mrs May said the warfare showed some Cabinet ministers were not taking their responsibilities seriously.

This morning, however, the Cabinet tensions continued to play out in public. In the latest fight-back by soft-Brexiteers, Home Secretary Amber Rudd publicly allied herself with Mr Hammond, who is arguing for a transitional deal with the European Union, lasting two years or more, to protect jobs and the economy. Above all, even having that on the table is set to reassure businesses that there wont be a cliff edge in this negotiations, she told Sky News. We want to make sure we have a soft landing.

Other Tory sources accused Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove of trying to force Mrs May into storming out of Brexit talks. An insider told the Standard that the pair were using the row over Britains divorce payment to the EU to bring talks crashing to a halt and engineer a hard Brexit with no transitional deal. They want a situation where the EU just say enough is enough and show us the door, the source said. They want the hardest of hard Brexits.

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, leaves 10 Downing Street after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. / REUTERS

Last week Mr Johnson caused a furore by saying the EU could go whistle for the money it is seeking. Yesterday EU diplomats said talks could stall unless the money issue is resolved quickly.

At this mornings Cabinet meeting which, ironically, was followed by ministers smoothing over differences for the formal family photo portrait of the group, Mrs May was most concerned about the leak from inside the room.

She said she had introduced more genuine collective discussion into policy development and that the Government would make better decisions if colleagues were able to have open conversations  but said it was vital that discussions in Cabinet remain private.

The PM said that the briefings and counter-briefings over the weekend had been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously, said her spokesman.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd arrives at Number 10. / AFP/Getty Images

Mrs May did not name anyone. No 10 said various Cabinet ministers spoke up in the discussion but would not identify them. Mr Hammond was thought to have been keen to speak out, although a friend said it was Mrs Mays show.

The Chancellor was reported to have said even women can work as train drivers. The Standard has been told he did not utter the actual words, but they were voiced as a parody of his contribution to Cabinet last week when he criticised train driver unions for failing to support female-friendly flexible hours.

Ministers were on best behaviour as they arrived for Cabinet this morning, not stopping to chat to the press but heading straight inside No 10. Mr Gove and the International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, arrived smiling and chatting together, with Mr Gove turning to smile at the press.

Ms Rudd said most ministers were getting on with their jobs and reminded colleagues that they are honoured to have their roles. She said there were full and frank discussions over policies, a traditional code for arguments, but said she was perplexed by leaks.

Tory former minister Sir Robert Atkins condemned Cabinet members for fighting like ferrets in a sack and jockeying for leadership positions.

From Brussels, there were signs that the other 27 countries are running out of patience over Britains reluctance to fix a cash settlement, reported to be between 30 billion and 60 billion, to cover long-term EU commitments.

Brexit Secretary David Davis came under fire from EU diplomats for not engaging on the details. Financial settlement is the priority, an EU diplomat told the Politico news site. The EU will not walk away from talks but will stall them... the impression we got so far is that the UK is not ready for these talks.

Mr Davis was mocked yesterday for being pictured with no notes at the formal talks  unlike the European Commission negotiator Michel Barnier. However, ex-ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer said Mr Davis had been right to keep his notes away from prying lenses. Never show your notes when photographers are present, he tweeted. Barniers team should know that.
T wo people have been airlifted to safety and several others rescued from their homes after flash flooding devastated a village in Cornwall.

Firefighters have advised residents to avoid the village of Coverack, which was hit by flash floods on Tuesday afternoon.

An elderly lady was reportedly rescued from a window when floods hit the village, while two people were rescued from their home by a helicopter crew.

Cornwall Council has since confirmed that everyone has been rescued from the village and there were no casualties.

Dramatic footage has emerged on social media of water sweeping through the village.

Water sweeping through the village / Lizard Hol Cottages (Twitter)

Bed and Breakfast owner Dick Powell told ITV News he saw the coastguard helicopter helping to rescue people from their homes.

Two people were rescued by the helicopter, which is based in Newquay, a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed.

She said: "Six people were in a house and two have been rescued from the house by helicopter."

She said there were no injuries, but had no further details on the rescue.

The main road into the village is also believed to have been completely destroyed by the water.

The flooding began after a huge thunderstorm hit the south coast, with Plymouth and Devon also hit by torrential rain.

"There has been some heavy rainfall around," said Met Office forecaster Craig Snell, who said the worst has moved north from the region.

Coverack after floods hit on Tuesday afternoon / PA

An eyewitness said the wet weather hit Coverack at about lunchtime, but got worse from around 3pm.

"It literally just came over like a massive mist," Karla Wainwright told BBC News.

Ms Wainwright, who works in the village's Paris Hotel, said hailstones the size of 50p pieces smashed small panes of glass on the building.

But she added: "It wasn't until it cleared up at 4.30pm, and we could see over the other side of Coverack, and we could see the stream coming down the main road and going just straight off over the wall into the sea, that we realised how bad it had been and how much water and rain had come down."

Cornwall Fire and Rescue posted on Twitter: "Major flooding in Coverack area please avoid this area & do not attempt to drive through any flood water."

The Environment Agency has issued alerts for possible flooding in south Wales and southern England.
T wo international experts will rush to talks today with doctors from Great Ormond Street Hospital and the mother of 11-month-old Charlie Gard to discuss the terminally ill baby's condition.

The meeting was brokered after Michio Hirano, professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, spent about four-and-a-half hours at the hospital on Monday.

He was given full access to the critically ill babys medical records including diagnostic images, and the opportunity to examine the child.

The identity of a second international expert is subject to media reporting restrictions.

The High Court judge was told by lawyers acting for Charlie Gard that he had been in error when previously assessing key medical evidence / Reuters

The Tuesday meeting will be attended by baby Charlies care team, including a consultant paediatric intensivist, a consultant paediatric neurologist, a consultant in paediatric metabolic medicine, and a consultant neuroradiologist.

The boys mother, Connie Yates, will also attend alongside an independent chairman.

A structure for the meeting as well as key questions have been agreed by all parties.

The hospital said it would be for the court to decide next steps in the case, which has gripped the nation as Ms Yates battles for the right to take the 11-month-old to the US for a therapy trial for his rare genetic condition, overseen by Dr Hirano.

Charlie Gard with his parents

Great Ormond Street specialists contend that the treatment will not work, and that the boy's life support should be turned off.

His parents, from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.

Mr Justice Francis has considered the couple's latest claims at preliminary hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He is due to hold further hearings later this month, following this weeks meetings.

Additional reporting by Press Association
A s the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived at the former German concentration camp Stutthof, their car was flanked by burly sunglass wearing Polish security.

The royal limo containing Prince William and Kate then proceeded at a snails pace as the five guards - the same team who would have been on duty when President Trump visited Poland earlier this month - flanked the car.

It was less a case of "All the President's Men", more a case of "All the Prince's Men" as the security with protruding earpieces escorted them in.

The odd manoeuvre happened, however, in a totally secure area inside the former concentration camp - with only the press, who have been through a security sweep, present.

Kate Middleton and Prince William visit former Nazi camp in Poland 1 /16 Kate Middleton and Prince William visit former Nazi camp in Poland Prince William and Kate at the museum of former German Nazi concentration camp Stutthof in Poland. REUTERS The mood appeared sombre as they were given a tour. REUTERS Prince William and Kate are shown piles of shows of those who were killed in the camp. Kensington Palace William and Kate talk to Holocaust survivors. REUTERS The pair were sombre as they listened to survivors' recollections. REUTERS The royal couple talking with former prisoners. Getty Images Their visit is part of a five-day tour of Germany and Poland. Getty Images Camo Stutthof us near the town of Sztutowo, 30 kilometers east of the city of Gdansk, Poland. AP William and Kate walk through the site of the camp with the director of Stutthof Museum, Piotr Tarnowski. Kensington Palace William and Kate were shown around the museum. REUTERS William and Kate met with Marek, Maria and Czesaw, all former Stutthof prisoners who spoke about their experiences at the camp. The royal pair visited the camp during a five-day tour of Poland and Germany. Getty Images

None of the Prince's personal protection team from SO14 were involved in the bizarre show of security and blended quietly in the background.

Prince William told one of the survivors of the Nazi camp, at which up to 65,000 people died, it was important people of his generation understood the horrors of the Holocaust.

He told one survivor, "It is so important that myself and my wife Catherine and people of our generation learn about what happened here and places like this."

William and Kate were shown around the museum. / REUTERS

Kate, wearing a white floral dress with nude patent leather heals teamed with a beige leather clutch, was sombre as she walked down a paved pathway lined with the wooden shacks that housed prisoners.

The royal pair were accompanied on the tour by Stutthof museum director Piotr Tarnowski and deputy director Piotr Piechnik.

William and Kate walk through the site of the camp with the director of Stutthof Museum, Piotr Tarnowski. / Kensington Palace

On arrival they were shown a harrowing pile of over 500,000 rubber shoe soles that were found on the camp.

They then walked through the camp gateway to be shown inside huts where the prisoners' uniforms and identification, illegal art, beds, and an infirmary were displayed.

The mood appeared sombre as they visited the museum. / REUTERS

The couple were noticeably moved as they walked around the grounds before meeting camp survivors, including two British survivors Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper from North London.

Lifelong pals Manfred and Zigi, both 87, then led a prayer joined by the royal couple at a Star of David memorial for those who lost their lives.

Hundreds of onlookers lining the fences to catch a glimpse of the pair burst into spontaneous applause at the end of the reading.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte have joined the Duke and Dutchess on their five day tour of Poland and Germany but were not part of the visit; no child under the age of 13-years-old is advised to visit the camp.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "When Zigi was saying 'thank you so much', William said 'it's my honour to meet you'."

She said: "They were just really taken by the place. I think you can't fail to be when you come somewhere like here.

"They were so interested, it was a really special few moments. "They walked out of here together (alongside survivors).

"I think when you see Zigi and Manfred walk out of those gates free men, despite everything they went through, I think it just sends such a strong message."
T he new plastic 10 note featuring Jane Austin is being unveiled today on the 200th anniversary of her death.

The Bank of England will hold a launch event at Winchester Cathedral, where Austen is buried.

The English novelist will be the only woman - apart from the Queen - to be featured on a bank note, following the withdrawal of the old 5 notes, which featured Elizabeth Fry, in May.

Around 100 million of the notes have already been printed but it will be another two months before they hit circulation.

This is what you need to know:

When will the note be circulated?

The new note is expected to be released into circulation on a date in September.

A sample of the new Jane Austen bank note / EPA

What does it look like?

It will be smaller than the current one but larger than the new fiver, and will feature a portrait of Jane Austen commissioned after her death at the age of 41.

Alongside her portrait, the new note will also feature a quote from Pride and Prejudice when Miss Bingley says: I declare after all there is no enjoyment but reading!

What will the note be made of?

The new notes, which can survive a spin in the washing machine, are made from polymer instead of paper and according to the Bank of England are cleaner, safer and stronger than the previous design.

They are made of the same materials as the new 5 note, meaning it will have traces of animal fat in it.

English novelist Jane Austen / Getty Images

Why Jane Austen?

Austen's image on the new 10 note was one of the first announcements made by Mark Carney after he took up the position of Bank of England governor.

He said: Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes.

"Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal, and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature.

As Austen joins Adam Smith, Boulton and Watt, and... Churchill, our notes will celebrate a diverse range of individuals who have contributed in a wide range of fields.

Jane Austen died in Winchester in 1817 and is buried in the north aisle of the Cathedral. The new note "will recognise her universal appeal and enduring contribution to English literature", Winchester Cathedral said in a statement.
Y oung inmates across the country are locked in a dangerous and vicious cycle of violence that is destined to end in tragedy, the chief inspector of prisons warned MPs today

Peter Clarke said there were also no credible plans to halt the violence and that the situation was so dire that not one young offender institution was safe to hold juveniles.

His warning  which has serious implications for any move to combat youth and gang violence in London  came as Mr Clarke issued the most damning assessment ever made of the state of the countrys jails in his annual report to Parliament.

Mr Clarkes report described the situation in institutions holding young offenders as dire and said: By February this year we had reached the conclusion that there was not a single establishment that we inspected in England and Wales in which it was safe to hold children and young people.

The fact that we had reached a position where we could not judge any institution to be sufficiently safe was bad enough, but the speed of decline has been staggering.

The reasons for this slump in standards are no doubt complex, but need to be understood and addressed as a matter of urgency.

It said that there had been a startling increase in violence across all prisons, fuelled by drugs and staff shortages. The result is a growing number of deaths and injuries.

Mr Clarke, a former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, added that he was appalled by some of the conditions in which inmates are detained and that there had been a serious deterioration in standards over the past year.

He said that many prisons are not fit for purpose.

Debt, bullying, self-harm and assaults  which rose by 26 per cent last year and included three homicides  are triggered as a result. At the same time, staff numbers in many prisons are simply too low to keep order.

Mr Clarkes findings will fuel concerns about prison conditions and follow repeated warnings from penal reform groups.

They also confirm that too many prisoners, including young inmates who could be diverted from a future life of crime, are not getting rehabilitation while in prison, leading to further offending after their release.

Unveiling his report today, Mr Clarke said that standards had deteriorated sharply in the past year across all types of prison but that his biggest concern was the treatment of young inmates.

The current state of affairs is dangerous, counterproductive and will inevitably end in tragedy unless urgent corrective action is taken, he said.

There seems to be something of a vicious circle. Violence leads to a restrictive regime and security measures which in turn frustrate those being held there.

We have seen regimes where boys take every meal alone in their cell, where they are locked up for excessive amounts of time, where they do not get enough exercise, education or training, and where there do not appear to be any credible plans to break the cycle of violence.

On adult male prisons, Mr Clarke describes a dramatic and rapid decline in standards with vermin infestations, filthy and sometimes unscreened lavatories, and many prisoners who are obviously under the influence of drugs.

He added: Debt, bullying, and self-segregation by prisoners looking to escape the violence generated by the drugs trade are commonplace.

I have personally witnessed violence between prisoners, and seen both the physical and psychologically traumatic impact that serious violence has had on staff.

Unsafe prisons will not rehabilitate, reform, educate, train or provide a therapeutic environment for the many people in them suffering from mental health issues.

The challenges thrown up by the prevalence of illegal drugs and other contraband, increasing violence, too many prisoners suffering from mental health issues, an ageing prison population and a prison estate that in many places is not fit for any purpose ... are stretching staff to their limits. Reform is overdue.

The report says that standards in womens prisons are better but that it is deeply concerning that the 12 self-inflicted deaths of female inmates in the past year was the highest total since 2004. Self-harm among female prisoners has also risen dramatically.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said that a new director had been appointed to implement reforms in young offender institutions. Extra specialist staff were also being put in place.

"The safety and welfare of every young person in custody is our absolute priority and we are clear that more needs to be done to achieve this," the spokeswoman added.

But we also want custody to improve the life chances of children in our care and to deliver improvements to education and health services within youth custody."


H undreds of soldiers and firefighters were today battling forest fires on the Adriatic coast that have destroyed buildings near the city of Split.

The largest fire reached the Croatian ports suburbs after spreading 13 miles and destroying homes, a nursery and a cemetery. One person was known to have died.

Around 20 smaller fires were burning in Dalmatia in the south, which is largely covered by pine forest and scrubland.

Visitors were evacuated from two shopping malls and residents have been warned to stay away from petrol stations. Around the town of Zadar, planes were used to dump water on the flames as there are still active minefields in the area from the Balkans war in the Nineties.

Prime minister Andrej Plenkovi said Croatia was considering asking for EU assistance. Neighbouring Montenegro has also asked for international help to fight the fires on the Adriatic coast.
A woman killed by police in the US had called them to report a sexual assault taking place in an alley behind her home, it has emerged.

Justine Ruszczyk made the 911 call after hearing suspicious noises, which she believed was a sex attack, coming from the secluded path close to her home in Minnesota around 11.30pm on Saturday night, American media reported.

When officers arrived they opened fire from their vehicle, fatally striking the 40-year-old spiritual healer.

Miss Ruszczyk was born in Sydney but moved to the US to be with her partner, who she was due to marry next month, three years ago.

Her fiance Don Damond and his son Zach have demanded answers over the death which is being investigated, the Telegraph reported.

Mr Damond told Australian media that the family were "desperate for information."

"Piecing together Justine's last moments" would be "a small comfort," he added.

Paying tribute: Friends and family gather outside Justine Ruszczyk's home / EPA

Zach said in an emotional Facebook live video: My mum is dead, because a police officer shot her, for reasons I dont know, and I demand answers.

"She heard a sound in the alley so she called police and the cops showed up.

Basically my mums dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I dont know ... I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. Im so done with all this violence.

The officer responsible for firing the fatal shot has been named as Mohamed Noor.

Tom Plunkett, his lawyer, confirmed his client fired his weapon, according to CBS Minnesota.

Both Mr Noor and his partner have been placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.

However, police said the officers body worn cameras and a camera in their squad car had been switched off at the time of the shooting which may hamper the investigation.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they were "providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian woman who died in a shooting in Minneapolis.

They said in a statement on behalf of her family: "This is a very difficult time for our family.

"We are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened."
A woman who claimed to have lost her baby after being shot as she held a party to reveal its gender lied about being pregnant, police said.

Cheyanne Willis, 21, was shot in the thigh at the so-called gender reveal party on July 8.

Her cousin Autum Garrett was killed in the shooting and seven others, including three children, were injured when two suspects stormed the Ms Willis Cincinnati home, according to police.

Ms Willis, who posed for pictures showing off what she claimed was a baby bump at the party, told police she miscarried the unborn child in hospital during the aftermath of the shooting.

However, detectives said on Monday that Ms Willis had not been pregnant at the time of the attack and they had been given false information, The Sun reported.

A statement said: Police have been given information we have found to be false. Hours and days have been wasted following leads known to be lies when they were provided to our officers.

From the very beginning of this investigation, we have met significant resistance that is uncommon from victims of crime wanting a resolution.

"As an example, we were led to believe an unborn child was murdered in this incident only to find out that was not the case.

That information is not provided to embarrass anyone, only to provide a fair understanding of the challenges we have faced in the past nine days.

No arrests have been made over the shooting.
T he Duchess of Cambridges wardrobe has been a source of fascination for years, with both fashion critics and the public poring over it in equal measure.

Thanks to a Canadian royal tour filled with seriously cute smock dresses and pageboy shorts, now Prince George and Princess Charlotte are a hot sartorial topic as well.

On Monday, as they embarked on their second family tour to Poland and Germany , Kate stepped off the plane in a stunning Alexander McQueen outfit, looking impossibly fresh. But despite this, it was the children who stole the spotlight, looking suitably adorable in their floral and plaid prints.

Whilst we wish that Charlottes red shoes and Georges navy shorts came in adult sizes, weve reconciled ourselves with the fact that well just have to dress our children like them instead.

Getty Images

Heres our pick of the best look alike pieces.

Liberty Wiltshire Berries Dress

Looking suitably diplomatic in Polands national colours, Charlotte wore a red and white Liberty print dress. Although we dont know who designed the actual piece, this version  with its puffed sleeves and piped Peter Pan collar  makes a great alternative.

85, Patricia Smith Designs, Buy it now

Catalina Shoes

The sweetest part of the Princesss outfit was definitely her ruby red shoes, which set off the colours in the dress nicely. Made from leather with a rubber sole, these are almost an exact replica of the ones Kate chose for her daughter.

56, Papouelli, Buy it now

Classical Child Socks

Of course when youre wearing a shoe as cute as this, you need a sock to match. Classical Childs pair is made from cotton and offers the same detailed cuff as Princess Charlottes, ideal for dressing up those tiny feet.

6, Classical Child, Buy it now

Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive in Poland for royal tour 1 /15 Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrive in Poland for royal tour The young royals have arrived in Warsaw for a week-long tour of Germany and Poland. EPA Prince George and sister Princess Charlotte peering through the plane window. EPA The brother and sister get their first glimpse of Poland. PA Kate holds Charlotte as they walk off of the plabe. REUTERS Kate swept daughter Charlotte her into her arms as they made their way onto the tarmac. REUTERS They are greeted by officials and dignitaries. Getty Images The Duke of Cambridge leads future king Prince George down the steps. Getty Images The family walk across the airport concourse. EPA Kate holds Charlotte while William leads George by the hand. Getty Images Smiling Kate speaks to her daughter. Getty Images The family will begin a five-day tour of Germany and Poland. PA Prince William bends down to speak to his son. REUTERS For this visit the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will inevitably be judged in the context of Brexit. REUTERS The little royals will only be seen at arrivals and departures from countries and not at any official engagements. REUTERS During the visit, William and Kate will meet survivors of the Holocaust. REUTERS

Papouelli Luxury Bow

The outfit wouldnt be complete without one of Charlottes signature bows. Regularly worn to sweep back her fringe, it finishes off the classical style. This Papouelli version is bright and cheerful and comes with a handy clip for securing wayward locks.

6.50, Papouelli, Buy it now

Tizzas Shirt

Looking as smart as his dad, Prince George went for a blue and red button up. It appears to be the Chemise garcon Tizzas a carreaux bicolore which is made from 100 per cent cotton and can be bought at El Corte Ingles.

27, El Corte Ingles, Buy it now

Chino Shorts

Sporting the same navy shorts that Prince William used to wear as a child, George looked the spitting image of his dad. Dark navy and a little shorter than knee length, the chino style of this pair keeps them looking smart.

18, Polarn O. Pyret, Buy it now

Classic Leather Shoes

Despite being under four years old, both George and Charlotte always manage to look pin neat. Having a smart pair of shoes is a good place to start  the young prince has been seen wearing his trusty pair of Start Rites before, proving that their high quality and elegant finish are a big hit.
K ate Mara and Jamie Bell have surprised fans by revealing that theyve tied the knot in a secret ceremony.

The acting pair are thought to have married at the weekend, announcing the news via an Instagram snap captioned nuptials.

House of Cards actress Mara, 34, shared a photo of the couple kissing on her official social media account on Monday evening, prompting fans to question whether or not they had wed.

British star Bell, 31, later posted the same photo, under the caption: Me and Mrs B.

The couple are thought to have been dating for two years, going public with their romance at the 2015 Met Ball.

Although they first met at a screen test 12 years ago, neither landed a role in the film, and they didnt end up working together until 2014s Fantastic Four reboot.

TODO: define component type brightcove

Speaking about getting married just last month, Mara told Jimmy Fallon that she wasnt keen on planning a wedding.

I dont love planning. I like planning in my life in general, but wedding planning, Im just not that interested. Like, What kind of spoon do you want on the table? Im just so uninterested, but Jamie is very interested," she said.

I will say, I dont care, and he will immediately give a response of exactly the colour and the shape  well the shape is obvious.

Bell has a three-year-old son with actress Evan Rachel Wood, to whom he was married between 2012-2014.
D isney has come under fire for casting a non-Arab star as Jasmine in the forthcoming Aladdin film.

The studio recently announced Naomi Scott as the female lead in Guy Ritchies live action remake of the classic tale, despite the fact that shes of British and Indian heritage rather than Middle Eastern decent.

A number of critics have accused Hollywood producers of viewing Arab and Indian actors as being interchangeable, with their casting based on the colour of their skin rather than their race.

While the original Aladdin is based in the fictional location of Agrabah, it has always been assumed that that this would have been in the Middle East.

One person wrote on Twitter: Could they really not find an Arabian girl to play the role of jasmine in Aladdin instead of a half White half Indian actress?

I love naomi scott but i don't love the "brown ppl are interchangeable" idea that hollywood believes in so it's a no from me lmao, asked another.

Casting an indian as aladdin is like casting a japanese actress as mulan. they "look" the same but they're f****** different, wrote one critic.

Others couldnt what all the fuss was about, hailing the 24-year-old rising star a great actress who deserved the role.

Beauty And The Beast - Trailer 3

Some even pointed out that Will Smith was stepping into the role of the blue genie, made famous by Robin Williams.

You are complaining that Naomi Scott doesn't have a brown-coloured skin to play as Princess Jasmine in. Will Smith ain't Blue, wrote one person.

The best empowering films for women- in pictures 1 /17 The best empowering films for women- in pictures Take a look at our pick of some of the most inspirational films for women... Matilda Matilda is one of the first feminist icons that many children learn about. Its not that she speaks on feminism as such, but more that she herself represents certain aspects of it. Matilda teaches children that women can be strong and smart as well as powerful. The most important thing is to believe in oneself. 3, Amazon, Buy it now Bend It Like Beckham The idea that girls shouldnt play football is turned on its head in Parminder Nagras film about friendship, culture and parental expectations. Not only are the two main characters fantastic sports women and firm friends, they also fight against the female stereotypes that we learn from a young age. A great coming-of-age story to watch with your daughter. 6.99, Amazon, Buy it now Mad Max: Fury Road A passionate film about fighting for what you believe in, Mad Max: Fury Road sees Charlize Theron take on the role of imperator Furiosa. Watch this if you want to get fired up to fight for a cause. 2.20, Amazon, Buy it now Erin Brockovich Who could forget the true story of Erin Brockovich, the single mother who investigates a huge environmental cover up singlehandedly. Played brilliantly by Julia Roberts, its a story about tenacity, drive and not being intimidated by those around you. Her sassy one-liners are also great comedy. 2.72, Amazon,Buy it now The Princess and the Frog What makes this Disney princess film so great is that she is the only one that resonates somewhat with a modern society. Sure, Tiana falls in love and gets the man like the others, but thats not what she- or the story- is focused on. Tiana has a dream to set up and run her own restaurant using traditional family recipes her father taught her. She forges ahead and makes her dream happen on her own terms, not relying on anyone else to do it for. This is a great story about setting goals and achieving them. 6.92, Amazon, Buy it now Suffragette Considering the suffragette movement happened nearly a hundred years ago, its amazing that a film wasnt made about it until 2015. It follows the story of a young mother who chooses to fight for the movement after growing tired of the injustices suffered by women in the early twentieth century. It will make you proud to be a woman and grateful to those who fought for the rights we enjoy today. 4.99, Amazon,Buy it now A League Of Their Own A story about women from all walks of life taking over a baseball team during World War II, A League of their Own reminds us that even if you work somewhere dominated by males, you can still defy expectations and achieve great things. If youre fighting for a promotion or pay rise at work, you need to watch this. 3.68, Amazon,Buy it now The First Wives Club The saying, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is never truer than in The First Wives Club, where three friends reunite after the death of their friend and the abandonment by their husbands for younger women. Although they set out to get revenge, what they actually find is great personal happiness and fulfilment, proving that you dont need someone else to lead a fulfilling life. 7.36, Amazon,Buy it now Queen of Katwe: One Girls Triumphant Path to Becoming a Chess Champion Queen of Katwe follows the story of Phiona, a girl growing up in Katwe who is introduced to the game of chess and turns out to be a prodigy; going on to compete in the national chess competition. As she grows up, Phiona sets her sights on becoming one of chess most elite players: a Grandmaster. This film shows how powerful the determination of a young girl can be and how the strength of a familial and community bond can help to achieve something phenomenal. The best part about it? Its a true story. 9.99, Amazon, Buy it now Wild Wild follows the story of Cheryl Strayed, a reckless heroin addict traumatised by the death of her mother and breakdown of her marriage. Upon reaching this dead end juncture, she decides to walk the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail- which is over 1,000 miles long- with no experience. A story that literally explores the figurative idea that you have to go through the pain in order to make it out, this is a great film to watch if youre going through a rough time and need inspiration to get through it. 3, Amazon,Buy it now Kill Bill Volume 2 In a roaring rampage of revenge, Beatrix Kiddo sets out to finish what she started in the second instalment of Quentin Tarantinos Kill Bill story. The best part of the film has to be when she busts out of a coffin buried underground, recalling her Kung Fu masters relentless training for when your enemy is three inches in front of your face. Her strength and sheer determination make this a film to get you fired up for a challenge. 1.88, Amazon,Buy it now Mulan Mulan is one of the first Disney films to display an inspirational female lead who isnt reliant on a prince to come and rescue her. If you havent watched this since you were young, wed recommend watching it again- Mulans fight against female stereotypes and strength of character is just as relevant today as it was back then. 6.95, Amazon,Buy it now

Tom Hardy was recently forced to quash rumours that he was being lined up to play villain Jafar after a whitewashing backlash.

The report sparked outrage with angry fans criticising the rumoured casting  months after Disney promised to avoid whitewashing.

Producer Dan Lin told fans that he and Ritchie will make a movie thats authentic to that world.

Speaking to Variety he said: I mean, Im not a typical guy. Listen, Im very fortunate working in Hollywood; I am diverse. So when I came in to make the movie, I wanted to make a diverse version of the movie.

Luckily for me, [director] Guy Ritchie has the same vision and Disney has the same vision, so were not here to make Prince of Persia. We want to make a movie thats authentic to that world.

Mena Massoud, who is of Egyptian background, will play the role of Aladdin.
148 Organizations Certified as Best Christian Workplaces

Contact: Kathy Lopus, Best Christian Workplaces Institute, 206-230-8111, klopus@bcwinstitute.org



MERCER ISLAND, Wash., July 18, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Best Christian Workplaces Institute today honors 148 ministries, churches, and Christian-owned businesses as "Certified Best Christian Workplaces." These organizations participated in the online, confidential employee engagement survey between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.



It marks the largest number of annual certified honorees in BCWI's 15-year history. The 148 honorees are based primarily in the U.S. and Canada, with Australia, Albania and Guatemala also involved.



Since 2002, more than 233,000 employees from over 900 organizations, churches and Christian-owned businesses have completed the BCWI's Employee Engagement Survey. This online instrument provides an objective, quantifiable measure of a flourishing workplace culture based on eight factors: fantastic teams, life-giving work, outstanding talent, uplifting growth, rewarding compensation, inspirational leadership, sustainable strategy and healthy communication.



BCWI President, Al Lopus, says, "The workplace excellence of each of these certified honorees confirms the fact that healthy-to-flourishing workplace culture drives the efficiency and productivity essential to organizational effectiveness."



About Best Christian Workplaces Institute

BCWI is an international non-profit, research-based, organizational development and human resources consulting firm, with a head office in Mercer Island, WA. BCWI's vision is to see Christian workplaces set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world.



For more information, visit Best Christian Workplaces Institute online: www.bcwinstitute.org. Each week, find proven insights from top Christian leaders on the BCWI Blog (blog.bcwinstitute.org) and Flourishing Culture Podcast (blog.bcwinstitute.org/podcast).



CAMPS & CONFERENCE CENTERS

BigStuf  Alpharetta, GA

CRISTA Camps  Seattle, WA

Lake Ann Camp  Lake Ann, MI

CHRISTIAN-OWNED BUSINESSES

Aspen Group  Frankfort, IL

Dr. Bray & Dr. Young  Statesboro, GA

Dow Smith Contracting Company, Inc.  Smyrna, TN

The Human Capital Group, Inc.  Brentwood, TN

Outreach  Colorado Springs, CO

CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Briarcrest Christian School  Memphis TN

Calvary Christian Academy  Fort Lauderdale, FL

Celebration Kinderschool  Tallahassee, FL

Chapelwood School for Young Children  Houston, TX

Cherry Hills Christian School  Highlands Ranch, CO

Colegio Cristiano Nicolas  Nebaj, Guatemala

College Heights Christian School  Joplin, MO

Crossings Christian School  Oklahoma City, OK

GDQ International Christian School  Tirana, Albania

King's Schools  Seattle, WA

Lionheart Children's Academy  Euless, TX

Pine Harbor Christian Academy  Hastings, MN

Santa Fe Christian Schools  Solana Beach, CA

Seattle Urban Academy  Seattle, WA

Southside Christian School  Simpsonville, SC

Trinity Academy  Raleigh, NC

Trinity Academy  Wichita, KS

Valley Christian Schools  Cerritos, CA

The Woodlands Christian Academy  The Woodlands, TX

CHURCHES

Ada Bible Church  Ada, MI

Antioch Community Church  Waco, TX

Bridgeway Community Church  Columbia, MD

Brookville Road Community Church  New Palestine, IN

Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale  Fort Lauderdale, FL

Calvary Lutheran Church of Golden Valley  Golden Valley, MN

Celebration Baptist Church  Tallahassee, FL

CenterPoint Church  Massapequa, NY

Chapelwood United Methodist Church  Houston, TX

Cherry Hills Community Church  Highlands Ranch, CO

Christ's Church of the Valley  Peoria, AZ

City Hope Church  Spanish Fort, AL

Coquitlam Alliance Church  Coquitlam, BC, Canada

Cornwall Church  Bellingham, WA

Crossings Community Church  Oklahoma City, OK

CROSSROADS  Odessa, TX

Crossroads Christian Church  Evansville, IN

Eastminster Presbyterian Church  Wichita, KS

Eastview Christian Church  Normal, IL

Experience Life Church  Lubbock, TX

Fairhaven Church  Dayton, OH

Faith Promise Church  Knoxville, TN

Gateway Church  Southlake, TX

Grace Community Church  Tyler, TX

The Harbor Church  Hastings, MN

Harvest Church  Billings, MT

Hillside Baptist Church  Moncton, NB, Canada

Irving Bible Church  Irving, TX

Lake Pointe Church  Rockwall, TX

Lancaster Baptist Church  Lancaster, CA

Lutheran Church of Hope  West Des Moines, IA

Metropolitan Baptist Church  Houston, TX

Northridge Christian Church  Milledgeville, GA

Pantano Christian Church  Tucson, AZ

Park Community Church  Chicago, IL

Providence Road Church of Christ  Charlotte, NC

Pure Heart Church  Glendale, AZ

Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church  San Diego, CA

Red Cedar Church  Rice Lake, WI

Redeemer Presbyterian Church  New York, NY

Redemption to the Nations Church  Chattanooga, TN

River Pointe Church  Richmond, TX

Rocky Mountain Christian Church  Niwot, CO

Rolling Hills Christian Church  El Dorado Hills, CA

Southeast Christian Church  Louisville, KY

Southridge Community Church  St. Catharines, ON, Canada

Sparks Christian Fellowship  Sparks, NV

Stafford Crossing Community Church  Fredericksburg, VA

Stone Ridge Church  Yuma, AZ

Summit Church  Durham, NC

Sunnybrook Community Church  Sioux City, IA

Timberline Church  Fort Collins, CO

Traders Point Christian Church  Indianapolis, IN

The Village Church  Flower Mound, TX

Vineyard Columbus  Westerville, OH

Willow Creek Community Church  South Barrington, IL

HIGHER EDUCATION

Columbia Bible College  Abbotsford, BC, Canada

Faith Builders  Guys Mills, PA

Grace School of Theology  The Woodlands, TX

MacArthur School of Leadership at Palm Beach Atlantic  West Palm Beach, FL

Olivet Nazarene University  Bourbonnais, IL

MEDIA

CRISTA Media  Seattle, WA

InterVarsity Press  Westmont, IL

LightMelbourne  VIC, Australia

Positive Alternative Radio, Inc.  Blacksburg, VA

Tyndale House Publishers  Carol Stream, IL

The Urban Alternative  Dallas, TX

PARACHURCH & MISSIONS
SCOTTSBLUFF  An ordinance authorizing the sale of 365 acres of city-owned property to Iowa-based Croell Inc., will go through another reading after the Scottsbluff City Council heard nearly an hour of comment Monday from concerned citizens who asked the city to exercise prudence on the decision to sell the land.

The property is located about three miles east of Scottsbluff on Highway 26, between county roads 26 and 27, Scottsbluff City Manager Nathan Johnson said.

Johnson said a cement manufacturer had previously used the land for gravel aggregate mining, and that Croell has offered the city $548,010 for the property  $1,010 more than the value the city had the land appraised for.

We think this is a considerable opportunity to create economic development, not just for the city, but also for the region, Johnson said.

Brian Marchant, Croell Redi-Mix branch manager, said the company is looking to establish a regional office, a Redi-Mix plant which would create 15 jobs, and a possible asphalt plant in the future. The purchase proposal comes after similar negotiations with the City of Gering to buy industrial land there hit an impasse with the Gering City Council. In attendance at Mondays meeting were Gering Mayor Tony Kaufman and Gering City Manager Lane Danielzuck.

I would like to thank the city manager and the mayor for helping identify some property for us, Marchant said. We are very heartened that the City of Scottsbluff has reached out to us and helped us find a place for our business.

Marchant said that the concrete plant is governed by EPA and Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality regulations for emissions, and that the proposed facility would contain vacuum equipment to collect the majority of the dust from the concrete plant. As for the proposed asphalt plant, Marchant said there would be a stack test which consists of running the plant at 75 percent of its max operating capacity to ensure it does not exceed Federal Emissions standards.

The bulk of the opposition came from Beth Everett Corymb and her husband Nathan Corymb. Their fourth-generation farm homestead is just 145 feet across county road 26 from the gate to Croells proposed facility.

From their homestead, Beth and Nathan have three businesses: Meadowlark Hearth, which provides organic produce and milk to community supporters; a certified-organic seed operation, which is one of the only facilities of its kind in the Midwest; as well as the Living Environment Foundation, a non-profit that aims to educate people in both sustainable agriculture and provide a therapeutic outlet. Beth Everett Corymb said that she and her husband have an altruistic purpose in mind: they are developing the farm to hand on as a public resource after they both die.

As I look around the country, I see people needing purpose, they need to feel like they belong to something, but they also understand what life is about, she said. I found out after various adventures in my youth that learning about plants and learning about animals can heal people, and it can bring them together.

She made it clear several times that she was not in opposition to the idea of a Redi-Mix plant, but that she was unsettled by the proposed locations close proximity to their farm.

I mean no disparity on the cement plant, but we need to plan ahead and locate them in the right place for what were developing, Beth Everett Corymb said. I would like it if (the city) would do a little more research.

Astrid Munn, who serves on the board of the Living Environment Foundation, said she has been a customer of Meadowlark Hearths CSA program since February. Munn said that a petition circulating online asking the council to reconsider the ordinance had garnered roughly 100 signatures in less than six hours.

In opposing tonight's ordinances, people who signed this petition are not necessarily anti-concrete, anti-industry, or against the citys efforts to promote business, Munn said. If theres anything that people hunger for at this point, its transparency and greater deliberation on what to do with this land that might have greater value as recreational or hunting grounds.

At the closing of the public comment, a motion to waive the three readings of the ordinance was brought forward. However, Councilman Scott Shaver protested.

Theres no way, there was too much input to waive it, Shaver said. I have yet to see anything stop once it gets started in government.

Beth Everett Corymb asked if there was an option to open the bidding for someone else to purchase the property for a different use.

Weve exhausted all options to make sure this business is successful in Scottsbluff/Gering, Johnson said, adding that there are no requirements under the state statute to open up the property for bidding.

The final vote to waive the ordinance failed 3-2 because it takes a unanimous majority to waive the third reading.
Western Nebraska locations got some mentions as journalist Dan Rather and his grandson, Martin Rather, traveled through to visit Mount Rushmore over the weekend.

Rather visited Mount Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Sunday, July 16.

"Mount Rushmore is a great monument. It never disappoints," he said in a video posted to Facebook.

In a series of videos on his Facebook page, Rather and Martin Rather have been speaking about their travels together. Dan Rather and Martin Rather said they took a tour of Mount Rushmore Monday and visited the Crazy Horse Memorial Monument, which is still under construction and a short drive from Mount Rushmore.

Observances during the trip have included comments about railroads spotted along the highways as they traveled from Grand Island, Nebraska, to Rapid City. Rather offered comments about the importance of the railroad and trucking for hauling goods.

Martin Rather also mentioned that the duo had stopped at a gas station that sold beer, bait and ammo in Nebraska, though Martin Rather said they had forgotten the name of the station or town that they had visited.

During the trip on Sunday, Martin Rather mentioned, they did not see a lot of restaurants opened on Sundays. They spoke about a stop at the McDonald's in Alliance  which both men mentioned has a construction project that is currently under way.

Martin Rather called it "a lovely McDonald's," though Dan Rather said "it was anything but beautiful" with the project under way. He complained in a laughing manner that his breaded chicken sandwich had too much mayo.

Alliance also got a mention on Rather's Twitter, with a tweet about traffic. Rather mentioned "driving on lonely  few other cars  but lovely stretch of Hwy 385 through NW Nebraska, near town of Alliance."

Also on Twitter, Rather shared a photo of the duo stopping at a Chadron Taco John's for tacos.

As the grandfather-grandson wrapped up their journey, Rather reminded viewers of a common theme in his travel  to support local media. He said that he had visited with local journalists at television stations in South Dakota. He also talked about reading local newspapers and listening to the news on local radio stations.

He touted local newspapers, reminding people that they offer good strong local coverage.

"If you are not subscribing to your local newspaper, then why not do so, because in many cases you are supporting first-rate journalism."
GERING  The Nebraska State Historical Society (NSHS) board of trustees is coming to town for its quarterly meeting where members will be discussing how to increase connections in western Nebraska.

The 15-member board of trustees will meet at the Legacy of the Plains museum in Gering. Two quarterly meetings are set somewhere in the state outside of Lincoln.

When Director Trevor Jones traveled out to Chimney Rock last year, he made a point to visit the museum.

Brian Croft, third district representative said Jones was particularly impressed with because most people dont expect something like that in a smaller town.

There arent many museums in Nebraska that embrace modern history and technology, Croft said.

The societys budget covers most of the discussion at each meeting. It is funded from a general fund, a cash fund and a federal fund, which are grants. The general fund comes from the Nebraska Legislature. The NSHS received $5.4 million for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. That number has been cut for the upcoming year. The money is spread among several sites including property in Antelope County, Fort Robinson and Chimney Rock.

Last year a large chunk of funding was put into the rehabilitation of the museum in Lincoln. It wasnt ADA compliant and it was leaking. New elevators were put in and drainage was modernized.

This is an old Elks building and the drainage was internal, Croft said. When rain hit the roof, it went inside along the walls to drain.

Another responsibility of the society is the approximately 500 roadside markers across the state. The Fort Mitchell marker was hit by a snow plow and needs to be replaced. From minor touch ups to replacement, the cost can be thousands of dollars each.

Croft said with limited staff of about 75 people across the state, its difficult to know about everything going on. If people contact them, the society can be more proactive.

The NSHS is also working to expand its outreach to the public to let them know about available services and how they can help.

Outreach also includes Historic Sites Coordinator Sandra Reddish who is based in western Nebraska. Croft said the position was one Jones wanted so a representative could be present for the society and Nebraskans.

While many people who live in western Nebraska dont often think about sites to visit in their own backyard, thousands of people do visit.

A lot of people come for tourism, Croft said. A lot of other people just want to come West and see whats here.

Croft said one issue with museums around the nation is it is difficult to keep museums fresh. One reason museums exist is to preserve artifacts. Once the diorama and/or displays are up, museums need to look at ways to keep themselves fresh for return visitors.

Chimney Rock does a good job of advertising itself. When visitors come to western Nebraska, its prominent and people stop. Many sites are unknown unless there is advertisement. The NSHS is conducting research to see how to raise awareness to some of the less prominent locations, promoting themselves on social media and will soon roll out an updated website.

The rehabilitation at the museum in Lincoln was successful, but now the museum it has to look at what happens next. Legacy of the Plains has done well reaching people of all ages, which is not easy when dealing with historical artifacts, he said.

Though it is not the main focus of the meeting, the NSHS plans to make updates to the visitors center at Chimney Rock, including expanding the theater, which will be enclosed and a revamping museum.

Staff will continue working to preserve the history of Nebraska and work with other museums to connect the eastern and western parts of the state. They connect people to information and want to know what Nebraskans think.

We really want people to know the job is to preserve Nebraskas history, he said. We want to hear what people are interested in.

The representatives will be in town Thursday, July 20 and Friday, July 21. There will a meet and greet on July 20 from 5-7 p.m. at Chimney Rock. RSVPs are appreciated to Leslie Fattig at the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation at http://www.nshsf.org.

For more information visit http://nebraskahistory.org or call 402-471-3270.
GERING  Before the sun came up Saturday, before the birds began to sing, national park rangers made a connection with students in Afghanistan.

Dan Morford, superintendent at the Scotts Bluff National Monument and Lesley Gaunt, lead interpreter and park ranger, and Justin Cawiezel, chief ranger, were at the Scotts Bluff National Monument at 5 a.m. Sunday, July 16 to meet students in Afghanistan via the internet.

The event was scheduled so early because of the time difference and park rangers meeting some cultural considerations in Afghanistan.

Women cant be on the streets after dark, Morford said. Because of unrest, no one really wants to be on the streets after dark.

More than 60 students from schools in Kabul, Jalalabad and Bamiyan asked questions about the National Park Service what it does and how it works. They were interested in budgets and why people want to come to them.

The distance learning opportunity began about four months ago when the State Department requested a connection be made. Morford and Gaunt made a test run on Thursday, July 13 with an iPad and a Verizon hotspot from ESU#13.

Because our iPads have so much encryption, they dont connect by themselves to the Internet, Morford said. With the hotspot, we get really good coverage and were toodling all over the place.

The connection between the two countries was set up by the Lincoln Learning Centers and the U.S. embassy. Scotts Bluff National Monument was chosen because it is a sister park to Band-e Amir, the only national park in Afghanistan.

Afghanis who live in Bamiyan have access to the national park, but those who live in Kabul do not because they have to drive through Taliban territory and risk being shot. Park service employees who live in Kabul cannot safely visit their own park in any official capacity. Even in civilian clothes, the trip is questionable. Some students in nearby Bamiyan do hike in the park.

Morford began by explaining there are 417 units in the national park system and his role as superintendent.

Part of our goal is to provide programs for visitors so they understand what is unique about this area and why it was set aside, Morford said.

There are a number of people who come to use the trails, including the local population. They bring their families. There are also visitors from across the nation and the world.

Its not uncommon to see people from Belgium, England, Scotland or France, Morford said.

Students saw the visitor center as well as the park. As it got lighter outside, students were treated to the views as the sun rose. As Gaunt explained how immigrants traveled through Mitchell Pass, a mule deer and its young hopped in front of Sentinel rock, disappearing in the distance.

Cawiezel discussed the geological makeup of the monument and features in the park. Unexposed rock has been dated to 33 million years old while exposed rock has been dated at 30 million years old.

Students were most interested in numbers. They wanted to know visitation  130,000 in the last three years  and costs to visit  $5 per vehicle. Visitation begin to pick up in April with a peak in June and July before dropping off again in September.

Were not what you consider a destination park where people come to just see our park, Cawiezel said. A lot of families that are traveling come to Scotts Bluff en route to other locations.

Students also wanted to know the economic impact of having a national park. People spend money on food, gas and lodging in the area as well as then visit other locations, such as the Legacy of the Plains museum.

It really helps the local economy, Cawiezel said. The calculated impact is about $7 million generated by tourism on the local economy.

The monuments budget is about $1 million per year and can see 200-500 visitors per day during peak season.

National parks are chosen depending on several factors including location, preservation of unique scenery and wildlife and historical significance. The monument was chosen because it fits all those factors. There is Mitchell Pass, a major pass on the trails west. There are also species, such as white tail deer, mule deer, raccoons, a variety of birds, porcupines and rabbits. There are also Prairie rattlesnake, great basin gopher snake, commonly referred to as a bull snake, and blue racers. Occasionally, mountain lions and coyotes are spotted on their way searching for prairie dogs.

Most national parks, Scotts Bluff included, do not allow hunting and the animals are protected.

The virtual tour and questions lasted about 90 minutes. Cawiezel said he was pleased with being able to provide students half a world away with first hand information about the national park system and the Scotts Bluff National Monument.

We, as a staff, love sharing that information with our park visitors and having those visitors around world is an interesting medium, Cawiezel said.

Students in Afghanistan learn about the national park system
At its July 17 meeting, the Scotts Bluff County Commissioners gave final approval on a contract to start construction on the County Detention Center.

Corrections Director Joe Gall said its a relief to get the contract signed so they can start moving forward on getting the remodeling and new construction completed.

Now that the county has signed the contract, a letter of intent must be sent to the construction manager of Risk, FCI Construction of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Once they receive the letter, FCI will start getting all their equipment organized to bring over for the project, Gall said. Im hoping theyll get started within the next couple of weeks.

Gall said its been a long process working with the architects, the construction company and the Nebraska Jail Standards Board to get the final design approved.

Im glad we all came to the conclusion we wanted, he said. It will be a big plus having a new, larger medical unit so we dont have to house our medical needs patients in the booking area. That will be a great relief.

It took some time for the Jail Standards Board to approve the design for the new medical area, but Gall said it will help with staff morale to have the updated space needed to handle the inmates medical needs.

The medical unit will have space for 10 inmates, with the capability of double bunking to allow for 20 if needed.

As of right now, there is a possibility of moving staff in and out, depending on the different phases of construction. However, Gall said its still too early to determine if that will be necessary.

Some of the crowding at the detention center is already being addressed. The Goshen County, Wyoming, jail is currently housing 18 inmates from Scotts Bluff County. The Wyoming facility can handle up to 30 inmates.

Scotts Bluff County is also contracting with Dawson County (Lexington), Nebraska to house prisoners if a backup facility is needed.

Included in the plans is a work release housing area near the main entrance so those inmates wont have to be housed with the general population.

Well have an eight-bed work release facility, Gall said. I think it will be a great addition to the center. We wont have to worry about inmates coming back in and bringing contraband into a secure part of the jail. The new work release area will help us make a dramatic cut in the contraband problem.

Once completed, the remodeled detention center will be able to house 250-270 inmates. The projected completion date is in March or April 2018.
GERING  The story of Buffalo Bill Cody, one of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, comes alive again July 19 at the Gering Public Library.

Humanities Nebraska speaker Jeff Barnes will present Buffalo Bills Nebraska at 6:30 p.m. in the librarys community room as part of the their adult summer reading program.

Jeff Barnes is an excellent speaker and always gives interesting presentations, said Gering librarian Sherry Preston. Buffalo Bill died 100 years ago this year in Denver, so this presentation will be a good one.

Barnes first book was a historic travel guide to the military posts on the Plains during the Indian Wars period. His second was to cover the military posts in the Southern Plains, but his research took a different path and led to Gen. George Custer and the posts where he served.

For my third book, a natural progression from Custer was to Buffalo Bill, Barnes said. I was amazed at how much he accomplished while he was living in Nebraska that led to his becoming the most famous man in the world.

Born in 1846 in Iowa Territory, William Frederick Cody became a rider for the Pony Express at the age of 14. He served with the Union during the Civil War from 1863 to 1865. Later, he was a civilian scout for the U.S. Army during the Indian Wars and received the Medal of Honor in 1872.

While he was living at Ft. McPherson, Cody acted as a hunting guide for prominent people who visited the fort, from generals to members of Congress to Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.

All of those experiences led to the creation of Buffalo Bills Wild West, featuring shows that depicted cowboy life and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars.

The Wild West Show started out as a Fourth of July celebration in North Platte, Barnes said. Cody thought it could be more than just an annual show, but something he could take around the country.

Cody was right. By 1887, his shows were being staged in Great Britain and continental Europe, drawing the same huge crowds he experienced in America.

During his first presentation of the Wild West Show in Omaha, he said he was going to present it as a thoroughbred Nebraska show, Barnes said. We wanted to tell the country and later the world about what life was like in Nebraska.

A fifth-generation Nebraskan, freelance writer and historian, Barnes is a board trustee of the Nebraska State Historical Society, past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission and former marketing director for Omahas Durham Museum.

Barnes will present the life and times of William Frederick Buffalo Bill Cody at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19 at the Gering Public Library, 1050 O Street. Refreshments will be served and door prizes awarded.

For more information, call the library at 308-426-7433.
By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com Westover and Smith roads, on the far western edge of the county, will get paving priority for 2023. Country commissioners and Scott Schmieder, county road and bridge foreman, decided at last Thursdays commission meeting to go ahead and seal up that corner of the county. That way, graders will not have
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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

By: Peter Pomerantsev

PublicAffairs; 1 edition (November 11, 2014)

256 pages

When I was in the 7th grade, the international school I went to overseas took a week-long field-trip to Russia. St. Petersburg and Moscow. I wanted so bad to go. My parents said I was too young. Even now, I dont know if they were right or wrong. Missing an adventure like that. Would I let my children do the same? Maybe they should have volunteered to come too. All I know for sure is that this book was an amazing read. It was eye-opening, to say the least. If you are interested in Russia  or a culture other than your own  read this book. And if you are going to Russia for a few days, please take me with you.

Two of my favorite quotes:

This isnt a country in transition but some sort of postmodern dictatorship that uses the language and institutions of democratic capitalism for authoritarian ends.

Politics is the ability to use any situation to advance your own status, Sergey told me with a smile that seemed to mimic Surkovs (who in turn mimics the KGB men). How do you define your political views? I asked him. He looked at me like I was a fool to ask, then smiled: Im a liberal . . . it can mean anything!
President Klaus Iohannis said Tuesday that the Battle of Marasti shows that nothing can stand in the way of achieving the important projects of the nation, adding that Romania sees the European design as the guarantor of a secure and peaceful future and its prosperity.

He added that the Battle of Marasti was the Romanian Army's first great victory in the war for the reunification of the Romanian nation that was achieved at by the sacrifice of Romanian troops commanded by Marshall Alexandru Averescu, as well as Generals Arthur Vaitoianu, Alexandru Margineanu and Nicolae Arghirescu.

"On behalf of the Romanian State, I have come here to show our gratitude and to honour the memory of these heroes. It is on their sacrifice that today's Romania, a united, dignified and respected nation, is supported. (...) This place was rebuilt from scratch after the Greater Union and it is an example of rebirth from the ashes of sacrifice. It is a symbol of the fact that nothing can stand in the way of achieving the important projects of the nation when the nation's energy is harnessed by the responsibility of the political class, especially when the sacrifices of each generation are not hijacked by demagoguery and populism," said Iohannis.

He added that WWI is a reminder the meaning of hatred and disunity and how important unity, solidarity and peace are to the European continent.

"The sincerest expression of gratitude for the legacy of our forerunners is our contribution, together, to the materialisation of a country project that will consolidate Romania as a European state where the law is the same for everyone, a fatherland for all its citizens, a tolerant and inclusive country," said Iohannis.

He added that Romania sees the European design as a guarantor of a secure and peaceful future, of its prosperity.

"I am calling on you to unite our effort to strengthen the design, which implicitly means the development and progress of our country overall and of each local community as well. Let us celebrate the Greater Union Centennial by a concrete commitment, not some for the show or in words only, to a united, prosperous, strong and educated Romania! Let us turn the battlefields of sacrifice from 100 years ago into places of achievements for the descendants of the heroes that we have celebrated today!" concluded Iohannis.

At Marasti, Iohannis was extended a traditional welcome, with bread and salt, by two children dressed in folklore costumes.

A military and religious ceremony followed. Iohannis laid a wreath at the Marasti Mausoleum and visited the local museum.

Also attending the event were Defence Minister, Adrian Tutuianu, head of Romania's General Defence Staff, Nicolae Ciuca, presidential advisers, Ion Oprisor, and Sergiu Nistor, local and county administration officials, parliamentarians and over 100 civilians.
President Klaus Iohannis stated on Tuesday that he recommends the Social Democratic Party (PSD) members to think well about the legislative changes they want to make, because the parliamentary majority that the governing coalition holds allows them to do so and, thus, avoid political errors.

When asked on Tuesday in Miercurea Ciuc, about how he comments the manner in which the Gov't has lately brought into discussion certain economic measures, afterwards withdrawn the ideas and notions released in the public space, President Klaus Iohannis stated he recommends the PSD members to think well about what they intend to do and then "come before the nation and say it."

"If new notions that are promoted one day and the other day are withdrawn are introduced in the public discussion by a coalition that holds the majority in Parliament, this thing is a serious political error. Because this majority has the parliamentary capacity to promote the amendment of the legislation and the economy, investors, entrepreneurs are reacting to such thing. I would recommend the PSD members, with a lot of warmth, to go home, think a little about their own program and when they know what they want, they should come before the nation and say it," Romania's President said.

The head of state participated on Tuesday in the debate called "Coherence and transparency - examples of good practices in Harghita and Covasna Counties," which was also attended by approximately 300 representatives of the local public administration of the two counties.

agerpres.
The Brexit negotiations and the development of the bilateral economic relations were the topics discussed on Tuesday at the meeting of Prime Minister, Mihai Tudose, with UK Ambassador in Bucharest, Paul Brummell.

According to a Government release, in the Brexit context, Prime Minister Tudose underscored that the Government wants to closely work with the UK, so that the rights of Romanians studying, working and living in the UK be respected and protected, and the bilateral economic relations rise up to the level of the excellent political collaboration between the two states.

"The UK is and will remain Romania's partner and friend. I am confident that we'll do a very applied work for the Romanians in the UK not to be affected by Brexit. At the same time, Romania provides a stable, friendly business environment, fiscal facilities for investors, therefore we have all premises for the development of the economic relations," the head of Government said.

In his turn, Ambassador Brummell handed to the Romanian PM a congratulation letter from his British counterpart Theresa May. The British diplomat underscored that it is important that the Brexit negotiations have positive results both for the UK and for the European Union, and appreciated the contribution of the community of Romanians to the British society.

The Romanians working, studying and living in the UK are welcome. The best Romanian students come to the UK, very good doctors and engineers work there, who have an important contribution to our economy, the Ambassador said.

At the same time, the British diplomat highlighted the interest in encouraging investments and bilateral commercial exchanges, noting the fact that British investments have been concentrated more in Bucharest, although there is a development potential in the rest of the country as well.

He brought to mind that branches of the Romanian-British Chamber of Commerce have been established in Cluj and Timisoara, which will provide a new dynamics to the economic relations.

Another topic of the discussion referred to Romania's candidacy to the member status of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a context in which Prime Minister Tudose asked for the UK's support to endorse Romania's candidacy, taking into account its important role in this international organisation.
President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday in Miercurea Ciuc (Harghita County) that there is a backlog of infrastructure in the Harghita and Covasna counties, pointing out that it would be "a pity" for an area with such huge tourism potential to remain disconnected from the rest of the country.

The head of state said that Harghita and Covasna have a great development potential, especially for tourism, stating that the representatives of the local public authorities have to get even more involved in capitalizing on this sector.

"There are many sectors and fields of activity worth investing in. There are historic monuments that confer a special touch to the region, balneal and spa resorts of national importance, reserves of mineral waters worth exploiting, and many folkloric and ethnographic areas that must be preserved because they have a formidable capacity to attract Romanian and foreign tourists. It is a good sign that in 2016 the number of tourist arrivals was nearly double compared to 2015 but the share of foreign tourists is still well below the national average," Iohannis detailed.

The President stressed that the modernization of the road infrastructure is key to the development of urban and rural areas, but also for increasing tourist attractiveness and, in general, economic attractiveness of the region. "It would be a great pity for an area with such a high tourist potential to remain unconnected to the rest of the country," Iohannis pointed out.

The head of state said he is well aware of the economic and demographic realities of the area, as well as the dynamics of the labor resources, mentioning that a positive aspect that caught his attention was "the cluster-building capacity of the Harghita and Covasna counties", the local initiatives, the capacity for cooperation in key areas.

The President also welcomed "inter-community collaboration" in the area, showing that the successful community projects in Harghita and Covasna "confirm the essential importance of the local solutions the good of the whole country ultimately depends upon. "Only together we can build a prosperous Romania," he concluded.
Its official: Amazon will open its first Missouri distribution facility in Hazelwood Logistics Center.

The new distribution center had long been anticipated to fill warehouse space being built by NorthPoint Development, the Kansas City firm that acquired the industrial park from Paul McKee in 2015.

Local real estate sources had been saying for months that Amazon was eyeing Hazelwood, where a number of speculative warehouses are under construction.

Hazelwood officials announced Friday that Amazon would lease space in two warehouses there.

The city said Amazon would occupy all 348,480 square feet in the parks Building 3, at 462 Hazelwood Logistics Center Drive. That building will be used as a sorting center, Hazelwood said. Amazon will take an additional 100,000 square feet in Building 4 at 441 Hazelwood Logistics Center Drive for use as a delivery station.

The remainder of that buildings 243,241 square feet will be occupied by Bunzl Distribution USA Inc., which is relocating a distribution center from Maryland Heights to the Hazelwood Logistics Center.

Bunzl Distribution, which supplies food packaging and disposable supplies, is a U.S. subsidiary of London-based Bunzl plc.

Amazon is hiring nine full-time employees to operate the sorting center in Building 3 and will have 25 full-time employees working at the delivery station in Building 4. The company plans to hire 350 part-time associates for both locations, according to the announcement from Hazelwood.

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company plans to have the facilities open later this year and that hiring has already begun.

Both the sorting facility  Amazon calls them sortation centers  and the delivery station are smaller than the two big fulfillment centers Amazon announced last year in Edwardsville, which were expected to employ about 1,000 people full time.

The sorting and delivery stations are the way stations between the fulfillment centers and Amazon customers.

Speculation mounted in January that Amazon would soon be moving into a Missouri location after it began collecting state and local sales tax here, which it isnt legally required to do unless it has a physical presence in a state.

Hazelwood, with new warehouses under construction and proximity to major interstates within a large metro area, seemed a natural fit.

The Hazelwood Logistics Center is very competitive due to tax breaks approved by the city. In 2015, Hazelwood approved 10 years of full tax abatement for the planned Hazelwood Logistics Center buildings, and an additional seven years of 50 percent property taxes. It also granted sales tax exemptions for construction materials used in the new facilities.

The company was not offered any state incentives, which require employers to meet certain income and health insurance requirements to qualify.

Editor's note: Bunzl is not relocating its Creve Coeur corporate offices to Hazelwood. A news release from Hazelwood provided incorrect information.
A year after failing to come to terms, Missouri Care and SSM Health have agreed on a deal to serve Medicaid members in the state.

Medicaid members covered by Missouri Care, a Medicaid managed care provider, will again have access to SSM Health facilities and providers.

In addition to SSM, Missouri Care members have access to Washington University physicians, BJC HealthCare facilities and doctors, Mercy, Des Peres Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital.

Missouri Care is a subsidiary of WellCare Health Plans Inc.
As the site of uranium processing for the first nuclear weapons, St. Louis claim as the birthplace of the atomic age is more than just a historical footnote from the 1940s. Decades later, some North County residents still feel as though they grapple with that legacy through health fears linked to West Lake Landfill and Coldwater Creek  two places where radioactive waste ended up.

Their concerns and calls for urgent, thorough cleanups of contaminated sites near their homes are the focus of Rebecca Cammisas new documentary, Atomic Homefront, the latest film to examine the St. Louis areas history with radioactive waste.

The work will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase; it airs on HBO in early 2018.

We wanted to understand the history of this problem and how everyone has inherited this problem, said Cammisa, the New York-based filmmaker who directed, produced and shot the documentary over more than two years.

Through interviews, footage of community meetings, old television clips and other researched material, Cammisa not only tells the story of the 47,000 tons of uranium-, thorium- and radium-laced waste at West Lake Landfill, next to where a subsurface smoldering event burns beneath the adjacent Bridgeton Landfill. The film also addresses radioactive contamination found along Coldwater Creek, where waste was transported into backyards, parks and other creekside property from storage sites upstream.

Cammisa said roping the two hotspots of contamination into one storyline was essential to provide a complete picture of North Countys decades-long history with radiation.

You couldnt really tell one story without telling the other, because theyre so intertwined, Cammisa said.

Citizens included in the film agreed.

When we separate the issue from West Lake to Coldwater Creek, we cant do that, said Joyce Blount, an individual at one of the community meetings featured in the film. Theyre one of the same.

Cammisa said interviews with many government agencies and private companies associated with either area were denied, leaving the documentary to largely follow the citizens most concerned with potential health risks facing nearby communities. In doing so, the film captures the exhaustion and exasperation of many of them as they contend with the often glacial pace of remediation and the tedious layers of technical decisions governing those cleanup efforts.

One of the citizen-led groups featured most prominently is Just Moms STL, a coalition of North County mothers focused on radioactive waste issues. Some parallels are hinted at in a couple of scenes when the group meets with Lois Gibbs, who rose to environmentalist fame as a young housewife in the 1970s after spearheading similar grassroots activism in her Niagara Falls, N.Y., neighborhood of Love Canal, built atop tons of toxic waste. The national attention drawn to Love Canal helped launch the Environmental Protection Agencys Superfund program, in which West Lake has languished since 1990.

When you hear (then-President) Jimmy Carter say there should never be another Love Canal, well, guess what? Theres many of them, Cammisa said. Same kind of problem, different decade.

Atomic Homefront ultimately suggests that North Countys struggle with radioactive waste has a toll that extends far beyond arcane meetings and bureaucratic red tape. Citizen groups have mapped suspected cancer clusters around Coldwater Creek, for instance, and two cancer patients interviewed in the film died before its public debut.

One of those patients, Michelle Seger, visits the creek in one scene of the documentary.

If I had a dollar for every time I crossed that creek, she said.

The film shows that she wasnt alone. Old photos show families fishing and kids playing in the creek. Graceful aerial shots also provide a sense of context about how the creek and landfill mesh with the surrounding communities.

Scale, distance and landscape are superimportant, Cammisa said. You begin to understand the proximity people had to this powerful waste.
ST. LOUIS  Rich Dennett, 72, has lived on Riverview Drive for more than 20 years. In that time, speeding cars have crashed into several nearby telephone poles, damaged three of his cars, taken out his mailbox at least 10 times and even launched over his fish pond before landing in his driveway.

Speeders, careless drivers and just plain accidents have long sparked the ire of residents along this stretch of road between the Mississippi River and St. Louis County. Earlier this year, a cyclist was struck and killed to the north. There was a fatal crash less than a mile to the south of Dennetts home in May, and another in the same area in June.

And Tuesday morning, it was a neighbor of Dennetts killed in yet another crash near Dennetts home in the 9700 block of Riverview.

Police say Gary Elmer, 64, was driving north in the southbound lane of Riverview when he slammed into a southbound driver about 6 a.m. Elmer, who was pronounced dead at a hospital, may have been trying to take a quick shortcut from Bluff Drive to Valley Drive without fully pulling into the northbound traffic lane of Riverview for the 90 or so feet between the two cross streets.

Elmer lived nearby, in the 300 block of Scenic Drive, police said. The other driver, a 39-year-old man, was seriously injured.

Lt. Paul Lauer, commander of the St. Louis Police Departments traffic safety division, said hes aware of the concerns of those such as Dennett who live along Riverview.

It does seem speed is a problem, Lauer said. This one is more poor judgment.

Elmer was driving a Honda Accord north in the southbound lane. Lauer said it appears he had made a quick turn onto Riverview from Bluff Drive, apparently planning to make another quick left onto Valley Drive.

But instead of turning onto Riverviews northbound lane, he stayed to the left in the southbound lane  and was hit by an oncoming southbound Dodge Challenger. Skid marks from the Challenger show its driver tried to stop, Lauer said.

That man was able to talk to police at the scene and explain what happened. The police accident-reconstruction team was investigating the crash.

Riverview stretches for about 3.5 miles from Hall Street to Interstate 270. Bluff Drive is at about the halfway point. The scene is less than a mile north of a June 1 collision that killed a man on Riverview. In that crash, a pickup and semi collided near Scranton Avenue. A man died at the scene.

About two weeks before that, on May 13, a driver died after being thrown from a vehicle at Scranton Avenue and Riverview Drive.

Police identified the victim as Duane Ackins, 51, of East St. Louis. Police say Ackins vehicle struck a concrete barrier, ran off the road, hit a light pole and rolled onto its side. Ackins was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.

In February, a St. Louis University professor was struck and killed while cycling in the 10600 block of Riverview, farther north toward the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Life on Riverview a trade-off

Residents along Riverview have been complaining about speeders and crashes there for years. When Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens held a news conference July 10 about having state troopers patrol highways in St. Louis, some residents along Riverview who are part of the Chain of Rocks Community Association showed up and held signs asking that local police not forget about Riverview.

Dennett, retired from a job as a mechanic at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, said he held a sign at the Greitens protest, hoping that police would spend more time patrolling Riverview. He said a city police commander has assured residents that city officers would run radar or do more patrolling.

I cant hardly name them all, Dennett said of the crashes he has seen along Riverview.

The time his fish pond, encircled with stones, was destroyed, four teens who had been drinking and joyriding walked away from the crash, he said. That was about seven years ago. Their car careened over the pond and landed in Dennetts driveway, causing $10,000 worth of damage to his pickup and his wifes Impala.

The trade-off for living along Riverview is a knockout view. Dennett can see the meandering Mississippi River from his front yard and, when he stands on a hill in his backyard, he can see the Gateway Arch. He persists, swapping out mailboxes when they get demolished, and tending to the plants that get smashed. The fish pond is dormant.

The speeders and crashes arent the only signs of trouble along Riverview. Dennett said he hears gunshots too.

But the traffic, he said, is scarier than the gunshots.
The rural Grandview School District in Jefferson County has only 825 students during the school year. But this summer, it raked in thousands of state dollars for educating about 1,500 students through its own online school.

Students from across the state  not just from Grandview  are drawn to the summer online offerings. Some are high school students looking to make up for a class they previously failed. Others take state-required courses such as personal finance, a move that frees up their schedule during the regular school year.

All the students are taking the classes tuition-free, thanks to state funding that has helped the district beef up its summer virtual class offerings.

Grandviews Missouri Online Summer Institute is open to all Missouri students for free regardless of home district or location. Students from every county in Missouri have enrolled in one of 125 summer online courses, ranging from Advanced Placement calculus to Introduction to Agriscience to International Business.

I did very much enjoy all of the courses online because I was able to sit at home on my recliner  and I was able to take my classes, said Jonathan Gowan, a sophomore who attends De Soto High School in Jefferson County. He is taking engineering and design, astronomy, personal finance and physical education through the Missouri Online Summer Institute.

The fact that Grandview can offer such a broad range of summer online courses for students statewide is owed at least partly to its investment in virtual education year-round.

For the past decade, the district has invested tens of thousands of dollars into building an online education program. Doing so has allowed Grandview to offer courses for its own students that it wouldnt have been able to because of cost limitations, including AP courses.

We were a rural district with limited resources and trying to figure out ways to be competitive with large school districts, said Mike Brown, coordinator for the Missouri Online Summer Institute and former Grandview superintendent. We turned to virtual education as a way to enhance our curriculum and to give our students an opportunity to take anything they wanted to take.

Grandview is not a wealthy district, Brown said. The main businesses there are a rock quarry and a small rubber belt plant that employs about half a dozen people. The rest of the district is largely farms and homes.

Because the high school is small  it has about 400 students  officials say its impractical to hire a teacher for an advanced class that may have 10 students interested one year, then zero the next.

Our kids needed the ability to have access to things we could not offer them without virtual (classes), Brown said.

If it werent for its online program, Grandview wouldnt offer any AP courses. By offering courses online, it can access certified teachers provided by a private vendor.

During the school year, about 20 percent of Grandview High School students take an online course. The school offers a study hall period where students can take online classes, and the district has invested in tablets and laptops for all students.

The district uses online curricula from Fuel Education, part of online education company K12. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has authorized Fuel Education as a course provider for the states online education program, MOVIP.

Officials say the Fuel Education courses are rigorous and not an academic shortcut for students. For example, a calculus course requires students to show how they got to an answer, rather than simply writing the answer down.

The options even include physical education courses. For those classes, students must perform physical activities and keep a time log under the watch of an approved adult.

Fuel Education courses also allow students who fail a test or quiz to study longer, then retake the assessment.

Grandview has not conducted a review or study of the effectiveness of its online program because of small sample sizes, according to the district. But it plans to do so in the future.

Grandviews online summer school has proven popular despite minimal advertising, officials say. Administrators hope to persuade Missouri to allow a statewide online school, administered by the district, during the school year.

We think there is a need for a year-round virtual school program in the state of Missouri, Brown said.
ST. LOUIS  When a historic building built by Mark Twains uncle, James Clemens Jr., burned in an early morning fire last week, nearby residents were initially concerned about the fire spreading to other homes  at least two of which were ignited by windblown embers.

Now, theyre worried about whether the thin pieces of charred debris that still litter neighborhood yards and sidewalks contain asbestos.

Larry Chapman, a resident of the 1600 block of Helen Street, north of the scene of the fire, says that debris he had tested independently confirmed the presence of asbestos. City officials said Monday that they enlisted help of Environmental Protection Agency personnel to conduct tests of their own.

Todd Waelterman, director of operations for the mayors office, said the city became involved once public health concerns arose beyond the building footprint of the long-vacant Clemens House.

As of Monday afternoon, Waelterman said officials had not received permission from the Clemens House owners  the community development organization NorthSide Regeneration  to access the property to collect samples for testing. Meanwhile, samples of burned material were being taken from nearby streets and public areas.

A statement on behalf of NorthSide Regeneration and its owner, Paul McKee, said that the house is currently unsafe and that its insurance company has urged people not to enter it yet.

"Once we receive assurance that the Clemens House is deemed structurally safe it will be available for entry and inspection and any necessary testing," spokesman Jim Gradl said in the statement.

Asbestos was the only substance being tested for, according to John Frey, a federal on-scene coordinator for the EPA. He said test results are expected within a day of samples being submitted.

Waelterman suggested that based on past documentation, the buildings owners had removed asbestos from at least parts of the structure.

Thats my understanding that, about three years ago, the flooring and the pipes were cleaned up, he said.

But he wasnt sure if that asbestos removal extended to the roof  much of which, he believes, went up in smoke.

Some in the neighborhood are worried about material that has ended up on their property.

Im afraid to cut my grass because I dont know whats in this grass, Chapman said. And once I go over it with the motor, Im blowing it into the air.

Editor's note: Updated at 10:30 a.m. on July 18 with a statement from NorthSide Regeneration.
ST. LOUIS  It might sound like common sense, but the Transportation Security Administration wants to remind people: Dont bring your firearm to the airport checkpoint.

Doing so could cost you  up to $12,000.

Its a growing problem at U.S. airports. In 2015, 2,653 firearms were discovered at checkpoints nationwide. Last year, the number reached 3,391, an almost 28 percent increase.

So far this year, were over 1,800, said TSA regional spokesman, Mark Howell, at a news conference held Tuesday to educate people on traveling safely with a firearm.

From July 3-9, for example, the TSA found 78 firearms in carry-on baggage; 62 of those guns were loaded, and 32 had a round chambered.

Airports in Missouri account for 67 of the incidents this year.

The cause for the increase? Airlines are hitting record numbers of passengers, and some of them dont understand the rules about flying with firearms.

Howell said more mistakes are made in the summer, when airports see more first-time fliers. Its not as big of a problem during hunting season; hunters tend to have experience flying with firearms.

The number of guns in an area also is a factor. Airports in Atlanta and Dallas rack up some of the largest numbers, Howell said. More than 100 firearms have been discovered at checkpoints at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport so far this year.

TSA doesnt want to infringe on anybodys right to take a gun with them when they travel, Howell said. We just want to make sure that its done in the safest way possible, and that its inaccessible during the flight.

If you plan to travel with a firearm, make sure to take these steps:

 Pack your firearms in a hard-sided  that is, plastic or metal  case. Guns must not be loaded.

 You can store ammunition in the case, but bullets cannot be rolling around inside. Ammunition should be placed in a container.

 The case containing your firearms must be closed with a lock. TSA-recognized locks, which are often used for suitcases, are not approved for locking firearms cases. The lock must be one that only the gun owner has access to.

 TSA recommends duct-taping your business card or contact information on the outside of the case.

 When you get to the airport, go to the airlines ticket counter, where you will need to declare your firearms. Airline workers at the counter will give you a card for your contact information. You will open the case at the ticket counter and place the card inside.

 A small case can be packed inside your checked bag. A larger case will have to be checked separately.

 The firearms case will then be checked by TSA. You should wait about 20 minutes before going through security in case they find a problem with the way the firearms container was packed and need to contact you. If they dont contact you after 20 minutes, youre good to go.

 Its a good idea to bring your carry permit or license with you on the plane, if you have one.

 Research the firearms laws for the destination youre traveling to.

 Individual airlines might also have their own rules about carrying firearms, so its a good idea to check those as well.

Bottom line: If you bring a firearm to a checkpoint, you could be cited or arrested. You could also pay a civil penalty of up to $12,000.

More information can be found at TSA.gov.
Since Gov. Eric Greitens breathtaking Friday night news dump the weekend before the Fourth of July, its becoming clear that our fledgling governor only seems to have benevolence for his campaign contributors and dark money donors. Since the end of the legislative session the governor has sought to inflict suffering on nearly every vulnerable population in the state, but it seems like he really has something against the city of St. Louis.

Greitens was a St. Louis city resident until Missouri voters elevated him to the highest executive office in the state, but since taking office he hasnt had much love for the city he called home just before moving into the governors mansion. The governor called St. Louis an abortion sanctuary city, then called an emergency session to overturn Board Bill 203. The bill, passed by St. Louis city elected officials, prohibits employers and landlords from discriminating against women who have had an abortion, use contraceptives or are pregnant. It also includes an exemption for religious organizations in St. Louis city, but that wasnt enough for the governor to keep from attacking it.

Right in the middle of this extraordinary session, Greitens saw fit to announce that he would allow HB 1194 to become law without his signature, in effectslashing the annual incomes of hourly full-time workers in St. Louis by over $4,700 a year. HB 1194 repeals the $10 per hour minimum wage passed by St. Louis city elected officials in 2015. HB 1194 only affected one city: St. Louis city. Republican politicians like Greitens are always championing local control, but apparently that doesnt apply to St. Louis.

I wish I could say thats where it ends, but the governor seems to have a penchant for adding insult to injury, and that was definitely evident in some of the budget restrictions he issued last month. Among the restrictions was a quarter of a million dollars worth of funding to Harris-Stowe State University for graduate programs, which have gone unfunded since Gov. Jay Nixon signed a law allowing the institution to offer graduate courses. Additionally, the governor axed $475,000 in Neighborhood Watch funds to help citizens in high-crime areas reduce crime in their community.

Most recently, the governor announced a poorly thought-out St. Louis crime plan that includes more punitive actions against city residents. In the same month, he withheld almost half of a million dollars in St. Louis crime prevention funds from the budget.

The governor came to St. Louis claiming to care about reducing crime. What was most appalling was the lack of any community and faith leaders from the city of St. Louis at his press conference. The ones he had present were from Southeast Missouri.

Violent crime is one of the most serious issues in St. Louis city, and the solution is simple: Support neighborhood programs that are proven to work. Crime is different in each area of the city, and neighbors know how to defeat it in their area. I have been working hard to get money in the budget for neighborhood organizations to fight crime in their communities since I was elected in 2012. This is a bipartisan and arguably non-controversial proposal that the governor has indicated is not important to him.

Greitens likes to talk a big game in his Facebook videos about having the courage to make the hard choices and stand up to special interests, but where was his courage when 11 people were murdered in three days during the first week of June? What Facebook video will he make for my constituents to tell them the state cant afford to help you take ownership of your community to keep your sons and daughters from being gunned down in your neighborhoods? Where is the courage in that, and what exactly is it Gov. Greitens has against St. Louis city?

State Rep. Michael Butler is a Democrat from St. Louis.
Foreign Minister of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, on Tuesday, called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad to discuss the current diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region.

According to a statement issued by Prime Minister Office, during the meeting, Sheikh Mohammed briefed the prime minister on Qatars response to the demands made by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt and on the current status of the mediation efforts of the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The prime minister appreciated the efforts Emir of Kuwait and said that Pakistan supports his sincere efforts in finding a solution to the current crisis, read the statement.

Pakistan maintains close, friendly and cooperative relations with all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and is concerned at the recent crisis in the Middle East, Nawaz was quoted as saying.

The people and government wish to see a diplomatic solution to the problem between brotherly Islamic countries, the note added.

The foreign minister of Qatar was said to have expressed his gratitude to the prime minister for the warm reception and reiterated Qatars desire to further enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.
Politics and cinematography are unrelenting. Some film will have to shine in politics. Some actors are making statements to come to politics. Some of them will come. Some others. Various speculation comes about when they come into politics with glamor of movie stars. In some cases, the actors' statements contend with the controversy when it comes to politics or not.An announcement made recently by veteran actor Kamal Haasan is a big hit. Kamal Haasan alleged that some leaders of the AIADMK government were corrupt . Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayakumar had got serious on Kamal hassan comments.

Does Kamal Haasan have the courage to come into politics? Minister Jayakumar has challenged. "Kamal Hassan has to come into politics if he is daring.Jayakumar said that he could talk about the political system. Kamal has criticized the government for unnecessarily interfering in government matters, When Jayalalithaa was in power, why did not he talk about corruption in government? Charges against politicians are not new. In the presence of Karunanidhi Chief Minister, actor Ajith criticized him in his presence.
Greek food with Lankan twist at digital dining gala View(s):

Laughter and fun abounded as curious visitors scanned the edible QR codes on their spanakopita and pastitsio, tucking into their Greek dishes as dusk descended over the city. For visitors at the Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct, the digital dining experience was a first in Colombo.

The Knorr Greek Food Tasting served up free Greek tasting plates infused with Knorr and with a quintessential Sri Lankan twist to suit local palates. The dishes were served with edible QR codes to complement the tasting with an innovative digital dining experience. When scanning the code, food lovers were taken to the Knorr recipe bot, which is hosted on Knorr Sri Lanka Facebook messenger. The Knorr recipe bot presented a range of Greek recipes, the dish they were sampling and many other Greek recipes giving food enthusiasts the possibility of flexing their culinary muscles and recreating the dish later.

Having edible QR codes with the food we sampled was a thrilling combination between foodand technology. I was excited to experience Greek cuisine for the first time in such an unexpected manner! said a food enthusiast.

Dishes such as pastitsio  a baked pasta dish that was reminiscent of lasagne  proved to be popular as visitors eagerly pored over the recipes on their phones after their meal. Spanakopita, a spinach, herb and cheese filling ensconced in buttery, flaky filo pastry, was another crowd favourite.

The Knorr Greek Food Tasting came hot on the heels of the much anticipated Cinnamon Life Presents George Calombaris  a Masterclass with Knorr that very day. The lively food tasting celebrated the Master Chef Australia Judge, Restaurateur and celebrity chefs Greek heritage and was a casual digital dining experience that was a first in Colombo.

The brand has embarked on several digital innovation drives, pioneering the Facebook Messenger Recipe Bot in Sri Lanka, launching Rasai.lk  a meal solutions platform with recipe ingredient delivery and by introducing the Knorr Digital Recipe Kiosk at several modern trade outlets.
Growing up, Jack Keeys couldnt decide whether he wanted to be a scientist or accountant  so hes forging a unique career path in New Zealands primary industries that combines both.

Jack recently joined the line-up of speakers at the annual NZ Horticulture Conference, held in Tauranga over the weekend.

Jack  who is completing a Bachelor of Management Studies (Hons) in Agribusiness and a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences Conjoint at the University of Waikato whilst working at agricultural software company Farmax Ltd  discussed the need to attract more young talent into the horticulture industry.

The former Paeroa College head boy has achieved over $50,000 of scholarships and is a previous HortNZ and Zespri scholar. After taking an agribusiness paper, with fellow conference speaker Jacqueline Rowarth, Jack could see the many opportunities on offer in the primary industries, both in New Zealand and across the world.

The career opportunities are a brilliant incentive, but there was also a lot more to it. The strong integration of business and science, the demand for young people entering the industry and the ability to utilise my passions for innovation and sustainability to make a positive impact in the world are what attracted me to this field.

He believes attracting more young talent in the horticulture industry is of immense importance.

Global food production uses a significant amount of the worlds resources and is the earths biggest challenge. The industry doesnt just want more talented young people, it needs the next generation of young achievers to focus on the challenges and opportunities of the sector.

This includes introducing genetic biotechnology, increasing the efficiency of our resource use, innovating our engineering technology, improving international trade and perhaps most importantly, enabling the public to make informed and educated decisions  as that is what ultimately will dictate the future of our food.

Jack is currently researching the modelling of dairy sheep systems in New Zealand to enable the opportunity for this expanding industry to have valuable tools as it continues to flourish.

The research I am conducting at the moment is aimed at the animal agriculture industry, however may develop or highlight beneficial opportunities for a similar concept (software tool) to be developed for the horticulture industry. At this early stage, I am focusing on creating a foundation for leadership in the primary industries.

Jack began working at Farmax part-time as an assistant two years ago. He now manages the companys UK business, the Farmax accreditation programme, and flies around New Zealand training the countrys top farmers and consultants in the companys agricultural computer software system. He aims to encourage young people to consider agribusiness as a study path worth following.
The large and deep low pressure system approaching New Zealand is complicated to forecast due to so many moving parts, says WeatherWatch.co.nz.

"Weve done our best to identify what the key issues will be each day and where."

With such a large low more fine tuning will be needed over the next 48 hours.

THE GENERAL SET UP:

THURSDAY: Sub-tropical northerly winds and rain moves in on Thursday with heavy falls in the north and west of both islands. Winds will be strong, possibly gale in some places, but likely below damaging.

FRIDAY: Colder south easterlies arrive in the lower South Island on Friday (especially Canterbury & Otago) with heavy snow developing above a few hundred metres and heavy rain at sea level. Showers and mild norwesters continue for the North Island with overnight snow possible in Central Plateau.

SATURDAY: Wintry, windy, south easterlies from Canterbury to Hawkes Bay with winds possibly severe gale again through Cook Strait. Easing elsewhere and becoming sunny/dry.

Severe Weather Risks around NZ until Saturday: With such a large low they operate quite differently to, say, a tropical storm which has all the worst wind and rain near the very centre. With these large lows that develop around New Zealand the centre can actually be quite calm and sizeable - so as they low crosses over some areas will be calm and dry.

Our mountains and ranges also play a huge role at increasing or decreasing winds and rain.

The energy with this system is significant but thankfully it is spread out over a greater distance and this reduces the severity - and also places a big chunk of severe weather out at sea.

HEAVY RAIN/SNOW:

THURSDAY

North Island: Heavy rain develops in the north of the North Island (highest risk looks to be Bay of Plenty to East Cape to Waikato/Central Plateau areas - but all upper North Island areas are at risk. Heavy rain eases later in the day or by midnight.

Heavy rain develops in the north of the North Island (highest risk looks to be Bay of Plenty to East Cape to Waikato/Central Plateau areas - but all upper North Island areas are at risk. Heavy rain eases later in the day or by midnight. South Island: Heavy rain pushes into Nelson and maybe Marlborough, then the West Coast before crossing the mountains and into Otago (this is because the centre of the low will cross over the South Island). The mountains will alter the rain clouds so its hard to lock in too much more detail this far out just yet. Snow levels will lower overnight.

FRIDAY

South Island: Heavy rain with a cold southerly spreads up Otago and slowly through Canterbury, fall to snow above a few hundred metres (well lock in the general snow level closer to the time). While snow may not fall as low as it did last week there is more moisture for the South Island so snow amounts may be considerable at higher elevations, especially the eastern Canterbury ranges.

Heavy rain with a cold southerly spreads up Otago and slowly through Canterbury, fall to snow above a few hundred metres (well lock in the general snow level closer to the time). While snow may not fall as low as it did last week there is more moisture for the South Island so snow amounts may be considerable at higher elevations, especially the eastern Canterbury ranges. North Island: A few isolated downpours/showers here and there.

SATURDAY:

North Island: A narrow burst of heavy rain slides northwards up the east coast, affecting Wellington, Wairarapa in the morning then drifting into Hawkes Bay and weakening.

A narrow burst of heavy rain slides northwards up the east coast, affecting Wellington, Wairarapa in the morning then drifting into Hawkes Bay and weakening. South Island: Showers ease/clear.

GALES/SEVERE GALES: With this low pressure so large there is some good news on the wind front - the bulk of the gales will be out at sea, surrounding New Zealand but mainly avoiding land. There are some risks, which well update and fine tune each day:

THURSDAY:

A burst of northerly winds accompanying the main North Island band of rain may see some gales, but generally below damaging threshold. Winds most likely in the north and north east of the North Island. Strong NE winds may also hug the South Islands West Coast but again damaging winds not expected at this stage.

FRIDAY:

Winds pick up now for the south - Severe SE Gales are possible along the Otago and Canterbury coastlines, moving at night northwards towards Cook Strait area.

SATURDAY:

A burst of severe S to SE gales is again possible through Cook Strait, brushing Wellington and Wairarapa and coastal Marlborough. Taranaki may also be blasted by the SE gales. These winds ease by Saturday evening.

POTENTIAL TRAVEL ISSUES: THURSDAY:

Rain may cause some issues (slips and flooding possible) for Highways in the upper half of the North Island.

may cause some issues (slips and flooding possible) for Highways in the upper half of the North Island. Winds shouldnt be an issue for most, but some smaller aircraft may face delays in smaller airports (like Gisborne or Tauranga as an example)

FRIDAY:

Rain may cause some issues (slips and flooding possible) for Highways in the eastern South Island.

may cause some issues (slips and flooding possible) for Highways in the eastern South Island. Snow at higher elevations may impact most Alpine Passes. Snow may also impact SH1 the Desert Road overnight Friday and into Saturday.

at higher elevations may impact most Alpine Passes. Snow may also impact SH1 the Desert Road overnight Friday and into Saturday. Severe Gales may affect flights in Otago, Canterbury and later Marlborough and Wellington airports. Motorists may be impacted on SH2 over the Rimutaka Ranges for a time overnight too.

SATURDAY
A Labour Inspectorate operation targeting the kiwifruit industry in Bay of Plenty has found the majority of labour hire contractors are breaching their obligations as employers.

Inspectors carried out audits on 62 labour contracting companies and interviewed 687 employees during the operation, which occurred over three months last year, ultimately uncovering 94 breaches of minimum employment standards.

The operation showed 53 per cent of employers were failing to meet all minimum employment standards, such as providing employment agreements and paying at least the minimum wage.

While some employers were able to immediately address the breaches, 20 improvement notices and six enforceable undertakings were issued to compel employers to meet their obligations.

Two employers were issued with an infringement notice in addition to their improvement notice for $1000 each.

There are no acceptable excuses for employers failing to meet all minimum standards or provide people with all their minimum entitlements, says Labour Inspectorate regional manager Kevin Finnegan.

Almost all of the employers found in breach were using migrant labour, which is concerning because these are vulnerable people who may not fully know their rights and entitlements.

Significant arrears were uncovered with one employer owing more than $25,000 to their employees, and its likely the lack of records is disguising more widespread non-compliance with minimum wage.

While finding these breaches has been really disappointing it comes as little surprise, as its an issue weve raised with the industry for a number of years.

Without demanding greater assurance from labour hire companies about their employment practices, growers wont know if people working on their vines are receiving their entitlements.

We understand that since this operation the kiwifruit industry has taken steps to lift compliance with employment legislation  and we strongly encourage them to continue to do so.

As an industry with high growth and an increasing demand for migrant labour, its important these issues are tackled now, as little or no action will only allow the problem to grow.

These kinds of cases have the potential to damage New Zealands reputation as fair and equitable, which is important with consumers increasingly demanding products are ethically sourced.

MBIE encourages anyone concerned about their employment situation, or the situation of someone they know, to call the contact centre on 0800 20 90 20 where their concerns will be handled in a safe environment.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers says its disappointed with any breaches of employment standards.

In a statement released today, the organisation says the kiwifruit industry continues to lift compliance with employment legislation, and Government and industry must work together to achieve improvements>

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc says breaches of employment standards reflect the need for further involvement by both government and industry stakeholders to lift compliance with employment legislation.

As the kiwifruit industry expands rapidly, workers welfare remains paramount. The employers of around 10,000 permanent employees and 8,000 seasonal employees must comply with employment standards, says NZKGI CEO Nikki Johnson.

Evidence of poor employment law compliance in the industry is both disappointing and unacceptable and NZKGI will work with industry stakeholders to act decisively in addressing this issue.

In addition to current measures, a number of new changes are underway:

Following on from a pilot in 2016, from next season all orchard contractors and all growers will be assessed as part of GlobalG.A.P GRASP, which monitors compliance with employment law and worker welfare. GlobalG.A.P. is a worldwide standard on good agricultural practice involving certification and assurance on safe and sustainable practices.

In addition to educating growers and contractors about their legal responsibilities to their workers, NZKGI has commissioned research to better understand labour practices in the kiwifruit industry.

The research provides an independent view of recruitment, employment and management of seasonal labour from the perspective of growers, contractors, and post-harvest organisations.

NZKGI will utilise the outcomes from this research to improve industry systems which ensure labour compliance.

While significant improvements have been made, there is still work to be done. NZKGI leads a broad sector approach working alongside government organisations to ensure compliance of all employers in New Zealands kiwifruit industry, says Nikki.

NZKGI encourages anyone who knows of illegal labour practices in the kiwifruit industry to contact NZKGI (0800 232 505) and MBIE (0800 20 90 20).
From May 2018, it will be possible to fly directly from Malaga airport to the Qatari capital, Doha, according to an announcement at this weeks Arabian Travel Market.

The Costa del Sol airport is one of nine new additions to Qatar Airways extensive list of flight destinations, and is the third Spanish airport to be included, after Madrid and Barcelona. Regional councillor for Tourism, Francisco Javier Fernandez, has thanked the airline for helping to improve Andalucias connectivity to the Middle East.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Delta Air Lines has pushed back at Ann Coulter after the conservative commentator berated the carrier on Twitter over a changed seat assignment.

Coulter began tweeting about the episode Saturday in which she said the airline gave away an "extra room seat" she reserved before a flight from New York to Florida departed. Coulter had booked an aisle seat, but got a window seat.

She joked that Delta hires people who seek to be prison guards, animal handlers or East German police. She also tweeted a photo of a woman she said took the seat she booked and labeled her "dachshund-legged."

Delta responded to Coulter on Twitter on Sunday night that it was refunding her the extra $30 she paid for her preferred seat. It added that "your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary." In a separate statement on its website, the company called Coulter's comments "derogatory and slanderous."

Coulter was moved to a window seat at the time of boarding as the airline was "working to accommodate several passengers with seating requests," Delta said in the statement. Delta said that during some confusion over the assignments, a flight attendant asked everyone to move to the seats listed on their tickets. Coulter and the other passengers complied, according to the airline, and the flight departed.

Coulter continued her online rant against Delta on Monday.

Hey @Delta, if it was so important for the dachshund-legged woman to take my seat, she should have BOOKED THE SEAT IN ADVANCE. Like I did.  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

.@Delta employee questionnaire: What is your ideal job: Prison guard? Animal handler? Stasi policeman? All of the above: HIRED!  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

Airline crew training at @Delta: Replicate Stanley Milgram's prison experiment at Yale, inducing normal ppl to brutally torture fellow man.  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

@AnnCoulter Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.  Delta (@Delta) July 16, 2017

But I love @Delta declaring my tweets unacceptable. @Delta now dictating acceptable conduct off the plane. NOT fascist at all. #Resist https://t.co/w3fpEmu3z8  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 17, 2017

Today's consumer quiz: Why is @delta worse than @united? A: United drags customers off the plane, but soon Delta will have to drag them ON.  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 17, 2017

If you thought it was about $30, @Delta, why didn't you give this woman $30 and let me stay in my PRE-BOOKED, ASSIGNED seat? pic.twitter.com/sR1g8tuRWX  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 17, 2017
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The federal judge overseeing corruption charges involving Upstate New York development projects has split the case in two, with a first trial to begin in January and a second no earlier than next May.

Two Syracuse business executives, Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, both of Cor Development Co., are the only two of the eight defendants who will face charges in both trials.

A trial to begin Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan will focus on allegations that Aiello, Gerardi and energy company executive Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr. paid bribes to Joseph Percoco, the former executive deputy secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The second trial, to begin next spring, will focus on allegations that the Cor executives and three leaders of Buffalo development company LPCiminelli colluded with Alain Kaloyeros, the former head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, to steer state construction work to their companies.

All eight defendants have proclaimed their innocence.

Both trials will depend on testimony from former lobbyist Todd Howe, who has pleaded guilty to eight felonies and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Trial Order by Tim Knauss on Scribd
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- After paying taxes and basic living costs, families in Central New York are left with next to nothing for their savings, according to a new report from an Albany watchdog group.

The report from the non-for-profit Reclaim New York details the "wake-up" expenses of a typical New York family, and says the state's tax system is creating an "affordability crisis." According to the report, most New Yorkers are left with just two percent of their income after paying taxes and basic living expenses.

"New York families are struggling through an affordability crisis whether you make $45,000 or $120,000," said Reclaim New York Executive Director Brandon Muir. "The largest expenditure they'll have in a year is government."

The report uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the New York State Comptroller and energy companies. It does not account for credit card debt or student loan debt.

The median income for a family of four in Syracuse is $47,219. After taxes and basic living expenses like rent, food, heat and transportation, the average family is left with $1,102 at the end of the year, according to the report. Those taxes include income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and excise taxes.

A family making twice as much will pay four times more in income taxes and be left with $3,439, according to the report.

"Simply earning more won't solve the problem," Muir said. "Families in Onondaga County earning $100-, $110- even $120,000 are frequently still left with less than 5 percent of their earnings...because New York's tax system is structurally broken."

Muir said the goal of the report is to educate voters, who can call for changes in Albany that will lower taxes. One such change, Muir said, would be to fix the way New York does economic development.

"We've got to start with the big ticket items," Muir said. "The way we do economic development isn't working."

He pointed to tax breaks for "The Tonight Show," which totaled $21 million in the show's first season, according to a recent report.

Read the report here:

Onondaga County - Affordability Report by chrsbakr on Scribd
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump blasted congressional Democrats and "a few Republicans" Tuesday over the collapse of the GOP effort to rewrite the Obama health care law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a vote on a backup plan simply repealing the statute, but that idea was on the brink of rejection, too.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said they opposed McConnell's Plan B. If a third GOP senator opposes it -- and several are expected to -- it would be defeated, and that might send a message to conservative Republicans that it is time to abandon efforts to tear down Obama's law.

All Senate Democrats are opposed.

Trump's early morning tweet led off a barrage of Republican criticism of Congress over the party's failure on its flagship legislative priority. For seven years, the GOP has pledged to repeal President Barack Obama's law.

"Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard," Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans."

He added, "As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!"

Two GOP senators -- Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas -- sealed the measure's doom late Monday when they announced they would vote "no" in an initial, critical vote that had been expected as soon as next week. That meant that at least four of the 52 GOP senators were ready to block the measure -- two more than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had to spare in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition.

With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

On the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell conceded that the legislation repealing the 2010 law and replacing it with GOP-preferred programs "will not be successful," essentially waving a white flag.

He said instead, the Senate would vote on legislation dismantling much of Obama's statute that would take effect in two years, which Republicans say would give Congress time to approve replacement legislation. But such legislation seems unlikely to be approved, with many Republicans concerned the two-year gap would roil insurance markets and produce a political backlash against the GOP.

Moderate Republican Sen. Capito said she'd oppose scuttling Obama's statute "without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians." She's criticized the GOP bill's cuts in Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people that her state relies on heavily.

Another moderate, Susan Collins, also said she'd oppose McConnell's measure. She said repealing the law without an immediate replacement would produce "great anxiety for individuals" who benefit from Obama's statute and "cause the insurance markets to go into turmoil."

This is the second stinging setback on the issue in three weeks for McConnell, whose reputation as a legislative mastermind has been marred as he's failed to unite his chamber's Republicans behind a health overhaul package that highlighted jagged divides between conservatives and moderates. In late June, he abandoned an initial package after he lacked enough GOP support to pass.

The episode has also been jarring for Trump, whose intermittent lobbying and nebulous, often contradictory descriptions of what he's wanted have shown he has limited clout with senators. That despite a determination by Trump, McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to demonstrate that a GOP running the White House and Congress can govern effectively.

McConnell's failed bill would have left 22 million uninsured by 2026, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a number that many Republicans found unpalatable. But the vetoed 2015 measure would be even worse, the budget office said last January, producing 32 million additional uninsured people by 2026 -- figures that seemed likely to drive a stake into that bill's prospects for passing Congress.

That would seem to leave McConnell with an option he described last month -- negotiating with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. That would likely be on a narrower package aimed more at keeping insurers in difficult marketplaces they're either abandoning or imposing rapidly growing premiums.

"The core of this bill is unworkable," Schumer said in a statement. He said Republicans "should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."

Similar to legislation the House approved in May after its own setbacks, McConnell's bill would repeal Obama's tax penalties on people who don't buy coverage and cut the Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and nursing home residents. It rolled back many of the statute's requirements for the policies insurers can sell and eliminated many tax increases that raised money for Obama's expansion to 20 million more people, though it retained the law's tax boosts on high earners.

Besides Lee and Moran, two other GOP senators had previously declared their opposition to McConnell's bill: Collins and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky. And other moderates were wavering and could have been difficult for McConnell and Trump to win over because of the bill's Medicaid cuts: Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Rob Portman of Ohio, Capito of West Virginia and Dean Heller of Nevada, probably the most endangered Senate Republican in next year's elections.

The range of objections lodged by the dissident senators underscored the warring viewpoints within his own party that McConnell had to try patching over. Lee complained that the GOP bill didn't go far enough in rolling back Obama's robust coverage requirements, while moderates like Collins berated its Medicaid cuts and the millions it would leave without insurance.
Board of Regents

The Board of Regents meets at the State Education Building in 2016.

(AP Photo | Mike Groll)

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The New York State Education Department this week announced a plan to use student suspension rates to judge school performance.

Out-of-school suspension rates are the latest criteria the department has proposed as part of its plan for school evaluations.

The new criteria would be used as early as the 2018-19 school year, according to a report by Chalkbeat New York. The plan is pending final approval by the Board of Regents and the federal Education Department.

State evaluation plans are required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

The change in criteria is also part of effort among Board of Regents to judge schools beyond test scores and graduation rates.

The department said the idea of using discipline data has "strong public support" in a document spelling out changes to the plan.

Education reformers over the last several years have pushed for schools to limit out-of-school suspensions because they are often disproportionately used to punish students of color.

Many districts, including Syracuse city schools, have shifted from relying heavily on suspensions to using alternatives like "restorative justice," which aims to keep students in the academic environment.

The education department said there were some concerns about using discipline data to make judgments about schools, and that it would re-examine this metric after the first year of evaluation.
HMD Global, the Finland-based company that now owns the rights to the Nokia brand, is planning to launch the flagship Nokia 8 at the end of the month.

The flagship Nokia smartphone was expected to be called the Nokia 9, but a report claims that it will instead be called the Nokia 8. No matter the name, will it be good enough to steal the thunder of Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 and Apple's iPhone 8?

Nokia 8 Specs And Price

The Nokia 8, according to a report by reliable German website WinFuture, carries the model number TA-1004. It was long expected that the TA-1004 would launch as the Nokia 9, but the website claims that the final name for the smartphone is the Nokia 8.

The expected specifications for the Nokia 8 include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, and dual SIM support. The smartphone is also expected to have at least a 5.3-inch WQHD display, with rumors claiming that the Nokia 8 display will measure 5.7 inches.

HMD Global recently announced an exclusive new partnership with Zeiss. Will the Nokia 8 camera already carry Zeiss branding? The timing will be tight, but it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, especially considering that the smartphone is rumored to have a dual rear camera.

There is also expected to be four Nokia 8 colors, specifically blue, steel, gold and blue, and gold and copper.

As for the price of the Nokia 8, there is no information yet on how much HMD Global will sell the smartphone in the United States. The device will be sold for about 589 in Europe, WinFuture claims, which is equivalent to around $675. However, it is believed that the Nokia 8 will also be sold under $600 in the United States.

The wait for the official announcement on the price and details of the smartphone might not be long though, as the Nokia 8 release date could come as soon as the end of the month.

Is This The Nokia 9?

The reported specifications of the Nokia 8 are similar to the previously reported Nokia 9 prototype, so it appears that what happened was a simple case of a name change.

Versions with 8 GB of RAM, however, were spotted on Nokia 9 Geekbench results and Nokia 9 FCC rounds. Is this another version of the Nokia 8 that has not yet been leaked, or is this actually the real Nokia 9, which will even be better than the upcoming Nokia 8?

Nokia fans will have to wait until HMD Global makes an official announcement to find out the answer.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Doctors were surprised to find 27 contact lenses in the eye of a woman who was scheduled to undergo cataract surgery.

Twenty-Seven Contact Lenses Stuck In One Eye

In November last year, the 67-year-old woman was supposed to have routine eye surgery. When the operation started though, specialist trainee ophthalmologist Rupal Morjaria and colleagues extracted a "bluish foreign body" from the woman's eye.

It turned out to be a mass of 17 contact lenses stuck together. The doctors at Solihull Hospital, southeast of Birmingham in the UK, eventually found another set of 10 contacts, which brings a total of 27 contact lenses in one eye.

The discovery of the lenses surprised the doctors in that the patient did not complain of any irritation. She simply thought that her eye problem was caused by old age and dry eyes. The woman only complained about cataracts albeit she has been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for about 35 years. She does not also regularly see an eye doctor and does not have an idea that there were many contacts in her eye.

The doctors said that the patient did not report any symptoms associated with the contact lenses during her pre-operative assessment. Despite the number of contacts stuck in her eye, the patient did not also show symptoms. Patients would typically experience redness and significant discomfort.

Dangers Of Using Contact Lenses Without Getting Regular Eye Exams

Morjaria and colleagues reported the case in the July 5 issue of The British Medical Journal in a bid to raise awareness since they used to think that it was not possible for the eye to retain so many contact lenses without showing any symptom.

With the advent of online shopping, people also find it easier to buy contact lenses and they become lax when it comes to getting regular checkups. Patients who use contact lenses should not go long periods without getting eye exams. Morjaria said that sans appropriate monitoring, people who use contact lenses may suffer from serious eye infections that can lead to loss of vision.

Patient's Cataract Surgery Postponed

The doctors had to postpone the planned surgery so the bacteria that had accumulated in the woman's eye would be cleared.

"Because she had harbored these contact lenses in her eye for an unknown length of time, if we had operated she would have had a lot of bacteria around her conjunctiva," Morjaria said.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The U.S. launch of the Essential Phone, the new smartphone created by Android founder Andy Rubin, is now imminent, after the device missed its June deadline.

The Essential Phone, which according to Essential COO Niccolo de Masi, was designed for "trend setters and technology seekers," will also be finding its way into the UK, Western Europe, and Japan.

Essential Phone Coming Soon

According to a report by the Financial Times, the Essential Phone is coming very soon to the United States as executives have made moves to roll out the smartphone to UK, Western Europe, and Japan.

Essential executives have held talks with operators in the UK including EE, to finalize a launch date for the Essential Phone in the country. The company is likely looking to strike the same deal that made the device a Sprint exclusive in the United States.

While de Masi claims that the device's launch in the United States is "imminent," he fails to provide a specific Essential Phone release date. Android fans looking forward to what the smartphone can offer can do nothing but wait until it arrives at Sprint, as there has been no explanation on what has caused the Essential Phone delay.

Going past the June deadline for the Essential Phone is not the only problem that the company has experienced though, as two Essential executives have recently left. Essential VP of marketing Brian Wallace was appointed as Chief Marketing Officer of will.i.am's technology venture, while head of communication Andy Fouche resigned earlier in July.

What Is The Essential Phone All About?

The Essential Phone made headlines when it was announced in May due to its attachment with Rubin, who co-created Google's popular Android mobile operating system. CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood even went as far as saying that there would be little or no interest in the smartphone if not for its connection with Rubin.

The $699 Essential Phone features minimal bezels, and is made of titanium and ceramic material for extreme durability. It will have a 5.7-inch 2,560 x 1,312 display, and powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The smartphone will also have dual 13 MP rear cameras, an 8 MP front camera, a 3,040 mAh battery, a USB Type-C port, and Android 7.1.1 Nougat with no preloaded apps.

The smartphone will also be the latest device to try supporting modular accessories, which may be attached to the device through magnetic pins at its back. There are currently two modular accessories, one of which is a charging dock while the other is a $50 360-degree camera attachment.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"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
Wearing shirts adorned with their fallen sons' names, Emily Garafola and Tish Gerald shared with family, friends and strangers gathered Monday at Baton Rouge Police headquarters the anniversary of one of their most painful days.

+2 Officers remembered While their backgrounds may be different, Brad Garafola, Matthew Gerald and Montell Jackson 

"I would like to say thank you to all of you: The kindness, the love, the support from everyone has just been amazing, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, for everything," Emily Garafola, the mother of slain East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Deputy Brad Garafola, said to the crowd of almost 100. "We miss our son so much; my grandkids, his brothers, family and friends. Thank y'all, God bless you."

Garafola and Gerald spoke at a ceremony honoring the officers killed and injured in an ambush on law enforcement a year ago. On July 17, 2016, an ambush by an out-of-town lone gunman killed Baton Rouge police officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola. Three other officers were injured in the attack, including Deputy Nick Tullier, who was critically wounded and remains in rehabilitation in Houston.

Tish Gerald spoke of her son and Jackson, a duo she now refers to as "M&M."

"If I had  and I did  to give him up, I'd proudly give him up to protect people," Gerald said, tearfully. "Every policeman, fireman, EMS, you're in our hearts and prayers, and you'll be remembered."

Residents holding balloons to soon be released echoed the mothers' sentiments, some shouting "amen" and others embracing each other. Among them was 7-year-old Rosalyn Baldwin, who came from Hammond to hug law enforcement officers, part of her mission to hug an officer in every state, inspired partly by the deaths of the officers in Baton Rouge.

"This isn't something that law enforcement got together to do, this is something that the community has gotten together to do," Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said before the balloon release. "This past year we as a community, law enforcement, and you as a community, the citizens  we've experienced a serious amount of pain, all of us together. I have never seen  this last year and what I see today  the love, the generosity, the caring that this community has."

A few Baton Rouge residents planned the ceremony, spreading the word on Facebook and concluding the event with the release of hundreds of balloons, most black or blue and some shaped like stars.

"We wanted to do something to honor the fallen officers and their heroic efforts to keep the citizens of Baton Rouge safe," said Mackenzie Shaw, who helped organize the gathering.

"It's been a long day for us, a lot of emotion, but having this this afternoon and showing your support, we can't tell you how much that means to us," Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie, told those at the gathering. "From the bottoms of our hearts, and from all the officers on the Baton Rouge Police Department, especially Matt and Montrell, (thank you)."

+9 In Houston hospital, wounded deputy Nick Tullier's family gathers to celebrate recovery's daily battles Doctors didn't expect Nick Tullier to survive after a gunman shot him in the head, stomach and shoulder during the July 17, 2016 ambush that killed three other law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge. A year later, the 42-year-old sheriff's deputy is still defying the odds and the grim prognosis issued after the July 17 attack...

Former Mayor-President Kip Holden joined Dabadie and Gautreaux at the ceremony, asking people to see beyond the uniform.

City-parish buildings flew flags at half-staff Monday in memory of the officers.

.@EBRSheriff Sid Gautreaux gives Rosalyn Baldwin of #RosalynLoves a hat & challenge coin after today's memorial for fallen law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/U1abnCP4B5  Hilary Scheinuk (@hscheinukphoto) July 18, 2017

We are reminded of the ultimate sacrifice many of our uniformed officers all too often pay when serving our communities," Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said in a statement released Monday.

"I ask that we continue to honor those lives lost serving and protecting us by coming together as a city and moving forward in solidarity," Broome wrote.
The fate of a long-awaited project that could protect Baton Rouge-area homes from future floods remains unclear, but more leaders are voicing support for "creative" solutions for securing funding that has been stalled for decades.

The planned 12-mile Comite River Diversion Canal has long been cited as a way to mitigate flood damage in the capital region. The Army Corps of Engineers project has drawn increased attention since historic floods swept the area in August, though the Corps has long cited lack of money in the project's delay.

The project, once the money is secured, is expected to take about three to five years.

The state Legislature included $87 million in this year's construction spending bill -- as it did last year -- for the state's cost of the project. But there's no guarantee that the federal government will finally fund the $125 million that it is supposed to cover.

Erin Monroe Wesley, special counsel to Gov. John Bel Edwards, said Edwards has had several discussions on the issue and is looking for ways to "be creative" though has faced some pushback from FEMA on ideas floated so far. He's also continuing to lobby Washington, D.C., for federal spending.

"We're thinking through how we can proceed with this project," Wesley said.

Members of the Restore Louisiana panel, which has been tasked with overseeing the state's recovery from last year's historic floods, bemoaned the continued delays during a recent meeting.

"I don't even know if there is a pace, given the lack of federal funding," Chris Knotts, deputy assistant secretary with the state Department of Transportation and Development, said when asked for an update.

Adam Knapp, the president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and a task force member, said he thinks that the state should consider its options and suggested that the task force take up the issue to further the discussion.

"I think it's important to continue to push this conversation forward," Knapp said. "I think we have an obligation as a task force."

But state Rep. Ted James, a member of the task force and Democrat whose Baton Rouge district was hard hit by the August floods, said that Congress needs to do more.

"The state is not going to be able to come up with this large chunk of the money," he said. "The members of congress have to step up."

He said that some members of the state's congressional delegation have been focused on issues related to health care and immigration, for which they have made the national cable television rounds.

"We need them to focus on (the Comite project) like they focus on other things," he said.

State Sen. Bodi White, a Central Republican whose district flooded in August, said that the state, support from residents all over, pushed for support for projects to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 but he doesn't feel the same sense of urgency over the river flooding issues.

"I think there's a unique opportunity right now to start showing the need for the river basins and the flood plains for the state of Louisiana," he said. "If you look now at the floods ... It's a huge problem for our state.

"The whole state has to work together," White said.

White said that he thinks that there are options available to the state if leaders look outside the box. For example, he said he had asked that some mitigation dollars that the state received for Hurricane Gustav could have been redirected. He also questioned whether the state could shift existing federal money around to free up unrestricted dollars and backfill them with other sources.

"I think there's a way. There's dollars in the state of Louisiana," White said. "Where there's a will, there's a way."

White said that 1956 was the last time that any major maintenance work was done on the Baton Rouge area's smaller rivers. He said that there should be a large-scale push to clear them and dredge them.

"If we don't we're going to continue to flood. I'm convinced of that," White said.

He said he worries that the state and federal governments are in a game of chicken -- no one wants to be the first to fund the project because they each hope the other will just pick up the tab.
It has not proven easy for Gov. John Bel Edwards to keep the Louisiana State Police Commission at full strength.
Mayoral candidate Desiree Charbonnet released a crime plan Monday promising she would add between 80 and 100 new officers a year to the New Orleans Police Department, create rapid-response units to deal with crimes in progress and undertake a national search for a police chief.

But alongside those proposals and largely noncontroversial ideas such as expanding intervention and mentoring efforts, Charbonnets plan calls for cutting payments to the monitors tracking whether the NOPD is adhering to its federal consent decree, revamping one of the main offices responsible for stemming corruption in the department, and diverting money from housing and economic development funds to help pay for the anti-crime efforts.

In what appears to be a reference to Mayor Mitch Landrieus recent spats with state officials such as Attorney General Jeff Landry, the plan also says a Charbonnet administration will leave no offer of help unaccepted, no partnership underutilized, and will explore cooperative agreements wherever they will increase the efficiency of our use of resources while minimizing costs.

The proposal was released Monday, about a day before one of Charbonnets main opponents, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, was set to give a speech outlining her full platform for the fall election.

Charbonnets campaign did not make the candidate available to discuss the plan Monday.

Can't see video below? Click here.

The proposal calls for adding 80 to 100 new officers to the department's strength each year, with a goal of hitting 1,500 officers, more than 300 above its current level.

That would be an unprecedented expansion for the department, and one which some experts believe goes far beyond realistic expectations.

The NOPD has at best been treading water in recent years, with new recruits barely keeping pace with departures despite aggressive recruitment efforts by the Landrieu administration.

Charbonnet, a former Municipal Court judge, offered few details on how that recruitment effort would be carried out, though the plan suggests luring back officers who retired or left the department for other reasons and targeting people with military experience.

In terms of retaining current officers, the plan says retention is not just about pay (though thats part of the story), an apparent reference to Landrieus recently announced plan to boost salaries to help keep officers on the force.

Charbonnet called for using various housing incentives to attract and retain officers.

More controversially, she called for revamping and reforming" the Office of Police Secondary Employment, which was established under the federal consent decree to stamp out corruption in private details worked by officers. Those details were referred to as the NOPDs aorta of corruption by the Department of Justice.

Charbonnet did not specify what changes she wants, but its unclear whether U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who oversees the consent decree, and other officials would sign off on changes to a major pillar of the agreement.

Another item on Charbonnet's agenda is a national search for a new police chief, with input from the department and the community, suggesting that Superintendent Michael Harrison's days would be numbered under her administration.

Charbonnet also pledges to reduce response times for crimes in progress to under five minutes, about half the average time the department needed to get an officer to a crime scene in its best month over the last year. That goal would be aided by use of two-person rapid-response units.

Civilian employees would be used to investigate traffic accidents and free up officers to handle crimes, a proposal the Landrieu administration has been pursuing for two years but which has been blocked by state lawmakers.

Charbonnet also calls for increased use of technology, including license plate readers, crime cameras and equipment that can detect gunfire and direct officers to the source. In addition, her plan calls for tracking NOPD vehicles and issuing officers cellphones whose GPS can be monitored to determine their location.

The proposal calls for better community policing and cites as an example the private patrols set up in the French Quarter by businessman Sidney Torres, who flirted with an entry into the mayors race for months before bowing out last week.

Charbonnet also proposes efforts targeting at-risk youth and ex-offenders, including mentorship programs, after-school and summer job programs and better cooperation with nonprofits, faith-based organizations and neighborhood and business groups.

The most expensive way, both in dollars and (more importantly) human costs, to address their behavior is after theyve committed a crime, she said. We need to engage them early and provide attractive alternatives  thats what it means to get to the root causes of crime and prevent it before it starts.

The plan does not include a total price tag, but Charbonnet pledged it would be carried out without raising taxes.

She said she would favor rededicating two existing millages, one for economic improvement and one for affordable housing, to police, providing about $10.25 million a year.

Grace Notes: Mitch Landrieu's annual budget meetings are a tradition worth keeping The upcoming New Orleans mayoral contest is sure to focus on which of outgoing Mayor Mitch L

The housing program, known as the Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund, has been a major focus of Cantrells work during her time on the council and, bolstered by revenue from a fee imposed on short-term rentals, makes up about a third of the $17.5 million the city spends on housing programs and rehabilitation each year.

The plan also calls for reducing payments to the monitors overseeing the consent decree. Before starting that work in 2013, the Sheppard, Mullin law firm agreed to cap its costs at $8.9 million spread out over four years.

To be direct, the monitor costs too much money, and the functions can and should be done for less, Charbonnet's plan says.

Other funding would come from tracking down businesses that are not paying sales taxes and dedicating percentages of new revenue to public safety.

Staff writer Matt Sledge contributed to this report.
As a matter of consistency, Sydney boss Andrew Ireland believes any AFL final hosted by Greater Western Sydney should be held at ANZ Stadium.

The Swans' stunning turnaround has suddenly made a second consecutive all-Sydney final a genuine prospect come September.

Swans CEO Andrew Ireland. Credit:Getty Images

Unlike last season's historic knockout clash when the Swans finished top, a rematch would more likely be hosted by the Giants.

Spotless Stadium has a capacity of only 24,000, much too small to accommodate the 60,000 that turned out at ANZ Stadium last year when the Giants toppled the Swans by 36 points.
It is far from evident that what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says is "the most significant reform of Australia's national intelligence and domestic security arrangements and their oversight in more than 40 years" will actually buttress citizens' safety.

The change will bring together domestic spy agency ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC and the Office of Transport Security.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who will lead the national security mega-department. Credit:Andrew Meares

Australia already has what Mr Turnbull and other involved ministers describe, with good reason, as one of the best intelligence and security operations in the world. This is evidenced by the thwarting of more than 10 terrorist attacks in recent times.

Granted, Australia's terror threat level remains at "probable". This means the government has credible intelligence that individuals or groups have the intention and capability to conduct a terrorist attack.
One of the huge problems with this is that security agencies have already demonstrated that the problem isn't a lack of information so much as a lack of resources to evaluate and act upon the information they already have. Man Haron Monis wasn't able to carry out the Lindt siege because he cunningly used encrypted messaging apps; he was well known to authorities, he was supposedly being monitored, and yet well, here we are.

Collecting billions and billions of terabytes of people's personal data is just going to create vast amounts of extra haystack to cover up the existing needles that our authorities clearly have neither the time nor resources to adequately address.

There's also the problem that overseas tech companies such as Facebook and Apple have made clear that nope, they won't be handing over encryption keys for messaging apps and email to a government that can't even keep your private medical records from being sold online. After all, security is not enhanced by designing and building enormous weaknesses into a system.

But there's a bigger problem, which is this: people can't be trusted, and that information will absolutely be leaked.

Sure, some people are fine with selling secrets to criminal organisations for personal gain, but the more frequent situation when we have yet another massive leak of government data is that someone screwed up. They had "password" as their password, or they left their laptop on a train, or they wanted to help out that new staff member with the Russian accent by supplying the administrator log-in details they apparently mislaid.
Embattled businessman Clive Palmer has lodged an appeal against last month's Supreme Court decision to strike-out parts of his defamation claim against

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash after they allegedly blamed Mr Palmer for the collapse of Queensland Nickel at separate press conferences in Beijing in April 2016.

Clive Palmer will appeal last month's Supreme Court ruling, Credit:Tony McDonough

Mr Palmer claimed Mr Turnbull besmirched his name over the collapse and Senator Cash accused him of using funds from the company for his own benefit.

Mr Palmer's lawyer, Sam Iskander, wrote to Senator Cash's office in October last year, claiming the businessman was being shunned and excluded by friends, employees and professional colleagues as a result of her comments and feared reprisals against himself and his family.
Changes to state planning laws proposed following the Court of Appeal's rejection of the redevelopment of Walsh Bay could make it easier for mining proponents and other developers to skirt community concerns, critics say.

The Department of Planning and the Environment last month said the changes were necessary to prevent the court's decision obstructing more than $8 billion worth of development across the state.

A 3D rendering of the proposed Walsh Bay redevelopment, work on which has been delayed on account of a court decision.

But the Environmental Defenders Office and the Greens say the proposed changes could have the effect of sidelining adequate assessment of a project's impact on its surrounds

In the Walsh Bay decision, the Court of Appeal made two findings in relation to the so-called staged development application process, which is used for major projects expected to be built over a long period of time.
A grandmother killed her ex-husband while gripped by the delusional belief that she was facing arrest for tax evasion, a court has heard.

The woman  who cannot be identified  stabbed her former husband once in the throat with a kitchen knife while he slept in his Melbourne home, out of her mistaken fears she was being investigated for defrauding Centrelink and failing to complete tax returns, and that he would be sent into respite care when she was arrested.

She was on Tuesday found not guilty of murder, by way of mental impairment, after medical experts told Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale the woman had a major depressive disorder with psychotic features and nihilistic thinking.

But despite Justice Beale's ruling, the woman was sent back to prison and must wait there until a bed becomes available at the Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital, which could take months. She is undergoing mental-health treatment in prison.

The woman, a registered nurse, was divorced from her husband but began caring for him when he had a stroke.
A woman who pretended she lived in the inner city to contest last year's Melbourne City Council elections got off too easily, a magistrate says.

Brooke Wandin pretended to live at the Kensington home of former Melbourne City councillor Richard Foster to enable her to contest the 2016 council election.

Brooke Wandin pretended to live at a Kensington address.

She was charged with unlawful nomination and false declaration following an investigation by the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate, and was recently granted a diversion with no criminal conviction recorded.

Diversion programs allow a first-time accused to apply to have charges resolved without a formal court hearing.
Tributes have poured in for murdered Dandenong woman Ozlem Karakoc, who has been remembered as loving mother and irreplaceable friend.

Emergency services found Ms Karakoc's body at a newly-purchased house on Edgars Road in Lalor at about 1am on Tuesday.

Her partner Murat Davsanoglu, 42, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday evening charged with her murder.

Her cousin Seren Ozerkan posted an emotional tribute on social media, saying Ms Karakoc's family had been left heartbroken by her death.
Washington: After his much-publicised, two-and a quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Donald Trump met informally with the Russian leader for an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, unreported at the time, took place at a dinner for G20 leaders, a senior administration official said. Halfway through the meal, Mr Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Mr Putin. Mr Trump was alone, and Mr Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

The encounter underscores the extent to which Mr Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Mr Putin. During last year's campaign, Mr Trump spoke admiringly of Mr Putin and at times seemed captivated by him.

Meeting each other face-to-face for the first time in Hamburg, the two presidents seemed to have a chemistry in their more formal bilateral session, evidenced by the fact that it dragged on for more than two hours.
The Digital Content Guide, commissioned by an assembly of Australias creative content associations, creators and distributors, launched today in an effort to provide a quick and easy way for Australians to find and enjoy access to licensed online entertainment services including TV shows, movies, music, eBooks, video games and sport.

There has been an explosion in legitimate ways to get access to content online. However, sometimes it can be hard to find that content or to distinguish between sites that offer legal access and those that illegally monetise the hard work of all who contribute to the creative industry. The Digital Content Guide simplifies the search and helps people find the games, shows, movies, music and books they love.

The site directs visitors to information about different services, which can be clicked to directly to explore and enjoy. Australians will see a wide choice of licensed digital services for a variety of content across different devices and platforms. As the breadth of options continues to grow, the site will keep pace in order to help Australians find the content they want from a licensed service.

Simon Burke, Actors Equity President said, People are passionate about entertainment and we are passionate about creating it. Therefore, its critical to ensure that the creative industries receive the support they need, through legitimate use, so that the 900,000* Australians they employ can continue to make them thrive.

The Digital Content Guide is a joint effort by APRA AMCOS, The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), The Australian Screen Association (ASA), Copyright Agency Ltd., News Corp Limited, Foxtel and Village Roadshow Limited.

For more information, visit The Digital Content Guide at: www.digitalcontentguide.com.au.

*Source: PWC: The Economic Contribution of Australias Copyright Industries report
Pickering's Gin celebrates 70th anniversary

Edinburgh based Pickering's Gin has launched a limited edition bottling with Edinburgh Fringe Festival, marking the 70th anniversary of its original Bombay gin recipe and that of the fringe concept in Edinburgh.

Six days after the first World Fringe Day celebrations, a spirited distiller is said to have scribbled down a nine botanical gin recipe at Mount Mary, Bombay. The fragment of paper, bestowed to Marcus Pickering by a friend of his late father became the the gin companys raison detre. Pickering's Gin was co-founded by Marcus Pickering and Matt Gammell in 2013.

Crafted in partnership with Edinburgh Fringe Festival, also celebrating its 70th anniversary, the one-off run of 650 bottles has been distilled to the old recipe exactly 70 years on from its creation.

The 70cl limited edition bottles of Pickerings Original 1947 are embellished with the 70-year heritage story with Edinburgh Festival Fringe labelling.

Pickerings co-founder Marcus Pickering said: Being able to celebrate the 70th anniversary of our original recipe gin with the worlds biggest and most successful arts festival is truly humbling.

We know how important heritage, dedication and time is when it comes to making good gin and the same could be said when explaining the success of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Matt Gammell, the distillerys other founder and head distiller said: This limited edition bottling is incredibly exciting for us as a distillery and were confident that this old recipe will be gratefully received by fans of gin and the Fringe alike. The mix of original Bombay botanicals includes cinnamon, which adds a decidedly warming and spicy kick to the spirit.

The limited edition Pickering's Original 1947 gin is available to buy for 29.95 via the Pickerings Gin website www.pickeringsgin.com.

18 July 2017 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, news editor
A Brazos County inmate awaiting trial in the 2015 slaying of a College Station store clerk was charged over the weekend with assaulting a jail officer, marking the fourth time since his initial arrest that has happened.

The latest scuffle came after Nathaniel Tillery was removed from his cell while officers conducted an inspection Sunday afternoon at the Brazos County Jail, where he's been since his arrest. Court documents state that when jailers attempted to return him to his cell, Tillery grabbed one of the officers by the neck and slammed his head into a nearby table.

Authorities said that same jailer was targeted in one of the three other incidents in which the 39-year-old was accused of attacking an officer.

During an unrelated October 2016 incident, authorities said Tillery was being escorted to a holding cell in the Brazos County Courthouse for a status hearing when he refused to enter the cell, charged toward an officer and attempted to hit her. He eventually was restrained after struggling with her and a second officer, documents state.

The officer received multiple scratches, bruises on her hands and arms and had several fingernails ripped off, according to authorities, who said none of the jailers were seriously injured in the incidents involving Tillery.

Assault on a public servant is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Tillery's bail now totals nearly $1.1 million.

According to court documents, Tillery was arrested in July 2015 on charges of kidnapping, robbery and assault causing bodily injury, and his trial has been postponed at least once. He's accused of robbing Drew's Exxon convenience store on University Drive near Texas 6, then assaulting and kidnapping 55-year-old Kevin Garcia in March of 2015. Authorities said Tillery put the well-known and much-liked clerk, who was unconscious, in the bed of his own truck and drove to Fort Worth.

Tillery was found and arrested in Fort Worth roughly 10 hours after the abduction is said to have occurred. Garcia was found in the vehicle and rushed to a hospital, where he was taken off life support three days later. An autopsy later showed Garcia never regained consciousness after being struck, and that he died from a brain injury.

Less than two weeks later, more than 40 people -- including many customers -- showed up to a memorial service for Garcia outside Drew's Exxon, remembering their friend and relative who had worked the night shift at the store for 14 years.

Tillery has several court dates upcoming, including a July 27 pre-trial hearing, a Sept. 15 status hearing and a Jan. 5 court date, according to Brazos County court records.
A routine traffic stop for a potential emissions system violation led to a Bryan man's arrest on DWI and possession of methamphetamine charges, according to Texas Department of Public Safety officials.

Authorities said a trooper noticed 27-year-old Antonio Louis Medina's truck after seeing a "constant flow of smoke from the tail pipe until the truck was turned off" Sunday afternoon.

While speaking with Medina, authorities said the man told them he had been drinking. Officers found an open beer and a syringe -- later confirmed to contain meth -- in the center console, according to court documents.

Medina remained in the Brazos County Jail late Monday on a third-degree felony charge of possession of a controlled substance and the misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated with an open container. His bail is set at $10,000.

If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
Producers of narrative features and feature documentaries fear that reducing the Producer Offset for films to 30 per cent will have a crippling impact on theatrical releases.

They say the governments proposal to double the minimum qualifying Australian production expenditure (QAPE) threshold for feature length content to $1 million will exclude many lower-budgeted films and feature docs.

Screen Producers Australia CEO Matt Deaner predicted the media reforms announced today will slash production by at least 50 per cent and remove thousands of jobs from the sector as well as opportunities for audiences across the world to engage with Australian stories.

Reducing the Offset could well mean the end of the line for many Australian feature films, he said.

The effective abolition of childrens content quotas, the watering down of drama and documentary requirements and the halving of requirements for subscription TV doesnt meet the governments articulated desire for forward-thinking policy-making, he said.

Instead, it presents as the adoption of the deregulation wish-list of legacy broadcasters and their owners and the international streaming companies.

There is the clear potential for the proposals to shrink the Australian production industry to an unsustainable size and to lose the critical mass in economic activity needed to ensure viable screen businesses and employment opportunities.

The measures will allow broadcasters to meet an entire years content obligation across drama, childrens and documentary content through a single program such as Home and Away, he said.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance warned the reforms will result in job losses and worsen the crisis in the screen industry.

The proposals reflect a lack of comprehension about the sector and a lack of compassion for the tens of thousands of workers who will now operate under rules that dilute how much content is produced for Australian audiences each year, the MEAA said.

Australian Childrens Television Foundation CEO Jenny Buckland said scrapping the fixed local content quotas for the commercial broadcasters will be devastating for childrens producers.

Ive been expecting it to happen for at least the last 10 to 15 years, but it doesnt make it any easier, she tells IF.

In turn, Communications and Arts Minister Paul Fletcher contends that standardising the Offsets at 30 per cent from July 1 2021 is designed to stimulate the Australian screen production sector and enable producers to take advantage of the growth of streaming services.

That will require legislative changes which wont be retrospective, so producers who have provisional certificates and are raising the finance during this financial year will still get 40 per cent.

He stressed the additional $30 million for Screen Australia over two years will enable the agency to increase its support of features, childrens content and documentaries.

Fletcher said the government is still considering whether to impose local content spending obligations on SVOD services, describing that as a live option.

Asked why he ruled out granting a 10 per cent cultural uplift for features that are released in cinemas, as proposed by Robert Connolly and other producers, he tells IF: We are providing significantly increased support for productions that are made, for example, for a combination of an Australian network and streaming service.

We are growing the overall market. There will be a whole class of production that can now get a 30 per cent rebate for projects that targets the demand from streaming services.

We also know that most Australian feature films dont sell very well or get very good audiences. We want to see Australian creators getting their content seen by as many people as possible and selling as well as possible.

Yarra Films Dr Trevor Graham fears that reducing the Offset for feature docs and increasing the QAPE will kill theatrical releases, and he lamented the removal of overheads as eligible expenditure for all three Offsets.

It pushes documentary more into TV factual, giving more control to broadcasters particularly with the total absence of a quota, or the like, on SVODs, he said.

Graham also said that removing the Gallipoli Clause from the Producer Offset, which allows production costs incurred in other countries to be claimed as QAPE, will rule out internationally-shot documentary and make it difficult for films shot in part overseas.

Jenny Buckland.

JOTZ Productions Tom Zubrycki argues that increasing the QAPE threshold will impact severely on the the kinds of documentaries that are being made, observing: It will also hurt the smaller companies like ours and privilege the larger production companies.

MEAA CEO Paul Murphy said maintaining the 55 per cent Australian content rule for commercial broadcasters is likely to mean the demise of childrens content on commercial TV, leaving a cash-strapped ABC to pick up the slack.

Even the additional funding for Screen Australia simply restores the organisation to pre-Abbott (2014) funding levels, he said.

How the government has missed the boat on regulating streaming services and requiring set levels of Australian content each year defies belief. This government seems intent on deregulation rather than creating a playing field that is level for all.

Buckland said: Australian kids and their families have embraced the expanded ABC childrens service but it has become harder and harder to demonstrate that the audience is there for childrens shows on the commercial channels.

The broadcasters havent valued the content or the audience so the audience has left them. But kids are watching the ABC, theyre also watching all the video on demand platforms, Network 10 is going to have kids content all day on 10 Shake and NITV continues to embrace the childrens audience.

It will be really important to examine the contributions of the video on demand platforms.

Romance on the Menu.

Free TV Australia lauded the announcement as a huge positive for the Australian film and TV production sector. These reforms will deliver greater flexibility to respond to what our audiences demand, Free TV CEO Bridget Fair said.

The government has combined a more flexible quota system with strong incentives for production of quality Australian programs in a way that should stimulate a broad range of Australian stories.

The old quota system was collapsing under its own weight. There has long been a need for the onerous and outdated framework, in place since the 1980s, to be updated. We commend Minister Fletcher for recognising the need to ensure the sustainability of the sector.

ViacomCBS Australia/New Zealand chief content officer/executive VP Beverley McGarvey hailed the reforms as a significant step forward for broadcasters, content providers, producers and audiences in ensuring a sustainable and enduring local production industry.

She said the measures reward 10s ongoing investment in Neighbours and incentivise its involvement in larger-scale productions such as The Secrets She Keeps and Five Bedrooms and encourage growing investment in childrens programming and documentaries such as Todd Sampsons Body Hack and Lindy Chamberlain: The True Story.

A Netflix spokesman welcomed the opportunity to formalise its commitment to Australias content production industry and supplying information to the ACMA.

The streamer cited such recent releases as Rosie Lourdes romantic comedy Romance on the Menu, Hannah Gadsbys Douglas, Legend of Monkey series 2, Izzy Bees Koala World and Urzila Carlson: Overqualified Loser.

It also pointed to current Netflix Originals Clickbait and feature doc Microworlds: Reef as well as the recent appointment of Que Minh Luu as director of local originals.
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A Darien-based technology and health care management company is moving its headquarters to a renovated office building in Norwalk.

Remedy Partners has signed a lease for 40,000 square feet at the five-story, 412,000-square-foot office building at 800 Connecticut Ave. The property was purchased by CBRE Strategic Partners U.S. Value 7, a fund sponsored by CBRE Global Investors, in late 2015 for nearly $48.6 million.

Since then, the owners have invested roughly $7 million on improvements, including a new cafeteria and conference room and amenities like a a putting green and a bocce court, according to David Block, senior vice president at CBREs Stamford office, who, with Joseph Weaver, represented the building owners.

This transaction further solidifies the trend of corporate tenants preferring fully amenitized buildings that receive reinvestment from their ownership group over other office product, said Block. It also shows that the TAMI sector consisting of technology, advertising, media and information companies is alive and growing within the Fairfield County marketplace.

Nicholas DeLuca of NAI Signature Group represented Remedy Partners in the lease negotiations.

He said the company is planning to move from its location at 1120 Boston Post Road in Darien, where it occupies just 16,000 square feet, into the Norwalk space in February.

Remedy Partners chose 800 Connecticut, after a thorough review of the Stamford, Darien and Norwalk markets, due to the buildings skillfully crafted combination of amenities, recent capital improvements, great access, ample parking and a unique building culture that aligned perfectly with the firms employee base as they continue to grow, Deluca said.

Deluca said the company expects to move about 225 employees to Norwalk. He said Remedy co-founder Steve Wiggins, who also founded Oxford Health Plans, had previously worked in the Connecticut Avenue office building and was hoping to replicate his past success there.

Hes got a good history there, Deluca said.

Block said the building still has space available for tenants needing between 2,000 and 85,000 square feet. The Connecticut Avenue property is already home to Priceline, Match Marketing Group and others. With the addition of Remedy Partners, the office structure will be approximately 70 percent occupied, Block said.

Were hoping to announce more deals over the next few months, he added.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
Its hard not to be jealous of Judd Apatow. Hes just so darn talented. Not only does he direct films (think Amy Schumers Trainwreck), he also produces them (Bridesmaids and his newly released romantic comedy, The Big Sick).

Hes also produced and developed such television series as Freaks and Geeks, Girls and Crashing. Before all that, he was a successful writer and comedian.

Apatow, who grew up in Syosset, N.Y., will return to his stand-up roots at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, July 23. We reached him by phone recently to chat about the gig. When asked how his day was going, he said he was doing a podcast with comic Joe Rogan, then figuring out what to wear to the taping of his Netflix stand-up special.

We wondered, Cant you just look in your closet and pick something? Apatow, 49, said that wasnt an option. I have to meet with a person who understands fashion more than I do, which is everybody on earth, he said.

OK, so he needs help with his wardrobe. Not a big deal. Hes still super talented, and it all started with stand-up.

I was obsessed with stand-up as a little kid, he said. I listened to George Carlin and Steve Martin and wanted to learn more, so I got a job as a dishwasher at a comedy club when I was 15.

More Information Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 E. Ridge. Sunday, July 23, 8 p.m. $55, $45, $35. 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org See More Collapse

By 16 he was bugging various comics to let him interview them  everyone from Jay Leno to Jerry Seinfeld. Years later, after doing more interviews with such stars as Louis C.K. and David Sedaris, he released Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy, which became a New York Times best-seller.

Basically, Apatow paved his road to success by immersing himself in the comedy world. I did stand-up for about seven years and wrote for other comedians to pay my rent. Then when they got successful, they started hiring me to write for them on movies and comedy specials.

That led to a 20-year break from doing his own comedy, but when he saw how much fun Schumer was having on Trainwreck, he decided to get back into it. Shes one of the greats. The first time I did stand-up (again) it was just to make her laugh.

In Ridgefield hell cover subjects from politics to parenthood; he and wife Leslie Mann have two girls. I talk a lot about the challenges of raising my daughters. Its certainly an interesting era (with social media) to be raising kids in. Then, I just have a lot of weird stories from my years in show business. ... So, its basically about my life and work and family. Im just being honest about what Ive been through.

A lot of comedians think they have things figured out, but my whole act is just wondering if Im screwing everything up.

Apatow shared that one of his daughters told him she finds his jokes annoying. She said, Sometimes my friends make jokes which are funny, but I dont laugh because you make jokes.

Chuckling, Apatow said, I have ruined all humor for her.

lkoonz@newstimes.com; Twitter: @LindaTkoonz
BRIDGEPORT - A 1-year-old boy was back safely with his mother Monday after police said he was snatched by a state parole officer and her boyfriend desperate to adopt the child.

Gladys Marquez, 51, the parole officer, was charged with home invasion and second-degree kidnapping while her boyfriend, 52-year-old Edgardo Soberal, a retired parole officer, was charged with conspiracy to commit home invasion and second-degree kidnapping.

Both were released after posting $25,000 bonds.

We were able to get the baby back without incident, said Police Chief Armando Perez. These are people who apparently believe because they have worked with the law that they can do what they want.

The baby was taken to Bridgeport Hospital where he was reunited with his mother. Police Det. Jeffrey Holtz said the boy tearfully shouted, Mommy, mommy, as he was returned to his mothers arms.

But Soberals lawyer, John R. Gulash, said there is more to the incident.

There is a lot more information that will hopefully put the matter in a very different light, Gulash said.

Police said Marquez and the toddlers mother lived near each other in Stratford and during conversations Marquez got the idea that the mother, who is 17 and not married, was willing to give the baby to her for adoption.

But police said the mother adamantly denied this and told detectives she was planning on moving to get away from Marquez.

She said Marquez told her shes too young to have a baby and should be out having fun, police said the mother told them.

On June 7, the mother was visiting relatives in the P.T. Barnum housing project when police said Marquez and Soberal forced their way into the apartment and grabbed the baby.

The mother called police and a friend showed officers a video she took with her cell phone that showed Marquez and Soberal pushing the mother out of the way so they could take the boy, police said.

Police tried contacted Marquez without success. Over the weekend police said officers from Bridgeport and Stratford went to Marquezs home to persuade her to release the baby.

During subsequent phone calls police said Marquez and Soberal claimed they were talking to a lawyer to arrange adopting the boy. However, police said they eventually agreed to turn the baby over to officers.
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NORWALK - A convicted felon, carrying a loaded handgun and 54 bags of cocaine, was taken into custody by police in the Burnell Boulevard bus terminal Monday.

Police also say that Jonas Labaze, 24, had just left the office of his probation officer.
Dear President Putin: It is no use trying any further to accommodate the United States or cooperate with it. We cannot afford any more concessions. It is clear that the United States only respects force and firmness.

Dear Mr. President: The below memorandum regarding Russian-American bilateral relations was drafted by my Ministrys Department of North America. I do not share completely all the views espoused by my Foreign Ministry colleaguessometimes they seem too harsh, even shrill, in their analysis of the United Statesbut I suspect their assessment closely reflects the views of the average Russian, so I believe it would be useful for you to read their analysis unadulterated by my edits. Because of the sensitivity of the conclusion reached, I have classified this assessment as top secret/eyes only. Sincerely yours, Sergei.

The July 7th meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin could have been the beginning of that long-awaited breakthrough in our worsening relations with the United States. Instead, that meeting served only to confirm that there is no longer any chance that we can forestall a new Cold War. Of course, for many American policymakers the Cold War is already here or, perhaps more precisely, for many in the West the Cold War never really ended. They never knew how to handle a more cooperative and friendly relationship with Russia, and are now oddly reassured and comforted that tensions are rising. You will recall how many high-level American officials during the Nineties nostalgically lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union because the world became less predictable and more muddled.

But this new Cold Waror more accurately, phase two of the original Cold Warwill be worse than its predecessor from 1948-1990. This is because all the American elites are now united in their distrust and disdain for Russia as never before in our bilateral history. Although we pose no existential threat to America, embrace no ideology anathema to their way of life, and have dramatically reduced our territory while at the same time dramatically increasing our cooperation with America on a full range of issues over the last two decades, they remain dissatisfied. Indeed, one could argue that the more we give in, the more unreasonable they have become in their demands. When the National Review, the New Republic, the Nation, and the Washington Post are all bleating like good sheep the same uninformed half-truths about Russia, you know that building better relations is now impossible.

The American Psyche

Americans are perhaps unique in the world in their view of the worldthey are truly a conflicted people: they know less about history and the rest of the world than any other developed country, yet they deem themselves experts on all things. More intriguingly, they feel a messianic impulse to save the world, while at the same harboring deep resentment when the world intrudes on them. They are, paradoxically, irredeemably isolationist and compulsively interventionist.

But what is most important to understand about America is that it is not evil. The American people and their leaders are good-hearted and always mean well. Such silly leftwing notions of America the Evil need to be cast aside, onto the trash heap of history so to speak, with so many other myths. They want only to do goodand that is what makes America so dangerous. They do not have a lust for power, nor truly a craving for wealth. But they do lust for glory and they do crave admiration. A white knight on a noble steed, erratically trampling the rest of the world into submission with benign intent.

What is most infuriating about Americas self-image, however, is the ease with which it deflects its own foibles and inclinations onto the rest of the world. For example, the long-held belief among Americans of every political stripe that Russia only understands force and toughness. But hasnt the history of the last several decades shown just the opposite? It is the United States that never sees a concession as an effort at compromise, but instead views every concession as a victory for themselves. One glaring example that puts this into stark relief are the two pivotal events of 1989: the Tiananmen slaughter of peaceful demonstrators and the peaceful tearing down of the Berlin Wall a few months later. The Chinese cracked down on the demonstrators ruthlessly and with considerable violence, and now that massacre is a fading memory and does not at all impede relations with the West nor Chinas ascent to regional hegemony. But our decision not to crackdown on those demonstrators in Berlin, as we had done in years past in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, has caused us endless trouble with the West. Yes, it would have caused a great international crisis and yes Russia would have been severely lambasted by global leaders, but all that fury would have died down by now and all the blood we would have had to spill would have long dried. Our reluctance to killto use force and be toughand to keep what was ours at all cost has cost us dearly.

A Century of Interference

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of American involvementinterferencein our domestic affairs. It was in 1918 that then President Wilson sent 13,000 American soldiers as part of the multinational invasion force to topple our government. This is a small footnote in history that shamefully few Americans even know about, but even those who know about it justify it because their intentions were good. That is after all the eternal American defense: we meant well. It is a universally applied principle, so for example it doesnt matter that tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead and hundreds of thousands more are homeless and broken because the Americans meant well! It is of little importance that the United States militarily interfered in over a dozen Latin American countries because it also meant well in those places, too. The same for the dozen or more interventions and invasions in the Middle East and Asia. The intent is always good so the results dont matter.

It would be unfair not to admit we too have fallen prey to this self-delusion in our past. Like the average American today who is blissfully oblivious to the harm done because the intent was good, we once felt equally vindicated in all our actions since Marx and Lenin had taught us we had history on our side. But weve grown up; America never will. It always believes its actions are sanctioned by God and its mistakes forgiven by that same God. That is enough to salve any conscience.

The other mental technique employed with great effect by the Americans is having a dual timeline to history; this technique impressively reinforces its good intentions defense. Whenever one raises a past transgressione.g., their interference in various democratic electionsMosaddegh in Iran, Allende in Chile, etc.these offenses are all characterized as ancient history. Whereas when they assess the actions of Russia or any other enemy state, past transgressions are never ancient history; instead, our past aggressions are always seen as an immutable pattern of bad behavior that will never cease unless confronted. Thus, Czar Peters desire for a warm water port three centuries ago is still believed a Russian obsession, while the United States obsession with maintaining absolute hegemony over all of Latin America is a harmless relic of a distant past. Yet, American interference in domestic elections continues unabated. Certainly not as heavy-handed as in the past, but still inexcusable and inappropriate. We need only recall former Secretary of State Clinton publicly criticizing our own 2012 elections: The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted. And that means they deserve free, fair, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them. A remarkable statement, without a hint of irony, from a woman who had no hesitation to rig the party rules to ensure her own nomination as the Democratic party candidate in 2016.

But this cognitive historical dissonance is best exemplified in the United States outrage over our annexation of Crimea, which has always been overwhelmingly populated by Russians. For nearly two hundred years Crimea was part of Russia, when in 1954 for purely domestic political reasons it was internally transferred from Russia to Ukraine, both of which were parts of the Soviet Union! Never was it envisioned at that time that Ukraine would ever become an independent state and even when it became one never was it envisioned that the Russian Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol would be threatened. How does this compare to Americas continued occupation of the Cuban port of Guantanamo? Is that naval port intrinsic to the security of the United States? Is it populated by an overwhelming number of Americans? Was it historically ever a part of the United States? Of course, the answer is no to all these questions. Yet, the United States sees no hypocrisy and inconsistency in its retention of Guantanamo despite Cubas legitimate demand to have it returned. It is amusing that the world focuses on the detention center for alleged terrorists at Guantanamo and no oneother than the Cuban governmentsees the far greater outrage in the refusal of the United States to give back to Cuba what was taken at the point of a gun in 1903. Gunboat diplomacy may be condemned by the United States now, but it refuses to give up the fruits of its own past employment of military extortion.

The Tragedy of the Last Thirty Years

Since Mikhail Gorbachevs 1986 Vladivostok speech, we have tried to reach a true accommodation with America. In that speech, largely ignored in the United States at the time, we announced that we would substantially draw down our troops in Afghanistan with an expectation of finding a political solution that would allow our complete withdrawal. The American analysis should have been instructive and served as a warning: American policymakers dismissed any possibility that we would withdraw our troops and insisted that the promise of a troop withdrawal was a ruse not to be taken seriously. At the same time, they explained that if we did withdraw troops it would only be because we had been defeated! We should have taken this early warning more seriously about the American penchant for holding two opposing views simultaneously. This same American assessment occurred in the months leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall: that we would never allow it to happen, and then that we could not stop it from happening becauseagain!we had been defeated.

The path from those early defeats to our present dire predicament was easy to see, but we were yearned for better relations. When Germany united, we allowed iteven agreeing to keep a united Germany within NATO. But we made clear that would be the extent of NATOs expansion eastward. Gorbachev in his memoirs underscores that NATO provided assurances that it would not expand further toward our border. Indeed, in 1990 it is hard to believe that anyone even considered the prospect of our former allies joining NATO! But soon they did, and again we remained silent. First former President Clinton allowed various former Warsaw Pact countries to join, then former President Bush added insult to that injury by even allowing former Soviet republics to join. At the same time, Gorbachevs suggestion that we be allowed to have a pathway to NATO membership was dismissed out of hand! We were being hemmed in on all sides and all we sought was better relations and to become fully integrated into the Western community.

But to America and NATO we had already amply signaled our weakness and unwillingness to stand up to them, so the threats to our security kept multiplying. One of our few remaining allies, Serbia, had a portion of its territory annexed that became the separate state of Kosovo. This abrogated the crucial understanding among all European states to keep all national borders intact. The sanctity of borders had kept the peace for five decades, but now it was to be tossed aside at the whim of the Americans! (Amazingly, when we did the same thing with Crimeataking Kosovo as precedentwe were roundly attacked.) Yet we accepted the partition of Serbia in order to maintain good relations and we again we kept our mouths shut.

Then in 2002, in light of the horrific 9/11 attacks, former President Bush unexpectedly and mystifyingly withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Had the Americans forgotten that we had originally opposed such a treaty back in 1967? Had they forgotten that it took them five long years of negotiations to convince us to embrace the ABM Treaty, but once it was signed in 1972 we adhered to it completely and came to accept that it was a cornerstone of our relationship with America. But when Bush abrogated the treaty we said very little: that it was a mistake but that withdrawing from the treaty would not have any serious impact on our warm relations. Showing his formidable intellectual prowess, Bush explained that the ABM treaty needed to be abrogated because four hijacked planes had caused widespread destruction on American soil. Of course, an ABM system would have been completely ineffective against such an attack anyway, but that somehow was beside the point. Feeling sympathy for the American tragedy we did nothing to oppose this decision.

Yet even this was not enough obeisance. In 2007, again using the pretext of defending itself and its allies from a different threat, the United States proposed placing a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, countries once our allies. In 2009 former President Obama declared that the United States would abandon this proposal, but now a site is already operational in Romania and another will be operational in Poland in another year. At the same time, NATO continues its inexorable march eastward. The understanding that no NATO troops would be stationed on the territory of the new NATO members, such as the Baltic states and Poland, is no longer viable. Using so-called Russian aggression as a pretext, NATO is deploying more and more troops closer and closer to our border. It was not until the United States and NATO pushed to undermine Ukraine, orchestrating the removal of a democratically elected president, that we finally started to find our voice and our courage to stand up and say enough.

What Once Was and What Is to Be

Apart from a very brief period of genuine cooperation during the great global struggle against fascism and Nazism, the United States has worked tirelessly to weaken us and bring us to our knees. And how it characterizes that global conflict indicates just how distorted and flawed a view of history the United States embraces. Read any American high school history textbook or watch any Hollywood movie about World War II and you would think that America almost singlehandedly saved the world. Yes, their production capabilities were prodigious and their logistics unrivaled, and their soldiers did fight bravely, but they could never have won without Russia. They mourn the loss of 400,000 Americans, yet think our loss of 20 million Russians just an incidental matter. It was Russian blood more than American production that defeated Germany, but that indisputable fact is found nowhere in the books or hearts of Americans. The Americans faced a German army of only 1,500,000, while we were fighting nearly five times that many Germans. Do the Americans really believe they ever would have gotten off the Normandy beaches had the Germans been able to deploy even a few more troops to the Western front? But they all like to bask in the glow of what they unthinkingly describe as that greatest generation of Americans, while we must shoulder the burden of having endured the greatest loss of a generation of Russians.

A rapidly expanding and aggressive China and a determinedly nihilistic and ruthless Islamic fundamentalism are Americas true threats, but if they cannot see that themselves, we will never succeed in showing it to them. They should be eager to form closer ties with Russia, both to counter China in the East and to safeguard NATO in the west. Are we not part of that same broad Western civilization that they all ought to want to preserve? But only President Trump appears to understand the value of better relations. However, in a sad, strange twist, we would probably be better off if Trump denounced us. Given how the American elites both on the right and the left view Trump, it has become a liability to have him defend us and try to foster better relations for one simple reason: any policy or idea he espouses is automatically assumed to be tainted and twisted.

Given this reality, it is no use trying any further to accommodate the United States or cooperate with it. Our unprecedented and crucial logistical support to the United States in its Afghanistan campaign is already forgotten, and our willingness to cooperate in Syria and elsewhere is always presumed as diabolical attempts to resurrect a long-faded glory and long-lost empire. Perhaps someday the United States will come to its senses, but until then we must safeguard our own interests and ensure our own security. We cannot afford any more concessions. It is clear that the United States only respects force and firmness. If the psychological term that best fits the United States is cognitive historical dissonance, then the psychological term that best fits our foreign policy toward the United States for the last 30 years is battered spouse syndrome. We need to stop making excuses for the United States, we need to stop blaming our own past behavior for their current actions, and we certainly need to say enough is enough and just admit this relationship is broken.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.
The citys proposed public safety personnel cuts would increase response time, increase the citys crime rate and make the city less safe, fire, police and union officials say.

These claims are a few of the reasons these officials oppose the citys proposal to have 15 public safety positions either cut or left unfilled.

For the Grand Island Fire Department, the recommendation of city administration is to eliminate two positions and two additional currently vacant firefighter positions, as well as leave two future retirements unfilled.

The Grand Island Police Department may have two full-time equivalent (FTE) community service officer (CSO) positions eliminated, two currently vacated police officer positions remain unfilled, two currently vacant part-time CSO positions left vacant, and three future retirements left unfilled.

Phil Thomas, president of Grand Island Firefighters IAFF Local 647, said the department needs six additional firefighters/EMTs, not six less.

Just to even talk about making cuts, we are worried about safety, Thomas said. Its hard to believe we would lose six firefighters when we are at this tipping point where we may not be able to respond to a fire.

Grand Island Police Chief Robert Falldorf said the citys proposal would have a negative effect on the Police Department as well.

You cannot get rid of that many personnel and not have it have a negative effect, Falldorf said. It is hard to say what impact it is going to have. But if I look back through history and statistics, I can show where there have been decreases in manpower and it has had a negative effect to the department where crime rates will actually go up.

Jarret Daugherty, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 24, said the union is also opposed to this reduction due to the negative impact on the citys crime rate. He said with two homicides, multiple burglaries and other violent crimes this year, the decrease in manpower will impact the safety of the community.

Weve done a great job over the past two years of reducing our crime rate, being proactive, stopping crimes before they start and actually getting some of our repeat customers to leave the area so we dont have to deal with them repeatedly. Since weve lost one or two positions in the last six to eight months, those crime numbers seem to be creeping back up.

Daugherty added the violence the city has experienced is something the community cannot ignore or allow to increase. He said the manpower is needed in the Police Department to allow visitors to Grand Island to feel safe.

They deserve to enter and stay in a city that is well-maintained and safe, he said. If they do have a need for service of any kind, that service should be met in a timely manner, especially if there is a need for emergency care.

Grand Island Fire Chief Cory Schmidt said the Fire Department has not added personnel to the shift level since 2000. If the City Council approves the proposed cuts and reduces the force by six, the department will be at the same staffing level as it was in 1996.

Grand Island has grown significantly since then and our call volume has gone up, Schmidt said. It (personnel cuts) will affect safety, no doubt. You cannot reduce your staffing and not have that come into play.

Thomas said the union has concerns about not only increased response times, but also safety that will be put at risk due to the personnel cuts.

Our No. 1 concern is safety of the citizens. Our next concern is safety for ourselves, he said. We need to have those guys on the trucks so that we can put a fire out within a reasonable amount of time.

Both Falldorf and Schmidt said the average dispatch time  the time between an officer receiving a call and responding to the call  will increase if the personnel cuts are approved by the City Council.

Our average dispatch time right now is about 10 minutes, Falldorf said. There are times when the 911 Emergency Center will dispatch an officer and within five to 10 seconds, they are able to go to that detail. There are other times where we dont even have any officers to respond to details so calls are then holding. Thats why there is a 10-minute average right now of officers being available to go and handle a call. That can be a little concerning, too.

Schmidt said about 75 percent of the Fire Departments calls are medical calls, so an increase in response time could be a matter of life and death.

If we dont provide an early intervention with CPR, defibrilation and advance life support, your chance of making it through a cardiac event reduces by 7 to 10 percent every minute, he said. When we have a four-minute response time, you are already behind and if that time is delayed, your odds of surviving are even less.

When it comes to operations, Schmidt said, the department will be short-staffed two engine companies at Fire Stations Nos. 2 and 4. He added another, less popular, option is to take a fire station out of service.

In my 25 years in the fire service field, I have not seen any other city in our area or surrounding states that runs two-person engine companies, Schmidt said. There are a certain amount of tasks that have to take place within a certain amount of time. With a three-person crew, it really isnt that accepted to do something like that.

Falldorf said personnel cuts will also have an effect on the Police Departments overtime, but will not change the way shifts are run.

We will be working shorter in the Patrol Division, he said. We will have less officers working the patrol, so that is more than likely more overtime.

Daugherty encouraged citizens who are opposed to the citys proposed public safety personnel cuts to call their City Council representatives.
The Trump administration, most Republicans and some for sale Democratic legislators have spent over eight years shouting and bickering about how they must replace Obamacare to make America great again.

This sorry bunch of legislators in a corrupted government tells us it is taking so much time due to the difficulty in making Trumpcare better than Obamacare for all Americans. If we ask, they tell us they want what is better for us; you know...the common folks like you and me, the taxpayers who pay their outrageous salaries.

They assure us that whatever they come up with will be spectacular. Every American can rest easy knowing their medical, dental, psychological and pharmaceutical needs will be taken care of.

Any of us who believe that will happen should prepare for a surprise. If they ever develop a plan we can be sure that plan will favor big money  big pharmacy, big health insurance, the big medical community.

Evidently, Trumps administration and both the House and Senate have overlooked the most comprehensive, all inclusive health-care plan ever designed in this nation: Their own health care policy. That is a plan they devised for themselves and their families. It is probably the very best coverage.

By simply expanding their exact plan to each and every American, the administration and Congress would solve the dilemma of health care coverage for all Americans.
Question: My sister is a nurse, and told me that one of her friends works as a nurse at a prison. Apparently, it costs a fortune to pay medical personnel to go to prisons. I cannot believe how much it costs. Why do we have to provide this kind of quality medical care to inmates? Why can it not just be the absolute minimum?

The subject of medical care for those housed in prisons involves more than just simply giving inmates a bandage when they cut themselves. I am sure all readers can imagine all of the potential injuries one could incur and illnesses one could catch in a place made out of nothing but hard surfaces.

When it comes to the treatment provided to prisoners in our prisons, the Constitution of the United States is naturally involved. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. As a result, simply allowing people housed as inmates to be left to their own devices without providing at least the opportunity for medical care would be cruel and unusual.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that an institution's deliberate indifference to providing necessary medical care to the inmates it houses is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has also noted that inmates have a liberty interest in refusing medical treatment, and, for that reason, a prisoner could refuse to receive medical treatment. However, the liberty interest in refusing medical treatment goes only so far. For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an inmate can refuse to take the medication prescribed for him.

However, it is constitutional to require an inmate to take his or her anti-psychotic medication when that inmate refuses to do so. This is only the case when some party who is unbiased finds that the administration of the anti-psychotic medication is necessary to protect the inmate, or, for that matter, to protect others as well. In addition, the person making the decision to administer the anti-psychotic medication must be qualified to make such a decision.

It might be interesting to note that the issue of whether or not negligent medical treatment (or medical malpractice) is considered to be cruel and unusual has been considered before by the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that such negligent medical treatment does not violate the Constitution.

Question: I was flipping through a bunch of cable stations recently, and there was a show on that portrayed the inside of a prison. I am not sure why, but I started watching it. During the show, they began searching inmate cells, and the narrator commented that they search cells randomly and after they hear of an inmate having contraband. I do not know why it occurred to me, but is this legal? Are inmates protected from searches by the Constitution?

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. This is why police do not just go into a house to search it whenever they want to. The protection against unreasonable searches is derived from the reasonable expectation of privacy each one of us has in our own personal property and homes.

A person who is an inmate in a penitentiary does not enjoy the same rights as do you and I. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that inmates do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cells. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has ruled that inmates do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding the personal property that is in their cells.

In addition, inmates in a penitentiary do not have a Constitutional right to be present when their cells are searched.

Have questions for Brendan Bukalski? E-mail him at askthelawyer@gmail.com, or write him, c/o The Edwardsville Intelligencer, 117 N. 2nd St., Edwardsville, IL 62025.

Editor's note  the answers provided in this column are general in nature, and should not be relied upon as legal advice or interpreted as creating an attorney-client relationship. As a general rule, all specific legal problems should be handled by an individual's personal attorney.
Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler says he has no intention of firing County Assessor Joe Dauderman and replacing him later with a Chief County Assessment Official of his own choosing.

Daudermans four-year term ends soon and County Board members were initially asked at last months County Board meeting to vote on a 60-day extension of his contract.

But Kristen Novacich, D-Granite City, and others accused the chairman of proposing the 60-day option as a first step toward getting rid of Dauderman and hiring a less experienced administrator to fill his shoes.

Mike Walters, R-Godfrey, though, argued that Prenzler, who was elected chairman in November, has the right to appoint whomever he wants.

Prenzler made that argument himself as well.

He agreed to let the County Board vote on the amended resolution but added that he would be sending the matter to the Illinois Attorneys Office for a ruling.

Asked whether the County Board had the right to amend resolutions, Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said that they did.

The County Board passed the amended resolution, 20-6, with no votes coming from Walters and fellow Republicans Chrissy Dutton, James Futtrell, Brad Maxwell, Tom McRae and Ray Wesley.

Prenzler sent a letter to County Board members re-iterating his disagreement with their decision amending the 60-day extension and instead re-appointing Dauderman to a four-year term.

Passing such a resolution, Prenzler said, is outside the County Boards authority.

Illinois statute is clear in that only the County Chairman can appoint a (Chief County Assessment Official) to a four-year term, Prenzler wrote, citing 35 ILCS 200/3-5.

The statute, he wrote, gives the County Board chairman authority to return an adopted resolution back to the county board for reconsideration at the next county board meeting.

Prenzler has placed his resolution  for a four-year-appointment - on the agenda for the July 19 County Board meeting.

In a brief interview Wednesday, Prenzler said he had no intention of replacing Dauderman with his own pick. I have no plans to do that, he said.

Asked why he will be asking the board to approve what is essentially the same resolution as they themselves approved last month, he said: Because that resolution was flawed. It wasnt proper. It wasnt, in my mind, legal.

Prenzler said he has not submitted the issue to the Attorney Generals office and will not be doing so. We looked at it and its just not legal.

Prenzler said its unlikely the County Board would not accept his resolution. We dont want to have uncertainty, he said. Thats why I let the vote go forward. Because we need a supervisor of assessments in order to function.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 08:07 1943 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a92bada 4 Editorial editorial,South-China-Sea,#SouthChinaSeaDispute,China,China-Indonesia,maritime-boundaries,maritime-border,North-Natuna-Sea Free

A territory's name matters in international relations, particularly between two competing nations, although in many cases one name is chosen over another merely for practical reasons. Indonesias decision to rename a contentious maritime territory the North Natuna Sea on Friday is part of the countrys updating of its maps. A deputy to the coordinating maritime minister, Arief Havas Oegroseno, said the North Natuna Sea, formerly known as part of the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety, refers to oil and gas exploration activities in the northern part of the Natuna Seas continental shelf boundary, named the North Natuna and South Natuna blocks.

The new name will simply provide certainty and a connection between the continental shelf border and the waters to its north. But Chinas immediate criticism of Indonesias move shows its sensitivity regarding the South China Sea, although Indonesia mantains it is not a claimant. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media that Beijing hoped the relevant country can work with China for shared goals and jointly uphold the current hard-won sound situation in the South China Sea.

Havas said that as a sovereign state Indonesia had the right to name every area in the countrys territory and would officially register the North Natuna Sea with the United Nations and the International Hydrographic Organization. Whether the naming of the waters of Indonesias exclusive economic zone waters north of the natural resources-rich Natuna will hurt ties between Jakarta and Beijing, which have deepened since President Joko Jokowi Widodo took office in October 2014, remains to be seen. There is no reason to worry about such an adverse impact, however.

First and foremost, Indonesia has insisted that it has no territorial dispute in the Natuna waters with China. History also shows that China takes the same stance, as stated by then president Jiang Zemin during a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Soeharto in 1992.

Second, with China investing big in Indonesia, particularly in infrastructure, and the two reiterating their commitment to enhancing strategic partnerships, it is loud and clear that they mean business and will not let other issues distract from their common bid for growth.

China and Indonesia, as well as other ASEAN member states and their dialogue partners, are also moving a step closer to realizing an ambitious broader regional economic integration pact called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), further signifying their shared objective of cooperation, rather than confrontation.

Misunderstandings may stand between Jakarta and Beijing in the wake of the naming of the North Natuna Sea, but our bilateral ties are too big to fail. Although Jakarta will not negotiate with other nations that make unconventional claims including those who insist on a map of nine dashes, its explanation that the policy is simply aimed at protecting its natural resources will help ease the tension, if not confusion. For long Indonesia has suffered billions of dollars in annual losses particularly from illegal fishing, including in the Natuna waters.

As the English playwright Shakespeare put it, Whats in a name?
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Linkedin Juliana Harsianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 08:53 1943 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a92d695 4 Lifestyle women-empowerment,relationship,gender-based-violence,abusive-relationship,community Free

The internet seems to be pervading all areas of life in Indonesia, which recorded 88.1 million internet users with a penetration of 34.9 percent in 2014.

Although most Indonesian web surfers live in major cities, many of them in smaller regions utilize the internet for social causes, such as providing gender education and empowering women.

Nike Nadia is one user who believes the internet can support young women in dealing with relationship issues.

As a counselor with the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Nike noticed that the commission responded differently to married women, single women and teenagers when they came for consultation.

Read also: Victims of dating abuse find it hard to get help

The commission caters more to married women who experience violence, said Nike.

Some circles still consider violence against unmarried women less serious because they are considered to be single or in a no-strings relationship, supposedly making it easier for them to break away.

Stronger together: One of HelpNona's offline workshops. (HelpNona.com/File)

However, facts show that most unmarried women and teenage girls also find it hard to end relationships with abusive partners.

Usually there is a problem of unjust power control in this context, Nike said.

Single womens lack of confidence makes them think the people they are dating are their only hope to not ending up being alone for the rest of their lives.

Read also: Let's talk about the pressure of getting married in your 20s

They choose to stay in their abusive relationships because by having boyfriends, they feel theyre wanted, Nike said.

Realizing the younger generations familiarity with the internet, Nike began to use the medium to give information about healthy dating and building a positive image for women.

In April 2016, Nike launched an online platform called HelpNona, offering a forum to young women with dating or personal image problems to share their feelings.

HelpNona also posts articles on self-development related to sound dating and a positive selfimage.

The articles were originally written by Nike herself, but her counseling experience has made her familiar with many sources.

I have met a number of doctors, lawyers and psychologists who can serve as resource persons, Nike, who is majoring in gender studies for her Masters degree, said.

HelpNona has drawn the attention of visitors and volunteers as well as those seeking advice through a feature called AskNona.

Through the HelpNona platform, Nike has also organized workshops for personal image enhancement and healthy dating.

Nike utilizes the workshops to mentor women about the signs of abusive dating. For example, Nike said many women were unaware that abuse did not always come in the form of physical violence.

Read also: Why verbal harassment is more menacing than physical bullying

Many people think that violence is only physical. However, verbal and psychological aggression actually have longer and graver effects, Nike, a bachelor of law from Bandungs Padjadjaran University, said.

Another common sign of an abusive relationship is when the partner starts to impose unreasonable restrictions, said Nike.

Many believe that if their partners forbid them to do something, then it is an expression of love. But if the prohibition is without apparent reason and the female partners feel considerably restricted, they should be cautious, Nike said.

Nikes HelpNona platform has received huge support from Girl in Tech Indonesia, an initiative that encourages Indonesian women to be more active in technology.

Anantya van Bronckhorst, one of the founders of Girl in Tech Indonesia, said technology could help women in doing many things, but many of them were reluctant to be more active in a field that was traditionally regarded as a mans domain.

With the gradual entry of women in this field, other women will certainly be drawn into the technological world, she said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 10:35 1943 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a932f09 1 Science & Tech Telegram,messaging,messaging-app,#messaging,terrorism Free

Amid the controversy surrounding Telegram and its application in Indonesia, here are a few things to know about this free, non-profit cloud-based instant messaging service.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a chatting app launched in 2013 that was first available on smartphones and later through the web, making it usable on PCs and laptops. One of the app's selling points that the company touted is the safety of chatting by encryption. It can also create groups containing up to 10,000 members, send multiple types of documents, store users media in the cloud and allow users to build their own tools using an application programming interface.

Russias Mark Zuckerberg

Thats the nickname belonging to one of the creators of Telegram, Pavel Durov. The CEO of Telegram, he and his brother Nikolai created the app that has gained 100 million users worldwide. Before heading the company, Durov founded social networking program VKontakte, which gained 350 million users, before he was pushed out.

Among Durovs interesting aspects is his habit in only wearing black and casually using mocking GIFs to answer certain inquiries, even from the Russian government. Durov is on the move around the world with four of his employees after a run-in with the Kremlin over Vkontakte. He is reportedly using Airbnb to find lodgings.

Read also: Govt blocks Telegram messaging service

Safe chatting

The part that gave Telegram an image as a safe chatting app is its encryption that protects the secrecy of contents considered personal or business secrets. Another feature to promote safety is the timed destruction of messages. This is why political activists in Russia use the app to circumvent their governments censorship. The encrypted chatting is done using a feature called secret chat that provides encrypted local storage along with end-to-end encryption.

Alex Rad, a blogger with a background doing reverse engineering and app security, criticized the secret chats vulnerability to Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks. This is dismissed by Telegram, but it admitted Rads critique was correct since the user authentication by SMS is vulnerable to interception, which they aim to resolve with their cloud-based authentication.

Home to terrorists?

The safety that Telegram promotes and which protects their users can be used to organize movements against a government disinclined to allow freedom of expression. On the flip side, it has the potential to be used to assemble members of a group for unsavory purposes.

Notable attacks carried out by terrorists said to be using the app include one in Paris, in which Telegram was reportedly used to spread propaganda, the Christmas attack in Berlin, in which the app was utilized to recruited personnel, the attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul and the St. Petersburg attack. Government agencies worldwide have already demanded Telegram provide backdoor access to pre-emptively neutralize the terrorists using it.

Read also: Highly encrypted Telegram service the app of choice for terrorists

The sudden ban

The Indonesian government announced a ban on Telegrams products on July 14. The stated reason for this action was the claim that Telegram was used by terrorists to support their operations. The ban was applied starting July 17.

The governments move has been criticized by Safenet member Damar Juniarto as a short-term solution.

As reported by kompas.com, President Joko Jokowi Widodo stated that the ban of the chatting app was done in the interest of national security. He also clarified that this decision came after a period of observation, when he said that it was found that Telegram was used for terrorist communications. President Jokowi also stated that Telegram has rebuffed offers for cooperation to control terrorist accounts.

Damage control

Soon after the ban, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov issued an apology. The firm also said that it will be forming a team of moderators specifically to tackle terrorism-related content. Durov said he was unaware of requests to deal with terrorist accounts collaboratively with the Indonesian government, but is now trying to rectify the situation.

Durov stated that the app blocked thousands of Islamic State-related contents monthly and was open to ideas about being better at tackling terrorists in Telegram. As a response to the governments call for a ban, Telegram has done away with various public terrorist accounts. (dan/kes)
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Linkedin Guy Jackson (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Tue, July 18, 2017 19:00 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a95066a 2 World France,Emmanuel-Macron,geopolitics Free

France has leapfrogged the United States and Britain as the world's top so-called soft power, helped by the election of President Emmanuel Macron, a study of countries' non-military global influence showed Tuesday.

While France has risen, Donald Trump's ascent to the White House has seen the US slip from the top last year to third place in the Soft Power 30 study, compiled by PR company Portland Communications and the University of Southern California.

Soft power measures a country's ability to secure international alliances and influence others through its attraction and appeal.

The study uses polling in 25 countries and digital data to measure a country's influence.

It takes into account factors such as the ability of countries to attract foreign students to its universities and tourists, as well as its cultural allure.

France's rapid rise from fifth place last year, when it was in the doldrums under unpopular ex-president Francois Hollande, is partly due to the centrist Macron's election in May.

But the country's diplomatic reach also played a key role.

"France's greatest strength lies in its vast diplomatic network," the study says.

"It is unrivalled in terms of membership to multilateral and international organisations, as well as in its diplomatic cultural missions.

"With Macron having long campaigned for cooperation and integration, it is not unreasonable to expect Frances global engagement and influence to grow."

France also remains the world's top tourist destination, the report said.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 15:42 1943 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a9410ca 1 City drug-abuse,drug-smuggling,actor,family Free

The Jakarta Police have named Axel Matthew Thomas, the eldest son of actor Jeremy Thomas, a suspect of drug abuse.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said that based on an ongoing investigation, the police investigators had collected adequate evidence to name Axel a suspect for misusing nimetazepam, which is also known by the street name "Happy Five".

We have solicited statements from witnesses and secured other evidence, including bank transfer receipts, Argo said at Jakarta Police headquarters on Tuesday, adding that Axel had transferred Rp 1.5 million (US$112.71) to buy a strip of the drug from a man identified only as JV, who had been arrested earlier in the case.



The police have yet to conduct a test to discover if Axel had consumed the drug.

Argo added that if Axel was found guilty, he could be charged with the 1997 law on narcotics, which carries a minimum sentence of 3 years.

Previously on Monday, his father Jeremy reported police officers for allegedly assaulting his son.

The case was opened on Friday, when Airport Police at Soekarno-Hatta seized 1,118 nimetazepam pills that were smuggled from Malaysia in boxes of Panadol upon receiving information from the airports Customs Office.

On investigating the smuggled drugs, the police identified five individuals suspected of ordering the drugs, one of whom was Axel.

Axel was arrested by investigators on Saturday in South Jakarta, but was later released, as police found no drugs on him.

Argo said that Axel attempted to evade arrest and became engaged in a fight with police officers. (fac)
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Bali  Tue, July 18, 2017 22:30 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a954bab 1 National bali,suicide-attempt,Australian-citizen Free

An Australian man has threatened to commit suicide by jumping from I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airports third floor in Bali on Tuesday, after causing a flight cancellation the day before.

The man, identified as Gregory Lee Butler, 46, shocked onlookers as he stood at the edge of the third floor and shouted corrupt and rude many times.

For more than one hour, until 6.18 p.m., a negotiation was conducted by the police and airport aviation security. He was finally saved after an Austrian man became involved in the negotiation.

Arie Ahsanurrohin, the communications and legal head of state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, said that Butler allegedly had psychological problems and anti-depressant medicine was found in his bag.

He had also caused a cancellation of an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur on Monday. "He was one of the passengers on Air Asia flight AK 379. When the flight was going to take off, he suddenly knocked on the cockpit door, saying that someone wanted to kill him. For safety reasons, the pilot decided to return to the apron," Arie said.

All passengers stayed the night in Kuta, before flying to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday morning. Butler was left at the airport for investigation. "After the investigation had concluded, he suddenly threatened [to commit suicide]," Arie said.

The airport security decided to send him to Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.

Butler would not be charged because he had not committed a crime, Arie added.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 18:09 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a94e148 1 Business BI,redenomination,house-of-representatives,rupiah,agus-martowardoyo Free

Bank Indonesia (BI) has urged members of the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs to start debating the draft law on redenomination  the elimination of three zeroes from the Indonesian currency.

The redenomination bill was included in the national legislation program in 2013. We want it included again in the 2017 national legislation program, said BI Governor Agus Martowardojo.

Agus statement was made during the focus group discussion (FGD) at the House compound on Monday, attended by lawmakers, who represented their respective political parties, Commission XI leaders and representatives of the central bank.

Before a bill is deliberated by the House, it has to be included in the annual national legislation program (Prolegnas). The bill has not been included in the 2017 Prolegnas.

Agus claimed that during the discussion on Monday, all parties agreed on the importance of reviving the discourse on the rupiah redenomination, saying that the Indonesian economy was strong enough to start carrying out the redenomination.

Therefore, Agus said, he would talk with President Joko Jokowi Widodo and relevant ministers to discuss the issue.

He hoped the House would insert the redenomination bill into the Prolegnas so that it could be immediately deliberated.

We hope to have the redenomination bill included in the legislative program. It only consists of 17 articles, Agus added. (bbn)
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Linkedin Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura, Papua  Tue, July 18, 2017 23:18 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a954dfb 1 National WamenaAirport,cargo-aircraft,Tri-MG,plane,Papua Free

For the umpteenth time, a plane has experienced an accident at Wamena Airport in Jayawijaya, Papua. On Tuesday a cargo aircraft belonging to Tri MG veered off the runway for almost a kilometer when it landed at 12:30 p.m. local time. The left wheel and undercarriage of the aircraft had fallen off when the plane touched down.

The Boeing 737-301 aircraft carried five people, comprising pilot, co-pilot, crew members and a passenger. The plane skidded off [the runway] about 100 meters from its landing point, Jayawijaya Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yan Piet Reba told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The aircraft slipped across a ditch and hit a wall. It seemed the plane had a technical problem because its left wheel became detached and was left at the runway, said Yan.

The Tri MG aircraft departed from Moses Kilangin Airport in Timika, Mimika, carrying 15,080 kilograms of cargo consisting of construction materials, rice and mattresses.

The plane was piloted by Capt. Tatang, with co-pilot KH Lee alias Daniel and two engine officers -- Kusandi and Fajar. All of the crew members and one passenger, First Insp. A. Dahlan, survived the incident.

They managed to rescue themselves, but the aircraft was badly damaged. Both of its wings became detached, said Yan.

Previously, the same Tri MG cargo aircraft had suffered an incident on April 3. While it was being unloaded at Wamena Airport, all the goods inside the plane were pushed to the back of the aircraft, lifting the nose about meters above the ground. (ebf)

Under investigation: Authorities check the condition of a Tri MG cargo aircraft, which skidded off the runway at Wamena Airport, Papua, on July 18. (Courtesy of the Papua Police/File)
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 18:57 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a950264 2 Business steel-industry,ferronickel,smelter,north-kalimantan,hydropower-plant,China Free

Chinese stainless steel giant Tsingshan Holding Group has expressed interest in building a US$28 billion integrated ferronickel complex in Tanah Kuning Industrial Park in Indonesias youngest province, North Kalimantan.

Industry Ministrys industrial estate development director general Imam Haryono said Tuesday that the investment would be spent on constructing a ferronickel smelter with a 1.5 million ton capacity per year.

In addition, it could also be used to build other facilities that could annually produce 2 million tons of stainless steel, 10 million tons of carbon steel, 500,000 tons of ferro manganese, 200,000 tons of ferro silicon and 1 million tons of aluminum, as well as a 7,200 megawatt (MW) hydroelectric plant to supply electricity to the complex.

Tsingshan is among the investors keen to invest in Tanah Kuning industrial park in North Kalimantan, which according to official planning will occupy 11,000 hectares.

Other investors include state-owned aluminum producer PT Inalum, which just obtained a location permit to build an aluminum factory, and Chinese aluminum producer PT Borneo Alumindo Prima, which has carried out a feasibility study for its facility development.

All three investors, Iman said, had conveyed their intention to develop 9,000 MW hydroelectric plants near Kayan River.

A limited meeting would be carried out soon to determine the details of the power plants, he added. (lnd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) South Tangerang  Tue, July 18, 2017 19:14 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a951603 2 City rape,Incest,South-Tangerang Free

The South Tangerang Police have arrested a 44-year-old man for the alleged rape of his 17-year-old daughter, resulting in the girl getting pregnant twice.

The case was uncovered after the girl gave birth to her second child in Ciater subdistrict, South Tangerang, on Wednesday last week.

A midwife who assisted at the birth discovered that the girls father was also the father of her children, prompting her to file a police report.

The midwife asked [her] who the father of the baby was, but [she] refused to disclose any names. After repeated attempts [she] was finally willing to reveal that she was impregnated by her own father, South Tangerang Polices criminal unit head Adj. Comr. Ahmad Alexander said on Tuesday.

Ahmad added that the alleged victim told the midwife that she had been repeatedly raped by her father since she was 15 years old and had twice given birth as a result.

She didnt dare tell anyone as the perpetrator threatened her, Ahmad said.

The father and daughter lived in the same house in Serpong, South Tangerang. (fac)
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 21:15 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a952529 1 Business reference-price,industry-ministry,state-owned-enterprises,SOEs Free

The government will issue a reference price for land in industrial estates in the second half of this year in a bid to curb land-price fixing, the Industry Ministrys industrial estate director general Imam Haryono has said.

There will be two price references: one for industrial estates managed by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the other for those managed by private firms. The reference for state enterprise-owned estates will be issued before the privately owned one.

Each region will have a different price reference in regard to the different supply and demand for industrial parks. The reference will help people to get an idea of an industrial estates price, but it is not a mandatory ceiling price for developers, he told reporters on Tuesday.

The high cost of industrial land has been a key concern for the government amid its goal of spurring growth in manufacturing industry, which can generate an enormous multiplier effect in the economy.

High land prices are most evident in industrial areas across Greater Jakarta.

Data from property consultant Colliers International Indonesia show that the price of industrial land in Bekasi, West Java, one of the cities where many industrial firms are concentrated, for instance, climbed by 225 percent from only around US$60 per square meter (sqm) in 2006 to nearly $225 per sqm in 2016. (ags)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam, Riau Islands; and Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 10:48 1943 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a933ed6 1 National drug-smuggling,Taiwan Free

The National Police have cooperated with the Taipei Police to investigate the case of one ton of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) smuggled into Serang, Banten, from Taiwan.

On Sunday, police officers and five investigators from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Taipei Police lead by Col. Jay Lee staged a reconstruction of the case, beginning with when the receiver got the shabu-shabu from the Wanderlust ship crew.

Riau Island Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sambudi Gusdian said the police could uncover the case after receiving information from the Taiwanese police through the Jakarta Police narcotics directorate in February.

Sambudi also said that the joint task force from the Jakarta Police, Riau Islands Police and Customs Duty officers had examined the facts and findings from the Wanderlust ship.

Based on the facts and findings, everything is a match. All the shabu-shabu came from Taiwan, he said.

Read also: Woman busted for hiding meth in vagina

Sambudi said according to information from Taiwan, the ship traveled from the country to Johor Bahru in Malaysia before reaching Aceh and Serang.

He said the task force team would check the ships log book to investigate where it had traveled. The team would also open the lower compartment to check whether any shabu-shabu was left on the ship. (ecn/ida)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 18:11 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a94e7c9 1 Politics Susi-Pujiastuti,North-Natuna-Sea,South-China-Sea,China Free

Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has given China the cold shoulder over its protest against Indonesias move to rename the South China Sea (SCS) waters that lie within Indonesias exclusive economic zone (EEZ) north of Natuna Islands the North Natuna Sea.

The minister, who is has made a name for herself by blowing up foreign-owned fishing vessels caught poaching in Natuna waters, was surprised by the remarks from Beijing, which asserted the renaming makes no sense at all.

The North Natuna Sea falls within our territory, not within the South China Sea [] We have the right [to rename the waters], the North Natuna Sea is ours, Susi said, as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

She went on to say that the North Natuna Sea had a huge fisheries potential, which, however, had yet to be fully realized, since the waters still saw hundreds of illegal fishing incidents involving foreign vessels.

Since January, authorities from the Fisheries and Maritime Resources Surveillance Agency (PSDKP) and the Indonesian Navy have arrested at least 136 Vietnamese-flagged vessels and two Malaysian-flagged vessels caught poaching in Natuna waters.

The change of name was made under the updated map of Indonesia launched by the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister last week, a move that analysts say is Indonesias rebuttal against Chinas nine-dash line claim in the resource-rich waters of Natuna.

The move immediately triggered a response from Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang stressed that the SCS name refered to a clear geographical scope that had been recognized as an international standard name. (dmr)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 22:09 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a9535f9 1 City drug-abuse,drug-smuggling,drug-raids Free

The Jakarta Police have been busy in the past few days dealing with drug-related cases, which have implicated many individuals, ranging from celebrities to foreign nationals.

On Tuesday, the polices crackdown on a red-painted shop-house in Pegadungan, Kalideres, West Jakarta, resulted in the discovery of several boxes allegedly containing more than 30 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu-shabu.

The shop-house, rented by two Chinese nationals, was reportedly used as a warehouse to stock up the meth before being distributed, Jakarta Police narcotics unit head Sr. Comr. Nico Afinta said.

We have arrested four people, two Indonesians and two Chinese. The Indonesians allegedly played a role as porters, while the foreigners received the drug deliveries and rented the shop-house, Nico said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He said the police had observed the area for the last four weeks prior to the raid and would delve deeper into the case to find out who were the distributors.

Also on Tuesday, the East Jakarta Police reported that they had arrested six people, including a Riau Islands civil servant, for allegedly conducting a drugs party in Kayu Putih sub-district, Pulogadung district.

The police made the arrests following a tip-off from locals about the alleged misconduct.

East Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Andry Wibowo said the area had been notorious for drug abuse. During the raid on Sunday night, the police confiscated 48.53 grams of meth, an ATM card and electronic devices.

The traffickers served drugs based on orders. They even served consumers from outside of the region, thats why there is a Riau civil servant among the arrested, he said.

In another case on Tuesday the police accused actress Pretty Asmara of linking drug dealers with celebrities in the country. Pretty was arrested on Sunday for drug possession.

Based on her statements, [we learned that] she had been in the drug business for the past two years, Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said.

Pretty has denied the allegations.

Separately, the police named Axel Matthew Thomas, the eldest son of actor Jeremy Thomas, a drug suspect for his alleged involvement in a transaction to buy nimetazepam, which is also known by the street name "Happy Five". (fac)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 21:30 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a953392 1 National KPK,KPK-chairman-Agus-Rahardjo,corruption,e-ID,#e-ID,Golkar,GolkarParty,graft-suspect,graft,Febri-Diansyah Free

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will soon send House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto a letter notifying him it has named him a graft suspect, a commissioner has said.

KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah said that as in other cases, the antigraft body had to send a notification to any person it named a suspect.

We will send the letter this week, he told The Jakarta Post via text message on Tuesday.

Setya, who is also the Golkar Party chairman, has been named a suspect in the e-ID graft case, which reportedly caused Rp 2.3 trillion (US$172.82 million) in state losses.

Following his being named a suspect, Setya sent a letter to the KPK in which he asked the commission to provide him with a suspect-notification letter. We have received the letter and we will analyze it, said Febri, adding that the letter was received on Tuesday afternoon.

In a press conference on Monday, KPK commissioner Agus Rahardjo said Setya was named a suspect for allegedly having played a key role together with businessman Andi Agustinus, aka Andi Narogong, in planning a scheme to swindle funds earmarked for the e-ID procurement project.

The KPK has named four other individuals suspects in the e-ID graft case. They are two senior officials at the Home Ministry, Irman and Sugiarto; House member Miryam S. Haryani from the Hanura Party; and Andi. (ecn/ebf)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Wed, July 19 2017

Laser pointer sellers along Jl. Abulyatama in Batam, Riau Islands, have been told not to direct the beams of light into the sky following complaints from Changi Airports air traffic control in Singapore, which claims to have received reports about lasers, allegedly from the area, being pointed at flying pilots.

Numerous incoming and outgoing planes at Changi, one of the worlds busiest airports, fly through Batam airspace, which is only about 40 kilometers south of Singapore.

Officers from Batams public order agency (Satpol PP) went to Jl. Abulyatama on Tuesday to raise the sellers awareness that lasers could be dangerous to flight safety.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 18, 2017 16:03 1942 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a94152a 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Tanjungpinang,festival,Riau-Islands,cross-border-tourism Free

Tanjung Pinang in Riau Islands is set to host Penyengat Island Festival (FPP) from July 22 to 24 in Penyengat Island.

The three-day festivity will feature more than 20 activities and three main events and be held in several locations, such as Adat Indra Perkasa Hall, Village Hall located near Penyengat Port and the Bulang village area.

The festival will feature three main events, namely Malay Fashion Carnival, Melayu Parade, and Muslim and Melayu Fashion Bazaar. This event is targeting crossborder tourism since its located close to Batam and Singapore, said Tanjung Pinang Mayor Lis Darmansyah.

Read also: Spa festival set to promote Indonesia's rejuvenating retreats

This event will highlight Malay theme in the creative creation of carnival outfit in order to attract more tourists, Lis added.

In addition to traditional competitions, the festival will also host supporting events like Fashion Malay Penyengat Syawal Serantau, photography competition and short film competition.

Up to 1,316 people reportedly would participate in the festival.

Read also: Riau cultural works recognized as part of Indonesia's intangible cultural heritage

The committee has coordinated with us and we are targeting to attract 300 foreign and 12,000 domestic tourists at the festival. Hopefully we can exceed this target, said Tourism Ministry's Archipelago Marketing Development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti.

This event can increase the awareness for tourism and Malay culture, improve marine industry and increase the number of foreign and domestic tourists since Penyengat Island is a border area, added Esthy.

In 2016, Riau Islands welcomed 92,948 foreign tourists. This year, the province aims to increase the number to three million. (kes)
A Saudi woman, who is reportedly called Khulood, has posted a video of herself on Snapchat wearing a miniskirt and crop top in public, and is now being investigated by the countrys religious police.

In this video she is walking through a historic site in Ushayqir, which is one of the countrys most conservative provinces.

She instantly received backlash for her choice of outfit, with many calling for her to be arrested for breaking the countrys dress code. Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear the abaya, which is a loose-fitting and full length robe, as well as headscarves.

Many are saying she needs to respect the laws and customs of the country, and should face the consequences for going out in public in an outfit breaking these laws.

While she has received mostly backlash, some have come to her defence.

Domestic worker abuse?

*shrugs*



Woman showing skin?

*Deploy state resources ASAP.*

https://t.co/jyb9d5S4v9  Amel Ahmed (@amelscript) July 18, 2017
A letter typed by Greg Wilkinson from 15th April 1995, detailing life in that year and making predictions for the future, has been found in a wall and posted to Facebook.

The letter addressed, Hello whoever you are, was put in the wall when Wilkinson was renovating his house.

The writer states his desire to leave behind a time capsule, believing that the wall will not be opened up for 50-80 years. His wife, Roslyn Green, was actually fairly accurate in predicting when the letter would be read. He states, Ros reckons you will be reading this in the year 2020. I built the wall, and I reckon closer to 2060.

He gives a little background information about himself and his wife, including that they were expecting their first child, a son, at the time of the letter. He then goes on to describe current life in Australia in 1995.

He covers various topics including politics and technology. The Prime Minister was Paul Keating and was set on making Australia a republic by 2000. Meanwhile, the big deal at the moment is the internet. He remarks, This is just exploding and every man and his dog wants to surf the internet. Please tell me this expression has now died.

Wilkinson then goes on to make predictions about what the future will look like within the next 50 years. He states: Islam will become the next ideological problem, sparking an equal and opposite reaction plunging large parts of the globe into a ridiculous holy war. He also makes predictions about trading between China and America and remarks, Australia will become the envy of the world, whatever happens.

He closes the letter by stating his hopes that whoever picked up the letter has enjoyed living in the house. By the time you read this, we will be old and grey, dead and gone.



Hauntingly accurate, some may say.
70th anniversary

VisitScotland.com

Highlights include an Iron Age Gourmet Day, a performance of Twelfth Night at Bothwell Castle and a major Jacobites exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and Piping Live!Running from May to September every year,give you the opportunity to experience sporting prowess, massed bands and highland dancing against a variety of locations including Inveraray Highland Games at Inveraray Castle on the 18th July, Dufftown Highland Games on the 29th July and the Aberlour Strathspey Highland Games on the 5th August. Learn about modern day clan societies and see impressive spectacles of ceremony and tradition at a range of Clan and Family gatherings throughout the summer includingrunning from the 3rd to the 6th August,from the 24th to the 27th August. Clan Macnab members from all countries across the world will gather at theon the 1st August to celebrate their Scottish Heritage. If music is more your thing, Scotland has a thriving homegrown music scene too. The best of Scotland will be showcased at a range of events including thefrom the 19th to the 22nd July. 2017 also celebrates a host of important anniversaries: 450 years since the death of Mary Queen of Scots, the 900th anniversary of St Magnus, and The Scottish Crannog Centre celebrates its 20th anniversary with a whole host of events from the Iron Age Festival on the 19th August to theon the 27th August.This year also marks thecelebration of Edinburgh as a world leading festival city. August wouldn't be the same in Edinburgh without the, from the 4th to the 28th August, and this year's colourful theme ofwill welcome over fifty clans and chiefs to take part in this year's spectacular show. The first ever exhibition of thewill be showcased this year, comprising of a remarkable range of materials including beautiful figures carved in stone, thousands of drawings and sketches from across India and Java depicting ancient monuments, people and customers, maps, coins and incredibly old precious palm leaf manuscripts. Items from the collection will be on loan from the British Museum, The British Library and the V&A, and exhibited at Museum nan Eilean at Lewis Castle from the 11th August to 18th November. This also coincides with the, 10th to 19th August, which will celebrate the rich history that exists between India and Scotland.Returning for the first time in a decade will be, taking centre stage at Caerlaverock Castle on the 29th and the 30th July. Hundreds of performers will be bringing history to life at the Fort George event, andat Blackness Castle, where tales of epic battles and encampments will be brought to life before your very eyes. For those who want to delve deeper into the darker parts of Scottish history, why not experience- a new play from Scottish Canals and The Walking Theatre Company. The performance, showing throughout August, will see guests enter the eerie depths of the Falkirk Tunnel as they learn about the dark deeds of 'resurrection men' William Burke and William Hare. There has never been a better time to discover archaeology and get your hands dirty this summer with the recent unearthing of the Galloway Hoard.is a year-long celebration of Scottish archaeology with a packed programme of events including the, running from May to September,, running from the 5th July to 23rd August and the, 1st to 30th July.
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Theres an old saying When you fall off a horse, you have to get back on.

In the case of Troy Petrovich, his horse was his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Even though he had a brush with death in 2012, Petrovichs love for riding didnt allow a life-changing accident to keep him off the road.

On June 29 he was riding on Fort Street in Southgate when the unexpected happened.

He was on his way to pick up prescriptions from his doctor and a guy pulled out of the driveway in front of Meijer, straight across to get to the turnaround, said his wife, Aurora Petrovich. Troy T-boned his car.

The crash resulted in another major injury, but it could have been worse.

His cervical spine was fractured. Hes in a halo, but he suffered no paralysis or loss of function.

In many ways it was a miracle Petrovich was able to ever walk again, let alone get back on a motorcycle.

In June of 2012 the off-duty Riverview firefighter was critically injured while changing lanes on the southbound Southfield Freeway, near Outer Drive, in Allen Park.

His wife was following him in a pickup truck and saw what happened as he lost control and careened into the concrete divider. Like her husband, Aurora is a paramedic. Doctors credited her with helping to minimize the trauma Troy suffered until a passing Superior Ambulance stopped at the scene.

Allen Park police and fire personnel were there in less than five minutes. Aurora was allowed by the medic to assist in packaging her husband for transport to the hospital.

Its not known exactly why Troy Petrovich crashed that day. The speed limit was changing from 55 mph to 45 mph and his wife said she watched him signal to move into the passing lane as he usually did to avoid merging traffic from I-94 as he approached the Southfield Freeway changing to Southfield Road.

He appeared to have run over something, hit a bump and blew a tire. He fishtailed and crashed.

Petrovich wasnt wearing a helmet that day. Michigan law had recently changed, no longer requiring motorcycle riders to wear them.

Aurora Petrovich said a helmet would not have prevented him from suffering a head injury. She said he suffered a diffuse axonal injury, which is essentially rapid acceleration and deceleration of the brain, causing tearing of the axons and causing edema, or excess fluid trapped in the bodys tissue.

The Petroviches credited the trauma teams that treated Troy for being instrumental in his recovery. Initially, it was thought his brain would not recover, leaving him in a persistent vegetative state, or irreversible coma.

At the time of the first accident Troy Petrovich held down two jobs. In addition to being a Riverview fire sergeant, he was a critical care medic at Universal Macomb Ambulance.

According to his wife, Troy retired from the Fire Department.

He didnt feel he was processing information quickly enough to save someones life, she said. He medically retired in 2015, after 15 years of service.

In the most recent accident, Petrovich was wearing a helmet.

Even though his wife said he wore a helmet 90 percent of the time, for the past two years he never rides without one.

It wasnt his own accident that caused him to rethink wearing a helmet, but one that happened to a friend, who was injured while driving no more than 15 mph.

One of his friends suffered a low-speed accident after going over a speed bump, Aurora Petrovich said. He flipped over the handlebars and hit the back of his head.

His rehabilitation after the 2012 accident was so successful, Petrovich said he soon got to a point where he felt comfortable returning to his motorcycle and was doing great up until the June 29 crash.

He has to wear a halo medical device for three to four months, and he receives regular visits from nurses to their Lincoln Park home.

After the first accident his motorcycle was repaired. This time it was totaled.

Aurora Petrovich has pledged to get him a new motorcycle by next spring, with the condition that he promises to do his rehab on a regular basis. The main issue hes dealing with now is a fractured vertebra.

Shes confident he can do it, and remains impressed at his ability to rebound from two major injuries.

I swear to God, this man has nine lives! she said.
Watertown landowners will be involved in new Corps flood-control study
To bring out the authenticity of the Punjabi culture, the makers of Mubarakan have shot a scene in the largest Gurudwara in the European continent.

Director of the film, Anees Bazmee, made sure that they didn't break any traditions and would follow all the customs of the holy place.

The cast and crew of the film which was around 150 people in number would attend Langars every day.

"We were so happy that we were granted permission to shoot a very important scene of the film in Gurudwara. The cast and crew of the film developed an emotional bond with the Gurudwara people. As a matter of fact when we wrapped our schedule in London, some of the cast and crew went to the Gurudwara for thanking everyone there and bidding a proper goodbye," Anees Bazmee shares,

The Gurudwara of Kent in the United Kingdom is considered to be one of the largest and most beautiful Gurudwaras across Europe.

Directed By Anees Bazmee, Mubarakan is set to release on July 28, 2017.
Around 50 students of a government high school were trapped due to heavy mortar shelling by the Pakistan army in the Naushera sector in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, an official said.

Authorities, however, managed to rescue 12 children from a primary school.

The Pakistan army violated ceasefire in four sectors of Rajouri and Poonch districts this morning.

Forty-five to fifty students of the government high school in Sehar in Naushera sector are trapped due to heavy shelling, Deputy Commissioner (Rajouri) Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said.

He said the school is located at a height which had made the task of evacuation difficult.

However, police and other authorities evacuated 12 students from a primary school at Kadali in Naushera.

The children were ferried from the school in bullet proof vehicles during the intermittent shelling by Pakistan, Choudhary said.

We have sent three bullet proof vehicles to evacuate the students from high school at Sehar. Once the intensity of shelling lessens, we will rescue them too, Choudhary said.

On Monday, a nine-year-old girl and and Army jawan were killed and three others were injured in Pak firing in the Rajouri-Poonch belt.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday alleged that Delhi University is working under Central government pressure and are deliberately not forming governing bodies in 28 colleges funded by the Delhi government.

Addressing a press conference, AAP senior leader Ashutosh alleged that due to Central government pressure, Delhi University is not forming governing bodies in 28 colleges.

Ashutosh said out of the 28 colleges,12 are completely funded by the Delhi government, while 16 are partially-funded. "It is unfortunate that the University of Delhi is running these colleges without governing bodies. The term of old governing bodies ended in October 2016. After that no bodies were formed," he said.

The AAP, Ashutosh said, wants Delhi University to form the governing bodies at the earliest in all these colleges so that the system can run smoothly.

Sanjeev Jha, MLA, said that though a list of professors was sent by the Delhi government for the governing bodies, it was sent back by the Vice Chancellor's office after two months on the pretext that the list was not in tabular form.

"The irony is that the list was prepared by Delhi University itself. It seems that under the Central Government pressure, Delhi University does not want the governing bodies to be constituted," he said.
Celebrating the 99th birth anniversary of South African revolutionary leader Nelson Mandela, Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan, on Tuesday held Valedictory Function of Africa Week 2017.

I feel proud. This occasion is about rejuvenating our humanity. Celebrating Nelson Mandela is not about pomp and glamour but helping those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged, FK Morule, High Commissioner of the Republic of South Africa, chief guest of the event, told thestatesman.com.

Morule said educational institutes play an important role in eradicating poverty and making the world a better place to live.

Education was important to Madiba. There is a link between poverty and education. With education, we are securing a childs future; after graduation when they become influential people and occupy leadership positions in government, civil society as well as private jobs. They dont just become individuals; they also value their education and their place in the society, he added.

At the event, the students showcased Mandelas life and his contribution to the culture of peace and freedom.

The school observed Africa Week 2017 from 11 to 14 July, during which the students designed cards, book jackets, and posters and wrote essays, poems and articles on the theme Action Against Poverty.

Paying rich tributes to the icon of peace, Springdales' Principal Jyoti Bose urged the students to uphold values and beliefs of Nelson Mandela by translating them into action for the benefit of society.

The film  Nelson Mandelas Life Story  was shown at the event. The emotions invoked were carried forward with song and dance performances. This was followed by a presentation of a report of the Africa Club and Africa Week Activities 2017.

Also portraying South Africas freedom struggle, the school choir sung a medley of Zulu songs. And, Japnit Kaur and Tanishka Aggarwal presented an article Making Poverty History, where the two girls spoke on case study of India and South Africa. The article was followed by another one Mandela  the Humanist, where a group of six students defined the freedom struggle of Mandela.

The cultural performances were concluded with Asimbonanga, an audio visual dance presentation, in which the students displayed thought-provoking theatrical skills in a musical saga revolving around the life of Mandela.

After the awards ceremony and address by the chief guest, a rousing national anthems of India and South Africa marked the conclusion of the event.

Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world, Nelson Mandela once said.
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits on Tuesday urged the RSS to fulfil the desire of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherji to abrogate the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that has encouraged the feeling of secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir.

The demand by Panun Kashmir, the organisation of displaced Pandits, has come at a time when the top leadership of the RSS, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, has assembled in Jammu for the annual review of the organisations programmes. This is the first meeting of the RSS in Jammu ever since it was formed 92 years ago.

They reminded the RSS leadership that Mukherjee sacrificed his life in the prison in Srinagar where he was lodged for demanding complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country.

President of Panun Kashmir, Ashwani Chrungoo, told mediapersons that the Article 370 infringes the fundamental rights of the Indian citizens in context of Jammu and Kashmir state in many ways.

It is this Article that has provided a constitutional mechanism to perpetuate the concept of secession in J&K and which justifies a psychological drift from the national mainstream giving rise to absurd theories of sub-nationalism in Kashmir, Chrungoo said. Article 370 grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Political Affairs Committee Chairman ML Raina said the Kashmiri Pandits continue to live as refugees in their own country for the last 28 years. Their pain and agony are unparalleled in the post-freedom era of our country, he said, adding, it would be great if the historic meeting of the RSS gives a clarion call for their resettlement in the Valley as per their geo-political aspirations as enunciated in the Margdarshan Resolution of 1991.
India on Monday rejected as "utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous" reports in a section of the Pakistani media claiming that over 150 Indian Army soldiers died in Sikkim due to a Chinese rocket attack.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that "such reports are utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous. No cognisance should be taken of them by responsible media".

His response was to a report by Pakistan's Dunya news channel claiming that 158 Indian soldiers were killed in a Chinese cross border rocket attack.

Dunya said that many Indian soldiers were also wounded in the purported rocket attack. It said "A two-minute footage that was broadcast on China Central Television showed the Chinese soldiers attacking an enemy position' using rocket launchers, machine guns, and mortars".

Bilateral tension between China and India has escalated over the past few weeks over a stand-off between their armies in Doklam region in the Sikkim sector, with Beijing demanding that New Delhi withdraw its troops for any dialogue to take place.

The Chinese state-run media has also been openly talking of war and of teaching India a "lesson" like the defeat of the 1962 war.


At least two militants were killed when the army challenged a group of infiltrators in Bandipora district of the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday morning, a defence source said.

The exchange of fire began in Gurez sector when the militants were challenged on the Indian side of the LoC, source said.

"The operation against the intruding terrorists is going on," the source said at 11 a.m.

Earlier, Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling and firing on the Line of Control (LoC) in two sectors of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said.

The Pakistani Army initiated the unprovoked firing in Bhimber Gali and Poonch sectors along the LoC, Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said.

The firing started at 6.45 a.m., using small arms, automatics and mortars. The Indian Army was retaliating "strongly and effectively", Mehta added.

The district administration in Rajouri has shut down 16 schools close to the LoC indefinitely. It has also ordered migration of the civilian population to safer places.

This was after a soldier and a child were killed on Monday in Pakistani shelling on the LoC in Rajouri.

In Uri sector too, a soldier and two civilians were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Australia's joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA), saying it would provide an impetus to the grouping.

He was talking to visiting Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop when she called on him here on Tuesday evening, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Before calling on Modi, the visiting dignitary signed the Framework Agreement to join the ISA, a common platform for cooperation among sun-rich countries.

The initiative was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 by Modi and the then President of France Francois Hollande.

During the meeting, Modi and Bishop also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest. The Australian minister briefed Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India in April this year

Earlier in the day, Bishop had extensive talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on a range of issues and how the two countries could deepen cooperation in various areas, including trade and defence. She condemned the recent terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims and conveyed to India her countrys firm resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday explained why he became emotional and sobbed at the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board on Monday when he was chosen as the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Vice Presidential candidate.

"I lost my mother at a very young age of one year and six months. Then I treated my party as my mother and they have really brought me up to this level. It is very painful to leave the party That's why I became a little emotional," he told reporters after filing his nomination papers for the Vice Presidential poll.

"I want to make one thing clear that I come from a humble, agricultural background. I don't have a great family background. There people are committed to agriculture and that is our basic culture," he said.

Naidu said from that background he had risen to this level with the support given by people and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "I have held various responsibilities. I used to enjoy working with the people and with the people of the party."

Naidu was announced the ruling NDA's nominee for the Vice Presidential poll by BJP President Amit Shah on Monday evening after the party's Parliamentary Board meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


Over 99 per cent voting was witnessed on Monday in the election to the office of the 14th President of India, even as the counting of votes will take place on 20 July.

"The voting was close to 99 per cent. I think this would perhaps be the highest ever percentage," the Lok Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer for the presidential poll, Anoop Mishra, told a press conference in the evening after completion of the polling.

Evidently, the ruling BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind ~ who is pitted against the Congress-led Opposition's joint nominee Meira Kumar ~ is set to win this election by a huge margin, given the legion of parties backing him.

Both the 71-year-old Kovind, the former Bihar Governor, and Kumar, the 72-year-old ex-Lok Sabha Speaker, are Dalit leaders.

In the Parliament House polling station, 99 per cent voting was recorded, Mishra said.

Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Puducherry recorded 100 per cent polling.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first voter to cast his ballot in the Parliament House polling station, Mishra said.

An Election Commission official separately said : "Out of a total of 771 MPs entitled to vote (4 vacant and 1 disqualified), 768 cast their votes i.e. 99.61%. And, out of a total of 4109 MLAs entitled to vote (10 vacant and 1 disqualified), 4083 cast their votes i.e. 99.37%."

Of the 717 MPs, who were supposed to vote in New Delhi, 714 MPs cast their ballots here.

Fifty-four MPs ~ including the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar, and Union Minister Uma Bharti ~ had sought permission to cast their ballots in state capitals.

The BJP president Amit Shah, an MLA from Gujarat, had sought permission to cast his vote in the national capital.

Trinamool Congress MPs cast their votes in Kolkata.

Mishra said barring Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Tripura, the polling figures was received from all other states till this evening.

The BJP camp exuded confidence that Kovind will easily win the election with a "comfortable" margin. His candidature was said to have been supported by about 40 parties, including several non-NDA regional parties such as the JD-U, BJD, TRS, YSR Congress, and AIADMK factions.

Seventeen Opposition parties ~ including the Congress, Left and Trinamul ~ have backed Kumar's candidature. Their bid was however dealt a blow when the Nitish Kumar-led JD-U, despite being an ally of the Congress and RJD in the Bihar coalition government, pledged its support to Kovind's nomination.

The Opposition camp has sought to project the presidential contest as a "battle of ideologies".

The five-year tenure of the incumbent 13th President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, will come to an end on 24 July.

The counting of votes will take place on 20 July in New Delhi where all the ballot boxes will be brought from all state capitals.

The presidential poll's electoral college comprises of elected Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members ~ 543 and 233 respectively ~ and elected members of all state assemblies ~ altogether numbering 4896. The polling is carried out through secret ballot.

The value of an MLA's vote depends on the population of her state. The value of an MLA's vote in Sikkim, for instance, is 7 while it is 208 in UP. The value of an MP's vote, however, remains the same at 708.
Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day on Tuesday, the second day of Parliament's monsoon session, as an aggressive opposition took on the government on a range of issues including atrocities on Dalits and suicides by farmers.

In the Rajya Sabha, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati stormed out, threatening to resign when she was not allowed to speak beyond three minutes over "atrocities on Dalits".

In the Lok Sabha, the government introduced amid bedlam three bills  the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, 2017.

Mayawati demanded a discussion on the atrocities on Dalits. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien told her she had already made her demand for a full discussion and should let the House conduct its business.

Launching a scathing attack against the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and Modi-led central government, she said both remained "mute spectators" to the violence targeting Dalits in Saharanpur in May when their houses were torched and 15 Dalits injured.

She said BSP leaders were not even allowed to visit the affected families.

As Kurien sought to stop Mayawati, she said: "If I am not allowed to talk, if I cannot represent the section of the society I belong to, if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities on Dalits, then there is no point in staying in the House. I will resign." She then walked out in anger.

She later told the media that she had "decided to resign as a Rajya Sabha member today".

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said she was following B.R. Ambedkar's example of having resigned as the Law Minister when he was not allowed to speak and table the Hindu Code Bill.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukthar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati had insulted the chair by threatening to resign. "She must apologise."

He said the government was prepared to raise all issues.

Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad supported Mayawati and took objection to Naqvi's remarks.

"When Mayawati tried to talk, she was told we have got the mandate. We did not know the BJP has got the mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," an angry Azad said, amid interruptions by the treasury benches.

He said the Congress had moved an adjournment notice for farmers, Dalits and minorities and accused the government was gagging the opposition.

Azad and other Congress members too later walked out of the House.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury also said points made by Mayawati were "serious".

Amid noisy scenes, Kurien adjourned the House till noon. When the house met then, the disruption continued and the house was adjourned till 2 p.m. and later till 3.

When the house met at 3, some Congress members again came to the podium and raised slogans.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar accused the opposition of running away from debate. As the din continued, the House was adjourned for the day.

The Lok Sabha also witnessed acrimonious scenes over several issues, including farmers' plight and incidents involving cow vigilantes, forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the House for the day soon after it met for the day.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wanted to raise the plight of farmers but Mahajan did not allow the issue to be raised during Question Hour.

The Congress, the Left, RJD and Trinamool Congress members shouted slogans and came near the Speaker's podium holding placards and the house was adjourned till 12 noon. When it convened again, opposition members rushing towards the Speaker's podium. Some held placards that read: "Gau mata to bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai" and "Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya."

BJP members from Karnataka too held placards, demanding that the state government protect honest officers.

After the bills were introduced, Mahajan adjourned the House for the day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that all members cutting across party lines would take part in discussions on issues in a spirit of GST or growing stronger together during the monsoon session Parliament which began here on Monday.

The Opposition is expected to grill the government on a wide range of issues including recent incidents of lynching of Muslims and proactive activists of the Gau Rakshak campaign, farmers suicides, Kashmir issue among other things.

The Prime Minister sought to reach out to the Opposition parties and acknowledged their contribution to the implementation of the governments flagship uniform Goods and Service (GST) Tax across the country.

The successful implementation of GST is a testimony to an important collective decision of political parties and state governments which has been taken in the best interest of the nation. Growing Stronger Together is another name that stands for the GST. Let the monsoon session begin with the same spirit, the Prime Minister said.

Modi also sought to underline the significance of the session as it coincides with the election of both the President and Vice President of India and the 70th year of Indias independence that falls on 15 August this year.

He exuded confidence that all members would add value to the debate in the Parliament and take important decisions in

the best interest of the nation.

Today the Monsoon session begins. Like the monsoon brings hope, this session also brings same spirit of hope. After the summer, the rains fill the soil with pleasant smell. In the same way, due to the good rains of the GST, the whole session will be full of enthusiasm, Modi further said.

He also expressed his gratitude to farmers for making the country self-sufficient in food grains production.
The police has rescued eight minor and teen-aged boys and foiled their attempt to join the terrorist ranks in Kupwara near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir valley. Four minor boys were among those saved from becoming terrorists.

These boys in the age group of 16 to 19 fled from their homes when they were motivated by the Over Ground workers (OGWs) of terrorist outfits to join their ranks. However, the Jammu and Kashmir police intercepted these boys and after proper counseling handed them back to their parents.

While the army and other central security forces have geared up operations to eliminate the terrorists in the valley, the terror organizations have also reportedly stepped up recruitment of local Kashmiri boys in their ranks. More than 100 local boys had reportedly joined terrorism during the past one year.

The intelligence set up of the state police was keeping an eye on attempts of fresh recruitment and had last month rescued ten boys before they joined terrorism.

Police said that the Kupwar police station foiled the plans of four minor boys of village Gulgam to join terror groups when a police party deputed for the purpose near LOC intercepted them.

Timely intervention of the district police Kupwara last week, four more youth were prevented from joining militant groups. They have been identified as Hilal Ahmad Fafoo (18 years), Firdous Ahmad Bhat (19 years) both of Bumhama Kupwara area, Touseef Ahmad Shah (16 years) and Ahteram-ul-Haq Shah (16 years) both of Shatmuqam Lolab village.

During the swift operation of police, two boys from Shatmuqam Lolab were intercepted at Pulwama area while they were heading toward Tral and the other two boys hailing from Bumhama were intercepted at Vodhpora area who were also planning to move toward Shopian area where the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) are active.

During the course of investigation, all these boys confessed that they were going to join the terror ranks as they are being reprimanded by their parents owing to various reasons including poor in studies besides they also fed up with life style at home due to poverty.
The controversy over Rahul Gandhis meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to India is a telling comment on the confusion in the Congress and the poor coordination between the vice president and the rest of his party including his own office.

Inquiries now reveal that it was the Chinese Ambassador who sought a meeting with Rahul. They met but Rahul didnt bother to inform anyone in the party.

For some unknown reason, he decided to keep it a secret. Unfortunately, Rahuls plan fell apart because the Chinese embassy flashed the news on its website. It was immediately picked up by the Indian media. And phones started whirring. TV correspondents rang Rahuls office to verify the news only to be told that no such meeting had taken place. The person most journalists telephoned is Kaushal who handles Rahuls appointments etc. But Kaushal was clearly not in the loop.

Meanwhile, head of the Congress media cell Randeep Surjewala added to the comedy of errors. He was in hospital with his father when the news broke.

But the mobile connection there was poor so that when Kaushal rang to alert him about the medias queries, Surjewala could barely hear him. He did what Congressmen do when unsure. He started tweeting denials. When he finally emerged from the hospital, he realised that the issue had snowballed into a huge controversy.

He rang up Rahul for a clarification. The Congress vice president acknowledged that he had indeed met the Chinese Ambassador. Surjewala then rushed to clarify the confusion and admitted that Rahul had met the Chinese envoy. The question arises: why did the Congress feel the need to hide the news about the meeting?

The question is all the more relevant because it turns out that the Chinese ambassador also met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi among others. In any case, it is an established practice for diplomats posted here to be in regular contact with political leaders and opinion makers. There is certainly more to the Congress denial than meets the eye.

The Chinese embassy website withdrew the report about the meeting with Rahul within hours of posting it.

Latecomers in the media found that they could not access the item later in the day. Strange indeed.

Numbers game

Six Rajya Sabha MPs from West Bengal are due to retire in August. One of them is CPI(M)s Sitaram Yechury. And his seat is causing much turmoil in Congress, Trinamool and Left circles. Neither the Left nor the Congress have the numbers to win that seat unless they combine forces. The Congress is happy to lend its numbers to the Left but only if the CPI(M) renominates Yechury.

But CPI(M) rules are very strict. Only two terms for an MP and Yechury has done his two terms. Meanwhile, Trinamool is stirring things up.

Mamata Banerjee doesnt want Yechury back in the Rajya Sabha and she has offered to back the Congress to win his seat. But she too has set conditions. She will make up the shortfall in numbers for the Congress only if the party nominates Pranab Mukherjees daughter Sharmishtha.

With her brother Abhijit already a Lok Sabha MP, the Mukherjee family is embarrassed about another member joining Parliament with the Trinamools help.

Bharat Ratna?

A Bharat Ratna for L K Advani? BJP circles are buzzing with speculation that Narendra Modi may be considering a proposal to award the countrys highest national honour to his one-time mentor as a kind of belated thanksgiving. If the BJP grapevine is to be believed, Modi has discussed the issue with Arun Jaitley.

But theres a catch. Advani is currently facing trial for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Can a chargesheeted accused be given a Bharat Ratna even if his supporters believe that the case against him is a political one? It seems Advani is impatient for the trial to be over and for the court to acquit him. He wants to depart with an unblemished record.

Pranabs Beloved

Pranab Mukherjee was keen that before he leaves Rashtrapati Bhavan, a biography of his late wife, Suvra, be released at a glittering function at the residence in which she spent her last years. Apparently, he requested Vice President Hamid Ansari over lunch one day to do the honours. And Ansari agreed. The book is titled Pranaber Priyoshi or Pranabs Beloved.

It has been written by a Bengali journalist who was very close to the Pranabs wife. The journalist used to come from Kolkata frequently and would usually stay at Rashtrapati Bhavan and keep Suvra Mukherjee company. It is said that she was privy to many personal details about the Mukherjees.

The Rahul stamp

Speculation persists about Rahul Gandhis elevation to the post of Congress president. The latest chatter is that the much-awaited event will take place in October. But as usual, the Gandhis are mum. Congress circles are so tired of waiting for the great day that they have reconciled themselves to the possibility that Rahuls promotion may be delayed yet again. They say that hes running the party any way. The title of president is redundant, they maintain. All recent party appointments have Rahuls stamp. The latest ones are the appointment of RPN Singh as the person in charge of Jharkhand and P L Punia as the leader in charge of Chhattisgarh. Both are considered close to Rahul and were handpicked by him. Punias appointment sends another signal. Its an indication that the Congress is wooing Ajit Jogi back for next years state assembly poll. Punia is close to Jogi. They were in government service together and have known each other for many years. Congress sources say that Rahul seems to have decided that Jogi is the partys best chance of defeating the BJP in next years election. Whatever the media may write or report, Rahul seems to be calling the shots in the Congress
Ganga in the true sense is the epitome of Indian civilisation, even as it shows how corruption, bureaucratic lethargy, technological elitism, and populist rhetoric are overshadowing the true development-environment cause in modern India.

The 2,525 km long River Ganga with a basin area of about 1,080,000 sq. km is the largest river basin of India. It covers more than 26 per cent of her geographical area and supports over 40 per cent of its population.

Ganga, the cradle of Indian civilization, is under severe threat and symbolises the poverty of governance of the modern Indian State. Despite its immense national importance and social reverence, river Ganga has been deteriorating since the mid-19th century when large-scale water abstractions through canal systems began.

But her degradation became multi-faceted and accelerated in recent decades, with rapid population growth, change in agricultural practices, industrialisation, urbanisation and the rapid change of land use of the Ganga Basin. The three major sources of pollution  industry, agriculture and domestic  are concentrated along the rivers. Industries and cities have historically been located along rivers, which thus become a convenient place to discharge waste. Agricultural activities are concentrated along the fertile Ganga river basin.

In the post-Green Revolution period, chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture easily found their way into the river. These joined runoffs from dumping grounds of solid waste, open defecation, dumping of unburnt/half burnt corpses and animal carcasses, dhobi ghats, cattle wallowing, mass bathing, floral offerings etc. as part of non-measurable, non-point sources of pollution.

All of these are so common along the river from Haridwar to Sagar Island that tackling these are the most challenging aspect of cleaning the Ganga. Non-point pollution sources are of greater importance than point source pollution but unfortunately in India attempts to keep the river clean through ineffective conventional water pollution control methods is more common.

Because mitigation of point source pollution is relatively easier, the non-point sources of pollution have largely been missed out. Considering the rising menace of pollution, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched by the Government of India in 1985 and in 1986 the Government constituted the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) as a planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for strengthening the collective efforts of the Central and State Government. In 1993, GAP II was initiated.

The Plan was renamed the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) in 1995 and was broad-based to tackle pollution levels in other identified polluted stretches of major rivers. In 2008 the Ganga was declared as Indias National River. In 2011, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was formed as the implementation wing of NGRBA.

By 2014, the Government record showed that 99 per cent of GAP-I and over 85 per cent of GAP-II schemes had been completed. In October 2014, the Supreme Court in M C Mehta vs Union of India and Others on Ganga pollution observed mismanagement of funds.

In spite of intervention and sustained efforts made by the Court over the past 30 years no fruitful result has been achieved except the shutting down of some polluting units. The main reason is that statutory authorities including the CPCB and the State PCBs have done practically nothing to effectuate those orders or to take independent steps to prevent pollution.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General is a clear indictment of the statutory authorities and those at the helm of affairs. The impact of non-point source of pollution in Ganga was acknowledged since GAP-I as early as 1985. Unfortunately several reports on fund utilisation under GAPI & II show nothing on account of non-point source pollution. Already the government has spent approximately Rs.4,000 crore on Ganga rejuvenation and cleaning since 1985.

Since Ganga touches the lives of millions of people, politics and propaganda in the name of cleaning the Ganga never deter government from spending money on more planning and programmes without meaningful tangible results. A consortium of seven IITs has been given the responsibility to prepare Ganga River Basin Environment Management Plan (GRBEMP) by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Until 2015, around 50 documents had been prepared by eminent experts from different fields for the strategy, information, methodology, analysis and suggestions and recommendations of GRBEMP.

In May 2015 the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the flagship Namami Gange Programme to clean and protect the river in a comprehensive manner with budget outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore till 2020, with 100 per cent Central funding of various projects. In July 2016 the programme was launched with much fanfare.

But in August 2016, the Green Tribunal came down heavily on the Ministries of Environment and Forests, Water Resources, CPCB and other authorities for not taking a clear stand with regard to the cleaning of Ganga.

In October 2016, the Green Tribunal expressed concern over the fact that there was severe lack of basic information such as the number of drains falling in the Ganga on a certain stretch. It also observed, Ill-planning, unscientific approach and lack of future estimation has led to chaos in which Ganga today is. The tribunal had earlier rapped the Uttar Pradesh government for wasting crores of rupees of public money on Ganga rejuvenation. Despite this huge expense, Central and all state machineries have miserably failed to control even pointsource pollution, leave aside nonpoint source pollution in last 30 years. Ganga today is more polluted than at the first initiation of GAP I thirty years ago; in most of the pollution parameters it is way above permissible limits.

Fecal coliform counts are 100 to 1000 times more than acceptable levels near major cities like Kanpur and Kolkata. In the last three decades, climate change has caused shrinking of Himalayan glaciers and changes in rainfall pattern.

Added to the abstraction of flows of Ganga and its tributaries with dams, barrages, canals and alarmingly high volume of pollution, these pose an ever increasing threat to the river. Throughout history, and particularly in modern India, society's relationship to the Ganga is structured around sectoral and territorial relationships.

Traditionally it was managed from an agricultural perspective. Industrial and urban policies were framed from a water consumption perspective and the energy policy was established from the perspective of the production of hydropower. The protection of river ecosystems is now part and parcel of environmental policies. Agriculture, power, eco-system protection, industry and municipal laws are multiplied and there is a whole range of sectors that use Ganga water. The concerns of these sectors are fragmented, increasingly compartmentalised and at the end we lose the vision of managing the vast integrated river basin.

The territorial issues from panchayat, municipality, district, state and are like inter-sectoral issues. It is important to find a transversal vision of Ganga water that transcends the different sectors and territories. Despite spending vast sums of tax payers money, integrated river basin management has not been achieved. In the last 30 years of top-down Central planning, two important components were missing  stakeholder involvement and participation and institutional level intent.

The main challenges are not the availability of funds or suitable technology but a proper implementation and management mechanism.

(The writer is Director, PAN Network Private Limited.)
In an effort to highlight places of interest in countries across the world, their varied culture, economy and history, The Statesman brings to you a Weekly Focus on countries with which India shares diplomatic ties and friendship. This week's focus is on South Korea. Know all about it.

Capital: Seoul Currency: South Korean Won Language: Korean, English (widely taught in junior and high school) Religion: Protestant 19.7per cent, Buddhist 15.5, Catholic 7.9, none 56.9. (2015 est.)

Climate

Moderate climate with four seasons. The hottest part of the year is during the rainy season in JulyAugust, and the coldest is December-February. Occasional typhoons bring high winds and floods. Spring and autumn are mild and mainly dry.

Visa

Maximum two documents are required from the Korean host ~ one invitation letter(In case of company, inviting company's details and incharge person's details and in case of individual, host's full details) and photocopy of business registration certificate of inviting company or employee certificate (Individual). Documents required from applicant are photo copy of business registration certificate (business owner) or employee certificate (individual) and income tax return (recent). For family reunification, Foreigner Registration No. or the photocopy of Alien Card of the Indian living in Korea is submitted.

They love rice and noodles

Korean cuisine is punchy and bold flavoured; fermented foods are common and dishes are often heavily laced with red pepper and generous amounts of garlic. Rice is omnipresent in most meals, except when noodles take centre stage. A typical Korean meal consists of warm rice, soup, rice water and between eight to 20 side dishes of vegetables, fish, poultry, eggs, bean curd and sea plants. Some of the specialities are Bibimbap, Kimchi, Bulgogi, Grilled galbi, Haemultang, Chijimi, Tteokbokki. Some of the popular drinks are Soju, Hite, Makgeolli and Ginseng wine.

Chuseok and other celebrations

The two most important national holidays are New Year's Day and Chuseok (which falls on the eighth full moon by the lunar calendar). Koreans observe both solar and lunar New Year's holidays of which many people wear hanbok (traditional dress), offer sebae (New Year's greetings with a "big bow") to their parents, eat ttok-kuk (rice-cake soup), play traditional games, and observe ancestor rites. Other festivals celebrated are Independence Day, Buddha's birthday, Children's Day, Memorial Day, Hanguel Day and Christmas.

Fort and Palaces

Jeju Island

Jejudo also known as the "Island of the Gods" is one of the top honeymoon destinations for Korean newlyweds, the island offers visitors a wide range of activities: hiking on Halla-san (South Korea's highest peak), catching sunrises and sunsets over the ocean, viewing majestic waterfalls and lava tubes and Jeju Loveland.

Seoul

Seoul has many historical and cultural landmarks. The Seoul metropolitan area contains four Unesco World Heritage Sites: Changdeok Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Major modern landmarks in Seoul include the Korea Finance Building, N Seoul Tower, the World Trade Center and the skyscraper residence Tower Palace.

Gyeongju

The city is actually referred to as a museum without walls. Home to Bulguksa Temple, famous throughout Korea. Gyeongju is best seen in springtime. Places to visit are Tumuli Park, Anapj Pond, Gyeongju National Museum, Gyeongju Folk Craft Village, King Munmu's underwater tomb.

Pyeongchang

The XXIII Olympic Winter Games will be held for 17 days from 9 to 25 February 2018 in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, the Republic of Korea. It will be South Korea's first Winter Games. The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games will take place on 9-18 March 2018.

Other attractions include Gyeongbokgung Palace (largest palace in South Korea), Kimchi Museum, Nami Island, Dadohae Haesang (largest national park in South Korea), Lotte World (world's largest theme park), Myeongdong (famous for souvenirs and Korean Cuisine).

Trade and economic relations

Trade and economic relations have started to gather momentum following the implementation of CEPA in 2010. Bilateral trade reached $18.8 billion in 2015. India became the 15th largest trade partner of Korea. Major Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai Motors and LG have made significant investments in India, estimated at over $3 billion. Indian investments in South Korea have already exceeded $2 billion. There are officially 603 large and small Korean firms which have offices in India. Novelis, a Hindalco subsidiary, acquired a Korean aluminium company by investing about $600 million. Mahindra & Mahindra acquired a majority stake in SsangYong Motors, the country's fourth largest auto manufacturer in March 2011, with an investment of about $360 million. Tata Motors acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company for $102 million in March 2004. Other Indian companies present in South Korea include IT majors, Indian Overseas Bank, State Bank of India and others.

Student haven

The total number of Indian nationals living in ROK is estimated to be around 11,000 which includes 120 PIOs. Around 1,000 Indian scholars are pursuing postgraduate and PhD programmes, mostly in pure sciences. Many professionals mainly in the areas of IT, shipping and automobile have immigrated to ROK.

Regular flights

Jet Airways, Asiana Airlines, Korean Airlines fly from India to Seoul. Air India, Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines fly from Chennai to Seoul with stopovers at Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Bangkok. Direct flights fro m Mumbai to Seoul take around eight-and-a-half hours. From Delhi, flying time to Seoul is a little less than eight hours.

Compiled by Kunal Jain ([email protected])
China on Tuesday urged the international community, including the US which is directly involved in the Korean conflict, to back South Korea's proposal for a dialogue with North Korea to ease current tension in the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Beijing supports Seoul's proposal to hold the first military talks with North Korea in three years and urged other countries to do the same, Efe news reported.

"The international community, especially the directly concerned parties involved, should take this opportunity to give a push (to this effort)," said Lu at a press conference.

On Monday, the South Korean government suggested a reunion between families, who were separated during the Korean war, at the "Peace Pavilion" in the Joint Security Area, located in the heart of the demilitarised zone between the North and the South.

Pyongyang is yet to respond to Seoul's offer.

Seoul's proposal follows South Korean President Moon Jae-in's speech in Berlin in which he offered to initiate a dialogue to de-escalate tension on the Korean peninsula and expressed his readiness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "anytime and anywhere" under the right conditions.

Repeated missile tests by North Korea have heightened tensions in the region and led the US to hint at possible preemptive strikes against the Kim Jong-un regime.
China on Tuesday continued its attack on India over the border stand-off at Doklam in the Sikkim sector, saying New Delhi "should not use trespass as a policy to realise its political aim".

The Foreign Ministry also said it had briefed foreign diplomats in Beijing over the Doklam stand-off and they were "shocked" to know about the "illegal trespass" by the Indian troops.

Beijing again warned India to withdraw troops from Doklam to avoid an escalation of the issue.

"We stress that the Indian side should not take the illegal trespass as a policy to realise their political target (aim)," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

"The illegal trespass by the Indian border personnel has drawn extensive attention from the international community and many foreign diplomatic missions in China said they were shocked by this."

Lu said the diplomats wanted to know about the present state of the border row on the Sikkim section of the Sino-Indian border.

Lu said the diplomats were told that Indian troops had "illegally" crossed the mutually recognised China-India boundary in the Sikkim section.

China says India has violated international rules by "illegally entering into the Chinese territory". Beijing has been trying to rally international support behind it.

Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a month-long stand-off at Doklam, which, at a tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan, is of strategic importance to all three countries.

In June, Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in Doklam, which Beijing claims as its own. India and Bhutan contest Beijing's claim.

India, which has no claim over the region but fears Chinese presence in Doklam, which is very close to its arterial corridor in the northeast.

"We hope the Indian side get the clear understanding of the current situation and take immediate measures to pull back the personnel who illegally crossed the boundary so as to avoid the escalation," Lu said.

India wants to solve the issue diplomatically but China says no dialogue is possible till New Delhi withdraws troops from Doklam.
Jeff Peterson is publisher of The Sun Chronicle and can be reached at 508-236-0314.


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Unlike films, the promotions of which start with a teaser, then a trailer, and then multiple trailers, in theatre, trailers are quite new. Except for a couple of plays that have explored promotions through a video platform, it mostly remains underexplored. But, for the upcoming theatre festival in Mumbai, Ansh Darshak Festival (July 25 to July 30), there will be a two-minute video that tells you about the festival.

Spearheaded by Makarand Deshpande, Ansh, since mid-90s, has satiated the desires of theatre lovers with plays of all kind. The young couple, Sumeet and Shweta Nadkarni, are two such ardent fans of theatre, who swear by the plays of Ansh. They wanted to contribute in some way to the vocation and to Deshpande. We have been following all his plays for quite a few years now, says Shweta, who is also the organiser of a small literary event in Mumbai, called Kahanikaar.

While she was doing one of the editions of it, she approached Deshpande for a segment. Thats how we became friends, she says. This was almost a year ago and in that one year that they have known him personally, they wanted to help him in any way possible as an appreciation for his work.

During Deshpandes Patni last year, the couple spoke about their interest. We wanted to do something to reach out to the younger generation, and also a newer set of audiences, recalls Shweta. Deshpande had asked, What can you do? Coming from the television content background, the idea of a promo or trailer is what struck them instantly. We requested him to give us a little time while he rehearses for Patni. There was enough precaution taken to not disturb the artistes while the rehearsals were on. We shot a small video and edited it to make a promo-video out of it, says Shweta. Deshpande loved it.

A still from the play, Shakespeare Cha Mahatara

He once told Shweta, There are people like you who dont miss a single play. This festival is for them. Shweta and Sumeet were mightily impressed with his words. We thought that the line he said to me is a great one to start creating a promo out of it, and we just got on to it, she says.

"Darshak hai toh natak hai. Ansh's journey of original full-length plays and short plays could happen only because of the audience who have been supporting, encouraging and valuing us from the last 22 years," says Deshpande, talking about the festival that will have six plays across six days at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai.

The plays to be staged:

Patni: Its a collaboration between two mavericks of theatre and musicMakarand Deshpande and Niladri Kumar (Sitar and Zitar).

Shakespeare Cha Mahatara: Shakespeares King Lear has haunted the world for 400 years; the battle between the father and the king within him is lost. It is the curse of his own decision that exists even now. The play is an exciting take on King Lear.

Miss Beautiful: Shirish a theatre writer-director urges his ageing parents, who want him to get married, to look at their death as a beautiful event. To convince them in a way they understand best, he employs a beautiful aspiring actress who plays the escort of death.

Joke: The childhood tooth fairy slowly fades away and before we know it, religious idols have taken her place. In the times of communal war, Sandeep Joshi, a writer decides to become an atheistbid goodbye to the gods who have occupied his mindscape and bring back 'Pari', the fairy, who represents the innocence of his childhood. The question is, in doing so, does he become a joke?

Karodo Mein Ek: A billionaire family stays together in crisis, losing money is one thing but when the head of the family loses his mind, the drama of life is unprecedented.

Thumri Gazal Kavita - The Confluence: With Pandit Ajay Pohankar, Abhijeet Pohankar and Makarand Deshpande

Sir Sir Sarla: An unfelt, untold story of a professor and his students after they have graduated. The play was revived with a new cast including Makarand Deshpande as Sir, Sanjay Dadhich as Phanidhar and Aahana Kumra as Sarla, after 15 years on public demand.

For promo video, click here
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said there was evidence that prove the involvement of China behind Darjeeling agitation.

The CM said there were 200 schools in Darjeeling, across the Pashupati market area bordering Nepal, where Chinese language was being taught.

I have received intelligence input in this regard. The Siliguri corridor, known as Chicken's Neck, is a very crucial place and gateway to Northeastern states, said Mamata.

However, it was not known what prompted the chief minister to raise an alarm about China's involvement in the unrest when Darjeeling does not share any border with China or Tibet. It shares border with Nepal.

So, if she is to stick with her allegation, then the West Bengal chief minister believes that Nepal has been greatly influenced by the Chinese.

Darjeeling has a considerable number of Tibetan population who are refugees. The immigration happened long back in the 1950s after Dalai Lamas entry into India. Over the years, the number of families increased to 150 and the total Tibetan population would be around 700.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet during Chinese invasion in 1912 and stayed in Darjeeling during exile. The present Dalai Lama too visited Darjeeling after his escape from China in the '50s.

Apart from running a self help group under an act of Government of India, Tibetan refugees in Darjeeling give sermons to Buddhists leaving in the hills.

What ignited the confusion might be the visit of Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaoui to Darjeeling. Chinese consul general Ma Zhanwu too visited a few months before the Darjeeling unrest and told people that ambassador might visit the place to meet Tibetans. This, however, did not happen.

When the unrest began, officials a gave report to West Bengal government, alleging Chinese influence behind the agitation.

...We want a separate state. Why China would bother about a separate state in India? asked Roshan Giri, Gorkha Janamutki Morcha's second in-command.

Senior officials of West Bengal refused to say anything on Mamatas charges. The chief minister wrote a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh asking him to look into the possible involvement of China in the Darjeeling unrest. Her MPs also sought a detailed discussion on Indo-China relation in Lok Sabha.

North Bengal Affairs Minister Gautam Deb defended what Mamata's claim.Our chief minister is right. Centre is clearly diverging its attention from Darjeeling issues and helping the separatists, he said.
The proceedings in both the houses were adjourned till noon this morning after noisy opposition protests over several issues, including violence incidents involving cow vigilantes, plight of farmers and dalits.

The opposition raked up several issues to target the government as soon as the House met for the day and took up the Question Hour.

Members of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, RJD and the Left rushed into the well raising slogans and holding placards.

While one of the placards read: "Gau mata toh bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (Cow protection is a tool to divert attention from farm loan waiver)", another read "who allowed Vijay Mallya to leave the country."

As a vociferous opposition continued to raise slogans, BJP members from Karnataka were seen holding placards and standing at their benches asking the state government to protect honest officers.

They were referring to the recent transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had reportedly exposed that AIADMK leader Sasikala Natrajan was provided special facilities and services inside prison.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's repeated pleas fell on deaf ears and she adjourned the House till noon, about 15 minutes after it had assembled, amid continued bedlam.

Huge drama was also witnessed in the Rajya Sabha when Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said she would resign from the upper house after accusing the chair of not allowing her to speak on issues related to dalits.

Speaking about the "atrocities on dalits" in Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh, she said "casteism and capitalism" have grown all over the country, particularly in the BJP-ruled states, after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre.

The Bahujan Samaj Party chief alleged that dalits were being targeted and sought attention of the House over the issue. Her remarks created ruckus and Mayawati threatened to resign if she was not allowed to speak.

"I will resign right away. I will come back and give my resignation," she said and walked out of the House.

The Congress also walked out of the Rajya Sabha after Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the BJP had got a mandate to rule, as BSP supremo Mayawati vociferously spoke against atrocities on dalits and minorities in Uttar Pradesh and demanded a discussion on the issue.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad took objection to Naqvi's remarks, saying the BJP had got a mandate to protect the poor, farmers, minorities and dalits.

"When Mayawati tried to talk, she was told that we have got the mandate. We did not know the BJP has got the mandate for massacre of minorities and dalits. We are not with this government," an angry Azad said, and walked out of the House.

Other Congress members followed their leader.

Naqvi said Mayawati has shown disrespect for the House and challenged the Chair. "She must apologise," he said.

Amid noisy scenes, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien adjourned the house till noon.
The Pakistan Army on Tuesday violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber Gali and Poonch Sector of Jammu and Kashmir. The violation took place at around 6:45 am, to which the Indian Army is retaliating strongly and effectively.

Earlier on Monday, a jawan was injured in the ceasefire violation carried out by Pakistan in the Uri Sector.

The Indian Army had also confirmed the death of a soldier during a ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in Jammu's Bhimber Gali Sector. The deceased soldier was identified as Naik Muddasar Ahmed.

In the fire exchange, Ahmed was grievously injured when mortar shells landed on his bunker. He was evacuated to the MI room where he succumbed to his injuries.

Meanwhile, former Qazigund Sarpanch Nazir Ahmad Shah was injured in firing by terrorists in Panzath village last night. The condition of Shah is said to be stable.

On July 12, two soldiers were killed after Pakistan violated ceasefire in Kupwara Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

On July 9, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector along the LoC.
An Indian soldier was killed on Tuesday in firing by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, official sources said.

Rifleman Vimal Finjani of Gorkha Rifles was killed when the Pakistan army violated the 2003 ceasefire in Naugam sector of the LoC.

"The soldier was killed after being hit by sniper fire," a defence ministry source said in Srinagar.

This is the second incident of a soldier's death in cross-border firing in two days.
As Democrats look to reverse Republicans monopoly control in Washington and the GOP advantage in state capitals, the party is still looking for a crisp, simple message for voters.

Heres a look at what some Democrats say about the partys pitch:



We know that we can be an America that works for everyone, because we believe that our diversity is our greatest strength.  And we believe that when we put hope on the ballot we do well, and when we allow others to put fear in the eyes of people we dont do so hot, Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.



We need to be talking about impeachment constantly.  If youre an elected Dem & youre not talking impeachment or 25th amendment then find a new party, Scott Dworkin, senior adviser to Democratic Coalition Against Trump, on Twitter.



Were advising groups to pay attention to Russia, but the bottom line is theyre trying to take your health care away. That should be the focus. Eye on the prize, Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible.



I focus a lot on good-paying jobs, student loan issues, health care and the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Those are the issues that are at the top of (voters) minds.  I dont think (the Russia investigation) has to interfere with our conversation about every day matters in peoples lives, Jason Crow, Democratic candidate in Colorados 6th Congressional District.



Voters are getting plenty about the Russia story, and they dont need candidates help making that case.  I think its a fundamental mistake to make this election a referendum on impeachment. That means its not an election on a health care bill that will raise premiums and take more than 22 million people off of their health care, Zac Petkanas, Democratic strategist, former aide to Hillary Clinton.



We will both defend the integrity of our democracy (on the Russian investigation) and we will defend access to health care for tens of millions of people. The resistance is big enough and sophisticated enough to track both of those urgent and important issues, Anna Galland, executive director of Moveon.org Civic Action.



All of that (on Russia) is going to come out, and if a politician was lacking in courage and never did anything about it, I think they will pay dearly for it, and they should.  But if youre a governor candidate next year, youre a lot smarter saying, Heres what Im going to do about jobs and education and wages than weighing in every day on issues outside your control. David Pepper, Ohio Democratic Party chairman.



We need to be able to explain what were for just as emphatically as who we are against.  Voters need to hear you talking about them more than they hear you talking about yourself, your opponent or the president. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.

(AP)
Changes to make it easier for consumers to switch TV, broadband and phone bundles have been scrapped by the telecoms regulator.

Under the proposed plans consumers would only need to contact the company they were moving to which would then arrange the switch with their current provider.

But Ofcom says the costs of making these changes are 'significantly higher than originally estimated' and would not at the moment be in consumers' best interests.

Ofcom says proposed plans aren't in consumers best interests and could cost 100 million

Ofcom estimates around 884,000 of these switches are made every year, but with no formal switching process in place, it is up to consumers to contact their existing provider and their new provider if they want to switch.

It had proposed that consumers would only need to speak to the company they were switching to - as is the case with switches between broadband and landline providers - but it has confirmed it is not going forward with these plans.

A statement from Ofcom read: 'On the basis of the evidence currently available, we no longer consider it proportionate and justified, overall, to pursue reform in this area.'

It says these reforms would cost around 110 million over 10 years and could lead to higher costs to consumers. The reforms would also only help two fifths of consumers and are therefore not in the customers' best interest at the moment.

But earlier this year Ofcom's own research of 2,529 consumers showed that 79 per cent had encountered problems when switching with a bundle.

These problems included issues with cancelling their previous service, reported by 38 per cent of consumers it asked, while 17 per cent lost service for an average of one week and one in five had also paid an average of 22 extra due to contracts overlapping

The move to scrap these plans has been slammed by industry experts.

Richard Neudegg, head of regulation at uSwitch, said: 'Ofcom's decision not to sort out cross-platform and triple play switching is a massive blow to a sizeable proportion of consumers.

'The communications sector is now firmly falling behind what consumers have come to expect when they move to a better deal in other sectors. The big fear, as we see a push towards more bundling, is that the door will be opened for even more consumers to feel unfairly locked in.'

Plans to simplify the process of switching TV, phone and broadband were proposed last year

While Alex Neill, managing director of home products and services at Which?, said: 'The use of telecoms services are vital to our daily lives, yet we know that the complicated switching process often puts people off.

'Although providing better information in a clearer more transparent way is welcome, it is unlikely to stimulate the switching levels needed.

'When someone switches provider, the process should be handled entirely by the company gaining the customer, so it is disappointing that the regulator has ruled out this process as this remains one of the main barriers to more people switching.'

Ofcom is also asking for input into how it can boost consumer engagement in the sector. It published research earlier in the year showing low levels of consumer engagement with just 7 per cent of stand-alone landline customers being engaged with the provider and contract they have.

It has outlined three potential reasons for the low levels of consumer engagement and why consumers fail to shop around.

Ofcom is now asking for input on research around how to boost consumer engagement

The first looks how contracts work if a customer has more than one service from a provider as in some cases they may have to pay a penalty fee if they switch and are still within their minimum contract on one of the services.

The second looks at the confusion which exists around when consumers should review their existing deal as it says many people remaining on pricey contracts when they could have saved money by switching.

The third reason identified is that some consumers lack the confidence to work out which package is right for them based on their usage.

Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's consumer group director said: 'We want to help telecoms and TV customers take full advantage of the products and deals out there.

'Too many people are deterred from shopping around, often staying on contracts that don't suit their needs. So we plan to make things easier, by breaking down the barriers that prevent customers from engaging in the communications market.'

It is asking for industry experts, the public, consumer groups and companies within this field to get in touch. The final decisions will be published next spring.
A 28-year-old holidaymaker from Wales has been ordered to pay 25,000 to Thomson, after a court found that she lied about getting sick to claim compensation.

The case, revealed today by Money Mail, serves as a serious warning to Britons going abroad this summer.

Over the past year, tens of thousands of families have submitted sickness claims, often encouraged by law firms promising big payouts  but many are suspected of exaggerating their symptoms.

Now, those caught lying face huge legal bills  and even prison sentences.

Fraudulent claims: Over the past year, tens of thousands of families have submitted sickness claims, often encouraged by law firms promising big payouts

Amy Hughes, from Holyhead in North Wales, spent 11 days at the five-star Iberotel Palace hotel in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with two friends in July 2011.

Two years after returning home, in July 2013, she made a compensation claim for sickness against Thomson through a North Wales law firm.

She claimed she had been ill while staying at the hotel and had not eaten anywhere else. The case was due to be heard in court last October, but Mrs Hughes dropped her claim at the 11th hour without any explanation.

Thomson told Money Mail that after investigating, it had discovered Mrs Hughes had eaten only a small number of breakfasts at the hotel, while a friend had confirmed to the travel company that she had eaten Chinese food in the resort.

Mrs Hughes denied this, but Thomson decided it had enough evidence to pursue her through the courts for costs it had incurred building a defence.

On July 5, a Recorder at Wrexham County Court ordered that Mrs Hughes had been 'fundamentally dishonest' and must pay the holiday giant 25,000 by 4pm on October 6.

When Money Mail contacted Mrs Hughes, she declined to comment, but acknowledged the outcome of the case. The law firm that represented her did not comment.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU REALLY ARE SICK Immediately inform the hotel and your tour operator. Keep doctors notes and prescription receipts, and make a diary of symptoms and any communication with the hotel or travel firm. Take photos of anything to support your claim, such as food left uncovered or dirty restaurants. Find out if other guests have suffered similar symptoms. Ask for their contact details. In the UK, complain to the tour operator directly. Under UK Package Travel Regulations, they can be held responsible for service failings. If it wasnt a package holiday, you must make a claim against the hotel direct. Detail the dates of your stay and any expenses or missed excursions. You have three years to make a claim. Beware that if you use a claims management company, it will take a big chunk of any compensation awarded. If you arent satisfied with the response, call Abta on 020 3117 0500 to ask for advice or complain at abta.com If your tour operator is not in Abta, you can pursue the claim in the small claims court.

The travel industry has launched a major crackdown on British tourists staying at all-inclusive hotels abroad.

Firms suspect no-win, no-fee law firms of encouraging travellers to submit food poisoning claims  often years after they've returned from their holiday.

And some hoteliers in Spain and Portugal have even threatened to ban British visitors, who have been targeted by ambulance-chasers in 'claims clinic' vans outside hotel premises.

Writing on the side of the van says: 'Sick abroad? Have you been poisoned, norovirus, salmonella, e-coli & gastroenteritis.

No win no fee. Claim today  ask for details.' Deluged with claims, tour operators such as Thomson and Thomas Cook are hiring expensive lawyers to fight back.

One couple have appeared in a criminal court in the UK after they tried to claim 52,000 from Thomas Cook for food poisoning on two all-inclusive holidays in Majorca, while Thomas Cook this month won a court case against a couple who claimed for sickness in Gran Canaria in 2013.

Nick Longman, managing director of Thomson parent company TUI UK & Ireland, says the firm is pursuing other customers over cases similar to Amy Hughes's, and is looking at making private prosecutions.

He says: 'This sends a clear message to anyone considering making a fraudulent or exaggerated claim, and it's really important everyone fully understands there are consequences of doing so.'

Two weeks ago, a couple from Liverpool were ordered to pay 3,744 in costs to Thomas Cook after a court threw out their sickness claim and found they had been fundamentally dishonest.

Julie Lavelle, 33, and her partner Michael McIntyre, 34, demanded 10,000 after falsely claiming they and their two children had vomiting and diarrhoea during their stay at the Parque Cristobal Hotel on Gran Canaria (pictured)

Julie Lavelle, 33, and her partner Michael McIntyre, 34, told Liverpool County Court they and their two children  then aged three years and 14 months  had experienced sickness, diarrhoea and vomiting during a two-week stay at the Parque Cristobal Hotel, in Gran Canaria, in 2013.

The judge found there was no credible evidence of this and dismissed their demand for up to 10,000 in compensation.

The couple had argued that their symptoms had lasted from the third day of the holiday until after they returned to the UK.

Yet Ms Lavelle said she had not mentioned their difficulties to hotel staff or sought medical treatment, other than self-medicating with Dioralyte rehydration salts and Calpol children's painkiller.

The first Thomas Cook heard of the family being ill was when it got a letter from solicitors Bridger & Co of Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, in May 2016  almost three years after the holiday.

After investigating, Thomas Cook found Michael McIntyre had completed a feedback questionnaire on the flight home that claimed the service had been 'good' or 'excellent'.

He told the court this was because he had drunk six pints of lager and ticked the boxes randomly to put a favourable gloss on the holiday so he would be more likely to benefit from a prize draw incentive for handing in the form.

Chris Mottershead, managing director of Thomas Cook UK, says: 'It's not comfortable for us to be in court questioning our customers' credibility, but the significant increase in unreported illness claims being received by the travel industry threatens holidays for all UK customers.

'This case follows an increasingly common pattern, with a previously unreported illness being raised years after the holiday with no medical or other evidence to support the illness having occurred.'

The couple and solicitors at Bridger & Co declined to comment.

A spokesman for Abta says: 'Travel companies are becoming wiser to fraudulent sickness claims and are now able to spot the signs of a fraudulent claim. Tour operators and hoteliers are keeping tighter records of sickness reports.

'Anyone who is considering making a fraudulent claim should be aware that if they are found out, it is a criminal offence and they could end up in jail.'

An earlier version of this article said solicitors Tudur Owen Roberts Glynne & Co acted for Ms Hughes in her holiday sickness claim. In fact this firm represented Ms Hughes only after she was asked to pay Thomsons legal costs.We are happy to set the record straight.

v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk

CUT YOUR TRAVEL MONEY COSTS Most credit and debit cards will charge hefty fees of around 3 per cent for foreign transactions, with extra charges for withdrawing cash abroad. There are several current accounts and credit cards which offer reduced fees or waive overseas charges altogether. If you would rather not change banks, currency cards offer holidaymakers the chance to load up a card with money to spend while they are away and potentially benefit from lower rates. Travellers should make sure these rates are better than their bank and check all the small print but typically these cards offer highly competitive exchange rates plus zero exchange rate fees. You can find out more about how these cards can help you save money and where to find the best deals in our roundup here. FairFX is also offering This is Money and MailOnline readers a free MasterCard prepaid card, which usually costs 9.95.




Car hire firms are stinging holidaymakers with rip-off charges for scratches, child car seats and petrol refills, a Money Mail investigation has found.

We can reveal that firms are charging up to 8,400 if you damage a family saloon in Europe and haven't bought extra insurance.

Some holidaymakers claim they are being billed for repairs that never take place. In some cases, the fees are only showing up on their bank statements when they return home.

Others are arriving at European pick-up desks to find that renting a sat nav or booster seat for two weeks costs triple the price of buying a new model back in England.

Here, we expose this year's biggest car hire cons  and explain how you could save thousands of pounds by planning ahead.

Firms are charging up to 8,400 if you damage a family saloon in Europe and haven't bought extra insurance

SMALL PRANGS THAT COST THOUSANDS

If you damage your car on holiday, you usually have to pay the first few hundred pounds of any repair bill before your insurance kicks in.

This is known as excess. But in some cases, the excess is so enormous that you could end up paying more than the cost of your entire family holiday in repair fees.

Money Mail discovered that this week Budget, for example, charges a damage excess of 8,416 on a Mercedes E-Class saloon car from Faro Airport, in Portugal.

This is nearly ten times the rental bill of 846.88 for the week.

Car hire firms are aware that these prices are unaffordable and terrifying for many families, so will try to sell you so-called excess waiver insurance. In principle, this is a good idea, as it means you don't pay any of the repair bill.

But don't buy this from your car hire firm at the pick-up desk or you'll pay up to 170.

It is much cheaper to get a policy from a third-party insurer before you leave for your holiday.

Firms such as Reducemyexcess.co.uk and iCarhireinsurance.com offer cover for less than 3 a day or annual cover for around 40. Use comparison website moneymaxim.co.uk to find the cheapest deals.

Ignore pushy staff at the collection desks abroad, who'll try to tell you that this third-party insurance is not valid.

However, bear in mind that they will still need to block off a deposit on your credit card if you don't buy their waiver policy.

Then, if you do get charged for repairs, you will have to pay upfront out of this deposit and claim the money back from the excess waiver insurance firm afterwards.

Even for cheaper models, families could find themselves lumbered with huge bills if they scratch or dent their cars.

If you damage your car on holiday, you usually have to pay the first few hundred pounds of any repair bill before your insurance kicks in

Quotes obtained from the Budget website show the excess is 5,614 for a Volvo S60, or 3,346 for a Mini Cooper convertible.

When we called Budget to check the quotes and told them some of their excess charges were approaching 10,000, a customer service adviser admitted: 'That's pretty outrageous. That's a new one on me.'

After checking his computer, he added: 'Yeah, 9,594 excess on the Mercedes. The higher-end vehicles do have the higher excess. It varies from country to country. For Portugal, that's going to be normal.'

He added that excess charges for hire cars in the UK tended to be lower than this.

Last night, Budget had not responded to Money Mail's requests for comment.

BILLS FOR REPAIRS THAT NEVER WERE

Several Money Mail readers claim car hire firms have tried to charge them hundreds of pounds for dents and scratches that were never repaired.

It comes with Europcar facing a scandal over accusations that it overcharged customers for car hire repairs by 30 million.

Trading Standards is investigating claims that up to half-a-million UK customers could have been affected over a decade. The Serious Fraud Office is also said to be aware of the case.

Fears are growing that some firms may use similar practices at European destinations.

Support worker Lynette Taylor, 31, is in dispute with Europcar in Switzerland because she says it has billed her almost 800 'for a small scuff mark on the bumper' of a hire car.

'I signed to say I didn't cause the damage as at no point did I go into anything, so perhaps it happened when the car was parked,' she says.

'I managed to block my credit card before they could take the money and they have been trying to get it ever since. The worst part is, I asked them if they had actually repaired the car and their answer was 'no'.

'They suggested it probably wouldn't be repaired. Therefore they are charging me a repair bill for repairs not even carried out.'

Self-employed cleaner Gina Cooper, of Chislehurst, Kent, says she was driving a hire car with Enterprise when a Land Rover reversed into her at traffic lights.

The drivers stopped and swapped details, but could see no damage.

Even for cheaper models, families could find themselves lumbered with huge bills if they scratch or dent their cars

When she returned the car to Enterprise, she told staff, who inspected the car and found a small scratch on the bumper.

Gina, 46, passed on the details of the Land Rover driver and thought nothing more of it. But two months later, she received a letter from Enterprise, billing her the 500 excess for the scratch and claiming it had been trying to contact her.

The letter referred to the 'above invoice', but none was attached.

She called Enterprise, who promised to look into her complaint. But several weeks later, she received a letter from a debt recovery firm.

'I hate that these big companies are always the winners when this debt will seriously affect me,' says Gina. A spokesman for Enterprise says: 'We are currently investigating her case to check that our procedures have been followed.'

Enterprise says that once a repair has been completed, it refunds the customer if the bill was lower than the cost of the excess.

If another vehicle caused the damage, Enterprise says its policy is to take details of any third party, so that it can recover the cost of the repair and reimburse the customer's excess.

Most UK car hire firms adhere to a code of conduct set out by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).

If you have an unresolved complaint, you can contact the BVRLA's dispute resolution service by emailing complaint@bvrla.co.uk or calling 01494 434747.

Citizens Advice can also help  call 03454 04 05 06.

There are no specific EU regulations governing car hire in Europe. But if you have a complaint about a car you hired while abroad in an EU country and cannot resolve it, try the UK European Consumer Centre on 01268 886690.

YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN SAT NAV

Hiring a sat nav or child seats from car hire giants can cost more than double the price of buying a brand-new one.

Money Mail found Hertz is charging up to 204 to hire a satellite navigation system powered by TomTom for a two-week break in August from major European airports.

Yet a basic TomTom bought online from Currys costs just 86.99.

Hertz also charges up to 115 for a child's car seat for a two-week trip. The brand is not named at the time of booking.

Hertz is charging up to 204 to hire a satellite navigation system powered by TomTom for a two-week break,Yet a basic TomTom bought online from Currys costs just 86.99

In Mothercare, own-brand car seats cost 40, while the cheapest branded car seat in Halfords, a Joie Juva, costs 39.99.

If you don't have your own sat nav, or don't want to take it abroad, it might be cheaper to use Google Maps on your phone.

Changes to EU rules introduced last month mean that you can now use your UK data allowance in European Union destinations.

This means you are able to access Google Maps on your phone and use it as a sat nav for the same price as you would at home.

QUICK MONEY-SAVER: TRAVEL MONEY Heading abroad? Make sure you sidestep hefty bank fees on your holiday spending. Most credit and debit cards will charge hefty fees of around 3 per cent for foreign transactions, with extra charges for withdrawing cash abroad. There are several current accounts and credit cards which offer reduced fees or waive overseas charges altogether. Alternatively you could consider a prepaid currency card. FairFX is offering This is Money and MailOnline readers a free MasterCard prepaid card, which usually costs 9.95. For more help deciding on the best method for you, check out our guide here.

However, make sure you have a proper holder or cradle for the phone, so that you're not handling it as you drive. Models with suckers that stick to the windscreen are available for less than 10 from Amazon.

If you are worried about exceeding your data allowance or patchy internet connection, or you are travelling outside the EU, you can download offline maps (or buy a paper one).

Before you go, enter your destination into your Google Maps app and click on 'offline' in the app's settings on your phone.

You can then download maps of a certain area abroad and use it as you travel from the airport to your hotel, for example.

Similarly, try to take your own child car seat, which can usually be checked in free of charge. Trunki sells portable car seats that fold into rucksacks for 44.99.

If you don't want to lug a car seat on holiday, do your research and check what brand your car hire firm will provide, as they can vary wildly in quality.

There are also huge variations in the price of car seats and sat navs, depending on where you go on holiday, so it is worth seeing if you will be charged a fortune before deciding where to travel.

For example, at Naples Airport, in southern Italy, it costs up to 204 for a sat nav with Hertz and 115 for a car seat for a two-week trip this summer. But at Nice Airport, it costs 166 for a sat nav and 41 for a car seat.

Hertz at London Heathrow charges 199 for a sat nav and 84 for a car seat, while at Lanzarote Airport, the cost was 159 for a sat nav, but a relatively cheaper 68 for a car seat.

Hertz did not respond to requests for comment.

WATCH OUT FOR FUEL LOOPHOLES

You should always opt for the 'return full' petrol policy, as other options will almost certainly cost more. It might sound tempting to avoid having to refill your car on your way to the airport, but it is worth doing so if you have time.

Europcar's 'refuelling service', for example, allows you to bring it back without a full tank. They will charge you at the national average litre price as published by PetrolPrices.com.

But the sting is in the service charge of 1.60 per litre. So, if a typical tank holds 55 litres and you returned it empty, you would be charged 88 in handling fees alone. Europcar says it is 'very rare' that a customer would return the vehicle empty.

Alternatively, car hire firms often offer a 'full tank' option, where you pay upfront for a full tank. But firms will either offer no refund for any unused fuel, or refund the cost of the unused fuel but charge a fee.

It might sound tempting to avoid having to refill your car on your way to the airport, but it is worth doing so if you have time.

For example, Goldcar in Majorca reportedly bills customers a 'handling charge' of up to 24 for refunding the fuel that has not been used.

Always check that your hire car has unlimited mileage for the country you are visiting, as some firms charge a small fortune for excess mileage.

Watch out for extra charges for having a diesel car or automatic. For example, Goldcar charges an extra 4 a day for diesel. Ask at the desk, as you may then be able to switch cars and save money.

MYSTERY CHARGES AFTER YOU'VE PAID

Hire car firms in the UK must always write to you before they charge you for damage repairs.

But Money Mail has heard from holidaymakers who hire cars abroad and then notice mystery deductions on their bank statements when they return home.

Similarly, watch out for 'extras' that may have been ticked on your booking form or are lurking on your final invoice when you return the car.

Car hire firms can add obscure add-ons such as 'fee waiver', which covers you against the firm's admin costs in the event the driver is fined for speeding.

One driver says he was assured verbally by Europcar that it was free to add an additional driver when he picked up a car in Newcastle.

But when he later checked his statement, he had been billed for this anyway.

Europcar says this was an administrative error and has refunded the charge.

But it's a reminder that checking your paperwork is not something you should overlook.

To avoid surprise charges for damage, try to return your car during the day and ensure the car rental firm has 'signed off' the vehicle as OK before you leave.

If they have only verbally agreed that it looks fine, and not signed it off, then later discover a scratch  when the car has been washed, for example  you could still be pursued for payment.

Many people take photographs of scratches upon collection, but forget to take them upon drop-off as well.

Take photos of the car on your smartphone after you have parked up at the rental firm to return it. These photos will be timed and dated in the event of a dispute.

A spokesman for the BVRLA warns drivers to always return their car during office hours, adding: 'If the rental company allows you to return the vehicle out of hours, you remain responsible for the condition of the vehicle until a member of staff is able to carry out a full inspection.

'That means the cost of any damage caused to the vehicle while it remains unattended is your responsibility.'

l.eccles@dailymail.co.uk
In the clear? German prosecutors look set to drop charges against Carsten Kengeter

Prosecutors in Germany look set to drop insider-trading charges against Deutsche Boerse chief executive Carsten Kengeter.

Investigators had been looking into whether the 50-year-old had bought shares in the marketplace organiser despite knowing the firm was in talks to buy the London Stock Exchange.

But Frankfurts public prosecutor has offered to drop an investigation into Kengeter if the firm accepts two fines totalling 9.3million.

Deutsche Boerse  whose planned merger with the LSE was abandoned earlier this year  said it was reviewing the matter and continues to believe the allegations made are unfounded in all respects.

Kengeters reputation has been damaged by his failed attempt to land the LSE. The deal fell apart when it was blocked by European regulators  much to the relief of critics in the UK worried about a key part of the Citys infrastructure falling into German hands.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has proposed scrapping the scandal-ridden Libor rate with hopes of replacing it with a relatively risk free alternative

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has proposed scrapping the scandal-ridden Libor rate with hopes of replacing it with a relatively risk free alternative.

Carney is gunning for the widespread adoption of the Sterling Overnight Index Average (Sonia) in hopes of weaning the system off Libor.

Libor  the London Interbank Offered Rate  is the rate at which banks lend to each other, and is used to set millions of pounds worth of financial deals including car loans and mortgages.

But a spate of Libor-rigging scandals dating back to 2005 brought the benchmark into the public spotlight, resulting in fines for international banks and convictions for City traders.
Keith Morgan, chief executive officer of the British Business Bank

The boss of the bank set up to increase funding for small companies was paid nearly 450,000 last year.

British Business Bank chief executive Keith Morgan topped up his salary of 299,000 with pension payments of 29,900 and long-term incentive awards of 119,600.

His total pay of 448,500 was 36 per cent higher than the 329,000 he took home the previous year.

The British Business Bank, which is based in Sheffield, was set up by the Coalition government in 2012.

The total amount of finance provided to firms through its programmes rose by 24 per cent to 9.2 billion last year.
Britain is rolling out the red carpet in a bid to woo businesses from Kazakhstan to the UK stock market.

Just days after City regulators moved to rip up stock market rules to allow Saudi Arabias state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco to list its shares in London, trade and investment minister Greg Hands is spearheading a charm offensive at a conference in the Kazakh capital Astana tomorrow.

The dictatorship has embarked on a privatisation drive as it seeks to transform the country from a post-Soviet state into a modern market economy  and the UK is looking to take advantage.

Britain is rolling out the red carpet in a bid to woo businesses from Kazakhstan to the UK stock market

But the summit, organised by the London Stock Exchange, risks fuelling fears that standards in the City are being watered down as the UK looks to attract business after the Brexit vote.

Investors have voiced concerns over the listing of companies where power is concentrated in the hands of foreign countries or powerful oligarchs  leaving other shareholders vulnerable.

The City is still reeling from the disastrous listing of scandal-stricken Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) in recent years.

ENRC is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office amid allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption.

Catherine Howarth, chief executive of campaign group ShareAction, said: London must be careful not to damage its own reputation for high governance standards.

The LSE said the summit will provide an update on the outlook for UK capital markets and international capital raising opportunities in London.

Trade and investment minister Greg Hands is spearheading a charm offensive at a conference in the Kazakh capital Astana tomorrow

Delegates will hear from Hands as well as Dauren Tasmagambetov, a senior executive at Kazakhstans sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.

As director of the department of asset privatisation and restructuring, Tasmagambetov is seeking to float some of the Central Asian nations largest companies on stock markets around the world.

The aim is to cut the level of state-ownership in industry from around 70 per cent to 15 per cent by the time the privatisation programme is completed in 2021, through the sale of companies such as national airline Air Astana, rail firm Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and oil and gas explorer KazMunaiGas.

There are 99 firms from Russia and the former Soviet states already listed in London with a combined value of nearly 400 billion, including 14 Kazakh firms worth around 10 billion.

Garry White, chief investment commentator at Charles Stanley, said the UK has always welcomed companies from all over the world but that no exceptions are made on corporate governance fronts on companies that are majority owned by oligarchs.

Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London Asset Management, said stock market rules should not be changed for companies of a particular provenance, size or control structure. Chris Cummings, chief executive at the Investment Association, said the rules must ensure that the protections that investors expect are upheld.

The London Stock Exchange did not comment.
MALIYADUMA  Family members of four homesteads had to seek refuge at a mountain after their houses were burnt by alleged dagga farmers.



It was gathered that the dagga farmers illegally used farms belonging to well-known businessman Tom Kirk as hideout spots and to further plough the dagga. On Sunday night, a mob of about 10 people attacked residents of the homesteads, carrying all sorts of dangerous weapons, including bush knives and slashers.



They are alleged to have terrorised the family members inside their houses, demanding their dagga and calling them dagga thieves. Most of the residents from the homesteads managed to escape and hid in forests and mountains after their houses were allegedly petrol-bombed.



Sanele Dlamini, whose house and valuable items were burnt beyond recognition, said he was sleeping with his wife and two children when the mob arrived at his home and ordered that he open his door.

These people have always accused me of stealing their dagga and had approached me before this incident. On the fateful day, at about 9:30pm, they came to my homestead and after realising that I was not opening the door, they destroyed it using the dangerous weapons. I immediately got hold of a cupboard and blocked the door.



They then went for the windows and smashed them using the weapons. we managed to escape while they were busy breaking the windows and vandalising the house and we raised the alarm, Dlamini said.

He added that a lot of residents came to his homestead, however the alleged dagga farmers had already escaped. Dlamini said irate residents waited for the dagga farmers, hoping they would return. We decided to leave my home as we feared they would return and kill everyone. After a while, we saw vehicles from the Fire and Emergency Services at my homestead and I was informed that the people had returned carrying petrol containers and burnt my house.

Everything, including beds, blankets and cash was burnt. the suspects escaped after committing the offences, Dlamini said.



Another faction is alleged to have attacked Dlamini yesterday morning and threatened to hack him with bush knives, alleging that he was behind the dagga theft. He was reportedly rescued by his nephew, who stopped the people and ordered them to leave the homestead.

Information gathered is that the alleged dagga farmers went on and vandalised three other homesteads, also demanding their dagga, which they claimed was stolen in the fields.
LOBAMBA  Government should rather borrow loans to renovate the countrys hospitals instead of constructing a new referral centre.



This was the view of Senator Princess Phumelele when making her submission during the reading of the Opec Fund for International Development Loan (National Referral Hospital Project) Bill at Senate yesterday.

According to the princess, the country needed to improve the health standards first in the available health facilities, before committing to the construction of new ones.



She said she still did not understand why a referral hospital was being considered when there were local hospitals that were expected to offer the same services.

The princess said a lot of Swazis were crossing the border to go to hospitals in neighbouring countries, which was a sign that there was a lot that was not being improved in the local health sector.

Mine kube kuya ngami ngabe kucalwa ngekulungiswa lolokukhona, she said which means, I wish that we would spend the money on the already existing hospitals.

She made an example of the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM), which she said was dilapidated and did not have some of the critical equipment needed for the welfare of patients.



The RFM is so dilapidated so much that one is scared to be admitted there. There is no hospital there. There are no sheets for patients.

I recently went to check on my relative inside a private ward but I was shocked to find ants all over, something which cannot happen even in our own kitchens.

This is because it is an old hospital that has been there since we were growing up. The structure is very old, she said. The senator said she was of the view that the RFM needed to be renovated, as was the case with the Mbabane Government Hospital.



She made it clear that she was not against the construction of a national referral hospital but was worried that it might end up being a white elephant, as has been the case with some projects that government undertook in the past.

The sick citizens will not be cured by the new buildings. There is a need for highly skilled specialists to take care of them. We need to have qualified doctors. So my view is that we need to at least upgrade the standard in the hospitals and not focus on new buildings because in the end they do not help us, she said.



She mentioned that she was seeing a situation where the referral hospital would be built but Swazi citizens would continue going outside the country.
MBABANE  Themba Masimulas mother allegedly found a bush knife in his bedroom.



Thembas mother, Ntombi Dlamini who was in court yesterday, allegedly said she found the bush knife in her sons room after he was rearrested by the police on Friday.

On Friday the court issued an order that Themba should be immediately arrested.



This latest development in the impasse between Themba and his mother was communicated to the Crown and defence counsels yesterday. The accuseds mother was allegedly checking the bedroom, which he was utilising, when she allegedly came across the bush knife.

During her brief appearance in court yesterday, Thembas mother told the court that she still maintained her submissions, which she made before Judge Sipho Nkosi on Friday.

The misunderstanding between Themba and his mother came after the latter refused to give him keys to the gate, which was always locked.

Dlamini told the court that she was now having sleepless nights as she feared that her son could pounce on her anytime.



According to Dlamini, her son told her: I am confined in this house because I am facing a charge of murder and if you continue to refuse with the keys, I will not commit suicide but will vent my anger on you.

She also informed the court that Themba told her that if she continued refusing to give him the key, he would murder her. Dlamini said when her son said this; his facial expression had changed and beads of sweat had formed on his head. She alleged that having said that, Masimula went to his bedroom where he banged the door.



She further narrated that Themba would allegedly call friends into her house to party and have meetings whose agendas remained unknown to her. Dlamini told the court that her house was a chaos as her son and his friends would allegedly leave everything upside down after partying.



Dlamini, who was emotional throughout her submissions, stated that her life was now miserable. She asked the court to take Themba away from her as she had reasonable apprehension that he might kill her at anytime.

Narrating how the bad blood between her and her son started, Dlamini told the court that on April 22, 2017, Themba asked for the gate keys as he wanted to go out.
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By WIlliam Lewis

As we look at the American presidency as it has developed over the years, we see a large number of our presidents and presidential candidates come from large states, especially New York and California.

In recent times we have seen former Governors Nelson Rockefeller and George Pataki and former Sen. Hillary Clinton all run as candidates for president from New York. In 2020, it looks like Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be looking to run for president in the Democratic Party.

In California, we have seen former Gov. Ronald Reagan, and former Sen. Richard Nixon become presidents.

Governor Jerry Brown of California ran for president in the Democratic primary.

Both Republican Theodore Roosevelt and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt became presidents from New York, with Theodore Roosevelt serving almost two terms and Franklin Roosevelt serving three terms and beginning a fourth term before he died.

There are significant reasons why New York and California present candidates so frequently. They are large centers of population and feature large financial establishments. The cultural fabric of our nation also comes, to a large extent, from these two states. Much of the major party organizations exist in New York and California.

When we look at 2016, we had two candidates, both from New York, at the top of the two major parties. As we view last years race for president between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, it was one of the hardest fought campaigns that existed in our country since political campaigns began.

One example of the importance of New York and California occurred in 1964 when Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater ran in the Republican primary. Goldwater won the California primary by carrying the two southernmost counties, Los Angeles and Orange. Barry Goldwater, although he lost the northern part of the state, carried the two most southern counties by a 3-1 majority. However, he went on to lose the general election to incumbent President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat.

If Andrew Cuomo gets into the Democratic primary for president in the year 2020 and wins the nomination, and Donald Trump runs for reelection, we will again see two New York candidates running for president.

Having two major candidates run for president from New York, twice in four years, is something new in American politics. It again shows the prominence of New York in presidential races.

Donald Trump lost New York, but had a lot of support here. Hillary Clinton won New York, but lost the battleground states to Trump.

New York and California stand out in presidential campaigns and will continue to do so.
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By Naeisha Rose

Sharon Lin, a Corona native, a poet laureate, a tech wunderkind and a recent graduate of Stuyvesant High School who will be attending MIT in the fall, is one of 13 young adult recipients of CE Week NY and Living in Digital Times 2017 Young Innovators to Watch awards.

Miguel Gamino, the citys chief technology officer, hosted the annual ceremony July 12 that celebrated young men and women in technology who are 20 or under.

At the ceremony, the 13 recipients won a $1,000 scholarship for college through the Kay Family Foundation and CE Week NY. They also received a gift card provided by B&H Photo, a special speaker system provided by Monster, and a MiP Robot by WowWee Toys.

Lin, 18, is the creator of the White Water app. White Water uses photo technology on a smart phone to determine how safe water is. It can detect bacteria and abiotic particles with just a photo sample. Lin hopes her product will be used to help people in underdeveloped countries avoid exposure to water-borne illnesses like malaria.

I use to do water quality at Science Olympiad, which is basically a science competition in high school, and I learned about how difficult it was for people in Third World countries to measure the water quality, Lin said about the creation of her app. There are a lot of microbes in the water of Third World countries that are difficult to detect if you dont have the right technology.

Lin was able to figure out what was in the water because the photo samples were able to capture images of microbes as small as a nanometer. Once captured, the photo could be run through image recognition software.

Its able to do this because it has an enormous database of images, Lin said. Then you could see if the current photo had similar enough images to another photo to identify the images based on past data. You would then be able to tell if the water was safe to drink or not.

Lin, the Youth Poet Laureate of New York City, will be going to MIT in Cambridge, Mass. for electrical engineering in the fall.

Her love of all things technology started by accident and later became a hobby. It wasnt until she went to Stuyvesant that she started to take the subject seriously.

My father had an old college textbook lying around and I thought it was interesting, and I took a look at it.

In middle school she taught herself how to use code to calculate Celsius to Fahrenheit, how to design websites, and how to program in Javascript.

In high school I took intro CS, and I went to hack-a-thons, and I started to make video games, Lin said. I realized that there is a lot more potential than I thought before.

Lin, a Chinese-American, writes poems about being the daughter of immigrants.

She said the $1,000 scholarship will allow her to spend less time worrying about paying off college and more time worrying about building out projects for research at MIT.

The Young Innovators to Watch Awards Ceremony was held at Metropolitan Pavilion.

(updating and fixing errors in original story

The awards ceremony was held by CE Week NY and Living in Digital Times and hosted by Miguel Gamino, the chief technology officer of New York City. Lin and the other 12 recipients each received a $1,000 scholarship.)
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
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Soon after taking office, SUNY Polytechnic Institute's interim president Bahgat Sammakia envisioned combining the school's labs in Albany and Utica to create a new advanced manufacturing center for the state.

The combined facilities, which would have their debts paid for by the state, would be called the SUNY Advanced Manufacturing Center, or AMC, and they would be operated in parallel with the two SUNY Poly campuses.

Sammakia discussed the plan with faculty at SUNY Poly's Albany campus back in February, according to the minutes from the meeting, although it is unclear how far along the plan, which needed cooperation from the state, progressed.

Sammakia has talked at length of finding a solution to help SUNY Poly find a way to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt on its buildings in Albany after the school was rocked by a federal criminal probe into potential bid rigging.

The probe led to the arrest of SUNY Poly's founding president, Alain Kaloyeros, along with several prominent upstate developers and a longtime aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Kaloyeros and the other defendants in the case have all maintained their innocence as they await trial to clear their names.

Several research programs and development agreements collapsed during the investigation and following the arrests. One of the first ideas that Sammakia pushed to help shore up SUNY Poly's finances has been to open up its labs and facilities to other universities and government researchers, although few specifics about how that would work have been provided.

However, in the February meeting, Sammakia told faculty at SUNY Poly's Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering that his "tactical plan" for fixing SUNY Poly's finances included having the state pay the debts on SUNY Poly's buildings in Albany and creating the SUNY AMC.

"The AMC would reflect a combination of nanoscience and engineering, research and development, SUNY/state/federal government and industry, with multiple private and public university partners," the minutes from the meeting stated. "The current tactical plan includes a request for New York state budget dollars to pay the debt on the buildings, with a return on that investment (being the) benefits of the SUNY AMC."

The minutes said the benefits would include "jobs, education and economic development."

It is unclear how far the plan progressed. Although the budget deal signed by the governor in April did not specifically spell out plans for the SUNY AMC, it did include $208 million for a strategic fund to pay for outstanding expenses at the school, most of which to date has been related to economic development agreements.

A spokesman for Sammakia and the school did not respond to requests for comment on the SUNY AMC idea and the exact specifics.

The minutes of the meeting are unclear about which buildings in Albany and Utica would have been included in the center and if the scope of activity taking place in Albany would be expanded beyond the semiconductors, renewable energy and biotechnology that takes place today.

SUNY Poly's troubled finances have already forced the Research Foundation for SUNY, which oversees research grants for SUNY schools, to write off $57 million in bad debts at SUNY Poly's Albany campus held by Fuller Road Management Corp., the real estate entity that owns the buildings in Albany.

That entity took out hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to pay for its various labs and office buildings. The rents from those buildings go to pay for the debts on those loans.

However, with research programs collapsing in some cases, those revenue sources have been shrinking at the school since last year.

Sammakia has been cutting costs, laying off 38 workers last week as part of trimming $10 million from the school's budget.

"Our revenues and expenditures can be made equal, but revenues cannot service the existing (Fuller Road Management) building debt," Sammakia said, according to the February faculty senate minutes.
ALBANY  Facing persistent barriers, the percentage of New York voters with a disability who cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election dropped off slightly compared to the 2012 election, a new report shows.

Researchers at the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations who crunched Census Bureau data found that 48.8 percent of people with a disability voted in the Empire State last year, compared to 50.2 percent in the 2012 election. That number seemed to correlate with a slight dip in the number of non-disabled voters who cast ballots, with 58.4 percent of non-disabled people voting in 2016, compared to 59.7 percent four years prior.

Yet the gap between the non-disabled and disabled New York voter turnout was 9.6 percent, just higher than the 9.5 percent gap that the 2012 data showed. Nationwide, the gap was slightly smaller (6.3 percent).

The data are the latest evidence showing that those who are disabled face any number of barriers to the polls and can be affected by other factors when it comes to voting.

More for you For disabled voters, strength in numbers brings political clout

Across the country, 68 percent of people with disabilities were registered to vote, just 2 points lower than the percentage of people without a disability who were registered. But 55.9 percent of people with disabilities cast ballots, compared to 62.2 percent without a disability who voted.

"These figures show the continued difficulties people with disabilities face in exercising the right to vote," co-author Douglas Kruse said in a statement. "Standard turnout predictors such as education and income do not fully account for the disability gap. It's also due to many people with disabilities being socially isolated and perceiving that public officials are less responsive to their needs."

Digging further into the national data, 29 percent more people registered to vote who have a disability cited "illness or disability" when asked by the Census Bureau why they did not cast a ballot. In total, 35.7 percent of registered voters with a disability cited that reason, while only 6.6 percent of non-disabled voters said either their or a family member's illness or disability kept them from the polls.

Compare that to the numbers for both subsets of the population when it comes to more often cited reasons for not voting: Apathy and dislike of the candidates. People without a disability were more likely to note both reasons when asked why they didn't turn out, according to the data.

Compared to people without disabilities, those with disabilities were 6 percent less likely to say they didn't vote because they didn't like the candidates or campaign issues and 7.6 percent less likely to say they didn't vote because they weren't interested or felt like their vote wouldn't matter.

The Rutgers study did find some common ground: Nationwide, the "disability gap" between eligible voters with a job is much lower. Turnout among those who are disabled and have a job was 64.7 percent, compared to 63.6 percent among those who are employed and don't have a disability.

"There was no gap in voter turnout between employed people with and without disabilities, indicating that employment helps provide resources and social contact that encourage voting," report co-author Lisa Schur said in a statement. "Employment helps bring people with disabilities into mainstream political life."

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Most of the people who gathered at Skidmore College on Monday night came to the immigration town hall meeting with one question: How can I help?

Julie Leonelli of Hudson Falls was among the more than 100 participants in the Filene Recital Hall wanted to know from a panel of immigration experts on how to protect the city's undocumented workers from further arrest and deportation.

"We are trying to do everything we can to help people in Hudson Falls," said Leonelli who was upset by the shuttering of El Mexicano Restaurant in Hudson Falls after its Saratoga location was raided by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Restaurants are closing. People are scared stiff. We are trying to help them to find lawyers and translating paperwork for them."

The town hall meeting, with a panel of immigration lawyers, a business owner and immigrants themselves, was inspired by the recent city federal sweeps in the city that resulted in at least 27 arrests, taking a toll on the restaurant workforce. The audience members, made up of people who are supportive of undocumented workers, were seeking practical answers to questions such as what to do when they see an ICE officer arrest someone, whether they have to show an ICE officer documents of their workers and what their legal rights are if they are found driving or helping an undocumented person.

Samantha Howell, an immigration lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, suggested that if people see an arrest they should try to get as much information from the detained person as possible  mainly contact information so that family and friends can be notified. She also suggested calling a lawyer immediately.

"What happens is they are detained in Albany County jail for a few days before they are sent to Batavia to go to court in Buffalo," Howell said. "Many people, after they leave Albany, disappear. It's important to get a lawyer right away."

She along with lawyer David Meyers said that ICE needs a warrant to see work papers and that employers need only two forms of identification, plus a completed a W2 form and an I-9 form, in order to hire a worker. They also said that an officer can legally ask for papers of everyone in a vehicle, but can't ask for papers from a person walking down the street.

"There is no Good Samaritan clause in the law," Howell said. "I would discourage you from interfering in an arrest. But you should know your rights. It's a dangerous time to be a person of color who doesn't speak English."

Bahram Keramati, a naturalized citizen, said he felt it was important to attend Monday's meeting. "These ICE arrests made an impact on the community," he said. "Immigrants are important to the community, they are making contributions."



Members of the audience pointed to the harsh political climate, where immigrants are demonized, undocumented immigrants find it hard to gain sympathy.

"I want to ask the entire country, 'Have you ever been hurt by an immigrant?" said Dr. Ingrid Bermudez, a family practitioner and immigrant from South America who sat on the panel. "And then ask, 'Has an immigrant ever helped you?' Most people will say they have."
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Following the death last month of a Gansevoort man who contracted Powassan virus from a tick, a second Saratoga County resident has been hospitalized with the rare disease and a third is suspected of being infected, according to the state Health Department.

The patient with the suspected case has been released from medical treatment, health officials said. Both new cases are adult patients exposed to the virus in June. Health officials would not release further details, citing privacy rules.

The three patients who contracted Powassan virus were from different towns, according to Bryon Backenson, director of the State Health Department's Vector Surveillance Unit.

The cluster of Powassan virus cases is highly unusual, but not unheard of, Backenson said. Before this year, there had been just 24 cases of the virus statewide since 2000, resulting in five deaths, including another Saratoga County resident in 2013. But there was one other cluster of three cases in Westchester County once, in 2007, he said.

Still, the state is upping its surveillance of ticks in Saratoga County in particular. Tuesday, Backenson was at Veterans Memorial Park in Clifton Park, where media were invited to watch his staff drag squares of light-colored canvas along the trails to collect ticks for testing. The park is one of 10 new sites where the Health Department will collect ticks, added to the five sites where it has collected the tiny bugs already.

In light of recent cases of Powassan virus, "we have a responsibility to try to investigate this a little further," Backenson said.

Keeping ticks away Make sure shirts are tucked in and also tuck pants into socks to prevent ticks from accessing the skin.

Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants.

Wear light-colored clothing that will make it easier to spot and remove ticks.

Check for ticks every two to three hours while outdoors, and brush off any ticks before they attach.

Bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors.

Perform a full-body check multiple times during the day to ensure that no ticks are attached.

If you need to remove a tick, pull the tick straight up with fine-tipped tweezers, as shown in the video at this link.

Ignore the advice to use dish soap to remove a tick. Yes, it will irritate the tick. But that might not encourage the tick to back out. Instead, it may salivate heavily and be more likely to infect you. Source: Bryon Backenson, State Department of Health See More Collapse

Ticks will be tested for various pathogens, including the germs that cause the much more common Lyme disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis, as well as Powassan virus, Backenson said. Test results are expected by mid-August.

Previous routine testing of 1,200 ticks in Saratoga County since 2009 have not detected Powassan virus, Backenson said. Nor has the illness been found in more than 8,000 ticks collected during the same time from Columbia County to the Canadian border.

The illness remains quite rare. Backenson said that area residents should not panic over the recent cases but continue to take precaution against tick bites, as they have learned to do with the much more common Lyme disease.

More frequent checks for ticks might be prudent after being outdoors, Backenson said. Unlike Lyme disease, which may a tick more than a day to transmit to a human, a tick can infect a person with Powassan virus in 15 minutes.

And Powassan virus can be serious. While some people may contract it and never know, up to 15 percent of people who get it will die, according to Dr. Todd Duthaler, an emergency doctor at Saratoga Hospital.

The virus can be tough to diagnose. It does not produce a rash the way that Lyme disease can, but results in vague symptoms like headache, fever, confusion, nausea and vomiting.

Those symptoms, caused by the swelling of the brain or the brain lining, can progress rapidly, however, Duthaler said. He recommended getting to the hospital if such symptoms become intense or severe.

And if you spend time outdoors and suspect Powassan could be the culprit of an illness, say so, even if you never found a tick, Duthaler said.

"It's very possible to have ticks in your hair that you may never even know about," he said.

The Health Department is in the process of sending letters out to alert doctors to the possibility of Powassan virus in the region, Backenson said.

It took weeks for Charles Grant Smith III to be tested for Powassan, his son and daughter said Monday. The 74-year-old Gansevoort man died last month, after being bit by an infected tick in late April.

There is no cure for Powassan virus. Doctors treat an infected person with medication to reduce swelling and pain, in turn helping the patients' own immune system fight the disease, Duthaler said.

State Health Department officials will be on hand Tuesday evening at the Saratoga County Fair in Ballston Spa with information on tick-borne illness as well as avoiding ticks, Backenson said.
Albany

In what advocates characterize as a communications lockdown, newsletters going to sex offenders who are confined in a state-run hospital have been sent back to their publisher unopened with a Return to Sender notice.

A disturbing trend is developing on civil facilities not allowing our newsletter, said Wayne Bowers, who puts out the quarterly CURE-SORT News, which compiles stories about the latest treatment options as well as legal developments pertaining to convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison terms but remain indefinitely locked up in psychiatric hospitals under civil commitment laws.

CURE-SORT are acronyms for prison reform groups behind the newsletters: Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants and Sex Offenders Restored Through Treatment.

State officials say that the newsletters are normally delivered to hospital residents as long as their names are on the envelope.

But Bowers said he has gotten at least two newsletters returned from the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg during the past few weeks

Their names were on it. I know the addresses were right, he said.

St. Lawrence is one of the states two main secure hospitals where sex offenders are kept after completing their prison sentences. More than 300 people, mostly men, are in these hospitals.

The rejected newsletters come as residents in the states other main facility, the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy, are saying that theyve been banned from participating in monthly conference calls where civil commitment issues are discussed with Bowers and other prison reform advocates.

The state Office of Mental Health, which operates the hospitals, has said they can block the calls if they run counter to the treatment plans that residents of the hospital are being given.

Bowers said other civil commitment facilities around the country have been making it harder to get his newsletters through.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

In some instances, they are rejecting certain types of sealant or glue on the envelopes saying the substances could hide smuggled drugs. And a federal facility for sex offenders has recently decreed that all mail should come in plain white envelopes, said Bowers.

Bowers latest newsletter recounts recent court cases and precedents in the legal arena and developments in treatment. In one story, the newsletter examines a recent Supreme Court decision that ruled states cannot prohibit sex offenders who have been released from using social media sites such as Facebook.

New Yorks civil commitment law has been in effect for a decade and it allows sex offenders to be committed, or confined in locked hospitals after they complete their prison sentences.

The law, though, has drawn numerous legal challenges. Some offenders have been released following court decisions that they didnt fit the diagnosis required to confine a person in a locked facility.
North Creek

You can take the train from Saratoga Springs to North Creek, and now you can pedal your way farther into the Adirondacks, thanks to a startup company that offers so-called rail bike tours.

Revolution Rail Co. is offering excursions on a stretch of track several miles north of the North Creek rail station, on a line that linked to Tahawus, where iron ore and later titanium dioxide were mined. The vehicles are similar to paddle boats on rail wheels, with passengers sitting upright as they pedal themselves north about three miles, then turn around and pedal back south.

En route, they cross a trestle bridge spanning the Hudson River.

The vehicles come with two or four seats. The two-seaters cost $70, and the four-seaters $130. The trip takes about two hours.

"We are really excited to launch this fun family activity and open up a stretch of track that has never been open for passenger service," said Robert Harte, who with Michael Dupee launched Revolution Rail.

While passengers can drive to the North Creek station, off Route 28 in the town, they can also take the Saratoga and North Creek Railway train. The train will run Thursdays through Sundays for much of the summer, starting in late July, departing from Saratoga Springs' Amtrak station at 10 a.m., arriving in time to connect with the 12:30 p.m. rail bike tour, then returning on the 3 p.m. departure to Saratoga.

At one time, the train, operated by Iowa Pacific Holdings, served hot meals prepared on board in its full-length dome cars and even offered cocktails on the return trips. It couldn't be determined Tuesday what services are available. Calls to the railroad weren't returned.

Trains will continue to operate through Columbus Day weekend, though not on Columbus Day itself.

The rail bike tours, meanwhile, are scheduled to continue through Oct. 31. More details: www.revrail.com and www.sncrr.com
TROY  The Democratic candidate for Rensselaer County executive has raised $27,200 for the race, according to records on the state Board of Elections website.

Andrea Smyth entered the race about a month after the two Republican candidates. Her treasury draws on personal contributions; family support; donations by elected Democrats and a loan.

Smyth's initial treasury of $27,212 falls between Deputy County Executive Christopher Meyer receiving $80,720 and the $14,750 taken in by state Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin. Meyer and McLaughlin are trying to win the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines for the November election.

County Democrats had not planned to run a campaign for county executive, a job with a $121,300 salary. But when Republican County Executive Kathleen Jimino opted not to run for a fifth term, the Democrats looked for a candidate before finding Smyth, who is executive director of the New York State Coalition for Children's Behavioral Health.

Democratic leaders said they hope to see Meyer and McLaughlin both appear on the November ballot, possibly splitting Republican support. Democrats said they believe this would allow the party to take advantage of its enrollment edge over the Republicans. The Democrats enjoy an enrollment advantage over the Republicans in the county by 32,463 to 26,128. There are 31,469 unaffiliated voters in the county. Republicans have relied on a strategy of obtaining minor party lines to cut into Democratic support.

Smyth has not yet held any fund raising events. She gave her campaign $4,500; family members provided $2,810; Democratic committees contributed $5,250; the campaign committee received a $9,000 loan; and the remaining $5,662 came from other donations.

The only campaign expense for Smyth so far is $11.95 for bank fees, according to the statement. Meyer has spent $10,676 and McLaughlin, $3,088.

The campaign disclosure forms show that Meyer has $70,043 on hand; Smyth has $27,200; and McLaughlin has $11,661.
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TROY  Police and firefighters are beefing up patrols in the North Central neighborhood after a string of arsons that a local councilman said grew out of a dispute between two neighborhood rivals.

City police have assigned two detectives full time to the arson investigations. The police also have assigned additional overnight patrols and the city fire department will have firefighters patrolling in marked vehicles, Mayor Lou Rosamilia said.

"I am certain that whoever is responsible, we're going to find them," Rosamilia said Monday.

Republican Councilman Mark McGrath asserted that the blazes were set in retaliation for court testimony, though he declined to share more specific details.

"It's a street fight that escalated into extreme violence and fires," said McGrath, who represents the 2nd District. "These are not random fires."

Troy Police Capt. John Cooney said the department was aware of McGrath's claims. But he said the department would not discuss the motives of the string of fires that began with a July 13 blaze.

All of the suspicious fires have been set between 1 and 5 a.m., generally in the rear of the targeted buildings and away from the streets.

The following is a list of the fires and where and when they occurred:

The nine fires are 3:02 a.m. July 13, 882 Sixth Ave.; 1:12 a.m. July 15, 20 and 22, 118th St.; 1:14 a.m. July 15, 257 Ninth St.; 1:37 a.m. July 22, 29 Park Ave.; 5 a.m. July 22, 3252 Sixth Ave.; 2:48 a.m. July 31, 3247 Sixth Ave.; 2:15 a.m. Aug. 5, 1700 Second St.

At 1:45 a.m., Sunday, a fire was started at 3253 Sixth Ave. Three hours later, a fire began at 3253 Sixth Ave. That fire spread to 3251, 3249 and 3247 Sixth Ave.

Late Monday, the city began tearing down those buildings.

Several of the fires in July and August were clustered on the 3200 block of Sixth Avenue.

"Back in the 1970s and early 1980s we had a similar situation," Fire Chief Thomas Garrett said about a string of fires.

Since Jan 1., the American Red Cross of Northeastern New York has responded to 20 fires in Troy, assisting 176 who were burned out of their homes.

"It's been fairly busy this year and the year before in the city of Troy," said Caroline Boardman, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

The city will deploy the financial resources and staffing necessary to crack the case, said Rosamilia, a Democrat.

The city has an arson tip line at 270-4426. Rensselaer County Legislators Harry Tutunjian and Henry Bauer, both Republicans, are offering a $2,000 reward for information in the arson case.

McGrath blamed the arsons on Rosamilia's unwillingness to restore the city's Street Crimes Union. McGrath contends the unit would have developed the necessary intelligence to prevent the crimes.

Rosamilia said enhanced community policing directed by Chief John Tedesco is accomplishing the goals of fighting crime in the North Central and adjoining South Lansingburgh neighborhoods.

Pastor Willie Bacote, whose Missing Link Street Ministry Mission near the most recent blaze, said the fires have become an extreme form of violence in the neighborhood.

"We're going from shooting each other when we disagree to terrorizing people with fire," Bacote said. "Arson is a horrible thing."

kcrowe@timesunion.com  518-454-5084  @KennethCrowe
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SARATOGA SPRINGS  Residents and business owners with properties close to the proposed Code Blue shelter plan to file suit against the city early this week.



Almost two dozen plaintiffs have joined the suit, which claims the city rammed through permits to build the shelter, which would house the homeless on nights when the temperature dips below 32 degrees. The suit, naming the city planning board and the zoning board as defendants, is expected to be filed in county court either Monday or Tuesday.

"The project does not fit in the neighborhood," said Bob Pringle, who owns two properties on Franklin Street. "We are zoned urban residential. To fit (the shelter) into a non-conforming building open to anyone will have an impact on the neighborhood."



The project, which has already been approved by the city's planning and zoning board, is expected to be built at 14 Walworth St. next to the current Shelters of Saratoga, which owns the property. The two-story home would not only provide beds for up to 40 people, but also would offer a full kitchen, showers, a dining room and food pantry. It would also serve as a drop-in center where the homeless can meet with social workers and other support staff during the day.
AMSTERDAM  City police continue to try to piece together the events that led to the stabbing of five men in a bar fight early Saturday morning on Bridge Street, city police said.

Reports of a brawl outside Girard's brought police to the 68 Bridge St. bar's parking lot at 2:45 a.m. Officers, who were trying to reach the stabbing victims, started to disperse the crowd.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised more than $5.1 million over the past six months and has about $25.7 million in his campaign account, his most-recent campaign finance filings show.

As has been the case in previous filings, Cuomo's biggest campaign donors include people from the New York City real estate industry and supporters of charter schools.
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ALBANY  City firefighters battled a massive blaze that consumed four to six row houses on Madison Avenue on Monday night.

"This is a devastating fire," said Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who arrived shortly before 10 p.m. The buildings were an essential piece of the Center Square neighborhood's character, she said, and at least a dozen residents burned out of their homes would receive Red Cross assistance overnight.

Nine Albany fire trucks were on the scene with aerial ladder trucks pouring water on the flames. At one point, firefighters entered a burning building but soon retreated because of the intensity of the fire, police said. The two- and three-story buildings at 402-412 Madison Ave. near Lark Street date to the 19th century.

People huddled in tears across the street from the fire and expressed concern about family members and pets.

Hudson/Park and adjoining neighborhoods from Madison to Jay street were shrouded in smoke on the warm and humid night with temperatures near 70 degrees. Fire Chief Warren Abriel said the first companies responding could see how intense the fire was from a distance by the way it lit up the night sky. The chief said it was too soon to determine the cause.

Marcus Camacho, who lives at 412 Madison Ave., was working out at Best Fitness at Westgate Shopping Center, and returned home to the blaze. He said he was fortunate because he can replace everything lost in the fire.

He had called a roommate, Bobby Primo, who was still inside their apartment and told him the fire was several buildings away. But it soon spread and Primo escaped.

Around 10:45 p.m., Primo was standing with Camacho and another roommate, Jesse Clegg, at the corner of Madison Avenue and Lark Street as smoke billowed up the street. Clegg said he didn't know the fate of a pet cat.

Robert Downen contributed.
ESSEX (AP)  Police say they're investigating the death of a Vermont man whose body was found floating in a Lake Champlain marina near the New York restaurant he ran with his wife.

New York State Police say troopers responded around 10:20 a.m. Monday after dock workers reported a body submerged in about 10 feet of the water at the Essex Marina, 115 miles north of Albany.
Washington

The latest Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare was fatally wounded in the Senate Monday night when two more GOP senators announced their opposition to the legislation strongly backed by President Donald J. Trump.

The announcements from senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas left the Republican Party's long-promised efforts to get rid of President Barack Obama's health care legislation reeling. Next steps, if any, were not immediately clear.

Trump, who had predicted success for the legislation just hours earlier, responded with a tweet urging: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!" But Republican leaders rejected that clean-repeal approach months ago because it could not pass Congress.

Lee and Moran both said they could not support Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's legislation in its current form. They joined GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, both of whom announced their opposition right after McConnell released the bill last Thursday.

McConnell is now at least two votes short in the closely divided Senate and may have to go back to the drawing board or even begin to negotiate with Democrats, a prospect he's threatened but resisted so far. Or he could abandon the health care effort, which has proven more difficult than many Republicans envisioned after campaigning on the issue for years, and move on to tax legislation, a bigger Trump priority to begin with.

McConnell's bill "fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address health care's rising costs. For the same reasons I could not support the previous version of this bill, I cannot support this one," said Moran.

Lee said, "In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

Earlier Monday, sensing vulnerability among Republican senators, Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., had struggled to regain the high ground by calling on the GOP majority to hold hearings on their teetering health care bill.

"Given your decision to delay the vote on the (Republican) Better Care Reconciliation Act, we request that you use this additional time to hold public hearings so that Senators can invite impartial experts, including patients, to testify on the policies in the bill," said Schumer in a letter to McConnell and two other Republican leaders.

"This will allow members to hear unfiltered and unbiased analysis of how the (GOP) bill will affect their states and the health and financial security of the constituents they represent," said the letter, also signed by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

At a "people's filibuster" rally outside the Capitol on Monday, an exuberant Schumer called the bill's opponents "one united band of brothers and sisters," and told the crowd, "Don't stop fighting till we win."

Groups including the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and also insurance industry trade groups are focusing fire at the bill's amendment by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, which itself is aimed at placating Senate conservatives.

The change would permit insurers to sell bare-bones plans primarily to younger, healthier policyholders at low cost. Insurers and health-care providers say it would capsize the traditional insurance risk pool, which relies on a mix of sick and healthy to maintain viability.

"It's simply unworkable in any form," said two leading insurance groups, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association, in a letter to McConnell sent Friday.

"Lawmakers should take the time to hear directly from their constituents how they could be impacted by the bill," said Bill Sherman, the Albany-based managing director of government relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

"Cancer survivors in New York state, Connecticut and across the country cannot afford a health care system that does not provide access to the health coverage they need for lifesaving care."

In a Senate divided 52-48 in favor of Republicans, McConnell and his troops had a thin margin of error to get the bill through.

dan@hearstdc.com The Associated Press contributed to this story.
A Cashel woman who aims to make history as part of an all-female silage cutting team, told the Tipperary Star she's looking forward to the challenge.

Alison De Vere Hunt is the Manager of Cashel Mart, and will be one member of the all-female silage team drawn from the South East hoping to make history in Mt. Mellerary, Co Waterford. The team are attempting to create a new Guinness World Record in silage making.

I think theyve had to turn away women at this stage, theres been so many interested in it, Alison told the Tipperary Star. Alison heard of the Guinness World Record bid through one of Cashel Marts customers, John O'Brien, who is chief organiser of the event.

John said it to me about six weeks ago, could I drive a Tractor? And I said no problem. Alison says the all-female silage crew being recruited in Co Waterford for the Guinness world record attempt on August 19th, is the first of its kind. Her role has been changed from drawing to mowing due to the large numbers of people interested in joining.

The bid forms part of the Melleray Community Silage Weekend - an annual event which has in the past featured a combination of modern and vintage machinery.

All money raised will go to towards the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, a cause which Alison says she is very happy to support. The women are really looking forward to taking part, and are promoting it themselves. Theyll raise a lot of money for the Society. Please God, the weather will stay good, added Alison.

So far, the group has recruited a lengthy list of ladies from all over Tipperary and Waterford to cut and draw silage, including one lady who has travelled all the way from Wales to join in.

Some other Tipperary ladies included: Catriona Tobin, Ardfinnan, tractor; Pearl Bates, Ardfinnan, John Deere tractor; Cherry Bates, Ardfinnan, tractor; and Ciara Shine, Ardfinnan, Ford tractor.

Backing up the silage ladies will be a team of lady mechanics: The Socket Rockets. Irelands only ladies team capable of rebuilding a vintage tractor in a matter of minutes will give a demonstration at the silage event.
It appears flies are avoiding Tipperary this Summer notwithstanding a 39% increase in fly infestations nationwide, according to Rentokil.

Cork is one of the most fly-infested counties in Ireland, accounting for almost a fifth of all fly infestations in the country, however Tipperary is experiencing the least number of fly infestations - at 3%. The tourist hot spots of Dublin (18%), Galway (16%) and Kerry (14%) all reported high levels of the bugs in the unusually warm summer weather.

The company predicts that the number of infestations will continue to rise, as recently reported by residents in Dublin 4. Rentokil has warned hotel and restaurant owners to be vigilant in safeguarding their premises against fly infestations this summer, as it predicts a bumper season for the pests. The company noted a 39% increase in the number of fly infestations between April and the end of June, compared to the same period on 2016.

The common house fly spreads food poisoning, diarrhoeal diseases and skin and eye infections, posing a serious headache for business owners. These diseases can have an impact on both customer and staff health, resulting in damages to income, brand reputation and staff retention. In addition to posing a threat to brand reputation, flies are responsible for causing the highest number of staff illnesses, compared to other pests such as rodents and cockroaches.

Dr. Colm Moore, Area Technical Manager UK, Ireland said: Flies can be a common cause of food poisoning, particularly salmonella, and as such they create a real risk to the hospitality industry. A continued rise in the fly population could lead to a greater incidence of fly-borne disease, such as stomach upset and diarrhoea.

It is vital that food manufacturers, retailers and restaurateurs take appropriate due diligence when it comes to flies. Business owners may be tempted to think a small infestation is not a problem. However, it doesnt take long for a small amount of flies to reproduce in large quantities. Fly larvae take 7 to 10 days to mature into adults, and in their lifetime they may produce 1,000 eggs. If a small infestation is not stopped, you will see a dramatic increase in their numbers. With Lumnia flies are constantly being eradicated. Businesses will save money through reduced infestations, while ensuring their reputation for impeccable hygiene remains intact, Dr Moore continued.
Tipperary County Council has granted permission for a controversial solar farm at Derrymore outside Roscrea.

The farm at Leonard's Bog, is on a 50 hectare / 147-acre site that covers 50 times the size of Semple Stadium.

The decision has already been met with anger from those who oppose the proposal.

One of the objectors, Paula Carey, told the Tipperary Star that they were awaiting the planner's report, but that as a community they were shocked that permission had been granted for such a large scale development without any national guidelines being in place for solar farm development in Ireland.

We fully expected that this application will end up at An Bord Pleanal. It is unfair that planners and An Bord Pleanala are having to deal with such applications without any national guidelines for such developments, she said.

Ms Carey said that big businesses were taking advantage of this situation and the local community will be left to live with the consequences.

Only recently the guidelines for wind farms have been revised to address the major concerns about shadow flicker, visual amenity, noise limits and engagement with local communities.

We already have a large scale wind farm on our doorstep with 15 massive turbines and yet here again, we are being let down by our council, the planners and the Government with the permission for this massive solar farm adjacent to the already existing windfarm and the M7 motorway, she said.

Ms Carey said that those opposing the development will consider their options once they have reviewed the planner's report.

Island Green Power is proposing to build a 30m green energy plant with the potential to power 5,000 homes. The site would consist of 119,000 solar panels.

Tipperary County Council has attached 14 conditions to its decision to grant permission for the facility.

Among them are the need for all cabling to be underground, CCTV not to face residential properties, an archaeologist will be empoloyed during development; the site is to be open to visitors on a least 10 days per year and that the company pays the council 250,000 in development levies.

There was no response from the company to obtaining permission but, last July at a public meeting on the proposal, Ian Lawrie, managing director of Island Green Power, was at pains to point out his company's track record in building similar projects in the UK, while landowners Kevin and Denise Leonard defended their decision to allow their land be used on the basis of green energy and that it was an ideal site which was already surrounded by turbines.

The full planning application consists of the erection of a 58.11 hectare Solar PV Farm. The proposed solar farm will consist of the installation of a 30 year operation and subsequent decommissioning of a series of ground mounted solar photovoltaic PV panels, mounted on steel support structures 3m in height, together with 1 single storey ESB control room, 25 electrical transformation enclosures, underground cabling, CCTV poles and cameras, deer type security fencing, wooden fence along part of the M7 Motorway, wooden fence placed along the western site boundary, site entrance and access roads, including landscaping along the western and south eastern site boundaries, and other associated development works, for the purpose of generating renewable energy electricity. The proposed solar farm will have a capacity of 25MW.
[July 18, 2017] Embark Raises $4.5M to Expand Their Best in Breed Dog DNA Testing Service

Embark Veterinary Inc. announced today that they raised $4.5 million in funding to expand their canine genetic testing suite for pet parents, breeders, and veterinarians. In partnership with the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Embark currently offers the world's most advanced canine DNA test, promoting long-term animal health and wellness. The new round brings Embark's total funding to $6.5 million since the company's inception two years ago. The latest round was led by Founder Collective, Freestyle and ThirdKind, with participation from Bill Maris' new fund Section 32, Anne Wojcicki, and SV Angel. The Embark Dog DNA Test is the most comprehensive pet genetic test on the market, designed by the world's leaders in dog and consumer genomics. The test tracks over 200,000 genetic markers, offering ancestry analysis as well as an extensive overview of both genetic disease risk and heritable traits, allowing users to understand their dog's health, plan for their pet's future and provide their dog with the best personalized care possible. Embark's Founders, Adam and Ryan Boyko, have made dog drool a family business. Over the past decade, the brothers have traveled the globe, fetching thousands of saliva DNA samples from pups in Croatia, Fiji, India, Peru, Qatar, Uganda, and a dozen other countries. While they enjoy working in the lab and doing field research around the globe, Adam and Ryan have always wanted to share their work and improve the lives of dogs in homes across the world. They founded Embark to bring cutting-edge science and insights directly to pet owners. "Embark is making real strides in our understanding of dog genetics to get to healthier, happier, longer-lived dogs. Ultimately we are ending preventable disease in dogs. This additional funding enables us to expand the research to accomplish that goal," sas Ryan Boyko, CEO and Founder of Embark. "We're looking forward to developing new features that consumers and breeders need to make genetic information useful, fun, and engaging in their everyday lives."



Four out of ten dogs suffer from a hereditary condition-and Embark is on a mission to help inform and educate dog owners to make smarter choices in both care and breeding to eradicate inherited conditions and help dogs live longer, healthier lives. Since its launch in May 2016, Embark has a growing database of tens of thousands of dogs and has delivered thousands of dog owners information about their pet's breed, traits, and genetic health dispositions. "Embark's direct-to-consumer genomics for dogs is grounded in research and focused on eliminating preventable canine diseases -- providing a level of precision that hasn't been possible before in dog genetic testing," says Embark investor Bill Maris, founder at Section 32. "Dog owners now have a one-stop-shop for health, trait and breed testing using a comprehensive research-grade platform that also provides invaluable information to breed clubs and researchers looking to improve canine health."

The new funding will allow Embark to further provide more tools that allow breeders to take advantage of the latest genetic advances to breed the companions of tomorrow. Additionally, today Embark announced that they have relocated their pet-friendly headquarters to the Boston area, the home of digital health and biotech innovation. "Boston has world-class universities, institutes, and companies that we are excited to recruit from and partner with," says Boyko. "We are looking to grow our science, engineering, marketing, and customer service teams." To learn more about Embark's Dog DNA Test, please visit http://www.embarkvet.com. You can download hi-res images of Embark's Dog DNA Test here. ABOUT EMBARK Founded in 2015, Embark Veterinary offers the most comprehensive pet genetic test on the market, designed by the world's leaders in dog and consumer genomics. The test tracks over 200,000 genetic markers, offering ancestry analysis as well as an extensive overview of both genetic disease risk and heritable traits. Embark empowers customers to understand their dog's health, plan for their pet's future, and provide their dog with the most personalized care possible. Headquartered in Boston, MA. Find out more at Embarkvet.com, and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005436/en/

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Global Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market 2017-2021: Industry Analysis and Forecasts by Technavio

According to the latest market study released by Technavio, the global semiconductor capital equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 6% during the forecast period.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006008/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global semiconductor capital equipment market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

This research report titled 'Global Semiconductor Capital Equipment Market 2017-2021' provides an in-depth analysis of the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This report also includes an up to date analysis and forecasts for various market segments and all geographical regions.

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 market research analysis categorizes the global semiconductor capital equipment market into three major end-user segments. They are:

Foundries

Memory manufacturers

IDMs

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.







Foundries

The foundries segment dominated the global semiconductor capital equipment market in 2016, with a share of more than 63%. The changing business environment in the semiconductor industry is the major driving factor behind this migration to fabless model. Thus, the semiconductor market will witness a considerable demand for devices such as logic, analog, memory, discrete, opto, sensor, and other semiconductor devices during the forecast period. To meet this demand, foundries need to upgrade their manufacturing and inspection equipment as well as ensure a high throughput of reliable and quality offerings.

"The demand for consumer electronic devices will stem from developing countries of APAC like India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Nepal. The high growth potential of these countries in terms of the demand for electronic devices will drive the electronic devices OEMs and electronic manufacturing companies to order a higher number of semiconductor devices for their end-products," says Chetan Mohan, a lead analyst at Technavio for semiconductor equipment research.

Memory manufacturers

The growth in the number of microcontroller processes being undertaken in electronic devices has made the memory a vital component of semiconductor devices. Leading market vendors such as SK Hynix, SanDisk (News - Alert), Toshiba, and Samsung have already adopted 3D NAND technology, resulting in further development and commercialization of devices based on 3D NAND architecture. The production of 3D NAND needs new and optimized production equipment due to the complexity involved in its manufacturing. This is compelling chip manufacturing companies such as Samsung (News - Alert), Micron, and Toshiba to revamp and increase their production lines. Also, there are many emerging memory technologies such as magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), spin-transfer torque random-access memory (STT-RAM (News - Alert)), FeRAM, phase-change memory (PCM), and resistive random-access memory (RRAM).

"The development of new form factors has gained traction in the memory market, and device manufacturers are now demanding memory chips based on transparent and plastic, three-dimensional, and quantum dot memory technologies. Such developments in the field of memory will create considerable demand for new wafer inspection equipment in the market," says Chetan.

Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs)

The high migration to the fabless model of manufacturing will restrict the growth of IDMs in relation to the other two types of production facilities. A new IDM requires a very high initial investment, as well as the upgrading cost for such facilities, is relatively significant. This is hindering the development of IDMs as most semiconductor device manufacturers are looking to cut down on the production expenditure and focus more on enhancing the design and technology of the chips. IDMs such as Intel, Texas Instruments, IBM Microelectronics, Toshiba, Sony, Renesas, STMicroelectronics (News - Alert), Fujitsu, Philips, NXP, and Infineon, manufacture integrated devices.

The top vendors highlighted by Technavio's market research analysts in this report are:

ASML

Applied Materials (News - Alert)

KLA-Tencor

Lam Research

Tokyo Electron

Browse Related Reports:

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/20170717006008/en/
[July 17, 2017] Dr. Raymond Sackler, Physician and Supporter of Research Science, Dies at 97

It is with deep sadness that Purdue Pharma L.P. today announced the death of one of its co-founders, Dr. Raymond Sackler. Dr. Sackler died on July 17, after a brief illness. He was 97 years old. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006303/en/ Dr. Raymond Sackler and Beverly Sackler. (Photo: Business Wire) Dr. Raymond Sackler was a noted philanthropist, physician, entrepreneur, business leader, husband, father, grandfather, friend, and mentor to many. For more than 50 years, Dr. Sackler and his wife contributed directly and through the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundations to areas spanning biomedical research, the physical and engineering sciences, and the arts. Dr. Sackler and his brothers, Arthur and Mortimer, both also deceased, represented one of the nation's most renowned philanthropic families, associated with the Sackler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, the Freer and Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington as well as notable cultural, scientific, and educational institutions around the world. Dr. Sackler began his education at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn and attended New York University, where he received his B.S. in 1938. He then pursued his medical degree, beginning at Anderson College of Medicinein Glasgow, Scotland, where he volunteered in the UK home guard and plane spotter in the first year of World War II. Due to the war, he completed his studies at the Middlesex University School of Medicine, on the site of current day Brandeis University (News - Alert) in Waltham, Massachusetts, where in 1944 he received an M.D. He was certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.



Early in his career, Dr. Sackler moved strongly away from then dominant Freudian psychiatric model and explored and participated in research at the frontiers of psychopharmacology, the field which has transformed the treatment of most psychiatric illness recognized today. Based on his background in medicine and medical research, Dr. Sackler and his brother Dr. Mortimer, purchased Purdue in 1952 and moved its offices to Christopher Street in New York City. They began a pharmaceutical business that has continued to operate for 65 years, in the United States and around the world, developing and marketing medicines, healthcare products and antiseptics for pain management, respiratory, gastrointestinal and other conditions.

Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1957, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Sackler, with his two brothers, Arthur and Mortimer Sackler, were co-founders of the Creedmoor Institute for Psychobiological Studies in New York City, where they engaged in research in the biology of biology of schizophrenia and psychosis. Among the many honors Dr. Sackler earned are honorary degrees from Tel Aviv University, The University of Connecticut and Tufts University. He received knighthoods in three European Countries. He was awarded The Honorary Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire, (KBE); Officier de la Legion d'honneur (France), and was an Officer in the Order of Orange (News - Alert) Nassau (The Netherlands). Dr. Sackler's philanthropy also included the establishment and endowment of schools, institutes, centers, departments, endowed chairs, professorships, fellowships, and research awards in the biomedical and physical sciences, as well as lectureships at academic institutions around the world. He was an early adoptor and provided major philanthropic support for Convergence (News - Alert) Research, the increasing importance of mathematics, physics, and engineering sciences in forging deeper understanding of biology in its transformation from a largely qualitative to an increasing quantitative field. The sequencing and unraveling of the complexities of the human genome, emergence of nanotechnology and rapid advances in biological imaging are only a few examples of Convergence Research supported by Dr. Sackler's generosity and vision. Dr. Sackler counted among his friends and associated with a host of scientific and academic experts, including Nobel Laureates Joshua Lederberg, Emilio G. Segre, Julius Axelrod, Phillip Sharp (News - Alert), Martin Chalfie, Sir Keith Peters, and Sir Martin Rees. He is survived by his wife Beverly, and their two sons. The family has asked that anyone wanting to make memorial contributions consider contributing in his name to Greenwich Hospital, 5 Perryridge Road, Greenwich, CT 06830. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006303/en/

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[July 17, 2017] Toyota and teamLab Join Forces to Create "Mobilmo", a New App to Empower Children to Experience the Craft of Making Things

- Endless possibilities! - Use over 100 different 3D parts to create your own "Mobilmo" with the touch of a finger and make friends as you explore the giant planet of "Cosmobi" *The app is not available in certain countries and regions TOYOTA CITY, Japan, July 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Motor Corporation today announced the global launch of Mobilmo, a mobile app that empowers children to exercise creativity through the craft of making things. Toyota and teamLab (https://www.teamlab.art/) partnered to create an app in which children are able to experience infinite joy from engaging in the following three key elements: "Move" (moving things), "Build" (freely creating things), and "More" (making more friends). These key elements are the basis for the name "Mobilmo." This app will allow children from all over the world to connect with their dreams and help them find joy in the craft of future manufacturing. 1. What is Mobilmo? 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 worls 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

[email protected] Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-b

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-c

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-d

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-e

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-f

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-g

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-n

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-h

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-i

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-j

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-k

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-l

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170713/1898541-1-m SOURCE Toyota Motor Corporation

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[July 18, 2017] A High Resolution Summer With Nilox EVO 4K30

VIMERCATE, Italy, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Video in 4K with 30 frame per second, in Full HD up to 100 frame per second for a super Slow Motion, as well as 16MP pictures and underwater shooting up to 40 meters deep, for the most advanced action cam by Nilox Nilox (http://www.nilox.com), the Italian sport technology brand of Esprinet Group, announces its new on-board camera EVO 4K30 that can capture all the emotions of the summer with cinema resolution. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/467840/Nilox_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/535116/Nilox_4k30_Evo.jpg )





With this model, Nilox takes a step forward in the action cam market, confirming its position as the first Italian brand in the world and the second in Italy. According to the last GFK data, in the first quarter of the year Nilox grew from 12.8% in 2016 to 21.4% in 2017 in terms of sales volumes in Italy, driving a further wedge through its direct competitors. Moreover, in the month of July 2016, Nilox rose to second position in the European ranking in terms of sales.

Nilox offers a wide range of accessories, designed to improve the experience with the cam. Included in the pack: a waterproof case to take the camera underwater up to a depth of 40metres, as well as two adhesive holders - one flat and one curved - to attach it to every surface. About Nilox: Nilox (http://www.nilox.com) is the sport technology brand of the Esprinet Group. The portfolio has also a wide range of electric mobility devices (hoverboards, skateboards and scooters), on-board cams (MINI, F-60, EVO and 360 lines), wearable devices, and IT professional solutions. Nilox is distributed in Italy, Spain, Portogallo, Germany, France, UK, Greece and Netherlands.

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[July 18, 2017] Sarah Kunst Joins Michigan State University Foundation Board of Directors

LANSING, Mich., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michigan State University Foundation (MSU Foundation) is pleased to announce today it has appointed Sarah Kunst, CEO and Founder of Proday, to its Board of Directors. This newest addition to the organization's Board reiterates the MSU Foundation's commitment to Michigan State University's (MSU) continued leadership in entrepreneurship and innovation. "Sarah brings with her a wealth of experience and energy," said Randolph Cowen, Chair of the MSU Foundation's Board of Directors, "and her presence promises to bring a Silicon Valley perspective to the MSU Foundation, which will have a long-term impact on the organization's activities." Kunst, a Mt. Pleasant, Michigan native, graduated from MSU in 2008 with a degree in advertising. Since then, she has gone on to be the Founder and CEO of Proday, a San Francisco-based company. Proday was part the 2016 cohort in the Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator Program. An investor and entrepreneur, Kunst has worked at Apple, Red Bull, Chanel, Mohr Davidow Ventures, as well as several venture-backed startups. She is a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine and has hosted a podcast for Forbes Magazine. Although Kunst is steeped in the investment and entrepreneurial spaces, she is also passionate about her philanthropic interests, including Venture for America and the US State Department's Tech Women Program. "Sarah is exceptional," said David Washburn, the MSU Foundation's Executive Director. "Her entrepreneurial spirit, investment acumen, and depth of knowledge and experience in several key reas will help us build even greater value across our activities, including entrepreneurship, commercialization, and economic development at Michigan State University."



"I am inspired to be a part of growing the entrepreneurial community at MSU," said Kunst. "I am honored to accept this position and work to broaden the scope and impact of the MSU Foundation's investment initiatives; provide advice on curriculum development; and build relationships that enhance its place-making activities." Helping MSU achieve its goals related to research, discovery, and commercialization, the MSU Foundation provides research grants and also manages several operating subsidiaries, including Spartan Innovations, MBI, and the University Corporate Research Park.

Recently, the MSU Foundation launched Red Cedar Ventures, a pre-seed investment fund focusing on growing startup companies created by MSU faculty, staff, and students. "Gap funding is crucial to moving ideas out of universities and into the real world and help create thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems. Having Red Cedar Ventures participating in this realm signals the MSU Foundation's strong commitment to entrepreneurship and to the groundbreaking work being done at MSU," said Kunst. In 2014, Kunst was declared by Marie Claire Magazine to be a Young Gun to watch. That same year, Marc Andreessen named her one of his 55 Unknown Rock Stars in Techshe has not disappointed. Since then, she has been named a Forbes Magazine 30 under 30 , a Top 25 Innovator in Tech by Cool Hunting, and recognized for her work by Business Insider as a 30 under 30 Woman in Tech, Top African-American in Tech, as well as Top Startup To Watch in 2017. She has written for TechCrunch, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Entrepreneur.com. About the MSU Foundation Established in 1973 as an independent non-profit corporation, the Michigan State University Foundation fuels economic development initiatives through the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies invented by Michigan State University faculty, staff, and students. At its core is an extensive program that focuses on the support of research, invention, and entrepreneurship. The Michigan State University Foundation also operates the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, Michigan Biotechnology Institute, Red Cedar Ventures, Spartan Innovations, and the University Corporate Research Park. More information on the Foundation's notable achievements, services provided, key leadership, and history are available at www.msufoundation.org. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sarah-kunst-joins-michigan-state-university-foundation-board-of-directors-300489352.html SOURCE Michigan State University Foundation

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[July 18, 2017] ThoughtWorks Releases First-Ever Report on Courageous Leadership Among Successful C-Suite Executives

CHICAGO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ThoughtWorks, a global software consultancy released a first of its kind report, "The Next Big Disruption: Courageous Executives", revealing what sets top business leaders apart from their competition. The report profiles an elite segment of C-Suite leaders referred to as "Courageous Executives" in the US, the UK, Australia and India and the findings underscore the critical role technology plays in business strategy, from navigating the chaos of digital transformation to how they're setting their business up for future success. The report also sheds light on the leadership styles of Courageous Executives including their tolerance for risk and failure, their use of customer insights and the ways leaders in all four countries are preparing for the future of work. This report, developed by ThoughtWorks in partnership with research agency Northstar, features insight from Fortune 500 C-Suite executives who are: advocates for digital transformation; have an active role in directing how technology enables their business; have seen their company's revenue or profit increase significantly due to a recent technology change; and 85 percent of which self-identified as risk takers. "As companies across all industries embrace the changes of our increasingly digital world, we're seeing leaders at the helm of these companies dive deeper into how technology is implemented and how it works," said ThoughtWorks President and CEO, Guo Xiao. "I began my time in the industry as a developer, giving me the tools I needed to approach business with a technology first perspective. Executives across the globe are learning that a strong grasp of technology matters and they're finding ways to adapt. Our findings show that 54 percent of Courageous Executives have developed a eep understanding of technology with a remarkable 57 percent of these leaders reporting having written code," noted Xiao. "A tenacious commitment to embrace technology is what today sets apart truly Courageous Executives."



According to the report, notable themes uniting Courageous Executives include: Proactive Approach to Technology Changes

According to the report, to keep pace and anticipate future technology shifts, Courageous Executives conduct research, analyze their competitors, troubleshoot tech challenges and hire subject matter experts. A majority of Courageous Executives (65 percent) say that digitizing and adapting to new technology is a top business priority followed by growth. Research  63 percent of leaders do their own research to stay ahead of technology changes. Top trends they're exploring include security threats; human and machine interaction; new hardware, software and operational platforms; machine learning and artificial intelligence; virtual reality and augmented reality.

 63 percent of leaders do their own research to stay ahead of technology changes. Top trends they're exploring include security threats; human and machine interaction; new hardware, software and operational platforms; machine learning and artificial intelligence; virtual reality and augmented reality. Competitor Analysis  In all four countries, big tech decisions are most often fueled by competition. Asked to identify the largest driver motivating change, 47 percent pointed to their competitors. Tolerance for Risk and Willingness to Fail Understanding risks and its impact on ongoing business success is an important characteristic of a Courageous Executive along with the ability to rebound after a perceived failure. Appetite for Risk - In fact, 87 percent of all executives agree that taking risks is necessary to achieve goals and maintain a strong competitive advantage with 62 percent pointing to their willingness to take risks their competitors won't as a key differentiator.

- In fact, 87 percent of all executives agree that taking risks is necessary to achieve goals and maintain a strong competitive advantage with 62 percent pointing to their willingness to take risks their competitors won't as a key differentiator. Failing Well - Courageous Executives reported their most common reaction to these setbacks was to focus on what went right with the second being to stay as positive as possible. When asked how failure affected their employees, 54 percent globally said that they believed failure made them even more motivated to succeed. Use of Customer Insights Throughout the world, courageous leaders recognize the necessity of maintaining a close connection to their customers. 91 percent report that customer input directly informs their strategic decision-making. While there is some agreement as to the best methods for gathering that customer input, there's still a lack of consensus among executives when it comes to what data they're collecting and who is assessing the insights. Data Source - Overall, the most common source of insight is customer research, followed by social feeds which are monitored by 68 percent of Australian, 60 percent of UK and Indian and only 38 percent of US leaders. Other ways executives gather information includes using analytics from a content management system or implementing a designated customer insights task force.

- Overall, the most common source of insight is customer research, followed by social feeds which are monitored by 68 percent of Australian, 60 percent of UK and Indian and only 38 percent of US leaders. Other ways executives gather information includes using analytics from a content management system or implementing a designated customer insights task force. Customer Engagement - Gathering data from multiple sources is universally valued, but 87 percent of executives report having an internal team dedicated to their customers. Additionally, 58 percent of US and 48 percent of Australian executives say they speak to their customers themselves, which is far more than 32 percent in India and 22 percent in the UK. The Future of Work Across continents, nearly half of all courageous leaders describe their company culture as "team-first," meaning they hire primarily for cultural fit, with skills and experience the second consideration. A third define their company as having an "elite" culture, described as hiring only the best to change the world by untested means. Subject Matter Experts - An overwhelming majority of Courageous Executives (90 percent) emphasized the importance of key hires, stating that discovering subject matter experts and new talents helps their context and credibility and is crucial to success.

An overwhelming majority of Courageous Executives (90 percent) emphasized the importance of key hires, stating that discovering subject matter experts and new talents helps their context and credibility and is crucial to success. Tech's Impact - 70 percent believe that replacing white-collar workers with technology is a natural progression and to be expected. To prepare for the potential impact of technology on the workforce, 87 percent of leaders admit to researching new technologies that may help them save on staff costs. 83 percent also agree that they're preparing for the impact of technology replacing their workers by limiting new hires to reduce ongoing overhead. To download the report visit www.thoughtworks.com/courage Methodology Developed by ThoughtWorks, this report is based on data collected by Northstar Research Partners from C-Suite executives from Fortune 500 companies with 100 employees or more, 87 percent of whom have occupied their office for at least three years and 79 percent reporting more than $100 million in revenue. The executives are primarily Presidents or Chief Executive Officers, the data also includes insights from the full C-suite including CIOs, CMOs, COOs, and CTOs from a variety of industries from finance and retail to healthcare and manufacturing and more. About ThoughtWorks We are a software company and community of passionate purpose-led individuals. We think disruptively to deliver technology to address our clients' toughest challenges all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thoughtworks-releases-first-ever-report-on-courageous-leadership-among-successful-c-suite-executives-300489805.html SOURCE ThoughtWorks

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Over 1,000 NGOs have been barred from receiving foreign aid after they were found "mis-utilising" such funds, Union minister Kiren Rijiju informed the Lok Sabha today.

He said more than 2,000 non-government organisations have been asked to validate their existing bank accounts designated for receiving funds from abroad.

All the voluntary organisations need to be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) (FCRA) Act to be eligible to receive financial aid from abroad. According to the Act, all banks shall report any transaction in respect of receipt of utilisation of any foreign contribution by a person to the central government within 48 hours.

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"Over 1,000 NGOs found to be mis-utilising foreign funds and violating various provisions of FCRA, 2010 and rules made there under, have been barred from operating their foreign contribution accounts," the Minister of State for Home Affairs said in a written reply. The home ministry has already asked the NGOs receiving foreign funds to file annual returns, showing expenses and receipts of any such grant. PTI AKV SRY ZMN SRY

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[July 18, 2017] What a Million Dollars a Day Looks Like: New Jersey American Water's Online Infrastructure Upgrade Map Provides Details on 2017 System Investments

Showing its commitment to invest approximately $350 million in 2017 - nearly $1 million dollars a day - in needed system improvements, New Jersey American Water has published an interactive Infrastructure Upgrade Map on its website to share details about its pipeline renewal projects. The map is located at www.newjerseyamwater.com under Water Quality, System Updates. The user-friendly Infrastructure Upgrade Map allows customers to view details about the company's water and wastewater pipe renewal or replacement projects across its 190 service areas in the state. The map features summaries of pipe upgrades across the state, total dollars invested and length of pipe being installed. By clicking on individual projects, users can see specific project details and "zoomin" to view the street level details of projects in their town or county.



"Oftentimes customers do not see their water bills at work because we may not be upgrading infrastructure in their neighborhood, and also because underground water and wastewater pipes are typically considered out of sight, out of mind," said New Jersey American Water President Robert MacLean. "This innovative, interactive map highlights our projects and provides details that customers can access from their computer or smartphone." New Jersey American Water invests approximately $350 million annually to maintain and upgrade its water and wastewater systems to help ensure reliable service to customers. At the same time, the cost of tap water remains an exceptional value at less than a penny per gallon.

"One of the biggest challenges the country is facing is the nation's water and wastewater infrastructure is aging and needs to be repaired or replaced," MacLean said. "Our engineering and operations teams work closely with local communities to identify problem areas, which helps us plan where and when to proactively replace and upgrade our infrastructure. For customers, it means improved water quality, service reliability and fire protection. And our ability to time these projects with municipal or county road work benefits everyone too, saving money and time and reducing inconvenience to residents." New Jersey American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state, providing high-quality and reliable water and/or wastewater services to approximately 2.7 million people. More information can be found at www.newjerseyamwater.com. With a history dating back to 1886, American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. The company employs 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 47 states and Ontario, Canada. More information can be found by visiting www.amwater.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005755/en/

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[July 18, 2017] SendGrid Expands Presence in Orange County and Silicon Valley; Signs Leases in Both Locations to Triple Footprint in California

DENVER, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SendGrid, a leading customer communication platform that drives engagement and growth, today announced that it has signed leases for new office space in both Orange County and Silicon Valley. The new spaces are nearly triple the footprint of the existing offices in each location and can accommodate more than two times the current number of California employees over time. The new 22,000+ square foot Orange County office is located at 400 Spectrum Drive in Irvine in the heart of the region's rapidly growing technology center. The office is adjacent to the Spectrum shopping center and close to myriad housing choices nearby. The building is also close to the Irvine Transportation Center, which includes iShuttle services for commuters from the station to Irvine Spectrum. Showers, lockers and covered bicycle storage in the building enable outdoor fitness as well as easy commuting by bike. The new Silicon Valley office is located at 889 Winslow in Redwood City and encompasses 15,000+ square feet of office space. In close proximity to a Caltrain stop and adjacent to Middlefield Road restaurants and shops, the Redwood City office location also offers SendGrid employees a number of local conveniences within walking distance. Construction f the two new offices is in progress and the moves are currently scheduled for 2018. Designed to drive employee engagement and productivity, the new offices will mirror the look and feel of SendGrid's recently opened global headquarters in Denver. Similar to the Denver headquarters, the new offices will feature an open floor plan design and will incorporate feedback from employees on the layout of shared workspaces. In addition, branding elements that represent SendGrid's award-winning 4H culture will be present throughout the new spaces.



"The investment we made in these two new locations positions us to be more competitive and attractive to local talent as well as gives us a strategic presence in two major tech communities in California," said Pattie Money, Chief People Officer at SendGrid. "Our experience expanding new offices in Denver and London has affirmed that we can attract, engage and retain a robust talent pool, while bringing our Gridders together for the benefit of our customers." Founded in Boulder in 2009, SendGrid currently has over 400 employees spread across its Denver, Redwood City, Orange County and London locations.

About SendGrid:

SendGrid is a proven, cloud-based customer communication platform that drives engagement and business growth. A leader in email deliverability, SendGrid has sent over 30 billion emails each month for internet and mobile-based customers like Airbnb, Pandora, HubSpot, Spotify, Uber and Foursquare as well as more traditional enterprises like Intuit and Costco. For more information, visit www.sendgrid.com. Media Contact:

David Friedman

SendGrid

303-868-9641

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sendgrid-expands-presence-in-orange-county-and-silicon-valley-signs-leases-in-both-locations-to-triple-footprint-in-california-300489727.html SOURCE SendGrid

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BizVibe Predicts: China Will Dominate the Global Semiconductor Market in the Next 5 Years

The semiconductor market in China continues to grow at a staggering speed. The current backbone of the electronics and telecom industry in China, semiconductor companies in China are driving innovation with new trends like spending on wafer fab equipment. China's semiconductor consumption and overall semiconductor manufacturing has also seen rapid growth over the recent years. BizVibe predicts that China will overtake the US to become the leader in the global semiconductor market within the next five years.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006323/en/

BizVibe Predicts: China Will Dominate the Global Semiconductor Market in the Next 5 Years (Graphic: Business Wire)

Connect with China's top semiconductor companies here

BizVibe is home to over 55,000 Electronics & Telecoms cmpanies around the world, including many in China. In a recent article titled China Sets to Dominate the Global Semiconductor Market, BizVibe closely examines what is driving growth for the semiconductor market in China.







BizVibe notes that, over the last ten years, both China's semiconductor consumption and production revenues increased at a greater rate than worldwide revenues. From 2005 through 2015, China's semiconductor industry grew at a ten-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7%, while its semiconductor consumption grew at a rate of 14.3%, compared to the worldwide semiconductor market, which grew at a 4% CAGR.

One of the main reasons behind China's growing semiconductor sector is attributed to the country's rising wafer fab equipment spending trends over the last decade. Although China is expected to play an increasingly influential role in the global semiconductor market over the next few years, government incentives and market conditions still need improvement to allow for the further reduction in the consumption/production gap and long-range moderate growth.

Read the entire article here

BizVibe is home to over seven million companies across 700+ industries. Using BizVibe's platform, users can generate leads, shortlist prospects, network with businesses from around the world, and trade seamlessly. The BizVibe platform allows you to discover the highest quality leads and make meaningful connections with companies of interest, all in real-time. Claim your company profile for free and let BizVibe connect you with potential business partners. To make things as simple as possible, use the BizVibe Chatbot to create new business opportunities.

About BizVibe

The single-minded focus of BizVibe's platform is to make networking easier. Over the years, we've searched far and wide to figure out how businesses connect and enable trade. That first interaction is usually fraught with the uncertainty of finding a potential partner vs. a potential nightmare. With this in mind, we've designed a robust set of tools to help companies generate leads, shortlist prospects, network with businesses from around the world and trade seamlessly.

BizVibe is headquartered in Toronto, and has offices in London, Bangalore and Beijing. For more information on the BizVibe network, please contact us.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006323/en/
[July 18, 2017] Primerica Schedules Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results Webcast

Primerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI) announced today that it will hold a webcast on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the Company's results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017, as well as other business-related matters. The earnings news release announcing the second quarter 2017 financial results will be distributed on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, after the close of the market. The earnings news release, financial supplement and live webcast will be available on the Primerica Investors website at http://investors.primerica.com. A replay of the call will be available for approximately 30 days.



About Primerica, Inc. Primerica, Inc., headquartered in Duluth, GA, is a leading distributor of financial products to middle income households in North America. Primerica representatives educate their Main Street clients about how to better prepare for a more secure financial future by assessing their needs and providing appropriate solutions through term life insurance, which we underwrite, and mutual funds, annuities and other financial products, which we distribute primarily on behalf of third parties. In addition, Primerica provides an entrepreneurial full or part-time business opportunity for individuals seeking to earn income by distributing the company's financial products. We insured approximately 5 million lives and had over 2 million client investment accounts at December 31, 2016. Primerica stock is included in the S&P MidCap 400 and the Russell 2000 stock indices and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PRI".

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006329/en/

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[July 18, 2017] Quanterix Boosts Investments in its Accelerator Lab to Support Rapid Growth of Simoa Technology

Quanterix Corporation, a company digitizing biomarker analysis with the goal of advancing the science of precision health, today announced investments in Quanterix' state-of-the-art Simoa Accelerator Lab services, including the appointment of Dr. Daniel Sikkema, Ph.D., as Vice President of Accelerator Services. Quanterix' Simoa technology and its growing Accelerator Lab services are enabling biotechnology researchers, pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions to expand the limits of biomarker exploration and detection in multiple categories of therapeutic discovery and drug development. The Simoa Accelerator Lab is a dedicated environment for biomarker research, custom assay development and clinical sample testing. Since its launch in early 2014, it has been home to more than 320 completed projects, with over 60,000 samples tested for researchers from over 135 organizations that span a dozen countries across the world, including North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The state-of-the-art facility provides access to the Simoa technology, creating an innovation center where researchers can work side-by-side with Quanterix scientists to test samples with existing Simoa assays, or design, develop and optimize new assays. The Lab has partnered with 17 of the top 20 global biopharma companies, and since opening its doors, has more than tripled in size to accommodate demand. It has also expanded its capabilities, and is linked to Quanterix' manufacturing operations to enable rapid development of custom assay kits for customer projects, providing researchers with access to validated kits for assays that are not otherwise commercially available. Several additional investments are underway to support companion diagnostic projects using Simoa, including a new laboratory information management system (LIMS).



"We are aggressively investing in Simoa to realize its capability to detect and quantitate digital biomarkers that are capable of measuring life's key variables from health to disease," said Kevin Hrusovsky, Executive Chairman and CEO of Quanterix. "The Accelerator Lab provides scientists early access to Simoa and the ability to rapidly innovate assays potentially leading to new scientific discoveries. Investing in the Lab and naming a seasoned veteran in Dr. Sikkema to lead its build-out is a key step in unlocking Simoa's potential to impact medicine." Dr. Sikkema will work to expand the reach of Quanterix' Accelerator Lab services in neurology, oncology, immuno-oncology, infectious disease, inflammatory diseases and other therapeutic areas. With an extensive background in bioanalytical discovery, Dr. Sikkema will support customers in drug development research, building on the bench of research already produced by the Lab, with six peer-reviewed scientific journals published in 2016 alone.

"Quanterix' Simoa technology has the potential to enable precision health, and I am thrilled to join the company," said Dr. Sikkema. "I look forward to driving meaningful advancements in therapeutic discovery and drug development. The Lab provides researchers with cost-effective, early access to Simoa's cutting-edge capabilities." Dr. Sikkema brings 25 years' experience in the biopharmaceutical, vaccine and cell/gene therapy fields supporting oncology, neurosciences, respiratory, immunology and infectious disease. He has worked at Frontage Lab, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Wyeth, Merck, Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline. In his career, he has contributed to the licensure of Prev(e)nar, Meningitec, Gardasil, Rotavax, ProQuad, Zostavax, and Dengue vaccines, as well as Ofatumumab, Raxibacumab, Benlysta, Albiglutide, Mepolizumab, Denosumab, Abatacept, and other biopharmaceuticals, as well as Strimvelis (the world's first ex vivo cell/gene therapy product), which have collectively garnered more than $100 billion in sales since 1999. He has also worked with the World Health Organization, National Institute for Biological Standards and Controls (NIBSC), US Centers for Disease Control, FDA and EMA (News - Alert) in roles as an invited expert and as an advisor. He has authored 30 peer-reviewed publications and has delivered more than 70 public presentations globally at scientific symposia. About Quanterix

Quanterix is a company that is digitizing biomarker analysis with the goal of advancing the science of precision health. The company's digital health solution, Simoa, has the potential to change the way in which healthcare is provided today by giving researchers the ability to closely examine the continuum from health to disease. Quanterix' technology is designed to enable much earlier disease detection, better prognosis and enhanced treatment methods to improve the quality of life and longevity of the population for generations to come. The technology is currently being used for research applications in several therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease. The company was established in 2007 and is located in Lexington, Massachusetts. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718006388/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.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court will commence hearing from tomorrow to decide if the contentious issue of right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution.

Hours after referring the matter to a larger bench, the apex court today set up the nine-judge bench to be headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

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It will also comprise Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by the CJI, which was to deal with pleas challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the right to privacy attached to it, was faced with the two past verdicts, delivered in 1950 and 1962 by larger benches, holding that the privacy right was not a fundamental right.

The apex court said the nine-judge bench would deal with the limited issue of right to privacy and the correctness of the two judgements. The matter challenging the Aadhaar scheme would be then referred back to a smaller bench, it said.

"During the course of the hearing today, it seems that it has become essential for us to determine whether there is any fundamental right of privacy under the Indian Constitution," the bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer, said.

"The determination of this question will essentially entail whether the decision recorded by this court in M P Sharma and Ors vs. Satish Chandra, District Magistrate, Delhi and Ors. (of 1950) by an eight-judge Constitution bench, and also, in Kharak Singh vs. the State of UP and Ors. (of 1962) by a six-judge Constitution bench, that there is no such fundamental right, is the correct expression of the constitutional position," it said in its order.

The court asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the Centre, and other senior advocates, including Arvind Datar, Shyam Divan, Gopal Subramanium and Anand Grover, who appeared for petitioners opposed to the Aadhaar scheme, to submit their written briefs in the meantime.

At the outset, Venugopal reiterated the arguments of his predecessor Mukul Rohatgi that there have been inconsistent views so far as judicial pronouncements on right to privacy was concerned.

He said the apex court in M P Sharma and Kharak Singh cases have held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right and later, the smaller benches have said that it was a fundamental right.

Venugopal also said that the right to privacy is not a fundamental right and rather it is common law right which is not recognised by the Constitution.

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One of the counsel for petitioners termed as "regressive" the stand of the Centre that the right to privacy was common law right and not a part of fundamental right under the Constitution.

The apex court, initially, referred to the 1978 judgement in the Maneka Gandhi case and said that there was no need to revisit the judgements in Kharak Singh and M P Sharma cases on right to privacy.

A three-judge bench had in 2015 referred to a larger bench a batch of pleas, including the one filed by Justice (retd) K S Puttaswamy, challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the aspect of right to privacy attached to it.

The apex court had agreed to set up a bench on July 12 to deal with the Aadhaar-related matters after the attorney general and senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for petitioners, had jointly mentioned the matter.

The petitioners had claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the scheme, was a breach of the "fundamental" right to privacy.

Allowing the Centres plea, the court had framed various questions, including as to whether right to privacy was a fundamental right, to be decided by a Constitution bench.

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"If yes, then what would be contours of right to privacy," the bench had said while referring the matter to the then CJI for setting up a larger bench.

At an earlier hearing, then AG Rohatgi, while backing the Aadhaar card scheme, had contended that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

"No judgment explicitly cites right to privacy as a fundamental right. It is not there under the letters of Article 21 either. If this court feels that there must be clarity on this subject, only a Constitution bench can decide," Rohatgi had said.

He had cited the two judgements, pronounced by six and eight-judge benches, which had held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

Subsequently, smaller benches had held a contrary view and, hence the matter needed to be decided by a larger bench, he had said.

"Whether right to privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India, in the light of express ratio to the contrary by an eight-judge bench in M P Sharma case and also by a six-judge bench of this court in Kharak Singhs case has to be decided," Rohtagi had said. PTI SJK MNL ABA UK RKS SC

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Burns & McDonnell Adds 20 Partners To Its KCI Team From the "KC Built. KC Pride." banners to the backdrop of the downtown skyline to the sprinkle of reps wearing Love KC shirts, Burns & McDonnell portrayed itself as the true hometown team during its KCI announcement Tuesday morning. The firm revealed 20 locally owned and operated businesses that it will take on as partners for its single-terminal KCI proposal.

Newsies claim this isbut this local company has always had the inside track at City Hall and now they attempt to cut the rest of Kansas City in on the deal that will garner the company millions. Here's today's press event that's mostly unquestioned by local newsies:
CATCHES SUPPORTERS OF THE NEW AIRPORT IN A LIE

"For months weve been told by the mayor, Council lady Jolie Justus and others that larger planes dont fit at KCI. Yesterday, an old L-1011 jumbo jet came to KCI to be retired. This beast taxied right up to Terminal A and parked."

Fox4 MSM confirmation: Jumbo jet arrives at KCI to serve as STEM classroom for students

An importantand note from theof our blog community. . . Which has happened again and again in this big money effort pirate revenue for some of the most powerful corporations in town.Here's the word:You decide . . .
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Police are investigating after a man was found dead on the ground in Kansas City, Kansas. According to a release from KCK police, officers were called at 3:06 p.m. Sunday to the 1200 Block of Everett Avenue. The man was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound.
'The Daily': Kris Kobach's Quest Against Voter Fraud We call Elaine Bowers, a Republican state senator in Kansas, to discuss voting legislation her state. Background reading: * A secretaries of state meeting used to be friendly. Then the White House asked for voter data. * How Mr. Kobach plans to remake America through restrictive voting and immigration laws.

The nation's paper of record dedicates quite a bit of resources to challenging this Kansas politico and his quest to earn the highest dead end job in the Sunflower State. Take a listen:
Kobach under investigation by Kansas Supreme Court's disciplinary office Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is being investigated by a Kansas Supreme Court disciplinary office, according to a new report. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the disciplinary office received a complaint from Keri Strahler, a student at Washburn University. The complaint accused Kobach of showing a "lack of respect for the courts."

The reality is that most establishment Republicans don't like this guy because of his penchant for headlines, bold statements and consultant work off the reservation. Here's an example of that and an opportunity for a moderate Republican to jump ahead in line. Take a look:
Kansas City Captivity Justification

Like The Rest Of Us, Animals At The Kansas City Zoo Enjoy Cold Treats In The Summer Misting fans, chilled pools, ice treats and air conditioning. It's what a lot of people turn to in the summer in Kansas City - and so do the caretakers of the animals at the Kansas City Zoo. During the summer months, many of the animals are more active in the mornings when it's cooler.

Fear Meth Trickery

Multiple people fall victim to Federal Reserve routing number scam in Independence The City of Independence is issuing a warning - multiple people have fallen victim to a scam involving Federal Reserve routing numbers and bill payments. The city says a citizen may receive a letter, e-mail, or video that asks them to pay a fee to use their social security number and a Federal Reserve Bank Routing number to pay bills from a trust.

Kansas City Justice

Kansas City Man Gets Prison For Killing Woman KANSAS CITY, MO - A Kansas City, Kansas man must spend 28 years behind bars for killing a woman in a Missouri apartment. Derrick Williams, 32, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, a pair of first-degree assault counts and three armed criminal action counts.

Southland Infrastructure Busted

Crews work to make repairs after gas line is cut near Santa Fe Trail Drive south of 95th Street LENEXA, Kan. -- Firefighters and police officers in Lenexa were dispatched to the area near Santa Fe Trail Drive, south of 95th Street Monday around 12:39 p.m. after a gas line in the area was cut. According to a tweet from the police department, some roads in the area are closed while crews work to make repairs.

Kansas City Creative Class Report

Heidi Van and Shea Ketchum - a Fringe veteran and a first-timer at the 13th annual fest - share a common goal: make winning theater Talk to any Fringe Festival fan and you're likely to hear a casino metaphor before long. Kansas City's annual 11-day festival of theater, dance, film and visual art requires a gambler's spirit. Audience members bet blind on brand-new works. They roll the dice every time they buy a ticket for one of hundreds of festival performances.

This evening we celebratealong with all of these local links . . .And this is thefor tonight . . .
By PTI: vote tomorrow

(With fresh inputs)

Kohima, Jul 18 (PTI) Embattled Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu will tomorrow face a floor test at a special session of the state assembly after the Gauhati High Court today dismissed his plea to stay the Governors directive to him to seek a trust vote.

Governor P B Acharya today directed Speaker Imtiwapang to summon an emergent special session of the state assembly at 9.30 am for the chief minister, who is facing a rebellion from his party MLAs, to seek the confidence vote.

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Justice L M Jamir, judge of Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court, had dismissed earlier in the day a writ petition filed by Liezietsu, pleading for a stay on the governors directive to him to seek a vote of confidence in the assembly by July 15. The court while stating there was no merit in the petition vacated its interim order staying the directive and left the matter to the discretion of the governor. ?This court is of the considered opinion that the governor had taken the right decision to ask the petitioner (Liezietsu) to seek a vote of confidence in the floor of the House to see which out of the two contesting claimants of chief ministership has a majority in the House,? the court observed.

The court also maintained that it has no reasons to interfere with the governor?s letter to the chief minister on the matter.

Dismissing the petition, the court said, "The matter is left to the wisdom of the governor to take a decision on the same after proper application of mind."

The chief minister had filed the petition on July 14 and the court had issued an interim order staying the governors directive till yesterday so that the matter could be taken up for hearing.

Acharya had on July 11 and July 13 directed Liezietsu, who is facing rebellion by 43 ruling Naga Peoples Front MLAs led by former chief minister T R Zeliang demanding change of leadership in the present house of 59, to seek vote of confidence on or before July 15.

Zeliang, who was forced out of office in February following large scale protests over holding of urban local bodies election with 33 per cent reservation for women, had staked claim to form the government saying he had majority support in the House.

Meanwhile, four BJP legislators and Nagaland BJP president Visasolie Lhoungu today called on the governor and submitted a letter supporting T R Zeliang.

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BJP is a pre-poll alliance partner of the Naga Peoples Front and a constituent of the Democratic Aalliance of Nagaland (DAN) government in the state.

The legislators in their letter to the governor said, "BJP has been a constituent of the DAN and continues to remain a part of the arrangement till date."

However, they said that in the present political crisis in the state government, the BJP has decided to be with the DAN group led by Zeliang.

The four BJP legislators are Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, Paiwang Konyak, Advisor for Treasury and Accounts, Labour and Employment T M Lotha, Advisor for Cooperation Imtilemba Sangtam and MLA and Chief Whip of BJP Mmhonlumo Kikon. PTI NBS KK RG GSN SK SK

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Oman's Port of Salalah plans to add a dedicated jetty for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports as part of its infrastructure enhancements, said a senior official of the port.



The new jetty, designed to support the export of LPG from a new LPG extraction plant under development at the adjoining Salalah Free Zone, will underpin the ports evolution into a global hub that will serve a diverse variety of product and cargo streams, Ahmed Akaak, deputy CEO, Port of Salalah, was quoted as saying in an Oman Daily Observer report.



He said that this jetty will definitely add value to Salalah as it becomes a multipurpose port.



Akaak added that the organisation are setting up another component to its liquid facilities which will provide significant returns, not only to the port, but to the country as well.



The official made the comments at last weeks sign-off ceremony at which agreements were signed with various stakeholders for the implementation of the sultanates first LPG extraction plant at Salalah Free Zone, with related storage and export facilities to be built at the nearby Port of Salalah.



The $826 million LPG extraction plant and support infrastructure is being implemented by Salalah LPG SFZCO, wholly owned by Oman Gas Company  part of Oman Oil Group.



The LPG export jetty will be an integral part of a liquid hub currently under development as part of the new general cargo terminal project being implemented at the port, added the report.
GCC is leading the greenfield projects and refinery expansion drive in the Middle East with 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) of new refining capacity expected online by 2021, a report said.



The new capacity will be dominated by the two major additions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as clean fuel projects in the region, added the July edition of Apicorp Energy Research.



They will adhere to stringent European requirements for cleaner fuels, and will thus provide GCC refineries with a competitive edge in a tough market.



At the same time, these refinery additions are changing global trade flows, with the region exporting more refined products, particularly to Europe. As global capacity rises and fuel standards improve, competition will become more intense meaning a more uncertain outlook awaits the regions refineries.



The GCC refining sector has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, mainly driven by significant government investments during a period of high oil prices. Governments have prioritised the expansion of the downstream sector for several reasons.



First, the region has witnessed rapidly rising demand for gasoline and diesel in the transportation sector, as well as diesel and fuel oil in the power sectors of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Second, governments are seeking to diversify away from crude exports towards more specialised refined products.



Third, they are also committing to create more value in their economies by integrating the crude, refining and petrochemical industries.



Refinery additions have shifted trade flows



Of the recent 1.2 mbpd of additional capacity, diesel represents over half, while gasoline and jet fuel output stood at around 350,000 bpd and 140,000 bpd. These additions have had a measurable impact on trade flows, particularly in the diesel market. Prior to the recent ramp ups, Kuwait and Bahrain had been the only two net diesel exporters in the region. As for gasoline, refineries in GCC countries were built to meet domestic demand.



As a result, Saudi Arabia has become a net exporter of diesel, with cargos competing in the European market. Thanks to the GCC region's geographical position between Europe and Asia, its refineries have turned into competitors to their Asian counterparts, especially in the overcrowded diesel segment. For example, Saudi Arabia had historically been a net importer until 2014; however, by 2016, the country had evolved into a net exporter of over 300,000 bpd.



This surge in diesel exports is attributed to the mainly diesel-oriented refineries that were recently built and geared towards increasing production in anticipation of rising demand in Asia, particularly China. As for gasoline, Saudi Arabia became a marginal net exporter of gasoline in 2016 after historically having been a net importer. In 2016, the kingdom exported 5,000 b/d, coming from an average net import level of 55,000 bpd and 60,000 bpd in 2015 and 2014.



Second wave of expansion in the GCC region



Despite the oil price collapse since mid-2014, the region is still seeing significant investments in its refining sector. The main additions that came online in the past 12 months were condensate splitters in Qatar and Iran, which are geared towards producing gasoline and naphtha. In 2016, the Ras Laffan 2 condensate splitter added approximately 150,000 b/d of capacity.



This will reduce the countrys condensate exports from 500,000 bpd to 350,000 bpd, allowing the country to refine domestically before exporting. The splitter will mainly produce naphtha (60,000 bpd) and jet fuel (53,000 bpd), with the remaining being small amounts of gasoline and LPG.



In the period 2017-21, the region will continue its expansion plans with the 600,000 bpd Al Zour refinery in Kuwait and the 400,000 bpd Jazan project in Saudi Arabia being the major additions. The Jazan refinery is expected to commence operation in 2018-19 while the Al Zour refinery is expected towards the end of the decade. The rest of the additions will come from the Duqm refinery and the Sohar expansion in Oman.



The 230,000 bpd Duqm refinery -a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (now merged with Mubadala) -is likely to come online in 2020. In addition, Bahrain's plans to expand the Sitra Refinery, which aim to add 100,000 bpd to the existing 260,000 bpd, are ongoing. In total, the GCC countries are expected add 1.5 mbpd of refining capacity between 2017-21, although the recent shutdown of the 200,000 bpd Shuaiba refinery in Kuwait means that net additions in the medium term will be 1.3 mbpd.



Uncertain longer-term outlook



The surge in refining capacity in the past decade was mainly a response to rising domestic demand but also an effort to diversify away from crude exports and integrate the crude, refining, and petrochemical industries. It is also having an impact on trade flows. The year 2016 marked a milestone for the GCC region as it became a net exporter of all refined products, although a marginal exporter of gasoline. On the other hand, diesel exports are expected to lead the way, having reached over 500,000 bpd in 2016, up from 310,000 bpd in 2015.



The slowdown in economic activity and the limited price reforms that were introduced in early 2016 have already impacted demand growth in the region, with diesel demand in Saudi Arabia hit particularly hard. Further price reform will likely have a more significant impact on domestic demand, possibly freeing up more refined products for exports.



In the medium term, there are plans to further increase refining capacity, but the outlook beyond 2021 is less certain. The Al-Zour project in Kuwait as well as the Sitra expansion programme faced financing challenges which caused delay for several years, before finally reaching financial closure. On the other hand, tough competition in the products market and weakening demand is putting further pressure on the refining industry.



The recently commissioned projects, as well as the ones expected online in the next five years, are in the process of turning the region into a leading hub for exports of refined products. As elsewhere, the new refineries in the Middle East have been configured mainly to produce diesel to cater for the anticipated increase of diesel demand from Asia, particularly from China.



However, Chinas economic rebalancing away from manufacturing towards consumer goods and services has changed demand patterns within the country: diesel demand, related to heavy industry and transport of goods, is flat-lining, while gasoline demand related to personal transportation continues to grow.



This has turned China into a net exporter of diesel. With US exports of distillates surging to record levels, Russia upgrading its refineries to produce more distillates, and Indian refineries ramping up their production, the competition in the products market, particularly in the diesel segment, has become more intense.



However, GCC export-oriented refineries might stand to benefit from the recent International Maritime Organisation rules which would alter demand patterns as fuel oil is replaced by diesel in 2020.  TradeArabia News Service
The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) expects to welcome more than 1.5 million visitors and tourists to the Jeddah Summer Festival events this year.

Over 50,000 visitors are expected to visit daily to the shopping malls and establishments participating in the festival, which opened on July 9, a statement said. The festival will run throughout the month.

The festival is likely to generate nearly SR2 billion ($533.29 million) for the business community in the city, said the statement issued following the preparatory meetings held by JCCI to properly organise the festival.

The chamber has formed professional teams to monitor the events this year, market it and announce major sponsorships and offers across the commercial centres as well as to follow up on draws and prizes.

Mohamed Iqbal Alawi, CEO of Red Sea Markets Company and chairman of Shopping Centers Committee, Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: Last year KSA increased its retail sales by 6.4 percent reaching up to SR361.14 billion, according to AT Kearneys Global Retail Development Index, and total retail space increased by 5.6 percent to 2.1 million sq m. Accordingly, we are expecting an increase of 3 per cent to 4 per cent at least on this year, due to variety of events.

The Red Sea Mall will offer many prizes, including a draw on deluxe cars. It will also be offering 50,000 electronic coupons through participation in a e-coupon programme. TradeArabia News Service
International Restructuring Firm Caissa Capital Launched

Grant Lyon, Craig Hansen and Peter Kaufman announced they have partnered to form Caissa Capital, LLC, (Caissa), a venture aimed at providing, in one entity, senior-level workout, financial restructuring and legal services.

Caissa will target large, complex capital stack situations in international markets in both sovereign and corporate debt matters. Caissa will partner with top international law firms, as the need arises, to ensure clients receive the maximum value of professional services in the most efficient manner. While prepared to represent all levels of the capital structure in any given situation, Caissa will aim primarily to serve clients with junior debt and/or equity investments in international markets.

Caissa is currently in discussions to take over management of foreign private equity and hedge fund distressed portfolios, with a goal of maximizing value.

Lyon, formerly a Managing Director at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance and Krys Global USA, was most recently the primary financial advisor to the Bahamian government in the successful restructuring of the Baha Mar resort, which involved more than US$4 billion of debt. "Caissa's formation is very exciting for me. We have already sourced significant international opportunities and, through Peter, we will enjoy a significant relationship with the investment bank Gordian Group, LLC, Lyon commented.

Hansen, formerly a senior partner in the restructuring group of the international law firm of Squire Patton Boggs, who has over the last 35 years played an active role in restructuring more than US$50 billion in debt said, "This is a dream come true for me. Grant, Peter and I are bound together by, collectively, more years than we want to acknowledge of common personal and professional relationships, and intend to create huge success for our clients and thus for Caissa. There is significant investment and referral interest in Caissa even before its formation, which is pleasing and humbling." Hansen is an internationally known restructuring attorney and a long-time Fellow in the prestigious American College of Bankruptcy.

Kaufman remains President, and Head of Restructuring and Distressed M&A, at Gordian Group, LLC. Gordian is perhaps the leading investment bank focused solely on financial and capital structure matters that are distressed, complex or story, and is well-known for its unique expertise in achieving outsized results for junior constituencies/old equity both through financial restructurings and M&A activities.



Kaufman noted, My partners, colleagues and I relish the chance to work with Grant and Craig on the mandates that we expect to come Caissas way. Gordian will be devoting our substantial resources to support Caissa, and we look forward to building upon our firm's 30 year track record of success with Grant and Craig".

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ON THE MOVE: ITG, BTIG Add Staff; CS Loses Global Equities Chief

ITG hired Tom Cesare as a Director on its U.S. Electronic sales team in New York. Cesare, a 20-year industry veteran, served most recently at JP Morgan as Executive Director on the Prime Services sales team. At JP Morgan, Cesare also held electronic sales roles within the Execution Services division across Equities, Futures and Options. Prior to JPMorgan, he held a number of positions in electronic sales, trading and operations at firms including FTEN, HSBC Securities and Credit Suisse Group.

If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at jdantona@marketsmedia.com

BTIG announced that Sung Ji Nam has joined the firms Equity Research team as a Director. Based in BTIGs New York office, she will provide coverage of the life science and diagnostic tools sector. Nam has more than ten years of experience conducting life science and diagnostic tools equity research. Prior to joining BTIG, she was a Senior Analyst at Avondale Partners. She held similar roles at Cantor Fitzgerald and Gleacher & Company. Nam began her equity research career at JP Morgan, covering life science tools, diagnostics, small to mid-cap medical technology, and pharmaceutical services companies.

In Europe, BTIG Limited, the European affiliate of BTIG, expanded its Outsource Trading capabilities with the appointment of Balraj Raj Briah. He joins as a Managing Director and Head of European Outsource Trading in London. Prior to BTIG, he was a Senior Equities Trader within the Outsource Sales and Trading Group at CF Global. Previously, Briah was Head of Middle Markets Sales Trading at Citigroup. He held similar roles within the Equity, Cash and Portfolio Trading Groups at Nomura and The Bank of New York. Briah began his career on the buy side as a Global Equity Trader at Deephaven Capital and M&G Investments.

Credit Suisse has parted ways with its global head of equities, Mike Paliotta. At Credit Suisse, he was a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Investment Banking division, based in New York. He also served as the firms Global Head of Prime Services. Prior, Paliotta served as Co-Head of Equities Americas. He joined Credit Suisse in November 2000 when the Bank merged with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he was a Director in the Institutional Equities group. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at Neuberger Berman and had also worked at Spears, Benzak, Salomon and Farrell.

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Anil Kapoor has collaborated with the makers of Modern Family for the Hindi remake.

By India Today Web Desk: Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor recently confirmed that the Hindi remake of the popular sitcom Modern Family will go on floor next year. The actor who was earlier seen in the Indian remake of the popular series 24, is planning for its third in third installment.

The 60-year-old actor has teamed up with the makers of Modern Family for the Hindi remake. "We are working on it (Modern Family). The contracts are all done and everything is on paper now. We will lock everything this year and start the shoot next year. Also, season three of 24 will be made. The plans are on," Anil told to Indian Express.

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The second season of Anil Kapoor's 24 premiered in July, 2016 and aired its last episode in October 2016.

Anil Kapoor's will soon be seen in Mubarakan with nephew Arjun Kapoor.

Modern Family is a popular American sitcom that revolves around the lives of three families, who are co-related and their hilarious ways to deal with their daily situations.

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Karishma Tanna and Upen Patel had met each other in the Bigg Boss house.

By India Today Web Desk: Former lovebirds and celebrities Karishma Tanna and Upen Patel have had quite a ride together as a couple. From going all mushy on each other on social media to attacking each other on the same sites, they seem to have done it all.

According to Mid-day's latest report, both Karishma and Upen were invited to a celebrity manager's birthday bash recently. However, they were photographed separately by the media. Well, we aren't that surprised, to be honest.

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Looks like they have decided to take a good, long break from each other.

The former couple came close in the Bigg Boss house and also participated in celebrity dance reality show Nach Baliye as a couple. Things didn't work out and they broke up in May last year.

Also read: Upen Patel attacks ex-girlfriend Karishma Tanna in Twitter rant

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Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 18

Nearly two weeks after the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside their appointments, the four BJP MLAs appointed as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, on Tuesday submitted their resignations to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Khattars office confirmed that CPSs Shyam Singh Rana, Kamal Gupta, Bakshish Singh Virk and Seema Trikha had stepped down from their positions.

Their resignation comes despite the fact that the court had granted them three weeks time to file an appeal.

Sources said that this development has fast-tracked the possibility of a reshuffle in the Khattar government as the four could be accommodated as chairpersons of various boards and corporations in the coming weeks.

Sources said that Khattar could also rejig his Cabinet which, presently, has no vacancies.

However, like the last reshuffle, there is a possibility that non-performers could be dropped or new faces could be accommodated to maintain the caste equations.

The likely reshuffle, fallout of the stepping down of the CPSs, would be significant since Haryana could go in for elections before its term ends in October 2019.

Indications are that the assembly elections in Haryana will be held alongwith the parliamentary elections.

Chief Minister Khattar, speaking to The Tribune, said that he is ready for election as and when these are announced.

If the Centre so indicates, we are ready for assembly elections being held alongside parliamentary elections, he said.

It maybe recalled that the petition filed in the court maintained that there was no provision for chief parliamentary secretaries under the Constitution and their appointment by the state was burden on the exchequer.
Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 18

Villagers attacked power nigam officials at nigam office in Sampla town of the district on Tuesday. Residents of Gandhra and Atayal villages had come to the local office of the nigam to lodge their complaint against non-supply of electricity to their villages.

The villagers reportedly resorted to violence and created a ruckus as their grievance was not redressed. An SDO and some other officials of the nigam were assaulted. The police was then called and the injured were hospitalised.

UHBVN Superintending Engineer SK Bansal said the residents had come to lodge their complaint for erratic power supply to their villages due to some technical fault and the matter was being addressed.

However, they assaulted nigam officials, for which a complaint has been lodged with the police.

The police have registered a case against five persons by name and 100-150 others on the basis of the complaint lodged by nigam officials.

Meanwhile, villagers attacked a team of power officials at Kheri Meham village in the district and also damaged their vehicle. As the team members reached the house of one Subhash and started examining his electricity meter, several villagers attacked them and damaged their vehicle by throwing stones at it.

The nigam officials lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. Certain residents have been named in the complaint while several other unidentified persons have also been included in it.
Jammu, July 18

Braving Pakistani shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC), authorities in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday evacuated 217 students and 15 teachers from three schools where they were trapped for over six hours.

All the schools in Nowshera and Manjakote sectors of Rajouri district have been closed for an indefinite period in view of repeated firing and shelling by the Pakistani Army, officials said here.

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Villages like Kalsian, Sair, Bahwani, Namb and Jhangar, which are close to the LoC, have been bearing the brunt of the Pakistani shelling, the officials said.

Altogether 217 students were rescued from three schools, according to Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.

Officials said 15 teachers were also evacuated by the police and civic authorities.

They were evacuated in bullet-proof vehicles and three buses, they said.

From the Government High School, Bhawani, 150 students were shifted while 12 trapped students were evacuated from Middle School, Kaladi, the officials said.

The team of rescuers had a narrow escape in Bhawani as they came under heavy shelling, with shells landing a few meters away from the school.

Likewise, 55 students and teachers of Government High School in Sair had a narrow escape as the building came under direct hit of shells, damaging its large portion, they said.

The students and teachers were rescued amid heavy shelling, they said.

More than 150 students have been shifted to camps while other students were handed over to parents.  PTI
The suspects includes a youth named Wilson Singh, who was rescued from the house in after he was found wounded.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Three days after the possible murder of an Indian student Atif Sheikh, his father has filed a case in Chittagong. Atif's father Abdul Khalek filed the case with Akbar Shah Police Station on Tuesday afternoon.

"Khalek has kept eight people in the list of suspects, without accusing one specific person," said Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Alamgir.

The suspects includes a youth named Wilson Singh, who was rescued from the house after he was found wounded. Three other Indian students and two Bangladeshi students, including the resident of the house, Niraj Guru and his wife are suspects too.

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Sheikh was declared dead by the Chittagong Medical College Hospital after he and Singh were admitted to the hospital. The incident happened on the fifth floor of a 6-storey building on Abdul Hamid Road under Akbar Shah Police Station on Friday night.

The deceased Atif was a resident of Manipur.

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Srinagar, July 18

Militants fired at a former village head in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district on Tuesday, police said.

"Militants fired at Nazir Ahmad Shah resident of Panzath (Qazigund). He is affiliated with the National Conference," the police said.

"He has been hospitalised and doctors have described his condition as stable." IANS
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 18

Two unidentified militants were killed in a gunfight as the Army foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez sector of Bandipore district.

A group of militants was intercepted by soldiers close to the Line of Control in Gurez sector, some 180 kms from here, during the intervening night of Monday.

"As militants were challenged, they opened fire, triggering a gunfight. The exchange of fire continued till the wee hours. During the search operation, two bodies of militants were recovered and three weapons were also recovered," defence sources said, adding that the combing operation was still underway.

This year, over 100 militants have been killed by the forces in hinterland and along the LoC, which was highest in last 10 years.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar/Rajouri, July 18

Two Indian Army jawans were killed and another injured as Pakistani troops pounded several places along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. The Army foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez sector and gunned down two militants.

A soldier was killed when Pakistani troops fired few sniper shots near LoC in north Kashmirs Nowgam sector in Kupwara district.

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The identity of the slain soldier was yet to be ascertained.

One more soldier, Sepoy Jaspreet Singh, was killed in LoC shelling in Rajouri.

Sepoy Jaspreet Singh (24), belonged to Talwandi Naliyan village in Moga district of Punjab. He is survived by his parents.

Meanwhile, two unidentified militant were killed in a gunfight as Army foiled infiltration bid in Gurez sector of Bandipore district.

A group of militants was intercepted by soldiers close to the Line of Control in Gurez sector, some 180 km from Srinagar, during the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

"As militants were challenged, they opened fire triggering a gunfight. During the search operation, body of two militants was recovered and besides three weapons, defence sources said.

The combing operation was underway till the last reports.

They said Army suspected that more militants may have been killed during the gunfight.

This year over 100 militants have been killed by the forces in hinterland and along the LoC, which is highest in this period in last 10 years.  With agencies
Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 17

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has shot a letter to the Punjab Medical Council (PMC) asking it to take action against the negligent doctor in the case, where a city resident, Pulkit Kapoor, lost her newborn child.

Rupa Kapoor member of NCPCR in the letter written to PMC president Dr AS Sekhon said: The Civil Surgeon was asked to conduct an inquiry into Pulkit Kapoor case and the inquiry report was sent to the Indian Medical Association and Punjab Medical Council for taking necessary action. The Civil Surgeon clearly mentions that Dr Pratibha Handa should have conducted the pelvic examination. In the meantime, the meconium passed by the baby could have been detected and if the baby would have been referred in an equipped ambulance, the condition of the baby could have been better.

The commission has thus directed the PMC to send an action-taken report against the doctor, whose negligence has been proved in the case, along with the copy of the complainants statement to the commission within 10 days of the receipt of the letter.

The copy of the letter has also been sent to the national president of IMA.

Earlier, the PMC had given a show-cause notice to four doctors  Dr Pratibha Handa, Dr Pardeep Handa, Dr Suneet Karhuria and Dr Kamal Arora asking them to submit the reply along with the registration copy of the hospital.

The case

A patient Pulkit was admitted to Handa Hospital on July 26, 2016, after she started having labour pain. She alleged that she was admitted to the hospital at 1pm, but Dr Pratibha Handa (she was consulting Dr Pratibha throughout her pregnancy) came to see her at 4:30 pm only. The doctor then came to see her at 10:30 pm and after examination said the baby was in distress and an emergency caesarean operation had to be done. At 11 pm after the operation, the parents were told that the baby needs to be shifted to DMCH as he was in a critical condition. The baby was shifted to DMCH in a car with the help of a ward boy at 12:15 am. When the baby reached DMCH, he had turned blue due to lack of oxygen and the doctor on duty said endotracheal tube, which was inserted in the windpipe, was blocked which complicated the things further. The baby was put on ventilator but could not survive.

What parents want

Pulkit Kapoor and Karan Kapoor, parents of the deceased baby, want strict action against the erring doctors. A precious life was lost due to the negligence of the doctors. What was our mistake and what was our childs mistake? asked the hapless parents, whose first child died due to the alleged negligence of doctors.
Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

Do citizens have a fundamental right to privacy? A Five-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of of India JS Khehar on Tuesday referred the issue to a Nine-Judge Constitution Bench for an authoritative determination.

Commencing its hearing on Wednesday, the Nine-Judge Bench will review the top court's earlier verdicts that said citizens didn't have a fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution.

An Eight-Judge Constitution Bench had in MP Sharma's case in 1954 ruled that citizens didn't have a fundamental right to privacy. The ruling was followed by a six-Judge Bench in Kharak Singh's case in 1962.

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There was a huge uproar in July 2015 when then Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi  based on these two verdicts  said Constitution didn't give any fundamental right to privacy to citizens.

On Tuesday, a Five-Judge Constitution Bench headed by CJI Khehar said the issue needed to be determined before it decided petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar scheme on the ground it violated right to privacy.

"It has become essential for us to determine whether right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution," the CJI said.

"The determination of this question would essentially entail whether the decision recorded by an eight-judge bench in 1954 and also by a six-judge bench in 1962 that there is no such fundamental right is the correct expression of constitutional provisions," the Bench noted.

It said after the Centre's submission that right to privacy was not a fundamental right it had become necessary to send it to a larger Bench.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Attorney General KK Venugopal said, "Our founding fathers have encompassed all rights. But consciously this (right to privacy) is omitted."

Justice J Chelameswar  who was part of the Five-Judge Bench  countered him saying "It is illogical to argue that our constitution is devoid of right to privacy while common law identifies it. Textually it is correct today that there is no right to privacy in the Constitution. But even freedom of press is not expressly stated. This court has interpreted it," Justice Chelameswar said, highlighting the need to re-export its earlier verdicts on the issue.

"One can't overlook the constant view held by smaller benches in their later judgements holding right to privacy is a fundamental right," Justice Chelameswar went on.

Several petitioners, including former Karnataka High Court Judge K Puttaswamy, have challenged the governments ambitious Aadhaar scheme on the ground that the biometric details taken from individuals violated their right to privacy.

A three-judge Bench had in August 2015 referred the issue to the CJI for setting up of a Constitution Bench to decide the issue of right to privacy.

A vacation Bench had on June 27 refused to pass an interim order against the Centres notification making Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes after the government assured that no one would be deprived of their due for want of this identification.

Another Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri had on June 9 upheld the validity of a provision of the Income Tax Act that mandated linking of Aadhaar number with PAN for filing IT return from July 1, 2017, saying Parliament was competent to enact such a law.

However, it had read down a part of Section 139AA  added to the Income Tax Act by the Finance Act, 2017  to save those who dont have the unique identification number until the main challenge to the Aadhaar law on the basis of right to privacy was decided by a Constitution Bench.

Earlier, the apex court had passed a slew of orders asking the government and its agencies not to make Aadhaar mandatory for extending benefits of their welfare schemes.

However, it had allowed the Centre to seek Aadhaar voluntarily from citizens for extending benefits of schemes such as LPG subsidy, Jan Dhan scheme and Public Distribution System.
Vibha Sharma and Ravi S. Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati on Tuesday tendered her resignation as a Rajya Sabha member, hours after the Chair asked her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur of Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati met Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari this evening and handed over her resignation letter.

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I met the chairman to hand over my resignation letter. It is not good that I cannot speak in the House on issues close to me... When I got up to speak, the government did not allow me to complete. Their members stood up and interfered. It is not good, she said after resigning.

While accusing the ruling BJP of discrimination against Dalits, she also termed as just dramatics its decision to nominate Ram Nath Kovinda Dalitfor the post of the President

The BJP, meanwhile, dismissed as pure politics her action, given that her Rajya Sabha term was in any case ending in April.

Senior leaders Mukhtar Abaas Naqvi and Bhupendra Yadav attributed Mayawatis anger to the depression of her defeat in Uttar Pradesh, where she lost badly to the BJP.

The government is ready for any discussion, Opposition leaders know it well, Yadav said.

His Rajya Sabha colleague Shwait Malik termed Mayawatis angry behaviour in the House as pure politicsan act of desperation by someone trying to reclaim the lost vote base in UP.

Sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said the decision on accepting Mayawatis resignation lies with the Chairman.

Interestingly, officials say as per the format the letter should be brief and should not mention the reasons. Mayawatis letter is a lengthy note with details of proceedings of the forenoon session and how she was not allowed to speak about the caste violence in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, an angry Mayawati attacked the Uttar Pradesh government under Yogi Adityanath over atrocities against Dalits.

Earlier, speaking about a recent incident of caste violence in Shabbirpur village in Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur district, Mayawati said amid protests from Treasury Benches: If you dont allow me to speak I will resign from the Rajya Sabha. If I am not allowed to speak I have no right to speak about my community in the House.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asked her to apologise for insulting the House.

The BJP got the janadesh  peoples mandate in the state, he said, referring to the BJPs recent resounding victory in the state, but adding that the government was ready for any discussion.

Responding to the minister, Opposition Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that peoples mandate was not to massacre minorities.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury accused the central government of not allowing the Opposition to speak about atrocities against Dalits and farmer suicides.

As the Opposition quickly joined ranks to protest against the central government, the House was adjourned until noon.

Speaking to the media outside the House, she said she was not speaking in the Zero Hour but as part of the adjournment notice she had submitted.

This is not the first time I have come to the Rajya Sabha. I have also been part of the Lok Sabha. I am not afraid of contesting elections. But if I am not allowed to speak in the House about the people who made me reach this position, I have no moral right to remain in the Rajya Sabha,  she said, accusing the BJP of open discrimination charge.

She also called NDAs decision to nominate a Dalit president dramatics.

Meanwhile, Opposition forced an adjournment in the Lok Sabha soon after it assembled for Zero Hour as they protested what they called the central governments anti-farmer policies.

Protests by a united Opposition against farmer suicides continued even after they reassembled, forcing the House to adjourn until Wednesday.  With agency inputs
Tejashwi Yadav seems to have managed to convince Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and bought time from him to continue as his deputy in Bihar.

By India Today Web Desk: After keeping everyone on tenterhooks for the last few days, a big political crisis in Bihar seems to have been averted for the time being as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is going easy with Lalu Yadav's son and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

At a one-on-one meeting with Nitish, Tejashwi put the record straight saying he is clean and will go to court against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which has named him in a disproportionate assets case, according to sources.

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Tejashwi is said to have told the chief minister in the 45-minute-long meeting that the central agency is acting at the behest of the Narendra Modi government to break Bihar's grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) comprising Congress, Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Tejashwi has apparently said that he is ready to take an anticipatory bail from the court.

Although there was no official briefing from both the sides, it is understood that the political crisis has been postponed for now.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders after the corruption case broke a fortnight ago. During the day, Tejashwi also took part in a cabinet meeting chaired by Nitish.

There have been enough indications from Nitish's camp that the JD-U leader wants the Lalu Yadav's son out from his cabinet as he is facing corruption charges.

Nitish has adopted a tough stance against Tejashwi ever since his name cropped up in a corruption case. Nitish had given a four-day deadline to Tejashwi to resign or come clean on corruption allegations. However no action was taken after the deadline ended on Saturday.

Both Lalu and his son had made it clear openly that Tejaswi is not going to step down from the cabinet. The RJD and Congress have been making all-out efforts to save the alliance.

Three days ago, Tejashwi had skipped an official function with Nitish Kumar in Patna.

The JD(U) had asked the RJD to come clean on the allegations against Tejaswi with facts and not "display arrogance" of having 80 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly.

The JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the Congress 27 while the BJP, which is the main opposition in the House, has 53.

The Assembly has representation from the CPI(ML), the HAM (Secular), the LJP and the RLSP among others.

Spotting an opportunity, the state BJP has already said they are ready to support the Nitish Kumar's government from outside if they come out of the RJD-Congress alliance.

(Inputs from Sujeet Jha)

ALSO READ:

Before Nitish decides on Tejashwi, a look at ever-changing equation between Bihar CM and Lalu

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Bihar Mahagathbandhan crisis: Why next 48 hours are crucial for Tejashwi Yadav

As Nitish Kumar decides on dumping Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu's son is hitting political worries for a six

Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Lalu on CBI raids: Hang me but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

WATCH: Lalu Yadav after CBI raids: Ready to be hanged, but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

--- ENDS ---
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

Soon after filing his nomination papers for the post of vice-president on Tuesday, Opposition-backed candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi declared himself as a citizens' candidate, saying he represented the people and not any political party.

Gandhi, who also received the support of non-NDA party BJD on Tuesday, further defended his mercy petition for terrorist Yakub Memon in 2016 saying he belonged to the family of Mahatma Gandhi who was opposed to death penalty.



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"Death penalty belongs in the medieval ages and I am principally opposed to it. I wrote the mercy petition as a common man who feels it's his duty to follow his principles. I also wrote to Pakistan President to pardon Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan custody. In doing so I take inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar, who said it was about time we removed death penalty from our statutes," Gandhi said on Tuesday.

Flanked by Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Surjewala, Gandhi made an impassioned appeal to all MPs to back him saying he was a people's candidate and wanted to bridge the gap between politics and people.

"There's a wide gap between politics and people. I want to bridge it. When a common man like me gets the backing of 18 parties, politics merges with social goals and connects with people. That's when solutions are found," he said.

Gandhi mentioned three objectives behind agreeing to run for Vice-Presidents post.

"I want to restore people's faith in politics. Their faith has collapsed. Also there's a full force trying to divide the country.

We have to stop it. Unemployment is at unprecedented levels and we have to show our youngsters some hope," said the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, who will fight NDA nominee M Venkaiah Naidu in the August 5 vice-presidential election.

Central government meanwhile said despite BJD pledging support Gandhi, Naidu had enough numbers to get home.

READ
Beijing, July 18

China needs to prepare for the standoff with India near the Sikkim sector becoming a long- term situation, an article in a state-run Chinese daily said on Monday, warning that more such conflicts can trigger "an all out confrontation" along the entire Line of Actual Control.

The Op-ed article in the Global Times claimed that the Indian action to stop Chinese troops from building a road near the Doklam plateau was a "blatant infringement on China's sovereignty".

The road is near the trijunction with Bhutan.

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India has expressed concern over the road construction, fearing it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its northeastern states. It has conveyed to China that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.

The Chinese action has led to a month-long military standoff.

The article said that if India "stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC (Line of Actual Control)".

Of the 3,488-km-long border India shares with China from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, a 220-km section falls in Sikkim.

The article in the tabloid daily, which is a part of the ruling Communist Party of China media group, said: "As the confrontation goes on, China needs to get ready for the face- off becoming a long-term situation and at the same time, needs to maintain a sense of rationality".

"China doesn't advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation," it said.

It said that there are voices within China that call for the Indian troops to be "expelled immediately", while Indian public opinion "is clamouring for war with China".

"However, the two sides need to exercise restraint and avoid the current conflict spiralling out of control," it said. PTI

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Vibha Sharma



Tribune News Service



New Delhi, July 18

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Venkiah Naidu on Tuesday filed his nomination for vice-presidential election on Tuesday.

Naidu, the BJPs pick for vice-president, was accompanied by party veterans Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. Allies such as Shiromani Alkali Dal, Shiv Sena and the LJP were also present, as was an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham leader.

The AIADMK's factio lead by former chief minister Panneerselvam has already announced its support to Naidu.

"I have treated my party as a mother, it is very painful to leave the party and I am emotional . I do not belong to the BJP now, I will be continuing as MP because of voting. I have resigned from all party posts and will meet my party members outside the party office, " Naidu said in what is perhaps his last meeting with media as BJP leader.

From being constantly among people, I will be moving to different responsibilities as Vice-President, he said, thanking Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and other members of the party and alliance. It will be my endeavour to follow and strengthen the Constitutional practices and Parliamentary democratic system. I will uphold the dignity of the Parliamentary system, he said, adding there is no question of electioneering for the post.

Tuesday was the last day for nominations.

Naidu meets Advani, Joshi before filing nomination

NDA's vice-presidential nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday met veteran BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi at their residences here before filing his nomination.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Naidu was announced BJPs choice of candidate for vice-president on Monday, hours after presidential election, in a move seen as an attempt at wooing the south.

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Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 18

Thirty-six years after an Indian Airlines plane with 111 passengers and six crew members on board was hijacked to Lahore on its way from New Delhi to Srinagar, two of the five Sikh hijackers appeared before a Delhi court to face sedition charges in connection with the case.

Accused Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh  who have already served life term in Pakistan in connection with the crime  appeared before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Jyoti Kler who granted them two-day interim bail.

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After serving their sentence in Pakistan, Tejinder Pal and Satnam had moved to Canada and the US, respectively, and were deported to India in 1998 and 1999. The other three hijackers -- Gajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh and Karan Singh -- are not in India.

Belonging to Dal Khalsa, the hijackers had demanded the release of Sikh preacher and head of Damdami Taksal Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale who was arrested on September 20 the same year in a murder case. Later, he was killed during Operation Bluestar in 1984.

The ACMM asked the Investigating Officer to file a report with all relevant documents and posted the matter for further hearing on July 20.

On behalf of the two accused, senior advocate Mohit Mathur and advocate Manisha Bhandari contended that the duo had already served life sentence in Pakistan and spent 35 years of their life in litigation.

Terming it a classic example of double jeopardy, the lawyers said their entire life will be spent in facing one trial after the other for the same set of facts. There should an end to their agony, the counsel submitted.

They were first tried for hijacking in Pakistan and sentenced to life imprisonment and they were again being tried for same offence by an Indian court, Mathur contended.

Maintaining that they cant be tried again for the same incident under a different name, he said it was illegal on the face of it and the accused must be discharged.

Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh, who accompanied the accused, said there had been travesty of justice in the case as the Indian government put them on trial after 36 years under "sedition charges", ignoring their life imprisonment in Pakistan for the same offence.

However, the prosecution and the court maintained that the principle of double jeopardy did not apply as the offences for which they were tried and convicted in Pakistan were different from the ones mentioned in the present charge sheet.

But the accused contended the incident of hijacking was one piece of act and a fresh case under different offences amounted to violation of the principle of double jeopardy under Article 20 of the Constitution.

The Delhi police had filed a supplementary charge sheet in a Delhi court on September 29, 2011 under sedition charges. After taking cognisance of the chargesheet, the court had asked the accused to appear before it on July 18 for a fresh trial in connection with the crime that took place on September 29, 1981.

In May 2017, the Delhi High Court had refused to quash the supplementary charge sheet against the accused and asked them to appear before the trial court.
Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, July 18

Two Gurdaspur girls who had concocted a story to show they had drowned in a canal while clicking selfies, but had actually run away from home allegedly in search of big money, have returned home.

Also read: Gurdaspur girls made up drowning story, ran away from home

The duo, Nisha and Lovepreet, had to sell their mobile phone to pay for their return fare from New Delhi to Amritsar.

The police brought the girls to Gurdaspur. They would be handed over to their parents.

They had cooked up the story to flee their homes in search of money in any big city to help their parents, SHO at the Kahnuwan police station in Gurdaspur, Harjit Singh said.

The girls returned to Amritsar and from there the police brought them to their home in Gurdaspur, he said, adding they will be counselled and no case will be registered against them.

Seventeen-year-old Sophia had earlier said that her sister Lovepreet Kaur (19) and her cousin Nisha (18) had drowned in a canal while taking a selfie, but later spilled the beans, the SHO said.

Police became suspicious after the bodies of the girls could not be found from the UBDC canal at the Gurdaspur-Sri Hargobindpur road, he said.

They took a lift from a truck driver telling him that they had just joined the police department and were going to join work at Chandigarh, Singh said.

Later, at Delhi when they realised their mistake and ran out of money, they decided to return home, the SHO said.
Anonymous female author says "It is the wife's right that her husband satisfy her sexually". Launches a halal guide to mind-blowing sex for Muslim women.

By India Today Web Desk: We all know that sex for many, even in today's time, is a taboo. The topic is frowned upon and its discussion is restrictive.

But, a woman decided to write about it in order to bring a change.

An anonymous female author recently launched a 'Halal' sex guide for Muslim women so that they can enjoy the act to the fullest.

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The book, "Muslimah Sex Manual: A Halal Guide to Mind Blowing Sex" by the writer, known by the alias, Umm Muladhat is especially for Muslim women to learn the importance of sex and BDSM.

Photo: Twitter.com/SamarDJarrah

FYI: What Is BDSM?

BDSM refers to a sexual activity which involves seeking pleasure by means of infliction of pain or by granting and relinquishing of control.

BDSM has six components: Bondage and Discipline (BD), Dominance and Submission (DS), Sadism and Masochism (SM).

The book also talks about first-time encounters and various sexual positions which might help the Muslim women to get more comfortable with the word "sex", otherwise, despised by many.

According to a report by RT, although many women praised the author's work, many sent her discouraging messages her as well.

"One woman said it's not needed, they learn everything from their mothers. I doubt any mother speaks in as explicit detail as I have", the author said.

Muladhat decided to write the book when one of her friends complained that she never received proper knowledge about sex ever. Her aim was to provide a handbook which follows Halal rules and will help women in exploring full range of sexual experience with their spouses.

"Islamically, there's an emphasis on enjoying physical relationships within the context of marriage, not just for procreation. It is the wife's right that her husband satisfy her sexually", she said.

The writer also actively participates in workshops to advise women on sexual matters.

--- ENDS ---
Tulsas new coding school, Coding Dojo, will ramp up anticipation for its September launch with two events this week at 36 Degrees North, 36 E. Cameron St.

An open house will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and a free workshop at 2 p.m. Saturday. Starting at 36 Degrees North on Sept. 18, Coding Dojo is joining computer programming boot camps in cities such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Dallas.

We have a really good opportunity here with this mid-size, metro market to establish Coding Dojo in this tech community, said Shiraz Sultan, community manager for Coding Dojo in Tulsa. Tulsa at the moment has a shortage of skilled, tech workers. Our partnership here is really trying to boost the technology jobs in the ecosystem.

Us working with the local tech scene, a lot of people have been very happy with us coming and bringing an opportunity to educate individuals on a quick basis.

Students get 60-70 hours instruction in the 14-week boot camp, Coding Dojo founder Michael Choi said in an interview last month. His research shows that about 25 percent of the students who enter the school do not have a college degree and are making between $10,000 to $30,000 per year upon enrollment.

After finishing the coding school, however, graduates make an average of $75,000 annually, he said.

One of the thing that Coding Dojo does that a lot of individuals arent aware of until we have a conversation is that we really focus on helping individuals become engineers, become problem-solvers, said Sultan, who is transitioning from the Dallas campus.  We get ready to start thinking about how to solve major problems, so that when they get into their tech interview and they are working with hiring managers, they can provide a lot more value to a company.

We also implement gap learningOur students, they get stuck on purpose and we challenge them to find resources that are outside our curriculum. Were not just a program that just teaches an individual how to learn Javascript and Python and Ruby on Rails. We really challenge you to take it a step further. It really is a mental bootcamp. It really challenges your skill and will at the same time.

Two boot camps are scheduled thus far  the other one starts in January  with further schools dependent on interest and CJs partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Sultan said. Tuition for the 14-week program is $10,495, with enrollment limited to 18 students, Sultan said.

We will do pretty much an analysis of attitude, aptitude, perseverance, persistence  things of that nature  to really identify the right student, he said.

Philip Krull will be lead instructor for Saturdays free workshop.

Applications will close Sept. 15 for the Coding Dojo school in Tulsa. Persons may apply online at codingdojo.com.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Various groups are weighing in on a lawsuit that challenges a $1.50 fee on cigarettes passed last session.

Cigarette companies and others have filed a legal challenge to the measure, Senate Bill 845, in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The court is expected to hear oral arguments on Aug. 8.

The suit alleges the measure, which raises $257 million, violates three key provisions of law.

Revenue-raising measures must originate in the House, receive a super majority in both chambers and cant be passed in the final days of the session.

The bill started in the Senate, didnt receive a super majority and secured approval from the House on the final day of the legislative session, May 26.

The measure was passed after failed attempts to impose a $1.50-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes in addition to the existing $1.03 tax.

The National Association of Manufacturers, the Texas-based McLane Company, the Oklahoma State Medical Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids earlier this month were granted permission to file briefs in the matter. The McLane Company is a distribution and logistics company that does business in the state.

The National Association of Manufacturers and the McLane Company allege lawmakers violated the law in enacting the fee, while the Oklahoma State Medical Association and the Tobacco-Free Kids Coalition support the fee.

The tax itself is substantial: At $1.50 per pack, it will result in decreased cigarette sales, affecting numerous Oklahoma businesses  from tobacco farmers, to tobacco producers, to cigarette manufacturers, to wholesalers and retailers  not to mention Oklahoma citizens who purchase cigarettes, the National Association of Manufacturers argues in its brief.

Because its passage did not follow state law, it flouts Oklahomans constitutional guarantees and injures Oklahoma citizens and businesses alike, according to NAM.

If the legislature may impose a $257 million annual fee on cigarette wholesalers, it may impose a similar fee on virtually any business located in Oklahoma, or any product sold in Oklahoma  all without complying with the law.

The Oklahoma State Medical Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids argue the bill is an important public health measure.

The health groups say that increases to the price of cigarettes reduce consumption, particularly by young people, and therefore reduce tobacco-related disease and death.

Efforts to increase prices are justified as an important public health measure, the health groups argue.

The state, represented by Attorney General Mike Hunter, argues that the bill imposes a fee as one part of a comprehensive regulatory program to reduce and compensate for health-related costs of allowing tobacco to be sold in the state.

Twitter: @bhoberock
Update: The Tulsa World received the following statement from Jerad Lindsey, chairman of the board of FOP Lodge 93, after press time Monday night:

We are disappointed in the Oklahoma Bar Associations decision to not further investigate the ethics complaint against District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler. We stand by our decision to file the complaint and regardless of the outcome, hope it will prevent the district attorney from rushing to charges in future cases.

The story as it appears in Tuesday's Tulsa World is below:

The Oklahoma Bar Association has summarily denied a complaint filed against Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler related to his handling of the manslaughter case against soon-to-be former Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby.

In a statement Monday, Kunzweiler said he received word several weeks ago that the OBA would not review the complaint leveled against him by Jerad Lindsey, chairman of the board for the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police.

The Bar Associations decision speaks for itself, Kunzweiler said. My focus and attention remains as it has for the past 28 years  concentrated upon securing public safety on the cases which are in front of me.

Lindseys complaint, which he filed May 3, alleged Kunzweiler unfairly charged Shelby in the Sept. 16 shooting death of Terence Crutcher without having probable cause. The grievance stated that Kunzweilers rushed decision seemed to have been made merely based on watching a video of the shooting rather than waiting for all available evidence to reach his office.

Members of Shelbys legal team said at the time they werent aware in advance that the FOP planned to lodge a formal complaint against Kunzweiler.

Shelbys trial ended May 17 with a jury finding her not guilty of first-degree manslaughter either in the heat of passion or while resisting what she believed was Crutchers attempt to commit misdemeanor offenses of public intoxication and obstruction.

Lindsey, as well as Shelbys defense team, took issue with the probable cause affidavit used as the basis for the charge to be filed. The affidavit came from District Attorneys Office investigator Doug Campbell rather than a Tulsa Police Department employee, which Lindsey argued was a departure from normal procedure related to fatal police encounters.
COLLINSVILLE  The Comedy of Errors Club served as the keeper of books for Collinsville residents in the early 20th century until the group tapped into the grants for libraries being given out by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

It was 100 years ago that the Carnegie Collinsville Library opened.

Between 1899 and 1916, Oklahoma received $464,500 through 24 Carnegie library grants. Of those, nine are still in use as a library  in Collinsville, Elk City, El Reno, Frederick, Hobart, Perry, Sapulpa, Tahlequah and Wagoner, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Eight other libraries remain standing but are in use as museums or offices. They are in Ardmore, Bartlesville, Cordell, Guthrie, Lawton, Muskogee, Shawnee and Woodward. Razed Carnegie libraries in the state were in Chickasha, Enid, McAlester, Miami, Oklahoma City, Ponca City and Tulsa.

In Collinsville, several events will be held at the library, at 1223 W. Main St., starting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, to mark the anniversary.

Labor of love: The Comedy of Errors social club was formed by women in 1903 to obtain a library for the budding Collinsville community, which the 1900 census recorded as having 376 people.

The organization acquired its first books from a Methodist church and kept them in the home of the groups founder, Mrs. J.A. Tyner. Then the books moved around a bit until 1911, when a second-floor room in the new City Hall was made available. The library was funded through teas and talent shows.

The acquisition of new book titles was news big enough to be reported in the local newspaper.

By 1910, the city had grown to 1,324 residents, and the pace of population growth wasnt slowing down. It would more than double during the next decade, recording 3,801 people in 1920.

It was clear that the City Hall reading room was not an adequate space for a library. This time period coincided with Carnegies philanthropic giving that created 2,409 libraries all over the world using $41 million in grants from the Carnegie Corp.

A condition of each grant was for the community to pledge to match 10 percent of the grant from tax money for maintenance costs, and that could not come from an endowment or gift. It was a way to show that the community was invested in the ongoing success of the library.

So the social club got busy. The members sought to raise matching funds through bake sales, theater performances and book drives.

A scrapbook at the Collinsville library, created by library associate Robin Bushyhead, holds a trove of details of the librarys genesis, including club minutes, attendance, receipts and the citys resolution to support the library.

They did all the things all little towns do, said Rhonda Weldon, Collinsville Library branch manager. It really showed how much the residents valued literature and how they were especially concerned about public education.

The club secured a $7,500 Carnegie grant in 1915. Architect Walter R. Faught from Wichita, Kansas, designed the red brick building with a full basement, an assembly room that could seat 2,000, and restrooms. The first librarian was Iva Nicodemus.

On opening day in 1917, the local newspaper reported that a host of speakers gave book readings, extolled the virtues of public libraries and predicted the need for bigger facilities in the future. The librarys bank balance in June that year was $2,612.45.

The opening and public reception at the new Carnegie library last night was one of the events that will long be remembered by the people of Collinsville. The large number of citizens who were out to hear the exercises literally packed the building; there was hardly standing room for them.

Making it their own: In 1962, a countywide vote consolidated area libraries into the Tulsa City-County Library system. At the time, those were the libraries in Tulsa, Collinsville, Broken Arrow, Skiatook and Sand Springs. The Carnegie Collinsville Library turned into the Collinsville Library branch of the Tulsa City-County Library.

The move secured a county tax base and resources from the larger metropolitan library system.

It reflects the foresight of the people who built this in the community, Weldon said. Its also about those in 1962 in the Tulsa countywide vote, which has made a world of difference financially.

For a little town like this to have this type of collection for its library  we couldnt do it without Tulsa County. And thats a credit to the foresight and planning of those people who lived here.

In 2000, the Collinsville Library expanded from 3,260 square feet to 7,860 square feet, with added features such as a childrens corner, an elevator, enhanced technology and a stained-glass window. The exterior and roof have stayed within the original architectural concept.

Its a nice open floor plan with a lot of light, Weldon said. Its a small place, but people manage to find little nooks and make it their own.

The centennial celebration marks a successful past but also looks to the future.

Last month, 5,859 people visited the Collinsville Library, which averages between 3,000 and 4,000 monthly visitors. That is in addition to the patrons who access online resources from databases to electronic books.

It continues to serve as a community hub with a meeting room and youth activities. Last month, seven adult volunteers donated 54 hours and 17 teen volunteers gave 413 hours to the summer reading program.

Now more than ever, people are coming to us for help using digital technology, and things change so quickly, Weldon said. We are all things to all people, and that is our challenge. 

People think of a library as a quiet, boring place. Its actually exciting. Its never boring here.
BIXBY  After Lt. Col. Russell Montante first saw the pictures from last weeks explosion at an Air Force recruitment center, he expected to arrive to a chaotic mess.

Montante, commander of the 349th Recruiting Squadron, departed Oklahoma City and headed to Bixby after news broke that a pipe bomb had detonated outside the center on the night of July 10. The blast damaged the outside of the building and blew open the glass doors, but there were no injuries.

When I showed up, I could see that the scene was very well-controlled, he said.

On Tuesday morning  a little more than a week after the incident  Montante presented awards to first responders and others in the parking lot of the center in Post Rock Plaza near 104th Street and Memorial Drive. He said the purpose of the event was to show thanks to the community for the support theyve given since the explosion.

The property owner, Eric Waller, received a statuette of a bronze eagle carrying a U.S. flag for his quick response in repairing the damaged building. Because of his swift actions, Montante said, the recruitment center reopened by noon the next day. Additionally, the eight Air Force members assigned to the office serving applicants in the Bixby area quickly returned to work.

He had a truck already in front of my office at 10 that morning, Montante said. There were doors getting ready to be installed. He had new glass coming already. He took sacrifices himself  personally, financially, professionally. Whatever was done, he made it happen. Its something I could not have dreamed.

Another statuette was given to a pair of Bixby police officers representing the first responders who arrived at the scene and paved way for a quick and successful investigation. Authorities apprehended the suspect, 28-year-old Benjamin Roden, less than 24 hours after he allegedly detonated the pipe bomb.

Montante also commended Tech. Sgt. James Thompson, who was the acting flight chief on the night of the explosion, for his professionalism in the immediate aftermath and his coordination with local authorities.

Thompson was presented with an Air Force Achievement Medal for displaying exceptional leadership and sacrifice during the response, the medal description reads.

The medal also states his assessments of the situation provided commanders and federal investigators a high level of situational awareness and decision-making capabilities.

After the presentation, Thompson told the Tulsa World hes witnessed a lot of critical incidents during his time in the military, but he found the proximity of the recruitment center attack to be particularly jarring.

It just kind of struck home that it was in a closer location than where youd expect it to be, he said.

Thompson said his experience overseas allowed him to handle the situation as it unfolded and ensure a high level of cooperation among agencies.

He also appreciated the support from the community and law enforcement.

Obviously as a recruiter, its my job to serve here, and this town embraces me, Thompson said. And the local authorities, them being able to support us after the incident, its definitely something that I took to heart.
A woman escaped her alleged captor Monday after convincing him a church would help them turn on their water service.

Justin Levi Meyers, 28, of Tulsa allegedly held a woman against her will for two weeks. Meyers is accused of battering her and binding her to him and to a chair to prevent her escape, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The suspect would tie her leg to his leg at night, so that he could feel if she attempted to leave, police state in the affidavit.

The woman had been staying in early July at a womens shelter due to a domestic altercation involving Meyers, police said. When authorities notified her that Meyers had been arrested, she returned to her residence.

On July 3, Meyers woke her up inside her residence, according to the affidavit. He allegedly held the woman against her will from that day until Monday, when she persuaded him to go to the church.

Meyers, in addition to the allegations of binding their legs together at night, allegedly bound the woman to a chair when he left the residence.

The woman convinced Meyers that the Church at BattleCreek, located at 3025 N. Aspen Ave. in Broken Arrow, would pay to turn on water service at the residence. While at the church, the woman passed a note to a church member asking for help to get away from Meyers.

The member separated the two under the guise of asking application questions, police state in the affidavit.

The victim was able to tell the clerk what was happening and to call the police, investigators state in the affidavit. The suspect got nervous and left.

When officers arrived, they noted that the woman had two black eyes, rope burns on her wrists and bruises on her body, according to the affidavit.

Police attempted to make contact with Meyers on Monday evening at the womans residence. Meyers allegedly fled when a marked police vehicle pulled up. Police arrested him in a nearby front yard.

Meyers allegedly told police the woman had jealousy issues, and he alleged a crack head had targeted the woman. He denied causing any injuries to the woman.

He stated the victim put bruises on herself and the ligature marks are also caused by the victim, investigators state in the affidavit.

Police booked Meyers in Tulsa Jail on complaints of kidnapping, domestic assault and battery, interfering with an emergency call and obstructing justice.

Meyers has previous convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon, domestic abuse and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Oklahoma County court records.
The Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office on Monday filed a felony charge against a Tulsa doctor in connection with a lengthy investigation that the agency said revealed he obtained opioid medications by fraud.

Dr. James Fleckenstein, 60, is charged with one count of obtaining possession of a controlled substance by fraud or forgery, or alternatively unlawful possession of a controlled drug, between June 30, 2013, and Oct. 20, 2016. An initial filing in the case alleges Fleckenstein fraudulently prescribed multiple drugs to two people during that time period.

Records from the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision indicate Fleckenstein is the subject of a related pending professional misconduct complaint, which will be heard by the board in January. Fleckensteins license, first issued in 2003, is set to expire in March.

Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a news release that investigators reported Fleckenstein admitted writing the majority of the prescriptions for his wife and his wifes friend, who would fill the prescriptions and then give the medications to Fleckenstein for his personal use.

Hunter said the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control began looking into the situation in December after a pharmacist expressed concerns with the amount of medication being prescribed to Fleckensteins wife. The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office also assisted with the investigation, according to the release.

When asked why he wrote the prescriptions, Fleckenstein reportedly said he had a history of dependence on alcohol, marijuana and eventually opiates after having back surgeries in 2013 and 2015. He said he received an unrestricted medical license in Oklahoma in 2003 despite disclosing that information, which included a stint of in-patient treatment in another state.

The complaint before the board claims he wrote his wife 65 prescriptions, as well as two prescriptions for her sibling and five additional prescriptions for another person. The prescriptions at issue, according to that document, include Ambien, hydrocodone, Klonopin, Valium and Xanax, among others.

Dr. Fleckensteins actions will not be tolerated in the state, Hunter said. I appreciate both the OBNDD and the Tulsa County District Attorneys Office for working with my office to ensure he will be held accountable. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect Oklahomans.
An engineer from an electricity distribution company died and four others were injured after his car rammed a tree while being allegedly chased by a mob following an anti-power theft raid.

By Press Trust of India: A BSES engineer died and four persons were injured today as their car rammed a tree while allegedly being chased by a mob during an anti-power theft drive in south west Delhi's Jaffarpur Kalan area, a BSES spokesperson said.

The police, however, refuted the claim and said the engineer died in a suspected case of rash driving.

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According to the BSES spokesperson, three discom teams raided Jhul Jhuli village in Jaffarpur Kalan this afternoon following a tip-off about large-scale power theft in the area. The teams, accompanied by Delhi Police, came under attack and had to retreat, he said.

"The teams were chased by bike-borne goons. In the ensuing melee, one of the cars rammed a tree. Assistant engineer Abhimanyu Singh (32) was grievously injured. He later died," he said.

A senior police officer said the BSES teams were provided adequate police force for the raid which went "successfully".

"Twenty six police personnel were accompanying the BSES teams. The anti power theft drive was successful.

"One of the cars met with an accident. No one was being chased as per initial reports," said the officer.

A case has been registered in the matter, he said, adding the four injured BSES team members have been admitted to a hospital.

In June this year, a Delhi Police sub-inspector and three BSES employees were injured in stone-pelting by locals during an anti-power theft drive in outer Delhi's Ranhola area.

ISOLATED INCIDENTS

"These are not isolated incidents. Efforts of discom teams to check irregularities are often thwarted by law- defying people who function like organised gangs. Power theft has taken shape of an organised crime and active police support is needed to curb this menace," said the BSES spokesperson.

Despite intensive efforts to reduce power theft, Jaffarpur continues to incur 60 per cent losses, he said.

In the last five years, around 14,000 cases of power theft, having a connected load of around 33,000 KW, have been unearthed in the area, the spokesman added.

Also Read:

Believe it or not, the crime rate in Delhi has fallen!

Mob lynching India's shocking war within, a challenge Narendra Modi must confront

UP: Power theft will soon attract jail term; govt promises to help 'honest man', end electricity woes

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It's not unusual to be on vacation and strike up a conversation with a stranger wearing your alma mater's insignia or a home-state flag.

But Barrett and Mary Waller, local public-relations executives, said they were elated this weekend on a vacation to visit their daughter in Colorado to see Tulsa's newly-proposed flag unfurled on a mountain pass.

Jordan Winn, the flag's designer, said he was visiting friends in Colorado when he stopped along the Trail Ridge Road pass near Estes Park to take a photo of the unfurled flag for the Tulsa Flag's Facebook page.

The Wallers, meanwhile, were atop the pass at the Continental Divide soaking up the views.

"We had finished a lot of hiking and taking pictures and enjoying the sites," Barrett Waller said. "We went back up to the parking lot and were enjoying the view one more time, and I looked down and saw it."

Mary Waller said it was a crazy coincidence and felt serendipitous.

"He hits me on the elbow and says, 'Look! The Tulsa flag!'" she said. "We saw elk. We saw moose. And we saw the Tulsa flag. Who would have thought it?"

The Waller family yelled out "Tulsa!" to the bewildered group below who didn't expect to get recognized.

The united groups of Tulsans then posed for photos with the flag.

Winn, in a Facebook post, said he never expected to get recognized at 12,135 feet.

"Not sure what the odds are of this happening, but it was one of the coolest moments I've experienced in a while," he said.

The Wallers, who work at Tulsa's Propeller Communications, said they voted for the chosen flag but have no other connection to the campaign driving support behind the standard.

The Tulsa City Council has recently resisted the proposed flag change, saying their constituents are demanding that they keep the current flag.

The privately-funded effort to choose a design from an open submission process to a cellphone-only vote didn't include a fourth none-of-the-above option, which councilors say marred the effort.

Some councilors have also said they just don't like the chosen design.

The current flag was decided about 40 years ago and features the Tulsa city seal on a white background. The current flag design is the third-known iteration since Tulsa's founding.

The proposed flag would be the city's fourth-known flag and would not affect the city's seal, which is on a manhole covers, city vehicles, utility bills and City Hall.

"Of the three choices, we liked it the best," Barrett Waller said of Winn's design. "We liked what it represented, and we just thought it was the best-looking one."
WYANDOTTE  A three-hour cadaver dog search of wooded and hilly terrain of Ottawa County failed to locate any human bones or remains on Tuesday morning after a human skull was found in the area.

Ottawa County Sheriff Jeremy Floyd initiated a second phase of the investigation and brought in a team to hand-search the area.

A 12-person staff from the Oklahoma Emergency Response Team began a grid search around 9:30 a.m. The team spread out and began manually searching over two acres of underbrush and trees.

Its going to take around two hours, but we are going to cover this area, said Rick Aldridge, chief executive officer. We are going to be arms length and nose down.

Floyd called off the search around noon due to the heat and plans to resume the search on Wednesday on a smaller scale.

On Friday, homeowners called authorities after finding a skull and what was presumed to be a leg bone in their driveway. The leg bone was later discovered to be an animal bone.

The skull was intact and had pieces of tissue at the bottom where the jaw connects to the neck, Floyd said.

There were no signs of trauma, Floyd said.

The medical examiners preliminary investigation showed the skull was most likely male, he said.

A 20- to 25-year-old man was reported missing in the area June 30, Floyd said.
It certainly takes gall for Speaker of the House Charles McCall and his minions to slam the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for implementing the inadequate budget that McCall and his friends created.

Last week, DHS announced a series of painful cuts to safety net programs for elderly and disabled Oklahomans. The cuts were made necessary by the state Legislatures failure to fund DHS adequately, and lawmakers were warned during the budget-writing process the consequences of shorting DHS funding.

But after the cuts were announced, McCall  one of the handful of people at the table when the budget was written  threatened the agency with an audit.

House Majority Leader Mike Sanders jumped to McCalls side with a press release that calls the cuts nothing more than a political stunt by DHS Director Ed Lake.

Sanders insisted there were other less painful cuts available to the agency, and the Legislature wasnt responsible for the cuts Lake chose because lawmakers didnt write a detailed budget.

Bull.

The Legislature is responsible for the cuts. It knew that the funding levels it was considering were inadequate, but passed them anyway. The fact that lawmakers didnt take the time to write a line-item budget (and, thus, acknowledge responsibility) is no excuse.

Im asking for Oklahomans to turn their outrage toward the appropriate party in this matter  DHS  and demand they do the right thing and provide meals for our seniors, in-home services for our disabled adults and appropriate funding for foster care and adopted children, Sanders said.

DHS might be able to move the pain to other areas and an audit might find possible savings in the agency, but that doesnt shift responsibility from McCall, Sanders and the others who undercut the states tax base, refused to do the things needed to rebuild it and then passed an obviously inadequate budget.

It is an outrage, Rep. Sanders, and we know who to blame.
BBC First has announced a premiere date for Top of the Lake: China Girl, as Sunday August 20.

But while UK viewers will see the series as soon as next week -with all 6 episodes available at once on BBC iPlayer- Australian fans will have to be content with weekly episodes.

Thats despite executive producer Jamie Laurenson from See-Saw Films, saying: Its great that the BBC are offering viewers the chance to watch Top Of The Lake  China Girl in one go. We think the series has all the compulsive qualities that will make watching more than one episode at a time irresistible.

The first two episodes will be shown at a special Sydney Opera House screening on August 1. It will also air in its entirety at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 5.

On BBC First it will debut 8:30pm Sunday August 20.

Top of the Lake: China Girl is a crime mystery story that finds Detective Robin Griffin recently returned to Sydney and trying to rebuild her life. When the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin realises China Girl didnt die alone. Robin looks to the investigation to restore herself, but her problems are personal. Haunted by a daughter given up at birth, Robin desperately wants to find her, yet dreads revealing the truth of her conception. But her search to discover China Girls identity will take her into the citys darkest recesses and closer than she could have imagined to the secrets of her own heart.

Top of the Lake: China Girl sees Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaids Tale, Mad Men) reprise her Golden Globe winning role as Detective Robin Griffin. She is joined by Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Nicole Kidman.

Also joining the cast are David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures, Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell) and Ewen Leslie (The Daughter).

Filmed in Sydney, Top of the Lake: China Girl received rave reviews and a standing ovation at its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the first time the festival had screened a television series.

Top of the Lake: China Girl is directed by Oscar winner Jane Campion (Bright Star, The Piano), and Ariel Kleiman (Partisan) and co-written by Campion and Gerard Lee. Top of the Lake is being produced by Philippa Campbell (Rain, Top of the Lake season one) and Libby Sharpe (Jewboy). Executive producers are Campion with See-Saws Emile Sherman, Iain Canning (The Kings Speech, Shame) and Jamie Laurenson, alongside Lucy Richer for the BBC.

Top of the Lake: China Girl is co-produced by BBC First and Foxtel with BBC Two, See-Saw Films, BBC UKTV in New Zealand, SundanceTV and Hulu in the United States, ARTE in France and BBC Worldwide.

8:30pm Sunday August 20 on BBC First.
Aussie Ben Lawson is joining the second season of Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland.

He will play Damian Rennett, an MI6 operative who meets Maggie Qs Hannah while undercover in Amsterdam.

Lawsons previous TV credits also include Doubt, Secrets & Lies, Covert Affairs and, of course, Neighbours.

Earlier this month, Paulo Costanzo (Royal Pains) was was cast as the new White House Political Director brought on by Emily to help a presidency struggling with its messaging and political strategy.

Designated Survivor screens in Australia via Netflix, but a return date is yet to be confirmed.

Source: TV Line
An SUV hit an embankment and flew in the air high enough to crash into the roof of a man's house. But the homeowner successfully escaped death.

The car crashed into the homeowner's roof in Missouri (Photo: St. Louis Fire Dept - Twitter)

By India Today Web Desk: What does not have wings but still flies?

This car in question, which ended up flying high enough to crash into someone's roof in the US.

The SUV was travelling through Missouri, US, when it hit an embankment in a residential block, and found an awkward parking space on a roof. Not deliberately, however.

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The incident happened in Walnut Park Street, St Louis, St Louis Post Dispatch reported.

The house, along with the roof on which the car landed, belonged to a gym trainer who escaped death while attending a workout session.

Reading, the 66-year-old man whose roof was demolished, said that he had recently paid off the home.

"I can see straight through my house... This is everything that I've worked for all my life, and for someone to run through a stop sign and destroy it," St Louis Post-Dispatch quoted Reading.

The person who held the wheel of the car is recovering in hospital, but the condition is described as "critical".

"The vehicle's occupant was rescued and transported by [ambulance] in critical condition. The homeowner returned home from the gym to discover the incident," a statement by the department read.

"A vehicle propelled up the front lawn or hill of this occupied, one storey dwelling," a member of St Louis' Fire Department collapse task force explained.

FYI || CAUGHT ON CAM: Horrific accident of 2 Chennai bikers will make you think twice before riding wrong side ||

FYI || Eggcellent: Woman rams car into chicken truck because she is a vegan ||

--- ENDS ---
A young man is wrapped in a foil blanket to prevent hypothermia, after being rescued from an inflatable rubber dinghy off the coast of Malta, in November 2016.  Jason Florio/MOAS

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is appealing for US$421.2 million to help provide meaningful alternatives to refugees and others undertaking dangerous journeys to Europe.

The number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe from Africa through Libya is increasing and, with it, the risks they face crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. In the first six months of this year, 2,171 refugees and migrants died or went missing in the Central Mediterranean, many others are believed to have died trying to cross into Libya.

The movement of refugees and migrants across the Sahara and the Mediterranean is taking a devastating toll on human life, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs Special Envoy to the Central Mediterranean Situation. We need to provide meaningful and viable alternatives to these movements or the deaths and the suffering will continue to mount. We want to scale-up existing activities or implement new ones to provide effective ways and means to protect refugees and asylum-seekers along the various routes leading to Libya, and support the engagement of all stakeholders in these efforts.

To deal with complex population movements involving shifting routes, UNHCR is proposing a comprehensive strategy with interventions at three different points: in the countries of origin and transit in sub-Saharan Africa, in North Africa, and in the destination countries in Europe.

In sub-Saharan African countries, UNHCR aims to secure access to asylum, provide adequate reception services, strengthen protection space and deliver effective protection services and solutions for those in need of international protection. This will include capacity-building activities, raising awareness of the risks of travel towards Libya, improving communication with members of communities likely to undertake such journeys, as well as supporting law enforcement mechanisms for addressing human trafficking.

In North Africa, UNHCR will work to improve access to asylum, raise awareness about the dangers of irregular migration and work towards enhancing the overall protection space, including through alternatives to detention for refugees and asylum seekers. UNHCR will provide targeted training support to coast guard services, ensure humane treatment and provision of humanitarian assistance to those rescued or intercepted at sea, and facilitate early identification, including at disembarkation points, of those with protection needs, including the most vulnerable people, for timely provision of services and solutions.

In Europe, UNHCR will continue supporting, complementing and building existing government capacities to ensure effective and safe access to asylum, protection services and solutions for people of concern, with particular attention to those with specific needs and vulnerabilities.

UNHCRs supplementary appeal presents requirements amounting to US$421.2 million, including US$22.6 additional requirements for countries in West Africa and for Morocco. It builds upon and incorporates earlier appeals such as the 2017 Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for Europe (RMRP), and requirements related to refugees in Libya worth US$62.4 million, presented in the May 2017 appeal for Libya. It also complements activities implemented by other organizations such as IOM for migrants using the same route.

For more information contact:
A group of Central African refugees in Ndu, in DRC Bas Uele province. Several thousands of refugees have fled Central African Republic for the North of the Democratic Republic of Congo since May 2017.  UNHCR/Simon Lubuku

Recent violence in southern border areas of Central African Republic is driving more people to flee, including into remote areas of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, putting immense pressure on difficult-to-reach local communities close to the border.

In Zemio, around 1,000 kilometres east of the capital Bangui, our partner MSF reported last week that a baby had been shot dead by militants in a hospital housing more than 7,000 displaced people. MSF has since withdrawn from the town amid violence that has also forced the temporary closure of a UNHCR field office.

The main areas from which people have been fleeing are the towns of Bangassou, Bema and Mobaye  all several hundred kilometres east of the capital Bangui. Local authorities estimate that over 60,000 people have fled from these areas and into Democratic Republic of the Congo since May. UNHCR continues to work to verify the numbers.

One of the areas into which people have fled is Ndu, across the Mbomou River from CARs Bangassou, and barely more than a village. Our colleagues, who were in Ndu a few days ago, say the situation is chaotic and its proximity to the border makes it dangerous, with armed bandits feared to be nearby. Refugees are staying everywhere they can  in churches, in buildings used as schools, in the only health centre, or sleeping in the open. People desperately need more healthcare, food and shelter.

Ndu is in DRCs Bas-Uele province, which as of 30 June was estimated to be hosting some 37,000 new arrivals from CAR. Others fleeing CAR have headed further to the south and west into areas of DRCs Nord-Ubangi province, where its estimated there were over 23,000 new arrivals as of the end of June.

UNHCR is organizing to bring in relief aid for 20,000 people in Ndu and other areas of both provinces, from Kampala. However moving help there quickly is difficult. Roads are mud-filled and in places virtually impassable for normal transport, hence tractors and other specialized vehicles are needed. We expect the convoys to arrive in days.

As of end June, 102,802 Central African Republic refugees were registered in Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition more than 60,000 new arrivals have been registered by DRC authorities in North Ubangui and Bas-Uele since May. Of the US$55.3 million needed in funding for the DRC-CAR situation this year, $2.8 million has so far been received.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Then and Now is a series of stories profiling refugees who have journeyed to Canada over the years, in search of safety, stability and a chance at a better life.

Starting from 1956, when Canada accepted its first major intake of refugees, the project uses archived images and family photos to tell the stories of refugees from Hungary, Viet Nam, Uganda, Somalia, Colombia and beyond.

Join filmmaker Annie Sakkab and writer Leyland Cecco as they discover what the country means to people forced to leave theirs behind.
Foreign Secretary Jaishankar said China's aggression and rhetoric on the recent standoff is unusual but it is not that complicated as it is being projected in some quarters.

By India Today Web Desk: As Indian and Chinese soldiers remain engaged in a standoff in Doklam area near the Bhutan border, India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told a parliamentary panel that China's stand in the Sikkim sector has been "unusually aggressive and articulate".

"Jaishankar told us that China's aggression and rhetoric on the recent standoff is unusual but it is not that complicated as it is being projected in some quarters. We will continue to engage with them through diplomatic channels," one of the members present in the meeting said.

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Jaishankar was briefing the panel on external affairs. He maintained that New Delhi is engaged with Beijing in defusing tension through diplomatic channels.

The foreign secretary told the panel that India has clearly outlined its position on the border and Chinese have their own position, but they are misinterpreting it so India was trying to clarify it.

He said that India has been maintaining the same position since 1895 as per an Anglo-Chinese agreement.

The words like "war-like situation or conflict" were not used by the Foreign Secretary as he stuck to the word standoff to describe the current situation at Dokalam.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face-off for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area.

(PTI inputs)

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?

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UW SBDC Hosts HUBZone Certification Webinar Aug. 3

Every year, the federal government spends millions of dollars in Wyoming. Small businesses can learn what the Small Business Administration (SBA) HUBZone Program is and how it can help small businesses potentially win government contracts.

Small businesses can learn how to become a HUBZone-designated firm that can benefit them, and receive an introduction to free resources that will assist them in navigating the federal procurement process. This workshop, titled HUBZone Certification: How It Can Help Your Business Win Government Contracts, and sponsored by the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC), is scheduled Thursday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m.-noon.

The SBDC is a partnership among the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council and the U.S. SBA. The SBDC focuses on educating small-business owners and potential owners on how to successfully start and operate small businesses. The SBDCs main office is located at UW.

HUBZones are specific geographic areas designated by the government as Historically Underutilized Business Zones. If a business operates and employs people in these areas, such businesses may be given preference for certain government contracts. Webinar listeners can learn what a HUBZone is; learn whether their businesses are located in a HUBZone; how to apply for the program; and why it is so beneficial for their businesses to have this certification.

The Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) team will present this webinar. Brett Housholder and Andrea Lewis have more than 10 years of experience assisting businesses with government contracting. Their training in the government procurement process includes required government registrations; finding government contracting opportunities; marketing to government agencies; invoicing; and applying for government certification programs.

The program is free of charge, but participants must register to obtain the link at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1834278249152226563. The program will be recorded so registered attendees can listen when convenient.

Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made, if requested at least two weeks in advance. Language assistance services for clients with limited English proficiency will be provided. For more information, call Housholder at (307) 234-3203 or Lewis at (307) 772-7372.

The Wyoming SBDC Network is a business advising group of the Wyoming SBDC, PTAC, Market Research Center and SBIR/STTR Initiative. The networks mission is to help Wyoming entrepreneurs succeed. Advising and most market research activities are free of charge to Wyoming residents.

The SBDC is funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. SBA. Additional support is provided by the Wyoming Business Council and UW.

For more information, go to www.wyomingsbdc.org or call 1-800-348-5194.
The Sikkim border stand-off between India and China continues at Doklam - an area contested by both Bhutan and China

The Sikkim border stand-off between India and China continues at Doklam - an area contested by both Bhutan and China

By Ananth Krishnan: China today called for an "immediate withdrawal" of Indian troops at Doklam "to avoid escalation", even as Beijing briefed foreign diplomatic missions in China on the stand-off at the trijunction.

"We have reiterated our position," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said. "We hope the Indian side can get a clear understanding of the current situation and take immediate measures to bring back the personnel that illegally crossed the boundary so as to avoid escalation."

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On the briefing with the foreign diplomatic missions in Beijing, Lu said: "The illegal trespass by the Indian border personnel has drawn extensive attention from the international community."

"Many foreign diplomatic missions in China said they were shocked by this and wanted to confirm whether it was true with the Chinese side," he said. "China maintains close communication with foreign diplomatic missions on issues they are interested in."

Lu said China "also stressed that facts are very clear in this incident."

"The Sikkim section is mutually recognised by two sides and this time Indian border personnel illegally trespassed the boundary into China's territory," he said.

"We stressed the Indian side should not take a trespass as policy tool to realise their political target."

ALSO READ:

Beijing does not fear war: Is China gearing for battle over Doklam standoff?

India-US-Japan's Malabar naval exercise is a message gift-wrapped for China

ALSO WATCH: China's public statements on border situation a sign of bullying?

--- ENDS ---
Thirty roads have been constructed, as per the scheduled time frame of 2012-13, while work is in progress on the rest of the roads.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: The Narendra Modi government has announced fast tracking of construction of roads and infrastructure at the Sino-India border. At a time when India is looking to fend off the dragon's threat on its eastern border, the Government of India (GoI) is looking to build strategic roads near the Sino-India border. This was stated by Minister of State (MoS) for Home Kiren Rijiju today in a written reply to Lok Sabha MP Dhruva Narayana.

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Rijiju in a detailed reply to an unstarred question told the lower house that "Government has decided to undertake construction of 73 roads of operational significance along the Sino-India Border. Of these, 46 roads are constructed by Ministry of Defense while 27 roads by Ministry of Home Affairs. "

Thirty roads have been constructed, as per the scheduled time frame of 2012-13, while work is in progress on the rest of the roads. There has been a massive delay on account of inclement weather, mountainous rugged terrain, natural calamities, delay in forest and wild life clearance and land acquisition.

DOKLAM STANDOFF

Indian and Chinese troops are staring down at each other at the Doklam, Trijunction, with China on Tuesday calling for an "immediate withdrawal" of Indian troops at Doklam "to avoid escalation". The stand-off resulted with construction by Chinese PLA in the region. There has been massive construction by the Chinese in their end of the region, with India having lot of catching up to do.

The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had done a review in Sikkim capital Gangtok examining the progress of Indo-China infrastructure projects. A high level Empowered committee (HLEC) was headed by Home Secretary and a steering committee under chairman ship of Secretary Border management.

Immediate steps to fast track clearance includes state making empowered committee to resolve issues of land acquisition, wild life clearance, allotment of quarries etc. Ministry of Environment, Forest and climate change has acorded general approval under section (2) of the Forest (Conversation) Act 1980 for diversion of forest land for construction and widening of border roads in the area falling within 100 km of arerial distance of Kine of Actual Control (LAC).

Ministry of Defence has also approved long term roll on Work Plan and Long Term Equipment plan for border roads. DG Border roads has created posts of senior rank of ADG in East and West to supervise and monitor infrastructure work at the Sino India Border. More financial powers have also been given to these officers to avoid procurement delays.

ALSO READ:

Beijing does not fear war: Is China gearing for battle over Doklam standoff?

India-US-Japan's Malabar naval exercise is a message gift-wrapped for China

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ALSO WATCH: China's public statements on border situation a sign of bullying?

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As many as 25 one-horned rhinos have died in Chitwan National Park in Nepal in the last one year. The Nepal's Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation took a decision to transfer 30 rhinos from CNP to two national parks which aim to prevent possible epidemic dangers and increase the population of healthy rhinos.

By India Today Web Desk: Chitwan National Park was established in 1973. It is a preserved area in the Terai Lowlands of south-central Nepal. CNP is known for its biodiversity and is also renowned for protection of the one-horned rhinoceros.

Latest CNP report suggests that at least 25 endangered one-horned rhinos died in Nepal's largest rhinos habitat in the last one year.

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The CNP authority believes 21 of the total died a natural death while two died due to poaching activities and other two because of electric shock around the habitat.

"We have recorded death of 25 rhinos last year where 21 had natural deaths, two died due to electric shock and two died in course of poaching," Nurendra Aryal, CNP's Assistant Conservation Officer, told Xinhua news agency earlier this week.

The poaching incidents in last one year broke the two-year record in which the habitat authorities successfully prevented any such poaching activities of these creatures.

In August 2016, a one-horned rhino was shot by the poachers in a forest in Nepal's Rautahat district and died. There was a second killing of the animal in 2017 where another rhino whose horn was hacked out, was shot dead in April.

one-horned rhinos. Photo courtesy: Reuters one-horned rhinos. Photo courtesy: Reuters

Rhinos are famous especially for their horns which are believed to be worth lakhs in the global market, hence poachers see them as a potential target.

These horns are also regarded as traditional medicine in some countries.

As per the government records, most of the poaching activities took place during the armed conflict in Nepal between 1996 and 2006.

According to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, out of a total 645 rhinos in Nepal, more than 600 rhinos are in Chitwan National Park alone.

CNP also relocated eight rhinos to two different national parks in the last fiscal year as a part of a decision which was taken in 2015 by Nepal's Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation to transfer 30 one-horned rhinos from CNP to two national parks within three years.

"During the 2016-2017 fiscal, we relocated five rhinos to the Far-Western Region-based Shuklaphanta National Park and three rhinos to the Bardiya National Park. The relocation process will continue during this fiscal as well," Nurendra Aryal said.

It is believed that the steps taken by the government will prevent possible epidemic dangers while it aims to increase the population of healthy rhinos in Nepal.

Rare one-horned Rhino in Chitwan National Park

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FYI || Cutting horns, removing thorns: Czech zoo decides to saw off horns of rhinos to protect them from poachers ||

FYI || Kaziranga National Park: Forest officials recover rhino carcass with missing horn ||

FYI || Watch: Zoo burns rhino horns worth Rs 7 crore to raise awareness about the endangered species ||

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By PTI: (EDs: Incorporating reax) Bengaluru/New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) The Karnataka government has initiated a move for a separate flag for the state with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today stoutly defending this step after it came under attack from rival parties.

A nine-member committee has been formed by the Congress government and tasked with submitting a report on designing a separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it, an official said today.

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If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of theConstitution. The committee, headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, was set up last month following a representation from noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa, and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada. Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag forKannada Naadu and accord it legal standing. The panel comprises secretaries to the departments of Personnel and Administrative Services, Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, as also president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat, chairman of Kannada Development Authority, and vice-chancellor of Kannada University, Hampi, as its members. The Director of Department of Kannada and Culture will bethe member-secretary to the committee.

The un-official but widely seen red and yellow Kannada flag that is hoisted in every nook andcorner of the state on November one every year to commemorate the state formation day and used in the form of a scarf by Kannada activists was designed by Veera Senani Ma.Ramamurthy in the 1960s.

The Siddaramaiah governments move to form a committeeis being considered as a departure from the stand taken by the earlier BJP government.

The Sadananda Gowda-led BJP government in 2012 hadinformed the Karnataka High Court that it has not accepted thesuggestions to declare the bi-colour Kannada flag as the states official flag, as having a separate flag would be "against the unity and integrity of the country." Asked about the panel by reporters today, Siddaramaiah sought to know if there was any provision in the Constitution which prohibits the state from having its own flag. "Is there any provision in the Constitution? Have you come across any provision in the Constitution? Did BJP people come across the provision? Then why they are raising?" he said defending the move.

On taking the step ahead of 2018 state assembly polls, he said, "Election will be in the month of April-May not now, not tomorrow, not next month."

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Hitting out at the BJP, Siddaramaiah said, "Did BJPpeople say they do not want flag for Karnataka state? Let them make a statement that we do not want flag for Karnatakastate. The BJP people always level such a false allegation."

Condemning the move, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut demanded imposition of Presidents rule in Karnataka.

Raut contended that the state governments demand is "anti-constitutional and against the nations integrity."

"I think it is anti-constitutional for a state to make such a demand in a federal structure and is against the national integrity. Such a government should be immediately dismissed and Presidents rule be imposed there," he told reporters in Delhi. PTI KSU RAAPR ENM GSN GSN

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For the Worlds Largest Hot Dog Chain  July 19 is a very significant day of the year. On this day, Americans celebrate National Hot Dog Day, honoring one of the nations most iconic and favorite foods. Irvine, Calif.-based Wienerschnitzel is making its restaurants the ultimate place to celebrate this years National Hot Dog Day with a limited time offer of five Original Chili Dogs for $5 (Pictured: Wienerschnitzels Original Chili Dog).

The special price is valid only on July 19, while supplies last, at participating Wienerschnitzel restaurants. Hungry hot dog fans should know there is no limit on this deal, but customers need to order in multiples of five for the discount to apply.

The hot dog is one of the most iconic American foods, and its even better with our world-famous chili, said JR Galardi, executive vice president at Wienerschnitzel. Since the chili dog is the original menu item that made Wienerschnitzel so popular 56 years ago, this limited offer is the most fitting way for us to celebrate National Hot Dog Day.


With recreational legalization in Nevada comes many questions about purchasing, use and safety; and the Nevada Dispensary Association (NDA) is providing answers with the creation of www.GoodToKnowNV.com (Pictured: NDA Executive Director, Riana Durrett).

An easy reference for frequently asked questions as well as for imminent topics, such as addressing early demand and distribution, the site will be continually updated to incorporate new information as it becomes available.

Just a few weeks in, were finding that people have a lot of questions about recreational usage, from youth prevention and edible safety to wanting to know where they may legally consume cannabis, said Nevada Dispensary Association executive director, Riana Durrett. We created GoodToKnowNV.com to provide a simple resource for the general public to help navigate Nevada laws.

Photo credit: Joe Durkin.

There will be millions of tourists enjoying recreational weed in Nevada and we want them to have fun, but also know the basic laws, said Nevada State Senator Tick Segerblom, who has been a champion for legal cannabis in the state.

The sections of the website include: illegal vs. illegal, edible safety, youth prevention, legally purchase, resources and for employees, which provides information about dispensary agent training. The legally purchase section includes a comprehensive listing of licensed dispensaries throughout Nevada.
3M Vietnam inaugurates new production facility in Dong Nai province

The opening ceremony was held on July 14, 2017 in Long Thanh-Dong Nai Industrial Zone. 3M Vietnams new 5,500-square metre facility will manufacture consumer and industrial products, such as Scotch-Brite scouring pads and Abrasive belts using proprietary 3M technology and process to cater to the fast-changing needs of customers.

SungJong Yoon, managing director of 3M Vietnam, said, "The new plant plays an important role in meeting the increasing demands of domestic and export manufacturers. The expansion of our plant in Long Thanh is an important pillar of 3M in the Vietnamese market, marking the continuous development of the company in expanding production lines, processing, and distribution of 3M products. We are committed to providing high-quality products to our customers.

The new plant will cover domestic and export production, elevating Vietnam as a base of operations

3M Vietnam has constantly maintained a high and stable growth rate since its inception in the country, contributing to the significant growth of the country. By a promise of long-term investment in Vietnam, 3M has demonstrated its belief in the potential of the Vietnamese market.

Established in 1994, 3M Vietnam - a subsidiary of the US' 3M Company, is now headquartered in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

In Vietnam, the company manufactures numerous products, including appliances and stationery, electrical, electronic, healthcare and safety products.

3M Company is a global leader in innovative technique and technology. 3M is well-known for its research, development, and technology-creation based on 46 foundations of technique designed to diversify its products. 3M Company provides customers with more than 90,000 products in various fields in over 200 countries.

3M Company has subsidiaries in more than 70 countries with a huge number of employees all over the world. The revenue of the parent company in 2016 was over $30 billion.
Nguyen Canh Tinh met with leaders of A.P. Moller-Maersk Group

At a recent meeting with Nguyen Canh Tinh, acting CEO of Vinalines in Denmark in late July, Anders Wurtzen, senior vice president of A.P. Moller-Maersk, said that Cai Mep International Terminals Ltd. (CMIT) is an important landmark in the cooperation between Vinalines and Maersk.

Especially, the call of Margrethe Maersk, an 18,000 TEU-Triple-E container ship, the worlds largest, at CMIT in early 2017 affirmed the long-term commitment of the group with Vietnam and Vinalines, Wurtzen added.

The two sides agreed to boost cooperation in providing Vinalines' domestic transportation services and increasing services and human resources quality.

A.P. Moller-Maersk is also interested in cooperation with Vinalines to invest in a number of projects, such as Lach Huyen Port, and Vinalines' initial public offering (IPO), which will be launched at the end of this year.

A.P. Moller-Maersk now has APM Terminals, one of the world's leading global port operators, and Maesk Line as members. As APM Terminals is a foreign partner of Vinalines in CMIT, the terminal is considered an important part in A.P. Moller-Maersk's global service chain.

Margrethe Maersk calls at CMIT

After facing troubles in attracting cargo in the 2011-2015 period, CMIT is enjoying strong recovery in recent years thanks to a number of measures to increase the volume of containers from the northern and central regions to Cai Mep and launching many new services.

In 2016, CMIT reported container throughput of 1.2 million TEUs, meeting its designed capacity, and revenue of $22.64 million.

In the first half of 2017, the terminal made a revenue of $11.4 million, surpassing the target by 3 per cent. It also handled 187 vessels with a container throughput of 620,834 TEUs, meeting 46.63 per cent of this year's target of 1.3 million TEUs, and rising 7.66 per cent from the same period last year.
DHL eCommerce entered Vietnam and launched operations in July 2017

The domestic delivery network will offer high-quality delivery services across Vietnam and a range of services tailored for the booming e-commerce industry, helping small, medium, and large e-tailers and marketplaces increase their share of the rapidly growing Vietnamese e-commerce segment.

The Vietnamese e-commerce market represents a huge and relatively untapped potential for local retailers, e-tailers, and marketplaces: in 2016, total e-commerce spending hit $1 billion despite barely 50 per cent of the population being online, said Charles Brewer, CEO of DHL eCommerce. With e-commerce spending expected to grow at around 23 per cent per year between now and 2020, local e-tailers need scalable, high-quality logistics solutions with nationwide coverage more than ever.

DHL eCommerce Vietnam offers domestic delivery nationwide across the country, managed by hubs and depots strategically located throughout the country. DHL eCommerces fleet of vans and motorbikes, coupled with regular air and road connections between its hubs, will support next-day delivery in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and other primary markets.

When using the network, local e-tailers can easily assign shipments requiring cash on delivery services through DHL eCommerces online portal, allowing for faster remittances and simpler management of shipment information. Consumers will also be able to open, check, and return goods at the point of receipt, thanks to DHLs Open Box Delivery service, better aligning the online shopping experience with their preferred purchasing habits.

Only 15 per cent of Vietnamese e-commerce shoppers paid online in 2016, making cash on delivery a must-have feature to succeed. This, combined with concerns about the hassle of returns and refunds, has made growth an uphill battle for many local e-tailers, said Thomas Harris, managing director of DHL eCommerce Vietnam.

We recognise that having a fast and reliable delivery service will not solve these issues alone, which is why we have tailored our nationwide network to seamlessly handle cash payments with next day cash remittances and returns to take the burden off local e-tailers so they can fully focus on growth and customer experience, he said.

DHL Express Vietnam receives Gold Award for Best Community Programme at the Annual Global CSR Awards 2017 DHL Express Vietnam, the worlds leading international express services provider announced that it has been honoured with a Gold Award for the Best Community Programme for the first time at the 9th Global CSR Summit and Awards 2017  the regions longest reigning and widely respected CSR summit.

DHL Express launches new service for global online shopping DHL Express, the worlds leading international express services provider, on February 6 announced the launch of On Demand Delivery, a new service that allows shippers and receivers globally to select from a range of standardised delivery options.
The Kisan Akrosh rally in Rajasthan will mark the beginning of nationwide protests by Congress on farmers distress.

By Supriya Bhardwaj: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address a farmers' rally in Banswara, Rajasthan on Wednesday. He will address a historic Kisan Akrosh rally which will be attended by a large number of farmers from across Rajasthan.

"Farmers in Rajasthan are committing suicides but the state government is silent. We are launching this massive statewide farmers protest on July 19 through a rally which will be addressed by Rahulji," said Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sachin Pilot.

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A party spokeswoman said, "All the preparations have been done for the meeting."

According to sources, the Kisan Akrosh rally in Rajasthan will mark the beginning of nationwide protests by Congress on farmers distress.

Others states will also hold rallies, Kisan Mahapanchayats and will raise the matter in their state assemblies where they will demand loan waiver for farmers, good MSP price and compensation for the families of farmers who committed suicides.

Meanwhile, the principal Opposition party MPs have already raised Mandsaur killings and farmers' suicide issues in the Lok Sabha on Day 2 of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.

The Opposition led by Congress has already declared farmers' suicide and distress as their main issue is to corner the NDA government. MPs from various Opposition parties have already given adjournment notices in both Houses of the Parliament to raise the farmers' distress issue.

Many election going states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat will be seeing aggressive protests led by the Congress.

Also read:

On third day of protest, Tamil Nadu farmers tie self in chains

Tamil Nadu farmers are back in New Delhi, hold march to PM Modi's residence

Tamil Nadu farmer protest: 9 antics used to grab attention of PM Narendra Modi and the media

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Workers are working at the Dung Quat Shipyard in Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Province.

At present, hundreds of shipyard workers in the central province of Quang Ngai's Binh Son District are still working on three ships which may be their last products as the company may close soon.

The news that the firm may go bankrupt is worrying worker Truong Van Chanh as well as nearly 1,000 other staff of the company.

Worker Truong Van Chanh said that he had been working at Dung Quat Shipyard for very long and at this age, he didn't know where to go if the company closes.

Chanh, 37, who has been working at the company for the past 13 years said, "I've been here for very long and at this age, I don't know where to go if the company closes."

Chanh said when the company was operating well, his salary was VND10 million (USD441) a month so life was very good.

"But now we don't have much work to do so my salary has slashed to only half of that, between VND4-5 million a month," he said.

The worker said that he and many other workers have been seeking for extra jobs to earn more money.

"Although the situation now is very difficult, we still hope that it will get better some day," he said. "We don't want to lose the job we have been doing for a long time."

Another worker, Nguyen Cong Tinh, 32, said that he has been working for the firm for 11 years and would have difficulties finding other work.

"We have sold our agricultural land for this project," Tinh explained. "Maybe we have to leave our hometown to seek better opportunities."

Speaking to Dtinews, chairman of the company trade union, Vo Tan Thanh, admitted that they were very sad about the proposal by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to close.

"We're still trying to complete three ships before the end of this year and hope that that won't be our last contract," Thanh said. "Most of our workers have been working here for at least seven years and arent young so theyll face difficulties finding a job at other companies."

The Ministry of Industry and Trade recently proposed to the National Assembly to prioritise bankruptcy for the business which was one of five loss-making projects invested by PetroVietnam.

Originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of the troubled Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, which went bankrupt in 2012 and was renamed the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in 2013, the shipbuilder came under PetroVietnams management in July 2010, shortly before being tasked with several shipbuilding projects and eventually descending into extreme debt.

The Vietnam Economic Times cited financial statements as at June 30, 2010, the shipbuilder had charter capital of VND3.76 trillion (USD165.8 million) and total losses of VND7.44 trillion (USD328 million), including bank loans of VND4.8 trillion (USD211.6 million), 70 percent of which were in foreign currency.

After taking over the management of DQS, PetroVietnam pumped VND5.1 trillion (USD224 million) into the company, including charter capital of nearly VND2 trillion (USD88 million) and VND3.1 trillion (USD136 million) for paying its debts.

Figures from the ministry showed that by the end of June last year, the shipbuilders total debts were VND6.89 trillion (USD307.6 million), accumulated losses VND3.68 trillion (USD164.3 million), and negative equity VND1.18 trillion (USD52.7 million).

The shipbuilders equipment was described as inappropriate and out of date, and had failed quality requirements for manufacturing and production processes, resulting in a large annual depreciation cost for the shipbuilder, according to ministrys assessment, the Vietnam Economic Times reported.

The firm was one among seven additional loss-making projects reported recently by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, raising the number of failing projects to 12.

The projects, five of which that were invested in by PetroVietnam, and four by the national chemicals corporation Vinachem, include Dinh Vu Polyester Plant, Phuong Nam Pulp Factory, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel joint stock Corporation, Dung Quat Bioethanol Plant, Ninh Binh Fertilizer Plant, Ha Bac Fertilizer Plant, DAP 1 Lao Cai Fertilizer Plant, DAP Fertilizer 2 Hai Phong , Ethanol Binh Phuoc, Ethanol Phu Tho, Dung Quat Shipyard and the joint venture between Quy Sa and Lao Cai Steel Plant.
Samsung and LG are investigated for charges of dumping in the US

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has formally initiated a global safeguard investigation on imported washing machines and related components manufactured in Vietnam by Samsung and LG.

A representative of Samsung in Vietnam said that at the end of June 2017, the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade had informed them about this investigation. At present, Samsung is dealing with related parties to solve the problem.

In particular, on May 31, 2017, Whirlpool Corporation filed a petition with the ITC against Samsung and LG. The safeguard petition is meant to provide help to domestic manufacturers hurt by importers selling products at excessively low prices.

Whirlpool said that during 2012-2016, the volume of imported washing machines in the US has doubled from 1.6 million to 3.21 million units, which heavily damaged the US washing machine manufacturing industry, beating down revenue and profit and increasing unemployment.

Moreover, Whirlpool accused numerous washing machine manufacturers, including Samsung and LG, of moving their factories from China to Vietnam or Thailand to evade the dumping tariff imposed on washing machines produced in China.

The US is imposing a 1 per cent of tax on washing machines, and 2.6 per cent on related components if they are produced in Vietnam, but washing machines and related components from China and South Korea have to suffer significantly higher charges of 52.5 and 32.1 per cent, respectively, after Whirlpools proposal to impose anti-dumping tax on these two countries was approved by the ITC in 2016.

Thus, if such high tax was imposed on washing machines manufactured in Vietnam, Samsung and LGs exports from Vietnam would be heavily influenced.

The representative of Samsung said that consumers chose Samsung products due to their design and innovations. Thus, consumers will be the ones who suffer most if Whirlpools proposal to the ITC is approved. Samsungs representative said that Whirlpool has restricted customers choices, raised selling prices, while its products had no significant innovation or improvement.

According to speculations, Whirlpool sued Samsung and LG Vietnam because it has been losing market share in the US in the last one year.

According to the newswire Vnexpress, by the end of the first quarter of 2017, Whirlpools market share in the US decreased by 2.4 per cent, from 19.2 to 17.3 per cent. Thus, Whirlpool lost its number one position in the US washing machine market to Samsung, which increased its market share from 16.2 to 19.7 per cent, an equivalent of 3.5 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2017.

Similarly, LG have also been quickly raising its market share in the US and it was positioned at the third rank regarding market share, with 16.8 per cent.

In an announcement, LG said that this lawsuit demonstrated Whirlpools lack of ability to compete with other global brands.

In Vietnam, since 2014, Samsung has invested more than $2 billion into expanding its appliance manufacturing complex in Ho Chi Minh City, which was put into operation in February 2016.

LG Electronics complex, which produces TVs, cell phones, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and digital devices for domestic consumption and export, was constructed in the northern port city of Haiphong with the total investment of $1.5 billion and was put into operation at the end of March 2014.

According to VCA, it is expected that the ITC will announce its final conclusions to this lawsuit on October 5, 2017, and it will report to US President Donald Trump to have a final call on whether the US will impose anti-dumping tax on foreign washing machine manufacturers, such as Samsung or LG.

The final decision is expected to be made and released on December 4, 2017.
Viettels Bitel brand in Peru posted the highest growth rate among the companys overseas markets with 82 per cent

Viettel has recorded a pre-tax profit of VND1 trillion ($41.2 million) from its overseas investments, a 156 per cent year-on-year increase, during this period.

A report reviewing the business results of Viettels overseas investments in nine markets showed that in the first six months of this year, the companys revenue rose by 25 per cent compared to the same period last year, to around VND14 trillion ($600 million).

Of this, revenue in Peru posted the highest growth rate of 82 per cent, followed by Burundi with 38 per cent, East Timor with 29 per cent, and Haiti with 15 per cent.

The positive results come from the revenue generated by mobile phone telecommunications services, especially new services, such as 4G, e-wallet, and large information technology projects for governments and businesses.

These projects include the line connecting East Timor, Laoss population management system, the transmission channel for the Mozambique Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and a tax payment system for Burundi.

In addition, Viettel also received positive signs in Laos, with its Unitel brand maintaining its leading position with four million subscribers. Also, its Telemor brand in East Timor has been granted a new frequency to expand its network, thus bringing in a revenue of several million US dollars.

The favourable exchange rate in Viettels overseas markets also contributed towards the good business results.

The achievements are expected to be a pre-condition for a higher growth rate for the group this year. Viettel has targeted a strong growth rate of 35 per cent, with around 50 million subscribers in 2017. Revenue from overseas investments has been set at VND32 trillion ($1.4 billion) and its growth rate at 29 per cent this year.

The group plans to complete building network infrastructure in its tenth market, Myanmar, this year, as well as create modern broadband infrastructure for 4G in these markets.
The Delhi Police has nabbed a suspect in the lynching case of 14-year-old Yogesh Kumar, who was found dead near the Delhi Railway Station a week back.

By Mail Today Bureau: A day after Mail Today reported about the murder of 14-year-old Yogesh Kumar in Delhi, police said that a man-hunt is on to nab three suspects, while one of them has already been nabbed.

Yogesh's mother has claimed that he was held hostage and lynched by his Muslim friends. According to the police, Shravan, who was arrested two days after the incident, has not confessed his involvement in the crime.

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During interrogation, he disclosed that he was accompanied by three friends and one of them is Muslim. A source close to investigation said: "The circumstantial evidences suggests that all five of them consumed alcohol in the late hours of June 23. They may have had a heated argument which first turned into scuffle and later resulted in the death of Yogesh."

'THEY DEMANDED RS 10,000'

However, Yogesh's mother Seema, told Mail Today, "On June 23, Yogesh left home after getting a call from his friend Arif. He, along with other friends, including a girl Fatima, first kidnapped my son, later demanding Rs 10,000 from me. I was told that if money was not given on time, they will kill my son. The very next morning, I was told that my son was killed and thrown somewhere along the railway track near New Delhi station," said Seema, who lives in Shahadra's Meet Nagar.

Yogesh Kumar (14) was found dead near the Delhi Railway Station, on the tracks.

Yogesh was found dead under mysterious circumstances near New Delhi Railway Station last month. Multiple injury marks were found all over his face and the body indicated that he was battered to death. Meanwhile, on Monday, the police claimed that it was not a case of lynching but that of a brutal murder. An FIR in possession with Mail Today says the body was lying in a pool of blood. Broken glass bottles, a stone and a few bricks were also found with traces of blood.

Also read: My son was lynched by his Muslim friends: Mother of 14-year-old cries for justice

Also read: Ayub Pandith lynching: Jammu and Kashmir cop was stripped, dragged and beaten with rod

Also read: Jharkhand: Man accused of raping, killing 8-year-old lynched by mob

Also read: Jharkhand: Third lynching in fortnight, mob kills man for murdering wife

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Who better to channel your rage about the subway system than your favorite New York City misanthropes, Julie and Billy? Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner return to Difficult People for its third season on Hulu, alongside the rest of the cast, including Andrea Martin, James Urbaniak, and Gabourey Sidibe, plus an impressive array of guest stars: Lucy Liu! Maury Povich! John Cho! Maybe most importantly, as youll see in this exclusive trailer, John Cho is kissing Billy Eichner! Cho joins the cast for a multiple-episode guest arc where he plays Billys first real boyfriend. Meanwhile, Julie contends with mental-health issues as she attempts to wean herself off anti-depressants and tries out fancy New Age trends like meditation and ayahuasca. Difficult People returns to Hulu on August 8 with three whole new episodes. So no more complaining! Were sick of it!
Kid Rock. Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for CMT

On the surface, Kid Rock running for Senate against Debbie Stabenow in 2018 looks like a fools errand, and it doesnt get much better beneath the surface. Stabenow, the senior senator from Michigan, holds the advantage of incumbency: She won her office during the 2000 elections and has held it ever since. After eking out a win in 2000, Stabenow was reelected in 2006 and 2012 by comfortable margins of 15 and 20 percent, respectively. Midterm elections all but always swing toward the party that doesnt hold the presidency, and Stabenows Democratic party will not hold the presidency in 2018. Furthermore, the man who currently is president seems to be particularly well-suited to mobilizing voters against him, as various special elections this year across the nation have demonstrated. Donald Trump is a very unpopular president, and its all but guaranteed that Kid Rock, who has gone out of his way to align himself with Trump, will be fighting an uphill battle.

Then again, the very fact that Trump is president at all shows that holding the high ground, though nice, is hardly an insurmountable advantage. Kid Rock is a long shot, but that hardly means he has no shot. As with Trump, name recognition goes a long way. Hundreds of millions of people know who Kid Rock is, and millions of them are Michigan residents eligible and willing to vote for him. As with Trump, an unknown but significant bloc of voters is open to voting for a celebrity who represents himself as bucking the system. However one defines it, the system is in terrible shape, and its Trumps system, but scapegoats for failure still abound, and Congressional Democrats have an approval rating even lower than Trumps. Kid Rocks lack of political experience is a selling point no less than a demerit, and his absence of a prior record in office shouldnt conceal the fact that, as a diamond-selling pop musician, he has a gift for crafting punchy slogans and keeping an audience in thrall. Though hes fallen from the prominence he commanded in the Y2K period, he still maintains a loyal fan base thats kept him comfortably afloat in an industry facing dire times.

As New Yorks own Ed Kilgore accurately notes, Rocks libertarian rhetoric of simplifying law codes, tax codes, and health care has an uncommonly high hat/cattle ratio. But simple messages, delivered frequently and repeated with enthusiasm, help win elections far more than fact-checking and bet-hedging. The Michigan Senate election is Stabenows to lose, but if she and her party fail to offer clear policy prescriptions (Medicare for all being an obvious example) of their own, its possible, if not quite plausible, that she could lose it.

Of course, a lot of other things would have to happen to bring Rock into striking distance, but nothing is certain, and the impossible has become a regular occurrence. Terrorist attacks and war declarations have been known to alter the usual electoral logic: Despite George W. Bush holding the presidency, the 2002 midterms tilted Republican thanks to 9/11 and the bombing of Afghanistan. In a time when even the week ahead is beyond prediction, theres no way to be clear what the world will be like in November 2018. Only once Kid Rock isnt sworn in as a senator in 2019 will it be certain that Kid Rock will not be a senator, and maybe not even then  hes only 46 right now, and who knows how long Stabenow, who will be 74 once her presumed fourth term ends, can remain in office. It seems unlikely that Rock will go away, even if he loses. And win or lose, what happens to him matters. So long as he significantly narrows Stabenows margin of victory relative to 2012, his run can be taken as proof that Trump-style barnstorming is a viable election strategy that may well outlast candidate Trump himself.

And misreadings of Trumpian campaigning, if the responses to Rocks campaign announcement are any indicator, seem likely to outlive Trump as well. Whatever Kid Rocks vote total (assuming he clears the Republican primary) in the general election may be in 2018, the bulk of it will come not from the trailer parks Rock habitually plays to in his music videos and lyrics, but from the reputable suburbs which form the cornerstone of Republican power before and after Trumps campaign  suburbs to which, incidentally, Rock is native. For all of Rocks dirtbag posturing, the artist himself was raised in an affluent household of precisely the sort most likely to benefit from the libertarianism hes currently campaigning on and least likely to suffer from the bellicose nationalism hes always professed. (The ex-superstar who actually hails from the poor, white working class is Eminem, who, for the record, despises Trump.)

Looking back, Rocks music career gives proof to a canny sense of genre and demography. His original explosion into prominence with Devil Without a Cause was self-engineered, the product of a prolonged period of refinement (no other word for it) of his sound and live act. Though Devil was released on a major label, its success owed little to the industry and much to Rocks capacity for networking and self-promotion, honed over the course of nearly a decades worth of dealings with indie and major labels. As the rap-rock wave subsided, the artist would smoothly manage his own transition from nu-metal-adjacency to the countrySouthernclassic-rock niche he occupies today. Americas major music labels and the major political parties find themselves in a similar position: Though still dominant as institutions, their ability to dictate preferences to a mass audience has drastically declined. Like Kanye last year, Rock is a pop star keen-sighted enough to perceive this disparity between what the political system demands and what the people want, and egotistical enough to attempt to bridge the gap with his personality.

Even if its not good politics, its certainly good business. Running for office in an election destined to be a referendum on Trump is a surefire means of raising ones profile, personally and musically. (Probably the most intriguing aspect of Rocks campaign rollout is its music-business aspect: I have recently worked out a unique deal with BMG, Broken Bow, CAA and Live Nation to release music ON MY TERMS. Like politicians write books during their campaigns, Im planning on putting out music during mine [] Its not a hoax, its a strategy and marketing 101!) Rock may be wrong, but hes not stupid. Its easy enough to mock him, but we tend to underestimate those we mock, and, in the wake of Trumps election, who can afford to underestimate anyone? Its crazy for Kid Rock to be running for senator, but for his opponents now to double down on squeamishness and condescension instead of offering voters policy changes that clearly benefit them seems even crazier.
I am seriously worried about the water supply in Orange County. Did some crazy Russian plot from the Cold War finally get carried out and all of the reservoirs were dosed with LSD? What else could possibly explain what happens in this episode?

First, we have Lydias mother, Judy, who literally sees shining lights around people. The only time that ever happened to me was when I was candy flipping at Soaking Man, which is like Burning Man except it happens in my bathtub and I am the only guest invited. She also throws confetti and fairy dust around, which really just seems like a way to caress Tamras boobs without upsetting her husband, Eddie.

Oh, and what about Shannon Beador? Shes so freaking high that she gets rid of her fruity bowl that keeps her feng shui in check and believes that paying attention to her energy patterns in her house will actually make her life better. Thats sort of like seeing chasers or believing that your home is alive because the walls are breathing, both side effects to Timothy Learys drug of choice.

Shannons feng shui expert Elaine is totally bunk. First of all, how does Shannon have a whole bin of feng shui stuff in her garage? Do you need things for feng shui? I might just be a stupid Westerner, but I thought that it was about arranging the things that are already in your house to optimize the flow of energy. Wouldnt having things expressly for this purpose just get in the way of all of that energy? Isnt having accessories for feng shui kind of beside the point?

I did like Elaines message about the sink being feminine and the stove being masculine and that if the two of them are facing each other, then its going to ruin the relationships in the house. That is clearly the problem between Shannon and David. Yup, its the placement of their appliances. Maybe if they put the toaster oven in the microwave it will be like electronics having sex and it will repair any damage that might have been done by whatever is going on with the sink. I mean, this is obviously the cause of all of the Beadors problems: the furniture. Yup, thats it.

Actually, were wrong. The real culprit is the toilet in the relationship corner of the house. Wait, does that mean that one corner of the entire house is devoted to relationships? Cant you have a corner in each room that does that? Anyway, Elaine says that the toilet in that quadrant is draining away Shannons relationships. I think Elaine doesnt entirely understand what a toilet does. Wouldnt the placement of that toilet just mean that all of Shannons relationships are full of shit? Thats sort of what Im thinking, especially considering how she treated Lydia.

Yes, the real reason I think that Shannon attempted to microdose but actually ended up macrodosing herself is because she acted like a total lunatic at Avas birthday party. I cant even adequately describe what happened because I was so taken aback by how nuts it was. It seems like Lydia, who just met Shannon, is trying to play both sides of the divide between Vicki and Tamra and Shannon. (Its really a divide between Vicki and the sane world, but I dont really have time to split hairs right now.) Shannon takes offense to that and brings up her issues with Vicki and Brookss fake cancer and then Lydia compares Shannon to Vicki.

This leads to several things. The first of which is that Shannon blames her entire weight gain on Victoria R. Gunvalson, Esq. which, I dont know, seems like a bit of a stretch. There are other ways to deal with stress and there are certainly other factors of stress in Shannons life, like the fact that her daughter has decided to start doing her makeup like shes an Avril Lavigne impersonator. Oh, and also that her husband cheated on her and it rocked her world for years. Now hes spending a lot of time with Eddie Judge. Im not trying to insinuate anything, I just wanted to point out that everyone called attention to the fact that they are bosom buddies. (Not Bosom Buddies, though. Neither of them can pull off a Tom Hanks.)

Anyway, Shannon flies off the handle at Lydia, who decides that they cant be friends because she acts so erratically. Shannon responds not by calming down, but by storming off in a huff as if to prove Lydias point. Neither of these women really handle the interaction all that well, but at least Lydia keeps her cool, which makes her look like the one who wins this first round.

We didnt really see that much from the other Housewives. Meghan is moving back to the O.C. from La Quinta after the birth of her daughter. She also has a dog named Girlie Girl, which is the worst name that has ever been given to a creature with four legs. And this is in a franchise where one Housewife is currently living with about seven different animals all named Baby. Girlie Girl come is not a sentence that any human should ever have to utter, especially one like Jim Edmonds, who is about as cuddly as a box of stale Shredded Wheat. I do not believe in cruelty to animals, but if someone were to drop this animal off at Vanderpump Pets so that it could be adopted and sent to a caring home where it would not be given a cruel and unusual name, I think all of us would be better off.

Meanwhile, Kelly Dodd goes exercising with her husband, Michael, which makes her the second Real Housewife this season who is going to a fitness professional not named Eddie or Tamra, which seems kind of odd to me. Even Bethenny got Madame Paulette to rid her closet of moths, so you figure that Kelly could get Eddie to force her to do a dozen or so burpees. But I cant really blame Kelly because her trainer Aaron is very handsome. In fact, hes far more handsome than my trainer, who is really just a homeless person I pay $20 to chase me around the block with a stick until I pass out or he beats me bloody.

We do finally meet Peggy, the new Real Housewife, but due to the details of the Eileen Davidson Accord, well have to wait four more episodes before we pass judgement on her. I will say her initial meeting with Lydia was, well, it was something. She asks Peggy if she had an operation recently and then says that her mother died of breast cancer at 51, so she had a preemptive double mastectomy, a procedure the rest of the world calls the Angelina Jolie. Lydias response to this disclosure is absolutely perfect. Um, thats a big story, Peggy, she says, with a little bit of shock and dread in her voice. Yeah, you aint kidding. I think Ill need something a little bit stronger than LSD if were going to have to keep hearing about this. Maybe whatever the hell Vicki always seems to be on.
As the specter of Russia looms over the American political scene, Stephen Colbert is launching a Russia week on The Late Show. First up: a trip to St. Petersburg, where Colbert investigated what Russian humor is like (mostly weird stop-sign jokes) and what happens on Russian late-night shows (mostly vodka drinking). Colbert took a turn as a guest on Ivan Urgants late-night show Evening Urgant, where, with the help of a translator, he gently sparred with Urgant, slapped him on command, and downed vodka shots chased with pickles. Colberts Russia Week will continue with more stories about Russian oligarchs and Putin dissidents, and will presumably end with a staged reading of all of War and Peace.
Beasts of No Nation. Photo: Bleecker Street/Netflix

Dads looking for something to watch on television before falling asleep may be the primary demographic for classic war films, but anyone can appreciate the genres emphasis on heroism, self-sacrifice, dignity, and duty. The title of war movie is simply too broad to be completely pigeonholed; even when dealing with the realities of armed conflict, the films listed below assume a wide variety of tones, perspectives, and even attitudes toward the wars they depict. From the America-first rah-rah propagandizing of WWII documentaries to the soul-sick reflections on the personal rot of Vietnam, take a look at the finest films about soldiers and those who command them currently streaming on Netflix.

Patton (1970)

Cinema hasnt given us many images more patriotically stirring than George C. Scott in his full dress uniform, striding before the stars and stripes while delivering a rousing inspirational speech. But one thin layer beneath the perfectly pressed nationalism, there are more complicated, troubling forces at play in this biopic of the celebrated military man. George Patton was an unrivaled strategist and an almost robotically driven soldier, but as portrayed by Scott, he was also a coarse, ruthless man who got in his own way when forced to interact with the higher-ups. Hes a Caesar-type figure, the kind of disciplined savage necessary to win in times of great crisis, but without a place in the civilized society that must follow.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Thirty years after Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick returned to the battlefield a changed man. His work had grown darker, colder, more obsessed with obsession in the intervening decades. The Kubrick stare gets a heavy workout, and the combat sequences are unbearably intense. (One encounter with a young sniper will shred your nerves to ribbons.) At once a condemnation of war and a reproduction of its inhumane conditions, it can stand with the best of Kubricks prime.

Hyena Road (2015)

In which Canada takes Afghanistan. This production from our neighbor to the north follows a team of snipers in enemy territory who get caught in the crossfire between a radical freedom fighter known as the Ghost and the local Taliban presence. Director Paul Gross aims to show the war at its most personal, whether its an act of revenge or a bid for self-salvation. Gross has the technical chops to make the suspenseful scenes crackle with tension, and his cast of actors (mostly Canadian stalwarts little-known in the U.S.) use their relative anonymity to melt into their roles. Were still waiting for the real world to tell us whether this film has a happy ending.

The Longest Day (1962)

The title refers to June 6, 1944  the day Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, turning the tide of World War II. (At least, in the American telling; a Russian one might differ.) Taking great care to capture every moving part in this massive war machine, the film makes use of each minute of its three hours. Even the personnel communicates the staggering scope of this thing: Three different directors were credited, one handling the British and French material, another for the American plot thread, and a third for the Germans. The gigantic ensemble cast contains everyone from John Wayne to Sean Connery to Henry Fonda, too. In every sense of the word, this is the Avengers of war movies.

The Desert Fox (1951)

We dont know if Nazi officer Erwin Rommel was really part of the covert campaign to assassinate Hitler, and historians have differing opinions on whether he was truly the morally sound dissenter this film makes him out to be. But what we know for sure is that James Mason is in top form as the ambivalent general, bringing his strong-and-silent star image to a story of shrewd courage (however fictionalized it may be). Mason gives one of his classic mans-man performances, showing the tortured soldier torn between a sense of pragmatic Manichean good and a loyalty to his country and brothers-in-arms. Good myth-making has never been 100 percent accurate.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Its the war film as only Quentin Tarantino could do it: filled with era-appropriate pop-culture references (whos up for a game of Celebrities?) and long, digressive dialogues that jump between languages as freely as they jump between topics. The movie-history magpie refashioned a World War II thriller about a squad of Jewish-American commandos as a revisionist revenge fantasy where towering, jacked mensches tee off on Third Reich skulls, and Hitler goes down in a flaming cinematheque. Definitely the most fun movie about the brutal inhumanity of the European theater, it gives Brad Pitt a role to feast on and introduced American audiences to a eccentric chameleon by the name of Christoph Waltz.

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

The war depicted in this harrowing film from True Detective season-one mastermind Cary Fukunaga has no name, no start or end point. Organized violence is simply a way of life in one of Africas more politically turbulent pockets, and gangs like the one headed by a ruthless Idris Elbaplayed warlord arent all that uncommon. But Fukunaga gets us uncommonly close to the action by focusing on one young boys forced conscription and moral fall from grace. First-time actor Abraham Attah, playing young Agu with stony strength, puts a face on an issue many Western viewers think of only in the abstract and personifies the heartbreaking loss of innocence all children must face.

Downfall (2004)

A severe, festival-favored international co-production between Germany, Italy, and Austria is the last place youd expect a viral meme to spin out of, but hey, we live in weird times. Oliver Hirschbiegels film is so much more than the oft-parodied scene of Adolf Hitler choked with apoplexy in his planning bunker, though; this detail-oriented account of the final ten days of the Third Reich plays like sober, thorough, and yet gripping historical reportage. As the fuhrer collapses into nothingness and handles his impending defeat by dragging as many people down with him as possible, the camera acts as a solemn witness to evils last gasp. Three hours of brutality culminating in a gruesome final act littered with corpses, its the single most ambitious screen biography of Hitler.

A War (2015)

Tobias Lindholms Academy Award nominee is atypical in all the right ways. Its the rare foreign film to train its crosshairs on the current global war on terror in the Middle East, like a Hurt Locker with Danish accents. Its really only partly a war movie, though, spending its first half setting up a tragic event which then becomes the subject of the courtroom proceedings that fill the back half. Far more interested in the ethics and ramifications of conflict than the valor it can inspire  the closest thing we get to a hero is a frightened pacifist  Lindholm spares no expense to acknowledge the preciousness and meaning of each life lost on the battlefield. Every bullet counts.

The Five Came Back collection

To accompany their documentary adaptation of Vulture columnist Mark Harriss book on Golden Age Hollywood directors shooting on the front during World War II, Netflix has added a wide selection of those filmmakers nonfiction output during the period. After learning about the great lengths these men went to in order to capture the realities of war, you can check out the fruits of their labor: John Huston inspired Paul Thomas Andersons The Master with Let There Be Light, his look at the struggles veterans face after returning to the home front; and John Ford played up the red-white-and-blue heroism in his chronicle of The Battle of Midway. But be warned: The anti-Asian bite of Frank Capras agitprop flick Know Your Enemy: Japan has not aged quite as well.
By Mail Today Bureau: He drove high-end cars, kept his wardrobe up-to-date with the latest trends and even did a bit charity by funding health camps in his area. But the money for this luxury lifestyle came from committed thefts and burglaries. The police, who have arrested the 27-year-old Irfan, claim he is involved in 12 cases of burglary and house theft.

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According to police sources, Irfan used to spend the stolen money in clubs in Mumbai and Delhi, and once even offered Rs 10,000 rupees to hear the song of his choice at a Delhi pub. Another man Dharmender, 30, who allegedly bought the stolen items from Irfan, has also been arrested, police said on Monday.

"Our team deployed their sources in Sitamarhi, Bihar, and identified the whereabouts of Irfan in the district. He was involved in house thefts as well as other thefts in Delhi and NCR, and was living a luxurious life there. Both he and Dharmender were arrested and a lot of stolen jewellery items were recovered from them," said a senior police official. During interrogation, Irfan revealed that he would roam around in posh localities of Delhi and NCR and break open the doors and windows of locked premises to commit thefts.

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AUSTIN  When Sierra Smith told Baylor University shed been sexually assaulted by a classmate during a 2016 spring break trip to South Padre Island, she hoped administrators would move to protect her and other students.

It took several months of investigation, but the university eventually did, suspending the male student for three semesters for violating Baylors sexual violence and harassment policies.

But by then, the punishment had little effect. The student Smith reported had already transferred to a new school  without a blemish on his record.

It bothers me that there could be another girl out there who could go through this, too, she said.

Baylor isnt the only school that doesnt list disciplinary violations on its students transcripts. Many other universities in Texas and across the nation, including the University of North Texas, have similar policies.

Schools say they are following a practice that has been standard in higher education for years. They argue that disciplinary proceedings arent criminal cases  and that a transcript should be viewed as an academic file, not a disciplinary record.

Several other Texas schools, including the University of Houston, Texas State University and Texas A&M University, include notations when the investigation is final, but dont note when a case is pending. They say they are are trying not to punish students before they have even been found responsible for wrongdoing.

But some college administrators and victims rights advocates worry that failing to provide notice on a transcript  either of a final or pending investigation  creates an escape hatch for students transferring to avoid punishment. A student could end up at a new school, they say, without that university ever knowing the students past.

That happens routinely, said Wanda Mercer, associate vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of Texas System and an expert on the issue.

Lately, more universities are beginning to address those concerns. Baylor, for example, is currently reviewing whether it should change its policy.

But supporters of including disciplinary records on transcripts say change is coming too slowly. Case in point: An attempt to impose a statewide rule requiring the notations failed during the 2017 Texas legislative session.

Smiths story

Stories of female students upset about the handling of their sexual assault cases have plagued Baylor for years. But in Smiths instance, the university took action  even if it took longer than she had hoped.

She was a sophomore during the trip to South Padre, visiting for the night with a friend. Once there, she met up with a male student with whom she had been previously romantically involved.

Whenever I woke up later that night, it was to him deciding that me saying no wasnt enough deterrence, Smith said.

Smith didnt report the incident to the university at first. She didnt even tell most of her friends. But soon, it began to affect her schoolwork and her personal life. She had trouble concentrating, and she turned to partying to take her mind off things.

I was just replaying in my head everything that happened over and over again, she said. Maybe I remembered it wrong. Maybe Im going crazy.

One day, Smith broke down crying in the office of one of her professors. She told her teacher everything, prompting a Baylor investigation. Within a couple of days, the university sent the male student an order to avoid all contact with Smith. It also sent official notice that it was opening a disciplinary case, required by federal law when one student accuses another of assault.

The university ultimately found the male student responsible in the case and placed him on probation. Smith appealed that decision, and the punishment was increased to a three-semester suspension.

That final decision was little comfort for Smith, who learned that the male student had already transferred. While she was happy he was out of her life, she wondered, What happens when he goes [to his new school]?

Registrars reluctance

For the UT Systems Mercer, it comes as no surprise that a student would try to transfer amid a disciplinary case.

If you are someone who is charged and you dont feel like you have violated the rules, the processes can take some time, she said. You might say, The semester is not over yet, but I am out of here.

Mercer, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on the subject, has spent years warning universities about that possibility. The solution is simple, she says: Include a notation of a disciplinary case on the students transcript, so any future school will know to ask questions before admitting the student. She helped the UT System devise such a policy in recent years. Texas Tech University takes a similar approach.

Many other schools have been reluctant. A 2015 national survey of university registrars found that about 40 percent didnt support including disciplinary notations on transcripts.

That opposition appears to be shrinking. For two decades, the influential American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers actively discouraged schools from making note of disciplinary issues on transcripts. In December 2015, the group switched to being neutral on the subject. Last month, it shifted again and began encouraging such notations when disciplinary cases are final. The group doesnt specifically recommend a policy on pending disciplinary cases.

Its a touchy issue, said Kristi Wold-McCormick, the registrar at the University of Colorado who chaired the task force that recommended the most recent change. When a conduct case is pending and an investigation is underway, we dont know the outcome yet.

Wold-McCormick said some registrars still think transcripts should solely be academic documents not records of disciplinary matters. She said others are worried about legal liability; students might sue if they feel they were blocked from transferring because of a note on their transcript.

Students futures

There is also concern about how transcript notations could affect the futures of punished students. Disciplinary notations dont usually say what students were punished for  only that they were suspended or expelled. A student kicked out for drinking at a conservative school might have a hard time getting into a new school that isnt overly concerned with that offense.

While Baylor officials wouldnt comment publicly on their policy, background information they provided to The Texas Tribune suggests its administrators share some of those concerns.

Advocates for the notations say those worries are easily addressed: limit the use of notations to major offenses  those serious enough to warrant expulsion or suspension. A notation for a suspension could be removed from a transcript once the term of the suspension is complete.

The advocates also add that when theres no criminal record, a students transcript may be a future universitys only source of warning. Sexual assault cases involving two students who know each other rarely make it to criminal court, because victims are often reluctant to go through a public trial and prosecutors hesitate to take on cases that pit one students word against anothers.

But many universities worry about punishing a student too much too soon. Just because someone is under investigation doesnt mean they are guilty, school officials say. Many universities  including A&M, which adds transcript notations only when the final results are in  say they will provide information on pending investigations verbally to transfer universities conducting background checks on potential students.

House bill fails

In recent years, two states, New York and Virginia, have adopted laws that establish statewide disciplinary notation policies. This year, Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, tried to make Texas the third. His proposal, House Bill 3142, would have required notations for all university cases that resulted in a major punishment.

Smith traveled from Waco to Austin to testify in favor of the proposal. At a late-night committee hearing in April, she told the Texas House Higher Education Committee her story.

I was not the first girl he came into contact with, she told legislators, and I will not be the last.

So the next time a girl decides to be brave enough to report him  because it will happen again  there will be no record, she added. The school will not know what has happened in the past and he will run away again or get off with nothing.

A week later, the committee unanimously advanced the bill. But Turners legislation suffered a common fate in the Texas Capitol  the clock ran out on the legislative session before the Texas House could vote on it.

Turner and Smith both said they hope universities will consider changing their policies on their own. If not, Turner said he expects to file the bill again in 2019. And Smith, an aspiring lawyer, said shell be there again to tell her story.

I hope to continue to advocate for these things for the rest of my life, she said.
The aim of a VIP cell is definitely not to extend hospitality to people accused in disproportionate assets case.

By India Today Web Desk: The row over alleged VIP treatment to Sasikala Natarajan is only getting bigger with further revelations from DIG Prisons D Roopa's report coming out in the open.

According to D Roopa's report, prisoner number 9234 Sasikala Natarajan has five cells in the Bengaluru Central Prison to herself. Sasikala allegedly enjoys perks of a separate kitchen, a comfortable bedding and a flat screen television.

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D Roopa's report alleges that Sasikala paid a bribe of Rs 2 crore to jail officials, including Director General of Prisons, to get the special treatment in the Bengaluru jail.

WHO IS A VIP PRISONER?

A VIP prisoner can be a former union cabinet minster, a minister of state, a Member of Parliament (MP), a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), former Vidhan Sabha speakers and deputy speakers.

Those authorised by a judicial magistrate to get a 'VIP status' are also VIP prisoners. Prisoners can apply for VIP status depending on their social standing and economic background before the conviction.

VIP cells are ideally meant to protect high-profile convicts from other prison inmates. For Ajmal Kasab, convicted in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the government had built a special bomb and bullet proof cell at the Arthur Road Central prison.

The aim of a VIP cell is definitely not to extend hospitality to people accused in disproportionate assets case.

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?

The Prisons Act, 1894 lists the don'ts for prison officials and prohibits them from indulging in any business dealing with prisoners.

It says, "No officer of a prison shall sell or let not shall any person in trust for or employed by him sell or let, or derive any benefit from selling or letting any article to any prisoners or have any money or other business dealings, directly or indirectly, with any prisoner".

The Act also says that no officer should have any interest, direct or indirect, in any contract, for the supply of the prison. "Nor shall he derive any benefit, directly or indirectly, from the sale or purchase of any article on behalf of the prison or belonging to a prisoner," the Act states.

Although prison administration is a state subject, the Prisons Act, by and large, serves as the rule book for most states.

WHEN PRISONERS GET VVIP TREATMENT

Former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra, accused in the Saradha chit fund scam, was allegedly taken from a hospital to the Alipore Central Jail in a car instead of a prison van.

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It was alleged that Mitra was later admitted to the jail hospital where he was provided with velvet mattress and soft pillows.

Amar Singh, who was sent to Tihar Jail in the cash-for-vote scandal in 2011, was provided with two cell mates who would clean his cell numerous times in a day. Singh managed to secure concessions citing poor health.

Sasikala is therefore neither the first nor will she be the last to ask for or allegedly bribe her way through jail officials to enjoy VVIP perks in prison.

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

Why Sasikala's VIP treatment in jail smacks of favouritism for rich and powerful

ALSO WATCH: D Roopa's report: Sasikala holds 5 cells, separate kitchen, conference room to herself

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YONGIN, South Korea  One of South Koreas 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 Makryes 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 isnt 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 Grandmas Diary YouTube videos

Shes real. Shes not fake, said Lee Injae, a 31-year-old living in Seoul. Its 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 Im over 70, my life is over, Park said, 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.

Parks 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 as fewer in younger generations support their aging parents as they move away from 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. Shes posed for a womens monthly magazine spread, hosted a home shopping show for retail giant Lotte and will be appearing as a model in a YouTube commercial for Samsung TVs.

Her fans travel from across the country to eat at her diner where one can get filled with a rice and vegetable meal for $5.

Kim Yura, Parks 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 Alzheimers 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.

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.

Im her fan too. She is such a cool person.
A doll restoration workshop in Rome showcases Italys tradition of craftsmanship.



A fine tinkle resonates when you open the door to Le Bambole di Testaccio, a small bottega (workshop) on Via Luca della Robbia. Inside the shop, on high shelves, in glass display cases and on small wooden tables stand porcelain dolls, Venetian masks, jewellery, snuffboxes and carillon musical boxes. The place breathes the atmosphere of a tidy theatre prop room.



Artists Gianni and Eliana Ranaldi are welcoming from behind the counter. The interview, right? asks Eliana, an elegant woman wearing a black dress. Our daughter told me about it.

The fine tinkle sounds again: two women enter the shop. Eliana greets them by their first names. The women come for a repair Gianni did. It is getting crowded in the small shop; I ask whether I am disturbing them and perhaps I should come back later? No, Eliana says, not at all. She takes a glossy book from the counter. Look. Were the only ones who got three pages! The book is a Japanese travel guide. Of course I cant read it, she says referring to the Japanese text, but what they write about us must be positive, don't you think?

Hippy couple

Eliana goes behind the counter and points at a black-and-white portrait of a young hippy couple. We married very young, she explains.

When the couple married in 1972, Eliana was 15 and Gianni 22. Irene was born a year later. The family lived with Giannis parents in Vicolo del Fico, near Piazza Navona, at the time a real local neighbourhood.

They sold their creations in the Porta Portese market and its alternative locations on Via Sannio, Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Navona. All artists who sold their work in these squares were young, poor and self-taught. You have to be like a musician who can play by ear and can play a tune he just heard, Eliana explains.



Yet the police frequently raided the squares. You cant remember the anni di piombo, [the period of left- and right-wing politically motivated terrorist attacks in the 1970s] she says. Ti ricordi? she asks a customer who has just entered the shop. The man, a collector, agrees. While hearing Eliana talk, one senses that she has told her story before.

Sense of solidarity



She remembers there was no competition, since every artist created something different. On the contrary, there was a sense of solidarity: Italian artists sold the creations of their foreign peers  mainly Chilean exiles  who were not allowed to sell their work in Italy. She wonders: Do young people still stand up for each other?

Shop owners, for example those on Via DellOrso, knowing that arts and crafts would boost their sales, used to invite artists to street markets. Eliana says that if a shop owner were to ask her to organise a street market today, she would not find enough artists.



Le Bambole di Testaccio has been in business for almost three decades.

In the mid-1980s the artistic level of the Piazza Navona scene started to deteriorate. Have you seen the square recently? she asks. I never go there anymore. Hence, Gianni and Eliana founded Consart (Consorzio degli artigianati). The consortium organised temporary exhibitions in what were then the dim underpasses of Piazza Colonna on Via del Corso  people went there to pee  and what is now a luxury shopping mall. It was Eliana who coined the term sottopasseggiare. I invented the word, she says with a smile. You can jot that down.

From high shelves, dolls in elegant outfits, each with a different expression in its eyes, stare down at the customers. In a 2006 television interview, Eliana explained she learned a lot from the nuns who ran the school she attended in the Portuense district and from her grandmother, who taught her how to make a dolls dress.

Eliana restores antique dolls made of porcelain, celluloid  popular in the Fascist era  and papier-mache. Her piece de resistance is the meticulous restoration of a 1.5m-tall antique Sicilian Moor made entirely of wood. When repairing, she carefully studies the object. The eyes and the eye mechanism are the hardest parts of an antique doll to restore. She distinguishes restoration from creation. For her own creations, Eliana prefers natural materials like cotton and silk to artificial materials like nylon and plastic. Every doll is a unique piece; there are no series.

Dolls and statues

Besides antique dolls, Gianni and Eliana also restore religious statues, mainly statues in plaster that the Vatican restorers have not accepted. You have no idea how much art is crumbling inside churches. When Gianni and Eliana restored a statue for the church of S. Saba, the churchgoers collected the money for the restoration.



Gianni and Eliana Ranaldi's customers are mainly local and aged over 40.

Eliana points at a beautiful Venetian mask. She tells of an Italo-American woman who likes traditional costumes and combines them with Venetian masks. The collector comments that the other day he was in Venice. In Burano he spotted Made In China and later, in the centre, he was ripped off in a restaurant. When I remark that also in Romes fashionable Monti area, restaurants and wine bars are replacing restorers and antiquaries, Eliana sighs. Nowadays one only sees restaurateurs, she says, and clarifies: Restaurateurs, not restorers.



Though near retirement, Gianni and Eliana do not have an apprentice or someone who would continue Le Bambole.

Young people want to learn, Eliana says, but youngsters who now design jewellery don't see themselves still designing jewellery 20 years from now. She assumes that young artists do not want to take the risks that go with entrepreneurship.

Testaccio



Gianni and Eliana set up shop in 1988. At the time, Testaccio was an industrial neighbourhood whose industries were shutting down.

People said we were mad opening a store like this in a neighbourhood like Testaccio. But the day the shop opened its doors, people were queuing!

It was in 1998, during a Christmas fair in the Galleria Colonna, that Le Bambole had its most successful day. Gianni was manning a stand while Eliana attended the shop. However, the demand was such that by the afternoon Gianni had to abandon the fair and return to the shop where Eliana had run out of stock.

Customers are mainly local and all are over 40. Eliana explains: Older customers often have a family heirloom they would like repaired, but the younger generation buy a new doll for their grandchildren.



Both Cinecitta and Hollywood consult the Ranaldis for props. Many movie and theatre actors moved into the area in the 1990s and have become regular customers. In Testaccio, trendy bars, restaurants and the new market all breathe the slick Made in Italy image. Since 2000, the neighbourhood houses the Istituto Europeo di Design on Via Alcamo, near the former slaughterhouse. According to daughter Irene, Italy nowadays is all about design; craftsmanship is disappearing. She says vintage is where high and low culture meet. For instance, Gianni once made a tie out of a Coca Cola can.

The city is still trying to get the artists in Piazza Navona under control.

Eliana complains that amid the upmarket apartments and terraces, artists stalls are exhibiting Roman street views and celebrity portraits. Yet the street views are on pre-printed paper and the portraits are tacky caricatures, she says.

Rome's city government has been trying for years to regulate the artists in the square and is now trying again. It recently announced that it will set up a commission to judge the artistic merit of those applying for permission to display their art in public spaces.



On Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, passing one souvenir shop after another, it is easy to understand why Gianni and Eliana remain in Testaccio and that they would never trade for a more central, tourist location. In the 2006 TV interview, Eliana stated I dont aspire to own things.

She creates them instead.

Mike Dilien

This article was published in the June 2017 edition of Wanted in Rome magazine.
Police arrest man on suspicion of causing Castel Fusano blaze.

A 22-year-old man faces charges of arson following a vast wildfire which broke out in the Castel Fusano area of Rome's Ostia coastal district on 17 July.

The man, a plumber from northern Italy, was apprehended while attempting to hide from police who witnessed him setting fire to papers in the pine forest.

Firefighters are still working to extinguish the blaze which led to the evacuation of local residents as well as road closures, some of which remain in place on 18 July.

In addition to 20 firefighting teams, a Canadair water plane and five helicopters battled the fire which appears to have broken out in several different sections of the forest, according to police.
The idea that you can't do something is only an idea, not a fact.

By India Today Web Desk: While social media is abuzz with body-shaming trends like hotdog legs, there are people who are breaking these barriers, and one such woman is, Dolly Singh. After being fat-shamed online, and a recommendation to lose some weight by her doctor, the 34-year-old decided to join yoga classes--something that changed her life forever.

Singh, who works for a television channel in Mumbai, started making videos of her yoga postures in an attempt to monitor her progress, and started posting them on social media eventually. After her videos went viral, she has emerged as a source of inspiration to many who face the same issue on a daily basis.

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Also Read: You won't even have to get out of bed to practise these 4 yoga asanas

She is now an active promoter of body-positivity online, and has garnered immense support from people everywhere. Body shaming is a constant evil, especially on social-media platforms, while most people stay quiet and bear with the trolls, Singh is changing people's perception about obese people being able to perform yoga postures.

Dolly told Hindustan Times, "The first class I was thinking 'Can I really do this because I have a big body?' After two or three classes, I realised people were looking at me and thinking 'Oh my god, she can do this'. My body had a certain kind of stamina, of flexibility."

Also Read: Yoga tones my body and soothes my senses: Malaika Arora

On resorting to online videos for guidance, she adds, "We all have different bodies and if my teacher doesn't have a belly, how will they know what the problems are of having a big belly. I'm a big busted person and if the teacher isn't how are they going to understand that when I'm doing a Halasana (plough pose) I'm almost choking to death!"

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While most of us succumb to supposed limitations because obesity, there is this woman breaking stereotypes and giving it back to the world like a boss!

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The court judgment has been delivered and the salacious battle between Amber Harrison and her former Channel Seven boss Tim Worner is over. Goliath won and David, his former mistress, looks set to be bankrupted.

There is no tell-all book or 60 Minutes interview with Harrison to be had on the rival Nine Network. She is the subject of a gag order.

The opinion battlelines will now be fully drawn between those who believe Harrison was the sacrificial lamb, made a victim of the male-dominated corporate culture, or those who believe her to be the vindictive, spurned lover of a powerful executive.

But the ultimate and complete defeat at the hands of her large and well-resourced adversary just came down to matter of law  she breached the confidentiality conditions of her agreement with Seven about the relationship with Worner.
By Anand Patel: Modi government on Tuesday ordered a widespread investigation into suspected overpricing of life-saving drugs, less than a week after India Today exposed a stunning mismatch between retail and wholesale prices of cancer and heart medicines.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda recommended a probe by India's drug regulator, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). "

This is a very serious matter you have brought to our notice and the government of India, the ministry of health and family Welfare, has taken up the matter with the NPPA," the minister told India Today. "I have asked the NPPA to investigate it."

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The Prime Minister, recalled Nadda, has himself emphasised the need for greater affordability of life-saving drugs.

"That's why we are running schemes like Jan Aushadhi and AMRIT," he said. AMRIT covers branded drugs and Jan Aushadhi generic. The minister also hinted at a possible expansion of the country's designated list of essential drugs. At present, around 700 medicines, some surgical devices included, are covered for price controls under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).

"The drugs shown on your channel will be brought under the NLEM after studying the matter," Nadda said. "Prices cannot be astronomical in the name of research and development. It's the NPPA's job to look into it as how much has been spent on R&D and other components." Dr Dharamvir Gandhi, a Punjab MP from the Aam Admi Party, has also vowed to raise the matter in the Lok Sabha.

Also read | How hospitals collude with pharma firms to burn a hole in your pocket

Also watch: India Today impact: Health Minister JP Nadda promises action against overpricing of drugs

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By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 18 (PTI) Actor Varun Dhawan has apologised for mocking actress Kangana Ranaut in wake of the nepotism controversy.

The 30-year-old actor took to Twitter to express his regret on taking part in a joke at the recently concluded 2017 IIFA Awards ceremony, which refuelled the debate that had become a bone of contention between Kangana and filmmaker Karan Johar earlier this year.

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"I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act..." wrote Varun.

The "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" stars statement comes in after he, along with hosts for the event Johar and Saif Ali Khan were criticised on social media for the joke made at the expense of the actress.

Johar and Saif took a dig at Kangana when Varun joined them on the stage to receive the award for the best performance in a comic role for "Dishoom".

Saif raked up the issue when he joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father, director David Dhawan.

"You are here because of your pappa," Saif quipped. To which Varun replied, "You are here because of your mummy (referring to Sharmila Tagore)."

Soon, Johar joined them and said he was in the industry because of his father, filmmaker Yash Johar. The trio then shouted, "Nepotism rocks".

Saif and Varun then sang "Bole chudiyaan" from Johars film "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." But the director twisted the second part of the song to take a potshot at the actress, saying, Kangana nahi bole toh achha hai (It would be better for Kangana not to speak).

Kangana had fuelled the nepotism debate when she appeared on Johars chat show where she referred to him as "the flag bearer of nepotism", something that did not go down well with the director-producer. PTI RDS BK

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After a 13-day rally that began in Mandsaur, agitating farmers gathered at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, demanding that the government take immediate steps to address their concerns.

By Parbina Purkayastha: 13-day historical farmers' rally that began from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh today reached Delhi's Jantar Mantar. The Kisan Mukti Yatra started on July 6 and covered six states with farmers from all across the country joining in the protest.

Thousands of farmers from all over the country demonstrated at Jantar Mantar today, participating in a a Kisan Mukti Sansad to voice their demands. The farmers have made two specific demands: farming should be made remunerative and that their debts should be forgiven.

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Farmers from Tamil Nadu, who have relaunched their agitation, were also part of the Kisan Mukti Sansad, which saw children of farmers from Maharashtra who committed suicide perform a skit to bring attention to their plight. Ashok Patil, one of the children present at Jantar Mantar said, "I am suffering because my father committed suicide. But I want to tell all the farmers of this country that suicide is not an option, the only option is that we have to fight for our rights."

In response to an appeal made by leaders of the All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee, several Members of Parliament joined the farmers at Jantar Mantar. These included Raju Shetty, Tapan Kumar Sen, Dr. Dharamvir Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Yadav, Ali Anwar, Mohammad Saleem, Jitendra Choudhary, Arvind Sawant, B R Patil, Shailendra Kumar, Mohammad Murtaza, Shankar Dutta, Shri Moti, and Nagendra Pradhan.

Speaking at the event, MP Raju Shetty said "I campaigned for Narendra Modi, I supported him, only because he promised to waive off loans of farmers but later his government in the Supreme Court gave an affidavit claiming that waiving off farm loans is not possible. I want to ask him that if this was not possible, why did he make this promise in his election manifesto to the people of this country?"

Sitaram Yechury also spoke at the event. "Along with all of you, I take the pledge to fight for the rights of farmers and I promise you that I am going to take this fight to the Parliament," the secretary-general of CPI (M) said.

Dr. Sunilam, who moderated the Sansad, demanded that action must be taken against the police officers who shot dead 6 farmers during a recent protest in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh.

'INDIA INDEBTED TO ITS FARMERS'

Sharad Yadav, who also joined the farmers at the Kisan Mukti Sansad, said "This is not just a fight of the farmers, this fight is of the whole country. And while you are fighting this fight here outside the parliament, I assure you that I will take this fight inside the parliament." He also promised to rally the whole Opposition to support the farmers in their fight.

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Prashant Bhushan addressed the gathered farmers as well, saying, "The government is deliberately designing policies that are anti-farmer and pro-corporates. The government is supporting products such as GM Mustard which are deigned to benefit the corporates and destroy the farmers as well their farming."

Yogendra Yadav, on the other hand, pointed out at the country owes a great deal to its farmers. "It is not the farmers who are under debt but the whole country is under the debt of the farmers. The farmers have been giving a subsidy of Rs 1,50,000 crore to this country and this has been happening since decades so we are not asking for a debt waiver but freedom from debt. It is not the farmer that is indebted to this country but the country that is indebted to the farmer," Yadav said.

VM Singh, convenor of AIKSCC, vowed that the farmers wil remain united in the fight for their rights. "This government is not going to hand over your rights to you, we will have to fight for our rights and in this fight we all will have to be together." Singh said. "Why should a farmer, despite feeding the whole country, be unable to feed his own family?"

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The organisers of the Kisan Mukti Sansad said they will the proceedings on Wednesday as well and that the agitation will continue until the demands of the farmers are met.

ALSO READ | Maharashtra farmers, protesting for loan waiver, call off strike after meeting Fadnavis

ALSO READ | No country for farmers: In headlong rush towards development, Indian farmers fall through the cracks

ALSO WATCH | Farmers protest in Maharashtra, MP: Loan waivers only solution to their problems?

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After the Directorate General of Investigation (DRI), Delhi seized 25 kilogram of gold from New Delhi railway station, Mumbai Customs has apprehended crude gold and gold dust worth Rs 58 lakh.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government announced the Goods and Services Tax on June 30, but that has not stopped smuggling of gold within the country.

Mumbai Customs has apprehended crude gold and gold dust worth Rs 58 lakh.

In last 24 hours, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs came across four cases where gold was hidden in water pumps, motor of car washer, rectum and hand baggage.

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On July 17, AIU officers intercepted Hussain Shah Kukkangai (24), Indian passport holder who arrived from Dubai by Emirates Airways in possession of a cylinder shaped piece of gold weighing 1165 grams and valued at Rs 34,28,697.

"The gold piece was cleverly concealed in shaft cavity of a water pump. A case was booked and passenger was arrested," the official said.

Hussain works as a salesman in a mobile shop in Sharjah and is a native of Kasaragod, Kerala. He was supposed to handover the seized consignment to someone in Bombay Hotel at Dongri.

In another incident, three ring shaped pieces of gold weighing 245 grams and valued at Rs 7,50,000 was seized from Abdulla Althaf travelling from Dubai. The gold was concealed inside the motor of the car washer.

In another case, one male passenger arrived in India with smuggled hidden in his rectum. Mohd Liyakaat Hussain Shaik arrived from Dubai by Jet Airways with four gold bars in his rectum, weighing 232 grams valued at Rs 6,90,000.

In the fourth incident same night, a female passenger Fadum Mohamud Mohamed, a Kenyan passport holder, arrived with 'gold dust'. She was hiding it in her hand baggage. The total weight of gold dust was 300 grams costing around Rs 8.85 lakh.

Also Read

Post-demonetisation, gold smugglers work out new plans

Delhi: DRI busts smuggling racket, seizes 44 kg of gold

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1976 Bicentennial Art Gets New Viewing Thanks to WSU Storytelling Festival

July 18, 2017

OGDEN, Utah  Great stories stand the test of time, and Weber State Universitys Storytelling Festival has given life to a great story  one that began in 1976 with a vision and will continue with an art exhibit July 24-28 at Union Station in Ogden.

While the nation was celebrating its bicentennial in 1976, local lawyer and philanthropist William Bill Critchlow had an idea to combine Utah artists and local history to tell little-remembered stories of the past. He commissioned 24 of Utahs best artists to capture 64 scenes of Northern Utah history. Artists including LeConte Stewart, Farrell Collett and Lee K. Parkinson chronicled events such as the discovery of the Great Salt Lake, Fort Buenaventura, the Bamberger Railroad, a horse drive with explorer Miles Goodyear, the Ogden Tithing Yard and the construction of Ogden High School. The art was displayed for the bicentennial and then donated to Weber State.

"The Bamberger to Lagoon" by Mary R. Warnock. Courtesy Weber State University and Bill Child.

For many years, the large canvases hung in the Stewart Library. Critchlow, a longtime Storytelling Festival board member, also would show the paintings to community groups and schoolchildren. He estimates that over the years, he shared the art with 25,000 individuals in Weber County.

They tell a story, Critchlow said. They are events that had never been illustrated: The massacre at Bear River, where U.S. troops killed more Native Americans than at any other time in U.S. history; the paddle wheeler on the Great Salt Lake, the General Garfield; the settlement of Corinne, Utah; the dummy train to Utah Hot Springs.

For several decades the WSU visual arts department preserved the paintings in its collection. But good stories remain in memory, and good storytellers have a way of finding them. Thats how the WSU Storytelling Festival got involved. WSU assistant professor of education DeeDee Mower took over as chair of the festival in 2016. She had heard Critchlow speak of the paintings and decided it was time to reintroduce them to the public.

Storytelling gives life and interest to all we do, Mower said. We associate our lives with the lives of others. Its been that way throughout time. Oral storytelling and visual storytelling all fit with what we offer to students.

The visual arts department brought the works out of storage, and Storytelling Festival committee members selected 20 paintings. They paid for minor restoration and added frames where necessary. They then enlisted professors from WSUs history department to write a short narration about the events portrayed in each painting. Two Utah storytellers, Sam Payne and Suzanne Christensen, long associated with the festival, read each historical description.

WSU history alumnus and award-winning documentarian Issac Goeckeritz, combined the narration and historical images to create a visual documentary for each. For example, he discovered film of the final trip of the Bamberger Railroad and other photos to accompany the narrative of Bamberger to Lagoon by Mary R. Warnock.

I think this is an experiment, Goeckeritz said. The storytelling festival has always focused on oral storytelling. This was an opportunity to experiment with a different type of storytelling  visual storytelling  and also to tell non-fiction stories about our community.

The 20 paintings and their accompanying documentaries will be on display at the Ogden Union Station from July 24-28 in Gallery 51 during various daytime hours. The Eyes Toward the Past art exhibition includes a documentary interview with Critchlow describing the process of commissioning the paintings 40 years ago. Prints of the paintings will also be on sale at the Union Station Gift Shop.

Following the exhibit, the 20 paintings will hang permanently in the David O. McKay Education Building at Weber State, and the Storytelling Festival will begin work on the next 20 paintings. The committees hope is that the story of Weber States bicentennial art exhibit is one that never ends.

For more information about the Storytelling Festival, visit weber.edu/storytelling.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

For videos and high-resolutions images, visit the following links:

Chief Pocatello in Brigham City

photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/July-2017/i-9mbcz39/0/dffb4148/X2/16ChiefPocatello-X2.jpg

youtube.com/watch?v=IpLuMJhlG2s&feature=youtu.be

The Bamberger to Lagoon

photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/July-2017/i-bwGctvX/0/012e342e/X2/46Bamberger_Lagoon-X2.jpg

youtube.com/watch?v=4ssjAb1FLKQ&feature=youtu.be

The Goodyear Horsedrive

photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/July-2017/i-f9MdQKf/0/f61a3f36/X2/61Horse_Drive-X2.jpg

youtube.com/watch?v=zLG7pNejP8w&feature=youtu.be

Pineview Dam

photos.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/July-2017/i-dPRJbpx/0/2be2fdb6/X2/57Pineview_Dam-X2.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lb7ZNEdkQQ&feature=youtu.be
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Mostly cloudy early, then thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 78F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 44F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
By Paul Schaumburg, Graves County Schools Jul. 17, 2017 | 06:33 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

The Graves County School District has designated Monday, Aug. 21, as a district-wide Non-Traditional Instruction Day, due to the impending solar eclipse. The Kentucky Department of Education has approved that designation.

Therefore, students in grades K-12 throughout the Graves County Schools will complete assignments their teachers provide them in advance for this occasion. Most students, many with parental assistance, will complete their assignments via technology, including the internet and e-mail. Students without ready access to such technology may complete their assignments through packets they will receive in advance.

Teachers will be available to interact with students and parents throughout the regular school day hours. They will clarify assignments, answer questions, and provide feedback to students and parents concerning those assignments.

"We based this request on both health and safety concerns," said Graves County Superintendent Kim Dublin. "While the total solar eclipse provides some wonderful learning opportunities, the unique, unfamiliar nature of the day greatly escalates the very real potential for serious problems. The fact that the northern Graves County communities of Lowes and Symsonia lie directly within the path of total solar eclipse compounds the negative possibilities exponentially."

The school district's letter requesting approval for the NTI (non-traditional instruction) day from KDE states in part, "Extensive worldwide media publicity virtually guarantees that this extremely rural county very likely will attract an unprecedented number of visitors that day. Additionally, the relative ease through which a child or adult could damage his or her eyes permanently brings with it great responsibility we believe families and private caregivers are better equipped to address."

The unprecedented nature of an eclipse of this magnitude leaves a wide range of questions unanswered. Foremost is how many visitors it will attract to the region, seeking the best possible view. One certainty is the mid-afternoon time of the eclipse would coincide directly with the release of students from the school day, potentially resulting in issues related to unusually heavy traffic.

"The eclipse traffic would be extremely likely to overlap with crucial busing times, when far more than 4,000 Graves County students and staff members will travel to their homes," Dublin said. "Many parents come to school each day to drive their children home, adding to the number of people affected."

In the district's letter to KDE, school officials concluded, "Clearly, the Graves County School District, as a public education entity, manages safety concerns and risk on a daily, if not constant basis. Still, the singularity of this celestial event and the accompanying people and publicity it brings, inspires our administrative leadership team to request your committee's authorization to use Monday, Aug. 21, as a Non-Traditional Instruction Day. Doing so would maximize safety and learning, while minimizing problems and potentially permanent damage to the health of a portion of our students and staff. Thank you for your consideration of this highly important matter."
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 18, 2017 | 07:55 AM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Two Graves County residents were arrested Monday on drug, firearm and wanton endangerment charges.

Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said the Drug Division received a tip of illegal drug activity taking place at a home on Knob Creek Road in southern Graves County. During a search of the home, marijuana, illegal prescription medications and firearms were found.

While searching the home, deputies said the homeowner, 30-year-old Tiffany Solomon, admitted to smoking marijuana while caring for six young children in the home. Solomon was arrested and charged with six counts of wanton endangerment, possession of controlled substance, three counts of prescription not in the proper container, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Aaron Solomon was not at home during the investigation, however, he's a convicted felon and by law is not permitted to have firearms in his home. He's charged with three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Both were lodged in the Graves County Jail. The children were released to a family member. Deputies said Social Services will be contacted to conduct an investigation.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 17, 2017 | 09:02 PM | CRITTENDEN COUNTY, KY

A one vehicle wreck on Friday in Crittenden County injured a Livingston County man.

According to Kentucky State Police, the crash happened around 1 pm on US 60 West, near Marion. Troopers said 63-year-old Roger Swaggirt of Salem was driving his pickup truck west, when he crossed the center line and drove into oncoming traffic.

Swaggirt then over-corrected, struck a guard rail, left the road and overturned. Swaggirt was entrapped in his truck and had to be extricated by the Crittenden County Rescue Squad.

Swaggirt was transported by ambulance to Crittenden County Hospital and then flown to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, IN.
Four region teams look to advance tonight in football playoffs
Addressing reporters after filing his nomination papers, Gandhi reiterated his stand against death penalty and capital punishment, terming them as ideas that have outlived their time.

Notably, Gandhi has always maintained that he is against the death penalty.

By India Today Web Desk: Days before the vice presidential election, the Opposition's candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, once again came out against the death penalty and capital punishment, saying that they belong in the medieval ages.

Addressing reporters after filing nomination papers for the post of the vice president of India, Gandhi said, "I feel that the death penalty and capital punishment belong to the medieval ages. Death penalty is wrong and this is my principle."

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"I do not think I need to defend myself on this issue. The death penalty is a death penalty," Gandhi added, referring to the controversy generated by the Shiv Sena attacking him over his 2015 letter to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking clemency for 1993 Mumbai serial blasts financier Yakub Memon.

Gandhi noted that he has written a similar petition for Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is currently on the death row in Pakistan.

SHIV SENA TRYING TO MALIGN GANDHI?

Shiv Sena brandished their attack on Gandhi yet again on Monday, when Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut opposed his candidature over his anti-capital punishment principles.

Raut asked,"Gandhi had used all his powers to save Yakub Memon. He even had written to the President. I want to ask (Opposition) what kind of mindset is this."

Notably, Gandhi has always maintained that he is against the death penalty. In his comments today, Gandhi said that his opposition to the death penalty is inspired from two persons - Mahatma Gandhi, his grandfather, and Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Before this, in 2015, while delivering a lecture, Gandhi had said, "I would like to take this opportunity to say right at the start...that India must move determinedly forward to the abolition of the capital punishment".

Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, will contest against the NDA candidate M Venkaiah Naidu in the vice presidential election scheduled to be held on August 5.

Death penalty and capital punishment belongs to the medieval ages : #VicePresidential candidate #GopalKrishnaGandhi pic.twitter.com/r1zcoG2MGy

- INC India (@INCIndia) July 18, 2017

With inputs from agencies

Also read: Vice-Presidential election: Bitter rivals TMC, Left united on support for Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Also read: Vice-Presidential election: A call by Rahul Gandhi makes Nitish Kumar assure of his support to Gopalkrishna Gandhi

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Production images have been released for the 20th anniversary production of Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs, ahead of its opening night this evening at Trafalgar Studios. Evanna Lynch, known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series, is joined by Colin Campbell (Dublin by Lamplight, Through A Glass Darkly) in the two-hander.

Directed by John Haidar and designed by Richard Kent, the show examines the tight yet unhealthy friendship between two teens, Pig and Runt, born on the same day at the same time in the same hospital.

When it first debuted in 1997 (starring Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh), the show won the annual George Devine award. In 2001 it was adapted into a film directed by Kirsten Sheridan.

Lynch was last seen on stage in the touring production of Houdini, where she starred as the titular magician's wife Bess Houdini.

Disco Pigs runs at the Trafalgar Studios to 19 August.

See our interview with Evanna Lynch here
By PTI: Hyderabad, Jul 18 (PTI) Normal life was affected as heavy rains continued to lash Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana for the second day today.

Madhira in Khammam district received nine cms of rainfall, followed by Hayatnagar (7 cms) in Rangareddy district, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The incessant rain led to water-logging on roads at several places here.

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Several rivulets and other water bodies were in spate at different places in the state.

Hyderabad received 60.2 mm of rainfall today, according to the IMD.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said in a release that rain water on roads was drained out by its personnel at different places.

The process of demolishing old structures (which are found unsafe) is going on and notices have been issued to residents of some other old buildings to vacate them, it said.

Heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places in all districts of Telangana, the IMD said.

Saying that water logging was a common sight in the city, Leader of Opposition (Congress) in state Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the TRS government has failed in its promise to make the city free of traffic snarls. PTI SJR NRB

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By Indo-Asian News Service: When it comes to kissing, humans globally are hardwired to lean to the right and not left -- a first-of-its-kind finding that may have wider implications for neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

Researchers from universities of Dhaka in Bangladesh and Bath and Bath Spa in Britain also found that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction.

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While men were about 15 times more likely than women to initiate kissing, over two-thirds of the kiss initiators and kiss recipients turned their heads to the right.

The paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first to investigate an inherent bias for turning the head to one side while people kiss in a non-Western context -- in Bangladesh.

"Head turning is one of the earliest biases seen in development - even in the womb a preference for turning the head to the right is observable before that of favoring the right hand or foot. Whether this fundamental bias is innate and extends into adulthood is a lingering question for neuroscience and psychology," explained lead author Dr Rezaul Karim from the department of psychology at the University of Dhaka.

Also Read: These 3 reasons might put you off kissing forever

For the study, the team invited 48 married couples to kiss privately in their own homes and after kissing, they were asked to go to different rooms, open an envelope and then report on various aspects of the kiss independently of each partner.

Their results highlighted a bias to turn heads to the right when kissing for both the initiator and the recipient of the kiss.

"In addition, the kiss initiators' head-leaning direction strongly predicted the kiss recipients' head-leaning direction. This suggests that the kiss recipients have a tendency to match their partners' head-leaning direction in order to avoid the discomfort of mirroring heads," the authors noted.

The setting for the study was significant as kissing in Bangladesh is a very private behaviour; something censored from television or films.

"So, whereas similar results from the Western countries could be attributed to cultural factors or having learnt how to kiss through influences on TV or film, the same cannot as easily be said for a non-Western country like Bangladesh," the team observed.

It suggests that the act of kissing is determined by the brain splitting up tasks to its different hemispheres -- similar to being either right or left-handed -- specifically the functions in the left cerebral hemisphere, located in the emotion and decision-related areas of the brain.

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The researchers suggest different hormone levels (such as testosterone) in each hemisphere and neurotransmitters might be unevenly distributed to each hemisphere (such as dopamine, involved in reward behaviours) as giving rise to a bias to turn right.

This may have implications if you are left handed and your partner is right-handed or vice versa.

According to Dr Michael Proulx of the University of Bath, this study is unique in giving us a look into a private behaviour in a private culture with implications for all people.

"Prior works could not rule out cultural learning due to having Western samples. It turns out, we as humans are similar even if our social values differ," he said.

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnie the Pooh, the beloved childrens icon, has been blacklisted in China following comparisons between the pot-bellied bear and Chinas president, the Financial Times reported.

The characters name in Chinese was censored in posts on Sina Weibo, a social-media platform similar to Twitter, while a collection of Winnie the Pooh gifts vanished from social messaging service WeChat, according to the newspaper.

Any attempts to post Poohs Chinese name on Weibo prompted a message: Content is illegal.

Another meme cast Jinping (above right) as Pooh and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as Eeyore.

The reasons for Chinas Pooh ban remain unclear, the Times said, but it may or may not have to do with previous online comparisons of the pants-less bear to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Memes pairing Pooh with Xi first surfaced in 2013 after Xi took a stroll with former U.S. president Barack Obama, whose thin frame reminded some of Tigger, Poohs taller companion. A later meme cast Xi as Pooh alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, portrayed as the diffident Eeyore.

In fact, the Times noted, a meme of Xi protruding from a car next to an image of Winnie the Pooh doing the same became the most censored image of 2015, according to Global Risk Insights, which examines political risk.

Chinas problem with Pooh marks yet another act of censorship ahead of this falls 19th National Congress of the Communist party, an event where important political appointments will be named.

Its not uncommon for Chinas censors to add words to their blacklists around major events.

Qiao Mu, an assistant professor of media at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Times that some online users had been detained after commenting on the president.

Twitter Memes pairing Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) with Winnie the Pooh and former U.S. president Barack Obama with Tigger first cropped up in 2013.

I think the Winnie issue is part of this trend, Qiao said.

Winnipeg has a special link with Winnie the Pooh. In 1914, Lt. Harry Colebourn of The Fort Garry Horse bought a bear cub for $20 at a train stop in White River, Ont., and named the bear Winnie after his home city of Winnipeg. Coleburn brought Winnie to England, where he became a pet to the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade Headquarters. Winnies eventual destination was to have been the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, but at the end of the war, Colebourn decided to let Winnie remain at the London Zoo, where her fans included A. A. Milnes son Christopher Robin, who changed the name of his own teddy bear to Winnie the Pooh, providing the inspiration for his fathers famous childrens stories.

 USA Today
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly three weeks after it was mostly destroyed in a fire, St. Vitals St. Therese Child Care Facility has found a temporary home right in its own backyard.

Immanuel Fellowship Church, located only steps away from St. Therese on St. Marys Road, has agreed to house the daycare program beginning July 24.

Their back door backs onto our playground, so the kids can play on their own structure, said Cathy Somerset, St. Thereses executive director.

A fire-damaged room at the St Therese Child Care Facility, as seen on July 3. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

When the fire destroyed five of the facilitys six rooms on June 30, Somerset and her staff were devastated. But she remembers standing outside that day, pointing at Immanuel Fellowship, and telling a staff member, Go over and get that buildings number. Thats going to be our new home.

Sure enough, Immanuel was willing to take them in, and a temporary occupancy permit is expected to go through Tuesday.

Of the 65 children between the ages of one and five enrolled at St. Therese before the fire, 40 will attend the new program, while the rest have either been taken in by other facilities around the city or are readying to begin kindergarten in the fall. Of the 22 staff members St. Therese employed before the fire, 13 will work at the new location; others have found work elsewhere.

Jacob Daodu, the chairman of Immanuels board, didnt think twice about getting involved.

We are just doing what our Christian traditions tell us to do. They needed a helping hand and we are there for them. Were honoured to help them and that they came to us, he said.

Nearly everything in the original building was destroyed or damaged beyond use, and Somerset says 90 per cent of the facilitys new equipment has come from private and public donations.

Its been really overwhelming how much help weve gotten. Its amazing how quickly its come together, she said.

While the daycares recovery has been relatively swift, it hasnt been without its roadbumps.

A few days after the fire, Somerset said families whose children didnt attend St. Therese lied and said they did to get spots other daycare centres made available for St. Therese children.

Fire damage is seen at the back of the St. Therese Childcare Facility. (Justin Samanski-Langille / Winnipeg Free Press)

At the time, Somerset was upset people tried to benefit from St. Thereses tragedy, but after reflecting on the incident she concluded it was indicative of a lack of daycare space in Manitoba, not of any malicious intent on the families part.

There arent enough spaces, so people did this out of desperation, she said.

St. Therese and Parroquia Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, a church that shares the fire-damaged building, both plan on returning to their original location once its ready to house them again. For now, much of the churchs congregation has been going to St. Bonifaces La Paroisse du Precieux-Sang, Somerset said.

Somerset credits the daycares reversal of fortune to hard work and dedication by the facilitys staff, board and parents, along with assistance from the Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care program and other daycares around the city.

While most of the daycare equipment has been replaced, the new facility needs kitchen equipment, including dishes, cutlery, a fridge and a freezer, she said.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Police have charged two people with a total of 42 offences after seizing drugs, a firearm and money from a vehicle in the 1700 block of Pembina Highway.

The firearm, a 9-mm Browning handgun, had been reported stolen in 1981. The gun was loaded with 13 rounds. Officers also found 18.8 grams of methamphetamine and 26.5 grams of cocaine, which they believe was to be sold. Together, the drugs have a street value of $4,940.

Its a fairly large seizure, said police spokeswoman Const. Tammy Skrabek.

The inspection was triggered when officers spotted the suspicious-looking vehicle with a prohibited driver inside.

Derreck Chad Maddock, 36, faces 23 charges related to firearm possession, drug possession and trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, driving while disqualified and breach of conditions.

Victoria Lee Woods, 26, faces 19 similar charges.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP took two people into custody Tuesday morning after a tense showdown involving armed people in Portage La Prairie.

Mounties say they were called to a home in the community shortly before midnight and when the tactical team tried to enter, it discovered barricades had been set up.

Four people inside refused to come out for negotiators, so police used tear gas to flush out a 25-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl.

The tactical team then forced its way in and arrested two men, both 27.

Police say the woman and teen, who were released from custody, are being treated as witnesses or possibly victims.

One of the men arrested is a suspect in an earlier car theft from the same home where the takedown occurred.

Police say all four people suffered minor injuries, but no officers were hurt.

Police had asked the pubic to stay away from the home while officers were making arrests and not to post police movements on social media.

The RCMP thanks the public for their co-operation in staying clear, Const. Sean OKeefe said in a statement. Public safety is our priority.

Members of the highly trained Emergency Response Team (ERT), police dog services, and negotiators were involved in the arrests.

Its always concerning because theres always that risk of public safety but we are fully equipped to handle incidents like this, said RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel.

The investigation is ongoing. Since its in its early stages, RCMP wont yet say if the incident is gang-related.

Tuesdays arrests come three weeks after Portage la Prairie went into lockdown after an armed suspect ran away from officers outside a local grocery store. In that case, three individuals were travelling in a stolen van. RCMP eventually caught up with the suspect and he and two accomplices have since been charged.

With files from The Canadian Press
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rev. Richard Gagnon, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Winnipeg, wrote a recent opinion column in support of St. Boniface Hospitals decision to deny the act of medical assistance in dying (MAID) within its facility (Faith-based health care rooted in community, July 8). However, his critique of opinion articles that expressed disappointment over this decision is deeply flawed.

First, St. Boniface Hospitals rejection of MAID is based on three religious assumptions. One, that an intentionally hastened death goes against the concept of stewardship. Since human beings were made in the divine image of God, the power to live or die is not a decision that properly resides with them. The power over life and death is Gods alone.

Two, that no one has the liberty of ending his or her life under any circumstances, including for reasons of intractable suffering, since that would be a rejection of the Creator.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS St. Boniface Hospital's rejection of medically assisted dying remains controversial

Three, that those suffering grievously who seek MAID are often accused of leading society down a slippery slope  what Catholics traditionally referred to as divine wrath. Although unfortunate, patient suffering serves a greater purpose, that being the protection of society from harm.

No matter how Gagnon tries to justify St. Boniface Hospitals rejection of MAID, the result is still the same: patients who want to end their lives early will have their intractable suffering prolonged to appease the collective beliefs of orthodox Catholics.

Secondly, by denying an intentionally hastened death to its patients, St. Boniface Hospital is not just ignoring the law; it is also refusing to acknowledge the wishes of non-traditional Catholics, who by and large support MAID. A 2014 poll indicated that Canadians overwhelmingly supported changing the legislation on assisted dying. An Ipsos Reid survey of more than 2,500 Canadians found 84 per cent advocated for assisted dying if strong safeguards were in place.

Described as the largest survey of its kind in Canada, the survey of 2,515 Canadians found 80 per cent of those who identified themselves as Christians  including 83 per cent of Catholics  believed that doctors should be permitted to help terminally ill patients end their lives if they are competent and suffering and repeatedly ask for assistance to die. This raises the question: why does St. Boniface Hospital ignore the wishes of its clientele, the majority of whom may seek MAID?

Third, Gagnon adds that the Supreme Court in the Carter decision made no comment in terms of the difference between MAID and palliative sedation, that no legal or clinical distinctions between the two were made and that the proper use of opioids in palliative care does not cause death.

Most credible ethicists no longer subscribe to the moral distinction between palliative sedation and MAID. It seems implausible to claim that death is unintended when a patient who wants to die is sedated to the point of coma, intravenous fluids and artificial nutrition are withheld and, in some cases, the drugs are used to suppress respiration, making death certain. The ethical differences between palliative sedation and MAID appear redundant.

Lastly, Rev. Gagnon conveniently omitted what the courts said about absolute moral distinctions in end-of-life care. Quoting Justice Lynn Smith in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court noted that end-of-life practices can have the effect of hastening death, and there is a strong societal consensus that these practices are ethically acceptable. The Court concluded that there is no ethical distinction between physician-assisted death and other end-of-life practices whose outcome is highly likely to be death. Palliative sedation is simply slow euthanasia or euthanasia in disguise.

Undoubtedly, Rev. Gagnon is trying to justify St. Bonifaces rejection of MAID but, in the 21st century, his rationalizations no longer apply.

Stuart Chambers, Ph.D., teaches a course on death and dying in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. His doctoral dissertation explored the death and dying debate in Canada.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is a rare day when a municipality makes a unilateral, public bid to draw cash for regionally significant infrastructure funding from the federal government. But thats what the City of Winnipeg did last week.

On Wednesday, city council will be asked to approve the strategy that could put an additional $182 million into its regional street renewal program between 2018 and 2023. The federal cash flow, proposed to come from the New Building Canada Fund (NBCF), would bring total forecast investment in regional streets to $546 million.

The motion is clearly intended to nudge the provincial Tory governments hand. This application needs a nod from the province, which to date has not yet moved to take up the roughly $527 million that remains unallocated to Manitoba under the NBCF. The federal funding, which falls out of the provincial governments reach if projects are not jointly approved by next March 31, has to be cost-shared with provincial and municipal dollars.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeggers are well aware of their citys infrastructure challenges.

Winnipegs proposal  preceded by a letter seeking support from the province  is timed to coincide with its 2018 budget-preparation schedule, now underway. Regional streets, which enable and sustain existing and new economic growth (thereby qualifying under the NBCF), are effectively shovel-ready projects that can be completed within the timeline set out by the federal government.

It is understandable why Winnipeg has gone this route.

First, theres the infrastructure investment deficit, last pegged at $7.4 billion (in 2009 dollars). We await an update to that figure, but Winnipeggers know intimately the condition of their roads, streets, sidewalks  and the rising need for active transportation facilities, which are becoming increasingly popular. There is only one way to backfill that hole, and thats through strategic, purpose-driven investment.

Second, the provincial government in Budget 2017 made clear it is constrained in its expenditures across departments, including transfers to municipalities. The funding-transfer formula in the Building Manitoba Fund, which tied municipal infrastructure transfers to PST revenues (i.e. a growth tax) is being repealed. As a result, municipalities are no longer able to forecast with any certainty the level of infrastructure funding transfers from the province.

That forecasting certainty is crucial to municipalities, which shoulder 60 per cent of public infrastructure assets, yet collect just eight cents of every tax dollar. (Similarly, provincial governments look to multi-year funding commitments from Ottawa expressly so they, too, have some forecasting certainty for critical priorities.)

And that brings us to the real problem, and the need for a real, workable solution.

Cities, being creatures of provincial governments, have limited access to revenue sources. The big one is property taxes. Put your hands up, Winnipeggers, if you think your property tax bill holds a lot more room for hikes.

Winnipegs city council has already taken a responsible approach to property taxes, with incremental increases that include one per cent each year dedicated by bylaw for local street renewal and another one per cent for regional streets. But Winnipeg, like every other Manitoba municipality, has always relied on predictable provincial help to fix its roads.

The provincial government has correctly signalled loud and clear that its top priority is getting the books back to balance, and doing that demands restraint in all quarters. This means that municipalities are set to shoulder an even greater load to maintain public infrastructure. And that sets them up for every year going, cap in hand, to Broadway to make the case for cost-sharing or transfers.

What this illustrates is that different governments have different and sometimes competing agendas. But on a more basic level, it pulls into focus the dysfunctional relationship that municipalities are caught in with their provincial masters  a relationship the Pallister government has inherited. It explains in part why cities and towns make faint headway against their infrastructure-investment deficits.

Whats the fix?

What municipalities need is a new fiscal arrangement, one that balances responsibilities, roles and resources better, and frees them from the Oliver Twist scenario every year at budget time. A possibility of a new fiscal arrangement would see the provincial government making tax room, and granting new authority for municipalities to levy, for example, their own consumption tax dedicated to public purposes, like strategic investment in infrastructure to grow the economy.

The Pallister government has pledged to roll back the PST by one percentage point in its first term. That makes this an auspicious time for a serious discussion about new relationships that lets the province accomplish its deficit-fighting goal while respecting municipal challenges and goals.

Winnipegs regional roads, which carry 80 per cent of all traffic, need investment certainty now  agreed. But Manitobas municipalities require a long-term solution to an old revenue problem arising from an antiquated, dysfunctional governing relationship. We need provincial and municipal commitment to collaboratively find a better way to meet that more pressing need.

Chris Lorenc is the president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Out of sight, out of mind. Four more tragic suicides have struck remote northern Ontario First Nations communities  the youngest victim was just 11 years old. The hand-wringing will begin again, all will lament this recurring tragedy, politicians will voice regrets and offer condolences and bureaucratic promises will be made anew. Then the media will move on and all the will will disappear until the next young person dies.

All the paper used to print reports addressing the issue of youth suicide has clearcut small forests. Recommendations for remediating this national embarrassment have filled filing cabinets. What is it going to take before we stop sacrificing the lives of our children on the altars of indifference, ineptitude and inaction? Why has this national calamity become intractable?

Reconciliation means that both parties, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, need to begin thinking and acting outside the box on issues that affect our nation-to-nation relationship: from transfer payments to housing, education, resource-sharing  the list goes on and on. Near the top of that neglected list is the epidemic of youth suicides in remote First Nations communities.

Without question, immediate and effective stop-gap measures are required. However, for durable solutions, throwing money at a porous wall hoping it will stick is rarely the answer. Vital to resolving this heart-rending problem and so many others that plague our Indigenous brothers and sisters is to begin considering the viability of remote northern First Nation reserves. The pervasive lack of social and economic opportunity, little or no infrastructure and mould-riddled housing exacerbated by a the band office will fix it dependency and the persistence of legacy issues oozing from soul-killing residential schools will continue to be generational. For too many Indigenous youths, that toxic combination offers only death to dreams.

Providing solutions that take root and flourish under Indigenous leadership will require building a new relationship, in which governing and management capacity is enhanced and access to social and economic opportunities become as commonplace as they are to most other Canadians. Our history has demonstrated that hospitals, quality health care, first-class high schools and high-tech industries are simply not going to happen in remote First Nations communities, but who among us would deny the right of our Indigenous neighbours to access these services and opportunities?

When Beverly Sabourin and I wrote a series of articles last year (Doctors part of the drug problem, Jan. 22, 2016; Suicide crisis should not become yesterdays news, April 25, 2016) on the viability of remote First Nations communities, we underscored the vital importance of relevant education to the future of First Nations in Canada. We celebrated the fact that First Nations youth are graduating in ever-increasing numbers.

But a troubling paradox has emerged: the newly educated, the brightest and best, rarely return to their communities of origin, as there are few employment prospects for them.

The elephant in the room is a dawning reality that has become difficult for most remote First Nations communities to accept: their traditional subsistence and trade economies have migrated from foundational livelihood to distant memory. While central to the Indigenous worldview and sense of self, traditional activities have been supplanted by an ad hoc, scantly available and impermanent wage-based economy and/or social assistance and the necessity of dependency.

Nevertheless, to First Nations peoples these homelands serve to connect the extremities to the heart, and home and culture are where the heart is. But what are the prospects for these communities? What are the chances that remote First Nations will be able to support a vibrant, culturally rich homeland while providing sustainable opportunities for economic growth and social development? Development consistent with the Indigenous respect for the intrinsic value of the land upon which their ancestors thrived and their spirits flourished?

Perhaps one possibility for Indigenous leaders to consider is the creation or expansion of service communities, urban centres-of-excellence closest to remote communities (think Sioux Lookout, Thompson, Timmins, Fort Mac, etc.) where most of the billions of dollars in transfer payments can be more adequately focused on developing state-of-the-art hospitals, first-class high schools and skills college and university campuses, housing and boarding facilities and all manner of services to create culturally appropriate supports for communities of Indigenous families, all the while  and this is critical  continuing to provide access to their traditional territory and their original reserves, which would remain under the control of local Indigenous leadership but sustained with rudimentary supports for those who choose to remain.

Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous politicians, and the myriad levels of bureaucracy that support them, must challenge their own self-serving resistance to change and begin to move forcefully away from the status quo. Proposing and discussing alternatives to remote First Nations reserves can be imagined without the prospect of killing these vibrant cultures. Those Indigenous youth who ended their lives in despair and hopelessness deserve nothing less.

Peter Andre Globensky is a former senior policy adviser on Aboriginal affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister and retired as CEO of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
Irfan alias Aryan Khanna, often described as the modern-day 'Robin Hood', would steal from the rich, and spend a part of his loot on the poor.

By India Today Web Desk: Irfan is a thief for the wealthy people of Delhi, but for the poor in Bihar, he is a messiah; a modern-day 'Robin Hood'.

This 'Robin Hood', however, ended up behind the bars after police arrested him on July 6 from his village in Bihar's Sitamarhi district.

Irfan has been accused of stealing from houses in Delhi's posh colonies, and live a lavish life off his loot. He even bought expensive cars, and visited clubs in Mumbai and Delhi.

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Meanwhile, back in his village in Bihar, Irfan had an image of being a generous young man.

He would spend a part of the loot on poor villagers, organizing health camps and offering free food in Bihar.

"He maintained a larger-than-life image in his native area. He would often fund health camps for people in his village," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya told TOI .

A BURGLAR, AFTER ALL

To avoid being caught, Irfan would go to work barefoot and enter houses in these posh colonies by breaking open doors or windows. He also preferred working alone.

Things went haywire for Irfan after he was caught on a CCTV camera while burgling in Delhi's New Friends Colony, and this led to his arrest.

Police said he was quite active on social media, and spent large sums of money on his girlfriend too.

Irfan used Facebook with pseudonym Aryaan khanna. He would introduce himself as the owner of Khanna Industries. Irfan once offered to pay Rs 10,000 just to hear a song in a bar in Delhi, said DCP Baaniya.

The official also said that Irfan claims to have committed burglaries in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab as well.

Well, looks like the modern-day 'Robin Hood' wasn't that much of a selfless messiah after all.

(With inputs from PTI)

Also Read

FYI || From doctor to thief: Man arrested for auto theft who sold bikes on OLX and Quikr ||

FYI || 2-year-old boy charged for theft and trespassing in Uttar Pradesh ||

FYI || Tejas Express: Did passengers steal headphones on maiden run? ||

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Many Americans, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, have experienced heartbreaking medical crises. The Senator's daughter was born with a congenital heart condition requiring major surgery. We must ask him to empathize with other American families who may have a similar medical crisis when he votes on any Senate health bill.

Any health care bill must protect those, like Sen. Johnson's daughter, with pre-existing conditions. That is one reason why the newest version of the Senate bill with the Ted Cruz amendment damages Americans; it will not require coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Sen. Johnson vowed to vote against the previous version of the Senate bill. Please call and email him telling him to also vow to vote against the newest version unveiled Thursday.

Sen. Johnson's contact information: U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, 328 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington D.C. 20510, or call 202-224-5323, or ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-the-senator.

Bill Dagnon, Baraboo
JUNEAU  Laverne Ware, the former Fox Lake man accused of killing his girlfriend, may yet again have to look for new representation.

Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Brian Pfitzinger approved Monday the request from Michael J. Steinle to be withdrawn as Wares attorney. Steinle cited a breakdown in communications between him and Ware and also noted that Ware was still represented by attorney Ann T. Bowe.

On Friday, however, Dodge County District Attorney Kurt Klomberg filed a motion to disqualify Bowe from the case.

Ware is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Sesalie Dixon, his longtime girlfriend and first cousin. He also faces charges of hiding a corpse, incest and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He could face life in prison on the homicide charge. Ware is currently in custody in Dodge County Jail on a $2.5 million bond.

According to the motion filed Friday, Bowe involved herself by paying large sums of money to witnesses in the case at Wares request.

Ware had more than $400,000 in liquid assets when he was charged in December. According to the motion, recent sale of Wares property reveal that he netted $740,000 from those sales.

Stanley Johnson, Dixons father, has filed a wrongful death suit against Ware. As part of the suit, Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Martin De Vries entered an order preventing the disbursement of assets by Ware except $150,000 that will be allowed for legal defense.

The mother of Sesalie Dixon contacted the Dodge County District Attorneys office on June 13 and told them that she received a check from Bowes law office in the amount of $7,500, and Stanley Dixon received a $10,000 check. Other witnesses including Wares mother, Marjorie Jones, also received checks.

In a call from Dodge County Jail on June 3, Ware told Jones cousin that several checks needed to be picked up from Bowes office and delivered to a number of people as an act of kindness. According to the motion, all the checks were signed by Bowe.

It impacts the credibility of the witnesses and disposes the assets prior to the civil case, according to the motion.

Ware is scheduled for his sixth arraignment Thursday, in a case that has had multiple delays over the last six months caused by heath issues, substituting a judge and several changes in his representation. Wares first attorney in the case, James Toran, entered the case Dec. 22 on the date of Wares preliminary hearing.

According to court documents, Toran and Ware agreed that attorney Donna Kuchler would represent him instead, and she entered the case Feb. 20. Kuchlers firm also retained Aaron Nelson for the case. Ware decided to go with attorneys Ann Bowe and Michael Steinle instead.

In criminal complaints, Wares mother, told officers that Ware was in a committed relationship with Dixon. Jones told officers that Dixon and Ware began their relationship shortly after he received a $1.5 million inheritance. Jones told officers that she did not approve of Dixons relationship with Ware, and said she believed Dixon was trying to take his inheritance.

Jones boyfriend, Vernon Mickey, contacted Dodge County Central Communications at 3:58 p.m. Dec. 4 to report a possible homicide at 100 We Go Trail. Mickey said he lived at the residence with his wife, Jones and Ware, but was calling from a Kwik Trip about a block away because he did not want them to know he was calling.

The complaint states that Mickey reported there was a lot of blood in the garage, but he did not see a body; and that Wares girlfriend, Dixon, had been missing since the previous night.

Investigators found a blue Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck inside the garage with Dixons body in the front passenger seat. Officers noted that Dixons death appeared to have occurred several hours earlier.

An autopsy revealed that she had been shot in the head.

Mickey and Jones are also charged in the case. Jones has a five-day jury trial scheduled in January 2018 after being accused of aiding her son in covering up Dixons murder. Mickey entered a not guilty plea to charges of harboring or aiding a felon and has a telephone scheduling conference scheduled for July 28.
Theft  Friday at 7:58 a.m., a woman reported that her wallet was taken out of an unlocked vehicle in the 100 block of Wall Street.

Accident  Friday at 9:50 a.m., two women were involved in a vehicle accident in the 1600 block of North Spring Street.

Break-in  Friday at 12:06 p.m., a man reported that everything was stolen from his apartment in the 100 block of Lakecrest Drive.

Disorderly conduct  Friday at 9:11 p.m., someone told police that three people were waiting in the 800 block of Park Avenue to jump another person.

Retail theft  Friday at 9:48 p.m., an employee at Shopko, 822 Park Ave., told police that an 18-year-old man shoplifted. The man was cited.

Underage drinking  Friday at 11:25 p.m., a woman and man parked near the West Burnett Street and Lakeshore Drive were cited with underage possession of alcohol and were warned for having open intoxicants in a vehicle.

Disorderly conduct  Friday at 11:31 p.m., a woman told police that she was in a verbal fight with a man in the 100 block of East Mill Street.

Disorderly conduct  Saturday at 9:01 a.m., a man in the 300 block of Henry Street told police that a woman locked him out of the house and got rid of all of his clothes. The woman refused to answer the door.

Traffic  Saturday at 10:06 a.m., a five-gallon bucket of paint was removed from traffic in the 1600 block of North Spring Street.

Accident  Saturday at 10:34 a.m., two women were involved in a vehicle accident near the intersection of Front Street and North Center Street. One woman was warned for following too closely.

Accident  Saturday at 10:51 a.m., a woman and man were involved in a vehicle accident near the North Spring Street and North University Avenue intersection. The man was cited with operating a vehicle after revocation and violating a red traffic light, carrying open intoxicants, possessing drug paraphernalia and possessing marijuana.

Break-in  Saturday at 2:33 p.m., a woman in the 300 block of Gilmore Avenue reported that a garage door was kicked in.

Sexual assault  Saturday at 3:12 p.m., someone came into the Beaver Dam Police Department building, 123 Park Ave., to report a sexual assault.

Disorderly conduct  Saturday at 3:26 p.m., a woman in the 100 block of Knaup Drive reported that a man threatened to kill himself in front of her and her children.

Drugs  Saturday at 7:49 p.m., someone reported drug activity in the 400 block of Stone Street. Police did not detect any odor.

Hit and run  Saturday at 9:46 p.m., a woman reported that someone hit a vehicle near the intersection of South University Avenue and East Mill Street.

Fight  Saturday at 10:23 p.m., a man and a woman were fighting in the 500 block of Madison Street.

Disorderly conduct  Sunday at 12:27 a.m., people were arguing and walking near the South Lincoln Avenue and East Davis Street intersection. The people were warned for disorderly conduct.

Intoxicated person  Sunday at 12:59 a.m., an apartment manager reported that an intoxicated 30-year-old-man was banging on doors in the 800 block of South Lincoln Avenue.

Theft  Sunday at 12:27 p.m., someone in the 200 block of Roller Avenue told police that someone went through a vehicle.

Misc.  Sunday at 12:59 p.m., someone told police that a woman was under the influence of medication in the 100 block of Judson Drive.

Accident  Sunday at 1:41 p.m., there was a two-vehicle accident near the South Spring Street and Davis Street intersection.

Intoxicated person  Monday at 1:37 a.m., a traffic stop near the North Spring Street and East Third Street intersection resulted in police citing a driver for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
Residents in southern Juneau County wont have to travel far to enjoy a unique experience this summer.

Geoff Gorius, owner of 88 Gear Water Sports, opened the Launch Cable Park  believed to be the first of its kind in Wisconsin  a few miles south of Wonewoc along Highway 33. The park is located across from Club Chapparal and Chapparal Campground. The launch cable experience is relatively new to the Midwest. Gorius believes there is only two in neighboring Illinois, and one each in Minnesota and Indiana. The concept is more popular in southern states such as Texas and Florida.

Ive always wanted to do a cable park and there is enough water here and the space to do it, Gorius said. I know people who like to use cable parks have to drive between two and six hours to use them and it wasnt really feasible for me to set this up in the Dells. Dennis, the owner of Camp Chapparral, has the perfect setup out here for it.

In the next three years, Gorius and the owners of the campground have plans to expand the pond by a few more acres. Gorius said the pond will eventually resemble a big racetrack of water. The expansion could last about four or five years, according to Gorius.

Right now this is the perfect setup for beginners, Gorius said. Its a little more controlled.

The cable system allows users to wakeboard on a body of water without a boat. The cable in Wonewoc has above-ground anchors and two towers with the cable stretching between 200 and 700 feet. Gorius said being attached to the cable simulates traveling on a boat without the expense of owning one.

We went about as big as we could so people who want to use it can have a nice, long ride, Gorius said. We plan to upgrade the features as we start to see what people want.

Gorius said Nordic Mountain, in Wild Rose, had a similar park in 2007, but decided to remove it. He believes the new park near Wonewoc has more water and will allow for more activities. Holly Ottesen, a yoga instructor from Richland Center, plans to teach yoga on the water classes at Launch Cable Park in the coming weeks. Participants will be able to perform yoga on a wake board at the pond.

Its so nice to have something like this out here, Ottesen said. Its a neat thing to have in this area that not a lot of people have access to.

Ottesen has thought about teaching yoga on the water for quite some time and the new cable park is the ideal setup.

Its something a lot of people have brought up to me and these classes are right up my alley, Ottesen said.

While the cable park opened at the beginning of June, it will hold a grand opening July 22. A disc jockey will be there and food will be provided. A portion of the proceeds will go toward the Boys and Girls Club of Reedsburg.

For more information on Launch Cable Park, call 1-888-317-1269 or go to www.launchcablepark.com.
Republicans in the state Senate plan to unveil their own proposal for a state spending plan amid a budget impasse that has now lasted more than two weeks beyond the state deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, Joint Finance Committee co-chairwoman Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Senate President Roger Roth, R-Appleton, will release the Senate Republicans 2017-19 spending plan Tuesday.

The proposal will include their recommendations for K-12 schools, taxes and transportation  spending areas not yet taken up by the Legislatures budget-writing committee.

Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, blamed each other last week for the budget committees monthlong hiatus and for missing the July 1 deadline for a new state budget.

Fitzgerald said then he had a fully (fleshed)-out budget plan and if the two Republican caucuses continued to disagree, he would consider introducing it to the full Senate and send what they pass to the Assembly.

Thats not the route Fitzgerald plans to take immediately by releasing his caucus proposal, though, his spokeswoman Myranda Tanck said. Fitzgerald is introducing the proposal in an effort to resume budget discussions and the work of the budget committee, she said.

We are hopeful that our proposal results in an agreement on major areas and that the Legislature can resume its work on the budget very soon, Tanck said.

Vos said last week that though he was pushing for new revenue sources to pay for road projects and to shore up a nearly $1 billion gap in the transportation budget, he has accepted that Gov. Scott Walker and Fitzgerald are not on board.

But he said to get an agreement, Fitzgerald must then accept Vos position of keeping transportation spending flat instead of borrowing more for road projects, which would force delays of road projects planned and already underway.

Fitzgerald called that idea a non-starter.

On Monday, Vos said he wanted to resume budget work, too.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will come to Madison in December as part of a national tour to promote his new memoir.

Biden, cited as a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2020, is conducting a 19-city American Promise Tour. Its scheduled to bring Biden to the Orpheum Theatre on Dec. 10.

The tour is promoting Bidens memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, due out Nov. 14. The book chronicles 2015, when Joe Bidens son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer, and Joe Biden decided not to run for president.

The book is described as a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.

As part of the tour, Biden will share how the loss of his son Beau tested his resolve, and how he is finding new purpose in a time of uncertainty, according to a Facebook page promoting the event.

Biden last came to Madison in November, as part of a last-minute campaign push for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Russ Feingold.

Now, Bidens new tour is fueling speculation about his 2020 plans. Biden, 74, has not signaled he will run for president but also has not ruled out the possibility.

In May, Biden announced he was launching a political action committee, American Possibilities.

Theres little question Biden  a U.S. senator from Delaware for 36 years before serving as vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017  commands considerable goodwill from the Democratic base. A recent Morning Consult/POLITICO poll found Biden had  by far  the highest favorability rating by Democratic registered voters among 19 Democratic politicians who are possible contenders for the 2020 nomination.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the first half of 2016 saw 19 infiltration attempts by terror groups, but in 2017 the number has more than doubled to 42.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: It has been a bloody year, quite literally, for Jammu and Kashmir.

A few days after the Amarnath terror attack, data shared by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) shows that more terrorists from across the border are trying to sneak into India this year.

The MHA data was shared by Minister of State for Home Affairs Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to a question posed by Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in Parliament today.

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The first half of 2016 saw 19 infiltration attempts by terror groups, but in 2017 the number has more than doubled to 42.

Maximum attempts at infiltration were made in May and June--as the snow melts, it becomes easier for terror groups to enter India with cover fire from Pakistan, sources in security agencies said.

In May this year, 11 infiltration bids were recorded while the number stood at 10 in June. In 2016, five infiltration attempts were made by terror modules in May and seven in June.

In the last few months, south Kashmir has witnessed a spate of terrorist encounters while infiltration attempts have been reported in the north.

The increase in infiltration attempts by terrorists has almost been in sync with ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army along the Line of Control (LoC).

Last week, the Army foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez valley of Bandipora district in north Kashmir and killed a terrorist.

ALSO READ:

Rajnath Singh on Kashmir: Will eliminate Pakistan-sponsored terrorism soon

Decrease in number of stone pelting incidents in Kashmir: MHA

The black shroud in Kashmir marks presence of ISIS in Valley

ALSO WATCH: Pakistan's new terror modus-operandi: Terrorists get visa on Hurriyat's recommendation

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Over 100 children braved a rain of shells inside two government schools in the afternoon when Pakistan started unprovoked firing from across the LoC.

By India Today Web Desk: At a number of government schools near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu's Nowshera sector, children braved bullets and shells to escape death after Pakistan Army violated a ceasefire and started indiscriminate firing in civilian areas.

The firing started in the afternoon and it was only in the evening hours that Jammu and Kashmir's Director General of Police SP Vaid announced that all children who were trapped in schools of Rajouri district have been rescued.

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Over 100 children braved a rain of shells inside two government schools in the afternoon when Pakistan started unprovoked shelling. All students and staff were rescued safely by the security forces and police. As a precautionary measure they were told not to move out of the building till Pakistan stops shelling.

Bullet-proof vehicles were rushed to the spot to shift these school children to safer places as soon as possible.

Indian Army is retaliating strongly to Pakistan's firing from across the LoC.

J&K: A car hit by mortar in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Balakot. pic.twitter.com/GQHQ3cU9Ey

During the day, Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire by shelling mortars and firing in Rajouri and Poonch districts along LoC. In north Kashmir's Kupwara district, an Army jawan was killed by firing from across the LoC.

An alert has been sounded for civilians near the LoC with instructions to stay indoors. A population of 4,500-5,000 in the villages of Panjgrain, Rajdhani and Naika in the Rajouri-Poonch belt was affected due to the shelling by Pakistani troops.

"The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 0645 hours in the Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors along the Line of Control," a Defence spokesperson said.

#WATCH: Ceasefire violation by Pakistan in J&K's Manjakote earlier today, gunshots heard. pic.twitter.com/vXNLEBw5Ce; ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

Today was the second consecutive day when Pakistan targeted civilian areas with indiscriminate firing. Yesterday, an Indian army soldier and an 8-year-old girl were killed in Poonch. Immediately after the attack, India warned Pakistan that that it reserves the right to retaliate to any provocation across the LoC.

(Inputs from Ashwini Kumar)

Also read:

Also watch:

Pakistan targets schools in unprovoked firing in Jammu and Kashmir's Nowshera sector

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By PTI: infiltrating militant

Jammu/Srinagar, Jul 18 (PTI) Two Army jawans were killed and 6 people, including 3 civilians, were injured as Pakistani troops pounded several villages and forward areas with mortar bombs along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir today, officials said.

Terrorists also made a bid to infiltrate into Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) via the Gurez sector which was foiled by the Indian troops who killed one of the infiltrators, the officials said.

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Over 8,000 people have been affected by Pakistani shelling during the last two days and 3,361 border migrants have been housed in camps.

Nine people, including 6 soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in over a dozen ceasefire violations by the Pakistani Army along the LoC this month.

The Pakistani troops targeted several areas of Rajouri, Poonch and Kupwara districts of along the LoC, they said, adding that the Indian troops retaliated.

The Pakistani shelling put lives of hundreds of school children at risk in Rajouri district.

The authorities rescued over 250 people. Among them were 217 students, who were trapped in three schools in Kadali and Seha areas of Rajouri near the LoC for 6 hours. They were evacuated in bulletproof vehicles, according to Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.

"Pakistani troops initiated unprovoked firing on Indian Army posts in Naushera sector in Rajouri at around 1350 hours today. The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively," the defence spokesman said.

An Army sepoy Jaspreet Singh was killed in the Pakistani shelling in Naushera sector in Rajouri district, a defence spokesman said.

The 24-year-old jawan hailed from Talwandi in Moga district of Punjab. He is survived by his parents, he added.

"The nation will always remain indebted to him for the supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty," he said.

Three civilians were injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC in Naushera sector, the DC said, adding that they have been hospitalised.

The reports said that three Army jawans also suffered injuries in exchanges of the firing and shelling along LoC. They were hospitalised.

Another Army jawan was killed in Pakistani firing in the Nowgam sector of Kashmir Valley, an army official said.

Over 8,000 people, including 3,000 in Naushera and 5,000 in Manjakote-Rajdhani-Panjgrain-Naika, have been affected by Pakistani shelling during the last two days.

"3,361 border migrants have been given shelter in camps set up by the government in safer areas along the LoC in Rajouri district," the DC said.

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Earlier day, the Pakistan Army in unprovoked and indiscriminate firing, used small arms, automatics and mortars from 0645 hours in Bhimbher Gali (Rajouri) and Poonch sectors along the LoC, the spokesman said.

According to reports, one jawan suffered minor splinter injuries in the exchange of the fire in the Bhimbher Gali sector.

The Pakistani Army also targeted civilian areas and Indian Army posts along the LoC in Bhimbher Gali and Balakote sectors of Rajouri district as well as the Poonch sector triggering fear among residents.

Yesterday, the Pakistan Army had fired on Indian Army posts in Rajouri, Poonch and Baramulla districts, officials said.

Naik Muddasar Ahmed was killed when mortar shells landed on his bunker. Ahmed, who hailed from Duchoo village, is survived by his wife and two children.

Pakistan had shelled mortars on civilian areas yesterday in which nine-year-old Sajada Kouser was killed at Baroti, officials said, adding that two other civilians and a jawan were also injured in Rajouri. PTI AB/MIJ AKK AAR

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Indian response to border standoff has been much more measured and in many ways reasonable than we have seen from the Chinese side, the Chinese media and that's a responsible way to deal with the situation that could escalate.

By Geeta Mohan: Joshua White served at the White House as Senior Advisor and Director for South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council in the Obama administration. Currently he is, Associate Professor of South Asia Studies at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Q: There has been an increase in terror emanating from Pakistan. In your experience, how involved is the state in supporting terrorism and terrorist organisations?

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A: We were concerned with the string of attacks that we saw in Pathankot, Gurdaspur and then in Uri and we are very sympathetic with what India has to do with it in this regard. Each of these attacks was traced to groups that operate in Pakistan and it has been the evolving US position which I very much support that at the end of the day we judge that if these attacks can be traced to Pakistan based groups then Pakistan is in a way culpable for those attacks perhaps not for its active involvement because it is unclear if parts of the official establishment were involved, but Pakistan's consistent failure to deal with these groups, to constrain their operations, to constrain their fund raising, to their public activities means that Pakistan bears some responsibility for the behaviour of these groups and that has been the evolving US position regardless of what we believe about official direct complicity.

Q: The designation of Syed Salahuddin has been a huge diplomatic win for India but the move was rejected by Pakistan and Salahuddin hailed as a freedom fighter. What do you make of Pakistan openly supporting a global terrorist?

A: It is unacceptable. I very much supported the US designation in this regard. The United States has asked Pakistan to constrain the activities of these groups but also to constrain their public space, their rallies, their meetings, their public space and to work to delegitimise these groups. My experience in Pakistan has been that whenever the Pakistani government really wants to deal with a problematic group, it finds a way to do so and it often begins with delegitimising them by sending a message that these groups are not acceptable, that their activities and rallies are not acceptable. Those are the kind of messages we have not seen from Pakistan on Kashmir oriented groups, on Lashkar-e-Taiba, on a number of other groups. These lead us to believe that despite the rhetoric that they are not yet serious in constraining those groups and about dealing with them in a substantive way.

Q: So it's not just about lack of political will but lack of military will, lack of will by the ISI in Pakistan to act against terrorist networks?

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A: I think it is both. In Pakistan, the civilian leadership, although it has done a number of good things, has also been reticent to deal with groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jammat-ud-Dawaa, Falaa-e-Insaniyat, the affiliates which are in some ways just as pernicious as LeT itself. Certainly, when it comes to some of the groups operating in Kashmir, they have glorified a lot of those groups. And so I would like to see greater efforts by the civilians to deal with the presence of these groups and their public rallies. That is something that some of the civilians and civilian organisations have some purview over. And at the same time, the military can do more to constrain the operational activities of these groups and send a signal that reining in these kinds of dangerous organisations is in fact in Pakistan's interest and is a representation of the fact that Pakistan is doing what it said it would do, i.e., be a responsible state.

Q: Attacks continue from across the border despite the surgical strike by India. Should India explore that option again or look at other ways of tackling cross-border terrorism? Are surgical strikes the answer?

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A: Ultimately, I'm not sure that they are. They are a response that sends a signal. They are a punitive response. But, in my view, these sort of attacks coming from across the border from Pakistani based militant groups are very difficult to prevent and I think India has already taken some steps. It can probably do a lot more about its defences and to protect itself from what is going to be continuing problem. The surgical strikes do send some kind of a message but they also incur certain risks for India if they are done again and again. Pakistan has a number of ways that it could respond the next time. Might not be the way they responded the last time. At the end of the day, that does not deal with the fundamental challenge which is the permissive environment in Pakistan that gives space to these groups to operate across the border.

Q: How is the United States of America viewing the border tensions between India and China as it threatens stability of the region?

A: I think Americans are asking a lot of the same questions that Indians are asking, what exactly happened, what was the understanding and what is the nature of this stand-off. We are still trying to understand that. But, we have seen China exhibit a certain kind of behaviour in the South China Sea where it creates facts on the ground, in water in that case, and slowly begins to change the status quo. So, it would not be terribly surprising if China were to do something similar in this case and it is worrisome. I think, the United States and India, both share an interest in making sure that China abides by the rules of the road, by international standards. I think there is a shared concern about China's growing reach into the Indian Ocean and into South Asia. That is something we should communicate about and we are certainly watching the incident very closely.

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Q: On changing to narrative to suit the changed status quo, China has been briefing envoys of various nations on the border stand-off. Is this another way of doing the same?

A: China is good at shaping the narrative. I actually commend my friends in the Indian government also for taking a very measured but clear and assertive position on the Indian view on what has happened and seeking to return to the negotiations table about this border situation as it now stands. And In think that the Indian response has been much more measured and in many ways reasonable than we have seen from the Chinese side, the Chinese media and that's a responsible way to deal with the situation that could escalate. I hope that sort of measured approach continues.

ALSO READ:

India-US-Japan's Malabar naval exercise is a message gift-wrapped for China

US House imposes tougher conditions for defence funding to Pakistan

ALSO WATCH: China's public statements on border situation a sign of bullying?

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Before he was president of the United States, Donald Trump was a famous real estate mogul known throughout the world. His net worth is estimated at $3.9 billion. Trump Organization LLC is the primary holding organization for the array of companies owned by Trump. Some of the real estate portfolio owned by Trump includes properties in Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Nevada, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Hawaii. New York makes the majority of portfolio ownership which includes the most expensive and the tallest properties in the state. He also has properties in different countries like Canada, Panama, Israel, Dubai, Mexico, South Korea, Uruguay, India, Turkey, and the Philippines. He also has interest and a stakeholder in numerous properties in different countries.

Trump Plaza Tower: Ramat, Israel

Trump Plaza Tower in Ramat Gan in Israel is still under construction and is set to be the tallest building in Israel once complete. Initially, it was known as the Elite tower and was purchased by Donald Trump for $44 million. Trump later slowed down the arrangements to construct the tower in 2007 when he sold the site to Azorim Group. The location is on the historic site of the Elite Candy Factory.

Trump International Hotel & Tower: Vancouver, Canada

The skyscraper is still under construction and is slated to be completed by end year. It is a 63-storey reaching 188 meters (617 ft) high. The building will be the second tallest in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Trump Towers: Istanbul, Turkey

The building in Istanbul, Turkey has two towers, one is residential while the other is an office. It is the first Trump tower to be built in Europe. The building has 200 residences, a shopping mall, multiplex cinema, and 80 shops. The complex is co-owned by Donald Trump and the Turkish billionaire and property developer, Aydin Dogan

Trump World: Seoul, Korea

The complex has 70 floors above the ground and two underground floors with 376 residential units located in Soul, South Korea. The building was developed by Daewoo E&C, and Donald Trump lent his name to be used in the building. It was the first such arrangement with a foreign organization. The project was completed in 2001 at the cost of $240 million, and the units were sold quickly giving profits to both parties.

Trump International Hotel and Tower: Toronto, Canada

The 65-storey building is 276.9 m tall with 260 luxury hotel rooms and 109 condominiums. The hotel which is owned by Val Levitan and Canadian businessman Alex Shnaide is named after the American real estate developer Donald Trump, a minority shareholder in the project.

The Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower: Dubai, UAE

The Hotel Tower is also referred to as Trump Tower Dubai and was expected to have 300 rooms, with 48 stories, but construction was canceled indefinitely in 2008 after the financial crunch. The project is co-owned by Trump and Dubai-based Nakheel, a government-owned company.

Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower: Panama City, Panama

The project incorporates 369 in townhouse units, 700 apartment suite units, 1500 parking spots, retail shops, gambling club, utilization of a private shoreline club on Viveros Island, yacht club and wharf, wellbeing spa, recreational center, pool deck, meeting and occasion spaces, and a business focus. The architecture was developed by absolute acreage administrator Donald Trump of the Trump Organization and Roger Khafif, President of the K Group, a Panama resort developer.

Trump Ocean Resort: Baja, Mexico

This was a failed luxury condominium and hotel resort in Mexico. It was a joint venture between the Trump organization and Irongate, a real estate development company. The project was to have 25 stories with a 526 condominium hotel. Investors were made to believe Trump was supervising the project but it later turned out that Trump had only licensed his name for the development.

Trump at Cap Cana: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Trump at Cap Cana was an 8,000-acre oceanfront resort that would bear Donald Trumps name in exchange for a name license fee. Donald Trump finally filed a suit against the developers for $6 million because they failed to remit the monthly sales reports and the name license fee. It was thought that the 2008 financial crisis affected the developers.

Trump Tower Manila: Manila, Philippines

Trump Tower Manila, also known as Trump Tower at Century City, is a residential complex in Manila Philippines scheduled to open by 2016. It is one of the tallest buildings in the Philippines. Century City Development Corp was the developers of the complex with the brand name of Donald Trump.

Trump Tower: Mumbai, India

The Tower is 800 feet and has 3 and 4 bedroom apartments. It was constructed by Lodha Group with the name Donald Trump as a brand name after signing the deal in 2014. The tower is within a park that has commercial developments like deluxe hotels, premium residential apartments, and luxury malls.

Trump Tower: Pune, India

Trump Tower in Pune, India is a 22 story tower having 44 single floor apartments. The owners are Zero G Apartments Pvt Ltd who used the name Trump as a brand under a license agreement with Donald Trump.

Controversy

The use of Trump's name in foreign countries has not been without controversy, for instance, in 2015 the owners of Trump Tower in Turkey were contemplating legal ways to dissociate the property after Donald Trump had called for the ban of Muslims entering the US. In June 2016, the Turkish President Erdogan was reported to have called for the removal of Trump's name from the towers citing the intolerant remarks by Trump against Muslims. He called for those using Trump's name in Istanbul to remove it immediately.
Niger is an African nations which was colonized by the French. The country gained its independence from France on August 3, 1960. Hamani Diori, who served as prime minister prior to Niger's independence, became the country's first president, serving until 1974, when he was ousted by a coup. Following a period of political instability, a constitution for the Fifth Republic was adopted in 1999, which established Niger as a semi-presidential state. Another constitution was drafted in 2009 and adopted in 2010.

Executive Branch of Government

The Nigerien president is the head of state under the constitution and is elected by universal suffrage for a five year term. Executive power is shared with the Nigerien prime minister, who recommends members of the Council of the Ministers for approval by the president. Nigerien ministers are selected from the national assembly. The prime minister is nominated by the national assembly, and is subject to approval by the president, and heads the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers holds sessions with the president and advises the president on matters of policy and implements policies ordered by the president. The president can dissolve parliament, a right that is limited to once every two years. In addition to the legislature, the president and the prime minister can also propose legislation.

Legislative Branch of Government

The legislative branch of government in Niger is a unicameral national assembly. There are 171 members currently in the Nigerien National Assembly following elections on February 21, 2016, which is an increase from the previous 113 legislators. Members elected in multi-seat constituencies pass through a party-list proportional representation system. Elections for the eight single constituency seats are completed using the first-past-the-post system. The Nigerien National Assembly is mandated to nominate the prime minister and publicly investigate the executive agencies through the Commissions of Inquiry, committee hearings, formal parliamentary questions, hearings in plenary sittings, Interpellations, and "Question time."

Judicial Branch of Government

The highest Nigerien judicial institution is the Supreme Court of Niger. It gives audience to appeals from lower courts and only decides on the application of law in addition to constitutional questions. Each of the nation's eight regions has a court of appeals, which rules on questions of fact and law. Electoral and constitutional matters are given audience in the Constitutional Court of Niger. Seven members sit in this court, and it is managed by a president nominated by the members. A High Court of Justice (HCJ) tries government officials accused of committing crimes while exercising their mandate. The State Security Court handles military affairs. A network of Nigerien criminal and civil courts serves Nigerien citizens. There are customary courts in Niger which mediate on social issues including community disputes, land, and marriage.

Administrative Divisions

Niger has a total of eight regions in the country: Tillaberi, Dosso, Zinder, Maradi, Agadez, Tahoua, Diffa, and the capital, Niamey. Each region is further divided into 36 different departments. These departments are further broken down into communes, which total 265. The communes elect mayors and councils. The departments govern cantons and group events. Rural communes administer areas with a population of lower than 10,000 people, while urban communes cover regions with populations of greater than 10,000. Other semi-autonomous subdivisions are provinces, sultanates, and tributaries.
The BJP will now hold protests across the Bengaluru city to up the ante against the move by the Siddaramaiah government.

By Rohini Swamy: The BJP has decided to flag up the controversy surrounding a separate flag for the state of Karnataka as an issue of anti-nationalism.

The BJP will now hold protests across the Bengaluru city to up the ante against the move by the Siddaramaiah government.

The Karnataka BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje said that the move by the Siddaramaiah government is unacceptable and rather the national stands for unity and for 'one nation, one flag'. "If Siddaramaiah thinks that he can have a flag, it is an anti-national move," she added.

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The Congress government in Karnataka has set up a panel to design a legally acceptable flag for the state.

CM Siddaramaiah challenged the media as he posed the question on the decision being called anti-national. "Where is it written that a state cannot have its own flag?" he asked.

The question is valid as according to constitutional experts, a state can have its own flag as long as it is flown lower than the national tricolour.

Karnataka unofficially has its own flag which is hoisted on the state's reorganisation day on November 1.

The committee, headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture, was set up last month following a representation from noted Kannada writer and journalist Patil Puttappa, and social worker Bheemappa Gundappa Gadada.

Puttappa and Gadada in their representation had requested the government to design a separate flag for?'Kannada Naadu' and accord it legal standing.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country that has its own official flag. This was allowed as the state enjoys special status under article 370 of the constitution.

The BJP who have been saying that the move is against the constitution, have also raised this issue earlier. Union Minister Sadanand Gowda who has also served as the chief minister of Karnataka had opposed the move to have a separate flag. In 2011, the BJP government had dismissed the idea stating that it would diminish the importance of the tricolour.

The then Kannada and Culture minister Govind M Karjol said, "The national flag is the symbol of the sovereignty and integrity of the country and any love to have a separate flag would diminish the importance of the tricolour. This may also lead to narrow minded regional thinking."

Senior legal counsels quoted the 1994 SR Bommai versus Union of India case where it has been said that there is no constitutional prohibition for a state to have its own state flag as long as no disrespect is shown to the national flag and it is flown below it.

The whole controversy regarding the Karnataka flag is about Kannada pride and culture and so the Congress government has found an opportunity to not just milk the issue which will have political ramifications as the state goes to elections in April this year. In the background of the Nammametrohindibeda campaign that shook the state on language politics, this definitely will turn out to be a war like situation where somebody will have to raise the flag to call for peace.

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The Hindi language agitation that was seen in Bengaluru recently was against the imposition of "one country one language" rule and so this new turn of events will definitely give the Opposition some ammunition to attack the Siddaramaiah government.

Also read:

Separate flag for Karnataka? State government sets up panel

Karnataka may have a separate state flag soon

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah: The vulnerable sections must benefit most

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Monday, July 17, 2017

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -- The acting United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia is calling the latest action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force the "largest ever health care fraud enforcement action."

112 doctors, nurses and medical professionals across the country facing charges for their alleged part in 1.3 billion dollars in false billings, according to the Attorney's office.

Three of the defendants are in the C.S.R.A.

The claims out of Hephzibah and Thomson go back to Dr. Firoz Patka who owns SouthCare Medical Center in Hephzibah, Thomson Pediatrics and Internal Medicine and Louisville Medical Center.

A lawsuit brought by the United States Attorney's Office claims Dr. Patka worked twice a week at his center in Hephzibah and once a week at his Thomson location.

The lawsuit goes on to allege when Patka was "absent" he would sign blank prescriptions for schedule II controlled substances that his physicians assistants would complete and prescribe without further review.

The lawsuit alleges the physicians assistants didn't have legal authority to issue schedule II controlled substances.

The U.S. District Attorney's office for the Southern District of Georgia already reached a $10,000 civil settlement with one of the three physicians assistants accused.

Just outside the CSRA in Statesboro, Atlantic Foot and Ankle is in trouble after a whistleblower lawsuit claimed the owner Dr. Melissa Robitaille fraudulently billed the government.

The lawsuit claims Dr. Robitaille would perform procedures not covered under TriCare or Medicare then fraudulently bill TriCare for a procedure that would get approval.

One of the highest settlements is for Augusta's Medical Villa Apothecary.

It totals $75,000.

We couldn't find the corresponding court documents for this case, but the summary from the U.S. attorneys office claims investigators found " certain pharmacists violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims to Medicare for drugs it did not dispense to patients."

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement "improper billing inflates costs and causes unnecessary waste in our healthcare system."
Bhim Singh said that India is governed under one constitution and one flag and the same should be in J&K, but that state has its own constitution and flag.

By Siraj Qureshi: The aggravating situation in Jammu and Kashmir has caught the whole world's eyes now. And the fact that leaders in Pakistan are not sparing any chance to raise the Kashmir issue on the international forums while declining to have any discussions with India unless the Kashmir issue is resolved is not helping either.

Even though the Indian Army has gunned down several prominent terrorists in the past couple of years, the situation shows no signs of improvement.

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Jammu & Kashmir Panthers Party Chairman Prof. Bhim Singh calls the current situation as "worse than 1947". Talking to India Today he said, "Foreign terrorists are entering India through Nepal and spreading terror in the country as well as in Jammu and Kashmir, but governments at both Centre and state are sitting mum on this issue. Human rights have been completely abrogated from J&K."

Bhim Singh said that India is governed under one constitution and one flag and the same should be in J&K, but that state has its own constitution and flag. He said that he can firmly vouch for the Kashmiri people that they are not terrorists, but the terrorists are indeed coming to Kashmir through Nepal.

Prof. Bhim Singh said that in the past 6 months, the condition of J&K has deteriorated to such a level that has not been witnessed ever in this state. The situation needs to be brought under control soon, but instead the Modi and Mufti governments have closed their eyes from the condition of the state.

Prof. Bhim Singh had arrived in Mathura to attend a religious program where he was welcomed by the members of Hindustani Biradari. Society secretary Ziauddin said that Kashmir is the pride of India and nobody can dare stake claim on this pride. If terrorists do not lay down their weapons in Kashmir, not only they, but those who provide them shelter will have to face the consequences.

Ziauddin said that the country's political parties should come on one platform on the issue of Kashmir as it is a matter of national security which is way above party politics. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised this terrorism issue on the international platform and has asked for the world community to unite and eliminate terror from the world.

Also read:

Kashmir: Army kills 3 wanted Lashkar militants in Anantnag encounter

7 Amarnath pilgrims dead, several injured in terror attack in Anantnag

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UKs First Development Bank To Open In October  In Wrexham

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 18th, 2017

The UKs first Development Bank has now been given the official go-ahead by the Welsh Government and will be up and running by October  in Wrexham!

The aim of the Development Bank of Wales is to provide the necessary growth finance and business support to attract, and retain micro businesses and SMEs within Wales.

It will seek to generate more than a billion pounds of investment to the Welsh economy over the next five years and, as the first of its kind in the UK, and will provide Wales with a competitive business edge over the rest of the UK.

Today the Economy Secretary Ken Skates has confirmed that a further 35m of EU funding will be added to the 136m Wales Business Fund that was announced last year to support both start-up and existing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across Wales.

This takes the new total of the fund to 171m and the Economy Secretary signalled that further funding for the Development Bank would be announced later in the year.

Last week Ken Skates announced that the bank would be headquartered in Wrexham.

Development Bank for Wales will be headquartered in Wrexham  Ken Skates  Ian Lucas MP (@IanCLucas) July 14, 2017

Ken Skates said: I am delighted to confirm that following Welsh Government approval of the business case, the Development Bank of Wales is set to be up and running by October.

The Development Bank will be the first of its kind in the UK, addressing current market failures within business finance and providing focussed support for micro, small start ups and innovative businesses across Wales enabling them to become fitter, bigger and stronger.

It will increase the availability of funding to SMEs to 80m per annum within five years and we anticipate that taking into account private sector leverage this will have a potentially transformational impact on the Welsh economy of over 170m per annum by 2021/22.

To support the Bank we are extending the Wales Business Fund by a further 35m with EU funding. This will take the total of the fund to 171m, and we will have news of more money to support the Banks work later this year.

Although the location was revealed as Wrexham on Friday, todays release states: The Development Bank will have its headquarter in North Wales with a strong presence across the whole of Wales and I look forward to the formal launch in October.

Giles Thorley said: The creation of a development bank is innovative in approach and represents a significant step change in the way Government backed funding is delivered in Wales. It will be built on the solid foundations of the skills and experience already in place within the team.

A thriving SME population across the whole of Wales is critical to ensuring a prosperous economy. We are proud to have worked with some fantastic, ambitious businesses and entrepreneurs over the last 15 years and look forward to supporting even more as we transition to the new organisation.

Welsh Government say: The Development Bank is a key part of the Welsh Governments strategy to deliver a more prosperous and secure Wales. It will differ from Finance Wales not only in terms of the increased scale of funding available but also in the way it develops new products. This will be informed through the creation of an intelligence unit tasked with conducting research into the needs of Welsh businesses, ultimately enabling an improved response to changes in supply and demand in the market.

It will increasingly become self funding with the business model assuming that it will no longer need grant support for operational costs from next year onwards.

Top Pic: Economy Secretary Ken Skates with Giles Thorley who will be CEO of the Development Bank of Wales.
Week Long Knife Amnesty Underway Across North Wales

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 18th, 2017

North Wales Police has begun a week long knife amnesty in a drive to get people across the region to give up potentially lethal weapons and educate them about the dangers of knives.



The week long knife amnesty campaign began yesterday and will run up until Sunday, 23rd July.

During the amnesty, people are being urged to take unwanted knives to a police station, including Wrexham, where it can be disposed of in a special amnesty disposal bin

Inspector Julie Sheard from the North Wales Police Community Safety Department said, Our focus will be on targeting those who habitually carry and use knives, tackling the supply and access to weapons, engagement with the public to increase awareness of the consequences of carrying knives and providing opportunities to surrender weapons.

North Wales Police School Community Police Officers will also be raising awareness of the consequences of carrying a knife in lessons across schools across the regions.

Inspector Sheard added: We take a robust approach to anyone found to be illegally in possession of a knife or bladed article on the streets and I would encourage you to take this opportunity to rid yourselves of any illegal weapons. Please ensure any sharp ends are securely wrapped in a protective material.

To deposit knives and other sharp objects first wrap them in cardboard before taking them to the station.

If you know of somebody carrying a knife report it to North Wales Police on 101 or in an emergency always dial 999. Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or give information via their anonymous online form.
The International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) recently spoke with a young AmazonFresh worker in Virginia. Launched in 2007, AmazonFresh, the companys online grocery business, delivers groceries to its Prime members in select cities. AmazonFresh represents an effort to directly challenge brick-and-mortar stores in the $800 billion grocery market. According to Business Insider, Amazon plans to open 20 physical AmazonFresh locations over the next two years.

Food and other perishable items in AmazonFresh facilities are stored in refrigerators and freezers with temperatures ranging from 30 to -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 to -30 degrees Celsius). You have no idea where you will be placed that day or what you should wear. I have one co-worker that wears three different layers of clothes that he takes on and off throughout the day, the worker said.

Even though employees are only legally allowed to stay in the freezer for one hour, the worker says management frequently breaks the law. There are no clocks in the freezer. There is no way you can track time in there. No manager comes to let you know you can get out of the freezer at the end of the hour. You can set an alarm on your phone, but then you have to take off your freezer equipment in -22 degree weather to turn off the alarm. Stopping to check for the time also slows you downthey never stop monitoring your pick rate. If you are assigned to freezer duty after lunch, youll be in the freezer from 12:25 pm to 3pm.

Amazon recently announced plans to acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion to further strengthen its grip in the food industry. Due to Amazons dominant position in online retail sales, the exploitative conditions at Amazon are increasingly becoming the norm for the entire working class. To compete with Amazon, Walmart recently announced plans to make their employees deliver packages during their commute.

They have you on a string, said the Amazon worker, most people I know have multiple jobs because they never know when Amazon is going to lay them off. The Amazon worker expressed agreement with a recent article published by IAWV about work conditions in the Maryland and Virginia Amazon plants. Its obvious you are in contact with workers at the plant: what you described is spot on.

A former student, the worker took a job with Amazon after learning about their $122 sign-on bonus, an amount roughly equal to one days pay. However, the worker says the company neglected to inform them accepting the bonus meant signing an 11-month contract. Human Resources also reportedly promised the worker that management would not oversee how fast they moved items on and off the shelvesalso known as a pick ratefor at least a few months. This was a complete and total lie, the worker said, After four months, I still have never gotten this money and the company added a pick rate after I joined. It was extremely stressful because I thought I would get fired every day.

Turnover among workers was so high that management recently lowered the pick rate at the plant. The past few weeks they have been hiring people left and right. Ill clock out for lunch and see 2 or 3 massive groups of recruits. Im sure after Prime Day Amazon will fire all these workers. They are all part-time. Within one week half of them will either quit or get fired.

We are working 11 hours a day on our feet. We are back at work after three days and our bodies have not had enough time to recover. Im in my twenties and Im worn out. They do not care if you are sick or if you are in pain. They do not care if you have kids or obligations, its about their bottom line. We are as replaceable as tissue paper, they said.

The worker also told the IAWV reporter about a recent worker casualty in an Amazon plant in Tennessee due to unsafe conditions at the parking lot. The Amazon Associates and the truckers share a parking lot at my plant, I think an accident is going to happen eventually, they said.

The IAWV reporter spoke to the young worker about the enormous potential that the technology Amazon controls could have for the benefit of humanity. We have the technology available to increase agricultural production, introduce drought resistant crops around the world. You could drop books around the world and make cheaper vaccines for the masses. The only problem is that the top oligarchs do not see a profit in this, the worker said.

It is a giant transfer of wealth. The government gave Amazon free dollars to build these plants. We have all these taxes and our infrastructure is falling apart, this helps the top 1 percent of the economic ladder while everyone else suffers and decays, they said.

Amazon workers can put an end to corporate abuse only by relying on their international unity and their common interest as members of the working class.

Hundreds of thousands of Amazon workers around the world struggle under the same conditions. In each country, the corporation collaborates with the government to attack workers living standards and working conditions. To fight against corporate exploitation, workers must have their own organizationsworkplace committeesthat are independent of the trade unions and the capitalist political parties and whose aim is to advance the interests of the working class and link workers in a common international struggle for social equality.

To learn more about workplace committees, to build one in your warehouse, or to learn more about the International Amazon Workers Voice, contact us today.
Bus workers in New Zealands capital city are facing major attacks by a private operator contracted by the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) to slash running costs and boost profits.

The GWRC has chosen Tranzit Group as its preferred bidder to run eight bus contracts, or 60 percent of the capitals bus services. Current operator NZ Bus will go from running 73 to 28 percent of routes. Around 380 workers will switch to the new employer and job cuts could be imposed as part of the takeover.

Although no formal agreement has been drawn up, Tranzit has indicated that it intends to cut wages for Wellington drivers by abolishing weekend and late night penalty rates when the 2018 contract starts. A senior driver receiving $19.35 an hour Monday to Friday can currently get $29 an hour (time-and-a-half rates) on Saturdays and $38.70 an hour (double time) on Sundays.

Tranzit managing director Paul Snelgrove said on June 14 the company would pay bus drivers $22 an hour, well above the current hourly rate under NZ Bus. However, the extra $2.65 would not compensate for the loss of weekend rates.

The GWRC is dominated by former Labour and Green Party parliamentarians. It is implementing the National Party governments public transport operating model, which commenced in 2013, to promote privatisation to drive down costs and boost profits for private companies. GWRC chair Chris Laidlaw has said the council intends to save millions of dollars through the deal with Tranzit.

The WSWS spoke with a NZ Bus driver who has decades of experience. He described Tranzits takeover as the biggest threat weve ever faced. Even if drivers received $22 an hour, which was not confirmed, its still a pay cut. A large percentage of drivers work every hour they can. They work six days a week. Id say those people would lose at least $200 a week.

The driver did not trust the GWRCs claims that bus drivers would not be worse off. He said Tranzit was fighting a legal dispute with school bus drivers in the Wairarapa region to try to casualise the workforce to avoid giving drivers paid annual leave.

Drivers would be forced to work longer hours and more split shiftsworking in the early morning and late eveningor take a second job to provide for their families, leading to increased fatigue and potential for accidents.

Bus drivers are already among the lowest paid workers in the country, earning little more than the legal minimum wage of $15.75 an hour. The soaring cost of living, particularly for housing, has forced many drivers to live further away from the Wellington bus depot and travel long distances to get to work.

Wellington drivers were also concerned about safety: You cut funding and have bus companies operating on less, theyre going to be taking shortcuts on maintenance, the driver said. In 2013, a police operation led to 61 Wellington buses being ordered off the road because they were unsafe. The issues included oil leaks and toxic fumes that seeped into buses.

Big business and the government dont expect people like bus drivers to have overseas holidays, to own a car, to own their own home. The attitude is: if youre a bus driver, suffer the consequences. Its no longer that anyone cares about a fair days pay for a fair days work or any of the old principles that New Zealand used to value.

In May, 300 Wellington bus workers who are members of the Tramways Union voted unanimously to refuse any employment agreement with Tranzit unless it maintained their present conditions (see also: Wellington transport workers face attacks on jobs and conditions).

The unions, however, have no intention of organising a real fight to defend wages and conditions. Council of Trade Unions leader Richard Wagstaff suggested that the GWRC and Tranzit should reach an agreement similar to the councils arrangement with commuter rail operator Transdev.

Wagstaff has glorified the conditions of rail workers under Transdev, which took over last year from Tranz Metro, a subsidiary of state-owned KiwiRail. He claimed that Transdev had maintained the same or more favourable conditions under an agreement with the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).

In fact, the privatisation has led to inadequate staffing of trains, harsh new performance criteria for workers and a miserly pay increase of 2 percent last year (see also: New Zealand rail union pushes pro-company collective agreement).

The Tramways Union is seeking to subordinate drivers to the opposition Labour Party, despite the fact that Laidlaw and GWRC transport spokesman Paul Swain, who are organising the assault on drivers, are both former Labour MPs.

Labour leader Andrew Little appeared in a video, circulated on Facebook, criticising the GWRC for trying to drive down the wages and conditions of bus drivers.

In the 1980s, however, the Labour government privatised the rail system, resulting in thousands of redundancies. The Labour Party is a party of big business, just like National, and has overseen historic attacks on working people. If Labour wins the national election in September it will deepen the current governments austerity agenda.

Auckland Council, led by former Labour leader Phil Goff, has cut hundreds of jobs at libraries throughout the city and its transport agency is in discussions with Transdev and the RMTU to restructure the commuter rail system and cut up to 160 train manager jobs.

These cuts are part of a wave of redundancies and pro-business restructuring driven by the intensifying global economic crisis. This includes the closure of the Silver Fern Farms meat factory in Ashburton and the Cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin, and cuts to postal, mining and public sector jobs.

Transport workers internationally are coming into struggle against privatisation and other attacks as companies compete to slash costs. In recent months, thousands of bus drivers have taken strike action in Australia, Ireland, Germany and India.

In every case, the ruling elite is relying on the trade union bureaucracy to facilitate redundancies and other attacks on workers and to block any mobilisation of the working class against the capitalist system. Bus drivers can fight back only by rebelling against these nationalist and class-collaborationist organisations.

The Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) calls on bus drivers to form new workplace committees, in opposition to the unions. These need to fight to link the struggles of bus drivers with workers in rail and other industries in New Zealand and internationally, guided by a socialist perspective for the complete transformation of society. Major industries and essential services such as public transport must be nationalised and placed under the democratic control of the working class, run to meet human needs, not generate profits for a small handful of wealthy people.

The authors also recommend:

Irish unions scuttle Bus Eirann strike

[19 April 2017]

Indian bus workers strike against privatisation

[19 April 2017]

Verdi union strangles bus drivers strike in Hesse, Germany

[23 January 2017]
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Image for representation

By India Today Web Desk: This story has expired

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Health officials in Michigans Genesee County are investigating a connection between the Flint water crisis and the high rate of infant mortality in the city. During 2015, when the lead-in-water crisis was at its height, the city saw a significant increase in the rate of infants who died before their first birthday.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Genesee County, whose county seat is Flint, had 43 infant deaths in 2015, the most since 2009. The infant death rate was 9.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, an increase over the 2014 rate of 8.3. The Genesee county infant mortality rate is the second-worst in the state of Michigan, with only Wayne County (which contains Detroit) faring worse.

The increase is even more pronounced at the city level. The 2015 infant death rate in the city of Flint was a staggering 13.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, a 38 percent increase over the 2014 rate of 9.9 and more than double the US national rate of 5.8.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate in Flint in 2015 was roughly on par with that of Saudi Arabia, which has a rate of 13.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

Genesee County Health Department (GCHD) officials are now looking into whether the citys water crisis has contributed to the increased infant death rate. Throughout 2015, lead levels in Flints water were dangerously elevated. In some homes, the lead levels had risen so high that the water could be classified as toxic waste.

The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when the city, at the behest of a state-appointed emergency manager, severed its connection from the Detroit water system and began drawing water from the polluted and corrosive Flint River. In gross violation of federal law, the switch was made without implementing corrosion control measures.

That water corroded the citys pipes, causing lead to leach into drinking water. Local, state and federal officials ignored residents who protested the fetid, foul-smelling water, and both Democratic and Republican officials conspired to keep the high lead levels a secret.

In October 2014, the General Motors (GM) engine plant in Flint stopped using Flint River water because it was corroding engine parts. However, neither GM nor the UAW made any attempt to warn the public of the dangerous state of the water. Water that was deemed too caustic for industrial use was still pumped into the homes of Flint residents for 18 months.

In October 2015, amid an intensifying political crisis, the state of Michigan switched Flints water supply back to Detroits. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in January 2016. However, extensive damage had already been done to the pipes. The water continues, to this day, to be contaminated with lead and other chemicals.

Lead is a potent, irreversible neurotoxin that has a particularly deleterious effect on children. Because childrens brains are still developing, lead exposure can cause serious damage, including mental retardation, abnormal aggressiveness, inattentiveness, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Neurological damage caused by lead exposure is permanent, and the effects persist even after the child has been moved to a lead-free environment.

Lead exposure can also cause anemia, kidney damage, and damage to the immune system. Severe damage can occur at even very low levels of exposure. There is widespread scientific consensus that there is no safe level of lead.

Pregnant women who are exposed to lead are more likely to experience miscarriage or stillbirth, a fact that was known as far back as the late 19th century, when lead-based abortion pills were in use. Additionally, lead exposure has been linked to reduced fetal growth, low birth weight, and preterm delivery, all significant risk factors for infant mortality.

Throughout pregnancy, lead that has accumulated in a womans bones passes to the developing fetus, rapidly damaging the fetuss developing neurological system and even reprogramming genes, which can lead to an increased risk of disease later in life. Lead exposure during the critical phase of immune system development can severely damage a childs immune system and cause dysfunction that may not be apparent until a period of immune system stress, such as during an infection. Because infants must consume a larger amount of food per unit of body weight than adults, they can quickly ingest a dangerous amount of lead through lead-laced baby formula or by consuming breast milk from a mother with high blood-lead levels.

Though infants are particularly vulnerable to the effects of lead-tainted water, they are not routinely tested for lead. Medicaid screening requirements only call for lead testing at 12 months of age, meaning that many lead-poisoned children go untested.

Even before the water crisis, the residents of Flint had been suffering from a high infant death rate, a result of the citys high poverty rate and residents lack of access to decent health care and nutrition. The poor health care outcomes in Flint are some of the sharpest expressions of the abysmal US health care system as a whole.

A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund comparing health care system performance in the US with that of 10 other high-income countries found that the USs infant mortality rate was the worst among them, driven largely by the massive gap between the rich and the poor. This rate is likely to climb sharply with the attack on health care currently unfolding in the US Congress.

The GCHD investigation comes as government officials are intensifying their drive to crack down on Flint residents and force them to accept the still-tainted water. Tax liens are being imposed on the homes of residents with outstanding water bills, threatening some 8,000 homes with foreclosure if homeowners do not pay for toxic water. Bottled water deliveries in the city are set to end in September, meaning residents will either have to drink the water or pay for bottled water out of their own pockets.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has filed a federal lawsuit against the city for not signing off on a 30-year contract to buy water from the Great Lakes Water Authority, the entity that took over Detroits public water system. This is part of a scheme to maximize the return on investment for wealthy bondholders who were a significant factor behind the drive to seize control of Flints water system.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke with Nakiya Wakes, a Flint resident who suffered a miscarriage in 2015, losing twins. She said that she experienced a difficult pregnancy from the beginning.

My twins couldnt even really develop, she said. I had complications with my pregnancy from the get-go.

Wakes described her horrible ordeal. Five weeks into my pregnancy I was having bad pain, so I went to the emergency room, she said. They told me I was miscarrying, that the baby was no longer in the sac. I ended up going back, having problems, having pain. And then I miscarried the second twin.

It was a horrible miscarriage. I was in the hospital three to four days. I had to have a blood transfusion. I had lost so much blood that it almost killed me. Now, what Im worried about, with them giving me blood, it could have been from somebody thats already been contaminated by the lead. I dont even know whats going on, what is in the blood that they even gave me. Its ridiculous.

I lost my twins in 2015. [Michigan Governor Rick] Snyder didnt come out about the lead exposure until after my miscarriage. I put two and two together. Ive been drinking this water for all this time. My kids have been drinking it. My daughter had hair loss. My babies couldnt form. If they had come out about the lead in 2015, my lead levels probably would have been quadrupled to what they are now.

Wakes denounced those who sought to cover up the extent of the crisis. If GM is saying that the water is corroding their parts, what do you think it is doing to me, and my babies, and my kids, and the people of Flint? What do you think its doing to our bodies? It was really money over lives to me. I dont see why Governor Snyder is not incarcerated. Theyre getting all the small people, but hes the one that brought in [Emergency Manager] Darnell Earley. Its ridiculous. Snyder should have to pay. Everyone who was involved should be held accountable for their actions. If it was me, I would be in jail.

We had 13 deaths because of Legionnaires disease. I dont understand. [Former Detroit Mayor] Kwame Kilpatrick is locked up for years for embezzling money. But Governor Snyder is still governing Michigan. He killed 13 people, and all of these people were poisoned under him. And hes still governor?

Whatever comes of the GCHD investigation, it is clear that the state has no intention of doing anything to mitigate the disastrous effects of the crisis. The right to clean water, the right to health care for Flints children, and the right to a job and a living wage can only be secured through an international struggle for socialism.

The Socialist Equality Party is holding a public meeting, Flint & London: Social Crimes Against the Working Class, on Thursday, July 27, at 5:30 p.m. in Room B1 of the Flint Public Library. We encourage residents to attend to discuss the way forward in Flints struggle.
Germany and France agreed to wide-ranging military cooperation at the Franco-German council of ministers last Thursday in Paris. The scale of the proposed arms projects should be taken as a warning by workers and young people throughout Europe. According to the plans being developed by the governments in Berlin and Paris, hundreds of billions will flow into the development of new military equipment.

The official conclusions of the German-French defence and security council contain, among other things:

* The construction of a joint successor to the current tank and artillery systems.

* The development of joint naval reconnaissance systems.

* The rapid purchasing of European armed drones (eurodrones).

* The construction of new fighter jets, helicopters and missiles.

Germany and France reached an agreement to jointly develop a future fighter jet so as to replace their current fighter jet fleets in the long term, the paper stated. In addition, both countries agreed upon a framework for cooperation in the next generation of the Tiger helicopter and to create a joint programme for tactical air-to-ground missiles.

The major rearmament plans are part of the German-French strategy of transforming the European Union into a great military power capable of waging war around the world. Germany and France recognise the demand for a genuine European foreign and security policy, as well as the EU becoming a real global actor in the areas of defence and security, the paper declares in its first sentence.

It continues, The joint security and defence policy is part of the joint foreign and security policy; it guarantees the EUs ability to act with civilian and military methods. The strengthening of the security and defence policy will require efforts from member states in terms of their capabilitiesboth in civilian and military spheres.

Concretely, Berlin and Paris announced in the section entitled Improvement of operational cooperation an expansion of military interventions in Africa, above all in the G-5 Sahel states of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Chad. In Eastern Europe, France, as the framework nation 2018, together with Germany, [will] station troops in Lithuania as part of the German-led NATO battalion. And by the year 2021, a binational unit of transport aircraft of the model C-130J will be created.

The German ruling class in particular is celebrating the German-French military plans as a milestone in the development of an independent European foreign and defence policy. The German Foundation for Foreign Affairs (DGAP) described the development of a joint European fighter jet as a revolution for Europes arms industry. It clearly asserts the German-French claim to leadership in the EU and the readiness to cooperate ever more closely in the area of defence.

The significance of the decision goes far beyond the question of which weapons systems France and Germany will use over the next 40 to 50 years. With the project, Germany and France would give the European Union the opportunity to retain an independent arms industry and not become dependent on US firms. The paper adds, European autonomy was coming a little bit closer as a result.

Following Brexit, the election of Donald Trump in the US, and the election of the pro-European President Emmanuel Macron in France, the German ruling elite in particular intends to rapidly press ahead with the decoupling of its foreign policy from Washington and the gradual construction of a European army led by the German army.

The so-called Germany plan presented in Berlin on Sunday by Social Democrat chancellor candidate Martin Schulz includes an explicit election goal of finding the road to a European army. The remilitarization of Europe is to be measured against the military capacities of the United States. The efficiency of military spending in Europe is only 15 percent of that in the United States, the SPD complained, and demanded, Through the integration of European capabilities for security and defence, we must reach a stage where we spend our money much more efficiently. This includes the consolidation of the arms industry into a European defence union.

Schulzs criticism of NATOs target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defence has therefore absolutely nothing to do with disarmament, let alone pacifism. The army requires more money in order to fulfill its tasks, the Germany plan explicitly states. The SPD intends, however, to ensure that this military build-up serves German imperialist interests and not those of the United States. It is therefore necessary to clarify within Europe and NATO, what defence spending is being used for and for what purpose.

The German-French military offensive will not only sharpen tensions between Germany and the United States, but between Germany and France themselves. Significantly, Macron invited US President Donald Trump to Paris on the same day as the German-French meeting to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Americas entry into World War I on the side of France against Germany.

Sections of the German media responded with concern. Macron was ready to displace Germany as the United States chief ally in the EU, the news magazine Focus warned in a comment. For the French president, relations with the US [are] at least as significant as relations with the other important EU states. Perhaps even more so. Because there are few who would really bet on the EU becoming a global power.
Congressional Democrats and their media allies shifted the immediate focus of their anti-Russian campaign to Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, demanding that Kushners security clearance be revoked on the grounds that he concealed a meeting with a Russian attorney last year.

The June 9, 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya was first made public by the New York Times little more than a week ago. Trumps eldest son agreed to the meeting at Trump Tower after he was told that the Russian lawyer had compromising material on Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic opponent in the presidential race.

Since then, there have been near-daily headlines in the Times or the Washington Post or breaking news reports on cable news about alleged new revelations about the Trump Tower meeting, whose attendance has now grown to eight, including Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a Russian-American lobbyist, and the interpreter, although the actual significance of the event remains murky.

Veseltnitskaya had no information on Clinton, and actually sought the meeting to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, the first of a series of anti-Russian sanctions enacted under the Obama administration. It is named after a Russian lawyer who was arrested after claiming to have uncovered evidence of corruption in the Putin regime and died in prison in 2009. When her purpose became clear, Trump Jr. says he ended the meeting, which lasted less than half an hour.

What is most remarkable about this campaign is that the Democrats are not attacking Trump or his advisers for the reactionary policies they have pursued in officethe onslaught against Medicaid, the persecution of immigrants, the defense of police violence, or the strutting militarism overseas.

Instead, the Democratic Party and media campaign is entirely devoted to alleging that Trump is the instrument of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that his election was made possible, not by the right-wing policies of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration, but by an Internet campaign directed from Moscow.

The particular focus on Trumps family members is not an accident. As the WSWS has previously written, The United States is ruled by a financial-corporate oligarchy. But the Trump administration is an oligarchic government with a kleptocratic and nepotistic twist. There is concern in powerful sections of the ruling class that the collection of reactionary oligarchs that is the Trump family is subordinating basic imperialist strategic interestsincluding the conflict with Russiato their personal business ventures.

Kushner has become the new target, since he did not initially disclose the meeting with the Russian attorney in the SF-86 form that every White House aide must file to obtain a security clearance. Kushner first filed the form leaving a blank where he was to record meetings with foreign persons, and subsequently amended the form several times, adding more than 100 names.

It was Kushners latest SF-86 filing, reporting the Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya last year, which unnamed officials, either inside the White House or in the FBI or CIA (which conduct security clearance reviews), leaked to the New York Times, touching off the latest media firestorm.

Over the weekend, a series of prominent Democrats sought to shift media attention away from Donald Trump Jr.who played the main role in the meeting with the Russian attorney, but does not work in the Trump White Houseand onto Kushner, who played a minor role at the meeting but is considered the closest White House aide to Trump, and has represented the administration in several overseas missions, particularly in the Middle East.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Thursday for Kushners security clearance to be revoked immediately. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the former head of the Democratic National Committee, submitted two amendments to appropriations bills to revoke Kushners clearance, both rejected by the Republican majority in the House.

The leading Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, Representative Adam Schiff and Senator Mark Warner, said Sunday they would ask both Kushner and Trump Jr. to testify and supply documents for their investigations into unproven allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Schiff said that Kushners security clearance should be revoked just for attending the meeting, regardless of whether he concealed it. Its very hard for me to imagine anyone else being allowed to continue their clearance if they participated in a meeting like the one that just became public, he told the Hill in an interview.

Both Warner and Schiff appeared on several television interview programs Sunday. Schiff declared that the emails sent by Donald Trump Jr. to confirm the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya were about as clear evidence you could find of intent by the campaign to collude with the Russians, to get useful information from the Russians,

Warner declared, This clearly brings the investigation to a new level. Appearing on CNNs State of the Union, he said that Trump Jr. and Kushner had most likely informed candidate Trump about their meeting with the Russian attorney. Its a little unbelievable that neither the son nor the son-in-law ever shared that information with their dad, the candidate, he said, thus suggesting that Trump was lying when he claimed that he only learned of the meeting recently.

Democratic Representative Don Beyer of Virginia extended the attack from Kushner to his wife, Trumps daughter Ivanka, pointing out that Ivanka Trump also filled out a form SF-86 asking if you or any member of your immediate family in the past seven years had any contact with a foreign government, its establishment (such as an embassy, consulate, agency, military service, intelligence or security service, etc.) or its representatives, whether inside or outside the U.S.?

Since her husband met with an attorney who was supposedly a representative of the Russian government, Beyer argued, Ivanka Trump should have disclosed this for her own security review, and likely did not. He added, If the President wants his family to run the government, they must be held to the same high standard as any other government official.

Media pundits have taken up the same theme. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times issued a column headlined, All Roads Now Lead to Kushner, suggesting that Kushners presence at the Trump Tower made him vulnerable to Kremlin  blackmail and noting that Kushner supervised the Trump campaigns digital efforts, making him the logical person to coordinate with Russian hacking and dissemination of online fake news directed against Clinton (assuming such coordination existed, although no evidence has been presented.)

In a sign that the anti-Russian campaign is taking its toll at the White House, both Trump and his son-in-law shook up their legal teams responding to the multiple investigations. Kushners lead attorney, longtime Democrat Jamie Gorelick, stepped down and was replaced by another Democrat, Abbe Lowell, who was part of the team defending Bill Clinton against impeachment and is more experienced in criminal law.

Trump added a new White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, who will work with the outside lawyers, Mark Kasowitz and Jay Sekulow, who have been handling responses to the inquiries, both in Congress and on the part of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.
Four and a half years after the January 2013 invasion of Mali by a US-backed French invasion force, the war is spiraling toward a larger regional conflict, prompting border closures by neighboring governments, and spurring escalations by the Western governments.

Malis border areas are experiencing a significant expansion of violent extremist and terrorist activities, including coordinated cross-border attacks against security posts and ransacking of border settlements," the United Nations top official for West Africa said Thursday.

Additionally, opposition groups staged protests over the weekend in Bamako, Malis capital, rallying thousands of demonstrators in the name of blocking proposed legal changes that would transfer emergency powers to the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Last Monday, eight Malian troops were ambushed and killed traveling between Gao and Menaka. On Wednesday, Burkina Faso armed forces clashed with heavily armed militants along the Burkina-Mali border. On Friday, Mauritania declared its northeastern border a closed, militarized area, announcing that any individual circulating or transiting in this part of the national territory will be treated as a military target.

On July 8, JNIM attacked a French Army base near the town of Tessalit, killing at least three French soldiers. On July 9, JNIM fighters attacked a police station in Mobti province. In March, Malis main Islamist factions, Ansar Dine, Al-Mourabitoun, the Massina factions and Al Qaida announced their merger into a new formation, Nusrat-ul-Islam, under the leadership of Iyad Ag Ghaly.

An Al Qaida branch in Mali known as the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) attacked a Nigerian garrison near the village of Tsawah along the Mali-Niger border in June.

French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Timbuktu at the beginning of July to discuss plans to expand the G5 Sahel multinational army, an imperialist proxy coalition established in February 2014, consisting of forces from the governments of Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. On July 2, Macron called on the G5 coalition to contribute 5,000 soldiers in support of French military activities against terrorists, thugs and murderers.

This force is first going to secure the borders, particularly in the areas where terrorist groups have developed, French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian told Le Monde.

It doesnt look like France will be pulling out of Mali anytime soon, France 24 noted in response to the announcement.

Complementing expanding French military operations the German parliament voted in January to expand troop deployments in Mali from 350 to 1,000, making Mali the German militarys largest overseas mission.

The immediate causes of the Mali war flowed from the fallout from the 2011 US-NATO war against Libya. Beginning in January 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg ethnic militia, launched an insurrection against the central government and established control over portions of northern Mali. In March 2012, a coup detat led by government soldiers declaring themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), removed President Amadou Toure from power. Rebel militia groups seized control of Malian cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in wake of the coup.

From January 2013, Paris responded with repeated waves of troop deployments, with backing from Washington. The 2013 invasion, Operation Serval, served as the spearhead for a major expansion of French militarism across the countrys former colonial holdings in West Africa.

In exchange for French assistance in stabilizing northern Mali, Paris demanded and received basing rights for its troops throughout the country. Previous Malian governments had been among the few regimes in Francophone Africa to resist such arrangements, limiting French military activities to small-scale training of local forces. Prior to 2013, French combat troops had been absent from Malian territory since their withdrawal following the countrys formal independence in 1960.

As part of Operation Barkhane, the successor to Serval, some 6,000 French ground troops, hundreds of armored vehicles, war planes, attack helicopters, and drones are now deployed throughout the Sahel. Additional German and French troops deployed under European Union flags in February 2014, for the official purpose of training of Malian units.

The American and European ruling elites are determined to tighten their grip over the Sahel, which is home to massive natural resource deposits, including uranium and numerous precious metals, and is speculated to have the largest untapped petroleum reserves in Africa.

Malis northern Taoudeni basin has been known to contain large gas and petroleum reserves since the 1970s. In 2011, the French firm Total claimed to have found the El Dorado of petroleum reserves in the northern desert region. A 2015 US geological analysis found that the Taoudeni Basin contains 160 million barrels of conventional oil, 1,880 billion cubic feet of conventional gas, 602 million barrels of shale oil, and 6,395 billion cubic feet of shale gas.

Involvement by French, German and other European Union (EU) forces in the Sahel is part of a major new direction in European security policy, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

For the European powers, the Sahel represents a second front in the war on terror, that is building alongside a growing number of multinationals hoping to extract oil and gas reserves of Mali and Mauritania, and strong French military presence, according to Environmental Justice Atlas. In addition to seizing control over the continents resources, and asserting the interests of the dominant European banks and corporations, the European powers view the militarization of the Sahel as a means to suppress the flood of refugees northward toward the Mediterranean.

These policies are aimed at reasserting the colonial order established by world imperialism during the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout the period of decolonization from the 1960s onward, the economies and societies of West Africa were subordinated to the needs of French imperialism through an array of mechanisms, including control over African currency reserves and raw materials, monopoly rights for French firms in all key sectors of the economy, and permanent military and police basing arrangements on African soil.

Dozens of coups detat have been engineered from Paris against African governments, beginning with the assassination of Togos head of state, Sylvanus Olympio in 1963, who made the fatal mistake of attempting to transition Togos economy to its own national currency. Malian President Modiba Keita met a similar fate after seeking to leave the French currency zone in June 1962.

In 1975 and again in 1989, French military officers organized the overthrow of Chadian Presidents. In 2003, French troops toppled Central African Republic (CAR) President Ange-Felix Patasse, placing in power General Francois Bozize, after Patasse sought to expel Frances military presence from the CAR. At present, nearly 2,000 French troops are operating in Central African Republic as part of peacekeeping mission alongside African Union troops.

More recently, in 2009, Paris organized a coup against the Madagascar government of Marc Ravalomanana, after he sought business deals with rival imperialist interests at the expense of French corporations.

France established military bases in Africa during the colonial period, and maintained a military presence in Africa after the 'flag independence' of its former colonies in the 1960s, Gary Busch wrote in an article for Pambazuka News this week.

These agreements allowed France to have pre-deployed troops and police in bases across Africa; in other words, French army and gendarme units present permanently and by rotation in bases and military facilities in Africa, run entirely by the French. The Colonial Pact was much more than an agreement to station soldiers across Africa. It bound the economies of Africa to the control of France, Busch noted.

Notwithstanding the incessant rhetoric about fighting terrorism, the thousands of Western soldiers invading Africa are sent primarily to secure strategic interests. The stage is being set for a ferocious antagonistic struggle between the major powers for control over the continent. The coming to power of the Trump administration, with its ultra-nationalist America First agenda, is intensifying the inter-imperialist tensions and fueling conflicts in every sub-region of Africa.

This week saw Western media issuing ominous warnings about the dangers of piracy and terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea, Niger Delta, and the Lake Chad Basin. Some 5.2 million have already been displaced by the Western-backed Chadian-led invasion of northern Nigeria, justified in the name of fighting Boko Haram.

The expansion of the Mali war is an advanced expression of the tendencies toward war and social breakdown at work throughout Africa and worldwide. Two and half decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the supposed End of History, Africas governments are tottering in the face of war, famine and disease. The only response of Africas national elites is further war preparations and deeper integration into the corporate, political and military establishments of North American and Western Europe.
On July 13, after only a few days debate, the French National Assembly approved the draft enabling act presented by French President Emmanuel Macrons government on July 10. The Assembly is thus authorizing the government to drastically rewrite labor laws by decree, without any further input from parliament. This vote, newspapers wrote, marked the start of Macrons term in office.

The labor law Macron aims to rewrite was imposed in July 2016 by President Francois Hollande without a parliamentary vote, using the emergency provision in Article 49-3 of the constitution.

The enabling act passed with 270 votes of Macrons The Republic On the March (LRM) and of the so-called constructive (pro-Macron) section of the right-wing The Republicans (LR) party. There were 50 votes against, including Jean-Luc Melenchons Unsubmissive France (UF) and the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF).

During the election campaign, Macron made modifications of the labor law one of the key planks of his governments program. Since its formation, the government has sought to involve the trade unions in its decisions. They have not opposed the principle of Macron ruling by decree.

In ruling by decree, Macron intends above all to avoid broader discussion of his policies among workers and youth, which could provoke mass political opposition to his government. The decrees authorized by the enabling act only indicate in very broad outline the changes Macron intends to make to the labor law. Their real content could be measures that are even more drastic than those described until now, and will be determined in the coming weeks in discussions with the trade unions.

The National Assembly has given the government a blank check to modify the labor law as it sees fit; after the vote, no further amendment is possible. The government has six months to specify what measures it will take.

The fact that these first major laws of the Macron government are to be imposed by decree creates a precedent for the rest of Macrons term. The last French government to use decrees was that of Alain Juppe, who imposed some of his attacks against pensions and Social Security via such measures in December 1995, after the union bureaucracies led mass strikes against Juppes cuts into a dead end.

Among the measures being prepared by the government is the so-called inversion of hierarchy of norms. That is, companies are now allowed to negotiate contracts with trade unions that violate industry-level contracts and national labor legislation. This will give employers full power to implement flexible and precarious working conditions, constantly blackmailing workers by holding over them the threat of a plant shutdown if they refuse conditions that are worse than those specified by industry-level and national labor law.

Another measure is the so-called project contract, which is in fact a temporary contract limited to the length of a particular mission, specified by the company, modeled on contracts for construction workers to build a specific building. Such contracts aim to replace the Defined-Duration Contract (CDD), which the bourgeoisie sees as too inflexible. It will also inevitably tend to replace the standard, Indefinite-Duration Contract (CDI) that offers greater job security, thus signifying an enormous increase in the precariousness of labor.

The clause on strenuous work is to be largely eliminated. This allowed certain layers of workers, whose work is physically demanding or dangerous, to retire before the legal age limit under certain conditionsa policy that the employers systematically sabotaged and sought to suppress. The Macron government has cut out half of the contents of this clause, undermining whatever impact it once had.

The decrees also would impose a ceiling on fines employers are forced to pay to workers if they are sued and found guilty of abusive sacking by the labor courts. What is being considered is a reduction by 50 percent of the maximum indemnity, which often had a deterrent effect on the bosses. A major reduction would deprive the labor courts of all real power and effectively give a green light to bosses to sack workers.

In a gesture directly aimed at encouraging investment funds to place their capital in France, the government aims to allow economic sackings due only to profitability considerations facing a company at the national or European, as opposed to global, level. A transnational corporation will thus be free to artificially create accounting problems in its French subsidiaries in order to justify mass sackings. This provision had been taken out of the labor law last year in the face of mass protests.

The Macron governments intention is to radically reinforce the already profound deregulation introduced by last years law into the labor market. This would make workers entirely flexible in response to the needs of business, creating conditions to encourage the hedge funds and financial investment houses of the financial oligarchy in France and internationally, who are seeking the highest rate of return, to invest in France. It opens the door to a massive intensification of the exploitation of workers in the country.

The trade unions play a critical and treacherous role in this process. This is why Macrons decrees are slated to give them even more power and money at the level of individual firms, in order to impose the destruction of basic social rights. Macron is considering in particular the creation of a trade union cheque. In its own words, this proposal intends to reinforce the possibility workers have to bring to the trade union of their choice financial resources advanced wholly or partially by the employer. This would finalize the transformation of the unions into organs of the bosses and the capitalist state.

Under the none-too-credible pretext of struggling against trade union discrimination, the government aims to officialize a privileged status for union delegates compared to other workers. It proposes reinforcing the training of trade union delegates, promoting career change [e.g., after a plant shut-down] for workers having trade union responsibilities or an elected representative mandate, favoring the evolution of conditions in which trade union militancy is carried out or also the recognition of the significance of an elected mandate in the unfolding of a career and the competences acquired through this militancy.

Given the decrees and measures now being prepared, which put into question social rights acquired by the working class over decades of struggle, it is ever clearer why the financial aristocracy needs a state of emergency, and why Macron wants to make it permanent by writing it into law.

The state of emergencya measure imposed under the pretext of counter-terrorism, after attacks carried out by Islamist networks armed and financed by Western intelligence for regime-change wars in Libya and Syriais now to be used in an attempt to repress opposition to the social attacks of the French financial aristocracy.

The massive abstention in the legislative electionsfully 57.4 percent in the second roundshows that the LRM parliamentary majority has no legitimacy for its reactionary agenda whatsoever. In the first round, it received the vote of only 16 percent of the French electorate.
Following the resignation of Papua New Guineas Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) last week, the crisis surrounding the countrys parliamentary elections has intensified. Polls closed on July 8, ending a two-week voting period dominated by widespread reports of vote rigging, incomplete electoral rolls, ballot box tampering and bribery.

The three members of the official watchdog collectively resigned, accusing the Electoral Commission that is running the poll of not allowing them access to basic information. The membersChief Ombudsman nominee Richard Pagen, Transparency International nominee Richard Kassman and lawyer John Luluakideclared the committee was prevented from performing its constitutional duties and roles. It had not been equipped with baseline data and information, nor have we been party to regular reporting.

The resignations are further evidence that Prime Minister Peter ONeills government is trying to cling to power through fraud. The EAC operated for less than a month. Legislation establishing the body was passed following discredited elections in 2002. However, nothing was done to set up the EAC until two weeks before this years poll.

Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato flatly denied the commission had been obstructive, and described the resignations as premature. The EACs role was to give advice and recommendations, he said, not to judge the election.

None of the opposition parties contesting the election has any alternative to the governments austerity policies. Like the government, they represent the interests of the business elite, including the transnational companies that dominate the countrys economy.

Opposition leaders seized on the resignations to repeat the charge that the elections were rigged and demand a re-run. Don Polye, the main opposition leader in the last parliament, warned that if the results are allowed to stand, people will not accept it and this could result in violence.

Former Prime Minister Mekere Morauta, who came out of political retirement to run as part of a coalition with several other prominent figures, said the resignation sent a loud and clear signal that the conduct of the election had been hijacked. Like thousands of others, Morauta found his name missing from the electoral roll when he went to vote.

Only two seats from a total of 111 were declared by last Friday, even though counting has been underway for more than a week. A final result is not expected for several weeks. There are predictions that the chaotic situation that marked the election will produce highly suspicious counts.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that the results from the first seat declared, Tari Open in the Highlands, saw Finance Minister James Marape re-elected with just over 30,000 votes. His three rivals got a similar total between them, yet there are fewer than 42,000 voters on the roll.

Transparency International PNG chairman Lawrence Stephens told the ABC the election was shameful, describing it as certainly the worst election I have seen. He blamed incompetence and an attitude among officials who begin to think they are above the law. Whatever the result, he predicted the outcome would be undesirable.

Fresh allegations continue to surface. A group of 28 candidates in Jiwakas North Waghi electorate filed a petition objecting to the counting of six particular ballot boxes. They alleged unfairness around the polling, with a heavy presence of security forces creating an intimidating environment. Scrutineers were prevented from monitoring the process. Video footage appears to show polling officials mishandling ballot papers.

Despite the criticisms, international observers moved to legitimise the vote. The Commonwealth observer team, led by former New Zealand governor-general Anand Satyanand, declared the need for a thorough review of the electoral process and urgent improvements to the electoral roll. It also acknowledged the significant number of eligible voters whose names were not on the common roll and several reported incidents of alleged vote buying by incumbent MPs.

Notwithstanding his teams serious concerns with the rolls, Anand absurdly declared the results should reflect the wishes of the people who participated in the 2017 national elections.

Washington and regional powers, Australia and New Zealand, have deep concerns over the deteriorating situation in PNG. All have vital commercial and strategic interests in the country. Almost 5,000 Australian companies conduct business there, with total investments worth $A5.8 billion. The $US19 billion ExxonMobil natural gas venture is a major US asset.

ONeill originally took office in 2011 through an illegal parliamentary manoeuvre after the ousting of his predecessor Michael Somare, who was regarded by Canberra as too close to Beijing. ONeill welcomed an expanded Australian police and advisor presence, while supporting Australias interests in the wider region.

In April, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was accused of interfering in the election when he delivered a speech in Port Moresby, praising ONeill for his co-operation in the vitally important fight against people smuggling and commitment to strengthening relations between the two countries.

The Australian government provided extensive training and logistical support for the elections, as well as assistance in updating the electoral roll. Canberra, however, has distanced itself from the ensuing turmoil. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop bluntly stated: PNG is a sovereign nation; it is the PNG governments responsibility to deliver this election.

In a July 12 editorial, the Australian warned that the fragile state of democracy in our nearest neighbour provides serious cause for concern. The editorial issued a series of edicts about what the incoming PNG government should do to counter corruption and instability.

Australia and New Zealand have no interest in democracy in the Pacific. The region has become a focus of geo-strategic rivalry, fuelled by Washingtons strategy, begun under President Barack Obama and extended by Donald Trump, to militarily encircle and prepare for war against China. New Zealand, Australia and the US are all seeking to maintain their hegemony in the southwest Pacific against Chinas growing economic and diplomatic influence.
Late Saturday night, two Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers responded to a 911 call from 40-year-old Justine Ruszcyk, an Australian woman who reported what she thought was a sexual assault in an alleyway in her neighborhood.

Soon after they arrived on the scene, one of the two officers discharged his weapon more than once, fatally shooting Ruszcyk, who used the last name of her soon-to-be husband, Don Damond. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner reported Monday night that Damond was killed by a gunshot to the abdomen, ruling her death a homicide.

The officer, who has been identified as Mohamed Noor, the first Somali-American police officer to patrol the district, reportedly shot Damond from the passenger seat of the police car through the drivers door as Damond spoke to his partner, 25-year-old Matthew Harrity.

Following the pattern of other police killings, Noor and Harrity have been placed on paid administrative leave until the ongoing investigation is completed.

According to officials investigating the shooting, there is no dashcam video of the incident, and, while the officers wore the body cameras required by state law, they both had them turned off.

Police officers in Minneapolis are required to wear body cameras as part of an effort to mitigate popular outrage in the aftermath of the July 2016 shooting of Philando Castile. While this decision was presented as a progressive police reform by the Democratic Party and its supporters, the Damond shooting has exposed it as purely cosmetic. Officers can easily conceal their actions by simply leaving their body cameras turned off.

Saturdays shooting took place in a relatively low crime, middle-class neighborhood in Southwest Minneapolis.

Friends and family of Damond held a vigil Sunday night near the alleyway to express their anger over her killing. Don Damond, Justines fiance, said that her loved ones and friends were desperate for answers.

Piecing together Justines last moments before the homicide would be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy, he told reporters at a briefing.

Zach Damond spoke out after the death of his soon-to-be step-mother in a widely shared video on Facebook. My mom is dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I dont know, and I demand answers. He continued, expressing his opposition to police violence in America, Im so done with all of this violence. Its bullshitAmerica sucks. These cops need to get trained differently.

Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau, delivering the typical empty gestures, said that the department had called for an external and independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting death." In 2015, Harteau made similar promises about the cops who brutally shot and killed Jamar Clarke execution-style, and the investigation ended with no charges filed.

News of Damonds death has already made front-page headlines in Australia. Matt Omo, a friend of Damonds from Australia told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, How someone teaching meditation and spreading love can be shot dead by police while in her pajamas is beyond comprehension.

Damond, who was white, is the sixth person fatally shot by police in Minnesota this year, and one of at least 662 people killed nationwide, with fatal shootings occurring in all but two of the fifty states. Her killing is a graphic reminder that the issue of police brutality is not fundamentally a racial issue, as it is presented in the media and by organizations like Black Lives Matter.

While racism may play a role in certain incidents of police violence, leading to a disproportionate number of African American victims, men and women of all races and ethnicities are targets of police violence.

According to a database maintained by the Washington Post, 543 people have been shot and killed by the police this year. Broken down by racial categories, where they could be identified, whites make up the largest number with 233 dead, followed by African-Americans at 121 and Hispanics at 88. The victims are overwhelmingly working class or poor.

The ruling class in the United States confronts an increasingly hostile population and has encouraged the police to use deadly force with legal impunity. Just last week, Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, signed an agreement for a $48,500 severance bonus.

The Obama administration routinely intervened on the side of the police in every case that came before the Supreme Court, and worked closely with Democratic mayors and governors to suppress the popular protests against police violence that followed the 2014 murder of Michael Brown.

The most reactionary elements within the police have been encouraged by the Trump administrations Justice Department, which has rolled back even the pretense of oversight put in place by the Obama administration. Police shootings are on track this year to match the nearly 1,000 killings in 2016.
South Korea on Monday offered formal talks with North Korea for the first time under President Moon Jae-in, who has postured as an advocate of engagement with Pyongyang and peace on the Korean Peninsula. While Moon has gone to great lengths to express his agreement with the Trump administration, his agenda still risks causing fissures in the US-South Korea alliance.

Vice Defense Minister Seo Ju-seok proposed the talks for this Friday, to be held in the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South. He said: In order to suspend hostile activities at the military demarcation line, we propose holding an inter-Korean military talk at Tongilgak.

Seoul did not specify an agenda or level of representation, but possible topics include a cessation of cross-border propaganda leaflets and loudspeaker broadcasts, and an end to incursions by North Koreas rudimentary drones. Pyongyang has yet to reply, but Seoul requested that a military hotline be reopened for any response. The last military working-level meeting between the two sides was held on October 15, 2014.

Moons government also proposed separate talks on August 1 regarding reunions of families split by the US division of the peninsula in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War. It is suggesting the event be conducted during Chuseok, a major Korean holiday in early October to celebrate the autumn harvest. If held, these talks would be the first since October 2015.

Washington has expressed opposition to the talks. Trumps press secretary Sean Spicer stated: I think the president has made clear in the past, with respect, that any type of conditions that would have to be met are clearly far away from where we are now.

Beijing, on the other hand, expressed its support. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: We hope that the two Koreas will make efforts to break the stalemate and create conditions for a resumption of negotiations.

Moon presented a preliminary plan for talks during a speech in Berlin on July 6, a day before the G20 summit. While echoing Washingtons demand for North Koreas complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, he said now is the last chance for North Korea to make the right decision and also the best time to do so. This is because we have reached the tipping point of the vicious circle of military escalation, and thus, the need for dialogue is more pressing than ever before.

Pyongyang responded on July 15 in its main paper, the Rodong Sinmun. The commentary criticized Seoul, but did not outright reject Moons proposals, saying it is a relief that the vow to honor and enforce past inter-Korean agreements was also referenced in his speech, a different stance from his [conservative] predecessors.

Moons government has claimed several times since his meeting with Trump on June 29-30 that the United States was on board with his agenda for engagement with Pyongyang and that Seoul was in the drivers seat on issues affecting the Korean Peninsula. Moon said in Berlin: It has also been repeatedly confirmed that if the right conditions are met, the United States, China, and the rest of the international community are keeping the door open for dialogue at any time.

For Washington, the right conditions before any talks can take place are Pyongyangs commitment to denuclearization and prostration before US demands. On this point, differences are coming to the surface between the US and South Korea.

Bruce Klingner of the right-wing Heritage Foundation wrote after the Trump-Moon meeting: Washington will interpret Seouls leading role as limited to long-term peaceful unification rather than nuclear and missile threats, while the Moon administration senses US acquiescence to Moons broader agenda. The enduring differences over the approach to North Korea could cause future strains in the bilateral relationship.

The entire South Korean bourgeoisie supports the US-South Korean military alliance, from which the ruling class has historically drawn its legitimacy. However, Moon and his Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) represent a faction that envisions turning North Korea into an ultra-cheap labor platform while deepening the Souths economic ties to China and Russia, the two main targets of US imperialism today.

This is one reason behind the DPKs pushback against Washington over the installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery. The installation has resulted in economic retaliation from Beijing, which fears the US will use THAADs X-band radar to spy on its territory. South Korean companies in China have suffered sharp declines in sales or have shut stores.

Furthermore, the DPK is trying to downplay the current military threat, conscious of intense public fear over a second, devastating Korean War. While the new government agrees with Washington that North Korea is to blame for the crisis, Moon came to office promising to seek dialogue with Pyongyang, generating hope he could avert war.

While trying to accommodate the US, the DPK finds it far more profitable to do business with China, Russia and Europe. In 2015, for example, bilateral trade between South Korea and the European Union reached over 90 billion euros ($US103 billion) as a result of a free trade agreement (FTA) that commenced in 2011. Conversely, threats by the Trump administration to renegotiate the South Korea-US FTA have generated fears in Seoul over American protectionism. In fact, trade minister nominee Baek Un-gyu said Monday he would consider filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization over such measures.

Moon said in his Berlin speech he planned a new economic map for the Korean Peninsula that included cooperation projects in Northeast Asia between the two Koreas, China and Russia, such as the completion of a long-planned inter-Korean railway leading to Europe and new gas pipelines.

Moon has previously discussed reopening and expanding the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, run by South Korean companies with North Korean labor. Seoul pulled out of Kaesong in February 2016, claiming Pyongyang was diverting 70 percent of the funds to its nuclear and missile programs.

Seoul is unable to fully realize these economic goals without coming into conflict with Washingtons efforts to isolate and strangle North Korea and ratchet up pressure on China. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stated: Any country that hosts North Korean guest workers, provides any economic or military benefits, or fails to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime.

Seoul is attempting to balance these military and economic interests without provoking US anger that could potentially include a behind-the-scenes operation to remove Moon from office.
The Syriza government in Greece is looking to raise 4.4 billion in the sale of state assets during 2017-2018. Among the sell-offs to be completed this year are a 66 percent stake in the countrys natural gas grid DESFA and a 67 percent stake in Thessaloniki, the second largest port.

The government is also seeking discussions on the sale of state shares in seven major companies, including the power utility company Public Power Corp., telecoms operator OTE and Athens International Airport.

On June 29, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivered the keynote speech at the 21st Roundtable with the Government of Greecean annual conference organised by the Economist magazine. The event was held over two days at the upmarket Grand Resort hotel in the seaside area of Lagonisi.

Other speakers included former UK Labour Party Finance Minister Alistair Darling, former Bush Administration official John Negroponte, and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Greece, Delia Velculescu.

According to the events web site, 2017 is crucial for Greeces future as the country strives to stabilise its economy, maintain the momentum of the structural reforms and return to the path of competitiveness and growth. Moreover, the need for new investment to boost the economy and reduce unemployment is vital.

An appeal for investors to step up their raid of the economy was central to the keynote speech given by Tsipras. He urged his audience to come to Greece to take advantage of the opportunities on offer.

Prime investment opportunities existed in the energy sector, transport, transit trade, primary industries, manufacturing, research, and tourism. All this and a highly skilled workforce were on tap for boosting profits, Tsipras boasted.

With only slight changes, Tsiprass overtures were virtually identical to the message in a recent Financial Times article, noting that companies that are willing to embrace risk say that after years of shrinking investment and deep wage cuts, Greece offers opportunities rarely found in central and south-east European markets.

This profit-making bonanza has been facilitated by the successive austerity programmes imposed on Greece by the European Union (EU) and IMF since 2010, which have mandated the selling off of public assets as well as relentless attacks on wages and workers rights.

Under Syriza, the privatisation process has intensified. Last year, the amount raised in privatisations and foreign direct investment increased, after a brief lull in 2015 amidst the debt crisis, which saw Greece verge on default. According to a report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in 2016 foreign direct investment flows to Greece almost trebled, to $3.1 billion, as foreign financial multinationals acquired assets in the country. UNCTAD reported that 2016 was the highest year of foreign direct investment since 2011, surpassing the $2.8 billion peak in 2013 under the conservative and social democratic coalition government of Antonis Samaras.

The most notable privatisation in 2016 was Coscos purchase of 51 percent of the Pireaus Port Authority (PPA) for 280.5 million, despite assurances by Syriza that this would not happen when it came to power. Run by the Chinese state, Cosco has had a presence in Greece since 2009, when it acquired the management rights of two of the three container terminals at the Port of Piraeus. Cosco is notorious for the sweatshop practices at its sites in Greece, with shifts often lasting more than 15 hours and accidents a common occurrence.

Tsipras made clear this process will intensify, stating that we must accelerate the process by luring more foreign investment. This was essential, as Greece must move beyond the EU average in terms of investment.

Tsiprass efforts were recently acknowledged by the head of the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling. In an interview with pro-Syriza Greek daily I Efimerida Ton Syntakton (EfSyn.), Regling stated that Tsipras is extremely devoted to his governments privatisation programme.

According to a Reuters report on July 6, Lila Tsitsogianopoulou, head of Greeces privatisation agencythe Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF)said that Greece aims to raise around 6 billion from privatisations in 2017-2018.

German transport company Fraport has already paid 1.2 billion this year, in return for a 40-year concession to operate 14 regional airports. The privatisation of state-owned rail operator TRAINOSE is expected to be completed by the end of the month, which will bring in 45 million.

Also, 232 million is expected to be paid by years end from the sale of a 67 percent stake in the Thessaloniki Port Authority in Greeces second largest city. The stake is being bought by a consortium made up of German private equity firm Deutsche Invest Equity Partners, Frances Terminal Link, and Greeces Belterra Investments. The payment is dwarfed by the value of the deal itself, which is estimated to be worth around 1.1 billion. The consortium will operate the port for the next 34 years, which is projected to bring in more than 170 million in extra revenues.

A 66 percent stake of Greeces natural gas grid operator DESFA is up for grabs with a July 24 deadline set for investors to register interest. A 400 million bid by Azerbaijan state oil company Socar fell through last November after a disagreement on tariffs. According to reports, Italys SNAM has registered interest. In an interview with Greek financial journal Naftemboriki, Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis said, We anticipate that the price will be the same or even bigger (compared with the previous tender).

In 2018, the HRADFs target is to raise 3.5 billion from privatisations. Assets up for grabs include a 30 percent stake in the Athens International Airport, expected to raise up to 1.2 billion, as well as concessions to 10 additional port authorities.

Nothing is to be allowed to prevent the global financial oligarchy from plundering Greeces assets and stepping up the exploitation of an already pauperised workforce. Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis complained prior to Tsiprass speech that only 3.4 billion in revenues had been raised in privatisations since 2010. A lot more needs to be done there, especially improving the business environment...in accelerating the base of the privatisation programme.

Syriza was swept to power in January 2015 on the basis of its stated agenda of ending austerity. A few months later, Syriza signed a third austerity package, betraying the overwhelming rejection of austerity in the July 2015 referendum. The party that was hailed by pseudo-left groups internationally as the way forward has proved to be the most reliable of tools for the financial aristocracy.

Tsiprass speech came close on the heels of legislation passed by parliament in the run-up to the June 13 Eurogroup meeting, including tax hikes and further pension cuts as well as cuts in heating allowance and unemployment benefits. These were passed in exchange for an 8.5 billion loan tranche by the EU and the IMF to Greece required to pay off debt obligations due this month. Greeces debt remains around 300 billiona gigantic and unsustainable 180 percent of GDP.

The legislation included measures attacking workers rights, making mass sackings easier as well as stipulating that collective bargaining will not be automatically reinstated after Greeces current 86 billion bailout programme comes to an end in 2018. Tsipras pledged in his speech that the government will ensure the speedy completion of the current bailout [programme] without delays and pointless wavering.
Thousands of veterans who have served in Washingtons wars are among those deported under the ongoing Obama-Trump deportation program. Deported veterans have fought as far back as the US wars in Vietnam and Korea, while greater numbers of deportees have been deployed in the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The fact that these soldiers have served the armies of American imperialism does not protect them and their families from the bipartisan anti-immigrant attack.

The immigration advocacy group We Are One America reports that nearly 6.5% of the US Armed Forces are immigrants. A recent panel on deported veterans in San Diego reported that of the 170,000 immigrant veterans in California, nearly 30,000 are un-naturalized and can face deportation at any time.

Once deported, the only means by which they have to return to the United States is in a body bag. The rendering of honors in a military funeral is federally mandated by law to be provided for any deceased veteran of United States Armed Forces. The burial ceremony includes honor guard detail, the playing of taps, firing of three volleys from rifles, and the folding and presenting of the United States flag.

The World Socialist Web Sitespoke to Hector Barajas, deported veteran and founder of the Deported Veteran Support House in Tijuana, Mexico, also known as The Bunker. Barajas emigrated to the US as a youth, obtained his green card as a teenager, and enlisted in the military. He served from 1995 to 2001 and, following a minor crime, was deported in 2004 and again in 2010.

WSWS: What is life like for a deported veteran, and how many deported veterans would you estimate exist?

Barajas: Life in general is difficult, especially your economic situation, you dont make the same money you used to make. Youre separated from your family, your home, and youre in a different place.

Here in Mexico, one trend on getting by is working at call centers, or the tourist areas where they can use their English. Its even more difficult here in Mexico. Once youre over 50, youre not employable. Theyd rather hire an 18-year-old. The older people survive by selling things.

As for how many veterans live here, we have no idea. Veterans have been deported since 1996. It could be hundreds or thousands. There is no way to tell

WSWS: Could you describe the relationship between war trauma and the often minor crimes that provoke deportation?

Barajas: Some have faced multiple deployments over years, and have difficulties integrating. You cant just separate a person from the military one day to the next. Its the same thing with veterans coming back nowadays.

One thing Im seeing is that most of my vets being deported from immigrant communities return back to communities that dont have the resources for them. Often, these are communities with gangs and drugs. They are put back into situations and environments that are not healthy and helpful.

WSWS: The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced earlier this year it will be closing 1,100 facilities across the country. Do you believe both citizens and non-citizens face the same fundamental challenge, a government that is indifferent to their suffering?

Barajas: For all veterans in general, benefits are not easy to access. Once youre deported it makes it far more difficult.

Could the government do a lot better? Absolutely. People are risking their lives, and this is how they are treated. Twenty-two veterans take their lives every day because they cant handle living in this world.

We are such a rich country in resources. How do we have people struggling to get health care? The rich have all the resources and the money, but still so many are struggling.

WSWS: Have you heard the recent story of Brian Easley, the veteran who was killed by police when he held up a Wells Fargo bank with the single demand of reinstating his $892/month disability following an injury while on deployment in Iraq to support himself and his daughter?

Barajas: No I havent heard of him, but if youre going to take a persons bread and water away, how do they expect them to survive?

* * *

Many immigrants are lied to by military recruiters who lead them to believe their service begins a naturalization process. Others are actually told that their naturalization is automatic upon joining. Most are completely unaware that their military service provides no basis for obtaining citizenship and that their service to the Armed Forces will not prevent their deportation once their green card expires.

Once their green card expires during active duty, immigrant soldiers are honorably discharged. They remain in the United States at risk of deportation at any time, and they are not provided an attorney. Additionally and in many cases, however, deportation occurs in conjunction with minor offenses, the result of tougher immigration laws such as Secure Communities, which authorizes the police to check the immigration status of people booked into local jails, even for a crime like driving under the influence.

These punitive laws were introduced during the Bush administration and were expanded under Obama, who deported 2.7 million immigrants, including thousands of veterans. For many veterans, harsh living conditions such as unemployment and psychological trauma produce mental and physical difficulties that in some cases lead to crime.

Statistics on incarcerated veterans reveal the immense difficulties of adjusting to civilian life. A report published in July 2016 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) showed that veterans are more likely than civilians to be serving time for violent offenses, to have used intravenous drugs, and to have gone through divorce. More than half of incarcerated veterans served during periods of war, with over a quarter having experienced combat.

At a recent panel on immigration, San Diego Democratic Congressman Juan Vargas boosted himself as a champion of House Bill 2761, known as Healthcare Opportunities for Patriots in Exile (HOPE) Act of 2017. The bill would allow deported veterans be allowed to enter the US to obtain health services, but would force them to return to their home country afterward. This pathetic compromise with the Trump administration sums up the reactionary character of the Democratic Party, including its Latino representatives who cynically posture as defenders of immigrants.

The irony behind Congressman Vargass proposal is that the VA is shuttering its health facilities, causing untold hardship for veterans, both immigrant and non-immigrant alike. This past spring, VA Secretary David Shulkin announced the VA planned to close more than 1,110 of its facilities to pursue the privatization of veteran health care. Claims that 430 were vacant and another 735 underutilized were used to save the federal government $25 million every year to maintain.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) A Kisan Mukti Yatra led by the Swaraj Abhiyan, that kicked-off a fortnight ago, today reached the national capital where scores of peasants, activists and a few political leaders gathered in solidarity for the cause of the farmers.

The yatra had started on July 6 from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and has covered six states so far.

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At the citys Jantar Mantar area, farmers from all parts of the country, "made two specific demands -- farming be made remunerative and farmers be made debt-free," Swaraj Abhiyan said in a statement.

The agitating farmers also "questioned the silence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Mandsaur shootings, it said.

"I campaigned for Narendra Modi, I supported him, only because he promised to waive off loans of farmers but later his government in the Supreme Court gave an affidavit claiming that waiving off farm loans is not possible. I want to ask him that if this was not possible, why did he make this promise to me and in his election manifesto, to the people of this country," said Member of Parliament, Raju Shetti.

Farmers of Tamil Nadu who have relaunched their agitation also joined the agitation under the leadership of Aiyyakannu. On the other hand, the children of farmers from Maharashtra, who have committed suicide performed a skit at the venue to bring attention to their plight, the Abhiyan said.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, "Along with you, I take the pledge to fight for the rights of farmers and I promise you that I am going to take this fight to Parliament."

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, in his address, alleged, "The government is deliberately designing policies that are anti-farmer and pro-corporate. The govt is supporting products such as GM mustard which are designed to benefit the corporate and destroy the farmers as well their farming."

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said "It is not the farmers who are under debt in this country but the country that is indebted to farmers".

Convener of All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee, V M Singh, said, "This is not just a fight of farmers but of all citizens of this country. Why should a farmer, despite feeding the whole country, be unable to feed his own family."

The Swaraj Abhiyan said the dharna will continue tomorrow as well. PTI KND BSA

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The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature by writing to comments@wsws.org.

Latin America

Support grows for one-day general strike in Uruguay

Two weeks ago, Uruguays PIT-CNT union federations National Representative Board called for a 24-hour general strike on July 20. Since then, various unions have signed on to the industrial action. Public service workers have committed to joining the strike, as have mass transit workers and public and private school teachers.

The mobilization centers on the budget discussions currently taking place in the legislature. Under the slogan Stagnation brings setbacks, the main demands will be public investment, support of the development of national industry to increase quality jobs, promote salary increasesand the defense of public enterprises. PIT-CNT proposes that 6 percent of gross domestic product be devoted to these goals.

Also included in the platform is the demand for better truth and justice with respect to the fate of the disappeared during the civic-military dictatorship, reported LaRed21.

One-day strike by Peruvian teachers over salaries, budget, evaluations

Teachers in the Unitary Education Workers Syndicate of Peru (Sutep) held a one-day strike on July 13. The action was taken to press for a salary increase and the postponement of evaluations scheduled for next week. Thousands marched to the Education Ministry (Minedu) in Lima to voice their demands.

Sutep asserts that the former government of Ollanta Humala agreed to raise their pay to 2,000 soles (US$616), but current president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, claiming unforeseen expenses, announced recently that the salary would be raised only to 1,780 soles (US$548) with the promised raise delayed until 2018. An increase in the number of hours worked per week, 30 to 32, has nonetheless gone into effect.

Sutep also wants to delay the Teacher Performance Evaluationwhich would cover 6,000 teachers this yearsince college directors and Minedu functionaries have not been accredited to administer them. They also call for a bigger education budget nationwide.

Argentina: Cops attack sacked snack workers occupying former employers plant

A group of laid-off workers at the PepsiCo snack food factory in Florida, a residential barrio in the Buenos Aires suburbs, were violently dislodged by riot-gear-clad police July 13. The workers had occupied the plant to protest the June 20 closure of the plant, which management claim is unviable.

More than 530 workers lost their jobs when PepsiCo announced the shutdown, blaming the plants location, costs and size for the decision to move operations more than 400 kilometers away to Mar del Plata. Management offered work at the new location to a small fraction of the workers, but most were forced to accept a severance package.

About 100 workers held protests, culminating in the occupation, where some local activists joined in. Hundreds of police wielding batons and shields and pepper spray broke through barricades and injured a reported 15-20 protesters, likely an underestimate. The Buenos Aires Security Ministry claimed that 15 cops were injured in the fracas.

Argentine state workers hold one-day strike to protest high cost of living

The State Workers Association (ATE) in Argentinas Rio Negro province carried out a 24-hour work stoppage July 13, with the union claiming high participation with all sectors of the government affected.

The short walkout was called to highlight the difficulty of state workers to make ends meet on an average salary of 12,800 pesos (US$760) when the cost of housing alone is around 7,000 pesos (US$415). ATE head Rodolfo Aguiar asserted that President Mauricio Macri and Provincial Governor Alberto Weretilneck trample the Constitution with adjustment and poverty.

He advocated an official call to dialogue, becauseit will be very difficult to put the brakes on protests, and declared that only the government could guarantee social peace.

Protest march in Barbados against tax hike

Four Barbadian trade unions staged a march July 11 to protest the imposition of a 400 percent increase in the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL). The hike, introduced in the May 30 Budget, is imposed on imported and domestically manufactured goods. Ostensibly designed to finance the cost of health care and to ensure a clean environment, the NSRL increase falls hardest on the working class through higher prices.

The four unionsthe Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU), the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Workers Union (BWU) and the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW)held the march in Bridgetown to demand that the government reduce the levy.

The unions say that they will take industrial action if there is no reduction. Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur dismissed their protest and 48-hour ultimatum as political theatre or gimmickry.

The United States

National Public Radio workers threaten strike

The negotiating team for employees at National Public Radio sought strike authorization Friday

from the national executive board of SAG-AFTRA. The old contract expired June 30, but workers had stayed on the job under terms of an extension.

Management is seeking major changes in contract language that would erode workplace protections. A major point of dispute is managements demand for implementation of a two-tier wage scale, with new employees paid less than veterans.

Strike at New York beer distributor ends after 82 days

Workers ended their 82-day strike against Clare Rose, a beer distributor in Long Island, New York, after ratifying an agreement reached on July 14. Details are limited, but apparently the company had to modify some of its concession demands.

After months of fruitless bargaining, workers struck on April 23 when Clare Rose management unilaterally implemented its proposal to end contributions to the Teamsters pension plan and cut wages by 30 percent. The company responded by informing workers they had been permanently replaced.

Despite efforts by the Teamsters union to isolate the strike and divert workers efforts into petitions to government agencies, support in Long Islands working class emerged in indirect ways. More than three dozen local bars, stores, and restaurants felt compelled to publicly boycott Clare Rose deliveries and post signs reading No Anheuser-Busch Sold Here Until Clare Rose Strike Ends.

Casino parking workers conclude three-day strike without contract

The 42 valet workers at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, returned to work in the early hours of July 16 after a three-day strike to oppose management demands to increase health care costs for workers and to strip job security. The highly profitable casino wants to outsource its parking services to a private contractor.

Valets make as little as $4.50 an hour, not including tips. The casino concluded contracts with its other unions, but bartenders, servers, clerks, skilled maintenance and other union workers nevertheless honored 24-hour picket lines thrown up by valets.

Teamsters Local 251 sought to dampen the resolve of workers, claiming the three-day strike was only called to make a statement and that it limited the strike to three days in order not to inconvenience other workers.

Canada

Track workers locked out in Toronto

Four-hundred workers employed by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) at the Woodbine racetrack north of Toronto were locked out July 14 after voting to reject a deal struck by their union on July 5.

Workers rejected the deal brought to them by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represented workers in contract talks with OLG earlier this year that would have effectively destroyed pension provisions.

A union bargaining team issued a revised offer last week that was then rejected by the employer. A central issue in the dispute is the designation of over 60 percent of workers at Woodbine as part-time even though they may have more than 10 years of full-time experience. Part-time workers are not entitled to paid sick days and can see their hours reduced from seven days to one day a week without notice.

Airport workers picket ahead of possible strike in Winnipeg

Airport workers in Winnipeg organized under the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) will be in a legal strike position at the end of this week.

In anticipation of contract talks, workers held pickets outside the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport last week. The 150 workers include managers, trades people, and IT and maintenance workers. The two sides are now in federally mediated contract talks in a last-ditch effort to avoid job action.
By PTI: New Delhi, July 18 (PTI) Incumbent operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular -- today sought doubling of interconnection usage charge (IUC), a key input for mobile tariffs, saying that terminating incoming calls on their networks costs 30-35 paise per minute.

Any change in IUC has a direct impact on mobile call rates as the charge is taken into account while setting telecom tariffs.

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The new entrant Reliance Jio, however, batted for levying no charge on incoming calls.

"Today all the major operator participated. Some operator were of the view that we should go to bill and keep, other asked for reducing it, some said keep it constant at current level. Some others said that it should be increased," Trai Chairman RS Sharma told reporters after a day long workshop meeting with telecom operators.

The IUC is fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. At present IUC of 14 paise per minute is levied on every domestic incoming calls by the telecom operator receiving it.

When asked if telecom operators suggested increasing mobile termination rate in the range of 30-35 paise from 14 paise levels at present, Sharma responded affirmatively without naming any particular operator.

He said there are other charges that are part of IUC but 14 paise charge for handling domestic calls dominated the discussion during the workshop because of the high volume of calls that are subjected to these charges.

He did not give any timeframe for firming up the IUC recommendations but said they will be finalised soon.

"Airtel has said their cost of carrying incoming call is 30 paise and hence IUC should be raised so that they are able to recover their cost," said an industry source who did not want to be identified.

Vodafone said the cost of carrying incoming calls on its network is 30 paise without taking into account the licence fees and 34 paise after including it, he said.

According to the source, Idea Cellular has said that cost of carrying incoming call on its network is around 30 paise as per methodology used by Trai, while as per its own calculation the cost is 35 paise per minute.

The company stated that it is unable to recover its basic cost at the current IUC rates.

The Aditya Birla group firm demanded that IUC should be raised so that telecom operators are able to recover cost of carrying load of incoming calls from other networks.

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Trai in a Supreme Court affidavit in 2011 had said that telecom operators should be given time till 2014 to move to bill and keep regime. Under this, operators only keep record of incoming calls on their network but dont raise any demand from other operators. PTI PRS SA

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SMITHFIELD, N.C. (WTXL) - Authorities in North Carolina have arrested three men in connection to the disappearance of Live Oak native Cole Thomas, who has been missing since Thanksgiving.

According to WTVD, the ABC affiliate in Raleigh, a grand jury in Johnston County handed down "multiple indictments" after receiving information last week from the Benson Police Department and the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation.

Monday, four agencies made three arrests in two counties, taking Julian Valles, Jr., Rudolph DeLeon, Jr., and Anthony Ridell James, Jr. into custody. WTVD reports all three have been charged with "felony concealment of a death."

Their full charges and bond are below:

Julian Valles Jr., H/M - 34, of Dudley, NC

3 counts Felony Obstruction of Justice

1 count Felony Concealment of a Death

$750,000 Secured Bond

Anthony Ridell James Jr., B/M - 26, of Mt. Olive, NC

1 count Felony Obstruction of Justice

1 count Felony Concealment of a Death

$350,000 Secured Bond

Rudolfo DeLeon Jr., H/M - 27, of Mt. Olive, NC

1 count Felony Concealment of a Death

$1,000,000 Secured Bond

No officials have indicated that a body has been found as part of the investigation.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Two men have been arrested after police caught one selling drugs to the other at a convenience store.

Tallahassee Police Officers with the Community Oriented Policing & Problem Solving (COPPS) Squad arrested two people at the Quick Stop located at 2460 South Meridian Street on July 15 around 4:10 p.m.

TPD says that people in the area have previously complained about the drug activity in the area.

Officers saw a man on the property across the street from the Quick Stop at 2401 South Meridian Street, Campus Highlands Apartments, and knew he had been issued a trespass warning.

During the investigation at the apartment complex, COPPS members observed a drug transaction at the Quick Stop involving the person who was trespassing at the apartment complex.

When officers talked to the men involved in the drug transaction at the store, they identified them as Bobby Smith and Michael Williams.

After interviewing witnesses and examining the evidence, Williams was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, sell of cocaine, and trespass after warning.

Smith was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, purchase of cocaine, and possession of cannabis under 20 grams.
Africa's most populous country has some 10 million children of school age who do not attend government figures state. Primary school enrolment is just 54 percent.

By India Today Web Desk: The Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai during a visit to Africa's most populated country, Nigeria, said that nearly half of primary-aged children are not enrolled in school.

Moreover, Malala said the government needs to focus on improving its education system.

As reported by Reuters, Africa's most populous country has some 10 million children of school age who do not attend government figures state. Primary school enrolment is just 54 percent.

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Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Prize winner for Peace and the youngest UN Messenger of Peace recently turned 20, and celebrated her birthday with girls from conflict ridden areas in the Middle East.

The young activist, who survived a gunshot to the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012, recovered after surgery.

Youngest UN messenger of Peace:

On April 11, 2017, 19-year-old Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Messenger of Peace, the highest honour given by the United Nations for an initial period of two year to promote girls' education.

"My goal is to make sure every child, a girl and a boy; they get the opportunity to go to school. It is their basic human right, so I will be working on that and I will never stop until I see the last child going to school," said Malala, at the time.

State of education in Nigeria:

Speaking in regard of education in Nigeria, Malala said the government should declare a "state of emergency on education in Nigeria."

"They are happy to work more on education. We are also happy to hear positive response from the minister as well in ensuring that education is prioritised," she said in recent Reuters report.

Moreover, taking a step further, Malala also campaigned to maintain awareness of the more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in 2014 by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden."

Read: India ahead of China for a decade: Harvard University

Read: Apple is hiring a barista, but here's why it's not going to be an easy job

For information on more latest news and updates, click here.

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Frank Lyall asked members of the Washington State Supreme Court if they considered the economic consequences when making decisions. Lyall was one of the audience members posing questions to the court following a hearing the court held March 17, 2015 at Heritage University in Toppenish, Wash. (GORDON KING /Yakima Herald-Republic)
UNION GAP, Wash.  A local investor has sued Liberty Bottleworks and one of its founders, seeking immediate repayment of more than $3 million 
Justin Michael Barnett, 38, appears in Yakima Superior Court in Yakima, Wash., Monday, July 17, 2017. Barnett was arrested in connection with a Friday nigh stabbing death in Toppenish. (SHAWN GUST/Yakima Herald-Republic)
While the VHP staged a protest outside Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata against "persecution of Hindus", the chief minister appealed to the Centre to rein in the fringe group.

By Siddhartha Rai: After the decline of the Left in West Bengal, the state is fast becoming the site of a Right versus Mamata Banerjee flashpoint. While the RSS and VHP have upped the ante against the TMC regime, crying hoax over 'Hindu persecution', Banerjee has stuck to her guns and blamed the Right for rising instances of communal violence in the state.

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While the VHP staged a protest outside Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata on July 1 against "persecution of Hindus and Buddhists" in the neighbouring country, the chief minister has appealed to the Centre to rein in fringe elements as such actions are destroying 'diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh'.

While reports emerged of a certain letter that the CM allegedly wrote to Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj raising concerns over the actions of VHP and possible negative fallout for relations with the predominantly Muslim neighbour, the party denied any such move.

MAMATA BANERJEE IS ANTI-HINDU: VHP

Rather, it acceded that Banerjee had raised the matter at a press briefing and used the platform to ask the Centre to do something about the "fringe". "She (Banerjee) has not written any formal letter to the Union government. But she did say at a media briefing that the Centre should see to it that such disruptive elements from its ideological spectrum are reined in,"

TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee told Mail Today.

Meanwhile, the VHP once again issued a threat to the Mamata regime, saying that while they were protesting outside the Bangladesh mission and that too against "persecution of Hindus" in that country, she intervened for no reason and that showed her "pro-Muslim" and "anti-Hindu" ideology.

"What business did she have to jump in the fray when we were trying to safeguard the rights and properties of Hindus in Bangladesh? This shows that she is anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim and that is how she is trying to maintain her rule in West Bengal," VHP international joint general secretary Surendra Jain told Mail Today. On the other hand, Mail Today accessed the signed copy of the FIR that Kolkata Police have lodged against four BJP-RSS leaders. The FIR names DU professor Rakesh Sinha, BJP leader Nupur Sharma, Mysore BJP MP Pratap Simha and BJP MLA from Telangana Raja Singh.

Also read: Mamata Banerjee's all out war on BJP: TMC only party capable of taking it down

Also read: Mamata Banerjee has made fool of people, why should I apologise: Roopa Ganguly on rape remark

Also read: Mamata Banerjee irked over VHP arms training for its women cadres in Assam

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George Soros is right, because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban did wage a campaign with anti-Semitic undertones against him . And those raising claims against Soros are right too, because he is a mega-speculator waging worldwide campaigns against countries and regimes, but not against every evil regime. The Iranian regime actually received immunity from him, as part of Soros campaign in favor of the nuclear agreement signed with the ayatollah regime. Soros hatred for Israel is driving him crazy.

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Philosopher Slavoj Zizek has written that Soros agenda is a complete lie: Half his time is dedicated to financial speculations, and the other half to humanitarian activity. Zizek should have actually supported Soros. After all, they both belong to the anti-Zionist party which is moving closer and closer to anti-Semitism.

Anti-Soros campaign in Hungary. Both sides are right (Photo: Reuters)

When it comes to Soros, there is no clear distinction between political meddling and business meddling. Israeli businessman Benny Steinmetz has been claiming for years that Soros is harassing him and his businesses. BSGR, a company controlled by Steinmetz, has filed a huge lawsuit of $10 billion against Soros, which is being discussed in New York these days. The claim is that one of Soros motives is harassing an Israeli company. This may be true, considering Soros support for organizations supporting the BDS movement.

All this shouldnt legitimize anti-Semitic propaganda, even against an Israel-hating Jew. And anti-Semitism is, admittedly, experiencing political prosperity in Hungary. The countrys radical right-wing party, Jobbik, is one of the leading promoters of the anti-Israel boycott, and the partys website, Kuruk, is spreading anti-Semitic propaganda that Israel is committing crimes against humanity.

In the last elections, the party won about 20 percent of the votes. European Parliament Member Krisztina Morvai, a senior Jobbik member, is an ardent supporter of Iran and Hamas. In 2009, Morvai was invited to London to speak at a conference in support of the right of return. The conferences guests included anti-Semites like Nick Griffin, the former leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), and Clare Short, who served as a minister on behalf of the Labour Party and is considered a radical leftists. When it comes to hating Israel, the ends come together. The conference was organized by the Palestinian Return Center (PRC).

And it only gets worse, because Soros is funding an anti-Israeli organization in London, Spinwatch, which published a statement in PRCs defense, following evidence that the organization was linked to Hamas.

The common denominator between Soros and Hungarys anti-Semites is close to perfect. The latter recite the exact same things recited by the anti-Israeli left-wing groups funded by Soros. And as far as Soros is concerned, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have become one ideologyhatred for Israel.

So this time, both sides are right: Both Israels ambassador to Hungary, who issued a scathing statement against a campaign with anti-Semitic undertones, and the Prime Ministers Office, which reminded those of us who have forgotten who Soros really is.
Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid both launched attacks on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday during their respective party meetings over the ongoing probe into his possible involvement in a scandal surrounding the acquisition of submarines and his conduct vis-a-vis the telecommunications giant Bezeq during his tenure as minister of communications

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The two leaders quoted statements once made by Netanyahu about former prime minister Ehud Olmert when he was being investigated during his premiership for corruption, which ultimately led to his imprisonment.

A prime minister who is neck-deep in investigations cannot make fateful decisions, they quoted Netanyahu as saying, arguing that he should now apply the standards which he himself propounded to himself.

In that vein, Gabbay called on the prime minister to dismantle the government, as he himself once demanded of Olmert in similar circumstances.

Avi Gabbay (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The public sees the facts about which there can be no disputethe giving of hundreds of thousands of shekels and deep involvement of his cousin in transactions of ships and submarines while he was conducting coalition negotiations, Gabbay said during his first party faction meeting as head of the Zionist Union since being elected in the primaries last week.

Last night we saw the head of the Defense Ministry's procurement department describe how to trade with confidence, and a few days ago we saw the former defense minister Moshe Yaalon describe the link that has been established between our defense and business interests, Gabbay continued in his tirade against the prime minister.

The legal system is doing its job and it is going at its own pace, but there are times when public leaders cannot hide behind legal procedures, he continued. Those who voted for Bennett, Deri and Kahlon cannot understand the public silence and expect them to say to Netanyahu exactly what he said during Ehud Olmerts tenure. They should pluck up the courage to dismantle the government. I call on the heads of the coalition parties to tell Netanyahu that the red line is here.

Speaking at his own faction meeting, Lapid also addressed the investigations involving the prime minister. We dont play with security. Security is the holy of holies. If the prime minister approved the submarine deal for the Germans with Egypt, the Israeli public deserves an explanation, he insisted.

Yair Lapid (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The prime minister claims time and again, in response to all the charges and suspicions, from the submarines to Bezeq, that he didnt know anything, that he had no idea what was happening around him. I have no idea what the people closest to him do, but even if we accept this, if you dont know what is happening in your bureau, how exactly do you manage state matters? he asked.

Similar to Gabbay, Lapid also drew attention to the pressure Netanyahu put on Olmert when he found himself embroiled in a string of corruption charges.

I want to quote what Netanyahu himself said about Ehud Olmert while he was being investigated for far fewer offences, he said, quoting the same statements.
Over the past few years, many organizations have brought renowned international journalists, politicians and cultural leaders from around the globe to Israel as they take on the task of enabling the worlds opinion shapers to witness first hand that which cannot be viewed by pouring over maps and absorbing the biased reports in the media.

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These organizations have made it their mission to help opinion shapers better understand the reality on the ground in Israel.

The mission is perhaps best encapsulated in the lyrics written by Israeli songwriter Yaakov Rotblit in one of his most famous compositions: Things that we see from here we cant see from afar.

This lyric still provides the basis of the ideology of many organizations fighting the war against the delegitimization of the State of Israel throughout the world and against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The organizations which believe that there is no substitute for actually witnessing circumstances up close in order to draw an informed conclusion are working to continue bringing international influential figures to Israel where they are able to gain a better perspective.

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs, headed by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, which is leading the struggle against the delegitimization and boycott campaigns shares Rotblits philosophy which posits that one of the most effective tools in combating the hostility against Israel is bringing delegations to Israel.

As part of the ministrys programs, in the next two years more than 100 delegations will visit Israel based on the basic premise that anyone who actually visits the country will undoubtedly be exposed to the complicated reality and will consequently be better equipped to challenge the disinformation and lies being disseminated by boycott movements.

Delegations brought by anti-BDS groups

The Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) for example, which was set up in Brussels five years ago, brought hundreds of respected journalists and known public opinion shapers from a myriad of leading media outlets throughout the world.

We have brought senior journalist from the BBC, the Daily Mail, Le Figaro, CNN Turk and many other media outlets to Israel, said founder Rabbi Menachem Margolin.

Our aim was to create a situation in which the main media outlets know the truth, and thats why we started organizing the visits here.

Overall, the project has seen more than 700 articles flow out of the initiative with a slant demonstrably more understanding of Israelis multiple predicaments in fewer than four years.

In addition to the EIPA focusing on respected journalists, the European Leadership Network (ELNET) also works with the intended mission of bringing European politicians, academics and cultural leaders and former dignitaries considered to wield significant influence throughout the continent to Israel.

Senior Trump administration official Becky Norton Dunlop with Yossi Dagan

Europe is a huge challenge, explains David Siegel, CEO of an NGO in Israel who served over the past for 25 years in the Israeli Foreign Ministry and in his last post served as the General Consul in Los Angeles.

It is a super important continent for Israels future, and it cannot be ignored. Eighty-five percent of American congressmen have visited Israel at some stage but only a little over 10% of the European Parliament members have visited. That says it all. They feed on the media. Thats why in the last decade we have bought more than 200 delegations here, 2,300 politicians, Siegel said.

Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan, 36, agrees with this assessment. Ignorance, he says is the the main enemy on the settlement enterprise. The majority of the public has never even been here, but it doesnt bother people to form negative opinions on the building of communities.

Over the last six years, the Council's External Relations Community has worked to bring EU parliamentarians to Israel, along with US congressmen and European politicians.

We have organized more than 1,000 tours like these ones already, Dagan boasted. They cant believe just how small the country is. On maps you cant comprehend what can be seen with your own eyes.

In cooperation with the Strategic Affairs and Information Ministry
"Let me speak or I will resign from the Rajya Sabha," Mayawati told Rajya Sabha Speaker PJ Kurien after she was asked to cut her speech short.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu, India Today Web Desk: A furious Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati today threatened to resign from the membership of the Rajya Sabha if she was not allowed to raise the various incidents of violence against Dalits and other minorities.

"Let me speak or I will resign from the Rajya Sabha if I am not allowed to speak on Dalit atrocities," Mayawati told Rajya Sabha Speaker PJ Kurien after he asked her to cut her impromptu speech short.

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Before she walked out of the Upper House in protest, the Dalit leader raised the Saharanpur violence and criticised the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for its handling of the matter. She also raised the suicide by Rohith Vemula and the flogging of Dalit men in Gujarat's Una by self-styled cow vigilantes.

Accusing the BJP of being anti-Dalit and anti-minorities, Mayawati said, "Since the BJP has come to power, there has been atrocities on Dalits, minorities starting from Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, then the Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes)."

"And then in UP with EVM tampering," the 61-year-old leader went on, repeating her earlier allegation of the tampering of the voting machines in the high-stakes Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

Protesting over the ruckus created by the BJP MPs when she was speaking, an angry Mayawati then walked out of Rajya Sabha.

Outside Parliament, the BSP chief said, ""When I tried speaking about the weaker sections today in the Rajya Sabha, I was not allowed to speak. Why?"

"Laanat hai. Agar mai apne weaker sections ki baat sadan mein nahi rakh skti to mujhe house mein rehne ka adhikaar nahi hai (It is shameful. If I am not able to put matters of the weaker sections in Parliament, I have no right to stay there," she said.

In clashes between Dalits and Rajputs on May 5 in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur, various Dalit houses were torched after they objected to the playing of loud music to celebrate the birth anniversary of warrior king Maharana Pratap.

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Germany has announced it will be postponing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the sale of three submarines to Israel, scheduled for next week, in light of an ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption in the deal.

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The MoU was supposed to have been signed by the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, but for the time bieng the event has been postponed to an unknown date.

INS Tanin (Photo: IDF)

The announcement is a dramatic development in the affair, which could eventually lead to the cancellation of the huge deal between the two countries.

Due to this concern, Defense Ministry Director-General Udi Adam recently flew to Germany for a meeting with his German counterpart in order salavage the deal and to prevent its total nullification.

Israeli sources were quick to highlight that the announcement was merely a postponement of the signing rather than an outright cancellation of the deal. They also expressed hopes that the investigation would be brought to a swift end in order to avoid completely sabotaging the deal.

The cancellation of the signing is made possible due to a clause in the agreement between Germany and Israel that allows the Germans to unilaterally withdraw from it if it is proven that the deal was achieved through bribery and corruption.

ThyssenKrupp (Photo: AFP)

The total cost of the agreement reached with the German corporation ThyssenKrupp is about 1.5 billion euros, and Germany is supposed to finance about one-third of this cost.

The submarines in question are supposed to replace, within a decade, older submarine models operated by the Navy when they are no longer in use.
The Knesset plenum approved Monday in second and third reading a bill which restricts access to internet sites that provide and encourage criminal offenses.

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The bill, now law, initiated by Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, will give the police the authority to restrict or block internet sites that encourage or perpetrate criminal offenses, such as prostitution, drug dealing, gambling and incitement.

Photo: Shutterstock

The new law will provide the police with the necessary tools to combat criminals and instigators who have transferred their activities online.

Speaking after the vote, Erdan said: "Today we corrected a deficiency in enforcement that has been around for years, years in which the existing law was unable to deal with the trend of crime transitioning to the online space."

Erdan emphasized that both he and Shaked had fought in recent months to promote the law, in order to give the police the tools and authorities it needs to take down sites that endanger the public.
A suicide car bomber killed four people at a checkpoint in a Kurdish-controlled area of northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A Kurdish official confirmed an attack targeting a checkpoint operated by the Asayish Kurdish internal security force, but had no further details. The Asayish could not immediately be reached for comment.

Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said the attack took place near the village of Tel Tamr, some 30 km (19 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border. Syrian state TV also reported the deaths of four people in a car bomb attack in the area, but said it had taken place in the nearby town of Ras al-Ayn.

The area is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, the main partner for the US-led coalition in its campaign against Islamic State in Syria. The YPG is spearheading an assault to capture the city of Raqqa from Islamic State.
After the series of confrontations between Muslims and Israeli security forces over the new security measures introduced at the entrances to the Temple Mount, the Fatah movement announced on Tuesday that a day of rage in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that will take place on Wednesday.

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In addition, Tanzimthe militant faction of Fatahdecided that Friday prayers would be held in squares in the main Palestinian cities and sermons would be dedicated to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and against Israel's increased security measures.

In addition to beefing up the security measures, Israel also installed metal detectors in response to Friday's deadly terror attack that claimed the lives of two Israeli police officers..

Palestinian praying outside of Temple Mount in protest of new metal detectors (Photo: AFP)

On Monday night, protests staged by Muslim worshippers against the new security measures continued and escalated as Molotov Cocktails and rocks were hurled at Israeli security forces in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan.

Angry crowds gathered near the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem over the installation of metal detectors at the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque following Friday's attack.

According to police, dozens of masked youths made their way to the gas station at the entrance of the neighborhood and threw rocks and Molotov Cocktails at the personnel and onto the road, causing a fire which was eventually extinguished by firefighters.

Violent clashes ( :  )

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A policeman was struck with a rock in his leg and taken to hospital in light condition while damage was also caused to a police vehicle. In addition, a man was arrested after he was seen carrying a knife.

Acknowledging the sensitivity behind the new metal detectors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that they were nevertheless necessary to prevent further terror attacks. "I understand there is friction around the matter of the metal detectors. But we also understand that we can find ourselves in another terror attack like this and these means are necessary, including the security cameras that we intend to place around the area," he said.
An IDF drone was returned to Israel after falling overnight Monday while carrying out operational activities near the city of Nablus and after being located by Palestinians the following morning.

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The drone fell inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Askar on the outskirts of the city while it was assisting Israeli troops operating inside the camp who were carrying out arrests of a number of wanted Palestinians.

The precise cause of the fall is not yet clear, but the IDF is currently investigating whether it occurred as a result of a technical malfunction or a mistake by its operator. Either way, the army has said there is no cause for concern regarding the leakage of information as a result of the incident.

Photo: Effi Sharir

The drone, known as the Skylark  is one of the smallest in the IDF and is used by the Artillery Corps in tactical missions such as patrols and intelligence collection.

The most recent Skylark drone crash joins a string of similar incidents in recent months in the West Bank, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

At the beginning of the month, a Skylark drone fell in southern Gaza . Also then, the IDF assured that there was no fear of leaked information from the aircraft.

Just a few days prior at the end of June, another drone of the same model fell in Bethlehem before being found by IDF soldiers. In May, another one fell in Lebanese territory but no sensitive information was compromised.

In March a Skylark drone crashed in northern Gaza while carrying out routine operations in the northern Gaza Strip in the Saja'iyya.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia has asked US officials to intervene with the Israeli government to end the standoff with Muslim officials over new security measures at the Temple Mount compound, an Arabic-language website reported Tuesday.

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Elaph, an online news site based in London, reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Saudi officials to visit the al-Aqsa Mosque to show the status quo has not changed.

Photo: Reuters

The Prime Minister's Office and the US State Department have not responded to requests for comments.

Israeli security officials installed metal detectors at entrances to the holy site after three Israeli Arabs killed two Israeli policemen at the Lions' Gate, adjacent to the Temple Mount, last Friday.

However, Muslim officials have refused to submit to the new security measures, calling them a violation of the status quo granting the Jordanian-appointed Waqf (Islamic trust) control over the compound.

Photo: AFP

Islamic officials have held prayers outside the compound for the past several days, and Arab residents of Jerusalem have clashed with police at flashpoints around the city.

The Mount is holy to Jews as the site of the first and second Temples, and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the third-holiest spot in Islam.
The Israeli Population and Immigration Authority has registered a sudden surge in the number of requests made by Mongolians seeking asylum in the country.

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Since the beginning of the year, 190 Mongolian tourists have visited Israelan unexceptional figurebut since June, dozens of civilians have been submitting applications to the authorities to be granted refugee status.

Ulaanbaatar , capital of Mongolia (Photo: AFP)

Those responsible for assessing the applications have spotted a conspicuous pattern, with almost all of the Mongols claiming to be fleeing personal persecution on grounds of belonging to the opposition party in the country.

Also clear to the authority is that the applicants are well prepared and are aware of the right things to say to increase their chances of success. Notably, the vast majority of the requests are submitted through the same lawyer who is known for representing Georgians and Ukrainians in their bid to seek asylum in Israel.

According to the records of the Population Authority, more than 50 asylum applications have been submitted since the start of the year out of 190 tourists visiting Israel and the figure is on the rise every week.

So far, no request has been answered, and not a single Mongol has been evicted from the country. Nevertheless, the consequences are being felt in Israel due to the unusual influx of requests by what appear to be bogus asylum seekers.

Indeed, the Population and Immigration Authority is struggling to handle the accompanying increased paper work and is experiencing delays in dealing with genuine requests. Consequently, assessments can drag on for months, and in some cases more than a year.

Photo: AFP

Meanwhile, no applicant for asylum seeker status can be expelled from the country while it is being processed, meaning they are required to find work in Israel.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said that measures were being taken to stem the tide of applications and that he had already issued orders to prevent the Mongols from staying in the country.

I have instructed the Population and Immigration Authority to fight in any way against this phenomenon in order to prevent a situation in which thousands of Mongols get to Israel and stay here to work and live, Deri said.

If the pattern continues, Israels tourism policies with the East Asian country, whose residents are permitted to visit Israel without any visa, may be reconsidered and the visa exceptions may be removed.
Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Telem Yahav has been chosen as this year's recipient of the Shalem Fund's prize in the field of communications.

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Once a year, the organization grants prizes and awards in recognition of ongoing activities and projects for the well-being of people with developmental disabilities. The prizes and recognition shine light on the foundation's activities in an effort to improve the quality of life of those with developmental disabilities in all aspects of life.

Yahav, 32, is a graduate of Tel Aviv University's Communications and Political Science departments and was editor-in-chief of the university's student paper during his studies.

Telem Yahav

Yahav began working for Yedioth Ahronoth in 2011, focusing on economics and law in Jerusalem.

Since 2013, he has been the welfare and labor correspondent for the newspaper, focusing extensively on reducing social gaps and assistance to disadvantaged populations, Holocaust survivors and people with disabilities.

"I would like to thank the Shalem Fund for choosing me for this year's prize," said Yahav. "Over 1.5 million people with disabilities live in Israel, many of whom have complex and difficult lives. In the course of my job, I meet children, families, teachers and other professionals who deal with difficult realities every day.

"I am happy that I have the right to serve people whose cries are weak and to help them realize their rights and the state's obligations towards them."

Riva Muskal, chairwoman of the foundation, said, "The prize committee saw fit to select Yahav, one of the outstanding candidates in the category of media, for his quality journalistic activities and for shedding light on the success stories of people with mental disabilities."

Yahav will be presented with the award in November in the presence of the Minister of Welfare and Social Services Haim Katz, various community leaders and professionals at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.
One of the more curious and perhaps more serious aspects of the submarine affair is the Israeli approval given to Germany to sell advanced submarines to Egypt as well. This approval shocked past and present defense officials, because for many years Israel has decisively opposed deals that would allow Egypt to obtain advanced weapons systems similar to those Israel was procuring.

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To ensure its qualitative edge remains, Israel includes a clause in every agreement it makes with a foreign government barring the seller from selling the same weapons to other countries in the Middle East.

Despite that, in 2013 the defense establishment learned Germany had signed an agreement to sell Egypt four Type 209 submarines, which were built by German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp and are similar to the ones Israel bought.

Patrol Corvette, the vessel on which the new Navy ships will be based

But there was more than one deal. In 2009, when Hosni Mubarak was still in power, the Egyptians sought to purchase two submarines from ThyssenKrupp, the very same shipyard that sold Israel its submarines.

Then-defense minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acceded to the request from Cairo under the condition the submarines sold to Egypt would be less advanced than those sold to Israel.

Following Mubarak's ouster in 2011 and the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi, Netanyahu and Barak asked Germany to cancel the deal. The Germans said they could not withdraw from their agreement with Cairo at that point, and the submarines were delivered to Egypt in 2016.

In the second half of 2014, after the rise to power of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had better ties with Israel, the Egyptians sought to buy four submarines of the more advanced models, as well as two anti-submarine ships.

The Israeli defense minister at the time, Moshe Ya'alon, and the heads of the relevant departments in the defense establishment, were not included in the discussions about the Egyptian request.

At that time, Egypt launched an accelerated process to build up its navel power in a scope and quality that did not match its economic abilities or its objective strategic needs. In recent years, the Egyptians purchased two aircraft carriers and advanced frigates and they are about to put the finishing touches on one of the largest modern fleets in the area.

The new submarine deal between Germany and Egypt was only discovered by the Defense Ministry by chance, and it caught Israel's top security officials by surprise. When Ya'alon asked Netanyahu about an Israeli approval to the deal, Netanyahu denied it.

In May 2015, the Defense Ministry sent an Israeli official, who was on his way to Germany, to make inquiries on the matter.

The Israeli official met with a senior German official in Berlin. When he asked why the Germans were selling submarines to Egypt in breach of their contract with Israel, the shocked German official presented him with documents showing an Israeli official had approved the sale to Egypt.

The Germans claimed these new agreements were made during their meeting with Netanyahu's representative, attorney Yitzhak Molcho. Molcho is a partner and relative of attorney David Shimron, who is a main suspect in the police investigation into the sale of the submarines to Israel.

Follow the money

In late 2014, at the same time the Germans and Egyptians were formulating their deal, the German government announced it was willing to subsidize a deal with Israel that would include the sale of four ships to protect Israel's natural gas rigs. The subsidy amounted to about a third of the deal127 million euros.

The condition: The Israeli Defense Ministry would have to cancel the international tender it issued for the ships and award the contract to ThyssenKrupp, without a bid.

As Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday, three South Korean shipyards were supposed to compete in the original tender, as ThyssenKrupp's ships were too big (1,800 tons) and too expensive, and Israel only needed 1,200 ton ships.

But thanks to the German subsidizing, ThyssenKrupp was awarded the contract and the South Korean bid was canceled. The Navy, meanwhile, supported the deal as it was all too happy to get a frigate twice the size of the most advanced missile boat it currently hasthe Sa'ar 5-class corvette.

The Navy's Sa'ar 5-class corvette (Photo: Elad Gershgoren)

But despite the German discount, the ships are still far more expensive than originally planned. The former head of the Defense Ministry's Directorate of Production and Procurement, Shmuel Zucker, learned this week the Navy went over the budget it was allocated by the Treasury, and the maintenance of the ships will be far more expensive compare to the smaller, Korean ships.

One should not rule out the possibility there is a connection between the change in the German position on selling subsidized ships to the Israeli Navy and the approval by Israel of ThyssenKrupp's deal with Egypt, from which the German shipyard made over 2 billion euros.

The three-way deal

Israel allows Germany to sell advanced submarines to Egypt, and in return it receives a considerable discount on the patrol boats deal. This way everyoneexcept, perhaps, state securitygains: The Germans, who get fat contracts with both Egypt and Israel, the Israeli representatives who work for the German shipyards and get their due reward, and even the Navy, which is getting bigger and more expensive ships (that serve no real need).

Police investigators will have to question ThyssenKrupp's representative in Israel, Miki Ganorwho is in talks to become a state witness whether there was a connection between the unprecedented strategic decision to allow the sale of advanced submarines to Egypt (unlike the far inferior submarines approved in the first deal) and the decision to purchase ships from the same German shipyard.

Furthermore, Ganor will have to answer whether the German commitment to subsidize the patrol vessels was given in return for Israel's approval to Berlin to sell advanced submarines to Egypt.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting Tuesday that despite Hungary's crimes in the 20th century, the country will never again tolerate anti-Semitism.

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Netanyahu said that Orban "promised" him unequivocally that the Hungarian government is on the side of the Jewish people.

This promise comes after the Hungarian government conducted an aggressive campaign against Jewish billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros, who over the past few weeks attacked Hungary's policy against immigrants and refugees seeking to enter the country on their way to Germany.

Photo: AP

According to Orban, Hungary's collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II was a "mistake" and a "sin" as it failed to protect its Jewish community.

Orban said he told Netanyahu that he was aware of the "difficult history behind us."

Some 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Orban and Netanyahu meet in Budapest (: ")

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"At an earlier time, the government of Hungary made a mistake, moreover, committed a sin when it did not protect its citizens of Jewish heritage," Orban said during a press briefing after his meeting with Netanyahu in Parliament.

"Every Hungarian government has the duty to protect all of its citizens, regardless of their heritage."

Orban continued, saying, "During World War II, Hungary did not comply with this moral and political requirement. This is a sin because at the time we decided that instead of protecting the Jewish community, we chose collaboration with the Nazis.

Photo: AP

"I made it clear to the prime minister that this can never happen again. In the future, the Hungarian government will protect all its citizens."

Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Hungary since 1989, when Hungary was still under communist rule.

Netanyahu said he thought about Hungary first in relation to the birth of modern Zionism, as Theodore Herzl, "our modern Moses," was born in Budapest in 1860.

He thanked Orban for Hungary's repeated support for Israel.

He cited French President Emmanuel Macron's recent statement drawing a parallel between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel. "Macron said there is a new anti-Semitism that is expressed in anti-Zionism, that is delegitimizing the one and only Jewish state," Netanyahu said.

"In many ways, Hungary is at the forefront of the states that are opposed to this anti-Jewish policy and I welcome it and I express the appreciation of my government and the people, many people in Israel for this."

Photo: AP

Orban, meanwhile, repeated his opposition to mass migration mostly by Muslims, which he has said would lead to irreversible changes in European culture and its population.

"I made it clear that Hungary has serious disputes in the European Union, as Hungary does not want a mixed population," Orban said. Hungary "does not want to change its current ethnic composition, it does not want to defer to any external, artificial influence."

Photo: AFP

"We'd like to remain as we are, even if, I have to admit, we are not perfect," Orban added.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu and Orban will meet with leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and SlovakiaHungary's partners in the so-called Visegrad Groupand also visit representatives of Hungary's Jewish community.
Under the rules of Parliament, an MP's resignation must be limited to a single sentence and must not be conditional. BSP chief Mayawati who submitted her resignation as Rajya Sabha MP violated both those parameters.

By Panini Anand: BSP supremo Mayawati was disappointed by the Chair in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday because she was not allowed to speak. She stormed out of the house threatening to resign from the membership of the house. And Mayawati did resign at the end of the day.

Her party confirmed that and her supporters also distributed the copy of the resignation letter sent by Mayawati to the Chairman. However, there is a glitch. This resignation cannot be accepted as house rules allow no condition in resignations. Her resignation letter tells a story and in that there is a story. That she may just be posturing.

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There is a rule for both the houses of the Parliament which says that resignation by the members has to be unconditional. It can't be an explanation or clarification. The resignation has to be simple and limited to one line which says that member wants to resign from the membership of the house.

The same happened in the case of Navjot Singh Siddhu, who became the member of Lok Sabha in 2004. Siddhu resigned from the house in 2006. However, the resignation was unaccepted due to the detailing in the draft. Siddhu's resignation was resignation cum explanation letter. Siddhu wanted to put his word of thoughts in the letter. This was declared unfit by the chair and the office refused to accept the resignation. Siddhu's resignation was accepted only after submission of a new resignation letter which just stated that he wants to discontinue as the member of the house and his resignation should be accepted.

BSP CHIEF's RESIGNATION NOT IN ITS APPROPRIATE FORM

The rule applies to Mayawati as well. Her three-page resignation is not in its appropriate form to be accepted by the chair. There is all possibility that the resignation letter submitted by Mayawati would be rejected by the office and she would be asked to re-draft and re-submit the resignation.

The most recent example is Captain Amarinder Singh's resignation from Lok Sabha in November 2016. He also wrote a long letter to the office as his resignation letter. However, it was accepted only after a new, one-line resignation was produced to the Speaker's office by him.

Though, the resignation is a big step by Mayawati and it's going to help her regain some strength on the ground and among her supporters, this political statement, on technical ground, this is a fail. A deliberate one, maybe. With BJP hijacking her dalit agenda in the last election and by making Ram Nath Kovind the President, the saffron party has further dented her dalit base. Possibly why she targeted BJP for being anti-dalit before resigning.

However, if she truly seeks to leave the House, she has to leave a one-liner at the Speaker's office, not a three-pager.

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ALSO READ | Parliament Monsoon Session: PM Modi walks to Opposition benches, greets Sonia Gandhi

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--- ENDS ---
Ynet reporter Hassan Shaalan was attacked Monday evening by police while covering clashes near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City.

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The clashes between police and Muslim worshipers broke out around 7:30pm near the Lions' Gate in the wake of the increased security at the holy site following a terror attack Friday that claimed the lives of two Israeli police officers.

Shaalan was filming the clashes with his cellphone when police officers approached him and demanded: "Get out of here, we don't want to see you."

Ynet reporter attacked by police

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When another police officer asked him again to leave, Shaalan responded that he was a journalist. "I don't care, get out of here," the police officer said, pushing the reporter.

Another policeman hit Shaalan, forcefully shoved him to the ground, and then kicked him.

Shaalan suffered injuries to his hand, chest, stomach and legs, and his cellphone screen was broken. Local medical teams treated him on the scene. While they were treating him, a stun grenade was thrown in their direction. Shaalan received further care Tuesday at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus.

Ynet reporter Hassan Shaalan attacked by police

The Israel Police said in response, "This incident occurred during violent rioting in Jerusalem, while the police officers were working to clear protesters from the road after some of them refused to evacuate. The forces operating in the field are under constant danger. In such incidents, all those present are required to follow police instructions and evacuate when asked to.

"Regardless of one incident or another, it is important to emphasize no person in Israel, including a journalist, is above the law. Still, the circumstances of the incident are being examined and if found necessary, we will refer (the officers) to the relevant bodies."
The IDF released a video Tuesday detailing Hezbollah operations in southern Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which states that the Shiite terrorist organization must remain north of the Litani River.

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The video was released ahead of a UN Security Council discussion on violations of the resolution, which is scheduled to be held on Thursday.

Hezbollah operatives attempting to gather intelligence on Israel (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Hezbollah has established an intricate network of military infrastructure, which includes rocket launching sites aimed at Israel.

The video, published by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, portrays how Hezbollah collects intelligence in southern Lebanon, beginning with two organization operatives who were observed gathering intelligence on Israel.

IDF video on Hezbollah border activities (:  ")

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The video also details a fictitious organization"Green Without Borders"established by Hezbollah and used as a cover for their illicit military activity in southern Lebanon. The organization ostensibly gathers ecological and agricultural information to be used to promote environmental protection in Lebanon.

The video even shows images of Hezbollah operatives, including Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, participating in activities on behalf of the phony organization, with the true intention of causing harm to Israel.

Hezbollah observation post (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Last month, Israel had provided the UN Security Council with intelligence that Hezbollah had established a network of observation posts along the border under the guise of an innocent organization.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, sent a letter to Security Council members detailing an incident in April when a group of civilians blocked a UNIFIL patrol force access to an observation post flying a "Green Without Borders" flag.

Brig. Gen. Rafi Milo, who was appointed commander of the Galilee Division on Tuesday, said, "Our preparedness for escalation is constantly sharp. We continue to monitor developments in the field and constantly improve our defensive response and our offensive capabilities. When necessary, we will use them with full force.

"We have not lost sight of the fact that Hezbollah systematically violates UN Resolution 1701 and, in total contradiction, maintains a military presence even if it is hidden in dozens of Shi'ite villages south of the Litani River. The Lebanese army turns a blind eye to Hezbollah activity, camouflages the terrorist organization's tours in southern Lebanon, and even allows it to use its infrastructure against the State of Israel. The peace and stability in the region are important to all of us."
Dozens of Muslims prayed outside the Temple Mount's gates on Tuesday evening, with some of them throwing stones and bottles at police after the end of prayers in protest of the additional security measures at the entrance to the Temple Mount.

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Israel set up metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance to the Temple Mount after three Israeli Arab terrorists were able to smuggle firearms into the holy site, using them to carry out a terror attack on Friday that claimed the lives of two Israeli police officers.

Clashes on the Temple Mount on Tuesday (:  )

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Protesters called out "we will sacrifice our lives for al-Aqsa," "we'll die as martyrs," "there will be an intifada," and "there's nothing like killing soldiers."

Israel Police and Border Police forces dispersed the rioters.

Protest prayer outside the Lions' Gate (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The protesters received support from Arab MKs from the Joint ListHanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, Ahmad Tibi, Osama Saadi and Juma Azbargawho arrived at the Lions' Gate to attend evening prayers outside the Temple Mount complex.



Arab MKs at the Lions' Gate

"The metal detectors must be removed, they cause great unrest and in fact create a new reality that hurts the status quo," said MK Tibi, who chairs the Joint List's Al-Quds Committee.

"(Prime Minister) Netanyahu is the one who insists on this provocation, and he will bear the responsibility to any escalation here or in the region. The entire Arab world is up in arms. In addition to hurting the Palestinian people, this is hurting Jordan's special authority over the holy places," he added.

"I don't know how exactly people can tolerate such a situation, in which they pray under siege by dozens of police, Special Forces and military," said MK Zoabi. "This isn't just an occupation, it's also humiliation. We won't accept the new arrangement of electronic gates. We refuse any new security arrangement. We don't need security in our place."

Earlier Tuesday, the military wings of the different Palestinian factions in Gaza held a press conference threatening a forceful response if Israel does not remove the added security.

"The aggression against al-Aqsa will be the spark that ignites the blaze that can burn through the whole region," one Gaza militant threatened.

Gaza militant factions hold press conference (Photo: AP)

During the afternoon and evening on Monday, hundreds of Muslim worshipers clashed with police near the Lions' Gate. Police used stun grenades to disperse the rioters. Several protesters were injured and treated at the scene.

The protesters called out "we will sacrifice our lives for al-Aqsa" at the police officers, with one of them noting: "We won't honor the electronic gates. We will continue to fight to the death and die as martyrs here."
BEIRUT -- A suicide car bomb attack claimed by Islamic State killed four people at a checkpoint in a Kurdish-controlled area of northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A Kurdish official confirmed an attack targeting a checkpoint operated by the Asayish Kurdish internal security force, but had no further details. The Asayish could not immediately be reached for comment.

Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said the attack took place near the village of Tel Tamr, some 30 km (19 miles) from the Syrian-Turkish border.
BERLIN -- A German court has sentenced a 25-year-old Syrian citizen to three years in prison for membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

The man's defense had claimed that as part of the Nusra Front he was fighting the IS extremist group, "which is being fought against by the entire free world," but the court said fighting in a terrorist group cannot be justified because it is battling another terrorist group.

The court's statement said the man arrived in Germany in 2015, but didn't provide any further details.
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira on Tuesday provided Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit with information that raises the suspicion of criminal wrongdoing in state authorities' handling of the ammonia crisis in Haifa.

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The information gathered by the State Comptroller's Office raises the suspicion state authorities prioritized alternatives for ammonia import in a biased manner that financially benefited Haifa Chemicals.

In addition, relevant professionals at the Environmental Protection Ministry were allegedly excluded from discussions on the matter. Furthermore, information given to experts on the subject significantly changed every time and did not entirely match the facts.

The ammonia tank in Haifa (Photo: Reuters)

According to the comptroller, "It appears the involvement in the matter of Yisrael Dancziger, the director-general of the Environmental Protection Ministry, was significant and unusual, and he allegedly did not adhere to the conflict of interest arrangement set for him in August 2015. There is concern he acted on the matter in a conflict of interest and without having consulted with the ministry's legal advisor, as he committed to doing."

This, the comptroller noted, raises concerns foreign interests affected the actions of some of the state officials in the matter, as well as concerns of ethical violations.

The comptroller passed the information on to the attorney general and the state attorney to handle as they deem appropriate.

The Environmental Protection Ministry said in response that its employees "were shocked to hear in the media of these serious accusations and have yet to receive any explanation or information concerning these allegations. As soon as we receive all of the information, we will be able to issue a response on the matter.

"It is important to emphasize the Environmental Protection Ministry's work on the matter was done entirely based on the recommendations of experts in the field in Israel and abroad, and was closely accompanied by the legal officials as the topic was discussed in different legal instances."

The Haifa Municipality said in response, "For a long time we've been arguing financial considerations incomprehensibly eclipse the safety considerations that affect some million Israeli citizens. We passed on the wealth of information we had to the comptroller's office. Despite great pressure put on us, we maintained, as we continue to maintain, that the safety of the residents of Haifa must be the highest consideration, and only after we've been satisfied it has been taken into account will be agree to discuss alternatives."

Haifa Chemicals said in response the company "has learned of the state comptroller's letter to the attorney general through the media and has no further information beyond that. The company received the complete opposite of preferential treatment. The company believes that instead of receiving preferential treatment, it was targeted and treated badly as a result of the campaign of lies led by (Haifa mayor) Yahav."

Several days ago, Dancziger was instructed by the attorney general to avoid dealing with the ammonia crisis in Haifa out of concern it would constitute a conflict of interest.

Yisrael Dancziger, the director-general of the Environmental Protection Ministry

The Environmental Protection Ministry said Dancziger "signed a conflict of interest agreement according to which he cannot directly deal with matters concerning Israel Chemicals, because of his distant friendship with Israel Chemicals' chief financial officer.

"The director-general acted in accordance with the agreement and did not deal with anything that directly concerns Israel Chemicals. The ministry's legal advisor, when asked for her legal opinion, stated that based on the information she has, there is no reason to bar the director-general from dealing with the ammonia issue, as this matter concerns Haifa Chemicals."

The crisis

Haifa Chemicals has been operating for years without a business license for the ammonia tank. The colossal, circular vat is located in the northern port of Haifa and can hold 12,000 tons of ammonia, which is used in products like fertilizer and explosives.

The government, looking to remove hazardous materials from the heavily populated area, has for more than a decade been looking for alternatives to the Haifa plant, including building a new one in the middle of the desert. It has made little progress.

Earlier this month, the government approved a new plan to resolve the crisis. The plan consists of two parts: a short-term solution in which a small ship of 2,500 tons will dock at the Haifa port and flow the ammonia directly to Haifa Chemicals, which will then supply ammonia to the entire economy.

As part of the long-term solution, a three-kilometer marine link will be constructed and connected to a special port for ships carrying ammonia near the port of Haifa.

As part of the solution, Haifa Chemicals was tasked with constructing an area at sea allowing the ammonia ships to dock several kilometers away from the shore.

But the plan is in question because of a legal opinion by the Environmental Protection Ministry's legal advisor Daliya Dror, who determined the ministry could not issue a toxins permit if Haifa Chemicals does not have a business license. The Haifa Municipality, which grants business licenses, is not expected to give the company such a license.
AL-JAFR - Hundreds of people in southern Jordan have protested the conviction of a local soldier in the shooting deaths of three US military trainers.

The US troops were killed in November at the gate to the al-Jafr air base when their convoy came under fire. A Jordanian military court sentenced 1st Sgt. Marik al-Tuwayha to life in prison on Monday.

On Tuesday, protesters blocked roads to the town of al-Jafr with burning tires and staged a sit-in.

Members of the soldier's tribe claimed, without presenting evidence, that he was a scapegoat, and that there had been a deadly clash between US troops and Syrian rebels they were training.

The defendant testified that he opened fire because he believed he had heard a pistol shot and feared the base was being attacked.
Even after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ordered the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to remove a report from its website accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Palestinians, the agency continues promoting similar content on social media.

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ESCWA, which comprises 18 Arab states in Western Asia, released a report in March concluding that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole."

The report raised ire in Israel and in the United States. The accusationoften directed against Israel by its criticshas never before been made by a United Nations body.





ESCWA post on Facebook

UN Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf resigned after what she described as pressure from the secretary general to withdraw the report.

At the time, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the report was published without prior consultation with the UN secretariat and that it therefore does not reflect Guterres's position.

But even after the report had been removed, the NGO UN Watch has found at least 20 posts, tweets or releases by ESCWA accusing Israel of apartheid.

ESCWA post on Facebook

In a letter to Guterres, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer urged the UN chief to intervene on the matter.

"In March, you rightly took action to remove ESCWA's unauthorized publication of a false report that obscenely demonized Israel as an 'apartheid' state... We are therefore alarmed to discover that, despite your clear and unequivocal stand, numerous ESCWA webpages, Facebook posts and tweets continue to display this same 'Israel Apartheid' slur."

The UN Watch noted that even after Khalaf's resignation, her quotes presenting Israel as an apartheid state remain on ESCWA's websites. The agency's Facebook page likewise still presents numerous posts from 2014 to 2017 claiming Israel is an apartheid state like South Africa.

"Former secretary-general Kofi Annan rightly described the General Assemblys 1975 'Zionism is Racism' resolution as the low point of the UNs experience with anti-Semitism. ESCWAs 'Israel apartheid' slurs are but the latest reincarnation of the same libeland we urge Mr. Guterres to order them removed immediately," Neuer added.
Agriculture instructor and FFA advisor in Bloomfield, Neb., Amber Endres, took a learning trip to Nicaragua with two of her students to explore the positive impact the Foods Resource Bank (FRB) is having on that country and all over the world.

I had the pleasure of meeting Endres at the Nebraska FFA State Convention in April and she later shared some memories regarding her experience with me. I found her story so interesting that I wanted to pass along the opportunities she has found with FRB and encourage other schools, farmers and ranchers to get involved. The FRB is a Christian-based, private, non-profit organization that focuses on providing development for communities living in poverty all around the world.

According to the FRB, Each year around the world (our) programs support more than 300,000 people as they work to become food secure. Through its implementing partners, FRB addresses the food shortages, poverty and health challenges that lead to hunger. The goal of each program is to help families have enough to eat throughout the entire year, and produce a surplus that they can sell to pay for school fees, medical care, and modest home improvements.

The school in Bloomfield was originally connected with FRB due to previous ag instructor, Richard Eisenhauer (who also helped inspire Endres to pursue her career in ag education). Eisenhauer had students raise a crop plot with a portion of the proceeds from what they raised being donated to the FRB.

Then, after Endres took over the Bloomfield ag education and FFA program after Eisenhauer retired, Ron DeWeerd, who serves as the Director of Development for the FRB reached out to her. DeWeerd presented several opportunities, one of which was a learning trip made possible by John Deere corporate that allowed two of Endress students to explore FRB projects in Nicaragua. With the help of Bloomfield school support, Endres went along too.

We were able to see where FRB money is helping, Endres said. We went to a community where all the women had formed a community group to decide what type of project would help them. I thought it was cool they allowed the women to be in charge of the project. They decided they needed to buy an electric grinder because every day they would take corn out of storage and spend up to six hours hand grinding the corn for tortillas to eat for one day. They bought the grinder and now each woman spends 20 minutes a day grinding corn instead.

In that same area, we were able to go to a gentlemans field where he talked about how all over Nicaragua they are having so much trouble with climate change, she added. . . . In the past, Nicaragua had a wet season and a dry season. Now they cannot judge when it will be wet and dry because the climate has changed so drastically. The FRB has paid for local agronomists to come in and help teach them how to diversify their crops. They teach them how to grow things such as coffee, cocoa, cassava, lentils and what they call a manure crop which is a plant that provides organic matter back to the soil. Endres noted that farmers are often afraid to try out new ideas because if they fail, their family will suffer from food shortage. That is why many times one farmer volunteers to implement the new ideas in what they call farmer field school.

The man we talked to had agreed to participate in the farmer field school and was growing five different crops on his small field, that way if there was a drought or it was too wet, something would grow and he could make a profit or use it himself, she added. One of the coolest things about the entire experimental field, was the other community members who told the farmer that if the project does not work, they will back him up. The sense of community there was just amazing. My students were the first ones to point that out. They told me, Wouldnt it be cool to do this in our own communities to support people to try new things.

I applaud Endres for exposing herself and her students to a global view of agriculture. There is much to learn about building community from our neighbors worldwide. I know Endres, her two students, and all the Bloomfield youth involved with a great teacher and FRB are forever changed for the better. Broadening our horizons outside our backyard is certainly a great step in making the world a better place.

To learn more about the FRB visit www.foodsresourcebank.org
Mayawati was upset after Rajya Sabha Speaker PJ Kurien asked her to cut short a speech on Dalit atrocities.

By India Today Web Desk: Upset over not being allowed to raise various incidents of violence against Dalits and other minorities, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today resigned from Rajya Sabha.

Mayawati met Rajya Sabha Speaker PJ Kurien and discussed the issue and tendered her resignation. "When the ruling parties do not give me time to speak then it is appropriate for me to resign," Mayawati said.

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Earlier in the day, Mayawati had told Kurien that if she is not allowed to speak on Dalit atrocities she will resign. The Speaker had asked her to cut short her impromptu speech in the House. Mayawati later walked out of Rajya Sabha in protest.

Accusing the BJP of being anti-Dalit and anti-minorities, Mayawati said, "Since the BJP has come to power, there has been atrocities on Dalits, minorities starting from Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, then the Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes)."

"And then in UP with EVM tampering," the 61-year-old leader went on, repeating her earlier allegation of the tampering of the voting machines in the high-stakes Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

In clashes between Dalits and Rajputs on May 5 in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur, various Dalit houses were torched after they objected to the playing of loud music to celebrate the birth anniversary of warrior king Maharana Pratap.

Led by Satish Mishra, BSP leaders also raised slogans in Rajya Sabha against "anti-Dalit policies" of the Narendra Modi government. They jumped into the Well of the House shouting: "Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi" (anti-dalit government will not be tolerated)

Mayawati's term in the Upper House was till April next year.

Popularly referred to as 'Behenji', the 51-year-old Mayawati's image has been that of a 'Dalit ki beti'.

After recent failures, Mayawati has been trying hard to come back to the fore. In Uttar Pradesh, she has been out of power for two consecutive terms. Mayawati also drew a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election her party BSP had won only 19 seats out of 403.

Also read:

BSP chief Mayawati says will resign as Rajya Sabha MP over Dalit atrocities

--- ENDS ---
While clear instructions have been issued to make every Cabinet meeting a productive one, the onus will be on the ministers to disseminate government initiatives and decisions among public.

By Rakesh Ranjan: The Narendra Modi government - that will be seeking a second term in less than two years from now - is set to strengthen its media and publicity machinery.

While clear instructions have been issued to make every Cabinet meeting a productive one, the onus will be on the ministers and their subordinates to disseminate government initiatives and decisions among public.

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Mail Today is in possession of the draft media policy on Cabinet meetings, which states that ministers will have to make personal contacts with people through phone calls, SMS or WhatsApp. All ministries have been communicated to effectively implement the policy so as to connect to the larger population.

"Communication should be 360 degree. There has to be many ways of communication to reach out to all people," the policy said. Well-placed sources said the economic reforms like GST, Mudra Scheme, Start-up India among others, initiated by the Modi government need to be communicated effectively to the people so that they understand the benefits of them.

Similarly skill development, Digital India and many reforms in the social sector have also been identified as the key initiatives that need proper publicity. For this purpose a three-point media strategy has been devised that include mass media, personal media and social media.

BJP ADOPTS THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD

"Mass media is the conventional method of publicity, i.e. through television and newspapers. The concerned persons have been told to write op-ed in leading newspapers and regional dailies to connect to the local population. The write-ups should explain the nature and scope of the policy and how it impacts the people of India," the communication said.

The move comes at a time when the current Modi government is left with less than two years to materialise its key initiatives. There are several projects like smart city, world class railway stations, super expressways that will take a long time before the result is visible on ground and this is where the media strategy will prove to be useful, an official said.

As part of personal media strategy, ministers have been advised to send personalised text SMS, bulk messages through Whatsapp and even video messages to keep citizens aware of key policies and bills approved by the Cabinet. Similarly, ministries have been asked to use social media for articulation. "For every Cabinet decision, the concerned ministry and the minister should tweet about the decision with supporting links that gives complete details about the project," the guidelines said. It added that the complete details of the policy and its wider implications should be outlined on Twitter and Facebook.

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Also read: Farmer's son to vice president nominee: All you need to know about Venkaiah Naidu

Also read: When PM Modi made Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh 'patch up'

--- ENDS ---
Princeton: By the time Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang arrived in Iran to conduct research for his doctorate in history, he had already spent years living and working in politically turbulent countries.

The Chinese-born US citizen previously worked as a Pashto translator for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan and spent time in Uzbekistan while a student at Harvard University.

Wang, 37, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges after his arrest last summer, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday.

He is the latest American citizen to face jail in Iran for what the US State Department has repeatedly denounced as fabricated charges.

His sentencing shocked his colleagues at Princeton, who described him in interviews as a quiet but collegial scholar whose intellectual curiosity stood out even among graduate students at the elite school in New Jersey.

Wang is married and has a young son.

In addition to Pashto, English and his native Mandarin, Wang is also proficient in Russian and Turkish and was learning Persian in Iran.

University President Chris Eisgruber said in a letter to the school on Monday that Princeton and Wang's family had kept his arrest confidential on the recommendation of advisers inside and outside of government.

"Publicity might be harmful to our student's interests," he said.

"We hope the appellate authorities will look mercifully on him."

He described Wang as a "genuine scholar, devoted husband, and caring father."

Wang, a history student at Princeton since 2013, was conducting field work for his dissertation, which is focused on how predominantly Muslim regions are governed.

Iran accused him of scanning 4,500 pages of digital documents.

His academic adviser, history Professor Stephen Kotkin, and fellow graduate students said in interviews that scanning historical documents  the ones Wang was studying were a century old, Kotkin said  for later review is a common practice for researchers.

Kotkin said Wang had laid out a "very ambitious" dissertation plan that included on-site research in Iran, Russia and potentially Afghanistan.

"He's one of these kids who lives for research and ideas," Kotkin said.

Several history graduate students described Wang as a respected scholar but declined to go into further detail, citing the sensitivity of the case.

The history department's chairman, Keith Wailoo, emailed students on Monday asking them to refer news media inquiries to the school's communications office.

One student and friend of Wang's, who requested anonymity after Wailoo's email, said Wang was "very driven" to succeed, working hard to learn Persian to read source material in its original form.

An official at Iran's interests section in Washington, the country's de facto diplomatic outpost in the US capital, declined to comment in detail on Wang's case, referring questions to Iran's United Nations mission, which did not respond to a request for comment.

After high school in Beijing, Wang studied in China and India before moving to the United States, according to a lecture he gave years ago.

He graduated from the University of Washington in 2006 and earned a master's degree at Harvard University, where he traveled to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for research.

In 2008-09, Wang worked at a law firm in Hong Kong through Princeton in Asia, a program that arranges fellowships and internships in Asia for US residents.

"For better or worse, he still can't tell you what exactly he has been studying in the many years that have passed," a short biographical note on Princeton in Asia's website said.

"What he does know is that his dream is to walk the ancient Silk Road from Xi'an to Rome one day."
Patna: With ties between the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) appearing to wobble over Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, speculations are rife that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may make a big announcement during a cabinet meeting that is scheduled to take place today.

Sources within the JD(U) that Nitish is known to maintain a tough stance when it comes to corruption and since Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi was named by CBI in a disproportionate assets case, the Bihar Chief Minister has on several occasions indicated that he expected the latter to resign from the post.

The rift in the Bihar ruling grand alliance deepened when Lalu apparently rejected Nitish's demand, and said, "Tejashwi Yadav will not step down under any circumstances."

Earlier, speaking to ANI JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said that a situation has come where RJD has to take a decision keeping in mind their party's sentiments.

This came after Tejashwi skipped an official function on July 15 which he was supposed to attend with CM Nitish, triggering speculation that the festering acrimony between the JD(U) and the RJD had reached a flash point in the wake of a FIR being registered by the CBI against the deputy chief minister in the land-for-hotels case.

On Monday, Tejashwi dismissed questions about the growing chorus for his resignation as nothing but a 'media speculation'. He maintained that all is well as long as the alliance with JD(U) is concerned.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a corruption case against Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi; 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.
Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is likely to attend the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday evening here, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader said.

"Tejashwi Yadav will attend the cabinet meeting," legislator Lalit Yadav told the media. Three days ago, Tejashwi skipped an official function with Nitish Kumar in Patna.

This would be the second cabinet meeting after the crisis in the ruling Grand Alliance surfaced after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Tejashwi Yadav on charges of corruption.

Sources in the ruling alliance on Tuesday said that leaders from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the RJD and Congress were in constant touch and trying to save the alliance.

Bihar has been in the grip of a political crisis after the JD-U asked Tejashwi Yadav to rebut in detail the charges hurled at him.
Mumbai: Twitter users slammed Varun Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan and Karan Johar for taking a dig at Kangana Ranaut and chanting nepotism rocks at the recently concluded IIFA 2017 event in New York.

And Dhawan is probably apologetic about the same. He took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to post a tweet indirectly referring to an act that may have hurt or offended anyone.

Check out his tweet here:

I express my apology and regret .. I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act..  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) 18 July 2017

For the uninitiated, heres what had happened - Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about issue that started in Bollywood when Queen star Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a "flag-bearer of nepotism" on his chat show.

When Varun joined the two actors on the stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for Dishoom, Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father, director David Dhawan.

"You are here because of your papa," Saif quipped.

Varun said: "And you're here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore)."

Karan then promptly added: "I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar)."

They then said in unison: "Nepotism rocks".

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: Nine of the 21 public sector banks, including IDBI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, reported losses during 2016-17, the parliament was informed on Tuesday.

As many as 13 state-owned banks had reported losses during 2015-16 financial year.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said IDBI Bank had reported a loss of Rs 5,158 crore in the last fiscal, while the amount was Rs 3,417 crore in the case of Indian Overseas Bank.

Other loss making state-owned banks were Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank and UCO Bank.

The minister further said all the public sector banks are maintaining a positive balance in revenue reserves.

Revenue reserves, refers to undistributed revenue created for strengthening the financial position of a bank.

Replying to a question in relation to capitalisation of PSBs, Gangwar said the government under the Indradhanush Plan has earmarked Rs 70,000 crore for infusion in them between financial years 2016 and 2019.

"The government has already infused a sum of Rs 47,915 crore to PSBs during 2015-16 and 2016-17 based on quantitative analysis of growth and compliance levels," the minister said.
New Delhi: Telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday recommended 50 percent reduction in one-time entry fee paid for captive VSAT services to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 30 lakh at present.

The regulator also recommended removal of separate licence fee on companies interested in setting up second hub for captive VSAT services.

"The entry fee for captive VSAT licence may be reduced by 50 percent i.e. From Rs 30 lakh to Rs 15 lakh," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its recommendation on policy issues on captive VSAT services.

The Department of Telecom had sought the recommendations of Trai on minimum license fee in respect of second hub in captive VSAT CUG network and terms and conditions of captive VSAT CUG licence.

There are two types of closed user group (CUG) VSAT licences - Commercial CUG VSAT licence and Captive CUG VSAT licence.

A commercial VSAT service provider can offer the service on commercial basis to its subscribers by setting up a number of CUGs.

Captive CUG VSAT networks are mostly deployed by government, public, private companies for their internal communication.

VSAT network comprises a central VSAT hub and a number of smaller nodes located at various remote locations that provide end services such as internet, voice, fax, data, and video.

While the licence fee for captive VSAT for the first hub is charged at a flat rate of Rs 10,000 per terminal per year irrespective of terminals, the licence fee for the second hub is charged at the rate of Rs 16,000 per terminal per annum with a minimum licence fee of Rs 16 lakh per annum, which covers up to 100 VSAT terminals connected to the second hub.

If the number of VSATs exceeds 100 for the second hub, a additional amount of Rs 16,000 per annum per VSAT terminal is chargeable.

The regulator has recommended that government can continue charging licence fee for the first hub of captive VSAT as per current rule but it should do away with separate licence fee for the second hub.

It has recommended that same model of charging Rs 10,000 per terminal per year should be applied for second captive VSAT hub too.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved for August 1 its order on whether to put Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Yasin Bhatkal on trial in four separate terror cases.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma reserved its order after concluding the hearing of arguments on charges in the cases.

While two cases relate to the 2010 Jama Masjid attack, the two other are on the 2008 serial blasts.

Bhatkal, his aide Asadullah Akhtar and other IM operatives are facing trial in the terror cases.

Bhatkal was awarded the death penalty by a Special NIA Court in December last year in a case related to the 2013 Hyderabad bomb blasts, which had claimed 18 lives.
New Delhi: The Delhi university on Monday issued a notice mentioning a slew of measures to ensure a secured ragging-free campus for its 2017-18 academic session commencing from July 20.

In a meeting held recently, the university authority in collaboration with DTC, Delhi Metro and the Delhi police, discussed and formulated the preventive measures.

"The Delhi Metro has been requested to make announcements in trains and stations about the varsity being intolerant towards ragging," read the Delhi University release.

The university has also announced that no outsiders will be allowed inside the university campus. Defacing of walls using paint, poster or any other method is not allowed and the university has prohibited the display of sensitive posters and graffiti within campus, reported the Indian Express.

The traffic at sensitive locations near the campus will be regulated by the Delhi Police and the students have been advised to use public transport in order to prevent congestion.

Here is the list of measures undertaken by the Delhi University -

Anti-ragging

The sensitive areas within the university premises have been put under electronic surveillance. The university has planned to establish control rooms in North and South campus from July 20 to August 2 in order to maintain discipline during the induction process of the freshers. Anti-ragging and disciplinary committees will be formed in all colleges to prevent ragging. Also, they will display rules regarding the prohibition of ragging on campus.

Women security

The Delhi police is likely to deploy women police personnel in civil clothes to oversee indisciplinary incidents. All colleges under DU will get police picket points with a special assistance to women colleges. Specially trained women police personnel in martial arts will also be posted. The university has asked the students to check whether their PG accommodations are verified by the respective local police.

How to file a complaint -

- Drop a written complaint in your college complaint box.

- Call the National Anti-Ragging helpline number 1800 180 5522.

- Call the Joint Control Rooms (North Campus- 27667221; South Campus- 24119832).

- Call 100 or inform your nearest PCR van.

- Inform the University Information Centre. Numbers- 155215, 27006900 will be available from Monday to Friday or email at proctor@du.ac.in, infocentre@du.ac.in
By PTI: Bhopal, Jul 18 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh government today blamed drug peddlers and anti-social elements for the violence during the farmers stir in Mandsaur district, where five peasants were killed in police firing last month.

Speaking in the assembly, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Bhargava said those involved in peddling opium and its derivatives orchestrated the unrest.

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"The peddlers of opium and its derivatives orchestrated the violent unrest in Mandsaur district," he said.

Bhargava was replying to an adjournment motion brought in by Congress member Govind Singh and his colleagues on the plight of farmers on the second day of the monsoon session.

He said the people engaged in opium-related trade and some anti-social elements were responsible for the violent farmers stir following a crackdown on their illegal business.

To buttress his point, the minister said if the Madhya Pradesh farmers were indeed unhappy, why their stir didnt spread to eastern, central and southern parts of the state.

"Why did the violent incidents during the stir remain confined to Mandsaur (in western MP)?" he asked.

Mandsaur, about 320 km from the state capital, was once considered to be the opium hub of the nation.

Bhargava said 109 policemen were injured during the unrest in the western MP.

"No farmer can throw milk or vegetables on roads," he said, blaming drug peddlers and anti-social elements for such acts during the agitation.

Looking at the opposition benches, he said the politics should not be played over bodies.

"There are many issues to do politics over," the minister said.

Five farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur on June 6. Later, one more farmers died allegedly due to police excesses.

A judicial commission, headed by retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice J K Jain, is probing the Mandsaur police firing episode. PTI LAL MAS RSY RAX

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New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who has filed his nomination papers for the August 5 Vice Presidential election, will write letters and postcards to members of Parliament to canvass votes.

He will also send a video link to all members of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha with his message on the matter, an opposition leader involved in strategising for the election said on Tuesday.

"He will write letters to all MPs in both Hindi and English, explaining why he is contesting and appealing for votes. He will also mention his credentials," the leader said.

On August 4, a day before the election, he will meet all MPs in the Central Hall of Parliament House here.

Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O' Brien said Gopalkrishna Gandhi has the support of 360 MPs -- 125 in the Rajya Sabha and 235 in the Lok Sabha.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former West Bengal Governor, is pitted against National Democratic Alliance candidate and former Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

Last week, 18 opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, DMK, and the Left declared Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their candidate.
Poland: Britain`s Prince William and his wife Kate visited a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland on Tuesday where they heard the personal accounts of Holocaust survivors.

The royal couple toured Stutthof concentration camp, which was the first camp built in Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939. They visited the on-site museum, viewing exhibits depicting the living conditions at Stutthof, including a glass case holding thousands of pairs of shoes which belonged to former prisoners.

William, second in line to the throne, and Kate also spoke with several Holocaust survivors who shared stories of their time as prisoners at Stutthof. The couple then visited the camp`s Star of David Memorial.

Stuthoff was one of the last Nazi concentration camps to be liberated in 1945. More than 85,000 people died there.

The couple, who are accompanied on the trip by their children, Prince George, who turns four this month, and two-year-old Princess Charlotte, later attended a street party thrown in their honour in Gdansk Market Square, where they were offered traditional food and drink.

Thousands of residents and street performers lined the roads to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.

The couple were also to visit a museum in Gdansk commemorating the Solidarity movement which shook communist rule in the 1980s.

Their time in Poland is part of a four-day trip that will also include time in Germany. Poland had been one of Britain`s closest allies in calling for reform of the European Union ahead of the Brexit vote. There are around 900,000 Poles in the UK.

Prince William praised strong ties between Poland and Britain at a party Monday night.

On Wednesday, the royal family will travel to Berlin, where the two will have a private meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They will spend the rest of the week in Germany, with onward visits to Heidelberg and Hamburg.
New Delhi: Over 1,000 NGOs have been barred for misutilising foreign funds and 2,000 asked to validate their existing FCRA designated bank accounts, the Centre informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.



"Over 1,000 non-government organisations found to be misutilising foreign funds and violating various provisions of FCRA, 2010, and rules made thereunder, have been barred from operating their foreign contribution accounts," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply.



He said over 2,000 NGOs have been directed to validate their existing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) designated bank accounts and the list of these NGOs is available on www.fcraonline.nic.in.



As per the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules, 2011, all banks shall report any transaction in respect of receipt or utilisation of any foreign contribution by any person, whether or not such person is registered or granted prior permission under the Act, to the central government within 48 hours, he added.
New Delhi: With critics calling the linking of Aadhar with PAN, under Section 139 AA of the I-T Act, an attempt to dilute civilian liberties, the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to set up a nine-judge Constitution bench to decide whether privacy is a fundamental right.

According to ANI, the Supreme Court today referred the matter to a nine-judge Constitution Bench to determine whether linking of PAN card with Aadhar breaches an individual's privacy or not.

The matter will now come up for hearing in the apex court tomorrow.

The development comes days after the apex court briefly stayed the linking of Aadhar to PAN cards amid concerns over breach of privacy.

Responding to it, Centre had then emphatically assured the Supreme Court that biometrics of Aadhar cardholders were safe and had not fallen into other hands.

Through its order, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of an Income Tax Act provision making Aadhar mandatory for the allotment of permanent account number (PAN) cards and the filing of tax returns, but imposed a partial stay on its implementation until a constitution bench addresses the right to privacy issue.

A bench comprising justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also upheld the legislative competence of Parliament in enacting Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.
Washington: Amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Sikkim sector, a top former US diplomat has said that China needs to acknowledge that India is "a force to be reckoned with" and countries in the region are unsettled by Beijing's behaviour and unilateral actions.

"China, I think, needs to acknowledge the fact that there is growing strategic and security capability across Asia, and certainly India is a force to be reckoned with," former Indian-American Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI in an interview.

Biswal, who was Obama Administration's point person for South and Central Asia in its second term, said that there has been a fair degree of assertive actions and signals being sent from China across many different border points, maritime and land, across its geography.

"While I understand that sentiment within China, that I think seeks to try to assert China as a dominant player across the Asia-Pacific, I think China has to content with the fact that across its geography, throughout the Asia-Pacific region, countries are unsettled by its behaviour and by its unilateral actions," she said.

"China has more to gain through diplomacy and dialogue than it does through these kinds of actions, which create a great deal of unease and uncertainty," Biswal said responding to questions on India-China border stand-off.

Biswal said across Asia, nations are stepping forward to assert their interests and their rights.

"So now is an important time to create some greater codification of the rules and, to create more channels for dialogue and diplomacy to address some of these areas of tension and differences on how various boundary and maritime claims are resolved," she said.

She exuded confidence that the leaders of the two nations would be able to prevent further escalation of the situation.

"China is a very mature and calibrated power. It's not a rogue actor, in any sense of the word. And certainly I think that the Indian side has also acted with a great deal of resolve and a great deal of restraint," she said.

"While there are tensions afoot, I do believe that both countries have it within themselves to resolve those tensions, to defuse those tensions. It is in the interest of both countries, in their security interest and in their economic interest, to manage these tensions and to ensure that there are avenues for peaceful and amicable resolution," she added.

The US, she noted, certainly has a role to play in it by ensuring that the international rules are followed.

"Certainly, I think that the US, by standing firm on its commitment towards the rules-based international order and the importance of dialogue and dispute resolution, can signal its own strong preference for these kinds of mechanisms to de- escalate and to resolve differences," she said.

"The US has stood very firmly against the kinds of unilateral actions to settle disputed claims, which we have done very strongly with respect to maritime claims, and which we continue to stand behind with respect to land boundary claims," Biswal said.

"India has proven itself to be willing and be able to resolve issues through arbitration, through negotiation, through dialogue and diplomacy, and, we would hope and expect that China would show itself capable of doing the same," she said.

Implications, of any further escalation, are grave, she warned in response to a question.

"I think it's not useful to speculate on escalation. The implications are very grave. I think that as two very responsible military powers and nuclear powers, that both countries understand that. They understand the obligation that they have to manage tensions and to de-escalate, and we have a firm belief and expectation that they will do so," she said.
New Delhi: Amid simmering border tension over Dokalam in Sikkim, China's state-controlled media on Tuesday warned India to be prepared for an all-out confrontation along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary with the Communist country.

An article published in China's Global Times threatened to open up new fronts of conflict on the 3,488 km non-demarcated border between the two countries.

The article in the Global Times was published after Chinas military reportedly conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus amid the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Dokalam.

China isnt afraid to go to war with India and will be ready for a long-term confrontation, the Global Times piece said.

China had earlier said that there is no room for negotiations to resolve the military face-off and the only solution is the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Donglang or Doklam region.

India will face embarrassment if it does not withdraw its border troops to its own side and the situation could get worse, the official Xinhua news agency had earlier said.

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, the commentary said.

China has blamed India for the ongoing Donglang (Dokalam) impasse, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the region, which is also claimed by Bhutan.

Beijing wants India to withdraw its troops from Donglang before the two sides can open talks. New Delhi says the road, if built, will have serious security implications for India.

Meanwhile, an article in the Global Times had on Sunday stated that India is receiving a massive influx of foreign investments which will greatly enhance its ability to develop the manufacturing sector and China should keep calm and start working on a more effective growth strategy for the new era.

This massive influx of investment by foreign manufacturers is of great significance for Indias economy, employment and industrial development, the article said.

China should be calm seeing Indias rise. To cope with competition from India, China could start working on a more effective growth strategy for the new era now, it said.
Beijing: India should not use "trespass" into the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector as a "policy tool" to achieve its "political targets", China said on Tuesday, asking New Delhi to immediately withdraw its troops to avoid any escalation.

The Foreign Ministry also said it was in "close communication" with foreign missions in Beijing on the stand-off with India, but refused to confirm whether it held a special briefing for them on the issue.

"Since the illegal trespass by Indian border personnel, many foreign diplomats in China felt shocked about this and (wanted) to confirm whether it was true," the ministry's spokesman Lu Kang said when asked about the reported briefing.

"The Chinese side maintains close communication with the foreign diplomatic missions on the issues they are interested," Kang told reporters.

China reportedly held a "closed-door briefing" last week and conveyed their side of the story on the stand-off near the Bhutan trijunction.

The stand-off between Indian and Chinese armies have continued for a month over the construction of a road by China near the trijunction.

India has expressed concern over the road construction near the trijunction, fearing it may allow Chinese troops to cut India's access to its north-eastern states.

It has conveyed to China that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.

Asked if China stated in the reported meeting that its patience was withering, Lu said Beijing stressed that the "facts are very clear in this incident".

He said the Sikkim section of the India-China boundary is mutually recognised by the two sides.

"This time Indian border personnel illegally trespassed the boundary into the Chinese territory," he said.

"We stress that the Indian side should not take the trespass as a policy tool to reach or realise their political targets," he said.

To another question whether Beijing has stated that patience was running out over the issue, he said: "We have reiterated our position on the illegal trespass by the Indian side."

"You must be very clear about it. We hope the Indian side can get clear understanding of the current situation and take immediate measures to withdraw the personnel who have illegally crossed the boundary so as to avoid the escalation," he said.

Earlier an Op-ed in a Chinese state-run daily said that if India "stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC (Line of Actual Control)."

"China doesn't advocate and tries hard to avoid a military clash with India, but China doesn't fear going to war to safeguard sovereignty either, and will make itself ready for a long-term confrontation, said The Global Times.
Lucknow: Yogi Adityanth-led Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday clarified that the suspicious white powder, which was found inside Vidhan Sabha was not sent to Agra forensic laboratory.

The Principle Secretary of UP Home Department issued a statement which reads,"No sample has been sent to FSL Agra of the substance as they do not have the machines/wherewithal to conduct the requisite test. Reports have been carried in some sections of media that in tests conducted at FSL Agra the substance detected in UP Assembly hall is not PETN. The factual position is that SFSL Lucknow in its report dated 14.7.2017 has found the substance as 1-water insoluble, 2-that different reagents confirm the presence of a nitrate, and 3-that the preliminary test conducted using explosive detection kit is positive for PETN."

''Two confirmatory tests are being conducted at SFSL Lucknow namely, Infrared Spectrum and Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrum, the report of which is still awaited and is likely to come by Thursday,'' the statement further reads.

Earlier in the day, a report in leading channel CNN-News 18 has said that the Agra-based forensic laboratory found no traces of any explosive in the substance and it might not have been the deadly explosive PETN.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while speaking in Assembly on July 12 had confirmed that the white powder found inside Vidhan Sabha was an explosive, by the name of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

He had also demanded National Investigative Agency (NIA) probe into the matter. "I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," the CM had said.
A Mumbai-based senior IAS officer's son was found dead near Dariya Mahal building on Nepean Sea Road in south Mumbai today morning.

By Saurabh Vaktania: A senior IAS officer's son was found dead near Dariya Mahal building on Nepean Sea Road in south Mumbai today morning.

The deceased has been identified as 22-year-old Manmath Mhaiskar, the son of vice president and CEO of MHADA Milind Mhaiskar and Manish Mhaiskar, principal secretary of Urban Development Department.

Manmath was the only child of the couple. The incident took place today morning between 7 am and 8 am. Manmath, a student, stayed with his family at Marine Lines. He left his home saying that he was going to meet a friend.

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He later went to Dariya Mahal building, Napean Sea Road area. He was found dead near the 22-storey building.

At around 7.30 am, the Malabar Hill police received a call from a person who told them that he saw someone lying in front of a highrise building, the official said.

The police rushed to the spot and found the boy lying in a pool of blood, he said.

Manmath was rushed to JJ hospital where he was declared dead. Post mortem revealed that the youth suffered serious injuries on his head.

The Mumbai Police is currently questioning two his friends in connection with the untimely death. Primary investigations suggest it to be a case of suicide.

Also Read:

Former MD of Tata Finance Dilip Pendse commits suicide

Kerala farmer commits suicide, government initiates probe

Four months of Captain's government: 129 farmers commit suicide in 120 days

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New Delhi: The Centre has asked state governments to compulsorily register FIRs in all "untoward incidents" happening in the name of cow protection, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said the responsibility to maintain law and order, protect life and property and incidents of attacks on cattle traders, beef eaters, Muslims, Dalits and dairy farmers rests primarily with the state governments.

An advisory with regard to untoward incidents over cattle, disturbance of law and order by miscreants in the name of cow protection, compulsory registration of an FIR for cognisable offences irrespective of territorial jurisdiction, and making available a copy of the FIR has been issued to states/UTs, he said replying to a written question.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday sought to put the onus for checking cow vigilantism on state governments, insisting that they take "stringent action against anti-social elements".

The prime minister also sought the support of opposition parties in tackling "communal violence" in the name of cow protection, and deprecated attempts at giving a political or communal colour to the issue.
New Delhi: Opposition`s vice-presidential nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday said he has accepted the request with a sense of gratitude and responsibility.Gopalkrishna said a total of 18 opposition parties asked him to be their presidential candidate.

"The Opposition in India is a very large entity. There are opposition parties at the Centre and states who hold different perspectives. But a large number, precisely 18, have asked me to be their candidate in the Vice-Presidential election. I have accepted their invitation with a sense of gratitude and a sense of responsibility," Gopalkrishna told media.

Vice Presidential candidates M. Venkaiah Naidu, representing the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, will be today filing their nominations for the post.Naidu signed his resignation papers yesterday.

The Opposition named Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former governor, as their vice presidential candidate, last week, while Venkaiah Naidu was named as NDA`s candidate yesterday evening.

The last date for making nominations for the August 5 Vice-Presidential elections is ending today, as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.

Counting for Vice Presidential elections will take place on August 5.The term of Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is also ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, ends on August 10.
New Delhi: Months ahead of 2018 Assembly Election, Congress-led Karnataka government has set up a nine member committee to design a state flag, says report. If this move come into being then Karnataka will be the second state in country to officially have a flag of its own after Jammu & Kashmir, which enjoys a special status under Article 370 of the Constitution. The committee will submit its report on giving the state flag identity a legal sanctity.

As per the reports of TOI, the committee was appointed after Siddaramaiah government issued an order on June 6, which nominated the principal secretary of the Kannada and culture department as chairperson of the committee.

However in 2012, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power, it had clarified Karnataka HC that it had not accepted the suggestions to declare yellow and red Kannada flag as the official flag of the State, saying, a separate flag would be against the unity and integrity of the country.

Terming the move against the integrity of India, Shoba Karandlaje, BJP MP from Karnataka said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has always fought for one nation, one flag. "Asking for a flag is totally wrong, we dont support this. Kashmir also should not have such a flag. What Siddaramaiah is doing is against the nation, "CNN-News 18 quoted Karnadlaje as saying.

On the other hand, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, defended the demand for a separate flag for the state, asking if there is any provision in the Constitution that prohibits the state from having its own flag. "Is there any provision in the Constitution which is prohibiting a state to have its own flag? Did BJP people come across any provision?" Siddaramaiah said. Responding to allegations that it a political gimmick by the Congress, Siddaramaiah said BJP always makes such false allegations.
New Delhi: BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday quit the Rajya Sabha, blaming the BJP and the Chair for not allowing her to raise the issue of anti-Dalit violence in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati has given a three-page resignation letter to Ansari which officials say may not be accepted because members quitting Parliament are expected to submit their resignation in a simple format and without conditions.

Hours before she met Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari to tender her resignation, an angry Mayawati (61) walked out of the Upper House and threatening to quit Parliament after the Chair asked her to restrict her speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur.

"I met the chairman to hand over my resignation letter. It is not fair that I am not allowed to speak in the House on issues close to me...," she told reporters.

In her resignation letter, she said, "When I got up to speak, the government side did not allow me to complete. Their members stood up and interfered... Instead of asking them not to interfere, the Deputy Chairman asked me to end as the allocated three minutes were over. Which rule says a member cannot speak for more than three minutes. It is not good."

#BSP Chief #Mayawati resigns from Rajya Sabha, saying she was prevented from speaking on atrocities on Dalits in Saharanpur #UttarPradesh. pic.twitter.com/6rW4djrOKY  Bahujan Samaj Party (@BspUp2017) July 18, 2017

Earlier, she had demanded a discussion over the issue of violence against Dalits but Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien told her she had already made her demand for a full discussion and should let the House conduct its business.



Launching a scathing attack against the BJP government in UP and Modi-led central government, she said that both were "mute spectators" to the violence against Dalits in Saharanpur in May when their houses were torched and 15 Dalits injured.



She said that BSP leaders were not even allowed to visit the affected families.



As Kurien sought to stop Mayawati, she said, "If I am not allowed to talk, if I cannot represent the section of the society I belong to, if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities on Dalits, then there is no point in staying in the House. I will resign," as per IANS.



The veteran politician then walked out in anger.

Mayawati's resignation a 'drama' to create confusion: BJP

Meanwhile, the BJP today slammed BSP supremo's resignation from the Rajya Sabha, calling the move a "drama" aimed at "creating confusion" by raising an emotional pitch.

BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav said the people will not be misled by her.

Talking to reporters, he stated that Mayawati had lost the mandate among the masses and her six-year tenure in the Upper House would have anyway ended in the next session of Parliament, while suggesting that her action was driven more by "frustration", as per PTI.

He said the Dalit leader was given twice the allotted time to raise her issue in the House and it was "unfortunate" that she did not give due respect to the Chair.

She did not follow the Parliamentary decorum while raising issues, Yadav, a Rajya Sabha member, said.

It was surprising that she chose to resign, he said.

"So the question is why did she do so? She has lost people's mandate. She is likely to be in frustration. Her tenure is anyway going to end in the next session.

"Some people are resorting to emotional pitch in politics by doing drama so as to create confusion. People will not be misled," he said.

The Modi government, Yadav said, had been working overtime to empower Dalits, backwards and the poor.

The BSP has five more members in the Rajya Sabha. Mayawati, 61, lost power in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 and her party was routed in this year's Assembly elections, winning 19 seats in the 402-member House.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Upset with Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, for asking her to restrict her impromptu speech on anti-Dalit violence in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said she will quit from the Upper House.

"I will resign from Rajya Sabha today," Mayawati said, while walking out of the Upper House.

Mayawati's reaction came after Kurien asked her to wrap up her speech as she had exceeded the three minutes given to her to make her submission.

Visibly anguished Mayawati argued with Kurien saying how can she be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this."

"I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits," she said.

After walking out of the House, the BSP supremo briefed the media. She said: "I have come to this House to be the voice of the Dalits and backwards -- to raise their issues. But when I am not allowed to speak then why should I stay here."

"That's why I have decided to resign as a Rajya Sabha member today (Tuesday)," Mayawati added.

Kurien said she can only call for a discussion after giving a notice under rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue and not make a speech to initiate a discussion.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.
New Delhi: A combined Opposition on Tuesday chalked out a strategy to aggressively corner the BJP-led NDA government during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.



On the first working day of the session, leaders from Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Left Front and other opposition parties met in the chamber of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.



Informed sources said the parties reached an agreement on six issues and decided to raise them aggressively in both the Houses by various notices including adjournment motions and debates.



Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien told reporters the issues include the India-China border stand-off, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of terror attack on Amarnath yatris, atrocities against weaker sections in view of mob lynching, hasty implementation of GST in view of job creation and negative impact of demonetisation, farmers' plight in view of recent suicides and misuse of central agencies to target political opponents.



The opposition parties would meet every day before the start of the proceedings to decide which issues will raised on the specific day.



On stand-off with China in Sikkim sector, the opposition parties would demand the National Democratic Alliance government make a statement.


New Delhi: Fireworks are expected on Tuesday - the second day of Parliament's ongoing Monsoon Session  as the Congress led Opposition is set to corner the ruling BJP dispensation over farmers' plight, lynching incident, Kashmir unrest among other issues.

Meanwhile, Congress has given adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha on the issue of farmers' plight.

Opposition leaders are also due to meet in Parliament to chalk out a strategy to counter the ruling BJP.

The BJP is expected to raise the issue of Karnataka's whistle-blower police officer D Roopa's transfer after she exposed special treatment extended to AIADMK leader VK Sasikala at a Bengaluru prison.

On Monday, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day after making obituary references to the Amarnath terror attack victims and the leaders who passed away recently.

Apart from this, on the first day of session, Farooq Abdullah and P Kunhalikutty were are sworn-in as Members of Parliament.
New Delhi: Days after suspicious white powder was found inside Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, an Agra-based forensic laboratory has said that it has found no traces of any explosive in the substance. Reports in leading channel said that the powder might not have been the deadly explosive PETN, as it was claimed earlier.

Earlier on Saturday, the sample of the white powder was picked up from the main hall of Vidhan Sabha and was sent to the laboratory but it could not be tested than as the staff had left. However on Monday, few experts conduct gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GS-MS) test on the substance in which it was proved that the white powder has no traces of PETN.

The Lucknow lab had earlier claimed that the powder recovered from the Vidhan Sabha was plastic explosive PETN. However, the test report from Hyderabad Forensic Lab is still awaited.

A couple of days ago, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while speaking in Assembly had confirmed that the white powder found inside Vishan Sabha was an explosive, by the name of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). He had also demanded National Investigative Agency (NIA) probe into the matter. "I suggest that everybody present in the Assembly should be investigated by the police and that the NIA should investigate into the matter," the CM had said.

On the other hand, the Uttar Pradsh Police had also arrested a youth named Farhan Ahmad in the case. He had threatened to blow up the Vidhan Sabha on August 15, 2017 by calling Additional Director General (ADG) AK Prasad on July 6, 2017.
The directive comes following the dismissal of the writ petition filed by Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu on July 14 in Kohima Bench of Guwahati High Court vide Judgment and Order dated July 18 as well as vacation of the earlier interim order passed by the same Court on July 14, 2017.

By Manogya Loiwal : The Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya has directed Speaker of Nagaland Legislative Assembly to summon an emergency Special Session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on July 19 at 9:30 am to test the majority support of the present cabinet led by Chief Minister Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu.

This directive comes following the dismissal of the writ petition filed by Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu on July 14 in Kohima Bench of Guwahati High Court vide Judgment and Order dated July 18 as well as vacation of the earlier interim order passed by the same Court on July 14, 2017.

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Liezietsu had challenged Acharya's decision asking him to obtain vote of confidence in the assembly before July 15 saying that it was "unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution".

The court was of the considered opinion that the Governor had taken the right decision to ask Liezietsu to have a vote of confidence in the assembly to see which out of the two contesting claimants (Liezietsu and Zeliang) to chief ministership has a majority in the House.

The court further stated that there was no merit in the writ petition filed by Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu and the same was accordingly dismissed.

The Court also rejected Liezietsu's plea for sufficient time to obtain the vote of confidence on the floor of the House after the bye-election to be held on July 29, in which he is the party candidate.

Earlier the Governor had requested the Chief Minister to prove his majority support on the floor of the Assembly on or before July 15.

There were series of allegations against Shurhozelie for appointing his son in the cabinet and also ignoring the discrepancies in the government.

TR Zeliang, former Chief Minister of the state claims that he has the support of more than 40 MLA out of 60 in the state and will prove his majority in the state too on any desired day.

Also read: Nagaland to get new Chief Minister, Shurhozelie Liezietsu to be sworn-in soon

Also read: TR Zeliang steps down as Nagaland chief minister

Also read: Nagaland women shocked by protests against reservation for them in local body election

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: In a fratricidal fire, an Army major of Rashtriya Rifles was shot dead allegedly by a jawan in Uri sector, after dispute took place over using cellphone on duty at a post near Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the reports, Major Shikhar Thapa of 71 Armed Regiment had rebuked Army jawan for using cellphone on duty in a sensitive area and had warned him about his act.

Meanwhile, the jawan left his cool when the phone was damaged, who then fired five bullets at Major Thapa from behind, says report.

#FLASH J&K: Army officer of Rashtriya Rifles shot dead by a jawan in Uri sector; more details awaited  ANI (@ANI_news) July 18, 2017

The army is expected to come out with a statement later in the day.

(More details awaited)
Beijing: The well-preserved remains of a mummified Buddhist monk from India who migrated to China have been donated by a Chinese temple to the local government in northern Hebei Province, a state-run media reported on Tuesday.

The remains are said to belong to Buddhist master Cixian Sanzang in the Khitan Empire or Liao Dynasty (916 - 1125).

"Underneath the gold foil and incense ashes of the statue, teeth from the upper jaw, as well as the ribs and the spine were well preserved, including even the joints," Wu Yongqing, a senior orthopedic doctor with the No. 1 People's Hospital of Wuan city said.

The remains were donated by Dinghui Temple in Huoshui town to Wuan's cultural relics protection institute.

Master Cixian Sanzang was from India and went to Khitan, translating many important sutras. After he passed away, his body was kept in soil and paint, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Wang Wei, head of the Wuan city's cultural relics protection institute, the remains are quite precious.

"Due to the poor conditions for preservation at the institute, they will be kept in the temple at the moment," he said.
New Delhi: Union textile minister Smriti Irani was on Tuesday given the additional charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting while Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh was handed over the charge of Urban Development.

The rejig took place after senior party leader and NDA vice presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu resigned from his ministerial responsibilities on Monday.

The Office of Prime Minister of India confirmed the report and tweeted, "Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu has resigned from his ministerial responsibilities. Additional charge of @Moud_India has been given to Shri @nstomar."

"The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to @smritiirani," it added.

The additional charge of the Ministry of I&B has been given to @smritiirani.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 18, 2017

Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu has resigned from his ministerial responsibilities. Additional charge of @Moud_India has been given to Shri @nstomar.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 18, 2017

Also Read: NDA's Vice President nominee Venkaiah Naidu resigns as Union minister



Earlier in the day, Naidu met veteran BJP leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani before he arrived in the Parliament House to file his nomination for the vice-presidential election.
New Delhi: Hitting out at Pakistan yet again, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is an integral part of India and that we will give a medical emergency visa to 24-year-old resident Osama Ali.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Sushma wrote,"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required."

POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required. https://t.co/cErxQw7Cht  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 18, 2017

24-year-old Osama Ali, a resident of Rawalkot in PoK, has been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and had sought treatment in Delhi.

As per the reports of Indian Express, Osama has been accepted as a patient by a private hospital in Delhi's Saket area. Doctors at the hospital have told him he needs a liver transplant.

He has been unable to travel to New Delhi because Pakistan Prime Minister Nawz Sharif's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has not written a letter of request to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for grant of a medical emergency visa.

On July 10, Swaraj had reiterated the need for a letter by Aziz and expressed dismay over the lack of courtesy shown by her Pakistani counterpart, who she said had not even acknowledged her personal letter requesting for a Pakistani visa for Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother.

However, she assured Aziz that any Pakistani national seeking a medical visa to travel to India with his recommendation would be given one immediately.

(With inputs from agencies)
London: Britain's first woman Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill has been elected to an influential cross-party panel in the UK Parliament that examines the workings of the Home Office.

Gill, who won the Edgbaston seat for the Labour party in the June 8 snap general election, was elected to the Home Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament.

"We had no Sikh MPs prior to this election. So, Sikhs had no representation, and we had no female Sikh representation. Parliament must reflect the people it serves, said the 44- year-old, who will join 10 other British MPs on the committee.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee was chaired by Keith Vaz, Britain's longest-serving Indian-origin MP, until he stepped down from the post last year.

Its newly-elected chair is Labour party MP Yvette Cooper, elected unopposed to the post last week.

The Committee chooses its own subjects of inquiry and seeks written and oral evidence from a wide range of relevant groups and individuals.

At the end of an inquiry, the committee often produces a report setting out its findings and making recommendations to the UK government.

It is incumbent upon the government to respond to each of the report?s recommendations within two months of publication.

Gill has also been chosen to lead the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs.

"The APPG has made an excellent start this week...We are confident Preet will make an excellent chair to guide the APPG to make concrete progress on some of the key issues of importance to the Sikh community," said Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of Sikh Federation (UK).

Meanwhile, a veteran Indian-origin Labour MP, Virendra Sharma, was re-elected chair of the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

The 70-year-old, who has been the Chair of the group for seven years and prides himself as the only first-generation member of the Indian Diaspora in the House of Commons, was unanimously re-elected by the cross-party meeting of members of both Houses of Parliament this week.

The group, of which fellow Indian-origin Labour MP Seema Malhotra was elected vice-chair, works to promote understanding and co-operation between the people and parliamentarians of India and Britain.

"The Brexit negotiation period will be a challenging time for the United Kingdom and I want to do everything I can to encourage further trade and investment opportunities between the UK and India," said Sharma, the MP for Ealing Southall.

Earlier this year, he had led an international cross party delegation of parliamentarians to Agra and Delhi, where the group met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
New Delhi: Veteran BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, who was on July 17 nominated as the NDA vice-presidential candidate, formally resigned as the Urban Development Minister on Tuesday.

In a series of tweets, Naidu also acknowledged the support he was receiving from various political parties after his nomination as NDA's vice-presidential candidate.

Accompanied by senior BJP leaders, including PM Narendra Modi and MM Joshi, Naidu today filed his nomination paper in the Parliament House.

Naidu will now clash with opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the August 5 election.

He was in-charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and Housing and Urban Affairs.

During a meeting yesterday, the BJP Parliamentary board chose him as the NDA candidate against Opposition-backed Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Although Naidu was not required to resign technically, he has tendered his resignation to set high political standards as he has entered the electoral fray (for vice presidential position) the agency quoted a source as saying.

During the BJP Parliamentary board meet, his name was proposed by Union Minister JP Nadda.

After the meeting, BJP president Amit Shah officially announced the decision.

He added, "He has been associated with the BJP since childhood and has been in public life for over 25 years and belongs to a farmer's family."

"All the NDA allies have welcomed his candidate. He is one of the tallest and one of the most experienced leaders across party lines. He will file his nomination tomorrow," Shah further said.

Announcing his name, Shah said that he will file his nomination on Tuesday.

Before his name was announced, there were reports that the party was likely to pick a candidate from a region where it has been weak traditionally in order to send a positive message.

On his part, PM Modi said, "I know M Venkaiah Naidu Garu for years. Have always admired his hard work and tenacity. A fitting candidate for the office of Vice President."

He also tweeted, "A farmers son, Venkaiah Naidu Garu brings years of experience in public life and is admired across the political spectrum."

PM Modi further wrote, "The years of Parliamentary experience Venkaiah Naidu Garu has will help him discharge the important role of Rajya Sabha Chairperson."

An alliance of 18 Opposition parties, including the Congress, has already announced Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi as its candidate for Vice Presidential poll scheduled for August 5.

July 18 is the last date for filing of nominations.

The electoral college for the August 5 election consists of 790 MPs of the two chambers of Parliament.

The term of Vice President Hamid Ansari ends on August 10.
Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam has announced support of the AIADMK faction led by him for National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Vice Presidential candidate M.Venkaiah Naidu. In a statement issued late Monday, the Panneerselvam faction said Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought their support for Naidu in the August 5 election.



On his part, Panneerselvam assured his faction's support to Naidu. The three warring factions in the ruling AIADMK had supported NDA's Presidential election candidate Ram Nath Kovind.



Voting for electing the 14th President of India was held on Monday. The government has said Modi had thanked Chief Minister K.Palaniswami for the support extended to Kovind and also sought his support for Naidu. Palaniswami wished Naidu over phone.

Earlier in the day, Venkaiah Naidu, had submitted his resignation from the post of Urban Development Minister. Naidu is the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting in the Modi administration. A prominent leader of the BJP, he has also served as its national president from 2002 to 2004
New Delhi: The Monsoon session of Parliament had a stormy start, with the opposition forcing a washout on Tuesday by creating pandemonium over various issues and an angry BSP chief Mayawati declaring that she would resign from the Rajya Sabha for not being allowed to speak on the Dalit issue.

Members from parties like the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties and the RJD created uproar in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as soon as the Houses met for the day.

Due to the ruckus, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day minutes after noon following one adjournment earlier while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned repeatedly till 3 pm and then for the day, without transacting any business.

Though the Monsoon session began yesterday, today was the first working day as yesterday, both the Houses were adjourned, without transacting any business, after obituary references to the department MPs.

Today, the opposition members wanted to raise issues like "atrocities" against dalits, violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers.

In the Rajya Sabha, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Mayawati raised the issue of violence against Dalits against the backdrop of riots in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh sometime back.

While she was speaking, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked her to wrap up as she had exceeded the three-minute duration set for each member during the Zero Hour.

At this, Mayawati got angry and asked how she could be prevented from raising the issue about her 'samaj' (community) and the Dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this," she said.

In anger, she went on to add, "I will resign from Rajya Sabha today... I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits."

By the evening, the BSP chief sent in her resignation to the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

Mayawati's term in the Upper House was till April next year.

Kurien asked her not to make a full-fledged speech and she can seek a discussion after giving a notice under Rule 267 that seeks an adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advice of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree, saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challenging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well, shouting slogans against the government.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government, at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session, had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.

"Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that," he said.

He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the people's mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

"You didn't get a mandate to massacre minorities and Dalits," he said, before leading a walkout by the Congress.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well, shouting anti-government slogans.

Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to have a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no solution. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administration's order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap, however, took out a procession on May 5, she said.

Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.

No sooner that the House reassembled at noon, slogan shouting Congress members trooped into the Well. They were followed by the members of Trinamool Congress and others.

Amid slogan shouting by members of Congress and other parties, Chairman Hamid Ansari called for taking up the Question Hour.

TMC member Derek O'Brien tried to speak but could not be heard amidst the noisy scenes.

Some members of the AIADMK too rushed into the Well as other opposition party members were on their feet.

The continued sloganeering forced the Chairman to adjourn the House till 1400 hrs.

Similar scenes were witnessed when the House re-assembled at 1400 hours, leading to its adjournment till 1500 hours.

As the protests continued, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar challenged the opposition members to a discussion, asking why they were running away from it.

However, as the uproar continued, the House was adjourned till tomorrow.

In the Lok Sabha, the opposition wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues.

Being disallowed, members of the Congress, RJD, TMC and the Left, among others, then trooped into Well. Many were shouting slogans and also displaying placards.

The House was first adjourned after 15 minutes into Question Hour till noon as the bedlam continued.

As the House re-assembled after the adjournment during Question Hour, the opposition members again trooped into the Well raising anti-government slogans.

In the din, as many as three bills, including the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, were introduced. Besides, reports of various parliamentary committees were tabled before Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the proceedings for the day.

One of the opposition placards read, "Gau mata toh bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (Cow protection is a tool to divert attention from farm loan waiver)".

"Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya (Vijay Mallya was allowed to leave, while farmers were made to cry)," read another placard.

BJP members from Karnataka were also seen holding placards and standing at their benches asking the state government to protect honest officers.

They were referring to the recent transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had reportedly exposed that AIADMK leader Sasikala Natrajan was provided special facilities and services inside a prison.
Srinagar: Former Qazigund sarpanch Nazir Ahmad Shah was injured in firing by terrorists here in Panzath village. The incident took place on Monday night. His condition is said to be stable.

Earlier on Monday, an Army personnel was injured in a ceasefire violation carried out by Pakistan in the Uri Sector.

The Indian Army had also confirmed the death of a soldier during ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in Jammu's Bhimber Gali Sector. The deceased soldier was identified as Naik Muddasar Ahmed.

In the fire exchange, Ahmed was grievously injured when mortar shells landed on his bunker. He was evacuated to the MI room where he succumbed to his injuries.

On July 12, two soldiers were killed after Pakistan violated ceasefire in Kupwara Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

On July 9, the Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector along the LoC.

(With Agency inputs)
Srinagar: The Pakistan Army on Tuesday resorted to shelling and firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Bhimbher Gali sector and Poonch.

Giving a befitting reply the Indian Army retaliated with full vigour. The firing from across the border started at 6:45 am.

The exchange of fire is still going on.

An Army jawan and a minor girl were on Monday killed while four persons injured in heavy firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistan Army along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts.

The latest ceasefire violation incident came a day after an Army jawan and a minor girl were on Monday killed while four persons injured in heavy firing and mortar shelling by the Pakistan Army along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch, Rajouri and Baramulla districts.

As the border tension raged, the Directors General of Military Operation (DGMO) of India and Pakistan spoke over the hotline. The DGMOs usually speak on Tuesdays but Monday's was an unscheduled conversation on Pakistan's request.

The DGMO noted that firing by Indian troops was initiated against armed intruders trying to sneak into India "from close proximity of Pakistan posts".
Now, Modi has a not-so-easy task to perform: fill more vacancies and ensure that the ministries deliver on the promises while men of impeccable integrity drive them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi now has one more reason to rejig his Council of Ministers. M Venkaiah Naidu, chosen as the NDA's nominee for the post of Vice-President on Monday night, resigned from the Cabinet, leaving two of his portfolios - Urban Development, and Information and Broadcasting - as ministries without a senior minister.

Given the composition of the current electoral college for vice-presidential polls, it is certain that Naidu will move to the 6, Maulana Azad Road residence of the Vice-President, and the Prime Minister would have to decide who steps in Naidu's shoes.

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While Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has been given additional charge of the Information and Broadcast Ministry, Rural Development Minister NS Tomar has been asked to look after the Urban Development Ministry till a full-time replacement is found.

But both the ministries Naidu looked after are critical. An active Prime Minister, who wants information about his government's policies and initiatives to reach the maximum number of people, can't work too long with a part-time Information and Broadcasting Minister, even if it is currently being held by Irani, one of Modi's trusted ministers.

The Urban Development Ministry, on the other hand, is the nodal body for PM Modi's pet and ambitious Smart City project. A full-time minister is needed to get this delivered on the ground since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are less than two years away.

Other Part-Time Modi Ministers

Similarly, Finance Minister and part-time Defence Minister Arun Jaitley is stretched due to the pressures of a heavy economic agenda, including the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the FDI, and privatisation of loss-making public sector entities like the Air India, and chalking out a roadmap for India's economic revival.

In March this year, Manohar Parikar moved from the Defence Ministry to take over as Goa Chief Minister. The ministry was placed in the hands of Jaitley.

Later, in May this year, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away. His portfolio was added to the charge of Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.

The Defence portfolio is hot currently, and has been so for some time. The border situation with Pakistan and China have been volatile, especially with the Indian Army taking off its gloves and striking harder than ever against Pakistani provocations. The constant incursions by Chinese troops and the Doklam standoff have created a thick icy layer of tension which need diplomatic healing, and strategic and defence-oriented dealing.

The Environment Ministry, since the movement of Prakash Javadekar to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, awaits a full-time minister. As need for infrastructure spending and investments rises to revive the economy, environmental concerns are being raised. Absence of a full-time minister exposes the government to charges of reducing the status of the ministry to a mere 'clearance table'.

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Prime Minister Modi first expanded his Cabinet in November 2014 when he inducted 21 new faces, including Parrikar as Defence Minister. In July last year, Modi undertook another reshuffle, in which he appointed Javadekar as the HRD Minister, replacing Irani, who was shifted to Textiles.

Now, Modi has a not-so-easy task to perform: fill more vacancies and ensure that the ministries deliver on the promises while men of impeccable integrity drive them. No one is ready to hazard a guess as to when Modi will fill these vacancies or shuffle his Council of Ministers.

Amit Shah Also Has Vacancies

BJP president Amit Shah too has to decide on some bread-and-butter issues. Yogi Adityanath, the Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, took over as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, while Keshav Maurya, MP from Phoolpur, was made his deputy. Since their votes were needed for the presidential polls, both were asked not to resign from Lok Sabha.

Now that the presidential vote is done, both the leaders have to resign and get elected to either of the two houses in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. They will need two safe seats. Plus the BJP needs to find candidates for the bypolls.

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Post the BJP's emphatic win in Uttar Pradesh, the routed Opposition is expected to unite while fielding its candidate. If the rivals get together, the BJP's task in the prestige battle would be tougher. Who the BJP picks and the outcome of the by polls will be perceived as the index of the popularity of both Modi and Yogi.

Also Read:

Before Ram Nath Kovind vs Meira Kumar, a look at biggest, closest victory margins in presidential elections

5 reasons why Venkaiah Naidu is BJP candidate for vice-presidential elections

Like it or not, Ram Nath Kovind is all set to be your next President

Also Watch: When India Today asked Venkaiah Naidu on vice-presidential aspirations: I'm Ushapati, husband of Usha

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Srinagar: An Army jawan was on Tuesday killed as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire by resorting to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, officials said.

The Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on the forward positions along the LoC in Naugam sector, killing the Indian soldier, an Army official said.

He said troops guarding the LoC fired in retaliation to silence the Pakistani guns and an exchange of firing between the two sides was continuing when the last reports were received.

It was not immediately known of the Pakistani side suffered any retaliatory action, the official said.

This was the third major ceasefire violation by Pakistan in north Kashmir during the past week.

On July 12, two soldiers - Lance Naik Ranjit Singh and Rifleman Satish Bhagat - were killed when they were targetted by Pakistani troops while manning forward posts in Keran sector of Kupwara district.

Another jawan was injured when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Kamalkote area of Uri sector in Baramulla district yesterday.

There were several ceasefire violations by the Pakistan army during the day. Civilian areas and Indian positions along the LOC were targetted by the Pakistani Army which fired mortar shells in various sectors in the Rajouri and Poonch districts, prompting the Indian Army to retaliate.

India had yesterday told Pakistan that it reserves the right to retaliate appropriately against any incident of ceasefire violation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Srinagar: The three terrorists, who were on Monday night eliminated by the security forces in an encounter at Anantnag district in south Kashmir, were involved in July 10 Amarnath terror attack, in which seven pilgrims from Gujarat were killed.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Col Aditya Sahai said, "According to police records, the three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists killed in Wani Hama encounter were involved in Amarnath attack."

Refusing to divulge further, the Army officer said the police will be able to ascertain the matter better.

The encounter broke out at around 8 pm on Monday at Wanihama village of Anantnag, following an anti-militancy operation launched by the security forces.

Terrorists had killed seven Amarnath pilgrims from Gujarat, including six women, and injured 32 others as they struck at a bus in Kashmir's Anantnag district on July 10.
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday said six persons were killed and as many were injured in the police action during the farmers' stir in Mandsaur district, as it blamed drug peddlers and anti-social elements for triggering violence.

The state government had on June 8 conveyed to the Centre that five farmers were killed in Mandsaur in police firing on June 6. However, one more farmer had died later, with his kin accusing the police of assaulting him.

"Six persons were killed and as many others were injured in the police action, including firing, to check unruly protesters during the farmers' unrest in Mandsaur," Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told the Legislative Assembly here.

He was replying to an adjournment motion on the second day of the monsoon session.

Describing the unfolding of the events on June 6, Singh said, "Besides blocking a highway, the protesters had also damaged and torched vehicles. They were pelting the police with stones, which forced the police to fire in self-defence at Pipaliya Mandi in Mandsaur district."

He said the police had used the total of 895 tear gas shells to quell the protests.

According to Singh, as many as 109 police personnel were injured during the violence.

A judicial commission, headed by retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice J K Jain, is probing the Mandsaur police firing episode.

The home minister also refuted the Opposition's charge that the government had framed farmers as drug peddlers and arrested them during the stir.

He rebutted the reports of more than 65 farmers committing suicide since June 10 due to reasons like indebtedness, failure of crops and over unsettled insurance claims of damaged farm produce.

Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said the Mandsaur unrest was set off by those involved in peddling opium and its derivatives.

"The peddlers of opium and its derivatives orchestrated the violent unrest in Mandsaur district," he said.

Bhargava was replying to an adjournment motion brought in by Congress member Govind Singh and his colleagues on the plight of farmers.

He said the people engaged in opium-related trade and some anti-social elements were responsible for the violent farmers' stir following a crackdown on their illegal business.

To buttress his point, the minister said if farmers in Madhya Pradesh were indeed unhappy, why the stir did not spread to eastern, central or southern parts of the state.

"Why did the violent incidents during the stir remain confined to Mandsaur (in western MP)?" he asked.

Mandsaur, about 320 km from the state capital, was once considered to be the opium hub of the nation.

"No farmer can throw milk or vegetables on roads," he said, blaming drug peddlers and anti-social elements for such acts during the agitation.

Looking at opposition members, he remarked there should be no politics over the dead and added: "There are many issues to do politics over."

The Mandsaur incident had triggered a political storm with the opposition Congress demanding resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the state Home minister.
Mumbai: Rains continued to lash Mumbai metropolitan region for the fourth day on Tuesday with India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Santacruz and Colaba stations recording a three digit rainfall in last 24-hours.

The rainfall figures have been recorded between 8 am of July 17 to 8 am of July 18.

"The Santacruz station of Mumbai IMD recorded 163 mm of rainfall, while Colaba registered 107 mm of showers in last 24-hours," IMD-Mumbai, director, Sunil Kamble told PTI today.

IMD-Pune has warned of heavy rainfall at isolated places in Konkan, Marathwada, central Maharashtra and Vidarbha.

"The rainfall is of good intensity in last four days compared to that since June 1. The coastal Konkan region is having more showers in last four days as well. Compared to it, the rainfall in central parts of Maharashtra is still on lower side," said Kamble.

The neighbouring areas of Mumbai such as Alibaug (in Raigad district) received 173 mm of rainfall, followed by Bhira (Raigad) getting 169 mm. The other parts such as Mahabaleshwar (Satara) received 149 mm rains, while Ratnagiri received 130 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.

The forecast issued by the IMD on Monday afternoon said the rainfall would be "fairly widespread to widespread" over central Maharashtra -- the foodgrain cultivating area till Wednesday.

Marathwada region will have widespread rainfall till Wednesday, while Konkan region will have heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places, it said.

As per the data released by IMD, New Delhi, the rainfall received across Maharashtra from June 1 to July 17 is "normal", though actual precipitation is 381.1 mm as against the normal of 387.2 mm.
New Delhi: The central government on Tuesday approved Rs 131.90-crore assistance to the flood-hit Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.



The government approved Rs 103.30 crore central assistance for Arunachal Pradesh and Rs 28.60 crore for Nagaland at a high-level meeting here, chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.



"The central assistance to the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland was approved in the wake of flash flood and landslides of 2016-17," a Home Ministry statement said.



In respect of Rs 103.30-crore central assistance approved to Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 81.69 crore will be given by the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) and Rs 21.61 crore from the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP).



Of the Rs 28.60 crore approved for Nagaland, Rs 25.89 crore will be provided by the NDRF and Rs 2.71 crore from the NRDWP funds.



Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers` Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and other senior officers of the ministries of Home, Finance and Agriculture attended the meeting.


Kohima: The Gauhati High Court's Kohima bench on Tuesday upheld Nagaland Governor PB Acharya's directive to Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu to prove his majority in the assembly, following which Acharya sought a special session on Wednesday for the floor test.



The Naga Political Front, led by Lieziestsu, summoned an emergency meeting at which they decided to ask President Pranab Mukherjee to recall Acharya immediately so that the "sanctity of the gubernatorial Office in the State is maintained in future".



While issuing a whip to all its 47 legislators to vote in favour, the NPF, which is also a constituent of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre and in Manipur, decided to sever ties with the BJP, with which it has been associated for decades.



Earlier in the day, Justice Lanusungkum Jamir dismissed Liezietsu's writ petition challenging the Governor's directive noting "that the petitioner does not enjoy the support from the majority of the House and therefore, it is open to the Governor to act at his own, without any aid and advice".



The court also rejected Liezietsu's plea for sufficient time to obtain the vote of confidence but did not fix any date, leaving this to the Governor.



Hours later, Acharya asked Speaker Imtiwapang Aier to convene to summon a special assembly session on Wednesday for Liezietsu to prove his majority.



The Governor also asked Aier that "the report of the proceedings/resolutions of the House may be communicated to me forthwith and the House shall be adjourned sine dine after the conclusion of the business (trust vote)".



The Speaker was also asked to issue a necessary notice to the Chief Minister and other members by email and other means as well as over telephone.



The NPF emergency meeting, which was also attended by party supremo Lieziestsu, questioned the neutrality of the Governor, who "misused, abused and tarnished Raj Bhawan" to favour rebellion within the NPF to enhance the BJP's political fortunes in the state.



The NPF also resolved to appeal to Aier to act with propriety and impartiality.



Government spokesperson Yitachu also told IANS that they would appeal to the Supreme Court, as it is "an internal matter within the NPF party and the matter should be resolved outside the floor of the House".



Asked if the Chief Minister would step down to pave way for his predecessor TR Zeliang to return to power, he ruled it out, asserting: "We will not allow these unconstitutional activities to take place in Nagaland."



Meanwhile, Zeliang called for Liezietsu's "minority government" to step down honourably.



"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.



The 60-member assembly also has four Bharatiya Janata Party members and eight Independents, while one seat is vacant.



The rebellion Liezietsu erupted as some leaders accused him of "nepotism" by appointing his son as his advisor with cabinet status and pay.



Liezietsu was sworn in as Chief Minister on February 22 after Zeliang resigned following violent protests by tribal groups, opposing his move to hold civic polls with 33 per cent reservation for women.
New Delhi: The Dharma scion Karan Johar is a huge brand today and so his work keeps him literally on toes. But the new daddy in B-Town is missing his twinsYash and Roohi Johar.

The maverick filmmaker, who was recently seen hosting IIFA 2017 at NYC took to Instagram and shared an adorable picture of his twins holding hands. Although, it's not a complete picture yet the essence of what papa Johar wants to convey is cyrstal clear.

KJo opted for surrogacy and welcomed his twinsYash and Roohi Johar home early this year.
Mumbai: Nawazuddin Siddiqui is one of the finest talents Indian cinema has ever produced. The powerhouse of talent, who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry evidently hinted at discrimination in an obscure tweet Monday night.

He wrote: Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that (sic).

Thank U 4 making me realise dat I cannot b paired along wid d fair & handsome bcz I m dark & not good looking, but I never focus on that.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) 17 July 2017

Though it is not quite clear who he is referring to but the tweet evidently highlights the prejudices in the society - body shaming, racism and discrimination based on ones appearance.

It is indeed sad that an actor of such calibre has to face such bias! Nonetheless, there are fans of the actor who love him.

Heres taking a look at his fans responses:

You're an actor and not a model. You're one of the best talents we have in our country, sir.  Sumit (@SRKholicSumit) 17 July 2017

You are one of the finest actors around. Looks has nothing to do with acting skills... you are An actor! a performer of a different league. 17 July 2017

You are a gem of an actor sir , one of the best actors. Bollywood is blessed to have you. Never let yourself down for this.  Cim (@Ciiimonex) 17 July 2017

Who said you're not good looking?? You ARE & above all you're hella talented & know your job wish you lots of love & success!  Preeti Ishaqzaadi (@Ishaqzaadiii) 17 July 2017

I think you looked very handsome in Kahaani. I am pretty sure you can carry any role, even chocolate hero.  Deeps (@LouveWaiWai) 17 July 2017

You just carry on nailing what you're doing. Let the haters hate. 17 July 2017

They are the ones who we cannot pair you with. You are so so much more than them.

"Achaa Nawazuddin movie me hai? Fir to achi he hogi."  Utsav. (@UtsavChaddha) 17 July 2017

The method actor was recently seen in Sridevi starrer Mom and has Babumoshai Bandookbaaz slated to release on August 25.
New Delhi: Bollywood is a strange place when it comes relationships. Some keep it straight and simple, not hiding who they are dating while others play the hide-and-seek game!

Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon were last seen together in 'Raabta' where the film might have received a lukewarm response owing to a weak storyline but the lead pair's chemistry was a hit among fans.

On and off rumours have flown over the duo dating each other but they have always denied it. The gossip mill worked overtime ever since the 'Dhoni' actor broke-up with his longtime girlfriend Ankita Lokhande last year.

Now, SSR shared a picture on Instagram with a caption: Breakfast with my personal Murad Osmann..!!. Well, for the uninitiated, Murad is the famous Russian photographer who started the 'Follow Me' series of pictures on Instagram with his wife Natalia in 2012.

SSR shared a similar picture where he can be seen holding a lady's hand but we can't see the face. But, wait! We do see her brown nail paint. And it got us thinking whether Kriti is the one Sushant had breakfast with, as per his caption.

Well, one of Kriti's Insta pictures has her wearing a similar nail paint. Ahem Ahem..we aren't saying anything, guys!
By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Jul 17 (PTI) Gopal Prasad Parajuli who was today sworn in as Nepals new chief justice has pledged to make justice delivery fast and less expensive in the country.

Parajuli, 61, was administered the oath of office by President Bidya Devi Bhandari at Rastrapati Bhawan in Sheetal Niwas.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Speaker Onsari Gharti, chiefs of constitutional bodies and judges of the Supreme Court were present on the occasion.

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The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) of the Legislature-Parliament yesterday unanimously approved the name of Parajuli for the post of the chief justice.

Parajuli said he has prepared a 39-point action plan in connection with the judicial reform.

"The Supreme Court would remain in touch with the Nepal Bar Association in this regard," he said, pledging to fulfill his official duty by remaining with the jurisdictions fixed by the constitution.

He said there was widespread public complaint that justice delivery is very slow in the country, saying slow service is no service.

The Parliamentary Special Hearing Committee, Legislature-Parliament yesterday unanimously proposed the name of Parajuli as the new chief justice. He will remain at the post until April, 2018.

A meeting of the constitutional council on June 29 had nominated Parajulis name and sent for the parliamentary hearing.

He had taken charge of the Supreme Court as the acting chief justice on June 7 when Sushila Karki, the first female chief justice of the country, retired. PTI SBP UZM

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Mumbai: VIP 2 starring Dhanush will mark Kajols return to Tamil cinema after a hiatus of two decades! The Bollywood diva, who had made her debut in Tamil film Minsara Kanavu 20 years back, is thrilled about her second film in the language.

A brand new poster of the film is out. Indian movie industry tracker Ramesh Bala took to Twitter to post the poster.

Check it out here:

Rajinikanths daughter and Dhanushs sister-in-law Soundarya has directed and written the screenplay while the Raanjhanaa star has penned the story besides the dialogue for the film.

VIP 2 or Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2 happens to be a sequel to the VIP franchise and will release in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.
New Delhi: NASA Langley Research Center turned 100 years old on Monday, July 17, 2017.

Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and located in Hampton, Virginia, the creation of the research lab of what is now NASA's Langley changed forever the way astronauts fly, explore space and how they study our home planet.

Founded just three months after America's entry into World War I, Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory was set up as the nation's first civilian facility focused on aeronautical research. The goal was, simply, to "solve the fundamental problems of flight."

By 1958, Langley's governing organisation, NACA, would become NASA, and Langley's accomplishments would soar from air into space.

Soon, Langley became a training site for astronauts who would circle the Earth and walk on the Moon. It was also a testing site for the shuttles that would get them there.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first human to step foot on the moon and who learned how to do so by training at Langley said, "If a competition were held to determine the organization that had accomplished the largest number of advancements to aeronautic and aerospace progress, my nomination would be this place."

On the occasion of the centenary of Langley's birth, NASA has released a 45-minute documentary that looks back across the 100 years, updates us on work being done at the legendary facility today, while also taking a peek into the future.

Watch it below!
Hyderabad: The BJP on Tuesday sought to downplay the support extended to the NDA's vice-presidential candidate by the TRS as 'incidental' and 'not unusual' and made it clear the saffron party's aim is to come to power on its own in Telangana in 2019.

'This is incidental,' said Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao when asked about the ruling TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) backing M Venkaiah Naidu for the post.

The regional outfit, led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, had also backed NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

The BJP is an opposition party in the state.

"The support extended by the TRS to both presidential and vice-presidential candidates (of NDA) is incidental', the BJP spokesperson told PTI, noting that as many as six parties, including the YSR Congress, who are 'outside of NDA', had also backed both Kovind and Naidu.

"So, it's not unusual because, apart from the TRS, we have other five parties who have extended support."

Rao asserted the TRS would remain a political 'adversary' despite the issue-based support that they have extended, and the BJP has 'serious conviction' of coming to power by itself in Telangana in the 2019 assembly elections.

"So, the fight will still be between the BJP and the TRS in the next elections."

"Aspiration of the national party is: no matter what, we have to form the next government in Telangana", he said, adding, the BJP wants to make Telangana the "highway for south Indian entry (to get to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and going a little up to Odisha), while Karnataka is already one for a while".

To achieve this objective, the newly created state becomes "extremely critical", Rao said.

"The BJP has a very strong opportunity to ensure victory in this particular region. The BJP considers the Congress as a dead horse."

Rao recalled the party president Amit Shah, during a visit to Telangana, had made no bones about the BJP's aspiration to come to power in the 2014-formed state.

"It (the TRS) is a family-run party. We have taken very strong position on corruption which exists in this government," he said.


Lucknow: In the first two months of the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, 803 incidents of rape and 729 of murder were reported, the state Assembly was informed on Tuesday.

"Between March 15 and May 9, 729 murders, 803 rapes, 799 loots, 2,682 kidnappings and 60 dacoities took place," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said during the Question Hour.

The issue was raised by Samajwadi Party member Shailendra Yadav Lalai who sought crime data in the specified period and action taken to curb it.

The minister said that action has been taken in 67.16 per cent of murder cases as also in 71.12 per cent cases of rape and 52.23 per cent of kidnapping.

He said action has also been taken in 67.05 per cent cases of dacoity and 81.88 per cent loot cases.

"Besides, in these registered cases, NSA (the National Security Act) was invoked against three accused, 126 were booked under the Gangsters Act and 131 under the Goonda Act," the minister said.

SP member Parasnath Yadav sought to know the comparative data from the corresponding period in previous years but it was not available with the minister.

"Our government is committed to check crime and whosoever flouts law will be dealt with strictly. In the earlier regime, case was not registered. Our government is even registering FIR in minor crimes," the minister said, explaining the reason behind the crime data.

Dissatisfied with the reply, Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury (SP) said the government has failed on law and order front and staged a walkout with party colleagues.

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu wanted to ask some question but could not be heard amidst the din.

"The voice of the opposition cannot be suppressed with brute majority," Lallu said as he also walked out with the party members.
New Delhi: The Centre is likely to hand over to the NIA the probe into the recovery of explosives in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The Home Ministry has received a report from the Uttar Pradesh government on the recovery of PETN at the assembly premises, a home ministry spokesperson said.

"The request for handing over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency is being examined. The probe may be given to the agency," he said.

About 150 grams of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate) explosive was found wrapped in a paper close to the seat of the Leader of the Opposition, Ram Govind Choudhary, in the assembly on July 12.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had described it as a "dangerous terror conspiracy" and he recommended a probe into the incident by the NIA.
Lucknow: A special court on Tuesday framed charges against former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati and other six co-accused in a gang-rape case.

The court of judge Uma Shanker Sharma charged Gayatri and co-accused Vikas, Ashish, Ashok Amrendra, Chandrapal and Rupeshwar under various IPC sections including 376 (D) (gang rape) and 354A(1) (sexual harassment).

Gayatri, Vikas, Ashish and Ashok have also been charged under the POSCO Act.

The court fixed August 1 for the recording of evidence of prosecution evidence.

All the accused are in jail and they were produced in the court under tight security.

The judge earlier rejected the discharge application of Vikas holding that there was prima facie evidence against him to make him face trial.

The investigating officer had filed an 824-page charge sheet on June 3 citing 24 witnesses.

The victim had lodged a FIR with Gautampalli police on February 18, after the Supreme Court's direction to the police to register it.

The woman, a resident of Chitrakoot, had alleged that the accused had raped her many times and when attempted to rape her daughter.
Bhopal: Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "narrow mentality" was responsible for the current situation in Darjeeling where the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is agitating for a separate Gorkhaland.

He also defended BJP leader Roopa Ganguly over her controversial statement on women safety, saying she was referring to the "poor" law and order situation in West Bengal.

Though the BJP is in favour of creation of smaller states it is for West Bengal to take a call on that, Vijayvargiya, who is in-charge of the party affairs in the state, told PTI.

"The BJP is normally in favour of creation of smaller states, but the state government should sit and talk to the people and take a decision on it," he said.

"It is the right of the state. After it decides and passes a resolution in the state assembly, then the Centre can consider it," Vijayvargiya said.

"How it will be like. Its geographical situation. It has to be decided by the state. If a smaller state can be created, then it is good, otherwise a solution to the problem should be found by sitting with them (agitators)," the BJP leader said.

He suggested the West Bengal chief minister should discuss the issue threadbare with all concerned to find a solution to the problem.

Earlier, a (regional) council was created but it was not given adequate rights, he said.

"Nothing should be imposed on them (agitators)," he said.

Asked who in his view was responsible for the strife in Darjeeling, he said, "Whatever happening there is intentional and because of the narrow mentality of Mamataji."

"She wants to suppress Gorkhas by invoking Bengali sentiments and trying to curb the voice of those raising the issue of the Gorkhaland democratically," Vijayvargiya said.

He also partly blamed West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee for the current situation alleging he had stated that Bengali will be made compulsory in schools in the entire state which resulted in the agitation.

"The government is working with a narrow mentality on the issue and therefore it is unable to handle it properly," he remarked.

"There is a poor administrator in West Bengal, and to hide her failures, she blames the BJP for it. In fact, the West Bengal government is a total failure," Vijayvargiya alleged.

The BJP leader identified "poor" law and order and the state government's "failure" to check infiltration as the two major challanges facing the West Bengal government.

"The appeasement of infiltrators who are being given citizenship to enhance her vote bank is a threat to nation's internal security," Vijayvargiya said.

On the controversial statement made by BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly about the safety of women, he said she was referring to the poor law and order situation (in West Bengal) and whoever will spend 15 days in the state will come to know about it.

"Women are not safe and this is totally right. Women are being treated as a second grade citizen," he said.
New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday staged a protest here against the "continued attack on women of a particular religious community" in West Bengal, saying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is playing with communal fire to stay in power.



Hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women's wing workers assembled outside West Bengal House in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi and raised slogans against the state government.



Addressing the demonstrators, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise Babul Supriyo said: "Mamata Banerjee is playing with communal fire to continue in power."



He alleged that the communal flareup in the state was sponsored and her failure to control it fully exposed her intentions.



"The selective attack on BJP workers is proof of the murder of democracy in West Bengal," Supriyo said, who is also a Lok Sabha member from West Bengal's Asansol constituency.



He said that Banerjee would have to pay a heavy price for playing with communal fire.



Pooja Kapil Mishra, National Secretary of the BJP's Women Wing of West Bengal, said the "planned atrocities" against women under the rule of a woman Chief Minister was a blot upon the Mamata government and her party would continue to fight against the state government.


Speaking on the adjournment motion given by the Congress on the farmer's issue, Bhargava said that the state government was acting tough against opium smugglers and to divert attention the farmers agitation was given a violent turn.

By Hemender Sharma: The farmer agitation in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur in which six farmers were killed in police firing was coordinated by opium smugglers, state Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said in the state Assembly today.

Speaking on the adjournment motion given by the Congress on the farmers protest issue, Bhargava said that the state government was acting tough against opium smugglers and to divert attention the farmers' agitation was given a violent turn.

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The state government has already ordered a judicial inquiry into the June 6 incident.

MINISTER ACCUSES CONGRESS OF FANNING VIOLENCE

Later speaking to the media, state Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said that the agitation initially was that of farmers which was taken over by anti-social elements and later the Congress tried to stoke the embers. "I can say this with full responsibility that the Congress provoked the violence while anti-social elements took advantage of it," he said.

Reacting to the charges made by ruling BJP members, Jitu Patwari of the Congress, who was caught on camera trying to instigate violence after the Mandsaur incident, demanded the chief minister and home minister's resignation.

"Inside the House in his statement on the adjournment motion the Home Minister did not mention the name of any Congressman, and blamed opium smugglers and outside they are blaming the Congress, are they running a government or a circus. If any Congressman was involved, they should book him," he said.

Congress' Govind Singh while initiating the discussion on the adjournment motion said that on an average three farmers and farm labourers were committing suicide across the state every day.

"The government has formed a happiness ministry, farmers are committing suicide, the state chief minister who till a couple of months back was giving presentations at the Centre on how to make agriculture a profitable business all of sudden says that it is no longer profitable and youngsters should instead set up industry," he said.

ALSO READ

Mandsaur firing: 5 farmers killed, curfew imposed, CM hikes relief to Rs 10 lakh

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Gangtok: Prodded by a Supreme Court direction, West Bengal police have started providing security from Siliguri to Sikkim registered trucks along NH-10, the sole road connecting the hill state with the rest of the country.

All Sikkim Truck Drivers Association (ASTDA) president Mingma Sherpa said that West Bengal police started giving escorts from yesterday and till this noon, around 130 goods laden trucks reached Sikkim from Siliguri.

It is a major relief to truckers ferrying goods from Siliguri to Sikkim, as Sikkim registered vehicles have been ransacked and looted during protests in and around Siliguri from end June after the state government expressed support for the Gorkhaland movement in Darjeeling hills.

The trucks laden with food items and vegetables were meant for all four districts of Sikkim, Sherpa said adding that normal movement of escorted trucks is expected to resume now along NH-10.

A Supreme Court bench had on July 14 asked the authorities to ensure smooth movement of traffic and safety and security of passengers travelling in vehicles on NH-10.

The Sikkim government has moved the Supreme Court on July 13 seeking a direction to the Centre and West Bengal government that NH-10, be protected and uninterrupted vehicular movement be ensured in the wake of ongoing agitation for separate Gorkhaland state.

The national highway, considered lifeline of the landlocked hill state, connects it to Siliguri and any blockade or interruption on it leads to severe scarcity of goods and stalls passengers' movement.
New Delhi: In more trouble for Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, locals in Sindh area on Tuesday take to streets to raise their demand for an independent state.

Hundreds of people marched on the streets raising anti-establishment slogans and demanding an independent Sindh.

Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindh-based nationalist party, led the massive rally-cum-march.

The protesters were carrying anti-CPEC, anti-extremist and religious terrorism banners and placards, which demanded the independence of Sindh.

Earlier too, members of the World Sindhi Congress (WSC) have held anti-Pakistan protests in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva against Islamabad's use of brute force against the Sindhi community.

In the recent times, the restive area has been witnessing anti-China protests have been taking place across Sindh against the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which passes through the province.

Last year, locals in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) staged protest against the rigged July 21 election, which saw Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 32 out of 41 seats.

Huge protests were witnessed in Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Chinari and Mirpur.

The protesters had maintained that they were not allowed to cast their votes, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and others rigged the polls in favour of Sharif's PML(N).
Washington: President Donald Trump`s administration on Monday declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was in default of the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it.

It was the second time Trump certified Iranian compliance with the agreement since he took office in January, despite criticizing it during the 2016 campaign as "the worst deal ever."

Trump administration officials, briefing reporters on Monday on the decision, said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions.

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 had faced a congressionally mandated deadline of Monday to decide.

A senior administration official said Iran was judged in compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal but that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believed Iran "remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability."

The official ticked off a list of accusations about Iranian behavior in the region, including ballistic missile development and proliferation, support for terrorism and militancy, complicity in atrocities committed in Syria and threats to Gulf waterways.

"The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security. As a result, the president, the secretary of state and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA," the official said.
Beirut: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Tuesday the army would carry out an operation in an area of the border with Syria that has been a base of operations for militants including jihadist groups.

Speaking in parliament, Hariri described the operation planned for the Juroud Arsal area as carefully studied, the National News Agency reported.

The government had given the army the "freedom" to act, he added.

Juroud Arsal, a barren area in the mountains between Syria and Lebanon, has been a base of operations for insurgents fighting in the Syrian civil war, including jihadists from Islamic State and the group formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Speculation has been building that the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Syrian military are set to mount a major operation against the insurgents on the Syrian side of the frontier.

Earlier this month, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said time was running out for Syrian militants along the border near Arsal to reach deals with Syrian authorities, saying it was "high time to end the threat of militant groups in Arsal".

Hariri however said "there is no coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian armies".

A security source said the Lebanese army, a recipient of US and British military aid, had increased its deployment in the Arsal area in the last 24 hours.

The source said the militants in the Juroud Arsal area were estimated to number around 3,000, two-thirds of them belonging to Islamic State or the group formerly known as the Nusra Front, and the remainder members of other rebel groups.

In 2014, the Arsal area was the scene of one of the most serious spillovers of the Syrian war into Lebanon, when jihadists briefly overran the town of Arsal.

The Iran-backed Shi`ite group Hezbollah has provided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with crucial military support in the war, a role that has drawn heavy criticism from its Lebanese opponents including Hariri.
Washington: North Korea does not have the ability to strike the United States with "any degree of accuracy" and while its missiles have the range, they lack the necessary guidance capability, Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Tuesday.

"I ... am not sanguine that the test on the Fourth of July demonstrates that they have the capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence or success," Selva said while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Earlier this month North Korea said it had conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and that it had mastered the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on the missile.

Pyongyang`s state media said the test successfully verified the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead, which experts say may be able to reach the U.S. state of Alaska.

"What the experts tell me is that the North Koreans have yet to demonstrate the capacity to do the guidance and control that would be required," Selva, the second highest-ranking U.S. military official, added.

South Korea`s intelligence agency also does not believe North Korea has secured re-entry capabilities for its ICBM program.

South Korea on Monday proposed military talks with North Korea, the first formal overture to Pyongyang by the government of President Moon Jae-in, to discuss ways to avoid hostile acts near the heavily militarised border.
Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the country until the end of the year because the rebellion there will not be completely quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Duterte declared martial law on May 23 following a bloody siege of the southern city of Marawi by Islamic State group- aligned militants, the most serious security crisis he has faced since assuming power in June last year.

In a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives read by his spokesman Ernesto Abella, Duterte said that after consulting security officials, he has concluded that the rebellion in the south will not be quelled completely by July 22.

He asked Congress to extend martial law until December 31.

Under the constitution, in case of invasion or rebellion, when public safety requires it, the president can declare martial law for no more than 60 days. He can ask Congress to extend such a proclamation to a period of time to be determined by the lawmakers.

More than 550 people, including 413 militants, have been killed in nearly two months of fighting in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south.

US Ambassador Sung Y Kim said the United States will be sending two surveillance aircraft to help Philippine forces battling the militants in Marawi.

The two Cessna 208 aircraft fitted with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment "will be turned over to the Philippines in a couple of weeks," he told ABS-CBN News Channel.

"We're deeply concerned about the security situation in Marawi," Kim said. The US has been providing munition, intelligence and surveillance equipment and special operations troops to advise the Philippine military in the south. It will also assist in rebuilding Marawi, he added.

Duterte met with lawmakers late yesterday. He called for a special session of Congress, which is on break, on Saturday to tackle the proposed extension of martial law.

Congress opens its new regular session on July 24, when Duterte delivers his State of the Nation address.

Opposition lawmakers said they will oppose the extension and question its basis.

"It is totally not justified" and "just a whimsical misuse of power," said Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, adding that the military says the number of militants was down to 60.

"I have already forewarned the public of Duterte's authoritarian tendencies and this is further proof of it," he added.

Rep Tom Villarin of the left-wing political party Akbayan said it was "a whimsical proposal that has no substantive grounds other than the president's wishes."
Washington: The White House has alleged that Democrats colluded with Ukraine during the 2016 election, turning the tables on its accusers amid an all-engulfing scandal over Trump's contacts with Russia.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer repeated allegations that a Democratic operative had met with Ukrainian embassy officials during the campaign.

Spicer referred to several recent reports by conservative media outlets, alleging the Democratic operative sought dirt on then Trump campaign director Paul Manafort.

The allegations first came to light in a Politico story in January.

"Obviously, there's been a lot more interest in recent days with respect to what the DNC did in coordination with the Ukrainian government to try to collude," Spicer said.

The White House spokesman alleged that the collusion took place to "achieve a goal of having someone removed, which ultimately did happen."

Manafort left his post in August 2016, as Trump's general election prospects looked dim and details of his own business dealings with pro-Kremlin leaders in Ukraine

emerged.

Spicer was asked by a pro-Trump media representative whether the issue was raised when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the White House in June.

Spicer said he did not know, but claimed that "the DNC's collusion with the Ukrainian government has definitely gotten a lot more attention since that meeting."

The comments come as the White House reeled from Donald Trump Jr's confession that he and two other Trump senior aides knowingly met Kremlin-connected operatives to get dirt on rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

That admission, after months of denials, has prompted some Republicans to openly criticize the White House and venture that Donald Jr may have broken the law.

US intelligence agencies believe that President Vladimir Putin ordered a vast influence operation to tilt the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

Trump himself has responded by describing his son's meeting as business as usual.

"Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!" he tweeted yesterday.

Spicer seemed to contradict his boss, by saying the meeting was actually about adoption.

In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied allegations it had "colluded" with Democrats against the Trump campaign.

The embassy "neither coordinated with the DNC on opposition research nor taken any actions to undermine campaign efforts," the statement read.

"While some politicians who are not part of the Ukrainian government might have taken sides or made comments during last year's election, the Embassy and the government of Ukraine did not."

"We highly appreciate US administration support to Ukraine and the progress achieved in recent months in our bilateral relations."
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Soon a production of Italian pizza will be established in Armenias Syunik province.

Nicola Di Mauro, CEO of Italian Food Corporation LLC told ARMENPRESS they are currently in an active preparation phase.

Currently preparations regarding the factorys premises are actively underway, the acquisition process of equipments is regulated, and discussions are held with suppliers. We hope that production will start in 1  1,5 months, he said.

Approximately 6 months ago Nicola Di Mauro came up with the idea to establish a frozen/semi-finished pizza production in Armenia.

Taking into account the willingness of the local authorities of Syunik to attract new business projects, he decided to initiate his idea in this very province.

The pizza will be produced from exclusively local products.

Di Mauro says the factory itself will have over 30-50 employees, depending on the sales.

In addition, jobs will be created by the suppliers. If everything proceeds as expected, then in addition, we will by milk and tomatoes, as well as greens and garlic from the farmers in large quantities with the suppliers. This will contribute to developing agriculture in the province, he said.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. The attack on tourists in Hurghada hasnt impacted the tourism flow from Armenia to Egypt.

Tourism agencies told ARMENPRESS that no problems whatsoever have occurred after the incident.

We dont have any single case of returning a tour package. Moreover, we continue to sell packages to Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh. It is so in demand that no air tickets are available for specific dates. Many people are calling with hopes that someone might have returned his ticket, a travel agency of Yerevan said.

This high demand among Armenian tourists is due to the availability of a direct flight, and affordable prices.

Tour operators also say destinations to Turkey are also in demand as the visa procedures for some European destinations have become a bit complicated. And in order to avoid time consuming procedures, many tourists prefer countries where entry is facilitated.

Regarding the other top destinations for Armenian tourists, a significant part still favor Georgia.

Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria are also in demand.

On July 14, a knife-wielding man attacked tourists in a Hurghada hotel, killing two German citizens.

Four others, including two Armenians, were wounded. The victims were airlifted to Cairo for treatment.
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani explains the exact cuts that he has asked for in the documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

By Indo-Asian News Service: While there has been an intellectual uproar over the cuts ordered by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in Suman Ghosh's documentary on Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian, CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani, speaking on the cuts, argues that the mere deletion or beeping of six words is no reason to feel creatively smothered when those words indicate a clear contempt for Indian culture and democracy.

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"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, Prof (Amartya) Sen talks of Indian democracy and refers to Gujarat's 'criminalities'. We've asked for 'Gujarat' to be removed," said Nihalani.

"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 Prof 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'," said Nihalani.

"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," he added.

Here are the six words that Pahlaj Nihalani has ordered to be removed from the film:

Criminalities

India

Hindu

Cow

Used, these days

Banal

Nihalani says that the removal of six words in 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," he said.

"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. When filmmakers talk about freedom of expression, they should know that such freedom comes with responsibility. You may be a Nobel laureate, but if you speak disparagingly about things held sacred by the population you are vulnerable to attacks," he said.

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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," he said.

The censor chief also points out a serious legal breach on the part of the documentary's makers.

He said, "They have been screening the film without a censor certificate in various public places of India. That's illegal. Freedom of expression is fine. What about breaking the law?"

ALSO READ | Pahlaj Nihalani on beeping 'cow' in Amartya Sen documentary: It is our job

ALSO READ: Beep 'cow', 'Hindu India', 'Gujarat' from Amartya Sen film, says censor board

ALSO WATCH: CBFC stalls release of documentary on Amartya Sen

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YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. A Turkish Court didnt allow Garo Paylan, the lawmaker of Armenian origin, to be present at the trials of the 10 human rights activists.

Paylan said on Twitter that he was forced to listen to the developments from behind the door.

After the trial ended, Paylan said :  Great Shame: Activists Idil Eser, Ozlem Dalkran, Veli Acu, Gunal Kursun, Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner have been jailed. Human rights have been jailed.

With great sorrow Paylan said that Turkey has reached the same level as North Korea.

He also shared a photo which was taken with the activists as they were leaving the courtroom.

On July 5, 10 activists were arrested in Istanbul. Four have been released.

The activists are accused for being members of terrorist groups. The jailed includes Amnesty International Turkey office head Idil Eser.

Amnesty International urged to pressure Turkey to immediately stop the prosecution and release them.

The US has also expressed concern.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Ankara authorities ruled to arrest 40 former and current employees of the countrys interior ministry within the framework of the investigation into Gulenists.

According to Anadolu, the suspects are users of the ByLock app, a secure communications application involved in the coup attempt.

According to Turkish law enforcement, more than 53 thousand Gulen-supporters were identified through the app.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. After the plenary session of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)s Bureau in Armenia, the expanded joint session of the ARF Bureau and the ARF Armenias Supreme Body took place.

Representatives of the ARFs regional committee of Armenia, lawmakers of the ARF faction, as well as ARFs high ranking officials of the government took part in the session.

Hrant Margaryan, representative of the ARF Bureau, opened the session and highlighted such meetings.

The ARFs participation in the coalition leading the country isnt an end in itself  we accepted the proposal on comprising a part of the coalition in order to become part of the implementation of fundamental changes in the country, he said.

A joint statement will be published soon.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Artsakhs Parliament Ashot Ghoulyan convened a working consultation with participation of the leaders of the parliamentary committees, factions and staff members.

Regulatory requirements on the process of the parliamentary special session were submitted for discussion. At the special session, the parliament will elect the President of the Republic, pursuant to Article 168 of the Constitution, who will hold office until the end of the current Parliaments mandate.

Ashot Ghoulyan explained the procedure of the special session, answered the questions of MPs and gave necessary instructions to the staff.

The special session of the parliament will take place on July 19 at 11:00, the Artsakhi parliament told ARMENPRESS.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ambassador to India H.E. Armen Martirosyan briefed President Sargsyan on July 18 regarding the economic relations agenda between the two countries and the actions on enhancing and deepening partnership, the presidents office told ARMENPRESS.

Cabinet members were also present at the meeting.

Emphasizing that this year marks the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and India, President Sargsyan said it is a good occasion to sum up the achievements and outline the opportunities of expanding the Armenian-Indian relations, especially the economic relations.

According to the president, all prerequisites for the abovementioned exist, since the two countries were able to transform the historically deep rooted friendly ties to warm and partnership inter-state relations.

We nevertheless havent yet maximally used the potential of these relations, the president said.

Speaking about the development of economic relations, the president said that the Armenian-Indian inter-governmental committee has significant importance in the matter.

Its agenda must be updated with new and targeted issues, which must be various, ranging from cooperation in the IT sector to agriculture, jewelry, tourism. We have good examples, and I would like to especially mention the Armenian-Indian Information and Telecommunications technologies excellence Center of the Yerevan State University, which is carrying out huge work, the president said.

We also attach importance to the introduction of joint educational programs with cooperation of the Center of Excellence and Indias support in creating a computer network between schools of Armenian provinces, President Sargsyan said, adding that India has great experience in this sphere and the cooperation must be more active.

President Sargsyan also talked about the cooperation in the educational and scientific branch, mentioning the many Indian students who arrive in Armenia to study.

I believe we have huge opportunities to cooperate in the fields of jewelry and diamond production, and we must continue working on this. There is great opportunity to cooperate in the pharmaceutical sphere, where India has big successes: they are a major supplier, and we must show our opportunities here in order to attract them to the Armenian market, the president said.

The President told the Armenian Ambassador to touch upon these issues more comprehensively and with more certainty in this reports. The President issued several instructions which will be included in the Armenian-Indian intergovernmental committees agenda.
YEREVAN, 18 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 18 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.22 drams to 478.46 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 4.34 drams to 552.81 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 8.10 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.49 drams to 624.29 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 49.75 drams to 18983.97 drams. Silver price up by 5.42 drams to 247.2 drams. Platinum price up by 131.96 drams to 14259.9 drams.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on July 18 had a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who has arrived in Armenia on official visit, press service of the Ministry told Armenpress.

The two Ministers held a private meeting which was followed by an extended-format meeting with the participation of the delegations.

Welcoming the guest, the Armenian FM said his partners visit to Armenia is taking place after the recent visit of Armenias President to the UAE, the successful holding of the Armenia-UAE business forum which enables to discuss the process of implementation of agreements reached during the visit.

The Ministers highlighted with satisfaction that the two countries have formed warm friendly ties, mutually beneficial partnership in different spheres, adding that the small but active Armenian community in the UAE also has its contribution to this.

During the meeting the two officials discussed a wide range of issues relating to further development of bilateral cooperation, expansion of legal framework, boosting commercial ties, investments and etc. They agreed that the high level mutual visits, the existence of diplomatic representations in both capitals contribute to strengthening the mutual partnership, and according to FM Nalbandian, Armenias Consulate General established recently in Dubai will greatly contribute to it.

The Ministers attached importance to holding regular consultations on bilateral and international affairs.

The UAE FM said Armenia is a favorable country for tourism, and recently significant growth in number of tourists from the UAE has been registered.

At the meeting the officials exchanged views on urgent international and regional issues. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan presented the recent developments in the Arab peninsula and the UAEs stances over it.

FM Nalbandian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at moving forward the settlement process of the Karabakh conflict stating that the Co-Chairing countries, acting on behalf of the international community, constantly state that there is no alternative to the peaceful negotiated settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the issue must be solved based on the norms and principles of international law, in particular, non-use of force and threat of force, territorial integrity and peoples right to self-determination.

Before the meeting the UAE Minister visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Turkey tries to show its Western partners that it is not alone, Levon Hovsepyan  expert on Turkish studies, told Armenpress, commenting on the ongoing talks over Russias sale of S 400 Triumf anti-aircraft missile system to Turkey which are at the completion stage.

Levon Hovsepyan said while considering this issue first of all its necessary to separate the military and political components.

I think that, although they say the deal is at the final stage, it still will require a certain time since there are problems, and there is no final agreement between the sides. Maybe Russia will sale these systems, but for Turkey this doesnt solve a major problem from military perspective, he said adding that Turkey is a NATO member, a single integrated air defense system operates, and in this sense, there is an integration issue in technical terms, and its obvious that the missile systems will operate separately from NATO system.

According to the expert, much more emphasis must be put on the political component since from military perspective it would not be able to ensure the reliability of Turkeys airspace.

From political perspective this is beneficial for Turkey, but from military one certain problems can emerge since today Turkeys air defense component is one of the weak sides of the country. By this Turkey tries to show that nevertheless such deal with Russia is possible, and this will definitely impact the Russian-Turkish relations, and in my opinion, will also create certain trust atmosphere, he said.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) proposed Russia to make changes in the law entered into force from June 1, 2017 which bans working in Russia with foreign driving licenses, considering the issue of freeing the citizens of Armenia, Moldova and Kazakhstan from the requirements to obtain Russian driving license for working in Russia, Kommersant reported.

Chairman of the EEC Council, Vice Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Oleg Pankratov announced existence of agreement to settle this issue by a separate deal through which the law must not be applied on the citizens of the EAEU member states (Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus) so that it will not contradict to the EAEUs principles and the idea of singe labor market.

Oleg Pankratov added that the works to develop the agreement will continue which will set common rules for mutual acceptance of national driving licenses.

Ara Babloyan, Speaker of Armenias Parliament, voiced this issue during the meeting with Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow. In response, the Russian State Duma Speaker said the adoption of the law was conditioned exclusively by traffic safety since working drivers do not know Russian traffic rules because they don't know Russian. Given that the law is already adopted, Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to grant Russian an official status in Armenia.

Speaker Babloyan, in response to this proposal, said there is no such issue in Armenias agenda to grant Russian an official status. He stated that Russian is taught in all Armenian schools which fully satisfies the solution of the problem. Volodin said the Russian side is open for discussions. Agreement was reached to discuss this issue later aimed at finding the possible alternative solutions.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan hosted the delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan on July 18, press service of the Government told Armenpress.

The PM said the Armenian-UAE relations are among the best examples of mutual partnership between Armenia and the Arab countries, and the Armenia-UAE high level political dialogue contributes to expanding the economic and investment partnership. He stated that in the recent period the bilateral ties have entered more practical stage of development, by attaching importance to the agreements reached at the investments forum in Abu Dhabi in March 2017, elimination of visa requirements for the UAE citizens by the Armenian Government as a result of which a significant increase in number of UAE tourists has been recorded. PM Karapetyan said the Government takes consistent steps to improve Armenias business environment and attract foreign investments and proposed to consider the opportunities to carry out joint projects in different fields. In the context of the development of cooperation, Karen Karapetyan welcomed the Dubai Expo-2020 which will also be attended by Armenia.

In his turn the UAE Minister said the UAE attaches importance to the continuous development of successful cooperation with Armenia and thanked for eliminating the visa requirements for the UAE citizens. According to him, there are huge potential and opportunities to increase the number of tourists and consistent work is needed for that. He said the implementation of joint programs in agriculture sector has great prospects.

During the meeting the sides also discussed issues of bilateral interest.
Pakistan national Kamaal Siddiqui today thanked the doctors and the Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj for the treatment of his son. He said that his son's heart now beats for Sushma Swaraj.

By India Today Web Desk: The father of the four-month-old Rohaan today broke down while addressing media and thanking doctors at a Noida hospital, after his son was successfully treated.

Rohaan's father Kamaal Siddiqui went on to say that his son's heart beats for Sushma Swaraj.

He thanked the doctors and Swaraj. Expressing his concern over delays of procuring medical visas, he requested Sushma Swaraj to further help other Pakistanis for medical visas.

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"The heart of my child beats today for Madam Sushma Swaraj. I would like to request her to open doors for those Pakistanis who have been waiting for medical visas. It is my humble request," Indian Express quoted Kamaal Siddiqui.

Due to the growing tension between India and Pakistan, Kamaal was unable to get medical visa for the treatment of his son.

On May 24, Kamaal had tweeted, "Why my bud suffers for medical treatment!! Any answers Sir Sartaj Aziz or Ma'am Sushma??"

Why my bud suffers for medical treatment!! Any answers Sir Sartaaj Azeez or Ma'am Sushma?? pic.twitter.com/p0MGk0xYBJ- Ken Sid (@KenSid2) May 24, 2017

The External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded to his tweet on May 31, saying that the child will not suffer.

No. The child will not suffer. Pls contact Indian High Commission in Pakistan. We will give the medical visa. pic.twitter.com/4ADWkFV6Ht https://t.co/OLVO3OiYMB- Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 31, 2017

She had promised Kamaal to open the medical visa for his son's treatment which she very generously fulfilled.

On June 3, Kamaal tweeted, thanking Sushma Swaraj and her team for granting him the medical visa.

@SushmaSwaraj Ma'm I thank you and your team for granting us the medical visa.This gesture of kindness will go a long wayGod Bless!Rohaan pic.twitter.com/yCSvDlAkzk- Ken Sid (@KenSid2) June 3, 2017

Rohaan had come to the hospital for treatment on July 12 and was operated on July 14. He was operated by a team led by Dr Rajesh Sharma.

According to a statement issued by the hospital, Rohaan was suffering from 'D-transportation of great arteries with abnormal origin of main arteries from opposite chambers with multiple VSD and severe pulmonary hypertension'.

The surgery went on for five hours after which the baby was put on a ventilator and a tracheotomy was done, doctors said.

Let's hope that the incident helps in improving the bilateral ties between the two countries.

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YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan hosted Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan on July 18, press service of the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guest, President Sargsyan said Armenia highly appreciates the dynamically developing relations with the UAE and considers the visit of the Minister as an important step to boost the relations. Serzh Sargsyan said Armenia highly appreciates the mutual partnership between the two friendly countries and noted with satisfaction that the bilateral inter-state ties are developing and strengthening day by day. He warmly remembered his visit to the UAE in spring of 2017 which gave new qualitative impetus to the bilateral relations. The President expressed hope the UAE Ministers visit to Armenia will enrich the Armenian-UAE cooperation agenda with new content.

In his turn, Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan thanked the President for the warm wishes and conveyed to him the warm greetings and wishes of his countrys leadership. The UAE Minister expressed confidence that the Armenia-UAE relations can further develop since there is a political will of the leadership of the two countries and firm base to boost those relations.

The UAE Minister thanked President Sargsyan for elimination of visa requirements for the UAE citizens which, according to him, was a major and important step for the two countries.

Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan said both sides need to carry out significant works to fully utilize the existing potential in tourism, energy, agriculture and other spheres and he is ready to make joint efforts with his Armenia partner on that path.

At the meeting regional affairs and threats, as well as the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict were also touched upon.
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ministry of Economic Development and Investments will create cooperation creation mechanisms for Armenian and foreign companies, Deputy Minister Hovhannes Azizyan told reporters on July 18, Armenpress reported.

This will enable our companies, which have experience of export in Armenia and the EAEU states, to cooperate with similar companies of other states. Armenian companies, by using the information on the local market of companies of other countries, will be able to contribute to the process of exporting the Armenian products through the formation of single operator, he said.

He commented on the issues in connection with the export of jewelry products, stating that they are mainly linked with labeling.

The jewelry field has quite huge potential for Armenia. Certain problems emerge during the export in connection with the labeling, also within the EAEU states. The Ministry has developed a draft which will enable to make it mutually recognizable in all EAEU states which will simplify and facilitate the access to the Unions market for exporters, Hovhannes Azizyan said.
ADEN (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber wounded five soldiers outside a government army compound in eastern Yemen on Monday, said a local security official who blamed the attack on militant group al Qaeda. The attack in the Ain BaMaabad area was the second by al Qaeda in two days in Shabwa province, where Yemen's liquefied natural gas plant and export facilities are located. Five soldiers were killed and four were wounded in a raid on Sunday when suspected al Qaeda militants attacked an army outpost guarding a gas pipeline which transports LNG from Marib to the export facility at Balhaf. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited a civil war between the Western-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Iran-aligned Houthis to try to expand its influence in Yemen. The group, regarded by Washington as one of the most dangerous branches of the network, regularly attacks government forces and facilities as part of a campaign to keep the country in chaos. Oil and gas once accounted for most of Yemen's state revenue before a civil war and military intervention led by Saudi Arabia halted their export and unleashed a humanitarian crisis. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
LONDON (Reuters) - A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official said international monitoring was needed in the standoff between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, adding he saw signs that the pressure exerted on Doha "was working". Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed sanctions on Qatar on June 5, cutting diplomatic and transport ties with the tiny Gulf monarchy, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with Gulf Arab states arch-foe Iran. Doha denies the accusations. "We need a regional solution and international monitoring," said Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, in prepared remarks he was scheduled to deliver on Monday in London. "We need to be certain that Qatar, a state with $300 billion in reserves, is no longer an official or unofficial sponsor of jihadist and terrorist causes," he said, giving no further detail on the proposed monitoring. Gargash said the memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Qatar on Tuesday on the financing of terrorism was a positive development. Washington and Doha signed the agreement as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Qatar on a three-day tour of Gulf-Arab countries to try to end a month-long rift between Western-allied Arab states. Still, the four Arab powers have said the memorandum fell short of allaying their concerns, that their sanctions would remain in place until Doha meets their demands and that they would keep a close eye on Qatar's efforts to fight terrorism funding. "We do see signs now, however, that our pressure is working," Gargash said. "We are ready for this process to take a long time." (Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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New York, July 18, 2017The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor journalists from Cameroon, Mexico, Thailand, and Yemen with its 2017 International Press Freedom Awards. The journalists have faced government harassment, death threats, or imprisonment in their pursuit of the truth. CPJ is also honoring PBS journalist Judy Woodruff with its inaugural Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

CPJs 2017 IPFA awardees are:

Ahmed Abba, a correspondent for Radio France Internationales Hausa service, who was imprisoned in Cameroon in July 2015. He was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced in early 2017 to 10 years in prison in connection with his coverage of the extremist sect Boko Haram.

Patricia Mayorga, a correspondent for the Mexico City-based newsmagazine Proceso, who has received threats over her coverage of alleged links between Mexicos ruling party and organized crime, forced disappearances, and human rights issues.

Pravit Rojanaphruk, a reporter and longtime press freedom advocate in Thailand, who has maintained his critical tone and probing reporting style despite being under military threat.

Afrah Nasser, a leading Yemeni reporter and blogger, who covers tensions in her home country from Sweden, where she lives in exile. Nasser, who also reports on human rights violations, womens issues, and press freedom, fled Yemen after receiving death threats over articles that criticized the regime during the 2011 uprising.

Journalists around the world face growing threats and pressure, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. Those we honor are the most courageous and committed. They stand as an example that journalism matters.

CPJs inaugural Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award will be presented to Judy Woodruff, the award-winning broadcast journalist and managing editor of PBS NewsHour. Woodruff has covered news and politics at CNN, NBC, and PBS for more than three decades. The award honors the memory of Gwen Ifill, the award-winning PBS NewsHour journalist and CPJ senior advisor and former board member who died in November 2016. The award will be presented to individuals who show extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom.

Its wonderful that the first person honored by the prize named for Gwen Ifill is her PBS partner and friend, Judy Woodruff, said CPJ Board Chair Kathleen Carroll. Woodruff has a storied career and, like Ifill, also makes tireless contributions to the profession and to journalists. She is the epitome of the values that CPJ stands for and it is an honor to present her with the first Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

All of the winners will be honored at CPJs annual award and benefit dinner. This years chairman is David Rhodes, president of CBS News. The host will be Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN and CPJ senior advisor. The event is at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City on November 15, 2017.

Note to editors: CPJ International Press Freedom Award winners are available for interviews, upon request, prior to the awards dinner on November 15, 2017. Media accreditation for coverage of the awards dinner will begin on October 23.

Media contact:

Kerry Paterson, Senior Advocacy and Communications Officer

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +1.212.300.9031
Pope Francis has a new commandment pasted on his door: No whining!

By India Today Web Desk: The current leader of the worldwide Catholic Church has one heck of a sense of humour, a point he has made time and again.

This time, you will be chucking at what dear ol' Pope Francis thinks of people who constantly complain. Being the pope, we believe he is forced to come across such people more than he'd like.

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A photo put out by the Vatican Insider website shows a post sticking to the pope's frugal suite in a Vatican residence. The poster in Italian says, "No Whining".

Pope Francis' poster readinf 'No Whining'. Source: Vatican Insider website/ Reuters

Under the explicit warning, the red-and-white Italian language sign goes on to say, "Violators are subject to a syndrome of always feeling like a victim and the consequent reduction of your sense of humor and capacity to solve problems".

It adds: "The penalty is doubled if the violation take place in the presence of children. To get the best out of yourself, concentrate on your potential and not on your limitations."

Then, the closing zinger: "Stop complaining and take steps to improve your life".

Now, that's some scolding some people certainly deserve.

WONDERING IF ITS TRUE OR NOT?

Well, Vatican Insider website's editor-in-chief, Andrea Tornielli, has confirmed to Reuters about its presence on Pope Francis's door.

The sign was given to Pope Francis by Italian psychologist and self-help author, Salvo Noe. The pope had promised Noe he would put it up in his office for a laugh.

Pope Francis has had no shortage of complainers in the Vatican and in the Church since his election in 2013. He has tried to steer the 1.2 billion-member Church on a more inclusive and merciful path, angering conservatives who say he his sowing doctrinal confusion.

One recent episode involved German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a German whom Pope Francis removed last month from his post as Vatican doctrinal chief at the end of a five-year term.

Mueller, who disagrees with Pope Francis on a number of issues, apparently expected his mandate to be renewed automatically.

Mueller later told a German newspaper that the way he was treated was "unacceptable".

(With inputs from Reuters)

For more on Pope Francis...

On Good Friday, Pope Francis expresses 'shame' for scandals related to Catholic Church

The Conjuring in Vatican: Trump family's photo with Pope Francis triggers hilarious Photoshop war

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Pope Francis, Micheal Keaton, and many other famous people think it's time to give Trump a chance

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Senior Supreme Court lawyer Pavani Parameswara Rao on Monday asserted that there can be no imminent execution of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav as the matter is pending before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).





"They (Pakistan) cannot execute Jadhav as of now, because they made a promise before the ICJ that as long as the proceedings are continuing, they cannot execute. So they will honour the commitment," Rao told ANI.





He said that there are other ways in which the plea for Jadhav's clemency can be made in Pakistan.





"There are other parties also who have powers of clemency. The President of Pakistan has power to grant pardon, and commute sentence just like the President of India. So therefore they can always make appeal," he added.





Welcoming the Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's decision to review Jadhav's case, Rao said, "If he wants to exercise his power then he is most welcome, if he doesn't do then President of Pakistan can be approached. Even if he does not do that, then the ultimate result is to go to the ICJ where the case is pending."





The advocate's remark came a day after Pakistan's media wing, ISPR, informed that the Paksitan chief was "analysing" evidence against Jadhav.





"The petition of Indian national is now with COAS who'll decide soon. The Army Chief is looking at each aspect of Jadhav's appeal,analysing the evidence and will decide on merits", Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said.





Jadhav's clemency appeal has been rejected by the Military Appellate Court. If his appeal for clemency is rejected by General Bajwa, he can then file another mercy petition with President Mamnoon Hussain within 90 days of the Army Chief deciding on his appeal.





Jadhav was arrested on March 3 last year from Balochistan allegedly for espionage attributes. He was later awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court.





India had then moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty and in its verdict on May 18 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.





A leading Pakistani daily has voiced its support in favour of the alleged Indian spy's mother, saying that she should be granted visa to visit Pakistan on 'humanitarian grounds as this provides the latest opportunity for India and Pakistan to back away from an increasingly confrontational stance against each other.





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: dnaindia.com, July 18, 2017
A little more than three years ago in 2014, the terrorist group ISIS took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul. After a hard-fought campaign, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi announced on July 10th, that the Iraqi Security Forces had regained control of the city. The victory comes after a nine-month long push to clear the last ISIS forces out of Mosul.

It was not an easy victory, and it exacted a high price, particularly from the civilian population. ISIS has been using civilians as human shields, and killed those who tried to leave the city. As the tide increasingly turned against them, their mistreatment of the civilian population escalated. During ISISs brutal occupation of Mosul, it terrorized and brutally murdered thousands of civilians, used mosques, schools and hospitals as bomb-building facilities and fighting positions, and just recently, facing defeat, destroyed the historic al-Nuri mosque and al-Hadba minaret, said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a written statement.

We honor the sacrifices of the Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi people, as well as the Kurdish Peshmerga, in achieving this victory, and express condolences for the many lives lost in the operation.

This is a critical milestone in the global fight against ISIS, and underscores the success of the international effort led by the Iraqi Security Forces, said Secretary of State Tillerson.

On behalf of President Trump and the American people, I congratulate Prime Minister Abadi and the Iraqi people on their liberation of Mosul.

And now begins the second part of freeing Mosul from the stain of ISIS: the rebuilding of the city, much of which has been reduced to rubble. Many of its residents have fled Mosul, and ISIS is still far from eradicated.

Under Iraqi leadership, the United States and our Coalition partners will continue to work closely with the UN to stabilize liberated areas throughout Mosul, supporting the return of displaced civilians to their homes, said Secretary of State Tillerson.

There is still much work to be done to defeat this enemy. The Global Coalition will continue to stand with our Iraqi partners to ensure that ISIS is defeated wherever it remains in Iraq.
On July 10th the Iraqi Security Forces took control of Western Mosuls Old Town, eliminating ISISs last pocket of resistance there.

Three years of brutal occupation by ISIS militants, and hard fighting by Iraqi Security Forces and air support by the US-led anti-ISIS Coalition, have left Mosul in ruins.

Although large-scale fighting is ending, the humanitarian crisis is expected to continue. According to the United Nations, over 900,000 Iraqi civilians have been displaced from Mosul since last October. The city will need a lot of work on its infrastructure, including rebuilding schools, hospitals, streets and bridges.

There is an abundance of explosives and other lethal hazards, placed by ISIS fighters as they fled the city. These must be removed before the rebuilding can begin.

The second stage of freeing Mosul from ISIS is ongoingrebuilding.

It will take billions of dollars and many years to rebuild the city, says the UN. In anticipation of Mosuls liberation, on July 5th, the United States announced it would provide an additional $150 million to help stabilize the areas in Iraq that had been held by ISIS, and on July 13th, it announced that it was giving an additional $119 million in humanitarian assistance to Iraq.

The stabilization program will help the people of liberated areas return to their homes and resume normal lives by restoring services such as water, electricity, sewage, health, and education. The United States is continuing to provide additional emergency food and nutrition assistance, hygiene kits, improved sanitation, emergency shelter, and protection for the Iraqi people.

As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, Under Iraqi leadership, the United States and our Coalition partners will continue to work closely with the UN to stabilize liberated areas throughout Mosul, supporting the return of displaced civilians to their homes.
Workers at the Wonkandy plant in Seville, Spain. PACO PUENTES

Andres Perez and Fatima Pereyra of Seville never lost hope. After the housing bubble burst in 2007 causing Spains economy to crash, Perez was left unemployed. The real estate industry, to which he had dedicated 15 years of his life, had turned its back on him. Pereyra, with a long career in fashion design, saw lagging sales in clothing and wanted a way out of the hardship brought about by the economic crisis. In the midst of the storm, the couple decided to turn the page and start a new chapter.

They began looking for a business that would be profitable year round and that could appeal to people of all ages. After months of research, they finally found a way to sweeten their income: fruit candy. In 2010, they founded Wonkandy (World of natural candies), which now exports its products to 20 countries around the world and counts on turnover of 1.2 million.

We wanted a product in which the raw material was of the highest quality and all natural Andres Perez, Wonkandy

We got into the business in a cold and calculating manner, says Perez. Their idea was to breathe new life into everyday candies. We wanted an all-natural product made from the highest-quality ingredients, and one for which the packaging would play a prominent role. Noting that the sweets industry had neglected a demand for more natural products, Perez and Pereyra created an extensive catalog and established relationships with dozens of manufacturing companies.

In 2011, they opened their first store in Seville. For the launch of the brand and the opening of our first location, we invested about 100,000. But the nightmare of the economic crisis was not over yet. Between 2012 and 2013, when Spains GDP plummeted, Wonkandy had to look overseas to keep afloat.

Their first international store was established in Stockholm through franchising. Investors became infatuated with the brand and wanted to bring it there They started with a small kiosk, Perez explains. The foreign market began to give new impetus to the Seville-based company, which by 2014 had spread slowly across Spanish territory with outlets at public transport stations in Catalonia, Madrid, Asturias, Galicia and the Basque Country.

But its real promotion to the big leagues came in 2015, when London department store Harrods, which belongs to the Qatari royal family, began selling Wonkandy treats. The entrance marked a before-and-after in our business, says Perez.

The sweets that came to the United Kingdom were different, however. The majority were aimed at the countrys Muslim population. The jelly beans, instead of being made with pork gelatin, were made from cow or vegetable alternatives, explains Perez.

Currently, the company works with more than 400 candy producers and exports to 25 countries worldwide

Officially certified for the Islamic market by the Halal Institute of Cordoba, the products were then able to reach countries on the Persian Gulf. In 2015, local investors who had bought the franchising rights for Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, opened several stores in Saudi Arabia. This region provides 20% of the companys profits.

Our vocation is now international, Perez says. Currently, the company works with more than 400 candy producers, exports to 25 countries worldwide, and 60% of its revenue comes from sales abroad. Through Spanish department store chain El Corte Ingles, the company sells its candies across Spain. They have arrived in Italy thanks to Alcampo, in France through Galleries Lafayette, and in Germany through Berlins KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens).

In Seville, they had two stores, but closed them to focus on franchising and distribution through large shopping centers. Next year, we want to be in the Spanish stores of [French-owned supermarket] Carrefour, says Perez.

Additionally, the company hopes to increase sales by 40% by the end of this year and to continue expanding the sale of its products in Muslim countries. Annually, Wonkandy distributes almost 200 tons of candy across the world and has a catalog of more than 350 products. We want to continue demonstrating that candy has a relevant value in the market  not just to be enjoyed by children, but by adults too.

English version by Henry Hahn.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (center) and Defense Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal in Amari, Estonia. VALDA KALNINA (EFE)

Spains Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy visited the Amari airbase in Estonia on Monday where five Spanish F-18 fighters are stationed as part of a NATO mission to protect the Baltic nations airspace in the face of growing pressure from Russia. He made a brief speech connecting Spain and Europes security with the mission, but avoided mentioning the mounting conflict with Spains northeastern Catalonia region, where the regional government is pressing ahead with plans for an informal referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The decision not to mention Catalonia was far from accidental: the Defense Ministry and the prime ministers official La Moncloa residence said that the purpose of such visits is to support Spanish troops stationed overseas. During his 30-minute visit to the base, Rajoy highlighted the importance of the countrys armed forces in international missions around the world in guaranteeing the security of Spain by watching out for all of us, adding: More than one million Estonians are safer every day when our fighters patrol.

Rajoy noted that while Estonia is the NATO member furthest from Spain and that somebody might think that it is far from our interests; I say to them that this is not so and that our security interests are with our allies and in meeting our international commitments.

Our security interests are with our allies and in meeting our international commitments Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy

Rajoy did not make any allusions that could be interpreted as referring to internal Spanish matters such as the crisis in Catalonia. However, he would already have known that Albert Batlle, the operative director of the Mossos dEscuadra, the Catalan regional police force, had resigned because of his opposition to plans for a plebiscite on secession from Spain. Batlle has now been replaced in the forces top job by the pro-independence figure Pere Soler.

Catalonias separatist government is raising the stakes in its challenge to Rajoy, who insists the independence vote breaches the Spanish Constitution. The regional police force will be key to enforcing any court orders sought by the central government challenging regional leader Carles Puigdemonts bid to hold the secession vote.

NATO members at the January summit in Warsaw agreed a Readiness Action Plan for Poland and the Baltic to send a clear and unequivocal signal that attacking a NATO member is attacking all. Spain has sent 313 soldiers and, for the first time abroad, a mechanized tactical subgroup made up of four Leopard tanks, 12 Pizarro infantry fighting vehicles and 11 Oruga armored transport vehicles.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Maria Edith Lau outside her house in Miami. ANTONI BELCHI

Maria Edith Lau prays that it will not happen. Yaya Kone is thinking about moving back to Cote dIvoire in West Africa. Bill Knox is looking at coming out of retirement. And Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm wonders if she will even survive. They all share the same fear: that former US president Barack Obamas health reform will get repealed. Republicans, with Donald Trump at the helm, want to vote in an alternative system that will nix many of Obamacares achievements and leave millions of people without coverage, according to independent estimates. Although not every part of the Affordable Care Act can be dismantled, if the Republican vote prospers it will tear down the pillars of a system that has brought medical insurance over the last seven years to some 20 million people who used to go without.

In a country where there are still around 29 million citizens without any kind of health insurance, the future of Obamacare has become an issue of enormous significance. Democrats, backed by medical and social organizations, fiercely defend the current system. While admitting that it has flaws and tremendous inefficiencies that need fixing, they hold that it is a giant step forward from the previous situation, and say it provides relief for millions of needy Americans.

But Republicans have made Obamacare a symbol to destroy, a monument to the excesses of bureaucracy and government interference. Yet so far, they have been unable to come up with a working alternative of their own. And therein lies Obamacares only hope.

On Monday, two more Republican senators announced that they would oppose the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, bringing the total to four and effectively halting the legislative overhaul  for now.

Republican lawmakers may try to rewrite the bill again. The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is now talking about bringing down Obamacare based on a 2015 proposal. Trump himself has called for a new project, starting with a clean slate.

Until the matter is resolved, people like Maria, Yaya, Kaeley and Bill will continue to fear for their own future.

These are their stories:

Maria Edith Lau, 53: I was saved by God and Obamacare

Maria Edith Lau has a plastic box where she keeps the bills for the treatments that saved her life and which she would not have been able to afford without Obamacare. I figure it was around $50,000, says Lau, a native of Nicaragua who is now a US citizen and a cancer survivor.

Lau arrived in the US in 1993 and for the first 20 years she had no medical insurance at all. In 2013, thanks to Obamacare, she obtained her first subsidized coverage. She did not need to use it until 2016, when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. I dont know what would have become of me. I was saved first by God, praise the Lord, and then by Obamacares insurance, she says, sitting inside her house in Miamis Little Havana neighborhood.

Mr President, be aware that there is another class that is not your own

A private hospital ran all kinds of tests on her. Meanwhile, she and her sister followed their own plan: Pray, pray and pray. An oncologist recommended an aggressive form of surgery. Lau requested a second opinion, and this health professional opposed the operation. Instead, she underwent chemotherapy at the hospital and at home, where a nurse came to assist her. She also underwent radiotherapy. When it was all over, doctors gave her a clean bill of health.

Lau is single. She lives with her 20-year-old son, Juan Carlos, who wants to be a policeman and who is also on Obamacare. For now, he earns $11 an hour at a mail delivery company. Lau works at a cafeteria, and together they bring in under $1,500 a month. The rent takes up over half of that amount, so that they never have enough to put aside. They eat the cheapest food they can find.

Obamacare is the only insurance that Lau can afford: $50 a month. Now, she fears that legislative changes will raise the premium and leave her out in the cold. She will still need to go in for regular checkups for the next four years. I am completely certain that I will not be able to afford them.

Her message to Trump: Mr President, be aware that there is another class that is not your own. You dont know what its like not having the money to deal with sickness. This is about dying if you dont get treatment. Thats what Obamacare meant to me. It was the difference between life and death.

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, 27: I spend $2,000 a month to stay alive

In the wealthiest country on earth, there are people who are forced to ask for donations in order to survive. I spend $2,000 a month just to stay alive, says Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, 27, who has late-stage Lyme disease after getting bitten by a bug on a camping trip, and still needs a couple more years of treatment to get back to something resembling a normal life.

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm has late-stage Lyme disease. Layna Bennehoff

If I were unable to pay for my medication, I would be affected within hours, she says about the drugs that allow her to open her eyes and prevent inflammation of her body.

Pruitt-Hamm figures she has spent $70,000 on health care ever since she was bitten in September 2014 and initially received the wrong diagnosis, which allowed Lyme disease to spread throughout her body. Medicaid saved me, she says. Without this public aid program, the bill would have been closer to $200,000.

Pruitt-Hamm, who had moved to Washington DC to start a new job, went back to Seattle to be near her family and be eligible for more aid. She gets funding from Medicaid and from a partly subsidized medical insurance. But she still needs an additional $2,000 for medical bills per month that are not covered.

She survives through frustrating and embarrassing fundraising drives in which she tries to sell the music she writes, given that she cannot hold down a regular job. People like me have to raise funds for our lives, she says.

The Republicans proposal represents a direct threat to her, because it would slash public program funding. Its really complicated when what theyre trying to do is make a business model out of something that is a human right, she says. The health system is completely dictated by the insurance companies, and the only thing that is preventing a complete monopoly and establishing a bit of a safety net for people is Obamacare.

Bill Knox, 66: The losers are those who can least afford it

Bill Knox, 66, retired three years ago. He lives in a modest neighborhood in Washington DC, and faced with the premium hikes that Trumps health reform will mean, he is considering coming out of retirement. I think about it every day. Its a very serious concern, he says. The only way I can deal with this is by finding a new source of income.

Bill Knox in Washington DC. NICOLAS ALONSO

The Republicans plan would allow insurance companies to charge older clients up to five times more than what they charge younger customers. Obamacare sets a limit of three times more for this older group. In 2009 I paid $200 out of a $95,000 bill thanks to my insurance plan. But now...can you imagine?

Knox has some savings, and he is figuring out how to make more money. He says he is reading online tutorials on how to invest in the stock market. He will need the cash in three years, when his wife retires and they can no longer benefit from the health insurance she currently enjoys as a government employee. At that point they will be covered by Medicare, but the program barely covers half of its members health costs. Medicare does not pay for dental care, or hearing or eye problems which are common among people their age. Ill have to pay for all that, says Knox.

But his biggest concern is for his son, Bill, who also has Type 1 diabetes. To him, Obamacare has been vitally important: Without Obamas program it would have been disastrous. The equipment, the doctors visits...everything. It literally saved him, says Knox. But now, party interests are being placed ahead of the nations interests. We know that one of the main reasons behind this measure is to benefit the rich. Its a game: some win, some lose. And normally, those who lose are those who can least afford it.

Yaya Kone, 43: I am considering going back to my country.

Yaya Kone lives for work. On weekdays he holds two jobs to support his family; on Saturdays he puts in 12-hour days, and the same on Sundays. And he still finds time to help members of his community in the Bronx, all African immigrants like himself. The changes he sees on the horizon are really scaring him. Its not just a hatred of immigrants, its also about health. I am thinking of moving back to Cote dIvoire, the pressure is tremendous, he says.

Yaya Kone in New York City. SANDRO POZZI

Kone, 43, illustrates the ongoing problems of healthcare in the US. I dont like Obamacare, but the thing is, were going from bad to worse, he says.

Kone, who works as a security guard at a building five blocks from Trump Tower in Manhattan, is trying to navigate the intricacies of the system. His double salary means that he makes too much to be eligible for Medicaid, but he still cant afford private insurance.

I am trapped between two worlds, like millions of self-employed people, he explains. So when he feels sick, he walks into a hospitals emergency room.

His wife and children, ages 12 and six, are covered by Medicaid. For now, because if the rules change, they will lose it, notes Kone. If politicians want to see whats going on, they should walk into an emergency room. They are full.

English version by Susana Urra.
Every Monday morning, between three and five members of the Civil Guards Central Operative Unit board a plane in Madrid and fly to A Coruna, the capital of the northwestern region of Galicia, where they crosscheck cellphone data that might provide a clue as to the whereabouts of Diana Quer, the 18-year-old from a well-to-do Madrid family who has been missing since August 22, 2016 . The teams investigation has been given new impetus this week after Quers cellphone , which was only found in October, was unblocked.

Diana Lopez-Pinel, Diana Quer,'s mother, in 2016. Gtresonline

The officers also regularly return to follow up leads in the area around the village of A Pobra do Caraminal, the Quer family vacation home, and where Diana was last seen after leaving the annual fiestas in the early hours of the morning 11 months ago. The team is still working full time on a case that has caught the headlines in Spain and has been provisionally shelved by the judge appointed to oversee it, a decision that was criticized by the Civil Guard. In turn, the judge has criticized the security forces over repeated leaks to the media about the investigation.

There is no evidence my daughter is not alive. And while there is none, we hope she will appear Diana Quers father, Juan Carlos Quer

The investigation is still underway, and we cannot comment on it, says Diana Quers father, Juan Carlos Quer.

The Quer family chose A Pobra do Caraminal, a small coastal community of 10,000 people, as their summer destination 17 years ago. Dianas parents divorced in 2003, but she and her sister and mother continued to spend August in the summer house the family owned in nearby Xobre.

Diana Quer was last seen on August 22nd.

Diana reportedly made friends with a group of locals her family describe as on the edge of legality. One of them was questioned in the days following Dianas disappearance, while another, who had convictions for drug dealing, had his phone tapped and was followed. At least two other local men were investigated, but the judge decided there was not enough evidence to continue proceedings against anybody in particular. The decision to close the case in April was described by the Quer family as sad.

Diana Quer left the fiestas in A Pobra on foot around 2.30am, to head home. She was seen 15 minutes later passing an abandoned disco. She sent a text message to a friend at this time, saying that a gypsy who ran one of the stalls set up for the fiestas and who was camped nearby had called her over to him. The police followed up the lead, but no arrests were made.

Diana Quer's father, Juan Carlos Quer, at a press conference in A Pobra de Caraminal, in 2016. Oscar Corral

The following morning, Dianas mother reported her missing to the Civil Guard in A Pobra. She told officers who followed up the report that this was not the first time her daughter had run away (she once spent three nights at a friends house), but that these events had always been prompted by arguments.

There are few closed circuit or traffic cameras in A Pobra. Diana Quers cellphone was tracked as having traveled along a stretch of road heading toward the mainland, but the signal was lost in Taragona, some 10 kilometers away. Cameras on the main road were unable to distinguish the make or color of vehicles passing by in the early hours. Two fishermen in Taragona told authorities they saw a young woman get out of one car and into another. When contacted by the media they met journalists in a local hotel and asked for 25,000 for an interview.

There is no evidence that my daughter is not alive. None. And while there is none, we wait and hope that she will appear and that when she does, she is well, says her father.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Tripartite mechanisms of cooperation ensure regional stability, Turkish media cited the countrys Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying July 18.

Cavusoglu made the remarks on the eve of his visit to Baku scheduled for July 19 as part of the meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen foreign ministers.

The Turkish foreign minister stressed that it is necessary to be a strong country to create tripartite cooperation mechanisms.

Cavusoglu said that following the meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen foreign ministers in Baku July 19, he will visit Northern Cyprus.

Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Rashid Meredov will also consider the issue of implementing the framework program of cooperation of the three countries for 2015-2017, adopted at the Ashgabat Ministerial Meeting, in Baku on July 19, a diplomatic source told Trend July 18.

Moreover, the ministers will discuss the possibilities of expanding cooperation in the fight against terrorism and various challenges.

The first tripartite meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen foreign ministers was held in Baku on May 26, 2014, the second meeting - in Ashgabat on January 29, 2015, the third meeting - in Antalya on August 28, 2015.

These meetings give an opportunity to discuss the possibilities of regional partnership in a trilateral format, promote the development of bilateral relations based on mutual benefit, strengthening of regional prosperity, stability and security.

The cooperation of the three countries covers a wide range of issues, including energy, tourism, the humanitarian sphere and politics.

The ministers stressed the importance of developing cooperation in the transport and communication sphere at the meeting in Antalya.

The issue of creating the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor was considered.

There are also Azerbaijan-Turkey-Georgia and Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran formats. The summits of foreign ministers and presidents of those countries were held.

The Azerbaijan-Turkey-Kazakhstan format is planned to be created in the future.
Pranab Mukherjee is probably the only politician who came tantalisingly close to becoming the prime minister on several occasions.

Pranab Mukherjee with the then Prime minister Indira Gandhi on December 28, 1983. The two senior leaders of the Congress were attending the Calcutta Session back then. Indira had picked Pranab from Bengal politics in1969, and made him Rajya Sabha member.

By India Today Web Desk: Pranab Mukherjee's term as country's 13th President will come to an end later this month. The short-statured veteran Congress leader is regarded as a giant in country's political stage.

With a political career spanning over six decades, Pranab Mukherjee is probably the only politician who came tantalisingly close to becoming the Prime Minister on several occasions but destiny had some other plans stored for him.

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PRANAB MUKHERJEE'S STORY IN PHOTOS

In the top photo, Pranab Mukherjee with the then Prime minister Indira Gandhi on December 28, 1983. The two senior leaders of the Congress were attending the Calcutta Session back then. Indira had picked Pranab from Bengal politics in1969, and made him Rajya Sabha member.

In this picture, Pranab is seen sharing the dais with former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao (second from right) and former Union Minister Kamlapati Tripathi (third from left).

For 15 years, Mukherjee shared a close relation with the Congress high command. He always stood for the party whenever it went through a rough patch and this displayed his impeccable political acumen.

This photo was taken in Rashtrapati Bhavan during the oath-taking ceremony of Vice-President R Venkataraman in 1987. Congress leader Kalpnath Rai (right) is seen here on his way to take oath.

This file photo from the Rashtrapati Bhavan is during R Venkataraman oath-taking ceremony when he became the Vice-President of India in 1987.

Mukherjee is seen here with two Congress stalwarts - Indira (left) and PV Narasimha Rao (right) - who became prime ministers. Congress leaders HKL Bhagat, in dark glasses, and Veerappa Moily, are seen in the background. Mukherjee is seen here with two Congress stalwarts - Indira (left) and PV Narasimha Rao (right) - who became prime ministers. Congress leaders HKL Bhagat, in dark glasses, and Veerappa Moily, are seen in the background.

Pranab held a top-notch position during Indira Gandhi's tenure. He fitted the criteria of prime minister, as he had experience, qualification, and political acumen in his favour. In the past six decades if there's anyone who had the ability to take over the chair of prime minister, it was Pranab Mukherjee.

Pranab was almost on the verge of becoming the prime minister after Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984. He was touring West Bengal with Rajiv Gandhi when the incident took place.

Mukherjee with Rajiv Gandhi

On hearing about Indira Gandhi's death, Pranab reached Delhi with Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress party unanimously decided to elect Rajiv Gandhi to fill in the post left vacant by the sudden demise of Indira.

Congress handed the baton to Rajiv Gandhi after Indira's assassination. All through this, Pranab Mukherjee played an important role in the Gandhi family as well as the Congress party. Congress handed the baton to Rajiv Gandhi after Indira's assassination. All through this, Pranab Mukherjee played an important role in the Gandhi family as well as the Congress party.

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In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi was elected as the Prime Minister and Pranab was his most powerful minister. With this Rajiv Gandhi was handed over the baton of party politics. All through this, Pranab Mukherjee played an important role in the Gandhi family as well as the Congress party.

From left to right: Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajesh Pilot and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi

After the mid-term election in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi formed the government. However, Mukherjee's name was not chosen for any of the top ministries. In March 1985, Mukherjee was handed over the responsibility of Bengal Congress. But, by September 1985, he was relieved of this position and it was given to Priyaranjan Das Munshi.

Sitaram Kesari (left) was made the Congress chief, instead of Mukherjee, in January 1997 after PV Narasimha Rao stepped down from the post in September 1996.

Post Rajiv Gandhi's death, the Congress was vulnerable. Narasimha Rao was elected as the PM and Sitaram Kesari was made the chief of the Congress party. However, Pranab himself wanted to be the party chief, but Rao was skeptical of him, as he was considered close to the Gandhi family.

Sonia Gandhi wanted to take over the party's baton once again. But, Sitaram Kesari was the party chief, and therefore he called the shots for the executive meeting to be held. And, without calling the meeting, handing over the party chief's position to Sonia was not possible.

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However, this proposal was initiated by Pranab Mukherjee, and Sonia Gandhi was made the party chief after a meeting was held. This once again made Mukherjee stand apart from the rest in the Congress party.

It didn't take Pranab Mukherjee much time to win Sonia Gandhi's trust.

All this made Pranab Mukherjee a stalwart in Sonia Gandhi's Congress - a position he held during Indira's time. Sonia didn't commit the mistakes Rajiv did. Mrs. Gandhi still recalls the days when Mukherjee used to sit with Indira and discuss about serious politics.

Mukherjee is seen here sharing the dais with former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

In spite of all this, once again Pranab Mukherjee was in the top position for the race of prime minister after UPA's win in 2004 Assembly elections. However, once again, his persona came in his way. His junior, Dr Manmohan Singh was bestowed with the opportunity.

Mukherjee was once famous for smoking his Dunhill pipe. Although, he quit smoking many years ago.

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By this time, Pranab Mukherjee knew he just wasn't cut to head the most powerful position. Irrespective of all this, he kept on serving the Congress party with integrity - for which he was pushed to the Rajya Sabha by Indira Gandhi.

Mukherjee's tenure as President involved least of controversies.

Sonia initiated Pranab Mukherjee's name for the Presidential post. This was considered as a compensation for Mukherjee, so that he doesn't regret not holding the top most position in the country.

President Mukherjee is seen here with former US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Modi during the former's visit to India.

Now, time has come for this veteran leader of six decades to bid adieu to active politics. In his recently released memoir, he had declared Indira Gandhi as the best prime minister India has ever seen.

Also Read:

No Mercy: Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions as President

Pranab Mukherjee takes last flight as President, travels from West Bengal to Delhi

Also Watch: Don't wan't to leave a legacy, will 'melt into the mass,' says President Mukherjee

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

The OSCE is expected to monitor the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops on July 19, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said July 18.

The monitoring will be held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative along the line of contact on the Omar mountain pass of Azerbaijans Goygol district, said the ministry.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring will be held by Mikhail Olaru and Martin Schuster, who are field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

On the Azerbaijani territories occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring will be held by Andrzej Kasprzyk, ambassador and the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative, Simon Tiller and Ognjen Jovic, who are field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

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 18

Trend:

Azerbaijan has a format of cooperation of strategic partnership with 11 member countries of EU, said the countrys President Ilham Aliyev while addressing the Latvia-Azerbaijan Business Forum in Riga.

First of all, I would like to once again express my gratitude to Mr. President of Latvia for invitation to visit your beautiful country. My visit is a very important step in the development of our bilateral relations. Starting from today Latvia and Azerbaijan are considered to be strategic partners. Today we signed a Joint Declaration on strategic partnership between our countries. This is a very high level of cooperation, and the Declaration covers many areas, including economic and trade cooperation, said President Aliyev.

Part of our discussions with the President, Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Parliament was devoted to our trade and economic cooperation. There is a big potential. Mr. President already mentioned the areas of great importance where we can easily increase our trade turnover. I think that for the coming years the increase of the trade turnover will be one of the priorities, noted the Azerbaijani president.

The head of state also touched upon the business contracts signed during the business forum.

These contracts will actually reflect what we discussed with Mr President this morning. Taking into account that our climatic conditions are different, our economies are not competing economies. They are actually economies, which can provide each other with different kinds of goods. We have good opportunities to increase our export to Latvia and to increase import from Latvia. We import mainly what you produce and export, and you import what we produce and export. Its a matter of business groups coordinated by the intergovernmental commission to work on concrete projects in order to increase the trade turnover, said President Aliyev.

Another important area of our economic cooperation could be mutual investments. Here we come to a very important point. There is a need to have more information because in order to have a good investment portfolio we have all the basic prerequisites, which are strong political ties. Business is very sensitive. Businessmen usually invest in a friendly environment. Therefore, strong political and friendly ties between our countries make this very attractive for investments. Now we need to identify the areas of potential investments and to coordinate the plans of business groups with the local demands. I think it will be easy to be done, taking into account this big audience. I am sure that today many new business contacts will be established, added the Azerbaijani president.

President Aliyev once again invited Latvian companies to come to work in Azerbaijan as contractors.

There have been several Latvian companies which implemented different projects in Azerbaijan. These were very successful projects implemented on a high level. Therefore, your companies have good expertise, reputation and professional level. We in Azerbaijan implement many important infrastructure projects, which can be interesting for your companies. In general, investment climate in Azerbaijan is very positive. During the last twenty years more than $200 billion have been invested in Azerbaijan. Our economy is competitive. According to Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy is number 37 with respect to competitiveness index. The country is politically, economically stable, said the head of state.

A lot of infrastructure projects are being implemented and many companies from Europe and other parts of the world are our partners in implementation of these projects. Azerbaijans economic agenda is now aimed at diversification of economy in order to reduce the dependence on energy factor. And it is already happening. Now, the biggest part of GDP is created in non-energy sector. We managed to increase this year our non-energy export more than 27 percent, and reduce import 50 percent, noted the president.

He went on to say that Azerbaijan has substantial financial resources, which makes economy very stable and predictable, and financial resources are bigger than the foreign debt by five times.

Therefore, our country is friendly to Latvia, to Europe with a lot of business connections with European countries. Today this declaration on strategic partnership is actually the 11th of its kind. With 11 member countries of EU Azerbaijan has a format of cooperation of strategic partnership. We today largely discussed opportunities, which will be created by implementation of the mega project, which is North-South transportation network. It will not only generate jobs during the implementation of the construction, but also will largely increase the volume of cargos going from South to North and North to South and crossing our territories. We will earn a lot of benefits from becoming more important countries for transit. Of course, it creates big opportunities for business companies, said President Aliyev.

Another important project, which Azerbaijan implements now and which is directly aimed at the European interests and also, of course, our interests, is a project of energy diversification, Southern Gas Corridor. This is now probably the biggest infrastructure project, which is being implemented in Europe. The total cost of the project is 40 billion dollars, which will bring Azerbaijani gas to the market of European Union with the new route, with the new source. This is real diversification because diversification of energy is not only routes, its mainly sources. This is a case in our project. Energy security, as we all know, is vital for every country. Therefore, a lot of projects, which we implement in Azerbaijan, go beyond the boundaries of our country, added the Azerbaijani president.

With Latvia we have such a strong format of cooperation that it will be natural to engage in a broader partnership. We also discussed today a very important issue for business, for tourists, for people-to-people contacts. It is a year-round direct flight connection between Riga and Baku. Now we have seasonal flight, and we want to have it permanent. That, of course, will create additional opportunities. If representatives of business communities fly often to visit each other that will make this route also commercially very attractive. So, it will not only open by the decision of the leadership, but it will be also commercially justified, said President Aliyev.

The last point, which I would also like to draw your attention to, is tourism. Our climate and the climatic and weather conditions also are different, which, I think, is an advantage because our people probably would prefer to cool a little bit themselves in hot summer and Latvians would probably prefer to have more sun in winter and other seasons. Therefore, for tourism its a huge opportunity to invest and for tourist companies to consider our destinations as very attractive. But for that, of course, we need to have more contacts, we need to know each other better, to have more presentations, more forums like that. That will strengthen our relations. All that we are doing is aimed at strengthening relations between Latvia and Azerbaijan. My todays visit is an important contribution to that. Thank you very much, concluded the Azerbaijani president.
Iran has warned that any major JCPOA violation on behalf of the US may result in Tehrans withdrawal from the nuclear deal, PressTV reported.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remark on Monday during an interview with The National Interest magazine.

If it comes to a major violation, or what in the terms of the nuclear deal is called significant nonperformance, then Iran has other options available, including withdrawing from the deal, he said.

Zarif further stressed that Islamic Republic wishes for the deal to serve as a solid foundation for all its parties and not the ceiling.

We wanted that agreement to be the foundation and not the ceiling. But in order for that to serve as a solid foundation, we want to make sure that the obligations by all sides have been fully and faithfully implemented, he added.

Irans top diplomat further noted that the US has shortcomings in commitments stipulated the nuclear accord, while stressing that these shortcomings will be addressed by the joint commission to make sure they are remedied.

This has been the subject of an ongoing debate within the joint commission, not only during the (US President Donald) Trump administration but also during the previous (Barack) Obama administration, when it took the United States, for instance, several months to clear the purchase of airplanes, he said in reference to the purchase of Airbus airplanes.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

When asked about a recent New York Times article which claimed that the US had lost in Iraq, Zarif noted that Tehran does not view the regional situation as a winning or losing battle.

Its a situation where the initial US invasion of Iraq has led everybody to lose. Because we believe that the situation in todays world is so interconnected that we cannot have winners and losers; we either win together or lose together, he said.

I believe our region requires solutions. And those solutions should emanate from a different approach to issues, he added.

Zarif also stressed that Iran has unswerving policy of fighting extremism and terrorism, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.

The people who recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan are the same as the ones who are imposing pressure on Qatar, the same as the ones who are having difficulty with Iran, both in Syria and Iraq and in the region generally, he said.

Irans foreign minister further stressed that several regional countries continue to support terrorist groups active in the Middle East.

Some countries consistently supported the wrong groups  these are the same countries from whose nationals, almost 94 percent of those engaged in acts of terror, he noted.

When asked about the future of Iran-US relations, Zarif said that the outcome of such an equation will be determined by Washingtons approach.

It has to look at Iran as the only country in the region where people stand in line for ten hours to vote, he said.
Details added (first version posted on July 17, 17:58)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 17

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has visited the Saeima (parliament) of the Republic of Latvia in Riga.

Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia Inara Murniece greeted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Murniece presented a group of parliamentarians to President Ilham Aliyev. She informed Ilham Aliyev of the activity of the Saeima and familiarized him with the meeting hall.

They posed together for photographs. The head of state also signed a guest book of the Saeima.

President Ilham Aliyev and Inara Murniece then held a meeting.

The Speaker of the Saeima praised relations between the two countries. Recalling her visit to Baku, Murniece said the official visit of President Ilham Aliyev to Latvia will open a new page in the development of bilateral ties.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan-Latvia relations successfully develop in a variety of fields. The head of state recalled his meeting with Inara Murniece in Baku.

The President said political relations between the two countries successfully develop. The head of state said parliamentary cooperation makes a great contribution to bilateral ties.

President Ilham Aliyev said there are good opportunities for expanding economic relations and for cooperation in the cultural, humanitarian and tourism fields.

President Ilham Aliyev highlighted political and economic reforms as well as international transport projects implemented in Azerbaijan. The head of state noted that Azerbaijan and Latvia successfully cooperate within international organizations. The President spoke of Azerbaijan-EU relations, saying they dynamically develop. President Ilham Aliyev said that the EU supports Azerbaijan-initiated projects in the fields of energy, gas and transport.

Murniece said Latvia constantly supports Azerbaijan in EU. She said that Latvia wants the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be solved within Azerbaijans territorial integrity and sovereignty. She expressed regret over the recent incident that resulted in the killing of two Azerbaijani civilians  a grandmother and her granddaughter.

President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the recent incidents that resulted in the killing of civilians on the line of contact line. The head of state thanked Latvia for its position on this incident and on the settlement of the conflict within territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today completed his official visit to the Republic of Latvia.

A guard of honor was lined up for the Azerbaijani President at the Riga international airport decorated with the national flags of Azerbaijan and Latvia.

President Ilham Aliyev was seen of by high-ranking Latvian officials.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

Implementation of economic, trade projects and carrying out a joint activity between the Azerbaijani cities and Ukraines Dnepropetrovsk city is important, said Azerbaijans Ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev.

The ambassador made the remarks at a meeting with Head of Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration Borys Filatov.

Khudiyev said that a favorable investment environment has been created in Azerbaijan and attention is paid to the development of the countrys districts.

Azerbaijan is open for Ukrainian investors, he noted.

The envoy also said that well-known Azerbaijani companies are already investing in economic and trade projects in Ukraine, and are ready to invest in big projects of Dnepropetrovsk.

Borys Filatov, for his part, said that more than 30,000 Azerbaijanis live in Dnepropetrovsk and they actively participate in social, political and economic life of the city.

Roads of the city will be reconstructed, and if Azerbaijani companies participate in these projects, the city administration will provide all possible assistance, he noted.

Filatov also invited Azerbaijani companies to participate in the reconstruction of the ancient mosque, built in 1905.

The Azerbaijani ambassador, for his part, said that the proposals put forward will be considered, and the projects implementation will be supported.

Moreover, during the meeting, Maksim Kuryachiy, head of the Ukraine-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group, noted the importance of development of the two countries trade and economic relations.
Details (added (first version posted on 15:05)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Austrian Federal Minister of Families and Youth Sophie Karmasin July 18.

Karmasin described her visit to Azerbaijan as successful, hailing numerous fruitful meetings they held at ministries and organizations as well as hospitality shown to them.

Describing Azerbaijan as a very interesting country open for cooperation, the Austrian minister praised huge opportunities for implementing various projects in Azerbaijan.

Karmasin expressed Austria's readiness to support development of know-how in appropriate areas in Azerbaijan.

She said that she was informed on interesting projects relating to e-government in Azerbaijan as she visited the country's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population yesterday.

The Austrian minister of families and youth noted that these projects aroused great interest in Austria, adding that her country is keen to study and implement these projects too.

Hailing the meetings held in SOCAR, Karmasin pointed out that they familiarized themselves with projects relating to environmental protection.

President Aliyev underlined the importance of expanding the cooperation format so that it covers new areas of partnership between Azerbaijan and Austria.

The president expressed his confidence that the visit of Karmasin to Azerbaijan will be fruitful and yield good results.

President Aliyev said he hopes the visit will contribute to the development of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in a variety of fields.

They then posed for photographs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today received deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.

President Ilham Aliyev said Rashid Meredovs visit to the country will create good opportunities for discussing the development of bilateral relations. The head of state noted that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to brotherly relations with Turkmenistan and is interested in expanding the bilateral ties in all areas.

This is necessitated by the historical ties between our two nations and todays realities. We see such an attitude from the Turkmen side as well, President Ilham Aliyev said.

The head of state expressed his hope that the relations of cooperation and partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan will strengthen in the years to come. Saying the two countries maintain active cooperation in political, economic, transport, humanitarian and other areas, President Ilham Aliyev noted that he will spare no efforts to create new opportunities for mutual activities and develop cooperation between the two friendly and neighboring countries.

President Ilham Aliyev touched upon a meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey to be held in Azerbaijan on July 19. The head of state described the meeting as a good cooperation format, highlighting its importance in terms of discussion of trilateral relations and regional issues.

Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov said: First of all, let me extend to you sincere greetings and deep regards on behalf of Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. When I was departing to Baku, he noted that today the relations between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are actively developing and this development dynamics is based on open, frank and friendly political contacts of the two heads of state.

Rashid Meredov noted that the meetings and contacts of the Turkmen and Azerbaijani presidents give a strong boost to the expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries in various areas. These relations are exemplary from the point of view of political and diplomatic assessment.

He stressed that the issues on the agenda of relations are topical both in terms of bilateral ties and from regional and global points of view.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for the greetings of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and asked Rashid Meredov to extend his greetings to the Turkmen president.
Ankara, Turkey, July 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Turkey intend to bring the mutual trade volume up to $15 billion by 2023, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"We intend to raise economic and trade relations with Azerbaijan to an even higher level," he said. "For this purpose, Turkey has begun working over signing an agreement on preferential trade with Azerbaijan. The text of the agreement is planned to be prepared in 2017."

"Despite there is a decrease in trade turnover between the two countries now, there is a great potential for increasing it," he said. "The agreement on economic cooperation, the agreement on eliminating double taxation and the agreement on mutual protection of investments signed between the countries facilitate to it."

Canikli said that the trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to around $1.6 billion in 2016, while it was $5.1 billion in 2014.

"The trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan increased by 11.4 percent in January-May 2017 compared to the same period of 2016," he said, adding that it testifies to the economic potential of the two countries."

"I am confident that on the basis of the existing potential of the two countries, we will be able to increase the volume of export-import operations in the coming years," Canikli said. "Our goal is to increase the trade turnover volume between our countries up to $15 billion by 2023."

He said that Azerbaijan is also one of the countries where Turkish contracting companies are actively working.

"Until now, Turkish contractors have implemented the projects worth $11.6 billion in Azerbaijan," he said.

Moreover, Turkey is working over a plan to increase trade relations with Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

"As part of expanding trade with Nakhchivan, the delegation of the Turkish Economy Ministry visited Azerbaijan in June 2017," Canikli said.

He added that during the meetings, Turkey's intention of supporting the export of Nakhchivans products to its territory was discussed.

"Currently, the creation of a free trade zone with Nakhchivan is being discussed and the necessary infrastructure has already been created," Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told Trend earlier.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Russian companies decreased their shipments of homopolymer polypropylene raffia from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, MRC said in a report.

MRC prepares professional reports on polymer markets of Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries.

Overall Russian imports of this polypropylene grade reached 26,200 tons in the first six months of 2017, compared to 36,900 a year earlier.

June imports of homopolymer polypropylene decreased to 5,200 tons from 7,000 tons a month earlier.

Russia s imports of polypropylene decreased to about 75,900 tons in first six months of this year, down 5 percent, compared to the same period last year.
As president, Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions, a number greater than the combined total of mercy petitions rejected by his four immediate predecessors.

By Dev Goswami: Next Tuesday, when Pranab Mukherjee demits the office of the President of India, he will leave behind an in-tray empty of any mercy petitions requesting him to commute a death sentence to life. Over the five years of his presidency, Mukherjee has disposed of 34 mercy pleas (35, if you consider the case of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts financier Yakub Memon who, unsuccessfully, appealed for the presidential pardon twice).

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Mukherjee has rejected 30 mercy petitions (31, again, if you include Memon's follow-up plea), and has given fresh leases on lives in four cases. His record of rejecting mercy petitions is unparalleled among his immediate predecessors and, in the history of the Indian republic, is second only to President R Venkatraman, who rejected 45 mercy pleas.*

When Mukherjee's successor, who trends suggest will likely be Dalit leader and Bharatiya Janata Party member Ram Nath Kovind, takes office, they will have no pending mercy pleas to act upon, an event that hasn't happened in three presidencies.

When Pranab Mukherjee became president on July 25, 2012, he inherited at least 10 pending pleas for mercy, including one from President Kocheril Raman Narayanan's term (1997-2002).

In fact, President KR Narayanan and his successor President Abdul Kalam (2002-2007) hold the distinction of sitting on mercy petitions, or what the Law Commission said in a 2015 report, putting the "brakes on the disposal of mercy petitions."

President Narayanan did not act upon a single mercy petition sent to him, while President Kalam disposed of a grand total of two pleas - commuting one, rejecting the other.

The ten years of indecision under Narayanan and Kalam were in stark contrast to the term of Pratibha Patil (2007-2012), India's first female president who quickly became known for being one of India's most lenient head of state.

Patil's term saw 34 commutations and five rejections. Only India's first two presidents (Rajendra Prasad with 180 commutations and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan with 57) accepted more mercy petitions than she did.

RUBBER STAMP?

Under the Indian constitution, the president acts on the advice of the executive, i.e. the prime minister and his cabinet. And so, the argument has often been made that a president's decision - on mercy petitions or otherwise - should be seen in context of the political dispensation in power.

However, the 20 years of presidents Mukherjee, Patil, Kalam and Narayanan have been divided almost equally between governments led by the Congress (2004-2014) and the BJP (1998-2004; 2014-now).

Furthermore, the constitution does not set a time frame in which the president must act upon a mercy plea, though the Supreme Court has indirectly set some restrictions by ruling that an inordinate delay in settling a mercy petition could be grounds for commuting a death sentence altogether.

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This allows presidents to express dissent by refusing to act on a mercy petition, a trend seen during the Narayanan and Kalam years.

There have also been precedents, though rare, of presidents going against government advice - just this year, President Mukherjee commuted to life the death sentences of four men, going against the Centre's recommendation.

An analysis of denials (or commutations) of mercy pleas suggests that that the person occupying the president's chair does matter, even though the Rashtrapati Bhavan has sought to argue otherwise in the past, for example, in 2012, when it released a statement on behalf of Pratibha Patil to convey essentially that the president acts on behalf of the government and not out of her own will.

The Law Commission in its 2015 report too noted the influence a president has on deciding mercy petitions, saying, "A perusal of the chart of mercy petitions disposed by Presidents suggests that a death-row convict's fate in matters of life and death may not only depend on the ideology and views of the government of the day but also on the personal views and belief systems of the President."

Click here to Enlarge President Kalam acted upon just two mercy petitions, rejecting one, accepting the other

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HOW PRESIDENTS HAVE ACTED ON MERCY PLEAS

Based on data collated by the Law Commission, here's how India's presidents have dealt with mercy petitions:

Rajendra Prasad accepted 180 mercy pleas and rejected just one.

Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan allowed 57 mercy petitions while rejecting none.

Zakir Hussain did not send a single man to the gallow, accepting 22 mercy pleas.

VV Giri too did not reject a mercy petition, and accepted three pleas.

Fakrudhin Ali Ahmed and N Sanjeeva Reddy did not deal with any mercy petitions in their tenures.

Zail Singh rejected 30 mercy petitions, allowing just two.

R Venkatraman holds the record of rejecting the highest number of mercy pleas - 45. He allowed five petitions.

SD Sharma did not hand out a single commutation, rejecting 18 pleas for mercy.

KR Narayanan kept all mercy petitions pending.

APJ Kalam ruled on just two pleas, rejecting one and accepting the other.

Pratibha Patil commuted 34 mercy petitions and rejected five.

Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions and allowed four.

HOW MERCY PETITIONS ARE DECIDED

Once the Supreme Court gives in its final ruling in a death penalty case, a convict on the death row can approach the president directly, via prison officials, via the Union Home Ministry or via the governor of the state where he/she is incarcerated.

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The president then seeks the opinion of the Union cabinet, which is provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The president might, in some cases, send the MHA's recommendation back for further clarifications. The Home Ministry may also recall its recommendation in order to provide a fresh opinion.

Once the MHA submits a recommendation, the President will then accordingly decide upon a mercy petition. However, there is no set time frame within which a President must act.

* The numbers in this article are based on data collated by the Law Commission in its 2015 report. However, in a hallmark of Indian bureaucratic record keeping, exact figures on the mercy petitions rejected or allowed by India's first few presidents aren't easily available. Even the Law Commission in its report noted that the figures it was able to collate were based on empirical verification from the archives which may not be complete.

(Graphics: Newsflicks; Chart: Ekta Handa)

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Details added (first version posted at 12:46)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey does not reflect the existing potential between the countries, said Turkish Minister of Customs and Trade Bulent Tufenkci.

He made the remarks on July 18 at a meeting with Turkish entrepreneurs in Baku.

Trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to $2.1 billion in 2015, while in 2016 this figure was even less, he noted.

Tufenkci said that both countries have great potential for cooperation in various fields. He expressed hope that Turkish companies will be particularly interested in the free trade zone (FTZ), which is being created in Alat settlement of the Garadagh district in Baku, and that they will be the first investors of the FTZ.

Azerbaijan is also a transit corridor, which is confirmed by one of our joint projects  the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that is designed to revive the historical Silk Road. We attach great importance to this project because it will allow connecting China and the UK, Asia and Europe via a railway.

Azerbaijan and Turkey have very strong relations in political, economic, social and other spheres, he said, adding that the words of Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev, describing Azerbaijan and Turkey as one nation, two states, very well characterize the relations between the two countries.

Tufenkci further reminded about the 2016 military coup attempt in Turkey. He said it was supposed to undermine the countrys economy. However, the economy grew following the coup attempt thanks to the Turkish people and entrepreneurs, he added.

The growth of the Turkish economy continues in 2017. We expect that Turkey's GDP will grow by 4.4 percent by the end of this year. It is possible that the growth may reach 5 percent.
Details added (first version posted on 13:20)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Turkish entrepreneurs in some cases try to avoid paying taxes on the supply of goods to Azerbaijan, said Chairman of Azerbaijans State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev.

He made the remarks at a meeting with Turkish entrepreneurs in Baku July 18.

The meeting is also attended by Turkeys Minister of Customs and Trade Bulent Tufenkci.

Aliyev noted that in some cases, entrepreneurs resort to a double invoice in order to avoid paying taxes.

The chairman appealed to Turkish entrepreneurs with a request not to admit such cases.

Aliyev noted that all conditions are created for those who want to invest in the Azerbaijani economy or to supply their goods to the country.

According to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee, the countrys trade turnover with Turkey amounted to $1.2 billion in 1H17 which exceeds the result of 1H16 by 1.73 times.

About $615.5 million out of this amount accounted for the export (specific weight is 11.68 percent in total volume of export operations), while $574.2 million (with a specific weight of 16.84 percent) accounted for import.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Creditors of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) adopted a voluntary restructuring plan of foreign liabilities at a general meeting July 18, IBA told Trend July 18.

Creditors who own 94.1 percent of restructured liabilities took part in the voting process.

Thus, 93.9 percent of creditors voted for the voluntary restructuring, which is sufficient for the adoption of the plan (according to the Law on Banks, 2/3 of the creditors' votes are enough to make a decision).

The plan will come into force after approval by the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) and Nasimi District Court.

As a result of the restructuring, the bank will exchange current liabilities in foreign currency in the amount of about $3.34 billion for new bonds of the bank and the state, while the funds in the form of accrued but unpaid interest for the period from May 10 to September 1, 2017 will be paid to the creditors owning the senior and subordinated debt.

The Azerbaijani government supports the restructuring of IBAs foreign liabilities by exchanging financial debts for direct sovereign liabilities of the state. As a result of this exchange, creditors will receive securities with a higher credit rating.

Among the major foreign creditors of the International Bank of Azerbaijan are US Cargill company, Citibank, Rubrika Finance Company Limited, Credit Suisse AG.

"The successful outcome of the restructuring of IBAs foreign liabilities once again testifies that the plan meets the interests of both the bank and creditors," Azerbaijani Minister of Finance Samir Sharifov said. The positive result of the voting will also contribute to the implementation of the Azerbaijani government's plans for privatization of the bank until the end of 2018."

The adoption of the plan of restructuring IBAs foreign liabilities by the majority of foreign creditors is a positive moment for the development of the banking sector, Rufat Aslanli, FIMSA chairman, said.

"We fully support this plan, which meets all international and domestic regulatory norms," Aslanli added.

Chairman of the IBA Board Khalid Akhadov said that the voting results are a historical event for the IBA, which underpins common efforts to ensure its long-term development.

"The restructuring is a key step in the way of its recovery, he said. The voting result showed that along with the main shareholder of the bank and the financial regulator, the overwhelming majority of creditors supported our plan of restructuring foreign liabilities as the most appropriate decision in the current complicated situation.

When the restructuring process is over, the bank will continue its work with the Ministry of Finance to strengthen the balance by transferring part of the problem assets to Aqrarkredit closed joint stock non-bank credit organization in the amount of 4.9 billion manat," he said.

After the restructuring plan comes into force, the creditors will receive funds and / or new bonds (or in some cases, proceeds from the sale of new bonds) in accordance with the mechanism described in the information memorandum.

It was earlier reported that the IBA commenced a process of voluntary restructuring within its financial improvement.

A number of creditors who did not agree with the restructuring of the IBAs foreign liabilities, appealed to the New York court, stating their non-recognition of the restructuring. The court considered the appeal and ruled in favor of IBA. Thus, the bank's assets will remain untouched in the process of restructuring.

Following the decision of the New York court, the London court also made a positive decision concerning the IBA to prevent foreign creditors lawsuits in the UK regarding the banks assets.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has been operating since 1992 and is one of the countrys two state-owned banks.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

JSC GazpromneftAero, the operator of aviation fuel business of Russias Gazprom Neft PJSC, and SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji Dagitim San Tic. A.S., which is one of the leaders on aviation fuel supplies in Turkey, have signed an agreement, the Russian company said in a message.

The agreement envisages refueling of partner airlines of SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji at Russian airports where the Gazpromneft-Aero operates, says the message.

Under the agreement, Gazpromneft-Aero opened access to its airport network in Russia for SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji and began refueling Pegasus Airlines at Tolmachevo International Airport in Novosibirsk. Total volume of aviation fuel supplies will be more than 1,100 tons during the year, says the message.

Director General of Gazpromneft-Aero Vladimir Yegorov said that the tourist flow between Russia and Turkey is being restored today, according to the message.

In the first half of 2017, the total volume of our refueling operations in Turkey was more than 13,000 tons of aviation fuel, which is by three times more than the figures for the same period of 2016. Cooperation with the aviation fuel supplier  SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji  is an important step in the development of international business Gazpromneft-Aero, which will allow strengthening our positions in the region, where we have been operating since 2010, and increase the number of suppliers, noted Yegorov.

The cooperation with Gazpromneft-Aero is of great importance for us. We join efforts in order to offer our clients a broader network and high quality services in the aviation fuel industry, said Alp Karahan, international sales director of SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji.

The long-term relations between our countries will facilitate this process. We are confident that the new agreement will lead to broader and all-round cooperation in all possible areas of business between the two companies in the future, added Karahan.

Gazpromneft-Aero is a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft. The company has been operating since January 1, 2008, to refuel aircraft and sell aviation fuel. Gazpromneft-Aero has been a strategic partner of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the field of aviation fuel supply since December 2008. The company provides services for refueling aircraft at more than 200 airports in 60 countries.

SOCAR Turkey Petrol Enerji Dagitim San Tic. A.S. is a subsidiary of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR. SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.S. is one of the leaders in the Turkish market of retail sales of oil products.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 18

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The International Ocean Institute (IOI) is holding a seminar on marine spatial planning in Ashgabat for experts from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, the Turkmen government said in a message July 18.

The event is being held with the assistance of the State Enterprise on Caspian Sea Issues under the President of Turkmenistan.

The seminar is aimed at improving the competence and practical skills in marine spatial planning that is related to understanding the role of ecosystems. Special emphasis is placed on coordination of interests of various agencies when working in coastal zones and the sea, reads the message.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Georgian Prime Minister Georgi Kvirikashvili plans to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan in the near future, the press service of the Georgian government said in a message.

It was announced at the meeting of Georgi Kvirikashvili with Turkmen Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov in Tbilisi on July 17.

Within the meeting the issues of bilateral cooperation and details of the upcoming visit were discussed. Special attention was paid to the development of bilateral cooperation in economy, transport and energy.

Moreover Kvirikashvili invited Turkmen Foreign Minister to attend the Silk Road Forum, which will be held in Tbilisi in the fall of 2017.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

India wants to re-negotiate bilateral investment treaties with Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and a number of other countries, Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said, Indian media outlets reported.

The minister said that while approving the new Model Bilateral Investment Treaty text in 2015, the Indian government had also approved the proposal to terminate those out of total 83 existing bilateral investment treaties that the country had signed with other countries, whose initial validity period had expired.

Sitharaman noted that India has already received response from number of these countries including Turkmenistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and others, who have come forward to renegotiate a new bilateral investment treaties.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 18

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Washington hosted the Turkmen-US business session on development of trade and economic relations and business ties, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said July 18.

The event was held with the participation of officials of Argus Ltd, Boeing, CNH Industrial, Ellicott Dredges, General Electric, John Deere, Lindsey, Microsoft, Oxbox Energy Solution, Caterpillar and Westport Trading Europe Ltd.

The Turkmen delegation included representatives of the countrys ministries, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

The issues of expanding cooperation in trade, economy, energy and transportation as well as in the oil and gas industry, mechanical engineering and agriculture were on the agenda.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 18

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Uzbekistan and the European Union expressed readiness to develop long-term and mutually beneficial partnership on a wide range of issues both in bilateral format and at interregional level during the 13th meeting of the EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council, said the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service in a message.

Uzbekistans delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov during the summit held recently in Brussels, Belgium.

During the meeting, issues of bilateral agenda and the implementation of previously reached agreements were substantively discussed, according to the message.

The delegations of Uzbekistan and the European Union noted the interest in consolidating efforts in the fight against terrorism, religious extremism, the spread of drugs and other types of organized crime. Prospects for cultural and humanitarian cooperation were also discussed at the meeting.

Before the meeting, a brief ceremony was held on signing a protocol to the agreement on partnership and cooperation in connection with Croatias accession to the EU.

From the Uzbek side, the document was signed by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, from the European Union  by Sven Mikser, Foreign Minister of Estonia, which chairs the EU, and Petros Sourmelis, head of European Commission Directorate-General for Trade.

Uzbekistan and the EU signed an agreement on partnership and cooperation in 1996. The EUs diplomatic representation was opened in Uzbekistan in 2012.
Tashkent will host International fruit and vegetable fair on September 6-8, 2017, Uzbek Embassy in Azerbaijan said in a message.

Uzbekistan invites foreign companies to take part in this fair.

The main purpose of the fair is:

-a wide introduction of vegetables, fruits, grapes and melons with unique qualities, as well as processed products produced in Uzbekistan, ecologic clean fresh and processed vegetables, fruits, grapes, melons, and watermelons;

-Establishing long-term and reciprocal partnership relations between the fruits and vegetables producers, processing enterprises and foreign companies -importers, conclusion export contracts.

Within the framework of the fair will be held the roundtables and bilateral negotiations between the Uzbek fruits and vegetables exporters and consumers, as well as presentation of investment opportunities in agriculture and food industry of Uzbekistan.

Organizers of this fair are Uzbekoziqovqatxolding Holding Company,Uzbekvinosanoatxolding Holding Company, Association Uzbekozikovkatzaxira, Uzagroexport JSC,NEC Uzexpocentre JSC and Directorate of the International fruit and vegetable fair Ltd.

The participation at International fruit and vegetable fair is free of charge.

Feel free to contact the organized for any reason at [email protected] or by phone: (+99871) 246 44 15.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 18 (PTI) Actress Shraddha Kapoor today said it would be unfair to call out the Indian film industry alone for being obsessed with fair skin as such mindset is prevalent in the country everywhere.

Her comment came in the backdrop of a cryptic tweet from actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui where he hinted at being discriminated on the basis of his skin colour.

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Siddiqui, 43, purportedly responded to an interview by casting director Sanjay Chouhan, in which he said that he could not cast "fair and handsome" people opposite the actor in "Babumoshai Bandookbaaz".

"Thank you for making me realise that I cannot be paired along with the fair and handsome because Im dark and not good looking, but I never focus on that," Nawaz wrote.

At the trailer launch of Shraddhas next, "Haseena Parkar", when the actress was asked if there was racism in the industry, she, however, avoided to comment directly on Nawazs tweet but said the pressure of looking good did not confine to industry only.

"My definition of beauty is very different I believe that beauty is entirely skin deep... You can come from any background, you can have any skin colour but true beauty radiates from within.

"Of course, in our society there are pressures and I dont feel its only prevalent to the film industry, its just that our industry is in the limelight so things tend to get highlighted because of that," she told reporters.

The 30-year-old actress added, "There are pressures in different ways but whats really important is how to deal with that kind of pressure, understanding, knowing and underlining the things that truly matters." PTI JUR RSY SSN SSN

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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18



By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:



About two years after international community decided to partially remove international sanctions on Iran following a historic deal on Tehrans nuclear program, the Middle Eastern nation urges for foreign investment to improve its aviation safety.



The country, in order to develop its airports needs to lure in at least $6 billion in foreign investment, the head of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company, Rahmatollah Mahabadi, has said.



Mahabadi added that the organization also requires $250 million for purchasing navigation equipment, IRNA news agency reported.



He further stated that renewing technical equipment in airports would contribute to improving aviation safety.



Tehrans Mehrabad airport hosts 400 flights per day ranking the first among the countrys 54 airports in terms of aircraft movements.



In the meantime about 1,100 international flights fly over Iran and the country itself operates 900 domestic flights per day.



Iran reached a landmark nuclear deal with the US and five other world powers in July 2015 that imposed restrictions on Tehrans nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear related sanctions on the Islamic Republic.



Iranian officials have accused the US of failing to honor its commitments under the nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Washington has to reassess its approach of issuing sanctions against other countries as they are a liability for the US, says Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, PressTV reported.

During a press conferences held in New York with President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass on Monday, Zarif noted that the US will become the prisoner of its own sanctions if it does not alter is current policies.

Zarif went on to stress that imposing sanctions on others countries usually does not yield a positive outcome.

Last month, US Senate voted for a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program, alleged support for terrorism, and human rights violations.

Irans top diplomat went on to criticize the US and its allies over their refusal to take part in a UN organized summit aimed at banning the use of nuclear weapons.

Earlier in the month, the United States, along with Britain and France, announced that they would never become party to a global treaty that was endorsed by 122 countries at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Zarif went on to note that Iran would always remain dedicated to its vow over never producing nuclear weapons.

"We believe that nuclear weapons do not augment anybody's security. Our objection to nuclear weapons does not recognize friend or foe. We simply believe that nuclear weapons are unacceptable and -- in our view -- illegal because of their consequences, he said.

The Iranian foreign minister also noted that despite differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, he hoped that Tehran and Riyadh could work together towards resolving the issues.

If we don't agree with each other about the situation in Yemen or about the situation in Syria, we can still work with each other in order to bring those situations to an end. We believe nobody is gaining from the continuation of the conflict in Yemen," he added.

He warned that a plan by Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to hold an independence referendum would have negative consequences for the country.

"We believe that the referendum is not the right choice. We believe that it would bring about centrifugal tendencies in Iraq that would be disastrous for the country, and it would not be limited to the Kurdish population, Zarif said.

The president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, announced on Twitter in June that the northern territory would hold an independence referendum on September 25 not only in the three provinces that make up the Kurdish region, but also in the areas that were bone of contention between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the central government in Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on June 13 that the Kurdish minority's decision to hold an independence referendum was untimely.

I believe the impact on Iraqi security would be disastrous, and the impact on regional security would be disastrous. So, we have advised our friends in Iraqi Kurdistan -- and all of them are our friends, from Mr. Barzani to others in Iraq. We have advised all of them that this is the wrong choice and they should not make this choice," Zarif added.
Ecuadorian authorities have confiscated over 50 tonnes of drugs within multiple raids since the beginning of the year, Ecuador's Interior Minister Cesar Navas said, Sputnik reported.

The minister noted that a total of 6,152 suspects were detained within the anti-drugs raids.

"We are countering drug trafficking, we have seized 56,38 tonnes within 5,381 operations since the beginning of the year," Navas said.

In March, Ecuadors anti-narcotics police and coast guards seized 1.9 tonnes of cocaine worth nearly $40 million as part of their Sea Hunt operation off the Galapagos Islands.
The U.S. needs to immediately arrest the head of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday, Anadolu reported.

Terror leader Fetullah Gulen, who martyred many and tried to overthrow democracy in Turkey last July, resides in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as if nothing happened, Kurtulmus said at a news conference at the Presidential Palace while a Cabinet meeting was being held separately.

Gulen is granting interviews to major global media outlets and, in this way, is trying to motivate the organizational commitment of his supporters, Kurtulmus added.

He said Turkey and the U.S. have a long history of an alliance in NATO, but also strategic alliances in the Mideast and Turkish-American relations have an intense history.

"Alliance and friendship need to bring in and arrest that man immediately," Kurtulmus said. "It is unacceptable that a head of a bloody, murderer organization will continue his threats to Turkey from there.

FETO and Gulen are accused of orchestrating the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, that lmartyred 250 souls and left 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.

Kurtulmus said more than 111,000 public officials have been dismissed for links to FETO.

Another 32,180 were removed [temporarily]. If you think that there are 3.5 million public officials -- the number of the dismissed corresponds to 3.5 percent of total public officials, Kurtulmus

A fundamental aspect of the fight against FETO is destroying the groups financial resources that has large financial facilities, he said. "Therefore 966 companies linked to the organization (FETO) were confiscated.

Kurtulmus also said more than 6 million people participated in events Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the defeated coup.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey will send humanitarian aid to Qatar using a new transit route that runs through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran, Turkish media outlets reported July 18.

This decision was made due to the fact that sending humanitarian aid by plane is more expensive than using the new route, according to the report.

Turkey sent food aid in the amount of 15,000 tons to Qatar on June 20.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE announced about breaking their diplomatic relations with Qatar June 5, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East.

Later, the authorities of Libya, Yemen, as well as the Maldives and Mauritius also announced about severing diplomatic relations with Qatar.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Signing of an agreement between Turkey and Russia for the purchase of the S-400 Triumph air defense system is a matter of time, Turkish media outlets cited Minister of National Defense Fikri Isik as saying.

Isik noted that Ankara has almost agreed with Moscow on details to buy the S-400 Triumph system, according to the report.

Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to sell Ankara the S-400 Triumph system, but the issue of localization of the production in Turkey would depend on the readiness of the countrys industry.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Turkeys EU affairs minister has reiterated that his country wants to be a full member of the European Union and will not be open to any other offer apart from that one, Anadolu reported.

Speaking at the 36th Turkey-EU Joint Advisory Committee in Brussels on Tuesday, Omer Celik said Turkeys strategic aim in the EU accession talks is to get full membership.

The EU should support Turkey during this difficult period in the region by understanding the reasons for the fight against terrorism, by providing visa liberalization and especially by accelerating the accession process, Celik said.

Turkeys accession talks began in 2005. Negotiations hit a stalemate in 2007 because of Turkeys position on the Cyprus issue. German and French governments had also opposed the countrys full EU membership.

To gain membership, Turkey has to successfully conclude negotiations with the EU over 35 policy chapters that involve reforms and the adoption of European standards.

Celik said Turkey was ready to open EU chapters 23 and 24 about the judiciary and fundamental rights as well as justice and freedoms.

He said it was double standard to criticize Turkey without opening these EU chapters.

Minute silence for July 15

Earlier this month, the European Parliament approved a 2016 commission report on Turkey, which called on EU member states to suspend Turkey's long-running accession talks if constitutional changes endorsed in an April 16 referendum went ahead unchanged.

The vote was non-binding in terms of the EU decision-making, as the approved version of the report will be sent back to the European Commission to agree on the changes made by the parliament.

Speaking to reporters later in the day at the Turkeys EU permanent representation in Brussels, Celik praised the decision to observe a one-minute silence at the beginning of the committee meeting to mark the one-year anniversary of the defeated coup in Turkey.

Since the July 15 coup attempt, I have attended many meetings under the framework of the European Union. This is the first time a moment of silence has been observed, he said.

The Turkish minister also inaugurated a photo exhibition by Anadolu Agency on the July 15 coup attempt.

According to the Turkish government, 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.

Celik said that during the meeting, the Cyprus issue was also discussed.

Cyprus issue discussed

Certainly, Turkey is on the side of solution. Although the Turkish side has shown a positive approach [during the talks in Switzerland], this last solution chance has been missed.

The minister said Turkey would support an equal and a sovereign state on the island.

A proposal that calls for Turkish troops to not be on the island at the start of negotiations is out of the question, he said.

The latest attempt to reunite the island failed earlier this month.

The Eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks, and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.

Celik said he expected Turkey-EU relations to intensify in the coming days.

Next week, we will have a high-level dialogue here. We will come with our foreign minister, he said, adding they would meet EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

Turkey-EU refugee deal

He added that September and October would see meetings linked to energy and economy.

Our preparation for a summit is ongoing. We have not set a date for the summit, he added.

The Turkish minister also described the Turkey-EU deal on refugees, which was signed last year in March, as the only success story of the bloc.

The readmission deal allows for the return of irregular migrants to Turkey from Greece in exchange for Syrian refugees to be relocated within the EU.

In return, the EU promised Turkey an acceleration of Turkeys EU membership bid and visa-free travel for Turkish nationals within the Schengen area, on the condition that Ankara meets 72 requirements set by the EU.

The deal includes 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in aid package to help Turkey care for millions of refugees hosted in the country.

Celik said although Turkey was sticking to the agreement, the EU was violating it in a number of ways such as not opening chapters of Turkeys accession talks, and not realizing visa-free travel for Turkish citizens as well as not sending the aid package.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 18, 2017 - 19:53 | All, Japan

Heavy rain lashed northeastern Japan's Fukushima and Niigata prefectures on Tuesday, prompting evacuation orders in affected areas amid fears of river flooding, while part of Tokyo observed hail in the afternoon, disrupting traffic.

Strong hail smashed sections of the platform's roof at JR Komagome Station on the Yamanote loop line in the capital, but no one was hurt, East Japan Railway Co. said.

Near JR Ikebukuro Station, hail covered the ground, the train operator said, adding temporary traffic disruption affected some 17,000 people.

The town of Tadami in western Fukushima ordered over 4,300 residents to evacuate, warning against river flooding and landslides. Local train service has been partially suspended, according to East Japan Railway.

In the city of Gosen and the town of Aga in Niigata, over 1,400 residents were ordered to move to shelters amid flood concerns, according to the municipalities.

There were no reports of injuries in the towns and city on Tuesday morning.

Elsewhere in Niigata, such as the cities of Nagaoka and Sanjo, an evacuation advisory was in effect on Tuesday, affecting over 20,000 people.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 18, 2017 - 15:02 | Feature, All, Japan

Japanese vessels left a port in northern Japan on Tuesday to conduct what the government calls research whaling off the country's northeastern coast, a whaling group and the Fisheries Agency said.

The vessels plan to catch around 30 minke whales in the northwestern Pacific, between 50 to 90 kilometers off the Sanriku coast, until mid-August so they can analyse their stomach contents and use the gathered data to manage marine resources, according to the agency and the Association for Community-Based Whaling.

A pair of vessels left the port of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture in the morning.

"We aim to collect scientific data to be able to begin commercial whaling again," Yoshifumi Kai, the association's representative, said at a ceremony marking the ships' departure.

In May, the agency submitted to the International Whaling Commission Japan's plan to catch a total of 170 minke whales per year in the northwest Pacific, with 47 caught so far in June and July.

The maximum number of whales to be caught in the Pacific coastal region covering the area off the Sanriku coast has been set at 80 annually.

Previously Japan conducted coastal research whaling in the region out of the port of Ayukawa in Ishinomaki in neighboring Miyagi Prefecture and the port of Kushiro in Hokkaido. But it has expanded the research area from the current fiscal year to conduct detailed research.

The next phase of whaling in the region will be launched out of Kushiro in the fall.
The Rajasthan government today reached a deal with Rajputs agitating over the encounter death of gangster Anand Pal Singh, agreeing to recommend a CBI probe into the shootout.

By Rohit Parihar: Local leaders spearheading the Rajput agitation over the death of Anand Pal Singh in a police encounter have withdrawn their protest and call for a march to Jaipur after the Rajasthan government accepted their demand for a CBI inquiry into Singh's encounter.

Singh, a gangster, was killed on June 24 in an hour-long operation that saw the involvement of six police units, including some from the Haryana Police. His death sparked protests, with many believing that Singh was killed in a fake encounter.

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The protests turned violent on July 12 when a 80,000-strong crowd gathered to pay homage to Singh in Rajasthan's Sanward. The violence left one protester dead and 25 policemen injured.

Following the violence, the state government deferred deciding on transferring the encounter probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, the government today reached an agreement with the agitating Rajputs and said that it will recommend that the CBI take over investigation into both the encounter and the subsequent violence.

It remains to be the seen whether the CBI will agree to take up the probes or whether the agency will wait for a go-ahead from the Centre.

Following the state government's decision, the Rajputs called off their planned march to Jaipur on July 22, the same day when BJP President Amit Shah is expected to be in the city.

ALSO READ | Why this dreaded gangster's Facebook update has Rajasthan Police worried

ALSO WATCH | Protests by Rajputs turn violent in Nagaur, heavy security deployed

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UK invests 86m in healthcare SMEs

The UK government has set up a new fund to support medical innovation. Breakthrough innovations that have the potential to benefit the NHS will also undergo accelerated access review aimed at speeding up access to novel medicines.

The governments ambition is that NHS patients get world-leading, life-changing treatments as fast as possible, said health minister Lord OShaugnessy. That cant happen unless we support medical innovation and tear down the barriers  like speed to market and access to funding  that can get in the way, especially for SMEs.

Under the 86m funding, 39m are earmarked for regional academic health science networks under the NHS that aim to improve patient outcomes.

Further 35m will go to the Digital Health Technology Catalyst for innovators, for the development of apps and digital technologies. Additionally, the government will fund real-world assessment of drugs and medical devices with 6m, a more empirical way of testing in contrast to evidence-based randomised clinical trails which require time-consuming enrolment of patients. Real world data could bring speed to the system as algorithms identify patterns in existing patient data which could support therapy decisions. Most recently, the NHS gave 1.6 millon patient records to Google-owned artificial intelligence company DeepMind for a trial. Another 6 million will go to the Pathway Transformation Fund, aimed at integrating new technologies into the NHS' daily operations.

Industry welcomed the fund. Peter Ellingworth, CEO of the Association of British Healthcare Industries, said: The measures could significantly enhance the UK as a destination of choice for MedTech companies, in turn, benefitting patients, the health system and the wider economy. Dr Richard Torbett, executive director or Commercial Policy at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), added: As more and more small and medium-sized innovators join the ABPI, we continue to encourage and advocate ways to make ground-breaking, cost-effective healthcare technologies available as fast as possible. In doing so, patients will not only benefit from improved care, but the NHS will also become more productive and more sustainable in the long term.
Aedes aegypti mosquito

Verily, the life sciences branch of Alphabet (Google's parent company), has started releasing millions of mosquitoes in California.

The team behind the project  made up of scientists from Verily, biotech company MosquitoMate, and Fresno Countys Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District  plans to set a million of the flying insects free each week for 20 weeks.

The mosquitoes are being released into two neighborhoods in Fresno, California as part of a field study for the Debug Project, an initiative that aims to decimate certain mosquito populations.

The mosquitoes were raised by a robot that can produce a million mosquitoes a week. They're all male, so they won't bite anyone  only female mosquitoes bite humans.

The bugs have been specially raised to carry a bacteria called Wolbachia, which has an insidious effect on the reproductive process. Mosquitoes that carry Wolbachia can fly around normally and mate with females, but the eggs those females lay aren't able to hatch  unless the females are infected with the same strain of the bacteria as well.

Setting loose hoards of males carrying the bacteria, then, is like waging biological warfare on mosquitoes.

Wolbachia is common in nature, and scientists have known since 1967 that the bacteria can make certain mosquitoes and other insects sterile. Researchers working to fight mosquito-borne diseases have long been interested in using the bacteria to kill off local mosquito populations, but it wasn't until this year that they discovered how genes in the bacteria cause mosquitoes to produce nonviable eggs.

The ability to kill entire mosquito populations could significantly curb disease transmission. Mosquitoes carry diseases like yellow fever, malaria, dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, among others. They're responsible for more than 800,000 human deaths a year, making them the most dangerous animal on the planet. And in a warming world, the range of some of these disease spreaders is expanding, making population control efforts more urgent than ever.

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This Wolbachia approach is promising because it doesn't require genetically engineering or modifying the bugs  a strategy that has triggered opposition from people concerned about releasing modified genes into the wild. (Some researchers are also working on ways to modify Wolbachia or use its sterility genes, but that's not part of this particular effort.)

Wolbachia doesn't infect humans and risk assessments of these tests have said that the potential for harm is negligible.

In the Fresno experiment  the largest one of its kind in the US so far  the Debug Project is targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquito, an aggressive invasive species that can transmit nasty diseases like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya.

The life cycle for these particular creatures is just over a week. As researchers flood the two areas with these infected male mosquitoes, the females living there will be less likely to find uninfected males to mate with, so each life cycle should lead to far fewer new mosquitoes. In the end, it may be possible to eliminate the bloodsuckers from certain areas completely.

If the trial is successful, it's likely that other related efforts will be carried out around the globe to target the mosquitoes that transmit malaria and other diseases. Similar tests have been carried out or are ongoing in Brazil, Vietnam, and Australia.

"[M]oving our work from the laboratory to the field is not only an important milestone for our group of biologists, engineers, and automation experts, but its also a critical step in bringing our long-term vision to reality," Verily scientist Jacob Crawford wrote in a blog post announcing the trial. "Field studies allow us to test our discoveries and technologies in challenging, real-world conditions and collect the necessary evidence to bring them to a broader scale."

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Arecibo_Observatory_Aerial_View

Astronomers say they've detected "strange signals" coming from the direction of a small, dim star located about 11 light-years from Earth.

Researchers picked up the mysterious signals on May 12 using the Arecibo Observatory, a huge radio telescope built inside of a Puerto Rican sinkhole.

The radio signals appear to be coming from Ross 128, a red dwarf star that's not yet known to have any planets and is about 2,800 times dimmer than the sun. Abel Mendez, an astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, said the star was observed for 10 minutes, during which time the signal was picked up and observed to be "almost periodic".

Mendez said it's extremely unlikely that intelligent extraterrestrial life is responsible, but noted that the possibility can't yet be ruled out.

"The SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] groups are aware of the signals," Mendez wrote in an email to Business Insider.

Explanations for the 'very peculiar' signals

While Arecibo is known for its role in efforts to search for signals from aliens, it's also great for looking at distant galaxies and pinging near-Earth asteroids.

Mendez thinks the signal is more likely from something humans put in space, perhaps a satellite that passed thousands of miles overhead.

[Money Basics: What is a commodity?]

"The field of view of [Arecibo] is wide enough, so there is the possibility that the signals were caused not by the star but another object in the line of sight," Mendez said, adding that "some communication satellites transmit in the frequencies we observed."

However, in a July 12 blog post about the mystery of Ross 128, he wrote that "we have never seen satellites emit bursts like that" and called the signals "very peculiar".

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red dwarf star illustration naa gsfc s wiessinger

Another possible explanation is a stellar flare, or outburst of energy from the star's surface. Such bursts from the sun travel at light-speed, emit powerful radio signals, and can disrupt satellites and communications on Earth, as well as endanger astronauts.

Solar flares can also be chased by a slower-moving yet more energetic coronal mass ejections: a flood of solar particles that can distort our planet's magnetic field, generate geomagnetic storms, and cripple power grids and fry electronics.

Taking another look at Ross 128

To see if the signals are still there, Mendez said Arecibo is going to stare down Ross 128 and its surroundings many more times, starting July 16.

"Success will be to find the signal again" at the star's location but not in surrounding directions, he said. "If we don't get the signal again then the mystery deepens."

China Radio Telescope

Mendez wrote in his blog post that other radio telescopes might not be sensitive enough to pick up the signals, noting one exception: China's monstrous Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or FAST.

But FAST isn't operational right now, since it's being calibrated, and Mendez said he doesn't know when it will be back online.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, confirmed that the group is "well aware of the signals" and might use its powerful Allen Telescope Array in California "to check them out."

"The chances are high that they're terrestrial interference, in fact. That's really always been the case," Shostak told Business Insider in an email.

Right now there's really only one compelling signal from outer space that might come from aliens: "[T]he WOW signal," Shostak said. "That one is still quite odd."

Related:

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2017 is proving a scandal-ridden year for Uber, with workplace sexual harassment allegations and the departure of CEO Travis Kalanick. But theres one scandal likely to hound the ride-sharing startup for months to come: a legal battle with Waymo, the self-driving car company spun-out from Google (GOOG, GOOGL).

The case pits Ubers self-driving car technology against Waymos. According to the lawsuit, former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded nearly 14,000 confidential files in late 2015 related to Googles self-driving car technology before leaving the company to co-found Otto, a startup that developed self-driving technology for truck rigs. Uber then acquired Otto for a reported $680 million in August 2016.

Waymo claims the documents Levandowski downloaded were used to help develop Ubers own self-driving car technology and misappropriates its trade secrets, particularly those related to Googles distance-measuring LiDAR technology.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, argued the way Waymo has already conducted its litigation suggests there may potentially be sufficient evidence to corroborate Waymos claims. If true, Waymo has little reason to settle.

I just think Waymo is going to turn down the screws, Tobias said. Theyre not going to settle reasonably or comfortably or for some small amount, if at all.

Ubers legal battle with Waymo, the self-driving car company spun-out from Google, could have serious implications, particularly for Uber.

While the lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial some time in October, litigation around the case is evolving. This May, a federal judge in California judge referred the case to the US Attorneys Office for an investigation into possible trade secrets theft. On a conference call last week, Uber told investors it was engaged in court-mandated settlement talks with Waymos parent company, Alphabet Inc. Following one of those settlement meetings, Waymo agreed to drop three out of four of its patent claims.

Why its in Ubers best interest to settle

Its unclear whether Uber and Waymo will reach a settlement agreement before both parties go to trial, but Tobias contended its in Ubers best interest to settle.

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They dont need the trouble of this litigation, Tobias said. Theres too much going on at Uber right now to focus on this as an add-on.

Tobias has a point. This year alone, Uber saw an employee exodus, including the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick following months of controversy around alleged sexual harassment at the company. Without a chief executive, and with Uber attempting to improve its standing externally and internally, Uber doesnt need the added headache  and bad publicity  involved with a lengthy trial, which it could very well lose.

A Waymo spokesperson told Yahoo Finance the company has compelling evidence to back up its claims, although they did not go into specifics.

We initiated legal action because we came across evidence showing stolen Waymo files made their way into Ubers technology, and despite Ubers attempt to distract with constantly changing storylines, Waymo has continued to build its case with more evidence uncovered during expedited discovery, a Waymo spokesperson told Yahoo Finance. We believe we have strong evidence to put in front of a jury, and we look forward to our day in court.

Uber declined to comment for the purposes for this story.

The lawsuit could have serious implications, particularly for Uber, depending on the outcome. If Uber and Waymo settle, the public probably wont learn much, given settlement terms will likely be confidential, according to Tobias.

But if the case goes to trial and Waymo wins, Uber could face damages that eclipse the $680 million it originally paid to acquire Otto and Levandowski in 2016. (Uber fired Levandowski in May.) A verdict in Waymos favor could also deal a big blow to the research and development of Ubers self-driving cars, which are already deployed in Pittsburgh. As for Ubers reputation? It could be even more tarnished and battered than it already is.



JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to jpm@oath.com. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

More from JP:
Bitcoin

Bitcoin is making a comeback after taking a weekend plunge.

The cryptocurrency dropped by nearly 20% over the weekend, putting in a low of $1,758 a coin before recouping some of those losses. It's currently trading at $2,048.

At the low point, bitcoin was down by more than 40% from its record high of about $3,000, set June 12.

The weekend plunge pushed the cryptocurrency below the target of Sheba Jafari, the head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs. In early July, Jafari put out a note saying bitcoin was "still in a corrective 4th wave" that "shouldn't go much further than 1,857."

Jafari wasn't the only one who thought bitcoin was getting ahead of itself.

Tech billionaire Mark Cuban suggested bitcoin was in a "bubble." Back on June 6, just before the cryptocurrency put in its record high, Cuban tweeted: "I think it's in a bubble. I just don't know when or how much it corrects. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble."

Additionally, Jeffrey Kleintop, the chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said bitcoin was in a bubble unlike any we had seen before.

As for where bitcoin will go from here, Jafari's July 3 note suggested that after a big drop, a fifth wave would take bitcoin to record highs. "From current levels, this has a minimum target that goes out to 3,212 (if equal to the length of wave I)," Jafari wrote. "Theres potential to extend as far as 3,915 (if 1.618 times the length of wave I). It just might take time to get there."

Even with the recent plunge, bitcoin is up 113% in 2017.

Bitcoin

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The earthquake was very shallow, only 6 miles (10 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect, but it was far from any mainland and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

By Reuters: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami warning but the threat has now passed, the US Geological Survey and US Pacific Tsunami Center said.

The quake struck at 11:34 am on Tuesday (2334 GMT on Monday) some 125 miles (200 km) from the city of Nikolskoye on Bering island off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicenter was west of Attu, the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands.

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The earthquake was very shallow, only 6 miles (10 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified its effect, but it was far from any mainland and there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

The Kamchatka branch of Russia's emergency situations ministry had warned that waves up to 50 cm (1-2/2 feet) high could reach Nikolskoye.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had warned earlier that "hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 km (186 miles) of the earthquake epicenter." But it later said that based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake had passed.

The quake was initially reported as a magnitude 7.7 before being revised down to 7.4 and finally upgraded to 7.8, a major quake normally capable of causing widespread and heavy damage when striking on or near land.

The quake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including several above magnitude 5.0.

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--- ENDS ---
Earlier this month, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test capable of reaching Alaska. Much ink has been spilled as to what this test means for the U.S., how policymakers should address North Korea nuclearization efforts, and the likelihood of war between the two nations.

However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has yet to display that his regime does indeed possess the technological knowledge needed to successfully fire a nuclear-tipped ICBM to hit the U.S. Miniaturizing a nuclear warhead to fit atop a ballistic missile is just one hurdle, and ensuring it does not tear apart upon atmospheric reentry (no small feat) is another. What is more urgently concerning is the fact that North Korea already has all of the technology it needs to start a damaging war with the U.S. via its short- and medium-range missiles. If America were to go to war with North Korea, it would most likely be in defense or aid of America's East Asian allies.

The geographic proximity of Japan and South Korea to the hermit kingdom mean artillery or short- and medium-range missiles would suffice if Pyongyang were to conduct a damaging first strike. Unlike trying to hit the U.S. mainland, a target more than 5,000 miles away, Seoul and Tokyo, 121 miles and 798 miles respectively from the North Korean capital, present easier and similarly high-value targets, especially given both cities' sizable populations.

Moreover, the strong defense alliance between the U.S. and both countries provides tempting targets with which North Korea could inflict pain. The U.S. military has a strong presence in both countries, with more than 60,000 troops stationed at various bases throughout Japan and South Korea. An attack on naval base Yokosuka outside of Tokyo or Yongsan Garrison on the outskirts of Seoul would result in a significant number of American lives lost in addition to the enormous loss of Japanese and South Korean lives. In Seoul, the sheer number of U.S. artillery shells and the positioning of artillery would make it difficult to adequately defend a North Korean nuclear attack. Although U.S. military installations in Tokyo do not have the same tactical conundrum, the short- and medium-range missiles capable of striking Tokyo would inflict a heavy human cost.

The cornerstones of America's alliances with Japan and South Korea are their mutual defense treaties. If either Japan or South Korea were attacked, the U.S. would be obligated to come to their aid--and therefore into a war with North Korea. A war with North Korea on the Asian continent sparked over an attack on an American ally would incur the same grave costs of a direct conflict between Washington and Pyongyang, but with the added complexity of navigating potentially trilateral military interoperability and the political will and cost-benefit calculations of three democratic societies.

This growing threat of a conflict and North Korea's increasing belligerence should serve to strengthen ties, bilaterally and trilaterally, between Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea and continued U.S.-Japan cooperation to ramp up efforts against the dictatorial Kim regime are steps in the right direction. Maintaining positive relations between the U.S. and its East Asian allies should be a top priority for the Trump administration to counter North Korea's aggression.

As frightening as ICBMs sound, Pyongyang already possesses all the weapons it needs to draw America into a war. The question is whether the U.S. and its allies will continue to strengthen the tools required to deter such a conflict.

Hannah Suh is the program manager of the Asia-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security.

See original article on Fortune.com

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Mondays news that activist investor Nelson Peltz would kick off a proxy fight for a board seat at consumer giant Procter & Gamble (PG) comes amid significant cost-cutting at the company.

P&G, the biggest household and personal care company in the world, has spent the past five years cutting $10 billion in costs and shedding more than half of its brand portfolio. Last year, P&G even announced that it would cut another $10 billion in costs.

But thats not enough for Peltzs hedge fund Trian Management, which announced his $3.3 billion stake in P&G on Feb 14 and has said its disappointed by P&Gs performance.

AP Photo/Steve Helber

As a board member, Peltz would push for faster changes at the company behind Pampers, Tide, Crest, and Gillette. Peltz has already hinted at whats holding P&G back, and it all comes down to one word: bureaucracy.

Bureaucratic bog-down

In his SEC filing, Peltz pointed to an underlying issue of bureaucracy.

P&Gs challenges stem in large part from its organizational structure and culture, which can be highly resistant to change, according to the filing. Trian believes the job of a highly engaged shareowner in the boardroom is to foster a true sense of ownership among directors and inspire the board to take decisive and timely action to create sustainable, long-term value for both the company and its shareholders.

Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj added that the company has been slow to respond to changing consumer behavior relative to its peers. Dibadj says too many of P&Gs decisions have to go through the top levels of the company, and that the problem has persisted after CEO David Taylor took the helm in November 2015.

The bureaucracy and gummed-up-ness of the company is the issue. They just arent able to get things done, Dibadj told Yahoo Finance.

Forgetting about the consumer

P&Gs bureaucracy has made it difficulty for the company to rapidly meet consumer demands.

Though P&G has long called the consumer boss, it clearly lost sight of that mantra for too many years, Barclays Lauren Lieberman wrote in a recent note.

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Case-in-point? P&Gs strategy around diapers in China, which happens to be P&Gs second largest market. The company entered the market focusing on mid-tier pricing, according to analysts, as part of a one-size-fits-all strategy, even as key growth drivers in the region and category came from super premium.

P&G at last rolled out its premium tape diaper product last year and it fell flat with consumers, because it was designed with US consumer preferences in mind, according to analysts.

Rather than realizing that Chinese mothers are more focused on the texture (soft) and comfort (loose) of a diaper, the existing diaper is designed for a tight fit to prevent leakage, according to Lieberman. While a new diaper is slated to launch in August, the time to get to this point was long and well behind peers, according to analysts, reflecting the lack of agility at the company.

The company is also slow to make its prices competitive with peers. Bernstein conducted a price gaps analysis in the US, which showed that in categories including fabric care and grooming, P&G pricing remains significantly higher than peers.

And in some categories, like shampoo, P&G misdirected focus on the lower-end price tier, according to Dibadj, while stronger growth came from the higher end.

This has all translated to disappointing performance, according to analysts. Trian sites that P&Gs market share is down in 68% of the top 20 country-category pairings, as organic sales lag peers, as shown in the chart below.

And the impacts of this slower pace at P&G has been exacerbated by the rise in e-commerce and Amazon (AMZN), particularly as big-box stores like Walmart (WMT) have run a new price-comparison test, fueled by e-commerce pressure, putting pressure on packaged goods.

They have a long way to go to make it less complex

While P&G made a big deal when it slashed more than 100 brands, Dibadj said the changes havent been extreme enough.

They have a long way to go to make it less complex, Dibadj said. While they cut the majority of their brands, these were small brands, only about 15% of sales. Meanwhile, with the facade of scale, theyve created a lot of complexity.

And while P&G (whose stock is up 4% year-to-date versus the market up 10%) has made some efforts to better respond to consumers, much more needs to be done, according to analysts.

We believe that to be able to sustainably grow in line with the market, let alone gain share, it will take more than just a step up in advertising or just one product cycle per category given how out of synch P&Gs brand portfolio has become in many key markets globally, Lieberman wrote.

The first step in transforming the company

Peltzs efforts to speed up change may be the first step in transforming the company to get results to match peers, according to Dibadj.

I think the stick of a potential breakup, given past pushes by Peltz, will get folks to move a bit faster, Dibadj said. At this point, pushing for a breakup of P&G is an uphill battle met with a lot of resistance. I can imagine Peltz having some patience. But over time, the break-up may be the way to unlock the full potential of the company  Youll eventually get to the point where the complexity is too interwoven.

At the very least, Peltz is expected to invoke change, even if he hasnt disclosed specific details.

Peltzs past experience with Pepsi  where he took a stake in 2012  may provide a hint of whats to come at P&G. While Peltz advocated for a spin-off of the snack business and then a merger with Mondelez (MDLZ), analysts say the stick of a potential breakup prompted operational improvements at Pepsi, causing the stock to outperform and metrics to improve without that action.

His track record of improving companies is clear, Dibadj said.

Nicole Sinclair is markets correspondent at Yahoo Finance

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In a sign of entrenched mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan lawmakers and officials have opposed Islamabads new offensive against the Islamic State (IS) militants.

Lawmakers and a Defense Ministry official said the new offensive along Pakistans western border with Afghanistan was an attempt to deceive Kabul and the international community.

Fazal Hadi Muslimyar, chairman of Meshrano Jirga, upper house of the Afghan Parliament, criticized Pakistan for launching a new military offensive in a remote part of its northwestern Khyber tribal district, which abuts the restive province of Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan.

Pakistani actions are always aimed at misleading and deceiving the people and government of Afghanistan and the international community, he told lawmakers on July 18. In reality, this operation is not in the interest of Afghanistan. We want our forces to secure our borders.

Pakistani forces claimed to have killed at least eight militants and injured three more on July 17 during the first day of its offensive, formally named Khyber-IV.

The Pakistani military says the operation aims to cleanse and secure the forested Rajgal Valley in Khyber tribal districts remote Tirah region.

Rajgal borders Nagarhars Achin district. This remote Afghan region has served as an IS stronghold since the ultra-radical group controlling parts of Iraq and Syria launched its Afghan-Pakistani branch, Khorasan Province, in early 2015.

"This operation was necessary because Daesh (local name of IS) is getting established there and we have to stop its influence spreading into Pakistani territory through the Rajgal Valley," Pakistani military spokesman Lieutenant General Asif Ghafoor said on July 16. "There is no organized [IS] infrastructure [inside Pakistan], and we shall not allow them to establish themselves.

ISs Khorasan Province has mostly attracted former members of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. Despite losing significant chunks of the territory it overran in 2015 and reportedly losing thousands of fighters in Afghan and NATO military raids, there are still no signs of ISs immediate collapse.

Lawmaker Jumadin Gianwal, a member of Meshrano Jirga, says the Pakistani offensive is tantamount to Islamabad abandoning a recent understanding with Kabul. With Chinese and U.S. encouragement, the two neighbors recently agreed to closely coordinate their operations against insurgents.

Pakistan began this offensive on its own, which means it is not seeking peace with Afghanistan, he said. The Afghan government should not try to conceal this issue and instead raise it at the United Nations.

Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for Afghanistans Defense Ministry, agreed. He told Radio Free Afghanistan on July 16 that Islamabad is already violating its understanding with Kabul, which stipulated that China and United States would oversee Pakistani operations against any militants on its soil that Kabul deems as threatening its security.

After our understanding, they said the Haqqani network, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups dont exist in Pakistan, he said. This means they are not committed to [our mutual] understanding.

Waziri said that instead of looking for terrorists in remote regions, Pakistan should move against militants operating from its urban centers.

If they do away with Taliban centers and leadership councils in [Pakistani towns and cities] such as Peshawar, Quetta, and Miran Shah, the war in Afghanistan would end, Waziri said of two major Pakistani cities and a town along its western border with Afghanistan.

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul are threatened by endless blame games and accusations of support for militants.

Pakistan alleges that remnants of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan use safe havens in eastern Afghanistan to launch attacks in Pakistan. It constantly accuses Kabul of teaming up with regional archrival India to undermine its security.

Successive Afghan governments and their Western allies, however, blame the Pakistani military and its Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) spy service of bankrolling and sheltering the Afghan Taliban to foment instability in Afghanistan or even topple its government and political system.

Insurgent groups active in the two countries have claimed responsibility for attacks that killed tens of thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2002.

With reporting by Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Najia Safi, Asmatullah Sarwan, and the BBC.
Ocean View, Delaware, July 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



The Industry Growth report FLNG Market By Technology (LNG FPSO, FSRU), By Capacity (Small/Mid-Scale, Large Scale), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., UK, Russia, China, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, UAE, Turkey, Egypt, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Mozambique, Ghana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia), Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017-2024 by Global Market Insights, Inc. Says Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Market share is expected to reach USD 78 billion by 2024.

Favorable government initiatives including fiscal incentives to improve energy supply security will drive the FLNG market size. In 2017, the European Union enacted a proposal to invest USD 500 million in priority energy infrastructure including the implementation of FSRU vessels in the Member States. In 2016, the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funded the construction of Croatia floating LNG import facility with an objective of diversifying the countrys energy supply.

Significant developments of integrated LNG-to-power projects predominantly across the power deficit countries will stimulate the FSRU market. Growing demand for gas fueled power plants will reinforce the commercialization of LNG regasification which will positively impact the industry growth. Mobility, short construction periods, cost efficiency and lower environmental impact are some of the key factors which will positively drive the FLNG market. In 2015, South Africa Department of Energy (DOE) introduced its LNG to Power IPP Procurement Programme to produce upto 3000 MW of capacity from gas fired power plants.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1242

U.S. FLNG market is set to witness gain over 38 % by 2024. Favorable government measures to minimize ecological damage from marine operations will stimulate the product demand. In 2017, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) approved the countrys first deep-water floating LNG export facility in the Gulf of Mexico. The facility will include four floating liquefaction vessels, each having a capacity of 210,000 cubic meters of natural gas to reduce number of coastal shipments.

Competitive pricing, existing production assets and flexible volume contracts will embellish the small scale FLNG market growth. These developments can unlock marginal fields by eliminating the use of high pipeline infrastructure costs and highly capital intensive remote onshore LNG plant installation. Africa aims to commission its first floating LNG vessel offshore Cameroon to commence small scale LNG export operations by 2018.

Rising demand for cleaner fuel coupled with stringent government regulations across the maritime industry will stimulate the FLNG market size. The International Maritime Organization Tier III establishes limits on NOx emissions and requires the use of lower sulfur content fuel. The requirements apply to vessels operating in the U.S. waters and North American Emission Control Area (ECA).

Browse key industry insights spread across 200 pages with 324 market data tables & 9 figures & charts from the report, FLNG Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/floating-liquefied-natural-gas-flng-market

Colombia floating liquefied natural gas market is set to exceed 8 MTPA by 2024. High natural gas reserve potential along with flexible fiscal policies will fuel the industry growth. Robust growth in natural gas discoveries subject to the countrys regulatory reforms favorable to foreign investments will further complement the business outlook. Privatization of Colombian energy resources enabled many foreign players to foray into its exploration and production sector.

Technological innovation to design reliable and high performance floating infrastructure will stimulate the Australia FLNG market size. In July 2017, Shell introduced Prelude which can withstand the severest cyclones including those of Category 5. It will enable the development 3 Tcf of gas fields which are uneconomic to produce through other means.

UAE floating liquefied natural gas market share is predicted to grow over 10 % owing to rapid demographic and economic growth across the region. Growing demand for electricity along with increasing internal demand for natural gas will boost the product penetration. Abu Dhabi National Oil company is planning to implement a new floating import terminal (FSRU) in 2017 to offset growing internal gas demand.

Notable players in the FLNG market include Royal Dutch Shell, Golar LNG, Hoegh LNG, Excelerate, Exmar, Eni, Ophir Energy, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Petronas, Noble Energy, Woodside Petroleum, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, DSME and Associates, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1242

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Global Boiler Market Size 2017  2024

Global Boiler Market size was valued over USD 37 billion in 2016 and the annual installation is poised to exceed 11 million units by 2024. Rising electricity demand coupled with rampant investments toward industrial sector will propel the boiler market size.

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Levant Power Cable Market Size 2017  2024

Levant Power Cable Market size for 2016 was valued over USD 3 billion and is set to witness gain over 8% by 2024. Growing investments towards infrastructure development among war affected countries including Syria and Iraq will drive the levant power cable market size.

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OTTAWA, July 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (Cornerstone or the Company) (TSXV:CGP) (Frankfurt:GWN) (Berlin:GWN) (OTC:CTNXF) is pleased to announce results from the initial field program at its Bramaderos Gold-Copper Project in southern Ecuador where its subsidiary La Plata Minerales S.A. (PLAMIN) has signed a binding letter of intent with Avalon Minerals Ltd. (ASX:AVI) whereby Avalon will have the right to earn a majority interest in the project subject to satisfaction of certain conditions (see news release 17-08 dated April 10, 2017).



A location map of the Bramaderos concession, figures and photographs can be seen in PDF format by accessing the version of this release on the Companys website (www.cornerstoneresources.com) or by clicking on the link below:

http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/i/pdf/NR17-27Figures.pdf.

Highlights:

Rock chip sampling has returned encouraging results from several prospects within the Bramaderos Project area:

- 4.4 g/t gold from the West Zone prospect 1

- 1.2 g/t gold and 0.40% copper from Limon prospect 1

Detailed surface exploration across several prospects has commenced

Permitting for initial round of diamond drilling has commenced

Further Information:

The field campaign was aimed at reviewing all prospects at Bramaderos and defining priorities for ongoing work.

At the Limon Porphyry Gold-Copper Prospect, several surface samples in the vicinity of outcropping vein stockwork returned assays of:

1.0 g/t gold and 0.2% copper1

1.2 g/t gold and 0.40% copper1

0.9 g/t gold and 0.1% copper1

At West Zone Prospect a rock chip sample collected in the vicinity of historical trench samples returned 4.4 g/t gold (and 6.85 g/t silver) from hydrothermal breccias within an epithermal gold system, interpreted to have a strike extent of over 300m.

The historical trenching at West Zone (referred to above) resulted in 41.7m @ 3.37 g/t gold from surface.

At Yeso Prospect, samples from outcropping weakly developed quartz-magnetite stockwork returned 0.25 g/t gold, which is very encouraging for future exploration in this area, where greater intensity veining may be identified.

The results support the highly prospective nature of the Bramaderos Project and that mineralization occurs across several additional prospects beyond the principal Bramaderos Main porphyry gold-copper prospect, within the 5,000ha exploration area.

Systematic Exploration has Commenced

The exploration program on the Bramaderos concession has commenced. Field crews have been deployed to undertake geological mapping, surface rock sampling, grid soil sampling and trenching.

Detailed work programs are being simultaneously undertaken at the Limon, Bramaderos Main and West Zone prospects, whilst reconnaissance activities will be undertaken over other areas of the property.

Three geologists are undertaking field mapping and supervising the exploration activities.

Detailed soil sampling has commenced first at Limon and then will progress across the entire concession area.

Trenching has commenced at West Zone.

Reprocessing of historical ground magnetic data is in progress.

The program is expected to take 4 months and will include additional geophysical surveys.

Drill Permitting

The process for drill permitting has commenced. Permitting to use local water in the drilling program has been initiated with the relevant government office. Site baseline environmental assessments have commenced.

Regular meetings with stakeholders are being held to keep them informed of progress on current exploration activities and on the drill permitting process.

The Company expects to be in a position to commence drilling in Q4 2017.

Qualified Person:

Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstones Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Bramaderos project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release.

Sampling and assaying

Rock samples are collected by PLAMINs personnel, placed in plastic bags, labeled and sealed, and stored in a secure place until delivery by PLAMIN employees to the LAC y Asociados ISO 9001-2008 certified sample preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Rock samples are prepared crushing to 70% passing 2mm (10 mesh), splitting 250 g and pulverizing to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) (MSA code PRP-910). Prepared samples are then shipped to MS Analytical Services (MSA), an ISO 9001-2008 laboratory in Langley, BC, Canada, where samples are assayed for a multi-element suite (MSA code IMS-136, 15.0 g split, Aqua Regia digestion, ICP-AES/MS finish) and gold by Fire Assay (MSA code FAS-111, 30 g fusion, AAS finish). Over limit results for Cu (>1%) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code ICF-6Cu, 0.2 g, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES finish). Gold is assayed using a 30 g split, Fire Assay (FA) and AAS finish (MSA code FAS 111). Over limit results for Au (>10 g/t) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code FAS-415, FA, 30 g., gravimetric finish).

Quality assurance / Quality control (QA/QC)

The MSA Analytical Laboratory is a qualified assayer that performs and makes available internal assaying controls. Duplicates, certified blanks and standards are systematically used (1 control sample every 20-25 samples) as part of PLAMINs QA/QC program. Rejects, a 100 g pulp for each rock sample, are stored for future use and controls.

About Cornerstone:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a well-funded mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, and a proven ability to identify, acquire and advance properties of merit.

Further information is available on Cornerstones website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:

Investor Relations:

Mario Drolet; Email: Mario@mi3.ca; Tel. (514) 904-1333

Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/s/InformationRequest.asp

Cautionary Notice:

This news release may contain Forward-Looking Statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstones plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words potential, anticipate, forecast, believe, estimate, expect, may, project, plan, and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On Behalf of the Board,

Hugh Brooke Macdonald

President and CEO

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.

____________________________

1 NOTE: The results reported are from grab samples from outcropping rocks collected over approximately one metre, and are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the property.
560 to 700 and not sure if I am done [ #permalink

I am long time reader but have never posted. Here is my GMAT experience thus far. Like others before me, I split my story into a short form and a long form to be used at your discretion.



About Me: I am male, thirty-five years of age, and a native English speaker in the USA. I am single, no kids, and am commitment-phobe. I graduated cum laude from a large state university in the southern United States in 2004 where I studied finance and economics. Immediately after undergrad I went to law school, practiced law for two, and then worked in healthcare for a family owned business. My practice of law was not spectacular- it was during the foreclosure crisis associated with the Great Recession. Today, I recommend a legal education, however, based upon my experience, I do not recommend the practice of law. I am sure some people love the practice of law, but I am not one of them and only have one friend from law school that loves the practice. Growing up, I had always known that I wanted to go to work with my family's businesses when I was of age. The businesses were quite profitable and afforded for a high quality of life. After four years working with the family businesses I found myself incredibly disinterested in my work and living for the weekend or my next adventure. I thought that pursuing a weekend or part-time MBA would be an appropriate goal that could refocus my energy and develop leadership skills for future ventures. After a few conversations with friends that had completed top 25 full-time MBA programs I believed that the GMAT was the biggest piece of an admission package.



Short Form:



GMAT Prep Recommendations:

1. Manhattan series is great for getting quant skills into low 40s and for verbal basics (especially SC)

2. Practice exams are crucial- especially the and GMAC version

3. if you want a Quant 49 or higher

4. Reading complicated material helps a lot with Verbal. Period.

5. Anyone can earn a great GMAT score with practice.



Study Materials (chronologically):

1. Manhattan Series- 6th edition (10 books)- I read the forums and the forums were right about this resource

2. - $99 for a year

3.

4. - fabulous resource and the primary reason I increased from 48Q to 50Q



CAT Tests used (chronologically):

1. Manhattan #1 and #2

2.

3. Veritas #1 (Free)

4. GMAC #1-4

5. simulated Quant exams



CATs:



2016

1. MH #1 9/9 630 (42Q/34V)

2. MH #2 10/4 590 (42/31)

3. 10/25 620 (40/35)

4. 11/18 ?? (38/35)

5. MH #1 (redo) 12/3 650 (43Q/36V)



2017

6. GMAC #1 3/24 710 (47Q/40V)

7. GMAC #2 3/31 620 (44/32)

8. Veritas #1 4/21 650 (46Q/33V)

9. GMAC #3 4/28 710 (47/41)

10. GMAC #2 5/28 700 (48/38)

11. GMAC #4 7/4 700 (48/37)



Official Test Scores:

1. 560- (35Q/32) November 2013

2. 560- (36Q/30) April 2014

3. 670- (48Q/34) December 2016

4. 640- (43 or 44Q/35) February 2017

5. 700- (50/34) July 2017



Long Form:



This really is a long form. It amounts to over four pages single spaced. If you choose to read it I hope you see how I could have been more efficient. Leading up to tests #3-5 I tried to spend 2-5 hours per day studying for three to four weeks. Otherwise, I mostly studied at night for a couple hours or 20-30 problems at night for the large periods of time between tests.



Test #1: 8 am in November 2013- 560 (35Q/32V)- Did not sleep much the night before. I signed up for the GMAT, never studied, never cracked a book, and took it just to motivate myself to get going and see what I was getting myself into. I am not sure if the rule allowing for a maximum of 8 attempts was in effect, but honestly I wouldnt have known because I wasnt on BTG or GMAT Club. I was not upset with any aspect of this score as I had not performed any math beyond simple calculations since completing undergrad in 2004.



Test #2: Afternoon in April 2014- 560 (36Q/30V)- This time I completed the first seventy or eighty PS quant problems in the , and generally felt better about solving some equations than I had the previous November. I was honestly surprised I didnt break 600 because I had put in up to ten hours. I believed that my best test taking days were behind me. I still didnt really understand how the DS problems worked.



I didnt focus on the GMAT for the next two years or so. During this time, I found BTG and GMAT Club and read the forum a lot. I read many success stories and started to get a better idea of what it would take to perform well on the GMAT and to gain acceptance to a top 25 MBA.



In August 2017, I left my role with the family business and moved a few hundred miles away. I had severance and vacation stored up so that I would still have my income until December. I think I worked my way up to 6-7 hours per day after a few weeks, but I probably only got 5 good hours per day. I had not studied for anything since I sat for a Bar Exam. I immediately started preparing for the GMAT by acquiring the Manhattan 10 book series. Most of the quant felt pretty good going through the first half of the books, some of the more advanced topics such as the N! counting and probability still required more practice and understanding, but SC was still pretty Greek to me. I took the first MH Cat on 9/9/16, and scored a 620 (42/34). I remember being really happy that I broke 600, but knew that this endeavor was going to take more time than I had expected. I think I went through the MH books another time and scored a 590 (42/31) on 10/4/16. I remember not being thrilled about that one because I had dipped back under 600, but I took a few days off, went to a music festival in Austin, and came back ready to get back to work.



I started to use after the music festival. I had purchased a subscription earlier in the year but had yet to use it. I proceeded through the program every morning for an hour of verbal tutorials and another hour of quant every evening. I took a CAT on 10/25 scoring a 620 (40/35). I truly dont remember much about this practice test, its just what I read in my notes. My notes then indicate I took another CAT on 11/18 and scored (38/35). I am not sure what that total score would have been, but I was obviously disappointed.



I then set my exam for mid-December 2016, because I wanted to have my applications submitted by the end of the application period ending around January 10. I wanted to be starting somewhere in the fall of 2017. I acquired the latest and started working through all the problems. I focused upon quant up to the point where I could get every PS question correct without breaking a sweat. However, my DS was still a weak point, and despite constantly working on DS, I still had tremendous difficulty.



On 12/3/16, I retook MH CAT #1 and scored 650 (43/36)- my best score yet! I kept going through the questions and revisiting the tutorials in preparation for my official test.



Test #3: 8 am in December 2016- My official test appointment came a week or two after MH CAT #1 retake, and I remember the quant being pretty easy. I dont remember much about the verbal but I remember seeing my final score. I scored a 670 (48/34) and remember being ecstatic because I had not scored that high on quant in any practice. While this is not an elite score, and certainly does not qualify as beating the GMAT, I finally had some proof that my efforts were not frivolous.



I took the next few weeks off for weddings (yes, two in the two weekends before Christmas), personal travel, and the holidays. I applied to three top 25 full time programs that were part of large state universities, and two renowned weekend/part time MBA programs in Chicago.



In mid-January 2017, I went back to work, this time as an attorney for a government agency. It was far more laid back than my previous legal practice had been, but then I got to see firsthand how a government agency operates. This legal practice was significantly more user friendly than private practice, but still not for me. I also started toying around with taking the GMAT again because I would not hear from any of the full-time programs until mid or late March, and wanted to get another test score in before any final decision was made. So I booked another official GMAT for late February. I started waking up incredibly early, doing another hour of videos in the morning before work, and then practicing for a few hours that night with material.

I did not take another practice test of any variety during this prep. It was almost entirely focused upon verbal, with less than 4 hours of total quant review in the days leading up to the official. I hardly slept in the two days leading up to the exam, and spent every non-work minute studying.



Test #4: 8 am in late February 2017- The quant section came and went, I freaked out because I had difficulty with an easy problem and I never regained my composure. I thought the verbal section was easy and I finished the test with plenty of time to spare. I saw my score and immediately cancelled it. I do not have the exact score, but I think it was a 640 (43 or 44Q/35V). I was devastated. I felt like my efforts were wasted and that the GMAT had beaten me. I knew that I had burned myself out with excessive studying in the days leading up to the exam. I also believe that I would have benefitted from taking practice tests.



I didnt do anything GMAT oriented for the next month or so, had an interview at one of the full-time programs, but no offers for admission from any full-time. I live in a college town and ran into a guy in line at Starbucks who tutored the GMAT and other standardized tests. I told him about my attempts at the GMAT and he thought I could definitely score over a 700. He thought I could get at least a 40 on the Verbal with only a little effort. He recommended that I find the right process to continue my studies, and to practice more with questions. He immediately suggested that I take one of the official CATs from GMAC.



I did as he suggested and on March 25, I took the first of the free GMAC CATs and scored a 710 (47Q/40V)! I was amazed- where had this score come from? I took it that Saturday afternoon, no pressure, no practice, and no expectation. I immediately thought that my verbal work (for February 2017 test) had paid off, and that with a little review I could easily score a 720 and potentially become a candidate for a top 15 or even an M7. This score was pivotal because it made me rethink all my efforts, and to make another attempt at the GMAT. I contacted a few admission consultants and wanted to know more about my prospects for M7. I learned that I was definitely a candidate for M7, but that most consultants thought HSW were out of the question because of my age.



I took the second free CAT from GMAC and scored 620 (44/32) on April 1. Again, I was blown away by this score- the serious self-doubts returned. After a few days, I realized that the while taking the CAT I was distracted and gradually became more upset at my girlfriend who kept interrupting me throughout the test. I blamed my mental status on her interruptions and I went back to reviewing my books and free content on YouTube from various providers.



I then started reviewing BTG and GMAT Club to find the right process and to educate myself on the different services available to boost GMAT scores. I had finalized my choices to , the local tutor, and a handful of other commonly advertised online options. During this time, I had a chance to speak with Scott at . I found his both his MBA application and GMAT preparation recommendations incredibly insightful. One of Scotts recommendations was to purchase the next set of GMAC tests #3 & #4. I took GMAC CAT #3 on 4/28/17, and scored 710 (47Q/41V). Looking back, I think I scored so well (for me) on the verbal sections of GMAC CATs #1 & #3 because I was reading every night. My reading included the complicated articles in The Economist that everyone recommends, and novels, both fiction and non-fiction.



After evaluating time, cost, and success stories, I chose because I thought it would be more important to improve my quant since my GMAC CAT verbal scores were at 40/41. I signed up for in the next few days and started the short study plan so that I could sit for the test again and finally break 700. The program was easy to follow, had user friendly explanations in text and many also in video, and guided me to a deeper understanding of why every answer was correct. I used for two months, and nearly every night I took quizzes that allowed me to cover at least 40 questions per night. In addition to the structured program, the people behind the program, Scott and Jeff, were always available and responded to emails within a few hours.



I retook GMAC CAT #2 on 5/28 with a less distracting test environment and scored 700 (48/38). I was right, the previous attempt at this version was a fluke!



I continued using and in the end of May went to Chicago for a long weekend to interview and tour both Booth and Kellogg. I returned from my trip and went back to work with . I took another week off mid-June for a family reunion at the beach in Florida. For the next three weeks, every night I completed a 37 question simulated Quant test composed of only medium and hard questions from the bank. I believed that increased testing simulation would provide the necessary preparation for my exam in the second weekend of July. During this time, I also found out that I was accepted at both Booth and Kelloggs part time programs. This was a huge relief as I finally knew that I would be able to begin an MBA somewhere in September 2017.



I took GMAC CAT #4 on the morning of July 4, and scored a 700 (48/37). I was a little disheartened to see that my quant score was not higher than anything I had previously scored and that my verbal scores seemed to be dropping. I spent the rest of my evenings leading up to the test in July focusing upon verbal.



Test #5: 2pm in July 2017- This day had finally come. I had a lot of practice tests behind me, a better understanding of quant, and much more confidence in verbal. My nerves calmed while working through the essay and IR. The quant had two questions that threw me off and honestly seemed silly because the questions did not make any sense with the values provided. Looking back, I think they were experimental, but they definitely shook me. Regardless, I never believed that I had regained my confidence in that section, but I did regain my composure and finished the section with more than five minutes to spare. I had taken enough practice tests to know that I probably scored at least a 46 and that a good verbal could salvage my score. I felt really comfortable throughout verbal, there were a few RC questions that I was not a fan of, but attributed those to being hard questions and progress towards a high verbal score. I finished the verbal section with seconds to spare and was excited to see what the score screen would bring. I was not shocked when I saw my 700, but rather more relieved. I was shocked at the composition of my score- 50Q and 34V. I am thrilled with the 50Q but am obviously disappointed with the 34V. I dont know the breakdown on verbal, but I truly believe that my GMAC CAT verbal scores were so much higher because I was reading every night instead of studying.



I am not sure if I am going to take the GMAT again. I scored significantly higher on verbal in the GMAC CATs and really want to take the test again. I feel like I beat the Quant, but that I have not beaten the GMAT. I think I am really close to a great score and just dont want to move on without accomplishing my goal of a 50/40. On the flip side, I did not increase my score in the most efficient manner and do not see a large upside to a higher score. The only constructive reason to score higher would be yet another signal to potential employers.



I found while visiting the full-time programs that employers care about your GMAT score. Apparently the schools highly recommend that a score of 700 or higher should be included on your resume that you bring to career events. I was also told by current students that if you want an internship in IB or Management Consulting that you need to score a 700+. Again, I do not know this to be fact, I am just restating what I was told by student ambassadors.



I decided that given my age and desire to eliminate student loans for living expenses, a PT or EMBA program would be the best fit. I accepted the offer for admission to one of the part time programs in Chicago and will begin in a September 2017.



Good luck and know that the stories are true- anyone can earn a great score on the GMAT with focus and effort.
Profile evaluation request [ #permalink

First post here. I would like to request an honest evaluation and would appreciate any help.



Current age 25, Male, Bangladeshi citizen but settled and working in London

Planning to take GRE (note, not GMAT as I am also applying to some Msc programmes with a GRE requirement) early 2018 - fairly confident of a competent score. Also considering doing GMAT if I get time.



Academics:

First Class honours from the London School of Economics, graduated 2013

Major: Economics



Also a fully qualified Chartered Accountant (strong elements of accounting and corporate finance)



Professional Experience:

Started graduate programme in Big 4 within the Derivative Valuations team in London for Financial Audit - main client was a major UK retail bank. Conducted analytical work, eventually leading a significant work stream. Also worked with a software developer to implement an in house valuation tool for a major client.



After 1 year 10 months moved into the Economic Consulting team in a medium sized consulting firm (not as well known as say Big 4 but a very high performing team). Worked with high profile clients including Royal Mail, a global telecoms operator on a range of consulting projects (investment analysis, business case development, advisory on developing efficiency KPIs etc). Outputs included a number of company branded technical reports for clients, as well as bespoke financial models.



Also recently completed a secondment with our corporate finance team, working with the the government health service - the NHS across hospitals, commissioning bodies etc on a range of cost cutting, contract evaluation and other cases (can send CV privately).



Also have an internship in M&A at Citi (London) while at university.



Extra-Curriculars:

-At uni- president of Bangladesh society, runner up in Morgan Stanley Community Impact Challenge (part of team LSE), International officer in student halls etc.

-Big 4 firm: ran a number of accountacy study sessions at

-current employer: Recruitment planning and interviews, co-authored thought pieces with a Managing Director (on mail industry, healthcare and e-commerce) campus case study sessions.

- Anything else I could do in the coming year?



Academic and professional achievements

-Examiners prize for first year exams from LSE

-Second ranking graduate trainee at big 4 at the end of first year

-High school awards for academic performance



I'm interested in the following full-time programs:

-HBS

-Booth

-INSEAD (January)

-Kellog (2 year)

-London Business School (already was offered place in their finance programme for this year, but turned it down)



Realise these could be a stretch so would also appreciate advice on which schools would be a better fit with my profile.



Career goal

Strategy consulting with MBB, potentially but not set in stone. Also want to expand network and explore my options, refresh my thinking on my career quite generally, hence I would like a two year programme (Jan for INSEAD - so I can do an internship during summer).



Additionally, any pointers on what I can do what work to have a stronger profile prior to application over the coming year would be helpful.



Potentially applying for Fall 2019 admission.
By PTI: Washington, Jul 18 (PTI) An autonomous security robot, designed to patrol car parks and buildings, suffered a watery demise after falling into a fountain of an office building in Washington DC.

The drowned robot was spotted by passers-by whose photos of the aftermath quickly went viral on social media.

The machine was apparently making its usual rounds outside the Washington Harbour office and retail complex in Georgetown when it tumbled down some steps and into the fountain, the Washington Post reported.

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The robot began operating at the complex in recent days, it quoted an office worker as saying.

The Knightscope K5 is a rocket-ship shaped droid that stands around 4-feet tall. It is equipped with various hi-tech instruments - including face-recognition systems, high- definition video capture, infrared and ultrasonic sensors.

"Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself," wrote one worker from the building on Twitter.

"We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots," he said.

Others posted pictures of maintenance workers lifting the robot from the pool.

Knightscope, a Silicon Valley start-up, said in a statement that the incident was under investigation, pointing out that no one was hurt. The company called it "an isolated event" and promised to deliver a new robot this week for free. PTI AKJ AKJ

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Many months back, the Chibok community suffered from the sudden attack of Boko Haram members as their young girls were kidnapped.

On Monday, July 17, a young man identified as George Onmonya Daniel took to his Facebook profile to reveal how a little Chibok boy was paralysed by one Boko Haram bike man on the night the Chiblk girls were kidnapped. He added that the man climbed on the boys back.

This left his back bone shooting out but a good Samaritan identified as Nuhu Fulani Kwajafa has showed love to the small boy and he is set to send him abroad for proper medical treatment.

Boy being carried in a wheel chair. Source: Facebook, George Onmonya Daniel

READ ALSO: How Nigerian man Oluwaseun Talabi miraculously escaped death in a burning skyscraper (photos, video)

Daniel posted the boys picture with Kwajafa at the Abuja airport and the caption: The boy from Chibok just arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. On the night the Chibok girls were kidnapped, that same night, during Boko Haram terror raids on Chibok, one Boko Haram bike-man drove over him, and his backbone shot out. Now Nuhu Fulani Kwajafa GIPLC has decided to bring him here on his way for treatment overseas. Details coming

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

See post below:

Looking at the pictures, the Chibok boy could be seen in a wheel chair as he was wheeled into the entrance of the airport.

Thank God for life!

Watch Legit.ng video below:

Source: Legit.ng
George Soros gave Ivanka's husband's business a $250 million credit line in 2015 per WSJ. Soros is also an investor in Jared's business.
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King Khan had this traditional, royal thali, and so should you.

By Shreya Goswami: There's one experience every tourist in Rajasthan craves--that perfect Rajasthani thali, with a number of traditional dishes served on a big platter. And it seems that Shah Rukh Khan recently tasted this perfect platter, and fell in love with it.

While on tour in Rajasthan to promote his upcoming movie, Imtiaz Ali's Jab Harry met Sejal, Shah Rukh Khan stopped at Jaipur. He visited the Rajwada-Virasat Heritage Restaurant to grab a bite of this traditional Rajasthani platter.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/redchilliesent

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With a pagdi, tika and Rajput sword, King Khan looked as royal as the plate full of Rajasthani dishes served to him. This was his first taste of the thali, and he utterly loved it. "I had just heard of 'dal baati'. It's fantastic and really nice. I wonder how people finish this food it's really filling and very tasty. For me it's a 1st-time experience, now I will come here once in three months at least," he reportedly explained his experience.

Also Read: Give this Rajasthani favourite, papad ki sabji, a try at home

And while SRK has already had a taste of this glorious platter, we're sure not many of you have tried it. If that's the case, you must go for it soon. Rajasthani cuisine has proved for centuries that vegetarian food can be as gourmet as non-vegetarian food.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/rjheritagecity

The state might not have enough water, but that has just made their kadhis and sabjis more rich with cream, curd, milk and buttermilk. And their thali is an epic dish, with all sorts of components to cater to every kind of taste there is. Here are some of the most important dishes served on a large plate of Rajasthani thali.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/maharajabhoguae Picture courtesy: Instagram/maharajabhoguae

1. Dal Bati Churma

A taste of Rajasthani cuisine is incomplete without this dish. The small, round, deep-fried breads (plain or stuffed) are served with dal and a good dash of ghee.

Picture courtesy: Pinterest/Chitra Sendhil

2. Off-Beat Roti

With bajra, jowar and makka more readily available in Rajasthan, the thali usually has rotis made of these grains, instead of atta or maida flatbreads. That apart, khoba rotis and missi rotis are also delicious.

Also Read: Rajasthani pyaz ki kachori to laal maas--welcome to the land of feasts

3. Kachori

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Kachoris are popular in North and West India, but the Rajasthani ones have a very special flavour which you shouldn't do without. Try their pyaaz or onion kachoris, or their sweet and sublime mawa kachoris, and you won't regret it.

4. Kadhi

Apart from the well-known gram flour-based kadhi famed across India, Rajasthan also has other versions of this dish. Aam or mango kadhi is a popular component of the thali, and so is gatte ki kadhi.

5. Five-Ingredient Dal

Moong and panchmela dal are the special Rajasthani creations every foodie must try. Prepared with five different lentils, panchmela is nutritious and delicious.

6. Gatta Saag

Gram nuggets are steamed and then cooked in a rich, creamy gravy to make the famous gatte ka saag or sabji in Rajasthan.

Picture courtesy: Pinterest/Rekha Kakkar

7. Wadi

A taste of Rajasthani wadis, and you'll forget all about pakoras. Dhana moong wadis are a must-have in your thali.

8. Ker Sangri

Ker is a kind of berry widely found in Rajasthan. Beans are added to berries, with a good dose of masalas to make ker sangri, which is a perfect accompaniment to bajra rotis.

9. Laal Maas

Yes, despite being predominantly vegetarian, Rajasthan has quite a few meaty dishes to boast of. And their spicy laal maas is a delicious throwback to the days when Rajput and Mughal princes feasted on this delicacy.

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Also Read: Feasts cooked by Indian royal families to be a major attraction this year

10. Mohanthal

Sweets, chock full of ghee, are another specialty of Rajasthan. And Mohanthal, a rich besan or gram flour barfi stuffed with dry fruits, is a king among these desserts.

11. Gujia

This dessert might be popular all over North India, but no region does it better than Rajasthan. Khoya, dry fruits, and pure ghee make these gujias the best sweet-dish ever.

12. Ghevar

Ghee, flour, paneer and sugar blend together to make this Rajasthani delicacy. You can get it in a number of varieties, including malai and mawa ones.

Picture courtesy: Pinterest/Cook With Manali

Apart from these traditional dishes, pulaos, raitas and a number of pickles and relishes are also served as a part of the Rajasthani thali. This meal is full of flavours of Rajasthan, and so wholesome that your taste buds and hunger pangs will be satiated like never before. Shah Rukh Khan has already tasted and loved this traditional platter. When will you?

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Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine have announced plans to replace Ukraine with a new state.

Yet Russian officials played down the announcement. They said the rebel proposal was simply a part of public discussion.

Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-described Donetsk Peoples Republic, talked about the proposal in an appearance on Russian television. He said that rebel fighters in Donetsk, Luhansk and other areas would form a state called Malorossiya.

In the Russian language, Malorossiya means Little Russia. It was a term used to describe parts of modern-day Ukraine when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Zakharchenko said that the proposal is, in his words, a peaceful way out of a difficult situation without war.

Its our last proposal, he added.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-supported rebels took control of parts of Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014. The fighting started after Russia took control of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

Surprise announcement

The Associated Press reports that Zakharchenkos announcement was unexpected. It added to concerns about a 2015 ceasefire agreement that was meant to stop fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Leaders from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia negotiated the agreement in Minsk, Belarus. Under the deal, the rebels would return control of the territories they had captured to Ukraines central government. In exchange, the government would permit local elections and give the area the power to self-govern.

While the deal helped reduce fighting, none of the political parts of the agreement have been put in place.

On Tuesday, the Russian representative at the peace talks in Minsk dismissed the separatists announcement. The envoy, Boris Gryzlov, said the proposal does not fit with the Minsk process. He also said the announcement does not have any legal consequences.

While the separatists are believed to be guided by the Russian government, they have made statements in the past that have clearly surprised Russian officials.

Zakharchenko made the announcement one day before the peace talks were to re-start in Minsk.

Ukraines envoy at the talks, Yevhen Marchuk, said the announcement could block the negotiations entirely.

France and Germany also condemned the proposal.

Rebel leaders in Luhansk denied that they were part of the proposal to create a new state. The Luhansk Information Center website reported that a rebel representative said they had not been informed of the plans and have great doubts about the expediency of such a step.

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-declared leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike those in Donetsk, have generally not directly expressed plans to join Russia.

Puppets

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of forcing the rebels to make the announcement. He described Zakharchenko and other rebel leaders as puppets, whose only job is to voice the messages they receive from Russia.

Poroshenko said Ukraine still supports the peace talks.

Volodymyr Fesenko is a political observer in Kyiv. He said that the Russian government may have influenced Tuesdays announcement. He said the government may be trying frighten the West with a possibility of Ukraines breakup.

The Associated Press has reported on Russias efforts to support the separatists in Ukraine with money, weapons and new fighters.

Russia, however, denies sending Russian troops to fight with the separatists.

Im Ashley Thompson.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

play down - phrasal verb. to make (something) seem smaller or less important

empire - n. a group of countries or regions that are controlled by one ruler or one government

envoy - n. a person who is sent by one government to represent it in dealing with another government

consequence - n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions

doubt - n. a feeling of being uncertain or unsure about something

expediency - n. the quality of being an easy and quick way to solve a problem or do something

puppet - n. a person or an organization that is controlled by another person or organization ; a doll that is moved by putting your hand inside it or by pulling strings or wires that are attached to it
Jides Remix OS generated a lot of excitement in the Android community when they announced the project three years ago. Today, that excitement turned to disappointment. Jide is ceasing development on all consumer editions of Remix OS.

Jide has revealed a number of interesting products over the last few years, from the $70 Remix Mini PC to the Remix Pro 2-in-1. Just last month, Jide kicked off beta testing for the Remix C1 tablet in China.

Consumers may never get the chance to buy a C1 Or any other Remix device, for that matter.

Development of Remix OS for PC is also being halted, and its likely that Remix OS for mobile (also known as Singularity), will never see the light of day either although Jide clearly wasnt the only company working on a solution that lets you use your phone as an Android-powered desktop PC.

Jide certainly has a sound enough reason for making a major pivot. According to a post on their official blog, Jide has received a good deal of interest from the corporate sector. Jide says theres huge potential in the role [they] can play to revolutionize how these businesses operate.

As a result, theyre re-focusing exclusively on enterprise development. Anyone who backed Remix I0/I0+ on Kickstarter or made a purchase from their official store will be refunded. Jide expects to start that process on August first.

via Android Police
The first Nokia-branded phone from HMD is now available in the the United States, and its a mid-range device with decent specs and an even better price. But the Nokia 6 will get some more company soon.

Earlier this year HMD also unveiled the Nokia 3 and 5 and now VentureBeats Evan Blass reports that the Finnish company will follow up those phones with a high-end device called the Nokia 8.

Blass has published some official-looking pictures of the phone, along with specs gleaned from publicly available benchmark results. The phone is expected to feature a 5.3 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, either 4GB of 6GB of RAM, and a 13MP camera with ZEISS optics.

Pricing hasnt be revealed yet, but the phone appears to be a step up from the Nokia 6, which has a 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display, a Snapdragon 430 chip, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.
Tourists witnessed an airplane crashed into the world's most voluminous lake in Russia, Lake Baikal. According to several, there was a suspected engine failure.

By India Today Web Desk: A plane was flying over Siberia's Lake Baikal when it crashed into the water body after a suspected engine failure.

The Cessna 172R was carrying four passengers, all of whom survived.

The crash-survivors were pulled out by bystanders, and were provided with medical aid.

Several tourists were out to visit the world's most voluminous lake when they noticed the US-made four-seater plane going down into the lake.

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Several told Baikal-Daily, a local news outlet, that the propeller in front of the cockpit had stopped rotating.

Upon seeing the crash-in-process, a woman found excitable exclamation to justify the situation, "F**k me, it's gone down," as the four-seater plane made its final descent.

Watch: Passenger plane crashes into Russia's Lake Baikal

"Two people were hurt - the two passengers of the plane," Vera Malanova, the head of the local administration, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"The pilot is unhurt and a boy, born in 2003, is in shock and has developed a stutter."

Locals also told the news outlet that the passengers and the pilots on such forays are often drunk, though there is no evidence that this happened on Sunday.

Russia's aviation authority has opened an investigation into the incident.

FYI || Mid-air miracle: Plane makes emergency landing in India after woman gives birth on board ||

FYI || This researcher has an interesting solution to prevent plane crash ||

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Co-culture of endothelial cells (green) and pericytes (red) results in spheroids which are used to study the interactions of the two cell types in 3D. Credit: German Cancer Research Center

Cancer cells have an enormous need for oxygen and nutrients. Therefore, growing tumors rely on the simultaneous growth of capillaries, the fine branching blood vessels that form their supply network. The formation of new blood vessels, called angiogenesis, is therefore a possible target for cancer therapy. Physicians use special inhibitors called angiogenesis inhibitors to "starve" tumors. However, these drugs, which have been in use for more than a decade, have limited effectiveness. Deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms may help identify further therapy targets in order to prevent vessel formation more effectively.

Hellmut Augustin's team at the German Cancer Research Center has discovered a new mechanism that promotes the growth of blood vessels in tumors. Pericytes, cells that are attached to the outside of blood capillaries and stabilize them, play a central role in this process; they also influence the growth of blood vessels.

Augustin and his co-workers have discovered that pericytes exhibit a receptor molecule called Tie2 on their surfaces. If vascular growth factors called angiopoietins attach to the Tie2 receptor, the growth of new capillaries initially stops and existing ones can mature. This controlled growth leads to healthy vessels and, thus, a functioning blood supply system in the body.

The scientists have now succeeded in breeding mice whose pericytes have no Tie2 receptor. In these animals, vascular maturation after birth was slow at first. However, they developed in a normal way and did not exhibit any vascular disorders in the adult stage. However, the tumors these mice developed were pervaded by significantly more blood vessels; the tumors also grew faster than in fellow animals with functioning Tie2 receptors. "Thus, we have proven that Tie2 on pericytes serves as a growth brake for vessels and, hence, also for tumors," said Laura Milde, who is one of the first authors of the publication.

The article sheds new light on the development of blood vessels. "Up to now, the Tie2 receptor has only been known in endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels," Milde said. "The fact that turning off Tie2 in pericytes accelerates tumor growth so much came as a real surprise to us."

So far, the function of pericytes has remained largely in the dark. The results obtained by the DKFZ researchers are the first to attribute an important role in tumor development to them. "Drugs that interfere with Tie2 signaling are already in the clinical testing stage," Augustin said. "The proof that Tie2 on pericytes influences vascular formation in tumors is an important contribution toward developing combination therapies in which the new angiogenesis inhibitors will support the effectiveness of already approved substances."

More information: Martin Teichert, Laura Milde, Annegret Holm, Laura Stanicek, Nicolas Gengenbacher, Soniya Savant, Tina Ruckdeschel, Zulfiyya Hasanov, Kshitij Srivastava, Junhao Hu, Stella Hertel, Arne Bartol, Katharina Schlereth and Hellmut G. Augustin: Pericyte-expressed Tie2 controls angiogenesis and vessel maturation. Nature Communications 2017, Journal information: Nature Communications Martin Teichert, Laura Milde, Annegret Holm, Laura Stanicek, Nicolas Gengenbacher, Soniya Savant, Tina Ruckdeschel, Zulfiyya Hasanov, Kshitij Srivastava, Junhao Hu, Stella Hertel, Arne Bartol, Katharina Schlereth and Hellmut G. Augustin: Pericyte-expressed Tie2 controls angiogenesis and vessel maturation.2017, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms16106

Provided by German Cancer Research Center
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Painfeared, misunderstood and even poeticized in works of art and literaturehas long captivated the scientific imagination of Clifford Woolf since his days as a medical student in South Africa.

Woolf, a Harvard Medical School professor of neurobiology and neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, has been on a quest to understand the basic mechanisms of pain and to help spark the development of more effective therapies to alleviate pain, especially ones that don't have the abuse potential of opioids.

Woolf is the senior author of a newly published study using optogeneticsa technique that uses genetic engineering to render neurons in living tissue sensitive to laser light.

Using this approach in mice, Woolf and colleagues successfully identified the exact cascade of pain-related behavioral responses evoked by stimulating neurons that exclusively sense pain-inducing stimuli.

The findings, published July 5 in Cell Reports, reveal some big surprises and cast a new light the classic dogma of pain reflex responses first described a century ago by the neurophysiologist and Nobel laureate Sir Charles Sherrington.

Woolf sat down with Harvard Medicine News to discuss his latest research and his journey to unravel the mysteries of pain.

HMN: One of the central themes in your research is pain. Why study pain?

Woolf: When I was on the surgical wards as a medical student, there were many patients complaining of terrible postoperative pain. I asked the surgeon, "Why aren't you doing anything to treat them?" And he replied "They've just had an operation. That's what happens. They have pain. They will get over it." I thought "That just sounds crazy! There must be something to relieve their suffering." So that led me to do my PhD thesis on pain, and I rapidly came to recognize that pain is both a protective mechanism and something that needs to be controlled in patients.

Why do we feel pain? Because it warns us of danger in our environment. Without that warning, we are at high risk of damaging ourselves. Individuals born with congenital insensitivity to pain, for example, suffer repeated injury. They're not aware of the difference between food and their tongues, so they chew their tongues. They burn themselves because they cannot differentiate between something warm or scalding hot.

HMN: So pain is good, except when it isn't?

Woolf: Pain as a physiological response is really good. It's a key adaptive mechanism that has a protective function against danger and is a warning signal of infection, tissue damage or disease. Increasingly, we have come to recognize that it also can become a disease in its own right. This typically happens when the nervous system is damaged and the original trigger for the pain may long have disappeared but the pain persists. It no longer has a warning role but is now a pathological state.

The challenge then is to tease out the different kinds of pain to preserve the "good" pain and control the "bad" pain. Here's an example: If you injure yourself and you have pain, you shouldn't overly exercise the affected body part until healing has occurredthat's good pain, protecting the damaged tissue by making it pain hypersensitive until it has healed. But if you have damage to a peripheral nerve and experience episodes of shooting electrical-shock like pain, that pain has no protective function.

HMN: From biological and evolutionary points of view, there are quite a few things we know about pain. But what are some of the challenges that lie ahead?

Woolf: From an evolutionary point of view, even single cell organisms like an amoeba need to be able to detect their environment and react to it by moving away from any danger. So, the drive to detect potential harm has been there right at the beginning of the formation of living organisms. Obviously as higher species with complex nervous systems evolved, it's become much more complicated, involving sensations, mood, memory and movement. Nevertheless, pain is sufficiently important80 percent of our peripheral sensory neurons are pain fighters activated by pinch, pinprick, excessive heat or cold and other noxious stimuli.

When we sit, we squeeze the blood from our skin at the point of contact with the chair; if that persists, as it does in some patients, they develop bed sores. Yet, we normally keep moving because at the first hint of pain, even at such a low level that we are hardly aware of it, we shift our position to restore blood supply; this is happening all the time and is just one of our many protective pain mechanisms to avoid damage.

HMN: That's beautiful.

Woolf: It is. That is physiological pain. Everyone thinks of pain as bad but it isn't. That is why it's critical in developing analgesicsyou've got to preserve these protective mechanisms and not switch off the entire system. That's one of the big challenges. If you switch these danger signals off, you're going to create as many problems as you solve. In a clinical context, it means getting rid of the pain that is pathological while preserving the pain that is protective.

Today, it is possible for people to live with severe damage to the nervous system, either their brain or their peripheral nerves, and survive. Evolution has not caught up with this. In the hunter-gatherer society, you wouldn't be able to hunt and survive if you had damaged your sciatic nerve or spinal cord, so there was no advantage to develop means of controlling chronic pathological pain. Now you can survive such injuries and typically they are associated with severe pain.

This is true also for the pain associated with the wearing out of our bodies. These are the age-related defects like the collapse of our intervertebral disks or the wearing out of the cartilage in our joints that in the past people didn't live long enough to develop. Pain is now the most common reason why people see a physician. It also, obviously, was the trigger for the opioid epidemic. Opioid use has expanded beyond severe injury and palliative care to being used for everyday common pain complaints. At last, the National Institutes of Health

are waking up to this. NIH Director Francis Collins has called for a major investment in the study of pain. The development of novel analgesics that do not have an abuse potential is a national priority. We have to replace opioids.

Another challenge is teasing out the genes that drive the development of chronic pain and establishing how they work. How do they increase the risk of a transition from acute to chronic pain and how do they help identify potential targets for new therapy? Something like 50 percent of pain is inheritedso the risk of acquiring chronic pain is not just that you happen to have a disease or particular injury but that you have a genetic susceptibility to developing those changes in the nervous system that maintain pathological pain. We need to be able to identify who is at risk and protect them.

HMN: How does your latest work fit into all that?

Woolf: The standard way that I was taught, and all medical students are taught, is that we respond to an acute noxious stimulus by withdrawing from contact with it. This stems from the work of a very famous neurophysiologist at Oxford, Sir Charles Sherrington, who 100 years ago discovered the reflex as a fundamental unit of the function of the nervous system.

This was the one of the first rules by which the nervous system worksa particular stimulus provokes a defined, or stereotyped, response by means of a reflex arc that connects the noxious stimulus input and the motor neurons that cause withdrawal.

Sherrington regarded reflexes as fixed and of a defined nature, but our latest work reveals that it is much more complicated than that. Responses are more widespread and varied than anticipated and reflect the overall status of the nervous system. A tiny input can initiate a cascade of interacting behavioral responses, well beyond the reflex, most of which occurs in tiny fractions of a second. We are, I believe, going to have to rethink the way the nervous system works.

HMN: What questions were you trying to answer going into your study?

Woolf: One of the challenges we were trying to overcome with our research was how to study in an awake animal how the nervous system processes pain. By definition, if an animal is anesthetized, it doesn't respond to pain; so we cannot study an anesthetized animal because we've removed the very thing we're trying to study. Yet, how could we provoke this response in a humane way? In our study, we succeeded in activating the nervous system using very brief stimulithree thousandths of a seconddelivered to a very small number of sensory neurons in a very controlled fashion and measuring responses with an extra high-speed camera to reveal new insights into the way the nervous system works. The stimulus was much shorter and much less severe than a mild pinprick. What we do know though is exactly when it occurred, what type of sensory neuron was activated and where, and we could then measure the responses it elicited.

HMN: How did you achieve that?

Woolf: We used optogenetics. The beauty of optogenetics is that it enables you to use laser light to activate light sensitive proteins engineered to be present only in selected sets of neurons. In our case, the light was applied to the skin so as to activate the branches of sensory neurons in the skin activated only by pain-provoking stimuli. We could do this with exquisite timing by applying very brief laser stimulation of a defined power. Furthermore, using a very high-speed camera, we could tell exactly within a thousandth of a second when we'd activated the system and could then measure exactly when the response occurred and what it was. So, one question we can ask with this strategy is exactly which sensory neurons are required to produce a pain-related behavior. A second question is what is the minimum stimulus required to evoke a pain-related response, and a third question is what is the exact nature and timing of the pain-related behavioral response?

HMN: And what did you find?

Woolf: Something quite unexpected. Instead of just seeing the expected pain withdrawal reflex of the stimulated limb, our approach revealed that the response to this brief and minimal activation was much more complicated than anyone had anticipated and occurred so quickly, in fractions of a second, that you couldn't see it if you tried to observe it by eye. We thought we were only going to see Sherrington's very simple reflexes but at a greater temporal and spatial resolution. Instead we saw things no one has ever seen, things no one expected. The responses to this very brief stimulus of a tiny area of one hind paw elicited global reactions throughout the body that occurred in sub-seconds.

We found that an input as small as it is possible to make with a single trigger to the central nervous system initiates a set of coordinated, preprogrammed activities, which are a diverse and changing repertoire of sub-second behaviors that continue long after the trigger has disappeared. Moreover, the nature of the responses reflected the state of the animalat rest or moving, awake or asleep. We have, therefore, missed until now a whole sub-second repertoire of behaviors that appear to be key, integral components of pain. How we react or feel is not just a function of what stimuli we are exposed to but also what constellation of neuronal units in the brain get recruited by a tiny brief input.

HMN: So, the nervous system is both exquisitely sensitive to even the tiniest of stimuli, and it also responds in much more complex ways than we thought?

Woolf: And in more widespread ways. Sherrington described this beautiful link: You have a noxious stimulus to one limb and you get a withdrawal of that limb from the stimulus. It turns out that is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. There is much more happening than the simple reflex, and this gives us new insight into how the brain works and the kind of questions we now need to ask.

HMN: How do these findings propel forward our understanding of pain? What might it mean for research and how we deal with pain?

Woolf: Firstly, we have to recognize and embrace the complexity. We need to move on from simple models of stimulus and a fixed response because our work indicates that is not the way the nervous system works. We also need to exploit the technology by means of which we can modulate and measure the nervous system at a whole system-level to provide us with tools to look at holistic mechanisms and explore the changes that occur in the context of disease. We can, for example, now trigger different sensory fibers after nerve injury to see why there is heightened sensitivity in neuropathic pain and where this occurs, and we can use these approaches to explore in a very objective way the site of action and efficacy of analgesics.

HMN: What's next for you?

Woolf: In terms of my own lab, I have a particular interest in neuropathic pain, the pain that results from nerve injury or lesions. I also have an extreme interest in spontaneous pain, or pain that arises without any stimulus. Almost all the preclinical measures of pain have been of evoked pain. You touch an animal to see if it's hypersensitive.

There have been no ways of figuring out how pain may arrive spontaneously. These optogenetic and other tools we are developing are going to enable us to tease that out. They will reveal both mechanistic and therapeutic insights into spontaneous pain, and that, frankly, is most of the pain that patients who have nerve injury, shingles, disk prolapse or diabetic neuropathy experience. We now have tools to explore this in ways that have not been possible before.

I am optimistic that we will soon make progress in understanding pathological pain and that this will serve as the foundation for new therapeutic interventions.

More information: Liam E. Browne et al. Time-Resolved Fast Mammalian Behavior Reveals the Complexity of Protective Pain Responses, Cell Reports (2017). Journal information: Cell Reports Liam E. Browne et al. Time-Resolved Fast Mammalian Behavior Reveals the Complexity of Protective Pain Responses,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.06.024
People with allergies are more confident about eating out thanks to new rules introduced in 2014, according to new FSA-commissioned research from the University published today. Credit: University of Bath

New University research into food allergies will be published today by the Food Standards Agency showing that people with food allergies and intolerances are more confident about eating out since allergen information rules were introduced in 2014. The study presents strong evidence that the legislation has had a positive impact and that good allergen information is good for business.

Living with food allergies and intolerances

Over 2 million people in the UK have a food allergy and an estimated 600,000 have coeliac disease. In December 2014, the EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation (EU FIC) changed the way food businesses had to provide allergen information to consumers.

To understand the effect of this change, detailed research  on a UK representative sample of people with food allergies and intolerances  was commissioned by the FSA and carried out by Professor Julie Barnett in the University's Department of Psychology.

The study focused on consumer preferences when eating out, both before and after the implementation of the EU FIC. The study also compared views from consumers on how food businesses responded to the allergen rules pre and post-implementation.

The research found that, post legislation:

70 per cent of food allergic and intolerant consumers feel more confident in asking staff for allergen information

56 per cent of food allergic and intolerant consumers value staff more as a source of information

44 per cent of food allergic and intolerant consumers are more 'adventurous' about eating out

67 per cent feel allergen information on food business websites is dependable

63 per cent say talking to the chef about their allergen needs can be relied on

35 per cent report an improvement in allergen information in the menu.

Food allergic and intolerant customers also said that improved confidence in allergen information led them to eating out more frequently and that they were more likely to return to and recommend venues with staff that were helpful and attentive about their allergen needs.

Heather Hancock, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said: "Everyone should be able to trust their food. When people live with a food allergy or intolerance that can make them really ill or be life threatening, that trust becomes critical. This new research shows that many food businesses have a good understanding of the allergen information rules, with the result that consumers trust them and feel confident that they'll be safe when eating out.

"I'm delighted that we've been able to work with food businesses to make such a difference, improving public health and enhancing choice and confidence for millions. Some, often smaller, food businesses haven't got on top of providing allergen information yet. I hope this research helps them see the importance of meeting their obligations and the benefits it delivers. At the FSA, we'll be increasing our efforts to ensure businesses understand their responsibilities and their customer."

Professor Julie Barnett, who led the research from the University's Department of Psychology, added: "Our findings are important because they inform food businesses about how consumers want information about allergens - both written and directly from staff. Going forward I hope this work helps to inform the provision of detailed practical guidance to inform the practice of food businesses as they seek to give a great service to all their customers."

More information: To find out more about the work and access FSA allergen resources see To find out more about the work and access FSA allergen resources see www.food.gov.uk/allergen-resources Access today's report www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/  013-final-report.pdf
Some healthy children become critically ill from common cold viruses. Credit: University of Queensland

A gene mutation making young children extremely vulnerable to common viruses may represent a new type of immunodeficiency, according to a University of Queensland researcher.

An international study analysed genetic data from previously healthy children with severe respiratory infections due to common cold viruses who became critically ill and required life support.

Associate Professor Luregn Schlapbach from the Mater Research Institute-UQ and Lady Cilento Children`s Hospital said the study discovered a fault in the gene IFIH1, which plays a role in the immune system's ability to recognise viruses.

The gene fault leads to an insufficient immune defence when faced with certain common cold viruses, human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhino/enterovirus.

"We tested cells from patients with this gene fault in the laboratory to observe how they responded to the viruses," said Dr Schlapbach (pictured).

"The experiments confirmed that if this gene is not working well, the cells struggle to mount a response and the virus could therefore expand much more quickly."

The study involved 100 Australian children aged from birth to four requiring life support in paediatric intensive care units at the former Mater Children`s Hospital and the former Royal Children`s Hospital (now Lady Cilento Children's Hospital) in Brisbane, and 20 from Switzerland.

Dr Schlapbach said viral infections were common in otherwise healthy young children but fewer than one in 1000 required intensive care.

He said he had always been intrigued about why some children were much more vulnerable to becoming extremely ill with common infections.

"In the past we believed children who become seriously ill from infections were just unlucky or maybe the bug was particularly aggressive," Dr Schlapbach said.

"In the modern era of genomics we have a much better opportunity to understand what the host factors are, opening up new options for developing treatments.

"Our findings confirm that children with common infections who develop into unexpectedly severe cases may have underlying immunodeficiencies that were not previously understood.

"While only a small number of participating families harboured this mutation, the study allows us to gain a dramatically different insight into the causes of severe viral infections."

Dr Schlapbach said the study could possibly lead to the development of diagnostic tests to identify vulnerable children.

"Parents could then decide to keep their child at home during an epidemic, or to seek medical attention if their child catches a cold," he said.

The research, led by Professor Jacques Fellay from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, was the first to use genome-wide exome sequencing in a large cohort of paediatric intensive care patients.

It is published in PNAS.

More information: Samira Asgari et al. Severe viral respiratory infections in children with IFIH1 loss-of-function mutations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Samira Asgari et al. Severe viral respiratory infections in children with IFIH1 loss-of-function mutations,(2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704259114
New research published today, conducted by a research team from the University of Liverpool and Alder Hey Children's Hospital, aims to help solve the problem of dose optimisation of children's medicines.

Medicines can have different effects on different people. The effects in children can vary due to changes that take place as they grow and develop. Historically, there has been very little focus on paediatric clinical pharmacology, and there are still a lot of unknowns with regard to optimally delivering medicines to children.

In many paediatric populations worldwide the proportion of children who are overweight and obese is increasing, but there is wide geographical variation (from 16.9% in the USA to 0.5% in Denmark).

The dosage of many children's drugs is based on total body weight (TBW) unfortunately obesity can cause problems establishing the best dose.

Reservoirs

After a drug is absorbed into the bloodstream, it rapidly circulates through the body. As the blood recirculates, the drug moves from the bloodstream into the body's tissues.

Once absorbed, most drugs do not spread evenly throughout the body. Drugs that dissolve in water (water-soluble drugs) tend to stay within the blood and the fluid that surrounds cells. Drugs that dissolve in fat (fat-soluble drugs) tend to concentrate in fatty tissues. Some drugs accumulate in certain tissues which can also act as reservoirs of extra drug.

The researchers, led by Dr Dan Hawcutt one of only six trained paediatric clinical pharmacologists in the country, examined growth hormone, which is an expensive medicine routinely prescribed in the NHS to children.

Beneficial effect

The study, published in PLoS ONE, looked at the doses of growth hormone children received, and then examined how much they grew (the beneficial effect) and how much they make of a protein called IGF-1 (which may be associated with harmful effects in later life if the levels are too high).

The beneficial effects were related to dose, but for the heaviest children with the largest Body Mass Index, there was a maximum effect - no more height could be gained.

However, increased weight and therefore dose continued to increase the levels of IGF-1.

Effective and safe

Dr Hawcutt, said: "Our study shows that using newer dosing methods may actually help those with the lowest and highest BMIs get the beneficial effects while potentially minimising the harmful effects.

"In addition, these dosing strategies could save the NHS a considerable amount of money. This research paves the way for clinical trials to establish which is the most effective and safe growth hormone dosing strategy for children and young people."

"This research underlines the important strategic partnership between one of Europe's largest children's hospitals and the University Liverpool which enables important discoveries in better, safer medicines for children. The Liverpool Paediatric Medicines Research Unit is an important resource in the city which through its interdisciplinary research programmes continues to improve medication safety and effectiveness in children and young people"

More information: Daniel B. Hawcutt et al, Growth hormone prescribing and initial BMI SDS: Increased biochemical adverse effects and costs in obese children without additional gain in height, PLOS ONE (2017). Journal information: PLoS ONE Daniel B. Hawcutt et al, Growth hormone prescribing and initial BMI SDS: Increased biochemical adverse effects and costs in obese children without additional gain in height,(2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181567
Aldosterone, a hormone produced in the adrenal glands, may contribute to alcohol use disorder (AUD) by binding to mineralocorticoid receptors in the brain, particularly in the amygdala  a key brain area involved in the development and maintenance of AUD. Credit: NIAAA

A new study led by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, demonstrates that aldosterone, a hormone produced in the adrenal glands, may contribute to alcohol use disorder (AUD). The novel research, conducted in collaboration with a team of investigators in the United States and Europe, appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

" This intriguing work  conducted in humans as well as two other speciesprovides a compelling example of how basic and preclinical research is translated into studies with direct relevance to humans," said NIAAA Director George F. Koob, Ph.D., a co-author of the study. "It also demonstrates how interactions between the brain and the endocrine system may serve as potential targets for the development of new AUD medications."

Aldosterone helps regulate electrolyte and fluid balance by binding to mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs), which are located throughout the body. In the brain, MRs are mainly located in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortextwo key brain areas involved in the development and maintenance of AUD. In AUD, amygdala dysfunction heightens activation of brain stress systems resulting in anxiety and other negative emotions, while disruption of the prefrontal cortex impairs executive control systems involved in the ability to make decisions and regulate one's actions, emotions, and impulses.

"Previous studies, including a pilot clinical study that we published in 2008, illustrate the possible role for aldosterone in AUD," said senior author Lorenzo Leggio, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology, a NIAAA intramural laboratory jointly funded with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, also part of NIH. "Our overall hypothesis has been that aldosterone may play a role in AUD via its MR receptor and that this neuroendocrine pathway may be particularly important in anxiety, stress and stress-induced alcohol drinking."

The new report describes three separate studies, conducted with non-human primates, rats, and humans, that investigated the potential contribution of the aldosterone/MR pathway to AUD.

In a study conducted with non-human primates, the researchers found that animals which self-administered alcohol every day for six to 12 months had significantly higher blood aldosterone concentrations, compared with the concentrations measured prior to alcohol administration. In fact, the aldosterone increase observed at six months remained high after 12 months of continued drinking, and did not increase further, suggesting that blood aldosterone concentrations become regulated at a new set-point under daily alcohol consumption. Furthermore, the researchers found that in the amygdala, lower MR gene expression  the process of making functional MR protein from the MR gene  was associated with increased alcohol drinking in the animals. Similar results were not found in the prefrontal cortex.

In a study conducted in a rat model of AUD, the researchers found that lower levels of MR gene expression in the amygdala (but not in the prefrontal cortex) were associated with increased anxiety-like behavior and compulsive drinking, compared to rats not exposed to alcohol. Conversely, higher levels of MR gene expression in the amygdala were associated with decreased anxiety and less compulsive alcohol drinking. Overall, these findings suggest that higher MR gene expression in the amygdala may protect against compulsive drinking or, conversely, that lower levels of MR gene expression may increase vulnerability for anxiety-related compulsive drinking in the rat AUD model.

"The amygdala is a key regulator of emotion and stress and its adaptation to aldosterone signaling due to chronic alcohol drinking illustrates fundamental adaptations across organ systems that underlie the pathological state associated with AUD," said Kathleen Grant, Ph.D., study co-author and head of the Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland.

In a human study of about 40 individuals undergoing treatment for AUD, the researchers found that blood aldosterone concentrations were higher in individuals who continued drinking during the 12-week period, compared with those who were abstinent during the same time frame. For those who drank, the researchers found that aldosterone concentrations correlated with the amount of alcohol consumed during the study  higher drinking levels were associated with higher aldosterone concentrations. The researchers also found that increasing blood aldosterone concentrations correlated with increasing levels of both alcohol craving and anxiety.

Taken together, the researchers conclude that the findings provide support across three different species for a relationship between alcohol misuse, AUD, and specific changes in the aldosterone/MR pathway marked by increased circulating aldosterone and decreased mineralocorticoid receptor gene expression in the amygdala.

"Future studies should further investigate the mechanisms underlying the relationship between alcohol drinking and the aldosterone/MR pathway and whether this pathway might be targeted for the development of new pharmacotherapies for AUD," said Dr. Leggio.

More information: E G Aoun et al. A relationship between the aldosteronemineralocorticoid receptor pathway and alcohol drinking: preliminary translational findings across rats, monkeys and humans, Molecular Psychiatry (2017). Journal information: Molecular Psychiatry E G Aoun et al. A relationship between the aldosteronemineralocorticoid receptor pathway and alcohol drinking: preliminary translational findings across rats, monkeys and humans,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/mp.2017.97
Credit: Geoffrey Fairchild via Flickr

Hearing an ascending sound while pulling their own finger can make a person think their finger is longer than it is, finds a new study led by UCL and the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

The study, published in Scientific Reports and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), provides the first evidence that an artificial sound, unrelated to the sound of body movements, can alter how a person perceives their own body when the sound is arbitrarily paired with a bodily action.

"Just like how cartoons will play a rising-pitch sound effect to illustrate something being stretched, we found that playing a rising pitch while people pull on their finger can give people the impression that their finger is longer," said the study's lead author, Dr Ana Tajadura-Jimenez (UCL Interaction Centre and Universidad Loyola Andalucia).

In a series of three studies, female participants were asked to pull on their index finger while a simple sound was played, with ascending, descending, or constant pitch. Their hand was hidden from view by a black cloak. They were then asked to estimate the position of their fingertip and of their knuckle by using a pair of sliders. The distance between the two sliders represented how long they judged their finger to be, without being able to see it.

When participants heard an ascending sound, they estimated their fingers to be longer than when they heard a descending or constant sound, a finding that remained constant whether they were asked to pull upwards or downwards, with their index finger pointing, respectively, upwards or downwards. They were also asked to select from a series of drawings of hands with pointing fingers of different lengths, choosing the one which corresponded to how their finger felt; accordingly, they chose images with longer fingers when they heard the ascending sound. A follow-up study found that the sound did not affect how strongly they pulled.

"In the studies conducted as part of our project The Hearing Body, we previously found evidence that manipulating the sounds produced when we touch or hit something can alter how we perceive our own bodies, but here we used non-naturalistic sounds that are not typically associated with bodily movements," said Dr Tajadura-Jimenez.

Co-author Dr Ophelia Deroy (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich and Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London), said: "Previous research has found that our representations of our own bodies are flexible and can be modified by visual or tactile cues, but these are most often realistic - finding the effect with an arbitrary association with sounds shows how ready we are to refer available information to ourselves."

Co-author Professor Nadia Berthouze (UCL Interaction Centre), said: "We hope that our findings could help guide rehabilitation strategies for people with poor proprioception  that is, sensing the relative position of their body parts. Auditory approaches may also help with treatments for people with chronic pain who are reluctant to look at the affected body part. Current strategies focus on visual and tactile input, but we find that auditory-driven strategies should be investigated."

More information: Ana Tajadura-Jimenez et al. Contingent sounds change the mental representation of one's finger length, Scientific Reports (2017). Journal information: Scientific Reports Ana Tajadura-Jimenez et al. Contingent sounds change the mental representation of one's finger length,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05870-4
Researchers at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine are nearing human clinical trials on a genetic therapy for two rare neurological diseases that are fatal to children.

The scientists are seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to test a gene therapy treatment for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases, genetic disorders in a category known as lysosomal storage diseases.

Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff are inherited neurologic diseases that occur when genetic mutations prevent cells from producing enzymes needed to break down and recycle materials. Without these enzymes, the materials accumulate to toxic levels, slowly destroying the nervous system. The researchers are working on a gene therapy to correct the enzyme deficiency using adeno-associated virus, or AAV, vectors.

The average life expectancy for children with infantile Tay-Sachs or Sandhoff disease is only 3 to 5 years. There is currently no treatment. The gene therapy in development has shown promise in animal models of these diseases by extending lifespans by up to four times those of untreated animals.

"The proof-of-concept studies in affected animals are compelling, and the FDA provided a clear path of remaining experiments needed to seek approval for human clinical trials," said Douglas R. Martin, a professor at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We now need the funding to complete the studies."

The animal phase of toxicity studies necessary to demonstrate the safety of the gene therapy for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases has been completed with the support of the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Disease Association and the Cure Tay-Sachs Foundation.

"Too many children with Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff have died since we started this project. The time has finally arrived to push back on these diseases," says Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor of neurology at UMass Medical School. "Our single-minded goal is to get a safe and potentially effective therapy to patients and their families as quickly as possible."

"Hopefully, once the news gets out that we are this close to human clinical trials, fundraising efforts will be sufficient so we can complete the IND-enabling studies and proceed to human clinical trials," said veterinarian Heather Gray-Edwards, an assistant professor at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Additional funding of $1.2 million is being sought to complete the safety studies, fund the production of clinical grade AAV, and complete regulatory filings.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In this study, researchers from the University of Surrey, in collaboration with groups in South Africa, Brazil, Colombia and the USA, examined the sleeping patterns of people from two neighbouring communities in Mozambique  the small electrified urban town Milange and the non-electrified rural community Tengua.

It has previously been suggested that the post-industrial world is experiencing a sleep deprivation epidemic. Scientists have proposed that people who have electricity stay up later, but do not necessarily get up later to compensate. The Surrey-led research team found that although the people in the town retired to bed on average one hour later, they did not sleep less than the people in the village without electricity, because they also rose one hour later in the morning.

The study was performed by Dr Andrew Beale, who spent more than two years living in Milange before he returned to the UK to work as a research fellow at the University of Surrey.

He said: "I noticed that the sleep-wake patterns of people around me were much earlier than I was used to from the UK. There is an intense debate going on right now on how our ancestors might have slept, and how this was changed by industrialisation. Looking at the effects of urbanisation on these communities is one way of helping us understand what happens."

Professor Malcolm von Schantz from the University of Surrey, corresponding author, said: "What these findings indicate is that the delay in sleep timing that comes with access to electricity does not directly cause people to sleep less.

"In other words, if indeed people do sleep less in industrialised countries, we can't just blame electrification. The step from delayed to shortened sleep seems to require more changes in behaviours."

Associate Professor Laura Roden from the University of Cape Town, senior author on the study, added: "We will probably never know how our ancestors slept. But as urbanisation spreads across the globe, it is important to study how people's sleeping habits change. After they've changed, it will be too late!"

More information: Andrew D. Beale et al. Comparison between an African town and a neighbouring village shows delayed, but not decreased, sleep during the early stages of urbanisation, Scientific Reports (2017). Journal information: Scientific Reports Andrew D. Beale et al. Comparison between an African town and a neighbouring village shows delayed, but not decreased, sleep during the early stages of urbanisation,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05712-3
By Priyanka Sharma: People suffering from heart attack in their early 20s is getting quite common these days. Rohan (name changed), 26, suffered a massive heart attack around two weeks ago and was admitted to the casualty of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) with severe chest pain. Doctors diagnosed about 100 percent blockage in his left major artery , which immediately required angioplasty. The patient later revealed that he was a chain smoker.

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Rohan works at a bank in Delhi who is exposed to acute work stress, which, health experts blame for being another risk factor of contracting heart attacks in younger generations these days. Dr Ashwani Mehta, senior cardiologist at SGRH hospital told Mail Today, "This patient came to us last week at the emergency. He suffered major chest pain and sweating. The patient had a history of a chain smoking, due to which his left main arteries were totally, blocked. He needed an urgent angioplasty (putting a cardiac stent) to save his life. Postoperative, he is doing well and still under medication."

THE GRIM REALITY

Lokesh, 32, who underwent angioplasty around two years ago, is doing great now. He has quit smoking and living a contented life. "80 percent of my arteries were blocked when I suffered chest pain. It was all of the sudden and the doctors suggested immediate coronary stent procedure."

Mail Today spoke to cardiac surgeons across leading hospitals in the city and answers were the same. Doctors say that over 20 decade ago, the number of patients between the age group of 50-60 was more as compared to today, when the number of younger patients has increased. Experts say that sedentary lifestyle, smoking, stress and lack of physical exercise are common reasons for heart related ailments.

Dr Gautam Sharma, professor of cardiology department at AIIMS told Mail Today, "Yes, it true that more and more younger patients are turning up to the OPD for cardiology treatment. When we ask them about their lifestyle - smoking and tobacco chewing habits are very common. Twenty years ago, we hardly saw a heart attack patient in his 20s or 30s. But today, it has become a grim reality."

Dr Ashok Seth, chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute had similar views on this, he said, "Over 10-20 years, the trend of patients with cardiac issues has completely changed. Earlier, we used to see, patients in there late 50s and 60s but unfortunately today it's more of patients in early 20s till late 30 years of age. Even in my last OPD, I have seen a 30 year old patient suffered heart attack due to smoking and sedentary lifestyle."

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Also read: A desk job is deadlier than smoking; 5 ways you can cure those sitting-job health woes

Also read: You may kick the butt, but if you ever smoked, it's in your DNA for 30 years

--- ENDS ---
Crime targeting South African fibre installers has reached a critical point, said the FTTH Council Africa.

The Council told MyBroadband that fibre contractors are being robbed at gunpoint, hijacked, and having their equipment taken.

Although the fibre industry has been plagued by robberies for some time, the situation has deteriorated recently.

Peoples lives were threatened and gunshots fired while workers were attending to maintenance tasks next to public roads, the Council revealed in a recent white paper.

Equipment database

It is for this reason that the FTTH Council is launching an equipment monitoring database that allows operators and contractors to check whether devices were reported stolen before buying them.

Companies which calibrate and service test equipment will also be able to pick up if a device was stolen and inform the last known legitimate owner.

Equipment that gets stolen the most are splicers, optical time-domain reflectometers, and optical loss test sets.

This is expensive gear, with fibre splicers going for around R80,000 each.

All of the devices have serial numbers printed on them and embedded in the hardware, making a stolen item easier to track.

The video below shows two members of a fibre installation team being held up at gunpoint while thieves make off with their belongings. Further details of the incident have been withheld.

Now read: Fibre is killing ADSL and it is great for users
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As Smriti Irani takes over the I and B Ministry from Venkaiah Naidu, let's rewind and look at her performance from the time she was the HRD Minister.

By India Today Web Desk: In a major cabinet reshuffle, a total of 19 ministers were inducted and some saw change of guard. But the news of Smriti Irani losing HRD Ministry to Prakash Javadekar made most noise.

She was perhaps aware of the shuffle as sources close to her told The Sunday Express that during the last two weeks at the HRD Ministry she made some casual remarks about not knowing for how long will she be around.

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What was the reason behind her so-called demotion?

Was it her performance or the negative publicity she got? There is no one answer to that but the announcement of an additional charge being given to her of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has gotten her the limelight back.

While some think that she is the "most deserving" for this post, others are wary of her debacle as an HRD minister. Of course, there are two sides to it - what went wrong and what worked.

Smriti Irani is mostly remembered for all the controversies she was involved in. From her own educational qualification to Rohith Vemula's suicide, her tenure as the HRD minister almost always had her plate full with controversies. Here are some of them:

DU's FYUP debate

Although Delhi University's four-year university programme received massive backslash from both teachers and students, the announcement of its rollback exactly after a year since its introduction invited equal amount of criticism.

It was considered an attempt by the ministry to impose its decision on an autonomous institution that had taken the decision after following the required process.

Degree row

There were many who judged Irani on the basis of her previous profession as a television actress. Some asked if a 12th pass, model-turned TV actress could handle the education portfolio.

But ahead of the 2014 General Elections, she had claimed that she has a degree in commerce from the School of Open Learning, University of Delhi. However, in April 2004 her affidavit to the EC said that she did her BA in 1996 through a correspondence programme from DU.

She also claimed that she has a degree from Yale University. However, the University clarified that she has only attended a week-long programme in 2013.

A case was filed against her over allegations of making contradictory claims about her educations in documents filed in different years with the Election Commission.

Rohith Vemula suicide

When a Dalit PhD scholar of the Hyderabad Central University -- Rohith Vemula -- committed suicide by hanging himself inside a hostel room, leaving a note saying he was discriminated based on his caste, Smriti Irani said that it was not a "Dalit versus non-Dalit issue", and that there was a "malicious attempt to project it as a caste battle".

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She was slammed for her statements. "This is how politics was played on this child and his dead body. Nobody wed a doctor near him. The police has reported... Not one attempt was made to revive this child. Not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead his body was used as a political tool. Hidden. No police was allowed till 6.30 the next morning. Not me, but the Telangana police is saying this", she replied to a debate in Lok Sabha.

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Rohith's mother criticised the minister and termed her statement a lie.

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Read more about the case here:

Also read: What killed Rohith Vemula? Campus politics, stress or discrimination

Also read: Hyderabad Central University V-C Appa Rao on Rohith Vemula's suicide: Wrong to label me as BJP man

Also read: The Dalits | Still untouchable

Also read: Parties fight it out over Dalit scholar's suicide

Also read: What happened at Hyderabad Central University that led to Rohith Vemula's suicide?

IIT-Madras group ban

The Smriti Irani-led ministry wrote a letter to IIT-Madras asking about a student's discussion forum that was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The ministry asked why such forums were allowed in the campus.

The discussion forum, Ambedkar Peryiar group, was eventually banned.

Separate eating space for vegetarian students

The HRD ministry received backlash over reports that it asked the IITs to figure out the possibility of having separate eating space and mess for vegetarian students.

After the news came out, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury wrote a letter to Irani saying the government has no right to "police" food habits of students.

Sanskirtisation

Smriti Irani not only decided to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas in 2014, but also suggested IITs to introduce Sanskrit in their institutes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the matter with PM Modi during the G-20 summit in November 2014.

While there were many more controversies, but there are things Smriti Irani will be remembered too.

A certain Lok Sabha debate during which her fierce, high on rhetoric speech made even PM Modi tweet about it.

Watch it here :

As far as Irani's achievements are concerned, she did come out publicly and mention about them through a long Facebook post.

She wrote the post to silence her critics and tell them about the work she had done when she oversaw the HRD ministry. Along with her "achievements" was a message for the women in the country.

"Ask any working woman, what do you do when your colleague does not finish their assignment on time brushes off your attempt at ensuring accountability and if push comes to shove is cocky enough to gang up with other boys in the club to paint you as either too wound up, to dumb or not competent enough; the successful women always tell you that they continue to crack the whip. For there will come a time when the colleague says "Fine! I'll get the work done".

So while many working women battle this challenge in confined working spaces, I spat it out on Twitter for my office travels with me. But then, there are some who say why talk about yourself at all, surely one day they shall realise the amount of work you have done. To them is dedicated the following checklist which is otherwise drowned in the noise", Smriti Irani wrote.

" Over 4 lakh 17 thousand school toilets made in one year - check

First time ever all NCERT school text books from classes 1 to 12 available free online - ePathshala- check

First time ever all Kendriya Vidyalayas are providing SMS to alert parents of student attendance and lesson details

Shala Darpan- check First time ever benchmarking of student performances in CBSE schools-Saraansh- check

First time ever, school evaluation system focused on learning outcomes-Shaala Siddhi- Check

First time ever, a mentoring and scholarship program to send our girls to technical institutes- UDAAN- check

First time ever, all teachers trained in inclusive education to facilitate students with special needs- check

First time ever, 10,000 undegraduate scholarships and exposure visits for students from the Northeastunder Ishan Uday and Ishan Vikas- check

First time ever, focused interventions to improve Math and Science levels- Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan- check

First time ever, focused interventions to improve reading and writing levels- Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat- check

First time ever, the UGC Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in HEIs to protect women employees and students- check

First time ever, a portal dedicated to Indian languages- Bharatvani-check First time ever, collaborated effort to focus research on the development goal posts of the country- IMPRINT- check

First time ever, SAARC Declaration on Education- check First time ever, Aryabhata's bust installed at UNESCO headquarters to acknowledge India's contribution in mathematics and astronomy-check

First time ever,IIT fee waivers for economically weaker sections- check

First time ever, collaborations with Standford, University of Pennsylvania and MIT to strengthen HEIs in India- check

First time ever, focused effort to bring high quality international faculty to teach in India through GIAN - check

First time ever, a credit framework to pursue formal education and vocational training- SAMVAY- check

First time ever, a national institutional rankings framework- check First time ever, a grassroots based consultation on developing a national policy, including over 2 lakh village education committees-check...... and the list goes on..."

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Almost exactly a year after she was removed from the high-profile HRD Ministry, Smriti Irani is back in the league of top ministers in the Modi government.

Smriti Irani has been given the responsibility of I&B Ministry after BJP decided to nominate Venkaiah Naidu for Vice-President. (File Photo)

By India Today Web Desk: In July, 2016, she was moved out of the high-profile Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and given the responsibility of the Textile Ministry. Narendra Modi's decision to downgrade Smriti Irani's portfolio was described by many as the surprise demotion of a leader considered close to the Prime Minister.

Almost exactly a year after her demotion, 41-year-old Irani is back in the big league. The TV actor-turned-politician has been given the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the post to contest for the Vice-President.

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WHEN 'CONTROVERSIAL' IRANI WAS REMOVED AS HRD MINISTER

When PM Modi decided to bring in Prakash Javadekar in place of Smriti Irani as the HRD Minister last July, many said it was aimed at keeping his government away from unnecessary controversies that Irani had triggered during her stint.

FROM INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE: A LESSON FOR SMRITI

Despite losing the high-profile 2014 Lok Sabha election against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, Irani was given an important ministry to handle purely on the basis of her popularity within the BJP.

Being the youngest minister in Modi's Cabinet, Irani somehow managed to associate herself with one controversy or other.

Smriti Irani's tenure as HRD Minister was riddled with controversies. (File Photo/PTI)

IRANI'S TUMULTUOUS STAY AS HRD MINISTER

Irani's two-year tenure in the HRD Ministry was marked by major controversies. Her remarks over Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad sparked a massive row. Days later, protests erupted at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) when she defended the Centre's action against its "anti-national" activities'.

The minister came under severe criticism for her statements on Vemula's suicide at the University of Hyderabad in January last year. In reply to a debate in Lok Sabha, she had said: "This is how politics was played on this child and his dead body. Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported... Not one attempt was made to revive this child. Not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead his body was used as a political tool. Hidden. No police was allowed till 6.30 the next morning. Not me, but the Telangana police is saying this."

Smriti Irani taking over as I&B Minister. (Photo/ANI)

Vemula's mother Radhika slammed Irani, describing her statements as a "set of lies". Irani, as the head of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), then decided to replace German with Sanskrit, sparking yet another debate.

She was also under fire after her ministry suggested opening of separate dining area and mess for vegetarian students at the various Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) across the country.

...AND THE STORY OF HER DEGREE

Irani's educational qualification was challenged in court in 2014. In the complaint, Irani was accused of providing wrong information regarding her qualification to the Election Commission.

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In his complaint, freelance writer Ahmer Khan had alleged that Irani had deliberately given discrepant information about her educational qualifications in affidavits filed before the Election Commission in 2004, 2011 and 2014. He claimed she had not given any clarification despite concerns raised on the issue.

However, a Delhi court later dismissed the complaint, saying it was filed to "needlessly harass" her since she was a Union Minister.

(With inputs from agencies)

ALSO READ:

Smriti Irani given additional charge of I&B Ministry after Venkaiah Naidu resigns

Smriti Irani is a big Game of Thrones fan, here's proof

1 of 4 DU students accused of 'stalking' Smriti Irani apologises to the minister

WATCH: Smriti Irani gets additional charge of I&B after Venkaiah Naidu resigns as Union minister

--- ENDS ---
Coast Guard Testing Ways to ID Hoax Distress Calls

The Coast Guard received 161 confirmed or suspected hoax calls in fiscal year 2016, a 19 percent jump from 135 in FY2015. Even a routine SAR response typically costs thousands of dollars per hour.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been testing ways to identify hoax calls this year. As the lead agency for maritime search and rescue in U.S. waters, it responds to any notification of distress, and that means its mission is compromised by each hoax distress call received.

"The number of confirmed search and rescue hoax calls each year is dangerous for Coast Guard personnel, costly to taxpayers, and takes resources away from other legitimate Coast Guard operations. Developing a technology to rapidly identify their location would improve the ability of SAR controllers to identify probable hoax calls and make informed launch/no-launch decisions," said Cmdr. Kristi Bernstein, a member of the Enforcement and Policy Standards Division of the Office of Maritime Law Enforcement, in a July 11 article written by Loretta Haring of the Office of Strategic Planning and Communication, Acquisition Directorate.

Haring reported that the Search and Rescue Hoax Location Systems and Methods project was completed this spring by the Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in New London, Conn. It evaluated technologies that would assist the Coast Guard Investigative Service and other partners with locating, identifying, and prosecuting hoax callers.

The Coast Guard received 161 confirmed or suspected hoax calls in fiscal year 2016, a 19 percent jump from 135 in FY2015. "While that may seem like a relatively small number when compared to total search and rescue cases  the service responded to 16,343 SAR cases in fiscal year 2016, saving more than 5,174 lives and protecting more than $63 million in property from loss  hoax calls are a drain on Coast Guard resources and personnel," she wrote.

Her article explains that a routine SAR response typically involves Coast Guard surface and aviation assets, interagency and local partner assets, and Coast Guard Sector Command Center personnel; a search using an HC-130 Super Hercules long-range surveillance aircraft costs nearly $15,000 per hour, while search costs using a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter top $10,000 per hour. Boat rescue costs can exceed $5,000 per hour with the Coast Guards 45-foot Response Boat-Medium.

"Additionally, the investigative process often consumes an unreasonable amount of man hours and resources while simultaneously distracting Coast Guard focus away from actual distress situations," Bernstein said.

Making a false distress call is a violation of federal law that can result in a term up to six years in prison, a $250,000 criminal fine, a $5,000 civil fine, and reimbursing the U.S. Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search.

The project combined enhanced direction-finding capabilities and audio forensics/voice analytics with social media exploitation. Haring reported that the Coast Guard partnered with Carnegie Mellon University and its Language Technologies Institute, and the sponsors are currently evaluating the results.
A single amino-acid variation in a key receptor in whales may help explain why some species of cetaceans evolved sleek, muscular bodies to hunt fish and seals, while others grow to massive sizes by filter-feeding on large volumes of plankton, an international research team has found.

The findings are scheduled to be published July 18 in Scientific Reports, an open access journal from the publishers of Nature.

The work was led by Roger Cone, an obesity researcher at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute who has spent his career studying the melanocortin system. Just like the thermostat on a wall determines how much heat energy is in a room, the melanocortin circuits characterized by the Cone lab determine how much energy is stored as fat. Mutations in this system are the most common genetic cause of early-onset obesity in humans.

Given the melanocortin system's importance to feeding and energy balance in fish and mammals, Cone and his collaborators thought variations in the melanocortin genes may play a critical role in the evolution of different types of feeding behaviors and body sizes.

When Liyuan Zhao, a marine biologist and scholar from Ocean University in China, came to the Cone lab for a visiting fellowship, she decided to examine this idea in whales. She wanted to know: Could variation in the melanocortin system play a role in the differences between the two main suborders of whalesOdontoceti, which include dolphins and killer whales, and Mysticeti, which include humpback and blue whales?

The Odontoceti feed by hunting prey, while the enormous Myticeti are filter feeders. The smallest Odontoceti grow to around 5 feet long, while Myticeti, such as the blue whale, can top 100 feet.

Through a collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif., Zhao was able to obtain whale DNA samples from an existing repository. The team then sequenced the MCR4 neuropeptide receptor from 20 cetacean species and found one major difference that corresponded perfectly to the two groups. Odontoceti, or toothed whales, have the amino acid arginine at position 156 in the genetic code, while Mysticeti, or baleen whales, have a glutamine.

Further experiments revealed that having a glutamine in that position significantly increased the sensitivity of the MCR4 receptor to the ligand that naturally activates it.

"Our data suggest that the melanocortin system is more highly regulated in whales that huntand, conversely, that the giant filter feeders may receive reduced satiety signals from this system. This difference could well have played some role in the divergence of these two major types of cetaceansand may help explain the differences in feeding behavior and amazing range of body sizes among whales, which is far greater than in any other type of mammal," said Cone, director of the U-M Life Sciences Institute, where his lab is located, and professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the U-M Medical School.

While work in many labs at the LSI, including the Cone lab, seek to take discoveries from "bench to bedside," applying basic findings to human health, Cone joked that his research also goes from "bench to barnside." The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund have both funded the Cone lab to apply what they are learning about feeding and growth in different species to improve feed efficiency in agriculturally important fish species.

More information: Liyuan Zhao et al, Functional variants of the melanocortin-4 receptor associated with the Odontoceti and Mysticeti suborders of cetaceans, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05962-1 Journal information: Nature , Scientific Reports
Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder

The origin and nature of Mars is mysterious. It has geologically distinct hemispheres, with smooth lowlands in the north and cratered, high-elevation terrain in the south. The red planet also has two small oddly-shaped oblong moons and a composition that sets it apart from that of the Earth.

New research by University of Colorado Boulder professor Stephen Mojzsis outlines a likely cause for these mysterious features of Mars: a colossal impact with a large asteroid early in the planet's history. This asteroid - about the size of Ceres, one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System - smashed into Mars, ripped off a chunk of the northern hemisphere and left behind a legacy of metallic elements in the planet's interior. The crash also created a ring of rocky debris around Mars that may have later clumped together to form its moons, Phobos and Deimos.

The study appeared online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, in June.

"We showed in this paperthat from dynamics and from geochemistrythat we could explain these three unique features of Mars," said Mojzsis, a professor in CU Boulder's Department of Geological Sciences. "This solution is elegant, in the sense that it solves three interesting and outstanding problems about how Mars came to be."

Astronomers have long wondered about these features. Over 30 years ago, scientists proposed a large asteroid impact to explain the disparate elevations of Mars' northern and southern hemispheres; the theory became known as the "single impact hypothesis." Other scientists have suggested that erosion, plate tectonics or ancient oceans could have sculpted the distinct landscapes. Support for the single impact hypothesis has grown in recent years, supported by computer simulations of giant impacts.

Mojzsis thought that by studying Mars' metallic element inventory, he might be able to better understand its mysteries. He teamed up with Ramon Brasser, an astronomer at the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, to dig in.

The team studied samples from Martian meteorites and realized that an overabundance of rare metalssuch as platinum, osmium and iridiumin the planet's mantle required an explanation. Such elements are normally captured in the metallic cores of rocky worlds, and their existence hinted that Mars had been pelted by asteroids throughout its early history. By modeling how a large object such as an asteroid would have left behind such elements, Mojzsis and Brasser explored the likelihood that a colossal impact could account for this metal inventory.

A global false-color topographic view of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) experiment. The spatial resolution is about 15 kilometers at the equator and less at higher latitudes, with a vertical accuracy of less than 5 meters. The figure illustrates topographic features associated with resurfacing of the northern hemisphere lowlands in the vicinity of the Utopia impact basin (at the near-center of the image in blue). Credit: MOLA Science Team

The two scientists first estimated the amount of these elements from Martian meteorites, and deduced that the metals account for about 0.8 percent of Mars' mass. Then, they used impact simulations with different-sized asteroids striking Mars to see which size asteroid accumulated the metals at the rate they expected in the early solar system.

Based on their analysis, Mars' metals are best explained by a massive meteorite collision about 4.43 billion years ago, followed by a long history of smaller impacts. In their computer simulations, an impact by an asteroid at least 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) across was needed to deposit enough of the elements. An impact of this size also could have wildly changed the crust of Mars, creating its distinctive hemispheres.

In fact, Mojzsis said, the crust of the northern hemisphere appears to be somewhat younger than the ancient southern highlands, which would agree with their findings.

"The surprising part is how well it fit into our understanding of the dynamics of planet formation," said Mojzsis, referring to the theoretical impact. "Such a large impact event elegantly fits in to what we understand from that formative time."

Such an impact would also be expected to have generated a ring of material around Mars that later coalesced into Phobos and Deimos; this explains in part why those moons are made of a mix of native and non-Martian material.

In the future, Mojzsis will use CU Boulder's collection of Martian meteorites to further understand Mars' mineralogy and what it can tell us about a possible asteroid impact. Such an impact should have initially created patchy clumps of asteroid material and native Martian rock. Over time, the two material reservoirs became mixed. By looking at meteorites of different ages, Mojzsis can see if there's further evidence for this mixing pattern and, therefore, potentially provide further support for a primordial collision.

"Good theories make predictions," said Mojzsis, referring to how the impact theory may predict how Mars' makeup. By studying meteorites from Mars and linking them with planet-formation models, he hopes to better our understanding of how massive, ancient asteroids radically changed the red planet in its earliest days.

More information: R. Brasser et al, A colossal impact enriched Mars' mantle with noble metals, Geophysical Research Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1002/2017GL074002 Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters
Police forces are testing hidden cameras to catch crimes in rural areas. Credit: Jonathan Hutchins and licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 2.0

Smart cameras hidden in the countryside could soon help police fight back against rural crime and finally bring down secret smuggling routes.

Nature documentaries have long utilised camera traps to film elusive animals in the dead of night. When a nocturnal creature passes by its motion-sensitive sensor, the camera is triggered into action and captures images a filmmaker could only dream of.

And it turns out that this approach could be used in areas where criminal activity is suspected.

A new crime-fighting camera has been developed which scans a scene and differentiates what it sees. If its sensor spots something suspicious, it wakes up the camera and a platoon of algorithms kicks into action to process what's happening. Screenshots and video are then sent to local police stations who can take the investigation further.

The miniaturised cameras are being developed by the EU-funded FORENSOR project. They can survive on one-tenth of the power of a normal surveillance camera and are easily concealable, meaning they can operate cheaply in isolated areas with little infrastructure.

'We don't have a lot of surveillance equipment that is low powered and which you can leave in one place for a long time to record images,' explained Lazaros Gymnopoulos, visual computing researcher at the Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH), in Greece, and security officer for the FORENSOR project.

'And crimes can happen where we don't have the infrastructure to support surveillance systems like you would have in big cities.'

Portuguese police are interested in using it for remote coastal areas in Lisbon, where small motor boats loaded with drugs may approach isolated beaches with all lights turned off. The new cameras would stay in low-power mode when faced with waves or trees swaying but would kick into action as a potential criminal scenario plays out.

A second scenario to be tested is in a national park in Valencia, Spain. Here the camera can identify vehicles driven by someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Similarly, police in Cuisi in Italy are hoping to deploy the cameras so they can alert them if someone is climbing a fence, entering houses through a window or driving around a neighbourhood suspiciously.

Dr Nicholas Vretos, computer scientist at CERTH, and quality manager at FORENSOR, said: 'The police officer will judge if what is detected is of interest or not.'

A crucial part of FORENSOR is to ensure that the evidence gathered by the cameras is allowed in court, which means ensuring that nobody sees the footage who should not and protocols are followed to ensure the footage is correctly documented to support an investigation. The drones will also integrate privacy into its design so that it only records activity at certain times when criminal activity is suspected.

'There is even a standard way for a camera to handle the information in order for this information to be admissible in court,' said Dr Vretos.

By the end of the project, FORENSOR aims to have a prototype that they can promote amongst police forces in Europe. Already, the Greek navy has expressed an interest in the surveillance equipment, as such smart devices could better monitor remote, uninhabited islands and alert authorities to the activities of people smugglers.

Crime-fighting tools

Motion sensitive cameras will help catch drug and people traffickers, but criminals, or terrorists, will always find creative ways to conceal illegal substances.

The EU-funded NOSY project is developing a smartphone-sized scanner that law enforcement agents can hold in their hand. The smart materials inside will alert them to the presence of particles and sticky molecules from either explosives or drugs.

Another option is something called a sniffer, which is a smaller device that could be concealed in an area of interest or placed in a device, such as a walkie-talkie. It too will be capable of alerting police officers if someone passes by with a bag containing suspicious items.

To further boost the capabilities of the good guys, NOSY is developing a smart cable that could be strung along entrances or walls of tube stations, airports or malls. Crucially, the unseen cables would be dotted with smart but inexpensive button-sized sensors, designed to alert security services to tell-tale chemicals from explosives or illegal drugs.

Daniele Fattibene, a security and defence researcher at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Italy, said: 'The cable could reach a length of a few hundred metres and can be deployed in all sorts of public spaces or close to security checkpoints. It will be concealable.'

All three devices will be miniaturised so they have low impact in terms of size, but high impact in detection.

'The strategy is to create small, effective and user-friendly materials and devices,' said Fattibene, who is also involved in the dissemination of the NOSY project.

Once an alert goes off, information will be sent securely to a monitoring station and communicated to law enforcement. A crucial part of the project is to ensure that this information is secure, even if items are stolen, and also that evidence gathered can be used in court.

'We have experts who are creating a certification process which will enable NOSY devices to be used as proof during court proceedings,' Fattibene said.

Ethical and legal experts are also looking at all parts of the project to ensure citizens' rights and privacy underpin developments.
Recently harvested grapefruit. Credit: Keith Weller

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Florida are helping a company develop a small plastic pouch designed to make produce safer. The pouch releases chlorine dioxide gas, which eliminates Escherichia coli bacteria and other pathogens from the surfaces of fruits and vegetables.

The pouches are about half the size of a credit card and can be packed into shipping containers. The manufacturer, Worrell Water Technologies of Delray Beach, Florida, hopes to market them to wholesalers and packers of produce in the United States and overseas.

Plant pathologist Jinhe Bai and his colleagues at ARS's U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida, worked with Worrell to develop the pouch.

The pouch is a new product for Worrell, a company that markets water-purification technologies. In preliminary research, Bai and his colleagues found that the chlorine dioxide gas could be released too quickly, which could cause chemical burns on the fruit. The pouch was redesigned with a semi-permeable membrane that vents the gas at a slower rate.

"We helped test the pouch with the new design and found it vents at a more controlled rate and has the desired effect," Bai says.

Bai's research focuses on finding ways to reduce pathogen contamination of produce. At least 25 percent of the fruits and vegetables produced worldwide are lost after harvest because of spoilage from microbial contamination, Bai says. And E. coli and other pathogens on the surface of produce can cause illness if the produce isn't well washed or cooked.

Chlorine dioxide pouches placed inside fruit-packing cartons kill pathogens but dont damage fruit. Credit: Jinhe Bai

As a preventive measure, sanitizers are often used to kill microbes on produce. U.S. food processors add chlorine to the wash water. In Europe, chlorine dioxide is sometimes pumped into storage rooms to sanitize produce. But chlorine dioxide packaged in a proprietary, plastic pouch for use by produce packing houses and wholesalers is a first.

When Bai and his colleagues put the pouches into cartons of grapefruit using typical packing, shipping, and storage conditions, they found 10 times fewer bacterial and fungal pathogens than on grapefruit stored without pouches. A panel of ARS volunteers in Fort Pierce found that the treatments didn't change the appearance or taste of the grapefruit.

Other laboratory tests showed a 100,000-fold reduction in E. coli levels in inoculated grape tomatoes stored with the pouches, Bai says. The pouches have potential to sanitize other produce besides those tested, but further studies are needed to assess their effectiveness on specific fruits and vegetables.

The pouches cost a few cents, and only one to three are needed per crate or carton, so using them shouldn't add much to the price of the produce.

Bai collaborated with Worrell under a cooperative research and development agreement. The company helped finance another study evaluating the pouches and anticipates federal regulatory approval for their use in the near future.

Study results were published in HortScience.

More information: Xiuxiu Sun et al. The Effect of Controlled-release Chlorine Dioxide on the Preservation of Grapefruit, HortScience (2017). DOI: 10.21273/HORTSCI11363-16 Journal information: HortScience
By PTI: Melbourne, Jul 18 (PTI) Strong winds are causing vast Antarctic ice shelves to break off, such as the trillion-tonne iceberg that recently snapped away from the South Pole, scientists say.

The research showed how strengthening winds on the opposite side of Antarctica, up to 6,000 kilometres away, drive the high rate of ice melt along the West Antarctic Peninsula.

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Researchers at the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science in Australia found that the winds in East Antarctica can generate sea-level disturbances that propagate around the continent at almost 700 kilometres (km) per hour through a type of ocean wave known as a Kelvin wave.

When these waves encounter the steep underwater topography off the West Antarctic Peninsula they push warmer water towards the large ice shelves along the shoreline.

The warm Antarctic Circumpolar Current passes quite close to the continental shelf in this region, providing a source for this warm water.

"It is this combination of available warm water offshore, and a transport of this warm water onto the shelf, that has seen rapid ice shelf melt along the West Antarctic sector over the past several decades," said Paul Spence, from ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System.

The changes in the Antarctic coastal winds, particularly along East Antarctica, might themselves be related to climate change, researchers said.

This is because as Earth warms the strong westerly winds associated with storms over the Southern Ocean contract toward the poles, in turn changing the winds near the Antarctic continent, they said.

When the researchers modelled the impacts of these altered winds on Antarctica they found that they could drive warming of up to one degree Celsius of the waters at the depth of floating ice shelves along the Western Antarctica Peninsula.

This could have significant implications for Antarcticas ice shelves and ice sheets, with previous research showing that even small increases in ocean temperatures can substantially increase melt rates around the Peninsula, researchers said.

"If we do take rapid action to counter global warming and slow the rise in temperatures, southern storms tracks are likely to return to a more northerly position," Spence said.

"That may slow the melting in Western Antarctica and bring more reliable autumn and winter rains back to the southern parts of Australia," he said.

"It would also limit ocean warming and give some of the worlds major marine-terminating ice sheets a chance to stabilise," he added.

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"Its vital we achieve this or we are likely to see more calving of large ice shelves, similar to the recent Larsen C event," Spence said.

A trillion-tonne iceberg ? one of the largest ever recorded - broke away from Antarctica earlier this month and is now considered a serious hazard to ships around the South Pole.

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change. PTI APA MHN MHN

--- ENDS ---
Credit: Harvard University

By the time officials in Flint, Mich., declared a state of emergency in response dangerously high levels of lead in the city's drinking water in mid-December of 2015, residents had been complaining to each other about discolored and foul-smelling drinking water for more than a year.

That time lag, between residents identifying a potential hazard and government officials taking action, shocked Pooja Chandrashekar, A.B. '18, a biomedical engineering concentrator at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

"That was when we first conceived the idea of leveraging social media data, media reports, and Google trends data to come up with an environmental monitoring system," she said. "We thought that, by using non-traditional data sources, we could get a better idea of what people are discussing online and what kinds of things are raising red flags for them."

Chandrashekar joined forces with Yulin Hswen, a T.H. Chan School of Public Health doctoral student and colleague in the computational epidemiology group at Boston Children's Hospital, and Hswen's classmate, Jeremiah Liu, to develop that idea into a website that could more efficiently identify potential environmental hazards for authorities.

They honed the concept into a startup, Planetary Health Watch, which was awarded the McKinley Social Grant Gold Medal at the 10th annual i3 Innovation Challenge, a student entrepreneurship competition organized by the SEAS Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, gives the founders the seed funding and vote of confidence they need to get this project off the ground, Chandrashekar said.

The team is currently studying underlying problems in environmental health reporting and developing a computational surveillance system that relies on algorithms to find and organize relevant data.

They have collected more than one million data points related to water and pollution from Twitter, and are working on a dashboard that will aggregate that information from social media and Google Trends.

"When people talk about their concerns on Twitter, for example, many of the tweets will be geocoded, or users will self-identify the locations in their tweets," Chandrashekar explained. "If you see a cluster of people tweeting about the water smelling really bad, and they are all concentrated in one area, you can become more confident that there is a problem there."

The team's biggest challenge involves developing algorithms that can select the necessary information, while filtering out the seemingly endless streams of random chatter that clog social media channels. They plan to continue refining the models through the summer and officially launch a website this fall, including the results of online data analysis, as well as a simplified system for individual users to directly report environmental concerns.

The team doesn't expect their computational models to replace the EPA; rather, they envision Planetary Health Watch as an early detection system that can be seamlessly integrated into the government's current environmental monitoring infrastructure.

Calling a local agency or filling out forms to report a concern is oftentimes consuming or difficult, Chandrashekar noted. By going straight to data sources people already use to voice environmental health concerns, the team hopes that Planetary Health Watch can be a catalyst for change.

"It is very exciting to work on solving questions that can really have an impact on improving human health in the U.S. In the long run, speeding up the reporting process could help save lives," she said. "This is a new way of approaching problems like these, so we hope our work will usher in a new approach that could help reduce the impact of all types of public health problems."
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK have developed a concept called Empowerment to help robots to protect and serve humans, while keeping themselves safe.

Robots are becoming more common in our homes and workplaces and this looks set to continue. Many robots will have to interact with humans in unpredictable situations. For example, self-driving cars need to keep their occupants safe, while protecting the car from damage. Robots caring for the elderly will need to adapt to complex situations and respond to their owners' needs.

Recently, thinkers such as Stephen Hawking have warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, and this has sparked public discussion. "Public opinion seems to swing between enthusiasm for progress and downplaying any risks, to outright fear," says Daniel Polani, a scientist involved in the research, which was recently published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

However, the concept of "intelligent" machines running amok and turning on their human creators is not new. In 1942, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov proposed his three laws of robotics, which govern how robots should interact with humans. Put simply, these laws state that a robot should not harm a human, or allow a human to be harmed. The laws also aim to ensure that robots obey orders from humans, and protect their own existence, as long as this doesn't cause harm to a human.

The laws are well-intentioned, but they are open to misinterpretation, especially as robots don't understand nuanced and ambiguous human language. In fact, Asimov's stories are full of examples where robots misinterpreted the spirit of the laws, with tragic consequences.

One problem is that the concept of "harm" is complex, context-specific and is difficult to explain clearly to a robot. If a robot doesn't understand "harm", how can they avoid causing it? "We realized that we could use different perspectives to create 'good' robot behavior, broadly in keeping with Asimov's laws," says Christoph Salge, another scientist involved in the study.

The concept the team developed is called Empowerment. Rather than trying to make a machine understand complex ethical questions, it is based on robots always seeking to keep their options open. "Empowerment means being in a state where you have the greatest potential influence on the world you can perceive," explains Salge. "So, for a simple robot, this might be getting safely back to its power station, and not getting stuck, which would limit its options for movement. For a more futuristic, human-like robot this would not just include movement, but could incorporate a variety of parameters, resulting in more human-like drives."

The team mathematically coded the Empowerment concept, so that it can be adopted by a robot. While the researchers originally developed the Empowerment concept in 2005, in a recent key development, they expanded the concept so that the robot also seeks to maintain a human's Empowerment. "We wanted the robot to see the world through the eyes of the human with which it interacts," explains Polani. "Keeping the human safe consists of the robot acting to increase the human's own Empowerment."

"In a dangerous situation, the robot would try to keep the human alive and free from injury," says Salge. "We don't want to be oppressively protected by robots to minimize any chance of harm, we want to live in a world where robots maintain our Empowerment."

This altruistic Empowerment concept could power robots that adhere to the spirit of Asimov's three laws, from self-driving cars, to robot butlers. "Ultimately, I think that Empowerment might form an important part of the overall ethical behaviour of robots," says Salge.

More information: Christoph Salge et al, Empowerment As Replacement for the Three Laws of Robotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI (2017). DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2017.00025

Provided by Frontiers
After being hidden for centuries, the secrets within medieval manuscripts might soon come to light.

By fusing two imaging techniquesvisible hyperspectral imaging and x-ray fluorescencean interdisciplinary team of Northwestern University researchers has developed a new, non-destructive technology that gives access to medieval texts hidden inside of ancient bookbindings.

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, bookbinders recycled the bindings from medieval parchments into new binding materials for printed books. While scholars have long been aware that books from this time period often contain hidden fragments of earlier manuscripts, they never had the means to read them.

"For generations, scholars have thought this information was inaccessible, so they thought, 'Why bother?'" said Marc Walton, senior scientist at the Northwestern University-Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies (NU-ACCESS). "But now computational imaging and signal processing advances open up a whole new way to read these texts."

Partially supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the research was published online in the journal Analytica Chimica Arts. Northwestern Engineering's Walton co-authored the study with electrical engineering and computer science professors Aggelos Katsaggelos and Oliver Cossairt. Emeline Pouyet, a postdoctoral fellow in NU-ACCESS, served as the paper's first author. Richard Kieckhefer, professor of religion and history in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and Arthur Woll, senior research associate at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, also contributed to the study.

Emeline Pouyet explains how fused imaging techniques made the obscured text readable. Credit: Northwestern University

The book responsible for sparking the study is a copy of Greek poet Hesiod's Works and Days from 1537. Purchased by Northwestern in 1870, the copy is the only remaining imprint retaining its original slotted parchment binding. Although it was this binding that originally caught the attention of Northwestern librarians, it was the suggestion of writing beneath the parchment on the book board which incited new questions.

When NU-ACCESS researchers studied the binding, they noticed that the bookbinder tried to remove the writing on the book board, likely through washing or scraping. The book board, however, retained two ghostly columns of writing surrounded by marginal comments, which were still visible through the parchment on book's front and back covers.

"The ink beneath degraded the parchment, so you could start to see the writing," Pouyet said. "That is where the analytical study began."

Walton and Pouyet originally used a visible light hyperspectral imaging technique to view the writing, but it yielded poor results due to the parchment's irregular degradation. The technique did indeed make the writing a bit clearer but not clear enough for historian Kieckhefer to read. Next, the pair tried x-ray fluorescence imaging using a portable instrument. The technique provided the first information about the ink composition; however, the text was still unreadable due to poor spatial resolution.

In search of a more powerful imaging source, Walton and Pouyet sent the book to the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) in Ithaca, New York, where the bright x-ray source and fast detection system allowed for a full imaging of the main text and marginalia comments in the entire bookbinding. When the researchers sent the more clearly imaged writing to Kieckhefer, he immediately recognized it as sixth-century Roman Law code, with interpretive notes referring to the Canon Law written in the margins.

Walton and Pouyet hypothesize that the parchment originally might have been used in a university setting where Roman Law was studied as a basis for understanding Canon Law, which was a common practice in the Middle Ages. The legal writing was then possibly covered and recycled because it was outdated as society had already struck down the Roman laws to implement church code.

"When you have the right tool, analysis is a lot easier," Walton said. "But the problem is that you can't always bring priceless books to an often out-of-reach synchrotron beamline. We wanted to be able to use our lab-based instruments to do this sort of work."

The pair then contacted Northwestern computer science professors Katsaggelos and Cossairt to help explore new ways to image the book.

"We had to develop new methods of doing the analysis that we wouldn't otherwise have had," Walton said. "There's nothing that exists off-the-shelf that we can use to simply image this book and read the hidden writing."

"There is a vast number of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, and each wavelength has its advantages and disadvantages," said Katsaggelos, the Joseph Cummings Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "Some of them can penetrate deeper into the specimen, some of them have better resolution, and so on."

Using a machine-learning algorithm developed by his team, Katsaggelos discovered that not one imaging technique but a fusion of two would yield the best results. His team combined visible hyperspectral imaging, which includes wavelengths within the visible light spectrum to provide high spatial resolution, with x-ray fluorescence imaging, which provides high intensity resolution. The algorithm informed the researchers of the relative contribution of each modality to produce the best image.

"By combining the two modalities, we had the advantages of each," Katsaggelos said. "We were able to read successfully what was inside the cover of the book."

Katsaggelos' data fusion image was so clear that it rivaled an image of the main text produced by the powerful x-ray beams at CHESS.

Although this mystery of the text hidden in the bookbinding of Hesiod's Works and Days has now been solved, Walton and Pouyet believe their work has just begun.

"We've developed the techniques now where we can go into a museum collection and look at many more of these recycled manuscripts and reveal the writing hidden inside of them," Walton said. "This is really the start of a much larger initiative."

More information: E. Pouyet et al. Revealing the biography of a hidden medieval manuscript using synchrotron and conventional imaging techniques, Analytica Chimica Acta (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2017.06.016 Journal information: Analytica Chimica Acta
An illustration of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbiting Earth. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

A combined analysis of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), a ground-based observatory in Namibia, suggests the center of our Milky Way contains a "trap" that concentrates some of the highest-energy cosmic rays, among the fastest particles in the galaxy.

"Our results suggest that most of the cosmic rays populating the innermost region of our galaxy, and especially the most energetic ones, are produced in active regions beyond the galactic center and later slowed there through interactions with gas clouds," said lead author Daniele Gaggero at the University of Amsterdam. "Those interactions produce much of the gamma-ray emission observed by Fermi and H.E.S.S."

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles moving through space at almost the speed of light. About 90 percent are protons, with electrons and the nuclei of various atoms making up the rest. In their journey across the galaxy, these electrically charged particles are affected by magnetic fields, which alter their paths and make it impossible to know where they originated.

But astronomers can learn about these cosmic rays when they interact with matter and emit gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.

In March 2016, scientists with the H.E.S.S. Collaboration reported gamma-ray evidence of the extreme activity in the galactic center. The team found a diffuse glow of gamma rays reaching nearly 50 trillion electron volts (TeV). That's some 50 times greater than the gamma-ray energies observed by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). To put these numbers in perspective, the energy of visible light ranges from about 2 to 3 electron volts.

The Fermi spacecraft detects gamma rays when they enter the LAT. On the ground, H.E.S.S. detects the emission when the atmosphere absorbs gamma rays, which triggers a cascade of particles resulting in a flash of blue light.

The five telescopes of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), located in Namibia, capture faint flashes that occur when ultrahigh-energy gamma rays are absorbed in the upper atmosphere. A new study of the galactic center combines high-energy observations from H.E.S.S. with lower-energy data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to show that some of the speediest particles become trapped there. Credit: H.E.S.S., MPIK/Christian Foehr

In a new analysis, published July 17 in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of scientists combined low-energy LAT data with high-energy H.E.S.S. observations. The result was a continuous gamma-ray spectrum describing the galactic center emission across a thousandfold span of energy.

"Once we subtracted bright point sources, we found good agreement between the LAT and H.E.S.S. data, which was somewhat surprising due to the different energy windows and observing techniques used," said co-author Marco Taoso at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Madrid and Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Turin.

This agreement indicates that the same population of cosmic raysmostly protonsfound throughout the rest of the galaxy is responsible for gamma rays observed from the galactic center. But the highest-energy share of these particles, those reaching 1,000 TeV, move through the region less efficiently than they do everywhere else in the galaxy. This results in a gamma-ray glow extending to the highest energies H.E.S.S. observed.

"The most energetic cosmic rays spend more time in the central part of the galaxy than previously thought, so they make a stronger impression in gamma rays," said co-author Alfredo Urbano at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and INFN Trieste.

This effect is not included in conventional models of how cosmic rays move through the galaxy. But the researchers show that simulations incorporating this change display even better agreement with Fermi data.

"The same breakneck particle collisions responsible for producing these gamma rays should also produce neutrinos, the fastest, lightest and least understood fundamental particles," said co-author Antonio Marinelli of INFN Pisa. Neutrinos travel straight to us from their sources because they barely interact with other matter and because they carry no electrical charge, so magnetic fields don't sway them.

"Experiments like IceCube in Antarctica are detecting high-energy neutrinos from beyond our solar system, but pinpointing their sources is much more difficult," said Regina Caputo, a Fermi team member at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study. "The findings from Fermi and H.E.S.S. suggest the galactic center could be detected as a strong neutrino source in the near future, and that's very exciting."

More information: D. Gaggero et al. Diffuse Cosmic Rays Shining in the Galactic Center: A Novel Interpretation of H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT  -Ray Data, Physical Review Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.031101 Journal information: Physical Review Letters
Traditional fishing pirogue from southeast Madagascar. Credit: Thierry Letellier (INSERM).

(Phys.org)A large team of researchers from France, Madagascar, Indonesia, Germany and Australia has conducted a genetic study of the native people that live on Madagascar. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group outlines their study, which involved obtaining genetic material from people across the island and what their analysis efforts revealed.

Madagascar is, of course, a large island situated off the coast of Mozambiqueit has become widely known for its unique plants and animals. Less well known is that native people also populate the island. They are known as Malagasy and are believed to have both African and Asian ancestry. What has not been clear is when people first settled on Madagascar and when the two groups combined. Prior studies involving the Malagasy have sought common or different cultural practices and linguisticsthe people on the island share a language family known as Austronesian, which is also spoken by people living on other Pacific islands. In this new effort, the researchers sought more precise information by conducting a genetic study of the people. In all, the researchers collected samples from 2,700 people from 257 villages across the islandthe average age for the people tested was 61.

The team conducted mtDNA analysis of the samples and found roughly equal contributions from both Asian and African lineagesAfrican lineages were found to be more frequent in Asian in Y chromosomes, however, which suggested a male bias for African ancestry. The team also found that the ratio of Asian to African ancestry varied by geographic location. Those living in the central highlands had more Asian ancestry, while those living on the coasts showed more African ancestry. These results, the team suggests, indicate that admixture happened heterogeneously on the island, which suggests people from Asia and Africa colonized the island independently of one another.

The analysis also suggested that the mixing between the two groups occurred approximately 500 to 900 years agothough they note that further subsequent clustering of Asian/African ancestry also occurred. This, the researchers suggest, indicates that geographic separation can result in genetic differences between people over the course of just a few centuries.

More information: Denis Pierron et al. Genomic landscape of human diversity across Madagascar, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704906114 Abstract

Although situated 400 km from the east coast of Africa, Madagascar exhibits cultural, linguistic, and genetic traits from both Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa. The settlement history remains contentious; we therefore used a grid-based approach to sample at high resolution the genomic diversity (including maternal lineages, paternal lineages, and genome-wide data) across 257 villages and 2,704 Malagasy individuals. We find a common Bantu and Austronesian descent for all Malagasy individuals with a limited paternal contribution from Europe and the Middle East. Admixture and demographic growth happened recently, suggesting a rapid settlement of Madagascar during the last millennium. However, the distribution of African and Asian ancestry across the island reveals that the admixture was sex biased and happened heterogeneously across Madagascar, suggesting independent colonization of Madagascar from Africa and Asia rather than settlement by an already admixed population. In addition, there are geographic influences on the present genomic diversity, independent of the admixture, showing that a few centuries is sufficient to produce detectable genetic structure in human populations. Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 2017 Phys.org
According to a new USDA-funded survey, lack of access to affordable health insurance is a significant concern and risk factor for American farmers. 64 percent of those surveyed had preexisting conditions. Credit: Paul Boisvert

According to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded study, lack of access to affordable health insurance is one of the most significant concerns facing American farmers, an overlooked risk factor that affects their ability to run a successful enterprise.

"The rising cost of healthcare and the availability of affordable health insurance have joined more traditional risk factors like access to capital, credit and land as a major source of worry for farmers," said principal investigator Shoshanah Inwood, a rural sociologist at the University of Vermont, who conducted the study with colleagues at the Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis at NORC at the University of Chicago.

"The study found that health-related costs are a cross-sector risk for agriculture, tied to farm risk management, productivity, health, retirement, the need for off-farm income and land access for young and beginning farmers," said Alana Knudson, co-director of the NORC Walsh Center.

Study results were based on a March 2017 mail survey of farmers and ranchers in 10 study states and interviews with farm families in each of the study states in 2016.

Three of four farmers and ranchers (73 percent) in the survey said that having affordable health insurance was an important or very important means of reducing their business risk. And just over half (52 percent) are not confident they could pay the costs of a major illness such as a heart attack, cancer or loss of limb without going into debt.

Insights from the interviews supported the survey results. "During the course of interviews with farmers, many relayed stories about their family members or neighbors who had lost their farms or dairies due to catastrophic illness or injury when they were uninsured," Knudson said.

Sixty-four percent report having pre-existing conditions

To meet the needs of farmers, changes in current health insurance law will need to be carefully considered, the survey suggests.

Two out of three farmers and ranchers (64 percent) reported having a pre-existing health condition. With an average age of 58, farmers and ranchers are also vulnerable to higher insurance premiums due to age-rating bands. And among farmers and ranchers 18 to 64 years old, one out of four (24 percent) purchased a plan in their state's insurance marketplace.

"A number of farmers in their 50s we spoke with said they had left off-farm employment in the last five years to commit to full-time farming because they and their families would not be denied health insurance in the individual market due to pre-existing conditions," Knudson said.

Health Insurance costs create barriers for young and beginning farmers

Health care costs also factor into farm succession issues, potentially denying young people access to land to farm.

Almost half (45 percent) of the farmers surveyed said they're concerned they will have to sell some or all of their farm or ranch assets to address health related costs such as long-term care, nursing home or in-home health assistance.

"These findings indicated that many farmers will need to sell their land, their most valuable asset, to the highest bidder when they need cash to cover health-related costs," Inwood said, "making it more difficult for young farmers to afford land and increasing the likelihood farmland is sold for commercial development."

Lack of access to affordable health insurance could potentially drive young people away from farming, the research found. Young farmers who had taken advantage of the Medicaid expansion in their states said told the researchers in interviews that it allowed them to provide health insurance for their children and have time and energy to invest in the farm or ranch rather than having to seek a full-time off-farm or ranch job with benefits.

Most farm families have health insurance, over half through public sector employment

The vast majority of farmers and ranchers (92 percent) reported that they and their families had health insurance in 2016 but that it frequently came from off-farm employment. Over half (59 percent) of farm and ranch families received benefits through public sector employers (health, education and government).

"Public sector jobs, especially in rural areas often offer the highest wages and most generous benefits," Inwood said. "Changes in public and private sector employment options or benefits affect the financial stability and social well-being of farm families with impacts reverberating through rural communities."

Nearly three quarters say USDA should represent farmer interests

Given the pressing nature of their health insurance concerns, farmers are also seeking help from the federal government.

Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of farmers said USDA should represent farmers' needs in national health policy discussions, particularly due to unique health needs of farmers and farm workers (e.g., coverage for blood tests to examine potential pesticide exposures).

The timing is right, Inwood said, the five-year update of the U.S. Farm Bill is due in 2018. The comprehensive Farm Bill deals with agriculture and all other issues under the jurisdiction of the USDA.

"We have a shrinking and aging farm population," Inwood said. "The next Farm Bill is an opportunity to start thinking about how health insurance affects the trajectory of farms in the United States."

Nothing is more important to the country's food system than the viability of the farm sector, she said.

"It's a matter of national security," she said.

For the study, a total of 1,062 farmers and ranchers were surveyed in March 2017 in Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nebraska, Mississippi, Kentucky, Washington, Utah and California. Study states were selected in each of the four Census regions and included a mix of those that had expanded or not expanded Medicaid. The study results were also based on interviews of up to 10 families in each of the study states.
Glasses form when a liquid is cooled so rapidly its atoms or molecules don't have time to find their places in the regular pattern that characterizes crystalline solids. Credit: Washington University in St. Louis

We learn in school that matter comes in three states: solid, liquid and gas. A bored and clever student (we've all met one) then sometimes asks whether glass is a solid or a liquid.

The student has a point. Glasses are weird "solid liquids" that are cooled so fast their atoms or molecules jammed before organizing themselves in the regular patterns of a crystalline solid. So a glass has the mechanical properties of a solid but its atoms or molecules are disorganized, like those in a liquid.

One sign of the weirdness of glass is that the transition from liquid to a glass is much fuzzier than the transition from liquid to crystalline solid. In fact, the glass transition is arbitrarily defined as the point where the glass-forming material has a viscosity of 1013 poise. (The viscosity of water at room temperature is about 0.01 poise. A thick oil might have a viscosity of about 1.0 poise.) At this point, it is too thick to flow and so meets the practical definition of a solid.

Scientists hate definitions this vague, but they've been stuck with this one because nobody really understood the glass transition, which frequently makes it onto lists of the top-10 unsolved problems in physics.

For the most part, scientists have been able to measure only bulk properties of glass-forming liquids, such as viscosity and specific heat, and the interpretations they came up with depended in part on the measurements they took. The glass literature is notoriously full of contradictory findings and workshops about glass are the venue for lively debate.

But in the past fifteen years, new experimental setups that scatter X-rays or neutrons off the atoms in a droplet of liquid that is held without a container (which would provoke it to crystallize) have allowed scientists at long last to measure the atomic properties of the liquid. And that is the level at which they suspect the secrets of the glass transition are hidden.

In one such study, Ken Kelton, the Arthur Holly Compton Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and his research team (Chris Pueblo, Washington University and Minhua Sun, Harbin Normal University, China) compared a measure of the interaction of atoms for different glass-forming liquids. Their results, published online in Nature Materials, reconcile several measures of glass formation, a sign that they are on the right track.

"We have shown that the concept of fragile and strong liquids, which was invented to explain why viscosity changes in markedly different ways as a liquid cools, actually goes much deeper than just the viscosity," Kelton said. "It is ultimately related to the repulsion between atoms, which limits their ability to move cooperatively. This is why the distinction between fragile and strong liquids also appears in structural properties, elastic properties and dynamics. They're all just different manifestations of that atomic interaction."

This is the first time the connection between viscosity and atomic interactions has been demonstrated experimentally, he said. Intriguingly, his studies and work by others suggest that the glass transition begins not at the conventional glass transition temperature but rather at a temperature approximately two times higher in metallic glasses (more than two times higher in the silicate glasses, such as window glass). It is at that point, Kelton said, the atoms first begin to move cooperatively.

Drilling down to the atomic level

Kelton's latest discoveries follow earlier investigations of a characteristic of glass-forming liquids called fragility. To most people, all glasses are fragile, but to physicists some are "strong" and others are "fragile."

The distinction was first introduced in 1995 by Austen Angell, a professor of chemistry at Arizona State University, who felt that a new term was needed to capture dramatic differences in the way a liquid's viscosity increases as it approaches the glass transition.

The viscosities of some liquids change gradually and smoothly as they approach this transition. But as other liquids are cooled, their viscosity changes very little at first, but then take off like a rocket as the transition temperature approaches.

At the time, Angell could only measure viscosity, but he called the first type of liquid "strong" and the second type "fragile" because he suspected a structural difference underlay the differences that he saw,

"It's easier to explain what he meant if you think of a glass becoming a liquid rather than the other way around," Kelton said. "Suppose a glass is heated through the glass transition temperature. If it's a 'strong' system, it 'remembers' the structure it had as a glasswhich is more ordered than in a liquidand that tells you that the structure does not change much through the transition. In contrast, a 'fragile' system quickly 'forgets' its glass structure, which tells you that its structure changes a lot through the transition.

Credit: Washington University in St. Louis

"People argued that the change in viscosity had to be related to the structurethrough several intermediate concepts, some of which are not well defined," Kelton added. "What we did was hop over these intermediate steps to show directly that fragility was related to structure."

In 2014, he with members of his group published in Nature Communications the results of experiments that showed that the fragility of a glass-forming liquid is reflected in something called the structure factor, a quantity measured by scattering X-rays off a droplet of liquid that contains information about the position of the atoms in the droplet.

"It was just as Angell had suspected," Kelton said. "The rate of atomic ordering in the liquid near the transition temperature determines whether a liquid is 'fragile' or 'strong.'"

Sharp little atomic elbows

But Kelton wasn't satisfied. Other scientists were finding correlations between the fragility of a liquid and its elastic properties and dynamics, as well as its structure. "There has to be something in common," he thought. "What's the one thing that could underlie all of these things?" The answer, he believed, had to be the changing attraction and repulsion between atoms as they moved closer together, which is called the atomic interaction potential.

If two atoms are well separated, Kelton explained, there is little interaction between them and the interatomic potential is nearly zero. When they get closer together, they are attracted to one another for a variety of reasons. The potential energy goes down, becoming negative (or attractive). But then as they move closer still, the cores of the atoms start to interact, repelling one another. The energy shoots way up.

"It's that repulsive part of the potential we were seeing in our experiments," Kelton said.

What they found when they measured the repulsive potential of 10 different metallic alloys at the Advanced Photon Source, a beamline at Argonne National Laboratory, is that "strong" liquids have steeper repulsive potentials and the slope of their repulsive potential changes more rapidly that of "fragile" ones. "What this means," Kelton said, "is that 'strong' liquids order more rapidly at high temperatures than 'fragile' ones. That is the microscopic underpinning of Angell's fragility.

"What's interesting," Kelton continued, "is that we see atoms beginning to respond cooperativelyshowing awareness of one anotherat temperatures approximately double the glass transition temperature and close to the melting temperature.

"That's where the glass transition really starts," he said. "As the liquid cools more and more, atoms move cooperatively until rafts of cooperation extend from one side of the liquid to the other and the atoms jam. But that point, the conventional glass transition, is only the end point of a continuous process that begins at a much higher temperature."

Kelton will soon attend a workshop in Poland where he expects lively discussion of his findings, which contradict those of some of his colleagues. But he is convinced that he has hold of the thread that will lead out of the labyrinth because different levels of understanding are beginning to line up. "It's exciting that things are coming together so well," he said.

Glasses, glasses, everywhere

Ken Kelton has pursued the glass transition for many years both because the physics are interesting and, he confesses, because he just plain likes liquids and glasses. But when he googles people who have cited his papers he often finds they work in industry. This is because glasses are everywhere. Most of us think of glass as window glass or drinking glasses, but many foodstuffs, drugs and plastics are also glasses.

Dry spaghetti is hard and brittle because it is a glass. When it is heated in boiling water it undergoes a transition to a "rubbery" state that goes well with red sauce. Cotton candy is a glass made by melting sugar crystals and then spinning out the melt so that strands of molten sugar "freeze" in the form of a glass. Cheetos, prawn crackers and dry milk powder are all glasses, as are many other foods.

Pharmaceutical companies often use spray-drying or freeze-drying to make sure a drug is glassy rather than crystalline. Many hard plastics, such as polysytrene (packing peanuts, disposable razors) and polyvinyl chloride (vinyl siding, plumbing) are also glasses.

Industrial scientists are scanning Kelton's papers because they need to control the glass transition and the transformation of the glass to a crystalline solid in order to give their products desirable properties. Drugs in a glassy state generally dissolve better in the body, so that lower doses are effective, and some drugs must be produced as glasses because they are insoluble in their crystalline form. Control of the glass transition is also important in the production of plastics. Because they are glasses, hard plastics have a "memory" of their thermal history that affects how they perform and age.

More information: Christopher E. Pueblo et al. Strength of the repulsive part of the interatomic potential determines fragility in metallic liquids, Nature Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nmat4935 Journal information: Nature Materials , Nature Communications
In this Feb. 20, 2012, file photo, U.S. Sen. John Glenn talks with astronauts on the International Space Station via satellite before a discussion titled "Learning from the Past to Innovate for the Future" in Columbus, Ohio. Glenn's devotees are pushing forward with ideas for memorials and honors as the anniversary of the astronaut's birth arrives Tuesday, July 18, 2017, for the first time since his death on Dec. 8, 2016, at age 95. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)

Some plans to honor John Glenn didn't fly, but that hasn't stopped the late astronaut's devotees from pushing forward with other ideas.

Numerous memorials and honors were being pursued as Glenn's birth date arrived Tuesday for the first time since his death in December at age 95.

They span from Glenn's childhood birthplace and first flight school, to the starry skies over Glenn's native Ohio, to the shores of New York where he touched down after setting the transcontinental speed record.

An application to place Glenn's birthplace in Cambridge in eastern Ohio on the National Register of Historic Places was rejected, on grounds that the Glenn family lived there only two years after his birth. The National Park Service said New Concord, site of Glenn's boyhood home, is a more appropriate spot to honor him.

But Cambridge still thinks it has the right stuff to memorialize Glenn, the hometown boy who made history as a military aviator in two wars, a longtime U.S. senator and, most notably, the first American to orbit Earth in 1962. He became the oldest person to travel to space in 1977.

Debbie Robinson, executive director of the Cambridge/Guernsey County Visitors and Convention Bureau, said St. John's University graduate student Adam Sackowitz is working with the current owners to get a plaque placed there. In the meantime, the bureau has made one of its own.

In this Dec. 17, 2016, file photo, the casket of U.S. Sen. John Glenn rests below an image of the astronaut and his wife, Annie, and the STS-95 space shuttle launch during his funeral ceremony at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Glenn's devotees are pushing forward with ideas for memorials and honors as the anniversary of the astronaut's birth arrives Tuesday, July 18, 2017, for the first time since his death on Dec. 8, 2016, at age 95. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

"I have a beautiful brown, Ohio-shaped sign that I just had made that I'm getting ready to give to the mayor, to place wherever he wants it," she said. It bears Glenn's birth date of July 18, 1921.

A Glenn sculpture envisioned for the Ohio Statehouse also hit a snag, but the city of New Philadelphia, about 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) north of New Concord, is exploring placing one at Harry Clever Field, where Glenn learned to fly.

Airport Manager Eric Hubbard said two airport commission members have been approached about the sculpture, but a decision hasn't been made. In the meantime, the airport still sells its John Glenn T-shirts.

In southern Ohio's Hocking Hills, ground was broken last week on the John Glenn Astronomy Park . The Friends of the Hocking Hills, which is spearheading the project, hopes to have the project completed by year's end.

Ohio lawmaker Nickie Antonio is preparing a resolution for the fall urging Congress to award Glenn and his 97-year-old widow, Annie, the Medal of Honor. Sackowitz said he would also like to see a plaque or statue placed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, where Glenn touched down after setting the transcontinental speed record on July 16, 1957.

In this Dec. 11, 2016, file photo, a screen shows a photo commemorating astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn before an NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Glenn's devotees are pushing forward with ideas for memorials and honors as the anniversary of the astronaut's birth arrives Tuesday, July 18, 2017, for the first time since his death on Dec. 8, 2016, at age 95. (AP Photo/David Richard, File)

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Notorious financier Bernie Madoff bilked more than 10,000 investors out of billions of dollars in the 1990s and 2000s in the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. But the effect of Madoff's elaborate Ponzi scheme rippled far beyond his direct victims.

For the first time, a Cornell University researcher and his colleagues have quantified just how much the rip-off cost the financial industry.

After the fraud was discovered, people who knew Madoff's victims or who lived in areas where victims were concentrated lost trust in the financial system and dramatically changed their investment behavior, according to a new Cornell study recently published in The Review of Financial Studies.

The investors yanked $363 billion from the financial advisers they had entrusted with it - even though many of those advisers had nothing to do with Madoff - and stashed a significant portion into safe assets such as bank deposits.

"People lost trust in these advisers. Everybody just ran," said Scott Yonker, co-author of the study, assistant professor of applied economics and management.

The $363 billion in investment withdrawals is nearly 20 times the $17 billion in restitution the courts ordered Madoff to pay his investors, Yonker said. "That's a pretty big effect. The withdrawals were so hefty in some areas that some investment firms ended up shutting their doors and going out of business," he said.

Investment firms with clients in regions that were affected by the fraud were over 40 percent more likely to close than firms in a control group. Those who had the ability to steal from their clients lost more of their clients' business. In contrast, advisers who were able to build more trust with their clients, such as by offering personalized financial planning, had fewer withdrawals.

From the 1990s through the late 2000s, Madoff deposited his clients' money into his personal bank account, rather than invest it and generate steady returns as his clients had expected. When his clients wanted to liquidate their investments for cash, he dipped into the bank account to fund their requests.

The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Madoff several times. But it only discovered the fraud when Madoff's sons turned him in, in 2008.

Yonker and his colleagues used court documents to identify the names and addresses of more than 10,000 victims, who were concentrated in the Northeast, parts of California and around Miami. The team also compared that information with the assets managed by nearly 4,000 investment advisers and deposits in 97,000 branches of banks in 20,600 ZIP codes.

Crunching that data, the researchers showed investors' trust in Madoff - and their friends' and neighbors' subsequent distrust of the financial system - spread by word of mouth. The key? Madoff targeted elderly, wealthy Jewish investors in what is known as an affinity Ponzi scheme.

"These schemers basically take advantage of some commonality in their background. In this case, Madoff was Jewish and his clients were Jewish," Yonker said. Religion is the second-most common source of this affinity link in Ponzi schemes, after family and friends, he added.

The loss of trust was strongest in areas that were home to both Madoff victims and a large number of the affinity group. "It propagated through this social network," Yonker said.

Even four years after the fraud was revealed, the researchers found no evidence that investors had reversed their withdrawals from the stock market.

"We show the importance of trust in investors' allocation decisions," Yonker said. "At the macro level, economic growth critically depends on the efficient allocation of capital.

"Capital flows stemming from distrust in intermediaries instead of the underlying investment opportunities can potentially lead to suboptimal allocations," he added.
Now abandoned, part of Sidoarjo town is entombed in mud metres thick. Credit: sawerigading, CC BY-NC-ND

The world's most destructive mud volcano was born near the town of Sidoarjo, on the island of Java, Indonesia, just over 11 years ago  and to this day it has not stopped erupting. The mud volcano known as Lusi started on May 29, 2006, and at its peak disgorged a staggering 180,000 cubic metres of mud every day, burying villages in mud up to 40 metres thick. The worst event of its kind in recorded history, the eruption took 13 lives and destroyed the homes of 60,000 people. But although the mud is still flowing more than a decade later, scientists are not yet agreed on its cause.

The debate is whether the eruption of Lusi was due to an earthquake several days previously, or down to a catastrophic failure of the Banjar Panji 1 gas exploration well that was being drilled nearby at the time. Given the huge impact of the volcano on the communities nearby and the fields that were their livelihoods, why are we still unsure of the cause?

Mud volcanoes are extremely common on Earth, with thousands of examples known worldwide. They come in many shapes and sizes and behave a little like their molten-rock counterparts, going through long periods of inactivity with periodic violent eruptions. Mud volcanoes, however, spew out not molten hot lava from the Earth's mantle, but usually a cold mixture of gas, water and solids.

Some of the most spectacular examples of mud volcanoes are in Azerbaijan where they can range from a few metres across to the size of a small mountain. They are commonly found at tectonic plate boundaries, and also underwater at river deltas where sediment is buried rapidly, causing unusually high pressures to build up underground. The muddy mix is also pushed to the surface by the buoyant gas it contains. Usually mud volcanoes grow slowly, through layer upon layer of mud. What happened in Sidoarjo in 2006 is unique, with Lusi by far the fastest growing mud volcano we know of, having drowned surrounding houses, factories, places of worship and schools in a foul-smelling, emulsion-like mud.

NASA false colour image, where red represents vegetation in fields, of Sidorajo town in 2004, before Lusis eruption. Credit: NASA/ASTER

Drilling or earthquake?

The journal Marine and Petroleum Geology is publishing a special issue that examines the ways this amazing phenomena is developing. It includes one paper by geoscientists Stephen Miller and Adriano Mazzini ("[More than ten years of Lusi: A review of facts, coincidences, and past and future studies") that exhumes the debate of what caused the eruption, offering strong support for the earthquake as the trigger and dismissing the idea the borehole was responsible.

The explanation implicating the drilling is that water from surrounding bedrock entered the 2,834 metre-deep Banjar Panji 1 well, which for its lowest 1,743 metres was unprotected by steel and cement casing. The pressure the water exerted was enough to fracture surrounding rock or pre-existing faults. Mixing with underground mud from the Kalibeng Formation, which makes up part of Java's geology, this pressurised water and mud rushed to the surface through a fault, forming the Lusi mud volcano just 200 metres from the drilling site.

NASA false colour image, where red represents vegetation in fields, from 2008 showing containment banks around Lusis mud flow that has destroyed part of Sidorajo town. Credit: NASA/ASTER

The alternative explanation is that despite its proximity the drilling well was coincidental, and that the 6.3 magnitude Yogyakarta earthquake on May 27, 260km away had sent vibrations into the Kalibeng Formation's mud layer, causing it to liquefy and rise to the surface under pressure.

That earthquakes can trigger eruptions has been documented as far back as Pliny's Encyclopedia in the first century. It's also the case that the eruption started as a series of small eruptions, all aligned along a geological fault, so the role of the earthquake certainly deserves full consideration. But in comparison with other eruptions triggered by earthquakes such as in Azerbaijan, Pakistan and California, the Yogyakarta earthquake was very far away given its size. More compelling still is that there have been bigger and closer earthquakes that have not triggered eruptions, while other earthquakes have caused greater shaking and vibrations right at the site of Lusi, yet nothing happened on those occasions. If the earthquake caused liquefaction we would expect to see the widespread release of gas from the liquefied layer  but a study by Mark Tingay and colleagues in 2015 showed this did not happen.

The well was drilled by the Indonesian company PT Lapindo Brantas, which blamed the earthquake. Information on the borehole was passed to us at the time, which showed there was an influx of water that we estimated was sufficient to cause the rocks around the uncased borehole to crack. So the new paper by Miller and Mazzini doesn't bring any new information or reasoning to the debate, which will now probably remained mired unless new data from the borehole or from the critical period at the end of May 2006 comes to light, and this is unlikely.

A town, under layers of mud. Credit: kazeeee, CC BY-NC-ND

Distinguishing between two hypotheses for a unique event can be a challenge. We cannot go back in time and collect the ideal set of data and samples to test the hypotheses, nor can we make direct comparisons with other similar phenomena for which we know the cause. There are other major disasters that we still cannot be certain had a man-made cause, such as earthquakes potentially triggered by filling dams with water.

In the case of Lusi, we very strongly favour the argument that the drilling was responsible, but neither of us were at the site of the incident almost two kilometres underground at the time to witness it, and more than ten years on it's clear the data and reasoning behind our argument have yet to convince everyone.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
By Chirag Gothi: The Delhi High Court will take up a PIL in connection with Sunanda Pushkar's death case for hearing on July 20. Even as the case comes up for hearing, sources say the forensic report received from Gandhi Nagar CFSL, has mentioned that 'some data' from her mobile phone was deleted.

The data was in the form of pictures that Pushkar had taken. Probe further revealed that her son Shiv Pushkar Menon had reportedly deleted these pictures from her phone. Sources say investigation revealed that Pushkar had a 'skin allergy' and was in the habit of taking photos of rashes and abrasions . Apparently before handing over the phone, Menon deleted the photos when he came to Delhi for his mother's funeral. Menon has been quizzed once by the special investigation team.

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PHONE DATA DELETED

The forensic examination of her phone further led to recovery of some data which had got deleted over a period of time. Sources say message could have been deleted by Pushkar herself. The recovered data is being analysed.

However, it is unlikely that the recovered data or forensic report will help to achieve any major breakthrough in the case, as Delhi Police had last week informed a city court that cause of Pushkar's death still remains inconclusive.

Almost all those who she had sent SMS or chatted with on social media have been quizzed by the SIT. Source say their statements were video-graphed.

MURDER MYSTERY

Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, was found dead under highly mysterious circumstances on January 17, 2014, a day after she had an ugly spat on Twitter with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. On January 16, Pushkar had put out some tweets which hinted to a possible romantic liaison between Shashi Tharoor and Mehr Tarar.

Following an autopsy, Pushkar's body had been cremated. The autopsy report at that time had hinted that she had died of an overdose of sleeping pills. However, the report was inconclusive as to how she died and whether it was a suicide or not.

ALSO READ:

10 things you should know about Sunanda Pushkar and her death

Sunanda Pushkar case: Cause of death inconclusive, says report submitted by new medical board

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Fig. 1. Patterns of transverse distribution of optical radiation intensity in the output beam. Credit: MIPT

Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and international collaborators have developed a new type of optical fiber that has an extremely large core diameter and preserves the coherent properties of light. The paper was published in the journal Optics Express. The results of the study are promising for constructing high-power pulsed fiber lasers and amplifiers, as well as polarization-sensitive sensors.

When it comes to optical fiber applications, preserving the properties of light is crucial. There are two principal parameters that often need to be preserved: the distribution of light intensity in cross section and the polarization of light (a property that specifies the oscillation directions of the electric or magnetic field in a plane perpendicular to the wave propagation direction). In their study, the researchers managed to fulfill both conditions.

"Optical fiber research is one of the most rapidly developing fields of optics. Over the last decade, numerous technological solutions have been proposed and implemented. For instance, researchers and engineers at IRE RAS can now produce optical fiber of almost any diameter with arbitrary transverse structure," says Vasily Ustimchik, co-author of the study and a professor at MIPT. "In the course of this study, a specific structure was formed in the optical fiber. It varies along two orthogonal axes, and its diameters change proportionally along the fiber. Individually, such solutions are already widely used, so it is critical to continue to work in this direction."

Fig. 2. The diameter of the outer cladding (on the left axis) and the core (on the right axis) along the length of fiber samples. The inset in the bottom chart shows a cross section of the anisotropic fiber structure consisting of the core, the elliptical inner cladding, and the outer cladding. Credit: MIPT

An optical fiber is generally a very thin flexible strand drawn from glass or transparent plastic. But this simplicity belies a number of major issues limiting its applications. The first is signal attenuation in fiber-optic lines, a solved problem that paved the way for fiber-optic communications.

Today, fiber optics are also used in laser technology. A fiber laser incorporates an optical resonator, which causes light to travel back and forth repeatedly. The geometrical parameters of the fiber resonator allow for only a limited set of transverse patterns of light intensity distribution in the output beamthe so-called transverse modes of the resonator (see Fig. 1). In practice, researchers and engineers are mostly seeking to excite nothing but one pure fundamental mode (see the upper left corner of Fig. 1) that does not change with time.

In order to maintain single-mode operation, the fiber must consist of a core and a claddingmaterials with different refractive indexes. Ordinarily, the thickness of the fiber core through which radiation propagates normally has to be less than 10 micrometers.

An increase in the optical power of the light propagating in the fiber results in a greater amount of energy being absorbed. This translates into a change in the properties of the fiber. Specifically, it causes uncontrolled variation of the refractive index of the fiber material. This gives rise to parasitic nonlinear effects, resulting in additional spectral lines of emission etc., which limits the strength of the optical signals that are transmitted. An existing solution to the problemwhich the authors also usedlies in the variation of the core and outer diameters along the length of the fiber (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 3. The polarization beat length (the violet curve on the left axis) and the outer cladding diameter (the red curve on the right axis) along the length of the fiber samples Credit: MIPT

If the expansion of the fiber occurs adiabaticallythat is, relatively slowlyit is possible to reduce the amount of energy transferred to other modes to less than 1 percent, even with a core diameter of up to 100 micrometers (which is exceptionally large for single-mode fibers). Moreover, the fact that the core diameter is large and varies along the fiber increases the threshold for nonlinear effects occurrence.

To achieve the second goalwhich was to preserve the polarization state of the lightthe authors of the study made the cladding of the fiber anisotropic: The width and the height of the inner cladding are different (the cladding is elliptical), which means the propagation speed of light with different field oscillation directions is not the same. In a structure like this, the process of transferring energy from one polarized mode to another is almost entirely disrupted.

In their study, the researchers have shown that the geometric length of the path traveled by light through the fiber at which the oscillations of the two different polarizations are in antiphase depends on the fiber core diameter: It decreases as the diameter is increased. This length, known as the polarization beat length, corresponds to one complete rotation of the linear polarization state in the fiber. In other words, if you launch linearly polarized light into a fiber, it will be linearly polarized again after traveling precisely this distance. The ability to measure this parameter is in itself evidence of the fact that the polarization state in the fiber is preserved.

In order to investigate the properties related to light polarization in the fiber, the scientists used optical frequency-domain reflectometry. It involves launching an optical signal into the fiber and detecting the backscattered signal. The reflected signal contains a lot of information. This method is normally used to determine the location of defects and impurities in optical fibers, but it can also determine both the coherence length and the spatial distribution of polarization beat length. Coherence reflectometry techniques are widely used to monitor the state of optical fibers. However, the method used in this study is notable for enabling data collection at a high resolution of up to 20 micrometers along the fiber length.

Slider Credit: MIPT

Professor Sergey Nikitov, the leader of the research group, said, "The fiber samples we obtained have demonstrated great results, indicating good prospects for further development of such technological solutions. They will find use not only in laser systems but also in optical fiber sensors, where the change of polarization characteristics is known in advance, since they are determined by external environmental factors, such as temperature, pressure, biological and other impurities. Additionally, they have a number of advantages over semiconductor sensors. For example, they need no electrical power and are capable of carrying out distributed sensing, and that is not a complete list."

More information: V. E. Ustimchik et al, Anisotropic tapered polarization-maintaining large mode area optical fibers, Optics Express (2017). DOI: 10.1364/OE.25.010693 Journal information: Optics Express
The fires near Split, Croatia's second city and a popular tourist destination, have been brought under control

Firefighters in Montenegro and Croatia battled Tuesday to douse wildfires on the Adriatic coast and managed to control the blaze on the outskirts of Split, Croatia's second largest city.

About a dozen wildfires had raged since late Sunday in the villages surrounding Split, a popular tourist destination.

Lete Monday the fire spread to the suburbs of Split where a shopping centre had to be evacuated and several cars were burned.

The city waste dump caught fire, while the town was covered with thick black smoke, but the blaze was put under control overnight.

"It seems that the worst is behind us ... Split has been saved," mayor Andro Krstulovic Opara told HRT state-run television.

Local media reports however said some parts of Split were without electricity or water on Tuesday.

According to initial estimates some 4,500 hectares (11,120 acres) of land, mostly pine forests, bushes and olive groves, were burned. Houses were burned but there were no casualties.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic arrived Tuesday in Split, some 400 kilometres (248 miles) south of Zagreb, for a meeting to take stock of the situation.

In neighbouring Montenegro, where the forest fires forced the evacuation of more than a hundred campers on the Lustica peninsula, the situation was slightly better Tuesday.

The intensity of the blaze was lower as strong winds calmed, officials said.

"We are doing everything we can to put the blaze under control," Zoran Barbic, the head of the local rescue services said.

Fires however were still active in several municipalities further inland but were all under control, an interior ministry statement said.

The cause of the fires in both Croatia and Montenegro is still not known.

 2017 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Economic redistribution has been a core political dispute around the world for centuries. And while intuitively fairness seems a natural explanation for why people support redistribution, researchers at UC Santa Barbara find that fairness doesn't really explain who supports redistribution or why.

Support for redistribution, they have shown, is rooted in compassion, self-interest and envybut not fairness. Their work is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prototypical characters

"Understanding the economic and political nitty-gritty of redistribution does not come naturally to us," said Daniel Sznycer, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, a research scientist at UCSB's Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and the paper's lead author. "But humans have been interacting with worse-off and better-off individuals over evolutionary time. This process built neural systems that motivate us to act effectively in situations of giving, taking and sharing.

"The evolved human mind," he continued, "would overlook the public policy complexities of modern redistribution and instead perceive it in terms of a much simpler mental model featuring a small number of prototypical charactersthe self, the worse-off other and the better-off otherand different motives directed at each character."

To understand the logic behind support foror opposition toeconomic redistribution, the research team focused on three motives: compassion, self-interest and envy.

First compassion

"Our ancestors lived in a world without social or medical insurance, and so they benefited from covering each other's shortfalls through mutual help," said John Tooby, a professor of anthropology at UCSB and co-director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology. "If your neighbor is starving and you have food, you can save his life by sharing with him. Later, when the situation is reversed and he shares his food with you, your life is saved."

This evolutionary dynamic selected for a spontaneous motivation to help those in need. "Compassion is the emotion that orchestrates this need-based helphelp toward those less well off," Tooby said.

But people also value their own welfare and that of their families. Thus, a competing motive is self-interest. "People who acted without any regard to their own and their family's welfare were selected out over the course of evolution," Tooby pointed out. "Self-interest may limit the reach of one's compassion, and enhance one's appetite for what others have."

The third motive is envy, directed toward those better off than you. "When a rival outperforms you in some activity, your relative standing decreases," said Sznycer. "People sometimes act to chip away at their rivals' advantages, even when that also harms third parties or even themselves." Envy and the spite it generates are socially destructive, he noted, but they can make sense in the context of an ancestral world that included competitive zero-sum games."

Haves and have-nots

Our human ancestors encountered neither urban poor nor billionaires during the Pleistocene, but over evolutionary time they did interact with worse- and better-off community members. "The theory is that people view the cast of characters of modern redistribution'the poor' or 'the rich'through the lens of a set of motives that evolved to regulate interactions with their ancestral counterpartsthe 'worse-off other' and the 'better-off other'," explained Leda Cosmides, a professor of psychology at UCSB and co-director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology.

"A person's view of redistributionwhether she thinks redistribution is desirable, undesirable or a non-issuewould be a joint function of the extent to which she is compassionate, the extent to which she is envious and the extent to which she expects to personally benefit from redistribution (the self-interest component)," Cosmides said.

To test this theory, the researchers asked study participants whether they support or oppose redistribution, and measured the participants' dispositions toward compassion, envy and self-interest. They found more support for redistribution among those who feel more compassion, among those who feel more envy and among those who expect to personally benefit from redistribution.

A cross-cultural phenomenon

The researchers observed the same pattern of results in the four countries they studied: the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Israel. "The fact that the results are so similar in different countries may be due to a common evolved human nature that is shared across cultures," Sznycer said. "Moreover, the observed effects are large: If you know a person's degree of compassion, envy and expected personal gainor lossfrom redistribution, you could predict her views as accurately as if, instead, you knew only her party affiliation, that is, whether she is a Democrat or a Republican, another strong predictor of attitudes about redistribution."

While both compassion and envy make redistribution more appealing, they do so via different routes, and may lead to differing policy preferences. Four out of five participants stated that in the past 12 months they have provided assistance to the poor. According to the authors, compassion was the only motivating factor that predicted helping the poor. As expected, neither self-interest nor envy came into play.

"That is, only some of the motives that lead people to favor government-mandated redistribution also motivate people to personally help the poor," Cosmides said. "We sometimes hear that supporting redistribution is the same as wanting to help the poor, but it is not."

Envy, on the other hand, functions differently. This can be seen through studying the choices that envy motivates. "If tax rates on the richor anyone elserise sufficiently, the resulting revenue collected by the government will begin to decrease because now there are fewer incentives to be productive," said Florencia Lopez Seal of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, a co-author of the paper. "Based on this, we asked participants whether they prefer lower taxes on the rich but more resulting revenue to help the poor, or higher taxes on the rich but less money for the poor. One out of six participants preferred the latter, more spiteful option." This willingness to hurt the poor to pull down the rich was predicted only by the participant's tendency to feel envy.

"It is notable that envious people are willing to hurt the poor to get what they want," Tooby noted.

And what about fairness?

Intuitively, the theory that people want fairness seems like the most straightforward explanation for why people support redistribution. The authors also wanted to test this. To do so, the researchers measured participants' taste for fairness. The results showed that participants' taste for fairness failed to predict their attitudes about redistribution. By contrast, participants' compassion, envy and self-interest did.

"We think it's possible that meanings of fairness different from the ones we analyzed still play a role in forming attitudes about redistribution," Sznycer said. "In any case, our work points to a more basic issue: Fairness is a key concept in the social sciences, but when you look closely you see that fairness is defined in vague and sometimes contradictory wayssometimes it's equal outcomes, sometimes it's a level playing field, and so on."

More information: Daniel Sznycer el al., "Support for redistribution is shaped by compassion, envy, and self-interest, but not a taste for fairness," PNAS (2017). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1703801114 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Researchers used computer modeling to show how human cells can feel their way through their surroundings, important when, for example, a tumor cell invades a new tissue or organ. This computer simulation depicts collagen fibers that make up the extracellular matrix in which cells live. Local arrangements of these fibers are extremely variable in their flexibility, with some fibers (blue) responding strongly to the cell and others (red) responding hardly at all. The surprising amount of variability in a local area makes it difficult for cells (represented by green arrows) to determine the overall amount of stiffness in a local area, and suggests that cells need to move or change shape to sample more of the surrounding area. Credit: Ned Wingreen, Princeton University

Cells push out tiny feelers to probe their physical surroundings, but how much can these tiny sensors really discover? A new study led by Princeton University researchers and colleagues finds that the typical cell's environment is highly varied in the stiffness or flexibility of the surrounding tissue, and that to gain a meaningful amount of information about its surroundings, the cell must move around and change shape. The finding aids the understanding of how cells respond to mechanical cues and may help explain what happens when migrating tumor cells colonize a new organ or when immune cells participate in wound healing.

"Our study looks at how cells literally feel their way through an environment, such as muscle or bone," said Ned Wingreen, Princeton's Howard A. Prior Professor in the Life Sciences and professor of molecular biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. "These tissues are highly disordered on the cellular scale, and the cell can only make measurements in the immediate area around it," he said. "We wanted to model this process." The study was published online on July 18 in the journal Nature Communications.

The organs and tissues of the body are enmeshed in a fiber-rich structure known as the extracellular matrix, which provides a scaffold for the cells to live, move and differentiate to carry out specific functions. Cells interact with this matrix by extending sticky proteins out from the cell surface to pull on nearby fibers. Previous work, mostly employing artificial flat surfaces, has shown that cells can use this tactile feedback to determine the elasticity or stiffness in a process called mechanosensing. But because the fibers of the natural matrix are all interconnected in a jumbled, three-dimensional network, it was not clear how much useful information the cell could glean from feeling its immediate surroundings.

To find out, the researchers built a computer simulation that mimicked a typical cell in a matrix made of collagen protein, which is found in skin, bones, muscles and connective tissue. The team also modeled a cell in a network of fibrin, the strong, stringy protein that makes up blood clots. To accurately capture the composition of these networks, the researchers worked with Chase Broedersz, a former Princeton Lewis-Sigler Fellow who is now professor of physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and his colleagues Louise Jawerth and Stefan Munster to first create physical models of the matrices, using approaches originally developed in the group of collaborator David Weitz, a systems biologist at Harvard University. Princeton graduate student Farzan Beroz then used those models to recreate virtual versions of the collagen and fibrin networks in computer models.

With these virtual networks, Beroz, Broedersz and Wingreen could then ask the question: can cells glean useful information about the elasticity or stiffness of their environment by feeling their surroundings? If the answer is yes, then the finding would shed light on how cells can change in response to those surroundings. For example, the work might help explain how cancer cells are able to detect that they've arrived at an organ that has the right type of scaffold to support tumor growth, or how cells that arrive at a wound know to start secreting proteins to promote healing.

Using mathematics, the researchers calculated how the networks would deform when nearby fibers are pulled on by cells. They found that both the collagen and fibrin networks contained configurations of fibers with remarkably broad ranges of collective stiffness, from rather bendable to very rigid, and that these regions could be immediately next to each other. As a result, the cell could have two nearby probes whereby one detects hardness and the other detects softness, making it difficult for a cell to learn by mechanosensing what type of tissue it inhabits. "We were surprised to find that the cell's environment can vary quite a lot even across a small distance," Wingreen said.

The researchers concluded that to obtain an accurate assessment of its environment, a cell must move around and also change shape, for example elongating to cover a different area of the matrix. "What we found in our simulation conforms to what experimentalists have found," Wingreen said, "and reveals new, 'intelligent' strategies that cells could employ to feel their way through tissue environments."
Researchers have developed a fast, inexpensive robotic device that can find even tiny leaks in pipes with pinpoint precision, no matter what the pipes are made of. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Access to clean, safe water is one of the world's pressing needs, yet today's water distribution systems lose an average of 20 percent of their supply because of leaks. These leaks not only make shortages worse but also can cause serious structural damage to buildings and roads by undermining foundations.

Unfortunately, leak detection systems are expensive and slow to operateand they don't work well in systems that use wood, clay, or plastic pipes, which account for the majority of systems in the developing world.

Now, a new system developed by researchers at MIT could provide a fast, inexpensive solution that can find even tiny leaks with pinpoint precision, no matter what the pipes are made of.

The system, which has been under development and testing for nine years by professor of mechanical engineering Kamal Youcef-Toumi, graduate student You Wu, and two others, will be described in detail at the upcoming IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in September. Meanwhile, the team is carrying out tests this summer on 12-inch concrete water-distribution pipes under the city of Monterrey, Mexico.

The system uses a small, rubbery robotic device that looks something like an oversized badminton birdie. The device can be inserted into the water system through any fire hydrant. It then moves passively with the flow, logging its position as it goes. It detects even small variations in pressure by sensing the pull at the edges of its soft rubber skirt, which fills the diameter of of the pipe.

The device is then retrieved using a net through another hydrant, and its data is uploaded. No digging is required, and there is no need for any interruption of the water service. In addition to the passive device that is pushed by the water flow, the team also produced an active version that can control its motion.

Monterrey itself has a strong incentive to take part in this study, since it loses an estimated 40 percent of its water supply to leaks every year, costing the city about $80 million in lost revenue. Leaks can also lead to contamination of the water supply when polluted water backs up into the distribution pipes.

The MIT team, called PipeGuard, intends to commercialize its robotic detection system to help alleviate such losses. In Saudi Arabia, where most drinking water is provided through expensive desalination plants, some 33 percent is lost through leakage. That's why that desert nation's King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals has sponsored and collaborated on much of the MIT team's work, including successful field tests there earlier this year that resulted in some further design improvements to the system, Youcef-Toumi says.

The small, rubbery robotic device can be inserted into the water system through any fire hydrant. It then moves passively with the flow, logging its position as it goes. It detects even small variations in pressure by sensing the pull at the edges of its soft rubber skirt, which fills the diameter of of the pipe. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Those tests, in a mile-long section of 2-inch rusty pipe provided by Pipetech LLC, a pipeline service company in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, that frequently uses the same pipe system for validating and certifying pipeline technologies. The tests, in pipes with many bends, T-joints, and connections, involved creating an artificial leak for the robot to find. The robot did so successfully, distinguishing the characteristics of the leak from false alarms caused by pressure variations or changes in pipe size, roughness, or orientation.

"We put the robot in from one joint, and took it out from the other. We tried it 14 times over three days, and it completed the inspection every time," Wu says. What's more, it found a leak that was about one gallon per minute, which is one-tenth the minimum size that conventional detection methods can find on average, and a third as large as those systems can find under even the best of conditions.

These leakage issues are widespread. "In China, there are many newly built cities and they all use plastic water pipes," says Honghai Bi, CEO of Banzan International Group, one of the largest plastic pipe manufacturers in China. "In those new pipe systems there is still about 30 percent of water lost due to leaks every day. Currently there is not an effective tool to locate leaks in those plastic pipes, and MIT PipeGuard's robot is the disruptive change we have been looking for."

The next step for the team, after the field tests in Monterrey, is to make a more flexible, collapsible version of their robot that can quickly adapt itself to pipes of different diameters. Under the steets of Boston, for example, there are a mix of 6-, 8- and 12-inch pipes to navigatemany of them installed so long ago that the city doesn't even have accurate maps of their locations. The robot would expand "like an umbrella," Wu says, to adapt to each pipe.

The value of the robot is not just for reducing water losses, but also for making water services safer and more reliable. "When a leak occurs, the force of the water flowing from underground can do serious structural damage undermining streets, flooding houses, and damaging other underground utilities. There is also the issue of loss of service to residents and business for extended period of time," says Mark Gallager, director of engineering and distribution at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Water Department. The ability of this system to detect much smaller leaks could enable early detection and repair, long before serious pipe breaks occur.

Gallager says, "If we had the capability to find leaks when they first appear or before they get to the point of critical failure, that could equate to preventing the loss of millions of gallons of water annually. It could minimize the damage to infrastructure and the loss of water services to homes and businesses, and it could significantly reduce the associated cost."

Not only could the system find leaks in virtually any kind of water pipe, it could also be used for other kinds of pipe distribution systems, such as those for natural gas. Such pipes, which are often old and also poorly mapped, have produced serious gas buildups and even explosions in some cities, but leaks are hard to detect until they become large enough for people to smell the added odorants. The MIT system was actually first developed to detect gas leaks, and later adapted for water pipes.

Ultimately, the team hopes, the robot could not just find leaks but also be equipped with a special mechanism they have designed, so that, at least for smaller leaks, it could carry out an instant repair on the spot.

The device has already attracted a series of honors and awards. The team members won the $10,000 prize at the 2017 MIT Water Innovation competition, and they were finalists in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, where they won another $10,000. In the $100K finals, they won yet another $10,000 for the Booz Allen Hamilton Data Analytics Award, and they were one of the 25 winners nationwide to receive a $10,000 2017 Infy Maker Award from Infosys Foundation.

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Adult male olive baboon resting with young offspring. Credit: Emily C. Lynch, Project Papio, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

For many female mammals, mothers and maternal sisters dominate all aspects of an individual's social life. Emily Lynch of the University of Missouri, Columbia, in the US argues fathers might play a significant role, as well. She is the lead author of a study that highlights how social bonds develop between paternal half-siblings when their shared father is in the vicinity. Her findings are published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

During their juvenile and adolescent years, primates acquire the skills they need to survive and to reproduce. This includes learning how to forage, avoid predators, and socialize with others. Kinship and family bonds that play an important part in the evolution of such social behavior have been studied widely in primate societies. Most of these studies have however focused on the interaction between maternal kin within close female-dominated primate groupings.

Lynch and her colleagues studied the movements and interactions of a group of 39 immature olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) in the Laikipia district of Kenya for fourteen months. Half of the parents of the baboons in this group had been caught by leopards within a period of two months prior to data collection. This relatively rare occurrence allowed the researchers to examine possible differences in the social bonds and behavior of wild immature baboons that grow up with or without the influence of mothers and fathers. They noted, among others, aspects related to grooming. Fecal samples were also collected and were used as genetic samples to establish kinship.

The strongest bonds were found between young baboons who shared a mother, while the weakest relations were among those who were not related in any way. Notably, paternal half-siblings enjoyed bonds of intermediate strength. This bond only existed among immature olive baboons when their mutual father was around. His presence also increased the chances that his offspring would groom each other. When their fathers were present, young baboons had weaker relationships with maternal half-siblings than those without fathers.

"The presence of a father in a group facilitates the development of strong social bonds among his offspring," says Lynch, who believes that relationships with paternal kin may be just as critical to the social structure of an olive baboon group than those made up of maternal kin.

"Offspring may be able to 'recognize' one another through a shared association with their mother's male friend, who is the putative father," speculates Lynch. "This recognition may be driven through familiarity with a shared father or through some form of phenotype matching."

More information: Emily C. Lynch et al, Fathers enhance social bonds among paternal half-siblings in immature olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis), Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2336-y Journal information: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Provided by Springer
A report commissioned by EU food regulators wrongly linked a highly effective biopesticide with diarrhoea in humans, an expert says.

A review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) found that Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) posed a health risk equivalent to a related bacterium which causes diarrhoea.

But Dr Ben Raymond, of the University of Exeter, said there was "no solid evidence" Bt caused diarrhoea.

Writing in the journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology, he said recent evidence supported the view that Bt bacteria - especially the strains used in biopesticides - were "very safe for humans".

Microbial biopesticides are microscopic organisms that are used to control pests such as insects.

They are used as an alternative to chemical pesticides, and various strains of Bt are used to kill pests including fly and mosquito larvae, caterpillars and beetles.

"Microbial biopesticides based on Bt are widely recognised as being among the safest and least environmentally damaging insecticidal products available," said Dr Raymond, of the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"It's the biggest-selling microbial control agent in the world, and it's a vital part of many environmentally friendly pest management systems."

EFSA commissioned a review of Bt safety after a food poisoning incident in Germany, but Dr Raymond said the review was "a poor representation of the evidence" and its findings were "potentially very damaging" to the bio-control industry and horticultural growers.

"Contrary to EFSA's findings, a critical examination of available data - and this latest incident - provide no solid evidence that Bt causes diarrhoea," he said.

"Bt has been used perfectly safely for 70 years, and EFSA's review created ambiguity where there was no need to.

"The Bacillus cereus group - to which Bt belongs, does contain bacteria which can make humans ill.

"But the evidence shows that the group is made up of distinct sections, and the section posing the greatest risk is only distantly related to the one containing all biopesticides.

"No strain produced to kill insects has been shown to cause infections or pose risks to humans."

More information: "In defence of Bacillus thuringiensis, the safest and most successful microbial insecticide available to humanity - a response to EFSA" FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2017.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted saying India doesn't need a letter from Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry to get a visa approved for an ailing student from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

By India Today Web Desk: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj proved her mettle since the time she assumed the office. Swaraj not only demonstrated how to use social media, especially Twitter, effectively to help Indians living in different parts of the world but also proved, time and again, that she genuinely cared, cared about Indians, and cared about the well being of fellow human beings.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi would agree.

Sushma Swaraj, who came across the news about the plight of an ailing 24-year-old student from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir hoping he could travel to New Delhi to treat a tumour in his liver, decided to help.

On learning that the man, Osama Ali, and his family, were unable to travel to Delhi since Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs, has decided not to write a letter to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad seeking medical emergency visa to Ali, Sushma Swaraj said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is an integral part of India illegally occupied by Pakistan and that India is giving Osama a visa despite not receiving a letter from the Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Sushma Swaraj tweeted, "POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required."

OSAMA'S FAMILY FAILED TO GET PAKISTAN'S HELP

An Indian Express report quoted Osama's father, Javed Naz Khan, who is a lawyer in Rawalakot, saying that India is the only place where he can afford to get his son treated.

"It's least expensive in India. I am the unfortunate father who is not able to provide treatment to his son," said Khan, adding that he had requested for Aziz's approval via PoK President Masood Khan.

That, however, did not bear much fruit.

"The [Pakistan] Foreign Ministry said it was not the policy for Aziz Sahib to write the letter. The practice is for the Secretary in charge of the South Asia desk to write a letter, but we have learnt that the Indian High Commission has rejected some visas with these recommendations," he said.

"I appeal to India to give a medical visa to my son without the letter," the report quoted Khan.

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The Dalit man was an auto driver. He had a fight with a farm owner over a broken plastic tap few days before the murder.

The Dalit activist was allegedly hit on the head with a boulder.

By Pramod Madhav: A Dalit man was found murdered in a farm, with his hands tied, in Manachanallur town of Trichy district in Tamil Nadu.

The man, identified as Kathiresan, was allegedly killed by caste Hindu men for breaking a plastic tap in a farm on July 7. In caste hierarchy, caste Hindus are placed higher than Dalits but below upper-caste Hindus

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Kathiresan was an auto driver and also a Dalit rights activist. A few days before the murder, Kathiresan had a tussle with Thangarasu when the latter alleged that he had broken the taps in his farm.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE DAY OF MURDER

On July 7, Thangarusu found that the plastic taps in his farm were again broken. Along with his two sons, he barged into Kathiresan's house and allegedly threatened his family.

The three men were later accompanied by another dozen men and together they tracked down Kathiresan to a nearby shop. On finding Kathiresan, the group allegedly started attacking him. His wife tried to intervene but was reportedly attacked as well.

Kathiresan, the Dalit activist who was murdered in Trichy. Kathiresan, the Dalit activist who was murdered in Trichy.

After beating him to unconsciousness, Thangarasu and his sons allegedly tied his hands and told Kathiresan's wife that they would take him to the Mannachanallur police station.

Kathiresan's wife and other family members waited at the police station but neither he nor Thangarasu and his sons came.

Later Kathiresan's wife Nandini filed a complaint with the police. According to police investigation, Thangarusu allegedly took Kathiresan to his farm and along with some others assaulted him and killed him by hitting his head with a boulder.

BODY FOUND, ANOTHER ANGLE EMERGES

The police found Kathiresan's body on July 8.

However, just when the police was about to conclude that Kathiresan was murdered due to personal enmity, some people approached them claiming to have evidence that shows that he was killed for marrying a caste Hindu woman.

It was alleged that Thangarasu and his relatives repeatedly hurled caste slurs at Kathiresan for marrying Nandini, a caste Hindu.

Even while beating him up near the local shop, Thangarasu allegedly told Kathiresan that he cannot become his equal by marrying a caste Hindu girl.

Based on the new evidence, Thanagarasu and his sons Bhaskar and Suresh were been booked under IPC Section 294 (b), 342, 506 (iii) and 302 and multiple sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Amendment Act.

In their statement to the police, Thanagarasu and his sons have confessed to their crime.

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ALSO READ:

India Today Expose: Why Dalit persecution is rampant in Gandhi's Gujarat

Una Dalit flogging: CID says cops turned skinning of dead cow into case of 'beef being found'

A repeat of Una: Pregnant Dalit woman, husband beaten up for refusing to remove cow carcass

ALSO WATCH: Mayawati to resign from Rajya Sabha over violence on Dalits

--- ENDS ---
Back-to-School and Back-to-College Spending to Reach $83.6 Billion

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2017  With consumer confidence rising and more young people in school, back-to-college spending is expected to hit an all-time high this year while back-to-school spending is expected to see its second-highest spending level on record, according to the National Retail Federations annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics. Total spending for school and college combined is projected to reach $83.6 billion, a more than 10 percent increase from last years $75.8 billion.

Families are now in a state of mind where they feel a lot more confident about the economy, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. With stronger employment levels and a continued increase in wages, consumers are spending more and we are optimistic that they will continue to do so throughout the rest of the year. As students head back to the classroom, retailers are prepared to meet their needs whether its for pencils and paper, shirts and pants or laptops and tablets.

Back-to-School Spending

Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average $687.72 each, for a total of $29.5 billion, an 8 percent increase from last years $27.3 billion. Total spending is the second-highest in the history of the survey following a peak of $30.3 billion in 2012.

According to the survey, back-to-school shoppers plan to spend $10.2 billion on clothing (purchased by 95 percent of respondents), $8.8 billion on electronics such as computers or calculators (60 percent), $5.6 billion on shoes (93 percent) and $4.9 billion on school supplies such as notebooks, folders, pencils, backpacks and lunchboxes (97 percent). Parents say they will spend an average of $238.89 on clothing, $204.33 on electronics, $130.38 on shoes and $114.12 on school supplies. While consumers plan to spend more across all categories, shoes and school supplies seeing the highest expected increase.

For the first time, the survey asked consumers what types of electronics they plan to purchase. Among electronics shoppers, 45 percent said they would buy a laptop computer while more than a third plan to purchase a tablet (35 percent) or a calculator (35 percent). One in four plan to purchase electronic accessories such as a mouse, flash drive or charger.

Schools are changing their classroom experience to include more technology including laptops and tablets, Prosper Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow said. That is why many parents, specifically Millennials, are spending more during back-to-school season and taking advantage of retailers best deals to stretch their budgets.

According to the survey, 65 percent of back-to-school shoppers say half or more of their purchases are a direct result of their childrens influence, up from 57 percent last year. And while childrens influence is growing, so too is their willingness to help their parents pay the bill: teenagers will contribute $37.64, up from last years $32.90, and pre-teens will contribute $27.09, up from last years $20.08.

More families will tackle their back-to-school lists early this year with 27 percent beginning two months before the beginning of school, up from 22 percent last year. But not all shoppers are early birds, 21 percent will wait until the last week or two before school starts, about the same as last years 22 percent. Of those shopping early, 60 percent say they are trying to spread out their budgets, 48 percent dont want to miss out on sales and 43 percent want to avoid crowds.

When it comes to where parents will buy, they are shopping across a variety of retailers; 57 percent will shop at department stores, 54 percent at discount stores, 46 percent each at clothing stores and online, and 36 percent at office supply stores. For those shopping online, 91 percent plan to take advantage of free shipping and 54 percent will buy online and pick up in-store.

College Spending

College students and their families plan to spend an average of $969.88, up from last years $888.71. Total spending is expected to be $54.1 billion, up from $48.5 billion last year and surpassing 2012s record of $53.5 billion. The increase in spending is driven, in part, to growing college enrollment. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, college enrollment has steadily increased over the last five years and is projected to reach nearly 21 million this fall.

The survey found college consumers plan to spend $12.8 billion on electronics (purchased by 51 percent), $8.0 billion on clothing (78 percent), $7.5 billion on snacks and other food items (75 percent), $5.9 billion on dorm/apartment furnishings (51 percent), $4.5 billion on shoes (72 percent), $4.5 billion on personal care items (78 percent), $3.9 billion on school supplies (88 percent), $3.9 billion on gift cards (40 percent) and $3.2 billion on branded collegiate gear (56 percent). Households plan to spend an average of $229.20 on electronics, $142.90 on clothing, $134.20 on food, $105.58 on dorm/apartment furnishings, $81.38 on shoes, $81 on personal care items, $70.08 on school supplies, $68.99 on gift cards and $56.57 on branded gear.

Similar to K-12, the survey asked back-to-college shoppers for the first-time what types of electronics they plan to purchase. The survey found 61 percent plan to purchase a laptop, 28 percent a tablet, 26 percent electronic accessories, 24 percent a calculator and 21 percent a smartphone/cell phone.

Also similar to K-12, more back-to-college buyers are shopping early. This year, 32 percent will start two months before school compared with 26 percent last year. And only 21 percent will leave shopping until the last week or two before school starts, down from 25 percent last year. Of those shopping early, 64 percent are trying to spread out their budgets, 41 percent dont want to miss sales and 37 percent want to avoid crowds.

When it comes to where to shop, 44 percent will go online, 40 percent to discount stores, 39 percent to department stores, 34 percent to college bookstores and 29 percent to office supply stores.

The survey of 7,226 consumers asked about both back-to-school and back-to-college plans and was conducted June 30-July 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.

About Prosper Insights & Analytics

Prosper Insights & Analytics is a global leader in consumer intent data serving the financial services, marketing technology, and retail industries. We provide global authoritative market information on US and China consumers via curated insights and analytics. By integrating a variety of data including economic, behavioral and attitudinal data, Prosper helps companies accurately predict consumers future behavior to help identify market behaviors, optimize marketing efforts, and improve the effectiveness of demand generation campaigns. www.ProsperInsights.com

About NRF

NRF is the worlds largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nations largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs  42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nations economy.

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Cole Haan Selects Aptos Enterprise Order Management to Support Omni-Channel Retailing

ATLANTA, July 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/  Aptos, Inc., a recognized market leader in retail technology solutions, today announced Cole Haan LLC has selected the cloud-based Aptos Enterprise Order Management solution to enhance its best-in-class omni-channel retail operations. Headquartered in Greenland, N.H., Cole Haan is an iconic American lifestyle accessories brand and retailer of premium mens and womens footwear, handbags, leather accessories, outerwear and eyewear.

Through the years, what began in 1928 as the vision of Trafton Cole and Eddie Haan to manufacture the highest quality leather footwear, has grown and evolved to a global retail powerhouse with an expansive range of products representing the distinctive Cole Haan commitment to craftsmanship, timeless style and design innovation.

In recent years, Cole Haan has transformed its business model. Exclusively a wholesaler until 1982, the company today has extensive retail operations, with 259 stores across 30 countries, along with a thriving e-commerce business.

Cole Haan leverages the Aptos Singular Commerce platform, including Aptos Store for point of sale and mobile point of sale, Aptos Customer Relationship Management and Aptos Audit and Operations Management.

The addition of Aptos Enterprise Order Management will support Cole Haans direct-to-consumer initiatives with robust omni-channel capabilities to integrate its digital and physical retail channels and support one complete view of customers, inventory, orders and more.

Aptos Enterprise Order Management functions across all in-store and digital touch points, including complete integration with Aptos Store, for a unified view of the online/offline intersection of commerce, order brokering, order management, order fulfillment, logistics and analytics.

Aptos has been a tremendous partner in helping Cole Haan to provide seamless customer experiences throughout the entire shopping journey, said Ron Edwards, chief operating officer, Cole Haan. The addition of Enterprise Order Management will allow us to gain efficiencies and consistency with unified processing of all orders originating from the store or ColeHaan.com, while enabling associates to provide customers with endless aisle capabilities and streamlined returns of online purchases in the store.

Cole Haan captures the hearts and minds of loyal fans the world over with its combination of high-quality, distinctive merchandise and its unwavering focus on the customer, said Noel Goggin, Aptos CEO and culture leader. Were proud to partner with Cole Haan to expand and enhance its omni-channel proficiency. With one view of the customer, inventory and orders, Cole Haan will be well-positioned to deliver on seamless customer journeys that transcend shopping channels.

With over 125,000 stores live on its Singular Commerce platform available in the cloud, more than 500 retail brands across the globe rely on cloud-ready Aptos solutions.

About Aptos Engaging Customers Differently

In an era of virtually limitless choice, sustained competitive advantage only comes to retailers who engage customers differently  by truly understanding who they are, what they want and why they buy. At Aptos, we too, believe that Engaging Customers Differently is critical to our success. We are committed to a deep understanding of each of our clients, to fulfilling their needs with the retail industrys most comprehensive omni-channel solutions, and to fostering long-term relationships built on tangible value and trust. More than 500 retail brands rely upon our Singular Commerce platform to deliver every shopper a personalized, empowered and seamless experienceno matter when, where or how they shop. Learn more: www.aptos.com

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Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

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Australia has created a super ministry combining its security agencies including the domestic spy service, border force and national police, the country's prime minister said on Tuesday, calling the "historic change" necessary to tackle terrorism. The new Home Affairs portfolio -- which uses Britain's Home Office as a template -- will be run by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in a major shake-up of national security arrangements. "I am announcing the most significant reform of Australia's national intelligence and domestic security arrangements and their oversight in more than 40 years," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in Canberra. "We are taking the best elements of our intelligence and national security community and making them better. As terrorists evolve their methods, we have to evolve our responses." An office of national intelligence would be set up to help co-ordination between the agencies, with the shake-up concentrating more power in the hands of Dutton, who has been hailed by conservatives for halting the arrival of asylum-seeker boats from Asia. Canberra lifted the terror threat alert level in September 2014 and introduced new national security laws amid concerns of attacks by individuals inspired by organisations such as Islamic State. Counter-terrorism police have also made a string of arrests since late 2014 across the nation and say they have prevented 12 terror attacks on home soil in the past few years. But several attacks have taken place, including a cafe siege in 2014 where two hostages were killed and the murder of a Sydney police employee in 2015 by a 15-year-old boy.
Nitish Kumar has called a cabinet meeting today evening and speculations are rife that he may take a call on his deputy Tejashwi Yadav who is facing corruption charges.

By India Today Web Desk: Will Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ask his deputy Tejashwi Yadav to step down? Speculations are rife that CM Nitish may make a big announcement during the cabinet meeting scheduled to take place in the evening today.

Sources within the Janata Dal (United) say that Nitish has adopted a tough stance after Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi was named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a disproportionate assets case. Nitish's message for alliance partner RJD is that there will be no compromise as far as the issue of corruption is concerned.

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Political pundits point out that Nitish had deferred his decision on Tejashwi in wake of Presidential election. Now that the voting to pick the 14th President is over, the Bihar chief minister may walk the talk in corruption.

The JD(U) had given four-day ultimatum to the RJD to come out clean over the corruption allegations against Tejashwi. The deadline expired last Saturday.

The RJD, which is the single largest party in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly with 80 MLAs, has made it clear that Tejashwi won't quit. Tejashwi and father Lalu both have pitted their defence accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to malign the image Bihar government.

PEACE ATTEMPTS

Cracks in Bihar's Mahagathbandhan is widening by the day despite the Congress, the third party of the grand alliance, trying its best to bridge the gap between Nitish and Lalu.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi even called both Nitish and Lalu urging them to discuss and resolve the issue.

'TEJASHWI WILL FOLLOW FAMILY TRADITION'

Taking a dig at Tejashwi, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan said Tejashwi will resign from his post only if he goes to jail, which has been a tradition in his family.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped hints that is ready to support Nitish's JD(U) if he decided to walk out of the Mahagathbandhan. JD(U) MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh has also suggested that Nitish Kumar break ties with the RJD and join hands with the BJP again.

ALSO READ:

Before Nitish decides on Tejashwi, a look at ever-changing equation between Bihar CM and Lalu

Bihar Mahagathbandhan crisis: Why next 48 hours are crucial for Tejashwi Yadav

As Nitish Kumar decides on dumping Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu's son is hitting political worries for a six

Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Lalu on CBI raids: Hang me but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

WATCH: Lalu Yadav after CBI raids: Ready to be hanged, but will crush Modi, Amit Shah's ego

--- ENDS ---

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The Japanese Cemetery Park at 825B Chuan Hoe Avenue. Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore

In a tranquil neighbourhood near Hougang lies a 126-year-old cemetery with a grim past etched on a granite pillar. Measuring less than a metre in height, the pillar marks the final resting place of 135 Japanese war criminals.

These war criminals were executed in the former Changi Prison for committing atrocities in Singapore during World War II, such as the Sook Ching Massacre. Their ashes ended up being buried in the Japanese Cemetery Park at 825B Chuan Hoe Avenue, with the memorial for them paid for by the Japanese government in 1955. The Japanese inscription on the pillar describes them as martyrs.

Another pillar at the park marks the burial spot of 79 Japanese war criminals who were hanged in then Malaya. A separate memorial contains the ashes of 10,000 Japanese war dead collected from two bygone Shinto shrines in Bukit Batok and MacRitchie.

At the other end of the park is the tombstone of the most senior-ranking Japanese commander who fought in the Southeast Asia theatre of war. Field Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi, the Supreme Commander of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in the Southern Area, also happened to be a suspected war criminal. Terauchi died in Johor in 1946 while the British were still investigating his alleged war crimes.

A memorial to the 135 war criminals executed for committing atrocities in Singapore during World War II. Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore

On any given day, a small number of mostly Japanese tourists and Singaporeans would visit the park to place flowers and burn joss sticks for the dead.

The continuous presence of the ashes of war criminals over the decades at the cemetery, declared as a memorial park by the Singapore government in 1987, is perplexing. With the 30-year lease of the park ending in 2019, there should be a discussion about the future fate of the ashes.

Should the ashes be repatriated back to Japan for reburial? Another option can be gleaned from the immediate period after the war, when there were intense debates among British officials over what would happen to the ashes of Japanese war criminals. According to one source, the authorities in Singapore sometimes would burn the corpses of war criminals and dispose the ashes at sea to prevent them from being honoured at a gravesite.

Story continues

The repatriation of the remains of Japanese war criminals would be consistent with a longstanding policy of the Japanese government. Addressing both houses of the Japanese parliament in February 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, I will work to ensure that the remains of Japanese soldiers, many of whom still remain resting in other countries, are repatriated as quickly as possible.

Tombstone of Field Marshal Count Hisaichi Terauchi, the Supreme Commander of Japanese Expeditionary Forces in the Southern Area during WWII. Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore

The Syonan Gallery debacle

The park is not just a burial ground for Japanese soldiers and war criminals. Built in 1891 by three Japanese brothel owners, the cemetery was originally populated by the remains of mostly young Japanese prostitutes working in Singapore. It also houses the remains of Japanese civilians who had lived here. In all, there are 910 tombstones at the park, which spans about 30,000 square metres.

Nonetheless, it is the military aspect of the park that is controversial. The majority of Singaporeans today may not be able to relate to the harsh realities of life under the Japanese Occupation but for wartime survivors, the wounds still run deep.

In February, the Singapore authorities unveiled a new exhibition called Syonan Gallery: War and its Legacies at the former Ford Factory, where the British forces surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. The exhibitions name was in reference to the renaming of Singapore to Syonan-to by the occupying Japanese forces.

Many Singaporeans, including civilian survivors of the war, protested against the name given the anguish and suffering of the countrys wartime generation. The controversy prompted the exhibition to be renamed Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and its Legacies. Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim did the right thing by apologising to Singaporeans about the original naming just two days after the launch of the exhibition.

Puteh Mahamood was just 11 years old when Singapore fell to the Japanese. Speaking to Yahoo News Singapore in Malay recently, Puteh said he had to stop schooling to support his family and life was hard under the heartless Japanese military authorities.

One day, a boy stole from a store that Puteh was working at, and was captured by Japanese soldiers. The boy was taken away to the old YMCA building, where the headquarters of the Japanese secret police Kempeitei were located, and was never heard from again, Puteh said.

When told about the burial spot of the war criminals at the park, Puteh, now 86, expressed surprise that it exists. The war criminals ashes should be brought back to Japan for reburial so that their souls can rest in peace, he said.

The Japanese Cemetery Park contains the remains of Japanese civilians, prostitutes, soldiers and war criminals. Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore

A war memorial service at the park?

Kazuo Sugino, the former Secretary-General of the Japanese Association of Singapore, which has been managing the park since 1969, said the Singapore government has agreed in principle to a lease extension.

In an interview with Yahoo News Singapore on Monday (17 July), Sugino claimed that most of the ashes of the war criminals had been sent back to Japan many years ago. While Sugino acknowledged the sensitive nature of the military memorials, he stressed that the parks history should not be overshadowed by what happened during the war.

The cemetery is not just for the military dead. The majority are (the remains of) civilians. The Japanese communitys history is reflected at the park. We feel it is important to learn about it, Sugino said.

Yahoo News Singapore has sent queries about the status of the cemetery as a memorial park to the National Heritage Board and has yet to receive a reply on the parks status and the agency in charge.

If the Singapore authorities were to formally agree to the lease extension and the ashes of the war criminals remaining at the park, the Japanese community can consider commemorating the occupation years, in part as a sign of appreciation for the parks continuous presence.

A memorial panel can be erected at the park to chronicle the war crimes committed by Japanese soldiers in Singapore. This is pertinent as many visitors to the park are Japanese, whose post-war governments have angered several Asian countries over the decades for their repeated attempts to whitewash Japans wartime history.

Past commemoration services to mark the Fall of Singapore were typically held annually at the Civilian War Memorial and the Kranji War Memorial in remembrance of the civilians and Allied military personnel, respectively, who lost their lives during the war. Crucially, these services overlooked the poignant symbolism of the belligerent that started the war. As such, a similar service can also be held at the park every 15 February to hope for peace to be sustained in Singapore and the broader region.

The erstwhile Syonan Gallery triggered a fierce national debate about the Japanese Occupation over a name. But an even more potent symbol of the brutal occupation, in the form of the ashes of war criminals, merits a separate discussion among Singaporeans, the Japanese community and the authorities.

An extension of the lease of the park beyond 2019 would exemplify the postwar spirit of reconciliation between Singapore and Japan. Such a decision, however, should not be undertaken at the expense of educating the current and future generations of Singaporeans and the Japanese people about the war at the very burial spot of the fallen who were part of an invasion force responsible for the deaths of as many as 50,000 civilians in Singapore.

 translation of interview with Puteh Mahamood by Safhras Khan
The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey are due in Cyprus on Tuesday on separate missions to review the way forward after UN-backed reunification talks collapsed in Switzerland earlier this month. Greece's Nikos Kotzias is to meet President Nicos Anastasiades and attend a national council meeting of Greek Cypriot party political leaders on the way forward at a time when the negotiations seem dead in the water. The Greek Cypriot side will also discuss whether a change in strategy is needed and see what can be done to overcome the impasse in efforts to end more than 40-years of division. "This is within the framework of coordination between Athens and Nicosia for the next steps and, more specifically, (the presence of the Greek foreign minister) concerns our approach on security and guarantees," Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told reporters. Also on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is to hold talks in breakaway northern Cyprus, Ankara announced. The negotiations between Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci broke down in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana on July 6 after the United Nations failed to broker a compromise deal on a new security arrangement for a post-solution Cyprus. Greece wanted to end the right of intervention on Cyprus it holds with Britain and Turkey, while Nicosia was also pushing for a withdrawal of Turkish troops on the Mediterranean island and EU member state. The talks in Switzerland failed to overcome these obstacles, leaving a UN-led push that ran for more than two years -- the latest in a long list of aborted bids to find an elusive settlement -- in limbo. In an editorial on Monday, the Cyprus Mail, a Greek Cypriot daily, said: "The only target left is an agreement on partition... "Perhaps we could secure the return of some territory, come to an agreement on the exploitation of natural gas that would allow the pursuit of our energy plans without the uncertainty caused by Turkeys threats and sign a friendship/cooperation agreement with the north." Since the talks collapsed, Greece and Turkey have entered into a war of words over who was to blame, while Anastasiades has indicated he is willing to continue where negotiations left off. But there is no sign the United Nations is willing to revive the process as this stage. UN mediator Espen Barth Eide is to brief the Security Council on Wednesday, a day before the 43rd anniversary of the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus, on the failure of the talks. The briefing in New York comes ahead of a vote, scheduled for July 24, on the future of the UN peacekeeping force deployed on the island since 1964 following intercommunal violence. The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece. Turkey maintains some 35,000 troops in the north, while Akinci heads a self-declared statelet recognised only by Ankara.
Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, has been released on bail following his arrest on charges of financial crime, media reported. "The court has accepted the bail" and Fereydoun, who acts as a key adviser to Rouhani, was freed on Monday night, the ISNA news agency said. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie announced Fereydoun's arrest on Sunday, saying he was the subject of "multiple investigations". The amount of bail was not officially disclosed but local media reported that the court had reduced it to 350 billion rials ($9.3 million), from 500 billion rials initially. The arrest is seen as part of a long-running feud between the presidency and the judiciary that has taken new turns in recent months, particularly before and after Rouhani's re-election in May. The conservative-dominated judiciary has clashed with Rouhani, who has sought to ease social restrictions and release political prisoners. Rouhani has not yet commented on the arrest and has not appeared in public since it was announced except to attend a cabinet meeting. Fereydoun's arrest came a year after the head of the General Inspection Organisation, Naser Seraj, first accused him of financial violations. Seraj alleged Fereydoun had influenced the appointment of two bank directors, one of whom was accused by the Revolutionary Guards of involvement in a "large corruption scandal". The other was fired as part of a widespread scandal into exorbitant salaries at public institutions. Conservatives have demanded that Fereydoun be put on trial, accusing him of receiving zero-interest loans among other violations. The brothers do not share the same name because Rouhani changed his when he was younger to a word meaning "cleric".
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praised Budapest for "standing up for" the Jewish state, at talks with Hungarian premier Viktor Orban who is under fire at home for allegedly stoking anti-Semitism. "I want to thank you for standing up for Israel in international forums, you have done this again and again," Netanyahu said at a press conference with Orban in Budapest. He added that Hungary, as the birthplace of modern political Zionism founder Theodor Herzl, was "at the forefront" of countries fighting anti-Zionism. Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Budapest since the fall of communism in 1989. The landmark trip brings together two right-wingers enamoured of US President Donald Trump and with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal global order bankrolled, as they see it, by the likes of US billionaire George Soros. "The (Israeli) prime minister is a great patriot and success belongs to those who are patriots, who don't push national identity and interests aside," Orban said Tuesday. "Israel's history teaches that we will lose the things we don't fight for." The hardline policies of the pair -- described as "spiritual brothers" by Hungarian media -- have sparked tensions with Brussels. But in eastern and central Europe, the muscle-flexing has found fertile ground. Netanyahu will on Wednesday meet premiers of the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic plus Hungary -- whose nationalistic stances have also increasingly placed them at odds with the rest of the EU. "All these states are very pro-Israel," Israeli analyst Raphael Vago told AFP. "They vote in our favour at the European Union and the United Nations." Netanyahu will attend Budapest's Great Synagogue with Jewish community leaders, before departing Thursday. - Anti-Soros graffiti - The trip comes at a sensitive time for Orban who faces a backlash over his virulent crusade against Soros, a Hungarian-born Jewish emigre. Some posters daubed with graffiti have attacked the financier for his alleged support of mass immigration. Many in Hungary's 100,000-strong Jewish population -- one Europe's largest -- have accused Orban, in power since 2010, of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism or even encouraging it to stave off growing support for the far-right. Orban however has insisted the billboards were not about Soros's Jewishness but the "national security risk" posed by his supposed wish to "settle a million migrants" in the EU. "I've discussed the concerns that I have heard from the Jewish community here and (Orban) reassured me in unequivocal terms," said Netanyahu. Orban meanwhile said his government has a "zero-tolerance policy in place towards anti-Semitism" to "guarantee the complete safety" of Hungary's Jews. "The Hungarian government committed an error, even a crime, when it decided not to defend its Jewish compatriots during World War II and instead collaborate with the Nazis," the populist strongman said. He was referencing the Hungarian wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy who oversaw the sending of over a half million Jews to Nazi death camps. Orban last month landed in hot water after praising Horthy as an "exceptional statesman" for rebuilding Hungary after World War I. Critics have long suspected Orban of trying to rehabilitate Horthy by tacitly encouraging new memorials of him and other interwar figures. Analysts say Orban banks on Netanyahu's visit to help him fend off charges of anti-Semitism. "Connecting Soros to the migration issue is the (Hungarian) government's aim, but it is a problem for Orban if the campaign is seen as anti-Semitic," political analyst Csaba Toth told AFP. "So the Netanyahu visit helps him as it bolsters his claims that the Soros campaign is not."
Macedonia on Tuesday rejected suggestions it could end a row with Greece over its name by adopting an unwieldy acronym instead, saying it was as alien as the "Klingon" language in Star Trek. Athens, Brussels and the United Nations all refer to the Balkan country as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), with Greece insisting that the name Macedonia should only be used for its own northern province. "When you say FYROM, that has as much reference to my country as 'Klingon' from the Star Trek TV series," Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov told a news conference in Brussels. The Klingons are a fictional human-like species with bumpy heads who run their own extraterrestrial empire in the US science fiction franchise. Their language initially appeared as a few words at the end of the first Star Trek movie but has since become a full-blown fan cult, spawning an opera and Klingon translations of the Bible and Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Despite his out-of-this world name comparison, the Macedonian minister hinted that another form of compromise was possible with Greece. "I really believe we cannot resolve if one of the two parties will be quote unquote 'defeated,'" Dimitrov said alongside the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and neighbourhood commissioner Johannes Hahn. "We have to find a way where both countries will go forward with straight heads. I think that's possible.... We need to do the right steps carefully and at the right time." Macedonia's new prime minister Zoran Zaev suggested last month in Brussels that his country could join NATO and the EU under a provisional name in a bid to end the row. "With the new government in place ready to actively engage in implementation of overdue reforms, there is a real opportunity to move the country forward on its European Union integration path," Mogherini said. The name issue came to the fore after Macedonia gained independence in the 1990s following the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia. Greece claims a historical right to the term because the heart of Alexander the Great's ancient kingdom lies in its northern province of Macedonia. It has vetoed Skopje's attempts to join NATO since 2008 because of the row.
Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday made a surprise compromise bid over controversial court reforms, as thousands of protesters took to the streets. Last week parliament, which is controlled by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, adopted judicial reforms that the liberal opposition and others see as a threat to the separation of powers. The legislation would give the minister of justice the power to name the chief justices of the EU member's common courts. In addition, parliament would choose members of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), whose role is to protect the independence of courts. The PiS also tabled a separate bill in parliament that would subjugate the Supreme Court -- which supervises lower courts -- to executive power, in a move the opposition criticised as "the announcement of a coup". "The judicial system is a very serious matter. It requires reform, but it requires smart reform," lawyer-turned-politician Duda, who is closely allied with the governing conservatives, told reporters. Duda, who needs to sign the legislation for it to become law, warned he would not approve the reform of the Supreme Court unless lawmakers amended the KRS bill. He tabled a short draft bill stating that the members of the KRS would need to be elected by 60 percent of lawmakers. Because that is a majority that the PiS does not have, the threshold would rule out the possibility that the party would single-handedly decide the composition of the KRS. "This draft bill should stop the Council from being subject to a single party, a single political group. This is unacceptable... It would be seen as a political diktat," Duda said. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo later told lawmakers that her party "will carry out the reforms all the way through." After taking to the streets on Sunday, several thousand people protested again against the reforms Tuesday in Warsaw and other cities across Poland. Candles in hand, they called on Duda to oppose the reforms and chanted "free courts, we want a veto". The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks tweeted Tuesday: "Poland's govt & parl must stop undermining the judiciary." Critics also cite other PiS bids to consolidate power, including moves to increase state control over public broadcasters.
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu is in Budapest Tuesday for talks with Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, who hopes the visit will silence critics accusing him of leading an anti-Semitic crusade against US billionaire George Soros. It brings together two rightwingers enamoured of US President Donald Trump and with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal global order bankrolled -- as they see it -- by the likes of Hungarian-born philanthropist Soros. Orban accuses the financier of funding mass immigration to Europe, while Netanyahu denounces his support for Israeli and Palestinian activists critical of Israel's government and occupation. The hardline policies of the pair -- described as "spiritual brothers" by Hungarian media -- have sparked tensions with Brussels and other European Union states. Netanyahu, fresh from a contentious visit to Paris, will on Wednesday also meet premiers of the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic plus Hungary -- whose nationalistic stances have increasingly placed them at odds with the rest of the EU. "All these states are very pro-Israel," Israeli analyst Raphael Vago told AFP. "They vote in our favour at the European Union and the United Nations." On Wednesday evening Netanyahu will attend Budapest's Great Synagogue with Jewish community leaders, before departing the following day. The high-profile trip to Hungary, the first by an Israeli prime minister since the end of communism in 1989, comes with tempers flaring over Orban's campaign vilifying Soros. -'Europe's darkest hours' - Posters have attacked the Jewish emigre for his alleged support of mass immigration. Soros, who hid from the Nazis in Budapest as a boy, said the nationwide billboards used "anti-Semitic imagery" and were "reminiscent of Europe's darkest hours". Orban however insisted they were not about the 86-year-old's Jewishness but the "national security risk" posed by his supposed wish to "settle a million migrants" in the EU. The posters -- some daubed with "Stinking Jew" graffiti -- have further strained relations with Hungary's over 100,000-strong Jewish community, one of Europe's largest. They have accused Orban, in power since 2010, of encouraging anti-Semitism with nationalist rhetoric that analysts say is aimed at staving off a rise in for the far-right, a charge the 54-year-old denies. The premier's recent praise of wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy as a "an exceptional statesman" for rebuilding Hungary after World War I has done little to ease the tensions. Some in Israel called for Netanyahu to cancel his Hungary trip because of the posters, with Israel's ambassador to Budapest saying it "sows hatred and fear" on July 8. But the foreign ministry was quick to issue a statement backing Budapest's anti-Soros campaign. While Israel "deplores" anti-Semitism, Soros "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself," it said. "Connecting Soros to the migration issue is the (Hungarian) government's aim, but it is a problem for Orban if the campaign is seen as anti-Semitic," political analyst Csaba Toth told AFP. "So the Netanyahu visit helps him as it bolsters his claims that the Soros campaign is not." Ahead of Netanyahu's arrival, the Hungarian and Israeli branches of Amnesty International voiced concern over the "shrinking space of human rights groups". "We continue to witness the poisoning of the public arena in both countries due to the smearing rhetoric of these leaders and their groundless accusations of human rights groups," they said Monday.
A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered that six human rights activists including Amnesty International's Turkey director remain in custody for allegedly aiding a "terror" group, in a case the rights watchdog called a "travesty of justice." Idil Eser, head of Amnesty in Turkey, was detained on July 5 with seven activists and two foreign trainers during a digital security and information management workshop on an island south of Istanbul. "Six were remanded in custody and four released on judicial control," Amnesty's Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner told AFP. Prosecutors accuse them of "committing a crime in the name of a terror organisation without being a member," he said. Their detention sparked international alarm and amplified fears of declining freedom of expression under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The ruling came a day after the activists, who have not yet been formally charged, gave statements to prosecutors at an Istanbul court for the first time since their detention. Eight of the 10 initially detained are Turkish rights activists, including Ilknur Ustun of the Women's Coalition and Veli Acu of the Human Rights Agenda Association. The other two are a German and a Swede who were leading the digital information workshop and they remain in pre-trial detention. - 'Unjustified'- Berlin slammed as "unjustified" the detention of the German national. "We stand in solidarity with Peter Steudtner whose detention in Turkey is unjustified and will advocate for him on all levels," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted. The German foreign ministry issued a separate statement condemning the detention of the six activists, calling for their "quick release from custody". "Linking a fighter and spokesman for human rights and democracy like Peter Steudtner to supporters of terrorists is wrong," a ministry spokeswoman said in a statement. Sweden's foreign ministry was "concerned by the detention of a Swedish national," a spokesman told AFP, adding: "We are looking into the accusations." Gardner said the court verdict was a "shocking travesty of justice." "It is politically motivated targeting not just of these six human rights defenders who have been remanded in pre-trial prison custody but it is taking aim at Turkey's entire human rights movement," he told AFP. "What we've learnt today is that defending human rights has become a crime in Turkey," Gardner said. "This decision cannot be allowed to stand." - 'Increasingly rogue'- Turkey's leader said this month the activists were detained on a tip-off they were working against the government, comparing them to those involved in a failed coup in July last year. Gardner earlier said the meeting had been a "routine" workshop and there was nothing suspicious about it. "What is absolutely crystal clear, one hundred percent clear is this was a routine human rights workshop -- the sort of workshop that happens all over Turkey, in fact the sort of workshop that happens all over the world," he said. Amnesty International called on world leaders to pressure Turkey into releasing the activists, saying the country was turning "increasingly rogue". John Dalhuisen, Europe chief for the global human rights watchdog, told AFP in London that the accusations against the activists including Amnesty's Turkey director were "palpably absurd". "The Turkish prosecutor knows it, the judges know it, the Turkish government knows it and foreign governments know it as well," he said. "The international community needs to be engaging with Turkey and articulating this relationship with Turkey as what it is: a relationship with an increasingly rogue and unreliable partner," he said. Turkish authorities have launched a massive crackdown on people suspected of links to a movement led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who denies Ankara's accusations of masterminding the attempted power grab. Amnesty International's Turkey chair Taner Kilic was also arrested last month, accused of links to Gulen. More than 50,000 people have been jailed and over 100,000 including judges, teachers, police and other state servants have been dismissed. Gardner said before the court ruling that country director Eser remained "in good spirits." "She sent messages that as soon as she is released she wants to carry on from where she left off," he said. burs-fo-raz/boc
The notion of Christopher Nolan making a historically accurate World War II pictureespecially one focused on the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, among the most mythologized events of the war in Nolans native Englanddidnt sound promising. Nolans films, especially in his postThe Dark Knight phase, have often tended toward operatic maximalism. Whatever your opinion of Inception, his speculative sci-fi thriller from 2010, theres no denying it was a movie that crammed an impressive lot in: a lot of big ideas, a lot of nested alternate realities and concurrent time loops, a lot of mind-bending visual effects. But for all its ambition and energy, I found Inceptions nonstop intensity and hammering soundtrack exhausting. The idea of a similarly grandiose re-enactment of one of military historys largest-scale rescue operations seemed all but doomed to be elephantine. In addition, Nolans famously fertile imagination sounded potentially dangerous in combination with a true historical event incredible enough to require no dramatic embellishment.

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And that, my friends, will serve as my yearly reminder never to go into a movie with preconceived ideas. The swift-moving, pulse-pounding Dunkirk reveals its filmmaker at his most nimble, supple, and simpleall adjectives that seem strange to use in connection with a movie shot in 65 mm Imax format, using practical effects and real stunts to re-create such large-scale events as the sinking of a WWII destroyer and the attempted mass evacuation of more than 300,000 men. But Dunkirks simplicity inheres not in its production logistics but in its storytelling.

In a radical move, Dunkirk entirely does away with the narrative scaffolding that holds together most war pictures: the introduction, at boot camp or in battle, of a crew of soldierly comrades. The scenes of military higher-ups debating strategy over maps. The cutaways to families waiting back home or flashbacks to the combatants prewar days. Instead, the film plunges us straight in medias res, or rather in the middle of several different res: Dunkirk follows stories unfolding in three separate places not at the same time but in three overlapping time frames: one lasting a week, one a day, and one only an hour.

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Dunkirk plunges us straight in medias res, or rather in the middle of several different res.

The weeklong story takes place at and around The Mole, the name given to a ramshackle 8-foot-wide pier on Dunkirk beach on the French coast where the British forces have been trapped, along with their allies, by the advancing German army. Without either shelter or a port suitable for large-scale evacuation, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the beach are open targets for bombing runsand as the Navy commander in charge (Kenneth Branagh) is well-aware, the presence of British forces on the beach at Dunkirk, however imperiled, represents the last bulwark against the Nazi invasion of the British mainland.

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Cut to time frame two, The Sea (these section titles flash on the screen only once, after which the three separate stories intermix freely). Here, on the English side of the channel, a quiet middle-aged man called only Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) is readying his small wooden pleasure boat, the Moonstone, for a trip that sounds anything but pleasurable. Along with his teenage son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney), Mr. Dawson has decided to answer his countrys call for a fleet of civilian seagoing crafts to help ferry the trapped soldiers to safety in their home country. At the last minute, Peters naive friend George (Barry Keoghan) decides to join the expedition as well. Not long after setting sail, this group picks up a shell-shocked survivor (Cillian Murphy) from the wreck of a torpedoed ship. Against this unnamed soldiers fierce objections, the Moonstone crew plows on, taking him back toward the hell hes only just managed to escape.

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Time frame three, The Air, takes place in an hour above the beaches and waters of the English Channel. Two crack Royal Air Force fighter pilots, Collins (Jack Lowden) and Farrier (Tom Hardy), fly a series of strategic sorties, attempting to pick off the Luftwaffe planes that keep arriving to strafe the escape boats below. At times the pilots flight paths intersect with the stories of the soldiers and civilians attempting to find safe passage, lending the battle scenes at sea an extra layer of dramatic irony. When you know the identity of both rescuer and rescue-ee, the welcome swooping-in of Allied planes signals not only that help is on the way, but that the brave men in the cockpits may be about to give their lives to provide it.

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The degree to which the viewer does or does not get to know the characters in this intimate yet somehow impersonal movie may be a point of contention among audiences. Dunkirk is a portrait of a military and humanitarian operation more than it is a study of a group of individuals. It isnt that big on characterization or, for that matter, dialoguea good deal of which is inaudible thanks to the near-constant cacophony of plane crashes, gunfire, and explosions. And the closest thing this ensemble piece has to a protagonista very young soldier played by Fionn Whiteheadis not only nearly silent but sometimes difficult to distinguish from two of his fellow survivors (Aneurin Barnard and Harry Styles), especially when theyre covered in oil and grime from the various bombed and capsized ships theyve abandoned.

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Though this movie brims with scarily immersive you-are-there action (captured by Hoyte van Hoytemas mysteriously mobile-yet-unshaky handheld Imax camera and soundtracked by Hans Zimmers braaamm-less yet effective score), it works on the emotions in a different way than most war movies. The event it documentssometimes referred to as the Miracle of Dunkirkwas, in strictly military terms, the opposite of a victory. Evacuating the beach was the Allies last remotely possible escape from a rout so complete that the Allies only hope was to try to stay alive long enough for the next battle. But it was also, for those civilian seagoers called on to aid in the effort, the only and obvious right thing to do.

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Mark Rylance captures the heroism of such everyday civic virtue without a spare word or gesture, as Mark Rylance performances are wont to do.

Most of the people whose paths cross on the fateful week, day, and hour chronicled in Dunkirk are strangers to one another. Their only goalwhich, with a few ugly exceptions, they struggle toward togetheris to keep one another alive long enough to get safely home. Rylances performance as the modest but courageous Mr. Dawson captures the heroism of such everyday civic virtue without a spare word or gesture, as Mark Rylance performances are wont to do. And the fact that most of the actors playing soldiers are not only relative unknowns but baby-faced near-teenagers drives home with extra force our foreknowledge that the war to come will reap so many more unknown young lives.

Dunkirk ends with one of these boyish survivors reading aloud from a newspaper Winston Churchills famous speech to the House of Commons after the Dunkirk evacuation (We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields ). A more traditional war picture might have played us these lines in Churchills own voicethe audio exists and is very impressive, just the thing for exiting the theater on a note of uplift. But Nolan, who also wrote the script, knew that this now-familiar oration (Churchills pep talk to a country he had just become prime minister of three weeks before) would land differently when spoken in the tentative voice of a traumatized soldier all too aware that the we about to be sent back to the fight includes him.
Levelling fresh allegations against Tejashwi Yadav, BJP leader Sushil Modi today said that the Bihar deputy chief minister was the owner of a total of 26 properties by the time he reached the age of 26.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Already facing charges of corruption and amassing "benami" properties in Delhi and Patna, Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswhi Yadav now finds himself in fresh controversy with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Modi launching a fresh attack in which he has alleged that Tejashwi owned 26 properties at the age of 26.

Speaking to journalists in Patna, Modi produced documents to back his allegations of how Tejaswhi directly owned 13 properties, which were registered in his name, and indirectly owned another 13 firms via shell companies of which he was a director. Modi said of the 26 properties, Tejashwi became the owner of two firms in 1993, when he was just three years old.

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"Of 26 properties, 13 are owned by Tejashwi personally and rest through companies. Two (pieces of) land were registered in his name when Tejashwi age was only three years old. 90 per cent of the 26 properties were registered in Tejashwi's name between 2004 and 2009, when Lalu was the Railway Minister", Sushil Modi alleged today.

Modi also took a dig at Tejashwi's refrain that he was just a minor and 'didn't even have a moustache' when the alleged rail tender scam took place in 2005. "When leaders like Kanti Singh and Raghunath Jha were gifting their properties to Tejashwi Yadav, then he was not a minor (but) when the scam came to light, he (says he was) a minor which does not cut any ice", the BJP leader said.

Modi further slammed Tejashwi for remaining defiant and not resigning from his post despite Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sending clear signals that he would not compromise on the issue of corruption.

"It's shocking how Tejashwi Yadav is insulting Nitish Kumar and not heeding to his words. Nitish has sent enough indications for him to resign but he remains defiant. Now Bihar CM must act (against) him", Modi said.

ALSO READ | Nitish Kumar to take a call on Tejashwi Yadav after Presidential Election 2017

ALSO READ | RJD's Plan B if Nitish Kumar sacks Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

ALSO WATCH | Journalists assaulted by Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav's bodyguards outside Bihar Secretariat in Patna

--- ENDS ---
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The salon industry is well known for its poor staff retention and high employee turnover. Salon owners are met with the challenge of how to improve retention rates amongst salon workers.

Effective leadership and business practices can help turn a small business into a profitable venture, including salons.

Small Business Trends caught up with Kay Hirai, founder of the award-winning salon, Studio 904 Hair Design, which has been operating for 40 years.

Hirai is also author of Sheer Determination: Swimming Upstream in a Downstream World, about here experiences as a pioneering entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest.

How to Reduce Employee Turnover

Hirai shared the following tips about how to reduce employee turnover in her industry. Perhaps it could help in your business too.

Establish Your Vision, Mission, and Core Philosophies

According to Hirai, these philosophies are the underpinnings of your business. They spell out the grand vision for where you want to take your business, how you are going to take it there, and what you will do to stay continually focused on your core values and belief systems.

If you value the people who work for you, you must clearly spell it out to them, Hirai said.

Transparency, Hirai added, is key if you want your employees totally on board with you to accomplish your business goals. The more transparent you are in explaining the inner workings of your company, the more employees feel like they are a part of the business.

I try to be a positive role model by setting good examples and asking employees for their input on matters that affect the salon, Hirai told Small Business Trends.

One of the things the successful salon owner does to be a positive role model for her employees is to make sure she pays for the stamps when she sends out personal mail from her business.

It would be very easy to rationalize and say to myself, I can take these stamps; they are only few cents, Hirai said.

Hirai said it is important to show others that it does not matter how small the amount is, each one of us has to be honest and not take anything from the business.

The salon business owner and author also holds a staff meeting every three months to update staff on how well the salon is doing in terms of its finances.

After I am done, I ask for their help in improving various parts of our business, whether it is customer service, client retention, or new client marketing programs, said Hirai.

Set Clear Cut Career Paths

According to Hirai, it is absolutely critical that management walks side-by-side with their employees, offers regular evaluations, and shows them a career path for personal and professional growth.

Every employee reports to work on their first day with aspirations of doing well and developing new skills on the job. Along the way, though, something always happens; their dreams suddenly diminish and they lose their way, she said.

It is therefore vital, management offers feedback and guidance to personal and professional development.

Train Them Right

Hirai cannot underestimate the importance of the right training.

For her business, a successful hair stylist must possess a variety of skills in cutting, styling and coloring, problem-solving, consultation, team work, and more.

Hirai recommends small business owners refer to books on Kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy that focuses on applying small, daily changes that result in major improvements over time.

See Also: Five Expert Tips on Bringing Your Prototype to Market

Our stylists go through a self-directed, skill-certification process to show that they are able to meet certain standards for all of the services offered in the salon. Matching new employees with a senior-level mentor helps to ease the stress level when they first start out. It makes them more comfortable when they can ask questions, voice concerns, or work alongside a supportive person while they are becoming acclimated in a new environment, she said.

Uncover Their Gifts and Empower Them

Everyone has unique gifts to offer in the workplace. The successful salon owner says fellow owners of typical revolving door industries should develop a discerning eye to uncover those gifts.

Sometimes they are buried deep down inside. Most persons wont even know what they are because no one has ever taken the energy or the time to bring them to the surface, says Hirai.

Hirai gives a specific example of an incident of empowering employees through their gifts.

Hirai spoke of Debbie, a young woman with a shy personality, who was hired to run the salons front reception desk.

Early on, Debbie was having a difficult time connecting with the salon customers. Everyone wondered if she would be successful in her job. One day, Hirai was struggling to make a sales video for the salon. Debbie saw that Hirai was having a difficult time and stepped in to show her an easier way to record the video.

Hirai said she was quite surprised and asked her:

Debbie, how did you learn what you just showed me? She replied, Oh, I learned that by working on social media. Technology apps are a lot of fun and all of this comes really easy to me.

After hearing this, Hirai re-assigned Debbie to work with her for two days during the week instead of working full-time at the front desk.

Now that she assists with the salons social media marketing, she appears to be more confident in all areas of her responsibilities at work, says Hirai.

Put Your Employees Welfare Before Your Customers

Another top tip from the leading salon expert and author is to always put your employees welfare before your customers.

Before you can have happy customers, you must have happy EMPLOYEES! advises Hirai.

I work hard to get to know each employees lifestyle as well as their wants and needs. Knowing that, I try to establish a work schedule and career ladder that will keep them living a fulfilling and happy life. I especially pay close attention to the needs of single mothers who are raising children.?To accommodate their complex, time schedule requirements, I work with each one to figure out a flexible schedule that will take care of their childrens needs, Hirai explained.

This effort requires a lot of negotiation but something can usually be worked out to address both their personal needs and the needs of the business.

Studio 904 Hair Design is a prime example of what a small business can do to support its working women, so much so that the United States Womens Bureau recently featured an article that illustrated how the salon supports working women.

Focus on Successful Entries and Kind Departures

According to Hirai, the two most important parts to developing a successful employee relationship are the initial interviewing session and the departing exit interview.

Hirai advises small business owners to conduct a thorough and thoughtful interview process, stating:

The initial interview sessions are the most important part in the longevity cycle of employees in your business.

She provides a quick checklist her team fills out for each job applicant who enters their office:

First Impression Checklist:

Arrived early or on time

Friendly, with a smile on her/his face

Dress style is appropriate to our business

Hair and make-up (if applicable) is well-groomed and up-to-date

Body language is confident and inviting

If the applicant receives a favorable score, Hirai then conducts a more thorough interview to unveil other traits and skills they are looking for in a new hire.

Recycle Your Departing Employees

As Hirai writes in her book, Sheer Determination:

Goodbyes are hard, but recognize that the only certainty in life is change. Everyone is traveling through life on their own journey. It is only when two roads meet and align that two people actually walk the road together. That road will inevitably part at some point in time when each person chooses a different direction toward their next destination. It will save you a lot of heartache if you accept the fact that no one will stay with you forever

The important thing the author wants to emphasize is that employers should never allow employees to depart on unfriendly terms.

Burnt bridges can never be rebuilt; instead, leave the bridge intact, allowing people to cross it at another point in their lives if it is needed, advises Hirai.

The salon owner told of a true story about what happened to her just a week ago.

Hirai received a call from Ami, a young woman who had previously worked for her. Ami was responding to a classified want-ad that Hirai had placed on a job posting site.

I was surprised to find out that she was the same Ami that I had hired and trained eight years ago, using the same skill certification system that I mentioned above, said Hirai.

Ami said she had opened her own business and went through several hardships after she left Hirais salon. She asked if Hirai would be willing to hire her back and Hirai replied that she would.

Ami is a much-improved employee now that she has had a chance to mature and appreciate the opportunity that she has been given this second time around, said Hirai.

The moral of the story: look after your employees, no matter what business you run, and they will look after you.

Salon Chairs Photo via Shutterstock

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This summer had the second-hottest June of recorded temperatures.

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After a slightly cooler period, another heat-wave is forecast to hit western Slovakia on July 19. The temperatures are estimated to reach 33 degrees Celsius, prompting the Slovak Hydro-meteorological Office (SHMU) to issue a heat warning for the period between 14:00 and 18:00 on that day, the TASR newswire wrote on July 17. According to SHMU, high temperatures present a potential health threat and can lead to fires.

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High temperatures with little rainfall

The SHMU also reported, as quoted by the SITA newswire, that June 2017 was the second hottest June in the history of meteorological measuring, which began in Hurbanovo in 1900 but became standardised in the country in 1951. The warmest June on record was in 2003, with a ten-day heat wave in south-western Slovakia between June 19 and 30.

Last month, the highest temperature of 35.1C was measured by SHMU on June 22 in Blahova (southern Slovakia, Dunajska Streda district). The lowest temperature outside of the mountains was 0.9C, recorded on June 2 in Cerveny Klastor (Kezmarok district in north-eastern Slovakia). The overall lowest temperature of -3.5C.was recorded at the peak of Lomnicky Stit on June 16.

The first half of summer 2017 saw above-average temperatures. In June, the average temperature was 3.2C higher than between 1961 and 1990 and 2.5C higher than between 1981 and 2010. June was warmest in the western and southwest regions of the country, while the northeast and east were the coldest. A lack of precipitation has also deepened the water deficit in south-western Slovakia, SITA wrote.
Beginning in mid-July, Wizz Air will run four weekly flights between Bratislava Airport and the Macedonian capital.

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Due to growing interest among passengers for both routes [to Skopje and Kiev], Wizz Air is increasing the frequency of flights to Skopje and back from two to four per week beginning in mid-July, airport spokesperson Veronika Sevcikova said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. In August, the number of flights to Kiev and back will also increase from two to four per week.

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Flights to Skopje will now run on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, the Pravda daily wrote. During the summer of 2018, the route between Bratislava and the Ukrainian capital is slated to have as many as five flights per week.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air currently has the second-largest number of lines from Bratislava, after the airline Ryanair. In addition to Skopje and Kiev, Wizz Air also flies to Cluj-Napoca in Romania, Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sofia in Bulgaria and Warsaw in Poland.
Three unannounced inspections of large Slovak bakeries were recently reported.

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In June the Antitrust Office (PMU) conducted audits in several large bakeries in Slovakia, the Sme daily wrote on July 18. The Office has not released the details of the inspections, which may be part of an investigation of the influence of Czech businessman and politician Andrej Babis, who is involved in the production and sale of bakery products in Slovakia.

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Slovak-born Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis (Source: TASR)

Babis, a Czech finance minister and Slovak-born businessman, had bought bakeries in Bratislava and Zilina without the permission of authorities  bypassing the PMU in the process. The bakery division of Babiss Agrofert company has long been the largest producer of baked goods and sweet-breads in Slovakia, supplying retail chains like Tesco, Kaufland and Billa. Agrofert is responsible for about one-third of the industrys 348 million in revenues, with around 600 firms in the sector.

History of involvement

In 2012, Bbais agreed to the purchase of the large central European United Bakeries group, through which it allegedly also attempted to gain control of the Prva bratislavska pekarenska (First Bratislava Bakery) and the Zilina-based bakery Peza.

The PMU blocked the deal, but in 2014 Czech journalists reported that Agrofert had procured the Prva bratislavska pekarenska behind the PMUs back: the journalists wrote that Babiss lawyers founded a limited liability company called Majetky, which bought Prva bratislavska pekarenska from United Bakeries. The company is also reported to have purchased Peza in this way.

The PMU is now investigating whether it was clear from the beginning that Babis was the real buyer, which would mean that Babis could face a fine of 9 million. Both the PMU and Babis refused to answer Smes questions.
A string quartet performed in Starzovske vrchy cave earlier this month.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

A string quartet played a classical concert in a cave on July 2, to a strangely-dressed audience, most of whom came from the nearby localities. Instead of tuxedos and dresses, the audience wore anoraks and hiking shoes, the TV Markiza reported on July 5. Both the audience members and the musicians had to climb several hundreds of metres to reach the performance location, while the musicians had to fine-tune their instruments in the moist environment of the cave.

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The acoustics in the cave, the material it is made from  the limestone, the soft sinter that covers the walls of the cave  is ideal for echoes that do not disturb the great impression of the space, speleologist Bohuslav Kortman told the TV Markiza.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/t6etdvg6iLE

The musicians admitted that playing in a cave is more demanding but more fun than playing in a concert hall. Strings may have problems due to the air in the cave, but generally, the atmosphere and the environment of the caves have their own magic, as we do not know what falls or drops on us from which side, musicians Eva Paulovicova and Dobroslav Kortman said. The string quartet was from the Elementary Music School from Povazska Bystrica.

The cave was revived by speleologists seven years ago, and since then, concerts are occasionally held there as part of the Zelena modra / Green-Blue project.

The concert, which took place on July 2 at 14:00, was organised by the local villages of Celkova Lehota and Pruzina, while the main organiser was the Speleological Club Strazovske vrchy (JKSV). It was part of the 7th year of the Zelena modra event.

The recent concert had great reactions  and thats why we would like to organise some more concerts even during this season," Bohuslav Kortman told the Slovak Spectator. "If we dont manage an earlier date, one concert is slated for the Strazovske Vrcholenie event on October 1.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

The cave can also be visited outside of these events, but booking in advance is necessary, as it is not open at all times because of paleontological research conducted in the cave. Visits are available between May and October depending on reservations..The contacts are 0042142/4321-064, 00421/905-488-028, or e-mail: bohuslav.kortman@speleostrazov.sk.

The cave is the most well-known in Starzovske vrchy and one of the oldest in Slovakia, the povazska.dnes24.sk website wrote. The cave has special acoustics and can easily hold 500 people, Kortman told the website.
The first ethnic group known by name which lived on Slovak territory may have ended differently than previously thought, shows an exhibition presenting many artefacts, interactive features and models.

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In the underground spaces of the Bratislava Castle  in the area where many of the items displayed were found  the Celts from Bratislava exhibition shows how they lived, as well as how their era in this region ended, and how the Slovak capital looked more than 2,000 years ago.

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The Celts, who originally came from somewhere between today's eastern France and southern Germany, expanded all over Europe (all the way to current Anatolya in Turkey), including a part of modern Slovakia, where they arrived around 400 BC. The first findings are from Stupava, Bosany and Horne Oresany, one of several curators and catalogue's authors, Igor Bazovsky of the Archaeological Museum of the Slovak National Museum (SNM), said at the launch of a catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

These people were excellent craftsmen, according to Bazovsky, and the exhibition lasting until October 1 outlines various aspects of their skills. It mostly focuses on the 1st century BC when the Boii, a Gallic tribe, arrived in this area. They stayed in western Slovakia, and the area around Bratislava has special strategic importance as a gate to the Carpathian Basin. The locality of Devin divided Celts into those living in today's Austria and those living in Slovakia. The local settlement lay at the crossroads of merchant routes.

Bratislava Celtic sites

A Celtic acropolis, a defense settlement, was located directly where is now the Bratislava Castle. Local findings confirmed active exchange with Romans. The local tribes were skilled minters and Celtic coins, with biatecs (named probably after the local ruler) made in Bratislava in the 1st century BC being the most famous, have been found in profusion. Both big silver coins  which were used to preserve assets and found in treasures  and smaller coins with minor nominal value were minted, used and found.

Nearby Devin was also very intensely and densely settled during this period  called the La Tene era, or La Tene culture  and some vessels and features typical for the area and culture have been discovered, for example storing reservoirs in the form of pits drilled into rocks or dug in the ground. These are typical for Devin, Katarina Harmadyova of the Bratislava City Museum (which operated the Devin Museum) noted. Wherever we dig in the Devin area, we find a Celtic shard, she said. Later, her colleagues added that the same can be said about the Bratislava Castle. A variation to storage reservoirs were big storage vessels; it was not easy to make them on a pottery wheel, not to mention baking them, as they were very big. Apart from impressive storage vessels, tiny items, such as jewels or sacrifices to gods, were also produced. Although Devin is not known for coins, a treasure of 70 coins was found here accidentally in 1998. Several comprehensive treasures were found here. The findings suggest that Celts liked bright colours for their clothes, and were fond of checquered patterns.

How did Celts perish?

Rather than any single disaster or conquest pointing to an abrupt end of Celts in the Devin area, it seems that the Dacians who arrived in the 1st century AD pushed them more northwards, or partially mixed with the Celts.

At the Bratislava Castle itself, archaeological research was interrupted in the 1970s and renewed only in 2008-2010 and 2013-2014. Important findings include several walled constructions  mostly three-storey buildings  which did no survive to the present as the core of the stones were used for the construction of newer buildings, e.g. a Roman church. It is also worth mentioning that these buildings were built for Celts but not by Celts; rather, they were built by ancient, mostly Roman builders and they also include elements typical for Romans, Barnislav Resutik of the City Office for Monument Preservation said. The Bratislava settlement was an oppidum, a large fortified settlement.

One of the exhibition's sections also targets interesting phenomenon, Celtic treasures found in this territory. One of the biggest is the treasure found in 1923 under the then Tatra Banka building, i.e. the current Culture Ministry headquarters, Anton Fiala of the Bratislava City Museum explained, adding that these treasures (several of them were found in Bratislava) were mostly composed of coins.

For a long time, it was supposed that the Dacians who caused the end of the Celts in Slovakia, with the territory called the Boiian Desert, due to the level of destruction the former left in the living space of the latter. However, now experts rather opine, thanks to recent research at Bratislava Castle, that Dacians gradually mixed with the Boii and who took over their culture and lifestyle. Celts lived here for some time after Dancians were in the area and came under pressure from German tribes from the north and of Romans from the south. Romans, however, colonised this territory with the aim of making locals citizens of their empire and the territory a Roman province. Thus, it shows that Celts lived under Romans for 200 more years at least, and rather than disappearing dramatically, they adapted and became absorbed by the Romans, Bazovsky summed up. The destruction of the Celtic settlement is thought to perhaps be the work of natural causes.

The exhibition includes, apart from authentic artefacts, also models and visualisations describing the life of local Celts two millenium ago.

There is also a catalogue of 200 pages accompanying the exhibition  for now just in Slovak, but an English/German version is planned to be released during the summer.
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By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 18 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has pushed for Made in America products to fight "unfair" and "stupid" trade practises amid criticism that his own family business outsources product manufacturing to countries like India, China and Bangladesh.

Surrounded by Gibson guitars, Stetson cowboy hats and other Made in America products, Trump promised to "stand up" for American companies and their employees, warning that the US would take retaliatory action against other countries "unfair trade practices".

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"We have countries that charge us 100 per cent tax on a product. And when that product is sold by them to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing," Trump said, with a tinge of sarcasm.

"People say, Oh thats free trade. No, thats stupid trade. Thats really stupid trade. Its incredible," Trump was quoted as saying by CNN.

Noting that he was elected on promises of reigniting American manufacturing, the President touted his administrations efforts to bolster US manufacturing and strip away burdensome government regulations and promised he would do more to level the playing field for US companies.

But Trump offered up no new policy or specific action that would advance those goals, signing only a symbolic "Made in America" proclamation and promising still-unrevealed policies that would make US manufacturers "so happy".

"Over the next short period of time youre going to see things announced that you wont even believe for our country and for selling product in our country and making product in our country and things that are great for American jobs," Trump said.

The day provided an opportunity for Trump to turn the page away from the Russia-related controversies swirling around his administration and instead provide images of him marveling at a host of products made in all 50 US states.

"My administration is removing the burdens and regulations on your companies so that you can compete, thrive, and grow," he said.

"For decades, Washington has allowed other nations to wipe out millions of American jobs through unfair trade practices," he said.

This painful exodus of American jobs was marked by a period of sluggish growth, falling incomes, surging welfare, and shrinking participation in the workforce, he said as he called for a free and fair trade with other countries.

"We must fight the unfair trade practices that have gutted our industry, and that includes cracking down on the predatory online sales of foreign goods, which is absolutely killing our shoppers and our shopping centers," he said.

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"Since the beginning of the year, we have already created over 50,000 brand-new manufacturing jobs, and were just getting started. We will lift our citizens from welfare to work. We will turn boarded-up communities into new outposts of American commerce. And we will once again rediscover our heritage as a manufacturing nation," Trump said.

The US used to be a manufacturing nation.

Not so much anymore, he said.

"Restoring American manufacturing will not only restore our wealth, it will restore our pride and pride in ourselves. It will revitalise our independence, and it will rebuild the bonds of kinship between our communities and our citizens, which has been lagging," said the US President.

However, Trumps push for Made in America received some criticism from his political opponents who alleged that his family businesses were still selling products overseas including those in India, China and Bangladesh.

"Where are the shirts made? Bangladesh. Where are the ties made? China," tweeted Matthew Wagner communication director of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

"Trump organisation continues to outsource much of its product manufacturing to Bangladesh, China & Mexico," tweeted Congressman Dan Kildee.

In July, the Washington Post traced Ivanka Trump products to Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

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"Trumps DC hotel sells clothes made in China, Vietnam, Peru, Bangladesh and Pakistan during Made in America," said another tweet.

In July, the Washington Post traced Trumps daughter Ivanka Trumps products to Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The issue also came up during the daily White House press conference.

"After all, he has shirts made in China and Bangladesh and India. Other products made -- like Trump vodka made in the Netherlands," said a reporter.

"I actually look at it in a very different way, which is the President has been a very successful businessman on a number of fronts and a number of areas and industries, and to understand first-hand what the tax burden and what the regulatory burden do to a business that wants to grow or expand here or hire here," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer replied. PTI LKJ UZM AKJ UZM

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) The Monsoon session of Parliament had a stormy start, with the opposition forcing a washout today by creating pandemonium over various issues and an angry BSP chief Mayawati threatening to resign from the Rajya Sabha for not being allowed to speak on the dalit issue. Members from parties like the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties and the RJD created uproar in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as soon as the Houses met for the day.

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Due to the ruckus, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day minutes after noon following one adjournment earlier while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned repeatedly till 3 pm and then for the day, without transacting any business. Though the Monsoon session began yesterday, today was the first working day as yesterday, both the Houses were adjourned, without transacting any business, after obituary references to the department MPs.

Today, the opposition members wanted to raise issues like "atrocities" against dalits, violent incidents involving cow vigilantes and the plight of farmers. In the Rajya Sabha, as soon as the House assembled for the day, Mayawati raised the issue of violence against dalits against the backdrop of riots in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh sometime back. While she was speaking, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked her to wrap up as she had exceeded the three-minute duration set for each member during the Zero Hour. At this, Mayawati got angry and asked how she could be prevented from raising the issue about her samaj (community) and the dalits. "I have not finished. You cannot do this," she said. In anger, she went on to add, "I will resign from Rajya Sabha today... I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against dalits." Mayawatis term in the Upper House is till April next year. Kurien asked her not to make a full-fledged speech and she can seek a discussion after giving a notice under Rule 267 that seeks adjournment of proceedings to take up an issue.

A discussion can begin only after the Chair, on the advise of the government, accepts the notice and agrees for a discussion.

Kurien rose from his seat in an attempt to calm her down but Mayawati refused to agree saying she has no right to be in the House if she cannot protect the rights of her community.

"I am going to resign from the house," she said and walked out of the House in a huff.

Her party colleagues led by Satish Mishra followed her but were back in the House soon to raise slogans against the alleged anti-Dalit policies of the government.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Mayawati was challenging the Chair. "She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair," he said.

BSP members immediately rushed into the Well, shouting slogans against the government.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad briefly prevailed over them to allow him to make his submission.

Azad said the government, at an all-party meeting before the start of the Monsoon Session, had agreed to discuss any issue that the opposition wants to raise in the house.

"Promise was made to us in the presence of the Prime Minister. You are going against that," he said.

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He said the Opposition led by Congress has given notices to discuss crisis facing farmers, anti-Dalit violence and lynching of minorities.

Responding to the barbs of the treasury benches to respect the peoples mandate, Azad said the government has got a mandate to protect the Dalits and minorities and for development.

"You didnt get a mandate to massacre minorities and dalits," he said, before leading a walkout by the Congress.

Soon thereafter, BSP members were back in the Well, shouting anti-government slogans.

Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) said the government policies were pushing farmers to suicide.

Naqvi said the government was ready for discussion on any issue and the opposition should give a notice.

Kurien said the government was agreeing to having a discussion, so the opposition members should return to their seats and start it.

"Shouting slogan is no soluition. We can discuss. The Chair is ready to allow discussion on all subjects. Let us start," he said. But the opposition members remained unrelenting, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

Earlier, Mayawati while elaborating on the incidents in Saharanpur, said the Dalits had agreed to the district administrations order not to take out any procession or install a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar on April 14. But the followers of Maharana Pratap however took out a procession on May 5, she said.

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Before she could complete, Kurien asked her to sit and called the next speaker, saying "you cannot monopolise", angering Mayawati.

No sooner that the House reassembled at noon, slogan shouting Congress members trooped into the Well. They were followed by the members of Trinamool Congress and others.

Amid slogan shouting by members of Congress and other parties, Chairman Hamid Ansari called for taking up the Question Hour.

TMC member Derek OBrien tried to speak but could not be heard amidst the noisy scenes.

Some members of the AIADMK too rushed into the Well as other opposition party members were on their feet.

The continued sloganeering forced the Chairman to adjourn the House till 1400 hrs. Similar scenes were witnessed when the House re-assembled at 1400 hours, leading to its adjournment till 1500 hours. As the protests continued, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar challenged the opposition members to a discussion, asking why they were running away from it. However, as the uproar continued, the House was adjourned till tomorrow. In the Lok Sabha, the opposition wanted to raise cow vigilantism, the plight of farmers and various other issues. Being disallowed, members from the Congress, RJD, TMC and the Left, among others, then trooped into Well. Many were shouting slogans and also displaying placards. The House was first adjourned after 15 minutes into Question Hour till noon as the bedlam continued. As the House re-assembled after the adjournment during Question Hour, the opposition members again trooped into the Well raising anti-government slogans.

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In the din, as many as three bills, including the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, were introduced. Besides, reports of various parliamentary committees were tabled before Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the proceedings for the day. One of the opposition placards read, "Gau mata toh bahana hai, karz maafi se dhyan hatana hai (Cow protection is a tool to divert attention from farm loan waiver)". "Vijay Mallya ko bhagaya, kisano ko rulaya (Vijay Mallya was allowed to leave, while farmers were made to cry)," read another placard. BJP members from Karnataka were also seen holding placards and standing at their benches asking the state government to protect honest officers.

They were referring to the recent transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who had reportedly exposed that AIADMK leader Sasikala Natrajan was provided special facilities and services inside prison. PTI NAB ANZ LUX RAM ADS RSN ARC AKK AKK

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All it took was three minutes.

Shortly after going live, CoinDash's July 17 Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was in serious trouble. The company, which allows for the trading of the popular cryptocurrency Ether (the "money unit" of the Ethereum platform), was all set for a big fundraising round with investors given the chance to invest in CoinDash with Ether. It's a well-established practice similar to an IPO: Buy into a company now in exchange for tokens, which are in some sense analogous to stock, and hope to reap the rewards later.

It didn't exactly work out as planned.

SEE ALSO: This Ethereum flash crash shows how cryptocurrency markets are super risky

As explained after the fact on the company's website, hackers managed to change one tiny but important detail on the CoinDash website just as the ICO was scheduled to begin: The Ethereum wallet address. That little change was all it took to redirect cryptocurrency slated for CoinDash into the wallet of the attacker.

"It is unfortunate for us to announce that we have suffered a hacking attack during our Token Sale event," the company explained. "During the attack $7 million were stolen by a currently unknown perpetrator."

Website has been hacked.  CoinDash.io (@coindashio) July 17, 2017

According to a screenshot of the CoinDash Slack channel, posted to Reddit and confirmed as authentic by Motherboard, CoinDash realized what was happening within three minutes  but the damage was done.

Well this is bad.

Image: Coindash/reddit

Angry online commenters, who may or may not have fallen prey to the scam, quickly took to Reddit to vent their frustration  with some hinting at the possibility of an inside job.

"Is there any proof that this was a hack," wondered one Redditor. "What if Coindash put an address in and then cried hacker to get away with free ETH?"

Story continues

"This propably [sic] was a set up from the beginning," speculated another.

We don't.  Vibhor Jain (@cryptoheadd) July 17, 2017

However, those that sent their Ether to the wrong address may not be entirely out of luck. CoinDash says it will still issue tokens to anyone who was swindled (as long as it happened before company employees shut their site down upon discovery of the hack).

If you sent ETH to the hacker address, please fill this form.https://t.co/XCD8FngyJt  CoinDash.io (@coindashio) July 17, 2017

"CoinDash is responsible to all of its contributors and will send CDTs [CoinDash Tokens] reflective of each contribution," the company further noted on its site. "Contributors that sent ETH to the fraudulent Ethereum address, which was maliciously placed on our website, and sent ETH to the CoinDash.io official address will receive their CDT tokens accordingly."

CoinDash, for its part, did manage to raise $6.4 million from its "early contributors and whitelist participants" before things went south.

As for the stolen Ether? Well, that's just chilling in a wallet, waiting until the crook comes to collect. And, unless the perp left some clues behind during the hack itself, he or she will soon be sitting pretty with their ill-gotten gains. Following laundered cryptocurrency, after all, is a notoriously difficult task.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Tuesday the army would carry out an operation in an area of the border with Syria that has been a base of operations for militants including jihadist groups. Speaking in parliament, Hariri described the operation planned for the Juroud Arsal area as carefully studied, the National News Agency reported. The government had given the army the "freedom" to act, he added. Juroud Arsal, a barren area in the mountains between Syria and Lebanon, has been a base of operations for insurgents fighting in the Syrian civil war, including jihadists from Islamic State and the group formerly known as the Nusra Front. Rights group Amnesty International urged the army not to use excessive force in the operation in an area where many Syrian refugees live in crowded camps. Speculation has been building that the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Syrian military are set to mount a major operation against the insurgents on the Syrian side of the frontier. Earlier this month, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said time was running out for Syrian militants along the border near Arsal to reach deals with Syrian authorities, saying it was "high time to end the threat of militant groups in Arsal". Hariri however said "there is no coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian armies". A security source said the Lebanese army, a recipient of U.S. and British military aid, had increased its deployment in the Arsal area in the last 24 hours. The source said the militants in the Juroud Arsal area were estimated to number around 3,000, two-thirds of them belonging to Islamic State or the group formerly known as the Nusra Front, and the remainder members of other rebel groups. The Arsal area is home to thousands of Syrian refugees who were recently caught up in raids on camps as security forces searched for militants. Hariri said in a statement later on Tuesday that the army was separately investigating the "deaths of Syrians in Arsal", an apparent reference to the deaths in army custody of several Syrians earlier this month. In 2014, the Arsal area was the scene of one of the most serious spillovers of the Syrian war into Lebanon, when jihadists briefly overran the town of Arsal. The Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah has provided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with crucial military support in the war, a role that has drawn heavy criticism from its Lebanese opponents including Hariri. (Writing by Tom Perry and John Davison; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Hugh Lawson)
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May told her ministers on Tuesday to show the "strength and unity" Britain needs, and to keep discussions private, blaming hostile briefings to journalists on colleagues who are "not taking their responsibilities seriously". Since losing the Conservatives' majority in parliament at an election she did not need to call, May has been increasingly unable to dictate to her ministers, who have begun to air their disagreements in public. Much of the criticism, briefed by anonymous sources in the British media, has centred on finance minister Philip Hammond, who has been attacked on his stance on government spending and his approach to Britain's departure from the European Union. "There is a need to show strength and unity as a country and that starts around the cabinet table," May told her top team of ministers, according to her spokesman. "She said the government would make better decisions if colleagues were able to hold open discussions but it was vital that discussions in cabinet must remain private," he told reporters. "The PM said the briefings and counter-briefings over the weekend had been a case of colleagues not taking their responsibilities seriously." Hammond was quoted as saying he believed public sector workers were overpaid last week, a statement at odds with many in the cabinet who want to increase pay to try to win back voters and seized upon by the opposition Labour Party. Described as "an enfeebled chancellor" in parliament by a Labour lawmaker, Hammond said: "I don't know which planet he lives on but I have to tell you I don't feel particularly enfeebled." Earlier Sky News said May, whose authority was shattered by last month's ill-judged election, had taken the floor at a summer party for Conservative lawmakers to tell them there should be "no backbiting, no carping". "The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn  and nobody wants him," May told her lawmakers, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. "Go away, have a proper summer break and come back ready for serious business." (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panu Wongcha-um BANGKOK/KHON KAEN (Reuters) - As the trial of former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra over an extravagant rice subsidy programme winds to a close, her rural supporters are resisting attempts by the ruling junta to silence her family's political machine. Yingluck and her Puea Thai Party say the trial is politically motivated, aimed at discrediting a populist movement that has won every election since 2001. Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra first introduced the rice programmes before he himself was ousted in a 2006 coup. But Yingluck took it a step further by offering to buy rice from farmers at up to 50 per cent above market prices. The measure helped her sweep to power in the 2011 general election. But government losses from the scheme -- which also distorted global rice prices -- helped fuel protests that led to her removal from power days before the 2014 coup. If found guilty, Yingluck like her brother Thaksin, would be disqualified from becoming premier again. Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile for 11 years to avoid serving a two-year sentence over a corrupt land deal. That has left political circles guessing who would lead the party in the next election, scheduled for next year, and whether that leader could possibly be someone outside the Shinawatra clan that has dominated the movement until now. UNCHALLENGED IN NORTHEAST Farmers from the Shinawatra powerbase in the northeast told Reuters they would vote for the Puea Thai Party again in the next election. "The Yingluck rice scheme made rice farmers prosperous from having a reliable income that came on time," said Paisan Pachanda, 59, a rice farmer and co-operative leader in Khon Kaen, a major commercial hub that lies on a plateau in the centre of the northeast region. "If there's an election . . . people in the northeast will still vote for the Puea Thai Party, even if there is no Shinawatra in the party," he said. Even the rival Democrat Party concedes Puea Thai remains unchallenged in the Northeast. "Puea Thai Party's political base, its MPs and politicians, have developed strong networks in the northeast," said Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the Democrat Party. "So even if the party changes its leadership it is unlikely that it will affect its strong bonds on the ground," he told Reuters. Asked about Puea Thai's popularity, Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a spokesman for the government, said: "The people get to decide who they want to represent them." RICE LEGACY Yingluck, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of negligence over her role in the rice programme. The last hearing in her 2-year long case will be at a Bangkok court on Friday. A verdict is expected after closing statements are delivered in a few weeks' time. "The rice subsidy scheme was a state policy declared to parliament. Yet the charge has been brought against me alone in a criminal case," Yingluck told Reuters in a written reply to questions. "No other government has been charged over its public policies," she said. Yingluck, though banned from politics, remains the unofficial face of the party and toured Thailand extensively last year, meeting with rural supporters. Junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup, has made no secret of his disdain for the Shinawatras. In 2010, he favoured a heavy-handed approach to an army crackdown on red-shirted Shinawatra supporters that killed more than 90 people. The junta's attempts to repress the Shinawatra clan and its movement, and even introduce its own farm subsidies for the politically-powerful farmers, are not working, many in the rice fields of the northeast say. "The more the military pushes the Puea Thai Party the more sympathy the party gets," Rotcharin Waratsirisophon, 54, a party member told Reuters in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen. "Puea Thai is even more popular now." NEXT IN LINE With Yingluck and her brother sidelined for next year's scheduled elections, other potential movement leaders have emerged. One is another of Thaksin's sisters, Monthathip Kovitcharoenkul, 58, a businesswoman. Yingluck has told reporters Monthathip has no interest in politics. The other is veteran politician Sudarat Keyuraphan, 56, a former agriculture minister and a former deputy leader of Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party. Sources in the party said Sudarat was the favourite but some party members prefer a candidate from within the Shinawatra family. Acting Puea Thai Party secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai, said it was too soon to talk about party nominations. "We have to wait until an election date has been confirmed. We can't do much at the moment," Phumtham told Reuters. Politics has been put on hold in Thailand, partly out of respect for late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last October and whose cremation will take place in October. The junta, which calls itself the National Council on Peace and Order, has also cracked down on dissent by tightening restrictions on the media and silencing activists through imposing the kingdom's strict lese-majeste and cybercrime laws. Whatever new government comes in will still have to deal with the military. The new constitution the generals have implemented introduces a military-appointed senate and requires any future government to follow the junta's 20-year development plan. (Additional reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Grand_Canyon_Beauty

Wikimedia Commons.

Geologist Andrew Snelling is hunting for evidence of Noahs great flood. His pursuit has brought him to the deepest gorge in the United States, Grand Canyon National Park, which he sued in May for rejecting his bid to collect around 50 fist-sized rocks for research purposes. In his suit, Snelling quoted President Donald Trumps executive order expanding freedom of religion, arguing that it was unconstitutional to forbid him from collecting rocks from the land.

The U.S. Park Service has finally relented. In early July, it approved Snellings research permit and allowed him to gather these protected cobbles for deep scrutiny. The move is not unprecedented but is highly unusual, given Snellings dubious scientific objectives.

If all goes his way, the rocks will show telltale signs of having been tossed about during the aftermath of a flood so massive, it was only survivable for species that hitched a ride on Noahs nearly 500-foot long ship.

For most people, taking anything from a national park is prohibited. Take pictures, leave footprints, is the famous ranger adage. Even swiping a flower will earn the pilferer a $100 ticket (which can end up costing as much as $5,000). The only way around this rule is to obtain a research permit, which allows researchers to remove artifacts or natural resources from a national park. Getting one isnt  or shouldnt  be easy: Usually, people must prove that their research will benefit science or improve the stewardship of the park. Interested applicants, like Snelling, must be prepared to answer questions like these:

Will the proposed activity result in degradation of the purposes, resources, and values of the park?

Could the proposed research be performed outside the park?

What are the potential benefits of the research to science?

Has the proposed research been peer-reviewed for scientific integrity by recognized experts?

Story continues

Snelling apparently answered these questions well enough to justify research into a catastrophic erosion event that formed the Grand Canyon in what he presumes to be a violently swift event.

National Parks regularly approve research permits, for both its own scientists and outside researchers. The Grand Canyon approves around 80 such projects a year. At Point Reyes National Seashore, scientists clip GPS tags to elephant seals, and in Alaska they shoot bears with harmless darts, in hopes of gathering DNA for genetic studies.

The uniqueness of Snellings research, of course, is that it conflicts with the natural history and earth science taught by park rangers and independently verified by outside geologists, which suggest that, some five million years ago, the dominant Colorado River began carving through thousands of feet of layered sediments. This process continues its course today, as the same river continues to snake through the canyon.

Noah's_Ark_on_Mount_Ararat_by_Simon_de_Myle

Wikimedia Commons

Snellings views of a young Earth, created less than 10,000 years ago by divine forces, is far different from the conceptions of natural history held by most geologists, who have found no evidence that todays natural features can be explained by any sort of globe-encompassing super-event, like a flood.

Indeed, there are geologic curiosities around the world that young-earth creationist geologists argue were placed there during a great flood  specifically, massive, out-of-place rocks. But todays receding glaciers reveal that these rocks, called glacial erratics, were pushed there by the indomitable forces of local glaciers, not a great flood.

In the end, the Park Services decision to approve Snellings research permit may not have been based upon any reasonable scientific merit, but the simple desire to move on. Its been a three-year bureaucratic tussle, and the 50 rocks  which park scientists still contend could be easily found outside the park  will ultimately be returned to their park home.

Getting these geologic features outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park was no easy task for Snelling, but he did it legally. So, for all the scientific disagreement that may arise, he didnt violate national park laws in his attempt to prove the word of God.

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The students come in not knowing a syllable of Arabic, Chinese, Korean, or Russian. By the time they leave, they can have a basic conversation in one of those languages, thanks to the Summer Learning Institute (SLI) on the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Dahlonega Campus.

This summer, 64 students from around the nation are at UNG for an intensive six-week language and cultural immersion in one of those four languages. SLI students learn one year's worth of language, allowing them to earn eight credit hours upon successful completion of the program. SLI enables students to complete their core curriculum language requirements and gain a head start in their chosen language, should they decide to pursue a major, minor, or dual major.

Students must be accepted to UNG, either as dual enrollment students, incoming freshmen, transfer students, or cadets.

"SLI is a very demanding program, the students are learning a language from the ground up 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Daniela Martinez, UNG's director of sponsored programs. "They're learning from language instructors in the classroom and benefit from peer and tutor interactions outside of formal instruction."

Martinez said SLI classes are taught by UNG faculty, allowing incoming students to familiarize themselves with expectations of college-level work prior to beginning their college experience. The teacher-student familiarity that starts in the summer carries over to the fall and helps students gain confidence moving forward.

ROTC students make up the majority of SLI students and have been awarded scholarships to attend through Project Global Officer, or Project GO, a Department of Defense initiative that promotes language education, study abroad and intercultural opportunities through scholarships. For ROTC students who continue to study their target language, Project GO offers further opportunities for study abroad.

Dillon Evans, 18, an incoming ROTC student from Columbus, Georgia, and planning to major in international affairs, said a Project GO scholarship allowed him to attend SLI to study Chinese and use his language skill in his military career.

"Chinese is the most difficult language after English to learn, so I'm up for a challenge," he said. "I took three years of Japanese in high school, which has helped learning the (Chinese) characters, since they are similar to Japanese, but the Chinese language is 10 times harder. I feel like I'm doing well just based on the way the class is structured, because we're learning Chinese all day long."

There are similarities between SLI and UNGs Federal Service Language Academy (FSLA), the immersive language program for high school students also held during the summer. Chi-Hsuan Catterson, a Chinese language instructor in past years at SLI, said there is a difference.

"The biggest difference between [SLI and FSLA] is that at SLI, we hope our students have fun learning, but we have high academic and proficiency standards," said Catterson. "SLI is a very intensive program; our students are in the classroom four hours a day and then are either learning about the culture of the language they're studying or they are in a language lab, practicing speaking it with each other, or in study hall. Yes, there's times when they go out to a restaurant and sample food or cook it themselves, or other fun things such as playing games or watching Chinese movies, but it's much more intense."

At the end of the six-week program, students are tested on their new language skills by the Oral Proficiency Interviewcomputer (OPIc), an internet-delivered test that provides reliable oral proficiency.

"The object of SLI is to get our students, at the end of the program, to be able to engage in a 'novice high' or 'intermediate low' level of conversing in their chosen language," Catterson said. "And we hope they learn enough to want to move on to take more classes in that language."
By PTI: Gurugram, Jul 18 (PTI) A woman working with an MNC was allegedly robbed and molested at the IFFCO Chowk flyover here by two bike-borne miscreants, police said today.

The incident occurred on Monday night when she travelling alone in an auto to her Jalvayu Vihar residence in Sector 31.

The womans ordeal was not over there as she tried to flag down passing vehicles for at least 20 minutes before a Delhi police constable picked her up, police said.

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As there was traffic congestion at the service lane at IFFCO Chowk due to ongoing Kanwar yatra, the autorickshaw driver preferred to go via the flyover, unaware that robbers were active on it.

"She was carrying Rs 1,500 in cash, a couple of credit cards, a debit card and other valuable documents in her purse. A case has been registered against unknown robbers in DLF phase II police station," ACP and chief spokesperson of Gurugram Police, Manish Sehgal said.

"We have asked highway operator to provide CCTV footage to identify the accused," the officer added.

The Gurugram police has deployed forces all along the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and at all major intersections to provide security to Kanwarias.

Robbers have capitalised on the situation as the main carriageway and flyover are now left with no security. PTI CORR BSA

--- ENDS ---
To some, University of North Georgia (UNG) graduate student Erin Turner is a medical mission trip veteran.

The nurse practitioner student has been overseas twice with UNG  once as an undergraduate and once as a grad student  to treat a range of ailing patients. She knows to expect the unexpected.

"The most exciting and most terrifying part is you never know what's going to walk through the door," Turner said.

That sentiment remained true for her and 24 other graduate and undergraduate UNG students as they traveled in May to the Dominican Republic as part of an annual weeklong study-abroad medical mission trip. The students and five UNG nursing faculty members  Nina Myer, Heather Harris, Dawn Parker, Dr. Elaine Taylor and Dr. Sharon Chalmers  unexpectedly met a 4-year-old girl with a heart murmur.

"In the United States, something like that is fixed at birth," Turner said.

The 28-year-old Ball Ground, Georgia native explained the child had Tetralogy of Fallot, which is four heart defects. The most serious is a heart murmur caused by a hole between two chambers of the heart.

"It's something my nursing students would never see in the United States," said Heather Harris, a certified family nurse practitioner and UNG lecturer.

She had her students listen to the child's chest to hear its whooshing sound.

"It's almost like what you hear when you put a seashell up to your ear," Turner said. "It sounds like the ocean, but it's really the blood that's rushing through your ear that you hear."

Harris also pointed out the girls' clubbed fingers  growths of the skin and bone around the fingernails  and the bluish tint of her skin.

The medical professional and students came to the heart-wrenching realization  they could not help her.

"Those in the medical profession are fixers by nature," Turner said, adding if surgery had been attempted to fix the problems, the little girl was unlikely to survive much longer. "So the hardest lesson to learn is you can't fix everything."

The students and their professors, however, offered treatment that week to more than 1,100 patients and provided food to 100-120 on a daily basis, said Dr. Sharon Chalmers, a UNG professor and a certified family nurse practitioner. Most of them were sugar cane workers with ailments ranging from diabetes and high blood pressure to poor eyesight and open wounds.

The nursing students eased the suffering through a handful of medical stations at mobile clinics set up in the bateyes, or villages established by the sugar cane companies. The stations were:

a pharmacy to distribute donated or over-the-counter medications,

a wound care area to clean and dress wounds,

an eyeglass station to distribute glasses that were donated by the Lions Club

an education station for the Days for Girls program, which provides sustainable feminine hygiene solutions and health education, and

an area for the children's dental care and women's iron level research program

McKenzie Major, a rising senior from Suwanee, Georgia, said the eyeglass station had the most visible effect on the patients.

"One woman came up and we gave her glasses," the 21-year-old said. "And her eyes opened so big. She was so surprised. You don't know how bad you can't see until you can see."

Harris, who works primary with the undergraduate students and requires them to keep a journal on the trip, said she saw the change in her students.

"One thing I tell them is that you will know the reason you were meant to be here by the end of the trip," she said. "For everybody, there is one or two patients they will connect with and realize I'm here to care for this person."

The annual trip to La Romana, the country's third-largest city, is made in partnership with Rivers of the World, a Dawsonville-based international ministry group, and is supported by UNG's Center for Global Engagement.
University of North Georgia (UNG) art students Michelle Vatral and Melanie Mitchell, like many college students, were searching for an internship to fill a graduation requirement. Little did they know their search would result with one tall order.

Both UNG seniors signed on to work with the Gainesville Housing Authority (GHA) to organize, design and paint a 9-by-18-foot mural on a white concrete wall at the Melrose Apartments in Gainesville, Georgia.

Vatral, a 21-year-old art marketing major, was eager to work with GHA, which manages and operates the public housing program.

"One of my personal interests for a future job is to work with a nonprofit," the Columbus, Georgia, native said.

Mitchell, a 21-year-old studio art major, climbed aboard the project as the painting expert, and Vatral was glad she did.

"I'm not too experienced with painting," Vatral said. "Melanie has more paint experience."

Mitchell quickly added that Vatral has the organizational and time-management skills and other talents needed for a project of this scale.

"Michelle is good at talking to other human beings," Mitchell said with a smile, referring to the young children and teenagers in the GHA.

Pamela Sachant, UNG Visual Arts department head and internship coordinator, agreed.

"Melanie is a little shy  and a very strong painter," she said. "I knew Michelle was interested in large art projects, and she likes working with kids."

Therefore, when the art project arose with the GHA, Sachant directed both UNG seniors to GHA special projects coordinator. He put the young women to work with the Gainesville children and teens. They guided the Gainesville students in designing the mural as well as painting it on the walls near the intersection of Pearl Nix Parkway and Queen City Parkway.

And it was no easy task.

"For the first two weeks, we were planning and brainstorming," Mitchell said, explaining the mural's focus was to incorporate elements signifying home, growth and community.

Therefore, the young women asked the children and teens who arrived at GHA's office at 750 Pearl Nix Parkway a few simple questions.

"We asked 'What does home mean to you? What does community mean? What do you like about living in Gainesville?'" Mitchell said.

The children's answers were then incorporated into a mural draft. Those elements were sketched on pieces of paper, and the mural started taking shape. Details emerging for the mural were Lake Lanier, the north Georgia mountains, the bridge over Jesse Jewell Parkway and Gainesville's skyline.

She also said as the mural has evolved, other elements will be featured.

"We will put a chicken in there somewhere since Gainesville is the 'chicken capital of the world,'" Vatral said.

She also said another student mentioned the police as an element of the city.

"So we will add that and a fire truck and school bus," Vatral said.

With all of the ideas on hand, Mitchell and Vatral started the laborious project of prepping the wall and outlining the mural. The college students along with GHA special projects coordinator Jim Chapman pressure washed the wall. Then both women primed the wall followed by Mitchell sketching the drawing and filling in the first round of colors.

A few of the children picked up paint brushes and slapped on a green color at the base of the wall.

"And we had them do the flowers with their fingers," Mitchell said, pointing to the right-hand corner of one wall. "And theyve done the blades of grass. And I've told them to do light strokes."

For the most part, the children have followed directions well, Vatral said.

"We tell them to try and keep (their brushes) horizontal  but they do go back to painting this way," she said demonstrating a vertical stroke. "Honestly though, they are doing a good job."

The kids appeared to enjoy the task, despite the 90-degree weather. Luckily, the wall is shaded by nearby trees.

At one point, Vatral showed 11-year-old Adrian how to blend a dark green color with a lighter color and create a gradient or fading effect. The Gainesville boy then swiftly picked up his brush and followed Vatral's example.

"I'm having fun," he said. "I'm really enjoying it  the painting and the mixing."

Chapman, who instigated the project with UNG, was pleased with the results. He said this project and others are geared toward helping the children dream bigger than a destiny of living in public housing.

"The mural is an exercise in dreaming in public," he said. "It's looking very nice. I can't wait to see it when it's finished."

The mural officially will be unveiled at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, at Melrose Apartments near the GHA office in Gainesville.
Facebook today announced construction of a second $250 million building at its Los Lunas project, nearly doubling the size of the data center thats been taking shape there.

The company last October broke ground on the first phase of its Los Lunas data center, which includes a 510,000-square-foot building and administrative space. That phase will be ready for use in late 2018, the company said. The second building will add another 460,000 square feet. Site work already is underway on the second building.

During peak construction activity, as many as 1,000 construction workers will be on site, Facebook announced in a post on a web page devoted to the project. More than 100 employees could be employed at the two buildings once they are opened, Facebook officials said.

When Facebook chose to build its data center in Los Lunas rather than at a site in Utah, the company said the project could consist of up to six buildings, each costing $250 million.

We couldnt be more impressed with the fast pace of the teams working on the data center, the Facebook post said of the first phase. We want to build on this strong momentum 

To entice the company to New Mexico, Facebook was promised up to $30 billion in industrial revenue bonds, $10 million in Local Economic Development Act funding and tax reimbursements of up to $1.6 million.

This is exciting news for New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez said in a statement released eary Tuesday. Were proud to have a cutting-edge high-tech company like Facebook as a partner as we move forward in diversifying New Mexicos economy.

Facebook said the second building, like the first, will be one of the most advanced and energy efficient data center facilities in the world, featuring the latest in server, storage and network designs.

Also, it will be run with 100 percent clean and renewable energy, under the solar energy arrangement it has made with Public Service Company of New Mexico.

PNM will invest a total of $45 million in three solar plants through a contract with Facebook that commits the company to supply all of the data centers power with renewable energy.

Two of New Mexicos largest homegrown solar companies, Affordable Solar and Array Technologies, have been chosen to build the solar arrays and supply needed equipment.

Facebook said its first construction phase has had an average of 150 workers on site daily, logging more than 280,000 hours of work on the project, moving 3,200,000 cubic yards of dirt, and pouring more than 30,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Economic Development Secretary Matt Geisel said in the states news release, After experiencing all New Mexico has to offer, Facebook is doubling down on their investment. Weve seen it again and again, when we bring companies to New Mexico, good things happen.
A former priest who served nine years in a Michigan prison for sexually abusing two boys is named in a new lawsuit filed on behalf of a Santa Fe man who alleges that Jason Sigler repeatedly attacked him at a church in Las Vegas.

The lawsuit, filed July 5 in 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque, alleges that Sigler sexually abused the former altar boy at Immaculate Conception Church over a period of about two years. The man, identified as John Doe 68, was 9 when the abuse began in 1976, the suit said. It is the 68th clerical abuse lawsuit filed by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall.

Sigler served nine years in a Michigan prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to molesting two boys. He returned to Albuquerque in 2014. A voice mail message left Friday on a phone number listed in Siglers name was not returned.

Sigler, who left the priesthood in 1982, pleaded guilty in Albuquerque to a charge of criminal sexual penetration of a minor in 1983 and received a deferred sentence, according to Journal reports at the time.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order that operated a now-closed treatment facility for priests in Jemez Springs. The Diocese of Lansing, Mich., sent Sigler to the facility in 1970, according to Journal reports.

The archdiocese said in a written statement Friday that it does not comment publicly about pending legal cases. It also said the archdiocese continues to be vigilant and stands firm on its zero tolerance policy regarding sexual misconduct.

The archdiocese has a safe-environment coordinator and review board to enforce those policies, and requires all priests and employees to undergo a background check and complete safe-environment training, the statement said.
New Mexico has 31 public colleges and universities and a shrinking pot of money to go around.

How have individual universities coped with the budget pressures? Is the states higher education model sustainable?

A panel that includes college presidents, the states higher education chief and lawmakers will discuss those issues and more during a town hall from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Journal.

Space is limited. To reserve a spot, send an email to newsroom@abqjournal.com by 5 p.m. today.

Panelists include New Mexico Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron and the leaders of University of New Mexico (Chaouki Abdallah), New Mexico State University (Garrey Carruthers), Central New Mexico Community College (Kathie Winograd) and Western New Mexico University (Joseph Shepard). NMSU faculty President Chris Brown will also speak, while state Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, and state Rep. Larry Larranaga, R-Albuquerque, will join via conference call.

The Journal is hosting the event in partnership with the New Mexico Council of University Presidents and KANW-FM (89.1). KANW will broadcast the session on the radio and stream it on Facebook. Journal senior editor Kent Walz will moderate.

The state has cut funding to public colleges and universities by 8 percent in the past two years, though higher education still gets about 13 percent of all state general fund appropriations. At the same time, enrollment is dropping. Statewide student numbers fell nearly 14 percent between 2010 and 2016, meaning fewer tuition dollars.

Higher education forum

Where: Albuquerque Journal auditorium, second floor

When: 7-9 p.m. Wednesday

To attend: send an email to newsroom@abqjournal.com
On Wednesday, Albuquerque will become one of more than 60 cities to have participated in the American Towman Spirit Ride, whose purpose is to remind people to slow down and move over when approaching tow trucks and other first-responder vehicles.

The Spirit Ride began on June 1 in Massachusetts, where tow trucks and emergency response vehicles began a relay of the ceremonial casket, Spirit, across the country. The casket, painted to depict tow truck drivers and emergency responders in action, is meant to honor those individuals who have lost their lives in roadside accidents. The relay is set to visit more than 250 cities by the end of 2018.

The nicest part is that everyone has joined together and united as one, said participant Linda Unruh, the owner of All-Rite Towing & Repair Inc. in Tucumcari.

This event is very personal for Unruh. Her son, Bobby Unruh, was killed by an 18-wheeler on the side of Interstate 40 in February during recovery work while getting a colleague out of harms way. His death helped to push the Move Over or Slow Down for Hazard Lights Act into law, said Johnny R. Johnson, managing director of the New Mexico Trucking Association.

The new law, signed by the governor in April, requires motorists to slow down and  if its safe  pull into a nonadjacent lane when approaching a repair, recovery or emergency vehicle with flashing emergency or hazard lights.

Before the bill was passed, motorists were only required to do so for emergency vehicles, said state Sen. James P. White, R-Albuquerque, one of the bills sponsors.

According to Johnson and a news release issued by American Towman spokeswoman Janna Ross, a tow truck driver dies every six days on average in the United States in roadside accidents.

Michael Tavenner, owner of Tavenners Towing & Recovery in Moriarty, hopes that people will follow this new law so that his employees and others will be safe.

Were always on the side of the road; my drivers are always on the side of the road, he said.

Tavenner and Unruh, along with an escort of emergency vehicles, will transport Spirit into Albuquerque on Wednesday, where a ceremony is set to start at 1 p.m. at Balloon Fiesta Park. It will feature several speakers, including White and Unruh. At the end of the ceremony, Spirit will be transported to Socorro, its next stop.

Unruh is looking forward to the opportunity the Spirit Ride presents to bring awareness to the issue.

My healing is to save others, she said. Its my journey to make something positive. I dont want anybody else to have to go through that.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
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.
WASHINGTON  Every week  nearly every day  brings fresh, stomach-churning evidence of President Trumps unfitness for office. The latest may be the most revolting.

Confronted with incontrovertible proof that his son leapt at the prospect of meeting with a Russian government attorney offering to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for his candidacy, the president took the position that this was political business as usual.

His first public reaction, in an interview with Reuters, was that many people would have held that meeting. The next day, Trump ratcheted up that astonishing assertion, from many to most, asserting, I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. Politics isnt the nicest business in the world, but its very standard.

No. It. Isnt.

Donald Trump Jr. at least had the decency to admit, in his interview with Fox News Sean Hannity, that in retrospect, I wouldve done things differently. Not his father. I know being Trump means never having to say youre sorry. I understand the fierce parental instinct to defend your erring child, even if that child is a 39-year-old father of five.

But this meeting was unacceptable. It was not even in the exurbs of appropriate. Hard to believe this really requires spelling out, but apparently it does, so here goes: A candidate for president of the United States and his campaign have no business, none, trucking with an emissary of a foreign government peddling incriminating information about their opponent.

That this meeting was explicitly described as an element of a Russian plot to influence the U.S. election is icing on an already repulsive cake. That the target of this feeler  the candidates son  embraced such meddling rather than recoiling from it only adds to the sordidness of the episode.

And that the intended beneficiary, now the sitting president of the United States, is unable and unwilling to accept that fact should be chilling to every patriotic American. Perhaps he is incapable of ever acknowledging wrongdoing. That only adds to the chill.

As does Trumps staggering refusal to recognize the reality of Russian attempts to interfere in the election. What was Trump doing, at this late stage, asking Russian President Vladimir Putin if he meddled?

I said, Did you do it? And he said, No, I did not. Absolutely not,  Trump told Reuters. I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not.

That isnt the point. The intelligence community has told Trump that Russia interfered. The president shouldnt be inquiring  he should be informing Putin about the consequences of this unacceptable behavior. But Trump continues to dispute reality. Somebody did say if he (Putin) did do it, you wouldnt have found out about it, Trump added.

We are at risk of suffering outrage overload here. So many troubling things have happened, and Trump continues to make so many beyond-the-pale statements, that we are losing our capacity to respond to all of it with appropriate concern.

Meanwhile, the alarm bells clang. Trump, we are told, didnt know about the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya until a few days before it became public. Except, maybe, he did. In fact, maybe it was mentioned at some point, Trump acknowledged in a conversation with pool reporters  a part of the off-the-record, then on-the-record encounter not included in the official White House transcript.

Was he talking about Russian adoption or the meeting itself? Unclear  but at this point the White House deserves little presumption of honesty or full disclosure. The latest evidence: NBC News report that the Trump Tower meeting was also attended by a former Soviet counterintelligence officer. So much for Trumpian back-patting about transparency.

I hear the what-aboutists stirring. But what about Democrats and Ukraine? According to a January report in Politico, a Ukrainian-American consultant to 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. Problematic? Perhaps. But Ukraine is not a U.S. adversary. The scope of its reported involvement is far different from a Putin-directed effort to illegally hack emails to help elect Trump.

If there is one silver lining to this staggering news, it is that it serves to strengthen special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump continues to cry witch hunt. Yet there can no longer be any doubt that there is something for Mueller to investigate. And even this supine Republican Congress would not tolerate his summary firing. Would it?

E-mail: ruthmarcus@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  A 20-year-old west-central Colorado man has been ordered held without bail after being charged with shooting two 17-year-old girls in Grand Junction, killing one.

Israel Jerome Massingill did not enter pleas Monday to the charges of first-degree murder or second-degree murder in the death of Kiera Quintana, who was shot in the head early Sunday in a grocery store parking lot. He also was charged with assault, menacing and domestic violence for injuries to the other girl.

District Judge Craig Henderson ordered Massingill to have no contact with Quintanas parents or the girl who survived the shooting.

Little information about the events leading to the shooting have been released.

Public defender Clinton Knorpp reserved Massingills right to argue for setting a bond at a later hearing. Massingills next court appearance in July 26.
Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that no federal charges will be brought against the two Albuquerque police officers who fatally shot a mentally ill, homeless man more than three years ago.

The local U.S. Attorneys Office said in a news release that career prosecutors determined there wasnt enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that officer Dominique Perez and now-retired Detective Keith Sandy violated federal law when they fatally shot James Boyd in the Sandia foothills in March 2014. The two men were charged with murder in state court but the case ended in a mistrial last October.

Shannon Kennedy, an attorney for the Boyd family, said Andrew Jones, Boyds brother, listened via Skype to a presentation Tuesday from Justice Department attorneys about why federal authorities werent bringing charges against Perez and Sandy.

They gave a very astute legal analysis  of the difficulty of a federal criminal prosecution of law enforcement officers, she said. One can only be forever grateful that we live in a democracy where the government looks at investigating police officers who violently kill a citizen.

To bring federal charges against an officer for an on-duty shooting, prosecutors must be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an officer willfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right. That high burden means there must be proof an officer knew his or her actions were unlawful, but did them anyway, according to the release.

The evidence, when viewed as whole, indicates that the officers fired only after reasonably perceiving that Boyd posed a serious threat of physical harm to a fellow officer, the release states. At the time of the shooting, Boyd was brandishing two knives and was in close proximity to a canine handler.

The city of Albuquerque settled a lawsuit brought by Boyds family for $5 million. His family subsequently donated $100,000 each to St. Martins Hospitality Center and Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless, which are agencies that assist local homeless people.

An on-body camera recording of the shooting showed Boyd had gathered up some of his belonging and was turning away when he was shot. The videos release led to public outcry and protests in the streets.

APD Forward, a collection of community groups that advocate for Albuquerque police reform, expressed disappointment but not surprise at the decision not to bring charges.

The month after the Boyd shooting, the Department of Justice released a report that found Albuquerque police had a pattern of using excessive force. That investigation spurred a years-long reform effort that is still underway by Albuquerque police.

Regardless of what happened formally in the halls of criminal justice in Albuquerque, you cannot deny that his  death galvanized this community to make lasting changes that I believe save lives, Kennedy said.

Albuquerque police Chief Gorden Eden, who called the shooting justified days after it happened but then backtracked amid criticism, said the department has improved in recent years and cited the departments compliance with reforms.

As a community we have grown from this difficult event. APD has worked hard to improve our policies around use of force and behavioral health reform. We are the first in the nation to ensure our field officers are Crisis Intervention trained, and we are now a national leader in helping those suffering from mental health crisis.
SANTA FE  State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn announced Tuesday that he will forgo a re-election bid next year and instead run for an open southern New Mexico congressional seat, setting the stage for more upheaval on the states political stage.

Dunn, a Republican, cited U.S. Rep. Steve Pearces recent decision to run for governor  instead of re-election to the 2nd Congressional District seat  as part of his thought process.

With Steve Pearce running for governor, the stakes are simply too high for southern New Mexicans to lose an experienced, pro-jobs representative in Congress, Dunn said.

He also acknowledged the allure of an open congressional seat, saying he hoped his early announcement might dissuade some fellow Republicans from running.

However, Dunn is expected to face at least some intraparty competition for the 2018 nomination, as state Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-Alamogordo, has already announced her candidacy and others could also jump into the race.

Four Democrats have also launched campaigns for the congressional seat, which stretches from New Mexicos border with Mexico north into Bernalillo County and has been held by a Republican for all but two of the past 37 years.

The state Democratic Party was quick to criticize Dunn after his Tuesday announcement, with party Chairman Richard Ellenberg calling Dunn another Republican with an extreme record and citing a proposed land swap pitched by Dunn to facilitate President Donald Trumps border wall idea.

In a Journal interview, Dunn said his tenure as land commissioner and background in banking gives him important connections with residents of the largely rural 2nd Congressional District.

I think I could be effective, Dunn said, listing jobs, health care, the economy and border security as among his top priorities. After running a public institution, I have a lot more information than I did in 2008.

Dunn was referring to a failed bid for Congress in 2008  he also ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2012  that preceded his defeat of then-Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a Democrat, in 2014.

Meanwhile, Dunns decision also means there will be no incumbent in next years race to lead the State Land Office, which administers 9 million acres of state trust land and 13 million acres of subsurface mineral rights.

Two Democrats  Garrett VeneKlasen and Powell  have already entered that race, and former Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, a Republican whos currently a member of the Public Regulation Commission, said Tuesday that he was leaning toward running for his old office.

Dunn, who lives in Torrance County near Mountainair, comes from a politically prominent New Mexico family, as his father served as chairman of the state Senate Finance Committee.

As land commissioner, Dunn joined with prominent Democratic lawmakers last year in voicing concern about New Mexicos budget situation. He also upset some oil and natural gas drillers earlier this year with a proposed rule change aimed at slowing the depletion of the massive Ogallala Aquifer beneath the states eastern plains.
After his much-publicized, two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Donald Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for up to an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, undisclosed at the time, took place at a dinner for G-20 leaders, a senior administration official said. At some point during the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump approached alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

In a statement issued Tuesday night after published reports of the conversation, the White House said that there was no second meeting between Trump and Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to hide a second meeting, it said, is false, malicious and absurd.

All the leaders circulated around the room throughout the dinner, and President Trump spoke with many leaders, the statement said. As the dinner was concluding, it said, Trump spoke briefly with Putin, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump.

The dinner conversation with Putin was first reported Monday by Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group, in a newsletter to group clients. Bremmer said the meeting began halfway in to the meal and lasted roughly an hour. The senior official said it began with the dessert course, but did not comment on its length.

Pool reporters covering Trump noted that his and Putins motorcades were among the last to leave the event, departing within minutes of each other just before midnight.

The encounter appeared to underscore the extent to which Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Putin. During last years campaign, he spoke admiringly of the Russian leader and at times seemed captivated by him.

Meeting each other face-to-face for the first time at the Hamburg summit, the two presidents seemed to have a chemistry in their more formal bilateral session, evidenced by the fact that, despite being scheduled for 35 minutes, it continued for more than two hours.

But Trumps newly revealed conversation with Putin at the G-20 dinner is likely to stoke criticism, including perhaps from some fellow Republicans in Congress, that he is too cozy with the leader of a major U.S. adversary.

Putins aide provided the only Russian-English interpretation, the White House statement said, because the president was seated next to the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Each couple was allowed one translator, it said. The American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese.

The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was that given by Trump himself, said the administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the White House statement was issued. Reporters traveling with the White House were not informed during the trip, and there was no formal readout of the chat.

The official Trump-Putin meeting, earlier in the day, led to confusion over whether Trump agreed, as Putin later implied, to accept the Kremlins denial of any wrongdoing regarding interference in last years election.

That meeting was attended by the leaders and their two interpreters, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Tillerson later said Trump twice asked Putin if the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia had meddled in the race were true, and Putin twice denied it, so they moved on to other subjects of importance to the bilateral relationship, including Syria.

Russias activities during the election, along with allegations that members of Trumps campaign may have coordinated with Kremlin attempts to tilt the race in Trumps direction, are the subject of investigations in Congress and by a special counsel.

In Trumps own account of the formal meeting, he repeated earlier comments that another country might have been responsible for cyber-interference in the election. Im not saying it wasnt Russia. What Im saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is, he told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a visit to France last week.

You know, China is very good at this, Trump said. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this.

Trump also said that Putin was unlikely to have preferred him over Hillary Clinton as president, since his goals include taking international energy business away from Russia and building up the U.S. military.

The dinner at the G-20, held July 7-8, occurred hours after Trump and Putins lengthy formal meeting. Leaders and their spouses were invited to a musical performance at Hamburgs riverside concert venue, followed by an intimate dinner in which they were seated next to the spouse of one of their counterparts, rather than their own. First lady Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.

Trump, who is among the newest world leaders in the G-20, remained at the dinner for the entire night. He was among the last to leave  after the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had already departed. Pool reporters with the president saw Putins motorcade leave at 11:50 p.m., followed shortly by Trump, who departed the concert hall at 11:54 p.m.

Leaders who witnessed the meeting were bemused, nonplussed, befuddled by the animated conversation, held in full view  but apparently not within listening distance  of others present, Bremmer said in a telephone conversation. He said he spoke with two participants at the dinner.

One senior European official whose head of government was there played down the attention the Trump-Putin chat garnered, saying that it was not unusual for leaders to circulate or withdraw to a corner at such private gatherings.

Part of the rationale is the flurry of bilateral contacts that happen, the official said. I dont find it a sensation, he said of the lengthy dinner chat, although maybe Trump and Putin are a little different from other attendees.

The administration official said there was nothing unusual in a meeting with no aides present, noting that Trump met alone with French President Emmanuel Macron when he visited Paris last week. He also held a one-on-one session, with no aides present, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when Modi visited the White House late last month, the official said.



The Washington Posts Abby Phillip contributed to this report.
Britannia is looking at delighting cookie lovers with the launch of its all new Britannia Good Day Wonderfulls, an extension to the Good Day family and is currently available across all major cities in India. The TVC campaign supporting the launch is based on the theme: Cookies so wonderful, you'd want your loved ones to have it.

The TVC brings alive the heart-warming relationship between a woman and her grandmother and her endeavour to get her grandmother to experience something wonderful. The film features Good Days brand ambassador Deepika Padukone and depicts her gifting her grandmother a new pair of dentures, to enjoy the new scrumptious Britannia Good Day Wonderfulls cookie. The film also romances the delicious cookie which is loaded with luscious berries, yummy chocolate and crunchy nuts.

With this new TVC campaign, Britannia Good Day Wonderfulls will take forward the mother brands proposition of Smile More for a Good Day and is being rolled out across India, supported with sampling to drive trials, consumer contests and digital activation.

Loaded with rich inclusions and a crunchy bite, Good Day Wonderfulls has a hand-crafted texture, wide range of flavours, and is available at attractive price points. Good Day Wonderfulls combines the wonder of a cookie delivered through its rich taste, crumbly bite and melt in mouth experience, and the fullness of exotic ingredients like cranberries, black currant, roasted almonds, nuts and chocolate.

We are seeing a clear trend of premiumization in biscuits for the last few years. Consumers are upgrading to superior product experiences. Good Day Wonderfulls aims to leverage this trend said, Ali Harris Shere, VP, Marketing. The TVC beautifully captures the ethos of sharing, through the refreshing lens of a grandmothergranddaughter relationship to deliver the brand message of wonderful when shared . he added.

Commenting on the campaign thought, the creative head behind this, Puneet Kapoor, Executive Creative Director, McCann World Group, said, The challenge here was that in a world spoilt with choices, how do you make people want another cookie out of the thousand cookies already out there. But surely when you have a genuinely good tasting product, it feeds into the creative gumption as well. I guess the crisp and crunchy texture and taste fired the idea in the neurons of the creative team and the idea was love at first sight.

Download Link: https://we.tl/By89ycUAGL

Campaign Details

Creative Agency: McCann, Bangalore

Creative Head: Puneet Kapoor

Director for the film: Anupam Mishra

Production House: Crazy Few Films

Languages: Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali

Duration: 40 Sec

All 3 variants of Britannia Good Day Wonderfulls will be available at Rs.10 for 30 grams and Rs. 25 for 75 grams.
SAN JOSE, Calif., July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Bright Computing, a global leader in cluster and cloud infrastructure automation software, today announced a reseller agreement with AMT.

Operating in the Information Technology market since 1994, AMT provides IT professional services, infrastructure deisgn and build, and cloud broker services based on multi-cloud providers. Additionally, AMT specializes in HPC services, implementing cloud and on-premise solutions that incorporate the latest HPC technologies and software. For HPC workloads, AMT offers code optimization services, to deliver the best value from hardware resources and to offer infrastructure savings as a whole.

Targeting the oil and gas, life sciences, and manufacturing industries, AMT chose to partner with Bright Computing to add a turnkey infrastructure management solution to its HPC portfolio, to empower its customers to deploy clusters faster and manage them more effectively.

By offering Bright technology to its customer base, the Brazil-based systems integrator intends to combine job schedulers with Bright Cluster Manager to deliver best in class HPC solutions.

Ricardo Lugao, HPC Director at AMT, commented; "We are very impressed with Bright's technology and we believe it will make a huge difference to our customers' HPC environments. With Bright, the management of an HPC cluster becomes very straightforward, empowering end users to administer their workloads, rather than relying on HPC experts."

Jack Hanna, Director Alliances at Bright Computing, added; "We welcome AMT to the Bright partner community. This is an exciting company that has a lot of traction in the HPC space in Brazil, and we look forward to offering Bright technology to its customer base."

###

About Bright Computing

Bright Computing is the leading provider of hardware-agnostic cluster and cloud management software in the world. Bright Cluster Manager, Bright Cluster Manager for Big Data, and Bright OpenStack provide a unified approach to installing, provisioning, configuring, managing, and monitoring HPC clusters, big data clusters, and OpenStack clouds. Bright's products are currently deployed in more than 650 data centers around the world. Bright Computing's customer base includes global academic, governmental, financial, healthcare, manufacturing, oil/gas/energy, and pharmaceutical organizations such as Boeing, Intel, NASA, Stanford University, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Bright partners with Amazon, Cray, Dell, Intel, Nvidia, SGI, and other leading vendors to deliver powerful, integrated solutions for managing advanced IT

Media Contact: Rachel Chicken, Bright Computing, +44 7788 567 604, rachel.chicken@brightcomputing.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Bright Computing
News Highlights:

WISeKeys Vertical Platform (Identity, IoT, Blockchain and AI) and innovative cybersecurity micro-chips solution for IOT will provide smart cities with a scalable, easily manageable object identity management and security solution when connecting to Microsoft Azure

Global public sector initiative and WISeKey enable cities to harness a new era of innovation through a people center of gravity approach

WISeKey provides an end-to-end scalable security framework to be integrated into IoT platforms

Based on PKI Technology, WISeKey will protect the device and its data at rest or in transit

Building upon its 17-years of expertise in providing cybersecurity and microprocessors, WISeKey delivers cryptographic root keys and solutions to use and manage digital certificates and associated secure assets that protect otherwise vulnerable IoT devices in the field

WISeKey International Holding Ltd (SIX: WIHN) (WISeKey), a leading Swiss-based cybersecurity/IoT company, today announced its new citizen digital identity platform under the Microsoft CityNext, a global initiative empowering cities, businesses and citizens to re-imagine their futures and cultivate vibrant communities.

Through the Microsoft CityNext initiative, Microsoft and WISeKey will help leaders to do new with less, by combining the power of technology with innovative ideas to securely connect governments, businesses and citizens with city services that increase efficiencies, reduce costs, foster a more sustainable environment and cultivate communities where people thrive.

WISeKeys identity management and innovative cybersecurity solution for IOT will provide smart cities with a scalable, easily manageable object identity management and security solution when connecting to Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft-based platforms. The Managed WISeKey Root of Trust (RoT) serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by operating systems (OS) and applications to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the Cryptographic RoT embedded on a device, provided by WISeKey as a hardware Secure Element or a software Certificate, the IoT product manufacturers can protect the devices and secure the interactions among and between objects and people.

Government employees and City infrastructure from traffic lights and smart parking solutions, to power grids and smart utility meters, are vulnerable to cyberattacks, said Carlos Moreira, WISeKeys CEO. We view Microsofts CityNext initiative as an innovative force that will help to transform government infrastructure and we are pleased to have already collaborated with Microsoft on government and city cybersecurity projects in various countries around the globe.

WISeKey and Microsoft have been working since they announce the partnership a year ago, to introduce our alliance to existing and potential customers, and we have secured projects in Rwanda, Mauritius, New York, Argentina and India. For more information visit: http://www.wisekey.com/investor/press-release/WISeKey-Joins-Forces-with-Microsoft-CityNext-to-Bring-Innovation-and-Security-to-IoT-across-the-Globe.

Cities have long been the center of industrial, economic and entrepreneurial activity fueling the rest of the worlds success. Today, as more of the worlds population urbanizes, they face mounting pressures and challenges to maintain that standard and quality of life for citizens. It is expected that by 2030, six out of every ten people will live in a city. Leveraging a broad portfolio of familiar and security-enhanced consumer-to-business software, partner solutions, devices and services and Microsofts history of successful education and social programs, Microsoft CityNext is a collective effort that helps cities anticipate and plan for these changes and challenges, enabling them to meet citizens needs, thrive economically and embrace modernity.

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems with a patented process. WISeKeys Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

To receive WISeKeys latest news, subscribe to our Newsletter or visit the WISeKey Investors Corner.

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006118/en/

Press and investors:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd

Company:

Carlos Moreira, +41 22 594 3000

Chairman & CEO

info@wisekey.com

or

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)

The Equity Group Inc.

Lena Cati, +1 212-836-9611

lcati@equityny.com
Business magnate Elon Musk recently called for urgent action from the federal government, asking it to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies. While speaking at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association last weekend, Musk claimed that the possibility of AI turning on its human creators is much larger than people believe, urging the government to do something about this emerging field until its too late. Musk once again advocated for strict government oversight of AI research and development (R&D), stating that hes afraid politicians wont do something to regulate this technology until they see robots going down the street killing people.

The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tesla stated that the government needs to be proactive in the manner in which it handles AI because it may not have a chance to adopt a reactive stance to overseeing advancements in machine learning and related fields which pose a threat to the entire human civilization. Musk has been advocating for strict AI regulations for years now, claiming how his experience at Tesla allows him to be in everyday contact with such technologies, which is how hes aware of their possible implications, both good and bad. Some of his critics previously claimed that Musk is not an AI expert and is needlessly spreading panic, talking about highly hypothetical scenarios that are unlikely to happen. The general AI that the business magnate is often warning about is a largely unexplored discipline that a number of industry watchers dont believe will pose a real threat to society in decades, if ever, though Musk often labeled such stances as not cautious enough.

Musk himself is no stranger to exploring bleeding edge technologies; apart from Teslas self-driving endeavors, the businessman also established a number of highly experimental ventures in recent years, with his latest startup looking to commercialize telepathy. Still, scientists and researchers are generally divided on the subject of rogue AIs  while most of them agree such scenarios are possible, their likelihood has been the topic of many heated debates over the years. As for the federal government, top authorities in the United States seemingly dont share Musks AI-related views and have yet to express a significant level of interest in regulating this emerging technology.
Android malware has another new player in the form of GhostCtrl, a silent malware that can surreptitiously record video and audio from a users device, and even seize control of the device for certain functions, all without the user even knowing its there. Linked to the RETADUP worm that recently attacked hospitals in Israel, GhostCtrl looks to be a variant of the commercially available OmniRAT malware and comes in three distinct versions. One variant steals information and makes use of a few minimal device functions, while the second one is more focused on device control. The third model combines the two, and researchers expect the malware to become more sophisticated as it spreads.

OmniRAT came out back in 2015 and was sold as a service to anybody willing to pay to use it. Once somebody had paid up or cracked the program, they were free to modify the base code as they wished, or build an entirely new project around OmniRAT, and thats exactly what has been done here as GhostCtrls code even references OmniRAT. Once a user has downloaded something with GhostCtrl packed inside, install prompt after install prompt will keep popping up until the user either completely resets their device, erasing the offending app in the process, or gives in to the request. From there, the user interacts with a front app while the real work happens in the background; GhostCtrl connects to a home server that feeds it instructions on a per-infestation basis, and once its in, it can do things like change the devices wallpaper, run a script in the background and return its results to the attacker, and download files. GhostCtrl can steal almost any information from the device, and even intercept, transmit, and delete SMS messages without the user knowing that they ever came. Researchers noted that an instance of GhostCtrl that infects a device tends to pull new abilities from the control server, growing in capability and scope over time. If it manages to gain root privileges on a device, its quite possible that nothing short of a fresh flash of the phones firmware via a flashing tool like LGNPST or Samsung ODIN will save the device. The nastiest version of the malware is even able to hide some of its activity from monitoring channels accessible to most users. Naturally, this means that the potential for the infestation to become ransomware in the vein of Petya is very real.

Like many other malware variants that require installation, GhostCtrl likes to pose as popular or ubiquitous app archetypes and particular apps, and one of its more prominent forms is a Pokemon GO clone. There have thus far been no reports of infestations springing from a Play Store app but its no secret that the Play Store is not entirely safe, so the best practice is to be careful about apps you download by checking their permissions and metrics. Nonetheless, installing Android apps from outside of the Play Store is always a risky proposition.
Artificial Intelligence is a topic that almost always includes discussions of human jobs disappearing, but Parc CEO Tolga Kurtoglu sees humans and AI working together to tackle things that neither could do on their own. Parc has been a part of the computing landscape from a long time back as Xerox Parc, and Kurtoglu has seen the rise of personal computing lead all the way to where we are now. Kurtoglu detailed the kind of work that Parc is doing in the AI ecosystem, and summed it up as building trust between AI and humans. Essentially, Kurtoglu and his people want to bring AIs intelligence, judgment and built-in ethics up to the level of being trustworthy, and close collaboration with humans is one way that the company is looking at doing so.

Kurtoglu says that a major factor that necessitates trustworthy AI is the level of trust humans tend to invest in AI. He explained that once humans and AI are collaborating and communicating in two direction, some may take the advice or suggestions of an AI without question, which could easily cause issues. This is evident, and especially poignant, in cases such as a recent fatal crash wherein a man put too much trust into his Tesla vehicles self-driving systems, and reportedly did not heed the systems warnings to take over, instead assuming that the system would be able to work itself out.

Kurtoglus vision seems bound to happen one way or another, but how it happens, when it happens, and what comes of it all depends on a variety of factors. One of the biggest is which form of AI-centric machine learning ends up reigning supreme; artificial intelligence based on pure machine learning is task-oriented, and can work in parallel with similar AI programs to produce a cognitive whole. AI based on neural networking, meanwhile, seeks to imitate the ways that humans learn and grow mentally and cognitively. Artificial general intelligence is the newest form of AI, and drops any pretense of humanity in favor of an AI program made up of many virtual, self-contained nodes, boasting the ability to learn and grow independently, but in a manner vastly different from how humans do so. So long as they are kept in check, the AI of the future could end up supplanting humanity in the workforce and possibly bringing about universal prosperity, or they could work alongside humans to bring the worlds advancements to new heights. Other outcomes are possible, of course, but those two are what AI engineers are working toward explicitly.
Introduction

Sonys Xperia XZ Premium is the latest flagship smartphone from the Japanese tech giant, and competes in the premium segment with the likes of Samsungs Galaxy S8, HTCs U11 and LGs G6. We have already compared it with the first two devices on that list to see which one deserves your hard earned cash, and today, well will pit it against the LG G6 in an effort to make the purchase decision a bit easier for you. Both devices ship with quality hardware, but which one deserves your hard-earned cash? Lets find out!

Specifications

Sony Xperia XZ Premium

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Sony officially announced its latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ Premium, at the MWC trade show in Barcelona back in February this year, but only made in available for purchase last month. The device comes with some really nice features in terms of its hardware and software, but also has a distinctive look and feel, thanks to its glossy Loop Surface design with smooth, rounded edges. The top and bottom bezels of the device are made out of metal and have diamond-cut chamfered edges, while the back has a glass-covering with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection instead of the aluminum alloy called Alkaleido that can be found on the back of the Xperia XZ.

If you thought the Xperia XZ Premium looked the part, you should take a look at its spec-sheet, because it comes with some serious firepower under its hood. The device features a 5.46-inch IPS LCD Triluminous display with 4K pixel resolution (3840 x 2160) and is covered by a 2.5D curved glass thats protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC that comes with the Adreno 540 GPU and a 64-bit CPU with eight custom Kryo 280 cores. While four of those cores are clocked at a maximum frequency of 2.45GHz, the other four run at a slightly slower 2.19GHz. The device also comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded by a microSD card of up to 256GB in capacity. The Xperia XZ Premium carries a non-removable 3,230 mAh Li-ion battery with support for Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0, and comes with Android 7.1 Nougat pre-installed, but is expected to receive the Android O update going forward.

Imaging options on the Xperia XZ Premium include a 19-megapixel rear-facing camera with 5-axis electronic image stabilization (EIS), PDAF and laser autofocus along with an LED flash. The camera has an f/2.0 aperture, a 25mm focal length and a 1/2.3 sensor size, with software features that include geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and panorama. The camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and 720p ultra slow motion videos at 960fps, although you can only record for about 0.15 seconds of video in this mode. The front-facing camera has a 13-megapixel sensor that can record 1080p videos at 30fps and, comes with an f/2.0 aperture, 22mm focal length, a 1/3-inch sensor size and 1.12m pixel size.

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The one interesting aspect about the Xperia XZ Premium is that while it does feature USB Type-C connectivity like any premium smartphone should in 2017, it actually also comes with a 3.5mm audio port unlike many of its competitors in the market, so it should be compatible with all your older audio output devices without any adapters. Sony has also blessed the device with a whole host of sensors, including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, a barometer, a magnetometer (e-compass) and a color spectrum sensor, while cellular connectivity includes support for 4G LTE, 3G HSPA and 2G GSM. The Xperia XZ Premium also comes with full waterproofing and dust resistance, as is evident from its IP68 certification, so it can remain submerged in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes at a stretch.

Now that weve gone through all the features that make the Xperia XZ Premium a compelling buy, lets get to the one critical aspect that makes the device stand out from its competitors  and not in a good way. For some reason not yet explained officially to the general public, the U.S. version of this device does not come with a fingerprint scanner. In fact, none of Sonys recent smartphones in the U.S. offer this standard biometric sensor. However, if youre buying the device anywhere outside the U.S., you wont have to worry about missing out on the fingerprint scanner, as all non-U.S. units of the device ship with the sensor, so if youre in Asia, Europe or elsewhere, you should get a fingerprint scanner on your Xperia XZ Premium should you choose to buy one.

LG G6

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The LG G6 is the latest flagship smartphone from the South Korean consumer electronics company that keeps producing quality gadgets, smart devices and household appliances, but is often overshadowed by its larger and more well-known compatriot, Samsung. The LG G6 is a classic case in point. The device is a perfectly designed premium smartphone that ticks all the right boxes, but has received barely a fraction of media coverage that its more illustrious competitor, the Galaxy S8, has received from the global press. Sure, the G6 doesnt have the same cutting-edge hardware that its rival does, but it still performs every task admirably, which is understandable when you consider that the chip powering the device is actually newer and faster than one that powered most of the top flagships from last year, including the Galaxy S7.

The LG G6 features a 5.7-inch IPS LCD QHD+ display panel with an unusual 2:1 aspect ratio that the LG marketing department refers to as 18:9, ostensibly, to allow people to compare it to the more prevalent 16:9 aspect ratio found in the vast majority of smartphones, televisions and laptops. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC instead of its newer and faster successor, the Snapdragon 835. While the latter comes with an octa-core CPU, the former has a quad-core application processor that has two of its cores clocked at 1.6GHz and another two running at a maximum of 2.35GHz. The SoC also includes the Adreno 530 GPU for graphics. The G6 packs 4GB of DDR4 RAM and either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of native storage, but more on that later. Thankfully, though, the storage is expandable by way of a microSD card of up to 2TB in capacity.

Taking a look at the imaging prowess of the LG G6, the device comes with a dual-camera setup on the back, with the primary 13-megapixel sensor using an f/1.8 aperture, 3-axis OIS, PDAF, and dual-tone LED flash. The additional camera also comes with a 13-megapixel sensor, but it features a wide-angle 125-degree fixed focus lens and an f/2.4 aperture. However, the two cameras operate independently of one another, and users have the final say in choosing the sensor for each shot. For the front-facing camera, LG has used a 5-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. While the primary camera can shoot 2160p videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at up to 60fps, the front-facing selfie-cam can only do 1080p videos at 30fps.

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The device also comes with a front-facing fingerprint scanner, but unfortunately, does away with the IR Blaster that could be found on its predecessor, the G5. However, the one area where the lack of modularity of the LG G6 has actually helped it is in the battery department. While the G5 came with a paltry 2,800mAh battery, its successor actually ships with a slightly larger 3,300mAh battery that should last a day on moderate usage; at least, in the initial few months. You also get Quick Charge 3.0, thanks to the Snapdragon 821. The LG G6 measures 148.9 mm in length, 71.9 mm in width and 7.9 mm in thickness while weighing in at 163 grams. In terms of software, the handset ships with Android 7.0 Nougat and is expected to receive Android O going forward. The device also ships with Googles AI-based personal voice assistant  Google Assistant  out-of-the-box, so you wont need to jump through the hoops to install it on your device.

The one thing that needs to be mentioned while listing the features of the LG G6, is that the device comes with a whole bunch of different configurations for different markets, so while Qi wireless charging is a U.S.-specific feature that isnt available elsewhere around the world, the much-hyped 32-bit Quad DAC is exclusively available in South Korea and a few other countries in the region. FM Radio is also one such feature thats only available in a few markets. Also different is the amount of native storage on offer. While the company offers a 64GB version of the phone in South Korea, Hong Kong, India and a few of the CIS nations, the North American market originally only got the 32GB version. However, the company has since rectified that anomaly by announcing the LG G6+ that comes with 128GB of storage, alongside the Hi-Fidelity Quad DAC audio and Qi wireless charging in all markets.

And The Winner Is 

The Final Word

While both the LG G6 and the Xperia XZ Premium have their strengths, both come with significant negatives that have prevented them from becoming best-sellers. While the Sony device wins the spec-war in most categories, it also costs significantly more than the LG device in most markets around the world. The price difference is a little less stark in North America, but if youre buying the Xperia XZ Premium in the U.S., youre missing out on the fingerprint scanner, something thats become commonplace even in sub-$100 devices these days. On the other hand, the LG G6 comes with all the important features (especially the Plus variant), but is ever-so-slightly underpowered compared to its rival. Which is what makes this comparison a really tough one. Taken in isolation, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is a great device and is obviously the one to go for if cutting-edge hardware is all youre looking for, but the LG G6 is the better all-round device that comes with sensible pricing, which is why it wins our head-to-head today.
The smartphone SoC market in 2017 will likely be dominated by Qualcomm and MediaTek, but Spreadtrum is gaining ground in the lower-end smartphone market. In 2017, it is expected that the three players will carve their own niches in the industry, with Qualcomm equipping high-end smartphones while Spreadtrum and MediaTek supplying the chipsets of lower-end and mid-range devices. Within the last few months, Qualcomm further cemented its lead in the high-end market, with Chinese manufacturers like OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi purchasing its flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 835, for their own premium devices. These manufacturers formerly bought higher-end MediaTek SoCs, so the Taiwanese semiconductor firm was directly hit by Qualcomms rise in China. To further illustrate the impact Qualcomm had on its rivals sales, Meizu, which formerly taps MediaTek for around 90 percent of its chipset needs, is now dealing with the American semiconductor company for a larger share of its SoC requirements.

The key reason why Chinese companies are now choosing Qualcomm SoCs over the cheaper MediaTek offerings is related to the Taiwanese firms inability to produce a chipset equipped with an LTE Cat. 10 Modem. The aforementioned modem, which for quite some time is only available in Qualcomm chipsets, allows the user to reach higher maximum download speeds and support more complicated MIMO antennas. Altogether, these factors resulted in the big decrease in MediaTeks gross margin from around 50 percent to around 35 percent within the last 12 months. However, the semiconductor firm is expected to see a resurgence in profits and revenue due to its new flagship smartphone chipset, the Helio X30, and its new voice assistant device chipset. MediaTek is seeing increased demands for the latter product, with companies like Alibaba, Google, and Amazon designing voice assistant devices equipped with the companys MT8516 chipset.

While MediaTek and Qualcomm rule the mid-range and high-end smartphone markets, Chinese chipset vendor Spreadtrum is gaining ground in the lower-end market due to its cheaper device platforms. However, the companys mid-range offerings are still not yet competitive with similar offerings from its more established rivals. Thus, MediaTek will still likely retain its position as the key chipset supplier for mid-range devices. Nonetheless, Spreadtrum could still be a force to reckon with in the near future as its chipset offerings mature.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 did not arrive yet, and a new rumor just surfaced talking about panels for the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9 Plus and the Galaxy Note 9. According to this rumor which comes from industry sources, the Galaxy S9 will ship with a 5.77-inch display, while the Galaxy S9 Plus will come with a 6.22-inch display. That essentially means that that Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus will retain the same displays as their predecessors, well, at least the same display size, though chances are were looking at the exact same panels here.

Now, the Galaxy Note 9 also got mentioned as part of this rumor, and if the provided info is to be believed, the Galaxy Note 9 will sport a 6.32-inch display, which is actually the display size expected to be included in the Galaxy Note 8. That being said, the Galaxy S9, the Galaxy S9 Plus and the Galaxy Note 9 are actually expected to ship with an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is something the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus were expected to sport, but that did not happen, and it seems like the Galaxy Note 8 will not sport such a fingerprint scanner either. Now, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus actually sport rear-facing fingerprint scanner, and chances are that the Galaxy Note 8 will sport such a sensor as well. Having said that all the displays that weve mentioned thus far will probably be called Infinity displays, same as the ones that are included in the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, though Samsung will probably alter them a bit.

The Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus are expected to arrive in the first quarter of next year, unless Samsung decides to launch them in April, as the company did with the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus. It is still too early to say what exactly can we expect when it comes to those phones, but chances are that theyll resemble the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, and that theyll ship with Qualcomms / Samsungs (region-dependent) 2018 flagship SoC. Not a single piece of info stated here regarding the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9 Plus or the Galaxy Note 9 is official, so do keep that in mind, as many more rumors and leaks will follow.
Media registration is open for the Third APEC Senior Officials Meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on 29-30 August, to be led by Viet Nam Permanent Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister and 2017 Chair of APEC Senior Officials Bui Thanh Son. Accreditation will also cover the preceding cluster of key trade and sectoral official meetings from 18-28 August.

Background:

The Third APEC Senior Officials Meeting, known as SOM3, will advance new joint actions by the 21 APEC member economies to foster freer, more equitable Asia-Pacific trade and growth. Focus will be on improving economic opportunities and the capacity of people and businesses to capitalize amid increasing automation, competition and market change.

Senior Officials will build on trade and sectoral policy development meetings in Ho Chi Minh City to boost regional economic integration, including transparency and participation in trade agreements, and the easing of cross-border trade barriers faced by businesses big and small. Priorities will also include promoting innovation and trade in the auto, digital and health sectors as well as sustainable agriculture in response to climate change and rural-urban development.

They will consider recommendations from the APEC Business Advisory Council that will meet in Toronto, Canada on 24-28 July.

When:

SOM3: 29-30 August 2017

Trade and sectoral meetings: 18-28 August 2017

Where:

SOM3: Sheraton Saigon Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Trade and sectoral meetings: various venues (TBA)

DEADLINE FOR MEDIA REGISTRATION: 8 August 2017

Registration procedures:

All media representatives wishing to cover SOM3 should register online at:

https://www.apec2017.vn/ap17-c/form/apec-2017-third-senior-officials-meeting-and-related-meetings-som3

Identification badges will be issued to accredited media representatives.

Media events:

Introductory remarks during SOM3, the family photo of Senior Officials and a post-meeting news conference will be open to accredited journalists.

Briefing, interview and photo opportunities will be available in conjunction with the meeting.

Note on media access:

All media representatives must be accredited and wear their identification badge to gain access to the meeting venue, facilities and specified events open to media.

Contact for media registration and coverage arrangements: [email protected]

Passport and visa requirements:

Media representatives coming from overseas are required to each possess a passport or other applicable travel documents valid at least 6 months with press visas upon their entries to Viet Nam.

Media representatives from economies that do not have visa exemption agreements with Viet Nam are advised to contact their respective Viet Nam Embassy/Consulate to apply/pick up an entry visa to Viet Nam.

Contacts for visa arrangements and procedures:

Foreign Press Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam

Mr Dan Anh Tuan

Tel: +84 166 666 8866

Email: [email protected]

Mr Dinh Dung

Tel: +84 963648554

Email: [email protected]

For more:

The entire APEC SOM3 and Related Meetings schedule in Ho Chi Minh City from 18-30 August can be viewed here.

# # #

For further details, or to arrange possible media interviews, please contact:

David Hendrickson +65 9137 3886 at [email protected]

Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]

More on APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found on www.apec.org. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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The eighth installment in a series that started in 1925 . The Phantom VIII is the most anticipated ultra-luxury vehicle of the year, and even though the official debut is set for next week, leaked images from the Chinese media are making the rounds all across the Internet. And boy, it looks majestic in extended wheelbase flavor!
The Global Super Tanker, a converted 747 designed to fight wildfires, has been grounded in California even as fires rage, and its operators say its because of red tape imposed by the U.S. Forest Service. We just happen to be the biggest, fastest fire truck in the air, said Jim Wheeler, CEO of Global SuperTanker Services, which owns and operates the airplane. But the company said in a news release on Friday the U.S. Forest Service said its contract limits firefighting aircraft to 5,000 gallons of fire suppressant. The 747 carries up to 19,000 gallons. Wheeler says he protested the contract and asked for an explanation for the rule. An agency spokesman said in an email the agency couldnt comment, because of the companys protest. Why is the United States Forest Service keeping [the 747] grounded? asked Global SuperTanker in their news release. They havent gotten an answer.

The Associated Press looked into the dispute in a story published on Saturday, but didnt find much clarity  the Forest Service declined to comment, repeating that it couldnt because of the companys protest. The airplane was certified by the FAA last September, and has been used to fight fires in Chile and Israel. The frustration factor is exceptionally high, Wheeler told CBS News. Its very hard to watch property burn and lives lost, and we cant get in and help. The airplanes firefighting advantage is not just the size of the tank, says CBS, but the new technology used  a pressurized system atomizes the water as its released, rather than just dumping it, like a bucket. It doesnt break down tree limbs, it wont crush cars or buildings, Wheeler told CBS.
image: kstar.com

Pilot Vlado Lenoch, 64, of Illinois, and his passenger, Bethany Root, 34, of Kansas, died about 10:30 Sunday morning when the P-51 Mustang Baby Duck they were flying crashed in Kansas, news outlets have reported. Lenoch had flown the classic airplane on Saturday night at the Atchison airport, in an airshow that was held as part of the Amelia Earhart Festival. The airplane was owned by the Warbird Heritage Foundation. It was a P-51D-25-NA, the foundation said, built in 1944. Lenoch, who worked at Boeing for many years, had been flying since age 17. He had an ATP certificate, more than 17,000 hours of flight time and a masters degree in aeronautical engineering.

The airplane had reportedly been flying for only 10 or 15 minutes before the crash. Root was the general manager at the airport, and had a passion for aviation, according to the local fox4 website. Very enthusiastic, very energetic. She loved to fly; she loved aviation; she wanted everybody else to love aviation, said co-worker Jacque Pregont. Find something that youre really passionate about and do it, and thats what she was doing. Its a horrible, horrible loss. Investigators are en route to the scene, local officials said.
Two Republican Senators, Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins, said they oppose Mitch McConnell's new plan to repeal Obamacare first and then replace at a later date. Capito voted for a full repeal in 2015, whereas Collins voted against that move.

Why it matters: The Republicans can only afford these two no votes. If anyone else steps up in opposition, the plan is shot.

Jerry Moran, one of the senators who stood in the way of the earlier repeal-and-replace plan, won't stand in the way of the current repeal-then-replace plan.

Capito: "I did not come to Washington to hurt peopleI have serious concerns about how we continue to provide affordable care to those who have benefited from West Virginia's decision to expand Medicaid, especially in light of the growing opioid crisisI cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan"

Collins: "I do not think that it's going to be constructive to repeal a law that at this point is so interwoven within our health care system without having a replacement plan in place. We can't just hope that we will pass a replacement within the next two years."

Senators to watch: Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, and Rob Portman.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker tops out the most popular governors list with 71% approval, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is losing the contest with 69% disapproval, according to Morning Consult's Governor Approval Rankings.

Think about it this way:

The ten least popular governors have disapproval ratings worse than Trump's disapproval rating, which stands at 46%, per WSJ/NBC. Based on the Trump disapproval rating the ABC/WaPo poll found, at 58%, only three governors have disapproval ratings worse than Trump.

All of the most popular governors are Republicans...

...And seven of the ten least popular governors are also Republicans.

10 most popular, measured by approval ratings:

Charlie Baker, R-Massachusetts (71) Larry Hogan, R-Maryland (68) Matt Mead, R-Wyoming (67) Doug Burgum, R-North Dakota (66) Dennis Daugaard, R-South Dakota (65) Kay Ivey, R-Alabama (64) Brian Sandoval, R-Nevada (62) Phil Scott, R-Vermont (62) Gary Herbert, R-Utah (61) Bill Haslam, R-Tennessee (60) tied with Asa Hutchinson, R-Arkansas (60)

10 least popular, measured by disapproval ratings:

Chris Christie, R-New Jersey (69) Sam Brownback, R-Kansas (66) Dan Malloy, D-Connecticut (64) Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma (55) Rick Snyder, R-Michigan (52) Scott Walker, R-Wisconsin (51) Bruce Rauner, R-Illinois (49) Bill Walker, I-Alaska (48) Paul LePage, R-Maine (48) Gina Raimondo, D-Rhode Island (47)

The data are based on surveys taken between April 1 to July 10 this year by more than 195,000 registered voters.
Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Russian-state media organization TASS that Russia would launch "retaliation measures" if the Trump administration does not return the Russian diplomatic compounds unconditionally, the Washington Examiner reports. This comes after Ryabkov left a meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon on Monday saying they "almost" had a deal worked out.

The Obama administration seized the two compounds, one in Maryland and one in New York, last year in response to alleged election interference and it was suspected Russians were orchestrating espionage acts from the properties.

Note: The Russian Foreign Ministry has cautioned it could retaliate "tit-for-tat" before, per CNN. This ramps up the pressure.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has cautioned it could retaliate "tit-for-tat" before, per CNN. This ramps up the pressure. What's next: Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan told Congress last week that if there were a deal, the State Department would "consult" with Congress "before any final implementation."
Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that President Trump is "not going to own the failure of Obamacare... [that] rests solely on the shoulders of Democrats." She also assured reporters that the health care effort will continue, "This is not a game-over situation." Other highlights from her off-camera briefing:

On death of Senate health bill: "The only thing that's dead is Obamacare." She later added that the ACA "is already going over the cliff and doesn't need a push by the president."

"The only thing that's dead is Obamacare." She later added that the ACA "is already going over the cliff and doesn't need a push by the president." Would Trump sign a repeal-only bill? "We're certainly open to considering all options." Earlier, Trump said he wants to "let Obamacare fail."

"We're certainly open to considering all options." Earlier, Trump said he wants to "let Obamacare fail." Who is paying for Trump's lawyers? "I'm not sure what the structure is for that."

"I'm not sure what the structure is for that." Will Trump personally push Congress to lift the debt ceiling? "We'll make those decisions as we get closer."
The Washington Post has identified the eighth person in the room for the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer: Ike Kaveladze, a U.S. citizen who works as a vice president for the Crocus Group, the real estate firm owned by Russian Trump associate Aras Agalarov.

Why he was there: Kaveladze's lawyer told the Post he believed he would be acting as a translator during the meeting, but found that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, had brought her own. Kaveladze was also there as a representative for the Agalarov family.

One big revelation: Robert Mueller, the special counsel for the government's Russia probe, requested Kaveladze's identity from his attorney over the weekend  the first confirmation that Mueller is looking at the Trump Tower meeting.
18 July 2017 16:29 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The results of entrance exams into universities have recently been summarized in Armenia, the lists of the entrants were published, and it became clear that the educational system of Armenia is in a deplorable state.

As it is seen from the lists, the number of entrants decreased rapidly as compared to previous years, and now there are thousands of vacant places in many faculties of Armenian universities.

It is noteworthy that the exams werent held under a strict control  the applicants were mostly able to help each other. However, the results are terrible, thus portraying that the students werent given enough knowledge in their schools.

Another possible reason for such a small number of enrolled students can be the constant exodus of Armenians from the country. Last years number of graduates from Armenian schools was 22,069, but this year this number equaled to 19,618 people. This shows that Armenia has lost significant number of students during the past year.

The years Last Bell did not sound in a number of Armenian schools due to lack of graduates, and this problem is acute especially in the border villages. For example, there is no graduate, or only two or three of them in several schools of Syunik and Lori provinces of the country. The Armenian government decides to close such schools and this leads to an even more severe educational crisis in the country.

Another interesting fact is that the vacant places that remained for Armenian universities are for the paid system of education. That means Armenians dont have enough money to send their sons and daughters to study at university. Instead of receiving education, Armenians go to work at second-rate jobs  hence, the level of illiteracy increases among the Armenian population.

Now, the country again announces the entrance exam, that will be held on July 20-25 to fill the vacant places. Taking into account that Armenian students dont get appropriate knowledge in schools, it is clear that the results of the coming exam wont be much better than those of the previous one.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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18 July 2017 14:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

A bilateral meeting of Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CSJC Javid Gurbanov and President of Russian Railways JSC Oleg Belozyorov was held in Moscow.

At the bilateral meeting the parties discussed the current status of the North-South project, Trend reported.

Gurbanov said that a 8.3 kilometer railway line has already been laid from Astara station to the Iranian border and the construction of a railway bridge across the Astarachay river has been completed. The border along the new bridge has already crossed the test train. Currently, the work is underway in Iranian Astara.

The Chairman also reported about the recent signing of an agreement between the railway departments of Azerbaijan and Iran on the project "Construction and operation of the Astara loading and unloading terminal". It provides for the construction of a 1.4 km long railway line and four terminals with high transshipment facilities on the Iranian territory with the support of Azerbaijan Railways.

In turn, Belozyorov appraised the work done by the Azerbaijani side in the framework of the North-South project and noted the need to mobilize all forces to attract freight traffic to this route.

Further, he presented the breastplate "Honorary Railroader" to Gurbanov for the expansion of the connections between the Azerbaijani and Russian railways, for active work in the creation of international transport corridors, as well as for the significant contribution to the coordination of rail transport at the interstate level, and the development of agreed principles for its activities.

In order to increase the volume of cargo transportation along the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor, an agreement has been reached on the initiative of the Azerbaijani side to set up a Coordination Council with the center in Baku.

The North-South Transport Corridor is planned to connect Northern Europe with South-East Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.

At the first stage, it is planned to transport 6 million tons of cargo per year along the corridor "North-South", and in the future - 15-20 million tons of cargo

Cargoes on the North-South route, with a length of approximately 5,600 kilometers, will be carried by sea, rail and road transport in just 14 days.

Its southern point is the Indian port of Mumbai, onward Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. The new route halves the time of delivery of containers in comparison with the traditional one - through the Suez Canal to the port of St. Petersburg.

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18 July 2017 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Over the past 14 years, Turkey's direct investments in the Azerbaijani economy amounted to $6.2 billion.

Information and communication, financial and insurance spheres, sectors of public catering, non-alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, as well as industrial and construction spheres are of the greatest interest for Turkish investors in Azerbaijan, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"Due to the decline in oil prices on the world market, the Azerbaijani government has focused on the development of the non-oil sector and investing in this sphere. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly noted that in the short and medium terms it is necessary to develop the non-oil sector of the country, Canikli stressed.

Then he stressed that since 2015 Azerbaijan has started to make quick decisions for investing in such spheres as agriculture, livestock, chemical industry, textile and tourism and added that Turkish investors are ready to exchange experience with Azerbaijan in these spheres.

Further the Deputy Prime Minister noted a great potential existing for investment in financial, trade, communication and health sectors. Turkish companies are ready to continue investing in the necessary sectors, for Azerbaijan's development," the Deputy Prime Minister added.

Currently, about 3,000 companies with Turkish capital are implementing their activities in Azerbaijan, while in Turkey there are about 2,000 companies operating with Azerbaijani capital.

Canikli went on to say that Turkey appreciates the projects that are aimed at development in the South Caucasus, thus bringing the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) as an example.

With regard to trade turnover between the countries Canikli said the sides intend to bring the mutual trade volume up to $15 billion by 2023.

He stressed that the sides inked agreements on economic cooperation, on eliminating double taxation and on mutual protection of investments, which will contribute to the increase in trade turnover.

The trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan increased by 11.4 percent in January to May, 2017, as compared to the same period of 2016, which, he believes, testifies to the economic potential of the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister further mentioned the trade relations with Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, underlining Turkey's intention to support the export of Nakhchivani products to its territory.

Earlier, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said that Turkey plans to create a free trade zone with Nakhchivan.

Turkey was the first state to recognize Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and has been a staunch supporter of Azerbaijan in its efforts to consolidate its independence, preserve its territorial integrity and realize its economic potential arising from the rich natural resources of the Caspian Sea.

The contractual base of bilateral Turkish-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations includes more than 40 documents aimed at expanding economic cooperation between states.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $1.2 billion in the first half of 2017, which is up by 1.73 times as compared to the same period of 2016, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

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18 July 2017 17:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan invites Turkish businessmen to expand investments in production spheres of the country.

Chairman of Azerbaijans State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev made the remarks at a meeting with Turkish entrepreneurs in Baku on July 18.

He went on to say that today, the inflow of investments to Azerbaijan is very high, further adding that if earlier investments were directed to the oil sector, now the head of state instructed to take measures to expand investments in the non-oil sector. First of all, we want the Turkish entrepreneurs to invest capital n the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan.

Addressing the meeting, Aliyev noted that there is an agreement between Azerbaijan and the CIS countries on free trade, which Turkish entrepreneurs will be able to benefit if they produce their products in Azerbaijan. Thus, their output will be exempted from customs duties when exporting to CIS countries.

The Chairman expressed disappointment that economic cooperation between the two countries' business is basically limited to trade and services sector, stressing a need to raise this cooperation to a higher level.

He stressed that in some cases, Turkish entrepreneurs try to avoid paying taxes on the supply of goods to Azerbaijan.

Aliyev noted that for those who want to invest in the Azerbaijani economy or to supply their goods to the country are created all conditions.

Turkish Minister of Customs and Trade Bulent Tufenkci, in turn, said that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey does not reflect the existing potential between the countries.

"The trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to $ 2.1 billion in 2015 which is a small figure, taking into account the great potential of our entrepreneurs," he added.

The minister voiced his hope for the growth of Turkish investments in the economy of Azerbaijan. He, in particular, expects Turkish companies to show great interest in the free trade zone created in the settlement of Alat in the Garadagh district of Baku and will become its first investors.

Then he highlighted Azerbaijans importance in implementing the joint railway project of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK), which is designed to revive the historical Silk Road.

The BTK railway is being constructed on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. The main purpose of the project is to improve economic relations between the three countries and gain foreign direct investment by connecting Europe and Asia.

The line is intended to transport one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the first stage. This capacity will then reach 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $1.2 billion in the first half of 2017, which is by 1.73 times more than the same period of 2016, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

About $615.5 million out of this amount accounted for the export (specific weight is 11.68 percent in total volume of export operations), while $574.2 million (with a specific weight of 16.84 percent) accounted for import.

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18 July 2017 16:38 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

A photo exhibition dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad has opened in Baku.

The exhibition, organized by Russian Information Cultural Center, features rare photos of Stalingrad the defenders, Trend Life reported.

The authors risked their lives, creating the documentary history of those days for future generations.

Speaking at the event, the head of Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in Azerbaijan, Valentin Denisov, noted the merit of all Soviet people in the battle of Stalingrad. He also highlighted the contribution to the victory of the peoples of Russia and Azerbaijan.

The battle of Stalingrad, that lasted from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, was the bloodiest battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad.

Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, planned to cut off oil supply from Baku that provided 80 percent of the Soviet army.

In general, Baku produced more than 130 types of weapons and spare parts, including Katyusha rocket, a Shpagin machine gun, and YAK-3 a fighter.

Many Azerbaijani soldiers took part in fierce battle.

The twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hazi Aslanov, the battery commander of the 51st infantry division Gamza Sadigov and many others showed their bravery.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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18 July 2017 18:10 (UTC+04:00)

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has hailed the publication of "Goodwill Ambassadors" miniature book by the Museum of Miniature Books in Azerbaijan.

The book with UNESCO logo on its front cover consists of 376 pages. The publication includes 68 portraits and 52 color photos of World Heritage Monuments, Azertac reported.

In a letter sent to Zarifa Salahova, the founder and director of the museum, Bokova said: "I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you for your exceptional initiative to publish the miniature books on UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors. I take the opportunity also to thank you very much too for offering me an example of this unique publication during my last visit to Baku to attend the 4th Baku Forum on Intercultural Dialogue."

"Our Organization remains grateful to its Honorary and Goodwil, Ambassadors, who continue to contribute to the objectives and aims of our Organization in its fields of competence. Their commitment to dialogue and mutual understanding is instrumental in spreading UNESCO's messages across the world, thereby contributing to building peace and sustainable development. Allow me to renew my heartfelt thanks to you for promoting, through your truly exceptional miniature books, this important work that is undertaken by the UNESCO Honorary and Goodwill Ambassadors," Bokova said in her letter.

Commenting on UNESCO Director General`s letter, Salahova said: "I presented "Goodwill Ambassadors" miniature book to UNESCO Director General at a meeting held on the sidelines of the 4th Baku Forum on Intercultural Dialogue and said that the book highlights the activities of Goodwill Ambassadors. The book features valuable information about 68 Goodwill Ambassadors, including Mehriban Aliyeva, the most active UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, First Vice-President of Azerbaijan. Ms. Bokova liked our miniature book very much."

Salahova noted that the idea to publish the book was initially supported by head of the Secretariat of the Azerbaijani President, Assistant to the President Dilara Seyidzade.

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18 July 2017 13:08 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today completed his official visit to the Republic of Latvia.

A guard of honor was lined up for the Azerbaijani President at the Riga international airport decorated with the national flags of Azerbaijan and Latvia, Azertac reported.

President Ilham Aliyev was seen of by high-ranking Latvian officials.

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17 July 2017 19:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

President Ilham Aliyev paid a two-day working visit to Riga on July 16-17, at the invitation of the Latvian president to discuss bilateral relations and development of cooperation in transport, construction supervision and education fields.

The visit of the Azerbaijani President to Latvia is of a landmark character and will give a serious impetus to develop and strengthen the economic relations of the countries given the successful business forum held within the framework of the visit.

Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis said the visit of the Azerbaijani president to Riga will considerably promote ties and strengthen friendship between the two countries.

Now, Latvia and Azerbaijan will be considered as strategic partners, since the two countries signed a Joint Declaration on strategic partnership, covering many areas, including economic and trade cooperation. So far, Azerbaijan has a format of cooperation of strategic partnership with 11 EU member countries.

President Aliyev, speaking at the joint business forum, invited Latvian companies to come to work in Azerbaijan as contractors, adding that several Latvian companies implemented different successful projects in Azerbaijan.

Talking about investment climate in Azerbaijan, the head of state assessed it as very positive and called the national economy competitive. During the last twenty years more than $200 billion have been invested in Azerbaijan, he stressed.



Azerbaijans economic agenda is now aimed at diversification of economy in order to reduce the dependence on energy factor, said the President, underlining that the biggest part of GDP is produced in non-energy sector.



We managed to increase this year our non-energy export more than 27 percent, and reduce import by 50 percent, he said.

President Aliyev said that with Latvia we have such a strong format of cooperation that it will be natural to engage in a broader partnership.



Talking about tourism benefits of the two countries, President Aliyev said there is huge opportunity to invest and for tourist companies to consider our destinations as very attractive and for this the two sides need to know each other better.

We also discussed today a very important issue for business, for tourists, for people-to-people contacts. It is a year-round direct flight connection between Riga and Baku. Now we have seasonal flight, and we want to have it permanent. That, of course, will create additional opportunities. If representatives of business communities fly often to visit each other that will make this route also commercially very attractive. So, it will not only open by the decision of the leadership, but it will be also commercially justified, he said.

President Aliyev's meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis also focused on cooperation in transport, with the Latvian side calling for regular air traffic between Latvia and Azerbaijan. The Latvian premier expressed his hope that Latvia's national airline airBaltic to open a direct route between Riga and Baku and to advance cooperation with Azerbaijan Airlines.

Transport sphere was another topic of discussions between the two leaders, who believe both countries possess encouraging opportunities for cooperation in the field.



Currently, Azerbaijan is actively engaged in the creation of the North-South transport corridor and has allocated major financial resources for this purpose. Latvia as one of the countries along this corridor, of course, works on a par with us. We have decided that relevant bodies should already begin consultations among themselves at the next stage, President Aliyev emphasized.

Vejonis also stressed Latvia's intention to step up transport cooperation with Azerbaijan, particularly on such mega projects as North-South Transport Corridor.

Another important project, which Azerbaijan implements now in the reciprocal interest with the EU is a project of energy diversification -- Southern Gas Corridor.

Of course, energy issues are in the foreground in the relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan as a reliable partner plays and will continue to play a role in ensuring the energy security of Europe. Azerbaijani gas is the only new source, a new route for gas supplies to Europe. This is our advantage, said Ilham Aliyev.

The Latvian president praised Azerbaijans contribution to the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project and to delivery of natural gas to European consumers.

I think we need to work more closely in order to make greater strides in this regard, the Latvian president added.

Vejonis voiced support to strengthening relations between the EU and Azerbaijan, where the Eastern Partnership framework plays an important role.



"Azerbaijan is a significant EU partner in energy and transport, therefore we commend Azerbaijans role in the southern gas corridor project and contribution to diversification in energy supplies to the EU," said the Latvian president, LETA reported.

Vejonis also said that the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit in November will be an important chance to find further cooperation directions between the EU and Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the agenda

President Aliyev raised the Karabakh issue during his visit to Latvia, hailing that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is supported by the whole world.



Highlighting the newly-adopted Declaration between the two countries, the head of state said that the document reflects very important issues related to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, emphasizing that this issue should be resolved on the basis of relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and the inviolability of its borders.

In turn, President Vejonis said Latvia voiced support to Azerbaijans territorial sovereignty and integrity, underscoring that peaceful means should be used to solve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can only be solved through peace and negotiations, and this should be based on the norms and principles of international law, said the Latvian president.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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18 July 2017 18:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Life returns back to Jojug Marjanli village of Azerbaijan's Fizuli region, which was liberated from Armenian occupation in last April. The activity of Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) played an important role in this return, as the agency cleared the village of any explosive item left by the Armenian aggressors.

A territory of 300 hectares was cleared of mines and unexploded ordinances in Jojug Marjanli village, ANAMA Director Gazanfar Ahmadov told APA on July 18.

He said that 176 mines and UXOs were discovered and neutralized in the village. Thus, we created conditions for IDPs to return to their native lands. It was the first step, and we hope that in the near future we will carry out such operations in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions, said Ahmadov.

Jojug Marjanli village was fully liberated from the Armenian occupation in April 2016, when Azerbaijani Armed Forces prevented an Armenian provocation on the contact line. To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani army launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Leletepe hill located in the direction of Fuzuli region.

During the interview, Ahmadov noted that since the creation of ANAMA, its staff cleared more than 40,000 hectares of Azerbaijans territory, discovering and defusing over 760,000 mines and UXOs.

He also added that Azerbaijan has been implementing joint projects with NATO since 2005. I would like to mention the Saloglu and Jeyranchol projects. This year the third stage of the Jeyranchol project commenced, and the implementation of this project will continue until 2018, Ahmadov said.

ANAMA was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country. The problem of unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan can be divided into the areas that are still under the occupation of Armenian forces and other areas of the country. Most of the unexploded ordinances are the result of Armenian aggression.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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18 July 2017 17:16 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project is expected to be high on agenda during trilateral meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan due in Ashgabat before the end of the year.

Such an assumption was made by the expert Sabit Bagirov who believes that all three sides have their own interests in the implementation of this mega-project.

Azerbaijan has transit interests in this project and Turkey is considered a hub-country, a leading gas power, while Turkmenistan hopes to expand the export opportunities of Turkmen gas supplies to the European market in order to replenish its own foreign exchange reserves. Thus, the practical interest of all the states in implementing this project is obvious, he told Day.az.

At the same time, there are neighboring countries which are not interested in the implementation of this project, including Russia and Iran, as the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline might compete with the ambitious projects they implemented Bagirov noted. For instance, Russia supports Turkish Stream project, envisaging Russian gas supplies to Turkey and further to Europe.

There are also other obstacles remaining in place such as costs, competition from other projects, stagnating demand for gas in Europe, uncertainty about Turkmen supplies and undefined legal status of the Caspian Sea.

Therefore, the upcoming September meeting is expected to bring clarity to the projects fate and demonstrate joint political will of Ankara, Baku and Ashgabat, expert said.

He also noted that the Trans-Caspian pipeline can be realized within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor project, which involves the supply of gas from the Caspian region, in particular Azerbaijani gas, to Europe.

At the same time, the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project is considered the best option for delivering energy resources from Turkmenistan, the world's fourth for gas reserves, to the European market.

The pipeline is supposed to be laid along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the shores of Azerbaijan. Further on the existing infrastructure, Turkmen hydrocarbons can get to Turkey, which borders with European countries.

Trans-Caspian gas pipeline may be implemented as a part of huge Southern Gas Corridor project designed to transport gas from the Caspian region, in particular Azerbaijani gas to European countries.

A project to import natural gas from Turkmenistan through a subsea pipeline was suggested in 1996 by the United States. Negotiations on the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan began in September 2011.

Ashgabat undertook the initiative to host the talks because Turkmenistan stands for a balance of interests between producers, transit countries and consumers.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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18 July 2017 10:57 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The issues concerning the Turkmenbashi Bay were discussed at a meeting in Turkmenbashi city, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

The event was held within the activity of the State Commission of Turkmenistan on Compliance with the Country's Obligations Emanating from UN Environmental Conventions and Programs.

Eldar Rustamov, chairman of the Coordination Committee of the Ramsar Regional Initiative of Central Asia, attended the meeting.

During the presentation, the activity of the working group on the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in Turkmenistan in 2016-2017 was analyzed. The main topics of discussion were the inclusion of relevant wetlands in the Ramsar List, topography and zoning.

The positive experience in wetland management will be used in the management and sustainable conservation of other wetlands of Turkmenistan. It will promote the rational use of existing and potential Ramsar wetlands in the country and the Central Asian region.

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18 July 2017 11:37 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Although recent talks on Syria have not resulted in any breakthrough agreements the negotiations should continue in the same vein, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in a briefing on Monday, Sputnik reported.

"We are certainly hopeful that the diplomatic process will continue on the course that has been going on," Haq said. "Its a good sign that the talks were able to continue although, as you know, there was no particular breakthrough or resolution of issues there but we want to keep the process going."

Haq refused to comment on the reported intention of European Union member states to introduce sanctions against Syrian scientists, saying regional groups are to explain their own decisions.

Earlier on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that EU member states foreign ministers are expected to adopt sanctions against Syrian scientists over their alleged role in the chemical weapons use against the civilian population on Monday.

The newspaper, citing UK officials, reported that the sanctions would target 16 scientists of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center accused by Washington of producing the chemical and ballistic weapons. The list including their names is expected to be published by Brussels on Monday.

On July 15, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said the seventh round of intra-Syrian talks concluded without breakthroughs or breakdowns. De Mistura said the next round of talks will take place in Geneva in early September.

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18 July 2017 15:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Washington-Tehran ties are currently a hot topic for discussion, as the consultations on imposing additional sanctions against Iran and Russia are underway in the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. administration is planning to introduce new sanctions against Iran in the near future in connection with its program of developing ballistic missiles and alleged support for terrorism, TASS reported.

Tehran allegedly violates the "spirit of agreement" on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Nevertheless, new restrictive measures will not be linked to Iranian nuclear program.

The new sanctions, according to the representative of the White House, will be designed to counter large-scale expansion of Iran's Armed Forces, as well as its operations in Syria and the Middle East in general.

The sanctions will target the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite component of the Armed Forces, Iranian officials and legal entities.

The sanctions list will include 16 Iranian organizations and people who, according to Washington, "support the illegal and criminal activities of Tehran in the region."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is currently on a state visit to New York, advised the United States to rethink its approach to sanctions and realize that the pressure does not work. Speaking in New York, he noted with regret that the U.S. continues to create "more and more new" sanctions.

Zarif also said that he had not yet communicated with the representative of the U.S. presidential administration.

"There is no communication between me and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but this does not mean that it is impossible. There are opportunities for involvement in discussion on the issue of nuclear deal. We are always open, my colleagues are on regular contact with American counterparts on the implementation of the nuclear deal," he said.

Meanwhile, the quarterly report on the implementation of the agreement, which states that Iran is in compliance with the deal, was sent to the U.S. Congress. The President is obliged to notify the Congress of the implementation of the agreement every 90 days.

The Iran nuclear deal was negotiated in July 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. By ratifying the plan, Iran agreed to scale down its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

The agreement provides that in return for verifiable abiding by its commitments, Iran receives relief from U.S., European Union, and UN Security Council nuclear-related economic sanctions.

At the same time, the U.S. retains sanctions against Iran on the missile program, human rights and on suspicion that Tehran sponsors terrorism.

Earlier in June 2017, the U.S. Senate voted to advance a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile development, arms transfers and its alleged support for Islamist militant groups and human rights violations.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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18 July 2017 12:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Georgian Prime Minister Georgi Kvirikashvili plans to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan in the near future, the press service of the Georgian government said in a message.

It was announced at the meeting of Georgi Kvirikashvili with Turkmen Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov in Tbilisi on July 17.

Within the meeting the issues of bilateral cooperation and details of the upcoming visit were discussed. Special attention was paid to the development of bilateral cooperation in economy, transport and energy.

Moreover Kvirikashvili invited Turkmen Foreign Minister to attend the Silk Road Forum, which will be held in Tbilisi in the fall of 2017.

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18 July 2017 13:59 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

The European Union intends to provide financial support to the agricultural sector of Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan and the European Union signed a financial agreement on the implementation of the "horticulture development" project, the Foreign Ministry reported on July 18.

The document was undersigned by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, who arrived in Brussels to attend the next meeting of the Cooperation Council "Uzbekistan-European Union," and Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development Stefano Manservisi.

The EU will allocate a grant of 21.5 million euros, according to the agreement.

The funds will be used to modernize and strengthen the material and technical base of scientific research institutes under Uzbekistans Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.

Within the framework of the visit, Kamilov also met with Secretary General of the European External Action Service Helga Schmidt.

The sides discussed the priority directions of further deepening of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU, taking into account the readiness of the parties to strengthen and develop cooperation.

Uzbekistan as the most populous country in the very heart of Central Asia is an important partner for the EU.

The EU mainly focuses on the projects on the development of rural areas in Uzbekistan, in particular, improving irrigation infrastructure, introducing renewable energy in agribusiness, as well as assisting program on creation of jobs in the country's regions.

Relations between the EU and Uzbekistan are based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) which entered into force in 1996. Since this time, the EU has allocated considerable amount of money to develop the domestic industry of the country.

Financial aid in the amount of 168 million euros was approved for this Central Asian country for 2014-2020. These funds will be used to improve the irrigation infrastructure, introduce renewable energy sources in agribusiness, and promote a program to create new jobs in the regions.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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18 July 2017 16:15 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Russian gas company Gazprom has considerably increased gas export to Turkey and Europe since the beginning of 2017, RIA Novosti reported, citing the companys data.

"Russian gas export to Turkey, South and South-West Europe increased in January 1- July 15, 2017. Gas supplies to Turkey rose by 22 percent compared to the same period of 2016, supplies to Hungary - by 26.6 percent, to Serbia - by 47.9 percent, to Bulgaria - by 12.6 percent, to Greece - by 10 percent," the company said.

In January 1 - July 15 Gazprom increased gas exports to non-CIS countries by 12.3 percent to 102.9 billion cubic meters compared to the same period of 2016, according to the companys data.

In 2016, Gazproms gas export to non-CIS countries reached a record level of 179.3 billion cubic meters, which is 12.5 percent more than in 2015.

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18 July 2017 17:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Uzbekistan and the European Union expressed readiness to develop long-term and mutually beneficial partnership on a wide range of issues both in bilateral format and at interregional level during the 13th meeting of the EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council, said the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

Uzbekistans delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov during the summit held recently in Brussels, Belgium.

During the meeting, issues of bilateral agenda and the implementation of previously reached agreements were substantively discussed, according to the message.

The delegations of Uzbekistan and the European Union noted the interest in consolidating efforts in the fight against terrorism, religious extremism, the spread of drugs and other types of organized crime. Prospects for cultural and humanitarian cooperation were also discussed at the meeting.

Before the meeting, a brief ceremony was held on signing a protocol to the agreement on partnership and cooperation in connection with Croatias accession to the EU.

From the Uzbek side, the document was signed by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, from the European Union  by Sven Mikser, Foreign Minister of Estonia, which chairs the EU, and Petros Sourmelis, head of European Commission Directorate-General for Trade.

Uzbekistan and the EU signed an agreement on partnership and cooperation in 1996. The EUs diplomatic representation was opened in Uzbekistan in 2012.

---

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H1N1 & Leptospirosis Claims 7 Lives In Mumbai In July Till Date News oi-Lekhaka

With the setting in of monsoon, the number of infectious diseases is escalating. In a span of just 15 days, Mumbai has witnessed 7 people succumbing to the deadly H1N1 and leptospirosis.

This is not all. At the same time, there are several reported cases of dengue, cholera and gastroenteritis, which have been on the rise since June. With the latest being a four-year-old child from Mankhurd, five people have succumbed to H1N1 since June till date.

However, the death toll across Maharashtra due to H1N1 this year has already crossed 300. It was also learnt that majority of the victims were suffering from certain underlying medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension, pneumonia and also multi-organ failure.

According to experts, these kinds of serious underlying medical conditions among the patients puts them at a greater risk of contracting the infections and the recovery gets affected.

The highest number of H1N1 deaths this year till date are being reported from Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat contributing to 70% of the total deaths in the country.
Italy-Vietnam Footwear Technology Centre inaugurated

Vietnam

Established to promote research and development of leather and footwear products as well as train local workers in the use of modern machinery, the Italy-Vietnam Footwear Technology Centre is located at the Lefaso Centre (Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association), in the southern province of Binh Duongs Di An district, Vietnam.

An initiative between the Italian Trade Agency, Italys National Association of Manufacturers of Footwear, Leather Goods and Tanning Technologies (ASSOMAC), and LEFASO, the centre is said to be equipped with modern machinery imported from Italy as well as from other European countries. One of the aims is to allow small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnams leather-footwear industries to approach, research and develop new products. Italys expertise in tanning and footwear manufacturing technology is to foster technology transfer, and offer consultancy and training of workers in the industry.

Source: Vietnamplus
Indonesia 1H sales dip, exports rise

18 July 2017

Cement sales in Indonesia registered a slight decline over the first half of this year, while exports sales fared better over the six-month period, according to the latest industry data.

Domestic sales were down by 1.3 per cent YoY to 29Mt in the 1H17, compared to 29.37Mt a year earlier, statistics published on state-owned Semen Indonesias website reveal. Widodo Santoso, chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), told local press that the decline is attributed to the long holiday-period (Idul Fitri celebrations fell earlier this year), while infrastructure projects in the eastern part of the country are yet to gain momentum. In June 2017 alone, sales were down by 26.8 per cent YoY to 3.73Mt (5.1Mt in 1H16).



However, total sales (including exports) over the six-month period edged ahead by 0.3 per cent to 30.13Mt versus 30.03Mt in 1H16. Exports performed strongly in the first half of 2017, having increased by 74 per cent YoY to 1.14Mt. By year-end ASI hopes export volumes of 2-3Mt will be achieved.

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Currently, Cambodias foreign policy faces significant challenges amid great power rivalry for regional influence. Cambodias recent decision to postpone the annual Angkor Sentinel joint military exercise with the US came as a surprise because the decision had been made just days before the inauguration of new US President Donald Trump. Trumps uncertain foreign policy had been predicted to take strong measures against China in relation to the maritime disputes in the region. Meanwhile, Chinas economic, military, and strategic influence over Cambodia continues to grow. It is clear that the US has been unable to compete with China for influence in Cambodia. China has become Cambodias largest foreign investor as well as its largest economic and military benefactor in the last decade. The recent and routine high-level official defense visits between China and Cambodia highlight the strong cooperation which is widely seen to be at the expense of the US and other important defense partners such as Australia.





The annual Angkor Sentinel joint military manoeuvres between Cambodia and the US have been conducted continuously since 2010. It is an annual bilateral exercise sponsored by the US Army Pacific Command and hosted by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), focusing on providing humanitarian assistance and responding to disaster relief operations. At the official opening of the Angkor Sentinel exercise early 2016, Julie Chung, the charge daffairs at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh stated that; I believe the Angkor Sentinel exercise that begins today showcases some of the best kinds of things militaries accomplish for their nations and citizens. US Army Major General Edward Dorman III  Commander of the 8th Theater Sustainment Command in charge of the exercise  stated that exercises like this one are critical to our regional stability and security  when we join together, train together, and grow together now, we ensure that we are prepared together for whatever the future may bring. At that time, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen regarded the exercise as a symbol of the strong military ties between the US and Cambodia.





Strategic rivalry for influence between China and the US, and the ongoing tensions between China and the ASEAN claimant states over the South China Sea have pushed Cambodia even closer to the Chinese sphere of influence. China has emerged as Cambodias most significant military partner. In recent years, China has provided considerable military training and helped Cambodias military to significantly expand its training capabilities with the provision of military instructors, considerable military training facilities, and Chinese language teachers. China has also provided Cambodia with USD 60 million in soft loans to buy nine patrol boats and financed Cambodias upgraded naval base in Ream. Cambodia also received a USD 195 million loan from China for the purchase of 12 Chinese Z-9 military helicopters. Beijing has also provided military trucks, spare parts, and other equipment.





For China, Cambodia is strategically important as its geopolitical location allows for security and oversight in the South China Sea, especially for securing the Chinese claim on the disputed Spratly Islands and their natural resources. Burgos and Ear argue that if conflict occurs, China may need Cambodia as a strategic, sea-accessible location from which to launch a response. As Geoff Wade, an expert on Asia, claims, this is part of the Chinese network of port investments in Asia, which include Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia.





By comparison, US military aid to Cambodia is relatively small and has often been withheld as a result of political tensions. This was evident when Cambodia decided to suspend some military cooperation with the US in 2013, after US congressmen criticized and urged Cambodia to investigate election irregularities. The US has provided military aid, equipment, and technical assistance worth USD 4.5 million since 2006.





Cambodia should incorporate diversity in its foreign policy with as many countries as it can for widening and meeting its national interests.





According to the US Embassy in Cambodia; Our

cooperation

focuses on international peacekeeping, counterterrorism, counter narcotics, border and maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief operation, and defence sector reform. Our goals are to develop the capabilities of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in these areas, while encouraging Cambodias commitment to the rule of law, transparency in governance, sustained democratic development, and respect for human rights.





The US has also provided support in a wide range of military cooperation areas to improve the RCAFs capability in humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, and maritime security, as well as to broaden Cambodias counterterrorism strategy. Unlike the Chinese approach, all of this assistance is subject to strict conditions and if it is assessed that the principle of democracy has been violated, its provision could immediately cease. This happened in July 1997 when the internal political turmoil in the Cambodian government resulted in the US suspending all aid programs, including military assistance, because the US considered the actions of the coalition government to be against the principles of democracy and human rights.





Although there is still some frustration and concern with Cambodias human rights record, the US has continued to support Cambodia with a wide range of assistance, including notably, deploying the RCAF in UN peacekeeping operations which align with Cambodias strategic interest in promoting the countrys prestige on the international stage. The joint exercises with the US since 2010 have been seen as serving Cambodias national interest in regard to RCAFs UN deployment. The exercise has played an important role in not only strengthening the RCAFs capability in the areas of UN peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and professionalism, but also improving military-to-military cooperation between the two countries. According to US Embassy spokesman Jay Raman: Joint military exercises benefit both of our nations by enhancing our ability to work together to combat maritime piracy, protect trade and shipping routes, deter terrorists, and provide humanitarian assistance during natural disasters.





It is important not to underestimate the practical reality of Cambodias foreign policy trajectory and its foreign interests in the context of the US-China competition for regional influence. As Chheang Vannarith, Cambodian scholar points out, Cambodias primary national interests are centred on sovereignty and territorial integrity, security and political stability, economic development and poverty reduction, and identity-image building. Therefore, Cambodia is in need of assistance from friendly countries for the actualization of its reform program in the face of mounting challenges. As a small and poor state in the region, Cambodia usually makes practical choices for its people by seeking to capitalize on its relations with China and the US, among others, which are best suited its interests.





The Cambodian government recognizes the importance of assistance from the international community for the RCAFs future development. The assistance from friendly countries for the RCAF reform program in areas such as downsizing the defense forces, human resource training, technological development, cooperative efforts against crime and international terrorism, and participation in multinational disaster relief operations are vital for developing the professionalism of the RCAF.





The Defense White Papers and other RCAF policy documents regard international military cooperation as crucial for the improvement of the RCAFs professionalism as set out in the strategic objectives of the RCAF.





According to the Defence and Strategic Review 2013 published by the Ministry of National Defence of Cambodia: The RCAF must continue to strengthen and expand cooperation with security partners in the region and in the international arena by using bilateral and multilateral mechanisms based on unbiased political or ideological grounds and in the spirit of mutual interests. The Constitution clearly states that Cambodia reserves the right to receive foreign assistance by way of military equipment and training of its armed forces and other assistance for self defense and to maintain public order and security within its territory (DWP, 2000). Accordingly, the RCAF has received military assistance from all friendly countries around the world without any consideration of political conditions by those countries. For example, the US and China are the major military assistance providers for the RCAF, even though the two countries have different strategic interests.





In short, clearly, the US and China as well as other countries have been crucial players in contributing to the reform policy of the RCAF. It is also clear that China and the US have different policies toward the kingdom which could eventually lead to a strategic dilemma for Cambodia in managing these relationships without compromising its sovereignty and integrity. Cambodia should incorporate diversity in its foreign policy with as many countries as it can for widening and meeting its national interests. As a small and poor state, it is necessary for Cambodia to adhere its policy to a rule-based international order by supporting regional groupings such as ASEAN and other regional forums for the countrys autonomy and economic prosperity.
DNA found in ancient Egyptian mummies supports Biblical narrative of descendants from Noah's son Ham

The biblical narrative that the first Egyptian Dynasty descended from the biblical Ham, the son of Noah, as told in the book of Genesis, could well be supported by recent research based on DNA taken from Egyptian mummies, analysts said.

According to CNN, researchers from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, both in Germany, found "unexpected results" when decoding the genome of ancient Egyptians.

Their work, published online in Nature Communications, concluded that preserved remains found in Abusir-el Meleq, Middle Egypt, were the closest genetic relatives of Neolithic and Bronze Age populations from the Near East, Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean Europeans.

"We found the ancient Egyptian samples falling distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples," the researchers noted. "In contrast, modern Egyptians are shifted towards sub-Saharan African populations."

What this means, according to commentary in Breaking Israel News, is that the latest scientific findings correlate with biblical accounts, such as Genesis 10:5-6, which states:

"Of these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim (or Egypt according to the New International Version of the Bible), and Put, and Canaan."

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of BIN said: "According to the Bible, Mizraim settled in Egypt whereas Cush settled in Africa, establishing two distinct and separate nations that did not share a common heritage. The scientific theory implies the origins of Africa and Egypt were the same."

The research is based on 166 samples from 151 mummified individuals in Abusir el-Meleq dating back 1,300 years of Egyptian history, from about 1388 BCE to 426 CE.

Using DNA capture techniques, the researchers "successfully obtained complete human mitochondrial genomes from 90 samples and genome-wide SNP data from three male individuals passing quality control."

Professor Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute explained that previous DNA analysis of mummies has been treated with skepticism.

"When you touch a bone, you probably leave more DNA on the bone than is inside [it]," Krause said. "Contamination is a big issue. ... Only in the last five or six years has it become possible to actually study DNA from ancient humans, because we can now show whether DNA is ancient or not by [its] chemical properties."

He added that he expects there "will be a ton of ancient Egyptian mummy genomes [mapped] in the next couple of years," with the research just beginning.

As BNI pointed out, the new findings coincide with the Dynastic Race Theory by archaeologist David Rohl, who believed that ancient Egyptians arrived over sea from Mesopotamia, conquered the Nile Valley, and established the first Egyptian dynasties.

Rohl's theory was based on the biblical account of Ham, who moved with his people from Mesopotamia to settle in Egypt after the Great Flood.

Rohl led an expedition in 1988 into Wadi Hammamat, a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, which studied ancient wall drawings depicting longs boats with as many as 70 oarsmen.

The drawings are said to have conformed to the archaeologist's theory of an influx of Mesopotamian elite who arrived in Egypt by sailing around the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula into the Red Sea.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
ISIS brides say 'disgusting' jihadi husbands only care about 'women and sex'

A number of women who served or were prepared to be used as brides for Islamic State fighters said that although the "sex-obsessed" jihadis talk a lot about Allah, what they really care about is "women and sex."

"They say they want to jihad for the sake of Allah, but what they want is only about women and sex. It's disgusting," an Indonesian woman named Rahma said in a CNN report.

Rahma said that she escaped Raqqa with her two sisters before they could be married to IS (also known as ISIS) fighters, but the three are now being kept with scores of other IS brides from various nationalities at a jail in Syria.

The women said that they did not know about the group's genocidal actions, which has included the mass slaughter of Yazidis, Christians and other minorities.

Another woman, named Saida, from Montpellier, in southern France, said that she flocked to IS' self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria after her previous husband died because she was drawn to starting a new life "with strong, devout men."

The IS brides noted, however, that the life that awaited them in this caliphate was much different from what they were expecting  "fighting in all female dorms, sex obsessed IS fighters, women divorced and remarried as many as six times."

Saida explained that when she arrived in Raqqa to join IS, she and other women were placed in a so-called "madafa" dormitory, where they were matched up with jihadi fighters.

"When the woman arrives in this madafa, she makes a sort of CV," Saida said. "She puts down her age, her name, what her personality is like, and what she looks for in a man. And men also post their CVs. It's 'dating.'"

"So you meet, you talk for 15-20 minutes, and then it's a yes or no. If they both agree then they get married. It's very quick," she added.

Fina, one of Rahma's sisters, noted that the radicals were not the "pure Muslims" they presented themselves as.

"I heard if they marry a widow they will get a thousand dollars," Fina said. "They ask me to marry in the morning and they want the answer from the night."

Noor, the second sister, said she was most shocked by the infighting in the all-female dorm.

"The manner of the women inside the dorm is very different, it is very far from Islam," Noor said. "[They have a] harsh manner, gossiping, shout at each other, back biting, and fighting between the women. Oh I was very surprised."

Another report from earlier in July on IS' escaped brides revealed more information about the jihadis' practices, such as purchasing virgins on sex slave apps, and raping girls as young as 9 years old.

Seven women shared their experiences with Arabic TV, revealing that the Islamic radicals would pay up to $10,000 for virgin sex slaves on apps.

"There was a lot of tension between the wives and the sex slaves," one of the women explained. "Some of the wives even divorced their husbands because of that. They were spending too much on the sex slaves, buying them the best make-up, clothes and accessories."

Some of the other wives revealed that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose fate is currently unknown following contradicting reports on whether he has been killed or not, had as many as four wives and 15 sex slaves.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
Israel furious as West Bank city of Hebron declared a World Heritage Site 'in danger'

The Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron was declared a world heritage site in danger by the UN's cultural body on Friday.

UNESCO's ruling on the city which includes a holy site for both Jews and Muslims  known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs to the former and the Ibrahimi mosque to the latter  enraged Israelis who see it as evidence of the body's anti-Israel bias.

Palestinians successfully argued Israel's settlement activity in Hebron, particularly by its military, threatened the city's cultural status. The resolution describing the site as being 'in danger' means the area will discussed annually.

It comes despite attempts by Israel to have the motion blocked, including a personal intervention by the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.

The vote was held in secret at UNESCO World Heritage Committee's 41st annual summit, currently taking place in Krakow, Poland, following a special request, despite decisions usually being made by a show of hands.

Amid heated scenes at the meeting, 12 countries voted in favour while three opposed and six abstained.

Israel's education minister Naftali Bennett accused the body of acting as 'a political tool, rather than professional organisation'.

He said: 'The Jewish connection to Hebron goes back thousands of years. Hebron, the birthplace of King David's kingdom, and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the first Jewish purchase in Israel and resting place of our forefathers  are our people's oldest heritage sites.

'UNESCO's resolution must be rejected, and our efforts to strengthen the city of our fathers increased.'

But Palestine's minister of tourism, Rula Maayah described it as a 'historic development' because it stressed the city and its famous mosque 'historically belong to the Palestinian people'.
The government has announced it is considering proposals from a group set up by the Office for Civil Society to help small charities win contracts - but has not said what they are.

Martyn Lewis, former chair of NCVO, was appointed by then-minister for civil society Rob Wilson to chair what was described as a "sector-led" Civil Society Implementation Group last December. The group was asked to propose ideas to help small charities win contracts, and has now made internal recommendations to the government.

Tracey Crouch, minister for sport and civil society, said in a written response to parliamentary question from the Labour shadow minister, Steve Reed, that: The group has met on 15 separate occasions and government is considering its proposals.

However the government has not confirmed what the proposals are, or the identities of the members of the group. In response to a question from Civil Society News a spokesman said only that more information will be revealed "in due course".

Published ministerial meetings for Wilson show that in February he met with a public services implementation group, which included representatives from NCVO, Navca, Small Charities Coalition, FSI, LGA, Harrow Council, P3, Community Southwark, Voscur, Staffordshire County Council and Teens and Toddlers.

Wilson also announced in December that a new VSCE Crown Representative would be appointed to help build the relationship between charities and government.

The job was advertised at the beginning of this year, and the closing date for applications was five months ago, but no announcement has been made.

An update is expected shortly.

Other updates

In a separate written answer, Crouch said that an announcement on whether to hold another Local Charities Day would be made in due course.

She also said that an update on the governments review of the Social Value Act would be made in due course.

In another answer to a question about the review into Youth Social Action she said: Progress with the review was delayed for six weeks due to Purdah, and we will agree a revised process and timetable with the Chair in the coming weeks. We anticipate that the review will be completed by December 2017.

Responses to reports

Crouch also revealed that the DCMS is working with the NCS Trust to prepare a response to the critical Pubic Accounts Committees report about National Citizen Service.

She said this is currently scheduled for publication in the House of Commons in October 2017.

The government also needs to respond to the House of Lords report on charities, and to the recommendations of the Dormant Assets Commission - which has said up to 2bn is available to spend on charities. Responses to these reports are expected shortly.




As this piece is being written, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is standing behind the lectern in the Brady Briefing room and taking questions from the assembled press. Should you choose, youll hear about it, but you wont be able to watch it.

No cameras again today for press briefing with Sarah Sanders at 2. Will the cameras ever go live again in the White House briefing room?  Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) July 18, 2017

Another off-camera briefing: the only conclusion to draw now is that they are too scared to appear on camera unless it's @foxandfriends  Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) July 18, 2017

Were approaching the three-week mark since the administration has put a designated spokesperson on camera to spar with the press. Once the faces of the White House, Sanders and her boss, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, have disappeared from view. While its true that timeframe includes President Trumps trips to Europe and the July 4 holiday, its now clear, if it wasnt before, that part of the administrations strategy includes cutting back on opportunities for its spokespeople to answer questions in full view of the nation.

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ICYMI: The man behind depressing, viral Trump Jr. tweet speaks

This is bad, but given the quality of those appearancesfull of statements often contradictory to reality and to the presidents own wordsits fair to ask what were actually losing. Lets stipulate here that more access is preferable to less, and that on-camera briefings are preferable to audio-only sessions. But to reporters calling for more TV time for Spicer and Sanders, let me suggest an alternative: we need to hear from the president himself.

Thursday marks the six-month point of Trumps presidency, yet he has held just one general press conference. That was on February 16, three days after Michael Flynn had been fired as National Security Adviser. Since then, Trump has taken questions at a handful of appearances with foreign heads of state, but the two-question format of those carefully managed events has not produced the sort of reckoning that a solo press conference would provide.

Trumps camera-shy approach is a significant departure from his predecessors. By this point in their respective presidencies, according to the American Presidency Project, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton had each held eight solo press conferences, while George W. Bush held three. Even Ronald Reagan, who was shot in the chest two months into his time in office, managed to get in three press conferences by the 4th of July.

In the early months of his presidency, Trumps lack of press conferences was somewhat offset by his appetite for one-on-one interviews. Since a May 11 sit-down with Lester Holt, however, he has almost entirely retreated to the friendly confines of Fox News, venturing only as far afield as the Pat Robertsons Christian Broadcasting Network.

While reporters griping about access will never play well with a broad audience, the public deserves to hear, and see, where the administration stands. The White House has often claimed that the president is his own best messenger. But communicating through a Twitter account and campaign-style rallies doesnt bring the American people answers to serious questions facing the nation.

ICYMI: Eight simple rules for doing accurate journalism

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
Hear the word oligarch, and the image that probably springs to mind is of a rich, politically influential Russian.

Thats the way Politico used it to describe the developer Aras Agalarov, who bought the Miss Universe pageant from Donald Trump (and whose pop-star son, Emin, supposedly conveyed the message to Donald Trump Jr. that he had access to Russian government documents that would incriminate Hillary Clinton). Thats the way Business Insider used it to describe Eldar Osmanov, who runs the Russian mega-energy company Mezhregionsoyenergo, even though his only recent public exposure has been because of the lavish wedding he threw for his daughter.

The father of the groom, Albert Avdolyan, is also a Russian and a multimillionaire, but he is usually described merely as a businessman, tycoon, or telecommunications mogul.

So what makes an oligarch an oligarch?

Websters New World College Dictionary, used by many news organizations, defines oligarch as any of the rulers of an oligarchy. Not very helpful. Oligarchy is defined as a form of government in which the ruling power belongs to a few persons; a state governed in this way; or the persons ruling such a state. That definition has not substantially changed since at least the 1949 edition of Websters Collegiate Dictionary.

But none of those people mentioned above have actual roles in the government (as far as we know). So how do they qualify as oligarchs?

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The Oxford English Dictionary is only a little more help. Tracing the first use of oligarchy to 1542 and oligarch to 1610, OED expands the definition to a form of government in which the exercise of power is restricted to a few people or families (in later use, frequently a wealthy elite) and a person who is part of a small group holding power in a state. But that still implies that an oligarch is somehow part of a government.

Merriam-Webster has slightly different takes on oligarchs. The Collegiate dictionary calls oligarchy government by the few, but then gives the example The corporation is ruled by oligarchy. It also defines oligarchy as a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. The Unabridged is harsher, calling an oligarchy despotic power exercised by a privileged clique; government by the few; autocratic control of any group or organization by a small faction; and a group or organization that is controlled by a privileged few. A few more value judgments there, as well as less emphasis on government.

The use of oligarch that is the best fit for how it is used today first appeared in 1999, the OED says: Originally and chiefly in post-communist Russia: a very wealthy business leader with a great deal of political influence. Given that the Soviet Union fell only in 1991, that usage didnt take very long to rise to the public consciousness.

As used today, oligarchs is a heavily partisan term, skewing more toward Merriam-Websters nefarious intent than simply describing someone as a politically influential rich guy. News reports that call someone an oligarch imply sinister underpinnings.

And Russia isnt the only one who has them. Venezuela has oligarchs and Boligarchs. Armenia has them. Even Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Senegal have them, at least in news reports.

But apparently there are no American oligarchs, at least not so labeled. Sure, Bernie Sanders has been warning for at least seven years that America is drifting toward an oligarchy, and lots of op-ed pieces do the same. But outside of the opinion pages, Americans are not labeled oligarchs the way Russians (and others) are. For example, Donald Trump Jr. is a very wealthy business leader with a great deal of political influence, perfectly fitting the OED definition, yet if he were called an oligarch theres no doubt it would be labeled as partisan at least, if not outright fake news.

When calling someone an oligarch, or not, involves a double standard, that should give journalistsand their audiencespause.

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Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.
Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, Russian pro-democracy leader, and chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation since 2012, has long been a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin and authoritarians everywhere. An early critic of Donald Trump and his admiration for Putin, he corresponded with CJR via email about Trumps regular echoes of authoritarian leaders in his rhetoric, especially his attacks on the free press and US electoral integrity. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You compared Donald Trumps January 11 press conference, the day after CNN broke the news of a leaked dossier containing alleged ties between Trump and the Putin regime, to a Soviet press conference. Why?

If I recall, it was a joke made while the press conference was still going on, and I was struck by all the flags around him and the scripted questions early on. It was his first real press conference as president-elect, and it was all show and campaign-style rhetoric, despite the large backlog of important policy questions that he faced. To be fair, he actually did answer a few questions that werent staged, which never would have happened in the USSR. But while all traditional politicians understand the importance of messaging and perception, they realize that avoiding substantive questions only leads to more of them. During the campaign, and during his presidency, Trump has attemptedwith considerable successto transcend that norm, as with so many others. He responds instead with counterattacks and bold statements and accusations, knowing they will get more attention than subsequent fact-checks. Its one of many ways that Americans are learning from Trump that much of their democracy was run on the honor system, on agreed standards, not laws, and now theres someone who isnt going to play by those rules. It has very dangerous implications, especially since this is a theme that plays well with many of his supporters.

Does the term fake news have a Russian equivalent, and if so, what is it, who uses it and, in your experience, why?

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My honest reply to this is that the word for fake news in Putins Russia is simply news. There isnt a syllable uttered or printed in Russia without its author being very much aware of what the regime thinks of it and what would happen to him if he crosses a certain lineexcept perhaps the weather! Often those lines are explicit, sent out in memos about new topics and how to promote or spin them. But by now, after 17 years of Putin, everyone knows where the lines are. Under those conditions, what can news be except fake? Even if nearly everything that is published is, in and of itself, true, there is an ocean of falsity in what isnt said, what isnt asked, and how basic facts are presented. This is the story of the media in a modern dictatorship. Its not like Pravda, with one official storyline that everyone knows is probably BS. There are hundreds of layers of carefully calibrated propaganda and censorship in Putins Russia, creating the illusion of freedom. One outlet says Putin is great 100 percent of the time about everything. Another only 80 percent, about, say, the economy or security. One writer can complain a little about education, while another is allowed to criticize the regime on one or two specific things, etc. Its like the Matrix, a complex illusion. And since almost all Russians still depend on television news, its very effective.

Americans are learning from Trump that much of their democracy was run on the honor system.

Putin and Kremlin organs do use this method of calling anything they dont like from abroad fake and have for some time. Everything reported about Putins invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea was denied vehementlyat first. Eventually, everything was proved true, and even admitted in some cases, because the point is to distract and confuse the issue with denials and obfuscation, to delay the response, and to provide plausible deniability to Western leaders who are always looking for any excuse not to stand up to Putin.

The methodology of fake news isnt to convince anyone exactly what the truth is, but to make people doubt that the truth exists, or that it can ever be known. People are starting to sense this trend in the free world as well, as Russian disinformation campaigns spread globally and these techniques are adopted. Thats probably why I still see this tweet of mine from December going around:

The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.  Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 13, 2016

You told Fox News last October that you believed Putin was absolutely behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other attempts to sway the November election. But you also said, Its not just about Trump winning. Its about  destroying the integrity of US democracy worldwide. What did you mean by that?

That while Putin clearly preferred Trump to Hillary as the next president, his other goal is chaos and weakness in his rivals, and his greatest potential rival is the most powerful country in the world, the United States. Discrediting Americans faith in their elections, in their country, leaders, and institutions, and fomenting divisiveness, anger, and hatred, are all key elements of Putins propaganda and hacking efforts. It also has a useful effect for him back in Russia, so he can say Look, American democracy is also a sham, a cheat, chaos. You are lucky to have me, strong and stable. This also helps other authoritarian regimes in their own domestic and international propaganda efforts, much as how they delight in any real or imagined human rights abuses by America, so they can cry hypocrisy when their own practices are criticized.

Putin has long used social and state-funded media such as Russia Today, or RT, to control his image at home and abroad. The Kremlin argues that state-funded doesnt mean state-controlled, and says RT is similar to the BBC in this regard. Do you agree? And if not, why?

This comparison is the sort the Kremlin is very good at. But as Ive said in the past, its like saying a surgeon is like Jack the Ripper because they both cut people with knives. Listen, every news outlet, every human, has bias and prejudices in a million different ways. So the focus is institutional, and has to be on the facts, on good faith, and trying to educate your audience about what is happening in their lives and in the world. Russia Todays focus, like Putins other global propaganda outlets like Sputnik, has nothing to do with that at all. It has a clear, overarching agenda to promote the objectives of Vladimir Putin.

You can complain about the BBC leaning left, or about Fox News leaning right, and occasionally even of promoting the agenda of a like-minded president or prime minister. Fine, but in the case of Fox or CNN, they arent state funded. And in the case of the BBC, you can hear more criticism of 10 Downing Street in 10 minutes than you would hear of Putin in a year of Russia Today. If the BBC were seen as pushing propaganda, it would ruin their credibility very quickly. Also, RT routinely fabricates news and spreads rumors and fakes. Again, its not Pravda of the USSR days; its much more sophisticated. They apply shades of gray in order to appear more objective. This is why its dangerous and successful as a propaganda effort.

Is Putin attempting to manipulate the elections in Holland, France, and Germany this year in the same way he did in the US last year, through hacking, RT, social media and so-called Internet trolls?

Absolutely, and its already been demonstrated, especially in France and Germany. The sites and social media accounts that were pro-Trump or pro-Sanders are rebranding as pro-Le Pen and pro-Wilders, just as they were pro-Farage and pro-Brexit before Trump. And why not? Its easy, its effective, and its cheap and low-risk. It doesnt have the potential downside of a military adventure, especially since so far the free world has shown a pathetic level of resistance to these hybrid attacks and cyberwar tactics. The aggressor has the advantage in a new battlefield, and democratic institutions are notoriously slow to adapt and defend themselves. New laws, which may conflict with press-freedom guarantees, take time and can also be lobbied against effectively. Putin has plenty of allies already in officeand in lobbyist officesaround the world. Deterrence is the only way to stop these attacks, and as long as there are people saying you have to be 100 percent sure before responding, nothing will get done and Putin will continue, bolder and more convinced of his impunity than ever.

What worries me most is that Trump and his gang seem entirely incompetent and yet they still won the US presidency and have much of the GOP cowed.

But the good news is there is also a backlash against this interference, and greater awareness of it thanks to Trumps shocking victory and all the Russia-related revelations. Europe may be waking up in time. Being the candidate of Putinism is a double-edged sword; now they also have to balance whether being the candidate of Trumpism is good or bad. Last weeks Dutch election, with Wilders poor showing, may be the first sign that the needed nationalist backlash is underway.

Weve heard a lot about the murders of Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya and scores of other Russian journalists. What is the state of independent journalism in Russia today, and what effect does it have on journalists in Russia when the president of the United States calls the press the enemy of the American people?

First, I dont wish to insult the many individuals who are still trying to perform journalism in Russia within the allowed boundaries. Some of them are honorable people, and it is not my place to say they should all abandon their professions and become taxi drivers in protest. Many are still in denial, others are hopeful of an eventual thaw, others try to ignore the political situation and do the best they can to inform their audiences. And there are still a few outlets with some real criticism of the government, allowed to exist as a sort of zoo so that the regime and its defenders can say, See, look, journalists arent extinct! Still, everyone honest knows what the real situation is today, and that they are collaborators in a propaganda operation. If you write something that crosses the line, it will disappear and you might lose your job. If you do it again, you might disappear, too.

Trumps regular echoes of authoritarian leaders in his rhetoric, especially his attacks on the free press and US electoral integrity, are much appreciated by real authoritarians everywhere. The US is supposed to be a standard-bearer of these rights and practices, and still is despite a steady decay since the end of the Cold War. So to have the US president himself making these charges is a gift from heaven to Americas enemies and critics. As when Trump defended Putin by saying that the US had done bad things, too. Okay, yes, but truly to compare America to a brutal dictator, and from the presidents own lips! Moral relativism, whataboutism, has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal regimes. For a US president to employ it against his own country is tragic. Trump repeating Putins wordsand nearly Stalinsby calling the press the enemy of the people, has repercussions around the world. Of course the autocrats and would-be autocrats would do as they like anyway, but its a boon to the Erdogans and Maduros, who still have to navigate the remnants of democracy and a free press. For them to be able to say that the American president considers the press a dangerous enemy of the people is potentially lethal for journalists in those countries.

In your 2015 book, Winter Is Coming, you write: It is difficult to promote democratic reform when every television channel and every newspaper shows image after image of the leaders of the worlds most powerful democracies accepting a dictator as part of their family. It sends the message that democracy and individual freedom are nothing more than the bargaining chips Putin and his ilk always say they are. What do you mean by bargaining chips? And how can the foreign press do a better job of covering Putin and his actions at home and abroad?

Putin and his kind have always had the same message about democracy and human rights when speaking to their own people. That these are Western tricks, used for nothing more than negotiation leverage. So the challenge for the free world has been to disprove this, to treat these things as sacred, and to back it up by not bargaining them away. That is, do business, make treaties, etc. if you must, but dont back down from telling the truth about rights. If an American president, or any free world leader, agrees not to mention democracy or human rights when negotiating with the worlds most brutal regimes, as has become normal, even considered pragmatic and responsible, they confirm the dictators message that its all a hypocritical show.

I hope the foreign press can take the lessons they are slowly learning about covering Trump and apply them to Putin and other dictators. Call things what they are. Lies are lies. Facts are facts. Dictators are dictators. The tell-both-sides media attitude that generally works in the free world falls apart completely when dealing with a dictatorship that doesnt operate in good faith, that lies and actively fabricates constantly. The US media are now learning this with Trump, to treat his administration like a hostile witness, or at least an unreliable narrator. Russias elections are a complete joke. Putin isnt an elected leader any more than Kim Jong-un at this point, so why play along with the charade? To be objective or fair? This is how the bad guys win, because the free worlds leaders and media want to play by rules that assume fair play and a degree of scrupulousness that doesnt exist for people like Putin, who see this tendency, accurately, as a weakness to exploit.

My former colleague at The Wall Street Journal, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Bret Stephens, recently wrote, in a tribute to the slain WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl, that the essence of intellectual integrity is not to look around, or beyond, or away from the facts, but to look straight at them.  To believe in an epistemology that can distinguish between truth and falsity, facts and opinions, evidence and wishes. To defend habits of mind and institutions of society, above all a free press, which preserve that epistemology. Do you think Trump and his administrations use of terms like fake news and alternative facts are a threat to that epistemology?

Yes, of course they are, and this is part of the point, even if its done by Trump and his gang more instinctively than in a coordinated, strategic sense. They understand that when the facts of a certain matter arent on your side, you benefit when all facts are devalued in general. Go instead with emotions, appeal to instincts, what people feel is right. Every charismatic politician does this, of course, but usually without such a frontal assault on reason as Trump displays. He dares the media to beat him at this game, an asymmetrical battle of facts versus feelings. This is very uncomfortable for the American press, unused to such direct attacks or dealing with someone for whom facts are irrelevant. It also involves new terrain technologically, with social media and the borderless Internet allowing hostile states and other outside influences to participate.

What worries me most is that Trump and his gang seem entirely incompetent and yet they still won the US presidency and have much of the GOP cowed. Its early, so we can expect them to improve their performance just as the media improves at covering them. This could be good or bad. Trump could correct and let qualified people run more things, or they could just get better at covering up and messaging.

Americans have taken their democracy and their affluence for granted for so long that they were vulnerable to someone like Trump.

Imagine what a more disciplined, more capable individual and team will be able to do using these techniques. Or imagine a leftist Trumpa younger, modern Bernie Sanderssomeone who will have the natural ideological affinity of most members of the American press but may still have little respect for democratic institutions or free markets. Would Trumpian, autocratic rhetoric be so quickly condemned if it were in favor of universal health care and directed against Fox News? Im skeptical. Im afraid that a populist touting all items on the liberal policy wish list wouldnt face nearly the level of resistance in the press even if their attitude about executive power and the Bill of Rights was like Trumps. This is why my focus is less on Trump himself and more on strengthening the democratic institutions he attacks, and that will be needed even more against the next Trump, whether [he or she comes] from the right or the left or both at once.

This is what we failed to do in Russia: We allowed Yeltsin to weaken the institutions because we were so worried about the Communists getting back in power. Then, when the ruthless and capable Putin came in, with none of Yeltsins democratic instincts, the system was far too weak to resist.

What do you see as the greatest threat to press freedom right now in Russia and the US?

Theres no press freedom in Russia as the term is understood in the free world. Its just layers of censorship, self-censorship, and chilling effect. Cracking down more on the Internetmy own news site is one of those banned in Russia, by the wayis definitely on Putins agenda. Its already tightly monitored, and people know that a wrong word on a blog or in a tweet can land them in the prosecutors office. But if that becomes too laborious, a shift toward a more Chinese-style online censorship will be ready to go. This will further isolate Russians from the world and make Russia even less prepared to recover from Putin.

As for America, the greatest threat is apathy. Trump may end up saving American journalism for a generation, indirectly of course, much as the resistance to him is already educating Americans about the separation of powers and why participating in politics matters even in the affluent free world. Market forces worked against quality journalism in the US because civic responsibility has been waning for decades. The extremists, the entertainers, and polemicists, were winning that free-market battle because the stakes in quality journalism were seen as very low by a majority of Americans. Suddenly the stakes have been raised very high, and I hope this means US citizens and institutions will continue to react by defending democratic institutions like the free press, and not by polarizing even further. Americans have taken their democracy and their affluence for granted for so long that they were vulnerable to someone like Trump. You can say the same for the media, which is still figuring out how to report on Trump accurately. If they dont figure it out, Trump will only be the beginning.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Michael Judge is a freelance journalist, editor, poet, and a former deputy editorial features editor at The Wall Street Journal.
An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of USC med school dean. If that headline isnt enough to grab your attention, nothing will. The Los Angeles Timess investigation into the troubling behavior of Dr. Carmen A. Puliafitodean of USCs Keck School of Medicine, renowned eye surgeon, and key fundraisermanaged to break through the national conversation percolating with news out of DC by engaging in that most honorable tradition in local journalism: taking on a powerful institution and getting results.

The Times discovered that while Puliafito was supervising medical students and researchers, treating patients, and bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to the university, he was also using methamphetamine and other drugs and partying in cars and hotels with people younger than many of his students. Puliafito resigned his post in March of last year shortly after a 21-year-old woman overdosed in a hotel room in which he was present.

Five Times reportersPaul Pringle, Harriet Ryan, Adam Elmahrek, Matt Hamilton, and Sarah Parvinicontributed to the story, an impressive allocation of resources for a paper that has faced difficulties both financial and internal in recent years. They contacted witnesses, dug through police reports and emergency call records, and gained access to video evidence, producing a 4,000-word story that resulted in Puliafito no longer seeing patients and disciplinary action for a Pasadena police officer who failed to report the hotel overdose of Puliafitos companion.

While the salacious details of the story no doubt helped propel its reach, the Times reporters deserve credit for delivering local news that packs a punch. Beyond the work of those five journalists, the papers investment of time and resources into the investigation is commendable. At CJR, we dedicated our most recent print issue to local news in all its successes, failures, and experimentations. Its nice to have a story break through that highlights the value of what a well-supported group of reporters can accomplish when they get a tip about a powerful institution and are given free rein to chase it down.

Below, more impactful local reporting from around the country.

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
The news was first released by the IRGC following confessions and protests among various government bands due to the ignominy of this scandalous film. It was then published by other state-run news agencies.

According to state-run news agencies, Khamenei who was after production of this movie against the MEK, in the meeting with his subordinates who produced the movie said: This film Midday Adventure was very good. All the components of the movie were great; it was a great director; excellent play and great stories. The film was well-made.

The reports show that Khamenei in the same meeting ordered the production of a movie to and whitewash the crimes of the Evin executioner, Assadollah Lajevardi, and show the facts upside down and misrepresent this criminal.

Funding for the movie against MEK by the Revolutionary Guards!

The story of Adventure of Nimrooz was written and directed by Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian and produced by Sayyed Mahmoud Razavi.

Synopsis of the film is a narrative of direct interrogators, torturers and killers of the MEK in 1980s. The movies goal is confronting the rise in popularity of the MEK particularly among the youths who were borne on or after 1981, in order to tarnish the MEKs image and prevent the youth from joining the MEK.

The IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence have been producing numerous movies against the MEK including Cyanor and Adventure of Nimrooz with the same intention.

Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, the director and author of the movie Adventure of Nimrooz, produced the film under the direct supervision and support of the OUJ Artistic and Media Organization

The Artistic and Media Organization called OUJ

The OUJ Artistic and Media Organization, affiliated to Cultural Deputy of the IRGC, was formed in 2011 following the sum up and conclusion of the 2009 uprising in Iran. The sum-up of the reports by the intelligence organs including the Eltaqat (Eclectic) Department of the Ministry of Intelligence (specifically dealing with the MEK) indicates that based on the arrests, control of phone calls and emails it was concluded that 60% to 65% of the 2009 uprising was organized by the MEK and their supporters.

On the basis of this sum-up, Khameneis regime has taken several steps to confront the uprising in the future. Among these measures was the upgrading of the IRGC deputy information department to the Sepah (Gurads) Intelligence Organization, with the purpose of specifically taking the same role as the Third SAVAK Department in the time of the Shah, known as the Anti-Sabotage Office, as well as using the Basij and Plainclothes Organization as the executive and operational arms of the IRGC.

Alongside these security intelligence agencies, the IRGCs Cultural Affairs Deputy was expanded and deployed to combat and counteract the awareness of young people using psychological warfare and the injection of reactionary thoughts. (In the last transformation in the second half of 2016, Pasdar Naghdi was transferred from commanding Khameneis Basij to the IRGC Cultural Deputy position).

Since the people and youth despise and hate the Revolutionary Guards, the IRGCs Cultural Affairs Deputy created the Artistic and Media Organization of Peak as a cultural executive arm in 2011 to pursue the goals of this deputy as an artistic organ.

The head of this organization is Ehsan Mohammad Hassani, who in addition to the IRGC cultural deputy, has connection with the Ammarion (Plainclothes) base and is sponsored and financially supported by Tehrans mayor, Pasdar Qalibaf.

Read More:

IRAN MURDERED THOUSANDS OF MEK MEMBERS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1988

A professor of political science in Tehran University, Sadeq Zibakalam, who is also a close confidant of Ali Akbar Hashem Rafsanjani, former head of Irans Expediency Council, stated that Iran, similar to those who murdered Imam Hossein (the grandson of Prophet Mohammad), has murdered thousands of members of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in the course of 10 years following the 1979 revolution, most of them during the summer of 1988 in Tehrans notorious Evin Prison. This was reported by al-Quds al-Arabi daily on February 11th, 2017, in an article written by Mohamed al-Mazhaji.

Guya News website also published excerpts of Zibakalams remarks on the sideline of Irans annual Fajr film festival in Tehran marking the 1979 revolution anniversary.

Iran has murdered thousands of opposition MEK members during the years after the 1979 revolution, without any judicial process or proving any crime, Zibakalam reiterated, referring to events of the summer 1988, and issues raised in the sound file of a meeting between the Islamic republics Death Committee with Hossein Ali Montazeri, the former successor of the Islamic republics founder.

Zibakalam also strongly criticized the movie produced with the support of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Majaraye Nimrooz (Midday Adventures), which was previewed at the Fajr film festival. He said that the film does not replicate the truth about what took place between the IRGC and MEK during that period.

We accuse the MEK of conducting a series of assassinations back in the 1980s. Did MEK members carry out these measures for no reason at all? this Rafsanjani confidant asked.

This film retells the events from the Iranian regimes point of view, depicting an image of the IRGC as kind individuals defending truth and humanity, and not the truth, he added. Instead, we killed thousands of MEK members in Evin Prison without due process, Zibakalam continued, and added that the country was witnessing a civil war at that period of Irans revolution, between the IRGC and the MEK, costing the lives of thousands of people.

The MEK is one of the main organizations that, beginning in 1965 played a pivotal role in the 1979 revolution, through armed resistance and popular movements against Irans monarchial regime. In fact, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi was the leading candidate in the presidential elections after the revolution, and the MEK played an important role from 1979 to 1983 inside Iran.

Then, due to the conflict between the state and revolutionary forces, Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, prevented many MEK members from holding any possible official jobs in governmental administration, and deprived its members from political activities.

Montazeris sound file, released by his son, Ahmad Montazeri, made significant revelations, especially since Death Committee members explained the reason for condemning and executing thousands of MEK prisoners in 1988. In response, Montazeri had said not according to sharia, morals or humanitarian principles is it permitted to kill an individual who has been condemned once in court for maintaining their position, because they have not committed a new crime and they were already in prison. The Death Committee members emphasized to Montazeri they had to be executed because they approved the MEK.

The Death Committee members are still active in high positions in the regime:

Mostafa Pour Mohammadi is one of the most important members of Irans

Death Committee and he currently is the head of the Ministry of Justice in Hassan Rouhanis cabinet.

Ibrahim Reisi is now the Supreme Leaders representative and head of the organization managing the Imam Reza shrine in the city of Mashhad, northeast Iran.

Hossien Ali Nayeri is now deputy head of Irans highest court.

Reports by the United Nations confirm the execution of at least 3,600 MEK prisoners in Tehrans prisons. Other security reports, obtained in 1998, indicate the Death Committee executed over 30,410 MEK members across Iran in the summer of 1988. This is in addition to the execution of 3,500 prisoners of leftist parties who were behind bars since the first years of the 1979 revolution.

Ahmad Khatami, a member of Irans Assembly of Experts Board of Directors and the Qom Religious School and a Friday prayer leader in Tehran, in response to the Death Committee sound file, stipulated for the first time that the execution of MEK prisoners in 1988 was carried out on charges of moharebe against God and his Messenger (enmity against God and his Prophet) and according to an order issued by Khomeini. He added that this measure was in line with implementing orders of the Quran, Islamic jurisprudence and a revolutionary measure that has served in the better interest of Islam and Iranian people.

Pour Mohammadi admitted to the accuracy of the issues raised in the sound file and added, I am proud of implementing Khomeinis orders against MEK members. He stated further, that Gods order against them has been carried out.

The Qom Islamic revolution court sentenced Ahmad Montazeri to 21 years behind bars and stripped him of his clerical authority for publishing the sound file.
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WellCare Health Plans, Inc. provides government-sponsored managed care services. The company operates in three segments: Medicaid Health Plans, Medicare Health Plans, and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs). The Medicaid Health Plans segment offers plans for beneficiaries of temporary assistance for needy families, supplemental security income, and aged blind and disabled residents; and other state-based programs, such as children's health insurance programs and long-term services and supports programs for qualifying families who are not eligible for Medicaid. The Medicare Health Plans segment provides Medicare, a federal program that provides eligible persons aged 65 and over, as well as some disabled persons with a range of hospital, medical, and prescription drug benefits; Medicare Advantage, a Medicare's managed care alternative to the original Medicare program, which offers individuals standard Medicare benefits directly through Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and coordinated care plans that are administered through health maintenance organizations and require members to seek health care services and select a primary care physician from a network of health care providers. The Medicare PDPs segment provides Medicare part D PDP plans to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries. Its PDP plans offer national in-network prescription drug coverage, including a preferred pharmacy network. As of December 31, 2018, the company served approximately 5.5 million members in the United States. WellCare Health Plans, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
As we focus on Europe and food and beverage in this issue, two industry challenges become apparent.

Europe is the second largest cruise market and ship deployment region in the world and is expected to maintain this position over the next decade, if not longer. This year, the European brands market capacity is for an estimated 6.8 million passengers, and by 2027 the annual passenger capacity could be more than 11.1 million, based on current ship orders and known deployments.

Therein lies the first challenge: In the next 10 years the European markets will have to nearly double in size.

Supporting the growth is the still untapped potential in the traditional European cruise markets and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe.

On the other hand, hampering the growth are the situations that affect the Eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Northern Africa. But once these situations are stabilized and hopefully resolved, demand will most likely be boosted by the attractiveness of the destinations in these regions.

Meanwhile, the European industry is in a very dynamic growth phase with different brands employing various deployment strategies going forward.

In addition, suppliers and vendors are also facing a challenge. As the cruise lines have consolidated to a handful of companies dominating the industry. They tell us they would like to have fewer suppliers and that in return each would get a larger piece of the pie.

In the near term this is unlikely to mean a radical change, and fewer is a relatively term when we learn that Carnival Corporation has 33,000 suppliers, of which about 5,000 are to be considered major.

But it will mean that suppliers should engage even more with their customers to win and maintain their business.

Bon Voyage

Angela Reale Mathisen & Oivind Mathisen

Publishers

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Summer 2017


By 2019, Ponant will have 350 separate cruise departures and even more in 2020, when the line has nine ships sailing year-round.

The four Boreal-class expedition vessels will concentrate on polar regions, while the Le Ponant flagship continues her Caribbean/Mediterranean program. In addition are four 180-passenger newbuilds that are being built for tropical expeditions, advised Herve Bellaiche, executive vice president of sales.

Le Laperouse and Le Champlain will join the company in 2018 followed by Le Bougainville and Le Dumont-dUrville in 2019.

The four ships are being built at an estimated cost of $110 million each at VARD in Norway.

Bellaiche said that Ponant is working to extend the booking window to 24 months to better appeal to English-speaking markets. Meanwhile, in the background, deployment planning for the 2021-2022 cruise season was going at full speed in May.

Today we are looking for more English-speaking passengers, Bellaiche told Cruise Industry News. These are huge markets where we are convinced there is demand.

In New York, new offices in midtown Manhattan are under the eye of industry veteran Navin Sawhney. In Australia, a similar strategy is in play with Sarina Bratton heading up the efforts to push a French luxury product into the marketplace.

Bellaiche explained Ponant provides a unique product. Luxury expedition, going to remote places with a very small ship with French DNA, he said.

We are doing the same with the new ships, he continued. We have designed them for tropical expeditions  remote areas like New Zealand and the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean, where no cruise line has ever gone.

Excerpt from the 2017 Expedition Cruise Market Report.

---

About the Expedition Market Report

The 2017 Expedition Cruise Market Report is a comprehensive PDF report detailing the quickly expanding expedition cruise market.

It includes capacity projections through 2027, and profiles of 17 major players with exclusive reporting, research and interviews.

There is also a trends report, original research and a look at the new ships, plus much more.

Learn More.
A spokesman for the Pentagon said that the coalition it leads wants all parties in the area to make great efforts in getting rid of ISIS. He reminded them that ISIS is the common enemy and highlighted, as have many other officials in the Trump administration, that Iran is the biggest threat to the Middle East and beyond.

Since the beginning of the month, militias backed by Iran were getting very close to an outpost in the south of Syria. Despite warnings, the militias kept approaching the outpost which left the US coalition forces no choice but to strike them. This happened three times. An Iranian-built drone that was armed shot down a US warplane.

Provocative incidents like this show that the Iranian forces have no qualms about getting close to US forces in their attempts to gain control of the supply routes leading through that part of the country. The supply routes are linked to Iraq and lead to Lebanon.

The various different militias and powers in the area have contrasting objectives which are becoming more and more obvious now that ISIS is being pushed out of the areas it battled for control over in both Syria and Iraq. As a result of this, power vacuums are arising.

Iran has a presence across the whole of the Middle East and is involved in all the conflicts. Its involvement is through the use of foreign militias. Iran was assisting Iraq in the fight against ISIS with its commanding Shiite militias. However, the real motives of the militias are concerning the international community.

It was inevitable that ISIS would lose its control, but it was uncertain how other powers would react to this. The former Iraqi ambassador to the US said: Everyone knew ISIS would be defeated. We see now that many of the powers in the region, and locally, are trying to strengthen their position for when ISIS is gone.

However, Iran is the biggest problem in all the conflicts in the Middle East. It is trying to strengthen its hold in numerous areas and is the biggest cause of instability there. It is exploiting the fact that the Arab Gulf nations are not on the same page and is spreading taking its fundamentalist ideologies abroad.
The following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, BELL TEXTRON ASIA (PTE.) LTD., Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Co. Ltd, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron LLC, Bell Textron Miami Inc., Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc., Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS (99.9%; 1 share  Textron France SAS), Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA , Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal  Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems, PEINER Umformtechnik, Pipistrel, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited , Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited.

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Ortac Resources had recommenced mining in Slovakia, it confirmed on Tuesday, fulfilling its condition required by the Slovak authorities to preserve its right to exploit the Sturec ore deposit in the Kremnica Mining License Area for a minimum period of three years.

The AIM-traded firm had announced the reissue of the small scale underground mining permit on 22 June.

Its board said the positive development enabled it to continue to work towards establishing a commercial mine on the licence.

A pre-feasibility study was completed in 2013 by SRK Consulting confirming the economic viability of the project, in addition to identifying multiple development scenarios, the board explained in its statement.

Sturec is estimated to contain measured and indicated mineral resources of 1.01 Moz at a grade of 2.05 g/t Au Eq, and inferred mineral resources of 0.31 Moz at a grade of 1 g/t Au Eq.

The PFS also deemed that a development project would likely have a favourable payback period, estimated at 3.5 years, and would present investors with a post-tax internal rate of return of 26%.

Ortac said it remains in active discussions with its potential local joint venture partner to develop the Sturec Gold Project, which could potentially realise approximately 873,000 oz of gold equivalent from the current mineral resource, in accordance with findings from the PFS.

With low total life of mine cash costs - $555/oz - and a good operating climate in Slovakia the company is confident that further development of the licence will benefit all stakeholders involved.
Christian Behrenbruch, CEO of Telix Pharmaceuticals said they chose to work with Abzena because of their "proven expertise in antibody engineering and conjugation2 and noted that "there are currently 12 antibody drugs in the clinic that harness Abzenas technology".

The technology is used to create radio-immunoconjugates  a drug used principally for the treatment of blood disorders such as Hodgkins Lymphoma, as its success on solid tumours is much more moderate. It is a radioactive substance that carries radiation directly to cancer cells by attaching radioactive isotopes to immune substances such as monoclonal body that can then be bound to the cancer cells which minimises radiation exposure to healthy tissue.

However, Telix who intend to continue investigation on the therapeutic uses of radio- immunoconjugates as a "site specific precision medication" also hope with Abzenas Composite Human Antibody technology that those PSMA antibodies can be used as the first step in further research in to the understanding of using radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic imaging.

John Burt, CEO of Abzena said that agreement that could generate in excess of $65m USD in licence fees (subject to successful development of the drugs) was "validity of our [Abzenas] combined services and technology licensing business model".
US banking giant Citigroup is reportedly set to announce Frankfurt as its choice for its new European trading hub.

Citi had been weighing options as to where to base its expanding broker-dealer operations, but said that London will remain the banks European centre, according to Bloomberg.

Between 150 and 250 new jobs will be set up in the German city as a result of the move, a source for the bank told the publication.

Major financial institutions have been weighing up their options of where to base their European operations in the wake of last years Brexit referendum, with some already indicating moves away from the UK.

Citi currently employs around 350 people in Frankfurt, and the city where the European Central Bank is located has been one of the beneficiaries of moves away from the City.
A spike in the single currency on the back of the continued political gridlock in the US weighed on equities in the early part of the session.

According to the Wall Street Journal two more US senators had decided to change sides, derailing efforts to repeal and replace ex-president Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act.

For many observers, that was a necessary precursor to any fiscal stimulus.

As of 0928 BST euro/dollar was advancing by 0.41% to 1.1524, but off an intraday high of 1.1539, while the Stoxx 600 was down by 0.28% or 1.07 points to 385.78.

In parallel, the Dax was down by 0.42% or 52.91 points to 12,542.64 and the Cac-40 by 0.11% or 5.57 points to 5,224.17.

Commenting on the morning's news-flow, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK said: "The US dollar tumbled further overnight pushing above 1.1500 against the euro as further splits in Republican ranks cast doubt on the ability of the US President to get his health care reforms off the ground which ergo suggest that any other reforms, such as tax become much less likely, either in the short term, as well as the long term.

"It would appear that the fractious nature of politics in both the US and UK is helping benefit the euro, and who would have predicted that a year ago."

On the economic calendar for Tuesday, the ZEW institute was scheduled to publish the results of its economic sentiment survey for Germany at 1000 BST.

For later in the day, investors were waiting on US import price data at 1330 BST followed by the NAHB's house market index for July at 1500 BST.

Lufthansa raised its profit target for 2017 on the back of a strong summer on its North American routes and robust economic conditions in Germany.

Stock in Ericsson cratered afetr the phone equipment manufacturer said the company's turnaround would take time to implement.

The same German carrier's low-cost unit, Eurowings was reportedly open to acquisitions, Handelsblatt reported.

Germany's Software AG boosted its full-year guidance for profits.

France's Gecina posted a recurring first half net profits of 152.7m.

In Italy, Unicredit sold 17.7bn-worth of bad loans to America's Fortress and PIMCO.
Integrated support services company Carillion , as part of a joint venture, was awarded the HESTIA North, and Scotland and Northern Ireland soft facilities management multi activity contracts, it emerged on Tuesday morning.

The FTSE 250 company said the contracts followed on from the award of the South East and London contract by DIO to the joint venture earlier in the year.

Carillion said the two net contracts had a core revenue of 158m over the initial contract period of five years, with the opportunity to double that figure in the same period through catering and retail sales.

We are delighted to be awarded these contracts, said Carillion interim chief executive Keith Cochrane.

The DIO is a key support services customer with whom we have built a long-term successful partnership.

We are committed to building on this relationship and on our position as a leading supplier to the DIO by using our core skills and capabilities to deliver high-quality services.

Carillion said the joint venture would deliver soft facilities management services, including catering, retail and leisure, together with hotel and mess services.

The North contract would employ around 1500 people, covering 130 military establishments and would go live at the beginning of January 2018, while the Scotland and Northern Ireland Region contract would go live at the beginning of November 2017 and cover a further 103 military establishments, employing around 1030 people.

These contracts play a critical role in supporting our armed forces and they have a number of unique aspects that require a specific, regional focus, Cochrane added.

They will enable us to create further training and employment opportunities for ex-services personnel in support of our commitment to the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant.
Kier and Eiffage assured the government that they can step in to deliver on the HS2 project should their partner in the joint venture, Carillion , fall short of its obligations.

Carillion, Kier and Eiffage of France was one of the consortia that had been awarded contracts to build tunnels, bridges and viaducts between London and Birmingham as part of the first phase of HS2.

Last week, Carillion's chief executive officer stepped down as the group warned that its full-year sales and six-month operating profits would fall short of forecasts, citing "difficult markets".

That prompted officials to seek assurances from Carillion's partners on the HS2 project.

Transport secretary, Chris Grayling expressed confidence in the joint venture's ability to deliver the 56bn high-speed rail link project.

According to the Telegraph, he said: "They [Carillion, Kier and Eiffage] are part of a consortium."

"They are not alone in the contracts, and we have had secure undertakings from all the members of the consortium that they will deliver that contract."

Also on Monday, Carillion disclosed that it had appointed consultancy firm EY to help with a strategic review of the business, with an emphasis on cost reduction and cash collection.
Ideagen delivered stronger than expected full-year numbers and bumped up its dividend pay-out in response.

Revenues for the 12 months ending on 30 April jumped 24% to 27.1m, surpassing Finncap analysts' forecasts for 26.2m.

The supplier of information management software credited the beat to its focus on organic growth, while continuing with its 'buy and build' acquisition strategy, including the purchase of Covalent Software and Logen both of which were bringing in steady and recurring revenue and an additional 200 customers to the group.

Stevenage-based Ideagen pegged full-year underlying organice sales growth at 10%, adding that its run rate of recurring revenues hit 20.2m at year-end.

Its investment in Coruson, a cloud based Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) platform drove a 133% increase in Software as a Service (SaaS) revenues to 4.8m, including from clients such as British Airways, Ryanair and Air Transat.

In addition, the company clinched 150 new customer accounts and significant contract extensions from clients such as Jaguar, Land Rover and DHL making up part of their strong 97% customer retention rate.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew 26% to 7.9m, delivering a 19% jump in earnings per share to 3.16p.

Net cash at period-end stood at 4.2m which was ahead of expectations due to the strong cash generation in the second half of trading.

Cash generated from operations rose from 4.9m a year agoto 8.9m.

The company repaid 2m of acquisition-related borrowings in April this year, taking the group back to a debt free balance sheet.

Ideagen's board proposed a final dividend of 0.142, for a 15% increase in the full-year payput to 0.21p.

To take note of, the comapny described trading since period-end as "robust".

"We continue to see strong demand for our products from new potential customers. Moreover our growing recurring revenues and the repeat business derived from more than 3,000 customers, an increase of over 800 from last year, provides the Board with confidence in the prospects for the Group for the current year and beyond," said Ideagen chief David Hornsby.

Following the company's results, house broker Finncap reiterated a 108.0p target price, dubbing the company's prelims as "typically impressive".
Intellectual property-based business developer IP Group saw its net assets grow to 968.1m in its first half, it reported on Tuesday, from 748.5m year-on-year, while its hard net asset value was firmer at 890.5m, from 683.5m 12 months earlier.

The FTSE 250 company saw a return on hard net asset value of 21.3m in the six months to 30 June, compares to a loss of 30.6m in the first half of 2016, and it reported gross cash and deposits of 263.1m at period end, compared to 174.7m a year earlier, including 180.3m of capital raise net proceeds settled during the period.

IP Group has a strong balance sheet, with net assets now approaching 1bn, a diverse portfolio comprising a broad range of early to mature businesses across four sectors and we believe the fundamentals of the business are strong, said chief executive Alan Aubrey.

On the corporate front, IP Group announced a 207m capital raise during the half, which included significant new shareholders from Australia, China, Singapore and the UK.

It launched IP Group Australasia, with nine new university partnership agreements signed with universities in both Australia and New Zealand, and it completed the acquisition of Parkwalk Advisors.

The company also confirmed its firm intention to make an all-share offer for Touchstone Innovations, announcing an improved offer for the firm in a separate announcement on Tuesday morning.

In the first half, we were also delighted to announce a 207m capital raising, the expansion of our business into Australasia, a firm intention to make an all-share offer for a combination with Touchstone Innovations plc and the completion of our acquisition of Parkwalk Advisors Ltd, Aubrey added.

The formal documents in connection with our offer for Touchstone Innovations plc are expected to be posted today.

Looking at its portfolio, IP Groups fair value was 663m, up from 525.7m year-on-year, with a net change in the fair value of its portfolio being an uplift of 28.5m, compared to a 24.5m decrease at the same time last year.

A total of 20.1m of capital was provided to portfolio companies and projects, compared to 12.8m a year ago, with the company confirming significant funding rounds by Ultrahaptics Holdings of 17.9m, Actual Experience of 17.5m and Creavo Medical Technologies of 13.4m.

The underlying performance of the group and its portfolio companies in the first half of 2017 has been strong with a net portfolio fair value increase of 28.5m, Alan Aubrey continued.

It has been particularly encouraging that a number of our private companies including Ultrahaptics and, more recently, Creavo, have successfully completed large fundraisings following significant commercial progress, attracting new investors to their registers.

Improved offer for Touchstone

In a separate announcement to the market on Tuesday, IP Group confirmed the details of its improved offer for Touchstone Innovations.

It said that, under the terms of the improved offer, each Touchstone shareholder would be entitled to receive 2.2178 new IP Group shares for each Touchstone share.

Based on the closing price of 137p per IP Group share on 17 July, the new exchange ratio valued each Touchstone share at 304p.

IP Group also confirmed it had received a non-binding letter of intent from Imperial College in favour of the improved offer, which represented approximately 15.3% of Touchstones issued share capital.

Following that, IP Group had now received support for the improved offer from Touchstone shareholders representing 89.7% of Touchstones issued share capital.

We welcome Imperial College's support and remain confident that the enlarged Group will be well placed to build significant shareholder value as we create an international leader in IP commercialisation, Alan Aubrey said in that separate announcement.
[July 17, 2017] Awake Security Unveils Advanced Security Analytics Solution Proven to Make Investigators 10X More Productive

Awake Security today announced the general availability of its advanced security analytics solution, the only offering to deliver deep visibility and answers to questions that cannot even be asked today. The solution's patent-pending Security Knowledge Graph data model uses machine learning and data science to automate painstaking analyses expert investigators perform. In early customer deployments with Fortune 500 security teams, Awake has improved productivity tenfold, allowing teams to detect, investigate and hunt for threats that were previously missed. The company also announced today that it has closed more than $30 million in funding from leading venture firms Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Awake's advanced security analytics provide security teams the insights needed to immediately understand the scope and impact of observed behavior and investigate only credible alerts and threats. By cutting out cumbersome tasks during the investigative process, Awake enables analysts to focus on high-value security work, speeding the detection of insider threats, corporate espionage, lateral movement and data exfiltration. By capturing the knowledge and conclusions a security team develops while doing its work, Awake lets teams get better and more effective every day; facilitates collaboration, training and evaluation; and makes security work more rewarding. "Security tools today generate massive amounts of alerts and data, but have utterly failed to account for how useful or contextual that data is to security teams. As a result, analysts have to manually connect the dots to hunt for threats, an exhausting process for even the most experienced investigator," said Gary Golomb, Awake's cofounder and a world-renowned investigator. "Awake is unleashing a new model for security operations by letting analysts explore devices instead of IP addresses, people instead of packets, data instead of protocols and activities instead of sessions. This empowers the analyst to target and stop the threats that truly matter." A Solution to Detect, Investigate and Hunt for Threats that are Currently Missed

Developed based on research with hundreds of security professionals and more than a dozen Fortune 500 and Global 2000 SOCs, Awake uses machine learning and data science to embody the expertise of the world's foremost investigators in a broad-based analytics solution. "From operations to stores to ecommerce, our digital strategy is transforming our business," said Richard Noguera, CISO at Gap, Inc. and an Awake Security design partner. "And security is foundational to our strategy. We are continuously looking at the latest techniques and technologies for rapid threat detection and response. Our partnership with the Awake team has allowed us to provide our feedback while engaging with world-class investigators and security professionals to help design and build their solution - a truly refreshing approach." The Awake hybrid SaaS architecture has two key components: the Awake Analytics Hub that resides in an organization's on-premises or cloud environment, and the SaaS (News - Alert) back-end hosted in the Awake cloud, which provides operational monitoring, software upgrades and intelligence updates to each Analytics Hub. Awake's advanced security analytics rest on a proprietary set of rich parsers that capture and process data requiring no integrations other than a simple network connection.



Awake then uses a multidisciplinary approach that leverages patterns, heuristics, and machine learning to build a patent-pending Security Knowledge Graph data model that automatically identifies and tracks real-world entities such as devices, users and domains. Analysts can then interrogate this model using a human-friendly vocabulary. The Security Knowledge Graph also captures the conclusions and discoveries made by team members, improving collaboration and training while preserving otherwise undocumented tribal knowledge. The Security Knowledge Graph enables and is enriched by EntityIQ algorithms that surface notable entities within the model and cluster similar ones. Through the wokflow-driven Awake user interface, EntityIQ can also predict the questions analysts are likely to ask, pointing them to the next investigative path quickly and effectively.

Awake's ActivityIQ analytics correlate network traffic to entities in the data model and visualize the attack timeline as a victim would experience it and as a skilled investigator would piece it together. Awake thus eliminates the need to sift through raw data. By offering the ability to accurately understand entities and associated activities in near-real time, Awake allows analysts to focus on high-value security work, including: Network Traffic Analysis: Awake's entity-centric view lets analysts see all network traffic, with devices fingerprinted and tracked across IP addresses. It offers insight into internet of things (IoT), BYO and other devices not discoverable with log or agent-based approaches. Watchlists created using Awake's behavioral query language also help detect attacker activity that occurs after an initial compromise, which today often goes unnoticed.

Awake's entity-centric view lets analysts see all network traffic, with devices fingerprinted and tracked across IP addresses. It offers insight into internet of things (IoT), BYO and other devices not discoverable with log or agent-based approaches. Watchlists created using Awake's behavioral query language also help detect attacker activity that occurs after an initial compromise, which today often goes unnoticed. Alert Investigations: Analysts can easily pivot from an alert indicator to a deep device understanding. This includes behavioral analytics about the device and analysis of similar devices for wider campaign analysis. By viewing consequential artifacts associated with the device, analysts know what questions to ask next.

Analysts can easily pivot from an alert indicator to a deep device understanding. This includes behavioral analytics about the device and analysis of similar devices for wider campaign analysis. By viewing consequential artifacts associated with the device, analysts know what questions to ask next. Proactive Threat Hunting: Awake provides analysts with investigative starting points by highlighting notable entities exhibiting anomalous behavior. The rich and responsive user interface enables efficient hunting by allowing analysts to quickly filter and query the Security Knowledge Graph data model in real time, not just for indicators of compromise, but also for entity behaviors and activities. "When it comes time for a security analyst to roll up their sleeves and dive into an incident, the flood of event information from security tools can be more distracting than helpful," said Eric Ogren, senior security analyst at 451 Research. "The network doesn't lie, so tapping into network data, automating the analysis and presenting it in a way that will help connect the dots in an investigation will make a significant impact in empowering analysts to more efficiently clear investigations." The Awake advanced security analytics solution is available immediately. For more information, please visit: http://www.awakesecurity.com. About Awake Security

Awake Security provides the only advanced security analytics solution that delivers deep visibility and answers to questions that cannot even be asked today, improving productivity tenfold. The company's patent-pending Security Knowledge Graph data model uses machine learning and data science to automate painstaking analyses expert investigators perform. It identifies and tracks network entities as humans think of them and highlights entity attributes, relationships, behaviors and activities. This enables analysts to proactively detect, hunt, investigate and respond to threats. Awake is built on a foundation of more than two years of research with hundreds of security professionals and more than a dozen security teams. The company is backed by Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures and is based in Mountain View, CA (News - Alert). Learn more at http://www.awakesecurity.com and follow Awake on Twitter (News - Alert) (https://twitter.com/awakesecurity), LinkedIn (News - Alert) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/awake-security) and Facebook (News - Alert) (https://www.facebook.com/AwakeSecurity/). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717005696/en/

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Three California municipalities filed lawsuits Monday against 37 of the worlds biggest fossil fuel companies, including Chevron, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell. The legal challenges, brought by Marin and San Mateo counties and the city of Imperial Beach, allege that the companies knew about the harm of burning fossil fuels and therefore should pay for current and future damages to the municipalities due to climate change.

The suit also alleges the fossil fuel companies launched a coordinated, multi-front effort to discredit climate science and spread doubt.

Sea level rise is here and were experiencing it first hand in Marin, as roadways continually flood with king tides and storms, Marin County Supervisor Kate Sears said in a statement.

As reported by the Marin Independent Journal, Sears was asked if the lawsuits were inspired by litigation against the tobacco industry that state attorneys general initiated in the 1990s:

You could certainly think of it that way, because a lot of what these fossil fuel companies did was modeled after what the tobacco companies did.

Instead of taking steps to actually do something about the impact of their product, Sears said, they launched this multimillion dollar lobbying campaign to discredit scientific evidence about climate change.

For a deeper dive:

AP, Marin Independent Journal, SF Gate, CBS SF, SF Weekly, San Diego Union Tribune. Commentary: Sabin Center, Michael Burger analysis

For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
California lawmakers extended the states climate legislation Monday night, in what is being considered a victory for Gov. Jerry Browns plan to lower greenhouse emissions.

The legislation, a package of bills that extends Californias plan to address climate change, passed with a supermajority in both the Assembly and the Senate, insulating it from any legal challenges. The bill passed the Senate 28-12 and was approved 55-21 in the Assembly. Eight Republican lawmakers in the Assembly voted in favor of the bill, and three democrats voted against it. In the Senate, one Republican joined the Democrats voting for the legislation.

Browns signature on the bill will extend the worlds second-largest carbon market to 2030.

Tonight, California stood tall and once again, boldly confronted the existential threat of our time, Gov. Brown said in a statement. Republicans and Democrats set aside their difference, came together and took courageous action. Thats what good government looks like.

However, as Inside Climate News reported, not everyone is celebrating:

When Brown last week announced the legislation to extend the program, three vocal factions emerged: Republicans pleaded with the governor to back away from the proposal, saying it would hurt Californias economy. Progressive environmental groupsincluding may representing polluted minority communitiesbashed the proposals as a giveaway to polluters, particularly the oil industry. Other influential environmental groups applauded the legislation, saying it represented a reasonable balance that represented the best change for moving the program forward.

State Sen. Andy Vidak, speaking in opposition to the bill, said the laws represented a regressive tax that would not make any impact on climate change. We could shut down the entire state of California and it would have no effect on the global climate, Vidak said.

Sen. Vidak is not alone in speaking out against the bill. The extension of AB 398, the states cap-and-trade program, is being criticized by more than 50 California leading environmental organizations for making concessions to industry and consulting with the oil and gas lobby. The extension on the cap-and-trade program has very few changes. It still allows big polluters to continue buying permits to emit more greenhouse gases and bars some separate regulations on refineries.

This bill makes a bad cap-and-trade system even worse, Adam Scow, California director for Food & Water Watch. It was written with oil and gas lobbyists and keeps us dependent of fossil fuels. The climate crisis demands that the state regulate and reduce pollution, but this bill gives polluters massive loopholes.

Governor Browns success in passing this polluter friendly bill is consistent with his record of supporting fracking and firing regulators who attempted to hold Big Oil accountable.

Masada Disenhouse, 350.orgs U.S. organizing coordinator and co-founder of SanDiego350, agrees. This plan has Big Oils fingerprints all over it and doesnt do enough to protect vulnerable communities or to achieve Californias ambitious targets for reducing carbon pollution, Disenhouse said. We need to extend Californias climate law, but we also need to protect the ability of local air districts to regulate pollution in their backyardsnot give refineries and other fossil fuel infrastructure a free pass to pollute.

Other environmental organizations showed their support for the bill.

Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp strongly supported AB-398 and AB-617. This vote ensures that another generation of Californians will enjoy a world-leading cap-and-trade program that places a firm and declining limit on carbon pollution and holds polluters accountable, Krupp said. At the same time, it provides the flexibility and cost-effectiveness necessary to achieve one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world.

Natural Resources Defense Councils Director of California advocacy, Annie Notthoff, said, Cap-and-trade is a backstop for Californias groundbreaking, comprehensive plan to reduce dangerous climate pollution. The legislature set aggressive new carbon-cutting targets last year, and extending cap-and-trade through 2030 helps ensure that the state will meet those new goalsa 40 percent statewide reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, the toughest in North America.
By Tim Radford

Four U.S. scientists have just introduced one more good reason not to launch a nuclear war. It would not simply guarantee the mutual destruction of the participants. It would also precipitate catastrophic climate change.

And, they argue in the journal Environment Magazine, even a single nuclear missile strike could darken the skies, chill the atmosphere, stop rainfall, ruin harvests and cost a billion lives.

Observers with memories that stretch back to the Cold War and the arms race between the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) powers on the one hand and the USSR on the other will know something of this already.

In 1983 the astronomer Carl Sagan and colleagues introduced the idea of global annihilation or at least the end of human civilization, in a nuclear winter as a consequence of a nuclear weapons exchange.

Years later, as the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian Federation was born, the same scientists did their calculations again, and reduced the threat to a kind of nuclear autumn.

Nuclear Club

Eight nations now possess a nuclear arsenal; the US, Russia and China all have nuclear weapons big enough to precipitate a nuclear calamity, and a ninth, North Korea, now claims to have nuclear capability.

This prompted researchers and political scientists from the University of Nebraska Lincoln to revisit the question, based on a theoretical study of the effect of one hundred 15-kiloton warheads, with the explosive power of 150,000 tons of TNT.

Once exploded, such a strike would incinerate 1,300 square kilometres of a city and its surrounds. This would be quite enough to push five million metric tons of black carbon smoke particles into the stratosphere.

This would be enough to screen solar radiation, reduce the agricultural crop season by between 10 and 40 days a year for at least five years, and lower global temperatures to a point lower than normal for at least 25 years.

In the very short term, this cold snap would be colder than anything for the last 1,000 years. Rainfall would decrease by as much as 20 percent to 80 percent in the Asian monsoon region.

The American southwest and western Australia could become 20 percent to 60 percent drier. South America and southern Africa, too, would see less rain. This global nuclear drought and the resulting famines could kill up to a billion people from starvation.

The most immediate victims would be those in countries that are already poor or food-insecure. And, the scientists warn, should a warhead fall upon a nuclear power facility the spread of toxic radionuclides and their long-term effects would be greatly magnified.

The drop in precipitation would, they warn, also increase conflict in developing regions, although global temperature reduction may reduce social violence in the United States and other developed countries.

Were losing our memory of the Cold War and were losing our memory of how important it is to get this right, said Tyler White, a political scientist concerned with international security and nuclear policy and one of the authors.

Even a conflict that doesnt involve the United States can impact us and people around the world.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Climate News Network.
By Mike Ludwig

As the Trump administration moves to gut Obama-era clean water protections nationwide, an environmental group is warning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that its draft pollution discharge permit for offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico violates clean water laws because it allows operators to dump fracking chemicals and large volumes of drilling wastewater directly into the Gulf.

In a recent letter to the agency, the Center for Biological Diversity told the EPA that the dumping of drilling wastewaterwhich can contain fracking chemicals, drilling fluids and pollutants, such as heavy metalsdirectly into Gulf waters is unacceptable and prohibited under the Clean Water Act.

Under current rules established by the Obama administration, offshore oil and gas platforms can discharge well-treatment chemicals and unlimited amounts of produced waters from undersea wells directly into the Gulf as long as operators perform toxicity tests a few times a year and monitor for sheens on the waters surface. About 75 billion gallons of produced water were dumped in the Gulf in 2014 alone, according to EPA records.

Offshore fracking, which typically involves injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into undersea wells to improve the flow of oil and gas, has rapidly expanded in the Gulf of Mexico over the past decade. The latest draft of the pollution discharge permit, which was largely prepared under the Obama administration, would require drillers to collect information on the fracking chemicals they dump overboard. Regulators want to know what these chemicals are; their catalogue of offshore fracking chemicals has not been updated since 2001, despite advancements in technology.

Its absolutely appalling that EPA is letting oil companies dump fracking wastewater into the Gulf without any idea of the types of chemicals being discharged, or their effects on sea turtles, sturgeon or the other marine life that call Gulf waters home, said Kristen Monsell, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, in an email to Truthout.

The Center for Biological Diversity, is also fighting offshore fracking off the coast of California, where a federal court on Friday rejected the Trump administrations effort to dismiss legal challenges to fracking in the Santa Barbara Channel. The Center for Biological Diversity, along with other environmental groups and the state of California, argue in separate lawsuits that federal regulators did not do enough to study and mitigate the environmental impacts of offshore fracking before allowing operators to use the technology in Pacific waters.

The Center for Biological Diversity may have trouble convincing the EPA to change the draft pollution discharge permit for the Gulf of Mexico without taking the agency to court. Under the leadership of Scott Pruitt, a Trump-appointee with close ties to polluting industries, the EPA is working to gut environmental regulations with the explicit intent of maximizing fossil fuel production.

Republicans Put Clean Water Rule in the Crosshairs

Pruitt is currently working to repeal the Clean Water Rule, an Obama-era regulation expanding the number of tributaries and wetlands located upstream from major bodies of water that are protected by the Clean Water Act. According to the Obama-era EPA, drinking water for one-third of the countrys population originates from such sources. However, farmers, agribusinesses and developers fear the rule would expand federal oversight to small bodies of water and interfere with private property rights. A federal court has blocked implementation of the rule until legal questions are resolved.

In late June, Pruitt released a proposal for rescinding the Clean Water Rule, which would leave federal regulators with the same definition of protected waters that has been in place since the late 1980s. Its the first step in a lengthy process that is required by law to include a scientific review and public input. However, Republicans in Congress are working to waive these requirements.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee, lead by Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, approved an energy and water appropriations bill containing a rider that would waive the federal administrative requirements for rescinding the Clean Water Rule. The bill would also cut funding for energy efficiency initiatives while investing in nuclear energy and weapons programs.

If passed in its current form, the legislation would allow Pruitt to rescind the rule without responding to public comments or justifying the rulemaking with an extensive record of scientific facts. The legislation could also make it much more difficult for environmental groups to challenge Pruitts legal rationale for rescinding the rule in court.

The Trump administrations proposal to allow more pollution into Americas drinking water sources is senseless, said John Rumpler, a senior attorney and clean water director at Environment America, in a statement. For Congress to exempt such a move from the law is simply beyond the pale.

Water Pollution and the Gulf of Mexico

Under the Clean Water Act, polluters must receive a permit from the EPA or state regulators before discharging pollutants into a body of water under federal jurisdiction. If the Clean Water Rule were to somehow survive the Trump administration, it would extend these requirements further upstream in many parts of the countrys interior.

In the Gulf of Mexico, which hosts the nations highest concentration of offshore drilling platforms, one general water pollution permit is issued every five years or so for the entire industry. Its a draft of this permit that is currently under fire from environmentalists because it would allow the dumping of fracking chemicals and produced water from oil and gas wells.

Offshore fracking has been used to maximize production in more than 1,000 Gulf wells. Over the past eight years, the Obama administration approved hundreds of frack jobs without taking a close look at the technologys impacts on the environment, at least until recently. Offshore fracking is typically much smaller in scale than its controversial onshore cousin, but recent investigations into the practice drew public attention to the industrys habit of dumping billions of gallons of drilling wastewater into the ocean every year.

A review of the draft water pollution permit for oil and gas operations in the Gulf reveals how difficult it can be to uphold federal clean water standards in remote areasor in this case, out on the open sea. Oil and gas operators are allowed to dump an unlimited amount of wastewater overboard, but certain conditions must be met in order to keep water quality near drilling platforms within federal standards.

Under the draft permit, offshore drillers would be required to run toxicity tests of the produced water and other fluids dumped overboard twice a year. If the fluid fails to pass the test, it would be considered a permit violation, and operators must conduct monthly tests until the situation improves. Operators would also be required to look for sheens on the surface of the water and figure out what is causing them.

In addition, they would either need to collect information on any fracking chemicals they dump overboard and share it with regulators, or participate in an industry-wide study on offshore fracking. Regulators would then use this data to determine whether limits for those chemicals will be needed in the future.

The draft permit tightens several monitoring requirements, but Monsell says it does not go far enough to protect water quality. Plus, the monitoring would largely be conducted by the industry itself, out on the open water.

The Trump administration cant just let the oil industry self-regulate, or were all in huge trouble, Monsell said. And the toxicity testing doesnt prevent the chemicals from being dumped in the first place, and the testing requirement doesnt even coincide with the dumping of fracking chemicals.

Monsell added that toxicity testing is not required at the source of the wastewater, but at the edge of a 100-meter mixing zone where the discharge mingles with ocean waters below the platform. This is a major concern because there are thousands of platforms operating in the Gulf, and the EPA has no clue about the cumulative impact of various mixing zones because officials have yet to completely study the issue. She argues that the EPA must seek to understand the impacts of fracking chemicals and other pollutants before allowing discharges, not after the fact.

Monsell and the Center for Biological Diversity, sent a letter of concern to the EPA last week as a public comment period on the draft permit came to a close. A spokesman for the EPAs regional office in Houston told Truthout in an email that officials would consider all the comments they have received as they work to finalize the permit.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Truthout.
By Kathiann M. Kowalski

The Rover Pipeline project in Ohio faces continuing problems, with more spills of drilling mud, ongoing questions about diesel fuel contamination, and orders issued last week by both the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The significant thing that is very new here is that Ohio EPA has said that they are working very closely with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, observed Cheryl Johncox of the Sierra Club. FERC issued a July 12 order that echoes multiple directives from the Ohio EPAs July 7 order to Energy Transfer Partners.

Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based company that runs the pipeline project, has also now acknowledged Ohio EPAs regulatory authority, Johncox noted. Those are pretty big significant changes to this conversation.

FERC also issued another notice of violation on July 13, claiming that Energy Transfer Partners did not fully and forthrightly disclose all relevant information before demolishing a historic home. Meanwhile, more problems with the project have also emerged in Michigan and West Virginia.

The concerted federal and state enforcement actions in Ohio, plus the other disputes, could slow plans for the pipeline to begin operation early next year.

More spills

On July 2, drilling for the Rover Pipeline project released 5,000 more gallons of drill slurry into a Stark County area where the company was working on a five-foot borehole that would go under the Tuscarawas River. Work was already underway to deal with a previous spill in that area.

On July 3, another inadvertent release of 1,500 to 2,500 gallons of drilling mud took place at a nearby area ten feet from the river.

This months leaks are a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons already released by the Rover Pipelines drilling work in Ohio. The Ohio EPA issued a proposed administrative order against Energy Transfer Partners in May.

On July 7, Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler issued final findings and orders to Energy Transfer Partners, adding the new releases to its initial list of charges. The order also notes that some previously-leaked material had subsequently been found to contain diesel fuel.

The fluids are defined as industrial waste under Ohio law and must go to a licensed landfill or other authorized location, the July 7 order noted.

The total fines sought from the company so far exceed $900,000, and the matter has been referred to the Ohio Attorney Generals office for possible further action. Announcing the referral on July 10, Butler described the companys response leading up to the action as basically a stiff arm to the state of Ohio.

We continue to work with FERC and the Ohio EPA to resolve these issues in a manner that is satisfactory to everyone involved, said spokesperson Alexis Daniel at Energy Transfer Partners.

Daniel identified the additional materials released this month as drilling mud, which is made up of water and naturally occurring bentonite clay. Bentonite is a type of clay that is non-toxic.

Daniel provided no explanation for how diesel fuel got into some of the previously released material. We are working with the Ohio EPA on the investigation of this matter, she said.

Johncox applauded the Ohio EPA for really doing the right thing here and demanding that they [Energy Transfer Partners] clean up the mess that they have created. In her view, the companys actions so far have shown basic disregard for their plan on how theyre going to protect the waters of our state.

She and other environmental advocates are especially concerned about the finding of diesel fuel in some of the previously released material.

Everyone was talking about it as nontoxic material. That was a talking point, said Melanie Houston at the Ohio Environmental Council. It turns out it really was toxic material. Even a very small amount can pollute the river and be a real concern for aquatic life, she noted.

As an added concern, some used drilling mud has already been deposited in former sand and gravel quarries. Quarries can be very close to the groundwater supply, Johncox said.

The Ohio EPAs July 7 order calls for a plan by Energy Transfer Partners to remove wastes from quarry sites and dispose of them in a way to be approved by the agency. Additional sampling and groundwater monitoring is also required.

Follow-up action from FERC is also likely, Johncox noted. In May, federal regulators told Energy Transfer Partners to conduct additional environmental review and to delay construction at several spots along the pipeline route.

A flood of concerns

Controversy has surrounded all phases of the Rover Pipeline project so far, including its route in Ohio and Michigan, concerns about compressor stations and disputes with landowners.

The July 13 notice of violation from FERC appears to relate to the companys previous purchase and demolition of the Stoneman House in Carroll County, Ohio. The company agreed last month to pay $1.5 million to the Ohio History Connection Foundation in connection with that dispute.

Also last week, residents near Silver Lake in Michigan held a protest against the companys latest move there, which would block the sole drainage point for a wetland area. Homes and a YMCA day camp are nearby.

This newest development is further evidence that Energy Transfer is ignorant of the geology in the areas in which it is building, said Laura Mebert, an assistant professor of social science at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan.

Energy Transfer Partners got a permit for the planned work from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality several months ago. However, that permit was granted in error, said Toledo attorney Terry Lodge, who represents pipeline opponents in both Michigan and Ohio. Neither MDEQ nor Rover apparently understood the watercourse that was going to be affected by the trenching.

When representatives from the state and pipeline company previously visited the area, they failed to understand that the marshland continues downstream as a narrow creek, Lodge explained. There is potential for flooding that could harm foundations and other aspects of at least a dozen homes if the elevation of the flood plain is altered.

On July 12 Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters wrote to FERC, asking for a temporary halt on that part of the work. If the request is granted, it would block the work there for now. But, Lodge noted, the senators letter itself is not legally binding.

Although the company might argue that concerned parties should have commented on the Silver Lake problem during the public comment period, Lodge believes the neighbors have strong grounds for their complaints.

Federal courts interpret [the National Environmental Policy Act] to require the lead agencyhere, FERCto conduct an independent investigation of any possible environmentally destructive feature of the project when it is discovered, even at this late state, Lodge explained.

As a practical matter, he added, if the company moves forward before the situation has been addressed fully, there is a prospect for monetary liability if serious flooding is caused, and interruption of operations of the pipeline if there is a subsequent realignment or other change required.

Safety remains a top priority to us, and we continue to work closely with FERC on the safe construction of our approved route, Daniel said. It is always our goal to work closely with affected landowners, governments and the neighboring communities to foster long-term relationships and build the pipeline in the safest, most environmentally friendly manner possible.

Undermining the pipeline

On July 14, the ISKCON New Vrindaban religious community in Moundville, West Virginia drew FERCs attention to yet another potential problem.

The pipeline route had already been changed to avoid sacred areas on the communitys property. Project representatives were advised at that time that the alternate area agreed upon was already slated for longwall coal mining this summer, said Gabriel Fried, secretary/treasurer and executive agent for the religious community.

The better practice would be for the Rover Pipeline project to delay that part of the construction for a few weeks after Murray Energy finished undermining, Fried said. That would allow time for subsidence to take place, he noted, adding that he has decades of experience as a former pipe welder.

Leaving the ditch uncovered could allow for correction of obvious problems, Fried said. But if theres stress on the pipe due to it being undermined, theyre not going to know it, he said. And that means its an action waiting to happen.
Dr. Alexandra Morton

Consumers have been led to believe that when they buy farmed salmon, they are helping protect wild salmon and the whales and bears that feed on them, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The wild and remote coast of British Columbia Canada is the perfect habitat for making wild salmon. Rain-soaked watersheds, clean gravel for spawning, 1,000s of km of kelp forested nursery areas in food-rich green coastal waters. Sea birds, seals and whales follow the massive silvery schools preying on the weaker fish keeping the runs strong and healthy and the whole coasts from indigenous cultures to bears and eagles set their clocks to the return of the salmon in the fallan abundance of food that nourishes everyone through the lean winter months. Salmon feed the trees that make the oxygen we breathe, they are one of the power lines that fuel our world.

In the 1970s, Norsk Hydro in Norway began farming salmon in pens in the ocean and today a farmed salmon is worth more to Norwegians than a barrel of oil. The industry has become as rapacious as the oil industry. With more than 900 farms dotting their coast, they have now spread across temperate coastlines worldwide and unfortunately they took their prize livestock with them, the Atlantic salmon.

Biologists, fishermen, indigenous leaders and senior Fisheries and Oceans Canada bureaucrats warned that allowing Atlantic salmon into BC was a dangerous game of Russian Roulette. Every farm fish carried the potential for a disease that could spread among Pacific salmon. Importing exotic species is one of the greatest causes of the global loss of biodiversity. A member of the Norwegian Parliament, Jon Lilletun, warned the Canadian Senate:

However, caution was tossed aside and three Norwegian companies now use the coast of BC to farm millions of Atlantic salmon, with most of the attending environmental damages attributed to the industry at home sea lice, disease, drugs, pollution. As a biologist studying whales as the industry moved in, I have witnessed the crushing impact of this industry first hand; unprecedented toxic algae blooms, the whales were displaced by high-amplitude seal scarers, escaped Atlantics in Pacific rivers, sea lice eating the majority of wild salmon to the point of death and today I am tracking salmon farm viruses plaguing the industry worldwide. The industry had become the dominant user group of the BC coast. There was no touching them. The Norwegian scientists I turned to for help suggested I look the other way, they said the industry and the Canadian government would make life difficult for me.

I have now published more than 20 scientific papers on the impact of salmon farms; but like all the papers on the impact of salmon farms, they have been ignored. Its like climate change science or the tobacco industry.

The year that salmon farms were placed on the Fraser sockeye salmon migration route, the largest salmon run in the world, the decline began. Mysteriously millions died in the river just before spawning. When a Canadian government scientist pinpointed a virus flourishing in the farms (salmon leukemia virus), she was muzzled and prohibited from attending meetings on the collapse of the Fraser sockeye salmon. Last year was the lowest return ever recorded, while Alaska, which prohibits salmon farms continues to have enormous returns.

Recent scientific paper reports orcas in BC are starving, increasingly unable to carry their young full term and threatened to extinction because Fraser River salmon have declined so precipitously. Despite this, the Canadian government has not reported any further on the virus thought to be killing Fraser River salmon.

The lab I work with was stripped of its North American reference lab status when he detected the notorious farm salmon virus ISAV in the samples I sent to him for testing. Infectious salmon anemia a member of the influenza family, is internationally reportable which means it can impact trade as countries close their borders to protect their fish. In 2016, we published on the presence of this virus in BC in a leading virology journal and yet Canada continues to ignore the evidence and so the farmed salmon market remains unperturbed.

I am currently being sued by the largest salmon farming corporation in the world, based in Norway, for touching a farm with a teaspoon to collect a bird dropping for testing.

This spring, 17 years after I discovered sea lice from Atlantic salmon farms are eating wild salmon to death, the epidemic continues. The number of young salmon heading to sea in my research area is so low I have to wonder did I see them off into extinction?

However, there are other runs of wild BC salmon that might still be saved and the good news is that a very simple action by the public could make all the difference for the 100 species that wild salmon feed along the eastern Pacific Ocean. Dont buy farmed salmon. How can you tell if it is farmed? Farmed salmon has bright white stripes of fat due to its docile captive life.

The orange coloring is selected by the grower and added to the feed.

In 2016, Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd sent me a ship and crew (see video below) and together we pulled away the curtain of secrecy this industry cloaks itself in. This led to the first images of wild fish trapped in the pens where they were attacked by the farm fish, diseased farm salmon and the large schools of herring behaving like trained dogs hurrying to the farm nets every time the feeders went on.

Alexandra Morton is an independent biologist who has worked to protect wild salmon from farms for 31 years.
Individualism is thought to be on the rise in Western countries, but new research suggests that increasing individualism may actually be a global phenomenon. The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that increasing socioeconomic development is an especially strong predictor of increasing individualistic practices and values in a country over time.

"Much of the research on the manifestation of rising individualism -- showing, for example, increasing narcissism and higher divorce rates--has focused on the United States. Our findings show that this pattern also applies to other countries that are not Western or industrialized," says psychology researcher Henri C. Santos of the University of Waterloo. "Although there are still cross-national differences in individualism-collectivism, the data indicate that, overall, most countries are moving towards greater individualism."

Drawing from national census data and data collected for the World Values Survey, Santos, senior study author Igor Grossmann (University of Waterloo), and study co-author Michael E.W. Varnum (Arizona State University) were able to examine 51 years' worth of data detailing individualist practices and values in a total of 78 countries.

In general, individualist cultures tend to conceive of people as self-directed and autonomous, and they tend to prioritize independence and uniqueness as cultural values. Collectivist cultures, on the other hand, tend to see people as connected with others and embedded in a broader social context -- as such, they tend to emphasize interdependence, family relationships, and social conformity.

To measure individualistic practices across cultures, the researchers examined data on household size, divorce rates, and proportion of people living alone. To measure individualistic values, they examined data on the importance that people place on friends versus family, how important people believe it is to teach children to be independent, and the degree to which people prioritize self-expression as a national goal.

Santos, Varnum, and Grossmann also looked at data on specific socio-ecological factors -- including the level of socioeconomic development, disaster frequency, incidence of infectious disease, and extreme temperatures in each country -- to examine whether they might account for any shifts in individualism over time.

Overall, the results showed a clear pattern: Both individualistic practices and values increased across the globe over time. Specifically, statistical models indicated that individualism has increased by about 12% worldwide since 1960.

Only four countries -- Cameroon, Malawi, Malaysia, and Mali--showed a substantial decrease in individualistic practices over time, while 34 out of 41 countries showed a notable increase.

And only five countries -- Armenia, China, Croatia, Ukraine, and Uruguay--showed a substantial decrease in individualistic values over time, with 39 out of 53 countries showing a substantial increase.

While the data indicated an overarching trend toward greater individualism, the researchers noted that sizable differences between countries remained through 2011.

Several socio-ecological factors -- including more frequent disasters, less prevalent infectious disease, and less climatic stress in poorer countries -- were linked with individualism, but increased socioeconomic development was the strongest predictor of increased individualism over time. Various aspects of development were related to increases in individualism, particularly increases in the proportion of white-collar jobs, education levels, and household income.

"The fact that most of the countries that did not show an increase in individualist values were among the lowest in socioeconomic development over the time period examined is consistent with the observation that socioeconomic development drove the rise in individualism," the researchers explain in their paper. "China is an exception to this pattern, showing a decrease in individualist values even though the country has experienced economic growth. Notably, China has a complex socioeconomic history, so it will be worthwhile to investigate this country in more detail in future research."

"I hope that these findings encourage psychologists in a variety of countries to take a more in-depth look at the rise of individualism within their respective countries," says Santos.

Santos and Grossmann are hoping to continue this line of research, studying other predictors of cultural change, including migration and shifts in ethnic diversity, and also the potential consequences that rising individualism may have on a global scale.

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Work on this manuscript was supported by Insight Grant 435-2014-0685 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to I. Grossmann.

All code and data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework. The complete Open Practices Disclosure is available online. This article has received the badge for Open Data.

For more information about this study, please contact: Henri C. Santos at hcsantos@uwaterloo.ca or Igor Grossmann at igrossma@uwaterloo.ca .

The article abstract is available online: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797617700622

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Global Increases in Individualism" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
BOSTON - A majority of U.S. health care organizations have adopted electronic health record (EHR) systems and are increasingly offering patients access to the health information contained in electronic health records (EHR), including the notes their doctors, nurses, therapists and others write after a visit, using secure, patient portals. New findings from researchers at OpenNotes and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center shed light on what patients value about having access to their visit notes and being invited to participate more actively in the safety of their care.

The results appear online today in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

"When experts talk about the power of health information technology, we often hear about efforts to make care more patient- and family-centered, but we've heard very little about what matters to the patients themselves, perhaps because information sharing has been largely one-way and passive," said lead author, Macda Gerard, a research assistant at OpenNotes and a first year medical student at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. "We hope that having a better understanding of what patients value about the transparent exchange of health information will guide efforts to improve engagement, the patient experience, and the overall quality of care."

The researchers developed a patient feedback tool linked to the visit note in the EHR as part of a quality improvement initiative aimed at improving safety and learning what motivates patients to engage with their health information on the patient portal. Over the 12 month pilot period, 260 patients and caregivers provided feedback using the reporting tool. Nearly all respondents found the tool to be valuable and about 70 percent provided additional information regarding what they liked about their notes and the feedback process.

"When we asked patients what they liked about gaining access to the content of their notes, four themes emerged," said Gerard. "Patients appreciated the ability to confirm and remember next steps and welcomed quicker access to results. They reported that reading the notes helped them feel heard and gain confidence in their providers, and they valued the opportunity to share information with care partners."

One patient wrote, "I sometimes have white coat syndrome where I am a little nervous in the doctor's office and then cannot remember all that was said. Reading the notes after my visits confirms what I have heard."

Another, "We are grateful to receive "notes" to be able to review the visit and procedures (if any) performed. Especially helpful for older patients who may have hearing and/or some cognitive (or) memory loss."

The researchers identified additional themes related to providing feedback on the notes. Patients liked having the ability to confirm the accuracy of the note and catch potential errors. They valued the sense of partnership that comes with access to notes and described the ability to better engage with the care team. Many cited improved bidirectional communication and enhanced education, and many liked the simple act of being given the opportunity to provide feedback.

One patient wrote, "I like to see that my medical records as embodied in the notes are consistent with the conversation I have had with my doctor."

"Reading the notes can only make me come to my appointments better prepared and help my team understand what issues are important to me and what I need them to hear," wrote another patient.

"Even though this is a small pilot initiative, our findings are heartening. We believe that providing easier access to visit notes and asking for feedback sends a powerful message of inclusivity to patients and families," says senior author, Sigall Bell, MD, OpenNotes Director of Patient Safety and Discovery. "This feedback gives us the ability to bring patient and family voices more consistently to health decisions, system design and patient activation tools so that patients can engage in ways that matter most to them."

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In addition to Gerard and Bell, authors include BIDMC investigators, Alan Fossa, MPH, Patricia Folcarelli, RN, PhD, and Jan Walker, RN, MBA.

This research is supported by CRICO/Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions.

About OpenNotes

OpenNotes is a national movement dedicated to making health care more open and transparent by encouraging doctors, nurses, therapists, and others to share their visit notes with patients through a secure, patient portal, giving patients easier access to important medical information they already have the legal right to receive. The goal is to empower patients, families, and caregivers to feel more in control of their health care decisions, and to improve the quality and safety of care. The movement to make ready access to doctors' notes the standard of care for all patients is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Peterson Center on Healthcare and Cambia Health Foundation. Learn more at http://www.opennotes.org.
[July 17, 2017] BASF SE Selects Icertis to Accelerate Contracting Velocity, Ensure Global Compliance

FRANKFURT, Germany and BELLEVUE, Wash., July 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Icertis, the leading provider of enterprise contract management in the cloud, today announced that BASF SE, the world's leading chemical company, has selected the Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform to serve as the foundation for BASF's modernization of its global contracting processes. This forward-looking initiative will help accelerate contracting velocity across BASF's world-wide sales and corporate teams, increase visibility through a single easy-to-use, enterprise-wide contracting system, and ensure compliance. "At BASF we are committed, through science and innovation, to enabling our customers to meet the current and future needs of society," said Matthew Lepore, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of BASF Corporation and sponsor of the project. "The Icertis platform's ease of use and intelligent insights will help us optimize the value of our commercial relationships, increase contracting efficiencies, and help reduce contractual risk." The fast pace of the chemical business meant that BASF wanted to transform its contracting processes to serve the company's customers more efficiently. BASF selected Icertis' intelligent, cloud-based platform due to its intuitive user interface, support for all types of contracts, ease of deployment and ability to adapt to changing requirements. With the ICM platform, BASF will be able to easily create and modify workflows, automate its cotracting processes and ensure greater visibility into contractual obligations and deviations.



"As BASF looks to build a sustainable future with their customers, we are thrilled to help them build a sustainable, future looking approach to contract management," said Samir Bodas, Co-founder and CEO of Icertis. "BASF's selection of Icertis further establishes our leadership in the manufacturing space and global leadership in enterprise contract management. We look forward to partnering with BASF on their transformation journey over the next decade." Thorsten Herrmann, General Manager Enterprise und Partner Group, Microsoft Germany said, "The Icertis Contract Management platform built on Microsoft Azure is powering BASF to reinvent contract management as they create chemistry for a sustainable future. The combination of Icertis and Azure provides an innovative, scalable cloud solution that enables companies to digitally transform their foundation of commerce."

Icertis Opens New Frankfurt Office

Icertis also announced the opening of a new Frankfurt office to serve customers like BASF and Daimler, continuing Icertis' rapid growth in EMEA. The office will be led by Martin Mohr, VP and General Manager of EMEA, and serve as the company's European headquarters. Icertis' Frankfurt office will be the company's seventh office, and third in EMEA including Zurich and Stuttgart. More than 1+ million subscribers trust Icertis to manage over 3.5+ million contracts in more than 90+ countries and 40+ languages. For more information about the Icertis Contract Management platform, visit www.icertis.com. About Icertis

Icertis, the leading provider of enterprise contract management in the cloud, solves the hardest contract management problems on the easiest to use platform. Icertis helps companies transform their commercial foundation increasing compliance, improving governance, mitigating risk and enhancing user productivity, thereby maximizing ROI and accelerating time to value. The Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is used by 1+ million users at companies like 3M, Becton Dickinson, Cognizant, Daimler, and Microsoft, to manage 3.5+ million contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries. For more information, visit www.icertis.com . Icertis Media Contact:

Sarah Nickell

Barokas Public Relations for Icertis

[email protected]

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ITHACA, N.Y. -Notorious financier Bernie Madoff bilked more than 10,000 investors out of billions of dollars in the 1990s and 2000s in the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. But the effect of Madoff's elaborate Ponzi scheme rippled far beyond his direct victims.

For the first time, a Cornell University researcher and his colleagues have quantified just how much the rip-off cost the financial industry.

After the fraud was discovered, people who knew Madoff's victims or who lived in areas where victims were concentrated lost trust in the financial system and dramatically changed their investment behavior, according to a new Cornell study recently published in The Review of Financial Studies.

The investors yanked $363 billion from the financial advisers they had entrusted with it - even though many of those advisers had nothing to do with Madoff - and stashed a significant portion into safe assets such as bank deposits.

"People lost trust in these advisers. Everybody just ran," said Scott Yonker, co-author of the study, assistant professor of applied economics and management.

The $363 billion in investment withdrawals is nearly 20 times the $17 billion in restitution the courts ordered Madoff to pay his investors, Yonker said. "That's a pretty big effect. The withdrawals were so hefty in some areas that some investment firms ended up shutting their doors and going out of business," he said.

Investment firms with clients in regions that were affected by the fraud were over 40 percent more likely to close than firms in a control group. Those who had the ability to steal from their clients lost more of their clients' business. In contrast, advisers who were able to build more trust with their clients, such as by offering personalized financial planning, had fewer withdrawals.

From the 1990s through the late 2000s, Madoff deposited his clients' money into his personal bank account, rather than invest it and generate steady returns as his clients had expected. When his clients wanted to liquidate their investments for cash, he dipped into the bank account to fund their requests.

The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Madoff several times. But it only discovered the fraud when Madoff's sons turned him in, in 2008.

Yonker and his colleagues used court documents to identify the names and addresses of more than 10,000 victims, who were concentrated in the Northeast, parts of California and around Miami. The team also compared that information with the assets managed by nearly 4,000 investment advisers and deposits in 97,000 branches of banks in 20,600 ZIP codes.

Crunching that data, the researchers showed investors' trust in Madoff - and their friends' and neighbors' subsequent distrust of the financial system - spread by word of mouth. The key? Madoff targeted elderly, wealthy Jewish investors in what is known as an affinity Ponzi scheme.

"These schemers basically take advantage of some commonality in their background. In this case, Madoff was Jewish and his clients were Jewish," Yonker said. Religion is the second-most common source of this affinity link in Ponzi schemes, after family and friends, he added.

The loss of trust was strongest in areas that were home to both Madoff victims and a large number of the affinity group. "It propagated through this social network," Yonker said.

Even four years after the fraud was revealed, the researchers found no evidence that investors had reversed their withdrawals from the stock market.

"We show the importance of trust in investors' allocation decisions," Yonker said. "At the macro level, economic growth critically depends on the efficient allocation of capital.

"Capital flows stemming from distrust in intermediaries instead of the underlying investment opportunities can potentially lead to suboptimal allocations," he added.

###

Yonker's co-authors are Umit Gurun of the University of Texas, Dallas and Noah Stoffman of Indiana University.

Cornell University has television, ISDN and dedicated Skype/Google+ Hangout studios available for media interviews. For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story.
Arlington, Va., July 18, 2017 - You can lead a doctor to disinfection, but how do you get them to clean...or wipe ....or swab a stethoscope?

That's the question raised by a new quality improvement project published in the July issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

It is the latest report to find that healthcare providers rarely perform stethoscope hygiene between patient encounters, despite its importance for infection prevention. Infection control guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that re-usable medical equipment, such as stethoscopes, must undergo disinfection between patients.

"Stethoscopes are used repeatedly throughout the day and become contaminated after each patient exposure, so they must be treated as potential vectors of transmission," said Linda Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, FAPIC, 2017 president of APIC. "Failing to disinfect stethoscopes could constitute a serious patient safety issue similar to ignoring hand hygiene."

The report describes a quality improvement pilot project in which the authors observed stethoscope hygiene (alcohol swabs, alcohol gel, or disinfectant wipes) at the start of a four-week rotation for medical students, resident physicians, and attending physicians at a tertiary care academic teaching hospital. The baseline observation of stethoscope hygiene among staff found zero occurrences. The project also looked at hand hygiene, which can include alcohol gel or soap and water.

The team then sought to educate clinicians about the importance of stethoscope hygiene, and emphasized the expectation for clinicians to conduct stethoscope hygiene between each patient encounter. They also hinted that they might monitor during the follow-up phase. Despite this, the result was the same: zero occurrences of stethoscope sanitation.

The authors commented: "While the project had several limitations, it does highlight how rarely stethoscope hygiene is performed. Standard education may not be the answer to this problem. Behavioral and cultural modification to improve hand hygiene still remains a challenge, despite being studied in large randomized trials. Stethoscope hygiene implementation will need more consistent efforts to change culture and habits. We believe that stethoscope hygiene should be included in all hospital hand hygiene initiatives along with increased accountability."

Hand hygiene has traditionally received much more attention than stethoscope hygiene, but microbiology data show that stethoscope contamination after a single exam is comparable to that of the physician's dominant hand. Potential pathogens cultured from stethoscopes include Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Clostridium difficile, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. In fact, a recent Swiss study found that stethoscopes were capable of transmitting potentially resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The team anticipated a poor result, based on the low rates of stethoscope hygiene that has been reported in studies elsewhere. "We anticipated low stethoscope hygiene rates, but were surprised that no one performed stethoscope hygiene, despite the fact that it is on the checklist for second-year medical students' final evaluation demonstrating competency in performing a complete history and physical at our institution."

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A new King's College London study suggests that genes account for nearly 50 per cent of the differences between whether children are socially mobile or not.

One of the best predictors of children's educational attainment is their parents' educational level and in the past this association was thought to be environmental, rather than influenced by genes.

Parents with higher levels of educational achievement, for example, are thought to access greater academic and social resources, enabling them to pass on better opportunities for their children than less educated parents.

This new King's study, published today in Psychological Science, is the first to find substantial genetic influence on children's social mobility, which could have important implications for reducing educational inequality.

Using a sample of more than 6,000 twin families from the Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Twins Early Development Study, the researchers measured genetic influence on four categories of social mobility:

Downwardly mobile: children who did not complete A-Levels but were raised in families with a university-educated parent;

Upwardly mobile: children who completed A-Levels but their parent did not attend university;

Stably educated: children who completed A-levels and were raised in families with a university-educated parent

Stably uneducated: children who did not complete A-Levels and whose parents did not attend university

The researchers also used an alternative method to study genetic influences on social mobility that focuses on people's DNA markers for educational achievement, so-called genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS).

They found that children with higher polygenic scores completed A-levels, even if they had come from families where no parent had gone to university. The highest polygenic scores were found for families that were 'stably educated', the lowest scores for those who were 'stably uneducated', and results fell in the middle for downwardly and upwardly mobile families.

Ziada Ayorech, first author of the study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, said: 'The role of parent's education in their children's educational outcomes has previously been thought of as environmental, but our study suggests a strong genetic component too. These results show that half of the differences between whether families were socially mobile or not, can be attributed to genetic differences between them.

'This tells us that if we want to reduce educational inequalities, it's important to understand children's genetic propensity for educational achievement. That way, we can better identify those who require more support.'

Dr Sophie von Stumm, senior author and a Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths University of London, added: 'Finding genetic influences on social mobility can be viewed as an index of equality, rather than inequality. The reason is that genetics can only play a significant role for children's educational attainment if their environmental opportunities are relatively equal.'

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Notes to editors

For further media information please contact Jack Stonebridge, Senior Press Officer, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London jack.stonebridge@kcl.ac.uk/ 020 7848 5377.

About King's College London - http://www.kcl.ac.uk

King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2016/17 QS World University Rankings) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 26,500 students (of whom nearly 10,400 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and nearly 6,900 staff. The university is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King's was ranked 6th nationally in the 'power' ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King's was deemed 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of more than 600 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: http://www.kingshealthpartners.org.
New Orleans, LA - LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health will receive $2.5 million to improve resilience and mental health outcomes in six communities in south Louisiana that experience weather-related and manmade disasters. The Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded the grant through a competitive process. This project represents an under-developed area of research on climate change.

"By establishing a community-partnered learning collaborative and research network, this project will allow us to test and promote practices that can strengthen resilience.," notes the grant's principal investigator Benjamin Springgate, MD, MPH, FACP, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Health Policy and Systems Management at LSU Health New Orleans Schools of Medicine and Public Health. "The project team will work with community stakeholders in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and coastal south Louisiana, but we think our results will be adaptable to other Gulf states and beyond."

Goals of the project include: a rapid assessment of how well the communities currently address resilience; determining how to best promote improved mental health resilience by comparing two approaches - providing agencies with technical resources to assist clients, or supporting community planning by agencies and individuals to adapt and improve technical resources for local context and use; as well as comparing two mobile phone based applications to enhance skills to cope with stress and offer resources to enhance resilience. The research will also conduct case studies on the development of the collaborative research network, of how community planning and engagement coalitions use strategies to address depression and broader resilience, and to support stakeholders in developing policy recommendations.

"The research will focus on under-resourced communities with disparities in exposure to disasters and social determinants of health like poverty," adds Dr. Springgate, who is also Chief of the new Section of Community and Population Medicine in the Department of Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. "Building upon existing partnerships, our team will engage stakeholders in the research and mixed-methods for evaluating effects of interventions on community and individual resilience outcomes for adults receiving services in health and community-based programs in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and coastal south Louisiana."

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LSU Health New Orleans' partners in the project include Resilient Baton Rouge; the Community and Patient Partnered Research Network; Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program; Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development; Greater New Orleans, Inc.; Healthy African Families II; Louisiana Community Health Outreach Network; Louisiana Department of Health; St. Anna's Episcopal Church; Tulane University; University of California - Los Angeles; and University of Southern California.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSUHSC research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.
A combined analysis of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), a ground-based observatory in Namibia, suggests the center of our Milky Way contains a "trap" that concentrates some of the highest-energy cosmic rays, among the fastest particles in the galaxy.

"Our results suggest that most of the cosmic rays populating the innermost region of our galaxy, and especially the most energetic ones, are produced in active regions beyond the galactic center and later slowed there through interactions with gas clouds," said lead author Daniele Gaggero at the University of Amsterdam. "Those interactions produce much of the gamma-ray emission observed by Fermi and H.E.S.S."

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles moving through space at almost the speed of light. About 90 percent are protons, with electrons and the nuclei of various atoms making up the rest. In their journey across the galaxy, these electrically charged particles are affected by magnetic fields, which alter their paths and make it impossible to know where they originated.

But astronomers can learn about these cosmic rays when they interact with matter and emit gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.

In March 2016, scientists with the H.E.S.S. Collaboration reported gamma-ray evidence of the extreme activity in the galactic center. The team found a diffuse glow of gamma rays reaching nearly 50 trillion electron volts (TeV). That's some 50 times greater than the gamma-ray energies observed by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). To put these numbers in perspective, the energy of visible light ranges from about 2 to 3 electron volts.

The Fermi spacecraft detects gamma rays when they enter the LAT. On the ground, H.E.S.S. detects the emission when the atmosphere absorbs gamma rays, which triggers a cascade of particles resulting in a flash of blue light.

In a new analysis, published July 17 in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of scientists combined low-energy LAT data with high-energy H.E.S.S. observations. The result was a continuous gamma-ray spectrum describing the galactic center emission across a thousandfold span of energy.

"Once we subtracted bright point sources, we found good agreement between the LAT and H.E.S.S. data, which was somewhat surprising due to the different energy windows and observing techniques used," said co-author Marco Taoso at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Madrid and Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Turin.

This agreement indicates that the same population of cosmic rays -- mostly protons -- found throughout the rest of the galaxy is responsible for gamma rays observed from the galactic center. But the highest-energy share of these particles, those reaching 1,000 TeV, move through the region less efficiently than they do everywhere else in the galaxy. This results in a gamma-ray glow extending to the highest energies H.E.S.S. observed.

"The most energetic cosmic rays spend more time in the central part of the galaxy than previously thought, so they make a stronger impression in gamma rays," said co-author Alfredo Urbano at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and INFN Trieste.

This effect is not included in conventional models of how cosmic rays move through the galaxy. But the researchers show that simulations incorporating this change display even better agreement with Fermi data.

"The same breakneck particle collisions responsible for producing these gamma rays should also produce neutrinos, the fastest, lightest and least understood fundamental particles," said co-author Antonio Marinelli of INFN Pisa. Neutrinos travel straight to us from their sources because they barely interact with other matter and because they carry no electrical charge, so magnetic fields don't sway them.

"Experiments like IceCube in Antarctica are detecting high-energy neutrinos from beyond our solar system, but pinpointing their sources is much more difficult," said Regina Caputo, a Fermi team member at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study. "The findings from Fermi and H.E.S.S. suggest the galactic center could be detected as a strong neutrino source in the near future, and that's very exciting."

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The Fermi mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed by NASA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States. The H.E.S.S. Collaboration includes scientists from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Armenia, South Africa and Namibia.

For more information about NASA's Fermi, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/fermi
Technology for identifying at-risk atrial fibrillation (AFib) patients was chosen as the winner of the inaugural Alexandria LaunchLabs Scholarship Award, which recognizes excellence in health care technology, entrepreneurship and business competencies. The technology, developed by a Mount Sinai researcher and entrepreneur, Ya-El Mandel-Portnoy, PhD, was selected from entries submitted by 26 of New York City's top academic entrepreneurs, who presented their work to investors and biopharma business executives at the 2017 NYC Life Science Innovation Showcase on June 13, 2017.

Dr. Mandel-Portnoy launched Cardea Sciences, a startup addressing the critical unmet medical need of effectively stratifying patients with AFib--the most common cardiac arrhythmia, costing the United States an estimated $26 billion annually--during her doctorate program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her winning technology will help patients and care providers to better manage AFib in an outpatient setting by measuring pulse deficit--the difference in the heart rate between key areas in the body--and segmenting AFib patients based on the magnitude of their pulse deficit.

"Cardea Sciences' focus is on patient outcomes, empowering patients and clinicians to manage the disease by identifying those AFib patients who will not tolerate the arrhythmia well and will suffer from severe adverse events," said Dr. Mandel-Portnoy. "This will help care providers optimize their course of treatment and reduce the number of readmissions, thus leading to a reduction in health care costs."

As the Alexandria LaunchLabs Scholarship Award winner, Dr. Mandel-Portnoy will receive laboratory and office space at the innovative Alexandria LaunchLabs, New York City's premier, full-service life science startup platform at the Alexandria Center for Life Science - New York City.

"Dr. Mandel-Portnoy is a product of the innovation ecosystem that we've built at Mount Sinai. We are thrilled that Cardea Sciences was recognized by Alexandria LaunchLabs and look forward to its success," said Erik Lium, PhD, Senior Vice President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, the commercialization arm of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The NYC Life Science Innovation Showcase was organized by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., an urban office REIT focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses, in partnership with the New York Academic Consortium.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Mandel-Portnoy bring her passion and excitement for entrepreneurship to the Alexandria LaunchLabs community and are committed to helping her build a successful company around her promising AFib technology," said Blake Stevens, PhD, general manager of Alexandria LaunchLabs.

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About Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP)

MSIP is responsible for driving the real-world application and commercialization of Mount Sinai discoveries and the development of research partnerships with industry. The aim is to translate these innovations into healthcare products and services that benefit patients and society. MSIP is responsible for the full spectrum of commercialization activities required to bring the Icahn School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Health System's inventions to life. These activities include evaluating, patenting, marketing and licensing new technologies, engaging commercial and non-profit relationships for sponsored research, material transfer and confidentiality, as well as fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship within our research and health system communities. For more information, visit http://www.ip.mountsinai.org.

About Alexandria LaunchLabs at the Alexandria Center for Life Science - New York City

Alexandria LaunchLabs is New York City's premier, full-service startup platform designed to satisfy key unmet needs for plug-and-play space and strategic risk capital for seed- and early-stage life science companies in New York City. Located at the Alexandria Center for Life Science - New York City, Alexandria LaunchLabs provides move-in-ready office/laboratory space, first-class support resources, shared equipment and services, creative amenities and access to startup capital through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform--all of which are critical for accelerating the growth of seed- and early-stage companies in New York City. The Alexandria LaunchLabs team continues to accept applications for future members. For more information, please visit http://www.launchlabsnyc.com.
The commercialization of the 'natural gas fuel cell' has finally come to the fore, thanks to the recent development of electrode materials that maintain long-term stability in hydrocarbon fuels. Advantage of using this material includes that it uses internal transition metal as a further catalyst in a fuel cell operating condition.

This breakthrough comes from a research, conducted by Professor Guntae Kim of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST in collaboration with Professor Jeeyoung Shin of Sookmyoung Women's University, Professor Jeong Woo Han of University of Seoul, Professor Young-Wan Ju of Wonkwang University, and Professor Hu Young Jeong of UNIST. Their results, published online in the June issue of the prestigious journal Nature Communications, have emerged as the promising candidate for the next generation direct hydrocarbon solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) technology.

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an electrochemical conversion device that produces electricity by oxidizing a fuel. SOFC is still subject to a fairly intense development for its unforgettable competitive benefits of long-term stability, a high fuel flexibility, low emissions, as well as relatively low cost. SOFCs are a possible next generation fuel cells, as they are capable of raising efficiency higher than 90% when using the exhaust heat. However, successful commercialization of SOFCs has been delayed due to its high production cost mainly related with the development of electrode materials in hydrocarbon fuel cells.

Professor Kim has solved the problem of securing hydrogen by developing a new anode material (catalyst) which can directly use hydrocarbons, known as natural gas liquids (LGLs) and LPG, as a fuel of SOFC. Using this newly-developed catakyst, SOFC can operate the fuel cell without converting the hydrocarbon into hydrogen externally.

In the study, the research team has proposed that transition metals are exsolved from the new anode material in reducing atmosphere. Generally, the transition metals act as fuel oxidation catalyst in SOFC. They also reported that the exsolved Co and Ni nanoparticles on the surface of the layered perovskite show good stability with no remarkable degradation. Moreover the single cell presents 1.2 W/? in H2 at 800 oC, indicating that the performance is twice as high as that of the conventional electrode material (0.6 W/?).

"Although the existing anode materials demonstrated good initial performance, due to their long-term instability and complex manufacturing process, they could not be reliably operated when using hydrocarbon directly as fuel," says Professor Kim, corresponding author of the paper. "The new anode material reduces manufacturing process and maintains good stability, which is expected to accelerate the commercialization of the SOFC."

According to the research team, their findings provide a key to understand the exsolution trends in transition metals (Mn, Co, Ni and Fe) containing perovskites and design highly catalytic perovskite oxides for fuel reforming and electro-oxidation.

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The study has been supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
A report commissioned by EU food regulators wrongly linked a highly effective biopesticide with diarrhoea in humans, an expert says.

A review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) found that Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) posed a health risk equivalent to a related bacterium which causes diarrhoea.

But Dr Ben Raymond, of the University of Exeter, said there was "no solid evidence" Bt caused diarrhoea.

Writing in the journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology, he said recent evidence supported the view that Bt bacteria - especially the strains used in biopesticides - were "very safe for humans".

Microbial biopesticides are microscopic organisms that are used to control pests such as insects.

They are used as an alternative to chemical pesticides, and various strains of Bt are used to kill pests including fly and mosquito larvae, caterpillars and beetles.

"Microbial biopesticides based on Bt are widely recognised as being among the safest and least environmentally damaging insecticidal products available," said Dr Raymond, of the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"It's the biggest-selling microbial control agent in the world, and it's a vital part of many environmentally friendly pest management systems."

EFSA commissioned a review of Bt safety after a food poisoning incident in Germany, but Dr Raymond said the review was "a poor representation of the evidence" and its findings were "potentially very damaging" to the bio-control industry and horticultural growers.

"Contrary to EFSA's findings, a critical examination of available data - and this latest incident - provide no solid evidence that Bt causes diarrhoea," he said.

"Bt has been used perfectly safely for 70 years, and EFSA's review created ambiguity where there was no need to.

"The Bacillus cereus group - to which Bt belongs, does contain bacteria which can make humans ill.

"But the evidence shows that the group is made up of distinct sections, and the section posing the greatest risk is only distantly related to the one containing all biopesticides.

"No strain produced to kill insects has been shown to cause infections or pose risks to humans."

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The article, co-authored by Professor Brian Federici from the University of California, is entitled: "In defence of Bacillus thuringiensis, the safest and most successful microbial insecticide available to humanity - a response to EFSA."
A month before they are born, fetuses carried by American mothers-to-be can distinguish between someone speaking to them in English and Japanese.

Using non-invasive sensing technology from the University of Kansas Medical Center for the first time for this purpose, a group of researchers from KU's Department of Linguistics has shown this in-utero language discrimination. Their study published in the journal NeuroReport has implications for fetal research in other fields, the lead author says.

"Research suggests that human language development may start really early -- a few days after birth," said Utako Minai, associate professor of linguistics and the team leader on the study. "Babies a few days old have been shown to be sensitive to the rhythmic differences between languages. Previous studies have demonstrated this by measuring changes in babies' behavior; for example, by measuring whether babies change the rate of sucking on a pacifier when the speech changes from one language to a different language with different rhythmic properties, Minai said.

"This early discrimination led us to wonder when children's sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language emerges, including whether it may in fact emerge before birth," Minai said. "Fetuses can hear things, including speech, in the womb. It's muffled, like the adults talking in a 'Peanuts' cartoon, but the rhythm of the language should be preserved and available for the fetus to hear, even though the speech is muffled."

Minai said there was already a study that suggested fetuses could discriminate between different types of language, based on rhythmic patterns, but none using the more accurate device available at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at KU Medical Center called a magnetocardiogram (MCG).

"The previous study used ultrasound to see whether fetuses recognized changes in language by measuring changes in fetal heart rate," Minai explained. "The speech sounds that were presented to the fetus in the two different languages were spoken by two different people in that study. They found that the fetuses were sensitive to the change in speech sounds, but it was not clear if the fetuses were sensitive to the differences in language or the differences in speaker, so we wanted to control for that factor by having the speech sounds in the two languages spoken by the same person."

Two dozen women, averaging roughly eight months pregnant, were examined using the MCG.

Kathleen Gustafson, a research associate professor in the Department of Neurology at the medical center's Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, was part of the investigator team.

"We have one of two dedicated fetal biomagnetometers in the United States," Gustafson said. "It fits over the maternal abdomen and detects tiny magnetic fields that surround electrical currents from the maternal and fetal bodies."

That includes, Gustafson said, heartbeats, breathing and other body movements.

"The biomagnetometer is more sensitive than ultrasound to the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate," she said. "Obviously, the heart doesn't hear, so if the baby responds to the language change by altering heart rate, the response would be directed by the brain."

Which is exactly what the recent study found.

"The fetal brain is developing rapidly and forming networks," Gustafson said. "The intrauterine environment is a noisy place. The fetus is exposed to maternal gut sounds, her heartbeats and voice, as well as external sounds. Without exposure to sound, the auditory cortex wouldn't get enough stimulation to develop properly. This study gives evidence that some of that development is linked to language."

Minai had a bilingual speaker make two recordings, one each in English and Japanese, to be played in succession to the fetus. English and Japanese are argued to be rhythmically distinctive. English speech has a dynamic rhythmic structure resembling Morse code signals, while Japanese has a more regular-paced rhythmic structure.

Sure enough, the fetal heart rates changed when they heard the unfamiliar, rhythmically distinct language (Japanese) after having heard a passage of English speech, while their heart rates did not change when they were presented with a second passage of English instead of a passage in Japanese.

"The results came out nicely, with strong statistical support," Minai said. "These results suggest that language development may indeed start in utero. Fetuses are tuning their ears to the language they are going to acquire even before they are born, based on the speech signals available to them in utero. Pre-natal sensitivity to the rhythmic properties of language may provide children with one of the very first building blocks in acquiring language."

"We think it is an extremely exciting finding for basic science research on language. We can also see the potential for this finding to apply to other fields."

###

The study was funded by a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award grant awarded to the KU Medical Center. In addition to Minai and Gustafson, linguistics professors Robert Fiorentino, Allard Jongman and Joan Sereno worked together on the research project.
A single amino-acid variation in a key receptor in whales may help explain why some species of cetaceans evolved sleek, muscular bodies to hunt fish and seals, while others grow to massive sizes by filter-feeding on large volumes of plankton, an international research team has found.

The findings are scheduled to be published July 18 in Scientific Reports, an open access journal from the publishers of Nature.

The work was led by Roger Cone, an obesity researcher at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute who has spent his career studying the melanocortin system. Just like the thermostat on a wall determines how much heat energy is in a room, the melanocortin circuits characterized by the Cone lab determine how much energy is stored as fat. Mutations in this system are the most common genetic cause of early-onset obesity in humans.

Given the melanocortin system's importance to feeding and energy balance in fish and mammals, Cone and his collaborators thought variations in the melanocortin genes may play a critical role in the evolution of different types of feeding behaviors and body sizes.

When Liyuan Zhao, a marine biologist and scholar from Ocean University in China, came to the Cone lab for a visiting fellowship, she decided to examine this idea in whales. She wanted to know: Could variation in the melanocortin system play a role in the differences between the two main suborders of whales -- Odontoceti, which include dolphins and killer whales, and Mysticeti, which include humpback and blue whales?

The Odontoceti feed by hunting prey, while the enormous Myticeti are filter feeders. The smallest Odontoceti grow to around 5 feet long, while Myticeti, such as the blue whale, can top 100 feet.

Through a collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif., Zhao was able to obtain whale DNA samples from an existing repository. The team then sequenced the MCR4 neuropeptide receptor from 20 cetacean species and found one major difference that corresponded perfectly to the two groups. Odontoceti, or toothed whales, have the amino acid arginine at position 156 in the genetic code, while Mysticeti, or baleen whales, have a glutamine.

Further experiments revealed that having a glutamine in that position significantly increased the sensitivity of the MCR4 receptor to the ligand that naturally activates it.

"Our data suggest that the melanocortin system is more highly regulated in whales that hunt -- and, conversely, that the giant filter feeders may receive reduced satiety signals from this system. This difference could well have played some role in the divergence of these two major types of cetaceans -- and may help explain the differences in feeding behavior and amazing range of body sizes among whales, which is far greater than in any other type of mammal," said Cone, director of the U-M Life Sciences Institute, where his lab is located, and professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the U-M Medical School.

While work in many labs at the LSI, including the Cone lab, seek to take discoveries from "bench to bedside," applying basic findings to human health, Cone joked that his research also goes from "bench to barnside." The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund have both funded the Cone lab to apply what they are learning about feeding and growth in different species to improve feed efficiency in agriculturally important fish species.

###

The majority of the work was done at Vanderbilt University, where Cone was employed prior to coming to Michigan. The research was supported by grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, State Oceanic Administration of China and China Scholarship Council.

Co-authors on the study also include Xiaofan Zhou of Vanderbilt University and South China Agricultural University and Antonis Rokas of Vanderbilt University.

The Scientific Reports paper is titled "Functional variants of the melanocortin-4 receptor associated with the Odontoceti and Mysticeti suborders of cetaceans," DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05962-1.
[July 17, 2017] Samsung Increases Production of Industry's Fastest DRAM - 8GB HBM2, to Address Rapidly Growing Market Demand

Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is increasing the production volume of its 8-gigabyte (GB) High Bandwidth (News - Alert) Memory-2 (HBM2) to meet growing market needs across a wide range of applications including artificial intelligence, HPC (high-performance computing), advanced graphics, network systems and enterprise servers. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006155/en/ Samsung 8GB HBM2 DRAM (Graphic: Business Wire) "By increasing production of the industry's only 8GB HBM2 solution now available, we are aiming to ensure that global IT system manufacturers have sufficient supply for timely development of new and upgraded systems," said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president, Memory Sales & Marketing team at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to deliver more advanced HBM2 line-ups while closely cooperating with our global IT customers."



Samsung's 8GB HBM2 delivers the highest level of HBM2 performance, reliability and energy efficiency in the industry, underscoring the company's commitment to DRAM innovation. Among the HBM2 and TSV (Through Silicon Via) technologies that were utilized for the latest DRAM solution, more than 850 of them have been submitted for patents or already patented. The 8GB HBM2 consists of eight 8-gigabit (Gb) HBM2 dies and a buffer die at the bottom of the stack, which are all vertically interconnected by TSVs and microbumps. With each die containing over 5,000 TSVs, a single Samsung 8GB HBM2 package has over 40,000 TSVs. The utilization of so many TSVs, including spares, ensures high performance, by enabling data paths to be switched to different TSVs when a delay in data transmission occurs. The HBM2 is also designed to prevent overheating beyond certain temperature to guarantee high reliability.

First introduced in June 2016, the HBM2 boasts a 256GB/s data transmission bandwidth, offering more than an eight-fold increase over a 32GB/s GDDR5 DRAM chip. With capacity double that of 4GB HBM2, the 8GB solution contributes greatly to improving system performance and energy efficiency, offering ideal upgrades to data-intensive, high-end computing applications that deal with machine learning, parallel computing and graphics rendering. In meeting increasing market demand, Samsung anticipates that its volume production of the 8GB HBM2 will cover more than 50 percent of its HBM2 production by the first half of next year. About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at http://news.samsung.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170717006155/en/

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WORCESTER, MA - Researchers at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine are nearing human clinical trials on a genetic therapy for two rare neurological diseases that are fatal to children.

The scientists are seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to test a gene therapy treatment for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases, genetic disorders in a category known as lysosomal storage diseases.

Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff are inherited neurologic diseases that occur when genetic mutations prevent cells from producing enzymes needed to break down and recycle materials. Without these enzymes, the materials accumulate to toxic levels, slowly destroying the nervous system. The researchers are working on a gene therapy to correct the enzyme deficiency using adeno-associated virus, or AAV, vectors.

The average life expectancy for children with infantile Tay-Sachs or Sandhoff disease is only 3 to 5 years. There is currently no treatment. The gene therapy in development has shown promise in animal models of these diseases by extending lifespans by up to four times those of untreated animals.

"The proof-of-concept studies in affected animals are compelling, and the FDA provided a clear path of remaining experiments needed to seek approval for human clinical trials," said Douglas R. Martin, a professor at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We now need the funding to complete the studies."

The animal phase of toxicity studies necessary to demonstrate the safety of the gene therapy for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases has been completed with the support of the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Disease Association and the Cure Tay-Sachs Foundation.

"Too many children with Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff have died since we started this project. The time has finally arrived to push back on these diseases," says Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor of neurology at UMass Medical School. "Our single-minded goal is to get a safe and potentially effective therapy to patients and their families as quickly as possible."

"Hopefully, once the news gets out that we are this close to human clinical trials, fundraising efforts will be sufficient so we can complete the IND-enabling studies and proceed to human clinical trials," said veterinarian Heather Gray-Edwards, an assistant professor at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Additional funding of $1.2 million is being sought to complete the safety studies, fund the production of clinical grade AAV, and complete regulatory filings.

###

For more information about the study or to support funding, contact: Janet McCoy, Auburn College of Veterinary Medicine, 334-844-3698, janet.mccoy@auburn.edu

About the University of Massachusetts Medical School

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), one of five campuses of the University system, is comprised of the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing, a thriving research enterprise and an innovative public service initiative, Commonwealth Medicine. Its mission is to advance the health of the people of the Commonwealth through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education. The Medical School attracts more than $266 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2006, UMMS's Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with colleague Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi). The 2013 opening of the Albert Sherman Center ushered in a new era of biomedical research and education on campus. Designed to maximize collaboration across fields, the Sherman Center is home to scientists pursuing novel research in emerging scientific fields with the goal of translating new discoveries into innovative therapies for human diseases.

About the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine

The College of Veterinary Medicine is the South's oldest and nation's seventh oldest veterinary medical program, celebrating 125 years. The College prepares individuals for careers of excellence in veterinary medicine, including private and public practice, industrial medicine, academics, and research. The college provides programs of instruction, research, outreach, and service that are in the best interests of the citizens of the state of Alabama, the region, the nation, and the world. The Scott-Ritchey Research Center is dedicated to advancing companion animal and human health through research.
Ashfaq Adnan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington, and his postdoctoral associate Yuan Ting Wu recently published research findings in Nature's Scientific Reports revealing that if battlefield blasts may cause cavitation in the brain's perineuronal nets, which, in turn, may collapse and cause neuronal damage.

Cavitation is the development of bubbles, much like those that develop around a ship's spinning propellers.

Existing scans and medical technology cannot detect whether cavitation bubble forms inside the brain due to blasts or how these blasts affect a person's individual neurons, the brain cells responsible for processing and transmitting information by electrochemical signaling. Adnan's research focuses on studying the structural damage in neurons and the surrounding perineuronal nets area in the brain. He then determines the point at which mechanical forces may damage the PNN or injure the neurons.

Adnan's paper, a result of research supported by a grant through the Office of Naval Research's Warfighter Performance Department and UTA, is titled, "Effect of shock-induced cavitation bubble collapse on the damage in the simulated perineuronal nets of the brain." Timothy Bentley is the program's director.

"This study reveals that if a blast-like event affects the brain under certain circumstances, the mechanical forces could damage the perineuronal net located adjacent to the neurons, which could lead to damage of the neurons themselves. It is important to prove this concept so that future research may address how to prevent cavitation damage and better protect our soldiers," Adnan said. "I must thank ONR and Dr. Bentley for supporting this important research topic. I also would like to thank Texas Advanced Computing Center for providing computational facilities."

Adnan and Wu simulated a shock wave-induced cavitation collapse within the perineuronal net, which is a specialized extracellular matrix that stabilizes synapses in the brain. The team focused on the damage in hyaluronan, which is the net's main structural component. Their results show that the localized supersonic forces created by an asymmetrical bubble collapse may break the hyaluronan. This improves current knowledge and understanding of the connection between damage to the perineuronal net and neurodegenerative disorders.

Other members of Adnan's team are Fuad Hassan, Mahmud Hasan and Ishak Khan, all who are pursuing their doctoral research on topics related to injury biomechanics.

Adnan's work is related to another Office of Naval Research project led by Michael Cho, professor and chair of UTA's Bioengineering Department. Cho's research is supported by a $1.24 million Warfighter Performance Department grant and examines how shockwaves on the battlefield cause brain tissue injuries and compromise the blood-brain barrier.

Duane Dimos, UTA vice president for research, said both projects are advancing knowledge in the way physicians understand and diagnose brain injuries. The work is representative of UTA's increasing research expertise focused on advancing health and the human condition under the University's Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact.

"Dr. Adnan's recently published findings offer important insight into how the brain is affected in combat scenarios," Dimos said. "Understanding the effects of blast injuries on the brain and knowing that cavitation occurs is an important step toward finding better ways to prevent traumatic brain injuries on the battlefield."

###

Adnan has been involved in more than $1.4 million in research support since he joined UTA in 2010 following post-doctoral work at Northwestern University. He earned his doctoral degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University.

In 2015, he won a highly competitive $120,000 Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research, or EAGER, award from the National Science Foundation to advance his work to modify molecular structures and blend ceramics to create new material that would be less brittle but retain the strength of the original ceramic.

He also has received summer faculty fellowships with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research.
The human body holds many mysteries, and function of the BRCA1 gene is among them. Women who inherit a faulty copy of BRCA1 have up to a 65 percent chance to develop breast cancer by age 70. They also have up to a 39 percent chance to develop ovarian cancer.

Rong Li, Ph.D., and colleagues at The University of Texas Health Science Center, now called UT Health San Antonio, are building on 15 years of BRCA1 studies. Their latest discovery, reported June 26 in Nature Communications, is of a new, previously unrecognized function of BRCA1.

Explaining tissue specificity

"BRCA1 plays a very important role in DNA repair in almost any cell type you choose to study," said Dr. Li, professor of molecular medicine at UT Health San Antonio and a holder/manager of the Tom C. and Patricia H. Frost Endowment to Advance Cancer Research and Education. "This is a function of BRCA1 that presumably is important for every cell type in the body. But we also know there is a tissue-specific cancer predisposition associated with BRCA1. If a woman loses BRCA1 function, breast and ovary are the two places that preferentially develop tumors. Is there something else BRCA1 does that could contribute to this tissue specificity?"

The answer, fleshed out in this latest Nature Communications paper, is yes.

Study of human tissues yields insights

Dr. Li and his team obtained human breast tissue specimens from breast oncologists including those led by Ismail Jatoi, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, and Richard Elledge, M.D., at the UT Health Cancer Center of UT Health San Antonio, as well as Oscar Ochoa, M.D., FACS, at PRMA Plastic Surgery. The team compared tissues of BRCA1 mutation carriers versus non-carriers and found interesting differences:

Gene expression-related stress is higher in BRCA1 mutation carriers;

This stress is only higher in luminal epithelial cells, where BRCA1-related breast tumors originate;

Within the luminal epithelial cells, the stress is higher in estrogen-responsive genes.

Gene expression-related stress is a result of cells expressing (or switching on) genes to carry out functions. This process sometimes damages the genetic blueprint, DNA, resulting in abnormal structures that scientists label as stress.

"The breasts and ovaries are two major estrogen-responsive sites in a woman's body," Dr. Li said. "This zooming in on the stress location is the connection we sought to make between BRCA1 dysfunction and breast and ovarian cancer predisposition. This is a very attractive model to further test, and points to an interesting direction for drug development."

The study reported in Nature Communications focused on breast tissue. Similar studies of ovarian tissue will be conducted.

###

Dr. Li is co-leader of the Cancer Development and Progression Program at the UT Health Cancer Center. His academic appointment is in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

This research was funded by an award from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation also provided support for this study.

Read more cancer research news from UT Health San Antonio: Study compares radiation, surgery for bladder cancer

For current news from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, now called UT Health San Antonio, please visit our online newsroom, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, with missions of teaching, research and healing, is one of the country's leading health sciences universities and is now called UT Health San Antonio. UT Health's schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 33,000 alumni who are advancing their fields throughout the world. With seven campuses in San Antonio and Laredo, UT Health has a FY 2017 revenue operating budget of $806.6 million and is the primary driver of its community's $37 billion biomedical and health care industry. For more information on the many ways "We make lives better," visit http://www.uthscsa.edu.
According to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded study, lack of access to affordable health insurance is one of the most significant concerns facing American farmers, an overlooked risk factor that affects their ability to run a successful enterprise.

"The rising cost of healthcare and the availability of affordable health insurance have joined more traditional risk factors like access to capital, credit and land as a major source of worry for farmers," said principal investigator Shoshanah Inwood, a rural sociologist at the University of Vermont, who conducted the study with colleagues at the Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis at NORC at the University of Chicago.

"The study found that health-related costs are a cross-sector risk for agriculture, tied to farm risk management, productivity, health, retirement, the need for off-farm income and land access for young and beginning farmers," said Alana Knudson, co-director of the NORC Walsh Center.

Study results were based on a March 2017 mail survey of farmers and ranchers in 10 study states and interviews with farm families in each of the study states in 2016.

Three of four farmers and ranchers (73 percent) in the survey said that having affordable health insurance was an important or very important means of reducing their business risk. And just over half (52 percent) are not confident they could pay the costs of a major illness such as a heart attack, cancer or loss of limb without going into debt.

Insights from the interviews supported the survey results. "During the course of interviews with farmers, many relayed stories about their family members or neighbors who had lost their farms or dairies due to catastrophic illness or injury when they were uninsured," Knudson said.

Sixty-four percent report having pre-existing conditions

To meet the needs of farmers, changes in current health insurance law will need to be carefully considered, the survey suggests.

Two out of three farmers and ranchers (64 percent) reported having a pre-existing health condition. With an average age of 58, farmers and ranchers are also vulnerable to higher insurance premiums due to age-rating bands. And among farmers and ranchers 18 to 64 years old, one out of four (24 percent) purchased a plan in their state's insurance marketplace.

"A number of farmers in their 50s we spoke with said they had left off-farm employment in the last five years to commit to full-time farming because they and their families would not be denied health insurance in the individual market due to pre-existing conditions," Knudson said.

Health Insurance costs create barriers for young and beginning farmers

Health care costs also factor into farm succession issues, potentially denying young people access to land to farm.

Almost half (45 percent) of the farmers surveyed said they're concerned they will have to sell some or all of their farm or ranch assets to address health related costs such as long-term care, nursing home or in-home health assistance.

"These findings indicated that many farmers will need to sell their land, their most valuable asset, to the highest bidder when they need cash to cover health-related costs," Inwood said, "making it more difficult for young farmers to afford land and increasing the likelihood farmland is sold for commercial development."

Lack of access to affordable health insurance could potentially drive young people away from farming, the research found. Young farmers who had taken advantage of the Medicaid expansion in their states said told the researchers in interviews that it allowed them to provide health insurance for their children and have time and energy to invest in the farm or ranch rather than having to seek a full-time off-farm or ranch job with benefits.

Most farm families have health insurance, over half through public sector employment

The vast majority of farmers and ranchers (92 percent) reported that they and their families had health insurance in 2016 but that it frequently came from off-farm employment. Over half (59 percent) of farm and ranch families received benefits through public sector employers (health, education and government).

"Public sector jobs, especially in rural areas often offer the highest wages and most generous benefits," Inwood said. "Changes in public and private sector employment options or benefits affect the financial stability and social well-being of farm families with impacts reverberating through rural communities."

Nearly three quarters say USDA should represent farmer interests

Given the pressing nature of their health insurance concerns, farmers are also seeking help from the federal government.

Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of farmers said USDA should represent farmers' needs in national health policy discussions, particularly due to unique health needs of farmers and farm workers (e.g., coverage for blood tests to examine potential pesticide exposures).

The timing is right, Inwood said, the five-year update of the U.S. Farm Bill is due in 2018. The comprehensive Farm Bill deals with agriculture and all other issues under the jurisdiction of the USDA.

"We have a shrinking and aging farm population," Inwood said. "The next Farm Bill is an opportunity to start thinking about how health insurance affects the trajectory of farms in the United States."

Nothing is more important to the country's food system than the viability of the farm sector, she said.

"It's a matter of national security," she said.

For the study, a total of 1,062 farmers and ranchers were surveyed in March 2017 in Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nebraska, Mississippi, Kentucky, Washington, Utah and California. Study states were selected in each of the four Census regions and included a mix of those that had expanded or not expanded Medicaid. The study results were also based on interviews of up to 10 families in each of the study states.

###

The study was funded with a $500,000 grant from the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) as part of a National Institute of Food and Agriculture initiative designed to increase prosperity in rural America.
The number of consumers requesting information and costs for long-term care insurance increased nearly 39 percent for the first six months of 2017 compared to the prior year reports the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.

"This is a significant increase and an indication of enormous growing interest among consumers in the importance of long term care planning," states Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI). The increase represents the number of consumers who completed a request for long-term care insurance costs on the Association's website.

Slome attributes the double-digit increase in interest to a good economy among aging Baby Boomers and a growing realization that government programs and medical insurance do not cover much of the cost associated with long-term care.

"This is a good trend because everything begins with awareness and interest," Slome noted. "Maybe this will encourage more insurance agents to see the potential of the marketplace as there has been a lack of recruitment and training in recent years."



The long-term care insurance expert shared some general feedback on the consumers inquiring about long-term care insurance and offered guidance for the industry which accounted for approximately $220-million in new insurance premiums in 2016.

"A significant percentage of those requesting information are already in poor health and mistakenly believe they can obtain long-term care insurance," Slome says. "Unfortunately, they can not health qualify for insurance offered by private carriers. In certain states, they may be able to get a short-term care insurance policy and we are seeing growth in sales of these policies where available."



While the average age of new applicants for long-term care insurance continues to decline, a significant percentage of people requesting information have aged-out of their ability to obtain coverage. "Today the average age for new policies issued is 55 and the sweet spot for applying for this coverage is between 55 and 64," Slome advised.

Slome is encouraged by the increase in requests for long-term care insurance costs by consumers visiting the Association's website. "Consumer interest is there, now we need to get a few more agents and we could see an upswing in yearly sales," he concluded.

The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance website offers comprehensive consumer information and no-cost access to obtain long-term care insurance costs from leading independent insurance specialists. To learn more about long term care planning go to www.aaltci.org or call 818-597-3227.
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Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said he is 'frustrated' over the UK government's lack of engagement with the devolved assembly following the June election.

Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) members and farmers met with the Mr Jones and cabinet secretary Lesley Griffiths last week.

TFA Cymru chairman Dennis Matheson said the first minister 'did not mince his words' over his frustration.

"He listened carefully to the concerns of the farming industry and gave assurances that he would do his utmost to ensure a successful Brexit for the farming community in Wales which he identified as being vitally important to the economy.

"TFA Cymru agrees with the First Minister on the need for a negotiated UK framework to be in place for agricultural policy.

"It is deeply concerning, with only a little over 20 months left before we formally leave the European Union, that so little progress has been made on this front.

"It had been hoped that greater clarity would have been evident following the publication of the Great Repeal Bill but this opportunity appears to have been missed by the UK Government," Mr Matheson said.

Cabinet secretary Lesley Griffiths was welcomed to Mr Matheson's farm last week.

They both discussed challenges faced by livestock farmers in an upland environment.

"We discussed a range of issues including bovine TB, slurry storage, Glastir and of course Brexit," he said.

The Welsh Government is certainly well ahead in thinking through the implications of Brexit in comparison to the UK Government and it is time that Whitehall and Westminster picked up the pace and became more inclusive in its discussions.
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.
COP27: Energy and food security must be addressed, farm leaders say
When They Met...

''Ranbir and Mahira met during one of their trips abroad and got along like a house on fire.''

They Are In Touch...

Even after their busy commitments, they have stayed in touch ever since.

Mahira Loves Ranbir, The Actor!

Talking about Ranbir Kapoor, Mahira had told a daily, "Among the younger lot, I would say Ranbir Kapoor. He is a brilliant actor."

Ranbir Finds Mahira Beautiful

Ranbir was asked to share a list of which actresses he finds pretty as a part of an interview to a web portal, to which Ranbir had said, "Mahira Khan from Pakistan is very pretty."

Why Mahira Left India...

"After the Uri attack, Pakistani actors have been banned working in India.''

Mahira Could Not Even...

Mahira Khan could not even promote her first Bollywood film Raees with superstar Shahrukh Khan.

Those Who Don't Know

Mahira Khan is an established actor in Pakistan and is very popular there.

She Has A Son

Mahira Khan got divorced from her husband, Ali Askari, a few years back. The two have a son named Azlaan.
[July 18, 2017] Launch of First Croatian Point of Presence Marks Hurricane Electric's Latest Move in European Expansion

Hurricane Electric, the world's largest IPV6-native Internet backbone, continues to expand its global network with the opening of its latest Point of Presence (PoP) in Central Europe at the SRCE Zagreb Data Center. Located at Josipa Marohnica 5 (Trnje), 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, this is Hurricane Electric's (News - Alert) first Point of Presence in the Republic of Croatia. SRCE, otherwise known as the University of Zagreb University Computing Centre, has a long history focusing on the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). A part of the oldest University in Croatia, SCRE acts as the computing center for the school and associated research and educational institutions throughout the country. Additionally, SRCE works to ensure continuous connection among Croatian academic e-infrastructure with the related European and global e-infrastructure and gives practical, consulting and educational support to he members of the academic and research community in using ICT.



With this new PoP, individuals utilizing SRCE Zagreb will have direct access to Hurricane Electric's robust IPv4 and IPv6 network as well as increased network capacity through 100GE (100 Gigabit Ethernet), 10GE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and GigE (1 Gigabit Ethernet) ports. They also now have the opportunity to exchange IP traffic, or "peer," with Hurricane Electric's global network, which is Jumbo Frame (9000 byte MTU) compatible. Additionally, those taking advantage of Hurricane Electric's offerings will also experience increased capacity, more reliability and reduced latency in the delivery of next generation IP services. "Based on the impressive growth of the telecommunications industry in Central Europe, Hurricane Electric is delighted to open our first Point of Presence in Croatia," said Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric. "The services that we offer will be able to satisfy the intensive bandwidth needs that are inherent in research institutions. With the launch of our 40th European PoP, we look forward to further expanding throughout this important region and beyond in the second half of 2017."

About Hurricane Electric

Fremont, California-based Hurricane Electric operates its own global IPv4 and IPv6 network and is considered the largest IPv6 backbone in the world as measured by number of networks connected. Within its global network, Hurricane Electric is connected to more than 160 major exchange points and exchanges traffic directly with more than 6,000 different networks. Employing a resilient fibre-optic topology, Hurricane Electric has no less than four redundant paths crossing North America, three separate paths between the U.S. and Europe, and rings in Europe and Asia. In addition to its vast global network, Hurricane Electric owns and operates two data centers in Fremont, California, including Fremont 2, its newest 208,000 square foot facility. Hurricane Electric offers IPv4 and IPv6 transit solutions over the same connection at speeds including 10 Gbps and 100 GbpsEthernet. For more information on Hurricane Electric, please visit http://he.net. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170718005481/en/

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I Am Very Bad With Relationships

SRK was quoted as saying, "I am pathetic with relationships. I am so pathetic that I am comic. If somebody said what did you say to him or her when he or she said this, my answer would shock you. They are like but how could you? and I say, I don't know how else to relate to this. I am very bad with relationships, I am awful."

SRK Prefers To Hide His Emotions Instead

He quipped, "I am extremely one-sided, perhaps even selfish. Actually, I am very detached. I am demotional - emotional and detached, I don't know how it works. I won't be able to say anything that I've done in my films to a girl, or even in relationships. I am extremely closeted, introverted, shy, reclusive and completely shut off about my emotions."

Shahrukh Khan On How He Looks Convincing On Screen

"I don't have to believe in it, I have to make you believe in it and that's a challenge always... An actor always goes for something that he is not. It's a vent. I want to be a Batman, a Spider-Man, a fire fighter, an evil conniving don and I want to be the greatest lover in the world. And I am not any of these. That's why it turns me on."

SRK Advises His Fans Not To Replicate His Scenes From KKHH & DDLJ In Real Life

The 'Baadshah' of Bollywood was quoted as saying, "I am not telling you to run after a train and climb it. In real life, I would stop the train, or say let's meet at the next station. I would never do it in real life, putting my hand out, beating her would-be-husband. In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the girl is getting married to a guy downstairs, I walk upto her and say 'I love you'. Now that's extremely weird,"

SRK Would Never Get Himself Tattooed In Real Life

While Shahrukh is seen sporting a cool tattoo in his upcoming film Jab Harry Met Sejal, the superstar reveals that in real life, he would never get done one since he is freaking scared of tattoo needles.
Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez had a blast shooting for the party song 'Baat Ban Jaye' for their upcoming action comedy 'A Gentleman- Sundar, Susheel, Risky' which eventually turned into a beach party!

'A Gentleman' has been shot on the backdrop of breath-taking and picturesque locations of Miami.

The duo shot on the beaches of Miami for the groovy track 'Baat Ban Jaye', glimpses of which could be seen in the trailer. The actors had a blast shooting for the song wherein they were seen letting their hair loose on the pretty beaches. The song was supposed to be a beach song.

Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez took the house down while shooting. Sidharth in an impromptu manner threw Jacqueline in the ocean, resulting in the entire crew jumping in the water. The party number suddenly turned into a beach party wherein the crew was seen swimming, dancing during the shoot.

The party got even bigger when the infectious vibe hit the locals as they joined in and danced to the tunes of 'Baat Ban Jaye'.

'A Gentleman' is an action comedy that revolves around the mistaken identity of the Sundar and Susheel Gaurav and the Risky Rishi.
Quote: ulmapache Originally Posted by Just for chits -n- giggles...how would one go about installing a two-speed rear in a 1984 f250? Could one source a rear end out of say a f500? Or would that be too wide...

I would say to wide, To large so the spring U bolts would not fit and it is a dual wheel axle.The other thing you should know about 2 speed rears is it will not give you over drive if that is what you are looking for.Just using numbers but the ratios would be like 4.56 and say 3.73.Depending on the transmission you could add and overdrive unit to it.You have Gear Vender and Advance Adaptor's range splitter but some one just posted that they are no longer making them.What was not said is if that is forever or just till this virus thing is over.I say this because I ordered the splitter about the same time the virus hit and it took longer than normal for them to build mine.I did get it and love it. In my case it has not helped the MPG but I think it is because of the carb. I just go tools so I can tune it better.Some have been lucky to find both used.Dave ----
Why are you replacing all 10 COPs? Typically they live very long lives and only need to be replaced individually when one proves to go bad.

Denso is the OEM manufacturer of the COPs for Ford, their part # 673-6000 is the EXACT same COP as the Motorcraft ones, if you peel the Denso sticker off the top the MC part # is right there. RockAuto should have them for $23-ish per.

Same thing with the plug boots and springs, Denso 671-0001 will give you an OEM set of 10.

And of course for plugs you will want 10 Motorcraft SP-479 plugs.

Most of us apply more torque to the new plugs than Ford calls for, the earlier design at 11 Ft/Lbs and the later 14 Ft/Lbs is pretty light.
99.5 stalling, cps? **FIXED**

Ok, long story short, 99.4 cclb 4x4 zf6 ran rough on way home from work the day we left to drive non-stop to California for vacation in the minvan, died a couple times in the driveway. While on vaca i ordered a Motorcraft cps cause it's cheaper than the icp/ipr and a spare in the glove box couldn't hurt if it isn't the problem.



Ran Torque at idle in driveway cause it dies every couple minutes and didn't wanna get stranded b4 trip



icp. 550-600

ipr. ~ 16%

map/ebp matched +/- .1

fipw. 2.2

fuel filters good/clean



anywhere else I should be prepared to look?
[July 18, 2017] Minister Joly Announces New Leadership at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

The Government of Canada announces the appointment of Ian Scott as Chairperson, Caroline J. Simard as Vice-Chairperson (Broadcasting) and Christianne M. Laizner as Interim Vice-Chairperson (Telecommunications) GATINEAU, QC, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, is pleased to announce the appointments of Ian Scott as Chairperson and Caroline J. Simard as Vice-Chairperson (Broadcasting) of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). These appointments are the result of the Government of Canada's open, transparent and merit-based selection process for Governor in Council appointments. Mr. Ian Scott has over 25 years' experience in the broadcasting and telecommunications industries and in the public sector. Most recently Executive Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Telesat Canada, Mr. Scott has held a variety of senior executive roles in the telecommunications and broadcasting industries. Past executive positions include Vice President of Federal Government Relations for Telus, and executive positions in both government and regulatory matters at Call-Net Enterprises and with the Canadian Cable Television Association. In addition to his work in the private sector, Mr. Scott has significant experience in the public sector at both the Federal Competition Bureau and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. He was educated at McGill University. Dr. Caroline Simard, PhD in law (McGill) and member of the Barreau du Quebec, has extensive expertise in telecommunications and broadcasting regulation. She is currently Legal Counsel within the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, a position she has held since 2007, where she has worked on the Telecommunications Act and the Radiocommunication Act. From 2004 to 2007, Ms. Simard was Senior Telecommunications Expert with the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland, which is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communications technologies. She had previously held positions with the Centre d'etudes sur l'integration et la mondialisation (CEIM) at Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Verrier Pacquin Hebert Consultants Inc., Teleglobe Inc. and others. s. Simard was educated at McGill University, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, and Universite de Montreal.



Mr. Scott will serve as Chairperson for a five-year term, beginning on September 5, 2017. Ms. Simard will also serve for a term of five years, effective as of September 11, 2017. In addition to these two appointments, Christianne M. Laizner has been appointed to serve as Interim Vice-Chairperson (Telecommunications), for a term of up to one year. Ms. Laizner, whose appointment is effective as of July 17, 2017, joined the CRTC in 2010 as General Counsel, Telecommunications, and since 2013, has held the position of Senior General Counsel and Executive Director of the CRTC Legal Sector. She has held senior-level positions in other federal departments for many years. Before joining the public service, Ms. Laizner was a partner in the Chown Cairns law firm in St. Catharines, Ontario. Ms. Laizner was called to the Ontario Bar in 1982, and holds an LLB from Western University and a B.A. (Hons) from McGill University.

The CRTC is an administrative tribunal that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications on behalf of the Canadian public. The Commission is dedicated to ensuring that Canadiansas citizens, creators and consumershave access to a world-class communication system that promotes innovation and enriches their lives. Quotes "This is a dynamic team that will bring new vision and leadership to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Mr. Scott and Dr. Simard have extensive experience in the industry and a deep understanding of what Canadians expect in their telecommunications and broadcasting systems. These leaders will implement a strong vision for the CRTC, focusing on service to Canadians and supporting the production and dissemination of diverse creative content that will lead to the success of our telecommunications, creators and creative industries in the digital era."

The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage "I congratulate these accomplished leaders, who will bring a diversity of perspectives to Canada's telecommunications and broadcast regulator. Under their leadership, the CRTC will continue to champion the social and economic needs of Canadians by encouraging more competition and innovation among telecommunications providers. This way, all Canadians will benefit from a broader choice of high-quality services at affordable prices. The prosperity of Canadians depends on their ability to have access to these services, which allow them to thrive in a global and digital economy."

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Quick Facts The CRTC's senior roles are Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson (Broadcasting) and Vice-Chairperson (Telecommunications). These are full-time positions appointed by the Governor in Council.

A selection process for the position of Vice-Chairperson (Telecommunications) will be launched in the near future.

In 2016, the Government of Canada adopted a new approach to appointments by the Governor in Council. This approach respects gender parity and is supported by an open, transparent and merit-based selection processone that will result in the recommendation of exceptionally competent candidates who reflect Canada's diversity.

adopted a new approach to appointments by the Governor in Council. This approach respects gender parity and is supported by an open, transparent and merit-based selection processone that will result in the recommendation of exceptionally competent candidates who reflect diversity. All appointment opportunities for the 18 organizations in the Canadian Heritage Portfolio are being posted as they become available on the Governor in Council Appointments website. Interested parties can apply online.

The CRTC mandate focuses on achieving policy objectives established in the Broadcasting Act, the Telecommunications Act and Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL). Associated Links Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission http://www.crtc.gc.ca/ SOURCE Canadian Heritage

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New 'Xeon Scalable' processors to push Indian firms go digital: Intel News oi -GizBot Bureau Intels new 'Xeon Scalable' processors can help India undergo digital transformation faster.

With digitisation gaining pace, there is a dire need to invest in new-age data centre and networking technology and Intels new 'Xeon Scalable' processors can help the country undergo digital transformation faster, a top Intel executive said here on Wednesday.

Terming it the company's "biggest innovation in a decade in data centre space," Prakash Mallya, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Group at Intel India, launched Intel 'Xeon Scalable' processors in India, stressing that with this technology, the country can capitalise on the global trends and leapfrog other mature markets in becoming a leader in technology adoption.

"As India Inc increases its investment in technology, the country's data centre and network infrastructure will undergo a massive transformation. Emerging use cases in the financial, healthcare and academic sectors will necessitate agile networks that can interpret and implement decisions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), High Performance Computing (HPC) and soon, 5G," Mallya told IANS.

"Intel 'Xeon Scalable' processors will address the increasingly complex and varied needs of the data centre, enabling customers deliver next-generation business and consumer experiences through unparalleled performance, security and agility," he added.

Intel 'Xeon Scalable' processors are uniquely architected for the evolving data centre and network infrastructure.

These processors are designed to support an expanding range of existing and emerging data centre and network workloads, including cloud computing, 5G-ready networks, HPC and AI, delivering 2.2 times the performance over its predecessor.

According to the company, it has already sold more than 500,000 'Xeon Scalable' processors to its several customers with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and cloud service provider NxtGen being early adopters in India.

The new line-up that include Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze processors, offers different levels of performance capabilities and supports various needs of the computer-hungry tasks, including real-time analytics and virtualised infrastructure.

Mallya said Intel's new portfolio of data centre processors will provide businesses with the richest suite of platform feature innovations that deliver significant performance increases across key workloads.

The new processors offer 138 times deep learning performance gains and 113 times inference gains, meaning customers can do more inference on general-purpose hardware without the need for specialised accelerators.

With faster virtual reality (VR) content rendering, the processors also help creators create more rich content in less time.

The 'Xeon Scalable' processors provide security without compromise. With near-zero overhead for data at rest encryption, a user does not have to choose between security and performance.

Talking about the security, Vikram K, Senior Director of Data Centre and Hybrid Cloud at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) India, said: "Powered by new Intel 'Xeon Scalable' processors, our 'ProLiant Gen10' server portfolio features an innovative firmware security mechanism that we call the 'silicon root of trust,' which enables detection of malware and creates a resilient industry-standard server infrastructure."

According to Vivek Sharma, Director of Data Center Group at Lenovo India, with Intel's new processors, the company's new 'ThinkSystem' and 'ThinkAgile' brands will empower the customers with reliable, agile and best performing data centre solutions.

Intel also introduced "Intel Select Solutions" aimed at simplifying and speeding the deployment of data centre and network infrastructure.

IANS

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Incumbent telcos wants IUC to be double News oi -Priyanka Vodafone wants the cost should be more than the current level i.e 34 paise

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have asked to double the interconnection usage charge (IUC) from the present level of 14 paise a minute.

IUC is paid to carriers on whose networks calls are received.

Meanwhile, Vodafone wants the cost should be more than the current level i.e 34 paise and as always Mukesh Ambani Reliance Jio is asking it to be eliminated.

The company has said a cost of carrying incoming calls on its network is 30 paise without taking into account the license fee and 34 paise after including it.

According to an industry source, who did not wish to be named, Idea Cellular has said that cost of carrying incoming call on its network is around 30 paise and the company is unable to recover its basic cost at present IUC rates.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had called this meeting with telecom service provider and it was asked to make presentations to the regulator on IUC.

To recall, in recent a meeting with inter- ministerial group (IMG) incumbent (Bharti Airtel, Idea, Vodafone) has said that the current (IUC) is below cost and this need to be corrected.

The telcos also said that Jio's free offers had impacted the sector adversely. Meanwhile, India's largest telecom players Bharti Airtel accused the new entrant of engaging in predatory prices.

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Haiti - Agriculture : Goat recovery in the South only 30% of the promises made





In November 2016, a month after Hurricane Matthew, a call for contribution was launched by a consortium of Haitian institutions and associations to allow peasant families to rebuild part of the goat population lost. The target was to reach 5,000 families in the affected areas with 10,000 goats. 1 million US dollars, had to be mobilized for the purchase of goats (male and female), beneficiary training, veterinary care, mini enclosure construction and cuttings for forage production.



Today, if US $ 950,000 has been promised (Swiss Cooperation in Haiti, French Foundation, Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), Collectif Haiti de France and many citizens and solidarity organizations), only 300,000 (US dollars) have actually been disbursed or incurred to date.



Nevertheless, the funds committed helped 1,625 families in the communes of Chardonnieres, Port-a-Piment, Roche a Bateau and Coteaux in the department of the South;



1,657 goats and 33 improved male goats were bought and distributed (a hundred goats have already made small) ;



1,313 breeders were trained and sensitized on improved goat breeding ;



820 families have already received 2 goats or the funds to buy them ;



412 shelters/pens were built ;



150 kg seeds of moringa and 100 000 forage cuttings were distributed to beneficiaries ;



The animals were dewormed and identified with earrings and a notebook.



Recall that goats are distributed as a loan repayable in kind, every small goat refunded (goat male or goat) per beneficiary farmer will be given to another breeder (second-generation recipient). With 2 adult goats ready to breed, a family can have 4 to 6 goats in the first year. A family that has increased its herd to 4 goats can expect annual incomes 3 to 4 times higher than the initial investment.



The next contributions should make it possible to reach in the months to come several other communes of the South Department, the majority of the communes of the department of Grand'Anse and some other communes of the departments of the West, North-West and South-East.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Defense attorney denounces call for Absher resignation

The attorney for embattled School Board member Michael Absher on Tuesday strongly denounced a potential vote by the board to demand the resignation of Absher, who faces a criminal charge related to a group home his nonprofit agency operates and a civil complaint filed by a high school teacher.

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Duly elected by the voters last November, Absher should receive the same presumption of innocence that any citizen is entitled to under the Constitution, attorney Doug Pearson said in a statement.

"The citizens' popular vote that clearly elected Mr. Absher should be upheld in accordance with U.S. Constitution, the state Constitution, the N.C. General Statutes and each members oath of office to become a board member of the Henderson County Board of Public Education to support the same," Pearson said. "To call for action contrary to these pillars of democracy is simply unconstitutional."

Board Chair Amy Lynn Holt made the decision to call for the special meeting after conversations with School Board Attorney Dean Shatley and said that the board will be asked to request Absher's resignation.

We think this is in the best interest of the school system, Holt said Monday. The decision to call for the meeting was made Tuesday, she said, but it has been weeks in the works.

Elected to the School Board on his fourth try last November, Absher was arrested May 24 and charged with permitting a 15-year-old male resident of the Only Hope group home off Upward Road to drink alcohol, the Henderson County sheriff's office said. Only Hope is the organization Absher founded to serve homeless youth. Absher himself had been homeless.

At the time, Absher submitted a letter to the School Board asking for a leave of absence.

The offense of allowing the 15-year-old to consume alcohol "whereby he could become adjudicated delinquent and undisciplined," was alleged to have occurred between Nov. 1, 2016, and Jan. 1 of this year, according to the arrest warrant.

A month later Absher, 27, was served with a civil complaint for communicating a threat after an altercation with an East Henderson High School teacher.

The School Board may not force a sitting member to resign but it may request that a board member resign. Holt said if that Absher were to resign, a replacement would be appointed.

Here is Pearson's statement:

"The citizens of Henderson County voted and elected Michal Absher to the Henderson County School Board. The school board process was created by the legislators to give local citizens a voice in the operations and functions of the school systems. For this board to now request an emergency meeting to call for the resignation of a fellow constitutionally elected official gives me great pause. Beginning in elementary school students are taught the merits of the democratic system and the basic constitutional protections that each and every citizen is afforded.

"One provision of the Constitution is the presumption of innocence and another provision is due process. This emergency meeting appears to have an agenda of circumventing the U.S. Constitution, the N.C. Constitution and the General Statutes. Every school board member took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution, and the rights provided to citizens therein. Please ask yourself if this call for action is consistent with their sworn oath of office. I urge the public to review the oath administered to these elected officials. Regardless of what an individual school board member thinks based on politics or personal belief, the Board must set aside these differences to effectively represent the citizens of this county."
At Magnuson Hotels, America"s fastest growing hotel brand, we are proud to announce today the rebranding of the M Star Hotel Alcoa, Tennessee.

Formerly a Motel 6, the M Star Hotel Alcoa will upgrade its market position to attract travelers via an affiliation with Magnuson Hotels" worldwide portfolio of over 1,000 hotels and state-of-the-art, global distribution platform.

Hotel website
As part of the report revenue managers were asked in both 2014 and 2017 "which of the following ancillary revenues can your revenue management system account for?" The findings show that in every single ancillary stream category measurement has risen and the number who reported that their system could not account for any ancillary revenues fell from 22.8% to 16.7%.

In 2014, food and beverage was the most measured type of ancillary revenue but that has now been overtaken by room and service upgrades, at 43.8% of respondents, and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) at 45.8%. In both categories the percentage of systems measuring revenues increased by more than 10%. Even more dramatically, the measurement of tours, experiences and packages more than doubled, pointing to this revenue stream being recognized by hotel management as an important revenue stream and service for customers.

Overall, every revenue stream was now being measured by revenue management systems to a greater degree than in 2014. The percentage of managers who reported that their system could not account for any of the revenue streams we asked about also fell from 22.8% to 16.7% of respondents, demonstrating substantial progress in monitoring and quantifying ancillary revenues.

However, there was no type of ancillary reported as being measured by more than 50% of respondents, pointing to there still being some way to go.

"It is encouraging that progress is being made but we would probably have expected it to be slightly faster than what we have found," said Alex Hadwick, Head of Research at EyeforTravel. "We also asked revenue managers whether they felt they had the tools to do the job effectively and 71% said they did not, so it seems there are still technical and investment roadblocks. Removing these will be vital to hotels achieving their full potential revenue potential."

Click here to download the research now and get the full report, including:

The effect of competitors on pricing, how to account for them and what strategies to take to get a competitive edge.

Understanding and constructing predictive analytics.

Understanding the costs of a business's channel mix and how to win direct bookings.

The state of the industry's approach to ancillary revenues.

The key metrics every revenue manager should be working toward.

The future of a revenue manager's role and the skills they will require.

About Reuters Events

Reuters Events is a community where the worlds top online travel brands  from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more  come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry.

We know that working in the turbulent online travel industry is as exciting as it is challenging. In this constantly evolving market place, we appreciate that keeping up with the pace of change can be tough, not to mention time consuming. You need the right information, contacts and strategic insight to succeed.

Established in 1997, by Tim Gunstone, we offer a diverse product portfolio including industry analysis, insights, research, webinars, reports and conferences to suit the needs of our clients.

Our clients read as a whos who of online travel. From major hotel brands to new startups, we help our 80,000 strong customer base make better decisions, build better brands, close the most lucrative deals and ultimately sell more of their product. After all, increasing travel brand profit margins in the cutthroat travel industry is the name of the game!

No other online travel intelligence provider has been charting the growth of online travel as long as we have. We were here at the inception of online travel and we know the industry inside out. Whats more, were a small, friendly team. Forget impersonal hierarchies, we like to get to know our customers and work towards their exact needs.

Meredith Pistulka

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New York, NY  Colorado destination Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa has selected ALICE's concierge technology, ALICE Concierge, to help the resort's concierge team manage guest activities at the 6,000 acre property, which is part of the Noble House Hotels & Resorts collection.

Scheduling activities for resort guests is no small feat. As one journalist noted in a recent Forbes article, "If you stand at the epicenter of Gateway Canyons Resort, it's a fair statement that there's more to do within a six-mile radius than any other hotel in the American West."

And it's up to the resort's concierge to make sure guests take advantage of everything Gateway Canyons has to offer, which includes luxury car rentals, a helicopter pad for air tours, a skeet shooting range, a secluded ranch catering to horseback riding, spa, luxurious pools, restaurants, tours and excursions with the resort's curator of curiosity, a full-service adventure center offering mountain bikes, UTV tours, laser tag and archery, and the Gateway Canyons Auto Museum (housing one of the most valuable classic car collections in the United States). The self-described "world's first and only discovery resort" (owner John Hendricks is the founder and former Chairman of global media company Discovery Communications), Gateway Canyons is also one of the only locations in the world where Precambrian rock is still visible to the human eye, and just steps away from one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur fossils on the planet.

Until a year ago, the resort's front desk staff organized activities for guests, in addition to performing all the other responsibilities of their role. As the profile of the resort has risen since opening in 2005 - recent accolades include being named #1 "Top Resort Hotel in the West" in the Travel + Leisure 2016 World's Best Awards, as well as #5 "Best Hotels in the U.S." and #16 "Best Hotels in the World" - it became necessary to create a concierge team, dedicated to creating unique and personalized itineraries for resort guests. This concierge team, like the front desk staff before them, used Outlook to schedule activities, but it soon became evident they'd need a dedicated concierge tool to make it easier to coordinate their work and elevate the level of service they could offer their guests.

With ALICE's robust concierge toolset, which includes features like a local vendor database, package and luggage tracking, reminders and alerts, and branded confirmation letters, maps, and itineraries, Gateway Canyons' concierge are now better able to coordinate work between themselves, as well as create detailed and customized plans for guests. ALICE is also helping other departments have more insight to the work of the concierge as well as assist guests off-hours, since authorized staff can easily log into ALICE whenever the concierge aren't on-property or nearby, and print out itineraries for guests or answer activity-related questions.

Mandy Guldner, Director of Lodging, says ALICE has helped the concierge team with efficiency, communication, and professionalism. "We needed something more suited to the job of concierge than Outlook, which wouldn't let us print guest itineraries or collaborate on work, and we found a great solution with ALICE. Now, we're able to create detailed guest profiles by recording guest preferences and activities. This helps us curate more tailored guest activities, strengthen our relationship with guests, and forecast our needs for next season."

About Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa

Located in the spectacular red rock canyons of western Colorado, Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa caters to the most discerning traveler with 72 luxury guest rooms and suites, including 14 newly-completed casitas. The resort delights guests with savory dining options at Entrada Restaurant, wellness-focused treatments at The Spa at Gateway Canyons, canyon air tours and trips aboard a luxury helicopter, privileged access to more than 100 years of automotive history and design at the Gateway Canyons Auto Museum, and a variety of self-selected experiential activities offered through the on-site Adventure Center and Driven Experiences programs. Built by John Hendricks, founder and former chairman of the Discovery Channel and Discovery Communications, Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa is dedicated to nurturing curious minds and spirits through lifelong learning programs and adventures within an inspiring natural environment. For more information, please call Gateway Canyons Resort & Spa at 1-866-671-4733 or visit www.gatewaycanyons.com.

About Noble House Hotels & Resorts

A privately held company for more than 30 years, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd. was founded in 1979 by owner Patrick R. Colee as a commercial property development group, transitioning in 1994 to a hotel ownership management company. Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., the corporation owns and manages an upscale portfolio of 15 distinct and visually captivating properties spanning the U.S. From the historic passenger Napa Valley Wine Train, to luxury resorts in Seattle, Wash. Jackson Hole, Wyo. and the Florida Keys, each property maximizes and showcases its physical setting. Noble House is continuously growing, operating 43 hotel restaurants, bars and lounges, showcasing local culture and inspiration from local surroundings. With a philosophy that emphasizes "location, distinction and soul," Noble House Hotels & Resorts exemplifies individuality, dedicating itself to creating and managing exceptional properties that contribute to their communities, staying true to local history, culture and ambiance.

For more information, visit www.NobleHouseHotels.com or call Noble House Hotels & Resorts at 877.NOBLE.TRIP.

ABOUT ALICE: By joining all of your hotel departments with a single operations platform for internal communication and task management, ALICE helps your staff act as a team to provide consistently excellent service. ALICE's main product - ALICE Suite - brings together your front office, concierge, housekeeping, and maintenance teams, and connects your guests to your hotel with our app and SMS tools. The ALICE platform is also available as specialized software and mobile applications for your staff (ALICE Staff), your concierge (ALICE Concierge) and your guests (ALICE Guest). Each module can be integrated with your PMS, POS, and third party management systems. ALICE's partners include 3-5 star independent and managed hotels, hotel groups, residential condominiums, serviced apartments, vacation rental companies, and concierge companies looking to provide exceptional service through mobile staff technology and guest communication channels. Third-party service providers also leverage the ALICE API. ALICE was founded in 2013 by Justin Effron, Alex Shashou, and Dmitry Koltunov, and has raised $13.5M to date.

Lola Feiger

Marketing Lead
CHARLESTON -- A woman received the maximum probation sentence when she admitted stealing money from another woman.

The guilty plea by Hollie J. Shriver also meant she's no longer eligible for no record of a conviction in an earlier drug case.

Shriver, 22, for whom court records list an address of 3889 N. County Road 150E, Mattoon, pleaded guilty to a theft charge that accused her of stealing the money on June 14.

The charge was a felony because the amount of money stolen was more than $500 and Shriver was placed on probation for 2 1/2 years.

Records in the case say the woman discovered $2,000 missing and she suspected Shriver might have taken it.

When questioned by police, Shriver admitted stealing the money and said she took it to post bond for her boyfriend, who was jailed in another county, the records say.

In addition to pleading guilty to the theft, Shriver admitted to violations of the sentence she received for the earlier drug conviction and was resentenced in that case, also to 2 1/2 years of probation.

Originally, Shriver received two years of first offender probation when she pleaded to a methamphetamine possession charge in April. That sentence allows for no record of conviction if completed successfully.

Coles County Circuit Judge Brien O'Brien also ordered Shriver to be evaluated for substance abuse treatment and pay about $900 in fines and court fees. Jail time was stayed, meaning she won't have to serve it if she follows her sentence's other requirements.

O'Brien imposed the sentence by accepting the terms of a plea agreement that Assistant State's Attorney Rob Scales and Public Defender Anthony Ortega recommended.

In other cases in court recently, O'Brien also accepted guilty pleas from:

Gina D. Helland, 54, whose address on record is 2112 Stoner Drive West, Charleston, to a charge of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol stemming from a traffic stop on Aug. 6, 2015.

The charge was a felony because of prior convictions and Helland was sentenced to 2 1/2 years of probation.

Probation was possible for the conviction after the charge was reduced to show two prior convictions instead of five, which would have required prison time.

Helland was ordered to enter treatment, spend 20 three-day periods in jail starting Aug. 6 and pay nearly $1,800 in fines and fees. More jail time was stayed and traffic citations, including one for driving with a suspended license, were dismissed.

The charge to which Helland pleaded guilty alleged she had prior DUI convictions in Coles County and in Pennsylvania. The original charge also listed earlier convictions in Vermilion County and Nevada.

O'Brien accepted a plea agreement that Assistant State's Attorney Tom Bucher and defense attorney Douglas Lawlyes recommended.

Abigail B. Evans, 19, for whom records list an address of 201 W. Oak St., Ashmore, to a charge of possession of a controlled substance alleging she had a prescription medication on June 27.

A charge accusing Evans of having a second medication was dismissed and she was sentenced to two years of first offender probation. Terms included a substance abuse treatment evaluation and about $2,500 in fines and fees.

Scales and Ortega recommended the plea agreement.

Alejandro Barquin, 42, whose address on record is 216 N. 35th St., Mattoon, to a theft charge alleging he stole a bottle of liquor from the Mattoon County Market store on June 27.

The charge was a felony because of prior theft convictions. Terms of Barquin's two-year probation sentence included a substance abuse treatment evaluation, about $600 in fines and fees and stayed jail time.

Scales and Ortega recommended the plea agreement.
Berlin, Germany  SnapShot, leading provider of fully integrated applications and analytics for the hospitality industry, announced today that it has joined forces with the American hotel property management systems company, StayNTouch. Through this partnership, StayNTouch customers will have complimentary access to SnapShot's trademark Analytics dashboard, which provides hoteliers with in-depth insight into their properties' happenings, on and offline.

SnapShot Analytics aggregates pricing, benchmarking and PMS data, as well as TripAdvisor reviews, social media statistics, and Google Analytics, all of which appear on a single, easy-to-use dashboard. Information is updated daily, so hotel managers always have access to the latest data regarding their properties.

Furthermore, StayNTouch customers will be able to take advantage of the other applications in the recently released SnapShot Marketplace, a fleet of tools which are fully integrated to each partner PMS's data, so that hoteliers can start using the apps immediately. SnapShot Marketplace tools, designed specifically for the hospitality industry, cater to hoteliers managing single- and multi-property businesses.

SnapShot and StayNTouch have been working together over the last few months to help educate hoteliers on how to make the most of the technology available to them. In April, the companies joined Travel Tripper in hosting a webinar on building the perfect hotel tech stack.

"It has been a pleasure working with StayNTouch, helping hoteliers to better understand the data they have in front of them on a daily basis," said Clive Wood, SnapShot's Vice President of Business Development for the East Coast. "We look forward now to equipping StayNTouch's clients with the tools they need to make better, quicker, and smarter business decisions," Wood continued.

"The successful hoteliers in today's ultra-competitive hospitality marketplace are looking to understand their customer better in order to provide a differentiated guest experience from pre-purchase to check-out," said, Jos Schaap, CEO and Founder of StayNTouch. "With SnapShot's powerful toolset integrated with their StayNTouch PMS, these hoteliers can now make decisions and take action quickly and effectively."

If you are a StayNTouch customer, activate your SnapShot Analytics dashboard here. To find out more about Analytics and Marketplace, visit the SnapShot website.

About StayNTouch

StayNTouch is a "Software as a Service" hotel property management systems (PMS) company focused on developing solutions that help hotels raise service levels, drive revenues, reduce costs, and ultimately change the way hotels can captivate their guests. Developed with mobility in mind, the pioneering platform enables hotels to create long lasting relationships with their guests by delivering personalized service levels that today's guests require.

StayNTouch operates on tablets and smartphones, empowering hotel employees to go above and beyond in exceeding guest expectations at every touch point. Powering over 75,000 rooms globally, our game-changing solution frees hotels from the constraints of legacy or premise systems, dramatically streamlines operations, increases margins, and revolutionizes how front-line staff connect with guests.

StayNTouch is a trusted partner to many of the most forward thinking hotels, resorts, casinos and chains in the industry, including Yotel, Zoku Amsterdam, Valencia Hotels, The Freehand Hotels, Modus Hotels and the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. For more information, visit www.stayntouch.com.

Margaret Ady

Head of Marketing
New York and Montreal -- Social Intelligence provider Local Measure has helped one of Canada's premier luxury hotel groups double guest interaction during their stays on property and cut response times by more than 80% in less than six months, through the company's proprietary social intelligence platform.

For Group Germain Hotels, the impact has been significant as the company builds its capacity for delivering best in class experiences by focusing on each guest's personal preferences and delivering service that consistently surprises and delights.

Clarah Germain, who heads social media and content, said, "We are delighted to partner with Local Measure, whose platform enables us to merge local content, social media and mobile technology to reach our guests as they have never been reached before  directly and during their stay, allowing teams to provide even more personalized service and engaging with them in person as well as online.

She concluded, "As a result of our collaboration, we have been able to cut guest service response time dramatically, further increase our level of guest interaction, and provide an even more uniquely personalized level of service  all thanks to our online program. Local Measure provides a tool that aligns perfectly with our mission of exceeding our guests' expectations - and we look forward to even better results in the months ahead."

Headquartered in Australia, with offices in Singapore, Dubai, London, Miami and Los Angeles, Local Measure has proprietary technology that allows brands and businesses to deliver exceptional service to their customers, engage with them in real-time and build out rich customer profiles on their preferences. It now partners with hotels in more than 500 cities worldwide, including some of the world's most visible and respected brands.

Local Measure's CEO and Founder, Jonathan Barouch, said, " We are pleased to share some of the results of our partnership with Group Germain Hotels, whose properties already set new standards of warmth, style and personalized service across Canada. Utilizing our social intelligence platform, properties have been able to take this personalization to a new level, building loyalty and increasing guest satisfaction where it counts  during a guest's stay on property. We look forward to sharing more success stories with the hotel industry as our growth continues."

For more detailed information on the Group Germain Hotel's success with Local Measure, please visit https://www.localmeasure.com/resources/case-studies/solution/groupe-germain-hotels

About Local Measure

Local Measure is the leading customer intelligence platform in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Local Measure's clients include many of the world's largest tourism and hospitality brands. The company merges local content, social media and mobile technology, to provide customers with live access to operationalize customer data, rich content and analytics at a local level. For more information about Local Measure, visit our website and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

About Group Germain Hotels

Group Germain Hotels is a family-run business that owns and operates Le Germain Hotels and Alt Hotels across Canada. Ranked as one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies, Group Germain Hotels is renowned for impeccable warmth and style at its hotels. Since opening their first property in 1998, the 1,000 staff members of Group Germain Hotels have welcomed guests totalling nearly 4 million rooms nights. Visit www.groupegermain.com.

Contact:

Michael Frenkel, MFC PR [email protected]/201-317-705
Springer-Miller Systems (SMS), the leading provider of guest-centric hospitality management systems, today announced its integration with OpenKey, the industry standard for universal mobile key technology in hotels.

Properties within Springer-Miller's SMS|Host property management system portfolio will have upgraded access to OpenKey's robust technology solution revolutionizing the hotel guest experience by adding practicality and convenience. The award-winning OpenKey app enables hotel staff to control guest room access remotely and allows guests the ability to use their smartphone for mobile entry to their room.

The fully-integrated SMS|Host Hospitality Management System provides core property management tools as well as Point-of-Sale, Owner Management, Online Booking and other key functionality for today's hospitality industry. In addition, SMS|Host interfaces with leading industry systems such as OpenKey to ensure a seamless operating environment for hotels and resorts and the tools to power impeccable guest-centric service.

"We want our customers to provide an impeccable hospitality experience for their guests by embracing the technology we use every day," said Rob Selwah, President of Springer-Miller Systems. "We're delighted to incorporate the next generation OpenKey experience for our valued customers."

The Springer-Miller management system seamlessly interfaces with the OpenKey Front Desk platform allowing reservation information to automatically populate into the hotel receptionist portal, decreasing check-in time and improving overall guest experience.

"We are thrilled about our partnership with Springer-Miller," said TJ Person, CEO of OpenKey. "Our mutual goal is to grow the integration over time to continue providing SMS customers the most simple, secure mobile key experience while improving guest satisfaction."

About OpenKey

Founded in 2014, OpenKey is reinventing the hospitality experience through its mobile access solution. The OpenKey app is the industry standard for universal mobile key technology and works with the majority of digital hotel locks. Hotels and their guests benefit from OpenKey's platform providing efficiency, convenience and cost savings. OpenKey is a privately held company located in Plano, Texas. The company has been funded by several of the largest hotel ownership and management companies in the world. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. For more information, please visit www.openkey.co.

About Springer-Miller Systems

Springer-Miller Systems provides premier software solutions for the finest hotels, resorts and spas worldwide. Springer-Miller Systems offers the SMS|Host Hospitality Management System, the truly guest-centric and fully-integrated property management system, and SpaSoft, a dynamic activities management and scheduling software solution for luxury spas. Visit www.springermiller.com for more information.

Michelle Young

VP Sales and Marketing

(773) 294-9483

View source
Lester Fernandes joins Rideaus Board of Directors

Posted by Press Releases on Tuesday, 07-18-2017 4:59 am

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Rideau Recognition Solutions, a global leader in employee recognition and human capital management, has appointed Lester Fernandes to its board of directors. Lester will lead the boards audit committee. As we set our sights on global markets and the expansion of our Vistance data analytic solution, we were in search of additional leadership to help us with the financial and strategic growth goals weve established, says Peter Hart, Rideau CEO. Lester brings to the board extensive experience in investment and corporate banking and during his 30-year career has spent a large many of those years helping both domestic and international clients with financial alternatives and project financing solutions. His unique vision and experience with auditing committees will be a valuable asset for Rideau. Lesters background includes more than 15 years of work in investment and corporate banking with Bank of Montreal, as CFO and co-founder of Pivotal Payments - one of the leading payment p...

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Washington is awash with political correctness, but neglecting those of us who have elected them. According to Public Citizen, "The United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized country, and has the shortest lifespan to show for it. Where does all the money go? Hundreds of billions (a billion is a thousand million) are wasted on bureaucracies designed to deny us as well as to process bills. Huge sums are used for marketing. In recent analyses, Public Citizen has found more than $115 billion . . . that's billion . . . goes to drug company profits each year." Please contact your representatives and insist they do the right thing with health insurance.
Kolkata, July 18 (IBNS): Raymond on Monday announced the launch of Glanzo Collection, available for its customers in West Bengal.

Ram Bhatnagar, Vice President & Head  Sales & Distribution, Raymond unveiled this new range of fabrics during al dealer meet in the presence of over 700 business partners from 13 districts and over 100 towns across the state of West Bengal.

The Glanzo Collection from Raymond offers a classic yet contemporary look for the festive season and offers a colour palette of multiple shades and hues of festive colours for special occasions.

This year the collection offers new designs of Poly Viscose blended fabrics.

The Glanzo Collection from Raymond can be used for crafting trousers, suits, jackets and bandhgalas for a custom fit.

Speaking during this launch,Ram Bhatnagar, Vice President & Head  Sales & Distribution, Raymond Limited said: Being an industry leader, Raymond is now embracing a regional focus approach through various initiatives and campaigns. We are working on our two key pillars of Innovation and Quality to offer new-age range of Fabrics for a specific region at attractive price points, the launch of Glanzo Collection this year is yet another offering in that direction. We are confident that this startling collection is poised towards customer delight during the festive season in West Bengal.

Consumers will have a choice of over 50 varied qualities of the fabric in thans to choose from the Glanzo Collection this year. This collection would be available to customers in the form of special trouser in thans & combo packs for gifting during this festive season.

The Glanzo Collection will be available in over 40 Raymond stores, 50 leading multi branded outlets and over 500 small retailers in West Bengal.
New Delhi, July 18 (IBNS): Automobile giant Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on Tuesday launched a Unique and Innovative Digital Marketing Initiative- aHyBUYa, redefining the car buying experience.

Hyundai is a modern premium brand and HyBUY is based on 3 main pillars  Simple, Caring and Creative, fueling Hyundai brands key vision of being Lifetime partners in Automobile and Beyond.

Speaking on HyBUY initiative, Puneet Anand, Sr. General Manager (Marketing) & Group Head, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. said: The time is right as Digital India is growing incrementally. Hyundai always strives to set Industry benchmarks and offer unique experiences to customers adding Brilliant Moments to their lives. HyBUY is the most innovative and unique digital initiative in the Auto Industry. It is aimed to redefine car buying journey of customers and support the futuristic mass movement of governments Digital India.

Customers on digital platforms are connected and look forward to an engaging experience. HyBUY utilizes the Social Media Connectivity and benefits the customers in the most convenient manner.

Giving customers the power to incentivize their own purchase journey to gain maximum benefits is a way of giving the Power To The People and adding the essence of gamification to engage customers.
Mumbai, July 18 (IBNS): In a major move, Jet Airways, Indiaas full service, premiere international airline on Tuesday announced the expansion of its domestic network during this monsoon by introducing 14 new direct, non-stop flights to emerging cities in domestic India.

This augmentation of domestic services between these cities is a result of the rising demand for aviation services between these fast-growing cities, reflecting their economic progress.



The airline has been witnessing steady growth in guest traffic, primarily in northern India, especially between cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Udaipur and Indore. The new flights will deepen Jet Airways domestic footprint, helping it support and facilitate travel aspirations of its guests from these regions.



In an industry first, Jet Airways has introduced direct, return non-stop flights from Indore to Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Likewise, the airline has also commenced new, direct non-stop flights between Delhi and Indore, Lucknow, Jaipur as well as connecting Jaipur with Udaipur and Lucknow.



The airline has also introduced 11 direct, one-stop through flights between Delhi and Silchar, Dehradun and Jaipur, Chandigarh and Dehradun, Chandigarh and Lucknow, and between Indore and Lucknow, in yet another maiden initiative.



Jet Airways has increased capacity on key routes via additional frequencies, that include a 2nd flight between Bengaluru and Guwahati, a 3rd frequency between Delhi and Indore, a 7th daily frequency between Delhi and Lucknow, as well as, Delhi and Jaipur, together with a 2nd daily flight between Delhi and Udaipur.

Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, said, Our new non-stop flights, additional frequencies, as well as direct, one-stop through flights is part of our continuing efforts to provide connectivity, choice and convenience for our guests. The new connections will enable guests from emerging cities to connect seamlessly on to metro cities throughout India as well as onwards to our wide international network.
Gurugram, July 18 (IBNS): Vodafone India has launched Gurugramas first Wi-Fi enabled bus shelter at the HUDA City Centre on Tuesday.

The Wi-Fi bus shelter allows customers to enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi for up-to 20 minutes per day.

An operator agnostic offering, this Wi-Fi service can be availed by users of any Indian telecom operator.

Through this innovative offering Vodafone aims to develop seamless, technologically-backed, Wi-Fi networks that will help enhance data consumption among Smartphone users in the region.

Alok Verma, Vodafone, Business Head Delhi NCR, Inaugurating the Bus Shelter

Talking about this digital innovation, Alok Verma Business Head, Vodafone Delhi-NCR says, Vodafone is committed to contributing towards making entire Gurugram a Smart City. We are very happy to enable citizens across the city to experience world-class Internet services on the go. The Wi-Fi Initiative is a step towards Digital India and creating networked and connected societies that will help citizens get on the digital highways and stay connected for Good. With customer needs evolving from voice to data, Wi-Fi is an effective technology to provide seamless connectivity to a large group of consumers in a defined space. Mobile users will now be able to experience more fun with high speed Wi-Fi seamlessly. The Wi-Fi service at the Bus shelter can be availed by all mobile users irrespective of their network provider. We urge everyone to use the WiFi bus shelter facility and enjoy the Vodafone 4G experience.

Alok Verma, Vodafone, Business Head Delhi NCR, Inaugurating the Bus Shelter

The announcement is in is in line with governments Digital India drive and smart city project.
New Delhi, July 18 (IBNS): After a month long campaign to spread awareness about rooftop solar, Greenpeace India found that 1,043 residents of Delhi want to solarise their rooftops.

Delhiites have shown tremendous interest in installing solar panels on their rooftops, says Pujarini Sen, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace India. The findings come close on the heels of the news of Delhi government schools installing solar panels.

Greenpeace India considers these as indicators to the fact that Delhiites are opening up to the idea of going solar.



The result was an outcome of a campaign called Solar Shakti by Greenpeace India, which kickstarted on the World Environment Day on June 5. During the campaign, a unique solar house on wheels, named Solar Comet, toured the length and the breadth of the city interacting with Delhiites (mostly resident welfare associations) demonstrating how solar panels can run an entire household.



The Solar Comet was a bus fitted with solar panels of 1.8 KW on the roof and furnished as a one BHK home from the inside complete with all necessary household appliances, such as a mixer, microwave, refrigerator, washing machine, water cooler, and even an air conditioner. The bus tour concluded last week after a 48 hour non-stop countdown trip around the capital, which got an overwhelming response from all over the city.



While the bus toured Delhi, Greenpeace Indias webpage, facebook ads and missed call number added on to the pledges taking the total number to 5,368 all over India (including Delhi).

For the past one and half months, we interacted with residents of Delhi and found that they were much interested in solarising their rooftops but lack of awareness acted as an impediment.

The challenge we face is to change mindsets of people, who for several decades have gotten used to coal powered electricity. People, especially the middle class had no options, but to use coal, now they have options. And when they come to know that it comes with several financial benefits, they tend to open up to the idea. And that's how we can convince them. We have received requests for rooftop assessments and we will now connect the residents to the concerned vendors, says Sen. The rooftop assessments will be completed over the coming weeks.



The encouraging results of the Solar Shakti campaign show that India has never been more ready to go solar. India has an ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable energy of which 100 GW would come from solar alone by 2022. While 60 GW is earmarked for large scale projects, the govt has set aside 40 GW for rooftop solar, of which we have reached only 1.2 GW. The uptake of rooftop solar in metros has been dismal so far.



In Delhi, the total solar potential is 2,500 MW with a residential potential of 1,250 MW. The official target in Delhi is to reach 1,000 MW worth solar installations by 2020 and 2,000 MW by 2025. But as of December 2016, only 35.9 MW have been installed out of which, only 3 MW were residential installations in March 2016.



We have a very ambitious target and we really need all Indians to pool in and achieve it. Greenpeace is committed to doing its best to facilitate this. We just cannot afford to scale down the target as the world can no longer afford coal powered electricity, adds Sen.

Image: Wikipedia Commons
Image: www.caravitahomecare.com

London, July 18 (IBNS): Person-centred activities combined with just one hour a week of social interaction can improve quality of life and reduce agitation for people with dementia living in care homes, while saving money.

These are the findings from a large-scale trial led by the University of Exeter, Kings College London and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. These results were presented today (July 16) at the Alzheimers Association International Conference 2017 (AAIC). The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The trial involved more than 800 people with dementia across 69 care homes in South London, North London and Buckinghamshire. Two care staff champions at each home were trained over four day-long sessions, to take simple measures that such as involve talking to residents about their interests and decisions around their own care. When combined with just one hour a week of social interaction, it improved quality of life and reduced agitation, read the Kings College London and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust website.

Importantly, the approach also saved money compared to standard care. Researchers say the next key challenge is to roll the programme to the 28,000 care homes in the UK to benefit the lives of the 300,000 people with dementia living in these facilities.

Professor Clive Ballard, of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the research, said: People with dementia who are living in care homes are among the most vulnerable in our society. Incredibly, of 170 carer training manuals available on the market, only four are based on evidence that they really work. Our outcomes show that good staff training and just one hour a week of social interaction significantly improves quality of life for a group of people who can often be forgotten by society.

Dr Jane Fossey from the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: Taking a person-centred approach is about really getting to know the resident as an individual - knowing their interests and talking with them while you provide all aspects of care. It can make a massive difference to the person themselves and their carers. Weve shown that this approach significantly improves lives, reduces agitation and actually saves money too. This training must now be rolled out nationwide so other people can benefit.

The results are the findings of the Improving Wellbeing and Health for People with Dementia (WHELD) trial, the largest non-pharmacological randomised control trial in people with dementia living in care homes to date.

The project included collaboration from University College London, the Universities of Hull and Bangor, and Alzheimers Society.

Doug Brown, Director of Research for Alzheimers Society, said: 70% of people living in care homes have dementia, so it is vital that staff have the right training to provide good quality dementia care."

We know that a person-centred approach that takes each individual's unique qualities, abilities, interests, preferences and needs into account can improve care. This study shows that training to provide this type of individualised care, along with activities and social interactions, has a significant impact on the well-being of people living with dementia in care homes. It also shows that effective care can reduce costs, which the stretched social care system desperately needs."

Alzheimers Society is committed to improving dementia care through research. We want to see interventions like this put into practice, and will continue to fund further research to improve the quality of life for people with dementia in their own homes, care homes and hospitals. But investment in research alone cannot rescue the broken system. The government must use the consultation on social care reform to deliver a long-term solution that addresses the desperate funding crisis in our current system and shares the cost of care across society.


Where are the plans for decarbonizing the grid in the southern Illinois coal plants? We know there's a retrofit for coal plants for CO2 emissions. Where are the plans? Surprise us with a newsletter covering these issues. Do something your constituents are eager to hear about like insuring streams are not contaminated from fossil fuel production. Can you tell your constituents where their Illinois coal is being marketed? Toss in a paragraph or two on fracking in the New Madrid Earthquake Fault zone so their fears are put to rest while your composing that newsletter. Needless to say when you attend a TOWN MEETING these are the questions that we want answers to. Step Up Rep. Shimkus! Illinois constituents watch who's funding your PAC's and we all remember who voted you into office.
Darjeeling, Jul 18 (IBNS): One activist of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) was allegedly shot dead after the state police and the CRPF allegedly fired bullets aiming at Gorkhaland supporters during a clash between GJM and state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) supportersin Darjeeling's Mirik area on Monday late evening, reports said.

GJM president Bimal Gurung claimed that his party activist Ashish Tamang was killed on Monday night after police's bullet was lodged in his chest.

"Ashish Tamang, a 36-year-old supporter of GJM from Mirik's Magargunj area, sacrificed his life for Gorkhaland. His sacrifice will not go in vain," Bimal Gurung told IBNS. "My heart felt condolences to his bereaved family. May his soul rest in peace."

Earlier on Monday evening, a skirmish broke out between GJM and TMC supporters in Mirik and when police tried to intervene, they were allegedly attacked.

Later a heavy police force and CRPF rushed to the spot and police restored to lathicharge and lobbed tear gas shells to bring the situation under control.

"Protesters set a local police booth and few of our vehicles on fire and attacked our personnel. Besides few agitators, at least two policemen were injured in the clash," a local police official told IBNS.

"Police did not fire a single round of bullet yesterday to disperse protesters. We lathicharged, lobbed tear gas shells and fired few rounds of rubber bullets to restore the situation," the official added.

GJM leaders said that they will hold a protest rally on Tuesday with the body of killed activist, Ashish Tamang, in Mirik.

A huge security force have been deployed to the area to control law and order and to avoid further untoward incident.

Meanwhile, TMC claimed that two of its activists- Anand Rai and Navraj Tamang- were seriously injured during the clash.

Darjeeling has been witnessing strikes and violence in recent times.

The shutdown has been called by the GJM.The shutdown is going on for more than a month.
New Delhi, July 18 (IBNS): M Venkaiah Naidua, who has filed his nomination for the upcoming Vice-Presidential polls, on Tuesday greeted Smriti Irani as she took charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

"I convey my blessings and best wishes to Smt @smritiirani as she takes on the mantle of @MIB_India," Naidu tweeted with a picture with Irani.

Naidu also met former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to seek his blessings before the elections.

"Visited Sh Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji at his residence, and took his blessings after filing my nomination to the #VicePresidential post," Naidu said.

Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday took additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

After taking charge, Smriti Irani tweeted: "With blessings of PM @narendramodi ji, took Additional Charge of @MIB_India. My gratitude to Hon. Prime Minister for his continued guidance."

As Venkaiah Naidu resigned as Central minister to contest the upcoming Vice Presidential polls, Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar got additional charges of information and broadcasting and urban development ministries respectively.

Naidu, a top BJP leader, resigned on Monday late evening after he was chosen vice presidential candidate by the NDA.

His resignation has been accepted by the President.

"The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, from the Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution," read a government statement.

Naidu has already filed his nomination.

Tomar, meanwhile, will be holding the additional charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

"Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Cabinet Minister, shall be assigned the charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in addition to his existing portfolios," read a government statement.

" Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Cabinet Minister, shall be assigned the charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in addition to her existing portfolio," it said.

Images: Official Facebook pages of Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar.

Image: M Venkaiah Naidu Twitter page


New Delhi, July 18 (IBNS): Hours after her angry walk out from the Rajya Sabha, BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday quit the Upper House of the Parliament, reports said.

According to reports, she has formally handed over her resignation.

Earlier in the day, she walked out of the house as she claimed that she was not allowed to speak in the House about the atrocities against Dalits.

If I am not allowed to speak, I will resign right now. I will come and give my resignation at this moment, Mayawati told reporters after she stormed out of the House earlier in the day.

Mayawati had attacked the Government in the upper house on the incidents of attacks on Dalits and when asked by the Deputy Chairman to sit down after completing her statement, she got infuriated.

Launching a scathing attack on the NDA Government, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh brought up the issue of atrocities against Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and particularly focused on the Saharanpur riots.

While interrupted, she said: "I will resign if not allowed to speak." Immediately after this, Mayawati walked out of the house.

Image: WIkimedia Commons
Chennai, July 18 (IBNS): Former AIADMK chief Sasikala Natarajan, who was jailed in a corruption case, is getting VIP treatment as the prisoner, some local media reports said on Tuesday.

The allegations of providing special treatment to Sasikala came into light after former DIG Prisons D Roopa alleged that the former has bribed the jail officials a sum of two crores for the benefits.

Roopa even said Sasikala had an access to a separate kitchen for her meals.

Though the DG lost her job immediately, some local channels aired the footage on Tuesday which shows Sasikala is staying in a room inside the prison where a LED TV is installed.

She is also seen as not wearing any prisoner's cloth rather was visible in a silk attire.

Reports suggested that there are separate vacant cells inside the prison where she used to hold meetings with several guests.

Sasikala was convicted in a money laundering case in February 2017 which led to an imprisonment of four years.

She was close to the former CM of Tamil Nadu late J Jayalalitha. After Jayalalitha's death, Sasikala was appointed as the interim General Secretary of the party.

Prior to her conviction, Sasikala had ambition to become the chief minister that led to the disintegration of the AIADMK.

Image: Creative Commons.
Srinagar, July 18 (IBNS): The Indian Army on Tuesday claimed to have foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in northern part of Kashmir.

Two suspected militants were killed in the operation, while two to three others are believed to be trapped.

The encounter is still under way, reports said.

Three weapons have also been recovered.

An official said that a group of six militants at around 11:30 pm tried to sneak into this side of LoC.

Army personnel of 13 Sikh regiment noticed the movement. The militants fired at them, which was retaliated, triggering a gunfight, an official said.

They said the intermittent firing continued till 6 am in the morning.

Two bodies of militants have been recovered. Search operation is under way to track the rest of militants, he said.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)


Mumbai, July 18 (IBNS): Bollywood actress Bhumi Pednekar, who became popular for her acting in Dum Laga Ke Haisha, turned 28 on Tuesday.

Pednekar shared a picture on her Instagram profile few hours ago where she was seen to celebrate her birthday.

Pednekar, who played an overweight girl in her debut film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha in 2015, captioned the picture saying: "Thank you for making my day special.I love you all so much ai#gratitude#unconditionallove #birthdaybumps."

Thank you for making my day special.I love you all so much ai#gratitude #unconditionallove #birthdaybumps A post shared by Bhumi Pednekar (@psbhumi) on Jul 18, 2017 at 3:44am PDT

The picture portrays her in a gorgeous black attire which would definitely be a treat for her fans to watch.

Meanwhile, she would be seen opposite actor Akshay Kumar in the film Toilet Ek Prem Katha, which is slated to release in August.

Image: Official Instagram profile of Bhumi Pednekar.
New York, July 18(Just Earth News): Senior United Nations officials on Monday called for regional and international support to stabilize newly liberated Mosul and to create conditions for peace and development throughout Iraq.

The historic liberation of Mosul should not conceal the fact that the road ahead is extremely challenging, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, told the Security Council.

He praised the Iraqi security forces and international partners for an exceptional effort to save and protect civilians during the military drive to liberate the Iraqi city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, and for showing a readiness to be held accountable for violations.

The effort was in stark contrast to ISIL, which showed absolute disregard for human lives and civilization by booby-trapping and destroying homes and critical monuments, indiscriminately shelling civilians, and by having civilians butchered by females and brainwashed children suicide bombers.

To turn the gains of the military victory into stability, security, justice and development, the Government will have to do everything possible to give the people back their lives in security and dignity, said Kubis, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

De-mining, stabilization and reconstruction efforts to allow the return of displaced people, as well as the elimination of ISIL cells and militias, are among the priorities.

He noted that the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait had confirmed their willingness to assist the Government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, and urged all of Iraqs partners to stay on course.

In addition, the Iraqi Government has to work for national settlement and societal reconciliation within the country, as well as to enter into negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the UN envoy said.

ISIL would ultimately be defeated only through inclusive solutions, addressing the grievances, needs and aspirations of the Iraqi people, noted Kubis.

He reiterated the UNs commitment to facilitating the national settlement process and supporting grassroots reconciliation efforts. Also, with ISIL pushed out of Mosul and the people held by the group freed, the UN is repositioning its response to supporting survivors of sexual violence and helping to integrate them back into their communities. The UN is also working to ensure that children arrested for terrorism-related charges are transferred to juvenile institutions.

Fighting may be over, humanitarian crisis is not

Some 700,000 civilians have been displaced from Western Mosul, according to UN figures.

Speaking via videolink from Baghdad, UN Deputy Special Representative Lise Grande told journalists in New York that the top priority right now is to reach civilians who might still be in Mosuls old city.

We believe perhaps hundreds of people are still there, said Grande, who is also the UNs Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. She noted that in the last week of fighting some 12,000 people were evacuated. The majority of them are children and the elderly, who without sufficient water or food were too weak to even walk on their own.

Triage stabilization units established right on the front lines by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) received up to 100 patients per hour, spending about 4 minutes to stabilize each patient, before passing him or her on to a field hospital.

The fighting may be stopping but the humanitarian crisis has not, noted Grande.

Of the 54 residential districts in western Mosul, 15 are heavily damaged, basically flattened, Grande said, 23 are moderately damaged and 16 neighbourhoods have light damage.

The UN estimates the costs to stabilizing these areas and making them liveable to be more than $700 million, of which $237 million would be for the moderately and lightly damaged areas and $470 million for the more destroyed neighbourhoods.

That is double the estimate for stabilization, Grande said, due to fighting which was so fierce and so much worse that what anyone else experienced.

The UN has requested nearly $1 billion in assistance to aid the people in Mosul, with a focus on re-establishing crucial services so that people can safely return home to western Mosul.

Meanwhile, in eastern Mosul, which has been liberated since January, schools are open, businesses are thriving, the city is recovering, said Grande.

Since the beginning of the fighting last year, about 940,000 civilians fled Mosul. Nearly all have been housed and are receiving direct assistance, an outcome that Grande called very positive.

The UN official attributed the ability of aid workers to stay one step ahead due to the UNs early contingency planning under the Governments leadership and a flash appeal that was 100 per cent funded; Iraqi forces commitment to protecting civilians during the battles; and strong civilian-military liaison communication.

She noted that an additional 100,000 civilians are expected to flee their homes by the end of this year, as Iraqi forces start to reclaim new areas in other parts of Ninewa and Anbar Governorates and in Kirkuk Governorate, where ISIL still holds territory.

Photo: UNDP/ Ahmed Swadi

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 18(Just Earth News): A committee of United Nations experts has completed its annual evaluation of the situation of people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, hearing serious concerns about Israelas human rights record, including the deteriorating situation in Gaza, inadequate protection for detained children and increasing obstacles being faced by human rights defenders and journalists.

In a news release, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories said that during its fact-finding visit to Amman, Jordan, its members heard testimony on the expansion of settlements, the ongoing use of administrative detention, excessive use of force and possible extrajudicial killings, and lack of accountability. Based on this testimony, the Committee clearly observed that the Israeli authorities continue with policies and practices that negatively impact the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, it said in the release.

The Committee also heard troubling testimony regarding the arrest and detention of children, including cases of reported ill-treatment and lack of adequate protection.

Other testimony described grave concern over the situation of Palestinian detainees reportedly living in difficult conditions in Israeli prisons, as well as the continued use of administrative detention.

Other issues raised included the effects of the separation wall on Palestinians rights, and the demolition of homes and other structures in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, as well as in the Syrian Golan. The use of punitive demolitions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem was described as a form of collective punishment.

Many organizations highlighted with concern the continued lack of accountability for allegations of excessive use of force and violations of international law by the Israeli forces, including during the 2014 hostilities in Gaza. A number of organizations emphasized that the lack of accountability further exacerbated the cycle of violence.

Human rights defenders and journalists seeking to highlight violations of human rights and humanitarian law told the Committee that the space in which they were free to operate was shrinking at an alarming rate. They reported cases of the detention of peaceful demonstrators and the targeting of journalists covering protests.

The news release also noted that the Government of Israel does not recognize the Committee, which was therefore unable to speak to the relevant Israeli authorities or access the occupied territories.

The Committee will submit a full report on its mission and other activities to the UN General Assembly in November 2017.

The Committee was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968 to examine the human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. It is composed of three UN Member States: Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal.

Photo: UNICEF/ El Baba

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 18(Just Earth News): Opening the high-level segment of the annual forum designed to discuss implementation of the anti-poverty agenda, top United Nations officials on Monday stressed the importance of multilateralism to address global problems.

Solidarity and working together is more important than ever, Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), told the opening of the high-level segment of the Councils 2017 session, which coincides with the three-day ministerial meeting of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF).

He noted that more than 767 million people lived in extreme poverty, according to 2013 figures cited by the UN. In addition, inequalities remain deep, conflicts and terrorism threaten humanity, and global temperatures are on the rise.

Multilateralism is based on the recognition that we cannot overcome these  and other  global challenges in isolation, Shava underscored. Collective support for the poor and most vulnerable is in the interest of all of us.

Also speaking at the opening, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted the interlinkages between sustainable and inclusive development, conflict prevention and natural disaster preparedness.

One of the main stressors on the world, he said, is climate change, impacting global megatrends  such as population growth, climate change, food insecurity, water scarcity, and chaotic urbanization in certain parts of the world.

He urged the more than 70 ministers and other senior government officials participating in the Forum to recommit to the Paris Agreement and its implementation: This is something that I believe is very important not only because of its absolute need for mankind and the future of the planet but because it is also the right and smart thing to do.

In his speech, Guterres also urged developed countries to abide by their commitments in relation to official development aid, while at the same time noting that this is not enough to fund the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We need to create conditions to help States be able to mobilise more their own resources, he said, citing the need for tax reforms and fighting money laundering and the illicit flows of capital.

This years meeting, the second since the adoption of the new development agenda in 2015, is on the theme of Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world.

In addition to the high-level discussions, this years Forum, which began on 10 July and will run through Wednesday, includes discussions on the challenges and gaps in reaching the development agenda in 44 countries that volunteered to give progress reports, and more than 120 side events related to the SDGs.

To achieve the Goals, the essential ingredient is partnership, said Peter Thomson, President of the 71st session of the General Assembly, at the opening of the 2017 Partnership Exchange, which is being held as part of the Forum.

Thomson urged effective collaboration and partnerships between governments, private sector, civil society, local authorities, schools, universities and our communities.

He echoed the Secretary-Generals call for critical funding, from development assistance as well as private financing, and also highlighted collaboration in technology and innovation, and the need to raise awareness about the development agenda.

The 2030 Agenda is a new social contract for the world, said Thomson. As such, global consciousness must be raised to its contents, to its transformative message and to what I see as a set of individual rights and responsibilities that emerge from it.

UN Photo/Harandane Dicko

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 18(Just Earth News): Underscoring the importance of well trained and capable youth to realize the opportunities offered by advances in technology and innovation, the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday called for building their capacities to ensure that they can fulfil their potential as well as support sustainable development.

As the main beneficiaries of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and as the drivers of innovation and change, it is vital that the enthusiasm and ingenuity of youth are harnessed to transform the world for the better, Peter Thomson said at an event held at UN Headquarters in New York on the theme Skills for the future of work.

Just as youth need education and training to access decent jobs in and of the future, they also require skills development to fulfil their vital role in SDG implementation, he added.

In his remarks, Thomson called for targeted policies and resources to develop the digital skills of on Mondays youth, as well as for specific programmes to ensure that women and girls have access to education, health and employment opportunities.

Doing so, he said, would make sure they secure decent jobs and are never left behind again.

We must see investing in quality education and training as fundamental for a world of sustaining peace and sustainable development, he noted.

In particular, Thomson highlighted the need to work cooperatively with all stakeholders in building the education and training systems that are responsive to the needs, and given the complexities involved, called for international cooperation, strategic partnerships, and transfer of technology.

The multilateral system has a responsibility to bring together governments, youth, employers, educators, and innovators to demystify the labour markets of the future, and to find innovative ways of building digital skills across the world, all in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, he stressed.

Speaking alongside Thomson, Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Envoy on Youth, also called for greater and more coherent efforts to better forecast the skills that will be needed in the future.

We must adapt existing policies and initiatives to be fit for the digital era and ensure that we remain flexible enough, to adapt these further in the future, she said, citing the example of the technological advances made since the turn of the millennium and signs that this will not slow down in the years ahead.

We must [also] ensure that national youth policies are integrated, holistic and funded, she added.

In her remarks, the Youth Envoy also underscored the need for holistic education to address evolving technical skills as well as impart competencies required to adapt to changing and demanding workplaces.

In this regard, she highlighted that formal education alone would not be enough, and stressed the importance of non-formal and informal education.

With all this talk of change in such little time, one truth remains: there is no better investment a country can make than in the capacities and potential of its young people, she stated.

Photo: UNICEF/ Herwig

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Tuesday, July 18, 2017 A Hot Summer On The Campaign Trail: Fundraising Surprises In ABQ Mayoral And Congressional Contests Rattle Contestants



Bad news for



(All mayoral campaign finance reports



In his personal appearances Johnson has been running an aggressive attack campaign against Lewis. The latest insider polling still has Lewis holding on to second place. His chances to make a two person run-off--which will happen if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote--still seem good. But Lewis will have to look behind him as he runs, keeping track of Johnson's position.



Lewis has $192,000 in the bank, only a few thousand more than Republican rival Johnson. But Lewis is thought to have a better shot at raising more. He paid longtime fund-raiser Terri Baird nearly $30,000 in the latest reporting period.



Then there's 81 year old businessman and Republican



Chaves is the first mayor wannabe to do a mass mailing. It hit last week and we have it posted here today.



MACHINE ABSENT



There are no signs yet that the Governor's political machine is in on the Johnson effort, according to the finance reports filed last week with the city. He has been using veteran GOP fundraiser



BRIAN'S BANK







KELLER SPENDING



Keller opted for public financing and he hasn't been shy about spending it. He has already burned through $132,000 of the $342,000 the city deposited into his account. The state auditor has coughed up over $100,000 of that for consulting and campaign salaries. He is being consulted by Alan Packman's firm which has emerged in recent years as a near ubiquitous presence on Democratic campaigns.



Keller is going to need every penny that independent committee being formed on his behalf plans on raising. Right now it has a paltry $2,000 in its account. But that is expected to change. If for some reason the committee falls short or its media is ineffective, early frontrunner Keller could find himself threatened by Colon and Lewis because his own campaign account is headed lower.



ENTERTAINING ENTRIES



Chaves mailer (click to read) Some entertaining entries from the finance reports. Former NM Democratic Party Chairman and attorney Sam Bregman donated $250 to none other than Republican Dan Lewis. Bregman is also a former ABQ city councilor. . .



Another lawyer and A former GOP state senator--Lisa Torraco--came with $1,000 for Republican Wayne Johnson. . .



Former GOP US Senator Jack Schmitt ponied up $2,000 for Johnson who is more conservative than Lewis. . . And who says the news media is a bunch of liberals? Former TV news anchor Carla Aragon raised the flag for Johnson with a $350 donation. . .



He may know something you and me don't because what money Brian Colon spent went largely for a $28,000 poll. Do tell, Brian. . . Lewis is paying the campaign manager he brought in from out of state--Stewart Bragg--$6,000 a month, according to the reports. . .



And here's one of the eyebrow raisers from the reports. Former Dem state Senator and now lobbyist Richard Romero gave $150 to Wayne Johnson. Romero has been scorned in some Democratic circles ever since 2009 when Romero, then-Dem Mayor Martin Chavez and R Richard Berry duked it out for the mayoral chair. Berry went on to win handily and many Dems hold Romero accountable for the loss, saying he split the Democratic vote. . .



MAYOR FORUM TONIGHT



There will be major mayoral action in ABQ tonight as all the candidates are expected at a League of Women Voters/ABQ Tea Party sponsored forum. It will be at the



PAT'S PROBLEMS



Davis An early shake-up in the seven way Dem race for the ABQ congressional seat. The most "progressive" candidate in the bunch came with a surprisingly weak money report.



ABQ City Councilor Pat Davis, who heads the advocacy group ProgressNowNM and who is thought to have access to national political support, only



The early knockdown of Davis raises the question of whether he can get off the canvass. His next report will be watched for signs of recovery and if the well-known progressive doesn't show progress, his foes will pounce.



For Sedillo Lopez the question going forward is whether she can keep up her fundraising pace. Her first quarter is dominated by contributions from fellow law professors and attorneys from here and across the nation. Former NM AG Patrica Madrid came with $1,000 as did Cynthia Hall, an attorney who serves on the state Public Regulation Commission. Lopez loaned herself $8,400 and her son donated $5,400.



THE NATIVE DIFFERENCE







There have been questions about the tribes coming through for her, but that seems put to rest based on an examaination of her first finance report. Take a look:



NM's Santo Domingo Pueblo made one of the many $2,700 Indian Country primary contributions that flowed to Haaland, the maximum allowed by law. Matching that amount were the Washginton state tribes Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottowa And Chippewa Indians and the Swinomiosh Tribal Community. Back here, Isleta Pueblo gave her $2,700 as did the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Claifornia.



This is the home of New Mexico politics.



E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)



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( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2017 It's a hot summer on the campaign trail. Let's start with that growing hotter-by-the-day ABQ mayoral race. . .Bad news for Dan Lewis . The GOP city councilor can't shake fellow R mayoral hopeful and BernCo Commissioner Wayne Johnson who surprised with a campaign report showing he raised $122,000 in the last three month reporting period and now has $187,000 in cash on hand. That pretty much ensures Johnson will have a TV buy and mail campaign for the final stretch leading to the October 3 election.(All mayoral campaign finance reports here ).In his personal appearances Johnson has been running an aggressive attack campaign against Lewis. The latest insider polling still has Lewis holding on to second place. His chances to make a two person run-off--which will happen if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote--still seem good. But Lewis will have to look behind him as he runs, keeping track of Johnson's position.Lewis has $192,000 in the bank, only a few thousand more than Republican rival Johnson. But Lewis is thought to have a better shot at raising more. He paid longtime fund-raiser Terri Baird nearly $30,000 in the latest reporting period.Then there's 81 year old businessman and Republican Ricardo Chaves . Can he catch fire? He has the kindling. Chavez has stoked his campaign kitty with another $200,000. That's on top of the initial $300,000 he anted up. He reports $374,000 in cash on hand, second only to Brian Colon.Chaves is the first mayor wannabe to do a mass mailing. It hit last week and we have it posted here today.There are no signs yet that the Governor's political machine is in on the Johnson effort, according to the finance reports filed last week with the city. He has been using veteran GOP fundraiser Ann Ekern to help him raise his cash. She has not been associated with Martinez machine leader Jay McCleskey. Brian Colon's reputation for being an able fund-raiser was enhanced when he again zipped past the field by raising $263,000 in the past three months. The other good news for Colon--who polling shows running a distant third behind Dem Tim Keller and Lewis--is that he has hardly spent any of that cash. He has $513, 000 cash on hand. If he can come with a message that resonates--something that has eluded him thus far--his supporters believe that money could help him quickly close the gap.Keller opted for public financing and he hasn't been shy about spending it. He has already burned through $132,000 of the $342,000 the city deposited into his account. The state auditor has coughed up over $100,000 of that for consulting and campaign salaries. He is being consulted by Alan Packman's firm which has emerged in recent years as a near ubiquitous presence on Democratic campaigns.Keller is going to need every penny that independent committee being formed on his behalf plans on raising. Right now it has a paltry $2,000 in its account. But that is expected to change. If for some reason the committee falls short or its media is ineffective, early frontrunner Keller could find himself threatened by Colon and Lewis because his own campaign account is headed lower.Some entertaining entries from the finance reports. Former NM Democratic Party Chairman and attorney Sam Bregman donated $250 to none other than Republican Dan Lewis. Bregman is also a former ABQ city councilor. . .Another lawyer and A former GOP state senator--Lisa Torraco--came with $1,000 for Republican Wayne Johnson. . .Former GOP US Senator Jack Schmitt ponied up $2,000 for Johnson who is more conservative than Lewis. . . And who says the news media is a bunch of liberals? Former TV news anchor Carla Aragon raised the flag for Johnson with a $350 donation. . .He may know something you and me don't because what money Brian Colon spent went largely for a $28,000 poll. Do tell, Brian. . . Lewis is paying the campaign manager he brought in from out of state--Stewart Bragg--$6,000 a month, according to the reports. . .And here's one of the eyebrow raisers from the reports. Former Dem state Senator and now lobbyist Richard Romero gave $150 to Wayne Johnson. Romero has been scorned in some Democratic circles ever since 2009 when Romero, then-Dem Mayor Martin Chavez and R Richard Berry duked it out for the mayoral chair. Berry went on to win handily and many Dems hold Romero accountable for the loss, saying he split the Democratic vote. . .There will be major mayoral action in ABQ tonight as all the candidates are expected at a League of Women Voters/ABQ Tea Party sponsored forum. It will be at the UNM Continuing Education Center from 7 to 8:30 p.m.An early shake-up in the seven way Dem race for the ABQ congressional seat. The most "progressive" candidate in the bunch came with a surprisingly weak money report.ABQ City Councilor Pat Davis, who heads the advocacy group ProgressNowNM and who is thought to have access to national political support, only raised $68,000 in the most recent quarter. That was far surpassed by attorney Antoinette Sedillo Lopez who came with $201,000 and former Dem Party Chair Deb Haaland who raised $150,000 but says she only solicited funds for two of the three months,The early knockdown of Davis raises the question of whether he can get off the canvass. His next report will be watched for signs of recovery and if the well-known progressive doesn't show progress, his foes will pounce.For Sedillo Lopez the question going forward is whether she can keep up her fundraising pace. Her first quarter is dominated by contributions from fellow law professors and attorneys from here and across the nation. Former NM AG Patrica Madrid came with $1,000 as did Cynthia Hall, an attorney who serves on the state Public Regulation Commission. Lopez loaned herself $8,400 and her son donated $5,400.Something a bit historic is happening in the early going in the Dem race for Congress. Large sums of money from Native America tribes and pueblos here and outside the state is starting to flow to Haaland, who would be the first Native American woman ever elected to the US House.There have been questions about the tribes coming through for her, but that seems put to rest based on an examaination of her first finance report. Take a look:NM's Santo Domingo Pueblo made one of the many $2,700 Indian Country primary contributions that flowed to Haaland, the maximum allowed by law. Matching that amount were the Washginton state tribes Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottowa And Chippewa Indians and the Swinomiosh Tribal Community. Back here, Isleta Pueblo gave her $2,700 as did the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Claifornia.This is the home of New Mexico politics. Links HOME

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New York, July 18(Just Earth News): Japanese entertainer Piko Taro, famous for his aPen-Pineapple-Apple-Pena (PPAP) viral music video, has joined the ranks of celebrities who promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on behalf of Governments, the United Nations, civil society and other actors in the global development community.

I knew SD Gundam, but I had no idea what the SDGs stand for, the comedian said jokingly referring to the Japanese anime television series, while visiting the UN Headquarters on Monday. He noted that he had been surprised when the Japanese Government asked him to assume this promotional role and perform at the UN.

Piko Taros PPAP dance music video has gone worldwide, having scored more than 100 million views since its release in August 2016. At a reception the Japanese Government hosted on the sideline of the High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development, Piko Taro presented both the original song and the rearranged version, whose lyrics stand for Public-Private Action for Partnership on SDGs.

Schoolchildren from the UN International School joined him on stage, singing and dancing along the revised version. The event was also attended by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

Earlier that day, he swung by Spotlight on SDGs exhibition featuring prize-winning photos taken by students around the world. He said he was convinced of the power of visuals to convey the key concepts of the SDGs.

Likewise, he hopes that his rejiggered PPAP song can help people around the world better understand the SDGs, which were adopted by UN Member States in 2015, with 2030 as a target year to eradicate poverty, address climate change and build peaceful, inclusive societies for all.

The Sustainable Development Goals, if people remember these words, they may get curious. What are the SDGs? They learn - oh, 17 Goals, he said.

Photo: UN Photo/Mark Garten

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Washington/Ottawa, July 18 (IBNS): After repeated complaints, US President Donald Trump is expected to release his wish list on North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) soon, media reports said.

NAFTA is an agreement which was signed by Canada, Mexico and United States on trade, which came into effect since 1994.

For last two years, Trump repeatedly complained about the NAFTA, aiming to bring about certain changes to the deal.

The Trump administration is required to publish a set of objectives before entering into any kind of negotiations.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on this issue, said: "I cant imagine that we would start negotiating before the negotiations actually start."

"Were going to be responsible about this, to be thoughtful and responsible in how we engage the administration" he added.

Canada devised the strategy of being patient and check what proposals Trump administration brings.

Image: Official Facebook page of Donald Trump.
Culture Artists Awaken Spirit of Gen Aung San

An art exhibition titled Aung San Be Still Alive! at Maharzan Gallery in Kandawgyi Park. / Supplied

YANGON  Seventy years ago, Gen Aung San, widely regarded as Myanmars independence hero, was assassinated along with seven of his colleagues and a bodyguard. With Myanmar observing Martyrs Day on Wednesday in remembrance of their tragic deaths, nine artists firmly believe the spirit of Aung San is still present.

Only July 19, people will visit the Martyrs Mausoleum where Aung San, who is still commonly referred to as the General, was entombed, the Secretariat Building where he was assassinated and his house in Yangons Bahan Township, which was turned into a museum.

But nine artistsSuu Htet Aung, Myoe Kyaw, Htin Lin Naing, Thaw Thaw Tint, Wunna Thitpin, Ko Thet, Ko Soe, Maharzan, and Nyein Chan Kowill be at an art exhibition titled Aung San Be Still Alive! at Maharzan Gallery in Kandawgyi Park.

The exhibition will be launched on Martyrs Day and continues until the end of this month, featuring works depicting the life of Aung San as a student leader, leader of the Anti-Fascist Peoples Freedom League, known by its Myanmar acronym Pa Sa Pa La, a military general, a parliamentarian, and a minister.

Ko Thets painting shows Gen Aung San in black and white, surrounded by broken pieces of colored Myanmar maps. These maps depict the Generals efforts to unite and free Myanmar, which was colonialized and divided into mainland and hilly regions. His portrait amid the maps represents his honesty and righteousness, Ko Thet told The Irrawaddy.

Referring to an Aung San portrait that includes lyrics and musical notes, Ko Thet, who is also a guitarist, explained: The musical notes are from the Myanmar national anthem, which is always sung at schools. I created this to remind people about the General and his colleagues who sacrificed their lives to protect the Union.

Artist Htin Lin Naing focused on Aung San in actionone of his pictures shows Aung San going to Parliament in a longyi; another shows him vigorously addressing the public at Yangon City Hall.

Ive respected him since I was a child. I admire his love for the country. He is the father of Myanmars independence, and the independence architect. I am glad and proud that Ive had the chance to draw him, said Htin Lin Naing.

Suu Htet Aungs picture depicts Aung San smiling reassuringly, as he strides through the middle of a chessboard, a roll of paper in his hand. Suu Htet Aung created a series of the General in this posture last year.

Today, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is boldly walking through a strategy. Likewise, Gen Aung San had to maneuver amid strategies in his time and achieved independence through various means, said Suu Htet Aung.

The exhibition has 21 oil and acrylic paintings measuring 4 feet x 3 feet and 3 feet x 2 feet, priced between US$200-$900.

Artist Maharzan, the curator of the exhibition and owner of Maharzan Gallery, said: The General never dies. He is still alive. Ive long had an idea of gathering paintings of the General for an exhibition. But we didnt have that degree of freedom at that time, plus I didnt have an art gallery. Now, I have opened an art gallery, and the time coincides with Martyrs Day, so I organized the exhibition.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
From the Archive The Lady and the Generals

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, far left, and Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, far right. / Nay Chy

It takes two to tango, say Burma-watchers trying to make sense of the relationship burgeoning between the new government and the armed forces. This last week, some intriguing gestures have passed between the two.

On July 19Burmas Martyrs Day, commemorating the assassination of independence hero Aung San and eight of his colleagues in 1947Commander-in-Chief Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing became the first armed forces commander in decades to take part in the annual ceremony at the Martyrs Mausoleum in Rangoon. This is bound to become protocol for Min Aung Hlaings successors.

There were more surprises. After delivering his salute at the mausoleum, the commander-in-chief showed up at Aung San Suu Kyis Rangoon residence for a Buddhist merit-making ceremony, switching his uniform for a traditional Burmese jacket and longyi.

Pictures of Min Aung Hlaing and Suu Kyi nodding and smiling at each other alongside prominent Buddhist monks in Suu Kyis lakeside villa were shared widely among the Burmese public and foreign observers.

Prominent former generals were also present, including Myint Swe, vice president and a protege of former dictator Than Shwe, and Shwe Mann, who was once number three in Than Shwes military junta and is now a close ally of Suu Kyi.

Relations between Shwe Mann and the military establishment have grown chilly at best; with Suu Kyi in the middle, they were forced to exchange pleasantries.

Last month, the military attempted to sue a local newspaper for a story that quoted from a speech given by Shwe Mann to graduates of the Defense Services Academy, in which he urged them to work with the countrys newly elected democratic government. The military claimed the publication of these words could destroy the unity of the military.

Tin Oo, a commander-in-chief of the military during the 1970s and now one of the senior-most leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), was seen conversing with top members of the military establishment at Suu Kyis house on July 19.

The event was like a social gathering of the current bi-polar political elite in Burma, minus President Htin Kyaw. The general public reacted positively.

Min Aung Hlaing, who had turned 60 by July 19, brought his wife along; she was photographed sitting behind Suu Kyi as the monks partook of their lunch offerings. It was a demonstration of closer relations forged between Suu Kyi and the armed forces chief.

So what was the deal underlying all this?

One theory circulating among political analysts asserts that the government first proposed that President Htin Kyaw attend the ceremony at the Martyrs Mausoleum, which would have made him the first Burmese head of state to attend since before the 1988 coup.

However, this would have led to concerns that such a move would reflect badly on previous heads of statewho chose to remain aloof from a monument so closely associated with Aung San, the late father of then-opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyiand would have set a binding precedent for all succeeding presidents.

In the end, President Htin Kyaw commemorated Martyrs Day in Naypyidaw at a Buddhist merit-making ceremony, receiving little publicity. Assigning Min Aung Hlaing to the high-profile ceremony in Rangoon was part of the compromise reached, so the theory goes.

A rumor shared among political pundits several months ago was that Min Aung Hlaing was facing resistance in extending his position for another five yearson the understanding that, constitutionally, he would need the go-ahead from the president.

On Wednesday of last week, Lt Gen Mya Tun Oo addressed a press briefing in Rangoon on behalf of the military, in which he confirmed that Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy, Soe Win, would continue in their roles for the full term of the current government, ending in 2020. Under an amended defense services law, the retirement age is now pegged at 65.

Political insiders have since claimed that the NLD government had given the green light for this extension; Suu Kyi and senior NLD officials were not ready to begin relations with a new commander-in-chief.

In May, Min Aung Hlaing clarified his position at a press conference in Naypyidaw: The commander-in-chief is below the president. Contrary to what many had assumed, we are working together [with the civilian government].

Suu Kyis present goal is to achieve peace in a war torn country. For this, she must find common ground with army generals as well as ethnic leaders. Like her father, she has shown herself to be a pragmatic politician.

The events of last week, with the appearances of the commander-in-chief at the Martyrs Mausoleum and in Suu Kyis Rangoon home, signal such an attempt to reach out and build trust.

This augurs a new political dynamic in Burmaa cause for cautious optimism.

Aung Zaw is the founding editor-in-chief of The Irrawaddy.
Profile Yoga for Life

Nan Su Kay Swan in her yoga training room. / Chan Son / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Yoga is no longer simply about physical exercise for Nan Su Kay Swan, but a practice through which she finds meaning and simplicity in lifea perspective 17 years in the making.

One of Myanmars pioneer yoga instructors admitted to The Irrawaddy that she had been mistaken for more than a decade in what she thought was the purpose of yoga.

As a young practitioner and trainer, she pursued new and increasingly challenging poses, which initially attracted her to the practice. She had been inspired by it since she was around 15 years old, after growing up with an admiration for ballet.

Yoga became a part of Nan Su Kay Swans life after she fled her hometown of Kengtung, eastern Shan State, for Thailand in 2000, due to her fathers political resistance activities in military-ruled Myanmar. Her mother died in a bomb blast when she was only an infant, after which she was raised by her grandmother.

Then in her twenties, Nan Su Kay Swan joined a yoga class in a park while she was working at a Thai sportswear shopa way to both cope with sleepless nights away from home and because of her ambition to achieve the poses she observed.

After practicing for two hours every morning for six months, the health benefits she experienced encouraged her to learn more. She said yoga helped in her sleep, build strength, and improve her immune system, as well as address abdominal and intestinal issues.

Using what she learned from the class she attended during her two-year stay in Thailand, she began working as a yoga instructor in Yangon after she returned in 2002.

As I was interested in the yoga postures, I practiced six or eight hours every day to be able to do the challenging poses, she said, adding that those achievements gave her confidence.

Nan Su Kay Swans turning point came in 2012, after 12 years of dedicating herself to yoga. She faced great losses in a small business she was running at the time, and suffered from hypothyroidism, leading to her having three operations within a year.

These experiences changed her approach to the practice of yoga.

Giving that much time became an obsession, but it wasnt helpful in life. I realized I took it wrong, she said, of her long yoga sessions. She reduced her daily practice time from eight hours to three, and started doing meditation.

Now the mother of a five-month-old daughter, Nan Su Kay Swan said she feels reborn, with less stress.

I didnt get it before. We can learn about ones body and mind in yoga, like [we do in] meditation.

The technique that she now shares with trainees not only covers yoga poses, but the link between the body and the minda different approach than when she once pushed students to attain challenging poses.

We dont normally concentrate on what we do, whether it is work or yoga. During a half hour in my class, I tell them to watch, with mindfulness, what is happening to their mind and body while they are doing yoga, she said, explaining that this observation is based on concepts in Buddhism.

Some newcomers who are interested primarily in achieving new postures are impatient with her technique, she added.

They want to focus on doing the poses. But what I want to give them is a practice that they can apply in their daily life. They might forget the poses if they dont do them regularly, but not the practice, she said.

The range of her Ahlone Township class attendees is wide: the elderly, youth, parents with children, and those recovering from injury or illness.

Her methods, Nan Su Kay Swan said, help the practitioners to be mindful, to control their anger, reduce stress, and better understand their bodies.

I am not advertising yoga anymore as a tool to become more beautiful or to slim down. You will know what difference it has made for you because of your practice. Maybe you will fall asleep better than before, or have better blood circulationor control your stress or anger differently. If it is good, then do it, she said.

Now 40 years old and reflecting on the days when she first began her practice, Nan Su Kay Swan said yoga has become much more popular than it was 17 years ago.

In the past, there was rarely a yoga class in a township. But now, almost all streets have yoga classes, she said, attributing the growth to a desire among people to reduce stress.

Yoga, for me, is a practice to support whatever you do, she said.
Burma Building a New Burma

A painting of Bogyoke Aung San by MPP Yei Myint.

The devastation of World War II was just a few years in the past and independence for Burma was almost within grasp when Bogyoke Aung San addressed the countrys deep economic challenges in a speech that still carries bitter-sweet resonances today. The ideas that emerged at the event in Yangon which became known as the Sorrento Villa Conference went on to become the basis of independent Burmas first economic development plan.

We meet here today to work together in planning for the rehabilitation of Burma. We are concerned more with immediate recovery, at this stage, than with long-term planning. I have noticed that there is a general feeling of defeatism in tackling the many problems that face the nation. That is not due to any laziness or apathy on the part of the people. Rather it comes from the attitude that the Government must draw up the plans and take the initiative, and the people must follow. Let us, therefore, draft the plans and get the people moving. The opportunity is ours to lead.

We must draft comprehensive and coordinated plans, and this may take us several weeks of ceaseless endeavor; those of you who may have been planning holidays should postpone them. Our one objective is to restore and revitalize the national economy without delay. This, we must appreciate, is a matter of extreme urgency.

The plans we draft must be practical, and flexible enough to adjust themselves to the circumstances and the needs as they go along. Also, let us remember all the time that we must plan for the common man. We must take his viewpoint and not that of expert. People are apt to be awed by expert opinion. I have met many experts in many fields. They are useful people but they are not infallible. Experts are human, after all, and their opinions can be wrong. Commonsense and experience, in addition to expert opinion, must guide us in our work.

Let me also utter a word of warning about statistics. They can be helpful and informative, but some statistics are produced in support of certain theories. We must be able to use statistics intelligently, and to do that we must know how and why certain statistics are gathered and produced, and then interpret them correctly.

We must take first things first. We should agree on the priorities and take up the subjects in the proper order. In fixing priorities, we must forget our own prejudices and pet ideas.

We must also be wary of routine procedures and routine thinking. Procedures are prescribed for efficiency, but when they become obsolete they may produce the reverse effect. When that happens, they must be revised or abolished. The same applies to thinking. We must not try to think alike, act alike and speak alike. Routine thinking is wasteful.

Our plans should be simple and practical, and they should not be over-ambitious. In our eagerness we may fall into the error of wanting to accomplish too much in too short a time. Let us go forward step by step. By that I do not mean we must be slow and cautious. Maybe, sometimes, we can take two or three steps forward together, but let us be sure that we have at least one foot on firm earth.

When we plan our economy, do not let us confuse issues by bringing in politics. I appreciate that economics and politics are intimately connected, but let us keep politics out for the moment. Let us not indulge in attacks on imperialism; let us not look for excuses. Things have changed now. Our destiny is in our hands, and it will serve no useful purpose to blame imperialism for every ill the country suffers from.

Broadly speaking, our plans must aim at reducing the cost of living, reducing or getting rid of unemployment, the improvement of transport and communications, housing, education, and public health, the reorganization of the administration, and the restoration of law and order.

The cost of living is high because we are having to pay for non-essential goods. We must, therefore, stop or reduce imports of such goods. The purchase of such goods from foreign countries is a drain on the countrys wealth and causes imbalance in the import and export trade. The people must get their primary needs, but they should not be permitted to indulge in luxury. We should also consider rationing, a measure which some countries still retain two years after the end of the war. The unpopularity of rationing is to a large part due to its association in the minds of people with profiteering and black-marketeering, and we should be able to devise means to suppress those unlawful and immoral activities. With proper rationing, we should also be able to save goods for export, and export alone can earn us a favorable balance of payment.

Cooperative organizations should be encouraged. Such organizations failed in the past because they did not have the support of the people. Where they could identify themselves with the interests of the people, they flourished. We will probably need to consider having inspectors to see that Co-operatives are properly run, and we should arrange for the distribution of information and intelligence regarding the Co-operatives.

We must devise means to prevent the flight of capital. We must encourage savings so that the need to borrow from foreign countries will be obviated as far as possible. We spend large amounts of foreign exchange in buying such things as vegetable oil, onions, and such items. We must grow and produce them at home to meet our needs.

Unemployment is a national evil and must be cured by drastic measures. We cannot leave it to the free play of economic forces; the Government must step in. We must step in. We must solve the problem by manpower planning on a national scale.

Transport and communications are poor in the country. I do not need to emphasize the great need for their improvement. Extending them in and with Arakan and the frontier areas must be a task of first priority.

The needs in housing are also acute. We must build government offices, schools, hospitals, and such for the general welfare, and public housing for the poor. Immediate needs may call for temporary arrangements, but temporary affairs in housing are often the least satisfactory, as sights in the city of Rangoon will prove.

Education is also a priority, but we cannot yet think in terms of compulsory education. We must, however, increase the number of technical schools and encourage vocational and technical education. We should publish more books on popular education in Burmese and we should set up a translation department to do that. We should send out more state scholars, but the students we send must be fully qualified, and on their return they must make their contribution in the reconstruction of the country. The subjects and fields for their study and training must be chosen carefully with that object in view, and the students must be guaranteed jobs and useful employment when they return.

Public health is another subject on our list. Prevention is better than cure, and we must plan for cleaner and healthier conditions of life for the people, promote health education, and improve and expand the training of doctors, nurses, and public health officers.

In the reorganization of the administration, there are two things I must draw your attention to. First, many departments are overstaffed or even unnecessary. We must check carefully and retrench, or abolish the unnecessary departments. We must review the fitness of personnel who are holding jobs, and those who are found of personnel who are holding jobs, and those who are found unfit must be removed. Second, we need to make the administration more popular. The Government is considering plans to form advisory councils in the districts and the towns, and these may render the administration more popular, clean and efficient and less expensive. With the people directly participating in the administration, by discussion and personal contacts, red-tapism should also end.

I have put law and order last on my list not because it is not an important subject but because it is linked with every question and every problem we take up. We cannot, therefore, tackle the question of law and order separately at all; it will come in when we consider transport and communications, trade and business, agricultural production.

When we have drafted our plans and come to the point where we look for money, we must be businesslike. We will never be able to find enough money for all our projects. So, the realistic and businesslike thing to do will be to find what we can and allocate it intelligently, giving more to those plans which need and deserve more, less to those which need and deserve less, and none at all to those which do not call for any spending.

Let me end by reminding you of an old way of ours, the classic way of getting things done, namely the peoples way of self-help and mutual cooperation. We must resurrect this classic way and stir and inspire the people to work together in the building of a New Burma.

The above excerpts are taken from Aung Sans inaugural speech delivered on 6 June, 1947, at a Yangon convention of national leaders in economics and government to draft plans for the rehabilitation of then-Burma. The excerpts are taken from the book Aung San of Burma, compiled and edited by Maung Maung, Yale University, 1962.
Burma Detained Journalists Hearing Date Moved in Surprise Court Appearance

The Irrawaddys senior reporter Lawi Weng (U Thein Zaw), and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporters U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phyo Naing appear at Hsipaw Township court on Tuesday. / DVB

YANGON Three detained journalists were taken unexpectedly to Hsipaw Township court in Shan State on Tuesday morning ahead of their scheduled court hearing on July 21.

The Irrawaddys senior reporter Lawi Weng (U Thein Zaw), and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporters U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phyo Naing were taken to the court after it was decided that their trial could be moved back to Hsipaw from Namhsan Township, said The Irrawaddy reporters defense lawyer Daw Khin Mi Mi.

The lawyer added that the trials start date has been moved to July 28. She described only finding out about the court appearance when the deputy township judge phoned her after reporters left.

Police chief Myint Win of Hsipaw told The Irrawaddy that the judge brought the hearing forward because she had United Nations Development Program (UNDP) training on July 21.

Outside the court, the detained reporters briefly spoke to a DVB reporter who was in the area. Lawi Weng said detaining journalists for doing their job was not democratic.

It is the militarys threat to the press. But we wont be afraid, he said.

We dont even have a pen sharp enough to be a weapon, said U Aye Naing. We can die any time by stepping on landmines or being shot. We take risks for our work. But sadly, we were sued with Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, which was never used to sue journalists.

The case of the three journalists was previously scheduled at Namhsan court but Daw Khin Mi Mi appealed to the Kyaukme District judge for the reporters to be examined in Hsipaw.

Journalists planned to attend and cover the court hearing on July 21. The first appearance was initially scheduled for July 11, but the reporters were unexpectedly taken on July 7 to the court, where their remand was extended.

The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists is planning to take Yangon-based journalists to the court hearing.

Ko Tha Lun Zaung Htet of the committee told The Irrawaddy that moving forward the scheduled dates of the court hearings showed the authorities had no respect for the public and proved they could do whatever they want.

The reporters were arrested on June 26 in Namhsan on their way back from covering a drug-burning ceremony held by ethnic armed group the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) to mark the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse.

The three journalistsand three men who drove them through the areawere charged under Article 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for contacting the TNLA and were placed in detention in Hsipaw prison.
Burma Myanmar Insists no North Korea Links as US Envoy Visits

US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun (R) answers questions from reporters following meeting with Japan and South Korea chief nuclear negotiators to talk about North Korean issues at the Iikura guest house in Tokyo, Japan on April 25, 2017. / Toru Yamanaka / Reuters

YANGON  Myanmar has no military ties with North Korea, a Myanmar official said on Monday, as a US diplomat responsible for North Korea arrived for talks in which he was likely to seek assurances on efforts to isolate it.

Ambassador Joseph Yun met Myanmars State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and the militarys commander in chief in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Monday, their offices said.

Yun attended a conference in Singapore over the weekend focusing on tension on the Korean peninsula over the Norths unrelenting nuclear and missile programs.

Ambassador Joseph Yuns trip to Asia was announced after North Koreas test on July 4 of on intercontinental ballistic missile that it says can carry a large nuclear warhead and some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska.

Myanmar is the only other stop on his trip, pointing to concern in Washington that the Myanmar Army, which used to have ties with North Korea, continues to give succor to Kim Jong Ils regime.

The United States did not inform Myanmar what Yun would discuss, Kyaw Zeya, permanent secretary at Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Reuters before the meetings.

They are not very specific from the very beginning but we understand he is the special envoy on North Korea, Kyaw Zeya told Reuters.

Myanmar was complying with UN resolutions on North Korea, he said.

Its normal relations between the two countries, said Kyaw Zeya. As I understand, theres no such relations between military to military. Definitely not.

The United States in May asked Southeast Asian countries to do more to isolate North Korea, and efforts have increased after its July 4 ballistic missile test.

Myanmars Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing issued a statement after the meeting with Yun but did not directly address Myanmars relations with North Korea.

We only have friend countries, there is no enemy country for us, Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying, adding that he wished to see a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and have good relations with militaries all over the world.

Residual Pockets?

Myanmars former ruling junta, which, like North Korea, was also widely shunned by the outside world over its suppression of human rights, was known to have ties to North Korea, which included sending missile experts and material for arms production to Myanmar.

Myanmar insists that arms deals and other military relations with North Korea stopped before its transition to a nominally civilian government in 2011.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi took power last year amid a transition from full military rule. But the military could still have a few residual pockets with links to North Korea, the then top US diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Russel, told a congressional hearing in September.

In March, the US Treasury leveled new sanctions against Myanmar Armys procurement body, the Directorate of Defense Industries (DDI), under the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act Sanctions.

The DDI was previously sanctioned in 2012 and accused of materially assisting North Koreas regime, but had fallen off the sanctions list in October after the Obama administration dropped most measures against Myanmar in recognition of a successful political transition.

But despite Suu Kyi leading the civilian administration, Myanmars military remains free from civilian oversight and firmly in charge of security policies.

A 2008 Constitution drafted by then-ruling generals keeps the army central to politics.

In May 2014, experts analyzing satellite imagery of military facilities in central Myanmar identified a site where North Korea was helping Myanmar with production of surface-to-air missiles.

The paper by Catherine Dill and Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, said the site near the town of Minbu was staffed by up to 300 North Koreans.
Burma Rights Groups Call for Justice Ahead of Thailand, Myanmar Trafficking Verdict

A cage made of barbed wire and bamboo sticks that Malaysian police said was used to hold migrants is seen at the abandoned human trafficking camp in the jungle close to the Thailand border at Bukit Wang Burma in northern Malaysia on May 26, 2015. / Damir Sagolj / Reuters

BANGKOK  Thailand should ensure those involved in trafficking migrants are brought to justice, rights groups said on Tuesday, ahead of a verdict in a major trafficking trial involving 103 defendants that has been beset by allegations of intimidation.

Thai and Myanmar nationals were arrested in 2015 following the discovery of graves in jungle camps used by traffickers to hold migrants near the Thailand-Malaysia border.

The grim discovery prompted a Thai crackdown on smuggling and trafficking networks which led to smugglers abandoning boatloads of migrants at sea.

That led to a regional crisis involving Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indonesia which initially refused the boats permission to land.

The trial, which began in 2015, has been beset by allegations of threats against witnesses, interpreters, and police investigators. The verdict reading at a Bangkok court begins on Wednesday and is expected to last three days.

Rights groups say the arrests in 2015 were just the tip of the iceberg and that regional smuggling and trafficking networks continue to operate with impunity.

A lead investigator in the case fled Thailand in 2015 and sought political asylum in Australia citing threats to his life.

It hasnt been without its challenges. Throughout the trial we saw threats against witnesses, we saw interpreters and investigators under threat, Amy Smith, an executive director of rights organization Fortify Rights, told Reuters on Tuesday.

We also documented physical assault on witnesses that were involved in the trial, said Smith. Although these irregularities dont invalidate the judgment, it does raise concern about the fairness of the trial.

Many of those abandoned at sea in 2015 were Rohingya Muslims escaping persecution in Myanmars troubled Rakhine State which has seen renewed violence in recent months.

The defendants include 21 Thai government officials, including a senior army general. They stand accused of trafficking Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals. All deny the charges against them.

The justice ministry initially provided protection for around a dozen witnesses in the trial. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the ministry for comment on Tuesday.

Despite the crackdown, which has made smuggling more dangerous, people-smuggling across the Thailand-Myanmar border has risen, Reuters reported in May.

Last month the US State Department left Thailand on a Tier 2 Watchlist, just above the lowest ranking of Tier 3, in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report because it did not do enough to tackle human smuggling and trafficking.
Burma UN Probe Can Only Aggravate Rakhine Tension, Myanmar Tells Diplomats

A Myanmar border guard police officers stand guard in Buthidaung, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar on July 13, 2017. / Simon Lewis / Reuters

YANGON  Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyis security adviser told diplomats on Tuesday that a UN mission looking into allegations of rape, torture and killings of Rohingya Muslims would only aggravate troubles in the western state of Rakhine.

Myanmar has declined to grant visas to three experts appointed by the United Nations in May to look into allegations of abuses against the powerful armed forces.

Last week, the US ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Nikki Haley, called on Myanmar to accept the mission, which was mandated in a Human Rights Council resolution.

We dissociated ourselves from the decision because we found that it was less than constructive, said National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, speaking to UN officials and diplomats, including US Ambassador Scot Marciel.

The decision of other countriesincluding China and Indiato join Myanmar in distancing themselves from the resolution was a principled stand, Thaung Tun said.

We feel that that mission can only aggravate the situation on the ground, he said.

The treatment of the roughly one million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmars most contentious rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

The government denounces the violence but has done little to improve the lot of the Rohingya.

Increasing Terrorist Activity

The European Union proposed the investigation after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the armys operation in the northern part of Rakhine Statewhere most people are Rohingyaslikely included crimes against humanity.

Troops fanned out to villages after Rohingya militants killed nine policemen in attacks on border posts in October. The operation sent an estimated 75,000 people across the nearby border to Bangladesh, where many gave accounts of abuses.

Reuters was among international media escorted to the area last week in a tour closely overseen by security forces.

Rohingya women told reporters of husbands and sons arbitrarily detained, and of killings and arson by security forces that broadly match the accounts from refugees in Bangladesh.

Myanmar has largely denied the accusations, and says most are fabricated.

Thaung Tun did not directly address the allegations, but said Myanmar had a clear right to defend the country by lawful means as it tackles increasing terrorist activities.

Officials say a domestic investigation, led by Vice President Myint Swe, a former lieutenant general, is sufficient.

A commission headed by former UN chief Kofi Annan is looking into the problems in Rakhine State, but is not tasked with investigating rights abuses.

Thaung Tun said the government had started implementing interim recommendations the panel proposed in March, which included shutting camps where more than 120,000 Rohingya have languished since communal violence five years ago.
Geographe manufactures from a catalogue of more than 15,000 parts delivered to more than 400 clients annually. It provides OEM replacement and enhanced parts for global household names, including Caterpillar, Komatsu, Atlas Copco, Sandvik  Tamrock, Liebherr, and Hitachi with the aim of providing a "one-stop shop" approach and keeping switching costs to a minimum.

The deployment of quality processes within its manufacturing plants in Australia, Africa and South-East Asia has resulted in longer life spans of its enhanced products which provide less downtime, significant cost savings and increased productivity

Holly Hyder, corporate development at Geographe, said, Our focus as an organisation is on excellence, delivering innovation, value and quality. We have a quality system focused on the production side of our business but it wasnt suitable to scale in its current state across our diverse operations. What we wanted was a business process management solution which would create more visibility for staff and give them control to identify and act upon process improvements. 

We looked at various project and training solutions but they were unable to provide the feature functionality which would enable staff to review and then improve upon a process. When we looked at Promapp, we were impressed with its feedback functionality and its rich set of intuitive features. Being cloud-based, Promapp would also enable both teams and individuals to review and act upon processes wherever they may be located.

Following a review of its strategy and in conjunction with a wider aim of digitalising the business, Geographe wanted to extend the use of quality and business improvement from the manufacturing plants to create a culture of continuous improvement across both its warehousing and distribution facilities located in Perth, Bunbury, Townsville, Mackay and the Hunter Valley as well as across its entire sales and management operations. The organisation required a standardised approach to capturing processes, improving process accessibility and enabling process ownership.

At the same time, Geographe needed to replace processes stored in static procedural documents either on shared drives or on the companys intranet which were open to misinterpretation and difficult to update. The aim was to create a process knowledge base that would be easy for business teams to use and avoid potential process failures.

Geographe will deploy Promapp in a phased rollout later this year. Once fully implemented, Promapps modular functionality, including its business improvement, risk and compliance, and quality assurance feature support, will provide Geographe with a more centralised approach and an enhanced facility for reporting on the status of processes, improvement actions and risks.

Our process champions will be able to link controlled documentation directly to actual activities in processes and monitor the updating of policy, form and guide-type documentation automatically. This will assist with improving effective quality management which remains central to our operations, said Hyder.
Samsung will launch its Galaxy Tab S3 next week where it will showcase its latest premium, 9.7 Android Tablet offering.

The Galaxy Tab S3 (GTS3) has been in international markets for a few months now and can be found online. International reviews say it is the best Android tablet with a glorious QHD, 2048 x 1536, pixel dense, 439 nits, AMOLED screen and with High Dynamic Range (HDR10) content compatibility. This essentially means perfect blacks, no loss of detail in darker movies scenes and no flare-out for lighter sections.

When you can get QHD, HDR10 content it also has four AKG Harman tuned speakers and amps and to quote Techradar, They reach a more powerful volume than so many other tablets. Better yet, theyre calibrated to your movements, so as you rotate the tablet the stereo speaker orientation changes, so youre never holding it the wrong way for sound. It has a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

The key to added productivity is the new S Pen included, not extra. The pen has 4096 pressure levels (same as the new Microsoft Surface Pro) is 9.4mm round, and has a .7mm tip (2B is the most common size used in mechanical pencils) to give as close to a pencil on paper writing experience. The Samsung Notes app allows choice of various pencils, brushes and colours.

The optional Magnetic Snap-on keyboard connects via Pogo Pins for power and data and allows a variety of angles and acts as a screen cover. The keyboard has Bluetooth options from Logitech et al that may offer more of a natural typing experience.

It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. There is 4GB RAM, 32GB UFS storage, a microSD slot for another 256GB, Wi-Fi AC, LTE Option, Bluetooth, USB-C 3.1 and two cameras  a front 5MP, f2.2 and a rear 13MP, f/1.9  autofocus. It will record 3840 x 2160 @ 30fps and 60fps playback. It has a 6000mAh fast charge battery.

Perhaps one of the best features is Samsung Flow lets you move from phone to tablet and back again with ease. There is also 15GB free storage in Samsung Cloud.

The 10.5 Galaxy Tab S had its first iteration in mid-2014. The Tab S2 was released a year later and was more of a business tool coming in white, black and gold.

The Tab S3 is Samsungs way to get serious about productivity running all the Microsoft apps in an Android environment. GSM Arena has a preview here.

iTWire will report more after the Australian launch and will review one soon.
Data centre operator Metronode is investing more than $150 million this year in new infrastructure with the latest projects now under construction including three new data centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Wollongong.

Metronode says construction of facilities at Unanderra, Wollongong, will be completed in 10 months from start to finish.

According to Metronode chief executive David Yuile, the company was currently the fastest to build from start to finish of any other provider in Australia.

We are in the final stages of an 8MW expansion in Melbourne for a major international customer constructed in record time and the Unanderra build will be completed by November 2017.

The speed with which we can build our world-class facilities is an important factor for our customers who need confirmed availability.

Metronode data centres offer state-of-the-art, technologically-superior facilities to help our customers grow and scale at speed. Our facilities are also a natural fit for hyperscale cloud providers.

Flexibility, security and agility is more important than ever to transform businesses and capacity is a distinct advantage because we provide our customers with certainty if they experience unforecasted demand.

Metronode has had a data centre in Unanderra for several years, with NSW Government GovDC as the major tenant and Yuile says with the construction of the second data hall, there will now be co-location services available for Illawarra enterprise and commercial customers as well as GovDC.

Metronode has been trusted by the NSW Government to build and operate data centres since 2012, helping them to consolidate 160 data centres into two Metronode facilities. We look forward to welcoming local Illawarra businesses into our new Unanderra hall.

The two built-for-purpose data centres in Silverwater and Unanderra deliver the highest standards in security, availability and efficiency to the public sector, said Derek Paterson, Director of Government Digital Communities and Marketplace Services.

Energy-efficiency is a key feature of our data centres, with the Unanderra and Silverwater facilities awarded an impressive NABERS 4.5 data centre rating. The GovDC program has been hugely successful and Metronodes expansion is timely as the demand for data centres grows.
A 19-year-old law student from The University of Western Australia claims to have invented a drone that can stay in the air five times as long as many drones on the market.

Tom Maclaurin, a student from City Beach, also claims that his invention can conduct aerial surveillance for a fraction of the cost of current manned aircraft.

The device is two metres long and weighs six kg.

In a statement from the university, Maclaurin said he had built the device initially as part of his hobby of building remote control planes at school.

What Ive built is a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle that can be operated remotely, he said.

The device, named Swift, is capable of flying for more than six hours before its battery runs out and it can be used to monitor anything on the ground by picking up data from sensors, taking images or recording video.

Maclaurin said the drone could be used for beach and shark surveillance or monitoring crop levels, dam levels, and cattle locations.

It could also be used by councils and government authorities to monitor particular areas of land.

What I have created is not only far cheaper, but it can be operated remotely and is easy to use. It is lightweight and can glide safely to a stop should it lose power, instead of current drones which drop out of the sky when their battery runs out," he said.

Maclaurin is looking for investors to help him further develop the drone. He was recently awarded Student Start-up of the Year at the university's Innovation Quarter Awards for his invention.

Photos: Courtesy The University of Western Australia.
The NSW Government-funded Sydney Startup Hub will see the relocation of the top Stone & Chalk fintech hub by November 2017, with other startup bodies welcoming the news.

Dubbed the first incubator of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, the Sydney Startup Hub will be home to Stone & Chalk, celebrated as one of the top fintech hubs globally (according to Deloitte's Global Fintech Hub Review 2017  116-page PDF report) with 24 Australian, and International corporate partners.

Stone & Chalk proudly boasts that its residents have attracted over AU$180 million of direct equity investment, and have created 500 direct new jobs in the areas of fintech, cyber security, insurtech, data science, and connected devices".

The organisation also notes that the new space at the Sydney Startup Hub will enable an influx of new startup residents to benefit from its innovation programmes, and will also strengthen the connections between new technology, and corporate partners, and says the move will enable it to significantly expand its operations, helping an additional 250 high-potential entrepreneurs access its suite of world-class programs, and innovation marketplace.

Expressions of interest from start-ups, and scale-ups who wish to apply to the Stone & Chalk community can visit its website here

The website for the Sydney Startup Hub itself is here.

Once relocated into its new Sydney home, Stone & Chalk will span two floors in the new development alongside co-tenants such as Fishburners, Tank Stream Labs, and The Studio, and will house up to 600 residents across 4,252sqm of secure labs, co-working, meeting, and collaboration space  an increase in residential capacity of over 70% compared to its current space".

Naturally, Stone & Chalk is excited, claiming this will cement it as one of the largest fintech hubs in the world".

The Sydney Startup Hub itself comes at a cost of $35 million, spanning 11 floors and 17,000spm of space at 11-31 York St in Sydneys CBD.

Alex Scandurra, Stone & Chalk chief executive, said This is a monumental milestone for Stone & Chalk, and more broadly for the Australian fintech scene.

Affordable space remains the single largest barrier to build sustainable start-up ecosystems. Jobs for NSW have done an incredible job of bringing the entire community together, right in the heart of the CBD in an amazing, high tech space.

Having reached capacity in 2016, the move to the Sydney Startup Hub will enable us to continue to support some of Australia's top scaleups, and help the fintech sector contribute to more growth across the country."

NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Small Business, John Barilaro found a clever pun to celebrate the news, stating: We are leaving no stone unturned.

In addition to the 2500 residents, the incubator will welcome regional entrepreneurs from the wider start-up ecosystem through the regional landing pad, and community and events space.

Roy Cooke, founder and chief executive of connected car fintech, iungo, said: Its great to see the government acknowledge the contribution start-ups make to the economy.

Weve been with Stone & Chalk since August 2015. Their programmes and support have been invaluable in helping us commercially launch, and accelerate our growth. This is something that previously, start-ups like ours would have needed to go abroad to do. The new space will allow others to rapidly scale like we did.

Stone & Chalk Corporate Partners also note their excitement about the news.

Maile Carnegie, chief digital officer, ANZ, said: Offering a partnership with promising startups, connecting them with customers, mentorship, talent, and importantly capital, is a model that ANZ strongly values. This new hub will enable Stone & Chalk to grow, and help even more Australian startup tech businesses succeed.

Of course, its not just Stone & Chalk residents, government and corporate partners welcoming the news, but leading start-up bodies also welcoming the Sydney Startup Hub.

Dean McEvoy, chief executive, Tech Sydney said: "Its great to see the NSW Government listening to the start-up industry around the importance of building density. This significant investment behind the creation of the Sydney Startup Hub 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, McEvoy concluded.

Alex Gruszka, head of Data and Insights, StartupAUS, said: "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 it's thriving with activity from Aussie start-ups.
Indonesia has moved to limit access to the messaging app Telegram and also threatened a complete ban on the use of the app in the country.

The reaction from Pavel Durov, the co-founder of the app, which offers end-to-end encryption, on Sunday, was to offer to put together a team of moderators to remove terrorist-linked content, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The report comes close on the heels of the announcement by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that laws would be promulgated before the end of the year to force companies that offer encrypted messaging apps to decrypt messages when asked to do so by law enforcement agencies.

Durov's pledge came after the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology last Friday complained that militants were using Telegram as a recruiting tool and to spread information on how to carry out terrorist attacks.

The ministry warned that it would block Telegram if the company behind it did not filter what it called "illegal content". ISPs were asked to block access to the Web version of Telegram.

The government has long observed Telegram and we are a country that prioritises the safety of our nation, our people, Indonesias President Joko Widodo was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Durov, who with his brother Nikolai launched Telegram four years ago, told his followers that he was not aware of Indonesia's request to block several chat groups on which radicals are active.

He said Telegram had now blocked those channels and would act to respond to future requests from Indonesian officials.

We are forming a dedicated team of moderators with knowledge of Indonesian culture and language to be able to process reports of terrorist-related content more quickly and accurately, Durov said.

Telegram is heavily encrypted and privacy-oriented, but were no friends of terrorists  in fact, every month we block thousands of ISIS-related public channels Were constantly striving to be more efficient at preventing terrorist propaganda, and are always open to ideas on how to get better at this.
Google has simplified its back-up software to keep your important files, photos and videos backed up and synced, with a single new tool replacing two old Google tools.

If you have the Google Photos desktop uploader, or if you have Google Drive for PC or Mac, then Google wants you to download its brand new Google Backup and Sync app.

The news was announced in Googles blog post written by the Google Drive product manager Aakash Sahney, and Google Photos product manager, David Loxton.

The blog post pitch starts by noting that you probably keep your most important files and photos in different places  your computer, your phone, various SD cards, and that digital camera you use from time to time.

It can be a challenge to keep all these things safe, backed up, and organised, so today were introducing Backup and Sync. Its a simpler, speedier and more reliable way to protect the files and photos that mean the most to you. This new tool replaces the existing Google Photos desktop uploader and Drive for Mac/PC.

If youre a Google Drive user, you can download the new app for PC or Mac here.

Google Photos users can download the new app for PC or Mac here.

Were told that Backup and Sync is an app for Mac and PC that backs up files and photos safely in Google Drive and Google Photos, so they're no longer trapped on your computer and other devices. Just choose the folders you want to back up, and well take care of the rest".

Now, if you have a Google Pixel smartphone, youre supposed to get unlimited photo and video uploads, with photo resolutions capped (or reduced) to 16 megapixels, and a maximum of 1080P video only.

Otherwise, Google Drive gives you 15GB free space, or you can get 100GB for US$1.99 pre month, 1TB for US$9.99 per month, or 10TB for US$99.99 per month.

Google goes let you pre-pay a years worth of 100GB for US$19.99, which saves you 16%, or pre-pay a years worth of 1TB for US$99.99, which saves you 17%.

As you can see from the screenshot below, you can choose any folders to upload to Google Drive, so effectively, you can back up your entire computer if you want to, and if you have enough free space to upload to.

In reality, this is more of an upgraded competitor to Dropbox, OneDrive and other services, rather than a true competitor to back-up software such as Acronis, Carbonite, Crashplan or other true complete back-up programs that offer online storage, file and folder back-up, and system image back-ups, something Crashplan doesnt offer, but others such as Acronis and Carbonite do.

G Suite customers also have the option of a tool called Drive File Stream.
Global technology research firm Gartner has predicted that spending on enterprise software will grow by 7.6% this year, compared to a rise of 5.3% in 2016.

However, the overall rise in IT spending will be much less, with the firm saying that worldwide IT spending would be US$3.5 trillion a 2.4% increase from 2016.

Gartner, in a report released on Thursday, said that while spending on IT increased in 2016, only two of the top 10 vendors experienced organic revenue growth.

In Australia, the total spend on technology has been forecast to reach A$83.1 billion, an increase of 3.7% from 2016 and above the average for the rest of the world.

"Digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported," said John-David Lovelock, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"The impact of digital business is giving rise to new categories; for example, the convergence of 'software plus services plus intellectual property'. These next-generation offerings are fuelled by business and technology platforms that will be the driver for new categories of spending.

"Industry-specific disruptive technologies include the Internet of Things in manufacturing, blockchain in financial services (and other industries), and smart machines in retail. The focus is on how technology is disrupting and enabling business."

The report predicts that worldwide spending on devices (PCs, tablets, ultramobiles and mobile phones) will grow 3.8% in 2017, to reach US$654 billion. This is up from the previous quarter's forecast of 1.7%.

Mobile phone growth is forecast to be driven by increased average selling prices for premium phones in mature markets due to the 10th anniversary of the iPhone and the increased mix of basic phones over utility phones. But the tablet market continues to decline, as replacement cycles remain extended.

"With the increased adoption of SaaS-based enterprise applications, there also comes an increase in acceptance of IT operations management tools that are also delivered from the cloud," said Lovelock.

"These cloud-based tools allow infrastructure and operations organisations to more rapidly add functionality and adopt newer technologies to help them manage faster application release cycles.

"If the I&O team does not monitor and track the rapidly changing environment, it risks infrastructure and application service degradation, which ultimately impacts the end-user experience and can have financial as well as brand repercussions."
Sonys XZ Premium packs the latest Snapdragon 835 go-fast processor, a 5.5 Triluminous 4K, HDR10 screen, a great front and rear camera, and water resistance into its 2017 flagship  if you like Sony gear you will love this.

It even looks like a Sony  the Japanese bling style is back with luminous chrome finish all over (yes you can check hair and makeup in this Gorilla Glass 5 finish), true front-firing stereo speakers, and that certain reassuring Sony build. It is a solid, not-so-little phone at 156 x 77 x 7.9 mm x 195g.

While other makers are duelling it out with dual cameras, 18:9 screens and more Sony has taken a relatively safe path using the best available tech to build what is on paper the best available phone  the whole is greater than the sum of the parts reflecting Sonys long heritage in the smartphone business. It has even kept the 3.5mm audio jack.

Spoiler alert: If you like Sony gear and the Japanese heritage this is the one to strongly consider. Apik tenan!

You get

The smartphone

A 5V/1.5A charger (7.5W). The Quick Charge UCH12W is at extra cost

USB-A to USB-C cable

A set of stereo Sony buds with replacement ear tips. The Hi-Res MDR-NC750 are at extra cost

First impressions are this is a big phone  for comparison

5.46 Sony XZ Premium 156 x 77 x 7.9 mm x 195g

5 iPhone 7 Plus 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm x 188

5 HTC U11 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.9 mm x 169g

2, 18:9, Samsung S8 Plus 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm x 173g

It is not to say the phone is too big but you need to consider pocketability. Didnt the late Steve Jobs say anything over 4 was unnecessary?

Second impressions  at least for the review unit  where the luminous chrome is very Bling. I immediately started putting my fingers all over it only to find that the oleophobic coating really did not work  you dont have to try very hard to smudge this chrome wonder.

What is has that other flagships dont (using the HTC U11 as a base)

5mm audio jack

The 5.5 4K, HDR10, Triluminous screen is amazingly good for an IPS LCD

What is missing? (what other flagships may have)

Wireless charging

AMOLED screen for Daydream VR

18:9 screen ratio

The fingerprint reader is disabled in certain markets  not Australia

A Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger (it is compatible)

Specifications

Sony XZ Premium Comments Models Available in single G8141 and dual sim G8142 Telcos are demanding single sim models Screen 5.46 IPS LCD

True 4K, 3840 x 2160, 807 ppi;

Defaults to HD unless playing 4K content

HDR10 when showing HDR content

Gorilla Glass 5 front and back

Flat rectangle 16:9 glass

sRGB (138%), Standard and Super-vivid modes. X-reality for video playback

Small status LED

No Always on display

553 cd/m2

1238:1 contrast ratio One of the better IPS screens. Bright colours, dark blacks - user-definable colours. This is one of the first with HDR10 so expect great shadow and highlight details. The screen defaults to HD when not playing 4K content to preserve battery. No always-on-display but has a notification LED. Good contrast and brightness but high reflectivity washed out the screen in outdoor use. STBR 68.4% screen to body ratio This is a traditional 16:9 design with very large bezels top and bottom and on the sides  the Sony look. Despite the huge bottom bezel, the forward/home/apps key are part of the screen reducing usable space. IP rating IP65/68

6 = complete protection against contact (dust tight).

5=low-pressure water jet sprays for at least 3 minutes.

8 = continuous immersion in water up to 1.5m for 30 minutes The rating is IP65/68 which can mean two totally different waterproof levels. It mentions a capless USB-C port must be completely dry before charging. The only other orifices are the 3.5mm port and Sim port which presumably must be closed to achieve IP68. Processor Qualcomm 835

Eight-core (4x2.45 GHz & 4x1.9 GHz)

Adreno 540 GPU The best you can get. In independent tests, it was among the fastest flagships, generally coming just under the Samsung GS8 Exynos chip. RAM Storage microSD 4GB

64GB UFS (49GB free)

To 256GB, OTG to 2TB external devices 4GB makes it future-proof for Android releases. OITG to 2TB tested and works Camera Rear Motion Eye

19MP, 1/2.3 Exmor RS sensor, 1.22m pixels

f/2.0 lens x8 digital zoom

Predictive Hybrid laser / phase detection / contrast Autofocus

Predictive capture

Mobile memory stacked

HDR photo

SteadyShot 5-axis electronic stabilisation

ISO to 12800/4000 photo/video

4K at 30fps recording h H.264 and 265

Super slo-mo 960 fps

Single LED flash

Dedicated shutter button Used in Superior Auto mode it takes some of the best pictures I have seen. However, there are better low light cameras available. No mechanical optical image stabilisation - only 3-axis EIS at 4K 5-azis at HD. Slo-mo is harder to use to get the right shot Camera Front 13MP, 1/3.06 sensor

1.12m pixels

autofocus

f/2.0, 22 wide-angle lens

ISO 6400/1600 photo/video

1080p @30fps video record

No screen or LED flash No screen flash and was a poor low light performer. But overall it took great selfies. LTE/Bands Cat 16 (1Gbps/150Mbps)

Bands: not stated but probably all

2 and 3CA (carrier aggregation)

4x4MIMO antenna

VoLTE

Wi-Fi Calling There are no Australian carriers supporting Cat 16 so the best you will get is about 200Mbps Comms Wi-Fi AC dual band 2x2 MU-MIMO

Wi-Di, DLNA

Bluetooth 5, aptX, LDAC

NFC

GPS 75Mbps on 2.4GHz band. 468Mbps on 5GHz band from a D-Link AC5300 tri-band router. The HTC U11 gets 866Mbps using what should be the same modem. Other Fingerprint in right side power button

USB 3.1 Gen 1, 5Gbps

PS4 Remote Play Fast and accurate. Sound High-Resolution Audio aptX and LDAC

Active noise cancellation mic

S-Force front firing stereo speakers

ClearAudo+

EQ Nice to see Hi-Res Audio creeping into flagships so why do they provide a basic set of ear buds? I know it is about cost. Battery 3250mAh

Supplied charger is 5V/1.5A (7W).

You must buy a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger 5V/2.5A, or 9V/1.7A or 12V/1.25A (12W).

No Wireless charge.

Qnovo Adaptive Charging.

Battery Care and Stamina mode for longer use. Has a 72-hour theoretical endurance rating but in the real world its somewhere between 8-10 hours hard use and 18-20 typical use. The standard charger takes over two hours. Quick Charge delivers 42% in 30 minutes  an hour overall. OS Android 7.1.1

Google Assistant A very light skin using all of the Google Apps  you really cannot escape using them. Size Weight 156 x 77 x 7.9 mm

195g It is a big phone in comparison to the svelte Samsung S8 and feels wide in the hand. Colours Luminous Chrome

Deepsea Black

Performance

The XZ Premium has early firmware and, while good, it can only get better.

In GeekBench 4 multicore is scored 5837, less than the HTC U11 at 6125 and Samsung Galaxy S8 (835) at 6106. There is more tuning to do, but overall it is comparable to all other Qualcomm Snapdragon 835-equipped smartphones.

I could not fault it, it performed excellently with dozens of apps open, and never once felt hot to touch.

Wireless Broadband speeds on Telstra 4GX in the Sydney CBD were average at around 233 Mbps but there was one occasion where this skyrocketed to 350Mbps. Uploads were from 25-35Mbps.

Wi-Fi is puzzling. It has the same specs as the HTC U11 but generally only attained a fraction of the speed of the latter. Its best was 468Mbps versus 866Mbps.

Sound

True stereo, matched, front firing speakers  nirvana. But in playing music and for hands-free use, while very clear, it lacked the punch and volume I was used to.

Audio quality output to an amp or over Bluetooth (LDAP) was fine with a little loss in the upper 15kHz to 20kHz range.

Screen

You will not find a higher pixel per inch count anywhere  807 is impressive. But the screen remains in HD 1920 x 1080 for all but 4K video playback.

I tried a 4K video legally ripped into H.264 and it took about 10GB for a one hour show. Given mobile data is still expensive, I can only recommend loading it on board this way via say an external SSD or flash drive (the USB-C is Gen 1  5Gbps max). Watching 4K video sapped the battery  an hours use took 30% of the battery.

Choice of sRGB is useful for professionals who want to see real reproduction colours.

Camera

Sony makes many of the other brand's camera sensors and one could assume it could make the best camera for itself.

Independent DxOMark tests have not been run yet, but to be sure it will come in somewhere between Samsung Galaxy S8 at 88, the Google Pixel at 89 and the newly crowned king  the HTC U11 at 90 out of 100.

The sensor has a RAM chip built in. This serves as an ultrafast buffer where the camera can temporary offload photos or video without the need to store everything in slower storage. This enables Predictive Capture and the 960 fps slo-mo.

It has a superior auto mode that constantly changes to suit scenes, vistas, and light conditions. It is a definite step up from the ZX Premium. It manages HDR auto as well.

Daylight, good even light: Sharp, detailed, accurate colour and little noise. It will autodetect if mounted on a tripod and allows for higher ISO or longer shutter speeds.

Early evening, muted light: The lens extracts maximum light and the shots are accurate.

Indoor, office lighting, 500 lumens: Great shots but a little flare on bright lights.

Indoor, low light: Loss of detail and more noise. However, with a tripod, the auto mode kicked in and changed ISO/Shutter speed and the shots were good.

Slo-mo: 960fps. capture for 1/5th of a second then stretches out across six playback seconds. It is very hard to capture the moment  still a gimmick.

Summary: The rear camera wont beat DxOMark top scores, but it will be among the better cameras to date. I suspect Sony has some more work to do and the Superior Auto mode that shows lots of promise.

Selfies: Good but beautification mode seems to be always on.

Intelligence

Sony offers Xperia Actions that monitors the phone's usage and makes recommendations. It has extensive tips and screen help.

Smart Cleaner can be enabled by default and Qnovo will extend battery life.

Otherwise, it is Google Assistant if you want voice control.

Pros

Great screen when playing 4K, HDR content, otherwise it is HD.

Sony bling style  you will love it or hate it.

Clean Android skin with added value via apps.

Qualcomm 835 is awesome and is behind so many of the Sony features like aptX, dual image processing, etc.

Front-firing speakers.

Camera great on Superior Auto except in very low light  single LED flash needs more punch.

Cons

Way too large bezels  68.4% STBR is just not acceptable any more.

Big bezels but back/home/apps keys take up screen space.

Fingerprint magnet  oleophobic coating or note.

Sony needs to work on turning its handset to the Qualcomm 835s fullest ability.

Average speaker loudness.

Daylight visibility average.

No OIS  only EIS and not for all modes.

Not VR capable.

No Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger supplied.

It is a big, wide phone  make sure you are comfortable with it in your pocket.

Summary

It is a decent phone all round and it is a Sony  bling and all. It has heaps of performance, good camera, and good support.

At $1056 outright, it is within that band where you could consider the Samsung S8, LG G6, Huawei P10, Moto Z2 (coming) and the HTC U11  all have different strengths, but Sony should be on your flagship shopping list.
Twenty of 49 state senators co-signed a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Doug Peterson, asking him to rescind his support of a lawsuit aimed at ending the support of immigrant youths who are in the country illegally.

Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha and 19 others told Peterson they were profoundly disappointed he had joined a June 29 letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking President Donald Trump to rescind the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Last month, the Trump administration left the program in place, which shields the youth from deportation.

Vargas said he felt there was a need for senators to weigh in and reiterate a long history of the Legislature supporting the DACA youth with laws to ensure they can stay and continue to contribute to the state, allowing them driver's licenses and professional certification.

The program has helped more than 3,000 young Nebraskans contribute to their communities, continue their educations and help fuel the state's economy, the letter said.

The support of the DACA youths has widespread support, the senators said, from businesses, local leaders, faith groups and chambers of commerce.

"Their success is inescapably intertwined with our own state's success," the letter said. "Time and time again these young Nebraskans have inspired us and have shown us that they are a vital and vibrant part of our state's community."

During this year's session the Legislature reaffirmed its support for the youth by adopting a resolution (LR26) that stated its opposition to any federal action that would rescind the program.

Senators have heard from many of the DACA youth, through social media and phone calls, Vargas said, since the Nebraska attorney general signed on with nine other Republican attorneys general in the country to reverse an earlier federal decision to allow the youth to retain legal presence in the United States.

"We have heard story upon story from DACA youth, for the last so many years now, talking about how much they love this state, how much they want to contribute, continue to be members of their community," he said.

"Many of them have been here since a very young age and so this is the only America they know, and they don't want to leave. ... They are law-abiding citizens, getting their education, starting businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists, teachers. Why wouldn't we want more people to contribute to our economy?"

The letter was signed by Vargas and Sens. Adam Morfeld, Roy Baker, Carol Blood, Kate Bolz, Ernie Chambers, Sue Crawford, Laura Ebke, Matt Hansen, Burke Harr, Sara Howard, Rick Kolowski, Bob Krist, John McCollister, Mike McDonnell, Patty Pansing Brooks, Dan Quick, Justin Wayne, Matt Williams and Anna Wishart.

Two members of the Lincoln legislative delegation did not sign the letter: Sens. Mike Hilgers and Suzanne Geist.
According to reputable leaks, Nokia is planning to release the Nokia 8  its high-end, high specified, dual camera, smartphone to finish the Finnish companys line-up.

According to Winfuture News (translated) it will come with a 5.3 or 5.7, 2K 2560 x 1440, bezel-less screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, 4/64GB and microSD, a dual Zeiss lens camera and will come in Blue, Steel, Gold/Blue and Gold/Copper.

The phone model HMD Global TA-1004 showed up first on Geekbench on 24 June with the MSM8998 (Qualcomm 835). It is said to cost 598  that equates to about A$899 inc GST and initial release in Scandinavia is scheduled for 31 July.

HMD Global chief executive Arto Nummela told iTWire at the Australian launch of its value 3, 5 and 6 range that it was considering a flagship but the unit volume is in the value to mid-range.

He added, People just fell in love with the brand and what it stands for. Its new owner HMD is a start-up that shares the original Nokia passion. It is the people's brand, a trusted brand, and we have to protect that.

The Zeiss camera was confirmed by the company earlier this month when Nummela said, Collaborating with ZEISS is an important part of our commitment to always deliver the very best experience for our customers. Our fans want more than a great smartphone camera, they want a complete imaging experience that doesnt just set the standard but redefines it. Our fans expect it and, together with ZEISS, were delivering it  co-developed imaging excellence for all.

A look at Zeiss and Nokia patents appears to favour the stance taken by Apple, LG and Samsung with a wide angle and standard lens sharing an over-sized sensor, rather than Huawei/Leicas approach of a separate mono and RGB lens and sensors. It also hints at a Xenon flash over single or dual LED flash  a weakness in most smartphone cameras.
Users of the paid versions of Skype or those who purchase Skype credit will be required to pay the 10% Australian goods and services tax from 1 August.

Skype is best known as one of the first free peer-to-peer voice-over-IP (VoIP) services launched in 2003 by the creators of the music-sharing app Kazaa. It was later bought by eBay and then in 2011 by Microsoft.

Microsoft has been busy moving it from peer-to-peer to a centralised Azure cloud service which has allowed increased functionality in the free app for Windows, Linux, iOS, MacOS, and Android. It also allows closer integration with Microsoft Windows and Office 365.

Skype Credit packages range from $5 per month (to be $5.50) for 100 minutes to mobiles and landlines to $25.50 for unlimited calls to 63 destinations.

Skype will delay charging the increased GST until 1 August (it will pay the GST during July). From 1 August, the subscription price will change to include the GST rate of 10%.

Skype sent an email explaining this to its registered users based on their country domain address so not everyone is aware of the changes. Obviously, the vast majority  free users  will not be affected, but it will also apply to Skype for Business and enterprise users.

If you do not agree with this change, you can cancel your subscription prior to 1 August 2017, the letter advised customers.

There is some controversy over the Netflix tax as no physical goods change hands, but both Netflix and Stan have raised prices accordingly.

Comms forum Whirlpool sums it up well. It is a service provided for a fee in Australia which attracts GST. It is not another new tax, it's just that the government is now insisting foreign companies charge the tax in the same way that Australian companies are required to do. You must pay the GST.
SAP has promoted Colin Brookes to the dual roles of president and managing director of SAP ANZ.

"In the past six months, Colin Brookes has brought a new level of sophistication to our operations that has translated to better outcomes for and higher satisfaction among our customers in Australia and New Zealand," said recently appointed president of SAP APJ Scott Russell.

"Under his leadership, I am confident this trend will accelerate."

Brookes joined SAP ANZ from SAP United Kingdom and Ireland as chief operating officer in January this year.

He previously held senior positions at Software AG, FormScape Software, Knowledge Support Systems, and Computer Associates (now CA Technologies).

Brookes holds a diploma in engineering design from the University of Salford and an MBA from the University of Bolton.
SAP ANZ's former interim president and managing director Stephen Moore has moved into the role of executive director.

The change follows the appointment of Colin Brookes as president and managing director.

"Under Stephen Moore's leadership, organisations in Australia and New Zealand have adopted our cloud solutions at an unprecedented rate," said recently appointed president of SAP APJ Scott Russell.

"We look forward to his continued leadership as we simplify and harmonise the way we deliver on our customers' increasing demand for our innovation in the cloud."

Moore's responsibilities will include supporting SAP's customer, partner and community ecosystem in the ANZ region.

He joined SAP in 2011 and has held various APJ and ANZ regional roles.

Moore previously worked for CAI Asia Pacific, Lawson Software, Unisys and PeopleSoft.

He holds a BA and a graduate diploma in business and administration from Curtin University, and a master's degree in information technology from Monash University.
Aerial imagery company Nearmap has announced two senior appointments with Shane Preston joining the company as vice-president of sales and Silvia Arrigoni appointed as vice-president of marketing.

Rob Newman, Nearmap chief executive and managing director, said Preston would lead the Australian sales teams across new business, strategic customer relationship management, customer success, and government engagement.

Preston joins Nearmap (ASX: NEA) following a three-year tenure as managing director for business advisory firm, Black Wallaby, where he specialised in the growth and commercialisation of technology businesses.

Arrigoni brings decades of experience to Nearmap, having previously held positions as head of brand marketing at online lender, SocietyOne, and as group business director for marketing agencies including HAVAS and Arnold Furnace.

Silvia and Shane will play a critical role in expanding our current customer base and ensuring we continue to grow in the right direction, capturing new markets and ensuring that businesses around the world understand how they can leverage our groundbreaking technology, said Newman.

Every day, people are finding new ways to utilise our imagery to give their businesses the competitive edge. Silvia and Shane will be the steady hands that guides our marketing and sales efforts as we continue to push the boundaries of aerial imaging technology and expand our coverage around the world.

According to Newman, Arrigoni has always had a strong interest in technology, working with a number of innovative tech clients throughout her career.

And similarly, he said Preston has a keen eye for businesses with growth potential. Prestons prior experience founding and leading 3D modelling software business, Solidtec, has leant him unique insight into Nearmaps growth potential as it continues to expand its technology offering, specifically as it moves into the 3D imagery market.
The parent company of Optus, Singtel, has set up a cyber education portal, called Singtel Cyber Security Experience or CSX, to strengthen Singapore's pool of cyber security talent.

The portal will be aimed at engaging students and mid-career professionals who aspire to join the field of cyber security.

CSX will profile cyber security professionals and mentors from Singtel and its US-based managed security services subsidiary, Trustwave, as well as the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.

The portal will help those interested to explore cyber security careers and see what a day in the life of a cyber security professional is like, with interactive, virtual cyber scenarios being used to convey what is needed.

The site will also have cyber challenges, covering basic cyber security terms, concepts and operations. Those who take the challenges and do well will be invited to the Singtel Cyber Security Institute to hone their skills. They will also be allowed to meet cyber security professionals or mentors to learn more.

The CSX initiative helps address the cyber security talent gap in Singapore by using an interactive platform to engage aspiring cyber security professionals of all ages, said Bill Chang, chief executive, Group Enterprise at Singtel.

This self-guided platform is designed to introduce them to various cyber security roles and kindle their interest in a career in this fast-growing field.

The launch of CSX comes after a recommendation from the country's Committee on the Future Economy Report.

David Koh, chief executive of CSA, said, CSA is pleased to collaborate with Singtel on this exciting platform to reach out to aspiring cyber security professionals. This is an innovative way to generate interest in cyber security as a career and attract enthusiastic individuals into the profession. The CSX will augment our efforts to grow our talent pool and develop a vibrant cyber security ecosystem in Singapore.

Frost and Sullivan has forecast a shortage of cyber security talents worldwide which is expected to hit 1.5 million by 2020. The CSA expects demand for cyber security professionals in Singapore to reach 9700 by 2021.

All five local polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education will offer CSX and a series of trials have been conducted with selected educational institutions. About 1000 students have participated in these trials.

Our partnerships with the educational institutions and SSG allow us to cast a wider net to bring in suitable candidates who can form the frontline of Singapores cyber defence, Chang added.
Cyber security accelerator programme CyRise has invited early-stage entrepreneurs in the field to apply for its six-month programme.

The accelerator programme, headed by CyRise chief executive Scott Handsaker, has received assistance from LaunchVic's first round of funding and has resulted from the partnership between Deakin University and Dimension Data.

Under the programme, five cyber security start-ups will:

Be mentored by some of the best cyber security and startup veterans from Australia and around the world;

Gain real-world insight through CyRises Corporate Partner Programme, which connects start-ups with early customers;

Embark on a structured trip to Israel and the US to build their knowledge of the wider cyber security landscape and grow their connections while networking with quality talent; and;

Pitch to investors for further funding at the completion of the six-month programme.

Handsaker said: Victoria is fast becoming known as the best location in APAC for the cyber security industry. Where Australia is lacking in this space is in the commercialisation of ideas. There is so much talk around R&D, which is great to see, but how do we package up these findings and ideas in order to yield better commercial outcomes for the Australian economy?

We want to help connect Australian corporates with innovative local founders who are building world class cyber security solutions. Our ability to open corporate doors for our startups will help them grow globally, while allowing corporate Australia a rare inside look at the best cyber security solutions this country has to offer.

Our start-ups will get access to Deakin Universitys field-leading researchers, as well as Dimension Datas commercial experience, and take advantage of this one-of-a-kind partnership to successfully take their ideas to a global market.

CyRise will hold roadshows at the following venues:
Skycures predictive threat detection techniques are claimed to enrich Symantecs enterprise and consumer mobility offerings to help organisations more confidently address the needs of the increasingly mobile workforce, enabling them to ensure that devices are risk-free and secure while accessing corporate resources.

Symantec chief executive Greg Clark said, One of the most dangerous assumptions in todays world is that iOS and other mobile devices that employees bring into the office are safe, but the apps and data on these devices are under increasing attack.

"We believe that tomorrows workforce will be completely mobile and will demand a cyber defence solution that travels with them. Mobile is a core component of our strategy and the acquisition of Skycure is a major step forward in executing it. Together, we will offer the cloud generation an integrated mobile cyber defence architecture that will protect customers mobile devices and networks across iOS, Android and Windows.

The promise of a mobile threat defence that comes from a combination like Skycure and Symantec is compelling. As we look ahead, we believe the future is mobile-first and requires protection levels that single platform vendors will struggle to provide on their own. Our investments in this area will bring defence-in-depth across platforms including, closed operating systems.

Adi Sharabani, co-founder and chief executive of Skycure, said, We are delighted to join the Symantec team and are pleased that they recognise the value in our Mobile Threat Defence solution, which allows us to get ahead of attacks before they strike and defend against threats without infringing on the end user experience or privacy. Customers want mobile security solutions that are easy to deploy and manage, and our threat protection technology offering complements Symantecs leading endpoint protection solutions, making it easier for companies to embrace BYOD.

The acquisition follows that of Fireglass (iTWire article here) and Andy Groves, chief executive, publicly stating that after the acquisition of Lifelock and Blue Coat last year The company has its groove back. Fortune has an interview here.
Taking the opportunity to alert the world of its highly encrypted messaging app beyond Australias jurisdiction, SafeSwiss has made Swiss cheese of Malcolm Turnbulls encryption troubles.

Tim Gallagher, chief executive of encrypted messaging app SafeSwiss, has slammed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls proposed backdoor encryption mandate, pointing out the nature of his free secure messaging service for iOS, Android and Windows place it beyond the legal jurisdiction of the Australian Federal Government.

He also warned users who are concerned about their privacy that serious design flaws in several competitors (including WhatsApp, Telegram Messenger and WICKR) potentially make them vulnerable to government-mandated backdoors.

Naturally, SafeSwiss proudly boasts that it stands apart from competitors because it offers complete end-to-end encryption that is far more robust than any other platform available in the market today".

So, what does SafeSwiss say makes its solution truly different?

SafeSwiss claims its platforms robust security and privacy is based on ephemeral messaging using cutting-edge end-to-end (E2E) elliptic curve cryptography encryption, meaning messages can only be decrypted by the senders or recipients devices in both one-to-one and group communications.

In addition, were told that users also have peace of mind that the primary servers used by SafeSwiss are in Zurich, Switzerland, which has some of the world's strictest privacy protections. This means the service is beyond the legal reach of backdoor decryption demands of the Australian Government".

Of course, one wonders what happened to Swiss privacy protections when it comes to bank accounts held by US citizens, but thats a completely different story.

In any case, SafeSwiss says that to further protect users privacy, the company does not require users to hand over personal details such as email addresses, phone numbers or even have a SIM card in order to set up an account".

Also supported are secure peer-to-peer (P2P) voice calls and group voice conference calls, along with many other features, including timed delete".

Unlike its competitors, SafeSwiss says that delete really means delete.

SafeSwiss was originally founded in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2015, but it is now based in Lucerne, Switzerland.

As youd expect, the SafeSwiss app is global, and supports the following languages: Arabic, Bosnian, Croatian, Chinese (Mandarin) Chinese (Cantonese), English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Gallagher had a range of other statements on government surveillance and backdoors, with more statements on privacy and security below.

He said: Banning or legislating encryption apps is not the answer, this is a true paradox of security against privacy. Legislating against cryptography will drive encryption underground. It will open the doors to malicious attacks from adversarys everywhere.

Encryption not only applies to communication. Its used in banking, purchasing goods online and in FOBs for keyless ignition systems.

A good preview on how backdoors operate is to look at the US transport security administration (TSA) requirement that all baggage passing or travelling within the US must be equipped with travel sentry locks that are designed to allow anyone with a readily available master key access. As a result, a CNN investigation found thousands of incidents of theft.

To consider governments to be a trusted third party is extremely misguided. Governments would be better placed to put resources into the source of the problem  the continued brainwashing of predominantly youth under the guise of medieval religion.

We most certainly are not anti-government nor anti-police. We are pro privacy, and we firmly believe that both privacy and freedom of speech are two basic fundamental human rights.

Gallagher concluded: "Protection of messages, voice calls and files means end-to-end encryption, such as ours at SafeSwiss, where only the intended recipient can view anything sent or hear any voice call. Add the reassurance that the SafeSwiss servers managing any key exchange are located within Europe and you have a world-beating level of protection."

On the topic of the security and privacy offered by SafeSwiss in comparison to its competitors, Gallagher said: "We all come to expect privacy in our daily life this should also extend to our digital life, SafeSwiss certainly goes a long way in minimising your digital footprint.

Creating a new SafeSwiss account is easy. Users can select their own unique SafeSwiss ID, and are not required to hand over personal details such as email addresses, phone numbers or even have a SIM card.

This goes a long way in eliminating some of the well-documented vulnerabilities associated with email/phone authentication, as experienced by some of our competitors.

Gallagher added: "Many people are unaware of just how many providers only encrypt messages and files in transit, meaning that whatever is sent can be extremely vulnerable while sitting unencrypted on a server, in the interval after it's sent and before it's delivered.

They are also unaware of how deleted messages might remain on servers. Almost daily, we hear stories about hacking, leaking of sensitive information and MiM or MiTM attacks, with stories including some of the leading, supposedly secure providers. SafeSwiss solves all of these problems.
Australian employers are not doing enough to prevent internal crime, according to a new survey of legal professionals, with rogue employees engaging in deceitful deception of the disturbing kind.

A new survey of legal professionals has found that not only have many firms and their clients experienced employee crime  particularly crimes relating to data theft and cyber attacks  it also suggests firms and client organisations are not doing enough to protect themselves from rogue employees.

For example, the majority surveyed say they believe that police checks are an important pre-employment screening tool, yet just 17% of respondents indicated that their organisation conducts police checks on potential employees".

When asked which tools they thought are essential for prudent pre-employment screening, 90% cited reference checks, 76% qualifications checks, 62% identity verification and 61% police checks.

The information comes via InfoTrack , whose SaaS platform provides intelligent search and automated workflow for professionals across the legal, conveyancing, banking, finance, insolvency, surveying, mercantile, accountancy and government sectors and helps businesses swiftly find critical information pertaining to property, company, personal and national search data".

Naturally, InfoTrack wants to sell us all on its services, but the data is still valid, and worth sharing. More below.

InfoTrack chief executive John Ahern said of the survey that This result is disturbing".

Employers should know who they are employing and understand their background so it is surprising that police checks are not further up the list. This is particularly so given one third of those surveyed have been impacted by internal crime either within their firm or their clients organisations.

However, were told that the survey findings also confirm that pre-employment screening is a very worthwhile process with three-quarters of respondents selecting two or more benefits, and half selecting three or more from the list of six checks; namely checks for references, qualifications, prior convictions and visa status as well as checks for verification of identity".

So, despite the majority of those surveyed indicating that checks of references, qualifications, identity and prior convictions are important to prudent pre-employment screening, InfoTrack said only half were aware of processes their organisation may have in place to verify qualifications or checks that are provided by potential or existing employees".

"Around one-third were unsure about verification processes, while 20% indicated they were not aware of any processes in place for verifying employee or candidate documentation, meaning that they are relying on the honesty of employees.

The survey also suggested that deception in the hiring process is quite commonplace".

Of those surveyed, 38% said that either they or their clients have worked with someone and later discovered that they had lied about, or failed to disclose, important information about their background. Commonly cited examples include falsified qualifications and employment history, lying about the reasons for leaving prior employer and not disclosing criminal convictions".

In fact, were told that most respondents believe that there are convictions that would (or should) automatically disqualify potential candidates from being employed".

Commonly respondents listed deceptive and financial crimes such as fraud, theft and embezzlement, however many also believe that crimes of a violent or sexual nature would preclude hiring.

Despite 85% cent of respondents stating there are convictions that should be bars to employment in their organisation, only 61% said that police checks were necessary for prudent employment screening highlighting a disconnect between what firms believe and what theyre putting into practice when it comes to employee screening.

Ahern concluded that Internal crime has the ability to destroy an organisations reputation, impact its bottom line and open the gates to cyber-crime. These findings are a wakeup call for all organisations to be more vigilant in vetting potential employees".

Hmm. It certainly sounds famed former Intel chief executive Andy Groves business maximum was spot on, being Only the paranoid survive, with Joseph Heller of Catch-22 fame taking it up a notch to remind us that Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

Whether you need InfoTrack in your business is up to you, but it seems like another major American saying from a well known cult sci-fi is equally apt: Trust No One.

Except, youd imagine, InfoTrack, who clearly knows that the truth is out there!
When Kent Kuhr, owner of Grandpas Kettle Corn, approached Tracy Corr of the College View Neighborhood Association about starting a farmers market in the neighborhood, he had plenty of advice for the group. Among his many bits of wisdom, Kuhr recommended finding a place thats easy to access, has plenty of parking and shade for vendors and shoppers.

The College View Seventh-day Adventist Church parking lot on the southeast corner of 48th Street and Prescott Avenue met all the needs of both vendors and shoppers, and even better, the church made everyone feel welcome as Lincolns newest farmers market set up shop.

Located catty-cornered from Goldenrod Pastries, the market and its dozen or so vendors opened for business on June 7. The market operates from 4-7 p.m. Wednesdays and will run through Aug. 30.

Grandpas Kettle Corn has a centrally located, shady spot at the new market. Joining it are several vendors with seasonal fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs and honey, as well as several craft booths.

The idea of a College View farmers market really appealed to Corr and the rest of the association.

After the Sun Mart grocery store closed at the Van Dorn Plaza, it left a lot of residents in the area, including seniors from nearby Van Dorn Villa and Union Manor, without an accessible neighborhood store, Corr said. We thought the next best thing would be a farmers market, and weve arranged for a shuttle to run from the two retirement homes to the market every Wednesday.

Among the vendors is Emerald Acres. It's currently offering in-season strawberries and aronia berries. You also can pick up a variety of herbs and vegetables from its booth.

We especially like the sense of community at the smaller markets, said Sandy Roush, Emerald Acres farm operations manager. Were at 13th and F streets on Tuesdays, here on Wednesdays and at Fallbrook on Thursdays.

If youre looking for quail eggs (or duck and chicken eggs), look no further than the Hollister Farms booth. Owner and farm manager Andrew Hollister sells heirloom vegetables and meat from his pasture-raised, soy-free hogs and goats.

We like being part of the smaller markets in the area, said Hollister Farms Dawn Stevens. We especially like supporting this new market and the College View community.

Another vendor -- owner/farmer Riley Reinke of Broken Arrow Farm -- is working to obtain organic certification.

Were sustainable, Reinke said. And I use a bio-intensive farming method that allows me to grow and harvest five times more produce per square foot than youd normally see on a half-acre of land.

Reinkes booth features seasonal veggies and eggs, and hell have honey in the fall. As a first-year beekeeper, hes pleased that all four of the hives he started last year have survived and are producing honey.

For certified organic, grass-fed beef and broilers (chicken) and fresh produce, visit Duane Wolff of Wolff Farms.

Its great being a part of this new market on Wednesdays, Wolff said. It works well with the rest of the week. Were at Old Cheney Farmers Market on Sundays, Fallbrook on Thursdays, and have a stand at the U-Stop in the Highlands on Thursdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Vendors who are interested in joining the small, but growing community of vendors at the College View farmers market can contact the College View Neighborhood Association (collegeviewlincoln.org) for information.

We welcome market shoppers every Wednesday, but wed especially like to invite everyone to join us on Wednesday, July 26, when the Mighty Magic Pants Band will be performing at the College View farmers market, Corr said. Well have everyones seasonal favorites this week -- sweet corn and tomatoes. Itll definitely be worth paying a visit. Were a small but mighty market!
Australian GPS technology, developed by the University of New South Wales in partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Group, has been used on the Biarri-Point satellite developed by the US.

The satellite was launched to the international space station in April and was recently deployed from the space stations Nano Racks into its own orbit.

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne said the satellite carried the Namaru GPS technology, the first fully Australian and New Zealand developed global positioning system payload for a cube-satellite.

The Namaru GPS technology is on-orbit and is successfully functioning correctly providing significant research benefits, he said.

It is conducting a range of experiments aimed at increasing our understanding of outer atmospheric effects on small satellites and improving our situational awareness of space.

Pyne said: The research and development programme will help support industry jobs around the nation and in universities..

The 2016 Defence White Paper highlights the importance of space-based systems for information gathering, communications, navigation and surveillance for all ADF and coalition operations.

Advances in small low-cost space platforms provide a unique opportunity to support Australian Defence Force capabilities and to rejuvenate Australian space research."
Cloud and data centre services provider Micron 21 has issued a challenge to IT professionals  can you breach our multi-level security with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack?

Managing Director James Braunegg invites participants at AusCERT, Australias premier data security event, to design and launch a DDoS attack against Micron21 in real time. They will be invited to do so during Micron 21s live demonstrations.

Braunegg says: While DDoS attack methods are constantly evolving, the business risks involved remain the same. To stay ahead of these increasingly complex challenges, companies must invest in DDoS protection. Micron21 continually improves the way we guard against such attacks. We stop them from hindering network performance by acting quickly and diligently to rectify any security issues, regardless of the size or scope of the challenge involved.

He adds: We are so confident in our abilities in providing DDoS protection for online services that we are inviting all-comers at AusCERT to test our DDoS mitigation capabilities, in real time.

IT professionals may select their attack target within either a Micron21 protected or unprotected network, to see the mayhem is created, along with seamless mitigation. Participants can choose the duration, size and other attack configurations before launching their attacks and committing cyber terrorism. In real time, they will see how Micron 21s systems identify, monitor and mitigate each attack.

The AusCERT conference takes place in Queensland on May 25-26. Micron 21s demonstration takes place at booth B25-B26. James Braunegg and key members of the Micron21 and NSFOCUS teams will be available to answer questions.

Micron21 protects businesses with industry-leading DDoS solutions. The company takes a comprehensive approach to mitigating such attacks. DDoS/mitigation protection employs multiple layers of physical hardware to inspect, scan and filter traffic at the packet layer. There are four protective barricades to the companys protection (see image). Brocade Edge Routers identify and sustain legitimate traffic. NSFOCUS DDoS Mitigation inspects the metadata of packets for known attack patterns against a zero day database, while instructing A10 load balancers to distribute clean traffic. Juniper Firewalls provide a final layer of defence at the client.

About Micron21

Established in August 2009, Micron21 provides and operates state-of-the-art cloud and data centre services certified to an ISO 27001 standard, within an Uptime Institute Certified Tier IV environment.

Micron21 delivers mission critical services by owning and operating its own world class, fully redundant data centre. The data centre provides continuous power, cooling, physical and electronic security and highly redundant data transmission services. The core business products include: Server Co-location, DDoS Protection as-a-Service, virtual and physical dedicated servers, cloud services, domain names, high performance web hosting, disaster recovery (DR) solutions, load balancing, IP transit, fixed wireless network services, point to point fibre services, security services, Backup and Infrastructure as-a-Service, managed services and solution architecture. Its customers include global medium and enterprise-level corporations, government departments, Internet Service Providers, and wholesale resellers.

For more information

James Braunegg - james.braunegg@micron21.com ; 03. 9751 7690
In business today, assembling data is no problem. All your supporting systems generate gigabytes of metrics and raw data every week, and you can quickly find yourself drowning in data.

The question, however, is not how much data you have access to, but rather how that data can be used to provide you with the capability to make timely and informed business decisions that add to your bottom line. Do the myriad of spreadsheets and databases that reside within your companys internal systems really support great decision making within your business?

The answer, in most cases, is some form of Business Intelligence (BI) system which Wikipedia defines as a system that can handle large amounts of . . . data to help identify, develop and otherwise create new strategic business opportunities.

These systems are generally focussed on analysing large amounts of data to derive reports, analytics and measurements that can quickly reveal trends around the performance of your business in real-time, allowing you to leverage the power of information in the running of your company.

Many vendors offer comprehensive BI solutions, ranging from inexpensive or Open Source offerings right through to multi-million dollar Enterprise suites. So, which is the right one for your business?

As part of our internal systems development effort, Mitrais has conducted a comprehensive Decision Analysis and Resolution exercise (DAR) on some of the popular contenders. This DAR analyses the differing features of different products, and attempts to compare them with one another. It also weights the results taking into account the relative importance of key features.

Want to know more about the results of our investigation and what some of the leading BI solutions have to offer? Download our special report for FREE!

About Mitrais

Mitrais is a technology company with offices in Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. We offer near shore, near time software development and managed services to Australian companies. Meetings with your team will generally be held at our largest development center in Bali. With 400 staff we are large enough to meet the needs of most companies but still small enough for personalised service. In business since 1991 we have written software or installed systems for 400 clients. Mitrais - The Smart Alternative to India.

www.mitrais.com
Auckland, 1 June 2017  Trans-Tasman technology specialist Pyrios wants to debunk the myth that brands are obliged to show up in every channel used by their customers.

The company argues channel coverage isnt the point. What customers really care about is an integrated experience across all touch points.

Prompting their declaration is research from partner and customer experience platform provider Genesys. Results from a survey of 160 clients indicate that a smaller number of tightly orchestrated channels is likely to improve customer satisfaction by 15%. On the flip side, adding more channels can do more harm than good when they fail to deliver a consistent experience to customers.

The findings are the basis of a guide titled Building the Business Case for Omnichannel Customer Experience.

The guide argues that the rapid rise of the web, mobile and social media is driving customer preference for self-service over multiple channels. And while most companies can support multiple channels today  including self-service  they typically manage them in silos, resulting in a fragmented customer experience, missed sales opportunities, and reduced operational efficiency.

Get your free guide on Building the Business Case for Omnichannel Customer Experience to see what happens when customers can do their thing quickly through a continuous experience across all channels.

To download the guide click here.

Last year Pyrios inked a deal with cloud-based customer engagement specialist Interactive Intelligence  a company Genesys acquired in 2016  bringing cloud contact centre services to the New Zealand and Australian markets.

Omnichannel  is a cross-channel business model that companies use to increase customer experience. Companies that use omnichannel say that customers value continuity of experience regardless of the channel they use to interact with that company.

About Pyrios

Pyrios is a communications technology specialist. We deliver a range of smart communications technology, consulting, integration and managed services to help our clients deliver brilliant customer engagement, every time. We provide services across Australia and New Zealand with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth. Learn more at www.pyrios.com.



For useful news and updates follow Pyrios on Twitter (@PyriosSocial) and LinkedIn.



About Genesys

Genesys powers more than 25 billion of the worlds best customer experiences each year. We put the customer at the centre of everything we do and passionately believe that great customer engagement drives great business outcomes. More than 10,000 companies in over 100 countries trust the industrys #1 customer experience platform to orchestrate seamless omnichannel customer journeys and build lasting relationships. With a strong track record of innovation and a never-ending desire to be first, Genesys is the only company recognised by top industry analysts as a leader in both cloud and on-premise customer engagement solutions. For more information www.genesys.com/anz.
Qlik , a leader in visual analytics, today announced that it has opened the doors to its Qlik Sense Tour 2017  a series of over 100 events in cities across Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) dedicated to demonstrating to organizations how they can give their data a voice. Having kicked off the tour in Sweden and Spain, the tour will continue its track over the next two months to countries such as Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore, France, Germny, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and the UAE to help organizations understand how to listen to what their data has to say, and to end data silence.

The events, run by both Qlik and 67 of its partners across APAC and EMEA, are designed to help attendees discover the new era of analytics that goes beyond the linear and limited options of the past. To showcase how more flexible visual analytics platforms can deliver actionable insights by giving information a voice, delegates will be given product demonstrations, take part in hands-on Qlik Sense workshops and hear from Qliks global customers such as Adidas (DACH), Lenovo (China), South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (UKI) and Technica Group (Italy), among others. The Qlik Sense Tour will give attendees the chance to discover the benefits other organisations like themselves have derived from unleashing their data and letting it do the talking.

One of the customers which has deployed Qlik Sense to manage its vast ecosystem of shoppers and sellers is Southeast Asias eCommerce retail giant, Lazada. Lazadas Chief Information Officer, Klemen Drole, explains: As Lazada continues to grow, we deal with an increasing amount of data generated by our shoppers and sellers. Qlik helps us visualize these large amounts of data, allowing us to stay ahead of commercial and operational challenges in the highly dynamic eCommerce business environment. This ability to look at all our information at the same time, regardless of their source, has enabled us to plan for and react to our dynamic environment more quickly.

Delegates will also have the chance to build their own customised, powerful visual analytics applications that connect with external data sources and systems, and are tailored to their needs during the hands-on workshops. Over the course of the Tour, Qlik will also be showcasing exciting new feature releases and updates to the Qlik Sense product, including Qlik Sense Cloud Business, the cloud-ready solution that enables all businesses  from small to enterprise  to access data analytics in the cloud.

Along with the chance to gain exclusive insights into Qliks product roadmap, there will be opportunities to network with peers, customers and the Qlik partner community, as well as hear from Qlik experts themselves. Those interested in signing up at the various in-country events will be able to keep an eye on the proceedings over the next couple of months by following #QlikSenseTour on Twitter.

Julian Quinn, Regional Vice-President, APAC, Qlik, commented, Qlik Sense Tour is one of the highlights in our calendar  and each year it gets bigger and better. Were in a new age of data analytics, and gone are the days of limited and linear models  your data has so much to say, but these old practices are stifling it  keeping it quiet for too long. To truly bring your data to life and make real impactful business decisions, you need a powerful tool that gives you insights from a huge range of data sources. Customers need to hear the voice of their data, and thats why were delighted to be giving attendees across the 105 events the chance to discover this.

Click here to find a Qlik Sense Tour event near you. A limited number of exclusive hands-on workshops will also be run for press.

About Qlik

Qlik is the leading visual analytics platform and the pioneer of user-driven business intelligence. Its portfolio of cloud-based and on-premise solutions meets customers growing needs from reporting and self-service visual analysis to guided, embedded and custom analytics, regardless of where data is located. Customers using Qlik Sense, QlikView and Qlik Cloud, gain meaning out of information from multiple sources, exploring the hidden relationships within data that lead to insights that ignite good ideas. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Qlik does business in more than 100 countries with over 40,000 customers globally.
Liquid Learning is delighted to present the 6th Women in ICT Leadership Summit , a powerful event designed to champion leadership potential and business excellence in evolving ICT roles.

This year, the Women in ICT Leadership Summit will be held in Sydney over 5 days from 24-28 July. The event features 18 industry leaders and experts from the private and the public sector, covering hot topics such as key strategies for thriving in an age of digital disruption and complexity, practical strategies to overcome career challenges unique to women in ICT, paths to create powerful visions of success and tools to develop your authentic leadership style.

The ever growing prevalence of technology in business is redefining the roles of ICT professionals. For leaders within ICT, an immediate need to be both innovative and the driver of strategic direction within organisations has developed. However, in the male-dominated ICT space, women often face an additional set of challenges in their leadership journey. With the appropriate tools, insights and plans these challenges can be transformed into platforms to drive success. The 6th Women in ICT Summit is the premier event for you to step up, refine and develop your authentic leadership attributes.

2017 Theme: Crafting a Powerful Purpose

Purpose drives all that you do. A strong sense of your own purpose can drive a shift in innovation, breaking of barriers and a willingness to lead from the front in pursuit of success. Finding this success isnt a short journey but once youve found it, youll begin unleashing an even greater level of leadership. Inspiring speakers will share their leadership stories and highlight the strengths required to find purpose in all that you do.

Pre-Summit Workshop 24 July 2017 - A Powerful Personal Brand

This full-day workshop will take your leadership journey to the next level. Alice Crawley, Group Tech, Workplace Transformation, Change Director at Westpac Group will guide you to identify your personal leadership style, turn your visions into reality, align your brand and define your emotional intelligence.

Summit 25 & 26 July 2017

The two day summit will provide a unique mix of technical insights and leadership stories to inspire, educate and guide your transition from technical specialist to strategic leader.

Speakers from Department of Defence, Macquarie Group, Australian Federal Police, Caltex Australia, Department of Finance, Services and Innovation NSW, Australia Post, CitiPower and Powercor, ANZ Bank, Lendlease, Super Retail Group, Department of the Prime Minister and CabinetZ will give valuable and real world insights through practical case studies. Delegates will also have the opportunity to join the conversation through interactive sessions with Department of Planning and Environment NSW, AMP Services Limited, American Express Australia, University of Wollongong, Westpac Group.

Post-Summit Workshop 27 & 28 July 2017  ICT professionals leadership Workshop

This two-day workshop will delve into strategies for driving performance, modifying your communication style, engaging staff and stakeholders and adding strategic value through enhanced ICT leadership. Delegates will address their own leadership styles, strengthen existing skills and develop new leadership techniques.

Liquid learning

Phone: +61 2 8239 9711

Email: registration@liquidlearning.com.au

Early Bird Discount: $200 off registration if you book and pay by 30 June 2017

Group Discount: 10% (team of 3-4), 15% (team of 5-9), 20% (team of 10-14), 22% team of 15+

Booking Code - A
Sydney, Australia  16 June 2017  Following last months launch of MarkLogic 9, the latest release of the worlds best database for integrating data from silos, MarkLogic Corporation is overwhelmed by the response from its Australian customers.

With the recent raft of global hacking and ransomware attacks, it is the new security features in this latest product release that have been met with open arms.

MarkLogic 9 enables enterprises to keep data more secure than ever before and highly sharable at the same time  an ever-increasing requirement in todays business landscape. With combined data integration, security and manageability capabilities, MarkLogic 9 enables organisations to more rapidly, securely, easily and affordably achieve a unified, actionable 360-degree view of their data - whether in the cloud or on-premises.

MarkLogic currently has over 1,000 global customers, including many in Australia, relying on it to integrate their most critical data.





"The MarkLogic database is at the core of our digital and business transformation, said Dr. Bronwyn Evans, CEO of Standards Australia. Having an ability to store, manage and search both structured and unstructured data empowers us to connect the right information with the right people - and deliver solutions in ways we had never thought were possible. Through the implementation process, we had no downtime and maintained the data resiliency and consistency features from our legacy relational databases.

Dr. Evans added: Establishing a robust data repository has allowed us to create content with sophisticated XML development tools that will significantly streamline our content development and management workflows. Being able to better manage, curate and adapt our content will enable us to respond more rapidly to and meet the needs of our Australian stakeholders today, with almost limitless options for using our content tomorrow."

"The competitive landscape in Australia is quickly turning to one driven by an organisation's ability to manage and mine its data effectively, said Tim Macdermid, Area Vice President, APAC at MarkLogic. Our Australian customers spanning financial services, media and publishing through to the government sector are some of the most progressive and innovative leaders in the world. It is our privilege to deliver an even more superior product that will significantly enable our customers to gain the agility, simplicity and security they need to succeed in todays dynamic business environment. With its ability to help enterprises keep data more secure than ever before whilst also highly sharable at the same time  a feat not possible with legacy systems  MarkLogic 9 represents the next evolution in database technology."

MarkLogic 9 adds new enterprise-grade features to make data integration faster and easier, data security stronger and more granular, and database management more efficient. Key among these new capabilities are:

Industry-Leading Data Security:

Advanced encryption protects data from hackers and insider threats using standards-based cryptography, advanced key management and granular separation of duties.

Element Level Security goes beyond the existing document-level security to allow specific elements of a document to be hidden from particular users. The increased granularity means greater data protection.

Redaction eliminates the exposure of sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, by removing specific information or replacing it with other values in order to prevent leakage of sensitive data. Most importantly, it gives enterprises the assurances they need to share data safely.

Faster, Easier Data Integration From Silos:

Entity Services allows organisations to manage messy, ever-changing data sources by allowing them to define and evolve a model and vocabulary that harmonises real-world entities, such as customers and products, and the relationships between them.

Optic is a revolutionary new API that lets developers view their data as documents, graphs or rows, providing unparalleled flexibility and efficiency.

More Manageable and More Productive:

Ops Director is a foundational new tool that eases management for system administrators across multiple clusters, cloud and on-premises systems, and production, test and development environments.

Telemetry is an opt-in feature that enables better and faster support by collecting, encrypting and sending diagnostic system-level information to MarkLogic so it is there immediately when needed.

For more information about MarkLogic 9, visit www.marklogic.com/what-is-marklogic/whats-new.

About MarkLogic

For over a decade, organisations around the world have come to rely on MarkLogic to power their innovative information applications. As the worlds experts at integrating data from silos, MarkLogics operational and transactional Enterprise NoSQL database platform empowers our customers to build next generation applications on a unified, 360-degree view of their data. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, MarkLogic has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, please visit www.marklogic.com.

For further media information, interviews or images, please contact: Dana ONeill, PR for MarkLogic, dana@speakeasystrategies.com.
Lorenzo Coppa (right) and Andrew Rauber (left), co-founders of gluh, which provides a revolutionary end-to- end IT ordering, quoting and procurement system for MSPs

An innovative online program promises to be even better than Amazon, providing small to large IT Managed Services Providers (MSPs) with a revolutionary way to effortlessly sell IT products online.

As Australia prepares for the arrival of the US behemoth, gluh  www.gluh.co - will provide a genuine differentiation to the business clients of MSPs at a time of transition for the industry, according to company co-founders Lorenzo Coppa and Andrew Rauber.

Chief Technology Officer Andrew Rauber said gluh was the secret sauce behind City Software, which itself had a long history of innovation in IT sales. Established in the early 90s, City Software grew to become Australias largest independent IT resellers in the 2000s and had the fastest growth in 2010 CRN Fast50 for a company over 45M turnover.

Gluh overcomes the resistance factors that make it difficult for MSPs to sell IT products, enabling benchmark speed, reliability and industry best operational efficiency. Its less effort; more profit, gluh co-founder Lorenzo Coppa said.

Amazon is a game-changer and encourages further online spending as eBay did. Gluh, in our opinion, is better because businesses trust the product offering of their MSP more than an impersonal marketplace. Gluh delivers a more specialised IT product range based on locally supported product which can be professionally installed by the MSP if required.

Gluh simplifies IT product sales for MSPs  and their clients  with an integrated quoting, automated procurement and inventory and a customised online store based on the MSPs supplier product feeds.

Gluh can be set up with just a few hours of your time. The inventory is always up-to-date according to your own supply rules and you  or your customers  can browse your own recommended products, compare products, price and features with the click of a mouse.

It is no secret that MSPs have been wary about selling hardware; quoting can be time consuming; suppliers are constantly updating whats on offer; items are in and out of stock and it is hard for MSPs to be price competitive. Gluh enables an MSP to answer client product queries from any device in an instant  therefore an order can be placed immediately without the need for quoting in many instances.

One client said what normally takes 1-2 hours takes 2 minutes with gluh!



Many MSPs just dont have the resources or, to be honest, the desire to be sell IT hardware and software, preferring instead to focus on what they do best: providing managed IT services, he said.

With a very effective search and intelligent linking of products like no other quoting system, gluh provides your clients with quick comparisons between products and comprehensive product information  including specs, manuals and images - with just one click.

A few more mouse-clicks and gluh will take the order, automatically feeding it into ConnectWise or Xero, and initiate the procurement process.

Gluh provides an opportunity for incremental product sales; when clients can easily see IT products on offer, they buy more technology. When customers are on your website with any device, theyll buy more from you. Your clients buy from you and you hardly have to lift a finger. It really is that easy. We commit to delivering a very good return for your money with negligible risk.

Mr. Coppa said gluh will help MSPs future proof their businesses by enabling greater client engagement and keeping potential competitors out. This really is an end-to-end system that allows MSPs to effortlessly add a whole new dimension to the services they offer clients. It is not over-selling it to say that this will completely revolutionise the way Australians do business.

About Gluh

Gluh provides MSPs with a fully automated, end-to-end sales, quoting, procurement and delivery system, enabling even the smallest to provide competitive shop front facilities to clients.

Businesses want to buy technology products from their IT service provider. Small to mid-sized businesses will buy more technology if they know what is available and it is easy to buy. Enterprise clients buy a significant number of smaller items; procurement managers love the gluh online portal!

Gluh enables a MSP to answer client product queries from any device in an instant; this is a cornerstone of client preference. Save your time and your clients time because often a product order will be taken right away without the usual quoting process. One client said what normally takes 1-2 hours takes 2 minutes with gluh! (See more: https://www.gluh.co/#testimonials)

The Gluh platform evolved over 26 years facilitating the success of the innovative City Software group, providing the companys backbone that consistently delivered 10,000 transactions per month with only 12 staff (customer-facing and procurement). There is no more efficient system than the processes embedded in gluh refined over a million transactions.

The team at Gluh are passionate about bringing their unique experience to hundreds of Australias MSPs in a partnership to transform how businesses buy technology.

The combination of clever process, online merchandising knowhow and 26 years industry experience adds a dimension to the smallest and the largest MSP for a broader engagement with their clients from SMB to enterprise.

Gluh offers a free 30-day trial with fully set up at no cost - including full integration to ConnectWise and Xero. Allow one to two hours of your time for configuration and training - which you will save in the first quote or two!

Call Gluh on 1800 00GLUH (1800 004584) or visit www.gluh.co to find out how your business and clients will benefit from Gluh.



 About the Gluh product: https://www.gluh.co/#product

 Gluh supplier and system integrations: https://www.gluh.co/#partners

 Pricing https://www.gluh.co/#pricing

 Try Gluh for FREE https://www.gluh.co/signup

 Pricing https://www.gluh.co/#pricing

For further information contact Lorenzo Coppa on 0412 103 903.
2017 Cyber in Business Conference Sydney, Friday 28th July  Vumero Institute is pleased to announce the expansion of the Cyber in Business Conference to Sydney, Australia. The Sydney Conference will be held on Friday 28th July 2017 at UTS Aerial Function Centre, with 350+ attendees expected across 2 tracks. The decision to expand the Conference Series to Sydney is following the success of the 2016 Cyber in Business Conference , held in Melbourne .

IMPORTANCE OF CYBERSECURITY TO THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

Cyber threats are no longer just an information technology issue; they go to the very core of all Australian businesses. The Australian Federal Governments 2016 whitepaper highlighted that cybercrime costs Australians $1 billion each year. This figure is expected to rise and the industry is set to triple over the next 10 years. The decision to expand the Conference Series to Sydney was an obvious choice to raise awareness and connect business professionals with leading cybersecurity specialists.

OVERVIEW OF THE CYBER IN BUSINESS CONFERENCE

In todays hyper connected world, the question is not if an organisation will be attacked, but when, how and by whom. The Cyber in Business Conference aims to equip attendees with the knowledge and skills to understand cyber security as a whole of business issue, as well as ways to defend and protect their organisation from the risks moving forward. A curated selection of leading industry practitioners will present across individual presentations, seminars, workshops, panel discussions and live hacking demonstrations. The Conference will also showcase the best local cybersecurity Innovators and Startups.

A limited number of tickets are still available for purchase. For more information, please visit: https://www.cyberinbusiness.com/sydney






In the race to engage customers across multiple channels, brand owners often underestimate the influence of brand perceptions on the experience their customers expect, leading to disappointment and even abandonment.

Minimising the gap between expected and actual customer experience requires a best practice approach to design that addresses both customer needs and brand values.

An eBook published by Pyrios partner Genesys outlines a six-step design approach to ensure brand owners deliver experiences customers remember for the right reasons.

The design process starts with an investigation to pinpoint what really matters to customers in each segment.

For example, customers of a low-cost airline are likely to have high expectations of sharp prices, easy access to real-time seat pricing, quick response mechanisms, and one-click purchasing.

Only when brand owners have identified customer needs are they able to consider how brand values might shape an overall customer experience that meets customer expectations.

Covering both omnichannel design and implementation, the six-step guide includes customer profiling, baseline measures of experience, prioritising customer journeys, personalisation, measures of success, and operational adjustments.

Get your free eBook on Best practices for a seamless omnichannel customer experience to deliver what matters most to your customers.

Click here to download the guide.

Omnichannel  is a cross-channel business model that companies use to increase customer experience. Companies that use omnichannel say that customers value continuity of experience regardless of the channel they use to interact with that company.

About Pyrios

Pyrios is a communications technology specialist. We deliver a range of smart communications technology, consulting, integration and managed services to help our clients deliver brilliant customer engagement, every time. We provide services across Australia and New Zealand with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth. Learn more at www.pyrios.com.

For useful news and updates follow Pyrios on Twitter (@PyriosSocial) and LinkedIn.

About Genesys

Genesys powers more than 25 billion of the worlds best customer experiences each year. We put the customer at the centre of everything we do and passionately believe that great customer engagement drives great business outcomes. More than 10,000 companies in over 100 countries trust the industrys #1 customer experience platform to orchestrate seamless omnichannel customer journeys and build lasting relationships. With a strong track record of innovation and a never-ending desire to be first, Genesys is the only company recognised by top industry analysts as a leader in both cloud and on-premise customer engagement solutions. For more information www.genesys.com/anz.
Two men in their 60s tried stopping three teenagers from burglarizing a house in the 4500 block of North 10th Street Monday afternoon.

Lincoln Police Capt. Jeri Roeder said the men were outside at 1:10 p.m. when they noticed three teenagers in a tan car park at their neighbor's house, jump a fence and enter the home. The men confronted the alleged burglars and one pulled out a gun and said, "Mind your own business," Roeder said.

The two men backed off and dialed 911. Neither was injured.

Soon after, the car was found at West Lincoln Elementary. Officers discovered the car belonged to one of the suspects, 18-year-old MaKayla Rinke of Lincoln.

Officers also found a gun in the car. It was reported stolen from North Platte, Roeder said.

Only an Xbox was taken. Police aren't sure if the teenagers knew the residents.

Prosecutors charged Rinke Tuesday afternoon with burglary and Austin Isa, 18, with burglary, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and possession of a stolen firearm.

A 14-year-old boy was referred to juvenile court, Roeder said.
Expert360 says the series B investment will enable it to carve out a bigger slice of the $600 billion global consulting industry by offering a host of new features and functionality for both clients and consultants.

The company also says the funds will assist in continued international expansion, with the latest capital raise bringing total funding to $21 million.

Thousands of companies including Commonwealth Bank, BHP, Woolworths and Qantas rely on our platform to build high-performing teams on demand, deliver superior project outcomes and reduce costs at the same time, said chief executive and co-founder Bridget Loudon.

Expert360 has over 15,000 vetted professionals covering hundreds of capability areas. Clients are telling us that many of the best consultants are no longer sitting in firms, or looking to take full-time jobs. Theyre on Expert360.

Loudon said Expert360 had also welcomed AirTree Ventures co-founder Daniel Petre to its board. Petre served as managing director for Microsoft in Australia and has established three major technology investment companies in Australia, including AirTree Ventures, claimed as the countrys largest VC fund.

Expert360 has hugely resonated with executives who have long sought a way to tap specialised skills for project work. Traditionally, this access has been costly, time-consuming or both. This company is going to redefine the consulting industry. said Petre.

Existing investors include Frontier Ventures and former Macquarie chief Allan Moss.

According to Loudon, the average value of projects available on the Expert360 platform has also increased steadily, with projects now valued at up to $700,000  and over the next year, Expert360 plans to bring additional functionality to the platform that allows businesses to easily work with individuals in their personal or professional network, manage their contingent and consulting workforce and streamline the team building process.

Our vision from the start has been to bring people together seamlessly to do high quality work, by providing an intuitive, user-friendly platform. says chief operating officer and co-founder Emily Yue.
Most Australian organisations do not have a comprehensive digital workplace strategy and Aussie chief executives are less likely than their global counterparts to drive workplace changes, according to a newly published global survey.

The Digital Workplace report  Transforming Your Business  from global ICT services and solutions provider Dimension Data, found that 71% of Australian organisations say they will have a practical use case for augmented reality technologies within the next two years, but are less likely to drive workplace changes when compared with other regions  with only 15% of Australian organisations reporting the chief executive is the main champion for change compared to 26% globally.

The research examined how organisations globally are evolving from a traditional office environment to a digital workplace, and revealed that gaining competitive advantage and improving business process are among the top goals of their digital transformation strategy. This is according to 40% of 800 organisations in 15 countries on five continents, including Australia, that were interviewed.

According to the report, 47% of organisations in Australia have employees working from home full-time today, compared to the global average of 40%  and 55% of Australian organisations report that traditional conferencing technology has significantly improved business processes, whereas only 26% say the same about enterprise social software.

The report also found that digital transformation is not just about adopting the technologies of the past, with 62% of research participants expecting to have technology such as virtual advisers in their organisations within the next two years.

In addition, 58% expect to start actively investing in technology that powers virtual advisors in the next two years.

According to Dimension Data, today the digital workplace is no longer just made up of managers and those managed, with co-workers collaborating with one another to complete projects and employees interacting with customers and partners.

Its increasingly populated by virtual employees who do not exist in a physical sense, but nonetheless play an important role in the organisation, says Krista Brown, Dimension Datas Group End-user Computing SVP.

According to Brown, while artificial intelligence (AI) technology is still in its infancy, it is sufficiently advanced to be working its way into companies in the form of virtual assistants, and, in certain industries such as banking, virtual tellers and virtual advisors.

Manifested as bots embedded into specific applications, virtual assistants draw on AI engines and machine learning technology to respond to basic queries.

Its no longer enough to simply implement these technologies, says Brown.

Organisations have grown their use of analytics to understand how these technologies impact their business performance: 64% use analytics to improve their customer services, and 58% use analytics to benchmark their workplace technologies.

And the survey found that around 30% of organisations said theyre far along in their digital transformation initiatives and are already reaping the benefits, while others are still in the early stages of developing a plan.

Brown says one reason that could be holding companies back from implementing a digital workplace is their corporate culture.

She says often, technology and corporate culture inhibit  rather than encourage  workstyle change, but the number one barrier to successful adoption of new workstyles was IT issues, and research participants cited organisational issues as another.

The complexity of the existing IT infrastructure can present a major hurdle to implementing new collaboration and productivity tools to support flexible workstyles. Successful transformation implementations are achieved when IT works closely with line-of-business heads, Brown notes.

IT leaders were asked to rank which technologies were most important to their digital workplace strategies and according to Robert Allman, Group Senior Vice President, Customer Experience and Collaboration, mobility is pivotal to a digital workplace.

Business leaders and CIOs are switched on to the importance of mobility in the digital workplace, with an even mix of companies supporting company-provided and employee-owned devices in the work environment.
A former employee of the NSA claims Kaspersky Lab has provided misleading information while responding to a Bloomberg article that said emails it had obtained showed that the company had developed products for the Russian intelligence service FSB and also accompanied its agents on raids.

Jake Williams, who runs a company named Rendition Infosec, said in a blog post that some part of Kaspersky Lab's riposte to the Bloomberg story was accurate.

But, he added, it was incorrect to say that Kaspersky Lab could not provide "any government agencies, nor other parties, with information on location of people and doesn't gather 'identifying data from customers' computers' because it is technically impossible".

A few hours after the Bloomberg report appeared, the US government said it was removing Kaspersky Lab from a list of approved software suppliers for two government-wide purchasing contracts that are used to buy technology services.

Kaspersky Lab responded to the government move by saying that it had no ties to any government, and had never helped any government with their cyber-espionage efforts.

Williams said that whether Kaspersky Lab provided real-time intelligence to anyone else was left to be determined.

"But the Kaspersky claim that it is 'technically impossible' to 'gather identifying data from customers computers' is completely false," he said.

Williams said it could be true that Kaspersky software did not have any features built in for the sole purpose of gathering identifying data from customers.

"But anti-virus software collects lots of telemetry on malware activities," he pointed out. "Part of that telemetry involves the autorun registry keys used by malware to persist between reboots.

"In some cases, malware even stores exfiltration or configuration data in the registry and Kaspersky needs this data to be effective with their detection, quarantine, and removal of malware artefacts on infected machines.

"As a result, it seems highly unlikely that Kaspersky software does not have the ability to query arbitrary registry keys and return their contents back to Kaspersky operations centres."

He said that by querying the correct registry keys, Kaspersky Lab would be able to gather data such as:

The machine name and domain name;

The username of the currently logged on user;

The usernames of previously logged on users;

The email address of the Microsoft account linked to the local accounts (if any);

The Wi-Fi network the machine is currently connected to;

The names of saved Wi-Fi networks;

The Windows unique product ID;

The Kaspersky unique product ID;

Unique hardware information (processor serial number, etc.);

Recently typed URLs;

Recently opened document names; and

Recently executed programs.

Williams also pointed out that these details were only part of the information that could be enumerated from registry values alone  and Kaspersky software was sure to have this capability.

"This completely discounts the fact that Kaspersky can arbitrarily enable new capabilities in its software at will and deploy those capabilities only to specific machines, presumably those targeted by FSB," he added. "Please note that Rendition isnt claiming Kaspersky is using these capabilities, but its ridiculous to think they dont have them."

He said that neither side had been totally transparent in the back-and-forth of this affair. While it appeared that Kaspersky Lab appeared to have been more open, it was possible that the US government was more guarded in its comments due to a need to protect sources.

"If the US Government discloses information derived from sensitive sources, it may no longer be able to access those sources  like everything in intelligence (cyber threat intelligence included) there must be an intel gain/loss calculation performed," Williams added.

He was, however, sure that more information would come to light about the stoush soon: "with Kaspersky on the defensive and likely backlash against US companies in Russia and elsewhere, the intelligence community may be sharing more of it what it knows sooner than later".

iTWire has contacted Kaspersky Lab's local outlet for comment.
In the wake of its legal action against the ACCC in support of a domestic roaming declaration, Vodafone Hutchison Australia has issued a call for its mobile users in regional Australia to lobby their local federal government MP.

Last month VHA issued proceedings in the Federal Court against the ACCC draft decision not to declare domestic mobile roaming, claiming that the review process was flawed.

In a blog on its site, VHA has asked readers to send a letter to their MP to free up funds from the USO for improved mobile coverage and to declare domestic roaming.

One of these decisions could free up millions of dollars each year for improved mobile coverage and the other could further improve coverage and bring you a choice of mobile providers, Tim McPhail, head of public policy at VHA, says.

Reforms to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) scheme could free up funds for improved mobile coverage, rather than maintaining outdated copper wiring and payphones.

Regulators will soon also determine whether to allow domestic mobile roaming, which would mean all mobile users could access a wider range of services and improved regional and rural mobile coverage at lower costs, as regional mobile infrastructure would be shared between all telecommunications providers.

VHA has posted a form letter on its site for users to send to their MP:

Dear your federal member,

I am writing to you because I want you to fix the poor mobile coverage and lack of choice of providers in my community.

We need better regional mobile services and more competition to create jobs, drive growth and improve access for emergency services and community connectivity.

You can make a difference to our local community and my familys life by supporting reforms including the introduction of domestic roaming and changing the USO to free up funds for improved mobile coverage and choice.

Better mobile coverage is urgently needed to improve the lives, businesses and safety of people living in regional communities like mine. Its time for action.

Yours sincerely,

Your name
The United Kingdom will introduce age checks for those who want to access pornography on the Internet from next year.

The BBC reported that adult websites would be required to install age verification checks by April 2018. Only those who are 18 would be allowed access.

The move is apparently part of the measures to make the Web safer and companies that do not comply may be blocked by their service providers.

Users may be asked to provide credit card details, as they are asked to do by gambling websites.

The rule is one of many set out in the country'sand will be overseen by a regulatory body.

Britain's Digital Minister Matt Hancock will begin the process with a written statement to the House of Commons.

The BBC report said that the regulatory body could be the British Board of Film Certification that sets age limits for films.

The Board also used to rate computer games, but that is now done by Pan European Game Information.
The Internet Engineering Task Force has moved its 2018 meeting from San Francisco to Montreal due to fears that the travel bans introduced in the US may make it impossible for overseas members to attend.

The organisation said that, having observed restrictions and policies on international travel in the run-up to its meeting in Chicago in March, it had asked its meeting committee to look at changing the venue for the 2018 meeting.

The entry bans placed on citizens of some countries led the committee to the realisation that an atmosphere of uncertainty had been created such that international travellers were unsure of their ability to enter the US.

The committee asked the IETF to minimise attendee risk and given the inability to forecast what the conditions would be in 12 months time, a decision was taken to shift the venue.

A survey of the IETF community found that 15% of those living outside the US had been concerned about conditions in the US to the extent that they had decided not to attend the Chicago meeting.

Montreal was vetted in April and after considering the financials the venue was booked.

The IETF develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organisation, with no formal membership or membership requirements.
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Human Rights Watch |  

Repressive Laws and Policies Restrict Online Speech, Stifle Critical Voices

(Moscow)  Russia has introduced significant restrictions to online speech and invasive surveillance of online activity and prosecutes critics under the guise of fighting extremism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 83-page report, Online and On All Fronts: Russias Assault on Freedom of Expression, documents Russian authorities stepped-up measures aimed at bringing the internet under greater state control. Since 2012, Russian authorities have unjustifiably prosecuted dozens of people for criminal offenses on the basis of social media posts, online videos, media articles, and interviews, and shut down or blocked access to hundreds of websites and web pages. Russian authorities have also pushed through parliament a raft of repressive laws regulating internet content and infrastructure. These laws provide the Russian government with a broad range of tools to restrict access to information, carry out unchecked surveillance, and censor information the government designates as extremist, out of line with traditional values, or otherwise harmful to the public.

Human Rights Watch: Russia: Crackdown on Social Media Users

Russias authorities are leading an assault on free expression, said Yulia Gorbunova, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. These laws arent just about introducing tough policies, but also about blatant violation of human rights.

Russia should repeal the repressive legislation adopted in recent years, stop prosecuting critics under the guise of fighting extremism, and uphold its international obligations to safeguard free expression, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 50 lawyers, journalists, editors, political and human rights activists, experts, and bloggers and their family members, and analyzed laws and government regulations pertaining to internet content and freedom of expression, as well as indictments, court rulings, and other documents relevant to specific cases.

Some of the restrictive laws appear designed to shrink the space, including online, for public debate, especially on issues the authorities view as divisive or sensitive, such as the armed conflict in Ukraine, Russias role in the war in Syria, the rights of LGBT people, and public protests or other political and civic activism.

Curbing free speech serves to shut down public debate and denies a voice to anyone dissatisfied with the ongoing economic crisis or simply critical of Russias foreign policy, Human Rights Watch said.

We have dozens of cases where people were literally sent to jail, Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist and expert on internet freedom in Russia, told Human Rights Watch. That of course has its effect on the level and freedom for political and public debate in social media.

Other laws aim to undermine the privacy and security of internet users by regulating data storage, unjustifiably restricting users access to information, and ensuring that a wealth of data, including confidential user information and the content of communications, could be made available to authorities, often without any judicial oversight.

In 2016, parliament passed a set of counterterrorism amendments requiring telecommunications and internet companies to retain the contents of all communications for six months and the metadata for three years. The law makes it easier for the authorities to identify users and access personal information without judicial oversight, unjustifiably interfering with privacy and freedom of expression. A 2015 law that applies to email services, social media networks, and search engines prohibits storage of Russian citizens personal data on servers located outside Russia. A 2017 draft law aims to prohibit anonymity for users of online messaging applications, such as WhatsApp or Telegram.

The Russian government effectively controls most traditional media, but independent internet users have been openly challenging the governments actions, said Gorbunova. The authorities clearly view independent online users as a threat that needs to be disarmed.

Russian authorities have increasingly used vague and overly broad anti-extremism laws against people who express critical views of the government and, in some cases, have conflated criticism of the government with extremism. Laws adopted since 2012 in the name of countering extremism have served to increase the number of prosecutions for extremist offenses, especially online.

Based on the data provided by the SOVA Center, a prominent Russian think tank, the number of social media users convicted of extremism offenses in 2015 was 216, in comparison with 30 in 2010. Between 2014 and 2016, approximately 85 percent of convictions for extremist expression dealt with online expression, with punishments ranging from fines or community service to prison time. In the period between September 2015 and February 2017, the number of people who went to jail for extremist speech spiked from 54 to 94.

In the three years of Russias occupation of Crimea, authorities have silenced dissent on the peninsula. They have aggressively targeted critics through harassment, intimidation, and, in some cases, trumped-up extremism charges, including prosecution for separatist calls. Human Rights Watch found that most prosecutions of Crimean Tatar activists, their lawyers, and others were for peacefully criticizing the occupation.

Freedom of expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and it extends not only to information and ideas that are received favorably but also to those that offend, shock, or disturb. The Russian government should respect and uphold the right of people in Russia to freely receive and disseminate all types of information protected under international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said.

Russias international partners should raise concerns at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Council of Europe about Moscows curbs on free expression, as well as in bilateral conversations with the Russian government.

Major internet companies operating in Russia, such as Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and VK should carefully assess Russias government demands to censor content or share user data and refrain from complying where the underlying law or specific request are inconsistent with international human rights standards. They should not put people at risk, Human Rights Watch said.

The Russian government has been casting criticism of it as extremist, instilling fear and encouraging self-censorship, Gorbunova said. Today people in Russia are increasingly unsure about the boundaries of acceptable speech.

Via Human Rights Watch
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By Dan Dinello | (Informed Comment) |  

Like the Black Lodge in David Lynchs revival of Twin Peaks, reality is twisted into strange, absurd forms in the world of Trump. He tirelessly assaults common sense with exaggerations, blatant lies, insulting tweets, and willful ignorance. Though his chip-off-the-old-liar son Donald Jr. got caught red-handed conspiring to break federal campaign finance laws against accepting foreign contributions, President Trump colluded in the initial attempt to cover up the collusion and then denied that collusion was wrong or unusual. He even blamed Obama for letting the visa-lapsed Russian lawyer into the U.S. to tempt his 39-year old good boy with enticing dirt on the Clintons.

Trump built his political career and now presidency with attacks on reality that combined lies, demagoguery, racism, xenophobia and scapegoating  the elements that crystallized into totalitarianism according to The Origins of Totalitarianism, a 1951 book by Hannah Arendt, one of the foremost political philosophers of the 20th century. A German-Jewish intellectual, Arendt fled Nazi Germany with the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933, lived in Paris as a stateless refugee, and immigrated to the United States in 1941. Her book culminates with a description of the living corpses  those tortured victims who experienced the full force of totalitarian terror in concentration camps; but she initially focuses on the intermediate stages that crystallized into total domination. As if presciently remarking on Trumpism, she warns, Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest  forces that look like sheer insanity.

Neo-fascist Trump practices a tyrannical rhetorical style that attempts to assert personal control over reality itself. He repeatedly lies then smears truth-tellers to sustain his lies and distract his followers from hearing critical perspectives. Arendt argues that the normal world must never assume that the enormity or contradictory nature of totalitarian lies will be the systems undoing and that it would be possible to force the leader into shameful humiliated retreat.The totalitarian system, unfortunately, is foolproof against such normal consequences, she says, Its ingeniousness rests precisely on the elimination of that reality which either unmasks the liar or forces him to live up to his pretense.

As the New York Times pointed out recently in its story Trumps Lies, which catalogs every lie since inauguration, his non-stop falsehoods are an attempt to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant. As Arendt notes, totalitarian propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts while the chief qualification of a totalitarian leader is infallibility. Self-aggrandizing, Trump never admits hes wrong or concedes a factual error; rather, he challenges the existence of any authoritative reality whether thats professional journalists, his own intelligence officials, or the judiciary. In this way Trump inoculates himself: his followers become inflamed by mere counter-arguments offered by reporters, pundits, and liberals.

In his Twitter feed, Trump creates no overarching story line or internal consistency other than a hatred of the media and an aggrieved paranoia. Like a dictator, he tries to weaken journalism by delegitimizing it. His gush of opinions, assertions, and insults seek to repel accountability. The chastened, tiresomely respectful media pundits uncritically read his tweets out like headlines. While giving no press conferences, Trump dominates media attention, picking fights on Twitter, doubling down on long-discredited lies and sparking weekly firestorms. A dark lord of chaos, Trump spews out a fog of obscurity creating a permanent state of turmoil.

While pundits sometimes describe him as a child in a man-suit or a thin-skinned narcissist with a martyr complex, Arendt would perceive him as simply dangerous. The anger, accusations, insults, whining, and ever-shifting contradictory explanations are all indicative of what Arendt calls the totalitarian mood, the perpetual-motion mania of totalitarian movements which can remain in power only so long as they keep moving and set everything around them in motion. Just as the tweets are ephemeral so too are the opinions. Yesterdays truth may not be today or tomorrows truth.Trumps capriciousness reflects the extraordinary adaptability and absence of continuity that Arendt argues are the essence of the specifically totalitarian virus.

Just as the burnt woodsman in Twin Peaks mysteriously hypnotizes listeners when he speaks dark nonsense over the radio, Trump has infected a large segment of the public with a mass hallucination. This affective contagion is propagated by the Vichy Republicans, administration sycophants, and the Fox News/Breitbart/InfoWars echo chamber. His method of denial, deception, conspiracies, misdirection, tacit victim blaming, constant scapegoating, and outright fabrication continues to be acceptable to 35-40% of Americans. Anything that goes wrong gets blamed on Clinton, Obama, Mexicans, Muslims or the fake news industrial complex. His supporters dont care that hes lied to them about health care as long as they perceive that he shares their hatred for liberals, immigrants, and refugees. His supporters dont believe in the reality of their own experience, but rather embrace the continuous, ever-changing reinforcement of their self-sabotaging emotions. According to Arendt, Totalitarian propaganda thrives on an escape from reality into fiction and can only insult common sense when common sense has lost its validity.

The mental landscape of the Trump base resembles the mob mentality that Arendt says is susceptible to totalitarian propaganda. A mixture of gullibility and cynicism has been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality, says Arendt. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world, they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. They cannot be reached by experience or argument because they define themselves by cultural identification with Trumpism. In Arendts framing, they form a society whose members act and react according to the rules of a fictitious world. They are anti-anything-that-is-anti- Trump.

On the edges of Trump support are those that have not been completely shut off from the real world. These sympathizers  some of whom are innocuous fellow-citizens, friends and family  can hardly be called single-minded fanatics. It is through them that Trumpism can make its fantastic lies more generally acceptable, spreading its propaganda in milder forms until the atmosphere is gradually poisoned with totalitarian elements, which appear to be normal political reactions or opinions. Therefore, resistance to normalizing Trump must be total. Trumps lies and hypocrisies must be tirelessly called out. Political activism at any level must be supported. The time is now, not the 2018 election. As the Trump White House descends into a Mad House, he might take advantage of a traumatic event, as Hitler used the Reichstag fire, as a pretext to install martial law or even create a shock event, such as bombing North Korea, as a major distraction. Writing The Origins of Totalitarianism in the shadow of totalitarian horror, Hannah Arendt warns future societies that freedom is fragile, that danger arises as soon as demagogues speak and others start following them, and that racism, xenophobia and the lies that arise from such beliefs can destroy a free state.

A filmmaker, journalist and author, Dan Dinello recently completed a chapter about totalitarianism and mad science for the upcoming book Westworld and Philosophy. Currently, hes writing a book, for Auteur Publishing, about the dystopian science fiction movie Children of Men. He recently published Finding Fela: My Strange Journey to Meet the AfroBeat King  a memoir of his 1983 trip to Lagos, Nigeria, to film African musical legend Fela Kuti. His first book is Technophobia! Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology. Dan has also contributed chapters to books about The Who, The Rolling Stones, Ridley Scott, Star Trek, and Avatar among others and made several contributions to Informed Comment.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

CBS News: Names added to Trump Jr.s Russia meeting
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By Israa Khater | ( OpenDemocracy.org ) |  

No conflict in the Middle East spares the Palestinians, and the recent crisis in the GCC is no exception.

Following the escalation of the GCC crisis and the deteriorating relationship between Qatar and the Gulf Triad (Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain), along with Egypt, rumors started spreading about a possible deal with the Hamas leadership in Gaza, being orchestrated by Egypt and the UAE. It would seem that the current crisis and its impact on Hamas has been viewed as a golden opportunity to reshape Palestinian politics and possibly curb the Hamas link to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar.

According to Reuters, there have been talks between Hamas leaders, such as Yahya Sinwar, and Egyptian officials about the future of leadership in Gaza. Hamas has been negotiating the easing of the blockade and securing fuel supplies with Egypt on the condition that Hamas includes Mohammad Dahlan in the Gaza leadership. However, the expected scope of his potential role within the government is not clear.

Reports claim that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah was initially happy about the recent crisis in the GCC, and the consequent implications it has on Gaza; however, the leadership is now reconsidering its stance as it sees the possible return of Mohammad Dahlan to the scene as a threat to the current status quo in the West Bank. The decision of Mahmoud Abbas to pressure Hamas by cutting the salaries of public servants in Gaza as well as cutting down the electricity supply seems to have backfired with Egypt and Dahlan emerging as the unlikely saviors for Hamas.

These rumors that might have sounded far-fetched a couple of months ago, no longer seem to be unthinkable. The difficult situation Hamas currently finds itself in, makes these claims much more plausible. For one thing, it has been reported that multiple Hamas leaders have left Qatar, and the decision by Ismail Haniyeh to relocate to Qatar has been retracted. Nevertheless, it may be argued that it was in fact Qatar that sought to distance itself from Hamas due to the current GCC crisis. Whether this shift was initiated by Qatar or Hamas, or whether these changes preceded the GCC crisis, or came as a result of it, remain the subject of a larger investigation. However, the end result for Hamas remains that is has been put in a difficult position as it seems to be losing its Qatari ally, while at the same time being put under intense pressure by Israel and the Palestinian Authorities, whose actions seem to be driving Gaza towards a catastrophic reality.

More importantly, the recent meeting that took place between Egyptian Intelligence and Hamas leaders indicates a high possibility that the alleged deals are being made. What makes it even more so is the fact that Hamas has recently decided to increase security on the borders with Egypt in Sinai by putting up a buffer zone; a request that fell on deaf ears when made by Egypt in the past. Egypt, on the other hand, suddenly decided to supply the Gaza strip with much-needed fuel supplies following the decision by Israel, under the pressure of the PA, to cut the electricity supply. Could this be the Hamas leadership and Egypts way of showcasing their good intentions and willingness to cooperate on the new vision for the Gaza strip? In light of this, it seems more likely than ever that Hamas will take the hand that was extended to it by Al-Sisis government, and Dahlan, even if both parties may be highly disliked by the movement.

Seeing as this deal could be a real possibility, what are the possible implications on the future of the Palestinian State and the unity of the Palestinian leadership and people?

For one thing, it seems that the PA has been completely sidelined in these negotiations. It is no secret that Dahlan, who aspires to be the successor of Abbas, has fallen out of favor with the PA in 2011 and has been described as the archenemy of Abbas. With the PA constantly cracking down on the supporters of Dahlan, it has become increasingly clear that a return to the PA is unlikely for him. In turn, it is entirely possible that the future of Gaza is one that distances itself from the West Bank rather than seeks a form of unity. In fact, isnt it possible that the negotiations with Egypt could lead to the complete separation of Gaza from the West bank? As Egypt starts to supply the Strip with its needs and opens the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing with Gaza, what will be the possible scope of cooperation between the West Bank and Gaza?

With a lot of speculation going around, there is not much room for certainty. It may be clear, however, that with the Dahlan-Hamas alliance in Gaza, and Abbas Fatah in the West Bank, it seems less likely than ever for the two parties to achieve a unified government let alone be able to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. As such, what seems to be the only move currently available for Hamas is one that further divides the Palestinians and further compromises the relationship between the two territories.

If this plan is to actualize, it is also difficult to see the relationship that might bring together Hamas and Dahlan. The latter has been viewed by many as a corrupt figure in Palestinian politics, and a strong supporter of American and Israeli interests. It is also difficult to ignore the past animosity that existed between the two sides, which intensified during the violent clashes of 2007. Is it possible for the two sides to find a middle ground or is this alliance meant to be short-lived?

At the end, the question that presents itself is whether this move will set the Palestinians and their aspirations for an independent Palestinian state on another trajectory, which will be difficult to escape. If the Palestinian front is divided and the negotiation process is further halted, how will this impact the expanding settlement building projects of Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? If this is a foreseeable future, then will it ever be possible for the Palestinians to reverse the damage created by this rift within its ranks? Or is the future of the Palestinians one that sees Gaza returning to Egypt and the West Bank annexed by Israel? If anything, one thing is clear: Israel will continue to be the biggest beneficiary from the internal Palestinian dispute.

About the author Israa Khater holds a dual masters degree in Public Policy from the University of York and Erasmus University. She completed her undergraduate education at the American University of Sharjah obtaining a Bachelors of Arts in International Relations. She focuses her research interest on the Palestinian question and the wider MENA region. She completed her masters thesis on the topic of Palestinian civic engagement and the boycott movement. Currently, she works in the humanitarian sector.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Via OpenDemocracy.org )

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Related video added by Juan Cole:

TRT World: Israel-Palestine Tensions: Palestinians reject Israels security measures
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

For now, the second GOP attempt to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare has failed, with two more senators defecting (one saying the bill does not go far enough in getting rid of Obamacare.) There are lots of reasons for the failure of Trumpcare 2.0.

A big one is that it is written to give hundreds of billions in tax relief to a handful of billionaires while kicking millions of women and children off health care insurance. Even the Republican Party base is bigger than that, and can tell when theyre being screwed over. That is, the class base of the bill is too narrow. The GOP is about championing the interests of wealthy white Protestants, though it has other, minor constituencies about half of Catholics, some rural elites, etc. But when the party interprets its mandate as not from the people at all but only from the super-rich, that sets up an internal struggle between the big corporations and the small businesses.

Then there is the fractured character of the party, what with being split into libertarian, national security, and plutocratic wings. Some of the Republican Senators who refused to back Trumpcare did it because it does not screw ver the poor nearly enough.

The relative narrowness of the November, 2016, victory is another consideration. With a 2-senator advantage in the Senate, theyd have to bring everyone aboard for an important vote like this.

But a major reason for which Trump cant get his healthcare bill passed into law is that he is the most unpopular president ever.

Trump is losing support among independents. His own base is relatively narrow. He is at 36% in the polls, lower than any modern president at this point in his tenure.

One thing about unpopular presidents: He does not inspire fear. He cant threaten the senators effectively. They will vote as they please.

The GOP could have been a legislative steamroller. It is not.

That said, with a few tweaks the bill might be passable. It wont be tweaked.



Related video

ABC News: Trump at 36 percent approval in new poll
A thief broke into a Nebraska State Patrol SUV early Sunday and stole an assault rifle, radar gun and breathalyzer among other items, according to Lincoln police.

The SUV was parked in the driveway of a home in southwest Lincoln between 3 a.m. and 7:50 a.m., a police report said.

The thief pried open the front passenger door to gain entry and also stole keys to several offices, handcuff keys, handgun magazines and flashlight, the report said.

A handgun was also taken from a car parked in the home's garage, police said.
TORONTO, July 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX:JAG) today announced second quarter 2017 ("Q2 2017") preliminary operational results for its core assets located in the Iron Quadrangle area of Minas Gerais, Brazil. All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise expressed. Full financial results are expected to be released after August 9, 2017.

Second Quarter 2017 Highlights

Consolidated operating performance in Q2 2017, including significant progress made at Turmalina, resulted in total H1 2017 consolidated gold production of 42,061 ounces. Q2 2017 consolidated gold production totaled 19,749 ounces, grade was 3.18 g/t, and recovery was 91%.

The Company is committed to achieving strong gold production in 2017, and has revised its production guidance to 95,000 - 105,000 ounces compared to the previously announced range of 100,000 - 110,000 ounces reflecting the challenging first half of the year. Management is confident that the improving trend achieved over the course of the second quarter will be sustained, and that production is expected to be at the high end of the range, exceeding the 2016 level. Improved operating performance across all sites is expected to increase production in H2 2017, resulting in continued improvement in cash costs. In particular, production from Turmalina is expected to return to normal production levels as operational challenges previously encountered, are no longer affecting production cycles.

Consolidated cash costs improved throughout Q2 2017, including June 2017 cash costs of approximately $797 per ounce sold. Preliminary cash costs for Q2 2017 were $857 per ounce sold compared to Q1 2017 cash costs of $924 and $758 per ounce sold for Q2 2016. Continued Company-wide cost reduction programs and a focus on profitable ounce production and waste reduction resulted in lower unitary costs.

cash costs of approximately per ounce sold. Preliminary cash costs for Q2 2017 were per ounce sold compared to Q1 2017 cash costs of and per ounce sold for Q2 2016. Continued Company-wide cost reduction programs and a focus on profitable ounce production and waste reduction resulted in lower unitary costs. Preliminary cash balance of approximately $20.6 million as of June 30, 2017 , compared to a cash balance of $18.2 million at March 31, 2017 . The cash position includes a secured facility for $5.0 million from Sprott Private Resource Lending (Collector) LP, and a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $5.9 million , which closed on June 15 .

as of , compared to a cash balance of at . The cash position includes a secured facility for from Sprott Private Resource Lending (Collector) LP, and a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of approximately , which closed on . Growth exploration programs continued to advance during the quarter with the development of exploration drives for deep drilling being completed at Pilar and Turmalina. At Pilar, drilling is targeting Levels 11-16 up to 350 m below current development and 250 vertical m below the current Inferred Resources. At Turmalina, drilling is targeting Levels 12-16 up to 420 m below current development and 300 vertical m below the current Inferred Resources. Drill results are expected to add to the current Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources.

Rodney Lamond, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar commented, "Consolidated operating performance during the second quarter, included a steady improvement from Turmalina, which contributed to first half 2017 production of 42,061 ounces, and now positions the Company to deliver on its revised 2017 production guidance of 95,000  105,000 ounces of gold. Turmalina improved during the quarter and ended Q2 2017 with significantly stronger production in June compared to April following the decision to leave Level 9 and commence development and mining of Level 10 in Orebody A. As expected, the mining of Level 10 performed very well and the isolated ground control issues encountered in an area of Level 9 have been negated. Additionally, in early June, Turmalina physical results included an increase in grade as the mining of higher-grade stopes in Level 10 continued."

"Lower cash costs are a direct result of Company-wide cost reduction programs and a focus on profitable ounce production and waste reduction at the mine level. For the month of June, unit costs were approximately $797 per ounce sold. Lower cash costs for the second quarter is a notable improvement as the decrease in cash costs was achieved despite lower than forecast ounces sold."

"Moving forward into the second half of 2017, we are committed to further performance improvements and cost reductions. We will continue the development of Level 10 and mine the higher-grade ore shoots in Orebody C at Turmalina. At Pilar, we expect to benefit from the past year of development and the mining of the higher-grade BF and BFII Orebodies. Our Growth Exploration Programs continue to advance at both Pilar and Turmalina and we expect to deliver the drilling results of these programs over the second half of the year."

Quarterly Operating Summary

Operating

Summary Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Q1 2017 Turmalina Pilar Roca

Grande Total Turmalina Pilar Roca

Grande Total Turmalina Pilar Roca

Grande Total Tonnes milled (t) 112,000 85,000 19,000 216,000 124,000 72,000 21,000 217,000 113,000 84,000 17,000 214,000 Average head grade (g/t) 3.37 3.16 2.15 3.18 4.10 3.62 2.18 3.76 3.79 3.39 2.12 3.50 Recovery % 91 90 90 91 91 91 91 91 91 91 91 91 Gold ounces Produced (oz) 10,870 7,702 1,197 19,769 15,083 7,804 1,335 24,222 12,736 8,485 1,071 22,292 Sold (oz) 10,815 6,625 1,013 18,453 15,035 7,622 1,313 23,970 13,536 9,422 1,076 24,035 Financial data Cash operating costs

(per oz sold) ** $696 $1,039 $1,374 $857 $586 $958 $1,578 $758 $738 $1,092 $1,787 $924 Average realized

gold price ($/oz) $1,269 $1,251 $1,215 Development Primary (m) 519 218 102 839 1,166 600 91 1,857 366 470 74 910 Exploration (m) 56 - - 56 - 44 - 44 104 13 34 151 Secondary (m) 292 577 120 989 693 267 357 1,317 754 614 14 1,382 Diamond drilling (m) 4,676 6,206 186 11,068 5,251 3,231 1,004 9,486 6,080 5,218 567 11,864 **Q2 2017 Financial data is preliminary

Q2 2017 consolidated gold production totaled 19,749 ounces, grade was 3.18 g/t Au and recovery was 91%.

Turmalina Gold Mine produced 11,081 ounces of gold, lower than Q2 2016 and Q1 2017 production levels, however production at Turmalina demonstrated steady improvement during the quarter.

produced 11,081 ounces of gold, lower than Q2 2016 and Q1 2017 production levels, however production at Turmalina demonstrated steady improvement during the quarter. Turmalina continues to develop and is now mining in Block 10 of Orebody A after Block 9 was temporarily interrupted due to ground rehabilitation issues during Q1 2017. Block 10 has performed in line with expectations and mining is expected to ramp back up to normal levels during the second half of 2017 as development and mining return to a more normal cycle. Turmalina is reviewing methods for stabilizing the isolated areas of Block 9 and returning to finish mining later this year.

Pilar Gold Mine production of 7,702 ounces in Q2 2017 declined compared to strong Q1 2017 results, however, production improvements in the later part of the quarter started to reflect the advancing ore development into the higher-grade Orebodies BF and BFII.

production of 7,702 ounces in Q2 2017 declined compared to strong Q1 2017 results, however, production improvements in the later part of the quarter started to reflect the advancing ore development into the higher-grade Orebodies BF and BFII. Roca Grande Mine produced 1,197 ounces of gold a slight decrease from Q2 2016, and a slight improvement compared to Q1 2017. Grades of 2.15 g/t and recoveries remained steady at 90%.

Consolidated Monthly Cost Per Ounce Sold

Monthly Q1 2017 Monthly Q2 2017 Quarterly January February March April May June Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Q1 2017 Cash operating costs

(per ounce sold) $891 $937 $945 $1,017 $823 $797 $857 $758 $924

The Company has made significant progress with its cost reduction and operational excellence programs headed by the consulting group Aquila Institute.

Throughout H1 2017, Aquila worked with all sites to set up operational excellence teams responsible for reviewing business processes to identify efficiency and productivity opportunities as well as direct cost reduction opportunities.

Several process improvements have been implemented including equipment utilization, availability, and shut down for off working hours. Other initiatives include working with the sites to improve tire life on underground equipment.

The Company also implemented direct cost reductions at the mines to improve overall costs. These initiatives include renegotiating and rationalizing contracts, and the purchase of new equipment to retire older equipment with higher operating costs.

On June 1, 2017 the Roca Grande mine changed from four crews working three shifts per day, seven days per week to two crews working two shifts per day, five days per week. The reduced crews are expected to achieve a similar level of production at a lower cost per tonne produced.

2017 Guidance

The Company is committed to achieving strong production in 2017, above 2016 production levels. 2017 production guidance has been revised to 95,000  105,000 ounces compared to 100,000  110,000 ounces previously announced.

2017 Guidance Turmalina Complex Caete Complex Consolidated Low High Low High Low High Gold production (ounces) 60,000 65,000 40,000 45,000 95,000 105,000

Preliminary Cash Balance

Preliminary cash balance of approximately $20.6 million as at June 30, 2017, compared to a cash balance of $18.2 million at March 31, 2017. Q2 2017 cash balance continues to reflect the impact of a stronger foreign Brazilian currency, accelerated exploration, and approximately $2.0 million in principal and interest repayments towards debt facilities. On June 9, 2017, the Company closed a secured loan facility with Sprott Private Resource Lending (Collector) LP for $5.0 million. On June 15, 2017, the Company closed a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of approximately $5.9 million. Net proceeds from the loan facility and private placement will be used for continuing capital investment programs and working capital needs.

2017 Growth Exploration and Mineral Resources Highlights

An incremental $8.0 million is expected to be spent on a major growth exploration program in 2017 and 2018. Approximately $6.0 million has been dedicated to core assets to test the down-plunge continuities of Orebodies A, B, and C at Turmalina and Orebodies BFII and BF at Pilar to increase identified Mineral Resources (see news release dated June 21, 2017), including the potential discovery of new resources at the high priority targets such as Pacheca and Cubas near Pilar. The remaining $2.0 million will be distributed towards other growth targets in and around the existing core assets.

Jaguar provided an update on its Exploration Growth Program and announced the acquisition of a new strategic land position (see news release dated June 21, 2017) located 4.5 km west of the Caete Mill, increasing the total registered RG Mine concession by 1,000 hectares. The Company believes that the expanded land position, adds significant value to the overall RG concession area as it is strategically located just west of the RG Mine, and contains 7.5 km of contiguous Banded Iron Formation ("BIF") as well as a large number of historic Portuguese workings from the late 17 th and 18 th centuries. At Pilar, the deep horizon exploration drive in the hanging wall of the mine at Level 7-4 is now complete, with three contract diamond drills currently in operation. The drilling program is designed to extend resources targeting Levels 11-16 up to 350 m below current development and 250 vertical m below the current Inferred Resources. The program will test the down-plunge extension and continuity of Orebodies BFII, BF, and BA . Drilling results for this program will be announced in the second half of 2017. It is expected that the drilling results will add to the Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources of Pilar, which are expected to be updated in early Q1 2018. At Turmalina, the deep horizon exploration platform on Level 10-1 is now complete. Diamond drilling from the platform is intended to reach Levels 12-16, up to 420 vertical m below the current development and 300 m below the current Inferred Resources. Currently one contracted underground exploration drill has been set up and up to three additional contracted underground exploration drills will be moved from Pilar to Turmalina to complete deep drilling once the exploration program is completed at Pilar.



Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Geraldo Guimaraes Vieira dos Santos, BSc Geo., MAIG-3946 (CP), Geology Manager, who is an employee of Jaguar Mining Inc., and is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

The Iron Quadrangle

The Iron Quadrangle has been an area of mineral exploration dating back to the 16th century. The discovery in 1699-1701 of black gold contaminated with iron and platinum-group metals in the southeastern corner of the Iron Quadrangle gave rise to the name of the town Ouro Preto (Black Gold). The Iron Quadrangle contains world-class multi-million-ounce gold deposits such as Morro Velho, Cuiaba, and Sao Bento. Jaguar holds the second largest gold land position in the Iron Quadrangle with just over 25,000 hectares.

About Jaguar Mining Inc.

Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes, and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims covering an area of approximately 192,000 hectares. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the Turmalina Gold Mine Complex and Caete Gold Mine Complex (Pilar and Roca Grande mines, and Caete Plant) which combined, produce more than 95,000 ounces of gold annually. The Company also owns the Paciencia Gold Mine Complex, which has been on care and maintenance since 2012. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX-V:CXB) (the Company or Calibre) is pleased to announce the start of the 2017 drilling program on the 100% owned Primavera Gold-Copper Porphyry Project, Nicaragua.

Highlights

The 2017 drilling program at Primavera has begun and will test a series of high priority targets in two areas within the overall Primavera Gold-Copper Porphyry District;

1) NE Trend (2km x 1km area) extending northeast from the existing deposit, and

2) San Francisco Target (2km x 2km area) centered three kilometres southeast of the Primavera deposit.

1) NE Trend (2km x 1km area) extending northeast from the existing deposit, and 2) San Francisco Target (2km x 2km area) centered three kilometres southeast of the Primavera deposit. This is the first drilling program at Primavera since 2012 and will consist of approximately 45 Reverse Circulation drill holes totaling 8200 metres. Drilling will in part be guided by a series of recommendations made by Dr. Richard Sillitoe, one of the worlds foremost porphyry experts, following his site visit and evaluation in February 2017.

The Primavera Gold-Copper Porphyry Deposit contains an Inferred Resource at a 0.5 g/t AuEq cutoff of 45.0 million tonnes grading 0.84 g/t AuEq (0.54 g/t Au, 1.15 g/t Ag and 0.22 % Cu) containing 782,000 ounces of gold, 1.7 million ounces of silver and 219 million pounds of copper (1.2 million AuEq ounces).

Numerous high priority drill targets prospective for further gold-copper porphyry mineralization exist within the 5.0 kilometre by 4.0 kilometre Primavera target area as defined by anomalous gold and copper in rock and soil samples, magnetic and radiometric geophysical anomalies, and targets where geological mapping has identified porphyry style mineralization or alteration.

Greg Smith, President and CEO of Calibre stated: We are extremely excited to get back drilling on our flagship 100% owned Primavera Gold-Copper Porphyry District. Calibres exploration programs within the five km by four km Primavera target area have identified numerous high priority geochemical, geophysical, and geologic targets which highlight the potential for further gold-copper porphyry discoveries within the Primavera district. Porphyry gold-copper deposits tend to occur in clusters and to date Calibre has discovered the first porphyry deposit in Nicaragua that hosts a 1.2 million AuEq ounce resource.

The 2017 drill program is the first drilling program at Primavera since 2012 and will consist of approximately 45 Reverse Circulation drill holes totaling 8200 metres. The 2017 drilling program at Primavera has begun and is testing a series of high priority targets in two areas; 1) the NE Trend covers an area 2km x 1km extending northeast from the existing deposit, and 2) the San Francisco Target with an extent of 2km x 2km centered three kilometres southeast of the Primavera deposit.

In February 2017 a site visit was completed by one of the worlds foremost porphyry experts Dr. Richard Sillitoe. Dr. Sillitoes extensive experience and insights advanced the understanding of the Primavera Gold-Copper deposit. Several of Dr. Sillitoes conclusions will have a significant positive impact on the exploration programs going forward and have been incorporated into the planned drill program including; 1) the (Primavera) prospect has many similarities to other gold-rich porphyry deposits, including a good Au/Cu correlation, presence of abundant hydrothermal magnetite and a molybdenum-rich halo to the gold-copper zone, 2) in view of the widespread occurrence of porphyry copper deposits in district-scale clusters and alignments, exploration needs to be focused on assessment of nearby, untested areas, and 3) the proposed programme of scout drilling of geochemical targets is considered the best means of further appraising the district potential.

Recent surface rock sampling completed as part of the field preparations for the RC drilling program have further enhanced the drilling targets. Results includes high grade gold and copper in two of four samples collected along the NE Trend with samples collected 1.5 and 2.25 kilometres northeast of the Primavera Deposit. Results including 4.09 g/t Au, 18.9 g/t Ag, and 1.71 % Cu and a second sample returning 5.50 g/t Au. The mineralized material consists of diorite hosted quartz breccia and stockworks with chalcopyrite and bornite. No previous drilling exists with one kilometre of these anomalous samples and the upcoming program will include drill holes targeted in these areas.

Primavera Au-Cu Porphyry Project  100% Calibre Mining

The Primavera Project zone consists of classic porphyry style gold-copper mineralization. Porphyry style mineralization is hosted within the volcanic and intrusive rocks and associated with both potassic and propylitic alteration. The chalcopyrite +/- bornite copper mineralization is primarily hosted by a quartz veinlet stockwork and overall sulphide content is quite low. Drilling encountered intense zone of potassic alteration dominated by potassium feldspar, biotite, and magnetite. In addition the presence of sheeted and banded quartz-magnetite veins along with the alteration and mineralization textures further confirmed the potential for a gold-copper porphyry system. Primavera is the first porphyry gold-copper project discovered in Nicaragua and the mineralization remains open for expansion.

A maiden resource estimated in December 2016 for the Primavera Gold-Copper Porphyry Deposit contains an Inferred Resource at a 0.5 g/t AuEq cutoff of 45.0 million tonnes grading 0.84 g/t AuEq containing 782,000 ounces of gold, 1.7 million ounces of silver and 219 million pounds of copper (1.2 million AuEq ounces).

Inferred Resource at a cutoff of 0.5 g/t AuEq for the Primavera Au-Cu Porphyry Deposit

tonnes Au

g/t Ag

g/t Cu

% Au

Eq Au

ozs Ag

ozs Cu

Lbs Au Eq

ozs 44,974,000 0.54 1.15 0.22 0.84 782,000 1,661,000 218,670,000 1,200,000

Notes: CIM definition standards were followed for the 2016 resource estimate which used Ordinary Krig grade estimation within a three-dimensional block model with mineralized zones defined by wireframed solids. A base cutoff grade of 0.5 g/t AuEq was used for reporting resources. Densities varied by material type and ranged from 2.4 for saprolite to 2.71 for diorite and the volcanics. Numbers may not add exactly due to rounding. Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculated using $1300/oz Au for gold, $2.40/lb for Copper, and $20.00/oz Ag for silver. Mineral Resources that are not mineral reserves do not have economic viability. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. WSP 's resource estimate for Primavera is based on drill core assay results from a total of 33 holes totaling 13,491 metres of drilling and 52 trenches totaling 660.9 metres. Variograms were generated for gold, copper and silver and search parameters established for grade interpolation using kriging. All details of the Resource Estimate are summarized in a National Instrument 43-101 technical report available on SEDAR prepared by Todd McCracken, P.Geo. of WSP, who is independent of Calibre and a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by Section 1.5 of National Instrument 43-101.

Geochemical and geophysical surveys have outlined a five kilometre by four kilometre area, the Primavera Regional Anomaly, interpreted to outline an intrusive/volcanic complex and which highlights the potential for additional gold-copper porphyry discoveries. Additional ground surveys were completed in 2015 and 2016 and additional high priority targets have been outlined but not tested by drilling. Calibre has completed data compilation and target prioritization. The planned drilling is targeting anomalies adjacent to the current deposit and exploration drilling designed to identify additional porphyry mineralization associated with the numerous geological, geochemical, and geophysical anomalies and targets within the Primavera Project. A second regional scale anomaly, San Isidro, has been defined by geochemical and geophysics exploration and covers an area 4.0 kilometres by 2.0 kilometres located five kilometer west of the Primavera Anomaly.

Calibre is committed to best practice standards for all exploration, sampling and drilling activities. Drilling was completed by independent and experienced firms. Analytical quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample strings. Samples are placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to Acme Labs (a Bureau Veritas Group Company) in Managua, Nicaragua for sample preparation and then to Bureau Veritas Lab in Vancouver, Canada for 50 gram gold fire assay and ICP-MS multi element analyses.

The technical content in this news release was read and approved by Gregory Smith, P.Geo, President and CEO of the Company who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Calibre Mining Corp.

Calibre owns a 100% interest in over 413 km2 of mineral concessions in the Mining Triangle of Northeast Nicaragua including the Primavera Gold-Copper Project and Santa Maria Gold Project. Additionally the Company has optioned to IAMGOLD (176 km2) and Centerra Gold (253 km2) concessions covering an aggregate area of 429 km2 and is party to a joint venture on the 33.6 km2 Rosita D gold-copper-silver project with Rosita Mining Corporation. Major shareholders of Calibre include gold producer B2Gold Corp, Pierre Lassonde and management.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 18, 2017) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. ("Almaden" or "the Company") (TSX: AMM) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased to announce new assay results from Almaden's ongoing exploration and development program at the Company's Tuligtic project, Mexico. Results reported today are from drill holes TU-17-494, 495, 496 and 497 drilled on sections 10+500 and 10+775 East. Holes TU-17-494, 495 and 496 intersected significant mineralisation and veining inside or immediately outside of the 2017 PFS pit north of the Main Ixtaca Zone. Hole TU-17-497 expanded the Main Ixtaca Zone to depth. Highlights from these drillholes include the following intercepts:

Hole TU-17-494 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 330, Dip -74 18.25 meters @ 0.69 g/t Au and 262.7 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 8.50 meters @ 1.05 g/t Au and 511.4 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 26.00 meters @ 0.19 g/t Au and 346.1 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 8.40 meters @ 0.35 g/t Au and 1035.0 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 4.90 meters @ 0.23 g/t Au and 1704.2 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-495 SECTION 10+500 EAST Az. 150, Dip -70 21.00 meters @ 1.57 g/t Au and 49.0 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 1.85 meters @ 10.49 g/t Au and 481.5 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 11.00 meters @ 1.85 g/t Au and 106.5 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 2.20 meters @ 8.13 g/t Au and 498.7 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone 26.10 meters @ 0.80 g/t Au and 9.4 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Including 7.05 meters @ 1.73 g/t Au and 12.6 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-496 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 330, Dip -85 23.50 meters @ 0.26 g/t Au and 65.8 g/t Ag Ixtaca North Zone Hole TU-17-497 SECTION 10+775 EAST Az. 150, Dip -55 19.25 meters @ 1.05 g/t Au and 73.5 g/t Ag Main Ixtaca Zone Including 4.80 meters @ 3.43 g/t Au and 232.1 g/t Ag Main Ixtaca Zone

The mineralisation reported today confirms the presence of additional important zones of veining immediately adjacent to the Main Ixtaca Zone and points to the exploration potential of the project in general. The Ixtaca deposit was discovered in 2010 beneath a large area of largely barren clay alteration which has been confirmed subsequently to represent the upper portions of a gold and silver bearing epithermal vein system. Since the discovery Almaden has focussed its efforts on the development of the Ixtaca Zone, however today's results clearly show the potential for additional mineralisation, not only proximal to the deposit, but more broadly project wide beneath the high level clay alteration.

Figure 1. Ixtaca Project Plan Map



Figure 2. Section 10+775 East



Figure 3. Section 10+500 East



J.D. Poliquin, chairman of Almaden stated, "When low sulphidation epithermal precious metal deposits are formed, metal bearing fluid rises from depth, filling fractures with quartz, calcite and precious metal minerals. In the highest mineralised areas of the system, the same fluids can be dispersed through multiple smaller fractures to form a sheeted vein zone or swarm such as we have at the Main Ixtaca Zone. The veinlets that comprise the Main Ixtaca Zone individually carry very elevated gold and silver grades, but as they are spread out within a broad area of limestone host rock, the overall average grade is lower. To have a completely preserved system as at Ixtaca is exciting but unusual as many epithermal vein systems in Mexico have been eroded down to the feeder veins where base metals are often abundant, making them by metal content lead and zinc deposits with high precious metal credits. The intercepts reported today further demonstrate the potential for large tonnage sheeted vein zones, as well as bonanza feeder vein zones below. Our 2017 exploration drill program is targeting both."

About the Ixtaca Deposit Feasibility Program

The Company has selected independent engineers Moose Mountain Technical Services ("MMTS") and Knight Piesold Ltd. ("KP") to prepare a feasibility study. Various feasibility-related programs are currently underway, including:

Feasibility-level engineering design;

Additional geotechnical evaluations in areas of infrastructure and pit slope;

Continued monitoring of water quality and flow;

Metallurgical test work to further refine the process flowsheet;

The Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the state-owned electric utility of Mexico, has confirmed the availability of power from its substation located 27 km from the Ixtaca Project. CFE has been engaged to complete engineering studies required to deliver power;

Assessment of contractors suitable to complete site access road improvements required for the mine construction.

MMTS is an association of Geologists, Engineers and Technicians providing experienced knowledge in Geology, Mine Engineering, and Metallurgical Services and Support to the mining industry for over 15 years. Through their network of associates, they provide an integrated team of experts and QP's. Services range from early grassroots exploration and development, block model builds, resource and reserve estimates, advanced planning and studies for mine proposals (including operational support), process design and permitting process guidance and support. MMTS has experience working on coal, gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, and tungsten deposits throughout North and South America and around the world. A list of specific projects worked on by MMTS can be found at www.moosemmc.com.

KP is an international consulting firm and recognized leader in providing engineering and environmental services. KP's expertise has been applied to hundreds of surface and underground mining projects in all stages of development and a broad range of environmental settings. KP provides industry leading services in water and waste management, tailings disposal, heap leach pads, rock mechanics and environmental services, and has been recognized for innovative services that meet high standards of reliability, security and cost effectiveness.

Other Ixtaca Project Developments

Almaden confirms that it recently made the US$2.0 million option payment to the vendor of the Rock Creek Mill. A further payment of US$3.75 million is due in June, 2018, at which point the Company will have completed all of the payments required for purchase of the mill.

Almaden has engaged Dynamic Engineering Services ("Dynamic"), which specializes in the dismantlement and transportation of large industrial sites, as project lead for the transport of the Rock Creek mill from Nome, Alaska to Mexico. Dynamic currently has a team at the Rock Creek site preparing for next year's move. Preparations involve establishing a camp for personnel, arranging for delivery of initial containers to site this summer, engaging with the Nome port authorities, preparing the mill for dismantlement, and confirming the availability and working order of equipment required for disassembling the plant. As part of this process, Almaden recently purchased a used mobile crane which is currently at the site, for US$50,000.

The Company has completed the preparation of its Environmental Impact Assessment (MIA) for the Ixtaca project, and has provided the document to third party consultants for review. Based on guidance from this third party, Almaden anticipates submitting these permits in the third quarter.

In its technical report on the Ixtaca project, which was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and filed on SEDAR on May 17, 2017, Almaden's technical consultants identified the potential for the dominant host rock at the Ixtaca project -- limestone -- to be a valuable by-product of the gold and silver production.

A large portion of the Ixtaca waste rock is non-mineralized limestone. Geo-chemical and geo-mechanical tests indicate that most of the limestone waste rock is likely suitable for use as an aggregate. The high calcium content also makes it potentially suitable for agriculture. Given Ixtaca's location near a significant industrial park and along major highways linking Mexico City to Puebla City, the technical consultants have recommended that the >60 million tonne per year Mexican aggregate market should be investigated.

In addition, chemical analysis of the limestone flotation tailings shows high calcium content with low impurities. The technical consultants have also recommended an investigation to determine if the Ixtaca flotation tailings are a potential feedstock for a cement production process.

Almaden intends to engage a third party specialist in aggregate products to explore the potential by-product contribution of this aggregate material. The potential to find a market for these by-products could have significant benefits for the project, both through their contribution to the revenue stream and through the decreased downstream handling of the un-mineralised waste rock.

About the Ixtaca Drilling Program and the Ixtaca Zone

The Ixtaca Zone is a blind discovery made by the Company in 2010 on claims staked by the Company. The deposit is an epithermal gold-silver deposit, mostly hosted by veins in carbonate units and crosscutting dykes ("basement rocks") with a minor component of disseminated mineralisation hosted in overlying volcanic rocks.

The Ixtaca deposit is located in a developed part of Mexico in Puebla State, the location of significant manufacturing investments including Volkswagen and Audi plants. The deposit is accessed by paved road and is roughly 30 kilometres from an industrial park with rail service where significant manufacturers such as Kimberly Clarke have facilities. Any potential mining operation at Ixtaca would be located in an area previously logged or cleared with negligible to no current land usage.

The Company has access to the entire project area and works closely with local officials and residents. The Company has employed roughly 70 people in its exploration program who live local to the Ixtaca deposit. For example, local employees have made up virtually all the drilling staff and have been trained on the job to operate the drill rigs being used at the project. The Company has implemented a comprehensive science based and objective community relations and education program for employees and all local stakeholders to transparently explain the exploration and development program underway as well as the potential impacts and benefits of any possible future mining operation at Ixtaca. The Company regards the local inhabitants to be major stakeholders in the Ixtaca deposit's future along with the Company's shareholders. Every effort is being made to create an open and clear dialogue with our stakeholders to ensure that any possible development scenarios that could evolve from the feasibility study work are properly understood and communicated throughout the course of the Company's exploration and development program. To better explain the impacts of a mining operation at Ixtaca the Company has conducted numerous tours for local residents to third party operated mines in Mexico so that interested individuals can form their own opinions of mining based on first-hand experience. The Company invites all interested parties to visit www.almadenminerals.com to find out more about our community development, education and outreach programs.

Technical Details of the Ixtaca Drilling Program

The Main Ixtaca and Ixtaca North Zones of veining are interpreted to have a north-easterly trend. Holes to date suggest that the Main Ixtaca and Ixtaca North Zones are sub vertical with local variations. This interpretation suggests that true widths range from approximately 35% of intersected widths for a -70 degree hole to 94% of intersected widths for a -20 degree hole. The drilling completed to date has traced mineralisation over 1,000 meters along this northeast trend. The Chemalaco (Northeast Extension) Zone strikes roughly north-south (340 azimuth) and dips at 55 degrees to the west. This interpretation suggests that true widths range from approximately 82% of intersected widths for a -70 degree hole to 99% of intersected widths for a -40 degree hole. The orientations of the new vein zones intersected in the holes reported today are not well understood and true widths cannot be calculated at this time.

Mr. Norm Dircks, P.Geo., a qualified person ("QP") under the meaning of NI 43-101, is the QP and project manager of Almaden's Ixtaca program and reviewed the technical information in this news release. The analyses reported were carried out at ALS Chemex Laboratories of North Vancouver using industry standard analytical techniques. For gold, samples are first analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy ("AAS"). Samples that return values greater than 10 g/t gold using this technique are then re-analysed by fire assay but with a gravimetric finish. Silver is first analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma - Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ("ICP-AES"). Samples that return values greater than 100 g/t silver by ICP-AES are then re analysed by HF-HNO 3 -HCLO 4 digestion with HCL leach and ICP-AES finish. Of these samples those that return silver values greater than 1,500 g/t are further analysed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Intervals that returned assays below detection were assigned zero values.

Blanks, field duplicates and certified standards were inserted into the sample stream as part of Almaden's quality assurance and control program which complies with National Instrument 43-101 requirements.
KEB Hana Bank Foreign Investment Department chief Kim Bum-rae, left, shakes hands with Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public Vice President Lachay Khanpravong after signing a memorandum of understanding at the Crowne Plaza Vientiane hotel, Friday. / Courtesy of KEB Hana Bank



By Nam Hyun-woo



KEB Hana Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the top Laos bank by assets for their strategic partnership, the Korean bank said Sunday.



Toward that end, KEB Hana Bank Foreign Investment Department chief Kim Bum-rae and Banque Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public (BCEL) Vice President Lachay Khanpravong signed the MOU.



The agreement was aimed at boosting the two lenders' partnership on remittance and trade financing. KEB Hana said the collaboration will allow the two sides to provide financial services to Laotians working in Korea.



Last October, the Human Resources Development Service of Korea and its Laotian counterpart signed a service commitment agreement of the recruitment of foreign workers.



Since 2004, Korea has been running an employment permit system to have more migrant workers protected by the law.



The system requires Korean employers to provide four types of insurance to foreign employees. The four include salary and accident insurance.



Under the agreement, Laos became the 16th country to dispatch workers protected by the system to Korea. The system will take effect in the second half of this year.



"Under the partnership with BCEL, KEB Hana will be able to provide improved financial services to Laotian workers in Korea," a KEB Hana Bank official said. "As a specialist in the foreign exchange business, KEB Hana will spare no efforts to provide quality services to meet the needs of the global market."



KEB Hana has been showing expertise in providing remittance services for migrant workers in Korea. The bank has a marketing team responsible only for foreigners here, providing counseling services in eight languages.
By Kim Se-jeong





Children who were subject to medical experiments by Nazi during World War II. Defectors from North Korea said Kim Jong-un regime runs medical experiment on its disabled citizens. /Courtesy of www.auschwitz.dk

Life in North Korea is notoriously horrendous for many.

For those born with disabilities, they have little chance of survival, according to a report published Tuesday by a North Korean human rights group.

At a seminar hosted by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), an NGO based in Seoul, it was revealed that people with disabilities in North Korea are killed at birth, often by their parents, or sent for use in medical experiments at universities or "Hospital 83."

It's unclear where "Hospital 83" is located. "Many were aware of its existence but didn't know where it is," a researcher from the NKDB said.

The NKDB conducted comprehensive interviews with 100 defectors who lived in North Korea between 2010 and 2014 for the report on the monitoring of North Korea's implementation on United Nations Universal Periodic Review's recommendations.

"A maintenance worker at a local hospital gave birth to two sons in 2012 and both had abnormal facial features. The scientific institute in Pyongyang took them for experiments. The mother tried to keep them at first but then later gave up on them," one anonymous defector was quoted as saying.

The North Korean regime doesn't let the disabled population be seen by outsiders, particularly in Pyongyang.

An NKDB researcher added it is common practice in North Korea for parents to kill disabled infants at birth.

The report is one of the latest reminders of severe human rights violations committed by the totalitarian regime. The UN's special rapporteur on North Korean human rights is currently in Seoul for another report. It also came only weeks after the death of American citizen, Otto Warmbier, after he was released by North Korea. He wasn't given consular access, a clear rights violation.

North Korean human rights violation has been on the UN agenda since early 2000.

In 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review gave the North 167 recommendations on human rights improvement and it accepted 87, fully or partially. Tuesday's report was the result of monitoring efforts initiated by the NKDB through the interviews with the defectors and international organizations working in North Korea.

Among 167 recommendations were to ensure access to food and medicine for children, women and disabled; to provide human rights trainings on state officials; and to expand cooperation with international organizations that are working in the field.

The report said over all, the regime did little to implement the recommendations.

The report also confirmed international food aid doesn't reach the most vulnerable in society.

"Forty-one percent of respondents answered they didn't know the food aid existed, while 11 percent answered they were aware of it but didn't received it personally. Only 4 percent said they were recipients," said the report.

One defector at the seminar argued against sending the food aid, saying much of it helps the regime or people with enough resources, but many others including Oh Joon, a former South Korean diplomat to the UN, said it should continue because it has the effect of lowering food prices on the black market.
DETROIT  A certified pre-owned vehicle costs more than a regular used car, but it can give buyers some peace of mind in an often murky market.

Certified pre-owned vehicles are used cars that are backed by an automakers guarantee. Theyre usually newer cars, coming off two- or three-year leases. Certified pre-owned programs limit the miles the cars can have on them  under 60,000, in many cases  and put the cars through a rigorous inspection. They come with extended warranties and, sometimes, extra perks like roadside assistance or a satellite radio subscription.

If I want a car that hasnt been abused, this is one of the best ways to avoid all that guesswork, says Matt Jones, senior editor of consumer advice for the car shopping site Edmunds.com.

Certified pre-owned programs have been growing in popularity as the supply of used cars balloons in the U.S. New vehicle sales have risen for seven straight years and as many as a third of those vehicles were leased. That has left automakers with a steady stream of two- or three-year-old vehicles with limited mileage that are ideal for certified pre-owned programs.

U.S. certified pre-owned sales grew by 61 percent to 2.6 million between 2010 and 2016, according to Cox Automotive. Still, they only made up a fraction of the 28.7 million used cars sold by franchised and independent dealers last year.

Certified pre-owned status generally adds 6 to 8 percent to the price of the car, or between $1,000 and $1,500, Jones said. A Ford dealer in Michigan is currently advertising a certified pre-owned 2014 Ford Edge SEL with 22,748 miles on it for $21,943. A CarMax dealer in Maryland is offering a non-certified pre-owned 2014 Edge SEL, with 33,000 miles, for $1,044 less. By comparison, a new 2017 Edge SEL starts at $31,790.

For the extra cost, factory-trained mechanics will perform 150-, 160- or even 180-point inspections of the vehicle, which is usually less than five or six years old. Among other things, theyll check for any outstanding recalls and make those repairs.

After that, what you get depends on the brand. Automakers may include whatever is left over from the original powertrain warranty, which covers the engine and transmission, along with a shorter bumper-to-bumper warranty, which covers the engine as well as interior parts like the infotainment system or air conditioning. Roadside assistance is often included for at least some period of time. Some manufacturers charge a $50 to $100 deductible for repairs while the car is under warranty; others dont. Buick offers three months worth of OnStar and lets buyers return the car within three days if theyre not happy.

Dealers pay automakers a fee to certify a used vehicle. Kia, for example, gets $450 for every certified pre-owned vehicle sold, says Maria Williams, a senior certified pre-owned retail support manager with Kia. Whats more, she says, Kia is getting a relationship with buyers who will keep coming back to the dealership for service. In 2016, 47 percent of buyers who returned to the car market after owning a certified pre-owned Kia bought a new Kia, she says, based on data from the consulting firm R.L. Polk. That rate dropped to 33 percent among owners of a non-certified pre-owned used Kia.

Here are some things to think about if youre shopping for a certified pre-owned vehicle:

DECIDE IF ITS WORTH IT

Experts are split on this one. Jones, who owns a certified pre-owned vehicle, says a certified pre-owned vehicle is worth the extra cost because youre getting a higher quality car and the promise of less hassle. Dealers are also more willing to deal on a certified pre-owned car, he says, because theyve already paid the automaker to get it certified. But Consumer Reports advises against getting a certified pre-owned vehicle. The magazine says certified pre-owned cars may not be in any better shape than any other low-mileage used car and buyers are better off pocketing the $1,500 or so and saving it for repairs or putting it toward a new car. Consumer Reports says shoppers considering a used car should have it inspected by a trusted independent mechanic before they buy.

MAKE SURE ITS REALLY CERTIFIED

Certified pre-owned vehicles can only be sold by a brands franchised dealers. Independent dealers may sometimes call a vehicle certified or Carfax certified, but that doesnt mean its a manufacturer-backed program with the same quality guarantees as an officially certified vehicle. Check the details of certified pre-owned programs on automakers web sites or in dealership brochures so you know what you should be getting, and look for the certified pre-owned sticker or logo on the car.

READ THE FINE PRINT

Some certified pre-owned programs are more generous than others. Kia certified pre-owned buyers, for example, get whatever is left of the cars 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, plus an additional year or 12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage. Honda certified pre-owned buyers get a similar deal, but the original warranty is for seven years and 100,000 miles. Lexus offers a two-year full warranty with unlimited mileage, a great perk for drivers who drive a lot of miles. Porsche will certify vehicles that are up to 8 years old, as long as they have low enough mileage. Familiarize yourself with the terms for the brands youre interested in and see what might work best for you.
By Kim Bo-eun



Despite the Moon Jae-in administration's efforts to increase female ministers in his Cabinet, the percentage still falls short of the OECD average.



Moon has improved representation by appointing four female ministers among 16 so far _ Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Environment Minister Kim Eun-kyung, Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee and Gender Equality Minister Chung Hyun-back.



The four account for 23.5 percent of the Cabinet. This falls short of the OECD average of 29.3 percent for 2015 _ the most recent available figure.



In 2015, women accounted for 5.9 percent of ministers in Korea, which was the lowest figure among OECD states after Turkey's 4 percent.



Finland topped the list, with female ministers making up 62.5 percent, followed by Sweden with 52.2 percent.



Moon initially pledged to fill 30 percent of his Cabinet with women, and aim for an equal number of male and female ministers during his term.



The President also said he would help increase the percentage of female lawmakers to 30 percent, as well as heighten the portion of women in managerial positions at central and regional government bodies and public corporations.



In 2015, women accounted for 16.3 percent of lawmakers in Korea, ranking among the bottom few countries in the OECD. The OECD average of female representation at the legislative level was 27.9 percent.



In Sweden, female lawmakers accounted for 43.6 percent and Finland 42 percent.



Looking back at previous administrations, the Roh Moo-hyun administration kicked off with four female ministers and appointed the nation's first female prime minister, Han Myeong-sook.



However, the following Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations both started with only two female ministers.




On 6 July the interim US Ambassador to Argentina, Charge dAffaires (CDA) at the US embassy Thomas Cooney, described US-Argentina relations as very positive, stable, and mature and spoke of Argentina as being a leader in the region, according to a press release by the US Embassy. Cooney made his comments at an event held to mark the occasion of the 201anniversary of Argentinas independence on 9 July. Cooney added that the two nations, along with other members of the Organization of American States (OAS) will continue to seek a solution to the political crisis in Venezuela. Cooney affirmed that The US and Argentina are working very hard in the support of the Venezuelan people, and that both nations expect a solution in the end to the crisis that many Venezuelans are suffering at the moment. US Vice-president Mike Pence is due to travel to Argentina in August as part of a trip to Latin America which includes stop-overs in Colombia, Chile, and Panama.

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A mammoth bone unearthed during the construction of a church in Vienna was thought to be the bone of a giant killed in the Great Flood. It was kept in the church as a relic and now resides at the University of Vienna.

To wander the halls of a natural history museum today is to be transported back into the age of giants: giant dinosaurs, giant mammoths, giant sloths.

In the past, when people stumbled across similar fossils eroding out of hillsides and scattering the floors of caves, they too saw giants. But in many cases, up until the 17th century, observers imagined those giants to be people (or mythical creatures).

Scientists have now rounded up cases around the world, particularly in Europe, in which some "giant" bones were kept in churches as artifacts of the world before the biblical flood. Researchers already knew about some of these paleontological inspirations for myths and legend, but the new research, published June 26 in the journal Historical Biology, is one of the most in-depth looks at the phenomenon yet.

Among the paleontological tales are cases of elephant skulls mistaken for cyclops remains in the Mediterranean and a swordfish bone believed to be a dragon's tongue cut out as a trophy by a triumphant giant. [Top 10 Beasts & Dragons: How Reality Made Myth]

Fossils and myth

Study researcher Marco Romano, a postdoctoral researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, said he became interested in gathering these tales while reading texts on 14th- through 19th-century ideas about the Great Flood. This is the biblical tale of the inundation of the entire world, said to have wiped out all life but those aboard Noah's famous ark.

After reading several claims by ancient authors who said they'd personally observed the bones of giants dug from the ground, Romano got together with Marco Avanzini, a researcher at the Science Museum in Trento, Italy, to search for more such texts.

Romano had a personal connection to the work, too. His mother is from Sardinia, Italy, and his grandfather used to walk Romano along the cliffsides of the island and tell him tales of the cyclops bones found in caves there. These stories were based in history. Shepherds really did find bones on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily that looked like giant skulls with single eye openings. It wasn't until 1688 that a scientist named Giovanni Giustino Ciampini showed that the skulls came from an extinct dwarf-elephant species, not from a one-eyed giant called cyclops. [10 Extinct Giants That Once Roamed North America]

Combing through ancient texts, Romano and Avanzini found reams of examples of fossils used as evidence for an ancient race of human-like giants. These myths go back far: Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived between 484 and 425 B.C., wrote that the giant bones of the mythical giant Pallas and the hero Orestes (who was said to be 10 feet, or 3.3 meters, tall) had been discovered in Rome and Acadia (in Mesopotamia), respectively.

Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist who lived between A.D. 23 and 79, wrote of the bones of the mythological giant Orion being discovered in an "opened" mountain on the island of Crete. These discoveries fed into Greco-Roman myths about a race of giant Titans, who were defeated by the pantheon of Greek or Roman gods, as well as about the mind-boggling size and strength of the heroes of Greek and Roman mythology.

Tall tales

Other references to giants appear in the fifth-century book "The City of God," by St. Augustine, which references a giant tooth from Carthage (a city in what is now Tunisa), a human skeleton found in a cave in Trapani (in what is now Italy) that was nearly 300 feet (91 meters) long and 11.5-foot (3.5 m) skeletons seen on a 1615 expedition to Patagonia, South America (a fossil-rich location even today) by Dutch navigator Willem Cornelisz Schouten.

Many unusual bones ended up in the hands of churches and cathedrals, like a thigh bone preserved in the church of Crociferi in Venice, Italy, in the 1700s and a giant tooth said to belong to St. Christopher that was kept in Vercelli, Italy. Most of the actual specimens that these texts describe have been irrevocably lost, Romano said, with one exception: a mammoth leg bone found in Vienna in 1443 during the construction of St. Stephen's Cathedral there. That bone was carved and preserved at the church as a relic of a giant said to have died in the Great Flood. The fossil eventually made its way to the University of Vienna, which houses the bone to this day.

Among the most intriguing tales the researchers found, Romano said, was the myth of the giant Aimon, which dates back to A.D. 1240. Aimon was said to have lived in Wilten, Austria, and killed a dragon that guarded a treasure there. The battle soaked the soil with the dragon's blood, which was said to seep out of the ground in a dark goo (actually, Romano said, the "goo" is a mineral tar found in schist rocks in the region). Aimon was said to have cut the dragon's tongue from its mouth as a trophy, and that "tongue" was kept in the monastery of Wilten.

It turned out to be to be the nose of a swordfish, Ramano said. The myth of the dragon remained strong until at least the 1600s, when the abbot of the monastery ordered excavations to search for Aimon's bones, too.

"The funny part of the story is that excavations did not lead to any discovery, but caused the collapse of the entire church," Romano said. Oops.

Bones, debunked

Though the researchers focused largely on Italian texts, myths of giants appear the world over, Romano and Avanzini wrote. South and Central American mythologies include stories of giants annihilated by God for their wickedness, the researchers wrote, while Japanese myths tell of enormous demigods who battled dragons.

It's not quite clear whether fossils were the origin of all these myths, Romano said, or if people simply held the bones up as evidence for stories humans had already spun. In the case of the cyclops, Romano said, it's quite likely that the fossils came first and the story followed. In other cases, people may have imagined giants first or drawn inspiration from real-life cases of gigantism in humans caused by genetic disorders. [Cyclops of the Sea: Pictures of a One-Eyed Shark]

By the 17th and 18th centuries, though, advances in anatomy severed the link between fossils and giants, the researchers said. Ciampini conducted his study of the "cyclops" skull in 1688. In 1728, British physician Sir Hans Sloane debunked the giant myth by showing that the bones said to belong to an ancient race of huge humans were really mostly from whales or elephants. In his work, Sloane also presaged the development of comparative anatomy by urging naturalists to examine bones "with greater accuracy" and study how the skeletons of humans, animals and fossils compare in size and shape.

Original article on Live Science.
This shot of the Valley of the Kings shows the tomb entrances at Thebes in Egypt.

Famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass and his team say they've found evidence of a tomb that could belong to King Tut's wife.

The archaeologists eventually plan to excavate the new tomb, which is located near the tomb of the pharaoh Ay (1327-1323 B.C.) in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Hawass told Live Science.

"We are sure there is a tomb there, but we do not know for sure to whom it belongs," Hawass told Live Science in an email. On July 7, National Geographic Italia published an article in Italian suggesting that a team led by Hawass had found a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and Hawass confirmed that discovery to Live Science. [See Photos of Egypt's Valley of the Kings]

"We are sure there is a tomb hidden in that area because I found four foundation deposits," Hawass said, explaining that the foundations are "caches or holes in the ground that were filled with votive objects such as pottery vessels, food remains and other tools as a sign that a tomb construction is being initiated."

"The ancient Egyptians usually did four or five foundation deposits whenever they started a tomb's construction," Hawass said. Additionally, "the radar did detect a substructure that could be the entrance of a tomb."

As for whose remains were buried there, Hawass said the tomb could belong to Ankhesenamun, who was the wife of Tutankhamun (reign 1336-1327 B.C.). Ankhesenamunmarried Ay after King Tut died, so it's possible that her tomb is located near Ay's, Hawass said.

Hawass said he will direct the future excavations at the site.

Hawass was head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities between 2002 and 2011, and was Egypt's first minister of state for antiquities after the post was created in January 2011. He resigned from the post in July 2011. Currently, Hawass is Director of the Italian expedition in the Valley of the Kings.

Update: In an email to Live Science on July 10, Hawass cautioned that until excavations take place, he can't say for sure that a tomb has been discovered, and it is still possible that there is no tomb. "It is all possibilities until we excavate," Hawass said.

Original article on Live Science.
Now, remnants excavated from a small, rocky hill in Iona known as Torr an Aba have been confirmed to be from the time period during which St. Columba lived. This means it's likely that the remnants are pieces of the walls of the hut occupied by the medieval saint himself, according to the archaeologists working on the site  the very place where the Christian saint prayed, penned poetry and studied  all while overseeing his monastery, also called Iona. [The 10 Most Controversial Miracles]

This latest finding wouldn't have surprised the late archaeologist Charles Thomas, who, upon first collecting the remnants in 1957, suggested that they belonged to St. Columba's hut. Back then, however, he had no way of confirming when the samples were from, because a technique known as carbon dating hadn't yet become widely available. The samples then languished in matchboxes in the professor's garage in England until 2012, when they were passed along to Historic Environment Scotland, a public organization that preserves and promotes Scottish culture and artifacts.

At the beginning of 2017, a team led by Adrian Maldonado, project support officer (archaeology), and Ewan Campbell, senior lecturer (archaeology), both at the University of Glasgow, were finally able to do what Thomas couldn't decades earlier: have the samples carbon dated.

Carbon dating, which can help researchers pinpoint the age of specimens, involves measuring the remaining carbon 14 (an isotope of carbon) in a sample, because scientists know the rate at which it decays. In this case, carbon dating finally confirmed that the hut's remains date to the time of St.Columba's life.

"We dared to hope that we would get something as close to that to the original monastery," Maldonado told Live Science, adding that he never doubted that the scholars who preceded him were on the right track.

Archaeologists say remnants excavated from a small, rocky hill in Iona have been confirmed to be from the time period during which St. Columba lived. (Image credit: Adrian Maldonado)

While Iona was neither the first nor the oldest monastery in Great Britain  Christianity had already been in Ireland for more than a century by time Iona was established  it was the most influential. Maldonado likens the central role St. Columba's monastery played in the Christian world to the role Oxford or Harvard University had in early academia.

Finding that this hut dates back to St. Columba's lifetime  along with the 10 other radiocarbon dates from the archaeologist Charles Thomas' excavations that Maldonado's team obtained  shows that the remnants of the original monastery, which was previously thought to have been hidden or destroyed may one day be unearthed.

"And now the real fun begins," Maldonado said. "We can begin to look for [the original monastery of St. Columba], now that we know where it might be."

Original article on Live Science.
What do you see in this photo? Space archaeologists have catalogued more than 30 cultural artifacts in this image, including Russian Orthodox icons and a photo of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.

"Space archaeologist" would be a fine job description for a fictional character on an interplanetary mission to unearth the ruins of an alien civilization. But a handful of real-life archaeologists are already making a bid to study culture in space  of the human, not alien, variety.

A new effort, called ISS Archaeology, seeks to understand the "microsociety" aboard the International Space Station.

The plan is to treat the space lab like archaeologists would treat an ancient site. By looking at the artifacts of astronauts  from their dining utensils and sleeping bags to their religious icons and family photos  these researchers hope to gain new insights into how astronauts of different backgrounds interact with each other, and how they adapt to life in microgravity. [The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts]

Making space for archaeologists

The idea for the project was conceived in the fall of 2015, when NASA put out a call for applications for its astronaut program. The space agency no longer recruits only seasoned fighter pilots, but also doctors, geologists, physicists, computer scientists and electrical engineers. Archaeologist Justin Walsh noticed, however, that social scientists were excluded from this mix  with anthropology, archaeology and geography in particular singled out as disqualifying degrees.

"I thought that was too bad," Walsh, a professor at Chapman University in California, told Space.com. "If they're thinking about sending people to Mars, sending people to deep space, or sending people to [the] moon for long periods of time, it would really behoove them to understand how astronaut societies are maintained, how astronauts create a kind of culture."

In the most traditional sense, archaeologists' work might go like this: They'll go to an ancient site, dig a few trenches and systematically record all the artifacts and architectural features they found buried underground. They'll then use those subtle clues to understand how people lived in this particular place in the past. A simple piece of broken pottery, for instance, could reveal what people were eating, or with whom they were trading hundreds of years ago.

Over the past several decades, archaeologists have been stretching the bounds of their field. Some don't ever pick up a trowel, but use satellite images to search for undiscovered ancient sites. (That's a different brand of "space archaeology" altogether.) Others argue that archaeology doesn't need to be concerned only with the past; archaeologists might be uniquely qualified to study how humans (even living humans) use their environment and material things, regardless of time.

At the same time, the Space Age is getting older. People interested in cultural heritage have started to wonder whether the human footprint in space is worth carefully documenting and protecting. The broader archaeological community recently began to take this idea seriously, says space archaeologist Alice Gorman of Flinders University in Australia, who has researched the cultural significance of space junk, among other artifacts of spaceflight. The 1969 Apollo 11 lunar landing site has even been declared a U.S. historic landmark.

A virtual space lab

Walsh and Gorman teamed up for a new project to study astronaut culture. The International Space Station was an obvious choice for a study site, they said, because it's the place where astronauts have spent the most time (the ISS has been continuously occupied by rotating crews since 2000). The lab also contains a complexity of interactions and relationships: The crews are multigendered, multiethnic, multinational and multilingual.

The researchers plan to mine databases of all the objects that have ever been sent to the ISS, and they'll draw from the huge number of photos taken on board to create a 4D digital model of the space lab. In this virtual space, the researchers hope to track patterns of movement of the astronauts and objects over time, which might allow them to understand patterns of life on the station in the same way that they might when looking at an archaeological site on Earth. Walsh says they're faced with an overabundance of data, so one future aspect of the project could be crowdsourcing help from volunteers who want to go virtual artifact hunting.

Psychologists and behavioral scientists already keep close tabs on astronauts' interactions. They run studies on the ISS and in analog environments like the HI-SEAS habitat in Hawaii to understand the effects of long-term isolation. The astronauts themselves have also spoken extensively about their experiences, and social media has allowed for an even closer look at the minutiae of life on the ISS, from how astronauts make sandwiches to how they play pranks on each other.

Still, Walsh and Gorman think their archaeological approach might uncover some overlooked information, such as design insights that could be useful to space agency managers. (Perhaps they will notice certain improvisations the astronauts make with their supplies.) The researchers also expect they might find clues about how Russian, European, Japanese and American astronauts distinguish themselves or integrate themselves aboard the ISS, and how tension can arise over material things.

In 2009, a Russian ISS commander complained that cosmonauts had been barred from using U.S. exercise equipment and other facilities, which he said was having an adverse effect on the crews morale and work. Walsh said the project will test whether traces of such conflicts can be found in the "archaeological record" of the space station.

The project team members also anticipate a future when the ISS is gone. For now, the space lab is set to be decommissioned in 2024, unless it gets more funding. Eventually, it'll fall out of the sky into an underwater spacecraft cemetery in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. "This is a site that will no longer exist," Walsh said. So perhaps at the very least, the records of ISS Archaeology might be valuable to space archaeologists of the future.

Follow Megan Gannon @meganigannon, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
A map of Zealandia. Scientists aboard the Joides Resolution will visit six sites on this lost continent to take core samples later this summer.

Scientists will soon venture to the world's hidden eighth continent, the sunken land of Zealandia.

The lost continent, which is mostly submerged, with all of New Zealand and a few islands peeking out from the water, is about half the size of Australia. By drilling deep into its crust or upper layer, the new scientific expedition could provide clues about how the diving of one of Earth's plates beneath another, a process called subduction, fueled the growth of a volcano chain and this lost continent in the Pacific Ocean 50 million years ago. The new expedition could also reveal how that Earth-altering event changed ocean currents and the climate.

"We're looking at the best place in the world to understand how plate subduction initiates," expedition co-chief scientist Gerald Dickens, professor of Earth, environmental and planetary science at Rice University in Texas, said in a statement. "This expedition will answer a lot of questions about Zealandia." [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

The lost continent

In February, scientists argued in the journal GSA Today that Earth has a hidden eighth continent, which should be reflected on maps.

The argument for Zealandia being a continent was based on several lines of evidence. Rocks beneath the ocean floor off New Zealand's coast are made up of a variety of ancient rock types that are found only on continents, not in oceanic crust. The continental shelves of Zealandia are much shallower than those of the nearby oceanic crust. And, rock samples reveal a thin strip of oceanic crust separating Australia and the underwater portions of Zealandia. All of these factors suggest the area underwater around New Zealand makes up a continent, the researchers reported.

Journey to the eighth continent

However, there are still some questions about how Zealandia formed.

Expedition 371, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the International Ocean Discovery Program, aims to answer many of those questions. More than 30 scientists will set sail on July 27 for a two-month expedition aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a massive scientific drilling ship.

From there, the team will visit six sites in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand to drill cores of sediment and rocks from the Earth's crust. Each core will be between 1,000 feet and 2,600 feet (300 meters and 800 meters), meaning that scientists can peer back in time over tens of millions of years.

"If you go way back, about 100 million years ago, Antarctica, Australia and Zealandia were all one continent," Dickens said. "Around 85 million years ago, Zealandia split off on its own, and for a time, the seafloor between it and Australia was spreading on either side of an ocean ridge that separated the two."

A view from the deck of the Joides Resolution, a sophisticated drilling ship going off to obtain core samples from Zealandia, the hidden eighth continent. (Image credit: IODP)

After this shift, the area between the two continents was compressed. But around 50 million years ago, the Pacific Plate dove beneath New Zealand, lifting up the two islands, forming a string of volcanoes in the Pacific, and relieving the compressive stress in the ocean crust between the two continents.

"What we want to understand is why and when the various stages from extension to relaxation occurred," Dickens said.

The new findings could reveal how ocean currents and climate changed at the time. Zealandia is usually left out of most climate models dating to 50 million years ago, which could explain why those models have been problematic, Dickens said.

"It may be because we had continents that were much shallower than we had thought," Dickens said. "Or we could have the continents right but at the wrong latitude. Either way, the cores will help us figure that out."

Originally published on Live Science.
The newly developed Laser Weapon System (LaWS) is situated on the USS Ponce, which is deployed to the Persian Gulf.

The world's first laser weapon  one that can "kill" threatening, airborne drones  is ready for action, according to news sources.

The laser, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), may seem as though it were pulled straight from a James Bond movie, but it's entirely functional and can shoot with stunning accuracy, the U.S. Navy told CNN. The LaWS is currently deployed aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship, in the Persian Gulf.

"Operationally, it works just like a laser pointer," Lt. Cale Hughes, a LaWS officer, told CNN. "There's a chamber inside with special materials that release photons." [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare]

The LaWS laser beam is completely silent and invisible. It's also fast: The laser travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second, or about 300,000 kilometers per second), meaning it's about 50,000 times the speed of an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile, such as the one North Korea is testing, the Navy told CNN.

The $40 million system requires a team of three to operate it and a small generator to power its electricity supply, according to the Navy.

However, each blast is relatively cheap. "It's about a dollar a shot," Hughes told CNN.

In addition to being able to take down threats in the air, the LaWS can hit and disable objects in the water. The laser's accurate blasts, heated to thousands of degrees, might even mean fewer casualties in combat, Inez Kelly, a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command science adviser, told CNN.

For instance, if the laser is aimed at an enemy boat, operatives can "take out exactly the engine, and not necessarily damage anything else," Kelly said. "That type of precision weapon work is something that you don't really get with conventional weapons, because there tends to be more collateral damage."

Under Geneva Convention rules, armed forces are not allowed to use laser weapons directly against people, reported Optics.org, a site that tracks the photonics industry. The U.S. will abide by that protocol, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, said in 2014 at a news conference in Washington, D.C., according to Optics.org.

The U.S. Navy is already developing second-generation systems that might be able to target threats other than drones and water vessels. These missions are classified, but when asked whether the LaWS could shoot and destroy missiles, USS Ponce Capt. Christopher Wells said "maybe" and smiled, according to CNN.

Original article on Live Science.
by Philip Rosenstein , July 17, 2017

The White House has not held an on-camera press briefing since June 29. Commentators complain that off-camera briefings reduce the ability of the press to check excesses of the executive branch.

Further, they create an extra degree of separation between the White House and the constituents they were elected to represent.

ABC News, in response to a growing lack of transparency at the Trump White House, today launched a new live-streamed show called Briefing Room. The digital initiative will stream live on ABCNews.com, ABC News Facebook and YouTube pages during and after White House press briefings.

The show will cover breaking news and announcements coming out of the briefings, with real-time reporting adding context.

Chief ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl, senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega, congressional correspondent Mary Bruce and political director Rick Klein will all contribute to the show.

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Karl was recently elected president of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) for the 2019-2020 cycle.

Coupled with his seat on the Briefing Room ABC panel, it will give him, and the WHCA, a stronger position to serve as a counterweight to the Trump administration's limitations on press access.
by Jess Nelson , July 18, 2017

The majority of companies are still unprepared for the European Union Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to go into full effect in less than a year, according to a study released Monday by Crowd Research Partners.

Sponsored by cyber security software company STEALTHbits Technologies, the study polled 530 information security professionals on how their organizations are preparing to be compliant by May 25, 2018 -- the date GDPR becomes law.

Organizations need to have more consumer-friendly privacy terms by that time, including additional transparency and more secure data handling, or face fines of millions of dollars. Any company that sends email messages to European residents need to comply with GDPR. The penalties for nonconformance could be as high as 4% of a companys annual revenue or 20 million, whichever is greater.

Only 32% of respondents believed they were GDPR compliant, or well on their way to compliance, according to the study. A tenth of respondents werent even familiar with GDPR at all.

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Almost a third of companies acknowledged they would have to make substantial changes in order to be compliant with GDPR, with a lack of budget, limited understanding of the regulation, and a lack of staff highlighted as the top challenges.

A recent study commissioned by NTT Security, the 2017 Risk: Value Report, highlights a common misconception with GDPR. Only 39% of UK decision makers believe that the GDRR applies to them, with a further 20% admitting that did not know if they needed to be GDPR compliant or not.

Its important to note that the European Union General Data Protection Regulation applies to any company or organization that conducts business with European Union residents, and is not restricted to European companies.
by Wayne Friedman , July 17, 2017

Netflix rocketed up 10% in after-hours trading on the news of better-than-expected subscriber gains.

Netflix added 5.2 million subscribers during the second-quarter reporting period -- now totaling 104 million worldwide. Media analysts were expecting a gain of around 2.5 million for the period.

The big subscription video-on-demand service now has 51.9 million U.S. total subscribers (adding 1.07 million) and 52 million international subscribers (4.1 million more).

For the third quarter of this year, Netflix expects another 4.4 million in total subscriber growth -- 750,000 more in the U.S. and 3.65 million more internationally.

On Monday, the company closed at $161.70 -- up 0.36% on the day -- but soared to $179.25 in after-hours trading, due to its quarterly earnings/subscriber news release.

Revenues were up 33% to $2.8 billion and net income grew 61% to $65.6 million. A year ago, revenues and net income were $2.1 billion and $40.8 million, respectively.

Netflix's marketing spending rose during the period, up 27% to $1.9 billion.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 18, 2017

Siding against Facebook, a federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Facebook over allegations of inflated video metrics.

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson in the Northern District of California ruled late last week that a group of six marketers can proceed with claims that the social networking platform violated an implied contractual obligation to use "reasonable care."

The court battle stems from revelations that Facebook misreported two metrics related to its video ads. The result of both errors was that Facebook inflated the average time spent viewing ad clips by 60% to 80%. The company said last September that its mistaken calculations didn't affect billing. (This spring, Facebook acknowledged that it also overstated the number of times consumers clicked on some mobile ads; the company said it had issued refunds to affected advertisers.)

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Six marketers -- including bankrupt tech incubator Quirky and the individuals Tom Letizia, Mark Fierro and Greg Agustin -- subsequently sued Facebook. They argued that the misrepresentations led them to believe that Facebook's video ads were more valuable than they actually were, resulting in inflated prices.

Henderson said in his ruling that the marketers could proceed with claims stemming from allegations that Facebook failed to use reasonable care when reporting metrics.

"Under California law, every contract contains an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing," Henderson wrote. "Plaintiffs allege Facebook breached this duty by incorrectly measuring viewer engagement, including inaccurate data in its interface, and reporting inaccurate advertising metrics."

The ruling wasn't a complete loss for Facebook. Henderson also dismissed several other claims by the marketers, including that the social networking service violated California's law against unfair competition. That dismissal was without prejudice -- meaning that the marketers can beef up their allegations and bring them again. Henderson gave the marketers until August 14 to do so.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company was pleased that some of the counts were dismissed. The spokesperson added that case "has no merit" and that the company will defend itself "vigorously."
by Sara Guaglione , July 18, 2017

Active lifestyle magazine Outside is promoting Sam Moulton to VP director of marketing and Cecelia Magnani to VP digital sales and strategy.

Moulton has served for two years as marketing director, where he oversaw 360-degree integrated programs across print, digital, social and podcast platforms. Previously executive editor, Moulton helped oversee the redesign and relaunch of Outsides website in 2011.

Moultons first interned with Outside in 1999 at the magazines Santa Fe headquarters, where he is based. Scott Parmelee, executive vice president and Chief Revenue Officer of Outside, stated Moulton has "seamlessly navigated this new world where idea generation and smart edit/content integration are critical."

Magnani has been at Outside for seven years, first as online sales manager and later as digital sales director. Under her leadership, the magazine saw a 500% growth. She is based in Outsides New York City office.

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This year, Outsides digital sales are tracking up 38%.

Separately, The Atlantic has promoted Matt Thompson to executive editor and Adrienne LaFrance to editor of TheAtlantic.com.

Thompson was previously deputy editor of the site. Now, he will oversee all cross-platform projects, as well as continue to lead projects with a greater focus on cross-platform collaboration.

Thompson will also manage The Atlantic's audio platform and co-host the Radio Atlantic podcast debuting later this week, alongside The Atlantics editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg and contributing editor Alex Wagner.

LaFrance will manage day-to-day editorial operations of TheAtlantic.com and oversee its reporting team across 10 news desks. She succeeds the sites previous editor J.J. Gould. Joining the magazine in 2014, she served as a staff writer and editor, covering technology, politics and the media.

These promotions come at a time of record audience growth at The Atlantic. Goldberg reports audiences have grown 36% in the first half of 2017, compared to the same period last year, with a record 42.3 million monthly unique visitors in May.
July 19: Correa announced today (via Instagram) that hes undergone surgery to repair the ligament and that the operation was successful.

July 18,5:18pm: Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle tweets that Gonzalez is likely to see the bulk of playing time at shortstop, though Bregman could play there on days when Gonzalez is needed elsewhere on the field. Gonzalez can play first base, second base and in the corner outfield as well. Regardless, that combination will likely allow the Stros to cover Correas absence for the next month and a half or so.

3:12pm: The Astros announced devastating injury news today, revealing that shortstop Carlos Correa is expected to miss the next six to eight weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb. Astros field reporter Julia Morales tweets that the injury will require surgery. Infielder Colin Moran has been recalled to replace Correa, who suffered the injury on a swing in last nights game.

Losing a player of Carlos caliber for an extended period is a big blow to our club, but I believe we have the roster to persevere and continue to win games, said GM Jeff Luhnow in a press release announcing the news. We do expect Carlos to return to the club in September and be ready to contribute down the stretch.

That injury is the same ailment from which fellow AL West superstar Mike Trout just returned. Trout ultimately missed about six and a half weeks, although no two injuries are created equal, and we obviously dont know if the extent of the tear is the same in each instance. But, that does serve as somewhat of a rough benchmark for Correas return to activity.

The Astros, meanwhile, will soldier on without one of the American Leagues foremost MVP candidates for a significant stretch of time. On the plus side, Houston has a 15.5 game lead on the division, so the Stros arent really at risk of ceding the division to one of their rivals. Furthermore, Houston has a deep roster, with both Alex Bregman and Marwin Gonzalez capable of stepping in to play shortstop on a consistent basis. As such, a trade for someone such as Cincinnatis Zack Cozart doesnt seem particularly likely  especially not with Correa expected back well before seasons end.
As discussions on the possible sale of the Marlins continue to drag on, its beginning to seem questionable whether any resolution will be found before the deadline. New reports suggest ongoing uncertainty as to just who will end up buying the team, and cast new doubt as to whether the organization will make any major deadline moves with that situation still open.

Jorge Mas had emerged recently as the possible favorite to land the Fish. But that now seems in doubt. Charles Gasparino of FOX Business reported yesterday (Twitter link) that the league is concerned Mas may even drop out of the bidding. As Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald further explore, the team may be expecting just that result.

Mas is said to be frustrated by the unwillingness of current owner Jeffrey Loria to agree to an exclusive bargaining window. For his part, Loria seems to be holding open the possibility that further competition will boost the offers to his current price of $1.2B. But the constant stream of information, frequently pointing in different directions, seemingly poses its own risks to the clubs efforts.

With that backdrop, the Marlins are not presently interested in considering trade proposals for their three most interesting possible trade pieces, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Talks on outfielders Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna will need to wait for the offseason, per the report. MLB.coms Joe Frisaro hears much the same, noting on Twitter that other controllable players such as J.T. Realmuto and Dan Straily remain off limits at present.

In some regards, thats not a new development. Prior reports  see here and here  have said as much. But it has seemed at times that the stance could conceivably change in advance of the deadline, particularly if some of those assets could help the club free itself of some other contracts. Miami is said to be weighing offers on its relievers, with an apparent willingness to move infielders Martin Prado (whos now on the DL) and Dee Gordon, so theres still business to be done  and, perhaps, still time for the club to reconsider its stance on the players noted above.
Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of work, skill, sacrifice, commitment and wisdom. However, there is something extra that one needs to become a better entrepreneur and increase their chances of entrepreneurial success.

This is a knowledge of the mistakes to never make as an entrepreneur. Jumia Travel , the leading online travel agency, shares 5 costly mistakes entrepreneurs make in their entrepreneurial ventures.

Doing Search Engine Optimization on Your Own

SEO might seem pretty straightforward as its basically about finding and using the right keywords for Google to rank it near top searches; this is to increase the chances of your business being seen by potential customers. In theory, SEO is indeed simple and straightforward, however the practical implementation of it is a lot more complex. This is because the rules of SEO are constantly changing and after eventually figuring out the whole process, you still need to be careful to find a balance between doing too little SEO and too much SEO. SEO requires time and a lot of attention to be successful, and you just might fall short in this area while simultaneously trying to run the core of your business. Youll need to hire a very good SEO consultant to take the reigns of this part of your business.

Trying To Do It All By Yourself

You should understand that you cant do it all by yourself and there are those who are more skilled in certain areas than you are. You need to leverage on the strengths of these people and combine with your strength to make your entrepreneurial venture a success. Trying to do it all by yourself can lead to avoidable mistakes that can be detrimental to your entrepreneurial success.

Being Impatient

Taking risks is far different from looking for trouble, and thats what an impatient entrepreneur would be doing. Rome wasn't built in a day and everything needs time to develop, so an entrepreneur should avoid trying to rush his/her growth process with rushed and risky operations and investments. Entrepreneurs need to have a thorough understanding of their business and their business growth to help them better learn to be patient with their business.

Being Too Confident

Confidence is different from arrogance and recklessness. Entrepreneurs need to understand that there is a fine line between the two and tread carefully.

Not Being Adaptable

Todays business climate is ever-changing and it is important for an entrepreneur to learn to be adaptable if he/she wants his/her business to survive. As much as you should go with what is working now, you also need to explore new options so that you can be ready to make changes in the future. In addition, entrepreneurs should not downplay the role of social media in helping to create visibility for their products. Social media is a cheap and effective tool for marketing your business to many customers online.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out signing Cristiano Ronaldo back from Real Madrid.

BBC Sport reported in June that Ronaldo was left upset after being accused of tax fraud and wants to leave Spain.

A move back to United, whom he left for a then world record 80m in 2009, has been mentioned as a possibility.

However, when asked about the likelihood of the move, Mourinho said it cannot happen due to the economic difficulty of doing the deal.

Mourinho was asked about signing Portugal captain Ronaldo after his side had beaten LA Galaxy 5-2 in the first match of their pre-season tour of the United States on Sunday.

I am not going to get my club to waste time on players who are mission impossible.

Ronaldo is such an important player for his club. A player of great economic power. We have not been able to find any reason that could have made us think that Ronaldo could leave.

Mourinho added that he did not believe another Real Madrid player, striker Alvaro Morata, will end up at Old Trafford either.

It is a shame, he said.

He is a player who made it to the first team with me and I have a special liking for. I enjoyed watching his evolution in Juventus and Madrid.

But we have not reached an agreement with his club and I dont think he can end with us.


The Accra regional Police Command has arrested 15 people suspected to have been variously involved in the shooting incident at Lapaz that led to the death of a policeman and caused injury to another.

The suspects include six Nigerians, eight Ghanaians and a 27-year-old female trader, Charity Otuboa.

The Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Osabarima Oware Asare Pinkro III briefing the Daily Graphic on the arrest of the suspects Sunday, said a combined team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters and the Accra Regional Command picked up the suspects from different locations in Accra.

The suspects were arrested at different locations in Accra, including Ablekuma, Olebu and Kasoa after the police had picked up intelligence and tip-offs.

The unregistered Hyundai Elantra car that was snatched by the robbers at the scene of the incident was abandoned at Olebu and is currently with the police. Other exhibits that were retrieved from the suspects include empty shells and an unregistered Royal motorbike, he said.

The names of the suspects are; Ken Ikponnwosa, 23; Faith Ogieriakhi, 35; Fem Erhuumwunse, 20; Michael Ogbegia, 20; Sampson Aja, 27; Emmanuel Aimiu, 31, and Kwasi Nyarko, 33.

The others are Raphael Nii Lartey Coffie, 37; Asare Frederick, 35; Mark Enchil, 31; Kwadwo Afari, 32, and Kwabena Gyasi, 20, Abudu Mohammed and Salusi Zibu, whose ages are yet to be established.

The arrests come after two armed robbers on Thursday shot and killed a policeman and injured another in their attempts to escape with their booty after a robbery at Ashanti Home Touch at Lapaz in Accra.

They later snatched the unregistered Hyundai Elantra vehicle and escaped after their motorbike broke down.
Lawyers for an Indian businessman who was deported from Ghana last month are demanding justice for their client.

Ashok Kumar Sivaram was deported on June 1, 2017, upon a directive issued to the Ghana Immigration Service by the Interior minister Ambrose Derry.

I am directed to inform you that the Hon. Minister of Interior has issued a Deportation Order in accordance with Section 36(1) of Act 2000 (Act 573) for your removal from the country.

Consequently, you are to be deported on 1st June, 2017 to your country.

Please find attached the Deportation Order for your attention, a letter from the Comptroller-General addressed to the businessman ahead of his deportation read in part.

But lawyers of the businessman who have filed a suit over the deportation claim their client was deported without recourse to the law.

The Applicant was deported from Ghana on the said morning of 1st June 2017 without any notice to him or being offered the opportunity to be heard on the allegation of forgery leveled against him. The Respondents carried out this operation without regard to the presence of the Applicants business interest in Ghana that employs one hundred and sixty (160) people out of which one hundred and thirty (130) are Ghanaians and thirty (30) are Expatriates. Again, no regard or consideration was given by the Respondents inspite of the pendency of the case in the High Court, Commercial Division and the Order for a valuation process to be undertaken by Ernst & Young to enable the Court proceed with the matter pending before it, a letter attached to the writ by the lawyers, led by Gary Nimarko, read.

It added: Respectfully My Lord, it appears that issuance of Executive Instrument by the 1st Respondent prior to deportation of an alien is permissive under the Act but it is worth pointing out that Deportation Orders of an Alien subject to Deportation is backed by Executive Instrument. In the case of this Applicant, no Executive Instrument was issued by the 1st Respondent in respect of the Deportation Order.

My Lord, it is also worth pointing out that the Applicant was in Ghana as a Residence/Work Permit holder and has since been on that status until the permit was cancelled on 1st June, 2017 and immediately deported from Ghana.

My Lord, the Applicant was not in Ghana on the basis of an alleged fraudulent Marriage Certificate which the 1st Respondent is claiming that was submitted for Registration as a Ghanaian citizen. As a matter of fact, there is no record of the Applicant having involved himself in a criminal enterprise in Ghana since he started coming into the country from the year 2000 for which the 1st Respondent says that his presence in Ghana is not conducive to the public good. A closer reading of the Deportation Order makes it clear that the 1st Respondent came to the conclusion that the Applicants presence in Ghana was not conducive to the public good after having made a judicial determination that the Applicant has submitted a forged Marriage Certificate in support of his application for citizenship and that, that act is fraudulent and criminal.

Respectfully My Lord, we are at a loss as to whether the 1st Respondent has the jurisdiction to determine fraud within the powers vested in him under the Immigration Act 2000, (Act 547).

My Lord, it is our humble submission that the determination of fraud can only be established by this Honourable Court. My Lord, it is further our submission that the determination of fraud by the 1st Respondent was clearly in excess of his jurisdiction and that act by the 1st Respondent is amenable to be quashed by Certiorari.
The National Trade Facilitation Awards (NTFA), an annual event organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) in partnership with Ghana Community Network Service Limited (GCNet) and Ghana Revenue Authority, to reward excellence in the countrys trade facilitation industry, will be held on July 22, 2017 in Accra.

This years event is on the theme Deployment of e-Applications for the Efficient and paperless Processing of Trade and Customs Transactions. It will have new award categories including Best Shipping Line and Best Transitor among others. Another novelty is each award will be labeled with a sponsor of the event as part of the partnership the awards scheme has attracted.

The award scheme is also to provides the platform to encourage Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), freight forwarding agencies and other relevant bodies to work towards the attainment of international best practices in trade facilitation by reducing turnaround time in the issuance and approval processes of licenses, permits and exemptions for imports and exports transactions within 48 hours while ensuring safety and security.

Since its inception in 2016, the awards scheme has been recognised by industry players as a competitive barometer that drives industry players to achieve excellence in service delivery. The categories of the award comprise: Best Freight Forwarder (Large, Medium and Small), Best Warehouse Operator, Best Transitor, Best Free Zone Company, Best Shipping Line and Best eMDA among others

The Corporate Communications Manager of GCNet, Mrs. Aba Lokko remarked GCNet is excited to be partners of the event, which comes on the heels of the company being recognised as the Trade Facilitation Company of the Year.

She explained GCNet has worked with the MoTI and the Ghana Revenue Authority over the past 15 years to deploy e-solutions to create a robust and reliable Single Window for the efficient and paperless transactions. She said it was not in doubt that fully automated systems as provided by GCNet had greatly impacted on national development.

Commenting on the criteria of the awards, Mrs. Lokko explained said the 2017 awards would be based on actual performances and achievements in 2016, focusing on compliance to set rules, revenue generation, time to completion of document processing and actual release of documents and transaction volumes.

She said GCNet was committed to using information and communication technology to facilitate trade, adding that GCNet was collaborating with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to ensure that the paperless infrastructure deployed by GCNet is fully utilised and the benefits realised by the citizenry.

Acting Director of Communications at MoTI, Mr. Prince Boakye Boateng explained the Ministry was still committed to its core policies which include ensuring speedy and efficient clearance of goods at the ports and borders.

He noted that the theme for the 2017 NTFA event Deployment Of e-Applications For The Efficient And Paperless Processing Of Trade & Customs Transactions was timely given the spearheading role the Ministry is playing in meeting the directive from the Vice President for the 100 per cent paperless initiatives to ease doing business in Ghana.

We are happy at the partnership with GCNet to organise the annual NTFA awards as it provides an opportunity for Trade Facilitation industry players to push to the limit to achieve industry excellence to enhance the ease of doing business in Ghana. We will continue to use this platform to showcase examples of innovation, commitment and leadership to inspire others he said.
17.07.2017 LISTEN

Kumasi, July 17, GNA - Senior Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, has asked the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to give strong support to the government's business growth effort.

He said under no circumstance should any civil or public servant frustrate the drive to help businesses to thrive and provide employment for the people.

He made the call at the inauguration of the Middle Belt Development Authority (MBDA), comprising Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions in Kumasi.

Regional Teams, each made up of 10 members, would oversee the implementation of the Infrastructural for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) in this belt.

Mr. Osafo Maafo urged the assemblies to do more to attract investments and assist the private sector to grow, adding that, this should be made an urgent priority.

He underlined the government's unswerving determination to go the extra mile to build a business-friendly environment.

The Regional Teams of the MBDA would identify priority infrastructural projects for immediate implementation in their respective regions.

The Senior Minister indicated that the creation of the development authorities for the ecological zones was to anchor the provision of capital infrastructural projects in the local communities to stimulate business activities.

The various development initiatives - one million dollar for every constituency, water for all, one district one factory, one village one dam and others, would be implemented through the development authorities.

Mr. Osafo Maafo said a number of priority projects had been identified for each of the zones and asked the Teams to work closely with the assemblies to prioritize projects for effective and efficient implementation.

Ms. Mavis Hawa Koomson, Minister for Special Development Initiatives, said despite the various poverty interventions implemented over the years, there were still high levels of poverty and inequalities in society.

The IPEP was therefore an innovative approach to direct capital investments to facilitate business development and growth to reduce poverty, especially in rural communities.

She noted that the task ahead was huge and demanding but said with commitment and dedication progress would be made.

Mr. Simon Osei Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, said creating the right conditions for businesses development was vital to winning the fight against poverty.

He asked MMDAs to set up special desks to give timely and accurate information and data on business opportunities in their areas.

GNA

By Kwabia Owusu-Mensah GNA
17.07.2017 LISTEN

Tamale, July 17, GNA - Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, the National Coordinator of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has called on the government to take steps to eliminate the existence of political party vigilantism to help ensure clean democratic governance.

He said this would help curb the rate of violence threatening the electoral and democratic development of the nation.

Mr Arhin made the call at the weekend during a media briefing after a roundtable discussion on the menace of political party vigilantism with stakeholders in Tamale.

The participants were representatives from the Electoral Commission (EC), National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Security Services, political parties, Civil Society Organisations, traditional rulers and the media.

Mr Arhin also called on the media to make the subject a critical matter for public discussion on the various platforms in order to help eliminate political party vigilantism in the country.

According to CODEO, during the roundtable discussion, some of the participants blamed the ineffectiveness of the security services especially the police.

They said the political parties feel insecure because of the inadequate state protection given to them when carrying out their activities during elections.

The participants, however, suggested that a National Security Summit be organised to deliberate, and develop actionable plans to tackle identified threats to the state's security including party vigilantism.

The participants also called on members of the political parties to openly admit the existence of the vigilante groups and stop funding them as means of eliminating their existence.

They also appealed to government to revive the regional and district inter-party dialogue and improve on voter and civic education, aiming at increasing civic consciousness in the country.

Naa Yakubu Abdulai, the Chief of Sagnerigu , appealed to the government to actively involve the youth in the decision making process in order to make them relevant in the governance of the state.

He said conscious efforts should also be made to solve the youth and graduate unemployment rate in the country.

Naa Abdulai also stressed the importance of resuscitating the various state institutions in order to promote the rule of law in the country.

GNA

By Rashid Mbugri, GNA
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - A group of community elders in northeast Nigeria where Boko Haram has waged a bloody eight-year insurgency are urging the Islamists to enter peace talks, a move some see as motivated by ethnic self-interest.

The Borno Elders Forum of retired military and civilian officials, all ethnic Kanuri, said it was "time they (Boko Haram) put down their arms" and they should "repent and rejoin the larger society".

"If our leaders had the leeway to negotiate with the Boko Haram for the release of some of their captives, they should employ the same tactics to negotiate for the end of the insurgency," they said in a newspaper advertisement last Friday.

"The Government of Nigeria had earlier negotiated with the Niger Delta militants and succeeded. Let the Government do the same with Boko Haram."

President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general, has given no sign of wanting to negotiate a settlement since he came to power in 2015.

His government has, however, held back-channel talks that secured the release of more than 100 of the 219 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014.

But the call for negotiations by the elders of Borno state, where the Kanuri is the main ethnic group, has led to speculation that it is driven less by a desire for peace than by ethnic issues.

'Flying a kite'

Boko Haram's ranks have been dominated by ethnic Kanuris. In its early days, the Islamist militant group was known to have members from the families of the region's political and religious elite.

Abdullahi Bawa Wase, a security analyst who tracks the conflict, said the elders were "flying a kite" to gauge reaction.

The peace talks proposal "could be a Boko Haram idea being sold by the Borno elders on their behalf", he said.

A senior member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), the militia assisting the military with security, said the proposal was "in bad faith".

"The elders know how to get in touch with their sons, nephews and brothers who are high-profile Boko Haram leaders," he said on condition of anonymity.

"If they really mean what they say, they should convince their Boko Haram relations to renounce membership of the group and surrender."

Ethnic rivalry

Kanuri dominance in Boko Haram sparked claims in the earlier stages of the violence that the uprising was a push for a homeland.

Few maintain that view since its leader Abubakar Shekau declared a caliphate in August 2014 and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group the following March.

Ethnic rivalry has, however, been seen as having contributed to the religiously inspired violence, adding another layer of complexity to the conflict.

"People despise Boko Haram for the death and destruction they cause," said Abubakar Gamandi, the head of the Borno state fishermen's union.

"But in terms of ethnic sentiments, some give tacit support to them when the victims are non-Kanuri.

"Many Kanuris feel Boko Haram are weakening their ethnic adversaries against whom they have been struggling for social, economic and political supremacy in Borno."

The Kanuri mainly hold political power, while the ethnic Hausa control agriculture, fishing and trade, and the Fulani and Shuwa tribes dominate cattle herding.

Tensions pre-date Boko Haram. The Nigerian military has previously accused the Borno elders of hampering the counter-insurgency.

Gamandi suggested the scale of attacks has had a tribal dimension.

"They (Boko Haram) wrought more destruction and deaths on non-Kanuri towns and settlements populated by Hausa and Shuwa Arab than on Kanuris," he said.

'Sworn enemies'

The call for talks, at a time when the Nigerian military is out to destroy Boko Haram, is considered by some in the northeast as an attempt at Kanuri self-preservation.

The fear of losing a whole generation of Kanuri men, giving the upper hand to the Hausa, Fulani and Shuwa, could explain the recent surrender of Boko Haram fighters to the military.

"The elite have been encouraging them to surrender to the military through local community chiefs with promise they would ensure they are given soft landing and reintegrated into society," said Gamandi.

Another potential complication for a lasting, long-term peace is local attitudes to the insurgents after so much bloodshed and hardship.

Abba Aji-Kalli, the Borno state coordinator of the CJTF, said his so-called vigilantes and the Islamists were "sworn enemies" and would remain so, whatever happens.

"We will never see eyeball to eyeball with Boko Haram. Nothing can change that," he said.

An amnesty for repentant former insurgents "will never work" he added. "We know that because we very well know who they are. They lived among us, we grew up with most of them."
President Akufo-Addo will today [Tuesday], answer questions from journalists at the Flagstaff House, as he opens up himself for assessment of his six months in office.

Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, has said the President will not use the platform to shower praises on himself, but will use the occasion to touch on his achievements and challenges so far, and also outline policies he intends rolling out to enable his administration to fulfill its many promises to Ghanaians.

The meeting, scheduled for midday, will give the media the opportunity to ask the President critical questions about developments within his administration which he has not sufficiently addressed.

Mustapha Hamid told Citi News the President believes that it is important to engage the citizenry through the media, and take their criticisms to shape government policies.

He thinks that this interaction with the Ghanaian people is a democratic requirement that as a democratic president, once a while you come back to the people to tell them what you have done with the mandate they have given you, he said.

Mustapha Hamid said although many called on the president to hold that meeting after a year in office, he believes it is better to hold it as soon and frequent as possible.

This is not the first time a sitting President will avail himself for an exclusive time with the press to account for his government, and also answer direct questions from them.

Former Presidents John Mahama , John Atta Mills and John Agyekum Kufuor, also held a few of such meetings while in office.

The last of such interactions then President John Mahama held was in January 2016.

Mustapha Hamid said Tuesday's session with President Akufo-Addo is not a press interaction to engage in self-aggrandizement We will not come and give ourselves marks. The president will make a few remarks and then we will take questions.



By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, A.B.A. Fuseini, has criticized President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos performance in office in the last six months.

According to the MP, Akufo-Addo's government has been characterized by what he described as unprecedented lawlessness and corruption.

The President, Akufo-Addo, will address the press today [Tuesday] at the Flagstaff House.

Journalists are expected to ask the President questions bordering on all sectors of the economy and topical issues that have come up strongly since Akufo-Addo took over the administration of Ghana on January 7, 2017.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Mr. Fuseini said he expects the President to touch on how he intends to restore the peace Ghanaians enjoyed under the Mahama government.

Former President John Mahama handed over to President Akufo-Addo a very peaceful, orderly and stable country. Today we have unprecedented levels of lawlessness across the country. And which has caused the security of lives and persons and property Never in the annals of the country's history have we descended into such levels of lawlessness.

I would also want him to address the issue of fundamental security and also the issue of corruption because he has made a very sacred pledge to protect the public purse. And after just six months in office we are hearing all sorts of allegations of corruption which in spite of President Akufo-Addo's claim that he was in a hurry to do things, he seems not to be in a hurry to investigate he noted.



By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
BEATRICE -- The tractor belonging to Ken Deardorff, the last homesteader, has a home at the site where Daniel Freeman, one of the first homesteaders, staked his claim in 1862.

On Monday, the Homestead National Monument of America showed off Deardorffs tractor, a 1945 Allis-Chalmers Model C that he bought when he moved to his homestead in the Alaskan wilderness in 1974.

Workers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will refurbish the tractor before it goes on permanent display, but the team that delivered it to Beatrice -- a 3,500-mile journey via helicopter, barge, ship and truck -- shared their story on Monday.

In 1974, Deardorff was a 29-year-old Vietnam veteran from California who staked a claim and settled on 80 acres about 200 miles from Anchorage and nearly 50 miles from the nearest town.

Using his tractor, Deardorff cleared a forest to grow his crops  mostly hay and grasses, as those were the only things that would grow in the climate.

When he left the homestead 10 years after claiming it, the tractor remained behind -- sitting outside for the next 30 years until officials from Homestead learned of it.

Last year, the Friends of Homestead started an online fundraising campaign to bring the tractor to Nebraska, and Dr. C.T. Frerichs of Beatrice stepped up.

Frerichs was looking for a way to honor his late wife, said Diane Vicars, president of the Friends of Homestead National Monument.

When Frerichs and his wife, Julia, were engaged, the couple came to Nebraska to visit his parents in September 1950. During that visit, Julia was photographed as she sat on a tractor.

He still has that photo with Julia perched on a late 1940s-era Allis-Chalmers Model C. Just like the one Deardorff used on his homestead.

After cutting off the plastic that protected the tractor on its trip from Alaska, Frerichs got a little choked up.

She'd probably shed a tear," he said Monday, "but she would be surprised and extremely thankful.

Rob Ruskamp, chief of maintenance at Homestead, went on the Alaskan trek to retrieve the tractor.

They called in a helicopter to lift the tractor to Big Lake, Alaska, where a crate was custom built for it. It was put on a barge to Anchorage, then onto a ship to Seattle before being trucked to Beatrice.

At UNL, the tractor will be restored to what it would have looked like when Deardorff used it. No new paint or anything fancy.

It's an American treasure, Homestead superintendent Mark Engler said.
18.07.2017 LISTEN

To the best of my knowledge, and I have been sedulously following his every public pronouncement since at least 2007, the now-President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo never promised on the stumps that he was poised to staunchly giving support to the wanton destruction of the countrys environment by Galamsey operatives. Rather, Nana Akufo-Addo has been strongly promoting what he terms as the greening of the environment. And so it is not clear where Messrs. Allotey Jacobs and Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo came by the rather at once bizarre and preposterous idea that President Akufo-Addo has been supporting the predatory activities of Galamsey operatives.

Mr. Jacobs, the Central Regional Chairman of the countrys main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the latter partys Director of Elections, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo, have been widely reported to be calling for President Akufo-Addo to render unreserved and unqualified apology to the criminal destroyers of what Nana Akufo-Addo calls our national heritage because, somehow, in resolutely and sensibly deciding to clamp down on the predatory activities of the Galamsey operatives and restoring the environment to its pre-Galamsey integrity, and dignity, the former Justice and Foreign Minister, somehow, betrayed the trust of these agents of environmental genocide.

Now, this would be funny if it wasnt outrageously criminal. And, of course, this is not the least bit surprising because such wanton acts of criminal depravity are what the NDC apparatchiks do best. But what is even more scandalous is the notion that, somehow, former President Mahama had been dead-set against the predatory activities of the Galamsey operatives, even as then-Candidate Akufo-Addo unconscionably promoted the same. Messrs. Jacobs and Ofosu-Ampofo would do themselves great good by listening to the likes of Mr. Suhuyini, the radio presenter recently turned parliamentarian, lament the fact that President Akufo-Addo has been graced and blessed with a level of media support in his war against predatory Galamsey activities that former President John Mahama could barely dream about.

The relevant question to ask here is why the media had apparently denied Mr. Mahama the kind of support which it unreservedly and voluntarily offered Nana Akufo-Addo. The fact of the matter is that former President Mahama demonstrated absolutely no serious interest in halting the existentially destructive activities of Galamsey. Which was precisely why he stood in front of the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin, II, and sneeringly declared the natal stronghold of his main political opponent as the Galamsey capital of Ghana.

Messrs. Allotey Jacobs and Ofosu-Ampofo may have conveniently cultivated mnemonic amnesia, but this does not in any way, whatsoever, authorize them to take the rest of us for fools. Nana Akufo-Addo owes absolutely no apology to anybody for launching a relentless crusade against the predatory activities of the Galamsey operatives. If anything at all, it is rather these Galamseyers who ought to be eternally grateful to the President for inexorably waging a war for the preservation of the destiny and survival of modern Ghanaian culture and civilization.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
18.07.2017 LISTEN

In Mark 2:17, Jesus said I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. In Matthew 21: 31 Jesus again declared Truly I say unto you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you The bible in a lot of passages spoke against self-righteousness.

The message of the good news is not of self-sanctification/righteousness but of salvation that is freely given by grace and not by works. The life journey on this earth is one thing and our life eternal is another.

Regardless of the number of years you enjoy here on earth, the Bible makes us understand that our visa to eternal life is the gift of salvation which is the absolute believe that Christ died for our sins and by accepting him as our Lord and personal savior! With this firm believe, one is guaranteed life eternal!! What happens with our deeds here on earth is a matter of judgment which rest solely with the Almighty.

If the above statements are true, then my below questions would be valid! Why are our churches preaching self-righteousness?

Why are they condemning and judging the drunkards, the thief, the smoker, Prostitutes etc?

Why do they keep on speaking against those who are looking for eternal life but cannot quit their drinking and smoking habits? Why do they expect a sin free congregation?

Is the message of eternal life about self-righteousness? Is the gift of salvation about the believe in the Son or it is about checking/stopping earthly habits? If self-righteousness could set us free then why didnt Jesus preach about it? Why do we keep on preaching with the same old method that the scribes and the pharacies used? Our mission is to preach the good news (which is the gift of eternal life through Christ) to the lost! The good news is all about the life after death that Christ guarantees.

The consequences of the life we live on this earth is solely under the judgement of God. Why are the churches placing in their blossom the judgement and condemnation of ones habits? Remember what happened in john 8: 1-11 when the adulterous woman came before Christ, she was set free. Again remember how Christ guaranteed and assured the thief on the cross eternal life. Remember again what Jesus said to the prostitute in Luke 7:50,  your faith has set you free. The drunkards were there and Christ did not condemn them So the question is if Christ could free "earthly sinners", then under which law or authority are the churches judging and condemning ppl?

By which authority are the churches banishing and suspending "sinners"?

Where lies the forgiving heart of Christ? Tell me, where should I go and find it?

Luke 6:37 tells us "judge not and you will not be judged, condemn not and ye will not be condemned, forgive and ye will be forgiven"

The word itself should be allowed to take over our earthly shortcomings.

The great commission (Matthew 28;16-20) was for the churches to preach the Good news of the resurrected Christ and baptize those who believe. It did not include judgment.

Are these the churches that Christ came to build?

Churches that seek to embrace the wealthy and despise the poor? Churches that grooms self righteousness but detest the lost souls.

I dream to see a time when true great commissioners would enter the Getos and drinking spots to preach about the loving God that we serve without condemning anybody. I cry to see the day that the smokers, the prostitutes and the poor would be accepted into the loving fellowship without being chastised!

At least by believing, their soul would be saved even if their earthly life parishes

Let's wake up true disciples!! We have been sleeping far too long
Accra, July 17, GNA - The Ghana Banking Awards has adjudged Zenith Bank as the Cashless Promotion Bank of the Year and the GCB Bank as the E-zwich Bank of the Year.

The two banks were recognised for their efforts at driving cashless and e-zwich during the prestigious banking awards held in Accra.

The Banking Awards, which is in its 16th year, was instituted by Corporate Initiative Ghana, constituted by corporate bodies in Ghana with the intention to recognise performing banks in different categories and to engender competition.

A few years ago, a category to reward banks that promote e-zwich was introduced and another to recognise banks driving the cashless agenda was added a year after.

The two award categories promoted by the Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) was in line with the general policy to promote non-cash forms of payment in Ghana.

Competition for both awards was keenly contested with Standard Chartered Bank and Royal Bank being adjudged the first and second runners up in the category of Cashless Bank Promotion Award while Agriculture Development Bank and Access Bank were the first and second runners up for the E-zwich Bank of the Year category.

Mr Archie Hesse, the Chief Executive of GhIPSS, commended the winners of the various categories and urged financial institutions to continue to work with GhIPSS to drive non-cash forms of payments.

He explained that the banks were in a very advantageous position in the cashless agenda as they have both merchants and individuals as customers.

He said they could work with their customers, who were merchants, to enable them to offer electronic payment channels as well as use incentives to encourage them to patronise those electronic payment channels.

Mr Hesse urged government to come out with policies that would reward financial institutions which were promoting non-cash forms of payments.

He said with some progress being made with a concerted effort by all stakeholders, Ghana could move away from a cash dominant economy.

GNA
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Accra, July 17, GNA - The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, has called on international organisations such as the Commonwealth to assist parliament to deal with its peculiar challenges.

He said very often assistance that should come to parliament came in the form of bi-lateral agreements and, as such, went to the Executive arm of Government.

Prof Oquaye made the call when he received Lord Tariq Ahmad, the British Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the United Nations at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Monday at the Parliament House in Accra.

The discussions centred on deepening cooperation among Ghana and the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.

Prof. Oquaye said it was important for the Commonwealth to consider the unique role of both Parliament and the Judiciary in the trinity of governance.

He said a lot of good things happened in Parliament but came under the auspices of government's determination.

He, therefore, urged Lord Ahmad to use his new role as a British Minister of State to consider how best his organisation could deal directly with the Commonwealth Parliaments in areas that need peculiar assistance.

Prof Oquaye indicated that the Parliament of Ghana would continue to associate with the Commonwealth freely within the boundaries of mutual respect.

He said Ghana, over the years, had always taken the Commonwealth very seriously, adding that this depicted the long standing cooperation between the two institutions.

He recounted vividly the role Britain played in Ghana's democratisation process from 1992 when the new 'Wind of Change' meant a new direction towards multi-party system and good governance among others.

Prof Oquaye said under the auspices of the Commonwealth and other friendly nations a lot of assistance were given to support the country's electoral process.

He said it was just proper for the nation to appreciate the benefits it had derived for being a member of the Commonwealth Organisation.

Lord Tariq Ahmad, on his part, stated that the courtesy call was to strengthen the bi-lateral relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom (UK).

He said Ghana and the UK shared many things in common in terms of the history and heritage of the people.

He said there was a strong Ghanaian Diaspora in the UK, about a quarter of a million, who had made Britain their home.

Lord Ahmad called on the two countries to strengthen the existing ties in the area of trade and mutual interests and how they could face-up to the challenges both bi-laterally and globally.

He stressed the need to make the Commonwealth relevant for the present and future generations, adding that common challenges and platforms could be used to strengthen the organisation.

He said there were huge opportunities Commonwealth nations could leverage on when they worked as a team and strengthened relations across parliaments, education and culture.

Lord Ahmad expressed delight at Ghana's Parliament, which he described as the Bastian of democracy on the African Continent.

He lauded the Speaker for his crucial role in Parliament and some of the initiatives he has taken in the House.

He said the House should collaborate with the relevant organisations to work on important bills such as the Bill on the Special Prosecutor and Right to Information.

Lord Ahmed said an important element of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association was how to strengthen the focus of parliamentarians in Ghana working in conjunction with Members of Parliament in the UK.

GNA

By Christopher Arko, GNA
Accra, July 17, GNA - The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Ishmael Ashittey, on Monday, swore in the newly elected Municipal Chief Executive for the La-Nkwantanag-Madina Municipal Assembly, and tasked her to work towards maintaining peace in the Municipality.

Ms Jennifer Dede Afegbedzi was able to secure the two-thirds of votes cast by assembly members to confirm her after coming back for the third time.

Mr Ashittey said her swearing-in was an ample affirmation of the confidence and trust the people had in her, therefore, she was expected to live up to the responsibilities, trust and the confidence reposed in her by the people.

He said: 'For the duration of your term, you are to serve the people in the various communities within your area of jurisdiction to improve their general living conditions and make them part of the decision making process and governance at the local level.'

He noted that the dynamics of the Assembly system some years back in terms of the socio-economic, political, technical and administrative dimensions had changed considerably and this called for strategic thinking.

'Your mandate places a huge responsibility on you and would therefore require that you are well briefed and tooled with the requisite knowledge and capacity to be well positioned to offer useful and pragmatic policy choices, advice and alternatives to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in your Assembly,' he said.

Mr Ashittey urged the MCE to be courteous and co-operate with all interest groups within her jurisdiction and avoid partisanship to ensure development, and to make judicious use of all funds that would be made available to her.

'One does not perform based on age, size, and position but on hard work and commitment,' he said.

Madam Afegbedzi expressed appreciation for the opportunity granted her to serve her Municipality and assured that with her team, she would endeavour to engage stakeholders to ensure the rapid development of the Municipality.

She would focus on employment, sanitation, environmental degradation among others, as they were the major problems facing the Municipality, she said.

GNA

By Hafsa Obeng, GNA
18.07.2017 LISTEN

Photos, films, audio and video records capture memories, creative expressions and vital scientific data. Wherever the collections of these records exist, they are being used to create jobs, feed research and provide multidimensional narratives of our past and present, says Dr Stefano De Caro, the Director-General of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

ICCROM is a Rome-based intergovernmental organization with 135 Member States, including Ghana. It is the only institution of its kind with a worldwide mandate to promote the conservation of all types of cultural heritage.

The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana has now joined forces with ICCROM to promote the conservation of sound and image heritage, highlighting its immense potential through a public symposium in Accra. Scheduled to be held at Kwabena Nketia Conference Hall (University of Ghana campus) on Friday July 21, 2017, the symposium entitled Sound and Image Heritage: for Creativity, Peace & Development features inspiring talks by educators, practitioners and policy makers. The UNESCO Ghana office and the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO are participating in the event. Further information and the full programme are available at www.ias.ugh.edu and www.iccrom.org .

The Symposium forms part of the 2017 SOIMA International Course on Sustaining Sound and Image Collections being held in Ghana, from July 9 to July 23. This international capacity-building initiative has brought together 28 professionals from 19 countries, several of which are from Ghana. Their common objective is to identify innovative solutions for sustaining and creatively using sound and image heritage in their care.

The training includes topics such as assessing values and meanings of recorded sounds and images, digital preservation, collections assessments, dealing with digitization and documentation backlogs, utilizing innovative open access solutions, managing intellectual property rights, and archiving with and for local communities.

ICCROMs SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) course has been held in six international editions in Brazil, India, Kenya, Latvia and Lithuania, Mexico, and Belgium. Cross-disciplinary exchange and networking is at the core of this international programme. It aims at increasing capacity of museums, archives, libraries and other cultural institutions to preserve and provide access to sound and image collections.

SOIMA has developed a robust network of 120 professionals from 56 countries that care for unique sound and image heritage in 109 diverse institutions. ICCROM organizes and coordinates meetings to identify as well as disseminate diverse approaches and methodologies for conservation of different types of cultural heritage.

ICCROM works at the international and governmental level, as well as with institutions and professionals through selected outreach activities. It engages and informs new generations of upcoming professionals and the general public with an interest in heritage.

For further information, please contact:

Aparna Tandon

Project Manager and SOIMA Course leader:

[email protected] or [email protected]
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka 'Wontumi', has urged government appointees to quickly expose all the bad deeds of officials of the previous Mahama administration.

According to him, past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government officials undertook massive corrupt deals which forced the electorate to vote massively for the NPP in 2016 to stop canker.

Wontumi therefore called on appointees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to expose all the corrupt deals at the various offices and ministries to keep the citizenry informed.

The Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman was of the view that the exposure of the past NDC massive rots would enable Ghanaians to have patience with the NPP administration to work tirelessly to bring relief to them.

If the people are aware of the level of destruction that John Mahama and his cronies brought into the country during their eight years in power, the people would have patience, as we work to restore the country to the path of prosperity, he noted.

Wontumi disclosed this while addressing his party's delegates during the Ashanti Regional NPP Annual Delegates Conference, which was held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on Sunday.

According to the NPP stalwart, even though the NDC stayed in political office for eight years, the level of destruction that they (NDC) caused in the country can be compared to 30 years. The NDC are nation-wreckers and they deserve to be in opposition.

Unopposed Call

Wontumi, who worked tirelessly to help the NPP to win the 2016 polls, stressed the need for the current executives of the party in the region to be maintained in office.

Some of us deserve to contest our seats again unopposed, considering the marvelous work that we did to help the NPP to snatch political power from the NDC and former President Mahama. It was not an easy work, he declared.

Wontumi alleged that some appointees of Nana Akufo-Addo were using their wealth to work to oust some party officials from office instead of fulfilling the NPP's manifesto promises, warning we shall not allow that weird thing here.

Salutes Nana

He saluted President Akufo-Addo for rewarding the Ashanti Region, which is the stronghold of the NPP, with ministerial and other appointments, saying the party in the region indeed appreciates the president's contribution to the region so far.

Wontumi sternly warned appointees of the government not to snub the party's members that would come to them for support, noting that the president's appointees derive their power from the grassroots members of the NPP.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
 for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content Philippians 4:11

Today, most of us do not live with the wisdom of the serpent  this is to be content with very little. When I saw a snake in the sands of the desert, I wondered what the snake would eat and how it would be able to survive in the Sahara Desert. Amazingly, the serpent is able to stay in the dry arid Sahara desert as well as in the cold icy snow of the Artic Circle. The first question that comes to mind is 'What food will the snake eat?' Some snakes can eat once a year or once every few months. How many of us can do that? Not having to eat very often is one of the keys to the success of snakes everywhere. Snakes are masters of contentment because with very little, yet are able to live for many years. They only eat once a while. Snakes don't have to eat often and need a twentieth of the food of warm-blooded mammals their size. Because they have a slow metabolic rate, they can survive without eating for many days at a stretch. After a big meal, a king cobra can survive for many months without food.

When a minister of the gospel has the wisdom of a serpent, he will be able to live without needing many things. Like snakes, ministers must not need many things for the ministry to do well. If you are wise as a serpent, you will not need to have an air-conditioned house, a special car, a special house, a special office, etc., in order to work for the Lord.

Do not be deceived into thinking that the world has been reached with the gospel. Television ministry is not a substitute for a real pastor who lives in the village where the people need him. But where are the pastors who will go to the towns, the villages and the highways? The people who would have gone on these missions are prosperity-seeking members of large churches all over the world. To send such people, you would need to provide a certain kind of house, electricity, generators, special jeeps, special communication gadgets, a personal air ambulance service, emergency stand-by doctors, international schools for their children, and the list goes on.

The serpent, however, does not need all these things to survive. It actually needs very little to stay alive and to persist in that environment. Today, there are many countries that do not have electricity and water at all. Some of these places are in great need of pastors and evangelists. Who will go there? Only those with the wisdom of the serpent! Only those with the wisdom of contentment!

Paul and the Spirit of Contentment

Paul had the spirit of contentment. He had received a command from the Lord to be content in every circumstance. To be content means to be stable, happy and satisfied with your circumstances. God's command to us is to have a spirit of contentment. Paul reveals that God had instructed him to have that attitude. Amazingly, Christians today do not have that attitude. Is it that we are not hearing the voice of God? Has the spirit of the world taken over? Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I AM INSTRUCTED both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Philippians 4:12-13

Discontentment is what caused the kings of Israel to fall into error. God warned them not to go grasping after many extra things. Similarly, God is warning ministers of the gospel not to seek to multiply worldly things unto our lives. How can you work for the Lord when you are following the burning desires of your eyes and your flesh?

You either have the spirit of contentment or the spirit of the world! When you have the spirit of the world, you are full of grasping desires for what everyone else has. How can you be content when you are filled with grasping, longing and striving for the things in this world? If you see someone having something, you must also have it. It is this spirit of comparison and competitiveness that opens the door for the demons of the world to flood into your soul. The spirit of the world is described clearly in the Bible. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:16).

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A planned meeting between former President John Dramani Mahama and the Greater Regional Executives of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is causing uneasy calm in the party.

The move has incurred the wrath of a group calling itself Action Movement of NDC, which wants the former President sanctioned for calling the meeting which they claimed was against the party's constitution.

According to the movement, they have become aware that a news release has been issued purportedly by the Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the NDC, V.S. Quarshie Adonoo inviting some gurus in the region to a meeting with the ex-president on Friday, July 21.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by the movement's Spokesperson, Kodzo Hamenya Keglo, said the meeting is being arranged not under the auspices of the Functional Executive Committee of the party and it was clear that the former President's actions were in breach of the NDC Constitution.

Capacity Challenge

Nowhere in the NDC Constitution does it allow for non-functional executives to call for such meetings with regional executives. Mr. Mahama is not the leader of the party and so, in what capacity is he calling this meeting?

When this man was President and Leader of the party, he never thought it prudent to meet regional executives for any party activity. Today, he has realized that there's a need for him to meet regional executives? Clearly, the former leader is in a 'comfortable lead' to jumpstart his campaign for a possible comeback to lead the party. But he must be called to order  he is destroying the party, the movement charged.

Mr Mahama, who is contesting the NDC flagbearership race, is having a head start under the guise of thank you tour across the regions.

Individual Ego

As a former leader, he needs to respect the structures of the party and act within the confines of the structures. There are other potential leaders interested in running for office, but they are patiently waiting for the party leadership to set the ball rolling before they get down to work.

If the party leadership had any backbone, Mr. Mahama should have been sanctioned by now. This is how democracy dies. No individual is bigger than the party. Every party person who believes in our constitution needs to stand up to Mahama, the group warned.

Subtle Campaign

It is becoming clear that President Mahama has already hit the ground running as far as his campaign to lead the NDC once again is concerned, and this can be judged by what looks like a stage-managed rousing welcome he has been receiving from the party's supporters recently, allegedly calling on him to contest again.

For instance, when he visited the Northern Region last week, his travel itinerary was leaked to some NDC members in the region to prepare for his arrival.

An alert titled JM to be in Tamale this Afternoon, had said T-shirts, buses, fuel and monies are made available to some youth groups to welcome him today at Tamale Airport at 3:30pm.

He is going to Busunu, for his late mother's one year 'adua' (Islamic funeral) and later meet some Northern Caucus for a meeting in an undisclosed location, the alert added.

Suitable Flagbearer

The struggle to lead the party in 2020 has intensified, as behind-the-scenes movements have been noticed by those who have publicly decided to contest to become the NDC's flagbearer.

The former President, who is the frontrunner, is also not leaving anything to chance, ensuring that he is reinstated to try his luck again after the humiliating defeat he suffered on December 7, last year.

On December 7, 2016, then opposition NPP candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made sure that Mahama's dream of a re-election did not become a reality by knocking him (Mahama) out with 5,716,026 votes (representing 53.85%) as against 4,713,277 votes (44.40%).

Interestingly, Mr. Mahama after succeeding Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, who had died suddenly in office on July 24, 2012, went ahead to win the December 7, 2012 contest, albeit in a controversial fashion, with 5,574,761, representing 50.70% as against Nana Akufo Addo's 5,248,898, which represented 47.74%.

As it is, the NDC will be going into the 2020 presidential contest with a deficit of over one million votes, and has also lost their commanding majority in parliament to the ruling NPP.

By William Yaw Owusu
Lieutenant General Obed Akwa, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), has said the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) will soon conduct a pre-deployment training for anti-galamsey operations to reverse the unbridled exploitation of the natural resources.

The deployment of the military personnel would help salvage the polluted water sources, farmlands and forests caused by the activities of the illegal miners.

The CDS on Sunday said this at the GAF mid-year non-denominational religious parade held at the Burma Hall in Accra on the theme: 'God is Our Fortress: In Him We Trust'.

The mid-year parade is held every quarter for members of the GAF to re-affirm their faith in God, re-assess the state of the profession and engage in soul-searching and chart the way forward.

It brought together officers from the army, navy and the air force to give thanks to God for His protection and guidance.

The CDS tasked the military personnel to be committed to God and government and the people of Ghana by exhibiting the highest professional ethics and expertise and eschewing tendencies of unprofessional attitude and complacency in the discharge of their duties.

He said, We trust those to be deployed will do a good job.

Lieutenant General Akwa entreated the personnel to apply trust in their daily activities, as much would be achieved if they worked in an atmosphere of trust rather than bickering and in-fighting that would destroy them.

He also implored the leadership at all levels to ensure the enforcement of discipline and avoid meddling in civilian affairs and develop mutual respect and spirit of cooperation.

Dr Samuel Adama Larmie, pastor of the Legon branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, in a sermon urged Christians to have faith and trust in the Lord, irrespective of trials and urged them to have hope in God.

Lieutenant Colonel Umar Sanda Ahmed (Rtd), Ghanas Former Ambassador to Egypt, in an exhortation also admonished Muslims and Christians to seek fortune through the Almighty God/Allah and not any other means.

The ceremony was characterised by the delivery of hymns and a medley of songs by the mass band of the Armed Forces and the Security Services Choir.

As part of the service, prayers were offered for the nation's peace and stability, higher authorities, security services, peacekeepers, the sick, job creation in the country and for good environmental care.

GNA
The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, Sulemana Braimah, has cautioned Journalists who will be attending todays media encounter with President Akufo-Addo not to patronise him at the meeting.

The President will render accounts to the public through the media, and also open up to questioning from a host of Pressmen at the encounter dubbed #6monthsofresults.

The MFWA believes the President can offer the most objective accounts if the media is franlk with him.

Its not every citizen that can go the Presidency to ask questions, so you serve as conveyer belts for our citizens. As Journalists we should think through and plan carefully and frame our questions in ways that will elicit the responses that we want, and if questions are not answered satisfactorily when it gets to the turn of another media house, you agree and reframe your question to get the required response and not asking the same questions, Mr. Braimah stressed.

Alread, government spokespersons have explained that the President will not engage in praising himself, although his Partys national Chairman has given him a flattering score of 80 % .

Meanwhile, employment creation and security have topped the list of Starr News survey of Public expectations of the encounter.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must step up the fight against corruption as he promised to do during the 2016 electoral campaign, Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has said.

According to her, many Ghanaians have confidence in Mr Akufo-Addo to fight the canker and believe Ghana will be doomed if he fails to deal with it during his tenure.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Tuesday 18 July ahead of the presidents encounter with the press at the Flagstaff House, Mrs Ofori-Kwafo was of the opinion that Nana Akufo-Addo has not done much to fight corruption in the first six months of his government.

She noted that Mr Akufo-Addo has no excuse and should not succumb to pressure from corrupt persons in his government to not fight the menace.

The president knew what he was coming in for when he campaigned on anti-corruption promises and committed so much to fight corruption if you have to deal with corruption for your party to sink, he is a man of integrity. He should stand by his words. Which is more important: you the individual getting richer and the entire nation not succeeding and your own campaign message not coming on? Is that what hes looking on? I think the issue is bigger than one individual and the president should be able to deal with the canker. We are in support of the commitment that he has made, but we want to see the action, she told show host Moro Awudu.

She continued: Corruption is a crime and we cannot cover up for anybody. Hes been a former Attorney General, he knows what it is to deal with the canker. He knew it when he was campaigning and making the promises and people have voted for him for that. If there are individuals in his party who are corrupt and are afraid to sink, they shouldnt be asking the president not to deal with the matter. We, civil society organisation and individuals, are very much aware. We are looking forward to a president that can deal with the canker. Some have said if Nana Akufo-Addo fails us in dealing with corruption then Ghana we are dead. We will not be able to address the matter again. Individuals are becoming more enlightened and will not sit down for this to happen. Very soon people will be on the streets advocating that individuals to be dealt with. So if there are people in his government engaging in corruption, this is the time that he has to show that he is really committed to the fight and deal with such people.
Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Ms Freda Akosua O. Prempeh has hinted that the Akuffo Addo led government will soon re-establish the defunct Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC).

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Today, the Deputy Minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North Constituency in the Brong Ahafo region opined that her ministry is in talks with some institutions to fashion out the modalities for the re-establishment of the defunct BHC.

The Tano North lawmaker explained that governments intention to re-establishment of the defunct bank is to support the real estate industry with credit facilitate.

"The country's housing deficit is in the region of over 1.7 million and government alone can not bridge this gab hence the re-establishment of the defunct BHC" she opined.

The Deputy Minister further explained that the bank will prove long term credit facilitate to estate developers to put up affordable housing for the working class.

"When there is long term credit facilitate readily available for the construction of houses, the cost will come down compel to what pertains in market currently" Ms Prempeh added.

According to her the Works and Housing Ministry is working on a couple of other interventions to fill the housing deficit as well as making housing affordable.

For instance ministry putting measure in place to acquire land banks across the country for investors so that the cost of housing could come down. She noted.

Ms Prempeh announced that government will soon lay before Parliament the Real Estate Bill among others to sanitise the housing sector.
There is an old adage that says: When a frog comes from under the water to tell you the crocodile's mother is dead, you don't challenge it. What that means is that you do not go verifying issues when you have hard evidence. That is a case one can liken to the description given to the Ghana's Parliament by the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, that the third arm of government is weak.

Many people hold the notion that Ghana's Parliament is the weaker of the three arms of government which include the Executive and the Judiciary. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this long held notion was collaborated by no other mean person than the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, on the 12th July, 2017 on the floor of Parliament.

And if this is the case, what does it mean for our democratic governance and what needs to be done going forward?

According to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu the practice where bills and promulgation of laws are initiated by the Executive has not helped matters. According to him, the introduction of Private Amendment Bill was long overdue.

The Private Amendment Bill when it becomes operational like it exists in other jurisdictions will enable Members of Parliament (MPs) to initiate their own bills and promulgate new laws. This is one of the many ways which will make parliament effective and stronger.

Currently, bills are initiated by the Executive but Parliament goes through its procedures which look more of a 'Proofreading' kind of thing. For instance, Parliament on Tuesday, 11, July, 2017 sat for less 30 minutes because the ministers who were scheduled to present papers on the floor failed to appear before the House.

Another thing that keeps weakening t Parliament is the selection of ministers from the August House. Article 78 (1) of the 1992 Republican Constitution mandates the President to nominate majority of his ministers from parliament.

Again, the issue of high attrition rate in Ghana's Parliament is also a major contributor, since most MPs do not go past four years (one term). For example, the 7th Parliament has 182 new entrants (first timers) in the 275-member chamber. Of the 93 continuing members, not many can be described as old hands. This, coupled with other challenges, weaken the strength of the Legislature further.

Ghana's parliament is gaining 'notoriety' for being the only place where members, no matter how revered one may be in the area of parliamentary work, is regularly choked out callously. The membership of the House seems to get renewed comprehensively at every four years.

When this current democratic dispensation (Fourth Republic) started some 24 years ago, from January, 7, 1993, the major opposition party then the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which won the 2000 and 2004 elections and currently the ruling party boycotted the first parliamentary elections that ushered in the Fourth Republic.

For instance, the first batch of 61 elected members of NPP who entered parliament in 1997, there is only one left in the 7th parliament and he is the person of Mr Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu.

On the part of the current opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the situation is worse. For example, out of the 189 members who entered the Legislative House in January 1993, only one has survived till today, and he is the person of Mr. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, MP for Nadowli West constituency, in the Upper West Region.

The NDC in the 2016 general elections lost 80 seats. Mr Bagbin due to his experience and in-depth knowledge in parliamentary issues was elected to the position of Second Deputy Speaker.

The high attrition rate has affected Parliament in so many ways that currently there are second term MPs who are occupying some high positions which obviously should have been occupied by at least a third term or a fourth term members.

The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, attributed his assertion to the extreme partisanship exhibited by both sides in Ghana's Parliament.

It's partisan because members gain entry into the House on party lines through elections and always carry their party's interests ahead of that of the nation.

We have a very huge responsibility as a country to be able to grow our democracy beyond elections, the MP for Asawase Constituency in the Ashanti Region opined.

He noted during an interview that he was not surprised when the Ghanaian parliament was ranked second to none in Africa by a research published in 2015 because there is too much partisanship in parliament.

According to him, the protectionism being exhibited in parliament was dangerous to the nation's democracy.

For our democracy to thrive, steps must urgently be taken to amend some portions of the 1992 Constitution to meet modern trends. Also the powers that be should devise a way to maintain some experience hands in the House.

It is incumbent on legislators from both sides of the House to be nationalistic in their attitude and dealings for the country's law-making chamber to be strong as well as meeting international standard.
The Chinese government is set to deliver 4 patrol boats to the Ghana Navy by the end of this month, July 2017.

The Chinese have also pledged to provide military equipment to boost bilateral defense cooperation. This includes four vehicles mounted with machine guns, and a 120,000-round of amour.

This was announced by Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, who told Citi News that the patrol boats will help Ghana efficiently guard its coastline.

The biggest problem with us is that, the navy is down with boats so our coastline is not as rigorously guarded as we have wished especially the eastern sides. So we appealed to them and they decided to help us with boats. So they decided to fulfill that promise. When the Vice President went there, he reminded them about it. By this month, the patrol boats will be here and then they will be sending six people to train our navy on the usage of the patrol boats.

The Chinese government has been heavily criticized by Ghanaians for supporting some government institutions in the country.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana in June 2017, presented GHc 10,000 and some office equipment to the Attorney General's office, to support an event.

Some Chinese businessmen also donated the sum of GHc50, 000 to the Ghana Police service

Some Ghanaians claimed that the donations were a subtle by the Chinese to influence the Ghana governments fight against illegal mining which some Chinese were heavily engaged in.



By: Naa Kwaamah Siaw-Marfo/citifmonline.com/Ghana
MTN Ghana has held a stakeholder dinner in honour of MTN Group Board members and other top executives, who paid a two-day working visit to Ghana from July 6-7, 2017.

The team was in Ghana for a strategic planning session.

The MTN Group Board constitutes the highest decision-making body for MTN, a multinational that operates in 22 countries.

This is the first time MTN Group is holding its board meeting in Ghana, and the aim is to foster stronger partnerships with customers, partners, media, and policy-makers, among other, key stakeholders to stimulate growth, especially in the digital space.

The theme for the event was, A Night with MTN Group Board  Partnering for a Progressive Digital Future.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Twum Asante, reiterated MTN's commitment to forming meaningful partnerships in order to develop mobile and digital innovations that would provide lifestyle-propeling solutions for customers.

Group Chairman, Phuthuma Nhleko, paid glowing tribute to MTN Ghana for its sterling performances over the years.

He also thanked the government, traditional authorities and all other stakeholders, including customers, trade partners and media, for their support to MTN since it acquired Scancom PLC in 2006.

He also chronicled the great milestones of the company.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, was the Guest of Honour.

For the past decade, MTN Ghana has invested over US$2.5 billion in network and information technology infrastructure.

The company has also made significant investments in 142 major projects in communities in which it operates.

Dignitaries that graced the occasion were the Special Guest of Honour, Dr. Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Nigerian High Commissioner, Sector Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, other Ministers of State, Chairman of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede, Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Kwaku Sakyi Addo, customers, partners and other stakeholders.

It was also attended by all MTN Ghana executives, and board members of both MTN Ghana and MTN Ghana Foundation.
Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng (middle) flanked by Yofi Grant (2nd right) and Jean Claude Bastos de Morais (2nd left) interact with an exhibitor.

Government has announced that it's committing 1 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to research and development in science, technology and innovation.

Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a two-day Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) exhibition and awards, which started yesterday in Accra.

IPA 2017 is an important opportunity for Ghanaian innovators, enablers, entrepreneurs to forge new partnerships with regional innovation leaders to expand our nation's innovation footprint.

MESTI is implementing cabinet's directive to establish a presidential advisory council on science and innovation; a national science, technology and innovation policy, and an STI Fund to finance research and development.

He said the President has science, technology and innovation at the heart of his administration's socio-economic development agenda, adding that in an attempt to build a solid science and technology infrastructure, his outfit had established technical committees to work towards the establishment of various machine tool centers to assist innovators to transition their ideas from prototypes into industrial products.

My ministry has established an innovation centre at CSRI to provide facilities that technology innovators need to scale up and power their innovations in the areas such as energy production, transportation, agriculture, road construction, waste management, security for both domestic and industrial purposes and cyber security.

Yofi Grant, CEO of GIPC, in a remark, noted that Ghanaian innovations often go unregistered and unseen.

In the global innovations index by the world's intellectual property organisation, the three best ranked African countries are South Africa at number 57; Mauritius at number 64 and Kenya at number 80.

South Africa only registered 314 international patents, Kenya filed 11. In the same period, China filed 48,168. USA filed 56,595 and Germany filed 18,315.

So we still have a lot of work to do to absorbing the innovation on the continent into the global world. So we can actually get them to register other than that they will miss out on a big pool of resources that the world offers.

Jean Claude Bastos de Morais, founder of the Africa Innovation Fund (AIF), thanked government for supporting the event and also for its commitment to innovation.

Six years ago, AIF initiated the IPA to support African innovators by unlocking their potential and catalyzing the African innovation spirit, promoting home-grown solutions for Africa's prosperity.

IPA is a leading platform on the African innovation landscape; it has a network of 6000+ African innovators spanning 50 countries; 45 of the continent's top innovators and 35+ innovation enablers.

This year's awards, which take place today, will see 10 nominees, who contending for the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), in Accra.

Innovators from nine African countries, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, have been shortlisted for the prestigious prize.

Top innovators will win a grand share prize of US$150 000 plus attractive entrepreneurial opportunities for nominees and other qualifying participants.

IPA 2017 is hosted by AIF in collaboration with government, represented by MESTI, GIPC and Ghana 60 Years on Planning Committee.

By Samuel Boadi

[email protected]
Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance (left) presents the award to Mr Robert Le Hunte, MD, HFC Ghana

HFC Bank Ghana, a subsidiary of Republic Financial Holdings Limited, has been awarded for Exceptional Diaspora Investment in Ghana.

The award is in recognition of investment of the Republic Financial Holdings Limited of Trinidad and Tobago in HFC Bank Ghana.

HFC Bank received the award at the prestigious Diaspora African Forum Excellence Awards Dinner.

Managing Director of HFC Bank, Robert Le Hunte, expressed the bank's gratitude to the organisers, Diaspora African Forum, for the award and the Government of Ghana for the Diaspora Homecoming Summit initiative.

Mr. Le Hunte recounted the history of over 60 million Africans, who were forcefully removed from the land of their birth and transferred primarily to the Caribbean to work under inhumane conditions.

In his view, he and other Caribbean citizens currently working at HFC Bank represented the descendants of the fellow Africans.

Republic Bank's investment of US$100 million in HFC Bank represents one of the largest single investments by a Diasporan country back into Africa, and signifies the confidence that the bank has in the stability and future prospects of the Ghanaian economy.

He also mentioned that following on the heels of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago's visit to Ghana last year, a trade mission from the Caribbean will be visiting Ghana in September 2017, which will further deepen the investment and trade climate among Ghana and the diaspora countries of the Caribbean.

The Award dinner was attended by both the President and Vice President of Ghana, together with their spouses, Ministers of State, Members of the diplomatic Corps and Diasporans in Ghana.

The dinner was part of the Diaspora Homecoming Summit, and in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Diaspora African Forum.
Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana, Yolanda Cuba, has emerged as the Industry Personality of the Year at the just-ended Ghana information Technology and Telecom Awards (GITTA).

Yolanda has already exhibited a will to win and has put in place a comprehensive strategy to transform the telecommunication giant.

Her love for CSR and community engagement, for instance, has led to the launch of Instant schools  a digital educational platform, which is currently giving free extra classes for students across several academic cycles in Ghana.

With less than eight months into the launch of the initiative, a total of 1.8 million users have been recorded.

Yolanda has also been instrumental in the launch of Vodafone SuperCare  a dedicated customer service line for the speech and hearing impaired in society.

Additionally, she led the company to embark on an extensive strategic cost programme, which yielded impressive results in the area of operational costs. These efficiencies are also responsible for a significant improvement in Vodafone's Earnings before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortisation* (EBITDA), as the company looks to return to profitable levels in the near future.

Vodafone also won three other awards on the day; Digital Transformation, Best Wholesale Company and Telecom brand of the year.

Commenting on the awards, Ms Yolanda said: I am proud of each of the awards but I, particularly, want to single out the digital transformation award. We committed a few months ago to drive digital inclusion in Ghana and began our transformation journey. It is exciting to start reaping the fruits of our commitment and actions. We do not have the biggest budget but we have the biggest will to win and that is most satisfying.

The GITTA awards night is Ghana's first and only platform for recognizing excellence in the ICT industry.


Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has admonished public and civil servants who often frustrate potential investors through their unfriendly attitude to change.

According to him, the contributions of the investors were crucial to reducing the high unemployment and creating wealth for the citizenry.

Speaking at the Inauguration and Orientation Programme for the Ten Member Team on Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication (IPEP) Implementation in Kumasi recently, he urged civil and public servants to act as facilitators to potential investors that visit the country to create businesses, noting that the government wants to make the country fertile for the private sector to flourish.

The senior minister said the Akufo-Addo administration was relying heavily on the private sector to lift the economy from its current messy state to an appreciable level within the shortest possible time.

He also added that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration also wants to make the country conducive to attract investors from Africa and beyond.

The laudable government programme is under the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives.

It has categorised the country into three belts geared towards eradicating poverty and fairly distributing wealth among the people.

The three zones include the Coastal Belt Development Authority made up Greater Accra, Volta, Central and Western Regions.

The Middle Belt Development Authority comprises Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions.

The third zone named as Northern Development Authority Belt is also made up of the Northern Region, Upper East and Upper West Regions. Government has created the belts to rapidly develop the country.

He said programmes such as the 'One district, One factory,' 'One village, One dam,' small businesses development and the one million dollar per constituency, among others, would ensure prosperity.

Mr. Osafo Maafo noted that government has grouped the regions with similar business potentials to accelerate growth, and urged the 10-member committee for each of the region to work closely to ensure positive results.

He debunked claims that the NPP administration was working at a slow pace in terms of the introduction of programmes to boost the economy, saying that most of the government's programmes require legal backing, hence the delay in the start of some of the programmes.

Mavis Hawa Koomson, Minister of Special Development Initiatives, stated that government's decision to introduce IPEP clearly showed that it was determined to eradicate poverty and create wealth for everybody.

Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, charged the committee members to identify investment potentials in their various areas so that they could readily supply the information to investors to accelerate growth.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi


Drawing upon two years' worth of impertinent comments, offensive tweets and harmful policy positions, Donald Trump can aptly be described with a number of words that end in "-ist."

Protectionist. Nativist. Misogynist. Racist.

And now we can add to the list: Restrictionist. Politico recently reported that Trump and his White House aides are quietly working with two GOP senators to dramatically roll back legal immigration. According to the site, Trump plans to get behind a bill being introduced later this summer by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia that would cut in half the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country each year.

I have to ask, what part of "legal" do these Republicans not understand? And does anyone in the party still wonder why the GOP is considered by many to be not just opposed to illegal immigration but flat-out anti-immigrant?

But, as the president showed while he was in Europe for the recent G-20 summit, one "-ist" word that doesn't fit Trump very well is isolationist.

The fact that Trump gets stuck with that label so often is an indication of how the global elitists who hover around insular outfits like the Council on Foreign Relations don't "get" this president. They don't have the foggiest idea why he appeals to those around the world who know oppression and expect the United States to do something about it.

The elites brush aside Trump's missile strike in Syria, his dropping of the "Mother of all Bombs" in Afghanistan, his efforts to repair the relationship between the United States and Israel and his threatening rhetoric toward North Korea.

Instead, they define isolationism as narrowly as possible, focusing on the president's justifiable decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and terminate the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They also like to harp on his admittedly boorish treatment of foreign leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

But one need only look to Trump's inspirational and resolute speech in Warsaw's Krasinski Square. While you'll never hear this from the anti-Trump media, it said a lot that the address was attended by no less a giant of history than former Polish President Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

Trump's critics seem to think that this is the sermon of an isolationist: "On behalf of all Americans, let me thank the entire Polish people for the generosity you have shown in welcoming our soldiers to your country. These soldiers are not only brave defenders of freedom but also symbols of America's commitment to your security and your place in a strong and democratic Europe."

And this: "Polish heroes and American patriots fought side by side in our War of Independence and in many wars that followed. Our soldiers still serve together today in Afghanistan and Iraq, combating the enemies of all civilization. For America's part, we have never given up on freedom and independence as the right and destiny of the Polish people, and we never, ever will."

And this: "America and Europe have suffered one terror attack after another. ... During a historic gathering in Saudi Arabia, I called on the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations to join together to drive out this menace, which threatens all of humanity. We must stand united against these shared enemies to strip them of their territory and their funding, and their networks, and any form of ideological support that they may have."

And this: "We urge Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere, and its support for hostile regimes -- including Syria and Iran -- and to instead join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies and in defense of civilization itself."

And this: "Our citizens did not win freedom together, did not survive horrors together, did not face down evil together, only to lose our freedom to a lack of pride and confidence in our values. We did not, and we will not. We will never back down."

And finally this: "The West will never, ever be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph."

Holy smokes. If these are the words of someone who would like to withdraw from the world, I can't imagine what we'd hear from someone who wants to go all in.
The Association of Magistrates and Judges, Ghana (AMJG) has clarified that its threat of strike is due to the inability of government to pay the salary arrears and not ex-gratia as has been reported by some media outlets.

Justice Victor Ofoe, President of the Association who spoke to Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM on Tuesday July 18 explained: It is factually not correct that judges and certain category of people are entitled to certain benefits every four years; that is not the case.

He indicated that committees review the salaries and allowances of judges and magistrates every four years and if there are any increments they are backdated.

However, backdated salaries have not been paid to members for months and every effort made to the Finance Ministry to have them paid have not been successful.

He said the situation has placed a financial burden on some judges and magistrates as they have to use their own means to finance accommodation, transportation, and other needs.

You increase the persons salary but you continue to pay him the old salary and you have to pay him the difference between the old salary and the new one that has been constitutionally determined by a body. So it is not benefit that is gotten every four years, he pointed out.

Committees sit virtually every four years then they come out to determine the salaries of a certain category of people including judges. Invariably they find themselves increasing the salaries and as a matter of course backdate the operative date of the salary so it is these arrears in salary that the judges of the superior causes are claiming and not benefits they take every four years, neither is it ex-gratia as I am told Graphic has reported; it is not ex-gratia.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has slammed president Akufo-Addos commitment in fighting corruption.

According to the anti-corruption group, the presidents resolve to crack down on corrupt practices in his government is unimpressive.

Speaking Tuesday July 18, 2017, on Morning Starr, the Executive Director of the GII, Linda Ofori Kwafo said much has not been done to tackle the menace by the president after six-month of being in charge of governance.

Her comments come ahead of the presidents much anticipated encounter with the media later in the day where he is expected to answer questions bothering six-month of his stewardship.

Citing some alleged cases of corruption that went uninvestigated by the government, she said From where I sit and from the point of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) I wouldnt say we are wholly satisfied.

Most Ghanaians are not very much impressed with the way and manner these matters are being addressed. The swiftness I think we are not seeing it at all and we are not very happy with the manner in which government is approaching the anti-corruption fight, she added.

On his part, the former Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short noted that it appears decisive actions are not being taken by the government to crack down on corruption after six-month in government.

He said Ghanaians will only be satisfied if the fight against corruption is taken seriously.
18.07.2017 LISTEN

Researchers studying both cellular and viral disease agents in the laboratory have become infected since the early days of microbiology 150 years ago. However, in the early 21st century, new concerns about bioweapons being used to generate terror and also with a series of newly emerging or newly understood disease-causing microbes have resulted in infections and deaths of workers studying these microbes in the laboratory, generally to gain understanding and to develop treatments and vaccines.

Here, five examples are summarized: (i) smallpox virus escaped from a UK laboratory where it was being maintained and stored, (ii) the 2014 infections and deaths of five researchers who were isolating West African Ebola virus for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing epidemiology studies, (iii) and (iv) two recent infections that happened in the same US laboratory where researchers were infected with agents causing septicemic Yersinia plague and Bacillus anthrax and (v) the 2012 death in California from laboratory infection by Neisseria meningitidis resulting in spinal meningitis.

Beginning March 2014, a devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa caused widespread suffering and damaged fragile public health systems. The nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were hit hard by the crisis  the deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history  with more than 10,000 lives lost. The recent outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo occurred last May close to an American laboratory in Uganda near DRC border. The number of victims was insignificant in comparison with disaster 2014 in West Africa, however several US companies were suggesting that vaccines against this virus were developed by them.

Conspiracy theories that Ebola is bio-weapon created by the West to depopulate Africa refuse to die away. Leaks from within Western establishments and the behavior of these capitalist powers fuel the theories. They are difficult to ignore.

The number of the american research laboratories working on protection against bioterrorism has increased from 20 to 400 over the last ten years. Most of these centers appeared in african countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, DRC, Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Egypt.

US government agencies have a long history of carrying out allegedly defensive biological warfare research at labs in Liberia and Sierra Leone. This includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is now the point agency for managing the Ebola spill-over into the US.

It seems to me, that what we are dealing with here is a biological warfare work that was conducted at the bio-warfare laboratories set up by the USA on the west coast of Africa. And if you look at a map produced by CDC you can see where these laboratories are located. And they are across the heart of Ebola epidemic, at the west coast of Africa. So, I think these laboratories, one or more of them, are the origins of the Ebola epidemic.

Laboratory-acquired viral and bacterial infections in research facilities happen. Although less common than infections of clinical workers handling patient samples, infections of researchers with serious pathogens can lead to death. This is an increasing problem as governments of USA and technically advanced nations have increased research on potential bioterrorism agents and as concerns have grown about capture of such bioweapons by rogue nations and non-government groups.

With all the latest news of the spreading outbreak understandably giving rise to public fear and panic that it is just a plane ride away now, millions if not billions on this planet are pondering whether the African pandemic might be rapidly turning into a global epidemic spreading to every corner of the earth. Of course to reduce these concerns, the World Health Organization (WHO) and US government are busily downplaying the risks to citizens here in North America.

Specific character of Ebola spreading and high lethality of the virus allows to kill people selectively targeting villages, cites or countries. And if a state for a case of unforeseen circumstance already has a developed and tested vaccine then a biological war might be very fast and successful.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is funding Ebola trials on humans, trials which started just weeks before the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The reports continue and state that the DoD gave a contract worth $140 million dollars to Tekmira, a canadian pharmaceutical company, to conduct Ebola research. This research work involved injecting and infusing healthy humans with the deadly Ebola virus, which started in January 2014 shortly before an Ebola epidemic was declared in West Africa in March.

So developing biological weapons from collecting monstrously lethal specimens of the Ebola virus should come as no surprise. Or when considering this already long and extensive US military history, repeatedly guilty of human slaughter on such mammoth, unprecedented scale, it should not be so shocking to realize the military purpose of Ebola as yet another highly destructive weapon in its vast lethal arsenal could be potentially used to eliminate an enormous segment of this planets readily expendable current human population.

In bringing the two Ebola infected Americans back from West Africa to the CDC, in addition to optimizing their survival chance, the other all too obvious explanation is to harvest their Ebola cells for extraction that will then be used to patent the most deadly strain ever known to man. Then for what reason the US needs the patient? There are two theories worked out, by the way by American experts. One of them describes mass panic after casual virus leakage from laboratories. Its followed by outbreak of the disease in a city, a country or the world. And it doesnt even matter that there is no epidemic all.

No doubt the US government is highly invested in Ebola for both potential profits developing a vaccine as well as for a potential final solution as a convenient biowarfare global population-killer. Speaking of profits, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals , a pharmacological company appears during the mass hysteria and presents prepared vaccine. The drug is being bought by millions peoples as well as governments and somebody after developing medicine against local virus gets huge benefit.

Its really not a big jump to suspect that the military has also been doing research on Ebola as a bioweapon. Its stable nature in aerosol make it attractive as a potential biological weapon. What better place, via the eyes of the U.S. military, to be messing around with such research than Africa? The thinking might go: If there is a misstep with the virus, research blowbacks dont happen around US civilian populations. There is no smoking gun here, but one can certainly draw dots around the facts that suggest the U.S. military was the bad actor in this Ebola breakout. USA have been using DRC, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone as an offshore to circumvent the Convention on Biological Weapons and do bio-warfare work.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has said he prefers having a noisy, boisterous sometimes scandalous media of today to the monotonous praise-singing sycophantic one of yesteryear.

Addressing journalists at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, 18 July vis-a-vis his first six months in office, the president said although the media has been criticised for overstepping its freedom of expression limit following the repeal of the criminal libel law, I dont regret in one bit my role in getting that colonial law expunged from Ghanas statutes even though he is always criticised for leading the repeal.

He said I cannot complain about the lack of exposure about my thoughts, policies since I took office, adding that he was grateful to the media and the presidential press corp for always trumpeting his policies.

He said he was delighted by the vibrancy of Ghanaian media. The Ghanaian media has enriched the nation's governance by its persistence, curiosity and investigative skills. Ghanaians deserve to know what we are doing and why we are doing it and how that would lead to the betterment of lives, the president said.

Nana Akufo-Addo said his first six months in office has been eventual and intends meeting the press twice every year not to deliver a mini-state of the nation address nor announce my achievements but rather, guided by the principle of accountability.
The much anticipated press conference with President Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo is presently underway at the Flagstaff House.

President Nana Addo is expected to use his first press conference to highlight his achievements and challenges since he assumed office in January 2017.

The meeting is also to give the media the opportunity to question the President on his policies so far.

Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, had said the President will not use the platform to shower praises on himself, but will use the occasion to touch on his achievements and challenges, and also outline policies he intends to roll to fulfill his many promises to Ghanaians.

Mustapha Hamid said although many called on the president to hold that meeting after a year in office, he believes it is better to hold it as soon and frequent as possible.

This is not the first time a sitting President will avail himself for an exclusive time with the press to account for his government, and also answer direct questions from them.

Former Presidents John Mahama , John Atta Mills and John Agyekum Kufuor, also held a few of such meetings while in office.

The last of such interactions then President John Mahama held was in January 2016.



By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
President Akufo-Addo has said that he does not regret his role in getting criminal libel law repealed.

According to him, he prefers the media's role of checking government and criticizing its activities rather than a praise-singing one.

Speaking at his first special interaction with the media at the Flagstaff House in Accra, Akufo-Addo said although he has been one of the most victimized persons by the media, he believes it was important that the media had the ability to do so.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the John Kufuor government in 2001 led the government to ensure the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law that saw government controlling private media.

The repeal, which was largely praised by media owners and practitioners, de-criminalizes libel and gives citizens the option to use civil means to check the practice of journalism in Ghana.

Many have said that that the repeal of the law, despite a positive stride, has resulted in irresponsible reportage and inappropriate content across some media platforms in the country.

But addressing the press, President Akufo-Addo said, I know there are some who take issue with the media on several fronts and even go as far as criticizing me for my part in the repeal of the criminal libel law because it has made the media too free. Even though I have been one of the greatest victims of the irresponsible section of the media those who have created an industry from spewing falsehood and outright fabrication against my person, I don't regret my role in the repeal of the old discredited law.

He added that his effort has ensure that the Ghanaian media has become one of the most best in the Africa and has greatly contributed to the development of the country.

The repeal has inspired the Ghanaian media to be one of the most freest and most vibrant on the entire continent of Africa if not the world. I must prefer the noisy boisterous sometimes scandalous media of today to the monotonous, praise-singing, sycophantic one of yesterday. That Ghanaian media has in fact enriched the nation's government by its persistent, curiosity and investigative skills.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
President Akufo Addo has stated emphatically that the government will not extend the deal with the international Monetary Fund (IMF).

He says the government will end the program within the scheduled date of April 2018.

Responding to a question on the apparent impact of the program on the government's proposed projects, the President stressed that the NPP government will not go beyond the April 2018 deadline.

Typically in April next year, it will be completed under this government, he stated when he addressed the media on Tuesday.

There have been various comments whether or not the NPP government will extend the IMF deal agreed upon by the former NDC government.

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo at his vetting indicated that the NPP government will review the deal.

The IMF has also asserted that it will consider a possible extension of the deal should government make any official request to that effect.

But Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta has maintained that the government is committed to ending the program in 2018.

Commenting further, President Nana Addo said the deal is expected to be concluded with the 2018 budget slated to be presented to Parliament in November 2017.

The program will be coming to an end next year April with the budget that will be announced in November this year. There is not going to be a question of whether the program will be extended, he remarked.

Ghana in 2015, entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for economic assistance.

The deal concluded with a funding support of 918 million dollars to be disbursed under eight tranches.

So far, the Fund has provided three disbursements to Ghana.

Some of the key issues that have dominated the signing of the agreement include the freezing of public sector employment, reducing the budget deficit, zero financing of the budget deficit by the Bank of Ghana.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa's respected former finance minister Pravin Gordhan called Tuesday for President Jacob Zuma to resign, stepping up pressure on the embattled leader.

Gordhan joined a growing number of activists in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) along with anti-apartheid veterans and business leaders who have appealed for Zuma to leave office.

Gordhan was seen as a bulwark against corruption until he was sacked in March in a government reshuffle that triggered unprecedented criticism from senior ANC figures including Zuma's deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.

"I think the president should move aside and let somebody take over this country and reset the course," Gordhan said in a debate to commemorate Nelson Mandela Day.

Gordhan remains widely popular among many South Africans but is not seen as a potential presidential candidate.

Zuma has been engulfed by graft scandals and has faced several humiliating court rulings while grappling with record unemployment and a sluggish economy.

On August 8, parliament will vote on a motion of no confidence in Zuma, which he is likely to survive due to the ANC's majority.

Opposition parties have campaigned to have the vote conducted by secret ballot to encourage disaffected ANC lawmakers to vote against him.

The Constitutional Court has directed the parliament Speaker, Zuma-loyalist Baleka Mbete, to make a ruling on the matter before the vote.

Zuma, 74, is due to step down as head of the ANC party in December, and as president ahead of the 2019 general election.

The vote for the ANC slipped to 55 percent in last year's local elections -- its worst-ever election result.
The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), following meetings in London have expressed their interest to co-invest in developmental projects in Ghana.

Projects such as railway infrastructure, power projects (generation and distribution), general infrastructure needs among others were under discussion for the investment.

This agreement was made when the Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo Marfo and other Government of Ghana officials visited the offices of the CDC in the United Kingdom.

CDC revealed that they had several investments in Ghana which includedCal Bank, SG-SSB Ltd., Ghana Leasing Company, Ltd., Tropical Glass Company, Ltd., as well as supported several private equity firms who had in turn invested in several other projects to promote development in Ghana.

Speaking on the agreement to co-invest, Solomon Asamoah, CEO of GIIF said, "Ive known and worked with the CDC for a very long time in my previous roles at the African Development Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and IFC. It is very refreshing to hear the CDCs interest in Ghana.

He added that As the CEO of GIIF, my role and goal is not to simply invest the US$250m anchor money the GOG have provided for GIIF, but to also grow those funds. Investing or co-investing with the CDC is the kind of package or plan that I believe will allow us to achieve this.

He further appealed to the CDC to support Ghana through the infrastructure expansion phase that the country is about to undertake.

The Director and Head of Infrastructure Team at CDC, Sameh Shenouda expressed CDCs intense interest in Ghanas development. CDC has a focus on the energy and utilities sectors of Ghana and will be happy to support investments into these sectors, he said.

According to him, a partnership with GIIF gave CDC the assurance and risk mitigation required to make some of the investments. We look forward to working with the GIIF and the rest of the team in Ghana to pursue investment projects that interests Ghana. He added.

The Senior Minister, Hon. Osafo Marfo explained that the current governments private sector focused approach to development expected to create more jobs through the private sector.

He encouraged the CDC to engage with the government of Ghana and Ghanaian businesses to enable them align their investment interests with that of the country. He also called on businesses to invest in the different sectors of the Ghanaian economy; agribusiness, railways, mining, energy, among others.

The other officials included the Minster for Railways, Hon. Joe Ghartey, the Deputy Minister for Energy, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe and the CEO of GIPC, Mr. Yofi Grant.

The visit was part of activities organized by the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC) with a big conference where over 250 British investors interested in Ghana met and deliberated on business opportunities in Ghana.
Bogoso (W/R), July 18, GNA - Three young men who attacked and robbed some Chines nationals of an amount of 26,000 Ghana cedis and other belongings have been arrested by the Police at Bogoso.

The suspects are two teenagers Sampson Azakeh, 16, Anthony Biafo, alias small boy danger, 16 and Baba Musah 21 were nabbed by the police upon a tip-off at Atonsu Eggyya, a community near Edwira Asante in the Asante Region.

Briefing the media in Bogoso, Chief Inspector Foster Berko, officer in charge of Bogoso Police Station said in April 29 this year, the suspects attacked the Chinese nationals at their explosives factory at Anwona Nkwanta, near Beppoh in the Prestea Huni/Valley district and made away with the said items.

He said on May 29 the suspects attacked the Chinese again, but this time around they brutalized them and bolted.

Chief Inspector Berko said the victims reported both incidents to the police, but no arrest was made.

The station officer said, upon further investigation, the police had information that the suspects were hiding at Edwira Asante where they were arrested.

He said when Anthony and Sampson were apprehended they told the police that Baba Musah an apprentice at a Anikoko, a suburb of Bogoso was their leader and he was also arrested for interrogation.

According to Inspector Berko, two other accomplices are currently on the run while the suspects are currently in police custody awaiting prosecution. GNA

By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA
As Lincoln Public Schools weighs changing how it ranks its high school students, the elimination of the traditional class rank method in favor of a broader recognition system makes sense.

After a year of studying the topic, a committee has recommended scrapping the long-established system for one that honors students for achieving certain grade-point averages, similar to the distinction strata seen at the college level.

The Board of Education is set to consider the change at its July 25 meeting. We encourage them to phase out the existing setup for current high school students while implementing the recommendation for future classes.

For one, the flaws of the standard class rank system now used by LPS and countless others are inherent.

When honors and advanced placement classes are weighted, students eschew art, music, journalism and other elective courses to pursue offerings solely to improve their rank instead of pursuing their passions. Students who get straight As can  and often do  fail to be valedictorian.

If all classes are scored equally, calculus carries as much weight as gym. This setup encourages students concerned about their rank to enroll in easier courses rather than more challenging options.

Both of those situations come with readily apparent shortcomings that fail to accurately measure student success  the intended goal of class rank. While schools need a means to differentiate students based on their academic success, the traditional system is growing in its obsolescence with each graduating class.

Despite the claims of some commenting on the Journal Stars Facebook page after the story was posted, LPS effort isnt to protect students feelings in some politically correct manner. This isnt protecting egos, nor is it indicative of what some derisively  and, in this case, incorrectly  chalk up to the mentality of fragile snowflakes requiring every kid to get a participation trophy.

At least 10 Nebraska districts, including many of Lincolns similar-sized peers in the Omaha area, have evolved by trading traditional class rankings for a more dynamic scoring system that better assesses students success and prioritizes being well-rounded.

Colleges, too, have begun devaluing class rank because of its relative uselessness as a uniform measuring stick. The wide variety of ranking methods muddies the waters for proving how prospective students stack up to others in their cohort.

If there were a perfect system, every school district in the country would employ it. Seeing as no such one-size-fits-all option exists, the standbys of class rank for college admissions and scholarship applications are increasingly inaccurate.

Apples-to-apples comparisons simply arent feasible anymore. Neither is the existing class rank system for Lincoln high schools. The district should adopt its committees recommendation to better and more fairly represent the achievements for its students.
18.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 18, GNA - Lord Tariq Ahmad, the British Foreign Office Minister of State for Commonwealth and the United Nations, has urged member states of the Commonwealth to uphold probity and accountability to help strengthen democratic governance.

He said good principles of democracy ensures that there was an increasing levels of accountability and transparency; and as such, if these principles were adhere to, there would be sustainable democracies across Africa as well as a better future to build upon.

The Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth), also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states including Ghana that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.

Lord Ahmad made this call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra during a forum organised by TEDx and hosted by the British High Commission.

The forum dubbed 'Africa's Young Commonwealth' aimed at discussing the relevance of the Commonwealth, its opportunities and the role of the youth in ensuring that the objectives of the Commonwealth are achieved.

Lord Ahmad, who was on a three-day visit to Ghana, noted that every member state of the Commonwealth subscribed to the importance of good governance; however, any member that does not subscribe, 'feels is best served in serving itself'.

He said there were more opportunities Commonwealth member states could leverage on, if they worked collectively and strengthen their relations.

He again noted that Commonwealth had recognized Ghana's sustainable democracy; as the nation could boast of seven credible democratic elections, three changes of governments, coupled with the respect of the democratic mandate being given each party.

'For democracy to be sustainable you must start on a foundation of respecting results and we have seen that in Ghana,' he added.

Lord Ahmad urged all governments to subscribe to these values, as there was always room for improvement.

He told GNA that there was also a need for nations to be focus, build transparency in decision making and in terms of how procurement works in the supply chain; stating that 'these are all opportunities to build for the future'.

Mr Elijah Amoo Addo, a Ghanaian Chef and Founder of the Food for All Africa Programme, also told GNA that through Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain decided to reward amazing youth across member states.

He said fortunately due to the concept of their programmes and models they run; as it could be easily replicated across member countries, it gave him the opportunity to receive the Queen's Young Leader's Award.

Mr Addo said the programme which was built on advocacy against food wastage, was a national food recovery project to build West Africa's first food bank in Ghana.

He said this would create efficiency and sustainable means of nutrition for vulnerable children, the aged and the mentally challenged.

He said currently the team provides food on a regular basis to 5,842 beneficiaries across Ghana, covering $ 8,000 to $ 10,000 worth of food products along the supply chain which could have gone wasted.

He therefore, called on Ghanaians to support the National Food Donor bill, which according to him would help regulate food donation and ensure that a lot more was recovered to support the vulnerable in society.

'With this initiative, our National School Feeding Programme will also be easily implemented,' he added.

Mr Addo said the bill when passed into law would ban supermarkets and hospitality companies from destroying their unsold foods, and donated it to charities or farms instead; this is coming as a result of the increasing amount of food that has been wasted along Ghana's food supply system.

He said as a Chef, he witnessed a mentally challenged man collecting food scraps in Accra, and feeding the other mentally challenged individuals on the streets, and this motivated him to embark on such a laudable initiative.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, July 18, GNA - Mr Robert P. Jackson, the United Sates Ambassador to Ghana has urged the government of Ghana to take concrete steps to rein vigilante groups who answer to powerful individuals rather than the of rule law.

He said President Nana Addo Akufo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's administration rode to power on a message of fighting corruption; and therefore, he was encouraged by the President's unequivocal declaration in April that impunity would not be tolerated under his watch.

Mr Jackson made the appeal in his address during the inauguration of the African Centre on Law and Ethics at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra.

The Centre was established by the GIMPA Faculty of Law in collaboration with the Fordham Law School and the law firm of White and Case.

He said the Centre could transform judicial and legal ethics - nurturing a model of moral and ethical integrity that could be replicated throughout West Africa.

Speaking on ethics and corruption, Mr Jackson said some amount of self-examination could have prevented the shameful 2015 bribery scandal involving dozens of judges and judicial staff in Ghana.

'Not one of whom, I feel compelled to point out, has been brought to justice,' the Ambassador declared.

'As the exposA by Mr Anas shows, more often than not, it is not introspection that shines the light on our shortcomings - it is inspection from outside.

'Nevertheless, instilling the principles of ethics, transparency and accountability into the training of young legal professionals - as this Centre plans to do - will go a long way,' he added.

Adding that he believed this sort of healthy self-awareness could take root here in Ghana.

Mr Jackson said within the next few weeks or months, Ghana's Parliament would be set to debate a bill being crafted by the Office of the Attorney General (AG) that would create an Office of Special Prosecutor focusing on corruption - related crimes.

He said the US Embassy was sponsoring a handful of Attorneys from the AG's Office to travel to New York and Washington, so that they could study special prosecution offices in the US and incorporate best practices in Ghana.

'My hope is that, once established, the Special Prosecutor might be granted the freedom and latitude to prosecute cases independent of political and social influence.

'My hope is that no one, including not one of the judges implicated by Anas, would be too powerful or influential to escape prosecutor's scrutiny,' he said.

He said the US welcomes Ghana's moves towards judicial professionalism; stating that 'Through our Security Governance Initiative, and working in partnership with the Attorney General and the USAID, we hope to implement a case tracking'.

'Courts will be able to use this system to bring transparency and efficiency to the legal process, reducing opportunities to collect 'facilitation fees' in exchange for expediting or burying cases.'

Professor Philip Duku Osei, the Deputy Rector, GIMPA, recounted that GIMPA had made significant progress since its establishment in 1961 as one of the key strategic institutions to develop the public administrative system, to provide civil servants with administrative and professional competence, and to plan and administer national, regional and local services.

He said the Institute, which attained a fully-fledge university status in 2004, would from next academic year introduce the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Mr Ernest Kofi Abotsi, Dean, GIMPA Faculty of Law, said GIMPA was the first university in Ghana to set up a Centre for Law and Ethics; stating that in the midst of ethics, corruption and graft do not thrive.

'Law doesn't work where ethics is absent,' the Dean said.

Dr Nightingale Rukuba-Ngaiza, Senior Counsel, Africa, Middle East and North Africa Practice Group, World Bank Group, said the work of the Centre would transcend the legal profession to other areas such as good governance and the public sector.

Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, former Chief Justice, who chaired the function, said the Legal Ethics Training Programme would offer law students a unique opportunity to discuss legal ethics and standards of professional practice with practitioners and legal experts from Ghana and around the world.

She said legal ethics was crucial for distinguishing between what was right and wrong.

Mrs Elizabeth Black, Global Manager of Social Responsibility, White and Case, said legal ethics was crucial to a healthy functioning society. GNA

By Iddi Yire/Godfred Ansah, GNA
Accra, July 18, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that the success or failure of his administration hinged greatly on the ability of government to create jobs for the teeming youth of Ghana.

'I do not need to repeat that the greatest challenge we face is the creation of jobs. Young people are very anxious about not finding jobs, and their parents are even more anxious about the future of their children after seeing them through school,' he said.

President Akufo-Addo who was speaking at his maiden interaction with the media at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Tuesday said 'I am well aware that the success or otherwise of my administration will be judged largely on job creation.'

He said though he inherited an economy in distress, the measures that his administration had put in place over the last six months would soon stimulate the economy and that the dividends would be manifest in the number of jobs that would be created as a result of those interventions.

The event enabled the President to render to Ghanaians, an account of his stewardship for the past six months, and to harness support for the initiatives he had espoused to change the socio-economic fortunes of Ghana.

He addressed issues ranging from the economy, security, rule of law, good governance, corruption, illegal mining, education, agriculture and infrastructural development.

President Akufo-Addo said a number of innovative interim packages had been instituted to help new entrepreneurs traverse the difficult early stages of setting up businesses, as well as the allocation of an amount of $100 million dollars as government's contribution to support the establishment of the district enterprises, one-District-one-Factory that would generate many jobs.

Government last week launched the National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Plan (NEIP) which is an innovative scheme, under the Business Development Ministry, committing $10 million of public funds which is expected to be leverage into $100 million from private sources to back the plan, that would help start-up businesses.

The President said an additional amount of $340 million had been leveraged from local financial institutions for the programme, with a further $2 billion, arranged a Suppliers Credit Facility from China to provide equipment, machinery and other facilities in support of the programme.

'It is now clear that this programme is destined to succeed,' he said.

GNA


Accra, July 18, GNA - A multi-stakeholder conference on financing social protection has been held with a call on faith-based organisations to play active role in advocating and working towards the improvement of social protection financing.

Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, who made the call in Accra on Tuesday, said the issue of social protection financing was key to the sustainable development in the country.

'There is no need to deny the closeness between the strength of the social protection systems and the sustainable development attainment of the country,' she said.

Addressing representatives from the Parliament, Ministry of Finance, UNICEF, the media and other Civil Society Organisations at the conference on the theme: 'Financing Social Protection to Reduce Inequality', Ms Djaba observed that social protection was a vital component of every nation building and required all hands on deck to help position it well.

She said both child labour and human trafficking were also a major problem confronting the country, and there was the need to raise funds to conduct operations and provide shelter for the rescued children.

This she said would help serve as safe haven during reintegration processes.

'We as stakeholders and donor partners should walk the talk to ensure effective financing of social protection to reduce inequality.'

Ms Djaba explained that the protection of the rights of the vulnerable was a collective responsibility and that all stakeholders ought to play an effective role in ensuring that issues of inequality extensively.

'The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is engaging in flagship interventions, which are identified under the National Social Protection Policy including the National Health Insurance exemptions paving way for children, mental disorders and the elderly to be exempted from paying contributions.'

Mr Samuel Addei, the Clerk of the Committee on Poverty Reduction in Parliament said the conference, which brought stakeholders together to deliberate on practical ways of financing social protection towards the reduction of inequality in Ghana, was timely.

He said a recent research in Ghana had demonstrated that both poverty and inequality could be reduced by social protection programmes.

'This notwithstanding, there are substantial challenges given that social protection programme coverage is still limited, weak and under-resourced, with an average total spending of 0.61 per cent of Gross Domestic Product between 2009 and 2014,' he added.

'It is against this background that I find this gathering very timely and useful, especially as it gives the opportunity not only to strategically collate input into the development of the 2018 national budget influence allocations for social protection programmes but also to brainstorm on a way forward with regard to finding sustainable financing for social protection programmes in Ghana'.

He therefore called for strategic partnership and collaboration between the committee and various stakeholders engaged in social protection data generation, policy analysis as well as the development of ideas to accelerate inclusive national economic development.

He entreated members make input into the draft bill when it is sent to parliament to help create a robust financing system for social protection programmes,

Mr George Osei-Bimpeh, the Country Director of SEND-Ghana, organisers of the conference, said the country had achieved some successes in drafting development policies that promoted human progress, however, Ghana had since the 1990s seen the growth inequality getting out of control.

He said the highest level of inequality was registered in the Upper West region and it represented the largest increase.

Mr Osei-Bimpeh noted that lack of fund, irregular and unpredictable as well as inadequate disbursement of resources towards the implementation of social protection programmes was some of the inconsistencies that had made social protection to be hindered in the country.

He called for collaboration and coordination among key ministries, departments as wells as agencies related to social intervention programmes.

Mr Kwadwo Ansah, the Principal Economics Officer at the Ministry of Finance noted that poverty and income inequality appeared to be deeply rooted in the Northern region adding that 'Government spending on poverty reduction had increased significantly over the years,' he added.

GNA

By Elsie Appiah-Osei/ Julius K Satsi/ Janet Zeylisa Dauda, GNA
18.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 18, GNA - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is hosting experts from the Americas and Africa to deliberate on the outbreak of the Fall Armyworm (FAW) infestation that is rapidly spreading across Africa.

The FAW is said to be destroying farm crops, especially, maize across the continent, thereby causing significant yield losses and posing a serious threat to food security.

As at June 2017, more than 25 African countries including; Ghana had been confirmed of recording armyworm infestations since the first official report of FAW presence in Nigeria, in January 2016.

The swarms had affected more than 1.5 million hectares of maize in just six affected countries.

The affected countries are Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and it was feared that if the infestations were not controlled, it would pose a serious threat to African agriculture and food security.

It is against this background that the FAO, the technical agency of the UN, is convening the three-day meeting to exchange practical experiences and best practices on how best to manage the FAW.

Mr Bukar Tijani, FAO Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Africa said it was estimated that there were over 200 million people dependent on maize for food security in sub-Sahara Africa.

He said the characteristics of the FAW also made it difficult to control the pest, especially the moth that were strong flyers, and the fact that they breed at a high rate while their larvae could feed on a particularly wide range of host plants, including maize, sorghum, rice, wheat, sugarcane, cowpeas, vegetable crops, among other.

He explained that the pest that had invaded Africa was native to the Americas, where farmers and researchers had been managing and studying it for many years.

Mr Tijani noted that though the socio-economic context and production systems were quite different in the Americas, much of the basic information about the FAW biology, ecology, natural control and pesticide use was relevant to FAW management in Africa.

He explained that the meeting was therefore to gather partners including scientists and agronomists and other countries to listen to them and think of short, medium and long terms plans to deal with the infestation since various efforts being made by affected governments had yielded little results.

'That is exactly the objective of this Expert meeting: Learning from the experience of the Americas, where the pest has long been known and farmers have adjusted to manage it', he noted.

He said the Americas had capitalised knowledge, good practices, innovative policies and technologies that had huge potential to be shared, adapted and adopted, and therefore the recommendation from the meeting would be tested and adapted to local conditions across Africa via the Farmers' Field Schools and other forms of adaptive research.

Mr Hans Dreyer, Director of Plant Production and Protection Division of FAO said the need to involve the farmers in the deliberations and management of the pest was very critical to ensure that farmers were equipped to manage the pest themselves.

'Farmers should be made to identify the pest themselves, and to manage the pest on their own with simple methods of putting sand, ash and earth into the cobs to destroy the eggs of the pest', Mr Dreyer said.

He charged the participants to also explore the possibility of protecting other crops like rice, millet and sorghum from other pests and bring out solutions to preserve them from worm infestations.

That he said would help improve Africa's crop production systems.

Experts from Brazil, Mexico, North America, South Africa, Benin, Uganda, Cameroon and Ghana, would within the meeting period, build knowledge and share information and collaborate in dealing and managing the worm.

GNA

By Lydia Asamoah, GNA
Niamey (AFP) - Twenty-three west African migrants, including a seven-year-old girl, were found alive after being abandoned in the depths of the Sahara, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday

An IOM worker told AFP the migrants were found some 300 kilometres (180 miles) from the Niger city of Agadez, a key hub on the edge of the Sahara for African migrants trying to reach Europe.

The group, which included Gambians and Senegalese, told the IOM they had been abandoned by their driver.

They waited for him for six days before giving up and walking for two more days in the desert.

They were finally spotted near a well by local authorities who called the IOM, the official said.

Rescue operations -- and grisly discoveries -- have become routine in the Sahara.

"Hundreds of west African migrants have been found dead, or have disappeared or been rescued in dire straits in Niger's part of the Sahara," a group of Agadez officials said in a recent report.

In May and June alone, the bodies of 52 migrants including babies were found in the desert, while another 50 or so who went missing are probably dead, according to the IOM.

Last week the European Union gave Niger 10 million euros ($11.5 million) in aid to help it stem the flow of illegal migrants seeking to cross into Libya and from there to Europe.
Nigerias Minister of Information & Culture, Lai Mohammed, has not been allowed to drink water after making a speech on how to stop Nigerian entertainers from going abroad to shoot musical/ Nollywood videos.

The statement made by the Minister has not gone down well by many as he has been put on blast and more comments have been coming in with latest from Rapper, Yung6ix.

Yung6ix in a series of tweet, the rapper challenged the minister to tell Nigerians where his family members are currently receiving education before he can tell them not to shoot videos abroad.

Dear Sir lai mohammed, please address us and let the world know where your family members are currently studying. Justify your wicked acts. In a country that is supposed to be run by leaders it's heartbreaking to see that it is been run by looters.

In a whole country we can't even find one credible politician to stand for the people. Politicians should be stoned when making such a speech, I trust Nigeria is getting to that level. You are ruling people not statues

As we can clearly see he is. It currently capable of doing anything reasonable yet. Nigeria is been run like a private firm. You become a director and employ your friends steal what you want and leave. Smh Lai Mohammed seeking relevance in the wrong way. You and your government have failed our people with your countless demising moves. Shaking my head, he wrote.
The Mariposa Air Pollution District and Tuolumne County Air Pollution District have issued an Air Quality Alert for both Mariposa and Southern Tuolumne Counties.

This Air Quality Alert is in effect through Thursday, July 20, 2017.

Exposure to particle pollution can cause serious health problems, aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and increase risk of respiratory infections.

Residents are advised to use caution as conditions warrant. People with heart or lung diseases should follow their doctors advice for dealing with episodes of unhealthy air quality. Signs that the smoke may be bothering you include coughing, scratchy throat, irritated sinuses, shortness of breath, stinging eyes or runny nose. Sometimes symptoms may even include chest pain or headaches.

Additionally, older adults and children should avoid prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion, as conditions dictate.

For additional information, call your local Air District office. For Mariposa County, call (209) 966-2220. For Tuolumne County, call (209) 533-5693.

Detwiler Fire Starts

Detwiler Fire Day 2

Detwiler Fire Day 3

Detwiler Fire Day 4

Map of where Detwiler Fire started


Senator Tom Berryhill View Photos

Sacramento, CA  California lawmakers have extended the cap-and-trade program for another decade.

A majority of Democrats in the Senate and Assembly were in favor, while most Republicans were opposed. In the Senate, Mother Lode District 8 Republican Tom Berryhill was the lone vote in favor. While he criticizes aggressive climate change policies, he felt it was going to pass regardless, one way or another, so he says it was best to ensure that small business owners and rural Californians were well represented in the negotiations. He notes that the package suspends the $150 fire fee that residents in unincorporated areas have been paying for the past six years, which Berryhill calls an illegal fire tax. He says the legislation also prevents lawmakers from increasing taxes on gas by substantially more than one dollar per gallon.

In addition, there is a tax break for manufacturers and funding is included to help farmers and food producers cover the costs of reducing emissions.

A key part of the cap-and-trade program requires heavy industry polluters to purchase carbon credits to offset their emissions. Governor Brown has hailed cap-and-trade as a key part of the states efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and has encouraged other states to use it has a model.

Many other Republican Senators had a different opinion. District One Senator Ted Gaines feels that continuing the cap-and-trade program will significantly increase the cost of energy. Today marks the start of the next great California recession, says Gaines. A day where the legislature shows utter disregard for the lives of the working people in this state and chooses to impoverish them to fight climate change.

There was more bipartisan support of AB 398 in the Assembly, where seven Republicans were in favor, including leader Chad Mayes. Other Republicans voting yes included Catharine Baker, Rocky Chavez, Jordan Cunningham, Heath Flora, Devon Mathis and Marc Steinorth. Three Assembly Democrats were opposed, Adam Gray, Monique Limon and Mark Stone. No Democrats voted in opposition in the Senate.
The Republican Senate health care bill is simply a massive shift of wealth, $800 billion, from Medicaid to wealthy individuals and corporations.

Two-thirds of nursing home patients are there on Medicaid. Many will be denied further coverage and many more who need it in the future will not find it available.

Mitch McConnell says the Republicans must pass something, even if it is horrible, because they campaigned to do so. I suggest that if you pass a really bad bill, which this one is, you may wish you hadn't come re-election time.

So far Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse have not committed, though Sasse has put forth a poor idea of repeal and not replace for a year. Insurance companies will bail out of insurance exchanges altogether if that happens.

In their own words, insurance companies have stated that the reason they are leaving the exchanges now or raising premiums is because of the uncertainty of the funding of those exchanges because of threats from the Trump administration and the Republican Congress to take away that funding.

The right thing to do would be Medicare for all, but, in the meantime, Republicans in the Senate should work with Democrats to improve the Affordable Care Act.

That in itself would be a strange act in the Congress of 2017.

Al Mumm, President of Nebraska Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, Waterloo
- Etisalat Nigeria has officially announced change in the company's name

- The embattled telecom company will now be known as 9mobile

- The Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) had earlier asked Etisalat to stop using its brand name within the next three weeks

After news broke out that the embattled telecom company, Etisalat has changed name, the company has now formally adopted 9mobile as its new trade name according to Premium Times.

Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS) formally confirmed the development on Tuesday July 18.

Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), which previously traded as Etisalat Nigeria wishes to inform its over 20 million subscribers, government, regulatory agencies and all relevant stakeholder groups that the telecommunication company has changed its name to 9mobile as a further testament of our unwavering commitment to ensuring business continuity as Nigerias fourth largest telecom operator, the company announced in a statement.

Boye Olusanya, the company's chief executive Officer, explained that the new trading name, 9mobile, represented the companys 0809ja heritage, 9ja-centricity, and its evolution over 9 years of operations in Nigeria.

Olusanya also insisted that the name change will not affect the company's desire to remain true to the same values it was built.

A strong and resilient Nigerian spirit continues to reside in us, uniting us with our subscribers, confident that you will continue to believe in our new brand, which strongly reflects our innate creativity and youthfulness.

Our confidence in our ability to continue to make this happen is bolstered by the sheer determination, commitment and passion of our people to do more; and continue delivering excellent service," he added.

To ensure an efficient and responsible transition to the new name, the CEO said the 9Mobile announced plans to migrate to the new brand over the next few months.

We will continue to innovate, support, and empower you to do more, whether as an individual or a business, he said.

Legit.ng had initially reported that Etisalat Nigeria has on Thursday, July 13, changed its name after weeks of reported crises.

The management of the company at the end of a management meeting in Lagos adopted the name 9Mobile as the new brand name.

READ ALSO: PDP House of Reps issue President Buhari quit notice

Legit.ng had reported the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) directed Etisalat Nigeria to stop using its brand name within the next three weeks. ETC, the largest shareholder in the firm, had since terminated its management agreement with its Nigerian arm.

According to Legit.ng, the implication of the directive is that the new management must decide within the next 21 days on the options before it, which are either an outright sale of the company or merger with an existing operator in the country.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Etisalat, which controls 13 per cent market share in Nigeria, has had a running battle with a consortium of 13 banks since March, after it notified them of its inability to service its $1.2 billion debt in February due to the foreign exchange challenges in the country.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video of the latest happenings in the country

Source: Legit.ng
Fast rising Nigerian music Naomi Oyintare Mac-Ebiama has taken a bold step as she walks down the aisle with her long time sweetheart, Franceasco John in Lagos.

The couple on Thursday, July 6, had their church wedding in Lagos. On the same day Naomi and her sweetheart also had their court wedding at the famous Ikoyi Registry, Lagos.

Legit.ng gathered that the celebration is not yet over as the couple would be treating their guests to a lovely wedding reception somewhere around Ikeja, Lagos on Saturday, July 15. The aso-ebi has been picked and the bride cant wait to have her friends and family come celebrate with her.

Naomi Mac with her husband at their church wedding

READ ALSO: Nollywood actor Yul Edochie set to be Anambra state governor (photo)

Naomi Mac who was one of the finalists of the 2011 Nigerian Idols stunned in a beautiful white flowing dress for her church wedding and a green and gold gown for her court wedding.

Anyone who is close to the couple will know that they are a match made in heaven and cant do without each other.

Naomi Mac kissing her sweetheart

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

It could be recalled that on Monday, June 27, 2016, the bride who is signed on to House One Music released a single titled Ori Mi featuring music star, Adekunle Gold and produced by YBNLs record label producer, Pheelz.

See more pictures below:

She said 'Yes'

The couple at their court wedding

The couple showing off their wedding certificate

Mr and Mrs John

Happy couple

Mr and Mrs John

Happy Married Life!

Watch Legit.ng video below:

Source: Legit.ng
A Nigerian couple married for 22 years celebrated their wedding anniversary on Saturday, July 15, with beautiful photos of their family.

The couple who met in 1979 in secondary school have been blessed with three beautiful children two boys and a girl.

According to the husband and father identified as Rotimi Akinlesi, his relationship with his wife Bukola Akinlesi did not start until they went to the university.

He noted that they went to separate universities but they still found a way to be together. He went to the University of Ilorin and his wife was at Ogun State University now Olabisi Onabanjo University.

Couple married for 22 years stun the internet with beautiful photos of their family of 5 Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

READ ALSO: Pastor Paul Adefarasin and wife celebrate 22 years of marriage

Mr Akinlesi in his Facebook post, thank God for his wife and described her as a God fearing and supportive wife.

The happy husband also thanked God for watching over his family of five and asked God to give them more years together.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

See his full post below:

They have three children Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

They all looked stunning in matching outfit Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

The family of five looked stunning in matching outfit Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

They all wore matching printed shirt Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

They all looked stunning in matching shirts Photo Source: Rotimi Akinlesi

Wow! Beautiful family

Watch the video below of Nigerians telling Legit.ng TV if they can marry outside their tribe: Read more:

Source: Legit.ng
-Falz tha bahd guy's younger sister, Fola is engaged

- The pretty daughter of popular human rights activist lawyer, Falana finally said "yes" to her sweetheart

- Fola Falana is set to walk down the aisle soon with her man

Fola Falana is daughter of human activist lawyer, Femi Falana. The pretty lady is sister to famous musician, Falz tha bahd guy. Just recently she got a sparkling, emerald ring from her man who asked that she be his forever.

READ ALSO: Tonto Dikeh shares a photo of her sick friend actress Halima Abubakar

Falz and his baby sister are pretty close and the rapper couldn't hide his joy when his sister got the question a lot of ladies her age are waiting to get from their man.

The Falana's are pretty low key about the preparations but it is undeniable that they are all excited for Fola who is about to start a new chapter in her life.

Source: Instagram, Fola

READ ALSO: Kenyan women like Nigerian men - Niniola

As the wedding bells ring loud in the Falana household, we suspect Falz will dedicate a sensational rap song to his sister on her special day. Afterall, who best to benefit from the talent of the young man than his family?

Legit.ng earlier reported how a popular Nigerian musician proposed to his girlfriend with a brand new car.

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app

Watch Legit.ng video on what happens if your partner cheats two days before wedding:

Source: Legit.ng
The largest city in West Africa and largest city in Nigeria  is it the same place? Read below to find if you live in the largest and the most beautiful city in Nigeria.

Today, we will make a small list of cities which are considered the biggest in Nigeria, West Africa, and Africa in general in terms of population and territory. Lets find out what is the largest city in West Africa, the largest city in Africa, the most beautiful + the largest city in Nigeria. Here they are:

Ibadan city

This city is located in the southwestern part of Nigeria. It is the administrative center of Oyo state. Ibadan is considered to be the third largest city in the country after Lagos and Kano in terms of population.

According to latest Nigeria population calculations held in 2015:

3rd place - Ibadan population - 3 160 200 people;

2nd place  Kano population - 3 587 000 people;

1st place (Africas largest city) - Lagos population - 13 122 800 people.

It is interesting to note that, before Nigeria gained its Independence, Ibadan was considered to be the largest city in Nigeria and in the whole West Africa.

The majority of the ethnic composition of the town is represented by the Yoruba tribe. The citys urban area lies at the intersection of motor roads and railways. In addition, this city welcomes great masses of students as Ibadan is a place that has Nigeria's most prominent universities.

READ ALSO: North West states in Nigeria

Speaking about its territory, Ibadan city is believed to be the biggest Nigerian city (3080 km ). In comparison, Lagos territory is nearly 1000 km .

So, it is larger than Lagos by territory, but is not as overpopulated as Lagos.

Lagos

This is the largest city (most populated) and commercial capital of Nigeria. Lagos city is located on the shores of the Benin Lagoon and Lagos Lagoon. Administratively it consists of a huge number of areas that are scattered across great distances from each other and are connected by highways. It is the largest industrial and commercial center of West Africa.

Before the 12th of December in 1991, Lagos was the capital of Nigeria, but it was moved to Abuja at that time.

At the same time, according to the opinions of lots of Nigerians, it is believed to be the most beautiful city in Nigeria. From this, it is clear why so many Nigerians prefer to live here.

Abidjan

It is the economic and political capital of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, the administrative center of La Region des Lagunes, and at the same time the country's largest city.

Abidjan is located on 4 peninsulas on the shores of La lagune Ebrie of the Gulf of Guinea in the southeast of Cote d'Ivoire.

Its population reaches 4 395 243 people. So, it is more populated than Ibadan but smaller than Lagos by population.

Speaking about its territory, it is up to 2119 km . Therefore, it is larger than Lagos and smaller than Ibadan.

Lets make a conclusion. The largest city in West Africa in terms of Population  Lagos, Territory  Ibadan.

READ ALSO: Nigeria land mass by state

Source: Legit.ng
- A fact-sheet from the EFCC indicates that 11 senators from the north are under probe for alleged fraud

- The EFCC has charged seven other senators from the south to court for alleged financial irregularities

- A source from the anti-graft agency says the 11 senators not yet on trial will be prosecuted at the appropriate time

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is investigating 18 senators for alleged fraud amounting to the tune of N367.5b.

READ ALSO: Britain has worked against the interest of Biafra and majority of Christians in Nigeria  IPOB

Among the lawmakers being investigated, seven are currently on trial while some of the cases date back to 10 years, the Nation reports.

The cases against the members of the upper chamber are based a variety of alleged fraud ranging from money laundering, misappropriation, unexecuted contracts, diversion of public funds to campaigns, and others to the tune of N367.5billion.

Legit.ng learnt that a fact-sheet from the anti-graft agency on Monday, July 17, indicates that 11 of the senators under investigation are from the north while others are from the south.

According to the fact-sheet, the cases against the lawmakers include:

One or two senators (outside the list) are under investigation for their alleged involvement in the N19billion and $86million London-Paris Club refund in which seven governors have been implicated.

An alleged N47billion embezzlement against a former governor now serving in the Senate, a senator is standing trial for alleged mismanagement of N1.2billion ecological funds; another allegedly diverted to other uses N1billion meant for the repair of a collapsed dam.

The cases also include laundering of N40billion by a senator from the North-East; diversion of N3billion to campaign by a North-West senator; 149-count charge of mismanagement of N15billion by a senator from the north-central and the arraignment of a north-west senator for allegedly N52billion fraud.

There are N9billion case involving a senator from the South-East; N2.1billion contract fraud by a member of the upper chamber from the south-south; N10.2billion fraud traced to a senator from the north-west and N2billion diverted funds credited to a senator from the north-central.

Two aides of a senator, who is being probed for alleged illegal deduction of N3.5billion from the London-Paris Club refund have been quizzed.

Three new senators from the North-Central, South-East and South-West have been under investigation for some infractions, including alleged stamp duty collection fraud.

Confirming the cases against the senators, an EFCC source who spoke on condition of anonymity said while seven of the lawmakers are on trial, 11 others will be prosecuted at the appropriate time.

The case files of all these 18 senators are already with us. Seven of them are already on trial.

But, certainly, 11 others will be prosecuted at the appropriate time. It may interest you that some agencies in a few international jurisdictions are interested in some of the cases against some of these senators.

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It might also interest you that some of these cases predated the appointment of the present Acting Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu. But since continuity is a cardinal principle of the EFCC, Magu has decided to ensure that the matters in court are pursued to logical conclusion. There is also no waiver for all cases undergoing investigation," the source said.

The source however clarified that Magu had no personal problem with any senator as he inherited most of these cases.

In a related development, it was learnt that the senators under probe are lobbying for the halt of either their investigation or prosecution by the EFCC as part of the conditions for supporting Magu.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Jigawa state, Saminu Turaki, has asked an FCT High Court to commit Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for contempt of court.

Turaki urged the court to take the action against Magu for reportedly refusing to release him on bail.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the application was filed before Justice Yusuf Halilu, who is the vacation judge.

Legit.ng learnt that the application was filed on Turakis behalf by Regina Okotie-Eboh of Rickey Tarfa Chambers and the former governor is praying the court to jail Magu for disobeying its order.

In the video below, The EFCC organised a march tagged walk against corruption in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Source: Legit.ng
MOUNT PLEASANT  A new Burger King restaurant is planned for a Washington Avenue storefront that last housed Dickeys Barbecue Pit.

Pending approvals, a Burger King will come to 6012 Washington Ave. (Highway 20), the westernmost storefront of three at the Pleasant Point Commons retail center. That retail center also includes Polished Beauty Bar in the center and Firehouse Subs in the eastern spot. Village staffers have recommended approval of the Burger King, subject to certain conditions.

Dickeys, which opened in December 2015, has been closed for months, and the former franchise holder has not been available for comment about why the restaurant closed.

The Burger King will be a project of Chicago-based Cave Enterprises, a Burger King franchisee with almost 50 such restaurants in Wisconsin. They include the one at 3456 Douglas Ave. and Burger Kings in Oak Creek and Kenosha, said Cave Vice President for Development John Kayser.

Cave has also purchased the Burger King at 13348 Washington Ave., just east of Interstate 94 in Mount Pleasant, and will be renovating it, he said.

Kayser said Cave likely will make an approximately $750,000 investment to open the new restaurant in the former Dickeys. The remodel will include refacing the current building, completely remodeling and rearranging the interior and adding a drive-thru and some landscaping.

He said the company hopes to start construction at 6012 Washington Ave. by mid-September. We want a 2017 opening, he added.

With seating capacity of about 40, this 2,000-square-foot restaurant will be somewhat smaller than an average freestanding Burger King, which would seat about 60, Kayser said. It will employ about 30 people.

The approximately $2 million Pleasant Pointe Commons was developed by Racine-based Northterra Real Estate Group. The firm demolished The Oil Shop to make way for the center, which faces Washington Avenue.

Note: The incorrect name of Polished Beauty Bar was given in the original version of this story. The error has been corrected.
- Wife of the paramount ruler of Igbo-Etche kingdom, Eze Innocent Nwosu, Nkechinyere Nwosu, led women of the community to protest against the actions of rampaging Fulani herdsmen

- Mrs. Nwosu appealed to the monarch to seek the intervention of the state governor, as the herdsmens actions could escalate to something more deadly

- Eze Innocent Nwosu on his part, urged Wike to act immediately to prevent starvation in the land as the villagers were predominantly farmers and their crops were being destroyed by the herdsmen

Fulani herdsmen have allegedly besieged farmlands in the Igbo-Etche local government area of Rivers state, destroying crops and pointing gun and arrows, threatening anyone who dares to sound the alarm, Vanguard reports.

In reaction to this, angry women of the community led by Nkechinyere Nwosu, wife of the paramount ruler, Ekwu I of Umuekwune-Ohoro, Igbo-Etche kingdom, Eze Innocent Nwosu marched to the palace of the monarch, to urge him to take action.

READ ALSO: Nigerians still believe in PDP - Former President Goodluck Jonathan (photos)

The women also appealed to the state governor, Nyesom Wike, to come to their rescue as they were scared that the assault could escalate into raping females and butchering villagers.

Narrating the womens message to her husband, Nkechinyere urged the monarch to inform the governor to take immediate action to put an end to the deadly activities of the herdsmen.

According to the monarchs wife, there was hunger in the land due to the destructive actions of the herdsmen.

She stated: We want His Excellency, the governor of Rivers State to come and help us over these herdsmen and their cattle; they are destroying our farmlands.

They come with guns and arrows; when we talk, they will point guns and arrows at us and that is why we do not complain because we do not want to die.

In response, the monarch Eze Innocent Nwosu stated: We are peace loving people and we do not want to engage anyone in war; that is why we are calling on the governor to give urgent attention to the cry of Igbo-Etche people about the herdsmen.

If herdsmen destroy our crops, what do they expect us to feed on?

Eze Nwosu urged governor Wike to pay urgent attention to the matter.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that two people were reportedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Afam Uku in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers state.

The herdsmen were said to have attacked the victims for unknown reasons.

However, according to an eyewitness, the attack might have been because of the resistance from the victims against the destruction of their farm crops by the herdsmens cattle.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video about Fulani herdsmen massacre in Southern Kaduna:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Senate President Bukola Saraki at a meeting lamented about the high rate of smuggling in Nigeria

- Saraki said smuggling would rubbish any policies put in place by the federal government

- Saraki urged the Comptroller General of Customs Service, Hameed Ali, to put an end to the menace

Senate President Bukola Saraki has called on the Comptroller General of Customs Service, Hameed Ali, to put an end to the menace of smuggling in Nigeria.

Saraki said the high rate of smuggling in the country is killing small business and giving the government sleepless night.

He made this statement at a public hearing on tackling smuggling by the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs at the National Assembly, Abuja, on Thursday, July 14.

Saraki told Ali who was also present at the event that he could wear anything to approach the Senate if he could end smuggling in Nigeria.

He said: To the Comptroller General of Customs, let me say on a lighter note, that once you end smuggling, even if you want to wear jeans and T-Shirt, I will move the motion that you should wear jeans and T-Shirt.

But on a serious note, this issue is very important. Let us all work towards ending this menace once and for all.

READ ALSO: Igbo-Etche women raise alarm over rampaging Fulani herdsmen

Recall that Legit.ng earlier reported Ali had refused to appear before the Senate in his uniform, after being summoned several times by them.

Saraki said smuggling constitutes the greatest threat to the economic diversification drive of the Buhari administration.

He said: The singular greatest threat to the delivery of the promises made by President Muhammadu Buhari on the diversification of the economy is this issue of smuggling, the Senate President said.

The level of smuggling that we are seeing cannot continue because they will definitely rubbish all the policies of government if allowed to go on. I am saying that with all sincerity and all level of responsibility and I tell you why.

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Today, the greatest threat to small holder farmers is smuggling. Today, rice farmers who have gone to take loans either from the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) or from commercial banks are being threatened by rice coming in from across the borders at highly subsidised rate.

The meaning of that is that the imported rice will always be cheaper than those produced by our local farmers. A time will come, if we do not do anything, that these farmers will not be able to pay their loans to the banks and this will result in serious crisis.

"The banks that have given loans to these farmers, will also have crisis in their hands. And for the Central Banks that has intervened with billions of Naira again will not be able to recoup their money.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the Nigeria Customs Service has cautioned members of the public to be careful in buying any type of rice.

The customs said that there are poisonous and deadly bags of rice in Nigerian markets.

Reports have it that Comptroller Udo-Aka Emmanuel, the area controller of the command, made this known during a press briefing in Ibadan, Oyo state capital.

Watch video of the what Nigerian have to say about leaving their country:

Source: Legit.ng
- Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa (APC Zamfara Central) made the declaration about being richer than Aliko Dangote

- Senator Marafa said he is richer than the Africas richest man because the little he has is enough for him

Senator Garba Marafa (APC Zamfara Central) has categorically said that he is richer than Aliko Dangote, the Africas richest man.

Marafa said: Im extremely rich because to me richness is in the mind. It is not how much money you have.

''As far as Im concerned, Im richer than Aliko Dangote because the little I have is enough for me.

READ ALSO: Saraki visits Sokoto to commiserate with Tambuwal on Wamakko's demise (photos)

''I have never put myself in a very tight situation. This is my sixth year as a senator and Im still living in a rented house. I dont have a house in Abuja but I believe when the time comes Ill have it.''

The senator however said that despite the fact that he has been a senator for six years, he still lives in a rented house, Daily Trust reports.

He said he can not afford to buy a house in Abuja because he is always he does fail in his responsibilities.

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He also said that he promised the people that voted for him that he would not steal the money meant for them.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote revealed that he planned to invest $800 million in dairy production in Nigeria, Ventures Africa reports.

According to the report, the plan was part of Dangotes diversification plans into the Nigerian agricultural sector.

Watch this Legit.ng TV Video of Nigerian suggestions in some quarters that Nigerian senators are just receiving allowances and humongous salaries for doing nothing:

Source: Legit.ng
- Acting President Yemi Osinbajo held a closed-door meeting with internationally acclaimed rights activist, Malala Yousafzai late Monday, July 17

- Osinbajo has now spoken after Malala reportedly called for a state of emergency on the Nigerian education

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed what he actually discussed with the Pakistani rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, who visited and held a meeting with him in Aso Rock late Monday, July 17.

Speaking hours after the meeting, Osinbajo, who was said to have discussed issues relating to the Nigerian education with Malala, added that it was time to disabuse the impression that the girl-child is inferior.

Legit.ng reports that Osinbajo said he was pleased to receive Malala Yousafzai, a UN Messenger of Peace.

Osinbajo received Malala Yousafzai in Aso Rock on Monday, July 17. Credit: Laolu Akande

Her story is an inspiration for not only young women around the world but for us all.

Her ability to articulate issues and the courage to face down hatred and terrorism is widely acknowledged.

READ ALSO: Britain has worked against the interest of Biafra and majority of Christians in Nigeria - IPOB

While there is a connection between terrorism on the one hand and poverty and ignorance on the other, the challenge that terrorism poses on a global scale is much deeper considering cases of terrorism and hatred even in advanced societies where ignorance and poverty were not rampant.

We have to change the mindset and delegitimise the false ideas and notions of hatred and violence.

Getting people to enroll in school is the easiest part of the problem. The bigger issue is to ensure that we dont promote the mindset that girls are in anyway inferior, Osinbajo wrote.

Osinbajo wrote that he also met with a delegation of the World Leadership Alliance, better known as Club de Madrid which included two former African presidents: Festus Mogae of Botswana and Cassa Muttem of Mauritius.

The Club de Madrid, whose membership includes former President Olusegun Obasanjo, presented a report of a workshop it had conducted in Nigeria earlier this year on the issue of alternative narratives to counter violent extremism.

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Former President Mogae while presenting the report said that the objective of the World Leadership Alliance is to promote democracy, and in that effort had organised the workshop that included all stakeholders and the presidencys office of the National Security Adviser to address the issue of violent extremism, he said.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that Malala Yousafzai, the founder of the Malala Funds and girls education, visited Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Monday, July 17, 2017.

This visit is coming over two years after the young Malala Yousafzai paid a similar visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan over the detained Chibok girls.

Watch this video as Osinbajo recently delivered a speech concerning Biafra:

Source: Legit.ng
- PDP chieftain, Deji Adeyanju, says he has never witnessed the kind of hunger currently being experienced in Nigeria

- The personal assistant to the president on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, attributes the hunger in the country to looting by the past PDP administration

The personal assistant to the president on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, has slammed the former head of new media of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Deji Adeyanju, for saying Nigerians are hungry.

READ ALSO: 18 senators under EFCC investigation for alleged N367.5b fraud

Adeyanju had in a tweet complained that in his whole life he had never witnessed the kind of hunger currently being experienced in Nigeria.

The PDP chieftain said Nigerians could be seen begging everywhere due to hunger.

See Adeyanju's post below:

But in reaction to Adeyanjus statement, the presidential aide on Tuesday, July 18, said the hunger in Nigeria was due to the looting by the god mums/dads of the PDP chieftain.

See tweets by Onochie below:

Meanwhile, two allies of former minister petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, have approached the Federal High Court in Lagos to stay further proceedings in a suit filed against them by the federal government.

The federal government sued Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore last year alongside their companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited.

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Counsel to the federal government, Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in an affidavit attached to the suit filed alleged that the defendants unlawfully diverted a profit of about $1.8bn due to it on crude oil which they lifted and sold.

The lawyer stated that the accused also bought another set of vehicles worth over N130m and gave them out to Diezani and some other management staff members of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.

Oginni said Aluko, among others, also used part of the allegedly diverted funds to purchase a 26-flat property at 46, Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos for which he made part payments of $18,548,619.99 and N1,070,000,000 to FBN Mortgages Limited.

In the video below, Legit.ng TV asked some Nigerians if they can name any politician in the country who has not been accused of corruption.

Source: Legit.ng
YORKVILLE  Merz North America will plant deeper roots in Racine County with a $3 million consolidation and expansion that will retain 165 good-paying jobs and create up to 20 more.

Merz North America, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., operates four sites in Racine County for manufacturing and distributing aesthetics products used by dermatologists, plastic surgeons and neurologists.

Merz plans to consolidate its three leased facilities into one expanded location at 13900 Grandview Parkway. The new site will be home to the companys particle manufacturing, packaging, professional services and distribution operations.

Operations will continue at the 4133 Courtney St. facility in Blackhawk Industrial Park in Raymond, which Merz owns.

According to Matthew Anderson, vice president of technical operations for Merz North America, the company considered several options, including outsourcing distribution activities and relocating parts of its operations outside of Wisconsin, before deciding to consolidate its operations in Racine County.

The Wisconsin operation was the leading candidate for where Merz would continue the operations it started here 17 years ago, Anderson said. With support of a $750,000 forgivable Racine County loan administered by Racine County Economic Development Corp., Merz committed to a $3 million capital investment in Grandview Business Park. The loan is forgivable if Merz makes the capital investment, retains the 165 jobs and creates 20 new ones within three years.

Anderson said the project is about a 30 percent expansion there; construction is to begin Thursday, and Merz hopes to move into the new quarters next spring.

Anderson said the consolidation will increase efficiency of Merzs Wisconsin operations and fuel the companys continued growth in Wisconsin.

Merz is a privately held company based in Germany. Globally, Merz specializes in the research and development of drugs for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases and developed the worlds first drug for the treatment of moderate to severe stages of Alzheimer disease.

Locally, Anderson said, Merz manufactures:

Radiesse, a skin filler used by plastic surgeons and dermatologists for smoothing wrinkles and lines.

Coaptite, a product used by urologists for urinary incontinence.

Prolaryn, used to repair damaged vocal cords.

Calcium hydroxyapatite particles which are sold to a global medical device company for manufacturing of bone screws used in surgery. Merz also sells the particles to other small startup medical device companies for 3-D printing of medical products.

Anderson called Merz a premier place to work. The companys local 165 jobs are comprised approximately of 40 percent hourly jobs and 60 percent professional-level.

Merz is also involved in the wider community, Anderson said, with the Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization and food bank as examples.
- As acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, recently took an action following the death of some Nigerians in Bakassi Peninsula

- Osinbajo's action concerning the crisis has earned him commendation from an arm of the United Nations

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has received a commendation from the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) over the way he handled the recent conflict in the Bakassi Peninsula, which affected Nigerian fishermen.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the special representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of UNOWAS, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, gave the assessment while speaking in New York.

Legit.ng learnt however that Chambas as not happy that the crisis led to the killing of 97 Nigerians resident in the area.

The Nigerians, mostly fishermen, were reportedly killed by Cameroonian Gendarmes over failure to pay a N100,000 boat levy.

The report quoted Chambas as saying: But let me commend the initiative of the acting president of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who has already directed that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) should find out what numbers have come across the border to Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Internationally respected activist Malala Yousafzai in secret meeting with Osinbajo

He also asked the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) at the Cross River level to look into what numbers are being displaced from Nigeria as a result of this.

Do they need help? If they do, that authority should also ascertain the numbers involved and provide the necessary support these newly displaced persons may need.

So I think adequate response has been undertaken by the Nigerian side to cater for any Nigerians who might have come back into the country from Bakassi.

We commend that effort on the part of the Nigerian authorities.

Chambas, who noted that the conflict is of extreme interest to UNOWAS, especially with its involvement of the Joint Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission (CNMC), added: As I speak to you now, a team from my office has left Abuja where they have been consulting with officials particularly, the ministry of justice, Attorney-Generals office.

They have continued to Cameroon, they were in Yaounde last week, so we would look into this and other concerns.

For now, the information we have is that the issue had to do with an imposition of a new fishing tax in communities.

And this may have generated some friction between the different fishermen, including Nigerian fishermen and tax officials.

So just to say that this really was not related directly to the border demarcation issues but have more to do with a new tax that has been imposed by the Cameroonian authority.

Concerning the relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon, Chambas said: The relations between the two countries remain very good and we commend that and also we encourage their continuing collaboration on a bigger-ticket item - the fighting Boko Haram.

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We urge them to maintain this solidarity that they have with each other and to scale up the fight against Boko Haram, which is wounded but not dead yet, he said.

It was learnt that reports on the recent conflict stated that the attackers sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom and Cross River and Ondo states, and that this is believed to be a violation of the 2005 Green Tree Agreement (GTA) by CNMC.

Legit.ng recently quoted Acting President Yemi Osinbajo as saying recently that ceding Bakassi to Cameroon is a big loss for Nigeria but that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to helping Nigerians in the place.

Osinbajo said the federal government would do more for the people of Bakassi and will not leave them to suffer.

Watch this video as Osinbajo recently spoke about Biafra:

Source: Legit.ng
- The special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, Paul Boroh, said Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring there is peace in the region

- Boroh said the state is expecting investors to come and add more value to the region

The special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, Brig-Gen Paul Boroh, has commended President Muhammadu Buharis administration over its peaceful commitment in the state.

Boroh, the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, made this known in New York, US on Wednesday, July 17.

The impact of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta region has been very satisfactory and encouraging because the ex-agitators have imbibed that culture of ensuring peace.

READ ALSO: Rivers state government forged documents to indict Amaechi - Integrity group

This is to allow for growth in the region and they are happy about it because a lot of valuable entrepreneurship programmes are ongoing in the entire Niger-Delta region.

Their (ex-agitators) morale is high and they are happy. Each time I go to discuss with the ex-agitators and the youth, they pledge their loyalty and support to the present administration.

This is so that the administration can continue the good things it is doing because of the commitment of Mr President in ensuring peace, stability and development in the region.

The Niger Delta today is stable, peaceful and expecting investors moving there and help in adding value to the region, Boroh said.

According to him, well over 5,000 ex-agitators have benefitted within the past two years in critical areas of aviation, maritime, oil and gas and agriculture, Vanguard reports.

He also said agriculture was now the main focus of the programme in line with the governments economic diversification strategy.

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This is to ensure that the ex-agitators imbibe the details of the new agricultural policy so that they can be professional farmers at the end of the day.

This will create massive job opportunities, ensure that theres food security in the region and the country at large and again, enhance our financial position.

Niger Delta is stable and investors are moving in to continue their business, Boroh said.

''The presidential aide also explained that the programme has a terminal phase but that the ex-agitators would be empowered before the final phase. The programme has a timeline to phase out.

''It has to do with ensuring that the ex-agitators that are in the programme are adequately trained and empowered so that they can leave and this is ongoing,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh said no fewer than 317 ex-agitators graduated from different institutions in the U.S. and UK in 2017.

Boroh, who is also the coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, disclosed this in New York on Friday, July 14 when he visited Professor Tijjani Bande, Nigerias Ambassador/Special Representative to the UN and the Deputy Ambassador Samson Itegboje.

Watch this Legit.ng TV Video of recent issues being raised by Nigerians over the state of the nation and the non-popularity of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration:

Source: Legit.ng
- The 2 rice mills built with technical support from Thailand had become rusty after 10 years of lying fallow

- The minister of state for agriculture, Heineken Lokpobori, disclosed that with the reactivation project, the federal government aimed to integrate the Niger Delta region into its food security project

- Pending the signing of a final agreement, the Elephant Group is set to begin a reactivation scheme, starting with the mill in Rivers state

The N1.5 billion rice mills built by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) 10 years ago are set to become operational, thus creating 1,000 jobs via a mass rice production scheme, Business Day reports.

In addition, in a deal brokered by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture between the NDDC and the Elephant group - which will act as an operator- the region is also set to become part of the rice-growers scheme.

READ ALSO: How Godwin Obaseki won the Edo Gubernatorial Election

The two rice mills built by the NDDC in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states 10 years ago had remained fallow through successive managements.

As a result, they had become rusty, with various compartments missing.

The mills had been built with technical support from Thailand.

Heineken Lokpobori, the minister of state for agriculture, while speaking at the NDDC conference room in Port Harcourt on Monday, July 17, stated that the federal government aimed to integrate the Niger Delta region into its food security project, hence it orchestrated the reactivation project.

As soon as a final agreement is signed and both mills handed over, the Elephant Group is set to begin the reactivation scheme beginning with the mill in Elele, Rivers state.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the federal government has acquired 110 rice milling machines to be installed in different parts of the country, between now and July, to boost rice production across the country.

Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, confirmed this development.

The presidential aide had previously stated that Nigeria is the second largest producer of rice in the world.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video about Sunny Ofehe, the new face of Niger Delta development:

Source: Legit.ng
BURLINGTON  Fox River State Bank President and CEO Keith Pollek didnt realize how important opening a second branch in Lake Geneva would be until there were 21 inches of water in the Burlington location.

The heavy rain that hit Burlington and western Racine County on July 11-12 caused huge amounts of damage to homes and businesses in the area.

After several days closed, the Burlington branch of Fox River State Bank, 241 E. Jefferson St., is scheduled to reopen Tuesday, July 18. Nearby, Community State Banks Burlington branch, 308 Bridge St., was closed for almost three days because of its location near the river, but it sustained no damage from the flooding, said Greg Wall, the banks marketing director.

Even without a basement, the first floor of the Fox River State Bank flooded. But Pollek said employees were able to move computers that were on that floor to higher locations.

Employees still got paid

On Wednesday night, Pollek said his officer team met at his house to discuss what to do next.

We started going over our disaster recovery plan, and we were going over that step by step, Pollek said, adding that his home wasnt immune to the effects of the flooding. And we were going over that by candlelight and with a flashlight.

Pollek said that, fortunately, a lot of the banks business could be done online.

All the payments were handled, loan applications were taken, Pollek said. We never skipped a beat with the blessing of a second office in Lake Geneva nearby.

Although the branch was closed for several days, employees still got paid.

I immediately made the decision, Pollek said. We continued to pay everybody as if the lobby was open, and I think it was the fair and right thing to do.

Pollek said the bank is preparing to offer emergency loans to people and businesses who have been affected by the flooding.

People have been hit really hard by this, Pollek said. If they need some help fixing their house up or their business wed like to help them  we take our responsibility of being (a) community bank in Burlington very seriously.

Dam holding up

According to the City of Burlington, officials are continuing to monitor the Echo Lake Dam as it has received some damage from the flooding.

Andrea Stern, dam safety engineer for the state Department of Natural Resources, said the damage is not as bad as we were thinking.

Part of the embankment was eroding, Stern said. Over the weekend, we let it sit and again we started the drawdown (of water) today.

During the worst parts of the flooding, according to the City of Burlington, more than 80 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were deployed in the city to assist in emergency efforts. On Saturday, they were released from duty.
- Muhajid Dokubo-Asari called on the federal government to enter into dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta region

- He described the struggle as a moral one, and referred to those carrying out kidnappings as not being part of the Niger Delta

- He revealed that he had stopped eating five months ago and now existed on fruits, in preparation for what is coming

The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force (NDPSF), Muhajid Dokubo-Asari, has spoken about the Niger Delta struggle, The Cable reports.

Asari made his comments during an interview session on a television programme on Television Continental (TVC).

According to the freedom fighter, the Niger Delta struggle is not about war because his people do not want to die.

He stated that his people were open to dialoguing with the federal government.

READ ALSO: Be ready to face me in court for lying against me - Fayemi threatens SERAP

He said: Fifty years after independence, what is stopping the dialogue?

If they want to dialogue, let them sit with us.

We are not asking for war, we dont want to die.

I dont want to die, I have 21 children. I want to enjoy my life very well. Who is calling for war?

My people have never accepted Nigeria so how can I be Nigerian?

If we want to be Nigerians, we will all sit down and agree to give up our separate identities and accept Nigeria as our country.

Asari described the struggle as a moral one, and referred to those carrying out kidnappings as not being part of the Niger Delta.

He stated: These counter struggle elements were introduced to give the struggle a bad name so they carry out kidnappings and all sorts but they were unable to do that.

Some people go to the pipeline, take the oil, cook it and destroy the environment more than what Shell, Agip, Chevron and others are doing.

They are not part of our struggle, they are criminal elements.

People who kidnap, rape and steal are not part of our struggle, our struggle is a moral and religious struggle.

Some rogues want to associate them with us, we are not together but sometimes their actions aid our struggle.

Youre now kidnapping people, demanding for money; youre not part of our struggle. Amnesty came and was given to most criminal elements so we didnt take their amnesty bribe.

As part of efforts to restore peace to the restive Niger Delta region, Dokubo who was the former president of the Ijaw youth council was arrested by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He was eventually released by the late Umaru Musa YarAdua.

He stated further: I used to eat but I stopped eating five months ago. I drink water; eat nuts, banana and other fruits.

For five months now, I have not been eating because of what is coming in front.

I was weighing 153kg and I thought to myself that if the thing starts now, people go carry me dey run or which one so I decided to stop eating.

Before then, beans was my best food.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the president of the Ijaw council and founder of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Front, Asari Dokubo, announced that he is a Biafran.

Dokubo who spoke on a live London radio show said it is wrong for anyone to ask him whether he is Nigerian or Biafra.

The Ijaw leader during an interaction with the host of the radio show and deputy leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Alphonsus Okafor-Mefor, said he will not tender any form of apology to anybody for accepting he is Biafran.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video about the new face of Niger Delta development, Sunny Ofehe:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has condemned incessant attacks on its personnel

- Two staff of FRSC had reportedly shot and detained by police in Abia state

- Oyeyemi, however, said that the agency would ensure those involved are prosecuted

The Corps Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has condemned the unprovoked attacks and molestation of operatives of the Federal Road Safety Corps on the highways and vowed to prosecute all those involved.

Legit.ng gathered that Bisi Kazeem, Corps Public Education Officer, FRSC said the Corps Marshal's response came on the heels of the recent shooting of two FRSC staff and the detention of another in a police facility in Abia state.

The Corps Marshal stated: Many road users are abusing the civility of the unarmed personnel that are trained to be cautious while discharging their legitimate duties. In the past, many FRSC operatives had been abducted, killed, assaulted, ran over, threatened and shot.

It is also disheartening that some of the attackers misinformed the unsuspecting public by releasing manipulated information to gain public sympathy. Attempts are often made to make the aggressors looked like the victims."

The Corps Marshal said the FRSC remains the nations lead agency on road traffic administration and safety management empowered to arrest and prosecute erring motorists.

READ ALSO: UN praises Osinbajo over handling of Bakassi Peninsular crisis

He added: Section 10 (4) of the FRSC (Establishment) Act, 2007 states categorically that members of the Corps shall have powers to arrest and prosecute persons reasonably suspected to have committed any traffic offence. Resistance based on ignorance of the law or impunity can no longer be grounds to attack operatives carrying out their lawful duties. We will definitely not abdicate our statutory responsibilities."

ABIA (15/717)

"On the Abia case where our men were shot, the FRSC Corps Marshal said, While we commend the Abia state Police Commissioner for swiftly directing the arrest and orderly room trial of the policemen who shot the FRSC staff at Aro Ngwa along the Enugu  Port Harcourt expressway last Saturday July 15, the Corps is deeply saddened by the shooting.

It is also greatly concerned that the two young men were abandoned with their gun wounds by the policemen attached to the wife of the Speaker, Abia state House of Assembly who shot them. Obviously, they were left to die at the scene by these policemen who are also employees of government.

He thanked the road users that assisted the two injured and abandoned staff to the hospital, adding that he hoped the two victims, who are still been treated, will not suffer life-threatening injuries.

FCT (12/7/17)

The Corps Marshal also recalled the case in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where an "investigating panel revealed that a patrol team flagged down a driver for routine checks. When his car was to be impounded for running foul of traffic laws, a female staff was attached to the offender's vehicle to accompany the vehicle to a nearby FRSC office for other necessary processes as contained in the operational procedure to be effected, the driver sped away with the female staff.

"A patrol team, obviously concerned about the motive of the fleeing driver, had to apply force to rescue the female operative. The manipulated video which the suspect released afterwards only told one side of the story. The Corps is determined to follow through with the suspect's prosecution as a deterrent.

JIGAWA (14/7/17)

"The case in Jigawa was also pathetic. An FRSC patrol team was carrying out its legitimate duties along the Kiyawa  Dutse road in Jigawa state when a team of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) officials challenged the team for daring to check vehicles for excessive overloading and installation of the Speed Limiting Devices.

"They not only set the FRSC patrol vehicle ablaze but aso badly damaged another vehicle. The FRSC office was also destroyed by the rampaging NURTW officials. The Jigawa incident resulted in fatality as one person was killed and several others injured.

OYO (15/7/17)

"It will also be recalled that an FRSC personnel in Oluyole Unit Command, Oyo State was almost strangled to death by a driver who was accosted for contravening traffic laws. The Corps has turned down the plea for out-of-court settlement by the now sober attacker."

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The Corps Marshal said that all the attacks had been collated, well documented and would be brought to the attention of all the relevant arms of government for necessary action. Enough, he said, was enough.

Meanwhile, the Corps Marshal has assured all staff that the Corps would not leave any stone unturned to prosecute all those involved in the recent spate of attacks. He also said additional steps were being taken to further protect staff performing their legitimate duties and asked them to continue to discharge their duties without fear or ill-will.

"The hall mark of gallant operatives is never to be deterred by negative influences but focused in the commitment to service for the sake of posterity, Oyeyemi added.

He appealed to all sister security operatives and the general public to always come to the aid of the Marshals when they are under threat.

"If the laws are not strictly enforced," he said, "road safety becomes the first casualty. Nobody knows the next victim." Wishing all road users safe journey always.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that a policeman and a DSS operative attached to the speaker of Abia state House of Assembly, Chikwendu Kalu, have been arrested for shooting two officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission.

Watch Legit.ng video of what Nigerians think about the police:

Source: Legit.ng
- Four Boko Haram terrorists surrendered to the Nigerian Army

- The terrorists claimed that they had been misinformed to join the group

- They expressed regret over their action

A high-profile Boko Haram terrorist, Konto Fanami, and three other repentant terrorists have surrendered to the Nigerian Army on Monday, July 17.

The army spokesperson, Sani Usman, announced this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, July 18.

Mr. Usman said that the four repentant terrorists willingly deserted their hideouts and surrendered themselves to 120 Task Force Battalion at Goniri in Borno.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Doyin Okupe joins Accord Party after dumping PDP

"On Monday 17th July 2017, four Boko Haram terrorists willingly deserted their hideouts and surrendered themselves of 120 Task Force Battalion at Goniri. Among them was a high-profile terrorist, Konto Fanami, the Ameer of Kafa hideout of the Boko Haram terrorists group that operates along Ajigin-Talala-Mungusum axis.

"During preliminary interrogation, they confirmed that they abandoned the terrorism because of incessant hardship and realizing that they were misled by their terrorist group leaders.

"They further stated they were also erroneously misinformed and brainwashed about Islam and the Nigerian military and the society generally.

The four terrorists that surrendered to the army. Credit: Nigerian Army

"The remorseful surrendered terrorists regretted their involvement in terrorism and marveled at the courtesy and humane treatment accorded them by the military on surrendering, the army spokesman said.

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He called on other remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists to follow suit and renounce the devilish creed.

"We call on those remnants of Boko Haram terrorists to follow suit and renounce the devilish creed as adequately arrangement has made to receive all those that voluntarily renounce terrorism and surrender themselves and will be treated humanely."

One of the Boko Haram terrorists who surrendered to the army. Credit: Facebook, SK Usman

Legit.ng reported that a group of community elders in northeast Nigeria urged President Muhammadu Buharis government to negotiate with Boko Haram as it did with Niger Delta militant.

The group said: If our leaders had the leeway to negotiate with the Boko Haram for the release of some of their captives, they should employ the same tactics to negotiate for the end of the insurgency.

The Government of Nigeria had earlier negotiated with the Niger Delta militants and succeeded. Let the Government do the same with Boko Haram.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of the army's operation again Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
- The federal government of Nigeria has awarded an oil block licence to Ondo state government for bitumen exploration

- The state government has also signed a memorandum of understanding with an agricultural company for the planting of rice in over 5,000 hectares of land

- Governor Akeredolu announced that the state has also signed an MoU with ministry of Niger/Delta and NDDC for the funding of 50km Araromi road in Ilaje LGA of the state to Ibeju/Lekki, Lagos

In efforts to diversify the economy and boost the countrys foreign exchange, the federal government of Nigeria has awarded an oil block licence to Ondo state government for bitumen exploration, given the fact that the state has the second highest reserve of bitumen in the world.

The minister of Mines and Steels Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi made this known at the 1st Ondo state Investment Forum held at the International Event Center (DOME), Akure, the state capital.

READ ALSO: Doyin Okupe joins Accord Party after dumping PDP

The minister who was represented by the director of Mining License in the ministry, Engr. Mohammed Amate said the bitumen reserve in Ondo state can serve the whole of Africa hence the federal governments decision to explore the opportunity towards economic development of the country.

Governor Akeredolu speaking at the 1st Ondo state Investment Forum held at the International Event Center (DOME), Akure, the state capital. Photo credit: Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye

Nigeria currently imports over 600,000 tons of asphalt per annum and the nation spends billions of naira on importation of asphalt every year. The naira is weak now because of much demand for dollar and less demand for naira and the poor export policy in the country.

With bitumen being produced in Ondo State, federal Government will ensure that none of its road contractors imports asphalt and I am sure that many state governments will prefer to buy from Ondo state because it will definitely be cheaper here than imports from outside the country, Fayemi said.

In his response, the Ondo state governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN, appreciated the Buhari led federal government for the partnership.

Consequently, the Investment forum which was held in conjunction with the Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative (PEDI) also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state government and WEMS Agro Ltd for the planting of rice in over 5,000 hectares of land at Akotogbo in Irele Local government area of the state.

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Our coastline which is about 120km, is one of the longest in Africa and is home to various fish species like sole snapper, croaker, barracuda, big eye grunter, catfish etc. This is an unchartered territory to be explored as part of this administrations drive towards economy diversification.

Let me announce to this gathering that Ondo state had been granted two Free Trade Zone (FTZ) licenses which are Olokola (being oil and gas FTZ in partnership with Ogun State government) and Ondo State Industrial City (as a non-oil and gas FTZ). They are both coastal FTZs with the Atlantic Ocean bordering the southern flank.

In addition to Oil and Gas, Ondo state boasts of possessing one of the largest reserves of Bitumen and Tar Sands in the world; about 42 billion barrels. Ondo State is also endowed with large deposits of various solid minerals including Limestone, Coal, Granite, Kaolin, Silica Sand amongst other minerals.

Whilst attention over the years has been on Oil and Gas; this Government is willing and ready to exploit its Bitumen reserves in a sustainable way particularly in the area of providing asphalt for road development. It is estimated that over 90% of the minerals in Ondo State are unexploited and unutilized.

Ondo state as one of the nine oil and gas producing states has abundant oil and gas reserves that remain undeveloped, even though we produce about 12 % of the daily oil production in the country.

However, gone are those days that any government will be reliant on oil and gas alone. I am happy to inform you that in Ondo State, we are aggressively driving our non-oil related industries, he said.

The governor also pointed out that state fed the Western region during the first republic and hes poised to bring back the lost glory.

It is no longer news that Ondo state accounts for over 40% of Nigerias annual cocoa output, however we process less than 2% of our cocoa output. Additionally, Ondo state is also a major player in other agricultural produce in tree crops such as: oil palm, rubber, cashew and kolanut; also arable crops such as: cassava, yam, maize, rice, sugarcane; fruit crops such as: pineapple, citrus, mango, pepper and tomato are all cultivated in abundance in Ondo State.

Our Special focus is on our comparative advantage in agriculture, which are palm oil and cocoa. We want to develop our palm oil to the extent where we have a self-sustaining palm oil industry. We fed the western region during the first republic and I can assure you that we will do it again.

Meanwhile, we will not leave out rice production in Ondo state. It will interest you to know that our Rice paddies are taken all the way to Lagos or Kogi by our farmers to be processed because we dont have any rice mill in the state. To complement the production effort of the farmers, the State plans to setup specialized staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZ) for these crops to enable investments in the production of finished products ready for export," Governor Akeredolu said.

Governor Akeredolu also announced to the gathering that his state has signed a MoU with ministry of Niger/Delta and NDDC for the funding of 50km Araromi road in Ilaje LGA of the state to Ibeju/Lekki, Lagos aimed towards business development.

Dignitaries at event included the Deputy governor of the state, Hon. Agboola Ajayi, the Secretary to the State Government, Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Olugbenga Ale; the head of service, Mr. Toyin Akinkuotu, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Investment, Mr. Boye Oyewumi and many others.

Others on the delegation of the Federal were the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, the representative of Minister of Mines and Steels Development, Egnr. Mohammed Amate, Minister of State for Niger/Delta Affairs, Professor Cladius Daramola, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Economic Matters, Mrs Fola Oyeyinka, National Coordinator, Senior Investment Corporation, Dora Akugbulo, NNPC's Director of Energy, Mr. Isa Abdullahi among others.

Legit.ng had reported that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo appealed to investors to come to his state and do business arguing that Lagos has a major challenge with traffic congestion and human population. A statement obtained by Legit.ng showed the Governor Akeredolu saying Lagos is traffic-ridden and human congested.

Legit.ng learnt that Akeredolu spoke in Akure, the capital of Ondo, as he hosted a delegation of federal government industrialization and economic diversification team.

Watch this video of traders complaining about the Nigerian economy:

Source: Legit.ng
RACINE  On Dennis Wisers first night as Racines mayor, he also learned what day hell likely vacate the office.

In addition to appointing Wiser mayor on an interim basis Tuesday night, city aldermen also recommended holding a special mayoral election on Oct. 17 to select a person to finish the term of former Mayor John Dickert. That date is unofficial, as the City Council cannot legally call for the election until it is between 62 and 77 days away, according to state statutes.

After appointing Wiser as mayor, the council on Tuesday voted to appoint 8th District Alderman Q.A. Shakoor II interim council president. Shakoor defeated 15th District Alderman Melissa Lemke 7-5 via secret ballot.

The special election likely will be called for at the next City Council meeting on Aug. 2. If that happens, a primary, if necessary, would take place on Sept. 19, with nomination papers circulated beginning on Aug. 3 and the deadline for their submission on Aug. 22.

The council was presented with 12 timelines for the election on Tuesday by City Attorney Scott Letteney, but cut those options in half based on the availability of City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin and Deputy City Clerk Tara McMenamin. Lemke then suggested Oct. 17, which 9th District Alderman Terry McCarthy quickly endorsed.

I believe if we are going to hold an early election as opposed to a scheduled one, this would be appropriate, as it gives the most days for circulating signatures, McCarthy said.

Lemke added that the Oct. 17 date would minimize the amount of time 10th District residents, represented by Wiser, would be without an alderman able to give his full attention to constituents.

Wiser, Shakoor appointed

Wiser became acting mayor when former Mayor John Dickert resigned on Sunday to take a post as president and CEO of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a regional water conservation and lakes advocacy organization. Wiser was appointed mayor on an interim basis Tuesday in a 12-0 vote and will serve through Nov. 7, if the city sticks to its tentative timeline.

Wiser was elected to a third consecutive term council as president in April, which according to records dating back to the 1950s is unprecedented since then. He also is vice president of the Racine Unified School Board.

I would like to thank the council for their confidence, Wiser said. I would like to thank John Dickert for the previous eight years he committed to this office. The energy of him and his family served the community well. I would like to thank my No. 1 fan club, my mother and her fans at the Atrium for backing me consistently through the years.

The city will hold a swearing-in ceremony for Wiser at a later date.

This will be Shakoors second stint as council president, a position he previously held in 2009-10.
- A member of the Lagos House of Assembly, Mr Kazeem Alimi, representing Eti-Osa Constituency I, is dead

-The late lawmaker who was the chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs, passed on at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LASUTH)

- The 50-year-old late Alimi is a second term lawmaker in the House

The Lagos state House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 18 announced the death of one of its members, Mr Kazeem Alimi (APC-Eti Osa I).

The chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Mr Tunde Braimoh, made the announcement in a statement in Lagos.

READ ALSO: FG releases details of Paris club payment to states (full details)

"Alimi, a second term member of the assembly, died at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital on Tuesday at the age of 50.

The late lawmaker who was the chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs, passed on at the at the Lagos state Teaching Hospital. Photo credit: Premium Times

He was the Chairman, House Committee on local government and community affairs.

His death came two weeks after he celebrated his 50th birthday.

With heavy hearts , grief and a deep sense of loss; the , Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, principal officers , honourable members , management and staff of the Lagos State House of Assembly announce the passing of an illustrious , astute and distinguished member of the Lagos state House of Assembly; Mr Kazeem Alimi.

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Alimi passed on in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 18, after an intense battle to regain his health which suddenly took a bad turn immediately after the celebration of his 50th birthday, Braimoh said.

He said the deceased did not show any sign of ill health during his birthday celebration, which was his last major public appearance.

As a matter of fact, he (Alimi) was a perfect host as he remained his suave, amiable and debonair self personally attending to guests and giving them his all throughout the event.

The ceremony was well attended by almost all honourable members of the house, notable political leaders from his constituency, Islamic clerics , families and friends.

Several odes were sang at the event in honour of the Honourable who turned 50. Alas !! Those odes are now dirges.

 Until his demise, Alimi, a man with a cool, good and fine mien, was the Chairman , House Committee on Local Government Administration.

Alimi, a veritable and venerated Honourable member, was a role model to many. His public and private conducts were instructive and exemplary.

Even in the shock and devastation of his unexpected departure , we find solace in the fact that his life was an illustration of courage , determination and greatness.

We are also consoled in the fact that he led a good life and he was well loved and reverted by his colleagues and others till the very end, Braimoh added.

He prayed God to grant succour to Alimis family, especially his wife and children, and afford them the fortitude to bear the loss.

Alimi hailed from Eti Osa Local Government Area of Lagos state and attended Moba Primary School and Government College, Maroko.

He attended Lagos State University where he obtained a B.Sc in Economics before he began a career as an officer in the Accounts Department of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

Alimi later transferred his service to the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service where he served from 2001 to 2010.

He became a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2011 and was re-elected in 2015.

Legit.ng had reported that Delta state House of Assembly lost one of its long-serving members, Mrs Omawumi Udoh.

Mrs Omawumi Udoh representing Warri south I constituency died at a London hospital after a protracted illness.

Mrs Udoh has been described as an extra ordinary woman, who demonstrated a life of service, love, compassion and excellence to her family, community and the state.

Meanwhile, watch a Legit.ng TV video below focusing on Nigeria's unity:

Source: Legit.ng
- A Middle Belt group has berated the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) for claiming that some Islamist are plotting Jihad in Nigeria

- The group also condemned the involvement of notable Nigerians including a former chief of army staff T.Y Danjuma in the claim

- The Middle Belt group said the Christian forum claim is aimed at creating an ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria

A former chief of army staff Theophilus Danjuma, a former of Anambra state governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife and others have come under attack for issuing a warning to President Muhammadu Buhari against the Islamisation of Nigeria.

The group, Middle Belt Peoples Progressive Congress (MBPPC), berated the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) over its claim that Jihad - a fight against enemies of Islam - has been launched in Nigeria.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, July 17, the MBPPC said the claim by the Christian group led by Solomon Asemota was a deliberate attempt to create ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Female Badoo member nabbed in Ikorodu, see what mob did to her (photos)

The group said NCEF is a highly discredited body with membership populated by individuals with questionable characters.

The president general of the MBPPC Amos Yunusa said that the NCEF's members laid the foundation of Nigeria's problem and various agitations for the secession of differnet region in the country.

Yunusa said: The permutation is nothing beyond the desire of some self -serving and satanically inclined religious debauches to create chaos, anarchy and violence in the guise of representing the interest of Christians in Nigeria.

"Experiences have indicated that Northern Nigeria, particularly, the Middle Belt region is a fertile ground for such crises. Our elite have always exploited the innocence and vulnerability of our people, as NCEF presently postures, to create this confusion to ignite an eventual ethno-religious conflagration.

They cannot today throw a satanic slap on our faces by accusing President Muhammedu Buhari of causing what they described as the current spate of ethno-religious crisis; agitations for secession in Nigeria, promoting jihadists agenda, herders/ farmers clashes and the disrespect for Nigerias Constitution and federal character principle.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Federal government releases details of Paris Club refunds to states (full details)

It is more bemusing to unearth the persona inside some of the personalities in NCEF who are mouthing sanctimoniously about concern for Nigeria, sanity and Christianity. In the NCEF meeting in Abuja, last Thursday, retired generals like TY Danjuma, Joshua Dogonyaro and Zamani Lekwot and the former governor of old Anambra state, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife were among a retinue of others who graced the parley and released a public statement pontificating about saintliness.

In their infantile reasoning, they erroneously thought, they could hide their dark misdeeds, with the diction of current problems in Nigeria and effectively blind every Nigerian to any sense of history and the subtle incitement to begin another mass massacre of themselves along religious, ethnic and political persuasions.

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Except Gen. Danjuma flaunts a conscience that is dead, or else he would have reminisced that secession agitations and jihadists agenda are not problems of today under a Buhari Presidency. We all know unmistakably that the gory events of the 1966 counter coup by young Northern military officers precipitated Col. Ojukwus declaration of a Biafran Republic," Yunusa added.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the NCEF during a meeting in Abuja said they had uncovered plans by some Islamists to impose the Sharia ideology on Nigerians.

The group after their meeting issued a communique noting the budding constitutional crisis in Nigeria.

The meeting which was held on Thursday, July 13, was attended by General Joshua Dogonyaro, General Zamani Lekwot, Elder Moses Ihonde, General Theophilus Danjuma, Elder Shyngle Wigwe, and Chukwuemeka Ezeife

You can watch this Legit.ng TV Video of women lead pro-Buhari protest in Katsina:

Source: Legit.ng
Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 takes Marvel's secret history to a whole new level with a real world historical figure

If you know who Gavrilo Princip is, prepare to be shocked
Andy Rubin's Essential phone is no longer a North American exclusive. His company has announced that the United Kingdom and several other European countries as well as Japan are next in line to receive the device.

4 Reviews

Andy Rubin has his sights set not on one country, not on one continent, but on the entire world. His Essential phone, which was first announced for the United States and later Canada, is now headed to Europe and Japan.

According to The Verge, Essential is in the process of penning launch agreements with various European wireless carriers in the United Kingdom including EE. The company has already signed exclusivity deals with Sprint in the US and Telus in Canada. These two carriers will be the sole retailers of the Essential phone in their respective countries. The phone itself will be sold unlocked, though, so it will work on other carriers. No word yet on which Japanese mobile network operators will carry the Essential phone.

The Verge's report also focuses on the Essential phone's missed June launch. Essential COO Niccolo de Masi called the handset's release "imminent" but failed to provide a specific delivery date for pre-orders of the device. It's a bummer for those who were expecting to have one of the handsets in their hands by now.
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RACINE  Before a nearly full courtroom, a Racine woman was sentenced Monday morning to seven years in prison for the death of her husbands cousin and the grave injury of her sister-in-law in a June 2016 drunken driving accident.

Lakiara N. Silas, 36, of the 2000 block of Lasalle Street, pleaded guilty in March to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle. A charge of injury by use of a vehicle with prohibited alcohol content was dismissed, but read into the record.

Racine County Circuit Judge Mark Nielsen sentenced Silas to four years in prison for the homicide, and three years in prison for the injury charge, with the sentences to be served consecutively. Silas had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for her crimes.

The prosecution recommended seven to nine years behind bars with alcohol dependency rehabilitation.

Silas attempted to read a prepared apology, but could not fight through tears to deliver it. Her attorney, Donald Conner, finished it as she sobbed.

Its hard to think of the tremendous damage Ive brought on the children, siblings and the rest of our family, Conner read from Silas statement. I was feeling hurt and lost when I learned what happened to my sisterly cousin  No words can make up for the sadness and pain Ive caused.

Records show that Silas had a blood alcohol content of 0.132 percent at the time of the crash  far above the legal limit of 0.08 percent but under the amount of 0.163 percent initially listed in her criminal complaint. The complaint also stated that Silas had opiates in her system at the time of the crash, but the investigation later revealed they were administered during treatment by hospital staff.

According to prior reports, Silas apparently had been racing another vehicle after she left a party. Her vehicle reached estimated speeds of 50 to 60 mph on Marquette Street before losing control and smashing into a utility pole, injuring herself and both passengers, investigators said.

Silas cousin, Lakesha Price, 29, was in the front passengers seat and died from her injuries two days later. Silas sister-in-law, Damisha Silas, was in the back seat and suffered broken ribs, as well as back and lung injuries.

Racine County District Attorney Jennifer Tanck-Adams choked back tears as she scolded Silas, pointing out that while Price is dead, Silas has been out of jail, free to live her life and see her four children.

The children of the victim miss their mother, Tanck-Adams said before taking a beat to compose herself, and cannot see her. Up until this stage, Tanck-Adams noted, Silas did appear to be a fairly good citizen.

Recent spate of OWI crashes

Silas is the latest to be sentenced in a string of drunken driving deaths from 2014 to 2016. Most recently, 21-year-old Dartavian Watson was sentenced to five years in prison after killing his friend in a similar speed- and alcohol-fueled accident.

Anyone your age should have known better, Judge Mark Nielsen told Silas. I believe youll probably abstain from liquor for the rest of your days.

Conner requested probation for Silas, but Nielsen refused.

Criminal sentencing has to speak to other people  other law-abiding people, Nielsen said. I simply cannot in good conscience place (Silas) under probation.

Most people in attendance were Silas and Prices family members. In light of this, Nielsen conceded that, more likely than not, no one present truly wanted Silas to go to prison, but he did not have much of a choice.

Im not very happy to do this, Nielsen said. And I doubt anyone here, regardless if theyre in support of you or your cousin, is very happy about it either. But it is whats right.

Silas numbly looked on as she was sentenced. As people filed out, her family hugged her while her daughter cried that she would miss her Mama.

Your mama killed someone, Tanck-Adams muttered to herself as the courtroom was cleared for recess. Youre lucky shes still here.
DOVER  The Racine County area already struggles to provide housing for homeless veterans, advocates say.

Things wont get any easier with the end of a homeless program at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at Union Grove, 21425 Spring St., at the Southern Wisconsin Center campus in Dover. The state Department of Veterans Affairs has announced it lost a grant of about $500,000 for its Veteran Housing and Recovery Program, which serves 28 people.

The state will no longer accept new admissions and will immediately begin transitioning veterans there now into new housing, said Daniel Zimmerman, secretary of the department, in a letter Friday.

Federal funding for the Dover facility, known as Cottage 16, is due to end in September. The state may fund services through December if necessary, according to the letter. Federal funding also was eliminated for the homeless program at the states King home.

I will personally ensure that each veteran is compassionately placed and cared for during this situation, Zimmerman said.

However, the need for housing for veterans in the Racine area was already not being met, said Jeff Gustin, co-founder and director of Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin.

Gustin and his group have worked since last year on building tiny houses for homeless veterans. Fifteen are planned to be completed before the winter at the Veterans Outreach headquarters, 1624 Yout St., Racine.

With news of services ending at the Southern Center, the effort to finish the homes has intensified, Gustin said.

Even with that facility up and running, there was a still homeless veteran problem, Gustin said. Now with that facility closing, its not going to be good.

Seeking alternatives

In the letter, Zimmerman said the department is is working with veteran service organizations and nonprofits on new housing. Gustin said his group received a call from a Union Grove staff member asking if Veterans Outreach had any openings.

They are scrambling right now to find places for these men to go, Gustin said. Theyre actively making phone calls right now looking for a place to put these people.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Veterans Affairs said the department will absolutely be following up and tracking these veterans as they move forward.

The department is also expanding its Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program. In that program, case managers work with homeless veterans on housing and help connect them with substance abuse services, if needed.

While the federal governments decision is disappointing, we will adapt, innovate and lead, Zimmerman said in the letter.

A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who represents Racine County, said his office will work with state and local officials to ensure these veterans continue to receive the care and treatment they need.

Warning came in December

In December, the federal U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a notice saying certain grants for Veterans Affairs homeless providers would be terminated. The agency said the program is transitioning from its current form into a competitive grant process.

The transition comes as the number and range of federally funded housing services for homeless veterans are greater than they were when the grant program was established more than 20 years ago, according the agency.

The new process will allow the department and grantees to refocus programs and resources to better serve the homeless veteran population, the notice states.

A spokesperson for the department could not be reached for further comment.

The Union Grove-area program began operation in 1997 as Vets Place Southern Center. It has the capacity for 30 people to stay at a time.
RACINE  The Racine Zoo has announced that the last of its African male lion cubs will be relocated to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Mich.

Enzi, who was born July 7, 2014, at the Racine Zoo, will be moved Friday, according to a release issued by the Racine Zoo, 2131 N. Main St. He was one of three cubs born to father Aslan and mother Azizi. Enzis sister, Zuri, remains at the Racine Zoo.

Enzi, which means power in Swahili, weighs 500 pounds and consumes 9 pounds of a carnivore daily. His favorite treats include pork chops, cow femur bones, bloodsicles and frozen watermelons.

He is the most social of Racines lions, enjoys playing with the toys in his exhibit and knocking down the giant tower of toys his keepers build for him daily.

Enzis keepers note that he enjoys checking on the other lions and is often the first lion to begin roaring during the day  the others then join in. A lions roar can be heard from up to five miles away, the release said. When visiting his exhibit, Enzi can usually be found napping in the sunshine, as lions can sleep for up to 20 hours a day on a regular basis.

To start

family of his own

As recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Lion Species Survival Plan, it is in the best interest of Enzi to transfer and start a pride of his own. He will be paired with two 3-year-old female lions, originally based in Asheboro, N.C.

We know Enzi will be in great hands and enjoy his new companions at Binder Park Zoo, said Angie Sagert, Racine Zoos animal collections supervisor.

The Racine Zoo is an accredited organization though AZA, collaborating with other AZA-accredited organizations to manage the species survival plans for numerous species, including the African lion.

Relocating Enzi is tough, since we have had him since birth, said Amy Petersen, Racine Zoos primary carnivore keeper. He will be greatly missed, but we know his future is bright and that this move is truly beneficial for the survival of African lions.

According to the zoo, African lions live in the dry and dusty plains of the African desert, mainly in groups called prides. Although African lions are not an endangered species, they were declared vulnerable in 1996. Their population has diminished by 42 percent within the last 21 years due to continued threats to their habitat.

The public can visit Enzi at the Racine Zoo until Thursday as his caregivers plan for his departure.
In the sometimes hostile waters of the Persian Gulf looms the US Navy's first -- in fact, the world's first -- active laser weapon.

The LaWS, an acronym for Laser Weapons System, is not science fiction. It is not experimental. It is deployed on board the USS Ponce amphibious transport ship, ready to be fired at targets today and every day by Captain Christopher Wells and his crew.

CNN was granted exclusive access to a live-fire test of the laser.

"It is more precise than a bullet," Captain Wells told CNN. "It's not a niche weapon system like some other weapons that we have throughout the military where it's only good against air contacts, or it's only good against surface targets, or it's only good against, you know, ground-based targets -- in this case this is a very versatile weapon, it can be used against a variety of targets."

LaWS begins with an advantage no other weapon ever invented comes even close to matching. It moves, by definition, at the speed of light. For comparison, that is 50,000 times the speed of an incoming ICBM.

"It is throwing massive amounts of photons at an incoming object," said Lieutenant Cale Hughes, Laser Weapons System Officer. "We don't worry about wind, we don't worry about range, we don't worry about anything else. We're able to engage the targets at the speed of light."

CNN witnessed that speed and power firsthand.

For the test, the USS Ponce crew launched the target -- a drone aircraft, a weapon in increasing use by Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and other adversaries.

Immediately, the weapons team zeroed in. "We don't have to lead a target," Hughes explained. "We're doing that engagement at the speed of light so it really is a point and shoot -- we see it, we focus on it, and we can negate that target."

In an instant, the drone's wing lit up, heated to a temperature of thousands of degrees, lethally damaging the aircraft and sending it hurtling down to the sea.

The strike comes silently and invisibly. "It operates in an invisible part of the electromagnetic spectrum so you don't see the beam, it doesn't make any sound, it's completely silent and it's incredibly effective at what it does," said Hughes.

It is remarkably precise, which the Navy says could limit collateral damage in wartime.

"I can aim that at any particular spot on a target, and disable and destroy as necessary," said Captain Wells. "It reduces collateral damage -- I no longer have to worry about rounds that may go beyond the target and potentially hurt or damage things that I don't want to hurt or damage."

All the $40 million system needs to operate is a supply of electricity, which is derived from its own small generator, and has a crew of three. No multi-million-dollar missile, no ammunition at all.

The cost per use? "It's about a dollar a shot," said Hughes.

Today, the laser is intended primarily to disable or destroy aircraft and small boats. "It's designed with the intent of being able to counter airborne and surface-based threats," said Hughes. "And it's been able to prove itself over the last three years as being incredibly effective at that."

However, the Navy is already developing more powerful, second-generation systems which would bring more significant targets into its crosshairs: missiles.

Those missions remain classified. However, the commander and crew are very much aware of the potential capabilities. When we asked Captain Wells if the current LaWS could shoot down a missile, he said simply "maybe" and smiled.
The four Democrats sitting on the Legislature's budget-writing committee sent a letter on Monday to Department of Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher asking him to request money that has already been recommended by the committee to be included in the 2017-19 state budget that lawmakers have yet to pass.
Oaklawn Academy, an international Catholic boarding school for middle-school boys in rural Edgerton, hopes to start boarding a handful of older boys this fall who would take classes at Edgewood High School in Madison, at a total cost of $38,000 for room, board and tuition.

As many as five former Oaklawn students could attend Edgewood when classes begin there in mid-August, Oaklawn vice principal Tom Ryan said. They would be among the roughly 30 international students who annually attend the Catholic college-prep high school, out of a total enrollment of some 500.

Noting Oaklawns teachers are not certified for high school curriculum, Ryan said he visited Edgewood last year and thought the campus would be a good fit for former Oaklawn students.

I was very impressed with their school and their spirit, Ryan said. I think its a good marriage for us.

Located since 1986 on a 207-acre campus on Lake Koshkonong, Oaklawn Academy is affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative and sometimes controversial Catholic order started in Mexico in 1941. Its founder, Marcial Maciel, who died in 2008, was posthumously denounced by the Vatican in 2010 as a pedophile and serial philanderer. In 2007, the Vatican also required the order to eliminate certain obedience vows that had barred priests and priests-in-training from criticizing superiors and had encouraged them to inform on dissenters.

Edgewood High School is owned by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, a progressive order founded in 1847 in Wisconsin. Edgewood requires a higher level of English fluency of its international students than Oaklawn does of its enrollees.

Catering primarily to students from Latin America, Oaklawn is working with Edgewood, Ryan said, at the request of Oaklawn parents who have long wanted a U.S. Catholic high school choice after Oaklawn, which only offers grades 7 to 9.

At Edgewood, administrators confirmed that three former Oaklawn students have applied to attend who could be accepted after required permissions are received for the new school year starting in mid-August.

We will look at any and all applicants, and if its a good fit, if they can meet the (admissions) criteria, then fine, Edgewood High School president Michael Elliott said. Our agreement is with the parents, not with Oaklawn.

A promotional slideshow on Oaklawns website since April 9 explains the new program, labeled New Collaboration with Edgewood HS. The slideshow describes the two schools and offers basic details such as dates and prices.

But Elliott said collaboration was too strong a word to describe the arrangement.

(Oaklawn officials) are making their families aware of a Catholic high school option, he said. We said to Oaklawn, if they have students that would like to pursue high school, they could apply to Edgewood like any other international student.

Ryan said Oaklawn, which has seen enrollment declines in recent years, had a verbal, mutual agreement with Edgewood to recommend qualified, former Oaklawn students for possible admission. He hoped up to 20 would attend Edgewood eventually, while noting Oaklawn would always be the students legal guardians in the U.S.

The Legionaries of Christ was shaken by the public downfall of Maciel, but fallout from the incident has had no impact on the schools day-to-day operations, Ryan said, maintaining alumni support has remained strong for the school, which last year enrolled 68 students, down from 216 students in 2011.

They believe in what weve been providing and see no relationship to us and the founder in that sense, Ryan said, noting grown former students now are sending their own sons to attend the academy. In any business, in any organization, just because one person does something wrong, it doesnt mean the organization is bad.

Ryan also said enrollment can fluctuate in response to many factors, including politics in the U.S. and in students home countries, and changing currency exchange rates.
A proposal that would require breweries and wineries to stop selling their products on-site and instead work through distributors is probably going nowhere, a key Republican lawmaker said Wednesday.
Donald J. Trump, the master brander, has never found quite the right selling point for his partys health care plan.

Analyzing two years of his tweets highlights a pair of lessons about his messaging prowess that were equally on display as the Republican health care bill, weakly supported by even Republican voters, collapsed again in Congress on Monday. Mr. Trump is much better at branding enemies than policies. And he expends far more effort mocking targets than promoting items on his agenda.

Both patterns point to the limits of the presidents branding powers when it comes to waging policy fights. He hasnt proved particularly adept at selling his partys ideas  or shown much inclination to turn his Twitter megaphone toward them. He seemed effective in branding his immigration policy during the primary campaign  #BuildTheWall  but even that subject has occupied less of Mr. Trumps attention on Twitter since he became president than, say, CNN.

By contrast, dating to the campaign, Mr. Trump has been deft at branding his opponents. There is no definitive canon of Mr. Trumps messaging, but his Twitter feed serves as a reasonable proxy: Its the social media account hes best known for, and his use of it helped propel his candidacy. Weve kept our tabulation of his Twitter insults current throughout his presidency. Using them as a guide  beginning in June 2015, when he declared his candidacy  youll notice patterns in how he refers to his political opponents.

Consider Hillary Clinton:

The word choice is memorable. But its also the repetition thats important. In its simplicity and consistency, that message is textbook marketing, said William Cron, a professor of marketing at Texas Christian University. This is what the product stands for, he said (Mrs. Clinton being the product in this case). Marketing research also suggests that the more were exposed to a belief or a brand, the more likely we are to believe that others share or use it. And so by repeating the slogan, Mr. Trump also feeds the notion that Mrs. Clinton is widely believed to be crooked.

Psychologists have another term for what Mr. Trump does here that is so effective. He essentializes Mrs. Clinton and his other opponents, like Lyin Ted Cruz.

His use of this phrase implies a subtle but important distinction: Its not merely that Mr. Cruz tells lies; rather, lying is essential to who Ted Cruz is.

Mrs. Clinton didnt just commit a crime (in Mr. Trumps telling); shes crooked to the core.

Elizabeth Warren doesnt simply espouse foolish ideas, in his argument; she cant be taken seriously at all.

This is the important difference between using a descriptive verb (Ted Cruz tells lies) and a noun label (Lyin Ted). Such minor manipulations of language, psychological research shows, can convey much more deep-seated, stable and central characteristics about a subject. And these labels preclude other identities.

Essentialism, write the psychologists Gregory Walton and Mahzarin Banaji, implies that a characteristic is inherent in the person (self or other) rather than the product of circumstance; that it is biological rather than social in origin; stable rather than unstable; and capable of great explanatory power rather than little.

The only thing you need to know about Marco Rubio, according to Mr. Trumps branding efforts, is that he lacks stature. And thats a deeply embedded quality that the man can never change:

The tactic is also used against The New York Times, a favorite target of Mr. Trumps derision:

And the news media at large. Trumps brand evolved from describing the media as dishonest to labeling it Fake News after he became president. The latter label holds more power because it suggests that dishonesty is endemic to the news medias identity.

But even as Mr. Trump has been focused and disciplined over time in tailoring messages around his opponents, he has seldom done the same for policies and legislation, though these would seem like the larger prize.

Mr. Trump has used a number of slights to make the case against Obamacare, which he has frequently labeled as a total disaster or disastrous, or with variations on the theme of death (its dead, dying, in a death spiral).

But the affirmative case for the Republican alternative? None of his language has stuck. When Mr. Trump has tried to brand his partys health care reform efforts in a positive light, his messages have largely taken the form of unmemorable promises about better or great health care in the future:

If any word kept coming up  and this ones not from his Twitter feed  it was his reference to the House bill as mean. The president repeatedly confused even Republican legislators over what form of health care law he favored (on Monday night, he came out, yet again, for the strategy he previously rebuffed of repealing the Affordable Care Act now and replacing it later).

In the past two years, he has tweeted about tax reform, the G.O.P.s next major goal, only three times. Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday, the president tweeted on April 22. When the following Wednesday rolled around  and the White House released a one-page outline of the plan  his Twitter account had nothing more to say about it.

Messages about his immigration restrictions, another defining policy effort, have been muddled by Twitter diatribes against the judges ruling on it and debates over whether the ban should be called a ban. Mr. Trump even undermined the case for his administrations own proposal (with the courts and the public) by repeatedly calling it watered down. As with the mean House health care bill, it became unclear on Twitter whether Mr. Trump was advocating the policy at all.

The strategies that he has used against his foes  the repetition, the simplicity, the consistency, the essentializing  could just as easily be deployed to promote subjects as to deride them. That is, after all, what much of marketing does (and what a few positive Trump Twitter parody accounts have attempted to do).

But Mr. Trump for the most part hasnt done that. He has used the tactic to promote himself: He is, above all, a winner. The endless repetition and emotional simplicity seemed to work during the campaign as he promoted the WALL (not a fence!). But now that hes president, what if he cheered the Republican health plan as doggedly as he scorned Crooked Hillary? What if he devoted as much effort to defining the stakes of tax reform as he has spent branding his antagonists in the news media?
"How can you say you love us? You don't love us! You don't even love yourself. You just love your money," twelve-year-old Donald junior told his father, according to friends of Ivana's. "What kind of son have I created?" Trump's mother, Mary, is said to have asked Ivana.

The pic to the right is my creation. I admit it. It's terrible in so many ways, but it is sincere: when Trump announced his candidacy, I laughed like the rest of us. I've joined the chorus of "trump haters" (and will continue), writing snarky articles about Trump, his candidacy, his presidency and everything in between.

The picture started out as the usual Dorian Grey/attic thing: I intended all fiery reds, with blood and grotesque deformities, but then, as if by itself, it started to take a different direction, a cold image saturated with greed. Here is a man who is obsessed with making money from the Presidency at all costs, even if that means courting America's enemies and alienating it's treasured allies. Here is a man whose whole life centers around bullying and bilking people for money and now has the chance to do the same to the rest of the world.

His lack of decorum and integrity have become the U.S.'s greatest liabilities:

Earlier this year, more than 1.8 million people signed a petition seeking to block Trump's UK trip over fears that it would "cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen."

Of course, his manners and attitude evolved long before his portrait was painted, but there is no doubt that when he looks in a mirror, he still sees himself this way: young, handsome and having incredible self-confidence - based on a narcissistic isolationism. He and only he would be the winner ... and the richest.

...And The Greediest

"You can't con people, at least not for long," Trump writes. "You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you can't deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on." - Art of the Deal.

The irony of a con man telling this to people is irresistibly laughable. Donald Trump is counting on his base to never catch on: his "achievements" as President so far are hollow, with no real substance backing them up. For example, his boast of the arms deal to Saudi Arabia is considered by many to be "fake news" with some of the weapons not even produced yet.



"My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy," Trump said. "I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States. I want to grab all that money. I'm going to be greedy for the United States." The problem: people are addicted to greed - Trump still is greedy for himself.



Greed embraces hypocrisy

It was revealed today that the Trump administration will issue 15,000 new H-2B visas (live-work). This may rile some of his supporters who have just heard "hire American" from his lips.

The president may have some familiarity with the H-2B visa program. Between 2013 and 2015, President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago hotel hired 246 H-2B visa holders. A DHS official couldn't comment on whether the Trump family would file petitions for additional H-2B visa workers this year.* But these workers come cheap and Trump, if ethics come up against Trump's greed, ethics fair ill.

The greed extends to Trump's "faith": Norman Vincent Peale was his pastor while growing up (indeed, Peale married him and Ivana) and his "spiritual adviser" is none other than prosperity gospel preacher Paula White. His greed is covered by God himself.

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com

If you're looking for fairy tales that are on the grim (not Grimm) side, things that once might only have been in dystopian fiction, look no further than our present planet at our present moment. What about, for instance, that trillion-metric-ton iceberg -- yes, "trillion" is not a misprint -- that broke loose last week from the Antarctic Peninsula and just floated away. It was larger than the state of Delaware, capable of filling an estimated 462 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, its volume twice that of Lake Erie. If you want to think in movie terms, then consider this eerie event a trailer for the main feature on its way to screens globally. If significant parts of Antarctica destabilize in the future, you can expect movie titles (given rising sea levels) like So Long, Miami; Zai Jian Shanghai; Ta-ta London; Dag Amsterdam.

Honestly, we're now in a fairy tale world, if by modern fairy tale you happen to mean Game of Thrones after not "winter" but "summer" comes to Westeros. So in the week after Antarctica changed its shape perceptibly, it seems appropriate to turn to TomDispatch regular John Feffer, our expert in global dystopian futures and author of the novel Splinterlands, which we recently published in our new book line. Today, in a rare TD plunge into fiction, he offers a fairy tale from 2050 (the year in which Splinterlands is set). His "Grimm" sister is Rachel Leopold, the wife of famed "geo-paleontologist" Julian West. (They have both appeared at TomDispatch before.) In 2020, he was the one who so presciently predicted the way a rising tide of nationalism led by right-wing populists like our own president, when combined with climate change and other factors, would splinter the international order and create a new, ever more desperate world. With that in mind, let me just mutter, "Once upon a time, in 2017..." Now, close your eyes and imagine the unimaginable, because soon enough that will be our world. Tom

A Fairy Tale from 2050

Donald Trump and the Triumph of Anti-Politics

By John Feffer Once upon a time, long, long ago, I testified before the great assembly of our land. When I describe this event to children today, it really does sound to them like a fairy tale. Once upon a time -- a time before the world splintered into a million pieces and America became its current disunited states -- this old woman was a young idealist who tried to persuade our mighty Congress that a monster was stalking the land. "Did they listen to you, Auntie Rachel?" they typically ask me. "Oh, they listened to me, but they didn't hear me." "So, what did you do?" "I thought and I thought, and I wrote and I wrote, and I put together an even better presentation," I say patiently. "I had to somehow make that monster visible so those mighty people could see it." "What did it look like, Auntie Rachel?" "It was invisible, my dear children, but we could feel its hot breath. And we could see the terrible things that it did. It could make the oceans rise. It could make the crops wilt in the fields. Still, we kept feeding this terrible beast." "But why?" "It's what the monster demanded. Some monsters want to devour little children. Others insist on young maidens. But this one insisted on tankers of oil and truckloads of coal. Even as it grew, it only demanded more and more." At this point, the children are always wide-eyed. "What did you do then?" "I talked to those great people again. And this time I tried even harder to describe the monster." As I slip into the past, the faces of the children become those of long-dead politicians. "I provided more detailed graphs of rising temperatures. I cited statistics on the impact of burning coal and oil and natural gas. I displayed photos of what the melting ice and the surging waters had already done. And then I showed them pictures of what the future would look like: submerged cities, drought-stricken lands, dead seas. They looked and still they didn't see. They listened and still they didn't hear. Great people," I conclude, "are not always good people."

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China's People's Liberation Army Sunday (July 17) said it has conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus, amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

The PLA conducted the 11-hour long live-fire exercises at an altitude of 5,000 meters on the plateau in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, aimed at improving the combat capability on such locations, a PLA press release said.

The PLA exercise report is being seen as a message to the Indian government and military, as China claims large parts of Arunachal, India's easternmost state, as southern Tibet, Hindustan Times said.

The exercise was conducted by a ground combat brigade of the PLA Tibet Regional Command this month and involved scenarios such as rapid deployment, multi-unit joint strike and anti-aircraft defense, the PLA press release said.

"The PLA wanted to demonstrate it could easily overpower its Indian counterparts," Beijing-based military commentator Zhou Chenming told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

The Chinese force that took part in the drill is stationed in the Lizhi region of eastern Tibet, close to the stand-off, the Post pointed out. India has nearly two lakh (200,000) troops stationed in the areas it disputes with China, outnumbering its neighbor's forces by as much as 15 or 20 to one, it said.

Nonetheless, China has a clear advantage in terms of speed of movement, firepower, and logistics, Zhou claimed.

China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Chinese army destroyed two Indian bunkers last month.

China says no room for negotiations on Sikkim standoff

With no end in sight to the standoff in the Sikkim sector, China on Friday said there is "no room" for negotiations to resolve the military face-off and the only solution is the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Donglang or Doklam region.

India will face "embarrassment" if it does not withdraw its border troops to its own side and the situation could get "worse", the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary. "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."

Writing under the title "Turning a deaf ear to China will not help India on Doklam, Xinhua writers Qu Junya, Xiong Ping and Tang Lu said on Friday:

"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.

The Hindustan Times said that the Xinhua commentary sought to add yet another dimension to the face-off by bringing in the Ladakh region and linking it to Pakistan, China's "iron brother" ally.

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From Reader Supported News

"If I am given the honor of leading this agency, I will never allow the FBI's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period. Full stop. My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law. They have been my guideposts throughout my career, and I will adhere to them no matter the test." ~~ Attorney Christopher Wray, Congressional testimony, July 12, 2017

It's hard to get better lip service than that. In his opening statement, Christopher Wray, nominated by President Trump to be the next director of the FBI, pretty much said all the right things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 12. It's even possible that Wray's testimony could turn out to be true. But doubt is hard to allay in the context of his career to date.

President Trump announced his choice in a tweet on June 7: "I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow." The 8:44 a.m. tweet came without prior notice to Congress and served as something of a distraction to that day's Senate testimony by James Comey, the FBI director Trump had fired on May 9.

The "impeccable credentials" are real enough in a very old line, establishment sort of way. Christopher Wray was born in New York City in 1966. His father was a partner in the well-connected law firm of Debevoise and Plimpton. His mother, Gilda Gates Wray, was a program officer at the Charles Hayden Foundation (American Red Cross, Museum of Natural History). Wray attended the Buckley School in Manhattan and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1989, Wray graduated from Yale College cum laude and married Helen Garrison Howell, also Yale '89. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1992, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.

After a federal judge clerkship, Wray went into private practice in 1993 at the Atlanta office of the King & Spalding international law firm. In 1997 he joined the Justice Department as a U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia. In 2003, President Bush (Yale '68) appointed him the youngest-ever Assistant Attorney General in charge of the criminal division. In 2005, he returned to private practice at King & Spalding, where he was primarily a criminal defense lawyer who according to the website "helps clients navigate federal and state government investigations and litigation." With King & Spalding, Wray had broad experience "spanning a wide variety of industries and more than 30 different countries." As a partner at King & Spalding (where his partner pages are deleted), Wray is paid $9.2 million a year.

Wray's political contributions of at least $35,000 over the years have gone exclusively to Republican candidates, including John McCain in 2008 ($2,300) and Mitt Romney in 2012 ($7,500). He appears to have made no political contributions during 2016. He also volunteered for Fred Thompson's "Lawyers for Fred" committee in 2008.

What did Wray know about US torture programs, and when did he know it?

Wray was there when Justice Dept. attorney John Yoo and others were drafting torture memos that were subsequently acted on by the Bush administration. In Senate testimony, Wray said with exquisite lawyerly caution: "To my recollection, I never reviewed, much less provided comments on or input on, and much less approved, any memo from John Yoo on this topic." He does not say he did not see or act on memos by others. He does not say he was not aware of his government's sanction of torture in violation of US and international law. He does not say he registered any objection to torture then. He did not, as head of the criminal division, bring any charges against any of the Bush administration torturers in 2003-2005. On leaving the department, he did receive a distinguished public service award.

He told the Senate on July 12: "I can only tell this committee that I have no recollection whatsoever of that, and it's the kind of thing I think I'd remember... My view is that torture is wrong, it's unacceptable, it's illegal, and I think it's ineffective." Reports that Wray visited the Guantanamo prison are apparently untrue, but the senators did not ask about it. Nor did they inquire about Wray's awareness of abuses including torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, even though Wray appeared before the same committee in 2004 and was questioned by Vermont senator Patrick Leahy then. Wray's letter of May 6, 2004, about "Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison" remains redacted by the Justice Department.

In 2004, Wray was involved in the prosecution of a CIA contractor, David Passaro, whose beating of a prisoner in 2003 led to that prisoner's death within 48 hours. Passaro is the only US civilian prosecuted for prisoner abuse or torture. Wray is quoted in the indictment saying: "The criminal abuse of persons detained in the global war on terrorism will not be tolerated. The Department of Justice will move to punish those whose actions violate the rule of law. Such abuse violates the core principles of a free and just society." result of this prosecution was to convict one person and allow the programs of torture and abuse to continued, perhaps more carefully, but fundamentally unhindered." In this sense, Wray clearly seems to be part of setting up Passaro as a scapegoat.

Wray is credited with taking a principled stand against the Bush administration's illegal surveillance programs, albeit somewhat diaphanously. In 2004, Comey and then FBI director Robert Mueller (now special counsel) challenged the White House attempt to renew the National Security Agency (NSA) program of "terrorist surveillance," a euphemism for massive spying on just about every American citizen. According to reports, Comey and Mueller were prepared to resign in protest over the issue and Wray, getting wind of it, apparently asked to go with them if they went. The Bush administration blinked and Wray never went public, except by legend.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has questioned Wray's record on civil liberties, much to the Senate's indifference. The ACLU cites with concern the FBI's past notorious abuse of civil liberties, up to and including burglaries and killings. In that context, Wray's strong support for the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and its expanded police state powers is less than reassuring. In 2003 Wray insisted that safeguards were in place and testified that "the Patriot Act has helped preserve and protect liberty and freedom, not erode them." In 2004 and 2005, two separate federal courts found parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Subsequently, the inspector general of the Justice Department found widespread abuse by the FBI of Patriot Act powers.

What are Wray's Russian connections, other than Rosneft or Gazprom?

At King and Spalding in 2009, Wray described one American citizen client as an "energy company president in a criminal investigation by Russian authorities." On January 12, 2017, in the midst of the so-called Russia-gate hurly-burly, the private attorney removed this information from his law firm site where it was last reported on November 18.

Wray's 68-page questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee lists no potential conflicts of interest. Nor does the questionnaire list Wray's previous Russian-related client or any of his firm's representation of Russian state-run companies, or the word "Russian" in any other form or context. King & Spalding has half a dozen attorneys practicing in its Moscow office.

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From Counterpunch



Donald Trump

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When he talks about his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump almost always asserts that Obamacare is "exploding." Republican members of Congress make similar claims, insisting that Obamacare is unsustainable -- and that they therefore have no choice but to "repeal and replace" it.

There is some basis for this argument. More than 1,300 counties only have one insurer in their exchanges, meaning there is no competition. But there is a nuance that Republicans willfully ignore: This is a problem of their own creation that is largely confined to red states.

Where Republican governors have sought to sabotage the program, they have largely succeeded. Where Democratic governors have tried to make the ACA work, they too have largely succeeded.

Here are the basic numbers. In states with Republican governors, more than 40 million people live in counties with only one insurer. In states with Democratic governors, there are 10.7 million people who live in such counties.

The difference is far more dramatic if we exclude North Carolina from the Democratic list. While North Carolina does now have a Democratic governor, it had a Republican governor until January, and even now the Legislature is overwhelmingly Republican.

Not counting North Carolina, only 2.1 million people in Democratic states live in counties without competition. Put another way, if someone lives in a state with a Democratic governor other than North Carolina, they have a 1.8% probability of only having a single insurer in their exchange. If they live in a state with a Republican governor, there is a 20.7% probability of the same.

There are two main ways in which Republican governors have been effective in sabotaging Obamacare in their states. The first and most important was by refusing to expand Medicaid.

Governors who chose to expand that program pulled many lower-income people out of the Obamacare insurance pool -- people who tend to be less healthy and have higher medical bills on average. By taking this higher-cost population out of the exchanges, they reduced the risk to insurers. Applying this logic inversely, governors who refused to expand Medicaid ended up with a less-healthy mix of people in the exchanges.

The other issue is the extent to which states took the initiative to promote Obamacare. Less healthy people generally don't have to be prodded to buy insurance, since they know they need it. The issue is whether more healthy people buy into the system. Insurers are going to lose money if all the people they insure have serious health problems.

Democratic governors generally tried to persuade people to buy insurance, while Republican governors were more often neutral, if not openly hostile, to the program. As a result, fewer healthy people bought into the exchanges in their states, making the system less profitable for insurers.

In addition, Republican governors and Republican insurance commissioners were often less cooperative with insurance companies. While Democratic governors cajoled insurers to enter and stay in the exchanges, and met reasonable regulatory concerns, Republican governors had little interest in making their exchanges work.

Now we see Trump and the rest of the GOP boasting about their sabotage. Because Republicans have been so successful in keeping many of their residents from getting insurance, they think the country should trust them to overhaul the ACA.

Sorry folks, it doesn't work that way.

This column originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Chapter Six (2004): The First Hague Inaugural Address

A note from the actual author (that is myself, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH). Please note that this chapter was actually written in 1994-95. The similarities between the politics of the Republicans and of the Democrats then and in recent (real) times are NOT purely coincidental.

A Note from the "Author" of the balance of the text (that is "Jonathan Westminster")

This chapter presents the First Inaugural Address of Jefferson Davis Hague, who would become the first (and fortunately only) fascist President of the United States and then The New American Republics. This installment presents Part 1 of that chapter. In it, President Hague makes it clear that under the leadership of himself and the newly formed "Republican-Christian Alliance," the course is being set to make the United States into a "Christian Nation." As for the references in the text of the Inaugural, do understand that it was composed for Hague by his staff, from real speeches, letters, and etc. made by the real historical figures from the 1980s and 90s whose names appear in the brackets in the Inaugural's text.



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The First Inaugural Address of President Jefferson Davis Hague

December 25, 2004

Mr. President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Speaker, my fellow Amer i cans under God. I stand here before you today, on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all humility awaiting my time to do His bid ding. And I can tell you that his bidding now is to fight the good fight, for the Lord, and for you the Ameri can people under God.

For there is a religious war going on in this country. And we, the Ameri cans of God, must win it. We must take back our cit ies, and take back our culture, and take back our country [Bu chanan]. To do this, we must return to our Christian roots. If we do not, we will continue to le galize sodomy, slaughter inno cent babies, destroy the minds of our chil dren, squander our re sources, and yes, sink into oblivion [Robertson].

We are in an eternal battle. The battle is between right and wrong, be tween truth and lies, between life and death. And if we ever forget what it is about, if we think we are in a battle for elect ing peo ple to hold office, simply controlling political parties, then we will not ac complish what we are to achieve. We need to hold to our principles, and stick to them re gardless.

The real enemy is the secular humanist mindset which seeks to destroy everything that is good in this society. The fight that we are fighting, the battle we have joined, is one that encom passes our entire life span. Re member, you have God. You have your families; you have your commu nity, your church community, your neighborhood, and all the things you are con cerned about. They have only power. That's all that matters to them. They will fight with everything that's in them to keep that power [Weyrich].

Today we face what I believe is an even greater threat to our lives. The enemy is more insidious, more chameleon"'like than a Hitler. And this enemy is even more deadly. The enemy is lethal and must be stopped [Fournier].

So far from having ended, the cold war has increased in in ten si ty, as sec tor after sector of American life has been ruth less ly cor rupt ed by the liber al ethos. Now that the other 'Cold War' is over, the real cold war has begun [Kristol, quoted in Starr].

Yes, we are engaged in a social, political, and cultural civil war. There is a lot of talk in America about pluralism. But you can't have a society whose highest value is merely live and let live. The bottom line is somebody's values will prevail. Some body is going to win this civil war. And the winner gets the right to teach our children what to believe about things like life and death, love and sex, and freedom and slavery.

As I have travelled the length and breadth of this great God"'given land of ours, I have often run into skep tics. They say, "Well, J.D., if there is a civil war going on, where are the two sides?" And my ex planation is that on one side there are men and women like Americans under God. People who be lieve that God is. And believing that God is, they are re quired, they are obli gated to take the posi tions they take on a whole host of issues. And on the other side of this great conflict there are people at very signifi cant positions in our culture who begin their thinking with the belief that God isn't. They are our ene my [Bauer].

Yes, it is time to take America back, from the liberal politi cians who are attempting to erase every evidence of God from public life, from gov ern ment officials who hide their radical, anti"'Christian bigot ry behind a twist ed view of "the separation of church and state," from gay and lesbian radicals who not only claim the right to lead their Godless lifestyle, but demand that we support this abominable behav ior, from the radical fem i nists whose "right to choose" has caused the murder of mil lions of inno cent unborn little babies, from the militant left which is the fount of all evil--take her back from every group or individ ual that refuses to recog nize our beloved nation for what it truly is--a nation under God! [Falwell]

We are the only society in history that says that power comes from God to you . . . and if you don't tell the truth about the role of God and the cen trality of God in America, you can't explain the rest of our civiliza tion. I look forward to the day when a be lief in God is once more at the center of the defini tion of being an American [Gingrich, 1].

As to the future, if you think about the notion that the great chal lenge of our lifetime is first to imagine a future that is worth spending our lives getting to, and then, because of the technolo gies and the capabilities we have today, to get it up to sort of a virtual state, al though that's done in terms of actual levels of so phistication, all that's done in your mind.

And that takes leadership. Most studies of leadership argue that lead ers actually are acting out past decisions. The problem when you get certainty with great leaders is that they have al ready thor oughly envisioned the achievement, and now it is just a matter of implementa tion. And so, it is very different. And so in a sense, virtuality [sic] at the mental level is some thing I think you find in lead ership over historical periods. But in addi tion, we are not in a new place; it is just becom ing harder and hard er to avoid the place where we are [Gingrich, 2].

In fighting this fight to avoid this place, we face an increas ing ly mili tant, radical, socialist left. And this is how we are going to win the war against this left. We will use the same strategy Gen eral Douglas MacArthur em ployed against the Jap a nese in the Pacific in World War II: by"'pass their strong"'holds, then sur round them, isolate them, bombard them, then blast the individu als out of their power bunkers with hand"'to"'hand com bat. The battle for Iwo Jima [2] was not pleasant, but our troops won it. The battle to regain the soul of America won't be pleasant either, but we will win it [Robertson].

Yes, with your help and God's blessing we will win it. Thank you and good night.

A Connie Conroy Note (December 27, 2004)

We did it! We pulled it off! We got the Prez a good speech, a great speech, if I may say so myself. And after all those drafts he didn't like at all, too. Trying, honestly, honest ly, to come up with a new way to say the same old thing he had been saying over and over in the campaign. And so, what did we do? We went back to some tried and true stuff from our "Pa tron Saints," (if I may say so, reveal ing my Catholic back ground -- don't let any of the true Fundy Minis ters hear me say ing anything like that!): Pat Buchanan, Pat Robert son, Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, the Newt Man. [3]

Just took some of their best stuff, threw it together, nobody was the wiser, especially the Prez, and presto! The best speech mon ey could n't begin to buy. And I'll tell you, after old Carney, I think that this young guy is going to be fun!

Author's Commentary

The Hague Heritage

On Tuesday, November 2, 2004, Jefferson Da vis (J.D.) Hague was elected as the 45th President of the old United States. He was a great-grandnephew of the pre"'World War II Mayor of Jersey City, NJ, Frank Hague, a man who once said (Pe ter):

"You hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red, that man is a Communist!' You never hear a real American talk like that."

J.D.'s father, "Big Daddy Hague," was a truck driver who sported the old Confederate States of America flag on the radiator of his 22-wheeler's tractor, and carried a loaded sawed"'off double"'barreled shot gun underneath the passen ger seat. It was there, Big Daddy would confide in friends, "to protect myself from the niggers." His choice of name for his second"'born son came as no surprise to his friends, espe cially since his first"'born son "Nat" had been named after Confederate Gen er al Nathan B. Forrest. This man's principal claim to fame was that a year after the end of the First Civil War he had founded the viru lently anti"'black terrorist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan.

Big Daddy happened to be a passionate reader. His taste in books ranged from those carried in the Paladin Press catalog (1991, focusing on guns, explosives, and survivalism) to those carried in the National Van guard Books catalog (1993, featuring anti-Semitism, racism, glorifi cation of Hitler's Germany, and children's books).

J.D.'s mother had been an active and vocal member of the move ment to harass and assault elective pregnancy termination clinics, their staffs and patients. She had joined the first Northern New Jersey chap ter of the militant, violence"'inducing anti"'freedom"'of"'choice organiza tion called "Op eration Rescue" when it was founded in the mid"'1980s. She had been arrested many times for screaming at staff and patients alike "up close and personal," attempting to physically block clinic en trances, and on suspicion of participation in anti"'clinic vandalism.

One of President Pine's first acts in 2001 had been to order the end to enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a Federal law passed by the 103rd Congress that had offered some protec tion to the clinics. (In ordering the non"'enforcement of existing legislation that he didn't like, Pine was following a well"'known Right"'Wing pattern. For example, former 1996 Republican Presidential candidate Phil Gramm had declared that if he were elected President, one of his first acts would be to end enforcement, on his own authority, of Federal affirmative action (equal rights in employment) law [Page].)

J.D.'s mother was one of the first in the nation to publicly take advan tage of the new Pine policy. She went on to become a na tion al lead er of the violence"'centered movement spawned by Opera tion Res cue and its many mutations. Aided by Pine's Executive Order and the sub se quent repeal of the FACE Act by the 107th Congress, by the mid dle of the Pine Presiden cy, the movement had succeeded in driv ing out of business most of the open elective pregnancy"'termination centers around the country, even though the procedure was technically still legal.

The Development of the Republican"'Christian Alli ance

Hague was the candidate of the newly"'formed Republican"'Christian Alli ance (R"'CA). The R"'CA had been created at the quadrennial Re publi can Na tional Convention held in Indianapolis, IN in the second week of August, 2004. It was the final recognition of a reality that had been de veloping since the Republican National Convention held in Houston, TX August 16"'20, 1992 had adopted a platform largely writ ten by representa tives of the Christian Coalition (RNC). Over the in ter vening 12 years, the dominant and driving force in the Republican Party had become ever"'increasingly the Religious Right, led by its dominant political arm, the Christian Coalition.

It is interesting to note briefly the parallels between the develop ment of the Republican Party in the last decade before the First Civil War and of the Republican"'Christian Alliance in the second decade before the Sec ond (Marsden). In the 1850s, the "Anti"'Masons," an evangelical politi cal party opposed to "free thinking" as well as slavery, lead the move ment which divid ed the old Whig Party into two. Subse quently, the Anti"'Masons/"Northern Whigs" evolved into the new Re publican Party.

In the case of both the latter and the R"'CA, a movement that began with moral preaching eventually married itself to political power. It was iron ic, of course, that the Republican Party of the Transition Era, the R"'CA, and their successor, the American Christian Nation Party (ACNP), would eventually undo much of what the original Republican Party had accom plished when under President Abraham Lincoln it had lead the nation into war over the twin issues of pre serving the Union and ending Negro slav ery.

The ACNP would, by creating the New American Republics in 2011, break up the Union, and institute enforced, absolute, racial segre gation that to some represented a form of slavery. Prior to the forma tion of the NAR, al though the action had no practical application, it happened that they had, for the symbolic reason of adhering to the "Doctrine of Original Intent" concerning the Constitution, in 2010 among other things re pealed the XIIIth Amend ment (which had abol ished slav ery).

It was at the 13th annual "Road"'to"'Victory" national meeting of the Chris tian Coalition held at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA in November, 2003 that Jefferson Davis Hague had gained the Coalition's "highest moral evaluation." (Right up to the adoption of the Suprema cy Amendment in 2007, the Coalition was always careful to do nothing to jeopardize its tax"'exempt standing. The adoption of the Amendment had, among other things, lead to the passage of Federal legislation guar anteeing "approved" churches tax"'exemption regardless of what activi ties they un dertook. Before that time, however, the Coalition never "endorsed" candi dates [Freedom Writer]. It simply "recognized their moral value.") Once having achieved the Coalition's top rating, Hague had the Republican"'Christian Alliance Presidential nomina tion well in hand.

Part 2 of this chapter, to follow

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References:

Bauer, G., "Speech," Christian Coalition Road"'to"'Victory Confer ence, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, 1991.

Bloom, H., "New Heyday of Gnostic Heresies," New York Times, April 26, 1992, p. 19 (see also Bloom's the American Religion: The Emer gence of the Post"'Christian Nation).

Buchanan, P., "Speech," Republican National Convention, 1992.

Falwell, J., Fundraising letter, May, 1993.

Fournier, K., Fund"'raising letter, American Center for Law and Jus tice (Virginia Beach, VA), April, 1995.

Freedom Writer, "Stealth? Deception? You decide," April, 1994, p. 7.

Gingrich, N., 1, quoted in a fund"'raising letter, American Humanist Asso cia tion (Amherst, NY), Summer, 1995.

Gingrich, N., 2, quoted in Kelly, M., "Rip It Up," The New Yorker, Jan. 23, 1995.

Marsden, G., "The Religious Right: A Historical Overview," Chap. 1 in Cromartie, M., Ed., No Longer Exiles, Washington, DC: Ethics and Pub lic Policy Center, 1993, p. 4.

Mitgang, H., "Reagan's 'Lincoln Quotation' Disputed," New York Times, August 19, 1992.

National Vanguard Books, Catalog No. 15, PO Box 330, Hillsboro, WV 24946, 1993.

Paladin Press, Catalog Vol. 21, No. 2, PO Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306, 1991.

Page, S., "His Stetson's in the Ring," Newsday, Feb. 25, 1995.

Peter, L. J., Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time, New York: Morrow, 1977, p. 46.

RNC: Republican National Committee, The Republican Plat form: 1992, Wash ington, DC: August 17, 1992.

Robertson, P., quoted in fund"'raising letter of the ACLU, 1993, Freedom Watch, March/April, 1994, Vol. 3, No. 2, and Right"'Wing Watch, Vol. 2, No. 11, Sept., 1992.

Starr, P., "Nothing Neo: Neo-conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea by Irving Kristol," The New Republic, December 4, 1995, 35.

Vitello, P., "No Sign of Counterculture," Newsday, December 6, 1994, p. A8.

Weyrich, P., quoted in "The rights and wrongs of the religious right," The Freedom Writer, Oct. 6, 1995, p. 6.

Wilkins, R., "The Case for Affirmative Action," The Nation, March 27, 1995, p. 409.

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Author's Notes:

[1] There is no indication or evidence that any of the historical figures quoted in the Hague First Inaugural Address or elsewhere in this chapter, among whom are Patrick Buchanan, M. G. Robertson, Paul Weyrich, Keith Fournier, Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, and Newton Gingrich, would have supported or associ ated themselves in any way with any of the actual positions or actions that Jeffer son Davis Hague or any members of his government or political parties took, at that time or in the future.

[2] Named for the island on which it took place, "Iwo Jima" marked the penul timate major battle of the Pacific War in 1945.

[3] In her Note Conroy did not identify which sections of the speech were based on the words of which of the "patron saints." But with some detective work and using the process of elimination, it has been possible to determine with a fair degree of certainty just who was responsible for what. The putative sub"'authors are named in the text in [ ], and the putative sources are listed under their names in the reference list at the end of the chapter.

[4] Poughton could also have referred to the use, start ing in the 1980s, by Right"'Wing Reaction with help from the Right"'Wing Democrats, of the Immigration (see Chapter 4) and Welfare (see Chapter 7) issues as if they were truly significant causes of the major problems facing the country, which they were not, to promote distraction and hate.

[5] See also the quote from Michael Levin that ap pears in Chapter seven (below), p. 88
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Mostly cloudy early, then sunshine for the afternoon. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
According to recent reports, NASA has decided to pursue nuclear reactor development on Mars once more after abandoning the project nearly 50 years ago.

This news may not come as a surprise to some, as it had already been announced that NASA was looking to send a human to Mars in the near future. That being the case, it would seem only logical that the next step would be figuring out how to guarantee some sort of energy supply for whatever contingent of the human race ends up inhabiting the planet.

The answer to this potential energy dilemma may come in the form of nuclear fission reactors, small reactors that split uranium atoms to generate heat and subsequently, electric power.

During the 1960s, NASA tested a fission reactor as part of the Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power program, or SNAP. These tests developed two types of nuclear power systems, both of which are still powering space probes and other reactors in space to this day. SNAP-10A, the firstand onlynuclear power plant to operate in space under U.S. control generated some 500 watts of electrical power before experiencing equipment failure that has left it orbiting in space to this day.

Though nuclear power development has been on NASAs agenda for more than half a century now, various issues stemming from financial and political conditions However, the agencys Game Changing Development backed a goal of building and testing a small reactor by fall of 2017.

If the tests are successful, this could mean that NASA could have a guaranteed method of powering an archetype of a space station designed for Mars red clay surface. However, until that point, it remains to be seen as to whether or not energy options such as nuclear poweror even solar power, for that mattercould be viable to support life in space.

Lead photo courtesy of Billy Brown, CC BY 2.0

Natalie Wickstrom is a freelance writer based in Athens, Georgia. She probably wrote this piece to the tune of a movie score whilst chewing gum.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Cape Coast, Hon Ernest Arthur has paid a courtesy call on Mr Richard Thomas, the Mayor of Mount Vernon, New York, United States of America.



In what was to be a private visit, Hon. Arthur ceased the opportunity to discuss bilateral relations and investment opportunities with the Mayor of Mount Vernon.



The MCE revealed that, his visit discussed investment opportunities in Cape Coast and Ghana and how investors in America especially Mount Vernon and West Chester County can take advantage.



"I decided to speak to Thomas on investments and cooperation because, our cities share commonalities. That is, our rich history , friendship and kinship. The structure of the economy of Mount Vernon may be similar to Cape Coast", Hon. Ernest Arthur explained.



"I indicated to Mayor Thomas that they can invest in the tourism sector, agriculture, manufacturing, real estate and education. My commitment is fueled by the vision and investor friendly policies of our government to turn the fortunes of Ghana. We are fortunate to have a government which has birthed a renewed confidence in the investor community towards our country around the globe which the Hon Mayor Thomas gave credence to in our meeting" he further stated.



Mayor Richard Thomas, on his part, expressed his delight for the visit.



The two discussed relationship between Cape Coast and Mount Vernon.



The Mayor of Mount Vernon expressed his readiness to lobby investors to invest in Cape Coast.



He has therefore accepted an invitation to visit Cape Coast anytime soon to acquaint himself with investment opportunities.



In a related development, Hon Ernest Arthur paid a visit to Mr. Barry Lefkowitz, a former Mayor of Burlington, New Jersey. Currently, he is the President of Management and Government Resources, LLC Economic Development, Governmental Relations and Strategic Partnering.



The meeting discussed investment opportunities in Cape Coast and how Mr. Lefkowitz and his group could help.



Mr. Barry Lefkowitz and his group have expressed their willingness to take opportunity of tourism resources in Cape Coast to invest in hotel accommodation, real estate and other tourism facilities.



The MCE of Cape Coast has reiterated his commitment to the development of Cape Coast.



"As I indicated to you in my inaugural address, I am committed to fighting joblessness, poor sanitation and fallen standards of education. The Assembly cannot do it alone, we need partners and that is why I ceased this opportunity to meet these great people" the MCE stated.

Source: Nana Sanka









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Featured Video
Concerned University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) members of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) are, contrary to an earlier secular that the Associations had downed its tools, has assured the general public and the whole world that, UTAG-UEW is not on strike.



Members on all our campuses (Ajumako, Mampong, Kumasi, Winneba) are not in favour of this illegal strike, and anyone can visit our campuses on Monday and you will see lecturers working, a statement release yesterday and signed by Isaac Brako of the Department of Political Science stated.



The statement continued: We wish, furthermore, to inform all our Sandwich Students to disregard this hoax strike and come to school. The purported strike is for the selfish UTAG-UEW executives, who have failed already in the discharge of their duties as leaders and we will not make them our leaders again. They have neglected their core duties to fight for members' welfare and they are now fighting for their own selfish interests. If you do not believe us, come and see the kind of living and office accommodations we occupy; with porous security, coupled with the injustices meted out to us, then you will know the kind of UTAG executives we have!



When the Registrar of the University, Dr C. Y. Acquah-Mensah told us not too long ago that as lecturers we did not need offices, and that we could sit under trees or in our cars and work; to the extent that an office complex built for lecturers was taken away from us and converted to Office of the Registrar, what did our leaders do? It shows you the kind of UTAG executives we have!!!



We will not allow you, few self-seeking leeches and vampires, to destroy where we take our daily bread. The University is running and will run. Do not dare try anything funny this time else you will regret it.



Read what the Association said in the release and other facts about UEWs Principal Officers:



OF DISHONESTY, BAD LEADERSHIP AND SELF INTEREST: THE CASE OF UTAG-UEW LEADERSHIP



Majority of UEW lecturers have been quietly following and monitoring the goings on of the court matters involving our great UEW. It is important to first note that this quiet and cool attitude of the majority of lecturers should not be interpreted to mean lack of concern. It is rather a trait of people who are mature and deep in thoughts. Let no one make the mistake of considering this trait to mean docility or weakness.



Upon all the priding of ourselves with intellectualism, it had to take Mr. Supi Kwayera (whom we shamelessly claim is an Akpeteshie seller) to open our eyes to Procurement breaches and illegalities in our own University! Are we not ashamed of ourselves? Or have we been blinded by intellectualism? When, way back in 2013, the Hon Alex Afenyo Markin started drawing government and our attention to the ramifications of an improperly constituted governing council, where were we? Shame on us!!



Since May 23rd, 2017, when the writ was issued and our University started going to court, no UTAG general meeting has been held; yet, it was said at one point that UTAG wanted to join the case. Those 2 or 3 executives went ahead and hired an attorney. When our case was subsequently thrown out and UTAG was fined GHC 3,000 as well (which we presume will come from our dues) no UTAG meeting was held to even brief us on anything. Then, when today, 14th July, 2017, the Winneba High Court among other things, ordered the VC and FO to step aside, we hear on radio that UTAG-UEW has declared an indefinite strike, again, without any consultation with the general UTAG population. What kind of leaders do we have on UTAG-UEW, and what do they take us for? You (UTAG Executives) cannot arrogate to yourselves power that you do not have.



We elected you into office and gave you the mandate to conduct yourselves properly! You cannot sit in your bedrooms and decide for us! Why do you disrespect us like that? We want to assure you that you will cough out every pesewa that you have wasted on this useless and unwarranted legal fight, because we never gave you permission to go to court. It is clear that you knew we would not agree going to court, so you refused to hold a general meeting. It is also clear that you, the so called executives, are seeking Your Own personal interests; but we want to assure you that, you will not use us to advance your selfish agenda. Be assured that your days of this wanton arrogation of non-existent power are over, so prepare to meet the full fury of the general membership.



We wish, on this note, to assure the general public and the whole world that, UTAG-UEW IS NOT ON STRIKE. Members on all our campuses (Ajumako, Mampong, Kumasi, Winneba) are not in favour of this illegal strike, and anyone can visit our campuses on Monday and you will see lecturers working.



We wish, furthermore, to inform all our Sandwich Students to disregard this hoax strike and come to school. The purported strike is for the selfish UTAG-UEW executives, who have failed already in the discharge of their duties as leaders and we will not make them our leaders again. They have neglected their core duties to fight for members' welfare and they are now fighting for their own selfish interests. If you do not believe us, come and see the kind of living and office accommodations we occupy; with porous security, coupled with the injustices meted out to us, then you will know the kind of UTAG executives we have!



When the Registrar of the University, Dr C. Y. Acquah-Mensah told us not too long ago that as lecturers we did not need offices, and that we could sit under trees or in our cars and work; to the extent that an office complex built for lecturers was taken away from us and converted to Office of the Registrar, what did our leaders do? It shows you the kind of UTAG executives we have!!!



We will not allow you, few self-seeking leeches and vampires, to destroy where we take our daily bread. The University is running and will run. Do not dare try anything funny this time else you will regret it.



We are also calling on government to constitute our Governing Council as soon as possible!



The Facts Concerning UEW Principal Officers



1. By the Statutes of UEW, the Pro-VC is the only Principal Officer who is elected by Convocation



2. To contest his first election, the current Pro-VC (with two others) was nominated by the former VC but not the current embattled VC.



3. According to the UEW Statutes, an incumbent Pro-VC is mandatorily qualified to contest the election for second term with two other nominees by the VC. Therefore the current embattled VC had no option to nominate the current Pro-VC for the second term



4. Since the position of the Pro-VC is by election of a simple majority, the University Governing Council is bound to ratify the electoral decision of Convocation



5. It follows therefore that if the position of the current VC is declared by the Winneba High Court as illegal because he was approved by an illegal council; his illegality does not affect the position of the current Pro- VC who was validly elected.



6. The court is right in accordance with the UEW Statutes to ask the Pro-VC to hold the fort while the VC has been asked to step aside.



7. It is interesting to note that in his two elections, the current Pro-VC polled much more than the 50% of the total valid votes cast. This tells you his level of respectability and popularity among Convocation members. He has always, for his 17 years in UEW, been disciplined, and championed the fight against corruption. The lecturers and senior officers know this for sure. Hence they gave him full support in each of the elections.



8. The question which the UTAG-UEW President has to answer is simply this: how come the lecturers who have always supported the current Pro-VC in his fight against corruption and illegality will now proceed on strike because a court of law in accordance with the UEW Statutes has asked him to hold the fort...?



Fellow citizens, this fight should not be politicised. Let us allow sanity and transparency to prevail. Thanks.



By Isaac Brako



Department of Political Science (For and on behalf of Concerned UTAG members).





Source: New Crusading Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia has called on Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to effectively adopt revenue mobilization strategy to help address the challenges in the energy sector.



According to him, failing to fix the major challenge of Electricity Company of Ghana as in the area of collection of electricity bills can affect the purpose of clearing the energy sector debts.



The Vice President revealed that government is currently in discussion on issuing energy sector bond to offset the legacy debts of the energy sector in order to create space for increment in investment in the banking sector.



But Dr. Bawumia feared the purpose for issuing the bond will be baseless if the fundamental challenges in the sector are not addressed; thus, it is important to address the issue of collection of electricity bills by ECG for the development of the energy sector.



The energy sector has been a burden on many banks and this is a challenge we have to address seriously in dealing with the energy sector issues. There is discussion about issuing energy sector bond but ultimately even when the bond is issued and if we dont address the fundamentals of collection of electricity bills by ECG, we will end up going back to the same point, he reiterated.



Dr. Bawumia again urged ECG to seriously consider this issue of collection of electricity bills and the adoption of wholesale for most part of the pre-paid meters across the country as they maybe the way to go to ensure and enforce ECG to collect the bills to keep the financial system stable.



So lets think about it; we want a stronger financial sector and therefore we want to make sure the banks have sufficient capital base. Many banks in this country cannot even finance single cargo of oil; they dont have the capital to do that and so we have to make sure that the banks have stronger financial base, he asserted.



The Vice President made these remarks at the launch of Direct Savings and Loan which used to be Express Capital Microfinance Ltd.



He however noted that the bank and non-bank financial institutions play a critical role in the development of the economy; therefore government will give them the necessary support needed to enable the sector to assist the economy and socio-economic development.



Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia revealed that Savings and Loans companies account for 45 percent of total credit of 3.97 billion of the non-banked financial sector institutions; thus, the sector undoubtedly contributes immensely to the transformation of a huge portion of the informal sector towards Ghanas ultimate output [GDP].



The establishment of this financial institution today will deepen the countrys financial sector which is in line with governments commitment to developing a robust financial services sector needed for economic growth. With a noble vision, to support the growth of other indigenous small and medium size companies, it is the hope of government that Direct Savings and Loans will contribute towards the economic and development programme of Ghana, he said.



The Chief Executive Officer for Direct Savings and Loans, Ben Adu Owusu said the firm recognizes the role that private sector investment and innovation play in Ghanas economic development and assured it will remain steadfast in its commitment to contribute to the national interest.



He said the upgrading to Savings and Loans will give them more capacity to contribute immensely in the financial sector and serve their customers better; stressing that as a savings and loans company, it had more services to render to its customers.



Ultimately, our core business does not change; of course by upgrading to savings and loans, it gives us more capacity to be able to serve our customers better, he said.



We are excited for them because of our new image as Direct Savings and Loans. We are going to try and do more for our customers. Over the years, most of our customers have grown and so their needs and capacity has also grown and so by upgrading now, it puts us in a position to be able to provide the type of service they need, he added.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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 Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has reiterated that creating job opportunities for Ghanaian youth and women is a top priority for the Nana Akufo-Addo government.



In line with this, government is collaborating with its development partners to create the enabling environment for the establishment and growth of business and civil society groups with a view to opening up job opportunities.



Dr. Bawumia made these remarks when Mr. Darren Walker, the President of the Global Ford Foundation, USA, paid a courtesy call on him at the Flagstaff House.



The priority of President Nana Akufo-Addo's government is to build the most business-friendly and people-friendly economy in Africa, which will create jobs and prosperity for all Ghanaians especially the youth and women, Dr. Bawumia said.



The government is creating avenues for private entities in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors to have the capacity to create wealth for our youth and women, and wealth in our society. The Planting for Food and Jobs, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan, One District One Factory and other programmes are all designed to create jobs for our women and youth the Vice President added.



Commending the Ford Foundation for the work it is doing in entrenching democracy across the world, especially in Africa, Vice President Bawumia urged the foundation to also help to build the capacity of civil society organisations in Ghana.



Mr. Walker, who is visiting the country for the first time, described Ghanas democratic journey ass worthy of emulation, and urged the Nana Akufo-Addo government to sustain Ghanas democratic credentials.

It is a pleasure being in Ghana to strengthen the bond of friendship that has existed between Ghana and the US dating back to the 1950s he indicated.



He noted that one of the main aims of the Ford Foundation is empowering the youth and women to participate in electoral processes, and challenged Ghana and other African countries to do more to decrease gender inequality.



The Ford Foundation is a New York-headquartered, globally oriented private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare. It has been offering scholarships to brilliant Ghanaian students to acquire further knowledge abroad. One of their most famous beneficiaries is Dr Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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
Christian Pham Leads Final 27 of World Series of Poker Main Event

July 17, 2017 Mo Nuwwarah Editor

If Christian Pham's poker career got turned into a movie, it would probably get panned for being too much of a fairy tale, too hard to believe.

His first incredibly improbable moment came into 2015, when he claims to have accidentally registered for $1,500 2-7 Single Draw at the World Series of Poker when he meant to register for $1,500 Limit Hold'em. All he did was defeat a field of 219 and win a bracelet, overcoming the likes of Mike Leah, Robert Mizrachi and Huck Seed late.

Fast-forward to the 2017 World Series of Poker, and Pham fired in a $575 Main Event qualifier, winning a seat. On Day 5, with his tournament life on the line after bluffing all in on a four-straight board with one pair against a set, Pham needed a six and a six only to chop and survive or it was curtains.

He found the six-ball to avoid joining the payout line. Two days later, he's the leader of the final 27 players left after Day 6, with a career-best $263,532 locked up and 31,440,000 in the big. That will represent more than 100 big blinds when play resumes for Day 7.

A breathless Pham, sans the bucket hat he can be so often seen wearing at tournaments in and around his native Minnesota, could barely contain his excitement.

"Its the hope of every poker player, we go to the final table, or we go the top 27, 18 something like that," he said. "And now, my dream has come true. Im very happy about that."

"Now, my dream has come true. Im very happy about that."

The key moment for Pham on Day 6 came in a three-be t pot against Superman costume-clad Jonathan Dwek, who accidentally reraised the minimum and wound up running a wheel with ace-eight. Unfortunately for the Canadian, Pham's bottom pair on the flop became a backdoor steel wheel, and Dwek was unable to find the fold button on the river when Pham shoved on him.

"Oh my God straight flush, thats amazing," Pham said as he recalled the hand, adding that he made another straight flush shortly after. "Two straight flush today! Thats amazing! Oh my God, thats incredible."

Immediately behind Pham in the counts are Valentin Messina (28,590,000), Jack Sinclair (27,535,000) and Ben Lamb (25,685,000).

Lamb, of course, finished third in the 2011 Main Event, banking $4 million. His tournament results have been relatively scarce since then, with appearances in $25K high roller tournaments here in Las Vegas accounting for the bulk of his action.

True to the feelings of a man who fires away in $25Ks and has been here before, Lamb isn't satisfied by getting to the final 27 and has his sights set much higher.

I dont care about the final table," he said. "I want to win the whole damn thing. Im going to go home and watch Game of Thrones and then watch a little tape of today.

"Its the most fun you can have to be deep in this poker tournament. Im really excited to be here and the past will help me. But some of these guys have been here before too  multiple times."

One man in particular has made deep runs in the WSOP Main Event practically a yearly ritual at this point. Antoine Saout's own November Nine appearance predates Lamb's, as he made the final table back in 2009, also finishing third. Last year, Saout narrowly missed another final table with a 25th-place finish.

Saout had a fantastic summer in 2016 with three six-figure scores in Las Vegas, but admitted it has been a different story in 2017 as he came into the Main Event down and needed a big run to climb out of the hole he'd dug for himself.

Now, the Frenchman has navigated to the three-table redraw of the Main Event once again in something of a summer saver. He's in the middle of the pack with a stack of 9,945,000, but it's a count he's quite happy with as he struggled to gain much traction on Day 6.

"Today was a tough day," he said. "I fought. I was down to 4.6 million, but I finished at my peak at 10 million, so that's good."

Saout is far from the only Frenchman having a fantastic finish to the WSOP. Second-place Messina also hails from France, as do Benjamin Pollak (8,870,000) and Alexandre Reard (8,580,000). The four posed for pictures after bagging and had groups of fans waving French flags cheering them on throughout the day.

Saout accurately recalled that two of his countrymen also made the final 27 in 2009. Ludovic Lacay would finish 16th and Francois Balmigere 25th.

"It's very exciting," Saout said of the French contingent's surge. "We all have some chips. It's going to be a big day tomorrow. I hope we can make it two, three or even four [at the final table]."

The last 27 drew for their new seats after the eliminations of Joshua Horton in 28th when he made an inferior flush against Jack Sinclair. They'll come back to those seats at noon with 78 minutes left in Level 32 (120,000/240,000/40,000), and PokerNews will be providing hand-for-hand updates as the final three tables play down to the biggest final table in poker.
Be careful what you look for, you might just find it.

A new trailer for " Blade Runner 2049" has dropped over 2 months after the first preview was released. " Good Morning America " debuted the extended look at the long-awaited sequel Monday morning. While the first trailer introduced us to Ryan Gosling 's character, Officer K, this new clip reveals more about Harrison Ford 's character, Rick Deckard. He says that he and his fellow Blade Runners were being hunted. Or did he mean that he and Rachel were being hunted? Maybe it is the Replicants that were hunting the Blade Runners. Previews haven't focused on Deckard thus far because it's rumored Ford doesn't appear until the last third of the movie.

From executive producer Ridley Scott and director Denis Villeneuve , Blade Runner 2049 stars Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana De Armas, MacKenzie Davis, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, Carla Juri, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista and Jared Leto as Neander Wallace, a replicant manufacturer .

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://media.rbl.ms/image?u=/2017/03/blade-runner-2049.jpg&ho=https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com&s=499&h=ddfa06c60adeeaf78d7100ce6a0946911f9067e3e0d2b7a4dcb6aa7d515de569&size=980x&c=897290755 photo_credit="" caption="Deadline" pin_description="" image-library="0" crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//media.rbl.ms/image%3Fu%3D/2017/03/blade-runner-2049.jpg%26ho%3Dhttps%3A//pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com%26s%3D499%26h%3Dddfa06c60adeeaf78d7100ce6a0946911f9067e3e0d2b7a4dcb6aa7d515de569%26size%3D980x%26c%3D897290755%22%7D" expand=1] Deadline

Thirty years after the events of the first film , a young Blade Runner, Officer K ( Ryan Gosling ), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard ( Harrison Ford ), a former Los Angeles Police Department Blade Runner who had disappeared 30 years before. As the trailer unfolds, it turns out that K may be the key to the future of humanity. It's not perfectly clear whether or not replicants will succeed in replacing humans, but exposing the truth could start a war.

"You're a cop?" Decker asks his successor, adding, "I had your job once." "What happened?" responds Gosling, before being told, "We were being hunted!"

Hampton Fancher and Michael Green wrote the screenplay, which follows the initial story by Fancher and David Peoples, based on Philip K. Dick 's novella "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Ridley Scott 's original movie was set in Los Angeles in 2019. It chronicles Harrison Ford's Deckard, who hunted down replicants that had violently escaped an off-world colony to make their way to Earth. Replicants were not allowed inhabit the planet, with a life-span of 5 years, after which they would 'die' or begin to shut down. They came back to their maker to discover how to reverse the process.

The cinematography in this next sneak peek is just as visually exotic as past previews, but featured more of Johann Johannsson's synthesizer-induced score that pays homage to Vangelis' original score for 1982's Blade Runner. The first film was characterized so much by its soundscape as well as every frame treated as if a photograph on a gallery wall. Johannsson has said his work on the movie was "an enormous challenge of mythical proportion ."

An Oculus-powered VR experience for Blade Runner 2049 will be premiered at San Diego's Comic-Con. The experience is said to put visitors immersed within the futuristic world of Blade Runner. Visitors will be able to walk around the neon-lit streets, will be tested to see if they're replicants or humans. The Spinner, the flying car from the movie, will also be on display.

Popdust eagerly awaits the release of this soon to be classic that seems to be doing a good job of a continuation to a highly regarded classic. Blade Runner 2049 will officially be released on October 6th, 2017.

BLADE RUNNER 2049

[ purchase tickets ]

RELEASE DATE: October 6th, 2017 | GENRE: SCI FI , THRILLER | NOT YET RATED

CAST: Ryan Gosling , Harrison Ford , Ana de Armas , Sylvia Hoeks , Robin Wright , Mackenzie Davis , Carla Juri , Lennie James

DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve

Watch "Time to Live" Featurette below:

Follow #BladeRunner2049 on: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Dan Victor is editor in chief of Popdust and producer of Popdust Presents . He is also a music producer , bassist for Low Profile (live hip hop) & The Coldpress (indie rap) and front-man for Ductape Halo (indie rock). Follow on Youtube .

READ MORE ABOUT MOVIES...

WATCH | Could "WISH UPON" be the scariest movie coming out? Opens Tomorrow!



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FILM | Summer Movie previews you won't want to miss

Sources: Variety, The Verge , MovieWeb

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://media.rbl.ms/image?u=/vi/2Wroofd1bB0/maxresdefault.jpg&ho=https://i.ytimg.com&s=813&h=01d1b559bfb4e90ac5375d58b83e6ad0c3f852f6ece32b6721d7b088ba9ef947&size=980x&c=1616300525 photo_credit="" caption="YouTube" pin_description="" image-library="0" crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//media.rbl.ms/image%3Fu%3D/vi/2Wroofd1bB0/maxresdefault.jpg%26ho%3Dhttps%3A//i.ytimg.com%26s%3D813%26h%3D01d1b559bfb4e90ac5375d58b83e6ad0c3f852f6ece32b6721d7b088ba9ef947%26size%3D980x%26c%3D1616300525%22%7D" expand=1] YouTube
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-18 13:00:15

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for E3 Metals Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - E3 Metals Corp. (TSX Venture:ETMC). has issued a press release with the following headline:E3 Metals Corp. Begins Well Sampling Program Testing for Lithium and Announces Non-Brokered Private Placement of up to $902,000To 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 E3 Metals Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/E3 Metals Corp.Source: E3 Metals Corp. (TSX Venture: ETMC)Date: July 18, 2017Time: 7:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of E3 Metals Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-18 00:11:13

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Morro Bay Resources Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, Alberta (FSCWire) - Morro Bay Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:MRB). has issued a press release with the following headline:Morro Bay Announces Shareholder Meeting ResultsTo 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 Morro Bay Resources Ltd., 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/Morro Bay Resources Ltd.Source: Morro Bay Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture: MRB, OTC Pink: MRRBF)Date: July 17, 2017Time: 6:11 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Morro Bay Resources Ltd. 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.)
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for 92 Resources Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - 92 Resources Corp. (TSX Venture:NTY). has issued a press release with the following headline:92 RESOURCES CORP. Produces Spodumene Concentrate of 6.16% Li2O from Pegmatites of the Hidden Lake Project, NWTTo 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 92 Resources Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/92 Resources Corp.Source: 92 Resources Corp. (TSX Venture: NTY, OTCQB: RGDCF)Date: July 18, 2017Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of 92 Resources Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-18 07:32:02

's-Hertogenbosch, 18 July 2017

In the period from 11 July 2017 until 17 July 2017 Van Lanschot Kempen has repurchased 5,102 of its own shares. The shares were repurchased at an average price of 25.00 per share for a total amount of 127,553.

These repurchases are part of the share buy-back programme for at most 150,000 of own shares, which was announced on 7 June 2017. The total number of shares repurchased to date is 36,500.

More information, including a detailed overview of the repurchase transactions under this programme, is available on www.vanlanschotkempen.com/sharebuyback.

Media Relations: +31 20 354 45 85; mediarelations@vanlanschotkempen.com

Investor Relations: +31 20 354 45 90; investorrelations@vanlanschotkempen.com

About Van Lanschot Kempen

Van Lanschot Kempen, a wealth manager operating under the Van Lanschot, Evi and Kempen brand names, is active in Private Banking, Asset Management and Merchant Banking, with the aim of preserving and creating wealth for its clients. Van Lanschot Kempen, listed at Euronext Amsterdam, is the Netherlands' oldest independent financial services company with a history dating back to 1737.

vanlanschotkempen.com

Disclaimer

This document does not constitute an offer or solicitation for the sale, purchase or acquisition in any other way of or subscription to any financial instrument and is not an opinion or a recommendation to perform or refrain from performing any action.

This document is a translation of the Dutch original and is provided as a courtesy only. In the event of any disparities, the Dutch version will prevail.

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Van Lanschot Kempen via Globenewswire


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.




By: Precision Door Service of Central Florida

Media Contact

Suzanne Odisho

sodisho@precisiondoor.net

321-225-3500 Suzanne Odisho321-225-3500

End

-- Precision Door Service of Central Florida, the area's leading garage door repair company, partnered with the Make-A-Wish Central and Northern Florida chapter to help grant a child's wish.This particular wish kid, Matthew, used to have a workshop in his old house and really loved playing with his tools and lawnmower. He is the man of the house and enjoyed the time he spends with his grandfather there. Since Matthew moved, his wish is to have a barn/woodshop in his backyard where he can work on projects with his grandfather.Matthew's wish was granted recently and shed has a 9'x7' garage with the track and remote. Precision Door Service was delighted to donate the garage door and installation, and be a part in granting Matthew's wish. The technicians worked through the rain to make sure everything was installed, working properly, and looking great.Kelsea Hauck, Make-A-Wish Central Florida's Development Coordinator shares, " I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to Precision Door Service for helping us with a garage door donation. The gentlemen that we met on site were incredible and so kind. We are so so grateful. The picture of the finished shed with Matthew says it all. Look how happy he is!!!"Visit the Precision Door Service of Central Florida website for more information.Make The Right Decision. Call Precision: 407-473-6080A wish experience can be a game-changer for a child with a life-threatening medical condition. This one belief guides us in everything we do at Make-A-Wish. It inspires us to grant wishes that change the lives of the kids we serve. It compels us to be creative in exceeding the expectations of every wish kid. It drives us to make our donated resources go as far as possible. Most of all, it's the founding principle of our vision to grant the wish of every eligible child.Make-A-WishCentral and Northern Florida serves 54 counties including the Central, Northern, Space Coast and Suncoast Regions of Florida.Make-A-WishCentral and Northern Florida is proud of the way it manages and safeguards the generous contributions from individual donors, corporations and other organizations. We are committed to stretching every dollar received to affect as many wish kids as possible. http://cnfl.wish.org/Beginning as a family business in the late 1980's, Precision Door Service organized as an informal partnership in 1997. With aspirations of building the best garage door company in America, the Precision Door Service founders began a franchise program that is designed for national expansion. There are now 88 locations across the United States. Precision Door Service's mission is to provide outstanding garage door repair service and complete customer satisfaction. www.precisiondoor.net
The rebranded Future Energy Nigeria will return to Lagos in November and will focus on the bold turnaround plan of the Nigerian government, known as the Power Sector Recovery Program, which is aimed at restoring investor confidence in the sector.

By: Future Energy Nigeria

Nigerias energy elite to focus on restoring investor confidence

Media Contact

Future Energy Nigeria

annemarie.roodbol@ spintelligent.com

+27217003500 Future Energy Nigeria+27217003500

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-- The rebrandedwill return to Lagos in November and will focus on the bold turnaround plan of the Nigerian government, known as the Power Sector Recovery Program, which is aimed at restoring investor confidence in the sector following reported problems in the country's electricity market. U$D7.6-billion has been earmarked for this recovery process that the government developed in partnership with the World Bank."The Nigerian government is serious about restoring investor confidence and providing an enabling environment to grow private investments in the electricity sector," says Claire O'Connell, event director of. She adds: "there are huge opportunities in the Nigerian electricity supply industry for local and international investors. There are also very advantageous incentives in place for investors such as cost reflective tariffs for electricity, 0% duty on power generation equipment and 20% capital allowance for five years."Generation: Current installed generation capacity: 11.1 GW (2016) Aimed for installed capacity by 2030: 32 GW Investment required to reach this goal: U$D26.99-billion Generation mix of 2030 goal includes:- Gas: 41%- Solar PV: 16%- Large hydropower: 15%- Coal: 10%- 18%: nuclear, small-medium hydro, biomass, solar thermal and wind.Transmission & Distribution: Current transmission capacity: 6.6 GW Aimed for capacity by 2022: 20 GW The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) estimates it will need about U$D4.2-5-billion until 2020 to rehabilitate and modernise existing facilities. Complete projects are already under construction to expand the network to 10 GW.*Information source: "Uncovering growth opportunities in a connected world", Strategic Environment Analysis, Country power sector report  Frost & Sullivan, July 2017According to's Claire O'Connell the extensive opportunities in Nigeria for technology and service providers to the industry include: Expansion of existing facilities in generation, transmission and distribution Manufacturing of wires, cables, transformers and other auxiliary equipment Building new integrated power plants (IPPs) Expansion of existing transmission lines Production and distribution of metering devices Provision of operations and maintenance servicesThe 14edition of the event once again enjoys widespread support from the industry with Lucy Electric, a global secondary distribution leader in the electricity sector, returning as platinum sponsor, while Jubaili Bros and Genesis are gold sponsors and Conlog, Landis+Gyr, Hexing and Vodacom are silver sponsors.(formerly known as the West African Power Industry Convention  WAPIC), with the support of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Distribution Companies and prominent Generation companies, will once again host many of the country's leading energy decision makers from 7-8 November 2017 at the Eko Hotel & Suite Convention Centre in Lagos, Nigeria.The event is recognised as being a distinctive gathering of stakeholders within the power value chain which includes governments, power generation companies, transmission and distribution companies, off takers, developers, investors, equipment manufacturers and providers, technology providers, EPCs, legal and consulting firms all with a shared goal of supporting the on-going implementation of finding lasting solutions to Nigeria's energy challenges. Co-located to the event is the Oil & Gas Council's Nigeria Assembly.is organised by Spintelligent, a multi-award-winning Cape Town-based exhibition and conference producer across the continent in the infrastructure, real estate, energy, mining, agriculture and education sectors. Other well-known events by Spintelligent include African Utility Week, Future Energy East Africa (formerly EAPIC), Future Energy Central Africa (formerly iPAD Cameroon), Future Energy Uganda, Agritech Expo Zambia, Kenya Mining Forum, Nigeria Mining Week and DRC Mining Week. Spintelligent is part of the UK-based Clarion Events Group.Strategic conference: 7-8 November 2017Venue: Eko Hotel & Suite Convention Centre, Lagos, Nigeria.Website: http://www.future- energy-nigeria.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ FutureEnergyHub Linkedin: FutureEnergyAfricaSenior communications manager: Annemarie RoodbolTelephone: +27 21 700 3558Email: annemarie.roodbol@spintelligent.com
Contact

Marketing and Communications

***@zilis.com

2147053702 Marketing and Communications2147053702

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-- Zilis, the Pay It Forward Company, is celebrating the Presidential Ambassador promotion of Jenny and Tony Lusby. At a recent event, hundreds of fellow independent distributors for the company rose to their feet to honor the accomplishment of this dynamic couple. The achievement was reached in record breaking time, as the Lusby's have been with Zilis for less than one year. Reaching Presidential demonstrates Jenny and Tony's dedicated to their team and to spreading the word about the Zilis concept nationwide.I have learned so much over the past 13 years in Direct Sales and when making our decision to join a company, we were looking for so much more than just a "great product or a great comp plan"! We fell in love with the vision that Steven & Angie Thompson have of not only creating a platform similar to Amazon, but also the "Pay it Forward" nutrition program that is feeding malnourished children around the world with every purchase! We are extremely grateful to be the early pioneers of this incredible company and look forward to taking this company around the world!"When asked what their next goal with Zilis is, it is clear the Lusby's are focused on achieving even higher accomplishments. Zilis Founder & CEO Steven Thompson had this to say, "Jenny and Tony are two of the most dedicated and talented leaders in our industry. Angie and I could not be more happy work alongside them in our mission to take the Zilis movement around the world." Chief Medical Officer Derrick DeSilva, M.D. states, "What Zilis is building is special and the Lusby's saw that from day one. I knew the moment I met them that they would build a large and successful organization. Congratulations!"One thing is for sure, Zilis is on the move. The company anticipates many more major promotions such as this in the coming months.Founded in 2015 by internationally recognized entrepreneurs Steven and Angie Thompson, Zilis is building an Amazon like concept inside of a Direct Sales channel. Unlike most direct sales companies that only offer one brand, Zilis offers top brands for every aspect of health and wellness. In addition to making hundreds of the best wellness products available from one single source, Zilis makes a difference with every sale. Each time a Zilis product is purchased, the company matches the sale by providing daily servings of Zilis Nutrition Packs for children in at-risk locations. A company that takes compliance seriously, Zilis is proudly represented by the experts at Thompson-Burton. Visit www.zilis.com for more information.
London's New Bond Street has taken the top spot for the fastest growing prime retail location in the world as it recorded prime rental growth of 39.1% in Q1 2017, compared to the same period last year, according to CBRE's half yearly research report Global Prime Retail Rents. Meanwhile, Dublin

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So many independent authors feel that once they have written their book and published it, they are finished and theres nothing more to do, said Raymond Depew, who writes under the pen name R.D. Vincent. In actuality, as Depew explained, "their journey has just started.

Depew learned the importance of marketing early on, when his first book, Donbridge: The Ring of Lazarus, came out in 2015. At the time, his literary mentor from the State University of New York at Potsdam, the late poet Maurice Kenny, said: I am very proud of you that you published your book. But I am gonna tell you, you wont sell a [single copy].

Recalling laughing at the comment, Depew said he knew that Kenny was challenging him to beat the odds, which were not in his favor. According to an article that appeared in the New York Times a few years earlier, most self-published books sell less than 150 copies.

Since that fateful conversation, Depew began aggressively marketing and promoting his books, primarily at various festivals. He also made sure to attend events with little direct connection to books, like the Red, White and Bayou Crawfish & Music Festival in Dickenson, Tex. Readers are always at festivals and, even though they may not be looking for a book, reading seems to be on the back of their minds." Depew estimated that he signs roughly 90 to 105 books at the events he attends. He plans to release book six in his Donbridge series, The Four Talisman, this fall at the Texas Book Festival in Austin.

Altogether Depew has sold 31,000 copies of the first five works in the Donbridge series, along with a collection of the first three books, Donbridge: The Ring, The Legend & The Midwife, which he published last fall.

The collection was in the top 50 Kindle titles at Amazon in the days immediately following Thanksgiving last year, where it rose as high as #7. The series as a whole was a bestseller in the Kroger supermarket chains Texas authors program during the first quarter of 2017, where it came in at #6. Depew, who lives in Houston, does frequent signings at Kroger, and his books were included in an experimental in-store display for two weeks in April to see if self-published books would sell without the authors presence.

My #1 readers are people who [think they] dont like to read, Depew said. Explaining this sentiment, Depew noted that his audience prefers to read shorter works. He ensured that each title in his series is closer to the length of a standard novella. (The Donbridge books range from 69 to 163 pages.)

With this in mind, Depew initially promoted his books to busy adults, aged 35 and up, who didn't have time to pick up a lengthier book. Each book also includes recipes featuring dishes that the characters might have eaten; examples include pumpkin bread, three-bean chili, and split pea soup. Depew said he added the recipes to encourage readers to keep the books and cook from them. They became so popular that he now does a column with a brief Donbridge tale and a recipe for two magazinesCountry Folks in New England and Grandparents Day Magazine in Australia.

Like many writers whose careers have started to take off, both traditionally published and self-published, Depew has benefited from being in the right place at the right time. At an Indiepalooza conference hosted by the Houston (Texas) Writers Guild, he met Kathy Murphy, who heads one of the countrys largest book clubs, the Pulpwood Queens. After reading the first book in the Donbridge series, she invited him to speak at the groups annual convention in January 2016 in Nacogdoches, Texas. The series was also named an official Pulpwood Queens book club selection.

Not only did the Pulpwood Queenss endorsement help sell books, but it also helped Depew uncover an audience that he had previously left untapped: YA. When club members finished the books, they gave them to their kids, who also enjoyed the short length and fantastic tales. That the books appeal to 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders makes sense, particularly since Depew first heard these stories, which involve a magical ring, a witch, and a midwife, from his grandmother when he and his siblings went to her house on snow days.

Depew has now started to make school visits, making his first such appearance at a middle school in Jefferson, Texas, last fall. He has lined up visits to other schools in Texas, as well as schools in Louisiana and New York. But Depew has no plans to neglect his adult readers. For now, he will continue to use the same format and target both audiences.
Sara Goodman at Wednesday Books has acquired world rights to a collection of essays titled How I Resist: Activism and Hope for the Next Generation, edited by Maureen Johnson and Tim Federle, who will also contribute. Additional contributors include authors Jacqueline Woodson, Malinda Lo, Sabaa Tahir, Jason Reynolds, Libba Bray, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Joss Whedon, and many more. Publication is slated for spring/summer 2018; Kate Testerman at KT Literary represented Johnson, and Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates represented Federle. The editors and contributors have pledged the full advance of $50,000 to the ACLU.

Holly West at Feiwel and Friends has bought, in a two-book deal, Daughter of the Pirate King author Tricia Levenseller's Viking-inspired standalone fantasy, Warrior of the Wild. The book stars a teen warrior who is banished after failing her coming-of-age test, but befriends two boys who have failed before her and will help each other complete their quests. The first book will pub in winter 2019, with the second to follow in winter 2020; Rachel Brooks at BookEnds Literary negotiated the deal for world rights.

David Levithan at Scholastic has acquired All About Mia, by The Art of Being Normal author Lisa Williamson, in which imperfect middle child Mia Campbell-Richardson struggles to step out from the shadow of her two perfect sisters and claim her own voice. Publication is planned for 2018; Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management brokered the deal on behalf of Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Associates for U.S./Canadian rights.

Marissa Grossman at Razorbill has bought Not Now, Not Ever author Lily Anderson's Undead Girl Gang. Pitched as Veronica Mars meets The Craft, the novel follows teenager Mila Flores as she investigates the suspicious deaths of three classmates and accidentally brings the girls back to life, forming an unlikely vigilante girl gang. Publication is scheduled for summer 2018; Laura Zats at Red Sofa Literary did the deal for world rights.

Christy Ottaviano and Jessica Anderson at Christy Ottaviano Books have acquired world rights to Stacia Tolman's Western Civ, a contemporary YA debut pitched as American Girls meets Hillbilly Elegy. The book is slated for 2019; Sorche Fairbank at Fairbank Literary Representation negotiated the deal.

Paige Hazzan at Scholastic has bought The Lady Is a Spy by Don Mitchell, author of The Freedom Summer Murders. Illustrated with photographs, the YA biography examines the life and exploits of Virginia Hall, an American secret agent in Nazi-occupied France. Publication is set for fall 2018; Susan Cohen at Writers House brokered the deal for world rights.

Melanie Nolan at Knopf has acquired The Guggenheim Mystery, a middle grade novel inspired by an idea from the late Siobhan Dowd(l.), and written by Murder Is Bad Manners author Robin Stevens. The book features an amateur sleuth named Ted Spark who follows a trail of clues after a theft at New York City's Guggenheim Museumwith all the evidence pointing to Ted's aunt. Publication is planned for fall 2018; Camilla Borthwick at Penguin Random House UK did the U.S./Canadian deal on behalf of Stevens and the Siobhan Dowd Trust.

Catherine Onder at HMH has won at auction, in a three-book deal, debut author Crystal Smith's Bloodleaf, a retelling of the fairy tale The Goose Girl. In it, a princess finds herself destitute and stripped of her title. In order to win back her crown, she has to unravel the mystery binding her to an enigmatic prince, the unquiet ghost of an ancient queen, and a magical plant called bloodleaf. Publication is scheduled for fall 2018; Peter Knapp at Park Literary and Media negotiated the deal for North American rights.

Kendra Levin at Viking has acquired in a six-house auction Laura Tucker's debut middle grade novel, All the Greys on Greene Street, set in 1981 in SoHo. Twelve-year old Olympia is good at lots of things and has plenty to keep her busy. But when her dad runs off to France with a woman she and her mom call Vouley Voo and her mom gets into bed and doesn't get up, something's got to give. Publication is slated for 2019; Faye Bender at the Book Group handled the deal for North American rights.

Mallory Kass at Scholastic has bought The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson, a middle grade Baga Yaga reimagining about a 12-year-old girl seeking to escape her destiny as a guardian of the gate between this world and the next. Gemma Cooper at the Bent Agency brokered the deal for North American rights.

Jeffrey Salane at Little Simon has acquired Kat Writes a Song by Thank You, Bear author-illustrator Greg Foley. On a rainy, miserable day, Kat decides to write a song to cheer herself up, and share it with her friends. Publication is set for summer 2018; Caryn Wiseman at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency did the deal for world rights for the picture book plus two board books.

Mary-Kate Gaudet at Little, Brown has bought author-illustrator Deborah Marcero's picture book, My Heart Is a Compass, about a girl who draws maps to guide her on an imaginative quest for a unique item for show-and-tell. Publication is scheduled for fall 2018; Danielle Smith at Lupine Grove Creative negotiated the deal for world rights.

Liz Bicknell at Candlewick has acquired in a preempt Pete Oswald's Hike, a picture book about a family tradition of a child's first mountain hike and how they commemorate it. It's slated for spring 2020; Kirsten Hall at Catbird Productions brokered the deal for world rights.

Sonali Fry at Little Bee has bought Tina Cho's debut picture book, Rice from Heaven, in which a South Korean girl helps with a secret kindness mission to send rice in balloons over the border to impoverished families in North Korea. Publication is planned for August 2018; Adria Goetz at Martin Literary & Media Management negotiated the deal for world rights.

Rob Broder at Ripple Grove Press has acquired world rights to Julia Loopstra's debut picture book, Abilene, in which a girl who is frustrated with the quietness of her town uses paper lanterns to break the silence. Publication is set for 2019; the author-illustrator was unagented.

Asia Citro at the Innovation Press has bought world rights to Julia Finley Mosca's picture book biography, The Girl with a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague. The rhyming tale introduces children to her remarkable life and career as the U.S. Navy's very own "hidden figure." Daniel Rieley will illustrate; publication is scheduled for fall 2018. The author represented herself, and Robbin Brosterman at Bright USA brokered the deal for the artist.

Sarah McCabe at Simon Pulse has acquired at auction, in a two-book deal, Nicki Pau Preto's debut fantasy, Crown of Feathers, pitched as Eragon meets The Winner's Curse, in which a teenage girl runs away from her controlling sister and disguises herself as a boy to join a secret group of nearly extinct warriors who ride into battle on the backs of phoenixes, as the ruling Empire sets out to destroy them. Publication is scheduled for spring 2019 and 2020; Penny Moore at Empire Literary handled the deal for North American rights.

Eliza Swift at Albert Whitman has bought Maura Milan's debut novel, Ignite the Stars, pitched as Throne of Glass in space, and an untitled sequel. Everyone in the universe fears famous outlaw I.A. Cocha, but when I.A. is revealed to be a 16-year-old girl, she is forced into a reform program at her enemy's military academy, where some surprising friendships lead her to question her alliances. Publication is slated for fall 2018; Logan Garrison Savits at the Gernert Company brokered the deal for world English rights.

Kelly Delaney at Knopf has acquired at auction Gray Hats by Lillian Clark, a multi-perspective story about five teens determined to hack into one of their billionaire father's accounts to steal college tuition money. Publication is set for spring 2019; Melissa Edwards at Stonesong negotiated the two-book deal for world rights.

Kate Egan at KCP Loft has bought, in a two-book deal, a YA novel by Alice Kuipers, Me and Me, along with a second untitled biography. Told from two parallel perspectives, Me and Me tells the story of a young woman coming to terms with the aftermath of a tragic boating accident, in which she must decide who to savethe girl she used to babysit or the boy she's just started dating. The second book tells the life story of Canadian singer and champion figure skater Carley Allison, whose life was cut short at 18 by cancer. Publication for Me and Me is planned for fall 2018, followed by the second book in spring 2019. Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists and Lyons Johnston did the deal for world rights, excluding Canada.

Chris Hernandez at HarperCollins has acquired The Magicians of Elephant County by debut author-illustrator Adam Perry. In the Now You See Me meets Hocus Pocus-style middle grade novel, two amateur magicians get in over their heads with real magic. Publication is scheduled for fall 2018; Alexander Slater at Trident Media Group brokered the deal for world English rights.

Sylvie Frank at S&S/Wiseman has bought Edgar Award-winner Susan Vaught's middle-grade mystery, Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse. The story is told in dual timelines, one the week that Jesse makes her first friend just as her father is accused of stealing fundraising money from the high school where he teaches, and one a week later when their town is flattened by a tornado. Publication is set for spring 2019; Erin Murphy negotiated the deal for North American rights.

Steve Geck at Sourcebooks has acquired Lexi and the Lie, a middle-grade novel by Emma Shevah, author of Dara Palmer's Major Drama. Eleven-year-old Lexi is devoted to her London-based Greek family, and is especially fond of her frail cousin who has a heart condition. But when Lexi tells a lie that threatens to split the family, she must find a way to make everything right again. Publication is slated for fall 2018; Allison Hellegers at Rights People sold the book on behalf of Chicken House U.K.

Sonali Fry at Little Bee/Yellow Jacket has bought a middle-grade novel, The Prophet Calls, by debut author Melanie Sumrow. Set in a polygamous cult in the foothills of New Mexico, and in a world where many of life's pleasures are banned and the Prophet dictates community policy from jail, a girl must defend her younger sister and escape her own arranged marriage. The book is due out in summer 2018; Rick Richter at Aevitas Creative Management brokered the deal for world rights.

Adrienne Szpyrka at Running Press Kids has acquired Susan Lubner's middle grade novel, The Trickiness of Signs, about a girl named Lizzie growing up in the small Maine town of East Thumb, who's searching for signs to guide her, and perhaps guarantee her, a bump-free path through life. When she meets a runaway with a four-leaf clover tattoo on her hand, Lizzy hides the girl in her bedroom closet, convinced she can protect her family from tragedy. Publication is planned for fall 2018; Linda Epstein negotiated the deal for world rights.

Jennifer Greene at Clarion and Heather Curdie at Penguin Australia have bought a picture book from author-illustrator Anna Walker, called Hello, Walter. The book stars a girl who is convinced that there's an enormous shark in the swimming pool waiting to eat her and only herthat is until an imaginary friend in the form of a walrus arrives and helps her conquer her fears. Publication is scheduled for spring 2019; Stephen Barr at Writers House did the deal for world rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand.

Liz Bicknell at Candlewick has acquired world rights to Mr. Posey's New Glasses, a picture book by former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser (l.), in which something as ordinary as picking out new glasses becomes an extraordinary adventure. Daniel Duncan will illustrate; publication is set for spring 2019. The author represented himself; Anne Moore Armstrong at Bright USA represented the artist.

Callie Metler-Smith at Clear Fork/Spork has bought Sarah Floyd's picture book, Ten Clever Ninjas, illustrated by Marcin Bruchnalski. In the story, a clever ninja and his nine ninja buddies spar across the countryside, build a secret hideout, and solve a cupcake clue. Publication is slated for spring 2018. Essie White at Storm Literary Agency represented the author and illustrator in the deal for world English rights.

Alexis Orgera and Chad Reynolds at Penny Candy Books have acquired world rights to the picture book H Is for Haiku: A Treasury of Haiku from A to Z by the late Sydell Rosenberg (l.), illustrated by Sawsan Chalabi. Inspired by Rosenberg's experience living in New York City, the haiku invite readers to slow down, linger, and pay attention to the moments that are often overlooked. Publication is scheduled for April 2018; Amy Losak represented her late mother in the deal.

Mara Conlon at Peter Pauper Press has bought world rights to Wade Bradford's picture book, Papa Bear's Page Fright, illustrated by Mary Ann Fraser. Goldilocks is supposed to be the star of this story, but when Papa Bear realizes that he's inside of a bookand that there are readers watching him he is suddenly struck with a case of Page Fright and can't remember his lines. Publication is set for spring 2018; Abigail Samoun at Red Fox Literary represented the author and illustrator.

Asia Citro at the Innovation Press has acquired world rights to Miss Turie's Magic Creatures by Joy Keller, illustrated by Richard Watson. Miss Turie's Magic Creatures guarantees the perfect pet for every customer, but will she be able to find a match for a persnickety boy? Publication is planned for fall 2018; the author represented herself, and Robbin Brosterman at Bright USA represented the illustrator.
LiveU mobile newsgathering technology has been selected by South African channel eNCA to broadcast breaking news in high definition (HD).





LiveUs robustness has already proved itself in the field covering recent events. We find the unit very user-friendly and the management portal also lets us manage and control our streams, as needed, said Sean Thomas, broadcast delivery manager at eNCA.Our live TV contributions are already up by 350% and we hope to grow this infrastructure further, increasing our online coverage as well. LiveU enables us keep ahead of the curve journalistically and technically; we plan to combine the new HEVC H.265 Pro Card encoder with the LU600s, enabling us to push through more live coverage in half the bandwidth.The deal for LiveUs LU600 cellular bonded technology is being managed by the companys South African partner Concilium.Yaal Eshel, LiveUs VP Sales, said: eNCA is the first broadcaster in Africa to deploy the new LU600, representing a key milestone for us. We are excited to see our technology helping broadcasters worldwide to enhance their live productions.
2 killed, 39 injured in Makwanpur bus accident

Two persons died and 39 others were injured when a bus they were travelling in met with an accident at Khanigaun in Taha Municipality-1 of Makwanpur district on Tuesday.
5 Bullwhip in hand, a Cossack walks ahead of the procession. The marchers followed the route taken by the Bolsheviks as they drove the bodies to a forest north of Yekaterinburg for a hasty burial.
Six Afghan girls who were earlier denied visas to attend a Washington, D.C., robotics competition have met with U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, in Washington.

U.S. authorities had originally refused access to schoolchildren from a number of Muslim-majority nations to participate in the science contest, decisions that followed the implementation of stricter visa policies under Trump.

At the urging of Trump, however, U.S. officials reversed policy and allowed the six girls from the Herat region to enter the country for the FIRST Global Challenge -- a three-day international robotics competition that aims to promote science and technology among youths worldwide.

When the reversal was announced, Ivanka Trump tweeted: "I look forward to welcoming this brilliant team of Afghan girls, and their competitors, to Washington DC next week!"

The girls arrived in Washington on July 15, where they were greeted at Dulles International Airport by a group of supporters, including Afghan ambassador Hamdullah Mohib and acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Alice G Wells. The girls were presented with bouquets.



The Afghan girls are entering a robot they made that can recognize blue and orange and sort balls into correct locations.



Critics had argued that the denial of the visas was the wrong message to send to the people of Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces have been helping to fight Taliban extremists for 16 years.

With additional reporting by AP and AFP


A vice president being barred from landing in his own country -- it's a scenario that could spark a major political crisis.

That appears to be the case after a private jet carrying Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful former warlord who had been on medical leave in Turkey in recent months, was turned away when it tried to land on July 17 in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

The plane carrying the critic of President Ashraf Ghani was reportedly told to divert its course to the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he is facing a court case over allegations he beat up and tortured a political rival.

Instead, the vice president and his entourage landed in neighboring Turkmenistan. He is expected to reenter Afghanistan by land.

Alliance With Key Brokers

During his absence in Turkey, Dostum had announced the formation of a political alliance with key brokers from northern Afghanistan, the ethnic Uzbek leader's traditional power base.

Dostums office denied he had tried to enter Afghanistan, saying that a guest of the local governor had been due to land in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh Province, but had gone to Turkmenistan because of "technical issues."

However, hundreds of Dostums supporters were waiting for him at the airport.

The NATO-led Resolute Support force, which maintains troops at Mazar-e Sharif's airport under German command, said it had no role in turning the aircraft away:

The unprecedented step is likely to deepen the long-running political crisis in Afghanistan, where Ghani is facing antigovernment protests calling for his resignation and a mutiny by former allies, including Dostum, who last month announced the formation of a new opposition movement.

Ahmad K. Majidyar, an analyst, says the Dostum controversy is the latest indication that Afghanistan's broad political consensus is weakening rapidly and the central governments legitimacy and power are in "free fall."

"The central governments move to block the return of Dostum indicates that Kabul fears the potential strength and risks of the new alliance by Dostum and other influential power brokers in northern Afghanistan," he said.

Majidyar says Kabul's insistence that Dostums plane should land in the capital, and not in Mazar-e Sharif, shows the government is no longer entirely in charge of northern Afghanistan.

At Loggerheads

Dostum has been at loggerheads with his own government for months. Since coming into office after the disputed 2014 presidential elections, Dostum has accused Ghani of sidelining him and monopolizing power.

It is widely believed that Ghani put the former Uzbek militia leader on his ticket as first vice president to secure the votes of ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen, who constitute some 10 percent of Afghanistan's population.

Most recently, the two clashed over a criminal investigation into allegations that Dostum and his bodyguards kidnapped, tortured, and sexually assaulted Ahmad Ischi, a former political ally from Dostums Junbesh-i Milli-Yi Islami party. Dostum has described the allegations as "politically motivated."

Last week, the attorney general's office announced that a court case against Dostum and nine of his bodyguards over the accusations was handed over to the country's Supreme Court, with some questioning the timing of the announcement.

Heaping Pressure On Ghani

Dostum has not been formally charged with any crimes but his departure to Turkey for medical reasons was seen as a cover that allowed the government to sideline him without the embarrassment of a public dismissal. But his case has highlighted mounting political and ethnic tensions that have threatened the stability of the fragile national unity government.

Dostum, who has been accused of grave human rights violations, formed a new political opposition group in Turkey in June that heaped pressure on Ghani.

Dostum has teamed up with two powerful northern figures who have vented their anger and frustration at the embattled president: Atta Muhammad Noor, the ethnic Tajik governor of Balkh, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, the Hazara deputy chief executive of the Afghan government.

During the devastating civil war from 1992 to 1996, the three men fought over control of Balkh, a rare beacon of relative peace and economic development. But the three have since allied to combat what they see as a mutual foe in Ghani, a Pashtun who has been accused of favoring that ethnic group.

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report.
A fire struck a high-rise hotel that is undergoing renovations on Novy Arbat, a main thoroughfare in central Moscow.

The Emergency Situations Ministry's Moscow branch said nobody was hurt in the July 18 blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters.

Some 100 workers who were in the building left the premises after the fire broke out, and 26 others were evacuated from the building, officials said.

The fire blackened part of the building, one of four book-shaped towers on the south side of the avenue.

The cause is under investigation.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Flights from Tbilisi to Moscow have returned to normal after two days of restrictions imposed by the Russian Transport Ministry on Georgian Airways.

The ministry imposed the restrictions on July 15 due to Georgia's refusal to allow Russian carrier Ural Airlines to conduct flights to Tbilisi from the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow.

Georgian Airways director Givi Davitashvili said on July 17 that Russian restrictions were lifted after Georgian aviation authorities agreed to allow Ural Airlines to fly from Zhukovsky.

Georgian Airways has been the only Georgian airline company conducting flights between Tbilisi and Moscow since 2014.

Russia maintains that Zhukovsky, which opened in May 2016, is not a Moscow airport because it is under the formal authority of Ramenskoye, a town outside the capital.

However, Tajik and Israeli aviation authorities have claimed Zhukovsky was Moscow's fourth international airport and that had led to an increase in flights from Moscow to their countries.

Georgian aviation authorities had not allowed Ural Airlines to conduct flights from the airport since May, citing similar reasons.

With reporting by apsny, RIA, and TASS


25 rhinos died last fiscal in Chitwan National Park

Twenty-five one-horned rhinos have reportedly died in the Chitwan National Park (CNP) in the last fiscal year. Of them, 19 were males.
TBILISI -- The presidents of Georgia and Ukraine have agreed to coordinate their efforts toward integration into the European Union.

Giorgi Margvelashvili and Petro Poroshenko announced the move in a declaration of strategic partnership in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, on July 18.

Margvelashvili told reporters after the talks that the declaration "reflects the real mood of the two nations."

"We agreed to intensify our efforts in terms of integration into the European space," Margvelashvili said.

Poroshenko said, "we have to defend our sovereignty, territorial integrity, and democracy together." He added that the two countries face the same challenges and threats.

"[The] international community must increase its pressure on Russia until it fully fulfills the Minsk (peace) agreements and removes its armed forces for the occupied territories," Poroshenko said. "For Georgia it is about occupied territories of Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia, and for Ukraine it is about the annexed Crimea and the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine."

Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014 and has been supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east in a war against Kyiv's forces that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014

In 2008, Russia recognized Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries shortly after fighting a brief war against Tbilisi, and Moscow maintains thousands of troops in both regions.

With reporting by apsny.ge
Human Rights Watch says Russia has introduced significant restrictions to online speech, conducts invasive surveillance of online activity, and prosecutes critics under the guise of fighting extremism.

In a report released on July 18, New York-based HRW documents Russian government measures it says are aimed at bringing the Internet under greater state control.

The report, Online And On All Fronts: Russias Assault On Freedom Of Speech, says that since 2012 Russian authorities have unjustifiably prosecuted dozens of people for criminal offenses on the basis of their social-media posts, online videos, media articles, and interviews. The authorities have also shut down or blocked access to hundreds of websites.

The report says Moscows crackdown on free speech comes as a part of a larger crackdown on civil society unleashed after large antigovernent protests in 2011-2012 and Vladimir Putins return to the presidency in May 2012 after a stint as prime minister.

Russia has since introduced a range of repressive laws that provide the government with a broad array of tools to restrict access to information, carry out unchecked surveillance, and censor information the government deems extremist, out of line with traditional values, or otherwise harmful to the public, the report said.

Russias authorities are leading an assault on free expression, said Yulia Gorbunova, Russia researcher at HRW. These laws arent just about introducing tough policies, but also about blatant violation of human rights.

The authorities have increasingly conflated criticism of the government with extremism, according to the report, especially on issues such as Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, criticism or satire targeting the Russian Orthodox Church, and Moscow armed intervention in Syria.

The report says that based on the data provided by the SOVA Center, a prominent Russian think tank, the number of social-media users convicted of extremism offenses in 2015 was 216, in comparison with 30 in 2010.

Between 2014 and 2016, approximately 85 percent of convictions for extremist expression dealt with online expression, with punishments ranging from fines or community service to prison time, the HRW report says, citing the SOVA Center.

Between September 2015 and February 2017, 54 people went to prison for extremist speech, including online. In February 2017, that number spiked to 94, the report says.

In the occupied Crimea, Russian authorities have silenced dissent, claiming to be combatting extremism, the report says. They have closed down all independent media outlets in Crimea and aggressively targeted critics.

HRW says that Russian authorities have also actively enforced a 2013 law that bans dissemination of information about so-called nontraditional sexual relations, otherwise known as the antigay propaganda law.

According to the report, at least six people have since been found guilty of violating the federal law.

Meanwhile, the enforcement of the 2012 foreign agents law has served to discredit and demonize independent nongovernmental groups that accept foreign funding.

HRW said it has interviewed dozens of lawyers, journalists, activists, and bloggers and their family members in preparing its report.

The rights watchdog has also analyzed laws and regulations pertaining to Internet content and freedom of expression, as well as court documents and other material relevant to specific cases.

HRW urged Moscow to repeal what the rights group calls repressive legislation, to stop prosecuting critics under the guise of fighting extremism, and to uphold its international obligations to safeguard free expression.

HRW also calls on the international community, including the European Union, to raise concerns about human rights violations in Russia in all relevant international forums, including at the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe, as well as in their bilateral dialogues with the Russian government.
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
Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai has called on Nigeria to focus on improving its education system, as she visited the country and met some of the Chibok schoolgirls whose cause she championed.

Yousafzai, 20, a Pakistani education activist who came to prominence when a Taliban militant shot her in the head in 2012, was named a UN Messenger of Peace in April to promote girls education around the world.

After a meeting with Nigerias acting president in Abuja, Yousafzai said the government should declare a state of emergency on education in Nigeria, where nearly half of primary-aged children are not enrolled in school.

According to UN figures, Nigeria has some 10.5 million children out of school -- the most in the world -- and 60 percent of them are girls.

Yousafzai has also taken part in global campaigns to maintain awareness of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram Islamist militants from their school in Nigerias remote town of Chibok in 2014.

Some 100 of the schoolgirls still remain in captivity, while others were freed or escaped. Yousafzai met some of the freed girls in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.



Malala won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize along with Kailash Satyarthi of India.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Montenegro has asked for international help to fight wildfires raging along its Adriatic coastline, forcing the evacuation of dozens of tourists and campers, authorities said July 17.

"The situation at Lustica is critical. The interior ministry of Montenegro asked for the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism" to be activated to help extinguish the fire, the government said in a statement.

Mayors of the threatened coastal towns of Kotor, Tivat, and Herceg Novi urged the government to ask neighboring nations -- Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia-- to send fire-extinguishing aircraft.

At least 100 tourists were forced to evacuate from a coastal area that has been the hardest hit by the blaze.

Fueled by strong winds and dry weather, the fire on the Lustica peninsula in southern Montenegro has spread near homes and camping zones.

"Our forces are not enough to put out a fire of such proportion," said Stevan Katic, the head of Herceg Novi municipality.

The navy also stepped in to help evacuate the area by sea, officials said.

Emergency services said strong winds are hampering firefighters' efforts to save houses.

"The fire has spread over the road; an entire hill is burning," emergency official Maksim Mandic told Montenegrin TV. "It is impossible to put out the fire completely in such winds."

Croatian TV reported that the blaze near the key port and tourist center of Split has reached houses in some parts of the city, with residents joining firefighters in efforts to contain the flames.

Authorities warned the residents throughout the town to remain calm, stay indoors, and keep the windows closed as thick smoke spreads through the area. Some parts of Split were left without electricity, Croatian TV said.

Soldiers from Croatia joined in the battle to stop the blaze in Montenegro.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic scheduled an emergency meeting for July 18, saying Croatia could also seek international help if the crisis continues.

With reporting by AP and AFP


The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

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.

Sullivan spoke hours after 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.

Video posted online showed people on the streets, flying Ukraine's national flag and chanting as Ukrainian troops arrived in the city.

"We are winning battles on the ground. But the war continues," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after Ukraine's recovery of Kherson.

Speaking at the summit in Cambodia on November 12, Kuleba said that reclaiming the city was "quite an exercise.

I understand that everyone wants this war to end as soon as possible. We are definitely the ones who want that more than anyone else," Kuleba said during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities, such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said that Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

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.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said.

"In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy, he said.

With reporting by AFP
Russia must pay 5.4 million euros ($6.25 million) in damages to the Netherlands for the 2013 seizure of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship during an oil drilling protest, an international arbitration panel ruled on July 18.

Russian Federal Security Service agents captured the Arctic Sunrise in international waters in September 2013 after a protest against an oil platform. Those on board were detained in Russian prisons for months and released in November 2013.

The five-member arbitration panel, based in Vienna, ruled in 2015 that Russia was liable under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has now announced the amount representing damages to the ship, as well as the wrongful arrest and suffering of 30 people aboard.

"This decision makes clear that ships in international waters cannot be forcibly boarded and those aboard arrested at a whim," Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in a statement.

Russia refused to participate in arbitration, arguing that it was acting within its sovereign rights to seize the ship in an area of international waters where Russia enjoys exclusive economic rights. Activists had earlier tried to scale the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform, operated by Gazprom.

The arbitration panel found it had jurisdiction under UNCLOS, which Russia is party to and which empowers it to resolve such disputes. Moscow was not immediately available for comment.

Russia's state-operated RIA Novosti news agency reported that Moscow would review the decision but cited unnamed sources at the Foreign Ministry saying it still rejected the tribunal's jurisdiction.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition political activist and anticorruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny and two co-defendants in a high-profile embezzlement case to pay 2.1 million rubles (about $35,500) in damages to a lumber company.

In February, a court in the Russian city of Kirov found Navalny and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov guilty of embezzlement from the Kirovles lumber company after a retrial.

Navalny on February 8 received a 5-year suspended sentence, and Ofitserov received a 4-year suspended sentence. Additionally, they were fined 500,000 rubles ($8,500) each.

The Kirovles company also demanded more than 16 million rubles in damages (about $270,400) from Navalny, and codefendants Ofitserov and Kirovles ex-director Vyacheslav Opalyov.

The damages claimed by Kirovles are separate from the fines Navalny and Ofitserov were given by the court in Kirov.

The February retrial came after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in 2016 that the outcome of the 2013 trial, when exactly the same verdicts and sentences were handed to Navalny and Ofitserov, violated the defendants' right to a fair trial.

According to the ECHR ruling, the Russian court found the men "guilty of acts indistinguishable from regular commercial activity."

After the ECHR's ruling, Russia's Supreme Court threw out the 2013 convictions and ordered a retrial.

Both Navalny and Ofitserov have maintained their innocence.

The retrial and the verdict have been criticized by opposition politicians and human rights groups as politically motivated.

Navalny announced in December that he would run for president in a March 2018 election in which Vladimir Putin -- in power as president or prime minister since 1999 -- is widely expected to seek a new six-year term.

Navalny was convicted of fraud in a separate case in 2014 and given a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence.


Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has suggested that Moscow and Washington are close to an agreement that would restore Russian access to two diplomatic compounds seized in December by then-President Barack Obamas administration.

But Ryabkov later indicated that a deal was not imminent following his talks with U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon, and the State Department said on July 18 that "more work needs to be done " to mend badly strained ties.

Ryabkov initially spoke in response to a reporter's shouted question after his meeting with Shannon in Washington on July 17. According to CNN, Ryabkov was asked, Did you get your compounds back? He responded: Almost, almost.

On July 18, however, Ryabkov said, "You know, 'almost' doesn't count -- so we will continue to work on it."

He said that Russia had "warned the Americans that we need the unconditional return of the property; otherwise retaliatory measures will follow."

A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on July 18 said that Shannon and Ryabkov discussed the diplomatic compounds, but made no mention of any outcome.

"The search for solutions to problems that have built up, including those linked to the illegal seizure...of U.S. real estate belonging to Russia, was continued," the ministry said.

It said Ryabkov underscored that Russia reserves the right to respond in kind "if Washington does not remove this and other irritants."

The State Department statement made no specific mention of the diplomatic compounds.

Shannon's discussion with Ryabkov about "areas of mutual concern" was "tough, forthright, and deliberate, reflecting both parties commitment to a resolution," it said.

"The United States and Russia seek a long-term solution that would address areas of bilateral concern that have strained the relationship. The talks reflected a spirit of goodwill, but it is clear that more work needs to be done," the U.S. statement said.

It said that Shannon and Ryabkov had committed to holding future talks on the implementation of the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty and broader issues of strategic stability, and would "exchange scheduling proposals in the near future."

Obama ordered the seizure of the compounds in Maryland and New York, and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, in response to what he said were Russian efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election and mistreatment of U.S. diplomats in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised many in both countries by declining to retaliate -- a gesture to then-President-elect Donald Trump, who had repeatedly indicated during the campaign he would seek to improve ties with Moscow.

But relations remain tense amid multiple investigations into what the U.S. intelligence community says was an "influence campaign" ordered by Putin in an attempt to help Trump and denigrate his Democratic rival on the November 8 ballot, Hillary Clinton.

Russian officials have stepped up their calls for the unconditional restoration of access to the diplomatic compounds, saying Moscow's patience is running out.

They have threatened to retaliate and indicated their actions would depend heavily on the outcome of the meeting between Shannon and Ryabkov.

Hours before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that any U.S. preconditions for the return of the property would be unacceptable for Moscow.

"We consider it absolutely unacceptable to place conditions on the return of diplomatic property. We consider that it must be returned without any conditions and talking," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that what he called U.S. attempts to set preconditions amounted to "daylight robbery."

He said that "anti-Russian sentiment" in the United States meant it was not certain that Moscow and Washington could agree on key global issues.

Obama sought to "reset" troubled relations with Moscow after he entered office in 2009, but ties were badly strained by Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and support for separatists whose war against Kyiv's forces has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014, among other issues. Relations were further damaged by Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. election.

The talks between Ryabkov and Shannon, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, had been scheduled for June but Russia cancelled them, citing new U.S. sanctions linked to the conflict in Ukraine. The new date for the talks was set after Trump and Putin met for the first time, on July 7, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Germany.

With reporting by cnn.com, TASS, Reuters, and AFP
REPORT: 60 percent people in Karnali unaware of Chhaupadi ban

A recent survey has showed that around 60 percent of people in Karnali region do not know Chhaupadi is illegal and that they continue to practice the age-old tradition, in which girls and women are banished to cow sheds and Chhau huts outside their homes during menstruation and after childbirth.
Russian-appointed judges at a court in Ukraine's occupied Crimea region have conducted a new hearing in the trial of Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge.

Witnesses and experts called by the defense testified at the trial on July 18.

The judge agreed to include the UN General Assembly's December 2016 resolution on human rights in Crimea -- which was seized by Russia in 2014 -- in the case documents.

The trial in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, has been delayed several times since it started in late March.

Semena faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

The charge against the 66-year-old Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL's Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015.

The Kremlin-installed prosecutor in Crimea charged that the article had called for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.

Semena contends that the accusation is baseless and politically motivated, and that Russian authorities have based the case on an inaccurate Russian translation of his original Ukrainian text.

Activists say Semena's trial is part of a systemic Russian clampdown on independent media and dissent in Crimea since Moscow's armed occupation and takeover of the peninsula.


Military exercises in the Black Sea are the "most realistic" ever staged by the 17 participating nations, according to the U.S. commander there. The 20th annual Sea Breeze exercises come amid ongoing tensions with Russia, which has buzzed U.S. craft this year. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region have announced what they say is the creation of a new state called Malorossia, or Little Russia, a declaration that was swiftly condemned by Kyiv.

The announcement on July 18 appeared to be the latest twist in attempts by the separatists who seized territory with Russian help in 2014 to claim legitimacy and discredit the government of Ukraine.

But it was met with silence from the Kremlin and failed to win support from fellow separatists in the neighboring Luhansk region, where one leader said the idea "raises big doubts."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggested it was part of a Russian effort to divide and conquer his country, and said that would never happen.

Steeped in the history of Ukraine and its perennially troubled ties with Russia, the announcement comes amid a war that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine and continues despite an internationally backed cease-fire mandated by the 2015 Minsk accords.

'Failed State'

Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the separatists who control the city of Donetsk and part of the surrounding province, which borders Russia, read out a declaration on the creation of Malorossia, according to the separatist-affiliated Donetsk News Agency.

Speaking at a meeting with unidentified "representatives" of numerous provinces that are controlled by Kyiv, he suggested that the idea is for Malorossia to assume the mantle of Ukraine, which the declaration asserted "has revealed itself as a failed state."

"We must build a new country in which the concepts of conscience and honor are not forgotten," Zakharchenko said, according to the Donetsk separatists' website.

Another Donetsk separatist leader, Aleksandr Timofeyev, read out a so-called "Constitutional Act" that said participants at the meeting "agree that the new state will be called Malorossia, because the very name Ukraine has discredited itself."

Tsarist-Era Term

Malorossia, which means Little Russia or Lesser Russia, was a name used in Tsarist-era Russia for several regions of today's Ukraine.

Another tsarist-era term for parts of Ukraine, Novorossia -- New Russia -- was sometimes used by separatists and Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, around the time that Russia was fomenting separatism in Ukraine.

Use of the term added to concerns in Kyiv and the West that Russia would seek to take control over large portions of eastern and southern Ukraine, and might try to annex the area or create a new state beholden to Moscow.

But talk of Novorossia faded after a few months, as Kyiv's forces held the Russia-backed separatists to territory covering parts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia has not formally recognized the self-proclaimed separatist entities in Ukraine as independent, and Moscow's stated position is that they should be part of Ukraine.

'Big Doubts'

Analysts say Russia hopes to continue to use them as long as it can to destabilize Ukraine and maintain pressure on its pro-Western government.

There was no immediate Kremlin comment on the declaration about Malorossia.

But Poroshenko suggested the initiative was part of a Russian effort to break Ukraine into pieces and said it would not succeed.

"From the beginning of the military aggression against my nation, the Russian Federation's goal has been to divide Ukraine into parts," Poroshenko said during a visit to Tbilisi.

He said that the "Novorossia project" had "completely failed."

Poroshenko said that Zakharchenko and Luhansk separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky are "not political figures but a puppet show that transmits messages received from Russia."

Plotnitsky's press service, meanwhile, said the Luhansk leadership had not even been invited to discuss the new initiative and that they support the Minsk peace process, in which Western governments are still pushing for an end to the war in eastern Ukraine.

Another leader of the separatists in Luhansk, Vladimir Degtyarenko, said that "at the moment the expediency of such a step raises big doubts."

Yevhen Marchuk, a representative of Kyiv in talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the separatists, said the announcement by the Donetsk separatists could scuttle a meeting scheduled to be held in Minsk on July 19.

And Igor Girkin, a Russian who was once a senior commander of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and also uses the name Igor Strelkov, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that the plan to create Malorossia was "stillborn."

With reporting by Current Time TV, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, UNIAN, 112.Ukraina, TASS, and Interfax


Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have committed suicide after returning home from war in the country's eastern Donbas region. Ukraine's military prosecutor said it has registered around 500 suicides among Ukrainian veterans throughout the three-year conflict against Russia-backed separatist. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will be one of the "key challenges" facing Ukraine in the future. (RFE/RL's Current Time TV)
Page Content

What would you do if an employee had a medical emergency on the job? The American Heart Association (AHA) says most employees aren't prepared to handle life-threatening health issueslike sudden cardiac arrestin the workplace. That's why the AHA just launched a workplace safety training initiative focused on first aid, CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) use.

An AED is a portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart, which can return the heart to a normal rhythm after a sudden cardiac arrest.

Jim Holland, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Kansas City, Mo., knows how important it is to train staff on first aid, CPR and AED use.

In January 2015, Holland's wife, Nancy, went into sudden cardiac arrest while they were at a restaurant having dinner with friends.

The restaurant's manager, Richmond Carson, had learned CPR because his mother is a nurse and she suggested that it would be an important skill for him to have while working in a public-facing position.

Carson administered CPR to Nancy until the first emergency responder arrived with an AED.

The restaurant didn't have an AED on hand, but the first responder was a police officer who carried one in the car, Holland told SHRM Online.

The combination of CPR and AED use saved Nancy's life. Although there was initially some uncertainty about whether she would suffer permanent brain damage after the incident, she did not. Holland joked that when Nancy recovered, the only thing she had forgotten was her cellphone passcode.

Holland said that although the 911 responders arrived very quickly, if Carson hadn't known CPR, chances are that Nancy wouldn't have survived. Likewise, the availability and quick use of the AED were critical.

Creating Awareness

More than 90 percent of employees who participated in two 2017 AHA surveys said they would take employer-sponsored first aid and CPR training coursesbut many employers don't provide such training, according to the surveys.

Employees may have a false sense of security that someone else in the organization will know what to do and is qualified to respond to an emergency situation, said Michael Kurz, a physician scientist at the Alabama Resuscitation Center and a professor at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

It is disheartening that lifesaving training is often only offered after a serious incident that demonstrated a need for it, said Peter Fromm, a registered nurse and administrator at the South Nassau Communities Hospital Center for Cardiovascular Health in Oceanside, N.Y.

"All businesses should be committed to proactively fostering a safe workplace environment, one that empowers people to take on a small social responsibility that can have a large community impact," he said.

Reasons to Consider Providing Training

For many industries, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends CPR and AED training as a best practice but doesn't require it, although some businesses that expose workers to specific safety hazards are required to offer such training.

[SHRM members-only how-to guide: How to Determine Regulatory Requirements for Safety]

Even if not required, the AHA says, employers should offer first aid, CPR and AED training because it can save lives. An employee only has a 5 percent to 7 percent chance of surviving cardiac arrest while waiting for the arrival of emergency medical services. Employees who receive immediate defibrillation, however, have up to a 60 percent survival rate one year after cardiac arrest, the organization says.

Therefore, it is important to inform workers about the location of these devices in the workplace and to train employees on how to use them.

After the 2015 incident, Holland and his wife decided to focus on creating awareness about CPR and AED training.

Holland wondered what would happen if someone suffered sudden cardiac arrest in a Fisher Phillips office or at a client's worksite. He wanted to make sure his co-workers and clients were prepared.

He started the "Richmond initiative"named after the restaurant manager who saved Nancy's lifethrough which Fisher Phillips purchased AEDs for its 32 offices.

Holland noted that some offices, depending on their size and layout, should have two AEDs so that one is always within reach during an emergency.

He said everyone in the office should know where the nearest AED is located.

It should be in a conspicuous place, like hanging on a wall, rather than in an HR manager's office drawer, he added. That way, anyone can access it.

The law firm also offered CPR training to all of its employees. "You can have someone come into the office to do CPR and AED training so that if something comes up, you're prepared for it," Holland said.

He recommends training everyone in the office on CPR. If that's not possible, "it's a good idea to notify workers about who is CPR-certified," he said. But even people who are not CPR-certified can at least start pounding on someone's chest in an emergency, he added, noting that hands-only CPR is now taught, which is administered by pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest, rather than also giving mouth-to-mouth breaths.

People might be afraid of hurting someone and facing legal liability, but most states have good Samaritan laws that will protect them when assisting someone in an emergency.

"Had Richmond not seen the value in being trained, I might not have survived," Nancy said in a press statement. "I can't stress enough how important and empowering these trainings and the availability of AEDs are for people."






Cabinet expansion most likely on Thursday

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is likely to expand his Cabinet this week, most likely on Thursday, following which the governing parties are planning to form the Constitution Delimitation Commission (CDC).
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Patch for the Mars Society's Mars 160 mission, during which seven crewmembers will conduct 80-day simulated Red Planet missions in the Utah desert and the Canadian Arctic.

On July 17, 2017, six explorers began an 80-day mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Canada's Devon Island, kicking off the second half of the Mars Society's ambitious Mars 160 simulation mission.

The first half of Mars 160 took place in fall 2016, when the same core crewmembers spent 80 days at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, performing the same sets of experiments and fieldwork campaigns they will undertake at FMARS.

The goal of Mars 160 is to test out technologies and exploration strategies that could help put boots on the Red Planet for real down the road. Learn all about the project below:

Multimedia

Inside Mars 160: The Mars Society's Red Planet Simulation in Pictures

Story Coverage

Aug. 11

Notes from Mars 160: Why on 'Mars' Are We Doing This?

Mars 160 crewmember Paul Knightly lays out why the team's mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the Canadian arctic is important.

Aug. 4

Notes from Mars 160: Our Home on 'Mars'

Paul gives readers a tour of FMARS.

July 27

Notes from Mars 160: Settling into Mars on Earth

Paul discusses getting used to life and work at FMARS.

July 20

Notes from Mars 160: The Arctic Journey Begins

The seven crewmembers of the Mars 160 mission finally arrived at FMARS after a lengthy weather delay. Paul talks about the journey and what lies ahead.

Dec. 16, 2016

Notes from Mars 160: Why Field Drawing Is Important to Mars Exploration

Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie explains why geological field drawing will be important for astronauts exploring the Red Planet.

Dec. 9

Notes from Mars 160: The Space Architecture of Yusuke Murakami

Annalea Beattie discusses the "Dare Demo Dome" designed by her fellow Mars 160 crewmember Yusuke Murakami.

Dec. 2

All Hab Systems Go at the Mars Desert Research Station

Annalea Beattie talks about life and work inside the habitat in the Utah Desert that she and her fellow Mars 160 crewmembers call home.

Nov. 25

Notes from Mars 160: The Science Work We're Doing

Annalea Beattie talks about the science work she and her fellow Mars 160 crewmembers are performing in the Utah desert.

Nov. 18

A Mars 160 Crew Message: CapCom, We Hear You!

Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie details how the Mars Society simulation stays in touch with Mission Control from their home base in Utah.

Nov. 11

Mars 160 Crew Gets New Neighbors in the Utah Desert

Annalea Beattie and her fellow Mars 160 crewmembers have some new neighbors in the Utah desert  researchers testing out technology for future Red Planet rovers.

Nov. 4

Notes from Mars 160: Making Field Sketches During an EVA

Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie describes what it's like to draw rock formations while wearing a spacesuit  and why it will be important for future Red Planet explorers to make such field sketches.

Oct. 28

How the Mars 160 Crew Stays Busy and Healthy

Annalea Beattie describes what a typical day is like for her and her fellow Mars 160 crewmembers.

Oct. 21

Taking an EVA with the Mars 160 Crew

Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie describes an extravehicular activity (EVA) in the Utah desert.

Oct. 14

Notes from Mars 160: Going Outside for a Marswalk

Here's what it takes to get outside the habitat for a science mission.

Oct. 7

Notes from Mars 160: The Mars Society's Epic Simulation

Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie is chronicling life and science on The Mars Society's Twin Desert-Arctic Analog simulation. This is her first dispatch.

Sept. 24:

160-Day Mars Mission Simulation Kicks Off in Utah

A 160-day-long simulated Red Planet mission began today (Sept. 24) at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a facility in the Utah desert operated by nonprofit group The Mars Society.

Sept. 23:

80-Day Mock Mars Mission Begins Saturday in Utah

On Saturday (Sept. 24), the crewmembers of the Mars 160 mission  who hail from France, Japan, Russia, Australia, India and Canada  will begin work at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a facility in Utah run by the Mars Society.

Crew bios

Dr. Alexandre Mangeot, Commander & Engineer (France)

Alexandre Mangeot is a French aerospace engineer. He got his engineering master's degree from ParisTech Arts et Metiers University. He was hired by CNES (the French space agency) for a 3-year research grant to obtain his PhD. Hybrid space propulsion engines was the topic of the study, with both experimental and numerical approaches. He worked for a year and a half for Expliseat, a startup to design the lightest economical aircraft seat of the market. He was mainly in charge of the design of the seat accessories. Lately, he concluded a postdoc position during which he completed his numerical approach on hybrid rockets.



He has previous experience at MDRS in 2012 (Crew 113) and in 2014 (Crew 143), and he has participated in various Mars Society events both in US and Europe.



During his free time, he enjoys paragliding and traveling.

Yusuke Murakami, Executive Officer (Japan)

Yusuke Murakami is a Japanese designer and researcher of architecture especially designed for extreme environments. He got his master's degree in environmental design and governance from Keio University.

He has previous experience at MDRS in 2014 (Crew 144), and also spent 15 months in Antarctica on the wintering crew of the 50th Japanese Antarctica Research Expedition. He has participated on other expeditions  to Mt. Everest Base Camp as a base camp engineer and to Mt. Fuji Weather Station, for example. He has also trained within the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Isolation Chamber.

After the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Yusuke started a project called "Dare Demo Dome" (Dome for Everyone), to supply temporary dome houses for the victims; the assembly systems were inspired by a space building concept. He also has a weekly radio program called "On the Planet," which airs nationwide in Japan.

Anastasiya Stepanova, Journalist (Russia)

Anastasiya Stepanova is from Moscow, Russia. She has a masters degree in journalism from Moscow State University and studied space journalism for four years under cosmonaut Yuriy Baturin. Her diploma work was in "space journalism," a new field of research at the school. Anastasiya is a certified rescuer and served in the public search-and-rescue squad known as "SpasRezerv." Currently she is taking a second degree in engineering and robotics at Bauman Moscow State Technical University. She is a co-author of a book for teenagers about space titled "I Wish You a Good Flight!" This book is an easy and entertaining way for readers to get to know about space history, life there nowadays and what to do to become an astronaut. Anastasiya is also a Mars One "Round III" applicant. She participates in many different space projects to raise interest in space exploration. Her dream, in addition to flying to Mars, is to unite the whole world in one goal  space exploration!

Claude-Michel Laroche, Engineer, MD 80 (Canada)

Claude-Michel is from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He graduated from Universite de Montreal in physics in 2007 and from Ecole Polytechnique Montreal in physics engineering in 2012. He was a participant in the 2012 Space Study Program of the International Space University held in Melbourne, Florida with NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where he helped lead part of the "Space: One Giant Leap for Education" project.

Dr. Jonathan Clarke, Geologist (Australia)

Jon lives in Canberra, Australia's bush capital, and is a general practioner in geology. He started out life as a palaeontologist, doing honours in Silurian palaeoecology at the University of Tasmania. He then became an exploration geologist in South Australia, looking for Permian coal and Cambrian oil and sodium carbonate salts. That was followed by a PhD at Flinders University in Adelaide on the deposition and diagenesis of Cambrian limestones, including fossil sponge-microbe reefs. After six months in marine surveys of the Great Australian Bight for the federal government, he joined a resource company and spent the next decade in exploration. This included looking for gold and nickel near Kamblada, Western Australia; copper, gold, and zinc exploration in Queensland and South Australia; copper and gold exploration in the Philippines, Chile and South Australia; and gold in Victoria. He then taught geology at the Australian National University for several years before joining the federal government at Geoscience Australia, working in salinity management in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and NSW; groundwater exploration in NSW; and precompetitive mineral exploration in Victoria, as well as taking part in a review of rare earth, lithium, and potash potential in Australian salt lakes.



Jon has been interested in Mars since he was about 10 years old, before people even walked on the moon. Since finding out about Mars Society Australia in 2001, he has taken part in six expeditions to inland Australia, one to New Zealand, one to India and three MDRS rotations. His Martian interests include Martian geology and geomorphology and their terrestrial analogues, astrobiology, exploration technologies (especially habitats, vehicles, and suits), mission architectures, and human factors. He currently serves as president on MSA, is on the Mars Society International Steering Committee, and is director of science at MDRS.



In the rest of his life he is married to Anna, a community maternal and child health nurse, has two grown-up and married daughters; one has an MA in museums and collections and works in a local heritage library, and the other is doing a PhD in cancer research. They have a cat and an elderly guinea pig for company. He likes watching and reading SF, history and the interaction of science and theology. Jon also scuba dives, hikes and camps when he can, and is a volunteer in the local rural fire brigade.

Annalea Beattie, HSO (Australia)

Annalea Beattie is an artist and educator who lives and works in Melbourne. Through an art practice based in space science, her research considers how art might activate isolated communities living in extreme environments, contributing to social cohesion, performance and quality of life.

Annalea is National Secretary and an Executive Director of the Mars Society Australia, a past member of Crew 118 at the Mars Desert Research Station and a participant in Spaceward Bound New Zealand 2015 and a recent crew member of Spaceward Bound Ladakh. She has contributed to three Springer volumes that explore the challenges for humans living in frontier societies off-Earth and is currently studying a PhD in nonfiction at RMIT University. (Beattie was part of the MDRS crew, but she is not participating in the FMARS portion.)

Anushree Srivastava, Biologist (India and United Kingdom)

Originally from India, Anushree is currently living in Colchester, England. Her educational journey started off as a student of literature, history and music, which culminated in obtaining a Master of Arts in anthropology, specializing in its biological branch (just out of curiosity), particularly the "paleo" aspect of it, which exposed her to the adventure of exploration. Then she came to know about the prospect of "life beyond earth" (astrobiology  which was called "space biology" back then) which she found extremely fascinating. She transitioned from social sciences to natural sciences solely to follow her passion for astrobiology, which was challenging for an art student. She will be receiving her second master's degree  Master of Science in Biotechnology  from the University of Essex, UK. She studied 6-million-year-old evaporite deposits (halite crystals) called Messinian halite, which are the product of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Mediterranean region, from geo-microbiological, biogeographical, and astrobiological perspectives. She aspires to obtain her PhD in the future and in her personal time enjoys music, travelling, photography, watching birds and reading (specifically biographies, poetry, and philosophy).

Paul Knightly, Geologist (MA 80) (U.S.A.)

Paul Knightly is an environmental geologist and is currently working on a PhD in Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas. He brings extensive experience working as a field geologist monitoring groundwater and soil quality and will be seeking to better understand the permafrost and ice conditions in the vicinity of FMARS. He served as the Crew Geologist and Commander at MDRS on Crew 142 in November 2014 and joins other crewmates from Crew 142 on MA160. Recently married, Paul is enjoying life as a newlywed with his wife, Jessica, at their home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In his spare time, he enjoys an array of outdoor activities and developing his skills as an amateur landscape and weather photographer, which includes spending a few weekends each spring storm-chasing across America's Great Plains.

Shannon Rupert, Biologist, Back-up crew (U.S.A.)

Shannon Rupert is an ecologist with almost two decades of Mars Analog field experience. She currently serves as the director/program manager at the Mars Desert Research Station after 15 years of teaching at several colleges. She is the principal investigator of the Mars 160 mission. Her research interests include ecological systems, place-based knowledge and remote science communication and collaboration. She is completing her Ph.D. in Stream Ecology this fall at the University of New Mexico and has an M.S. in Plant Biology from California State University San Marcos, a B.S. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California San Diego and an A.S. in Biology from San Diego Miramar College. She spends her free time with her dogs and horses and weaves in the Navajo tradition.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Elon Musk thinks the government needs to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) now, before it becomes dangerous to humanity, the entrepreneur told a gathering of state governors over the weekend.

"I have exposure to the very cutting-edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it," Musk told attendees at the National Governors Association summer meeting on Saturday (July 15). "I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they dont know how to react, because it seems so ethereal."

If, instead, the government waits until AI actually starts harming people before imposing regulations, that may already be too late, Musk said. Musk is worried not only that AI will take over human jobs, but also that it may kill people. This isn't the first time Musk has warned of AI's potential for doom; in 2014, he called AI humanity's "biggest existential threat," and in 2015, he, along with other tech luminaries, urged the United Nations to ban killer robots. [History of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Infographic)]

Musk isn't the only scientist to sound alarm bells over AI. Physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that AI could end mankind on several occasions.

Not all scientists are convinced of the dangers of AI, however. Michael Littman, a computer scientist at Brown University, thinks the vision of a future in which humans are enslaved by robot overlords is purely science fiction.

Originally published on Live Science.
Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, America's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind (opens in new tab)" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him on Facebook. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Many science-savvy people take it for granted that the universe is made not only of Carl Sagan's oft-quoted "billions and billions" of galaxies, but also a vast amount of an invisible substance called dark matter. This odd matter is thought to be a new kind of subatomic particle that doesn't interact via electromagnetism, nor the strong and weak nuclear forces. Dark matter is also supposed to be five times more prevalent in the universe than the ordinary matter of atoms.

However, the reality is that dark matter's existence has not yet been proved. Dark matter is still a hypothesis, albeit a rather well-supported one. Any scientific theory has to make predictions, and if it's right, then the measurements you do should line up with the predictions. The same goes for dark matter. For instance, dark matter theories make predictions for how fast galaxies are rotating. But, until now, measurements made of the detailed dark matter distribution at the center of low mass galaxies didn't line up with those predictions.

A recent calculation has changed that. The calculation helps resolve the conundrum of the Tully-Fisher relation, which compares the visible, or ordinary, matter of a galaxy to its rotational velocity. In very simplified terms, scientists have found that the more massive (and therefore brighter) a spiral galaxy is, the faster it spins.

But if dark matter exists, how "big" a galaxy is should be determined not just by its visible matter, but also by its dark matter. With a huge piece of the equation  the amount of dark matter  missing, the Tully-Fisher relation shouldn't hold. And yet it does. It was hard to imagine any way to reconcile this relationship with existing dark matter theory. Until now. [Beyond Higgs: 5 Elusive Particles That May Lurk in the Universe]

Dark matter origins

The first inklings that there might be a need for something like dark matter go back to 1932. Dutch astronomer Jan Oort measured the orbital speeds of stars within the Milky Way and found they moved too quickly to be explained by the observed mass of the galaxy.

Vera Rubin and Kent Ford found that stars at the edges of galaxies, such as the Andromeda galaxy (shown here), were traveling faster than expected. Dark matter could help to explain these galactic rotation discrepancies. (Image credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP))

However, the search for dark matter began in earnest nearly a half-century later when, in the late 1970s, astronomer Vera Rubin and instrument-maker Kent Ford measured the rotation rates of nearby galaxies as a function of the galaxy's stars' distances from the center. They compared the measurements with predictions from standard Newtonian gravity theory.

Stars orbit their parent galaxy in nearly circular paths and gravity is the force that holds the stars in those orbits. Newton's equations predict that the force that makes the stars move in a circular path, F(circular), should equal the force due to gravity on the star, F(gravity), or else the star would fly off into space or fall in to the center of the galaxy. For those who remember high school physics, F(circular) is a statement of inertia and is just Newton's F = ma. F(gravity) is Newton's law of universal gravitation.

Near the center of galaxies, Rubin and Ford found that F(circular) was roughly equal to F(gravity), as expected. But far from the center of the galaxies, the two sides of the equation didn't match up very well. While details varied galaxy-to-galaxy, their observations were essentially universal. [Gallery: Dark Matter Throughout the Universe]

Such a dramatic discrepancy needs explanation. Near the center of galaxies, Rubin and Ford's measurements meant the theory was working, while the discrepancy at larger orbital distances meant something was going on that existing theories couldn't explain. Their insights revealed that either we don't understand how inertia works (e.g., F(circular)), or we don't understand how gravity works (e.g., F(gravity)). A third possibility is that the equal sign is wrong, meaning that there is some other force or effect that the equation doesn't include. Those were the only possibilities.

Explaining the discrepancies

In the 40 years since Rubin and Ford's original work, scientists have tested many theories to try to explain the galactic rotation discrepancies they found. Physicist Mordehai Milgrom proposed a modification of inertia, called "modified Newtonian dynamics," or MOND. In its initial form, it postulated that at very low accelerations, Newton's equation F = ma didn't work.

Other physicists have suggested modifications of the laws of gravity. Einstein's general relativity doesn't help here because, in this realm, Einstein's and Newton's predictions are essentially identical. And theories of quantum gravity, which attempt to describe gravity using subatomic particles, cannot be the explanation for the same reason. However, there are gravitational theories that make predictions on galactic or extragalactic scales that differ from Newtonian gravity. So, those are options. [What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered]

Then there are predictions that new forces exist. These ideas are clumped together under the name "the fifth force," implying a force beyond gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

Finally, there is the theory of dark matter: That a type of matter that doesn't interact with light at all, yet exerts a gravitational pull, permeates the universe.

Were the galactic rotation measurements the only data we have, it might be hard to select between these different theories. After all, it might be possible to tweak each theory to solve the galactic rotation problem. But there are now many observations of many different phenomena that can help identify the most plausible theory.

One is the speed of galaxies within large clusters of galaxies. The galaxies are moving too quickly for the clusters to stay bound together. Another observation is of light from very distant galaxies. Observations of these very distant ancient galaxies show that their light is distorted by passing through the gravitational fields of more nearby clusters of galaxies. There are also studies of small non-uniformities of the cosmic microwave background that is the birth-cry of the universe. All of these measurements (and many more) must also be addressed by any new theory to explain galactic rotation speeds.

Dark matter's unanswered questions

Dark matter theory has done a reasonable job at predicting many of these measurements, which is why it is well-respected in the scientific community. But dark matter is still an unconfirmed model. All evidence of its existence so far is indirect. If dark matter exists, we should be able to directly observe interactions of dark matter as it passes through the Earth and we might be able to make dark matter in large particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider. And yet neither approach has been successful.

In addition, dark matter should agree with all, not just many, astronomical observations. While dark matter is the most successful model so far, it is not completely successful. Dark matter models predict more dwarf satellite galaxies surrounding big galaxies like the Milky Way than are actually detected. Although more dwarf galaxies are being found, there are still too few compared to dark matter's predictions.

Another big, open question is how dark matter affects the relationship between the brightness of galaxies and their rotational speeds. This relationship, which was first presented in 1977, is called the Tully-Fisher relation, and it has shown numerous times that a galaxy's visible mass correlates well with its rotational speed.

Tough challenges for dark matter

So, that ends the back story. What is new?

The Tully-Fisher relation is a tough challenge for dark matter models. The rotation of a galaxy is governed by the total amount of matter it contains. If dark matter truly exists, then the total amount of matter is the sum of both ordinary and dark matter.

But existing dark matter theory predicts that any random galaxy may contain larger or smaller fractions of dark matter. So, when one measures the visible mass, you could potentially be missing a huge chunk of the total mass. As a result, visible mass should be a very poor predictor of the total mass (and thereby rotational speed) of the galaxy. The galaxy's mass could be similar to that of the visible (ordinary) mass or it could be much larger.

Thus, there is no reason to expect that the visible mass should be a good predictor of the rotational speed of the galaxy. Yet it is.

In fact, in a paper released this year, dark matter skeptics used measurements of the Tully-Fisher relationship for a variety of galaxies to argue against the dark matter hypothesis and for a modified version of inertia, such as MOND.

Better fit for dark matter

However, in a paper released in June, scientists have given dark matter models a significant boost. Not only does the new work reproduce the successes of earlier predictions of the dark matter model, it also reproduces the Tully-Fisher relation.

The new paper is a "semi-analytic" model, which means that it is a combination of analytic equations and simulation. It simulates the clumping of dark matter in the early universe that may have seeded galaxy formation but also includes the interaction of ordinary matter, including such things as the infall of ordinary matter into another celestial body due to its gravitational pull, star formation and the heating of infalling gas by starlight and supernovas. By carefully tuning the parameters, the researchers were better able to match the predicted Tully-Fisher relationship. The calculation's key is that the predicted rotational velocity includes a realistic value for the ratio of baryons to dark matter in the galaxy.

The new calculation is an important additional step in validating the dark matter model. However, it is not the final word. Any successful theory should agree with all measurements. Failure to agree means that either the theory or the data is wrong, or at least incomplete. A few discrepancies between prediction and measurement still remain (such as the number of small satellite galaxies around big ones), but this new paper gives us confidence that future work will resolve these remaining discrepancies.



Dark matter remains a powerfully predictive theory for the structure of the universe. It is not complete and it needs validation by discovering the actual dark matter particle. So, there is still work still to do. But this most recent calculation is an important step toward the day where we will know once and for all if the universe really is dominated by the dark side.

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
In case you were wondering, there's no evidence that Mars hosted an alien civilization thousands of years ago.

Nonetheless, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., asked a panel of planetary scientists to speculate about this possibility today (July 18), during a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology's Space Subcommittee.

The inquiry followed testimony by panelist Ken Farley, the project scientist for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission, stating that the Red Planet had lakes and rivers, and perhaps even a huge northern ocean, until about 3.6 billion years ago. So it fell to Farley to answer the question of whether Mars was perhaps once home to intelligent aliens. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]

"So, the evidence is that Mars was different billions of years ago, not thousands of years ago, and there is no evidence I'm aware of that  " Farley began.

"Would you rule that out?"' Rohrabacher interjected.

"I would say that is extremely unlikely," Farley responded.

The belief that intelligent aliens may call Mars home has a rich and eventful history. For example, more than a century ago, American astronomer Percival Lowell claimed to have spotted canals on Mars, which he hypothesized had been built to bring water from the planet's polar ice caps down to the midlatitudes.

And in 1976, photos by NASA's Viking 1 Mars orbiter showed a landform that bore a striking resemblance to a human face. Though clearer imagery by later spacecraft revealed the "Face on Mars" to be an ordinary rock formation, some people still claim that it's evidence of an ancient civilization.

Many orbiters, landers and rovers have explored Mars over the decades, and none have detected any evidence that intelligent organisms ever arose there. But that doesn't necessarily mean the Red Planet has never supported life of any kind.

As Farley noted, observations by NASA's Curiosity rover and a number of other spacecraft suggest that at least some parts of the Red Planet were habitable for long stretches in the distant past. So ancient Mars may have hosted microbial life, many scientists say; indeed, some researchers think microbes may survive there today, buried deep in the soil, where they're protected from the high radiation fluxes on the surface. (Among this latter group is Gil Levin, the leader of the labeled-release experiment on the Viking Mars landers. He still believes this experiment found solid evidence of microbial metabolism in the Martian soil, though most other researchers view the results as equivocal.)

The 2020 Mars rover will search for evidence of past (not current) microbial life when it arrives at the Red Planet in February 2021. The six-wheeled robot, which is based heavily on Curiosity's design, will also collect and store samples for possible future return to Earth.

"Truly definitive discovery of microbial biosignatures by instruments on board the rover is unlikely, and can best be undertaken by using the full arsenal of terrestrial laboratories," Farley testified at the hearing today, explaining the rationale behind the sample-caching strategy. (NASA officials have said they aim to get these samples back to Earth someday, but at present, there is no concrete plan for doing so.)

Today's hearing was a general discussion of NASA's upcoming planetary-science missions, with a focus on the 2020 rover and Europa Clipper. This latter mission will launch in the 2020s to investigate the life-hosting potential of the Jupiter moon Europa, which harbors a vast ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.

The Europa Clipper and the 2020 rover are "flagships"  ambitious missions whose price tags top the $1 billion mark. Also discussed at the hearing was NASA's lower-cost Psyche mission, which will launch in 2022 to study the bizarre metal asteroid Psyche up close.

The panelists, in addition to Farley, were Jim Green, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division; Bob Pappalardo, project scientist for Europa Clipper; Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche principal investigator; and Bill McKinnon, co-chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (and a co-investigator on NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission).

Pappalardo revealed an interesting nugget about the Europa Clipper science team, in response to questioning by Space Subcommittee member Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo. Perlmutter said that, to him, the Clipper mission evokes the famous sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which depicts a mission to the Jupiter system and prominently features a mysterious monolith.

"Our Europa science team of about 130 people  we have as our mascot, our totem, a giant monolith that we tote around to our meetings," Pappalardo responded, eliciting laughter in the hearing room. "Actually, we have three now."

You can watch the entire hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJ5QrR_zj8

Note: Space.com senior producer Steve Spaleta contributed to this report.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Geopolitics back to the fore

In June, two events took place in two different parts of the Himalayas within a span of 11 days. These two events will have considerable impact on Nepal in the days to come.
F undraisers have urged west London business to provide free days out for families affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Angie Mays, who is co-ordinating hundreds of free holidays donated by members of the public for those affected by the deadly blaze, is hoping companies will follow in their footsteps by providing tickets to zoos, theme parks and spas.

These activities would give respite to families, many of whom remain in emergency accommodation more than a month on from the fire, in which at least 80 people died.

She said days out were "more realistic" for residents still trying to manage their immediate housing needs, as it was still "too early" for them to think about going on holiday.

Ms Mays said: "Anyone in the London area, it would be nice if the residents had some offers of day spas etc, to relax if only for a day.

The charred husk of Grenfell Tower a month after a fire claimed the lives of at least 80 people / Getty Images

"It is still too early for them to holiday and hopefully when they have found their forever homes they will be ready.

"Anyone that can help in any way let me know."

More than 400 holidays have been offered in the Grenfell Tower Holiday Appeal Facebook Group set up by the fundraiser from Ilfracombe, Devon.

So far at least nine fire fighters who tackled the high-rise blaze and their families have taken up holiday offers donated by members of the public.

Grenfell Tower tribute messages - In pictures 1 /18 Grenfell Tower tribute messages - In pictures Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower PA Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower AP Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower PA Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower PA Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell Tributes left close to Grenfell Tower Jonathan Mitchell

Three families have booked a joint holiday to a villa in Spain, and three families are to holiday on separate dates in a property in the Isle of Wight, Ms Mays said.

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

Holidays in Lanzarote, West Yorkshire and St Ives, Cornwall, have also been booked.

Ms Mays said some residents had made inquiries about the crowd-sourced holidays but had decided not to go ahead with booking because there was too much going on.

By next week Ms Mays estimates around 2,000 will have been raised to help with food and travel costs for those taking up holiday offers.

A fundraiser is to be held at Vivid nightclub in Ilfracombe on July 28.

Any businesses wishing to donate days out should contact Ms Mays via the Facebook group.
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Following quickly on the heels of Apple and Android, Samsung is adding PayPal Wallet as a payment option for its mobile payment platform. Users of the tap-to-pay service will have the ability to pay online or in-store using their PayPal account. This option essentially allows you to use your PayPal account the same way you would a debit card.

I use my PayPal account to pay for things that are outside of my daily budget, like software and electronics, while reserving my debit card for more mundane items like gas and groceries. Of course, I could only use it online. So as an iPhone user, I was somewhat excited when Apple added PayPal as an iTunes payment option and may consider adding it to Apple Pay. My excitement ended when I found that very few establishments in my area accept payment using NFC. Having PayPal as an Apple Pay option is not much use to me after all.

Samsung uses both MST and NFC technologies, which gives Samsung Pay a huge advantage over its competitors.

Android Pay also relies on NFC to complete transactions, so is faced with the same limitation. This lack of NFC support is what gives Samsung an advantage with mobile payments. A couple of years ago Samsung acquired LoopPay which had developed a technology called "magnetic secure transmission" (MST). A device using MST can communicate credit card information to magnetic card readers. Therefore, the token created during a mobile transaction, which is like a temporary credit card, can be transmitted just like a Visa or MasterCard.

Samsung uses both MST and NFC technologies for Samsung Pay. Magnetic secure transmission works with any magnetic reader that does not require physical activation. This makes using PayPal as a secondary purchasing account more viable at brick-and-mortar establishments.

Samsung Pay is available for any Android phone, but MST technology is not. The hardware required is currently only implemented on Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, S7, S7 Edge, S6 Edge+, S6, S6 Edge, S6 Active, and Galaxy Note 5. As a proprietary technology, other phone manufacturers are left to fend for themselves in finding ways to be more widely accepted.

PayPal on Samsung Pay is available in the US starting today. The Korean manufacturer is working with PayPal to extend support to other countries as well. The service is expected to be available in 18 other markets including Spain, China, and India, soon.
GMR seeks more time

GMR Upper Karnali, the developer of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, has asked for more time to conclude financial closure citing delays by the government to provide forest land which have put off potential investors.
Letter From Europe - First In 2017 - 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio RWD A 4 Door Ferrari - 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Thumbs Up

From Andrew Frankl

European Bureau Chief

The Auto Channel

As Grand Prix Editor of FORZA, a magazine about Ferrari, I have most definitely not been a fan of the Italian-Canadian boss of FCA. FCA, which stands for Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, is an awful lot more than that. It includes Alfa, Ferrari and Maserati, as well plus a multitude of other things such as Iveco trucks.

Until now I have judged Sergio (the Boss) on what I thought was his appalling performance at Ferrari.

Until now... The other day he had the decency to apologize for rubbishing the engineers, the drivers , anyone and everyone associated with this magic brands racing division. Surprise, surprise, Vettel and Raikkonen didnt win a single race between them. The atmosphere was toxic. The chief engineer was fired, the boys were demoralized. Anyway, the good news is that Marchionne atoned for his sins and promised to treat staff as human beings. Not a minute too soon.

In fairness he did do a much better job elsewhere. Take the new Alfa Romeo Giulia range and the Chrysler Pacifica....hats off Sergio, both are quite exceptional.

The Alfa Quadrifoglio is basically a 4 door Ferrari or certainly the nearest thing to it.

For a start it has a 2.9 liter aluminum V6 engine designed by Ferrari. It delivers 505 hp at 6500 rpm and 443 lb-ft of torque. The ZF designed gearbox (not one of my favorites) shifts in milliseconds but having said that doing a three point turn can prove to be very embarrassing as shifting from D to R can often end in N or P. Same fault as in the Maserati which uses the same box.

Like all real performance cars the Alfa has rear wheel drive and goes like smoke! In fact FORZAs editor Aaron Jenkins came back to the office with a grin I have not seen in 17 years of working with him. Mind you, saloons tend not to have a 0-60 mph acceleration of 3.8 seconds and the sound that goes with it. The cabin is surprisingly quiet, rattles and leaking seals of yesteryear are just that. History.

All in all if you have driven all the BMW M3s and the Mercedes AMGs and have 75 thousand dollars to spend you will have a very special motoring experience. For a start there will be very few QFs around so you will be the hero of every coffee and croissant meeting. These meets have proliferated all over the United States and are perfect for stories small and tall. In Sausalito, California we had Ferraris, Porches, the odd Maserati, even an old Lotus Cortina.

The Alfa QF is not for the faint-hearted and definitely not for little Johnny on his 16th birthday. When it reaches America do take one for a drive. I think you will love it take your time to figure out all the gizmos which are numerous. An engineering degree might come in handy..

Unlike the QF, what is definitely for the whole family is Chryslers truly exceptional Pacifica. As inventors of the genre Chrysler has years and years of experience as far as family transportation is concerned. That is not to say that they are brilliant at everything, their 200 and 300 saloons were shall we say underwhelming. But back to the Pacifica. I loved it so much that I drove it to Petaluma during Christmas ! just to get opinions from the grand children. Unanimous thumbs up. They particularly loved the fold out screens in the back of the drivers seats.

I found the instrument panels excellent and I did like the way the various needles encouraged you to drive in an eco mode. I love playing this game. The Pacifica was showing 16.7 mpg, when it left me it was up to 20 and I hadnt even started.

Dislikes? Hand on heart I cannot think of any. Hurtling around corners is not to be recommended but then it wasnt built for that purpose.

Having crossed America twice-once in a pick up truck and once in a Ferrari I must say that doing the same with a bunch of silent (!) kids in the back would be fun.

So well done Sergio, just remember to be nice to the F1 boys and all will be well.

Happy New Year!
LISHUI, China, July 17, 2017 -- Tantech Holdings Ltd. , ("Tantech" or the "Company"), a leading alternative energy company through the use of bamboo-based charcoal products today announced it completed the acquisition of 70% equity interest in Suzhou E Motors Co., Ltd. ("Suzhou E Motors"), a specialty electric vehicles and power batteries manufacturer based in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province.

Merger Highlights

Acquiring 70% equity interest in Suzhou E Motors from Mr. Henglong Chen

Broadening customer base and cross-selling opportunities

Accelerating revenue and earnings growth

Establishing Tantech Holdings as leader in environmental-friendly technology

Mr. Zhengyu Wang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tantech, commented, "We are pleased to complete this acquisition today, by acquiring 70% equity interest in Suzhou E Motors which will make us a leader in specialty EVs in China,"

Mr. Wang continued, "As discussed in our letter to shareholders on February 2017, improving the environment is the Company's core mission. The acquisition brings economic synergies, new advanced technologies and accelerates our research and development efforts  resulting in what we believe will be tremendous value for the Company and its shareholders."

Terms of Merger

Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement executed on May 2, 2016, Supplemental Agreement I signed on December 22, 2016 and Supplemental Agreement II signed on July 12, 2017, the Company shall acquire 70% equity interest of Suzhou E Motors directly from Mr. Henglong Chen with total cash consideration of RMB 103,200,000 (approximately $14.7 million) and a share consideration of 2,500,000 restricted shares of the Company's common stock.

The Company had originally negotiated to acquire 100% of Suzhou E Motors'; however, following Suzhou E Motors' minority shareholder, Zhangjiagang Jinke Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (Jinke Venture Capital), a local government-led VC fund, opted to retain its 30% interest as it believes the synergy between Tantech Holdings and Suzhou E Motors to be extremely promising.

The Company exercised such terms with the belief that it is in the best interests of its shareholders.

Suzhou E Motors  a leader in specialized electric vehicles

Since its inception in 2011, Suzhou E Motors has produced consecutive annual revenue growth of greater than 350%, reaching revenues of $12 million in 2015 compared to $2.7 million in 2014 and $0.85 million in 2013. Suzhou E Motors designs, assembles and distributes three types of electric vehicles:

Urban sanitary vehicles : Suzhou's urban sanitary vehicles work at high efficiencies with low operating expenses. Cleaning surfaces at speeds up to 15 miles per hour, the vehicles are equipped with professional sanitary vehicle chassis , front axle drives and steering, which improve operational ease and reliability. The vehicle is made of strengthened steel plates and pipes, making it more durable and corrosion resistant.

: Suzhou's urban sanitary vehicles work at high efficiencies with low operating expenses. Cleaning surfaces at speeds up to 15 miles per hour, the vehicles are equipped with professional sanitary vehicle , front axle drives and steering, which improve operational ease and reliability. The vehicle is made of strengthened steel plates and pipes, making it more durable and corrosion resistant. Electric logistics vehicles : Electric logistics vehicles are designed exclusively for logistics/delivery companies. The vehicles are six meters in length and 100% powered by electricity. The vehicles are built with an eye to quality and efficiency with long-lasting, heavy-duty steel construction; spacious interiors and ingenious door designs made specifically for the deliverers' convenience.

: Electric logistics vehicles are designed exclusively for logistics/delivery companies. The vehicles are six meters in length and 100% powered by electricity. The vehicles are built with an eye to quality and efficiency with long-lasting, heavy-duty steel construction; spacious interiors and ingenious door designs made specifically for the deliverers' convenience. Mini tourist buses: Suzhou's lithium battery-powered tourist buses come in two sizes  7 meters and 12 meters. The buses reduce emissions by up to 75% and cut fuel consumption by as much as half. The buses are also designed with noise pollution in mind. Interior noise is less than 76 dBs and acceleration noise is less than 82 dBs.

Growing revenue and cost synergies expected

The combination of both companies will bring strong revenue synergies. Access to Suzhou Motors technology will offer new, incremental revenue streams in addition to cross-selling opportunities to Suzhou's large diversified customer base.

Growth and diversification through acquisition and new product development

"This is the first of many attractive eco-friendly assets that we intend to acquire as a way of strengthening our position as a leader in environmentally-friendly technology and further diversifying our revenue base," notes Tantech's CEO, Zhengyu Wang.

"As Tantech Holdings becomes a larger player in the EV market, we are looking at investing in related businesses, such as vehicle financing, both to build a competitive edge in China's rapidly growing demand for automobiles as well as a way of further diversifying Tantech Holdings' revenue and profit streams," commented CEO Wang. According to Bank of China, the car financing market was between US$116 -131 billion in 2015. Within this market, the auto financial leasing sector is estimated to exhibit the strongest growth, at compounded annual growth rate of at least 60% during the next five years.

Continuing the journey to support the environment

Tantech has a track record and capabilities in the past in contributing to a more environmental responsible world. After providing a series of products that proved fully replaceable to traditional coal, Tantech moved on to the provision of cleaner energy sources by entering the electric vehicle industry with this new acquisition.

The addition of Suzhou E Motors will further reduce Tantech's reliance on the consumer market. Along with expansion into new businesses, Tantech's revenue and profits are increasingly insulated by rising demand for household hygiene products. As disposable income rises, so does interest in environmental protection and cleanliness. Rising disposable leads to higher demand for household hygiene items such as antibacterial products and disinfectants.

With solid technologies and R&D foundation, along with previous successes, Tantech plans to continue expanding and diversifying their products by developing and acquiring more eco-friendly assets in the future.

About Suzhou E Motors Co., Ltd.

Established in April 2011 Suzhou E Motors Co., Ltd. ("Suzhou E Motors") is an innovative leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles ("EVs"). With outstanding quality and reliable battery production, our system enables to effectively integrate renewable and conventional energy sources across all our product lines. Suzhou E Motors offers a wide range of EVs, including urban sanitary vehicles, electric logistics vehicles and mini tourist buses with current annual capacity of approximately 5,000 EVs. For more information please visit: http://www.emotorsbus.com.

About Tantech Holdings Ltd.

Established in 2001 and headquartered in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, China, Tantech Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, develops and manufactures bamboo-based charcoal products, including a variety of branded consumer products and electric double-layer capacitor ("EDLC") carbon products for industrial energy applications. The Company aims to transform itself from a bamboo-based charcoal products producer to a vertically integrated company along the EDLC Carbon  power battery  specialty new energy vehicle value chain. For more information please visit: http://www.tantechholdings.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, product and service demand and acceptance, changes in technology, economic conditions, the impact of competition and pricing, government regulations, and other risks contained in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, and whether made by or on behalf of the Company, are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

For more information, please contact:

Tantech Holdings Ltd.

Ms. Ye Ren

IR Manager

+86-578-261-2869

ir@tantech.cn

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tantech-holdings-ltd-finalized-acquisition-of-suzhou-e-motors---expanding-environmentally-friendly-automotive-technology-300489146.html

SOURCE Tantech Holdings Ltd.
Fiat 500: 10 Days Of Celebrations For A Journey Sixty Years In The Making

 Ten days of celebrations marking 60 years of the Fiat 500 come to an end





 500-60th and Anniversario models pay tribute to the original city car





 The Fiat 500 is inducted into the permanent collection at MOMA





 Oscar winner Adrien Brody stars alongside the Fiat 500 in its first short movie

LONDON - July 18, 2017: The journey of the Fiat 500 has been 60 years in the making. The unrelenting ?great little car has gone from Dante Giacosa's desk to the gates of the Mirafiori factory, and from the long avenues of Torino, to the MoMA in New York. Its an undisputed global success having sold four million units of the original and two million of the current model, 80 per cent of which are sold outside Italy in more than 100 countries worldwide.

July has been a month of celebrations, with the handover of the two-millionth Fiat 500 and two special editions dedicated to its special birthday; the limited edition 500-60th, introduced at Geneva, and the 500 Anniversario, both of which cleverly blend 60s flair with modern technology.

The secret of the longevity of the 500 has always been in its ability to step beyond its own dimension and become something else, while still remaining true to itself. More than just a simple car, it is an object with a genuine cult following which has intrigued, excited and influenced around the world. On 4th July, the 500 joined the permanent collection of the MoMA and also starred in Fiat's first short movie. It is a car that is not only a car: it is art. ?See you in the future, the tribute video starring Adrien Brody, has totalled over 15 million views already, with the Fiat 500 starring alongside the Oscar-winning actor, telling a timeless love story.

The iconic Fiat has also inspired fashion. The luxury sportswear brand Hydrogen is celebrating the sixty years of the 500 with a limited edition sweatshirt, of which 1957 were made to pay homage to the year of the cars birth. The sweatshirt 500byHydrogen is a ?forever young garment and defines the wearers personality at a glance.

The story of the Fiat 500 will continue thanks to the commitment of owners, collectors and club members, the pride of Fiat workers and the new Italian postage stamp which has just been dedicated to it - a symbolic gift, a minuscule work of art and a homage reserved only for the most beloved and recognisable icons, which sums up the car perfectly. Popular and democratic, but also sophisticated and collectable, the Fiat 500 will continue to remember the roads that it has travelled and looks forward to those that are still ahead.
Govt revises welfare schemes for migrants

The government has decided to revise the existing welfare schemes for Nepali migrants workers from this fiscal year.
A young woman filmed herself touring a Saudi village in a miniskirt. Photo: Courtesy of Twitter/KHALED_Z_KSA_24

A day after police in Saudi Arabia arrested a young woman who filmed herself touring a Saudi village while wearing a miniskirt and a crop top, the Associated Press reports that shes been released without charge. Police began their search for the woman, who BuzzFeed News identified as Model Khulood, after she posted the video to her Snapchat account over the weekend, where it immediately drew the attention of Twitter users. According to a translation, the warrant issued for her arrest described Khulood as taking photos in indecent clothing, disrespecting and violating the teachings of Islam, and violating the customs and traditions [of the country].

                 #___

https://t.co/1ygF1UCD53  FawazX (@fa_waily) July 16, 2017

Saudi Arabias Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice also put out a statement regarding the video, saying it was coordinating with the authorities to investigate [it].

In Saudi Arabia, women are legally required to wear abayas, or long cloak-like robes that obscure their figures. Theyre also required to cover their hair, and most cover their faces, too.

On Twitter, many chastised Khulood for flouting the dress code. We demand that Khulood be tried because she acted irresponsibly, one Saudi tweeted, according to BuzzFeed. Whether you like it or not, you have to respect the law. If everyone rebelled against the law because they did not like it, it would be a mess.

Saudi state TV announced Khuloods arrest on Tuesday and said shed been sent to the public prosecutor. A day later, a statement released by the Center for International Communication said shed been released after a few hours of questioning. It added that the video was posted without her knowledge.

This post has been updated throughout.
House panel tells govt to repeal TSC Act

The parliamentary Finance Committee on Monday directed the government to initiate process to annul the Tax Settlement Commission (TSC) Act 1976.
Lack of aircraft: NAC cuts flights by 45pc

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has cancelled 45 percent of its international flights after one of its three operational jets was sent off for a 45-day maintenance on Sunday.
Liquor companies, breweries given highest tax exemption

Five alcoholic beverage companies received the largest chunk of tax exemption from the Tax Settlement Commission (TSC), according to the charge-sheet of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed on Sunday at the Special Court against three TSC members.
Little hope for finding trio missing in Khimti floods

The whereabouts of three persons, who went missing in Saturday nights floods at Khimti area in Ramechhap district, is still unknown.
Harley-Davidsons motorcycle unit is skidding dangerously, but its teddy bear business has already crashed.

On Tuesday morning, the company posted a quarterly update that was dismal all around. Perhaps most alarming, however, was a 17-per-cent drop in revenue from general merchandise, a sales slump that outpaced declines in dollars derived from bikes, parts and financing. Souvenir sales were even worse in the first quarter when it recorded a 21-per-cent drop in merch revenue. The company that rides on the strength of its brand appears to be moving far less apparel, jewelry and do-rags than it has in the past.

In terms of cash flow, the merchandise dip is small beer. Historically, the category only accounts for somewhere around 5 per cent of Harley revenue. But it is unquestionably a gauge of brand cache. For those who own Harleys already, these tchotchkes are a go-to for relatives and friends every Fathers Day, Mothers Day and Christmas. Among those who dont ride, a Harley leather jacket is an affordable entry to the club, not unlike a pair of Ferrari driving loafers. And one would think there would always be a bullish market for deluxe leather riding chaps ($275 U.S.).

The company no doubt is far more alarmed about the disappearance of motorcyclists  as it should be. In the first half of the year, U.S. registrations of large motorcycles declined by almost 7 per cent, according to data released Tuesday. Harley, meanwhile, cut its sales forecast and laid out plans to fire factory workers. As boomers  who represent a huge chunk of the market  transition from the roadhouse to the retirement home, every bike-maker in the industry is trying to lure young customers with smaller bikes.

Harley is going down this path as aggressively as any of its rivals. It now has nine models that retail for less than $12,000. However, brand cache is going to be critical for this group. People who like Harley-Davidson, meanwhile, still tend to skew older, male and politically conservative, according to YouGov, an analytics company that runs a proprietary index of brand perception.

Read more:

Harley-Davidson puts roots in Asian market with Thailand plant END

For a rookie rider who knows little about motorcycles, what a brand represents mechanically may matter less than what it means culturally. Now, more than ever, Harley-Davidson needs to keep its cool.

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An Ontario court has halted a limestone quarry project on the Bruce Peninsula nearly a decade in the making after finding the province failed to properly consult First Nations whose traditional territory encompasses the area.

In a decision released last week, the court says the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry failed in its constitutional duty to hold meaningful consultations with the Saugeen Ojibway First Nation before approving the project.

It says the ministry did not properly notify the First Nation of the project until three years after the application was filed, and then repeatedly pulled out of the process and funding it had promised.

T & P Hayes Ltd. applied for a licence in 2008 for a limestone quarry on land it owns, which is not part of a reserve or claim by the First Nation.

The court says negotiations between the province and the First Nation began in 2011 but the ministry later off-loaded the responsibility to T & P Hayes, which refused to take it on.

It says talks stalled in 2015 and the licence was granted the following year. The licence has now been revoked until proper consultations are conducted.

Even though some issues were resolved, the process followed by the ministry does not pass constitutional muster, Justice David Corbett wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

(The ministrys) position  that whatever process failures there may have been along the way, by the end, (the Saugeen Ojibway First Nations) substantive concerns had been heard and addressed  misses the central thrust of (the First Nations) concerns here, he wrote.

(The First Nations) objection  and a valid objection it is  is that there has never been a proper consultation process, and that the identification of (the First Nations) concerns remains preliminary and subject to review and change through proper consultations.

For the Saugeen Ojibway First Nation, which includes the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the Saugeen First Nation, consultation on the project was disjointed, inconsistent, and an exercise in frustration, Corbett said.

The First Nation has been clear that it needs funding to hire experts who can assess technical reports related to the project, he said.

Funding was agreed but never delivered. (The Saugeen Ojibway First Nation) continues to be willing to undertake consultation if it receives the promised funding. It also continues to maintain that it may require more funding, which it will address with (the ministry) after it has completed its preliminary work.

T & P Hayes, for its part, just wanted the project to progress without incurring further costs and ended up feeling caught between the two parties, the court said.

Nevertheless, Hayes frustration and its interests in moving forward with the project are not valid reasons to defeat (the Saugeen Ojibway First Nations) constitutional rights, the judge said.

Thus though the duty to consult is the Crowns, proponents have an interest in facilitating the consultation process. In this case, Hayes refused that role. It was entitled to do this, but one consequence of its decision is further delay to complete adequate consultations.

The court also ordered the ministry and T & P Hayes to cover the First Nations legal costs, which amounted to $80,000.

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GATINEAU, QUE.The appointment of telecom industry insider Ian Scott as the next chairperson of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has sparked both concerns that the regulator could soon be taken in a less consumer friendly direction and hope for a new direction.

Heritage Minister Melanie Joly announced Scotts appointment Tuesday, while also naming Caroline Simard as the CRTCs vice-chairperson, saying the two have a deep understanding of what Canadians expect in their telecommunications and broadcasting systems.

Advocacy group OpenMedia said former chairperson Jean-Pierre Blais, who chose not to reapply for the job when his term came to an end earlier this year, did a lot to open the telecommunications marketplace to increased consumer choice and affordability.

This is a concerning choice by the government, said OpenMedia communications manager Meghan Sali, who also noted that, under Blais, the regulator declared broadband Internet a basic service in Canada.

Canadians were hoping for somebody with a strong consumer rights background, and will undoubtedly be disheartened to see the Trudeau government place someone from industry into the top decision-making position.

Media producers union ACTRA welcomed the appointments, suggesting a change in leadership at the CRTC was long overdue.

We hope Mr. Scott and Ms. Simard can bring a new direction to the commission, said ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell.

A key part of the CRTCs mandate is to ensure the vibrant expression of Canadian culture and identity. That has been ignored too often under the outgoing chair, he said. We welcome a change.

Both ACTRA and the Canadian Media Producers Association also called on the government to appoint people with some background in film, television and digital media production to the two positions that remain vacant at the CRTC.

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who is also the schools Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law, said there was significant pressure on Joly to name someone with a cultural or broadcasting background to the top position.

I do think the appointment signals the governments desire for less confrontation and drama at (the) CRTC, Geist wrote on Twitter.

Scott, who starts his five-year term Sept. 5, was most recently executive director of government and regulatory affairs at Telesat Canada. He has also held executive roles at Telus, Call-Net Enterprises and the Canadian Cable Television Association.

Joly also announced Simard would become vice-chairperson (Broadcasting), starting Sept. 11 for a five-year term.

Simard is currently legal counsel within the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

As well, CRTC senior general counsel Christianne Laizner was named interim vice-chairperson (Telecommunications), effective Monday for a term up to one year.

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Man nabbed for raping granddaughter in Kailali

Police have arrested a man for allegedly raping his granddaughter in Kailali district.
A new federal blueprint for closing tax loopholes unfairly benefiting the wealthy will target Canadians who use private corporations to sprinkle income among family members to lower their collective tax burden, according to a Department of Finance document obtained by the Toronto Star.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is scheduled to unveil a package of proposed reforms at a press conference Tuesday morning, part of an ambitious commitment to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion that emerged in the aftermath of the Panama Papers.

There are signs that our system isnt working as well as it should, specifically when it comes to private corporations, writes Morneau in an opening letter contained in the 63-page report. There are worrying trends. There is evidence that some may be using corporate structures to avoid paying their fair share, rather than to invest in their business and maintain their competitive advantage.

The government is launching a 75-day public consultation on the proposed measures that are designed to target tax advantages not available to most Canadians.

Over the last decade, the number of such private corporations has increased substantially and evidence indicates that a significant share of taxable income has been shifted from the personal to the corporate tax base, reads the report.

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Income sprinkling is a key method of shifting the tax burden from individuals to corporations, the report says.

Wealthy Canadians can now legally reduce their tax obligations by routing their incomes through private corporations. They then pay salaries to family members, such as their children, who are subject to lower personal tax rates or none at all.

The government is working on new rules that would help to determine whether compensation is reasonable, based on the family members contribution of value and financial resources to the private corporation, reads the report.

Morneau writes: When the rules are used for personal benefit, they are not contributing to growing our economy. Rather, such practices can undermine confidence in our economy by giving tax advantages to a select few. We dont think thats fair.

As an illustration, the government report presents the hypothetical comparison of two wealthy Canadians who both earn $220,000.

One of them, an employee, pays $79,000 in annual taxes.

The other, who owns a private corporation, pays $44,000.

That $35,000 tax break takes advantage of an accounting trick. The private corporation owner pays lower small-business tax rates and sprinkles a portion of the profits to a spouse and two children through low-tax dividends.

The report does not address the issue of a public registry of corporate ownership in Canada  a measure widely considered to be an important step in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance.

A Toronto Star investigation in January detailed the culture of corporate secrecy in Canada that can make it impossible to know the identity of real business owners  or beneficial owners.

Britain adopted a public registry of beneficial corporate owners last year. It has been hailed by law enforcement and transparency advocates internationally as a breakthrough in removing the corporate veils that facilitate secret money flows.

While absent in the report, a public corporate registry remains on the table, said Dan Lauzon, a spokesperson for Morneau.

It is definitely not on the back burner, he said. It just is not a part of this paper.

In a May speech in Toronto, Morneau talked about the lack of Canadian corporate ownership transparency as a blind spot.

We know we need to improve the availability of beneficial ownership information here at home to ensure law enforcement and tax authorities have timely access to this information to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and tax avoidance, he said. We cant sit back and wait for another Panama Papers to tell us whether or not someone may be trying to hide their income from taxation.

Achieving that will require provincial co-ordination, he said, given that only 10 per cent of Canadian companies are federally incorporated  the rest are in provincial registries.

The issue was on the agenda at a June meeting of finance ministers in Ottawa.

We discussed  ways to work together to develop a national strategy aimed at improving the availability of beneficial ownership information, reads a Morneau press release following the meeting.

Lauzon said Morneaus initiative on the registry was well received by provincial finance ministers at the table.

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EDMONTONThe Trump administrations laundry list for a renewed North American Free Trade Agreement is long but doesnt signal massive changes ahead, says Canadas ambassador to the U.S.

The president said what hes looking for is balance. Weve got balance. I think we can improve it but I dont think it needs a dramatic overhaul, David MacNaughton said Tuesday before briefing premiers at their annual conference.

The U.S. list, with more than 100 objectives on 18 pages, includes Buy America provisions that could block Canadian companies from bidding on U.S. contracts, scrapping dispute resolution panels and forcing Canada to boost duty-free shopping limits for its citizens.

I dont think there were any real surprises, MacNaughton added, acknowledging there is pressure to renegotiate as quickly as possible because uncertainty is delaying business investment decisions.

But having said that, we are not going to rush into a bad deal, he told reporters. There are many things they raised that we take quite a different position.

This is an opening position paper on what is going to be a long negotiation.

Behind closed doors, MacNaughton sought feedback from the premiers with negotiations expected to start in mid-August.

Some were relieved the Washington list was toned down from some of President Donald Trumps campaign rhetoric.

So let the tweaking begin, said Manitobas Brian Pallister.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said state governors are well aware that job growth on both sides of the border depends on free and open trade between the two countries, given the inter-dependence of the Canadian and U.S. economies.

Many states count Ontario, for example, as their biggest or second-biggest trading partner, given the flow of goods, such as cars and auto parts.

We dont want to disturb something that is working. That is the tone, added the premier, who has met with more than 20 governors in recent months and went to their national convention in Rhode Island last week with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

MacNaughton echoed that point.

There are many, many U.S. industries that depend on the Canadian market. Ive heard from American business and governors that their first priority in this negotiation is do no harm.

The ambassador would not say what retaliatory measures or negotiation positions Canada would consider given some of the U.S. demands, such as greater access to the Canadian market for their financial and telecommunications industries.

It would be pretty unwise for me to talk about what were prepared to put on the table and not put on the table.

But MacNaughton did send a warning that Canadas supply management system for dairy products  a market to which Trump also wants greater access for American dairy farmers  will be defended in talks.

We think it works for Canadians, MacNaughton said, taking a shot at the heavily subsidized U.S. dairy and sugar industries.

Were happy to talk about opening theirs, he added.

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said the Americans are dreaming in hopes of concluding negotiations in a few months, calling that totally not realistic given the complexities of trade and looming elections in Mexico.

It will take years.

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Days after a continuing Toronto Star investigation revealed that Canadian girls are being sent abroad to be subjected to female genital mutilation, the federal government is not yet committing to track the cases, nor will it provide details on initiatives it is undertaking to prevent FGM from happening.

Female genital mutilation is an abhorrent and unacceptable practice. It is one of the most severe violations of the human rights of women and girls, said a joint statement from Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. It added that Canadas government is committed to addressing FGM both at home and abroad.

The ministers statement went on to say that Canada has and will continue to make efforts to prevent and address FGM. It cited $101 million set aside in June for a strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence, and $150 million over five years to be given to local womens organizations. This is in addition to $650 million over the next three years to support programs for sexual and reproductive health abroad.

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Canadian girls are being taken abroad to undergo female genital mutilation, documents reveal

When pressed on exactly what the Canadian government is doing right now to address FGM, and whether it will start tracking known cases as other developed countries do, a spokesperson said the original statement stood.

(The Star has previously reported on one initiative funded by Justice Canada: $350,000 to a Quebec organization now working to raise awareness around FGM.)

Last week, the Star revealed that federal government officials are aware of cases in which Canadian girls are being taken abroad and subjected to FGM, an illegal practice known as vacation cutting. These same officials believe, based on the limited information available, that a few thousand girls are at risk.

Canada has done little to understand the scope of the problem and is lagging far behind other developed countries in efforts to prevent it.

For example, earlier this summer, U.S. Homeland Security launched a pilot program to help prevent vacation cutting. The program is based on an initiative at Londons Heathrow airport, where security agents are trained to identify girls at risk.

The U.S., Britain and Australia have all undertaken research to determine the number of girls at risk: 507,000 in the U.S., 197,000 in the U.K. and 83,000 in Australia, according to an internal report from the Canada Border Services Agency.

The CBSA report, initially reported on by Global News, deals primarily with what is strongly suspected by Canadian officials but, as yet, unknown: whether FGM is happening on Canadian soil.

In the U.S., a doctor in Michigan was recently charged with carrying out the practice on up to 100 young girls, according to federal prosecutors, who say that no Canadian victims have so far been identified. There have also been cases in the U.K., France and Australia.

Those who perform female genital mutilation, called FGM practitioners, are almost certainly entering Canada to engage in the practice, according to the five-page report, which was prepared by Canadian border intelligence for employees.

According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian health-care providers, it is almost certain that FGM is also happening in Canada, despite it being illegal, the report says.

A spokesperson for CBSA did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting or female circumcision, is a procedure that intentionally alters or causes injury to external female organs. It can be inflicted on girls as young as 1 and varies in severity from partial removal of the clitoris, to excising the clitoris and labia and stitching up the walls of the vulva to leave only a tiny opening. (The latter practice is known as infibulation.)

FGM has no health benefits for girls and women. It can cause severe bleeding, problems with urination, and later cysts, infections, complications in childbirth and an increased risk of death for newborns, according to the World Health Organization.

It can also deny women sexual pleasure.

FGM affects more than 200 million women worldwide, according to UNICEF.

In 1997, Canadas Criminal Code was amended to include female genital mutilation as a form of aggravated assault. Its not just the person performing the mutilation who can face justice. Provisions in the code also allow for others to be charged: for example, a parent who participates in the offence by holding a childs hands or requests that someone perform it. And the amendments make it illegal to remove a child from Canada for the purpose of female genital mutilation.

There has never been a criminal conviction for female genital mutilation in Canada.

A practitioner of FGM would enter Canada with the purpose of committing a crime (aggravated assault), but may not have the awareness that they are doing so, the CBSA document says. It adds that, in Canada, the practitioner is most likely to be called to the home of a woman to be re-infibulated (re-sewn) after having a child, or to perform the practice on a young girl.

Women who are at risk of FGM do not present with the typical criteria for child abuse and the practitioners believe they are promoting the long-term well-being and social acceptability of the child. The reception at airports is likely to include the future patient or their family members.

The report also includes photographs of tools that can be used to perform FGM, including razor blades, scissors and special herbs to place on the wounds. (The photos are presumed to be intended to assist border officials by depicting items they should look out for.)

FGM is practised in 29 countries, 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. It occurs in both Islamic and Christian communities, but is largely a cultural tradition that dates back hundreds of years. In many areas, there is huge social pressure on families to have their daughters cut in this way.

Some women who have had the procedure have asked their doctors to reverse it, the Star revealed. According to provincial records, in the past seven years Ontario has performed 308 repairs of infibulations, a surgery that creates a vaginal opening where it has been sewn mostly shut.

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Death is supposed to be the great equalizer.

Not so, showed a bizarre democratic process that unfolded in a small Quebec town on Sunday night. A referendum, ostensibly about zoning changes, ended up giving a handful of non-Muslims the power to tell Muslims how to bury their dead.

It took only 19 voters in Saint-Apollinaire to reject the creation of an Islamic cemetery that would have made it only the second in the province owned and operated by Muslims.

The only Muslim-owned burial ground in a province with an estimated 250,000 Muslims is located in Montreal. Otherwise, there are four non-denominational cemeteries that have earmarked sections for Muslims that are leased out to them.

While both kinds of burial grounds follow the same religious rites, many Muslims who want the reassurance of eternal rest or fear exhumation or dont want to give future generations the responsibility of renewing leases end up flying the bodies of their dead to the lands of their origins.

In this context, the large, immediate question is: Should such a referendum have been held at all? No, says Yannick Boucher, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Montreal.

I deplore the silence of our political elites on this issue, he told me by email. It seems to me irresponsible on the part of our politicians to leave responsibility to the citizens of Saint-Apollinaire to decide on such a big issue.

The council in Saint-Apollinaire, a town of 6,000 people just southeast of Quebec City, had unanimously endorsed the proposal of an Islamic cemetery, after a local non-denominational funeral parlour struck a deal to sell a parcel of its land to an Islamic group.

The buyer was the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec that runs the Quebec City mosque where a white extremist gunned down six Muslimsat prayer in January. Five of those victims were flown out of the country for burial.

The sale required modifications to the zoning permit, and when that attracted enough of an opposition, it triggered a referendum.

Just 62 people who live and work around the proposed cemetery site were eligible for the referendum. Of them only 36 residents voted (19-16 against). One ballot was rejected because it was spoiled.

Im wary of narratives that portray Quebec as somehow being less open-minded than the rest of Canada. So this question bore closer scrutiny: Did the vote by the 92-per-cent Christian town near Quebec City stand as a scandalous symbol of exclusion or did it signify a support for secularism in a province that resoundingly rejected the role of the Catholic church in its institutions?

Certainly, the mayor of the town of 6,000 thought Islamophobia was a factor. I think the fear has started because of the word, Muslim, Bernard Ouellet told The Canadian Press last week.

Mohammed Kesri, the man leading the Islamic cemetery project, told the news agency, There are Catholic cemeteries, Protestant cemeteries, Jewish cemeteries  we aren't inventing anything here.

At a meeting in March in the town, the usual us-versus-them fears had emerged among the homogenous populace. Muslims were getting preferential treatment, someone said. Would there now be more mosques? More women with veils?

People put all Muslims in the same basket and see them as radicals. I am disappointed, the Globe and Mail quotes Ouellet saying after the referendum.

Sunny Letourneau of the Citizen Alternative Committee, who wasnt eligible to vote but opposed the religious cemetery, struck an argument for secularity, saying cemeteries should include everyone. She doesnt have an issue with Islam in particular, but all religions that exclude others based on faith, she told the Stars Allan Woodslast week.

If we take Letourneaus sentiments at face value, the principle behind them might have merit, but even so with the caveat that no religious group would henceforth receive permission to operate its own cemeteries.

Such an idea would run afoul of peoples charter rights to freedom of religion. According to human rights and constitutional lawyer Julius Grey, the Quebec town referendum does exactly that.

Grey told The Canadian Press secular people telling Muslims where they can bury their dead is akin to telling a Jew he or she can eat at a normal cafeteria and not keep kosher.

What did the referendum show? That even in death, Muslims are seen through the lens of their differences. That true secularism would not have begun and halted at a cemetery for Muslims alone.

Such a result, however democratic it may be, can only nourish radicalism among the population most vulnerable to dogmatic ideas, Boucher said.

I am thinking of the young Muslim aged between 14 and 21 who are often in search of identity. Identity is built by the gaze of the other on oneself. What message do we send to them with this referendum?

Shree Paradkar tackles issues of race and gender. You can follow her @shreeparadkar.

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The 65-storey hotel and condo at 325 Bay St. no longer bears the name of U.S. President Donald Trump.

JCF Capital ULC, the new owners of Trump International Hotel and Tower, reached a buyout deal with Trump Hotels last month. As part of the deal, the hotel will be renamed the St. Regis Toronto after significant renovations are completed, operating as the Adelaide Hotel Toronto in the meantime.

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The joint investment group bought the property that is comprised of 211 hotel rooms and 74 private residences in March for $298 million.

The building has been the target of lawsuits from investors who allege that they were led to believe the residential units would generate higher returns, but instead they lost money.

It has also been a site for protests. One denouncing Trumps policies and another that occurred after a recording surfaced of Trump, then the Republican candidate for president, using crude language and discussing his habits with women.

Councillor Josh Matlow had also proposed a name change in 2015. He said Trump is a fascist and his name has no place in a diverse and respectful Toronto.

The condos developer, Talon International, is facing a new class action lawsuit, which is seeking the return of deposits paid by people who did not close their transactions to become owners.

With files from Ainslie Cruikshank, Alex Ballingall and The Canadian Press

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Ontarios police watchdog has cleared a Toronto officer who shot the suspect in a dramatic hostage situation after a bank robbery in Etobicoke last year.

The Special Investigations Unit said there werent any reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the officer after a 30-year-old man was seriously injured following a holdup at a TD Bank branch near Kipling Ave. and The Queensway at around 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 20.

The man, his face covered by a ski mask, was shot as he was leaving the bank while using two women he had taken hostage as a human shield, the SIU said in a statement released Tuesday.

The suspect was using the hostages as a shield, holding them close together with both his arms wrapped around them on each side, and he had a pistol in his right hand pointed at one of the hostages, the SIU said.

As the man attempted to push the two women towards a silver vehicle parked in a nearby lot, the hostages managed to escape and ran towards police, the SIU said.

As soon as the hostages were out of the way, the complainant raised his firearm, looked directly at the (subject officer) and pointed his firearm at the (officer), according to SIU director Tony Loparco. The (officer) and the complainant fired at each other. As the (officer) was running backwards to take cover behind the SUV and discharging his firearm, he tripped over a concrete planter at the front of the SUV and fell to the ground.

The SIU said it is unclear who discharged their weapon first.

In total, investigators say six shots were fired by the officer, one of which struck the man in his abdomen.

During the confrontation, police say four other officers also discharged their firearms but none of the cops was injured.

It was clear that, at that point, the risk of serious bodily harm or death to the officers or civilians would have been substantially increased had the officers not returned fire at that time, Loparco said in a statement.

The SIU investigates all incidents between police and the public which result in death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

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Every year when Teresa Greaves visits Rondeau Provincial Park in southwestern Ontario, she ends up picking off a handful of ticks from her two dogs.

But this past fall, the numbers were out of control.

I picked probably 100 ticks off between the two of them over the course of the week, Greaves said. Its definitely a lot more than we ever had found on them before.

When she got back and took her dogs to the vet, the four- and five-year-old Rottweiler mixes named Padre and Tango both tested positive for Lyme disease.

Just as the number of human Lyme disease cases has risen in recent years, there has also been a sudden uptick in pets, according to veterinarians in the GTA.

Dr. Kathleen Alcock of the Ashbridges Bay Animal Hospital in the beaches said her clinic is seeing more dogs with ticks than ever before.

It was novel, she said. Now its like, oh my god, another dog with a tick, or a tick bite. Thereve been dogs in our practices that have had upwards of 11 ticks when they bring them in to be removed. The tick bite itself is not such an issue, its the fact that (some) ticks are carrying Lyme disease.

Much of Toronto, as well as parts of York and Durham regions, are in risk areas for Lyme disease, according to a 2017 map by Public Health Ontario, which defines a risk area as a 20-kilometre radius around where ticks have been found.

Alcock said four dogs have tested positive for Lyme disease at her clinic since March. The norm at this point of the year?

None, zero, she said.

Its been coming for a while, Alcock added. Its very obvious that the warming of the climate is bringing the ticks north. The hotbed for ticks and Lyme used to be New York State. Its just coming around to Toronto.

Alcock said its important to note that its impossible for a Lyme-positive dog to pass on the illness to its human family.

Its way easier to prevent ticks in dogs than it is in people, Alcock said. I give one pill every 12 weeks and the dog is free of ticks for the entire summer.

There were 841 human cases of Lyme disease in 2016 across the country, compared to 144 in 2009. The number of cases has risen in Ontario from 44 in 2005 to 343 in 2016.

Dr. Jennifer Kyes of the Mississauga Oakville Veterinary Emergency Hospital said active dogs that spend a lot of time outdoors in wooded and rural areas face the highest risk of contact with Lyme-carrying ticks.

It is a big concern because it can to lead to some significant illnesses outside of a fever and just having swollen joints, she said. It can lead to kidney failure and other much more significant diseases (in pets).

Kyes recommends a preventative vaccine for dogs, which can reduce the severity of the disease even if it is still contracted.

Alcock said that in order for a tick to pass on the Borrelia organism, which causes Lyme disease, it needs to be in contact with a dog for at least 18 hours.

What our medications are meant to do is when the tick bites, it dies, she said. You will still see potential for tick bites and you may even find . . . a dead tick on a dog, but theres no disease transfer.

Ticks can survive until temperatures drop to four degrees C and remain there consistently. Below four degrees, they cant bite, Alcock said.

Still, she expects to see them back next year, and in high volume.

Its going to be a cycle, Alcock said. This is the new black. Now that the ticks are here I think theyre going to stay and I think were going to see a lot more Lyme disease in people and in dogs.

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An off-duty cop outside his jurisdiction. A young Black man allegedly beaten with a metal pipe. A family making accusations of racial profiling and a mishandled police investigation.

Ontarios Special Investigations Unit announced Tuesday that Toronto police Const. Michael Theriault has been charged in connection with serious injuries suffered by a 19-year-old in Whitby in December.

The SIU, which investigates deaths, serious injuries or alleged sexual assaults involving police, has not released the name of the 19-year-old, or any details of the incident.

But Leisa Lewis has told the Star that the young man is her son, Dafonte Miller.

I cant picture this happening to a group of white kids walking through a neighbourhood, Lewis said. So I do think race played some part in it.

Theriault, who was arrested Tuesday and released on bail, faces charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and public mischief.

Neither Toronto police nor the SIU would comment on the events that led to the charges, but Julian Falconer, a Toronto lawyer hired by the mans family, outlined his clients version of what led to Millers injuries and Theriaults eventual arrest. None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Millers mother said he is still too traumatized by the incident to talk about it with reporters.

The incident began in the early hours of Dec. 28, 2016, Falconer said. Miller and two friends were walking to the house of another friend, not far from the home Miller shares with his family.

Theriault, whom Falconer described as white, was in the garage of his familys home when Miller and his friends passed by. The SIU confirmed in its press release that Theriault was off-duty at the time.

Falconer said Theriault identified himself as a police officer and asked the young men where they lived and what they were doing in the neighbourhood. When Miller and his friends continued walking, Theriault chased them, Falconer said. Millers friends ran away, but Miller was punched, kicked, and struck in the face repeatedly with a metal pipe, according to Falconer.

Falconer said that Miller called 911 during the alleged beating, but that when the operator answered, Theriault took the phone and said he was a police officer who had made an arrest.

Theriault later told Durham police that Miller had been beating him with a metal pipe, Falconer said.

When Durham police arrived at the scene, according to the SIU press release, they arrested a 19-year-old, who was later taken to hospital and diagnosed with serious injuries.

Falconer said Miller suffered a broken nose, broken orbital bone, fractured right wrist and an eye so badly damaged that it will have to be removed.

Photos taken by Millers family, and provided to the Star by Falconer, show Miller in a hospital bed, his left eye swollen after surgery.

Miller was charged on Dec. 28 with possession of a weapon, two counts of assault with a weapon, theft under $5,000 and possession of marijuana, court officials in Durham told the Star.

The charges indicate that the weapon in question was a pole, court officials said.

Court records show that all charges against Miller were dropped in May, without a trial, at the request of the Crown attorney.

Dafonte wasnt doing anything wrong, said Falconer. There was no basis for this individual to be in any way confronted by the off-duty officer.

Officers at the scene interviewed multiple people, said Durham police spokesperson Dave Selby.

It would be inappropriate to discuss our investigative findings or any details of the incident, given the current charges before the court against the off-duty officer, Selby added.

In its press release, the SIU said it was informed of the Dec. 28 incident by the alleged victims lawyer four months after it took place. Falconer said the fact that it was his office who had to contact the SIU  as opposed to Durham or Toronto police  raises questions about police accountability.

Under Ontarios Police Services Act, which regulates law enforcement in the province, a chief of police must notify the SIU immediately of an incident involving one or more of his or her police officers that may reasonably be considered to fall within the investigative mandate of the SIU.

The SIU says it will not normally investigate off-duty police officers acting in the course of their private lives, but an investigation will be conducted if an off-duty officer identifies themselves as a member of the police during the incident, or if police equipment or property is involved.

Asked why Durham police did not contact the police watchdog, Selby said it is the responsibility of the police service that employs the (involved) officer to contact the SIU.

Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said he cant comment on someone elses investigation. This is the SIUs investigation.

Pugash also refused to comment on the general rules for contacting the SIU.

The responsibility to contact the SIU should lie with whichever police force is first notified of an incident, said former SIU director Howard Morton.

They might decide to contact the police service that the officer is a member of, to have them contact the SIU, but I was always of the view that, because (police) have to contact us right away, then its whatever police service is (initially) notified, Morton added.

Pugash said Theriault has been suspended with pay. Salary disclosure information made public by the government of Ontario shows that a Const. Michael James Theriault of Toronto police made $102,771.72 in 2016.

Theriault is scheduled to appear in court in Oshawa on Aug. 10.

Lewis said she still sees the emotional toll the injuries have taken on her son.

He goes minute by minute, she said. He will have an OK moment but then he will have a breakdown  Hes still scared. Hes still in that moment. To him its still fresh.

Before the alleged beating, Miller was a funny, outgoing young man, Lewis said.

He loved to crack jokes with his family. He played basketball and wrote rap and R&B music. He was talking about going to college for mechanical engineering.

But Miller is quieter now, Lewis said. Hes doesnt write music anymore or talk about going to college.

I just hope that my son gets justice for what happened to him, said Lewis.

Then he can heal and go back to being my fun-loving kid  making plans and dreaming and talking about things hes going to accomplish.

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EDMONTONIts time to take a deep breath and put pot on the back burner for an extra year, says Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister.

Hes trying to persuade his provincial and territorial counterparts at their annual conference to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to delay the legalization of cannabis 12 months to July 1, 2019.

That would increase the chances of avoiding the hodge-podge of different provincial ages of majority and regulations now seen with beer, wine and spirits, Pallister said Tuesday.

I would hope we could learn from that and not re-create that for cannabis, he added, acknowledging age of majority and regulations such as where pot will be sold are under provincial jurisdiction.

Pallister also raised concerns about public and traffic safety, health impacts and more, including ways of measuring cannabis impairment for drivers.

There are too many unanswered questions, too many issues that have not been addressed for us to rush into what is an historic change.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said his province is working toward the deadline of Canada Day next year but wouldnt mind an extension because there are a lot of moving parts in legalizing cannabis.

Could we have greater continuity in this? It would be desirable but hard to pull off in a short period of time, Wall told reporters.

We dont have continuity.in terms of liquor laws obviously every province is a different place. Just consider the age piece.

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said the small size of the Maritime provinces makes it important for them to be on the same page, although his administration believes it can meet the July 1 deadline next year.

In Atlantic Canada, there needs to be a uniform age, there needs to be uniform regulations across our respective provinces. I believe that could potentially lead to, perhaps, across the country.

McNeil said 19 makes sense as the age of majority for buying marijuana  the same age his province has set for alcohol.

Ontario isnt counting on an extension as it conducts public consultations on cannabis in advance of next Julys deadline.

But Premier Kathleen Wynne admitted work is still being done to develop policies on public and traffic safety and protecting the health of youth with legalized cannabis  along with where it will be sold.

Those questions have not been answered. Thats the work that we have to do now in conjunction with the federal government.

Speaking for Quebec, Premier Philippe Couillard said a delay would be fine but he isnt expecting one.

Weve heard the prime minister say he was very firm on July 1 so were working under the assumption that this will be the date. A lot of work needs to be done.

Pallister said some of that work involves stronger campaigns to make driving under the influence of cannabis as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving has become.

Attitudes have to change. Attitudes take time to change and it takes a strong, focused campaign for young people to help them understand the dangers. And not exclusively young people, he added.

I dont think it has been properly or fully addressed.

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The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in order to post incendiary false quotes attributed to Qatars emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, in late May, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The quotes sparked the ongoing upheaval between Qatar and its neighbours, officials said.

That newly analyzed information gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that on May 23, senior members of the UAE government discussed the plan and its implementation. The officials said it remains unclear whether the UAE carried out the hacks itself or contracted to have them done. The false reports said that the emir, among other things, had called Iran an Islamic power and praised Hamas.

The hacks and posting took place May 24, shortly after President Donald Trump completed a lengthy counterterrorism meeting with Persian Gulf leaders in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and declared them unified.

Citing the emirs reported comments, the Saudis, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt immediately banned all Qatari media. They then broke relations with Qatar and declared a trade and diplomatic boycott, sending the region into a political and diplomatic tailspin that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned could undermine U.S. counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State.

In a statement released in Washington by its ambassador, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE said the Post story was false.

The UAE had no role whatsoever in the alleged hacking described in the article, the statement said. What is true is Qatars behaviour. Funding, supporting, and enabling extremists from the Taliban to Hamas and Qaddafi. Inciting violence, encouraging radicalization, and undermining the stability of its neighbours.

The revelations come as emails purportedly hacked from Otaibas private account have circulated to journalists over the past several months. That hack has been claimed by an apparently pro-Qatari organization calling itself GlobalLeaks. Many of the emails highlight the UAEs determination over the years to rally Washington, D.C., thinkers and policy-makers to its side on the issues at the centre of its dispute with Qatar.

All of the Persian Gulf nations are members of the U.S.-led counter-Islamic State coalition. More than 10,000 U.S. troops are based at Qatars al-Udeid Air Base, the U.S. Central Commands regional headquarters, and Bahrain is the home of the U.S. navys 5th Fleet. All are purchasers of U.S. defence equipment and tied to American foreign policy priorities in numerous ways.

The conflict has also exposed sharp differences between Trump  who has clearly taken the Saudi and UAE side in a series of tweets and statements  and Tillerson, who has urged compromise and spent most of last week in so far unsuccessful shuttle diplomacy among the regional capitals.

We dont expect any near-term resolution, Tillerson aide R.C. Hammond said Saturday. He said the secretary had left behind proposals with the Saudi bloc and with Qatar including a common set of principles that all countries can agree to so that we start from ... a common place.

Qatar has repeatedly charged that its sites were hacked, but it has not yet released the results of its own investigation. Intelligence officials said their working theory since the Qatar hacks has been that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, or some combination of those countries were involved. It remains unclear whether the others also participated in the plan.

U.S. intelligence and other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, as did the CIA. The FBI, which Qatar has said was helping in its investigation, also declined to comment.

A spokesman for the Qatari Embassy in Washington responded by drawing attention to a statement by that governments attorney general, Ali Bin Fetais al-Marri, who said late last month that Qatar has evidence that certain iPhones originating from countries laying siege to Qatar were used in the hack.

Hammond said he did not know of the newly analyzed U.S. intelligence on the UAE or whether Tillerson was aware of it.

The hacking incident reopened a bitter feud among the gulf monarchies that has simmered for years.

It last erupted in 2013, when Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain accused Qatar of providing a haven for their political dissidents and supporting the Pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood; funding terrorists, including U.S.-designated terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah; and using its state-funded media outlets to destabilize its neighbours.

Qatar  an energy-rich country ruled by its own unelected monarchy  saw the Saudi-led accusations as an attempt by neighbouring autocrats to stifle its more liberal tendencies. Separately, the United States warned Qatar to keep a tighter rein on wealthy individuals there who surreptitiously funded Islamist terror groups  a charge that Washington has also made in the past against the Saudis and other gulf countries. While Qatar promised some steps in response to the charges in a 2014 agreement with the others, it took little action.

During his two-day visit to Riyadh, Trump met with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council  Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar  and held individual closed-door meetings with several GCC leaders, including the Qatar emir. The day before his departure on the morning of May 22, Trump delivered a speech, focused on the need for religious tolerance and unity against terrorism, to more than 50 Muslim leaders gathered from around the world for the occasion.

But he devoted most of his attention to Saudi King Salman, praising as a wise leader the man who controls his countrys vast oil reserves. In what the administration hailed as a high point of the visit, the Saudis agreed to purchase $110 billion in U.S. arms and signed letters of intent to invest hundreds of billions in deals with U.S. companies.

He had told the Saudis in advance, Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, that the agreements and purchases were a prerequisite for his presence. I said, you have to do that, otherwise Im not going, Trump recounted.

The statements attributed to the emir first appeared on the Qatar News Agencys website early on the morning of May 24, in a report on his appearance at a military ceremony, as Trump was wrapping up the next stop on his nine-day overseas trip, in Israel. According to the Qatari government, alerts were sent out within 45 minutes saying the information was false.

Later that morning, the same false information appeared on a ticker at the bottom of a video of the emirs appearance that was posted on Qatar News Agencys YouTube channel. Similar material appeared on government Twitter feeds.

The reports were repeatedly broadcast in Saudi Arabian government outlets, continuing even after the Qatari alert said it was false. The UAE shut down all broadcasts of Qatari media inside its borders, including the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera satellite network, the most watched in the Arab world.

The first week in June, the Saudi-led countries severed relations, ordered all Qatari nationals inside their countries to leave, and closed their borders to all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar, a peninsular nation in the Persian Gulf whose only land connection is with Saudi Arabia.

In addition to charges of supporting terrorism and promoting instability inside their countries, they accused Qatar of being too close to Iran, Saudi Arabias main rival for regional power and, according to the United States, the worlds foremost supporter of global terrorism. Iran conducts robust trade with most of the gulf, including the UAE, and shares the worlds largest natural gas field with Qatar.

The day after the boycott was announced, Trump indirectly took credit for it. So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with King and 50 countries already paying off, he tweeted. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar.

At the same time, Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called for negotiations and a quick resolution of the dispute. When the Saudi-led group released a list of 13 non-negotiable demands of Qatar  including shutting down Al Jazeera and expelling a number of people deemed terrorists  the State Department suggested that they were unreasonable and that the terrorism funding issue was a smokescreen for long-standing regional grievances that should be resolved through mediation and negotiation.

Qatar rejected the demands. Tillerson appeared to agree that they were draconian. But when he called for the boycott to be eased, saying it was causing both security and humanitarian hardship, Trump said the measure was harsh but necessary.

The one concrete result of Tillersons stops in the region last week was a new bilateral agreement signed with Qatar on stopping terrorism financing, the only one of the gulf countries that had responded to an invitation to do so, Hammond said.

Speaking to reporters on his plane flying back to Washington on Friday, Tillerson said the trip was useful first to listen and get a sense of how serious the situation is, how emotional some of these issues are. He said that he had left proposals with both sides that suggested some ways that we might move this forward.

All of the countries involved, Tillerson said, are really important to us from a national security standpoint ... We need this part of the world to be stable, and this particular conflict between these parties is obviously not helpful.

Asked about Trumps tweets and other comments, he noted that being secretary of state is a lot different than being CEO of Exxon, his previous job, because I was the ultimate decision-maker. He knew what to expect from long-standing colleagues, he said, and decision-making was disciplined and highly structured.

Those are not the characteristics of the United States government. And I dont say that as a criticism, its just an observation of fact, Tillerson said. While neither he nor the president came from the political world, he said, his old job put him in contact with the rest of the world and that engagement ... is actually very easy for me.

For his part, Trump agreed in the Christian Broadcasting Network interview that he and Tillerson had a little bit of a difference, only in terms of tone over the gulf conflict.

Qatar, Trump said, is now a little bit on the outs, but I think theyre being brought back in. Asked about the U.S. military base in Qatar, Trump said he was not concerned.

Well be all right, he said. Look, if we ever have to leave the base, we would have 10 countries willing to build us another one, believe me. And theyll pay for it.

Kareem Fahim in Istanbul and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.

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National disgrace

While walking from village to village in Dailekh, I met Kamala (name changed), a married, adolescent girl.
WASHINGTONMinutes after the biggest initiative of his presidency collapsed, Donald Trump began claiming that he would have gotten Obamacare repealed and replaced if 

He got distracted by a photographer he thought was standing too close to a soldier. He never finished his sentence.

The presidents attention deficit was a major problem throughout the legislative process that all-but-officially ended in failure on Tuesday. It was far from the only problem.

Here are eight reasons why Trump and his party were unable to deliver on one of their most important promises:

They wrote a dreadful bill

Health reform is hard even when politicians are trying to increase coverage. Republicans were trying to pass a bill that would have left tens of millions more people without coverage. Almost no experts and almost no interest groups liked the thing.

It was a terrible bill from the start. And U.S. President Donald Trump didn't do much to help pass it.





Related:Trump suffers colossal failure as Obamacare repeal collapses

Its a terrible plan. It doesnt fix any of the problems with Obamacare, it makes those problems worse, and it creates entirely new problems, said Jonathan Oberlander, a University of North Carolina professor who studies health policy and politics.

Resistance worked

When Republican Sen. Jerry Moran held a town hall in a tiny Kansas town in early July, he was met by a group of disability-rights activists who told him how the bill would hurt people like them.

Similar scenes greeted almost every other Republican member of Congress. Grassroots resistance groups made it impossible for Republicans to turn away from the potential human and political damage.

Some of these Republicans voted for a repeal back in 2015 because they knew it would have no consequence. They knew that it wouldnt ever become law. And now they were faced with the prospect where, if they voted for this, it would harm their constituents  and then they were seeing those constituents, their faces, in their offices over the last two months, said Angel Padilla, co-founder of the anti-Trump Indivisible network.

Trump didnt sell

To get Obamacare passed, Barack Obama conducted a months-long parade of speeches, interviews, town halls and news conferences. Trump, renowned salesman, did almost nothing.

When he did speak about health-care, he spoke in unhelpful generalities  or, astonishingly, bashed the bill as mean. As the initiative burned, he was using his Twitter platform to scold the media.

From the beginning of the process to the end, he did not answer a single question about the specifics of his plan.

The president is the largest megaphone in the world. The bully pulpit is his greatest asset. And he just completely misused it to the point of malpractice, said Rick Tyler, a MSNBC analyst and former communications director for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Trump has little influence on Congress

With an approval rating below 40 per cent  36 per cent, according to the most recent Washington Post poll  Trump just didnt have the power to scare Congress into satisfying his whims. And his eagerness to pass any bill at all made it impossible for the White House to convince legislators that he cared about the policy specifics.

The reason that Congress was excited about this was hell sign whatever youll send him. But if hes willing to sign whatever youll send him, he doesnt have the credibility to message on what hes asking for, said Republican strategist and lobbyist Liam Donovan.

It cuts both ways. You cant have him be an auto-pen if you expect him to lead the dance.

Republicans have irreconcilable differences

Party unity was easy when members of Congress knew their repeal votes amounted to mere veto-fodder symbolism. When it came time to make law under a Republican president, they had to find a way to placate Medicaid-conscious moderates and damn-the-consequences right-wingers at the same time  losing two senators maximum.

Youre handcuffed in what you can do with 52 votes. Which isnt an excuse, its just a fact, said Donovan. And to cobble together those 52 votes  you have to come up with something that Susan Collins and Ted Cruz can agree on. Thats incredibly challenging.

Obamacare is good for a lot of people

Trump calls Obamacare a disaster and a catastrophe. In reality, the law is flawed but functional.

Millions of people buying insurance through Obamacares individual markets have experienced steep price hikes and limited choices. But millions have become insured for the first time, premiums have risen more slowly than they used to, and the number of health-related bankruptcies has plummeted.

In the absence of Obama himself, polling suggests more people support his Affordable Care Act than oppose it. It is hard to talk yourself into repealing a popular social benefit.

When youre six years into a program, to change it when people are relying on it, theres a fear that it may affect their own policies or their own families, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake told Politico.

McConnell messed up

During his years-long run of anti-Obama obstruction, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell enjoyed a reputation as a master tactician. It is probably toast now.

Its possible that nobody could have herded these cats into repeal-and-replace. But McConnell made a series of caucus-angering mistakes  writing the bill rapidly in secret, irritating hard-liners by attempting to privately promise moderates that the bills cuts would never take effect, and excluding Republican female senators from his health-care working group.

Three female senators ended up killing the bill.

What were witnessing is an unprecedented, full-blown rebellion by Republican senators against their leader, McConnell, Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to former Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid. He added: Boy howdy, what a thing to witness. From the saviour of the Senate, no less.

The conservative dogs didnt bark

Opposition to Obamacare galvanized the conservative grassroots into action in 2010 and the years following. But influential right-wing groups were so unenthused about the Republican bill that they did little or nothing to urge legislators to pass it.

The Koch brothers network was critical; FreedomWorks, likewise, described the bill as an amendment to Obamacare, not a repeal of it. The Trumpified party grassroots, meanwhile, has moved on to such concerns as fake news.

Facing immense left-wing pressure and scant right-wing pressure, Republicans stopped fearing that saying no would cost them their careers.

Read more:

Millions will keep health care as Trump, Republicans suffer colossal political defeat

Let Obamacare fail, Trump says after GOP health care plan collapses

U.S. health care bill collapses after two Republican senators defect

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When Mohamed Noor joined the Minneapolis police force and was assigned to patrol the citys southwest corner, the Somali community there  the nations largest  threw a party for him to celebrate.

He was the first Somali-American officer to serve in Minneapoliss fifth precinct and one of less than a dozen Somali-American officers in the department. His presence on the squad brought Somali activists some pride and reassurance at a time of Islamophobia in America and nationwide racial tension stoked in part by shootings of black people by white police officers.

Now that same Somali community is bracing for a backlash that has already begun.

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On Monday, multiple media outlets named Noor as the officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman in the citys popular Fulton neighbourhood over the weekend, an incident that has grabbed global attention and thrust Minneapolis into yet another uproar over police violence.

Officials have not publicly confirmed the officers name.

Tom Plunkett, an attorney claiming to represent Noor, said in a vague statement that the officer extends his condolences to those mourning 40-year-old Justine Damonds death and takes their loss seriously.

We would like to say more, and will in the future, Plunkett said. At this time, however, there are several investigations ongoing and Officer Noor wants to respect the privacy to the family and asks the same in return during this difficult period.

Though Plunkett did not respond to requests to explicitly confirm that Noor fired the shot that killed Damond, several Somali leaders in Minneapolis said in interviews with The Washington Post that they were aware of the officers involvement.

There is no question that he is the officer, Somali activist Omar Jamal told The Post. We knew this right after the shooting but we didnt want to release the name.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced Monday night that Damond  identified by her birth name Justine Ruszczyk  died from a gunshot found to the abdomen and ruled the death a homicide. She was set to marry her American fiance Don Damond next month, and had already been using his last name.

Witnesses at the scene Saturday night said that the officer who fired his gun appeared to be Somali, Jamal said, so he and others in the community began contacting all the Somalis in the department. They knew the shooting took place in the fifth precinct, where Noor is the only Somali officer.

We came to know that, oh gosh, thats him,  Jamal said. Then the word spread fast.

The report stoked fear among Twin City Somalis, who have worked for decades to become part of the citys fabric. There are now Somalis on the police force, the city council and in the Minnesota House of Representatives. But the largely Muslim population of Somali Americans in the Twin Cities region still face Islamophobia and innuendo about terrorism.

They fear this will be just another event used to create animosity toward the Somali community, Mohamud Noor, executive director at the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, told The Post.

Already, hateful posts criticizing Islam and sharia law are filling social media in response to the police shooting. Several far-right blogs featured sensational headlines that blamed the officers ethnicity, not his training, for the deadly use of force.

Other Somali officers in the police department are nervous, Jamal said.

Theyre not talking at all, he said. You can feel the pressure, because you know, the difference now is one of you guys did it.

The fact that the police involved in the shooting is Somali makes it a different matter, he said.

Mohamud Noor, who is not related to the officer, is also a city council candidate. He and others in the Somali community have protested other police shootings in the Twin Cities region along with Black Lives Matter, but this one changes the narrative, he said. Usually, they are protesting the death of black men at the hands of police, he said. Now it is a white woman reportedly shot by a black officer.

He hopes the conversation will focus on police reform, not racial stereotypes.

This is the time to bring people together, he said. We have so many questions. What happened? Why were the body cameras off?

According to authorities, there is no known video or audio footage of the shooting, which occurred after Damond called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home late Saturday night.

Local media said she approached the police car responding to that call in her pyjamas and was shot through the drivers side door by the officer in the passenger seat of the cruiser, as previously reported by The Post.

The two officers involved did not turn on their body cameras, authorities said. The police cars dash camera did not capture the incident, either.

Officer Noor joined the force in 2015 and completed his field training just over a year ago, according to a May 2016 city bulletin welcoming him to the fifth precinct. The officer graduated from Augsburg College, a Lutheran school in Minneapolis, with a degree in economics and business administration, according to the posting. He worked in real estate in Minneapolis and St. Louis before becoming an officer.

Noor has had two complaints filed against him during his brief tenure with the police department, reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Two remain open and a third was closed without discipline, according to the newspaper.

But in the wake of Mondays news tying him to Damonds death, Somali community members said he was a role model who brought enthusiasm to the job.

As you can imagine, when immigrants join the police they feel like they are part of the larger community, Jamal said. This is our community, we serve and protect.

After Noors welcome party to the fifth precinct last year, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges posted a note on Facebook saying his arrival had been highly celebrated, particularly by the Somali community and was a wonderful sign of building trust and community policing at work.

The statement from Plunkett, Noors attorney, said that the officer came to the United States at a young age.

He takes these events very seriously because, for him, being a police officer is a calling, Plunkett said. He joined the police force to serve the community ... Officer Noor is a caring person with a family he loves and empathizes with the loss others are experiencing.

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WARSAW, POLANDBritains Prince William and his wife Kate, who are touring Poland, paid respect to the victims of a Nazi German concentration camp Tuesday as they were guided around the site by two Jewish survivors.

The royal couple is on a goodwill trip to Poland and Germany aimed at underscoring Britains intention to maintain friendly relations with the European Union after it leaves the bloc.

They flew to northern Poland on Tuesday from Warsaw, where they and their children were staying at the Belvedere Palace.

At the Stutthof museum they were guided by two survivors of the camp, Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper, both 87, from north London. The royals were shown discarded shoes, clothing and other personal items that were seized from the inmates on arrival at Stutthof. They were also shown the gas chamber where those too sick to work were killed.

The couple paid their respects to the victims by placing remembrance stones at the Jewish memorial.

The German Nazis set up the Stutthof camp right after invading Poland in September 1939. Out of some 110,000 inmates of various nationalities, as many as 65,000 died in the gas chambers or from disease, hunger, hard labour or during evacuations. Some 28,000 of the victims were Jewish.

Later, the royal couple travelled to nearby Gdansk, on the Baltic coast, where they shook hands with a welcoming crowd among the citys Gothic and Renaissance architecture. They tasted traditional Polish pierogi  pastry stuffed with meat  and Goldwasser herbal liqueur that contains tiny flakes of gold.

They are later expected to visit a replica of a Shakespearean theatre, whose patron is Williams father, Prince Charles. They will then meet former president and democracy champion Lech Walesa, whose office is housed in the new European Center of Solidarity that documents Polands peaceful struggle in the 1980s to shed communism. They return to Warsaw in the evening.

On Wednesday they fly to Berlin.

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Last weekend, two more young people died by suicide in Northern Ontario. Each loss adds to the disturbingly high suicide rates among Indigenous youth. But statistics dont help grieving families. They will feel the pain and loss forever. Each life lost is a tragedy beyond measure.

Each time a community is affected by suicide, there is a flurry of activity to mobilize counsellors, engage crisis teams and ensure local needs are met. There are urgent calls for more money and more mental health workers for affected regions.

In Budget 2017, our government pledged $118.2 million over five years to improve mental health services for First Nations and Inuit. This builds on $69 million announced last year to fund community-based workers and mental wellness teams, and to ensure there are counsellors in regions facing crisis. The number of communities supported by mental wellness teams will nearly triple by the third year, going from 86 to approximately 240. These teams serve multiple communities and go where they are needed, for as long as they are needed.

Two weeks ago I visited communities in Northern Ontario, where the crisis continues to have a devastating impact. I was impressed by their determination to break the cycle of despair. When I visited Wunnumin Lake First Nation, I learned about their Choose Life Project. This initiative will address suicide risk factors, particularly among youth, through on-the-land activities and programs for children to increase self-esteem and strengthen families.

This type of community-led programming is critical to solving this crisis. This is why we are working with Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the Ontario government to develop a long-term strategy to prevent suicides in that province.

However, ending the epidemic of youth suicide requires more than mental health care. Any oversimplification of the causes and solutions for this crisis does a disservice to the communities that are most affected. The roots of this crisis and its remedies are not mysterious, but they are complex. It took generations of discrimination to create the circumstances behind these suicides. Justice will not be restored overnight.

It can be shown by many measures  life expectancy, chronic diseases such as diabetes, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, infant mortality rates, suicide rates  that Indigenous peoples have suffered from systemic discrimination when it comes to health. Poor health outcomes and loss of hope for Indigenous youth also derive from a range of social inequities in areas such as education, employment, housing, and community infrastructure.

The current state of Indigenous health in Canada is a direct result of generations of previous government policies, including the impacts of residential schools. We need to dismantle the colonial structures of the past and reconcile our broken relationship with Indigenous peoples to improve quality of life in their communities.

Preventing suicide requires achieving social equity. We have already taken important steps by investing in key social determinants of health, such as housing, education and the environment. While these are first steps, our intent is to continue investing in all areas in pursuit of social equity.

Preventing suicide requires a transformational approach to health, including the correction of unjust policies. This work has begun. We have changed policies related to Jordans Principle, prenatal care, medical transportation and more. We have regular meetings with leaders of First Nations, Inuit and Metis organizations, to build better relationships and improve our understanding of their priorities and needs. We are responding to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Promoting life and preventing suicide requires respect for Indigenous knowledge and practices, including work done to create important foundational documents.

Preventing suicide also requires a focus on birthing wellness; attachment of parents and children; and the protection, safety and nurturing of children from infancy onward. It means preventing trauma and supporting healing for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. It involves helping young people to reconnect with their land and revitalize their culture.

While we work with Indigenous leaders to improve the day-to-day reality of their communities, we must simultaneously address more foundational work to restore hope. This includes the affirmation of inherent and treaty rights, as enshrined in Section 35 of the Constitution.

First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples have been clear. They need control over their lives. Our government is determined to support the path toward self-determination.

Canadians are ashamed about how generations of injustice have deprived Indigenous peoples of hope and dignity. We must acknowledge the tremendous amount of preventable suffering, trauma and loss of life in the past. But the future is before us, with the obligation to do better, to do right. The path to health and wellness for Indigenous peoples requires reconciliation, justice and equity. Nothing less.

Jane Philpott is the federal minister of health.

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Canadian political discourse is often plagued by historical amnesia. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the public discourse surrounding the appointment of the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Last month, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin announced that she would be leaving the court in December, following a distinguished tenure at the helm. Commentary on the appointment of her successor has clung to the received wisdom that her successor must be appointed from Quebec.

This requirement is said to derive from a tradition, or an even a constitutional convention, that Canadas top legal job rotates between a civil law French Canadian judge from Quebec and a common law judge from the Rest of Canada. Indeed, the Barreau de Monteal has penned a letter to the Prime Minister, calling on him to honour this tradition in choosing the next chief justice.

The case for Quebec representation on the court is obvious. The Supreme Court hears cases in both English and French and in both the common law and civil law traditions. From a functional perspective, it makes sense for the institution to be led by a judge from Quebec.

There is also symbolic value in maintaining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court as an institution that sits atop both the common law and civil law systems. These considerations underlie the requirement that three of the nine judges on the court be from Quebec. In the Nadon reference, the Supreme Court ruled that proper representation of Quebec was a matter of constitutional significance.

But there are also drawbacks to clinging to a strict rotation.

The pool of suitable candidates is small to begin with. In choosing a chief justice, a candidate must possess tremendous legal skill and administrative ability. There is also powerful symbolism in the person who holds the office. Further constraints on the prime ministers choice could undermine other forms of representation, such as gender and racial diversity.

A strict rotation requirement would preclude the possibility of appointing Canadas first Indigenous chief justice. It would also limit the possibility of bold choices, such as George W. Bushs elevation of John Roberts directly to the role of Chief Justice of the United States.

Given these potential drawbacks, you would think the historical case for a rotating chief justiceship must be pretty strong. The thing is, there is little to no historical evidence to support it.

Throughout most of the history of the Supreme Court (with a few exceptions), the chief justiceship was passed on to the most senior sitting judge on the court. From 1875-1944, there was only one French Canadian chief justice, Henri-Elzear Taschereau (1902-1906).

From 1944-1973, the position of chief justice did alternate Quebec Francophone and Rest of Canada Anglophone. But as Philip Girard, a legal historian at Osgoode Hall Law School has observed, this may simply have been a coincidence: each of the chief justices during this period also happened to be the most senior judge on the bench.

Bora Laskins appointment to the chief justiceship by Pierre Trudeau in 1973 was controversial at the time precisely because of his lack of seniority (he was the second most junior judge on the court).

Since breaking with the seniority tradition in 1973, the appointees have been anglophone (Laskin), anglophone (Brian Dickson), French Canadian (Antonio Lamer), and anglophone (Beverley McLachlin). This is very thin gruel for a constitutional convention.

Popular wisdom on this point may be so well entrenched that there would be a political cost to departing from it when Prime Minister Trudeau chooses the next chief justice.

And perhaps the time has come to move toward a convention of rotating of the chief justice spot. But that decision should be based on a considered weighing of the pros and cons of such a policy on its merits, not treated as a foregone conclusion based on a phantom tradition that never was.

Stephen Aylward is a lawyer at Stockwoods LLP in Toronto, practising criminal, civil, and appellate litigation

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The Canadian government, our frontline healthcare system and social service networks across the GTA need to address the issue of female genital mutilation immediately. Women in some ethno-cultural communities are already tackling this practice, but they need to be more effectively supported if Canada really wants to deal with what the government acknowledges is an abhorrent practice.

As reported by the Stars Jayme Poisson and Michele Henry, the practice of sending girls abroad for female genital mutilation occurs around the GTA, affecting potentially thousands of Canadians. Young women and girls have the surgical mutilation performed on them, sometimes by healthcare practitioners and sometimes by people with no formal medical training.

According to the World Health Organization, FGM has no medical benefits but nonetheless has been practised in some 30 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, on more than 200 million women and girls alive today. It can cause severe pain, urinary problems, infection and even death. At the same time, the psychological impacts can be devastating.

Some other countries, such as the United Kingdom, are ahead of Canada in fighting FGM. Britain has gathered data on the practice  an estimated 137,000 women in Britain have been affected. And a committee of the British House of Commons last year called it a national scandal that no one has ever been convicted under that countrys law banning FGM.

Canada has no such statistics to even begin understanding the scope of the issue here. Whether legislative action like the UKs Female Genital Mutilation Act, prohibiting any association with the practice on girls at home or abroad, is the right approach for Canada, is debatable (it is a Criminal Code offence to perform female circumcision). But more work to understand the complex issue here, and possible approaches to addressing it, is certainly needed.

As Corinne Packer, a public health researcher at the University of Ottawa, says: Were behind the ball. Canada, she adds, is putting (its) head in the ground on the issue of FGM.

A government that proudly professes itself to be feminist can and should do more. In response to the Stars reports, the minister for the status of women, Maryam Monsef, and the minister for international development, Marie-Claude Bibeau, on Monday condemned the practice of FGM as a form of gender-based violence that our government is committed to addressing both at home and abroad. They promised that anyone who commits these crimes will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

But the measures they pointed to in order to demonstrate the governments opposition to FGM fall considerably short of whats needed. Last month, they noted, the government announced $101 million for a strategy to fight gender-based violence. Part of that money should be directed at efforts to eradicate this extreme form of violence against girls and young women.

In addition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced Canadas commitment to womens issues around the world, pledging $650 million to promote reproductive health and other rights globally, along with a new approach to foreign aid that will see 95 per cent of such funding directly tied to gender equality and female empowerment by 2022.

With hundreds of millions of dollars being promised for such causes, relevant ministries and government agencies here at home also need funding to begin properly tracking FGM and understanding what needs to be done to better address the issue.

Toronto doctors Rachel Spitzer and Joseph Daly, both obstetrician-gynecologists, perform surgeries on female patients to reverse the effects of FGM. They say many women in the GTA dont feel comfortable addressing what has happened to them with healthcare professionals unfamiliar with FGM, a practice surrounded by complex, centuries-old cultural traditions and values.

Addressing this uneasiness will also require proper funding. That could include clinics to educate practitioners while providing medical or counselling services to help women and their families deal with the painful legacy of FGM.

One thing is clear about the FGM issue in the GTA and Canada: women like Yasmin Mumed should be at the forefront of initiatives to understand and address the issue. The 23-year-old, raised in Scarborough, now attends the University of Guelph. Three years before arriving in Canada at the age of nine, Mumed was subjected to FGM. She is now fundraising to have surgery to reverse the effects at a California clinic that specializes in the procedure.

She looked, but could not find any type of support network or group in the GTA.

Mumed told the Star that the way to tackle FGM in this country is by complicating the conversation. Governments must walk a fine line in fighting the practice while not demonizing families or whole communities where it has been carried on by generation after generation. Mumed and her friends talk about it stopping with us.

Her generation represents the key to addressing FGM in Canada. For women like Mumed who understand both sides of the issue, the work many of them have already begun will really see benefits if the government funds and supports much-needed initiatives.

Trudeau has made womens health  physical and emotional  and their empowerment a key global initiative by putting forward a feminist foreign assistance policy. For the same reasons, his government needs to tackle FGM in Canada in a more determined and effective way.

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The Trudeau government has its work cut out to avoid being steamrolled by Washington on trade. If there was any doubt before, its now clear that the Trump administration is out to rewrite the rules on North American free trade in ways that would tilt the playing field firmly in favour of U.S. business.

There is relief in some circles that the worst kind of Trumpian bluster is absent from the administrations list of objectives for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. Given that the president famously railed against NAFTA during last years presidential election campaign as the worst trade deal in history, thats something.

But even the relatively bloodless document issued by the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, stakes out a series of demands that would overhaul the trade agreement in ways that amount to much more than the mere tweak that Trump once assured Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was his goal.

In itself, this is absolutely to be expected. If there is one consistent thread running through what passes as Trumps political philosophy its that U.S. companies and workers have been screwed by wily foreigners and politicians who are too stupid  or too corrupt  to do anything about it.

This is the kind of thinking that is too ingrained, and too politically powerful, to be discredited by mere facts.

Take, for example, the trade surplus that Canada is running with the United States. From the U.S. perspective, its a trade deficit, amounting to some $11.9 billion last year, and Trump sees such deficits as evidence that other countries are somehow getting the best of the United States.

In Canadas case, however, the surplus (or deficit) is largely a reflection of the unremarkable fact that the strong U.S. economy is importing more Canadian oil at higher prices. It says nothing, in short, about a fundamental imbalance in the rules governing the cross-border trading relationship.

Elementary facts like this must be kept firmly in mind as the NAFTA negotiations proceed. Thats why the Trudeau government, aided by premiers such as Ontarios Kathleen Wynne, has been reaching out to anyone who will listen  members of Congress, governors, mayors, business and union leaders  to remind them of the mutual benefits of a deal on which an estimated 9 million American jobs depend.

The government has been doing a good job in spreading that message, and given the aggressive posture struck by the Trump administration it will have to do all it can to make sure U.S. interests speak up forcefully to make sure the trade deal is improved, not trashed.

One big concern for Canada is the administrations determination to scrap the binational panels set up to ensure that the inevitable disputes that arise are handled in a relatively neutral fashion. As the smaller partner, Canada has every interest in making sure that the bigger one doesnt get to simply dictate the outcome every time theres a disagreement. That was a major Canadian demand back in the 1980s when the original trade deal was negotiated.

The wisdom of that has been demonstrated time and again, as Canada has won more than it has lost in trade disputes with the U.S., including the endless squabbles over softwood lumber exports. Ottawa will have to resist Washingtons demand that the present set-up be replaced by another system for resolving disputes that is much more pliable to U.S. wishes. Mexico will be our firm ally in that fight.

Trump is also looking to have it both ways when it comes to U.S. and Canadian companies getting access to government contracts.

Shamelessly, Washington wants American firms to have even more unrestricted access to government procurement in Canada (and Mexico). But at the same time it insists on strengthening Buy American rules and allowing state and local governments to exclude Canadian and Mexican suppliers from bidding on federally funded contracts that amount to many billions of dollars.

It would be absurdly unfair  but thats the Trump administrations opening bid as it prepares for official talks to start as early as next month.

Washington is also looking for greater access to all sectors of the Canadian economy, presumably including such areas as telecommunications, culture, financial services that are sheltered from foreign competition, as well as agricultural industries like dairy and poultry that are protected by supply management.

There will be fierce lobbying on both sides of the border here, and while the government must fight for Canadian interests it should not lose sight of the fact that they include not just the interests of businesses that benefit from existing protection from outside competition. Canadian consumers, too, deserve to benefit  and that may well mean doing away with some of the protections that business now enjoys.

Cheaper milk and chicken, for example, would benefit millions of Canadians  and the government should not cling to every protectionist measure simply because Washington doesnt like them. Lowering barriers may simply be the right thing to do.

In some areas, the Trump administration has actually put forward proposals that would benefit Canadian workers. Strengthening labour and environmental protections, for example, would make it harder for U.S. or Canadian firms to shift work to Mexico in order to cut costs. Canada should welcome those changes.

The Trump administration, as could have been predicted, is striking a tough pose as talks begin. Canada, though, need not be a supplicant. It brings enormous benefit to the North American trading relationship and the government must make sure that any reworked deal takes full account of that.

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Re: Judge rejects bid to freeze Omar Khadr payout assets, July 14

Judge rejects bid to freeze Omar Khadr payout assets, July 14

Wrongful death? Lets see. It was a war zone. In a war zone, people  even innocent people  are killed. Are the hundreds (thousands?) of civilians, even children and infants, killed by drones over Afghan and Syrian cities wrongful deaths? And should they be compensated by the operators of those drones for wrongful deaths? Even if Omar Khadr hadnt been a child, even if he had thrown that grenade (now under some suspicion of not being the case), was this really a wrongful death? In war, isnt all death wrongful? And what about the wrongful use of torture and imprisonment? The whole idea of a wrongful-death lawsuit in this case boggles the mind.

Stephen Bloom, Toronto

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Nepalis online shopping dream coming true soon

Nepals budding e-commerce business is expected to get a much-needed shot in the arm soon, as two banks are introducing platforms that will enable debit and credit card holders to purchase goods and services from online stores based in the country.
The Trump administration on Monday released its wish list for NAFTA negotiations, taking the latest step in what is likely to be a long process of reevaluating the nearly 25-year-old trade deal.

United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday laid out the United States' priorities in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal entered into by the U.S., Mexico and Canada under the Clinton administration. The United States will seek to balance trade deficits and add items on a "digital economy" and labor and environmental obligations when renegotiations of the deal commence next month.

"President Trump continues to fulfill his promise to renegotiate NAFTA to get a much better deal for all Americans," Lighthizer said in a statement.

According to Monday's set to objectives, the Trump administration will take aim at reducing U.S. trade deficits. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with Mexico was $55.6 billion in 2016 and $12.5 billion with Canada.

It will also seek to update and strengthen rules of origin "to ensure that the benefits of NAFTA go to products genuinely made in the United States and North America." Rules of origin dictate the percent of a product that must be produced in NAFTA countries.

The administration will work to eliminate "unfair subsidies" and "market-distorting practices" by state-owned enterprises and what it deems burdensome restrictions on intellectual property.

It will also seek to ensure NAFTA countries don't engage in currency manipulation "to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage." As Reuters notes, neither Canada or Mexico is currently on a U.S. Treasury "watch list" for possible currency manipulation.

Some of the provisions from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump scrapped, have been resurfaced in the United States' NAFTA revisions.

To be sure, Lighthizer's objectives are largely a wish list of items, and Canada and Mexico will have their own versions as well.

Trump railed against NAFTA during the election and moved to renegotiate it after reportedly wanting to scrap the deal entirely earlier this year. Lighthizer in May sent a letter to Congress notifying it of the administration's intent to initiate NAFTA renegotiations. Negotiations are set to begin in August.

President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA in December 1993.

Trump's bark has largely been harsher than his bite on NAFTA since his inauguration, and concerns that he will take radical action on the agreement have waned, at least temporarily.

The Mexican peso, which plunged after his surprise November victory on concerns he would take tough action on Mexico, has regained since its losses. The U.S. Commerce Department in June rolled out a new round of tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. The duties were less aggressive than expected.

The White House has declared this week "Made in America" week in an effort to highlight U.S.-made products. Trump on Monday hosted companies from all 50 states that make products locally. His companies and his daughter's, which manufacture their products abroad, were not invited.

"Remember in the old days they used to have 'Made in USA,' 'Made in America?' But made in the USA." He said. "We're going to start doing that again."
Wild horse advocates are fighting to make sure the House Appropriations Committee maintains a legal barrier that bars the slaughter of wild horses for their meat.

Last week the committee took a step towards allowing horse slaughter in the U.S. by knocking down a ban on horse meat inspections by the Agriculture Department, USA Today reports.

Congress has for years prohibited horse slaughter operations by not giving funding for federal horse meat inspectors. Following a debate last week, the Committee in a 25-27 vote did not extend the prohibition into next year.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-ALA) is a proponent of ending the ban, saying that over 100,000 horses are exported from the U.S. for slaughter in Canada and Mexico. He argues that an American-regulated inspection program could result in a more human way to process the horses.

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif) is in favor of upholding the ban, arguing that "we know unequivocally that horse slaughter is not humane and can't be done humanely because of the unique biology of horses," USA Today added.

Roybal-Allard also noted that 80% of the American public opposes horse slaughter, and argued that the variety of chemicals horses are exposed to could make the meat toxic and pose a health risk.

What's Hot On TheStreet

Netflix is so impressive: By trouncing quarterly subscriber estimates and issuing solid guidance, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) - Get Free Report did much to put to rest fears that its stock had gotten ahead of itself following a 31% rise so far in 2017, TheStreet's Eric Jhonsa says. The streaming giant also showed that it has reached a point where its sheer scale provides a competitive edge that makes it hard for even deep-pocketed tech and media rivals to slow it down, Jhonsa adds.

Overall, Netflix is an unstoppable beast because millennials like watching movies on the couch.

Tesla is bizarre: Tesla Inc. (TSLA) - Get Free Report is adding two new executives from major media corporations to its board of directors after investors urged the electric carmaker to add members without close ties to CEO Elon Musk, TheStreet reports.

James Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) - Get Free Report , and Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman of Johnson Publishing Co., will join Tesla's board, according to a company blog post.

Though the new board members are indeed independent, according to BoardEx, a relationship mapping service of TheStreet Inc., they lack experience in the car industry and have loose ties to the technology industry at best. Seeing as Tesla is burning through cash at a startling pace and is undergoing a Model 3 production ramp, adding experienced car or tech people to the board would have seemed like a better idea.

Meanwhile, Musk now apparently doesn't think his stock is overvalued after TheStreet called him out on his comments over the weekend.

Vicious downgrade on one hot tech stock: Barclays downgraded Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Get Free Report to a price target of $9 on Tuesday TheStreet reports, giving it a rating of underweight from equal weight, saying that the valuation was pricing in a high degree of success but there is little evidence of share gains.

Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis predicted the stock would crash 35% from current levels. Since the beginning of June, shares of AMD have gained 23.5%, while Nvidia (NVDA) - Get Free Report has risen almost 14%, on the back of a surge in demand for GPUs used to mine an alternative cryptocurrency called Ethereum (the units are known as Ether), TheStreet's Annie Palmer reports. A wave of bullish reports have come out since then saying that the boost in cryptocurrency mining demand could help Nvidia and AMD rise above a seasonally weaker fiscal second quarter, among other benefits.

But thanks to a steep drop in the prices of cryptocurrencies, the benefits may already be priced into the current quarter, with little left to gain thereafter, according to analysts.

The latest on Apple: Some bearish Apple (AAPL) - Get Free Report comments went overlooked on Monday evening, but they could come into focus on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank analyst Sherri Scribner said expectations for Apple are too high, warning investors that they might be disappointed with iPhone sales growth in 2018 and 2019.

A market overly optimistic on future sales is "ignoring the fundamental challenges Apple faces in the smartphone market," Scribner wrote. Those challenges include saturation due to elongated refresh cycles, declining share, increased Chinese competition and a growing secondary market.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

WATCH HERE: TheStreet's new series #AlphaRising:
Kimco Realty Corp. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on open-air mall-style properties in the US and is among the largest mall REITs on the market. The firm has been in business since the post-war boom of the 1966 and trading on the public markets since 1991. The name is a blend of the founders names, Martin Kimmel and Milton Cooper, who merged their assets in order to form the larger company.

The stock was added to the S&P 500 in 2006 and has held its position ever since. Kimco is also know for being the first vertically integrated REIT meaning it is internally managed and advised, and provides its own asset and property management. The firm raised $120 million with its IPO and was worth $11.4 billion in October 2022.

As of October 2022, the company laid claim to more than 530 properties enclosing 92 million square feet of retail space. The properties are primarily located within grocery-anchored shopping centers and mixed-use assets in suburban areas. The tenant-focus is on a diverse blend of essential and/or necessity-based goods or services that drive multiple consumer trips per week and provide stable income.

Kimco Realty is headquartered in Jerico, N.Y., but does not limit its investments by geography. The companys properties are located in 1st-ring suburbs surrounding major metropolitan areas from coast to coast. One area of focus is high-barrier-to-entry coastal properties in population-dense vacation zones while another is the rapidly expanding Sun Belt.

The firm offers a variety of services and features apart from property rentals that include curbside pickup zones and many others that enhance the tenant and consumer experience. Other features include digital maintenance requests, Click Pay, and a Discount Program. Some of the markets served by Kimco Realty include New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, and Atlanta.
New law comes into force to check toxic toys

Following the 181-day grace period, the government has enforced the Mandatory Toys Standard (MTS) law aimed at controlling childrens exposure to harmful chemicals and heavy metals present in toys.
We can no longer function without our digital devices. We have smartphones in our pockets and tablets shoved into our purses and backpacks. Even our homes are becoming automated, letting us control our Internet of Things devices from anywhere, whether from the car, the office or halfway across the continent.

But as our homes become "smarter," we're seeing a number of competing wireless-network standards. These include not only the familiar Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but others such as Thread, WeMo, ZigBee and Z-Wave. What are the differences among these new standards? Can they coexist in the same household or office?

MORE: Smart Home Guide: What to Know Before You Buy

What a Smart Home Needs

The ideal smart-home gadget would use a wireless transmitter and receiver that required very little power, so that devices could go for months, or even years, without needing a new battery. Its signals would pass through walls and floors inside and outside a home, yet without interfering with other wireless networks.

Signals would be encrypted for security reasons, and the user would be able to easily add devices to the network. All devices on the same network would be able to "talk" to each other. Finally, the standard should be able to handle dozens or even hundreds of devices on a single network.

Standard Wi-Fi consumes a lot of power, so it doesn't quite fit the bill. Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) is better at conserving power, but is limited in both signal range and number of devices (the new Bluetooth mesh standard, however, could fix some of these issues).

Most of these new standards create decentralized "mesh" networks in which each device can communicate directly with any other device within range. If two devices are too far apart, their signals can hop along intermediate devices. Devices can drop in and out of the network without affecting the network's overall strength.

However, most of these networks also need a "primary" device that serves as a network controller. If the primary device drops out of service, another device can often take over. Interfaces with smartphones or tablets can be handled by hubs, commercially available devices that are often compatible with two or more of these standards, as well as with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Two of the leading hubs, Samsung SmartThings and the Wink 2, can not only receive Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, but also let you link smart devices together, so that one will activate when another meets certain conditions.

MORE: Best Smart Home Hubs

How They Compare

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Z-Wave ZigBee WeMo Thread Bluetooth mesh

Operating range 100 feet 35 feet 100 feet 100 feet (theoretical) 330 feet

Max no. devices 232 65,000 Router-dependent 250-300 32,000

Data rate 9.6-100 kbps 40-250 kbps Router-dependent 250 kbps 1 Mbps

Frequency 908/916 MHz (U.S.) 915 MHz/2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz

Network type Mesh Mesh Star Mesh Mesh

Needs hub? Yes Yes No Yes Yes



Z-Wave

Along with ZigBee, Z-Wave is one of the most widely used wireless standards in smart homes today. The Z-Wave Alliance cites more than 1,300 certified devices on the market and 35 million compatible units sold.

"ZigBee and Z-Wave have been out there for years," Kerber said, explaining that each protocol defines all the network functions of all compatible devices to ensure maximum compatibility with other devices running that protocol. "All service providers that provide a smartphone solution use ZigBee and Z-Wave because of interoperability."

Both Z-Wave and ZigBee use AES-128 symmetric encryption, the same as offered by some online banks, to safeguard communications, and devices using either standard are easy to set up and don't require the consumer to perform any wiring.

Large brands such as Honeywell use Z-Wave, as do home-security-device companies ADT and First Alert. Other customers include AT&T, Jasco (maker of GE-branded home products), LG and Verizon.

Despite their similarities, ZigBee and Z-Wave are not compatible with each other. From the consumer's point of view, it's hard to pick one over the other, though each protocol's proponents would beg to differ.

"Z-Wave is the only technology on the market to deliver applications-level interoperability and maintain backwards compatibility across all versions," said Ben Garcia, Z-Wave field applications engineer for Sigma Designs, the California-based company that owns and licenses the Z-Wave standard. "When something is Z-Wave certified, it will work with any other Z-Wave product, past, present and future."

Z-Wave products include a number of smart locks (which also have Zigbee), as well as the GoControl garage door opener. Because Z-Wave uses a low-frequency radio band  908.4 MHz in the United States  its devices will not interfere with a Wi-Fi network, though they might with cordless landline telephones.

Z-Wave has "better interoperability, historically, than Zigbee," said Michael Wolf, founder and chief analyst of NextMarket Insights, a strategy and research firm in Edmonds, Washington. "All Z-Wave devices generally, without exception, work with other Z-Wave devices."

Sigma Designs makes money licensing Z-Wave, and devices using the standard can be pricier than those using other protocols. Like DVDs, Z-Wave devices can't be used outside their "home" regions due to different radio frequencies  for example, North American Z-Wave devices won't connect to Australian ones.

Z-Wave is also relatively slow, with data-transmission rates of up to 100 kilobits per second (kbps). By comparison, its competitor ZigBee can get up to 250 kbps at certain wavelengths, while the latest version of Wi-Fi, which draws much more power than either ZigBee or Z-Wave, can reach 1 gigabit per second  1 million kbps.

ZigBee

Unlike the proprietary Z-Wave standard, ZigBee is an open standard based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless-data specification. ZigBee device makers include GE Appliances and Lighting, LG, Logitech, Philips Hue lights and Samsung. (Some of these manufacturers also use Z-Wave, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.) ZigBee is also used by Comcast and Time Warner Cable in their set-top boxes, as well as in home-gateway routers and satellite receivers, and the familiar Nest Learning thermostat. Amazon even incorporated Zigbee into its newest Alexa smart speaker, the Echo Plus.

ZigBee can work on the 915 MHz frequency in the United States, which allows for low-power consumption but limits data to 40 kbps, or on the 2.4 GHz frequency, which allows for up to 250 kbps but might interfere with Wi-Fi networks. ZigBee products include the Philips Hue smart light bulb, the Logitech Harmony Ultimate home-control hub, motion detectors built by Bosch and Indesit washing machines.

MORE: Best Smart Home Gadgets

"It works well when all devices are using the same Zigbee profile," Wolf said. "[It's] cheap and very low-power, and the mesh technology is perfect for home automation."

ZigBee also supports battery-powered devices, some of which can operate up to seven years on one set of batteries, and devices that don't have batteries, such as light switches.

ZigBee is reliable and "robust," said Ryan Maley, director of strategic marketing for the ZigBee Alliance  it's low-power, interoperable with other ZigBee devices and secure.

"Wi-Fi is the appropriate choice to deliver content like streaming video and audio. It's great for the Internet of people," Maley said. "ZigBee is designed for devices talking to devices. It's great for the Internet of Things."

Because the two protocols communicate differently, ZigBee and Z-Wave devices are often incompatible. However, many smart-home hubs, such as Lowe's Iris, Quirky's Wink hub, and Samsung SmartThings support both protocols, although they may not say so on their packaging.

"Historically, Zigbee's suffered from interoperability issues with various implementations using different software profiles," Wolf said. "They appear to have this under control."

As noted above, ZigBee is somewhat faster that Z-Wave, and is generally cheaper to implement for device makers. However, ZigBee has a range of only 10 meters (35 feet) whereas Z-Wave can reach 30 meters (100 feet).

WeMo

Next we have WeMo, which is a brand owned by Belkin, a maker of networking gear and tech accessories, and not a wireless networking standard at all. Instead, WeMo piggybacks on standard Wi-Fi, already ubiquitous in networked homes, which removes the need for a hub or controller and also makes its devices Internet-compatible. WeMo devices send signals through a Wi-Fi router to each other, to the larger Wi-Fi local network and to the Internet as a whole.

(opens in new tab) Wemo Mini Smart Plug

Peter Taylor, director of product management at Belkin, said the company chose to use Wi-Fi because it didn't want to confuse customers by "introducing other technologies."

Instead of a mesh network, WeMo is dependent on the "star" network configuration common in most home Wi-Fi setups, with a central router handling all the traffic among devices and controlling the network in general. Because the user's smartphone is already on Wi-Fi, he or she can install the WeMo app to interface directly with WeMo devices.

But there's a drawback to Wi-Fi  it takes up a lot of battery life and processing power.

"Wi-Fi is much more power-hungry than other wireless technologies for the home," Wolf said. "Battery-operated smart-home devices are a terrible choice for Wi-Fi."

Head to the Belkin Home Automation website, and you'll see more than 25 WeMo products, such as the WeMo LED Lighting Starter Set, the WeMo Insight Switch and the WeMo Switch + Motion set. WeMo also partners with brands such as Mr. Coffee and CrockPot to add its networking technology into those devices.

"WeMo is app-based, so devices that have a WeMo app can connect to it like a phone or tablet," he explained. "Other devices that use WeMo can also connect to other WeMo devices to talk and communicate."

One example would be to have a WeMo motion detector trigger other WeMo devices when the user walks through the front door. The Amazon Echo can work with WeMo products as well. So how does WeMo fit within the diverse smart-home-automation industry?

"We are very aware of the other standards out there, as well as the different alliances and consortiums vying to create new ones," Taylor said. "We agree with the mission of these groups and will move in the direction of adopting the winning standard whenever that may occur, but we haven't aligned ourselves with any group or standard as of yet."

Not all Wi-Fi-based smart-home devices can "talk" to WeMo devices. For example, the SmartThings Hub, supports the WeMo Light Switch, Motion and Switch, but not the WeMo Insight switch. (The SmartThings Hub also supports ZigBee and Z-Wave devices.)

Thread

First announced in July 2014, Thread is coming about because Google's Nest Labs, Samsung Electronics, ARM and others wanted a smart-home networking protocol that could support the Internet of Things for years to come. Thread is an open wireless protocol that natively handles IPv6 (the next generation of Internet Protocol addressing) and, like ZigBee, is based on the 802.15.4 radio standard. (Thread does not handle the older, but more commonly used, IPv4 Internet address standard.)

"One thing about ZigBee and Z-Wave is that they're not IP-based," Kerber said, and hence can't easily work with Internet Protocol-based standards such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet or 4G LTE.

"There's an adaptation layer that matches IPv6 to the lower layers" of otherwise non-IP smart-home networking standards, Kerber said, "and that's called 6LoWPAN. Thread is based on that."

Thread will work with the Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Protect smoke detector, both produced by Google, as well as with Brillo, the stripped-down embedded version of Android for Internet of Things devices announced by Google in May 2015. (Brillo will also work with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE.) However, Thread won't with the Nest Cam, formerly known as the Dropcam, as the camera lacks the necessary 802.15.4 chip.

"Thread supports battery-operated devices as part of a home network," said Chris Boross, president of the Thread Group. "This allows the devices that people use every day  including thermostats, lighting controls, safety and security products  to be a part of the network without requiring constant charging or frequent battery changes."

The Google connection could be a drawback, however.

"Many manufacturers are resistant to use a new technology that is based on Google/Nest [intellectual property]," Wolf said.

The protocol creates a self-healing low-power mesh network that can link more than 250 devices, and Boross said Thread closes security holes found in other wireless protocols. It uses radio communications in the 2.4 GHz band, which might interfere with Wi-Fi signals.

Because ZigBee and Thread share basic physical specifications, it's likely that future software modifications, such as the already-mentioned 6LoWPAN, would create some degree of interoperability between the two standards.

"Thread and ZigBee have announced that the two organizations are collaborating to enable the ZigBee Cluster Library [application protocol] to run over Thread networks," Boross said, implying that Thread could probably handle ZigBee devices, though maybe not the other way around.

Bluetooth Mesh

First announced in July 2017, Bluetooth mesh builds upon the Bluetooth Low Energy standard, and will allow devices to communicate with each other in a distributed network, much in the same way that Zigbee and Z-Wave devices do. While it has a much longer rangeup to 300 feet, under ideal circumstancesits low transmission rate will keep it from being used for data-heavy applications such as video.

By virtue of its ubiquity, Bluetooth mesh has the potential to be as big a player as ZigBee or Z-Wave, though it's far too early to make an accurate prediction. It should be able to work with any device that has Bluetooth 4.0 LE, though adoption depends on whether or not device makers release an update for their gadgets.

Are They Secure?

How secure is all of this technology? Mika Stahlberg, director of strategic threat research at Finnish antivirus firm F-Secure, said most Internet of Things devices transmit encrypted data.

"Your data is sent directly to the cloud, or first via ZigBee, Z-Wave or similar, to a smart-home hub, and then to the cloud," Stahlberg said. "You then access this data and send commands to your devices with a mobile application, and you use, e.g., your Facebook account to register the application to the cloud service."

It's possible that a hacker could steal a password to retrieve personal data or manipulate a device. He could also hack the cloud backend of that service, or gain access to device data through physical access. There's a low chance that someone would take the time to hack the low-power radio traffic within a home, but there's still plenty of room for human error.

"As scary as it is, it currently seems your password will replace your house key," Stahlberg said. "And we know how good people and services are with keeping passwords safe."

MORE: How Smart Homes Have Dumb Security

Right now, most Internet-of-Things hackers hijack home routers, set-top-boxes and network-attached storage devices not for the personal data they contain, but for their computing power, which can be used to mine bitcoins, send spam and crack passwords. And most smart-home device use processors that are too weak to be used for those purposes.

"We expect that this trend will continue for a few years more," Stahlberg said.

But he thinks that as smart-home devices become more powerful, and the personal data they contain becomes more valuable, they may become targets as well.

"As homes become smarter, attacks that target the home and its inhabitants directly are becoming more probable," he said.

What's to Come

From a consumer's point of view, it doesn't matter much which smart-home wireless standard to select, especially since ZigBee and Z-Wave are virtually identical in terms of functionality, WeMo is limited to one brand, Bluetooth Mesh is just starting, and Thread hasn't yet gotten off the ground.

The best thing to do might be to decide which smart-home devices you want, then to see how many of them are available on one standard or another. Fortunately, many brands of smart-home networking hubs are already compatible with two or more of these standards.

Will there ever be one standard to rule them all? Only time will tell. As more devices enter the room and consumers vote with their wallets to create winners and losers, it's possible that we will see a shakeout that will lead to only one or two smart-home wireless standards.

Kerber, however, notes that ZigBee and Z-Wave have had 10 years to build up alliances and certify devices, with the result that there are thousands of compatible devices on the market between them. He thinks both they, and their newer competitors, will be around for some time.

"I still think it's going to be another 10 years before we see any consolidation," Kerber said.
Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company Masdar and PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali (PT PJB), a leading Indonesian power company, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore areas of collaboration in the renewable energy sector in Indonesia.



Experts from Masdar and PT PJB will work together to identify opportunities to meet Indonesias rapidly growing energy demand, together with its ambitious targets to achieve 23 per cent renewable energy use by 2025 and 31 per cent by 2050, reported UAE state news agency Wam.



Under the terms of the agreement, the partnership will focus on potential projects within the Java-Bali and Sumatra regions, it said.



The MoU was signed by Bader Al Lamki, executive director, Clean Energy of Masdar; and Iwan Agung Firstantara, president director of PT PJB; in the presence of Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, chief executive officer (CEO) of Masdar, and Rini Mariani Soemarno, Indonesias Minister of State Owned Enterprises.



Al Lamki said that the company looks forward to further developing our excellent relationship with PT PJB to help unlock Indonesias vast potential for renewable energy.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has announced a temporary ban on the import of live birds, hatching eggs and chicks from Luxembourg.



The ban is based on a warning issued by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in Luxembourg, a Saudi Press Agency report said.


NHRC concern over girls death in road flood

The National Human Rights Commission has voiced its concern over the death of a teenage girl and injury of another on flooded roads in the Capital on Friday.
An official website of the United States Government
Tell those replacement window salesmen to go away; fix your old window instead.

One of the first things many people do in a renovation is change the windows. For years, historic preservation groups like the National Trust for Historic Preservation have tried to show that this was an aesthetic and environmental crime. I have railed on against the replacement window manufacturers with certain posts. We have discussed studies that showed that the payback period for replacement windows can be as much as 250 years.

 Shannon Kyles/ Tiny House to test windows

But now a new study headed by Shannon Kyles, Instructor at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario, settles the question once and for all with a new research project (which you can read as a PDF via Google Drive). Her team built a tiny house, 12 feet by 8 feet, with two new windows and two restored 200-year-old windows and tested them for air infiltration (the biggest source of heat loss with windows). The test results demonstrate that there is no difference in air infiltration between new windows and restored pre-war windows.

Old vs. Modern Windows

Some modern windows (like those designed for passivhaus use) are really energy efficient and airtight with special glazing, gases and coatings. However, the majority of North American replacement windows are not engineered to such high standards. There has long been a debate, particularly in historic preservation circles, about whether old windows, particularly in century-old buildings, should be replaced or repaired. Shannon's study shows that restored windows can do the job.

There are lots of reasons to save old windows instead of buying new. There is the aesthetic, as noted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

If you had a beautiful piece of art that was custom designed, crafted by hand, made from native old-growth wood, and imbued with clues to its age and crafting traditions, would you throw the authentic piece in the dumpster if a simulated plastic version suddenly became available? Seems ridiculous, right? However, this is precisely what people all over the country are doing when they rip out their historic wood windows and replace them with new windows.

Then there is the embodied energy saved, the energy that it takes to make the new replacement window. Shannon writes:

An existing 200 year-old window essentially consists of wood and glass with paint or varnish. The energy needed to restore it is minimal. Comparing this to a new window, one must consider first the embodied energy required to extract raw materials to produce the new product, then the direct energy used to remove the existing window and dispose of it in a land fill. More direct energy is needed to then take the new window to the building.

Then there is the issue of the longevity of new replacement windows. As Donovan Rypkema has noted: That is why they are called 'replacement' windows; you have to replace them every 30 years.

Testing Windows Energy Efficiency

But then there is the big question: do new windows actually save energy? Shannon and her team built the tiny house and installed four windows.

 Shannon Kyles/ Restored windows installed in tiny house

Two 1830s Georgian windows were purchased. One was restored by Furlan Conservation in Hamilton, Ontario. The other was restored by Paradigm Shift Customs in Brantford. Two new windows were purchased from Pollard Windows. One was a wooden sash window. The other was a vinyl casement. All four windows were installed by John Deelstra, Professor of Carpentry at Mohawk College. All windows were installed with foam insulation. To make a complete comparison, other considerations including ease of opening and access to air circulation were also considered. The restored windows had opening windows and storms that were hinged so that no lifting or access from the exterior was needed for air circulation.

 Shannon Kyles/ sealing window

On May 10, surrounded by a gaggle of politicians, building officials and restoration experts, poor Certified Energy Advisor Michael Masney of Green Venture did a very public blower test. The results:

Green Ventures Test results /Screen capture

The air infiltration test is accurate to plus or minus three percent. The results as shown in the report show that there was virtually no difference between the performance of the restored old windows and the new windows.

TreeHugger favourite Ted Kesik has said that preserving historic windows not only conserves their embodied energy, it also eliminates the need to spend energy on replacement windows. Donovan Rypkema has noted that renovation and restoration uses twice as much labor, and half as much material as new construction; with windows, it is almost 100 percent labour and it is pretty much all local. Now Shannon Kyles and her team at Mohawk College demonstrate that, in fact, it is pretty much just as energy efficient to use old windows as it is to buy new.

Shannon notes that current energy retrofit funding is limited to replacement of windows, and is not available for window restoration. Perhaps its time to change that; these tests prove once and for all that for many reasons, restoration is in many cases as good as replacement. Throw in the issues of embodied energy, labor and durability, and the balance can tilt in their favor.
Farming was once believed to be a feat reserved only for big-brained hairless apes, but it turns out that animals don't need a central nervous system to tend crops. Here's our list of seven amazing animal agriculturalists.

But you might be surprised to learn that humans were not the first farmers. A number of astonishing animals discovered agriculture long before humans evolved as a species. There are insects that practice husbandry, fish that farm, and even jellyfish horticulturalists.

If there's one trait that distinguishes humans from animals, it's the ability to grow food.

1 of 8 Leaf-Cutter Ants watchara / Shutterstock Leaf-cutter ants aren't just farmers; they are factory farmers. They gather leaves to cultivate a fungus that grows on the leaves. Leaf-cutter ants protect the crops from pests and mold. They then feed the fungus, not the leaves, to their larvae. Many people believed these ants from Central and South America ate the leaves they collected. Instead, they farm and sometimes, like humans, have difficulty with crop failures.

2 of 8 Termites David Siu / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 Much like leaf-cutter ants, many termite species are fungus farmers. The gigantic mounds built by some termite colonies are complex, temperature-controlled structures. These structures are essential for maintaining the ideal growing environment for their fungal food source. The termites start by chewing the plant material and feeding it to the fungus. The fungus then grows into mushrooms, creating a food source for the termites. Though considered household pests, termites form some of the most complex societies in the animal kingdom.

3 of 8 Damselfish Greg Grimes / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 These feisty farmers are the only fish known to engage in agriculture. Damselfish are algae-growers. They are so protective of their crops that they have attacked other creatures that swim too close  even human divers. The algae they prefer is a species that is weak and quickly over-grazed, compared to other species of algae. If it weren't for such dedicated farmers, the algae would be challenging to find. It tends to survive only within the protective territories of the damselfish.

4 of 8 Ambrosia Beetles Henrik_L / Getty Images Named after the fungus they cultivate, ambrosia beetles are bark borers that grow their crops within decaying trees. A common misconception is that these beetles eat the wood. In reality, they bore through the wood and introduce the ambrosia fungi that they eat. Once a chamber is complete, the beetles carefully tend to their crop, which feeds both adults and larvae. The beetles often leave a ring of what looks like sawdust around the tree as they push the wood shavings out of the holes they bore.

5 of 8 Ants Joshua McMichael / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 Several ant species herd aphids in much the same way that humans keep cattle for milk. Instead of milk, aphids excrete a sugary liquid called honeydew that the ants devour. Ants go to great lengths to care for their aphids, often training them to defecate in a way that makes it easier for the ants to gather and eat the honeydew. In fact, the well-trained aphids will often withhold their honeydew until they are stroked and "milked" by ants. Even more fascinating, ants will typically carry their aphids to new pasture lands and protect them from predators. In extreme cases, ants will clip off their domesticated aphids' wings to prevent them from flying away when they mature. They even encourage a mix of aphids, so they have a balance between types.

6 of 8 Marsh Periwinkles Mary Hollinger, NESDIS/NODC biologist, NOAA / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 Marsh periwinkles (Littoraria irrorata), a type of snail typically found throughout the Southeastern United States, prefer to feast on a fungus that they farm in wounds on cordgrass leaves. These wise snails use their rough, tongue-like radula to cut grooves into cordgrass leaves, creating the perfect growing environment for their favorite fungus. Scientists have even spotted snails have fertilizing their fields by defecating in the grooves, further helping the fungus grow.

7 of 8 Spotted Jellies Brian Gratwicke / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 Spotted jellies, also known as lagoon jellies, grow algae food inside their tissues. During the day, spotted jellies typically orient themselves bell side down and tentacles up. This position ensures the photosynthetic crop in their tentacles gets enough light. They spend most of their time chasing the daylight and tending their internal gardens.
Study Cairns president Carol Doyle said it was absolutely huge for Cairns to host the IET Summit, announced by Treasurer Curtis Pitt this morning.

The summit is a chance for key stakeholders across the state, as well as globally to come together and plan for the next 12 months. To look at the issues and opportunities and get input from a variety of stakeholders in the discussions, Ms Doyle said.

International study is growing across Queensland, in particular in Cairns and the Gold Coast. It is very exciting.

MAJOR ECONOMIC BOOST

International education is estimated to deliver more than $150 million a year to the TNQ economy and directly employs about 1050 people through schools, English language colleges, vocational training colleges and universities.

In 2016, 32,000 international students came to study in Cairns, with about 10 per cent on student visas with a focus on short-term study tours and research tours.

Mr Pitt said the IET sector was an important and growing part of the regional economy and Cairns was chosen in recognition of the citys enthusiasm for welcoming and nurturing foreign students.

Cairns has a wide range of education and training options for international students, Mr Pitt said.

The IET Summit is a key component of the Queensland Governments commitment to invest $25.3 million over the next five years to boost the sector through the implementation of the International Education and Training Strategy 2016 - 2026 to Advance Queensland.

The inaugural IET Summit was held on the Gold Coast in March with 320 industry representatives. A similar number would be expected to attend the Cairns summit.

STUDENT HUBS

Ms Doyle said student hubs were also being established in regional centres, including one in Cairns in the next three months, that will help enhance the experience for people studying here.

Ms Doyle said the hub would help case manage students experiences while studying here, as well as offering the opportunity to provide information to students about the education experience in Cairns and develop invaluable partnerships between students and the community.

It will be an opportunity to build a program where we can get students connected to community programs, she said.

There are a whole range of opportunities for students to become part of the community, develop relationships and take those established relationships back to their home countries.

Cairns reputation as a friendly city and as being a melting pot for cultures from all over the world is also a key to the success of the IET sector in TQN and it comes at a time when the industry is looking at opportunities to expand into regional areas.

Regional centres like Cairns are far more friendly and welcoming than the capital cities, she said.

International students are drawn to Cairns for exactly the same reasons that tourists come here. They will also meet people from a variety of different cultures which is what attracts international students to Cairns. It is all part of the experience.

There is significant room for expansion within regional Australia, with less than 5 per cent of the international student population located outside a capital city in 2015, according to data from the Department of Education and Training.
- The Jubilee party have come out strongly against Kenyan media

- The party's secretary general alleges that the media always potrays Jubilee in negative light

- He also claims the National Super Alliance is highly favored by media

Kenyan media is strongly advocating for NASA, Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju has sensationally claimed.

Speaking during an interview with NTV on Sunday, July 16, the former journalist blasted the media, who he alleged were extensively reporting negatively about the Jubilee government.

Tuju was speaking on the question of whether Kenya media reported inaccurate pieces, where he affirmed that there so much fake news which mostly revolved around Jubilee.

READ ALSO: What a poor show: Kenya's first ever running mates debates flops badly

He is now accusing media of propagating the Jubilee in negative light.

To the point that you favor NASA? Yes. It is obvious that you favor NASA from the way stories are framed, He said during the interview.

To back his claims, Tuju came out with the question of Maize flour  a topic that has had the government come under fire from Kenyans in recent months.

Jubilee Party's Secretary General Raphael Tuju. PHOTO: Facebook.com/RaphaelTuju

READ ALSO: Outrage after scarce subsidized Unga is spotted in Canada (Photo)

The Unga thing is one example. If I was still in media, I would have been more analytical about it. Have you seen how much a two-kilogram packet of maize flour costs in Uganda? He posed.

Tuju also faulted NASA for always potraying Jubilee in negative light, when according to him, NASA leaders have also been struggling with corruption.

What Im not be able to reconcile with is the NASA hyprocricy. NASA have a lot of corruption refugees. People who had problems when they were in government, and now that they have moved to opposition they are suddenly washed? He asked.

The Jubilee is currently battling NASA on the Presidential ballot paper tender, which NASA triumphed over in the latest court ruling.

Have anything to add to this article or suggestions? Share with us on news@tuko.co.ke

What will Gatundu residents do if Uhuru loses in August? They speak:

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Kenya Railways has denied claims that Voi Bridge has cracked

- This is after a Kenyan took to social media to post a picture of a cracked bridge claiming it's Voi's

- The photo immediately went viral forcing KRC to respond

Kenya Railways has been forced to responded to allegations that Voi Bridge has cracked and is now a time bomb that can claim lives if not attended to.

A social media user caused the scare after posting a picture claiming the bridge has cracked and that commuters are in danger when using the train.

Through social media, both Kenya Railways and Madaraka Express have refuted the claims and even posted up to date photos showing that indeed the bridge is standing strong.

READ ALSO: Was Tanya's friend O.J of Tahidi High spotted coming from a cheap Kumi Kumi den? (Photos)

The fake photo posted online: Photo:Facebook/ Kenya Railways

We would like to clarify that the picture of the cracked bridge is not of the SGR from the speculations going round, posted Kenya Railways. The Voi bridge is in good condition as you can see from the first picture.

The picture comes just days after a Nairobi bound SGR stalled at Kibwezi, prompting Kenya Railways to apologise to commuters.

READ ALSO: Actress Awiti allegedly dumps husband and daughter like garbage after landing lucrative deal

The train stalled for one hour, and commuters took to social media to complain about the delay. KRC, the state agency that supervises the operation, said the train experienced a technical hitch.

Also, the photo comes at a time when KRC has announced that its importing at least 400 experts to manage new SGR project.

Kenyans on social media weren't too pleased that the agency is taking time to "respond to cheap propaganda" ignoring the fact that the photo could have created a bigger scare and affect the project.

READ ALSO: Jubilee Party not aware that Ichungwa is representing DP William Ruto in the Presidential running mate debate

KRC was forced to clarify that the bridge was still standing. Photo: Facebook/Kenya Railways

READ ALSO: Outrage as Kalonzo now nominates sister-in-law to senate

Yakub Rubey said: There was no need to clarify..it looked fake from the word go..and people had even forgotten about it... Now you might be unknowingly helping them achieve their aims..

Jos Irungu added: This fake bridge is shared by unpatriotic Kenyans who are full of hatred and show of insensitivity to Kenyans and we believe in you Sgr company wachana na wasiotaka maendeleo. The Pilars of this fake bridge ain't from China company model. Shame on the insensitive Kenyans.

Others likeWambugu Musango believed it was opposition's work: That's how opposition operates....propaganda. they actually wish that Madaraka train can go down with 1200 people so that they gain mileage.

Godfrey Muciarito: You are too fast to respond on such things, which are too easy to believe are just propagandas but you can't even reply or answer to our questions like, when are the inter county trains start the routes or land in Kenya after failing on 1st July !

READ ALSO: Wilbroda and Inspekta Mwala show Kenyans how to beat the cold

Some like Enri Reloaded even wanted the social media guy replaced.

He said: Sgr n kr need to replace the social media guy with someone with sound mind and can handle genuine issues with company guidelines and facts not engage in such clarifications.. Its better you could have even stated the engine break down reason and how it wont happen in future n fact that you received more engines l st week for a better service ... Hii ingine ni kiherehere

Joel Mwangangi, however, was happy they made the clarification.

His comment read: Thanks Kenya Railways for clarifying that. Its important to respond to such lies even if they are cheap propaganda. Remember there are those who might believe lies about you and maintaining a good name is better than gold

Here is the full post:

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Source: TUKO.co.ke
Preparations for PMs India visit begin

Chief Secretary Rajendra Kishore Kshatri held a meeting with secretaries on Monday to discuss ongoing preparations for Prime Mini-ster Sher Bahadur Deubas upcoming visit to India.
- NASA is facing off with IEBC and Jubilee Party over the postponement of the August poll

- NASA wants the polls postponed because IEBC has not installed a backup to their electronic systems in the event they fail in voter identification and relaying of results

- IEBC, however, insights that they have the systems in place

The National Super Alliance, through its lawyer, Paul Mwangi, has called for the postponing of the August 8 General Election either by hours or days.

This comes on the heels of NASA claiming the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has no backup system in place in case the electronic system fails.

The IEBC has powers according to Section 55(b) of the Election Act to postpone the date of the election until the system is in place. In the case you agree with us, IEBC has the powers to postpone the election for hours or even a day, Mwangi told a court.

READ ALSO: Its now obvious UhuRuto will win in August after NASA walked into their trap

NASA co-leaders Kalonzo Musyoka, Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi. Photo: Facebook, NASA Coalition.

READ ALSO: Veteran radio presenter Fred Obachi Machoka in an ugly spat with fan

The case was being heard by a three judge bench consisting of justices George Kimondo, Hedwig Ongundi and Alfred Mabeya on Monday, July 17.

The opposition alliance, also represented by Siaya Senator James Orengo and Ben Sihaya, said the only way free and fair elections can be achieved is by having the back up system that should have been set up 60 days to the election.

The electronic system is for identification process and relaying or results. IEBC does not have systems in place to deal with the event if the system fails. They have not addressed how they are to tackle any failures, added NASA lawers.

READ ALSO: No Kenyan man will eat liver again following an expose on social media, details

IEBC boss Wafula Chebukati. Photo: Citizen TV.

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However, the IEBC, through its lawyers, Patrick Lumumba and Paul Nyamondi, argued that the system was in place and that it had a system in place to accommodate any failure to the system.

The Jubilee Party also opposed NASAs case, saying having a purely electronic system without any manual backup would only cause voter suppression.

In the event an old or disabled person does not find his name in the system, the only way to ensure they vote is by going back to the manual system, argued Jubilee.

READ ALSO: Raila is no national hero, he just hid behind the skirts of the real heroes

Jubilee Party leaders President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. Photo: Facebook, Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Standard on Tuesday, July 18, reported that there are also two cases at the High Court to oppose the manual backup system.

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Watch the late Joseph Nkaissery's final journey below:

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Late president Daniel Toroitich arap Moi had been single since the 1970s after he separated with his late wife, Lena

- She was an absentee First lady, unlike her predecessor Mama Ngina Kenyatta and successors late Mama Lucy Kibaki and Margaret Kenyatta

- Lena died in 2004 and was buried at Moi's home in Kabarak where he would most likely be buried in compliance with his wishes

Late president Daniel Toroitich arap Moi went down the annals of history as the longest serving leader after ruling the country for 24 years.

The closest a Kenyan president came to that was 15 years of the late first president of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

It is unlikely that another Kenyan president will make it to Moi's years in power as the constitution has since been changed and gives presidents a maximum of 10 years in power.

READ ALSO: Retired president Daniel Moi is dead

Moi and his late wife Lena Photo: Facebook/Ngugi IG

READ ALSO: How Mwai Kibaki described Daniel Moi's wife - Lena Moi

In the 24 years that Moi ruled, very few Kenyans got to know his late wife, Lena. She was an absentee First Lady.

Unlike her predecessor Mama Ngina Kenyatta and successors late Mama Lucy Kibaki and Margaret Kenyatta, she was never seen close to her husband in public functions.

This, perhaps, was necessitated by the fact that the two separated in 1974.

Lena Moi (left) and Mama Ngina Kenyatta in October 20, 1967 Photo: Kenya Archives

READ ALSO: From maziwa ya nyayo to building gabions: Kenyans mourn president Mzee Moi

Unconfirmed reports indicated the reason for their separation was infidelity.

Moi then chose to live a single life and did not wish to have another woman in his life. Lena bore him many children, among them Gideon Moi and Raymond Moi.

She passed on in 2004 and was buried at Moi's home in Kabarak where he would also most likely be buried in compliance with his wishes. He wanted to be buried besides her.

From right: Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, Lena Moi, Mama Lucy Kibaki (far left) Photo: Kenya Archives

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Kenyans attempt singing the National Anthem | Tuko TV | VOXPOP

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- Police near the Kenya-Somalia border have thwarted an attempt to sneak in deadly bombs in Kenya by the al-Shabaab

- Two men ferrying the bombs in a vehicle have also been arrested and are being questioned

- The suspects were arrested at Dhobleey near the Kenya-Somalia border by Jubbaland police

Two men have been arrested and are now in police custody after they were found with deadly bombs and bomb making materials.

The pair was apprehended Monday July 17 near the Kenya-Somalia border while attempting to sneak Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) to Kenya.

Reports indicate that the men were driving the car laden with the weapons when they were apprehended by the police in Jubbaland.

READ ALSO: Outrage over government's blanket action following cholera outbreak at Ruto's posh hotel

Police in Jubbaland received information of the plan to sneak the explosives into Kenya and arrested the two in Dhobleey near the Kenya-Somalia border.

The arrest comes amidst increased attacks by Somalia based al-Shabaab terror group in Kenya especially in the Coast and Northeastern regions.

The latest attack by al-Shabaab was on a GSU camp in Mokowe, Lamu on Monday night July 17.

READ ALSO: Twice as tough: Matiang'i sends new ripples throughout the Education sector with new directive

READ ALSO: First Lady Margret Kenyatta reveals why her husband deserves a second term

There were however no casualties as police repulsed the attack before more damage could be done.

During a previous attack on the July 13, 2017 the militia group attacked a truck carrying Public Works Principal Secretary Mariam El Maawy.

They took her hostage before seriously injuring her and the driver.

READ ALSO: Uhuru's point man causes a stir after campaigning on a donkey cart

They also killed five people among them the PS's nephew.

Incensed by the attacks, President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a shoot to kill order on the militants who have intensified attacks especially on soft targets in Kenya.

Security expert reviews Nkaissery's performance

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Militants launched 17 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO press center.

In Donetsk direction, militants used 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to fire at Ukrainian positions outside Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk). As a result, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded, and another one was injured. In addition, militants used mortars and grenade launchers to shell Ukrainian strongholds near Pisky (12km north-west of Donetsk). ATO troops also came under small arms fire outside Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk).

In Luhansk direction, Ukrainian positions came under heavy machine gun fire near Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk) and Novozvanivka (70km west of Luhansk). Illegal armed formations also shelled Stanytsia Luhanska (16km north-east of Luhansk), using small arms.

In Mariupol direction, Russian-backed militants used 120mm mortars and grenade launchers to fire at Ukrainian strongholds outside Lebedynske (16km north-east of Mariupol).

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The Canadian military training mission in Ukraine UNIFIER gives an excellent opportunity for mutually beneficial relationship.

The Commander of the Canadian Army, Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk, stated this during his official visit to Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In speaking with our soldiers, the Army Sergeant Major, Chief Warrant Officer Alain Guimond and I were told time and again of the deep appreciation our members have to be a part of this significant mission. This is a mutually beneficial relationship where, in addition to providing training to Ukrainian soldiers, we are also learning from our Ukrainian counterparts based on their recent experiences, Wynnyk said.

According to him, this visit further solidifies the Canadian Armys already strong relationship with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Im extremely proud of the men and women of the Canadian Army who have displayed outstanding professionalism in supporting our partner, he stressed.

The Defense Ministry of Canada also assured of further support for Ukraine on its way of key reforms.

Canada is unwavering in its support to Ukraine, both in helping to preserve and protect Ukraines sovereignty, and in providing assistance to Ukraine to implement key reforms, reads the report.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, Canada in march 2017 officially announced that it would extend its military training mission in Ukraine until the end of March 2019.

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Currently, Ukraine and Georgia are discussing the possibilities for training their military forces on the Georgian and Ukrainian territories, respectively.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this at the press conference upon negotiations with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Today we have discussed how to strengthen this partnership. There are many ideas how mutual training of fighters of our armed forces will be carried out  both on the territory of Georgia, including for our mountain rifle divisions, and on the territory of Ukraine as we ready to share the victorious experience of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in hybrid war," Poroshenko said.

The President of Ukraine noted that Ukrainians were grateful to those Georgians who came to Ukraine in 2014 to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Poroshenko also said he was glad that the Georgian military participated in the Sea Breeze 2017 international exercises along with Ukrainian, American and Turkish sailors, which also indicates that the partnership between Ukraine and Georgia is "very strong, particularly, in the defense field."

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The Republic of Belarus plans to increase the overall trade turnover with Ukraine to the level of 2012  $7.9 billion  in two years.

Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Semashko said this at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Belarusian Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I believe that the potential of Ukraine and Belarus allows us to reach the record figures we had in 2012  $7.9 billion  in the next two years," Semashko said.

He added that Ukraine and Belarus had increased the volume of trade turnover by 26.7% for the first five months of 2017.

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Ukraine is interested in developing trade relations with Georgia, and the trade turnover, which now amounts to USD 526 million, may increase up to USD 1 billion in several years.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this during the meeting of the Ukrainian-Georgian business forum, the website of the Head of State reports.

"USD 526 million in 2016. We think it does not reflect the potential Ukraine and Georgia have. We have set a goal to raise our trade turnover up to 1 billion dollars in a few years, Petro Poroshenko said.

According to him, the first quarter of 2017 has already demonstrated growth by 16.5%.

The President emphasized: Ukraine is a reliable trade partner for Georgia. Traditionally, Ukrainian agricultural goods find their consumers all over the world, and Georgia is a very important market for us. According to him, 21% of agricultural imports of Georgia come from Ukraine.

President Poroshenko urged to create new forms of ties on the basis of the international specialization and cooperation of production, including on the basis of joint production.

In turn, the Prime Minister of Georgia confirmed willingness of Georgia to enhance relations. Despite the fact that Ukraine and Georgia face lots of challenges caused by Russian occupation, our priority is to continue reforms, he said.

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Probe panel formed to investigate into financial misappropriation in NOC

The Finance Committee of the Legislature-Parliament has formed a probe committee to investigate into the alleged financial irregularities in purchasing the land of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).
The Ukrainian diaspora in Canada urges to punish those responsible for the MH17 tragedy and recognizes Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

This is said in a statement made by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) on the third anniversary of the MH17 crash, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The Ukrainian Canadian Congress calls on the international community to ensure that the perpetrators of this terrible murder are brought to justice. The UCC calls on Canada and its allies to declare the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" terrorist organizations and recognize the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism," the Congress noted.

The UCC expressed condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

As reported, on July 17, 2014, Russian-backed terrorists shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 flying over Russian-controlled, occupied territory in eastern Ukraine with a Russian-made and Russian-supplied Buk missile system.

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Ukraine and Belarus have several promising directions for increasing investments and trade turnover between the countries, in particular, in the machine building and agricultural sectors and the production of petroleum products.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing of Ukraine Hennadiy Zubko said this during a meeting of the Ukraine-Belarus Intergovernmental Joint Commission.

"On the eve of the meeting of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in Ukraine, we held a joint meeting in terms of general economic issues. Thanks to the reforms implemented in Ukraine over the past three years, in particular, the reforms of decentralization and deregulation, the integration of Ukrainian transport routes into the European Union, there are opportunities to increase trade turnover between our countries," Zubko said.

The Vice Prime Minister notes that the trade turnover for the last period has already grown by 28% and amounts to 4 billion dollars.

ish
UNICEF

DAKAR/BRUSSELS, 18 July 2017  An innovative radio education programme has begun in the Lake Chad basin as part of a comprehensive effort to support the 1.3 million children who have been displaced by the violence of the conflict with Boko Haram. The radio education programmes offer an alternative platform for the 200,000 children in crisis affected areas who are unable to access schools in the Far North of Cameroon and in the Diffa region of Niger.



This crisis has unique challenges, so we are developing unique solutions, said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEFs Regional Director for West and Central Africa. With many hundreds of schools still closed, and children exposed to numerous risks, we developed a radio education regional prototype that will keep children in a positive education routine. This is the first step, and the Governments have pro-actively engaged to make this available for children in this crisis.



Education has been at the center of the conflict since it began in 2009. Boko Haram has sought to ban education and has targeted teachers and schools in attacks. The EU supported Education in Emergencies initiative has equipped UNICEF to enhance a protective environment for children in schools and communities affected by the crisis. This has included expanding education programs to areas where schools remain closed either because they have been destroyed or because of fear of further attacks. The radio programs have the potential to reach children in areas that remain inaccessible for humanitarian assistance and other out-of-school children.



With support from the EU, UNICEF and the Governments of Cameroon and Niger have developed a radio education program for children impacted by the conflict. The 144 episodes of educational programming on literacy and numeracy, life-saving and other child protection messages will be broadcast in both French and the local languages of Kanouri, Fulfulde and Hausa. The broadcasts are supported by community outreach efforts to ensure adults allow children to listen to existing radios and facilitate guided listening. UNICEF and the Governments are engaging radio listening groups in communities to help children get the most out of the broadcasts.



"Radio education helps us reach the children who are out of school as a result of the conflict," said Yvan Hildebrand, ECHOs head of office in Cameroon. "We've worked with UNICEF to develop a high quality interim solution that will help hundreds of thousands children engage in an educational routine. We are very proud of the positive role the EU is playing in this crisis and I am sure that all Europeans can see the value of this investment in children."



Beyond radio programming, Education in Emergencies will reach 159,000 children with a range of support including child protection services and risk informed learning programs adapted for the needs of children living in crisis affected areas in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.



This radio platform has potential for even larger numbers of out-of-school children in Niger, Cameroon and in the region, said Poirier. Being on air with a program validated by the Government is the first important step for the continuation of learning in emergencies and the protection of children who are not in school. In the very near future, we hope that children who learn by radio will also receive a certification and pass the school year.



Despite the achievements of this project, the needs of children in the Lake Chad basin remain dire. Ongoing conflict and security concerns have hampered the humanitarian response. UNICEF has called for USD$38.5 million to meet the education needs of children in the crisis and this appeal has received USD$19.6 million, just 50 per cent of the amount required.



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BANGUI/DAKAR/NEW YORK/GENEVA, 18 July 2017  Months of renewed fighting in the Central African Republic (CAR) have led to an increasing number of violent acts committed against children, including murders, abductions, rape and recruitment into armed groups  UNICEF warned today.

The UN childrens agency said that the true number of atrocities suffered by children over the past three months in CAR is almost certain to be much higher than officially reported figures because humanitarian access in many areas has been severely limited by insecurity. These conditions have greatly reduced the ability of aid workers to report incidents and assist victims. Nevertheless, information gathered by UNICEF since May indicates that armed groups are frequently targeting children during attacks on villages or towns.

Children in CAR have suffered disproportionately from the waves of violence that have swept the country over the past three years, said Christine Muhigana, UNICEF Representative in the Central African Republic. Armed groups and parties to the conflict must cease these flagrant violations of childrens rights and make every effort to keep children safe.

In several incidents in Bria (Eastern CAR), 14 girls aged 9 to 16 were raped by members of armed groups during the recent outbreaks of violence in May and June. These assaults occurred when the girls left IDP sites to travel home for personal belongings.

Many crimes of sexual violence continue to go unreported.

In another incident in Bangassou (South East CAR) five children aged 2 to 16 were brutally killed in May while attempting to cross the river to seek refuge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the same month, in a village near Berberati, eight boys aged 13 to 17 were abducted  one has since been killed, while the kidnappers demanded ransom to free the others.

In addition to these brutal crimes, the intensification of violent conflict and related operations by armed groups has resulted in thousands of children being denied their most basic rights to education and health. It is estimated that a total of 94,000 primary school children could not take their end of year examinations because of school closures due to insecurity. Meanwhile, looting by armed groups has caused many health centres to close, stopping essential care and routine immunization for children.

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Questions that matter

Issues surrounding labour migration have been widely talked about in recent years. The discontent of labour migration and the fate of those seeking economic solace in foreign countries have been a rich and compelling subject for songwriters, journalists, academicians, moviemakers, writers, politicians and civil society members.
An Iraqi official says Baghdad intends to close all camps for people internally displaced from the northern city of Mosul by the end of this year, after recapturing it from Islamic State militants last week. Iraqi immigration minister Darbaz Mohammed announced the plan on Sunday, while visiting the Khazer camp near Mosul. Ali Javanmardi of VOAs Persian Service reports, in this story narrated by Michael Lipin.
The Russian government is funding international radio and television outlets to provide what it calls alternative news and views. The state-funded radio Sputnik has recently opened an office in Washington, just a few blocks away from the White House, and began its broadcasts on July 1st. It follows the Russian English-language television RT, which has had a bureau in Washington for several years. Both outlets have already built audiences in Europe. Zlatica Hoke reports.
Thousands of Myanmar and Cambodia migrants who fled past conflicts in their homeland face hardships in Thailand without proper work documents. But their children - born on Thai soil - welcome a new government policy which promises to speed up the citizenship process. Steve Sandford talks to several of the first applicants who are seeking secure work and travel in Thailand.
The illegal ivory trade has decimated elephant populations across parts of Africa. This week, delegates and activists from across the world are gathering in Geneva for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species  known as CITES. As Henry Ridgwell reports, activists want tougher enforcement of regulations to tackle the organized criminal gangs behind the ivory trade, which is estimated at $23 billion per year.
NATO confirmed Tuesday that Afghanistans vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, tried to return to the country overnight but that his private plane was denied permission to land in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Dostum, a 63-year-old ethnic Uzbek warlord, and some of his militia guards, have been under investigation for months over allegations of torturing and sexually assaulting an elderly political rival by the name of Ahmad Ishchi.

The first vice president left the country for Turkey about two months ago, saying he needed health care, a move prompting allegations Afghan President Ashraf Ghani allowed Dostum to travel abroad under a secret deal to escape prosecution.

What happened with General Dostum was that he was denied permission to land in Mazar-i-Sharif, a spokesman for NATOs Resolute Support mission, Bill Salvin, told VOA.

While we were asked to make a phone call to try and get permission for the first vice president to land, we declined to make that phone call because our commander up in the north said that this is not the role of Resolute Support, Salvin added, without naming the caller.

He noted that the international missions role is to provide training, advice and assistance to Afghan security forces and it would not have been appropriate to intervene in internal Afghan matters.

Local media reported that aviation authorities directed Dostums plane to Kabuls international airport but instead, it turned back and landed in the neighboring central Asian state of Turkmenistan.

Dostums spokespeople and political allies in Afghanistan have denied that he was on the plane, saying the first vice president is still in Turkey.

The Afghan government has not commented.

Reports of comeback attempt

The controversial Uzbek strongman attempted to stage Mondays dramatic comeback days after he formed a three-party political alliance, which also involved Governor Mohammad Atta Noor of the northern Afghan province, where the aircraft tried to land on Monday.

The formation of the coalition was announced in Turkey and it brings together discontented political groups that are also part of the government.

Noor has also rejected reports Dostum was on board the plane. A statement quoted the governor as saying a group of engineers was on the flight and technical problems forced the plane to return to Turkey.

Afghan judicial officials announced earlier this month that the probe into allegations against Dostum and his men has been completed and sent to the court for further action.

President Ghani has been under pressure at home and from Afghanistans international backers led by the United States to ensure extremely serious charges against his vice president are reviewed and follow-up legal action is taken.

The acting U.S. ambassador to Kabul last week emphasized that the legal process underscores the Afghan states effort to uphold the rule of law and combat impunity, and to send a signal to the world that no one is above the law in Afghanistan.

Late last year, Ishchi, a former provincial governor, said in a nationally televised interview that Dostum's militiamen detained, tortured and sexually assaulted him. He alleged that Dostum had ordered the detention and abuse.

Observers say that Mondays incident is likely to fuel tensions between Dostum and Ghani. The warlord, who enjoys a strong following in northern Afghan regions, has rejected charges against him as politically motivated and an attempt to marginalize him.

Ghani has defended Dostum's departure from Afghanistan, saying he left with the permission of the attorney general and that the laws do not bar someone suspected of wrongdoing from seeking medical treatment abroad.
United Nations agencies report that an upsurge in violence and an alarming escalation of human rights abuses in the Central African Republic (CAR) are causing tens of thousands of people to flee across borders and thousands of others to become displaced within the country.

The U.N. says the violence taking place in the CAR is on a scale that has not been seen since 2014. This is affirmed by agencies such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which notes more than 100,000 refugees from the CAR were registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of June.

Additionally, the UNHCR reports that DRC authorities have registered more than 60,000 new arrivals in North Ubangui and Bas-Uele since May. UNHCR spokesman William Spindler says people have been fleeing into remote areas of the northern DRC, putting immense pressure on difficult-to-reach local communities that are close to the border.

Spindler says one of these areas is Ndu. While barely a village, he says Ndu now is hosting some 37,000 new arrivals from the CAR.

Our colleagues, who were in Ndu a few days ago, say the situation there is chaotic and its proximity to the border makes it dangerous, with armed bandits feared to be nearby. Refugees are staying everywhere they can  in churches, buildings used as schools, in the only health center, or sleeping in the open. People desperately need more health care, food and shelter, Spindler said.

In the meantime, the U.N. Childrens Fund reports that children increasingly are being targeted by armed groups in the CAR during attacks on villages or towns. It says atrocities committed against children as young as two include murders, abductions, rape, and recruitment as child soldiers.
Users of WhatsApp in China and security researchers have reported widespread service disruptions amid fears that the popular messaging service may be at least partially blocked by authorities in the world's most populous country.

WhatsApp users in the country reported Tuesday on other social media platforms that the app was partly inaccessible unless virtual private network software was used to circumvent China's censorship apparatus, known colloquially as The Great Firewall.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and offers end-to-end encryption, has a relatively small but loyal following among Chinese users seeking a greater degree of privacy from government snooping than afforded by popular domestic app WeChat, which is ubiquitous but closely monitored and filtered.

Questions over WhatsApp's status come at a politically fraught time in China. The government is in the midst of preparing for a sensitive party congress while Chinese censors this week revved up a sprawling effort to scrub all mention of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died Thursday in government custody.

A report this week by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab detailed how Chinese censors were able to intercept, in real time, images commemorating Liu in private one-on-one chats on WeChat, a feat that hinted at the government's image recognition capabilities.

It appeared that pictures were also the focus of the move to censor WhatsApp. Late Tuesday, users in China could send texts over WhatsApp without the use of VPNs, but not images.

Nadim Kobeissi, a cryptography researcher based in Paris who has been investigating the WhatsApp disruption, said he believed The Great Firewall was only blocking access to WhatsApp servers that route media between users, while leaving servers that handle text messages untouched.

Kobeissi said voice messages also appeared to be blocked. But there was no evidence to suggest that Chinese authorities were decrypting WhatsApp messages, he added.

A Chinese censorship researcher known by his pseudonym Charlie Smith said that authorities appeared to be blocking non-text WhatsApp messages wholesale precisely because they have not been able to selectively block content on the platform like they have with WeChat, which is produced by Shenzhen-based internet giant Tencent and legally bound to cooperate with Chinese security agencies.
Colombia, which narrowly avoided getting its credit rating cut last year, is again at risk of a downgrade as it struggles to meet fiscal targets and investors tire of overly optimistic forecasts by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.

Most economists have already concluded that lower economic growth and weak oil prices will make it nearly impossible to meet the deficit target set just last month. Higher debt issuance, costs associated with a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels and next year's presidential election may exacerbate the situation.

"We believe there is a clear disconnect between reality and the current debt path depicted by the government," said Mario Castro, Latin America strategist for Nomura in New York. He suggested the government was using overly optimistic economic assumptions and aiming to slash public investment in an unrealistic way, given infrastructure needs.

Budget cut

In a bid to calm investor concerns, Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas will trim 5 trillion pesos ($1.65 billion) from next year's budget. He was due to meet bondholders in New York on Tuesday to discuss the nation's finances.

The government avoided a downgrade by credit rating agencies last year after struggling to fill a financing gap as income slumped along with the price of oil, a key industry. Tax reform helped ward off a cut from BBB investment grade by agencies, even though many investors thought it did not go far enough and that another might be needed.

"It's very likely that before the end of this year we will get a ratings cut," said Juan David Ballen, chief economist at brokerage Casa de Bolsa. "The big question is whether they will lower us to investment grade still, or to speculative grade."

In June, Cardenas instituted a financing plan based on a fiscal deficit of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product this year and 3.1 percent for 2018. He put the price of oil at $51 a barrel in 2017 and $60 in 2018. Brent crude was at $48.95 on Tuesday, up 1.1 percent.

Cardenas targeted growth at 2.3 percent this year and 3.5 percent next, well above the market's forecast of 1.8 percent this year and 2.5 percent for 2018.

Cardenas also called for a 7.8 percent increase in domestic public debt borrowing for 2017, implying a big uptick, deepening market discomfort.

"People didn't look favorably at the government numbers, and some investors have given orders to take profits and go to other markets with better prospects, like Mexico," said a fixed-income investment banker who declined to be identified.

Foreign flight

Foreign investors reduced their Colombian bond holdings by 1.23 trillion pesos ($406 million) in June, the first decrease since October and the biggest ever monthly outflow by this type of investor, according the finance ministry.

Foreign investors own $20.7 billion in Colombian domestic public debt, or one-quarter of the total.

The yield on benchmark Colombian Treasury bonds maturing in July 2024 rose to 6.27 percent on Tuesday from 5.87 percent the day before the financing plan was made public on June 14.

Fitch is worried about the bond issuance, warning that Colombia's gross debt burden is close to 50 percent of GDP, nearly 10 percentage points higher than the average for countries with a similar credit rating.

"If they don't do the necessary adjustment, then the debt's going to continue to rise, and that could risk the rating," Richard Francis, director of sovereign ratings for Fitch, told Reuters.

Moody's said weaker growth would also have implications for meeting medium-term fiscal goals.

The government's fiscal wiggle room becomes even tighter, taking into account additional costs generated by the implementation of a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

That will cost about $3 billion annually over the next 15 years, Cardenas estimated in a recent interview.

Add the extra social spending that typically happens during election years, and the outlook becomes less rosy.
Two dead, one injured after being electrocuted

Two people died and another one injured after being electrocuted in Gokul Ganga Rural Municipality-5 of Ramechhap district.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila has replaced the national police chief of police and the police commander in the capital Kinshasa, as security concerns rise following his refusal to step down when his mandate expired.

Mass prison breaks, kidnappings, rising militia violence and surging lawlessness since Kabila failed to step down in December have raised fears Democratic Republic of Congo could slip back into the chaos and conflict of the turn of the century that killed millions.

About 4,000 inmates escaped from Kinshasa's main prison in May and unidentified assailants killed at least two people and wounded six police officers in an attack last Friday on the city's largest market, leading some Kabila allies to call for a state of emergency.

In an decree read late Monday evening on national television, Kabila named Dieudonne Amuli Bahigwa to replace Charles Bisengimana as chief of the national police.

Amuli is a veteran army general who led military operations in eastern Congo in 2009 against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), one of the largest and most dangerous armed groups operating in the region.

Sylvano Kasongo Kitenge was named to replace Celestin Kanyama as head of police in Kinshasa. Kanyama came under U.S. and UN sanctions last year for alleged human rights violations by the police in suppressing anti-Kabila protests.

A presidential election to replace Kabila, in power since 2001, was scheduled for last November but was postponed due to delays registering voters.

Congo's election commission head said this month it would probably not be possible to hold the vote this year, leading Kabila's opponents to threaten further street demonstrations.
Six Congolese killed in a wildlife reserve in eastern Congo last week were not on a mission to rescue a U.S. journalist, a spokeswoman for the reserve authorities said Tuesday, contradicting Congolese officials' earlier accounts.

Four park rangers and two civilian porters in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Democratic Republic of Congo's Mambasa territory were in fact killed during an attack last Friday by unidentified gunmen, the spokeswoman said.

An American journalist disappeared following the raid and was recovered Saturday by a team of park rangers and soldiers. A local official said at the time that five park rangers were killed in a joint operation with the army to rescue an American journalist.

But the Okapi spokeswoman said all the fatalities occurred during the initial attack and that there were never any hostages.

It is unclear who was responsible for the raid, which occurred in a gold mine that park rangers had shut down earlier this year.

One Congolese and two Dutch journalists also managed to escape the attack.

Eastern Congo has been the theater of numerous wars and uprisings over the last two decades, and rebels, militia fighters and bandits still present a security risk in many areas.

Park rangers trying to protect dwindling populations of elephants and gorillas often clash with poachers and other armed groups who exploit minerals, wildlife and other resources.
Global delegates and campaigners are gathering in Geneva this week for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES. The trade in ivory is high on the agenda as poaching continues to hit elephant populations across parts of Africa. Campaigners want tougher enforcement of regulations to tackle organized criminal gangs behind the trade.

The United Nations estimates the illegal wildlife trade is worth $23 billion per year, with much of that value coming from ivory.

Asia, and especially China, is by far the biggest market.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency spent three years infiltrating one of the major smuggling syndicates shipping ivory from east African ports. Investigators identified the southern Chinese town of Shuidong as the major hub for poached ivory, they say 80 percent of ivory destined for China passes through the town.

[Shuidong] has emerged as probably the biggest hub in the world for the illegal trade of ivory tusks. We first came across the footprints of this group in Tanzania in 2014. The country has lost half its elephants in five years, the biggest loss in Africa, said Julian Newman, the agencys campaign director.

As Tanzania began to clamp down on smuggling, the gangs moved to Mozambique. Investigators secretly recorded one of the traffickers, named as "Xie", describing the trade through the Mozambican port of Pemba.

Xie boasted that he is able to move anything through Pemba. He said all the authorities there have been bought off and the customs clearance agent, the customs also gets a share of the money.

Newman said smugglers are operating with impunity.

There were a few cases where they had some tusks seized. But they were never arrested. And they saw these seizures as a business expense, said Newman.

Earlier this month, $10 million-worth of ivory was seized in Hong Kong. China plans to ban the trade by the end of 2017.

But John Sellar, former chief enforcement officer at CITES, told VOA via Skype there is too much focus on the trade and not enough on the criminals involved.

There is speculation involved here, there is undoubtedly money-laundering to my mind. This is a much more complex issue. Organized criminal networks are now major players in all forms or many forms of wildlife trafficking. And you need to bring an organized law enforcement response to that, said Sellar.

Without that enforcement, campaigners warn the poaching of ivory will likely continue, until the criminal networks are investigated and broken down.
Croatia's defense minister, Damir Krsticevic, offered to resign on Tuesday after the president said the army was too late in helping firefighters tame a fierce forest fire.

The blaze, which spread over 20 km near the Adriatic city of Split, threatened the city suburbs late on Monday. The fire was largely under control on Tuesday.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Tuesday during a visit to Austria that the army could have turned out faster to help the firefighters.

"The size of the fire was such that every helping hand was needed," she said.

However, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic rejected the minister's resignation, telling a news conference: "The army can be engaged only after it is called to help."

Krsticevic also said the army could not act on its own, but had to wait for a call from fire chiefs.

In the end, around 200 members of the armed forces helped more than 400 firefighters to tackle the blaze.
Danish troops will get training in how to deal with Russian misinformation before being sent to join a NATO military build-up in Estonia in January, Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said on Monday.

"It is a whole new world. The Danish soldiers need to be extremely aware of that. Therefore I have arranged with the armed forces that the soldiers being sent out in January are informed and educated in how to protect themselves," Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster DR.

"It is easy to imagine they will become exposed to intimidation and fake rumors," he said of the 200 Danish soldiers being deployed.

In February, Lithuanian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into a false report of a 15-year-old girl being raped by German NATO soldiers which spread quickly on social media.

NATO accused Russia of being behind the false report and said it expected more propaganda of this sort in the future.

Both NATO and the European Union are concerned by Russia's ability to use television and the internet to project what they say is deliberate misinformation. Russia has denied being involved in any cyber warfare targeting Western governments or institutions.
A pan-European far-right group with a history of violent direct action has chartered a 422-ton ship and says it plans to confront people-smugglers and turn back migrants it finds in the waters off Libya.

Humanitarian organizations say the planned intervention is a "PR provocation" by the Defend Europe group, which is part of the continent-wide, anti-Islam identitarian movement. Identitarians advocate the preservation of national identity and a return to "traditional Western values."

They warn lives could be endangered, if the far-right activists impede refugee-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, something some of the groups leaders have vowed they will do.

But there were reports Friday that the vessel charted by Defend Europe has been impounded for several days by Egyptian authorities for security reasons because of insufficient documentation and concerns over the crew.

The ship has been at anchor at the Red Sea entrance to the Suez Canal for five days, according to vessel-tracking sites. Canal authorities say the stalling of the ship had nothing to do with them but was ordered by security officials.

Humanitarian groups are highlighting the shadowy background of the owner of the ship the far-right activists have chartered, 49-year-old Swedish businessman Sven Tomas Egerstrom, who has provided private maritime security services in Africa.

In 2015, a court in the Seychelles ordered the seizure of a cargo of automatic weapons worth $2 million found on one of Egerstroms ships in a case brought by the crew of the vessel, Ocean Bounty, who accused him of abandoning them.

Intentions unclear

Defend Europe leaders have been contradictory about what they intend to do with chartered ship, the C-Star.

Lorenzo Fiato, head of Defend Europes Italian branch, told VOA the activists will coordinate their actions with "Libyan authorities and coast guards in Tripoli." But he admitted Defend Europe has been unable to establish firm contacts in Libya and he appeared unknowledgeable about the militia and trafficker connections of Libyas coast guards.

"I dont think there are any legal problems as we are going to cooperate with the authorities. We want to make everything legal. We are protecting our countries from illegal immigration," he says.

Martin Sellner, co-leader of the Austrian identitarian branch and a key figure in Defend Europe, vowed in an online video the group would block NGO "ships from going to the Libyan coast."

'Hipster right'

Europes identitarian movement, which is often dubbed "the hipster right," is a network of social media-savvy young activists mainly operating in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. It has a record of mounting provocative direct-action campaigns and then using the publicity generated to win more recruits and attract donations from crowd-funding appeals.

Identitarians have occupied mosques, and in March 2016 they clashed with French police after burning tires and blocking bridges leading from a makeshift migrant camp known as "the jungle" in Calais.

"Although they may parade and cloak themselves with this 'far right hipster' mantle, something quite disturbing lies underneath their slick rhetoric, with mention of 'remigrating' people from Europe and claims to somehow deport people back to Libya in coordination with the Libyan coast guard. Naive in the extreme, when different factions, militias and rival governments plus people smugglers actually control the coastline," said a spokesman for the British advocacy group Hope Not Hate.

Breach of humanitarian, maritime laws

Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday if Defend Europe activists return migrants to Libya against their will they would be in breach of international humanitarian law and if they impede rescue missions they would be breaking maritime law, which obliges seafarers to save lives at sea.

"My personal response to what they want to do is probably unprintable," says Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch, who warns Defend Europe could end up "handing people over to militias that collude with the smugglers and traffickers."

She accused the Identitarian group of aiming to stoke anti-migrant sentiment in Italy, which in recent weeks has mounted and is buffeting the government of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

More than 86,000 migrants have reached Italy this year from Libya, a 10 percent increase on the same period last year, according to the International Office for Migration. Italys migrant detention centers and temporary shelters have reached their capacity of 200,000 and Italian officials have warned neighboring European countries that they are considering granting migrants European Union visas, which would allow them to travel legally to other EU states.

In May, Defend Europe tried unsuccessfully to use a dinghy to block in Italian waters a refugee-rescue vessel chartered by the international NGO Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym, MSF). The action generated international media coverage and nearly $170,000 in donations from two crowd-funding appeals. Fiato says Defend Europe was able to charter the C-Star at "a big discount" as the owner supports "what were trying to do."

Originally Defend Europe planned to dock the vessel at the Sicilian port of Catania, but now the activists say they plan to keep it anchored 40 kilometers off the coast, as they fear Italian authorities may decide to impound the ship.
Gunmen in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo kidnapped two Catholic priests in an area at the center of over two years of massacres by unknown assailants, the country's conference of bishops said on Monday.

The two priests -- Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali -- were taken from Our Lady of the Angels parish in Bunyuka, located between the towns of Butembo and Beni, by a group of around 10 assailants just before 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday.

"Priests are men of God who devote their lives to the good of the population without a political agenda. To hurt them is to harm the community they serve," the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) said in a statement.

CENCO called upon the security forces to do everything possible to free the men. Three other priests, abducted in the same area in October 2012, still have not been freed, the statement said.

Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands, a tinderbox of ethnic tensions, has for more than two decades been the theatre of successive wars and rebellions.

Beni has been among the most volatile zones in the last two years. A series of nighttime massacres that began in October 2014, mostly carried out with hatchets and machetes by unidentified assailants, has killed hundreds of civilians.

Over 930 prisoners were freed last month in an attack on the town's main prison that also killed 11 people. Another dozen people were killed when a so-called Mai-Mai militia coalition launched raids on the city center.
During a joint appearance Tuesday in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reassured Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he stands with the Jewish state against anti-Semitism.

The meeting took place amid concerns that Orban's right-wing government was stoking anti-Semitism.

While standing next to Netanyahu on Tuesday, Orban sought to distance himself from comments he made last month in praise of Miklos Horthy, the Hungarian wartime leader and Hitler ally. Orban previously called Horthy  who oversaw the deportation of more than half a million Hungarian Jews to death camps during World War Two  an exceptional statesman for rebuilding the country after the war.

It is the duty of every Hungarian government to defend its citizens whatever their heritage. During World War Two, Hungary did not honor this moral and political obligation, Orban said during a joint news conference with Netanyahu. That is a crime, because we chose collaboration with the Nazis over the defense of the Jewish community. That can never happen again. The Hungarian government will defend all of its citizens in the future.

'Spiritual brothers'

United by a shared disdain for the left-leaning global order and isolated from Western European politicians for their support for U.S. President Donald Trump, the pair of leaders have been called "spiritual brothers" by Hungarian media. Netanyahu quickly accepted Orban's apology.

[Orban] reassured me in unequivocal terms [about anti-Semitism concerns]. I appreciate that. These are important words, Netanyahu said.

There is a new anti-Semitism expressed in anti-Zionism that is delegitimizing the one and only Jewish state, Netanyahu said. In many ways, Hungary is at the forefront of the states that are opposed to this anti-Jewish policy, and I welcome it and express the appreciation of my government.

Visegrad Group

Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Hungary since the end of the Cold War. On Wednesday, he will be joined by leaders from the Visegrad Group  Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, as well as Hungary. The loose group of Eastern European countries are led by right wing nationalist governments and regularly draw diplomatic fire from the rest of the EU for their refusal to accept refugees.

"Hungary does not want a mixed population," Orban said Tuesday, defending his country's refusal to accept the EU's suggested number of refugees from the Syrian crisis. [Hungary] does not want to change its current ethnic makeup. It will not defer to an external pressure."

Orban lumped Netanyahu in with the other ethnic nationalist leaders in the Visegrad group, calling him a great patriot, and noting that success belongs to those who are patriots, who don't push national identity and interests aside.

Countering Soros

Beyond tone, the two leaders also are bound by their shared disdain for George Soros, the Jewish-American financier and philanthropist whom they view as a key component of the liberal global order. In April, the Hungarian government passed legislation that threatens to shutter the Soros-backed Central European University in Budapest. Soros founded the university after the Cold War to advance humanism and liberal democracy in the formerly communist state.

More recently, Orban's government has mounted posters criticizing the Hungarian-born Jewish emigre for his support for refugee resettlement.

The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Federations [Mazsihisz] urged Orban to remove the posters, warning that while not openly anti-Semitic, [the campaign] clearly has the potential to ignite uncontrolled emotions. Many of the posters were quickly sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Comment from the rights group

Although Israel's ambassador to Hungary initially criticized the posters for evok[ing] sad memories, the Israeli foreign ministry quickly moved to clarify his comments.

In no way was the statement [by the ambassador] meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments, said the Israeli foreign ministry.

Soros funds several organizations that operate in Israel, including Human Rights Watch, which is regularly critical of the Netanyahu government.

Orban and Netanyahu drew broad criticism from rights groups.

We urge them to refrain from populist attacks on fundamental rights and return to respecting and protecting these, respect the human rights of all regardless of their political views, including those that voice uncomfortable truth on breaches of law and human rights violations, said Julia Ivan, the director of Amnesty International Hungary.
A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of the soldiers were slightly wounded.

"In response to the immediate threat, forces fired shots towards the assailant," the Israeli military said. An army spokeswoman said the driver had been killed.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but has not stopped. At least 261 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began.

Israel says at least 176 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests.

Forty Israelis, two U.S. tourists and a British student have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car-rammings. A few of the attacks had been carried out by Arab Israeli citizens.

Israel blames the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the 50-year occupation of land sought by Palestinians for a state is the cause.

Palestinians want to establish an independent state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
A veteran South Sudanese journalist says he has joined the SPLM-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Taban Deng faction to speak out on behalf of the people of Yei River state.

Alfred Taban Lo Gune, who was appointed a member of parliament in South Sudan's Translational National Legislative Assembly earlier this week, said he joined politics to bring about much-needed change for the people of Kajokeji.

He told South Sudan in Focus the country needed courageous leaders like himself in the national assembly to speak up for the people.

"It is my duty to do something about the situation," Taban said, adding that he could not stay aloof while his people were suffering, either in exile or in the bush.

Taban, founder and editor in chief of the privately run Juba Monitor, a daily newspaper, and a former BBC correspondent in Khartoum, said that while he was now a member of the SPLM-IO Taban Deng division, he did recognize factions within the SPLM-IO. "I have been a SPLM member for many, many years, and I still remain SPLM," Taban said.

Taban contended that the SPLM-IO was, at the moment, a unified body.

"The Arusha agreement of 2104 made it very clear that the SPLM is not under the state, so there is no SPLM former detainees, SPLM-IO or SPLM in government. It is now one SPLM," Taban told South Sudan in Focus.

Pact not implemented

Various factions of the SPLM and SPLM-IO have had their own spokespersons for the past several months. Taban said that was the problem in South Sudan.

"Even the peace agreement that we are now quarreling over, it is because the people have not decided to implement it," he said. "Likewise, the Arusha agreement has not been implemented, but it is there."

Taban vowed to continue fighting for the rights of the people of South Sudan, "the rights of journalists and the rights of the oppressed" as a member of parliament.

"In the media here, we were at the mercy of the government, but I still continued to struggle and I'm going to take the same struggle to parliament," Taban said.

On May 29, Taban declined President Salva Kiir's offer to sit on the president's National Dialogue Committee. Taban said he wanted no part in the dialogue steering team unless the president released journalists in prison and ended aggressive acts toward press freedoms in South Sudan.
UML urges EC to ease voter listing process

The opposition CPN-UML has urged the Election Commission to extend the deadline for updating the voter roll in Province 2 where the third phase of local elections is scheduled for September 18.
Congress passed the "Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act" in 2012 to punish Russian human rights abusers by banning them from entering the United States.

The Magnitsky Act is back in the headlines after it was reportedly on the agenda of a recently revealed meeting last June at Trump Tower in New York involving President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., along with the elder Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

VOA diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine spoke with former U.S. ambassadors and veteran diplomats Laura Kennedy and John Herbst, now of the Atlantic Council, to learn more about the law, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has long considered an irritant.

Q: Who was Sergei Magnitsky and what is the Magnitsky Act?

Kennedy: Sergei Magnitsky was the lawyer of American-born [British national] investor William Browder, whose business in Moscow had fallen out of favor with Russian officials. Magnitsky was working to expose alleged malfeasance on the part of those Russian officials, but was himself jailed and then died in prison in 2009 under decidedly odd circumstances. [Editor's note: He was reportedly denied medical care and beaten.] Many independent observers believe this was tantamount to murder and that the jail sentence was meted out by the Kremlin because Magnitsky was exposing corruption on the part of the Russian government.

Browder worked extensively to seek redress on this case and, in 2012, a bipartisan group of senators passed the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which identified specific Russian government officials involved in the case and imposed a visa ban on them. The act was not supported by the Obama administration which, as is often the case with the executive branch, preferred to deal with bilateral issues in its own way. After the president nevertheless signed the act, the [Russian parliament] Duma immediately voted to ban all Russian adoptions by U.S. citizens.

Q: How did the Kremlin react and why is Russian President Putin still irritated by the Magnitksy Act?

Kennedy: The Kremlin reacted viscerally. Putin instituted his own visa ban which targeted U.S. officials who had, in the Kremlin view, been involved with torture and escalated its own case against Browder. Undeterred, Browder continued to lobby other countries on the case. The U.S. Congress named an additional bill, which targeted human rights abusers around the world, in honor of Magnitsky.

The Magnitsky bills have remained a source of extreme resentment on the part of Putin and the Russian government, whose officials have been stigmatized not just by the charges of gross governmental corruption, but also by the specter of a murdered whistleblower.

Q. Can you explain what the Magnitsky Act has to do with U.S. citizens adopting Russian children?

Herbst: Well, when we passed the Magnitsky Act, Putin felt the need  as he usually does  to punch back when steps are taken which he doesn't like. But he couldn't pass Russia's own version of the Magnitsky Act because, by and large, the practices, these unethical practices, which are fairly common at senior levels in Russia, are not very common here. So he wanted to take a step that he thought would hurt Americans. And the step was he would deny them the possibility of adopting Russian children. Now this is sad for the American would-be parents. But it is much worse for the Russian children, who are stuck in these orphanages that are not the nicest places to grow up.

Q. Why is the Magnitsky Act back in the headlines now?

Kennedy: The apparently well-connected Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was able to reach a new and highly promising avenue of potential influence when she arranged a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the [2016 presidential] campaign, allegedly to offer damaging information on candidate [Hillary] Clinton and the DNC [Democratic National Committee]. While Mr. Trump Jr. said recently that Veselnitskaya focused on adoptions, many commentators will note that the issue of adoption and the Magnitsky case are highly intertwined.

John Herbst served for 31 years as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, retiring at the rank of career-minister. He was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, when he worked to enhance U.S.-Ukrainian relations, help ensure the conduct of a fair Ukrainian presidential election and prevent violence during the Orange Revolution. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-03).

Laura E. Kennedy joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1975. She served at U.S. embassies in Moscow (twice), Ankara, Yerevan (Charge d'Affaires) and Ashgabat, and at U.S. missions to international organizations in Vienna (Deputy Permanent Representative) and Geneva. She was appointed by President George W. Bush as ambassador to Turkmenistan (2001-2003).
Every year on Nelson Mandelas birthday, South Africans honor the man they regard as the father of the nation by doing community service  67 minutes of it, one minute for every year of Mandelas public service.

In 2009, the United Nations declared July 18 as Nelson Mandela International Day, and asked people worldwide to do acts of service on this day.

The human rights icon died in 2013, at the age of 95. His death was mourned around the world and he was eulogized by the likes of former President Barack Obama.

In his native South Africa, he will always be affectionately known by his clan name, Madiba. This year, on what would have been his 99th birthday, university student Dimpho Molefe rolled up her sleeves and rolled mint-green paint on the classroom walls of Viva Village, a non-profit educational compound in Pretorias Mamelodi township.

I think it is important because it helps us also just to understand that although apartheid has ended, there are people that are still affected by it, generations after the struggle, are still affected by it, said Molefe, who is 21. There are still kids who cant go to school or who cant get the proper food that they need.

A few miles away, Glenton Magagela, manager of Mamelodis Berakah Educational Foundation, beamed as volunteers gave his care-worn classrooms a new lick of paint.

Mandela Day is to go out there and help people, you know, not only this day but each and every day, he said. But today is his birthday, so all of us need to celebrate him by doing something for other people.

But is 67 minutes enough to achieve anything? Leon Kriel, the founder of the non-profit Viva Foundation, says this one day of service often sets people on a longer path.

It instigates something in the hearts of people, he said. "The majority of these people we will hear from several times in the following year. Because as they come here, their hearts are ignited with a passion for people, and you find them going home, and they are never the same.
A dispute over metal detectors is escalating into a new showdown between Israel and the Muslim world over a Jerusalem shrine that has triggered major Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in the past.

Israel says installing the devices at the gates to the walled compound after Palestinians launched an attack there last week is a routine security measure. Palestinians claim Israel is trying to expand control over the Muslim-run site that is also revered by Jews.

Muslim worshippers have stepped up protests following an appeal from clerics to pray in the streets rather than submit to the new procedures. The confrontation could come to a head Friday, the highlight of the Muslim religious week, when tens of thousands typically converge on the holy site for prayers.

What Caused The Latest Tensions?

Three members of Israel's Arab Muslim minority fired from the sacred compound at a police post near one of the gates on Friday, killing two Israeli officers before being shot dead. Israel's police chief said they had hidden weapons in the compound beforehand and ordered it closed for two days of searches. The closure marked only the third time the shrine had been closed since Israel captured Jerusalem's Old City and its holy sites, along with other territories, in 1967.

On Sunday, Israel began gradually reopening the site. By Tuesday, five of the eight gates used by Muslims had been fitted with metal detectors, and three of those five gates were open, Muslim officials said. A ninth gate, used by non-Muslim visitors, previously had been fitted with metal detectors and was also open Tuesday.

Why is the shrine important?

The Jerusalem landmark is the centerpiece of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, looming large in rival national and religious narratives.

Jews revere it as the Temple Mount, or home of biblical Temples destroyed two millennia ago. It is the holiest site of their religion. For now, Jews worship at the Western Wall, a retaining wall of the compound.

Muslims believe the hilltop compound marks the spot from which Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Known to them as the Noble Sanctuary, it is the third holiest site of Islam and houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques.

Who controls it?

After capturing east Jerusalem, including its Old City, and the West Bank in 1967, Israel sought to avoid a confrontation with the Muslim world. It allowed Muslims to keep administering the Jerusalem compound. Jews could visit, but not pray there.

Jordan, east Jerusalem's pre-1967 ruler, remained custodian of the shrine. Employees of the Muslim administration, or Waqf, stayed on Jordan's payroll.

For decades, the status quo held, in part because leading rabbis, citing religious purity laws, banned Jews from entering. In recent years, religious opinion has shifted, and growing numbers of Jews are visiting the compound, with Israeli police and Waqf guards enforcing the no-prayer rule.

This shift has stoked Muslim fears of a purported Israeli plan to expand Jewish control there. Israel has denied this, most recently after the weekend attack when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the "status quo will be preserved."

Who is the gatekeeper?

The two sides disagree.

Jordan and the Waqf have said that after 1967, the Waqf remained in charge of who can enter the compound. They said this rule was in place until 2000, when a provocative visit to the site by then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that only ebbed in 2005.

Israel says it has always been in charge of security at the compound, including the gates.

In recent years, Israeli security forces have typically been posted outside the gates, conducting spot checks of some of those entering or holding the ID cards of suspected troublemakers until the end of prayers. At times of heightened tensions, police enforce Israeli access restrictions, such as an entry ban for men below a certain age.

Waqf guards are posted inside the gates and have the right to turn any visitors away.

The Israeli view

Israel says the metal detectors are a routine security measure.

"Two Israeli police officers were just murdered on the Temple Mount by terrorists who smuggled in guns," government spokesman David Keyes said Tuesday. "Magnetometers are vital for security. That's why they are at the Western Wall and at holy sites around the world."

Police would not say what was found in the search of the compound. On Sunday, Israel's Army Radio quoted the Jerusalem police chief as saying officers found dozens of knives as well as slingshots, stun grenades and binoculars, but no guns or live ammunition.

Israel previously accused Waqf officials of allowing Palestinian protesters to hoard stones, sticks and firecrackers for use in confrontations with police.

The Palestinian view

Muslim clerics and Palestinian politicians contend Israel is changing the status quo under the guise of security,

Ikrema Sabri, a top Muslim official, said installing the detectors "is an attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty over the mosque" compound.

Rami Hamdallah, the prime minister of the Palestinian autonomy government in the West Bank, expressed his "absolute rejection of Israel's security pretexts in changing the status quo." He also warned of a "deterioration of the security situation" if the measures continue.

The local Muslim leadership and the Jordanian-run Waqf have urged the faithful to pray in "streets and alleys" rather than pass through the metal detectors.

Since Sunday, there have been sporadic clashes between small groups of Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli security forces in and near the Old City. Meanwhile, worshippers have lined up in the streets, dozens at a time, to perform prayers in the streets.

Muslim Arab world

The Arab League, an umbrella group of Arab countries, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have issued separate statements calling on Israel to lift the security measures.

Jordan's King Abdullah II spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Saturday, before the reopening of the shrine, to condemn the attack but also call for de-escalation. The two countries have discreet security ties, but frequently clash over Israel's policies at the Jerusalem site.

Jordan's ruling Hashemite dynasty, with ancestry said to go back to Prophet Muhammad, derives much of its legitimacy from custodianship over the shrine.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi talked about Jerusalem tensions Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Jordan's state news agency Petra said.

Safadi called for "fully and immediately reopening the holy site to worshippers without hindrances," the agency said.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly faced resistance Tuesday to his plan to hold a vote on a complete repeal of the nation's health care law that would be delayed for two years.

McConnell announced the new approach as he opened the Senate session, a day after the latest effort to overhaul the health care law collapsed. "We will now try a different way to bring the American people relief from Obamacare," he said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, passed during former President Barack Obama's first term.

Republican Senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced their opposition, while Rob Portman of Ohio and others expressed skepticism.

President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for repealing and replacing Obamacare, told reporters at the White House he was "disappointed" by the collapse and added that Republicans would let the current law disintegrate.

"I'm not going to own it. I'm going to tell you the Republicans are not going to own it," he said. "We'll let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they're going to say, 'How can we fix it?'"



McConnell's latest approach came after two more Republican senators, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah, refused late Monday to support the latest measure to dismantle the current law. Their decision raised to at least four the number of Republican "no" votes, two more than McConnell could afford to lose in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition, given that Republicans hold a 52-46 advantage over Democrats in the chamber.

Moran and Lee issued separate statements describing the legislation as failing to go far enough in repealing the existing law and not doing enough to control rising costs.

Other Republicans have opposed the overhaul because of worries it could cut health insurance for millions of people, especially narrowing coverage under Medicaid, the government's health care program for poorer Americans.

The failure was the second in as many months for McConnell, who had to cancel a vote on an earlier version in June when its defeat became inevitable.

In one of a series of tweets Tuesday morning, Trump called on Republican lawmakers to exercise a procedural maneuver, known as the nuclear option, which lowers the threshold for approving Senate legislation from a supermajority of 60 votes to a simple majority of 51, even though the 51 votes were out of reach.

Vice President Mike Pence told members of Congress to "do their job" and replace Obamacare with a new plan or revisit legislation previously crafted in the House and Senate. Speaking to the National Retail Federation, Pence said inaction on health care "is not an option."

On Monday evening, McConnell initially unveiled the plan to repeal the bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, with an amendment delaying implementation for two years.

McConnell said the approach would allow for a "stable transition" to a system that gives Americans access to "quality, affordable care."

Congress passed a similar bill in 2015, but with Obama still in office, there was certainty he would veto it instead of repealing his own program.

Some lawmakers reacted to Monday's news by urging a bipartisan approach to addressing the health care system.

Among them was Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who said Congress should not repeat what he called the mistake of the Obama-era law that was passed under Democratic control of both chambers without Republican support.

"The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation's governors so that we can produce a bill that finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care," McCain said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the failure of the latest Republican bill proved that its core was "unworkable."

"Rather than repeating the same failed, partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system," Schumer said.
Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai was greeted with cheers Tuesday by dozens of young women in northeastern Nigeria, where she spoke out for the many girls abducted under Boko Haram's deadly insurgency.

The Pakistani activist, 20, told The Associated Press she was excited by the courage of the young women who are undaunted as they pursue an education amid one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"This is part of my girl power trip, visiting many parts of the world," said Yousafzai, who also met with the freed Chibok schoolgirls taken in a mass abduction by Boko Haram more than three years ago. "I am here now because of the Nigerian girls, fighting for them and speaking up for them."

Yousafzai visited internally displaced camps in and around Maiduguri, where thousands have sheltered from Boko Haram's violence. The extremist group continues to carry out deadly attacks there, often using young female suicide bombers.

"They have lived in the period of extremism," Yousafzai said of the young women around her. Many have seen family members killed.

Shot by Taliban

Yousafzai was 15 when she shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012, targeted because of her advocacy for women's education.

The Nobel winner said her Nigeria visit was significant because it was the partial fulfillment of what she advocated the last time she was there. In 2014, she pressed then-President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the rescue of the more than 200 abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

On Monday, Yousafzai met with more than 100 who have since been rescued and now stay in the capital, Abuja, for what the government calls rehabilitation.

While she told the AP she shared their joy at being freed, she said she was not happy that the girls haven't been allowed to reunite fully with their families.

She said she hoped they would "live with their family, live a normal life."

Many others remain in Boko Haram captivity, "and the government must unite so that they should make sure that these girls are released," Yousafzai said.

"Boko Haram themselves should learn that in Islam, such things are unacceptable," she added. "This is against humanity, this is against Islam."

Yousafzai also met Monday with acting President Yemi Osinbajo, speaking up for the more than 10 million children displaced by Boko Haram and pressing for the declaration of a state of emergency for education in Nigeria.

She also urged the international community to address the crisis in the country's northeast.

Inspired by visitor

Girls at the internally displaced camps said the Nobel winner's story of courage gave them inspiration for a brighter future.

"Her story gives us hope. That's why we, too, want to go to school and become something in life," said Fatima Ali, 15. "We have to bear all pains like hunger to go to school. We barely eat once a day here. We have not eaten since morning because government people no longer bring us food for about two months now."

Three million children in Nigeria's northeast are in need of support to keep learning, according to the U.N. children's agency. Nearly 1,400 schools have been destroyed during Boko Haram's insurgency, which began in 2009, and more than 2,295 teachers have been killed, the agency says.

Ali said she was in school when Boko Haram attacked her town three years ago. "I want to become a soldier so that I could help my community to fight and kill Boko Haram, because they are not good people," she said.

Another student, Fatima Grema, 15, said she saw herself in Yousafzai.

"Boko Haram abducted me and wanted to marry me," she said. After being taken from the town of Baga to a location near the Cameroon border, "I later managed to escape," she said. "I was not in school until I came to the camp here."

Grema said she now wants to become a teacher.

UNICEF's country representative, Mohamed Malick Fall, said Yousafzai's visit was a symbol of hope, and "we will do everything in our power to make sure all children can keep learning."
North Korea does not have the ability to strike the United States with "any degree of accuracy" and while its missiles have the range, they lack the necessary guidance capability, Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Tuesday.

"I ... am not sanguine that the test on the Fourth of July demonstrates that they have the capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence or success," Selva said while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Earlier this month North Korea said it had conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and that it had mastered the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on the missile.

Pyongyang's state media said the test successfully verified the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead, which experts say may be able to reach the U.S. state of Alaska.

"What the experts tell me is that the North Koreans have yet to demonstrate the capacity to do the guidance and control that would be required," Selva, the second highest-ranking U.S. military official, added.

South Korea's intelligence agency also does not believe North Korea has secured re-entry capabilities for its ICBM program.

South Korea on Monday proposed military talks with North Korea, the first formal overture to Pyongyang by the government of President Moon Jae-in, to discuss ways to avoid hostile acts near the heavily militarized border.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law until December in the southern island of Mindanao, where the military has been fighting a bloody two-month insurgency by Islamic militants.

More than 500 people have been killed in the conflict, which began after a failed attempt by security forces to capture Isnilon Hapilon, a top Islamic State-linked militant leader. The insurgents burned down several buildings, including a church, and took several people hostage, prompting Duterte to impose a 60-day period of martial law on May 23 on the island of 21 million people.

The president's order expires this Saturday, July 22, as mandated under the Philippines constitution. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters in Manila Tuesday that Duterte has determined the rebellion will not be defeated by then.

More than 400 militants have been killed in the fighting.
Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, who are touring Poland, paid respect to the victims of a Nazi German concentration camp Tuesday as they were guided around the site by two Jewish survivors.



The royal couple is on a goodwill trip to Poland and Germany aimed at underscoring Britain's intention to maintain friendly relations with the European Union after it leaves the bloc.



They flew to northern Poland on Tuesday from Warsaw, where they and their children were staying at the Belvedere Palace.

At the Stutthof museum they were guided by two survivors of the camp, Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper, both 87, from north London. The royals were shown discarded shoes, clothing and other personal items that were seized from the inmates on arrival at Stutthof. They were also shown the gas chamber where those too sick to work were killed.



The couple paid their respects to the victims by placing remembrance stones at the Jewish memorial.



The German Nazis set up the Stutthof camp right after invading Poland in September 1939. Out of some 110,000 inmates of various nationalities, as many as 65,000 died in the gas chambers or from disease, hunger, hard labor or during evacuations. Some 28,000 of the victims were Jewish.



Later, the royal couple traveled to nearby Gdansk, on the Baltic coast, where they shook hands with a welcoming crowd among the city's Gothic and Renaissance architecture. They tasted traditional Polish pierogi  pastry stuffed with meat  and Goldwasser herbal liqueur that contains tiny flakes of gold.



They are later expected to visit a replica of a Shakespearean theater, whose patron is William's father, Prince Charles. They will then meet former president and democracy champion Lech Walesa, whose office is housed in the new European Center of Solidarity that documents Poland's peaceful struggle in the 1980s to shed communism. They return to Warsaw in the evening.



On Wednesday they fly to Berlin.
Republicans sought to regroup Tuesday after their quest to scale back the U.S. government's role in health care collapsed, leaving in place former President Barack Obama's health care law, popularly known as Obamacare.

"I'm certainly disappointed. For seven years, I've been hearing 'repeal and replace' from Congress," said a visibly angry President Donald Trump. "And then when we finally get a chance to repeal and replace, they don't take advantage of it."

Scorned by Republican fiscal hawks for allegedly retaining too much Obamacare spending, and by party moderates who feared the bill went too far in dismantling the status quo, Republicans fell short of the votes needed for passage in the Senate.

"I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of Obamacare will not be successful," said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

McConnell: Repeal, dont replace

McConnell floated a new idea: Scrap Obamacare with no replacement plan at all. Several Republican senators quickly rejected the idea, as did a unified Democratic caucus.

"I don't believe that a majority of senators are willing to support a reckless leap in the dark," said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

Despite predictions that a vote to simply repeal scrap Obamacare will surely fail, McConnell said late Tuesday he will scheduled a vote on the question for early next week.

Republicans crafted the bill on their own, behind closed doors. Democrats urged cooperation to address Obamacare's shortcomings, which include rising premiums and a dwindling number of insurers taking part in the program in many states.

"The door to bipartisanship is open right now," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. "Republicans only need to walk through it."

Trump: Let Obamacare fail

The president suggested a different course: Do nothing on the assumption that Obamacare's flaws will deepen, giving Republicans leverage.

"We'll let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they are going to say, 'How do we fix it?' Or, 'How do we come up with a new plan?'" Trump said.



Trump promised Republican "wins" on other priorities like tax reform. Such victories become harder with Republicans bruised and the president's clout in question after the defeat on health care, according to political analysts.

"It's also shown us some of the limits of legislating with an inexperienced president in the White House and an unpopular president in the White House," said Molly Reynolds of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "If Republicans couldn't pass a bill that they've been promising to pass for seven years, that will raise some questions about whether they'll be able to follow through on other legislative priorities."

Democrats have divides of their own on health care, between those who want to strengthen the private insurance market Obamacare fosters and those demanding universal coverage in which the government pays all costs.
The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah's Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference.

Tuesday's EU comment follows the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal against the ban.

The rejection of the religious group's appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah's Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.



The EU said: Jehovah's Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference. It added that Russia was bound by its constitution as well as its international commitments to provide such guarantees.
Visiting Japanese Minister calls on PM Deuba

State Minister for Environment of Japan Tadahiko Ito called on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the latter's office on Tuesday.
Facebook, Alphabet's Google, Apple and other major technology firms are largely absent from a debate over the renewal of a broad U.S. internet surveillance law, weakening prospects for privacy reforms that would further protect customer data, according to sources familiar with the matter.

While tech companies often lobby Washington on privacy issues, the major firms have been hesitant to enter a fray over a controversial portion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), industry lobbyists, congressional aides and civil liberties advocates said.

Among their concerns is that doing so could jeopardize a trans-Atlantic data transfer pact underpinning billions of dollars in trade in digital services, the sources said.

Technology companies and privacy groups have for years complained about the part of FISA known as Section 702 that allows the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to collect and analyze emails and other digital communications of foreigners living overseas. Though targeted at foreigners, the surveillance also collects data on an unknown number of Americans  some privacy advocates have suggested it could be millions  without a search warrant.

Section 702 expires at end of year

Section 702 will expire at the end of the year unless the Republican-controlled Congress votes to reauthorize it. The White House, U.S. intelligence agencies and many Republican senators want to renew the law, which they consider vital to national security, without changes and make it permanent.

A coalition of Democrats and libertarian-leaning conservatives prefer, however, to amend the law with more privacy safeguards.

Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition of tech firms established after the 2013 leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said reforming the law remains a priority. A spokeswoman declined to comment further but referred to two letters sent earlier this year by technology companies urging Congress to consider changes to the law.

Snowden exposed the spy agency's program that collected U.S. phone call metadata in bulk and also the extent of spying under Section 702, embarrassing some U.S. technology firms.

Bulk collection curtailed

The companies, working with privacy rights activists, successfully lobbied Congress two years ago to pass legislation that curtailed the NSA's bulk collection of call records. For example, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page that he had personally called then-President Barack Obama to express "frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future."

Now, however, Silicon Valley's reduced involvement frustrates civil liberties groups because of a widely held view that Section 702 poses a far greater threat to privacy than the telephone program, which did not harvest actual content.

Facebook declined comment. Google and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

Privacy shield agreement

The companies' relative inactivity is explained by several legal challenges in Europe to an agreement between the United States and the European Union, known as the Privacy Shield, the sources said. The litigation hinges on whether U.S. surveillance practices afford enough privacy safeguards. A coalition of human rights organizations has urged Europe to suspend Privacy Shield unless Section 702 is substantially reformed.

U.S. technology companies have privately bristled at those efforts, three industry lobbyists, in part because expectations that 702 reforms will pass Congress are low.

If you link them and you lose one, you lose both, said one of the lobbyists, who like the others requested anonymity to discuss private conversations with technology companies.

The lobbyist added that several major firms were more interested in making deals with the Trump administration that could affect their bottom lines, such as tax repatriation, than getting caught in politically charged fights over government surveillance.

Another industry lobbyist said Section 702 surveillance is not a C-suite issue that concerns chief executives in Silicon Valley like other issues, including encryption.

Lobbying is limited

Companies have also been limited in how they can lobby for changes to the law because no comprehensive reform bill has been introduced yet in Congress, said Alex Abdo, a privacy advocate and staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee is not expected to introduce such legislation until after Congress returns from its August recess.

The schism between tech companies and privacy groups was on display earlier this year in litigation in Ireland  Facebook argued customer data was sufficiently protected from U.S. spying programs, while an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union testified that more protections were needed.

'Backdoor search loophole'

Snowden's leaks showed that Section 702 collects content of digital communications directly from the internet backbone and through a program formerly code named Prism where the NSA gathered data directly from several companies, including Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

The statute also allows the FBI and others to query pools of data collection for U.S. information in what critics have derided as a backdoor search loophole that evades traditional warrant requirements.

The tech industry may become more engaged once the public debate becomes clearer, Abdo said. He added that a stronger position would be enormously helpful to those that want to impose meaningful constraint on NSA surveillance.
Hyrum Johnson, mayor of the tiny city of Driggs, Idaho, expects some craziness in his one-stoplight town next month when the moon passes in front of the sun for the first total solar eclipse in the lower 48 U.S. states since 1979.

The town of 1,600 people in Teton County, just west of the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains Teton Range, is getting poised to receive as many as 100,000 visitors on Aug. 21 for the celestial event, said Johnson, who was both excited and worried.

Driggs is one of hundreds of towns and cities along a 70-mile arc, stretching from Oregon to South Carolina, that are in the direct path of the moon's shadow. The full eclipse and the sun's corona around the disk of the moon will be visible for a little more than two minutes only to those within this narrow band.

Driggs and other towns like it are scrambling to prepare for the onslaught of curious visitors.

"We expect gridlock," Johnson, 46, said as he drove his pickup truck through town.

Tucked amid seed potato and quinoa farms, Driggs normally enjoys a more languid pace of life, with highlights including $5 lime shakes sold on balmy summer days at the corner drug store.

But with the impending eclipse, planning has kicked into high gear.

To make sure nothing more than the roads will be clogged, Johnson took shipment this month of two massive generators that can be deployed at key spots along the city's sewage system to keep it flowing in case of a power outage.

"We are telling our residents to hunker down," Johnson said.

And while Johnson would have preferred to have taken his family backpacking during the time of the eclipse, he's planning to stay in town in case anything goes wrong.

'All hands on deck'

Over on the east side of the Teton Range, authorities are preparing for the day "kind of like a fire," said Denise Germann, a public information officer at Grand Teton National Park. Estimating crowds is nearly impossible, she said, but "it is an 'all hands on deck' event."

The 480-square-mile park's campsites are completely booked, and it expects visitors to pour in from all over, including the bigger Yellowstone National Park, just north of the path of totality. Grand Teton will waive its $30 entry fee to keep traffic from backing up.

Many of the park's 465 summer staff will be posted at trailheads and along roads to warn visitors to brace themselves for failed cellphone service, jammed roads and scarce parking, and to urge them to carry plenty of food and water, as well as bear spray to ward off wildlife.

In nearby Moose, Huntley Dornan said the county had warned business owners like him to expect four times the usual number of customers in the days leading up to the eclipse.

"I find that hard to believe, but I'm not going to be the guy who has his head in the sand and didn't plan for it," said Dornan, who runs a restaurant, deli, gas station and wine shop, the last place to get supplies before entering the park from the south.

Dornan plans to park a 48-foot refrigerated trailer stocked with a couple of thousand pounds of pizza cheese, 150 pounds of ground buffalo meat, a few hundred tomatoes, and gallons of ice cream, among other provisions for the expected hordes of tourists.

On eclipse day, only people who paid as much as $100 each to attend his viewing parties will be allowed access to the narrow road on his property that offers a clear view. Security will keep others out.

About 14 miles down the highway, in Jackson, Wyoming, Bobbie Reppa expects the family business to be flush with demand. She and her husband run Macy's Services, the only purveyor of portable toilets for miles. The 50 she normally has on hand simply aren't enough.

"We'll be bringing them in from as far as Ogden, Utah," she said.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has declared a state of emergency in his home state of Gogrial and parts of three other states where clashes have raged for months between clan-based militias.

The country's information minister, Michael Makuei, said the army would be given powers to stop the fighting in Gogrial and the states of Tonj, Wau and Aweil East.

He told Reuters news agency Tuesday that some citizens' rights would be suspended, but did not elaborate. There have been reports of clashes in Gogrial between militiamen from the Apuk and Aguok clans of the Dinka tribe.

Rajab Muhandis, executive director of the Juba-based South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections, said the state of emergency will embolden soldiers to take matters into their own hands.

The state of emergency brings in restrictions and gives more powers to the government to take steps that may not be necessarily prescribed in the law. And this is likely to affect the rights of citizens, Muhandis told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Night-time restrictions

South Sudan Deputy Information Minister Akol Paul Kordit said the emergency declaration is aimed at improving security.

This will enhance security and give a conducive environment for police and local authorities to calm down insecurity situation there in terms of communal fight(ing) and try to bring into order these unlawful armed young men who are carrying out either unlawful killings or cattle rustling, Kordit told VOA.

The declaration, announced Monday night on state-run television, will restrict movement of civilians during night-time hours, according to Kordit.

Changes may slow food delivery

Bongiri Peter, executive director of the civil society group Humanity South Sudan, said the government must ensure that the state of emergency does not impede the work of humanitarian agencies working to provide food and healthcare to those in need.

Some of the restrictions must not impede the work of humanitarian organizations and the agencies that are delivering services there, because a curfew might go into all sectors and sometimes it's very difficult for the people working in the area of service delivery, Peter said.

Gogrial, Tonj, Wau and Aweil East are four of the 28 states that President Kiir created in 2015, replacing South Sudan's previous 10 states. The four states were previously part of Bahr el Ghazal state.

Rebel forces fighting Kiir's government do not recognize the change.

Malania Itto, who works for the Solidarity for Women's Rights Association (SOWA), said the emergency declaration will hurt civil society organizations.

It will affect some of our colleagues who are working in the areas. They will be affected because they will not have freedom of movement, Itto said.

Mired in violence

Munir Morris Togo, who also works for SOWA, said the declaration will isolate large parts of the country at a time when South Sudanese must come together and talk about how to bring about lasting peace.

Geographically, if you exclude Bahr el Ghazal with this state of emergency then you are going to stop the work of this National Dialogue. Yet the National Dialogue is the way to peace, Togo said.

South Sudan has been mired in violence since fighting between government forces and rebels opposed to Kiir erupted in December 2013. The war has displaced some four million South Sudanese from their homes.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir has declared a state of emergency in parts of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.

Army spokesman Col. Santo Domic Chol says this is in response to increased tribal conflict in the region, including revenge killings and cattle raiding. He says it creates further insecurity amid the country's civil war.



Chol said Tuesday that Kiir is giving more power to the judiciary and state governors to ensure the conflict doesn't spread.



The last state of emergency in South Sudan was declared in 2014 in Unity and Jonglei states when opposition militia had reportedly taken control of Bor and Bentiu cities.



The new state of emergency is expected to last 90 days, with a curfew imposed and more government troops dispatched.
Indonesia's parliamentary speaker has been named a suspect in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal involving the implementation of a national electronic identity card.

The head of the government's Corruption Eradication Commission, Agus Rahardjo, said Monday there is sufficient evidence that Speaker Setya Novanto participated in a scheme to embezzle as much has $170 million between 2011 and 2012, about one-third of the $440 million allocated for the project.

Rahardjo said Novanto, who also serves as chairman of the Golkar party, is believed to have abused his power by enriching himself and others.

Novanto denied the accusations Tuesday during a news conference.

Several other senior Indonesian political figures have been implicated in the scandal, including the justice minister and a former interior minister. Two government officials are currently on trial in connection with the case, which could test President Joko Widodo's willingness to take a hard line against official corruption.

Indonesia was ranked 90th out of 176 nations on a list of the world's most corrupt governments compiled by watchdog group Transparency International.
As the trial of former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra over an extravagant rice subsidy program winds to a close, her rural supporters are resisting attempts by the ruling junta to silence her family's political machine.

Yingluck and her Puea Thai Party say the trial is politically motivated, aimed at discrediting a populist movement that has won every election since 2001.

Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra first introduced the rice programs before he himself was ousted in a 2006 coup. But Yingluck took it a step further by offering to buy rice from farmers at up to 50 per cent above market prices.

The measure helped her sweep to power in the 2011 general election. But government losses from the scheme -- which also distorted global rice prices -- helped fuel protests that led to her removal from power days before the 2014 coup.

If found guilty, Yingluck like her brother Thaksin, would be disqualified from becoming premier again.

Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile for 11 years to avoid serving a two-year sentence over a corrupt land deal.

That has left political circles guessing who would lead the party in the next election, scheduled for next year, and whether that leader could possibly be someone outside the Shinawatra clan that has dominated the movement until now.

Unchallenged in northeast

Farmers from the Shinawatra powerbase in the northeast told Reuters they would vote for the Puea Thai Party again in the next election.

"The Yingluck rice scheme made rice farmers prosperous from having a reliable income that came on time," said Paisan Pachanda, 59, a rice farmer and co-operative leader in Khon Kaen, a major commercial hub that lies on a plateau in the centre of the northeast region.

"If there's an election . . . people in the northeast will still vote for the Puea Thai Party, even if there is no Shinawatra in the party," he said.

Even the rival Democrat Party concedes Puea Thai remains unchallenged in the Northeast.

"Puea Thai Party's political base, its MPs and politicians, have developed strong networks in the northeast," said Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the Democrat Party. "So even if the party changes its leadership it is unlikely that it will affect its strong bonds on the ground," he told Reuters.

Asked about Puea Thai's popularity, Lieutenant General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a spokesman for the government, said: "The people get to decide who they want to represent them."

Rice legacy

Yingluck, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of negligence over her role in the rice program.

The last hearing in her 2-year long case will be at a Bangkok court on Friday. A verdict is expected after closing statements are delivered in a few weeks' time.

"The rice subsidy scheme was a state policy declared to parliament. Yet the charge has been brought against me alone in a criminal case," Yingluck told Reuters in a written reply to questions. "No other government has been charged over its public policies," she said.

Yingluck, though banned from politics, remains the unofficial face of the party and toured Thailand extensively last year, meeting with rural supporters.

Junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup, has made no secret of his disdain for the Shinawatras. In 2010, he favored a heavy-handed approach to an army crackdown on red-shirted Shinawatra supporters that killed more than 90 people.

The junta's attempts to repress the Shinawatra clan and its movement, and even introduce its own farm subsidies for the politically-powerful farmers, are not working, many in the rice fields of the northeast say.

"The more the military pushes the Puea Thai Party the more sympathy the party gets," Rotcharin Waratsirisophon, 54, a party member told Reuters in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen. "Puea Thai is even more popular now."

Next in line

With Yingluck and her brother sidelined for next year's scheduled elections, other potential movement leaders have emerged.

One is another of Thaksin's sisters, Monthathip Kovitcharoenkul, 58, a businesswoman.

Yingluck has told reporters Monthathip has no interest in politics.

The other is veteran politician Sudarat Keyuraphan, 56, a former agriculture minister and a former deputy leader of Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.

Sources in the party said Sudarat was the favorite but some party members prefer a candidate from within the Shinawatra family.

Acting Puea Thai Party secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai, said it was too soon to talk about party nominations. "We have to wait until an election date has been confirmed. We can't do much at the moment," Phumtham told Reuters.

Politics has been put on hold in Thailand, partly out of respect for late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last October and whose cremation will take place in October.

The junta, which calls itself the National Council on Peace and Order, has also cracked down on dissent by tightening restrictions on the media and silencing activists through imposing the kingdom's strict lese-majeste and cybercrime laws.

Whatever new government comes in will still have to deal with the military. The new constitution the generals have implemented introduces a military-appointed senate and requires any future government to follow the junta's 20-year development plan.
The U.S. government certified again Monday that Iran is complying with the 2015 international deal on its nuclear program, an agreement that President Donald Trump has called "the worst deal ever negotiated."

Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran's compliance.

A senior administration official said that while Iran is technically meeting the terms of the agreement, it is "unquestionably in default of the spirit of the agreement," adding that the Trump administration is working with its allies to more strictly enforce the deal going forward.

The senior official told reporters the White House believes Iran remains one of the most dangerous governments, and cited as evidence Tehran's support for terrorism, continuing hostility to Israel, cyberattacks against the United States and numerous human rights abuses.

"These activities seriously undermine the intent of the agreement," the official said.

Another senior administration official said the Trump administration is working to address flaws in the agreement, of "which there are many," and criticized enforcement of the deal by the administration of former President Barack Obama.

White House officials emphasized that the administration's stance toward the nuclear deal remains under review.

"The president has made very clear his desire to fix the many flaws in the deal... His commitment to fixing those flaws remains steadfast," said one senior official.

The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was agreed to in 2015 following negotiations between Iran and a group that included the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Under terms of the agreement, Iran gained relief from sanctions targeting its nuclear activity in response to allegations it was working to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has said its nuclear program was aimed only at peaceful purposes.

In exchange for the sanctions relief, Iran agreed to take a number of steps to limit its nuclear program and affirmed that it would under no circumstances "seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons."

The agreement allows Iran to conduct only low-level uranium enrichment, requires that all spent fuel from its nuclear reactors must be sent abroad for reprocessing, and subjects Iranian facilities to international monitoring. These restrictions are aimed at ensuring that Iran cannot acquire weapons-grade uranium through its own reprocessing efforts.

Iran also agreed to convert two of its nuclear sites suspected of involvement in weapons development into facilities used for peaceful research.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday ahead of the U.S. announcement that Iran has received "contradictory signals" from the Trump administration. Zarif said he has not spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but that the "possibilities for engagement with regard to the nuclear deal" have always been open.

As part of the agreement, Iran and the group of six world powers set up a joint commission to monitor the implementation of the deal and address complaints from either side. Representatives are due to meet Friday in Vienna.
Turkey has jailed six human-rights activists, including Amnesty International's Turkey chief, for allegedly aiding terrorists.

Police arrested the six during a raid on a hotel on the island of Buyukada on July 5, during a digital security workshop. On Tuesday a court in Istanbul ordered them to remain behind bars until a trial.

In addition to Amnesty's director of operations in Turkey, Idil Eser, German and Swiss human-rights workers were among the detainees.

Turkish media reports said the six are accused of having been in contact with Kurdish and leftist militants and suspected members of the movement led by exiled Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen - once President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's close ally, but now at the top of the Turkish government's most-wanted list.

Turkey blames Gulen, a religious scholar who has lived in obscurity in the United States for decades, for last year's failed coup. The aged cleric denies the charges against him.

"This is not a legitimate investigation. This is a politically motivated witch hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey," Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty said Tuesday.

The United States also condemned the arrests.

"Prosecutions like these with little evidence or transparency undermine Turkey's rule of law and the country's obligation to respect individual rights," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.

The U.S. urged Turkey to drop the charges, free the six prisoners, and lift provisions of the country's state of emergency that allow what the U.S. spokeswoman called the "indiscriminate prosecutions of individuals."

Turkey extended its post-coup state of emergency three more months this week, shortly after voters narrowly approved a referendum to amend the constitution and expand President Erdogan's powers.

U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Erdogan on his referendum victory, but many European Union leaders fear the impending constitutional changes will further erode human rights and free speech in Turkey and muzzle the opposition.

More than 50,000 people have been arrested during a yearlong crackdown since last year's coup. In addition, 110,000 civil servants, members of the military and law-enforcement agencies were dismissed for either participating in the coup or actively sympathizing with the plotters.
Turkish security and intelligence organizations are dealing blows to Islamic State cells and networks in the country, a high-level Turkish official told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Since the New Year's attack by IS in Istanbul which took 39 lives, Turkey has been dealing heavy blows to this extremist organization," the official said. "Turkey is part of the international anti-IS coalition. We are very determined as always and continue to fight against IS and all other terrorist organizations."

Last week, Turkish security forces stormed a suspected IS cell in the Anatolian province of Konya, killing at least five IS fighters.

In recent weeks,Turkish special police forces have detained a total of 233 IS suspects in 29 provinces, according to Turkish media reports.

Separately, in early July, Turkish security forces also detained 29 suspected IS members in Istanbul.

The majority of the suspects, who were detained in raids carried out across the country, were foreign nationals and were allegedly preparing to stage attacks in Turkey, according to Turkish media reports.

Turkey's interior ministry recently published a report listing the number of foreign nationals in IS ranks in the country. Tunisians top the list followed by citizens of Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, France, Russia and Belgium.

The same report said foreign fighters who arrive in Turkey to join IS try to cross into the war zones of Syria and Iraq.

An all-out crackdown

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently claimed that Turkey has deported 5,000 people suspected of having links to terrorist organizations, banned more than 50,000 people from entering the country, and cleared the border region of IS fighters.

Yesugay Aksakal, a former law enforcement official and counterterrorism expert, told VOA that following a series of security operations across Turkey, IS cells have been dismantled and that the terror group's ability to wage attacks has been considerably diminished.

"Turkey also shares intelligence with Western countries. This relationship is independent of political relations. Intelligence cooperation helps prevent violent terror acts in different countries," Aksakal said.

Metehan Demir, a Turkish security expert who follows IS activities in Turkey and elsewhere, told VOA that 2017 has been a year full of consequences for IS in Turkey.

"In the last six months alone, 100 important figures within the IS have been caught by Turkish security forces," Demir said.

Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation inside northern Syria, which started in August of 2016 and ended almost 10 months later, also caused heavy losses to IS.

Turkish military officials claim responsibility for killing more than 2,600 IS fighters and "neutralizing" 3,060 others, according to Turkish media. It has been reported that 72 Turkish soldiers died during the same operation.



Since its emergence, IS has been able to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey, killing and injuring hundreds of people across the country.

IS had a total of 14 attacks in Turkey since May 2013. Turkish authorities say the attacks killed more than 300 people and injured 1,300 others.

Intelligence-sharing crucial

Analysts believe intelligence-sharing has been crucial in the recent crackdown against IS in Turkey.

"I believe that Turkish intelligence is doing a good job against IS, and they are also in close cooperation with European intelligence agencies," Demir said.

Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service (BfV) said last week that Ankara and Berlin continue to cooperate on security issues despite their political disagreements.

"The geostrategic situation of Turkey shows that we have an interest in working with Turkey in the fight against terrorism," Maassen said.

'Front-line state combating IS'

The U.S State Department has commended Turkey for its efforts against IS.

"The United States cooperates closely with Turkey, our longstanding NATO ally and a critical partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS," a U.S. State Department official told VOA in an emailed statement, using an acronym for Islamic State. "Turkey is a front-line state in combating ISIS's external operations networks and we have, and will continue to work with Turkey to meet significant law enforcement and counterterrorism challenges."

The official added that the U.S. has supported Turkey's operations to clear its border area of IS and that it regularly coordinates with Turkey to degrade IS's ability to cross borders and plan external operations.

Despite the ongoing cooperation, Turkey and the U.S. have some differences in how to approach the ongoing campaign.

Turkey is especially unhappy with a recent U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the People's Protection Units, who are playing a major role in the battle on the IS de facto "capital" Raqqa in Syria.

Ankara charges that U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization.

But analysts downplay the ongoing tensions when it comes to sharing intelligence on IS hideouts and operatives.

"Turkey is an important part of the international coalition against [IS]. Although some differences regarding tactics to combat ISIS do exist, cooperation continues," Yonah Alexander, Director of the Potomac Institute of Terrorism Studies, told VOA.

"Turkey has proven from the Korean War to the current situation in the Middle East that it is a trusted ally willing and able to contribute to the interests of the U.S. and the West," he added.
Turkey's state prosecutor on Monday asked a court to remand the local Amnesty International director and nine other human rights activists in custody pending trial for membership of a terrorist organization, opposition lawmaker Sezgin Tanrikulu said.

Idil Eser and the others were detained on July 5 as they held a meeting at a hotel near Istanbul, and taken to various police stations, a month after Amnesty Turkey's board chairman, Taner Kilic, was arrested on the same charge. Amnesty called the detentions a grotesque abuse of power.

An attempted military coup a year ago triggered a sweeping crackdown on people whom authorities say they suspect of links to the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for the coup.

7,000 dismissed on Friday

More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and 150,000 dismissed or suspended from their jobs, including soldiers, police, teachers, judges and other public servants.

On Friday, more than 7,000 police, civil servants and academics were dismissed, the day before hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets to commemorate the thwarting of the coup.

Eser and those detained with him had been attending a workshop on digital security and information management. Among those arrested were two foreign trainers  a German and a Swedish national.

US 'deeply concerned'

The United States has said it is deeply concerned by the detentions.

The purge, which has also led to the closure of some 130 media outlets and the jailing of 150 journalists, has alarmed Turkey's Western allies and rights groups, who say President Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.

Some 250 people were killed in last year's coup attempt, and the government has said the security measures are necessary because of the gravity of the threats facing Turkey. Gulen has condemned the coup attempt and denied involvement.
Two Iranian nationals have been charged in the United States in an alleged scheme to steal and resell software to Iran, including a program to design bullets and warheads.

According to an indictment unsealed Monday, Mohammed Saeed Ajily, 35, recruited Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, 39, to break into companies' computers to steal their software for resale to Iranian universities, the military and the government.

The two men  and a third who was arrested in 2013 and handed back to Iran in a prisoner swap last year  allegedly broke into the computers of Vermont-based Arrow Tech Associates.

The stolen software included Arrow Tech's Projectile Rocket Ordnance Design and Analysis System (PRODAS), which is protected by U.S. controls on the export of sensitive technologies, and its distribution to Iran is banned by U.S. sanctions on the country.

According to the indictment, Rezakhah conducted the hacking and cracking operations and Ajily was in charge of marketing and selling the programs.

The two men were charged in the Rutland, Vermont, federal district court, which issued arrest warrants for the two, who are believed to be in Iran.
Progress is not moving fast enough to meet an ambitious set of global goals to conquer poverty, inequality and other international woes by a 2030 deadline, slowed largely by growing war and violence, the United Nations said on Monday.

Advances have been few and uneven in reducing conflict and promoting gender equality, sustainable energy, infrastructure and other key areas, the U.N. said in a report assessing the pace of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Approved in September 2015, the sweeping 15-year agenda approved by the 193 U.N. member states is a global "to-do" list to tackle such issues as climate change, education, hunger, joblessness and land degradation.

The cost of implementation has been estimated at $3 trillion a year.

"The rate of progress in many areas is far slower than needed to meet the targets by 2030," wrote U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a foreword to the 60-page report.

Intensified war and violence are critical obstacles to implementation, said Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

"Conflict has become the most insurmountable barrier to poverty eradication and sustainable development," he wrote in the report.

War and violence led to some 65.6 million people being forced from their homes at the end of 2016, an increase of about 300,000 people over the previous year, Wu wrote.

Children are disproportionately affected, he added, deprived of health care, education, safe water and shelter and often separated from their families.

Other particularly thorny problems include reducing maternal deaths, making education universally accessible to children and the representation of women in political decision-making, Guterres said in the foreword.

He also cited persistently high rates of violence against women and girls and "alarmingly" high unemployment rates among young people.

"Advancements have been uneven across regions, between the sexes, and among people of different ages, wealth and locales, including urban and rural dwellers," the report said.

Wu, at a U.N. event to release the report, said, however, he was "not that pessimistic."

He said in 2016, 22 nations volunteered for the U.N.'s review of their SDGs' progress, and that number doubled to 44 for the 2017 review.

"More and more national governments would like to get involved," he said.
Since mid-May, a series of attacks on towns throughout Central African Republic have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people and the displacement of more than 100,000.

In the country's southeast, militias known as the anti-balaka attacked a mostly Muslim district in Bangassou in mid-May, leaving at least 100 people dead.

The United Nations' top humanitarian official, Stephen O'Brien, is visiting C.A.R. this week and says the U.N. mission is working to ensure people are protected, despite the violence.

But the violence is also rising against humanitarian workers in the countryside.

"I am very sad to say that the Central African Republic is the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker," O'Brien said. "Sadly, there have been a serious number of deaths and injuries to aid workers, very bravely courageously, but persistently and with great confidence and skill going about their work."

'Self-defense groups'

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in C.A.R., Najat Rochdi, said she was focusing on making sure communities across the country were not held "hostage" by the armed groups.

"How can they call themselves 'self-defense groups'?" she asked. "Who are they defending? The population? The communities? When you loot the bases of the humanitarians who actually are supporting the communities, when you are stealing the food from the mouth of the communities, and from those who are starving, are you really protecting and defending the population? I am not sure."

In Bangassou, roughly 16 percent of the population is displaced, with about 2,000 Muslims living at the Catholic church, another 8,000 displaced elsewhere and 4,000 people seeking refugee status in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Issa Dafakalumba, 45, and his family now live in the camp near Bangassou's Catholic church. He said the anti-balaka burned their house.

He said living conditions were difficult and the anti-balaka were all around. He said that even going to the market was difficult.

Dafakalumba credited the U.N. peacekeeping force for keeping them safe, saying that if it weren't there, he and his fellow Muslims would be "exterminated."

Many homes gone

The U.N. humanitarian representative in Bangassou, Blaise Kabongo, said the situation was "very tense" and that many people had nowhere to return to.

"If you move around this area, in Tokoyo, you will see not only the roofs of many houses are being taken out, but also the houses themselves; the walls are being destroyed and the bricks taken away," he said. "So people are ready to come back, but they do not have security. They do not have a home to go back to."

Some residents in the Tokoyo neighborhood blame the Muslim ex-Seleka militias for starting the violence.

Christian farmer Jean Paul Basumba said things were calm, but that people were still afraid of what might come.

He said people had heard there were armed Seleka groups that would attack Bangassou. It is due to the Seleka, he said, that people have mostly left.

About 2 million people in the Central African Republic, about half the country's population, rely on humanitarian aid.
A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday upheld nondisclosure rules that allow the FBI to secretly issue surveillance orders for customer data to communications firms, a ruling that dealt a blow to privacy advocates.

A unanimous three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with a lower court ruling in finding that rules permitting the FBI to send national security letters under gag orders are appropriate and do not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's free speech protections.

Content distribution firm CloudFlare and phone network operator CREDO Mobile had sued the government in order to notify customers of five national security letters received between 2011 and 2013.

Andrew Crocker, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented the companies in the consolidated case, said no immediate decision whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court had been made. He called the ruling disappointing.

Several major technology firms, including Microsoft and Twitter, have mounted a variety of legal challenges in recent years to U.S. government restrictions limiting what they can disclose, both to affected users and to the public, about the surveillance requests they receive.

National security letters, or NSLs, are a type of government subpoena for communications data sent to service providers. They are usually issued with a gag order, meaning the target is often unaware that records are being accessed, and they do not require a warrant.

Tens of thousands of NSLs are issued annually, and some gag orders last indefinitely.

Writing for the panel, Judge Sandra Ikuta said the gag orders meet a compelling U.S. government interest, are sufficiently narrow and allow for appropriate judicial review.

Ikuta, appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, said recent changes to the law passed by Congress in 2015 bolstered oversight of NSL use.

The FBI's use of NSLs has drawn increased scrutiny from privacy groups in recent years as new transparency laws have allowed companies to publish some of them.

In June of last year the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a Republican-backed proposal to expand the kinds of telephone and internet records the FBI could request under an NSL to include senders and recipients of emails, some information about websites a person visits and social media log-in data.

The legislation failed, but lawmakers have said they intend to pursue the expansion again.
The United States is applauding the European Union for imposing sanctions Monday on 16 Syrian senior military officials and scientists involved in chemical weapons attacks on civilians.

"The combined efforts of the United States and European Union ... are part of a continuing effort in the international community to hold the Assad regime responsible for violating longstanding global norms against the use of chemical weapons," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

The 16 officials sanctioned Monday will be banned from traveling in the EU, and their European assets will be frozen.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called Monday's actions by the EU ministers a very good agreement and said he is pleased the ministers could come together to focus on the issue.

The United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are carrying out a joint investigation into the April sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhun in Syria which killed at least 87 people.

Video of the attack included pictures of children foaming at the mouth and struggling to breathe.

The U.S. blamed the Assad regime, prompting President Donald Trump to order an airstrike on the Syrian airbase from where the gas attack was apparently launched.

Syria denies responsibility for this and previous chemical weapons attacks on civilians, blaming them on what it calls terrorists  its word for the opposition.
Cake and conversation, it seems, can go only so far to mend longstanding economic rifts between the United States and China.

Three months after President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, shared chocolate cake at an amiable summit in Florida, tensions between the world's two biggest economies are flaring again.

Just as officials of the two nations prepare to meet Wednesday in Washington, the Trump administration is considering slapping tariffs on steel imports, a step that risks igniting a trade war. For the United States, it's a perilous option to address a problem caused largely by China's overproduction of steel.

And Trump is criticizing China again for failing to use its economic leverage to rein in its neighbor and ally, the nuclear rogue state North Korea.

Could this week's U.S.-China Comprehensive Dialogue produce a meaningful breakthrough in economic relations?

Most China watchers are skeptical.

"I'm not looking for anything worthwhile," says Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

For one thing, the points of difference between the two countries run deep. For another, Xi faces political pressures at home and won't want to cause a stir in Beijing.

For all the tensions between the two nations, Trump's words about Xi himself have remained warm. He has suggested that the personal bond he formed with Xi when the two met April 6-7 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort can overcome fundamental differences on trade and national security. Last week, the president called his Chinese counterpart a "friend of mine," ''a terrific guy" and "a very special person."

At a White House event Monday, Trump suggested that the relationship is so strong that he asked during the Florida summit to start exporting U.S. beef to China and that the request was quickly granted. Trump said that the beef industry was so pleased to return to China after a 14-year ban that one executive from Nebraska "hugged me, he wanted to kiss me so badly."

"We welcome this opportunity," Kenny Graner, a North Dakota cattle farmer who is president of the U.S. Cattlemen's Association, says of the China market. "They have a middle class that's growing in income. It's big, a lot of people."

After the meeting, the president softened his accusations of abusive Chinese practices, dropped his threat to label China a currency manipulator and expressed optimism that China would pressure North Korea to scale back its nuclear program.

Still, the Trump-Xi relationship has yet to deliver the substantive changes that Trump the candidate had promised voters - a core piece of his mantra to put "America first." The economic irritants are likely to vex U.S. and Chinese officials this week.

Trump had campaigned on a promise to shrink America's trade deficits, which he blames for wiping out American factories and manufacturing jobs. The United States last year ran a trade deficit in goods with China of $347 billion, the amount by which imports exceeded exports. It's by far the widest gap that U.S. has with any country. Trump says China unfairly subsidizes exports.

Take steel. From 2000 to 2016, China accelerated steel production, raising its share of the world market from 15 percent to nearly 50 percent. As Chinese steel poured into the market, global prices fell, hurting American steelmakers. Scissors notes that China has long promised to stop subsidizing steel and to slow production but hasn't delivered.

The Trump administration responded by invoking a little-used weapon in American trade law that lets the president tax or restrict imports - if a U.S. Commerce Department investigation finds that they imperil national security. (The result of Commerce's investigation of steel imports is expected soon.) The rationale was that the American military relies on steel for airplanes, ships and other equipment. Steel also goes into roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The problem is that the United States already blocks most Chinese steel imports. So any tariffs or limits on imports would instead hurt other countries, including such staunch allies as Canada and South Korea.

Scissors says the United States could try to coordinate sanctions against China by countries that do import Chinese steel.

David Dollar, a former World Bank and U.S. Treasury official who is now at the Brookings Institution, thinks Xi isn't likely to make a bold move to cut Chinese steelmaking capacity - or enact other economic reforms - in advance of the Chinese communist party's National Congress this fall. At the meeting, Xi will want to further tighten his grip on the party.

What's more, the European Union and others are likely to lash back if the U.S. imposes sanctions on foreign steel, thereby running the risk of a broader trade war.

Then there's North Korea. As a presidential candidate, Trump attacked China for refusing to pressure Pyongyang to back off from developing nuclear weapons. After the Mar-a-Lago summit, though, Trump praised Beijing for agreeing to help deal with North Korea. As a reward, he abandoned his vow to accuse China of manipulating its currency to benefit Chinese exporters.

This month, North Korea defiantly proceeded with its first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Trump tweeted his complaint:

"Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us - but we had to give it a try!"

Brookings' Dollar says the administration will likely continue to be disappointed.

"China is not going to do anything dramatic" to pressure North Korea, he says. "They don't want that regime to collapse" and thereby destabilize the Korean peninsula and likely send North Korean refugees into China.

Overall, Dollar expects more turbulence between Washington and Beijing. The Obama administration, he notes, had kept the relationship stable despite economic differences by working with China on such issues as the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. But Trump has pulled out of the Paris deal and denounced the Iran pact.

"We're going to see more volatility in the U.S.-China relationship than we've seen in years," Dollar says.
The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.

For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an "appropriate" provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators.

The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years.

Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers.

'Not earth shattering'

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was "part of its internal process" although a source familiar with Canadian government thinking said the document was "not earth shattering."

Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved by revising trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.

"The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits, and that's unfortunate," said Chad Brown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There's not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That's more of a macroeconomic issue."

No mention of lumber or dairy products

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from NAFTA countries.

No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August.

Automaker support stance

Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include in the list of objectives the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation.

A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: "Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA. We look forward to working with the administration to achieve this objective by including strong and enforceable currency prohibitions as part of NAFTA."

The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

No reaction from Mexico

Representative Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, said there was nothing in the document that would change the way Mexico treated its workers.

"Mexico has used their workers having no rights and suppressing labor costs as a key part of their industrial policy," he said, "There is nothing in the summary that assures in these vital aspects that a new NAFTA will be different than the old."

There was no formal reaction to the letter from Mexican government.

NAFTA called a 'failure'

Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," the head of the 12.5-million-strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.

"If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $63 billion last year.
Venezuela's foreign minister said Tuesday the country is moving forward with plans to elect members of a constitutional assembly despite threats of new sanctions by the United States, and plans to review its relations with Washington.

"The constitutional assembly is happening," Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said on state television. He also said Venezuela is "conducting a deep review of relations with the U.S. government because we don't accept humiliation from anyone."

White House officials on Tuesday stressed they are ready to follow through on President Donald Trump's threat to take "strong and swift economic action" if Maduro goes ahead with a vote for the special assembly on July 30.

"The Maduro regime ... cannot be allowed to continue to go down its path toward becoming a full dictatorship," a senior Trump administration official said.

Reuters reported Tuesday the U.S. is preparing sanctions against several senior Venezuelan officials, including the country's defense minister. The U.S. is also considering wider economic steps, the official said, adding: "All options are on the table."

Ban oil imports from Caracas?

It was not clear whether the U.S. administration might act to ban oil imports from Venezuela.

"We absolutely reserve the right to make unilateral decisions at the time and place of our choosing," the official said. "I would not be surprised if we still take further actions before July 30, because we are very troubled and worried about the situation in Venezuela."

The sanctions threat comes after Venezuela's opposition launched what it says is a "final offensive" on Maduro to call for early presidential elections.

In a nonbinding national referendum Sunday organized by opposition groups, more than seven million Venezuelans  nearly one-third of the national electorate  called on Maduro to give up the idea of electing a special assembly to put together a new constitution.

The opposition group also called for a daylong general strike Thursday, hoping to pressure Maduro into calling off plans for a new constitution.

Maduro brushes off opposition

Maduro called the opposition referendum illegal and is continuing to push ahead with plans for a July 30 vote for the special assembly.

Changing the constitution is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its deep economic and social crisis, the president said.

"I'm calling on the opposition to return to peace, to respect the constitution, to sit and talk," he said Sunday. "Let's start a new round of talks, of dialogue for peace."

The opposition says the assembly will be rigged in Maduro's favor. It says rewriting the constitution is nothing but a Maduro ploy to dissolve state institutions and turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship, leaving the opposition-led national assembly irrelevant.

Shortages in shops and lack of rights

One voter who rejects the idea of a new constitution told The Associated Press: "There's no medicine, no food, no security. ... No separation of powers, no freedom of expression."

Lower global energy prices and government corruption have destroyed Venezuela's once-thriving economy, which is dependent on oil revenues.

Consumers face severe shortages of basic goods such as gasoline, flour, sugar and cooking oil. Supermarket shelves are bare and many Venezuelans cross into neighboring Brazil and Colombia to buy food.

Daily street protests against the government frequently blow up into violence. Nearly 100 people have been killed over the last three months.

Maduro blames his country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism. He warns against intervention by the Organization of American States, saying that would surely bring on civil war.
The wife of a Princeton University graduate student sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage in Iran said Tuesday that he had been "unjustly imprisoned'' and called for his immediate release.

"My husband, Xiyue Wang, is one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and most loving men I have ever known," his wife, Hua Qu, said in a written statement. "He has been a devoted husband to me and a father to our four-year-old son.

"We fervently hope that the Iranian authorities will release him soon so that he can return home to his young family.''

Wang, 37, was arrested last summer, an Iranian official said Sunday. His sentencing shocked his colleagues at Princeton, who described him in interviews as a quiet but collegial scholar whose intellectual curiosity stood out even at the elite school in New Jersey.

Princeton has been working quietly with Wang's family, the U.S. government, lawyers and others to secure his release and hopes he will be released on appeal. University President Chris Eisgruber said in a letter to the school on Monday that Princeton had kept his arrest confidential on the recommendation of advisers inside and outside government.

U.S. 'very concerned'

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was "very concerned'' about Wang's case, though she said she couldn't comment specifically on his situation because of privacy concerns. Nauert said the Swiss, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, had been granted consular access and visited Wang four times.

"We continue to use all means at our disposal to advocate for U.S. citizens who need our assistance overseas, especially for the release of any unjustly detained U.S. citizens who are held overseas,'' Nauert said.

Wang, a history student at Princeton since 2013, was conducting field work in Iran for his dissertation, which is focused on how Muslim regions are governed.

Iran accused him of scanning 4,500 pages of digital documents. His academic adviser, history professor Stephen Kotkin, said the documents Wang was studying were a century old, and that scanning such materials for later review was a "normal, standard scholarly practice.''

Wang was arrested on August 8, 2016, and was accused of passing confidential information about Iran to the U.S. State Department, Princeton's Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the British Institute of Persian Studies, according to Mizan Online, a website linked to Iran's judiciary.

The Chinese-born U.S. citizen previously worked as a Pashto translator for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan and spent time in Uzbekistan while a student at Harvard University.

In addition to Pashto, English and his native Mandarin, Wang is also proficient in Russian and Turkish and was learning Farsi in Iran.
John McCain, a critical vote in the U.S. Senate's health care overhaul, was described as upbeat and comfortable in Arizona on Monday but was still days away from traveling to Washington after surgery to remove a blood clot from his head.

The Arizona senator underwent surgery on Saturday to remove a clot above his left eye discovered during a physical examination, forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone a health care vote and throwing the timing of the debate into uncertainty.

McCain's support is vital for the bill, which needs the backing of at least 50 of the 52 Republicans in the 100-member Senate. Republicans Susan Collins and Rand Paul already have said they will not vote to open debate on the legislation - meaning one more "no" vote would kill it.

"Senator McCain is in good spirits and recovering comfortably at home with his family. On the advice of his doctors, Senator McCain will be recovering in Arizona this week.

As available, more information on Senator McCain's progress will be made public," said McCain spokeswoman Julie Tarallo.

A friend who had talked to McCain, 80, said "he sounds great" and that he was so eager to get back into the action in Washington that he was musing about the prospect of taking a cross-country road trip.

Changes in cabin pressure associated with air travel could harm the recovery for McCain, who survived a bout of melanoma in 2000. While his office has said the recovery could take a week, medical experts told the New York Times the recovery time for such procedures is often longer.

"We hope John McCain gets better very soon. We miss him," Republican President Donald Trump said at a White House economic event. "He's a crusty voice in Washington, plus we need his vote."

Even with McCain, Republicans face plenty of obstacles to passage of the measure to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. Democrats are united in opposition to the bill, and Collins estimated on Sunday that "eight to 10" Republicans still have serious doubts about it.

Other Republican senators who have expressed concerns or remain noncommittal include Rob Portman, Mike Lee, Shelley Moore Capito, Dean Heller, John Hoeven, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, Cory Gardner, Todd Young and Thom Tillis.

A Senate Republican aide said senators were reluctant to be the third "no" vote, essentially sinking the bill, so many of the undecideds will hold off until the last minute in declaring their stance.

'Pretty Tough Guy'

McConnell opened the Senate on Monday with words of encouragement for McCain but offered no timetable for a health care vote.

"Our friend from Arizona is a pretty tough guy as we all know. He'll be back with us soon," McConnell said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said as soon as McCain can travel back and McConnell feels it's appropriate, the vote will be scheduled.

"We feel very confident about where we are now - we look forward to getting that bill on the president's desk and getting it signed," Spicer said at a news briefing.

An extended delay could endanger passage, as the Senate faces an agenda packed with other legislation and critics of the measure hope to use the delay to increase opposition to it.

Top Senate Democrats sent a letter to Republicans on Monday suggesting they hold a public hearing during the delay, saying it would allow senators to hear "unfiltered and unbiased" feedback on the bill.

The letter also requested that Republicans make a commitment not to proceed on the bill without a complete score from the Congressional Budget Office, which was initially expected to release an analysis on Monday but has delayed that report.

Over the weekend, a threatening note was left at Heller's Las Vegas office. Officers who responded to a burglary alarm at the building found the note near the office door on Sunday morning, police said in a statement on Monday. The content of the note was not released.

New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman intends to sue the federal government if Republican lawmakers pass legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, his office said on Monday.

Schneiderman's office said it has identified "multiple constitutional defects" with Republican health care bills.
China notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday that it would stop accepting shipments of trash such as waste plastic and paper as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage."

The import ban, which will enter into force by the end of 2017, will also cover slag from steel-making, and many kinds of waste wool, ash, cotton and yarn.

"We found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even

hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials. This polluted China's environment seriously," China's WTO filing said.

"To protect China's environmental interests and people's health, we urgently adjust the imported solid wastes list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted."

China is a major importer of waste. Last year it imported 7.3 million tons of waste plastics, valued at $3.7 billion, accounting for 56 percent of world imports. Apart from Hong Kong, the biggest sources of that plastic waste were Japan and the United States, which accounted for roughly 10 percent of the volume each, according to data from the International Trade Center, a United Nations-WTO joint venture.

The same two countries are also the main sources of scrap paper going to China each year, accounting for half of the almost $1 billion business between them.

China's speedy industrial development has seen it struggling to regulate waste disposal, leading to toxic waterways and cities blanketed in smog.

China plans to conduct a nationwide survey of pollution

sources, and has urged local authorities to speed things up by launching local investigations by the end of July, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Monday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Tuesday to make "unremitting" efforts towards promoting peace in the Middle East following a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as China steps up its diplomatic engagement with the region.

Palestinian officials have urged China, which supports an independent Palestinian state, to do more in the Middle East peace process.

Chinese envoys occasionally visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories, though China has traditionally played little role in Middle East conflicts or diplomacy despite its reliance on the region for oil.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Abbas in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Xi said the international community paid close attention to the Middle East peace process.

"As the Palestinian people's good friend, partner and brother, China hopes Palestine and Israel can achieve peace as soon as possible and live and work in peace. China will make unremitting efforts for this," Xi said, after receiving a Palestinian medal of honor from Abbas.

China has historically had a good relationship with the Palestinians.

The Middle East, however, is fraught with risk for China, which has little experience navigating the religious and political tensions that frequently rack the region.

Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Zhang Ming later said Xi reiterated support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and also called for the security of both the Palestinians and Israelis to be protected.

It is important to advance a political settlement on the basis of the two state solution, Zhang added, paraphrasing Xi.

Honest broker

U.S. President Donald Trump has renewed efforts to get Israeli-Palestinian talks going again, after they collapsed in 2014.

His Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, announced an Israeli-Palestinian water agreement last week but dodged questions on whether he was making headway on reviving peace talks.

Diplomats say that China is trying to play the role of "honest broker" in the Middle East, as it lacks the historical baggage of the Americans or the Europeans.

Xi told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March that peaceful coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians would be good for both parties and the region, and that it was favored by the international community.

Netanyahu's trip came just days after China hosted Saudi Arabia's King Salman and signed deals worth as much as $65 billion with Riyadh.

China also has close ties with Iran, whose nuclear program has seriously alarmed Israel and Saudi Arabia.

More broadly, China hopes a peaceful Middle East will lessen the flow of ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim people from the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, to Syria and Iraq to join up with militant groups there.
Zimbabwe's Environmental Management Agency has temporarily lifted its ban on the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) as food packaging material to allow businesses to clear their stocks.

The Agency says it has given businesses until October 17 to stop using existing containers and replace them with recyclable or biodegradable ones. The reprieve follows an outcry from businesses last week when the government board imposed an immediate ban of EPS, also known as kaylite.

Environmental Management Agency spokesman Steady Kangata says the new deadline wont affect the ban itself.

"The ban still stands, it was only a reprieve of three-months given just to allow businesses to [tidy] up. It is also in line with the principle of natural justice to give them time to mop up their kaylite. Furthermore there are conditions that they were given, that within three months they are supposed to initiate a water management program that would ensure that the environment is clean. Not that kaylite would be seen all over," Kangata said.

The EPS containers are among the garbage clogging drainage in Harare and contributing to flooding.

The government also says EPS emits toxic chemicals when the containers are burned, and garbage is routinely burned in Zimbabwe. Environmentalists in Zimbabwe are applauding the ban, but say the government has not gone nearly far enough. Other African countries, including most recently Kenya, have banned the use of plastic bags.

The president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers, Denford Mutashu, welcomes the three-month reprieve given to his members.

"It is not enough but at least it is a breathing space. There are some companies that have invested into the production of kaylite. We will also be helping them to lobby through the government to ensure that they get a reprieve. Because it is not easy for someone to bring their machinery here and two years down the line they are asked to move out or to stop production. So this is a serious area of concern."

But the Environment Management Agency maintains the law under which the ban of EPS is being put in effect was enacted in 2012, and businesses had time to switch to other food packages or ask customers to it in instead using EPS.

When the reprieve ends, the government says anyone found breaking the EPS ban could be fined from $30 to $5,000.
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Former Zimbabwean Vice President, Joice Mujuru, says opposition parties need to unite ahead of the 2018 general elections in order to unseat President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party. She was speaking with journalists in Harare on Tuesday. (Video: Mavis Gama)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that weve grown awfully sloppy with allusions to Jane Austen. But of all the young novelists described as our modern-day Austen, Emma Straub may have the greatest claim to that title. Two hundred years after Austens death, we asked Straub, who owns a bookstore in New York, to reflect on the British novelists timeless popularity.

Author and bookstore owner Emma Straub (Jennifer Bastian)

A few days ago, I was standing behind the counter at Books Are Magic, my two-month-old bookstore, and a woman came up to the register with a copy of Jane Austens Emma. The woman said that shed never read any Austen and expressed an endearing mix of excitement and shame, the sort of shame that one occasionally confesses to independent bookstore professionals in the same way that one might blurt out to a heart doctor that they had a doughnut addiction or that theyd never even tried kale.

In any case, the woman set Emma on the counter, and one of my chattiest, most wonderful booksellers yelped, This is my favorite book! which I happily seconded. (This bookseller, who is also a novelist, admitted that she first picked up the book as a pre-teen because she loved the movie Clueless, which goes to show that movies and TV can lead to a life in letters as easily as a childhood writing haikus by lamplight.) The customer stood there for a few minutes after paying for her book, trapped by our enthusiasm, or perhaps because we still had her credit card.

[Was Jane Austen a secret radical?]

There are a thousand reasons not to read a book at any particular moment, and sometimes those moments accumulate to decades, and you wonder, Am I too late? Am I just A Person Who Has Never Read Moby Dick? Is it better to just take a big gulp of wine at the moment of the dinner party when everyone names their favorite character in Middlemarch? I personally havent tackled Infinite Jest for the same reason I havent read The Fountainhead, which is that  with deepest apologies to D.F.W.  I find their most vocal fans to be equally irritating. (Oh, to have all those fans in a room together, trying to convince the others of their world view! How much talking, how little listening!)

I dont often admit that Emma is one of my favorite books because its sort of embarrassing to love a book named for a character whose name you share  especially because Emma Woodhouse is thought of so dismissively within the Austen canon. Elizabeth Bennet shes not. On the face of it, Emma is a novel about a bored rich girl with too much time on her hands, and yet it was the final paragraph of Emma that my husband and I typed by hand over and over again and set at each guests table setting at our tiny wedding. Its Jane Austens mix of irony and satire and true generosity to her characters that makes Emma Woodhouse so charming, and what makes the book so pleasurable to read.

What is most incredible about Jane Austen is that a couple of goofy novelist/booksellers can get so giddy about her books 200 years after her death. For those of us who write books that get published in the warmer months of the year, whose covers are splashed with bright colors and merchandised with inflatable beach balls, it is Jane who were channeling, Jane who were praying to, Jane whose wit we wish to possess.

When Curtis Sittenfelds Eligible was published last year, my first thought was really? Another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice? And my second thought, a split second later, was to figure out who could send me the book immediately because, of course, of course, yes.

At the store, people come in and ask, all day long, for a summer read that isnt too light, but isnt too heavy, a book that is funny, but smart. I hand over Colson Whiteheads Sag Harbor, Maria Semples Whered You Go, Bernadette, Meg Wolitzers The Wife. But now, for the rest of the summer, my follow-up question will be, When did you last read some Jane Austen?

To be the one to make that introduction, to make that match! Why, one feels practically like Emma Woodhouse.

Emma Straubs most recent novel is Modern Lovers.


(Enrique Moreiro for The Washington Post)

I Lived on Butterfly Hill

By Marjorie Agosin.

Ages 10 to 14.

Eleven-year-old Celeste loves her home on Butterfly Hill, in the colorful city of Valparaiso, Chile. Her life is filled with family and friends, with visits to the cafe magician and rides in the cable car.

But soon all that changes. The country is shaken by what Celestes mother calls earthquakes of the soul. The president is killed, and a cruel military dictator takes over.

(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

This is a scary time for Celeste and her family. Soldiers arrest people who disagree with the new government. They burn books. The principal at Celestes school disappears. Many people go into hiding, including Celestes parents.

Before long, Celeste is traveling alone on a plane to the United States. To keep her safe, Celestes beloved grandmother has sent her to stay with her aunt. Tia Graciela lives by herself in a small, bleak town in Maine.

Celeste tries to be brave, but she is lonely and worried. There is no news of her parents. Are they okay?

And to make a tough situation even more challenging, Celeste must attend an American school  and learn English. The other students make fun of her accent. And Celeste cant enjoy her favorite foods because her aunt is a terrible cook!

But her teacher, Miss Rose, is kind and patient. Celeste also learns English from watching television with her aunt. And she becomes friends with Kim, a girl from Korea, and Kims cute older brother.

In two years, Celeste is able to return to Chile. How exciting! At last she can see her family and friends!

But Valparaiso has changed a lot. Many schoolmates are still missing. No one knows the location of Celestes parents.

Celeste feels she must do something! She decides to track down her father. But with so many people still imprisoned and missing, how will she ever find him?

Although this book is fiction, many people in Chile had similar experiences 43 years ago when General Augusto Pinochet seized power.

And many children today face challenges like Celestes in Maine when their families try to find a new, safer home in places far from their native land.

You might also like . . . Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees by Mary Beth Leatherdale, which tells about five real children and how they fled homes in war-torn countries, including Nazi Germany, Vietnam and Afghanistan, to seek new lives for themselves. Young readers should look for Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, with illustrations by Doug Chayka, in which two girls in a refugee camp become friends when they share a pair of sandals.

Next week Fish in a Tree By Lynda Mullaly Hunt.

Ages 10 to 14. Distracting people is one of Allys best skills. Reading is not. As she bounces from school to school, Ally causes a commotion so that teachers dont notice the real problem. However, Mr. Daniels, a substitute teacher at her new middle school, figures out whats going on. Ally is embarrassed and convinced that shes just a dumb kid. With Mr. Danielss help, she begins to understand that someone with a learning disability can also be intelligent.
Dear Heloise: Summertime is often moving season. My husbands company is relocating us across the country. These are my favorite hints when hiring a moving company:

There are dozens of moving companies out there, but I picked three to interview. Thats enough to get an idea of what companies are offering, rates, how the industry works, etc.

So that I would be on the same wavelength as my movers, I had to understand if they were going to help me unpack, what heavy objects they would lift and if they would disassemble and assemble items.

Once I had chosen the moving company, I had them come out and look at everything that needed to be moved. They have a tool on their website for this, but nothing beats an experienced movers assessment.

Questions are key, especially about insurance: Is my property covered if it is damaged? Are your workers bonded? (Bonded means my things will be covered in the highly unlikely event of vandalism or theft.)

Moving is one of the most stressful events in a familys life, but asking the right questions and hiring the right team will help tremendously.

Helen L. in New York

Dear Readers: Cheap hair shampoo has many uses around the house. Here are a few:

 Makes a good bubble bath in a pinch.

 Washes lingerie when traveling.

 Makes an adhesive strip loosen for easier removal.

 Works as a laundry pre-treater, especially for ring around the collar.

Ive compiled my favorite clothing-stain cleaning hints into a handy pamphlet. Would you like to receive one? Visit Heloise.com to order, or send $5, along with a stamped, self-addressed, business-size envelope, to: Heloise/Stain, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Make sure all cleaners in your home are clearly labeled.

Dear Heloise: I have a magnetic paper pad on my fridge along with a pen. When I make my shopping list, I write it down, but I start at the bottom of the paper and write going up.

This way, I just tear off the part of the list that I need, and conserve the rest of that long page for the next items. Why waste paper?

Rusti S. in Houston

Dear Heloise: My parents were frugal and big savers. One hint they shared with me: Plan ahead. Im shopping now and looking around for sales and discounts on gifts for the holiday season.

Helen B. in Montana

Dear Heloise: I wish people would realize that there are some who have allergies; one of mine is to perfume. I was at a restaurant, and pretty soon my throat was burning! A tiny bit of perfume is not offensive.

Martha S., Beardstown, Ill.

Dear Heloise: My family taught me this at the dinner table: When someone says, Please pass the salt, pass both the salt and the pepper. They are not to be divorced!

I thought this was cute, and courteous!

Ellie S. in Arizona

Heloises column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.


Playwright Michael Hammond, a former Hill staffer, was recently awarded a national honor by Poland for his stalwart support of the Solidarity movement in the 1980s. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post)

All he wanted to do was write plays, but Michael Hammond took down the Soviet Union instead. Maybe.

I can tell you exactly what I did with precision, he says, and other people can reach a conclusion of whether it was significant. Or whether I was a joke who was allowed to somehow witness history.

History is written by men who achieve positions of power, but its made by men who find the levers of power  men who have mid-level bureaucratic titles like general counsel of the Senate Steering Committee, which was Michael Hammonds in the 1980s. He was in his 30s then, armed with a law degree he didnt want, working in a place he didnt want to be. His heart was in writing classes at Georgetown. His brain was in the right-wing faction of the Republican Party, analyzing every piece of legislation.

Im not going anywhere here, or anywhere that I want to go, Hammond recalls thinking during his years in the Senate, when he wished he was writing plays.

A pause.

Im not saying I wasnt good at it.

He was good at it  it being the dark arts of Capitol Hill. He knew the rules of the Senate better than most, and therein were the levers of power. He knew how to force consensus, how to torpedo progressive legislation, how to use an earmark as either a battering ram or a steak knife. The Senate Steering Committee, despite sounding bipartisan, was actually a cabal of hard-line conservatives, and Hammond was its strategist. He was manic, eccentric, too smart  or too arrogant  to suffer the niceties of Congress.

Multiple people remember him, on the floor of the Senate, wearing a camouflage jacket from the Cold War Patrick Swayze movie Red Dawn; Hammond says he only wore it a few times, and never on the floor. One Senate staffer remembers Hammond shoving Sen. Paula Hawkins (R-Fla.) because she was in his way; Hammond dismisses this while inflating that very legend.

The lore was that I was just literally running for the [Senate] well for some parliamentary procedure, and Bobby Byrd was on one side, and Howard Baker was on the other side, and I knocked them both over, he says. I dont think its true.

The point is: Hammond had a certain reputation in Congress.

He was dogged and determined, almost to the point of being psychotic, says the Senate staffer, who requested anonymity to be forthright in a manner unbecoming of the upper chamber. He saw the world in an apocalyptic view  that, but for his efforts, we were going to descend into a hellhole.

Did Michael Hammond  using legislative jujitsu in 1987  save the free world from a Soviet apocalypse, by funding the resistance movement in Poland?

Or is he a theatrical player whose relevance is more imagined than real?

Well explore that in a minute, because Hammond, now 67, would rather talk about his new play. He fled Washington 17 years ago to write plays, and finally one of them is being produced.

Its called Repentance. It opened last week as part of the Capital Fringe Festival, and will be staged Thursday and Saturday this week. Its about an older priest visiting a young man in prison, and what may have happened between them years earlier.

Its 90 minutes of two characters battling their demons, and each other. The Maryland Theatre Guide calls it a surrealist religious horror show that descends into a riveting pre-mortem dialogue.

Its My Dinner With Andre,  Hammond says, but without all the frills.

Sample dialogue, from the priest: Your flimsy scrotum will evaporate almost immediately and your nuts will drop into the abyss.

Its a deeply funny play, Hammond insists.

Perhaps even more intriguing than the play is Hammonds work in the Senate  for which he was given a national honor by Poland in May: the Knights Cross of the Order of Merit.

The story goes: In 1987 a group of conservative Hill staffers took a meeting with representatives of the Solidarity trade union, the repressed Polish workers group that was resisting communist rule. Solidarity was looking for support, which they couldnt get from the Reagan White House, and Hammond pulled aside their reps afterward. He could funnel them a million dollars, he said, in an appropriations bill that was moving through Congress. He envisioned reviving Solidarity and getting it to go on strike, which would kneecap the Polish regime, which would stagger the rest of communist Eastern Europe.

And no one in the universe believed that that was true, he says of that strategy. And I didnt fully believe that was true.

Hammond worked with Liz Wasiutynski, one of the Solidarity reps, to get constituents of key members to call Congress in support of the union. With enough bipartisan support, Hammond helped to wedge a few million dollars earmarked for Solidarity into appropriations bills in 87 and 88. A million dollars was nothing to the U.S. budget, but it was everything to the Poles.

Solidarity now had money from  and the de facto endorsement of  the American people.



Lech Walesa, center, in 1989, smiling during the first multiparty session of Polands parliament in 50 years, after his Solidarity party captured a bloc of seats. At left is Polands then-president, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. Solidarity credited U.S. Senate staffer Michael Hammond with providing key assistance through an obscure budget maneuver. (Wojtek Druszcz/AFP/Getty Images)

Solidarity must be legalized, Hammond told the Associated Press at an unofficial human-rights conference in Krakow in August 1988, as workers were striking and the movement grew in strength.

Solidarity won a slew of seats in parliament in early 1989, and communism fell there by the summer. It fell in Czechoslovakia that November, in Romania that December, and in East Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary the following year. The Soviet Union dissolved in 91.

Some people speak of Hammond as if hes akin to Pope John Paul II, who is credited for stoking democratic fervor in Poland and triggering the fall of the Soviet bloc.

That earmark was more meaningful than the toppling of the Berlin Wall, says Wasiutynski, now 71, from her home in Connecticut. Hammond is a genius who helped make a political set of movements, which brought about an unimaginable success  and that was breaking the back of the Soviet Union.

Its a tantalizing interpretation of history, of one mans nudging of world events, supported by anecdotes and memory if not historical scholarship.

Hammond just sees the world differently, says his friend Dan Perrin, who worked for him in the 80s; his vision is unclouded by social graces, by hesitation or equivocation, and Perrin, too, credits Hammond with changing the course of history through both his intellect and affect.

Sometimes I think its like the Vulcans and humans in Star Trek, Perrin says of Hammonds relationship to the Senate. Where Mike is the Vulcan. Hammond devoted himself to promoting the Polish cause in the halls of Congress, says Polands ambassador to the United States, Piotr Wilczek, in a statement to the Post. His actions were crucial in helping secure U.S. financial support for the Polish people and the Solidarity movement.



These days Hammond writes inflammatory op-eds for the Daily Caller (Democrats are preparing to enfranchise 10-20,000,000 illegals) and Townhall (. . . theres a universe of things I find disgusting, starting out with each mornings edition of the New York Times). He is also the legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, which is somehow to the right of the NRA.

My waiting-tables job, Hammond says dismissively, before claiming that hes probably the guy who, after the Newtown massacre, killed the bipartisan bill that wouldve required background checks on commercial sales of guns. He had a very big role in designing opposition in the Senate, confirms Erich Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America.

Its something Im good at, Hammond says again of his political maneuverings, before maneuvering himself: But Im really a playwright.

Right, right, the plays. He moved to rural New Hampshire around 2000 so he could renounce modern technology and finally devote himself to fiction instead of faction. Repentance is inspired by events in Hammonds childhood in Kansas City, where he attended a high school that had an abusive teacher on staff, he says.



Actors William Aitken as the priest and Griffin DeLisle as the prisoner during rehearsal of "Repentance," a play by Michael Hammond, at Catholic University. (Kate Patterson/for The Washington Post)

Now Hammond is sitting in a classroom at the Catholic University of America, watching a rehearsal of his play, which his D.C. friends submitted to the Fringe Festival on his behalf. Those friends, some of whom are conservative acolytes from his years in Congress, also got him a burner phone so he can communicate like a normal 21st-century person during his theatrical debut in Washington. The play is a cry, or a cackle, from a haunted past.

I found it useful to use the play in order to try to work out my issues, Hammond says. I hope if I had any anger, I dont have any anger anymore.

After a run-through of the show, Hammond speaks from a desk at the side of the room. He has a clear vision for the end of the play. Hed like the young prisoner to somehow vanish like an apparition, he tells the director. The audience shouldnt know whether the character was hero or demon, real or imaginary. It should be open to interpretation.

Budget and space preclude such an effect, the director says.

Hammond turns in his seat, a deadpan look on his face, the levers of power beyond his reach.

The playwright never gets what he wants, he says.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security lifted its electronics ban on Saudi Arabian carrier Saudia and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jiddah. Later this week, the agency expects to add King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh  the only remaining airport affected by the ban announced in March  to the approved list, after verifying its bolstered security.

The agency has now lifted the ban, which required passengers to check any gadgets larger than a mobile phone as a safety precaution, on nine of the 10 Middle Eastern and African airports affected.

Over the past few weeks, the airlines and their affiliated airports have met the agencys criteria for enhanced security measures.

Etihad Airways was the first to invite gadgets back onboard on July 2. Dubai-based Emirates and Istanbul-based Turkish Airlines followed on July 5. The next day, Qatar Airways, which flies out of Doha, slid over to the permitted side of the ledger.

Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi International Airport; Turkish Airlines and Istanbul Ataturk Airport; Emirates Airlines and Dubai International Airport; and Qatar Airways and Hamad International Airport have implemented the required initial enhanced security measures, said Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration. Travelers will now be able to bring laptops and other large electronic devices into the cabin of U.S.-bound flights.

Next in line: Royal Jordanian and Queen Alia International Airport in Amman; EgyptAir and Cairo International Airport; Royal Air Maroc and Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca; and Kuwait Airways and Kuwait International Airport. The agency cleared the quartet between July 9 and 13.

To prevent any slippage in vigilance, Farbstein said, TSA inspectors will observe compliance at the location.

More from Travel:

DHS officials announce enhanced security measures for all flights to U.S. but wont expand laptop ban

How many states have you been to?

Can an American tourist in London keep calm and carry on after recent terrorist attacks?
Avalon Waterways offering up to 40 percent savings on select last-minute cruises on the Seine, Rhone and Saone rivers in France. (Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images)

This post has been updated.

This weeks best travel bargains around the globe.

Sea

With Avalon Waterways, save up to 40 percent on select last-minute cruises on the Seine, Rhone and Saone rivers in France. For example, four August departures of the Paris-to-Normandy cruise, which sails round trip from Paris, start at $1,889 per person double (plus $168 port charges), a savings of $1,260. Info: 877-797-8791, www.avalonwaterways.com/special-offers/select-departures/suite-savings.

Save 40 percent on the Aug. 28 departure of Adventure Lifes Iceland, Greenland and Baffin Island: Arctic Circle Traverse cruise. The 18-day voyage, which travels from Reykjavik, Iceland, to Ottawa, starts at $7,737 per person double for a Category F cabin; the usual rate is $12,895. Price includes all onboard meals, shore landings per daily program, and taxes and port charges. Add $695 for the mandatory transfer package, which includes one nights hotel in Reykjavik with breakfast, one nights hotel in Ottawa and charter flights from Reykjavik to Akureyri and from Iqaluit to Ottawa. Info: 406-541-2677, www.adventure-life.com.

Land

Mahekal Beach Resort in Mexicos Playa del Carmen is celebrating National Hammock Day with 30 percent savings. The Swing in the Sun deal starts at $200 a night (plus 19 percent tax) for a palapa-style bungalow and includes breakfast and lunch or dinner daily, a round of daily signature cocktails and use of hammocks on private open-air patios. In addition, stay more than six nights and receive a $150 credit for use at the resort. Three-night minimum required. Book by July 31 and travel Aug. 8-June 28. Info: 877-235-4452, mahekalbeachresort.com.

Save 15 percent on 2017 prices on select Busabout European itineraries in 2018. For example, the Ultimate Balkan Adventure trip departing June 9 starts at $1,045 per adult single or double (a savings of $184) and from $994 for students with ID (a discount of $175). The trip includes motorcoach transport; 14 nights lodging in hostels and guesthouses with breakfasts in Croatia, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro; several tours; and taxes. Book by Sept. 30 using code PREVIEW2018. Info: 877-668-4328, busabout.com/preview-2018.

Air

United Airlines has sale fares from Washington Dulles to several domestic destinations, including Atlanta and Phoenix. For example, nonstop flights to Denver start at $156 round trip for basic economy and from $196 for economy. Other airlines are matching, but fares typically start at $217 and $257, respectively. Basic fare allows only one personal item onboard and seats are automatically assigned. Travel Aug. 22-Dec. 16, except Fridays and Sundays and select blackout dates. Book by July 27 at www.united.com.

Package

Sourced Adventures is offering a Northern Lights trip to Iceland for not much more than the hotel alone. The five-day trip starts at $799 per person double and includes round-trip air from BWI Marshall on WOW, four nights at the Hotel Cabin or a similar standard hotel in Reykjavik, daily breakfast and northern lights tour. Sign up for an additional $50 off. Four nights at Hotel Cabin typically costs $668 for two guests. Select departures October through April.

Info: 888-684-5571, www.sourcedadventures.com.

World Spree has several spaces available on a trip to India that includes two days at the Pushkar Camel Fair. Pay $2,049 per person double for the Oct. 27 departure and $2,099 for the Oct. 22 trip. The tour includes round-trip air from New York to Delhi; nine nights hotel in Delhi, Jaipur, Ranthambore and Agra, plus two nights in a luxury tented village near the fair; daily breakfast, six lunches and six dinners; ground transportation; tours with entrance fees, including tiger drives in Ranthambore National Park; airport transfers; and taxes. Priced separately, air and lodging alone cost about $1,995. Info: 866-652-5656, worldspree.com.

Carol Sottili, Andrea Sachs

Prices were verified at time of publish, but deals sell out and availability is not guaranteed. Some restrictions may apply.
Military veterans and their families would see a significant expansion of education benefits through a bill that is being considered by a committee in the House.

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, and Rep. Tim Walz (Minn.), the panels ranking Democrat, would bolster the GI Bill, which offers tuition assistance, by allowing a longer time frame for using that assistance.

We have a duty to care for every man and woman who has served their country honorably as they begin their transition from active duty to civilian life, Roe said in a statement. One essential way we can empower service members is to give them the tools they need to succeed in whatever career they pursue.

[Shifting the mind-set for veterans moving from battlefield to classroom]

In particular, the new legislation would remove the 15-year cap for benefits that had forced veterans to use it or lose it. Eligible veterans would be allowed to go back to school at any time for life. Proponents of the legislation are calling it the Forever GI Bill, because the benefits would not expire for troops who become eligible after Jan. 1, 2018.

The bill also addresses several technicalities that limit the total number of recipients of GI Bill benefits.

The legislation would open eligibility for future generations of veterans, including to reservists who deploy on active duty, recipients of the Purple Heart regardless of the amount of time they serve, and surviving spouses and dependents of veterans who die during their service.

Will Hubbard, the vice president of government relations for Student Veterans of America, said that the goal of the new bill is to make education a right of service and not a cost of war.

If you serve in the military, you should be able to go to school, said Hubbard, a Marine Corps reservist.

The bill also would restore benefits to veterans affected by school closures, including a retroactive provision to offer relief for those who lost benefits because of the recent shutdown of the for-profit ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian College.

Ashlynne Haycock, the senior coordinator for education services at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, said the bill is focused on things that should have been fixed a long time ago.

Officially titled the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, the bill is receiving widespread support among veterans groups, including Student Veterans of America, Got Your 6 and the Travis Manion Foundation.

The Forever GI Bill is a perfect example of how Washington can come together to support our nations veterans and their families, said Lauren Augustine, an Army veteran who deployed to Iraq and serves as director of government relations for Got Your 6.

This bipartisan bill was crafted in the spirit of compromise to not only ensure overwhelming political support but to show how our country should take care of future generations of veterans, Augustine said. There is no better way to empower our veterans when they return home than by providing all those who served a runway to a great education, no matter when they want to pursue their schooling.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Tuesday joined nine other governors to urge Congress to immediately reject efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and focus instead on stabilizing insurance markets.

The bipartisan group  five Democrats, five Republicans and one independent  signed a statement in response to a call by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for a vote on rescinding the law with no plans for an immediate replacement.

This could leave millions of Americans without coverage, the governors said. The best next step is for both parties to come together and do what we can all agree on: fix our unstable insurance markets.

The statement came after the latest Republican effort to overhaul the national health-care system appeared to have fallen apart, effectively killing any chance of implementing a new plan in the near future.

Maryland Democrats had been pressing Hogan, who is expected to run for reelection in 2018, to weigh in more forcefully against GOP plans to repeal the ACA and undo other parts of President Barack Obamas legacy.

For the most part, Hogan has been reluctant to publicly criticize President Trump or congressional Republicans, saying he is focused on running the state, rather than national politics.

But he has opposed some initiatives, including the GOP health-care plans, expressing concerns during meetings with officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Marylands congressional delegation.

On Tuesday, Maryland Democratic Party spokesman Bryan Lesswing dismissed the statement from the governors, saying Hogan waited until the 11th hour to take a firm stance.

The others who signed the statement were Republicans Charlie Baker of Massachusetts; John Kasich of Ohio; Brian Sandoval of Nevada; and Phil Scott of Vermont; Democrats Steve Bullock of Montana; John Bel Edwards of Louisiana; John Hickenlooper of Colorado; and Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania; and Bill Walker (I) of Alaska.

The statement called on congressional lawmakers to work with governors on finding a bipartisan way to provide better insurance for all Americans.
Maya Rockeymoore, center, stands between her husband, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), right, and House Speaker John A. Boehner in 2015 during a reenactment of taking the House oath of office. Rockeymoore is considering a run for Maryland governor, associates say. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Maya Rockeymoore, a policy consultant who is married to longtime U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), says she is weighing a run for Maryland governor in 2018.

Rockeymoore, 46, would be the first woman to join what is shaping up to be a crowded Democratic primary field that includes five declared candidates. Three current and former elected officials also have said they are considering bids for the Democratic nomination to challenge popular incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

Im seriously looking at this race because I have a bold vision for a better, stronger Maryland, she said in a statement provided to The Washington Post. I firmly believe that Maryland is ready for a different kind of leader.

No woman currently holds any of Marylands four statewide elected executive positions. And, for the first time since 1941, the state has no women serving in its congressional delegation.

Rockeymoore is president and chief executive at Global Policy Solutions, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. Her interest in the race was first reported by the political blog Maryland Matters. She did not return requests for comment on Tuesday, but she provided the statement late in the day through Shawna Watley, a close family friend who works as a federal lobbyist.

Maya Rockeymoore, wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), at a Congressional Black Caucus event in 2012. (Macy L. Freeman/The Washington Post)

Watley said that Rockeymoore is talking to friends and key people she respects throughout the state and that if she makes a decision to run, we will know in short order.

Watley said if Rockeymoore decides to run, she is running to win.

A Democratic political operative who has talked to Rockeymoore about a potential run said a key factor in her considerations is Rockeymoores belief that the primary should include a female candidate.

A lot of people dont want to see a race of this magnitude go by without a womans perspective, said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Rockeymoore had not authorized the conversation. Shes looking for a way to serve and a way to magnify and affect things important to her.

Rockeymoore, a former adjunct political science professor at American University, is not widely known in Maryland political circles apart from her husband. Although the primary is still nearly a year away, some Maryland politicians said Tuesday that she would be getting a relatively late start on fundraising and name recognition.

Jill Carter, a former delegate from Baltimore, called Rockeymoore a dynamic woman but said that just being married to Elijah Cummings is not enough to elevate her to the top.

According to her firms website, Rockeymoore is an expert on health, income security, education, womens issues and youth civic participation.

She previously served as chief of staff to New York congressman Charles B. Rangel (D) and as vice president of research and programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Rockeymoores name was mentioned last year as a possible candidate to fill Cummingss seat if he entered the race to succeed U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D). Cummings did not seek the seat, which is now held by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D).

If she enters the governors race, Rockeymoore would join a field that includes Prince Georges County Executive Rushern L. Baker III; former NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, who recently won an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery); entrepreneur Alec Ross; and attorney James Shea.

U.S. Rep. John Delaney, former state attorney general Doug Gansler and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz are also weighing bids for the 2018 Democratic nomination.

Elijah Cummings, 66, has been recovering at home and at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore since undergoing a heart procedure on May 24, an aide said. He has been in contact with his staff and carrying out many of his congressional duties remotely. The aide did not say when he is expected to return to Capitol Hill.

Jenna Portnoy contributed to this report.
Plaintiff Betty Dukes talks to the media on the steps of the Supreme Court after the class-action lawsuit Dukes v. Wal-Mart was argued in 2011. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Betty Dukes, a Wal-Mart greeter who took the retail giant all the way to the Supreme Court in the largest gender bias class-action lawsuit in U.S. history, died July 10 at her home in Antioch, Calif. She was 67.

Her niece Rita Roland confirmed the death but did not provide a cause.

As the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Ms. Dukes alleged in the 2001 lawsuit that the company violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race, creed or gender.

Ms. Dukes said Wal-Mart systemically paid women less than male counterparts and promoted men to higher positions at faster rates than women. In 2011 the case reached the Supreme Court, where it was dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs did not suffer from a common policy of discrimination, The Washington Post reported.

Because respondents provide no convincing proof of a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy, we have concluded that they have not established the existence of any common question necessary for a class-action suit, Justice Antonin Scalia said in the 5-to-4 opinion.

Betty Dukes testifies on Capitol Hill in 2011 during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine the factors at issue in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart ruling. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Ms. Dukes was born in Louisiana in 1950 and moved west at a young age with her mother, who was in search of work. She later married but had no children. In 1994 she enthusiastically accepted an offer to work the Wal-Mart cash registers part time for $5 an hour. She dreamed of turning around a hard life by advancing, through work and determination, into Wal-Mart corporate management.

I was focused on Wal-Marts aggressive customer service, Ms. Dukes said in 2011 interview during her lunch break, after first saying grace over a meal of fast-food hamburgers and chicken nuggets. I wanted to advance. I wanted to make that money.

When Ms. Dukes needed change to make a small purchase during her break, she asked a colleague to open a cash register with a one-cent transaction, which she claimed was a common practice.

She was demoted for misconduct. She complained to a manager that the punishment was too severe and part of a long campaign of discrimination that began almost as soon as she started working for Wal-Mart in Pittsburg, Calif., a blue-collar city of about 100,000, about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

When those complaints were ignored, Ms. Dukes sought legal advice and ended up serving as the lead plaintiff in what would become the vast class-action suit.

Ms. Dukes, who worked for Wal-Mart until last year, was an ordained minister. In her off time, she helped organize community banquets with speakers celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month. She also helped distribute food to the needy.
Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Elizabeth Donohue, volunteer

Elizabeth Donohue, 75, a volunteer advocate for the elderly, died July 14 at a hospital in the District. The cause was cancer, said her husband, Thomas Donohue, chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs. Donohue was born Elizabeth Schulz in Queens. She settled in the Washington area in 1976 and was a resident of Arlington, Va. For more than 20 years, she was a volunteer ombudsman in support of care-related interests of the elderly and infirm and their families.

Harry Pete Howton, business owner

Harry Pete Howton, 74, a Vietnam War veteran who built several successful technology companies that work with the Defense Department and federal agencies, died July 6 at his home in Falls Church, Va. The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Elizabeth Howton.

Mr. Howton was born in Bristol, Va. He served in the Navy for nearly a decade, including a stint at the head of a Swift boat patrol vessel in Vietnam, before retiring as a lieutenant in 1975. He worked for the defense contractor Syscon Corp. in San Diego before moving to Northern Virginia and starting his own military-focused businesses in the late 1980s.

After selling one company, Gray Hawk Systems, to ManTech International Corp. in 2005, he co-founded Kingfisher Systems and served as chairman emeritus until shortly before his death.

Anne Donovan Whalen, speech therapist

Anne Donovan Whalen, 78, a New York public schools speech therapist for 19 years who settled in the Washington area in 1982 and became a volunteer, died June 13 at a District hospital. She was accidentally struck by her own car 11 days earlier, said a daughter, Honore Nora Whalen.

Mrs. Donovan Whalen, a D.C. resident, was born Anne Donovan in Bayonne, N.J. She attended Annunciation Catholic Church in the District, volunteering as a parochial school librarian. She also volunteered with Meals on Wheels and the Womans National Democratic Club.

Andrew Jackson Somerville, builder, horseman

Andrew Jackson Somerville Jr., 88, former chairman, president and chief executive of his family business, Thos. Somerville Co., and an owner and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses on Marylands Eastern Shore, died June 20 at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. The cause was cancer, said a son, Charles Somerville.

Mr. Somerville was a fifth-generation Washingtonian. He spent 31 years in the family business, which specializes in plumbing, heating, air-conditioning and real estate, before retiring in 1981 as board chairman. He then founded Somerville Associates, a commercial real estate firm, and participated in management and commercial sales until his death.

Alan James, lawyer, State Dept. officer

Alan James, 96, a lawyer who specialized in admiralty law and a State Department officer who served as a delegate to international panels on laws of the sea, died June 13 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. The cause was heart ailments, said a daughter, Anne James.

Mr. James, a Bethesda resident, was born in Brooklyn. In the 1950s, he began his State Department career as an administrative and political counselor specializing in maritime matters. He was a political counselor at U.S. embassies in London and Paris as well as a delegate to laws of the seas treaty conferences. From 1982 to 1995, he chaired the State Department Board of Appellate Review, which reviews individual nationality cases. He was an avocational scholar who specialized in the works of Henry James (no relation).

Charles Woodward Jr., judge

Charles Woodward Jr., 98, a Montgomery County lawyer, a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1955 to 1963 and senior judge of the Maryland District Court for Montgomery County, died June 21 at a health-care center in Gaithersburg, Md. The cause was pneumonia, said a son, Patrick Woodward, chief judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Judge Woodward, a resident of Rockville, Md., was born in Poolesville, Md. He had a private law practice in Rockville from 1948 to 1974. He was then named to the District Court, whose jurisdiction includes landlord-tenant disputes, misdemeanors, and certain felonies and civil cases. He was a senior judge of the court from 1987 to 1998. He was a past president of the Montgomery County Bar Association.

Eslyn Banks, consulting firm executive

Eslyn Banks, 96, who retired in 2005 as vice president of administration with R.L. Banks & Associates, a railroad transportation consulting firm started by her husband, died May 26 at her home in the District. The cause was a stroke, said a son, Charles Banks.

Mrs. Banks was born Eslyn Parnes in Brooklyn and moved to the Washington area in 1949. She joined the consulting firm at its founding in 1956. Her memberships included the League of Women Voters.

Richard Olson, congressional staffer

Richard Olson, 94, who worked in the offices of Rep. Morris Udall (D-Ariz.) in the 1960s and Sen. Dick Clark (D-Iowa) and Rep. Joe L. Evins (D-Tenn.) in the late 1970s and as a special assistant to House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), died June 22 in a retirement community in Lake Ridge, Va. The cause was complications from Parkinsons disease, said a son, Jeff Olson.

Mr. Olson, a native of St. Paul, Minn., was a journalist and public relations specialist in Tucson before coming to Washington. In 1969, he worked with Udall on the congressional hearings into the 1968 massacre of unarmed civilians by U.S. troops in the South Vietnamese village of My Lai.

He was then editor of Living Wilderness magazine before returning to Congress in 1975. As a Wright appointee, he was chief of staff for a conference of Senate and House committees working on the Energy Security Act of 1980. He retired from congressional work in 1982 and then was an executive for about four years with DynCorp, a government services contracting company.

Leonard Biegel, communications specialist

Leonard Biegel, 80, a communications and public relations specialist who ran his own business and worked in a variety of capacities for other public relations organizations, died May 29 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. The cause was complications after heart bypass surgery, said a son, Adam Biegel.

Mr. Biegel, a Bethesda resident, was born in New York and had lived in the Washington area since 1970. From 2003 until his death, he was president of the Biegel Group. Over the years, he also had been an officer or consultant to public relations and communications firms including FleishmanHillard and Burson-Marsteller.

Patricia Barnett-Brubaker, intelligence analyst

Patricia Barnett-Brubaker, 102, who joined the State Department after World War II and retired in 1980 as deputy director of the office of intelligence for East Asia and the Pacific, died June 1 at a retirement center in Mitchellville, Md. The cause was complications from a stroke, said a daughter, Eugenia Barnett.

Mrs. Barnett-Brubaker was born Patricia Glover in White Plains, N.Y., and moved to the Washington area in 1943 to work for the Office of Strategic Services, the CIAs wartime predecessor. She was active at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Bethesda, Md., and helped maintain hiking trails as a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. At the ages of 75, 80, 85 and 90, she hiked the full 184 miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

Carl Kusrow, diplomatic courier

Carl Kusrow, 74, a State Department diplomatic courier from 1969 to 1994 who traveled about the world delivering sensitive material to and among embassies, died June 5 at a hospital in Reston, Va. The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest, said a son, Daniel Kusrow.

Mr. Kusrow, a Reston resident, was born in Seattle. His avocations included collecting and researching Confederate firearms.

 From staff reports
Amanda Sue Allen, 30, is sought by police in connection with an incident of alleged child neglect in Prince William County. (Courtesy of Prince William County Police)

A 30-year-old woman is on the run after she left a 2-year-old boy and a baby whom she was babysitting unattended outside their apartment in Dumfries, Va., police say.

Police in Prince William County said Amanda Sue Allen of the 3200 block of Burbank Lane in Woodbridge is wanted on charges of felony child neglect and giving a false identity to law enforcement.

The incident unfolded just after noon Saturday in the 3500 block of Briarwood Drive when police officers responded to investigate a report of child neglect. When they arrived, they found the boy and an 11-month-old girl unattended outside their apartment, according to a police statement.

Officers found the babysitter asleep inside the childrens home. At some point during the investigation, Allen allegedly climbed out of a back bedroom window and left the area.

Police also realized that she had given a false name to law enforcement and was wanted for a probation violation. They are still searching for her.

The children were released into the custody of a family member. They were not injured.

Allen is a white woman with red hair and green eyes, police said. She stands about 5-foot-8 and weighs about 225 pounds, according to a police description.
Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released the information following a petition by investigative journalist Jason Leopold, now with BuzzFeed, that was joined by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Sealed law enforcement requests to track Americans without a warrant through cellphone location records or Internet activity grew sevenfold in the past three years in the District, new information released by a federal judge shows.

Details about the growth come as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to rein in such rapidly expanding demands.

Legal experts said the disclosure Monday appears to mark a first, and that neither the Justice Department nor private companies have previously made public such specific data about how often law enforcement agencies seek those court orders.

[Supreme Court to decide if a warrant is needed to track a suspect through cellphone records]

The summary data gave counts of requests by year from 2008 through 2016 made in criminal cases handled by the Justice Department or U.S. attorneys office for the District. Details about each individual case, such as the name of a suspect or what records were sought, were not disclosed.

The requests were made under a 1986 statute that enables law enforcement agencies to obtain court orders requiring communication service providers to turn over records about individual customers. The orders do not apply to information about telephone calls, such as the time, date, duration and numbers dialed, which can be obtained in other ways.

Instead, the requests seek individuals Internet connection records or cellphone tower records. Those records exclude the content of communications but can be highly valuable to investigators seeking to establish a history or pattern of movement, conduct or relationships.

The information requests can include Internet browsing logs and activity; the time, date, size, sender and recipient of email, instant or social media messages, or other transaction records; as well as computer identification numbers and information about websites that a user accessed.

[U.S. courts: Electronic surveillance up 500 percent in D.C.-area since 2011, almost all sealed cases]

The tallies were released as part of an open-records lawsuit brought by journalists to unseal a much larger collection of information about court-ordered electronic surveillance in closed criminal investigations in the nations capital.

James X. Dempsey, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, said that the data confirms the common-sense conclusion that secret law enforcement requests for phone and Internet records have surged as they have become routine in criminal cases. He said that the data probably will be noted in a pending Supreme Court debate over the extent of privacy protections and surveillance technology.

The Supreme Court in 2014 ruled unanimously that police generally must obtain a warrant to search the contents of cellphones. Last month, it announced that it will decide next term whether law enforcement agencies need a warrant to track suspects locations through cell site location records, in a challenge brought by a criminal defendant convicted after police obtained five months worth of his location data from his phone company.

Lower courts have said that decades-old privacy rulings may need to be updated to account for societys reliance on rapidly changing technology.

For example, appellate courts are also weighing whether a warrant is required by law enforcement agencies to covertly collect cellphone information using new devices that mimic cell towers to elicit data from targeted numbers.

[A Maryland court is the first to require a warrant for covert cellphone tracking]

Separately, major technology companies including Facebook and Google also have objected to court orders that prohibit them from letting users know when law enforcement investigators ask to search their political communications.

[Facebook says it shouldnt have to stay mum when government seeks user data]

The information release for the District shows that as of 2014, requests for Internet activity and phone-location records began to exceed and now far outnumber requests for telephone metadata, such as the timing and duration of calls to or from specific phone numbers.

Requests for records of Internet activity and phone location hovered between 55 and 160 from 2008 to 2013 before jumping to 334 in 2014, 581 in 2015 and 1,136 in 2016, according to this weeks release. By comparison, the D.C. federal court previously reported that metadata requests have ranged from 329 in 2006 to a low of 189 in 2016.

Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released the information following a petition by investigative journalist Jason Leopold, now with BuzzFeed, that was joined by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

They seek all government electronic surveillance applications and orders in closed investigations that directed private service providers to turn over users call information as well as information related to tracked devices, stored emails or customer records.

The latest count may have missed some requests because the court clerks office relied on a search of header information in its electronic case-filing system and overcounted others if a particular request was renewed for more than one year, Howell wrote in a court notice.

But neither potential error would necessarily account for the three-year surge in the Internet search requests.

Jeffrey Louis Light, Leopolds lawyer, said he had no idea why the volume of requests has surged, but I now know this is the next question to ask.

Were starting to put together the framework of how the government has been using these various tools at its disposal, and how it has changed over time, Light said. I certainly hope that other district courts would eventually make these kinds of numbers available as well.

Under current law, prosecutors seeking Internet connection and cell-tower records are not required to obtain a search warrant, which requires showing a judge probable cause that a crime has been committed. Instead, they need to meet a lower legal threshold, offering reasonable grounds to believe the records they are after are relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Dempsey said the spike and volume of such requests in the District will factor into the Supreme Court deliberations.

The government, in arguing against warrants, will say this has become a standard technique and often one of the first steps we take in an investigation before weve even established probable cause, and requiring us to obtain a warrant will cut off an important building block of many investigations, Dempsey said.

He added that those seeking a warrant requirement will say, look, this has gotten out of control. . . . Its time for the court to make it clear this information is highly sensitive and revealing and therefore should only be obtained in the later stages of an investigation.

[This judge just released 200 secret government surveillance requests]

Katie Townsend, litigation director for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, said that the governments use of such orders is shrouded in secrecy.

Not only do individuals not know that their communications records are being sought from third parties, she said, but applications are filed on dockets that are not public, and they are generally kept under seal, often permanently.

She added, We think it is critically important that there be more transparency when it comes to these kinds of legal demands.

A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District has said in court filings that it agreed in principle that surveillance cases did not necessarily need to be permanently sealed, and has agreed to some earlier disclosures.
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

View Results
Juan McCullum, shown in December 2003 when he was a Mississippi State student body vice president, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges in connection with the circulation of nude images and video of his former employer, a congressional delegate from the Virgin Islands, and her husband. (Joe Ellis/Clarion Ledger via AP)

A former staff member to the Virgin Islands elected representative to Congress pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the circulation of nude images and video of the representative and her husband.

Juan R. McCullum, 35, of Washington, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the capital on two counts of cyberstalking Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), for whom he worked as a legislative counsel from April 2015 until June 2016. The July 11 indictment was unsealed Thursday.

McCullum entered a plea but not did not speak at a brief arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Deborah A. Robinson of Washington, where he was represented by his court-appointed attorney, Stuart Sears.

McCullum was released on personal recognizance but on several conditions, including that he stay away from the delegates family and staff online and in person and not travel internationally. He was also told not to access Facebook or any applications that automatically delete communications, not to use anonymizing software, and to not delete electronic files dated after Jan. 1, 2016.

Federal prosecutors and the U.S. Capitol Police announced charges last week against McCullum and a co-worker, Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Md., who was Plasketts scheduler from January 2015 until April 2016 and who has pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice.

Browne-Louis also has been released on her own recognizance. Both defendants are due back in court Wednesday.

[Two former staffers charged in cyberstalking of U.S. House member, husband]

Government charging documents did not name Plaskett, but stated that both defendants worked for the same nonvoting House delegate, identified by the initials S.P.

Plaskett last week confirmed that she is S.P., issuing statements thanking investigators and condemning perpetrators of an organized smear campaign and defamatory press reports concerning both me and my family.

According to the indictment, McCullum offered in March 2016 to help take the delegates 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, after McCullum left the delegates 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.

Some of the personal photographs surfaced on the Internet shortly before a Democratic primary. Plaskett, 51, a lawyer and former New York City prosecutor and Justice Department official, went on to win with 85 percent of the vote, then won reelection in November to her second House term.

Plaskett last summer criticized 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 . . . 

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.

McCullum faces charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison. Browne-Louis faces charges that carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and has been released on personal recognizance.

McCullum is a former reality TV star who was known as Pretty and appeared on VH1s I Love New York, according to a 2015 profile in The Hill newspaper.
A man operating a motorcycle was critically injured Monday night in a four vehicle crash in Prince Georges County, the county police said.

The crash involved two cars and two motorcycles, said Cpl. Tyler Hunter, a police spokesman. It occurred about 7:45 p.m. on on Harry S. Truman Drive North in the Largo area of the county.

The crash was under investigation late Monday night.
Authorities have released a composite sketch of a man who was found slain on a Riverdale roadway as they continue to try to determine his identity.

The Hispanic man, 35 to 40 years old, was found shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday in the 6200 block of 60th Avenue with multiple injuries, according to Prince Georges County police. An autopsy determined that the man was a victim of homicide.

The sketch showed that the man had facial hair and a mole on his chin, but police said there are no distinguishing marks or tattoos on his body.

Detectives planned to return to the neighborhood Tuesday evening to canvass the community for information about the case.

Authorities are asking anyone who has any details about the incident to call 301-772-4925 or 866-411-8477.
At least 10 people were injured in Southeast Washington Tuesday after they were shot with paintball guns in six separate incidents, D.C. police said.

Two people driving a tan or silver late model Ford Fusion fired paintball guns at people at six different locations at around 11 a.m., a spokeswoman for D.C. police wrote in an email: the 1200 block of Trenton Place SE; the 3400 block of 13th Street SE; Trenton Place and Stanton Road SE; the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE; the 2200 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE; and 17th and T streets SE.

At least 10 people were injured, the email said, and up to three were hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening.

This behavior will not be tolerated in the District of Columbia, D.C. police said in a statement. Our officers are working to identify these individuals and hold them accountable.

Police asked anyone with information about the incidents to contact them at 202-727-9099.
Two firefighters were injured after fighting a blaze at a rowhouse in Northwest Washington.

The two-alarm fire broke out around 1 a.m. on Tuesday in the 200 block of Morgan Street NW near New York Avenue NW in the Shaw neighborhood. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Eight people were displaced but fire officials said working smoke detectors did alert residents to get out of the building.

Two firefighters were injured in fighting a blaze on Morgan Street in Northwest Washington. (Courtesy of D.C. Fire/Courtesy of D.C. Fire)

The firefighters injuries were said to not be serious. Firefighters said the blaze involved the attic, second floor and rear porches of several rowhouses.

[Fire engulfs two D.C. rowhouses early Tuesday]

By 2 a.m., the heaviest part of the fire had been put out but parts of the street were closed for a bit as crews continued to deal with the cleanup.

One of the firefighters was transported to a hospital and another suffered non-life-threatening injuries. It was not immediately known if the second firefighter was transported to a hospital.
Culpeper County sheriffs deputies on Monday fatally shot a driver who refused to pull over and displayed a shotgun, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.

Deputies shot Eric Wesley Clark, 43, of Culpeper after a vehicle pursuit that lasted several minutes, according to a statement from the state police, who are investigating. Clark did not fire the gun at the deputies, Geller said, but the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office wrote in a Facebook post that Clark presented a deadly threat.

Im so grateful that our deputies are safe, the Facebook post quoted Sheriff Scott Jenkins as saying. Im deeply saddened by what they were forced to do and pray for comfort for everyone affected by this incident.

The events began when the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office received a 911 call shortly before 10 p.m. Monday reporting that there had been a domestic assault at a residence and that the suspect, identified as Clark, had left, police said. A description of Clarks vehicle was broadcast to law enforcement.

About an hour later, a deputy saw the vehicle and turned on his emergency lights to pull the driver over, police said.

Clark refused to stop, and two more deputies joined the chase. The vehicle was eventually stopped near Route 522 and Griffinsburg Road. During the subsequent encounter with those deputies, Clark was shot and died at the scene, state police said.

Clarks family could not be reached Tuesday.

The deputies involved are on modified duty until the investigation has been completed, which is standard procedure in such cases. Their names were not immediately released.
THE DISTRICT

Vehicle crashes into

barrier near Capitol

Several streets were closed for nearly four hours Monday and a coffeehouse was evacuated after a vehicle struck a barrier and a police car near the Capitol, according to authorities.

Police used explosives to open the vehicles trunk and, after a long investigation that disrupted traffic, determined that there was nothing suspicious inside.

A spokeswoman for the Capitol Police said the vehicles driver, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The spokeswoman said he has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, felony assault on a police officer, aggravated reckless driving and driving without a permit.

The incident occurred about 11:45 a.m. at Independence Avenue and Second Street SE. All roads except Independence Avenue between Second and Third streets reopened shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Authorities said a Capitol Police officer was slightly injured in the crash and was treated and released at a hospital for treatment.

 Peter Hermann and Paul Kane

One person shot,

another is stabbed

One person was shot and another was stabbed in incidents in Northeast and Southeast Washington.

The conditions of those who were injured were not known.

The shooting happened late Sunday in the 900 block of D Street NE near Maryland Avenue in the Capitol Hill area.

Barely an hour later, at about 1 a.m., the stabbing occurred in the 1500 block of Good Hope Road SE near Minnesota Avenue SE.

Police said they were looking for four suspects in the shooting. They were seen in a black Toyota sport-utility vehicle on D Street.

It was not immediately known whether the incidents are connected.

 Dana Hedgpeth

MARYLAND

Police try to identify

man found dead

Authorities are seeking the publics help to identify a man who was found dead in a roadway in Riverdale over the weekend.

The man was found at about 4:40 a.m. Sunday in the 6200 block of 60th Avenue, Prince Georges County police said. He died of unknown injuries and was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital, police said.

The man, who has no distinguishing marks or tattoos, is described as Hispanic between 35 and 40 years old, police said.

 Lynh Bui
Prince William County said Tuesday that it will donate $30,000 to support the legal efforts of residents fighting against a proposed Dominion Energy transmission route in the Haymarket area linked to plans for a new computer data center in the area.

Dominion is a corporate bully, Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, said before the board voted unanimously to use budget contingency funds to donate to the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, one of several neighborhood groups protesting plans for a route through an area along Carver Road where descendants of a former slave have lived for generations.

We are going to stand up and we are going to stick with you, Stewart told Carver Road residents who showed up to the county government center to plead for support. We are going to protect the Carver Road community.

The move by Prince William came amid a growing effort to persuade the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, to reverse its decision last month to allow Dominion to build a six-mile transmission route along Carver Road that would mean installing 100-foot-high towers carrying lines with 230,000 volts of power.

Dominion officials have said that the extra capacity is also needed to address the increasing demand for power in the area.

The state commission agreed last week to suspend that decision to consider arguments from area residents that VAData  a subsidiary of Amazon.com that has proposed building a 38-acre data-center complex in the area  does not need the extra power to operate. VAData has not responded to repeated requests for comment. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos is owner of The Washington Post.)

Residents argue that the transmission lines would disrupt their community and pose environmental and health hazards.

They want the state commission to order Dominion to build a route along Interstate 66 with the lines partially buried  an option estimated to cost $167 million, which the regulatory agency had previously ruled as too costly. The Carver Road route would cost about $62 million.

The money does not outweigh our lives, Nathan Grayson, one of the Carver Road residents, said before the vote. Were trying to live there peacefully until the end.

Dominion officials have said that they will work with residents along any route to avoid displacing people from their homes.

The utility company also said that it warned Prince William County of the repercussions for Carver Road residents while pursuing an alternative path along a freight railroad line that required county approval to use adjoining land  a request the Board of County Supervisors unanimously rejected.

The residents of Carver Road should look no further than Corey Stewart and the Prince William County Board of Supervisors for the reason why the State Corporation Commission selected their community to build this project, Dominion spokesman Charles Penn said in a statement. The Railroad Route was the least impactful route; a route that would have resulted in some trees being removed. Yet overhead powerlines still would have been hidden from view.

Residents said that the county donation will help but that it may take a lot more than $30,000 to fight a legal battle that could land in the state Supreme Court should the state commission decide to stick with the Carver Road route.

The level of work this fight entails is overwhelming if you dont have the resources, said Elena Schlossberg, director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County.
Danica Roem, Democratic nominee for the House of Delegates 13th District seat, talks with voters on June 21 in Manassas, Va. (Steve Helber/AP)

Democrat Danica Roem, the transgender ex-journalist who is challenging Del. Robert G. Marshall in Prince William County, far outpaced the conservative Republican in fundraising last month, an early indication that her campaign is drawing significant interest from inside and outside Virginia.

Roem, 32, raised $85,637 between June 2 and June 30, according to campaign disclosures released Monday by the Virginia Department of Elections. Marshall, 73, collected $4,585 during the same period.

The two candidates offer stark differences to voters in the changing 13th District, with Roem pushing to be the first openly transgender person elected in Virginia, and Marshall, a longtime foil to the LGBT community, reflecting a conservative streak that remains in the area he has represented since 1992.

[She is transgender. He proposed a bathroom bill. Theyre running against each other in Northern Virginia.]

Marshall sponsored Virginias constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage  which stood until the U.S. Supreme Court declared such prohibitions unconstitutional  and this year proposed a bathroom bill that would have barred transgender people from using public restrooms designated for the sex with which they identify.

Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) gestures during a committee hearing at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., in January. (Steve Helber/AP)

Roem has highlighted the bathroom bill in her campaign and accuses Marshall of doing too little to address traffic congestion and other problems in the district, which includes Gainesville and portions of Manassas.

In her effort to unseat a popular incumbent who is seeking his 14th term in office, the former reporter for the Gainesville Times has launched an aggressive campaign since she prevailed in the Democratic primary last month, knocking on voters doors each week in search of support this November.

Were building a campaign that can win, and we dont have to sell out our values to do it, Roem said. Ill be able to demonstrate through governing that a transgender person who has in-depth knowledge about the public policy issues affecting her district and has long-standing ties to her community can succeed in politics and government.

Roems fundraising puts her close to Marshall in funds available. After expenses, including direct mail and phone calls to voters, Roem has $72,224 on hand. Marshall, who says he has not yet fully mounted his reelection campaign, has $81,542, reports show.

Roem received a mixture of large donations from people outside Virginia and amounts of as little as $25 from people in Virginia.

Chris Abele, the county executive in Milwaukee and chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, gave $35,000, her report shows. Flippable, the New York political consulting firm that has targeted Virginia as a place to win more Democratic seats, donated $10,000.

Marshalls report shows that he has so far relied mostly on donors from in and around the district. He argued that the outside money going to Roems campaign shows that she does not have the support she needs from voters.

Marshall also said he wont need as much campaign money as Roem will because he designs his own campaign brochures and relies on volunteers to help him get out the vote.

Im not worried, Marshall said, adding that he has been focused on his wife Cathys recent bout with ovarian cancer and on issues in his district. Among them: a controversial state proposal to build a Bi-County Parkway between Prince William and Loudoun counties that would extend Route 234 north to Route 50, and a proposed Dominion Energy power-line route that residents in the Haymarket area are fiercely opposing.

Am I talking to voters all the time? Yes, Marshall said. Its just not the going-door-to-door stuff. But Im not going to be in cruise-control mode very much longer.
TEXAS

Former policeman indicted in death of teen

A white former Texas police officer has been indicted on a murder charge in the April shooting death of a black teenager who was leaving a party, prosecutors said Monday.

Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson announced that a grand jury indicted former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver in the death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. Oliver was fired in May for violating department policies after police department officials reviewed body camera footage of the incident, which showed Oliver shooting his rifle into a moving vehicle that was traveling away from him and another officer.

Edwards, a high school freshman, was leaving the party with his two brothers and two other teenagers when shots from Olivers rifle pierced the front passenger-side window and hit Edwards in the head.

Johnson said Oliver was also indicted on four charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public official. Those charges relate to the other teens who were in the car.

Oliver was charged with murder by the Dallas County Sheriffs Office in May, less than a week after the shooting.

 Associated Press

NORTH CAROLINA

Former senator Hagan recovering at home

Former North Carolina senator Kay Hagan is getting outpatient treatment as she recovers from brain inflammation caused by a virus spread from animals to humans by ticks. Hagans family told friends and well-wishers that she was discharged this month from an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital she had entered in January.

Hagan, a 64-year-old Democrat, served six years in the U.S. Senate. She defeated Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) in 2008 but lost her seat in 2014 to Republican Thom Tillis. Hagan later worked as a policy consultant at a Washington law firm.

 Associated Press
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), center, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday about the collapse of the Senate Republican health bill. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

The implosion of the Senate Republicans health-care ambitions leaves the Affordable Care Act intact for the moment  but immediately creates worrisome unpredictability for the 10 million Americans who buy health plans through the laws insurance marketplaces.

These consumers could face a rocky few months at the least, as the insurers on which they rely decide how to respond to the political chaos. Some companies could become more skittish about staying in the marketplaces for 2018, while others could try to ratchet up their prices depending on how events in Washington unfold.

With his bill doomed late Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proposed a short-lived alternate path that would have repealed parts of the sprawling 2010 law and effectively wiped out its requirement that most people carry coverage. Insurers have long feared an end to that mandate, arguing that the marketplaces work only if everyone is insured.

Lacking clarity from Congress, the White Houses powers over the nations health policy loom large and murky. Although President Trump on Tuesday reiterated his intention to let Obamacare fail, he has not yet made two critical decisions.

Most immediately, the administration has the power to decide whether to halt the billions of dollars in payments to health plans that help their lower-income ACA customers afford deductibles and other coverage expenses. Those cost-sharing subsidies benefit 7 million Americans. The president could turn off the spigot by dropping an appeal of a federal lawsuit filed by the House of Representatives over the payments legality.

(Ashleigh Joplin,Rhonda Colvin/The Washington Post)

The other decision is whether to ease off enforcement of the ACAs penalty for Americans who shirk the coverage mandate. Trump cannot end the mandate without a change in law, but the Internal Revenue Service recently said it would continue to process refunds even when taxpayers flout a requirement to file proof that they have health coverage. The administration could go further.

We are still considering our options, White House spokesman Ninio Fetalvo said.

The disarray in the Senate along with the ambiguity in the administration just continues the sort of volatile environment, said one insurance industry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivities. Its adding uncertainty to what was already an uncertain climate.

The Senates stalemate  with Republicans, who hold the majority, failing to find a way either to rewrite the health-care law or to end a repeal drive that has been the partys guiding aspiration for years  comes at a particularly critical time of year for the ACAs marketplaces.

Participating insurers already have filed the rates they plan to charge in 2018 with state agencies and federal health officials. In fact, some have submitted two sets of prices to account for whatever happens with those subsidies  and may need to choose before the president makes up his mind.

In early August, the 2018 rates are scheduled to be published by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And in late September, the insurers selling health plans for next year must sign contracts with the government.

Less than four months away is the start of the next enrollment season for new and returning customers.

The willingness of insurers to sell plans on the marketplaces, intended for people who cannot get affordable health benefits from a job, is one of the linchpins responsible for the drop in the ranks of the uninsured since the exchanges opened in 2014.

Republicans, including Trump, have long contended that the marketplaces are collapsing. They have pointed to insurance rates that spiked in many places this year and threaten to do so again in 2018, as well as the defection of several of the nations largest insurers.

Yet other evidence suggests that the GOPs determination to tear apart the ACA comes, ironically, as the marketplaces are finding stability. A study released this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed two measures of the financial health of insurers selling policies directly to individuals and families  the type of coverage in the ACA exchanges.

On average, the insurers are on a path toward regaining profitability in 2017, the study concluded.

That could still all blow up through administration actions or what Congress might do, said Larry Levitt, Kaisers senior vice president.

For the coming year, officials in several states have worried that they might have areas without any insurers willing to sell plans on their exchanges. About 25,000 customers in 38 counties in Ohio, Nevada and Indiana face that prospect at the moment.

They and the 20 million other people who rely on the ACAs insurance benefits  through either marketplace plans or an expanded version of Medicaid  are part of the buzz saw thwarting Senate Republicans efforts to demolish the law.

History is not on the GOPs side. Congress has never managed to reverse a major program of social benefits once constituents have begun to draw upon it. And it took eight decades of futile efforts by presidents from both parties before President Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress achieved a major expansion of health insurance aiming to encompass all Americans.

So even with the GOPs domination of political Washington, the collapse of the Senates Better Care Reconciliation Act is more norm than outlier.

Still, it leaves consumers and insurers alike craving certainty.

The failure of the Senate bill is a victory for consumers, but they are still on unstable ground until the administration shifts their approach and starts working not to tear down their health care, said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a liberal consumer health lobby.

Last week, as Senate Republicans were sparring over their bill, Cigna chief executive David Cordani said that what he most wanted from lawmakers was clarity around the ruleset. The ACA, he said, is a basket of many ingredients  the insurance requirement, the cost-sharing subsidies and the enrollment procedures among them.

How that basket gets refreshed, changed or solidified, he said, is whats most important.
UKRAINE

Russian-backed rebels proclaim a new state

Separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of the country. But Russia, their chief backer, sought to play down the announcement, saying it was merely part of public discussion.

The surprise announcement in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on a 2015 cease-fire deal meant to stop fighting in Ukraines industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kievs fold while granting them wide autonomy.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russian-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most areas now part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of directing the rebels hand and seeking to split Ukraine in pieces.

Russian official Boris Gryzlov dismissed the announcement, saying, I see it merely as an invitation for discussion. This announcement does not have any legal consequences.

 Associated Press

YEMEN

Saudi-led coalition grounds U.N. flight

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen prevented a U.N. flight carrying aid agency staff from traveling to the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, on Tuesday because three international journalists also were aboard, aviation officials said.

The coalition, which intervened in the ongoing Yemen conflict in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, controls the airspace over Yemen.

The aviation officials said the flight was prevented from taking off from Djibouti because three BBC journalists were on it.

A U.N. spokesman confirmed the report. The coalition claimed that the security of the journalists could not be guaranteed in rebel-controlled areas and advised the three journalists to travel on commercial flights, said Ahmed Ben Lassoued of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen.

Its unfortunate and partially explains why Yemen, which is one of the worlds largest humanitarian crises, is not getting enough attention in international media, he added.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million.

 Reuters

FRANCE

Top left-wing politician embroiled in jobs probe

The office of the Paris prosecutor said Frances leading left-wing politician  a vocal opponent of President Emmanuel Macron  is embroiled in a corruption probe into alleged fictional parliamentary assistant jobs in the European Parliament.

Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said Tuesday that Jean-Luc Melenchon, a former European Parliament member, is being investigated as part of the inquiry targeting 19 others and their former parliamentary assistants.

The inquiry is trying to establish whether parliamentary assistants working for French political parties were illegally paid with European Parliament money.

Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed party, on Tuesday denied any wrongdoing.

Former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front faces preliminary charges in a similar inquiry. She denies all charges.

 Associated Press

Duterte seeks extension of martial law: President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law in the southern third of the Philippines until Dec. 31 because the rebellion there will not be completely quelled by July 22, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation, his spokesman said. Duterte declared martial law on May 23 after a bloody siege of the city of Marawi by militants aligned with the Islamic State. More than 550 people, including 413 militants, have been killed in fighting there.

Palestinian attacker killed by Israeli army: The Israeli military said it fatally shot a Palestinian man who rammed his vehicle into soldiers securing a junction north of the West Bank city of Hebron, injuring two. A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but not stopped.

 From news services
This town was liberated from the control of al-Shabab (an Islamist insurgent group) five years ago. But liberated is a relative term. The security bubble created by the presence of U.N. and Ethiopian military forces reaches less than 10 miles outside of town, leaving just a short hike to terrorist land. Women I met in line at a clinic had come from al-Shabab-occupied territory that morning. The insurgency forbids medical treatment from the government, so women must sneak in and out of town for prenatal care. If they are caught with their blue medical-record cards, al-Shabab imposes fines or worse.

In sophisticated propaganda videos, the Islamist insurgency claims to have a working, parallel government, with schools and medical facilities. When I mentioned this to Somalis, they laughed. Al-Shabab is best at taxing movement and businesses, conducting targeted assassinations, and importing al-Qaeda bomb experts. Last year, a double bombing in Baidoa killed more than 30 people. In 2015, fighters wearing Somali army uniforms breached the Baidoa green zone and killed several people across from the compound where I wrote this column.

Most of the men you encounter in the street are armed, and travel outside of town requires a small platoon of guards. The periodic gunshots you hear are disconcerting but usually indicate weddings and other celebrations. It means someone is happy, I was told.

The relative stability of the town attracts IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing from famine-like conditions caused by three years of inadequate rains, further complicated by conflict. More than 700,000 Somalis  well over half of them children  have left their homes due to the drought. At one IDP camp, I spoke with a woman who had all her food and money confiscated at al-Shabab checkpoints. I spoke with a woman who started her trek with six children and ended with four  the other two taken by cholera, which can kill within hours.

Somalia generally gets bad press, focused on starvation, terrorism or piracy. But its not a country composed mainly of hungry Islamist pirates. It is a country in the midst of re-founding itself. It recently elected a promising new president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who has Somali/American dual citizenship and once worked for the New York State Department of Transportation in Buffalo. But Mohamed is now under considerable pressure to produce tangible social and military results.

The Trump administration is correct to insist that, in cases such as this, hard power is foundational. There is no sustained development in a state of nature, the war of all against all. So U.S. drones fly over Somalia and the United States helps train the Somali military. There are rumors that Mohamed may soon undertake a military offensive as a show of strength.

But any rational account of American interests must also include the well-being of the Somali people. More than 3 million Somalis  about one-fourth of the population  are in critical need of help. Poverty and despair do not cause terrorism, but they can contribute to the failure of states, which provides the chaos in which terrorism thrives. Somalia is exhibit A. And conditions are about to get worse. If the drought continues, hundreds of thousands more Somalis will flood places like Baidoa, and tens of thousands of children will be at imminent risk of death from starvation.

The time-compressed disasters  events such as earthquakes and hurricanes  tend to result in concentrated generosity. But a slowly unfolding nightmare is no less frightening. Across South Sudan, northern Nigeria, Yemen and Somalia, we are hearing not urgent shouts, but gradually fading voices. This is one horrifying aspect of meeting severely malnourished children in Baidoas hot, crowded, reeking hospital ward. Some are too weak even to cry, and their quiet bleat may be the saddest sound I have ever heard.

There is little question that the already generous response of the United States and other donors will need to be stepped up even further. But those who find that statement ideologically objectionable  those who believe that our government shouldnt respond in this fashion  can still show their generosity to private and religious groups doing front-line work in the region. (A place to start is the Hunger Relief Fund sponsored by PepsiCo, Google, Twitter and others at globalemergencyresponse.org. One of the groups in this consortium, World Vision, sponsored my visit.)

It is difficult to describe the scale of Somali suffering  a quarter of the population wrestling with hunger and despair. These people require more than a flash of empathy. They need empathy and action as sustained and implacable as the drought itself.

Read more from Michael Gersons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook .
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, I differed with a friend who said I was wrong to support an invasion of Afghanistan to root out al-Qaeda and punish the Taliban. I said the United States had no choice but to make the terrorists and their Afghan hosts pay for what they had done. I insisted I was right. That, amazingly, was almost 16 years ago. I never expected to be right for so long.

Afghanistan has become the war without end. The United States cannot win it and cannot afford to lose it. The country consumes American wealth and lives. More than 2,300 American soldiers have died there. Some $828 billion has been spent there. Generals who once commanded there are deep into their retirement, and soldiers who fought there as youths are approaching middle age. Kiplings Brits could not control the country; neither could the Russians nor, come to think of it, can the Afghans. Afghanistan is not a country. Its a chronic disease.

The Trump administration, like the several that preceded it  George W. Bush twice and Barack Obama twice  is mulling a new approach. This time, there will be no certain date when American involvement will end  a bit of Obama-era silliness that, in effect, told the Taliban to hold on, be patient, and the Yanks will leave. President Trump has reportedly left decisions on troop levels to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine general and a man of such reckless courage that he refused to fawn over Trump at a Cabinet meeting. Somewhere a medal awaits.

Mattis, however, is reportedly cool to a plan developed by Erik Prince that would entail turning over a substantial part of the Afghanistan effort to contracted European professional soldiers  what you and I call mercenaries. The term has an odious connotation, but there is no avoiding it. Prince is referring to British, French, Spanish and other Europeans who are experienced soldiers. They would not, as is now the case with Americans, be rotated out of the country after a period of time to the effect that, in a sense, the United States is always starting anew. These contract soldiers would get about $600 a day to command Afghan troops and be embedded with them  much as U.S. Special Operations forces now are. Trouble is, the United States has a limited number of those forces.

I took the phrase contracted European professional soldiers from an op-ed Prince wrote for the Wall Street Journal. It seems the president read it and was intrigued. Good. The plan has its virtues, the most obvious one being that nothing else has worked  and more of the same is going to produce more of the same. The plan also has its difficulties, one of them being its provenance. Prince is the founder of the highly controversial security firm Blackwater, which he has since sold. While he owned it, though, some of its employees opened fire in Baghdads Nisour Square, killing 17 civilians and wounding more than 20.

If Prince remains controversial, he also remains influential. Hes a former Navy SEAL who has entry to the White House and the CIA, and his sister is Betsy DeVos, the education secretary. Like his sister, Prince is rich and indefatigable. He has been peddling his Afghanistan plan for more than a year, and while it is frequently described with the pejorative term for profit, it has, as Prince contends, a pedigree. Contract Europeans were used by the British East India Company to rule India for more than 100 years.

Princes references to colonial rule are admiring. He has even revived the term viceroy to describe the person who would direct American policy in Afghanistan. By his count, the United States has had 17 military commanders in the past 15 years  not counting ambassadors, CIA station chiefs and, of course, the inevitable special representatives, such as Richard Holbrooke, whose genius and energy were wasted by Obama. All that would stop. The viceroy would run things.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in American history. A loss would allow the country to revert to a terrorist haven. A win would require a commitment in manpower that the United States is not willing to make. In almost 16 years, the fight in Afghanistan has gone from noble cause to onerous obligation. I dont know if Prince has the answer, but he has come up with one way to sustain the fight at less cost in American lives and treasure. Will it work? I dont know, but nothing else has.

Read more from Richard Cohens archive.
Wendy R. Weiser directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Even before the microphones are turned on, the White Houses new voter fraud commission has already done significant damage to American democracy.

By now, most are familiar with the slapstick launch of this so-called bipartisan group, which is set to have its first meeting Wednesday. It was announced in a hurry  two days after the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey  before half its members were selected. Its led by two Republicans and stacked with some of the nations most notorious promoters of vote suppression. Prime among them is its vice chair, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), whose ill-conceived and ill-executed request for state voter data remains a debacle.

Given the commissions fiasco-filled first weeks, its easy to dismiss it as a joke. That would be a mistake. The panel is already having a big impact, and it is in no way benign.

Much of the damage so far flows from Kobachs data request, which has overwhelmed election offices and forced them to spend an inordinate amount of time, money and energy dealing with the commission instead of doing their jobs. State officials have had to compile detailed responses to the letter, engage lawyers to make sure they dont run afoul of state laws and mobilize to reassure citizens that their personal data will be safe. One state official told the Brennan Center for Justice that his office has spent 50 percent of its time in recent weeks responding to calls from concerned constituents.

The request faces no fewer than 10 legal challenges over multiple alleged infractions. Already one commissioner has resigned. And last week, in publishing the first set of public comments, the White House publicly released the addresses and phone numbers of individuals who expressed concern over the privacy of their data.

The farce is also wasting federal resources. Taxpayers will spend at least half a million dollars on the commission, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in February that no federal funds should go toward any examination of voter fraud.

Even more disturbing, the commission has already accomplished one of the main goals critics accuse it of harboring: making people less likely to vote.

Election administrators across the country are reporting that, in response to Kobachs request, voters are asking to be removed from the rolls. The director of elections in Denver said her office has seen more than a 2,000 percent increase in voter registration withdrawals. And the Seminole County, Fla., supervisor of elections  a Republican  said that in his 12 years in office, he has never had to talk so many people out of giving up their right to vote, telling them: Please dont let an action or policy you disagree with have the effect of silencing your most powerful tool to change or affirm it: your vote.

Kobach offered a callous, evidence-free response: Those who withdrew their registration could be people who are not qualified to vote or someone who is not a U.S. citizen saying, Im withdrawing my voter registration because Im not able to vote. 

The commissions threat to publicize private voter information previously protected by the states has naturally caused anxiety and has deeply shaken confidence in election administration. As has its unprecedented effort to assemble a national voter registry at the White House.

The commission plans to match the voter lists it receives from states against other federal databases, such as those used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supposedly to identify ineligible voters on the rolls. This threatens to further undermine confidence. Experts believe that any list matches using data the commission is seeking would significantly inflate the amount of improper voting, and findings could allow the commission to falsely claim it has identified widespread fraud.

The effort has thinly veiled ends: to justify President Trumps absurd claim that he lost the popular vote because of millions of illegal voters and to lay the groundwork for laws that dramatically restrict access to voting, including through strict voter-ID requirements and obstacles to voter registration such as requiring documentary proof of citizenship.

The agenda is pre-baked. According to emails made public last week, Kobach told Trumps transition team in November that he is putting together . . . legislation drafts for submission to Congress and that he had started drafting amendments to the National Voter Registration Act to make clear that proof of citizenship requirements are permitted.

Every minute local officials spend dealing with this sham is time they cannot focus on pressing problems, such as the need to shore up our systems against foreign actors attempting to interfere in our elections, especially Russia.

And yet, Kobach and crew havent even gotten started. We should not underestimate the further damage they can do to the publics confidence in our election system. Its up to us to ensure this farce doesnt turn into a tragedy.
Its exhausting, I know, but dont let outrage fatigue numb you to the moral bankruptcy and gross incompetence of the Trump administration. This ugly departure from American norms and values must be opposed with sustained passion  and with the knowledge that things will probably get worse before they get better.

Heaven help us, look where we are. We have a president  commander in chief of the armed forces, ostensibly the leader of the free world  whose every word is suspect. President Trump is an inveterate liar. He dismisses provable facts as fake news and invents faux facts of his own that bear no relationship to the truth. He simply cannot be trusted.

We have a president whose North Star is naked self-interest, not the good of the country. Trump cares about his family, his company and little else. He dishonors the high office he holds, then reportedly spends hours each day railing against cable-news coverage that he finds insufficiently respectful. His ego is a kind of psychic black hole that devours all who come into its orbit.

We have a president whose eldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman met with emissaries purportedly sent by the Russian government to deliver dirt on Trumps opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump claimed on Twitter that most politicians would have gone to such a meeting, which is another lie. Try to find politicians who say they would have attended.

We have a president who fired the director of the FBI for continuing to investigate this Russia thing  a sophisticated effort by the Russian government, according to U.S. intelligence officials, to tip the election in Trumps favor. Will he also try to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III? If he does, will Congress let him get away with it?

We have a president  was he made in Russia?  who has declared this to be Made in America week, despite the fact that so many of the retail products that bear his name or that of his daughter Ivanka are made in Mexico, China, Indonesia and Bangladesh. When asked about this irony by Politico, a White House spokeswoman responded, Well get back to you on that. They wont.

Trump has broken his promise to help the struggling middle class. After pledging health insurance for everybody, he supported legislation that would strip more than 20 million people of coverage. His approval rating, according to a new Post-ABC News poll, has fallen to 36 percent  a historic low for a president at this point in his tenure. Yet Trump continues to enjoy strong support from self-identified Republicans, whose resentment against liberal elites he plays like a violin.

His administration is in shambles. Members of his inner circle snipe at one another via anonymous quotes to reporters. They compete for the presidents favor not by doing their jobs well but by showing a willingness to defend anything he says and does, no matter how ridiculous. In the space of a week, his surrogates went from the campaign had no meetings with Russians to there was a meeting but no collusion to collusion is not actually a crime. One wonders how they sleep at night.

Trump presents the world with something new: In place of American leadership, there is a vacuum. In keeping with the pattern set at the Group of 20 summit, adversaries will try to use Trumps ignorance to their advantage while allies try to nudge him into doing the right thing. The madman theory of foreign relations can only be employed effectively by a leader who is actually steadfast and serious; Trump is neither.

There is no point in looking to Republicans for salvation. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) still hope to get Trump to sign into law massive cuts in taxes and entitlements. Many rank-and-file members fear Trumps loyal support among the base. The former party of Lincoln has adopted the moral code of the Oakland Raiders late owner Al Davis: Just win, baby.

So that is what Democrats and independents have to do  win. As long as there are pro-Trump majorities in the House and Senate, there will be no real congressional oversight and no brake on an out-of-control presidents excesses. Incumbency and gerrymandered districts mean that winning anti-Trump majorities in 2018 will be difficult. But not impossible.

The Democratic Party needs a plan, a message and a sense of urgency. Trump hopes to bully critics into submission, but the country is bigger than this one president. And much better.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos holds a news conference at the Education Department on July 13 after a day of meetings weighing whether to keep or reject Obama-era guidance that laid out how schools must meet their obligations under Title IX. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Mili Mitra is a Post Opinions intern.

Being a female college student in the United States today  at least for this female college student  means having second thoughts about walking to the library alone after dark. It means organizing a buddy system before attending a party. Most of all, it means knowing that you can do everything in your power to remain safe and still end up part of the 1 in 5 female undergraduates estimated to have experienced some form of sexual assault.

Candice E. Jackson doesnt seem to see it that way. Jackson, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, told the New York Times that 90 percent of campus sexual assault 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.  She later apologized, calling her remark flippant, but the damage was done.

Jackson signaled to students and survivors everywhere that this administration does not plan to take campus assault seriously. Whats worse, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did not immediately repudiate Jacksons statement. Indeed, the day after Jacksons apology, DeVos held three listening sessions to discuss the future of campus assault policies and devoted an entire panel  one-third of her time  to mens rights groups advocating for those who claim to have been falsely accused.

Between a conversation with campus assault survivors, and one with campus administrators and legal experts, DeVos met with representatives from Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), which is known for arguing that female initiation of partner violence is the leading reason for domestic violence, and the National Coalition for Men, whose chapters have published the names and photos of some Title IX complainants with the label false accusers. By giving a platform to these antiquated views, DeVos reinforced the idea that this administration will turn its back on existing campus sexual misconduct policies.

This would be a mistake. The Obama administrations Dear Colleague letter  which urged colleges to treat sexual harassment and violence as sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments  had its flaws, but it served an important purpose in waking colleges up to the seriousness of campus assault.

Before the Obama administration issued its guidance, campus sexual assault was all too often swept under the rug. College administrators would pass cases off to law enforcement and offer little or no support to student victims  or worse, discourage students from filing official reports. By threatening to revoke institutions federal funding, the guidance forced colleges to create better response systems. This likely increased reporting rates, which were abysmally low in years past.

And this is precisely what DeVos and Jackson miss when they normalize the narrative of false accusations. Given the financial, bureaucratic and emotional hurdles to filing a Title IX complaint, it is ridiculous to imagine that campuses are full of vindictive or misguided complainers trying to take advantage of the system.

Nor is this borne out by data: The FBI estimates that somewhere between 2 percent and 10 percent of sexual assault allegations are false, while a 2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics study found that just 12.5 percent of surveyed rape survivors on campus reported their experiences to school officials. Although some situations may involve complicated questions of ambiguous consent or overconsumption of alcohol, the evidence clearly points to a crisis of underreporting, not over-reporting.

The Title IX guidance was created to address this very problem. That isnt to say that it is perfect  far from it. Campus assault policies vary from college to college and can be vague, inconsistent and out of touch with reality. Moreover, the school officials charged with handling these cases are often overworked or unprepared, making the process inefficient and susceptible to misuse. But the answer isnt to remove the guidance altogether and return to a system that was stacked against survivors.

We need a good-faith effort to reform the system  one that retains the strengths of the current process and hammers out its flaws. There is a reasonable debate over the standard of evidence used in Title IX decisions and how school administrators can be trained to respond to reports of misconduct. What shouldnt be up for discussion is the need for federal guidance forcing colleges to take a critical look at sexual violence on their campuses.

If DeVos does withdraw or seriously undermine the Title IX guidance, she will broadcast to colleges that they can fall back into complacency  and tell perpetrators that the clampdown on campus assault is at an end. Perhaps the outcry over Jacksons remarks will deter DeVos. But Im not holding out much hope. When I return to campus in September, Im bringing pepper spray.
D.C. MAYOR Muriel E. Bowser (D) had cause to take pride in a recent groundbreaking for the first of six family homeless shelters set to replace the decrepit facility at the former D.C. General Hospital. Unlike previous mayors with similar plans, Ms. Bowser was able to overcome neighborhood opposition, personal attacks and other obstacles.

The tragic disappearance three years ago of 8-year-old Relisha Rudd from D.C. General followed years of official tolerance of children and their families being housed in intolerable conditions. Relisha, missing and presumed dead, slipped through the safety net of city services and workers that was supposed to help her. She was last seen in the company of a janitor who worked at D.C. General and who killed himself while being investigated in Relishas disappearance.

Ms. Bowser campaigned on a pledge to close D.C. General, which started in 2001 as an overflow winter shelter but soon became a year-round shelter and currently houses 270 families. The groundbreaking at an empty office building in Ward 4 that is being retrofitted to house 45 homeless families brings the city one step closer to shutting down the decaying and bug-ridden behemoth. Work is set to begin soon on shelters in Wards 7 and 8 and in the coming months in Wards 3, 5 and 6. The small size of the replacement shelters  beautiful and dignified places is how Ms. Bowser once described them  is seen as a more effective environment in which to tackle the combination of issues that result in homelessness.

The administration had hoped to close D.C. General by 2018, but changes by the D.C. Council to the mayors original plan and fierce neighborhood opposition, including lawsuits in Wards 3 and 5, have pushed that back at least a year. As the replacement shelters are brought online and families move out of D.C. General, it is important that the city, which also rents motel rooms to house homeless families, not fall into the trap of refilling the rooms.

Good, then, to hear Ms. Bowser promise that her plans  and her resolve  include not just emptying D.C. General but tearing it down.
By any measure, the collapse of the Senate health-care bill represents an epic failure for the Republican Party and a major embarrassment for President Trump. The crusade that animated  and bound  conservatives for seven years proved to be a mirage, an objective without a solution. Power comes with consequences.

There is no way to spin to those who were promised that the Affordable Care Act would be repealed and replaced once Republicans held full power in Washington that what has happened is the fault of forces outside the party. This has been a GOP undertaking from start to finish. It is as though Republicans unknowingly set a trap and then walked into it without having prepared escape routes.

[Trump suggests Republicans will let ACA market collapse, then rewrite health law]

What price, if any, Republicans will pay for this setback will be revealed over the coming months. Perhaps they will be able to move quickly on other priorities  a tax bill being the most appealing now, although not necessarily a slam dunk  and wash away the bitter taste of the health-care debate. That might be the best they can hope for, but there are no guarantees.

The failed promise to repeal and replace Obamacare surely will affect the mood and enthusiasm of the Republican base heading toward 2018. When the Gallup organization asked Americans about the future of the Affordable Care Act recently, 30 percent overall said they favored repeal and replace, but 70 percent of Republicans supported that option. GOP lawmakers will have left them empty-handed, perhaps disillusioned. That will energize Democrats even more in their quest to take control of the House in 2018.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The breakdown that has been on display over the past weeks also cannot help but bring more attention to divisions inside a Republican Party whose coalition has been reshaped by the rising voice of white working-class voters who helped put Trump in the Oval Office. All parties have divisions, but what Republicans must reckon with is not simply a conflict between conservatives and moderate-conservatives, but differences rooted in potentially incompatible perceptions of government and Washington.

The president spent Tuesday morning tweeting his frustrations, blaming Democrats and a few Republicans for what happened in the Senate. We will return! he said in one tweet. Stay tuned! he said in another. Let Obamacare fail, he proclaimed. Those are standard exhortations by the president, meant to shore up his supporters, but they carry no particular force with those in his party who have been doing the heavy legislative lifting.

[Analysis: Trump has repeatedly broken his core campaign promise]

Instead, those tweets underscored the futility of trying to make what happened on health care anything other than what it was: a self-inflicted wound by a party that succumbed to the easy appeal of campaign slogans without doing the hard work of policymaking over the past seven years.

William Galston of the Brookings Institution noted Tuesday that the health-care debate showed anew that Republicans have not bridged the gap between campaigning and governing. This has been a longtime problem for a party that is at best ambivalent about the federal government and at worst openly anti-government, at least rhetorically. This condition existed before Trump came on the scene. It has worsened because of his political success.

Trumps rise and his victory in the presidential campaign intensified a point of internal conflict for the Republicans, one that pits hard-line, anti-government conservatives against many of those working-class voters who believe in the federal programs that deliver services to them and dont want them eliminated.

The Republican Party is grappling with the fact that conservative orthodoxy is one thing and populism is another, Galston said. Populists are not anti-government. Populists are in favor of government that helps people like them.

The presidents embrace of the Republican promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was and is incompatible with political views he often stated as a candidate. He adopted the rhetoric of repeal and replace, but whenever he talked about health-care policy, he did not sound like a conservative Republican. He wanted coverage for everyone. He didnt want to hurt people. He didnt want to make cuts to entitlement programs, whether Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.

What Trump espoused clashed with what conservative, small-government Republicans long had been preaching. In office, his ambivalence has been evident at virtually every turn in the debate. He complained about the House bill as too mean after publicly praising it. He wanted repeal and replace without any pain. He wanted a victory but could not engineer it.

Republicans have experienced two well-known lessons. Tackling big issues on a partisan basis is fraught with political risk. And once government benefits are extended to tens of millions of Americans, taking them away is as risky politically as it is substantively difficult.

After seven years of the Affordable Care Act, despite its flaws and weaknesses, Republicans were forced to concede that parts of the law were extremely popular. Trying to keep the good while fulfilling a promise to get rid of the measure called for legislative and policy gymnastics beyond their capability.

That a repeal-and-replace effort failed is all the more disheartening for Republicans, given what appeared at the start of the year to be an almost-ideal set of players to carry it to passage. It started with Trump, who had a megaphone, as do all presidents, and a reputation as a skilled dealmaker, and who came to office claiming that he alone could fix things.

In the House, Republicans were led by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), who was long considered enough of a policy expert to be entrusted to develop an alternative to Obamacare that could match the partys goals and produce a legislative majority.

In the Senate, Republicans were led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), regarded not as a policy wonk but as a shrewd and tough-minded legislative strategist, the best of a generation, someone who could shepherd a bill through the legislative maze, if anyone could.

Ryan, after false starts, managed to get a bill through his chamber, but it was flawed enough that Senate leaders knew they would have to change it. McConnell tried with different versions but overreached. He couldnt find the legislative magic many assumed he would be able to employ. And the president proved not to be a dealmaker.

Trump tried to walk away from the mess on Tuesday. Let Obamacare fail, he said. It will be a lot easier. He said Democrats would own that failure, if that is the case. He said he would not own it, regardless. Republican lawmakers will take all that in and recognize, as they already know, that the president will claim any victories they produce for him and run from any defeats, but he is not likely to be the architect of a policy that will match his campaign rhetoric.

There also will be a period of recrimination in the wake of what happened in the Senate. If that spills into the debate over a tax bill, there could be more trouble ahead. The six-month battle over health care has been a time waster and a tone setter. Leaders must regroup, and quickly.

In normal times, a party would look to its president to hasten the healing process and pick up the pieces. But these are not normal times. Trump operates by his own standards. And this is a Republican Party that has yet to come to terms with what it has become and what is expected of a majority party.
A U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate company took part in a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr., bringing to eight the number of known participants at the session that has emerged as a key focus of the investigation of the Trump campaigns interactions with Russians.

Ike Kaveladze attended the meeting as a representative of Aras and Emin Agalarov, the father-and-son Russian developers who hosted the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, according to Scott Balber, an attorney for the Agalarovs who said he also represents Kaveladze.

Balber said Tuesday that he had received a phone call over the weekend from a representative of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asking whether Kaveladze would agree to be interviewed. Balber said his client would cooperate.

The request is the first public indication that Muellers team is investigating the meeting.

The presence of Kaveladze at the Trump Tower meeting introduces a new and intriguing figure into the increasingly complex Trump-Russia drama. A native of the Soviet republic of Georgia who came to the United States in 1991, Kaveladze was the subject nearly two decades ago of a congressional inquiry into Russian money laundering in U.S. banks, although he was never charged with a crime and Balber said there was never any sign of wrongdoing by Kaveladze.





The emergence of new information on Tuesday  some 10 days after the Trump Tower meeting was first reported  underscored how details of the session have been slow to emerge amid incomplete and potentially misleading explanations from Trump Jr.

After the New York Times first reported the meeting, Trump Jr. said only that the lawyer had primarily discussed the adoption of Russian children by Americans.

More information about the meeting and its participants has emerged since July 11, when Trump Jr. said he wished to be transparent and released emails dating to June 2016 between himself and Rob Goldstone, a music promoter who represented Emin Agalarov, a Russian pop singer, setting up the meeting.

[Heres what we know so far about Team Trumps ties to Russian interests]

Those emails revealed that Trump Jr. had agreed to meet with the Russian lawyer on the promise that he would be provided damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his fathers presidential campaign, according to emails released by Trump Jr. last week.

Trump Jr.s acknowledgment of the meeting undercut months of denials from top Trump aides that campaign officials had any contact with Russians before the November election.

The meeting brought together then-candidate Donald Trumps innermost circle, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and top campaign adviser Paul Manafort, as well as a Russian and Russian Americans with deep ties to Trumps business and the priorities of the Russian government. Goldstone, the music promoter, told The Washington Post that he also attended.

(Elyse Samuels,Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was leading an effort to get Congress to lift sanctions imposed in 2012 to punish Russia for human rights abuses, a topic of deep importance to the Russian government. Angered over the law, called the Magnitsky Act, Russia had put a hold on adoptions of children by U.S. families.

Also present at the meeting was Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet army veteran whose military service in the 1980s came in a unit whose responsibilities included counterintelligence. Now a Russian American lobbyist, he has earned a reputation as a savvy political operator, at times boosting the reputation of his clients by sullying the reputations of their enemies. He has denied working for the Russian government or intelligence services.

Kaveladze came to the meeting as a representative of the Agalarov family, business associates of Donald Trump who were also a key tie between the Trump family and Russia in the years before Trump began his campaign.

Trump and Aras Agalarov had discussed building a Trump Tower in Moscow, but plans fizzled after Western sanctions were imposed in 2014 and the Russian economy tanked, the elder Agalarov told The Post last year.

Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.s attorney, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday about the presence of Kaveladze, nor did a spokesman for Kushner. An attorney for Manafort declined to comment.

Kaveladze works as a vice president focusing on real estate and finance for the Agalarovs company, the Crocus Group, Balber said.

Balber said that Aras Agalarov asked Kaveladze to attend on his behalf. Kaveladze is a U.S. citizen and has lived in this country for many years, according to Balber.

Balber said Kaveladze believed he would act as a translator but arrived to discover that Veselnitskaya had brought her own translator, a former State Department employee named Anatoli Samochornov. Samochornov declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement he signed as a professional translator.

Balber said that he thinks eight people attended the meeting and that the names of all the participants are now known to the public.

[Russian American lobbyist was present at Trump Jr.s meeting with Kremlin-connected lawyer]

Balber said Kaveladze recalls the meeting lasted about 30 minutes and mostly involved discussion of the 2012 sanctions law. In attending the meeting, Kaveladze brought a history of controversy.

In 2000, his actions as the head of a Delaware company called International Business Creations were the subject of a congressional investigation of how Russians and other foreigners were able to launder large amounts of money through U.S. banks.

The Government Accountability Office report, which had been requested by then-Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), concluded that it was relatively easy for these foreigners to use shell companies to open U.S. bank accounts and route hidden money through the American financial system.

The report described the activities of IBCs president, who Balber confirmed was Kaveladze.

Balber said Kaveladze was not charged with any crime as a result of the inquiry, which he said was largely focused on the internal procedures of U.S. banks.

There has never been any indication that he did anything wrong, Balber said. From his perspective, it was a big nothing.

But Levin, who at the time was the senior Democrat on a Senate investigations subcommittee and retired in 2014, issued a statement Tuesday calling Kaveladze a poster child of the practice of using shell companies to launder funds and that the inquiry helped spark reforms.

Kaveladzes conduct helped us reinvigorate the requirement that banks know the true owner of their accounts, a policy that hadnt been enforced over the years, Levin said.

Balber called Levins comments outrageous. ... the reality is that what my client did was unequivocally and undeniably legal.

According to the GAO, Kaveladze opened 236 bank accounts in the United States for corporations formed in Delaware on behalf of mostly Russian brokers. The GAO report said that Kaveladze had told officers of two U.S. banks that he had conducted investigations of the Russian companies for which he opened accounts.

He admitted to us that he made such representations to the banks but that he in fact had not investigated the companies, the report said. Balber objected to this part of the report, saying, I take issue with this, adding that his client did not make such a statement to the GAO.

All told, the report traced the movement of $1.4 billion in wire-transfer transactions deposited into 236 accounts opened at the two banks, Citibank and Commercial Bank.

What exactly was discussed at the 2016 Trump Tower meeting remains unclear.

Akhmetshin told The Post that Veselnitskaya spent a portion of the meeting describing a great campaign issue for the Trumps  allegations of Russian tax improprieties by a U.S. venture capital firm whose executives were political donors.One of them had donated to the Clinton Global Initiative, an arm of the foundation established by former president Bill Clinton that became a target for Republicans who accused the Clintons of rewarding donors with political favors.

Akhmetshin said that Veselnitskaya left behind a document with the Trump associates describing the allegations. It was corporate stuff  lawyerly stuff, Akhmetshin said.

The venture capital firm, Ziff Brothers Investments, had a financial stake in Hermitage Capital, whose chief executive became the leading global advocate of the Magnitsky Act, which was named for a former Hermitage auditor who died in a Russian jail under suspicious circumstances.

A spokesman for Ziff Brothers Investments, Michael Freitag, declined to comment.

Trump Jr. has said Veselnitskayas information was vague and made no sense, and he decided the offer of damaging information about Democrats was a pretense to secure the meeting to discuss sanctions.

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that a representative of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III contacted attorney Scott Balber to ascertain the identity of his client. Balber said the official already knew Ike Kaveladzes identity and called to request an interview.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, right, is a driving force behind President Trumps voter commission, which is being criticized by civil rights groups. Above hes seen meeting with Trump at the presidents golf club in Bedminster, N.J., during the transition. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

A commission set to convene Wednesday to advise President Trump on election integrity includes the publisher of Alien Invasion II, a report on undocumented immigrants who mysteriously showed up on the voter rolls in Virginia.

Another member is known for scanning obituaries in his West Virginia county to make sure dead people are promptly deleted from voter lists. Another championed some of the strictest voter identification laws in the country during her days in the Indiana legislature.

And yet another warned nearly a decade ago of the possibility for voter fraud on a scale never seen before in this country. During his tenure as Ohio secretary of state, the Social Security numbers of 1.2 million state voters were accidentally posted on the agencys website.

Even before this panel of 12 holds its first official meeting at the White House complex, it has sparked more controversy  and more questions about its competency  than any presidential advisory commission in memory.

Spawned by Trumps baseless claim that illegal voting cost him the popular vote against Democrat Hillary Clinton in last years election, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity will gather Wednesday to chart its agenda, led by Vice President Pence and guided by a goal to shore up Americans confidence in voting systems.

(Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

The commissions first public action  requesting massive amounts of voter data from the states  seems to have had the opposite effect.

The request late last month was met with stiff resistance, even from many Republican-led states, and prompted multiple lawsuits that accuse the panel of breaching the privacy of tens of millions of Americans and offering no indication of what it plans to do with the data, including home addresses, dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers.

In the wake of those concerns, the commission posted on its website last week hundreds of comments it had received about its work  almost all of them negative and some laced with profanity  and drew criticism for not redacting, in some cases, the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and employers of those weighing in.

On Tuesday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund became at least the seventh party to sue the commission in federal court. The group alleged that the panel was formed with the intent to discriminate against voters of color in violation of the Constitution.

Separately, a federal judge on Tuesday declined to block the commission from meeting as planned Wednesday, while she considers challenges by two civil rights groups that charge that the voting panel was violating government transparency laws.

Members of the commission, which is billed as bipartisan, say they are undeterred.

I think the hysterical reaction to this commission is just that: hysterical, said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a Fox News Channel commentator.

I long ago stopped worrying about people who say mean things about me because I wrote about actual cases of voter fraud, said von Spakovsky, adding he was bewildered by how many people seemed scared of an advisory commission.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the vice chairman and driving force behind the panel, dismissed much of the criticism as irrational hyperventilating and said the collection of data will be integral to quantifying the extent to which voter fraud is a problem  an exercise that will inform recommendations on changes in state and federal laws over the next year.

Part of the commissions job is to just put data on the table and say, Well, heres what we know  and let people draw their own conclusions about how big or small the problem is, Kobach said. It seems to me thats a good thing, no matter what ones party and what ones perspective.

[Trump and Kobach say illegal votes may have given Clinton the popular vote. The math disagrees.]

Data collection has been put on hold pending the decision on one of the lawsuits. Kobach and other commission members said they are seeking only data that states already make public  a point they argue has been lost.

Critics say the past actions of several of the panels leading members  including Kobach, who is now running for governor of Kansas  provide little comfort.

Secretary Kobach wants permission to do surgery with a chain saw quickly on a rickety table, said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who was deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Departments civil rights division during the Obama administration. Some of the other folks hes got on the commission have shown themselves to be equally careless.

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, said her organization fears that the commission will push discriminatory voter ID laws, burdensome, documentary proof of citizenship requirements and undertake other efforts that could lead to massive purging of the voter registration rolls.

In recent years, Kobach has become an outspoken critic of the U.S. voting system and claimed that voting fraud is rampant.

He has turned his perch in Kansas into a powerful platform for his ideas. Next to his desk in Topeka, which overlooks the state capitol, is an 1892 copper ballot box with a secure lock, lent to him by former attorney general John D. Ashcroft, for whom Kobach worked in 2001 as a White House Fellow.

On Kobachs office wall is a framed copy of a voting law he helped craft, the 2011 Secure and Fair Elections Act, which requires citizens who register to vote using the state voter form to provide certain proof-of-citizenship documents, such as a birth certificate or a passport. Those with incomplete voter registration applications are removed from the rolls after 90 days and must try to re-register. In the past couple of years, he has pushed for other states to require similar proof of citizenship.

The reason we have to do this is there is a significant problem in Kansas and in the rest of the country of aliens getting on our voting rolls, Kobach said.

Other commission members whove been targeted by critics include von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams, a longtime crusader against alleged voter fraud by non-citizens.

Election fraud, whether its phony voter registration, illegal absentee ballots, vote-buying, shady recounts or old-fashioned ballot stuffing, can be found in every part of the United States, van Spakovsky wrote with a co-author in the 2012 book Whos Counting?

He said in an interview that the commission is seeking data to build on previous studies that have found people registered to vote in more than one state. The panel wants to go further by showing how many of those are actually voting in multiple states, he said.

In states where data requests have been rebuffed, the commission is contemplating filing public-records requests to obtain what it wants. In other instances, members said, they are willing to comply with procedures that require payment for the data. One state, Alabama, has said that would cost more than $32,000. The commission has an estimated budget of $500,000.

Van Spakovsky also suggested another target for data: lists kept by clerks in courthouses nationwide of jurors, culled from voter rolls, who are dismissed because they are noncitizens.

Adams, who previously served in the voting rights section of the Justice Department and heads a foundation that produced this years report on the alien invasion in Virginia, said in a recent Fox News Channel interview that those complaining about the commission are flat-earthers.

They want to hide the truth, he said.

Levitt said Trumps panel stands in pretty stark contrast to a 2013 presidential election commission that was designed to make bipartisan recommendations and based on careful research. The Obama-era commission, he said, was co-chaired by longtime exceedingly well-respected Democratic and Republican campaign lawyers.

The Trump commission includes seven Republicans and five Democrats. Pence and Kobach, both Republicans, occupy the chairman and vice chairman slots.

The commission includes no members who live west of Kansas  meaning the nations most populous state, California, is not represented, nor is the rapidly growing Southwest.

The only Latino named to the panel, Maryland Deputy Secretary of State Luis Borunda, a Republican, has already resigned.

The commissions only African American member is former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell, a Republican who was accused of voter suppression during his tenure by ordering county clerks to not accept voter registrations on anything less than 80-pound stock paper, the thickness of a postcard.

The commissions five Democratic members include two secretaries of state whom Kobach knows well, Bill Gardner of New Hampshire and Matthew Dunlap of Maine, who said in an interview that his inclusion remains a little bit of a mystery to me.

The three other Democrats are local officials in Alabama, Arkansas and West Virginia with connections to the Republican secretaries of state in their states, who in turn have relationships with Kobach.

That includes David Dunn, a former Arkansas state legislator who now runs a government relations firm and said he learned of his appointment when the White House sent out a news release announcing it.

I think they were looking for a Southern Democrat to serve on the commission for some diversity, he said.

Dunn said he is skeptical of Trumps claim about losing the popular vote because of illegal voting and of claims of widespread voter fraud more broadly.

But, he added, Im certainly open to considering what makes people feel that way.

Mark Rhodes, the county clerk in Wood County, W.Va., who has pared his countys voter rolls by combing through obituaries and death certificates, said he has not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud.

I can speak for Wood County, West Virginia, and the local clerks around here that I deal with, that its not a concern, Rhodes said.

Alan L. King, a probate judge in Jefferson County, Ala., insists that he will not be a rubber stamp for the commission. King, who serves as his countys chief election official, said he is wary of talk about widespread voter fraud.

If this commission is going to go down that road, there needs to be hard, cold facts, he said.

Dunlap, Maines secretary of state, said he agreed to serve on the panel with the hope that the exercise will prove purveyors of widespread voter fraud wrong. That includes Trumps claims about millions of illegal votes, he said.

I would be astonished to see anything that comes close to that, even one-tenth of that, even one-twentieth of that, Dunlap said. My premise I work from is that most of the public is very law-abiding.

Spencer S. Hsu and Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.
Senate Republicans all but admitted defeat Tuesday in their seven-year quest to overturn the Affordable Care Act, acknowledging that they lacked the votes to make good on their vow to repeal and replace President Barack Obamas signature legislative accomplishment.

Hours after GOP leaders abandoned a bill to overhaul the law known as Obamacare, their fallback plan  a proposal to repeal major parts of the law without replacing them  quickly collapsed. A trio of moderate Republicans quashed the idea, saying it would irresponsibly snatch insurance coverage from millions of Americans.

I did not come to Washington to hurt people, tweeted Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who joined Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in opposing immediate repeal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who spent weeks trying to knit together his fractious caucus in support of the original GOP legislation, said he would nonetheless schedule a vote early next week on the repeal plan. But he appeared to acknowledge that it seemed doomed.

This has been a very, very challenging experience for all of us, McConnell told reporters. Its pretty obvious that we dont have 50 members who can agree on a replacement.

(Bastien Inzaurralde,Rhonda Colvin,Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

The collapse of the effort marks a devastating political defeat for congressional Republicans and for President Trump, who had pledged to roll back the Affordable Care Act on Day One of his presidency.

It also leaves millions of consumers who receive health insurance through the law in a kind of administrative limbo, wondering how their care will be affected now that the program is in the hands of government officials who have rooted openly for its demise.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the White Houses Roosevelt Room that he now plans to let Obamacare fail. It will be a lot easier. That way, he said, his party would bear no political responsibility for the systems collapse.

Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it, the president said. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. Well let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us to fix it.

But Trumps comments appeared to ignore the many Republican lawmakers who are anxious about depriving their constituents of federal benefits on which they now rely. The president invited all 52 Republican senators to join him for lunch Wednesday at the White House to try to get the repeal effort back on track.

Senate leaders have been struggling to devise a plan to overhaul Obamacare since the House passed its version of the legislation in May, a flawed bill that some House members openly invited the Senate to fix. With just 52 seats, McConnell could afford to lose the support of only two members of his caucus  and even then would rely on Vice President Pence to break the tie.

The measure he produced would have scaled back key federal insurance regulations and slashed Medicaid deeply over time. But it did not go far enough for many conservative Republicans, who wanted to roll back more of the ACAs mandates on insurers.

And the bill went much too far for many moderates, especially Republicans from states that had taken advantage of the ACAs offer to expand Medicaid eligibility. The bill would have cut Medicaid funding and phased out its expansion in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Some senators worried that their states would be saddled with the unpalatable choice of cutting off peoples health coverage or shouldering a massive new financial burden.

This is the Senate. Leadership sets the agenda, but senators vote in the interests of their states, said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) offered a blunt assessment of why the effort fell short: We are so evenly divided, and weve got to have every Republican to make things work, and we didnt have every Republican, he said.

Two Republicans  Collins, a moderate, and conservative Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.)  declared late last week that they could not support the latest version of the bill. Late Monday night, as six of their colleagues talked health-care strategy with Trump over dinner at the White House, conservative Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) announced that they, too, would oppose the bill, and the measure was dead.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.), whose job is to count votes, said he had no idea Lee was defecting until he left the White House meeting  though he had gotten a heads up from Moran.

Key Republicans held out hope that the effort could be revived. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that he would like to see the Senate move on something to keep the repeal-and-replace process alive.

Pence, speaking at the National Retail Federations annual Retail Advocates Summit, lent his support to the repeal plan, challenging Congress to step up and repeal the current law so lawmakers could work on a new health-care plan that will start with a clean slate.

Republicans last voted on repeal in 2015. Every current GOP senator who was then in the Senate voted for it, except Collins. But it was a meaningless protest vote; Obama was president, and he quickly vetoed it. With Trump in the White House, a vote to repeal the law without replacing it could have far-reaching consequences.

Abolishing Obamacares central pillars  such as the mandate that taxpayers buy coverage; federal subsidies for many consumers premiums; and Medicaid coverage for roughly 11 million Americans  without replacing them could wreak havoc in the insurance market. In January, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that premiums in the individual insurance market would rise by as much as 25 percent next year and would roughly double by 2026.

The CBO said repeal would cause the number of uninsured people to rise by 18 million next year and by 32 million by 2026.

For insurers, the worst possible outcome in this debate has always been a partial repeal with no replacement, which is exactly what Congress is about to take up, Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote in an email. Insurance companies would be on the hook for covering people with preexisting conditions, but with no individual mandate or premium subsidies to get healthy people to sign up as well.

[Nevadas GOP governor resists the Senate health-care bill]

With the repeal effort foundering, White House officials seem to lack a clear road map for managing the law. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Health and Human Services Department, said Tuesday, Im not sure whats going on right now.

HHS Secretary Tom Price issued a news release Tuesday saying, The status quo is not acceptable or sustainable. But he offered no clues to what his agency plans to do in the coming weeks as insurers finalize rates for 2018 and decide whether to participate next year in the federal insurance marketplaces.

We will work tirelessly to get Washington out of the way, bring down the cost of coverage, expand healthcare choices, and strengthen the safety net for future generations, Price said.

[Analysis: Here are the 4 reasons McConnell couldnt get the Senate to replace Obamacare  yet]

Several lawmakers and governors, meanwhile, said they would begin pushing for a bipartisan fix to shore up the ACA. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a statement that his panel would hold hearings to explore how to stabilize the individual market under the existing law.

A bipartisan group of 11 governors  including Republicans Charlie Baker (Mass.), Larry Hogan (Md.), John Kasich (Ohio), Brian Sandoval (Nev.) and Phil Scott (Vt.)  said they stand ready to work with lawmakers in an open, bipartisan way to provide better insurance for all Americans.

Asked if he would be willing to work with Democrats, McConnell said that well have to see what happens with next weeks vote.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) renewed their calls for Republicans to work with Democrats.

It should be crystal clear to everyone on the other side of the aisle that the core of the bill is unworkable, Schumer said. The door to bipartisanship is open now. Republicans only need to walk through it.

As Schumer spoke on the Senate floor, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), one of the few in the chamber who has tried to be a bipartisan broker on health care, was placing calls to fellow senators who, like him, are former governors  a total of 11 senators including Alexander, John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Margaret Wood Hassan (D-N.H.).

Aides said Manchin was presenting nothing specific yet to his colleagues, just a plea to sit down and start bipartisan talking.

While the path forward remained uncertain, consumers and health industry players continued to reach out to lawmakers. On Monday, two members of the American Cancer Societys Cancer Action Network journeyed from West Virginia, and one of them spoke with a Capito aide about an 18-month-old girl who had developed cancer while her mother was working part-time at a bank. After the woman lost her job, both she and the little girl went on Medicaid, allowing the child to receive treatment.

A lot of times people assume anyone on Medicaid is too lazy to work, the childs grandmother Lora Wilkerson told the aide, handing her a photo of the girl  bald, with a teddy bear in her arms.

Can you please ask Ms. Capito to look at this picture when she casts her vote? Wilkerson said.

The aide, according to Capitos spokeswoman, made sure the senator saw it.

Mike DeBonis and Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
As the seven-year Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act crashed on the threshold of the Senate, President Trump offered his party a rescue strategy. Step one: Blame Democrats. Step two: Win more seats and try again.

Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it, said Trump. In 18, were going to have to get some more people elected. We have to go out and get more people elected that are Republicans.

Trump made explicit what Republicans had been hoping since the repeal fight started  that whatever happened, voters would blame the Democrats for their health-care costs. Its an audacious strategy that flies against current polling and electoral history. It counts on messaging, distracted voters and a built-in electoral advantage to guide the party past the rocks.

The worms kind of turned on this issue, said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who ran the partys House campaign group in several cycles. Republicans might have gotten a break by not seeing an unpopular law go into effect. Sometimes, having no law is better than having one that people perceive as bad law.

By the time the Better Care Reconciliation Act tanked late Monday, Trump had repeatedly predicted that the disaster of the ACA would collapse, forcing Democrats to the bargaining table. The administrations indecision on whether to keep funding subsidies for plans bought on ACA exchanges had been cited by many insurers announcing rate hikes or canceled plans  announcements that the administration cited as proof of collapse.

(Ashleigh Joplin,Rhonda Colvin/The Washington Post)

Polling, however, found most voters ready to blame Republicans for the rate hikes. An April survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 60 percent of voters opposed to using the subsidies as bargaining chips; even 28 percent of Republicans were opposed. Seventy-four percent of voters said they wanted the administration to make the law work, and 64 percent said that President Trump and Republicans in Congress would be accountable for any problems.

Even some Republicans who wanted to force Democrats to negotiate said that six months of negotiations had sapped the partys momentum. I advocated collapse and replace for months, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). But were so deep into this thing right now, I dont even know if thats a viable option.

In interviews Tuesday, Democrats who face re-election in 2018 expressed disbelief at the idea that they, not Trump, would be held accountable for problems with the health-care system.

I have a bill in that will stabilize the individual market, if theyd just allow the Senate to work, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the partys 2016 vice presidential nominee. Let the committee chairs tackle this. If premiums spiked, said Kaine, voters would look to the party thats governing, that refuses to allow a process that would bring premiums down.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who may be challenged by longtime ACA opponent Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), said that he was eager to work with Republicans on shoring up the subsidies. Voters back home, he said, clearly saw the Trump administration as the impediment to fixing the law.

Let me tell you, people are coming out of the woodwork, said Nelson. I go to the Tampa Bay Rays game, I throw out the first pitch, and people are begging: Dont let them take away my health care. People are onto this.

Nelson is one of 10 Democrats up for reelection in states won by Trump last year, a factor that Republicans once thought would scare incumbents into making deals. Instead, Democrats have grown more confident about their 2018 chances, with few top-tier candidates jumping into Trump state races, and credible Democrats running for seats in Nevada and Texas.

(The Washington Post)

In all of those races, its not clear how Obamacare will play, or how Republicans will play it. From April through June, the GOP played a perfect game in four special House elections, winning by single digits in typically Republican districts. Yet for the first time since 2010, Obamacare repeal was not a focus of Republican ads and attacks.

Instead, Republicans moved closer to attacking Democrats on what they might want to build on top of the ACA. In Montanas special election, that was the Medicare-for-all plan favored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). In a series of statements this month, the Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee went after Democrats on the estimated cost of creating a single-payer system, similar to Canadas, in the United States. In districts where vulnerable Republicans had cast votes for repeal, putting them on the record for Medicaid cuts and high estimates of lost health insurance, Republicans would warn that Democrats wanted socialism.

Their House primaries are starting to look like a ten-car pile-up and the activist base is screaming for Democrats to run on single-payer health care, wrote NRCC spokesman Jesse Hunt in a press release just hours before the Senate repeal push collapsed.

They dont want to get us off of the Obamacare train; they want to double-down on a failed system that is in the middle of a collapse, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said at a Tuesday morning press conference. Ultimately, its very clear that theyre more interested a single-payer system which means government-run health care. Government-run health care is not in our nations interest.

Other Republicans suggested that the health care issue could fade as the election approaches  an advantage for the party, so long as it doesnt fumble on anything else it has promised.

Its more important for Republicans to do something on taxes, said Davis. If they cant produce on that, then I think they have a problem.

Kelsey Snell and Ed OKeefe contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
Two seasons of failed rains have left millions in Ethiopia's Somali region dependent on food aid, calling into question how viable traditional forms of life still are in an era of changing climate. (Paul Schemm/For The Washington Post)

Zeinab Taher once roamed through Ethiopias arid Somali region tending a vast herd of 350 sheep, goats and cattle with her nine children.

Then the autumn rains failed and the grass that fed her animals didnt grow. No rain came this spring, either, and the livestock began to die. Now, wrapped in her orange shawl, the 60-year-old huddles in a makeshift, windblown camp along with several thousand others, depending on food and water from international agencies.

Another drought has seized the Horn of Africa, devastating the livestock herders in these already dry lands. Even as the government and aid agencies struggle to help them, there is a growing realization that with climate change, certain ways of life in certain parts of the world are becoming much more difficult to sustain.

In Ethiopia, which unlike neighboring Somalia or South Sudan has a strong, functioning government, the emergency effort has kept people alive. Authorities and aid agencies are trying to get beyond the immediate humanitarian response and encourage a shift to livelihoods less vulnerable to drought and climate shocks.

In many pastoral lands, pastoral livelihoods are no longer viable, said Samir Wanmali, the deputy country director for the World Food Program.

Zainab Taher, Halima Idriss Ahmed and Kira Ali describe how failed rains meant the death of their animals and a retreat to this camp for the displaced in Ethiopia's Somali region. (Paul Schemm/For The Washington Post)

An estimated 450,000 people in the southeastern Somali region have abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and retreated to camps to receive food aid in recent months, according to the International Organization for Migration.

At one of the camps, an expanse of sand and thorny scrub dotted with hundreds of huts made out of plastic tarps and twigs, Taher worried that even with an end to the drought, she wont be able to resume her traditional way of life.

Even if it rained, we have no animals, she said. I cant think of going back to herding.

It was just last year that a drought caused by the El Nino warming phenomenon in the Pacific baked Ethiopias fertile highlands in the north and center of the country and left more than 10 million people needing food aid. This year, temperature changes in the Indian Ocean have caused a drought in the south and east of the country, a much more arid region populated by shepherds and their flocks.

[History repeats itself in Ethiopia]

There are an estimated 5 million people in Ethiopias Somali region, of whom about 40 percent are pastoralists engaged in raising animals, according to the last census.

Last year, the Ethiopian government scraped together $700 million of its own funds, combined with nearly a billion dollars in international assistance, to fight the drought. For this years crisis, nowhere near the same funding is available, as international donors grapple with severe hunger crises in two neighboring war-torn nations  Somalia and South Sudan  and, farther afield, in Nigeria and Yemen.

Theres no appetite out there for another drought in Ethiopia, said John Graham, the recently departed Ethiopia country director for Save the Children. Donors are saying we are giving to fragile states, nonexistent states, because we know that no one else is going to pick it up in those countries. Ethiopia, by contrast, is stable, he noted.

It certainly isnt shaping up to be an easy year for Ethiopia, however, with the latest humanitarian assessment indicating that 7.8 million people need food aid at a cost of nearly $1 billion. The Somali region was also battered by severe droughts in 2008 and 2011. With aid less certain, there is more urgency to work on long-term efforts to address the countrys needs.

It is a vicious cycle, because you are literally going from one crisis to another with very little breathing room to take stock, Wanmali said. It doesnt matter where within the country you are, the frequency of climate shocks is getting much closer.

[They survived Boko Haram. Now millions in Nigeria face starvation.]

The man with the unenviable task of heading up Ethiopias disaster response is Mitiku Kassa, head of a commission on national disasters, and he said last-minute donations from Britain, the United States and the European Union should secure food aid to this blighted region until the autumn.

We realize that the emergency response is just a painkiller, aside from the real problem, so from our side we are working on water harvesting, he said, explaining that by digging deep wells and pulling water from the regions few rivers, the government can introduce irrigated agriculture and small farms in a land long known for just herding animals.

Local authorities in the district where Taher and thousands of others have lost their flocks say this effort is the way forward in the face of diminishing rains.

It is getting worse and worse, and we are trying to raise awareness to tell people to change their lifestyle to agro-pastoralist, said Ali Maadey Ali, the acting administrator for the district. The plan is to get people to grow some food and fodder on irrigated land while owning smaller herds that would be easier to feed in times of drought.

Local officials have been trying to show community elders examples of farms where people have made the transition. From the air, along the areas main river, a visitor can see a few irrigated fields of corn and other crops glowing green amid the beige wasteland of sand.

It is tough, it takes time, and the budget allocated by the government to this transformation is very low, Ali acknowledged.

For people who have lived only one way for generations, becoming something else can be daunting.

We dont have any farming skills, said Kira Ali, 63, who lives in the temporary camp with Taher. As it is, she yearns to be out of the squalid, dense camp.

Turning to a new life would be very hard  I was living with my animals, and we moved from place to place, she recalled. Here, we are confined.

Drought, however, can be a persuasive force. Standing next to her, Taher is starting to come around to the idea of changing her life.

The government wants us to live in a permanent place with schools and health centers, and leave behind this life, she said. We are far from water; if we go to water, maybe we could farm. She said, though, that she would need a lot of help to learn how.

Under Ethiopias previous Marxist regime, inhabitants of drought-stricken regions were sometimes forcibly relocated to new areas and told to farm  often with disastrous results.

Current efforts rely on people being ready for a change. According to Michael Jacobs, who heads a U.S. government-funded aid program called PRIME to develop the livestock sector, in these times of hardship many are looking for new livelihoods.

If we get a series of these kinds of droughts of this magnitude, livestock populations will just plummet and then there should be a large exodus out of that livelihood, he said. More than half may not be pastoralists again.

Rather than promote farming, his program works on training people in other professions, such as carpentry, welding and mechanics, more suited to the growing urban environments of these regions. At the same time, the program works on modernizing the countrys livestock sector while involving fewer people.

Jacobs explained that although raising animals is always going to be part of Ethiopian culture, it is going to look very different in the future.

The way its been done in the past will end, but thats a normal progression as areas become more developed, he said.

Back in the camp, a few lucky people have other sources of income they hope will see them through the crisis. Abdallahi Abdulay, 55, said he lost the herds of cattle and goats that had let him support three wives and 18 children. But he has some land.

I can see a way to bring back my life, said the tall man dressed in a sarong, a blue embroidered shawl on his head.

If the rains come, we have some rain-fed land, and if we plant and get a harvest, I can buy new animals.

Read more

Ethiopia is facing a killer drought. But its going almost unnoticed.

South Sudans people are starving, and fighters are blocking aid

Somalis are fleeing famine  only to find death in a place of refuge

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Lawyer Ulrich Weber was tasked with carrying out an independent investigation into abuse at the Domspatzen boys choir. He presented his 440-page report during a news conference Tuesday in Regensburg, southern Germany. (Armin Weigel/AFP/Getty Images)

A report released Tuesday found that at least 547 former members of Germanys most storied Catholic choir for boys were physically or sexually abused, the latest revelation in a case that has roiled the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg, led for many years by the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, Georg Ratzinger.

The abuse was carried out by priests and teachers at the prestigious choir in southeast Germany, according to a lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who was tasked with carrying out an independent investigation. All told, he discovered 500 cases of physical abuse and 67 cases of sexual abuse.

Claims of misconduct spilled into public view in 2010, amid charges across the continent that the Roman Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of young boys. The controversy has proved especially fraught for Germany, where Benedict served as archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. After that, he led the branch of the Vatican, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for examining allegations of abuse.

The alleged wrongdoing dates from 1945 to 1992, Weber wrote in his 440-page report, though much of it was concentrated in the 1960s and 1970s, when Ratzinger was in charge. Weber has said he had to assume the popes brother, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994, knew of sexual abuse, though Ratzinger, now 93, has denied this.

The former choir director told German media in 2010 that he had slapped pupils in the face but was unaware of the level of brutality described by victims.

Pupils told me on concert trips about what went on, but it didnt dawn on me from their stories that I should do something, Ratzinger said. I ask the victims for forgiveness.

At the same time, Ratzinger has called it insane to scrutinize every wrongdoing over the past half-century, noting that corporal punishment was once widely practiced.

But Webers conclusions point to a more systematic form of mistreatment. He found that 49 teachers and church officials bore responsibility for turning life at the choir, and the associated boarding school, into hell, as victims described it. For many, Weber wrote, their stay at the school was the worst time of their lives, characterized by fear, violence and hopelessness.

The Catholic Church in Regensburg did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday morning, Michael Fuchs, a vicar general, said the church must play a more active role in future investigations.

We could have done a lot better, he said, according to a German public broadcaster.

Because many of the incidents described occurred decades ago, the cases can no longer be tried in German courts.

Webers first report, in early 2016, found that 231 young boys had been abused. That was triple the number published by the Regensburg diocese the previous year. The figures released Tuesday are higher still.

Alexandra Rojkov contributed to this report.

Read more

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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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A high-stakes power struggle between Irans moderate president and his hard-line opponents in the judiciary appeared to escalate with the arrest of the presidents brother and the conviction of an American student for espionage this weekend  rulings that seemed timed to embarrass the Iranian leader at home and abroad.

President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in a landslide in May, has challenged the conservative establishment by pledging reforms in Iran and advocating diplomacy and openness toward the rest of the world. His recent criticisms of the hard-line judiciary and powerful security forces have prompted public rebukes from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran.

The tensions come as Iran and the United States spar over the terms of a nuclear deal struck with world powers to limit Irans nuclear weapons program. On Monday, the White House grudgingly certified to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and lifts major sanctions. The Trump administration has taken a much harsher stance on Iran, threatening to abandon the deal, and the Treasury Department on Tuesday announced new sanctions primarily targeting Irans ballistic missile program.

But the moves by Irans judiciary  including the sentencing of a Princeton graduate student, Xiyue Wang, to 10 years in prison for spying  also undermine Rouhanis attempts to build better relations with the West, which more-reactionary Iranian institutions such as the judiciary oppose. And they suggest an effort by ruling clerics to pressure the president to back down from confrontation on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the official inauguration of his second term next month, when Rouhani will pick his new cabinet.

More broadly, however, the actions by the judiciary and Khamenei paint a picture of a hard-line establishment hitting back at an outspoken and popular president who has promised to curb some of the regimes worst excesses.

Rouhanis pro-reform agenda poses a major threat to their worldview and political agenda, Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, said of the hard-liners.

In recent weeks as well as during the May presidential campaign, Rouhani rapped the judiciary for what he said were arbitrary arrests and a history of atrocities. He also criticized the economic role of the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, Irans most powerful security institution, at the expense of the countrys private sector.

Those admonishments led Khamenei to publicly defend the judiciary.

The judiciary should be a pioneer in establishing public rights within the society . . . and confront anyone who violates laws, Khamenei said in a speech this month, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, an independent nonprofit based in New York.

Rouhani, addressing a gathering of judicial officials the previous day, had called on jurists to limit the practice of summoning people for interrogation without due cause.

Last month, Khamenei dressed down the president in front of the countrys most senior politicians, warning Rouhani against suffering a fate similar to that of Irans first post-revolution president, who served from 1980 to 1981. Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr was impeached after facing off against the powerful clergy and was forced to flee to France.

Using the institutions of the state that they control  primarily the judiciary  they are sending a message to Rouhani and his supporters that they are in control of the political system, Hashemi said. And that they will oppose his attempts to engage with the Western world and promote more freedoms at home.

The arrest and conviction of Wang, a 37-year-old scholar at Princeton, appeared to target Rouhanis wider foreign policy and engagement with the West. Although Wang was detained in August 2016, the timing of the verdict is suspect, analysts say.

Why did they keep it a secret as long as they did? Timing is important, said Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Wang, who colleagues say traveled to Iran to research the Persian Empires Qajar dynasty for his thesis, was accused of attempting to create a digital archive for the State Department and Western academic institutions.

Wangs sentencing by the Iranian judiciary is yet another indicator that the hardest of Irans hard-liners are the ones who set the direction for Iranian domestic and foreign policy, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington.

But the arrest of Rouhanis brother, Hossein Fereydoun, this weekend appeared to be a more immediate and direct attack on Rouhani. Fereydoun is a close adviser of the president and was a key player in nuclear negotiations. He came under attack by conservatives this year for alleged financial impropriety, although the formal charges are still unclear.

Corruption and graft are widespread in Iran, but the probes are often politically motivated phenomenon, said Taleblu, adding that they have more to do with political score-settling than reforming business practices.

Elements of the Iranian judiciary and hard-line establishment have been looking at taking down Fereydoun for quite some time, he said.

According to Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow and expert on Iran at the Brookings Institution, targeting Rouhanis brother is a very convenient way to cause pain to the family without necessarily provoking a crisis of office.

The general message that the rest of the system is trying to send to Rouhani is not to get too far ahead of himself, she said, to not allow his decisive election victory to give him illusions of greater autonomy and authority than his position actually has.

Whether Rouhani will bow to the pressure remains to be seen. During his first term, the president deferred to the supreme leader and failed to push through more-serious reforms.

The relationship between Rouhani and Khamenei in the coming years will be tense, Hashemi said. There has been an ongoing public feud between both figures, but ultimately power lies with the supreme leader.

If I had to bet, my bet would be for Rouhani to reluctantly submit to the limits established by the supreme leader, he said. All second-term Iranian presidents had to do this.

Read more:

The United States and Europe are on a collision course over Iran

U.S. slaps new sanctions on Iran, after certifying its compliance with nuclear deal

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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The former managers of Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romneys presidential campaigns are leading a new initiative called Defending Digital Democracy in the hopes of preventing a repeat of Russias 2016 election interference.

Robby Mook, Clintons 2016 campaign chief, and Matt Rhoades, who managed the 2012 run of GOP nominee Romney, are heading up the project at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in one of the first major efforts outside government to grapple with 21st century hacking and propaganda operations  and ways to deter them.

The Russian influence campaign was one of the most significant national security events in the last decade, and its a near-certainty that all the other bad guys saw that and will try to do something similar in the United States in 2018 and 2020, said Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center, which launches the initiative Tuesday.

The bipartisan project aims to develop ways to share key threat information with political campaigns and state and local election offices; create playbooks for election officials to improve cybersecurity; and forge strategies for the United States to deter adversaries from engaging in hacks and information operations, among other things.

[Obamas secret struggle to punish Russia for Putins election assault]

Matt Rhoades, former campaign chairman of then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in 2012. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

Russian government hackers broke into the computers of the Democratic National Committee in 2015 and 2016, and some of that material was later leaked to WikiLeaks and published online, sowing discord within the Democratic Party. The hacks were part of a larger campaign to influence the election to undermine Clintons candidacy and help Donald Trump win the White House, according to a January report by U.S. intelligence agencies.

It was, intelligence officials said, the most brazen effort yet by the Russians to interfere in an American election and exploited the Internet to weaponize political information and manipulate public opinion. They did so by posting hacked emails online and corralling armies of bots to spread and amplify news articles on social media that contained material damaging to Clintons campaign  some of it false.

The Russian government has intervened in other countries political institutions  in the Netherlands and France, for instance.

Over the last two years nearly every election on both sides of the Atlantic has been affected by foreign cyber attacks, including Hillary Clintons in 2016, Mook said in a news release. This project will find practical solutions to help both parties and civic institutions that are critical to our elections better secure themselves.

Cyberhacks affect people of all political stripes, Rhoades noted in the news release. In 2012, Chinese hackers targeted Romneys campaign. That means we all need to work together to address these vulnerabilities.

During the 2016 campaign, the Obama administration struggled to win buy-in from several GOP state election officials for offers of help from the Department of Homeland Security to secure their electoral systems. Several officials objected on grounds that such help would represent a federal takeover of the states role managing elections.

The initiative leaders say they have spoken with state officials from both parties, and hope that as a bipartisan, nongovernmental group they will be able to win cooperation and trust where the federal government could not.

We want to be able to fill a gap where it looks like there is one, and make a difference, said Rosenbach, who was Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carters chief of staff from 2015 to 2017.

The project is bringing together key political players and experts in national security and the tech sector to attack the problem. They include Googles director of information security, Heather Adkins; Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos; Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the cyber firm CrowdStrike; the National Security Agencys former director of information assurance, Debora Plunkett; Stuart Holliday, former U.S. ambassador for special political affairs at the United Nations; and Nicco Mele, director of the Kennedy Schools Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
After his much-publicized two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for up to an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, undisclosed at the time, took place at a dinner for G-20 leaders, a senior administration official said. At some point during the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump approached alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

In a statement issued Tuesday night after published reports of the conversation, the White House said that there was no second meeting between President Trump and President Putin, just a brief conversation at the end of a dinner. The insinuation that the White House has tried to hide a second meeting, it said, is false, malicious and absurd.

All the leaders circulated around the room throughout the dinner, and President Trump spoke with many leaders, the statement said. As the dinner was concluding, it said, Trump spoke briefly with Putin, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump.

The dinner conversation with Putin was first reported Monday by Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group, in a newsletter to group clients. Bremmer said the meeting began halfway into the meal and lasted roughly an hour. The senior administration official said it began with the dessert course, but did not comment on its length.

(The Washington Post)

Pool reporters covering Trump noted that his and Putins motorcades were among the last to leave the event, departing within minutes of each other just before midnight.

Trump lashed out at the media for reporting on his undisclosed meeting with Putin, saying the fake news was sick and dishonest.

But the president distorted what news outlets, including The Washington Post, had reported, saying the story was about a secret dinner when in fact it was reported as an undisclosed meeting with Putin at a dinner of the G-20 leaders and their spouses. Trump also incorrectly stated that journalists knew about his meeting with Putin; in fact, they did not until Tuesday, when the White House confirmed that the two presidents met during the dinner.

In the first of two tweets, Trump wrote: Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is sick. All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!

Trump then tweeted, The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!

The dinner encounter appeared to underscore the extent to which Trump was eager throughout the summit to cultivate a friendship with Putin. During last years election campaign, he spoke admiringly of the Russian leader and at times seemed captivated by him.

Meeting each other face-to-face for the first time at the Hamburg summit, the two presidents seemed to have a chemistry in their more formal bilateral session, evidenced by the fact that, despite being scheduled for 35 minutes, it continued for more than two hours.

View Graphic How the Trump administration changed American foreign policy

But Trumps newly revealed conversation with Putin at the G-20 dinner is likely to stoke criticism  including perhaps from some fellow Republicans in Congress  that he is too cozy with the leader of a major U.S. adversary.

Putins official interpreter provided the only Russian-English interpretation, the White House statement said, because the president was seated next to the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Each couple was allowed one translator, it said. The American translator accompanying President Trump spoke Japanese.

The only version of the conversation provided to White House aides was that given by Trump himself, said the administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the White House statement was issued. Reporters traveling with the White House were not informed during the trip, and there was no formal readout of the chat.

The official Trump-Putin meeting, earlier in the day, led to confusion over whether Trump agreed, as Putin later implied, to accept the Kremlins denial of any wrongdoing regarding interference in last years election.

That meeting was attended by the leaders and their two interpreters, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Tillerson later said Trump twice asked Putin if the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia had meddled in the race were true, and Putin twice denied it, so they moved on to other subjects of importance to the bilateral relationship, including Syria.

Russias activities during the election, along with allegations that members of Trumps campaign may have coordinated with Kremlin attempts to tilt the race in Trumps direction, are the subject of investigations in Congress and by a special counsel.

In Trumps own account of the formal meeting, he repeated earlier comments that another country might have been responsible for cyber-interference in the election. Im not saying it wasnt Russia. What Im saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is, he told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from a visit to France last week.

You know, China is very good at this, Trump said. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this.

Trump also said that Putin was unlikely to have preferred him over Hillary Clinton as president, since his goals include taking international energy business away from Russia and building up the U.S. military.

The dinner at the G-20 summit, held July 7-8, occurred hours after Trump and Putins lengthy formal meeting. Leaders and their spouses were invited to a musical performance at Hamburgs riverside concert venue, followed by an intimate dinner at which they were seated next to the spouse of one of their counterparts, rather than their own. Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.

Trump, who is among the newest world leaders in the G-20, remained at the dinner for the entire night. He was among the last to leave  after the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had already departed. Pool reporters with the president saw Putins motorcade leave at 11:50 p.m., followed shortly by Trump, who departed the concert hall at 11:54 p.m.

Leaders who witnessed the meeting were bemused, nonplussed, befuddled by the animated conversation, held in full view  but apparently not within listening distance  of others present, Bremmer said by telephone. He said he spoke with two participants at the dinner.

One senior European official whose head of government was there played down the attention the Trump-Putin chat garnered, saying it was not unusual for leaders to circulate or withdraw to a corner at such private gatherings.

Part of the rationale is the flurry of bilateral contacts that happen, the official said. I dont find it a sensation, he said of the lengthy dinner chat, although maybe Trump and Putin are a little different from other attendees.

The administration official said there was nothing unusual in a meeting with no aides present, noting that Trump met alone with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and held a one-on-one session, with no aides present, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.

Abby Phillip contributed to this report.

Read more:

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The Trump administration certified to Congress late Monday that Iran has continued to meet the required conditions of its nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers.

But senior administration officials made clear that the certification was grudging, and said that President Trump intends to impose new sanctions on Iran for ongoing malign activities in non-nuclear areas such as ballistic missile development and support for terrorism.

We judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the agreement as a force for international stability, one official said. Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that took effect in January 2016 after years of negotiations, the official said.

International monitors and other signatories of the agreement have said that Iran is meeting its terms, giving the administration little room for maneuver in providing the assessment required by Congress every 90 days.

The last certification of Iranian compliance, in April, was also followed by new sanctions on Iranian individuals and companies the administration said played a role in ballistic missile tests that are not covered by the nuclear agreement.

We do expect to be implementing new sanctions related to missiles and Irans fast boat program, the official said, but declined to specify what the measures would be. The administration has charged Iran with using military patrol boats to impede free navigation in the Persian Gulf.

Three senior administration officials briefed reporters on the certification on the condition of anonymity imposed by the White House.

Earlier in the day, Trumps national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previewed the sanctions in a closed-door meeting with representatives of Washington-based think tanks. Reporters were not invited.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran, which denied it was developing nuclear weapons, agreed to sharply limit the number and capability of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, give up nearly all of its previously enriched stock, and submit to intrusive verification measures in exchange for an end to U.S. and international sanctions related to the program.

Trump has called the deal fatally flawed and said he would either renegotiate it or kill it.

In making the certification, an official said, The secretary of state and the president intend to emphasize that Iran remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability, and to highlight the range of malign activities. They include atrocities by the Assad regime that Iran supports in Syria, continuing hostility to Israel and other actions, as well as its missile program and terrorist support.

Other signatories to the nuclear deal  Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union  have indicated that they think it is working.

(The Washington Post)

An administration review of the JCPOA is expected to be finished before the next certification is due in October. In the meantime, officials said, they will work with allies to try to reach agreement on its flaws.

Ed OKeefe contributed to this report.
Amnesty Internationals Belgium director, Philippe Hensmans, posed in a cage in front of the Turkish Embassy in Brussels earlier this month to protest the detention of his Turkish counterpart, Idil Eser. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the formal arrest of Amnesty Internationals Turkey director and five other human rights workers in a sign of what rights advocates say is the governments growing intolerance of critical voices.

The Amnesty director, Idil Eser, was detained along with nine other human rights advocates this month during a raid on a hotel where the group was attending a workshop. Amnesty said in a statement that the rights workers are suspected, without grounds, of committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member. 

Four members of the group were released on bail Tuesday but remain under investigation, Amnesty said. This is not a legitimate prosecution, Salil Shetty, Amnestys secretary general, said in a statement. This is a politically motivated persecution that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrested more than 50,000 people in the year since an attempted coup by renegade soldiers last July, according to Justice Ministry figures. Tens of thousands of people have also been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. Authorities have said their campaign is aimed at followers of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric whom authorities have called the mastermind of the coup attempt, as well as at Kurdish militants.

During ceremonies Saturday commemorating the coup attempt, Erdogan promised that the states hunt for its enemies would continue, vowing that none of the traitors who betrayed this country will remain unpunished.

Human rights groups including Amnesty have said that the arrests and purges since the coup attempt have swept up ordinary dissidents, critics or innocent citizens. In a recent Amnesty report, some people dismissed from their jobs said they had fallen under scrutiny because of union activism or had been the victims of score-settling.

About two weeks after the release of that report, Turkish police arrested Taner Kilic, Amnestys Turkey board chairman, and charged him with being a member of Gulens organization.

As part of its campaign to protest the arrests this month, Amnesty called attention to its past advocacy on behalf of Erdogan, who was jailed in 1998 when he was the mayor of Istanbul for reading a poem at a demonstration. The organization said it had written a letter to the Turkish government demanding Erdogans release, had declared him a prisoner of conscience and launched a global campaign on his behalf.

In a comment on the arrests, Erdogan questioned why the human rights workers had been gathering at the hotel and linked their meeting to the continuation of July 15, the day of the attempted coup.

Andrew Gardner, a Turkey researcher for Amnesty, said his colleagues had been attending a workshop focused on digital security and  resilience  essentially being a rights defender in difficult circumstances. Those arrested Tuesday included two foreign nationals: a Swedish citizen and a German citizen who were the workshop trainers.

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Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.
A. O. Smith Corporation manufactures and markets residential and commercial gas, heat pump and electric water heaters, boilers, tanks, and water treatment products in North America, China, Europe, and India. It operates through two segments, North America and Rest of World. The company offers water heaters for residences, restaurants, hotels and motels, office buildings, laundries, car washes, and small businesses; commercial boilers for hospitals, schools, hotels, and other large commercial buildings, as well as residential boilers for homes, apartments, and condominiums; and water treatment products comprising point-of-entry water softeners, well water solutions, and whole-home water filtration products, on-the-go filtration bottles, point-of-use carbon, and reverse osmosis products for residences, restaurants, hotels, and offices. It also provides food and beverage filtration products; expansion tanks, commercial solar water heating systems, swimming pool and spa heaters, and related products and parts; and heat pumps, electric wall-hung, gas tankless, combi-boiler, heat pump and solar water heaters. The company offers its products primarily under the A. O. Smith, State, Lochinvar, and water softener brands. It distributes its products through independent wholesale plumbing distributors, as well as through retail channels consisting of hardware and home center chains, and manufacturer representative firms; and offers Aquasana branded products directly to consumers through e-commerce, as well as other online retailers. A. O. Smith Corporation was founded in 1874 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The following companies are subsidiares of Pearson: AEL (S) PTE Limited, ATI Professional Development LLC, Addison Wesley Longman Inc., Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., Aldwych Finance Limited, Americas Choice Inc., Atkey Finance Limited, Author Solutions, Axis Finance Inc., CAMSAWUSA Inc., CTI Education Group (Pty) Limited, Camsaw Inc., Casapsi Livraria e Editora Ltda, Centro Cultural Americano Franquias e Comercio Ltda., Century Consultants Ltd., Certiport, Certiport China Co Ltd, Certiport China Holding LLC, Certiport Inc., Cogmed Systems AB, Connections Academy of Arkansas LLC, Connections Academy of Florida LLC, Connections Academy of Iowa LLC, Connections Academy of Maine LLC, Connections Academy of Maryland LLC, Connections Academy of Minnesota LLC, Connections Academy of Missouri LLC, Connections Academy of Nevada LLC, Connections Academy of New Jersey LLC, Connections Academy of New Mexico LLC, Connections Academy of New York LLC, Connections Academy of Oregon LLC, Connections Academy of Pennsylvania LLC, Connections Academy of Tennessee LLC, Connections Academy of Texas LLC, Connections Education Inc., Connections Education LLC, Connections Education of Florida LLC, Dominie Press Inc., Dorian Finance Limited, Dorling Kindersley Australasia Pty Limited, EBNT Canada Holdings ULC, EBNT Holdings Limited, EBNT USA Holdings Inc., Edexcel Limited, Edexcel South Africa Pty Ltd, Education Development International plc, Education Resources (Cyprus) Limited, Educational Management Group Inc., Educational Publishers LLP, Embanet ULC, Embanet-Compass Knowledge Group Inc., EmbanetCompass, Embankment Finance Limited, English Language Learning and Instruction System Inc., Escape Studios Limited, FBH Inc., Falstaff Holdco Inc., Falstaff Inc., GED Domains LLC, GED Testing Service LLC, George (Shanghai) Commercial Information Consulting Co. Ltd, Global Education, Global George I Limited, Global George II Limited, GlobalEnglish, Globe Fearon Inc., Guangzhou Crescent Software Co. Ltd, Heinemann Education Botswana (Publishers) (Proprietary) Limited, Heinemann Publishers (Pty) Ltd, INTELLIPRO INC., Icodeon Limited, IndiaCan Education Private Limited, Integral 7 Inc., Integrated Analytics LLC, J M Solucoes Exportacao e Importacao Ltda, K12 Learning Services LLC, Kagiso Education Pty Ltd, Knowledge Analysis Technologies LLC, LCCI International Qualifications (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., LCCIEB Training Consultancy. Ltd, Learning Catalytics, LessonLab Inc., Lignum Oil Company, Linx Brasil Distribuidora Ltda., Longman (Malawi) Limited, Longman Australasia Pty Ltd, Longman Group(Overseas Holdings)Limited, Longman Indochina Acquisition L.L.C., Longman Kenya Limited, Longman Mocambique Ltda, Longman Romania S.R.L., Longman Swaziland (Pty) Limited, Longman Tanzania Limited, Longman Zambia Educational Publishers Pty Ltd, Longman Zambia Limited, Longman Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Longmaned Ecuador S.A., Major123 Limited, Maskew Miller Longman (Pty) Limited, MeasureUp LLC, Modern Curriculum Inc., Multi Holding, Multi Treinamento e Editora Ltda, NCS Information Technology Services (Beijing) Co Ltd, NCS Pearson Inc., NCS Pearson Pty Ltd, NCS Pearson Puerto Rico Inc., National Computer Systems Japan Co. Ltd, Ordinate Corporation, PN Holdings Inc., PT Efficient English Services, Pearson (Beijing) Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Pearson (Guizhou) Education Technology Co. Ltd., Pearson Affordable Learning Fund Limited, Pearson America LLC, Pearson Amsterdam B.V., Pearson Australia Finance Unlimited, Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Pty Ltd, Pearson Benelux B.V., Pearson Books Limited, Pearson Brazil Finance Limited, Pearson Business Services Inc., Pearson Canada Assessment Inc., Pearson Canada Finance Unlimited, Pearson Canada Holdings Inc, Pearson Canada Inc., Pearson Central Europe Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson College Limited, Pearson DBC Holdings Inc., Pearson Desarrollo y Capacitacion Profesional Chile Limitada, Pearson Deutschland GmbH, Pearson Digital Learning Puerto Rico Inc., Pearson Dollar Finance Two Limited, Pearson Dollar Finance plc, Pearson Educacion SA, Pearson Educacion de Chile Limitada, Pearson Educacion de Colombia S A S, Pearson Educacion de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pearson Educacion de Panama SA, Pearson Educacion de Peru S.A., Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Pearson Education Achievement Solutions (RF) (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education Asia Limited, Pearson Education Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Pearson Education Hellas SA, Pearson Education Holdings Limited, Pearson Education Inc., Pearson Education Indochina Limited, Pearson Education Investments Limited, Pearson Education Korea Limited, Pearson Education Limited, Pearson Education Namibia (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Publishing Limited, Pearson Education S.A., Pearson Education SA, Pearson Education South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd., Pearson Education Taiwan Ltd, Pearson Education do Brasil S.A, Pearson Educational Measurement Canada Inc., Pearson Educational Publishers LLC, Pearson Egitim Cozumleri Tikaret Limited Sirketi, Pearson Falstaff (Holdings) Inc., Pearson Falstaff Holdco LLC, Pearson France, Pearson Funding Five plc, Pearson Funding Four plc, Pearson Funding Two Limited, Pearson Holdings Inc., Pearson Holdings Southern Africa (Pty) Limited, Pearson IOKI Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson India Education Services Private Limited, Pearson India Support Services Private Limited, Pearson Institute of Higher Education, Pearson International Finance Limited, Pearson Investment Holdings Inc., Pearson Italia S.p.A, Pearson Japan KK, Pearson Lanka (Private) Limited, Pearson Learning China (HK) Limited, Pearson Lesotho (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Loan Finance No. 3 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No. 4 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No.2 Unlimited, Pearson Loan Finance Unlimited, Pearson Longman Uganda Limited, Pearson Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Pearson Management Services Limited, Pearson Management Services Philippines Inc., Pearson Maryland Inc., Pearson Netherlands B.V., Pearson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Pearson Nominees Limited, Pearson Online Tutoring LLC, Pearson Overseas Holdings Limited, Pearson PEM P.R. Inc., Pearson PRH Holdings Limited, Pearson Pension Nominees Limited, Pearson Pension Property Fund Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Services Limited, Pearson Professional Assessments Limited, Pearson Real Estate Holdings Inc., Pearson Real Estate Holdings Limited, Pearson Schweiz AG, Pearson Services Limited, Pearson Shared Services Limited, Pearson South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Strand Finance Limited, Pearson Sweden AB, Pearson VUE Philippines Inc., Pearson in Practice Holdings Limited, Pearson in Practice Skills Based Learning Limited, Pearson in Practice Technology Limited, Penguin Capital LLC, Phumelela Publishers (Pty) Ltd, ProctorCam Inc., Reading Property Holdings LLC, Rebus Planning Associates Inc., Reston Publishing Company Inc., Rycade Capital Corporation, Shanghai AWL Education Software Ltd, Silver Burdett Ginn Inc., Skylight Training and Publishing Inc., Smarthinking Inc., Sound Holdings Inc., Spear Insurance Company Limited, Stark Verlag GmbH, Sunnykey International Holdings Limited (BVI), TQ Catalis Limited, TQ Clapham Limited, TQ Education and Training Limited, TQ Global Limited, TQ Group Limited, TQ Holdings Limited, The Financial Times (I) Pvt Ltd, The Learning Edge International pty Ltd, The Waite Group Inc, Trio Parent Holdings LLC, US Learning Services LLC, USLS Holdings LLC, Virtual Nerd, Vue Testing Services Israel Ltd, Vue Testing Services Korea Limited, Wall Street Institute Kft., Williams Education GmbH, eCollege.com, and Editions Du Renouveau Pedagogique Inc..

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Deutsche Post AG operates as a mail and logistics company in Germany, rest of Europe, the Americas, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through five segments: Express; Global Forwarding, Freight; Supply Chain; eCommerce Solutions; and Post & Parcel Germany. The Express segment offers time-definite courier and express services to business and private customers. The Global Forwarding, Freight segment provides air, ocean, and overland freight forwarding services; and offers multimodal and sector-specific solutions. This segment's business model is based on brokering transport services between customers and freight carriers. The Supply Chain segment delivers customized supply chain solutions to its customers based on modular components, including warehousing and transport services; and value-added services, such as e-fulfilment and returns management, lead logistics partner, real estate solutions, service logistics, and packaging solutions for various industrial sectors. The eCommerce Solutions segment provides parcel delivery and cross-border non-time definite international services. The Post & Parcel Germany segment transports and delivers mail communication, parcels, physical and hybrid letters, and special products for the delivery of goods; and offers additional services, such as registered mail, cash on delivery, and insured items. This segment also provides digital products, including stamps with data matrix codes and various postal services. Deutsche Post AG was founded in 1490 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, and international news to media organizations, professional, and news consumers through news agency and industry events. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation operates a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
Bay Banks of Virginia, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services to businesses, professionals, and consumers in Virginia. The company accepts checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, cash management accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. Its loan products include commercial and industrial loans, such as small business loans, asset based loans, and other secured and unsecured loans and lines of credit; purchased loans; residential and commercial mortgages; home equity loans; consumer installment loans; and consumer loans comprising automobile and boat financing, home improvement loans, and unsecured personal loans. The company also provides credit cards; and insurance, online banking, telephone banking, mobile banking, analysis checking, cash management deposit, wire, direct deposit payroll, lockbox, positive pay, and remote deposit services, as well as a line of commercial lending options. In addition, it offers management services, including estate planning and settlement, as well as trust administration, investment, and wealth management services; and revocable and irrevocable living trusts, testamentary trusts, custodial accounts, investment planning, brokerage services, investment managed accounts, and managed and self-directed rollover individual retirement accounts for personal and corporate trusts. As of March 9, 2020, the company operated 17 banking offices located throughout greater Richmond region, the Northern Neck region, Middlesex County, and the Hampton Roads region. Bay Banks of Virginia, Inc. was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.
Crestwood Equity Partners LP develops, acquires, owns, controls, and operates assets and operations in the energy midstream sector in the United States. It operates through three segments: Gathering and Processing North; Gathering and Processing South; and Storage and Logistics. The Gathering and Processing North segment offers natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering, compression, treating, processing, and disposal services to producers in the Williston Basin and Powder River Basin. This segment owns and operates natural gas facilities with approximately 0.4 Bcf/d of gathering capacity and 0.5 Bcf/d of processing capacity; crude oil facilities with approximately 150,000 Bbls/d of gathering capacity and 266,000 Bbls of storage capacity; and produced water facilities with approximately 130,000 Bbls/d of gathering and disposal capacity. The Gathering and Processing South segment provides natural gas gathering, compression, treating, and processing; and produced water gathering and disposal services to producers in the Marcellus, Barnett, and Delaware basins. This segment owns and operates natural gas facilities with 2.5 Bcf/d of gathering capacity and 0.7 Bcf/d of processing capacity; and produced water facilities with approximately 75,000 Bbls/d of gathering and disposal capacity. The Storage and Logistics segment offers natural gas liquids, crude oil, and natural gas storage, terminal, marketing, and transportation, including rail, truck and pipeline services to producers, refiners, marketers, utilities, and other customers. Crestwood Equity GP LLC serves as the general partner of Crestwood Equity Partners LP. The company was formerly known as Inergy L.P. and changed its name to Crestwood Equity Partners LP in October 2013. Crestwood Equity Partners LP was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services. It serves corporate, middle market, and commercial real estate developers and investors. The Consumer Bank segment provides consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, consumer credit cards, and other consumer loans, as well as deposits. The Wealth Management segment offers credit related products, and retirement and savings solutions; and trust and investment management, asset management, and estate planning services to individuals, businesses, governmental institutions, and non-profit entities. The company also provides investment and insurance products; low-income housing tax credit corporate fund syndication services; and other specialty financing services. As of March 01, 2022, it operated through a network of 1,300 banking offices and 2,000 automated teller machines across the South, Midwest, and Texas. Regions Financial Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
The following companies are subsidiares of ABB: ABB (China) Investment Limited, ABB (China) Ltd., ABB (Hong Kong) Ltd., ABB (Namibia) (Pty) Ltd., ABB (P.J.S.C.), ABB (Private) Ltd., ABB (Pty) Ltd., ABB (Pvt) Ltd., ABB A/S, ABB AB, ABB AG, ABB AS, ABB AUTOMACAO LTDA, ABB AUTOMATION AND ELECTRIFICATION (VIETNAM)COMPANY LIMITED, ABB AUTOMATION HOLDINGS (THAILAND) CO. LTD., ABB Algeria SpA Asea Brown Boveri, ABB Algerie Produits SpA, ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, ABB Asea Brown Boveri SRL, ABB Ausbildungszentrum Berlin gGmbH, ABB Australia Pty Limited, ABB Automation (Thailand) Co. Ltd., ABB B.V., ABB Bailey Beijing Engineering Co. Ltd., ABB Bailey Japan Limited, ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co. Ltd., ABB Beijing Switchgear Limited, ABB Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsges. mbH, ABB Bulgaria EOOD, ABB Business Services Sp. z o.o., ABB Cable Management Products Ltd, ABB Canada EL Holding GmbH, ABB Capital AG, ABB Capital B.V., ABB Centroamerica y El Caribe S.A., ABB Chargedot Shanghai New Energy Technology Co. Ltd, ABB Colombia Ltda, ABB Construction (ABACON) S.A.E., ABB E-MOBILITY INC., ABB E-MOBILITY PTE. LTD., ABB E-mobility AB, ABB E-mobility AG, ABB E-mobility AS, ABB E-mobility GmbH, ABB E-mobility Holding Ltd, ABB E-mobility QFZ LLC, ABB E-mobility S.p.A., ABB E-mobility SAS, ABB E-mobility SL, ABB E-mobility Technology Shenzhen Co. Ltd, ABB E-mobility UK Limited, ABB ELECTRICAL & AUTOMATION W.L.L, ABB ELECTRIFICATION HOLDINGS (THAILAND) CO. LTD., ABB ELETRIFICACAO LTDA, ABB Ecuador S.A., ABB Electrical Control Systems S. de R.L. de C.V., ABB Electrical Equipment (Xiamen) Co. Ltd., ABB Electrical Equipment Ltd., ABB Electrical Industries Co. Ltd., ABB Electrical Machines Ltd., ABB Electrical Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ABB Electrification (Thailand) Co. Ltd., ABB Electrification Canada ULC, ABB Electrification Norway AS, ABB Electrification Sweden AB, ABB Elektrik Sanayi A.S., ABB Engg. Technologies Co. (KSCC), ABB Engineering (Shanghai), ABB Engineering Trading and Service Ltd., ABB Equipo de Control Y Distribucion S. de R.L. de C.V., ABB Equity Limited, ABB FZ-LLC, ABB Finance (USA) Inc., ABB Finance B.V., ABB For Feeding Industries SAE, ABB France, ABB GLOBAL BUSINESS SERVICES AND CONTRACTINGINDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ABB Global Industries and Services Private Limited, ABB Global Marketing FZ LLC, ABB Group Holdings Pty. Ltd., ABB Group Investment Management Pty. Ltd., ABB Guangdong Sihui Instrument Transformer Co. Ltd., ABB Hangzhou Winmation Automation Company Limited, ABB Holding AS, ABB Holdings (Pty) Ltd., ABB Holdings B.V., ABB Holdings Inc., ABB Holdings Limited, ABB Holdings Sdn. Bhd., ABB INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS (LODZ) S.A. W LIKWIDACJI, ABB Inc., ABB Inc., ABB India Limited, ABB Industrial Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd, ABB Industrial Solutions (Belgium) BV, ABB Industrial Solutions (Bielsko-Biala) Sp. z o.o., ABB Industrial Solutions (Canada) Inc., ABB Industrial Solutions (Klodzko) Sp.z.o.o., ABB Industries (L.L.C.), ABB Industries FZ, ABB Information Systems Ltd., ABB Installation Products Caribe LLC, ABB Installation Products European Centre S.A., ABB Installation Products Inc, ABB Installation Products International LLC., ABB Installation Products Limited, ABB Installation Products Monterrey S. de R.L. de C.V., ABB Installacios Keszulekek Kft., ABB Investment Holding 2 GmbH, ABB Investments (Pty) Ltd, ABB Inzeniring d.o.o., ABB Jiangjin Turbo Systems Company Limited, ABB K.K., ABB Kaufel GmbH, ABB LAFRENZE PROPERTY (PROPERTY) LIMITED, ABB LLC, ABB LLP., ABB LV Installation Materials Co. Ltd. Beijing, ABB Limitada, ABB Limited, ABB Limited/Jordan LLC., ABB Lineage Power Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ABB Logistics Center Europe GmbH, ABB Ltd., ABB Maghreb Services S.A., ABB Malaysia Sdn Bhd., ABB Management Services Ltd., ABB Mexico S.A. de C.V., ABB Motors and Mechanical Inc, ABB N.V., ABB Norden Holding AB, ABB Operations Center Ltd., ABB Orange B.V., ABB Oryx Motors and Generators Service LLC, ABB Oy, ABB Panama Sales S.A., ABB Power & Automation (Private) Limited, ABB Power & Automation Limited, ABB Power Electronics (Germany) GmbH, ABB Power Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ABB Power Electronics (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., ABB Power Electronics Inc., ABB Pte. Ltd., ABB Reinsurance AG, ABB Robotics (Zhuhai) Ltd, ABB Robotics Machine Tending Limited, ABB Robotics Solutions NV, ABB S.A., ABB S.A. de CV, ABB S.p.A., ABB SARL, ABB SAS, ABB SIA, ABB Schweiz AG, ABB Shanghai Free Trade Zone Industrial Co. Ltd., ABB Shanghai Motors Co. Ltd., ABB South Africa (Pty) Ltd., ABB Sp. z o.o., ABB Stotz-Kontakt Gmb, ABB Striebel & John GmbH, ABB Susa Inc., ABB Technologies Ltd., ABB Technologies S.A., ABB Technology SA, ABB Tianjin Switchgear Co. Ltd., ABB Transmission & Distribution Limited LLC, ABB Treasury Center (USA) Inc., ABB Turbo Systems (Hong Kong) Limited, ABB Turbochargers S.A.E., ABB UAB, ABB Verwaltungs AG, ABB Wirtschaftsbetriebe GmbH, ABB Xiamen Corporation Management Service Co. Ltd., ABB Xiamen Low Voltage Equipment Co. Ltd., ABB Xiamen Smart Technology Co. Ltd., ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co. Ltd., ABB Xinhui Low Voltage Switchgear Co. Ltd., ABB d.o.o., ABB eMobility Digital Venture GmbH, ABB for Electrical Industries (ABB ARAB) S.A.E., ABB for Electrical Solutions and Technologies K.S.C.C., ABB s.r.o., ABB s.r.o., ABBNG Limited, APS Technology Group, ASEA BROWN BOVERI Portugal Unipessoal Lda, ASTI France SAS, ASTI Mobile Robotics, Asea Brown Boveri Electrica SGPS (Angola) Limitada, Asea Brown Boveri Industrial Technical & CommercialCompany of Imports  Exports S.A., Asea Brown Boveri Lanka (Private) Limited, Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., Asea Brown Boveri S.A., Asea Brown Boveri S.A. de C.V., Asea Brown Boveri S.A.E., Asti Mobile Robotics GmbH, Asti Mobile Robotics Group SL, Asti Mobile Robotics SAU, B & R Automazione Industriale S.r.l., B & R Industrial Automation Ltd., B + R Industrie-Elektronik GmbH, B&R Automatyka Przemyslowa Sp.z.o.o., B&R Automacao Industrial Ltda., B&R Holding GmbH, B&R Industrial Automation, B&R Industrial Automation (China) Co. Ltd., B&R Industrial Automation A/S, B&R Industrial Automation AB, B&R Industrial Automation Co. Ltd., B&R Industrial Automation Corp., B&R Industrial Automation GmbH, B&R Industrial Automation Iberica S.L.U., B&R Industrial Automation Inc., B&R Industrial Automation Pte. Ltd., B&R Industrial Automation Pvt. Ltd., B&R Industrie-Automation AG, B&R Industriele Automatisering B.V., B&R K.K., B+R Automation Industrielle SARL, B+R Industrial Automation OOO, B+R automatizace spol. s.r.o., BR Endustriyel Otomasyon Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Baldor Electric Company, Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH, Chargedot, Cherokee India Pvt. Ltd., Codian Robotics, Codian Robotics B.V., Codian Robotics of the Americas, Combustion Engineering Inc., Cylon Controls, Cylon Controls Limited, Cylon Energy Inc., DynaMotive Ltd., ELBI Elektrik, Edison Holding Corporation, Enervalis NV, Envitech Energy, Epyon, GE Industrial Solutions, Gomtec, Gresin Grupo Estudios Industriales, IMV Invertomatic Victron UK Limited, In-Charge Energy, Industrial C&S Hungary Kft., Industrial C&S of P.R. LLC, Industrial Connections & Solutions LLC, Industrial Connections of SA Pty. Ltd., Intrimmo BVBA, Jinan ABB SRI Rail Transit Equipment Technology Co. Ltd., Jordan Acquisition Group, KEYMILE - Business, Kaufel S.A., Kuhlman Electric Corp., Lineage Overseas LLC, Lineage Power (Argentina) S.R.L., Lineage Power (Luxembourg) S.A.R.L., Lineage Power China Co. Ltd., Lineage Power Holdings Inc., Lineage Power Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Lorentzen & Wettre, Los Gatos Research, Mincom, NUB3D S.L., Newave Energy Holding, Newron System, PT ABB Sakti Industri, Pinghu Zhuangbest Technology Development Co. Ltd., Power-One, Powercorp, Powertel India Pvt. Ltd., RGM - Rail vehicle power business, RMI Automation Co. Ltd., SVIA, SWISS TURBOCHARGERS SA DE CV, Saudi Industrial Solutions Ltd., Shanghai Zhuangbest Technology Development Co. Ltd., Shantou Winride Switchgear Co. Ltd., Sirius Holdings B.V., Smart Power Technology Co. Ltd., Spirit IT, Swissturbo (Shanghai) Investment Limited, SynerLeap powered by ABB AB, TURBO SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, TURBO SYSTEMS ITALY S.P.A., TURBO SYSTEMS RUS LLC, TURBO-SUPERIOR SYSTEMS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, TURBOCHARGING GREECE SINGLE MEMBER SA, Thomas & Betts, Thomas & Betts Saudi Arabia Limited Liability Co., Trasfor, Tropos Networks, Turbo Systems Argentina S.A., Turbo Systems Canada Inc, Turbo Systems Colombia SAS, Turbo Systems Dominican Republic SRL, Turbo Systems Finland Oy, Turbo Systems Germany GmbH, Turbo Systems Holding Ltd, Turbo Systems Iberia S.L., Turbo Systems Korea Ltd., Turbo Systems Myanmar Limited, Turbo Systems Pakistan (Private) Limited, Turbo Systems South East Asia Pte. Ltd., Turbo Systems Switzerland Ltd, Turbo Systems The Netherlands B.V., Turbo Systems Turkey Muhendislik Makine Sanayi Ve TicaretAnonim Sirketi, Turbo Systems US Inc., Turbo Systems United Co. Ltd., Turbo Systems Verwaltungs Ltd, Turbocharging Bangladesh Limited, Turbocharging Brasil Ltda., Turbocharging Systems Co. Ltd., Turbocharging Systems France SAS, Turbocharging UK Limited, Turbosystems Nigeria Limited LTD, Validus DC Systems, Vectek Electronics, Ventyx, Verdi Holding Corporation, W.J. Furse & Co. Ltd., Yangzhou SAC Switchgear Co. Ltd, and Zhejiang Chargedot New Energy Technology Co. Ltd..

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Aetna Inc. operates as a health care benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Health Care, Group Insurance, and Large Case Pensions. The Health Care segment offers medical, pharmacy benefit management service, dental, behavioral health, and vision plans on an insured and employer-funded basis. It also provides point-of-service, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, and indemnity benefit plans, as well as health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans. In addition, this segment offers Medicare and Medicaid products and services, as well as other medical products, such as medical management and data analytics services, medical stop loss insurance, workers' compensation administrative services, and products that provide access to its provider networks in select geographies. The Group Insurance segment offers life insurance products, including group term life insurance, voluntary spouse and dependent term life insurance, group universal life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance products; and long-term care insurance products, which provide the benefits to cover the cost of care in private home settings, adult day care, assisted living, or nursing facilities. The Large Case Pensions segment manages various retirement products comprising pension and annuity products primarily for tax-qualified pension plans. The company provides its products and services to employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. Aetna Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, a technology company, focuses in the areas of automation and digitalization in Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. It operates through Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, Siemens Healthineers, and Siemens Financial Services segments. The Digital Industries segment offers automation systems and software for factories, numerical control systems, motors, drives and inverters, and integrated automation systems for machine tools and production machines; process control systems, machine-to-machine communication products, sensors and radio frequency identification systems; software for production and product lifecycle management, and simulation and testing of mechatronic systems; and cloud-based industrial Internet of Things operating systems. The Smart Infrastructure segment offers products, systems, solutions, services, and software to support sustainable transition in energy generation from fossil and renewable sources; sustainable buildings and communities; and buildings, electrification, and electrical products. The Mobility segment provides passenger and freight transportation, such as vehicles, trams and light rail, and commuter trains, as well as trains and passenger coaches; locomotives for freight or passenger transport and solutions for automated transportation; products and solutions for rail automation; electrification products; and intermodal solutions. The Siemens Healthineers segment develops, manufactures, and sells various diagnostic and therapeutic products and services; and provides clinical consulting services. The Siemens Financial Services segment offers debt and equity investments; leasing, lending, and working capital financing solutions; and equipment, project, and structured financing solutions. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany.
RELX PLC provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Risk; Scientific, Technical & Medical; Legal; and Exhibitions. The Risk segment offers information-based analytics and decision tools that combine public and industry specific content with technology and algorithms to assist clients in evaluating and predicting risk. The Scientific, Technical & Medical segment provides information and analytics that help institutions and professionals to progress in science and advance healthcare. The Legal segment provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers in decision-making, as well as increases the productivity. The Exhibitions segment is involved in the events business that combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products, and complete transactions. The company was formerly known as Reed Elsevier PLC and changed its name to RELX PLC in July 2015. The company was incorporated in 1903 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
The 10-day Malabar naval exercises by India, US and Japan in the Bay of Bengal, which concluded yesterday, underscore how far the US-led strategic alliance involving India and Japan, directed against China, has developed. This is the third consecutive year Japan has joined the annual war games as a permanent partner.

Sailors and marines from the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, and its strike group joined the Indian Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force in Malabar 2017, the largest war games held in the Indian Ocean since India and US initiated the joint exercises in 1992. Two aircraft carriersthe Nimitz and INS Vikramaditya from Indiaas well as the giant helicopter carrier, the JS Izumo, from Japan took part, with 16 other warships, 95 aircraft and two submarines.

While the naval exercises proceeded, the Indian and Chinese militaries were at loggerheads on a Himalayan ridge, the Doklam or Donglang Plateau, claimed by both China and Bhutan. Tensions are also mounting in the South China Sea, where China has stepped up its naval presence in response to provocative US actions.

A statement issued by the US Navy web site and the US Embassy in India on July 6, said the primary aim of Malabar 2017 was to address the variety of shared threats to maritime security in Indo-Asia Pacific.

Rear Admiral William D Byrne, Commander US strike Group 11, said the exercises, which focussed on submarine tracking, would eliminate possibilities of miscalculations and send a message to all navies is that we are better together.

These statements do not specify the threats. However, under conditions where the US and India have raised concerns over increasing Chinese naval power, mainly submarines, in the Indian Ocean, the exercises obviously aim to counter Chinas alleged growing military clout in the region.

An unnamed US commander told the Times of India on July 11 the exercises would have significant impact on the Chinese. He added: They [China] will know we are standing together and that is better to stand together.

US officials pointed to broader US geo-strategic aims in the Asia-Pacific. On the US Pacific Command web site, Commander Vernan Stanfield, the Nimitz Strike Group operations officer, said: The exercise continues to grow because we are bringing more ships and we are bringing together three countries.

In a Times of India op-ed piece on July 11, the US charge daffaires in New Delhi, Mary Key Carlson, said the US welcomes Indias growing defence capabilities and its commitment to a common set of principles for the region, according to which sovereignty and international law are respected.

Carlson referred to the recent meeting of Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, which highlighted the importance of navigation, overflight and commercea clear message directed against China over the disputed South China Sea territorial claims.

The Malabar exercises are a part of Indias growing integration into the US strategic offensive against China under the Modi government. On June 26, Trump and Modi pledged to strengthen the Indo-US global strategic partnership when they met at the White House for the first time.

The Modi governments support for Japan as a permanent Malabar partner two years ago was in line with Washingtons push for a trilateral anti-China alliance. It also dovetailed with the Indian elites desire to forge ties with Tokyo for its own geo-political interests in the Indo-Pacific region. At last weeks G20 summit in Hamburg, Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe met to strengthen bilateral ties. Last December, India signed what was called an historic civilian nuclear deal with Japan during an annual bilateral summit in Tokyo.

Indian officials attempted to deny that China was the target of the naval exercises. From Eastern Naval Command, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Vice Admiral H.C.S. Bisht refused to acknowledge that the choice of ships and the venue of the exercise had anything to do with presence of Chinese ships or Indian threat perception in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. Bisht claimed Malabar 2017 had no implications for Indias military standoff with China in Doklam.

Asked about the Malabar exercises, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a press conference on July 7 that China has no objection to the development of normal relations and cooperation between countries. In a thinly-veiled warning, however, he added: We hope such relations and cooperation are not targeted at a third country and are conductive to regional peace and stability.

Chinese officials are undoubtedly watching the Malabar exercises closely. According to a report in the Hindu, an article published by the online portal Pengpai noted that the issue of whether the war games were targeted at Chinese submarines has got people really concerned. Li Jie, a Chinese naval expert, said: The Malabar exercise used to be a comprehensive drill that included air defence, anti-ship elements, etc. But now the subject of the drills starts to show that there is more focus on anti-submarine warfare. It shows that they have someone as the target.

The Hindustan Times reported on June 5 that ahead of the Malabar exercises, China increased its naval presence in the Indian Ocean, including the Haiwaingxing, an intelligence-gathering ship. The Indian Navy also sighted more than a dozen Chinese warships, including submarines and destroyers, during the two months before the exercises, the newspaper reported, citing Indian government sources.

By holding the largest-ever war games in the Indian Ocean, with China the obvious target, India, US and Japan, have once again revealed how geo-political tensions are dangerously escalating, with potentially devastative consequences for billions of working people and oppressed masses in the region.
Vice President Mike Pence delivered an energetic endorsement Tuesday of the Senate Republicans new approach to the Affordable Care Act: Repeal it now and figure out a replacement later.

Inaction is not an option. Congress needs to step up. Congress needs to do their job, and Congress needs to do their job now, Pence said to applause in his speech to a national retailers summit in Washington.

Pences comments came after two more GOP senators withdrew their support for the earlier Senate GOP health bill Monday night, effectively halting it in its tracks. Two Republican senators had already announced their opposition to the legislation. Because Democrats are united in opposition to repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Republicans can only lose two votes.

Pence said he and President Trump fully support the move by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to vote on a clean repeal bill. The vice president also scolded Congress, blaming lawmakers for the Senate bills failure.

President Trump and I fully support the majority leaders decision to move forward with a bill that just repeals Obamacare and gives Congress time, as the president said, to work on a new health care plan that will start with a clean slate, Pence said.

The Senate should vote to repeal now and replace later, or return to the legislation carefully crafted in the House and Senate, he continued.

Pence also referenced Trumps Tuesday morning tweet about the Senate bill. As the president said today, most Republicans were loyal, terrific and worked really hard, he said.

McConnell announced Monday night that he would change his strategy and push for a clean repeal bill. The clean repeal bill would give Congress two years to develop a replacement for Obamacare. Critics worry that the fractious Congress would fail to come together around a replacement plan.

The majority leader plans to return to a piece of legislation passed by the Senate in 2015 that repealed Obamacare without a replacement. Some of the GOP senators who are now wavering voted for the bill at the time  but it had little chance of getting past then-President Barack Obamas veto pen.

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The latest strategy faces an uphill path. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have already announced their opposition to a clean repeal. McConnell can only lose one more GOP vote.

For his part, Trump on Tuesday blamed all Democrats and a few Republicans for the Senate bills failure. We will return! he exclaimed on Twitter.

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Raqa (Syria) (AFP) - Heavy bombardment and fierce fighting shook the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa on Monday, as US-backed forces said they captured a new neighbourhood from entrenched jihadists.

Bursts of gunfire and artillery as well as the thud of air strikes conducted by the US-led coalition filled the air in western neighbourhoods of Raqa, on what AFP's correspondent said was the heaviest day of bombardment to date.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll, said the air strikes killed at least 10 civilians, two of them children.

Thick pillars of black smoke dotted the city skyline, lined with bombed-out concrete homes and the damaged minaret of a mosque.

"Our American friends are bombing with mortars," a fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said after a string of blasts near the front line in western Raqa.

The SDF's Kurdish and Arab fighters have been pressing an operation to capture the jihadist stronghold since last year with coalition air support and the backing of a US Marines artillery battery.

An AFP reporter in Jazra suburb on the western outskirts of the city on Monday saw coalition forces at a joint position with SDF fighters firing artillery in the direction of IS posts deeper inside Raqa.

- Regime forces advance south of Raqa -

On another front, Syrian government forces have swept across territory south of Raqa, capturing a string of villages and oilfields from the jihadists, state media said Monday.

"Over the past two days, army units recaptured a number of villages and oilfields in western parts of Deir Ezzor province and southern parts of Raqa," the official news agency SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory said the government advance was backed by heavy Syrian and Russian air strikes.

"Regime forces have captured between 1,500 and 1,800 square kilometres (580 and 700 sq miles) in Raqa province over the past 48 hours," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

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In its separate operation, the SDF has spent several months encircling Raqa and first broke into the northern city in early June.

On Monday, it announced it had captured Al-Yarmuk, a large neighbourhood on the southwestern outskirts of the city.

"The Al-Yarmuk district was liberated yesterday," the SDF's spokeswoman for the Raqa operation, Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, told AFP in Ain Issa, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Raqa.

"We are taking steady and sound steps. What is important to us is not speed, but liberating civilians and eliminating Daesh (IS)," she added.

IS first seized Raqa in early 2014, and the city has since become synonymous with the group's most gruesome atrocities.

It carried out brutal public beheadings and is thought to have used Raqa as a hub for planning attacks overseas.

The jihadists are putting up a fierce defence against the SDF, including with car bombs, improved explosive devices, and weaponised commercial drones.

SDF fighters on Monday heard a light buzzing noise coming from outside and began looking to the sky.

"It's a Daesh drone," one militiaman warned.

Progress inside Raqa has also been hampered by extensive mining of neighbourhoods, with devastating consequences for civilians trying to flee.

"There have been many casualties, fighters and civilians, caused by mines," an SDF commander told AFP, without giving his name.

"Yesterday, we buried six civilians after a mine exploded as they were trying to escape."

- Up to 50,000 civilians still trapped -

The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in Raqa, down from some 100,000 people at the end of June.

The SDF on its social media accounts said Monday its forces "managed to free about 500 civilians who were trapped inside the Al-Daraiya and Al-Tayar neighbourhoods, as well as 150 others from the Old City" in Raqa.

The Syrian Observatory monitoring group said hundreds of civilians had fled IS-held parts of the city in the past 48 hours towards areas now controlled by the SDF.

"Whenever there is a lull in the fighting, they leave towards areas held by the SDF," Observatory head Abdel Rahman said.

The Britain-based monitoring group estimates the US-backed force currently holds around 35 percent of Raqa.

It said the SDF held the western portion of Al-Yarmuk district but that it had not fully captured the district and heavy fighting was continuing.

More than 330,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's multi-party conflict broke out with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Former Vice President Al Gore condemned President Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in an interview Monday.

Weve never had a president whos deliberately made decisions the effect of which is tearing down Americas standing in the world, Gore said on the Today show.

The one-time Democratic presidential nominee also attacked Trump for undermining our alliances and damaging Americas reputation in many ways.

Gorewho has spent most of his post-political career as a climate change activisthas occasionally weighed in on the presidents decisions. In December, during the transition, Gore met with Trump to discuss climate change. However, since the president decided to leave the Paris agreement, the two have not been in contact.

Id hoped that he would come to his senses about the Paris agreement, he said. But I was wrong.

Gores criticism echoes the disparaging remarks directed at Obama during his tenure as president by Republicans. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich once said that Obama is in many ways the first anti-American president.

Gore added that the news of Donald Trump, Jr.s meeting with Russian operatives was some of the most troubling weve seen in a while.

The months ahead will be a test for the American people, he said.
Rye has frequently criticised Mr Trump: Getty Images for BET

A CNN political commentator is refusing to call Donald Trump her president, and instead has been calling the President your president during panel discussions on the cable news network.

Angela Rye, who served as the executive director and general counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus before joining CNN, initially attacked the President for encouraging the Russian government in 2016 to find Hillary Clintons emails that were deleted from her private server she used while serving as secretary of State.

He went into a press conference during the summer [of 2016] asking Russia to find the other 30,000 emails, Ms Rye said. There are a lot of things that your president has done to defy logic. Lets at least acknowledge that.

Fellow panellist Jack Kingston, a former Republican congressman who has been contributing at CNN since joining the network earlier this year, didnt like Ms Ryes disavowal of Mr Trump.

Your president, too, Angela. Your president, too, he insisted.

Ms Rye wasnt having it.

Well hes your president, Ms Rye said.

Ms Rye has emerged as a fierce critic of the President, who has avoided CNN appearances since August 2016 when he partook in his most recent interview with an employee there. At that time, he gave a phone interview to anchor Anderson Cooper.

Since then, Mr Trump and CNN have had a rocky relationship to say the least. Mr Trump has focused much of his anti-media ire on CNN, and called the network fake news during his first press conference after being elected to become president earlier this year.

CNNs White House correspondent has been a vocal critic of the president as well, and has repeatedly called out the commander in chief for allowing his administration to break from well established norms for dealing with the media. That includes criticism for holding White House press briefings off camera, even though each of the past three presidents have aired video of the briefings.
Actress Amy Adams on the blue carpet at the Giffoni Film Festival. (Photo: Stefania DAlessandro/WireImage)

While her Hollywood peers were decked out in designer couture, Amy Adams hit the blue carpet wearing a $51 dress.

On Tuesday, Adams wore the blue Ombre Floral Print Sleeveless Fit & Flare dress by Vince Camuto (which is currently sold out at Nordstrom) to the Giffoni Film Festival in southern Italy. At the annual childrens event, she also collected a Giffoni Experience Award and held a master class in acting. The 42-year-old actress accessorized her $51.20 dress (marked down from $128) with black strappy stilettos and wore her hair in a chic side twist.

Her down-to-earth style isnt surprising  she has a well-known love of leggings and calls Spanx magic  and its perfectly fitting given that Adams is currently in vacation mode. The Justice League star has been traveling through Positano and the Amalfi Coast with Darren Le Gallo, her husband of two years, and their 7-year-old daughter, Aviana. On their trip, Adams has been spotted around Italy wearing shirtdresses, sandals, and a straw hat.

Amy Adams (Photo: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Camuto, the designer of the blue dress we love, founded the footwear brand Nine West and passed away from cancer in 2015. His fan base included Jessica Simpson, Tory Burch, and Adams, who was recently photographed wearing the designers $129 Astar sandals.

Adams, whose dress garnered rave reviews from shoppers for being the unicorn of dresses, also made an impression in Italy.

While wearing said dress, Adams found time to dispense some actress wisdom. According to the official Giffoni Film Festival website, when asked by a young girl for tips on breaking into Hollywood, Adams replied, Ive never been too good at auditioning, but I learnt that it doesnt help to brood over or take it personally: All you have to do is move forward and start fresh, without ceasing to study and believe in yourself. Take it from someone who used to be shy  nay is still so. You could have fooled us, Amy!

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An ancient house of the dead has been unearthed near Stonehenge.

The Neolithic burial chamber, which likely dates to approximately 5,600 to 5,700 years ago, would have been an earthen structure that housed the skeletons of some of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. The burial structure, known as a long barrow, was discovered in the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, which is dotted with ancient ruins from this period.

"It's a very rare type of monument, and a monument type we do not get to excavate very often," said Jim Leary, director of the Archaeology Field School at the University of Reading in England, who is leading the excavations. "This is the first one in 50 years that's been excavated in Wiltshire in its entirety."

The burial chamber was discovered in what looked like an ordinary wheat field, thanks to aerial footage that revealed the outline of some structure lying hidden below. The excavations have just begun, so the scientists have yet to send their findings to peer-reviewed journals; the archaeologists don't yet know whether they will uncover skeletons or other artifacts in the long barrow, Leary said. [Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]

Sacred landscape

The Salisbury Plain in England is home to a stunning array of ancient monuments, from Stonehenge, to the mysterious fire monument near Avebury Circle, to the chalk mound known as Silbury Hill. It's not clear why so many of these ancient monuments have been found in the region, though one likely reason is that it has been very sparsely occupied in recent human history, meaning these monuments have not been plowed over through the millennia by farmers, Leary said. However, the river valleys of the Avon and Kennet rivers (which flow through Wiltshire) do seem to have had some special sacred significance for ancient people, which may mean more monumental architecture was constructed there, he said.

Among the finds in this historic region are long barrows, or places where people buried some of their dead in ancient times. In the early Neolithic period, the bodies of a few select people were left on giant platforms for birds to pick clean. Once devoid of any tissue, the skeletons were placed in long, typically rectangular structures that looked like houses, only they were covered over by soil, Leary said.

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Such long barrows date to an interesting period in the history of this region, when a hunter-gathering lifestyle gave way to permanent settlements supported by domesticated animal husbandry and farming, the researchers noted.

Unexpected find

The newfound long barrow was discovered via aerial photography, which revealed crop marks in the field. When the researchers investigated the physical properties of the ground, they suspected that there might be an undiscovered monument beneath.

The early excavations revealed the remains of a large, long barrow, about 85 feet (26 meters) long and about 65 feet (20 m) wide, Leary said. The structures that would have stood aboveground have been plowed under through the millennia, so the only features that remain are those that were dug deep into the ground, he added.

Though the team hasn't dated any of the material at the site yet, long barrows with similar features, such as the West Kennet long barrow, date to around 3500 B.C. to 3700 B.C.

If this burial chamber is similar to others found in the region, the barrow may have once contained 30 to 50 skeletons, which may have been buried with cow skulls.

"These are the very first people to have domestic cows, and they seem quite an important species to them," Leary told Live Science.

The long barrow also may contain a distinctive style of pottery, called Windmill Hill ware, Leary said.

Though the burial site predates Stonehenge by several centuries, it's possible that distant relatives of the builders of Stonehenge, or at least relatives of the people who occupied the area around the sacred monument, could, theoretically, be housed there, Leary said.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Luanda (AFP) - Angola has rejected conditions demanded by an EU election observer mission that had been preparing to witness next month's polls in the country, state media reported Monday.

The European team had called for unfettered access to polling stations across the vast southern African nation during the August 23 vote.

"So this is Africa. And we do not expect anyone to impose on us their means of observing elections or to give lectures," said Foreign Minister Georges Chicoti according to the Journal de Angola newspaper.

"The invitation stands. But we do not want to have separate agreements with all of the organisations (sending observers)."

Chicoti added that the only organisations with which Angola has election observation deals were the African Union and the southern African bloc SADC.

"These are the only institutions for which Angola must abide by the electoral processes laid down in law," he said.

The foreign ministry warned that safety could be an issue if the EU observers were allowed unhindered access to polling stations in all 18 of Angola's provinces.

"The European Union has not yet decided whether it will send an observer mission or not," said the EU mission's spokesman Pablo Mazarrasa.

President Eduardo Jose Dos Santos who has ruled Angola since 1979 will not contest next month's general election, marking a historic change in the oil-rich country.

In February, the ruling MPLA named Jose Lourenco, currently defence minister, as Dos Santos' successor and he is most likely to succeed him after the August election.

Although Angola is one of the largest producers of oil in sub-Saharan Africa, it remains one of the poorest countries on the continent.
Former The Bachelorette contestant Ryan Sutter figured if he could win a wife on tv, he should be able to finish some silly little ninja course on tv. So he and his tv wife Trista loaded up the family and headed down to Denver to take on the qualifier course for American Ninja Warrior. The Sutter's are probably the most popular couple from The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise. They met on the first season of The Bachelorette with Ryan vying for Trista's rose and have been together ever since. Now that they have kids they don't appear on camera quite as much. Trista said, "Now we live a relatively quiet life here in the Rocky Mountains and life is really about us and our family and our kids." Ryan is a firefighter in Vail, Colorado and he said he entered the competition because "I think the kids are really excited that I'm competing..."American Ninja Warrior" is fun for all ages, and we watch it together." So with his whole family watching, he took on the course. Ryan made it passed the first two obstacles but when he tried to jump off the trampoline of the third obstacle his knees buckled. Ryan ended up in the water. But he didn't let it dampen his spirit too much because he quickly jumped out of the freezing water and and gave Trista a giant wet hug.
Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter is demanding answers after receiving sassy tweets from Delta Airlines in response to her complaints about having her seat reassigned on a flight from New York LaGuardia to West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday.

Theyve been unbelievably arrogant, Coulter said during an appearance on Fox & Friends Tuesday.

They say it was inadvertently given away, inadvertent, Coulter said. No, you have to go into the computer and change the ticket and print out two new ones. Thats not inadvertent.

Ann Coulter (Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: J. Scott Applewhite/AP, Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

According to Coulter, a Delta gate agent snatched away the boarding pass that listed her preselected seat and assigned her a different one in the same row due to an emergency. Coulter says she took the seat she originally booked and was asked to move to her new seat by a flight attendant.

The situation devolved into a Twitter feud between Coulter and the airline on Monday when Coulter took to Twitter to voice her frustrations.

Suckiest @Delta moved me from my PRE-BOOKED SEAT & gave it to some woman, not elderly, child, or sick. I have pictures so dont lie, @Delta!  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

If you thought it was about $30, @Delta, why didn't you give this woman $30 and let me stay in my PRE-BOOKED, ASSIGNED seat? pic.twitter.com/sR1g8tuRWX  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 17, 2017

Suck-ass @Delta spends all this $$$ on beautiful aircraft & then hire Nurse Ratchets as flight attendants & gate agents.  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

Delta quickly responded, offering her a refund and a scolding.

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@AnnCoulter We're sorry you did not receive the preferred seat you paid for and will refund your $30. (cont.)  Delta (@Delta) July 16, 2017

@AnnCoulter Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.  Delta (@Delta) July 16, 2017

Coulter views the airlines response as inappropriate, saying that the change cost her her comfort and time, in addition to $30.

They are lying so much about this, and that was one of the snarky tweets they sent out, Coulter said.

Apparently Delta isnt familiar with its own aircraft. As a frequent flyer, I am and on the right side of the aisle 15, you have a lot more legroom, said the 6-foot-tall Coulter. Its a good seat. Theres a reason I went on at Deltas invitation and picked this particular seat.

Delta airlines did not immediately respond to Yahoo News request for comment.

Late night TV hosts and thousands of Twitter users took the airlines side in the dispute however, many criticizing her for complaining about the loss of her seat after writing a book criticizing liberals for acting like victims.

I totally get it. It costs me 75k to brush my teeth. I must pre-select a brush, investigate types of paste, and periodically spit bullshit  Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) July 17, 2017

I cant believe Ann Coulter has managed to make normal people sympathize with a Big Three airline.  Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 17, 2017

Wow. People, this is the civil rights struggle of our generation, Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Centrals The Daily Show joked on Monday. How long will white women be asked to move to the back of, well not the back, but just slightly over, two seats. Ann Coulter is basically airplane Rosa Parks. I cant wait for the inspirational film about her story.

Coulter, however, is not backing down.

They may think this is very witty to be firing back at me on Twitter after behaving rudely, she said. Again, no explanation, no apology, just here, you have to move for this other person. What is the reason for that? I mean theyve had four days to investigate. Why did they do this?

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Delta said it was disappointed in Ann Coulter and called her actions unnecessary and unacceptable - REUTERS

Delta Air Lines has hit back at "unacceptable and unnecessary insults" from political pundit Ann Coulter after she ranted on social media about being moved seats on a flight.

The outspoken conservative commentator had lambasted the airline over the weekend after she was removed from a seat that she said she had specifically booked for a flight from La Guardia Airport in New York to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Ms Coulter went on to complain that Delta spends all this $$$ on beautiful aircraft & then hire Nurse Ratchets as flight attendants & gate agents, a reference to Nurse Ratched, a strict character in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

.@Delta motto: "How can we make your flight more uncomfortable?"  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

.@Delta employee questionnaire: What is your ideal job: Prison guard? Animal handler? Stasi policeman? All of the above: HIRED!  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 16, 2017

She also posted on Twitter a photo of the passenger she said had taken her seat, explaining that the person who got her seat was not "elderly, child, or sick".

The airline, which had described what had happened as a mix-up, criticised Ms Coulter for posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos in social media about its employees and customers.

Delta said it was disappointed in Ms Coulter and called her actions unnecessary and unacceptable.

@AnnCoulter Additionally, your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.  Delta (@Delta) July 16, 2017

Promising to refund her $30 for the preferred seat she bought, it added: Delta expects mutual civility throughout the entire travel experience.

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The response further incensed Ms Coulter, who tweeted: "Delta now dictating acceptable conduct off the plane. NOT fascist at all. #Resist"

She also ridiculed the $30 refund, saying it had cost her $10,000 of her time to select the seat she wanted.

$30! It cost me $10,000 of my time to pre-select the seat I wanted, investigate type of plane & go back periodically to review seat options https://t.co/eaj1QOpvHq  Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) July 17, 2017

In an email quoted by the New York Times, she wrote: I spent time reserving - that term has a flexible meaning at Delta - a specific seat, and thats my hourly rate. I looked up the aircraft, considered my options and booked the seat I wanted. I checked back to see how the flight was filling up to review my options again. I had reasons for choosing 15D, not 15A, or any other seat.

Delta hit the headlines in May after a family from California were removed from their flight - and threatened with having their children taken into care if they did not comply.

A strong have controversies this year have fuelled a growing row about the treatment of passengers by airlines in the United States.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie accompanies then-Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump off the stage after a press conference on Super Tuesday, 1 March 2016 in Florida: John Moore/Getty Image

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may not be in Donald Trump's Cabinet because of an election night mistake involving the President's germaphobia and a mobile.

Bloomberg Businessweek's Joshua Green has written a book, titled Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency, which details the 8 Nov incident when Mr Christie allegedly said to Mr Trump: If you win, [President Obama is] going to call my phone, and Ill pass it over to you.

Mr Trump, according to Mr Green's accounting, angrily rebuffed the offer to use someone else's mobile because of their germs so close to his face. He "flashed a look of annoyance, clearly resenting the intrusion" by Mr Christie into his personal space at a tense time of the vote count that night.

Mr Christie and Mr Obama had become closer in the wake of the Hurricane Sandy disaster, when the President had mobilised federal emergency aid to the state to aid in recovery.

"Hey Chris, you know my f****** phone number. Just give it to the president. I dont want your f******phone."

Mr Christie "wouldn't recover" from the incident and was never offered a position in the Trump administration, Mr Green wrote, according to excerpts of the book acquired by the Daily Mail.

The book also makes the claim that Trump aides said it was the "ultimate mistake" and what led to Mr Christie's sacking as transition team lead.

He also reportedly made a faux pas by forcing his way into photos with Mr Trump on election night after the mobile incident.

Brian Murray, Mr Christie's press secretary, told The Independent that "the account in the book is complete fiction".

He said that Mr Christie did not "make any arrangements for any phone call from The White House to be placed on his cell phone for the President-elect".

Mr Murray noted that "the author should be ashamed of himself in passing off this account as true. It is fiction."

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Mr Trump's germaphobia may not have been the only reason for Mr Christie's post-election ousting from the inner circle.

While US Attorney in New Jersey, he prosecuted White House aide and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's father Charles in 2005 for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.

The elder Mr Kushner had pled guilty to making campaign contributions in his partnerships' names to Democratic candidates for which he had no legal authorisation. He also tried to blackmail a witness who was cooperating with federal authorities, William Schulder, who is his sister's husband, by hiring a prostitute to seduce him and sending the tape of the incident to his sister.

He subsequently spent 14 months in a federal prison camp in Alabama.

Mr Christie currently has a historically low 15 per cent approval rating from voters in New Jersey after closing down public beaches due to a state government shutdown, but being pictured on one with his family earlier that day.

Mr Green's book also makes claims about senior adviser Steve Bannon's attitude towards House Speaker Paul Ryan, whom he allegedly called a "limp-d*** motherf***** born in a petri dish".
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Eight people were killed on Monday when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, in the latest attack in the restive region.

The head of the Borno state emergency management agency, Ahmed Satomi, said the blast happened at about 5:30 am (0430 GMT) in the London Ciki area of Maiduguri, which has been at the epicentre of Boko Haram violence since 2009.

"She killed eight people and injured 15 others. The mosque was being guarded by civilian JTF (joint task force militia) during prayers," he told AFP.

"Unknown to them, the girl was being pursued from another part of town by residents who were suspicious of her movement at the time.

"When she approached the mosque, they demanded that she stop to be searched but she suddenly bolted into the mosque and set off her bombs."

Three other female suicide bombers were located in Maiduguri at about the same time, said Satomi.

Two were killed in the Mammanti area as they tried to cross the ditch around the city perimeter while another set off her explosives in the suburb of Simari, he added.

Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu said the first two were killed shortly before midnight while the third was intercepted shortly after.

It is the second time in a week that four female suicide bombers have sought to cause carnage in Maiduguri.

Last Monday, at least 19 people were killed and 23 others injured when four women set off their bombs in the Molai Kolemari area of the city.

Boko Haram has increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs as they have been forced out of captured territory due to a sustained military counter-insurgency.

Maiduguri has been repeatedly attacked in recent months, with mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict and other civilian "soft" targets hit regularly.

- Kidnapped women -

Boko Haram meanwhile released a video online showing 10 women who they claimed to have kidnapped last month during an attack on a convoy.

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On June 20, the jihadists ambushed a convoy of vehicles under police escort heading towards the town of Damboa on a highway outside Maiduguri.

Initially local news reports said that 16 policewomen had been abducted in the ambush. But police officials denied the reports, insisting only a policeman was killed in the attack.

In the five-minute video, 10 women of varying ages sit on the ground in an undisclosed bush location surrounded by lush vegetation.

"On behalf of all of us... I plead with the Nigerian government to intervene so that we are freed the way the Chibok schoolgirls were freed," said one of the hostages, who gave her name as Amina Adam Gombiya.

Gombiya said she was a teacher at the Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries in the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.

In May, Nigeria secured the release of 82 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the remote town of Chibok in a prisoner swap deal.

The militants seized 276 schoolgirls from the town in Borno state in April 2014, triggering global condemnation and drawing attention to the bloody insurgency.

Fifty-seven escaped in the immediate aftermath. Of the 219 who did not manage to flee, 106 have either been released or found, leaving 113 still missing.

Thousands of civilians have been abducted since the insurgency began in 2009. The jihadists use women and young girls as sex slaves and suicide bombers, while men and boys are recruited as fighters.
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
Former Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee imprints hands at TCL Chinese Theatre. (Photo: Jacob Kramer/Yahoo)

Stan The Man Lee is now the Stan The Sidewalk Lee.

Hollywood honored the legendary Marvel maestro Tuesday as Lee entered his hand- and footprints into the courtyard at the legendary Chinese Theatre. In a ceremony emceed by noted fanboy Kevin Smith, Lee was saluted by the likes of actors Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson in Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, as well as former Spider-Man writer and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. (Watch the full ceremony below.)



Smith called Lee an inspiration. He did not teach me to dream, but he gave me so many things to dream about. He taught me to be proud of what you make and stand up for it. Its not enough to just be the artist that makes it, go out and champion it as well. Who will love it, if not you first?

He never disappoints, said Feige. His creations never disappoint, his imagination doesnt disappoint. Lee is credited with co-creating such indelible heroes as Spider-Man, The Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers.

Todd McFarlane, Kevin Feige, Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Chadwick Boseman, and Clark Gregg (Photo: Jacob Kramer/Yahoo)

Boseman, the lead in the highly anticipated Black Panther, based on another character created by Lee, also paid tribute. Stan Lee has taken his words, taken his vision  and placed them inside pictures with fantastic characters with extraordinary abilities and he has made us believe in those universes  and in doing so, we as humans aspire to be better just like those characters.

As Lee stepped up to the podium, he expressed his thanks by saying, Ive been the luckiest man in the world because Ive had friends, and to have the right friends is everything  I thank you from my whole heart. Before leaving the stage for the imprints, Lee gave the audience a hearty Excelsior! He then etched his name into the wet cement and joked, This is not easy! before finally pressing his handprints and footprints.

Lees latest honor comes just four days after he was designated a Disney Legend at the D23 Expo.

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One Wisconsin family is searching for answers about what really happened the day their 20-year-old daughter died during what should have been a relaxing family vacation. Abbey Conners death was ruled accidental after she drowned in chest-high water at the Iberostar Paraiso Resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexicobut her family isnt satisfied with that explanation.

Someone needs to be held responsible for this, her father, Bill Conner, told ABC News Monday. It doesnt make any sense.

Read: Woman Dies After Taking Mysterious Shot Of Alcohol At Mexico Resort

Abbey and her brother, Austin Conner, 23, were drinking at the resort before they went for a swim. They were set to meet their mother and stepfather for dinner shortly after. After both children didnt show up, their parents were informed they had been found unconscious in the hotel pool and had been taken to a nearby hospital.

Austin had a concussion while Abbey had a broken collar bone. Austin was able to recover  Abbey was not. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student was unresponsive and in a coma. Her life support was withdrawn a few days later.

Mexican officials ruled her death an accidental drowning.

She was healthy, Bill Conner told ABC News. But for some reason, she drowns in a pool. Waist deep. Its unbelievable.

The last thing Austin remembered was he and his sister taking a shot of an unidentified alcohol at a bar with what he thought was a friendly couple. His next memory was waking up inside an ambulance. And while their blood alcohol was found to be about .25, Austin said theres no way that could account for what happened.

Ive been in college for five years and had my fair share of drinks before, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week. No way in hell Im putting my face down in a pool and going to sleep.

The investigation by Mexican authorities proved to be limited. The police department told an attorney for the family that it had interviewed just three of the hotels employees. And while a blood test showed no trace of opioids, benzodiazepines (a type of date rape drug), or cocaine, the test didnt test for all types of drugs.

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It was all too convenient, the familys attorney, Florentino Ramirez, said of the police report. If it was an accident, where was everybody? It just doesnt make sense. There are too many open ends.

Read: Could A Fifth Missing Man Be Connected To Pennsylvania Murders?

Bill Conner said he was sure somebody slipped them some type of drug at the resort. In addition, two blog posts uncovered by the Journal-Sentinel revealed reports of similar incidents recorded by other travelers at the Iberostars sister resort. The United States Department of State told ABC News they were aware of the case and were working to provide consular assistance but did not comment further on the case.

Were lucky, Bill Conner said, we didnt lose both of our kids.

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Friends of the late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo worried about the fate of his widow on Sunday, with no signs that authorities have freed her after the dissident's sea burial.

Close friends lost touch with the poet Liu Xia after her husband died on Thursday of liver cancer aged 61 while he was in police custody at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

At her building in Beijing, a uniformed security guard sat in front of the elevator on Sunday night and a plainclothes man, who refused to identify himself, ushered AFP journalists away after they rang her apartment number.

The United States and European Union have called on President Xi Jinping's Communist government to free Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, and let her go abroad.

The authorities released images of the grieving wife at a private funeral on Saturday, and later on a boat with relatives as they lowered an urn containing her husband's ashes into the sea off the coastal city of Dalian.

"We are very worried. We saw from authorities' photos of the funeral that she is weak and pained. She looked like the world's saddest person," said Hu Jia, a Beijing-based activist and close friend.

"If I could see her, I would comfort her and offer her a shoulder to cry on," Hu told AFP.

- 'Baseless' house arrest -

Liu Xiaobo was a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was detained in 2008 after co-writing Charter 08, a petition calling for democratic reforms.

Following his terminal cancer diagnosis, the democracy advocate requested to receive treatment abroad -- a wish that friends believe was in reality for his wife's sake. But the authorities refused to let him go.

Although Liu Xia stayed out of politics, she has been under police watch without charges since shortly after her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Her apartment was the only one in a row of buildings that had a security guard in the small lobby.

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The plainclothes man took photos of the AFP reporters' press cards. He claimed her name was not listed and when pressed, he said: "The resident doesn't want to see you."

AFP could not confirm if she had returned from northeast China. The lights on her floor were out.

During the past seven years, Liu Xia was only allowed to leave her apartment to visit her parents or her husband at his prison in the northeastern province of Liaoning, where he was serving an 11-year sentence until he was admitted at a hospital in early June.

Her father died last year, and her mother died earlier this year.

"There is no higher priority than getting Liu Xia out. That authorities have broadcast their ongoing torture of her heightens the urgency," Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson said.

"They are broadcasting on multiple mediums and multiple languages images and video of her doing what authorities say she wants to be doing -- all the while not letting her speak freely for herself and having held her baselessly under house arrest for years," she told AFP.

-'Monitored and controlled'-

On Saturday, Zhang Qingyang, an official from the Shenyang city municipal office, said Liu Xia was "free", but he did not disclose her whereabouts.

On Friday, a foreign ministry spokesman said he would "not make prejudgements" about whether she could go overseas.

Another close friend of the Lius, Ye Du, said the last time he reached the family was early Friday, but they sounded nervous and refused to talk about funeral arrangements.

"Liu Xia is definitely monitored and controlled," Ye told AFP, adding that "mourning activities" were also "severely controlled".

Liu Xiaobo's older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, said at a news conference organised by the authorities that the government had followed the family's wishes for the funeral. He also said Liu Xia was so heartbroken that she may need hospital treatment.

But supporters said it was impossible to verify if the family had really wanted a sea burial and noted that the brothers were politically at odds.

Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon said Liu Xia, 56, suffers from depression and heart disease.

He said the loss of contact was "strange".

"Why would she suddenly refuse to communicate with her friends when it's a moment she needs others to comfort her great sorrow?"
A young boy was found by Iraqi army soldiers eating raw meat in the rubble. He was believed to be foreign as medics could not understand his language - Carol Guzy/Rex

Amina sits on the makeshift medical examination table staring at her wounds. Her blonde hair matted and caked in dust.

The little girl, who looks no older than three, was pulled out from the rubble of Mosuls Old City where she had been trapped for days before Iraqi rescue workers heard her faint cries.

When they asked where her parents were she replied only that they had become martyrs.

A little girl named Amina was found by Iraqi Army soldiers when they heard her cries from the rubble. She was believed to be foreign and spoke Russian. Credit: Carol Guzy/Rex

Speaking little Arabic, they believe she is the daughter of Chechen Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters who died in battle.

Dozens of children have been pulled, both dead and alive, from the rubble in recent days. Many orphans seem to be children of Isil fighters who either blew themselves up in suicide attacks or were killed by Iraqi forces in the jihadists final redoubt.

A little girl named Amina was found by Iraqi Army soldiers when they heard her cries from the rubble. She was believed to be a foreigner and spoke Russian. Credit: Carol Guzy/Rex

Commanders say most of those killed in the final days were foreign jihadists who fought to the last rather than surrender.

While Haidar al-Abadi, Iraqs prime minister, declared the battle for Mosul over a week ago, a pocket of diehard Isil fighters still remains in the Old City.

US-led coalition air strikes have been used to dislodge them but houses have also been flattened in the process, leaving residents trapped underneath.

Amina is pulled from the rubble by Iraqi rescue workers Credit: Carol Guzy/Rex

One young boy was found by soldiers so desperately hungry that he was eating raw meat from the ground, according to photographer Carol Guzy who captured the scene.

Another child taken to the clinic had been rescued after her mother, an Isil fighter, had reportedly blown herself up in a suicide attack.

The Chechen girl, whose gave her name as Khadija, told medics treating her that her father had become a shahid or martyr.

When asked where her father and mother were she said they were martyrs, probably ISIS fighters killed in the battle or by suicide bomb, Credit: Carol Guzy/Rex

She is now an orphan, one doctor said.

In the past three days, Unicef, the childrens charity, said it has seen an increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving at medical facilities. Some babies brought in have been found alone in the debris.

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, said Hamida Ramadhani, Unicefs deputy representative in Iraq.

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.
Matthew Modine in Stanley Kubricks Full Metal Jacket. (Photo: Everett)

Stanley Kubrick is remembered as an exacting cinematic artist with a singular creative vision. According to Matthew Modine, though, the famously reclusive director  who passed away in 1999  could also be a receptive collaborator with his actors. Speaking with Yahoo Movies recently, the star of Kubricks penultimate film, Full Metal Jacket, which opened in theaters 30 years ago this week on July 17, 1987, recalls how an offhand comment he made to the director resulted in the creation and filming of a long-lost deleted scene from the Vietnam War-set drama. And, sadly, its a scene that will forever remain lost thanks to one of Kubricks directorial dictates. He destroyed the negatives of any scenes that were not in his movies, Modine says. So there would never be a chance that anyone might go through his things and say, Oh, heres this scene. Lets try to cut it into the movie.'

Stanley Kubrick on the set of Full Metal Jacket. (Photo: Everett)

In lieu of the actual footage, allow Modine to reconstruct the sequence from his memory. In 1985, fresh off acclaimed turns in Birdy and Vision Quest, the then-26-year-old actor enlisted in Kubricks adaptation of the Gustav Hasford novel The Short-Timers as Pvt. James T. Joker Davis, a wry Marine recruit who endures a hellish boot camp experience en route to Vietnam. Midway through the lengthy shoot, which spanned well over a year, Modine remembers Kubrick approaching him and saying, Im really excited about the way the film is cutting together. We have everything! I told him, Yeah, everything but sex. We dont have a sex scene in the movie.' Not long after that conversation, production was halted for the Christmas break, and when Modine returned following the holiday, he was presented with fresh pages from Kubrick. He said, Heres the sex scene. I was like, Which sex scene? And he said, What do you mean which sex scene? It was your idea!'

The scene in question was intended to follow an encounter between Pvt. Joker and a Vietnamese prostitute, played by Papillon Soo. (Watch the sequence above.) Approaching the soldier at a sidewalk cafe, she tries to turn him and his friend, Rafterman, into paying customers but is interrupted by a thief who nabs his pals camera. In Kubricks newly penned scene, Joker does indeed follow her back to her room. Stanley said, Youll be in bed with her, and shell say she wants more boom-boom, and youll say something from an old movie.'

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Acting on the suggestion of Modines wife, he and Kubrick eventually settled on having Joker recite a famous line from the 1942 Bette Davis-Paul Henreid classic, Now, Voyager: Dont lets ask for the moon. We have the stars. In suitably Joker-ish fashion, though, Modine revised the phrasing for the scene. I lit two cigarettes just like Paul Henreid and said, We have the moon, lets not ask for the stars. I reversed it because we had landed on the moon. It was all filmed in one flowing, elegant camera move. Thats the one scene I wish was in the movie.

Vincent DOnofrio in Full Metal Jacket. (Photo: Everett)

Instead, that Full Metal Jacket sequence joined the original ending of The Shining and the infamous Dr. Strangelove pie fight in Kubricks proverbial incinerator, never to see the light of a film projector again. Still, the version of Jacket that exists is filled with indelible moments that shock and confound 30 years later. One of the films most chilling scenes comes during the boot camp sequence, when poor, doomed Pvt. Pyle (Vincent DOnofrio) is subjected to a merciless nighttime beating. Sadly for Vince, we did that scene more than a dozen times, Modine remembers. When hes whimpering, thats really him crying! He was covered with bruises. It was brutal and cruel, and thats the kind of inhumanity to another human being that were unfortunately capable of.

Full Metal Jacket: Watch a trailer:

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Day five: Germany It wasnt just Charlotte that was allowed a sneak peek inside a helicopter  Prince George also got his turn.

[Photo: PA]

ICYMI, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with their two children, are currently on a royal tour of Poland and Germany.

The royal foursome touched down in Warsaw, Poland, on 17 July with the intention of spending the following five days visiting various organisations, memorials and important figureheads in both countries. They family will return to Kensington Palace on 21 July  the day before Prince Georges fourth birthday.

While looking at photos of what Kate wears is always lovely, its likely that George  with his notoriously funny faces  and Princess Charlotte  with her sweet, floral dresses and Mary Jane shoes  will steal the limelight on this royal trip.

From peeking out of the plane as it landed at Warsaws airport to turning shyly away from the cameras, the youngest royals are clearly unintentionally going to spend the week capturing the publics heart  yet again.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

The Duchess of Cambridges best royal tour ensembles

People arent happy with the royal familys Fathers Day photo

Prince George and Princess Charlotte make cute appearance at Trooping the Colour
A Republican lawmaker asked a panel of NASA scientists Tuesday for opinions on whether Mars could have had civilized life thousands of years ago. He did it, his spokesman later clarified, with a wink.

You have indicated that Mars had  was totally different thousands of years ago, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., asked during a hearing of the space subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?

The congressmans question followed earlier testimony by NASA scientist Kenneth Farley about plans for the Mars 2020 mission, which involves looking for evidence of life on the red planet from the first billion years of the solar system.

Prior to about 3.6 billion years ago, Mars had rivers, lakes and possibly a vast northern ocean, Farley said earlier in the hearing. Sophisticated analyses  have richly documented ancient environments with all conditions believed necessary to sustain life [on Mars].

Farley corrected Rohrabachers question, stating, So, the evidence is that Mars was different billions of years ago, not thousands of years ago.

The NASA scientist continued, There is no evidence that Im aware of that 

Rohrabacher cut Farley off and rephrased his question, asking, Would you rule that out?

I would say that is extremely unlikely, Farley said.

A Martian-fighting machine hovering over London, from a 1906 edition of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. (Illustration: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Rohrabachers spokesman Ken Grubbs told Yahoo News that the congressman did not have ancestry on his mind  meaning, he said, the ancestry of members of Congress  when he asked about ancient Mars civilizations.

Nor was the congressman looking for NASA to confirm the possibility of extraterrestrials, Grubbs added. On the contrary, because of his position, he not infrequently gets asked about life on other planets. I believe he was trying to lead the witnesses into denying firmly their knowledge of such evidence, Grubbs said, adding: You might not have heard the wink.

Read more from Yahoo News:
By Julia Jacobs

SKOKIE, Ill. (Reuters) - An Illinois teenager arrested for fatally stabbing an Uber [UBER.UL] driver may face additional criminal charges for her violent behavior while detained, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Eliza Wasni, 16, who was charged in June with murdering Grant Nelson, has been involved in 40 reported incidents at the Chicago juvenile detention facility where she is being held, Diann Sheridan, a lawyer with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, said during a court hearing.

The incidents, including kicking and pushing detention center guards as well as one alleged instance of biting a guard, were acts of "destructive and potentially criminal behavior," Sheridan said.

Wasni's public defender, David McMahon, said his client is faced with "excessive" restrictions while held in her cell.

"She's doing her best at this point to comply," he said.

Nelson, 34, was killed early on May 30 after picking up Wasni outside a Wal-Mart Stores Inc location in Skokie, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago.

Wasni, a high school student, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges last week.

After shoplifting a machete and knife from the store, Wasni called an Uber and Nelson drove to pick her up, according to court documents.

Two minutes into the ride, she attacked Nelson from behind, authorities said.

Nelson was able to exit the car and made his way to a nearby condominium building where he called for help, local media reported. Nelson later died.

Wasni fled in Nelson's car before crashing and fleeing on foot. She was then apprehended by police.

Judge Lauren Edidin said she had no jurisdiction over detention center rules but asked Wasni, who is being held without bail, to improve her behavior.

Wasni, who appeared at the Second Municipal District Skokie Courthouse wearing a brown sweatshirt and black sweatpants, responded that she would.

Sheridan told reporters the state has not yet succeeded in gaining access to Wasni's cell phone.

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Nelson's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wal-Mart seeking unspecified financial damages for failing to stop Wasni from stealing.

Wal-Mart has said it would respond "appropriately" with the court, "but we can say that we believe our associates acted properly, including alerting third-party security to a possible shoplifting incident."

Wasni's next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 14.

(Writing and additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel reopened an ultra-sensitive holy site Sunday closed after an attack that killed two policemen, but Muslim worshippers were refusing to enter due to new security measures including metal detectors and cameras.

Crowds chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as a number of initial visitors entered Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The flashpoint holy site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

But midday Muslim prayers were held outside the site due to the new security measures.

"We reject the changes imposed by the Israeli government," Sheikh Omar Kiswani, Al-Aqsa director, told reporters outside.

"We will not enter through these metal detectors."

Three Arab Israeli assailants opened fire on Israeli police Friday in Jerusalem's Old City before fleeing to the compound.

Israeli authorities said they had come from the flashpoint holy site to commit the attack.

Israel took the highly unusual decision to close the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for Friday prayers, triggering anger from Muslims and Jordan, the holy site's custodian.

The site remained closed on Saturday, while parts of Jerusalem's Old City were also under lockdown.

Israeli authorities said the closure was necessary to carry out security checks and announced it would reopen the compound Sunday.

Police said Sunday that so far two gates leading to the holy site had been opened, equipped with metal detectors.
New audio in the fatal police shooting of an Australian woman in Minneapolis surfaced Monday. In the audio clip, officers can be heard communicating with their dispatcher over the police radio after the woman, Justine Ruszczyk Damond was shot.

Shots fired ... we have one down, one of the officers can be heard saying in the audio posted on the Minnesota Police Clips website. The officers also called for backup and attempted CPR on the 40-year-old, who was a Sydney native.

Read: Appellate Court Rejects Law Requiring Prosecutors To Charge Police In Fatal Shootings, Bypassing Grand Juries

Justine was in the U.S. to get married to Don Damond  an American  and assumed Damonds name.

Sadly, her family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived, Damond said Monday. We have lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information.

Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine, Damond added. It is difficult to fathom how to go forward without her in my life.

The shooting happened Saturday night when officers responded to a 911 call about a possible sexual assault. According to the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the officers did not have their body cameras on at the time of the shooting.

"Two Minneapolis police officers responded to a 911 call of a possible assault just north of the 5100 block of Washburn Avenue South," a statement by the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension read. At one point an officer fired their weapon, fatally striking a woman, the statement added.

Following the shooting, Damond's son Zach Damond said Justine  whom he referred to as 'mother'  heard a noise in the alley and called the police.

"She was out on 51st Street and she was shot," Zach said, adding Justine was his "passionate" and his "best friend."

"Basically my mom was shot for reasons I dont know," Zach said in a video posted after the incident Sunday. "I demand answers. If anybody can help, just call police and demand answers. Im so done with all this violence," he added.

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The officer who shot Justine was identified as Mohammed Noor who joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 2015. He was reportedly celebrated as the Fifth Precinct's first Somali officer and was recognized by Mayor Betsy Hodges in May 2016.

In a statement to KARE, Tom Plunkett, Noors lawyer said his client "extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event. He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers."

Read: Police Officers Charged With Crimes: After Shooting Unarmed Teen, Florida Officer Charged With Manslaughter

Justine, who taught yoga and meditation, conducted Tuesday night classes on meditation for the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community in Minnesota. Nancy Coune, the office administrator at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Centre said the news of the centers members are yet to come to terms with Justines death.

Weve come together. Were teetering back and forth between tragic heart sick to outrage, to trying to understand it, to really knowing that there is a greater purpose and that at some point we will come to terms with this ... people are struggling here, she reportedly said.

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Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., heads for her partys weekly policy luncheon at the Capitol on May 16. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said that Democrats have a message much bigger than opposing President Trump and that the party is focused on telling Americans we see them.

The issues are not simple, so the message is not going not be simple, Harris told Yahoo News in a small gaggle of reporters after she gave a speech at the Women Unshackled criminal justice conference Tuesday morning.

Harris said Democrats should not have a monosyllabic simple slogan, but instead focus on issues that matter to Americans, like jobs, the economy, health care, climate change and criminal justice reform.

Its going to be multitiered, but essentially its about telling the American public we see them, Harris said of the Democrats message. All Americans want to know that they are healthy, that their children and their parents are going to have access to health care and dignity. All Americans want to know they can get a job and keep a job. All Americans want to be able to retire with dignity.

These are truths, and when we see people for who they really are, and instead of some demographic based on what a pollster looks at, I think well all be better for it, she added.

Democrats have struggled to articulate a unified message since Trump won. And the issue of the partys branding sparked up again after a top House Democrat, Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., recently told the Associated Press that the message is being worked on.

Harris is a buzzed-about potential candidate for president in 2020 and has already raised significant amounts of money for her Senate colleagues running in 2018. Harris has said shes not giving any consideration to running for president, but Democratic donors are increasingly speculating about her as a top contender.

Harris criminal justice speech Tuesday to a bipartisan group of lawmakers and activists was greeted with enthusiastic applause, and the senator was nearly mobbed afterward with fans wanting to take selfies with her. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., are also speaking at the event, organized by the U.S. Justice Action Network.

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In her speech, Harris criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for steering the country back toward another war on drugs, which she called an abject failure and crazy.

We made a mistake when decades ago we decided to criminalize what is a public health matter, Harris said, advocating for drug treatment instead of jail time for nonviolent offenders.

She also spoke of her recent visit to a womens prison in Chowchilla, Calif., where she talked to incarcerated women who were making American flags. I walked away thinking, Isnt it part of who we are as Americans that we believe in second chances?' she said.

Harris, a former prosecutor elected just last November, has made criminal justice reform one of her top issues in her short time in the Senate. She has co-sponsored legislation with other Democratic lawmakers to ban the practice of shackling pregnant inmates, and she announced during her speech that she would also be introducing legislation to reform the bail process so that decisions about whether to release prisoners ahead of their trials is based more upon the security risk of doing so and not upon how much money the prisoner has.

The senator told reporters shes optimistic that legislation could pass, even in a divided Washington.

I think this is something that should not be thought of as even bipartisan  this should be a nonpartisan issue, Harris said.

Read more from Yahoo News:
(Reuters) - A Kansas law aimed at meeting a state constitutional requirement to adequately fund public schools ran into skepticism from some state supreme court justices on Tuesday.

The high court unanimously ruled in March that Kansas' school funding system fell short of the adequacy requirement, but gave the state until June 30 to come up with a remedy.

Legislation for a two-year funding boost totaling $293 million by fiscal 2019 was enacted by Republican Governor Sam Brownback last month. The law was characterized as inadequate by lawyers representing school districts that sued the state.

In arguments before the court on Tuesday, justices raised concerns that the new law continued to fall short.

Chief Justice Lawton Nuss questioned why lawmakers pushed aside a recommendation by the Kansas State Board of Education for a $893 million increase.

"Aren't they the experts on education?" Nuss asked.

Other justices raised concerns that the state's budget troubles may have put a cap on extra money for schools and that it could take years to determine the outcomes of the new funding formula on student achievement.

Before deciding on a school funding fix, the legislature last month hiked income tax rates over Brownback's veto to address big budget gaps.

Jeffrey King, a special assistant attorney general, told the court the amount of available revenue was "absolutely" a factor for the legislature, but only to ensure the law could meet its additional funding target.

"There is new funding in this formula students will benefit from on day one," King said.

Alan Rupe, an attorney for school districts, said the legislature chose to ignore the state board of education's recommendation and opted for a lower amount that "is not enough."

"We believe the magnitude of the solution needs to meet the magnitude of the problem," he told the court.

Nuss gave no indication of when the court would issue a ruling.

The lawsuit, which dates back to 2010, also resulted in a state supreme court ruling requiring Kansas to address funding disparities between rich and poor school districts.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
A bobcat that bit a mans hand and attacked a dog in Arizona was rabid, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said Monday. The feline was killed by the department officials after it continued to be aggressive.

The attack was captured in a video that was then posted on Facebook by Jason Garrido, who witnessed the incident Sunday. The video shows a man trying to pull the male bobcat away from a German shepherd in Anthem. The man  identified as Steve Verschoor  reportedly saw the bobcat attacking the dog and tried to help the German shepherds owner separate the two animals. When Verschoor grabbed the feline away from the dog it bit his hand.

Read: Tiger Shark Bites North Carolina Man's Hand After He Tried Grabbing Its Tail

"I grabbed his paw and that freed him from the dog and somehow he clipped onto me and that's when this strange thing you see in the video where I kind of flip him completely around and then down and pried his mouth open to get my thumb out," Verschoor said, according to azfamily.com. "He bit me hard enough to break the nail in two, fracture the thumb, a main laceration here at the tip and then over here at the base and then over here it's just claw marks."

Verschoor is undergoing treatment for rabies and said even though he was glad to help he would be wary of such animals from now on.

"Now knowing that it was rabid and that explains the behavior, why he attacked the dog bigger than him, I would probably look for a stick or something not get my hand too close," Verschoor reportedly said.

As for his rabies treatment, he told the local network: "I did the initial shot in my arm, that was Sunday evening and now every four days, I have to find somewhere to get my next shot," he said. "I might be stuck having to go to the emergency room and paying that co-pay."

Meanwhile, after having to put the wildcat down due to its continued aggression, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a statement tests had been conducted on it and the results showed it had rabies. It also noted: Because bobcats are rarely a threat to people and commonly coexist without incident, [the department] does not routinely relocate bobcats.

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Nathan Gonzalez, a spokesman for the department, reportedly said: "Temperament or over-aggression is common with wildlife when an animal has rabies. They tend to be in locations where they have access to food and water and that's in the neighborhoods we live in."

Read: Lioness Seen Nursing Leopard Cub For First Time

According to National Geographic, bobcats are the most abundant wildcats in the U.S.

Although they are seldom seen, they roam throughout much of North America and adapt well to such diverse habitats as forests, swamps, deserts, and even suburban areas, National Geographic states on its website.

The animals average life span is 10 to 12 years and it weighs between 11 to 30 pounds.

Related Articles
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A man who prosecutors say planted a bomb outside a small-town Colorado police station to avenge a friend's murder nearly a half-century ago pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

David Michael Ansberry, 65, pleaded guilty in U.S District Court in Denver to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the botched bombing of the Nederland, Colorado, police station, a spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer said.

The improvised explosive device failed to go off despite multiple attempts by Ansberry to detonate it with a cellphone, according to an FBI arrest warrant affidavit.

According to a memorandum prosecutors filed before the hearing, Ansberry belonged to a nomadic group of hippies called Serenity, Tranquility and Peace, or STP.

The itinerant group had a presence in Nederland, a mountain community about 15 miles west of Boulder, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of STPs members, Guy Goughnor, was slain there in the summer of 1971.

The Nederland town marshal, Renner Forbes, eventually confessed to killing Goughnor and was convicted for that crime in 1998, federal prosecutors wrote in court documents. Forbes has since died.

In October 2016, a Nederland police officer discovered the bomb in a backpack, prompting the evacuation of the police station and nearby buildings before explosives experts disarmed the device.

Goughnor went by the nickname Deputy Dawg and a message was scrawled at the attempted bombing scene which read, RIP Deputy Dawg and the date 7-17-71, prosecutors said.

Authorities said Ansberry had harbored a grudge for more than four decades and traveled from California to Idaho, where he purchased bomb making components before arriving in Colorado.

Detectives were led to Ansberry after tracing the purchase of cellphones to a Colorado grocery store where security cameras captured images of Ansberry. He was easily identified by his diminutive 3-foot, 6-inch stature.

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Federal agents arrested Ansberry at Midway Airport in Chicago as he was preparing to catch a flight to Baltimore, and returned him to Colorado.

Ansberrys public defenders did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, but the Denver Post reported that during Tuesdays hearing, Ansberry said he pleaded guilty to avoid additional charges.

He faces up to life in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in November.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jonathan Oatis)
Budapest (AFP) - Hungary welcomes Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday on a landmark visit that Prime Minister Viktor Orban hopes will bolster him in his battle with George Soros and deflect charges of stoking anti-Semitism.

It brings together two right-wingers enamoured of US President Donald Trump and with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal global order bankrolled, as they see it, by the likes of Soros, the US financier and philanthropist.

Netanyahu, fresh from a contentious visit to France, will on Wednesday meet premiers of the Visegrad Group -- Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic plus Hungary -- that has been increasingly at odds with the rest of the EU.

"All these states are very pro-Israel," Raphael Vago, an expert on eastern Europe at Tel Aviv university, told AFP. "They vote in our favour at the European Union and the United Nations."

Netanyahu's trip to Hungary, the first by an Israeli prime minister since the end of communism in 1989, comes with tempers flaring over Orban's campaign vilifying the Hungarian-born billionaire Soros.

Posters attacking him for his alleged support of mass immigration -- some daubed with "Stinking Jew" graffiti -- have further upset Hungary's over 100,000-strong Jewish community, one of Europe's largest.

They have often accused Orban, in power since 2010, of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism or even encouraging it with nationalist rhetoric that analysts say is aimed at staving off a rise in for the far-right, a charge the 54-year-old denies.

- Whitewashing -

Recently Orban also praised Miklos Horthy, Hungary's wartime leader and Hitler ally until 1944, as an "exceptional statesman" for rebuilding Hungary after World War I.

Critics have long suspected Orban of trying to rehabilitate Horthy, who oversaw the sending of over a half million Jews to the Nazi death camps, by tacitly encouraging new memorials of Horthy and other interwar figures.

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In 2014, Hungary's biggest Jewish organisation Mazsihisz boycotted state commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the 1944 deportations over concerns the government was "whitewashing" the state's complicity.

But Orban is at pains to stress his "zero tolerance" of anti-Semitism, his supporters pointing to a new law outlawing Holocaust denial and state funding for Jewish-themed films like Oscar-winner "Son of Saul".

"No government has done more to fight anti-Semitism in Hungary," his spokesman said in a blog post on Thursday.

- A million migrants -

Soros, who hid from the Nazis in Budapest as a boy, said that the posters, plastered nationwide, used "anti-Semitic imagery".

His spokesman said they were "reminiscent of Europe's darkest hours". The head of Mazsihisz called the campaign "poisonous".

Orban insisted they were not about the 86-year-old's Jewishness but the "national security risk" posed by his wish to "settle a million migrants" in the European Union.

Orban's government is also making life difficult for the prestigious Central European University in Budapest, created by Soros, and for civil organisations he funds -- prompting EU legal action.

Netanyahu, 67, whose relations with the EU are strained too, is also scornful about Soros because of his support for both Israeli and Palestinian rights groups critical of Israel's government and the occupation.

Some in Israel called for Netanyahu to cancel his Hungary trip because of the posters -- which will be down by the time he arrives -- with Israel's ambassador saying it "evokes sad memories (and) sows hatred and fear".

But hours later, a foreign ministry statement backtracked -- reportedly at Netanyahu's behest.

While Israel "deplores" anti-Semitism, Soros "continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself," it said.

"Connecting Soros to the migration issue is the (Hungarian) government's aim, but it is a problem for Orban if the campaign is seen as anti-Semitic," political analyst Csaba Toth told AFP.

"So the Netanyahu visit helps him as it bolsters his claims that the Soros campaign is not."
Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican ex-governor Javier Duarte was extradited from Guatemala on Monday to face corruption and racketeering charges back home, one of a string of scandals involving ex-governors that are threatening President Enrique Pena Nieto's government.

Duarte left the once-wealthy state of Veracruz on the verge of bankruptcy during his governorship (2010-2016), allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to buy luxury properties, Miami vacation homes and thoroughbred horses.

The portly ex-governor is also known for presiding over an explosion of violence and human rights abuses in the eastern state, until he abruptly resigned and went into hiding.

Arrested in April at a lakeside resort in Guatemala, where he and his wife were registered under fake names and paying their bill in cash, he denies the charges against him.

Duarte, 43, is one of six Mexican ex-governors under arrest for corruption, fraud, money laundering or racketeering.

Five of the six were members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), including Duarte, who was expelled from the party after going on the lam.

The Mexican government said his extradition showed its "commitment to obtaining concrete results to fight impunity... (and) strengthen the rule of law."

Duarte's lawyer says his client is a victim of "political persecution."

- Face of 'renewal' -

Pena Nieto once hailed Duarte as a fresh face for the scandal-stained PRI, the party that has ruled Mexico for 76 of the past 88 years.

In 2011, the president mentioned Duarte as one of several youthful governors who "are part of a new generation that has been part of the party's renewal."

But the former governor is now one of the most hated politicians in Mexico.

Mexicans tuned in with a mix of outrage and amusement to watch his Guatemalan extradition hearings live on TV -- and "Javidu," as he is known, did not disappoint.

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Sporting a bushy beard at the hearings, he put on a show for journalists outside the court, grinning at the cameras and saying: "My Uber is here... Don't trip over yourselves, I'll go slowly so you can take my picture."

He had shaved his beard and was straight-faced as police escorted him in a bullet-proof vest and handcuffs to the small jet that flew him back to Mexico.

On arrival, he was transferred to a Mexico City prison where he was due to have a preliminary hearing.

Guatemalan authorities had called Duarte a "highly vulnerable" prisoner, fearing someone would try to assassinate him because he knew too much about dirty dealings in Mexico.

He was held in solitary confinement at a military base, and Guatemala had urged Mexico to complete the extradition as soon as possible.

- Thousands of bodies -

Duarte left Veracruz more than $2.5 billion in debt, and violent crime skyrocketed during his tenure as warring drug cartels battled for control of the key port state.

The state became one of the most violent in Mexico, registering more than 4,500 murders -- including those of at least 17 journalists -- and more than 200 disappearances.

Opposition lawmakers are calling for Duarte to be investigated over a string of mass graves discovered during his governorship that contained more than 300 bodies.

Prosecutors accuse him of involvement in organized crime and a "complex scheme" of illegal financial transactions.

At his extradition hearings in Guatemala, they presented evidence that he set up shell companies and made dodgy real estate deals.

The scandals involving Mexican ex-governors led to the PRI losing five governorships last year.

They have badly damaged the party heading into presidential elections next year.

burs-jhb/acb
Local law enforcement sources identify Mohamed Noor, one of few Somali-Americans on Minneapolis force, as officer who opened fire on Australian woman

Mohamed Noor confirmed to the Guardian as Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot unarmed Australian woman Justine Damond on Saturday. Photograph: AP

The officer implicated in the fatal police shooting of Australian national Justine Damond in Minneapolis has issued a statement extending his condolences to her family, as senior local law enforcement sources confirmed to the Guardian that Mohamed Noor, an officer with only two years experience, opened fire on the unarmed 40-year-old.

Noor is one of a small handful of Somali Americans on the Minneapolis force and comes from the citys substantial Somali community  the largest in America  that has frequently been maligned in the rightwing press.

The circumstances of Damonds death remain unclear as police have declined to provide detailed information. But the Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed on Monday that Damond died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

The yoga and meditation instructor, who had moved to the US in 2015, called 911 late on Saturday evening to report a possible sexual assault close to her home. According to local reports, she approached the drivers side window of the attending police squad car, dressed in her pyjamas. Noor opened fire from the passenger seat, firing across his partner. The officer did not have his body camera turned on.

On Tuesday, Noors lawyer Thomas Plunkett, a local criminal defense attorney, issued a statement saying the officer extends his condolences to the family and anyone else who has been touched by this event.

He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers, the statement added. Plunkett did not confirm that Noor was the officer who had opened fire. The Minneapolis police department has not named Noor publicly.

On Monday, Damonds American fiance, Don Damond, with whom the Australian had been living in the Minneapolis suburb where the shooting took place, expressed frustration that police had withheld detailed information on the incident.

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We have lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information, Damond told reporters.

The incident threatens to ignite tensions in Minneapolis on a number of fronts. The city is still recovering from the high-profile police shooting of Philando Castile, a black man killed by an officer in the neighbouring city of St Paul. The aftermath of the shooting was streamed live on Facebook and video evidence showed Castile had been shot by officer Jeronimo Yanez after he declared he had licensed firearm in his vehicle. Yanez was acquitted in a criminal trial last month.

But the fact that Noor comes from the citys Somali population has left community leaders concerned over a potential backlash. A handful of young Somali men from Minneapolis have escaped the country to fight for the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab in Somalia and for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Relations between the community and law enforcement have been strained for a number of years: last year, a group of young Somalis who attempted to leave the US for Syria were convicted in a terror trial amid claims of FBI entrapment.

The hiring of Noor, who joined around four Somali-American officers on the Minneapolis PD, was heralded as a major success in expanding the diversity of the force. Noor was the first Somali-American officer to patrol in the citys fifth precinct and was welcomed into the force personally by the citys mayor.

Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederations of the Somali Community in Minnesota, said the diaspora was shocked at Damonds death.

Any time there is a loss of life, people get shocked, especially when the police are involved, said Noor, who is not related to the officer.

Midway through an interview with the Guardian, Noor said he had received an anonymous threatening voicemail, something he described as a regular process after events involving members of the community that receive media attention.

Hes a police officer, no matter what race he comes from, Noor said. This is a tragic incident, there is a loss of life.
By Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) - A 25-year-old South Carolina woman was in jail on Tuesday on a murder charge for the death of her 13-month-old daughter, who police said she left in a car last month while she went to a hair salon in suburban Atlanta.

The mother, DiJanelle Fowler, kept the car running with the air conditioning on, but the car's battery died while she was inside the beauty shop in Tucker, Georgia, on June 15, said DeKalb County Police spokeswoman Shiera Campbell.

Police believe Skylar Fowler was dead by the time her mother returned to the car a few hours later, Campbell said.

"Instead of calling 911, she called roadside assistance to get her battery jumped," Campbell said in a phone interview.

Fowler concealed the baby from the person who helped restart her car, then went to a hospital and called 911, Campbell said.

The mother told police she herself had passed out from some sort of medical condition, Campbell said. But the child's condition indicated she had died sooner than the time Fowler suggested, the police spokeswoman said.

The high temperature in DeKalb County that day was 92 degrees Fahrenheit at 5 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Twenty-three U.S. children have died so far this year after being left in hot cars, up from 20 through mid-July in 2016, according to the nonprofit KidsAndCars.org, which tracks such deaths.

In all, 39 children died in hot cars in 2016. The highest annual number was recorded in 2010, when 49 children died, said Janette Fennell, founder and president of the KidsAndCars.org.

Children ages 3 and younger account for 87 percent of the hot-car deaths the group has tracked, she said.

Fowler left the Atlanta area after her daughter's death. She was arrested late on Monday after turning herself in to DeKalb County Police, who had been searching for her, Campbell said.

In addition to the second-degree murder charge, she also is charged with second-degree cruelty to children and concealing a death, jail records show. Court records did not show whether Fowler had hired a lawyer.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Sandra Maler)
Welcome to Power Rankings. As always, Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, its the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. Direct all your complaints to us at nickbromberg@yahoo.com and well try to have some fun.

1. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 1): The Truex Jr. playoff point train churns on. After winning the first stage Sunday at New Hampshire, Truex has 29 guaranteed playoff points to use when the playoffs begin in September.

And he also gained another five provisional playoff points with Kyle Larsons inspection penalty last week. The regular season champion gets 15 playoff points, and the penalty moved Truex into first in the standings ahead of Larson. That means that Truex is sitting on a possible 44 playoff points with seven races to go before the postseason. Can he get to 50?

Truex finished third on Sunday.





2. Kyle Larson (LW: 2): If Larsons team is blatantly pushing things in the inspection process, it may not be a terrible strategy. Wouldnt you want to deal with a points penalty and find out where the line is when it comes to certain mechanical and engineering tweaks in the regular season than in the postseason?

But at the same time, the No. 42 team can be inviting extra scrutiny on themselves by failing inspection so often. If you count being unable to get through pre-qualifying inspection at Kentucky as a failure, thats three inspection failures in eight days. Thats probably a little overboard.

I think with how fast weve been running and all that, NASCAR has kept a closer eye on our team in particular, Larson said after finishing second on Sunday. What was going on with the shark fin [after qualifying on Friday] wasnt anything different really than the other teams tinker with, just trying to maximize their aero performance in their cars. We just got in trouble for it, so had to go to the back.

Obviously I dont think it really affected us, which is a good thing, because the little stuff that we got in trouble for so far hasnt seemed to affect the performance. Just got to keep working hard on the areas of our race car that are legal and find some more speed that way.

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3. Denny Hamlin (LW: 9): Hamlin makes a six-spot jump in Power Rankings because of his win.

While its pretty indisputable that Joe Gibbs Racing hasnt had the speed relative to the rest of the field in 2017 that its had over the past two seasons, its not like the team has been in a massive slump. Three of its four drivers are in the top 11 in the points standings and Hamlin and Kyle Busch are both in the top five.

All things considered, wasnt JGR due for a bit of regression after winning 33 percent of the races over the past two seasons? And anyway, Jimmie Johnsons 2016 is perfect proof that your summer speed isnt indicative of your playoff performance. Just ask Hamlin, who entered the 2016 playoffs on an incredible run of top-10 finishes.

4. Kevin Harvick (LW: 5): Harvick finished fifth and said it was a great weekend and his team did a great job. But he also remarked, We know we need to come back with more speed for the playoffs.

Thats a fair assessment. Toyota teams led 290 of 301 laps and clearly had an advantage over the rest of the field.

5. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Busch should have been the Joe Gibbs Racing car that won on Sunday. Instead, he sped on pit road during his final two pit stops and finished 12th.

The two speeding penalties conveniently fit the narrative that Busch hasnt been able to close out races this season. While its true that hes winless, saying Busch has had a hard time closing the deal this season is a bit of a stretch. And its an argument that will disappear entirely if Busch gets a third-straight win at Indianapolis on Sunday.

6. Chase Elliott (LW: 4): Elliott finished a spot ahead of Busch in 11th. Because Hamlin won the race, he fell to sixth in the points standings.

Compared to a year ago, 11th is a pretty damn good finish. At this time last year, Elliott was in the midst of a summer swoon that dropped him from sixth to 13th in the points standings.

7. Clint Bowyer (LW: 7): While Matt Kenseth is clearly a beneficiary of Joey Loganos New Hampshire misfortune, Bowyer is right there with him. Bowyer finished seventh and is two points ahead of Kenseth, who occupies the final spot in the playoffs on points. Logano, meanwhile, is now 54 points behind Bowyer.

8. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 8): Johnson officially started Sundays race in second but was the first driver to take the green flag.

Yeah, that was a penalty. Johnson had to serve a pass-through penalty for jumping the start of the race and finished 10th.

I forgot all about that, Johnson said of the rule. I guess I just got it wrong at the start. I went off the flag and forgot that the pole sitter has to be the first one to the stripe; so Ill take the responsibility on that one.

9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (LW: 6): Stenhouse Jr. finished 14th after some contact with Austin Dillon early in the race that caused Dillon to spin.

10. Brad Keselowski (LW: 12): Keselowski finished ninth after losing track position early because of a faulty jack on a pit stop. He called the finish reasonable. It was his third top-10 finish in eight races. In that span, hes finished outside the top 30 four times.

11. Jamie McMurray (LW: 10): McMurray started fourth but finished 17th. He dropped 24 points to race-winner Denny Hamlin, which allowed Hamlin to jump him in the standings.

12. Matt Kenseth (LW: NR): Kenseth finished fourth after taking two tires on the final pit stops of the race. Had Kenseth taken four tires from the lead when the caution came out he might have won the race. But 12 other cars might have taken two tires as well. Because he was the leader during the final caution, Kenseth and crew chief Jason Ratcliff werent in an enviable position.

Lucky Dog: Daniel Suarez finished sixth and is now just 23 points behind fellow rookie Erik Jones.

The DNF: That goes to Jones, who was knocked out of the race after contact on pit road led to a flat tire.

Dropped Out: Ryan Blaney

      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
WASHINGTON  A plan to cleanly repeal the Affordable Care Act appears to have failed in the Senate after three GOP lawmakers said they would not vote to proceed with the latest attempt to reform the health care system.

Shortly after Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said Monday night they would not even vote to allow the original repeal-and-replace proposal to come to the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced he would scrap that plan and move forward with repealing former President Barack Obamas signature legislation.

I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of Obamacare will not be successful. That doesnt mean we should give up, McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. We will now try a different way to bring the American people relief from Obamacare  I think we owe them at least that much.

And though that proposal has the support of President Donald Trump, McConnell appears to lack the votes to undo the ACA with no plan to replace it  even though Republicans have been campaigning on that promise for years. They voted for the same thing two years ago, when the certainty that President Obama would veto it made it a cost-free move to please Republican voters.

But now at least three lawmakers have said they would not vote to repeal it this time around, effectively killing the proposal because McConnell can only afford to lose two members and still advance any bill.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., quickly became the first lawmaker to come out against a repeal-only plan. Despite voting to repeal the ACA in the past, Capito said she was concerned about the effect doing so would have on her home state.

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

My position on this issue is driven by its impact on West Virginians, Capito said in a statement. With that in mind, I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians.

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, quickly followed, reiterating her past opposition to undoing the ACA.

I do not think it is constructive to repeal a law that is so interwoven within our healthcare system without a replacement in place, Collins said in a statement. We cant just hope to pass a replacement in the next two years.

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, delivered what seemed to be the fatal blow early in the afternoon, telling NBC News that she was not there on the repeal-only bill.

I said in January we should not repeal without a replacement, and just an indefinite hold on this creates more chaos and confusion, she said.

Another potential roadblock is the procedural maneuvering McConnell needs to do to arrive at a vote to repeal the 2010 law. In a statement Monday night, he said he would bring the House-approved replacement for the ACA to the floor with the intention of passing an amendment that substitutes a full repeal to take effect in two years  a move designed to buy lawmakers time to devise a new system.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaks with reporters about the Senate health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 2017. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)

That amendment is the same as 2015s symbolic repeal bill. But to even introduce it, McConnell will first have to convince hesitant senators to begin debate on the House bill, which was considered dead on arrival in the Senate when it passed in May.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., voted for the 2015 bill and said he would do so again if the amendment came to a vote, but he did not know if he would even support bringing the House bill to the floor.

Im still trying to understand the implications of bringing up the House bill, Flake told reporters.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio did not say whether he would support the motion to proceed, but expressed concern about the uncertainty a repeal-only bill would create.

If it is a bill that simply repeals, I believe that will add to more uncertainty and the potential for Ohioans to pay higher premiums, higher deductibles. So well see, Portman said.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, earlier said he was unsure whether leadership had the support to bring the House bill to the floor, but implied that they would move forward with a vote in any case.

We will find out, Cornyn told reporters. One of the purposes of having a vote soon is to find out where the votes are and where we go from there.

The timetable for that vote is unclear, however. The GOP majority is reduced for at least this week, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recovering at home after surgery to remove a blood clot.

There is virtually no chance Democrats will side with Republicans to repeal the ACA, and many members have blasted the proposal, which previous estimates have said could leave as many as 32 million Americans without insurance in coming years.

Read more from Yahoo News:
(Reuters) - Two New Mexico police officers will not face federal civil rights charges over the 2014 fatal shooting of a homeless man that triggered violent protests, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Albuquerque Police Department Officer Dominique Perez and now-retired Keith Sandy were charged with murder for shooting James Boyd, 38, at an illegal campsite. Their trial ended in a hung jury last year without further charges.

A review by prosecutors showed there was not enough evidence to prove that Perez and Sandy violated Boyd's civil rights, the Justice Department said in a statement.

"The evidence, when viewed as whole, indicates that the officers fired only after reasonably perceiving that Boyd posed a serious threat of physical harm to a fellow officer," it said.

Boyd, who the two officers knew had a history of mental illness and violent crime, was brandishing two knives and was close to a third officer when Perez and Sandy opened fire on him, according to the statement and prior trial testimony.

Rock-throwing protests erupted after the shooting, which came at a time when the Justice Department was already investigating the Albuquerque police force over accusations of using force on civilians.

Albuquerque officials agreed in 2015 to pay $5 million to Boyd's family to settle a wrongful death civil case.

Shannon Kennedy, a lawyer for Boyd's family, said the relatives appreciated the investigation into the shooting by the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"His death galvanized the City of Albuquerque to make swift and lasting change within the City of Albuquerque police department that has no doubt saved lives," she said in an emailed statement.

Perez was fired from the police department after being charged in state court, but was later reinstated, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Pakistan's military on Sunday accused India of hitting a military vehicle and killing four soldiers in cross-border firing in the disputed Kashmir region.

The latest incident between the nuclear-armed neighbours took place in Athmaqam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's scenic Neelum Valley, where military officials said they responded to the Indian "ceasefire violation".

"The vehicle fell into the Neelum river. Four soldiers drowned. Body of one shaheed (martyr) recovered, search for remaining three in progress," the military said in a short statement.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the firing and "praised the prompt response by Pakistan army in thwarting the attack," a statement by his office said.

There was no immediate reaction from New Delhi.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over the mountainous region.

The hostile neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the Line of Control, the de facto Kashmir border, despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.

At least nine people were killed and seven others wounded last November when cross-border fire hit a passenger bus in the village of Nagdar, in same valley in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Tensions reached dangerous levels again last September, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.

There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.
An American Airlines flight was forced to land at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Sunday afternoon after passengers experienced nausea and headaches. The airline originally said the plane landed and was evacuated because a passenger passed gas, but later claimed it was due to a medical call," reported WNCN Sunday.

Flight 1927 from Charlotte to RDU landed at 2:21 p.m. Sunday, according to airline spokeswoman Lakesha Brown. All passengers were evacuated from the plane. An official said a passenger passed gas, which caused those aboard the flight to become sick, resulting in the forced landing and evacuation. Brown specified that the odor was caused by a medical issue.

Read: American Airlines Flight Reportedly Delayed For Hours Over 'Urine Smell'

American Airlines spokesperson Ross Feinstein later released a statement Sunday night saying the odor was not because of passed gas, contrary to what the airline had stated previously in the day.

We did have an aircraft from Charlotte to RDU this afternoon, that landed at 2:19 p.m. ET, and arrived the gate at 2:21 p.m. ET, that is currently out of service for an actual mechanical issue  an odor in the cabin. But it is not due to passed gas as mentioned.

rdu

Photo: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

This story was the latest bodily substance-related oddity to occur on an American Airlines flight this month. An American Airlines plane flying from Los Angeles International Airport to Washington Dulles International Airport on July 9, 2017 was delayed for more than four hours because of a supposed urine smell. The Washington Post columnist Dana Milibank live-tweeted the event.

Classic @American Air  after 14 hr flight from Sydney w/3 exhausted kids, LAX-IAD flight delayed hours because...plane smells like urine.

American Airlines said the reason for the delay was a cleanliness issue.

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Read: American Airlines Crew Forced Passenger To Sit Next To Masturbating Man, Woman Claims

Flight 2645 from LAX to Dulles on July 9, was delayed due to a cabin cleanliness issue, American Airlines said in a July 10 statement to International Business Times. We brought in a new aircraft and the flight departed approximately 4.5 hours late. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.

In a July 9, 2017 Medium post, a New York City woman said a man sitting next to her on an American Airlines flight from New York City to Paris masturbated while she was asleep. When Chloe King woke up, a flight attendant told her what happened, but she was allegedly told to go back to her seat.

The airline said they were looking into how they handled the situation and that they reached out to King directly, according to Gothamist.

Before American Airlines claimed Sunday's evacuation was not due to a passenger who passed gas, several news outlets already reported the incident.

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer looks at a photographer during the daily briefing: Reuters

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has contradicted Donald Trump Jr's own account of his meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer in the lead up to the presidential election.

It was revealed last week that Mr Trump Jr met with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, after being told she would provide official documents and information that would incriminate his fathers campaign opponent Hillary Clinton. Mr Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, the chairman of the Trump campaign at the time, also attended the meeting.

During an off-camera White House briefing, Mr Spicer said that it is quite often for people who are given information during the heat of a campaign to ask what that is.

That's what simply he did, Mr Spicer added. And there was nothing, as far as we know, that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption and the Magnitsky Act.

However, Mr Spicer's insistence that the June 2016 meeting was about adoptions conflicts with Mr Trump Jr's account of what happened.

Mr Trump's eldest son wrote in a statement last week that at the start of the meeting, Ms Veselnitskaya said she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton.

Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense, Mr Trump Jr said. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.

He said Ms Veselnitskaya then began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. Days after Congress past it, the Russian government retaliated by banning American citizens from adopting Russian orphans.

It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting, Mr Trump Jr said.

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On Fox News, Mr Trump Jr defended his decision to meet with Ms Veselnitskaya, asserting that for him, this was opposition research.

The President has also tweeted that most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent, declaring That's politics!

Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2017

But observers  including the Presidents pick for FBI Director, Christopher Wray  have said that anyone who is approached by a hostile government for opposition research should contact the FBI rather than take the meeting.

There are multiple federal and congressional investigations into whether Trump campaign advisers colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Some have suggested that the accounts of Mr Trump Jrs meeting are the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has refused to answer questions about businesses belonging to Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka, declaring them "out of bounds.

Journalists asked about the companies' overseas manufacturing practices on the first day of what White House aides have dubbed Made in America Week.

The President has vowed to increase trade regulations in an effort to protect American companies and workers.

But Mr Spicer avoided saying whether the President and Ms Trump  whose businesses rely on cheap labour in countries including Bangladesh and China  would commit to stopping manufacturing abroad.

Instead he said the President was focussing on the message that all companies can hire here, can expand here, can manufacture here.

Asked about the Trump family businesses, he said: Its not appropriate for me to stand up here and comment about a business. I believe that is a little out of bounds.

Mr Spicer was asked to say whether legislation could be introduced to stop businesses, such as Ms Trump's, complaining that some products could not be produced in the US.

I cant answer that question, in the sense that Im not  but I can tell you that it depends on the product, Mr Spicer said.

There are certain things that, certain industries that we dont do as much any more, and there are certain things that we do do more .... In terms of scalability, there are certain things that we may not have the capacity to do here, in terms of having a plant or factory that can do it.

He continued by saying the beautiful thing about a capitalistic society was that if there was demand for change, it would happen.

Mr Trump has already come under heavy fire for granting seasonal visas to thousands of foreign workers at the start of the Made in America campaign.

Advocates of stricter immigration control lambasted the move, arguing American workers should get the jobs.

Launching the drive promising to protect American companies, Mr Trump said: We're going to stand up for our companies and maybe most importantly for our workers.

Clearly it's time for a new policy, one defined by two simple rules: We will buy American. And we will hire American."
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that the focus of a 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer was adoption policy, despite President Trumps own tweet on the subject.

Speaking at an off-camera press briefing, the White House press secretary said that a meeting with the younger Trump, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, among others, was only about Russian adoption policy.

There was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for discussion about adoption, said Spicer, referring further questions to the White House counsel.

The New York Times reported that Trump Jr. was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton ahead of the meeting. Trump Jr. confirmed that report when he released the email chain that led to it, which showed he was promised very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump.

On Monday morning, President Trump tweeted, most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don [Jr.] attended in order to get info on an opponent. Thats politics!

Spicer said the President made it clear through his tweet what he thought about the meeting.
Paris (AFP) - Its not quite E=mc2, but scientists unveiled Monday a simple, powerful formula that explains why some animals run, fly and swim faster than all others.

Call it the "speed rule": strength alone does not determine top velocity because land mammals, birds and fish can only accelerate for as long as they can draw from available energy stored in muscle tissue.

An intermediate body size -- think cheetah, falcon or marlin -- is optimal for hitting that sweet spot between brawn and energy burst, the researchers discovered.

Too small, and there's not enough musculature; too big, and there's too much mass.

Knowing only an animal's weight and the medium it moves in -- water, air or across land -- is enough to calculate its maximum speed with 90 percent accuracy, they found.

The axiom even works retroactively for dinosaurs, they reported in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

"Scientists have long struggled with the fact that the largest animals are not the fastest," said lead author Myriam Hirt, a biologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig.

If muscles were all that mattered "elephants would reach maximum speeds of about 600 kph (370 mph)," she told AFP.

Instead, tuskers peak at about 34 kph (21 mph).

Big beasts, in other words, run out of so-called anaerobic energy, supplied by the muscles, before being able to reach their theoretically maximum speed.

Among birds, falcons and hawks are the fleetest, clocking speeds well in excess of 140 kph (87 mph). Nearly as fast, the rock dove, wandering albatross and Ascension frigate could fly in their slipstream.

Cheetahs hold the land record, comfortably topping 100 kph (62 mph).

Not coincidentally, one of the their preferred prey -- the springbok -- can run almost as fast, along with other antelope, such as the blackbuck, historically hunted by big cats.

- T-rex not fleet of foot -

That's evolution at work, explained Hirt.

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"Species that gain the most selective advantage -- predators and prey with few places to hide, for example -- will approach the predicted maximum speeds," she said.

Humans, by contrast, have not evolved over millions of years to outrun fast prey (or predators), even if they fall within the intermediate weight class corresponding to extreme speed.

Homo sapiens, it seems, invested in outsmarting other animals instead.

Long-limbed giraffes can hit 60 kph (37 mph) when motivated, and bears -- grizzly, brown and polar -- can top 45 kph (28 mph) for a few seconds before their fat-laden bodies slow them down.

The black marlin holds the known record in the sea, slicing through water at expressway speeds of 130 kph (80 mph), even faster than its quick cousin the Atlantic sailfish.

Full-grown Yellow fin and bluefin tuna can swim 70 kph (43 mph), only slightly faster than the quickest shark, the shortfin mako.

Killer whales -- which, like humans, teach their young hunting techniques -- are somewhat slower, but reign unchallenged at the top of the marine food chain.

Altogether, the researchers tested their new hypothesis against data on 454 species weighing in at one gram to 10 tonnes, from molluscs to blue whales, from gnats to whopper swans.

"Hirt and colleagues provide a unifying explanation for what sets the limits to maximum speed," Christopher Clemente and Peter Bishop, scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, wrote in a comment.

"The exciting part ... is that it applies equally well to animals on land, in the air and in water."

And to dinos, too.

The model matched data on the handful of dinosaurs for which scientists have been able to estimate running speeds.

The study estimates that lithe velociraptors could sprint at 50 kph (31 mph), while the lumbering T-rex could barely move at half that pace.

But that was still quick enough to catch a plant-eating Triceratops or the even slower Brachiosaurus, meals fit for the dino king.

The magic formula, by the way, is k=cM^d-1.
It turns out those Tyrannosaurus Rex chase scenes in Jurassic Park may not be so realistic after all.

We hate to break it to you but: the famed dinosaur couldn't run, according to new research from Manchester University. In other words, everything you thought you knew about the T. rex chasing down its prey could be wrong.

The study, which used multi-body dynamic analysis and skeletal stress analysis  two bio-mechanical techniques  found that the T. rex's legs wouldn't have been able to handle running. Evidence shows that the T. rex was actually limited to walking, and wouldn't have been able to run due to its body mass.

SEE ALSO: T. rex might not have been fluffy, after all

Instead of the hyper-fast speeds we see in the movies, the study initially found that the T. rex could travel at a maximum speed of roughly 19 MPH (30 km/H). This was eventually lowered to 12 MPH (20 km/H) once researchers tested skeletal strength, according to the BBC.

The study, headed by Professor William Sellers at Manchester's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, claims that the models used for the study "are currently the most anatomically complete reconstructions ever attempted."

Sellers told the BBC that based on the study's "highly realistic computer models," running would have been impossible for the T. rex, because it's skeleton would have been too weak.

"That means that T. rex was actually quite slow and therefore not a pursuit predator," he said.

Another study, separately published by Nature Ecology & Evolution, seems to back up Manchester's findings, as it concludes that the largest animals generally cannot accelerate as fast as smaller animals can.

That said, the study out of Manchester notes that people should be cautious about the researcher's findings.

"These results improve on those obtained by previous biomechanical work by excluding some of the previously plausible values and thereby reducing the range of uncertainty but many of the previous caveats still apply," the study said.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Four South Sudanese news websites and blogs have been partially blocked, internet users and a broadcaster said on Monday, blaming it on a government crackdown on independent media. Radio Tamazuj, a Dutch-backed radio station and website, announced on its Twitter account that it had been blocked in South Sudan. Some internet users told Reuters that the Paris-based Sudan Tribune news website was also affected on some mobile phone and Wi-Fi networks. "This site has been blocked by South Sudan National Communication Authority," read an image forwarded to Reuters by two separate local internet users, which popped up when they tried to access the Sudan Tribune. Others told Reuters the popular Paanluel Wel and Nyamilepedia blogs were also blocked by some internet service providers. A National Communication Authority official who would not give his name told Reuters the order to block the websites was "government policy." Last week, South Sudan's National Security Service arrested the director of the state television company for not transmitting a live broadcast of a speech by President Salva Kiir, according to his wife. Earlier this year, the Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa announced that at least 20 foreign journalists had been denied entry by authorities. South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011, plunged into civil conflict in December 2013. (Editing by Duncan Miriri and Robin Pomeroy)
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force

From Popular Mechanics

(Image: The U.S. Air Force's X-37B unmanned spaceplane that orbits for hundreds of days at a time on classified missions, 2014.)

The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday, including legislation that would require the Air Force to create a new branch of the military called the 'Space Corps' by the beginning of 2019. The Space Corps would replace the Air Force's current space departments and receive more funding as well as its own command.

It was a major step for those in favor of creating a sixth military branch, but the Space Corps is still far from reality. The Senate Armed Services Committee's current markup of the NDAA, a $696 billion measure, does not include the Space Corps, but rather creates a new officer to oversee space defense in the Pentagon, according to a summary of the bill acquired by Space News.

The creation of a Space Corps is also opposed by Air Force leadership and Secretary of Defense James Mattis along with the Trump administration. The White House issued a statement about the NDAA this past week that said space defense needed to be addressed, "the creation of a separate Space Corps, however, is premature at this time."

The Senate's current version of the NDAA seems to agree. Rather than creating an entirely new military branch, the Senate bill would create a new Chief Information Warfare Officer (CIWO) in the Defense Department to oversee "cybersecurity and cyber warfare, space and space launch systems, electronic warfare, and the electromagnetic spectrum." The Senate bill would also require the head of Air Force Space Command to serve for six years, rather than two or four years.

Representatives in the House, however, remain adamant that a drastic shift in operations could be necessary. "I know that there are those in the Department of Defense who may not think it's the best idea in the world, but I'll just say, if you look back in history, it is incumbent upon Congress to make changes in the Pentagon that they cannot make for themselves," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) after the House NDAA session. "We will absolutely continue to talk with each other, visit with the Senate, Pentagon, and the administration, but we will also keep pushing to help ensure we're prepared for the future."

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The Senate is not commenting on the House version of the NDAA at this time. The two chambers of Congress will hold joint sessions to iron out the discrepancies in the two versions of the bill. Those sessions, however, will involve smaller groups of representatives and senators with the authority to merge the two bills. If the Space Corps is going to pass, one of the two representatives who created the legislation-Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers or Tennessee Democrat Rep. Jim Cooper-will almost certainly need to be a part of the final NDAA negotiations.

The creation of a Space Corps by 2019 may be tenuous, but there will certainly big major changes to military space organization in the final NDAA. The Senate's proposal points out that space "decision-making is fragmented across more than 60 offices in DoD. Funding for space programs is also near 30-year lows, while the threats and our reliance on space are at their highest and growing." The White House and the Air Force also agree that space defense needs to be restructured and receive more funding, but they oppose a Space Corps due to concerns that a new branch would complicate the Defense Department.

There are still a number of forms that restructuring space defense, or milspace, could take. As Todd Harrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Space News, "We are likely to see some sort of action in space reorganization in this year's NDAA, but the realm of possibilities is enormous."

The military is going to take a major step to increase the defense of assets in space, particularly satellites that make up ISR and communications networks, but a new branch of the military may yet be some time off.

Source: Space News

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The Late Show With Stephen Colbert kicked off it's "Russia Week" by sharing Colbert's visit to the only Russian late night show, Evening Urgant. While there, Stephen played the vodka drinking game "Russian Russian Roulette" and toasted with his new comrades. The state run late night show is hosted by Ivan Urgant, who likens himself most to Jimmy Fallon in the United States. Much like Fallon, Urgant likes to play silly games. "Russian Russian Roulette" is when you spin a wheel of vodka shots and consume whatever shot is spun. However Colbert soon realized that there were no winners, only drinkers. He asked Urgant, "Is this all vodka?" to which the host replied, "Well, naturally." Colbert toasted the host and the good people of Russia saying "To the beautiful and friendly Russian people, I don't understand why no members of the Trump administration can remember meeting you." And judging by the applause, Colbert has quite a few fans in Russia. Urgant was such a big fan of Colbert that he joked, "We will do everything possible on our end to help you become the president."
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan looks on during a press conference following a closed-door House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The feud between House Speaker Paul Ryan and presidential adviser Steve Bannon is no secret in Washington, where the two men have warred on everything from healthcare to immigration. But a new book by Bloomberg reporter Joshua Green shows just how vicious  and personal  that feud has become.

According to Mr Green, Mr Bannon flew off the handle when he learned of a Republican plot to install Mr Ryan as the presidential nominee at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

At the headquarters of his far-right publication, Breitbart News, Mr Bannon unloaded on Mr Ryan as a limp-d**k motherf***** who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

In Devils Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency, Mr Green argues that the Speaker exemplified just the kind of traditional conservative politics Mr Bannon hoped to upset.

A strong supporter of the emerging alt-right, Mr Bannon threatened to rally their young, far-right forces against Mr Ryan.

Pepes gonna stomp their ass, he reportedly said, referring to the movement's cartoon frog mascot.

Mr Bannon cemented his dislike for Mr Ryan in his role as chairman of Breitbart News, which frequently went after the Speaker during the presidential campaign.

According to Mr Green, the Breitbart co-founder hired one writer  Julia Hahn  specifically to write negative articles on Mr Ryan, with titles such as He's With Her: Inside Paul Ryan's Months-Long Campaign to Elect Hillary Clinton. Ms Hahn is now a special assistant to the President.

Mr Bannon also reportedly instructed Breitbart staff to destroy Mr Ryan, telling them, Paul Ryan is the enemy. In a December 2015 email obtained by The Hill, Mr Bannon told staff that the long game for the site was to have Ryan gone by the spring.

Paul Ryan, a man who doesn't know how to win (including failed run four years ago), must start focusing on the budget, military, vets etc.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016

Some Breitbart contributors, like Roger Stone, say this mentality has been passed down to the staff at Breitbart in Mr Bannons absence.

Story continues

In March, for instance, shortly after the Congressional Budget Office released a damning report on Mr Ryans health care plan, Breitbart posted audiotape of the Speaker bashing then-nominee Mr Trump in a conference call with House Republicans. The website denies Mr Bannon was involved with the publication of the article.

Asked about Breitbarts controversial coverage of him in November, Mr Ryan was reserved.

Im not looking backwards; Im looking forward, he said. Im looking to the future and Im looking forward to how we make this work for the American people and how we make President Trump the most successful president in a lifetime."

But according to Mr Green, Republicans had their own disparaging words for Mr Bannon in private. Beltway Republicans, the reporter says, saw Mr Trump's campaign manager as an Internet-era update of the Slim Pickens character in Dr. Strangelove who rides the bomb like a rodeo bull, whoopin and hollerin all the way to nuclear annihilation".

The White House could not be immediately reached for comment.
About 4 in 10 Americans want to impeach President Trump, according to a new poll, more than did at this point in President Nixons second term.

A new Monmouth University poll found that 41% of respondents think that Trump should be impeached and made to leave office, compared to 53% who disagree. These responses were to the same question asked by the Gallup Poll in July 1973 at the beginning of the Watergate scandal. But at that time, 24% of Americans wanted to impeach Nixon, and 62% were opposed.

Some of that difference may be because of increased partisanship. In the 1973 poll, 34% of Democrats supported impeaching Nixon, compared to 70% of Democrats who want to impeach Trump today.

Other polls have also found that support for impeaching Trump is holding steady. But there are reasons to be skeptical about impeachment polls. Pollsters havent regularly ask about impeachment, so its hard to gauge exactly how respondents interpret that term. And these are national polls, but the House initiates impeachment, so polls of individual congressional districts would be a more accurate barometer.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from July 13 to 16, 2017 of 800 adults in the U.S. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.
By Bernie Woodall

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - Three people were shot on Monday outside a health department building in Palm Beach County, Florida, the local sheriff's office said.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said on Twitter that it was investigating the shooting outside the C. L. Brumback Health Center in Belle Glade, a small city in western Palm Beach County, about 85 miles northwest of Miami.

The sheriff's office did not provide additional details. A representative for the department did not respond to a request for additional information.

Local CBS affiliate WPEC reported that the shooting happened near a bus stop outside the health facility. The station's footage showed officers wearing body armor and carrying rifles outside the Florida Department of Health building.

Three people were airlifted for medical treatment after the shooting, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue tweeted. The extent of their injuries was not disclosed.

A representative for the Florida Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Authorities also said they were investigating a shooting in South Bay, roughly 8 miles from the Belle Glade Health Department facility, during which one person was killed and another person was wounded and sent to a hospital for treatment.

There was no word on whether the two shootings were related.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman)
Top newspaper the Philippine Daily Inquirer said Monday its owners are in talks to sell the publication, months after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened a shame campaign against them over critical coverage of his drug war.

Marixi Prieto, chairwoman of the Inquirer Group of Companies, said the family had decided to quit the newspaper business and was in talks to sell it to tycoon Ramon Ang, president of top Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp.

"The Prieto family's decision to divest after 25 years is a strategic business decision that it believes will maximise group opportunities for the Inquirer group," the paper said in a statement.

Ang said Monday he has accepted the Prieto family's offer to invest in the Inquirer Group but gave no details.

Neither side mentioned the paper's longstanding dispute with Duterte, who has said Ang helped fund his presidential campaign.

In March Duterte described the Inquirer and major television broadcaster ABS-CBN as "sons of whores" and warned them of karmic repercussions for criticising him for alleged human rights abuses in the drug war.

"I'm not threatening them but someday their karma will catch up with them," Duterte said, singling out the Prietos as well as the Lopez family that controls the television network.

"They're shameless, those sons of whore journalists."

He also threatened to use the government's television station to shame the two families, and the subject has been a recurring theme in many of the president's speeches.

Duterte had vowed during the election campaign last year to kill tens of thousands of drug dealers and users to stop the country from sliding to narco-state status.

Since he came to power a year ago police and unknown gunmen have killed thousands of suspects, but Duterte has rejected criticism from human rights groups that his crackdown may amount to a crime against humanity.

Prieto described Ang as a "longstanding friend and business partner" and said the talks, begun in 2014, restarted early this year.

Story continues

"The family is confident that Mr Ang will uphold the Inquirer Group's commitment to pursuing the highest standards of journalism."

Ang said in a statement the paper would "continue to uphold the highest journalistic standards and make a difference in the society it serves".

The planned Inquirer acquisition follows a pattern of Philippine conglomerates buying into news outlets, sparking concern about media consolidation.
Tourists train at Israeli counter-terrorism boot camp A group of tourists take part in a two hour boot camp experience, at Caliber 3 Israeli Counter Terror and Security Academy  in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank July 13, 2017. (Photo: Nir Elias/Reuters)

Taking in the scene of a simulated fruit market in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, a group of tourists ponders whether a poster-size figure of an Arab man holding a cellphone is a threat and should be shot.

The aim of the mock scenario is to teach rapt foreign visitors how to deal with an attack on a market. It is part of a counter-terrorism boot camp organized by Caliber 3, a company set up by a colonel in the Israeli army reserves.

Entrance to the gated compound in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc  built on land the Palestinians want for their own state  costs $115 for adults and $85 for children.

Admission includes watching former Israeli commandos take down an attacker and other means to thwart assaults, including the use of an attack dog. Adults can shoot live rounds at a firing range.

While most of those signing up are American visitors, there have also been tourists from China, Japan, India and South America, keen to experience Israeli-style security training in an attraction condemned by the Palestinian mayor of the nearby town and an anti-settlement group.

The facility opened in 2003, running courses for security guards during a Palestinian uprising that included suicide bombings and shooting attacks and which was met by Israeli military operations across the West Bank. After the intifada subsided, tourist visits began in 2009.

The man in charge, Colonel Sharon Gat, said staff stressed the importance of vigilance and caution. The Arab man depicted on his cellphone was deemed innocent by the instructors, so the target did not end up being shot. (Reuters)

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Tom Price, the US Health and Human Services Secretary, believes abstinence is more effective than contraception at stopping teenage pregnancies: AP

Donald Trumps administration has cut $213.6 million (163 million) of funding for programmes that aim to prevent teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.

Funding for scientific research at more than 80 institutions across the US has also been slashed.

The US Department of Health and Human Services is ending grants that were awarded to scientists looking for ways to help teenagers avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Eighty-one institutions were given five-year federal grants in 2015 but have now received letters saying the funding will end in June 2018.

Tom Price, the US Health and Human Services Secretary, has repeatedly spoken out against state funding of birth control, suggesting teenagers should abstain from having sex rather than use contraceptives.

Mr Price previously said federal funding for contraceptives is trampling on religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.

Defending his opposition to a programme that subsidised contraception for low income women, he said in 2012: Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. Theres not one.

Insiders said the decision to cut funding came from the office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, whose chief of staff, Valerie Huber, previously worked for an organisation that used to be named National Abstinence Education Association.

Many projects have seen their funding cut despite being in the middle of research for which they were given money by the Obama administration. Data that has been collected for two years will now not be analysed or utilised.

Scientists were left shocked by the decision, which many said came out of the blue.

We are just reeling. Were not sure how well adapt, Jennifer Hettema, a professor at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center who was investigating how to help doctors talk to Native American and Latino teens about avoiding pregnancy, told The Center for Investigative Reporting.

More than one in four girls in the US become pregnant before the age of 20  a rate higher than many other developed countries and one that previous US governments had been working hard to reduce.




President Trump is blaming the failure of the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare on Democrats and a few Republicans, vowing that lawmakers will come together and do a great health care plan.

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans, the president tweeted early Tuesday. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!

Trump added: As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!

We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans. Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard. We will return!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

Trump also complained that despite their minority status in Congress, Democrats wield enough power to create havoc for Republicans.

With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

The presidents tweets came hours after two more Republican senators  Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas  announced their opposition to the legislation. Because two previous GOP senators also opposed the bill, the legislation in its current form was effectively dead.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded that the effort to alter President Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was a failure.

Instead, McConnell said the GOP will now try to pass a so-called clean Obamacare repeal bill that Republicans approved in 2015 but Obama vetoed. The plan announced by McConnell includes a two-year delay that McConnell said would give Republicans time to come up with a suitable replacement.

Shortly after being elected president, Trump said the repeal and replacement of Obamacare would be done simultaneously.

Were not going to have, like, a two-day period and were not going to have a two-year period where theres nothing, Trump said in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes which aired on Nov. 13, 2016. It will be repealed and replaced.

But on Twitter late Monday, Trump signaled his support for such an effort, claiming Democrats would support it too.

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate, the president wrote. Dems will join in!

Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017

However, Trumps tweet on Tuesday saying Republicans should allow Obamacare to fail on its own is a return to the message he issued in March when the House GOP abruptly canceled a scheduled vote on its initial health care bill after failing to gather enough Republican support.

Ive been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we could do, politically speaking, is let Obamacare explode, Trump said at the time. It is exploding right now.

A few days later, though, Trump said he had no doubt that health care reform is going to happen very quickly.

Thats such an easy one, the president said.

Early Tuesday afternoon, Trump reiterated his suggestion that Republicans should let Obamacare fail.

Were not going to own it, the president told reporters before a meeting at the White House. Im not going to own it.

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